Tuesday, January 5th, 2016 Edition

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Tuesday, January 5, 2016 / Rabi’ul Awwal 24, 1437 AH

631 Days after Will the abducted Chibok schoolgirls ever be rescued?

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Army releases 123 detained Qur’an memorizers

Vol. 21 No. 84 N150

page 7

Buhari, IMF MD meet today over economy page 2

As Naira falls to 265 against dollar

News Arms deal: NPAN writes EFCC, clarifies payments pAGE 3

Global stock market crashes amid Middle East crisis

A petrol station attendant (left), dispensing with the old pump price of N87.00 at a station in Madalla, Niger state.

A pump attendant selling Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) at the new price of N86.50 per liter at a major station on Herbert Macaulay Way, Central Business District, yesterday in Abuja.

A major oil marketer’s retail outlet on Herbert Macaulay Way showing compliance with the new petroleum pump price of N86.50 for Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), yesterday in Abuja.

NNPC Mega Station’s display board showing the new pump price of N86.00 for Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), yesterday at the Central Business District, in Abuja.

Photos: NAN

pAGE 5

No Boko Haram victory without Chibok girls - #BBOG pAGE 3

Report of CV submission for employment a scam - FG page 2

PEOPLES DAILY, tuesday, january 5, 2016

PAGE 2

News CONTENTS News 2-10 Editorial 11 Op.Ed 12 Letters 13 Politics 15-18 Business Stockwatch

19-22 23

S/Report 24-25 Islam 26 Int’l 27-29

Governor Abdulaziz Yari Zamfara to employ 2, 800 sanitation workers Page 14

Metro 31-33 Money Sense 34 Strange World 35 Digest 36 Vogue 39-40 Sports 41 Columnist 48

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Buhari, IMF MD meet today over economy

By Ese Awhotu

P

resident Muhammadu Buhari and Ms. Christine Lagarde, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), will today hold talks on the impact of the dwindling oil prices on the Nigerian economy as well as other challenges.

The talks are expected to hold at the State House, Abuja as Ms Lagarde arrived Nigeria yesterday on a 4 day visit. Her visit also extends to Cameroon.

A statement by IMF on Monday online, said during Lagarde’s visit, she will engage with policy makers and other stakeholders in both countries and from the region and to underline the IMF’s strong relationship with its African member countries.

The statement said that, the visit to Nigeria will provide an opportunity to strengthen the

Fund’s partnership with the largest economy in sub-Saharan Africa. In Abuja, Ms. Lagarde will meet with President Muhammadu Buhari and other senior leaders, along with business leaders, prominent women, and representatives of civil society.

She will also meet with legislators.

“I look forward to productive meetings with President Buhari and his colleagues as they address important economic challenges, most importantly the impact of low oil prices,” Ms. Lagarde said ahead of her trip. “Nigeria is working hard to improve its business environment, promote opportunities for growth in the private sector, and strengthen social cohesion, all areas where the government has an important role to play.”

In Cameroon, Ms. Lagarde will meet President Paul Biya and his economic team, as well as private sector executives, women leaders, and other members of

Cameroonian society. She will also meet with Finance Ministers from the six member countries of the Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa (CEMAC), delivering a speech to the group on January 8.

“As the largest and most diversified economy in CEMAC, Cameroon is well placed to sustain, and reinforce, the momentum of integration,” Ms. Lagarde said. “The country and the entire CEMAC region are confronted with the twin shocks of the oil-price slump and a surge in disruptions related to security. Reinforcing regional integration and implementing ambitious reform agendas in CEMAC countries will be key to secure macroeconomic stability and restore strong and inclusive growth in the region.”

Meanwhile, the Naira on Monday depreciated by 0.8 per cent to exchange at N265 to the dollar at the parallel market.

NAN reports that the greenback lost N2 to the dollar from its weekend value of N263.

However, at the official interbank window, the naira exchanged at N197 to the dollar.

Traders at the market were hopeful that the naira would rebound in 2016 if the apex bank continued to enforce its policies at the foreign exchange market.

Besides, the price of crude oil at the international market hedged up to 38.9 dollars per barrel from about 35.7 dollars per barrel at the weekend.

Oil prices rose on Monday after a breakdown in diplomatic ties between Saudi Arabia and Iran that some speculated could result in supply restrictions.

Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest oil exporter, cut diplomatic ties with Iran on Sunday in response to the storming of its embassy in Tehran following Riyadh’s execution of a prominent Shi’ite cleric on Saturday.

Report of CV submission for employment a scam-FG

By Mashe Umaru Gwamna

T

he Federal Government yesterday debunked reports that it has called for the submission of Curriculum Vitae (CV) by unemployed youths to the Ministry of Labour and Employment for employment.

Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, who denied the reports yesterday in Abuja in a statement signed by the Deputy Director of

Press in the Ministry, Samuel Olowookere, called on Nigerians to disregard such reports.

Ngige warned that, “Any person who does otherwise does so at his or her own risk”.

The statement said that, “the attention of the minister had been drawn to the online publication requesting unemployed Nigerian youths to submit application for employment in the ministry.

“The online publication requested unemployed Nigerian youths to submit the

CVs at the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment Headquarters and its Zonal offices nationwide.”

Ngige advised the public to disregard this false directive as it did not emanate from the Federal Government through the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment.

“In view of the apprehension the above false information has generated, it is pertinent to point out that the present administration is committed to the creation of decent

employment opportunities for the teeming unemployed Nigerians.”

He said that the federal government had perfected plans for massive job creation through well thought out programmes such as Graduate Teachers Conversion Programme and Graduate Internship Scheme (GIS), among others.

The minister said the general public would be informed in due course when any of these programmes/scheme would be rolled out.

Police deny allegation of lopsided recruitment

By Joy Baba Yesufu

A

uthorities of the Nigerian Police have denied reports making the round in some media that there has been lopsidedness in recent promotion, posting of Senior Police officers amongst others.

The reports also accused the Inspector-General of Police of giving preferential treatment to Police officers from a particular part of the country.

A statement signed by the Force Public Relations Officer ACP Bisi Kolawole said the Police authorities wish to categorically state that, there is no iota of truth in the reports as promotion of senior officers are done by Police Service Commission and not by

the Office of the IGP. The statement also said postings of Assistant InspectorsGeneral of Police to Zonal Commands and Commissioners of Police to State Commands are made by the same body that is saddled with the oversight functions on the Nigeria Police Force based on recommendation of the IGP, who knows the operational competence and chemistry of the officers.

“It is also a fact that promotion in the Force is primarily based on availability of vacancies, seniority and merit. All promotions are subject to satisfying minimum requirements set by Police Service Commission and availability of vacancies.

“For avoidance of doubt, the

recent promotions released by the PSC indicate as follows: CP to AIG - 1 (N/Central), DCP to CP - 5 (N/East 2; N/West 2; S/ West 1), Ag DCP to DCP - 2 (N/East 2), Ag ACP to ACP - 4 (N/West 1; N/Central 1; S/West 1; S/East1 ), CSP to ACP - 20 (N/Central 6; N/West 5; N/East 2, Rivers 1; S/East 4; S/South 1; S/West1), PMF Squadron Commanders: 59 Commanders across the country (N/East 8; N/ Central 8; N/West 14; S/South 11; S/West 11; S/East 7),IGP Secretariat, Senior Police Officers (N/Central 5; N/East 3; S/West 1; S/East1)”, the statement said.

Kolawole further said allegations of irregularities in posting of Police officers are unfounded even as posting to

offices is informed by personnel’s capability and competence. The IGP views the allegations not only as malicious but also capable of creating disaffection among officers.

The FPRO said in view of the current security challenges facing the country, the IGP called on all good people of Nigeria to disregard any report capable of causing distraction especially now that all efforts should be galvanized towards national security in the New Year.

“He, however, enjoined journalists to uphold the ethical standards of their noble profession and charged them to verify their facts before going to press or on air” the statement added.

PEOPLES DAILY, tuesday, january 5, 2016

PAGE 3

News

No Boko Haram victory without Chibok girls -#BBOG

By Mashe Umaru Gwamna

T

he #BringBackOurGirls movement yesterday said that the Federal Government cannot claim victory over Boko Haram without rescuing the abducted Chibok girls.

The movement also said it

would be marching to the State House, Abuja, on January 14 to re-engage with President Muhammadu Buhari.

According to the movement in a statement signed by its coordinators, Aisha Yesufu, Oby Ezekwesili, and Hadiza Bala Usman on Monday, expected to participate in the march are the

families of the kidnapped Chibok girls, the Chibok community, and sympathisers of the girls who were abducted from Government Secondary School, Chibok, in April 2014.

“We shall meet at Unity Fountain as from 8.30 a.m. that day to proceed on the march. We have already despatched a letter to

the president, duly acknowledged

by State House officials.”, they said.

The movement expressed disappointment at the fact that President Buhari in his NewYear message to the nation did not mention issues such as the rescue of the abducted Chibok girls and other citizens in Boko Haram captivity.

L-R: Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, Managing Director, International Monitoring Fund (IMF), Ms. Christine Lagarde, and Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr. Godwin Emefiele, during the arrival of the IMF Managing Director for working visit to Nigeria, yesterday in Abuja. Photo: Mahmud Isa

Operation Lafiya Dole, 7 Division new commanders resume

By Joy Baba Yesufu

T

he outgoing Theater Commander of Operation Lafiya Dole, Major General Yushau Abubakar has described officers and men of the theater as heroes, as many of them have put their lives on the line in defence of the nation.

General Abubakar who is now Chief of Training and Operation of the Nigerian Army Headquarters stated this during while handing to the new Theatre Commander Major General Hassan Umaru “I consider all of you as my heroes, as all of you have contributed to the feat we achieved in the war against insurgency within the

theater. My redeployment to the Army headquarters is an indication of the confidence the military high command have in us and I urge you to extend the gesture to my successor.”

Also handing over, the General Officer Commanding (GOC), 7 Division of the Nigerian Army, Maiduguri, Major General Lamidi Adeosun urged officers and men of

the Division to cooperate with his successor, Brigadier General Victor Ezugwu, who he described as a fine infantry officer that will continue the good work until the terrorists are completely wiped out.

Major General Lamidi Adeosun is going to Multinational Joint TaskForce (MNJTF) with headquarters in Chad.

Bayelsa guber: Sylva replies Dickson, says he is a dictator From Isaac Money, Yenagoa.

C

hief Timipre Sylva, APC candidate for Bayelsa state supplementary election has replied Governor Seriake Dickson, saying that he is not surprised at the Governor’s outbursts as he’s a sinking ship that is looking for straws to hold.

Governor Dickson had in a world press conference in Yenagoa Monday drawn Chief Sylva to the moods.

Replying Dickson through Chief Nathan Egba, Director of Media and Publicity of the Sylva/ Igiri Campaign organisation, Chief Sylva noted that even before Dickson uttered the first sentence, anybody that is familiar with Governor’s “public speeches since last year can guess fairly accurately the things, if not the exact words he will use”.

“He has no other issue to discuss other than that Chief Sylva and the APC perpetrated violence and used the security agencies, the Presidency and other top federal officials to influence the outcome of the election”, said Sylva, stressing “In the same breadth he is claiming an unassailable lead, having according to him, won in 6 out of 7 LGA results so far declared and that he has the total support of the people of Southern Ijaw LGA”.

He wondered why Dickson is “still embattled and running from pillar post, holding press briefings and radio broadcasts almost on daily basis. Why did he go to beg the Presidency to be allowed to win in Southern Ijaw LGA in return for decamping to the APC?” “Bayelsa State has never had a more deceitful, dictatorial, wasteful and divisive Governor such as Henry Seriake Dickson, such that instead of Campaigning on a Pan-Bayelsa platform, Dickson has set about whipping up core-Ijaw and noncore-Ijaw ethnic sentiments within this small Bayelsa State.”, he said.

Arms deal: NPAN writes EFCC, clarifies payments

By Osby Isibor

T

he President, Newspapers Proprietors Association of Nigeria (NPAN) and Chairman Editor-in-Chief, THISDAY Newspapers Group, Nduka Obaigbena has written to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), giving detailed explanations of payments of N670,000,000 received by General Hydrocarbons Ltd on behalf of THISDAY Newspapers Group (N550,000,000) and the Newspapers Proprietors Association of Nigeria (NPAN), for member newspapers ( N120,000,000) from the Federal Government of Nigeria through the Office of the National Security Adviser ( ONSA) between 2014 and 2015.

In a letter dated 30th December, 2015 addressed to the Ag. Executive Chairman of EFCC,

Obaigbena said the N550,000,000 paid to THISDAY was used to defray some 30% of the N1.7billion the organisation already paid to 3rd party printers for services in lieu of the Abuja press.

Obaigbena explained further that NPAN members indeed received the sum of N120,000,000 payments and knew the payments were from the Office of the National Security Adviser.

On whether NPAN members knew that those payments were from arms purchase budget to fight Boko Haram, Obaigbena said, “The NPAN and indeed THISDAY Newspapers and or even General Hydrocarbons Ltd could not have known which budget head payments ordered by the President through the ONSA came from, given that security and intelligence agencies have several payment conventions unknown to the public.

“So any suggestion that payments made to NPAN and THISDAY Newspapers Group were for arms purchase is like calling a dog a bad name in order to hang it; incite the public against us and create panic amongst our members and stakeholders in such an important national institution as the media. We never participated in any arms purchase in any shape or form and only demanded compensation for a horrendous terrorist act against us.

“In the same way, the United Nations and others who may have received some compensation, could not have known the line budget items for the funds being used for the reconstruction of the UN Abuja buildings. Even the Nigerian Guild of Editors, which may have received donations for their secretariat from the ONSA, could not have known

which subhead it was paid from.

We simply cannot know or be expected to speculate which line item the spending was made from by the ONSA. There is simply no nexus between payments made for compensation, to us victims of terrorism as well as to newspapers in compensation for an unprovoked attack on free speech, and any arms purchase budget. It will be of interest to have a full and complete list of all payments made by the ONSA between 2014 and 2015 to make an informed determination and to understand what happened to the over N70 billion in arms budget allotted to the Ministry of Defense for armament; “At the end of the day, we were victims of a horrendous terrorist attack and should not be victimized any further as the terrorists will be celebrating what we are now being put through.

We do not deserve further trauma because some official(s), outside of our control, may or may not have followed due process. All victims of terrorist attack deserve a fair and just compensation.

The fact that we have received some remedy should be reason to accelerate compensation for all victims of Boko Haram attacks across Nigeria however big or small.

“We never wished this upon ourselves. The central purpose of government is the security of life and property of all citizens. And the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights, the United Nations Covenant on Civil and Political Rights as well as other international law instruments and conventions of which Nigeria is a signatory underscores this - and in fact requires that we receive effective remedy and compensation”.

PAGE 4

PEOPLES DAILY, tuesday, january 5, 2016

Page 4 Report

World agape over Saudi execution of Sheikh Nimir, 46 others

By Ese Awhotu

R

eactions have continued to trail the execution of 47 people by Saudi Arabia in one say.

Top United Nations officials have expressed deep dismay and regret over executions by Saudi Arabia of 47 people, including the cleric Sheikh Nimr Baqir al-Nimr, and called on the country’s authorities to commute all death sentences.

“Sheik al-Nimr and a number of the other prisoners executed had been convicted following trials that raised serious concerns over the nature of the charges and the fairness of the process,” Secretary-General Ban Kimoon’s spokesperson said yesterday in a statement, also deploring violence by demonstrators against the Saudi embassy in Tehran.

“The Secretary-General reiterates his strong stance against the death penalty,” it added, noting that Mr. Ban had raised the case of Sheikh al-Nimr with Saudi leaders on a number of occasions.

“He points to the growing movement in the international community for the abolition of capital punishment and urges Saudi Arabia to commute all death sentences imposed in the Kingdom,” the statement noted.

UN News Centre reports that Ban called for calm and restraint in reaction to the execution of Sheikh Nimr and urged all regional leaders to work to avoid exacerbating sectarian tensions.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein stressed the strict requirements for carrying out the death sentence in those countries that still permitted it, including only for the most serious crimes, with a fair trial, full transparency, and the exclusion of confessions obtained under torture, when application of the death penalty is “unconscionable.”

He said he was extremely concerned about the recent sharp increase in executions in Saudi Arabia, with at least 157 people put to death in 2015, compared to 90 executed in 2014, and lower numbers in previous years.

“Now we see almost one-third of the 2015 total executed in a single day,” he emphasized in a statement issued today.

“That is a very disturbing development indeed, particularly as some of those sentenced to death were accused of nonviolent crimes,” High Commissioner Zeid pointed out.

“Generally, I remain very concerned over whether strict due process guarantees, including the right to an effective defence, were met in all cases,” he added, urging the Government to impose a moratorium on all executions and to work with the UN and other partners on alternative strategies to combat terrorism.

Deploring the execution of Sheikh Al-Nimr and any other individual who had not committed a crime viewed “as most serious” under international human rights law, Mr. Zeid stressed that the death penalty may only be imposed, in countries that still permit it, if a strict set of substantive and procedural requirements are met.

Members of Magic Movement, a group of young Bangladeshis, stage a mock execution scene

“The category of ‘most serious crimes,’ for which the death penalty is still permissible, has been consistently interpreted by human rights mechanisms as being restricted to murder and other forms of intentional killing,” he added, noting that he wrote to the Government on Sheikh Al-Nimr’s death sentence last year.

“In addition, the death penalty may only be carried out if there has been stringent respect of due process and fair trial guarantees, and full transparency throughout the process. Convictions cannot be based on confessions obtained under torture and ill-treatment, or trial proceedings that fall short of international standards,” he went on to note.

“The application of the death penalty in these circumstances is unconscionable, as any miscarriage of justice as a result of capital punishment cannot be undone, and no justice system is totally free from human error,” stressed Mr. Zeid.

Since 2007, the UN General Assembly has adopted a series of resolutions calling on States that retain the death penalty to establish a moratorium on executions with a view to abolishing the death penalty altogether.

British Prime Minister, David Cameron has also condemned the execution of 47 prisoners in a single day by Saudi Arabia, but simply repeated the Government

“

press release that they are “opposed to the use of the death penalty under any circumstances”.

The Independent reports that Cameron has s faced widespread criticism for his “shameful” and “extraordinary” silence over the mass executions by the Sunni kingdom, which included killing the prominent Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr alNimr.

According to Independent, asked for the Prime Minister’s reaction, his spokeswoman said: “The Government has set out its position clearly over the weekend and that we’re opposed to the use of the death penalty under any circumstances.”

But the UK Government was maintaining its diplomatic relations with Saudi Arabia, she added.

The Medium reports that Justice Secretary Michael Gove cancelled the UK Government’s £6m contract to provide a training programme for Saudi prisons in October but Labour has urged the Government to break off its judicial relations altogether The Islamic Movement of Nigeria has similarly condemned the executions by Saudi.

In a statement signed by the National President Media Forum of the Islamic Movement, Ibrahim Musa, said that Sheikh Nimr including others also killed

“We condemn in strong terms the execution of the Sheikh, because killing of Ulama of his status who advocate for change in their societies will not augur well for peace and development, the state executioners normally deceive the public that that was what they crave for”, the statement said.

were put to death for offences related to political protest thereby calling the execution horrible.

According to the statement, Sheikh Nimr was known to have advocated only peaceful demonstrations and eschewed all violent opposition to the government in 2011in which three people lost their lives, leading to his arrest in the following year.

“We condemn in strong terms the execution of the Sheikh, because killing of Ulama of his status who advocate for change in their societies will not augur well for peace and development, the state executioners normally deceive the public that that was what they crave for”, the statement said.

More also, the statement said that Saudi Arabia has carried out more than 150 executions last year, the highest figure recorded by human rights groups for 20 years, therefore not surprised by what the Saudi regime did because it has been known for its poor human rights record.

The statement also noted, the group maintained that state sponsored terrorism is what has been killing people who call for diplomatic change like sheikh Nimr and others in Saudi Arabia and other undemocratic regimes across the globe.

However, the group extends their condolences to the Muslims all over the world and the Shia community in Saudi Arabia upon the martyrdom of Sheikh Nimr Baqir al-Nimr, and all the other Shohada of the Ahl al-Bayt in Saudi Arabia, Yemen, India, Iraq, Pakistan, Iran, Lebanon, Syria, Bahrain, Kuwait, Nigeria and Afghanistan Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia has broken diplomatic ties with Iran following attacks on its embassy in Tehran hours after it executed Shiite cleric, Nimr al-Nimr along with others.

Hours after the death sentence was carried out, protesters in Shiite-majority Iran attacked the Saudi Embassy in Tehran. The Saudis cut diplomatic relations with Iran over the attack on its embassy.

PEOPLES DAILY, tuesday, january 5, 2016

News

Buhari commiserates with Kogi over Atta’s death

By Lawrence Olaoye

P

resident Muhammadu Buhari has commiserated with the Government and the people of Kogi State on the death of Dr. Abdul I. Atta.

According to a statement by his Special Adviser on media and publicity, Femi Adedina, Buhari joined them in mourning the former Permanent Secretary in the Northern Region’s Ministry of Health, who will always be remembered as an illustrious civil servant who served his region and country very well with his remarkable medical and administrative skills.

He recalled that Atta treated his patients with great care and compassion, and also administered the Ministries of Health in Northern Nigeria and the old North Central State with exemplary efficiency.

The President urged all who mourned the late doctor and administrator to be comforted by the knowledge that he lived a long, worthy and fulfilled life of service to his country.

He prayed that God Almighty will receive Atta’s soul and grant him peaceful rest.

PAGE 5

Unilorin sacks primary school teachers From Olanrewaju Lawal,Ilorin

T

he Management of University of Ilorin has sacked the teachers at the University’s Primary School as directed by Federal Government.

The Vice-Chancellor of the institution, Professor Abdulganiy Ambali who confirmed this while speaking with journalists in Ilorin said the university received order that its employers were not

interested in the running of the primary school.

Ambali said, the management has no option than to let them go, stressing that the Federal Government could decide in nearest future to retake them.

While speaking on university challenges, the Vice-Chancellor disclosed that fund has been the institution constrain stressing that must of capital projects designed in it plan could not be

executed.

He disclosed that the institution want to build more hostels,classrooms and ease transportation problems.

The Vice-Chancellor noted that since the NUC has granted the University to increase the quota of it new students from 7,000 to 9,000, there was need for more new facilities on campus.

Ambali who disclosed that private investors have been

coming to partner with the university, said a firm, Orange Group has announced that it would construct 5,000 hostel bed spaces in the university.

He said, to resolve erratic power supply on the campus, the university has created Energy centre headed by a Professor to source for alternative power supply stressing that all research products would also be utilise for the benefit of the institution.

Atiku condoles with victims of Yola market fire

By Umar Muhammad Puma

F

ormer Vice President and chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Atiku Abubakar has expressed sadness at the fire that engulfed the popular Yola Central Market, in Yola, Adamawa State.

In a press statement released in Abuja through his media office, the former Vice President says the fire incident is one too many and calls on authorities in charge of public places like markets, schools and factories to be extra vigilant at this period of the year.

The Turaki Adamawa says that fire incidents during this period of harmattan can be quite devastating in its impact because of the prevalence of the dry trade wind blowing from the North east part of the country and which tends to lend a helping hand to otherwise containable fire outbreak to get out of hand.

The APC chieftain recalls that valuable property running into millions and at times human lives have been lost to devastating fires in many parts of the country of recent. He calls on the management of the Yola Central Market and other markets and places of business susceptible to fire outbreaks to work out ways and means of reducing fire outbreaks to the barest minimum.

Atiku Abubakar also challenged the various fire services in the country to improve on the readiness and preparedness to deal with fire outbreaks to reduce losses and the trauma usually caused the victims.

Security personnel digging trenches to safeguard vulnerable communities against Boko Haram terrorists’ attacks, yesterday in Maiduguri.

Photo: NAN

Global stock market crashes amid Middle East crisis From: Ngozi Onyeakusi, Lagos with agency report

G

lobal stock markets tumbled Monday as worries over China’s economy and instability in the Middle East combined to spook investors.The pain was most acute in China, where trading was halted prematurely after weak manufacturing data sent shares plummeting. The benchmark Shanghai Composite shed 6.9%, while the Shenzhen Composite lost more than 8%.

The trading halt was China’s first-ever use of circuit breakers — a kind of emergency brake — on main exchanges.

Elsewhere in Asia, Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 closed down 3.1% while the Hang Seng shed 2.7%.

Crude prices, meanwhile, were volatile on Monday after Saudi Arabia severed diplomatic ties with Iran. Both Iran and Saudi Arabia are major oil-producing countries, and founding members of OPEC. In Europe, markets edged lower in early trading. Germany’s Dax dropped 3.2%, while France’s CAC 40 declined 2.5% and London’s FTSE 100 shed 2%. China is a major buyer of European goods, and trouble in the world’s secondlargest economy put a damper on the first trading session of 2016.

“I didn’t see that coming!” said Kit Juckes, a strategist at Societe Generale. “A dreadful start to the New Year for global market sentiment has seen circuit-breakers in action in the Chinese equity market and highbeta currencies falling across the

board.”

In China, investors were reacting to data that showed tough conditions in the country’s allimportant factory sector.

After improving for two months, a survey conducted by Chinese media group Caixin showed that PMI fell to 48.2 in December from 48.6 the previous month. Any number below 50 represents a deceleration in the factory sector.

While the government’s official manufacturing gauge presented a rosier picture, it is heavily weighted toward large enterprises. The Caixin survey taps a smaller sample size and places greater emphasis on smaller firms.

But economists said the new manufacturing data, while disappointing, does not indicate that China is facing a severe or

unexpected economic slowdown.

“While today’s unofficial manufacturing PMI hints at some further weakness in the manufacturing sector, other indicators suggest that the economy as a whole held up reasonably well last month,” analysts at Capital Economics said.

The country’s new stock circuit breakers were announced by regulators in December.

Starting Monday, a 5% rise or fall on the CSI 300 Index, which tracks stocks in Shanghai and Shenzhen, triggers a 15 minute trading halt. A move of 7% at any time, or 5% in the 15 minutes before markets close, stops trading for the rest of the day.

Circuit breakers are already used on major markets in the U.S. and elsewhere

PEOPLES DAILY, tuesday, january 5, 2016

PAGE 6

News

Former Niger NUJ Chairman loses mother at 93 years

From Minna

T

Yakubu

Mustapha,

he former chairmen of Nigeria Union of Journalists NUJ, Niger

State Council, Mr Iliya Garba on Sunday 3rd January, 2016 lost her mother Mrs Laura Kande Garba aged 93 years old.

Mrs Garba until her death in Minna, Niger State capital, was

a business women, community leader who died at early hours of Sunday has been buried at Wushishi in Wushishi local government area of the state.

She survived with 8 children,

about 18 grand children and 5 great grand children, she was a dedicated Christian who has been buried according to Christian rites at her home town yesterday.

The late mama had been a children teacher who as well adopted many children during her active years of been in the mission field with her late husband Garba Fari Wushishi.

Dry season farming: Kebbi govt. targets one million tons of rice

T

he Kebbi Government has began consultation with rice and wheat farmers ahead of the commencement of the 2016 dry season farming in the state.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the meeting led by the state Deputy Governor, Alhaji Samaila Yombe, involved dry season farmers, finance institutions and other key stakeholders.

He said in Birnin Kebbi on Monday that the aim was to fully mobilise the farmers to harvest more than one million tons of rice at the end of the dry season.

Yombe said that the government had commenced the verification of the 200,000 dry season farmers in the state with a view to providing relevant assistance to them ahead of the season, officially commencing in the next two weeks.

He told the farmers that modalities had been completed for Millers to purchase the commodity directly from farmers and assured that all registered farmers would receive seedlings, chemicals and extension services from the government. ``Efforts had been made between the state and federal government to ensure that petrol is provided at cluster farming centres for constant water supply and ensure that its scarcity did not affect production,’’ he said.

In his remarks at the occasion, the state Chairman, Rice Farmers Association, Alhaji Abubakar Augie, called on the government to ensure uninterrupted supply of petrol to the farmers during the season.

The Programme Manager, Kebbi Agricultural and Rural Development Agency, Alhaji Sanusi Ilo, advised farmers to form cooperatives in order to access Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) loan for commercial production of the commodity.

A cross section of the farmers expressed determination to make success of the initiative and solicited for full support from the government. (NAN)

A woman reacts after she discovered her stall was razed by fire at the Central Market, yesterday in Yola.

Photo: NAN

Fire razes ancient Yola, Benin Timber markets From Umar Dankano, Yola

A

fire outbreak has razed down 90% of the ancient YOLA market in early hours of Monday destroying properties worth billions of naira.

Reports from the destroyed market revealed that the reason for the inferno which started around 2am was yet to be ascertained even though it was said to be from meat sellers section.

Eyewitnesses said that the fire went out of control as initial efforts to extinguished it was stymied by lack of access roads in the market.

A shop owner Mallam Babayola Maijimilla whose shop was also razed down said “the fire started around the middle of the market, efforts by early symphatizers to extinguished it was rebuffed by security operatives who denied them access into the market for fear of looting.

But the situation did not get better even upon the arrival of fire Fighters who find it difficult to gain access to the point of the inferno as the market did not have access roads.

Some of the affected shop owners interviewed said they have lost everything they toiled for in life to the fire incident calling on the government to come to their aid.

Chairman Adamawa Traders Association Ibrahim Mohammad (86) appealed to Federal, State and Local Governments to come to their aid saying that they lost 90 percent of their shops to the inferno.

Adamawa state deputy Governor Martins Babale who was among the early callers at the market said the government will assess the extent of damage with a view to knowing the level of intervention it will give.

Babale called on NEMA, corporate organizations and wealthy individuals to come to the aid of the marketers with a view to cushioning their sufferings.

Similarly, the Speaker Adamawa State House of Assembly Kabir Mijinyawa in whose constituency the market is situated called on the marketers to be patient as the government assesses the level of damage wrought on the market.

He urged them to see the incident as an act of God just as

he promised to do everything in his capacity to ensure that the marketers get succor from the government.

While commenting on the issue Adamawa State Commissioner of Police, Ghazzali Mohammed said he has deployed a number of policemen to provide security and prevent hoodlums from looting properties noting that the effort have yielded results as a number of looters have been arrested.

The Executive Secretary Adamawa State Emergency Management Agency Haruna Hammanfuro said the fire incident was the worst of its kind in the history of the market.

He said they were yet to quantify the extent of damage done to properties although no life was lost.

Also yesterday early in the morning fire outbreak destroyed parts of the `Pipeline Timber Market’ in Benin.

An eyewitness, Mr Precious Emmanuel, told NAN in Benin that the fire started at about 3 a.m., adding that the prompt response of the fire service helped to save some parts of the market. ``We woke up to see that the market was on fire. We believe

that the fire was caused by those boys who smoke Indian hemp in the market.

“The intervention of the state fire service saved the situation.

They responded quickly to the distress call put across to them,’’ Emmanuel said.

