Saturday 10th - Sunday 11th January, 2015. Edition.

weekend.peoplesdailyng.com

Saturday, JANUARY 10-11, 2015 Rabi’ul Awwal 19-20, 1436 AH

. . . P utti ng the p eop l e fi r st

pmlonline peoplesdailyng

N150 Vol. 4 No. 25

Insurgency: Niger Rep pulls out of multi-national force Damaturu under fresh attack

90-year grandpa defiles 11-year old pupil

>Pg 6

Children gather round a fire to warm themselves because of the harmattan in Bauchi. yesterday.

>>PG 10

Editor lost bread to bag snatchers >>PG 6

2015: No foreigner will vote —NIS Pg 18 Truck drivers block Kaduna over military operation Pg 10 271 Days after

Clerics: Do they influence voters?

>>Pgs 8,9,13

Will the abducted Chibok schoolgirls ever be rescued?

PEOPLES DAILY Weekend, saturday 10-sunday 11 January, 2015

Page 2

Interview

You can’t conduct elections in Boko Haram territories, says Hon. Terab

Honourable Abdulrahman Terab, who represents Bama, Ngala, Kala Balge Federal Constituency of Borno State in the House of Representatives believes that elections can only be conducted in territories under one’s control and it would be difficult for next month’s general elections to be conducted in 20 local government areas out of the 27 in Borno which are under the control of the insurgent group. His interview with Channels Television was monitored by Patrick Andrew.

W

hat is the situation in your constituency?

The facts are that Bama and Ngala Local Governments have almost been taken over for four months and still counting. Now you hold elections where normal activities take place. But in the situation that we are even the military have not been in these areas in the last four months.

You mentioned Bama Cuts in.... Not only Bama but in other places for over five months now. Askyha is still under them, parts of Chibok, Dambwa, and as a matter of fact yesterday (Wednesday) I heard INEC say that they are going to distribute PVC in 12 local governments even that 12 local governments were contained in the previous list because after they did that Bama was taken over and now of course we all know Ngala and Baga have been taken over, Abadan, parts of Gozala are gone, Askyha they came after, so out of that 12 they still have five. As a matter of fact out of the 12 LGs that we are talking about only seven are really practicable to hold election.

You have not secured that place for people to go back to their homes let alone holding elections in that place. We believe we have about a month from now, we are still calling that there should be more concerted efforts and what is the efforts? We have said it time without number that we need more men.

So you are saying as things stand today only 7 LGs can handle elections in Borno?

Yes, realistically, these are the ones that probably security can be guaranteed. Some of my colleagues joke with me that for you to go back to your constituency you need a visa and it is true. I have over 400 wards in my constituency and not a single one is under Nigeria’s territory.

But why haven’t you spoken up before now because we have heard the military talked about recovering some of these territories and you are a member of the PDP, they have talked about the fantastic job

“

going on in the north east, particularly your state?

Cuts in.... It is interesting that I follow up almost all your security interviews and it is also interesting that most of the people you brought here understand the security situation as a whole but may be not the specific situation of happenings in the north east. We have lent our voices everywhere and as a matter of fact there was a time on a weekly basis that I raised a matter of personal explanation because you can only take matters of urgent national importance once for an event and for event occurrence or attack that took place in these areas. So I have taken a matter of personal explanation on a weekly basis to inform the House of Representatives about the current situation, that in this current situation, the military said they have recovered some territories, that they are making efforts and they have always said they are making efforts. Even currently, in the last three to four days they are making serious efforts to recapture Bama from the insurgent group but it is not yet successful.

Will elections hold in these places?

The answer is yours.

You have painted a picture of insecurity in these places and you said your colleagues poke fun at you that you need a visa to go there because someone else has taken over, now if someone else has taken over do you think elections can hold there?

You only conduct elections in your own territory, places under your control.

A member of the PDP did say that the president will come there to campaign and if the territory isn’t yours why would you agree for Mr. President to come there to campaign?

One thing you need to understand here is that I have always and at every event disassociated politics from the security situation. When you mention northeast the understanding is that the place just a small chunk that once a

place is affected no other place can be penetrated. My local government for example Bama, yes, there are un-tarred roads in fact to move from one part of Bama to the other it could take you a whole day and that is my constituency alone. That’s why when they were canvassing issues of the state of emergency I gave them an example that in the whole of my constituency we have only one barracks and it houses just about 200 men.

Now without the state of emergency no military man is allowed under the law to go out of the barracks without special specific directives from the president. It means if there is no state of emergency you can shoot someone around Gamboruga which is about 240 to 300km from Bama and that means at every hit you have to get presidential directives to move the military out if you are not under the state of emergency, but the state of emergency will guarantee that they can move about and that at any time there is any hit they can respond. What I am trying to say here is that the land is so huge you can go to Maiduguri and all of us do and the interesting part of it is that Maiduguri to Bama is just 76 km.

As an electorate would you be willing to ask your family and friends to come out with you to cast their votes?

I think you ought to understand what I am saying you can hold elections in Maiduguri which is one of the seven LGs, but you cannot hold elections where INEC has already designated that it cannot distribute PVCs which is 15 LGs in all. But I want to tell you that it is about 20 and you need to put more efforts on ground to even achieve this.

Assuming you had these PVCs distributed, will the security situation as we speak allow for the elections to hold?

Where? In the LGs where PVCs haven’t been distributed?

Bama for instance?

Because you cannot penetrate Bama, you cannot distribute there

The state of emergency gives the legal framework for the military and other security agencies to operate, that is quite clear and probably the lack of it will make them cautious in implementing their strategies.

Hon. Terab When you defected from APC to the PDP you did say that the security situation in the area has been politicised.

Now it would seem that everything that you have said here corroborated what the governor also said, who exactly is politicising the security situation?

I want to believe the interviews you are talking about are very recent and then of course the opportunities that are given to those of us from the place by the media including our governors are less than what other persons outside our region know. You know the interesting thing is that Bauchi which is also in the north east is the closest place to old Borno that is the present Borno and Yobe States and from the other side is Gombe and Jigawa.

I am telling you not even those there understand what we are going through and so when you find somebody in Lagos or Kano discussing the issues there will it be more of political sentiment rather than finding solution to the real problem that we are facing now. The problem is not a joke.

At this point in time we are talking about life. Sincerely speaking let the truth be told election is secondary. You have to get people back to their homes, you have to save lives. In any case how hypocritical that it is only during elections that you worry about taking people home. Let us concern ourselves and unite towards getting these people back to their homes, let them live before they enjoy other aspects of life.

Had the state of emergency been approved would it have helped matters?

I have my own issues with the implementation of the state of emergency, the state of emergency gives the legal framework for the military and other security agencies to operate, that is quite clear and probably the lack of it will make them cautious in implementing their strategies.

But what is most important is that when the state of emergency was declared we expected all of us and that is where I fault the larger political class as a whole that we expected that during the state of emergency you don’t focus on other sectors but that alone.

You do everything that is required of you to implement it, coordinate it and finish it before you get on to other things. But we are operating a state of emergency where we are still embarking on road construction, we are still building roads, still handling medicare, still handling other areas. I believe my understanding as a lawmaker is that if you do that you are suspending every other act especially the appropriation act for you to implement the state of emergency first.

I concur with the governor of Yobe State that we need more men, that is the fact because what is happening is that one we must accept that this fight is a war and secondly, it is a fight to catch the rat and in fighting to catch the rat you follow it from behind. You have to get people all around it.

Cameroun and Chad have more forces than we have and we should complement that by ensuring that there are enough men. In the whole of the country the entire provision to fight Boko Haram is less than 13,000.

PEOPLES DAILY Weekend, saturday 10-sunday 11 January, 2015

Page 3

Feature

Oil Crisis: FG retains N150bn jumbo budget for NASS W

hile the Nigerian government has said it is minimizing costs of governance in the face of crushing oil price fall, which has left many states struggling to pay salaries, and has forced down national capital budget to its lowest in nearly a decade, the same government has retained a huge N150 billion allocation for federal lawmakers in 2015.

A review of the 2015 budget done by PREMIUM TIMES, revealed that the federal government has chosen to oblige the lawmakers its jumbo budget of N150 billion same as has been done since 2010.

The amount is more than the annual budget of each of at least 15 states in Nigeria.

Long before 2014 when oil crisis started, that allocation to legislators was already considered outrageous

by Nigerians. At the time, oil averaged $110 per barrel.

But with nearly half of Nigeria’s revenues gone as crude oil price plummets below $50, the budget figure set for the lawmakers has particularly stood out of the 2015 budget.

In November 2014, as oil price fall escalated, the Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, announced a range of what the government called austerity measures, aimed at adjusting cost and minimizing government expenditure.

The minister said the capital expenditures of some ministries, departments and agencies, of government would be reduced, while

Senate President, David Mark focus would be on growth promoting sectors of the economy to sustain development.

That pledge however appears true with the budget for the presidency which has been slashed from N36.1 billion in 2014, to N26.7 billion in 2015.

The presidency includes the State House, and several offices such as the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, the Bureau of Public Procurement, BPP, and others.

Power: Why residential consumers won’t pay higher tariff— NERC Chairman

C

oncerns over the recent increment in tariff for electricity consumers seem to have reached the regulators of the system who responded by giving details of the new tariff regime.

Accordingly, the National Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), have taken the pains to attempt to convince residential electricity consumers that they are for now exempted from the new price regime until around July.

Giving reasons why the domestic consumers of power would not be affected by the higher tariffs it announced recently, NERC said it put into consideration the current economic situation in the country that arose from the drop in oil prices and insisted that consumers should pay to tariffs which are commensurate with their consumption.

Following ​ a review conducted by the Commission in the wake of the introduction of a new tariff regime on gas supply to electricity producers in the country, a revised

Multi Year Tariff Order, MYTO 2.1, was approved with effect from January 1, 2015.

Under the new arrangement, commercial and industrial consumers, including manufacturers and other business owners, are expected to pay higher tariffs.

The NERC Chairman, Sam Amadi, said in Abuja that the scheduled tariffs hike would not apply to consumers in the residential category (R2 class), which constitute more than 80 per cent of the total population, are exempted till the end of June 2015.

“NERC has not increased tariff for residential consumers for now,” Mr. Amadi said. “While the scheduled increase will apply to other classes of consumers from January 1, 2015, it will not affect residential consumers until after June 2015.”

The chairman said the decision by the Commission to grant the moratorium was carefully considered after due consultations and was guided by the imperative to

Coordinator of Economy, Ngozi OkonjoIweala Specifically, the budget for State House, which has the office of the president and vice president, was reduced from N12.15 billion in 2014, to N9.56 billion in 2015.

But while that office has taken some budget cut, the Nigerian National Assembly has retained all of its outrageous N150 billion.

The budget proposal awaits the approval of the lawmakers and the signature of the president, although it is unlikely the amount will be reduced.

Details of how the senators and members of the House of Representatives spend the huge allocation annually has remained a top secret over the last four years, as had their actual remunerations. In the later case, even the Revenue Mobilisation and Fiscal Allocation Commission (RMFC) has tended to pass the buck on whose responsibility it is to reveal the figure each lawmaker is expected to earn including the said stupendous allowances they

balance the legitimate demand for adequate electricity supply to ensure fair tariff.

According to the chairman, the decision to exempt the R2 consumers from the latest tariff hike was primarily to protect and promote their interest, while ensuring that operators were given enough time to improve the quality of their services.

Though Mr. Amadi said the decision to adopt a phased approach in increasing tariffs did not go down well with electricity distribution companies, who are concerned that recouping their costs and bottom line would be adversely affected in the short run, he said NERC’s responsibility was to protect consumers.

“NERC is not anti-business.

NERC is mandated by the Electric Sector Power Reform, ESPR, Act 2005 to set tariffs that reflect the cost of operations as a way of attracting and sustaining necessary investments in the sector,” the Chairman said.

Freezing tariff hike for residential consumers, he said, was to use rate setting to grant relief, while providing incentives to the producers to ensure adequate, regular and optimal customer service.

Describing the decision as

win-win, the NERC boss said the intension was to give consumers a six months break, while providing operators incentives to improve power supply and services.

The Chairman said the Commission believed it would be unfair to ask consumers to pay higher tariff now in view of their sensitivity to the current levels of service delivery and consumer perception.

He said the Commission said it was concerned with the poor level of meter deployment by the electricity distribution companies, in spite of the credit advancement payment metering initiatives, CAP-

allocate to themselves.

The National Assembly and the Finance Ministry have refused to provide those details despite repeated requests from the media and nongovernmental organizations.

In 2014, the finance minister, Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala, was sued under the Freedom of Information law by the Abuja-based Centre for Social Justice, for ignoring requests for the details.

Eze Onyekpere, who heads the nongovernmental group, said last November that the government’s hype about austerity can only be taken seriously, when amongst other things, the government dispenses with the National Assembly’s huge budget.

“The frivolous expenditures on meals and refreshments to public officials should be stopped immediately,” Mr. Onyekpere said.

On the average, a Nigerian lawmaker earns over N300 million yearly, being the total of their basic salaries and allowances, and quarterly allowances.

Nigerians refer to the quarterly allowances as “jumbo pay”, while the lawmakers say the funds, in tens of millions of naira each quarter, constitute “administrative cost”.

In 2012, the UK-based magazine, Economist, concluded that Nigerian lawmakers were the highest paid in the world. The report considered only salaries of the lawmakers, not the “jumbo pay”.

Dr. Sam Amadi MI, spearheaded by the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN in conjunction with NERC. Under the scheme, a credit line of about N33 billion was opened with soft terms to support the metering plans of the distribution companies to bridge the huge metering gap in the country’s electricity sector.

According to the chairman, the expectation was that the distribution companies would use the moratorium period granted the consumers to improve on their deployment of meters and other operational infrastructure.

PEOPLES DAILY Weekend, saturday 10-sunday 11 January, 2015

PAGE 4

Special Report

Endless fuel scarcity:

Oil cartel and the ordinary man

By Abubakar Ibrahim

far this template has fulfilled these objectives could be called to question because of the secrecy, conservatism and non-disclosure in the practical sense.

A

fter about 56 years of commercial oil exploration and production (E&P), it could be argued that the upstream sub-sector of the Nigerian petroleum industry has been moderately successful owing largely to the massive investment of Oil Multi-National Corporations (OMNCs). Exploration and Production, which is the source of crude, oil has immensely contributed to Nigeria’s economic growth by serving as a major source of revenue and foreign exchange.

Subsequent Nigerian governments followed the sector with the construction of about four refineries including the old Port-Harcourt Refinery (1965), the Warri Refinery (1978), the Kaduna Refinery (1980) and the new PortHarcourt Refinery (1987).

But this is probably where the good news ends for the Nigerian Petroleum industry as these refineries are functioning at sub-optimal capacity and the country continues to spend substantial foreign exchange to import fuels for domestic consumption.

The downstream subsector of the industry which comprises of Refining (although sometimes placed under the so-called mid-stream sub-sector), Distribution and Marketing could best be described to be in a wobbling state. This is as a result of the high level of inefficiency in the sub-sector in terms of low value addition on crude oil.

The fact that the bulk of Nigeria’s crude oil is still refined abroad is a pointer to this fact.

Importation policy

pricing

Because domestic refining in Nigeria cannot meet up with domestic consumption, Nigeria resorted to importation of refined crude – the tragedy of the story in the petroleum

The cartel

President Goodluck Jonathan industry.

According to NNPC sources, Nigeria’s four refineries have a combined installed capacity of 445,000 barrel per day but using less than 30% of their installed capacity. For almost the whole of 2010, the four refineries with a combined capacity in excess of 445,000 barrels per day could only refine a mere 80,757 metric tonnes of petroleum products. These are 19,967 of premium motor spirit, PMS or petrol; 53,223.4 MT of automotive gas oil, AGO or diesel; and 7,567MT of liquefied petroleum gas, LPG or cooking gas.

The rest volume of 8.1 million MT of petroleum products that came into the downstream sector was imported. But for the Federal Government/ Nigeria LNG LPD Domestic Supply Programme, only LPG was not imported. With this low domestic refining capacity, Nigeria has no choice but

Mrs Diezani Allison-Madueke, OPEC President & Petroleum Minister to depend on importation of refined products to meet domestic energy requirements.

What this means is that Nigeria exports raw crude only to import refined petroleum products. To import these refined products, Nigeria would have to pay at the international price per metric ton plus other costs of landing the products in Nigeria. This explains the concept of importation pricing policy where Nigeria imports refined petroleum products (in millions of metric tonnes) at the prevailing international price plus other costs of landing the products in Nigeria. This importation is usually undertaken by both the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and independent marketers. Not only do we import refined products, the process of importation is fraught with irregularities with high level of corruption including the inflation of figures of imported

products (in order to make high subsidy claims) at huge costs to both the government and the Nigerian citizenry. It is worthy to note that the crude refined in Nigeria is supplied to end users at the same price with the imported products.

Thus, in defiance of PPPRA products pricing template (Daily & Monthly), a pricing information sheet detailing the components used in deriving the PPPRA daily/monthly guiding products prices.

It employs Import Parity Principle and this includes: (i) Landing Cost of Products (ii) Margins for the Marketers, Dealers, and Transporters (iii) Jetty-Depot Throughput (iv) Other charges and Taxes.

The objectives of the pricing template are to ensure transparency, full cost recovery, Fairness and efficiency in the importation process but how

Since oil-related infrastructure are usually run without hitch in other oil-producing countries like Iran and Venezuela as well as close neighbours like Niger, it becomes curious why a traditional oil producing nation like Nigeria cannot run refineries at optimal levels for domestic consumption.

According to Wikipedia, “ a cartel is an agreement between competing firms to control prices or exclude entry of a new competitor in a market. It is a formal organization of sellers or buyers that agree to fix selling prices, purchase prices, or reduce production using a variety of tactics”.

This points to assumptions now backed by facts, that certain interests are behind the crisis bedeviling the oil industry. These groups have specifically commandeered the industry for selfish profitmaking goals in apparent disregard to the public service the energy sector is principally meant for.

Acute scarcity became noticeable when the PPPRA, a government agency saddled with the duty of allocating permit for fuel import, refused to settle fuel subsidy claims worth over N100 billion for products’ import in the second half of 2013.

The oil marketers threatened to withdraw from the importation until government paid the arrears, leaving NNPC as the sole importer of fuel to meet national demand of over 35 million litres of Premium Motor spirit (PMS) daily.

In tandem with NNPC, other oil marketers like Masters Energy Oil and Gas Limited,

Contd on Page 5

PEOPLES DAILY Weekend, saturday 10-sunday 11 January, 2015

PAGE 5

Special Report

Oil cartel and the ordinary man Contd from Page 4 MRS Oil and Gas, Heyden Petroleum, Techno Oil Limited, NIPCO Plc, Mobil Oil Nigeria Plc, Forte Oil Plc, Conoil Plc, Oando Plc, Folawiyo Oil and Gas, Total Nigeria Plc, Nepal Energy and Matrix Energy, among others, held the nation to ransom.

This realisation led to accusations by the Association of Mega Filling Station Owners in Nigeria (MFSON) that top government officials are responsible for fuel scarcity in Nigeria.

The association said its members are aware of those behind the cause of fuel scarcity in the country and threatened that if the federal government refused to fish out the ticks in the nation’s oil industry and corridors of power, the association has no option but to go on strike.

Situations in other climes The reluctance so far developed towards building of new refineries has however been based on the premise that governments all over the world are bad managers of business enterprises. Nigerian leaders bought the idea without the benefit of a second thought despite government successes in other countries.

It would be recalled that the NNPC, some years ago, indicated interests in the building of three new green refineries with a total capacity of one million barrels each in three states of the federation but has so far remained a mere dream, even as the multinational oil firms- Shell Nigeria, ExxonMobil, Total Agip and Addax, have continued to shun investment opportunities in refinery projects in the country due to absence of incentives.

But investigations reveal that government ownership and running of business have worked perfectly well in many oil producing countries, especially the cartel- Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), of which Nigeria is an

“

Vehicles in long queues at filling station influential member.

While the Nigerian government plays second fiddle with the implementation of World Bank remedy which has ended up worsening the woes of developing nations, other OPEC member states, including: Saudi- Arabia, Libya, Iran, Kuwait, United Arab Emirate (UAE), Algeria, Qatar, and Venezuela, were fast expanding their refineries both at home and abroad. Libya and Kuwait, for instance, own offshore refineries in Europe where crude oil is shipped to, refined and dispensed to consumers from fuel stations in Europe.

Venezuela, another important member in South America, owns over 22 refineries, eight of which are located in the United States alone.

So far, OPEC-member nations have invested over $50 billion on refinery

These groups have specifically commandeered the industry for selfish profit-making goals in apparent disregard to the public service the energy sector is principally meant for.

projects. Abdalla El Badri, Secretary General of OPEC, who confirmed the matter recently in Austria, said the investment would balance the practice whereby emphasis was shifted to the developing countries based on the rejection of building new refineries in Europe and America due to environmental concerns.

The cost of building ultramodern refineries with modular capacity of between 500,000 and 600,000 barrels stands between $1 billion and $2.5 billion respectively, which requires between 12 months and two years for completion.

And so, the present trend of building new mini refineries in the ranges of between 50,000 and 100,000 barrels of crude has reduced cost to between $300 to $500 million respectively.

Artificial scarcity or hostage taking?

Three issues formed the subject of discourse with the sudden and unexpected return of vehicular queues at petrol stations in Lagos and Abuja last month; the crash of crude oil price in the international market and its implications on the pump price of petrol in Nigeria.

Though, fuel scarcity is a recurrent issue in Nigeria especially during Christmas and New Year festivities, there was nothing in the imagination of anyone that the monster could hit any part

of the country at this critical time, when the polity is tensed up with preparations for the general elections coming up in February, 2015. The reasons being offered by NNPC for the scarcity were not plausible enough if the system is working well in the first place.

To start with, it was most worrisome and unexpected that at a time when the price of crude oil is tumbling in the world market, which ordinarily, should result in abundance of fuel products, Lagosians woke up December 10 to long queues at filling stations due to fuel scarcity.

There was no prior notification.

The same problem played out in Abuja, the nation’s capital.

The NNPC was quick to dissociate itself from the scarcity thus: “the long queues have nothing to do with the unavailability of products in the depots as erroneously being speculated. The NNPC/ PPMC fuel supply chain remains robust with enough products to last till the end of the year and beyond”.

The NNPC explained that “the artificial scarcity has its roots in a recent directive issued to Petroleum Tanker Drivers, PTD, by the national leadership of the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers, NUPENG, to stop bridging to Suleja and also to stop product supply to Abuja to protest a long standing contractual issue between the management

of MTEL and Petroleum Tanker Owners. The tanker drivers and NUPENG are also demanding the repairs of access roads to the depots as a pre-condition to resuming loading of products”.

The half-hearted and ad-hoc measure, has not addressed the issue at stake, namely bad roads for which the government should not have waited to be raised by tanker drivers. Tanker drivers have protested many times before now over bad roads across the nation that hampers their smooth operation, especially during the rainy season.

While the issue remains totally unresolved, NUPENG and the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria reportedly kicked off a nationwide strike to protest failure of the Federal Government to carry out turnaround maintenance of the nation’s four refineries and reduction of the pump price of petrol following the slump in the global prices of crude oil.

While some of the reasons advanced for the strike are understandable, they are not something that could be addressed overnight.

However, what stands clear is the lack of will borne out of selfish reasons, from Nigerian leaders to replicate the successes in other oil-producing countries by total preference for World Bank solutions that has no benefit for its downtrodden masses.

PEOPLES DAILY Weekend, saturday 10-sunday 11 January, 2015

PAGE 6

News

Damaturu under fresh Boko Haram attack

T

he Yobe State capital, Damaturu, has yesterday (Friday) come under serious attack by Boko Haram terrorists.

Though details were still sketchy as at the time of going to press, some residents of the city when contacted, said deadly explosions and gunshots continued to rent the air since from around 8pm in the night.

A top security officer based in Damaturu, who did not want to be mentioned, confirmed the attack to a blog, Echoes News.

Scared residents are asking for prayers for God’s protection, as the insurgents were trying to attack the town from all angles.

Damaturu is 135km west of Maiduguri, the Borno State capital where the Boko Haram ideology was born about six years ago, which is eight years after a similar insurgent sect was nipped in the bud in Yobe State town of Kanamma in the year 2001.

The city of Damaturu also came under a similar attack in the twilight of year 2014, when the insurgents attempted to take over the State Government House.

L - R Vice President Mohammed Namadi Sambo; Chairman Governing Board of the NNMA Prof. Etim Moses Essien And Prof. Niyi Osundare 2014 Nigeria National Order of Merit Award Recipient; during the Presidential Dinner in honour of the Body Of Nigeria National Order Of Merit

Niger Rep pulls out of Multinational Force

From Ado Abubakar Musa, Jos

T

Gov. Geidam

he Niger Republic has declared that it would not redeploy its troops again to the Multinational Joint Task Force, (MNJTF), base, located in Baga town of Kukawa Local Government Area of Borno State, until when the entire region now under the control of Boko Haram is recaptured.

This declaration was made on the morning programme of Hausa Service of the BBC, by Niger’s foreign affairs minister, Alh Bazum Muhammed, reaffirming that if the seized areas remain with the

insurgents, then Niger authorities would not allow their troops to participate in keeping peace in the area.

This development came barely a week after a terrible attack on Baga by the Boko Haram where scores of Nigeran soldiers and residents of the area were killed and property worth millions of naira burnt by the insurgents.

The minister, “Niger is no longer sending its troops to Baga in Nigeria, unless the areas controlled by the insurgents are recaptured by the Nigerian soldiers. If the said areas remain with them (Insurgents), we are not going back.”

Fire kills mother of 6 in bid to rescue money

By Osa Eresoyen, Asaba

A

mysterious fire outbreak on Thursday in Akaiewhe Community near Uzere Community, Isoko South Local Government Area of Delta State, consumed a 62-year-old mother of six in her residence, leaving property worth millions of Naira also destroyed.

Peoples Daily Weekend reliably gathered that the woman popularly called Mummy Esther was caught in the web of the fire outbreak during wee hours when everybody was fast asleep apart from security guard who was on duty in her compound.

The victim, an eyewitness said, a well known trader, was

burnt beyond recognition when sympathizers who got wind of the her cry rushed to the scene, but could not help save her life.

Unconfirmed sources said the fire outbreak was traced to some Jerry-cans of fuel that were allegedly kept inside the house by the victim who envisaged there will be fuel scarcity in no distant time so as to make brisk business.

As it were, the fire gutted the entire building of the victim when she mistakenly left burning firewood after she had reportedly fried two basins of garri in the evening of the fateful day.

Expectedly, the firewood organized by the victim was said to have later spread in wild

range to where the inflammable chemicals were allegedly kept by the victim, a situation that sparked off the fire.

Further investigations revealed that the victim was largely responsible for her death as other victims in the same apartment managed to escape but while the call for help lasted, the victim struggled to escape but later ran back into the house in a bid to collect N300, 000 said to be daily contribution money involving others.

Speaking to our correspondent, one of the deceased children identified as Ejiro, said: “My mother died in the struggle for money, now she has lost the money and her life.”

He debunked the allegation that Niger was aware of the recent attack in Baga in which it quickly withdrew its troops ahead of the assault, adding that Niger’s solders were since last November recalled home following the realisation that the soldiers at the Multi-National Joint Task Force, (MNJTF) base which comprised of soldiers from Nigeria, Niger, Cameroon and Chad would not be formidable enough to counter the existing challenges of insurgency in the area.

He said, “Niger was not aware of Baga attack before our troops were taken back home. It is not true that we were aware of the attack. We

took our soldiers back home on the basis that the number of soldiers at the MNJTF camp would not be sufficient to fight the Boko Haram insurgency in the area. That was why we returned them home since November last year and the number of our soldiers at the MNJTF base were only 50.

Recall that MNJTF base in Baga was purposely organised by Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad and Niger to ensure the security of boarder areas of the said countries, particularly tackling the Boko Haram but all the countries with the exception of Nigeria, were said to have withdrawn their troops from base.

Leadership editor lost bread to bag snatchers From Ibrahim Sidi Muh’d, Gusau

A

two-man syndicate on motorcycle Thursday snatched a polythene bag containing some pieces of a Hausa locally-made bread (Gurasa) from the regional editor of Leadership newspapers based in Gusau, Zamfara State capital, Abba Kabara, as he stepped out of Unity Bank branch.

Speaking to Peoples Daily Weekend, Kabara said the snatchers must have suspected the polythene bag was full of money because

he was coming out of the banking hall towards his car, but unfortunately for them, he was not at the bank for money withdrawal but to make some clarifications.

“There were only about twelve pieces of locally made bread inside the bag which I decided to buy from Kano in order to compliment a request by my bride, and nothing valuable like money to be bitter upon the loss,” he said.

According to an Okada rider who was waiting for his passenger that also entered the banking hall, “another

Okada rider has dropped a passenger who pretended to be one of the security personnel in mufti attached to the bank and who instructed me to move and wait by the end of the bank fence.

“The next thing I witnessed was that, a man came out of the bank premises carrying a polythene bag while making a call, and in a twinkle of eye, the Okada man quickly turned around picked his passenger and disappeared after the passenger successfully hit the victim on chest and snatched the bag,” the rider said.

PEOPLES DAILY Weekend, saturday 10-sunday 11 January, 2015

PAGE 7

PEOPLES DAILY Weekend, saturday 10-sunday 11 January, 2015

Page 8

Cover

Clerics: Do they influence voters?

Large gathering of faithfuls at a church service

By Patrick Andrew and Mohammed Usman

R

eligious leaders are a critical class of opinion moulders who wield considerable influence over their congregants.

In time past because of their acclaimed affinity with divinity their words meant life or death, sometimes depending on their aptitude for mercy or punishment.

Of course, it is understandable; they lay claim to being representatives of God and therefore many believe that their utterances come directly from God who superintends over mankind irrespective of one’s spiritual disposition. Some clerics, perhaps capitalising on the awe with which people hold them have tended to set the hedge not just on the congregants’ spiritual life, but in their political affairs directing and dictating what ought to and shouldn’t be done.

But beyond religious oligarchy and autocracy of some sort, the clerics both in by-gone era and now are known to have and still command stupendous

Where are we going? What is the fate of this country? Shall we continue like this, we need change (shout of change from the congregation). As I am speaking with you, most of our civil servants did not celebrate Christmas. The Christmas season that should have been a Goodluck time became bad luck. —Rev. Fr. Mbaka political authority over their communities and people. Late Adolf Hitler of Germany largely succeeded in his quest to extend the Third Reich because he had sought for and obtained the needed allegiance from the clergy who in turn ensured that the churches succumbed to the whims and caprices of the state even to the detriment of spiritual values.

Weren’t influence, authority, naked power and people’s allegiance central to the struggle between the Roman Catholic authority and the King of England leading to the circumvention of the former’s authority in Britain and the advent of the Church of England? What was the aptitude of the English folks in all this? The clergy subjugated its authority to the state and ensured that both the King

and eventually the Queen did no evil whatsoever. The clerics corroborated its political authority with the state’s wishes and hoodwinked the people to accept hook, line and sinker whatever it thought expedient.

Needless to say in Nigeria all it would take to reduce a mosque or church to debris is for a clergy to say so and the faithful will in obedience to ‘divine command’ shed their humane disposition, throw neighbourliness, years of friendship and peaceful coexistence to the wind.

Little wonder that there is a deliberate push by politicians to hobnob with clerics, they are conscious of the huge political capital that can be derived from such association.

And so politicians fall over themselves to win the favour of renowned imams and pastors and even induce some to openly

identify with them with a view to winning the loyalty of their spiritual subjects.

Reverend Father Ejike Mbaka of the Catholic Adoration Centre in Enugu, in his New Year sermon, railed at President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration, a development which many considered out rightly partisan, it also provoked mixed reactions.

Part of the sermon reads; “We need change. Whatever it will be, let it be. This is my golden message to my beloved country. What actually is happening (Ogini nne me?). The multitude of our youths, quality young men and women, brilliant youths but nobody has plans for any of you. Our so-called leaders should come and apologize. In 2015, it shall not continue like that (shouts of AMEN).

“I am not saying that

Goodluck is a bad man. He is a good man. But he cannot lead Nigeria. As things stand right now, from the oracle of the Holy Spirit, Jonathan should honourably resign quietly and let Nigeria be. The destiny of Nigeria is greater than Goodluck Jonathan. The Goodluck in Jonathan has become bad luck to Nigerians. Whatever brought him in should send him back and let Nigeria be.

“By this time in a few months to come, many are going to lose their jobs and there is no alternative. During election, Jonathan will answer Azikiwe, Ebele and become an Igbo man and after election, the Ebele, Azikiwe and Goodluck will vanish from his identity. Who is fooling who actually?

“Look at our federal roads, we are not even asking for new ones, roads built by Buhari and Babangidas, the so called Hausa people, cannot be maintained.

Follow Enugu here to Onitsha, children born some years ago do not know that there was a lane along the other side of Isiagwu and we are all saying continue.

The continuity of Jonathan

Contd on Page 5

PEOPLES DAILY Weekend, saturday 10-sunday 11 January, 2015

PAGE 9

Cover

Do they influence voters?

Prof Osinbajo

Contd from Page 4 means disaster to Nigeria.”

It was obvious that the reverend gentlemen directly urged members of his church and those from far flung places to cast their vote in the opposite direction or more directly against Jonathan in the general elections.

The Catholic Archbishop of Abuja, Cardinal John Onaiyekan, disassociated the Catholic Church in Nigeria from Father Mbaka’s statements. “Mbaka will take responsibility for his own actions. I do not believe in my mind that the way things are in Nigeria, any Catholic priest has the mandate to decide which of the political contestants should be voted for.

“What most of us will do is to tell people to vote according to their conscience and then, tell the authorities to allow people to vote freely and fairly.

Like I said, Mbaka is a priest of his own type. If he was in my archdiocese, I would have sanctioned him long ago for the kind of utterances that he makes.

“But, he is not under my diocese; he has a bishop to handle that if there is any need. I hope that people are not thinking that we are sending Mbaka to talk rubbish. If you want to hear anything even not official but at least, authoritative, then, you listen to the bishops. I don’t see any bishop talking that way,” Cardinal Onaiyekan said.

The motley of attacks that trailed Mbaka’s comments were so much that even the PDP through its National Publicity Secretary, Olisa Metuh, had to appeal to its supporters to simmer down on their verbal venom directed at the reverend father.

“I want to appeal to some of these online support persons and/or groups to immediately stop and cease all attacks on Rev. Fr. Mbaka. The south-east being a strong Catholic and Christian stronghold will not condone a campaign against a priest. Besides, if you are truly a child of God, please do know that the mockery of a recognized symbol of God’s authority is unacceptable even where we totally disagree with his message,” even as the message revealed that many out there were listening to the clergy.

Mbaka is not the only cleric who has lent his voice to the motley of voices seeking to influence and direct people’s choice towards a particular direction.

Take the example of Sheik Ahmed Gumi, the alleged radical Islamic cleric, revered by many even among political leaders.

So, that is why people in the north are frantic they don’t want President

Dr. Gumi

Rev. Mbaka

Pastor Bakare

Jonathan to come back because of their safety, lives and security. And this has made them to be too attached to Gen. Buhari because they think he is the only credible person and he has large followers who feel that they can help defeat Jonathan. ‘‘I know like Jonathan, Buhari is not only a polarizing figure in Nigeria, he is even so in the north. There are people who don’t want him at all for different reasons. My Islamic credentials make me see things in a broader perspective. ‘‘And that is why I am seriously telling him to consider that leadership is not only about honesty and accountability.

It also has to do about conformity, flexibility, being nice to people and not just disciplinary strictness. No! All these people that are attached to him would be very surprised if he gets into power.

