Saturday 20 - Sunday 21, December 2014. Edition.

APC Vee Pee

Prison break, insurgency and corruption:

Osinbajo’s edge over Bakare

>>Pgs 7-8

The curious triangle >>Pgs 4-5 weekend.peoplesdailyng.com

Saturday, December 20-21, 2014 Safar 28-29, 1436 AH

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

pmlonline peoplesdailyng

N150 Vol. 4 No. 22

Const. amendment: States

reject LG autonomy

>>PG 6

el-Rufa’i easy to beat —Gaiya >>Pg 2, 42

Durbar at 2014 Rivers State carnival in Port Harcourt, yesterday.

250 Days after

Will the abducted Chibok schoolgirls ever be rescued?

Long life drug found?

>>Page 3

My Watch How OBJ ridiculed Jonathan >>Page 15

PEOPLES DAILY Weekend, saturday 20-sunday 21 December, 2014

Page 2

Interview

APC is a marriage of aggrieved persons, says Gaiya Godfrey Ali Gaiya represents Jabba/Zango Kataf federal constituency, Kaduna and a self-acclaimed committed member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). The Chairman House Committee on Sports believes the All Progressives Congress (APC) is an assemblage of aggrieved persons and that neither Gen. Muhammadu Buhari nor Mallam Ahmed el’ Rufai have what it takes snatch the presidency and the governorship slots from the PDP at the centre and Kaduna states respectively.

He spoke with Acting Editor, Weekend, Patrick Andrew.

Excerpt...

T

he PDP has just concluded its primaries nationwide, how would you assess it in terms of standard and adherence to democratic values?

I was a participant and delegate so I took part in all the primaries from the State House of Assembly right up to the Presidential Primaries here in Abuja. So, I can say from my perspective that it was very free and fair. For the very first time even without another contestant the PDP demonstrated that democracy was at work as delegates voted to affirm President Goodluck Jonathan as the party’s sole candidate and so doing the delegates told the world that they would like him to be our president.

Of course, he got the overwhelming endorsement from the PDP in a free and transparent exercise.

In my state, I participated in the state of House of Assembly right on to the gubernatorial elections and it was also beautifully done. Having said that, we also must mention that there were some observations.

You see for the first time the entire party machinery was not allowed to participate in choosing the aspirants.

What was adopted was the delegate system whereby only three persons

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were allowed per ward to decide who the flag bearer should be. There are some constituencies in the House of Assembly that had less than 40 people voting to choose a flag bearer and we thought that in democracy the more the merrier i.e the more people that voted to decide their flag bearer the better it would be.

Now, we must go back and educate particularly our party faithful, most of them felt they were sidelined in the process of picking their flag bearers. In my own election, we had only 85 people to decide who should be the member representing a whole constituency –Jabba/Zango Katafwhere there should have been more than 300 eligible delegates.

We have agreed after noticing the lapses in the procedures for picking delegates that we need to go back to work unit by unit to let them know that though they may not have been involved in the picking of their flag bearer, it was the party’s constitution and guidelines that warranted such. In the time past, it would have been may be you have 17 excos in a ward plus may be another 20 adhoc delegates making it the merrier because at the ward you could 40 persons picking somebody times the number of wards in your constituency. But this time, this system did not allow mass participation in the process of

deciding a flag bearer.

Is that to say that you are not quite in agreement with what the PDP did at the primaries?

No, one won’t really say not quite in agreement because like I said there were guidelines which were endorsed by the National Working Committee (NWC) and you know in any human system there is always room for improvement, there is always a need to do it better. They (NWC members) opted to cut down on cost that could arise because of the sheer number of people that would be involved in picking the delegates to choose their flag bearer. In their own perspective, it was also suppose to be easier for aspirants seeking election as flag bearers.

However, in a situation where you have only 85 persons to choose a flag bearer, the logistic costs won’t be the same as where 1000 persons are involved in the same exercise. It was the party’s perspective that warranted the reduction in the number of persons to choose delegates to the primaries. But then, as a democrat I will rather opt for a situation where more people are involved.

It wasn’t like this in time past, they have tried this one now and may be in subsequent elections they may revisit the old system that allows more people to participate.

There is nothing in their speeches that showed that they are coming for good.

It’s all about sentiment; coming for the purpose of just changing without a focus will backfire. We had seen it when he was a military Head of State he introduced something that at the end he could not sustain.

Hon. Gaiya It is not also saying that what they did was wrong because it was in the guideline, it was approved by the NEC (national executive council) and the NWC before it became a working a document.

Soon after you lost your bid to return to the House, the rumour mill went agog that you were going to turn your back on the PDP, could you shade light on this?

Absolutely, there is no truth in that. I am a committed PDP member.

Not as if we have not been approached.

Of course, there have been attempts by other parties especially when they heard what happened, they made offers, tried to guarantee certain privileges in their own platform. But politics is a game, sometimes you lose and at other times you win. And I dare say if I have stood this election four times and I won in three I should not complain if on the fourth attempt I did not scale through.

People would normally assume that once you don’t win an election the first option is to jump ship. I don’t do that. In the USA, you are born either as a democrat or a republican or in the UK you are either a Labour Party or a member of the Conservative Party. It is, therefore, not really a matter of having an opportunity or seeking a platform from which you can to contest election that makes you a politician. Unfortunately, most politicians in this country believe that the platforms are just there for them to actualise their political ambition of being elected. They don’t thrive on ideology. Party politics is beyond qualifying to contest election or having to be in the position to contest election at all cost. I can work for my party from the background. I don’t have to be a member of the parliament to work for my party. I can work for the PDP in several other ways.

I think the most important thing is for you to believe in the party.

You believe that the PDP is the best platform where people can enjoy the

maximum benefits of democracy.

Then it doesn’t make it necessary that once you don’t actualise your political ambition you cross over to another platform. If you go to another platform what is there that is substantially better off than what the PDP is doing?

What do they have on the ground that I can beat my chest and say yes this is a better arrangement than what my party has? I don’t have to move unless my purpose is to satisfy my selfish desire of always being in the corridor of power. Then, the essence of democracy is defeated. I have no ambition of leaving the PDP, for me, this where I belong.

As an ardent PDP member, do you feel threatened with the emergence of Mallam el’ Rufai as the gubernatorial candidate of the APC? In fact, most of us PDP members in Kaduna celebrated when we heard that el’ Rufai was named the flag bearer of the All Progressives Congress (APC). We celebrated because for somebody like el’ Rufai we all know all his antecedents. Kaduna is a very sensitive state. Let me put it this way, Kaduna is politically fragile and we will need somebody that is very humble, somebody ready and willing to carry everybody along, less rash, and not quick to make pronouncements.

Already, el’ Rufai has started faltering by declaring every GRA in Kaduna as illegal and by threatening to demolish every structure that had been constructed long after Mongo Park left Kaduna so that whatever thing that was added to the initial plan since the era of Lord Lugard will be visited. You see, this kind of pronouncement in a volatile state like Kaduna should not be heard. And like I said thank God it is somebody like him that is coming to challenge us. For us, he is not even acceptable in Zaria.

Don’t forget it is the same man that flushed out a Chief Justice here. That man trained him but for the mere fact that he (Judge) was wrongly allocated a house el’ Rufai dealt with him and Contd on Page 42

PEOPLES DAILY Weekend, saturday 20-sunday 21 December, 2014

PAGE 3

Feature

Long life drug found?

Arm-laden Russian aircraft

long life drugs

While the research is still young — it’s only been conducted in animals so far — scientists are growing more excited about the potential life-extending prospects of ibuprofen.

O

ne of the most common pain relievers could be promising in the quest for longevity, according to a new study in animals in the journal PLOS Genetics.

In the research, scientists treated yeast, worms, and fruit flies with normal doses of ibuprofen (which is a nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drug, or NSAID, popularly known by brand names like Advil or Motrin). The doses were akin to what a human might take for a regular headache or a little muscle soreness.

Researchers found that all species lived about 15 percent longer when treated with ibuprofen, and the worms and fruit flies appeared to behave in a healthier manner.

The idea for the study came when study researcher and biochemist Michael Polymenis, PhD, of Texas A&M University approached fellow researcher Brian Kennedy, PhD, the CEO of the Buck Institute for Research on Aging, with an idea to study how his cell-cycle lab tests might overlap with existing research on cell aging.

Further studies led to the

conclusion that ibuprofen inhibits uptake of tryptophan and other amino acids by the cell. Tryptophan is an amino acid that’s an essential building block of proteins, but also involved in the regulation of “the calming hormone,” serotonin, and it is vital for health across organisms.

The presence of ibuprofen seems to disrupt the enzyme Tat2 permease, which helps a cell take in that oh-so-necessary tryptophan. However, lifespan for the yeast still saw a significant jump even when that enzyme was deactivated. (In these conditions, tryptophan levels were reduced but not to zero, since the yeast cell can make tryptophan internally.)

Furthermore, when the scientists stabilized the enzyme activity while exposing the yeast to ibuprofen, the yeast’s lifespan did not increase — meaning the ibuprofen was doing something else to boost the cell health when the tryptophan wasn’t.

Deactivating the permease, which rapidly takes in amino acids like tryptophan, has an unexpected effect on cell aging.

“Ibuprofen slows the transport of amino acids, and the protein

synthesis slows down,” Kennedy tells Yahoo Health. Slower protein synthesis equals slower aging — which equates to increased longevity across all the species.

After yeast, the same bump was shown in fruit flies and worms.

This study is the first to identify a potential new drug candidate to target aging: ibuprofen. According to Kennedy, if the drug had the same effect in humans, something that needs to be tested, it could mean a significant enhancement of healthy aging.

Another decade of living isn’t so bad, right?

However, this doesn’t mean you should pop ibuprofen tablets for anything aside from standard use. “We should err on the side of caution now, until further testing is done,” says Kennedy. “However, like people taking an aspirin a day as a preventative measure, it’s not that crazy to think ibuprofen could provide some protective benefits.”

Next step: taking this idea up the chain to test ibuprofen’s impact on lifespan in mice. For humans, though, Kennedy’s larger goal is simpler and broader than figuring out the mechanism for anti-aging with this common NSAID. “We’re not doing enough to keep people healthier longer,” he says. “Right now, it’s not health care, so much as sick care.

I think we’ll be able to do better soon in terms of increasing not just lifespan, but health-span.”

Maybe with ibuprofen, however this research is still early stages.

Further, Kennedy said his institute is primarily interested in identifying why people are more prone to becoming sick as they age.

“We think that by understanding those processes, we can intervene and find ways to extend human health span, keeping people healthier longer and slowing down ageing.

That’s our ultimate goal.

“The research shows that ibuprofen impacts a process not yet implicated in ageing, giving us a new way to study and understand the ageing process.”

Lead researcher Professor Michael Polymenis, from Texas A&M University in the US, said: “We are not sure why this

“

works but it is worth exploring further.

“This study was a proof of principle, to show that common, relatively safe drugs in humans can extend the lifespan of very diverse organisms.

“Therefore, it should be possible to find others like ibuprofen with even better ability to extend lifespan, with the aim of adding healthy years of life in people.”

Molecular biologist Ellen Nollen, of the University of Groningen in the Netherlands, told Science Mag the study supports further testing on mice.

“They convincingly show that ibuprofen prolongs life span in these model organisms,” she said.

Ibuprofen slows the transport of amino acids, and the protein synthesis slows down,” Kennedy tells Yahoo Health. Slower protein synthesis equals slower aging — which equates to increased longevity across all the species.

PEOPLES DAILY Weekend, saturday 20-sunday 21 December, 2014

Page 4

Special Report

Prison break, insurgency and corruption: The curious triangle

By Abubakar Ibrahim,Tobias Lengnan Dapam, Yakubu Mustapha, Minna; Adesoji Oyinlola & Suleiman Idris, Lagos

T

he movie, ‘Prison Break’ may have inspired series of jail breaks in Nigeria.

Though the film was acted in Hollywood in far away United States of America, it has made huge audiences around the world.

When the movie was first shown on cinema, people were marveled by the way Michael Scofield managed to break his brother Lincoln, and other inmates out. At the time it was produced, no one in the country believed that such breaks could be possible or practicable in this country.

However, recent series of jail breaks in the country proved otherwise. Just this few months, about three jail breaks were recorded, with many of the prisoners set free.

Observers attribute the chain of the jail breaks to desperate politicians who want to use the inmates for election violence, while others say the dreaded Boko Haram sect might be responsible.

The second opinion seem more plausible with armed attack on Maiduguri, Bauchi, Potiskum etc whose responsibility was admitted by the sect otherwise called Jama’atu Ahlissunnah Lidda’awati Waljihad, at different times during the course of the current insurgency in order to free its members held by the authorities’ grip.

To show the sect’s connection, it had also brazenly raided the Giwa barracks in Maiduguri,the Prisoner of War(POW) camp detaining several hundreds of its followers and set them free.

Though other criminal elements are suspects in the jail breaks, they curiously happen after major Boko Haram attacks on military and civilian targets famously celebrated by its leader, Abubakar Shekau on videos.

Giving insight into the manner of the breaks in Koton-Karfe in Kogi state; Ado-Ekiti, the Ekiti state capital and Minna, the Niger state capital, Minister of Interior, Comrade Abba Moro, ordered security to be beefed up around prisons across the country to forestall a recurrence.

He said ``the attack on that prison is most unfortunate…we have gone there and we saw what happened and the attack virtually took the same pattern -- use of explosives to break the walls of the prison. ``What we have done now

is to ensure that we step up our security and also encourage prison warders, the police and soldiers to continue to increase their level of security and surveillance around the prisons.’’

He described Koton-Karfe prison as obsolete and informed the construction of the new prisons nearing completion.

“The contracts for about 47 prisons were awarded in 1981 by former President Shehu Shagari but about 27 of them were abandoned. We are doing our best to ensure the completion of other prisons which we have awarded to help address our challenges”.

Forced prisoner releases: The danger ahead Signs of more trouble to come was expressed by Moro. ``For these criminals to escape, it adds to the level of insecurity in the country. On our own part, we cannot allow them to perpetrate evil in the society. ``We are working in partnership with other security agencies and the community to ensure that they are re-arrested and brought to book,” he said, adding that his ministry was doing a lot to decongest prisons across the country in tandem with appropriate authorities, especially the Ministry of Justice, to ensure that those awaiting trial were not unnecessarily kept in prison.

He also banned phone communication and the recovery of all telephones from the prisoners in the country within thirty days, in a recent interactive meeting with the senior officers of the Nigerian Prisons Service (NPS).

“I have visited some prisons in other countries as the Minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Nobody, no matter how highly placed is allowed to come to prison with his phones, not even the minister of Interior or the supervising minister of the prisons. So, why are you an

“

exception?

“Henceforth, no matter who you are, including myself, nobody goes into prison with telephones.

And so, as you are going from here, create a meeting platform where all the officers that work in the prisons submit their phones and collect them when they close”.

On Koton-karfe prison, the Minister wondered the failure of the prisons intelligence unit and the Armed Squad that led to the two attacks within two years.

The role of corruption Moro suggested insider conspiracy and the likelihood of moles that have infiltrated the prison security system.

“A situation whereby it is established that a prison officer connived with external forces to take a sizeable number of AK47 into the prison and the only sanctions you can give to such officer is to transfer him is not proper.

He warned the officers to “either demonstrate your capacity or honourably resign because there are many Nigerians looking for job, just say that you are no longer capable of doing this job and get out and we will get committed Nigerians to fill the vacancies.”

To match words with action, Moro approved the recommendations of the Controller General of Prisons, Dr Peter E. Ekpendu, for the immediate removal and suspension of the Controller of Prisons, Niger state Command, Musa Maiyaki, over the jail break in the state.

Others suspended included the officer-in-Charge,Medium Security Prison Minna, ACP Mohammed I. Bena and all other Officers on duty on 6th December 2014 when the jail break happened.

The officers will be in detention pending the outcome of investigation on the jail break at the Medium Security.

The Prison’s boss also ordered the immediate transfer of 55 officers and men of the Zonal and

Interior Minister, Moro state headquarters in Minna to the Medium Security Prison Minna and Old Prison Minna to beef up security in the two Prisons.

Niger Jail break 108 out of 275 inmates that escaped in Minna new prison on Saturday 6th December, 2014 when about 10 armed men attacked the New Minna medium prison, have been rearrested.

Forty-eight inmates had refused to leave the prison after the attack.

The Controller General of Prisons, Mr. Peter Ezenwa Ekpendu disclosed this in Minna while briefing journalists after his assessment of the situation in the prison, but said that investigation is on-going, adding that anyone found wanting in the report will face the full weight of the law.

However, he ruled out insider attack and connection with the Boko Haram insurgency describing the situation as “unfortunate, embarrassing and unacceptable, less than 24 hours he took over as the Controller General.

When some armed men attacked the Minna Medium Prison, at least 275 inmates out of 323 prisoners including one female inmate escaped.

The 10-man gang stormed the prison shooting sporadically into the air at about 4:30pm of Saturday 6th December, 2014 unknown to the prison officials.

They shot the security guard at the gate, who is currently receiving medical attention at the General Hospital.

They were said to have broken into the prison armory and made away with some of arms, as well as into the cells to enable the 323 inmates to escape, except for 53, who were awaiting trial that remained in their cell. Among them were a pastor and an Engineer.

It was gathered that the attack was planned and executed by some suspected armed robbery gang who came to free some convicted robbers and may not

The second opinion seem more plausible with armed attack on Maiduguri, Bauchi, Potiskum etc whose responsibility was admitted by the sect otherwise called Jama’atu Ahlissunnah Lidda’awati Waljihad, at different times during the course of the current insurgency in order to free its members held by the authorities’ grip.

be unconnected to the presence of two notorious robbers brought to the prison few days ago from Kebbi and Edo states.

The two notorious robbers are simply identified as Eze Ego, a Police Mopol officer who was dismissed from service from Kebbi state and the other known as Osama from Edo state.

The security lapses was due to an insider information that revealed routines in the prisons especially periods the security operatives usually go for their prayers while prisoners were being released within that period to relax within the yard.

Confirming the incidence at the prison, the state Police Commissioner, Mr. Olusola Amore told Journalists that the police in the state arrested four out of the escaped prisoners, out of which two were returned to the prison.

Kogi mayhem Suspected terrorists on Sunday night, Novenber 3 attacked the Koto-Karfe Federal Medium Security Prisons in Kogi State at 10pm, broke through the prison walls to set free all 145 inmates, vandalised the record office and threw the prison doors open.

Twelve of the prisoners were later returned while one died from bullet injuries.

It was the second time in two years the prison was breached to free inmates. 119 awaiting trial inmates were freed by the attackers in 2012 and many never returned.

According to an eye witness, the insurgents invaded the prison in a commando-style raid and operated for more than three hours unchallenged. He said the security operatives came when the damage had been done.

When the state controller of prisons, Alhaji Aminu Sule narrated the incident to the Kogi State governor Captain Idris Wada who visited the scene, he said the attackers forcefully released 144 prisoners.

Sule revealed that 26 of the prisoners were convicted of various crimes while 119 were awaiting trial for robbery, culpable homicide and others.

He pleaded with the governor to prevail on the Judiciary to wake up to its duties by trying awaiting trial inmates effectively.

He said some of the inmates have no business being in the prison. The prison, which stank and looked very unconducive for humans to live in, drew the ire of Governor Wada who decried the level of inhuman condition and promised to provide bedding.

Contd on Page 5

PEOPLES DAILY Weekend, saturday 20-sunday 21 December, 2014

PAGE 5

Special Report

Curious triangle Contd from Page 4 Noting that the prison yard should be conducive to serve as a reformatory home for inmates, and not for breeding criminals, he decried the situation where inmates sleep on the bare floor in the prison he described as the first in northern Nigeria.

He also appealed to the minister of Interior Abba Moro to expedite action on the new Koton-Karfe prison project so that the old building, which was established in 1934, could become a relic or monument for tourism.

Wada promised to invoke his power on prerogative of mercy to help some of the inmates languishing in jail without trial.

Riots in Kirikiri, jail break in Ekiti Recently in Lagos, the quite environment of the Nigeria foremost maximum security prison in Kirikiri town located in Amuwo Odofin local government area of Lagos was rattled as news of an attempted jail break spread like wildfire around the surrounding settlements.

The commotion also drew the attention of military men at the Nigeria Naval barrack which bordered the penitentiary on the west prompting joint collaboration between them and soldiers and police drafted in bring the situation under control.

A visit to Kirikiri prison, one is greeted with suspicious stares upon stepping into the compound from the Coconut axis along the busy Apapa Expressway, from questions thrown at you by security personnel to gaze following you as you proceed into the environment, it evokes a feeling of mistrust of an outsider by those who earn their livelihood inside the prison community.

As one tries to pass through the front of the maximum prison to enter the navy barrack from the western axis, security men follow with calculated watch for anyone who will go near the prison giant gate.

For Madam Angela, a restaurateur who owns a food and drinking joint in the sprawling prison community,the Friday, October 10 incident was one she will not forget in a hurry, as she narrated that sporadic gun shots from soldiers drafted in to quell the rioting inmate sent

Boko Haram Leader, Abubakar Shekau

spine down the nerves of those within the environment as well those who had come to carry out different businesses.

When the riot was eventually brought under control, reports said scores of inmates were dead but the prison authority confirmed only one death while 12 others sustained different degree of injuries and were taken to hospitals for treatment.

Different versions have emerged as to what led to the protest by occupants of the overcrowded facility. As prison head, Kayode Adeyemi was introducing his successor as he proceed on further training, inmates used the occasion to vent their anger at the way and manner Adeyemi dehumanized them before pandemonium broke out leading to destruction, arson and raid of offices inside the large prison.

The most credible and official version which appeared corroborated by Internal Affairs Minister, Abba Moro point to a demand for human right by the inmates who insist they must be allowed to enjoy some luxury inside the poorly ventilated environment of the kirikiri prison.

“They seize our personal items such as power generating sets, cooking pot and even raw foodstuff brought in by our relatives. They do not give us good food yet they will not allow us to cook. They wanted to seize a fan which belonged to a pastor and inmates started rioting”, an inmate told reporters.

The Minister also said “From the information made available, the immediate cause of the riot is that an inmate came unauthorised and installed some gadgets without the knowledge of the officials.

“What it meant therefore was that a convict, who brought in some gadgets, instigated the inmates to complain and that led to the fracas. But, the police and other security agencies have intervened and calmed down the situation.” Moro told journalists.

Madam Angela noted that for the umpteenth time, rumour of discomfort being experience by the inmates inside the prison had frittered out but it appeared the prison authority were slow to respond to the challenge especially considering the fact that it is overcrowded. She said the incident has affected the peace of the community as additional security measures have been put in place to forestall any similar occurrence, a measures she said has also affected movement of persons in the community.

She said “everyone is treading carefully now and if anyone misbehaves or disobey rules set in place, you could be booted out.”

Others have queried the rationale for stockpiling persons for even negligible crimes in a maximum prison facility like the Kirikiri.

Mr. Fadare Ade, an expert on correctional measure for delinquent persons, said the prison authority does not need a soothsayer to predict the incident of Friday October 10th.

He said the prison population

Kirikiri Maximum prison, Lagos in Nigeria paints the picture of rot in different correctional and vocational training facilities for inmates across the country.

He said “statistic showed that only 3.8% (98 out of 2, 536) of the inmates at Kirikiri Medium Prison have been convicted of crime.

That is a facility built to cater for just 835 persons. Out of the total number of occupants, 2,434 are awaiting trial. It means therefore that more than 96% of men and women in that facility are in the wrong place due to the laxity and corrupt attitude of those who are saddled with the responsibility to dispense justice.

“So what make you think that such incident will not happen.

Let me say that with the prison condition in Nigeria, we are lucky that we don’t experience such thing on a daily basis because the facilities are a sharp contrast from what they are made to teach.”

Tayo Olufemi, a lawyer narrated an awkward experience of how he has tried to bail an inmate who is said to have committed a crime that does not even deserve him spending a night inside a police cell, but due to the lapses in the judicial system in the country, the inmate is languishing inside the prison.

Scores of family members of inmates and legal representatives continue to flood the facility to enquire the state of their clients and relatives after the alleged jail break. A woman who sobs as she explained her plight, told our correspondent she was there to know the fate of her husband who is on the Awaiting Trial record for a crime she claimed he knew nothing about.

Another family member of an inmate who simply identified himself as George with a British accent wondered whether families and friends bringing gadgets and other consumables to make life comfortable for their relatives incarcerated, have committed crime. “They crammed about 3000 human beings with fundamental rights into a place meant for less than a thousand and you expect them not to complain, this is inhuman” he barked out to no one in particular.

George said in order clime, such facilities are accorded adequate attention because they serve to correct citizens who are

considered a risk to the society but “ how do you imagine someone who had lived here for years to interact with the society when he eventually leaves here” .

A social commentator, Martins Olomo, affirmed that the Nigerian society is breeding worst citizens by incarcerating them unlawfully as they will come out to vent their hatred on the ills they believe society meted out to them for crime majority of them did not commit. “It is a dire situation for Nigeria, not only the prison. The police and prison staff are not well catered for and you expect them to offer correction to inmate, that is putting the cart before the house.”

According to him, the entire 238 prisons in Nigeria should be revamped and given a facelift as well as reform the prison laws some of which are archaic while the judiciary should dispense justice with speed.

Former Comptroller General of Prison, Zakari Ibrahim had painted a shocking picture of situation in Nigeria reformed facilities when he informed a committee of the House of Representatives that out of the 50,601 inmates in the various prisons across the nation, 36,934 were awaiting trial, a whooping 70 per cent.