Meanwhile, the Chairman of the Pipeline Timber Market, Mr Osaremen Monday, told NAN that the source of the fire was still unknown.

According to Monday, timber and machines worth millions of naira were destroyed in the fire.

He appealed to the state government to assist those whose shops were affected, stressing that the market was their only source of livelihood.

Some of the affected traders, Mr Emmanuel Nwadiwe and Mrs Josephine Okotoe, said they lost over N5 million in the inferno.

In his comments, the state’s Director of Fire Service, Mr Frankly Agbolahor, described the incident as sad, adding however, that the timely intervention of his men saved the day.

“When we got the distress call, our men immediately mobilised to the scene of the fire and put out the fire,” Agbolahor said.

PEOPLES DAILY, tuesday, january 5, 2016

News

Policeman, 23 year-old die in robbery incident in Yenagoa

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he Police in Bayelsa say a policeman attached to the state Command died of gunshot wounds following a gun duel with robbers in Yenagoa on New Year day.

Mr Asinim Butswat, a DSP, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that a five-man robbery gang had attacked and robbed one Evelyn Patrick at Agudama area of Yenagoa on that fateful day shooting dead one Mr Victor Abule, 23, in the process.

He explained that as the robbers tried to escape, they were engaged in a gun duel by a police officer, who shot dead one of them.

“A police officer confronted the armed men and shot dead one of them as they were escaping.

“The officer sustained gunshot wounds and he was rushed to the hospital where he eventually died. ``Efforts have been intensified to arrest the fleeing suspects while investigation into the incident is ongoing.’’ (NAN)

PAGE 7

Military releases 123 detained Quran memorisers From Ahmed Kaigama, Bauchi

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he 123 memorisers of the Holy Qur’an arrested and detained who were suspected to be Boko Haram members by the Military were released yesterday in Yobe.

It would be recalled that a renowned Islamic scholar and leader of followers of Tijjaniyyah Sheikh Dahiru Usman Bauchi at the Maulud urged the Federal Government and military authorities to release his people who are not Boko Haram members.

Sheikh Dahiru Bauchi disclosed this to newsmen while receiving the 123 Quranic memorisers at his residence in Bauchi yesterday , he said,” we appreciate God for the

release of followers of Tijjaniyyah and Holy Quran Memorisers who re-unite with their families in Yobe state.”

“We are so excited over the release of the 123 Quran memorisers detained by the Military for over 60 days, we appreciate God and who ever give us the support to see that these ulamas were release and reunite with their families in Yobe state”, Dahiru said.

Sheik Bauchi lamented that the military has in recent times clamped down on innocent civilians in the name of battle against insurgency The leader of the ‘Tijjaniya’ Islamic sect in Nigeria Sheik charged Nigerian soldiers to

be cautious in their operations in order to avoid human rights violation and unnecessary molestation on innocent citizens.

He alleged that his disciples were performing morning prayers at a mosque in Gaidam town of Yobe state when troop of soldiers pounced on them, handcuffed and flied them in an aero plane to an unknown destination where they were detained for 69 consecutive days ‘even though no any weapon or evidence of their links with the dreaded Boko Haram group was found’.

The cleric who claimed that his followers are always peaceful and law abiding while conducting their religious functions, explained that majority of those apprehended

are qur’anic memorizers calling on the officers of the Nigeria Army to always carry out intensive investigations before making arrests to avoid injustice.

One of the victims Malam Muhammad Mai Rami while narrating his ordeals to newsmen accused the soldiers for separating them with their families for over two months in detention wrongfully and without communication.

He express his appreciation to sheik Dahiru Usman Bauchi who stand with them throughout the period by given all the moral and any other support needed, he also thanks many other personalities that intervened into the matter to exonerate them and secure their release from the military authorities.

Businessman seeks divorce over wife’s disrespect

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businessman, Mr Emmanuel Godwin, on Monday prayed a Mararaba Grade 1 Area Court, Aso Pada, to dissolve his three-year-old marriage over wife’s disrespect.

Godwin of Tudun Wada, Mararaba, Nasarawa State, told the court that his marriage with Sarah, contracted in 2014 has not produced any child.

He also told the court that he tried his best to make his wife happy and make the marriage work, but his wife has not changed. ``The reason of seeking for divorce is to have peace of mind and also have happy times, but my wife does not give me that. ``My wife and I always have misunderstanding and she never respects me as her husband, so why should I keep living with someone like that? ``I am just tired of the union and I pray the court to grant my wish of divorce,’’ he added.

The respondent, Sarah, denied the allegations and said that she was not ready to divorce her husband because she still loves him. ``I was surprised when I got the court summon because he never told me anything that has to do with divorce. ``I pray the court to give us more time to try and reconcile, I don’t want to lose my husband,’’ Sarah said.

The Judge, Mr Albert Maga, directed Sarah to visit her parentsin-law, along with her parents, for possible reconciliation.

Maga adjourned the case till Jan. 13, for the report of settlement or judgment. (NAN)

Professor Hawaii Biu (left), who represented wife of the President, Hajiya Aisha Buhari, presenting relief materials to beneficiaries during distribution of special packages to 1,250 internally displaced women, on Sunday in Maiduguri.

Photo: NAN

Man, 47, docked for N1m land fraud in Abuja

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47-year-old man, Uzoma Kalu, who allegedly obtained N1 million on the pretext of selling a plot of land to another man, was on Monday brought before a Wuse Zone 2 Senior Magistrates’ Court, Abuja.

Kalu was, however, remanded in prison custody until the next date of adjournment.

The accused, whose address is unknown, is facing a two-count charge of conspiracy and fraud.

Sgt. Christopher Johnson told the court that the case was reported by the complainant, Mr Emmanuel Balogun of Citec Estate, Life Camp at Utako Police Station on Dec. 11.

The prosecutor said the accused

and his accomplice, Emmanuel Chijoke, still at large, conspired and deceived the complainant into paying for a plot of land at Lugbe, Airport Road, Abuja. ``The complainant paid the accused and his accomplice the sum of N1 million for the land. ``After collecting the money,

they absconded until the accused was arrested on Dec. 11,” he said.

The offences contravened Sections 79 and 322 of the Penal Code, Laws of the Federation.

The accused pleaded not guilty.

Magistrate Fatima Bukar adjourned the case to Jan. 18 for further hearing. (NAN)

Rustling: Kano govt. spends N10m on recovered cattle

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he committee set up by the Kano state government to return rustled cattle to their rightful owners has expended over N10 million on the feeding of the recovered animals.

Alhaji Murtala Garo, the Chairman of the committee and Commissioner for Local Government Affairs disclosed this while speaking with newsmen in Kano on Monday.

He said part of the money was also used for the purchase of drugs used for the treatment of the animals as well as ensuring their security.

“The committee has so far received 3, 366 cows, 396 sheep, 11 camels, seven donkeys and four dogs recovered from rustlers”, he said.

Garo explained that committee had so far returned 2, 620 cows to their rightful owners out of the 3, 366 cows recovered from the rustlers in

the state.

According to him, the committee had also returned 199 sheep, three donkeys and two dogs out of the 396 sheep, seven donkeys and four dogs recovered from the hoodlums.

“The committee has so far verified 816 persons out of whom 189 persons have since collected their animals”, he said.

The committee chairman commended the state government

for providing the money used for the upkeep of animals.

“We must commend the state government for providing the money being used to feed the animals as government has directed that no single Kobo should be collected from owners of the animals”, he said.

He also commended various security agencies in the state for their support and cooperation to the committee. (NAN).

PAGE 8

News

Ex-Osun NUJ chair becomes Bishopdesignate

By Mashe Umaru Gwamna

F

ormer Chairman of Osun State Council of Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Pastor Seun Adeoye has emerged as the Presiding Bishop-Designate of Sufficient Grace and Truth Ministry (SGTM).

Adeoye emergence as BishopDesignate was officially announced

by Bishop Isaac Ibitayo and Apostle Laolu Oyediran during a Special Church Service on Sunday, January 3, 2016 at the SGTM’s National Headquarters, Rehoboth Arena, Oba-Road, Okinni in Egbedore Local Government of the state.

In his message, the President of Liberty International College of Bishops, Bishop Adeyemo-John Ojekunle explained that the new Bishop-Designate was elected based on his commitment and dedication towards the work of God. Quoting from the Book of Galatians Chapter 2, he charged Adeoye to use his wealth of experience as a journalist in the propagation of the gospel of Christ and to live an exemplary life of holiness.

Bishop Ojekunle described the calling into the office of a bishop as a highly noble and worthy assignment while urging all Christians to honour God’s anointed servants no matter their age or education qualifications.

Responding, the ex-NUJ Chairman who is also the founder of SGTM promised to use his elevation as a Bishop-Designate just like Bishop Desmond Tutu of SouthAfrica to serve God and humanity and to always fight against all forms of injustice anywhere in the world.

“God has given me the message of grace and comfort to all people.

And I am going to be selfless in my service to God. I will use my new office to fight against all forms of spiritual and physical oppression of people anywhere I found myself”, he added.

PEOPLES DAILY, tuesday, january 5, 2016

78,000 IDPs reside in Bauchi communities, says UNHCR

From Ahmed Kaigama, Bauchi

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he Head of Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Mr Ceasar Mbav Tshilombo has disclosed that over 78,000 Internal Displaced Persons IDPs are residing in various communities of Bauchi state, Mr Tshilombo stated this yesterday during a protection mainstreaming training workshop for stakeholders in the North-East at the destination hotel in Bauchi state.

He said the essence of the workshop was to support field-based capacity building

of humanitarian actors in all sectors and to focus attention on protecting the rights of IDPs rather than providing only material needs for them.The State Head of office of UNHCR said that 1,200 of the IDPs in the state were residing in Boto Camp in Tafawa Balewa local government area of the state, adding that the agency was strategizing in the year 2016 on how to reach out to other IDPs living in host communities in order to avoid negative coping mechanism of the IDPs such as sexual abuse, early child marriage and other social vices.

“The Kampala convention is

a law that ensures not only the protection of IDPs in an advent of crisis situation, insurgency, flood disaster, but for government to create an environment that prevent displacement of persons.”

“UNHCR and the National assembly are working towards the translation of the Kampala convention into the national law.

The benefits of this law when domesticated is that the rights of IDPs in the nation will be legally recognized by the government and the challenges they encounter in displacement crisis will be given prompt attention,” he said Also, the UNHCR Senior Protection Officer, Allehone

Abebe, Abuja office said that protection for IDPs has different dimensions which include providing psychosocial support for victims sexual abuse, remedial action which involves giving compensation and access to justice for IDPs providing an environment friendly environment for them .

Allehone said that although Nigeria has ratified the legislation for the law for IDPs, it is yet to domesticate the law, pointing out that it will address the challenges faced by IDPS and ensure that government agencies contribute their quota in protecting their rights.

L-R: Speaker, Kano state House of Assembly, Hon. Kabiru Alhassan Rurum, Kano state Governor, Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, Secretary to the Kano state Government, Engineer Rabiu Suleiman Bichi, Chief Whip, House of Representatives, Hon. Alhassan Ado Doguwa, and others, during the wedding fatiha of Hon. Salisu Ibrahim Mohammed’s daughter and Alhaji Usman Sule Riruwai’s son, Habeebah and Suleiman, at weekend in Riruwai Headquarters of Doguwa Local Government Area of Kano state. Photo: Mahmud Isa

CAN rejects removal of CRK subject in schools

From Ado Abubakar Musa, Jos

F

ollowing the insinuation making the round that “Christians Religious Knowledge” as a subject of study in Primary and Secondary schools would be removed and be substituted with “ Religion and National value” the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), kicked against the move, describing it as a blatant disregard to the faith of Nigerians.

Engr. Daniel Kadzai who is the National President Youth wing of CAN made this known during the New Year’s service held at the EYN Church in Jos, the state capital.

In a release signed by the president, said, “we observe as a blatant disregard to the fight of Nigerians the purported plans by some persons to replace the Christians Religion Knowledge in schools with what is termed religions and national values without proper consultation to Christian leaders in Nigeria.

“We strongly believe that developing a school curriculum especially concerning sensitive matters like religion in Nigeria should handle by professional educational curriculum articulators and expert in furtherance of good murals to children and youths.

“We are urging the government

and other politician to desist from making decision and unguided utterances capable of polarizing Nigeria on religion lines. We demand that religious leaders and institutions should be respected and accorded their due place, “it added.

The group which appreciated FG’ s effort in the fight against terrorism particularly the six years insurgency by dreaded Boko Haram, also called on Buhari’s administration to strengthen its effort to end the heartless activities of the group.

CAN also expressed concern and worry over the extra-judicial killings of Nigerians by the security forces in the country,

calling on the Federal Government to investigate all extra-judicial killings in Nigeria.

Hadzai further in the message harped on the attitude of some corrupt politicians, who had no people at heart, expressing disappointment over those who had been looting the country s wealth at the detriment of teeming population in the country.

He said, “We strongly called on government at all levels to intensify the war against corruption and discharged their responsibilities of ensuring social justice, rule of law and accountability.

“We are also reminding on president Muhammadu Buhari on

his campaign promises especially the job creation by our teeming unemployed graduates who have been moving on the street day-inday-out, “Kadzai added.

On the recent called by Saudi Arabia on Nigeria to join the collation against terrorist in the world, the group disagreed with the move saying Nigeria joining the collation might pave way to ISIS to invade the country, adding that Nigeria was a secular country with different religious entities .

CAN however in the statement urged Nigerian youths to desist from all forms of social vices and prayed for peace , progress as well as the success of the present administration .

PEOPLES DAILY, tuesday, january 5, 2016

PAGE 9

News OAU asks students to resume on Jan.10

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he authority of Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun, has asked students of the institution to resume from mid-semester break on Jan. 10.

A statement issued by the Public Relations Officer of the University, Mr Abiodun Olarewaju, in Ile-Ife, said the Senate of the university took the decision at a meeting on Monday.

It said lectures would commence immediately in all departments and advised students to be law-abiding and shun acts that might truncate the school calendar. (NAN)

Kaduna: NSCDC arrest 4 tanker drivers over fuel diversion From Femi Oyelola, Kaduna

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he Nigeria Security & Civil Defence Corps, Kaduna State Command has arrested four tankers for illegal diversion of fuel with no fewer than 148,000 litres.

Parading the suspects before newsmen at the command headquarters, State Commandant, Alhaji Modu Bunu, attributed the success to information received on the plans by vandals to perpetrate their antics in the state over the weekend.

Bunu explained that on receipt of the information, the command quickly mobilized operatives to strategic locations, leading to the arrest at about 2415 hours.

A break-down of the vehicles and the content shows that the tanker with registration number KAF 662 ZA contains 30,000 litres, DKA 515 ZP is with 40,000 litres and the third one with registration number BAU 262 XR is containing 45,000 litres which are suspected to have been diverted.

In the same vein, it is also amazing to state here that the remaining truck, a DAF 85 is without registration number and was conveying 33,000 litres of PMS suspected to be vandalized products.

The apprehensive occupants of the DAF on sighting operatives of the NSCDC abandoned the vehicle and took to their heels.

I want to commend the synergy between the corps and other security agencies, but I implore members of the public to also collaborate with the corps by reporting timely to us in the fight against vandalism and other forms of crime.

We are determined to carry out our statutory mandates but without the cooperation of the public the command may not achieve all we want.

Members of the National Frontiers Sit-Out Advocacy, during a peaceful protest on militarisation of elections in Nigeria with focus on Bayelsa state, yesterday in Abuja. Photo: Mahmud Isa

Late Sardauna Ahmadu Bello’s physician, Atta dies at 97 From Femi Oyelola, Kaduna

T

he first northern medical doctor and personal physician to the late Premier of Northern Nigeria, Sir Ahmadu Bello, Dr. Abdulmumin Ibrahim

Atta (CFR) died yesterdayat the age of 97 in Kaduna.

The deceased was born in April 1st 1920 and died on the 4th January 2016 after a protracted illness.

Late Dr. Abdulmumin is

survived with three children among them is his first son, Dr. Ibarahim Atta, currently working with the National Action Committee on Aids (NACA) as well as, many grand children. The deceased died in his residence at 1 B Gobir off Gabarau

Road in Kaduna state.

The late Abdulmumin was also the first chairman of Northern Pilgrims Welfare Board.

He was buried in Kaduna center cemetery yesterday in accordance with Islamic injection.

Don tasks students on acquisition of vocational skills

T

he Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Academics, University of Ilorin, Prof. Sidikat Ijaiya, has advised students of the institution to develop a positive attitude toward entrepreneurship and acquisition of vocational skills.

Ijaiya gave the advice on Monday while speaking at the first edition of the Omoluabi Vocational and Entrepreneurship

Programme organised by the National Association of Osun State Students (NAOSS), University of Ilorin Chapter.

The don described vocational skills as a potent tool for achieving self-fulfilment and selfsufficiency.

She also advised students to ``think outside the box and not wait for the country to prepare, make and bake the cake of

national treasury for them.’’

Ijaiya urged them to use their God-given talents to hit the ground running and break the yoke of dependency.

The Director, Centre for Peace and Strategic Studies of the university, Dr Mahfouz Adedimeji, also advised the students to contribute positively toward boosting the nation’s economy as well as their personal income.

Earlier, the President of NAOSS at the university, Mr Abideen Opeyemi, said that the programme was organised primarily to enlighten students on how to develop a positive attitude toward acquisition of vocational and entrepreneurial skills.

Opeyemi said this would enable them to become job creators rather than job seekers after graduation.

(NAN)

NDLEA Seme Command seizes 904.4kg of hemp in 2015 – Official

T

he National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Seme Command in Lagos State said on Monday that it seized 907.4 kg of hemp in 2015.

The Commander, Mr Udotong Essien, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Badagry that 31 suspects were also arrested during the same period.

He said 22 of the suspects had been convicted by the courts. ``From January to December

2015, about 907.45 kg of cannabis sativa popularly known as hemp was seized and 31 suspects were arrested during the period under review. ``Among the suspects is a Ghanaian woman, who was caught with 35.5 kg of hemp while she was trying to come into the country through the border,’’ he said.

According to Essien, the sum of N3.8 million, 2.3 million CFA and 50,391 dollars were seized

from the suspects.

He said:``The seizures were made as a result of nondeclaration of the money or their inability to explain the source of the money. ``Drug war is a collective responsibility that requires the cooperation of all citizens especially those in the border areas like Seme.’’

Essien said NDLEA officers had been trained locally and abroad as part of efforts to

further equip them.

He, however, said his men still needed gadgets and vehicles for better performance.

The commander advised parents, whose children and wards attend schools in Benin Republic to monitor their activities. ``Recently, a student in one of the popular universities in Benin Republic was arrested with large quantities of hemp.’’

(NAN)

PEOPLES DAILY, tuesday, january 5, 2016

PAGE 10

News

Court remands man in prison for allegedly defiling neigbour’s underage son

L-R: New General Officer Commanding (GOC), 7 Div., Nigerian Army, BrigadierGeneral Victor Ezugwu, taking over from his predecessor Major- General Lamidi Adeosun, yesterday in Maiduguri.

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Lagos State Chief Magistrates’ Court, on Monday ordered the remand of a 19-year-old man, Akinola Samuel, in prison custody for allegedly defiling a four-yearold boy.

The Chief Magistrate, Mr Tajudeen Elias, ordered that the accused should be remanded at Kirikiri Prisons, till Jan.13 when the bail application would be entertained.

The accused, a student, who lives at 13, Shore Close, Agege, a suburb of Lagos, is facing a three-count charge bordering on defilement.

The prosecutor, Cpl. Bimbo Oluwateru, told the court that the offences were committed on Dec. 22, 2015 at the accused residence.

Oluwateru said that the accused, who resides in the same house with the victim, called him to his room, removed his boxer pant and defiled him through the anus.

“Thereafter the victim was feeling the pain, he then told his mother and the accused was apprehended,” she said.

The offences, according to the prosecutor, contravened Sections 134, 259 and 261 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2011.

The accused pleaded not guilty. (NAN)

Photo: NAN

Harmattan: 170 boys get circumcised daily at MMH - Director From Mustapha Adamu, Kano

D

irector of the circumcision department of the Murtala Muhammad Specialist Hospital in Kano State, Dahiru Idris Danbatta, revealed that no fewer than 170 boys get circumcised daily at the hospital.

He stated this during a visit

by our reporter to monitor the situation of the medical facility on resumption from the New Year break.

He advised parents to take their sons to hospitals for circumcision at the ages ranging from birth period to seven years, noting that children above seven years find their wound

hard to heal because of their stubbornness.

“We circumcise about 170 boys daily at this hospital as a result of the coming of harmattan season, because it is the right time for a wound to heal quickly.”

Danbatta also warned parents to stop applying ointments on their ward’s circumcised

manhood, adding that the children should be sitting in a mixture of warm water and dettol twice daily.

With the coming of harmattan season, it is tradition to parents in the Hausa society to take their sons to hospitals for circumcision, as others prefer to go to local doctors for the universal practice.

Bauchi 2016 first baby named after First Lady, Hadiza From Ahmed Kaigama, Bauchi

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he first baby born on Friday 1st January 2016, at the Bauchi State Specialist Hospital is to be named after the BauchiSstate First Lady, Hajiya Hadiza Mohammed Abubakar, just as the first lady present gift to the first baby of the year.

The baby was delivered by her mother, Zuwaira Adamu at 3.45am on 1st of January 2016 at Specialist

Hospital Bauchi the mother who has promised to name the baby after the First Lady as Hadiza.

The baby who weighs 2.6kg will now be known as Hadiza Adamu according to Zuwaira who was overwhelmed by the visit of the Governor’s wife as well as the gift presented to her and the baby.

Zuwaira said “ I am so happy and appreciate the honour bestow on me and my baby by the First Lady because this is the first time we are

experiencing such gesture and I pray that God will bless the First Lady and her family.

“We shall name the baby, Hadiza so that my family forever remember and appreciate the love she showed to us. I will forever remember January 1, 2016 which was the day i had opportunity to meet with the governor’s wife and interact with her because I have never had such opportunity in my life.

The First Lady Hajiya

Mohammed Abubakar presented a gift to first baby of the year, and other women in Bauchi While presenting the gifts to the baby as well as other women at the female ward of the at Specialist Hospital Bauchi, Hajia Abubbakar said she was in the hospital to congratulate and rejoice with them as well as to wish them happy new year.

The Governor’s wife said her visit was a way of complementing the present administration effort in

alleviating the suffering of women in the state.

She thereby reiterated the determination of the state government to provide quality health care for the citizens especially mothers and children.

She assured that women and under 5 children will be given free medical services in line with five health point agenda of Governor Mohammed Abubakar’s administration.

Grant us access to Zakzaky, Shi’te urges army

From Femi Oyelola, Kaduna

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he Islamic Movement in Nigeria has called on the Nigeria Army to make do its words by allowing free access to its leader, Sheikh Ibrahim Zakzaky and his wife.

The President of the Media Forum of the Movement, Mallam Ibrahim Musa stated this in a press statement made available to the media in Kaduna yesterday.

The statement added that the condition and whereabouts of Sheikh Ibrahim El-Zakzaky as well as that of his wife, are still unknown, three

weeks after their arrest and detention by the Nigerian military.

The statement further added it is on record that the Chief of Army Staff, Lt. General T.Y. Buratai had said on December 18th, 2015 that Sheikh ElZakzaky had been transferred from the army to appropriate authorities for prosecution.

“We presumed he meant the Nigerian police. However to our bewilderment, when a committee of National Supreme Council for Islamic affairs (NSCIA) met the Inspector General of police and demanded to see the Sheikh, he flatly refused.

“Not long ago, the force public relations officer OlabisiKolawole, had said that Sheikh Zakzaky was being prosecuted. “The Shi’ite leader has been arraigned in court where he was charged with criminal conspiracy, inciting public disturbances among others; he has been remanded in prison custody and the case adjourned.” She told the Punch. “Surprisingly while the Nigerian authorities had announced that he was detained and arraigned in Kaduna prisons, the Controller of Kaduna Prisons, Abubakar Argungu, denied he was in their custody. So whom should we believe?

“This smacks of deceit, conspiracy and out right manipulation of the public’s view of the army’s massacre in Zaria.

“The Islamic Movement as well as the general public are now seriously anxious. Where is Sheikh Zakzaky and why has he been denied his constitutional rights to an attorney, bail and visitation? If the government is truly interested in finding a peaceful way out of this crisis the army initiated and executed, as the government want the public to believe, it should by now have allowed unimpeded access to “Sheikh Zakzaky. First and foremost, his first family members

and leading brothers of the Islamic Movement should have met him in the company of his Doctor by now, since he was shot by the soldiers when they attacked his residence.

“We are highly agitated by this seeming needless incommunicado the Sheikh has been placed in. The federal government should tell the public where Sheikh Zakzaky is, because rumors of various degrees are flying about his health. We believe it is only when the Sheikh’s health condition is made public by the relevant authorities that the tension brewing among the populace will be doused.” The statement reads.

Page 11

PEOPLES DAILY, tuesday, january 5, 2016

EDITORIAL

Have the sovereign wealth billions been found? to? The then Finance Minister of course always had answers and excuses – oil production expenditure, deficit financing, infrastructure projects, and so on – most of which succeeded only in raising fresh questions. For example, why does Nigeria keep incurring ever-increasing levels of budget deficit? Why were billions of dollars being sunk into power plant projects that refused to make a dent in the country’s

“

W

hile the debate on Nigeria’s sovereign wealth fund debacle raged sometime in December, 2013, available statistics on the spiraling figures did not add up then with reasons adduced in government circles. A member of the committee then, Senator Ita Enang and former Coordinating Minister for the Economy and Finance Minister, Mrs. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, had quoted different figures of funds accruing to the Excess Crude Account (ECA) during the Joint Senate Committee of Finance and Appropriations on the 2013 budget and federal revenue-generating agencies.

Senator Enang, quoting from records available to the committee, said so far, $14.06 billion inflow was recorded into the ECA with a $9 billion outflow, leaving a balance of $5.06 billion. The minister, who did not tell the committee how much accrued to ECA, said there was a balance of $4.03 billion with implications that that $1.03 billion was unaccounted for.

The ECA was replaced with three sovereign wealth funds to be managed by the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA), in line with global best practices. These sovereign funds – the Nigeria Infrastructure Fund; the Future Generations Fund and the Stabilisation Fund – will manage Nigeria’s excess earnings from crude oil. The ECA essentially was created to save up the difference between the benchmark price and actual market price of crude oil in the international market. We are concerned however, that in just three years, all that had been saved is now depleted, even when the rainy day is yet to come. Not only was the government not saving, it was spending up what it inherited. This is rather dangerous economically.

We, like many Nigerians, demand to know where all the billions have gone

We, like many Nigerians, demand to know where all the billions have gone to?

The then Finance Minister of course always had answers and excuses – oil production expenditure, deficit financing, infrastructure projects, and so on – most of which succeeded only in raising fresh questions. dismal electricity situation? Since Nigeria still continues to generate more or less the same amount of electricity as it did before the NIPP intervention, we are forced to conclude that Nigeria’s billions had simply gone into purchasing more darkness.

Then President Jonathan had not shown any commitment or concern for fiscal discipline. The picture that emerged was not of a president who was aware that national wealth is not limitless, and that living and spending for the present without thought for the future is a sure recipe

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for disaster. The fiscal recklessness was mind-boggling, as were the lame excuses constantly being spawned by the government. We are compelled to wonder if the government saw the reality that everyone was seeing seeing.

The question we ask is: What have we achieved with our spending? The real issue is not so much the quantity of spending as the quality. Little wonder, Nigeria’s sovereign wealth fund has been ranked number 44 out of 51 on the global Sovereign Wealth Transparancy rating for the third quarter of 2013.

It is time to put a stop to the financial recklessness. This country was spending far more than it could afford to spend.

To worsen matters, we were spending on all the wrong things. At a time when responsible governments around the world are cutting down on spending, Nigeria’s government under Jonathan continued to bask in the country’s status as an “oil-rich” nation in a world addicted to oil, piling up debt and deficit without regard for the future.

It is a no-brainer knowing that if there were to be any sudden external shock in terms of petroleum prices, on which we depend for much of our earnings, it means we’d have no cushion. If the ECA and/or SWF cannot cover the shortfall that would result from a significant drop in global oil prices, austerity could not result. This was certainly part of the unmaking of the government’s much touted ‘Transformation Agenda.’

As some analysts had suggested, channeling the volume of our reserves in excess of required optimum through the private sector on infrastructural development would have ensured that our reserves truly worked for us. At the time, the urgent thing Nigeria needed most was a government more concerned about theoretical economic indices and the assessment of rating agencies, than the squandermania that depleted the country’s resource base.

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PAGE 12

PEOPLES DAILY, tuesday, january 5, 2016

Opinion

That Rev. Kukah’s mantra on religious manipulation

By Muhammad Ajah

S

ince the Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Matthew Kukah released the bombshell on the Muslim leadership of Northern Nigeria, Muslims have, as usual, been weird in their reactions.

Several Muslim writers, critics and organizations have picked holes in Kukah’s claims, while some have remained numb to such incisive proclamations from the Reverend at an Islamic function. The cleric described the Northern Muslim elite as hypocritical, insincere and dubious. This description, nonetheless, far from being unacceptable is provocative and an understatement made by such highlylaced cleric in front of Muslims. This revealed the authority the Reverend assumes in the North. It also depicts a tinge of concealed cosmopolitan misconceptions about Islam and its elite in Nigeria.

Rev. Kukah went bluntly eerie when he proclaimed, “We must locate the current crisis of Boko Haram within the context of the inability of the northern Muslim elite to live by their own dubious creed of being Muslims. They preached Sharia Law but only for the poor. They preach a religion that encourages education, yet their own people are held in the bondage of ignorance.” He succeeded in rubbishing the image of the elite of the largest faith in Nigeria, notwithstanding their contributions in making the country be. In Rev. Kukah’s lecture, there was no or little mention of any good done by the Northern Muslim elite.

However, my curiosity was aroused by one serious reaction to the matter. The postulations of the veteran journalist and Daily Trust columnist, Muhammad Haruna in his article of December 29, 2015 titled: Bishop Kukah’s attack on Islam, where he concurred with the bishop

on Nigerian elite’s exploitation of religion for power and wealth, but faulted him for blaming only Muslim elites, especially those from the North, as the only ones who do so were impressive.

More articulate and definite, as it concerns the affected category of Nigerian citizen, were Haruna’s words: To see how wrong he (Kukah) is in blaming only Muslims, he needs only to examine the fate Muslims wherever they are a minority in this country or to examine many of the decisions and policies of Presidents Jonathan and Olusegun Obasanjo.

Alas! One cannot hold tears when reflecting on the seemingly connected plots that were crafted against the minority Muslim population in Nigeria between their state governments and the federal government of Nigeria during the reigns of former Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo and Goodluck Jonathan. These two former presidents, unarguably, created the worst religious politics and ethnic estrangement in Nigeria. I would always praise both of them for, at least, upholding the unity of Nigeria, most especially when the Niger Delta and Boko Haram insurgencies reared their ugly faces within the shores of the country. But in terms of the distributions of the national wealth and political positions, there was no trace of fairness and justice.