He will not do what they want,” he said implying that Buhari should forget about running for the office.

The cleric, like his Enugu counterpart, received swift fierce umbrage and had to retract his utterances, even as he denied calling on Buhari to bow out of the presidential race. Instructively, the volume of social media comments clearly attests to the fact that words from religious leaders command enormous influence and engenders considerable response.

Sheik Gumi had also recently criticized the choice of a lawyer and pastor of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), Yemi Osinbajo, as Mr. Buhari’s running mate, saying, “It is now the church not just Christians that have their feet engrossed in the APC.” For his troubles, the revered sheik claimed that he and his family received death- threats from followers of one of the presidential candidates.

“People like me who had all along

been critical about the government can no longer speak or express personal opinion if it is not in support of Gen. Buhari.

Just this morning around 2.30a.m., my three male children individually got threatening phone calls from a private number. People can vote for whoever they choose whether a Christian or a Muslim,” Gumi said.

Another cleric in a sharp response said Gumi ought to have acted with wisdom by being cautious in his comments. Ahmed Ali, a Zaria-based cleric, believes that the preacher should stay off politics so that he will not derail from what he has been known for.

“Politics is for politicians while religious teachings are in the hands of clerics. Gumi should have remained on that and not start joining issues with politicians. You can see that he is being labeled as an enemy by supporters of the candidates he claimed to have given advice.”

Founding Pastor of the Latter Rain Assembly and former vice presidential candidate of the defunct Congress for Progressives Change (CPC), Tunde Bakare, is one of the vocal clergy men that have been active in political activities. He gave vim to the notion that clerics should aspire to the top job when he accepted to run with Buhari in 2011. The thinking then was that as a renowned clergy man with considerable followership, the CPC would profit from the ocean of congregants. Well, it didn’t quite work out.

Now though, the pastor wants the federal government and the National Assembly to activate the constitutional provisions for the suspension of the 2015 elections. He hinged his position on the fact that whichever way the outcome of the coming election between the All Progressives Congress (APC)

presidential candidate, Muhammadu Buhari, a northerner and the incumbent president, Goodluck Jonathan from the south-south goes, “it is certain that the country will erupt in crisis.”

“If the election favours Jonathan, the north will raise the issue of sentiment to foment trouble and if otherwise, the Niger Delta region would also react”, he said.

Like Mbaka and Gumi his submissions in spite of its merit have drawn public angst mostly from those who think that rather than being a solution the suggestion if heeded would cause chaos.

Kamoru Busari, one of those who reacted to his suggestions, said “Pastor Bakare should be real. What is needed now is for him to prove that he is actually a man of God by engaging in prayers and mobilising others too to pray to avert any catastrophe that may arise from the elections.

“If elections could be held in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Algeria to mention a few countries in a state of war, nothing should stop the elections from holding as planned. The handwriting is clear on the wall and the wish of the people of Nigeria for change will come to pass,” noting that he agrees with Bakare’s declaration of support for Buhari.

Going by the responses their messages elicited from the general public it is obvious that the clerics do not only command huge influence from the pulpit, but wield considerable political authority, are readily heard, obeyed and relied upon to provoke, evoke and manipulate the faithful to swim and sink with them in whatever political posturing they choose to adopt.

“

Pls See Vox Pop on Page 13

Going by the responses their messages elicited from the general public it seems obvious that the clerics do not only command huge influence from the pulpit but wield considerable political authority, are readily heard, obeyed and relied upon to provoke, evoke and manipulate the faithful to swim and sink with them in whatever political posturing they choose to adopt.

PEOPLES DAILY Weekend, saturday 10-sunday 11 January, 2015

Page 10

News

Truck drivers block Kaduna over Military oppression From Femi Kaduna

Oyelola,

S

ome parts of Kaduna metropolis were thrown into pandemonium and confusion Friday when Tipper and Tanker drivers

used their vehicles to block major entries in and out of the state capital from the Kawo axis to protest manhandling of a colleague by some military personnel.

Investigations by or reporter revealed that

trouble started in the afternoon when the soldiers at the check point under the Kawo bridge stopped a tanker driver on his way from Birnin Gwari - Lagos Expressway and one of them approached the driver

L-R: Gov. Sulivan Chime of Enugu State; Vice President Namadi Sambo; PDP National Chairman, Alh. Adamu Muazu and President Goodluck Jonathan, at the PDP presidential campaign, yesterday in Enugu . Photo: Joe Oroye

for the ‘how are you gift” and the driver obliged by offering N200 to them but they insisted on collecting N500 which he said he didn’t have.

His response provoked the soldiers’ anger who were said to have dragged him down and gave him the beating of his life leaving him with a fracture on the left hand.

His colleagues on seeing what befall him, decided to barricade the road with their vehicles and abandoning them there for hours causing long traffic hold up in the area.

The long traffic jam stretched to Rigachukun on Kaduna – Zaria Expressway and as far as Mando on the Kaduna - Birnin Gwari Expressway, thereby making commuters to become stranded.

An official of the Tipper Garage Kawo, who spoke on condition of anonymity,

said they took the decision to protest the injustice meted on their colleague which has become a daily occurrence.

Hoodlums took advantage of the situation t o ve nt t h e i r a ng e r b y destroying posters and banners of the Kaduna State Governor, Alhaji Mukhtar Ramalan Yero; President Goodluck Jonathan and Vice President Mohammed Namadi Sambo.

It took the intervention of the Air Officer Commanding, AOC and top military officers from 1 Division to pacify the aggrieved tanker drivers.

As at the time of filing this report, Military personnel were seen trying to control the traffic while passengers were seen stranded as some trek long distances to beat the gridlock.

The culprits were said to have been arrested and the injured driver is receiving treatment at undisclosed hospital.

90 years grandpa defiles 11-year pupil By Osaigbovo Iguobaro, Benin

A

90-year-old man, Osunde Andrew, accused of defiling an 11-year-old female pupil at 2nd East Circular road, Benin was among the 14 suspected rapists and defilers paraded at the weekend by the Edo State Command of the Nigerian Police.

Thirty-eight suspects were arrested for murder, cultism and cult-related killings during the festive period, accord-

ing to police authorities, while nine armed robbery suspects and16 suspected kidnappers as well as four arrested for unlawful possession of firearms.

19 vehicles, one AK 47 rifle, 15 locally-made pistols and seven live ammunition.

Others were 38 live cartridges, one toy pistol and “other exhibits’’ were among the items recovered from the suspects.

Meanwhile, the police also, paraded the suspected murderer

of a Nigerian Austria -based woman identified as Rose Aifuwa. The incident occurred on Christmas Day at Upper Mission in Benin City, the state Capital.

The accused lover, Festus Aimufua, according to the state Police Commissioner, Foluso Adebanjo, said the suspected murderer has admitted knocking down the late woman with his Honda Accord car marked UG 230 AAA. Foluso disclosed this to journalists at the

state headquarters that Aimufua at a news briefing where he also announced plans to charge the suspect to court upon the completion of police investigation.

The 41-year-old hubby, Aimufua while corroborating police evidence, noted that he was legally married to the victim who had three children for him.

He clarified that he was drunk when he crushed the woman to death.

“As I was about leav-

ing, I saw her in front of my vehicle but two other boys were dragging her off the vehicle. So, I was looking for a way to move. I thought I found a way; that was how I zoomed off.

“How could I have killed this woman; I love her. People have been trying all possible means to make me not to be going out with her; I still go there. How could I? I have never killed before. I did not know that she died,” he said.

Kwankwaso appoints acting Chief Judge for Kano

By Ahmed Abubakar

K

ano state governor, Rabi’u Musa Kwankwaso has appointed Justice Patricia Mahmoud as the Acting Chief Judge of the state. She replaces Justice Shehu Atiku who retired from judicial service.

Speaking during the occasion, Governor Kwankwaso explained that the appointment is in compliance with section 271 subsection 4 of the constitution, which states that the most senior judge

acts as Chief Judge pending the appointment of a substantive Chief Judge.

He commended the outgoing Chief Judge for his commitment to duty hoping that his successor will sustain the spirit. He then promised to continue to do more for the state judiciary in the interest of a more equitable society.

Kwankwaso spoke on some of the achievements recorded in the judicial sector under his administration which include construction of 30 Shari’a courts, 26 magistrate

courts, renovation of many other court complexes as well as upward review of salary of the judicial staff.

A statement signed by Halilu Ibrahim Dantiye, Director of Press and Public Relations to the Governor, said Kwankwaso expressed happiness for bringing to an end a situation where judicial officers in the state were performing their official duties from rented property when he took over the mantle of leadership in Kano in 2011.

The governor used the occasion, to appeal to the

Judicial Staff Union of Nigeria, (JUSUN), to resume work so that dispensation of justice can be facilitated.

Speaking earlier, the retiring Chief Judge of the state, Justice Shehu Atiku, described his successor as “incorruptible and hardworking,” adding that, “she can competently discharge the responsibilities placed before her.”

Patricia Mahmoud, an Idoma from Benue State, is an Honourable Judge of the Kano State High Court. She joined the state Ministry of Justice in

INEC To issue 2015 Voter Register Tuesday

By Ahmed Abubakar

T

he Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC), is to issue/ publish the Register of Voters to be used to conduct the 2015 General Elections on Tuesday, January 13th 2015.

This was contained in the INEC Bulletin released Friday stating that,

because it is a crucial milestone on the journey to the 2015 General Elections; Section 20 of the Electoral Act 2010 (as amended) provides that the Register of Voters for an election shall be published at least thirty (30) days before the elections.

The 2015 General Elections will take place on 14th and 28th February 2015.

Also, the Timetable And Schedule of Activities for the 2015 General Elections released to the public on 24th January 2014 shows under item 10 that the Commission shall release/publish the official Register of Voters for the election on 13thJanuary 2015.

By the same token, the Commission shall publish the list of nominated

candidates contesting for the Presidency and National Assembly on 13th January 2015. The list of those contesting for the offices of Governor and House of Assembly will be published on 27th January 2015.

In the meantime, provisional figures released by the Commission’s Voter Registry Department shows that as at 7th

1983 and rose to become a Director of the Drafting and Research department.

She was appointed to the bench in 1992. She is active in the Association of Women Judges both in Nigeria and internationally. She has been the Kano State Coordinator for Women in Nigeria (WIN), a feminist organization for years.

Justice Mahmoud is married to Mr A. B. Mahmoud, SAN, a onetime Solicitor General and Attorney General and Commissioner of Justice of Kano State.

January 2015, INEC had received a total of 54,341,610 Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs); it had distributed 38,774,219 nation-wide and had a balance of 15,567,219 which are yet to be collected.

The percentage of PVCs distributed nation-wide by the Commission as at 7thJanuary 2015 has attained 71.35%.

INEC commences voter card distribution in Borno * Issues 1.2m PVCS in Delta From Mustapha Isah Kwaru, Maiduguri & Osa Eresoyen, Asaba

T

he Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Friday said it will commence distribution of Permanent Voter Card (PVC) in Borno State from Saturday, January 10.

Prof Tukur Sa’ad, outgoing Borno INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner stated this while speaking with newsmen in Maiduguri.

Sa’ad said however that the exercise will be limited to Maiduguri and Jere Local Government Areas (LGA) due to the prevailing security hallenges in the state.

He said that INEC will also conduct Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) for individuals who had attained voting age during the period.

Sa’ad said that the two exercises will take place at ward levels as well as Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps in the areas. ``The issuance of PVC to registered voters and the CVR will take place in Maiduguri and Jere LGAs considered to be relatively safe now. The exercise will last for six days,’’ he said.

Sa’ad added: ``The PVC will be issued based on the temporary voters card issued at the nationwide voters registration in 2010. ``The CVR is for individuals who have attained voter age or those whose names were missing in the voters register’’.

Sa’ad said that INEC was making contact with security agents to extend the exercise to other LGAs like Biu and Shani that were relatively safe to ensure that no area was left out.

Meanwhile ahead of the February general elections, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has distributed 1,260,728 permanent voter cards (PVCs) representing 63.03% of the total figure distributed to eligible voters in Delta State.

Available records from the commission, ranked the state 6th in terms of number of registered voters and 19th on percentage distribution of PVC in the country while in the south-south it ranks 2nd after Rivers State.

According to the records made available to our correspondent, Lagos State has the highest figure of registeredvoters4,000,000(53.98% distributed), in Kano 3,198,859 (representing 83.63%), Kaduna (3,219,994 representing 82.10% distributed) Katsina 2,379,766 (representing 82.61% distributed), Rivers 1,956,983 (representing 64.02 distributed) with Bayelsa having the least registered voters of 465,902 (with 79.40% distributed).

President Goodluck Jonathan had on Wednesday given INEC a marching order to issue all registered voters their permanent cards before election of February 14, 2015 But investigations revealed that the order may have fallen on deaf ears as INEC officials in Delta State have allegedly been involved in hideand-seek games, thereby denying eligible Deltans of their permanent voter cards.

PEOPLES DAILY Weekend, saturday 10-sunday 11 January, 2015

Christian youth leader cautions desperate politicians Gambo Ahmed, Lafia

T

he Youth Wing of the Christian Association of Nigeria, YOWICAN has berated politicians involved in do-or-die politics, threatening to dissociate itself from any politician or group whose utterances were capable of creating disunity in the country.

Interim national President of the association, Mr. Dan Kadzai in a press statement issued to newsmen in Lafia, called on politicians to put the interest of the country above personal considerations.

He lamented the manner in which some politicians vying for elective positions have resorted to character assassination and campaigns of calumny against each other, observing that such tendencies could turn the country into a more chaotic state hence they must realise that the corporate existence of Nigeria was not negotiable.

According to him, “as Christians, we appreciate God for making this country a multi-ethnic and multireligious one and we cannot afford to undermine this fact on the basis of desperation by selfish politicians who are not God-fearing.” He noted.

Kadzai restated the resolve of YOWICAN under his leadership to remain in constant prayers for peace to rein supreme in the country especially during the February General Elections, calling on youths not to allow themselves to be used as agents of destruction by selfish politicians that are out to cause more harm than good.

He explained that the measure was in line with the teachings of the Holy Bible which encourages love and forgiveness for one another, maintaining that the youths would continue to pray for the emergence of good leaders that will take the issues of job creation and general wellbeing of the citizenry with utmost priority.

Kadzai further said: “Hunger is not a respecter of any ethnic or religious group neither do bullet or bomb chose between followers of a particular religion; that is why we must come together and work collectively for the peace and unity of this country for the benefit of all of us.”

Page 11

News

Employment scam: youths call for probe From Femi Kaduna

Oyelola,

S

ome youths who said they are victims of employment scam perpetrated by one ‘General’ Oloba Gbenga the Commander- General of Rescue And Guard Initiative (RAGRI) have called on the government to probe the scam which they described as a plot to take advantage of the unemployed Nigerians.

The leader of the group, Tope Emmanuel, who spoke on behalf of the youths said the scam is nothing but extortion from innocent Nigerians who paid money ranging from twenty to fifty thousand naira as application and processing fees application into the RAGRI.

According to Tope, it was discovered that over N176, 520, 000 has been collected from unemployed youths, for job that is not there.

“From our records, Abia State tops the list with N92,000,000; Lagos State with N6,300,000; Kaduna State N3,700,000; Enugu, 2,300,000; Ondo N510,000 and the balance scattered among 10 other states,” he said.

Tope, who said he was the National Director for Training as well as Kaduna state Commander of the Initiative, said he chose to raise the alarm after an incident that involved some youths who are presumed to be on training and will get automatic employment after their training.

“Some of our boys who went out on patrol during the Christmas with our uniform, which is green in colour and were apprehended by the military for using their colour and I went to the 1 Mechanized Division headquarters to show that we are genuinely registered with a copy of Certificate of Incorporation with reference number CAC/IT/No 53661 and General Oloba Gbenga was one of the Board of Trustees.

“After investigation, we were told that there is no name like General Oloba Gbenga in the Nigeria Army, were only allowed to leave after seizing our uniforms and warning us not to continue wearing any military uniform for our own good,” he said.

Tope added that after the incident, they made efforts to inform ‘General’ Oloba of the recent development, but he declined all calls to his phone line, as if he had got hint of the development.

Tope further disclosed that, many of the youths joined the security outfit because ‘General’ Oloba informed them that the Federal Government had concluded arrangements to take over the organization inculcating them in the salary structure of the Federal Government, a promise that was later discovered to be false.

“Why I want the government and security agents to step in and probe the organization, is to stop

the youths from taking laws into their hands, as many of them threatened to move down to the headquarters of the organization located at the City of Rehoboth Avenue, opposite Labour House, Kuje Road Gwagwalada, Abuja.”

Tope also disclosed that the youths received a text message calling on them to send the sum of ten thousand Naira each to the organization for new uniform.

“Why are they calling on us to pay for uniform which they promised to provide. This is nothing but fraud and cheating the unemployed youth we call on the federal government to probe this organization to save innocents people from falling prey” He said

Police Rescue Centenarian, Pastor from Kidnappers

By Osa Eresoyen, Asaba

T

he Police in Umeh Community, Isoko – South Local Government Area of Delta State, have rescued a centenarian mother, pastor and two girls from the hands of suspected kidnappers who stormed the community last Tuesday.

Reports said that the hoodlums in their numbers and heavily armed, came in a Toyota car with registration number AA196XX and after shooting sporadically into the

air, whisked the old woman to an unknown destination, thereby throwing the entire community into a sad mood It was reliably gathered that while the hoodlums were driving out of the community they saw a man and two girls by the road whom they took along, but unfortunately for them some youths in the community immediately mobilized themselves in collaboration with the local vigilante to support the police who had acted on a tip off of the incident to ambush the kidnap suspects.

We inherited less than 100km roads -Yobe works commissioner From Uche Uche, Damaturu

S

ince the inception of the Gaidam-led administration in Yobe State, the government has been according priority attention to road construction as a measure geared towards economic integration and development.

State commissioner of works, Alhaji Lawan Shettima Ali said this, adding that these roads were intended to link the rural communities with the urban centres thereby promoting the movement of people and commodities.

Consequently the state government is constructing a total of 911.9 kilometre of intra and inters town road networks with full asphalt overly and 143.6 kilometres of drainages which has evidently reduced the perennial flooding in various parts of the towns during rainy seasons.

He disclosed this while briefing newsmen in his office on the achievements of the ministry for the year ended, 2014, pointing out that the present administration inherited less than 100 kilometres of tarred roads and only 16 kilometres of state roads which were all in a dilapidated condition.

He said the state government decided to

intervene in these roads because of the dangers they pose due to their level of dilapidation and so reconstructed them in order to reduce the suffering of the people who are the main users of these roads.

He added that the township roads in the major towns in the state have been provided with 2,846 poles of solar powered street lights covering a distance of 71.2 kilometres at the cost of N2.95 billion.

On rural transformation programme of the government, the commissioner said the state government, with its transformation agenda, conceived and made it practical the construction of the Transsahara route spanning from Kanamma, being the phase 1 to Kafiya, a distance of 55 kilometres which is on-going and the second phase from Kafiya to Yunusari, a distance of 20 kilometres is also under construction.

He said the third phase from Yunusari to Yusufari, a distance of 50 kilometres has been awarded with work progressing, pointing out that the concept of the project is to open up the desert prone areas of the state for socio-economic development which hitherto has been seriously neglected and underdeveloped.

Their efforts it was further gathered, paid off when the old woman was rescued unhurt and two of the suspects arrested on the spot after a long gun battle with the police.

Elders of the community had last Monday placed a curse on the suspects, invoking the spirit of their ancestors to punish whoever plans kidnapping or to adopt any old person in the community.

DSP Celestina Kalu, the Police Public Relations Officer in the state who confirmed the arrest of the suspects

and the rescue of the victims, disclosed that based on the reports of the abduction of the old woman, police detectives in collaboration with local vigilante of the community chased the suspects to their hideout and arrested three of them after a long gun battle.

Kalu said the victims had since been reunited with members of their families while efforts were being made by the police to step up the arrest of others linked to the kidnap including those on the run.

PAGE 12

PEOPLES DAILY Weekend, saturday 10-sunday 11 January, 2015

PEOPLES DAILY Weekend, saturday 10-sunday 11 January, 2015

PAGE13

Vox Pop

Mrs. Ruqaiyya Abubakar Mallam Abdulrazaq Abdullahi Mr Ogbonna E. Ndukwe (Assistant Imam of a Mosque in Abuja)

F

N choice.

o. This is because religion is different from politics. It is the person you like that you will vote for. For me I will vote according to my own

irst and foremost, we need peace in this country. For instance, insecurity is increasing. So, that is why we are praying that God should help us get a good government that will be just to all Nigerians.

If the present government is the best for Nigeria, then may God help us, and if changing it will be a blessing for Nigerians, may God help us. Our prayer is that God should give us peace. It is peace that will bring progress. So, to some extent, clerics cannot influence voters’ choice.

You see, when a cleric gives admonition, most people would understand. This is because they know that the cleric would not tell them to follow the bad way. But a cleric should not say vote for this or that person. We

Pastor Oyinola Adewale

I

t is possible for either a pastor or an imam to influence the electorate to vote against their choice which is not good.

This is because they say democracy is government of the people, by the people and for the people. And when you are going to vote, you are expected to vote for the person of your choice after you must have looked at their manifesto, their party and then which one do you think will make the country better and give us the best things of life. You know in Nigeria what we need is the basic things of life. If we have a leader that can give us this, Nigeria will better. It is possible for clerics to influence his congregation based on his own choice, he may not even say it directly, but the body language and the way he presents them when he is talking can make members of his church or mosque to change their choice. But generally speaking it is not the best. We are expected to vote for candidates of our choice that have the best programmes for us. So, it is possible, but like I said it is not the best.

Mr. Mustapher Olalekan Yusuf

N

o. the reason is that we want to turn our politics into a religious affair.

For example, if a Muslim becomes the president, we believe that his vice must be a Christian. No pastor or imam can make me vote for somebody that I do not like because I can decide for myself, I know my problems and I know what is right or wrong with this country. An imam or a pastor may be paid

to confuse his people.

Again, when he collects the money, it is only him that would enjoy it. Even employment would not be given to the ordinary people. As for me, nobody can convince me, even my parents would find it difficult to change my choice. Once you attain 18 years, you can decide whom to vote for. So, you are supposed to know right from wrong.

C

is to tell them to vote for the right people. That is their job. They cannot say this is your choice or my choice and you must vote for this and that, just vote for the right people

T

hey have their own role to play. They can influence the public. But for me I know whom to vote for. Some religious leaders are campaigning for candidates that they like. Like I said earlier, I know whom to vote for. Clerics cannot influence me.

Mallam Sani Dansidi Sokoto

I

t is not good to join politics with religion. I am of the opinion that people should go out and vote according to their choice. So, if we feel that a cleric is sincere, we will follow him, but if his candidate does not have a good record, we will not vote for him or her. You see Nigerian Muslims have no right to say Nigerian Christians should leave this country, so also Nigerian Christians have no right to say Nigerian Muslims should leave the country or t receive injustice.

Anybody with this kind of thinking, we are not with him. So, we all own this country. For me, I will vote for anybody who has good records and is concerned about developing social and infrastructural facilities for the masses.

Mrs. Adebayo Nafisat

Y

es, this is because some people would say this person is a Muslim or Christian, and since they are not of the same faith with us, we would not vote for them. But for me I will vote according to my choice.

Somebody cannot just come and influence me like that.

So I will vote for somebody that the people like because of his or her good records.

Mr. Frank Okoye

Mr. Friday Asicha

Mr. Adebayo Oduwa

lerics cannot influence voter’s choice.

This is because their job is to preach the word of God to their congregation. The only thing the cleric can do

should just pray to God that the person to be voted for is the one that will be a source of blessing for all of us. So, all we are praying for is that God should give us the person that will give us peace irrespective of your background.

N

o, clerics cannot influence voters’ choice.

This is because there are good pastors that would tell you to vote for candidates of your

choice in order to make Nigeria great. For some pastors, if their brothers, friends or acquaintances are coming out for elective positions, they would ask their congregation to vote for that person, even if he or she is not good, likewise imams. Nobody can influence me to vote for someone that I do not trust. I will vote based on the good record of that person. I don’t like to vote based on political party, but on the credibility of a candidate.

I

n Nigeria, people consider the utterances of their pastor or imam as the word of God. Often clerics would say this person will win so their members vote for that particular person. Most Nigerians don’t have a mind of their own when it comes to religion.

I am a scientist and I don’t do things based on what my pastor says. I have a mind of my own. I know what I want and I do what I want as far as it is within the ambit of the law.

PAGE 14

PEOPLES DAILY Weekend, saturday 10-sunday 11 January, 2015

Crime Cycle

Stanley Onyekwere pmlcrimecycle@gmail.com 08138559513

Police advise worship centres to acquire metal detectors

T

he Taraba Police Command has advised Mosques and Churches in the state to acquire hand metal detectors in order to beef up security around them.

ASP Joseph Kwaji, spokesman of the command,

gave the advice during an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Jalingo, recently.

Kwaji said the devise would enable officials of the worship centres to thoroughly search worshipers before allowing

them entry.

He said the advice became necessary in view of the security situation in the NorthEast.

He also advised individuals who were planning to organise social gatherings to acquire

the facility and use same to prevent possible attack by terrorists.

The police spokesman also urged people in the state to be vigilant and to report any suspicious persons to the police for prompt action.

How FRSC jailed 5, arraigned 2,000 traffic offenders during Yuletide - Corps Marshal

Corps Marshal of FRSC, Mr. Boboye Oyeyemi

T

he Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) mobile court had jailed five motorists for violating traffic rules, while 2,000 others were arraigned before the court set up to prosecute traffic offenders nationwide, during the Christmas celebration, the Corps

Marshal, Mr. Boboye Oyeyemi, has revealed.

Oyeyemi said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), after the end of the yuletide break, in Onitsha, Anambra state.

He spoke after inspecting

Personal Security Tips:

7 ways to secure yourself from purse snatching

P

urse snatching is a crime that can be prevented when you take away the opportunity from a thief. As with most thieves

and criminals, they do not want to be caught – so they tend to look for the easiest targets that they can steal from. Many purse snatchers

traffic flow between both ends of the Niger Bridge between Onitsha in Anambra and Asaba in Delta. ``As at December, about 2,000 offenders were arraigned before mobile courts and I think about five were jailed and only about 15 were discharged. ``But all others were given fines ranging from N1,000 to N10,000; the states judiciaries must be commended, we have mobile courts in all the states now, and throughout the yuletide period we deployed them.

“And I witnessed most of the prosecution and conviction and that is the focus this year (2015). ``More mobile courts will be set up; but we are not after fines; we are after changing the driving habits, deterrence. ``So if people now prefer going to courts; then no problems, we are going to do more of prosecution of road traffic offenders in 2015,” he explained.

The corps marshal said that the offences of traffic offenders ranged from land violation, overspeeding, overloading of passengers, violation of seat belt use, violation of children safety to lack of passengers’ manifest in

the vehicle.

He said 14 per cent reduction in road crashes was recorded within the 2014 yuletide period as a result of improved planning and greater service delivery on the part of the corps special and regular marshals. ``We must thank our stakeholders, collaborators, sister security agencies and various state governments for assisting us to make this reduction possible. ``The Federal Government and our supervising ministry, the ministry of work, had contributed greatly by ensuring that almost all the roads in the country are in good condition while those under construction or re-construction had been made motorable during this yuletide season. ``For the logistics we got from the World Bank, which we deployed very effectively, we thank the World Bank for a wonderful and far-reaching assistance,” he added.

are juveniles under the age of 18, who are waiting for the next easy opportunity. When you hide the “prize” you make yourself a harder target.

When it comes to protecting yourself from having your purse snatched, these few simple tips should help considerably.

• Keep the bag close to your body.

• Do not hang the bag on the same shoulder as the purse.

• Do not wrap it around your wrist. Your wrist is still weak enough that it may be tempting to a snatcher, If your purse is snatched while around your wrist, you might be injured. Some victims have been thrown down as well as have gotten concussions and broken bones.

• Try not to carry around things beyond what you can manage to lose. Even with the best precautions, if you encounter a thief who is willing to injure you – you should always be prepared to let the bag go if necessary. For example, leave unused charge cards at home.

• Never leave your purse on a store counter or in a grocery

shopping cart unattended.

Even for a moment.

• Shop with a friend. A general rule for safety in any other context when going out applies here as well. you’re always safer when in the company of someone else, man or woman.

• If you must be out at night alone, stay in well-lighted areas.

Walk close to street lights, stay away from dark corners, alleys and building entrances.

Culled from www. crimepreventiontips.org

Culled from www. crimepreventiontips.org

Police IG, Suleiman Abba

NPS restates commitment to safety, reformation of prisoners

T

he Lagos State Command of the Nigeria Prisons Service (NIPS) has restated its commitment to safe custody and reformation of prisoners in its prisons.

The command’s Public Relations Officer, Biyi Jeje, made the assertion in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos.

Jeje said it was the responsibility of the command to keep safe custody of convicts and suspects awaiting trial sent to its prisons by the law courts with relevant warrants.

He added that it was also its duty to reform such persons for reintegration into the society. ``We have ensured a good prison environment in all the prisons in Lagos State -- Ikoyi, Badagry, Maximum, Medium and Minimum all in Kirikiri Town -- to carry out such responsibility. ``We have various reformation programmes for the inmates at our skills acquisition centres located in the prisons where they learn trades like tailoring, crafts and shoemaking. ``We have our educational programmes too where the inmates study and sit for GCE and WAEC in a centre at the Ikoyi Prison, NECO in Maximum and JAMB in Ikoyi. ``Those who intend to further their education are given the opportunity to do so because we collaborate with the National Open University (NOUN), which created a study centre in Ikoyi,’’ Jeje said.

The spokesman explained that the service also sponsors the education of the inmates, adding that non-governmental organisations, churches and philanthropists had also assisted in paying for the costs of their studies.

Crime quotes: What a position of transcendent horror must that be, where the perpetrator of a great crime, till then a stranger to positive guilt, finds himself suddenly cut off, and forever, from all human sympathy, isolated from hope, the tenant of a solitary cell, and with a wide, impassable gulf yawning

between him and that great brotherhood of which he has ceased to be a part--no longer regarded as a man, but as a monster in the shape of one, from whom Mercy herself turns away, and for whom Pity even has no tears!

-Christian Nestell Bovee, Intuitions and Summaries of Thought

PEOPLES DAILY Weekend, saturday 10-sunday 11 January, 2015

PAGE 15

Politics

Why an indigene should represent Jos North/Bassa Federal Constituency-Musa

Alh. Sale Bayeri Alh. Sale Bayeri, former National Secretary of Miyatti Allah Cattle Breeders Association (MACBA), is the Democratic Peoples Party (DPP) candidate for Jos North/Bassa federal constituency of Plateau State. In an interview with some journalists in Jos, he explained what people should expect from him if elected to represent the constituency. Our correspondent, Ado Abubakar Musa was there.

W

hy are you vying for the Jos North/Bassa constituency

federal election?

Well, I am part and parcel of Jos North/ Bassa constituency and therefore very familiar with the needs of the constituency. Besides, I am from Bassa Local Government Area of Plateau State and one who is very close to the people of Jos North. I have lived there and the Jos people are my in- laws since I married one of their daughters.

Now, looking at the political scenario in Jos North and Bassa, I just felt that for Jos to have had this position for the past 12 years and considering the fact that we all belong to this constituency, Bassa people felt for there to be a sense of belonging they should also

represent the constituency at the House of Representatives.

And if Jos can adopt a candidate from Quanpan LGC, who won election for councillorship, and could even have won up to presidency if he had so wished, then I think it would make sense and even easier an indigene to be considered for. So, in the interest of equity and justice, we are pleading that the baton should be given to someone from Bassa LGA to continue the race.

What should the people of your constituency expect from you if elected?

I have been a politician for 30 years now. I am very conversant of the problems and expectations of the people of my constituency. It is the most populated constituency in the entire Plateau State and is indeed part of the

state capital. And as far as I can see, the constituency is owed reparation, a lot of compensation and restitution in the sense that though it is the biggest constituency but it has been neglected in terms of social amenities and infrastructure compared to other constituencies with less population.

The allocation from the Plateau State government sunk into projects in Barikin Ladi-Riyom and Jos East - Jos South federal constituencies surely tripled or even quadrupled what was allocated for projects in Jos North/Bassa constituency.

No, we don’t really envy them but as a father, you are expected to be fair and just to your children. However, if you are found not to be have been fair nor have no sense of equity and justice, surely as the family head you would no longer be trusted.

So one of my assignments, if elected will be to ask the state government to do what is right. To give this constituency what is due to it based on its population because whatever allocation from the federation account the bulk of it is based on population.

I will find out what has accrued to Plateau State since 1999 till date based on the population of my constituency, what should ideally accrue to us based on our population. Should there be shortfall, I will call the attention of the federal government to this injustice and demand its intervention to ensure that justice is done.

So, it is the responsibility of the member of the national parliament to ensure that people are protected and the constitution is upheld.

If at the end of the day the constitution is being trampled upon leading to any section of this country being cheated it is the responsibility of the lawmaker who has the

“

mandate of his constituents to ask questions, complain about what is happening in his constituency and insist that the breach be corrected.

I want to believe that our constitution does not allow any group of persons to be deprived of social amenities based on their sociocultural or ethno-religious differences. However, I am aware that a lot have gone wrong in this constituency.

What the constituency deserves has not been given to it. And whenever one considers why some things are happening, there is a certain feeling of neglect. One cannot ignore the evidence of neglect, some sectional biases based on ethnicity and other primordial interests. These should not dictate how people of state or constituency should be treated.

Therefore, when I am eventually elected, I will ensure justice and equity in the distribution of the national cake in Plateau State, so that my constituents would also enjoy the dividends of democracy like those of other constituencies across the country.

A member of the APC is the incumbent representative of your constituency, how do you intend to defeat him?

Well, the good thing is that I am contesting under the platform of the Democratic Peoples Party, the same party that produced the person who is there now. So as far as incumbency is concerned it is the DPP that is the incumbent and that is a plus for me, it makes my campaign easier for me. Therefore, the symbol, and slogan of the party are familiar to the people of the constituency.

However, there is a precedence in this constituency.

From the beginning of this democratic dispensation no candidate has ever been elected twice. That

is even for those who are part and parcel of the constituency and who have no other constituency to go to contest even for councillorship, not to talk of a candidate that has been brought just to show that everybody can be accommodated and given a sense of belonging.

So, if those who are part of the constituency are not given the opportunity to contest twice, I do not see the sense in giving someone from another constituency an endorsement twice. I cannot see the moral in altering prevailing standard just to please an individual who is from our constituency.

So what I am saying now is that Suleiman Kwande, who is currently representing the constituency, has been accommodated and treated very well. The only thing that he will do to show us that he is an ingrate is for him to tell us that he would continue to be our master and turn us to his slaves. One would expect that he would thank us for giving him the opportunity to serve this constituency. So incumbency is not the issue here. It is now left for the constituents to decide whether the issue of incumbency is the most significant thing in this contest.

As elections draw nearer, what message do you have for the people of your constituency?

Well, my call to my constituents is a reminder that since 1999 till date there has never been any (Tazarce) in Jos North/ Bassa constituency. And for a person to come and say he is going back, that person is insulting our sensibility.

However, I am calling on the people of my constituency to come out and rally support for their son who would give them true representation to ensure that what is due to them is given to them.

So, as far as incumbency is concerned, it is the DPP that is the incumbent and that is a plus for me, it makes my campaign easier for me. Therefore, the symbol, and slogan of the party are familiar to the people of the constituency.

PEOPLES DAILY Weekend, saturday 10-sunday 11 January, 2015

Page 16

Politics

Will defection translates to electoral capital?

