POWER MINISTER'S EXIT: History, Nigerians 'lljudge me — Nnaji

...towards a better life for the people VOL. 25: NO. 61699

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ONLINE | www.vanguardngr.com

N150

THURSDAY, AUGUST 30, 2012

Oil dealer lays 2015: I'm ready claim to Ibori's for PDP — Buhari Pg.7 Pg.8 $15m POWER MINISTER'S EXIT :

History, Nigerians 'll judge me — Nnaji I quit to save integrity, he says; thanks Jonathan FG, El-Rufai disagree over impact of his exit on reforms PHCN, TUC, JAF, others celebrate; call for probe

BY CLIFFORD NDUJIHE, BEN AGANDE, VICTOR AHIUMA-YOUNG, OSCARLINE ONWUEMENYI & KUNLE KALEJAYE

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AGOS—ON a day that mixed reactions greeted his sudden exit as Minister of Power after 14 months on the saddle, Professor Barth Nnaji, yesterday, said history and Nigerians would judge his performance.

From a miserly 2,800 Mega Watts of electricity available when he took over in July 2011, power supply rose steadily to 4,348 MW as of Tuesday evening when Nnaji resigned his

The unending HND-BA/BSc dichotomy•P.27

Treason and the pot at the rainbow’s end

Continues on Page 5

—P. 17

Mr & Mrs

OCHEREOME NNANNA —Pg.19

THE HUB —Pg.19

CONFERENCE HALL — Pgs.46&47

DIFFERENT STROKES—Flooded Jambutu ward in Yola, Adamawa State, yesterday. Inset: Scene of waves brought on by Typhoon Bolaven in Qingdao, northeast China's Shandong province, which has claimed many lives. Photos: NAN/AFP.

Suspected ritualists behead 16-yr-old girl in Anambra —P. 14

N5,000 note: Reps summon Sanusi —P.6

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4 — Vanguard, THURSDAY, AUGUST 30, 2012

Vanguard, THURSD AY, A UGUST 30, 2012—5 THURSDA AUGUST

POCKET CARTOON

History, Nigerians 'll judge me — Nnaji Continues from Page 1 post.

Saluting President Goodluck Jonathan and millions of Nigerians, who supported him in his effort to improve the situation of public power supply in the country, Nnaji said: “I am confident enough to allow history and the Nigerian people to judge my performance on the task that I accepted from the President.

“I feel particularly proud of the fact that my exit comes at a time that the administration has been able to generate and supply an unprecedented quantum of steady, reliable electric power in the history of our nation,” he said in a statement by his Special Assistant (Media), Mr. Ogbuagu Anikwe.

Nnaji spoke as the Federal Government and former Federal Capital Territory, FCT Minister, Malam Nasir el-Rufai disagreed over whether or not Nnaji’s exit would affect the ongoing power reforms.

While el-Rufai feared that Nnaji’s ouster would set the reforms back, the Federal Government countered that the development would boost the privatisation programme.

This came as workers of the Power Holding

Company of Nigeria, PHCN, Trade Union Congress, TUC and Joint Action Front, JAF, celebrated Nnaji’s resignation and said that the development vindicated their position that privatisation was not the solution to the country’s power problem.

Privileged to serve twice as minister Prof. Nnaji stated that not many Nigerians have had the privilege of serving the nation twice as minister and that he was grateful to have served this government in the capacity of an adviser and a ranking cabinet minister in a very challenging and complex sector.

Before his appointment as Minister of Power, Nnaji was the Special Adviser on Power to President Goodluck Jonathan and Chairman of the Presidential Task Force on Power. He had in 1993 served as Minister of Science and Technology.

He explained that he had to voluntarily resign the office of minister to retain his integrity, which had in recent days come under scurrilous attacks by powerful interests he claimed

LIFEWORDS

BY PASTOR ITUAH

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HATEVER is not in your dream or in your thinking is temporal and not permanent. Be patient, be determined, and be focused, knowing that beyond the dark cloud is a silver lining.

TAKE HEART

BY ELLA RANDLE

Happiness comes from within. It is not dependent on external things or on other people. You become vulnerable and can be easily hurt when your feelings of security and happiness depend on the behaviour and actions of other people. Never give your power to anyone else — Brian Weiss

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NE of the most important of life´s lessons is to learn independence, to understand freedom. This means independence from attachments, from results, from opinions, and from expectations.

Breaking attachments leads to freedom, but breaking attachments does not mean abandoning a loving and meaningful relationship. It means ending dependency on any person or thing. Love is never a dependent.”

According to Brain Weiss: “Forgive the past. It is over. Learn from it and let go. People are constantly changing and growing. Do not cling to a limited, disconnected, negative image of a person in the past. See that person now. Your relationship is always alive and changing.”

were bent on besmirching the integrity and reputation that he had painstakingly built over the years.

“This resignation is also to ensure that there is no spillover of these attacks to the President, who is working very hard to transform the nation,” he said.

“I would like to reiterate that before I accepted to serve as minister, I resigned my directorship of all companies that I had interest in and put my shares in those companies in a Blind Trust; this means that I was not privy to the dayto-day business decisions of those who ran this Trust. In addition, I publicly declared the participation in the privatization process of a foreign company that did business with a company that I had interest in. This fact came to my knowledge only during the course of evaluating the consortia that were bidding for PHCN successor companies. Consequently, I also voluntarily excused myself from participating in the selection process. These actions, I should think, are in line with the finest traditions of transparency and accountability in governance.”

Nnaji’s ouster a setback – El-Rufai Reacting to the development on his face book page, yesterday, elRufai described Nnaji’s ouster as a setback for the on-going reforms in the power sector, which had started to yield dividends.

“His resignation is a set-back for the power sector reforms. He is one of the few ministers in GEJ’s cabinet that knows what need doing in his area of ministerial responsibility. The whole thing was clearly avoidable. There are many ministers far less competent than Barth and under whose watch massive fraud, corruption and more serious crimes have been committed.

Yet, they continue to sit pretty and not asked to resign. Perhaps, there is more than this ethical infraction. I do not know, but if what we read is all there is, both the ex-min-

ister and his employer could have handled it better and in a more orderly manner,” he said.

“I think the issue boils down to poor judgment on the part of Barth.

Since the days of TCPC, there exists a Code of Ethics prohibiting members of the Board of TCPC and staff from acquiring assets being privatized. In 2000, the National Council on Privatization approved stricter Code of Ethics prohibiting staff of BPE and members of NCP from participating in any way in privatization transaction. As DG of BPE between 1999 and 2003, I went further and stopped buying any shares on the NSE to prevent any signaling to the market. ”Barth Nnaji ought to be aware of this, and withdrew his firm or its associates from further participation in any consortium participating as consultants or bidders to any privatization transaction, electricity related or not, the moment he was appointed minister of power, and therefore a co-opted member of the NCP. Perhaps he was unaware of this Code which BPE as the secretariat of NCP is obliged to draw attention to for the guidance of all council members,” el-Rufai added.

It won’t affect privatisation process – FG However, the Minister of Information, Labaran Maku, assured that the privatization process would not be affected by the resignation of Nnaji.

Fielding questions from State House correspondents, Mr Maku said rather, the resignation of the former minister would further give credibility to the process.

According to Maku, though members of the National Council on Privatisation would have wished Nnaji was around to complete the process, the President Goodluck Jonathan Administration would be more consistent in the management of power.

“Let me put it this way, the reasons why Prof.

Barth Nnaji resigned are already known to you.

Let me put it clearly that Prof Nnaji resigned to

give credibility to the power sector privatization process and the statement issued by the Special Adviser to the President on Media Affairs yesterday, was very clear and explicit that the former minister of Power Prof. Barth Nnaji resigned his position to give credibility to the process of privatization of the power sector.

“The voluntary resignation of Prof Nnaji is indeed something that will reinforce the credibility of the Federal Government’s reforms in the power sector."

NLC, PHCN workers, others celebrate, demand probe Meanwhile, Electricity workers represented by the National Union of Electricity Employees, NUEE and the Senior Staff Association of Electricity and Allied Companies, SSAEC, yesterday held an ‘Obituary’ and thanksgiving service at the headquarters of the PHCN, to mark Nnaji’s resignation.

The workers, whose animosity for the former minister had reached feverish heights, had similarly held a fasting and praying session on Tuesday to “invoke divine intervention for the dismissal of the Minister,” Temple Iworima, the NUEE Zonal Organising Secretary told Vanguard in Abuja.

According to Iworima, “more than 60,000 PHCN staff across the country had fasted and prayed on Tuesday, asking God to intervene on our behalf. And less than 24 hours later, we received with gladness the dismissal of the minister. This proves that our cause is a just one and that God is on our side.

This is why we held the

thanksgiving service this morning at the headquarters, which also served as an ‘Obituary’ service to mark the exit of the Minister of Power who had been very antagonistic of organized labour and the interests of electricity workers across the country.”

Also, the leadership of the unions disclosed that they had petitioned the Presidency and the National Assembly to demand a probe of the tenure of the former Minister, against the background of allegations of corruption and personal enrichment at the expense of the sector.

In its reaction, TUC said Nnaji’s resignation had removed one of the greatest obstacles to peace and industrial harmony in the power sector and set in motion the desired atmosphere for the actualisation of transparent and peopledriven reforms in the sector.

Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, yesterday said it was pleased with Tuesday resignation of Prof. Barth Nnaji, saying he compromised the Office of the Minister of Power with his personal business interests, and being oblivious and a stumbling block to industrial peace and harmony in the industry NLC in a statement by its Acting General Secretary, Comrade Chris Uyot, called on President Goodluck Jonathan to create an atmosphere of fairness and justice for speedy resolution of all outstanding labour matters in the process of disengaging some PHCN employees, which Prof. Nnaji stalled before his exit.

In like manner, JAF in a statement by its Secretary, Comrade Abiodun Aremu, hailed Nnaji’s ouster and called for immediate halt of the ongoing privatisation of PHCN.

6—Vanguard , THURSDAY, AUGUST 30, 2012

Visa: US lists Nigeria, Brazil, China as priority nations ...warns against patronizing touts

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FEC MEETING—Niger Delta Development Minister, Elder Godsday Orubebe flanked by the Housing and Urban Development Minister, Ms. Amal Pepple (right) and the Labour Minister, Chief Emeka Wogu during the weekly meeting of the Federal Executive Council at the State House, Abuja. Photo: Abayomi Adeshida.

N5,000 note: Reps summon Sanusi

BY OKEY NDIRIBE & EMMAN OVUAKPORIE BUJA—THE House of Representatives Committee on Banking and Currency yesterday summoned the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, to explain how the introduction of N5,000 notes will promote its planned cashless policy.

This was disclosed by the Chairman of the Committee, Jones Onyereri and his Deputy, Haruna Manu while briefing newsmen.

Onyereri declared that “the House Committee will invite the CBN to know whether the apex bank is still pursuing the cashless policy, and how this higher currency note complements the cashless policy or if it contracdicts the policy what the next step should be".

The Committee Chairman added “ we believe that the Nigerian people deserve to know whether there is a short, medium and long term strategy through which the introduction of these new denominations will bring benefits to the monetary system.

“The Committee on Banking and Currency is mindful of the fact that the CBN has not communicated its plan of introducing a N5,000 note to the committee.

“Whereas we fully respect the separation of powers enshrined in the Constitution and the

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Central Bank’s autonomy as provided in the Central Bank Act 2007 as amended, as well as the Banking and Other Financial Institutions Act, we have a responsibility to the Nigerian people to engage the Executive arm on issues that may have a far reaching effects on the economy, and affect the day-to-day lives of the ordinary Nigerians".

He further stressed that “as representatives of the people, with particular oversight responsibility over the banking industry, we have set up the processes to immediately address the matter. In doing so, we will rely strictly on provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the Central Bank Nigeria Act of 2007 as amended, the Banking and Other Financial Institutions Act, as well as other requisite legal and regulatory instruments.

“The Committee on Banking and Currency has been briefed on the cashless and wireless payment system policy of the Central Bank, which we understand is designed to reduce the actual cash in circulation while not affecting the volume of money available to citizens; this simply means cashless policy is not a monetary policy instrument used to reduce cash in circulation, as it leaves the cash available in the system unaffected while at the same time substantially reducing the volumes of

currency in circulation by converting currency to electronic payment codes.

“We understand that the cashless policy encourages payment with a credit card, debit card or mobile money, which means a citizen will avoid the high risk of travelling with currency for large transactions.

“This is the direction the Central Bank has been following.

The understanding is that carrying less cash is in every body’s interest as it reduces the risk, it reduces the money spent on printing currency and it reduces the money spent on movement of currency, as well as on security and safe guards for large consignments of currency".

Due process and rule of law He said,”the intervention of the House is to ensure that due process is followed and rule of law adhered to.

We assure you that we will also be mindful of the effect

of this or any other Banking policy on the ordinary Nigerian. The following factors will thus be key to our consideration; cost of implementing the policy to government, the inflationary trend, devaluation implication and cashless policy derivative “.

“We will keep an open mind while engaging the bank management to have a full picture and understanding of the thinking at the Central Bank and reasons for this action.

“Our constituents have already inundated us with reports, petitions and write ups with arguments on both sides of the policy divide, but we believe that at this time the most effective and prudent response for the committee would be to get a full briefing on the policy from the Central Bank after which we will take a position.”

It would be recalled that the Senate Committee on Banking and Currency had last Monday stopped the CBN from introducing the new N5,000 notes.

BUJA—THE United States of America, USA, has listed Nigeria, Brazil and China as priority nations on its visa application following a surge in consular demands, Mrs Patty Neary, a consular officer, said yesterdayday.

Neary told newsmen in Abuja at the country’s Embassy weekly briefing that more than 40,000 visa applications had so far been processed in Nigeria this year. She said the figure represented 11 per cent increase over the 2011 fiscal year.

Neary said 75 per cent of the applications were for tourist visas, while 25 per cent accounted for student, business and official visas.

She said a majority of the applicants were granted visas.

The consular officer warned applicants against patronising touts and expressed the embassy’s commitment to continue to provide consular services to Nigerians, and reduce the waiting time.

“You do not need to go through anybody to help you with visa application.

By doing it personally, you will aid us to push away touts; you should make your own appointment and fill out the forms yourself.

“You are responsible for everything in your application,” she said.

According to her, aside the $160 dollars for tourist visa, no extra money is charged.

Neary advised applicants to plan ahead while preparing for a trip, in view of the six months wait time to process visa. She also urged students to apply 120 days before the beginning of their studies.

“Our goal is that every qualified student visa applicant is able to begin his or her programme of study on time.”

The News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, reports that the embassy offers consular services from its Abuja and Lagos offices, while plans to establish an office in Kano is still in the pipeline.

FEC approves N40bn for Gurara, Ilesha dams

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HE Federal Executive Council, FEC, has approved N40 billion for the completion of Gurara and Ilesha dam projects.

Minister of Information, Labaran Maku who revealed the approval to newsmen yesterday after the meeting said the projects were in line with the resolve of President Jonathan’s administration to complete all on-going projects.

Mr Maku who was accompanied by his colleague in the Water Resources Ministry, Mrs Sarah Ochekpe, said the Guarara dam project was conceived to supply water to the Federal Capital Territory through the Lower

Usman Dam. According to him, upon completion, the project will provide irrigation for farmers as well as generate 30 mega watts of electricity, adding that the two phases of Guarara dam - Lot A and B will provide irrigation for about 20,000 farmers and generate about 8,000 jobs.

Speaking on the projects, the Minister of Water Resources, Sarah Ochekpe said the projects will be completed between 12 and 18 months.

While the Gurara project was awarded in the sum of N37 billion, the Water Resources Minister said the contract for the Ilesha dam is in the sum of N3.6 billion.

Military stunted Nigeria's growth — Belgore

BY INNOCENT ANABA

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BUJA—FORMER Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Alfa Belgore, said yesterday, that the country has been unable to develop, despite its huge natural resources due to political instability.

He also said Nigeria will

rank among the five most prosperous countries of the world, if the democratic process survives for at least 20 years, with its affairs well-managed.

He added that the bilateral agreements with European countries, such as Germany, which would have led to the country’s industrialisation, were aborted by the military

regimes, which stunted democracy and had no development ideas.

Speaking during the Women Forum at the ongoing Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, annual conference in Abuja, Justice Belgore noted that Nigeria was ahead of several countries until the military struck and reversed all the good plans for

development made by civilian administrations.

According to him, “Those who had visited the Middle East in 1972/73, know that we were very much ahead of them until the military thwarted all the good plans.

If we can have stable democracy for at least 20 years, we shall be among the five most prosperous nations in the world".

Vanguard, THURSDAY, AUGUST 30, 2012—7

Lagos ocean surge: FG is non-challant — ACN

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CTION Congress of Nigeria, ACN, has condemned the nonchalant attitude of the Federal Government over the Lagos ocean surge, which claimed the lives of 16 citizens. It said in other civilised climes which put a huge premium on the lives of their citizens. The disaster would be regarded as a major calamity compelling the presence of the President.

In a statement issued in Lagos yesterday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said it was regrettable that more than 10 days after the surge neither the President nor any representative of the Federal Government had deemed it fit to visit the scene or condole the families of the victims.

The party, in particular, condemned the failure of the Minister of Environment to visit the scene of the disaster which was clearly a consequence of climate

change, especially against the background that the minister had spent several millions of naira junketing all over the world to attend conferences on climate change.

Contrary to uninformed comments by some people seeking to score cheap political points, the party said, climate change was a global phenomenon but it is quite unfortunate that despite the huge sums the country has expended on attending international conferences on the impact of climate change, the Federal Government was yet to come up with concrete adaptation and mitigation measures to tackle its impact which has now started manifesting in several parts of Nigeria".

The party urged the Federal Government to show more concern for the plights of its citizens by coming up with mitigation measures to avert further natural disaster as a result of climate change.

We 're committed to good governance — ICSAN

BY MICHAEL EBOH & KUNLE KALEJAYE

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HE Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators of Nigeria, ICSAN, yesterday, said it was committed to good governance in the country.

Speaking during a courtesy visit to Vanguard Newspaper in Lagos, Mr. Adeyinka Hassan, Chairman, ICSAN, Lagos State Chapter, also emphasized the need for companies to ensure that only qualified personnel were appointed as company secretaries, saying this would help entrenched good corporate governance in all spheres of the economy.

According to him, ICSAN is already in talks with the Attorney General of the Federation, for a law compelling companies to appoint qualified individuals, especially ICSAN-certified individuals, to the post of company secretary, while also ensuring that defaulting companies are sanctioned.

He said this would help promote ethical conduct among company’s secretaries, and in turn positively impact on the

companies and the economy in general.

He said: “Most companies in Nigeria have not seen the need for them to use the services of chartered secretaries, despite the growing importance and function of ICSAN in the society.

“In some cases, companies, wanting to save cost, resort to employment of lawyers to occupy the position of company secretaries. However, we are pushing for all company secretaries to be chartered secretaries, especially as there is a huge difference between a secretary and a chartered secretary.

“Chartered secretaries are meant to protect the image of the company and are seen as the chief compliance officer of an organisation.

When chartered secretaries misbehave, they are reported to ICSAN and such individual will be punished accordingly.”

Hassan noted that ICSAN had commenced an awareness campaign and was seeking to partner with media organizations in ensuring good governance across various spectrum of the society.

FREDERICK FASEHUN PUBLIC LECTURE—From right: Ondo State Governor, Dr Olusegun Mimiko, Founder, Oodua Peoples’ Congress, Dr Frederick Fasehun, Chief Afe Babalola, SAN, and the Deji of Akure, Oba Adebiyi Adesida during the annual Frederick Fasehun Public Lecture, in Akure, yesterday.

2015: I'm ready for PDP — Buhari zSays Nigeria's constitution has been violated

BY ABDULSALAM MUHAMMAD ANO—THE National leader of Congress for Progressive Change, General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd), yesterday declared that he was ready to face the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, at the 2015 general election.

Buhari, disclosed this when he paid a courtesy call on Governor Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso of Kano State. The former Head of State told his host that he was in Kano to open his party office in readiness for the battle ahead.

Speaking further on his mission to the state, Buhari said, “I am in Kano to open our party office and put an end to the intra and interparty squabbles culminating in electoral loss that ended up in the tribunal up to the Supreme Court but I want to tell you we are already settling down to face you guys squarely, your Excellency.”

Buhari criticized the manner at which those in position of authority violated the constitution and electoral laws in Nigeria, noting that “if there is anything that has enjoyed sanctity under PDP-led government from 1999 to date it is the Holy Book”.

The CPC National Leader argued that the constitution had been raped and sidelined in our quest to attain nationhood, stressing that “under normal circumstances we

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are supposed to work strictly within the provisions of the constitution, but this is Nigeria and nothing is perfect and the only thing they have not tampered with between 1999 to date in Nigeria is the Holy Quran”.

General Buhari also lamented the deteriorating security situation in the country, especially the negative impact it has had on the commerce and other socio-economic activities in the North, saying that a lot of businesses had collapsed as a result of the security challenges.

Security challenges in the North The veteran presidential candidate appealed to Governor Kwankwaso to review the several security checkpoints within and around the city of Kano, which he said “has slowed down economic activities in the ancient city ”. He described the security challenges confronting the northern state as “extremely sad “, adding that “no one has really shown passion on how to handle it until the whole thing snowballed into a big crisis”.

“Kano is a centre of commerce and industries but living on its shadow now. I could recall vividly that when I was a Governor of Bornu in the 70’s no fewer than 200 vehicles depart Kano for Maiduguri on commercial purposes but all that has disappeared and

you can imagine those innocent investors that were pushed out of their legitimate businesses”, he lamented.

In his response, Governor Kwankwaso commended the CPC

National leader for the visit, saying that “this kind of visit by political leaders would no doubt ginger understanding among party faithful and supporters for desired growth.”

Expect violence in 2015 poll, except..., says Dasuki

BY JOSEPH ERUNKE

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BUJA—NATIONAL Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki, (rtd), said yesterday that the 2015 general elections could be trailed by violence, considering the prevailing security situation in the c o u n t r y .

He said unlike the violence which came after the 2011 elections, that of 2015 could come before and during the polls.

"There could possibly be violence, but with a different angle to it, not post election but before and during, because of the prevailing security situation, unless the security situation gets better before then,” he said.

The NSA spoke at the opening of a two-day workshop on security challenges in elections management, organised by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, in collaboration with Friedrich Ebert–Stiftung, an independent German nonprofit institution committed

to the promotion of democracy, peace, and social justice.

He said more tension should be expected during the elections, as the competition among politicians might be very intense.

Dasuki said Nigeria could get anything right if there was the determination and political will on the part of stakeholders to achieve.

He also noted that the problem would not be a result of lack of adequate preparation or compromise on the part of security a g e n c i e s .

Chairman of INEC, Prof Attahiru Jega, reiterated his commitment for conduct of a free and fair elections in the 2015.

He hinted that the commission was doing its best to conduct credible elections that will be in line with international standard.

Jega said his organisation must get it right in the 2015 elections, adding that his team was working relentlessly to avoid blame in future elections.

8 — Vanguard, THURSDAY, AUGUST 30, 2012

Policeman nabbed over anal sex with children

BY SUZAN EDEH

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AUCHI—AN officer with Bauchi State Police Command has been arrested for alleged anal sex with children between the ages of nine and 12 in Bauchi.

Bauchi State Police Commissioner, Mohammed Ladan, who confirmed the incident while answering questions from newsmen, yesterday, said: “We got the report from a police division in the state that is currently investigating the matter, that a policeman was having anal sex with small children.

“I have directed them to transfer the case to the state Criminal Investigation Department, SCID. The accused is being detained and whatever is the outcome of

our investigation will be explained to the public.”

He said the Policeman was arrested after many of the children were injured in their anal parts and as a result aggrieved residents of the community reported the matter to the police and threatened to sue the policeman before he was arrested.

The Commissioner added that all the children were taken to the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University Teaching Hospital, ATBUTH, for treatment.

Senior Staff at the ATBUTH, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Vanguard there were about 10 children taken to the paediatric ward in the hospital by the policemen from the CID and they were treated and discharged.

PHCN crisis: FG, labour talks end in deadlock

BY JOSEPH ERUNKE

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BUJA—THE meeting between the Federal Government and the labour to find solution to the lingering labour crisis in the power sector, yesterday, ended in deadlock.

After about four hours of the meeting, representatives of the government and labour stormed out, saying they would continue to meet as according to them, the issues involved had not been fully laid to rest.

President of Trade Union Congress of Nigeria, TUC, Peter Esele, who spoke with newsmen after the

meeting, said the meeting remained inconclusive, saying labour would make consultations with relevant stakeholders to know whether to continue talks with government.

However, Minister of Labour, Chief Emeka Wogu, said there was progress and assured that the dispute would soon be resolved.

He said another meeting had been scheduled for today. Esele said his consultation with stakeholders would determine whether or not to attend the meeting.

It will be recalled that Tuesday’s meeting also ended in deadlock.

Why we 're angry,

by Arewa youths

BY SONI DANIEL

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BUJA—POSSIBLE reasons why the north appears to be angry with President Goodluck Jonathan emerged, yesterday, with a revelation by the President of the Arewa Youth Forum, Gambo Gujungu, that the north has been marginalised by the government.

Speaking exclusively with Vanguard, Gujungu maintained that they would no longer tolerate the continued exclusion of the region from major government development and empowerment programmes, which appear to have been skewed in favour of the Niger Delta.

Beyond that, the youth leader described as unacceptable the growing poverty and underdevelop-

ment in the North that have given rise to anger and violence, thereby stalling the economy of the region with the Federal Government doing little or nothing about it.

The Arewa leader said: “We are really angry with this government because we feel marginalised in its scheme of things.

“We are all Nigerians who should be treated fairly and equally by the government but a certain section of this government has been adequately taken care of while the rest languish in abject poverty.”

He said the lopsided distribution of amenities and opportunities has given the impression that the Presidency is catering for a certain ethnic group in the country to the detriment of the rest.

Oil dealer lays claim to Ibori's $15m zSays it was meant for PDP zCourt fixes Sept 7 for hearing

BY IKECHUKWU NNOCHIRI

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BUJA—CONTROVERSIES regarding who owns the $15 million allegedly offered to Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, by the convicted erstwhile Governor of Delta State, Mr. James Ibori, in 2007, has assumed a fresh dimension as one Chibuike Achigbu, yesterday, approached a Federal High Court in Abuja to lay claim to the money.

In an application he filed through a consortium of lawyers, among whom were three Senior Advocates of Nigeria, SAN, Achigbu, who identified himself as an oil magnate, told the court that he actually gave the $15 million to Dr. Andy Uba, a former aide to the then President, Olusegun Obasanjo, for the purpose of financing Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, during the 2007 general elections.

The applicant, in an affidavit he deposed to before the high court, averred that following his desire to ensure that PDP secured power at various levels of governance in the country during the 2007 elections, he promptly sought legal advice on whether he could offer monetary assistance to the party.

He said though his initial target was to raise N3 billion for the party through his associates, however, it dawned on him around April 2007, when the election was already close, that he had already raised money in excess of N2 billion after which he realised that such donations could only be made through a financial institution.

Achigbu further told the court that it was in his bid to make the donations within the ambit of the law that he approached Senator Uba to help him reach out to the relevant agencies of government that would investigate and certify that the funds were raised honestly and in good faith.

He said it was at that juncture that Uba advised that the fund be handed to him, saying he would transmit it to EFCC for security checks before it could be donated to PDP. Achigbu said: “Andy Uba was a Special Assistant in the Presidency who offered to take custody of the fund with a view to inviting EFCC to carry out the audit and certification before

being donated to PDP.” Achigbu told the court that it was after he had delivered the money to Uba that he began to hear rumours about an attempt by ex-Governor Ibori to bribe the then chairman of EFCC, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, adding that owing to the fact that he had no interaction with Ibori, he never paid attention to the rumour nor thought it had any bearing with the money he gave to Uba for clearance by the anti-graft agency.

Moreso, the applicant maintained that due to the political ambition of Uba to become the governor of Anambra State, he lost con-

tact with him and was not able to reach him to ask for an update regarding the fund.

He said: “It was not until several months after Uba’s election was voided at the Supreme Court that I succeeded in making contact with him.”

The applicant stressed that since then, he was not in speaking terms with Uba until August 27, 2012, when he said he received a call from Uba informing him that the $15 million in question was the same money he collected from him.

He said Uba specifically confirmed to him that it was Ibrahim Lamorde, the then Director of Operations of

EFCC, that was instructed to receive the money from him (Uba) on April 25, 2007. Achigbu said Uba had also agreed to depose to an affidavit to own up to the facts deposed to in his application.

Meanwhile, the high court presided over by Justice Gladys Olotu, yesterday, struck out another application that was filed by one Timipa Okponipkere, asking that the $15 million be handed to the Delta State government, even as it fixed September 17 to hear arguments between the state and Federal Government regarding who has the legal right to claim ownership of the money.

VISIT: Colonel Michael Adegbesan of Nigerian Army School of Medical Sciences(left), and Mr. Jide Wright, Executive Director, LASACO Assurance Plc., during the visit of the Army School's officials to LASACO.

Court upholds Gov Wada's election

BY IKECHUKWU NNOCHIRI & GBENGA OKE

A

BUJA—RESPITE came the way of Governor Idris Wada of Kogi State, yesterday, as a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, dismissed the suit challenging his emergence as the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in the gubernatorial election that held in the state on December 3, 2011.

It was a chieftain of the party, Mr. Jibrin Echocho that approached the high court, praying it to sack the Governor from office on the premise that he was not properly nominated to contest the election.

Specifically, Echocho had through his Counsel, Chief Wole Olanipekun, SAN, asked the court to deter-

mine whether having regard to the combined effects of Sections 26(1), 26(2), 87(1) 87(2) (3) and (4)(b) of the Electoral Act 2010 as amended, the valid and due nomination of the plaintiff (Isah) and submission of his name by PDP the 1st defendant to the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, as the party’s governorship candidate in the Kogi State 2011 governorship election can be vitiated by the postponement of the election from April 26 to December 3, 2011?

He also asked the court to determine whether PDP could validly have conducted another special state congress for the governorship primaries election in September 2011 for governorship election having sent his name to INEC

as its candidate? He posited that he cannot be substituted with any other name except as provided in Section 33 of the Electoral Act as amended.

However, giving judgment on the matter, yesterday, Justice Abdul Kafarati, maintained that the plaintiff lacked the locus-standi to institute the action before the high court, saying he ought to have filed it before the Kogi State election petition tribunal.

Aside declining jurisdiction to delve into what he termed “post-election issues,” Justice Kafarati stressed that the plaintiff, having not participated at the said gubernatorial election that saw the emergence of Governor Wada, therefore, lacked the legal right to challenge the outcome of the electoral exercise..

Vanguard, THURSDAY, AUGUST 30, 2012 — 9

3 docked over rape of 21-yr-old

BY ABDULWAHAB ABDULAH & ONOZURE DANIA

L

AGOS—THREE men have been arraigned before a chief magistrate court, Ikeja, for allegedly having carnal knowledge of a 21-year-old girl(names withheld).

The men are Andrew Adeyan,20;TosinSamuel,22, andIbraheemAzeez,23.They arefacingatwo-countcharge.

The prosecutor, ASP Barth Nwaokoye, told the court that the accused persons on August 21, 2012 at Ketu, Lagos, conspired to

commit felony to wit rape under Section 409 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State of Nigeria 2011.

Nwaokoye also alleged that the accused persons, and others at large, forcefully had canal knowledge of the girl without her consent.

The offence, he said is contrary to Section 258 of the Criminal Law Vol 44, No 11 Laws of Lagos State of Nigeria 2011.

The Chief Magistrate, E. Ogunkanmi, granted them bail in the sum of N100,000 each, with two sureties in the like sum.

BREASTFEEDING: From left— Dr. Yewande Adesina, Mrs Risikat Akiode, representing the Deputy Governor, Mrs. Ayodele Omotoke, and Chief M. Komolafe, at Lagos State Ministry of Health's 2012 World Breastfeeding Week grand finale ceremony, yesterday. PHOTO: Shola Oyelese.

Hotel sacks staff over Cynthia's murder

BY EVELYN USMAN

L

AGOS—MANAGEMENT of Casmillia hotel, where Cynthia Osokogu, only daughter of a retired Army General, Frank Osokogu, was murdered last month, has laid off some of its staff as a result of the incident. However, the exact number of those affected by the hotel management’s sledge hammer could not be ascertained, yesterday.

Reliable sources said those affected included staff that were on duty from the day the first suspect checked in to the day Cynthia was murdered.

Vanguard gathered that when the incident occurred, the hotel management carried out an in-house investigation where it was discovered that some of the staff did not carry out their duties as expected. For instance, it was discovered that one of the suspects, Okwumo Echezona, checked into one of the rooms with a fictitious name.

It was also learnt that the staff were blamed for being negligent in their duties, as none of them was able to

figure out the killer’s suspicious moves when they were leaving the hotel, until the suspects called to inform the hotel.

The most negligent act on the part of the affected staffers, as informed by a staff of the hotel who spoke on condition of anonymity, was that the guests never showed any identity card bearing the name he checked in with.

The source said: “The standing rule is that any guest checking in must present his identity card at the reception that must bear the name he or she wants to check in with. We have been instructed never to lodge anybody in without meeting this procedure.”

It was, however, not clear what Echezona told the receptionist before he was checked in. However, an unconfirmed report said Echezona presented no identity card that bore the name he gave to the receptionist.

In the absence of an identity card, the staff informed that guests were expected to either drop their complementary cards or passport photograph, as this would help in tracing them if the need arises.

Meanwhile, the suspects, Okwumo Echezona

Nwabufo, 33; and his cousin, Ezike Ikechukwu Olisemeka, 23; the pharmacist that reportedly sold the

tranquiliser used by Echezona, Orji Osita, and one Maduako Chukwunonso, are cur-

rently cooling their heels at the Ikoyi prison, while the remains of Cynthia will be interred on September 5.

Makoko residents reject relocation to Ikorodu

BY MONSUR OLOWOOPEJO

L

AGOS—RESIDENTS of Makoko community in Yaba Local Council Development Area, LCDA, part of which was demolished by the state government last month, yesterday, rejected government’s offer to relocate to AgbowaIkorodu and vowed to remain in the community, saying “we will not leave here for anywhere.”

The residents rejected the offer at the end of an emergency town hall meeting held in Makoko, to inform the residents on the outcome of the negotiations between their representatives and the state government at Alausa. They said they cannot live on land because they are ‘fishes’ and fishes live in water.

They added that they are

fishermen and depend on water to carry out their business.

At the meeting, the residents said: “If we move from water to land, specifically Agbowa, where the state government proposed, we will be out of business and feeding ourselves and our children will be difficult.”

Ade Aguntor, one of the residents, said: “This was not where our forefathers earlier settled. They settled at University of Lagos, UNILAG, waterfront. But they were relocated by the Federal Government to Makoko when their land was earmarked for the construction of UNILAG.” Sources said that at the last meeting held at Alausa Secretariat, between the government and representatives of the community led by Baale of Makoko, Chief Abraham Metsu, and

the community lawyer, Mr. Felix Mouka, had earlier rejected the relocation offer presented by the fourman delegation from the state government led by the Commissioner for Waterfront and Infrastructure, Mr. Adesegun Oniru.

Others were Commissioner for Physical Planning and Urban development, Mr. Toyin Ayinde, Commissioner for Works; Dr. Obafemi Hamzat and the Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mr. Aderemi Ibirogba.

The source said the state government delegation, however, urged the community leaders to go home and convene a town hall meeting to seek the opinion of the entire community.

Baale of Ago-Egun, Makoko, Chief Yusuf Sodiq, confirmed to Vanguard that the community rejected the relocation plan by the state government.

He said: “The community has directed its lawyer to issue a letter on their behalf to the state government, stating their rejection.”

Lagos traffic laws claim first victim

BY OLASUNKANMI AKONI

L

AGOS—LUCK ran out of a bullion van driver yesterday, when men of the Lagos State Task-force on Environmental and Special Offences, Enforcement Unit, arrested him and impounded the van with number plate BV 171 BDG, that he drove against the flow of traffic in Apapa area.

The driver, identified as Mr. Seun Odukoya, may be sentenced to one year jail without an option of fine if found guilty as a first offender, while the bullion van will be forfeited to the state government.