There was no equality; there was no recognition of all the ethnoreligious and cultural components of Nigeria. Worst still, it was as if calculated plans were concluded to frustrate the Southern Muslims and empower the Northern Christians extraordinarily. It was felt by some careful observers as if there were plans to Christianize Nigeria, using the dangerous slogans that the Northerners wanted to Islamize Nigeria; they wanted to implement Sharia; they wanted this and that.

And both the former presidents

succeeded in their plans by using religion to seek sympathy and cheap popularity. That is why the militancy in the Niger Delta was born, despite other factors. That is why the Boko Haram came to be. And that is why the agitation for Oduduo state and Biafra Republic were nursed and carried out.

Yes, both of the former presidents largely succeeded in their plans.

They did not only instigate the state governments of the Muslim minority areas against their minority citizens, they did not give any appointment to any Muslim from the Southeast and South-South, if not in a religious body which constitutionally demanded zonal representation. Their governments were Church-oriented.

State governments of the Southeast and South-South have remained resolute in dealing decisively with the Muslim minorities of their states.

Any little, I repeat, any slight thing that they do for Islam and Muslims, is basically on political grounds, not because they see Muslims – some of who are from birth places of the governors – as indigenes of their states.

I have not heard the revered cleric, Reverend Kukah, talk about this. I was a journalist and was privileged to attend some functions in the Niger Delta when former President Obasanjo made Kukah, Chairman of Presidential Committee on this and that. I have heard of many powerfully empowered and influential Christians from states of the North where Muslims are over 90% of the populations. Kukah, himself, knows that he is recognized and pampered in the North which is a Muslim majority part of Nigeria.

The influence and unlimited economic and political backings granted Christians in the North has in turn given them a solid base in the political scene of their respective states. In Kaduna state for instance, it is the state policy or it is becoming

an accepted norm that for any Muslim governorship candidate to win elections in the state, the candidate must run with a Christian deputy. In Adamawa state that has insignificant percentage of Christians, politics cannot stabilize without the involvement of the Christian minority. In Taraba, the music is even daunting.

We know the bad religious politics, the intrigue and (mis)calculations employed by former President Obasanjo in making Boni Haruna the governor of Adamawa state, in making late Ibrahim Yakowa the governor of Kaduna state and in making Banbaba Danfulani Suntai the governor of Taraba state. Imagine that in a state like Kaduna state, the state civil service is allegedly controlled by the Christian minority.

Blind and deaf Nigerians knew why Suntai governed Taraba state from his sick bed for so long after his plane incident. So, who is using religion in Nigeria to dislodge other citizens? This trend must change.

Christians of the North should have their shots in Nigerian and their state politics. Muslims of the Southeast and South-South must be empowered and encouraged to live, vote and be voted for in Nigeria and their states. Reverend Kukah and all wellmeaning religious clerics, if really they feel for all religious components of Nigeria, should preach this to the governments of Nigeria and Southeastern states of Nigeria.

The Northern Muslim elite have allowed the Christian minority of the North to thrive to the extent that they can boast of Northern Christian elite and some other powerful Christian individuals and organizations. Today, nothing of policy can be implemented in any northern state without serious consideration and involvement of Christians. The opposite is simply the case in the Southeast and SouthSouth.

Apart from Edo state and maybe

The MTEF and 2016 federal budget (2)

By Eze Onyekpere

A

fter the long wait, the President presented the 2016 federal budget very late in the outgone year. The National Assembly simply waited to receive the budget before vacating for the Christmas and New Year holidays. The implication is that the budget will not be ready until, maybe, the end of the first quarter of 2016 and the legislature has extended the implementation of the 2015 capital budget to the first quarter of 2016.

Although the budget is titled, A budget of change, this is just a start on a wrong note, which is the business as usual mindset – a continuation of the old budgetary practice. However, the change is the fact that the President came personally to present the document to the National Assembly after the last two years, when the former President sent the Minister of Finance to lay the budget before the lawmakers on his behalf.

The budget is stated to be employment and job-centred.

On the surface of it, this is a good development but a proper interrogation of the premises will determine whether the conclusion is right. The budget proposes a reduction in tax for small and medium enterprises as well as subsidised funding of priority sectors such as agriculture and solid minerals. There is a proposal to employ about 500,000 unemployed graduates into the teaching profession; provision of 30 per cent of overall budget for capital expenditure and alternative provisions

for funding Joint Ventures in the oil industry that will not task the treasury.

The budget of N6.088tn contains a deficit of N2.2tn and proposes borrowing of N1.84tn – domestic borrowing of N984bn, and foreign borrowing of N900bn. This is the highest borrowing in the history of budget making in Nigeria. N1.36tn is also set aside for debt servicing and repayment. The deficit is equivalent to 2.16 per cent of Nigeria’s GDP and will increase the debt profile to 14 per cent of our GDP. On the surface of it, it is within the three per cent rule required by the Fiscal Responsibility Act. The implication is that all the retained revenue and other independent revenue will be used for recurrent expenditure and without the sums proposed to be borrowed; there will be no capital expenditure.

This is not right and is a clear case of fiscal irresponsibility that a country consumes all that it actually generates and goes borrowing to create new capital. We have had a long history of debts and indebtedness and should be cautious about borrowing without restraints.

There is nothing inherently good or bad about borrowing. It depends on the use to which the nation wants to put the borrowed funds; this where the Fiscal Responsibility Act comes in to stipulate responsible and responsive borrowing. Can the borrowing meet the conditions stipulated in the FRA that it should be on concessional terms, with a long amortisation period and be only dedicated to capital expenditure and human development? Definitely, considering

the Monetary Policy Rate, the N984bn to be borrowed locally cannot be secured at the reasonable interest rate of not more than three per cent per annum and may not likely have a long amortisation period. And a good part of this money will still be deployed to administrative capital which is more or less like recurrent expenditure and a good part of it may be frivolous.

Imagine over N4bn that the National assembly wants to deploy to the purchase of foreign made cars for committee work and how that fits into the definition of capital expenditure.

This is where public procurement policy could have been deployed in the national interest to make effective the “Buy Made in Nigeria” mantra.

Also, imagine the maintenance of the aircraft in the presidential fleet and how that fits into the bill of capital expenditure.

Borrowing will only make sense for regenerative projects which over the medium to the long term can contribute to the economy in such a way and manner that they repay for their costs and maintenance.

Projects that reduce the cost of doing business and make the economy more competitive will qualify to be funded by borrowing; projects that also build the critical human capital and infrastructure that generates knowledge and turns science into technological appliances will also qualify. But projects that simply maintain the lifestyle of elected and appointed officials beyond the ordinary cannot be candidates to be funded with borrowed funds. It is also imperative to remember that by next

year, the sum to be set aside for debt service will definitely increase based on this new borrowing.

A time like this calls for sacrifice from all segments of society based of mutual understanding of the harsh economic conditions. There is a clear confusion in the directive of the President to the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency to adjust its pricing template to reflect competitive and market-driven components whilst at the same time pegging the price at N87. A market-driven template cannot be pegged as the market will determine the price and it will actually mean the removal of fuel subsidy.

Considering the low price of crude oil which is refined to get fuel and other products, one is no longer sure whether a subsidy exists at all on the PMS. The PPPRA needs to come clean with a template to show what the actual landing price is. And the government needs to go into dialogue with labour and others who may be opposed to a government’s official announcement and confirmation of what has already become a fact of life.

The media reported that in the last couple of weeks, petrol sold for N170 in Lagos, N140 in Ogun, N160 in Enugu, N180 in Kano, etc without an official policy on fuel subsidy removal.

The pains that would accrue when the official subsidy removal policy is announced are already here and the heavens did not fall. We can no longer run away from the dialogue to take a final decision based on reason on the fuel subsidy challenge. The country is broke and cannot continue to be run on sentiments and emotions that have

Rivers, is it in Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu, Imo, Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross River or Delta state that an aboriginal Muslim can be paired with the political and economic influences and strength of Northern Christian minority personalities like Kukah himself, Prof. Jerry Gana, Nenadi Usman, Theophilus Danjuma, Boni Haruna and a lot more. These were made influential directly or indirectly by northern political elite in response to the overpowering pressure from the Southern Christians at home and in Diaspora. The opposite is simply the case in the Southeast and SouthSouth.

On a resounding note, it is very necessary to call for caution here.

I am neither a religious bigot nor a freethinker. I have remained a strong advocate of the rule of law and humanity which are both encapsulated in the tenets of both Islam and Christianity. I have continued to advocate for the freedom and full integration of Muslims in the Southeast as well as the Christians of the North. Every Nigerian should be completely free to belong to lawful creeds and societies, within the purview of constitutional limits.

The Muslim/Christian minorities should be allowed/encouraged to participate in the socio-economical and political building of their states and the nation. Those from the Nigerian ethno-religious minorities who possess the capacities to contribute meaningfully and add value to purposeful governance in the country should be recognized, encouraged and empowered. No time than especially now that our religious clerics should stop dabbling into the murky soil of politics in Nigeria and desist from hate and incisive speeches.

– Muhammad Ajah, a sociopolitical analyst, is an advocate of humanity and good governance.

E-mail: mobahawwah@yahoo.co.uk

nothing to do with a reasoning process that is forward looking and long term in development planning. It is either we pretend that fuel sells for N87 and behave like the ostrich or we face up to the fact that the rains are already here with us and adjust to the fact.

On the monetary policy side, the administration needs a serious rethink, the idea espoused by the President that the demand for foreign currencies especially the dollar is artificial and is a product of speculation cannot hold true. The simple human law of demand and supply is at work. Initially, the author of this discourse was of the view that we did not need to devalue the naira, but when the gulf between the official value of N197 to $1 and the street value of between N260 and N280 to $1 is examined, we can no longer continue to pretend that all is well.

For the past 10 days at the Centre for Social Justice, a cheque to withdraw a few thousands of dollars from our domiciliary account could not be honoured by our bankers and all we got was apology upon apology. Yet, the account was funded. Evidently, the bank has failed in the most primary of its obligations and the monetary policy authorities believe that all is well.

Yes, we should strict restrict access to foreign currencies for frivolous imports but we must find a middle ground between the official and street value of the national currency and allow businesses to thrive and honour their obligations.

Eze Onyekpere is an Abuja based legal practitioner.

PEOPLES DAILY, tuesday, january 5, 2016

PAGE 13

Comment

The irony of Bauchi politics

By Tahir Sani

A

ccording to the late Nigeria’s Prime Minister, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, “Political Independence is totally inadequate if it is not accompanied by stability and economic security and if there is no genuine personal liberty with freedom to express one’s view and profess whatever faith one desires.”

Regrettably, political independence in our modern day Nigerian is the “Pull Him Down” {PhD} syndrome especially for political office holders.

To state the obvious, I was baffled and at the same time short of words recently when I was reading one of the national dailies with an inviting caption “Controversy Trails Bauchi State Governor, Mohammed Abdullahi Abubakar As a stakeholder in the Bauchi project, and as an indigene of the state, I wasted no time in going through the main story. After reading the entire article very carefully, I suddenly realized that the angels of darkness have gone to the pitch of play after their woeful defeat in the primary election of Mohammed Abdullahi Abubakar as the APC gubernatorial flag bearer in the state.

I still remember very vividly that hitherto to general election these angels of darkness used their best eleven in the field of dirty politics aimed at ensuring that the people of Bauchi State did not vote for “ MA” as their Governor. But to their utter dismay, Mohammed Abdulahi Abubakar emerged victorious.

Retrospectively, I sincerely believed that the “doctrine of change” as

champion by Mohammed Abdulahi Abubakar will forever remain in the mind of those who do not believe in it as they always see it as an offence.

MA being one of the champions of the movement will continue to receive all kinds of allegations from left, right and Centre.

It is obvious that, the state is no doubt heading to another quagmire extricating itself from the maniac stranglehold of some demented political jobbers and their sundry co travellers who are determined to turn into another mine field in which blood must flow to water their insatiable quest to position themselves to grab public funds albeit irresponsibly .

If there is any doubt that these elements would retrace their selfdestruct mission to ignite an up heaval that would consume the entire state to satisfy their debilitating deranges longing for illicit wealth.

The unwarranted provocative and mischievous fairy tales and advertorials aimed at tarnishing the good image of Governor Muhammad Abdullahi Abubakar.

For these, some of us who know M A’s track records I can’t deny the fact that he is simple but he is very thorough right from the days he was in the civil service he has no record of laxity in his career and therefore no amount of blackmail would pull him down or even distract him from his determination to turn around the state, economically.

Another funny thing is that the distractors have failed to achieve their aims of paddling gossips among the Governor’s aides in order to insight unending disputes among them just as at their efforts to come in between the Governor and his Deputy became futile

so they don’t have any option than to attack the Governor direct. And I want to state that Governor Muhammad Abdullahi Abubakar’s victory is a lifeline for the state; I’m saying this because for a state that was almost brought to its knees by corruption, ineptitude and insecurity, having M A as its Governor is momentous.

Every right thinking person in the state strongly believes that these groups are either relevance seekers or empty political gladiators that do not wish the state to achieve anything, shame on them. It is on record, that previous governments made various efforts to undertake the rehabilitation of some roads but the plans fell short due the enormous resources required to actualize these capital intensive project.

Though it was obvious that M A Abubakar lead administration met an empty Treasury with huge liabilities and a number of projects awaiting execution while the federal allocations to the State from the Federation Account kept on dwindling. Within the last seven months the Governor have impacted on so many lives among which for me to enumerate was the rehabilitation of some roads within the Bauchi metropolis, the segment of Murtala Muhammed way which runs from the CBN roundabout to Railway roundabout.

The road will enjoy four standard lanes separated with central medium fitted street lights; concrete walkways as well as reinforced concrete drains on both sides. The section from the Federal Low-cost –Railway Roundabout will be dualized to have same features with the CBN Federal Low-cost segment of the road.

Another one is Fadaman-mada links

road, the two lane road having asphalt surface finish drain-to-drain with reinforced concrete side drain on both sides. It is also going to be fitted with street lights to illuminate the roads to improve security. The two contracts are supposed to be completed within 18 months. Also, the reconstruction of Misau-Bulkachuwa-Udubo road is included.

Despite the present economic down turn, the governor is fully committed towards bringing unparalleled development in the State as the 2016 budget focuses more on life touching programmes like construction and rehabilitation of urban and rural roads, improvement of health facilities, total overhaul of our education system so as to improve the standards as well as empowerment of Women and Youth.

These are in line with the change mantra of the present administration.

Let me say it categorically that gone are the days for those who collect contracts without due process, whatever one have in terms of any contract, that contract must be developmental in all ramification, and if that is done I want to assure you that the Governor won’t hesitate to approve it, I want to believe that our dear State will never be a banana republic with MA as the Governor.

Take it or leave it the time of change is here and the crusaders of change would not in any way leave no stone unturned to ensure the much awaited change is feasible, everywhere is block now with the oath of secrecy everybody knows these groups got money from government, it was through this kind of illegal means after achieving what they wanted to achieve they will start biting the finger that fed them, the good people of the Bauchi State want to the

dividend of democracy that they were deprive for long time ago In any democratic setting, people expect dividends of democracy.

Therefore with the emergence of Muhammad Abdullahi Abubakar, as Bauchi governor no doubt things will change for the better the expectations are that within the next few years or so. The Governor’s high integrity and the type of people he will eventually appoint to help him to govern the state accordingly.

Those to be appointed are certain to be honest, intelligent, committed as well as knowledgeable. This will have the capacity to deliver services to the people and not like what use to obtain in the past. There is also the need for God fearing and fair-minded persons.

The Governor as a matter of priority establishes a sanctions regime to help tackle the issue of corruption and indiscipline effectively.

As soon as sanctions are established and publicly announced, such will instill fear into the minds of people to an extent that those contemplating on doing anything funny with desist from doing so, as they will be afraid of being sent to jail or even prosecuted.

Though the few appointments that the Governor made in recent times are surely based on merit and credibility and those who are appointed have a very good tract records in their careers.

By reason and experience, it is therefore important to advise the people of Bauchi State to be wary of such groups who mastermind this malicious advertorials in the national dailies. I sincerely wish these set of people to stay away from such proper-ganders.

Tahir Sani, wrote from Gombe road Bauchi.

Welcome tough 2016: Wow, we made it past 2015!

By Jibrin Ibrahim

P

resident Goodluck Jonathan was right when he declared in August 2013 that Nigeria will not break up in 2015. He affirmed that Nigeria would remain one indivisible entity; in his words: “For those who are predicting that this country will separate in 2015 based on the fault lines as of the time of amalgamation, they will know that this prediction will not be of any consequence. Nigeria will continue to remain one indivisible entity.”

President Jonathan was referring to the 2005 war games of the United States armed forces in which one of the scenarios developed was the break-up of Nigeria by 2015. The Nigerian media had gone frantic on the war games scenario angrily castigating the Americans for “predicting” that Nigeria would break up in 2015. So many Nigerians including former President Jonathan came out to declare we would remain intact as a country.

The Americans never actually predicted that Nigeria would break up in 2015. The President and other Nigerians in general were wrong to take these sorts of scenario building as a PREDICTION of what will happen. It is a very serious exercise of futures analysis which countries that prepare for their future do regularly for themselves and their partners so that they can plan better to confront and triumph over future challenges.

We need to be less visceral and more rational in considering our future.

The point is not to predict breakup but to review developments and carry out trends analysis so that we understand the forces that are driving us towards various possible outcomes

and adopt alternative measures that would lead us into the desired productive, happy, democratic and united future outcome.

We have known the following about unfolding trends in Nigeria.

We are a country that is endowed with rich natural resources backed with an abundant supply of human capital. We however have one of the largest populations of poor people in the world, over 100 million or about 70 percent of the population. Poor governance, megacorruption and rising insecurity, as well as a widening insurgency have characterised our daily lives for the past two decades. Poor infrastructure, lack of power and a deep process of de-industrialisation over the period have crippled our economy. A ruling party in power for sixteen years had become a threat to our political system because it could no longer control or limit the mega-corruption of its key players. The public sector had been bloated and was consuming over 90 percent of the national budget, which meant that public goods were not longer receiving any investment. The defining rule of the ruling party power game organised around rotation of power had broken down following the death of President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua and the rise to power of President Goodluck Jonathan.

The 2011 election campaigns were organised around sectarian ethnoreligious lines and led to considerable levels of post election violence. In the build up to the 2015 elections, the electronic media, in particular the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) and Africa Independent Television (AIT) went wild massively producing hate programmes designed

to provoke one set of Nigerians to commit atrocities against the other. The ruling party was clearly determined to remain in power by hook or crook, and at one point, just before the election, wanted to remove the Chairman of the electoral commission, INEC, who appeared determined to prevent massive electoral rigging using the technology developed around the permanent voter’s card and the card readers. All these events could have easily led to the breakdown of law and order and the tearing apart of the country along the seams.

Nigeria escaped the booby traps laid ahead of the 2015 elections because we have matured as democracy actors with a 16-year track record of democracy learning. In the First and Second Republics, system breakdown developed with the first elections organised and rigged by incumbents. In 2003, when the PDP organised massive electoral fraud, Nigerians were more patient. We were even more patient with the larger level of rigging in 2007. In the process, both the opposition parties and Nigerian voters were building up experience and competence in mandate protection. In 2011 and 2015, Nigerians started reaping the fruits of democracy learning.

Objectively, there was enough provocation by the ruling party in 2015 to push Nigerians into violent responses. Nigerians, however, realised that violence was the response they were being pushed into and decided to avoid it.

The opposition parties learnt from their mistakes and for the first time in our political history, they were able to merge into a unified opposition party that was strong enough and

had sufficient resources and national spread to contest for power against a hitherto rampaging ruling party. The 2015 victory of an opposition party happened because Nigerians have been learning to read political trends correctly and act appropriately.

At the social and economic level, the failure of successive governments to adequately cater for citizens through the provision of basic infrastructure and amenities has triggered acts of resilience by citizens seeking to improve their lives and livelihoods across the country through ingenious innovations and initiatives. Now that there is a new government in place that emanates from the peoples’ vote, their expectation is nothing less than good governance. The Buhari Administration should be conscious that democrats are no respecter of persons. Citizens expect delivery and a failure to deliver could lead to a rapid fall from grace.

The current conditions are very difficult. A sociological review of the key drivers and actors of our society provides the following trends analysis. We have had over one decade of continuous economic growth of more than 6 percent, which unfortunately did not produce more jobs, especially for the youth. At the same time, inequality has been rising and the gap between the poor and the wealthy is widening. Our economic growth has been used to promote massive importation and the source countries for the imports have shifted from Europe, Japan and the United States to Asia, in general, and China, in particular. The collapse of the price of oil means that delivery of the dividends of democracy would be even more difficult today.

Nonetheless, the people would expect that their conditions should improve.

2016 would be a tough year for the 37 governments in the country and they must become more capable of trends analysis to uncover rising problems and the best ways of handling them.

Trends analysis as mentioned above is to improve our capacity to analyse where events and actions are taking us to, not to predict the future but to address the challenges that they pose to our progress. The trends analysis or futures studies as they are usually called simply provide the raw materials for horizon scanning and scenario building for the purpose of anticipating problems and adapting measures that would promote the best possible outcome in the future.

It is important for all societies to regularly review where they are based on retrospective analysis of their history and a trend analysis of where they might be in the future. In so doing, the main objectives are to understand the drivers of change and key actors in precipitating change. The analysis of drivers and actors provide the material for scenario building, which are projections of possible futures. These possible futures are not predictions but analytical and heuristic tools to enable society to go in the direction of the best possible future. It is about foresight and planning and allows societies to anticipate and be proactive so that they can avoid pitfalls and seize the best possible opportunities that exist.

2016, here we come.

Jibrin Ibrahim is a Fellow of the Centre for Democracy and Development and Chair of the Editorial Board of Premium Times. .

PAGE 14

PEOPLES DAILY, tuesday, january 5, 2016

News

Zamfara to employ 2, 800 sanitation workers

A

total of 2, 800 youths will be engaged as sanitation workers by the 14 local government councils of Zamfara, Chairman of the state chapter of ALGON, Alhaji Bello Dankande, has said.

Dankande said in an interview with newsmen on Monday in Bakura that the youths would be engaged under the Grassroots Youth Empowerment Scheme supported by the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON) and the state government.

He said that each of the 14 local councils had purchased five tippers while the Zamfara government would provide other sanitation vehicles and equipment to be used under the scheme.

Dankande explained that 200 young men and women would be recruited from each of the local government areas as sanitation workers under the scheme.

The chairman declined to disclose the amount involved in the purchase of the vehicles and equipment but assured that the scheme would soon take-off.

Dankande, who is also the Chairman of Bakura Local Government, said apart from creating job opportunities, the scheme would also improve the sanitary condition of communities in the state. (NAN)

Council urges port operators to comply with cargo tracking policy

T

he Port Consultative Council (PCC) on Monday urged port operators to adhere to the newly-introduced Cargo Tracking Note (CTN) to ensure safety of cargoes Its Chairman, Chief Kunle Folarin, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Monday in Lagos that the action would further make Nigerian ports attractive to shippers. ``Let everybody pay what you have collected money for and deliver the service for which you have collected money for. ``If you do not want this methodology that costs money, tell us another methodology that does not cost money. ``Let those who are collecting money for services bringing cargo into Nigeria; for services releasing cargo to consignee. ``Tell us, what is the purpose of what you are collecting? ``What service is it for; simple, no quarrel; we are dialoguing. ``Let us hear you; administrative fee, amendment fee, so many fees. ``Let anybody that wants to collect it, collect that money, let him provide that service. ``If we get value for that service, we shall keep quiet; if we do not get value, we shall talk. ``But that service (CTN) is a must; if anybody is gaining from it unethically, we shall expose that person, we shall expose that organisation.’’

Folarin urged government agencies to prevent dangerous cargoes from entering the county in line with their legitimate duties.

A pump attendant selling kerosene to customers at N50.00 per liter at the NNPC Mega Station on Olusegun Obasanjo Way, Central Business District, yesterday in Abuja.

Photo: NAN

Yola IDPs thank donors for their assistance

By Maryam Garba Hassan

I

nternally Displaced Persons in Adamawa State who received food and relief items in December, 2015, put religious and sectarian differences aside to thank their benefactors and pray for them.

A statement issued yesterday by the American University of Nigeria, AUN, the custodian of the relief materials it received from donors in the country in kind or in cash stated this.

According to the statement, IDPS held the special prayer session for the donors and members of Adamawa Peace Initiative in Churches and Mosques in Jimeta-Yola, and at other distribution points in the seven Local Government Areas in Yola most hit by the insurgency.

The prayers were also offered for continuously supplying the breadlines, even as Governments and local Non Governmental Organisations battle to contain the humanitarian crisis in the northeast region of the country, the statement added.

The statement further said drugs, blankets, vegetable oil, spaghetti, seasonings, salt, sugar, and rice the IDPs received were bought with donations from Nigeria’s three prominent philanthropists, Alhaji Mohammed Indimi, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, and the AUN

Founder, Atiku Abubakar who donated generously to improve the welfare of the IDPs. The AUN Founder has been a leader in supplying continuous financial support for the IDPs since the University’s involvement with their feeding more than a year ago.

At the St. Theresa Catholic Cathedral Church, Jimeta, where 15,500 families were served in three distributions, a Muslim woman, Amina Mamman, joined the Bishop of Yola Catholic Diocese, Dr. Stephen Dami Mamza, in leading prayers for peace in Nigeria and in expressing appreciation to those who made the donations to support IDPs in the state, the statement said.

Six hundred families received food and relief items at the Adamawa State headquarters of Jamatul Nasril Islam, in Jimeta, on December 13, where JNI officials Gambo Jika and Fadimatu Ahmad Marafa led IDPs to offer the prayers.

It was a similar story at the New Life Gospel Center, Demsawo, Deeper Life Camp, and at other centers where volunteers from the American University of Nigeria and Adamawa Peace Initiative distributed food and relief items donated by Dangote Foundation.

IDPs and local officials took turns to thank the donors, the peacemakers, state Governor Mohammed Jibrilla and the volunteers who had

worked tirelessly to alleviate their suffering during the year.

The statement further said all through December, 2015, the AUN-API team supplied food, medicines and relief materials to over 163,500 households through local religious and communitybased organizations in the state.

Humanitarian aid was also sent to IDPs who had relocated to their destroyed homes, in the most insurgency-hit areas, through local contacts networking with AUN-API. According to the Coordinator of Relief for AUN-API, Bello Abdullahi, supplies were sent to IDPs in Maiha, Mubi North and South, Hong, Gombi, Michika, and Madagali LGAs through trusted API members working in those areas who ensured effective and accountable distribution of relief materials.

Coordinator of the Madagali distribution and President of Kinjir Foundation, Hon Saleh Kinjir, confirmed that over 552,000 households had received supplies from the Adamawa Peacemakers since the crisis peaked in 2014 through local partners of AUN-API including Kinjir Foundation, JIBWIS, Upper Room Cathedral and the Adamawa Muslim Council.

The food and medicines sent to IDPs in the seven most affected Local Governments were procured with a N100million donation which came from oil and gas

tycoon, Mohammed Indimi, and which was passed on to API by the Governor of Adamawa State, Mohammed Jibrilla, as well as funds given by former Nigerian Vice President Atiku Abubakar.

On October 14, an AUN-API team led by Bishop Mamza, Imam Dauda Bello and AUN’s Head of Security, Dr. Lionel Rawlins, dispatched supplies in a militarybacked convoy to most of the worst-hit areas accompanied by foreign and local journalists.

Meanwhile, AUN President, Dr. Margee Ensign, who chairs the API, said the organization has initiated numerous programs in the community to benefit both indigenes and IDPs. “We have the all-year-long ‘Peace Through Sports’ program, two major income-generating projects for community women, and a new literacy program christened ‘Technology Enhanced Learning for All’.”

Under the literacy program funded by the US Government, 20, 000 vulnerable youth, including out-of-school children, displaced children, and those disadvantaged in schools who are not now learning how to read, will benefit.

“It has not been an easy year, or an easy Christmas, in this part of Nigeria, but there has always been hope, there has always been remarkable generosity, and as befitting this season, there has always been goodwill”, she said.

PEOPLES DAILY, tuesday, january 5, 2016

PAGE 15

Why I want Maku probed – Al-makura

By Umar Muhammad Puma

G

overnor of Nasarawa state, Umaru Tanko Al-makura has stated that former Minister of Information Mr. Labaran Maku’s tenure was marred with allegation of corruption, hence the need for Federal Government to investigate him.

Al-makura in a statement issued by the Special Assistant on Media, Ahmed Tukur, said the state government is pointing accusing fingers on Maku over the proliferation of fire arms during the Ombatse crisis while he served as supervising Minister of defence.

Maku, a 2015 gubernatorial candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) in the state, was the former minister of Information and supervising minister of defence, during former President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration, and have played an active role in the last administration.

Some of the allegation by leveled against Maku by the Al-makura’s administration was that he received funds in the names of some individuals in the state who will assist in the release of 200 Chibok girls abducted by Boko Haram.

Al-makura while drawing the attention of the relevant anticorruption agencies said the beginning of the probe of the arms deal must not end without probing those who allegedly collected money in the name of securing the release of Chibok girls and never did.

It could be recalled that the Al makura recently called for the probe of Maku over his role in $2.1bn arms deal.

The governor urged security agencies to extend their searchlight on failed attempt to secure the release of the abducted Chibok girls

by the office of former Minister of Information and Supervising Minister of Defence.

Al-makura also said the probe of the arms deal will not be completed if investigation is not carried out on how Maku as Information Minister deceived Nigerians that the war is been won while he allegedly collected millions of Naira under the guise of negotiating for the release of the Chibok girls as the then supervising Minister of Defence.

Al - makura said, “Maku must provide answers to the failed deal to facilitate the release of the Chibok girls from captivity and also

explained why such deals where entered into”.

He said that the public will be very much interested in knowing those behind the deal and how they came in contact with those who knew the whereabouts of the girls.

“Nigerians demand explanations from Maku as all along as Minister for Information he has been feeding the public with evil lies that the war against insurgency was on the right direction while millions of tax payers money is been siphoned to private pockets while he superintend over the Ministry of Defence.

“Maku has been challenged to also explain his role in the Ombatse and Baba Alakyo Saga and the killings of 86 security operatives in his state while he was covering Ministry of Defence”.

Al-makura commended President Muhammadu Buhari for his commitment to defeat Boko Haram, stressing that the signs are already clear that Boko Haram are on the retreat he then called on all Nigerians especially citizens of the North East to support him in this patriotic and honest drive to bring lasting peace and move the country forward.