A visit to the Nigerian Prison Service website however did not give any information on the prisons and capacities segment on the site.

Those who spoke to Peoples Daily Weekend affirmed that the Kirikiri debacle might be a child play and a signpost to future occurrence except urgent steps are taking to right the rot in Nigeria prisons.

In Ekiti State, the prison was attacked by yet to be identified people.

Minister of Interior, Comrade Patrick Abba Moro made this revelation recently, during the commissioning of 12 convenience

“

rooms built by United Bank For Africa, UBA, for Ikoyi Passport office of the Nigeria Immigration Service.

The minister confirmed that 274 out of the 320 prisoners who escaped are still at large while 46 have been recaptured by security agencies.

He said: “The Ado Ekiti prisons were attacked in the early hours of December 1, 2014. The preliminary report that I have is that about 320 inmates out of the 446 inmates escaped.

“As I speak with you, a reasonable number of those inmates, about 46 of them have been recaptured and the search for others is going on. And the Nigerian prisons services officials are also going to police stations to recover all those who have been arrested by other security agencies. At the appropriate time, we will be able to give you all the figures. ‘’The attack on the Ado Ekiti prison which is similar to that of the attack on Kotonkarfe, Kogi state, which occurred a couple of months ago is the same pattern of desperate people outside who are possibly friends and accomplices are in jail and have attempted to forcefully release them, luckily only the section of the awaiting trial inmates of the prisons were attacked.

“What these attacks have brought to the fore is that there is need for reinforced perimeter fencing in our prisons which is being done now at Kotonkarfe, Kogi state, in view of the recent attacks and similarly because of the ease with which both prisons have been attacked and broken into, the need to reinforce our concrete fencing of the prison becomes an imperative need.”

Investigation ongoing The minister said he would not pin down the attack on any group till investigation was concluded.

Statistic showed that only 3.8% (98 out of 2, 536) of the inmates at Kirikiri Medium Prison have been convicted of crime. That is a facility built to cater for just 835 persons. Out of the total number of occupants, 2,434 are awaiting trial.

PEOPLES DAILY Weekend, saturday 20-sunday 21 December, 2014

Page 6

News

Prosperity: Niger, Benin, Mali, Cameroun top Nigeria – Report

D

espite its latest status as Africa’s biggest economy, and its government’s claim of improved standard of living, Nigeria was not only one of the world’s least prosperous countries in 2014, but also one of Africa’s poorest beaten by smaller nations like Niger, Benin, Mali and Cameroun, an annual global prosperity survey released this week has said.

The report, published by UK-based Legatum Institute, a research organization that documents annual prosperity indicators around the world, listed Nigeria as the 125th out of 142 countries surveyed, Premium times reports.

Remarkably, Nigeria failed to make the list of Africa’s top 10 most prosperous countries, a league dominated by Botswana and South

Africa.

Other countries in that bracket, listed from third and below, are Morocco, Namibia, Tunisia, Algeria, Ghana, Rwanda, Burkina Faso, and Senegal.

Nigeria fell to 27 in Africa in 2014, nosediving 22 places from its ranking in 2011, the report said.

In between the top 10 countries and Nigeria are Benin, Kenya, Zambia, Uganda, Mali, Niger, Cameroon, Egypt, Tanzania, Malawi, Djibouti, Mozambique, Cote d’Ivoire, Congo Republic, Zimbabwe, and Mauritania.

“The 2014 Prosperity Index provides a lens through which to view a comprehensive assessment of national success. The Index

measures the broad set of indicators that tell us not only how nations perform economically but in vital areas of education, health, freedom, opportunity, social capital,” said Executive Director of Legatum Institute, Sain Hansen.

Other indicators measured by the institute are, governance and safety and security.

For each of the indices assessed, Nigeria performed woefully, highlighting how life in Nigeria is perhaps among the harshest in the world despite the country’s oil and mineral wealth.

Nigeria’s best ranking was in the economy group, where it was ranked 97th out of 142 countries in the survey.

Elsewhere, Nigeria ranked 114th, 130th,

Chairman, Conference of Speakers, Samuel Ikon), presenting resolutions of the state houses of Assembly on the constitution (fourth alteration) bill to Senate President David Mark, yesterday in Abuja.

123th, 132th, 137th, 106th, and 108th in entrepreneurship and opportunity, governance, education, health, safety and security, personal freedom and social capital respectively.

The leading African country, Botswana, ranked 75th globally, and has a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of $15,147. The country is among the biggest proportional spender in the world as its government spends 8 percent of its GDP on Education.

The least ranked country in the survey is Central African Republic, barely unexpected as the country has been ravaged by internal ethnoreligious conflict in the past few years.

Norway is ranked as the most prosperous country in the world followed by Switzerland

Abuja bomb blast victims accuse FG of neglect

By Patrick Andrew

V

ictims of bomb blasts which occurred in various parts of the Federal Capital Territory(FCT) and its environ, have accused the Federal Government of neglect.

In a petition sent to the National Human Rights Commission, the victims said: “We have been neglected and abandoned by the Federal Government as it has failed to keep to its promise of taking care of our medical bills, a promise made by the President, Dr Goodluck Jonathan at every visit he made to the scenes of the blasts and to the hospitals to visit victims of the bomb blasts.”

They said that many of them lost their lives as a result of lack of government’s concern and negligence.

In the petition signed by Mr Kayode Olatunji on behalf of other victims, they said: “Many who

initially survived the bombing died months later as they could no longer cope with the exorbitant medical bills.

“Many underwent surgical operations in other hospitals after the initial hospitals…withdrew from handling their cases.”

The victims said they recorded various degrees of injuries from bomb blasts which occurred at the Independent National Electoral Commission’s office in Suleja, Niger State, United Nations Building in Abuja, Nyanya motor park among others.

Responding, the Chairman of the Governing Council of the Commission, Dr Chidi Odinkalu assured the victims that the Federal Government remained committed to the welfare of the victims.

He explained that government’s commitment informed the creation of the Victim Support Fund whose board NHRC belongs.

Sokoto tertiary schools down tool over salary structure

From Raji Bello, Sokoto

T

he Academic staff of tertiary institutions in Sokoto state have embarked on indefinite over non- implementation of the Consolidated Polytechnics and Colleges of Education Academic Staff Salary Structure (CONPCASS).

The institutions include Shehu Shagari College of Education, Sokoto State Polytechnic and

Sokoto State College of Legal Studies.

The striking lecturers are also asking the state government to implement the migration policy as part of the demands tabled.

Speaking at a press conference held yesterday in Sokoto, the State Chairman, Joint Consultative Forum (JCF) Mr. Yusuf Moyijjo said the industrial action was necessitated due to the lukewarm attitude of the state government

toward the lecturers.

“We must appreciate the fact that the Government has responded on the two of our demands thus: the payment of 2012 and 2013 leave grant and the approval of 65 years retirement age for academic staff.

“However, the issue of improvement of our salary that is CONPACASS and Migration policy which has been very critical and central, has not yielded any positive result since 2009.

“It is important note that since July 2013, we wrote several reminders and held series of meetings with security and Government agencies yet yielded no result.” Moyijjo explained.

He however foreclosed any possible negotiation between the state government and the striking lecturers “ until the demands were meant.

When contacted the state Head of Service, Alhaji Bature

Mohammed Shikafi said the state was aware of their demand, adding that the nation’s dwindling economy was the hindrance to the implementation.

He advised the striking lecturers to retreat from their action since their regular salaries are being paid without delay adding that government would stop paying them.

State Assemblies reject LG autonomy *Okays financial autonomy for self

By Ali Abare Okaforadi

H

&

Ikechukwu

opes for rapid human and infrastructural development at the local governments across the country were yesterday dashed, following the decision of the State Houses of Assembly to reject financial and administrative independence for the 774 local governments in the country.

This was one of the resolutions passed by the State lawmakers, with regards to the fourth alteration

Bill for the amendment of the 1999 Constitution, which was transmitted to them in September for consideration and voting, after which the Constitution stands amended.

However, the state lawmakers approved for themselves financial autonomy, implying that that the funds meant for the maintenance of the state lawmakers would henceforth be deducted at source at federal level, without them going to the Governors to seek approval.

They further approved the recommendation that the office of the

Attorney General of the Federation should be separated from the office of the Minister for Justice, even as they established the office of the Accountant General of the federation.

Speaking when he led the Conference of Speakers of the State Houses of Assembly to the National Assembly to return the final resolutions of the state lawmakers, the Chairman of the Speakers Conference, Samuel Ikon, who is also the Speaker of Akwa Ibom Speaker, said it was a popular decision.

He advocated the amendment of

Nigeria’s Constitution on continuous basis, adding that other amendments rejected by Nigerians today may find relevance tomorrow or next.

Meanwhile, the Senate President, David Mark, before receiving the transmitted copies of the amendment Bill, emphasised the importance of the autonomy for local governments, saying that the National Assembly must do everything within its powers to pass it into law.

He recalled how the National Assembly Constitution Review Committee members went round the

country to elicit the views of Nigerians on the key areas being proposed for amendment before embarking on the exercise.

While commending his colleagues at the State level for treating the document at record time, Mark assured Nigerians that National Assembly would swiftly work to produce the final document, adding that it does not matter how often the Constitution was amended, the operators must prepared to obey and be bound by it.

PEOPLES DAILY Weekend, saturday 20-sunday 21 December, 2014

Page 7

APC Vee Pee:

Cover

Edge Osinbajo has over Pastor Bakare A

By Patrick Andrew

t the third annual Oliver Tambo Lecture in Georgetown University, USA, in 2004, President Obasanjo had while giving details of the intrigues that surrounded his tenure said he was brought in by some persons evidently to do their biddings. “I was not my own man” he confessed and that aptly captured the title of one of his books, “Not My Will”, a book that drew flaks from sundry quarters for obvious reasons: attack on certain persons seen as institutions across the length and breadth of Nigeria.

Not my will seems to have been a recurrent decimal in Gen. Muhammadu Buhari’s choice of vice presidential candidates in two consecutive elections. In 2011, he toyed with different names and eventually had a candidate he won’t have touched with a long spoon thrust at him by the party.

Being a loyal party man especially one to whom rocking the boat was foreign, and whose nature prohibits being a hedge on the party’s path to success, he obliged and the result is history.

His arguments against the choice of the party’s vice presidential candidate, Pastor Tunde Bakare, were cogent enough to force a change of the decision, but party bigwigs or rather an influential south west leader trusted like a god, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, to be precise would not buldge. Buhari ran with the eloquent pastor, but the race yielded nothing of value from Bakare’s assumed stronghold, the ‘born again’ Christians.

Four years on, Buhari again became engrossed in yet another hectic process of selecting a running mate. In an expanded terrain, the ascetic military general stood akimbo as the various leaders of the amalgamated parties threw up names backed by sundry political calculations. He had a soft spot for a political calculation as against the preponderance shift towards regional tilt.

Close aides said Chibuike Amaechi, the Rivers State governor, who has not hidden his disdain for the leadership of the

After all the political calculations are made and the dust of competition has settled, it must be this nation and its people who stand first and foremost.

The question becomes whether we stand strong, able to shape ourselves into our best future or will we stand frail and trembling, burdened by the abject failure to surmount the multiple problems confronting us... Bola Tinubu

PDP, and whose assumed electoral value especially in the South South region where he could pose no little challenge to President Goodluck Jonathan’s quest to garner votes, was Buhari’s obvious choice.

However, after hours of marathon politicking, display of intrigues, painstaking permutations, horse trading, and meticulous negotiations, and perhaps placating of a key south west figure including Gen. Buhari, the All Progressives Congress (APC) finally opted for Professor Yemi Osinbajo.

Osinbajo’s entrance into the fray bears sharp similarity with his predecessor, Bakare whose foray into the race as a bonafide member of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) broke no ice with northern members of the party who felt that the pastor’s electoral capital was suspect. Then, Bakare was the party’s choice. Put more succinctly, the CPC had given the south west zone of the party the privilege of nominating a vice presidential candidate. They in turn offered Tinubu the choice of presenting a candidate and against better choices, the former

“

NADACO chieftain opted to impose Bakare.

Viewed from the contentious appraisal of Buhari by some southern Christians and his alleged religious fundamentalist inclination, Bakare, who leads an overflowing congregation at Latter Rain Assembly, was expected to generate sufficient votes to complement whatever the General was sure to rain in from the north.

But Bakare was a political neophyte, his considerable religious followership notwithstanding.

Suspicion, distrust for Buhari’s tendencies and the fact that the south west thrives more on opposition than being in the ruling central government dealt a fatal blow to the aspiration of the CPC to be at the helm of affairs at the centre.

It played out again. The south east wanted it. The performance of Rochas Okorocha at the APC presidential primaries where he scored more than 600 votes stood him in good stead. He pocketed the votes of delegates from his region. Amaechi though a front liner ensured that Buhari secured the maximum mandate from

Gen. Buhari south south delegates and for his troubles, the General felt he should be his running mate.

Then come the political permutations. Buhari’s CPC stood solidly behind him, while the ACN rallied behind Tinubu for Buhari.

Besides, the south west has no significant say at the centre having been denied the speakership when certain young Turks at the House of Representatives scuttled the PDP’s arrangement for Hon. Mulikat Adeola-Akande to emerge the fourth citizen.

Furthermore, the south west controls considerable APC

For me, political ambition will never triumph over patriotic conviction. This delicate moment affords no space for emotion to intrude to blind us from what is best. The APC is the best and only vehicle to enact the progressive and broad change this nation cries for. I eagerly lend myself to this fine cause without me having to be on the ticket.” ... Tinubu

membership and is at the helm of affairs in Lagos, Osun and Oyo and therefore deserves more than casual permutations in the political equation of the party. So the decision was made to hand over the post of the number two in governance to any candidate that the zone presents.

The edge

Pastor Tunde Bakare of Latter Rain Assembly was the product of an alliance between the ACN and the CPC. Though the option was very appealing considering the eyebrows raised over a MuslimMuslim ticket that could have produced Niyi Adebayo, Cornelius Adebayo and Bola Tinubu, all former governors and therefore with considerable clout, Bakare was eventually chosen because of the expected fruitful rain of church followers to the course.

Bakare, an activist who convened the Save Nigeria Group (SNG) that campaigned aggressively to end the political impasse that nearly ran Nigeria Contd on Page 8

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PEOPLES DAILY Weekend, saturday 20-sunday 21 December, 2014

...Osinbajo’s edge Contd from Page 7

aground following President Umaru Yar’ Adua’s health hiccups, he was before just an ordinary but flamboyant pastor. He had been no way near politics of that magnitude and therefore a huge minus in the nittygritty of the trade.

In terms of electoral capital, it was obvious Bakare was far from being the right political choice but he was a religiously superb choice. Sadly, his oratory failed to win over the votes as most church members opted to turn their backs on him on account of the ill-conceived perception of Gen. Buhari’s fundamentalist tendencies.

To break the sympathy that Jonathan then enjoyed, the CPC needed a consummate politician, a compelling personality, one who commanded an intense and reasonable followership like Buhari. Bakare was far from that.

Bakare a couple of times dabbled into prophecy, and burnt his fingers in the process. That represented a dent in people’s estimation of him and his closeness to God. Bakare was trained as a lawyer and worked in the law offices of the late Gani Fawehinmi and Rotimi Williams.

“There came a time during the course of events when our presidential candidate, General Muhammadu Buhari, offered the vice presidential slot to me. Being a normal human being, I was deeply moved and honoured that he would consider me for the position. Being a patriot, I had to weigh my potential candidacy in all of its dimensions.’’

Like Buhari at the APC presidential convention, Asiwaju Tinubu’s letter reiterated his determination to work with Buhari to wrest power from Jonathan. He created the necessary vista to peep into the marathon negotiations that produced Osinbajo. But it offered more.

Yes, the Asiwaju himself had been drafted into the contest. Buhari called in the former NADECO chieftain and that stoked up the APC polity to a brittling level. The man felt too big for the job and instead considered one of his wives a better and suitable alternative. But this didn’t go down well with the governors and other key elements who felt that none of his wives could offer credible electoral capital and would even be worse than Bakare.

Prof Yemi Osinbajo

The law professor is not new in politics.

He was a commissioner for justice and

Osinbajo

Bakare

attorney general of Lagos State and served under Bola Tinubu and Babatunde Fashola.

Political calculations give Osinbajo the edge. The APC clearly wanted a Yoruba man to compensate for their lack of representation in the hierarchical structure of the ruling PDP. Besides, he is equally a pastor but a temperate one, who has not dabbled into dubious prophecy and as such, retains reasonable pastoral integrity.

He has a political degree that straddles two key Yoruba speaking states: Lagos and Ogun. He is married into the family of the

late Yoruba sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, a political icon revered by most Omo Oduduwa and is sure to draw reasonable followership on account of that relationship. The Yoruba have deep passion for Awo and even in death he still engenders unity among them.

True Bakare was Asiwaju’s choice as is Osinbajo, but that’s where the similarity ends. Osinbajo is a consensus candidate and therefore was adopted by both Asiwaju, the party leadership and followership as well. He is not controversial and so far has made the politically correct postures and

I sincerely commit myself to the rescue agenda of General Buhari and Professor Osinbajo. I declare to you, I will work and dedicate myself so that our ticket succeeds and wins the 2015 election — not for his good, not for my good, not even for the party’s good but for the good of the nation we inhabit” ... Tinubu

statements.

His academic and legal background is also a huge plus to the party. He connects with students, colleagues in the profession, retained his grassroots bearing and is sure to garner no little support in Lagos.

The professor bridges the generational gap being about 17 years younger than Buhari and could appeal to both the older and younger generations alike.

Like someone said the APC needs this balance to persuade those who have accused it of positioning an old soldier to rule a 21st century Nigeria.

Osinbajo is said to be a thoroughbred professional who contributed immensely to the legal reforms and battles that Tinubu prosecuted when he created the Development Areas that Obasanjo felt was a breach of the constitution and resorted to starve Lagos of local government funds. That was between 1999 and 2007. The judicial reforms he also carried out made Lagos the touchstone in legal matters.

Little wonder Asiwaju felt compelled to support the professor whose clout, political pedigree and blue-blood by marriage to a politically inclined family stands him higher than Bakare of the 2011 dispensation.

OSINBAJO AT A GLANCE Yemi Osinbajo is a through Lagosian.

He was not only educated at Igbobi College and the University of Lagos (LLB, 1978), he has lived almost all his life in the bubbling city except when he proceeded to the London School of Economics (LLM,1980), a year after being admitted to practice before the Supreme Court of Nigeria.

He is married to Oludolapo, the granddaughter of the late sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo.Yemi is originally from Ikenne, Ogun State, but domiciled in Lagos where he served as commissioner. His brother, Akin, was the attorney-general of Ogun State from 2003-2007. That was the first and only time two siblings were known to have held commissionerships in different states at the same time.

The professor of law, who was the head of department of public law at the University of Lagos (1997-1999), and is a member of the International Bar Association and the British Institute of International and Comparative Law, has served in the Nigerian Body of Benchers and the Council for Legal Education of Nigeria.

He authored “Nigeria’s Treaties in Force”, “Nigerian Media Law”, “The Unification and Reform of the Nigerian

Criminal Law and Procedure Codes”, “Law Development and Administration”, “The Annotated Civil Procedure Rules of The Superior Courts in Nigeria”, “Cases and Materials on Nigerian Law of Evidence” and “Cross Examination: A Trial Lawyer’s Most Potent Weapon”.

He pastors the Olive Tree House of Prayer for All Nations, Banana Island, Ikoyi, Lagos, a parish of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) and lives in Lagos with his wife and three children.

He is currently the Ethics Adviser to the Advisory Board of the African Development Bank (ADB) and a non-executive Director of Citibank.

He has also served in various roles within the United Nations such as the United Nations Centre on Transnational Corporations, the United Nations African Institute for Crime Prevention, the International Criminal Court for Rwanda in Arusha, Tanzania, the department of Peacekeeping Operations and the UN Peace Operations in Somalia.

Osinbajo is a Co-founder & Board Member, Convention on Business Integrity and the Justice Research Institute Limited. In 2007, together with his wife, they founded The

Orderly Society Trust, a non-governmental organisation, dedicated to the promotion of Christian ethics and orderliness.

Strong Characters

His reforms turned around the lagos State judiciary between 1999 and 2003. As Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice of Lagos State in 1999, he fought President Olusegun Obasanjo to a standstill over the creation of local governments. Call it whatever you like whether development centres or local councils, Osinbajo stood firm against an equally stubborn Obasanjo who denied Lagos its share of local government funds.

The battle ended in the Supreme Court where Obasanjo licked the dust while Lagos smiled to the bank after 16 months of gruelling battle. The 37 local government development areas stand today as tribute to the dogged spirit of Osinbajo.

Presently, he earns a living as a senior partner in the Law firm of Simmons Cooper Partners. Well, not any more at least until after the 2015 presidential election.

PEOPLES DAILY Weekend, saturday 20-sunday 21 December, 2014

M

oments after Professor Yemi Osinbajo was named the running mate to Gen. Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress (APC); Nigerians tweeted in reaction to the development. Here are some the reactions taken from various blogs.

George_USA This political mismatch is an evidence of the desperation of a dictator. In all democracies, it is the presidential candidate and not the running mate that matters.

This team cannot undo the ugly past of a blood thirsty dictator. Let the APC regroup for 2019 when they must give us a credible flagbearer.

Gold Force This politician-intellectual combination would definitely guarantee a stable leadership. Hopefully too, we are looking at religious stability.

Ajibola O Thank God I have my PVC. GMB/ Osinbanjo you have my vote already. Please my people let’s make sure we collect our PVC because that’s the only way to make the change that we desire.

Nicabeth What is the job of the VP in Nigeria?

Nothing, except the one assigned to him by the president. The Vee Pee is a portfolio without authority. It is better to be a governor in a state than VP in Nigeria.

I suspect desperation. Maybe he is not even an APC member, the man just wants to be president at all cost. As a Christian, I can vote for Osinbajo as a presidential or governorship candidate but not VP. Somebody just want to use him as a ladder.

I can’t celebrate this as a Christian. Buhari is desperate and will do anything to be president. ldlkandy First of all, I want to congratulate Yemi for this great honour. It could not have come at the best or worst time for Nigeria.

Nigerians can start breathing a sigh of relief now that there is light at the end of the dark tunnel where they have been for over 20 years.

Yemi is not only very brilliant but he is impeccable in character, hence the nick name, ‘escko’ when he was at Igbobi College.

BAT you have finally done something that Nigerians can be proud of !!!!!

Yemi go get the rot out of the polity and give Nigerians justice and fairness, orderliness and good governance with GMB at the helm of affairs of a real and true governance and quality democratic dispensation for the masses. Bravo to Yemi and GMB. Why Worry I just wonder if Nigerians are no longer with their sense of history. Who is GMB in the Nigerian system? What is the role of a vice president in Nigeria? For a professor to accept being a vice president in this dispensation is simply a political arithmetic for the future.

Some people are behind the scene, trying to use this combination to remotely drain this country. It is a political bed some people have laid for their smooth sleep. A VP is a toothless bull-dog. So, what’s the effect of an erudite gentleman as a VP to a former dictator? Is it GMB that picked his running mate or someone else? What is the interest of the godfather that picked him? I wish Nigeria well.

Dynamite This political selection is fragile and definitely comes with an agenda. It must therefore be carefully weighed, especially after so many died in 2014. Nigerians are not fools.

The one above knows this unspoken agenda, as well as the hidden fine prints.

Prof will surely succeed, but there is need for in-depth secular discernment and divine wisdom.

Africa our motherland will give us victory on this noble pursuit. We need a tested and selfless leader like Prof Osinbajo.

Keno

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Nigerians react to Osinbajo’s appointment as APC’s VP

APC’s presidential aspirant, Gen. Buhari and his runnin mate, Prof. Osibanjo Yes, GMB was tested when he was a dictator. After the PTF saga, what prominent thing has he done for his village, state and Nigeria? In his own capacity, what are his contributions to a better Nigeria since leaving office years ago other than wanting to Islamise Nigeria? At least, we still hear of Gowon, Obasanjo. Please somebody should educate me?

Onpoint I wish this man was being paired with a better candidate. I do not wish Nigeria to be led by a religious bigot and Sharia advocate. His choice of Prof. Osinbajo may look perfect but let God’s will be done in Nigeria. I am not an advocate for the incumbent administration in any way. God save my dear country Nigeria.

Ezekiel Prof Osinbajo is an advocate of Christian values and a strong RCCG pastor, so that makes him ineligible to lead Nigeria. It also makes him a wrong candidate for Nigeria.

He is also a religious bigot. At least GMB is not an imam and does not preach and has not being seen anywhere in recent years lobbying around Muslim leaders. Osinbajo is a religious bigot too.

Ami I think Buhari is too old and should have groomed someone like Osinbajo as the presidential candidate. Why is he so desperate to be president of Nigeria? What can Osinbajo really do from the seat of a VP? Yes, he may have all the potentials but don’t rule out the fact that Buhari can make him a ceremonial VP when the chips are down.

OLUFEMI ADENIJI This is the change God promised Nigeria. To bring the change to reality, please go and get your PVC no matter what it takes. You must be armed to effect the change come 2015.

Olabode

“

Those who are labeling GMB a religious bigot should come out with intelligent proof that he is one. Most of these accusers only base their comments on hear-says, which is not a hall mark of intellectualism.