The new traffic law specifically mentioned that any bullion van driver who drove against the flow of traffic on conviction by a court will be jailed for one year as a first offender and three years as subsequent offender, without the option of fine, while the van will be seized by the state government.

The bullion van was arrested on Creek Road, Apapa, while conveying money to a new generation bank in the area.

It was learnt that following the arrest, officials of the warehouse later brought another van to transfer the money from the impounded van to the new generation bank.

Adekoya Dairo dies at 85

P

RINCE Adekoya Dairo, retired General Manager at Dunlop Nigeria Limited, former Chairman Enkay Plastics Ltd and first Vice President of Ikeja Club, passed away on Friday, August 17, 2012, aged 85.

He is survived by three children, Mr. Gbenga Dairo, Director, Public Transport, Lagos Metropolitan Area

Transport Authority, LAMATA; Olufemi Dairo and Adesola DairoAdewumi.

The funeral service will take place at House of Truth, Obanle Aro Crescent, Ilupeju on Friday September 28, followed by entertainment of guests on Saturday 29 at De Prime Hall, Ijebu-Ode.

10— Vanguard , THURSDAY, AUGUST 30, 2012

LAUTECH: Briefly Osun House lauds Tinubu's zAs Akeredolu accuses him of importing thugs, removing posters Varsity don charges Ogun appointment as PDP kicks BY DAYO JOHNSON & Ajasin, we believe there is timidate the people of Owo for an urgent step by the LG bosses on DAPO AKINREFON need to kick off our cam- who have rejected the La- security agencies to halt MDGs

BY GBENGA OLARI-

Mimiko flags off 2nd term campaign

O

NOYE

SOGBO—THE Osun State House of Assembly has applauded the appointment of the former governor of Lagos State, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu as Chancellor of Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, LAUTECH, by the two owner governments of Oyo and Osun describing the appointment as a unifying factor.

In a statement signed by the Media Secretary to the Speaker, Mr. Goke Butika, in Osogbo yesterday, the House said it was confident that the new Chancellor would bring his administrative acumen to bear in giving the citadel a shot to a new glory, a clear departure from the crisis ridden regime appropriated during the ownership crisis orchestrated by the previous regime in Oyo State.

The legislature stressed, “Asiwaju Bola Tinubu is a leader a university like LAUTECH needs at this time around, given the fact that it took the maturity and cordiality of the two governors of Oyo and Osun states, Senator Abiola Ajimobi and Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola respectively to roll the institution back from the brink of collapse orchestrated by a ‘yesterday’s power that be’ in Oyo State.”

S-West PDP kicks

Meantime, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in the South-West has described the appointment of former Governor of Lagos State and Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, leader, Bola Ahmed Tinubu as the Chancellor of the Ladoke Akintola University, LAUTECH, Ogbomoso as an insult on the academic community in Nigeria.

O

WO—OVER 100,000 people are expected at the flag off of the second term campaign rally of Governor Olusegun Mimiko scheduled to hold in Owo Local Government Area of Ondo State today.

However, the Akeredolu Campaign Organisation, ACO, has flayed the Ondo State Government for allegedly planning to import thugs and hoodlums ahead of the campaign.

It also accused the state government of allegedly ordering the removal of the posters of its governorship candidate.

Addressing newsmen in Akure, the Director-General of the Mimiko Campaign Organisation, Mr Akin Adaramola said that party supporters are expected across the 18 local government area of the state to show solidarity.

Adaramola explained that today’s rally to flag off the re-election of the governor would be the “Mother of all Campaign rallies” noting that it will take place at the Methodist Primary School, Fajuru road Owo. On the choice of Owo for the flag off of its campaign, campaign DG said it is because of the significance of the town to South West democracy.

He said: “The choice was significant, Owo is historical, its the home of democracy in the South West and because we have a governor who is following the footsteps of Awolowo and

paign in the ancient home of democracy.”

Adaramola pointed out that the flag off will be witnessed by various interest and ethnic groups within the state promising to demonstrate their support for Mimiko.

ACN accuses Mimiko

Meantime, the ACO accused the state government of plans to import thugs, hoodlums armed with dangerous weapons to Owo today ahead of Dr. Mimiko’s purported flag-off campaign.

In a statement by its Director of Media, Publicity and Strategy, Mr Idowu Ajanaku alleged that “the thugs which are being imported from Igbira-land, his ancestral home are meant to terrorise, harass and in-

L

AGOS—THE La goon State Movement has restated the need for the creation of the state out of Lagos State saying it would assist in fast tracking development in the rural areas.

Speaking on behalf of the movement, its Public Relations Officer, Mr Olufunmilade Ayantuga, said the creation was imperative because people in the rural areas have been

this unholy move by the Labour Party to avoid chaos in the state which we believe is the major objective of the drowning Labour Party.”

But in a swift reaction, Director of Media and Publicity of the Mimiko Campaign Organisation, Mr Kolawole Olabisi denied the claims made by Akeredolu saying the allegations are unfounded In a telephone chat with Vanguard, Olabisi said: “The allegations that we are importing thugs and hoodlums for the campaign are all lies. Everyone in Ondo State knows that ACN has been a violent party.

Ontheallegedremovalofposters,hesaid:“Theallegationsthat wehavebeenremovinghisposters and handbills are not true."

L

AGOS—ROBBERS attacked a bullion van and killed a police inspec-

marginalised.

Accompanied by Messrs Obafemi Adesanya and Adeniyi Lawal, during a visit to Vanguard corporate office in Lagos, Ayantuga said: “Lagos State has 20 local governments as recognised by the Federal Government, but the proposed Lagoon State will have seven of the 20 local governments – Epe, IbejuLekki, Apapa, Eti-Osa, Kosofe, Shomolu and Ikorodu local governments. When you go round

A

BEOKUTA—PRO FESSOR Opeyemi Ajewole of University of Ibadan, yesterday, predicted that Nigeria’s 2015 Millenium Development Goal targets will not be achieved unless state and local governments take their responsibilities proactively.

The University Don however tasked the Chairmen of the 20 local government areas of Ogun State to strive in achieving the Millennium Development Goals, MDGs.

Osun LP resolves crisis

O

Mrs Hassanat Abubakar, Proprietress, Hassab Heritage School Abuja, and some dignitaries during the school's second graduation and prize givingday in Abuja.

Robbers attack bullion van, kill police inspector

BY EVELYN USMAN

BY DAUD OLATUNJI, OLADEPO MICHAEL & EMMANUELIBUWARISO

BY GBENGA OLARINOYE

tor who was part of the team of policemen escorting the money to a bank in Lagos, yesterday.

Group advocates Lagoon State creation

BY DAPO AKINREFON

bour Party and instead embrace their son, Mr Rotimi Akeredolu, who is the governorship candidate of the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN. “But, ACO believes that this latest mischief of Mimiko will not work, because Owo which his government has neglected for the past three and half years with the abandonment of the less than five kilometre dualisation project will not support such a government of failure, who is playing politics with their welfare, for the second term,” it stated.

While calling security agents to investigate the activities of the Labour Party for alleged removal of flags, posters and billboards of the flagbearer of the ACN candidate, it said “we call

Lagos, you will discover that the rural areas are completely neglected by the state government and when we look at it more seriously, it may not be the fault of the state government because the resources at their disposal is not sufficient. Since 1967, when states were created, others have been split into two and some six. If you compare Lagos with old Kano State, which sharesimilaritiesintermsofpopulation, you will see the injustice done to Lagos.

The policemen were said to be escorting staff of a plastic-making company with an undisclosed sum of money around Ajao when the armed robbers opened fire thereby killing the inspector.

It was learnt that although the inspector was killed, the policemen were able to foil the robbery as the culprits were said to have sustained bullet wounds.

The Police Public Relations Officer, Ngozi Braide, confirmed the incident to our correspondent on the telephone, adding that efforts were being made to arrest the culprits.

She said: “The policemen were on duty and were escorting the plastic company

workers to the bank with the money when they were attacked somewhere between Aswani and Ajao Estate.

“Armed robbers laid ambush and killed a police inspector but the robbery was foiled as the armed robbers were also shot but managed to escape. Meanwhile, investigations are ongoing.”

SOGBO—THE pro tracted crisis rocking the Labour Party, LP, in Osun State was, yesterday, finally resolved as the two major leading factions of the party have resolved to sink their differences for the progress of the party.

At a joint press conference addressed by the leaders of the two factions, Rufus Oyatoro and Afolabi Abiodun, they agreed to work together in order to form a formidable team ahead of the coming local government election in the state.

Vanguard, THURSDAY, AUGUST 30, 2012—11

Igbrude’s death very painful —Uduaghan

BY AUSTIN OGWUDA

A

VISIT: Olorogun Felix Ibru (left), paying homage to His Royal Majesty Richard Oghenevwogaga Ebelle Okorefe I, the Ovie of Agbarha-Otor Kingdom.

Oyegun backs state police B

ENIN—FORMER governor of Edo State, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, has thrown his weight behind the call for state police, saying existing police system under the control of the Federal Government was ineffective.

In an interview with Vanguard in Benin yesterday, he said: “The police go across the country begging state governments to help look after them. It has become part of the accomplishments of state governments to, once in a while, donate vehicles to the Police, the last being in Niger State and they made a lot of noise about it.

“It is not just the donation of vehicles. A lot of money changes hands to assist the operational re-

quirements of the Police.

That is the reality.

“The barracks are not there; facilities are not there, and if you look at the Police, you know there is a lot of rot there.

Look at the police stations, they are supposed to be inspiring, but if there is one place any decent human being would avoid today, it is the police station.

“So what are we talking about; are we saying that the Federal government look after the

police, that standard are likely to depreciate? No. So, my take is, let's go back to the basic of federalism, let states have their own police, government and even if possible let the local governments have their own security forces with specific responsibilities.

“We are virtually going to have state police all over the country. I have not seen any powerful argument to the contrary.

People will say, oh, we are not mature enough to

P

ORT HARCOURT—THE Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, has reiterated its disapproval of Governor Rotimi

Amaechi’s appointment of Professor Barineme Fakae to succeed himself as Acting Vice Chancellor of Rivers State University of Science and Technology, RSUST, Port Harcourt, on expiration of his first tenure in office.

Mudiaga-Odje tasks FG on East-West road

BY FESTUS AHON

U

GHELLI—War ribased constitutional lawyer and human rights activist, Dr. Akpo Mudiaga-Odje, has urged the Federal Government to complete the East-West road within the next 18 months.

Odje, who spoke to newsmen yesterday in his Evwreni country home, Ughelli North Local Government Area,

control the national police. Fine. Is the Federal G o v e r n m e n t mature enough to control the national police?

Have they not used it in the past against political opponents? Have they not used it to aid victories in elections? ”We can never be mature enough as a federation, unless we go back to the basic essence of federalism and that is by allowing each of the federating units to be self governing."

ASUU strike looms over Rivers Varsity crisis

BY EGUFE YAFUGBORHI & GABRIEL ENOGHOLASE

Delta State, blamed the slow pace of the project on government.

Urging the Federal Government to redouble its effort towards the completion of the road project, he described the slow pace of the project as a disservice to the people of the Niger Delta.

He said: “The road is still in a very deplorable state of disrepair as we speak. Within 18 months to two years, the Federal Government should com-

plete the road because that is where the resources of this country come from. If these people cannot be connected by roads, what can they say they are developing in the Niger Delta?

“The crude oil that Nigeria depends on, the price is now $115 per barrel at 2.47 million barrels per day. What has that reflected on the people whose resources have been sequestrated

by Nigerians? Nothing!"

Bayelsa tackles illegal logging with youth employment

BY SAMUELOYADONGHA

...says existing police system ineffective

BY GABRIEL ENOGHOLASE

S A B A — D E LT A State governor, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan, has described the death of former speaker of the State House of Assembly, Mr. Daniel Igbrude, as painful.

“It is painful, very painful. It is shocking and devastating for us all particularly in the PDP family,” he said.

The governor, in a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Mr. Sunny Ogefere, said he was saddened beyond speech by the demise, noting that “it was most surprising and heart-wrenching that the

This came as Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma, Edo State, and University of Benin, UNIBEN chapters of ASUU vowed to join all ASUU members nationwide to observe a one-day strike in solidarity with their colleagues at RSUST. National President of ASUU, Prof. Nasir Isa Fagge, restated the union’s resentment to the development at the troubled institution as members embarked on a nationwide day strike today in solidarity with their RSUST colleagues who have stopped academic activities in protest for weeks.

Prof. Fagge maintained that perceived imposition of Prof. Fakae as Acting VC by Governor Amaechi on a disapproving academic community at RSUST was against due process, calling on the governor to rescind the decision without further delay.

former speaker had to die at an age that cannot be considered particularly a ripe age.”

The governor has also expressed sadness over the death of Mama Regina Maduemezia, mother of Nigeria’s permanent representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Joy Ogwu.

In a condolence letter to Prof. Ogwu, the governor said though Mama Maduemezia had passed on, she would be remembered as a devout Catholic whose kind disposition easily warmed her to the hearts of many people who will eternally hold fond memories of her.

Y

ENAGOA—WORRIED by the increasing level of illegal logging and depletion of its rich forest reserves, Bayelsa State Government has concluded plans to engage and empower 200 youths in the state to check the menace.

Governor Dickson, who disclosed this in Yenagoa, noted with concern that illegal logging and other activities that have greatly depleted forest reserves across the state had gone unchecked over the years.

He said the state government would not fold its arms and allow the unwholesome practice to continue, stressing that steps would be taken to halt the trend.

The governor described forest and its numerous resources as potential sources of revenue for the state that must be protected at all times, especially at a time when government was trying to harness the tourism potentials of the state to attract tourists from within and outside the country.

He said: “About 200 youths will be engaged and empowered to check the illegal exploitation and depletion of the rich forest reserves of the state. ”As a government with a clear vision to restore the lost glory of our state, we will also initiate a legislation to make unauthorized exploitation and logging activities in forests across the state illegal and punishable by law.”

Delta guber: Stay focused on 2015, Anioma people urged

N

ATIONAL coordi nator of Movement for Democratic Equity, Evangelist Josiah Mashomi, has advised Anioma people of Delta State to remain focused and united to ensure that they produce the next governor of the state come 2015.

He advised them to be objective in supporting one of their sons, Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa, to vie for the governorship slot in 2015, saying this call has become imperative to checkmate activities of political jobbers and mischief makers who may be used to thwart the right

of Anioma nation to produce the next governor.

Evangelist Mashomi made the call while playing host to members of the Movement for Democratic Equity from Delta North, led by Comrade Chukwudi Okei, who paid him a courtesy visit in Warri.

He emphasized that the choice of Dr. Okowa by the group should be applauded by all and urged all Anioma sons and daughters to embrace it, even as he urged them to jettison the ambition to vie for the governoship position by queuing behind Dr. Okowa.

12—Vanguard, THURSDAY, AUGUST 30, 2012

Police brutality: AIG cautions officers, men

BY SAMUEL OYADONGHA

Y

ENAGOA—ASSISTANT Inspector General of Police in charge of Zone 5, Mr. Hashimu Argungu, yesterday read the riot act to officers and men of the force, saying the era of police brutality against civilians and acting outside the law was over.

He warned that henceforth, any officer caught in the act would not only be dismissed from the force but would also be made to face the full wrath of the law.

Argungu gave the warning in Yenagoa during a brief visit to the leadership of Nigeria Union of Journalists, NUJ, while on a tour of police formations in the zone.

He said: “Everybody should know his rights

and exercise his fundamental human rights effectively without any violation; every body should fight for his constitutional rights in the society. The police will dismiss any officer who uses excessive power on civilians.”

The AIG, who described Bayelsa State as the most peaceful in the zone, in terms of crime rate, lauded the state government for its zero

Oshiomhole not qualified to contest —Airhiavbere

BY GABRIEL ENOGHOLASE

B

ENIN- EDO State Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, candidate in the July 14, 2012 governorship election, Major-General Charles Airhiavbere (retired), yesterday, insisted that Governor Oshiomhole

Handle aging with dignity —Bayelsa monarch

BY BARTHOLOMEW MADUKWE

T

HE Pere of Odoni Kingdom in Bayelsa State, HRM Godfrey Dakoru, Abubu II, yesterday advised that aging should be handled with dignity and flexibility by gracefully surrendering the things of youth.

In a statement, Dakoru stressed that old age was an evidence of God’s favour and reward of a life well lived, noting that a good attitude with a good life style could help prolong a person’s life span.

He said: “A young person is endowed with tender bloom, agility, strength and power. At

tolerance to crime and its collaboration with the state command in protecting the lives and property of the citizenry.

Accompanied by the state commissioner of police and other senior officers, AIG Argungu also lauded the media which he described as worthy partner in the fight against crimes in the society and solicited its continued support.

this age, he can move with the best style of gait and can do anything with alacrity. But when a man becomes old, he loses most of these attributes.

“Age decreases vigour, dims the vision, slackens the muscles, stiffens the joints, dries the bone marrows, whitens the hair, and the human frame is stricken and in most cases bent. Loss of memory is also experienced in some cases. Old age is associated with different types of problems.”

Dakoru pointed out that the main fear about aging was ending up lonely. He suggested stretches and exercises every morning for about 30 minutes.

was not qualified to contest the governorship election as stipulated in Section 177 (d) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and infraction of Section 182 (1) (j) of the same Constitution (as amended).

Airhiavbere who was replying to the response by Governor Adams Oshiomhole, to his petition against his re-election at the Governorship Election Tribunal in Benin City also claimed that the primary school that the respondent claimed to have attended was not in existence at the time he claimed to have been in the school, adding that the governor did not complete his Secondary Modern School he claimed to have attended.

The PDP candidate also claimed that the 3rd respondent, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, did not follow its laid down rules and regulations in registering voters for the election, carried out a revision that was expressly prohibited before the election, did not observe laid down accreditation and voting procedures for statistical data, and produced a new manual register for use in the election.

No plan to drag Delta govt to court —IPMAN

BY KINGSLEYADEGBOYE

T

HE Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria IPMAN, Delta State chapter, has denied newspaper reports that it was planning to drag the state government to court over multiple taxation levelled against its members by some suspected tax agents of government.

Chairman of IPMAN in the state, Chief Akpos Edafevwotu, in a statement described the reports as blatant falsehood and figment of the imagination of the writers.

He described the reports as calculated attempt to jeopardise the existing cordial relationship IPMAN had with the state government and portray the association in bad light.

Edafevwotu lamented

that some reporters, who attended the recent annual general meeting of IPMAN at Ekpan, quoted him out of context and misrepresented the facts in their publications, saying he only told the reporters that the association would employ dialogue to resolve issues of multiple taxation with the state government.

He added that the option of litigation did not arise during his encounter with the press.

Vanguard , THURSDAY, AUGUST 30, 2012 —13

S-East CAN faults Nnaji's resignation zAs PHCN workers celebrate in Enugu

E

BY TONY EDIKE

NUGU—THE Chris tian Association of Nigeria, CAN, South East Zone, yesterday, condemned the resignation of the Minister of Power, Professor Bath Nnaji from office, describing it as “a very disgraceful and disappointing situation for the people of the South East geopolitical zone.”

The association made this known in Enugu just as workers of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria,

PHCN in Enugu Zonal Office hailed Nnaji’s exit saying the resignation “is an answer to our prayers”.

Vanguard observed at the Enugu zonal office that the workers danced round the portrait of Nnaji and thanked God for the development, saying the man whose only desire was to send them packing without minding the consequences on their lives after serving the nation for several years, had been shown the way out.

But officials of National Union of Electricity Employees, NUEE in the zone refused to comment on the development.

The Chairman of CAN South East and Anglican Bishop of Enugu Diocese, Rt. Reverend Dr. Emmanuel Chukwuma, who spoke with newsmen in Enugu, called on President Goodluck Jonathan to ensure that he picked Nnaji’s successor from Enugu State.

He said it was unfortu-

nate that the South East had continued to lose top positions through resignation and called on political office holders in the zone to re-examine themselves to avert such development in future.

The Anglican Bishop, who also spoke on the resurgence of kidnapping in Enugu State, called for the immediate removal of the Enugu State Commissioner of police, alleging that security had collapsed since he was posted to the state.

Call for Jonathan's resignation worries Mbadinuju

BY VINCENTUJUMADU

A

WKA—FORMER governor of Anambra State, Dr. Chinwoke Mbadinuju, is worried about calls by opposition groups on President Goodluck Jonathan to resign in view of security challenges in the country, saying those making the call do not love Nigeria.

Addressing newsmen in Awka yesterday, Mbadinuju also spoke on the ongoing debate on whether or not the presi-

dent should contest the 2015 election, arguing that he had the constitutional right to go for second tenure.

He said: “Those who are calling on the president to resign in view of security challenges facing the country are missing the point. He has done only one year and for the opposition to demand for his resignation shows that they do not love Nigeria.

“If he completes four years and there are no achievements recorded, then Nigerians can show him the way through their votes. Everybody’s interest is to see that Nigeria is stable, but stability has eluded us since the 2011 election and I see the source of the problems as coming from the opposition.

“My advice to him is that he should not bother about them because God destined him for a particular purpose in the country. In fact, my belief is that if Jonathan is not the person at the helm of affairs in this country at present, the situation would have been too bad."

How to realise Vision 2020,

by Okunna

BY ENYIM ENYIM

O

NITSHA—THE Anambra State Chairman of the Vision 2020, Professor Stella Okunna has said Nigeria may not realize the goal given the present sociopolitical and economic situation in the country.

Speaking during a workshop organised by the Accountancy Department, Federal Polytechnic, Oko, Okunna argued that lot of things had gone wrong in the system that needed to be corrected immediately before the nation could contemplate joining the G20.

According to her, it would be difficult for Nigeria to displace Poland to occupy the 20th position the country presently occupies in the G20.

She said: ”The present generation is worse than the old generation. For us the old generation, the situation is almost hopeless. But we still have hope in the present generation if you, the present generation, could change.”

However, Okunna said Nigeria could still realise the vision 2020 if serious trials were made within the next eight years to the end date.

14—Vanguard , THURSDAY, AUGUST 30, 2012

Special Assistant to Imo State Governor on Lagos Liaison, Ms Lisa C. Asugha (middle); President, Imo State Towns Development Association, Lagos, ISTDAL, Mazi Tony Ohakwe (left) and Buisness Development Officer, Mr Smart Echefu, during a meeting with executive member of ISTDAL in Lagos..

From right; Mr Akin Adesokan, Deputy Coordinator, Southern Nigeria Ethnic Self-Determination Alliance, Mr Popoola Ajayi, General Secretery and Mr Abuka Omababa, President General United Middle Belt Youth Congress, at briefing by Southern Nigeria Ethnic Self-Determination Alliance, on killing of mostly southerners, middle-belt indigenes in the north and uniting all southern groups against terrorism and self determination in Lagos. Photo: Kehinde Gbadamosi.

Suspected ritualists behead 16-yr-old girl in Anambra zBanker kidnapped in Awka

BY VINCENT UJUMADU

A

WKA—A 16 year – old Miss Nwanneka Odah was, yesterday, beheaded by a three -man gang suspected to be ritual killers at Nawfia in Njikoka Local Government Area of Anambra State.

This came as the Awka branch manager of a new generation bank, (name withheld), Mr. Tochukwu Nnadi, was yesterday kidnapped about 7.30am on his way to the office.

Nwanneka was said to be hawking groundnuts along the Nawfia –Awka road close to Nawfia Comprehensive Secondary School when the three young men allegedly pretended as if they wanted to buy groundnuts from her only for one of them to use a machete to cut off her head when she bent down to sell the groundnuts to them.

A relation of the deceased, Mr. Friday Ogalagu described the situation as terrible, lamenting that he had never seen such a thing in his life.

He said: “I was not there when it happened, but I was told that my cousin was stopped by three men who said they wanted to buy groundnuts. While two of them were on the road side, the third, who dressed like a mad man was standing closely. When the girl bent down to put the ground nuts for them, the one close by brought

out what somebody said looked like an axe and beheaded the girl. An Okada rider plying the road who saw what happened stopped and the three men ran into the bush, leaving their victim whose head was already severed, struggling for life.”

Ogalagu said that it was when people began to make inquiries about the parents of the girl that he was contacted.

According to Ogalagu who claimed to be training the girl since childhood, the body had been deposited at the Amaku General Hospital in

Awka, while the parents who live in Ebonyi had been contacted.

Anambra State Police Public Relations Officer, PPRO, Mr. Raphael Uzoigwe, confirmed the incident, saying the matter had been referred to the State Criminal Investigation Department, CID, for investigation.

Banker kidnapped in Awka

A staff in the bank said there had not been any contact with the kidnappers, lamenting that the incident had put fears among bankers.

It was gathered that the abductors waited for

their victim in two cars at the Iyiagu area of the capital city with doors of their cars opened and as he drove close to the area, they used one of the cars to block him and dragged him out of his car into their own and drove off.

The State Police Command, however said the matter had not been reported to it at the time of filing the report.

Police spokesman, Mr. Raphael Uzoigwe, told reporters that he had made contacts with the Central Police Station and the B-division in the command, claiming no such case was reported.

Youths disrupt Chevron's operations in Delta

BY EMMAARUBI

W

ARRI—THOU SANDS of Ijaw, Itsekiri, Ilaje and Urhobo youths from host communities in Delta state, have paralysed the operations of Chevron Nigeria Limited, CNL, along NPA Expressway, for several hours barricading all entrance to the company premises as early as 6 a.m.

The aggrieved youths displayed several placards with various inscriptions to show their grievances, claiming to be acting under the platform of Chevron Host Communities Procure-

ment Association prevented the officials from accessing their offices.

The presence of heavily armed soldiers and Mobile Policemen led by one Major Nledamin and DSP Prince Ezejiofor did not however deter the protesters as they chanted war songs threatening to shut down the operations of the company completely.

Some of the placards carried by the protesters, Tuesday, read: No local content, no operations; We need our right; Chevron stop marginalizing the host communities; Chevron staff stop doing contracts

for Chevron.

Chairman of the Chevron Host Communities Procurement Association, Mr. Emmanuel Adidi told journalists that his members were angry with the relocation of the Procurement Department of the company to Lagos which he alleged was deliberate to shut them from having contracts from the oil firm.

It took the intervention of prominent Itsekiri leaders, Chiefs Ayiri Emami, Newton Agbofordo and others to placate the protesters to vacate the premises and allow work to resume.

Jonathan inaugurates Anambra basin oil production today

BY LAZARUS IBEA-

A

BUCHI

WKA—PRESIDENT Goodluck Jonathan will today inaugurate the Anambra basin oil production, setting the ground work for a private refinery scheduled to be completed by the end of 2013 in the state.

Chairman, Board of Directors, Orient Petroleum Resources Plc, OPR, Chief Emeka Anyaoku in an address said this would help in promoting the federal Government’s policy towards reducing the country’s dependence on imported refined petroleum products from overseas.

He said: “It is an unacceptable paradox that Nigeria, one of the world’s largest producers of crude oil is also one of the greatest importers of refined oil products. It was the desire to address this paradox that led us, the promoters of OPR to embark on steady efforts aimed at substituting

fuel imports with petroleum products from its own refinery in Nigeria.

“But raising sufficient funds for the capital intensive refinery project had posed the greatest challenge to OPR. As a result, the company after a number of unsuccessful efforts to mobilize the funds required for early construction of its refinery, decided early in 2011 to fast-track the development of its two inland basin oil blocks, OPLs 915 & 916. Now that it has commenced crude oil production the company is confident to raise the necessary funds to enable it to complete the construction of the refinery by the end of 2013.”

Anyaoku noted that the impact of the multi-dimensional activities of the OPR would resonate with the President’s Transformation Agenda, adding that “this is because they will bring significant reduction of the volume of imported refined oil products into the country."

ESUT ASUU in solidarity strike with RSUST lecturers

E

BY TONY EDIKE

NUGU—ACA DEMIC Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, Enugu State University of Science and Technology, ESUT Chapter has declared today a work free day in solidarity with the Rivers State University of Science and Technology, RSUST lecturers, who are protesting alleged breaches in the appointment of their ViceChancellor.

The Chairman of ASUU, ESUT chapter, Agu Gab Agu who announced this in Enugu said after a special congress of ASUU-ESUT held at the Faculty of Law,

ESUT on 29thAugust 2012 it was resolved in line with the directive of the National Leadership of ASUU that Thursday, 30thAugust 2012 be observed as a work-free day in solidarity with their colleagues at RSUST who are on strike against the breaches and rape of due process in the appointment of the university’s Vice Chancellor.

He said: “All academic activities including teaching, supervision, committee meetings among others will therefore be fully suspended in ESUT on August 30, 2012.”

Vanguard, THURSDAY, AUGUST 30, 2012 —15

16—Vanguard , THURSDAY, AUGUST 30, 2012

FG denies banning foreign airlines from Abuja, Kano int'l airports

BY KENNETH EHIGIATOR

T

HE Federal Government, yesterday, flayed allegations that it had ordered some foreign airlines to stop operating into Abuja and Kano international airports, saying the accusation gave the impression that it was playing ethnic politics with the issue.

It was alleged that Princess Stella Oduah, Aviation Minister, ordered Emirates, Etihad and Turkish airlines to stop operating into both airports, and to use Enugu instead. However, Princess Oduah, in Abuja, said there was no iota of truth in the allegation.

Princess Oduah said the 11 airports currently being reconstructed and remodelled simultaneously across the country included Kano, Kaduna, Yola and Jos, wondering why anyone would insinuate she was antiNorth.

She said: “Our attention

has been drawn to publications in some sections of the media to the effect that Aviation Minister, Princess Stella Oduah, ordered that some foreign airlines, particularly Emirates, Etihad and Turkish airlines be stopped or prevented from operating into the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja and the Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport, Kano.

“There is no truth whatsoever to these publications as the minister had at no time even attempted to prevent the said airlines from

operating into the said destinations. To the contrary, the minister has been an advocate of allowing all the international airports in the country to operate direct international flights.

“Emirates Airline has never applied for any permit to operate into either Abuja or Kano international airports. Anyone, including the airline concerned, with contrary documentation should please make such available to the general public.

“Etihad that was supposed to commence opera-

tions from Abuja in line with an old MoU of 2003 with the UAE has refused to do so, but rather insisted on starting from Lagos, thereby necessitating an amendment of the MoU in 2012 to accommodate their desire.

“Turkish Airline had in fact applied to operate into Abuja and Kano, an application which the minister approved without any hesitation. In fact, IRS Airlines was nominated on August 1, 2012 to work with Turkish Airline in this regard.”

NUPENG to PDP: You're Nigeria's greatest problem

BY VICTOR AHIUMA-YOUNG

A

BUJA—NIGERIA Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers, NUPENG, yesterday, said Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, lacked the moral fibre to question it over its decision to embark on strike over the non-payment of subsidy and other issues, noting the party was Nigeria's biggest problem.

The planned strike was, however, suspended last week after an agreement between labour and gov-

Corruption: IG reads riot act to officers

BY KINGSLEY OMONOBI

A

BUJA—INSPECTORGeneral of Police, Mohammed Abubakar, yesterday, warned that any officer caught in any form of bribery and corruption on duty on the highway in any part of the country would be dealt with decisively.

Abubakar, who gave the warning while launching 40 operational armoured patrol vehicles, said the essence of removal of road blocks along the highway was to fight corruption in the force, which in the past dented the image of the Police.

He expressed optimism that with the acquisition of

the operational patrol vehicles, which will be used primarily for the patrol of the highways, robbery and criminal attacks on road users, will be a thing of the past.

According to him, the patrol vehicles are expected to fill the gap created by the recent dismantling of roadblocks by

the Force.

He said: “I want to seize this opportunity to warn officers that will be deployed for this exercise to shun all forms of corruption and unethical conducts and ensure that their firearms are used strictly in accordance with the Police rules of engagement.”

ernment.

NUPENG, in a statement by its Acting General Secretary, Mr. Isaac Aberare in Abuja, said the PDP had drawn Nigeria years back in her national development and could not be taken seriously in its recent outburst on the union.

It challenged the party to respond and face the barrage of daily criticisms of its activities by the opposition party— Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN. NUPENG said: “The PDP spokesman, Chief Olisa Metuh, exhibited ignorance on the demands of the union, and only responded on impulse and faulty base.

“The union has never sabotaged the efforts of the Federal Government, especially when it bothers on transparency and accountability in the oil and gas sector.

“We have always been in the forefront in the fight against many obnoxious polices of government.”

Vanguard, THURSDAY, AUGUST 30, 2012—17

I

Rabid defender As the WSJ report noted, "the gilded pacification campaign…has sent young men in Nigeria’s turbulent delta a different message; that militancy promises more rewards than risks”. And if anyone doubted that, the fact that oil theft has reached over 150 thousand barrels per day now, only confirms the worst case. Those who indulge WSJ’s bandits probably have ‘good intentions’ but as we all know, the road to hell has often been paved with such good intentions!

Nigeria has deteriorated so badly, especially since the mid-1980s, as a combination of the corruption of military dictatorship and the economic doctrines they imposed unleashed the worst excesses of criminality in our society. Many individuals and groups correctly saw that the state itself has morphed into an instrument aiding the perpetration of crime in the hands of criminal elite groups. These individuals and groups also began anti-state acts of criminality, which grew in increasing sophistication. In the Niger Delta, with a history of neglect and the combustible but lucrative mix of oil, criminals and bandits could exploit genuine grievances about the state of neglect to organise very successful activities that nearly paralysed the Nigerian state. Two groups of criminals: those that

Treason and the pot at the rainbow’s end especially, we have had high positions in government occupied by fraudsters, certificate forgers and barefaced thieves? Haven’t our legislative houses become redoubts for armed robbers, drug barons, thieves and certificate forgers? What is the quality of a

,

T took the WALL STREET JOURNAL, WSJ, last week, to lift the lid on the murky world of payments which the Nigerian government makes to Niger Delta warlords. The report, appropriately titled, “NIGERIA’S FORMER OIL BANDITS NOW COLLECT GOVERNMENT CASH”, tell the tale of how lumpen criminals took up arms against the Nigerian state and successfully went for the economy’s jugular and came close to bleeding it to death. A weak and near-prostate state, rolled over by corruption sued for peace, using an amnesty programme that worked so remarkably well, since oil production went back to ‘normal’. The price paid for normalcy, was the huge transfer of funds to the former warlords; these include Asari Dokubo who “once stalked the mangrove-choked creeks of the Niger Delta, a leaf stuck to his forehead for good luck, as a crew that he ran bled oil from pipelines and sold it to smugglers”.

By 2011, NNPC “began paying him $9 million a year”. It was, therefore, no surprise, with hindsight, that Dokubo became a rabid defender of the Jonathan administration, hurling abuses and threats of war at imaginary ‘Northern’ enemies of the regime that pays him so much from the nation’s coffers. These payments for the crime of treason do not stop with Dokubo. Two others, ‘Generals’ Boyloaf and Ateke Tom collect $3.8 million annually, while the most important amongst the Niger Delta warlords, Government ‘Tompolo' Ekpemupolo, in the words of WSJ "maintains a $22.9 million a year contract…” with the Jonathan administration.

Map of Nigeria

control the levers of state power and needing to oil those levers with oil money and their criminal allies and adversaries (the relationship continuously evolves depending on circumstance) who burst pipelines to steal oil, with ‘leaf stuck on…forehead for good luck’, actually represent all that is wrong with our country today.

Both groups live on unearned money taken at the expense of the genuine needs of the Nigerian people. The two groups of bandits also do a serious damage to the

ethical basis of our society; they subvert hard work, as the basis of advancement in society.

It is not surprising that those who consciously chose to commit treasonable crimes against Nigeria’s economic wellbeing get paid millions of dollars annually as a pension for their lives of crime.

These funds are taken directly from the NNPC. But if we feel angry about that fact, in which way is the absurdity of the situation any different or less annoying, than the fact that since 1999

prostrate and citizens in dire straits, while they steal resources that should be taking the country away from chronic underdevelopment. The ethos of hardwork has suffered almost irreparably in our country, with young and old alike, looking for miracles to short circuit genuine effort. I recall two similar tales of search for wealth without hardwork; that about the rainbow that appears after rainfall as a huge serpent; the dung would turn to gold if one somehow, could collectit. And the other was the migrant goblin with a mat and his eternal cry; snatch the mat and you would become rich!