Leader of Concerned APC AMAC Delegates, Hon. Sariki (2nd right), with other party leaders restating their support for Hon. Abdullahi Adamu Candido, yesterday at Garki, in Abuja.

Gov. Bello assures APC will win all LG seats

From Minna

T

Yakubu

Mustapha,

he Niger State Governor, Alhaji Abubakar Sani Bello has expressed confidence in his party the All Progressives Congress, APC, to win all the 25 LGs and the 274 Councillorship seats, while he appealed to the people to turn out en mass to vote for the party.

Bello gave the assurance yesterday in Minna at the All Progressives Congress, APC, local government campaign flag-off where he charged on elected officials of the party to go back to their constituencies at the grassroots so as to work for the success of the party in the

forthcoming local government elections scheduled for 16th January, 2016.

Although an indication showed that the crisis rocking the Niger state APC has continued to deepen as two Senators and all the members of the House of Representatives has refused to attend the party campaign flagoff.

The members of the two chambers of the National Assembly were said to have been aggrieved over the process that brought in the candidates of the local government elections.

Consequently, the Minister of State for Solid Minerals, Hon. Abubakar Bwari Bawa, Senator David Umaru representing Niger

East Senatorial district, Senator Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi representing Niger South were conspicuously absent along with some members of the House of Representatives.

A reliable source told our reporter in confidence that some of the Senators and other legislators were aggrieved because the party did not carry them along during the primaries.

They were aggrieved that the primaries was conducted in secrecy just as they cannot be part of the process at this early stage of the party at the corridors of power.

However, according to an official of the party who was the former Publicity Secretary now Commissioner for Information,

Culture and Tourism, Mr. Jonathan Tsado Vatsa said that most of the National Assembly members not present were engaged in one assignment or the other.

He further claimed that the Senator from Niger North Senatorial District, Senator ibrahim Aliyu was sent to represent the other Senators adding that the Minister’s absence could be due to national engagements.

Vatsa said that the absence of these personalities does not take any credit away from the party as the party is sure of total victory during the local government election, emphazing that APC remains one united family.

APC AMAC delegates restate support for Candido

By Ochiaka Ugwu

L

eaders and delegates of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC) of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) have restated their loyalty and support for the party and their Chairmanship candidate for the March 19th Area Councils’ poll, Hon. Abdullahi Adamu (Candido).

The party men in their numbers converged in Garki area of the city center to restate their position in the just concluded primary which produced Hon. Candido as the party’s candidate.

Speaking to the teaming supporters, the leader of the group, Hon Sariki thanked the delegates on the way they conducted themselves during the primary that was held on 16th December 2016. He noted that their motive to restate their support for Candido was because he won a free and fair election.

While appealing for support for Candido, Hon Peter Dugwu (Piro) stated that the emergence of Candido was an act of God and described those who are aggrieved as people suffering from “Political Ebola Infection”.

This is coming on the heels of a newspaper publication by a faction of the party denouncing Hon. Candido’s candidature alleging the undue interference of both National and State chapter which was done to favour Candido.

Speaking also, the party’s FCT Legal Adviser, Barr. Yakubu Haruna faulted the position of those faulting the primary as illegal saying it was the figment of their own imagination as the allegation cannot hold water in law.

He urged them as good and law abiding citizens to direct their grievances to the court of law instead of settling their scores in the pages of newspaper as it is not doing the party any good.

The APC AMAC Publicity Secretary, Yunusa Alhassan who sued for peace, expressed hope that the problem will be over soon.

Hon. Yakubu Francis who serves as the campaign coordinator for Candido Campaign Organization noted that his principal has reached out to aggrieved parties with the hope of building a united party which was before now one big family.

He however, called on any aggrieved member to join them in making APC the real party that will bring the desired change in AMAC polity.

PAGE 16

PEOPLES DAILY, tuesday, january 5, 2016

Politics

Group Names Mrs Saraki’s NGO Hero of 2015

By Ikechukwu Okaforadi

T Lagos state Governor, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode (middle), signing the 2016 Appropriation Bill into law, yesterday at the Banquet Hall, Lagos House, Ikeja. With him are Deputy Governor, Dr. Oluranti Adebule (left), and Chairman, Lagos Assembly House Committee on Economic Planning &Budget, Hon. Rotimi Olowo (right).

Abia election: APGA chieftain hails Appeal Court judgment D r David Onuoha-Bourdex, a member of the Board of Trustees of All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), has hailed the judgment of the Court of Appeal, Owerri Division on Abia governorship election.

A statement issued by Onuoha-Bourdex yesterday in Abuja, said the court `spoke peace and justice’ to the hearts of Abia people.

Onuoha-Bourdex, who was also the candidate of APGA for the

Abia North Senatorial seat in the last election, said that Abia people overwhelmingly voted for APGA. He commended Dr Alex Otti, the APGA governorship candidate for waging the principled battle for justice. ``I also praised the fivemember panel of Appeal Court judges, headed by Justice Oyebisi Omoleye, for taking judicial notice of the fact that the APGA candidate scored 164, 444 valid votes to trounce Ikpeazu of PDP,

who scored 114, 444 votes. ``Every living soul in Abia State who saw what happened on April 12, 2015 knew that the cancellation of the elections held in Obingwa, Osisioma Ngwa and Isiala Ngwa local government areas by the returning officers after the results were uploaded to INEC, was wrong.

“The Court of Appeal by its declaration of Dr Otti as winner has wiped the tears on the faces of Abians, especially the young

men that were killed for standing strong in the face of intimidation,’’ he said.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), recalls that the Court of Appeal sitting in Owerri, had on Dec 31, 2015 ordered the swearing in of Otti, as governor of Abia and asked Mr Okezie Ikpeazu to vacate the office.

Ikpeazu indicated interest to challenge the judgment at the Supreme Court. (NAN)

Gov. Ambode signs N662.588bn Appropriation Bill into law

G

ov. Akinwunmi Ambode of Lagos State yesterday assented to the 2016 Budget, saying it will be primarily driven

by Internally Generated Revenue (IGR).

Ambode said this while signing into law the 2016 Appropriation Bill at the Lagos House, Alausa, Ikeja.

It was presented to him by Mr Rotimi Olowo, Chairman, Lagos State House of Assembly Committee on Economic Planning and Budget.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that Ambode had presented the budget of N662.588 billion to the Assembly for consideration on Dec. 17. ``Consequently, I appeal to all tax payers to fulfill their civic obligations as we promise to leave no stone unturned in delivering value for every Kobo spent,’’ he said.

Ambode said that the budget would enable his administration focus on the present challenges of security, traffic gridlock resolution, as well as physical and social infrastructural development.

He said those challenges had thrown up new ones quite different from past experience.

According to him, the total revenue estimate for 2016 fiscal

year is N542.873 billion, which shows that the balance of N119.714 billion will be funded through deficit financing.

He said the capital expenditure was N386.933 billion and recurrent expenditure of N275.655 billion with an aggregate capital to recurrent ratio of 58:42.

The governor commended the legislature for expeditious passage of the bill.

Giving the breakdown, Mr Akinyemi Ashade, the Commissioner for Economic Planning and Budget, said that Lagos state Internal Revenue Service (LIRS) was expected to generate N300 billion of the total IGR. He said the estimated total revenue was N542.873 billion with the balance of N119.714 billion expected to be funded through a combination of internal and external loans.

This, the commissioner said would include the World Bank DPO 3 loan which could not be accessed in 2015.

Ashade said the 2016 budget was 26 per cent higher than the budgets of 2014 and 2015, respectively.

He said that the IGR was approximately N419.826 billion of the total revenue. ``We do not intend to

introduce new taxes in 2016 but rather bring more citizens into the tax net especially the informal sector through the adoption of an automated process to block leakages,’’ Ashade said.

He said the underlining principles of the budget included planned and systematic maintenance of existing and new infrastructural facilities as well as completion of ongoing projects.

Others are payment of outstanding liabilities, sustenance of goals of job creation, poverty eradication and wealth creation.

He said that education was given priority with total funding of N86 billion.

The commissioner said the state government would spend N89.9 billion on the construction, rehabilitation and maintenance of roads and public buildings. ``We will be advancing the 10lane Lagos -Badagry expressway and commence rehabilitation on others spread across the state that have been provided for in the budget,’’ he said.

On transportation, he said N48.9 billion would be spent on various transportation initiatives such as the completion of the Blue rail line and expansion of BRT corridors.

On Agriculture and Food Security, he said the sum of N6.8 billion had been allocated to cover the state’s accelerated food expansion programme on rice production, animal husbandry and root crops. ``We are collaborating with a northern state in the development of a commodity Value Chain, specifically on rice production,’’ Ashade said.

He said N2.2 billion had been earmarked for tourism, while N6.2 billion was allocated for commerce and industry, ongoing development of Lekki Free Zone and industrial park at Imota and other areas.

Ashade said that the Wealth and Creation sector got N25 billion, while Women Affairs was allocated N1.82 billion for various initiatives for women and maintenance of skill acquisition centres, among others. ``Wealth and Creation received due attention under this budget with commencement of the implementation of the Employment Trust Scheme. ``A sum of N25 billion will be earmarked for this initiative over a four year period,’’ he said.

Ashade assured that the budget would provide opportunity for employment and growth. (NAN)

he Guardian UK Global Development Professionals Network (GDN) has named the Wellbeing Foundation Africa (WBFA) established by wife of Senate President, Toyin Saraki as one of the favourite Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) Heroes of 2015.

Mrs. Saraki is the President and Founder of WBFA an organization committed to reducing and eliminating preventable maternal and child deaths through advocacy and implementation of innovative interventions.

Having reviewed over a hundred nominations submitted by the general public, the GDN selected a few, which it shared in an article published on its online platform.

The global body specifically commended WBFA for its phenomenal work in bringing best-practice models to Kwara State and the development and distribution of client-held personal health records (PHRs), a partnership with Johnson & Johnson (JnJ) and the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM) to deliver emergency obstetrics and newborn care ‘skills and drills’ training aimed at lowering maternal mortality rate by up to 20 percent.

The GDN highlighted Mrs. Saraki’s courageous act of turning her personal experience of perinatal child loss into the transformational and life-saving Wellbeing Foundation Africa (WBFA) which according to the body emerged alongside other important players such as Medical Aid for Palestinians in Gaza, Barefoot Lawyers in Uganda and Christian Aid UK, to mention a few.

In her reaction, Mrs. Saraki said the recognition serves as an encouragement for WBFA to do more in preventing mother/ infant mortality and empowering women through cutting edge health solutions.

She said: “This nomination is one that is acknowledged by WBFA and will primarily serve as a source of encouragement towards increasing our efforts in the fight to save more lives, and empower women and adolescent girls through innovative, tested and proven solutions/ interventions.

“WBFA remains committed to working with communities across Africa to build learning and awareness, as well as empower women, thereby creating opportunities/platforms that enable them to seek better lives for themselves and their communities, while contributing our quota towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs),” she stated.

PEOPLES DAILY, tuesday, january 5, 2016

PAGE 17

Politics

Nasarawa assembly to support Buhari’s war on corruption – Lawmaker

By Ali Abare Abubakar

C

omrade Kassim Mohammed Kassim (APC, Akwanga South) has said that members of the state assembly, who were elected under the change mantra, will do everything in their power to support the anticorruption war of President Muhammadu Buhari.

Comrade Kassim stated this in a chat with our reporter yesterday.

The lawmaker maintained that unlike the fourth assembly, the present lawmakers in the state are poised to take their responsibility seriously, with a view to formulating laws capable of impacting positively on the lives of the people of the

state.

Commenting on the frosty relationship that existed between the immediate past assembly and Governor Umaru Tanko Al-makura, Comrade Kassim dismissed claims that the impeachment threats issued to the governor constituted any challenge but that rather it encouraged Al-makura to do what was expected of him.

He however disclosed the resolve of his colleagues to ensure the assembly gives their oversight functions the desired priority, stressing that only by that would the legislature keep track of the executive.

“Attention of the last assembly did not truly focus on the part of their

responsibilities in terms of oversight functions. I believe that during our time, we will ensure that oversight function is giving the priority it deserves, that will really help the assembly to check what the executive are doing.

“Some of us that came in on the wings of change, I believe, will really do our best to key in and to support Buhari to achieve his objective” the lawmaker said.

Commenting on his experience so far, the lawmaker showed gratitude to God for the opportunity to serve his people, “and also the chance to serve during President Muhammadu Buhari’s tenure. I believe it’s a moment when one could gain a lot of experience.

Even though a first timer at the assembly, but I want to believe that I’m acquiring experience, meeting people who are from different background, society and community, just coming together to form a house of 24 out of millions in the state.”

Highlighting on some of his initiatives towards alleviating the plight of the people of his constituency, Comrade Kassim while lamenting that they were yet to access their constituency allowance, for which he said they are still hopeful, said so far, he has been using his salary to assist people from within and outside his constituency.

“These are some of the challenges we are facing. Using ones salary to do one or two things for your constituency

L-R: Chairman, Senate Committee on FCT, Senator Dino Melaye, Senate President Bukola Saraki, President, Women Arise for Change Initiative, Dr. Joe Okei-Odumakin, and Senator Isa Galadu, during a two-day sensitisation meeting on the Implementation of the Guideline on Gender Based Violence and Young Person in Nigeria, recently in Abuja.

Photo: Mahmud Isa

is not really easy. With the short time I have so far spent at the assembly, I was able to move some reasonable motions that the people of the state, especially those from my constituency, would agree that were for the benefit of our people. Take the motion on free education which I tagged ‘A Mirage’, the inability to pay salary of teachers at the primary level, the local government salary that became an issue and it was as a result of that that government deemed it fit to receive the bailout to settle outstanding salaries. I want to presume that as a result of my motion on free education, the governor undertook a tour of the zones to see things for his self.

“I have financially assisted law students both within and outside my constituency. I built a motorized bore hole in Gudi to help fight against the spread of cholera in the area where about 12 people died for lack of clean, portable water. I also settled the bills of surviving victims at the hospital. I also built another motorized bore hole in the Abattoir area of Akwanga. I planted a transformer in Akwanga that addressed a need that persisted for the past 7 years. I equally assisted some persons living with disability, about 10 and I paid their school fees”.

The lawmaker said he bought brand new Honda CRV for the Chief Imam of Akwanga, as well as a Ford Taurus to an evangelist, Peter Usman, a rural missionary to assist them in their activities to spread the message of peace among the people.

He further disclosed that aside of distributing motorcycles to rural dwellers for transport; wrappers to 75 widows during Christmas, his scholarship scheme for indigent students will this month disburse N10, 000 each to 600 students as well as 200 wrappers to widows.

“The Kassim Mohammed Kassim bailout to students is to enable them return to school in January because it’s a critical month” he said.

Former Akwa Ibom PDP chieftain, Eseme Eyiboh, joins APC

By Doyin Ojosipe with agency report

A

top chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party, in Akwa Ibom State, Eseme Eyiboh weekend announced his resignation from the party.

Eyiboh who made this known in a statement to an online medium, said he will officially join the All Progressives Congress on January 6.

As a member of the PDP, he said he was the party’s financial secretary in the state, executive chairman, Akwa Ibom Ethical and Attitudinal Reorientation Commission, and later a member of the House of Representatives.

According to him, his progress indicated the foundational vision of the progenitors of PDP as a leadership recruitment nursery.

But currently, he said, the PDP has breached the philosophy of

its founding fathers by nurturing economic choristers who he said have converted the state’s commonwealth into their pockets.

“Its (PDP) present system has produced unprecedented crop of political ‘dealers’ instead of inspirational leaders occasioning the increasing deficit in revenue yielding assets and sundry incentives to trigger community growth and prosperity,” Eyiboh said.

“It is worthy to note that, as the reign of this development eclipse, poor ethical integrity and deteriorating institutions subsist, it is imperative for people with development orientation and appropriate mindset to come together and inject a new deal to stimulate the collective urges and aspirations of our people with functional confidence.

“I have, therefore, taken the hard choice of resigning from the

Peoples Democratic Party and in preference for the platform of All Progressive Party where I hope to further my contributions to the development of the state and Nigeria.”

Eyiboh said the decision is predicated on the massive presence of people with ideas, capacity and character in the APC, who he said are capable of driving sustainable change in the state.

PEOPLES DAILY, tuesday, january 5, 2016

PAGE 18

Politics

Bayelsa Rerun: Dickson accuses APC of desperation, says PDP sure of victory From Isaac Money, Yenagoa

A

head of Bayelsa state supplementary elections, Governor Seriake Dickson said in spite of challenges the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) had experienced during the elections, victory is still assured.

Governor Dickson who described APC as desperate to expand their scope to the Niger Delta region of Nigeria said he would use everything in his disposal not to only stop the party but to also sensitize the Ijaw nation against APC’s plans.

The governor who spoke at a World Press Conference in Yenegoa yesterday touched on several issues that may scuttle his victory at the supplementary elections, and vowed to resist any attempt.

“The APC Candidate and Party are desperate to expand their scope. Leaders holding national institutions should stop using them for electoral violence”, advised Dickson whose speech throughout the briefing was laced with series of accusations against former Governor Sylva, his opponent in the election.

Further expressing his disgust against the alleged role of Federal agencies including the Police and Directorate of State Security( DSS) during the last Guber election, Dickson said “ what is happening in Baylsa are signs of failing state” , but quickly added that “I don’t want to believe that Nigeria is a failing state”.

Accusing APC of stocking piling arms, and allegedly being protected by the state, Dickson expressed fairs that such arms could be a foundation of another Boko Haram.

“We will be laying the foundation of another Boko Haram if arms are allowed with them”, said Dickson who repeatedly accused the Federal Government of exercising authority and power during the last Guber election in the state.

He also accused Chief Sylva of influencing the posting of Commissioners of Police and Directorate of State Security (DSS) officials to the state.

“Police and DSS have been changed at hIs disposal. He went to Abuja to complain, the current Commissioner of Police is no doing his bid. He will be going any moment from now and another will be here at the instance of Sylva”.

Dickson who spoke on several unprintable issues against Chief Sylva, Senator Heineken Lokpobiri and other top APC stalwarts, however called on Sylva to join him in building a safe Bayelsa.

“Sylva should please join me in building a safe Bayelsa state”, said Dickson at the event which comprised traditional rulers, market women, politicians and top government officials.

Ward Exco storm APC headquarters, fault Shehu Sani’s suspension

By Ali Abare Abubakar

E

xecutives of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Tundun Wada, (Ward 6) Kaduna has petitioned the national secretariat of the party over what they tagged as illegal suspension of Senator Shehu Sani (Kaduna Central) The state executive of the party had announced the suspension of Senator Shehu over alleged anti-

party activities.

Addressing newsmen after presenting the letter to the national secretariat of the APC in Abuja, the chairman of the party in Ward 6, Kaduna, Abbas Muhammed Anni said Senator Sani remains a true party member.

The letter reads,”Upon the said suspension, we held a meeting with the Exco on 28/12/2015 and unanimously denounced and discountenanced the content of

the letter to Sen. Shehu Sani.

“Hence, the letter of the suspension is a blunt lie which we are not part of, our signatures were forged and fraudulently affixed against our names. We therefore, reiterate our unalloyed support for Sen. Shehu Sani.”

He also alleged that the Special Adviser to the governor on Investment induced some of the executives of Shehu Sani’s ward with N500, 000 to effect the

suspension.

He said, “The conception and ideas of the said purported document was mustered and orchestrated by the Special Adviser to the governor on Investment, who summoned for a meeting with some of my executives and induce them with N500,000 naira to effect the suspension of Senator Shehu Sani which they rejected.”

Niger state Governor, Alhaji Abubakar Sani Bello (middle), presenting APC flag to the chairmanship candidate of Chanchaga Local Government, Alhaji Yusuf Inuwa (right), during the flag-off the local government election campaign, yesterday at the Bako Kontagora Stadium, in Minna.

Taraba group want NJC to probe Appeal Court ruling From Ayodele Samuel, Lagos

T

araba Peoples Assembly, TPA, has called on the National Judicial Council NJC to probe the Taraba State Governorship election Appeal panel presided over by Justice Abdul Aboki for giving conflicting judgments against legal precedents.

TPA in a statement signed by its Coordinator, Martins Andekin wants the NJC to look at the judgment of the Appeal Court and sanction judges on the panel if they were compromised.

The group believed the judges were compromised because, the grounds which they dismissed the Governorship Election Petition Tribunal Judgment contradicts earlier judgments from the same Court of Appeal.

Andekin said the Appeal

Courts had given judgments in favor of opposition candidates from another party challenging winners of elections based on irregularities relating to pre election matters including improper nominations in more than 15 cases across the country.

“In a similar case against Senator Uche Ekwunife in Anambra State, Chairman of the Appeal panel Justice A.D. Yahaya ruled that the respondent (Ekwunife) “was not the product of a valid primary and was, therefore, not duly and legitimately nominated.

“Justice Yahaya further held that such situation has disqualified her from contesting the election into the Anambra Central senatorial District, citing Supreme Court ruling on Wambai Vs Donatus (2014): that “a person cannot be qualified to be a candidate of a party

except and unless he is properly nominated and sponsored by a political party.

“According to Justice Yahaya, after an election if a person wishes to challenge the result of the election on ground of nomination/pre-election matter, he can legally do so before a tribunal under Section 138 (1) (a) of the Electoral Act 2010 as amended and it is wrong to hold that an election tribunal does not have jurisdiction to hear and determine such a matter.”

Justice Yahaya therefore, held that “nomination is part and parcel of qualification to stand for an election and since an election can be challenged on the grounds of lack of qualification, it follows that the appropriate forum to challenge it after the election is held is the Election Tribunal….”

Andekin said till date it’s an indisputable fact that

Darius Ishaku was not properly nominated by the PDP since he emerged without a primary election.

The group said its forced to believe that Governor Ishaku bought the judgment with the state’s bailout fund.

“Till today, no explanation was given on how Governor Ishaku spend our bailout fund, salaries were not paid, pensioners are still dying due to none payment.

“The Governor never refuted allegations that he delivered cash stacked in briefcases to wife of a prominent judge.

“We started suspecting foul play when the appeal court delayed its sitting for more than five hours before announcing its decision, the manner at which the judgment was delivered shows that it was influenced and shabbily prepared,” the group said.

Page 19

PEOPLES DAILY, tuesday, january 5, 2016

New Tariff: Our customers should expect a fair deal-MD Kaduna Electric assures

By Etuka Sunday

T

he Managing Director/CEO of Kaduna Electric, Engineer Garba Haruna, has assured customers of the Company of transparent and fair business practice, just as the Company begins preparation for the implementation of the new tariff order recently approved by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission.

A statement signed by the Head, Corporate Communications of the Company Abdulazeez Abdullahi quoted the Managing Director as saying the new tariff represents the “fairest and near-perfect” tariff regime to all stakeholders.

He further argued that the new tariff regime gives the end customers a very fair electricity tariff giving the present economic reality.

According to him, the tariff

was a “product of a deep and painstaking study of the current socio-economic situation of the country and a very conservative look-ahead of the expected changes in macroeconomic indices such as rate of inflation, exchange rate, gas price and generation capacity”.

The Electricity boss also noted that the tariff approved for each distribution Company comprises “the estimated share of power

costs, share of transmission cost, institutional charges and distribution/retail cost”.

“The new tariff regime is not only about upward review of electricity tariff, but it aims at establishing a fair and cost reflective tariff for the entire industry. In fact, with the much expected efficiency in the industry, the tariff will take a downward trend in the fourth year”, he contended.

He also assured electricity users in the Company’s operational territory of their commitments to adequate investment in the area of network expansion and development, provision of pre-paid meters, replacement of weak and absolute equipment and improvement of the ICT facilities as required in the service level agreement with the regulatory body.

L-R: Yobe state Liaison Officer in Abuja, Sani Mohammed Ismail, Programme Coordinator, Nigerian Red Cross Society (NRCS), Umar Abdu Mairiga, Head Government and Community Relations, Etisalat Nigeria, Mohammed Suleh Yusuf, and Etisalat Experience Centre Manager, Euphemia Osuagwu, during the donation of relief materials by Etisalat to IDPs through the NRCS, yesterday in Abuja.

Photo: Mahmud Isa

Nigerian capital market resumes for 2016 on negative trend

T

ransactions at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) resumed for 2016 on a negative trend with the All-Share Index dropping by 0.95 per cent due to profit taking.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the index which opened at 28,642.25 lost 271.93 points or 0.95 per cent to close at 28,370.32.

Also, the market

capitalisation lost N93 billion to close at N9.757 trillion compared with N9.850 trillion posted on Thursday. Nestle recorded the highest price loss to lead the losers’ chart, dropping

by N30 to close at N830 per share. It was trailed by Nigerian Breweries with a loss of N6.80 to close at N129.20, while GlaxoSmithKline lost N1.71 to close at N32.49 per share.

Ashaka Cement declined

by N1 to close at N24 and Transcorp Hotel dropped by 29k to close at N5.51 per share.

On the other hand, Okomu Oil led the gainers’ table, growing

by N1.48 to close at N31.78 per share. Cement Company of Northern Nigeria followed with a gain of 31k to close at N9.66, while Zenith Bank gained 25k to close at N14.30 per share.

Guinness increased by 12k to close at N120.52 and Oando

gained 10k to close at N6 per share.

Austin Laz drove the volume of shares traded, exchanging 15.71 million shares worth N32.84 million traded in one deal. FBN Holdings followed with an exchange of 10.70 million shares valued N52.96 million transacted in 246 deals, while Transcorp sold 8.45 million shares worth N12.77 million achieved in 120 deals.

Access Bank traded 8.02 million shares valued N38.54 million in 99 deals and UBA sold 7.12 million shares worth N24.06 million transacted in 138 deals.

In all, investors’ staked N98.97 billion shares on 700.52 million traded in 2,307 deals.

NAN reports that this was against 252.16 million shares valued N3.85 billion traded by investors’ in 2,160 deals on Thursday. (NAN)

Page 20

Energy Analysis

PEOPLES DAILY, tuesday, january 5, 2016

2016: Hope is high! Is fuel reduction, refineries capacity production sustainable?

A typical oil refinery

By Etuka Sunday

H

ope is high among Nigerians now that the long awaited year 2016 is finally here. They are hopeful that the promise made by the federal government to up the capacity production of the four (4) refineries is fulfilled so as to possibly end the ever fuel scarcity challenge in the country.

Again, Nigerians are hopeful that the recent reduction in price of the Premium Motor Spirit (Petrol) in the country from N87 to N86 is also sustained. How the federal government will achieve these may not be the concern of an ordinary Nigerian; his hope is bent on getting the fuel readily available at a reduced price no matter the cause.

In late December, 2015, a news came from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), officially confirming the commencement of daily production of 3.2 million litres of petrol by the Kaduna Refining and Petrochemical Company (KRPC).

The Corporation confirmed that the plant which commenced production with an initial PMS yield of about 1.5 million litres has ramped up its daily yield to 3.2 million litres.

The development came shortly after the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) advised the federal government to deregulate the downstream sector of the oil and gas industry, adding that refineries that fail to produce should be sold as

scrap.

The National Operation Controller of IPMAN, Mike Osatuyi was quoted to have said that deregulation was the only answer to the problem of scarcity of the product across the country.

“The ultimate is to deregulate.

We are the stakeholders; we are the players and we have been on the job for a long time. The best thing for President Muhammadu Buhari to do is to deregulate the industry now. We don’t need to spend time at filling stations queuing for six hours to buy fuel. Actually, if they deregulate, we are going to have various prices, which is normal. But this is the time to deregulate.

“Refineries that will die will die. The ones that will survive will survive. If the refinery is not working, let them go and sell it as scrap.

Dangote is putting up 600,000 barrels per day facility, which will come on stream in 2018, and is more than the combined installed capacity of the four refineries we have. If those refineries cannot survive, let them go and sell them as scrap.”

Obviously, Osatuyi’s line of argument was the same with that of millions of Nigerians. Is the combined installed capacity of the four refineries currently put at 445, 000 enough to solve permanently the persistent problem of scarcity in Nigeria? If yes, when would that take place? Of course Nigerians did not celebrate the news. They will be better convinced, when they start getting the product as at when due without stress.

Just recently, before the New Year, the federal government took a bold step through the Petroleum Product Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) to announce a reduction in the pump price of fuel to N86 and N86.50 per litre respectively.

This was contrary to the expectations that it would sell for N50 per litre, saying that it would rather be sold at N86 per litre by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Retail Stations, while other oil marketers would sell at N86.50 per litre. The Executive Secretary, PPPRA, Mr. Farouk Ahmed who announced the reduction in Abuja said, the reduction in the price of the commodity was due to an implementation of the revised components of the Petroleum Products Pricing Template for PMS and Household Kerosene. According to him, the revised template, which would be reviewed on quarterly basis, is geared towards ensuring an efficient and market-driven price that would reflect current realities.

“Since 2007, while crude oil price had been moving up and down, the template remains the same. This made it necessary for us to introduce a mechanism whereby the template would be sensitive to the price of crude oil.

“However, the template is not static, as there would be a quarterly review and if there is any major shift, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources would be expected to call for a review, either upward or downward.

“If there is no major shift, the

price would continue from January to March 2016. In addition, there would be a Product pricing Advisory Committee that would be set up to advise the PPPRA concerning movements in the price of crude oil,” he said. He said the NNPC would sell lower than other oil marketers, due to the fact that it is cheaper for it to import, compared to the independent and major Oil marketers. He listed the major components affected by the review in the pricing template to include: Traders Margin, Lightering Expenses, Nigerian Port Authority (NPA) Charges, Jetty Throughput and Storage Charges, as well as Bridging Fund.

Other components include: Retailers, Transports and Dealer margins.

Giving a breakdown of the revised template, Ahmed disclosed that Trader’s margin, which is the amount paid to traders for bringing the commodity into Nigeria, has been eliminated, from N1.47 per litre previously; Lightering Expenses reduced from N4.07 per litre to N2 per litre; NPA, reduced from N0.77 to N0.36 per litre; while Jetty Throughput and Storage charges were reduced from N0.80 and N3 to N0.40 and N1.50 per litre respectively.

On the other hand, Retailers margin rose to N5 per litre from N4.60; Transporters rose to N3.05 from N2.99; dealers margin was reviewed upward to N1.95 from N1.75, while bridging fund dropped to N4 per litre from N5.85.

To this end, the Ahmed put the

Ex-depot price of PMS at N77 per litre, compared to N77.66 per litre, while he stated that pump price for oil marketers would be N86.50 per litre.

On the issue of PMS import allocation to the NNPC and other marketers, Ahmed stated that the PPPRA in a bid to guarantee uninterrupted fuel supply nationwide, took into consideration the issue of retail outlets ownership, marketers’ performance of previous quarterly allocation, as well as the challenges in sourcing foreign exchange.

To this end, he said, “Consequently, the NNPC was granted 78 per cent of the total allocated volume for the first quarter, while the balance is to be supplied by other oil marketing companies.

“Marketers are required to note that there shall be a midquarter review of performance where volumes of non-performing marketers shall be withdrawn and reallocated to performing marketers.