If the man has a link to any terrorist group, I am sure the govt of the day would have been happy to nail him with it to score cheap points. GMB/Osinbajo combination is a total deviation from past combinations of pure politicians without any iota of integrity. GMB offering himself for service over the years is not out of desperation. Why will he be desperate?

He was a former head of state, former minister of petroleum, chairman of PTF, and he did not soil his hands. We should analyse Nigerian situation with a clearhead and avoid jaundiced and sentimental assessments that have always been the bane of our political development, which is responsible for Nigeria’s crisis.

Ekundayo Ayodele Adeniran Nigeria could not have got it better than this! For the first time in our history, it would seem good old-fashioned integrity pays. Once thought lost, but now found in the winning combination of GMB (Good Man Buhari) and soul mate YO! (YOU GOT IT RIGHT) YEMI OSINBAJO! are heavensent- set to go places with the right team to create happy faces for all! That’s the pleasant package from God on high as we ride confidently into the year of our Lord 2015. Seize it. Appreciate it. Use it. Never lose it. All brought to life by the one and only APC...APC...What a welcome relief.

Emmanuel Alagbawi The array of credentials of Osinbajo doesn’t make him a politician and cannot win votes. Buhari you missed your first step.

Jide Popoola How many votes did Sambo win for GEJ in the north? The VP is more of a

Who is Osinbajo? He was an ordinary commissioner and we have hundreds of commissioners in the country. The APC vicepresidential candidate is an unknown individual in politics. He is not a threat to PDP. “One thing I know is that if it comes to issues and performance we will win the 2015 presidential election but if it comes to throwing anarchy or chaos, the APC will have an upper hand.

ceremonial role; the top of the ticket is what matters.

Mamman We as Muslims firmly believe that all power belongs to God alone. He gives and takes it from whoever He chooses whenever He chooses to. The best thing is for Nigerians to keep on praying for the best.

Umar Suleiman Bako APC has made a wonderful choice, I can assure all Nigerians. I pray to Almighty God that we should get the best and true patriotic leaders. We also pray to get the blessing of God. Oduba E Oduba Is Prof really clean on his data? He is 55 years and had his LLB at 19? Note, at that time, Unilag only admitted direct entry into Law programme. So, Prof was 14 when he had his O/L? Being a pastor does not make you holy but your fruits. Who are his associates and what are they?

Anonymous The emergence of the pastor will not help matters for Buhari. Nigeria is too complex for Buhari’s rigidity and also the economic situation will not smile at us as we will be face with inflation.

Nigeria will remain a capitalist state.

Buhari’s emergence will only wake up trouble.

Babatunde Fashola Prof.

Osinbajo has contributed tremendously to the state judiciary, the vision of building an efficient and incorruptible judiciary started under his watch as the Attorney General of Lagos State. So as I wish my brother and friend Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, the very best in the journey.

Olisa Metuh Who is Osinbajo? He was an ordinary commissioner and we have hundreds of commissioners in the country. The APC vice- presidential candidate is an unknown individual in politics. He is not a threat to PDP. “One thing I know is that if it comes to issues and performance we will win the 2015 presidential election but if it comes to throwing anarchy or chaos, the APC will have an upper hand.

Joe Igbokwe, APC Lagos publicity secretary.

Prof. Osibanjo is a deep intellectual, a revered Christian pastor, a revered professor of law, a redoubtable lawyer and a technocrat who complements the stellar records of General Buhari.

Solomon Adeola, Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Public Account At the end of the day, we have been able to resolve on one particular person, I believe this is good for the party. I commend the leadership of the party and thank Nigerians who have shown interest on this issue and for the APC to have come out strong to announce a name.

Funke O Osinbajo: Christian-Yes, PopularityNo...I’ll rather go for Sen Olorunnibe Mamora Christian-Yes, Popularity-Yes, Experience-Yes, Articulate-Yes, Proven Administrator-Yes, Ability to gather maximum SW vote-Absolutely Yes!!!!

Kunle B. On paper it is an excelllent pair, but little electoral value. Many Yoruba people are anti -Tinubu. Don’t believe the noise makers in APC in the South West, they know better. The Yoruba are no fools.

As it was in 2011, so it will be in 2015. Tinubu is incapable of delivering Yorubaland to a military dictator like Buhari. Osinbajo’s credentials won’t help him. Born again Christians will hardly touch the pair with a long spoon.

PEOPLES DAILY Weekend, saturday 20-sunday 21 December, 2014

PAGE 10

News INEC raises 10-man task force on IDPs

By Ahmed Abubakar

T

he Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has raised a task force on how to get Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) to vote in the forthcoming 2015 General Election.

The task force, whose constitution has been approved by the Chairman of INEC, Professor Attahiru Jega, has the mandate to examine the legal, political, security and administrative challenges in achieving IDP voting during the 2015 General Election.

It would evaluate the standards and recommendations emerging from conferences and workshops by international and local agencies on IDP voting, and determine their applicability to Nigeria for the 2015 General Election and review the experiences of other jurisdictions in dealing with the challenges of IDP voting.

Other duties include: “Evaluate the adequacy of existing electoral legal framework for resolving the challenges of IDP voting in the 2015 General Election; “Determine what the Commission can do to ensure that IDPs are not disenfranchised, if the existing legal framework is inadequate.

“Determine the scope of IDP participation that is practicable in the 2015 General Election”, among others.

The task force members comprise of the National Commissioner, Mrs. Thelma Iremiren, as chairperson; along with nine other members – including the Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs) of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states.

Other members of the task force include the Director, Electoral Operations, Mr. Kayode Oladimeji; Ag. Director, Legal Services, Barrister Ibrahim Bawa; Director, Voter Registry, Engr. Emmanuel Akem; Chief Technical Adviser to the Chairman, Professor Okechukwu Ibeanu; and Special Assistant to the Chairman, Professor Mohammed Kuna.

Others are the REC of Borno State, Professor Tukur Sa’ad; his counterpart for Adamawa State, Barrister Kassim Gaidam; the REC of Yobe State, Mallam Sadiq Abubakar Musa; and Director, Planning and Monitoring, Barrister Okechukwu Ndeche, who is also the Secretary of the task force.

The task force has seven working days from Monday, December 22, 2014 to submit its report.

Survey reveals equal membership percentage in PDP, APC

By Evelyn Okakwu

T

he Niopolls weekly survey has revealed that the All Progressives Congress, (APC) and the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (the PDP) share an equal percentage of registered membership nationwide.

A statement by the Niopolls director of research and chief operating officer, Dr Bell Ihua said; “A view of political party membership revealed an equal proportion of membership for the All Progressive Congress (APC) (47 per cent) and the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) ,

(47 per cent) with both accounting for the largest share of respondents who are registered members of political parties.”

The statement added that; “2 in 10 ( making 23 per cent) adult Nigerians claim to have political party affiliation as they are registered members of various political parties with possession of party membership cards, whereas, 8 per cent are registered members but do not have party membership cards. On the other hand, 7 in 10 (69 per cent) adult Nigerians surveyed confirmed they are not registered to any political party.

It further stated that a majority of Nigerians in this category are not keen on joining any political party. This may be due to general apathy towards politics, political parties and their activities or due to perceptions of a poor enabling environment for participation of individuals (especially the female gender) in political activities among other reasons.

The high membership of these parties among other registered parties, the statement further added, may be driven by higher awareness of Nigerians on these parties (PDP 87 per cent APC 82 per cent than other

registered parties as established by the poll; although a considerable proportion of Nigerians also showed awareness for the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) (25 per cent).

Further findings revealed that the traditional media (‘television’ 57 per cent ‘radio’ 50 per cent) plays a great role in the awareness of Nigerians on political parties. Moreover a considerable proportion (32per cent) of Nigerians mostly aged 18-21 years tend to rely on ‘word of mouth’ as a source of awareness.

FG will end unhealthy rivalries in health sector - Jonathan

By Abubakar Ibrahim

P

resident Goodluck Jonathan pledged yesterday that the Federal Government will act expeditiously on the report of the Presidential Committee of Experts on Inter-Professional Relationship in the Public Health Sector to end “unhealthy rivalries” among healthcare professionals.

Receiving the report of

the committee, which was headed by former Head of Service, Alhaji Mahmud Yayale Ahmed, President Jonathan said that the Federal Government will review the report immediately with a view to issuing a white paper on it and beginning the implementation of its accepted recommendations early next year.

“I had to set up the committee because I am

Family of seven burnt to death in Benue From Uche Nnorom, Makurdi

A

fire incident yesterday burnt a family of seven to death in Anyamkor, Gboko local government area of Benue State.

An eyewitness told Peoples Daily on phone that the fire which started at about 11:40 pm ravaged four flats of two bedroom each, adding that it started in Mr. Lawani Oye’s apartment.

She explained that the fire may have been caused by a generator which was left on by the family with a lantern placed close to it.

The eye witness further narrated that as soon as the fire started from Mr Oye’s flat, his wife popularly called Mama Tunde raised

alarm which woke other neighbours who quickly rushed out of their flats without rescuing any of their belongings.

“We were woken by the shout from our neighbour, Mama Tunde’s flat who shouted fire! fire!! fire!!!...and we rushed out of our flats without evacuating anything. They were burnt beyond recognition”.

It was gathered that the charred bodies of the deceased were left at the premises of the general hospital in Gboko at the time of filing this report because the workers were said to be on strike.

When contacted the acting Police Public Relation Officer PPRO, ASP Matthew Oku said that the command was yet to be briefed.

very sad, and I know most Nigerians feel very sad that strikes and unhealthy rivalries among professionals in the health sector have adversely affected medical services,’’ the President said.

According to a statement issued by Reuben Abati, Special Adviser(Media and Publicity) to the President, President Jonathan said that he was optimistic that the implementation of

the committee’s accepted recommendations would help to end unhealthy rivalries and incessant strikes in the public health sector, which, he said, had unfortunately created an atmosphere of uncertainty, leaving many people with fewer options for quality medical services.

Alhaji Yayale told the President that the committee identified 50 areas of conflict after receiving memoranda

and interacting with about 40 professional bodies in the Public Health Sector and members of the public.

He said that the areas of conflict were broadly categorized into organizational management, leadership and team work, remuneration and motivation, career management, capacity building, professional practice, labour, legal and governance issues.

KEBBI STATE GOVERNMENT

MINISTRY OF WATER RESOURCES AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT ADVERTISEMENT OF REQUEST FOR QUOTATION (RFQ) FOR THE CONSTRUCTION OF EARTH DAM AT MASHEKARIN ZUGURU, KALGO LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA CONTRACT NO: KBST/MWRRD/312/2014 1. Construction Of Earth Dam At Mashekarin Zuguru In Kalgo Lga 2. THE SCOPE OF WORKS FOR THE PROJECT SHALL INCLUDE THE FOLLOWING: i. Provision of environmental impact assessment study of the area where the dam is to be constructed ii. Survey of the Dam axis and production of design, which will include soil test, rain fall and flood analysis of the catchment area iii. Construction of Dam access road (laterite) iv. Clearance of Dam site of all trees shrubs and boulders v. Striping of the soil at embankments, spillway tail channels and burrow pit areas vi. Excavation in all classes of soil foundation level for cut –off trench reservoir and spill ways drains vii. Construction of embankment with hardcore materials from dumps and should be deposited and placed in layers of 0.3m and be compacted as specified viii. Provision of clumney blanket filters and man holes at 50m interval and provision of toe drain ix. Provision of slope protection at upstream with lump stone rip-rap pitched in sand and cement motar, and downstream be grassed with kiri-kiri. x. Construction of concrete spillway and run-off channel using plain cement concrete (1.3.6) for blinding layer of 50mm thickness for foundation base and re-enforced concrete grade 25 maximum aggregate size 21mm for base wing walls and cut-off sills 3. Qualification of Firms responding to the (RFQ) Civil Engineering Construction firms Engineering and Technical Services providers etc in presenting quotation must show clear evidence of a. Payment of cooperate taxes PAYE, VAT, TAX etc b. Kebbi State Tenders Board Registration Certificate c. Letters of Confirmation by applicant Bankers on having financial capacity to execute the contract d. Certificate of Incorporation for companies/consulting firms e. Memorandum and Articles of Association f. Registration with professional/regulatory bodies as would be applicable g. List of company/consulting firms machineries, equipment and instruments h. List of previous works/services executed within Kebbi and evidence of performance i. List of company/consulting firms personnel including qualification and year of experience in the field. j. Third party insurance.

DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSION OF QUOTATION Civil Engineering Construction Firms, Engineering and Technical Services companies/firms are to submit their quotations for the project at 12:00 noon on or before 23rd of December, 2014 at the office of the permanent secretary, Ministry of Water Resources and Rural Development G/Gaji Secretariat , Birnin Kebbi, Kebbi State.

The Ministry of Water Resources and Rural Development Kebbi State reserves the right to reject any quotation that does not meet its requirement.

Signed Dr. Abdullahi. S Gobir Permanent Secretary, Minsitry of Water Resources and Rural Development For: Honorable Commissioner

PEOPLES DAILY Weekend, saturday 20-sunday 21 December, 2014

PAGE 11

News

Niger, CBN partner to engage 850 youths

L-R; Minister of State for Education, ,Professor Viola Onwuliri, President, Nguru Development Union (NDU) Imo state, Abuja Branch, Chief Charles Ikeh and the Association’s Vice President, Chief Patrick Amadi, during the Union’s courtesy call to the Minister, recently in Abuja.

Photo: Justin ImoOwo

From Yakubu Mustapha,Minna

T

he Niger state government in partnership with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has registered 850 unemployed youths into the CBN - Enterpreneuship Development Center (EDC) for skill acquisition in various vocations in the state.

Governor Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu who made this known yesterday at the flag off ceremony of North Central zonal outreach EDC in Minna, said that his administration had earlier sponsored 100 youth for similar scheme in Markudi, Benue state.

The governor who was represented by the State’s Head of Service, Hamidu Khadi Kuta disclosed that in 2008 when CBN launched the scheme, the state government collaborated with the implementing agency where 1500 youth were trained in various crafts and trades.

He added that for the purpose of making such laudable initiative more effective, the state government had also expended about N270 million for the provision of start-up packs to the 100 youth that passed out in one of such trainings in the state.

Earlier in her remark, the President of the implementing agency of the scheme, African Community Bridge Foundation, Mrs. Oge Nwosu said, since the inception of the scheme, her agency had trained 150 youth from north central zone.

She commended the apex bank for the opportunity given to her agency to partner with CBN as that would enable them to replicate the services they have been rendering in the United States of America, in Nigeria.

According to her, so far 12,000 youth from across African countries had benefited from the scheme.

Adding that, at the end of the training, the youth drawn from the 25 local government areas of the state are expected to acquire skills in ICT, carpentry, block moulding, poultry, fishery and host of others.

Road:Uduaghan seeks N45bn refund from FG

By Osa Eresoyen, Asaba

T

he on-going Ughelli Asaba Expressway dualisation project which was started few years ago by the Delta state Governor Dr Emmanuel Uduaghan, is currently create rumpus over delay in the refund of N45 billion so far expended by the Governor.

Dr Uduaghan is unhappy that the federal government has not responded positively to his request as he has claimed to have borrowed a leaf from Dr. Samuel Ogbemedia, a two time governor of the defunct Bendel state.

Speaking to our correspondent in Asaba, the governor said however that he has appealed to Arch. Mike Onolememe Minster of work to assist the state in facilitating the request.

Unconfirmed sources said that the state have been indebted to the tune of N60 billion spent on various projects.

The Ughelli Asaba Dualization Project which includes the 149 kilometre Ughelli-Asaba highway was awarded on November 14, 2008 to three contracting firms at the cost of N44.7 billion naira but hitherto not completed.

Governor Uduaghan recalled that before the state government’s intervention, the roads had been in deplorable condition with potholes to the point of becoming hazardous to motorists and reminded the federal government of the urgent need to develop the roads in the riverine areas of the state.

According to the governor: “these roads host our crude oil and gas resource, it is a difficult terrain and in no small measure hampers curtailment of oil theft which has grown in an unacceptable dimension,it is my belief that it is equally wise to build adequate

network in the area for effective monitoring of our oil resources, the economic gain will be in measurable”.

He said that the state has committed over N440 billion to the road sector since 2007.

He said: “Since this administration came on stream, over 1,618km of roads and 514km of bridges have been completed” adding that in Asaba alone over 65km of roads have been completed under the urban renewal platform, while several road projects have also been completed in urban areas of the state.

2014 pilgrimage: 9000 Christians already airlifted

By Evelyn Okakwu he Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Christian Pilgrims Commission, Mr. John Kennedy Opara has said that 9000 pilgrims have so far been airlifted in this year’s Christian pilgrimage programme.

A statement by the commission’s head of media and publicity; Celestine Ogugua said the NCPC boss disclosed this recently at an evaluation meeting with the six approved tour Operators in Jerusalem to review this year’s

operations.

It said this year’s exercise which was flagged off in Abuja on October 18, 2014, made use of six international Airports across the country to airlift pilgrims to Israel.

It added that 47 percent of the participants this year were self sponsored, adding that 13 states have already performed their pilgrimage, so far.

According to the statement, the Commission for the first time was able to airlift Kaduna pilgrims from the Kaduna International

Airport and would hopefully airlift Bauchi pilgrims from the Bauchi international Airport.

It reiterated the commission’s resolve towards achieving zero abscondment of pilgrims.

Opara called n Nigerians to ensure that they were fit enough, before attempting to embark on pilgrimage. “Because of the desire of the Commission to reduce zero mortality of pilgrims, he posited that pilgrimage should be performed by those who are physically fit”.

The Commission, according

to Ogugua, would introduce leadership training for pilgrims in Israel next year as well as youth pilgrimage programme in the coming year.

Also, the Nigerian Ambassador to the State of Israel, Ambassador David Obasa commended members of the National Assembly for finding time to perform their oversight functions in Israel at such a time when the electioneering campaign for 2015 general election is in top gear.

Retreat for political office holders, top government functionaries and directors in the state held at Hotel 17, Kaduna yesterday.

According to him, the people have encountered untold hardship in the supply of water before the recent improvement.

The Kano State Governor while recalling the achievements of his state said the development of Kwankwasiyya, Amana City and Bandarawo estates, were one of the major legacies he is proud to leave

behind as over 2000 housing units are built and distributed to civil servants.

“We’ve trained over 2000 health technology graduates and pharmacists and were given free N50,000 plus non-interest loan of N100,000 to operate pharmacies under the ‘Lafiya Jari programme’.

“1700 youth trained in the use of modern farm equipment and each mobilized with the sum of N140,000 each, built two universities and 23 training institutions and the provision of streets lights,” he said.

Engr. Kwankwaso who was represented by his Deputy Alhaji Abdullahi Umar Ganduje said the Kwankwasiyya ideology will outlive 2015 adding that the essence of the retreat was to draft a budget of consolidation and continuity that would transcend the imaginary boundaries of May 2015 transition through to the current advocacy for a smooth succession.

“It is only by so doing, that the dream for greatness could be upheld and sustained.

In his own remark, the Head of Service, Dr. Umar Shehu Minjibir who is the convener of the retreat said as the state approached another end of fiscal year, the retreat would focus on developing a well articulated and a comprehensive designed Draft Budget that is expected to usher the next financial year.

Dr. Minjibir however, reminded the civil servants that they exist to assist government to evolve and promote effective programmes and policies for the improvement of society and happiness of the people.

T

KNSG increases water supply to 500m litres per day From Oyelola Femi, Kaduna

T

he Kano State Governor, Engr.

Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso has said the State Government has increased water supply to the people of the state from the meager 40 million litres per day to 500 million litres per day to soften the hardship being encountered by the people in getting potable water,a the basic necessity of life.

Engr. Kwankwaso disclosed this at the opening ceremony of the 6th

PEOPLES DAILY Weekend, saturday 20-sunday 21 December, 2014

Page 12

KATSINA STATE GOVERNMENT

AN ADDRESS

BY HIS EXCELLENCY, THE EXECUTIVE GOVERNOR OF KATSINA STATE, DR. IBRAHIM SHEHU SHEMA, CON, FNIM (SARKINFULANIN KATSINA I) AT THE PRESENTATION OF THE 2015 BUDGET PROPOSAL TO THE STATE HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY ON TUESDAY 16TH DECEMBER, 2014 BUDGET OF ACCOMPLISHMENT PROTOCOL BissmillahiRahamani Rahim. Alhamdullilah. I have to start by expressing my utmost gratitude and appreciation to Allah (SWT) for sparing our lives to witness this very important day in the history of our administration in Katsina State which I have the singular privilege to lead for almost eight years now.

Mr. Speaker, Distinguished Members of Katsina State House of Assembly, as is well known to all and sundry, this is the last time I am coming to this Honourable House to present Annual Budget proposals as the Governor of Katsina State. The 2015 Budget Estimates which my administration will implement for only 5 months is virtually aimed at consolidating the democratic gains provided to Katsina State by our administration within the last 7 ½ years of our stewardship.

Within the year 2014, the 35,000 seat Capacity Karkanda Modern Stadium Complex has also been completed and the Government is convinced the multiplier effect the sporting activities the Stadium will be hosting will ultimately justify the investment made.

HEALTH The State Government has recorded successes in the delivery of effective and free healthcare services to the people of the State. I am happy to categorically state that in the year under review the State Government has sustained the supply, distribution and administration of free drugs to the State populace for Maternal Services, treatment of children under five years of age, accident victims, malaria and dialysis patients. Also the Drug Revolving Scheme has been consistently operated throughout the year. Within 2014 BUDGET REVIEW the year under review the School of Nursing Katsina and As is customary Mr. Speaker, let me seize this opportunity the School of Midwifery Malumfashi have achieved 100% to make a cursory review of the performance of the 2014 accreditation requirements as a result of which the Schools Budget, especially in the provision of infrastructure and Basic are allowed to admit Students for their normal programmes.

Amenities, Social Services, Security, Youth Empowerment and The Immunization Exercise in the State has been recording other fundamental services very dear to any responsible and huge successes as a result of which the State has been free of responsive Government. polio for over two years. The review of Health Sector under

I am glad to unequivocally state that the 2014 Budget the 2014 Budget will never be complete without putting on has greatly helped in the implementation of Government record the collaboration with the MDGs as a result of which Programmes and policies, enhanced service delivery and 361 Dispensaries and 85 Maternal and Health Centres have facilitated the execution of developmental projects in the fields been constructed across the State. of Health, Education, Agriculture, Infrastructure, Water Supply, The 250 Bed Orthopedic Hospital has been completed and Power, Human Capital Development and Security.

HIS EXCELLENCY, DR. IBRAHIM SHEHU SHEMA, CON, FNIM is ready for commissioning. As at today, the Hospital is fully operational with qualified and experienced Doctors, Nurses EDUCATION (SARKINFULANIN KATSINA I) and other categories of Hospital staff running the Hospital.

In the year under review, Education has as usual received much THE EXECUTIVE GOVERNOR OF KATSINA STATE, The construction of a new Healthcare Centre at Kurfi, attention by the State Government. The Government policy on Free Education and the payment of WAEC, NECO, NABTEB, Labour Trade Tests and NBAIS the renovation of Charanchi and Zango Healthcare Centres and the rehabilitation of Baure, Examinations Fees for all Candidates in Public Schools has been sustained since 2007 with an Ingawa and Musawa General Hospitals were all completed within the year under review while expenditure of over N800million. Also, the payment of Scholarships to fresh and continuing Comprehensive Health Centre, Kaita has equally been fully renovated.

As part of effort to ensure provision of potable water well over N300million has been Students of Katsina State origin studying at various Institutions of Higher Learning across the Country has remained the policy of the State Government and so far over N300million has released to RUWASSA for construction of new boreholes and rehabilitating dysfunctional been released to cater for continuing Students while applications from fresh Students has been ones. In a similar vein, new Drilling Machines of over N167million have also been bought for processed. It is also important to mention the sponsorship of over 700 indigenes of Katsina the Agency to enhance its services.

State under the Foreign Scholarship Policy to study Medicine, Pharmacy, Nursing, Computer Science, Engineering, Physiotherapy, Dentistry, Radiology etc at various Universities outside the AGRICULTURE Country to arrest manpower gap in those areas and expose the State indigenes to international As a predominantly agrarian State, from the inception of our administration to date, the competitiveness among other benefits. In 2014, 65 young boys and girls have been sponsored Government has been paying desired attention to the development of Agriculture in the State. with expenditure close to N700million. Similarly, the State Government has also continued with The implementation of Katsina- Songhai Initiative Programme has recorded an impressive the support and intervention in Allo Model Schools System in the year 2014. The number of result with Zobeand Mairuwa Dam Sites almost completed, while work on Sabke Dam Site has facilitators and their allowances were increased in addition to the support being provided by the recently commenced.The delay was due to the tortuous handing over processes by the Federal Government on feeding, clothing, and rudimentary craft training of the pupils and stipends for Government. Already Farmlands have been selected, surveyed and valuated for the project. teachers. Even though the yearly cumulative expenditure of this Programme is about N450million, The State Government has released overN130million for the payment of compensation to the the lives it touch and the behavioural revolution it promises to bring about in our cultural milieus affected farmland owners. To further confirm the commitment of the State Government on the inestimable. The Counterpart Funding for the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) Programme, the State has virtually fulfilled its part of the agreement by paying almost all the has also been promptly provided by the State Government in the year under focus. This led to the amount earmarked for the project and I dare say the Katsina – Songhai Initiative, if doggedly selection of the State Universal Basic Education Board as the best in the North – West Zone by the sustained, has the potential to open a new vista in the practice of agriculture in Katsina State.