In secondary school, I once saw the futility of such an effort to snatch the goblin’s mat by a fellow student. But the ease with which the Niger Delta bandit ‘Generals’ are collecting millions of dollars from state coffers as re-

In truth, no nation can prosper by appeasement of its bandits; neither bandits in the creeks nor those in airconditioned offices

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lot of the people we have recruited as local government councilors and chairmen; or state governors? In a sense, we could extend the absurdity of the situation, by saying that the Niger Delta bandit ‘Generals’ receiving millions of dollars as payment for their treasonable acts even ‘worked harder’, endangering their lives in the creeks, than those who sit comfortably inside air-conditioned government houses, legislative chambers or offices just to fleece all of us!

But beyond such absurdity, is the fact that between the two groups of bandits is a country left

ward for treason and the related manner our thieving elite loots the country, one would be right to conclude that there is reward afterall, in spending time looking for the gold pot at the rainbow’s end or looking for mats to snatch from goblins. But in truth, no nation can prosper by appeasement of its bandits; neither bandits in the creeks nor those in airconditioned offices. If we do not re-instate the ethos of hardwork and honest labour as well as recruit responsible leadership to lead the process of development, we will literally kill our country!

nity. For the young people growing up in our society, they were born within the context of the violence and corruption associated with military dictatorship; they have also come to adulthood within the irresponsibility associated with civilian rule in the past 13 years. There are very few positive role models for a lot of the young people growing up in our society today and since the Nigerian mutant strain of capitalism does not valorize hard work, young people attracted to the glittering world of capitalist consumerism, also want a bite of the cherry, any which way.

So while the ruling elite loots the state, these young criminals carry out scams on the internet; rob or as we saw with Cynthia’s tragic fate, set up young ladies for fleecing after drugging and raping them. I honestly do not think we can understand Cynthia’s tragic fate and the boom in sexual crimes, cultism in schools, the expansive use of drugs and the associated violent crimes among young people, without placing them in the necessary sociological context.

So when universities deny that the individuals arrested for the tragic killing of the young girl, are their students, they miss the point. The criminal actions of

those individuals do not only indict whichever institutions they attend alone, they indict our society in general; the break down of the family structure by the rapacity of our version of capitalism, where parents are unable to provide for children who now fend for themselves using the proceeds of crime and prostitution; the privatization of the state as vehicles for an elaborate process of corrupt enrichment by a ruling elite with the consequent institution of an uncaring ethos of individualism where it has become legitimate to prey on the neighbour.

These take place against the background of the worldwide dominance of post-modern capitalism and its consumerist appeals to people, especially the young. Our society is indicted that we have produced the types with the criminal mind to do all they did to such a promising young lady. And because we are parents, or have sisters and friends, who we don’t want such to happen to, we need to be more responsible parents, citizens and leaders for the sake of those we love. We should give our hearts to Cynthia and the family of General Osokogu in this trying time for them, with hope that we will learn and teach lessons to all those we love.

Cynthia on our hearts

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HEN the story of the tragic killing of the beautiful Cynthia Osokogu broke last week, it got a deserved place on the front page of practically every Nigerian newspaper. The sheer tragedy of the killing of a 24-year-old, with a whole lifetime ahead of her, was so heart-rendering in the first place. But as the story unfolded, there were many related issues which made it so compelling and sad. How did she become so trusting of people she hardly knew beyond the virtual, make believe world of FACEBOOK? Why did she accept a flight ticket, was received at the airport by the crooks, accommodated in an hotel and the tragic sequence of sedation, chaining, raping and tragic killing?

I ask those questions as a parent of young girls too and these questions must trouble every parent about the way our children socialize in the context of the milieu that post-modern capitalism has fostered around the world. In the advanced capitalist countries, there is a deep-seated alienation and atomization of the individual. The eternal invention of gadgets and make belief, help to make the individual a consenting part of the process of capitalist exploitation. Freedom has turned into

an illusion and the citizen has morphed into just a consumer; he/she hasn’t the luxury of a pause as he is inundated with credit, with goods, with services and ever more spaces of delusion and fantasy to keep abreast with.

These societies use these enveloping world of fantasy as escapes for the atomized individuals, but often even these do not last. There are regular orgies of violence; individuals go loony and sometimes carry out incredible crimes.

Incestuous relationship There are incestuous relationships; ever more sickening acts of sexual violence or attraction to exotic religious experiences. But the state is very strong and the hegemony of the ruling classes is upheld. Individuals are not allowed to be more powerful than their society; and even the scions of ruling families will be sharply reprimanded or punished for the sake of the survival of their hegemony.

Our post-colonial, neo-colonial society carries the baggage of underdevelopment, not just of its productive forces but a troubled mélange of traditional norms and an eclectic expression of moder-

18 — Vanguard, THURSDAY , AUGUST 30, 2012 HE Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Malam Lamido Sanusi, stirred another round of controversies on Thursday, August 23, 2012 when he announced the bank’s intention to introduce a mega-value N5,000 currency note in addition to largescale redesigning and restructuring of our currencies.

According to Sanusi, come some time early next year, in addition to the new N5,000 note, the existing N50, N100, N200, N500 and (ACN), the Congress for Progressive Change N1,000 notes “will be redesigned with add- (CPC) and other members of the public, ined new security features” with improved se- cluding economists. They are worried that curity features which will make them more the new N5,000 note will worsen the inflauser-friendly to visually-impaired persons, tionary rate, exacerbate the already endemwhile the lower denominations will be turned ic corruption in the system and generally neinto coins. gate the noble objective of the “Cashless PolAccording to him, the N5,000 note will be icy”, which is still struggling for acceptance used to honour the contributions of women in its experimental stage. to the struggle for Nigeria’s independence; The critics also posit that reintroducing coins our founding mothers, foremost of whom are which have proved no longer popular in NiMargaret Ekpo, Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti geria might simply force market retailers to peg and Gambo Sawaba.

N50 as the lowest acceptable legal tender.

There have been uproarious protests, espeOut of concern over the chaotic situation this cially from the opposition political parties has created, the Senate has stepped in, orsuch as the Action Congress of Nigeria dering the CBN to suspend action until a

T

The new N5,000 note controversy

proper parliamentary inquest is conducted into it. The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Banking, Insurance and other Financial Institutions, Senator Bassey Edet Otu, said there was a need for parliament’s approval of the project before it can go forward due to “the numerous fiscal implications on the entire economy.”

We support this move by the Senate in its entirety. Even though the CBN has wide ranging powers to regulate monetary issues, including currency administration, it is important for it to carry Nigerians along with it to avoid the confusion and complaints of impunity that trailed earlier CBN interventions, particularly the take-over of ailing banks and unexplained sourcing of N620 billion to bolster them up in the process of turning them into “bridge banks”.

Power given to institutions of government is for the benefit of Nigerians and not to be wielded for its own sake. Nigerians must be allowed to participate in the public hearing that will ensue in the Senate and House of Reps, when this matter is considered to determine if we really need it, some of it or none of it.

OPINION

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BY EDWIN EKENE

NE of the indispensable components of democracy is the rule of law! In common parlance, the rule of law is the condition in which every member of the society, including its leaders, accepts the authority of the law. This is to say that the law of the state is supreme and is binding on all persons in the land, irrespective of status, position, rank, religion, political party, ethnicity or affiliation. However, the question that every rational mind or patriotic Nigerian should ask is: “Do we obey laws in Nigeria”? Or “Is it relevant laws that are lacking in Nigeria”?

Nigeria is a country of about 167 million people, and it has a relevant constitution.

Section 1 (1) of the 1999 Constitution as amended says: “This constitution is supreme and its provisions shall have binding force on all authorities and persons throughout the Federal Republic of Nigeria”. Apart from the Constitution, Nigeria has acts like the Electoral Act, Freedom of Information Act, among others. All these are aimed at engendering a democratic nation where respect for the rule of law, human rights, independent media, civil societies and independent judiciary forms the integral parts of our democratic institutions. For example, according to Wole Olanipekun SAN: “Judicial independence is the complete liberty of individual judges to hear and decide the cases that come before them free from interference of any kind … An

Promoting the rule of law over rule of the jungle independent judiciary has long been recognised as the foundation upon which a true democracy rests because it allows judges to make impartial decisions without fear of dire consequences. This is important because public trust in the judiciary depends upon societal confidence in the impartiality of individual decisions”.

Similarly, as parts of the plan to bequeath strong democratic institutions to Nigerians, section 39, sub-section (1) and (2) of the 1999 Constitution as amended reads: “Every person shall be entitled to freedom of expression, including freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart ideas and information without interference” “Without prejudice to the generality of sub section (1) of this section, every person shall be entitled to own, establish and operate any medium for the dissemination of information, ideas and opinions”. Also, Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1948, guarantees the right for freedom to express without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media regardless of frontiers.

Nonetheless, since the return of democracy in 1999, weak democratic institution has been observed at different fora. To uphold

this view, Wole Olanipekun said: “On paper, Nigerian judiciary appears independent, but in actual practice, it is otherwise”. In the same vein, President Obama, in his visit to Ghana in 2009, said: “Africa do not need strong men, but strong institutions” (sic). However, the event of Thursday, July 10, 2003, where a sitting governor in the South East of the country was abducted and the subsequent granting of an ex-parte order on Tuesday, July 22, 2003, by Justice Egbo Ebgo on the request of some politicians from the zone, seeking to stop the constitutionally elected governor of a state, is one judicial incidence that will serve as an unforgettable-historical-scar on our democratic journey.

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he judiciary is not the only victim of weak democratic institution, contrary to the provisions of section 22 of our constitution which says: “The press, radio, television and other agencies of the mass media shall at all times be free to uphold the fundamental objectives contained in this chapter and uphold the responsibility and accountability of the Government to the people”. The fourth estate of the realm is not having it easy in carrying out its constitutionally mandated roles to the

Nigerian people. While I cannot list all journalists that were gunned down on duty, some of those who paid the ultimate price in our democratic journey since 1999 include: Godwin Agbroko of Thisday Newspaper, he died on December 22, 2006; Bayo Ohu of the Guardian Newspaper, he died on September 20, 2009; Edo Sule Ugbagwu of The Nation Newspaper, he died on April 24, 2010, and Eiphraim Audu of the Nasarawa State Broadcasting Service, he died on October 24, 2010. Politicians were not left out, as countless players and drivers of our democratic processes have also passed on in unfortunate manners. Among them were Chief Bola Ige, former Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation; Funsho Williams, Chief Alfred Rewane, Dr. Harry Marshal, Chief Aminosoari Dikibo, Ogbonna Uche, Dipo Dina, Sunday Ugwu, Mr. and Mrs. Barrnabas Igwe, Olaitan Oyerinde, and so on.

From the foregoing, it is crystal clear that relevant laws are not lacking in the country, but, it is our attitude towards them that matters! Therefore, every Nigerian must subject his or her self to authority because, without the rule of law which can prevent anarchy in a democratic setting like ours, doing otherwise, as witnessed in the past, may be a dangerous alternative to our democratic aspirations. *Mr. Ekene, a social critic, wrote from Enugu State.

Vanguard, THURSDAY, AUGUST 30, 2012—19

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Nigeria is a secular country, not in the sense that it does not believe that God reigns in its affairs but in the sense that it has no official state religion

Minister Nurudeen’s “Islamic Republic of Nigeria”

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HE unsavoury consequence of Nigeria’s membership of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, OIC, is rearing its ugly head. The surreptitious, nocturnal, and unconstitutional enrolment of Nigeria into that Islamic forum effectively put this country out as an “Islamic country”, at least by perception, though our Constitution is unequivocal that we are multireligious without an official state religion.

The more appropriate thing was for our Moslem community, perhaps through the Nigeria Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs, NSCIA, with the Sultan of Sokot as its head, to register with the OIC, attend its meetings, participate in its conventions and pocket all the benefits it is touted to heap upon its members. That way, non-Muslims would not be bothered since the Christians also have their own international affiliations through their various church organs.

There is a big buzz over the

internet, that Nigeria’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Dr Nurudeen Mohammed, while at a recent meeting of the OIC in Saudi Arabia, described Nigeria as an “an Islamic State with the largest Christian population”. A furious President of the Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor condemned Mohammed for that alleged assertion, calling for his immediate dismissal.

As the call for his sack ballooned, a panicky Mohammed issued a rebuttal, insisting he never described Nigeria as the most Christian populated Muslim country. Let me quote this statement attributed to him: “My attention has been drawn to some sensational news articles circulating in both the print, online, and social media, pertaining to a statement I purportedly made while in Mecca, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia between the 15th and 16th of August, 2012. The reports alleged that I said, 'Nigeria is an Islamic

,

Country with the largest Christian population'. The reports alleged that I said this through the NTA Network News anchored in Abuja on Wednesday, the 15th of August, 2012 by 9pm.

“For the avoidance of doubt, I said no such a thing in the said news bulletin. What I did say rather (among other things) was, 'The King had extended invitation to the fifty seven-member states of the OIC, including his colleague and brother, Dr Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, who mandated the Vice President to sit in for Nigeria…we are the largest Islamo-Christian country in the world…”.

I

pick holes even in this rebuttal.

It is objectionably tendentious.

How is President Jonathan the “brother” of the Saudi King, given what “brother” is often deployed to mean among Moslems? The Saudi monarch is not even an African. He can at best be described as a friend of Nigeria, since he is known to be nice to Nigerian Muslims (remember he

sent an air ambulance to convey the late President Umaru Yar ’ Adua to his country and protected his dignity till death).

Describing Jonathan as the king’s “brother and colleague” reminds one of Boko Haram’s demands that Jonathan must convert to Islam before they will stop their cowardly campaigns of terror. That Jonathan has become a “brother” to the king of the Muslim world could only be inferred from Nigeria’s membership of the OIC! In other words, though Mohammed denies calling Nigeria an Islamic nation, he names our President as one of the Muslim brothers! That does not look to me like much of a denial!

Secondly, Mohammed’s description of Nigeria as an “Islamo-Christian country” is a total misnomer and negation of our Constitution. He has dressed this country in borrowed robes.

Nigeria is a secular country, not in the sense that it does not believe that God reigns in its affairs but in the sense that it has no official state religion. Nigeria is a country where all religions that respect our constitutional sovereignty are welcome to practice freely, but with a special preferential treatment for Christianity and Islam, the two majority religions. That does not make her an “Islamo-Christian” country, whatever the Minister means by that!

My conclusion is that the Minister is either ignorant of the constitutional status of the country he represents in the outside world or he is one of the religious bigots who have been crawling around our corridors of power, seizing every opportunity to insult and inflame passions by imposing upon us, those things which the Constitution forbids, many of which they got away with when the

military was in power.

We have seen them come in various guises. For instance, they imposed the Arewa figurines and Arabic inscriptions (Ajami) on our N100, N200, N500 and N1,000 currency notes; inscriptions known only to Northern Muslims which, for all I know, are making constitutionally objectionable proclamations.

If you go to Kano you will see messages in Arabic inscriptions at every street corner without commensurate English translation, thus portraying Kano an Islamic state in contravention of the Constitution. That followers of a religion are dominant in a state does not make that state a Christian or Muslim state.

I did not know that our green/ white/green flag had an ulterior religious connotation until I visited the tomb of Sheikh Usman Dan Fodio in Sokoto in 1991 and discovered that the flag of Usmaniyya, given to emirs all over the old Sokoto Caliphate was green with white Arabic inscriptions!

Here in Lagos, the street that fringes the Bar Beach is named after Ahmadu Bello (who never lived in Lagos) simply because Alhaji Musa Yar’ Adua, Minister of Lagos Affairs in the First Republic, decided to make the symbolic statement of “dipping the Koran in the Sea”. Today, we are hearing of Islamic Banking and Islamic Index in the capital market.

Mohammed is only playing a secret game that has been going on for years but which, due to lack of vigilance, have now added up to portray Nigeria, in a manner of speaking, as an Islamic country with a large Christian population!

WANTED URGENTLY: 160 million states HERE was something for which we kept applauding the military juntas of those days, without the least inkling that they were destroying us softly: We could go to bed one night in State ‘A’ and wake up the following morning to find that we were in State ‘B’ – during the night, a state had been created for us! Their action was quickly rationalised as a way of taking development to the grassroots. Before we knew what was happening, a bulk of the nation’s resources was being spent on oiling government consumption at the expense of developing the people. That’s where we are now – most of our government establishments have overbloated recurrent budgets that far outstrip capital outlays.

Ours is still a world of curious paradoxes.

On the credit side, we have a nation that is well endowed with human and material resources: We rank seventh in world population and we come fifth on the chat of the world’s producers of oil. Yet on the debit side, we are still among the most frugal: our politicians are easily the highest paid in the world and we are at the lowest stratum in the world development index.

Nigeria has since become one country where states are created for the wrong reasons. Additional States ensure improved looting from the Federation Account. The promise of the creation of new states has become an attractive campaign issue. In fact, the Senate President, Senator David Mark, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Alhahji Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, and their co-travellers at the National Assembly, brought nothing new to office other than the consistent promises of creating new

states for their people, even at the time when it was already becoming clear that a wiser way to go would have been the merger of some existing mushroom states.

On Thursday, August 9, 2012, in the piece titled “This patch–patch Constitution”, we attempted to suggest that a stop be put to this rat race on states creation.

Understandably, there were pockets of resistance from our brothers from across the Niger. The blogs on that piece were many and quite ferocious. They believe we were most insensitive to the plight of the South East geo-political zone in its quest for equity and justice, as the only zone in the country that has five states.

Our critics fail to recognise that we have a self-serving National Assembly that is working from the answer to the question.

The National Assembly has made up its mind to create six more states, one in each geo-political zone, to bring the number of states in Nigeria to 42. Once the race begins, it never ends. Meanwhile, the North-West geo-political zone already has seven states! Any zone that wants to be at par with the North-West must have a serious catch-up to play.

An Anioma State is possible but not without problems: How do you place it within the geo-political zones as currently constituted? There is an expansionist view coming mainly from across the Niger, that an Anioma State spanning Ika, Aniocha, Ndokwa, Oshimili, all in the present Delta State through Onitsha and Obosi in Anambra State, should conveniently form the much desired sixth state in the SouthEast sub-region. The proponents of this view quickly point to the fact that the block is strongly united by common language and cultural affinity.

,

T

Nigeria must begin to define itself if it must survive; this cannot be done by creating 160 million states; rather, it can only be done by applying the wealth of the nation to the development of its people

,

The attack on the South-Eastern view is quite strong. It is mainly from the original Anioma people. They have no problem with having an Anioma State that is composed as outlined above. But they argue that since the emerging Anioma State is largely situated in the present Delta State, which is part of the SouthSouth sub-region, it cannot suddenly be consigned to the South-East by single fiat.

For them, Anioma State should be part of the South-South sub-region.

W

e certainly cannot continue this way. We are fighting for more states, meanwhile, most of the existing states are insolvent and unable to meet the basic need of paying salaries of their workers. And while other serious nations of the world are utilizing their resources

to develop their people and their land, we are yet squandering ours on nurturing our bogus bureaucracies.

Nigeria is still the theatre of the absurd: China with a population of 1.33 billion and landmass of 9.64 million square kilometers has 22 provinces; India with a population of 1.21 billion and a landmass of 2.97 million square kilometers has 28 states; USA with a population of 314 million and a landmass of 9.83 million square kilometers has 50 states; Brazil with a population of 192 million and a landmass of 8.50 million square kilometers has 26 states; while Nigeria with a population of 160 million and a landmass of 0.91 million square kilometers has 36 states and striving towards 42 for now, with its burgeoning unemployment rate and a decaying public infrastructure! Nigeria is simply illogical!

If Nigeria is one of the seven most populous countries in the world; and Nigeria could have been one of the five richest countries in oil wealth; but Nigeria is still struggling to be admitted among the 20 great countries at a distant future date, then, there is something wrong.

Nigeria must begin to define itself to itself and for itself if it must survive. This cannot be done by creating 160 million states for its 160 million people. Rather, it can only be done by applying the wealth of the nation to the development of its people.

This one man, one state quest is certainly a race to nowhere. It is everyone for himself and God for us all. The malady must stop before we all get consumed.

20—Vanguard , THURSDAY THURSDAY,, AUGUST 30, 2012

NATIONAL SERVICE OF NO RETURN:

Fedpoly students mourn death of colleague

By BARTHOLOMEW MADUKWE

S

TUDENTS of the Federal Polytechnic Oko, Anambra and members of the National Youth Service Corps, NYSC, are presently in grief and brimming with emotion over a tragic loss that befell them. They are mourning the death of a colleague, Chijioke Benjamin Okonkwo a.k.a. Okons, who died in an auto crash while on NYSC assignment.

During a memorial procession held for the late Okons, the students and some corps members, who were all dressed in their black mourning attire, wept all through as they walked from the polytechnic’s main gate to different parts of the institution, carrying the picture of their departed colleague.

The Nnewi-born entertainer ( the late Okons), who recently graduated from the Department of Mass Communication, reportedly died alongside another corps member following an accident involving a 14-seater Volkswagen bus, with plate number AE 135 JUX, which was conveying the corps members from the Benue State Orientation Camp in Wannume, to their places of primary assignment in Otukpo.

Speaking on the tragic incident, the Chairman of the Oko Chapter of the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnic, ASUP, Dr Onyeka Uwakwe, called for quick compensation for the family of the deceased, noting that Okons died in active service. In his words: “The passing away of Okons is untimely. We mourn his exit and did not expect it. He is one of our best, very hardworking and respectful.

Ultimately, Okons was a promising young boy.

Active service “I am of the view that the Federal Government should take responsibility for his burial. Beyond that, the family should be compensated quickly because he died in active service. He died after his parents had finished training him and he had gone to serve his fatherland. It was a big disappointment to the entire family and indeed my department (Mass Communication)”.

Another lecturer who gave her name as Mrs Ebue Constance described the death of Okons as very unfortunate, adding that she wept openly like a baby the day she got the news. The lecturer who teaches Journalism Ethics said: “Even the HND Course Rep. who broke the news to me, I almost pushed C M Y K

him into the gutter. Honestly I wept, I felt so bad. This is a boy I knew so well, very friendly and very lively. He was all over the place. Everybody knew him, he was very nice. So it is very unfortunate”.

A French lecturer, Mrs Agemekwe Stella, told Vanguard Metro that she wished the accident had left the late Okons two legs paralysed so that people will at least have the opportunity of contributing to buy a wheelchair for him, adding she would even volunteer to sponsor the wheelchair instead of seeing him die at this hour of the day.

She said: “I am sad to hear that

The situation is pitiable, a vibrant young guy who went for his youth service only to meet death on his final departure from the NYSC camp”.

A close friend and classmate of the deceased who is still serving as a corper, Ejike Agbancha, pointed out that his departed friend was entitled to what a civil servant would have received in same circumstance because he died in active service.

“He did not die going to visit his friend, he did not die going to the market; he died while going to his place of primary assignment on that fateful July 23, 2012. So whatever is due to a civil servant who died in active service, is due to our friend

I am sad to hear that Okons is dead; my heart is even bleeding; I couldn’t believe it that death would strike Okons by this time of the day

The late Chijioke Benjamin Okonkwo a.k.a. Okons Okons is dead; my heart is even bleeding. I couldn’t believe it that death would strike Okons by this time of the day. The death is very sudden and it is uncalled for. I don’t know if Okons’ death is natural or man-made; that is my own feelings about his death. If it is natural death, may his soul rest in peace but if it is man-made, the person will suffer for it”.

Mr. Okika Emmanuel, an Entrepreneur lecturer, described Okons death as an insurgency that came on a vibrant young man who went for his youth service, adding: “Okons death is a grievous development, we are mourning. Death is an insurgency and we are very sorry with the way Okons has fallen into the insurgency of death.

Students here are touched by it, including lecturers of the institute because he was a good student.

Okons,” he said.

Meanwhile, a student of the Mass Communications Department, Chimezie Ezembu, has urged the institute to dedicate a minute silence to Okons, adding that a holiday could also be declared in his honour. She stressed that when the deceased was at the Federal Polytechnic Oko, he put smile on the faces of many.

“Okons death is so painful. The last time he was in school, it was an opportunity for us to chat happily. So when I heard that he was dead, it was very shocking. Okons was too good to die but we can’t question God on why he died. We just give God praise for everything,” she said.

The remains of Okons have been committed to earth, at his home town in Nnewi, Anambra State.

Debate of the masses

N5,000 note? We are done for!

BY EBELE ORAKPO

“T

HESE people are at it again!” Tony exclaimed as he sighted the headline on a national daily last week talking about the Central Bank of Nigeria introducing N5,000 note.

“No mind them,” said Chioma.

“Which people are you talking about?” asked Efe and Julius simultaneously.

Replied Tony: “Politricians of course!

Who else do we talk about in Nigeria?”

“Poli.. what?” asked Efe laughing.

“You heard me right, Politricians, our maximum rulers,” repeated Tony.

“They are the ones pushing for this so that it will be easier for them to steal our money.”

“Yeah, you may not be far from the truth. One can conveniently pocket N10 million in his African parachute and cap without sweat,” noted Chioma.

“Which one be African parachute again? You guys won’t kill me with laughter…” said Efe. Replied Chioma: “Agbada. It was an Oyinbo man that actually gave it that name. Some politicians went for their usual jamboree abroad and one of them took his clothes for laundry in the hotel where he lodged. As the Oyinbo was recording the type and number of clothes he was given, he came to the three-piece outfit, recorded the trouser, the top and then when he got to the agbada proper, he became thoroughly confused. He turned it this way and that way, unable to decipher what in God’s name that piece of clothing was, he simply scribbled ‘and one white African parachute’”. Before Chioma finished her narration, everyone was roaring with laughter.

“I guess we will have to enact a law, forcing all

public office holders to wear fitted suits. That way, the stealing will be minimized,” suggested Fred.

“Hmm, bros, you want us to forget our native attires? That wouldn’t be wise,” said Julius in response to Fred.

“The truth is that drastic times call for drastic measures. If the only way we can beat them in their own game is to sacrifice our native attires, so be it.

For God’s sake, these people are killing us. See thousands of able-bodied young men and women roaming the streets, not knowing where the next meal will come from and those in charge of our common wealth are feeding fat from it and flaunting it without apologies. I mean, it’s sickening. How do you think crime will be reduced?” asked Fred, visibly angry. He continued: “Do you think Farouk Lawan would have been able to successfully hide the bribery money if he was wearing a fitted suit?”

“My concern is the serious effect this N5,000 note will have on the purchasing power of the naira. Right now, coins are practically useless because you can buy nothing with them. Even the N5.00 note can only buy sweet and now they want the smallest note to be N100 so I will not be surprised if a single sweet goes for N100 because people will definitely reject the coins as they did before,” said Tony.

“Goodnews! Just heard that the Senate has moved to stop the madness,” said Julius.

“But what is wrong with our people? Even a rich nation like the US still uses coins,” observed Chioma.

Replied Tony: “You know why? It’s because their money has value and their economy is strong unlike ours that is tottering because it is mono-product and import-dependent.”

Vanguard, THURSDAY, AUGUST 30, 2012 — 21

President Jonathan commissions Onitsha river port today ...Seeks more investment in waterways

By GODWIN ORITSE

P

LANS have been concluded for the commissioning of Onitsha River Port Complex by President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan today, August 30th, 2012 amid a push for more investments in the nation’s waterway system.

The President and other key government dignitaries will be hosted by the Honourable Minister of Transport, Senator Idris A. Umar; Anambra State Governor, Mr. Peter Obi and the Managing Director/CEO of National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA), Arc Ahmed Yar’Adua at the commissioning ceremony.

The Onitsha river port project is also expected to boost economic and commercial activities at that Eastern flank of the country as importers have started taking advantage of the new port facility to re-consign their cargoes.

In a statement, Mr. Tayo Fadile, NIWA Deputy General Manager, Corporate Affairs, said the commissioning followed an extensive overhaul of the nation’s largest river port, complete with new and state of the art facilities, warehouses and equipment such as cranes and forklifts.

Funded by the Federal Government, the refurbishment was overseen by the National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA) with a view to restoring the port to its original splendour and offers new levels of operational efficiency.

The reconditioned river port complex will also serve as a massive boost and complement to the newly dredged Lower River Niger.

Before the overhaul, which was handled by Inter-Bau Construction Limited, the port had suffered years of neglect, underutilisation and disrepair.

DPR set to ban filling stations without operating licences

T

HE Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), Oyo/Osun Zone, will from October ban filling stations without operating licences from lifting petroleum products from depots.

Mrs Folashade Odunuga, the Controller of Operations in the zone, announced this on Tuesday at the annual marketers forum held at Kakanfo Inn in Ibadan.

Odunuga also said DPR had received a total of 229 applications for renewal of storage and sales licences in the zone from January till date.

She said it was criminal for any petrol station in the zone not to follow due process. ”During the year, we received 229 applications for renewal of operating licence while only 201 were successful. ”This, in our opinion, is a wide variance with the number of licenced stations that we have. ”With effect from 1st October, 2012, filling stations without current licence or receipts will not be allowed to lift products at the depot,” she said.

Ab initio, the Onitsha River Port was commissioned by the Shehu Shagari administration in 1983 even though it was never really completed. Soon thereafter, it slipped into a state of underutilisation and disrepair, forcing operators of ferries and other economic vessels to abandon it.

Today, with the River Niger fully dredged and the waterways well protected by NIWA patrol boats and the

Marine Police, the Onitsha River Port has received a new lease of life.

In a similar development, President Jonathan has directed the Federal Ministry of Transport to focus more on how the nation’s river channels and creeks could be put to optimal use as part of government’s on-going bid to impact on the grass roots.

The Minister of Transport, Senator Idris A. Umar, disclosed this while

receiving the members of the committee the Ministry inaugurated in January this year.

The Minister said that President Jonathan believed a lot more could be achieved for the country, using inland water transportation, hence the need for coordinated efforts and synergy to achieve the goal of transforming the nation’s inland water transportation sector.

Honourable Minister of Trade and Investment, Olusegun Aganga, and Executive Chairman, Adhama Textile & Garment Industry Limited, Alhaji Saidu Dattijo Adhama, inspecting the new textile machines acquired through the Bank of Industry's credit facility to the company, during Aganga's two-day inspection tour of industries in Kano.

Naira restructuring: Group warns CBN against currency trafficking

BY EBELE ONUORAH

C

OALITION Against Corrupt Leaders (CACOL) has asked the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, to beware of encouraging currency trafficking by the proposed plan of introducing N5, 000 note to the nation’s currency.

Speaking on behalf of the Coalition, its Executive Chairman, Debo Adeniran, said the introduction of N5, 000 note is antithetical to the motion for a cash-less economy which Sanusi is championing and would encourage currency trafficking. ”It is rather unfortunate that the socalled elites in our society act as lords and the only know-hows in the country. How can an expert be preaching cashless society and still propose to introduce higher notes with the argument that it is to reduce the amount of cash people hold?

“Even a lay man knows with the introduction of higher notes, people can hold and hoard more cash. If this

introduction of N5, 000 is allowed to scale through, it means people can traffic much more money without stress and large amounts could be concealed into small places, which would make money laundering easier.

Now, a bundle of N1, 000 is N500, 000, but with the new N5, 000 notes, a bundle is N2.5 million, which means more money could be trafficked with less hassle,” Adeniran noted.

Stressing further, CACOL Chairman noted that the introduction of higher note has inflationary tendencies which would impact negatively on purchasing power of the hapless masses. He lamented that prices of goods would go up, and even producers of goods that could be purchased with coins may pretend to increase the quantity of their goods with a view to making it attractive to higher denominations.

CACOL, however, called for the phasing out of higher denominations to discourage currency traffics and money laundering to improve the value of naira, while urging the CBN governor to encourage policies that

will benefit the generality of the masses.

167.90

+0.55

2,584.00

+111.00

20.16

+0.60

112.65 96.21

+0.39 +0.74

CURRENCY BUYING CENTRAL SELLING DOLLAR POUND EURO FRANC YEN CFA WAUA RENMINBI RIYAL KRONER SDR

154.8 244.584 194.3204 161.7893 1.9695 0.2767 234.3563 24.3636 41.2767 26.0773 235.2341

155.3 245.374 194.9481 162.3119 1.9758 0.2867 235.1132 24.4428 41.41 26.1615 235.9939

155.8 246.164 195.5757 162.8344 1.9822 0.2967 235.8702 24.5219 41.5433 26.2457 236.7537

CBN Exchange rate as at 29/08/2012

22 — Vanguard, THURSDAY, AUGUST 30, 2012

Guinness Nigeria’s net sales grows by 7% ...records largest stout sales globally

BY MICHAEL EBOH

G

U I N N E S S Nigeria Plc has become the number one market for the Guinness Foreign Extra Stout brand by net sales.

According to a statement by Guiness Nigeria, yesterday, the feat was achieved following a seven per cent improvement in its

net sales in its year end financial statement.

According to the company, Guinness Foreign Extra Stout was first exported to Sierra Leone as far back as 1827, and has since grown to become one of the largest beer brands on the continent selling 34 bottles a second.

The company further stated that Nigeria was home to the first brewery

to produce Guinness Foreign Extra Stout outside of the British Isles in 1963 when their Ikeja brewery was built.

It added that the beer is now exported into Great Britain where the reported net sales is now well over half a billion naira and is partly responsible for the latest accolade as the largest Guinness stout market in the world.

Commenting on this development, Nick Blazquez, President, Diageo Africa, said, “Guinness is at the heart of our participation in beer in Africa and we will continue to invest in the brand, its marketing and its distribution to make sure it delights new and existing consumers across the continent.

“We have an ambition for Guinness to become

From left: Miss Funmi Ajayi, Head, Client Services; Mr. Robert Ikazoboh, CEO/MD; Emmanuel Elosia, Manager, Business Development and Mr. Olayera Olaoluwa, Head, Marketing, Media & PR, all of Dragnet Solutions at the 5th Anniversary Press Conference of Dragnet Solutions.

Courteville woos foreign investors in London

C

OURTEVILLE B u s i n e s s Solutions Plc, listed on the Commercial Services Sector of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) has revealed that investors and prospective customers were impressed by its products offered during the just concluded2012 Africa Caribbean Business Expo in London United Kingdom (UK).

Adebola Akindele, Group Managing Director (GMD) of the Business Solutions Company made this disclosure to capital market correspondents, saying, Courteville made a lot of retail sales in different products on offer; signifying its efforts to be a world class company.

He stated that the company’s participation at the 2012 Africa Caribbean Business

Expo in London United Kingdom (UK) was 100 per cent successful.

According to him, “It has been overwhelming success; we do not expect this, but we are glad this has happened, I will rate it a 100 % successes, that’s the truth, like I said, we underrated the opportunities and the interest the Expo will attract.”

According to him, the outcome of the Expo will keep the company busy in the next one year; by engaging in modalities to provide services to companies both locally and international; seeking to transact with Courteville as a business solutions firm.

“I have stated to different Journalist prior to this time that the outcome of this expo will keep us busy at Courteville in the next 6 to 12 months at the very

least; and that is why we are here and spent so much money on sponsorship of the Expo” he said.Akindele further affirmed that at the Expo “We made a lot of retail sales in different products and services showcased by Courteville since arrival for the Expo. And that is to show you that courteville is poised to be an international Organisation. It doesn’t matter where we are, customers can approach and access our services from any location in the world” he said.

He commended the Nigeria’s Exchange for ensuring that over 80% of companies that attended the Expo were from Africa; firms from Nigeria and are listed on the floors of the NSE. “I thank AACBE, and our partners from the Caribbean and the Nigerian Stock

Exchange, as you can see, over 80% of representations at the Expo are Nigerian companies and they are mostly PLCs” he affirmed.

He said it was a great thing for Nigeria in particular and Africa in general to showcase the enormous potentials its companies have in attracting good investments to Nigeria and other parts of the world.

“This is a great thing for Nigeria, it not necessarily an African event as it were, but like I said earlier, it’s a great thing for Nigeria and for Africa. We have come, to showcase Courteville to a large extent, show people what we can do; we have come to promote Nigeria as a Country. The world now knows about us” the Courteville GMD affirmed.

the number one beer brand in Africa by value, and this is a key milestone in achieving it.”