Tambuwal

By Patrick Andrew

D

efection from one political party at short notice has suddenly become a phenomenon in Nigerian politics.

Though crossing carpeting as a political weapon is nothing new having been deployed during the pre-independence struggle when Dr Anamdi Azikiwe lost out in the quest to lead the Western Region and then in revenge went to the Eastern Region and dislodged Prof.

Eyo Ita, the Calabar man, who was poised to become the first Premier of Eastern region, using the instrumentality of cross-carpeting.

Clearly, defections in these instances had nothing to do with ideology, but more with regional security.

Nonetheless, the founding fathers of Nigerian politics, Sir Ahmadu Bello, Chief Nnamdi Azikiwe and Chief Obafemi Awolowo, all of blessed memory, were guided by ideologies, men whose words were their bond.

They were guided by the desire to develop their region and eventually the nation at large.

Now, roll the tape forward to few months to the 2015 general elections in Nigeria and what has emerged is a miasma of misguided and self-centred defections purportedly done in the interest of the people, but definitely without the faintest hint of the people, they purportedly represent.

The sea of defections started flooding about a year to the general elections. First, Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau, current Minister

Amaechi

Shekarau

Maku

A politician does not become a saint over night by switching camp but the records he has set in the past will surely speak volumes for him. Any politician, to say the least, who shuffles and doubles between two political parties is not the expected messiah that will revolutionize our battered polity. But he is rather a desperate political desperado looking for an available platform to loot our national coffers all the more.

of Education, dumped the All Progressives Congress for the Peoples Democratic Party and was joined the next day by a former Sokoto State governor, Alhaji Attahiru Bafarawa.

Neither had any ideological reason for decamping from the just incubating APC to the ruling PDP. If anything, both were uncomfortable with the coming of Govs Rabi’u Musa Kwankwaso and Aliyu Wamakko to the APC. The governors would ‘naturally’ dim their shine by taking over the reign of command of the party.

Ali Modu Sheriff, who had won election three times under the platform of the ANPP, equally defected from the APC to the PDP. Inuwa Bwala, stated this as the reason for

True, former Ibrahim Shekarau has influence, is to some extent hero-worshiped in kano, but will that alter the harden perception of the average Kano electorate who dreams of nothing but Buhari and thus lend a hand of support to the minister so he could glean votes for the PDP? That of course remains to be seen and in a matter of weeks the bare truth in this regard will become obvious to all.

—Lucky Alade

his boss’ decamping, “Our interest should be on what makes the nation move forward. My decisions will be guided by the interest of the nation first. My thinking of moving to the PDP is also in the interest of the nation.”

There was nothing about ideology, principle, solid orientation and concrete reasons for opting for a different party other than to achieve some obscure ambition or relevance.

Prince Olagunsoye Oyinola, allegedly Obasanjo’s protégé, who contested and won the 2007 Osun State governorship, suddenly realised that the PDP was a roguish party only after he lost out in the quest to be its national secretary.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission’s ex-chairman and presidential candidate of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria, Nuhu Ribadu, dumped the APC to PDP all to fulfil the desire of becoming the governor of Adamawa State.

Former governor of Anambra State, Peter Obi, resigned his position as the chairman, Board of Trustees of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) after enjoying two terms as governor and defected to the PDP. As if on cue, Ondo State Governor, Olusegun Mimiko, abandoned the Labour Party to pitch tent with the PDP, despite his public views against the party’s lack of internal democracy.

Before the crises that had rocked the PDP early 2013 culminated in the defection of five

Akala governors: Chibuike Amaechi (Rivers), Alhaji Ahmed Abdulfatah (Kwara), Dr. Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso (Kano), Alhaji Murtala Nyako (Adamawa), and Alhaji Aliyu Wamakko (Sokoto) to the newly formed APC. Two other governors — Dr. Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu (Niger) and Alhaji Sule Lamido (Jigawa) — declined to move with their colleagues to the opposition party as they reaffirmed their loyalty and membership of the PDP. The news of the defection of the governors, who together with other PDP bigwigs had walked out of the party’s special national convention in Abuja on August 31 to form the nPDP, came as no shock to the watching public.

After months of speculation and denial, speaker of House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal, finally dumped the PDP for the APC and then tongues began wagging that he would throw his hat into the ring for the presidential race. Before then, he had openly attended several meetings of the opposition in Sokoto and elsewhere.

Now, roll the tape even further the days of the primaries, which heralded a festive season of defections.

Contd on Pg 17

PEOPLES DAILY Weekend, saturday 10-sunday 11 January, 2015

Page 17

Politics

Will defection translates to electoral capital?

Contd from Pg 16 Several PDP and APC gubernatorial, senatorial and House of Representatives aspirants jumped ship soon after the conduct of the primaries; some in protest against imposition of candidates and others to realise personal ambitions. For the PDP, the aspirants included the former Secretary to Akwa Ibom State Government (SSG), Umana Okon Umana; former governor of Oyo State, Christopher AlaoAkala, former Minister of State for Trade and Investment, Dr. Sam Ortom, and former Managing Director of Diamond Bank, Alex Oti, Labaran Maku, former Minister of Information, among others.

The opposition parties acted fast and amended their constitutions to allow new entrants qualify to contest for the primaries, just to profit from the PDP’s misfortune.

Alao-Akala, Ortom moved to Labour Party, Umana joined the APC, Seye Makinde enlisted in the SDP, Oti pitched tent with APGA as did Maku all as gubernatorial candidates of their new parties.

Several senatorial and House of Representatives aspirants followed suit and were able to get tickets from hitherto small parties or opposition parties.

Some have argued that defections soon after the primaries were borne out of the selfish ambitions of certain persons to realise their political ambitions and therefore has nothing to do with ideology nor the thinking of the people whose interest they purportedly claim to represent.

Others are of the view that it denies the elelctorate of robust democracy since the defections were largely derived from the quest to satisfy one’s whims and therefore demonstrated their lack of patience to imbibe and grow democratic principles in themselves and their respective parties.

Like one commentor said, the “truth is that these series of defections do not only make a mockery of the nation’s democratic evolution; in a very pathetic sense, they also degrade and humiliate the political class in the eyes of a civilized society.” One hardly differs in thought with this conclusion.

However, do these defections amount to electoral capital to the parties the defectors moved to? In some instances that would prove to be the case. Dr. Chris Ngige, a senator and former Anambra State governor believes that dumping the PDP to the APC makes them true democrats and reshapes the complexion of political parties in Nigeria. It ended the drift to oneparty state that Nigeria seems to be heading prior to the emergence of a credible opposition.

Going by the new identity that the APC seems to have leading to considerable followership in the South West, South South and some presence in the South East, one easily accedes to Amaechi’s assertion that the dominance of the PDP in the South South geo-political divide has been diminished but whether that will translate to electoral capital for the APC is a different ball game.

Similarly, Akala’ sudden entry into the Labour Party in Oyo gave a fresh perspective to the party in view of the former governor’s clout and followership in the state. Add Makinde’s defection to the SDP and the mix is complete because it would make prediction of the likely winner of the February 28 gubernatorial race in the state too close to call, that is if the huge attendance at rallies is the measuring yardstick to consider.

Now, turn to Sokoto where the Speaker of the House of Representatives has found solace in the APC. Aminu Waziri Tambuwal surely profits from the huge influence of Governor Wamakko.

His personality and pedigree as

Speaker who stood up against the ruling party even while still being a member must engender reasonable followership and thus no mean plus to the APC to the detriment of the PDP bigwigs in the state and in fact not just to threaten but dim the shine in former Governor Attahiru Bafarawa and ex-minister Muktar Shehu Shagari.

But the gains brought about by defection does have equal application as is the case in Akwa Ibom, largely mono-party enclave where Umana Umana thinks he has enough clout to jolt the PDP. Perhaps, the reaction of strong APC leaders in the state to his imposition on them captures it all. “Isn’t it a betrayal of weakness of the party in the state if a former opposition is handed the governorship ticket barely 48 hours after he defected from the ruling party? It makes mockery of our claims of being different from the PDP in structure, complexion and objectives. It seems grabbing power at all cost is the in-thing here and nothing to do with ideology or the people,” says a stalwart of the APC in the state.

Nonetheless, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari’s presence in the vanguard of the APC gives the party a refreshing shape, fresh breathe, measure of integrity and considerable clout which some have clung to for the expected electoral capital and thus ultimately makes the merger of the previously rancorous small parties a real threat to the self-acclaimed biggest political party in Africa, the PDP. Amaechi superintends over two million votes in River State, probably the reason the APC sought him out and ensured that in spite of failing to secure the vice presidential slot he remains highly visible and relevant in the party’s programmes.

Two million votes is no joke, it could be a game changer and that number is no pittance especially where the

majority vote is the determinant factor in the race to seal a spot. But does his shift of loyalty from the PDP to the APC guarantees the latter the two million votes? Well, February 14 avails Amaechi ample opportunity to test his popularity and therefore influence in the consciousness of the River electorate.

But does Ali Modu Sheriff have enough electoral bullets to squeeze vote from the flinty rocks of the North east states for the PDP? How much electoral capital will Mallam el-Rufa’i generate for the APC in Kaduna? True, former Ibrahim Shekarau has influence, is to some extent hero-worshiped in Kano, but will that alter the harden perception of the average Kano electorate who dreams of nothing but Buhari and thus lends a hand of support to the minister so he could glean a few votes for the PDP? That of course remains to be seen and in a matter of weeks the bare truth in this regard will become obvious to all.

So, while cross carpeting is neither a new dictum in Nigeria’s political textbook nor ideological theory per se, in the context and regularity that it has occurred in the present political dispensation, it seems a rather peevish and foolhardy endeavour barely months to a crucial election. It definitely

“

suggests that politicians think less of ideology, conscience, morality, and principle in their quest to attain vested interests, and these attributes no longer play any significant role in their political equation.

In this regard, even to the casual observer of the political scene, it needs no reminder that the rate of defections from one to another political party is alarming. And it cuts across divides and faiths and clearly adduces the lack of ideology in their defections but more of selfish inclination to attain ingrained personal ambition. This ambition often leaves out the electorate in whatever equation, except where they are used as scaffold to mount the political podium.

Nonetheless, defection has opened some nut for the electorate to crack. They now have varieties to choose from and should be mindful of persons notorious for prostituting from one party to another in the guise of pursuing the corporate interest of their community or people. They should be wiser now. Their vote being their power becomes a weapon to discriminate and elect those in their consciences and convictions they believe have the will power and honesty of purpose to impact on their lives.

Two million votes is no joke, it could be a game changer and that number is no pittance especially where the majority vote is the determinant factor in the race to seal a spot. But does his shift of loyalty from the PDP to the APC guarantees latter the 2 million votes?

Well, February 14 avails Amaechi ample opportunity to test his popularity and therefore influence in the consciousness of the River electorate.

Chieftains insist on changing Ortom’s deputy PDP warns Magaji against parading self as candidate From Uche Nnorom, Makurdi

S

takeholders and chieftains of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Benue South senatorial district have threatened to boycott the forthcoming governorship election if the party leadership fails to drop Engr.

Benson Abounu as Dr. Samuel Ortom’s deputy.

The threat is coming barely a week after some youths from the zone held a protest in Makurdi demanding for the correction of the ‘misnomer ‘ in the selection of Ortom’s running mate.

The expanded stakeholders meeting which was held in Otukpo yesterday, and attended by the nine local government chairmen of the party, frowned at the adamant refusal of the APC hierarchy in the state to enegage in wider consultation before choosing the deputy for Ortom.

They said the leadership should have consulted with the zone C leadership to produce credible persons for selection to be the

running mate of the former minister of state, Trade, Industries and Investment.

Chairman, Elders’ Forum of APC in Idoma land, Alhaji Isah Usman alleged that the party is plagued with individualistic problem, adding that until this is addressed, it may not make any impact in the state.

He accused the leadership of the party of betrayal and maintained that only through collective support can the party survive. He recalled that under the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria, the party thrived well in the zone because the leadership worked with the people.

The chieftains accused Chief Audu Ogbe, a national leader of the APC, of sideling them even as they urged the Senate Minority Leader, Sen. George Akume, to consult widely with the leadership of the party in the area to ensure that the right candidate is chosen as a running mate to Ortom. “ We want to laud Amb Dickson Akor for his efforts in ensuring that members of the party are carried

along. We have suffered enough underdevelopment and are saying that if Abounu is not change, then the only option is to vote for Buhari for the president and fold our hands during the governorship elections”, Usman said.

Ortom

From Yakubu Mustapha, Minna

T

he Acting Chairman of Niger State Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Hon. Umar Musa Ma’ali, has cautioned Usman Magaji from parading himself as the PDP standard bearer for Lapai state constituency in the just concluded primaries for the State House of Assembly.

In a statement yesterday, Magaji said the incumbent contested the primary but was defeated by Hajiya Hannatu Jibrin Salihu with 31 votes against his 29 votes in a process that was monitored by observers outside Niger State.

Ma’ali dismissed Magaji’s claims at an NTA programme yesterday and warned that he could face stiff penalties if he fails to desist subsequently.

Further, he lampooned Hon. Jacob Gana, member of the State House of Assembly who he accused of claiming to have won

the primary election for Lavun despite losing to Sule A. Yakubu.

“The action of the party members and their helpers is condemnable and anti-party since it is capable of unsettling the peaceful relationship that has existed in the ranks of party members in the state.

“Niger State PDP will not hesitate to deal with any member found disregarding laid down party rules or decisions. We are democrats, and that is why we were concerned over the action of Magaji who after losing primaries to Hanatu is now parading himself as the party candidate.

“We have had one of the most successful primaries in the country and we hope to keep the record that way. Niger PDP is lucky to have people with proven integrity, tested political sagacity, hence I am optimistic that those presently parading themselves as our candidates will listen to the voice of reason.”

PEOPLES DAILY Weekend, saturday 10-sunday 11 January, 2015

Page 18

Politics

Buhari did ‘Jonathan’s northern allies not doing enough’ not slump T in Cross River – APC Chairman

T

he All Progressives Congress (APC), has dismissed the rumour that its presidential candidate, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, slumped while delivering his speech in Calabar during the presidential campaign on January 7.

The party said the rumour was just a ruse meant to send the wrong signals to the people the health condition of about the retired general.

The Cross River State Chairman of APC, Pastor U. Usani, cleared the air while reacting to the rumour about Buhari’s ill health and noted that it was a cheap propaganda adopted by political foes of the APC candidate.

“My brother, it is some of you in the media that are creating this ‘artificial scarcity’ of truth. And what else do you expect from a failing and fallen leadership with its exodus of idle followers.

First and foremost, to prove that the rumour was not true, the venue where the event was held was not at the U.J. Esuene stadium, which the governor and his group denied us, but a different location.

“The APC as a party that is set for change and it will not fail Nigerians by bringing out an unfit person for a job that involves the people and their future.

This allegation is litmus of test of their failure to serve the people well and come 14th Feb, they would start escaping with the people’s loot,” he said.

he Zonal Coordinator of the Peoples Democratic Party Youth Frontier (PDPYF) north-west, Alhaji Yusuf Dingyadi, has accused some northern politicians close to President Goodluck Jonathan of lacking the political strategy, media management and genuine commitment to market him to Nigerians.

Speaking yesterday at a oneday sensitization seminar for the PDP Youth Awareness Volunteers

on building party support tagged; “Our PDP, Our Chances and Their Supports for 2015” in Sokoto, Dingyadi described such politicians as a liability rather than asset to Jonathan.

Dingyadi, who was a former Deputy Director of Media and Publicity for Obasanjo/Atiku Campaign Organisation in 2003, noted that ministers and politicians from the north-west who benefited immensely from this government, are not making

real efforts to explain to the people why they should vote for Jonathan in 2015.

According to him, such politicians are not conversant with Jonathan’s transformation agenda and commitment towards nation building and as such are not doing enough to make his achievement known to the generality of Nigerians.

“The truth of the matter is that, these politicians lack strategies and moral ground to convince

people on the need to vote for Jonathan due to the fact that they abandoned the same people when they need them most.

“In fact, some of them while in power keep the people at arm’s length, yet they want the same people to treat them with dignity and respect. It is a day of reckoning for them and the people they neglected in the past are watching and ready to teach them a lesson,” Dingyadi said.

organisation was working with sister security organisations to ensure that the Nigerian borders were adequately manned to ensure that foreigners do not infiltrate the borders especially during elections.

He urged the staff of the organisation to carry out their job with a high level of professionalism and dedication. “We will fire any staff that conspires to allow foreigners to vote in the next election,” he said.

Nkanu said the major challenge his organization was facing was the insurgency in Adamawa and stressed that no meaningful development could be achieved

in a situation of war but added that “despite the challenge, my organisation is doing its best to ensure that foreigners do not infiltrate the country.”

He said Adamawa indigenes were responding positively to the e-passport scheme established by the federal government, disclosing that about 5, 000 people obtained their passport in 2014 alone.

Nkanu also revealed that, as part of the federal government’s effort to ensure sanity across border communities, strategic plan to provide infrastructure across the border communities. He said the development would lead to

the entrenchment of peace in the areas.

Nkanu urged the border communities to assist his organization with information about movement of suspicious people around their areas. He said such gestures would assist in providing a water tight security in the state.

He said so far no staff of the organisation had died in the insurgency, adding that his organisation had effectively taken control of the state’s borders. He promised an improvement in their performance in 2015.

No foreigner will vote in 2015-NIS

T

he Comptroller of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), Adamawa State Command, Ubi Nkanu, has assured that non Nigerians will not be allowed to participate in the forthcoming general elections.

Also, he said that the service is working round the clock to ensure that foreigners do not rubbish the exercise by illegal means, adding that the service will be extra vigilant to thwart efforts to undermine the integrity of the elections.

Nkanu ​ gave the assurance during an interactive session with journalists in his office.

He assured Nigerians that his

Task Force demolishes political billboards in Sokoto

T

he Sokoto State Task Force on Illegal Structures has embarked on the removal of bill boards illegally erected by politicians in the state.

The Chairman of the Task Force, retired Sqdn. Ldr. Aminu Bala told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) yesterday in Sokoto that the exercise commenced penultimate day.

According to him, the exercise will continue up to the period of the election not minding whose ox is gored.

“We are not out to witch-hunt any candidate or political party, the aim is just to sanitize the city and make sure that nobody tramples on the Sokoto master-plan.

“Therefore, any candidate or political party wanting to erect bill boards must seek the necessary approval from the state Urban and Regional Planning Board,” Bala said.

He said areas where the bill boards had been removed include Dandima and Sultan’s Palace round about, as well as Assada junction, Manuri, Zaria, Sultan Abubakar, Aliyu Jodi and Modibbo Adama roads.

One of the demolished political billboards.

PRP tasks INEC on credible staff, supports Buhari From Ahmed Kaigama,Bauchi

T Usani Uguru Usani

he National Vice Chairman of Peoples Redemption Party (PRP),Alhaji Adamu A Ibrahim, has charged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to engage credible persons as ad-hoc staff for the election, just as he directed all PRP members to vote for General Buhari as President Speaking to newsmen in Bauchi, yesterday, Ibrahim, said the charge was borne out of the fact that voters

Nigeria want a credible and violence free election, saying INEC should engage people that are capable and committed to the success of the exercise.

Ibrahim said when INEC, security agencies, religious and traditional rulers play their roles neutral during the elections, the country would have violence free election but they try assist another the electorate would resist such attempt and the consequences may not be good.

“When the security agencies,

traditional rulers, religious leaders are aiding any political party to win election the supporters of the other party will not fold their arms and watch the security and traditional and religious leaders assist another party other than theirs to win election other them,” he said.

The PRP National Vice chairman said since the party has not presented a presidential candidate for the February presidential election it has therefore directed its members across the country to support the candidature of

General Muhammadu Buhari in the forthcoming presidential election.

According to him, “We believe that Buhari is the only person that can deliver the dividends of democracy to Nigerians if voted into power. This does not mean that the party has merge with APC. We are the oldest political party in Nigeria.”

He said the desire of the PRP is to bring change and they found APC to be suitable for affecting the change which was why PRP has called on its members to across the country to support APC.

PAGE 19

PEOPLES DAILY Weekend, saturday 10-sunday 11 January, 2015

L

a Campagne Tropicana Beach Resort is a 65 acre tranquil paradise located just an hour’s drive from Victoria Island in Lagos State.

This resort offers a unique blend of natural environments which include a fresh water lake, accessible mangrove forest, a savannah, extensive sandy beach and the warm Atlantic sea.

The resort provides world class accommodation and a variety of activities to ensure an experience like no other on your visit. The cuisine is second to none with 24hrs security.

Care has always been taken to ensure that the Infrastructure at the resort blends in perfectly with the surroundings so that the spectacular ambiance of the tropical countryside is not lost.

It also has luxuriously furnished holiday/investment homes with highly cosmopolitan African Decor.

All rooms are fitted with ultra – modern appliances such as air – conditioners, TV and wireless Internet Service etc. it is also located within 2 minutes’ drive of a 27 – hole golf course currently under construction.

Awaiting you there are Spa treatments, massage therapy, fully equipped cardiovascular gym with personal trainers.

Cultural dance displays for guests / residents, fresh palm wine bar with an excellent ocean view, fine dining in elegant restaurants and much more. Other activities include hiking, hunting, horse riding, canoeing, ocean water fishing, aqua aerobics, beach volleyball & football.

La Campagne Tropicana Beach Resort is a luxurious hotel and beach which mixes traditional Nigerian culture with modern convenience. cometonigeria.com

An ariel view of the Resort

Tourism

La Campagne Tropicana Beach Resort

The pictorial view of the beach which is 150km from Victoria Island, Lagos.

The beautiful Resort

Coconut trees dots the beach

The Lagoon

PAGE 20

PEOPLES DAILY Weekend, saturday 10-sunday 11 January, 2015

Homes

Y

ou and your living room are happier because you have just acquired a flat screen television. Although, you seem to be having a small problem, everything around the television seems not to work. The furniture no longer faces the right direction, the wall art is being blocked, and the armoire you’ve placed the television in is too big. These are all common decorating dilemmas when you acquire a flat screen television. Read on to see how you can keep that television and make the rest of your room look beautiful around your new addition to the family.

Plan for space: One of the beautiful advantages to having a flat screen television is the ability to view it from many angles of the room. This same advantage is its disadvantage when it comes to placing furniture in the room. The challenge is that you can’t have obstacles that are within the line of sight of the television. Stand back in all angles of the room and assess what furniture is too tall and plan for space around it. Another trick is to stand at the television and look back at the room. You will easily see what is obstructing the view and space.

Highlight the wall: Your television can blend or it can be the focal point. Most people want it to be the focal point as it costs a lot of money, and you want everyone to see it! For you, painting an accent wall that your television is hung or placed in front of will draw emphasis to this wall. If you are one that would like the television to blend, consider housing your television in a piece of furniture that can be closed, such as an armoire or entertainment centre.

Viewing height: Depending on the height you choose to view your television will dictate how to add artwork or decorative items around it. For those that want it stand mounted on a low console, you will be able to optimize more of the wall behind it for artwork.

While if you decide to mount it on the wall, the television can compete with artwork – which can be distracting. For larger rooms that have a long viewing range, a wall application will work better. While smaller, narrower spaces will benefit from the lower console.

Hanging artwork: If you have high ceilings, artwork placed above the line of television sight viewing is a good idea. Consider making the artwork simple, and more abstract. Artwork that has

You can build cabinets around a smaller television, which can serve as needed storage for DVDs and other media items and equipment.

physical content will cause television viewers to concentrate on the artwork. For shorter ceilings, but longer walls, consider putting small collections of artwork, paintings, photographs etc… to the side(s) of your television. Whichever you design preference, try to let the television compliment the space, or be left on its own. For visual interest for wall mounted televisions add wainscoting or build decorative architectural niches into the wall.

Your flat screen television can be a welcomed addition if you can determine how to decorate around it. Before you buy your television take these tips into consideration. Remember, the smaller the room, the smaller television that is needed. Often times people buy too large of a television for the space, and viewers can get headaches, and the picture will also appear pixilated if the viewing distance isn’t enough. Placing a flat screen television on an accent wall will give visual interest that may need additional décor. You decide and make your television a welcomed addition to your home.

www.freshome.com

Choose to house your flat screen somewhere other than the main seating area.

Leave the comfy living room to conversation and relaxing, and place the media equipment in an adjacent space.

e n i z a g a M

PEOPLES DAILY Weekend, saturday 10-sunday 11 January, 2015

d n e k e We ent

m Entertain

Omotola hosts widows to mark anniversary PG 36

Fashion

ps Beauty Ti

od Kannywo

d

Hollywoo

PAGE 21

d Bollywoo

Cosby’s live performance receives standing ovation >>PG 36

53yrs after death, Monroe named new face of Max factor >>PG 37

Funke Akindele announces ‘Jenifa’ TV series PG 37

How to choose the right sunscreen for your skin

>>PG 28

PEOPLES DAILY Weekend, saturday 10-sunday 11 January, 2015

Page 22

Health Extra

How to improve your body image

B

ody image is the way you see yourself and imagine how you look.

Having a positive body image means that, most of the time, you see yourself accurately, you feel comfortable in your body and the way you look.

It is common to struggle with body image, no matter who you are, but severe negative body image can lead to serious eating and exercise disorders. We all have a body image and have feelings about the way we look. We also have ideas and feelings about how others think about our looks.

Your overall body image can range from very positive to very negative. You may feel good about certain parts of your body or the way you look and not as good about others that is totally normal. Body image is also how you feel in your body if you feel strong, able, attractive, and in control.

Sometimes it is difficult to understand all of the feelings we have about our bodies and ourselves. You may have questions about body image and whether the things you think and feel are normal.

But first of all you need to acknowledge that we do not develop our body image all on our own. The people around us and our culture strongly influence it. We get both positive and negative messages about our bodies from family and friends all the time starting from when we are very young.

For example, we may develop a love of exercise and a sense of being strong and capable if our parents share their own enjoyment of physical activity with us. On the other hand, we may develop a negative body image if our parents criticize the way we look.

We also get messages about body image from television, magazines, films and others.

Many of the beliefs we have about the way women and men ‘should’ look come from models and celebrities we see in the media. But models and celebrities do not look like most people. For example, on average, women who are models have very different builds. They weigh 23 percent less than women who are not models. All we have to do is look around, the bodies in the real world are much more diverse and unique than those we see in the media.

Body image is also influenced by the natural aging process and our life experience. We have different feelings about our bodies when it changes. Certain times in life, like puberty or menopause

and andropause, are key times when a person’s body image may change. If people are hurt, sick, or disabled, their body images may be affected, too.

Our emotional state also influences it. When work or relationships become stressful, many people notice that their body image can be affected.

Having a long-lasting negative body image can affect both your mental and physical health. People with a longlasting negative body image are more likely to develop anxiety, depression, low selfesteem, shame, and trouble concentrating, take risks with their sexual health, cut themselves off from being with other people socially, stop them from doing healthy activities that require them to show off their bodies such as exercising, having sex, going to the doctor, or swimming and suffer from serious mental health problems, such as anorexia, bulimia, over-exercising, or overeating. These disorders can be very serious.

There is a lot you can do to improve your body image, even without changing your body.

Remember, it is not about how you look, but how you feel about the way you look.

Some people choose to change the way they feel about their bodies. Many times, talking with a person you trust, such as a friend or family member about the way you feel

“

Think differently about your body. Pay attention to the times when you feel bad about your body. Did you just weigh yourself? Did you just read a magazine? Did you just talk to a friend or family member who is negative about her or his body?

can help. Professional help from a therapist may also be useful.

Talking about your negative feelings and developing new ways of thinking about your body and your self-worth is a good way to address a negative body image.

Think differently about your body. Pay attention to the times when you feel bad about your body. Did you just weigh yourself? Did you just read a magazine? Did you just talk to a friend or family member who is negative about her or his body?

In a world that is constantly showing you narrow definitions of beauty, how can you maintain a healthy body image?

Remember that health and appearance are two different things.

Accept and value your genes, you probably inherited a lot of traits from your family

members, so love those traits as you love your family.

Keep a list of your positive qualities that have nothing to do with your appearance.

Surround yourself with people who are supportive and who make you feel good about yourself.

Treat your body with respect and kindness.

People may choose to change their appearance in many ways, for a variety of reasons. If you want to change the way you look, be sure to have realistic expectations.

If you have a negative body image, it is important to deal with the mental and emotional aspects of it in order for any physical change to be truly successful.

Some people choose to make lifestyle changes, such as adopting a specific diet and

an exercise program in order to lose weight, gain muscle, or change their bodies in other ways. Often, this can be a healthy choice. If you are planning to make a considerable change in your lifestyle, it can be a good idea to talk with a health care provider who can advise you about the healthiest way to do so.

People also change their looks in other ways, such as colouring or processing their hair, or using products to change the appearance of their skin. Some changes can boost your self-esteem and body image and some may not be as effective. The key is to have realistic expectations about how much changing your appearance can change how you feel about yourself.

Some others choose to have plastic surgery to change the body parts that they don’t like.

This is one way to address a negative body image. But changing a body part does not necessarily change the way a person feels.

If you are planning to make a drastic change in the way you look, you may want to think about any possible health consequences. It is a good idea to talk about your plans with a trusted friend, family member, or health care provider.

Culled from Parenthood

Planned

PEOPLES DAILY Weekend, saturday 10-sunday 11 January, 2015

Page 23

A trailblazer in Nollywood

Womanhood

Patience Ozokwor

P

atience Ozokwor, popularly known as Mama G, was born on March 28, 1958 in Amaobo in Ngwo, Udi Local Government Area of Enugu State.

She attended Abimbola Gibson Memorial School, Lagos, and Methodist Girls, Yaba, but had to relocate to Enugu due to the civil war. She got admitted to Girls Secondary School, Ngwo. Later on, she attended the Teachers Training College in Afikpo where she had her first ever performance, she played the role of Hamlet in William Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet. From where she proceeded to IMT Enugu where she studied Fine and Applied Arts, specialising in Graphics. She never had the intention of joining the film industry. She was a teacher by training and taught for about four years before venturing into broadcasting. She was employed as an announcer with FRCN Enugu and was later retrenched when they closed down all the medium wave band stations.

During her teacher training days in Afikpo, she had a competent literature teacher who made them present a play each term. When it was the turn of her set to present a play, she was given the role of Hamlet in William Shakespeare’s play of the same title and the production came out fine. Other schools that offered Hamlet as a subject

“

paid to watch their production.

In fact, they were invited to stage the play in so many other places in Southeastern Nigeria.

She was very popular then and everywhere she went people called her Hamlet.

The actress, who got married at 19, lost her husband very early in life. As a result of her husband’s death, she concentrated on her family and in order to earn money, she baked cakes and took on odd jobs. This was a difficult period in her life as she struggled to maintain her family and household finances.

Eventually, she was invited to do a commercial by a comedian who was impressed with her acting skills. Thereafter, she was asked to do a soap opera about rural women for the National Television Authority.

At Radio Nigeria, Chika Okpala (Chief Zebrudaya of New Masquerades) invited her to take part in a commercial in which she played the wife of Pete Eneh. The commercial was a mass orientation promo by the Anambra State government to encourage citizens to acquire education before venturing into trading.

So successful was Patience in her career in radio drama that she decided to give back to the society. She opened a school to help young female school dropouts and taught them how to make hair and skin care. She was able to help these

young ladies open their own businesses. It was only a natural progression that her civic involvement would lead to a political appointment. She was subsequently appointed an aide to the wife of the mayor of the local government. She served in this political post for four years.

After the promo was shot, there was a positive reaction from the people and Chief Zebrudaya was so impressed that he said, ‘what have you been doing with yourself, where are you, I am so impressed.’ When Pete Eneh had the opportunity of shooting a serial (Someone Cares) for a television station, he gave her the lead role.

Mama G joined the movie industry and did her first movie Ukwa in 1995. By 1999, she had become hugely popular with the movie, Authority. Since then, she has featured in over 200 movies. So successful was her role as Mother General, Mama G, in Old School that the public began referring to her as Mama G and thus gave birth to her stage name. Patience has acted in many movies with actors and actresses such as Ini Edo, Omotola Jalade Ekeinde, Rita Dominic, Pete Edochie, Genevieve Nnaji, Ramsey Nouah, Van Vicker, Mike Ezuruonye Oge Okoye, Kanayo O. Kanayo, Chioma Chukwuka and many others.

She has appeared in more than 200 films some of which areAuthority, Sins of the Father,

She was a teacher by training and taught for about four years before venturing into broadcasting. She was employed as an announcer with FRCN Enugu and was later retrenched when they closed down all the medium wave band stations.

Patience Ozokwor Apology, Submission, One Dollar, Chicken Magic, Pride of a Woman, Women in Power, Woman of Authority, Motherin-Law, Christian Mother, Christian Marriage.

When asked about her bad roles, Patience said, “When I play the role of a bad woman, I see myself as a mirror through which I want the society to see and appreciate the fact that it is not good to be bad. This is the reason I do it with so much passion that it becomes almost believable and by extension, I also see such roles as an opportunity to minister to lost and wicked souls that jealousy, hatred, envy and all the likes can only bring one to ruins.’’

According to the versatile actress said, “Surprisingly, I am very lazy at reading scripts over and over again. As soon as a script is given to me, I get into the character as soon as I read a few lines from any scene in the script and to tell you the truth, it baffles even me that I can perform such near magical acts. I give all the glory to God because I think it is part of the special gift he has deposited in me. A few glances at the

script easily exposes me to my character and once I discover this, I would proceed to getting the lines into my head and of course, adding some other things that would make my role stand out. The way I memorize lines baffles me and once I get the lines in, it takes a long time for me to forget them.’’

The actress was honoured at the centenary celebration with the internationally acclaimed artists, literary icons award.

She won the Best Supporting Actress award at the 10th Africa Movie Academy Awards and also beat other frontline actresses to win at the Ghana Movie Awards for Best African collaboration–best actress with her performance in the movie, slave boy. At the fifth edition of the City People Entertainment Awards, Mama G won the Best Actress of the year (English). At the 2014 GIAMA awards, the actress was nominated in the best comedic act in the movie, After the proposal.

Patience Ozokwor is a widow with four children, three biological and one adopted. Her first son is an engineer while the last is a footballer with Rangers

PEOPLES DAILY Weekend, saturday 10-sunday 11 January, 2015

PAGE 24

World Kiddies

With Miriam

SIGHTS AND SOUNDS

Humbe

ABCDE

HIS AND HERS CORNER

Hubbare Sheikh Usman Danfodio: Sokoto’s most visited site

Entrance to the Hubbare

H

ubbare in the Hausa language means tomb.

Fulbe, also in the Hausa language, means Fulani. There is, however, a hubbare in Sokoto State visited by no fewer than 700 people daily but the majority of the visitors are Fulbe. Welcome to Hubbare Sheikh Usman Danfodio: the resting place of the great Islamic scholar and progenitor of the Sokoto Caliphate. The gates of this great edifice are flung open as early as 6am and remain so as late as 10pm throughout the week.

Ordinarily Different manner of peopleacademics, tourists, special envoys, students, as well as those seeking spiritual healing and veneration from far and near, particularly in the West African sub-region- visit the tomb or hubbare. The Hubbare, as it is popularly called, is the tomb of Danfodio, who died in 1817. The tomb itself is located alongside the personal residence of the late warrior. It is a spacious enclave where the late Jihadist, members of his immediate family such as his wives, sons, daughters, his disciples and companions were buried.

Also in the compound is the school of Danfodio where he taught his students from far and near. The tomb is serviced by no fewer than four people whose duties include keeping it clean and safe and conducting visitors round from one grave to another, explaining their histories. The grave of Shehu Danfodio is in one small room, decorated and covered with a black cloth with Arabic inscriptions on it. It is in the same room that his two sons, Hassan Dan Shehu and Sambo, were buried.