It is on record, that the State Government has under the 2014 Budget sustained relevant Committee of the Federal House of Representatives. the provision of Agricultural inputs with heavy subsidy particularly fertilizer, expanded irrigation activities, carried out inoculation of livestock, supply of qualitative veterinary drugs INFRASTRUCTURAL DEVELOPMENT Mr. Speaker, Honourable Members of the State House of Assembly, it is gratifying to note and maintenance of Strategic Grains Reserve Programme to stabilize prices and fight food that the State Government has succeeded in setting an unmatched record in infrastructural insecurity. development. In the year under review, the State Government has completed and commissioned the Ring Road and the New Government House, Katsina named Alumma House. As at today, YOUTH EMPOWERMENT the construction of 160.93kms of roads with bridges etc across the State is going on. In addition, The 2014 Budget has continued with the State Government multitude of programmes in Youth the construction of 250 Housing Units at Kabukawa, Katsina and 151 units at Kafe District, Empowerment in the State such as Youth for Tree Planting and Environmental Protection Abuja has reached an advanced stage of completion. Other ongoing projects include Katsina city Programmes. Also the Skills Acquisition Programmes at Katsina Youth Craft Village have been Shopping Mall, New International Modern Market, Islamic Waqaf Library among others with a consistently churning out graduates who are not only self-reliant but becoming employers of contract value running into billions of naira. These notwithstanding, the State Government has labour in their own way.There are currently 14 Trades being taught at the Youth Craft Village recently awarded contracts for the construction of Eka – Kadandani – Kuraye – Yargamji Road, and the policy of providing resettlement package to the 10 best graduates of each Trade is being Dankaba – Abdullawa – Lafiyaru – Nasarawa – Jifatu Road and MararrabarSayaya–Sayaya – sustained as a motivational imperative. The 14 Trades being taught are: Mazoji – TasharIcce Road.

Contd on next pg

PEOPLES DAILY Weekend, saturday 20-sunday 21 December, 2014

PAGE 13

i) GSM Repairs ii) Tailoring iii) Carpentry iv) Welding v) Pottery vi) Wrought Iron vii) Film/Photography viii) Shoe and Leather Works ix) Computer Repairs x) Catering Services xi) Auto – Electrical xii) Auto – Mechanical xiii) Tie and Dye xiv) Beauty Saloon.

iii.

Consolidated Revenue Fund Charges - N6,086,026,125 = 5.52%

Total - N34,589,660,745 = 31.39%

The Capital Expenditure aspect of the Budget which constitutes 68.61% has been deliberately worked out so as to sustain the tradition of engineering rapid growth, progress and development that a growing State like Katsina State requires. As I once indicated, the higher allocation for Capital Expenditure is a consciously contrived policy meant to solidly prepare the substructure upon which other super structures will be enthroned to guarantee balanced development, raising a clime dotted with investment incentives and creating the space convivial for the realization of individual innate qualities of self – realization.

POVERTY ALLEVIATION Mr. Speaker, Honourable Members, the State Government has done much in Poverty Alleviation Programmes especially in the extension of Micro – Credit facilities, implementation of Women Empowerment Credit Programmes, assistance to Physically Challenged, provision of Soft Loans and assistance to graduates of Youth and Women Skill Acquisition Centres. Similarly, the State Government through the Department of Community Development has continued to meet the demands of Rural Communities via myriads of interventions in social and spiritual realms in sync with the aspirations of the people of the State. The Department has expended over N2Billion this year and any casual observer of the State Government activities would have noticed its busy schedule shuttling from one community to the next and the unbroken assistance being rendered to Communal Associations.

In another vein, it is now obvious to all objective observers why the State Government shunned hasty disbursement of the State share of SURE-P Fund. The organized and far-reaching programmes now being unfolded have put paid to the skepticism of critics. With a sense of fulfillment, Katsina State is surely assured of its SURE-P Fund through the multitudes of interventions using the saved resources.

CAPITAL RECEIPTS The total amount available as Capital Funds for 2015 is projected to be is broken down as follows: i.

Transfer from Recurrent Budget Surplus = ii.

F.G.N Counterpart Contribution = iii.

External Contributions = iv.

Opening Balance

= Total

=

SECURITY The present administration has given absolute attention to the security of the people. The challenges being faced in security arena nationwide necessitated improvement of spending on this social enterprise. I must therefore use this occasion to commend our Security Agencies, Traditional and Religious Leaders and other Community Leaders for jointly making Katsina State one of the most peaceful States in Nigeria, pockets of vulnerabilities notwithstanding. We therefore express our gratitude to Allah (SWT) for securing our State.

ICT AND BUSINESS INSTITUTE The construction of Ibrahim Shehu Shema ICT and Business Institute has reached an advanced stage of completion. Our desire to commence the training of indigenes of the State on ICT and Business related fields encouraged the State Government to construct a Temporary Site for the Institute as works are comprehensively going on at the Permanent Site. Already, Experts have been hired from outside the Country to serve as Pioneer Staff of the Institute and to supervise the take off of the Institute in accordance with International Best Practices. Other Lecturers and supporting staff will soon be interviewed and employed to facilitate the commencement of programmes that will enable indigenes of the State to compete with other Students in the concerned fields from any part of the world. Academic Programmes are due to commence from January 2015 session in the Institute.

FINANCIAL COMMITMENTS Mr. Speaker, Honourable Members, the State Government has within the 2014 Financial Year executed programmes and policies within the confines of the approved Budget WITHOUT ANY BORROWING LOCALLY OR INTERNATIONALLY. Indeed all financial obligations such as the payment of Salaries, Pension and Gratuities as well as Contractors obligations were met as and when due. Despite the shortfall in the revenue estimate by over 20%, (over 19 billion naira) the State Government has achieved 86% implementation of the 2014 Budget, the highest since the inception of this administration and the percentage attained is bound to rise higher by the end of the year.

2015 BUDGET HIGHLIGHTS The 2015 Budget is with a sense of humility tagged “Budget of Accomplishment” thus eliciting varied but inter-related sentiments. In the first instance, the accomplishment epithet is justified from the achievements realized in the period since we mounted the saddle of leadership. Certainly, not accomplishing everything but accomplishing optimally in juxtaposition with the resources available, cognizance of competing demands and with due regards to other constraining variables.

On another instance, the accomplishment toga has to do with our undying desire to deliver more services with direct bearing on the aspirations of the State citizens within the remaining few months of our mandate. The 2015 Budget is estimated to be 69% of the total Budget Capital Expenditure and 31% Recurrent Expenditure. Our goal is to achieve concrete and formidable results, accelerate rapid growth, progress and development. The Government has consistently tried to maintain the structure of 30:70 ratio of the Recurrent and Capital Expenditure respectively inspite of the fact that revenue projection has been reducing over the years. The 1% variation this year is necessitated by the reality of settling severance gratuity of all Political office holders in line with the dictates of the Law. FEATURES OF THE 2015 BUDGET. The total Budget for the year 2015 is N110,184,429,132 with a surplus position of N114,587,962.

In aggregate term, the 2015 Budget Estimate is lower than that of 2014 (N113,603,420,620) by N3,418,991,488 which is equivalent to 3%. This is the lowest revenue projection and is realistic due to the fall in the price of crude oil in the International Market. The 2015 Budget is structured with a total Recurrent Expenditure of N34,589,660,745 or 31% of the total Budget and the Recurrent Expenditure aspect is broken into the following components: i.

Personnel Cost - N19,911,071,790 = 18.07% ii.

Overhead Cost - N8,592,562,830 = 7.80%

RECURRENT REVENUE The total recurrent revenue to finance the 2014 Budget stands at N85,435,622,400 which comprises ofN15,435,622,400 or 18% as Internally Generated Revenue and N70,000,000,000 or 82% as Revenue accruable from the Federation Account.

N75,594,768,387 which N50,845,961,655 N 1,000,000,000 N 3,248,806,732 N20,500,000,000 N75,594,768,387

CAPITAL EXPENDITURE In line with the established tradition of operating a healthy Budget, the estimated Capital Expenditure for 2015 Financial Year is N75,480,180,425 thus producing a surplus of N114,587,962.

The proposed sectoral allocations are as follows: i.

Economic Sector - N20,522,109,630 = 18.64% ii.

Social Service Sector- N13,241,072,193 = 12.03% iii.

Regional Development- N26,348,438,972 = 23.94% iv.

Administration - N12,105,479,630 = 11.0% v.

Judiciary - N 413,080,000 = 0.38% vi.

Legislature - N 750,000,000 = 0.93% vii.

State wide Intervention - N 2,100,000,000 = 1.94% Total - N75,480,180,425 = 68.61% SUMMARY The 2015 Budget which is projected to be operated with a Surplus is broadly categorized as follows: i.

Funds from Federation Account = N 70,000,000,000 ii.

Internally Generated Revenue = N 15,435,622,400 iii.

Capital Receipts = N 4,248,806,732 iv.

2015 Opening Balance = N 20,500,000,000 Total = N110,184,429,132 LESS EXPENDITURE i.

Recurrent = N 34,589,660,745 ii.

Capital = N 75,480,180,425 Total = N110,069,841,170 Thus the projected revenue of N110,184,429,132 less estimated expenditure (both capital and recurrent) of N110,069,841,170 resulting in a surplus of N114,587,962.

CONCLUSION

Mr. Speaker, Honourable Members of the State House of Assembly, the figures I presented to you now constitute the financial beacons that are carefully conjured to provide bearing for Katsina State Government in the 2015 Financial Year. This Honourable House, I am honoured to reiterate, has the Constitutional powers and responsibility to appropriate the proposal into Law. Today we are here in deference to the powers conferred on the Legislature by the highest legal document of the Country, the Constitution.

As I mentioned earlier,I am here for the last time to sit before this Honourable House to present Katsina State Government Budget Proposal as the Governor of Katsina State and there is no better opportunity to express my sincere appreciation for the support you have given me to operate a Government that developed, nurtured and practiced a philosophy of service; a Government that respects the dictum of due process and a Government that is humane and efficient. The mutual respect we enjoyed as we jointly played our respective roles in the arms of government we belong will for me remain indelible in my fondest memory. I pray that the fraternal bond we have evolved over the years will not fizzle out when we are out of government or as our roles change in emerging dispensation.

It is equally pertinent to register my appreciation to our Royal Fathers particularly Their Highnesses, Emirs of Katsina and Daura for their guidance and interventions. The Business Community and Elders have also been quite supportive and I salute their patience, understanding and words of wisdom. My fervent thanks also go to our teeming youth for their solidarity with my administration. Equally unforgettable are the women, our trusted mothers who have been our bulwark and veritable source of the support we enjoyed.

In my reckoning, the State workforce has lived upto its billing as among the most dynamic and vibrant in the Northern part of our Great Country. I admire its adaptability to dynamism of modernity and still retains its reticent character. I thank all who in one way or the other assist my administration to succeed to the level we have succeeded. As elections year is virtually few days away, I pray for a peaceful and hitch-free elections that will produce quality representations at appropriate levels of government.

Mr. Speaker Sir, Distinguished Honorable Members, there is time for everything. Today is time for Budget Presentation in the hallowed Chamber of the Honorable House and I have the honour to lay before this Honorable House 2015 Budget Proposal of Katsina State Government for consideration and eventual passage into Appropriation Law. I beseech Allah (SWT) to continue to guide you in the discharge of this important constitutional assignment.

Thank you and May Allah Bless. Amin.

PEOPLES DAILY Weekend, saturday 20-sunday 21 December, 2014

Page 14

Crime Cycle

Stanley Onyekwere pmlcrimecycle@gmail.com 08138559513

Police arraign bizman docked over fraud

T

Police IG, Suleiman Abba

Theft: Carpenter docked for stealing employer’s property

A

32-year old carpenter, Lanre Omoshitu, has appeared before an Igbosere Magistrates’ court, in Lagos for allegedly stealing his employer’s equipment valued at N400, 000.

The accused, who hails from Badagry in Lagos State and works at Eko Atlantic Nig. Ltd., is standing trial on a charge of stealing.

The prosecutor, Sgt. Edet Akadu, told the court that the accused committed the offence on December 6, at 5:40 p.m in the company located on Ajose Adeogun St., Victoria Island, Lagos.

Akadu said that the accused stole six crane belts valued at N400, 000, properties of Eko Atlantic Nig. Ltd. He said that the alleged offence

contravened Section 285 of the Criminal Laws of Lagos, 2011.

However, the accused pleaded not guilty to the charge.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Section 285 of the law provides that any person who stole any property is guilty of felony and is liable to three years imprisonment.

The counsel to the accused, Mr. Danniel Abbi, urged the court to admit the accused to bail on liberal terms.

The Magistrate, Mrs. Joy Ugbomoiko, granted him bail in the sum of N20, 000 with one surety and adjourned the case to January 15 for continuation of hearing.

(NAN)

he Police have arraigned a 37-year-old businessman, Gbemiro Oresegun, who allegedly defrauded a hair dresser of N200, 000, before a Tinubu Magistrates’ court in Lagos.

Oresegun of Oke-Tiri Compound, Adolo, Ajah, Lagos, is facing a two-count charge of fraud and stealing.

The prosecutor, Cpl. Francisca Okere, told the court that Oresegun committed the offences at 9.00 a.m., sometime in February at Ado Road, Ajah, Lagos State.

She said that the accused, collected the sum from the hair dresser, Ms Joy Obaseki, to enable him to buy a Nissan car, but failed to repay her.

Okere submitted that the accused gave Obaseki an undertaking that he would pay her N20,000 monthly to offset the debt.

She said that, after Oresegun acquired the car, he breached the terms of agreement with Obaseki and absconded.

The prosecutor added that efforts by the hairdresser to get her money back yielded no result.

Okere said that the offences contravened Sections 285 and 321 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2011.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Section 321 provides for two years imprisonment for fraud,

FCT NDLEA grasps 981.9kg of narcotics at Abaji

T

he Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Command of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), says it has seized about 981.9 kg of Cannabis Sativa from five suspects at Abaji in the FCT. The FCT Commander of the NDLEA, Mr. Dennis Obiefule, disclosed this, in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recently, in Abuja.

He disclosed that this was achieved through increased surveillance and mounting of check points at all major entries into the FCT. Obiefule, therefore warned all drug traffickers and barons to stay off the FCT and also cautioned parents to monitor the activities and movement of their children so that they would

not fall prey to hard drugs.

Spokesman of the command, who gave a breakdown of the seizure and arrest at Abaji, Mr. Peter Adegbe, said that one Samson Musa was arrested with 738 kg of Cannabis Sativa on December 6, at Abaji.

He said that two other suspects, Goddy Asile and Jolly Salihu were arrested with 106.5kg and 61.9kg of cannabis respectively, on December 4, also at Abaji.

He further revealed that earlier in November, two other suspects were arrested.

According to him, one Mr. Emmanuel Orji was arrested with 60kg of cannabis while Mr. Ohis Eliso was arrested with 15.5kg of the same narcotics.

He added that the five

Crime quotes: Crime Action Tips: Start a Neighborhood Watch A neighborhood watch is a free and helpful way to reduce violence, bullying, and crime in an area.

suspects are currently in court for prosecution while the seized narcotics will be destroyed immediately the court gives the go ahead for it.

“We have concluded Investigations for most of these cases and the suspects have been charged to court while we await the decisions of the court,’’ he said.

He decried the use of narcotics especially by the youths and warned all those involved in the illicit business to stop before the law catches up with them.

Adegbe also called on all other stakeholders such as religious organisations, NGOs, schools and parents to join the NDLEA in the fight against narcotics and illicit drugs.

Starting up • Go talk to your neighbors and local businesses to see who is interested.

• If they say yes, collect phone numbers and emails.

• Host a meeting, where you discuss the expectations that

while Section 285 prescribes two years jail term for stealing.

The Magistrate, Mrs O.M. Ajayi, granted the businessman bail in the sum

of N50,000 with two sureties in like sum, and adjourned the case to January 27 for hearing proper.

CJN charges FCT judges on alternative

dispute resolution

T

he Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Mahmud Mohammed, has urged judges to employ alternative dispute resolution processes to ensure speedy justice delivery and court decongestion.

Mohammed made the call at the Supreme Court, Abuja, while swearing in five new judges of Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Courts.

He said that the benefits of alternative dispute resolution mechanisms such as arbitration, mediation and conciliation to speedy justice delivery and case backlog reduction in the system could not be overemphasised.

“Although, you are all aware of these benefits, alternative dispute resolution can reduce the time and cost of justice, which simultaneously reduces the burden on litigants and case backlog.

“We need to explore innovative ways to speed up the administration of justice and measurable progress.

“That is why, as judicial officers, I urge you to imbibe best practices in court and case management, to be implacable in the face of corruption and to be unimpeachable in your manners,” he said.

Mohammed announced that cases disposed through utilization of alternative dispute resolution processes would henceforth form part of judicial officers’ performance.

According to him, this will be forwarded to the National Judicial Council (NJC) in the judges’ performance evaluation quarterly returns.

“It is hoped that the incentive will galvanise judges to employ legitimate, non-adjudicatory measures and ultimately increase the disposal rate of cases,’’ he said.

The CJN charged the new judges to beware of “nefarious characters’’ who might be out

everyone has at all times.

• Provide the non-emergency number for police. Some communities you can dial toll free numbers, others you must directly call the station. In emergencies, always dial police numbers.

•Decide what things prompt

to test their judicial integrity, especially as their appointment came when the nation was moving toward electioneering era.

“As judicial officers, series of temptations will come your way, but the ability to resist them will definitely stand you out and earn you a lasting reputation on the bench,’’ he said.

He warned that the NJC would punish judges that indulged in judicial misconduct.

Mohammed, therefore, urged them to embrace the code of conduct for judicial officers and make it their permanent companion.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the new Justices are Baba Idris (Taraba), Bello Kawu (Gombe), Ogbonnaya Nwamaka (Enugu), Aniete Ebang (Akwa-Ibom) and Udukwu Umar (Ebonyi).

CJN Mahmud Mohammed

participants to call the police or other neighbors. Write them down.

•Set a date for the next meeting for updates.

•Be sure to email everyone a summary of what happened at the meeting no more than 24 hours afterwards.

PEOPLES DAILY Weekend, saturday 20-sunday 21 December, 2014

Page 15

Politics

My Watch: How Obasanjo dressed down Jonathan

By Patrick Andrew with agency report

I

n his scathing new autobiography, My Watch, former President Olusegun Obasanjo was at his vintage.

He spared no word for anyone that he reckons rightly or wrongly deserves his knocks.

Unlike other ex-leaders like Gen. Yakubu Gowon, Alhaji Shehu Shagari, Chief Ernest Shonekan (interim president), Gens Ibrahim Babangida and Abdulsalami Abubakar, Obasanjo has been notorious for attacking seating Heads of State and presidents.

He dealt severe verbal blows on Gen. Babangida severally so much so that the Maradonic Military President had to send emissaries to persuade him to back off. Well, it was just a frown. Perhaps, encouraged by his escapades in the regime of the toothy general he took on late Gen. Sani Abacha head on but met with fierce resistance as the maximum ruler committed him to the jailers for alleged coup plot. He barely escaped with his life thanks to the sudden demise of Abacha.

Under his watch, he tolerated no rivalry as he applied the sledge hammer on any that dares show the slightest act of disloyalty. Ask Alhaji Atiku Abubakar for the gory details of their sour relationships.

However, OBJ just don’t want to be seen, he wants to be heard and feared and be in control.

Goodluck Jonathan was seen as his protégé, but the former deputy governor and later governor, who providence catapulted from vee pee to president, opted to be his own man. That surely drew flaks from the civil war general, who felt dared by a bloody civilian.

Now, in his My Watch Obasanjo drew conclusive and very seething judgement of his ‘turncoat’ stooge describing severally as weak, callous and incapable of managing Nigeria.

Here are excerpts from the book.

“In the area of corruption, we have been going back steadily from the inception of Yar’Adua’s administration when the ‘hunter’ became the ‘hunted’,” Obasanjo states. “Under Jonathan we seem to have gone from frying pan to fire.

If in the past corruption was in the corridors of power, it would seem now to be in the sitting room, dining room and bedroom of power.”

On President Jonathan’s character: Jonathan is lacking in broad vision, knowledge, confidence, understanding, concentration, capacity, sense of security, courage, moral and ethical principles, character and passion to move the nation forward on a fast trajectory.

Although he might wish to do well, he does not know how nor does he have the capacity to. To compound

his problem he has not surrounded himself with aides sufficiently imbued with the qualities and abilities to help him out. Most of them are greedy hangers-on or hungry lacklustre characters interested only in their mouths and their pockets.

An elder statesman who formed a close relationship with President Jonathan very early in his presidency came to the conclusion, after six months, that the president has not got what it takes to lead. It was the same elder statesman who reportedly tried to jolt the president into action by telling him that there were five presidents in Nigeria, and these were his wife the first lady, Deziani, Oduah, Ngozi and the president himself, and that he was the weakest of the five.

On corruption: In the area of corruption, we have been going back steadily from the inception of Yar’Adua’s administration when the ‘hunter’ became the ‘hunted’. But under Jonathan we seem to have gone from frying pan to fire. If in the past corruption was in the corridors of power, it would seem now to be in the sitting room, dining room and bedroom of power.

If what is called ‘corruption’ is stealing, under the watch of Goodluck Jonathan, then government has become legalised and protected robbery.

The presidency had instructed EFCC to remove a vital document in Gbenga Daniel’s file in their custody, to assist getting Gbenga Daniel off the hook. All these cases were reported to the president and were known to him; but because they involve the president’s interests, directly or indirectly, no action has been taken.

With the 2011 elections, heavy financial prices were paid to Lagos and Ondo State opposition political leaders to secure the vote for the president, against the interest of PDP at the state level...

The situation where the president surreptitiously invited Bola Tinubu, lifting him at night by presidential aircraft from Lagos to Abuja to hatch a plan for Bola to support one PDP presidential candidate at the expense of all other PDP candidates for any office in Lagos, can only be described as obscene, unethical, corruption-ridden and a show of bad leadership...Whatever amount of money was given to Bola Tinubu to procure votes for the 2011 presidential election in Lagos was, to say the least, unnecessary. What made this phenomenon particularly bad was that government had raised the money from government transactions which fuel corruption.

I got a warning that this administration was attempting to induce two of my daughters, including Iyabo, to do a dirty job.

I warned them both against it, but because of her character, the

President Jonathan influence of her mother and her attitude, Iyabo succumbed; the other daughter did not.

On the Boko Haram insurgency, the insecurity crisis, and #BringBackOurGirls: I was in Sierra Leone on the day Boko Haram [bombed] the UN building in Abuja. As soon as I returned to Nigeria I called the inspector-general of police to hear his views on the issue. I was not impressed with his explanation.

I also talked to the then national security adviser and his explanation was substantially blank. I went to Jonathan, the president, on the same issue. His reaction and view that Boko Haram were ‘a bunch of riffraffs’ left me even colder.

The one incident that overtly and graphically exposed the ineptitude, ineffectiveness, inefficiency, carelessness, cluelessness, callousness, insensitivity and selfishness of Goodluck Jonathan was the abduction of about 276 school girls from Chibok in Borno State by Boko Haram. The reaction and attitude of our president and his household was non-belief, to the extent that 18 days passed before he grudgingly concede to accept the reality of the abduction.

If serious action had been taken within 48 hours, the story could have been different.

I was not surprised that the president went dancing twenty-four hours after the Nyanya explosion that took seventy-five lives. I also

“

Chief Obasanjo found believable the statement allegedly credited to the president after both the Nyanya explosion and the Chibok school girls abduction to the effect that since some people in the North had said that they would make Nigerian ungovernable, they could keep on killing and abducting each other.

If these girls are not released, it will be a big dent on the presidency of Goodluck Jonathan, and a dark blot on Nigeria’s reputation and history; and, for years and indeed decades, Nigeria will continue to live with the agony and memory of the action and inaction of leadership regarding the Chibok school girls.

But what is more, a bad precedent would have been created; Boko Haram has tasted blood and will always want more… Who knows, another group of terrorists might have learned from Boko Haram.

This time it is Chibok; next time it could be Ibogun or Otueke.

Vice-President Biden had categorically told Jonathan during the African Summit in Washington in August 2014 that with the state of his governance and the level of the destruction of the military, they would not be able to help Nigeria.

On PDP and party politics: A political party, and its leadership, that condones corruption and engages discredited people to abuse and insult genuine, authentic and objective critics is a political party on the path of ruin and destruction. The PDP must be

The presidency had instructed EFCC to remove a vital document in Gbenga Daniel’s file in their custody, to assist getting Gbenga Daniel off the hook. All these cases were reported to the president and were known to him; but because they involve the president’s interests, directly or indirectly, no action has been taken.

rescued from that path, otherwise it will soon fade into history. Criticism, particularly objective criticism, is an indispensable element of democracy and a democratic dispensation.

PDP would need to be brought back to being a well-led, disciplined and respected, harmonious party that can easily win elections, rule and govern, and not one sacrificing the party’s interest for personal gain, setting governors of the party against each other, supporting candidates of other parties against candidates of the party as it happened in Lagos, Edo and Ondo States, and harassing credible leaders of the party and seeking to replace them with criminals and dubious characters in order to further presidential interests.