Also speaking, Seni Adetu, Chief Executive Officer/Managing Director, Guinness Nigeria Plc, said, ‘This is a great achievement which demonstrates the strength of Guinness in Nigeria, the love the consumers have for this great brand and the dedication and commitment of Guinness Nigeria employees who have worked hard to maintain its premium position despite a difficult economic environment.

“We are proud to be called Guinness Nigeria and to sell a brand that celebrates Nigerian values of power, goodness and communion.”

Adetu further stated that since 1963 Guinness Foreign Extra Stout has soared in popularity so much so that significant investments of £225 million were made during the past year to expand production capacity at its brewery sites in Ogba and Benin

and further support its growth potential in Nigeria to meet the growing demand for Guinness Foreign Extra Stout and Guinness Nigeria Plc’s leading lager brand Harp.

He said, “Inspired by a legacy of Guinness advertising, demand for Guinness has also been driven by some groundbreaking marketing activations and consumer engagement initiatives in Nigeria and Africa as a whole.

“Football is a passion shared by Nigerians and has been a key association with which to connect with Guinness consumers. In N o v e m b e r 2010, Guinness Nigeria launched ‘Guinness VIP’, a social engagement platform accessible via mobile phone through which consumers are able to access exclusive football content, chat live with friends, other fans and football celebrities, share stories and win prizes.

Rosabon Financial encourages saving culture, reward loyal customers STORIES BY PETER EGWUATU

I

N its quest to boost saving culture in the country, one of the foremost Financial Intermediary and Equipment Leasing Firms in Nigeria, Rosabon Financial Services Limited has unveiled a new product Rosabon WinBig-Monthly Investment Note (RWIN).

RWIN is a unique fund management product that is linked to a Monthly promo. The Managing Director of the company, Mr. Chukwuma Ochonogor, in a chart with newsmen, said, “The product is a way of rewarding our customers.

We need to encourage a healthy savings culture in Nigeria. It is bad enough that we are more of a consumer nation.

Nigerians need to be encouraged to put money aside, to build capital that they can use to fund their businesses. Even though the product is not a savings account but more of a funds placement product, RWIN is our own way of incentivizing a

savings culture in the country.”

Commenting further, e said, “The beauty of the new product is that for every 30 days that your fund stays with us, you get a raffle ticket. And the prize money increases monthly. And to encourage young Nigerians without the funds to be part of this product, a referral program has been put in place. We will give out one raffle ticket for every 5 tickets that is referred to us within a month.

However, referral tickets will only be valid for one month”.

In an attempt to throw more light on the features of the product, the acting head of the Treasury department, Mrs. Yinka Erhiawe added, “For every 20,000.00 that is placed for 30days, an investor gets a raffle ticket.

According to him, “Subsequent raffle tickets will be given out in multiples of 20,000.00. At the end of the 30 days period, raffle tickets are sent to the investors.”

Vanguard, THURSDAY, AUGUST 30, 2012—23

Nigeria foreign reserves hits $38.4bn, as naira appreciates

BY MICHAEL EBOH With Agency Report

T

HE naira firmed against the U.S. dollar on the interbank market, yesterday, supported by dollar sales by a subsidiary of Chevron and some banks.

This was even as Nigeria’s foreign exchange reserves rose to a two-year high of $38.38 billion, an appreciation of 5.35 per cent from $36.43 billion recorded a month ago and $33.47 billion a year ago.

The naira closed at 158.25 to the dollar on the interbank, stronger than the 158.15 it closed at the previous day.

Traders said a local unit of U.S. oil firm, Chevron, sold about $12

million to some lenders, while some units of foreign banks sold additional dollars in the market to enable them to stay within the stipulated 1 percent open position limit.

Commenting on the improvement in the naira, a dealer who choose not be mentioned said, “The naira actually trended down intraday because of strong dollar buying but strengthened toward the close of trading because some foreign banks sold additional dollars in the market, which provided support for the naira.”

Also, the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, announced

plans to issue N142.97 billion naira worth of Treasury Bills, with maturities ranging from three month to one year, at its regular twice-monthly auction, scheduled to hold September 6.

The CBN said it will raise N32.97 billion in 91-day notes, N50 billion in 182-day bills and N60 billion in the 264-day paper.

The central bank in July raised the cash reserve requirement for lenders to 12 percent from 8 percent, and reduced net open foreign exchange positions to 1 percent from 3 percent, to restrict the money supply and support the local currency.

The naira has been pressured

by global risk aversion but has gained more than 1.25 percent year-to-date on the central bank’s measures and a resurgence of offshore investors buying local debt, boosting dollar liquidity in the market.

Traders said the naira will continue to hover around the present level for the rest of the week as trickles of dollars from oil companies should subdue any buying pressure from importers.

At its twice weekly foreign exchange auction, the central bank sold $180 million naira at 155.80 to the dollar, compared with the $250 million sold at the same rate on Monday.

Chaiman, Institute of Chartered Secretaries & Administrators of Nigeria (ICSAN), Mr. Adeyinka Hassan and his team visited Vanguard Media Limited. From left: Mr. Victor Omoregie, Corporate Affairs Manager, Vanguard ; Mr. Augustine Shimeobi- Vice Chiarman, ICSAN, Mrs Sharon Madubuke, Honourary Secretary, ICSAN; Mr Hassan Balogun, Deputy Admin. Manager, Vanguard; Mr. Adeyinka Hassan, Chairman, ICSAN, Mr. Gabriel Omoh, Business Editor, Vanguard, Mr. MIdeno Bayagbon, Editor, Vanguard Editor; MrHugo Odiogor, Foreign Affairs Editor, Vanguard, MrChinedun Ekepe, Financial Secretary, ICSAN; Mrs Bunmi Adefolu, Publicity Secretary, ICSAN and MrFrancis Olawale, Treasurer, ICSAN. Photo By Diran Oshe

Ekondo MFB’s capital base rises to N1.2bn

BY JOHNBOSCO AGBAKWURU

E

KONDO Micro Finance Bank, one of the leading micro finance banks in the SouthSouth region with its headquarters in Calabar, Cross River State, has declared a capital base of N1.2 billion from its initial take off capital of N5 million fifteen years ago.

Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Bank, Chief Asuquo Ekpenyong disclosed this on Sunday during a thanksgiving service to mark the fifteen years anniversary of the financial house.

Chief Ekpenyong explained that he established the community bank to help in financing small businesses in the state as getting loans to finance small scale enterprises was a difficult task.

The Bank chairman said, “We started with capital base of N5 million, but today, we can boast of at least N1.2 billion. We started with one branch but today, we have fifteen branches. We now have Managing Director with retinue of staff as compared to fifteen years ago when we had only few

staff and a manager.”

According to him, community banking provides people with opportunity to improve their businesses thereby impacting on the economy of the immediate environment, stressing that the bank was prepared to finance small and medium scale businesses “provided you have a good business proposal.”

He further said, “We are the only microfinance bank in Nigeria that is fully automated.

With the introduction of e-payment, individuals can bank through

handset (POS) ATM Card, Mobile Banking System and online without delay, and for these to be effective, the service of Interswitch has been introduced to assist customers in doing business with Ekondo Bank.

“Interswitch is a leading global technology worldwide with the capacity of guaranteeing a commendable service delivery through ePayment.”

He however appealed to the people of the state to bank with the micro finance bank which he said was measuring up with other banks in the Country.

B-R-I-E-F-S Ogun state tasks CIBN on proposed banking school

BY PROVIDENCE OBUH

I

N line with the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN) proposed banking school initiative, the Ogun state government has called on the Institute to consider establishing the school in the state.

The Governor, made the call while receiving the CIBN president, Mr. Segun Aina, who paid him a courtesy visit in the government house, Abeokuta.

Amosun who received the team with some of his cabinet members promised that a prominent and easily accessible location would be provided for the Institute to build the School.

According to him, the Ogun State Government will give the Institute every necessary support to establish the banking school and provide the enabling environment for the banks and Bankers in the State to operate.

The Governor told the Institute that he had ordered all the ministries and parastatals in the state to patronize the bank branches in the state, promising that all the government contractors would not only open accounts with the bank’s branches in the state but must have good and effective relationship with the banks.

On his part, Aina noted that the visit was part of the efforts to engage major stakeholders in the banking and finance industry and government parastatals on various activities of the Institute.

He also requested the Ogun State Government to support and patronize banks branches in the state as well as re-introduce banking and finance Programmes at Moshood Abiola Polytechnic for NBTE accreditation.

Meanwhile, the visit afforded the President opportunity to meet with officials of CIBN Abeokuta Branch, Abeokuta Banks Branch Managers Forum, as well as visit the Federal University of Technology, Abeokuta; Moshood Abiola Polytechnic, Abeokuta and Central Bank of Nigeria, Abeokuta Branch.

To the Branch Managers Forum, he urged them to support the Abeokuta branch.

24—Vanguard, THURSDAY, AUGUST 30, 2012

Export Expansion Grant not under threat — Aganga T

HE Minister of Trade and Investment, Mr. Olusegun Aganga, has assured exporters that the Export Expansion Grant is not under threat of being stopped by the Federal Government.

The Export Expansion Grant is an initiative of the Federal Government, aimed at encouraging exporters of non-oil products, including agro-commodities as part of efforts to cushion the effects of infrastructural deficiencies, reduce overall unit cost of production and increase the competitiveness of Nigerian products in the international market. The grant usually ranges from 10 per cent to 30 per cent of the Freight On Board value of the products being exported and confirmation that the export proceeds have been repatriated.

He said that the Federal Government is committed to strengthening the processes and procedures involved in the implementation of the EEG in order to make it more beneficial to exporters as well as government.

Aganga noted that the Ministry of Trade and Investment was putting structures in place to ensure that the EEG was insulated from being abused in the future.

“The EEG is not under any threat. The Federal Govern-

ment has no intention of terminating the EEG. Instead, what we are trying to do is to strengthen the processes and procedures involved in the implementation of the EEG to ensure that it becomes most beneficial to both the exporters and the government. ”We are putting structures in place to make sure that the EEG is not abused in the fu-

T

HE Dangote Group says their aggressive expansion of cement plants across the country is not to monopolies the industry but to ensure government’s target of self sufficiency is met next year.

“The aggressive expansion of our local production capacity at our plants is to ensure there is always adequate capacity to meet local demand and export so that this country never again has to import cement to meet her requirements,” said Sunday Adondua, DGM Production, Ibese Cement Plant.

Speaking during a meeting with the Director General, Standard Organisation of Nigeria, Tuesday, Adondua, said: It’s not that we want to monopolise the sector; we are therefore challenging other manufacturers and prospective investors in cement to come aboard and let’s meet local demands. He said that of the existing local players, Dangote alone, accounts for 50 percent of the market share. “All our Nigerian cement plants combined already give us a figure of over 20 million metric tonnes per

vantage.

“Statistics have shown that the second largest non-oil export in Nigeria is leather, and Kano is the home of leather.

So, Kano has contributed, and has continued to contribute significantly to the economy of our country. Beyond leather, Kano is known for textile and garment manufacturing, rice and tomatoes processing.

SON DG, Joseph Odumodu, expressing satisfaction with Dangote Cement Ibese, Control Room, while Daljeet Ghai (left), Sunday Adondua, DGM Production, explains production chart from the screen.

Shoprite plans N32.8bn fresh investment in monopolising We’re not Nigeria

BY FRANKLIN ALLI

ture.” The Minister disclosed that as part of its Industrial Revolution Plan, the Ministry of Trade and Investment would partner the Kano State Government on boosting capacity utilisation of industries in Kano State, especially in the textile, leather, agri-business and food processing sectors where the state had comparative and competitive ad-

cement sector — Dangote

annum capacity, making us a power house in cement production in the country and in Africa. Dangote’s vision is to become among the top global cement manufacturers.”

In a related development, the Director General, Standards

Organisation of Nigeria has disclosed that the amount it costs the country to import cement yearly has dropped from N300 billion to N30 billion between 2010 and 2011, thus saving the economy N270 billion.

“Federal Government’s im-

port substitution policy for the cement industry is working! In 2010 N300 billion was spent in buying imported cement; last year N30 billion was spent in importing cement, and in 2012, government has not issue license to import cement.

Voda Paints woos building industry stakeholders

BY NAOMI UZOR

V

ODA Paints Ltd has used the opportunity of this year ’s edition of Archibuilt conference to woo stakeholders in the building industry to the company’s products offering.

This year ’s this edition with the theme “viability and sustainability of Africa’s Future Cities”, took place in Abuja, recently.

Speaking at the event, Voda, Paints Managing Director / CEO, Mr. Rotimi Aluko, described the platform as a good meeting point for building professionals and practitioners as well as regulatory institu-

tions and potential clients to rub minds.

According to him, Voda Paint has actively participated in Archibuilt since 2004 not only as a producer of high quality products but as one of the companies whose products meets the requirements of the building industry.

“The company will also use the event to demonstrate the latest ‘innovative and uncommon’ decorative products to Architects who have responsibility conceptualizing, designing and supervising projects, building industry professionals and members of the general public” he added. According to him, the top

range decorative paints of the company are the finest and widest range of Plaster Finishes products in the country at the moment.

“For instance, Plaster finishes offer the combined qualities of leveling, smoothening and sealing wall surfaces to hide maisons’ rendering (plastering) imperfections while protecting and beautifying the walls at the same time. The result is a more perfect-looking wall. In addition, Plaster Paints provide a much betterlooking surface finish owing to their more even light reflection consistency which plays a very important role in individual’s eventual colour and sheen level perception/ appre-

CSR: Red Star Express launches “Let’s Make a Difference”

R

ED Star Express has un folded “Let’s Make a Difference” as the theme for its annual wide charity initiative targeted at raising/donating funds and non-perishables to meet the needs of the less privileged in our society.

In a statement, the Executive Director of Red Star Express, Mr. Muyiwa Olumekun, said, “This project will entail every staff involvement in the donation of nonperishables, cash and useful items to address poverty level, healthcare services and skill development in our society. As a company, we believe we can make a difference and put a smile on faces of the needy in the society even as we celebrate our 20thanniversary.”

The “Let’s Make a Difference” initiative is an offshoot of the Red Star Foundation, which is the arm of the company that is primarily responsible for its Corporate Social Responsibility.

Over the years, the Foundation has contributed to worthy causes such as addressing children’s literacy, poverty amelioration, skill development, and environmental responsiveness. Mr. Muyiwa encouraged all staff to stay true to the theme of the initiative.

Nigerian farmers help Nestle to address micronutrient deficiency

T

HOUSANDS of farmers in Nigeria are supplying the grain for a new range of Nestlé ready-to-eat cereals designed to help address two of the country’s most prevalent micronutrient deficiencies.

The company is using maize from local producers as the main ingredient in its Golden Morn family cereals, which are fortified with iron and vitamin A. The new range, launched recently in Nigeria, is part of Nestlé’s continued effort to fortify some of its most popular products in markets where there is a need.

It follows the company ’s launch of iron-enriched versions of its multi-billion selling Maggi bouillon tablets and cubes in Central and West Africa (CWAR) earlier this year.

“Golden Morn is one of the most popular ready-to-eat cereal brands in Nigeria,” said Christian Abboud, Business Executive Manager for the Dairy Category at Nestlé CWAR. “More than 210 million servings are consumed in the country every year.

Vanguard, THURSDAY, AUGUST 30, 2012—25

C M Y K

26 — Vanguard, THURSDAY, AUGUST 30, 2012

Varsity vs Polytechnic education: The unending HND-BA/BSc dichotomy •UTME may have worsened situation

BY AMAKAABAYOMI, LAJU ARENYEKA & IKENNA ASOMBA

W

ITH no more than 38 per cent of applicants sure to gain admission into the nation’s higher institutions this year, attention of students has started shifting from universities to polytechnics and colleges of education. The grass, however, is not greener on the other side as a large number of students still struggle for limited admission spaces.

For these students, the polytechnics and colleges of education are just a “how-fordo” option after unsuccessful attempts at securing university admission. This, coupled with discrimination against nonuniversity degree holders by employers of labour does not bode well for the educational system.

While in office as President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo on January 5, 2006, at a meeting with members of the House of Representatives Committee on Education and the then Minister of Education, Mrs. Chinwe Obaji, approved a p o l i c y, w h i c h r e v e r s e d t h e discriminatory policy restricting holders of the Higher National Diploma (HND) from rising above Level 14 in the civil service, things are still not better in 2012.

Reason: the discrimination still persists, and thus, every student wants a university degree and would not even want to consider the HND in place of the BA/BSc. Professor Godwin Onu, Rector, Federal Polytechnic, Oko, Anambra State, says that experience in the sector had

*From left: Special guest, Mr. Ivara A. Esege; Managing Director, Nigerian Breweries PLC, Mr. Nicolas Vervelde, his wife, Clemetine; Creative Director, Farafina Trust, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie; and the Human Resources Director, Nigerian Breweries PLC, Mr. Victor Famuyibo, during the Literary Evening of Farafina Trust Creative Writing Workshop 2012, sponsored by Nigerian Breweries PLC, held at Eko Hotel and Suites, Victoria Island, Lagos at the weekend. taught him that more youths prefer gaining admission into universities than polytechnics or colleges of education. “Only very few choose polytechnics as their first choice because of some particular courses and this can be attributed to societal values on varsity/ polytechnic education.

“I’m not saying that the university is better than polytechnics or colleges of education, but I think if polytechnics are converted to polytechnic universities, it would solve most of these problems,” he said.

Commenting on the number of students that applied to the

NUC set to correct imbalance in employable graduates — Page 36 C M Y K

institution, the rector said: “ We h a d a b o u t 7 4 , 0 0 0 applicants, but the school can only accommodate 4,000.

Due to the insecurity in the North, there is now more pressure on schools in the South by students who are seeking admission.”

Speaking in like manner, Mr. Olu Akeusola, Provost, Michael Otedola College of Primary Education (MOCPED), Epe, Lagos State, opined that, “Nigerians will put education institutes in crisis if the discrimination against polytechnics and colleges of

education continue. “ We k n o w h o w t o c o p y curriculum without implementing same. The theory and concept of the 6-3-3-4 system of education is that Continues on page 36

FG admits shortchanging 125,000 teachers

By Favour Nnabugwu

T

he Federal Government has admitted its mistake of shortchanging 125,000 teachers that were trained for 2011 Millennium Development Goals to the tune of N1.44 billion just as it washes its

hands off teachers’ choice of unionism.

Minister of Education, Prof Ruqquayat Rufa’i during the visit of NUT led by its president, Comrade Michael Olukoya to her office to air its grievances over what it described an unfair treatment

of the Nigerian teachers, pleaded guilty for not paying teachers their due allowance during the training.

According to her, “That was a mistake on our part and we have to admit that but what we Continues on page 30

RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT

My researches are based on systems that can affect rural life — Page 37

Remembering UNICAL’s black days, lessons for all — Page 29

Vanguard, THURSDAY, AUGUST 30, 2012 — 27 indicative of the positive human rights posture of government and that as a democracy, we give allowance for the labour law which empowers workers to express their grievances through strike.

Secondly, it would appear that the major gains of the Nigerian university system in terms of improved conditions of service for staff and improvement in the physical conditions for teaching, learning and research have been attained as “dividends of strikes.”

There is no university system in the world that has no strike history. However, ours in Nigeria is at the extreme with strikes lingering for months. In North America, Europe and Asia where the top-ranked universities reside, strikes last for a few hours or maximum one day! The unions in Nigerian universities should be entreated to explore dialogue to the fullest

BYDAYOADESULU

I

T is quite a pity that in spite of 13 years of civilian governments, no succeeding government has been able to find a lasting solution to the recurrence of strikes by university teachers in Nigeria.

There is no doubting the fact that one of the major causes of educational backwardness in this country is incessant strikes by university lecturers, which are always precipitated by disagreements between government and teachers.

Going down memory lane, it is important to make mention of some protracted strikes during the military and present civilian regimes.

The universities’ academic calendar were greatly disrupted during the days of the military dictator, General Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida (retd).

The situation degenerated from bad to worse during the regime of another despot, the late General Sani Abacha. We also experienced ASUU strike when the then President of Nigeria, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo failed to implement the agreement reached with university teachers.

In a similar vein, the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua clashed with ASUU and another strike ensued.

It is so unfortunate that the history of ASUU’s industrial action repeated itself in the present day Nigeria, when we all thought that Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, who is a democratically elected president and a former academic, will set the records straight.

Effects of strikes Speaking with Vanguard Learning, Professor Peter Okebukola, former NUC Executive Secretary said; ”It is important not to narrow down strikes in Nigerian universities to only one group such as the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU). There are four staff unions (ASUU, SSANU, NASU and NATT) any of which is capable of inflicting damage on the system when it calls its members out on strike.

"There is also the Students' Union. The five unions should be discussed in matters relating to effects of strikes on the Nigerian university system.

Ostensibly, it is the strike by ASUU that is apparently most impactful.

"I see seven negative and two positive effects of such strikes. On the negative side is the depressing effect on the quality of graduates from Nigerian universities since time lost due to strikes that should be used for

Professor Peter Okebukola

Incessant ASUU strikes: bane of education sector delivering the curriculum is not gained after the strike.

"The typical scenario is to condense content that should have been taught for the period of the strike to about a fifth of the expected and rush students to examinations thereafter. This is recipe for half-baked products.

"The second effect is the poor public image of Nigerian universities. Locally, that is in Nigeria, the public is unimpressed with the universities on account of the frequency of strikes.

Globally, there is the usual sneer when Nigerian universities are mentioned and a quick link with unstable university calendar due to frequent strikes. This image robs graduates of our universities of international esteem even when their worth has not been proven through employment.

Additionally, top-rate universities that are desirous of staff and student exchange will elect to partner with universities with stable academic calendar in other parts of Africa.

The third effect is loss of revenue. Many potential students prefer universities in neighbouring African countries including Ghana, Benin and Togo not because of superiority of academic programme offerings but because of instability of academic calendar owing to strikes.

These countries earn huge revenue from Nigerian students attending their universities. Fourth is financial

loss to the universities. When the university shuts down due to strikes, staff are paid, even if it is several months after, but they end up being paid.

The university runs and pays for services such as power and water as well as running and maintenance of vehicles.

An estimate of this internal and external loss to the Nigerian public university system for one month of total strike involving all the unions is in the neighbourhood of N38.2bn.

The fifth effect is psychological on the part of students who have to stay idle at home, lamenting their woes and causing irritation to parents.

Internet fraud The sixth effect closely connected to the fifth is engagement of the idle students in social vices including joining bad gangs and engagement in internet fraud. Not a few cases of pregnancy of young undergraduates during the period of strike have been reported.

The seventh is what can be broadly grouped as collateral effect. Some undergraduates die in road accidents during the period of the strike in an attempt to “stretch their legs” to visit friends to kill the idleness.

There are two seemingly positive effects. Strikes when moderately implemented are

before calling out their members on strike.”

Professor Biko Agozino, a professor of sociology and Director of Africana Studies Programme, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, in one of his publications said: ”The time has come for us to review the permanent revolution strategy of ASUU and see if the mode of protest has outstripped the means of protest and what needs to be done. The preferred means of protest by ASUU is the declaration of indefinite strikes.

If we look around the world, it is clear that this means of protest is no longer as popular as it once seemed in the 20th Century.

Indefinite strikes by university teachers are almost unheard of in a modern university where the mode of struggle is predominantly intellectual and moral for obvious reasons.

If the universities in Nigeria are nowhere in the ranking of the top 1,000 universities in the world, it may not be simply because of inadequate funding but also because for large chunks of the academic year that university academic staff are on strike for legitimate reasons when they could be contributing scholarly growth that would propel our institutions into the list of some of the best in the world.”

BRIEF

RSUST CRISIS: ASUU declares today nationwide strike

By Favour Nnabugwu

V

exed by the controversies rocking Rivers State University of Science and Technology (RSUST), the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has declared today, 30th August 2012 a nationwide strike in solidarity with its members in that institution even as the union indicted the Rivers State Governor, Rotimi Amaechi over what it described as gross academic misconduct and unconstitutional involvement in the university.

Briefing newsmen at its national secretariat in Abuja, the National President of ASUU, Dr Nasir Isa, regretted that Governor Amechi who is supposed be an advocate of rule of law and constitutionalism, had contrary to the laws establishing the institution, smuggled into office Prof B.B Fakae as acting vicechancellor after the expiration of his four years tenure The ASUU boss noted that “the governor and visitor to the university knew that the appointment of Prof Fakae in 2008 did not follow due process as spelt out in the university ’s law and when this was challenged, he set aside all protocols and attended the congress of ASUU where he pleaded that the matter be allowed to rest and assured the university community that the vicechancellor ’s stay would not be extended by a day on completion of his term, adding that the governor ’s involvement in the selection of the vice-chancellor of the university was unconstitutional.

“However, to the dismay of the congress, Fakae was reappointed on acting capacity with the support of the Pro-chancellor and chairman of the council, Justice Adolphus KaribiWhyte who rationalised and justified the re-appointment of Fakae.

“Fakae was equally shortlisted and interviewed alongside four professors for the seat he was expected to have vacated.”

Dr Isa disclosed that the governor in exercising his power expressly directed the secretary to the state government to announce Prof Fakae as the acting vicechancellor which has led to the incessant harassment and intimidation of members of the university community who are unwilling to fall for their cheap blackmail.

28 — Vanguard, THURSDAY, AUGUST 30, 2012

Remembering UNICAL’s black days, lessons for all to one of our correspondents read: ‘’Today (August 26 th) marks the one year anniversary of the Unical riot, aka Unical war. May the soul of our faithful Malabite who fell during the struggle find rest in the bosom of our Lord.

Amen. Long live Malabo Republik, Long Live Unical, Aluta Continua, Victoria Acerta”.

BY EMMANUEL SHEBBS

T

he 26th day of August 2011 is a day that has carved a niche for itself in the history of Unical. It was a day when a crop of the students’ population from the famous Malabo Republik Students Hostel, came out for a massive protest on the streets of UNICAL, demonstrating, rioting and at the end of the day, damaged properties worth millions of naira, according to the school management’s analysis.

The ugly incident started at around 8:30pm when a group of unknown gunmen entered the Hall Four, male hostel, stole some properties like laptops and phones belonging to the students at gun point. On their way out, the unknown gunmen, strongly suspected to be cultists, shot a student, Chima Agbai, a 400 level student of Public Administration while he was on his way back from a crusade programme which held off camp, Bible in hand.

These two ugly incidents coupled with the blackout occasioned by the malfunctioning of the UNICAL generator, made the students who were already angry at the increment in school fees,

*Late Chima Agbai, former President of Ohafia Students, UNICAL to embark on a demonstration. The minor demonstration later culminated to a riot which lasted through the night till the next morning, 27th August, when a troupe of armed policemen sent the students packing from the hostels following the order by the school management.

The students who were initially sent home for two weeks ended up staying at home for six months.

The memories of the August 26, 2012 saga came alive last Sunday as students used every means to reflect on it.

Text messages were sent around by the students starting from the early hours of the day, 12:00 midnight, marking the beginning of the remembrance.

One of the messages sent

Frequently Confused Words Instruction: Choose the appropriate word from the alternatives in the bracket.

1. The cashier did not take the customer’s remark as a (compliment/ complement).

2. (compliments/complement) of the season!

3. Communal labour should (compliment/complement) government efforts on road repairs.

4. Men and women have strengths that (compliment/complement) each other.

5. The bus was (stationary/stationery) when a car ran C M Y K

T

he high point of the informal remembrance was Chima Agbai, a victim of the 26th August attack by the unknown gunmen.

Many people believed it was his death that resulted to the mass protest.

Chima Agbai before his death was the president of Ohafia Students in UNICAL. He was the only Presidential aspirant for the 2011 election of the National Association of Abia State Students which was to hold a week before his death. Chima was a cherished

figure for the Igbo students in the university and also the palace Prince of the Igbo Kingdom in UNICAL. His sudden departure was like a proverbial fall of an Iroko tree at a time the hunters needed it as a roadmap.

To mark his remembrance, his picture was drawn on cardboard papers and pasted at some strategic places in the school, uploaded on Facebook by friends, and also canonized by some students on their 2GO profiles.

A text message sent to his members by the President of Federation of Igbo Students (FIS) reads: ‘’Great Nigerian students, Umu Igbo (Igbos), today (26th August) marks one year since our beloved brother, Chief Chima Agbai (Amuma) was shot in cold blood in Malabor and the brutal Unical riot by Nigerian Students! Join FIS Unical Chapter on Facebook today to mourn his departure. Long Live FIS! Long live Unical! Long live National Association of Nigerian Students! Aluta Continua! ”.

*Mr. Nosa Ehigiamusoe, representing the Edo State Chief Judge, administering the oath of office to the Students' Union Government leaders of the University of Benin.

into it.

6. Adun went to a (stationary/stationery) store to buy a note book.

7. His belt is (loose/lose).

8. The upper end of her wrapper is (loose/lose).

9. Don’t (loose/lose) your head when others are keeping theirs.

10. You can (loose/lose) your keys if you don’t put them in your pocket.

11.

You are (advised/adviced) to listen to your parents’ (advise/advice).

12. Don’t ignore the (advise/advice) of your teacher.

13. Let me give you a piece of (advise/advice).

14. Follow your doctor’s (advise/advice).

15. Seek legal (advise/advice) before you buy the property.

Instruction: Choose the appropriate word from the alternatives in the parenthesis.

1. Life is a great big (canvas/canvass); throw all the paint you can at it. – Danny Kaye.

2. Politicians often (canvas/canvass) for votes during election period.

3. I keep a (diary/dairy) of daily events in my life.

4. You can get a regular supply of milk from a (diary/dairy)

BRIEF

NAIS inaugurates new excos

BY IBUOLA BAMIDELE

I

t was a gathering of honour last Wednesday, as the National Association of Igbo Students (NAIS), Lagos State University (LASU), Ojo Chapter celebrated the Chieftaincy coronation of her new executive cabinet, at the Students’ Pavilion.

The coronation, however, saw the outgoing Igwe and Lolo, Chijioke Godfrey and Chiwendu Prisca Nwankwo confer the chieftaincy titles on Igwe and Lolo Chidiebere Stanley Imoko and Achu Chinyere Lilian.

Cow tail, beads, staff of office were given to the new Igwe, even as the event was spiced up by a cultural presentation by students of the Department of Theatre Arts, LASU. Speaking at the ceremony, the outgoing Igwe Ndi Igbo, Chijioke Godfrey said that the transfer of power was to improve the wellbeing of the association, even as he handed over the staff of office to Igwe Chidiebere Stanley Imoko.

In his address, Igwe Chidiebere Stanley Imoko said: “I will do my best to make a difference in this chapter.”

Meanwhile, highpoints of the event were breaking and presentation of kolanuts, launching of almanac and presentation of plaques to NAIS new executives.

farm.

5. ‘Do not commit adultery’ was God’s (explicit/implicit) command in the Bible.

6. He was not (explicit/implicit) about what he really felt.

7. The instructions were not (explicit/implicit) enough.

8. Five women were prosecuted for (illicit/elicit) liquor selling.

9. Her tears (illicit /elicited) great sympathy from her audience.

10. The Police officer tried to (elicit/illicit) from the criminal the names of others involved in the (elicit/illicit) activities.

11. If you drop the plate, it will (brake/break) into pieces.

zCONTINUES NEXT WEEK. Send requests/problems to Gabriel Osoba, Ph.D, Department of English, Lagos State University, Ojo, through Editor, Teach Yourself English, Vanguard Newspapers, PMB. 1007, Apapa, Lagos, or email: editor@vanguardngr.com & gabosoba002@yahoo.co

Vanguard, THURSDAY, AUGUST 30, 2012 —29

30—Vanguard, THURSDAY, AUGUST 30, 2012

Poor education, bane of Nigeria’s performance in sports —Experts Goodluck Jonathan was quoted to have said the following while commenting on the countr y ’s poor performance in the London 2012 Olympics: “How can we possibly go to the Olympics and come back with nothing?,” he asked rhetorically. “Four years ago, we did better. It is something that we have to address. Nigeria is a country of talented people. We must identify those talents all over Nigeria, and begin to train them for the next major sporting tournament. This idea of starting preparations at the last minute and achieving nothing must stop. We must get the private sector to invest in sports and governments at all levels must also do their bit.

We are a country of gifted people. We must identify those areas in which this country can excel and work hard at them.

We must win medals and bring glory to our nation.”

H

•Daniel Ighali

E

xperts have attributed Nigeria’s poor performance in the London 2012 Olympics to the dearth of sports education in the country. It would be recalled that out of 214 nations that competed in various Olympic events, Nigeria was one of the 84 countries that did not receive any medal.

Hon. Daniel Ighali is a Nigerian-born wrestler who won the Olympic gold medal for Canada in 1998. When asked to comment on sports education in Nigeria, Ighali replied: “Is there really such a thing as sports education in Nigeria? If there is, I didn’t know about it. The age group set up is not here at all. In Canada for example, sports recruits are chosen from primary six at the age of 12. But training begins much younger than that, my son is six, and he has already started training.

In sports like gymnastics, swimming and golf, techniques are taught from ages 2 or 3.”

According to Prof.

Michael Mgbor of the C M Y K

Department of Human Kinetics & Health Education, University of Benin, “The reason why we have not done well in sports is because we have performed poorly in the school sports programme, and that is the very foundation of sports in any country. Sports are as important as academics and the ideal thing is that as students are going through the academic programme, they should also go through the programme of sports.”

Mr. Adeyemi Phillips, a past director of sports and physical development for the University of Lagos had this to say: “In many advanced countries, provision is made for athletes to carry on with athletics as well as with their academic programmes. Many of those students have access to scholarships on the platform of sports. But here, students have to choose between the two. I was a student in the United States and at the same time an athlete. During summer, I also had a job so money was not a problem. But it isn’t that way here, Nigerian athletes have always tried to put in extra effort but it just seems that this time, their efforts weren’t good enough.”

In a recent report, President

,

By LAJU ARENYEKA

In sports like gymnastics, swimming and golf, techniques are taught from ages 2 or 3

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owever, sports experts have argued that preparing children for a lifetime of training will achieve more success than simply preparing people for the “next major sporting tournament.”

The 15-year-old Chinese gymnast who won the gold medal was taken away from her family at a young age, and underwent rigorous training away from family interference.

It was after the Olympics that she was told that her grandmother had died, and that her mother had cancer.

Hon. Ighali, who led the country’s wrestling team to the last Olympics, said: “We don’t have such a system where talent is identified at a young age, such talented people are taught the basics, then move from the esquire level, to the cadet level, to the junior level and then advance from there. As it is in this country, if a child is talented in sports at a very young age, and his parents are not financially buoyant to train him, such talent will die. We should have a system here where students can continue in the area they are good at.”

It is, therefore, no wonder that many athletes have to seek training and citizenship in developed countries. Adeyemi opined that “the reason why Nigerians have done well in basket ball in the past is because many of our basketball players had scholarships from the United States, and spent time playing college basketball there.”

According to sports academician, Prof. Mgbor, “Sportsmen are supposed to be trained from a very young age; that is how it is in developing countries. It is quite ironic that a country that has over 160 million people and is also rich in material resources is lagging behind in such an area. Management is the problem. We cannot do well because we are not building people that will represent us in the future. We are only recycling the old.”

Mgbor continued, “I nearly shed tears every time I pass through the secondary school I finished from, there are no sports facilities. It is just a field that has been there since 1958. Except from a few of these elitist schools, many of these schools are a shadow of themselves in the area of sports.”

*Olaniran (4th left) ,an alumnus of Adekunle Ajasin University, Ondo State, with other Graduate Scholar Award recipients at the University of London.

Vanguard, THURSDAY, AUGUST 30, 2012 —31 ifychimexs@yahoo.com

Vol 01

No.12

AUGUST, 2012 www.vanguardngr.com

Customs seize N32.4m worth of contraband

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•CGC Abdullahi Dikko

Dikko’s three years stewardship sets record in Nigerian Customs When the ComptrollerGeneral of Customs Abdullahi Dikko, berthed as Comptroller General of the Nigeria Customs Service there was nothing to boast of following activities of smugglers which led to massive revenue losses and other misconducts in the service.

However, on resumption, following his appointment in August 2009 the CG immediately spotted out the rots and promised a total overhaul of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS). At the time, it seemed to many like a bogus promise. However, three years down the road, his achievements are visible.