“Furthermore, the PPPRA wished to reiterate that consideration for participation in future allocations shall be on the basis of attainment of 100 per cent performance in first quarter 2016.

In as much as the steps taken by the federal government so far is commendable, greater efforts must be geared towards the sustainability of these efforts to clear the doubts in the minds of Nigerians. They are skeptical that their hopes may be dashed as it has been the case with the previous administration.

Nevertheless, the long awaited ‘Change’ is here and must start with the Oil and Gas Industry.

PEOPLES DAILY, tuesday, january 5, 2016

Page 21

ICT

Facebook Founder unveils 2016 plans for artificially intelligent butler M ark Zuckerberg wants to build an artificially intelligent assistant in 2016 to help run his home and assist him at work, the Facebook Inc (FB.O) founder and chief executive said on Sunday.

Zuckerberg, who commits to a new personal challenge

every year, revealed his plan in a Facebook post.

“You can think of it kind of like Jarvis in Iron Man,” Zuckerberg wrote, referring to an artificially intelligent butler who appears in the Marvel comic books and movies.

Zuckerberg will start the

project by exploring existing technology, he wrote. He will then begin teaching the technology to understand his voice so that it will learn to control everything in his home, such as music, lights and temperature.

His plans also include teaching the assistant to let friends into his home by looking at their faces when they ring the doorbell, Zuckerberg wrote. The assistant will visualize data to support Zuckerberg at work, he wrote. “This should be a fun intellectual challenge to

code this for myself,” Zuckerberg wrote. “I’m looking forward to sharing what I learn over the course of the year.”

Other challenges Zuckerberg has taken on in recent years have included reading two books every month and learning Mandarin. (Reuters)

ICT Gadgets

Nokia to move swiftly after taking control of Alcatel-Lucent

F

inland’s Nokia said on Monday it has gained control of French counterpart Alcatel-Lucent following its 15.6-billioneuro ($17 billion) all-share offer and the two telecom equipment makers would start to combine their operations next week.

The Alcatel acquisition will put Nokia into a stronger position to compete with Sweden’s Ericsson and China’s Huawei in a market for telecom network gear where limited growth and tough competition are pressuring prices.

The French stock market authority said interim results from the offer showed Nokia would hold around 79 percent of Alcatel shares.

The offers in France and the United States will be reopened this month, and the

final results will be published in February. Nokia said it will move quickly to press on with integration ahead of the formal closure of the deal, expected during the first quarter. “As of January 14, 2016, Nokia and AlcatelLucent will offer a combined end-to-end portfolio of the scope and scale to meet the needs of our global customers,” Nokia Chief Executive Rajeev Suri said.

Shares in the company rose 0.6 percent by 1410 GMT on the Helsinki bourse which was down 2.1 percent.

The stock is still down about 10 percent since the announcement of the deal in April as investors have worried about the integration process and special terms negotiated by the French government.

But in October, Nokia

brought forward the deal’s 900 million euro cost-saving target by a year to 2018.

“They are well on track with this deal, it seems they have calculated the deal’s ‘margins of safety’ rather carefully. Now, they can keep up a positive news flow,” said Jukka Oksaharju, strategist at Nordnet brokerage.

The deal, set to become the biggest transaction in Finland’s corporate history, follows a string of M&A moves that have restructured former mobile phone giant Nokia in recent years.

In 2013, it took control of its network business by buying out Siemens from a joint venture, and in 2014 it sold the ailing mobile phone business to Microsoft. Last year it also sold navigation business here. ($1 = 0.9184 euros) (Reuters)

Microsoft’s latest operating system running on 200 million devices

M

icrosoft Corp’s latest operating system, Windows 10, is running on 200 million devices in what the company said was the fastest adoption rate of any of its operating systems.

Windows 10, which the company released as a free download in July, powers both personal computers and devices like phones. It replaced Windows 8, the heavily criticized system dating from 2012.

Just over two months ago, Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella said 110 million devices were running Windows 10,

meaning the system is now on almost double the number of phones and PCs compared to before the holiday season.

“I would characterize this as white hot adoption out of the gate,” said Daniel Ives, an analyst at FBR Capital Markets, who has an “outperform” rating on the stock.

Much of the growth comes from retail consumers, with devices such as Microsoft’s Xbox gaming console helping drive adoption of Windows 10, the company said. Xbox’s busiest day ever was Dec. 28, it added.

But the ultimate success of Windows 10 will be judged by the take-up rate among businesses.

About three-quarters of Microsoft’s enterprise customers are testing Windows 10, the company said.

Microsoft also needs more mobile developers to build apps for Windows 10 to help catch up with players like Apple and its popular iPhone and iPad devices.

It reported some progress in that area Monday, citing more visits to its Windows Store for apps such as video service Netflix and music service Pandora.(Reuters)

Page 22

PEOPLES DAILY, tuesday, january 5, 2016

Business

Stock Market in 2015: Experts hinge growth on investors attraction T

he financial year 2015 was indeed victim of spill over of 2014 poor performance.

Despite all predictions by market analysts that 2014 performance would greatly outweigh that of 2013, unfortunately it ended flat. Our corespondent, Ngozi Onyeakusi in this special report weighs some of the key initiatives introduced to attract investors to the market as well as other events that shape the year.

Investors in the nation’s capital market had towards the end of third quarter of 2015 described the year as one of the under performed in the recent time. It was yet another year of bad reckoning for investors. All hopes were dashed to the wall as the market again suffered losses to the tune of N2.24 trillion compared to N1.75 trillion of 2014.

Recall that 2014 recorded the worst performance ever since the nations capital market started showing signs of rebound in 2012 after its crash in 2008.

Consequently, the CNNMoney ranked it 72 out of 74 exchanges considered the NSE All-Share Index at negatively 20.67 per cent while the Telegraph UK placed it third among the worst performing stock markets in the world in 2014.

Unarguably, the market prospect for 2015 was defeated following some external factors raging from uncertainties surrounding the general election held within the period to insurgency in the north east part of the country.

Others include impact of crude oil price drop, the devaluation of the Naira, impact of some of the government monetary policies on the economy among others.

Market performance in 2015 The twin market indicators, the All Share Index and market capitalization within the period recorded depreciations.

ASI declined by 7,785.91 points or 22.47 per cent to closed as at December 23, 2015 at 26,871.24 points, against the opening index of 34,657.15 points, while the market capitalization of listed equities dipped by N2.24 trillion to close at N9.238 trillion.

The NSE Banking Index dropped by 24.19 per cent .The NSE Consumer Goods Index carrying year-to-date loss return of 23.46 per cent, while NSE 30, index, which tracks the highly influential 30 most capitalized companies at the stock market declined by 22.66 per cent.

The NSE Premium Index, recording three newly grouped companies, namely, Dangote Cement, First Bank of Nigeria (FBN) Holdings and Zenith Bank, went down by 21.75 per cent, NSE oil & gas Index has a negative return of 13.94 per cent, underlining losses in the upstream and downstream segments of the oil industry while industrial goods sub-sector has shown the greater resistance with a modest negative return of 4.26 per cent.

Key Events in the market

NSE The Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC and Nigerian Stock Exchange, NSE have been within the period championing major reforms aimed at attracting investors, bringing sanity and restoring investors confidence through regulations and enforcement , strengthening market institutions, promoting corporate governance.

Launch of National Investor Protection Fund NIPF SEC, following the inaugurated of the National Investor Protection Fund (NIPF) on 26th November, 2015, earmarked sum of N5 billion to compensate investors for pecuniary losses with 580 complainants/investors to be compensated.

Mr Mounir Gwarzo, the SEC Director-General, disclosed that the fund would be for loses arising from the insolvency, bankruptcy or negligence by non-broker/dealer capital market operators.

NIPF is a trust scheme established to compensate investors whose losses are not covered under the Investors Protection Funds being administered by Securities Exchanges and Capital Trade Points.

“This is a very excellent feat taken by the commission with its little resources as it has not been funded by the government,” he said.

Sanction and revoke of license of errant firms.

The commission, a bid to instill discipline in the market had during the year sanctioned several operators that had breached market rules and regulations.

Also, 84 firms’ operational licences were revoked by the commission

for failing to meet registration requirements, amongst others.

Launch of premium board Similarly, in line with commitment of promoting companies, the NSE within the year launched a new listing platform – Premium Board and its associated Premium Board Index – featuring companies that meet the Exchange’s most stringent listing criteria of capitalization, governance and liquidity. Three companies – Dangote Cement Plc, FBN Holdings Plc, and Zenith International Bank Plc, met the criteria and therefore qualified for the pilot phase.

Launch of Adopt-a-School initiative.

NSE, in line with its educational intervention aimed at addressing the challenges experienced by schools in Nigeria through facility and process improvement, teachers’ empowerment and students’ intellectual advancement, launched Adopta-School initiative.

Growth Strategies / Prospects for 2016.

SEC said the commission will in 2016 focus on some key initiative that would attract high patronage to the market.

Reduction in transaction cost According to the SEC, DG, the commission was working towards ensuring that cost of doing business in the market is reduced.

“Some of the initiative we are looking at for 2016 within the master plan is the issue of transaction cost. We did an excellent research, we find out that Nigeria is very expensive in terms of transaction in

the market. A committe has been set up under the leadership of Ade Bajomo, the executive director of the NSE, to look at how we can make transaction in the market a little bit cheaper. And it means that every key player in the market, SEC, NSE, S, Brokers, Issuing Houses, Registrars will have a look at ways and means they can review their fees”, said Gwarzo.

Getting more companies listed; Access to capital for SMEs SEC and NSE in the recent past has been in the business of designing programmes that will make the market viable so as to attract huge investors both local and foreign to the market.

According to the DG, SEC, “We also want to focus on the access of capital by SMEs. We think that they are the major engine of growth. In all countries, SMEs are the major employment generation enterprises. So, we are looking at how we can encourage SMEs to be listed in the market.

We are able to relax some of the requirement to give rooms for some of this companies. Stock Exchange has done quite well in terms of restructuring their securities market and relaxing their requirements. One of the things we are looking at doing is to be having a regional interface with some of these companies. Let them tell us their concerns, is it the fees or what? And we believe that this sort of engagement will start next year”, In the same vein, the Chief Executive Officer, Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), Mr. Oscar Onyema, said the Exchange was committed to supporting appropriate legislation that create enabling environment that attract

companies to list instead of compelling them.

Oscar, who said that good corporate governance will ensure solid companies, noted that forcing companies to list may lead to infractions in the market, saying that a lot of energy has been spent building the foundational aspect of the market in terms of transparency, orderliness, fairness, disclosure, and more importantly how enforcement of rules and regulations.

“In the short term, you will see the huge volatility but that should not distract from those fundamental elements about good companies, making good money, running under a well governed Exchange structure and a well regulated market structure.

These factors will combine to shore up investors’ confidence in these challenging times.

According to Former Director General SEC, Aruma Ote, “To attract more companies to list, and to attract and retain a larger pool of investors, at the minimum, we must ensure that we maintain stable and consistent policy regimes, uphold fair and orderly markets based on just and equitable principles that will generate and preserve issuer and investor confidence in our markets.

“We realise that to attract more companies to list, we must partner with policy makers to take full advantage of developmental initiatives which require massive capital; for instance, sector-wide policies calling for recapitalisation of and consolidation by operators, and other privatization/ commercialisation programmes in sectors such as telecommunication, extractive industries and so on.”

PEOPLES DAILY, tuesday, january 5, 2016

PAGE 23

Stock Watch: Monday, January 4, 2016 Company

7UP

Previous Closing Price

185.06

184.5

Opening Price

184.5

High

Low

184.5

Close

184.5

Change Trades

-0.56 25

Volume

Value

Company

Previous Closing Price

Opening Price

High

Low

Close

Change Trades

Volume

Value

233,796

43,137,315.02 MAYBAKER 1.26 - - - 1.26 5 26,078 32,955.18

ABBEYBDS 1.25 - - - 1.25 0 - -

MBENEFIT 0.5 - - - 0.5 0 - -

ABCTRANS 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.5 0 4 505,000 252,500.00

MCNICHOLS 1.2 - - - 1.2 5 154,383 176,896.62

ACADEMY 0.59 - - - 0.59 0 - ACCESS

4.46

4.46

4.64

4.46

4.5

0.04 321

28,060,764

126,589,999.78

ADSWITCH 1.63 - - - 1.63 0 - AFRIK 0.5 - - - 0.5 0 - AFRINSURE 0.5 - - - 0.5 0 - -

MOBIL 138.99 - - - 138.99 20 6,378 854,115.18 MORISON 1.73 - - - 1.73 0 - MRS 49.66 - - - 49.66 1 500 23,590.00 MTECH 0.91 - - - 0.91 0 - MTI 0.5 - - - 0.5 0 - MULTITREX 0.5 - - - 0.5 0 - -

AFRIPRUD 2.65 2.7 2.7 2.61 2.61 -0.04 35 553,581 1,479,349.55 MULTIVERSE 0.5 - - - 0.5 1 10,000 5,000.00 AFROMEDIA 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.5 0 1 550,000 275,000.00

NAHCO 4.38 4.17 4.17 4.17 4.17 -0.21 19 203,175 850,145.97

AFRPAINTS 2.59 - - - 2.59 0 - -

NASCON 7.18 7.5 7.3 7.16 7.3 0.12 26 1,031,170 7,479,398.60

AGLEVENT 1.02 0.97 -

-

1.02

8 48,971 46,330.44

AIICO 0.9 0.91 0.91 0.91 0.91 0.01 18 983,972 898,207.23 AIRSERVICE 1.91 - - - 1.91 3 1,505 2,918.35 ALEX 9.84 - - - 9.84 0 - ALUMACO 7.75 - - - 7.75 1 200 1,474.00 ANINO 0.25 - - - 0.25 0 - ARBICO 5.04 - - - 5.04 0 - -

NB 135 135.2 135.2 129.51 129.51 -5.49 105 1,220,085 161,842,702.19 NCR 11.02 - - - 11.02 0 - NEIMETH 1.03 0.98 0.98 0.98 0.98 -0.05 6

126,800 124,264.00

NEM 0.69 0.7 0.7 0.7 0.7 0.01 16 1,774,600 1,241,859.00 NESF 552.2 - - - 552.2 0 - NESTLE 814

822.99 822.99 822.99 822.99 8.99 73

115,282 94,401,035.72

NIG-GERMAN 4.91 - - - 4.91 0 - NIGERINS 0.5 - - - 0.5 0 - -

ASHAKACEM 22.5 - - - 22.5 16 55,698 1,233,876.58 NIGROPES 7.46 - - - 7.46 0 - ASOSAVINGS 0.5 - - - 0.5 0 - -

NNFM 8.99 - - - 8.99 0 - -

AUSTINLAZ 2.09 - - - 2.09 0 - -

NPFMCRFBK

AVONCROWN 1.52 - - - 1.52 0 - BECOPETRO 0.5 - - - 0.5 0 - BERGER 9.6 9.61 9.61 9.61 9.61 0.01 9 379,696 3,674,398.56 BETAGLAS 48.51 - - - 48.51 0 - -

0.98 0.98 0.98 0.98 0.98 0

6

174,000 170,510.00

NSLTECH 0.5 - - - 0.5 0 - OANDO 8.5 8.92 8.92 8.48 8.48 -0.02 364 7,671,197 65,761,034.51 OKOMUOIL 28.82 - - - 28.82 21 108,772 3,056,214.60 OMATEK 0.5 - - - 0.5 0 - OMOSAVBNK 0.92 - - - 0.92 0 - -

BOCGAS 4.18 - - - 4.18 0 - PAINTCOM 1.14 - - - 1.14 0 - CADBURY 20.1 - - - 20.1 15 82,240 1,655,764.64 PHARMDEKO 2.14 - - - 2.14 1 5,000 10,850.00 CAP 38 39 39 39 39 1 16 166,666 6,492,031.87 PORTPAINT 3.53 - - - 3.53 0 - CAPHOTEL 4.07 - - - 4.07 0 - -

PREMBREW 2.95 - - - 2.95 0 - -

CAPOIL 0.5 - - - 0.5 0 - -

PREMPAINTS 10.93 - - - 10.93 0 - -

CAVERTON 2.63 2.5 2.5 2.5 2.5 -0.13 7 145,913 366,122.50 CCNN 8.73 9.16 -

-

8.73

7 51,560 458,087.60

CHAMPION 4.17 4.17 -

-

4.17

11 146,282 587,170.36

CHAMS 0.5 - - - 0.5 0 - CHELLARAM 3.76 - - - 3.76 0 - -

PRESCO 30.5 - - - 30.5 6 32,910 1,045,950.40 PRESTIGE 0.5 - - - 0.5 0 - PZ 25.5 25 25 25 25 -0.5 33 567,539 14,195,538.05 RAKUNITY 0.5 - - - 0.5 0 - REDSTAREX 4.2 - - - 4.2 2 19,785 83,097.00 REGALINS 0.5 - - - 0.5 0 - -

CILEASING 0.5 - - - 0.5 2 4,000 2,000.00

RESORTSAL 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.5 0 1 100,000 50,000.00

CONOIL 27.41 26.04 -

ROADS 6.6 - - - 6.6 0 - -

-

27.41

8

13,350 330,799.00

0.6 - - - 0.6 0 - 1.06 1.01 1.06 1.01 1.06 0 11 3,520,635 3,661,166.09 ROKANA ROYALEX 0.5 - - - 0.5 0 - CORNERST 0.5 - - - 0.5 0 - RTBRISCOE 0.5 - - - 0.5 3 78,164 39,082.00 COSTAIN 0.5 - - - 0.5 1 5,000 2,500.00 CONTINSURE

COURTVILLE 0.5 - - - 0.5 0 - CUSTODYINS 4.1 - - - 4.1 6 16,101 64,845.03 CUTIX 1.45 - - - 1.45 1 26,666 38,665.70 CWG 2.67 - - - 2.67 0 - DAARCOMM 0.5 - - - 0.5 1 4,000 2,000.00

SCOA 4.16 - - - 4.16 0 - -

SEPLAT 230.04 225 225 225 225 -5.04 20 77,862 17,490,790.00 SIMCAPVAL 103.24 - - - 103.24 0 - SKYEBANK 1.9 1.9 1.99 1.9 1.99 0.09 75 2,020,105 3,920,083.45 SKYESHELT 100 - - - 100 0 - SMURFIT 0.98 - - - 0.98 0 - -MAY-

DANGCEM 162 163 163 163 163 1 33 156,759 25,532,904.96

BAKER 1.26 - - - 1.26 5 26,078 32,955.18

DANGFLOUR 2.31 - - - 2.31 16 31,484 75,328.68

MBENEFIT 0.5 - - - 0.5 0 - -

DANGSUGAR

- - - 1.2 5 154,383 176,896.62 6.52 6.32 6.51 6.32 6.51 -0.01 26 343,221 2,210,542.55 MCNICHOLS 1.2 MOBIL 138.99 - - - 138.99 20 6,378 854,115.18

DEAPCAP 0.58 - - - 0.58 0 - -

DIAMONDBNK 2.87 2.8 2.8 2.74 2.74 -0.13 43 1,315,800 3,645,250.00 IPWA 0.5 - - - 0.5 0 - JAPAULOIL 0.5 - - - 0.5 1 10,000 5,000.00 JBERGER 39.5 - - - 39.5 4 1,180 44,879.00 JOHNHOLT 0.96 - - - 0.96 0 - -

MORISON 1.73 - - - 1.73 0 - MRS 49.66 - - - 49.66 1 500 23,590.00 MTECH 0.91 - - - 0.91 0 - MTI 0.5 - - - 0.5 0 - MULTITREX 0.5 - - - 0.5 0 - MULTIVERSE 0.5 - - - 0.5 1 10,000 5,000.00

JOSBREW 1.51 - - - 1.51 0 - -

NAHCO 4.38 4.17 4.17 4.17 4.17 -0.21 19 203,175 850,145.97

JULI 1.75 - - - 1.75 0 - -

NASCON 7.18 7.5 7.3 7.16 7.3 0.12 26 1,031,170 7,479,398.60

LASACO 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.5 0 1 300,000 150,000.00

NB 135 135.2 135.2 129.51 129.51 -5.49 105 1,220,085 161,842,702.19

LAWUNION 0.54 0.53 0.53 0.52 0.52 -0.02 14 910,610 481,548.30

NCR 11.02 - - - 11.02 0 - -

LEARNAFRCA

0.68 0.65 0.65 0.65 0.65 -0.03 10 1,074,871 699,416.15

LENNARDS 3.15 - - - 3.15 0 - LINKASSURE 0.5 - - - 0.5 0 - LIVESTOCK 1.4 1.41 1.41 1.41 1.41 0.01 9 134,400 192,410.51 MANDRID 5.35 - - - 5.35 0 - MANSARD 2.62 2.55 -

-

2.62

8 37,850 99,859.50

Top Gainers Company

Previous Closing Price

Opening Price

High

NEIMETH 1.03 0.98 0.98 0.98 0.98 -0.05 6

126,800 124,264.00

NEM 0.69 0.7 0.7 0.7 0.7 0.01 16 1,774,600 1,241,859.00 NESF 552.2 - - - 552.2 0 - NESTLE 814

822.99 822.99 822.99 822.99 8.99 73

115,282 94,401,035.72

NIG-GERMAN 4.91 - - - 4.91 0 - NIGERINS 0.5 - - - 0.5 0 - NIGROPES 7.46 - - - 7.46 0 - -

Top Losers Low

Close

Change Trades

Volume

Value

Company

Previous Closing Price

Opening Price

High

Low

Close

Change Trades

Volume

Value

ALUMACO 7.75 - - - 7.75 1 200 1,474.00

MULTITREX 0.5 - - - 0.5 0 - -

FORTISMFB 5.42 - - - 5.42 0 - -

NNFM 8.99 - - - 8.99 0 - -

UNHOMES 5.23 - - - 5.23 1 3,750 18,637.50

MCNICHOLS 1.2 - - - 1.2 5 154,383 176,896.62

INFINITY 1.42 - - - 1.42 0 - -

UTC 0.5 - - - 0.5 0 - -

OMOSAVBNK 0.92 - - - 0.92 0 - -

UNIONDICON 11.84 - - - 11.84 0 - -

MULTIVERSE 0.5 - - - 0.5 1 10,000 5,000.00

MANDRID 5.35 - - - 5.35 0 - -

ASOSAVINGS 0.5 - - - 0.5 0 - -

CADBURY 20.1 - - - 20.1 15 82,240 1,655,764.64

ABBEYBDS 1.25 - - - 1.25 0 - -

JULI 1.75 - - - 1.75 0 - -

PAGE 24

Peoples Daily, tuesday, January 5, 2016

PAGE 25

Page 26

PEOPLES DAILY, tuesday, january 5, 2016

INTERVIEW

“Herbal tourism can generate foreign exchange for Nigeria” An expert in Phytho-medicinal research and Chief Researcher, Halamin Herbal Products, Pharm. Ben Amodu in this interview with PEOPLES DAILY WEEKEEND, urges governments at all level to accord Herbal medicine its deserved recognition.

Excerpts:

You have said it severally that Herbal medicine succeeds where its Orthodox counterpart failed, can you substantiate this?

I can give you instances, but unfortunately, I won’t mention the names of my patients because our ethics is against that. Herbs treat and cure communicable and non-communicable diseases more than their Orthodox counterparts. It would surprise you to know that Hepatitis kills about 11 people in this country on daily basis. But I want to inform you that our supplements made from Herbs have been able to cure many patients of the ailment.

For instance, a patient with a viral Hb of 170m who could not be cured in a high brow hospital in Nigeria was cured with our supplements that reduced it to 83m within a month. Another one with a viral load of 124,500 was reduced to 2400 with our Herbal supplements. And as you know, it is a cure as it is below 500. The most recent one was the case of a patient with viral load of 6,200 who said that his United Kingdom (UK) consultant saw it as incurable.

But Herbs from our products reduced it to 6.

Are you satisfied with the government’s low patronage or lack of recognition for Herbal medicine?

Well, I won’t tell you that I am satisfied, but with all these developments so far, I believe that the present government will begin to encourage it.

World Health Organization (WHO) recommended Herbs for treatment of modern diseases.

I want to inform you that the magic behind good health and longevity of life China, India and other Asian countries have been enjoying is found in the use of Herbs. We are however planning to take the profiles and evidences

of our products efficacies to the Minister of Health in order to know where to partner so as to diversify the country’s economy.

What is your advice to the government with regard to Herbs?

I would advise the Federal Government to look inwardly.

The reason is that the diseases termed incurable can now be cured and this is based from results we have been receiving from our various patients within and outside the country who were treated with Herbs.

What economic benefit can Herbs bring to a third world country like Nigeria?

As you know, if a country’s exports exceed its imports, the result will be favourable balance of trade. I have participated in various expositions and workshops within and outside the country and was able to observe the response of participants.

A patient from London who was perfectly treated with our Herbal supplements sent this into my mail: “Hello Sir, l give glory to God. Hbsag now 6. It was previously 6200 iu/ml. This is more significant than viral load as Hbsag is count of virus in the liver. This means once Hbsag is zero, it will no longer test positive to hbv. I have been

trying to reach you. God is great.”

I want to inform you of a patient with PSA of 12.8 on medical evacuation to India got cured after using Herbs from us.

Infect, he was declared free from the ailment when tested in the Indian hospital where he was billed for operation as his PSA was found to have shrunk down to 7 from the 12.8.

He told me that he visited other hospitals in India, among which was Apolo Hospital and was advised to continue with his medication. Positive results of our supplement combinations to patients in 2013 moved Se Kroa Ehoule, the Director and the Coordinator of Program of National Promotion of Traditional Medicine in the country commended us and requested for more of the products.

And our product combinations as I said earlier are not Orthodox, but Herbs.

Herbs stunned the world when our herbal supplements were recently recommended for the treatment of the dreaded Ebola, Cancers of the lung which is the highest disease of the lung, that of colon and pancreas as well as other related diseases by the Department of Research in Southern, Texas University in the United States of America (USA) and it was widely publicized by local and international media organisations.

fact of the matter is that we don’t “ The value what we have in this country. But

thank God that today they have begun to testify to what they have experienced after having used the orthodox and the herbal medicine

Pharm. Ben Amodu

If Herbs can be recommended for the cure of the highest disease of the lung, then Asthma being a disease of the lung is a small thing to the Herb.

The case of a Hepatitis patient I mentioned above, whose UK medical consultant saw as incurable which we cured with herbs and the above mail to us from a London patient are other ways of attracting international trade in the country which you know will go a long way to enhance favourable balance of trade. And if the wonders being performed by herbs on both communicable and non communicable diseases within and outside the country can be encouraged by the government, herbal tourism will be attracted in Nigeria, because people will be coming from all over the world to Nigeria which in turn will attract foreign exchange.

There are other ailments like kidney disease which is believed that Herbs has limited power, could you react to that?

The fact of the matter is that we don’t value what we have in this country. But thank God that today they have begun to testify to what they have experienced after having used the orthodox and the herbal medicines. We had a case of a patient with 6.2mm stone kidney which was dissolved to 0.6mm in 15 days with the pain gone within three days after using Herbs.

Rne test was done in Zitadel Medical Diagnostic Ltd here in Abuja where the stone in the kidney was also confirmed reduced to zero. Another old man with Prostate Cancer (PSA)

of 12.40, after taking Herbs from us, went for a test after a month got a result of 2.3 with easy passage of urine and waking up at night reduced and his installed catheter fell off on its own.

Orthodox branch of medicine has been recognised in most countries of the world for performance in modern diseases more than Herbs.

What do you think is responsible for this?

I am a pharmacist and have been in Phytho medicine research for a long time now. I have said it above and still want to repeatedly inform you that the World Health Organization (WHO) has issued releases many times on the need for using Herbal medicines in treatment of ailments in the world; be them communicable or non-communicable ones. The magic behind good health and longevity of life China, India and other Asian countries have been enjoying are from the use of Herbs.

Herbal medicines are very good in the treatment of diseases that people grow into as they age and in medical term, they are called non-communicable diseases. Among them are diseases of Cardiovascular of high Triglyceride levels in blood like High Blood Pressure (HBP), Diabetes, Stroke, Ulcer and Asthma.

Today medical doctors shy away from HIV patients with CD4 count of 50, 100, 200 to 300 which Herbs treat with ease by bringing the CD4 count to 450, 500 and 600 in no time, instead of abandoning them to death.

Page 27

PEOPLES DAILY, tuesday, january 5, 2016

Defence

Navy nabs 16 oil thieves in Delta Stories by Joy Baba-Yesufu

O

fficials of the Nigerian Navy has arrested 16 oil thieves in Oteghale community, Warri-South Local Government Area of Delta State. They uncovered their hideout and arrested 16

suspects.

Flag Officer Commanding, Central Naval Command, Rear Admiral Augustine Suleman, who confirmed the development, said the arrest of the suspects was made possible via a tip-off.

He added that the operatives

discovered a hop tap on the Trans Forcados pipeline fixed with six inches valve that allows crude oil thieves’ access to Nigerian crude unhindered.

He said: “A trip to the site revealed drums of over 8,000 tones through illegal trades.’’

Rear Admiral Suleman said the operatives realised that the Cotonou boats were not available and illegal refineries no longer exist with impunity.

He said, “What they are doing now is to connect pipes to the export line. They attach the pipes

to the line and lay the pipes as far as two kilometers off shore and load directly from there.’’

Suleman, however, assured of their preparedness to end the illegal trade, disclosing that the suspects would be handed over to the police for further prosecution.

Lieutenant -General Tukur Buratai, Army chief

Chief of Nevy Staff, Vice -Admiral Ibok-Ete Ibas

Borno: Hunters beg to join Army fight Boko Haram in Sambisa

Navy seizes trucks, cars cariyng illegally refined AGO

H

unters in Borno have on Sunday, January 3, called on the Nigerian military to allow them join in the war against insurgents in Sambisa Forest.

The plea was made known by the Borno Emir of the Hunters, Malam Mai-Gana Mai-Durma, in Maiduguri, while addressing newsmen.

Mai-Durma said that the call became imperative because the hunters were familiar with the terrain at the dreaded forest, the hideout and operational base of the terrorists.

“We are appealing to the military authorities to allow us join the fight

against Boko Haram at the Sambisa forest.

“We are ready to pursue the terrorists because we know the terrain very well,” MaiDurma said.

He said that the military should align them with members of the vigilance group, popularly knwon as the Civilian JTF, for effective result.

“We will overrun Sambisa in partnership with members of the civilian JTF if given the opportunity.

“This will help to complement the effort of military in the anti terrorism operation,” Mai-Durma said.

He lamented that

hunters from the 27 local government areas of the state had been rendered idle by the Boko Haram terrorism.

“Hunters from all the 27 Borno LGAs are all in Maiduguri with our leaders doing nothing at present because of Boko Haram.

“Rather than idling away, we will want to assist the military in crushing Boko Haram terrorists,” Mai-Durma said.