On the Nigerian Governors Forum election crisis: Two governors from the [PDP] - Liyel Imoke of Cross River and Emmanuel Uduaghan of Delta States - and Godswill Akpabio from Akwa Ibom State by himself, came to me in Abuja, appealing to me to intervene in the situation of the Governors’ Forum, particularly in the disagreement within the PDP governors. Akpabio said starkly in his frank and outspoken manner: “We have messed up and don’t leave us alone. For me, I don’t want to go to jail and my children are too young. I will report our meeting to the President.” Nobody, including President Jonathan, would like to go to jail, and he knew he could, depending on how things turned out or failed to shape from then on.

I have always seen the Governors’ Forum as a type of trade union as they behave that way most of the time. [Jonathan] told the story of how Obong Atta was relieved of his position as chairman and Lucky Igbinedion was enthroned by less than fifty percent of the governors, and of how Bukola Saraki manoeuvred the Forum to serve his presidential ambition.

PAGE 16

PEOPLES DAILY Weekend, saturday 20-sunday 21 December, 2014

Senate Diary Hope dims on With Ikechukwu Okaforadi

I

t is almost one year since the immigration tragedy report was submitted to the Senate, yet there is still no mention of it in the upper chamber for consideration by the lawmakers.

This is even more worrisome given that the All Progressives Congress (APC) senators have become so unconcerned about this issue that they have not raised any eyebrow about the continued delay of this critical report.

This is obviously not the first time that the Senate is killing reports that it deems unpalatable, and therefore, this might have gone down the slope like previous ones.

It would be recalled that shortly after the immigration tragedy which claimed the lives of about twenty two young Nigerians across the various screening centres, the Senate on the 18th of March, directed its committee on interior to urgently investigate the remote and immediate causes of the incident.

According to the Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, who presided over the plenary session, the day the investigation was instituted, the report of the probe should be submitted to the Senate within two weeks, to enable the upper legislative arm take appropriate actions that would discourage recklessness in future recruitment exercises.

“The tragedy goes beyond party politics”, Ekweremadu said, even as he promised that in line with Section 17(3) of the constitution, “if need be, the Senate shall legislate on increased employment in the country”.

Unfortunately, getting to a year now, it has become apparent that the Senate has developed cold feet to debate on the report of the committee submitted by the Interior Committee Chairman, Senator Atiku Abubakar Bagudu.

The report was laid before the Senate before it vacated for the Easter break, with a promise that it would be accorded priority attention when the lawmakers return from their short recess, yet this has again turned out to be another empty promise.

Already, Nigerians are expressing concern that long after the re-

port was submitted to the upper chamber, it is yet to debate or make any official pronouncement on the shabby conduct of the recruitment exercise, which resulted in the tragic end of about twenty two jobseekers.

It is believed generally that pronouncements by the Senate on this important issue will send strong signals to any agency of government and private institution that wishes to embark on any form of recruitment in the future.

The Minister of Interior, Abba Moro, a kinsman of the Senate president, had been widely accused of being responsible for the poor conduct of the nationwide aptitude test for the immigration job, which resulted in stampede in some of the centres and subsequent death of about twenty two job seekers.

It was reported that due to the refusal of the minister of interior to screen the applicants through their online applications, over one million Nigerian youths scrambled for only 4,500 jobs in the NIS. While debating the motion on the tragedy titled “Nigeria Immigration Service Nationwide Aptitude Test and Physical Examination of March 15, 2014”, the lawmakers had called for the sack of the minister and the Comptroller General of Nigeria Immigration service, David Parradang, for shabbily conducting the exercise.

Olusola Adeyeye (APC Osun Central), in his contribution to the motion said not only the minister of interior and the NIS CG should be sacked for the disaster, but also the heads of immigration offices across states where stampedes occurred.

Also calling for the immediate sack of Abba Moro and Parradang over the tragedy, Ayogu Eze (PDP Enugu North) said the tragedy could have been easily averted if those saddled with the responsibility did what was expected of them.

“This problem has brought out one clear issue that from the Minister of Interior, Abba Moro and the Immigration CG down to the consultant firm assigned to carry out the recruitment exercise, they did nothing but failure of national

immigrations tragedy report in Senate assignment and they must be held accountable for the failure by whatever way permissible in the laws of the land but must first be shown the way out of their offices”, he said.

Speaking to Peoples Daily Weekend on why the Senate is yet to list the report on the Senate Order paper for debate, the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Rules and Business, Ita Enang, said other more pressing reports has prevented it from giving expeditious treatment to the immigration tragedy probe report.

Enang, who said such important issues are usually listed by his committee for discussion, but are often shifted by other more pressing issues, promised that the matter would be dealt with in no distant time.

Also, when the Chairman of Senate Committee on Information and Publicity, Enyinnaya Abaribe, was contacted for comments, he did not pick the call, even the text messages sent to his phone was not answered.

Nevertheless, the minister of interior who had been accused of official negligence resulting in the tragedy, while explaining how the incident happened, had admitted responsibility before the Senate Committee on Interior.

“With regards to the ill-fated day, I cannot abdicate responsibility, the bulk of the entire exercise ends on my table”, Moro had told the Interior Committee during a public hearing in Abuja.

Moro, who admitted that there was no provision in both the 2012 and 2013 budget of the ministry for the recruitment, regretted that at the time the Civil Defence,Fire Service, Immigration and Prisons Board (CDFIPB) discovered that the consultant, Drexel Technology Nigeria Limited, opted out of funding the exercise, it was already too late to terminate it.

He also claimed that at the point where the decision to give contract

Senate President David Mark the Drexel Technology Nigeria Limited from among the four tenders for the recruitment exercise was taken, members of the CDFIPB were carried along.

While making his own defence, the Secretary of the CDFIPB, Sylvester Tapgun, said when the board discovered that the exercise was going to be difficult, they advised the minister to divide the screening exercise in batches, but he refused.

He also said the board, after consultations on the expenditure involved, made a request of N201 million from the consultant to enable it conduct the screening successfully, Drexel refused, but later released only N45 million after much pressure.

He, however, said the money paid by the applicants was neither with the board nor with the ministry.

He said usually, recruitment into the service for officers of level eight and above resides with the Board, while those below resides with the NIS, but that in this case, the minister allowed the consultant to handle both senior and junior recruitment.

At this point, Tapgun disclosed that the CDFIPB had no control over the portal and its management, saying they relied on the consultant to know the number of applicants.

“ Applicants for the Immigrations job before the stampede

Meanwhile, the Comptroller General of Nigeria Immigration Service, David Parradang, said he only saw the notice of the advert for the recruitment on the newspaper.

He said he was never consulted, nor any meeting of the board convened to take any decision about the recruitment.

“On this note, I placed a call to the former secretary that I was not aware of any board meeting where the decision to conduct the exercise was taken, he pleaded with me that he was under pressure, that should take it,but I told him this is an official matter, and that I will write him. I wrote to him, but I did not get any response until he left the service”, Parradang said.

Parradang also said he protested the recruitment modalities by suggesting staggering of the exercise, the use of state of origin, and the N1000 collection from the applicants, but the minister did not listen to him.

Meanwhile, he suggested that the chairman of CDFIPB should come from outside the ministry, NIS and the board, adding that forms for the exercise should be picked from the local government areas of the applicants, state of origin, staggering of the exercise, among other recommendations.

Unfortunately, getting to a year now, it has become apparent that the Senate has developed cold feet to debate the probe report of the committee submitted by the Interior Committee Chairman, Senator Atiku Abubakar Bagudu.

PEOPLES DAILY Weekend, saturday 20-sunday 21 December, 2014

PAGE17

Politics

Why Buhari/Osinbajo ticket should be rejected

By Prince C

T

he choice of Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, former Commissioner for Justice and Attorney General of Lagos state during the governorship of Bola Ahmed Tinubu as the running mate of Gen. Muhammadu Buhari portends grave danger for the unity, peace and stability of the Nigerian Nation.

Therefore, any person that cherishes Nigeria’s stability, progress and harmonious development should distance himself or herself from the Buhari/Osinbajo ticket because it could well be a time bomb for the country. Why am I saying this, some people may ask?

My concerns are predicated on the following permutations – One, the Vice President is as good as the President. When the current democratic journey started in 1999, there was an agreement way back.

That agreement actually dated back to the national constitutional conference of 1994/1995. It was predicated on the belief that the presidency of Nigeria should rotate among the six geo-political zones of Nigeria in the first dispensation before being thrown wide open.

Thus, the new democratic dispensation started on May 29 1999 with the new spirit of rotation as a way of inculcating a sense of belonging among all Nigerians. Our respected leaders and elderstatesmen who recommended the power rotation did so with the best of intention to keep the country united and one. They decided on that path with the altruistic belief that the only way to ensure sustainable peace and unity among Nigeria’s diverse people is by carrying all the component blocs as encapsulated in the geopolitical the zones along.

The democratic dispensation started with the South West geo-political zone made up largely of the Yorubas taking the first shot at the presidency with the help of the rest of the country particularly the North. According to a respected columnist, Duro Onabule, some top former Military rulers from the North, notably Generals Abdulsalami (then incumbent Head of State), Ibrahim Babangida, Aliyu Gusau and T. Y. Danjuma manipulated the political process to ensure that South West was offered the presidency on a platter of gold. Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo was literally spirited out from the Yola prison still with his prison uniform and taken by the mafia straight to Aso Rock Villa as the new President to usher in the Fourth Republic.

In so doing, the clear front runner or favorite to clinch the presidency in the person of former Vice President, Dr. Alex Ifeanyichukwu Ekwueme from the South

Gen. Buhari

Prof. Osinbajo

East (the clear front runner for the number one post in 1998/1999) was brutally schemed out from the race by the cabal. The injured Igbos were pacified with a promise that after Obasanjo’s presidency and rotation of power to the North, the South East and the South south would take their own turns. Based on that arrangement, Obasanjo did two terms in a row stretching from 1999 till 2007. Upon the expiration of Obasanjo’s tenure, Alh. Umaru Musa Ya’ardua from the North West was elected President.

Yar’Ardua was literally handpicked

by Obasanjo all in a bid to make sure that the unity of the country was preserved so that the presidency would oscillate from the South to the North. Y’Ardua took over and unfortunately died three years after his election. Ya’Ardua’s deputy, then Vice President Goodluck Jonathan from Bayelsa State in South South zone was thrust forward by providence as he stepped into the shoes of Ya’ardua as president in May 2010.

Jonathan completed the remaining one year of Ya’ardua’s tenure and thereafter got elected in 2011. After his election in 2011, he is still in office till today and is currently in contention for a second term come May 14 2015 as the constitution entitles him. Now the understanding among Nigerians is that after the tenure of Goodluck Jonathan either in 2015 or 2019, a Nigerian of Northern extraction ie from any of the Northern zones will take over. That understanding is firmly on course within the PDP as Vice President Namadi Sambo from the north is already in pole position to gun for the presidency in

2019 at the expiration of President Jonathan’s possible second term that year.

But a twist could be introduced into Nigeria’s delicate political balance if the Buhari/Osinbajo ticket is allowed to sail through. This will mean by implication that presidency may return so soon to the South West at the expense of South East and the South South (which is billed to commence its second tenure in 2015). That definitely will not be healthy for Nigeria and its southern hemisphere in particular.

Nigeria has survived a very bloody civil war arising from injustice, maltreatment, marginalization and genocide against the Igbos. Nigeria has witnessed militancy in the Niger Delta and is presently battling terrorism.

Nigeria will definitely not survive a second civil war on top of all these problems. And it will be foolhardy to dismiss the South southerners and Southeasterners who are everywhere in the country with a wave of the hand.

The Igbos have been sounding it out clearly and loudly that they should be given a sense of belonging by holding the highest office (the presidency). It is unfortunate that each time they have been schemed out. Otherwise, what makes Rochas Okorocha and Chibuike Amaechi inferior to Osinbajo who is hardly known beyond the South west (Yorubaland)?

It will definitely serve the country a lot of good if the current turn by turn arrangement is allowed to go the entire circle. The presidency should at least go round the three geo-political zones in the South for while the North may be relatively homogenous, the South is far from being so.

Ekiti APC lawmakers resurface, suspend 6 PDP members

A

fter weeks of staying away, 19 out of 25 of the Ekiti State House of Assembly, yesterday secretly surfaced and slammed suspension on the factional Speaker, Hon. Dele Olugbemi and five others.

The suspension was pronounced at the plenary

presided over by the embattled Speaker, Dr. Adewale Omirin and which held at an unknown location in Ado-Ekiti, the Ekiti State capital.

The 19 lawmakers of the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) also overruled the plenary sessions previously held by the

factional legislators as well as actions and decisions made by them.

The five factional lawmakers, who belong to the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) include: Hons.

Mrs. Adunni Olayinka, Israel Olowo, Samuel Ajibola, Ayoka Fatumbi and Alex Ade Ojo.

And an Osinbajo presidency after Buhari will amount to Yorubas appropriating the turn of the Igbos and that would not only be unacceptable but serve as a recipe for disaster in Nigeria. For this reason, it would be better to nip in the bud the impending conflagration that would arise in the event of Buhari winning the election possibly doing only one term on account of his advanced age of 72 years and Osinbanjo being propped up to contest the presidency probably in 2019.

That certainly will be setting the country ablaze.

It would destroy the fragile thread holding us together and plunge the country into an inferno. The way to avoid that looming doom, is to follow the safer and familiar path by voting Goodluck/Sambo ticket so that South South would complete two terms just like the South West.

After that, it would be very clear that the only geo-political zone left in the South to take the opportunity is the South East in which case the entire country can also use the same kind of deliberate interference used for Obasanjo in 1979 and Ya’ardua in 2007 to ensure that that is achieved in the overriding interest of our nascent democracy and our complex country, Nigeria.

Last line: This is the 21st century and Nigeria should not make the mistake of going back to its vomit. What is the new thing that Buhari is coming to bring to the table for Nigeria of today and the future? Is he simply coming with the koboko (horse whip) to tyrannize Nigerians? Is he the one that is responsible for the orderliness in our banking halls where people now queue patiently in a civilized manner? The answer is no.

If for anything, a Buhari presidency at this stage of our development will only stifle our economy and drive the investors away as his dictatorial approach will not blend with the intricate technology driven macro and micro economic systems of the current age.

This is a timely message. I am not biased in anyway. But this is my candid view. And for Osinbajo, forget the efforts of some tribal columnists like Femi Adesina, Duro Onabule and Waziri Adio to rise above the sublime.

The truth is that he cannot match Arc. Namadi Sambo in intelligence. As for Buhari, all I have to tell him is that Nigeria of today cannot be ruled by an O Level graduates. We are forward looking people living in the 21st century. Buhari/Osinbajo pair is no match for Goodluck/Sambo ticket. Period!

Prince C. wrote from Onitsha, Anambra State.

Politician should accept election result, Hannatu advises

Yakubu Mustapha, Minna

H

ajiya Hannatu Jibrin Salihu, has appealed to Nigerian politicians to be like colleagues elsewhere who accept the outcome of elections in good faith.

She also called on the electoral body INEC to exhibit fairness and transparency in the

conduct of elections.

The Lapai local government House of Assembly flag bearer of the Peoples Democratic Party PDP in the just concluded primaries in Niger state, said this after her victory over the incumbent Hon. Usman Magaji, who was going for the third term.

He pleaded with him to

joins with her to work for the success of the party in the general elections.”In any game there is a winner and loser but I will like to work with them as a team, therefore, I extend my hands of fellowship to show my magnanimity in victory for them to accept in good faith as in spirit of sportsmanship”.

PAGE 18

Politics

APC raises alarm over purchase of voter cards Ayodele Samuel,Lagos

T

he All Progressives Congress (APC) has raised the alarm over the antics of a certain political party that has engaged in buying Permanent Voter’s Cards (PVCs) with a view to disenfranchising the owners of such cards, especially in opposition strongholds.

In a statement issued in Lagos on yesterday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said while such purchased PVCs may not be transferable, those who are buying them are doing so to reduce the votes in the opposition strongholds and improve the chances of their own party at the polls. ‘’We appeal to our supporters in particular and all Nigerians in general not to sell their PVCs, because this will amount to mortgaging the future of their children just because of a paltry 1,000 Naira,’’ it said. ‘’Your voter’s card is your power to help forge the much-needed positive change in our country. Protect it!’’

Meanwhile, the APC has urged all its members and supporters who are yet to collect their PVCs or registered to vote, to do so urgently.

It also urged them to visit their local government headquarters for the two exercises.

The party said while distribution of the cards and the continuous registration at the polling units may have ended, both exercises are still ongoing at the local government headquarters until Jan. 31, 2015, according to the assurances given by INEC.

Primaries: Nasarawa PDP inaugurates 8-man reconciliatory committee Gambo Ahmed, Lafia

T

he Nasarawa state Peoples Democratic Party yesterday inaugurated an eight-man reconciliatory committee aimed at making peace among aggrieved members over the just conducted primary elections of the party.

The committee was saddled with the task of reconciling any aggrieved members arising from the state house of assembly, House of Representatives, senate and governorship primaries respectively.

The state chairman of the party, Chief Yunana Iliya, who performed the inauguration at the party secretariat in Lafia, the state capital, mandated the committee to swing into action immediately as the exercise is time-framed till the general elections are over.

Chief Iliya called on all contestants who lost the primaries to rally round the party ahead of the general polls, as according to him “leadership comes from God.” His words: “Even if it is a cleaners’ election, there must be a winner at the end of the contest”.

PEOPLES DAILY Weekend, saturday 20-sunday 21 December, 2014

PDP senatorial aspirant vows to support party to victory

By Umar Muhammad Puma

A

senatorial aspirant of Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) from the southern zone of Nasarawa state, Alhaji Bala Zachary has vowed to support his party to victory at the 2015 general election despite his

loss at the primaries.

Bala lost the PDP senatorial ticket at the primaries to Senator Suleiman Adokwe who is seeking for a third term at the red chambers of the National Assembly.

The senatorial aspirant made this known while speaking to newsmen shortly before a

reconciliation committee was constituted by the party in the state to reconcile aggrieved members of the party as a result of the just concluded primary elections.

Bala promised to support Senator Adokwe and other flag bearers of the party to ensure the party returns to

power in 2015 applauding the leadership of the party for coming up with the idea of constituting a reconciliation committee.

He, however, called on all party faithfuls to rally round the party to ensure its victory at the polls in 2015.

L-R, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Power,Amb. Godknows Igali, Managing Director, Azura Independent Power Project, (IPP), Mr. David Ladipo, Minister of Power, Prof. Chinedu Nebo and Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala during the signing of Put Call Option Agreement (PCOA), between the Ministries and the Company, yesterday in Abuja.. Photo: Justin Imo-Owo

Tinubu to Jonathan: Fish out B/Haram in govt

By Osaigbovo Iguobaro, Benin

N

ational Leader of All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, has stirred the hornet’s nest by requesting President Goodluck Jonathan to fish out Boko Haram members in his government and end the buck-passing over responsibility for the current security challenges in the country.

Tinubu spoke at the inauguration of the dualised New Lagos Road and General hospital, Ewhohimi in Benin City and Esan south East Local Government area of Edo state.

The former Lagos state Governor called on Nigerians to join the crusade for intellectual revolution to succeed the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) government through the ballot in next year’s general election.

He said: `` If there is a good leader at the top, nation will not fail, because fish starts to

rotten from the head…Stop given us excuses that Boko Haram is in my government, fish them out. Boko Haram is a saboteur and military is sabotage, you are admitting failure. ``It is leadership failure. Whatever tribulation, be it insecurity and lack of services that you are enjoying, this nation today is because the head has failed. ``Anyone who will be the last in a classroom of 35 students? Who will not go home with pass?...excuses upon excuses. No excuse for failure. Mr. President, we chose you to defend this Country. Quit, resign if you can’t do it, we are tired of excuses’’, he said.

He noted that Edo state Governor, Adams Oshiomhole is capable of ruling the Country, urging youths across the country to brace up for the challenges ahead. ``We need a common sense of revolution.

I called for it. It is not a revolution of violence.

It is not the revolution of bloodshed. It is a revolution of determination to freedom to

unshackle yourselves and that revolution will come with your voters card. ``To you the youths, we need a common sense of revolution. I called for it. It is not a revolution of violence. It is not the revolution of bloodshed. It is a revolution of determination to freedom to unshackle yourselves and that revolution n will come with your voters card.

Governor Adams Oshiomhole had earlier paid tribute to the former Military Governor of the defunct Midwest and Bendel states, Brig. Samuel Osaigbovo Ogbemudia (Rted) and Asiwaju Bola Tinubu for demonstrating sincere leadership.

Oshiomhole said he has entered into covenant with the people of the state to transform their lives and boost infrastructural development through prudent management of resources irrespective of economic problems bedeviling the country.

Okorocha insists Ndigbo are better off in APC

I

mo State Governor, Owelle Rochas Okorocha has called on Ndigbo to imbibe team spirit and unity of purpose in the quest to place Southeast at the mainstream of Nigerian politics, arguing that the Igbos were better off in the All Progressives Congress (APC) than anywhere else, Daily Post reports.

Disclosing this when he received Ohanaeze Ndi Igbo, Imo State Chapter, who recently paid him a courtesy visit at Government House in Owerri, the State capital, Okorocha regretted the level of

marginalization the Igbos suffer in the affairs of the nation, irrespective of the fact that they are part of the tripod of Nigeria.

Governor Okorocha asserted that all the key positions in the country have eluded the Ndigbo as well as the siting of developmental projects by the Federal government. He disclosed that his participation in the APC presidential primary election was to ensure that Igbos are given their pride of place in Nigeria, stressing that “for me, time has come for Igbos to reason

together; Ndi Igbo should no longer be relegated to the background, we should take our rightful position in Nigeria polity and say no to second fidel. With my action it is crystal clear to APC and entire Nigeria that Igbos are alive to take their position. I will not stop the struggle till there is liberation for Ndi Igbo and until ordinary man is liberated”.

He then went on to posit that “what we need is a national party that will carry Ndigbo along, Igbos are better off in APC

PEOPLES DAILY Weekend, saturday 20-sunday 21 December, 2014

A bird’s view of the beach

Tourism

Experience the roaring waves of Ibeno Beach T

he Ibeno beach with an amazing stretch of over 45km sand bank that transverses many riverine communities, is a beautiful relaxation spot for tourists. A visitor to the beach is usually welcomed by the roaring waves and brewed fresh breeze that sifts through the unpolluted foliage of mangrove forest that caresses the skin with the gentility of nature.

The beach, which can be accessed by air through Uyo, the Akwa Ibom State capital and Calabar with Arik Air and Aero Contractors which operate daily flights to Uyo from Lagos and Abuja, offers a natural swimming pool, little heaven, memorable sunbathing, water sport and leisure activities.

For the tourist, the experience is that of an ocean shore for cruising at ebb tide while listening to the rhythmic music of the waves.

The lushness around provides the tourists with exotic sites, while the hospitable host community assures the visitors of their safety while they commune with nature.

The excitement on the beach often drives the visitor to discover the point at which the beach forms a part of the West African border with the Atlantic Ocean.

The beach resort is a sight to behold with white sand dunes that is unaffected by the waves of the Atlantic Ocean. It is both gentle and turbulent depending on the season of the year. At low tide, the waters can recede as far as 100 metres from the beach and can reach unimaginable elevation of 30 metres above sea level before it strikes the beach.

The beauty of this beach is that the sands of the beach itself have been stable over the years

Tourists catching fun at Leke Obi

PAGE 19

without receding with the tide of the water. Ibeno beach presents a nature’s gift, not only as a home for fishing, but a relaxation spot for tourists.

The beach stretches over 90km of natural white sand bar along the Atlantic coast line of the state and provides excellent opportunities for water sport and ocean beach oriented tourism for Nigerians and foreigners. It is all year-round clean sand banks with coral reefs that make it unique.

Besides sunbathing, the beach woos surfers, leisure yacht and fishing, while beach soccer, basketball and volleyball are commonplace.

It is also interesting to note that Mobil Producing Nigeria Unlimited shares the same boundary with the beach close to its off-shore oil drilling operations. The company has a golf course within, that golf and beach lovers can both take advantage of.

The beach is a potential haven for the Export Processing Zone (EPZ) visitors, cruising to and from Calabar, the premier EPZ, which lies closely to the north of the beach. Due to its serenity and security, the beach numbers among top soothing and clean beaches in the country.

Besides the beautiful beachfront, the nearby Le Meriden Ibom Golf Resort complements the tourism offering around Ibeno community and sets the community aside as one town in Akwa Ibom State that is becoming a tourist hub.

But, a lover of water sport will always find the beach, which stretches to James Town on the Atlantic most inviting and engaging.

Busineseyengr.com

PEOPLES DAILY Weekend, saturday 20-sunday 21 December, 2014

Page 20

Homes

By Miriam Humbe

Bring nature home: Decorate your living rooms with flowers

W

hen creating a beautiful living room, it is not necessary to purchase lots of expensive furniture and arts. A simple living room can be awesome especially if it includes natural greenery.

Only a few people realize that green plants or flowers in a living room enhances its beauty. You don’t need expensive items to create cozy, natural and fresh look living room.

When it comes to providing your living room with a personal touch and bringing a natural and lively ambiance, then you know it is time to bring up the flowers.

Flowers have a magnificent role in providing the living room with a charming and natural touch. Regardless of the breed of the flower, their presence in the living room is necessary, because they emphasize natural beauty.

In addition flowers will add to the style of your living room and provide it with a magnificent touch of nature.

It is good to decorate your living room with flowers as much as possible.

Adapt the flowers to the style of your living room Just like everything else the flower types also have a specific style such as elegant, modern or vintage.

Therefore, you should adapt the flowers to match the style

of your living room.