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STORIES BY IFEYINWA OBI

The development earned the NCS the attention of Customs administrations from different regions of the world to the extent that Customs administrations of countries such as the United Kingdom, United States, Turkey, Kuwait, South Africa, Canada, and Vietnam requested for partnership with Nigeria

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evenue Collections: Between 2005 and 2008, monthly revenue collection of the service was N420, 7 3 3 , 9 8 0 , 9 5 2 , N344,993,197,222, N413, 410,441,013, and N470, 828,088,327 respectively. But this figure has since progressed from N513,

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971,986,901, in 2009 when Dikko took over to N546, 640,506,367, in 2010, rising to N741, 835,653,478 in 2011 and as at July 2012, the figure stood at N467, 334, 663,481.

The current 2012 figure with five months to the end of the year is clearly more than total revenue collected in the years

IGERIAN Customs Service, Kirikiri lighter terminal command, said it has confiscated contraband goods worth more than N32.4 million within the last few weeks.

The Area Controller, Comptroller Willy Egbudin, said this during the decoration of 19 newly promoted staff in Lagos.

He said the seizures were made up of 5x40 ft and 2x20ft containers found to contain furniture, facial wipes, domestic articles and wares of plastics, which he said, were all prohibited by the Federal Government.

He said officials of the command discovered the goods when they embarked on screening of the containers and that, what the importers claimed were in total contradiction to what were declared.

Egbudin also disclosed that the command has generated more than N14.4 billion during the first six months of the year, adding that the command’s drive for revenue has been encouraging despite the numerous factors militating against its activities which include ceding of terminals like SDV and mid-maritime in January 2012 to Tin-Can command.

“Recently, one of the remaining active terminals, phase one operated

by Hull Blyth Nigeria Limited was stopped from using the space for container related operations by the management of Nigeria Ports Plc, rather, the space was leased to the Royal Salt Limited as a private truck park,” he said.

2005, 2006, 2007 and N3 billion less than what was generated in the year 2008.

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CS history-making paper presentation at WCO: History was made when Dikko was invited to the 66th policy commission meeting and the 117th/118th council session of the World Customs Organisation (WCO), in Brussels, Belgium, in June, 2011, to deliver a paper to the integrity group on the success of the various reforms embarked upon by the NCS since the inception of his administration. The invitation was in recognition of the various collaborative efforts with the WCO, and the

opportunity was the first of its kind in the history of the NCS. The development earned the NCS the attention of Customs administrations from different regions of the world to the extent that Customs administrations of countries such as the United Kingdom, United States, Turkey, Kuwait, South Africa, Canada, and Vietnam requested for partnership with Nigeria.

Hosting of the WCO Policy Commission Meeting: History was again made when Nigeria at the 66th policy commission meeting and 117th/118th council session of the WCO, secured the hosting right of the 67th Continues on page 32

32 — Vanguard, THURSDAY, AUGUST 30, 2012

•The CGC at the WCO

•CGC Abdullahi Dikko Inde with Mr President at the commissioning of the 120 Units of Dr. Goodluck Jonathan Customs Barracks

policy commission meeting.

The meeting which is the highest decision making body of the WCO, held in Abuja between December 7 and 10, 2011. Delegates from 52 WCO member countries were successfully hosted at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja, for five days.

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resident Jonathan’s visit to WCO: Another historical event was recorded when President Goodluck Jonathan was invited to deliver a paper at the 119th/120th session of the WCO, with a view to sharing with the world how a total overhaul of the NCS was achieved by Nigeria. The paper presented by President Jonathan has somewhat become a model for Customs administrators in many developing nations.

Town hall meeting with stakeholders: Dikko again made history as the first Customs CG who went to the trade fair in Lagos and addressed over 1,000 stakeholders made up of importers, manufacturers, and agents. This was aimed at getting first-hand knowledge of what their challenges were for the purpose of improving compliance.

Partnering border

communities on antismuggling: Dikko is also the first Customs boss to embark on border community projects like provision of boreholes, clinics, schools e.t.c., with a view to gaining their confidence to help fight smuggling. He has also prioritised employment of border community youths for same purpose.

Dikko’s re-emergence as WCO Vice Chair: Based on his outstanding leadership qualities, Dikko, at the 17th conference of Directors General of Customs

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Continues from page 31

consideration of activity reports of the Vice-Chair of the Region over the 2009-2011 period decided to renew the term of: Vice-Chair of WCOWCA Region: Nigeria, Abdullahi DIKKO.”

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egular Promotion: To ensure that officers and men of the Service are adequately motivated for optimal performance, deserving officers and men are being promoted as and when due. In this regard, three promotion exercises have been conducted since the inception of Dikko’s

Three promotion exercises have been conducted since the inception of Dikko’s administration

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administration.

Capacity Building: Before 2009, capacity building of officers did not receive the deserved attention. Training was limited to ASYCUDA and refresher courses in its Kano and Lagos training colleges.

But a department of human resources development was created at the inception of the Dikko-led administration. So far, the department has successfully completed the training of 18,036 officers, both locally and internationally.

Officers benefited from trainings in the US, Japan, Switzerland, Brussels, South Africa, Hong kong including trainings in Nigeria, in 2009.

Also in 2010, officers were sponsored for trainings in Brussels, Geneva, Mali, South Africa, Florida, New York •L-r: CGC decorating one of his officers AC Barko. Assisting on the right is DGC Atteh and Canada, of the West and Central Africa Region (WCO -WCA), in Cotonou, Republic of Benin, in March 2012, was again reelected as the WCO Vice Chair for West and Central Africa, having served in that capacity since 2009. A communiqué issued at the end of the meeting read in part: “The Conference of Directors General, after

Zimbabwe as well as in Nigeria among other places.

Another set of officers also benefited from trainings in Ghana, Congo, Brussels, Pittsburg, Malaysia, China, Canada, India, Italy as well as in Nigeria in 2011. In 2012, officers have also benefitted from trainings in Botswana, Ghana, California as well as in Nigeria.

Designation of WCO regional training centre in Nigeria: In an effort to ensure that the Customs College, Gwagwalada, is adequately positioned to deliver worldclass training to officers of the Service, Dikko made a proposal to the WCO for a possible adoption of the college as a regional training centre. Consequently, at the 66th policy meeting in Brussels, the request was ratified and an MOU was signed to the effect.

Trade facilitation: Free flow of trade within the hinterland has been made possible through the dismantling of all Customs incountry checkpoints. This has also helped to check corrupt practices hitherto engaged in

by Customs officers. In a similar vein, the Service is conforming to all trade agreements designed to promote regional trade.

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arracks upgrade and Housing Scheme: Prior to Dikko’s appointment, Customs officers’ barracks were more like squalors, but the barracks now wear new looks following massive rehabilitation. Also, the Service has embarked on a housing scheme and has already purchased 120 housing units in Kuje, Abuja for senior officers while junior officers’ housing scheme is underway. Similarly all Customs clinics have been renovated, equipped and stocked with drugs and are open to neighbouring civilians.

•Dikko

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igration to Single Window Platform: Migration to the Single Window platform, a facility which allows parties involved in trade and transport to lodge standardised information and documents with a single entry point to fulfil all import, export and transit-related regulatory requirements has been described as a giant achievement for the Dikko-led management and has further convinced stakeholders of his readiness to rid the NCS of corruption. This facility was developed and promoted by various world organisations concerned with trade facilitation during trade negotiations with World Trade Organisation (WTO). Only a few countries like Canada, US, Netherlands, and Switzerland have adopted this facility.

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onferment of national honours (CFR) on Dikko: In recognition of his contributions to the nation’s economy, Dikko was conferred with national honours by President Goodluck Jonathan.

The award which elevated him from a Member of the Federal Republic (MFR) to Commander of the Federal Republic (CFR), has been described as well-deserved by many in view of his contributions to national development and for taking the NCS to an all-time unprecedented level.

Vanguard, THURSDAY, AUGUST 30, 2012 — 33

The Area Controller Kirikiri Lighter Terminal, Comptroller Wilson Egbudin spoke on his motivation in giving the command a deserved look. He also enumerated achievements of the present management of the service as well as other issues bothering the command .

that is Nigeria Integrated Customs Information System has provided for electronic processing of customs documents. The importer can input the data from his office or through any DTI cafe, payment made through the bank and release effected to the exit gate.

Though it looks very simple, some checks have been put in place against abuse of the process. One of the measures put in place is the System Audit Alert. When a fraudulent transaction is made, an alert from the system audit is triggered in the area command the transaction is taking place.

The officer involved is alerted

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Successive administrations The entire building has been given a total facelift. The commands should not be left out.

Comptroller General‘s three years in office The CGC’s three years in office is like a decade in terms of achievement. What successive administrations could not do over the years has been achieved within three years.

This man took the mantle of leadership at a time the moral of the entire workforce was at its lowest ebb and with a very low public image. Introducing yourself as a Customs officer was a taboo. He came, has conquered and has virtually touched every facet of the service.

Without fear of contradiction, I can say he came with a vision armed with a six-point agenda.

One of his six-point agenda is

Comptroller Wilson Egbudin

I can not work in an unhealthy environment —Compt. Egbudin

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eforms in KLT I resumed duty as the CAC towards the end of January 2012. On resumption, I was so disgusted with the sordid state of the infrastructure and the entire environment. Every where looked unkempt, especially the CPC. I knew there was a task ahead of me.

I started putting ideas together on how to go about this. But I was constrained because giving the place a facelift would gulp a lot of funds, and the headquarters may not be in the position to release funds for such a project for now.

Some time in March, I put up a letter to Web Fontain requesting for a facelift of our CPC in readiness for the single window scheme since the management has chosen KLT for the pilot test. After series of letters and foot dragging, my request was finally approved, hence what you are seeing today.

You have asked what motivated me? I was motivated with what I saw the CGC did at the headquarters. If you have ever been to the headquarters, you will be amazed with the type of renovation that has taken place.

stemmed vessels from Apapa and Tincan Island ports. I have to continually contend with the hydra headed problem of stepping down containers stemmed to us under the guise of fast track consignment.

Recently, as if rubbing salt on injury, the NPA stopped the operations of phase1 terminals (Hull Blythe) from receiving containers. They claimed the terminal has been leased to Royal Salt Ltd, a salt packaging company, to be used as a”truck park”.

It is absurd to turn a container terminal that yields revenue to the government into a truck-park and moreso , at a time emphasis is being placed on decongesting the main ports. Inspite of all these challenges, the command still generating an average of N2.6 bn monthly as against our target of N5bn

He has also done very well in area of capacity building (training and retraining of officers). Officers are now sent on local and oversees training unlike what obtained in the past

enhancement of welfare package for the officers. Since the inception of his administration, he has been able to provide adequate accommodation for the entire workforce by embarking on a housing scheme, a 100 per cent increase in our salaries to the extent that we now have a living wage; renovation and equipping of our clinics, promotion of officers as at when due, etc.

He has also done very well in the area of capacity building (training and retraining of officers). Officers are now sent on local and oversees training

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unlike what obtained in the past. To achieve this objective, he has moved a step further by building a command and staff college in Gwagwalada which has been acclaimed by WCO as the best in Africa.

In terms of recruitment, he has also done very well. Before now, the last recruitment exercise was done in early ’90s.

So far, about 8000 officers have been recruited in the past three years.

Checking fraudulent Agents and making them compliance: The upgrading from ASYCUDA system to NICIS,

•The new CPC

and every step will be taken to ensure the right thing is done.

Another check in place is the Post Clearance Audit (PCA). Infractions not detected at the command level will be corrected by the PCA.

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e v e n u e generation of the command.In spite of all the challenges we are facing, the command has not done badly in terms of revenue generation. At the inception of my administration, one of our key terminals SDV was ceded to Tincan Island Command. It should be noted that SDV was generating about 50 per cent of the command’s revenue.

Secondly, KLT is an off-dock Area which relies mainly on

•The new corridor

•Query and amendment

34—Vanguard, THURSDAY, AUGUST 30, 2012

People Speak T

he Comptroller General of Customs’ three years in the office has continued to generate ovation.

Customs watch sought the views of port users and maritime stakeholders on his performance. Excerpts:

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Ossie Nwankwo f r e i g h t forwarder T h e present CG h a s developed customs, he has lifted the image of Customs •Ossie Nwankwo nationally and internationally. We can compete with other countries in the global maritime transaction.

The modernisation has made the clearing procedure a lot easier and the era of extortion and creation of unnecessary hurdles has gone.

The freight forwarders and the importers have known that once you do the right thing, there will be no delay in your job.

The officers are now up and doing bearing in mind that any delay noticed n any one’s job unnecessarily is a big risk. On the welfare of the officers, he has done more than expected. The officers now receive good salaries and they are trained very well, locally and internationally and they can comfortably compete with C u s t o m s officers in the developed world. He gave them computers and medical welfare and lots of other things.

He has tried and I wish him •Felix the best.

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hief Felix Okanigbuan, a retired Customs officer turned freight forwarder He is called the comptroller of excellence. The modernization of clearing procedures is in line with international standards. The 48 hours cargo clearance is being attained.

Apart from few hitches either from the importer or the freight forwarder shipping company side, and by the time our agents put in more effort like the Customs, the clearing process will be 100 per cent.

Again the new window system where they say they don’t want SGD, it is in conformity with international standards. With the way things are going in Customs and the maritime industry I am convinced that in no time Nigeria will be conpared with other maritime industries in the developed world as long as good clearing is concerned.

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ssistant Comptroller Timi Bormadi, the public relations officer, Apapa Area 1 command The comptroller general has his eight •Timi Bormadi point agenda and he has actually touched all he has in his agenda: The welfare package for the officers, training and retraining of all personnel and moral orientation. He has enhanced stakeholders which has generated a robust public relation that keeps Nigerians informed on everything that is going on in the Customs.

The improved welfare of the officers and of course the introduction of the E-model processing of all Customs documents in the clearing of goods, that is everything is done electrically.

All these are noble things that the comptroller general has brought to the service. He has fulfilled all promises, the staff are motivated to work and dedication to work is very high because the officers are not just paid as and when due, but welfare package is enhanced.

The officers now have access to loans, car loans, etc. then all these make up the packages.

You have promotions, all these motivate people to give out their best in terms of revenue generation.

The CGC has continued to set a new record, if you compare the revenue generation today to what we have three years ago, you find out that it is a big improvement.

Today the ser vice is talking about collecting N1.2 trillion, a massive sum of money. They are so many. This management has achieved within three years and it is massive to enumerate all.

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imon Nwonu, the National public relations officer NAGAFF There are numerous achievements of the CG of the Nigerian Customs Service. He has done a lot. His three years in office has been so wonderful especially in the area of transformation.

His transformation agenda is excellent, he has repositioned the Nigerian customs service and that is why today you can see a lot of changes.The corruption rate in the Customs has reduced a lot.

Again is on training, most of the customs officers are now computer literate and I must tell you that the 48 hours cargo clearance is a reality because the officers now are up and doing, much more than what we used to have in the ports before the present management came on board.

In fact Dikko is

Nigerian Ambassador to Benin Republic visits Seme command

he Nigerian Ambassador to Benin Republic, Mr. Lawrence Olufemi Obisakin has commended the Seme Customs command, for its effort in revenue generation and facilitation of trade. The ambassador who spoke during his visit to the command, said he was glad with the collaboration of the Nigerian Customs with the neighbouring countries and also the host communities.

He also sought Customs’ help in the area of public relations to educate the communities on the evil of smuggling, adding: “I want to appeal that you educate the people in the border to do the right thing. Most times, the smuggling is being done by the people living around the borrder.”

The area comptroller, Seme command, Comptroler Sadiq Sahabi, welcomed the ambassador and enumerated activities of the command.

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evenue: Revenue is very important to every nation as it is bedrock upon which nations hinged their developmental plans. The government has consistently emphasized the need for diversification of our sources of revenue away from the hydro carbon. In terms of major sources of Government revenue in Nigeria, Customs revenue rank next to revenue from crude oil. In line with the Comptroller General of Customs six point agenda. We, at Seme Area Command are doing everything professionally possible to collect and account for government maximum revenue as much as possible.

In the period under review, we collected N5,000,622,220.43 in contrast to the sum of N3,404,935,241.98 collected from January to July 31, 2011. It is worthy of note that this Command’s highest monthly revenue collection in recent history was collected in the month of May, 2012. This command collected N997,585,453.37 in the said month and our zeal to collect much more remains unquenchable.

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nti-smuggling: The command’s anti-smuggling strategies are working actively as increasing number of people are turning away from smuggling to legitimate trade. We employ the persuasive principle of public sensitization and enlightenment, with coercion (as a last resort) in our anti-smuggling campaign. We count on the support of the general public to widen the scope of this anti-smuggling model.

In accordance with the foregoing, the command made 213 seizures with a duty paid value (DPV) of N110,618,066.00, in the period under review. Of the 17 suspects arrested within the period, five had been convicted by the law courts, while the other cases are at various stages of investigation and prosecution. Comparatively, the statistics of seizure aforementioned fell short of the same in corresponding period last year, 2011. The Command made a total of 306 seizures with a DPV of N340,194,783.00 in the corresponding period last year,2011. The comparative difference underscores the viability of the model as erstwhile deviants now engage in legitimate trade.

This, among others, accounts for the improvement in our revenue collection.

ETLS: The ECOWAS Trade liberalization scheme (ETLS) is an instrument designed by member states of ECOWAS to facilitate subregional trade and integration. Unfortunately, there had been a lot of misconceptions of what the scheme is all about. In one instance, a writer from one of the magazines misconstrued our declaration of revenue loss to embezzlement by the customs. “It is laughable you may want to say”, but it was published.

In the light of this observation, we initiated steps to allay public fears and misconceptions by re-emphasizing the routing of all ETLS goods through the Scanner and anyone with questionable data would be subjected to 100 per cent physical examination.

During the period under review, trucks of ETLS compliant goods with a CIF Value of N4,85,252,215.49 were cleared in this command.

The revenue loss as a result of the scheme’s concession amount to N1,365,056,682.71 while the one per cent CISS (Revenue) amount to N44,075,944.00.

•Simon Nwonu

•CAC Seme Comptroller and Ambassador Obisakin

Vanguard, THURSDAY, AUGUST 30, 2012 — 35

BRIEF

LASU: Tension grips students as end-of-session exams commence

BY OLAWALE OSHIKOYA & KIKELOMO BAKARE

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s the 2011/2012 end-ofsession examination commences across the campuses of Lagos State University (LASU), Ojo, students of the institution are gripped with mixed feelings.

Speaking to Quadlife, Fola Sani, a student of Political Science said: “Well, firstly I commend the school authority for postponing the exam to this new date, because it allowed me prepare adequately for the exam. I am very optimistic that I will bag so many A’s in my courses when our results come out.”

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Odyssey of the rubber sandals

BY LAJU ARENYEKA

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ow it is as it was in the beginning. The rains have ceased, signaling the end of the rubber sandals era…again.

In the beginning, there was primary school; the rains beat sense into wise parents that the expensive “cortina” shoes would find no repose in the watery ‘shoe-graves’ that formed their children’s path to

school. Even then, parents knew that brown rubber sandals were the only substitute to leather. There were, however, other parents whose tyre marks replaced their children’s feet on the path to school.

To these parents who had cars, it didn’t make any difference: it was either leather or leather.

Now it is as it was in the beginning. Bright colours

have replaced boring brown, and beyond primary and secondary school grounds, university campuses witness the soles of rubber sandals.

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ut this is different. Even after the rains, soles of university undergraduates have clung to their rubber sandals in the name of style.

The variety of colours have tempted ladies to have one pair for each dress, and today,

coloured rubber sandals are the platform of hip colour blocking.

Red carpet queens may turn up their noses. And the catwalk models might not get it. But for the practical fashionista whose runway is long distance between library, class and hostel, and whose shoe allowance has no place in meager pocket money, rubber sandals will live beyond the rains!

or Kola Akinyode of Sociology Department, though the semester had been rough and tight, but she is optimistic of fruitful end-ofsession exams. She said: “The semester has been okay; the time is favourable. Kudos must also be given to my lecturers who made good use of their time, to our advantage.”

On the contrary, Abisola Adedayo, a student of Business Education expressed dismay on the test she just wrote when Quadlife met with her. “I just had an impromptu test that I didn’t prepare adequately for.

However, it’s just 30 marks and I hope to improve on my performance at the exams which has 70 marks,” enthused Adedayo in an optimistic voice.

Course mates marry after seven years of courtship

BY NOSAKHARE UWADIAE

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t was a gathering of students and lecturers of Mass Communication Department, Auchi Polytechnic, Auchi, when two alumni of the institution, Mr. Zekeri Alasa and former Miss Natasha Ibrahim became husband and wife on August 18, 2012.

The bridegroom, ‘His Holiness’ as he was fondly called by students and academics alike, was the best graduating student of the department in the 2009/2010 academic session where he bagged a Distinction in Higher National Diploma in Mass Communication. His heartthrob, graduated a year after with an overall grade of Upper Credit in the same department C M Y K

last week.

The lovebirds had courted for seven years before the nuptial tie that momentous Saturday.

They had met during their first and second year during their preliminary stage of the polytechnic education where they both read Mass Communication.

The traditional marriage was held at the bride’s family residence in Benin City with high turn-out from their excourse mates, lecturers and students.

After the conjugal rites had been conducted in line with Etsako customs in the presence of their families, they both walked majestically to the venue of the reception.

The bride was dressed in complete white stylish wedding gown while the groom was

resplendent in black suit.

Full of smiles, Natasha said: “I’m fulfilled. He kept to his words. He told me he loves me and promised that he would marry me and he eventually did.

I’m very happy. It was a relationship that started during the early days of our academics in the polytechnic and many thought it won’t work.”

On his part, Zekeri described his wife as virtuous. He said he would always love and care for her.

Among those who attended the ceremony was a prominent lecturer in Mass Communication, Mr. Nasiru Ekhazuagbe.

He told Quadlife that he was happy to see his students getting married after a long period of courtship on campus which he described as “ remarkable.”

•Zekeri Alasa and Natasha Ibrahim

36— Vanguard, THURSDAY, AUGUST 30, 2012

NUC set to correct imbalance in employable graduates

By FAVOUR NNABUGWU & AMINAT AMUDA

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ational Universities Commission, NUC is making frantic efforts to correct the employment imbalance in the number of graduates churned out from universities across the nation.

NUC’s Executive Secretary,

Professor Julius Okojie said in Abuja that the commission would strengthen its relationship with industries around the country in order to employ more of Nigerian graduates.

Okijie who described the present rate of unemployed graduates as imbalance, regretted that Nigerian

universities churn our thousands of graduates in different fields without adequate provision for them.

“In Nigeria, we talk about engineering students but the industries are not there, people are saying that our graduates are not employable, what are their potentials? We need to go back to the old

*Hauwa Hamidu, a JS 3 student of Parliament International Schools Apo, Abuja receiving the best Prize for Literature from Alhaji Abdullahi Bono, Zannan Bauchi, at the school's Speech and Prize-giving day ceremony, while Mallam Abdullahi Yelwa, the chairman of the Governing Council of the institution looks on.

system because the average Nigerian is resilient. Each time l hear our graduates are not employable, I begin to wonder what could be the factor.”

He said the commission’s qest to enhance its relationship with industries will not only improve the quality of service delivery but widen the scope of e m p l o y m e n t opportunities.

Okojie, however, urged Nigerian universities to teach entrepreneurship courses at degree level, stating that some universities of the world have already commenced entrepreneurial courses.

He cited America as a country that has community colleges where entrepreneurship courses are taught and urged Nigerians to imbibe the system adding that no country will survive without providing adequate facilities that will help to upgrade the skills of graduates that are roaming the streets.

The NUC boss lamented the lack of facilities in schools as some of the challenges bedeviling the proper acquisition of skills amongst the nation’s youths.

Speaking earlier, Prof.

Murtala Sagagi, director of the Centre for African Entrepreneurship, Research and Training said that the curriculum was introduced into the university programmes to inculcate discipline and value orientation amongst the teeming youths.

Varsity vs Polytechnic education Continues from page 27 after a child has gone through compulsory six years of primary education and three years of junior secondary school, those who are educationally inclined would proceed to senior secondary while those who are not would opt for technical schools.

From there, the technical s t u d e n t s w o u l d pr o ce ed t o polytechnics while those that went to senior secondary schools would go to universities to further their education.”

According to Akeusola, “this Post Unified Matriculation Examination (Post UME) into institutions of higher learning has compounded the problems because very few candidates would want to put a polytechnic or college of education as their first choice, and the universities don’t C M Y K

have the capacity to admit them all."

With employers of labour, university degree holders are above others, little wonder many students see polytechnics and colleges of education as their last resort after waiting for admission for a long time.

“I’d rather rewrite my qualifying examinations than go to a college of education,” said Kelechi Obasi. “Because universities are more recognised than polytechnics, I put in universities for my first and second choices. If I were to write the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Exams (UTME) again, I may just put a polytechnic for the sake of it.”

Although she has never applied to a polytechnic, Chiamaka Madueke told Vanguard Learning that she wouldn’t mind getting into a polytechnic as, according to

her, all she wants is admission.

“Some people prefer universities because their certificates are more acceptable, but I don’t really mind a polytechnic though it’s impossible for me to go to a College of Education because I have no desire to be a teacher.”

Oluchi Okorie says she wouldn’t mind attending a polytechnic. However, she said: “It isn’t really on the top of my list. I want to go to a university, but if it doesn’t work out, then I’ll think of going to a polytechnic. It’s still a higher institution.”

Nzube Onyemaechi wants to study Mass Communication and he chose Nnamdi Azikiwe University as his first choice and Lagos State University as second choice. “After burning the midnight candle and studying for that post-UTME, my result was not released. In fact, I don’t know if I’m not

meant to go to a university because my father says he can’t afford LASU’s tuition fees, but I have no other option but to hang on to Yaba College of Technology for admission this year. Though it’s a polytechnic, all I want is to be admitted this year as all my mates that left secondary school in 2010 are in school.”

However, for Sarah Ofor, it’s the university or nothing.

According to her, this is the second year she will be pursuing admission into tertiary institution.

The polytechnic discrimination saga, coupled with the near loss of respect for the teaching profession, alongside nearly 800,000 frustrated students who will not get admission into any tertiary institution this year, stakeholders in the education sector have to roll up their sleeves for more work.

FG admits shortchanging 125,000 teachers Continues from page 29 should be concerned about now is the way out of the mistake already made.

“I have asked the National Teachers Institute, NTI to use the resources at its disposal whenever the institute has a training programme for teachers.

“NTI cannot call a teacher for a training programme unless it has all the allowances of the teacher ready because it cannot expect a teacher to have the money to pay for her transport to the training venue, accommodation and all other expenses for the training.

“You cannot call for a training programme if you don’t have the money. The money is very critical in this respect.”

The Minister, however, assured the union that she has directed NTI to hasten up the balance for the 2011 training to the 125,000 teachers.

“What we have realised is that the issue of unionism is voluntary. We have teachers in unity schools that are civil servants though we still recruit but l must say that is an issue that is entirely left to the teachers to decide.”

Nevertheless, she said that government has commenced regularizing employment of 1,500 casual teachers in the country.

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peaking earlier, NUT President, Comrade Michael Olukoya who commended the Minister for her audience to Nigerian teachers, insisted that the balance of the N1.44 billion for t h e s h o r t c h a n g e d 125,000 teachers be paid without further delay.

“Teachers were to be paid a stipend of N14,000 per participant for the six-day training programme organised for teachers nationwide by NTI under the auspices of 2011 MDGs programme. The institute rather shortchanged the teachers by paying N2,500 to each participant. “‘The union believes the offer is a slap on the sensibilities of teachers in Nigeria. In modern day Nigerian socio-economic predicament, the NTI is offering N416 daily to a teacher to cater for his transportation and accommodation.

“The union demands the immediate payment of the balance of N11,500 to each participant and we pray for your immediate intervention.”

RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT Nigerians in different fields of endeavour are constantly coming up with new inventions and innovations; yet, the nation still has a very long way to go in the area of technological development.

There is a problem no doubt, which government and corporate organisations must address if Nigeria must be reckoned with technologically. In this chat with Dr. Umar Buba Bindir, the Director-General, National Office for Technology Acquisition and Promotion (NOTAP) in Abuja recently, he spoke on his inventions and said Nigeria is not advancing technologically because of the huge gap between research results/ development and industrial application. Excerpts:

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BY EBELE ORAKPO

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R. Umar Bindir is an Agricultural power and machinery engineer who has made so many inventions tailored towards making the life of rural dwellers more pleasant.

“My qualifications lean more to mechanical engineering for rural development than the hardcore engineering, so I am not a pure mechanical, civil, or electrical/electronics engineer.

My training has a lot of leverage on mechanical engineering because I am a design engineer for agricultural machines and systems. In agricultural engineering, you deal with designing and developing equipment and facilities for animals and crops.

You also have experience in what I call soft engineering to ensure that the animals are comfortable; something that mechanical or civil engineers are not very good at. We have a lot of things that affect rural development so you have to be jack of all trades,” he said.

Smoking kiln for fish and meat: “In trying to help rural dwellers, Bindir had to study traditional technologies and modernize them. “You see how our people store their food in rural communities. My mother used to preserve meat in her kitchen for one year without spoiling and we eat it throughout the year. I noticed that the roof of the hut where they cook is normally high because they know that hot air goes up so smoke is always going up and because thatched roof breathes, allowing air and smoke to escape while preventing water from getting in, therefore it became a fantastic smoking kiln. So as they cook, C M Y K

Vanguard, THURSDAY, AUGUST 30, 2012 — 37 “In the course of my career, I component that can actually hold had explored the reasons why the the plant and take the pods away groundnut pyramids even when it is not dry. I realised disappeared from Nigeria. One, the difference between farmers in the labour requirement in Nigeria and those in the US and planting, harvesting and Asia is that in Nigeria, we use processing groundnut is very the top for animal feed because high and it is not particularly nice it is high in protein so the especially if you are not machine must be able to preserve involved in the downstream it as you cannot leave it to dry to processing for you to realise a crush it and plough it back to the lot of money. Farmers, soil like the Americans do. So I therefore, were inclined to designed this unique component. move to other areas that could Again, when groundnut is give them more money even harvested, it is usually mixed with at the basic farm. So I soil because it grows in the investigated this particular ground, therefore, I designed a production process and soil-groundnut separation unit brought about superior and a system that will convey the technical contribution to groundnut, separate the reduce the labour requirement immature from the mature ones and ensure that groundnut and then send them to a bagging farming and processing device. become very interesting to then put everything together youths so that hopefully, the groundnut pyramids will return. to get a tractor-powered I studied groundnut so much so groundnut combine harvester so that I knew everything about that at the harvesting season, groundnut, the growing using the tractor hiring units environment in terms of soil, the (which were available at the water it requires, how long it time), farmers could hire tractors, takes to grow, the different linked with groundnut combine varieties, the oil content of the harvester, harvest and bag the seeds, how much is produced per groundnut while leaving the top hectare, how many people are for animal feed. I calculated the time it will take and I produced a needed per ton."

Having discovered the prototype. Unfortunately, this problem, Dr. Bindir went on to prototype did not mature to design machines to make the job become a production machine and the reason is that in easier and more enjoyable.

“I designed a number of Nigeria, we do not have that machines – groundnut-digging system to cope with the gap device that can pull the between the result of research groundnut out of the soil, another and development and industrial application. This gap requires time, money and facilities because for me to have moved it to the next level, I must study it more to see how I can manufacture it quickly, reduce the cost of production, make the machine affordable.

I might even have come up with a machine that can be pulled by animals. All these require money and that money is not available in Nigeria and so it stayed as a prototype but certainly, I have to make progress and I started looking at other things.

That is one of the inventions *Coconut that had a number of dehusking intellectual contributions to the machine world and also it was the first combine harvester of its type to cope with the Nigerian cultivation methodology on the planet. I was very proud of it.

The documentation is there and it could actually be relevant but certainly, it is something that young people could take up to the next level,” he stated.

*Dr. Umar Bindir...We do not have the system to cope with the gap between the result of research and development and industrial application

My researches are based on systems that can affect rural life — UMAR BINDIR the heat of the firewood goes up and slowly cooks the meat while the smoke preserves it because it has some preservatives.

“I wanted to mordenise this and so I used this local knowledge to design a smoking kiln for fish and meat while in the Pacific and northern Australia. Countries like Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Vanuatu, have communities similar to African communities. I was able to affect their lives with this device. We knew how much smoke it generated, how long it took to smoke fish and we came up with a system that was working using firewood. It does not need electricity. We did not patent it because it was a community development project,” he said.

He, however, regretted that in Nigeria, “we have not been able to move it to our communities to become an industrial product used in preserving things, producing very tasteful fish and meat not only for local consumption but for export.”

Groundnut Combine Harvester: Dr. Bindir strongly believes that Nigeria would still have been one of the world's greatest groundnut producers if the farmers and researchers were given a little encouragement.

Medical students meet on environment

By EBELE ORAKPO

F

rom September 5 to 9, the University of Abuja Teaching Hospital, Gwagwalada, will play host to Nigerian Medical Students Association (NiMSA), the umbrella body of all medical students in the 38 colleges of medicine across the nation for a five-day international summit on environment.

The summit with the theme: Climate Change: A global menace that can be halted locally, according to organisers, will bring together international participants and over 500 medical students from across the country.

Organised by the Standing Committee on Environment and Population Activities (SCOEPA), the arm of NiMSA saddled with the task of following environmental trends as well as population of Nigeria, the summit aims to enlighten the populace on ways and means of population control, train peer educators and activists, advocate the need to institute and implement good environment-friendly policies and work with the media in ensuring every issue on environmental and population abuse is well covered and properly addressed.

38—Vanguard, THURSDAY, AUGUST 30, 2012

SUCCESS RECIPE WITH UDEME ARCHIBONG

Life responds to you L

Vision 20:2020: Dr agne or Dragne agnett boss calls ffor impr aduat es improoved quality of Nigerian gr graduat aduates

BY DAYO ADESULU

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f Nigeria must attain the Vision 20:2020 national economic projection, concerted efforts must be made to improve the human capacity competence of Nigerian graduates.

According to Mr. Robert Ikazoboh, Managing Director, Dragnet Solutions, Nigeria’s leading computer-based testing and talent management firm, the competence level of an average Nigerian graduate is still low compared to that of their European counterparts, particularly UK graduates.

Ikazoboh, while analyzing the body of data that his company gathered over the last five years through conducting employment tests for leading multi-national companies both in Nigeria and the UK, noted that the competence gap between an average Nigerian graduate and a UK trained graduate is 17 per cent.

He said: “Using the Dragnet Graduate Standardization Examination (GSE) which offers an independent source of reliable information of graduates leaving our tertiary institutions and seeking graduate employment opportunities, the nation can obtain some insight into the comparative performance of our graduates.

“Since November of 2007, Dragnet Solutions Limited has been involved in testing Nigerian graduate applicants.

The data so far gathered offers the nation a rough cut insight into the quality of our graduate human capital. The tests measure reasoning ability in the workplace. In particular, the tests are basic aptitude tests concerned with verbal

reasoning, numerical reasoning and abstract reasoning for the workplace.

One of the insights that the data analysis shows is that the average quality of human capital being produced in Nigeria is 17 per cent lower than that of the UK,” Ikazoboh added.

This huge gap in human capacity, if not promptly addressed, according to Ikazoboh, will eventually affect the attainment of the Vision 20:2020 vision, due to the fact that Nigerian graduates are expected to constitute the pool of workforce from which the drivers of the vision would be chosen.

To address this situation, the Dragnet Solutions boss urged the Federal Government to

embark on a nationwide assessment of Nigerian graduates, with a view to determining the level of their aptitudes and reasoning abilities.

“Such a measuring exercise must be instituted such that it takes a life of its own and continues year on year.

Having a snapshot measurement alone will not offer much in terms of information. The data collected must offer a time series plot of our progress or otherwise across a number of periods. With time series data, information will be made available to our national planners, education authorities and other relevant agencies to help in their decision-making processes."

Appollian School holds valedictory service and prize-giving day

BY TEMITOPE AKINBAANI

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ppollian Nursery, Primary and Secondary School, Lagos held her annual valedictory service and prizegiving day recently.

The Proprietor, Mr. Samuel Olunaike announced that the responsibility of the school is to guide and assist these young ones to achieve their dreams of being the leaders of tomorrow.