According to history, Shehu left a will that, his son, Hassan, would lead his funeral prayers after his demise, and after 40 days, Hassan would follow him to the great beyond. And that exactly was what happened. There is, however, a caveat: women are not allowed inside the room. But they can peep through a window and pray. There are hundreds of graves in the premises, but only seven belong to past Sultans of the Caliphate, who reigned at various

periods in history.

These were Sultan Ahmadu Rufa’i, Sultan Muhammadu Maiturare, Sultan Attahiru II, Sultan Hassan Dan Muazu, Sultan Abubakar Saddiq III and Sultan Muhammadu Maccido, who died in the 2006 ADC plane crash in Abuja.

The grave of Sultan Maccido is isolated from the rest of the tombs. It is close to those of the wives of Danfodio. It is in an open space and not inside any of the rooms like the others. From there, a visitor could enter a room where the four wives of Danfodio were buried. They were Hauwa’u, Shaturu, Gabdo and Jinnu.

The grave is in the same line with that of the banner-bearer of Shehu, in every battle fought, Aliyu Jedo, who is said to be one of his grandsons. Near it is that of Shehu’s famous daughter Nana Asma’u, popularly known as Nana Uwar Daje, and Aishatu, daughter of Umaru Alkammu, who was the wife of Sultan Muhammadu Bello, Danfodio’s son and immediate successor.

The grave of Muhammadu Mudagel, son of Alkammu and Mai Hillani and the Imam of Shehu, Liman Alu, come after that one. But there are two graves whose owners remain unknown, but certainly they were connected to Danfodio. In the tomb is Shantalin Shehu.

It is the traditional long cup in which Danfodio reportedly drank water during his lifetime.

Some visitors who are seeking for veneration and blessings pour water inside it and drink with the belief that they would be blessed, and their problems would be solved. According to one of the staff, even foreigners, especially Europeans and Americans, visit the tomb for research and tourism from time to time.

According to sources Danfodio was a member of a class of urbanized Fulani living in the Hausa states in what is today known as northern Nigeria. He was a teacher of the Maliki School of Islamic jurisprudence and a follower of Qadiriyyah order of Sufism.

Expressing it the Fulani way

Cartoon

Mickey and Minnie Mouse

Tom and Jerry having a chat?

PEOPLES DAILY Weekend, saturday 10-sunday 11 January, 2015

PAGE 25

Kiddies World

With Miriam

Humbe

ABCDE

MODEL OF THE WEEK

AFRICAN TALES

Why the bat flies by night

Fatima Aminu clocked 3 years recently

ACTIVITIES

A

bush rat called Oyot was a great friend of Emiong, the bat; they always fed together, but the bat was jealous of the bush rat. When the bat cooked the food it was always very good, and the bush rat said, “How is it that when you make the soup it is so tasty?”

The bat replied, “I always boil myself in the water, and my flesh is so sweet, that the soup is good.”

He then told the bush rat that he would show him how it was done; so he got a pot of warm water, which he told the bush rat was boiling water, and jumped into it, and very shortly afterwards came out again. When the soup was brought it was as strong and good as usual, as the bat had prepared it beforehand.

With the help of the right materials, have fun colouring the images below. Show your work to your parents or teacher for correction. Cheers!

The bush rat then went home and told his wife that he was going to make good soup like the bat’s. He therefore told her to boil some water, which she did. Then, when his wife was not looking, he jumped into the pot, and was very soon dead.

When his wife looked into the pot and saw the dead body of her husband boiling she was very angry, and reported the matter to the king, who gave orders that the bat should be made a prisoner. Every one turned out to catch the bat, but as he expected trouble he flew away into the bush and hid himself. All day long the people tried to catch him, so he had to change his habits, and only came out to feed when it was dark, and that is why you never see a bat in the daytime.

CREATIVITY

Make a shirt and tie from paper

T

ies certainly are a fail-safe gift on Father’s Day, so why not feature them in your card this year? Simple and sweet, this shirt and tie card is sure to make Dad smile.

Also, the shirt pattern can be worked off of pretty easily. Invites to a luau? Find paper that looks like a Hawaiian shirt. Geeky friend? Add a pocket protector and some leaky pens. Bond, James Bond? Make a blazer, cummerbund, and bow-tie...you get the idea.

Step 1: Materials 1 sheet legal-seized paper (8 1/2-by-14-inch) some patterned paper for the tie scissors Step 2: Make your shirt!

If you’re working with patterned paper for your shirt, place it facedown. Otherwise, go ahead and fold in half vertically. Unfold. Line up left edge with centerline fold, and crease. Do the same on the right side, and unfold.

Step 3: Fold the top-left corner in and line it up with the nearest crease, making a triangle. Do the same thing on the right side.

Step 4: Pinch together outside points of each triangle so they meet, and crease. Make sure you’re only creating the fold on the triangle.

Step 5: While still pinching the triangles, fold down the top edge. It should fall into place nicely (see pictures), so go with it.

These are your sleeves!

Step 6: Turn paper upside down, and flip. Fold down a tiny bit of the top edge.

This is your collar!

Step 7: Flip paper over again, and fold down the top left and right corners so tips meet at centerline. Now it looks like a collar!

Step 8: Now simply fold paper so the bottom edge slides under the collar, and you have your completed shirt.

PAGE 26

e-Learning

PEOPLES DAILY Weekend, saturday 10-sunday 11 January, 2015

Are e-cars the future of motoring?

F

ind out on a long, but not long enough, drive up the Electric Highway The choice is simple. Either I play safe and turn left on to the M58 and go on a 20-mile detour, or I push on up the M6 and hope my electric car’s fading battery will make the 28 miles to the next services outside Wigan.

This is the sort of arithmetic increasingly being played out on Britain’s roads, as drivers of electric cars attempt to make use of the expanding fast-charge network.

In my case, I’m on the M6 to Glasgow from London in order to test the new Electric Highway.

Provided free of charge by the green energy firm Ecotricity, it’s the country’s biggest inter-city network, covering 89 per cent of the motorway system and due to be fully completed by April.

In theory, the battery in the new VW e-Golf I’m driving has enough range to reach Wigan, but the sun has set, it is raining, and the temperature is dropping as the motorway ahead weaves around the western edge of the Pennines.

Cold weather is a killer for electric-car batteries, dropping the theoretical range of the eGolf from a respectable 118 miles in summer to somewhere closer to 60 miles in winter. Unlike hybrids, the e-Golf is purely electric.

I have no engine to fall back on, and my energy-thirsty headlights and windscreen, plus the inclines ahead, are already making trouble for my lithium-ion battery.

Once this sort of long-distance trip would have been impossible, but thanks to Ecotricity and its network of 207 rapid chargers, it’s fast becoming a reality – as long as you are willing to stop 30 minutes to charge every 90 or so miles.

“What we are offering electric car owners is the chance to drive the length and breadth of Britain. Three years ago, it took eight hours to charge an electric car, which we knew was never practical, but now that’s down to just 30 minutes,” says Dale Vince, the founder of Ecotricity. “There has been a quantum leap in car and battery technology, and now we are seeing an exponential rise in demand.”

That electric surge is translating into 1,000 new Ecotricity members a month, including Mike Baker, an electrical engineer I met earlier at Warwick’s M40 services, parked in the Ecotricity charging bay in a giant SUV. Thankfully, I spot his charging cable before I get out to harangue him for parking a Chelsea tractor in a virtuous green-only space. “I live on the Isle of Wight, and [this hybrid] is perfect for short trips on battery power,” he says. “On longer trips, like this, I can top up electricity for free en route to keep my petrol bill down on the main engine.”

Waiting for Mr Baker to free up from the charging slot gives me time to reflect on my test car. It’s an accomplished machine and on

Despite scoffs and derision, Jamie Merrill has always felt e-cars were the way forward. Now that battery technology has caught up with him, he takes a charge and heads for Glasgow to make a point. the inside is practically identical to the standard Golf. The only real difference is the limited range and near-instant acceleration given by the electric motor.

New figures this week are expected to show a massive surge in electric car sales in 2014, thanks to new models from VW, BMW and PayPal billionaire Elon Musk’s Tesla.

Tesla has its own network of 15 super-fast charging stations for its luxury car owners, but they are in the minority among more than 3,000 fast and slow public charging locations across the UK. Frustratingly, says Mr Baker, most are “slow trickle-chargers, located in expensive car parks or sitting

Electric car at charging bay

empty on city centre streets where there are few electric car owners.”

This is one of the many areas on which Ecotricity takes issue with the Government, says Mr Vince. “We’ve all seen empty charging bays in central London and we know there’s been a heavy subsidy for charging points at new homes, but what we really need is more inter-city capacity.”

Back on the M6, I’ve covered 190 miles with three charging stops, but at Knutsford services my luck runs out, and I arrive to find only an error message and a dead terminal. I had expected this, as Ecotricity has freely admitted that it has had some problems perfecting the so-called

“electric handshake” between the e-Golf and “Combined Charging System” (CCS) it uses. It’s one of the several types of fast chargers used by the firm in a form of VHS versus Betamax situation.

The firm says the problem will be fixed by April, but at the side of the M6 this offers little consolation –with a nervous run to Wigan ahead of me on a reduced charge.

The digital display on the dashboard says I have 31 miles of range left, which should technically get me to the next CCS point 28 miles away at Charnock Richard, just north of Wigan; but so far the e-Golf’s display has seen the range drop far quicker than the milometer readings.

In desperation, I call Mark Tebbutt, an electric car owner who took delivery of the third Nissan Leaf ever to come to Britain in 2011. He advises me to “turn off the heater and stick in the slow lane at 48mph”. His kind advice does little to reduce my anxiety.

Amazingly, I make it to the services ready to celebrate with Mr Tebbutt, who comes to meet me. We pull into the bays at the same time and he leaps eagerly into the seat of the e-Golf to compare it to his Leaf.

I’m not so happy; the Ecotricity charger is ominously dark, and won’t read my charging card. This time, I’m well and truly stranded.

“It’s a shame you didn’t make it to Glasgow,” says Mr Tebbutt. “In the early days, this sort of thing was fairly common, but it’s actually not that hard to get around the country these days.” He helpfully suggests I sneak down an access road to try the other carriageway’s charger, but that is out too. As I don’t have enough charge to take up his offer of an overnight charge at his Chorley home, I am forced to call the AA and return to London by train as the blameless VW e-Golf makes its way home on the back of an recovery lorry driven by a somewhat confused petrolhead.

Speaking to Mr Vince the next day, he’s still upbeat about my experience. “When petrol cars came along, there wasn’t a national network of petrol stations; overnight, they had to be built,” he says. “It’s important to remember this is just the start of a revolution.”

Source: independent.co.uk

PEOPLES DAILY Weekend, saturday 10-sunday 11 January, 2015

PAGE 27

Compiled By Doyin Ojosipe

The slave girl who tried to kill her mistress (iii)

Leisure

…she would take them to the Water Ju Ju, and make a sacrifice of them on his behalf. The day after the sacrifice was made, the Water Ju Ju would return the girl to her, and she would bring her to Akpan.

A

kpan then bought the slave, and took all the other things to the old woman, and, when the day of the sacrifice arrived, he went with his friend the hunter and witnessed the old

woman make the sacrifice. The slave was bound up and led to the hole, then the old woman called to the Water Ju Ju and cut the slave’s throat with a sharp knife and pushed him into the hole. She

then did the same to the goat and chicken, and also threw the eggs and cloth in on top of them.

After this had been done, they all returned to their homes. The next morning at dawn the old woman went to the hole, and found Emme standing at the side of the spring, so she told her that she was her friend, and was going to take her to her husband. She then took Emme back to her own home, and hid her in her room, and sent word to Akpan to come to her house, and to take great care that the slave woman knew nothing about the matter.

So Akpan left the house secretly by the back door, and arrived at the old woman’s house without meeting anybody.

When Emme saw Akpan, she asked for her little sister, so he sent his friend, the hunter, for her to the spring, and he met her carrying her water-pot to get the morning supply of water for the house, and brought her to the old

Get your pen! Find the boxing words!

ARENA FEATHERWEIGHT OPPONENT ATHLETE FIGHTER PROFESSIONAL BANTAMWEIGHT FITNESS PUNCH BLOWS FOOTWORK REFEREE BOXING GOLDEN GLOVES REGULATION BRUISE GYM ROUNDS CARDIOVASCULAR HARD WORK SCORE CHAMPIONSHIP HEAVYWEIGHT SPORT CLASS HOOK STRATEGY COMPETE INJURIES TECHNICAL CORNER JABS TIMEKEEPER DAMAGE KNOCK OUT TITLE BELT DEFENSE MAIN EVENT TRAINER DISCIPLINE MATCH TRUNKS DISQUALIFICATION MIDDLEWEIGHT VICTORY ENTERTAINMENT MOVEMENT WEIGHT TRAINING EXERCISES ON THE ROPES VIOLATION

woman’s house with him.

When Emme had embraced her sister, she told her to return to the house and do something to annoy the slave woman, and then she was to run as fast as she could back to the old woman’s house, where, no doubt, the slave girl would follow her, and would meet them all inside the house, and see Emme, who she believed she had killed.

The little girl did as she was told, and, directly she got into the house, she called out to the slave woman: “Do you know that you are a wicked woman, and have treated me very badly? I know you are only my sister’s slave, and you will be properly punished.” She then ran as hard as she could to the old woman’s house. Directly the slave woman heard what the little girl said, she was quite mad with rage, and seized a burning stick from the fire, and ran after the child; but the little one got to the house first, and ran inside, the

slave woman following close upon her heels with the burning stick in her hand.

Then Emme came out and confronted the slave woman, and she at once recognized her mistress, whom she thought she had killed, so she stood quite still.

Then they all went back to Akpan’s house, and when they arrived there, Akpan asked the slave woman what she meant by pretending that she was Emme, and why she had tried to kill her.

But, seeing she was found out, the slave woman had nothing to say.

Many people were then called to a play to celebrate the recovery of Akpan’s wife, and when they had all come, he told them what the slave woman had done.

After this, Emme treated the slave girl in the same way as she had treated her little sister. She made her put her fingers in the fire, and burnt her with sticks. She also made her beat foo-foo with her head in a hollowed-out tree, and after a time she was tied up to a tree and starved to death.

Ever since that time, when a man marries a girl, he is always present when she comes out of the fatting-house and takes her home himself, so that such evil things as happened to Emme and her sister may not occur again.

Laugh out loud (lol)!

A

kpors got to school on monday morning and his Teacher asked: why did you come late to school?

Akpors: one man lost #1,000 note at the bus stop.

Teacher: oh too bad, were you helping him to look for the money?

Akpors: no! i dey craze?

Na me stand on top of d money since!

Motivate yourself! What you give is what you get!

T

here was a farmer who sold a pound of butter to the baker. One day the baker decided to weigh the butter to see if he was getting a pound and he found that he was not. This angered him and he took the farmer to court. The judge asked the farmer if he was using any measure. The farmer replied, amour Honor, I am primitive.

I don’t have a proper measure, but I do have a scale.” The judge asked, “Then how do you weigh the butter?”

The farmer replied “Your Honor, long before the baker started buying butter from me, I have been buying a pound loaf of bread from him. Every day when

the baker brings the bread, I put it on the scale and give him the same weight in butter. If anyone is to be blamed, it is the baker.”

What is the moral of the story?

We get back in life what we give to others. Whenever you take an action, ask yourself this question: Am I giving fair value for the wages or money I hope to make? Honesty and dishonesty become a habit. Some people practice dishonesty and can lie with a straight face. Others lie so much that they don’t even know what the truth is anymore. But who are they deceiving?

Themselves

Beauty

PEOPLES DAILY Weekend, saturday 10-sunday 11 January, 2015

PAGE 28

TIPS

Compiled by Isioma Nwabasha

How to choose the right sunscreen for your skin

S

unscreen is one of the most essential cosmetic products one should have as it helps prevent the sun’s ultraviolet radiation from reaching the skin. SPF stands for sun protection factor and is the measurement of a sunscreen’s ability to prevent UVB from damaging the skin. Excessive or unprotected exposure to the sun can lead to sunburn, wrinkles, skin degeneration and even skin cancer.

It is important that you protect your skin from sun exposure on a daily basis to prevent dangers. There are many different types of sunscreen that are designated by the sun protection factor (SPF), ingredients, resistance to water and whether or not they block UVA or UVB rays.

Many sunblocks are also designated by age groups, such as those that are to be used by children, teens and adults. Choosing the correct type of sunblock for your type of skin is important to maintaining a healthy skin.

Its believed that sunscreens with an SPF of 15 or higher do an excellent job of protecting against UVB, however the numbers do not

Types of sunscreens

indicate how much time you can spend in the sun without getting sunburned. It actually means that if it takes 30 minutes for your unprotected skin to start getting red, using a sunscreen with an SPF of 15 should protect your skin 15 times longer. A sunscreen with an SPF of 15 has the capacity to filter out 93 percent of all incoming UVB rays. Similarly 97 percent of incoming UVB rays can be kept out by a sunscreen with an SPF of 30 and 98 percent by SPF 50.

While the differences might seem to be negligible, it can make a huge difference if someone has a history of skin cancer or if you are lightsensitive. No sunscreen is capable of blocking all UV rays.

Many people are not sure if they should use sunscreen. A sunscreen should be used daily by everyone over the age of six months. Everyone is exposed to ultraviolet radiation for some period of the day, even those who work inside. If someone works near windows, they need to use sunscreen as windows generally filter out UVB but not UVA rays. It is important to know which SPF is

A lady applying sunscreen to her face right for you. The SPF you choose should depend on how much time you spend in the sun, sunscreens with higher SPF block more rays and enable the user to spend more time outside.

Use high SPF sunscreens on thin-skinned areas such as your nose, ears and backs of hands. It is also good to use on any exposed skin when exploring at high altitude, polar regions or areas of intense sun exposure. If you feel SPF 50 sunscreens feel heavier, greasier

or less breathable on skin, then use SPF 30 or higher on sweat zones (arms and legs) and carry a separate tube of SPF 50 or 50+ to touch up thin-skinned areas.

Sunscreen with broad-spectrum protection means that it protects against both UVA and UVB rays. It isn’t enough to just protect against one of the UV rays, because if you protect against UVB rays, you will still get damage from UVA rays and vice versa. Therefore, it is important to select a sunscreen with broadspectrum protection.

How do you know if your sunscreen is broad-spectrum? Well, skin care companies will usually have the words ‘broad-spectrum’” labeled on their products. However, just because a sunscreen has this label doesn’t mean it protects against 100 percent of all UVA and UVB rays.

Instead of looking for the words ‘broad-spectrum’, it is better to look at a sunscreen’s SPF and PPD. SPF measures how well a sunscreen protects against UVB rays, while PPD (persistent pigment darkening) measures how well a sunscreen protects against UVA rays.

Therefore SPF will help prevent sunburns, while PPD guards against photoaging.

SPF has been in the limelight for some time now and many people erroneously assume that if they use a sunscreen with a high SPF, they are adequately protecting

themselves from the sun. However, even if a sunscreen has a high SPF, being well-protected against UVB rays isn’t enough.

What you really want to know now is which sunscreen you should buy, right? Here are a few safe and effective recommendations that score highest on the EWG scale of best sunscreens and are also paraben-free: Alba Botanica Natural Very Emollient Sunblock, Fragrance Free, SPF 30, All Terrain AquaSport Face Stick, SPF 28, Badger Broad Spectrum Sunscreen, Lavender, SPF 34, Kiss My Face Natural Mineral Sunscreen With Hydresia, SPF 40 and Nature’s Gate Aqua Block Sunscreen Lotion, SPF 50.

Use about a shot-glass-size amount, and apply 30 minutes before heading out in the sun. Don’t forget to reapply every two hours and after swimming or sweating.

There are many benefits of using a sunscreen with both UV-A and UV-B protection. UV-A light is the number one cause of aging and pigmentation. Regular use of sunscreen will keep your skin glowing and young. UV-B light causes tanning and skin cancer so its protection is extremely important.

A regular sunscreen routine will ensure that your skin stays supple, fresh and healthy. It is highly recommended to use a sunscreen on very sunny days as your skin is highly prone to sun damage during this time.

Compiled by Miriam Humbe

Fashion

PEOPLES DAILY Weekend, saturday 10-sunday 11 January, 2015

PAGE 29

Get super trendy with jawdropping ankara designs

A

nkara prints have not only taken the centre stage of fashion and style in Africa, the international fashion world has also embraced the uniqueness of the fabric. Ankara has dominated most fashion shows all over the world with most designers embracing its beautiful designs and versatility.

There is something unique about the ankara print that is stylishly different.

Usually, bright, colourful and saturated prints are paired with neutrals to create a very wearable line of practical outfits with fashionable pops of colour.

Of course, elegance with a focus on wearability is what is expected from a neatly sown Ankara print.

Whether you are looking for an essential chic wear or a classic off-duty casual for the weekend, there are many ankara styles you can choose from that will make you stand out at a show, party, get together and any social gathering. You can make a bold statement by adding a metal or leather belt at the waist and paired with a lovely heels and perfect neck accessories to glam up your look.

PEOPLES DAILY Weekend, saturday 10-sunday 11 January, 2015

PAGE 30

Pots &Pans

With Miriam Humbe

Ukpo Ogede (Plantain pudding)

This is a traditional food mostly eaten by the Igbo speaking people of Delta State. It is a classic recipe consisting of over-ripe plantains mixed with plantain flour, crayfish and onions that are spooned into parcels and steamed before serving. It is a healthy way of using-up over-ripe plantains.

Ingredients

How to prepare:

4 over-ripe plantains (where the skin is black, but the inside is still fresh) 200g of unripe plantain flour Palm oil 80g crayfish or prawns, Chopped onion, Salt Freshly-ground black pepper, Maggi cubes

Set a pot with a low level of water on heat.

Sift the plantain flour into a bowl and pour just enough warm water to form a smooth paste.

Peel the ripe plantains then cut into small pieces.

Blend these with tomatoes, pepper, crayfish and onions, then add warm water to form a smooth paste In a deep bowl, mix the unripe plantain flour with palm oil thoroughly, add

How to make cucumber juice Cucumber juice is a very healthy and versatile drink. Cucumbers have a high content of water and contain noteworthy amounts of potassium, silica, vitamin A, vitamin C, folate, and chlorophyll, among other nutrients. Many people add cucum-

Ingredients

IFor simple juice 3 medium cucumbers

How to prepare: Peel your cucumbers. The skin of a cucumber is coated in a protective wax. While you can eat this coating without much problem, the wax will distort the texture of the juice.

You can accomplish this task by using either a potato peeler or a sharp knife with a smooth blade.

Slice off the ends of your cucumbers using a sharp knife.

The bottom and top stem are hard, inedible parts that you should not attempt to turn into juice.

Chop the cucumbers into large chunks. The pieces can be up to one inch (2.54 centimeters) in height, width, and depth. Smaller pieces will also work, but you should avoid using pieces that are much bigger than that.

Place the cucumber chunks into a food processor or blender. You should leave a couple of inches in between the top cucumber pieces and the rim of the machine. Do not fill the food processor to the top. Run the machine for ap-

the blended mixture and mix together. Add salt to taste.

Mix very well and scoop into the containers or little nylon bags.

Note that the consistency should be slightly

PEOPLES DAILY Weekend, saturday 10-sunday 11 January, 2015

PAGE 31

Relationship

Cougars and cubs, can there be a long term relationship?

C

ougar relationships seem to have become a trend now with mature women increasingly going out with men several years younger. The term cougar refers to a 40 plus woman who is sexually interested in much younger men Individuals with considerably younger partners may find their relationship trivialized, their status reduced to superficial labels like ‘cougar’ or ‘sugar daddy’. Such terms can be used to both glamorize and demean this romance, without ever addressing the core issues involved in such unions. Thanks to high-profile celebrity couples and popular shows like Cougar Town, the word ‘cougar’ has been extended well beyond its original definition, a seductive older woman who gravitates towards much younger men and is now indiscriminately applied to any woman dating a younger man.

Not every older woman in a relationship with a younger man is a cougar. A cougar is, by definition, predatory in nature.

She is often fixated with youth and beauty. Her ego is gratified by her ability to attract a younger man.

She is not necessarily interested in commitment. At the same time, indiscriminate use of the term ‘cougar’ can verbally devalue the significance of meaningful unions between older women and younger men. Such relationships have no less inherent worth than any other relationship. However, sizable age differences of any kind can have a material impact on the relationship.

So what is it that attracts older women into a relationship with younger men? Here are some reasons why mature women seem to be increasingly getting hooked to the role of a cougar.

Younger men are more sexually desirable A major attraction of cougar relationships is the sexual aspect.

As women enter their 40s, they experience a surge in their testosterone levels and are more confident of desires. Ironically around the same time men’s levels are dipping which tones down their libido. This may be one reason why older women are attracted to younger males who can give them a better time in bed that aging males ridden with midlife crisis cannot. In fact the cubs too find the self-assurance and sexual confidence of older ladies a huge turn-on so that the relationship turns out to be mutually satisfying.

Not every woman is looking for a father figure Many women in their 40s and above have already made a mark in their professional fields. These successful women are used to taking decisions on their own, as well as managing subordinates and co-workers. It is difficult for them to suddenly fit into the role of helpless females looking to be bailed out by a father figure. These self-assured women will thus be

more comfortable with younger men who would look up to them and appreciate the position and success they command.

A younger companion is a big ego boost With increasing years, many successful and mature women may feel a need to be seen in the company of much younger men. This may be their way of proving that they are still sexually desirable and showing to the world that they still have what it takes to attract younger, goodlooking males.

How about a trophy boyfriend?

If trophy wives are the sign of ultimate luxury for older and successful men, then why not the same for women? Ladies who are in the prime of their professional and social lives often like to show off the much younger boyfriend they can afford. It is not only a mark of their material and social success but also a public advertisement, as it were, of their own sexual desirability.

The charm of the ‘metrosexual’ male For women in their 40s who have grown up with Archie Bunker, the young ‘metrosexual’ male is like a breath of fresh air.

He does not make mother-in-law jokes like the 40 plus men. The younger man is in touch with his feminine self. All these make him much preferable to the older man whose idea of a night out is watching a game of football while scratching his beer belly.

While there may be many appealing aspects to the cougar relationship, how feasible are they in the long run? All said and done, the basic premise of cougar relationships is sexual attraction, which in itself can be an insufficient reason to form a long-term attachment.

Let him chase you Despite him being a younger man, he is still a man. He is likes the hunt and the chase. Let him take the lead in asking you for your phone number and the first date. It doesn’t diminish you as a strong confident woman. His pursuit will prove that he is really into you. Also, keep options open and date other younger men in order to figure out if he is the guy you want. It may be hard especially if you feel a connection.

But, it prevents you from getting emotionally attached too soon and it allows you to see him fully.

Here are some other problems that cougar relationships may face in the long run.

Lack of companionship Cougars and cubs belong to practically two different generations. It is unlikely that they will share the same kind of interests and pursuits. Sexual attraction cannot keep a couple together. To be in a long term relationship it is essential that two people share common values, life goals and enjoy the same kind of social activities.

Growing impact of age disparity Yet another challenge that

An older woman married to a much younger man cougar relationships have to deal with is the effect of age disparity.

Although women in their 40s have what it takes to attract twentysomething males, but what about when these women enter their 50s? Will they continue to have the same hold on their men who may be just getting into the prime of their lives? It will be increasingly difficult for partners to deal with feelings of insecurity, jealousy and possessiveness that such a wide age gap is bound to entail.

The question of children A mature woman may find genuine happiness with a younger man. But if she wants children from the relationship, how feasible will it be for a twenty plus man to take on the role of a father?

Indeed if the man is himself yet to grow up emotionally, it is doubtful whether he will be able to fulfill the responsibilities that come with being a father. Again if the woman already has children from a previous marriage, it may be difficult for them to reconcile to the fact that their mom’s partner is barely older than them.

Matches your expectations Before you start dating, figure out your relationship expectations. Limited quality time vs. quantity time may suit the busy

“

cougar schedule better. And, after years of a serious relationship or marriage, dating for fun with no strings attached may be what you need. But if there is an expectation for a serious relationship, then seek a younger man who wants the same. Don’t be afraid to voice what you want. By being on the same page in the beginning, it will prevent frustration and heartbreak later if he doesn’t want the same thing. Also in early conversations, find out what he wants from the relationship. Is he marriage minded? Does he eventually want children? These discussions don’t have to happen on the first date. But as your relationship progresses, it’ is best to tackle them head on as it steers the relationship in the direction that you want.

Beware of being mommy Some younger men seek out older woman as a mother type.

It is an easy role to fall into since he may appeal to your nurturing side. It starts off innocently such as letting him borrow money or moving in if he doesn’t have a place to stay. Watch out for the early signs and avoid this type because he is not looking for a confident woman who can contribute to the relationship.

He wants someone to fill the role

that his mother no longer does.

You have raised your kids and you don’t want to raise another one.

Younger men offer the cougar an exciting romance that she may not have experienced before. By not having the baggage of exes and divorce, it is more alluring and refreshing than dating men of the same age. Once expectations are determined and the mama boys and players are weeded out, the cub of your dreams may show up for some casual fun. Or be the new love of your life.

And yet despite these challenges, the growing popularity of cougar relationships is proof enough that it may be more than a fad. In fact some of the celebrity cougar relationships have made the trend much more socially acceptable and has reduced much of the stigma that comes with an older woman-younger man pairing.

If nothing else, the highprofile cougars of today have made it clear that mature women have as much right as anybody to have a mutually fulfilling relationship with men of different age groups. And whether or not the relationship can be a long term one, ultimately depends on the kind of equation between the partners involved.

If trophy wives are the sign of ultimate luxury for older and successful men, then why not the same for women? Ladies who are in the prime of their professional and social lives often like to show off the much younger boyfriend they can afford. It is not only a mark of their material and social success but also a public advertisement, as it were, of their own sexual desirability.

PEOPLES DAILY Weekend, saturday 10-sunday 11 January, 2015

PAGE 32

Fiction

Sincerely Q- Mr Nice Guy I

“

sincerely lay no claims to being more knowledgeable than anyone. These are merely my own thoughts and understanding which can be freely criticized and debated on -please feel free to anytime. However I do believe I know better than I knew yesterday and many years before.

The sincere purpose is to be able to bless someone out there for knowledge is tyrannical unless it is shared. Enjoy!”

I think it was a month ago.

I had just finished the last dress I was working on for a wedding party that was going to go-down that weekend and my back was aching terribly. So, ignoring the heap of clean clothes that I was meant to fold and hang for the week, I jumped on my bed and tried to stretch my back.

It ached so badly that I could hear the muscles in it cracking noisily and so, I began to wish there was someone around to help massage it but then, I heard my phone beep. Shit! The phone was right across the room on my sewing machine. Muttering grudgingly beneath my breath, I struggled out of the bed and walked to the sewing machine. It was a ping from my friend Ijeoma…

IJY BABY 9:13PM Q……

HOUSE DE LA’Q 9:16PM Hi sweet….sup?

IJY BABY 9:17PM Are you done with the dress?

HOUSE DE LA’Q 9:19PM Yes o…No be small thing…my back wan fall down..

IJY BABY 9:22PM Lolx…ndo!

HOUSE DE LA’Q 9:23PM Thanks love….how far na?

IJY BABY 9:25PM I get gist for you o HOUSE DE LA’Q 9:26PM Ehen…what happened?

IJY BABY 9:27PM Eh…one bobo track me today o HOUSE DE LA’Q 9:29PM Ehen? See ghen ghen o….

IJY BABY 9:30PM As in eh…I go meet that lawyer na wey I gist you about As I wan pass door…na some

“

dude from no where come run, open am for me HOUSE DE LA’Q 9:31PM Hehehe…no be small thing.

Love at first sight IJY BABY 9:32PM I come tell am thank you… begin dey go my own … only for him to follow me reach my car.

HOUSE DE LA’Q 9:34PM Hope say he ask for your number o IJY BABY 9:35PM Wait na…the gist neva finish.

You know those their usual pick up lines na. “Your face looks familiar bla blah blah?

HOUSE DE LA’Q 9:37PM Lolx.yea IJY BABY 9:39PM He say he don see me somewhere before and all that and asked if I went to Yikpata youth camp during service. I told him yes and he said “ toh” say him see me for mami market that year although we never spoke and he never forgot my face.

HOUSE DE LA’Q 9:42PM Lolx. The guy don dey see your face since be that.

IJY BABY 9:43PM Lmao..you no well!

HOUSE DE LA’Q 9:44PM Lolx. Eh leave am like that. So wetin come happen?

Shey he collect your number.. abi na pin you give am?

IJY BABY 9:46PM Nah…He didn’t o. He didn’t even ask for my pin.

He just helped me into my car and I drove off…

HOUSE DE LA’Q 9:47PM Huh? IJY BABY 9:48PM Yes o. Me myself I was surprised but I then realized that he must have known the lawyer I went to see. So maybe he go collect my number from am.

HOUSE DE LA’Q 9:50PM Eh maybe…

That was my last response that night as I scratched my head in thought and dropped my phone.

But that wasn’t the last time we had that conversation. My friend IJ kept expecting the dude to somehow call.

It simply means they were brought up properly and have profound respect for women generally and which by the way also means, they would do the same to all women without ulterior motives.

A man opening car door for a lady “He was cute…very cute and was extremely nice to me” she kept lamenting and I wanted to tell her: He was probably just being nice and was definitely a gentle man. But because gentlemen are so rare in this part of our world, we assume that any little courtesy they extend to us, have ulterior motives which isn’t always the case. We unfortunately read more into those amazing gestures, whereas they are simply what they are…gestures.

My friend Ij cried. She insisted that since he didn’t ask for her contact, she should have asked for his. And I wanted to ask her: “What if it had been his job to open the door for you and escort you to your car? He could have

been a valet, for all we knew. You were obviously taken away by his charm that you didn’t even notice his uniform” but I was sure my friend wouldn’t want to hear that.

To her, she had just lost a golden opportunity to have been with an amazing guy. After all he was single….

But you see, the fact that these men single or not are” gentlemen”they open the door for you, pull out your chair for you at dinner, let you get into a car before them, help you with your bag if it appears too heavy, buy you flowers, pay for lunch or dinner, dust your seat for you before you sit, kiss your fingers- doesn’t mean they will make excellent boyfriends or husbands.

As a matter of fact, it doesn’t even mean they are really into you.

It simply means they were brought up properly and have profound respect for women generally and which by the way also means, they would do the same to all women without ulterior motives. So you see, to them you are just like every other woman that deserves respect. To them, they are simply being nice.

I wished then that I was able to tell my friend all of these but fortunately, our next conversation was about some other dude who never helped her into her car but did ask for her number.

So you see…

Culled from Naijastories.com

PAGE 33

PEOPLES DAILY Weekend, saturday 10-sunday 11 January, 2015

Romance

Things to know about wedding

By Patrick Andrew agency report

F

with

ew will doubt that wedding is the crown of a successful romance. Yes, two persons that share same feelings come together to exchange vows of fidelity to be loyal to each other and by so doing bond in a manner that grows humanity.

In this light, romance becomes not just a casual endeavour as is often the case today, but an age-long saga that expresses beyond feelings. It extends to the confines of one’s inner recesses to accommodate another’s feelings thereby ensures humanity remains in perpetuity, and the opposite sex have reasons for bonding in love whether agape, filial, sibling love or that involving the opposite sex.

So wedding brings together a man and woman into a sacred relationship that seeks to engender and ginger love between the couples and subsequently produces a glorious by-product like one sacred writing says ‘the fruitage of the womb’. Isn’t the arrival in the family of a bouncing baby the climax of sexual union legally sanctioned by God and therefore enjoying heavenly bliss?