Add a colorful bouquet of freshness Colorful bouquet of flowers is a great idea to bring freshness and beautiful note into the living room. A colorful bouquet will open up the living room and provide it with a lively and natural note.

Add a variety of different colors and types of flowers Variety of flowers in different colors and styles will create a rich and eclectic ambiance in the living room.

Add flowers on unusual places In order to escape the monotony of putting the flowers on the center table you should pick some unusual and creative spot to expose the bouquet of flowers.

Pick different flower types in the same color Different flower types in the same color will provide your living room with monochrome and yet beautiful outlook. The different flower types may enhance the aesthetics of the living room.

Bestlivingroomdesigns. com

e n i z a

PEOPLES DAILY Weekend, saturday 20-sunday 21 December, 2014

d n e k e We

g a M ent

m Entertain

Fashion

ps Beauty Ti

od Kannywo

d

Hollywoo

PAGE 21

d Bollywoo

Be chick and smart in overalls >>PG 28

Steps to a flawless makeup >>PG 29

Funke, Jimmy Jatt feature in T.W.O’s ‘Omonsa’ >> PG 36

‘My Instagram followers inspired me to open a fashion store’ >> PG 37

PEOPLES DAILY Weekend, saturday 20-sunday 21 December, 2014

Page 22

Your Body, Image & U

Travails of single parenthood

A single mother with her kids

R

aising children as a single father/ mother in a society like ours is not a tea party. If your children are already grown, it is a little bit easier because they are now adults and have their lives to live.

One thing people who have followed my various publications and programmes for years love about me is that I try to bring to the fore realistic issues that I have surveyed and investigated. I am not a single mother but I have encountered, counseled and empowered lots of them in my own little way. I also discovered that single mothers in Nigeria pass through a lot of stress and hardship more than there male counterpart. The males have a way of getting someone to cater

“

for the children even when they do not live with them. The women are the ones stuck with these kids and endure all their bickering and troubles. Most single mothers do not receive any kind of support from there estranged partners. These women have to do all kinds of things to survive. Some who are not lucky to have the support of their families pass through hell to cater for themselves and the children.

One of such single mothers is Brenda Ugwuegbu, a very loyal and dedicated Christian, a fantastic and intelligent Science/Mathematics teacher who was abandoned by her husband when their children were barely teenagers. In October, she had an accident and while away for treatment, the school where she teaches

retrenched her. So now she cannot cater for her children.

Her humble and religious family stood by her and the four children. Brenda took it upon herself to cater for all her children who are all adults now with the youngest being 16 years of age. Her husband had no genuine excuse for abandoning his wife who was loyal, submissive and never disrespected him for once. Of course the ex-husband has a new wife, but Brenda due to her high moral values is still single

If you are a single mother, don’t just sit idle, thinking that your life is over.

If Brenda did not make sacrifices to train her children, probably she might not even know where they are or what they turned out to be. Those of you who were raised by a single mother must appreciate and support her.

Single parenting at home

and taking care of her children without support from her exhusband.

I commend Brenda for her courage and determination to survive and make sure that her children are well taken care of. Her youngest daughter is still in secondary school, while her last son has football skills and is talented in computer application. He has also finished his university studies in computer science and is looking for a job in that area as well.

Brenda has been tasking herself to see that these children’s dreams come through and most times, does extra jobs to make ends meet.

What baffles me most is how selfless she is about her own welfare, but goes all out to make sure that her children are well taken care of.

She renders private lessons to pupils in Mathematics when the opportunity comes and all these take are taking a toll on her but she endures and keeps pushing to make sure her children survive. What a brave lady she is. Presently, she is is trying to open a small catering/ bakery shop since she has good baking skills and cooks varieties of dishes very well. This small business will help her pay the bills since she has lost her teaching job.

As always, this is a great opportunity for those who are kind hearted to support

With Jacqui Iwu bwreforms@gmail.com 08184825606 (sms only) people who want to work hard to earn a living. Brenda is hardworking and would appreciate the support of those who can help her set up a small bakery/caterering business in Abuja. A gas cooker with an oven, deep freezer and baking equipment can go a long way to help her open her business.

Secondary schools looking for an experienced maths teacher in Abuja can also employ her as she is presently looking for a new teaching job, while waiting to establish a small business.

Finally, if you are a single mother, don’t just sit idle, thinking that your life is over. If Brenda did not make sacrifices to train her children, probably she might not even know where they are or what they turned out to be. Those of you who were raised by a single mother must appreciate and support her.

JacquiIWU is a BodyImage, Life &Career Coach A stress Management Expert &Conference Speaker Media Relations Personnel BLOG: http://bluntjacqui. blogspot.com FB: Beautifulwoman. column TWITTER: @ JacquiWORLD

PEOPLES DAILY Weekend, saturday 20-sunday 21 December, 2014

Page 23

Womanhood

Alison-Madueke: Making her mark as OPEC’s first female president Diezani K. Alison-Madueke (born 6 December 1960) is the first female President of OPEC, elected at the 166th OPEC Ordinary meeting in Vienna on 27 November 2014. She was Nigeria’s minister of transportation on 26 July 2007. She was moved to Mines and Steel Development in 2008, and in April 2010 was appointed Minister of Petroleum Resources.

D

Background iezani K. Agama was born in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria.

Her father was Chief Frederick Abiye Agama.

She studied architecture in England and then at Howard University in the United States.

She graduated from Howard with a Bachelor’s degree on 8 December 1992. She returned to Nigeria and joined Shell Petroleum Development Corporation that year. In 2002, she attended Cambridge University for her MBA. In April 2006, Shell appointed her its first female Executive Director in Nigeria.

Since 1999 she has been married to Admiral Allison Madueke (retired), one-time Chief of Naval Staff who was at various times governor of Imo and Anambra State.

In September 2011 AlisonMadueke was awarded an honorary Doctorate in Management Sciences by the Nigerian Defence Academy, Kaduna.

Federal cabinet

“

positions Diezani Alison-Madueke has held three significant positions in the Nigerian federal government. She was appointed Transport Minister in July 2007. On 23 December 2008, she was named as Minister of Mines and Steel Development.

After Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan became acting President in February 2010, he dissolved the cabinet on 17 March 2010, and swore in a new cabinet on 6 April 2010 with Alison-Madueke as Minister for Petroleum Resources.

Minister of Petroleum Resources As Minister of Petroleum Resources, Alison-Madueke has pledged to transform Nigeria’s oil and gas industry so that all Nigerians benefit.

In April 2010, President Goodluck Jonathan signed the Nigerian Content Act, which aims to increase the percentage of petroleum industry contracts that are awarded to indigenous Nigerian businesses - a reaction to the domination of the sector by foreign operators.

One of the most controversial

Madueke policies introduced under Alison-Madueke is the government’s plan to remove state subsidies on fuel prices.

Alison-Madueke has supported the discontinuation of the subsidy on the grounds that it “poses a huge financial burden on the government, disproportionately benefits the wealthy, [and] encourages

Alison-Madueke is the first woman to hold the position of Minister of Petroleum Resources in Nigeria, and in October 2010 she became the first woman to head a country delegation at the annual OPEC conference. She was also the first female Minister of Transportation, and the first woman to be appointed to the board of Shell Petroleum Development Company Nigeria. On the 27th of November, 2014 she got elected as the first female President of OPEC.

inefficiency, corruption and diversion of scarce public resources away from investment in critical infrastructure.”

A woman of many ‘firsts’ Alison-Madueke is the first woman to hold the position of Minister of Petroleum Resources in Nigeria, and in October 2010 she became the first woman to head a country delegation at the annual OPEC conference. She was also the first female Minister of Transportation, and the first woman to be appointed to the board of Shell Petroleum Development Company Nigeria.

On the 27th of November, 2014 she got elected as the first female President of OPEC. On working in maledominated sectors, AlisonMadueke said she warned the young women she mentored while at Shell to “change their mode of thinking.”

Controversy In June 2008 AlisonMadueke was subject to a Senate

probe after it emerged that as Transport Minister she had paid 30.9 billion naira ($263 million) to contractors between 26 and 31 December 2007. She is said to be worth over a billion niara. However, she has never been charged or tried for these allegations and has strongly denied any wrongdoing.

In September 2008 there was an unsuccessful attempt to kidnap Alison-Madueke at her house in Abuja.

In October 2009, the Senate of Nigeria indicted Diezani Alison-Madueke and recommended prosecution for the alleged transfer of 1.2 billion naira into the private account of a toll company without due process and in breach of concession agreement.

However, the allegations have never been taken to law, and the Minister maintains her innocence.

Enwikipedia.org

PEOPLES DAILY Weekend, saturday 20-sunday 21 December, 2014

PAGE 24

Kiddies World

With Miriam

SIGHTS AND SOUNDS

T

he name Gada Biyu means two bridges. This place was given the name Gada Biyu because of two old colonial bridges that were constructed in that area many years ago when the British still ruled Nigeria under colonial rule (before the Nigerian independence of October 1960).

Even though those two colonial bridges have been replaced a long time ago, the name Gada Biyu has already been established.

Today Gada Biyu has turned out to be a very significant market place for the citizens of the Jos Plateau in Nigeria. Located along Zaria road close to the popular Jos Polo club in Jos City, this is where you will find groceries, whole sale yams, whole sale Irish potatoes, and sweet potatoes, vegetables, local brew (beer) called Burukutu or BKT at the Kabong extension of the market, among other things.

Recently most of the yams brought from the rural areas for sale at the Dilimi/Gangare markets are now all brought to the Gada Biyu market as the new deport for yams in Jos. And the Gada Biyu area has gained even more significance recently because of the reconstructed and wider Zaria Road and the location of the first fly over (over head bridge) in Jos in the area.

Other important places close to the Gada Biyu market are; the Jos Polo Club and the Jos Polo field, Jankwano-Evangel Hospital, ECWA Bishara 2 Jenta, Saint Louise Collage, Mr. Biggs restaurant, Catholic Bishops House, Joseph Gomwalk House,

“

Standard Building, Plateau Radio and Television Corporation (PRTV) Jos, Plateau State Educational Resource Center, French Center, veterinary hospital, petrol/gas stations, Rukuba road market, and many more in Jos the capital of Plateau State, Nigeria.

The Gada Biyu Market in Jos, Plateau State of Nigeria is no doubt a place to visit and a market to patronize whenever you come to Jos City. Other important markets and places of tourist interest in the Jos-Plateau include; Building Materials and Vegetable Market, Faringada Tomatoes Market, Katako Market, Langtang Street, Old Bukuru Park, Rukuba Road Market, Jama’a Junction, Mangu Market, Jengre Market, etc..

The Jos-Plateau in Nigeria is the place to find the following in abundance and at good wholesale and retail prices.

They are vegetables (including Irish potatoes, cucumber, cabbage, tomatoes, green pepper, green peas, water melon, water, onions, carrots), grains (including popcorn, sorghum, millet, yellow maize, white maize, beans, acha, rice, soybeans, sesame seeds), fruits (including; oranges, bananas, mangos, pineapples, strawberry, grape), livestock (including cow, calf, goat, sheep, goat, chicken eggs, broiler chicken), and gem stones (including topaz, ruby, tourmaline blue, pink tourmaline, aquamarine, quartz, sapphire), and many more.

ABCDE

HIS AND HERS CORNER

Gada Biyu Market, Jos

Potatoes and fresh vegetables on display

Humbe

Playing with the toys

Cartoon

Daisy Duck doing fashion parade

markets.josaddress.com

Today Gada Biyu has turned out to be a very significant market place for the citizens of the Jos Plateau in Nigeria.

Tom and Jerry on the golf course

PEOPLES DAILY Weekend, saturday 20-sunday 21 December, 2014

Kiddies World

PAGE 25

With Miriam

AFRICAN TALES

ABCDE

Humbe

MODEL OF THE WEEK

Why the tortoise has a cracked shell

A

long time ago, when the animals could still talk, there was a famine in the land. The famine was so bad that there was absolutely no food to eat in the animal kingdom. Many of the animals were suffering and dying one by one.

The Tortoise was the most cunning of all the animals and was determined to find some food for himself and his family.

One day, the Tortoise observed that the birds in the kingdom were not starving like everyone else.

They looked fresh and their feathers were not drying up. He made it his business to find out what their secret was.

Being as cunning and clever as ever, he went to the birds to ask them what their secret was.They were reluctant to tell him! After assuring them that he could help them to get even more food if they told him their secret, the birds conceded. They explained to him that the people of the Sky were responsible for the meat on their bones. The Tortoise promised to help them get even more food, and with his cunning mind, he developed a plan. He told the birds that if they helped him get to the Sky, he would be their spokesperson.

All the birds, and indeed all the animals of the kingdom, knew that Tortoise was an amazing orator; so, they agreed. After discussion, they had hatched a plan. Each bird would contribute a few feathers to Tortoise until he had enough feathers to make wings that would allow him to fly.

On the day that the birds and Tortoise agreed to go to the Sky, Tortoise put on his plumage and was finally able to fly. When they all got to the Sky, they were given a grand welcome.

Tortoise introduced himself and spoke on behalf of the birds. Since he had the most unique and colorful plumage, the Sky people immediately thought that Tortoise

was their chief. When they served the food to their guests, they served Tortoise first, as a result.

However, Tortoise told the birds that at grand occasions such as these, each animal would take up an alternative name. After the birds each chose a name, Tortoise chose the name “All of you” as his name.

When the hosts brought more food for their guests, Tortoise made a point of asking who the food was for. “Well, the food is for all of you,” the hosts said.

With a smirk, Tortoise turned to the birds and stated that since the food was for “All of you” and his chosen name was “All of you,” the food was for him alone. The birds watched angrily as the Tortoise ate everything!

When it was time to go, the birds each took their feathers from Tortoise. He was unable to fly back home. Sensing danger, Tortoise begged the birds to send a message to his wife to bring out all the soft things from his house so that when he jumped from the Sky, he would be okay. All but one of them refused.

The eagle, the angriest of all the birds, agreed to give the message to Tortoise’s wife.

The eagle flew back to Tortoise’s house and told his wife that Tortoise requested that she bring out all the hard things from the house. She began to do just that. She brought out the mortar, the plates, and the wooden tables…all the hard things you can think of.

Tortoise couldn’t see what was being brought out so he assumed that the eagle had given the right message to his wife.

When Tortoise jumped from the sky, he landed on the hardest and sharpest objects and his shell broke into many pieces. With the help of his wife, he was able to pick them up and glue them back together. The process of putting the pieces together was less than perfect and his shell became rough. This is why the tortoise has a cracked shell.

Ameera Usman

ACTIVITIES

With the help of the right materials, have fun colouring this image. Show your work to your parents or teacher for correction.

Cheers!

CREATIVITY

Make a bike out of paper

Making a bike out of paper provides a terrific crafting opportunity for a rainy day or any day, for that matter. A paper bicycle is a perfect accessory for a doll house or school project centered around a transportation theme. This craft will refine your cutting skills and sharpen your creative style by using plain paper and pipe cleaner to design a bicycle. For a twist on this simple craft, consider using cardboard inside the paper wheels to provide extra balance and structure for the paper bike.

Things you’ll need: •Paper, card stock •Scissors •Soup can •Ruler •Glue •3 pipe cleaners Instructions Trace two circles on the paper using the soup can. These will be the wheels. Make spokes by folding each circle in half and making tiny cuts from the straight edge towards the center. Start 2 cm from the straight edge and make a cut 2 cm long. Do not cut all the way through to the end of the circle.

Draw two triangles, using the ruler to make straight, 1-inch sides. Cut out the triangles, and glue them together for a reinforced seat for the bicycle.

Attach a pipe cleaner with tape to the bottom of the seat.

At the bottom of that pipe cleaner, attach another pipe cleaner horizontally by twisting together the two pipe cleaners.

Make a small hole in the center of each wheel. Push the ends of the horizontal pipe cleaner through each wheel center and twist the end to form a small knot so that the pipe cleaner will not slip back out.

Wrap the third pipe cleaner under the bike seat. Straighten out part of the pipe cleaner, and then bend the top portion upwards. Attach by twisting.

Bend the cleaner into the shape of a handlebar.

Tips and Warnings •Use colorful paper for the seat and wheels.

•dd small streamers to the handlebars for an extra touch.

A paper bicycle can be used for a school project

PAGE 26

e-Learning

PEOPLES DAILY Weekend, saturday 20-sunday 21 December, 2014

Does chewing, tapping and typing send you into a rage?

F

or many of us, Christmas dinner is a bonding experience where family and friends break bread and share stories while stuffing ourselves silly.

It’s the one time where sheer gluttony is more or less expected. But for those with a rare, newly recognised disorder called misophonia, the mere thought of such a meal inspires only anxiety and dread.

People with misophonia hate certain noises – termed “trigger sounds” – and respond with stress, anger, irritation and, in extreme cases, violent rage. Common triggers include eating noises, lip-smacking, pen clicking, tapping and typing. All those noises can drive a person with misophonia to avoid family gatherings altogether. And worse, feelings of aggression tend to be amplified if the sounds are coming from those with emotional ties to the sufferer, such as family members.

“I haven’t eaten with my parents, at least without earplugs, in over a decade,” says Meredith Rosol, a 25-year-old teacher who was diagnosed with misophonia two years ago after years of hypersensitivity to sound.

“I was six years old, and it started with my parents chewing at the dinner table,” she recalls. Her list of triggers grew longer: chewing (especially crunchy foods), tapping, typing, heavy breathing, cutlery clinking, foot shuffling. Even certain sights started upsetting her, such as foot-shaking and fidgeting. At school, typical classroom noises – chalk scraping against the blackboard or the hum of a radiator – made her skin crawl. “It’s like a fight-or-flight response: your muscles get tense, you’re on edge, your heart races, and you feel the urge to flee,” Rosol says.

The term misophonia, meaning “hatred of sound”, was coined in 2000 for people who were not afraid of sounds – such people are called phonophobic – but for those who strongly disliked certain noises. Set off by stimuli that vary from person to person, the reaction, sufferers say, is like being punched in the stomach or repeatedly stung by bees.

In 2013, a group of Dutch psychiatrists laid out the condition’s diagnostic criteria and urged that it be classified as its own psychiatric disorder. Even though misophonia is a new term, thousands of people have been describing its effects on them for years and joined such online support groups as Yahoo’s selective sound sensitivity group and Reddit.com’s misophonia subreddit.

No one knows what causes the condition, so designating a standard treatment has been a problem, but experts seem to agree that misophonia isn’t so much about the sounds themselves as their context. “Sometimes their responses are localised around certain people: they might be bothered by their mother’s chewing but not their brother’s,” said Miren Edelstein, of the University of California at San Diego who has researched misophonia.

As part of a small study, Edelstein interviewed a number of self-identified misophonics and found that the fight-or-flight emo-

Meeri N Kim reports on the ‘hatred of sound’ which can make the festive season unbearable for its sufferers tion arises only in specific circumstances. For instance, they didn’t mind their own chewing or typing noises, or sounds made by animals or babies. A teacher of autistic children, Rosol said she doesn’t usually get triggered by her students, even in the bustling cafeteria.

Edelstein and her colleagues also hooked up electrodes to volunteers’ hands to verify that their aversion to certain sounds was real. “Prior to our study, we only had anecdotal evidence that misophonia was a real thing,” she said.

“So we wanted to take the first step in providing objective physiological evidence.”

Self-described misophonics listened to a series of sounds and rated their discomfort level for each one; so did volunteers who served as a control group. The electrodes measured the electrical conductance of their skin, a well-accepted measure of physiological arousal. Sweat glands in the hands are especially sensitive to emotional stimuli, and skin becomes a better conductor in the presence of more sweat.

When misophonics’ discom-

“

fort ratings were high – say, during a sound bite of gum chewing or chip eating – their skin conductance shot up. But when they heard more soothing sounds, such as rainfall, they did not have a sweat reaction. In other words, they are not likely to be lying about having that sudden negative emotional response kick in.

But where does this intense reaction come from, if it’s not caused by the noises alone? “In my opinion, misophonia is a learnt conditioned response,” said audiologist Dr Natan Bauman, of the Hearing, Balance and Speech Centre in Connecticut. “If we associate a given event – in this case, all those trigger sounds – with something that is perceived to be a danger, then we need to act on it accordingly.”

He has seen close to 100 misophonics in his private practice and doesn’t believe misophonia is a hard-wired phenomenon. Rather, he thinks his patients at some point made a negative association with certain sounds and so have an impulsive reaction to them.

This impulse has to do with how the brain processes sound.

Sound waves cause tiny bones in the middle ear to vibrate. Hair cells inside the cochlea, a spiralshaped cavity in the inner ear, transform the vibrations into electrical signals that travel down the auditory nerve to the brain.

The signal reaches the thalamus, a part of the brain that acts like a central switchboard for sensory information. From the thalamus, the signal follows two different paths to the amygdala, which is located deep in the brain and is involved in the processing of emotions such as fear and pleasure.

“Some people think the amygdala is mostly for fear-related emotion,” says Dr Josef Rauschecker, director of the Laboratory for Integrative Neuroscience and Cognition at Georgetown University. “The amygdala is a fairly old part of the brain, and our fears are pretty primordial.”

One of the two routes is a direct pathway from the thalamus to the amygdala, enabling an immediate response that leads to an emotional reaction. The advantage of this direct route is speed: you hear a loud bang, and fear prompts your body to rapidly and

All those noises can drive a person with misophonia to avoid family gatherings altogether. And worse, feelings of aggression tend to be amplified if the sounds are coming from those with emotional ties to the sufferer, such as family members.

automatically jump.

The other route is longer and goes first to the medial prefrontal cortex before reaching the amygdala. The medial prefrontal cortex is a more evolutionarily advanced part of the brain that can regulate emotions and allow for a more discerning interpretation of a situation. The original signal splits and heads out on the two roads at the same time, but the signal travelling the longer route obviously takes longer to process.

“What happens with those who have misophonia, in my opinion, is that there is no involvement of this longer route, the more-refined route,” Dr Bauman says.

Dr Rauschecker agrees and speculates that misophonia might have something to do with damage to the medial prefrontal cortex, similar to what he found with another condition, tinnitus. Tinnitus is phantom ringing or other noise in the ear, a perception commonly caused by damaged hair cells in the cochlea.

“Say you go to a loud disco and you lose some hair cells,” Dr Rauschecker says. “The ringing lasts for a day or two, and then it disappears again.” The ear hasn’t repaired itself. Rather, the medial prefrontal cortex can help tune out the phantom ringing. But for some people, the ringing never goes away. In 2006, Dr Rauschecker and his colleagues found that tinnitus patients had significantly less volume in the medial prefrontal cortex than control participants without tinnitus. “I would include misophonia as a subtype of tinnitus, probably,” he says.

Regardless of its cause, misophonia makes life difficult for those who have it and for the people around them. Those with extreme cases say they sometimes hole themselves up at home to avoid social situations and public places for fear of having something trigger a negative reaction.

A few treatment options do exist, but there is no cure. Dr Bauman and other audiologists sometimes mix cognitive behavioural therapy and in-ear devices that emit white noise to drown out triggers. The hope is to reduce the white noise enough that the patient doesn’t need to wear the device any more; some patients have reached that point, he says.

Rosol, whose sensitivity began when she was six years old and her parents chewing upset her, has found her own remedies: a white-noise machine and earplugs in bed and noise-cancelling headphones at the gym and on public transport. At meals, she wears a single earplug and blocks the other ear with her hand when others start chewing loudly.

At large family gatherings, she uses earplugs during the meal and specifically avoids sitting next to her parents. Because she can’t hear what’s being said, she usually doesn’t contribute to the conversations. It’s not always ideal, Rosol says. “I usually finish earlier than everyone, go to the kitchen to clear my plate, and wait in another room.”

Source: Independent. co.uk

PEOPLES DAILY Weekend, saturday 20-sunday 21 December, 2014

PAGE 27

Leisure

Compiled By Doyin Ojosipe

The Orphan Boy and the Magic Stone (II) H Continued from last week

e bought the two slaves and built a house in the forest, taking great care of the precious stone, which he placed in an inside room. Then for some time, whenever he wanted anything, he used to go into the room and ask for a sufficient number of rods to buy what he wanted, and they were always brought at once.

This went on for many years, and Ayong grew up to be a man, and became very rich, and bought many slaves, having made friends with the Aro men, who in those days used to do a big traffic in slaves. After ten years had passed, Ayong had quite a large town and many slaves, but one night the old woman appeared to him in a dream and told him that she thought that he was sufficiently wealthy, and that it was time for him to return the magic stone to the small stream from whence it came.

But Ayong, although he was rich, wanted to rule his father’s house and be a head chief for all the Inde country, so he sent for all the Ju Ju men in the country and two witch men, and marched with all his slaves to his father’s town. Before he started he held a big palaver, and told them to point out any slave who had a bad heart, and who might kill him when he came to rule the country. Then the Ju Ju men consulted together, and pointed out fifty of the slaves who, they said, were

witches, and would try to kill Ayong.

He at once took them prisoners, and tried them by the ordeal of Esere bean (strong poison) to see whether they were witches or not. As none of them could vomit the beans they all died, and were declared to be witches. He then had them buried at once.

When other slaves saw what had happened, they all came to him and begged his pardon, and promised to serve him faithfully.

Although the fifty men were buried they could not rest, and troubled Ayong very much, and after a time he became very sick himself, so he sent again for the Ju Ju men, who told him that it was the witch men who, although they were dead and buried, had power to come out at night and used to suck Ayong’s blood, which was the cause of his sickness. They then said, “We are only three Ju Ju men; you must get seven more of us, making the magic number of ten.” When they came they dug up the bodies of the fifty witches, and found they were quite fresh.