In his opening remarks, Olunaike noted that this year ’s graduation ceremony was to mark the achievement of another milestone.

He urged the graduands to keep the torch alight by making sure that they continue the good legacy the school has bequeathed to

them.

Olunaike added that the school has triumphed over the years in the policies that are practically studentcentered as they are the only hope of greater tomorrow.

Furthermore, he admonished the parents to fulfill their own part of the contractual agreement to make the students achieve even greater results as well as help to consolidate the eradication of illiteracy and spread the good news of education throughout Nigeria and the world at large.

The students participated in various activities and the best students in each of the classes and disciplines were rewarded.

,

*Cross section of pupils of St. Saviour's School, Ebute Metta at their prize-giving and valedictory service.

ife is yelling! “There is a banquet of abundance of everything you need to live a fulfilled life. Are you ready to be a partaker of this banquet?” Yes! There is more than enough for everyone but you must be ready. Life does not engage in the game of luck and chance but only those who are prepared will partake of the bounties of life. Life’s banquet includes unlimited wealth, health, happiness, fulfilling relationships, growth, peace, security, freedom, opportunity and so much more. In order to access and claim these bounties, you must purchase the ticket for the banquet at the cost of love.

The force of love is your access ticket to purchase these vaults of valuables from life. Yes! Your preparation to be a partaker of the banquet entails flooding your thoughts and feelings with love.

Your life is shaped by

and life. Whenever we give out negative thoughts and feelings, we attract into our life negativity. However, when our thoughts and feelings are full of love, we attract positive and good things into our lives.

Therefore, when next you see someone possess the things or qualities you desire to have; get excited and feel good about it and you will attract the same into your life. Resentment, guilt, depression, criticism and the like represent a lack of love in your thoughts and feelings and these will bring all sorts of negativity into your life through people, circumstances and events.

When we see something we do not love or someone exhibiting a quality we do not love refrain from emitting hatred into the universe but rather don’t give it your attention; turn away from it. Make a decision and get into the habit of emitting love into

Make a decision and get into the habit of emitting love into the universe and life will beckon and lavish on you its abundance

what you love and by your lack of love. Every thought and feeling given out returns to its source which is you. As the writer of the script of your life; whatever story lines you choose to put down will direct and become your life episodes.

When a co-worker gets the promotion and the raise we’ve been longing for; are we genuinely excited for him or her? Are we truly excited about the success, progress and happiness of others? Or do we pretend to be happy when the individual is there but feel sick in the stomach as a result of their progress? Do we judge and criticize people out of envy and jealousy? Do we talk people down and make them look small so that we can look “big”?

Here’s the catch, “What you feel about another person, what you think or say about another person, what you do to another person- you do to you” this is a law. That’s the reason when you think you are hurting another person, in essence you are hurting your own destiny

,

the universe and life will beckon and lavish on you its abundance.

T

here once lived a little boy who had a misunderstanding with his mum; he ran out of the house to the hillside. On reaching his destination, he shouted into the valley, “I hate you, I hate you, and I hate you. Quite amazed, the little boy hurriedly ran back into the house and told his mum that there was a mean little boy in the valley saying he hated him. He went back to the hillside with his mum and she told him to shout, “I love you, I love you”. The little boy obeyed his mum and to his utter astonishment, he discovered there was a nice little boy in the valley saying, “I love you, I love you.” Here lies the key: life does not happen to you rather life responds to you.

Life echoes back into your life the thoughts, feelings, words and actions you give out towards others and yourself. Yes! Life responds to the thoughts and feelings you give out not just towards others but also to you.

Vanguard, THURSDAY, AUGUST 30, 2012 — 39

40—Vanguard, THURSDAY, AUGUST 30, 2012

Severance: Why PHCN workers’ demand is untenable — FG 7.5% minimum employer and employee deduction of contributions in line with the PRA 2004 are effected by the different employers of the Workers.”

STORIES BY VICTOR AHIUMA-YOUNG

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ORMER Minister of Power, Professor Barth Nnaji, and Government spokesperson in the negotiation with workers of Power Holding Company of Nigeria, PHCN, Dr. Timiebi KoripamoAgary, have faulted demand by workers that 25 percent be used in computation of their severance benefits and pensions, saying it is not feasible.

Nnaji and Koripamo-Agary, who spoke at an interactive meeting with Journalists in Lagos, said government would require a total of N443 billion representing an additional N299 billion from the N144 billion budgeted to offset the severance and pensions of workers in the power sector.

The ex-minister, who argued that the amount was outrageous, wondered where government would raise such amount to pay severance benefits and pensions of workers in only one sector of the economy.

He contended that the unions were demanding for the payment of workers’ gratuity up to June 30 2012, using their defunct scheme under their underfunded Superannuation Fund, stressing that this would amount to a breach of the provisions of the Pension Reform Act 2004.

According to him, “The Joint Senate Committee on Establishment and Public Service and States and Local Governments Public Hearing of 22nd May 2012 had directed that the serving employees of PHCN should open Retirement Savings Accounts, RSAs with the Pension Fund Administrators, PFAs of their choice and further directed the Management to ensure urgent compliance and implementation of this directive. The Pensions Reform Act, 2004, Section 1 (1) states that the Act was “established for any employment in the Federal Republic of Nigeria, a Contributory Pension Scheme for payment of retirement benefits of employees to whom the scheme applies under the Act”.

Section 8 (1) & (2) of PRA 2004 provides for 2 specific exemptions, to wit: “Any employee who at the time of the commencement of this Act is entitled to retirement benefit under any pension scheme existing before the commencement of this Act but has 3 or less years to retire” and “The categories of persons mentioned in section 291 of the

25 percent not deducted

zProfessor Barth Nnaji Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 which includes a Judicial Officer appointed to the Supreme Court or Court of Appeal; Any Judicial Officers other than those specified under Section 291 (1) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999. Section 11 of the Pensions Reform Act, 2004 requires “every Employee to maintain a Retirement Savings Account in his name with any Pension Administrator of his choice” Section 101 of the Pensions Reform Act, 2004 states that, “if any other enactment

z Koripamo-Agary or law relating to pensions is inconsistent with this Act, this act shall prevail”.

“The 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Section 291 (4), recognises the application of the provisions of any other law that provides for pensions, gratuities and other retirement benefits for persons in the Public Service of the Federation or State. This makes the provisions of the Pensions Reform Act, 2004 unquestionable, as it is in line with the provisions of the 1999 Constitution and it is immutable at this time.”

He added that judging from the above, “Government has been fair in the negotiation process in general and in its final offer in particular. The Unions must ensure that their members’ interest are paramount and accept Government’s magnanimous offer.

There is urgent need to enforce compliance of the provisions of the PRA 2004 by staff of PHCN. It is therefore imperative that the workers open their RSAs, as all pension and gratuity payments have to be paid into this account. It is also very urgent that the mandatory

Corroborating, KoripamoAgary who is a former Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Labour, contended that the claim by the unions that 25 percent was being deducted from their salaries towards the payment of their pensions and gratuities was untrue, noting that no deduction was effected from the workers’ salaries.

According to her, “the 25 percent is a mere provision by the management of PHCN towards funding the Superannuation fund with no physical deduction reflected in the pay slip of any employee of the company.”

She appealed to the unions to allow the workers make the decision that would affect their lives in the long run, arguing that workers should be allowed to ask their employers questions regarding the computation of their benefits.

Dr. Agary appealed to the unions top allow workers open their Retirement Savings Account, RSA, noting that “this does not stop further negotiations as there is always flexibility in social dialogue.”

Existing defined pension not invalidated by CPS — Aturu

L

AGOS Lawyer and counsel to the National Union of Electricity Employees, NUEE, Mr. Bamidele Aturu, has dismissed claims by Government that Contributory Pension Scheme, CPS, which came of the Pension Reform Act of 2004, has invalidated existing defined pension, describing such claims as mere misconceptions and misleading positions.

Aturu in a statement said his law firm had the instruction from NUEE “to use all lawful means including but not limited to litigation to ensure that the government which prides itself as a champion of the rule of law does not illegally and brazenly deny the workers of their pension rights which they worked for under the pretext of implementing a law.”

According to the statement, “One grey issue which has bogged down negotiations between management and the unions is the unilateral directive issued to the PHCN, and by implication to the Distribution Companies by the Minister of Power, to commence in July 2012 7.5 per cent pension deductions from Employer and from the salaries of employees

zAturu of PHCN in spite of or outside the existing Contribution Pension Scheme contained in the Conditions of Service of employees of the workers and in the Superannuation Fund. To the unwary public it might easily be supposed that the issue is a simple one of compliance with the provisions of the Pension Reform Act 2004 and that the workers are only being unreasonable in their demand that the existing arrangement under the Trust Deed embodying the Superannuation Fund be maintained.

It is necessary to state at the outset that the Pension Reforms Act contrary to the

mendacious propaganda by self-serving public officials to the contrary does not invalidate existing defined Pension Schemes. Section 39 of the Act makes this clear beyond any peradventure.

In other words, the law has not abolished existing schemes. At any rate, the Trust Deed which is a product of collective bargaining cannot be imperiously nullified by the fiat of the Minister of Power or anyone for that matter.”

“There is a provision under the trust deed for termination which has to be strictly complied with and after exhausting the Collective Bargaining process. This is the only course open to a government truly desirous of doing things according to the rule of law.

In order to demonstrate the undoubted considered decision of PHCN to continue to operate the existing defined Pension Scheme, its Conditions of Service for the workers which came into force on the 5th of March 2010, four solid years after the commencement of the Pension Reform Act in paragraph 13.2.1 at page 68 clearly stipulates that: ‘the object of the Scheme is the provision of retirement benefits for members or for their dependants.

Vanguard, THURSDAY, AUGUST 30, 2012 — 41

42—Vanguard, THURSDAY, AUGUST 30, 2012

Beyond Resource Control - burdens and realities of transformation (2)

I

NITIALLY, it was the rich trade in commodities on the Oil Rivers; now it is the control of the rich petroleum resources of the Niger Delta.”

Obviously, the security challenge is enormous and complex, but with security and peace top on our agenda and the huge resources we have deployed to their attainment, a lot has been achieved in maintaining the peace which we now enjoy.

We have also invested heavily in human capital and infrastructural development of the State.

As I have often done, I am going to reiterate some of the highpoints of our programmes which are geared towards building our vision of Delta beyond oil.

Delta State with a land area of 18,050 square kilometres, substantial portions of which are riverine, marshy and underdeveloped is challenging, but not impossible to develop. What it demands is enormous investment in money, energy and time. We are compelled to develop remote areas as many of our people have

•Niger Delta states the singular reason we are perhaps the only State that is heavily funding its agency for that purpose. The Delta State Oil Mineral Development Commission, DESOPADEC, has since its creation been receiving 50 per cent of the 13 per cent derivation to support state government’s own programmes in developing the oil producing and impacted areas of the State.

The funding of DESOPADEC is huge and accounts for the decline of funds at the state level, but we are not deterred. We believe that from whom much is taken, much should also be given. If Nigeria were to embrace

are facing destitution, poverty and squalor. It is unacceptable not to speak out on their behalf.

We have to be their voice, otherwise they are voiceless. The whole struggle of resource control is about our people, such that when oil finishes or loses its global relevance, we would carry on with life with minimal disruption to our revenue sources.

Overall, we have not been deterred in our pursuit of developmental programmes - challenging as it is. The vision to build a Delta beyond oil, is a daunting one, but clearly conceived in anticipation of the day we will not depend on it entirely or the day oil will be one of the many other revenue streams of the State, not its only main revenue stream. All over the world, feverish effort is being made to end oil’s dominance of the energy basket. We will be foolish not to prepare for the end of the oil era.

Supporting diversification

•Delta State governor, Uduaghan...confronting oil pollution

opted to live on their ancestral lands—which in many cases are locations of oil facilities, flow stations and pipelines. We believe they should get the best from the proceeds of the resources taken from their land. That, to me, is the fair and just thing to do.

I also sense that many people outside these areas have no understanding of life in the creeks.

They are not concerned that our people living in those parts should be treated as equal and are entitled to enjoy life as others. As an administration, we do not share such cynical attitude which, I might add, is a major source of anger and frustration for our people in the oil producing areas and other parts of rural Delta.

Our administration is sincere and determined to change the landscape of the riverine and oil producing areas. It is therefore

similar principle, the peoples of Niger Delta would feel justice done to them with respect to their contribution to the wealth and growth of the country. This is especially important as the terrain they live in is an extremely difficult one to develop.

In many areas we are developing, we have had to build schools, hospitals, access roads, bridges, electricity and clean water from zero.

Sustainable means of livelihood We have had to contend with oil pollution and its environmental degradation, which has left many of our peoples without sustainable means of livelihood.

For our administration, it will be unconscionable to overlook this state of affairs. Our intervention is to rescue our people who

To prepare us for that day, this administration has been implementing systematic plans to protect the State from the shock by building infrastructure that will support diversification of the economy. Our infrastructure is both human and physical; we are in a hurry even though our vision spans a 50-year period. We believe that the thinking, planning, and implementation have to begin today.

Our plan is simple - do that which we can with an abiding concern for the future. We leave when our time is up. When we hand over, it will be a State, which others can build on because we have laid a solid foundation for its future, something that is sometimes difficult for our critics to understand. In that regard, our objective was never to finish all the projects we began, though we are determined to ensure most are completed or at irreversible stages of development.

I am satisfied that the State is moving in the right decision. If this process continues, I foresee a future in which the State will

earn value from all the investments we are making. The journey we have embarked upon is a difficult one, but as I said in a recent presentation, I am rather pleased we had the confidence and willpower to even begin it at all. Future generations will, I am sure, look to this moment and salute our courage.”

In building a Delta that will prosper beyond oil, we reckoned it was important we had the following critical infrastructures – Oghareki power plant, Asaba International Airport, upgrade Osubi Airport to international standards, industrial clusters, (Koko Industrial Park, Warri Industrial and Business Park, and Asaba ICT Park). We thought we should harness our people’s entrepreneurial skills through our Micro Credit Scheme and nurture SMEs. Our success with Micro Credit Scheme is spectacular. We have won three consecutive CBN awards and we have about 100,000 beneficiaries of the scheme whose stories are as enthralling as they are varied. Other States are understudying the Delta State model because of its acknowledged successes.

We have as much as possible partnered with big private investors in co-funding projects such as the multi-billion Naira OFN/ Delta Farms, the N40 billion Delta Leisure Park, which on completion will make the Delta the tourist destination of choice.

Some of these projects are the foundations of our hope of a better future in which other oppor-

,

In this second instalment of the discourse, Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan explains his vision of developing Delta State without oil.

addressing maternal and child mortality rate in the State. Our performance is commendable.

There is a steep drop in maternal and child mortality rate in our hospitals. New health care facilities are being constructed or upgraded, but of note for me is the progress of Oghara Teaching Hospital as a centre of excellence.

With current efforts, soon, Oghara Teaching Hospital would become a centre of note in Africa. I am sure with Oghara Teaching Hospital we will contribute to reversing the search for healthcare treatment outside Nigeria.

Infrastructure upgrade We are investing heavily in infrastructure upgrade and modernisation of our public schools for our children, teaching and non-teaching staff facilities. So far about eighteen thousand classrooms have been built, renovated or upgraded. We will still do more. With collaborative efforts and keeping to standards, the physical condition of our schools can compare with any in the world, in a few years.

Through our liberal programme in education, we are giving our brightest youth with first class degrees, a head start in life. Our offer of scholarships, up to PhD level, tenable in any university of their choice, is a deliberate investment in the future.

These youths are prized assets who will look back with pride the support they received from their government. In a knowledge driven world, we are positioning our best and brightest not to be left behind. We are also sending a message to our other youth to step up and enjoy similar opportunities. We have also been consistent in payment of our bursary to augment financial investment made by parents in the training of their wards.

Ultimately, our investment in human capacity in particular in

The funding of DESOPADEC is huge and accounts for the decline of funds at the state level, but we are not deterred

tunities can become relevant in stimulating the prosperity of our State.

From what we have been doing, the picture of Delta State that is emerging is one that should give us great optimism and belief in the State and ourselves.

For that reason, I feel as I said the other day that we should take pride in our infrastructure programme that has seen us construct 252 inter/intra city roads. I am confident that with the dualisation of major roads that include 148 km Asaba-Ughelli, 33 km Ugbenu-Koko, Effurun-Osubi-Eku, 7.2 km Ughelli Artery, PTI/Jakpa, Old Lagos/Asaba among others, we are gradually eliminating bottleneck in movement of goods and creating major network grids to link all the corners of the State.

The results of our human capital programme have been remarkable. We are making progress in

,

our youths will stand out as perhaps the wisest investment we have made as an administration.

I hope future administrations will sustain this programme of creating generations of knowledgeable youths, committed to the future of Delta.

Making our youths knowledgeable and competitive is certainly another step in widening the options available to Delta State, when oil becomes irrelevant. Since this lecture is about the Niger Delta region and what its current crop of leaders envisions for the zone, I want to repeat the point I made last April at the 2nd South-South Economic Summit, which I hosted here in Asaba. I said then.

“I am proud of what we are doing in Delta State as well as in my sister Niger Delta States.

To be concluded

Vanguard, THURSDAY, AUGUST 30, 2012 — 43

ACHPR condemns Gambian govt for executing death row inmates

BY INNOCENT ANABA

A

NITAD TRAINERS' CONFERENCE: From left: Mr. Oluremi Ajalogun, conference chairperson; Mr. Kayode Ogungbuyi, President, Nigerian Institute of Training and Development, NITAD; Mr. Charles Ugwu, guest speaker and Dr. Bola Mustapha, Registrar/CEO, NITAD, at the 20th Annual Trainers' Conference of NITAD, in Abuja.

COMMISSIONING: From left: Delta State Deputy Governor, Prof. Amos Utuama; Political Adviser to the State Governor, Chief Fred Majemite and Delta State NYSC Co-ordinator, Mrs. Vivian Omeruo, during the commissioning of an ultra-modern market at the NYSC Permanent Orientation Camp, Isele-Uku.

FRICAN Commis sion on Human and Peoples’ Rights, ACHPR, has condemned Gambian Government for executing death row inmates in that country.

Chairperson of ACHPR, Mrs. Dupe Atoki, has meanwhile, called on President Yayah Jammeh of The Gambia to halt the execution.

Mrs. Atoki, in a protest letter to The Gambian Government, called on the state to continue to maintain the commendable action of observing a moratorium, which had been in place since 1981 and to refrain from further executing prisoners on death row.

She noted that the commission had confirmed the execution by firing squad, of death row inmates on August 26, 2012. Among those who faced death were Dawda Bojang; Malang Sonko; Ex-Lieutenant Lamin Jarjou; Ex-Lieutenant Alieu Bah; Ex-Sergeant Lamin F. Jammeh; Buba Yarboe; Lamin B. S Darboe; Gebe Bah and Tambara Samba.

Minister denies illegal withdrawals from BASA fund

BY KENNETH EHIGIATOR

A

VIATION Minis ter, Princess Stella Oduah, has dismissed insinuations that she withdrew money from the Bilateral Air Services Agreement, BASA, fund for airport renovations without approvals.

This came as the National Association of Aircraft Pilots and Engineers, NAAPE, threw its weight behind the Aviation Ministry’s Transformation Agenda in the aviation sector.

The minister, who spoke against the backdrop of allegations that she spent the BASA funds to embark on rehabilitation of 11 airports across the country without necessary approvals, gave the clarification while playing host to NAAPE executives in her office in Abuja.

She said it was absolutely impossible to with-

draw money from the fund, given the various checks and processes involved in accessing the funds.

Princess Oduah said: "It is not possible, it is absolutely impossible for anybody to access that fund without all necessary approvals. First, don’t forget that the money is in the Central Bank, and as I speak with you, the money has

not been spent even though we are subsequently going to spend what has been approved.

"But before you can spend it, you must secure presidential approval, the two Aviation committees in the House of Representatives and the Senate must equally give their approval and above all, the CBN must certify that you have followed all the processes before they can allow any withdrawals. In summary, all envisaged processes have been followed and

the necessary approvals secured.

"Nobody can, therefore, access that fund fraudulently or otherwise; so those spreading the rumour are mischievous and unfair to the ministry."

President, National Association of Aircraft Pilots and Engineers, Capt.

Isaac Bulama, had earlier reaffirmed the unflinching support of the association to the minister’s efforts to transform the aviation industry.

Kidnap: I'm humbled by show of concern —ESUT V-C

BY TONY EDIKE

E

NUGU—VICE Chancellor of Enugu State University of Science and Technology, ESUT, Professor Cyprian Onyeji, said yesterday that he was humbled by the massive show of concern demonstrated by various groups and individuals through prayers during the period of his captivity in the

hands of his abductors.

In a statement by ESUT’s Director of Public Relations, Mr. Ossy Ugwuoti, the Vice Chancellor expressed gratitude to God for his safe return to re-unite with his family just as he stressed the importance of prayers in whatever condition one found himself.

He expressed gratitude to members of ESUT Community, the Nigeria

Police, the Press, the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria, staff of the Faculty of Pharmacy, Obafemi Awolowo University Ile-Ife, his former students, Committee of Vice Chancellors of Nigerian Universities, the concerned people of Enugu State, various other groups and indeed the general public for their various roles and fervent prayers during his ordeal.

She said: "The Commission is further dismayed as these executions were carried out despite the urgent appeal to the President of The Gambia, Alhaji Jemmeh, calling on the state to continue to maintain the commendable action of observing a moratorium which had been in place since 1981 and to refrain from executing prisoners on death row.

"Those executions were a disregard of the obligations of The Gambia under the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, other regional and international human rights instruments to which The Gambia is a party and the Constitutive Act of the African Union in which respect for the sanctity of human life is a principle that should be followed by each member state."

Specialised trade exhibitions for Lagos trade fair

T

HE new concessionaire to the Lagos International Trade Fair Complex, Aulic Nigeria Limited, yesterday, said it had completed plans, in conjunction with its foreign partners, to host specialized trade exhibitions at the multi-billion naira complex.

The theme of the trade exhibitions scheduled to hold in October, November and December 2012 is: Boosting Nigeria’s Development through Trade Exhibitions.

The exhibitions are expected to attract participants from leading entrepreneurs and industrial giants from across the

globe as well as other participants and key players from within the country.

The organizers said they want to showcase the investment potentials of Nigeria to the world as well as keep the local participants abreast with the latest technology and trends in the business world.

The exhibitions are designed to create forum for fruitful interaction among the participants.

It is expected that the participants will exploit the window of opportunity provided by the events for investment diversification and market penetration.

Delta LP wants INEC to split Warri North state constituency

BY VICTOR AHIUMAYOUNG

F

ORMER Labour Party, LP, candidate for Warri North Constituency in the Delta State House of Assembly in 2011 polls, and Niger Delta activist, Comrade Adanse Felix, has called on Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to split the existing Warri North State constituency of Delta State along ethnic lines, to enable the Egbema-Ijaw have a sense of belonging politi-

cally, socially and exercise their civic rights ahead of the 2015 elections.

In a petition to the Chairman of INEC, Comrade Felix lamented that the Ijaw in the present arrangement are oppressed politically, marginalized and treated as third class citizens in the local government area.

He said: “The Ijaw, despite our enormous and continued contributions in the sustenance of peace and stability of the area are sidelined and are always edged out by our Itsekiri brothers."

Youth empowerment retreat kicks off in Lagos tomorrow

V

INCENTIAN Re treat Centre, in Ojodu, Lagos, will commence its second annual Youth Empowerment Retreat with the theme: Nigerian Youths at the Crossroads: The Reality of Manna from Heaven tomorrow.

The three-day event will be an all-day affair,

till dawn on Saturday with Holy Mass, Adoration and Rosary procession.

Activities for Sunday's closing ceremony will start by 5a.m., with top Nigerian comedians performing.

It will be hosted by the Vincentian Fathers.

44 — Vanguard, THURSDAY, AUGUST 30, 2012

Consume tangerine, boost your immunity eatrightconsult@yahoo.com I 08091276796 would rather have a tangerine than an orange simply because I can nibble on it and it feels more like a snack than a fruit for me. Tangerines are slightly smaller than oranges and are characterised by their bright orange colour and defined segments.

While oranges sometimes need to be peeled with a knife, tangerines can be peeled and segmented easily by hand.

You see why I love tangerines? My hands are just enough to do justice to this small but highly loaded fruit.

The fibrous white tissue that is found between the segments of tangerines is called the lamella, and this membrane is rich in soluble fibre. One of the most beneficial effects of a diet high in soluble fibre is the reduction of cholesterol in the blood. Soluble fibre lowers cholesterol by forming a thick, gel-like substance in your intestines when it is being digested. This substance slows the absorption of cholesterol and reduces the low-density lipoprotein in your blood. The dietary

with Funke Oshifuye recommendation of soluble fibre is 10 to 25 mg per day.

Like most citrus fruits, tangerines are rich in vitamin C, which is good for your immunity. Vitamin C works to boost your immu-

nity by acting as an antioxidant that protects your cells from the damage caused by free radicals.

Free radicals are highly reactive atoms that are produced when the substances in your body react with each other. This process is called oxidation, and the free radicals that oxidation produces can trigger cell death. Vitamin C’s antioxidant

power comes from its ability to scavenge free radicals and disarm their propensity for damage.

Eating a well-balanced diet that consists of fruits and vegetables is a smart way to manage your weight.

The high fibre content of tangerines can help keep you feeling fuller for a longer period of time. Feeling full can impact your weight, because when you feel satiated, you are less likely to overindulge and make poor food choices.

Tangerines can also aid

digestion because it contains pectin. Pectin is a complex oligosaccharide that acts as an adhesive between the cell walls of tangerines and other types of fruit. Studies have showed that when digested, pectin is fermented within your intestines and can increase the number of beneficial microflora found in your gut.

Tangerines are also good sources of vitamin A. They also contain a relatively large variety and amount of phytonutrients, which can protect cells from damage, lower inflammation, lowers risk of cardiovascular disease and provide other health benefits.

Rotary challenges Nigeria, others on polio eradication

BY CHIOMA OBINNA

A

HEAD of the UN General Assembly next month in New York, Rotary International has challenged the world body on the need for governments across the world to urgently, swiftly and decisively step up efforts to eradicate polio from the face of the earth.

Nigeria is one of the three remaining countries in the world where the wild polio virus are still in circulation. Others are Pakistan and Afghanistan. This year alone, over 72 new cases of polio have detected.

The message from Rotary was an outcome of a meeting attended by over 50 Rotary leaders from around the world including Nigeria and Pakistan, at the Rotary Humanitarian Group’s World Headquarters in Evanston.

Speaking in Lagos, the Chairman, Nigeria National PolioPlus Committee of Rotary International, Busuyi Onabolu said the meeting was held specifically to devise strategies to persuade the international community to step up the resources required in beating polio once and for all.

Onabolu explained that the urgency at the UN

stems from action taken in May by the World Health Assembly, which declared polio eradication to be a “programmatic emergency for global public health.

Although new polio cases are at an all-time low – fewer than 120 worldwide so far this year – the eradication initiative faces a funding shortfall of nearly $1 billion that could derail the entire programme. If eradication fails and polio rebounds, up to 250,000 children a year could be paralysed.

The World Bank had last month approved an International Development Association (IDA) credit of

US$95 million for the Nigeria Polio Eradication Support Project to help the country achieve and sustain at least 80 per cent polio immunisation across all 36 states and the FCT. Polio cases have plummeted by more than 99 percent since 1988, when the Global Polio Eradication Initiative was launched. When the initiative began, polio infected about 350,000 children a year, compared to fewer than 700 for all of 2011.

Nigeria recorded a 95 per cent drop in polio in 2010.

To date, Rotary clubs worldwide have contributed nearly $1.2 billion and advocacy, a role of increasing importance as the end game draws near.

COMMON SEXUAL PROBLEMS AND THEIR NOVELTY BASED SOLUTIONS (ADVERTORIAL) Erection loss and weak erection causes and solutions Erection loss and weak erection are two of the leading causes of male sexual malfunction also known as erectile dysfunction or impotence. This problem affects a significant percentage of men all around the world and hurts marriages. Today, we will dig deeper into the various causes of impotence and examine effective solutions as well.

As indicated above, impotence manifests in two major ways, one of which is the total loss of erection. In this case, the channels that supply blood to the penis in order for an erection to occur are cut off. The other type of impotence involves the experience of an erection which then weakens or disappears often at the point of penetration or during intercourse itself.

There are physiological causes and psychological causes of erectile dysfunction. The physiological causes involve illnesses such as diabetes mellitus, neurological disorders, cardiovascular disorders, atherosclerosis and multiple sclerosis. These illnesses account for around 70% of erectile dysfunction cases. Addiction to alcohol, smoking and prescription drugs such as antihistamines, tranquilizers, appetite suppressants and anti-depressants also cause erectile dysfunction by tampering with the nervous system and deflecting the signals from the brain to the penis. This important signal from the brain to the penis when one is seduced is what brings about sexual arousal. Groin surgeries can also numb the nerve endings in the region of the penis, making it difficult if not impossible for brain signals to reach the penis. Prostate cancer surgery and bladder removal surgery in particular are two main surgical causes of impotence. Hormonal imbalance can also cause erectile dysfunction due to the depletion of testosterone. Age is another major cause of impotence with the quality of a man’s erections beginning to wane after the age of 40. By the age of 65 however, most men cannot get an erection.

And for the psychological causes of impotence, nervousness and stress are often responsible.

People experiencing impotence can figure out the cause

by visiting a doctor. I imagine all of this information can be depressing for concerned persons, but there are solutions for some of these conditions. First of all, if your erectile dysfunction is caused by the substances that you are taking such as prescription medications, alcohol, smoking and other drugs, cutting them off is often enough to restore your erections. In the cases of hormone depletion, taking Max Intense Testosterone supplement helps to boost hormonal levels and restore sexual desire. The other solutions available for the treatment of erectile dysfunction are Aphrodisiacs, Penis Pumps and Cock Rings.

An aphrodisiac is any substance capable of sexual arousal.

The aphrodisiacs we recommend are capable of not just arousal but giving you erections as well, and we recommend organic aphrodisiacs (herbal supplements) because they are safer. Supplements such as Sex Voltz, Xzen 1200 and Cockstar for Men are 100% natural and potent. They give you hard erections if you have weak or no erection, and stamina if you are often too tired to have multiple sex.

They also lower your recovery time between erections so that you can get a second erection soon after ejaculation.

Some of these supplements remain effective for up to three days with just one capsule. Sex Voltz and Xzen 1200 work for 72 hours.

Penis pumps such as the Precison Pump and the Pistol Pump are also good for erections and are ideal for hypertensive and diabetic patients that cannot take drugs. If you are using a penis pump to get your erection, you will also need a Cock Ring. A Cock Ring is a cheap but effective rubber-like device worn at the base of the penis during sex to prevent erection loss. It works by trapping the blood in the penis to maintain your erection until you finish having intercourse. I hope this information has been helpful. interested in these products can order them online at www.zeevirtualmedia.com. Zee Virtual Media closes for a short break on the 26th of August and reopens on the 3rd of September, 2012. Your orders will be processed when we resume work. Email: custserv@zeevirtualmedia.com - Uche Edochie, MD, Zee Virtual Media.

Vanguard, THURSDAY, AUGUST 30, 2012 — 45

46—Vanguard, THURSDAY, AUGUST 30, 2012

L-r: Mr. Robert Ikazoboh, MD/CEO, Dragnet Solutions; Mr. Emmanuel Elosia, Manager, Business Development and Mr. Olayera Olaoluwa, Head, Marketing, Media and Public Relations at the 5th anniversary press conference in Lagos.

Photo: Sylva Eleanya

L-r: Mrs Abiola Alabi, Managing Director, M.Net Africa; Mr John Ugbe, Managing Director, Multichoice Nigeria Limited, and Mr. Mayo Okunola, General Manager DSTV Mobile, during the briefing on the new product of Dstv Channel Number Change in Lagos. Photo: Kehinde Gbadamosi

Vanguard, THURSDAY, AUGUST 30, 2012—47

48 — Vanguard, THURSDAY,AUGUST 30, 2012

We invested our money to save Nigerians from suffering Vanguard Conference Hall panelists and discussants in this second and concluding part ask what is difficult in setting up refineries in Nigeria ET us get one thing clear; even if we produce locally, as long as NNPC is buying the crude at international price, there will always be subsidy. For example, if you pay $100 for crude and you have 159 litres in a barrel, if you do the arithmetic very well one litre from that crude alone will be up to N70 if not more. Before you add refining cost, storage and other factors, you will be getting over N120.

The wisdom in selling crude at subsidised rate, I don’t believe in it. Let us get our priority straight, let us sell it at a price that it is meant to be sold but let government do what they are supposed to do.

Onyeka, TUC: One thing is clear, to convey the average Nigerian that there is subsidy is one thing and the other thing is telling us about the quantum of the subsidy. I was in a conference in Uyo in March, NNPC came and other agencies like DAPPMA, MOMAN, IPMAN also came and they were telling us how difficult it is going to be to build a refinery in Nigeria.

Building refinery But unfortunately for them I had consulted people at PRODA Enugu, who gave the science behind the whole thing and how much it will cost and PRODA said they can build a refinery in Nigeria.

It was a matter of bringing in a few components from outside the country and building a refinery.

But the people in government want to protect this thing called subsidy so that it will continue.

Now the question is: what is difficult in setting up refineries in Nigeria? There is a refinery that does AGO in Owerri. They have 1000 barrel capacity per day production and they have come on stream with their production.

They came and said they were making profit. So it is possible to build a modular refinery in the country with about $5million. The owner of the refinery said they are running the refinery and they are making profit in Nigeria whereas the government is telling us that they cannot run a refinery. There is one refinery that

is also coming up in Anambra State. The point is: Will I Dapo Abiodun stressing a point while the panelists and discussants listen attentively listen to that person who said that we cannot run a refinery refineries in Nigeria. However, work.Your people are doing well minimum. So you have many in Nigeria when he cannot what we are saying is that let the at Eleme but when Eleme was Nigerians who have invested manage my resources? We conditions be right. In this country sold out, it is the same NUPENG that boldly without taking their cannot trust them and what they there was time when there was and PENGASSAN people that money outside the country, they bandy as facts. no subsidy until Gen. Gowon were there when things were not have employed people, they are At the end of the January strike, came in 1973, to establish the working. So for me, you just have subject to the rules of the land. the government brought their Petroleum Equalisation Fund to change the structure of A subsidy is that portion of facts, we brought our own facts, (PEF), that started functioning in ownership. money that is paid back to everything was evaluated and at 1975 because all we were doing If we make the condition right marketers because the marketers the end of the day, we were able as major marketers was to go to people will then establish more have to sell the petroleum to know who was right and who the federal government buy the refineries. The advantages and products at a prescribed price was wrong. Nigerians have been crude and take it to the only disadvantages of Modular which is less than the cost without able to see that the people that refinery available then, which refineries are there. I know that even any margin. For example, were actually right were the Civil was Port Harcourt 1 and refine there is a lot of glut which is a if I am importing petrol today, it Societies and the the product there. You would pay fact in all over the world but we will probably cost me about N120 Labour Movement. Basically, them your refining fees and take are buying from those places. per litre plus my cost of freight, the people in government do not it to wherever you want to sell plus NPA charges which is the command our trust because they them. highest in the world, plus my Refined have lied to Nigerians in all finance charges. I need to make Why did the whole thing products cases. So they cannot now come change? Adebo came with profit to my margin to pay my to us to tell us that they love us “KOLA” award. What he did was Let us find out the problem why debt and to pay my staff. so much and we should continue to revive the middle class, we cannot establish a refinery to bear the brunt of a distorted unfortunately the first here. On the issue of licences, Foreign process, deliberately distorted characteristic of the middle class majority of the people that were exchange process. is to go and do what is called given licences were not sincere.