Little wonder at African weddings often the best wishes is the supplication for the multiplication of the couple soonest and where that appears not to be the case parents and other relatives don’t just frown at it they express profound concerns and some tend to do ‘the needful’ to ensure that joyous moment arrives.

However, there are a lot of etiquette rules in play when it comes to weddings, and just because you’re not in the wedding doesn’t mean you’re exempt from following them.

As a guest , what might feel like “not a big deal” to you could

easily throw off a couple’s big day. Sure, mishaps may still happen, but follow these nine basic etiquette tips to make sure that you’re not the source of any of them.

So, your presence or not you can still participate in the wedding vicariously though same way you can share the feeling of the new couple at the arrival in the family of an addition thus increasing their joy especially the African way.

As Africans, we enjoy large crowd especially at weddings, so we frown when close friends aren’t at our weddings. We take it unkindly with relatives who failed to identify with us during the weddings of our children, cousins or even distant relatives, consanguinity holds more than theoretical meaning to us, it is real, nurtured and sustained and at no time than during weddings, burial and childbirth do we identify with our ‘brothers and sisters’ better.

We seldom miss opportunities in this regard to show our love. We travel long distances, even at great cost and risk, to show how much we cherish our own, and how we wish them well in the new step into the journey to legal copulation that extends our lineage. Here etiquette is given scanty consideration especially by those driven by the native sense of African brotherhood.

However, caution is needed as grow and become into absorbed into the global village where oneness doesn’t necessarily mean physical presence but a sense of togetherness and identity.

1. Respect the RSVP guidelines Planning a wedding is already a feat — give the couple a break by not making them chase down your RSVP. Send in your acceptance or regrets by the date requested and do not ask the couple if you can bring other guests/friends/plus ones/children if they were not

Wedding couple and their guests

explicitly invited.

No, not the usual African thing, do kindly confirm your presence or otherwise because it allows the director of the programme to arrange with the certain number of persons in mind. It doesn’t speak well to crash into the wedding venue or just fail to be there even after preparations were made with presence in mind.

2. Don’t change your mind at the last minute Barring any serious emergencies, you should not change your RSVP at the last minute. The couple’s already paid for your attendance and it’s just really awkward to have three courses served to an empty seat. It shows inconsideration more so if the couple had painstakingly selected their would-be guests.

3. Be on time The couple’s wedding day is one structured timeline and what seems like a minor delay of 15 or 20 minutes could seriously cut into their photography session. Show up to the venue before the invitation time but if you are cutting it close, keep a low profile in the back. Never run or try to sneak down the aisle to find a seat right before or after the bride’s processional.

“

4. Follow the couple’s social media guidelines Whether the couple wants no trace of their wedding on the Internet or wants you to Instagram all the moments, respect their wishes . Just under no circumstance should you post a less-than-flattering photo of the bride even if you happen to look really cute.

5. Don’t wear white or anything else that draws attention to yourself Also don’t wear anything that is primarily white or a dress in a hue that is really close to white. Other fashion styles on the “no” list: ball gowns bigger than the bridal gown, plunging necklines, and thigh high slits.

6.

Stay out of the professional photographer’s way This means phones down during the ceremony and leave your tablets at home. Also if a photographer asks you to step out of a shot, just do it. True, we enjoy taking photos with the wedding couple.

But stop to think, what message will you be sending as a young male if you choose to take a shot with the bride without the groom being there?

Think about that in these days of ribald? It could be a tool for

mischief to the embarrassment of the young couples especially the lady.

7. Don’t try to change tables Creating the seating chart wasn’t easy for anyone, and don’t take it upon yourself to make last minute changes — even if you suddenly spotted your childhood best friend that you did not know was also coming to the wedding.

8. Smile, have fun, and avoid drama A wedding is a festive occasion and you’re there to celebrate. No sulking in the corner, no rolling your eyes even if Uncle Josh’s speech was the worst thing you’ve ever heard, no badmouthing other guests (or anything really), and never incite drama.

9. Send a gift Plain and simple, if you were invited to the wedding, you should send a gift. Give whatever is within your means, but never give anything at all.

And always send (key word: send. Bringing box gifts to the wedding is cumbersome for all parties involved) your gift as early as possible — the longer you wait after the wedding, the more likely you are to forget.

We take it unkindly with relatives who failed to identify with us during the weddings of our children, cousins or even distant relatives, consanguinity holds more than theoretical meaning to us, it is real, nurtured and sustained and at no time than during weddings, burial and childbirth do we identify with our ‘brothers and sisters’ better.

PEOPLES DAILY Weekend, saturday 10-sunday 11 January, 2015

PAGE 34

Nollywood

Why I quit my marriage – Moji Olaiya

P

opular Yoruba actress, Moji Olaiya who recently walked out of her marriage has burst the bubbles making it known what influenced her decision to walk out of her marriage.

In a new interview recently, the actress talked about some of the closed chapters in her life; career, marriage and religious beliefs. Read excerpts from the interview below: Many actors have complained over time that the government has abandoned the film industry, in what respect can the government assist the industry?

I think with the aid of the government, we can overcome piracy. The government has failed to help the industry and that is not what is happening abroad.

There are some who, however, make money from people in government.

Have you been a benefactor of such favour before?

No, I have not.

But you were appointed a brand ambassador in Ekiti state?

Yes, I am a cultural ambassador in Ekiti which happens to be a privilege bestowed upon me by the governor. It is a gesture to appreciate and recognise my cultural impact on the youths in the state and the country Nigeria at large.

Are you saying being an ambassador of that state has no monetary benefit?

Being a cultural ambassador of a state comes with the responsibility of promoting the state. It also means being a mentor to the youths and creating avenues for them to showcase their talents in the industry.

What are the things you will love to change in Nollywood?

Many of us lack discipline and the industry is now over flooded.

In the past, people came into the industry because of the passion they had for acting but not anymore. Most of them now want to be famous quickly even when they do not have the talents. The ladies in particular, most of them go around almost unclad. These ladies forget actors and actresses are like evangelists who preach through the television screen.

Have you ever felt like quitting acting?

Coming into the industry was borne out of passion, so I cannot quit acting for anything in the

“

world.

Even marriage?

I can never quit acting for any marriage. I have said it in many interviews that even when I remarry, the man will have to love me and my profession.

You once said you are an evangelist in one interview.

I have never said I was an evangelist. I only likened acting to preaching through our movies. So that is it. You came into limelight in an English soap, Super Story, but now you feature more in Yoruba films. I have many English soaps running at the moment so it is not as if I have left the English scene.

Are you a Muslim or a Christian?

I am a Muslim.

But you were once a Christian, what happened?

Yes, I converted. I fell in love with Islam. I am not saying Christianity is not an acceptable religion but as an adult, I am at liberty to choose any religion I like. I might decide not to practice

I can never quit acting for any marriage. I have said it in many interviews that even when I re-marry, the man will have to love me and my profession.

any religion tomorrow.

Is this traceable to your background; having a Muslim mother that converted Christianity?

Somehow she might have influenced me because as a child I watched her go to the mosque five times a day. I love Islam; their mode of praying is peaceful.

The religion does not have the denominational problem like Christianity. I can go into any mosque to pray any time.

What is your relationship with popular Victor Olaiya as some believe you are not his child?

I don’t want to say much about this. If these people say I am his niece, does that not also make him my relative. And as relatives, I can also call him father. So this issue is not logical regardless of their arguments. He is my father.

Which female accessories would you never be caught without?

My earrings and wristwatches.

Perfumes?

I am not addicted to any brand of perfumes. I go for any as long as it is a designer perfume and has nice fragrance.

How have you been coping after separation from your husband?

A woman needs a man in her life. There are things a man would do that you cannot do as a woman but I have no regret leaving my marriage.

Why did you say you have no regrets?

I have no regret leaving my marriage but I regret not being under a man’s roof. It is not respectable in this part of the world. But I try to comport myself even as a divorced woman and as a typical Yoruba woman and to avoid scandal. I have a daughter to protect and cater for.

What was the cause of your failed marriage?

The marriage was not working so I had to quit. My partner went as far as abusing me so I had to leave to protect myself and my daughter.

You mean domestic violence?

Yes, domestic violence is just the right word.

Any man in the picture at present?

I am in a relationship but I am yet to be legally separated from my husband.

Were you legally married?

Yes. So at the right time I will reveal who the man is. I need somebody beside me.

Is your new film, Monsurat, born out of your marital experience?

Our mothers tell us that being over protective of one’s husband does more harm than good.

Monsurat is a story of a jealous woman who became a tigress in protecting her marriage. She went diabolical and this affected her husband’s business. Later on her husband found solace in the

arms of another woman and that was how she lost all. It is a story meant to educate our women to keep their space in the hearts of their men.

Are you really a sport person?

I love sports and I still create time for it despite my busy schedules.

Which sport in particularly do you engage in?

I play Lawn Tennis and I swim very well.

On what ground did you become matron to the ‘Yellow House’ of the school?

I am very sure one of the criteria for making me a matron here was because I grew up in this environment. I stayed here for 32 years. Also the management of the school found me worthy to mentor the pupils and I am happy about that.

Are you a product of the school?

No, I am not.

What is your perception of life?

Life is interesting when you keep a free mind towards others.

When you suspect everyone around you, you cage yourself and your feelings and it means you don’t trust yourself too. Whatever situation you find yourself, know that life will go on; it will only stop when you are tired of going on.

Source: Amebo.com

PAGE 35

PEOPLES DAILY Weekend, saturday 10-sunday 11 January, 2015

Hollywood

A to Z of 2015: The bollywood dictionary for the year ahead

B is for bonding off screen

A is for Aishwarya’s return

P

ost maternity, Aishwarya RaiBachchan kept people guessing about

her comeback. She finally returns with Sanjay Gupta’s Jazbaa opposite Irrfan Khan.

In a casting twist by Karan

G

one are the days when open catfights and superstar rivalries made news. The younger stars today believe in presenting a professional image.

Thus, we will see bonding among

Johar, she will also star with Ranbir Kapoor in Ae Dil Hai Mushkil. 2015 is exciting for her fans.

D is for dark humour

C is for cross-border actors

F

awad Khan was the find of 2014. He made a mark with Khoobsurat. Mahira Khan, another new Pakistani face who

W

i t h changing audience taste, filmmakers have woken up to using dark comedy while narrating a story. The trailers of Detective Byomkesh Bakshy,, Jagga Jasoos and Badlapur give a hint of the idea through subplots and dialogues.

It is a welcome change from routine slapstick.

E is for estranged couples

B

eing open about estranged relationships emerged as a trend in 2014. Anurag Kashyap-Kalki Koechlin and Hrithik Roshan-Sussanne Khan issued statements on their marital status. Several celebrities took to social media to announce break-ups. The fad will look up in 2015.

the younger lot and also more praises for each other. Salman and Shah Rukh Khan have set the trend lately, most notably at Arpita Khan’s wedding.

F is for festival boom

S

uperstars will continue hogging festive dates while small films continue to face release date crunch. Salman Khan has occupied Eid with Bajrangi Bhaijaan and Diwali with Prem Ratan Dhan Payo.

Akshay Kumar’s Singh Is Bling occupies Gandhi Jayanti while Baby opens in the Republic Day weekend.

was launched on the hit TV show Humsafar, is set to be Shah Rukh Khan’s heroine in Raees.

PAGE 36

Celebrity gists

PEOPLES DAILY Weekend, saturday 10-sunday 11 January, 2015

Omotola hosts widows to mark anniversary N

ollywood actress, Omotola Jalade-Ekeinde, and her husband, Captain Matthew Ekeinde, as well as their friends and family hosted widows and orphans to food, drinks, dancing and gifts recently.

In a bid to mark her 20th anniversary in entertainment,

Cosby’s live performance receives standing ovation

C

she hosted her annual end of year “Give and Let Give” where she and friends brought gift items for the less privileged amidst fun and thankfulness for a successful end of year and to welcome a new one.

At the gathering, there was a lot of dancing, fun and makeover for the widows.

Angelina Jolie screens ‘Unbroken’ at Vatican, meets Pope

A

ngelina Jolie just received an honour of a lifetime.

The A-list actress traveled to the Vatican not only to host a screening of her buzzworthy film, Unbroken, but also to meet Pope Francis. By her side throughout the trip was Luke Zamperini, the son of her film’s subject, Louis Zamperini.

“To be invited to screen Unbroken at The Vatican is an honour and a tribute to Louie’s legacy as a man of faith and someone who exemplified the power of forgiveness and the strength of the human spirit. These are universal themes at the heart of the human experience everywhere,” Jolie said in a statement.

According to Business Insider, Jolie met the 78-year-old pontiff in the throne room at the papal palace. She brought along her children, her brother and an interpreter. The meeting apparently was short and ended with the humanitarian kissing the Pope’s ring and receiving a rosary from him.

Directed and produced by Jolie, Unbroken follows the life of Olympian and war hero, Louis “Louie” Zamperini, who survived in a raft for 47 days after a near-fatal plane crash during WWII, only to be captured by the Japanese Navy. He then survives his time spent in a prisoner-of-war camp.

According to her, “Zamperini is a great man, a true hero and an inspiration. He is also our friend and we are fortunate to be in a position to bring his message to the world. It’s our responsibility to get it right because he deserves it, so we are a little nervous but excited for more people to know of his story.”

The Pope, however, already knew his story, which is why he invited the Maleficent star to screen her film at the Casina Pio IV, headquarters of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences and Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences.

Pryce to play Merchant of Venice’s Shylock at Globe

J

onathan Pryce will play Shylock in Shakespeare’s Globe upcoming production of The Merchant of Venice.

The award-winning actor will take on the role of Shakespeare’s infamous

money lender as part of the theatre’s 2015 summer season.

Jonathan Munby will direct the play, which runs from April 23 to June 7 at the open air London playhouse.

The season will also see Olivier winner,

Michelle Terry, return to the Globe to play Rosalind in As You Like It. Directed by Blanche McIntyre, it will open on May 15 and run until September 5.

Pryce won a Tony award for Comedians in 1977 and another for his performance in Miss Saigon, which also won him an Olivier. His film credits include Terry Gilliam’s Brazil, Glengarry Glen Ross, Evita and James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies.

The 67-year-old will be seen later this month as Cardinal Wolsey in BBC One’s adaptation of Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall.

The Merchant of Venice is the opening production in the Globe’s Justice and Mercy season. The season will also include productions of Shakespeare’s Richard II and King John history plays.

Terry previously appeared at Shakespeare’s Globe in Love’s Labour’s Lost in 2009 and A Midsummer Night’s Dream in 2013.

omedian Bill Cosby received a standing ovation in Canada, at the end of his first live performance since November, despite protests outside the venue.

The Cosby Show star personally thanked fans “for giving me the opportunity to bring laughter back into your lives”. He told the Ontario audience that he had “a wonderful time”.

The 77-year-old has been accused by at least 15 women of sexual assault dating back to the ‘70s and ‘80s. Three more victims came forward on Wednesday. Cosby’s lawyer made no immediate response to the latest accusations. The star, who has not been charged, has denied previous claims, calling them ‘fantastical and uncorroborated’.

The comedian’s show in Kitchener, Ontario, was the first of a three-date tour in Canada.

More than a dozen protestors gathered outside the Centre in the Square on Wednesday with placards stating ‘rape is no joke’. Some barred the entrance to the venue, before being asked to move by security.

Some ticket-holders had said they would boycott the performance, but the 2,000-seat venue was about two-thirds full. Fans attending the show said they were skeptical of the accusations: “Why are 20 women coming out now when it is 20, 30 years ago?” said one.

After a standing ovation, one audience member told the BBC, the show was everything he hoped it would be. But outside, it was bitterly cold.

Ten dates on his North American stand-up tour, as well as some scheduled TV appearances, were cancelled following the initial allegations which surfaced last autumn. He last appeared in Melbourne, Florida, on November 21, 2014.

In a statement released after the Ontario show, Cosby said: “Dear Fans: I would like to personally thank you for giving me the opportunity to bring laughter back into your lives tonight. Also, I would like to applaud all of you and give you a standing ovation for respecting yourselves, the theatre and the event organisers that produced a spectacular show for the Kitchener Community.”

Cosby became the quintessential American Dad in his role as Dr Cliff Huxtable on The Cosby Show from 1984 to 1992, which was a huge hit in the US and around the globe.

PEOPLES DAILY Weekend, saturday 10-sunday 11 January, 2015

Funke Akindele announces ‘Jenifa’ TV series

N

ollywood actress, Funke Akindele, looked all shades of lovely in her new promo pictures. According to her, this New Year she has plans to be more creative while churning out more entertainment content for her fans. She is also bringing back her hugely successful portrayal of the character, Jenifa in a new television sit-com drama.

The multi-talented star is set to unveil a Jenifa TV series and a radio talk show.

She said ‘‘I actually wanted the character to take a deserving rest but I am amazed that many years after, Jenifa’s character still resonates. Anywhere I go, it is welcome, and people love to see, hear that part of Jenifa in me. I want to believe that my portrayal of Jenifa this time will be loved more by the viewers of the drama series. There will be more chemistry with co-actors. I must quickly add that a good number of actors in the original Jenifa are involved; alongside new faces and that will be the highlight of the show.’’

PAGE 37

Ent e r t ain m en t

Actress Cameron Diaz secretly marries Benji Madden

A

fter setting a ‘No marriage rule’ for herself, Hollywood actress, Cameron Diaz, has confirmed that she had a secret marriage with her boyfriend of seven months, Benji Madden.

Earlier last month, it was revealed that the 42-year-old actress and 35-year-old Good Charlotte band-mate had gotten engaged.

The couple released a statement to People after they got married on Monday, January5, saying “We couldn’t be happier to begin our new journey together surrounded by our closest family and friends.”

The wedding guests included Reese Witherspoon, Gwyneth Paltrow, Samantha Ronson and Robin Antin.

Jourdan is first black model on Vogue cover

B

ritish fashion model, Jourdan Dunn, has made history as the first black model to land a solo cover for Vogue UK magazine in the last 13 years.

The 24-year-old model was so excited and shared the news on her Instagram page along with a cover of the magazine that she is featured on.

She captioned it ‘I am so happy to finally say I am on the cover of British Vogue!!!’ Thank you Patrick Demarchelier and Kate Phelan for making this happen and also thank you all for the love and support it means everything to me #2015YearOfTheDunn.’

The cover, which is for the February 2015 issue, shows a simple shot of Jourdan looking stunning sitting in the sunshine in a Prada SS15 short summer dress. For the shoot she was photographed by Patrick Demarchelier and styled by Kate Phelan.

The last time a black model was on the cover of Vogue UK was in 2012; over 146 covers ago with Naomi Campbell looking natural in jeans and a white vest shoot.

53yrs after death, Monroe named new face of Max factor

I

t doesn’t matter that she has been dead for 53 years, movie/ sex icon and Hollywood’s most sought after blond, Marilyn Monroe, has been named the new face of giant make-up brand, Max Factor.

Max Factor announced that Ms Monroe will be the brand’s ‘global glamour ambassador’ and will feature in this year’s advertising campaigns.

“The adverts will emphasis the role that make-up played in Monroe’s transformation, from mousy Norma Jeane Mortenson to the red-lipped, platinum-haired bombshell which cemented her reputation as one of the west’s most enduring sex symbols,” MF said in a statement.

Marilyn was a Max Factor client in the 40s and 50’s before her death in 1962. The money made from the deal will go to her estate. The sex symbol is one of the highest paid dead celebs in the world.

PEOPLES DAILY Weekend, saturday 10-sunday 11 January, 2015

PAGE 38

OUR MISSION “To be the market place of ideas and the leading player in the industry by putting the people first, upholding the truth, maintaining the highest professional and ethical standards while delivering value to our stakeholders”

OUR PEOPLE

OUR VISION

Chairman Malam Wada Maida, Oon, Fnge Director/Editor-in-Chief Rufa’i Ibrahim Managing Editor Abdul-Azeez Abdullahi

Chief Operating Officer Ali M. Ali

Deputy Manager, Production Abdul-Rauf Musa

Editor, Daily Hameed M. Bello

Manager, administration Hassan Hammanyaji

Head, Lagos Bureau Adesoji Oyinlola

Editor, Weekend Lawal Sabo Ibrahim

“To be a reputable, profitable, innovative and technologically reliant media company offering world class services and products”

ISSUES

Where are the president’s men?

Aloy Ejimakor

A

s the All Progressives Congress (APC) continues its relentless on¬slaught on Jonathan and his ad¬ministration, there is this deafening silence from the ranks of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and others that possess the best information and wherewithal to defend Jonathan.

If they are shy to defend the president, chances are that they also don’t have any plans or the will to go on the offensive in an era that partisan politics is the order of the day, ditto for the president’s macro homebase, comprising of Bayelsa and Rivers States.

The only occasional forays you see are the spontaneous gusts from Doyin Okupe, and then the few reactionary press releases from Olisa Metuh, the PDP National Publicity Secretary. There might be a few others here and there but nothing comes close to addressing or rebutting the barrage of at¬tacks hauled daily at Jonathan and the institu¬tions he commands. Then, you wonder if his men are scared.

There is no day you open the newspapers or venture into social media without being hit with this barrage of serial attacks on the president and his policies, much of it purveying flagrant distortions of his stellar achievements in office.

Conversely, you hardly see anything from the PDP or the administration geared to tell¬ing Nigerians their own story. If they believe that their few paid advertorials will cut it, they are dead wrong because Nigerians don’t trust political advertorials of any kind.

They form their opinions from articles, features and news, which quickly get vested in their minds when not contradicted.

We don’t hear about the quantum leaps in the construction of the LokojaAbuja expressway; we don’t hear about the hu¬mongous success that has become of Nige¬rian railways since Jonathan; we don’t hear about the many civil/infrastructural works completed and ongoing; we don’t hear about jobs created, the Abuja light rail, the many new tertiary institutions, almajiri education, airport projects, etc. We don’t hear anything, not even some explanations of why some few things have defied solution.

And on the hot-bottom issue of

WRITE TO US

Peoples Daily Weekend welcomes your letters, opinion articles, text messages and ‘pictures of yesteryears.’ All written contributions should be concise. Word limits: Letters - 150 words, Articles - 750 words. Please include your name and a valid location. Letters to the Editor should be addressed to: The Editor, Peoples Daily, 1st Floor Peace Plaza, 35 Ajose Adeogun Street, Utako, Abuja.

Email: opinion@peoplesdailyng.com adverts@peoplesdailyng.com pictures@peoplesdailyng.com contact@peoplesdailyng.com terrorism, you don’t see much hay being made of the string of successes regularly recorded by the Nigerian military against terrorists, plus the many attacks our gallant but harried security services continue to nip in the bud by the day. What we hear are failed missions, continu¬ally celebrated and played-up to down the collective spirit of well-meaning Nigerians, and there is no counter-point. No strong play and celebration of our soldiers that fell in the line of duty. Instead, you read annoying traducers egging Nigerian military to go on sui¬cide missions in Chibok, like the Americans did in Yemen recently. They figure that such mission will be bloody and bound to fail; and once that happens, it will then be played up for maximum negative effect against Jonathan. Daily, on the web and hard copy, we read pieces baying blood and we remain silent. It has become so pathetic that an undefended Nigerian military has done the unusual of taking to social media to respond to the hate and lies consistently being spread against it. You can imagine the toll on mo¬rale; yet, civilian political leadership gives the military no media rearguard, no soft land¬ing. Check out the unchecked APC negative play on the court martial and you would think that there is no code of military justice in Nigeria. Sad. Why are we not hearing from the min¬isters and other political appointees?

Why are they not telling Nigerians about

Jonathan’s achievements? Do they be¬lieve that every Nigerian is supposed to sniff out his achievements and travails, or are we supposed to know without being in¬formed about the milestones of the present administration? Why are party points-men keeping silent while the record of what they have done is being mercilessly distorted? And where is the famous PDP grassroots ap¬peal?

Yet, in the suburbs, in rural Nigeria, in the wards where the votes are, all you see is APC swagger sans challenge.

After conquering mainstream media, APC has now moved to social media and is fast besting the PDP there too. Don’t they know that apart from city folks, Nigerians in rural areas mostly access social media for news through their phones and androids?

This is the single factor responsible for the looming new high on Buhari. Or doesn’t the PDP know that there is such a new high, even though nurtured on unchecked propa¬ganda and false hopes. Bayelsa (and Riv¬ers), have you forsaken thy son? Your com¬placence is so open and notorious, such that those that despise Jonathan for his roots are now convinced that he is Igbo, just because it is Igbos that appear to have taken up his case.

Where are the PDP national, state and lo¬cal officials? Why are they not saying some¬thing for their party, their government, their president? Why are they busy enjoying the patronage of the party

and the government, and then expect TAN, GSG, and other non-party, citizen-driven organisations to be doing what their party ranks are supposed to do?

Even in the face of the bickering that followed the congresses, can’t the PDP summon the collective will to reclaim the political space? Or at least meet APC toe-to-toe on the turf? What about organizing ward-to-ward media meets, town halls, some noisy political fanfare?

It is tell¬ing enough that the president’s wife, as newspapers reported, has turned to ‘begging’ voters not to abandon her husband. If the ap¬paratchiks and faithful are doing their job, the first lady would only be heard basking in the glory of it all. She cried out because, as someone that shares the president’s bed, she is at a vantage point to feel the man’s pains; plus she must have noticed the same troubling trend that propelled this article.

Frankly, it does not make sense that in this era of rabid terrorism, the looming election violence and failed state predictions, the government appears to be doing nothing when certain elements openly and brazenly break national security laws in the name of politics.

Why are law enforcement agencies reticent after the governor of Gombe was nearly lynched in his own state and government vehicles in his entourage destroyed? So, even the almighty governors can no longer campaign for PDP in their do¬main? Then what happens to ordinary sup-porters of the party? And now this: Awhile ago, Governor Lamido of Jigawa cried out that he is being threatened for being a member of the PDP and pro-Jonathan.

Why didn’t the authorities or even the party act swiftly, publicly and aggressively defend the governor?

If one waxes superstitious for a moment, you will bet his last naira that APC has managed to weave some talisman or juju that has tied the PDP’s tongues. If that were to be so; then you may ask this: PDP, where art thy talisman that you have successfully relied on since 1999 to dominate federal power? Or this: Mr. President, where art thy men?

Ejimakor posted this article on Ekekeee.com

PAGE 39

PEOPLES DAILY Weekend, saturday 10-sunday 11 January, 2015

Opinion

A season for changing our minds

Tolu Ogunlesi

G

eorge Bernard Shaw it was who said: “Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.” An apocryphal quote attributed to the economist, John Maynard Keynes, echoes Shaw: “When the facts change, I change my mind.”

Generally, in the build-up to elections in Nigeria, plenty of mind-changing happens.

Politicians switch allegiances, switch godfathers, switch parties; citizens change their minds about the candidates clamouring for their votes. That is what today’s article will be about.

Take one of the most dramatic cases; that of Femi Fani-Kayode. In February 2014, he declared, in an interview, that President Goodluck Jonathan was not ‘man enough’ to tackle Boko Haram. He also threw up the super-fascinating ‘five-presidents’ theory: “The country has five presidents, and they are Mrs. Patience Jonathan, Mrs. Diezani AlisonMadueke, Mrs. Stella Oduah, Mrs. OkonjoIweala and Dr. Goodluck Jonathan. All these five presidents control the nation, but the most powerful of them is Mrs. Jonathan.”

Fani-Kayode added a killer-blow: “Jonathan has disappointed Nigerians in all sectors of the economy and if he should be allowed to continue in office, this country is heading for serious disaster.” Today, barely one year later, Fani-Kayode is in charge of ‘media and publicity’ for the president’s reelection campaign.

There are also those who have changed their minds about Muhammadu Buhari, the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate. In October 2010, as preparations for the 2011 elections intensified, Malam Nasir el-Rufai’s media office released a statement on his behalf in which Buhari was described as ‘perpetually unelectable’ for reasons ranging from highhandedness

By Adebayo Adedeji

I

know Jonathan will lose the 2015 election.

Every honest political observer knows this fact. Even some chest-beating Jona(TAN) ians know that if their principal should contest an election today, he would be roundly defeated by General Buhari. They know this; but they will not profess it openly. The reason for my position is that the goodwill which Jonathan enjoyed in 2011 is on vacation: he has bungled it. And unfortunately, he has got no visible achievement to hold on to as an alternative. All the ‘transformation agenda’ that are bandied around by his supporters are garnished and cooked-up.

Around this period in 2010, no-one will refute the fact that Goodluck was a household name in Nigeria. The ‘I-have-no-shoe’ wave blew to every nook and cranny of the country.

But today, he struggles to convince even people from his south-south geo-political zone that he has represented them well. Major roads in the Niger-Delta areas are as unmotorable as roads in other parts of the country are. The second Niger -Bridge, which was his cardinal promise to the people of the south-east and their reason for giving him unalloyed support in the 2011 election, only exists on paper. Despite the pomp and pageantry that heralded the official ‘take-off’ of the project, the site is still as silent as a graveyard.

During the 2011 election, my two very politically vibrant parents were routing for Jonathan to become the president. They campaigned rigorously for him even though they knew I was (and I’ am still) a die-inthe-wool Buharist. They premised their decision on the fact that Jonathan was from

to his intolerance for dissenting views. That statement also said that “el-Rufai believes that it is time for a new generation of leaders with new thinking and wholesome democratic attitude to move our nation forward.”

It took only a few months for him to change his mind. To his credit, he came out to acknowledge that a change of mind had taken place, and he took the pains to give reasons for “(dropping) his objection” to Buhari: first, the choice of Tunde Bakare as Buhari’s running mate, and second, “Buhari’s message of inclusion and teamwork.”

I do not think anyone should be attacked for changing their mind about a candidate, as long as they are willing to, one, acknowledge that indeed they have had cause to change their mind (instead of trying to argue about being originally “misquoted”, as Nigerian politicians like to do), and two, to make an argument as to why the ‘u-turn’ has taken place. On that note, I am eager to know why Fani-Kayode no longer thinks that a Jonathan re-election will lead Nigeria into the abyss.

Perhaps, he has explained that, and I have missed it. I’d be grateful if anyone can point it out to me. I have the feeling that if he can eloquently explain why he had the dramatic change of mind, he might be able to win new supporters for his new principal.

Just as we have had people who have changed from dislike to support (for Jonathan and Buhari), we have also had people shifting in the reverse direction. At least, I can say that for Jonathan – because I am one of them (more on that below). I know several people who enthusiastically voted for Goodluck Jonathan in 2011 (many of them under the umbrella of the “We voted Jonathan, not the PDP” movement) but today have vowed that “never again!” Many of them in fact now wholeheartedly regret that 2011 vote.

I must admit that I haven’t found

anybody who once liked Buhari, but no longer does so, who voted for him in 2011, but have decided not to vote for him in 2015. If there is any such person I will be willing to hear from them. I must of course acknowledge that Jonathan is, on the basis of his being the incumbent president, far more likely to be the one who has lost supporters between 2011 and now. That is the curse of success. Ask Barack Obama. Indeed, if Buhari does win the presidential election next month, you can bet that by 2019, there will be a slew of voters who will have grown disillusioned with him, and will be clamouring for change. It is the nature of politics.

I’ll end with a personal narrative on this theme of changing one’s mind. I wasn’t in the country during the 2011 presidential election, and so did not vote. But had I voted, it is very likely I would have voted for Jonathan. I was genuinely excited by his personal story and how he seemed to represent a new generation of Nigerian politicians (an outsider; a nonparticipant in any of the earlier phases of Nigerian politics; a man cut from cloth that was neither military khaki nor the agbada or babanriga or two-piece suit of their prominent civilian collaborators).

Once it became clear that a group of powerful persons within and outside the Yar’Adua kitchen cabinet was making moves to prevent a simple transfer of power to the then vice-president, I joined a group of my friends on protest marches in Lagos and Abuja, under the joint auspices of the “Save Nigeria Group” and “Enough Is Enough Nigeria”. For the Abuja trip, we bought our flight tickets and paid for our own accommodation; at that time, there was no Transformation Ambassadors of Nigeria, or any of those more-money-than-sense agglomerations of sycophancy, to foot any pro-Jonathan bills.

In August 2010, impressed by how Nigerians passionately took to liking

President Jonathan’s Facebook page, I described him in a newspaper article as a “breath of fresh air”. (That phrase would go on to be appropriated by the president’s people as a campaign mantra). I recall that by the end of 2010, President Jonathan had become the second-most-liked president on Facebook, after Obama. Indeed, in those early days, it all seemed so Obama-esque, and many like me fell headlong for it.

In a series of articles I wrote in my column for the now-out-of-print NEXT newspaper, I tried to put that excitement into words. In “From Canoe-Carver’s Son to Commander-in-Chief”, published in April 2011, just after he won the presidential election, I recalled my “breath of fresh air” line, and built on it: “Today, I will stretch my claim further, and declare that Mr. Jonathan is potentially a breath of fresh air to the way presidential leadership is conducted in Africa.

I think we are looking at the man destined to, not only tackle long-standing problems like power supply and poverty, but also bring farreaching reform to Africa’s largest and most messed-up political party, the PDP.” I pointed to what I thought were the qualities that stood him out: “An endearing calmness, a modesty that is rare with Nigeria’s ‘Big Men’, and a seemingly sincere desire to engage with the people he’s ruling.”

Five years later, I am more than convinced that, even after taking into consideration all of his achievements and there are achievements, no doubt, which I will talk about in a future article- Goodluck Jonathan has let Nigeria down a lot more than he has ‘transformed’ it. In that coming article, I will explain why I think so. For today, it is enough to say that I have since changed my mind about the man I considered ‘a breath of fresh air’ four years ago.

Ogunlesi can be reached on Twitter via @toluogunlesi

Why Buhari will defeat Jonathan a poor home and he would feel the pulse of an average Nigerian. But today, because of his abysmal performance, my father is a number-one fan of General Buhari and loathes everything Jonathan stands for. To my father, he is a classical case of falling from grace to grass.

In the south-west today, only the people that are benefiting directly from the abyss in which the president has plunged the country into are campaigning for his re-election.

The politicians spearheading his campaign in the south-west are Buruji Kashamu, Bode George, Femi Fani-Kayode, Gbenga Daniel and a host of other failed, tainted and corruption-ridden persons: no decent citizen wants Jonathan back. South-westerners have every reason to reject him at the polls in 2015.The Lagos-Ibadan expressway upon which his 2011 election was hinged is in a deplorable condition. Also, the SURE-P/ FERMA programme, a palliative measure set-up to appease the unemployed youth of this zone, has become a massive fraud because no applicant has collected any salary in the last six months. And yet they coerced unsuspecting applicants to cough-out over N20,000 to obtain the application form and uniform for a ghostly employment.

The south-west zone is strategic.

The electorate are mature, exposed and enlightened. Even if any of their folk fails to fulfill his electoral promises, they will turn their back at him. But if you fulfill your promise to them, they will never desert you. What any

politician needs to give them is ‘exemplary and purposeful leadership’. Unfortunately, Jonathan has failed in this regard. And in 2015, he wants them to cast their votes for him.

This thinking and expectation is antithetical.

No reasonable and free-born Yoruba will support his re-election. He knows this but is being deceived by his numerous hangers-on.

He knows the table has changed; he knows the political situations of 2011 were not the same with today’s realities.

In 2011, General Buhari could not campaign in the south-south and the southeast because of paucity of funds and hostile disposition of political juggernauts in these parts of the country. During that period, some governors issued a political ‘fatwah’ to Buhari. He was tagged a persona non-grata.