He also appealed to the Shehu of Borno, Alhaji Abubakar Ibn Garbai, to assist in forwarding the request to the military authorities for consideration.

T

he Nigerian Navy, NN Jubilee, Ikot Abasi, Akwa Ibom State, has seized trucks loaded with 143 drums and 600 bags of Automated Gas Oil. The command also impounded a Nissan vehicle carrying 80 cellophane of AGO and a Toyota Sienna that had been loaded with 45 cellophane of AGO between September and December 30, 2015 Commander of the ship, Commodore David Adeniran, who spoke with journalists in Ikot Abasi on Wednesday, attributed the NN Jubilee success to aggressive patrols.

Adeniran stated that the command had been able to disrupt the activities of the criminals when it discovered the means through which they concealed illegally refined products.

He stated that the hoodlums transported the liquid in cellophane bags by cars or space bus, like Volkswagen Gulf or Toyota Sienna, noting that when measured, the items ranged from 10kg to 50kg and above.

“We have been able to obstruct the activities of these criminals despite choosing

unconventional ways to move the AGO. The products are usually transported in small vehicles or buses and also drums ranging from 200 to 300 litres and above are also used in transporting these illegally refined products.

“On September 1 (2015), we intercepted 75 drums of illegally refined AGO at Opobo waterside. Also on September 10, we seized 80 cellophane bags of AGO in a Nissan vehicle. This was handed over to the civil defence corps.

“We also intercepted a truck loaded with 600 bags of illegally refined AGO. In this case, the product was packed like bags of rice. On looking at the products, you will think that you have bags of rice, but in actual sense, they are not.

“They are illegally refined products and the smell easily gave them out before going into thorough examination of the liquid. We also seized 45 cellophane bags of illegally refined AGO at the Okop-Edi Fishing Town and 68 drums of AGO at Edmaya with two boats,” he said.

PEOPLES DAILY, tuesday, january 5, 2016

Page 28

Agriculture Highlighting investment opportunities in Sokoto State

By Bashir Rabe Mani

S

okoto State was carved out of the then North Western State on Feb. 3, 1976 by the administration of Gen. Murtala Mohammed.

The state currently has an estimated population of over 4.4 million inhabitants, spread across 23 local government areas.

Sokoto State is endowed with vast mineral, water, human and agricultural resources, among others, and observers say that although some of these resources have been exploited, others remain largely latent.

In the field of agriculture, the state’s agricultural resources are quite enormous, as the flood plains of the Sokoto Rima River, which contain rich alluvial soil, are very suitable for sustained crop cultivation.

Agriculturists insist that this factor, among other attributes, have somewhat given Sokoto State a comparative advantage over other states when it comes to the cultivation of various crops all year round.

In essence, farmers in the state are able to engage in sustained dry and rainy season crop growing.

The state’s Commissioner for Agriculture, Alhaji Arzika Tureta, says that the state government has done a lot to encourage sustainable food production in the state.

According to him, this is done through the execution of pragmatic agricultural policies and programmes.

He says that such policies and programmes include the provision of soft loans, farm implements, farm inputs and several other incentives to small and large scale farmers, adding that this has impacted positively on the farmers’ yields.

Also speaking, Alhaji Abubakar Tambuwal, the Chairman of the state chapter of the Agriculture and Allied Workers’ Union of Nigeria (AAEUN), says that the state is richly endowed with agricultural resources.

Saying that Sokoto State can easily become the country’s investors’ hub, particularly in the area of agriculture, Tambuwal stresses that the state has vast arable lands which can facilitate the cultivation of assorted crops.

He says that the state can produce, in commercial quantities, rice, garlic, beans, onion, wheat, millet, guinea corn, sugarcane, pepper, vegetables, cassava, tomatoes and a host of other crops.

Besides, Tambuwal notes that the state is vastly endowed with water resources, citing Goronyo

Cow farm Dam, one of the largest dams in the country, as well as Shagari and Lugu Dams as instances. ``The full potential of Goronyo Dam has yet to be fully explored and exploited. The dam is suitable for irrigation farming, fisheries, water supply and tourism as well as hydro-power production. For now, it is used for small-scale irrigation activities, fisheries and water supply. ``Goronyo and Shagari dams, if fully developed and utilised, can attract a lot of local and foreign investors, and this will help in bolstering food production, curbing unemployment, reducing rural-urban migration, ensuring food security and reducing capital flight,” he says.

Beyond that, Sokoto State also has abundant solid minerals which have yet to be fully harnessed.

Observers say that this is another area where local or foreign investors can invest their capital and garner appreciable profits.

The state government is quite aware of the economic potential of the solid minerals sector, as it has created a specific ministry that is

dedicated to the development and exploitation of solid minerals in the state.

Dr Abubakar Nababa Umar, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Solid Minerals Development, says that the mandate of the ministry is to fully explore, exploit and harness the abundant mineral resources of the state, so as to boost its revenue generation efforts.

He lists some of the solid mineral deposits in the state as iron ore, rutile, pyrite, granite, gabbro, phosphate rocks, gold, wolframite, manganese, copper, sandstone, limestone, quarts, silca sand, clay, kaolin, gypsum, potash and salt lakes, among others.

Umar says that efforts are being made to exploit these solid mineral resources via Public-Private Partnership (PPP) arrangements.

He, however, concedes that several firms such as Premier Cement Company of Northern Nigeria (Sokoto Cement), as well as fertiliser, ceramics and foam making industries are already operating in the state.

Umar says that another cement

manufacturing firm, located in Kware, headquarters of Kware Local Government Area, is under construction through the PPP system.

He claims that the state government has since provided a free land and an equity share of N500 million (20 per cent) for the company, adding that a German firm, BrewTech Ltd. is its technical partners in the project.

In a nutshell, Alhaji Aliyu Achida, the state’s Commissioner for Commerce and Tourism, insists that Sokoto State remains the most peaceful and secured state in the country, saying that this is the most important prerequisite for any investments -- local or foreign.

He says that the state government has provided a lot of incentives to potential investors, while industrial estates have been developed across the Sokoto metropolis.

He adds that the state also motivates investors through equity participation in their firms.

On tourism, the commissioner says that Goronyo, Lugu and Shagari dams and several other

earth dams can be used for tourism activities, adding, however, that the annual Romo Fishing Festival takes place on Romo Lake in Tambuwal Local Government Area.

Achida says that the state has some historical sites, particularly in Binji Local Government Area, adding if fully developed, these sites can become veritable tourist destinations.

Similarly, Alhaji Isa Bajini, the state’s Commissioner for Budget and Economic Planning, says that the state is full of investment opportunities, assuring potential investors of significant returns on their investments. ``Gov. Aliyu Wamakko has provided an enabling environment for all investments, local or foreign, to thrive to the fullest.

This is being done through the religious implementation of sound and plausible policies and programmes,” he adds.

All in all, analysts underscore the need for investors to take due advantage of the myriad investment opportunities existing in the state (NAN)

Page 29

PEOPLES DAILY, tuesday, january 5, 2016

Agriculture

Cashew Association targets N80bn from cashew export in 2016 T

he National Cashew Association of Nigeria (NCAN) said on Thursday that it hoped to generate about N80 billion from cashew export in 2016.

Mr Sotonye Anga, the spokesman for the association, disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on the sideline of the 2nd Annual Cashew Logistics Meeting in Lagos.

Shipping companies also attended the conference.

Anga noted that shipping lines had recognised cashew as revenue generating cash crop and contributor to the country’s

economy.

According to him, shipping companies account for more than 80 per cent of exported cargoes from Nigeria. ``There is need for improvement in the handling of cashew which will propel significant improvement in the country’s economic performance. ``Shipping lines have recognised the economic relevance of cashew and that is why you can see their chief executives and decision makers represented at this meeting. ``The meeting will afford the association opportunity to take

steps to advance Nigeria’s cashew export to destinations like India, Vietnam, China, Middle East, Europe, U.S. and others. ``We expect that Nigeria should generate about N80 billion from cashew export in 2016 season and trade in a manner that will impact on the value chain.

Anga said the association believed in strong bond between NCAN and the shipping lines.

He promised:``We will leverage on this relationship to ensure that 2016 cashew exports is hitch-free. ``We will have zero claims because of damages to cashew

cargo when containers are well dressed with adequate number of desiccants and kraft papers.’’

Mrs Maureen Okojie, the Export Manager of Safmarine, said decisions on shipping services were time bound.

She stressed the need to look at shipment schedule between February and July 2016 for cashew shipments.

An official of COSCO Shipping Company, Paulinius Effiong, advised forwarding agents to reject containers with holes.

Meanwhile, Mr Tola Faseru, the President of NCAN, has inaugurated two committees to

ensure a hitch-free 2016 cashew season.

Faseru named the committees as the Cashew Logistics Committee and the Cashew Improvement Committee.

The committees are saddled with the responsibility of implementing programmes for the 2016 season.

NAN reports that cashew shipping companies, exporters, forwarders and shipping lines including Hull byth, Safmarine, Maersk, PIL, CMA CGM, United Arab Shipping Company and COSCO were represented at the meeting. (NAN)

Bumper harvest excites Hadejia farmers

S

IIdustry workers processing cashew nuts

Dry season farming yields more money - Expert

D

r Idris Badiru, a Senior Lecturer, Department of Agric Extension and Rural Development, University of Ibadan, says dry season farming yields more money to farmers.

Badiru told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Ibadan on Sunday that farmers get more returns from less effort in dry season.

The Agric Extensionist said that the crops planted during the dry season (between November and March) are usually vegetables and maize sometimes, stressing that the products are always fresh and healthy.

Badiru emphasised that planting during the dry season pays more to farmers as the

vegetables are usually more expensive and neat unlike the ones gotten in rainy season. ``With dry season farming the products can grow throughout the year because ordinarily at that particular time of the year, people don’t normally cultivate. ``The practice is virtually the same with that of rainy season, just that farmers will water the crops themselves. ``They should do the normal land clearing, till the soil, do some weeding after all and also apply insecticide to control pests and diseases,” he said.

Dr Morufat Balogun, a Principal Lecturer at the Department of Crop Protection and Environmental Biology, University of Ibadan, said

vegetables especially pumpkin (ugu) could be gotten very fresh when grown out of season.

Balogun noted that farmers can plant in close containers like pot, saying that it requires no labour as they will not need to water it too often. ``Also, they will not have to weed often in this case because when they put soil in the pot, the first set of weed that normally comes out is not likely to come again like in the case of the one planted directly on the soil. ``Farmers can also use hydroponics system whereby you put water in a container but the water will be nutrient (it can be fertiliser solution), you now have a substrate that absorbs little

water. ``The substrate will enable the plant to be swimming on top of it. There is also aeroponics system which also requires no labour and the products are always very good and fresh,” she said.

The Geneticist emphasised that a farmer depending on the capacity can chose any of the systems, stressing that access to information on the technologies is important.

She further explained that planting around the riverside is better and cheaper as the farmer will not need to pump/pour water on the plants and there will be enough water for cultivation in dry season. (NAN)

ome farmers in Hadejia, Jigawa, have expressed delight over the bumper harvest recorded in this year’s cropping season, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports.

They also described the outgoing year as a ``year of blessing, `` and wished for a prosperous 2016.

A cross section of the farmers told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Hadejia on Thursday that they were happy over the high yields recorded during the season.

Malam Usman Dilmari, a farmer, said the year had brought happiness to them in terms of increased earnings from the sale of agricultural produce. ``We are happy over the bumper harvest this year. We recorded appreciable rainfall and no flood disaster, `` he said.

Dilmari noted that the favourable weather condition recorded throughout the cropping season also brought many fortunes to the farmers.

Another farmer, Yusuf Ibrahim, also commended the state and federal governments over the prompt distribution of fertilisers and seeds to them.

Ibrahim said that the government’s gesture boosted their agricultural activities.

He called on the governments to adopt practical measures to ensure effective implementation of agriculture and farmer support programmes to encourage food and livestock production in the new year. ``We are hoping that in the new year, government at all levels will adopt effective measures to enhance farmers` access to fertiliser, inputs and credit facilities, `` he said.

(NAN)

Page 30

PEOPLES DAILY, tuesday, january 5, 2016

Feature

ECOWAS: Promoting unity, development, integration among member-states S

By Sani Adamu

ince the establishment of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) about 40 years ago, stakeholders in the diplomatic circle have been agitating for greater unity and integration among member-states.

ECOWAS was founded on May 28, 1975 with the signing of the Treaty of Lagos for the sole aim of strengthening regional integration among its 15-member states.

However, perceptive observers insist that whether or not the dream of ECOWAS’s founding fathers has been achieved is debatable.

This observation, perhaps, underscores the decision of the ECOWAS Heads of Government to converge on Abuja recently for an extra-ordinary summit to appraise and reflect on the successes and challenges of the regional body.

Addressing the summit, President Muhammadu Buhari commended the wisdom, vision and courage of the founding fathers for setting up the regional economic community in Africa. ``This occasion provides us all stakeholders, the opportunity to reflect on the progress so far made towards achieving the objectives of ECOWAS. ``We have gone beyond the protocol on free movement of persons and goods, realising the harmonisation of trade and our customs codes. ``The achievement of the ECOWAS Common External Tariff and Trade Liberalisation Scheme is a vital signpost in the convergence criteria required for our Common Currency regime. ``Our people can now reside and freely move from one country to another in our region without stress while the region’s infrastructure deficit has been substantially reduced. ``These and many other achievements are clear indications of the community’s resolve to shift emphasis to economic integration while still keeping focus on peace and security. ``It would be recalled that ECOWAS demonstrated commitment and leadership in the successful resolution of the crises in Sierra Leone, Liberia, Mali and Guinea-Bissau,’’ Buhari stressed.

He praised the past and current leadership of the regional body for their contributions to the development of the sub-region.

Buhari, however, stated that the community had a lot to do in the

realisation of the community’s integration processes as well as attracting foreign capital to the region.

He enjoined the member-states to boost power supply in their respective countries to create additional employment opportunities for unemployed youths.

He also urged them to accelerate the provision of critical infrastructure such as the West African Gas Pipeline project among others.

Buhari stressed the need to encourage intra-regional trade among member-states to generate more employment opportunities in the region. ``Urgent steps need to be taken to encourage intra-regional trade among-member states in order to boost employment generation and trade relations,’’ he said.

On mitigating the effect of climate change in the continent, Buhari spoke of the need for the community to continue to synchronise its actions with those of other African countries through the African Union.

He urged member-states to work closely with the rest of the world to reduce global warming without compromising their industrial development drives.

Besides this, Buhari assured the participants at the summit that Nigeria would remain steadfast in its commitment and support to democracy and good governance in Africa. ``Let me recall that the election in Burkina Faso completed the cycle of 2015 presidential elections in the region successfully conducted in Nigeria, Togo, Guinea and Cote d’Ivoire. ``This remarkable achievement reflects our collective resolve to entrench democracy and good governance in the region. ``As we prepare for more general elections, I assure you that Nigeria will remain steadfast in its commitment and support to democracy and good governance,’’ he said.

President Muhammadu Buhari,

He said that the convening of the summit in Abuja was a great honour and privilege for the government and people of Nigeria.

Buhari said that ECOWAS had recorded concrete achievements which had made it a universally acclaimed regional economic community model.

Irrespective of this, Buhari opined that the community faced numerous challenges on integration drive, peace, security and political stability. ``There are also structural and administrative challenges in running the commission that equally require serious attention. ``Security challenges persist in our region as we continue to be confronted with the daunting scourge of trans-national organised crime including arms and drug trafficking as well as piracy and criminality at sea. ``Equally worrying is the rising

“

Buhari, however, stated that the community had a lot to do in the realisation of the community’s integration processes as well as attracting foreign capital to the region.

He enjoined the member-states to boost power supply in their respective countries to create additional employment opportunities for unemployed youths.

He also urged them to accelerate the provision of critical infrastructure such as the West African Gas Pipeline project among others.

scourge of violent extremism and terrorism. All these constitute serious threats to peace and security in the region that require our urgent and concerted actions,’’ Buhari noted.

He expressed optimism that the ongoing reforms in ECOWAS institutions would be concluded and firmly entrenched to ensure greater effectiveness in leading the integration process.

He also expressed the hope that the resources of the community would continue to be devoted to the implementation of economic programmes that would enable member-states to build a prosperous region. ``I remain confident that under the leadership of the Chairman of the Authority of Heads of State and Government, Macky Sall, President of the Republic of Senegal, our community will continue to make steady progress towards achieving the goals for which it was founded,’’ he said.

In a message to the occasion, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon pledged continuous support of the UN in the ongoing fight against religious extremism and terrorism in the region.

In the light of its consistent integration and development programmes, observers express the hope that ECOWAS has the capacity to promote unity and regional integration among its member-states.

Sani Adamu is of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).

PEOPLES DAILY, tuesday, january 5, 2016

PAGE 31

A middle age man selling tomatoes at Karu market.

FCTA steadfast towards ending aged persons’ abuse – official

By Stanley Onyekwere

C

oncerned with the rising rate of abuse against the aged in the society, the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) has declared its readiness to initiate assorted support programmes that will not only eradicate the menace, but ultimately promote their longevity.

Deputy Director, Rehabilitation of the FCTA, Mr. Oludare Atere, disclosed this in Abuja, recently at an event to promote awareness on abuse of the elderly persons in the society, organised by Agewell Care Initiative (AWCI), in collaboration with China

Cultural Centre, recently in Abuja.

Atere, who noted that the issue of elders’ abuse in FCT and Nigeria at large has become prevalent, said if nothing drastic was done to curb the illtreatment against the aged, the society would be worst for it.

According to him, the aged are being subjected to various form of abuse, including emotional, physical, financial, sexual and even neglect.

“Some are even labeled witches not because they are guilty of any witchcraft offence but because they are advanced in age.

“Many young persons have neglected their aged parents

by denying them of care and provision thereby subjecting them to emotional trauma and lack.

“The FCT administration is ever ready and willing to initiate and also support programmes that will promote longevity and graceful ageing among older persons and eradicate elder abuse,” Atere stressed.

On her part, the founder of the ACWI Foundation, a NonGovernmental Organisation (NGO), Ms. Juliet Agbor, said the event was aimed at providing opportunity for communities to promote a better understanding of the dangers of abuse and neglect of older persons by raising awareness of

cultural, social, economic and demographic processes affecting elders’ abuse and neglect.

She revealed that one of the major problems affecting the elderly persons around the world today is loneliness and sense of abandonment.

According to her, “there is no doubt that elder abuse is wide spread and can take various forms, from inadequate care if not downright neglect in homes for the elderly.

“Abandonment by family and relatives, and others are crimes committed against elderly and miserable old aged pensioners, which hardly cover basic amenities, including discrimination in various forms

Man docked for alleged cheating

O

ne Uzor Oke, 37, has appeared before a Zone 2 Senior Magistrates’ Court in Abuja, for allegedly defrauding his business partner of one million naira.

Oke, a businessman who lives at Aso Estate on Airport Road,

Abuja, is facing a two-count charge of criminal breach of trust and cheating.

The Prosecutor, Sgt. Adamu Abdullahi, told the court that one Michael Uche on July 23, 2015 complained at the Wuse Police Station, Abuja that he gave the

accused some items to sell.

“The complainant entrusted the accused with clothing materials, shoes and perfumes he brought from Dubai to sell and remit the money.’’

He said the accused sold the items but refused to remit the

money to the complainant and converted the proceeds to his personal use.

Suleiman said that the offences contravened Sections 312 and 322 of the Penal Code, respectively.

The accused, however, pleaded not guilty to the charges.

and inadequate healthcare.”

Agbor however noted that in spite of the financial constraint being faced by the foundation that it proposing ageing recreation centre, which would be built in communities that can boast of fifty aged persons across the country.

Not left out, Director, China Cultural Centre, Mr. Yan Xiang Dong, decried that the aged are not only facing intentional abandonment but are also being confronted with lack of medical care.

He therefore commended the Foundation for taking bold step to alleviate the plights of the elders in the FCT and country as whole.

The Senior Magistrate, Khadijat Mustapha, granted the accuse bail in the sum of 100,000 with two reasonable sureties in like sum.

Mustapha ordered that the sureties must reside within the jurisdiction of the court. (NAN)

PAGE 32

Photo Splash

Scavengers searching for valuables, yesterday at Lugbe Bus Stop, in Abuja.

PEOPLES DAILY, tuesday, january 5, 2016

An articulated vehicle carrying passengers and scraps, recently along Federal

A vehicle loaded with goods, recently along Airport Road, in Abuja.

A young man sleeping on a motorcycle at Lugbe, in Abuja.

A scene of accident recently along Airport Road, in Abuja. Photo: Joe Oroye

PEOPLES DAILY, tuesday, january 5, 2016

PAGE 33

Metro Residents decry dearth of amenities in Kwali community

By Usman Shuaibu

S

ome inhabitants of Nytse Mwamwa community in Kwali Area Council, of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) have decried lack of social amenities in the area, calling on the Council’s Chairman, Ibrahim Daniel, to come to their aid, so as to alleviate the suffering of the people.

The residents lamented that

despite persistent appeals to the past Chairmen of the council, on the urgent need to provide basic amenities in the community, nothing had been done to alleviate their plight in the area.

Spokesman of the community, Iliya Musa, urged the present the current leadership of the Council to deem it necessary to focus on the rapid infrastructural development of the community.

He however lamented that

the present leadership of the council had not carried out any development project in the area.

He said the road leading to the community from Kwaita is still in deplorable state, pointing out that people of the community are yet to feel the positive impact of the council.

According to him, the residents of the community have been neglected in area of provision of health care centre

as well as primary school, a situation which the Council must do everything possible to address squarely without further delay.

He accused the Chairman of failing to drill boreholes in the community since he took over the mantle leadership of the Council, saying that the residents’ only source of drinking is a river, which they share with cows and other animals in the community.

Musa also disclosed that

absence of electricity had made the situation worsen in the area, calling on the FCT administration to assist the Council to provide transformers to existing facilities, so as to boost electricity supply in the community.

The spokesman, further appealed to the Kwali Chairman to endeavour to visit the community and see things for himself regarding the bad condition of living in the area.

Workers resuming after the New Year holiday at the Federal Secretariat, yesterday in Abuja.

Photo: NAN

Village Head tasks council boss on provision of amenities

By Usman Shuaibu

T

he Village Head of Gosa I community in Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC) of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Chief

Micah Wakili, has urged the chairman of the council, Micah Jiba, to ensure the provision of social amenities, lacking in the community, in order to improve the wellbeing of the people.

Wakili, who made the call in a

recent interview with Peoples Daily in Gosa, particularly urged the chairman to provide potable drinking water and standard clinic for the people in the community.

He further pleaded with the

council chairman to rehabilitate the dilapidated road linking the community with Lugbe-Airport expressway, to enable the people plying the road, to do so with ease.

He stressed the need for the FCT

Administration as well as AMAC to join hands, to build both junior and senior secondary schools at Gosa I, to enable their children (students) to complete their secondary education there.

Police arraign three bizmen over N1.6m land scam

T

hree businessmen have appeared before a Wuse Zone 2 Magistrates’ court, Abuja, over alleged N1.66 million land fraud.

The accused – Francis Idoko, 46; Ibrahim Mohammed,42; and Hassan Maigizoh, 44- all residents

of Kubwa, Abuja, are facing a three-count charge of criminal conspiracy, criminal breach of trust and cheating.

The prosecutor, DSP Yusuf Auta, told the court that the complainant, Mr. Greg Chijioke of Suite 9, Shopping Complex, Wuse

Zone 3, wrote a petition to the AIG in charge of Zone 7 on November 16, 2012.

Auta said sometimes in 2011, the three accused conspired and collected the sum of N1.66 million from the complainant.

According to him, the accused

collected the money under the pretext of securing a plot of land in Abuja for him.

“The accused failed to make the land available and converted the money to personal use.’’

The offences contravened the provisions of sections 97, 312 and

322 of the Penal code respectively.

The accused pleaded not guilty.

The Magistrate, Mr. Aliyu Shafa, granted them bail in the sum of N300,000 each with a surety each in like sum.

Shafa said the sureties must be civil servants on Grade Level 8.

Page 34

PEOPLES DAILY, tuesday, january 5, 2016

Money Sense

Don’t want to mess up your startup? Follow these 7 rules

By Josh Little

humble enough to relocate your focus, and do it before you’ve burned through your capital.

Opportunity costs are exaggerated early in a company’s lifecycle, so it’s important to be nimble and willing to adjust on the fly.

S

easoned entrepreneurs will agree that there is a lot more to building a successful business than having a great idea.

Really, your big idea is just the first step; it’s simply choosing which mountain you are going to climb.

Profitable companies are built upon thousands of subsequent great ideas and implementations.

Below are seven tips that are the bedrock for any successful startup venture.

1. Fiercely pursue the most impactful thing: The number of tasks competing for an entrepreneur’s time exceeds the number of explosions in a Michael Bay movie. While your many to-do’s; emails, meetings, people, opportunities; all seem important, none of them will matter unless you nail down the most impactful activities. Be honest with yourself about what tasks only you can do and what tasks others could do. Remember that good is the enemy of great and that your time is finite. Many startups fail because they can’t allocate their limited time to the right things.

2. Dare to be remarkable: The question to ask about everything related to your business; your product, your marketing, your interactions with customers is, is this remarkable?

Your offering should be surprising to people, attention grabbing and breaks through all the noise.

Being remarkable in all aspects of your business is the ultimate competitive advantage.

3. Start with the “cool kids:”

6. Make sure your medicine actually cures the disease: Just because people are sick and want your medicine, doesn’t mean it cures the disease. Entrepreneurs often stop innovating once customers are interested and willing to pay for a solution. They believe they have “nailed it,” but really they have only succeeded in identifying market demand.

If you want to last for the long haul, be honest about whether or not your medicine actually cures the disease. Customers today are more informed and connected than any other time in history, and your company will ultimately be exposed if it does not deliver longlasting solutions.

Team building is like creating a rock band. No one wants to be in a band that’s just “OK.” Not even mediocre musicians want to play with mediocre musicians.

But everyone wants to play with Slash. The first step to building a successful team is finding the Slash of your industry and paying her what she deserves.

When you start with the right core of team members, the rest of the band falls in line. Starting with B players will yield more B and likely C players. The upfront investment of getting a Slash will quickly pay itself off as you bring the competition to its knees.

4. Out-teach the competition: Sales are the lifeblood of any company and you should have at least one phenomenal salesman at your company’s core. The measure of a good salesperson is often the ability to teach potential customers why your company is relevant to them. If a person can truly educate someone about their company’s options and why their solution is the clear choice, it’s going to be hard for a customer to say no. Being charming, intelligent and helpful are table stakes. Good salesmanship also serves as a protective barrier against your

competition. If you can become the best at educating the industry, you create competitive walls that are too high to scale.

5. Don’t be afraid to move the boat: Good fishermen know better than to waste entire day fishing in the wrong spot: No tackle or technique will overcome a poor location. The fishermen who aren’t afraid to pull in the lines and try a new spot are likely to come home with the most fish.

When customers seem hard to catch, it might be because you are fishing in the wrong spot. Be

7. Experience is everything: The payoff of delivering a superior experience is clear: The best companies in the world have created great experiences around buying and owning their products, whether it’s Southwest, Zappos, Amazon or Apple.

Be fanatical about every little detail of the customer experience.

This means spending the money to hire the best user and customerexperience designers you can find. Do things that don’t scale, like giving your early customers white-glove treatment.

Your first customers will serve an immensely valuable role as brand ambassadors if you treat them right. www.enterpreneur.com

…and top 3 elements your business plan may be missing

By Josh Gerben

I

t’s common knowledge that a written business plan is a good idea if you’re serious about your business succeeding. Not only is a business plan necessary if you’re planning on obtaining investments or financing, but if you’re trying to attract top talent to help make your business dream a reality, being able to show a prospective employee your plan and your path forward may seal the deal.

When developing a business plan, your initial focus will likely be on the main elements that are standard in all business plans; things like goals, strategies, your organizational structure and your budget. And when those elements are in place, it may be tempting to think that your business plan is finished , but you will be well served by taking a second look.

Let’s explore some of the most commonly overlooked elements of a business plan.

1. Ask “What if?”

When developing your business plan, especially in a partnership situation, it makes sense to brainstorm “What if?” scenarios and address as many of those as possible in your plan.

For example, what if one of the partners wants to get out of the business, can they sell their portion of the business to just anyone, or does the other partner get first dibs? Or what if one of the partners dies? Who would take over for them and how would their interest be distributed?

It may seem uncomfortable to be talking about a partner leaving or dying before the business is even off the ground, but by thinking through these what-if situations in advance, you’ll be saving yourself from having to make big business decisions when emotions are heightened. And it goes without saying that as with other areas of your business plan, you may want to consult a tax

professional or attorney to make sure you’re structuring things correctly.

2. Include ample time for trademark activities When crafting a business plan, one thing that you want to make sure to include is plenty of time for obtaining the proper trademark for your business name and/or important product and service names. Trade marking your name offers you protection for your budding brand; if someone else is infringing on your federally registered trademark, you will have legal recourse.

Obtaining a trademark is a process that doesn’t happen overnight. Plan for a minimum of six to eight months from start to finish, a smart move is to work with a trademark attorney for the entire process, from trademark search through trademark registration, which will streamline the process and help you avoid any

unforeseen pitfalls or challenges.

3.

Speak the same language between documents In developing a solid business plan, it’s just as important to be consistent as it is to be accurate, after all, when you review your business plan against the results you’ve achieved, you’ll want a true apples-to-apples comparison.

One way to set yourself up for success in the review process, is to ensure that the language in your business plan, reflects the language used in your day-today business and vice versa. For example, if your business plan groups together “Marketing and PR” but you tackle marketing, PR and even social media separately in your daily business, it will be extremely difficult to gauge how different activities are helping you meet or exceed your marketing and PR goals, milestones and budgets.

Additionally, in your business plan, avoid broad language

that could be open to all sorts of interpretation.

Catch-all like “communications” and “promotional activities” can lead to confusion; it is better to be specific and define exactly what you mean so that you can better map your path forward and compare your outcomes.

A tough process, but worth it Developing a business plan can be a tough process, but ultimately it is one that will increase your chances of success. Before you finalize your plan, ensure that you’ve considered a variety of “what if?” scenarios and that your language is consistent with the way your business will actually work.

Additionally, be certain to spell out your trademark plans and include plenty of time for the process.

By addressing some of the most commonly overlooked elements of a business plan, you’ll be ahead of curve and poised for success. www.Business2Community. com

PEOPLES DAILY, tuesday, january 5, 2016

world news 2016: It’s deportation time

Page 35

international_peoplesdailyng@yahoo.com

analysis

Belen Fernandez

O

n the final page of my friend Juan’s Mexican passport are two words, handwritten in English and in capital letters: “ORDERED REMOVED.” Following are 43 numbers, letters, parentheses, and other marks, courtesy of the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which deported him from Newark Airport in May 2015 when he was attempting to visit his American wife’s family for two weeks.