The only way to stop this conspicuous consumption. The Some of them their intention was That is to say, from the point importation process is to refine demand actually rose. In itself, get the license, get the crude and when the ship arrives at the jetty sell it. Only a few were sincere and it is discharged into the tanks but the condition was not right. and it has been confirmed that it If you peg the price at a certain has been done, 45 days from level and I am coming to produce then you will be paid. And there and I am buying crude which is is also some parameters that higher than or equal to the stipulates that when you pay selling price of the refined these interests on foreign products then there is a problem. exchange because you buy in Abiodun, DAPPMA: We feel foreign currency and sell in naira. our crude here in Nigeria with there is nothing wrong with it but our own refineries. But they have we are human beings because if that the subsidy saga is a So when you collect the naira, deliberately refused to refine our you do anything and you set up deliberate attempt to terminate us you have to look for ways to crude in Nigeria so that they can a procedure and nobody is as business men or a plan to take change your money so that you sustain this subsidy claim and monitoring the procedure, it is our businesses from us, that’s all will be able to pay your foreign continue milking Nigerians. But bound to be abused. Again, let we can conclude at this point. It banks.

It is a contract between us and we are saying let them be honest, me quickly make one point, in is very sad to see hard working let everything be done in the our industry there is nothing like and patriotic Nigerians, who have the government, and you will look open. Nigerians are actually tired old refineries. What is a refinery? invested as much as we have for ways to be efficient so that you of the lies and we cannot It is made up of tubes and have done, being criminalised. don’t have demurrage to try and continue to believe the lies. Shell cylinders, you remove and If we hadn’t, Nigerians would borrow dollar from your bank and all that. When you do it, in 45 said they cannot build a refinery replace them. have paid dearly for it because days you are not paid, 60 days, in Nigeria because there is a glut The youngest refinery in South we know that the distribution in refining capacity throughout Africa is of the same age with our infrastructure in the country is 180 days, seven months, then the world. But we asked them a oldest refinery here. In other virtually non-existent and this there is a problem. That is why I question: is there a glut in words, all you need do is just has given us the opportunity to said it is difficult to understand refining capacity in Nigeria? remove and replace them that is invest in storage facilities, some how to interpret this; however, we People were given licences to upgrade them. All our refineries of us have ports that are called appreciate government’s moves build refineries in Nigeria but can work but why don’t they jetties which enable the efficiency to sanitise the industry.

The predicament we found they could not build one. work is partly traceable to what and the distribution of petroleum ourselves in 2011 we did not Olawore, MOMAN: Nobody is you have said like some people products across the country. create it. We are not government, against building of refineries in don’t want it to work so that they If you take a poll in the country, Nigeria. But, what I am saying can continue to make profit and you will not see any small storage there is no marketer be it is that there is nobody that is we said if the government leaves facility that costs less than MOMAN or IPMAN or against the establishment of it in private hands it will N5billion or N20billion Continues on page 47

,

L

It is very sad to see hard working and patriotic Nigerians, who have invested as much as we have have done, being criminalised

,

48 — Vanguard, THURSDAY,AUGUST 30, 2012

We invested our money to save Nigerians from suffering Vanguard Conference Hall panelists and discussants in this second and concluding part ask what is difficult in setting up refineries in Nigeria ET us get one thing clear; even if we produce locally, as long as NNPC is buying the crude at international price, there will always be subsidy. For example, if you pay $100 for crude and you have 159 litres in a barrel, if you do the arithmetic very well one litre from that crude alone will be up to N70 if not more. Before you add refining cost, storage and other factors, you will be getting over N120.

The wisdom in selling crude at subsidised rate, I don’t believe in it. Let us get our priority straight, let us sell it at a price that it is meant to be sold but let government do what they are supposed to do.

Onyeka, TUC: One thing is clear, to convey the average Nigerian that there is subsidy is one thing and the other thing is telling us about the quantum of the subsidy. I was in a conference in Uyo in March, NNPC came and other agencies like DAPPMA, MOMAN, IPMAN also came and they were telling us how difficult it is going to be to build a refinery in Nigeria.

Building refinery But unfortunately for them I had consulted people at PRODA Enugu, who gave the science behind the whole thing and how much it will cost and PRODA said they can build a refinery in Nigeria.

It was a matter of bringing in a few components from outside the country and building a refinery.

But the people in government want to protect this thing called subsidy so that it will continue.

Now the question is: what is difficult in setting up refineries in Nigeria? There is a refinery that does AGO in Owerri. They have 1000 barrel capacity per day production and they have come on stream with their production.

They came and said they were making profit. So it is possible to build a modular refinery in the country with about $5million. The owner of the refinery said they are running the refinery and they are making profit in Nigeria whereas the government is telling us that they cannot run a refinery. There is one refinery that

is also coming up in Anambra State. The point is: Will I Dapo Abiodun stressing a point while the panelists and discussants listen attentively listen to that person who said that we cannot run a refinery refineries in Nigeria. However, work.Your people are doing well minimum. So you have many in Nigeria when he cannot what we are saying is that let the at Eleme but when Eleme was Nigerians who have invested manage my resources? We conditions be right. In this country sold out, it is the same NUPENG that boldly without taking their cannot trust them and what they there was time when there was and PENGASSAN people that money outside the country, they bandy as facts. no subsidy until Gen. Gowon were there when things were not have employed people, they are At the end of the January strike, came in 1973, to establish the working. So for me, you just have subject to the rules of the land. the government brought their Petroleum Equalisation Fund to change the structure of A subsidy is that portion of facts, we brought our own facts, (PEF), that started functioning in ownership. money that is paid back to everything was evaluated and at 1975 because all we were doing If we make the condition right marketers because the marketers the end of the day, we were able as major marketers was to go to people will then establish more have to sell the petroleum to know who was right and who the federal government buy the refineries. The advantages and products at a prescribed price was wrong. Nigerians have been crude and take it to the only disadvantages of Modular which is less than the cost without able to see that the people that refinery available then, which refineries are there. I know that even any margin. For example, were actually right were the Civil was Port Harcourt 1 and refine there is a lot of glut which is a if I am importing petrol today, it Societies and the the product there. You would pay fact in all over the world but we will probably cost me about N120 Labour Movement. Basically, them your refining fees and take are buying from those places. per litre plus my cost of freight, the people in government do not it to wherever you want to sell plus NPA charges which is the command our trust because they them. highest in the world, plus my Refined have lied to Nigerians in all finance charges. I need to make Why did the whole thing products cases. So they cannot now come change? Adebo came with profit to my margin to pay my to us to tell us that they love us “KOLA” award. What he did was Let us find out the problem why debt and to pay my staff. so much and we should continue to revive the middle class, we cannot establish a refinery to bear the brunt of a distorted unfortunately the first here. On the issue of licences, Foreign process, deliberately distorted characteristic of the middle class majority of the people that were exchange process. is to go and do what is called given licences were not sincere.

The only way to stop this conspicuous consumption. The Some of them their intention was That is to say, from the point importation process is to refine demand actually rose. In itself, get the license, get the crude and when the ship arrives at the jetty sell it. Only a few were sincere and it is discharged into the tanks but the condition was not right. and it has been confirmed that it If you peg the price at a certain has been done, 45 days from level and I am coming to produce then you will be paid. And there and I am buying crude which is is also some parameters that higher than or equal to the stipulates that when you pay selling price of the refined these interests on foreign products then there is a problem. exchange because you buy in Abiodun, DAPPMA: We feel foreign currency and sell in naira. our crude here in Nigeria with there is nothing wrong with it but our own refineries. But they have we are human beings because if that the subsidy saga is a So when you collect the naira, deliberately refused to refine our you do anything and you set up deliberate attempt to terminate us you have to look for ways to crude in Nigeria so that they can a procedure and nobody is as business men or a plan to take change your money so that you sustain this subsidy claim and monitoring the procedure, it is our businesses from us, that’s all will be able to pay your foreign continue milking Nigerians. But bound to be abused. Again, let we can conclude at this point. It banks.

It is a contract between us and we are saying let them be honest, me quickly make one point, in is very sad to see hard working let everything be done in the our industry there is nothing like and patriotic Nigerians, who have the government, and you will look open. Nigerians are actually tired old refineries. What is a refinery? invested as much as we have for ways to be efficient so that you of the lies and we cannot It is made up of tubes and have done, being criminalised. don’t have demurrage to try and continue to believe the lies. Shell cylinders, you remove and If we hadn’t, Nigerians would borrow dollar from your bank and all that. When you do it, in 45 said they cannot build a refinery replace them. have paid dearly for it because days you are not paid, 60 days, in Nigeria because there is a glut The youngest refinery in South we know that the distribution in refining capacity throughout Africa is of the same age with our infrastructure in the country is 180 days, seven months, then the world. But we asked them a oldest refinery here. In other virtually non-existent and this there is a problem. That is why I question: is there a glut in words, all you need do is just has given us the opportunity to said it is difficult to understand refining capacity in Nigeria? remove and replace them that is invest in storage facilities, some how to interpret this; however, we People were given licences to upgrade them. All our refineries of us have ports that are called appreciate government’s moves build refineries in Nigeria but can work but why don’t they jetties which enable the efficiency to sanitise the industry.

The predicament we found they could not build one. work is partly traceable to what and the distribution of petroleum ourselves in 2011 we did not Olawore, MOMAN: Nobody is you have said like some people products across the country. create it. We are not government, against building of refineries in don’t want it to work so that they If you take a poll in the country, Nigeria. But, what I am saying can continue to make profit and you will not see any small storage there is no marketer be it is that there is nobody that is we said if the government leaves facility that costs less than MOMAN or IPMAN or against the establishment of it in private hands it will N5billion or N20billion Continues on page 47

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It is very sad to see hard working and patriotic Nigerians, who have invested as much as we have have done, being criminalised

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50 — Vanguard, THURSDAY, AUGUST 30, 2012

Vanguard, THURSDAY, AUGUST 30, 2012 — 51

52 — Vanguard, THURSDAY, AUGUST 30, 2012

VANGUARD, THURSDAY, AUGUST 30, 2012—53

NBA: Our assessment of Daudu and expectations from Wali — Lawyer

BY BARTHOLOMEW MADUKWE

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S Mr Joseph Bodunrin Daudu, SAN, led Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) bows out of office and Chief Okey Wali, SAN, steps in today as the new president of the association, we sought the views of lawyers on the outgoing and in-coming executives.

Excerpts.

Prof Itse Sagay (SAN) The outgoing NBA President supported good courses, especially on the judicial system. He took some positive stands. All and all, he didn’t do badly. I won’t rate him in the same class as Rotimi Akeredolu (SAN), Olisa Agbakoba (SAN) or Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN). I think he has done reasonably well. But the area I am a bit unhappy about is that he has raised the cost of being in the legal profession. In the sense that, he raised the cost of legal practicing fee to N150,000 a year for Senior Advocates.

Then down the line, he raised all the various categories, making it very difficult for some people to pay.

He is a very rich lawyer, one of those in the group that can charge fees of hundred million on various cases. The rest of us live in much more modest style.

So he is making the legal fee difficult for those of us who live in modest style. Even NBA Conference too, he raised the bill by about 500%. So because of that, quite a number of us are not attending.

Fighting corruption By the time you spend N150,000 to attend an NBA Conference, who is going to pay your hotel and transport bill? Before you finish paying the bill, you will almost be a poor man. I think he doesn’t have respect for money because he is a very rich man.

I am not aware that they (NBA) have any method in fighting corruption in the judiciary. Many lawyers are involved in the whole corruption thing. There are lawyers who claim to know judges, they then go to the judges to collect from clients, thereafter go to the judges and claim they have given money to the judges. The whole corruption thing has eaten deep into the legal profession. I have not seen how the NBA has actually tackled it. I don’t see the method they are using now.

They have not made any impact

Prof Itse Sagay (SAN) in the struggle to reduce or eliminate corruption.

Deji Sasegbon (SAN) In any event the NBA has always put its head up as a pressure group, against the government once it (government) is not performing well. The NBA did well under Daudu to make sure that government delivers Human Rights.

On the average, you can just say that Daudu has a pass mark. I am not sure if there is any part that you can say he failed. He tried on the issue of corruption but I don’t think he went too far, or he didn’t go far enough.

The role of NBA must be almost the role of a vanguard; always pressurizing the government to ensure that the government performs what it is supposed to perform. After all, don’t forget that in any political party, there is always a manifesto. The party has the manifesto; the individual who decides to run for an office is always to have an agenda on what he wants to do, while he is there. Such individual is to be taken up at every point; taken on the agenda which he has promised to perform. And then if other issue comes up, like the

Deji Sasegbon (SAN) issue of security, then the government should be taken up. Like asking the government why it has not sorted out the issue of security. Ofcourse when it comes to the mouth of the judiciary, that one is the baby of NBA, they’ll make sure that the government tackles the issue of corruption, tackles the issue of the judiciary in terms of getting the judiciary open to people.

Justice must be open to the lowest common denominator in this country and as well as to the highest.

Incoming executive The NBA under Daudu did its best, in terms of fighting corruption. Corruption is a very important one; it is something that has been bothering the country for a very long time. So if the incoming executive can also contribute in trying to make sure that the judiciary is free of corruption, I think it will give a lot of kudos.

Lanre Ogunlesi (SAN) I would have thought that there will be less acrimony between the Bar and the Bench.

I don’t think it is by antagonizing the Bench that will make it, there is always

Prof Oyelowo Oyewo room for dialogue.

Talking about corruption in the judiciary; the question is ‘who will bail the cat?’ Who will say ‘oh! This person took bribe from me?’ That is the issue. We are all saying corruption in the judiciary but nobody has been able to say that this particular person is guilty. And if you say he is guilty, the lawyers themselves who gave the bribe should also be jailed. With the new CJN, things are going to take a new shape in the judiciary, I can tell you that because she is a no-nonsense woman.

On the increment of legal practice fee or NBA Conference fee, we have all been against that because the economy is really down. What are they paying the junior lawyers? It is peanut! Somebody was saying the other time that look, this is the Conference that has been in existence that he doesn’t have the enthusiasm of attending.

Check the NBA Lagos branch post on facebook. Let us see how many will attend. The new fees will drive so many people away. Everybody is not a Senior Advocate.

Prof Oyelowo Oyewo- Dean, faculty of law Basically, they should first

take advantage of the Constitution review exercise going on and really propose vigorous provisions that will checkmate corruption in the judiciary. Once you are able to do that, then you should also be able to see to the reform in the corruption agencies, so that atleast you will not just serve the corruption agency but occasionally they will be effective. I think it is time to assess the effectiveness of those institutions, I think the NBA can be very useful in that.

Chief Morah Ekwunoh Issues on the monster of insecurity, bracing corruption, particularly within the judiciary and Human Rights violation deserve a position in his cardinal programme. Issues touching on confirming welfare and well being of lawyers, particularly at the junior rate, as well as the controversial process of the award of the Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) also are worthy of priority attention by the incoming executive. I strongly feel that this issue of insecurity, corruption and Human Rights violation should be fought with the zeal and vigour which the late Chief Gani Fawehinmi and late Alao Aka-Bashorun would have fought with, if they were still alive. Peace and security in the country, no doubt, is at present a mirage. Corruption and Human Rights abuses have all combined to live the country at cross-road, following threats and declaration seen in the Bakassi and Ogoni cases.

It is my view that the outgoing NBA executive has lived up to and delivered on expectations of the members of the association in many prospect. In the first place, it reinvigorated the social engineering role of the NBA, by which amongst others it has become the voice of the voiceless in a society.

54—VANGUARD, THURSDAY, AUGUST 30, 2012

Modernising the NBA: A necessary debate

BY CHIDI ODINKALU

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HE on-going leadership transition at the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA) offers an opportunity to articulate a different future for our Bar. The outgoing President, J.B. Daudu SAN, himself squarely launched this debate unwittingly with his extensive interviews in the media. This debate is necessary and, given the surprisingly strident views articulated by the learned Senior Advocate, long overdue. The question that he firmly poses in these interviews is whether our Bar should, to borrow the words of Cesare Lombrosso, wallow in a “proud mediocrity” or commit to a monitorable programme of modernization that offers clear benefits to our members, our Association, and our country.

Inadvertently, the out-going President offered in his interviews with the media the important portents for the tenure of his successor. The gist of his views concerned how our Bar is organized in general and addressed, in

particular, leadership selection at the Bar. In response to calls for reform of this process, including suggestions for a return to universal suffrage to replace the present system of leadership election by delegates, the learned Senior Advocate offered up a dog’s breakfast of adjectives. He variously denounced suggestions for universal suffrage at the Bar as “vile”, “preposterous and unworkable”, “a demonstration of the utter bankruptcy of ideas as to how to run a professional organization in this day and age”, and in a turn of reasoning that induces indigestion even in his most ardent admirers, inspired by “the hatred of Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SANs).”

Not yet finished, he also dismissed the NBA’s membership as “a nebulous electorate”, justifies the present system as in the best traditions of “Bar Councils” in other places (like the American Bar Association (ABA), Ghana Bar Association (GBA), Bar Council of

monopoly of good ideas, good intentions or goodwill towards our Bar or our country and all who bring goodwill should debate freely without any need to deny the capacity of others to harbour same. The views I summarize above represent, perhaps, the most articulate case ever made for why we must turn the page on Chidi Odinkalu the current system of England and Wales, East membership management and African Law Society (EALS)) leadership selection at the and somewhat concludes that NBA and why universal it is best for the NBA to be suffrage at the Bar is the way organized in such a way that to do it. I will return shortly to “it is possible to identity the the strident insecurity of its leadership for 10 years to tone. come.” Tellingly, these views FIVE FALLACIES were offered in the course of The learned Senior Advocate an interview in which the puts forward five fallacies that learned Senior Advocate deserve a response. First, the acknowledged that the present resort to emotive adjectives system of leadership selection like “vile” does not belong to at the Bar is an inexcusable a debate among professional “Jamboree” and that NBA’s colleagues and citizens. elections can be organized in Disagreements are not “a more efficient and less time unusual among human or, consuming manner”. indeed, lawyers. The idea that Given the importance of this an alternative put forward in a debate, I enter into it constructive frame of mind is recognizing the need to credit “vile” suggests an absence of all involved in it with good a capacity for “integrative faith and with a desire to complexity”, described by advance our Bar. No one has a

Nassir Ghaemi who heads the Tufts Mood Disorders Programme on the outskirts of Boston as the absence of an essential leadership “ability to see things from multiple perspectives.”

Second, I never thought I would live long enough to hear a President of our Bar argue a case for professional exceptionalism of the Bar from the foundational tenets of elective democracy. In the year before he died, the late Lamidi Adedibu did the same thing. In an interview with a leading newsmagazine in the Nigeria, he advocated for a monarchical system of government for Nigeria because, as he put it, in England they always know the successor to the reigning Sovereign and he didn’t see why what works in England cannot work in Nigeria. In this way, Adedibu sought to justify his determined subversion of the foundations of elective democracy – an indeterminacy of outcomes and a determinacy of rules.

To be continued

The cabalization of NBA must stop now Challenges before incoming executive Continues from 49 amongst us, the way out of the Profession. The recent reconstitution of the General Council of the Bar and the ongoing efforts to reinvigorate it, offers us the unique opportunity to use the Council to address some of these ills. It is also important for the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee to be strengthened to effectively deal with the large number of petitions pending before it.

“In this regard, I pledge the readiness of my office to work with all organs of the Bar to achieve the goal of sanitizing our profession.

Among dignitaries that graced the occasion included the Governors of Edo and Imo states, Adams Oshiomole and Rochas Okorocha, even as the Catholic Archbishop of Sokoto Diocese, Rev, Fr. Mathew Hassan Kukah, acted as the keynote speaker.

In conclusion, as the twoyear tenure of the Daudu, led executives expires on Friday, it is expected that the new administration under Chief Wali, SAN, will promptly initiate a reconciliatory and reform process that will galvanize legal practitioners in Nigeria towards a common objective.

BAMIDELE ATURU

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HAD cause in a yet to be published book to characterize the association of Nigerian lawyers, the Nigerian Bar Association, as an elite body. The NBA is without doubt a reflection of the Nigerian society in many ways and there is a sense in which it is unrealistic to expect it to rise above the failings and basic contradictions of the society.

This is not hard sociology. The problem with the organization, it seems to me, is that it does more than just reflecting or mirroring the Nigerian society. The NBA, as organized and constituted today, is a major part of the elements creating and recreating the fundamental contradictions of the Nigerian society. This is the central thesis I intend to address in this piece.

One of the basic or fundamental problems of liberal democracy, in my view, is the reconciliation of the fact of a few persons actually governing with the theory that the people, that is the demo, ought to govern in a democracy. A careful study of ‘actual democracies’ and theories of democracy or democracies indicates clearly this insoluble tension.

Attempts at the reconciliation, we must note, has also been quite productive. Concepts such as representational democracy, social contract, separation of powers et cetera really emerged as products of attempts, honest or otherwise, at solving this original contradiction. I do not have the luxury of space or time to pursue this aspect any further here.

The NBA might have been conceived as a democratic organization, but the fact on the ground today is that it is constitutionally, ‘undisguisedly’ and unabashedly a dictatorship of the minority through and through. It is indeed a feudal dictatorship where status and ranks determine relevance. The Association is made up of not more than 100,000 members.

Yet, there is no general suffrage. In other words, all these members cannot vote to elect leaders of the organization or vote at decision-making meetings of the organization as members.

The Constitution of the Association creates a system of delegates. The delegates are selected or elected as the case may be at the Branches. But that is not even the most objectionable part. The Senior Advocates of Nigeria and some other persons who are appointed by some equally dictatorial means as members

Bamidele Aturu of the expanded National Executive Council of the Association are automatic delegates at decision making conferences. This undemocratic system of running the association has been justified on account that it is cumbersome to allow every Nigerian lawyer vote at the Conferences. If this is the case, then there is no justification for the NBA to criticize INEC and the political elite for the routine disenfranchisement of the people of this country. The truth, however, is that the NBA has never really been serious since its reconstitution after the 1992 crisis about its critique of the Nigerian electoral system in particular or about the Nigerian state in general. The reason is simple:

many of its leading lights are consultants to and agents, in one way or the other, of the politicians who they hypocritically criticize! These people certainly do not consider it a matter of shame that election petitions represent a major growth point of legal practice in Nigeria whereas in some civilized countries there have been no such petitions for over 50 years. I do not berate elections petition practice, but I declaim its celebration.

Let us assume that the Senior Advocates are really the most brilliant and the most competent lawyers in Nigeria, does their brilliance also confer on them natural wisdom to make policies for the organization? There is no sound warrant for the dictatorial exclusion of an overwhelming majority of Nigerian lawyers in decisionmaking conferences of the Association. Genuine democrats and conscious lawyers who subscribe to the tenets of democracy have a duty to do everything possible and necessary to fight this injustice. It is odious and unacceptable. I commit myself to taking an active part in the crusade to ensure that all Nigerian lawyers vote at all meetings of the Nigerian Bar Association. By the Grace of God, it will be by any means necessary.

Vanguard, THURSDAY,AUGUST 30, 2012— 55

Onabrakpeya @ 80:

Encomiums for renowned art icon

By PRISCA SAM-DURU

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patriarch of contemporary art, he has been very consistent adding that the icon has proved how necessary it is for art to be seen beyond where it is e x h i b i t e d .

Engr. Yemisi Shyllon, founder of OYASAF described Prof Bruce as a selfless artist who has affected the lives of so many young and budding artists in the country without considering any material gain. According to him, the veteran is the most experimental artist who uses a lot of techniques, noting that, “ he is most publicized, very simple, selfless and I dare say that many artists have benefited from his benevolence.

He doesn’t refuse invitation to events irrespective of who is involved”. He prayed that God will grant him more healthy years to be able to continue to prove his relevance to the industry.

Abstract expressionist, sculptor / painter Ndidi Dike in her own contribution, described the celebrant as

T the 2012 Arts Stampede organized by the Committee For Relevant Arts (CORA) held last Sunday at Freedom Park, Lagos, it was torrents of accolade for veteran artist, Bruce Onabrakpeya who turned 80. The man reputed as the most published and publicized artist in Nigeria was the subject of the stampede which was organized as part of activities to mark his 80th birthday and in recognition of his impeccable contribution to the promotion and preservation of Nigeria’s rich heritage as well as African art and culture.

This year ’s art stampede tagged “From Brochure to Books; Emerging Trend In Visual Art Documentation” which features one week programme, kicked off on Saturday with an exhibition of the celebrant’s works at the Nike Art Gallery, Lagos.

The event which was well attended by art collectors, patrons, art lovers and artists who s h o w e r e d encomium on Prof Onabrakpeya, the event also featured a discussion segment which was deliberately structured to capture his imm e n s e contribution to arts especially in the area of documentation, with particular emphasis on emerging trend in arts documentat i o n .

The discussion had Tunji Lardner Bruce Onabrakpeya as moderator w h i l e panelists were Bisi Silva, Murktar “an extremely encouraging artist who Bakare, Sammy Olagbaju, Kunle Filani gives his time without monetary gain. and Pat Oyelola. They brainstormed on He has been very consistent in the last how to sustain new trends in visual art fifty years and is an inspiration to me”.

Pat Oyelola, an Art historian said documentation with reference to some Bruce is not just an icon of Nigerian or existing books such as, Making History, African Collectors and The Canon African art but an icon of world art of African Art by Sylvester Ogbechie; because he has made a huge difference.

New Trees In Old Forests: Contempo- Speaking further she said that Prof rary Nigerian Art in Lagos Private Col- Bruce is a selfless artist who is concerned lections, edited by Jess Castellote; The about the future of arts in Africa and Architecture of Demas Nwoko, by therefore, is an inspiration to many.

On the issue of art documentation, Farafina Books; A Celebration of ModOyelola pointed that Bruce’s works are ern Nigerian Art –101 Nigerian Artists,

by Chukwuemeka Bosah and George often poetic and very challenging which Edozie; Ben Enwonwu: The Making of makes it necessary that works already an African Modernist, by Sylvester done should be archived in order to O g b e c h i e . capture memory of the moment, instruct Commending the celebrant for his or record for purpose of critical achievements and impact on the appraisal. She also stressed the progress of art, Secretary General of importance of making publications of the CORA, Tony Akinosho stated that National Gallery of Arts available in beyond the fact that Bruce has been a Continues on page 56

56 — Vanguard, THURSDAY, AUGUST 30, 2012 Edited by MCPHILIPS NWACHUKWU 08026350360 E-mail: chimeena@yahoo.com

The art of calabash decoration in Nigeria

BY APOLLOS IBEABUCHI OZIOGU

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HE name, calabash is a derivative of the French word, ‘Calebasse’. It is defined as a tropical American tree (Cresenctia cujete) of the bignonia family or its large gourd-like fruits. Calabash and gourd are often used interchangeably. The calabash is simply the dried hollow shell of a gourd used for household utensils.

Calabash is a versatile fruit of a creeping/climbing plant which grows easily in almost every part of Nigeria. It produces fruits which are regular in shape. It is in many sizes which determines its uses.

Calabashes are mostly round.The calabash is known by various different names depending on the area or people in Nigeria. For example, the Yoruba call it “Igba”, the Igbo call it “Ugba”, while the Hausa call it “Duma” or “Kwarya”.

Calabashes undergo some processing to produce household utensils like bowls, cups and water/wine containers among others, not only for domestic uses, but for religious and religious cultural purposes. When the calabashes are ripe for harvesting, those that are to be used as household utensils and/or other purposes are gathered and soaked in water for several days until the seeds are rotten. Then the calabashes are cut open, and the contents are scraped out clean. The shells are dried in the sun until they are hard. The dried calabashes are then ready for use. The natural colour of the outer skin of dried calabash is warm yellow, and it darkens with age

Designed calabashes and use. The calabashes may be stained in other colours: rose, by rubbing them with millet leaves; blue, with indigo among others. They can also be darkened by hanging them in a smoky room.

However, calabashes can be decorated by several different techniques or methods according to the tradition of the area; though some people can use them as they are. They simply wash the calabash regularly. They are numerous varieties of designs and patterns which calabash carvers carry out for calabash decoration.

Encomiums for renowned art icon Continues from page 54

bookshops so that researchers and students would make good use of them.

Renowned curator, Bisi Silva, while showering praises on Bruce for his contributions to the growth of art in Nigeria and beyond, more especially, in the area of documentation, noted that much still has to be done in the area of distribution of the printed material to achieve its aim.

She said that publications should be regarded as more important than exhibitions especially for people who did not

have the privilege of attending the exhibition.

The panelists were in agreement that Nigeria is endowed with many great artists who are unfortunately, not heard, and that according to them makes the issue of documentation, a priority.

They however commended artists who have been able to put up good books that capture progress made so far in the art industry in spite of numerous challenges Nigerians are facing, and advised that culture of reading and articulating what is documented should be imbibed.

Some of the panelists, l-r, Sammy Olagbaju, Tunji Lardner, Kunle Filani and Pat Oyelola at the event

These are achieved by applying the following main techniques or methods namely: Scraping; Carving; Scorching; Pyro-engraving and Pressure-engraving.

In the most areas of the country, the techniques or methods in use are combined. For example, calabash carvers in Oyo State or Kwara state combine Scraping Carving and Engraving techniques. In Adamawa State, they combine the Pyro-engraving and the engraving techniques, while in Kwara and Sokoto, Scraping, Carving and scarification as well as Painting methods are used.

Calabash decoration The basic tools for calabash decoration include: Knife of different sizes and shapes; iron needles; Saw; Perforated polished can; scrapper; nails; white chalk etc. The decoration techniques are: Scraping Method: This technique involves the use of a sharp knife which sometimes has a serrated edge. This is used to scrape off the pattern motif to some depth, about 2-3 millimeters below the surface. The Fulani women carvers may rub chalk into the scraped area. As the background area is carefully scraped away, then the pattern stands out in the natural colour of the skin of the calabash against a white background.

Carving Method: This is another technique, whereby lines are incised with a sharp knife.

The carvers make as many incisions as possible to decorate the calabash both inside and outside.

This is also called “Cutting” or “Scarification”. They put their knives in the made or prepared fire. When the knives get red-hot, they use them to design on the calabashes.

serves as a guide on security awareness for Nigerians caught in the present prevailing security challenges .

The coming of the book which is a revised and updated version of his earlier book titled Surviving the Cities is timely as it will equip the average reader with the basic knowledge that would greatly assist him/her in overcoming the current security challenges as well as ensuring a relatively crime free nation.

Using his wealth of experience as one who has seen it all in the Overcoming Security Challenges, force, the author in the Mike Mbama Okiro; Bharmoss thirty one chapters Ventures Nigeria Ltd, Port Harcourt, Rivers State; 2012; PP.155. book in a very simple language compiles some of the real life grievous security mistakes by people across the globe with most references from Nigeria.

Starting with the topic, Know your neighbours, the author highlights

By JAPHET ALAKAM incidences where the inability of some individuals to know ECURITY of lives and their neighbours led to loss of property of the citizens is lives. Other topics includes: the number one priority of every Stalking Vehicles, Guard your government and it is on that property at public places, Tools basis that different government that facilitate crime, Identify created diverse security outfits target before you fire; Learn to for that purpose. And since the do certain things yourself and creation of the different others. In all these, the author forces,like the Police, SSS, army delivers the needed message etc they have been doing with good examples of everything possible to meet the incidences where the failure to security challenges. But recent take care of such simple developments especially the measures cost loss of life and violent crimes orchestrated by property and how some people the activities of the Boko Haram who made use of such simple have changed the security measures saved their families situation in Nigeria that people from the hands of the evil ones.

New manual for crime prevention S

,

The book could be described as a manual of crime prevention and a compendium of expedient clues that could guide government authorities and individuals on security challenges facing the nation

are no longer comfortable with their approach. Though the government and different security agencies are not sleeping over that as they have embarked on a lot of measures to meet the security challenges, there is need for the citizens to take some precautionary measures in order to help the security agencies and themselves too.

It is on the basis of this that Mike Okiro, a lawyer, a former Inspector General of Police and a man who has seen it all in the force before retiring brings his wealth of experience to bear in his new book, titled Overcoming security challenges.

The 155 pages book published

by Bharmoss Ventures Nigeria Ltd, Port Harcourt, Rivers State

,

The cases are numerous, he did not end it there he also in the last two chapters provides the reader with the distress call numbers addresses and telephone numbers in Nigeria and security hints that serve as palliatives that if adhered to will make the reader overcome the security situations in urban community.

Written in very simple English for easy understanding, despite some avoidable errors, the book could be described as a manual of crime prevention and a compendium of expedient clues that could guide government authorities and individuals on security challenges facing the nation. I therefore recommend it all.

VANGUARD, THURSDAY, AUGUST 30, 2012 — 57

Modernising the NBA: A necessary debate

BY CHIDI ODINKALU

T

HE on-going leadership transition at the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA) offers an opportunity to articulate a different future for our Bar. The outgoing President, J.B. Daudu SAN, himself squarely launched this debate unwittingly with his extensive interviews in the media. This debate is necessary and, given the surprisingly strident views articulated by the learned Senior Advocate, long overdue. The question that he firmly poses in these interviews is whether our Bar should, to borrow the words of Cesare Lombrosso, wallow in a “proud mediocrity” or commit to a monitorable programme of modernization that offers clear benefits to our members, our Association, and our country.

Inadvertently, the out-going President offered in his interviews with the media the important portents for the tenure of his successor. The gist of his views concerned how our Bar is organized in general and addressed, in

particular, leadership selection at the Bar. In response to calls for reform of this process, including suggestions for a return to universal suffrage to replace the present system of leadership election by delegates, the learned Senior Advocate offered up a dog’s breakfast of adjectives. He variously denounced suggestions for universal suffrage at the Bar as “vile”, “preposterous and unworkable”, “a demonstration of the utter bankruptcy of ideas as to how to run a professional organization in this day and age”, and in a turn of reasoning that induces indigestion even in his most ardent admirers, inspired by “the hatred of Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SANs).”

Not yet finished, he also dismissed the NBA’s membership as “a nebulous electorate”, justifies the present system as in the best traditions of “Bar Councils” in other places (like the American Bar Association (ABA), Ghana Bar Association (GBA), Bar Council of

monopoly of good ideas, good intentions or goodwill towards our Bar or our country and all who bring goodwill should debate freely without any need to deny the capacity of others to harbour same. The views I summarize above represent, perhaps, the most articulate case ever made for why we must turn the page on Chidi Odinkalu the current system of England and Wales, East membership management and African Law Society (EALS)) leadership selection at the and somewhat concludes that NBA and why universal it is best for the NBA to be suffrage at the Bar is the way organized in such a way that to do it. I will return shortly to “it is possible to identity the the strident insecurity of its leadership for 10 years to tone. come.” Tellingly, these views FIVE FALLACIES were offered in the course of The learned Senior Advocate an interview in which the puts forward five fallacies that learned Senior Advocate deserve a response. First, the acknowledged that the present resort to emotive adjectives system of leadership selection like “vile” does not belong to at the Bar is an inexcusable a debate among professional “Jamboree” and that NBA’s colleagues and citizens. elections can be organized in Disagreements are not “a more efficient and less time unusual among human or, consuming manner”. indeed, lawyers. The idea that Given the importance of this an alternative put forward in a debate, I enter into it constructive frame of mind is recognizing the need to credit “vile” suggests an absence of all involved in it with good a capacity for “integrative faith and with a desire to complexity”, described by advance our Bar. No one has a

Nassir Ghaemi who heads the Tufts Mood Disorders Programme on the outskirts of Boston as the absence of an essential leadership “ability to see things from multiple perspectives.”

Second, I never thought I would live long enough to hear a President of our Bar argue a case for professional exceptionalism of the Bar from the foundational tenets of elective democracy. In the year before he died, the late Lamidi Adedibu did the same thing. In an interview with a leading newsmagazine in the Nigeria, he advocated for a monarchical system of government for Nigeria because, as he put it, in England they always know the successor to the reigning Sovereign and he didn’t see why what works in England cannot work in Nigeria. In this way, Adedibu sought to justify his determined subversion of the foundations of elective democracy – an indeterminacy of outcomes and a determinacy of rules.

To be continued

The cabalization of NBA must stop now Challenges before incoming executive Continues from 49 amongst us, the way out of the Profession. The recent reconstitution of the General Council of the Bar and the ongoing efforts to reinvigorate it, offers us the unique opportunity to use the Council to address some of these ills. It is also important for the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee to be strengthened to effectively deal with the large number of petitions pending before it.

“In this regard, I pledge the readiness of my office to work with all organs of the Bar to achieve the goal of sanitizing our profession.

Among dignitaries that graced the occasion included the Governors of Edo and Imo states, Adams Oshiomole and Rochas Okorocha, even as the Catholic Archbishop of Sokoto Diocese, Rev, Fr. Mathew Hassan Kukah, acted as the keynote speaker.