But despite the bottlenecks, he garnered a whooping 12 million votes. 12 million votes under the CPC that was less than six months old. The CPC that had no governor, senator, no House of Reps member, no assembly member, no councilor: no ready-made political structure. Conversely, Jonathan with the power of incumbency: state funds, police, DSS, Army, Navy, Air-force got 22 million votes.

However, today, the APC whose platform Buhari is planning to use to clinch the presidency, has about 14 governors and still counting… Imo, Kwara, Edo, River States where Jonathan held sway in 2011 are now for the APC. Whereas the PDP has launched all the missiles in its armoury to discredit Buhari,

it is surprising that the support base of the former military head of state keeps expanding.

Having realised that the jihadist-propaganda is stale and not flying, the PDP and their goons are now mouthing the issue of age.

But alas, they have forgotten the fact that the Great Awolowo and Azikwe were about 74 and 77 years old respectively in 1983 when the two country’s founding fathers contested that year’s presidential election. The PDP have also forgotten that their first president in the current republic, Olusegun Obasanjo, was about 70 years old in 2007 when he was fighting tooth and nail to subvert the constitution in order to perpetuate himself in office. Furthermore, the PDP will not have it smooth if they anchor Jonathan’s campaign on age because the party parades the oldest governor in the country in the person of Martin Elechi of Ebonyi State who is far older than Buhari.

The ASUU/ASUP/COEASU ‘strike’, Oduaghate, $9.8m arms deal, January 2012 fuel subsidy removal, immigration recruitment scam, Chibok girls abandonment and the failed ceasefire with the Boko Haram sect will characterise the 2015 campaign and any of these issues is weighty enough to send Jonathan back to the creeks of Otuoke, his ancestral home.

Adedeji posted this article on ABusidiqu.com can be followed on twitter @ElderKupo

PEOPLES DAILY Weekend, saturday 10-sunday 11 January, 2015

PAGE 40

Comment

Tambuwal: The Eagle clocks 49

By Imam Imam

A

s one political circle goes for another, elected office holders are traversing the length and breadth of the country giving account of their stewardship in the last four years and seeking a fresh mandate from the people. Many will face their constituents not knowing the sort of reaction they will get. For the fortunate ones, they will be received with open arms, given warm embrace and a new mandate. For the not so lucky, they will be turned back and will be told to come back in four years, perhaps then, the people’s anger against them would have subsided.

In the ancient city of Sokoto tomorrow, the Speaker of Nigeria’s House of Representatives, Hon. Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, will come before the people of his state to present his score card and ask for a new mandate, this time, a mandate to be the governor of Sokoto State for the next four years under the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC). That new mandate will be a new beginning for both Sokoto and Tambuwal. This is because, today, Saturday, January 10, Tambuwal added a new year to his life.

He clocked 49.

Much has been written about the life and politics of Tambuwal. In summary though, his courage, integrity, generosity and all-embracing character have stood high above everything else.

He has proven to be a dependable ally, one who can be trusted to be there for the people at all times. His leadership of the House of Representatives has ushered in a period of tranquility not seen in the Green Chamber since the return of democracy in Nigeria in 1999.

His performance as Speaker has set the bar in governance. His intrepidity in the face of tough challenges has inspired his colleagues and emboldened them to go about their duties without fear or favour.

For Tambuwal, seeing Nigeria rise to greatness is something akin to obsession. He has, at every available opportunity, reminded Nigerians of the need to promote democracy and respect human rights. These ideas stem from his belief that strong democracies are more likely to secure peace, deter aggression, expand markets, promote development, combat terrorism and

crime, uphold the rights of workers, avoid humanitarian crises, protect and improve the global environment and protect human health.

The Speaker’s widely circulated opinions and discourses on good governance, public service, constitutional reform, youth and women empowerment and national development cannot be lost to genuine lovers of our country. He had on many occasions demonstrated his love for country above personal interest and taught others to do the same.

In the period since Tambuwal came to national consciousness, he has not lost touch with his base. Importantly, he has maintained what the Ooni of Ife, His Imperial Majesty, Oba Okunade Sijuade, described as “the proper upbringing” the Speaker passed through from his formative years. Perhaps, taking a cue from past leaders with inestimable value to their communities, Tambuwal has maintained a simple lifestyle dedicated to the service of the less privileged.

From the likes Mahatma Gandhi, Winston Churchill, Malcolm X, Aminu Kano and Nelson Mandela, there can be as many ways to lead people as there are leaders. Of particular reference here is Malam Aminu Kano. Before he died over three decades ago, he preached and championed the cause of social justice, environmental harmony and spiritual purification. He upheld the universal principles of truth, honesty, sincerity and keeping to time. Today, these are virtues commonly attributed to Tambuwal.

“

By now, Nigerians have come to identify their number four citizen as a fearless man whose words and deeds are not at variance with the hopes and aspirations of the men and women of his beloved country. In a clime polluted by years of sheer indiscipline and unfulfilled promises, the optimism, and testimonies openly exhibited by those who followed his leadership style in Abuja will no doubt gladden the hearts of the people of Sokoto who are now set to have him as their Leader in the coming years.

Not since independence have we seen a politician promote an ideology as fervently as the Speaker does.

Tambuwal has promoted the concept of a strong dichotomy between politics and governance. To him, there is a marked difference between a candidate in electoral contest on the platform of a political party and an elected official who has assumed a non-partisan responsibility and taken oath to protect and preserve the constitution, to serve the people and the nation. While the former is not merely at liberty but under a duty to be partisan, the latter must conduct himself in a manner worthy of the call to non-partisanship in governance. And whenever partisan interests conflict with national interest it is partisan interests that must be sacrificed in the preservation of the national interest. Tambuwal’s candor, nationalistic outlook, ability to make fair and inclusive decisions, maturity and his desire to interact freely and affectionately with all Nigerians has

He has never attracted scandal to himself. He is equable in temper and felicitous in language. He has secured the House and it does not play slave to the executive, and he has defended his legislative turf. He does not play the games of tribal and religious fidelity in the way that injures the commonwealth of citizens.

today earned him the confidence of his colleagues and all Nigerians alike. His strong stance on discipline, accountability, and truth, and his penchant desire to do things differently, has set him aside and made him an example for elected office holders in the federation.

At 49, Tambuwal’s life is bedecked with the stellar. As Sam Omotseye once noted, his quiet but visionary hand has held the often tempestuous House of Representatives on an even keel. This is the same House of riot and broken chairs in the past. He has never attracted scandal to himself. He is equable in temper and felicitous in language. He has secured the House and it does not play slave to the executive, and he has defended his legislative turf.

He does not play the games of tribal and religious fidelity in the way that injures the commonwealth of citizens.

He does not carry an air of the superior personage. That explains why all the rumoured plots of presidential-inspired impeachment did not fly. He knows how to hold his own without vanity or flamboyance. He is humble without servility, effective without showiness, brilliant without bullying.

As he celebrates his birthday today, it is not just the intriguing narrative of how he was elected Speaker of the House, or how he defied countless machinations of the powers that be, that should resonate with political scientists.

That experience should also serve as a reminder of the many profound achievements we could record if we rise above the inhibiting considerations of tribe, region and religion. Tambuwal has, like US President Barack Obama said of the great Nelson Mandela, he showed us the power of action; of taking risks on behalf of our ideals. In the arc of his life, we see a man who earned his place in history through struggle and shrewdness; persistence and faith. He tells us what is possible not just in the pages of dusty history books, but in our own lives as well.

To this man of courage, I say a happy birthday.

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

Did FCTA achieve much last year?

By Ray Edmund Oche

A

t the end of 2014, Nigerians were expected to ask if leaders at various levels of government delivered on their mandate or not. And of course, the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) will not be an exception.

In a nutshell, I intend to examine the FCT Minister, Senator Bala Mohammed’s stewardship in the year 2014 with a view to bringing to the consciousness of Nigerians what this humble man from Bauchi has done to reposition the FCT in tandem with the transformation agenda of President Goodluck Jonathan.

The FCTA has been an admixture of the good, the bad and the ugly. But above all, the good in my judgment, overshadowed the bad and the ugly.

Early in the year, in its quest to attract foreign investment, the Federal Capital

Territory Administration played host to the Belgian Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. Dirk Verheyen, where modalities for the visit of 60-man Belgian companies to Nigeria were discussed. 15 of the companies are expected to invest in health, transportation and construction sectors.

Within the outgoing year, Bala’s administration revisited the suspended Park ‘n’ Pay policy by ensuring that it is given a legal backing such that there will not be any loophole for offenders to exploit through lawsuits.

And the mother of all the minister’s landmark achievements was in the area of infrastructure. A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) of the private sector-driven Centenary City project worth $18billion was signed. The city was conceived as a centre for the preservation of Nigeria’s political history and documentation of its contributions to the political, cultural

and economic development and the advancement of peace and security worldwide, as well as the hub of economic activities.

In the same vein, history was made this outgone year with the commissioning of the multi-billion naira Phases 3 and 4, Lower Usuma Dam Water Treatment Plants in Bwari Area Council. With this development, the total quantity of treated water has been increased by 200 percent from the former 10milion liters per-hour to 30million liters per-hour.

In apparent realisation of the paralyzing consequences of dwindling revenue from the federation account, he decided to work assiduously towards increasing the revenue profile of the territory through the introduction of property tax; the Abuja Revenue Board and the proposed Park ‘n’ Ride project when legal backing is given to the operations of the Abuja Metropolitan

Management Council.

The minister also signed the contract for the second phase of the railway project connecting the ever busy NyanyaMararaba axis valued at $750 million.

This is expected to ease transportation difficulties and also tackle the notorious traffic snarl in that axis.

However, it is not all sweet stories as the enemies of Nigeria decided to ply their murderous trade once again. This year, they struck at EMAB Plaza, causing devastating havoc as usual, after which the FCTA rolled out measures to contain similar attacks in the territory in the future.

With these heart-warming strides, it is expected that before the expiration of the Jonathan administration, Bala would have succeeded in silencing his myopic critics, who derive ungodly pleasure from maligning him.

Oche is a media consultant based in Abuja

PEOPLES DAILY Weekend, saturday 10-sunday 11 January, 2015

PAGE 41

Online Comments MEND endorses Buhari for president Nosa says: MEND just wants to exploit APC. Umar Borno says: MEND is focused and matured in thinking. Tell the truth no matter how bitter.

Will Muhammadu Buhari be Nigeria’s next president?

Delta1stson@Sokoto says: Psychologically speaking, neither Buhari nor Jonathan is the right person to salvage Nigeria from all her atrocities. Nigerians need a selfless person.

If I may ask, what is Buhari’s manifesto? Jonathan is confused and is surrounded with too many sycophants. Only God can help our great nation.

Ejeh Joseph says: Buhari is preferable to someone who has spent six years without achieving anything.

Ade Adeosun says: This is an interesting time for our democracy. Nigeria needs a truthful, motivated and vision oriented leader.

The time has come to change this corrupt gang of sycophants and tricksters. God bless Nigeria.

Yusuf Usman Mahuta says: The choice is in our PVC and our resolve to vote wisely. The contestants are there, the making of a greater Nigeria lies with us, the voters. God please be our guide.

Plateau indigenes in Diaspora throw support behind Sen. Pwajok Samuel Bature says: Plateau State is greater than any tribe including mine. God bless Plateau State.

Ahmadu Isaac says: Look! There is no amount of institutional cover up that will avail an old man that wants to cover his hypocritical misdeeds. Sin and wickedness together with pathological tribal selfishness will be exposed and punished right here on earth. They use the name of God to cheat the children of God. Is a Berom man the most qualified? Or better still is the God that they claim to pray to a Berom?

Patience got Buhari wrong on First Ladyship — APC Woman Leader Odogwu_Aganaga says: There should be no apologies for scrapping the office of the first lady.

It is nothing but a conduit pipe to embezzle oil money.

Patience Goodluck

Gen. Buhari

Henry Okah Delta1stson@Sokoto says: I am not partisan, but if what is the significance of the office of the first lady’?

Nigerian Supreme Islamic Council condemns FG action on Palestine freedom Delta1stson@Sokoto says: Our envoy has shown the entire world that Nigeria is a nation with confused leaders.

Withdraw from presidential race, Igbo group tells Buhari TAHIR says: Are we going to allow Jonathan ruin this country because of sectionalism?

We Cares says: What else do the Igbos’ want? You want your so called Goodluck to finish Nigeria abi? God will never allow it.

Why will Buhari withdraw when he is the only hope that Nigerians have now?

Civilians says: For me what we need in Nigeria is a change of government.

Amos Ifeanyichukwu says: It s a bait Jonathan till 2019 or Nigeria will divide.

Obi says: Ndigbo think Jonathan will hand over to them in 2019. But they are wrong. How can a chicken-hearted Jonathan hand over to the Ibos? I don’t know why we the Ibos are always on the wrong side of history. Our best bet would have been Buharri and Rochas, so that Rochas can take over from Buhari.

Buhari might not even complete his second tenure, but instead we chose not to support APC and the party had no other choice than to pick Osibanjo.

Ikeman says: When I see the baseless stand of those who claim they represent Ndigbo I become ashamed of being an Igbo man. The country is in great disorder and yet some persons are saying no to positive change. Please speak for yourself. Igbo youths need jobs and General Buhari will give us that.

Bayya says: To me, this is a baseless argument.

The question I want to ask is; when did Nigeria discover oil in the south-south?

After discovering the oil, which money

was used to build the refineries? Let me remind all Nigerians that before the discovery of oil in the south-south, Nigeria was depending solely on agricultural produce of which 65–70 percent was from the northern part of the country.

UNILAG student won Miss Curves UNILAG, rewarded with a brand new car Olufemi Olaiya says: And a university actually organised an event like this for its students? And the winner was rewarded with a car?

Really? And what does UNILAG give to its best graduating students?

South-east and abhorrence for good governance Bioseh says: This writer is Igbophobic. I wish Nigerians will realise that each group can do better on their own. I lived in Zaria, Kano and Katsina and know the places very well. I cannot even with that knowledge, stereotype the Hausa man. I am sure that the writer is bereft of ideas on how to make Nigeria a better place for all, just like his role models, who created the decrepit infrastructure we are forced to share.

Adolph says: The same Igbos that helped the

Gov. Dickson

Obasanjo administration secure relief from our stifling IMF debt. This same Igbos helped to consolidate the banks, gave our airports a new lease of life after decades of neglect. And let us look at it closely. Who is actually getting the benefits of these developmental projects?

You have the train from Lagos to Kano (benefiting the north the most).

You have the trains about to roll from Abuja to Kaduna (benefiting the north the most). You have the Abuja light rail, all in the north.

What do we have in the south east, a Niger bridge blueprint that is gathering dust and a glorified international airport in Enugu.

Father Mbaka and the pouring rain on the umbrella Egri Ejembi says: Bravo! For once in a long time, a Nigerian writer has written a piece that is concise, witty, courageous and devoid of silly grammatical errors.

Lamido, Dickson, other govs absent at Jonathan’s campaign inauguration Emman says: MEND has endorsed Buhari, change is inevitable.

Gov. Lamido

PEOPLES DAILY Weekend, saturday 10-sunday 11 January, 2015

PAGE 42

Politics

You can’t vote with transferred card, says INEC Interview

Mr Kayode Idowu is the spokesman of the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Mallam Attahiru Jega. In an interview he granted Channels Television, he said those who requested late for the transfer of their voter’s card to their new places of residence are unlikely to vote in next month’s general elections

S

upposing a voter registered in Ibadan but later moved to Lagos, is it possible for the voter to transfer his voter card to Lagos where he currently lives and still vote in next month’s elections?

If any voter seeks to transfer his voter card from his former place of dwelling to the new one, well he is free to transfer now but you are not likely to be able to get into the register for authentic voters. That means you are not likely to vote. So my advice is to go to the place where he had been registered before now and vote there.

But can’t I apply to INEC office in Lagos and then contact its sister office say in Oyo and see what they can do for him, should the electorate be the one going back to get the transfer done?

Apparently, you don’t have to go back to where you had registered if you had done the transfer request on time. But if you did not do it in good time, say if you registered in Zamfara and you are now in Lagos and

want to vote in Lagos if your card had been printed in Zamfara already you will have to back and collect it and after go then you would have to go to the Resident Electoral Officer in Lagos and say look I registered in Zamfara but now reside in Lagos and want to vote (you may actually not go to the RECON but to the local government electoral officer where you are resident say Yaba, Alomosho or Ikeja tell him you want to move your data from Zamfara to Lagos and the officer will discuss that with the RECON in Zamfara for you to be given another card.

“

What is zero unit and what happens to people in 2011 who have no card for the 2015 exercise?

For every zero polling units “we call them zero unit” because may be out of the people that registered there we have a less number to whose data were adequately captured.

Now, for those people, these are the polling units that we refer to during the continuous voter registration, we gather the data at the polling unit level.

If you recall the continuous voter registration was done nationwide at the ward level.

If you had registered during the CVR, I can assure you that your card is being produced and in due time it will be given to you. Your only challenge will be if you did not register during the CVR.

How to judge candidates for February elections-NLC

Comrade Isa Aremu, (NLC)

T

he Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has listed five criteria for Nigerians to consider in voting for candidates seeking elective offices at various levels of governance in the February 2015 elections.

Vice President of the council, Comrade Issa Aremu, who gave the conditions, also expressed optimism that the coming elections just like the five previous transitions Nigeria has had, would be successful.

Aremu, who is also the General Secretary, National Union of Textile, Garment and Tailoring Workers of Nigeria, while speaking in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital, at the celebration of life and books presentation to mark his 54th

birthday which also coincided with the 50th birthday of his wife, Hajia Amudalat, held at Justice Musptapha Akanbi Foundation.

Reflecting on one of his books “Reflection of Africa”, he lamented that Nigeria leaders have derailed from the ideology of it founding fathers as a result of which he said the country is being “messed up by small, small countries in Africa”.

As a way of returning the country’s lost glories, Aremu said, Nigerians must start with the coming elections.”In this election, let’s judge the candidates by what they stand for in terms of industry, job creation, remuneration of workers, their vision for Nigeria in Africa and the world”.

“This election, I have no doubt

will be successful, we have done it before, we have had five transitions, votes will count”, Aremu said.

He urged the electorate like they have done in recent election in Osun state to come out en- mas to vote and “police their votes”.

Osun State governor, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, while presenting one of the books written by the author, said since 1999,Nigerians have experienced decline in the quality of their lives and infrastructural decay because of the” waste of resources by bunch of people who have no business in government”.

He blamed the failure of the Nigerian government to tackle the issue of oil theft which he said had cost the country N1.2trillion loss since July 2013 to 2014, and the current” madness in the middle east”, as major factor responsible for the “depression in the oil market”.

Aregbesola, who urged Nigerians to vote out the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) government, said Nigeria now needs “a patriot” who will rescue the country.

“We must stop corruption; we must stop mismanagement of resources. We have tried them for 15 years, our situation has not improved”, Aregbesola said.

Mr Kayode Idowu, INEC spokesperson But for the polling units where most of the people did not have their data adequately captured we returned there to virtually repeat the exercise. And so you have the opportunity of the continuous voter registration to have their data recaptured so that they will be given PVC. How about those whose data were lost by the INEC and though they registered late last year are yet to get their voter cards?

That INEC lost their voter cards is the same thing as your

data not being appropriately captured especially their finger prints. Those were the people we asked to come back and reregister during the continuous voter registration. If you had registered during the CVR, I can assure you that your card is being produced and in due time it will be given to you. Your only challenge will be if you did not register during the CVR. How long will it take for me to have a new card?

That was why registration needs to be done on time.

Ebonyi assembly may impeach Elechi

T

here are strong indications that the Ebonyi State House of Assembly may soon commence impeachment move on Governor Martin Elechi over alleged financial misconduct and anti -party activities.

According to reports a source close to the state legislators said plans have reached an advanced stage for the collection of names of members that are disposed to the plot.

The source said the move is a fall out of the ongoing cold war between Elechi and the Secretary to the government of the Federation, (SGF), Anyim Pius Anyim, who was said to be the arrow head of the governors impeachment plot.

Among Governor Elechi’s arch political enemies, according to the source, are his Deputy, Engineer Dave Umeahi, and immediate past governor of the state, Dr. Sam Egwu.

The ongoing crisis, has swallowed the governor’s political structure in the state, a development that made it impossible for him to deliver his anointed gubernatorial aspirant and ex- minister of Health, Professor Onyebuchi Chukwu during the last PDP governorship primaries.

Apart from failing to deliver

all his preferred aspirants during the PDP primaries, Elechi, who was nursing a senatorial ambition earlier, could not also deliver him self.

“It will take a miracle for Governor Martin Elechi of Ebonyi state, to complete his tenure. I want to tell you that if political development in the state is anything to go by, you will agree with me that the governor is finished politically.

“You saw how his candidate for the PDP governorship ticket, Professor Onyebuchi Chukwu, was disgraced, and the governor himself embarrassed during the primaries,” the source.

However, investigations revealed that majority of the state lawmakers loyal to Anyim are equally accusing the governor of anti-party activities.

They alleged that since the governor lost the PDP structure in the state during the party primaries, he has been funding the Labour Party (LP) as an alternative for his supporters who recently defected to it en-mas.

It would be recalled that only few days ago, the state House of Assembly had via a resolution dissolved the 13 local government caretaker committees and boards of the state agencies.

Biographies

PEOPLES DAILY Weekend, saturday 10-sunday 11 January, 2015

PAGE 43

Kwame Nkrumah (1909 – 1972)

K

wame Nkrumah, (21 September 1909 – 27 April 1972) was the leader of Ghana and its predecessor state, the Gold Coast, from 1951 to 1966. Overseeing the nation’s independence from British colonisation in 1957, Nkrumah was the first President of Ghana and the first Prime Minister of Ghana. An influential 20th-century advocate of Pan-Africanism, he was a founding member of the Organisation of African Unity and was the winner of the Lenin Peace Prize in 1963. He saw himself as an African Lenin.

Early life and education Kwame Nkrumah was born as Francis Nwia Kofi Ngonloma in 1909 in Nkroful, Gold Coast.Nkrumah studied to be a teacher at Achimota School in Accra from 1925 to 1935. For the following five years he worked as a teacher in several schools in the Gold Coast including a Roman Catholic school in Axim, while he was saving money to continue his education in the United States of America.

In 1935, Nkrumah sailed from Takoradi, Gold Coast, to Liverpool, England, and made his way to London, England, where he applied and received his student visa from the American Embassy.

It was while Nkrumah was in London in late 1935 that he heard the news of the Invasion of Abyssinia by fascist Italy, an event that outraged the young Nkrumah.

This prompted him to set his sights on a political career.

In October 1935, Nkrumah sailed from Liverpool to the United States, where he enrolled at the Lincoln University of Pennsylvania. He completed his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1939, and then he completed his Bachelor of Sacred Theology degree in 1942. He also became a member of Phi Beta Sigma fraternity.

Nkrumah also earned his Master of Science degree in education from the University of Pennsylvania in 1942, and then his M.A. in philosophy in 1943.

While he was lecturing in political science at Lincoln University, he was elected the president of the African Students Organization of the United States and Canada. As an undergraduate student at Lincoln University, he took part in at least one student theater production, and he published an essay on European government in Africa in the student newspaper called The Lincolnian.

During his time in the United States, Nkrumah also preached at black Presbyterian churches in Philadelphia and New York City.[9] He read books about politics and divinity, and tutored students in philosophy. Nkrumah encountered the ideas of Marcus Garvey and in 1943 met and began a lengthy correspondence with Trinidadian Marxist C. L. R. James, Russian expatriate Raya Dunayevskaya, and ChineseAmerican Grace Lee Boggs, all of whom were members of an American-based Trotskyist intellectual cohort. Nkrumah later credited James with teaching him “how an underground movement worked”. Nkrumah’s association with these radicals drew him to the attention of the FBI, and he was placed under surveillance by the early part of 1945.

Nkrumah returned to London in May 1945 with the intention of studying at the London School of Economics.[9] After meeting with George Padmore, he helped organize the Fifth Pan-African Congress in Manchester, England.

Then he founded the West African National Secretariat to work towards the decolonization of Africa. Nkrumah served as Vice-President of the West African Students’ Union (WASU). Nkrumah’s association with left wing radicals meant that he was watched by the Special Branch while he was in England between 1945 and 1947.

Return to the Gold Coast In the autumn of 1947, Nkrumah was invited to serve as the General Secretary to the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC) under Joseph Boakye Danquah.

[10] This political convention was exploring paths to independence.

Nkrumah accepted the position and sailed for the Gold Coast. After brief stops in Sierra Leone, Liberia, and the Ivory

Nkrumah Coast, he arrived in the Gold Coast on 10 December 1947.

On 28 February 1948, police fired on African ex-servicemen protesting the rising cost of living, killing three and injuring sixty.[11] The shooting spurred riots in Accra, Kumasi, and elsewhere.

The government suspected the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC) was behind the protests and on 12 March 1948 arrested Nkrumah and other party leaders. Realizing their error, the British released the convention leaders on 12 April 1948. After his imprisonment by the colonial government, Nkrumah emerged as the leader of the youth movement in 1948.

After his release from prison, Nkrumah hitchhiked around the country. He proclaimed that the Gold Coast needed “self-governance now”, and built a large power base. Cocoa farmers rallied to his cause. He invited women to participate in the political process at a time when women’s suffrage was new to Africa. The trade unions also allied with Nkrumah’s movement. On 12 June 1949, he organized these groups into a new political party: The Convention People’s Party (CPP).

The British convened a selected commission of middle-class Africans to draft a new constitution that would give Ghana more self-government. Under the new constitution, only those with sufficient wage and property would be allowed to vote. Nkrumah organized a “People’s Assembly” with CPP party members, youth, trade unionists, farmers, and veterans. They called for universal franchise without property qualifications, a separate house of chiefs, and selfgoverning status under the Statute of Westminster 1931. These amendments, known as the Constitutional Proposals of October 1949, were rejected by the colonial administration.

Nkrumah with Egyptian Egyptologist Pahor Labib at the Coptic Museum, 1956 When the colonial administration rejected the People’s Assembly’s recommendations, Nkrumah organized a “Positive Action” campaign on 1 January 1950, including civil disobedience, non-cooperation, boycotts, and strikes.

That day the colonial administration immediately arrested Nkrumah and many CPP supporters, and he was sentenced to three years in prison.

Facing international protests and internal resistance, the British decided to leave the Gold Coast. Britain organized the first general election to be held under universal franchise on 5–10 February 1951. Though Nkrumah was in jail, his CPP was elected by a landslide, taking 34 out of 38 elected seats in the Legislative Assembly. Komla Agbeli Gbedemah is credited with organizing Nkrumah’s entire campaign while he (Nkrumah) was still in prison at Fort James.[12] Nkrumah was released from prison on 12 February and was summoned by Sir Charles Arden-Clarke, the Governor, and asked to form a government on 13 February. The new Legislative Assembly met on 20 February, with Nkrumah as Leader of Government Business, and E.C. Quist as President of the Assembly.

A year later, the constitution was amended to provide for a Prime Minister on 10 March 1952, and Nkrumah was

elected to that post by a secret ballot in the Assembly, 45 to 31, with eight abstentions on 21 March.

He presented his “Motion of Destiny” to the Assembly, requesting independence within the British Commonwealth “as soon as the necessary constitutional arrangements are made” on 10 July 1953, and that body approved it.

Independence As a leader of this government, Nkrumah faced many challenges: first, to learn to govern; second, to unify the four territories of the Gold Coast; third, to win his nation’s complete independence from the United Kingdom. Nkrumah was successful at all three goals. Within six years of his release from prison, he was the leader of an independent nation.

At 12 noon on 6 March 1957, Nkrumah declared Ghana independent.

The country became a Commonwealth realm. He was hailed as the Osagyefo which means “redeemer” in the Akan language.

On 6 March 1960, Nkrumah announced plans for a new constitution which would make Ghana a republic. The draft included a provision to surrender Ghanaian sovereignty to a Union of African States. On 19, 23, and 27 April 1960 a presidential election and plebiscite on the constitution were held. The constitution was ratified and Nkrumah was elected president over J. B. Danquah, the UP candidate, 1,016,076 to 124,623.

In 1961, Nkrumah laid the first stones in the foundation of the Kwame Nkrumah Ideological Institute created to train Ghanaian civil servants as well as promote Pan-Africanism. In 1964, all students entering college in Ghana were required to attend a two-week “ideological orientation” at the Institute.

[14] Nkrumah remarked that “trainees should be made to realize the party’s ideology is religion, and should be practiced faithfully and fervently.”

In 1963, Kwame Nkrumah was awarded the Lenin Peace Prize by the Soviet Union. Ghana became a charter member of the Organisation of African Unity in 1963.

The Gold Coast had been among the wealthiest and most socially advanced areas in Africa, with schools, railways, hospitals, social security and an advanced economy. Under Nkrumah’s leadership, Ghana adopted some socialist policies and practices. Nkrumah created a welfare system, started various community programs, and established schools.

Nkrumah’s time in office was initially successful, with forestry, fishing, and cattle-breeding expanded, production of cocoa (Ghana’s main export) doubled, and modest deposits of bauxite and gold exploited more effectively. The construction of a dam on the Volta River (launched in 1961) provided water for irrigation and hydro-electric power, which produced enough electricity for the towns as well as for a new aluminum plant. Government funds were also provided for village projects in which local people built schools and roads,[16] while free health care and education were introduced.

Politics Nkrumah and his family meeting Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser during the 1965 OAU Summit in Accra.

He generally took a non-aligned Marxist perspective on economics, and believed capitalism had malignant effects that were going to stay with Africa for a long time. Although he was clear on distancing himself from the African socialism of many of his contemporaries, Nkrumah argued that socialism was the system that would best accommodate the changes that capitalism had brought, while still respecting African values. He specifically addresses these issues and his politics in a 1967 essay entitled “African Socialism Revisited”: “We know that the traditional African society was founded on principles of egalitarianism. In its actual workings, however, it had various shortcomings.

Its humanist impulse, nevertheless, is something that continues to urge us towards our all-African socialist

reconstruction. We postulate each man to be an end in himself, not merely a means; and we accept the necessity of guaranteeing each man equal opportunities for his development.

The implications of this for sociopolitical practice have to be worked out scientifically, and the necessary social and economic policies pursued with resolution. Any meaningful humanism must begin from egalitarianism and must lead to objectively chosen policies for safeguarding and sustaining egalitarianism. Hence, socialism. Hence, also, scientific socialism.”

Nkrumah was also best-known politically for his strong commitment to and promotion of Pan-Africanism.

He was inspired by the writings of black intellectuals such as Marcus Garvey, W. E. B. Du Bois, and George Padmore, and his relationships with them. Much of his understanding and relationship to these men was created during his years in America as a student. Some would argue that his greatest inspiration was Marcus Garvey. Although he also had a meaningful relationship with C.L.R. James. Nkrumah looked to these men in order to craft a general solution to the ills of Africa. To follow in these intellectual footsteps Nkrumah had intended to continue his education in London, but ultimately found himself involved in direct activism. Then, motivated by advice from Du Bois, Nkrumah decided to focus on creating peace in Africa. Nkrumah’s dedications to panafricanism in action attracted these intellectuals to his Ghanaian projects.

Many Americans, such as Du Bois and Kwame Ture, moved to Ghana to join him in his efforts. These men are buried there today.[19] His press officer for six years was the Grenadian anticolonialist Sam Morris. Nkrumah’s biggest success in this area was his significant influence in the founding of the Organisation of African Unity.

Economics Nkrumah attempted to rapidly industrialize Ghana’s economy. He reasoned that if Ghana escaped the colonial trade system by reducing dependence on foreign capital, technology, and material goods, it could become truly independent. However, overspending on capital projects caused the country to be driven into debt— estimated as much as $1 billion USD by the time he was ousted in 1966.

Decline and fall The year 1954 was pivotal for the Nkrumah era. In that year’s independence elections, he tallied some of the independence election vote.

However, that same year saw the world price of cocoa rise from £150 to £450 per ton. Rather than allowing cocoa farmers to maintain the windfall, Nkrumah appropriated the increased revenue via central government levies, then invested the capital into various national development projects. This policy alienated one of the major constituencies that helped him come to power.

Exile, death and tributes Nkrumah never returned to Ghana, but he continued to push for his vision of African unity. He lived in exile in Conakry, Guinea, as the guest of President Ahmed Sékou Touré, who made him honorary co-president of the country. He read, wrote, corresponded, gardened, and entertained guests.

Despite retirement from public office, he felt that he was still threatened by western intelligence agencies. When his cook died mysteriously, he feared that someone would poison him, and began hoarding food in his room. He suspected that foreign agents were going through his mail, and lived in constant fear of abduction and assassination. In failing health, he flew to Bucharest, Romania, for medical treatment in August 1971. He died of prostate cancer in April 1972 at the age of 62.

Nkrumah was buried in a tomb in the village of his birth, Nkroful, Ghana.

While the tomb remains in Nkroful, his remains were transferred to a large national memorial tomb and park in Accra.

PEOPLES DAILY Weekend, saturday 10-sunday 11 January, 2015

PAGE 44

Archive

Genghis Khan and the hunt for his long-lost tomb

W

hen Genghis Khan died, he didn’t want to be found.

So soldiers in his burial party butchered anyone they saw on their way to his burial tomb. Then they killed the people who built the monument.

Then, finally, they killed themselves. Who knows whether the perhaps apocryphal tale is true, but even today, nearly 800 years following the death of the greatest conqueror the world has ever known, the location of his tomb remains unknown.

Many people have tried to find it, from archaeologists who uncovered Genghis Khan’s palace to some attorney in Chicago who led an expedition to 60 unopened tombs in the Mongol warlord’s realm. The quest is for both history — and for riches. According to Mongolia Today, incredible treasures were buried with Genghis Khan from every corner of his vast empire and, as one researcher told the Associated Press, “if we find what items were buried with him, we could write a new page for world history.”

That page may be written sooner than many imagine.

That’s thanks to a novel new way to search for the tomb that scours vast tracts of underpopulated and undulating Mongol terrain — from space. Yes, space.

“Ultra-high resolution satellite imaging enables a new paradigm in global exploration,” said study published last week in the journal PLOS One. But the breadth of the search was so daunting and vast that researchers with the University of California at San Diego, led by Albert Yu-Min Lin, have outsourced the search to the general public.

“This is a needle in a haystack problem where the appearance of the needle is unknown,” wrote Lin, who has been described as a “modern-day Indiana Jones” and has been photographed dramatically riding horses across the Mongol expanse. So “we charged an online crowd of volunteer participants with the challenge of finding the tomb of Ghengis Khan, an archaeological enigma of unknown characteristics widely believed to be hidden somewhere within the range of our satellite imagery.”

One of the problems, however, is that there was so much land to study. The sweep of Genghis Khan’s empire, which began when he united Mongolia’s warring tribes in the early 13th century, is dizzying to contemplate. It first subsumed all of what is modern-day Mongolia

Genghis Khan before spilling across Asia on the might of the Mongol invasions, conquering terrain from China to the gates of Western Europe by the turn of the century. Many now suspect Khan’s final resting place is much closer to the roots of his power — in Mongolia itself, near the site of his palace, which sat around 150 miles east of the nation’s modern capital.

So in a partnership with National Geographic, Lin’s team constructed a landscape of more than 84,000 tiles that spanned more than 6,000 square kilometers and launched what they

“

called a “virtual exploration system” in 2010. The task for participants: Tag anything that looks like it could be an “archaeological enigma that lacks any historical description of its potential visual appearance.”

It was essential to get help, the paper said: “A single archaeologist would have to scroll through nearly 20,000 screens before covering the whole area.”

Still, no one expected they would get so much of it.