The reason Juan was “removed”, like faulty merchandise or a pile of rubbish, was that he had once entered the US without papers to work as a waiter - as so many Mexicans have been forced to do thanks in part to the pernicious economic falloutof the US-imposed North American Free Trade Agreement.

Of course, Juan was luckier than most people on the receiving end of DHS “removal” services - not to mention the countless Latin American migrants that perish along the border, as recently happened to Juan’s own cousin.

Cake and more cake ow, according to The Washington Post, the DHS is planning to start the new year off with a bang, i.e. some mass deportations.

The impending “nationwide campaign”, the Post reports, would constitute the “first large-scale effort to deport families who have fled violence in Central America, those familiar with the plan said”.

The operation apparently will target only families who have already been ordered “removed” by an immigration judge.

If all of this sounds a bit harsh, consider a December 29 Los Angeles Times editorialin which the paper’s editorial board manages to defend the inherent rightness of the deportation surge - even while acknowledging highly relevant details about the United States’ own contributions to the violence that is fueling mass migration from Central America: ”The US… bears some moral culpability for the criminal gangs that relocated from US cities, including Los Angeles, to thrive in urban neighbourhoods of Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador. The US also is the main market for the illicit drug trade that helps many of those gangs flourish.”

But forget moral culpability.

The moral of the story, as usual, is that the US can have its cake and eat it too.

N

Immigrants and their supporters protest against planned raids to deport undocumented illegal immigrants in Washington, DC [AFP]

The Trump factor sizable portion of the American political class, however, will never be satisfied on the cake front and will continue to insist, despite Barack Obama’s unchallenged record as deporterin-chief, that the president is somehow soft on immigration.

As CNN recently noted, Donald Trump - whose presidential platform includes the notion that Mexican immigrants are rapists and drug traffickers - gave himself a pat on the back on Twitter for allegedly forcing the DHS family deportation plan into existence via his consistent focus on the issue.

Meanwhile, other right-wing characters have suggested that the whole campaign is simply a rumour meant to generate such a degree of liberal backlash that it then will disappear from the agenda.

A

But all of this conveniently ignores the solid bipartisan commitment in the US to deportation (as well as to plenty of other policies that make life hell for a whole lot of people).

And Trump’s service as the crystallisation of antihumanity merely obscures a similar lack of empathy among those less overtly belligerent and more rhetorically civilised than he.

It thus becomes possible, for example, for Democratic apologists to reason that - compared to the Trumpian fantasy of deporting 11 million people - shipping maybe only hundreds of Central American families back into the violence from which they fled is at least relatively less sinister.

Disposable labour, neoliberal dream

“

I

n her new book Deported: Policing Immigrants, Disposable Labor and Global Capitalism, sociologist Tanya Golash-Boza argues that mass deportation is “the latest permutation of the global neoliberal cycle that began in the late 1980s”. One excerptfrom the book features a Guatemalan man named Eric whose trajectory illustrates the argument. t the age of 11, Eric traveled to Los Angeles on a tourist visa to join his mother, who had been part of the “initial exodus” of Guatemalans from the neoliberal reforms that had begun to asphyxiate the country. When his mother hurt her back and couldn’t work, he dropped out of school to support his family. Years later as an adult, Eric was deported after being pulled over by the cops for a matter irrelevant to immigration - despite being married to a legal

A

This is not to imply, obviously, that all deportees are promptly absorbed into corporate serfdom, but rather to point out one of the many ways in which mass deportation can mean big bucks for those who already have them

permanent resident of the US and began work at a call centre run by an American company in Guatemala City.

Golash-Boza sums up the overall process as follows: “[N] eoliberal economic changes abroad create migration flows that send migrants to the United States, which creates a disposable labour force and, when that force is deported, produces a further cheap labour pool for multinational corporations that operate in their home countries.”

As an added benefit, the exploitation of cheap labour abroad helps keep the domestic workforce fully aware of the potentially ephemeral nature of its own employment - and therefore compliant.

This is not to imply, obviously, that all deportees are promptly absorbed into corporate serfdom, but rather to point out one of the many ways in which mass deportation can mean big bucks for those who already have them.

If only we could deport the phenomenon, and then exile it permanently.

Belen Fernandez is the author of The Imperial Messenger: Thomas Friedman at Work, published by Verso. She is a contributing editor at Jacobin magazine.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial policy.

Source: Al Jazeera

PEOPLES DAILY, tuesday, january 5, 2016

Page

News From Africa US shuts drone base in Ethiopia

Libyan oil port of Sidra attacked by Islamic State

T

he United States is shutting down its drone operation in southern Ethiopia.

The US military has been using a base in Arba Minch, some 400km (250 miles) south of the capital, Addis Ababa, to launch the remotely-piloted aircraft since 2011.

At the time the US told the BBC that the drones were being used only for surveillance and not for air strikes.

They were part of US counterterrorism efforts in East Africa aimed at groups with links to al-Qaeda. Security experts in the region say the drones from Ethiopia were used to launch attacks on the al-Qaeda-linked Somali militants al-Shabab.

US drone strikes have targeted a number of al-Shabab leaders including its leader Ahmed Abdi Godane in September 2014 . But the US may have used its military base in Djibouti, which is still operational, to launch these missions.

An official from the US embassy in Addis Ababa told the BBC in an email that following talks with the Ethiopian government “we reached a mutual decision that our presence in Arba Minch is not required at this time”.

The official added that “it is important to know that our presence at Arba Minch was never meant to be permanent”.

Ethiopia is seen as a close ally of the US in the region, and has soldiers in Somalia supporting the government there in its fight against al-Shabab.

Zambia sets presidential election to August 2016

Z

ambia will hold presidential and parliamentary elections on August 11 under a new constitution, a government spokesman has said.

President Edgar Lungu is expected to assent to the constitutional amendments on Tuesday, ratifying the election date, his spokesman Amos Chanda said on Monday.

“The new constitution has a fixed election date and that will take effect as soon as the president signs,” Chanda told Reuters.

The elections are expected to be a tight contest between Lungu’s ruling Patriotic Front (PF) party and Hakainde Hichilema’s opposition United Party for National Development (UPND). Under the previous constitution, the president set the election date every five years.

Presidential candidates will run on a joint ticket with a vice-presidential candidate, unlike the current arrangement where the president appoints his deputy, Chanda said.

Other amendments include a clause requiring a winning presidential candidate to win more than 50 percent of the valid votes cast, he said.

On Sunday, President Lunga said that he was confident that Zambians were firmly behind him. The incumbent said he expected to secure at least 71 percent of the ballot in August.

Central African Republic exPM Touadera leads vote count

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IS has held on to Sirte despite attempts by rival security forces to retake the city

I

slamic State (IS) fighters have clashed with guards as they tried to enter Libya’s oil port of Sidra.

Two members of the Petrol Facilities Guard militia, which is defending Sidra, were reportedly killed.

The militants are said to have been pushed back, but IS says it now controls Bin Jawad, 30km (19 miles) west of Sidra on the road from its stronghold in Sirte.

In December, France said IS

was aiming to control Libya’s oil wells.

IS, which has been operating in Libya for about a year, failed to take Sidra in an attack last October. In Monday’s attack, IS fighters first launched a suicide bomb attack at a checkpoint at the entrance to the town, the AFP news agency reports, and that was when the guards were killed. AFP quotes a colonel from the Libyan army saying that the port entrance was then attacked by a convoy of

12 vehicles.

Libyan news website Libya’s Channel is tweeting that seven people have been killed in all: The two guards, four IS members and one civilian.

Libya has descended into chaos since the fall of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.

In December, Libya’s rival politicians signed a UN-brokered deal to form a unity government, but that has not yet been implemented.

Kenya’s Garissa university reopens after deadly al-Shabab attack

K

enya’s Garissa University College has officially reopened, nine months after the killing of nearly 150 people, mainly students, in an attack by militant Islamist group al-Shabab.

Staff have reported to work while students are expected to be back on campus next Monday.

A police post has been set up on the campus in north-eastern Kenya, to improve security.

Last year’s attack was the deadliest so far by the Somalibased group in Kenya.

Following its closure, some 650 students from Garissa University College were offered places at a sister campus in Eldoret, western Kenya, to continue their studies.

They are not expected to return to Garissa now that it has reopened, university authorities say. The French government has set up a fund for 109 students injured

The university has introduced additional security checks

in the attack, putting 150,000 Kenyan shillings (£1,000; $1,500) towards each student’s tuition fees and living allowance for the year.

The $500 allocated for fees is expected to cover roughly a third of the annual cost of tuition.

In May, local media reported

that students at the Garissa Teachers Training College, which has a separate campus, but lies just 200m from the site of the attack, refused to return to class, citing security concerns.

Al-Shabab says it is opposed to the presence of Kenyan troops in neighbouring Somalia.

esults from the Central African Republic presidential election show former Prime Minister Faustin Touadera has a surprise lead with a quarter of votes counted.

Thirty candidates contested the poll, which is likely to go to a run-off on 31 January.

He was prime minister in the government of ex-President Francois Bozize, ousted in 2013 by mainly Muslim Seleka rebels.

The country has since been wracked by conflict along religious lines.

More than a quarter of the population has been forced from their homes.

Voting took place on 30 December, with UN troops guarding polling stations. Mr Touadera has more than 23% of votes counted so far with his nearest rival, Anicet Georges Dologuele, another former prime minister, on around 13%, according to electoral officials quoted by the AFP news agency.

Desire Kolingba, son of a former president, is in third place.

But the votes cast outside the capital, Bangui, as well as those of refugees and other CAR citizens abroad still need to be counted.

The candidates are vying to replace interim leader Catherine Samba-Panza.

Mr Touadera, 58, was a university maths lecturer before entering politics. He ran as an independent in the election. CAR has been torn by sectarian violence since the Seleka rebels seized power in March 2013.

A band of mostly Christian militias, called the anti-Balaka, then took up arms against the Seleka. The interim government and international donors pushed for the poll, believing that an elected president and parliament would help CAR recover from years of unrest.

CAR is one of the world’s poorest countries - yet it is rich in natural resources.

Elections also took place for the 149-seat National Assembly.

After seizing power, the Seleka rebels installed Michel Djotodia as the first Muslim leader of the majority Christian country.

But under pressure from regional leaders and former colonial power France, Mr Djotodia stood down and was succeeded by Ms Samba-Panza.

About 1.8 million people were registered to vote, out of a population of roughly five million.

More than one million people fled their homes during the intercommunal fighting.

PEOPLES DAILY, tuesday, january 5, 2016

Saudi Arabia’s allies Bahrain, Sudan and UAE act against Iran

A

number of Saudi Arabia’s allies have joined diplomatic action against Iran after the Saudi embassy in Tehran was attacked amid a row over the execution of a Shia Muslim cleric.

Bahrain and Sudan have both severed relations with Iran, and the UAE has downgraded its diplomatic team.

Saudi Arabia on Sunday severed ties and gave Iran’s diplomats two days to go.

Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir said trade links with Iran would be cut and air traffic links stopped.

But in an interview with Reuters news agency, Mr al-Jubeir also said Iranian pilgrims travelling to holy sites in Mecca and Medina would still be allowed to enter.

Saudi Arabia and Iran are respectively the key Sunni and Shia powers in the region and back opposing sides in Syria and Yemen. Bahrain, which is ruled by a Sunni monarchy but has a majority Shia population, on Monday gave Iranian diplomats 48 hours to leave the country.

It accused Iran of “increasing, flagrant and dangerous meddling” in the internal affairs of Gulf and Arab states.

It said the attack on the Saudi embassy was part of a “very dangerous pattern of sectarian policies that should be confronted... to preserve security and stability in the entire region”.

Bahrain, which hosts the US Navy’s 5th Fleet, has frequently accused Iran of fomenting unrest in the country since 2011 - a charge Tehran denies.

A Sudan foreign ministry statement read: “In response to the barbaric attacks on the Saudi Arabian embassy in Tehran and its consulate in Mashhad... Sudan announces the immediate severing of ties with the Islamic Republic of Iran.” The United Arab Emirates is downgrading its diplomatic representation in Tehran, including a recall of its ambassador, but has said it will continue trade links.

There are fears sectarian strife may spread in the region following the execution of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr and 46 others in Saudi Arabia on Saturday after they were convicted of terror-related offences.

On Monday, two Sunni mosques in Iraq were bombed and an imam killed.

Saudi Arabia announced late on Sunday that it was severing diplomatic relations with Iran after demonstrators stormed the Saudi embassy in Tehran. Protesters set the building on fire before being driven away by police.

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Asia&Middleast Dengue fever Hong Kong bookseller kidnap spreads in Yemeni city claims concern CY Leung ravaged by

C

hinese police have no right to operate in Hong Kong, its leader CY Leung has said, amid fears a local bookseller has been detained by mainland authorities.

Lee Bo is the fifth man linked to a shop selling works critical of China’s government to go missing since October.

Local legislator Albert Ho claims Mr Lee, also known as Paul Lee, was kidnapped and taken to the mainland.

The disappearance of the men has raised concerns that China is undermining the territory’s legal independence.

“The government and I are highly concerned about the case,” said Mr Leung, who has in the past been criticised as too willing to bend to Beijing’s will.

He stressed there was “no indication” that Chinese agents were involved, but added: “If mainland Chinese law enforcement personnel are carrying out duties in Hong Kong, it would be unacceptable.”

The Foreign Office says it is investigating reports that Mr Lee may hold a British passport. Lee Bo disappeared last week.

His wife says he called her from Shenzhen, just over the border in mainland China, and told her he is helping with an investigation.

She says his home return permit, which Hong Kong citizens must show to enter China, is still at home something Albert Ho points to as evidence he may have been abducted by security agents.

cyclone

M

Hong Kong’s chief executive has previously been criticised for being too friendly to Beijing

Mr Lee was the colleague who raised the alarm when four of his colleagues at the tiny Causeway Bay Bookstore and related publishing house, Mighty Current, went missing in October. One of them, publishing house owner Gui Minhai, was last seen in Thailand. The other three were last seen in mainland China.

His disappearance last Wednesday has sparked an outcry in Hong Kong, where some suspect the men’s disappearance is connected to a book the publisher may have been planning about an alleged former mistress of Chinese President Xi Jinping, when

he was already married to folk singer Peng Liyuan.

There has been no official comment form the Chinese authorities. But in a recent opinion piece (in Chinese), the Global Times, a mouthpiece of the government, criticised accusations that the “one country, two systems” model was in jeopardy.

Hong Kong enjoys press freedoms not available in China, although some publishers had already begun to complain about growing pressure from Beijing.

The bookshop closed a day after Mr Lee’s disappearance.

Pathankot: Indian troops search airbase for militants

Seven Indian soldiers have died in the attack

I

ndian troops backed by helicopters have battled gunmen for a third day at an air base near the Pakistani border, after a weekend of fierce clashes.

Five militants have been killed at Pathankot. Seven Indian soldiers have also died, security officials said.

A Kashmir-based militant group, the United Jihad Council,

said it was behind the attack which is seen as an attempt to derail recent peace moves.

Indian PM Narendra Modi is holding a meeting to review the raid. As the gun battle continued between Indian troops and militants at Pathankot, Indian TV stations reported that a loud explosion was heard at the base.

There were also reports that a sixth attacker had been killed

at the air force base. It is unclear if any militants are still holding out.

On Monday evening, a senior security official told a press conference that all families living on the base were safe and “all strategic assets [helicopters, aircraft and other military hardware] were secured”. All roads leading to the air force base have been closed.

ukalla, Yemen Abdullah, a middleaged bus driver in Yemen’s port city of Mukalla, goes home from work each day with a severe cough and sore eyes after being exposed to large amounts of sewage on the streets.

“I have no other choice but to keep driving, as no one would feed my children if I stayed at home,” said Abdullah, who only gave his first name. To cope, Abdullah said he presses a piece of cloth over his mouth and nose when driving by the waste.

Early last November, a rare cyclone hit the port of Mukalla and neighbouring regions in Hadramout province. The cyclone produced flash floods that ruined roads, houses and sewer systems.

Two months later, the city remains submerged in sewage swamps, and locals passing by are forced to inhale the noxious fumes. The already miserable situation was exacerbated when Mukalla was hit by a second outbreak of dengue fever in mid-November, months after recovering from a similar wave earlier in the year. Last April, al-Qaeda exploited the chaos in Yemen to seize control of Mukalla and expand its influence in neighbouring regions, spurring many officials to flee to Saudi Arabia. Today, al-Qaeda shares power in the city port with a local entity called the Hadramout National Council.

Mukalla residents, including government officials and medics, have complained that the city has been left alone to handle the cyclone’s aftermath.

Officials say that regional and international aid organisations have expressed reluctance to dispatch aid to a city under the control of alQaeda.

Mohammed al-Amoudi, the province’s assistant undersecretary for technical affairs, who opted to stay in the city and coordinate the delivery of the small amount of aid that has arrived, told Al Jazeera that many humanitarian organisations “said that they were worried about safety of their workers. The UAE Red Crescent wanted to work with legitimate authorities in the city.” Amoudi said Mukalla has turned to local charities for help in repairing the damage. “The charities have good connections with philanthropists and aid organisations in the Gulf states,” he said. “The government is only paying salaries.”

PEOPLES DAILY, tuesday, january 5, 2016

Page

Europe & Venezuela Denmark responds to Swedish opposition border checks with own controls names Henry Ramos Allup assembly head

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A

rmed protesters have occupied a US government building in Oregon to support father and son ranchers who have been ordered to return to jail.

Dwight Hammond, 73, and his son Steven, 46, were convicted of arson in 2012 but a court ruled their original sentences were too short.

They said they lit the fires to reduce the growth of invasive species and protect their land from wildfires.

The case has riled right-wing activists who resent government interference.

Those occupying the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge centre in Burns say they plan to stay for years and may use violence if police try to evict them.

Local police said “outside militants” had seized the building, and that multiple agencies were working on a solution, the Oregonian reported.

Among those there is Ammon Bundy, whose father Cliven was involved in a stand-off with the government over grazing rights in 2014.

Speaking to CNN, Mr Ammon gave no specific demands but said the action was aimed at helping locals “claim back their lands and resources”.

He said that the wildlife refuge had expanded at the expense of ranchers and miners. But despite the protest Dwight Hammond says he and his son plan to report peacefully to prison on Monday.

His lawyers told Associated Press “neither Ammon Bundy nor anyone within his group/ organisation speak for the Hammond Family”.

A local pastor, Brian Bowman, called for the militia to leave.

“Saying we’re going to rise up, if we don’t get our way we’re going to use armed resistance...

That’s just not right.”

Henry Ramos Allup is a veteran politician of the Democratic Action party

Bill Cosby wife to testify in defamation case

Denmark has introduced new border controls at crossing points with Germany

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enmark has tightened its border controls with Germany, hours after Sweden imposed similar measures to deter migrants entering from Denmark.

Danish Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen said the decision was “not a happy moment” but Denmark “must respond” to Sweden’s restrictions.

Danish police will carry out border spot checks for the next 10 days.

The two countries are the latest to impose controls in Europe’s Schengen passport-free travel area.

In a letter to the European Commission, Inger Stojberg, Denmark’s integration minister, said the controls would focus initially on the border with Germany but may be extended to all of Denmark’s borders.

She said the measures taken

by Sweden meant Denmark was “faced with a serious risk to public order and internal security because a very large number of illegal immigrants may be stranded in the Copenhagen area”.

The new controls would not cause a problem for “ordinary” Danes and Germans, Mr Rasmussen said.

“We are introducing temporary border controls, but in a balanced way,” he said. “If the European Union cannot protect the external border you will see more and more countries forced to introduce temporary border controls.”

Sweden’s decision means all travellers wanting to cross the Oresund bridge from Denmark will be refused entry without the necessary documents.

Rail commuters heading to Sweden will have to change trains

at Copenhagen Airport and go through ID checkpoints. The move is expected to cause serious disruption to traffic flows from Denmark.

An estimated 20,000 commuters daily cross the Oresund bridge, which connects the Swedish cities of Malmo and Lund with the Danish capital, Copenhagen.

Direct journeys from Copenhagen’s main railway station to Sweden will no longer be available and the changes are expected to add around 30 minutes to the current 40-minute commute.

Danish Transport Minister Hans Christian Schmidt called the checks “extremely annoying”.

Holly Snaith, a British academic who commutes from Malmo to her job at Copenhagen University, told the BBC that the changes had added at least half an hour to her journey.

Haiti first round vote ‘stained by irregularities’

A

commission investigating disputed presidential and legislative elections in Haiti says the October vote was “stained by irregularities”.

But it has recommended that a second round run-off should go ahead as planned on 17 January.

The people of Haiti are choosing a president to succeed Michel Martelly.

Mr Martelly postponed the run-off vote that was due to be held on 27 December after street protests against fraud in the first round turned violent.

President Martelly is constitutionally barred from seeking re-election.

The candidate he backed, banana exporter Jovenel Moise, won 33% of the vote in the first round on 25 October.

In the run-off, he will face ex-state construction company head Jude Celestin, who came second with 25%. The commission

Protest against the Provisional Electoral Council turned violent last month

assigned last month to look into the allegations said there were widespread irregularities.

It recommended legal action against poll workers and other people involved in fraud, the Associated Press news agency reported.

Whoever wins will face a

daunting task when taking over from Mr Martelly in February.

Haiti is the poorest nation in the Americas.

Since it was devastated by an earthquake in 2010, the country has relied largely on international donations and foreign aid from the United States and other countries.

ill Cosby’s wife has been ordered to give evidence in a defamation case filed by seven women accusing the comedian of sexual assault.

A judge rejected Camille Cosby’s attempts to avoid testifying, after she claimed she was protected by a marital disqualification law.

The women claim Mr Cosby portrayed them as liars after they went public with their allegations against him.

He filed a countersuit alleging their claims were only for financial gain.

The 78-year-old is also seeking unspecified monetary damages and said the women inflicted emotional distress.

Mrs Cosby is also her husband’s business partner and the couple have been married for more than 50 years.

Joseph Cammarata, a lawyer for the women, argued last month he should be able to question Mrs Cosby because he believed she had “information that’s relevant to the litigation in this matter”. As well as throwing out her marital status disqualification attempts, Judge Magistrate David Hennessey also rejected claims the value of her evidence would be undermined by the “undue burden” it would cause her.

A rupture in Europe, but whose politics will prevail?

I

t’s a bleakly depressing map - an aptly illustrative closing curtain on a bleakly depressing year. Bad enough that the nightmarish war in Syria unleashed the biggest refugee crisis since World War II. Horrendous enough that the menace of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s deadly bombs, along with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant’s twisted and murderous atrocities, forced so many Syrians to risk death, through perilous and petrifying migration attempts, in pursuit of life.

Blood-curdling enough that ISIL claimed so many gruesome global terror acts: in Paris, killing 129 people; in Ankara, killing more than 100; in Beirut, taking 41 lives; at a Tunisian beach resort, killing 37; and with the downing of a Russian plane, over Egypt, killing 224. In France, there is the National Front, which surged in the first round of that country’s recent local election.

In Austria, the far-right Freedom Party secured 30 percent of the vote in local elections earlier in September.

PEOPLES DAILY, tuesday, january 5, 2016

KANO STATE GOVERNMENT

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION, SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, GIDAN MURTALA, P.M.B. 3042, KANO. INVITATION FOR PRE-QUALIFICATION OF CONTRACTORS Kano State Ministry of Education Science and Technology hereby invites reputable and interested Contractors/Suppliers with relevant experience and good track of performance to submit Pre-qualification bids for the execution of the following projects in the 2015/2016 academic session.

SCOPE OF WORK i. Repairs and Renovation of Storm damaged/fire damaged structures and improvement of the existing structures ii. Construction of block wall fence/improvement of the existing ones iii. Construction of New Classroom blocks, Hostels, Kitchen, Multipurpose halls, toilets and Staff houses iv. Provision of Staff and Student’s furniture v. Drilling of boreholes PRE QUALIFICATION REQUIREMENTS Prospective Contractors are expected to submit company’s profile containing the following information/documents i. Certificate of Incorporation ii. Evidence of registration with State Works Registration Board in relevant category iii. Company audited account for the last 3 consecutive years including tax clearance certificate iv. Evidence of financial capability this should include certified statement from a reputable bank v. Company profile with detail CVs of key personnel with academic qualifications, years of experience, telephone numbers and e-mail addresses vi. Evidence of verifiable similar projects executed within the last three (3) years including certificates of practical completion vii. Verifiable evidence of relevant equipment and Plants with their location (where they can be inspected) with proof of ownership, hire or lease agreement viii. Evidence of settlement of payee and other withholding taxes due to Kano State ix. Vat registration and evidence of past remittances x. Local resources utilization xi. Community and corporate social responsibility support would be an added advantage SUBMISSION OF DOCUMENTS Pre qualification documents should be submitted to the office of the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, Kano not later than 14th January, 2016.

NOTE This advertisement should not be construed as a commitment on the part of the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, Kano, nor shall it entitle the responding contractor /company to make any claim whatsoever by virtue of such contractor /company having responded to this advertisement. (……………………….)

Director Physical Planning, Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, Kano

Page 39

PEOPLES DAILY, tuesday, january 5, 2016

Page 40

Digest

Worrying may be good for you

By Richard Gray

I

t is typically something to be avoided due the impact it is said to have on people’s mental and physical health.

But it seems being anxious at the right moment does have its benefits.

Researchers have discovered that high levels of anxiety appear to change the way we spot danger, which makes us better able to respond to threats.

Although anxiety (stock image pictured) is often associated with negative impacts on mental and physical health, scientists have found that anxious individuals deal with danger. The motor cortex the area responsible for movement - process threats in anxious people compared to the sensory circuits in those who are laid back In particular, the researchers found anxious people detect threats in a different region of the brain from those who are feeling laid back, processing it in an area responsible for controlling movement.

Those who are do not suffer from anxiety, however, process social threat signals in sensory circuits - the temporal region of the brain, responsible for face recognition.

This difference may allow anxious individuals to take faster action when they feel like they are in danger.

Writing in the journal ELife, Dr Marwa El Zein, an expert in social cognition at the French Institute of Health and Medical Research in Paris, and her colleagues, said their findings build on previous work that

The researchers used a series of facial expressions to assess how volunteer’s brains reacted to facial expressions showing anger or fear. They found looking directly at the person while angry lowered the response, while looking away while fearful increased the response (pictured) found anxious people tend to be hyper-sensitive to threat detection.

‘Our findings reveal that high-anxious individuals are capable of encoding threat signals in a selective fashion in motor cortex,’ they explained.

‘Consistent with the idea of a compensatory mechanism, the distinct neural enhancements of temporal and motor activity found in low- and high-anxious

individuals lead to similar behavioral improvements in terms of perceptual sensitivity to threat signals.

‘Together, this pattern of findings suggests that anxiety increases the relative contribution of the motor pathway during the processing of negative social signals.’

This could help to explain why anxiety has continued to persist in human populations

despite its negative associations with stress, depression and physical health.

The researchers added it was ‘in accordance with the adaptive function of anxiety in detecting efficiently and reacting swiftly to threats in the environment’.

Dr El Zein, who is also a researcher at the Ecole Supérieure Normale in Paris, and her colleagues measured the electrical activity in the brains of

The researchers used a series of facial expressions to assess how volunteer’s brains reacted to facial expressions showing anger or fear.

They found looking directly at the person while angry lowered the response, while looking away while fearful increased the response (pictured)

24 volunteers.

The researchers found that people who were highly anxious tended to use the motor cortex (illustrated bottom) more to deal with threats, while those with low anxiety tended to rely upon the temporal area of the brain to detect both threats and nonthreatening stimulus (illustrated top) They were each shown a selection of angry or fearful faces, some of which had the direction of their gaze altered.

They found the direction a person is looking plays a key role in enhancing our sensitivity to emotions.

Anger paired with a direct gaze produced a response in the brain in just 200 milliseconds, while if an angry person was looking elsewhere, then the response was slower.

The brain was also able to detect other negative emotions such as fear more quickly than positive emotions.

Dr El Zein said: ‘In a crowd, you will be most sensitive to an angry face looking towards you, and will be less alert to an angry person looking somewhere else.

‘In contrast to previous work, our findings demonstrate that the brain devotes more processing resources to negative emotions that signal threat, rather than to any display of negative emotion.’

Each volunteer was also measured for their anxiety levels before each experiment, and those with high levels tended to have more activity in the areas of the brain that govern movement.

The research has identified which regions of the brain are responsible for encoding social threats in the brain when compared to non-threatening behaviour (illustrated in the images right).

The images and graphs on the left show how the brain responded to different stimuli Those with low anxiety levels had more activity in the sensory centres.

However the researchers said there was no difference in the level of attention participants gave to danger signals.

Instead,it seems it was only certain threats the anxious people tended to deal with in the motor-specific part of their brains.

The researchers wrote: ‘While high anxious individuals process all threat signals equivalently in face selective regions, they selectively encode threat signals that are relevant to them in motor specific systems, and this encoding reflects their behavioral sensitivity to threatsignaling emotions.’

Source: Dailymail.co.uk

PEOPLES DAILY

Sports

tuesday, january 5, 2016

Nigerian wrestling heroine returns today

Page

41

sports@peoplesdailyng.com, SMS- 08142929046

Olympic team will resume training next month —Siasia >>Pg 42

Sturridge suffers minor injury ahead of today’s clash >>Pg 43

Odunayo Adekuoroye

By Albert Akota

N

igeria Wrestling Federation (NWF) has confirmed that Nigeria’s sterling wrestler in the Indian Pro league, Odunayo Adekuoroye, will arrive Nigeria today.

The federation president, Hon. Daniel Igali, who stated this in a statement said Adekuoroye ought to have arrived last week but had to complete some terms in her contract.

The statement noted that the Nigeria Wrestling Federation will be at the airport to welcome the Nigerian heroin because she has done the nation proud.

“For me 2015 was a great year, Nigerian wrestlers performed excellently well, especially Adekuoroye and we have to treat her as a heroine which she is”, the statement said.

“I’m aware that the National Sport Commission (NSC) is going to be there to welcome her and I feel Nigerians can do

better than that”, Igali said.

The statement added that Adekuoroye is a great ambassador and the nation should come out in their numbers to welcome her like the way they did to the U17 football team.

Speaking, the DG National Sport Commission, Alhassan Yakmut said a delegation will be sent to the airport to welcome the 2015 World Wrestling Bronze medallist.

The two-time Africa champion defeat Punjab’s Priyanka for the second time by technical superiority.

2015 World Wrestling bronze medallist, Adekuoroye, who has been labelled the dancing wrestler, motivated herself by singing Song of Victory while dancing.

It will be recalled that Odunayo Adekuoroye in her first bout of the league eased past Punjab’s Priyanka Phogat 10-2 in her first match after she got off the plane few minutes to the bout.