In conclusion, as the twoyear tenure of the Daudu, led executives expires on Friday, it is expected that the new administration under Chief Wali, SAN, will promptly initiate a reconciliatory and reform process that will galvanize legal practitioners in Nigeria towards a common objective.

BAMIDELE ATURU

I

HAD cause in a yet to be published book to characterize the association of Nigerian lawyers, the Nigerian Bar Association, as an elite body. The NBA is without doubt a reflection of the Nigerian society in many ways and there is a sense in which it is unrealistic to expect it to rise above the failings and basic contradictions of the society.

This is not hard sociology. The problem with the organization, it seems to me, is that it does more than just reflecting or mirroring the Nigerian society. The NBA, as organized and constituted today, is a major part of the elements creating and recreating the fundamental contradictions of the Nigerian society. This is the central thesis I intend to address in this piece.

One of the basic or fundamental problems of liberal democracy, in my view, is the reconciliation of the fact of a few persons actually governing with the theory that the people, that is the demo, ought to govern in a democracy. A careful study of ‘actual democracies’ and theories of democracy or democracies indicates clearly this insoluble tension.

Attempts at the reconciliation, we must note, has also been quite productive. Concepts such as representational democracy, social contract, separation of powers et cetera really emerged as products of attempts, honest or otherwise, at solving this original contradiction. I do not have the luxury of space or time to pursue this aspect any further here.

The NBA might have been conceived as a democratic organization, but the fact on the ground today is that it is constitutionally, ‘undisguisedly’ and unabashedly a dictatorship of the minority through and through. It is indeed a feudal dictatorship where status and ranks determine relevance. The Association is made up of not more than 100,000 members.

Yet, there is no general suffrage. In other words, all these members cannot vote to elect leaders of the organization or vote at decision-making meetings of the organization as members.

The Constitution of the Association creates a system of delegates. The delegates are selected or elected as the case may be at the Branches. But that is not even the most objectionable part. The Senior Advocates of Nigeria and some other persons who are appointed by some equally dictatorial means as members

Bamidele Aturu of the expanded National Executive Council of the Association are automatic delegates at decision making conferences. This undemocratic system of running the association has been justified on account that it is cumbersome to allow every Nigerian lawyer vote at the Conferences. If this is the case, then there is no justification for the NBA to criticize INEC and the political elite for the routine disenfranchisement of the people of this country. The truth, however, is that the NBA has never really been serious since its reconstitution after the 1992 crisis about its critique of the Nigerian electoral system in particular or about the Nigerian state in general. The reason is simple:

many of its leading lights are consultants to and agents, in one way or the other, of the politicians who they hypocritically criticize! These people certainly do not consider it a matter of shame that election petitions represent a major growth point of legal practice in Nigeria whereas in some civilized countries there have been no such petitions for over 50 years. I do not berate elections petition practice, but I declaim its celebration.

Let us assume that the Senior Advocates are really the most brilliant and the most competent lawyers in Nigeria, does their brilliance also confer on them natural wisdom to make policies for the organization? There is no sound warrant for the dictatorial exclusion of an overwhelming majority of Nigerian lawyers in decisionmaking conferences of the Association. Genuine democrats and conscious lawyers who subscribe to the tenets of democracy have a duty to do everything possible and necessary to fight this injustice. It is odious and unacceptable. I commit myself to taking an active part in the crusade to ensure that all Nigerian lawyers vote at all meetings of the Nigerian Bar Association. By the Grace of God, it will be by any means necessary.

58 — Vanguard, THURSDAY, AUGUST 30, 2012

Vanguard, THURSDAY, AUGUST 30, 2012—59

Edited by Ogbonna Amadi amadi_o@yahoo.com

Davido absent at D’banj’s UK concert

BY OPEOLUWANI OGUNJIMI

D

’Banj was at his best last night when he performed to a sold out crowd in London. But shine was taken off the show because the much talked about appearance

by Dami Duro crooner Davido, never happened.

After much hype about performing at D’banj’s first ever UK concert since his separation from Don Jazzy, Davido was denied the chance of a lifetime to rock alongside his hero because he was granted work permit by the UK consulate office in Abuja, Nigeria.

Sad about the development, he issued a statement, stating reasons why he was absent at the much publicized concert after which he went ahead to apologize to fans.

E-Daily stumbled on a supposed statement issued by Davido to fans, stating that he “regrets” to announce to his UK fans, his absence at D’banj’s London show.

“I regret to let you know that I will not be performing along side my most respected big brother and friend D’banj at the scheduled show of August 27, 2012 in London.”

Davido then went ahead to explain his reasons, saying that being a citizen of Nigeria and America, he doesn’t require a visa to enter into any of these countries. However, in compliance to the UK law, he needs a work permit in the UK for any paid performance such as D’banj’s London show.

He went further to say he’d applied for work permit at the British Embassy in Abuja/Lagos

ow! Nicole Kidman is the last actress we thought we’d see baring her bum AND going topless for a magazine shoot, but it looks like the actress is determined to age ungracefully.

The 45-year-old appears on the cover of the latest issue of V Magazine, wearing nothing but a teeny tiny skirt which def doesn’t hide her modesty. The coverstar of the US style magazine posed for famed photographer Mario Testino for the shoot.

Nicole Kidman poses for the new issue of V Magazine (Splash News)

BY OPEOLUWANI OGUNJIMI

R

EPORT reaching us has revealed that popular Yoruba actress, Toyin Aimakhu’s car has been stolen by men of the underworld.

According to the story, the stolen car was an Orange-painted Honda Element.

The story was confirmed by a colleague of hers(name withheld), •Toyin who said the car was stolen when Toyin’s cousin went out with the car.

The car was valued at about 3million Naira, as at the time of its theft.

Tiwa Savage debunks romance rumour with Don Jazzy

BY OPEOLUWANI OGUNJIMI

F

•Davido

but was denied the work permit hence, he’d to cancel his appearance at the show.

“I am both a Nigerian citizen, as well as an American citizen, I carry both the Nigerian and the American passports. As an American citizen, I do not require a visa to enter the United Kingdom, however I require a work permit in the UK for any paid performance such as the scheduled August 27, 2012 in London, that is the law in the United Kingdom.

I applied for a work permit at the British Embassy in Abuja/ Lagos but unfortunately up till the close of business on Friday August 24, 2012 I was unable to obtain a work permit, as a result I have to cancel my performance and my trip to the United Kingdom altogether.”

He continues with an apology to fans, saying “I apologize for the inconvenience and the disappointment, but be rest assured that I will make it up to you all on a future date”.

Nicole Kidman bares her bum W

Nollywood actress, Toyin Aimakhu loses car to robbers

Inside the pics get even more raunchy with the mum showing off her incredible figure in a series of photos including several lingerie pics.

Nic also reveals all in the accompanying inter view, insisting “I would be more outlandish if I could.”

The new image might have something to do with her saucy role in new film ‘The Paperboy ’, co-starring Zac Efron. The movie sees Kidman play a nymphomaniac, convict obsessed femme fatale, enjoying several raunchy scenes with Zac.

•Kidman

OLLOWING speculations that sensational singer, Tiwa Savage and Marvin records record label boss, Don Jazzy are in a hot romance, Tiwa has come out to clear the air.

According to the 32 years old singer, the romance speculations between Jazzy and herself was as a result of her inclusion, as the only female artiste under Marvin records. The rumour was further fueled when the latter, who has never collaborated with any artiste outside of the disbanded Mo Hits Crew’, featured on her single, Without My Heart.

Tiwa says as per her career, Jazzy Tiwa-Savage has always been there for her and she’ll forever look up to him.

“The rumours are false. Don Jazzy and I have always been friends. He helped me out from the beginning, even before Mavin Records. I have always and will always look up to him. He is a great man and I appreciate his talent so much. He also has a really good heart.”

Katy Perry spotted ‘charming’ Robert Pattinson

S

INCE breaking up with Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson has become the most eligible bachelor in Hollywood, something that newly single Katy Perry seems to have taken full advantage of.

The pair were spotted dining together in L.A. at exclusive restaurant Soho House and apparently looked very cosy.

According to The Sun, Katy was pulling out all the stops to impress Mr Pattinson.

An onlooker told The Sun: “She was laying on the charm, playing the minxtossing her hair back, laughing at his jokes, touching his arm and twirling her hair.” “She was sat across from Rob but later moved next to him.” Katy may have been flirting into overtime; however, it seems that Rob was more interested in something else she had to offer.

•Rob and he onlooker stated: “She Katy wore a tight, sparkly top and Rob was looking at her breasts all night”

60—Vanguard, THURSDAY, AUGUST 30, 2012

*Obasanjo: Kicked against dichotomy

*Attah: championed dichotomy

DICHOTOMY: The fresh fight for more oil money THE National Assembly stood against parochial considerations to stop the dichotomy principle in the sharing of derivation proceeds in revenue allocation. Now some northern political gladiators want it back.

BY EMMANUEL AZIKEN, POLITICAL EDITOR

T

HE political feud between Governor Rabiu Kwankwanso and Speaker Ghali Na‘abba in the run up to the 2003 general elections was one that ultimately consumed the two leading lights of Kano politics that year.

Only fox-like political gladiators like Rep. Farouk Lawan were able to escape the landmines that were strewn around to win reelection under of the umbrella of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP in Kano that election year.

The two bitter political enemies were one; an unabashed supporter of President Olusegun Obasanjo and the other, a champion of the anti-Obasanjo political establishment, who used his position as Speaker of the House of Representatives to taunt Obasanjo.

Speaker Na‘abba is etched in history as the only presiding officer of either chambers of the National Assembly to receive an impeachment motion against a Nigerian president.

Remarkably, both men lost out in the election of that year.

Kwankwanso was defeated by Ibrahim Shekarau of the All Nigeria Peoples Party, ANPP, in his re-election bid while Na‘abba, after receiving the ticket of his party to seek re-election, was reportedly ambushed by his own party in the main election.

One of the most divisive issues

between Kwankwanso and Na‘abba at that time was the Onshore/Offshore Dichotomy Abrogation Bill presented by President Obasanjo to the National Assembly in 2002.

In its consideration of the bill, the legislators amended Obasanjo’s proposal to limit the 13 per cent derivation accruable to the littoral states from the contiguous zone that is 24 nautical miles to include the whole of the continental shelf, about 200 nautical miles.

Many northern leaders including the Emir of Kano, Alhaji Ado Bayero were taken aback that their legislators in the National Assembly overrode their fears to pass the bill that was meant to abrogate the Onshore/ Offshore dichotomy that came into effect through a 2002 decision of the Supreme Court.

Littoral states The then National Chairman of the PDP, Engr. Barnabas Gemade, it was learnt, personally called up governors of the North to mobilise their legislators not to pass the bill.

Kwankwanso, admitted receiving the call and calling on his legislators, but to no avail.

The northern leaders expressed misgiving that the bill, as passed by the National Assembly, would deprive the North of much revenue that would now go to the littoral

states.

But Speaker Na’aba and his henchmen did not yield. For them the national interest and considerations of the wellbeing of the oil producing littoral states were of paramount importance and they proceeded to pass the bill abrogating the dichotomy extending the benefits to the littoral states to 200 nautical miles.

A determined Obasanjo ignored the legislators despite the emotions that ran through the political space ahead of the 2003 elections.

Derivation revenue It was especially stressful in states like Akwa Ibom which at that time was worst affected by the decision given that its derivation revenue virtually disappeared on account of the fact that oil production attributed to the state was essentially offshore.

Obasanjo found solidarity with some northern elders on his position, but the rest of the political class rejected the proposition leading to a standoff which was only brokered after a political solution fixed by a committee led by Chief Tony Anenih.

The solution was the adoption of the novel 200 meters depth as a replacement for the continental shelf which is equivalent to 200 nautical miles as earlier adopted by the National Assembly.

Obasanjo quickly signed the bill as a compromise in 2004.

Nearly 10 years after that historic feud, the drums of war are again being beating as some northern power brokers push for the return of full dichotomy.

Dr. Kwankwanso who returned to power as governor of Kano State in 2011, consciously or unconsciously is now pushing to pull down what many regard as the pan-nationalistic legacy of his political rival, Na‘abba.

Though the former speaker has since lowered his political profile, the Onshore/Offshore dichotomy abrogation Act remains one of the legacies of a period when the National Assembly looked above primordial and other considerations in their enactments. It was also in that legislative period that the National Assembly overrode Obasanjo’s veto on the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC bill.

Overriding of veto Even though he proposed the NDDC bill, Obasanjo was peeved by the decision of the National Assembly to increase the amount of funding to the commission and as such refused to give assent to the bill forcing the lawmakers to override his veto in June 2000.

Championing the fight for the reintroduction of the dichotomy presently are Governors Kwankwanso and Babangida Aliyu of Niger State.

,

dismay they went and supported onshore-offshore (abrogation) and sold out. That is the most unfortunate thing that happened to the North in this political dispensation from 1999 to date.

“We knew what happened. How could that bill get two-thirds without the support of our members? The unfortunate thing is that because our capacity is so low, even those who did that are pretending to be heroes of the North.”

Noting that the passage of the dichotomy abrogation bill led to the devastation of the economy of the North, the governor said: “Whether we like it or not, what we are seeing today is partly the consequence of the action of the past that made the North very poor. I think that is what is binding the North together –we are poor, we are illiterate, we are sick; I don’t see anything that is common to us which we can mention other than these.”

Governor Kwankwanso’s assertions are flayed by some opinion writers. Responding to his comments, Adulrasheed Mohammed writing in Vanguard said:“What the people want and have failed to get from their leaders are; access to education, potable water, health facility and infrastructure but the language our leaders understand is sharing - which must be why they are fighting over the oil in faraway places rather than develop agriculture which used to be the mainstream of the region’s economy in the past.”

Remarkably, the benefit of the

,

Are the governors using the Dichotomy Abrogation Act to mobilise the northern political establishment?

Interestingly, the two men are in the forefront of those speculated to be interested in vying against President Goodluck Jonathan in the 2015 presidential election.

Are the governors using the Dichotomy Abrogation Act to mobilise the northern political establishment? That may indeed be a tricky path as it would give them extremist credentials that may make them unsellable to the rest of the country.

Recounting the events that led to the passage of the abrogation bill, Kwankwanso said:“I remember...of course Obasanjo refused to sign the (initial) bill because it was not fair and it was taken back to the National Assembly for two-thirds (to override the veto).

“The night before (the veto override) there was nothing I did not do to my members in Kano, especially. In fact, the night before Senator Gemade, then national chairman of the PDP, called me, and also called all the governors in the North to beg us to talk to all our members, seeing that our members were going to give two thirds to the bill. I called all our members but to my

Northern states arising from the reintroduction of the dichotomy remains debatable.

It has been suggested that Kano State for example may not get more than N180 million monthly to the estimated N4.7 billion it gets if the dichotomy is reintroduced as it would only shave off about N25 billion from the littoral states which is the amount derivable for offshore derivation as at July 2012. If that N25 billion is taken away from the littoral states it would not go to the Northern states but would be taken to the federation account for redistribution.

Whether that amount is worth instigating a battle from the littoral states and re-igniting the whole clamour for resource control and fiscal federalism is an issue that those championing the reintroduction of dichotomy would have to contend with in the immediate future. The other issues of pollution and other negative environmental impacts of oil production whether offshore or onshore, would meanwhile continue to be an issue for the littoral states alone to contend with!

Vanguard, THURSDAY, AUGUST 30, 2012—61

Hold Obasanjo responsible for dichotomy crisis — Yakassai

BY SONI DANIEL

R

ENEWED agitation by Northern governors for the review of the controversial onshore/offshore dichotomy has been blamed on the refusal of former President Olusegun Obasanjo to adhere strictly to the Supreme Court verdict on the matter.

Former Presidential Adviser, Alhaji Tanko Yakassi, said northern governors would not have resurrected the issue by calling for a review to give them more money, if the government had implemented the apex court ruling that oil-producing states should not be paid money for offshore oil.

The northern political leader and activist told Vanguard in an exclusive interview on Tuesday that Obasanjo should be asked to account for why he introduced politics into a purely legal matter.

Yakassi said, “the matter has never been laid to rest because what is being done about the issue is not what the Supreme Court ruled. The decision of the court was that no state should earn revenue from the continental shelf. The court stated clearly that no state has any claim to offshore oil.

“So, as far as the ruling of the Supreme Court is concerned, the onshore/offshore dichotomy is still subsisting. But running

Continues from Wednesday

BY ANIEKAN UMANAH

I

N terms of actually putting more funds in the coffers of the states now agitating for the reintroduction of onshore/offshore dichotomy, some people do not appear to have got their arithmetic right, at least, in costbenefit terms.

Given the sheer size of the federal share of any additional revenues from the re-instatement of onshore/offshore dichotomy, the actual residue of funds that will end up in the coffers of States will have marginal impact, at best.

By way of illustration, we may take a typical month like July, 2012, when total derivation from oil production amounted to N41.3 billion. Of this amount, offshore production accounted for 61 per cent (and onshore 39 per cent).

With the threatened reinstatement of the onshore/ offshore dichotomy, the additional amount available for distribution would be N24 billion.

Distributed between the various tiers of government, not only would the Federal Government receive a disproportionately large share but the actual monies going

away from implementing the verdict of the apex court, the then President Obasanjo opted for what he called ‘political solution’ by setting up a committee headed by Chief Tony Anenih to find a solution to the complaints by the oil-producing states that they had been shortchanged by the judgment.

Supreme Court ruling on onshore/offshore “Clearly, against the unambiguous verdict of the court, they are now paying huge sums of money to oil-bearing states not minding whether they are onshore or offshoreproducing. That is just the reason why some people are arguing that the Supreme Court verdict should be obeyed.

Campaigning for 2015 The elder statesman berated those who are campaigning for the 2015 Presidency, describing them as diversionary and enemies of the people.

According to him, it was wrong for Nigerians to begin to put pressure on the political system by talking about the election instead of pressing the government at the federal and state levels to perform and deliver on their campaign promises to the people.

Power generation,

should rule them and where the person should come from. But now, it is time for development, to p r o v i d e employment for the citizens and to i m p r o v e infrastructure.

“Why are we in a terrible hurry?

Why don’t we concentrate on p o w e r generation, improvement of agriculture and so on? These are the areas that will change the fortunes of the average Nigerian for the better and not where *Yakassai: Obasanjo should be held somebody comes responsible from and all that.

Therefore, any agriculture: “To me, it is rather discussion on 2015 Presidency for too early for any sane Nigerian now is nothing but a great to begin to talk about 2015 now. disservice to the nation and its As far as I am concerned, any talk people. We should desist from it,” about 2015 now is a clear he cautioned. diversion of attention of the He also dismissed as government. I want Nigerians to untenable the impression that rather focus attention on this Boko Haram attacks have government-both federal and destroyed the economy of the states, to deliver on the promises North, claiming that only 18 out they made to the electorate last of the 774 Local Government year. When the time comes, the Areas in the country were affected Nigerian people will decide who

by the violence, which has not in anyway affected the region.

According to him, the violence that has erupted in the country affects all parts of Nigeria and not the North alone due to the fear by investor not to put down their money in a conflict area. He continued, “I have done an analysis of the local government areas affected by the violence and I have found out that only 18 LGAs out of the total of 774 LGAs in Nigeria. That does not constitute even one percent of 774 LGAs in Nigeria.

Insurgency hasn’t affected northern economy Therefore, one cannot draw any conclusion that the crisis has affected the economy of any region in Nigeria. What is happening is that because of the violence, people who would have brought in their money to invest in Nigeria are afraid to do so.

“It does not affect a particular region but the whole of Nigeria.

Therefore, it is the economy of Nigeria that is suffering from the crisis and not that of any particular region of the country.

In any case, the economy of the north is based on agriculture and livestock, and people are farming and cattle rearers are rearing their cattle.

“Any objective assessor would agree that violence in the area is subsiding because there has been no reduction in the quantity of farm produce and livestock from the farming belts in the north to the areas of consumption in other parts of the country.

Whatever was being produced in the rural areas is still being produced and one can say that there is disruption of economic activities as a result of violence.

ONSHORE/OFFSHORE DICHOTOMY:

A threat to Nigeria’s survival (2) to the states would be less than N150 million each, on the average.

Thus, a state like Kano that received an allocation of N4.7 billion would perhaps have an additional N180 million, a sum the lack of which can by no means be said to be responsible for lack of development in Kano.

If poverty is as excruciating and widespread in the North as it has become fashionable to declare that it is, and if Northern leaders have now been imbued with an unaccustomed passion for development, the foregoing analysis indicates that their energies would be more meaningfully channeled into ensuring, for instance, that the share of revenue going to the central government is reduced from the roughly 50 percent it is today to something more reasonable.

Since our concern is revenue, it may not be our place to say so but others have had cause to point out that the development challenges of the North may

have as much to do with funding as with socio-cultural issues that have impeded progress on such key fronts as education, health and modernization in general.

Again, Northern leaders would do well to exercise themselves in this direction. The result might surprise them.

The other major point to make concerns the wider agenda of those pushing for the reinstatement of onshore/offshore dichotomy and the response to same from the geopolitical region that stands to lose the most, from such a development.

With an increasing proportion of oil industry activities moving offshore, the wider agenda is obviously to limit the share of derivation revenues going to the Niger Delta States.

Whether this agenda is driven by pettiness or a mistaken belief that the oil-bearing states do not deserve the benefit of their natural patrimony is not entirely clear. What is not in doubt is that those who have long deprived the Niger Delta of their due have

little to show for their wickedness.

During the many years when derivation principle was 1 per cent and the federal government kept all offshore revenues, the Northern States did not become mini Asian tigers. There is nothing to suggest that a return to past injustice will suddenly render Northern States models of development.

Available records indicate that between January and May, 2012, offshore production represented 49 per cent of total attributable production for Delta; 63.7 per cent for Rivers; and 97.8 per cent for Ondo.

The time may not be too far off when most states will be close to where Akwa Ibom State is today in terms of offshore oil production. In the circumstance, littoral states have a lot to gain by confronting this new threat to their well-being as a united political force.

When all the facts are in, the conclusion is inescapable that some people somewhere have

*Jonathan little or no interest in the survival of Nigeria as a single country.

The people of oil bearing states have long gone past the point where they can be brow-beaten to give up what is theirs. Those whose stock-in-trade remains to manipulate, oppress and marginalize need to be reminded that nothing less than the very existence of Nigeria is at stake. *Umanah, Akwa Ibom State Commissioner for Information and Communications wrote from Uyo

Concluded

62—

Vanguard, THURSDAY, AUGUST 30, 2012

Falconet’s scoring machine dreams a place in Nollywood N

I G E R I A ’ s Francisca Ordega has scored four goals in helping her side reach the last eight of the FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup Japan 2012, including a hat-trick against Italy in the final match in Group B. Far from resting on her laurels, however, the inform forward is still going over a chance she spurned against the Italians.

“I don’t know how I could have missed it,” she asks herself in the company of FIFA.com. “If five chances come my way, I should do my very best to take all of them.”

It might sound as if the Nigerian is being too hard on herself, but given the objectives she has set, she has no option but to be demanding.

The first of those targets was to reach the second round at Japan 2012, one Nigeria have achieved thanks in no small part to Ordega’s finishing.

“When you’re a striker you have days when you feel great and you sense that every ball you touch is going to turn to gold,” she said after her performance against Italy, which ensured Nigeria top spot in the section and a quarterfinal date with Mexico.

“I’ve been dreaming of this moment. I’ve been working hard for it and the dream has now become a reality.”

Let’s dance The next objective is to combine personal success with a team triumph. Losing finalists at Germany 2010, the Falconets are determined to go one step further this time around, none more so than the Rivers Angels striker, who was not on duty in Germany two years ago but has already endured her fair share of disappointments in her young career.

On the losing side in the last eight at the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup Trinidad & Tobago 2010, she also formed part of the Nigeria squad that exited the FIFA Women’s World Cup Germany 2011™ at

Our girls are U-20s — Omagbemi

BY KATE OBODO, Tokyo

N

RIDING HIGH — Francisca Ordega avoids a sliding tackle in one of her matches at the African Women championship.

the group stage, bitter experiences that she hopes to use to guide her less seasoned teammates to the top.

“I’ve been trying to encourage them all the way but the best thing you can do is to lead by example,” said Ordega, an Arsenal fan who draws her inspiration from Thierry Henry, Fernando Torres and Abby Wambach. “I give my very best because youngsters look up to the more experienced players and try to follow in their footsteps.”

The trail Ordega is blazing seems to be an easy one for her colleagues to follow, never more so than when she launches herself into one of the celebratory dances that follow her goals, an art she was able to perfect against the Italians: “That dance isn’t rehearsed at all. It’s just an instinctive thing that turned out that way,” she explained with a burst of laughter. “It’s a Nigerian dance called Azonto and I do it with my friends.”

From Tokyo to H o l l y w o o d Dancing and goalscoring are not Ordega’s only talents.

As the multi-faceted star explained, her love of the limelight could well take her career in a different direction. “My dream is to be an actress,” she said in deadly earnest. “As soon as I hang up my boots I hope to make it in acting. I’m going to start taking classes this year, after the World Cup.” Right now, though,

Ordega is in no mood to rush things, content as she is to take each objective as it comes. “I need to achieve things one at a time and not get ahead of myself,” she said before announcing, with a firm sense of conviction in her voice: “I think we can lift the trophy. After that I can start thinking about something new.”

When asked if she had

a preference for being a successful actress or the best striker in the world, her answer was immediate: “Why choose between the two? Best striker one day, best actress the next.”

Whatever the future holds for Francisca Ordega, should her story ever make it on to the silver screen, there is no question who would be playing the starring role.

ATIONAL U-20 Wo m e n ’ s t e a m ’ assistant coach, Florence Omagbemi has denied suggestions that the present crop of players in the team were above the required age allowed for the competition.

In a chat with Sports Vanguard in Tokyo, Omagbemi said, “ we do not have the right to accuse players concerning their ages. We only get their true ages from their parents and birth certificates. In other words, we worked according to the information they gave us and we believe they are the real under 20 team.”

Omagbemi, the longest women national team captain in the history of Nigerian football believes in the ability of the U-20 squad to better the performance of their predecessors, and go all the way and win the trophy in Japan.

As the girls file out against Mexico this morning, the former Nigerian international told Sports Vanguard that “We are ready. For now, everybody is okay and ready to battle Mexico.”

Continuing, Omagbemi said, “One thing

we have been able to do so far in this competition is not to underrate any team. Mexico, no doubt is a good team but then, playing with them would give us a better stand in the competition.

“So far, we have been able to correct some mistakes noticed in the last game especially our ball possession and our finishing . We are not going to depend on one player to score for us. That is why we are working in all departments.”

Beyond Mexico, the former national team skipper said, “ we are fit and ready for the World Cup in Japan.

Everybody is okay and ready to go. The trophy is our target.”

•Omagbemi

It’ll be an interesting match — Mexico

N

•GOAL MACHINE — Francisca Ordega

IGERIA made a searing impression during the group stage as they took firm control of all three matches, even if they were pegged back late on in their 1-1 draw with Brazil. Attacking trio Desire Oparanozie, Esther Sunday and Francisca Ordega work excellently together, while further back the Falconets boast a solid defence and a goalkeeper in Ibubele Whyte who has coped admirably with the little work she has been presented with.

That formula might have intimidated Mexico a few days ago, but the El Tri look a different proposition now, having succeeded in combining defensive strength with a clinical edge going forward. Those qualities helped the North American contenders down Switzerland 2-0 and New Zealand 4-0 after their campaign began with a punishing defeat by Japan.

Mexico forward Sofia Huerta said “It will be an interesting match because they have qualities we don’t and vice versa. The key will be confidence and intelligence. They’re a strong and athletic team, so we’ll need to be cleverer to keep up with them.

We have to realise that, for Mexico, it’s now or never.”

Vanguard, THURSDAY, AUGUST 30, 2012 —63

Keshi gives foreign-based Eagles Monday deadline A

LL invited foreign based players for the September 8, clash against the Lone Star of Liberia in Monrovia, are expected in camp latest Monday, September 3, 2012, Head Coach, Stephen Okechukwu Keshi has said.

Keshi, who spoke during the weekly media interaction with the team at the Bolton White Apartment camp, said only a few of the players are expected on Monday, as most of them who have Saturday games would have joined the home based stars by Sunday evening. “I can only categorically talk of Efe Ambrose, who has a game on Sunday and is expected on Monday, others will have arrived to join us so that we can have up to four or five training sessions together before we face Liberia”, he said.

‘Big boss’ as Keshi is fondly called also declared that his wish along with that of the NFF is for the team to leave the country 24 hours before the game and come back immediately after, so as to avoid any antics of the hosts.

He also took time off to congratulate two of the home based stars, Uche Kalu, who recently signed a professional contract with a Turkish second division side and dimunitive, Ejike Uzoenyi, who is presently in talks with top French side, Marseille SC. “They have been consistent with us for eight months and the idea is for them not to rush into slave contracts, as had been the case, if they are beginning to get attention from clubs abroad, we are happy for them, because they will enrich

the national team and also better the lives of their families. I wish them the best, but the two of them are expected early for the game against Liberia”, he said.

•Super Eagles in training.

•Keshi

NFF, SuNMap unite against malaria

T

HE leadership of Nigeria Football Federation has enthusiastically teamed up with SuNMap (Support To National Malaria Programme) to battle the dreaded killer disease in the country.

At a meeting with representatives of the programme in Abuja on Wednesday, NFF President Aminu Maigari said

the football-governing body was open to collaboration with such movements and action programmes for noble causes.

“Your campaign is a welcome development, and the Nigeria Football Federation is happy to collaborate with you. We’re fully behind NFF, SuNMap Unite Against Malaria every

Mourinho battles Pardew over Debuchy

N

•Debuchy

Dembele passes Spurs medical

F

ULHAM have con firmed Moussa Dembele has passed his medical at Tottenham and is

set to move to White Hart Lane for an undisclosed fee.

It was confirmed on Tuesday night a fee had

Messi, Ronaldo Continues from BP discover which of the stellar trio will receive the prestigious accolade.

The award - renamed the Best Player in Europe Award last year to replace the Club Footballer of the Year

effort that will battle this killer disease called malaria. We will not only afford you some pitch panels for your campaign at our African Nations Cup and World Cup qualifying matches, we will be ready to allow you access to some of our star players and Coaches for your campaign,” said Maigari.

gong previously bestowed on David Beckham, Kaka and Zinedine Zidane among others - is currently in the possession of Messi, who won by a landslide 12 months ago.

All three finalists have a strong claim

been agreed for the Belgian international after he was left out of the Fulham squad for their Capital One Cup defeat at Sheffield Wednesday.

Dembele is viewed as a Spurs replacement for Luka Modric. after his sale to Real Madrid.

•Dembele

EWCASTLE have been dealt a blow in their attempt to sign Mathieu Debuchy after Real Madrid launched a rival bid for the Lille defender.

The Barclays Premier League side have been chasing the France international all summer and hoped that their final £6million offer would be enough - especially if Lille fail to make the lucrative group stage of the Champions League.

But Jose Mourinho remains in the market for a right back before Friday’s transfer deadline and has turned to Debuchy with a bid that could be hard to refuse.

Spanish newspaper Marca claims that Madrid would be willing to pay as much as £9.5m for the 27-yearold.

Mourinho has few alternatives to Alvaro Arbeloa at right back and had earlier tried to land Maicon from his former side Inter Milan.

Turks want Essien T

U R K I S H CHANCE ...

Chelsea midfielder Essien MICHAEL ESSIEN is being lined up for a £10million move to Turkish giants Fenerbahce.

The Chelsea midfielder, 29, missed most of last season through injury and has fallen out of favour with boss Roberto Di Matteo.

The Blues have signed Eden Hazard, Oscar, Marko Marin and Victor Moses this summer, with Di Matteo going for a younger line-up in the

•Essien

middle of the park.

Fenerbahce see Essien as a key capture if they are to maintain a Champions League place.

They host Spartak Moscow in tonight’s playoff second leg seeking to overturn a 2-1 deficit.

The Turkish Cup holders also want the Ghana international to help them win the league title back from arch-rivals Galatasaray.

They see powerhouse Essien as the successor to ex-Newcastle star Emre, who has left for Atletico Madrid.

VANGUARD, THURSDAY, AUGUST 30, 2012

European Player of the Year

Messi, Ronaldo or Iniesta?

TODAY’S MATCHES Tokyo

Nigeria Vs Mexico

08 a.m.

Tokyo

Japan Vs S/Korea

11.30 a.m.

Saitama

Korea DPR Vs USA

11.30 a.m.

Saitama

Germany Vs Norway

08 a.m.

Falconet's Ordega dreams a place in Nollywood — Page 62

•Ronaldo

•Iniesta

We’ll disarm Mexico, Okon promises

BY KATE OBODO, Tokyo

C

•Desire Oparanozie TODAY'S

PUZZLE

HIEF coach of the U20 female team Edwin Okon has said that his girls are capable of disarming the Mexicans in today’s game and could also make it all through the competition..

Okon told a pre-match media conference on Wednesday, at the National Stadium in Tokyo that ,” I’m convinced that my girls would make it in tomorrow’s YESTERDAY'S

ANSWERS

(today) game, I’m also sure they are better and capable of going all the way to the final of competition”.

He said that he has worked on the mistakes of the last game against Italy which Nigeria won 40 and now more confident that the girls would make Nigerians proud.

For Francisca Ordega, scorer of a hat-trick against Italy, getting to the quarterfinal was a dream come

ACROSS 1 Leap (6) 5 Business (6) 8 Produce (8) 9 Misplace (4) 10 Individual (3) 12 Belt (5) 15 Nourished (3) 17 Allow (3) 18 Sick (3) 19 Tag (3) 20 Should (5) 21 Tavern (3) 22 Scull (3) 23 Tin (3) 24 Novel (3) 26 Tally (5) 29 Merry (3) 33 Pay (4) 35 Floor (6) 36 Substitute (6)

through. And having this this stage, she promised to score more goals. “When you’re a striker you have days when you feel great and you sense that every ball you touch is going to turn to gold,” she said after yesterday’s training session.

“I’ve been dreaming of this moment. I’ve been working hard for it and the dream has now become a reality.”

The team practiced penalty shoot-outs in case the match will be so decided.

•Messi

T

HE 32-strong long list has been painstakingly whittled down to just three and today we will discover who was the best player in Europe last season.

The three shortlisted – Andrés Iniesta, Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo – have already beaten off competition from some of the finest footballers on the continent – and the bizarrely included Les Davies, of Welsh side Bangor.

And as part of the glittering Champions League group stage draw in Monaco, we will Continues on Page 63

DOWN 2 Groom (5) 3 Thought (4) 4 Allowance (5) 5 Boxing ring (5) 6 Rasp (4) 7 Outcome (5) 10 Frequently (5) 11 Jostle (5) 12 Tempest (5) 13 Correct (5) 14 Toss (5) 15 Throw (5) 16 Fop (5) 25 Precise (5) 27 Liberally (5) 28 Offspring (5) 30 Proficient (5) 31 Kit (4) 32 Gambol (4)

YESTERDAY'S SOLUTIONS ACROSS: 1, Brag 4, Fig 6, Seek 8, Horrid 9, Wrench 10, Eon 12, Stiff 14, Break 15, Fiend 18, Tavern 20, Assume 24, Demon 26, False 28, Burst 30, Sly 32, Cajole 33, Auburn 34, Stir 35, Mud 36, Deed.

How to Play Sudoku

THE VIGILANTE

DOWN: 2, Roost 3, Giraffee 4, Fade 5, Gown 6, Spear 7, Exclaim 11, Own 12, Sot 13, Fir 16, End 17, Dam 19, Adamant 21, Sob 22, Snubbed 23, Eat 25, Eel 27, Scour 29, Spree 30, Seem 31, Yard.

e-mail: rowolove@yahoo.co.uk

Place a number (1-9) in each blank cell. (No line can have two of the same number).

Each row (nine lines from left to right), column, (also nine lines from top to bottom) and 3 X 3 block within a bold block (nine blocks) contains number from 1 through 9. This means that no number can appear twice in any block, column or row.

No mathematics is involved – no adding, subtraction, division or multiplication, just plain logic and your imagination.

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