Then Ayong had big fires made, and burned them one after the other, and gave the Ju Ju men a big present. He soon after became quite well again, and took possession of his father’s property, and ruled over all the country.

Ever since then, whenever anyone is accused of being a witch, they are tried by the ordeal of the poisonous Esere bean, and if they can vomit they do not die, and are declared innocent.

Laugh out loud (lol)!

Cross out the nutritional words!

Akpors meets his father-in-law A girl went to introduce Akpors to her father as the man she wants to get married to.

Father: so you want to marry my daughter?

Father: Oh my God! What did he do?

Akpors: He denied me of marrying his daughter.

Father: welcome to the family, son

Akpors: yes, I love your daughter, and she loves me too.

Father: I see (shaking his head). So what do you do for a living?

Akpors: I just got out of prison, I will search for a job soon.

Father: what! You just got out of prison, and you want to marry my daughter with this bad record?

So what did you do?

Akpors: I killed a man.

Motivate yourself Don’t ever forget your value Value-A well known speaker started off his seminar by holding up a $20 bill. In the room of 200, he asked, “Who would like this $20 bill?”

Hands started going up.

He said, “I am going to give this $20 to one of you but first, let me do this.” He proceeded to crumple the dollar bill up.

He then asked, “Who still wants it?”Still the hands were up in the air.

“Well,” he replied, “What if I do this?” And he dropped it on the ground and started to grind it into the floor with his shoe.

He picked it up, now all crumpled and dirty.

“Now who still wants it?” Still the hands went into the air.

“My friends, you have all learned a very valuable lesson. No matter what I did to the money, you still wanted it because it did not decrease in value.

It was still worth $20. Many times in our lives, we are dropped, crumpled, and ground into the dirt by

the decisions we make and the circumstances that come our way.

We feel as though we are worthless. But no matter what has happened or what will happen, you will never lose your value. You are special Don’t ever forget it! ascorbic acid

choline

manganese

beta-carotene chromium

molybdenum

selenium

cobalamin

bioflavonoids

riboflavin niacin

silica biotin copper pantothemic acid silicon boron folic acid phenylalanine

thiamine

calciferol

inositol

phosphatidylserine tryptophan calcium iodine phosphorus zinc carnitine iron pyridoxine

potassium

cholecliferol

magnesium

Beauty

PEOPLES DAILY Weekend, saturday 20-sunday 21 December, 2014

Page 28

TIPS

Compiled by Isioma Nwabasha

Steps to a flawless makeup

M

akeup offers a visual delight that seamlessly hides flaws and skin imperfections. It is a blessing that artificially makes up for our less than perfect features. Undoubtedly, we all love to put on the best makeup on our face. It not only makes a woman look more beautiful, but also makes her feel more confident and stronger. Below are basic steps to achieve a flawless makeup.

Cleansing: For most freaks who believe that makeup begins with foundation, it truly doesn’t. The first step towards a flawless makeup begins with proper cleansing.

Cleansing prepares your skin for a perfect makeup. It removes trapped and hidden dirt and sebum. It makes the skin fresh and makeup ready. It is a good idea to use an exfoliating cleanser that can also remove dead skin cells. Enjoy the goodness of a high-quality cleanser, which is the first step towards a flawless makeup.

Massage your face with baby oil for two minutes and then use a cleanser followed by a mild face wash. Rinse your face with warm water first, and then use cold water. It brings an instant glow to your face.

Hydrate well: Now select a moisturizer, suitable for your skin type. It is important because it creates a protective barrier for your skin.

Moisturizer should lock in the moisture content of your skin. You can also add a little vitamin E serum for a glossier look.

Foundation primer: Primers are necessary if you want your makeup to be smudge-free for hours. A foundation primer holds the foundation for a longer period without cracking or smudging. Primer too acts as a protective barrier to the skin. Use the best brands to maintain skin health. Add SPF to your primer and apply it together.

On days when you are in a rush, you can step out wearing just these two.

Foundation: The next step to a proper makeup is foundation. However, it is difficult to find a skin-friendly one. A perfect foundation suits your skin tone, texture and complexion. If your skin is oily and you use a cream foundation, you are digging your own makeup grave. Oily skinned beauties should use a gel-based foundation. Dry skin divas should stick to the use of a cream-based hydrating foundation. Sensitive skin beauties should use powder foundations.

Foundation makes the complexion look even and smooth. So, blend it well with your finger tips. When testing a foundation, always try it on your jaw line and check under daylight.

Concealer: Foundation covers up most of the blemishes and age spots. However, a few acne-hit beauties might not be getting full coverage with a lone foundation. So, the next step is to use a concealer. Use a concealer that is closest to your complexion. Dab a little

to make the concealed parts look more natural. Always apply the concealer in a triangular shape to your under eye area.

Use your finger tips to blend it properly.

It gives a good lift to your face, especially the under eye area.

Compact: Use a good compact powder to coat your base to perfection. Dabbing a compact sets your concealer right. The base will no more crack, once you dab a compact for seamless finish.

Bronzer and highlighter: Are you a big fan of bronzer and highlighter? These are the next steps towards a flawless face makeup. The basic that spoils the complete look is the use of a same shade bronzer and highlighter. Ensure that there is a difference of at least one shade between the highlighter and the bronzer.

You should wear your bronzer in the shape of a cross on the forehead, nose and cheeks. Put the bronzer right under the apple of your cheeks to give a slimmer look to your face.

Blush: Do you usually look like a plastic doll after your makeup gets done? You must avoid the common blush blunder then.

Stick to earthy shades if you have olive to dark skin. You can try the lighter shades of mauve, pink and peach too. Darker shades are for fairer women. Always apply blush on the apples of your cheek.

So smile and then gently apply the blush.

Also, ensure to keep the strokes unidirectional to make the makeup look natural.

Eyeshadow Primer: Like a foundation primer ensures that the base doesn’t smudge, an eyeshadow primer ensures that the eye makeup remains smudge-free. It is an essential step to obtaining smudge-free eyes.

Mascara: Curl your lashes and wear mascara.

Mascara can make or break your overall look. Therefore, stick to the use of waterproof mascara only.

Complete the eyes: Apply eye liner and finally wear kohl.

You can put a liner in a number of ways depending on your choice, but keeping it simple looks more natural. Shape your eyebrow well. You must have wellshaped eyebrows. Use a tweezer/plucker to shape it after your shower, and then apply an eyebrow gel to keep it in its place for long.

Lipstick: Apply lip primer to fill in all the lines evenly. Now wear a light lip shade to match your lip colour. You may top this with a gloss for a glossier finish.

Alternately, you can opt for a tinted lip balm which will give a natural tint to your lips. Always wear a lip liner to define your lips well. Use silver or gold eye shadow on your cupid’s bow and center of the lower lip to make them appear pouty.

These tips may look simple, but when done right, they can transform the way you look.

Compiled by Miriam Humbe

Fashion

PEOPLES DAILY Weekend, saturday 20-sunday 21 December, 2014

Page 29

Be chick and smart in overalls

T

he overall trend from the 90s has come back in a big way this season.

Their loose, comfortable fit and super casual feel has made them a favorite among style bloggers. Overalls can have a boyish quality to them but adding girly accessories like cat eye sunglasses will help create a more balanced look.

Overalls have a ton of options for layering. Try wearing tanks and short sleeve shirts underneath on hot days and a cardigan or leather jacket for

cold nights. Piled on accessories look great with denim, so try stacking on several bangles or braided bracelets along with statement rings and bold earrings. Adding interesting accessories ensures your look will be fashion forward (and all your own!) rather than stuck in the past.

Wondering what to pair with this 90s-inspired trend? Try adding sleek silver accessories and layers with feminine colours and prints to update this laid back look.

PAGE 30

Pots & Pans

PEOPLES DAILY Weekend, saturday 20-sunday 21 December, 2014

With Miriam Humbe

Crunchy battered plantain Battered plantain has become one of the favorite plantain recipes for many households. Here’s how to prepare:

Ingredients - 1 Yellow Plantain (use green plantains if you want it crunchy) -

1 egg

- seasoning cube (maggi, knorr/powder (to taste) - Pepper (to taste) - a big Pinch of Salt - a pinch of Baking soda (optional, but add ‘’fluff’’ to the batter) - 3/4 Plain Flour (about two tablespoonfuls) - Water (enough to form a thick paste)

How to prepare: Break the egg into a bowl, add the seasoning cube, pepper, salt and baking soda (if you’re using any).

Mix well, add the flour and gradually add the water until you get a thick batter. Set aside for later use.

Slit the plantain and peel off the skin.

Slice the plantains thinly in diagonal shapes or any shape you like.

Dip the plantains into the batter, coat thoroughly Now, fry in hot oil until brown on both sides.

If you are left with some batter, don’t pour it out, add some milk and make a pancake

Spicy pineapple and ginger juice This is a delicious and satisfying cleansing juice Ingredients: • ¾ cup fresh pineapple • 3 cups baby spinach • 1 tablespoon fresh ginger • 1 medium cucumber Add all ingredients into a juicer and juice. Whisk in cinnamon, if desired.

SERVES 1-2. Per serving: 90 calories, 0.5g fat, 3g protein, 19g carbohydrates, 130% DV Vitamin C, 10% DV calcium, 15% DV iron

PEOPLES DAILY Weekend, saturday 20-sunday 21 December, 2014

PAGE 31

Relationship

How to deal with sibling rivalry S ibling rivalry is the jealousy, competition and fighting between brother(s) and sister(s).

There is always going to be a little bit of jealousy between siblings, which is a normal part of the human nature, but when it turns into envy it brings out the worst in people. Sibling rivalry is like a festering wound and it endangers relationships to the point where we can’t bear the idea of our siblings being successful, or even happy, and instead take pleasure in their failures.

It usually continues throughout childhood and can be very frustrating and stressful to parents. As kids reach different stages of development, their evolving needs can significantly affect how they relate to one another, though many are lucky to become best of friends with their siblings.

A household that is full of conflict is stressful for everyone.

No matter how much we love our brother or sister, when sibling envy exists, it has a corrosive effect on our ability to express affection. Overt rivalry in childhood is upfront, dynamic and characterbuilding, a necessary rite of passage that enables each child find their niche within the family, rivalry in adulthood is a stagnant, secretive emotion that finds its insidious expression in anger.

It is a difficult and sometimes painful issue for many families, but here is the bottom line, rivalry and jealousy are a normal part of life though if not properly managed the feelings of injustice, unfairness and victimhood that accompany sibling jealousy become even more crippling to contend with later on.

For parents Avoid comparisons among your adult children. This can make them feel like you favour another sibling or don’t think that one measures up

“

Sibling rivalry

to another. While this might sound like something that you would hope your kids outgrow, the truth is that children always want to please their parents, no matter their ages.

Don’t compare your kids’ jobs, children, spouses, financial situations or homes.

Talk to your kids. Perhaps they don’t realize how their interactions affect the rest of the family. Sit down as a family and discuss the situation. Help your children come up with solutions for their rivalry that can help avoid fights and conflict.

Maybe they’ll agree to disagree, decide to make certain topics of conversation off limits and agree to walk away when things get heated.

Stay out of the sibling rivalry.

Remove the baggage. The first step to a conflict-free relationship with your sibling(s) is to rid yourself of any tension and judgment your parents may have unknowingly created between you. To make your relationship work, you have to edit your parents out of it.

Clearly tell your children that you won’t take sides and don’t want to be part of their fights and disagreements. This doesn’t mean you can’t offer advice and a listening ear when they need you, but if they know that is as far as it goes, eventually they won’t even come to you with their disputes.

Encourage your children to see each other’s points of view. You raised them, but that doesn’t mean they think, react or feel things the same way. They each bring their own baggage and personality to the sibling relationships and helping each see their siblings’ sides can help them understand each other.

For siblings Remove the baggage. The first step to a conflict-free relationship with your sibling(s) is to rid yourself of any tension and judgment your parents may have unknowingly created between you. To make your relationship work, you have to edit your parents out of it.

We often carry a lot of what we have learned through our families with us, such as identifying ourselves (or our siblings) as the good or bad child, the favourite child or the successful child, and this can spill over into adulthood.

Starting on a clean slate will allow you see your siblings in a whole new and, ideally, more positive light.

Avoid trying to change your siblings. Despite a similar upbringing, you each have your own personalities, likes and dislikes. Instead, accept your differences and embrace that they make your relationships unique.

Don’t compete with each other. This doesn’t mean that you won’t get jealous of your siblings’ successes, particularly if those successes are something that you’d like to have as well.

The trick is to keep that to yourself and congratulate your siblings on their new jobs, marriages, babies or big raises instead of trying to show off your new car or bigger house.

Talk to your siblings.

Arrange times when you can sit down together without outside distraction and hash out the problems in your relationships, then, work together to come up with solutions.

Deal with feelings of jealousy. Jealousy might not be healthy, but it is normal among siblings. Rather than simply remaining jealous, which will continue to come between you and your brother(s) and sister(s)

try owning up to those feelings.

Instead of stewing, acknowledge to yourself that you are jealous and if you are having trouble being happy for your siblings, share what you are feeling with them in a genuine and honest way.

Don’t give up. If you have tried to reach out to a sibling to no avail, don’t give up. It is natural to feel like your brother or sister is a lost cause and not worth trying anymore, but keep making attempts to reconnect. If you really feel like your sibling won’t change, then you should change your expectations, change how you see the situation. It is also important to understand what is not working and to stop being part of the problem, which often stems from avoidance and lack of communication.

Knowing that our siblings are here to stay means we often take them for granted. We fight, argue, hold grudges and we let time lapse between visits.

Our brothers and sisters have been around the longest in our lives and they deserve to be treated with love and respect.

Take the time to examine your relationship with your siblings and if there are lapses, start rebuilding the bond.

PEOPLES DAILY Weekend, saturday 20-sunday 21 December, 2014

PAGE 32

Fiction

A letter to my daughter

I

wasn’t at the hospital on the day you were born. There is no real story behind it. I was at the joint drinking. That’s where my father was when I was born and where his father was too. Your mother sent her sister to inform me but I still didn’t go. I stayed and drank some more. Don’t get me wrong I was happy you were born maybe even elated but I was a drunk —– I am a drunk and for this I’m sorry.

Your birth was difficult.

Your mother tore so badly that the doctors kept her for a week to recover. I didn’t come to see you then either. Hospitals are not a place I like; besides I was brought up as a man to be the head of the home and not waste time visiting hospitals. Hospitals are for women and bars for men.

That’s where I met your mother, at the joint. Then we were both young and free. I had never seen anyone as beautiful as her and till today I still haven’t. She was wearing a green dress that hung on her body. A body that looked a mismatch to the untrained eye but to me was expertly created.

She had a long slim head that was shaped liked a fat banana covered with short dark hair that felt like silk when touched. The top half of her body was skinny with tiny breasts that she complained about and worried if she would be able to feed you with them. Her bottom half was thick and there seemed to be excess body wherever you looked. Maybe it was the beer but it was love at first sight.

‘Eh, eh, brreutifful girrll.

Come sit here I want toooo tell you something. My spriti tells me you arrr my wife.’ She laughed, her laughter so deep and loud that it shook the joint. I thought like the other girls before her she would ignore me but to my delight she sat down beside me. That was how I met your mother. A year later we were married then I still had a job. I didn’t have to steal money from her purse to buy my drinks. I know it’s a thing of shame when a man steals from his own wife but that’s the power that drink had over me. Not that I would have admitted it back then.

She was the one that wanted to have you. I wasn’t sure if I did.

Where will I get the money to feed you? There was only the income from her salary as a civil servant.

I lost my job. No, it’s not because of the drinking. OK, that’s not true maybe the drinking was part of it. But there was traffic a very bad traffic and I couldn’t make the meeting. I had to present our latest venture to the visiting white investors. I got there two hours late and yes I reeked of booze.

When I told your mother she said, Nkem (that was the pet name she called me) don’t worry God will provide another job. But he never did, maybe it was because I didn’t look.

Please don’t cry baby, please let me finish my story. Maybe

then you will be able to forgive me and maybe one day you will be proud of me.

I never cheated on your mother. Believe me it was very easy if I wanted to. The women that came to the joint came for two things. The warmth and safety the cold beer gave them and the comfort found in the embrace of married men. Before I met your mother these women played a major part in my selfdeceit. I made excuses that I slept with them because I wanted to, that these women were my type of women, but the truth was in the mornings I couldn’t remember how I ended up with them. Your mother was different, the morning after our first night together the image of the night before was still vivid to me.

Her mother didn’t want us to get married. She said she could see it in my eyes; that I was lost to alcohol. She said I was the type of man that would lose his job, sleep around and beat up his wife. The only thing she was right about was the beating. I did beat you mother but this only happened once. It was a mistake I can’t even remember what led to it. What I do remember clear as daylight was the look on her face after. I was drunk when it started but sober when it finished. She lay there on the floor, her face bruised and covered in blood. But what sobered me, what broke my heart like the relief of a glass wall colliding with a car, was the look in her eyes. It was one of surprise, contempt, deep sorrow but most of all disappointment. I ran to her; knelt beside her and cried. I cried like I was the one that just received a beating. I begged her to forgive me, promised it will never happen again. I tried to hug her but she flinched and my heart broke even more. That was the first time I didn’t drink for a week.

I didn’t because that was how long it took your mother to welcome me in her arms again— to forgive me.

Please baby you have to stop crying. I need you to understand you have to listen. You need to understand why I’m telling you this story. You need to know.

Our house was always a happy place but after your birth it seemed like that happiness transcended to another level. Your mother sang all day, she sang when you cried, sang when you slept, sang when I nearly dropped you staggering in my drunkard state. Then one day that singing went. They say her death was not quick, they say that she didn’t die after the truck ran over her and dragged her over a couple of meters. They say it was in the hospital that she died. They say the doctors at the teaching hospital were on strike. That they refused to treat her even though she was dying and the people that brought her to the hospital had no money to bribe them. She died on the doorsteps watched by

the people that could have saved her. That day the happiness in our home died, but most of all my already dead soul was finally buried. You were just six months at the time I tried to be strong, brave, tried to take care for you but I just couldn’t. On the first night after her sister had returned back to her marital home (she had spent a month teaching me how to take care of you) I forgot you were there. I heard your cries, heard you poo but the booze helped me ignored you. I sat there and watched you. Stared at the face that seemed carved out of your mother. People told me I had to retaliate that she won this round with you. That our next baby must look like me. I smiled and nodded but deep inside I was glad you looked like her and not a reflection of my shame.

“

People told me to get a househelp someone who would look after you. It’s not a man’s place to look after a baby, they all said and they were right but I couldn’t let another woman live in the home that belonged to your mother and I. So it was just you and I and how you have come to last another month without me killing you? I still can’t tell.

Good baby, good baby. I knew you would listen. I knew you would stop crying. I …………

The day I woke up to find the cot lying on top of you that was the day I decided to change my life style. I looked in your eyes and saw fear. Looked at you struggling to breath, the weight of the cot on your chest, its rails across you and thought what have I done? Right then I promised to be a better father one that your mother will be proud of. I promised to feed

you more than once a day. To hold you when you cry. Rock you to sleep at night and tell you about how beautiful your mother was and the love we had. I promised to get up and find a job maybe God will finally answer my prayer. I promised to love you and protect you like all fathers should their child. I promised to stop drinking and spiking your formula with booze to make you fall asleep, but most of all I promised to look you in the eyes and not wish that it was you that died instead of your mother. All these promises I made and I tried to keep them I really did, but I only managed all of two days and for this I’m sorry. I’m sorry I couldn’t keep them, I’m sorry because I am a drunk. I have always been a drunk, just like my father and just like his father even though I am just letting myself acknowledge it.

The day I woke up to find the cot lying on top of you that was the day I decided to change my life style. I looked in your eyes and saw fear. Looked at you struggling to breath, the weight of the cot on your chest, its rails across you and thought what have I done? Right then I promised to be a better father one that your mother will be proud of. I promised to feed you more than once a day. To hold you when you cry.

PEOPLES DAILY Weekend, saturday 20-sunday 21 December, 2014

PAGE 33

Romance

Dumped by Prince Charming A

fter being single for years, she had finally met her dream man. He was just the perfect man for her, everything she had ever wanted. Bimbo spent her days dreaming and her nights fantasizing about him. Chidi is a wealthy businessman based in London with businesses in Nigeria. He seemed like a dream come true…he had the perfect lines for wooing a lady like her.

She had always had a thing for Prince Charming with nice vibes and a slight British accent. When she was younger, her mother laughed at her cravings and thought it silly. It didn’t matter that she had to work extra hard on her accent to produce that slight lilt she found sexy. She was proud of that accent because being a Yoruba girl and growing in Lagos hadn’t helped.

That was why she liked Chidi.

Although he was Igbo, it didn’t show one bit in the way he talked.

And he was handsome. He was tall and had the body of a model; she especially liked the chocolate colour of his skin. She never tired of staring at him. Whenever they were together, he said words that sent a tingle down her spine.

Her friends told her she was crazy to be in love with him, she paid no attention to their words; they reeked of jealousy. Although they refused to admit it, she knew they were dying to meet him.

She sighed deeply as she cast her mind back to when they first met. It wasn’t love at first sight.

No, if anything it was crash at first sight. She was already having a bad day; work had been crazy, it was one problem after another and then mid-way through the day, her female time kicked in.

She was glad to leave the office but then came the traffic on Third Mainland Bridge. She tried to relax turned up “Oliver Twist” playing on Smooth FM, when all of a sudden her body jerked from the impact to her car. She stepped out fuming to see a man dressed in all white with the most alluring eyes she had ever seen. His suit reeked of taste. She’d never seen a man who wore a white suit so perfectly. It was crisp and neat… well ironed in the right places.

‘Hey Princess, I’m so sorry about that, was just lost in my own little world. It’s just a small dent, can be easily fixed.’

Who was this person calling her princess after driving into her car? She wasn’t in the mood for this, please God not today she prayed. Then he smiled and truthfully at that moment some of her brain cells went missing.

So she was surprised when two days later a man showed up at her door claiming to work for him and he was there to pick up her car.

She called to say thanks for sticking to his word. Men like that are hard to find, that was when he asked her out on a date. One date led to another and another and finally on the fifth date while having a private dinner at the rooftop in Marquee nightclub, he hired a band to serenade her and ask that all-important question.

‘Will you be my lover? Yes, No, Yes, No, Yes? Will you be my lover? No, Yes, No, Yes, No?’ To the tune of Banky W’s Yes/No. Yes, it was cheesy but that smile of his confused her.

He thrilled her beyond her wildest imaginations and called her ‘Princess’. How she loved that

name! It was an instant turn-on for her. No one had ever called her ‘Princess’ so she found it very flattering.

“When do we get to meet your dream man?” Anita, one of her friends kept asking. “Abi, are you hiding him from us?”

Bimbo sighed. She knew they wouldn’t understand what she and Chidi shared. That special bond between them that was hard to break was what she couldn’t explain to them. They would only laugh at her and she couldn’t blame them …they had never known a love so real.

“I’m talking to you.” Anita shook her.

Again, Bimbo sighed. She had drifted off again as she usually did. It was becoming more of a frequent occurrence since she met her dream man.

“Soon, Anita.” She replied.

“He’s a very private person and a bit shy.”

The truth was; Bimbo didn’t see the need to share Chidi. Yes she loved him and yes she knew he wouldn’t hurt her but the thought of sharing him scared her. She had fallen hard for him and she knew it was becoming obsessive but she didn’t care.

Anita once told her, her mother caused her issues.

That she was too clingy always showering people she cared for with excess love. She told her it was because her mother gave her away when she was six, so she over compensated with her emotions. That’s total rubbish she had said to Anita. That’s why she wasn’t going to share Chidi.

Chidi sent her one of those sweet texts she loved today, ‘Hello Princess, my Nubian queen to be, just wanted to say a quick HI, I’m thinking of you and can’t wait to hold you later today.’ It always made her smile, these texts from him. The fact that she was constantly on his mind, made her safe.

‘So what’s for dinner? I wouldn’t mind a bit of you on top of me.’ Her smile deepened and she wondered what really would she cook that night? She loved Amala and Ewedu, but as an Igbo boy he preferred Pound Yam and Okoro. These subtle differences made her worry; would their tribal difference endure their love?

She, on the other hand was going to do some quick adjusting to her Yoruba lifestyle. She and Chidi had different tastes in food and she knew that Igbo women were usually great cooks with a diversity of soups; she could count on one finger all the soups the Yoruba had. She needed to show Chidi that she’d be the best woman any man could have.

She had never cooked ofe nsala before but had heard Anita talk about it, so when Anita came over to visit her she decided to ask her for the basic tips.

“You? Ofe nsala? Wonders shall never end. Whom are you cooking it for?” Anita asked.

Bimbo groaned inwardly, she’d known that Anita would ask. The girl never let anything get past her; she was always sticking her nose in places it didn’t belong. Sheesh!

“I have a visitor coming over.”

“And may I know who?”

“Well, if you insist. My one and only is coming to visit and we’re having a romantic night here.” Bimbo’s face took on an

enraptured look.

“Yea, right.” Anita mumbled.

“Whatever. I just need the basic tips for cooking the soup” “When is he coming?”

“In two hours. I want to make something special and different.”

Bimbo was dancing lightly on her feet. “I want him to…you know… pop the question!”

Anita almost spat out the water that she was drinking.