More than 10,000 people gave it a go, tagging anything they thought looked like a lo-

cation where a great Mongol warlord would want to rest in peace. In all, they clocked more than three years worth of work — 30,000 hours — and generated more than 2 million tags.

From that number, the researchers have culled 100 locations for further inquiry and identified 55 “potential archaeological anomalies” that ranged from the Bronze Age to the Mongol period.

So far, no Khan yet. But the search is complicated by a number of factors unique to the quest for Khan’s tomb. As explained by Vice’s Ben Richmond, the Mon-

The sweep of Genghis Khan’s empire, which began when he united Mongolia’s warring tribes in the early 13th century, is dizzying to contemplate. It first subsumed all of what is modern-day Mongolia before spilling across Asia on the might of the Mongol invasions, conquering terrain from China to the gates of Western Europe by the turn of the century.

gols absolutely hate archaeologists trampling on their turf disturbing the nation’s most holy sites. In fact, the spot where a lot of people thought Khan was buried is actually one of the country’s most sacred spots. It’s called Ikh Khorig, which translates literally to the “great taboo,” but is often called the “forbidden zone” by outsiders.

Lin, who reports described as “obsessed” with Genghis Khan and finding his tomb, also searched the forbidden zone, but found zilch. “The team pushed its way through the thick, boar-infested brush surrounding it and clambered to the top,” as National Geographic described one of the expedition’s analyses. “A test probe, however, revealed that the hill was just a hill.”

But now, thanks to his crowdsourcing study, he has a whole new slew of potential sites to explore and try and discover the tomb. Still, how to side-step Mongolia’s reservations about expeditions? “Mongolians detest any attempt to touch graves, or even wander around graveyards,” Mongolia Today said. “According to ancient tradition, burial spots are forbidden areas in which no one is allowed.”

So he hopes to find it from space — and now he says he can.

Source: washingtonpost.

PEOPLES DAILY Weekend, saturday 10-sunday 11 January, 2015

PAGE 45

Digest

How computers will replace your doctor

The "doctor" will see you now

A

nd open the door to a new boom in the nursing industry You’ve probably read some widespread sillinesses about how technology is moving us toward a world split between “high-skill” and “low-skill” jobs. Worriers claim that people with high-skill jobs will gobble up all of the economic pie, and those with lowskill jobs will be left with mere crumbs. This notion was perhaps best exemplified by economist Tyler Cowen’s book Average is Over.

This is nonsense. Because high-skill jobs are in peril, too.

And sometimes, their death will make way for a raft of new “lowskill” jobs.

For example, look at the future of the general practitioner of medicine. This is considered the epitome of the high-skilled, secure, remunerative job. Four years of college! Four years of medical school! Internship! Residency!

Government-protected cartel membership!

And yet, this profession is going the way of the dodo bird.

To understand why, the first thing you need to understand is that multiple studies have shown that software is better able to diagnose illnesses, with fewer misdiagnoses. Health wonks love this trend, known as evidence-based diagnosis, and medical doctors loathe it, because who cares about

“

saving lives when you can avoid the humiliation of having a computer tell you what to do.

Then you need to look at companies like Theranos, which allow you to get a blood test cheaply and easily at Walgreens, and get more information about your health than you’d get in a typical doctor’s

visit.

Then look at a company like Sherpaa, whose mobile app provides you diagnoses, helps you get your prescriptions filled, refers you to specialists, and so on. Right now, Sherpaa works with doctors.

But there’s no reason to think it couldn’t eventually work with

Software is better able to diagnose illnesses, with fewer misdiagnoses.

Health wonks love this trend, known as evidence-based diagnosis, and medical doctors loathe it, because who cares about saving lives when you can avoid the humiliation of having a computer tell you what to do.

software (and in the meantime, work with cheaper Indian doctors rather than morbidly expensive American doctors).

But, you say, we won’t be able to get rid of the human general practitioner absolutely. People will still need human judgment, and the human touch.

You are right — absolutely right. But the human we need is someone with training closer to a nurse’s than a doctor’s, and augmented by the right software, would be both cheaper and more effective than a doctor. You might pay a monthly subscription to be able to treat this person as your family “doctor” — although most of your interaction would be with software via an app. They’d be better than a doctor, too — trained in general wellness and prevention, and being able to refer you to specialists if need be.

What room is there left for generalist doctors in that scenario? None. They’re the ones who the internet will replace; and it is nurses and other “low-skilled” health workers who will do best out of this shift. And most importantly, it will be great for patients.

Source: theweek.com

PEOPLES DAILY Weekend, saturday 10-sunday 11 January, 2015

PAGE 46

International

Trading in souls: Inside the world of the people smugglers A

bu Hamada, the kingpin of the Syrian smuggling network in Egypt, earns about £30,000 a week but sees nothing wrong in profiting from desperate migrants Abu Hamada, a 62-year-old civil engineer from the outskirts of Damascus, has not built much for several years, and yet by his own calculations he has earned about £1,500,000 in the past six months. That is because since moving to Egypt after the Syrian civil war started, this SyrianPalestinian refugee has found a far more lucrative line of work – smuggling.

As the recent discovery of two unmanned “ghost ships” carrying hundreds of migrants to Italy showed, refugees are looking to cross the Mediterranean in ever more desperate ways, amid what the International Organisation for Migration now believes is the world’s largest wave of mass migration [] since the end of the second world war.

And newcomers to the smuggling trade are cashing in. Barely a year after starting business, Abu Hamada is the kingpin of the Syrian smuggling network in Egypt.

The majority of Syrians attempting to cross the Mediterranean from Egypt to Italy are likely to sign up with one of his web of brokers. From May until October, the period when the weather allowed for smuggling missions, Abu Hamada’s men organised on average two trips a week, each earning him a profit of at least £30,000.

Critics say he is profiting from people’s misfortune, indifferent to their suffering and in some cases causing it. Some of his team’s clients were on a now-notorious ship that sank near Malta in early September, killing more than 300 people. “They are the worst kind of humans,” says one of the gang’s would-be passengers, Osama, who was arrested – fortunately, as it turned out – as he waited to board the doomed vessel. “They don’t value anything apart from money.”

But holding forth in the small hours of a recent morning, during what he says is his first interview, Abu Hamada claims he’s the good guy. “What’s wrong with making a profit?” he says, sitting with some of his assistants in a tea garden in an affluent Cairo suburb. “If I’m making money at the same time as helping my countrymen, what’s the problem? I’m the only person people can trust in this business.”

The European Union has scaled back its Mediterranean rescue operation, in the hope that a reduction in the number of coastguards will discourage migrants from attempting a voyage that claimed more than 3,000 lives in the past year. But such a strategy underestimates the demand for smugglers such as Abu Hamada. Last year, he trafficked an estimated 10,000 people, and this year’s figure could be even higher.

There is no one way of smuggling people across the Mediterranean. Eritreans, Syrians, Palestinians and Egyptians are among the many different migrants attempting to get to Europe from Egypt.

A rubber dinghy with 104 sub-Saharan Africans on board waiting to be rescued by the Migrant Offshore Aid Station off the Libyan coast.

Interviews with two land-based smugglers, three ship-owners and dozens of migrants suggest different communities have different networks, and that the methods and terminologies used change from country to country, smuggler to smuggler, and even from week to week.

No single person controls every aspect of every trip. Foreign brokers such as Abu Hamada and his deputy and nephew Abu Uday (both are known by their nicknames) need Egyptian colleagues to carry out certain aspects of the operation, particularly at sea. But Abu Hamada is the central player in his network, the man through whom all money passes. Without him, his trips would not happen.

The process starts far from the sea itself. Individual migrants approach one of Abu Hamada’s Syrian brokers in their neighbourhood and fix a price. “It’s very easy to find someone – everyone knows a smuggler or two,” says Mehyar, a 23-year-old Syrian refugee who successfully made the trip last year. “In fact, you don’t need to find them. They find you.”

Abu Hamada’s men claim they charge a fixed price of $1,900 (£1,250) a person, but in reality the price fluctuates. Some pay as much as $3,500, some as low as $1,500.

The more you pay, the sooner you get to the boat.

All the money will eventually flow into a central fund controlled

by Abu Hamada, from which he pays for the ship, the crew, his staff, transport costs and other expenses. But first the migrant usually pays the money to a third party trusted by both sides. Only when the passenger successfully reaches Italy should the third party release the money to Abu Hamada.

“If the ship sinks or it goes to Greece, we lose all the money,” says Abu Uday, an engineer, like

his uncle, in a past life. “It’s harder to get to [the rest of] Europe from Greece.”

But if the migrants arrive safely, there is money to be made – and not just for Abu Hamada.

Each boat of 200 passengers gives him a turnover of about $380,000.

Of this, he spends half on the boat and about $70,000 on the various costs related to bussing migrants to the sea. A further $30,000 goes on housing the migrants in the days before their departure. The boat crew get $15,000, as do the brokers that find the migrants. After a few extra costs, Abu Hamada is usually left at the end of every trip with a profit of about $45,000$50,000.

To get to the ship, migrants must first reach the port of Alexandria, Egypt’s second city and the hub of the smuggling networks on the Egyptian coast. A few are driven there directly, but Abu Hamada’s clients are given a time and place to meet and make their own way there.

Once in Alexandria, the migrants are hustled into shabby apartments in suburbs such as Palm Beach and Miami. Their names are evocative of more prosperous places, but in reality these are gloomy forests of tower blocks.

And it is here that Abu Hamada block-books dozens of apartments, all summer long, for use as a holding bay for his clients before they leave for the ships.

“You stay two or three days there,” says Osama, the Syrian refugee who tried to travel with Abu Hamada this year. “Then they come and put a big group of you in buses.” Under cover of darkness, these buses drive the migrants for several hours to remote spots along the Mediterranean coast. If all goes to plan, which it often doesn’t, they then board dinghies at the beach.

The dinghies take them to a larger

vessel that carries them, hopefully, to Italy within a fortnight.

But few make the ship on the first attempt. The weather, the police and the coastguards can all force the buses to return to Alexandria for another night or more.

One Syrian interviewee said she has had 30 false starts, and after each attempt she was brought back to Alexandria. She is still stuck in Egypt.

The buses are organised by an Egyptian – known in the business as the monassek or dalil – and it is at this point that Abu Hamada’s and Abu Uday’s control of proceedings begins to loosen. As foreigners, they say their relationship with the Egyptian authorities is weak. But, they claim, to get several busloads of illegal migrants to the shore, let alone to international waters, some level of government complicity is required. Which is where the monassek comes in.

They say the monassek is paid

by Abu Hamada – about £220 a passenger – to shepherd the migrants from the apartments to the large smuggling vessel that lies several miles off shore, and to deal with any government officials who might cause problems.

“We can’t bring them ourselves,” says Abu Uday, who does most of the talking for his uncle.

“So we’re forced to go to the Egyptian middleman. He takes them from the apartments to the specific beaches, according to the deal with the government. Then he takes the people from the beaches on little boats to the bigger boat.”

Talk to most Egyptian middlemen and ship owners, and they will deny having a relationship with police and coastguards. “Of course we don’t. The Egyptian security is very keen to fight this sort of thing,” says one Egyptian smuggler, who gives his name as Captain Hamdy.

“There is no coordination with the coastguards, and people who say otherwise are lying,” adds a prominent fisherman in a coastal town known for its smugglers.

“And the proof is that there are more than 10 trials ongoing for people involved in the smuggling business.”

Egypt’s interior ministry spokesman, Gen Hany Abdel Latif, also strenuously denies the accusation. A smuggler “is a criminal outlaw who just wants to defraud people, take their money, and it doesn’t make any difference to them if the people die,” he told the Guardian. “Do you expect credibility from such a person? We already arrested many of them and the others will be busted [soon].”

But Abu Uday is adamant that, in his network at least, it is the monassek’s job to ensure the complicity of relevant government officials. “They just take care of one thing,” he says. “They deal with the authorities.”

In exchange for allowing smugglers to leave from certain points, Abu Uday claims, officials are paid up to 100,000 Egyptian pounds (about £8,900) a trip. By agreement with the smugglers, police arrive after most of the migrants have managed to leave the beach.

At that point, the remaining passengers are arrested and taken for a few days’ detention in police cells, to maintain the pretence that Egypt is playing its part in ending the smuggling trade.

“It’s normal that if I want to smuggle 300 [migrants],” says Abu Uday, “the authorities will take 50 and let 250 go, to show the Italians that they are doing some work.”

Migrants report similar stories.

Three Syrian refugees, Osama, Loai and Tariq, were taken by Abu Hamada’s gang to a beach in August last year. Those who got to the beach first made it to the ship, and later died at sea. Those who got there last – like Osama, Loai and Tariq – were arrested on arrival at the beach. In separate interviews, the trio claimed that the men who helped the police to round them up were the same men who had led them to the water’s edge.

Later, during an interrogation at the police station, Osama mentioned the smugglers by name.

Hours later, he got a call from Abu Uday. The police had told the smugglers that Osama had informed on them.

A third Abu Hamada customer, a Syrian refugee who asked to be named as Ahmed, was arrested in a similar way several days later.

While in detention, Ahmed claims a coastguard officer confirmed the relationship between the smugglers and the authorities.

“Do you think the smugglers could leave without us knowing?” the officer allegedly told Ahmed.

“We know about each trip from the smugglers themselves. Some we leave, some we don’t … We tell them that we have to arrest 80% and let 20% go.”

Each trip, about 300 migrants make it to a large fishing boat, lurking several miles out to sea. The boat belongs to Abu Hamada: for every trip, he pays Egyptian associates – usually fishermen known by nicknames such as “the Whale”, and “the Doctor” – to source a new one.

Source: theguardian.com

PEOPLES DAILY Weekend, saturday 10-sunday 11 January, 2015

PAGE 47

Business

Kashimbila dam and its multi-purpose functions

By Mohammed Usman

T

he Kashimbila multi-purpose dam was designed to contain 500 million cubic meter of water, it also has the potentials of generating 40 megawatts of electricity, irrigate about 2,000 hectares of land, provide 60,000 cubic meter of treated water to its immediate environs, promotes tourism and fishery development.

The idea behind the establishment of the dam was due to the environmental disaster if Lake Nyos in Cameroon, which is in a terrible condition breaks down, it would push the poisonous water to states such as Taraba, Benue, Cross River, Delta and so forth. Following this, the federal government embarked on the construction of a buffer dam now called kashimbila to accommodate the poisonous water of Lake Nyos.

In August 1986, there was an eruption of Lake Nyos in Cameroon. Coupled with the pressure on the water surface, there was a release of poisonous gas water which caused extensive flooding resulting in the death of about 1,700 people, 4,000 herds of cattle, 330 sheep and thousands of other livestock in the villages around Lake Nyos in Cameroon.

Speaking to journalists during a recent inspection of the project, the Minister

of Water Resources, Mrs. Sarah Reng Ochekpe, said “The project is very important because it will safeguard and secure the citizens of Nigeria in more than five states that will be affected if Lake Nyos breaks down.’’

The minister, who emphasized on the 40 megawatts electricity generation and the tourism potentials of the dam, stated that they would maximize every opportunity that is available.

Ochekpe also said that Takum Local Government Area of Taraba State is the major area that the water treatment plant of the dam would be put into use, stressing that it has consumed a substantial amount of money.

Also speaking at the inspection site, the Minister of Power, Professor Chinedu Nebo, who stated that the all purpose dam would not only check erosion, but flooding from Nyos river and would also provide electricity. “In addition to providing electricity, there is also water treatment that will help to provide water for the immediate environ.’’

He noted that because of the hydro-power plant, the transmission infrastructure that would be put in place there would strengthen Taraba, Benue and Plateau States so that there would be more reliable and stable electricity grid in that part of the country.

Nebo, who stressed that there would not be power

R-L: Ministers of Tourism, Culture and National Orientation, Mr. Edem Duke, Water Resources, Mrs. Sarah Reng Ochekpe, Power, Prof Chinedu Nebo, and Head of Engineering, SCC Nigeria Limited, Efim Frank, during the inspection of the Kashimbila Dam, recently. failure after the completion of the dam, added that the federal executive council has approved a contract that would put in place transmission substations.

On the amount approved for the transmission evacuation, the minister said “I don’t have the figure off heart, but I do know that a substantial amount of resources have been approved for this.”

Also buttressing the economic potentials of the Kashimbila dam, the Minister of Tourism, Culture and Orientation, Mr. Edem Duke,

who stated that he was looking forward to the project being the biggest authentic ecotourism facility in Africa, stated that he doubts if there is a similar dam project anywhere in Africa.

Duke, who said they have to work on getting the local communities integrated into the tourism development in the aspect of cultural industries where they would be doing craft and fabrics that can be purchased by tourists, stated that so much multiplier effects can come from there.

While taking the ministers of water, power and tourism round the project, the Head of Engineering, SCC Nigeria Limited, the company handling the project, Engineer Efim Frank, said other purposes of the dam besides the 500 million cubic meter

“ Kashimbila Multi-purpose Dam

capacity of the dam, were water supply (60, 000 Cu.m/ Day), hydropower generation (40MW), irrigation (net– 2,000Ha), tourism and fishery development.

He further added that work progress till date were construction of the main dam to 95 percent, hydropower to 89 percent, water treatment plant to 40.4 percent, and irrigation to five percent completion.

Also buttressed was the construction of access roads, staff housing unit and an air strip.

The fluctuation in the exchange rate of the foreign component of the project had led to the increase in the financial payment which reflected in the naira component.

Ochekpe also said that Takum Local Government Area of Taraba State is the major area that the water treatment plant of the dam would be put into use, stressing that it has consumed a substantial amount of money.

PEOPLES DAILY Weekend, saturday 10-sunday 11 January, 2015

PAGE 48

Business

Naira appreciates to 187,188 against dollar

T

L-R: Executive Director Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Center, Auwal Ibrahim Musa (Rafsanjani),Convener Protest to Power Movement Jaye Gaskiya, and Coordinator State of the Union (SOTU) Okeke Anya during the Protest to Power Movement in Abuja yesterday . - Photo: Justin Imo-owo

Oil spill: Saraki commends Shell for compensating victims

By Mohammed Usman

F

ormer governor of Kwara State and senator representing Kwara Central Senatorial District, Bukola Saraki, has commended Dutch oil giant, Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (SPDC), for compensating Bodo community in Ogoni land over oil spillage.

The company had agreed to pay compensation to thousands of residents of the Niger Delta community for what it agreed was two ‘deeply regrettable’ oil spills in 2008.

Shell agreed to pay $83.3 million with “an individual

payment to each claimant, who accepts the settlement agreement in compensation for losses arising from the spills”, the company said in a statement, effectively bringing an end to a three-year legal tussle between the oil giant and the community, which comprises mostly of local fishermen.

Saraki, who is the Chairman, Senate Committee on Environment and Ecology, recalled that in October, 2012, he led members of the committee on an unscheduled oversight visit to the Niger-Delta region to inspect and assess the impact of oil spills in the area.

However, he stated that as

commendable as Shell’s action is, there should be a sustainable clear-cut policy on oil spill management.

“After seeing first-hand the level of environmental degradation brought about by the oil spills, and how the lives and livelihood of Nigerians living in the affected areas were negatively impacted, myself and other members of the committee made a firm commitment that we will do everything in our power to ensure that the oil-spills did not go unpunished, and that those whose subsistence had been affected did not go uncompensated,’’ he said.

Meanwhile, Sterling Bank

has said it has concluded arrangements to deploy an additional 5,000 Point of Sales (POS) terminals to boost transactions across the country.

The Group Head, Strategy and Communications of the bank, Mr. Shina Atilola, said the POS would be deployed all over the country as the bank continues to strengthen the cashless policy of the CBN. POS is a machine used to accept cards for payment of goods and services. Atilola also promised that additional Automatic Teller Machines (ATM) galleries would be provided in strategic locations nationwide.

NSE market capitalisation dips by N92b By Mohammed Usman with agency report

T

rading activities on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) for the fifth consecutive day remained on the downward trend, with the market capitalisation losing N92 billion, amidst panic sell-off by investors.

The market capitalisation, which opened at N10.071 trillion yesterday, lost N92 billion or 0.91 per cent to close at N9.979 trillion.

Also, the All-Share Index lost 277.52 points or 0.91 percent to close lower at 30,143.02 points compared with 30,420.54 points achieved on Thursday.

Some analysts attributed

the persistent negative trend at the exchange to the exit of foreign investors and the crash of crude oil price at the international market. They also identified the dismal equities price rallies at the nation’s bourse to political uncertainties following the forthcoming 2015 general elections.

An analysis of the price movement showed that Nestle recorded the highest price loss, dipping by N43.53 to close at N855 per share.

Dangote Cement trailed with a loss of N8.35 to close at N158.65, while Total Oil dropped N7.38 to close at N144.75 per share. Mobil Oil lost N2.94 to close at N157.06, while Julius Berger depreciated by N2.73 to close

at N52.02 per share.

On the other hand, Nigerian Breweries topped the gainers’ chart, with N6.30 to close at N147 per share.

7UP garnered N2.57 to close at N160, while Guinness grew by N1.69 to close at N130.21 per share.

Zenith Bank increased by N1.43 to close at N16.43, while Nascon gained 45k to close at N6.40 per share.

In all, investors staked N2.73 billion on 451.969 million shares transacted in 4,545 deals compared with 454.017 million shares worth N4.42 billion traded in 4,860 deals on Thursday.

The financial service sector sustained its leading position as the toast of

investors with 410.87 million shares worth N1.85 billion in 2,697 deals.

The banking sub-sector drove activities in the sector accounting for 136.02 million shares valued N1.07 billion achieved in 1,691 deals.

Meanwhile, 49 ships laden with containers, foods, petroleum products and other goods would arrive Lagos ports from January 9 to January 30.

The Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) said this in its daily publication `Shipping Position’ – made available to journalists on Friday in Lagos.

The document stated that 17 of the expected ships would arrive with containers of different goods.

he naira appreciated against the dollar at both the official and parallel markets, a survey conducted

by NAN in Lagos, revealed yesterday.

At both segments, the naira gained three naira to trade at between N187 and N188, respectively from the N190 and N191 it traded on January 5.

The naira also appreciated against the pound sterling at the Bureau-de-Change (BDC), trading at N290 from the N292 it traded on Monday, January 5.

At the parallel market, otherwise known as black market, it exchanged for N292 from the N295 it sold at the beginning of the week.

It therefore gained two and three naira respectively at both segments of the market. The naira remained firm against the pound sterling at the official (CBN) to trade at N260.36k since December 29. Also, at the BDCs, the naira traded for N227 against the Euro from the N229 it sold on January 5.

It went for N233 to one Euro at the parallel market, as against the N235 it traded on Monday January 5. Harrison Owoh, a dealer and the managing director of HJ Trust Investment Limited Lagos, said the naira appreciated because the market had not been stable after the public holidays.

Owoh added that a lot of the dealers and buyers had not returned from the holidays, thereby making sales “dull” because of less demand for foreign currencies. In November, the CBN announced a new exchange rate of N168 to one US dollar from the old rate of N155. Godwin Emefiele, governor of the apex bank, explained that the measure was to strengthen the economy, following continued slide of oil prices at the international market.

But a report has it that the Nigerian naira might trade lower next week, around the 183 level that it fell to on Friday, as sentiment in Africa’s top crude producer is soured by the sharp decline in oil prices.

The naira has been trading around the 178 – 182 range against the dollar in volatile trade the past week, with dollar sales from oil companies its only life line, as U.S. crude plumbed a 5-1/2-year low of $46.83 on Wednesday.

Now that those sales have dried up, it could test the lower end of that range, dealers say. It is trading well outside the central bank’s 160-176 target range since a November devaluation.

PEOPLES DAILY Weekend, saturday 10-sunday 11 January, 2015

Page 49

Oddities Compiled by Isioma Nwabasha

Musician makes Woman celebrates song from guns, anniversary with two cats W plastic cups F orsaking the traditional guitar or piano to perform a jaunty tune, all Jim Huish needs is a gun, a table and a few cups filled with snow.

The dangerous ditty, the cup song from the film, Pitch Perfect, is played out by rhythmically slapping the table, ejecting the gun’s magazine and then shooting at a cup. Later, Huish, who performs with the band, Amber’s Drive, recruits a friend with an assault rifle and they both fire wildly into the snow as he sings.

The impressive feat was

filmed on ’a ridiculously cold’ day in Utah and made novel use of a Walther P22, an AR15, an AK47 and a CZ75.

Huish used a fair amount of ammunition and battled through some tough conditions to pull off his feat.

“Aside from the difficulty of manipulating the guns with frozen fingers, they were malfunctioning because of the cold as well. Unfortunately, other Amber’s Drive members weren’t here to help.”

Since being uploaded to YouTube the video has been watched about 450,000 times.

hen Barbarella Buchner broke up with her partner of seven years, she thought that she would never find love again.

But then the 48-year-old realised her soul-mates had been standing in front of her the whole time, her two cats.

Barbarella married her two male pet cats called Spider and Lugosi and they recently celebrated their 10-year anniversary. She even proved her everlasting devotion to her two feline husbands by getting their initials tattooed on her right leg.

The web designer from London said “My two cats are my soul mates.

They are the loves of my life. Before when I had a human relationship, he’d come home and we’d argue over something or he’d want to chat when I don’t want to chat. Lugosi and Spider are different I am happily married to them. I am not alone, I have my cats now. I have no regrets and I don’t care what people say.”

Cat-mad Barbarella has always been an animal lover. Growing up, she always had pet moggies.

In March 2000, she adopted her eight-month-old tabby cats from an animal shelter in East London. “It was love at first sight when I laid my eyes on my two boys, Lugosi and Spider. I will never forget that day. They were rubbing themselves against the mesh and purring. I knew I wanted those cats. I could tell the feeling of love was mutual judging by their purrs and the way they were brushing their little faces against the inside of their cage.’’

Barbarella, who now lives in Lanzarote, Spain, has been in a few long-term relationships with men

but has never married. “I never really wanted to get married to any of my human partners and I didn’t know if I had it in me to be a wife. I am not a submissive person but will do anything for Lugosi and Spider.”

Barbarella says Lugosi and Spider were a comfort to her after her most serious relationship with her boyfriend-of-seven-years broke down.

In 2004, she decided to make their love official and looked into ways to marry her cats. She found a website called marryyourpet.com.

After being approved by the two women who ran the website and paying a fee, Barbarella tied the knot with Lugosi and Spider in a quickie ceremony on January 9.

That same year, she jetted to Lanzarote with her two cats to start married life together.

“Obviously I don’t have sex with my cats. It is just pure, spiritual unconditional love on both sides. As

long as I am happy with it, I don’t care.’’ To celebrate their three-year anniversary, she got a proud inking to her two tabbies on her right leg.

“I wanted something of Lugosi and Spider on my body. If they die, I would never marry another cat.

They are my first cats and no other cat in future can change that. If a man ever approaches me, I just tell them straight off, I am married to my cats.”

But the trio certainly have a hierarchy in their marriage. “Lugosi and Spider are twins from the same litter but they are totally different.

They are so unique. Lugosi is the boss, whilst Spider is the submissive, gentle soul. ‘‘There is nothing perverse or disgusting about my union with my cats. They have been my constant companions for 14 years, making it the longest relationship I have ever had with anyone.”

Man transforms into blonde with rubber body suit

T

o his neighbours, Robert is a 70-year-old property developer who split from his wife, but at home, he is Sherry, a blonde ‘’exciting female’’.

He makes the dramatic transformation by slipping into his custom-made rubber female body suit complete with fake breasts. Robert, who lives with his 19-year-old daughter in California, has been dressing up in silicone to resemble a blow-up doll for the past 12 years.

“I think I look amazing. I just can’t believe that is a 70-year-old man in the mirror. If I saw a 70-year-old man in the mirror then I would quit this tomorrow.

When I look in the mirror I see a very exciting female. If I were to see a regular woman looking like this and she said ‘come here let’s go hang out’, I’d say okay.”

Robert admitted that he finds it hard to date women because they aren’t as attractive as his alter-ego, Sherry.

“When I am out many people think my breasts are real or implants and this is my real body. Even ‘vanillas’ will come

up and say, ‘Wow, that is an amazing rack’ and I will respond, ‘I can tell you where to order one.’ Sometimes they have to touch it to believe it is not real.

I get a kick out of that. My motivation for doing this is a mystery to everyone, including me.

The creator behind many of the female body suits is Adam Ramos, who sells the bizarre creations online. He and his mother currently cater for 400,000 cross-dressing and transgender people all over the world. Ramos oversees the making of dozens of silicone body suits a week complete with feminine curves and prosthetic breasts in his workshop in California.

Adam inherited the bizarre business from his father, who came up with the idea after watching a TV show, ‘RealDoll’. The show featured life-size dolls that certain men enjoy romantic and sexual relationships with.

Each body suit takes approximately four hours to complete and weighs roughly 12 pounds. They are stretchable enough to fit any size and are said to be comfortable to wear for hours at a time.

PEOPLES DAILY Weekend, saturday 10-sunday 11 January, 2015

Page 50

Healthy Living

C

arrots are a rich source of necessary nutrients and minerals. It helps treat and prevent diseases and improves our vision, skin, hair, nail etc.

Drinking carrot juice daily is a habit that everyone should imbibe, as it is both healthy and tasty as well.

What makes carrot juice so nutritious is that it contains a large amount of beta-carotene, vitamins and potassium in it.

Improves immunity and controls heart diseases: Betacarotene makes it a rich source of vitamin A. It also helps improve the immune system.

The abundance of vitamin A in carrot juice can help improve your sight and the daily intake can prevent the onset of heart diseases and stroke. Vitamin A in addition keeps the lining of the internal organs healthy in order to prevent it from being infected by pathogenic organisms.

Reduces cholesterol: Here comes an amazing benefit of carrot juice, the potassium present in carrot juice can reduce cholesterol levels. It is good for the liver as it reduces fat and bile in it.

A glass of carrot juice

Potassium, along with manganese and magnesium stabilizes blood sugar level, thus helping to reduce the risk of diabetes.

Aids in clotting of blood: Vitamin K present in carrot juice helps blood to clot.

Heals external wounds and gums: Vitamin C helps to heal wounds and keep the gums healthy.

Prevents cancer: It also acts like an anti-cancer agent, increased intake of carotenoids in carrot juice decreases instances of bladder, prostate, colon and breast cancer.

Protein building and bone health: Vitamin K, present in carrot juice is essential for the protein building process in the body. It also helps in the binding of calcium that in turn leads to the faster healing of broken bones.

Potassium present in carrot also helps to improve bone health.

Cleanses the Liver: Carrot juice cleanses and detoxifies the liver.

Toxins in the liver are released from the system and excreted after regular consumption of carrot juice. The bloodstream cannot rid the body of toxins and bile through the kidneys. This has to be ejected from the skin.

Carrot juice aids this process and ensures that harmful bile is removed from the body. When the liver functions well, it prevents the accumulation of fat and aids in its rapid digestion, preventing weight gain and obesity.

For the women, carrot juice is not just about good health, but also about looking beautiful. Its beauty benefits include: Reduces dryness and scarring: Potassium helps reduce skin dryness and reduces scars and blemishes. It also gives life to your skin by improving its tone. It will also help improve hydration and thus keep your skin moisturized.

Amazing benefits of carrot juice

Carrots Prevents acne: Since it is high in essential oils, it also helps prevent acne by detoxifying your body.

Source of vitamins needed for skin: This juice effectively acts as a vitamin supplement for your skin.

It also contains so many healthy nutrients that it can reduce skin related problems like eczema which is caused by deficiency of vitamin A, dermatitis and rashes.

Fights ageing: The betacarotenoid when entering the body changes into vitamin A and reduces cell degeneration

and thus slows down aging of the body. It largely improves the amount of collagen in the skin and thus helps in maintaining elasticity and reducing the visible signs of aging like sagging skin and wrinkles.

Although carrot is a healthy vegetable, eating it with loads of sugar, cashew and raisins is unhealthy. Many people love the natural taste of carrot juice, but you can also add other fresh juices such as orange, lemon, ginger or mint to give it a different flavour.

Carrot and cinnamon juice

together forms a very healthy antioxidant rich drink which can reduce cancer, high blood pressure and diabetes. It is said that drinking fresh carrot juice is better than eating it raw because the nutrient content will be even more concentrated in the juice.

Ensure you drink at least one glass of carrot juice each day to burn fat and get the fab, svelte body you have always yearned for!

Get that glowing and beautiful skin you love!

How to lower bad cholesterol

B

ad cholesterol is a pain, isn’t it? When was the last time you tried getting rid of bad cholesterol but only quit because the process was too difficult or expensive? Well, reducing bad cholesterol isn’t a straight forward and easy process that happens overnight. It requires complete dedication and time. But then, what if there are certain foods that can make the process much easier?

What is bad (LDL) cholesterol?

There are two types of cholesterol, bad (LDL) and good (HDL).

Low-Density Lipoproteins (LDL) or bad cholesterol: Usually, around two-thirds of the cholesterol is transported by LDL particles. These particles are like ferries, which transport cholesterol to different body parts.

If you have an excess of LDL in your bloodstream, these particles dump it in the arteries, causing blockages and even heart attacks.

Many people refer to LDL as bad cholesterol for this particular ability of creating blockages. The only saving grace is that you can easily reduce the amount of LDL if

you follow a regular fat-free diet.

Reducing Bad (LDL) Cholesterol: LDL cholesterol can lead to blocked arteries, which can lead to heart disease, stroke and other arterial diseases like arteriosclerosis.

Let’s look at some foods that help you reduce LDL cholesterol naturally.

Oatmeal, oat bran & highfiber foods: Oatmeal is rich in soluble fiber, an agent known to reduce LDL cholesterol. Having only 5-10 grams of soluble fiber can help reduce LDL cholesterol. You can even eat one and half cups of cooked oatmeal, to get the right amount of fiber in your diet.

Fish and Omega-3 fatty acids: Eating fish rich in omega-3 can be of great help in your quest to reduce LDL cholesterol. Some fish which contain the highest amounts of Omega-3 fatty acids include: Lake trout, mackerel, herring, salmon, sardines, halibut and albacore tuna.

Remember to grill or bake the fish to ensure that you don’t add unwanted fat to it. Other sources of omega-3 fatty acids include

canola or ground flaxseed oil.

Almonds, walnuts and others: Almonds, walnuts and other types of nuts help reduce LDL. As nuts are also rich in polyunsaturated fatty acids, they help keep the blood vessels unclogged. It is recommended that you eat around 45-50 gms of nuts daily. By doing this, you can effectively reduce LDL cholesterol from your body.

Olive oil: Olive oil is rich in antioxidants, which help reduce bad cholesterol. However, these antioxidants don’t reduce or flush the good HDL from the body. As extra virgin oil isn’t that refined or heavily processed it contains more antioxidants. In fact, the lighter the colour of the oil, the more processed it is.

5. Stanol or sterol fortified foods: There are many foods available in the market, which are enhanced with stanols and sterols (plant chemicals) that usually inhibit cholesterol absorption.

Fruit juices, yogurt and some other foods contain added sterols, which can reduce more than 10

Almond and nuts percent of the body’s LDL. Apart from increasing the above-listed foods in your diet, there are certain precautions that you should take to ensure that you maintain a low LDL cholesterol level.

Avoid junk food: Junk food contains many trans-fats that usually increase the LDL cholesterol level in the

body. Thus, the best thing to do is avoid junk food.

Avoid sweets: Sweets can increase blood sugar, as well as LDL cholesterol levels. If you are aiming to reduce the amount of LDL in your cholesterol, the best thing to do is avoid sweets.

Follow these tips to get rid of bad cholesterol and stay healthy and happy!

PAGE 51

PEOPLES DAILY Weekend, saturday 10-sunday 11 January, 2015

What can I offer to the Lord for all He’s done for me? (III) P raise the Lord! Last week, I started talking about paying your vows as one of the things you can do for all God has done for you. I want to continue from where I stopped as I conclude this series today.