She failed to fight against Haryana

Hammers’ Tatyana Kit after their category was blocked.

The two-time African gold medallist won all her bouts by technical superiority as expected against Priyanka.

The 2014 commonwealth gold medallist had previously defeated Ukrainian Liliya Horishna, Babita Kumari, Lalita Sherawat and Priyanka Phogat.

Meanwhile, USA wrestler and captain, Adeline Gray (69Kg) humiliated Navjot Kaur within a minute by technical superiority and extended the lead for Mumbai Garudu.

Priyanka Phogat’s cousin, Ritu Phogat (48Kg) overturned a 2-0 deficit to win by pin fall against Alyssa Lampe.

Odikadze Elizbar (97Kg) defeated Pavlo Oliynik first round 3-2 and in the second round 4-0 to give the team a comfortable stand.

Mumbai Garudu is the only team that is undefeated in the Pro Wrestling League this season.

PEOPLES DAILY, tuesday, january 5, 2016

Page 42

Sport

Olympics team will resume training next month—Siasia says K

Mohammed close to Vietnam switch

ano Pillars striker Gambo Mohammed has jetted out of the country to seal a transfer to Vietnam, officials have announced.

“Gambo is close to sealing a deal in Vietnam.

We will have all the details about this transfer in the coming days,” announced Pillars spokesman Idris Malikawa.

Gambo has severally attempted to ply his trade overseas after trials in Egypt and Turkey over the years.

There have been speculations he could move to another club in the Nigeria league in the new season.

Last season, his playing time at Pillars was limited after he suffered gunshots when gunmen attacked the team bus on their way to a league game and he was sidelined for several months.

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oach Samson Siasia has announced Nigeria U23 will resume training camp in February for the Rio Olympics, saying he hopes the clubs will cooperate with him to release the players called up.

Nigeria qualified for the Olympics football event in August after they won the U23 AFCON in Senegal, which doubled as qualifier for the Rio Games.

Siasia’s Dream Team VI is due for an overseas training tour ahead of the Olympics.

Nigeria last featured at the Games in 2008, when Siasia led the country to the final of the event against Argentina.

Nigeria won U23 AFCON in Senegal

Nigeria can’t miss 2017 AFCON, Pinnick assures

By Albert Akota

N

igeria Football Federation (NFF) president Amaju Pinnick has said it will be “suicidal” should the country fail to qualify for a second straight AFCON. Three-time African champions Nigeria failed to qualify for the 2015 AFCON in Equatorial Guinea after they were upstaged by South Africa and Congo in the qualifiers.

Nigeria is now second behind Egypt in the qualifying tournament for the 2017 AFCON in Gabon after two rounds of matches.

Both teams clash in a double header in March that is most likely to go a long way in determining who wins the qualifying group to automatically qualify for Gabon 2017.

“It will be suicidal to miss out on the AFCON,” admitted Pinnick on a television pro-

Gambo Mohammed

25-elite runners from Jos set for Lagos Marathon

gramme on Thursday.

“That is why we have to be in Gabon (2017 AFCON) and the World Cup in Russia in 2018.”

Pinnick, elected NFF president September 2014, also admitted that it has been tough managing football in Nigeria because “we have 150 million coaches”, but at the same time maintained “we’re equal to the task”.

Athletics

T

2017 AFCON qualifier - Eagles vs Chad

wenty-five elite athletes from the High Altitude Athletics Club of Jos, Plateau State, and some fun runners will be in Lagos to participate in the February 6, 2016, Access Bank Lagos City Marathon.

Plateau State and adjoining states like Bauchi, Kaduna, Gombe and others have the highest number of long distance road races and marathon runners in Nigeria.

Coach Steve Nuhu, owner of the High Altitude Athletics Club, said the return of the Lagos City Marathon is one of the best things to happen to Nigeria sports in

recent times, “We are talking about youth empowerment, unemployment and other vices, what better way to engage our youth than having many marathons and road races in Nigeria. ”I hope and pray that many other states, especially states in the Northern part of the country with a very high percentage of distance runners who train year in, year out but are not involved in competitions because of dearth or even absence of competitions will take a cue from Lagos and organize more road races, half and full marathons.’’

For the February 6 race in Lagos, Coach Nuhu is optimistic that his athletes will not only win the national title but will also give the elite athletes from other parts of the world a good fight for the ultimate prize, “For us, the February 6 race is a celebration of our sports. We are coming to Lagos with 25 elite marathoners and many fun runners. Our target is not just the prizes for Nigerians, but also the ultimate prize. The reason why our athletes are not running fantastic time is because we don’t have competitions regularly like the Kenyans.

PEOPLES DAILY, tuesday, january 5, 2016

Sport

Sturridge suffers minor injury ahead of today’s clash

Page 43

Ighalo vows to remain at Watford

O

dion Ighalo has joked that he could consider a move to Manchester United should they come for him in the January transfer window.

The Nigeria international striker has been a subject

of heated transfer speculations this month after his 14 goals in the EPL, but his modest Watford have warned off buyers, insisting he is not “for sale under any circumstances”.

However, in a radio interview

on Monday Ighalo said: “I’m happy at Watford, I’m enjoying my football there and I have a five-year contract.

“I have also heard the speculations about Atletico Madrid and Roma, but I have played in

Chelsea stars playing for their futures—Courtois

both Italy and Spain, and I now want to play in England.

“Only God knows what will happen, but I don’t think I will move in January.

But would I say no to Manchester United if they come calling?”

Chelsea Courtois

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D

Watford striker Odion Ighalo

Manchester City to launch mammoth bid

M

anchester City is ready to make a €55 million bid for Schalke 04 starlet Leroy Sané, according to German daily Bild.

Should such a deal materialize, it will be the highest fee ever paid for a German player, a record currently held by Arsenal who put €50 million on the table for the services of Mesut Ozil.

The 19-year-old attacking midfielder of Senegalese descent, who has scored 7 goals from 31 Bundesliga appearances for Schalke, has attracted interest from several European heavyweights including City’s Premier League rivals Liverpool.

However, the Royal Blues are extremely reluctant to sell Sané in January.

The German international signed a contract extension with Schalke Schalke’s Leroy Sane until June 2019 last summer.

Thibaut

hibaut Courtois admits Chelsea stars are playing for their futures at Stamford Bridge and insists they must accept responsibility for their poor Premier League title defence.

Jose Mourinho was sacked as manager last month after a run of five defeats in seven league games left the champions just one point above the relegation zone 16 matches into the campaign.

Guus Hiddink appears to have steadied the ship since succeeding the Portuguese, having secured a 0-0 draw away to Manchester United before a convincing 3-0 win against Crystal Palace at the weekend.

Yet despite their recent improvement, Courtois maintains his team-mates must consider their places in the squad under threat after their dismal early-season form.

When asked if he thought the players were playing for their futures, he told the Evening Standard: “Yes of course. We know we are responsible as well.

The Belgium international remains confident Chelsea can salvage some pride from their season, especially in the Champions League or FA Cup. Courtois has also backed Hiddink’s attempts to bring Didier Drogba back to the club in an assistant coaching role.

Daniel Sturridge aniel Sturridge will not be available for Liverpool’s League Cup semifinal first leg at Stoke after suffering a minor setback in his recovery from a hamstring injury in training.

The striker, 26, has been blighted by injuries, making only 19 appearances last season and six this campaign.

“Daniel had some problems and could not make a session and we had to wait a day,” said Reds boss Jurgen Klopp.

He has only one fit striker with Divock Origi and Danny Ings also injured.

Klopp added: “What Daniel has to do at this moment is hard work to be prepared for the things we make in a football game. He had the last complete pre-season a long time ago.

“In pre-season we load our bodies with strength, energy, all we need for the games and then the problems start.

Liverpool captain Jordan Henderson is likely to miss a second match with the recurrence of a foot problem and fellow midfielder James Milner is still struggling with a calf injury.

goalkeeper

CAF lifts ban on Guinea

T

he Confederation of African Football yesterday has cleared Guinea to host international matches again after being declared free of the Ebola virus.

“CAF has learned with joy and relief the announcement by the World Health Organization (WHO) on 29 December 2015, officially confirming that Guinea is now declared Ebola free. CAF thereby confirms lifting the ban on the organization of continental matches in Guinea, and for all competitions organized by CAF,” CAF General Secretary Hicham El Amrani stated in a letter addressed to the president of the Guinean Football Federation, Salifou Camara.

Fellow Ebola-hit Liberia and Sierra Leone were cleared in May and December last year respectively.

Guinea international Naby Keita

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PEOPLES DAILY, tuesday, january 5, 2016

Sport South African legend pays surprise visit to CHAN Eagles N

igeria’s Super Eagles Team B camping in Pretoria, South Africa, received a surprise guest at their hotel Sunday when legend, Jomo Sono paid them a visit.

Media Officer of the team, Toyin Ibitoye said Monday that Sono came to their camp to wish the team well in their outing at the Rwanda 2016 African Nations Championship (CHAN) which kicks off in Kigali on 16 January.

Ibitoye disclosed that the coaches led by Sunday Oliseh and their players had good time with Sono who invited the team for free meal at his place.

The Media Officer also said that since the Chief Coach took over the training, things have changed entirely in the camp.

“The players are into serious training since we arrived Pretoria.

The training is getting intense and competitive. The concentration is now on tactical work at the pitch of University of Pretoria,” said Ibitoye.

According to him, the spirit in camp is very high with the players looking forward to the kick off of CHAN in Kigali.

“There is excitement in the players because they are proud to be chosen to wear the colours of Nigeria. This has equally given the players the motivation to win the competition for the country.

“Our training has been very eventful. We are having intensive morning and evening training sessions. All players in camp are actively participating,” he said.

Ibitoye, however, said that Oliseh, who had been absent from the team since he was told to have a rest by his doctor, is in perfect physical condition handling the training sessions himself.

“Oliseh is in excellent physical shape. The reason he was away was because his doctor advised him to have a rest which we all understood.

“He is now back with us.

He is involved in all aspects of the training physically at the University of Pretoria,” he said.

South African football legend, Jomo Sono (middle) with Tijani Babangida

NBA referee guilt of gay after Rondo’s insults

Bill Kennedy officiated at London 2012

V

eteran NBA referee Bill Kennedy has revealed he is gay after being the subject of homophobic insults from Sacramento guard Rajon Rondo.

Kennedy was confronted by Rondo after ejecting him on two technical fouls during the game between the Kings and Boston Celtcs in Mexico on 3 December.

“I am proud to be an NBA referee and I am proud to be a gay man,” said Kennedy, an official for 18 seasons.

The Sacramento player was banned for one game for his actions.

Rajon Rondo responded on

Monday to the reports of his confrontation with Kennedy NBA commissioner Adam Silver stated: “I wholeheartedly support Bill’s decision to live his life proudly and openly.

“Throughout his 18-year career with the league, Bill has excelled as a referee because of his passion, dedication and courage. Those qualities will continue to serve him well both as a game official and as a positive influence for others.”

Kennedy, 49, has officiated 1,056 NBA games and 68 play-off contests, including five NBA Finals matches.

He also worked at the 2010 World Championships and 2012 London Olympics.

He added: “I am following in the footsteps of others who have selfidentified in the hopes that will send a message to young men and women in sports that you must allow no-one to make you feel ashamed of who you are.”

Kennedy is the second NBA referee to announce being gay after Violet Palmer made the same declaration in 2014 upon marrying her long-time partner.

JOB VACANCY The Reading and Numeracy Activity ( RANA) is a 3- year UNICEFfunded early primary grades reading pilot project implemented in partnership with FH1360/ AHNI in collaboration with the governments of Katsina and Zamfara states. RANA aims to improve literacy and numeracy for girls and boys in primary grades 1-3 in the supported states. It will assist approximately 100 formal Schools and Integrated Qur’anic Schools (IQS) in each of the states.

We are looking for qualified candidates for the position of FOMWAN Desk Officer/ Community mobilization Officer, to join the team in Katsina Officer.

Minimum Recruitment Standards: • Expertise in community mobilization, stakeholders analysis and strategic planning.

• Computer literate and proficient in the use of word processing, spreadsheets, Excellent in report writing, oral and interpersonal communication skills.

• Hands-on experience in designed, monitoring, evaluation of community development projects is an added advantage.

• Higher Qualification in Teacher Education or its recognized equivalent with 3-5 years of relevant experience with international development programs.

• Demonstrate ability to work with government, partners and/ or local structures and schools’ settings. Proven expertise in Hausa language.

• Significant experience in teacher training or education project and skills in advocacy and strategic campaign.

• The potential job-holder will administratively report to Katsina State FOMWAN AMIRA. While technically report to Katsina State RANA Team Leader. Preferably Development workers below the age of 45 are strongly encourage to apply.

• Demonstrate experience in coordinating of community based meetings, setting realistic priorities , and planning for the successful implementation of activities. Women are Strongly encourage to apply.

METHOD OF APPLICATION: Please forward your resume (cv) and cover letter as a single document to adamabakori@yahoo.com on or before – 7th January 2016-Candidate should be available for a immediate start.

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted- Only applications sent electronically ( i.e by e-mail) with the job title and location clearly indicated as the subject of the mail will be considered.

Signed: MANAGEMENT

achanma I, formerly known as solomon akah now wish to be known as achanma moses akah. all former documents remain valid. general public should please take note.

PEOPLES DAILY, tuesday, january 5, 2016

Sport

Page 45

P-i-c-t-o-r-i-a-l

Atletico Madrid midfielder Thomas Partey has made a habit of making an impact off the bench, but the youngster is not getting ahead of himself

Alex Tettey sealed a 1-0 win for Norwich City over 10-man Southampton at Carrow Road to move the hosts six points clear of the Premier League drop zone.

President of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Amaju Pinnick, has assured there is nothing to worry about the health of Super Eagles coach Sunday Oliseh

London club Arsenal have established a two-point gap at the summit of the EPL table after they scrapped a 1-0 win over Newcastle United on Saturday at the Emirates while their closest rivals, Leicester City, played out a barren draw against AFC Bournemouth.

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PEOPLES DAILY, tuesday, january 5, 2016

Sport Nigeria prospect players to watch in 2016 V

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ictor Osimhen, Ultimate Strikers Academy, will it be Wolfsburg, Arsenal or Tottenham? Osimhen’s next destination is not yet known, but this career decision could be the youngster’s making in 2016.

Though still raw and spindly, Osimhen showed with the U-17 and U-23 sides that he has the knack to score goals aplenty.

elechi Iheanacho, Manchester City: Iheanacho needs more playing time to show his abilities – whether he will get it at City is another question.

The recently capped Super Eagle may need to take the tough decision of going out on loan to enhance his football education, but whatever decision he makes, Nigerians will expect him to kick

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saac Success, Granada: Already establishing himself with Granada in La Liga, Success’s goal for 2016 must include breaking into the Super Eagles team under Oliseh.

A product of the successful U-17 side in 2013, the 19-year-old is showing that he has the ability to beat players and score goals in the highly technical Spanish league.

S

oses Simon, Gent: The 20-year-old winger was a revelation in 2015 and he is expected to continue his learning curve in 2016.

Already clubs from the more established leagues in Europe are keeping tabs on the speedy forward, while Sunday Oliseh is expected to give him more responsibility with the Super Eagles.

A

adiq Umar, AS Roma: Relatively unknown in Nigeria, the 18-yearold striker has played just 38 minutes for Roma in Serie A, but he has already recorded a goal.

He is one of the reasons why manager Rudi Garcia agreed to let another forward, Juan Iturbe, leave the side on loan in January.

The Nigerian is expected to see more minutes in 2016.

zubuike Okechukwu, Yeni Malatyaspor: The captain of the U-23 side was a smooth operator for the juniors in Senegal and was named, justifiably, tournament MVP. The 18-year-old showed enough that he drew admiration from almost everyone. With his ability to control matches from a deep role, Okechukwu should be on his way out of Yeni at the end of the current season.

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nyinye Ndidi, Genk: Ndidi has developed into a fine holding midfielder with his Belgian side, and has been getting minutes for the Super Eagles as a result.

Another player who will be itching for a call from Samson Siasia, the lad has played at the U-17 and U-20 World Cups and is maturing nicely!

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ingsley Sokari, CS Sfaxien: Although he did not get to make it to Senegal with the U-23 side, he showed the touches that have earmarked him for a great future with Enyimba and the Flying Eagles.

He will receive better coaching in Tunisia, which could be his making.

Still only 20, Sokari could become the next midfield general in the Super Eagles.

igeria ended 2015 ranked 66 in the world and one of the major reasons why the fortunes of a country ranked fifth in the world in 1994 has fallen so dismally is because the golden generation of the mid 90s has not been replaced.

Could any of the wonderkids and youth prospects step up and become legends for the Super Eagles? Goal will chronicle the progress of these starlets intently over the coming 12 months.

E

mmanuel Daniel, Enugu Rangers: The Rangers goalkeeper finally came of age in Senegal where two penalties and a calm mien showed that the 22-year-old was finally ready for the big time.

Daniel has all the attributes to go on and become the Super Eagles custodian sometime over the next 24 months. The Rio Olympics will show how much he has gained by being the U-23’s goalkeeper.

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PEOPLES DAILY, tuesday, january 5, 2016

Some Interesting Facts 1. Bees have 5 eyes. There are 3 small eyes on the top of a bee’s head and 2 larger ones in front.

2. Count the number of cricket chirps in a 15-second period, add 37 to the total, and your result will be very close to the actual outdoor Fahrenheit temperature.

3. One-fourth of the world’s population lives on less than $200 a year. Ninety million people survive on less than $75 a year.

4. Butterflies taste with their hind feet.

5. Only female mosquito’s’ bite and most are attracted to the color blue twice as much as to any other color.

Leisure

Of ‘rule of law’ and the madding minority Cont’d from page 48 obligation to drink the stuff undiluted. We chew our brand of dehydrated democracy without even a glass of water by the side.

In fact we accord the wicked who constitute grave danger to us ‘constitutional rights’ that take precedence over the survival of the state. Petty thieves-ofnecessity we either kill with a sledge hammer or keep for life in ‘awaiting trial’. But savage treasury looters and subversives of State we will not touch except via the tedium of the ‘due process of law’ –which in the end is sure to acquit them.

Yet we see how America and the West deal ruthlessly and decisively even with ‘presumed enemies of State.’

Nor do we doubt that only by so doing have they excelled in all areas of human endeavor.

China of ‘Tiananmen Square’ fame is lampooned as a pseudo democracy. But in reply to that

quick crosswords

CROSSWORD SOLUTION 119

CROSSWORD SOLUTION 118

what did the Chinese leader Deng Zioping say to America?: “It does not matter whether the cat is black or white, as long as it catches the mouse”.

Nor does it matter today even to the Americans whether the ‘democratic cat’ is ‘white’ or ‘black’, as long as it catches the mouse.

We alone –especially black Africans- are not entitled to a utilitarian brand of democracy.

Our democracy must remain always in the state defined

by Isaac Newton’s physics as: ‘motion without movement’, ‘energy wasted, no work done’.

We are always in a state of ‘dynamic inactivity’. The ‘cat’ of our democracy catches no ‘mouse’ at all. Yet proudly we beat our chest to pontificate about the ideals of democracy sometimes in a manner that should make Rousseau and Montesquieu blush. In fact Rousseau it was who said: “in the strict sense of the term, there has never been a true democracy, and there never will be”. Little wonder Walter Winchel said: “too many people expect wonders from democracy when the most wonderful thing is just having it”.

A system of government cannot be more desirable than its promised destination –namely attaining the public good. Because if strict adherence to the principle of ‘rule of law’ and the ‘democratic process’ are all that there is to being a democracy, Israel for example will not be a one when her Kneset (Parliament) makes laws that are superior to the resolutions of the United Nations. America will not be a ‘democracy’ when evidently she has scant regard for International law and for the municipal laws of her sovereign co-equals.

The powers of the President When I wrote ‘Buhari and the metaphysics of presidential powers’, I said that “the President, constitutionally, is not only imbued with enormous ‘discretionary’ and ‘prerogative’ powers,

in fact he even exercises ‘conventional powers’ which are not contemplated by the Constitution and yet which are not in conflict with it”.

In fact many even surmised that a popular President can exercise conventional powers which are expressly in conflict with the Constitution, provided that such liberty resonates with the majority of the people. A president whose ‘unconstitutional’ conducts are in synch with the ‘will’ of the ‘majority’ needs not apologize for his actions. And although in going against the grain of the ‘law’ he would be walking in the valley of the shadow of death, yet he needs fear neither harm nor evil coming to him.

That is how powerful the ‘will’ of a ‘democratic majority’ is.

And so assuming –without concedingthat Buhari disobeyed court orders, provided that he did that in the ‘national interest’ and the majority of the people are okay with it, he has acted on the side of democratic righteousness.

And although this ‘power’ is rooted more in ‘democratic convention’ than in the ‘letter’ of the law, many American presidents including as recently as Bill Clinton had deployed it to great effect in calling especially erring parliaments to order. In fact Clinton’s intransigence in that regard was once demonstrated at the expense of a total shut down of government for months.

Epilogue Since the ‘law’ needs not actually advance the ‘common good’ to be legitimate, by the same token an elected President needs not actually legitimize his actions to advance the ‘common good.’

In fact as political philosopher James Africanus Beale Horton said of the timewasting, hardly provident nature of ‘democracy’: “where the aim is to bring up the governed rapidly to advancement in industrial pursuit, education and general social condition, a little despotism is ABSOLUTELY necessary”.

PHOTO OF THE DAY

A team of surgeons wearing scrubs and latex gloves work on a patient during a 3am surgery in Poland.

Source: Dailymail.co.uk

www.peoplesdailyng.com

. . . putting the people first

TUESday, january 5, 2016

QUOTABLE QUOTE As our leader President Muhammadu Buhari is fond of saying, we have no country other than Nigeria, so the task of making it a better place is the collective responsibility of all of us, regardless of our station in life or any ethnic, religious and political differences that we may have -Governor Aminu Bello Masari

SPORTS Of ‘rule of law’ and the madding minority latest

Zidane to coach Real Madrid after Benitez sack

R

eal Madrid has sacked Rafa Benitez after holding a meeting over his future, according to multiple reports in Spain.

News services Cuatro and Onda Cero said that members of the club hierarchy were due to hold an emergency meeting to determine whether to sack Benitez on Monday, and both Marca and AS have reported that he has now been dismissed.

The two newspapers said Zinedine Zidane, currently in charge of the club’s Castilla reserve side, is due to take over.

Former Valencia, Liverpool and Napoli boss Benitez has endured a difficult return to the Bernabeu, where he began his playing career with the reserve teams and later held several coaching roles.

He was named Carlo Ancelotti’s replacement in June but there was speculation from the outset that several senior players did not welcome the appointment.

He came under more serious pressure with the 4-0 home defeat to Barcelona in the Clasico on Nov. 21, while the club’s expulsion from the Copa del Rey after fielding an ineligible player has done little to calm tensions.

Madrid is currently third in La Liga, four points behind neighbours Atletico, after Sunday’s 2-2 draw at Valencia.

Cameroon arrive for Rwanda friendly

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ameroon has arrived in Kigali ahead of their friendly game against Rwanda on January 6 with both sides preparing for the upcoming Chan 2016 set for January 16-February 7.

The 35-man delegation with 26 players arrived in the wee hours of yesterday morning and will head to Rubavu where they will train in the afternoon at the newly renovated Umuganda Stadium that is the venue for the game on Wednesday.

The Indomitable Lions, who are pooled in Group B along with Angola, DR Congo and Ethiopia, will be hoping to get a feel of Rwanda before the tournament starts in less than a fortnight.

Cameroon will also play against Uganda on January 13 in Kampala to conclude their preparations for Chan 2016.

Advert: 0806 business: 0704 news: 0814 lagos: 0805 0803

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Preamble resident Buhari, at his recent Media Chat debut, openly rejected the idea of bail for the duo of Dasuki and Kanu. His reason being the magnitude of the offences allegedly committed by them. And no sooner than that Thisday Newspaper reported that a ‘constitutional lawyer’, Ms. Carol Ajie had petitioned the U.S. President Obama over what she said was President Buhari’s “disobedience of court orders”.

I did not know whether to be amazed or amused by that cheaply opportunistic conduct especially by a ‘constitutional lawyer’. You do not have to be a lawyer to know that in the sequences of legal events leading to the multiple bails and re-arrests of the two accused persons, no court order was disobeyed. Rearresting an accused person in a fresh charge after he has been granted bail by a court in a different matter is not the enemy of the ‘rule of law’, but a veritable part of it.

If the law ‘is an ass’ and every selfish lawyer representing the interests of ‘looters’ and ‘subversives’ of State has the advocatorial right to exploit the technicality in it to clients’ advantage, why should State Prosecutors representing the interest of the nation disentitle themselves from exploiting the same permissible gratuity offered by law? The right of the court to grant bail to an accused person in any matter is co-equal with the right of the State to arrest the same person in an entirely different matter.

By the way any ‘constitutional lawyer’ worth his advocatorial onions should know that concerning the defense of ‘personal rights’ or the observance of the ‘rule of law’, America cannot hold a candle to any except perhaps her ally and partner-in-crime, Israel. And so reporting Buhari to Obama is as needlessly laughable as the Hausas would say ‘Kawo kuka gidan mutuwa’; -or in the slang of the Americans, ‘Taking coal to Newcastle’.

There is no place on earth like America with the most sickening surfeit of the brazen breach and abuse of the ‘rule of law’ both in domestic and foreign policy affairs. For over a decade and a half now, world renown lawyers and rights activists, cutting across race and religion, ideology and geography, have been nibbling persistently at the conscience of a hypocritical America, urging her to respect the basic rights of detainees at the infamous Guantanamo Bay Prison, but to no avail.

Next perhaps only to the occupied territories in

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TuesDAY Column Mohammed Adamu (08035892325 sms only)

dankande2@gmail.com

Sambo Dasuki Palestine, the ‘rule of law’ is totally persona non grata at the Guantanamo Bay facility -managed by the so called defender of ‘human’ and the democratic ‘rights’ nations -America.

Detainees here do not even have the luxury of classification as ‘awaiting trial’, let alone the possibility of a committal, discharge or acquittal. They are not even entitled to the basic right of access to a lawyer. Because technically-speaking that will not be necessary for those disentitled to the ‘fundamental right’ of a trial. Nor is the ‘presumption of innocence’ of any value to them because they are not to ever have a day in court to be proved ‘guilty’ or to assert their ‘innocence.’

It is to this same culpritAmerica that some shameless pro-PDP ‘charge and bail’ lawyers are sending petitions on ‘rights-violation and abuse of the ‘rule of law’. Nothing can be more ludicrously descending! Nothing more selfabasing ! And just as I write this piece I hear too they say Dasuki’s judicial travails are contrived by Buhari as some kind of preemptive downsizing of his popularity before 2019 presidential election. And I said to myself: ‘Damn! Every time you think this characters can’t get any lower, they take you to the mud!’

Rule of law For those who hide under the cover of the ‘due democratic process’ to argue the sanctity of the ‘rule of law’, it is sufficient to say that the ‘rule of law’ cannot be made sacrosanct in the affairs of man unless the ‘laws’ themselves are ‘just’ and ‘reasonable’. Because as one of America’s great presidents,

Roosevelt said “Law is to serve man, and not man the law”.

It will amount to ‘serving the law’ if by being self-obligated to obey including irrational laws, man brings to his affairs untold hardship and inconvenience.

The ‘rule of law’ is NOT to be made sacred and inviolable in spite of the ‘will’ of the ‘people’ to which all laws behold. And since laws are to serve man and not the other way round, any law therefore inconsistent with the ‘democratic will’ is ‘inviolable’ only to the extent tolerated by the people. In fact radical realists have often advised judges to try to “balance competing values of ‘freedom’ and ‘equality’ in ways that correspond with ‘popular democratic sentiment’.

And which was exactly what Agbakoba, a member of the National Judicial Council, NJC reminded judges about when he was reported to say: “I believe the judges handling corruption cases in the country at this moment must balance public opinion with law. And what is the public opinion? People want to see those looters of their treasury in jail as soon as possible”.

Every right-thinking judge should know that granting bail to Dasuki or Kanu cannot be said to correspond with ‘popular democratic sentiment’.

Because notwithstanding the courts think differently, majority of Nigerians believes that to be a travesty of the judicial process. As the U.S. novelist Richard Wright would say: no law can “contradict the lives of millions of people and hope to be administered successfully”.

Said historian Babington Macaulay, “The law has no eyes; the law has no hands; the law is nothing … till public opinion breathes the breath of life into the dead letter”. And since the people are their own sovereigns, they alone determine what is ‘democratic’ from what is not. And what is ‘democratic’ may not necessarily be what constitutional law says it is or what political scientists say it should be. Rather it is what a ‘majority’ of the people choose to live with or reject. And it is immaterial that what the people choose to live with is not approved by law; or that what they choose NOT to live with is what the law permits.

This un-restrained liberty that ‘democratic majorities’ enjoyisthereasonphilosophers of law like David Ingram argued that there is a strong jurisprudential basis after all for the legitimation of tyranny of the ‘majority’ -or what Karl Marx termed ‘dictatorship of the majority.’ Nor is such a dictatorship necessarily an enemy of ‘democracy’ simply because it does not protect the ‘rule of law’. In actual fact the ‘will’ of the ‘majority’ is itself the veritable ‘rule of law’.

Because it is the very ‘force’ that legitimates all laws.

In fact sometimes the proof that the ‘will’ of the people is superior to the ‘rule of law’ manifests in curiouser ways.

For example in the unlikely event someday that Shekau should have a day in court and it be suggested, again by selfish lawyers, that he is entitled to the same ‘gratuity of law’ for a bail, you just might see so called proponents of the ‘rule of law’ turning instant vengeful ‘moralists’ and maybe advocating even for ‘jungle justice’.

Due process Ironically, the West has sold to us an indigestible system of government –democracy.

And unlike the West we have slavishly imposed on ourselves an obligation to drink the stuff undiluted. We chew our brand of dehydrated democracy without even a glass of water by the side. In fact we accord the wicked who constitute grave danger to us ‘constitutional rights’ that take precedence over the survival of the state. Petty thieves-ofnecessity we either kill with a sledge hammer or keep for life in ‘awaiting trial’. But savage treasury looters and subversives of State we will not touch except via the tedium of the ‘due process of law’ –which in the end is sure

Contd on Page 47

DAN GAYE Be patient with Buhari, Bishop urges Nigerians –News

In order to eat the fattest bone!

Published by Peoples Media Limited, 35, Ajose Adeogun Street, 1st Floor Peace Park Plaza, Utako, Abuja. Kano office: Plot 3, Zaria Road, Opposite Kano State House of Assembly. Lagos Office: No.8 Oliyide Street, off Unity Road, Ikeja, Lagos. Tel: +234 814 292 9046. Cell: +234 802 443 2099; 803 7007 759. e-mail: contact@peoplesdailyng.com; pmlnewsdesk@gmail.com ISSN: 2141– 6141