“And Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, ‘Put away the foreign gods that are among you, purify yourselves, and change your garments. Then let us arise and go up to Bethel; and I will make an altar there to God, who answered me in the day of my distress and has been with me in the way which I have gone.’” (Gen 35:2-4 NKJV) Did you see something here? If God had not spoken to Jacob, idolatry would have continued in his household and to his knowledge. This was someone that God had appeared to in the past, someone who had enjoyed so much mercy from God prospering him while serving Laban, protecting him, bringing him back not empty handed and not allowing his brother, Esau, to hurt him.

But the good thing was that that Jacob obeyed God and went to fulfill his vow. Also the family was cleansed of idols. “So they gave Jacob all the foreign gods which were in their hands, and the earrings which were in their ears; and Jacob hid them under the terebinth tree which was by Shechem.

And they journeyed, and the terror of God was upon the cities that were all around them, and they did not pursue the sons of Jacob. So Jacob came to Luz (that is, Bethel), which is in the land of Canaan, he and all the people who were with him. And he built an altar there and called the place El Bethel, because there God appeared to him when he fled from the face of his brother.” (Gen 35:4-7 NKJV) If you are not serious about fulfilling a vow, don’t make it. If you make a vow, write it down where you won’t forget. It’s not anybody’s business or even God’s duty to remind Matthew 7:12

T

his is the most sublime condensation of the moral law.

Thoughtfully considered, it guides us in all our relationships. This grandeur precept begins with the word “therefore.” The word therefore, connects the verse to the previous verse. Earthly fathers in their normal and best state of being give good things to their children, “thereforeall things whatsoever ye (in your normal and best state of being) would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them”. The word, “therefore” is based on the best of relationships - the Father/child relationship. Your heavenly Father will give good things to His children - His true children who ask Him; “thereforeall things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them.” Natural affection or divine love in the heart must be established in the application of this precept which has been referred to as the golden rule.

This word therefore prevents the verse from being isolated from verse eleven. The closing phrase also protects this divine precept from being misused by sinners. “For this is the law and the prophets.” This is the summary and the summit of the teaching of the Lord and the doctrine of God’s faithful prophets calling men to righteousness. Suppose an offender should be arrested by a man in authority. Suppose the criminal should ask the officer whether he would like to be arrested if he were in his position. Assuming the answer is no, he then says: ‘Do as you would be done to’. That application will contradict “the law and the prophets.” The first word, “therefore” and the concluding phrase “for this is the law and the prophets”

you of your vow. By any means, make sure you don’t forget your vow. (Num 21:1-3) A vow is not a bribe. God will do what He’ll do with or without a vow but if God does for you what you asked Him to do when you made a vow, why shouldn’t you fulfill your vow? It is biblical to make a vow if you choose to. If you’re in trouble and you choose to make a vow to provoke God’s power, make sure you fulfill it.

But make sure it’s not a rash vow – don’t be impetuous or impulsive like Jephthah. Don’t be carried away by emotions while making your vow – emotions do change but your vow will stand waiting to be fulfilled. Make your vow prayerfully and fulfill it faithfully without delay.

Offer yourself first to him. God wants you first before any other thing you want to give Him. While talking about the churches of Macedonia, Paul said, “And not only as we had hoped, but they first gave themselves to the Lord, and then to us by the will of God.” (2 Cor 8:5 NKJV) Did you see that?

The first priority of these Macedonian Christians was giving themselves first to the Lord before any other thing. It’s not your money or property God wants first and foremost; God wants you yourself. “Acknowledge that the LORD is God! He made us, and we are his. We are his people, the sheep of his pasture.” (Ps 100:3 NLT) When Jesus called the disciples, he called them first that might be with him and that he might send them forth to preach. (Mark 3:14) That order is very important.

Serve the Lord with all your heart, your soul and your mind. Worship the Lord with all your being. “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one! You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.” (Deut 6:4-5 NKJV) This truth is also repeated

in Deut 10:12, 13, 13:3, 30:6, 10, Josh 22:5, 1 Sam 12:20, 24, Matt 22:37, Mark 12:30, and Luke 10:27.

Serve the Lord faithfully with all your heart, your soul and your mind.

Let Him alone be the Master you serve.

You can’t serve two masters. “No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other.”

(Matt 6:24 NLT) Devote your life to Him in appreciation of what He has done for you. And I’m not talking about going into full time ministry in the vineyard of God except God has called you into it. I’m talking of “FULL-HEART” not “FULL TIME.” Jesus cast out seven demons out of Mary Magdalene. (Luke 8:2) And how did this woman show gratitude to Jesus for all he’d done for her? She became a faithful disciple of Jesus.

(Matt 27:55-56, 61, 28:1, Mk 15:40-41, 47, 16:1, Lk 8:2, 24:10, John 19:25, 20:1,18) She was even the first to see Jesus after his resurrection. (Mk. 16:9).

Peter’s mother-in-law is another example of gratitude. After Jesus healed her of high fever, she began to serve him. “When Jesus arrived at Peter’s house, Peter’s mother-in-law was in bed with a high fever. But when Jesus touched her hand, the fever left her. Then she got up and prepared a meal for him.” (Matt 8:14-15 NLT) God has healed you of a particular disease or has given you a good health. Are you showing appreciation by serving him? You may have been given a second chance in life after a miraculous recovery from illness but are you utilizing well this second chance?

True repentance. The Bible says as far is the East is from the West, so the Lord has taken away our sins from us.

“As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.” (Ps. 103:12 NKJV) If you’re going towards the East,

From the Pulpit green pastures

By Pastor T. O. Banso

cedarministryintl@yahoo.com GSM: 08033113523 you can never get to the West and vice-versa. East and West can’t meet.

What should you do for the forgiveness you’ve received from God? –True repentance.

Jesus told that woman caught in adultery, “Go and sin no more.” (John 8:11) The man Jesus healed by the pool of Bethesda (John 5:1-15), he told, “Now you are well; so stop sinning, or something even worse may happen to you.” (Verse 14 NLT) Conclusion: Don’t forget what the psalmist said: “What can I offer the LORD for all he has done for me? I will lift up a cup symbolizing his salvation; I will praise the LORD’s name for saving me.

I will keep my promises to the LORD in the presence of all his people.” (Ps 116:1214 NLT) You should always seek for ways and means to show gratitude to God; there is no single best way to this.

There was this immoral woman who tried to show appreciation to Jesus kneeling behind him, weeping, wiping off her tear from his with her hair and anointing his feet with her expensive perfume. Hear what Jesus said: “Then he turned to the woman and said to Simon [Jesus’ host], ‘Look at this woman kneeling here. When I entered your home, you didn’t offer me water to wash the dust from my feet, but she has washed them with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You didn’t give me a kiss of greeting, but she has kissed my feet again and again from the time I first came in. You neglected the courtesy of olive oil to anoint my head, but she has anointed my feet with rare

perfume. I tell you, her sins — and they are many — have been forgiven, so she has shown me much love. But a person who is forgiven little shows only little love.’ Then Jesus said to the woman, ‘Your sins are forgiven.’” (Luke 7:44-48 NLT) There’s nothing you do that’ll ever be enough for all God has done for you but let God see your appreciative efforts.

As yourself: What can I offer the LORD for all God has done for me?

And go ahead to do it, and it shall be well with you in Jesus’ name.

TAKE ACTION! If you’re not born again, Kindly say this prayer now: “0 Lord God, I come unto you today. I know I am a sinner and I cannot save myself. I believe that Jesus is the Son of God who died on the cross to save me and resurrected the third day. I confess Jesus as my Lord and Saviour and surrender my life to him today.

I invite Jesus into my heart today. By this prayer, I know I am saved. Thank you Jesus for saving me and making me a child of God” I believe you have said this prayer from your heart. Congratulations! You will need to join a Bible believing, Bible teaching church in your area where you will be taught how to live your new life in Christ Jesus. I pray that you flourish like the palm tree and grow like the cedar of Lebanon. May you grow into Christ in all things becoming all God wants you to be. I will be glad to hear from you. May the Lord be with you.

The universal principle of a righteous life rescue this ‘universal principle of true righteousness’ from the hands of depraved men and women who are motivated by selfishness, selfcentredness and sinful propensities.

1. THE STANDARD FOR A GODLY, UNSELFISH LIFE Matthew 7:12; Proverbs 24:29; Genesis 21:23; 26:29; 50:18-21; Romans 14:17-19; Galatians 5:13,14,22-26; 6:1,2; Ephesians 4:2832; Colossians 3:12-17.

“Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them.” What a standard! Only the Lord in His supreme, supernatural wisdom could summarise the commandments of God in one simple sentence. In all situations and circumstances of normal relationship, in all things as we relate with others parents and children, husbands and wives,neighboursandfriends,employers and employees, sellers and buyers, professionals and clients, teachers and learners, leaders and followers, citizens and strangers, lenders and borrowers, landlords and tenants, rich and poor, privileged and less-privileged people whatsoever ye would that others should do to you, do ye even so to them.

This is a precept of great value. One may forget the details of many of the commandments of God but this is easy to remember. It calls us to a gracious, godly life. It draws us from a life of selfishness to a life of Christlikeness.

It teaches us not to act from selfish or unjust motives but to put ourselves in the place of the other person and ask what we would expect of him towards us. This would make us impartial, kind,

By Pastor W.F Kumuyi considerate, just, gentle and tender.

This standard for human behaviour, if applied fairly and faithfully would banish cruelty, unkindness, theft, adultery, murder, abortion, treachery, deception, envy, covetousness - sinfulness in general. This precept will prevent unrighteousness among men. If everyone would practise this the church would be a glorious church and the world would be a better place to live, work and prepare for eternity.

2. THE SUMMARY OF GOD’S UNCHANGEABLE LAW Matthew 7:12; Romans 13:810; Galatians 5:14;1 Timothy 1:5; 1 Corinthians 13:1-7,13; Hebrews 1:1,2; John 8:28,29; Colossians 3:12-14; Matthew 22:37-40; James 2:8-12.

“For this is the law and the prophets.” This is the sum or substance of the Old Testament. And this is kernel of the result of the gospel of grace. It is a summary expression of all the moral law required. This incomparable summary is our duty to our neighbour in a nutshell. It is also called “the royal law”.

Our Lord teaches us that it is not enough to learn or to believe, we must also do. In giving us this golden rule, the royal law or this principle of true righteousness, He emphasizes that faith or grace does not cancel the moral law. Faith or grace does not make the moral law unnecessary. Faith in Christ brings salvation and salvation makes us to deny ungodliness and lusts, leading us to live righteously and justly.

This can be referred to as “the law of Christ.” Here is the Old Testament and the New Testament. What the Old Testament commands, the New Testament gives the grace to obey.

Righteousness was required in the Old Testament but the depravity in the human heart did not allow the majority of men to do as God expected. Christ has come to cleanse and transform our hearts. With the work of grace done in the heart, the required godliness is now possible. And the guiding principle of this righteousness is: “all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them”.

3. THE SUMMIT OF GRACIOUS UNDENIABLE

LOVE Matthew 7:12; John 13:34,35; 15:12,13; Romans 12:9-21; 2 Corinthians 12:15; Ephesians 5:25-33; Hebrews 13:1-4; 1 Peter 1:22; 3:8-12; 1 John 3:16-18; 4:7-21; Luke 10:27-37.

“For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself” (Galatians 5:14). All the commandments are “briefly comprehended in this saying, namely,Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself ” (Romans 13:9). “If ye fulfil the royal law according to the scripture, thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, ye do well ” (James 2:8).

“God is love” (1 John 4:8) and the purpose of Christ’s redemption and salvation is to bring us to God. His mission is to plant the love of God in us.

His message is to teach all men that the love of God offers to save men from their sins. His miracle is to transform Gentile stones (with hearts of stone having no tender feeling for other creatures of God) to children of God with His nature of love. The beneficiaries of His mission, the recipients of His message who experience the miracle of His grace have the love of God shed abroad in their hearts. In gratitude to God who gave His only Son to save them, they desire to love God supremely. If we had given such great gift to save someone, we would expect him to show his gratitude in a very practical, unmistakeable way. In deep appreciation of Christ who has sacrificed His very life to save him (the sinner) from sin and its eternal consequences, he (the saved soul) consecrates himself to love His Saviour above everyone and everything on earth.

PAGE 52

S p or T

PEOPLES DAILY Weekend, saturday 10-sunday 11 January, 2015

I won’t miss Eduok – Amokachi

>>PG 53

10 promising fights in 2015

Page 55

Chelsea, Manchester City look to avoid upsets >>PG 55 Page 54

PEOPLES DAILY Weekend, saturday 10-sunday 11 January, 2015

PAGE 53

Sports

How Toure wins fourth-time CAF player of the year

M

anchester City midfield star Yaya Toure won a fourth straight CAF African Footballer of the Year Award for 2014 in Lagos on Thursday night.

He thus equals the record of Cameroon’s Samuel Eto’o Fils, who has also scooped this award four times.

The Ivory Coast skipper, 31, beat off the challenge of Gabon and Borussia Dortmund star Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Nigeria goalkeeper Vincent

Enyeama, who features for top French club Lille.

Yaya, who first won this prestigious award in 2011, led Manchester City to win the English Premier League title in the year under review as well as qualified his country to the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

The vote was done by the coaches and technical directors of the 54 member-countries of the Confederation of African Football (CAF).

Ndombe Mubele, who scored

s home-based Super Eagles depart for United Arab Emirates Thursday night, coach of the team B, Daniel Amokachi has said that he will not miss the embattled Dolphins striker, Emem Eduok.

Amokachi however, told newsmen in Abuja that he has other 23 players to select his final squad from, adding

that no player is indispensable “As a coach you don’t miss just one single player and my focus is on the other 23 players in camp; one player cannot do what I want on the field of play.

“We have over 160 million people in Nigeria and out of that 160 million, we have 20 million people that play football and Emem is one of them “He is lucky to be picked; he is not the best player because everybody has his own ordained time “Though he is a player that we need but we have others players who can do what he does on the field” he stated.

On the Eduok saga, Amokachi wished the player the best in his contract saga but urged other players to be wary of the football agents they were dealing with so as to avoid a situation like that of Eduok.

He also advised football clubs in the country to organise seminars for their players so as to educate them on the implications of signing for more than one club.

I won’t miss Eduok – Amokachi A

Daniel Amokachi

six goals as AS Vita of DR Congo reached the final of the Champions League, was picked as Africa’s best player based in Africa.

Nigeria’s Asisat Oshoala beat compatriot Desire Oparanozie and Cameroon goalkeeper Annette Ngom Ndom to be crowned Africa’s best female star of the past year.

The 20-year-old Oshoala, who was voted the MVP and top scorer of the 2014 FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup in Canada, will join former Nigeria stars like Mercy Akide and Perpetua Nkwocha who have won this accolade.

Algeria were picked as Africa’s best national team of last year after they reached the knockout rounds of the 2014 World Cup for the first time in their history, but coach Vahid Halihodzic was pipped to the CAF Coach of the Year Award by Kheireddine Madoui of Entente Setif .

‘Black Eagles’ and 2014 CAF Champions League winners Setif also upstaged Egypt’s Al Ahly to be named Club of the Year.

CAF awards will serve as morale booster – Oshoala Stories by Albert Akota

G

olden girl Asisat Oshoala has stated that the CAF awards she won will only push her to work harder.

Oshoala received double awards after she was named African Women’s player of the year and Youth Player of the year 2014 during the Glo CAF awards.

She beat two of her compatriots Uchechi Sunday to winning the Youth player of the year and Desire

Eagles land in Abu Dhabi ahead of Cote D’ Ivoire clash

N

igeria’s national team, the Super Eagles yesterday morning landed in the United Arab Emirates for the two international friendlies against Cote D’ Ivoire and Sudan later in the month.

The Emirates Airliner that the team boarded from the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport on Thursday night landed at the Dubai International Airport at about 5:30am local time, which is 2:30am in Nigeria. After airport formalities the team of 19 players and officials took a jolly bus ride from Dubai to Abu Dhabi, a journey of about an hour.

On hand to welcome the team was new face Steven Ukoh, who plays his football with Swiss side, FC Biel.

He was quite joyous to link up with the Nigerian team for the first time and declared that he can’t remember ever Nigeria, except as a child. But his quick mix-up with the rest of the players whom he has never met before must be commended.

The team is quartered at the serene Crown Plaza Hotel in Abu Dhabi and will have its first training session by 7:30pm local time, which is 4:30pm in Nigeria to start preparations for its first match against the Ivoriens January 12.

Yaya Toure won CAF Award for fourth times

Asisat Oshoala (M)

Oparanozie to winning the Women player of the year.

She said that though she did not expect to win both awards, adding that it is just the beginning of more hard work for her.

“I Feel very happy about it, didn’t expect this duo.

It serves as an assignment to me because I can’t afford to go down.

“I can’t even think of relaxing now, all I have in my brain is to always be better which enables me to do more,” she said.

PEOPLES DAILY Weekend, saturday 10-sunday 11 January, 2015

PAGE 54

Sports

Ozil, Ramsey set for Arsenal return Mesut Ozil Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has confirmed that midfielders Mesut Ozil and Aaron Ramsey are back in training and in contention for Sunday’s game against Stoke City after lengthy spells on the sidelines.

Germany international Ozil has been out since early October with a knee ligament injury, while Ramsey has not featured since the start of December, leaving Wenger short on goals and creativity in midfield.

“Aaron Ramsey, Ozil and Mathieu Flamini are back in training. (Danny) Welbeck is not available, (Olivier) Giroud is back from suspension,” Wenger told reporters.

Another player whose place in the starting line-up is perhaps not guaranteed is goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny, who was fined by the club after being caught smoking in the changing room following their defeat to Southampton on January 1.

The Pole has apologised, Wenger said, but it seems his manager will still leave him sweating on his place in the side.

Fixtures Today’s matches

Mesut Ozil Arsenal’s season is yet to truly ignite and they sit sixth in the table ahead of the visit from traditional bogey team Stoke, who inflicted an embarrassing reverse on Wenger’s side at the start of

December.

Then Arsenal shipped three goals in the first half, rendering their second-half fightback academic in a 3-2 defeat.

Stoke’s traditionally combative

Chelsea, Manchester City look to avoid upsets

L

evel at the top of the Premier League, Chelsea and Manchester City knows neither can afford to slip up this weekend.

Joint Premier League leaders Chelsea and Manchester City go into the weekend’s round of fixtures with a dual purpose of maintaining form and avoiding mistakes.

Chelsea host managerless Newcastle United at Stamford Bridge while City are away to out of form Everton.

The leaders have 45 points each and an identical goal difference of 44-19.

Chelsea is likely to start with Diego Costa after he was a substitute in the FA Cup win over Watford last time out.

The club’s top goalscorer, Costa will fancy his chances against a Newcastle side reeling from the loss of manager Alan Pardew.

Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho will want revenge over Newcastle after losing to them at St James’ Park last month, and to make up for the 5-3 defeat at Tottenham in the last league outing on New Year’s Day. But Newcastle won at Manchester City earlier in the season and 17-year-old forward Adam Armstrong believes they can do the double over the league leaders.

Manuel Pellegrini’s side won 3-2 at Everton in the run-in to their title triumph late last season but lost 1-0 there a month ago.

City will welcome back goalkeeper Joe Hart after two matches on the sidelines while Everton manager Roberto Martinez

PREMIER LEAGUES

Chelsea will have full back Leighton Baines fit again.

Martinez will be looking for more goals from Romelu Lukaku after the striker came off the bench to salvage a draw in the FA Cup tie with West Ham on Tuesday.

Third meets fourth as Manchester United entertain Southampton, with Saints manager Ronald Koeman looking for revenge after losing at home to United last month.

United could have Angel Di Maria to start for the first time since an injury lay-off while Luke

Shaw is battling to be fit.

Tottenham and Arsenal will be out to capitalise on any dropped points above them as they travel to Crystal Palace and host Stoke City respectively.

At the other end of the table, bottom side Leicester face Aston Villa while second-bottom Burnley is at home to fellow strugglers Queens Park Rangers.

Liverpool travel to Sunderland, West Ham are away to Swansea and West Brom take on Hull in the weekend’s other matches.

approach has frequently exposed Arsenal’s famed soft underbelly and with Mark Hughes’s side comfortably placed in mid-table, Wenger is expecting another testing afternoon.

Sunderland v Liverpool Burnley v Queens Park Rangers Chelsea v Newcastle United Everton v Manchester City Leicester City v Aston Villa Swansea City v West Ham United W/Bromwich Albion

Swansea City face West Ham without Bony

S

wansea City will attempt to soften the blow of the seemingly imminent departure of Wilfried Bony by beating West Ham today.

Ivory Coast striker Bony is expected to complete a move to Premier League champions Manchester City for a reported fee of €38 million.

The 26-year-old has been a revelation since arriving at the Liberty Stadium from Vitesse in 2013 and ended 2014 as the top scorer in the Premier League for the calendar year.

Bony has jetted off to represent his country in the Africa Cup of Nations and looks to have played his last game for the Welsh club.

Swansea manager Garry Monk said at a press conference on Thursday that he had no hard feelings towards his leading scorer as he prepared his side for the visit of West Ham. Goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski was sent off as Sam Allardyce’s high-fliers beat Swansea 3-1 at Upton Park last month after Bony opened the scoring and Monk wants his side to atone for that defeat this weekend.

He said: “I felt disappointed that day because we didn’t reach the levels we have set this season.

Andy Carroll scored twice for the London club in the reverse fixture and Monk is wary of the threat posed by the powerful striker, who is set to return after missing the trip to Everton with a foot injury.

The Swansea boss said: “He [Carroll] has done well against us. We have to deal with that and stop the source as well. Hopefully we can implement that into the

game on Saturday and the players are understanding a lot more about those situations.”

Bafetimbi Gomis is expected to lead the line for Monk’s men in the absence of Bony and the Frenchman comes into the game on the back of scoring twice in a 6-2 FA Cup third round thrashing of Tranmere Rovers last weekend.

New signings Nelson Oliveira and Matt Grimes are in contention to make their debuts for Swansea, who occupy ninth place and can move level on points with their opponents with a win on Saturday.

Winger Jefferson Montero will play no part as he remains sidelined with a hamstring injury, while Ki Sung-Yueng is on Asian Cup duty with South Korea.

Allardyce will be hoping influential midfielder Alex Song, who retired from international football this week, recovers from illness.

Wilfred Bony

Sports

PAGE 55

PEOPLES DAILY Weekend, saturday 10-sunday 11 January, 2015

10 promising fights in 2015 The next 12 months promise to be different, with some of the biggest and brightest stars in the boxing firmament seemingly about to collide. Promises in boxing are like promises in politics. Below are 10 fights that might happen in 2015, some of which won’t even make it to the negotiating table. Just keep those gloves crossed.

Mayweather vs Pacquiao or Khan vs Brook

2

014 wish list, only two came off - Wladimir Klitschko versus Kubrat Pulev and Carl Froch-George Groves II. And that heady night at Wembley and a few other fights aside, it is fair to say last year was not a vintage one for boxing.

K

Floyd Mayweather vs Manny Pacquiao

There are tentative signs the fight that has been on every boxing fan’s wish list for the last six or seven years might actually happen in 2015. But with both camps likely to insist on a contract containing more clauses than the Magna Carta, nobody is holding their breath.

Welterweight king Mayweather has two fights left on his deal with US network Showtime, which reportedly wants more bang for its buck than their star turn has been providing of late. But with the unbeaten American insisting on a much larger share of the purse than his Philippine rival, the other half of that bang might have to come from someone else.

Floyd Mayweather vs Manny Pacquiao

T

Amir Khan completely outclassed American Devon Alexander when they met last December

here are tentative signs the fight that has been on every boxing fan’s wish list for the last six or seven years might actually happen in 2015. But with both camps likely to insist on a contract containing more clauses than the Magna Carta, nobody is holding their breath.

Welterweight king Mayweather has two fights left on his deal with US network Showtime, which reportedly wants more bang for its buck than their star turn has been providing of late. But with the unbeaten American insisting on a much larger share of the purse than his Philippine rival, the other half of that bang might have to come from someone else.

Floyd Mayweather vs Amir Khan

W

hich brings us to Britain’s Amir Khan. Khan thought he had landed his dream fight in 2014 before Mayweather decided to twice do battle with Marcos Maidana instead.

However, two dazzling victories,

over Luis Collazo and Devon Alexander, put the Bolton fighter back in the welterweight mix.

The dream scenario is for fiveweight world champion Mayweather to fight Pacquiao in May before taking on Khan in September.

Although, assuming he beats Pacquiao, Mayweather might decide the impossibly fast and rapidly improving Khan is best avoided, especially as Mayweather has stopped only one opponent inside the distance since 2007.

Miguel Cotto vs Gennady Golovkin

K

Amir Khan vs Kell Brook

ovalev of Russia and Stevenson of Canada racked up three more knockouts between them in 2014, making it 44 knockouts in 53 fights overall.

Kovalev also outpointed American legend Bernard Hopkins in his last fight and faces another top contender in Jean Pascal in March, meaning Stevenson has few other options.

Both men say they want the fight, so if Kovalev sees off Pascal, it should be on. Kovalev is the WBA, IBF and WBO light-heavyweight title holder, while Stevenson owns the WBC belt, meaning the winner will be that rare thing in modern boxing - a bona fide Gennady Golovkin made it 18 straight wins inside the distance against Marco Antonio Rubio last October undisputed champion.

han continues to believe Brook is beneath him, despite his Sheffield rival wresting the IBF welterweight title from Shawn Porter on American soil last August.

So when Brook’s promoter, Eddie Hearn, recently suggested the pair had agreed to fight at Wembley Stadium in June, Khan replied he was only interested in ‘super’ fights - and that Brook wasn’t ‘super’ enough.

Khan-Brook is certainly a prospect to get the chops frothing.

And given a few months of trash talk, slung from both sides of the Pennines, it could indeed sell out a football stadium. But with Khan set on fighting Mayweather or Pacquiao - or both - Brook will probably have to wait.

Sergey Kovalev vs Adonis Stevenson

K

ovalev of Russia and Stevenson of Canada racked up three more knockouts between them in 2014, making it 44 knockouts in 53 fights overall.

Kovalev also outpointed American legend Bernard Hopkins in his last fight and faces another top contender in Jean Pascal in March, meaning Stevenson has few other options.

Both men say they want the fight, so if Kovalev sees off Pascal, it should be on. Kovalev is the WBA, IBF and WBO light-heavyweight title holder, while Stevenson owns the WBC belt, meaning the winner will be that rare thing in modern boxing - a bona fide undisputed champion.

George Groves vs James DeGale

T

he rivalry between this pair goes right back to their amateur days, when they shared a gym in west London.

Groves beat DeGale in the 2007 ABA championships, before repeating the trick - against the odds - in the professional ranks in 2011.

Groves followed two world title defeats by Carl Froch with backto-back wins in the second half of 2014. DeGale, meanwhile, looked a much improved fighter, reeling off three impressive wins to earn himself a shot at Froch’s IBF super-middleweight title. But Froch wants a Las Vegas swansong, meaning Groves could fight DeGale for a vacant world title instead.

Wladimir Klitschko vs Tyson Fury

M

any think it a terrible indictment of heavyweight boxing that some consider Fury to be the man most likely to dethrone the division’s only proven class act.

But Manchester’s Fury has earned a shot. Klitschko is set for a voluntary defence next spring, but Fury is the WBO’s mandatory challenger. This means Klitschko should fight Fury next autumn.

However, Fury’s co-promoter Frank Warren says nobody in Klitschko’s camp has returned his calls.

The suspicion is the Ukrainian, who has not been beaten for 10 years, will give up the WBO belt instead. In doing so, Klitschko would lose the respect of many boxing fans - but still be the WBA and IBF champion.

Carl Frampton vs Scott Quigg

B

oth men are sick of being asked about each other and the fight would make a bomb - so why don’t they just get it on? If only boxing was that simple. Instead, politics and injuries dictate super-bantamweight rivals Frampton and Quigg will probably be asked about each other a lot more in 2015, without meeting in a ring.

Having won the IBF title by beating Kiko Martinez in Belfast in September, Frampton will defend against American Chris Avalos in February.

Quigg, who holds a portion of the WBA title, is out of action until the summer after having surgery on his hand and will not want to face Frampton in his first fight back. Frampton will want the fight in Belfast, Quigg in Manchester. There’s a lot more talking to be done.

BIG PUNCH Boko Haram is not a religious group, it is not an ethnic group. Boko Haram is a terrorist group, they attack people in schools, churches, mosques, markets and they shout ‘Allahu Akbar’ (God is great). No religion rejoices over the blood of innocent people.

SATURDAY — SUNDAY, JANUARY 10 - 11, 2015

Saturday Column By

Liberty Oseni

I

had predicted in 2011 that if Okonjo-Iweala becomes the Minister of Finance she would eventually resign with the sole aim of protecting her integrity. God please forgive me for that illusion. Now I can see the frustration and helplessness of President Jonathan, he knows things are bad but cannot help because he is not in charge, as Okonjo-Iweala coordinates the economy and gives professional advice to the president on how best to run the economy. The truth however is that her management of our economy now calls for a sober review.

Let us examine how the economy has been managed under her watch. In January 8, 2012, she said Nigerians would derive clear and measurable benefits from the removal of subsidy. Some of the benefit she promised Nigerians were construction, completion and rehabilitation of rail, refineries, key federal highways, hydro stations, information technology and water projects etc. she further said, the Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme SURE-P which was a fall out of the subsidy removal will provide mass transit, public works, training in artisanship for unskilled youths and social services, health care etc. On specifics however, she said government would make available 1,600 buses to remedy the consequence of subsidy removal.

May we remind Madam Minister that none of these promises have been actualised since the removal of subsidy.

Despite the lack of job opportunity, over 80 percent unemployment and 70 percent poverty rate, Okonjo-Iweala in a reply to the House of Representatives on issues surrounding the 2014 budget said Jonathan’s administration had created 1.6 million jobs in 2013.

As I had asked on many occasions: Madam Minister where are the jobs?

The minister had consistently maintained that the economy is in a good shape. Her stand was further justified by Nigeria’s rebased Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of about $432 billion compared to that of South Africa which stood at $370 billion at the end of 2013, making Nigeria the biggest economy in Africa. Another remarkable achievement that followed the rebased economy was the hosting of the World Economic Forum in Abuja. What a big country Nigeria is.

One thing that cannot stand Advert: business: news: lagos:

0806 0704 0814 0805 0803

564 385 292 327 454

the test of time is lies. Shortly after the widely celebrated rebased and biggest economy in Africa together with the hosting of the World Economic Forum, the very bottom of the economy she manages collapsed: the fall in oil prices. Less than a month to the fall in oil price, the selfacclaimed largest economy in Africa is in for it. The economy has gone bad, both federal and state governments cannot pay salaries and our currency has been devalued. The federal government through the Minister of Finance and the Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Dr. Ngozi OkonjoIweala, announced approaches to tackle the economic challenge facing the biggest economy in Africa. Some of the approaches are: Reduction in budget benchmark, special tax on luxury goods, $2 billion withdrawal from ECA and rejection to print more naira notes.

Yes we have heard the promise; we will diversify the economy and stabilise the currency. But may I remind Okonjo-Iweala that you can only diversify when you have mechanised agriculture, sophisticated technology and competitive industrialisation. Thus the story about diversification is just one of those stories we have heard over the years. Likewise we cannot run a solely import dependent economy and expect stable currency rate. Please CBN you cannot perform magic, I also share in your frustration.

May I remind the coordinating minister of the economy that regarding our power generation; we had 4,500 megawatts (MW) daily in 2007 when we had no coordinating minister. Now we are struggling to have 3,000 megawatts (MW) daily. Lest she forgets, in 2007, our foreign reserve was $47 billion. At the moment we have below $45 billion. This is the situation despite the entire crude oil sale under her watch and her coordinating capacity. May I also remind her that the Excess Crude Account, in 2007, was $24 billion; today, we are left with at about $2 billion while some Nigerians including governors had argued that the account is empty. In 2007, without an economic coordinator, we had zero percent foreign debts; at present we have over $9 billion debt and we continue to borrow. Thus, what exactly has she coordinated? At the time we had good oil sale, what did the coordinating minister do with the proceeds? Did she invest for the future of the country which she

8620 9705 9046 1969 0344

—General Buhari while campaign in Rivers State.

inaugurating

his

The limits of voodoo economics

Dr. Okonjo-Iweala said is the best in the whole of Africa? Frankly no serious minded person is impressed with her performance.

The coordinating minister is quick to point out that the economy is growing at seven percent rate. It is important she begins to project the economy by interrogating her actual growth and development rather than being emotional about her rebased Gross Domestic Product (GDP). What does it mean to be the largest economy in Africa? Will ascribing Africa’s biggest economy to ourselves solve the problems of poverty and inequality? Indeed, the neoliberal model being advocated has generated poverty and inequality.

She is excited that we are having economic growth; however, she is silent on the fact that Nigeria is also witnessing escalating inequality and severe poverty.

I want her to answer this, is the growth that comes with gross inequality and exclusion desirable, or sustainable? Are the socioeconomic disparities perpetrated by her neo-liberal model a necessary price we have to pay for her ignorance in measuring how well the economy is doing?

I forgive Okonjo-Iweala, because as an economist she does not know that to be the largest economy in Africa, Nigeria must be a developmental state that acts proactively to transform the economy and the state. Develop its ability to direct its affairs, build

strong institutions, create a space for civil society organisations and build the capacity of its citizens to engage governance. We cannot be Africa’s largest economy unless huge investments are made in education and health, promote inclusive growth and create employment. This we will not do by economists rebasing our GDP, but policies and development models that will turn our 170 million people into assets.

In case she forgets out of convenience, it is time to remind her that one way we can begin to redefine our path as the biggest economy in Africa is to have industrialisation as an integral part of our development planning process.

Without industrialisation, we are not going to build an economy that will create opportunities and end poverty.

Apparently, all countries that have reduced poverty did so because their economy grew out of practical strategies that created sustainable jobs and provided decent incomes based on industrial growth. Our model which is based on the intensification of our past colonial way of commodity export is not sustainable for our growth and development.

Lest we forget, the finance minister must know that our current realities do not qualify us as Africa’s largest economy. On whether we are the largest economy in Africa, paid bureaucrats, academics and government agents promptly make

reference to our population, GDP growth and our recent rebased GDP to enlarge their illusion of our greatness which they have propagated and promoted without any tangible result. Our lack of firm socio-economic substructure, a functional industrial foundation, and a stable self-regulatory policy further exposes the illusion and lack of understanding of our present reality. It is embarrassing that a world renowned economist still uses the neo-liberal model in analyzing our economic reality even in the obvious economic failure.

I am particularly worried.

Judging from Nigeria’s poverty rate, youth bulge and unemployment, insecurity, mega corruption, import dependent economy, poor education, inadequate housing and leadership failure, that Okonjo-Iweala still believes that Nigeria is Africa largest economy.

Nigeria might be Africa’s largest market but not economy. We must acknowledge that our false generosity abroad and poverty at home does not make us the largest economy in Africa.

Having followed the exhibition of the minister’s professionalism in handling the economy in the present administration and the challenges Nigeria has gone through under her watch, posterity is waiting in judgment for the forces that fostered her on us all.

Oseni, a civil society development worker, posted this article on Premium Times

DAN GAYE

Jonathan: MEND are my people, not terrorists (2010) MEND hired to assassinate me (2015)

Sounds like Kai Kai talk

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: +2348142929046. Cell: +234 8024432099; 803 7007759 e-mail: contact@peoplesdaily-online.com; pmlnewsdesk@gmail.com ISSN: 2141– 6141