“Ooh…it’s that serious. Why haven’t I met him yet?”

Bimbo pursed her lips and blinked. Anita kept talking but Bimbo didn’t hear a word of what she was saying, she was lost in her own little world, one where only she and Chidi lived in Anita left; she knew there was no point talking to Bimbo anymore not when she got caught up in Chidi. She looked at the clock on the white wall, it was 2:30 pm, thirty minutes before her next appointment, but she couldn’t help but worry about Bimbo and Chidi. It worried her that after all these months all Bimbo still spoke about was Chidi, the man that took over her

“

heart. When she got to her office, she tried to write up her notes to get her mind ready for her next patient but she just couldn’t forget her friend Bimbo.

She met Bimbo about a year ago, just about the same time Bimbo met Chidi. They bonded over their love for books each always discovering the next great Nigerian author. She never did meet Chidi, but she heard so much about him. Six months after Bimbo met Chidi, they got engaged. Anita felt it was strange; it was all moving too fast and prayed that it wouldn’t all go wrong. But it was a prayer that wasn’t answered. One day about three months after they got engaged, she heard an erratic knock on her door. As she made her way to open it, she heard a loud scream then muttering, continuous muttering saying the same thing over and over again, ‘He is the one, he is the one, he can’t leave me, not like her, not like the woman that calls herself my mother. He loves me, I’m his princess, he can’t, he can’t, he can’t leave me. He

He is the one, he is the one, he can’t leave me, not like her, not like the woman that calls herself my mother.

He loves me, I’m his princess, he can’t, he can’t, he can’t leave me.

He is the one, the one meant to love me, to want me, not like her, not like her, not like the mother that abandoned me.’

is the one, the one meant to love me, to want me, not like her, not like her, not like the mother that abandoned me.’

When Anita opened the door she saw Bimbo pacing back and forth, she was wearing a torn nightwear, her breath smelt foul, her hair uncombed, a knife in her bloodied hand.

‘What’s the matter Bimbo, tell me what’s the matter?’ But Bimbo never said; she just kept muttering repeating the same sentences over and over again.

Anita somehow managed to talk her into giving her the knife and when she was calm took her to the psychiatric hospital she owned. Three months went by and through counseling and drugs Bimbo got better. Well enough that she wasn’t a danger to her health anymore but not well enough that she would ever leave her new home, Anita Brown’s Psychiatric hospice with its solemn corridors and depressing rooms.

Their counselling sessions were always the same. Anita would sit and listen pretend that they were just two friends gossiping about a man one of them loved. A man named Chidi that called Bimbo his princess, and she was sure she would marry.

She would pretend she was hearing all of it for the first time.

That it all hadn’t happened. That Bimbo hadn’t tried to kill herself when Chidi left her, just like her mother did. That Chidi was on his way to eat Bimbo’s food (a meal she would never cook), to ask her to marry him. She would pretend that Chidi was a man; her friend met and fell in love with, a man who stole her friend’s heart but also her mind.

Naijastories.com

PEOPLES DAILY Weekend, saturday 20-sunday 21 December, 2014

PAGE 34

Nollywood

I will have children at the right time - Yomi Fabiyi Nollywood actor, Yomi Fabiyi, is not a new name in the industry, as he has won the admiration of movie buffs in the country. The actor told Nigeriafilms.com that he will not allow criticisms affect his work or force him into marriage.

W

hat do you think are the challenges facing Nollywood?

Honestly, the industry needs fresh and pragmatic ideas that will save it from nose-diving.

Do you agree that the Yoruba movie industry is not growing as alleged by a colleague of yours?

I am afraid I cannot comment on it as I didn’t read the full text of that interview or know from which angle the person was speaking from. I would rather save my breath on that.

But do we have less Yoruba films at the cinemas compared to English movies?

I don’t know what you mean by English producers.

Tunde Kelani, Kunle Afolayan, Tade Ogidan, Funke Akindele, Dayo Amusa, Iyabo Ojo, Sewa Coker, Foluke Daramola and so on are examples of Yoruba producers that have premiered their films at the cinema. I believe there are criteria for accepting a movie in top flight cinemas even though foreign movies are given more priority than local ones.

Between the English movie industry and the Yoruba aspect, which is more promising?

There is no basis for comparison. Comparison is a proof of nothing. I can flourish either as a Yoruba or English speaking actor. So I prefer to talk about the movie industry and not a clan.

What is going on between you and Saidi Balogun?

The only thing I know is that he is an actor and a senior colleague.

Why did you leave TMA for TAMPAN? Some things are better left unsaid. I joined TAMPAN because as an actor most of the people I leaned on when I was starting off over a decade ago are there, they were welcoming and patient with some of my previous wrong moves. They made me understand that they will always welcome my likes.

Are you aiming for any position in TAMPAN? I have never thought of it for a minute. Though, most of my bosses are its founding fathers. It will be hard to reject their request but I don’t see that coming. I didn’t show interest and nobody has asked that I serve in any capacity. But as a member, though with limited powers and chances, I will still offer my little contributions. I want to believe they have good guys vying for different positions

already.

How do you intend to combine TAMPAN with your ‘Save Nigeria Movie Industry’ group?

I am only a member of TAMPAN, however, my NGO is a Nigerian project, it is not for the movie industry alone. But for clarity, our first project in the ‘Save Nigeria Project’ is # SAVE NIGERIA MOVIE INDUSTRY. We are focusing on the sectors of the Nigerian economy that are malfunctioning, abandoned or ill-equipped and have invariably kept the socialeconomic state of this country into perpetual life support and intensive care unit. As filmmakers, for the first time in this side of the Atlantic, we wish to contribute our quota to national development and restore the integrity of this nation. So there is no conflict. The Save Foundation is a vehicle I use to spread my gospel of a better Nigeria.

What is your take on single parenting in Nigeria?

It is so sad that this country is yet to come to terms with the fact that the basic foundation of marriage has been broken.

Parents don’t investigate the family their wards are going into, people get married for the wrong reasons. Marriages

Yomi Fabiyi no longer last. Yet the stigma attached to single parenthood still exists. Some spouses are better off alone with their children than in that marriage.

If the stigma is taken off then people will understand that there is a clear difference between marriage and making children. Some men marry their wives for the sole aim of making children and someone to keep and lord it over at home. If you think your marriage gives you too much pain, go after your peace and happiness.

Young couples these days are too violent and dangerous.

Do you have a child out of wedlock and why do you think women are at the receiving end?

I have a son, his name is oluwametomi. It is peculiar to the women because they are larger in number, they are weaker vessels and they trust quickly. But all in all, most people are not meant to be together, especially for majority of us that scaled the hurdles of a normal relationship and plunged straight into marriage.

Where is he now?

My boy is with his mother in South Africa.

Do you still cater for him?

My brother that is a funny question, I will always care for every legitimate child of mine except where the mother arrogantly takes over all responsibilities. Honestly, it is not easy for either a man or a woman to single-handedly raise a child. Those that do such are really trying.

You recently accused someone of not wishing you well because of your choice of a life partner, how true is that and why?

The person said I should consider what people will say if I marry who I had in mind.

I don’t live my life based on public opinion. Sometimes, people need something to talk about. I alone know the real reason I went into that union and it has nothing to do with the people’s opinion. Though, I am not willing to convince anyone, I do what pleases me and gives me joy; temporarily or permanently provided it is nothing criminal, immoral or anti-social.

In an interview, you claimed you married a foreigner because they are more understanding. Does it mean Nigerian women are not understanding?

I am sure you know that I have my personal experiences.

Few Nigerian women that I would have loved to be with despite my terrible and bad experiences are either taken or not interested in me. I have to appreciate what I have at the moment. No malice was intended against Nigerian women.

Why the delay in having a baby?

Another child or children will come. It is not easy raising one let alone two, three and so on. I just wish to have my children with the right woman.

A wrong one hurts for a long time if not for life.

But you have the right woman already, people will like to rejoice with you.

They will be welcomed when the time is ripe. Na small remain.

What should your fans be expecting from you?

My two movies; one in English ‘Father Mose’ and the other a Yoruba movie, ‘Metomi’, then my foundation, ‘Save Foundation’.

With your wife based in England, how do you cope with house chores?

I get help where necessary; manual or mechanical help.

Source: Nigeriafilm.com

PAGE 35

PEOPLES DAILY Weekend, saturday 20-sunday 21 December, 2014

Hollywood

Miranda Kerr shuns romance rumours

M

Angelina Jolie recruits cyber security to monitor her kids

S

uperstar, Angelina Jolie, has hired a cyber security team to monitor the social media and internet content that her children encounter.

The Maleficent actress, who describes herself as ‘old-school’ when it comes to technology, said she is unsure if she and

husband, Brad Pitt, are prepared for the digital world.

The 39-year-old mother of six said she prefers writing things on a notebook rather than posting same on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.

“It is a scary new world. It is beyond

what we understand. We wouldn’t even know what to look for,” she said.

The Wanted (2008) star is glad that the internet and social media didn’t exist when she was younger. “I got in enough trouble. It would have been documented,” she added.

Kanye West buys gifts worth 60,000 pounds for daughter

W

hen you have TV star, Kim Kardashian, and rapper Kanye West as your dad, you don’t expect anything less. West bought a 50,000 pounds diamond tiara and 10,000 pounds toy car for North West.

According to reports, the rapper spent 60,000 pounds on Christmas presents for the kid.

“He bought her a diamondencrusted tiara, so when she plays dress-up, she will be a real princess.

He is hoping she will treasure it for all of her childhood years. It is probably worth about 50,000 pounds at least.

Then he also got her one of those baby cars, an exact copy of his matte-black SUV. He thinks it is the coolest thing ever and it cost him around 10,000 pounds,” a source said.

The New Slaves hitmaker also plans to spoil Kardashian, 34, this year, as it will be their first Christmas together as a married couple, following their nuptials in May. “For Kim, he got her specially commissioned designer clothes, shoes, bags and jewelries, too.”

iranda Kerr has denied being in any romantic relationship, saying she is happy being single.

The 31-year-old Aussie beauty, who had separated from her husband, Orlando Bloom last year, had been linked to various celebrities ever including Tom Cruise and Justin Bieber. Miranda said she finds it difficult to date because of her threeyear-old son, Flynn.

The Victoria Secret beauty, who recently graced the cover of InStyle Australia’s January issue in a plunging white one-piece, added that it is important that she doesn’t confuse her son with her relationships unless it is really serious.

Bloom had recently revealed on The Ellen Show that he would be spending Christmas with Kerr and the rest of their families for the sake of little Flynn, saying her family was his as well.

PEOPLES DAILY Weekend, saturday 20-sunday 21 December, 2014

PAGE 36

Celebrity gists

RMD to return I to the big screen in 2015

n a recent interview, iconic actor, Richard Mofe Damijo, who has worked as commissioner in the Delta State government for several years, revealed that he is very excited about 2015 because he is going back to his first love, acting.

He said his new movie is coming out very soon and

that he is happy because he has finally heard the pleas from his fans to get back to acting.

The suave actor also said that his AMVCA nomination means that he is still recognized first and foremost as an actor and he can’t wait to showcase his various projects in 2015.

Funke, Jimmy Jatt feature in T.W.O’s ‘Omonsa’ N

igerian music couple, Tunde and Wunmi Obe (T.W.O) has released a video and a single from their forthcoming album, T.W.O Plus.

The video/song titled ‘Omonsa’, meaning ‘Dance’ in the Ghanaian Twi dialect, was directed by popular music director, Clarence Peters and features the very versatile and talented actress Funke Akindele, DJ Jimmy Jatt, Don T Anifite and more.

In the video, the couple plays the roles of secret agents on a mission to bust five former dance champions, now senior citizens, from the Old People’s Home, to enable them engage in a Dance-Off against a group of youngsters, the ‘Gang-X’.

‘I don’t even know how to function without this person’

S

inger Nicki Minaj broke down while talking about longtime boyfriend, Safaree, who she broke up with recently during an interview with Angie Martinez.

“You know what is funny, I have never been single for the 15 years of my life,” Nicki said.

When asked if it was weird to find herself single again, the sultry singer said “I don’t even know if I am single now either which is weird too. This is not someone I picked off the street, this is someone I grew up with. I don’t even know how I am going to function

without this person. I have never lived my life as a famous person without this person so I don’t really know how to function.

Sometimes I want to tell him stuff, get his opinion but..” And then she breaks down.

Angie offered her tissues.

Rih becomes global ambassador for Puma

R

ihanna is certainly a busy girl. After having her first ever Diamond Ball a few days ago, the 26-year-old Bajan singer is currently in Herzogenaurach, Germany to finalize her deal as the new global ambassador for sports brand, Puma.

Rihanna will be acting as the Creative Director for Puma’s

Women’s Training Category beginning in the New Year and it will be a multi-year partnership between her and the brand.

The Hip Hop star shared the news and showed off some of her Puma gear (the classic Puma “Basket” shoe with a customized creeper sole) on her Instagram page; “Hello #PUMA” she posted

with one picture.

Meanwhile, in Google‘s annual ‘Year in Search’ list, Rihanna’s stunning (because it was covered in diamonds) yet overly sheer Adam Selman dress which she wore to the Council of Fashion Designers’ Awards (CFDA) in June, is the most googled dress of the year.

PEOPLES DAILY Weekend, saturday 20-sunday 21 December, 2014

Ent e r t ain m en t

‘Cosby is the man you thought you knew’

F

or the past two months, Bill Cosby, who is a profound figure among blacks around the world, has tarnished his name and credibility. Several women have alleged that Cosby, famous for playing Cliff Huxtable on The Cosby Show, drugged them and had his way, sexually, with them.

Cosby didn’t speak on the allegations until recently where he asked the black media to be neutral and praised his wife for supporting him as more and more allegations surface.

His wife of 50 years, Camille defended her husband in a statement. ‘‘I met my husband, Bill Cosby, in 1963, and we were married in 1964. The man I met and fell in love with, and whom I continue to love, is the man you all knew through his work. He

is a kind, generous and funny man, a wonderful husband, father and friend. He is the man you thought you knew. ‘‘A different man has been portrayed in the media over the last two months. It is the portrait of a man I do not know. It is also a portrait painted by individuals and organizations whom many in the media have given a pass. There appears to be no vetting of my husband’s accusers before stories are published or aired. An accusation is published and immediately goes viral. ‘‘We all followed the story of the article in the Rolling Stone concerning allegations of rape at the University of Virginia. The story was heart-breaking, but ultimately was untrue. Many in the media were quick to link that story to my husband until that story unwound.’’

‘My Instagram followers inspired me to open a fashion store’

N

ollywood actress, Mercy Aigbe, who recently opened a fashion shop in Lagos, said her Instagram followers inspired her to follow her dreams. According to her, they tell me that they are always waiting and eager to see my outfit of the day, and it inspired me to open a fashion store, so that I can cloth all her divas. ‘‘What informed my putting all this together is my love for fashion. It all started from my daily posts on Instagram. They say they always wait for my outfit of the day before some of them dress up. So that actually motivated me to want to dress all my fans.’’

Naomi Campbell is new face of Agent Provocateur

N

aomi Campbell has clearly made a serious comeback to the runway and fashion world. The 44-year-old British supermodel has been announced as the new face of lingerie label, Agent Provocateur.

Shot by Ellen von Unwerth, the campaign is proof that Naomi is still relevant on the runway. The campaign was inspired by David Lynch‘s ‘Lost Highway’ and Brian Palma‘s thriller movie, ‘Body Double’, and shows Naomi posing seductively and scantily clad in lingerie.

Speaking on her new gig, the supermodel said “It is great to be the face of Agent Provocateur’s Spring Summer 2015 Campaign, especially now that I am in my forties. Agent Provocateur proves that beautiful lingerie applies to, and is appreciated by, women of all ages.’’

The Creative Director of Agent Provocateur, Sarah Shotton, described Naomi as witty, gorgeous and confident.

Page 37

I didn’t choose career over children -Jennifer Aniston

H

ollywood superstar, Jennifer Aniston, was married to Actor Brad Pitt for about seven years and they didn’t have children. When Brad started having children with Angelina Jolie and said his dreams were finally coming through, many assumed Jennifer didn’t have kids with him because she was more interested in fame and fortune in Hollywood than motherhood. The speculations have followed the actress ever since.

In an interview with Allure magazine, Jennifer said it hurts her that people think she chose her career over children and that it is wrong for people to assume that women who decide not to have children have failed in life. ‘‘Oh, God, so many painful things, the accusation that I put my career before the desire to be a mother, that I was so career-driven and focused on myself; that I don’t want to be a mother and how selfish that is.

“I have a lot of friends who decided not to have children, who can’t have children, or are trying but are having a difficult time.

There are all sorts of reasons why children aren’t in people’s lives and no one has the right to assume anything. It is quite rude, insulting and ignorant. Even saying it gets me a little tight in my throat,” she told the magazine.

PEOPLES DAILY Weekend, saturday 20-sunday 21 December, 2014

Page 38

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OUR VISION

Chairman Malam Wada Maida, Oon, Fnge Director/Editor-in-Chief Rufa’i Ibrahim Managing Editor Abdul-Azeez Abdullahi

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ISSUES

2015 election: The opportunities and time-bombs WRITE TO US

Ogundana Michael Rotimi

C

ome next year, Nigerians will go to the polls to choose their leaders for the next four years. Now that a formidable opposition party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) has been put in place, we might be witnessing one of the most competitive elections for the presidency since Nigeria`s democracy in 1999.

The last time we had this opportunity was 2011, and the outcome of our decision still affects us till now.

All things being equal, the opportunity to choose our leaders comes once in four years, but the outcome of our decision always for a long time remains our companion even when the elections are over.

Election 2015 can be likened to a double-edged sword that comes with various opportunities and time-bombs.

On one edge is attached a set of golden opportunities that could change the story of the country positively if we vote for the right set of leaders, an opportunity to right our wrongs and live up to them, an opportunity to push out bad leaders and replace them with men and women of integrity.

Additionally, it comes with an opportunity that raises our hopes and aspirations for a better country, an opportunity to secure a better future for unborn generations and to place Nigeria among the league of great nations.

On the other hand, there are timebombs that could explode if we vote carelessly for people with self interest.

Time-bombs that could crush our hopes and aspirations completely if the right set of leaders are not voted for. Timebombs that could increase the agonies of the masses if by chance, greed or carelessness they keep corrupt, wicked and selfish people in power. Timebombs that could separate us deeper and wider along religious, ethnic and political lines if our votes are influenced

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.

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Currently, Nigeria is at the brim, we have gone beyond the elastic limit; we are at the breaking point. There are two options at the breaking point; it is either we ease the tension and get relieved or

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continue with the tension and face the ugly consequences. However, it is my wish that we choose the former and enjoy the relief.

Voting in 2015 shouldn’t be about self interest or that of cabals that specialise in

Currently, Nigeria is at the brim, we have gone beyond the elastic limit; we are at the breaking point. There are two options at the breaking point; it is either we ease the tension and get relieved or continue with the tension and face the ugly consequences. However, it is my wish that we choose the former and enjoy the relief.

milking the country of its resources. Also it shouldn’t be influenced by political affiliations, ethnic or regional similarities that may shield our judgment on the right choice of candidate. It must not be influenced by the deceptive gifts of politicians that they share once in four years in an attempt to steal the votes of the people. Rather it must be about the collective benefit of all and the passion to serve the country.

If we vote carelessly in 2015, the consequences might be so severe, such that the bags of rice that are being used by politicians to influence our votes would not be enough to ease our hunger when it begins and before we walk to the nearest border for refuge, the selfish and wicked politicians responsible for the chaos would have flown away in their private jets.

It is a good thing that the people know that the election is underway, but it is more important that they know that their votes will determine their future and that of future generations. It is also essential that they know that the political process does not end on election day. That after the elections, we all need to stay together and be involved in the process by holding our leaders accountable for every decision they make.

Therefore, before you cast your vote, weigh the options carefully, let go of sentiments and differences and thumb it for the better candidate. In conclusion, I leave you with the words of Lincoln Steffens, I quote: “If we would vote in mass on the more promising ticket, or, if the two are equally bad, would throw out the party that is in, and wait till the next election and then throw out the other party that is in – then, I say, the commercial politician would feel a demand for good government and he would supply it”.

Rotimi posted this article on Abusidiqu and can be reached on twitter via @MickeySunny

Opinion

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PEOPLES DAILY Weekend, saturday 20-sunday 21 December, 2014

Jonathan and the three wise men

Comrade Timi Frank

I

cannot but start this column with the timely insight from the three wise men.

From Chief Olusegun Obssanjo came the message that the economy is in doldrums as a result of the very poor managerial skills of the present occupant of Aso Rock and his lieutenants. Professor Wole Soyinka simply saw in the same personality the attributes and character of a ‘Nebuchadnezzar.’ Out of the blues came another scathing remark.

Dr. Christopher Kolade! ‘Jonathan is not a good leader,’ he said. These are all eminent men! They hardly speak until it is necessary.

One of them was actually pushed to the wall being a former diplomat renowned for reticent predilections. The charges bother on corruption, cluelessness, impunity, insensitivity and inability to manage national disasters like the ongoing war against insecurity and terrorism, economic recession and the penchant to use official security apparatchik to run the opposition aground.

The recent invasion of the All Progressives Congress (APC) data centre in Lagos by operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS) and the forced detention of my person at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport for over one hour by the same agents of DSS, for no justifiable reason, is still fresh in my memory. This is really sad considering the fact that this selfsame personality is being pilloried for pitching one section of the country against the other through divisive politicking.

Insecurity is spreading like Ebola with the attacks and freeing of prisoners from Koton-Karfe, Ekiti and Minna prisons being the latest additions. The attack on the Kano Central Mosque is telling, the northeast is seething under the rapacious and murderous escapade of terrorists. The economy is crashing despite the gargantuan magic bullet remedies being prescribed and applied by the one and only Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.

The three wise men and numerous others cannot be wrong because we are all living witnesses. Be that as it may, let me say that in a colony of madmen, the sane man becomes the madman. This is pitiably our condition today. Instead of sending what the late Chief Bola Ige would have described as the ‘five fingers of a leprous hand’ on a begging mission, I think President Goodluck Jonathan should change his attitude and act decisively. He should retool his think tank, stop genuflecting before Idriss Derby of Chad, stop dancing ‘azonto’ with his trousers on fire (apologies to Obasanjo) and take

urgent charge to safeguard our country from the Dracula of insecurity, terrorism, and the failed state epithet now staring at our faces.

I am really saddened by the terrorists’ siege of the northeast and their expansionist drive to other parts of the country. I am equally saddened by the wave of kidnapping in other parts of the country and the inability of overly traumatised Nigerians to live their life in tranquil mode. I am horrified by the inability of the president to perform the ground breaking exercise for the $16 billion Warri Gas City project, owing to threats by ex-militants. Mr. President has not visited Chibok since over 200 girls were abducted 239 days ago due to security concerns.

Sadly, the girls are still in captivity. He has not visited many scenes of carnage in the northeast where horrific treatment is being meted out on innocent Nigerians by insurgents. He may well not visit the bombed Kano Central Mosque for the same reason. So where else can the president go?

How did we come to this sorry state that even the president cannot move freely in a sovereign country? If Mr. President with all his military armada can be prevented from carrying out official functions, what hope is there for the masses of this country? In the northeast alone, over one million persons are said to inhabit the camps for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), according to the Red Cross and United Nations estimates.

Obasanjo’s alarm about the rot in our economy is not novel only that those on the driving seat of power would rather wish that he keeps quiet and let the ship of state sink.

The government cannot say they don’t know

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what Obasanjo is talking about. The core of his message is that we have all it takes to have been better prepared for this economic meltdown and he is right on target. The present administration, having had it so good in terms of oil inflows, abandoned all known economic models and logic in the time of boom. Through austerity measures however, they have sadly transferred the burden of their poor planning on the poor masses who daily live below a dollar.

Having enjoyed higher oil prices since 2010, it is shocking that the present administration was quick to impose austerity measures as a result of falling oil prices. While the concept of austerity measures is a globally accepted economic theory to revive a dwindling economy, the ones recently announced by our economic czar, Okonjo-Iweala, are nothing but a misbegotten antithesis. The irony is that the poor masses of this country continue to live by the sea yet they daily wash their hands with spittle.

For our economy to suddenly collapse due to ongoing slump in crude oil prices means that our much vaunted economic strength was small afterall. Why do we travel the same road several times, yet act as if we have never been forewarned of the existing dangerous bends, hills and valleys? As they say, those that fail to plan have planned to fail. I thought NOI was appointed to help plan and streamline the finances of the federal government which should include saving for the raining day. Where are our savings? It is no secret that crude oil has been selling well above $100 in the last three

How did we come to this sorry state that even the president cannot move freely in a sovereign country? If Mr. President with all his military armada can be prevented from carrying out official functions, what hope is there for the masses of this country? In the northeast alone, over one million persons are said to inhabit the camps for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), according to the Red Cross and United Nations estimates.

years. Yet the budget benchmark did not exceed $80. Where is the balance? Where is our money?

Need I say that imposing austerity measures in a country slowing towards recession is a fundamentally flawed response because austerity leads to the collapse of any economy. According to experts, Keynesian economics which requires government to help sustain demand suggests that austerity measures should be imposed when an economy is booming, not waning. It is heartrending to realise that instead of saving during the boom, this administration went the road of prodigality and profligacy, it is still highly steeped in corruption irrespective of deafening outcry. Now that their lack of planning and profligate attitude has become manifest in this oil glut, they now want already distressed Nigerians to bear the cross. This is a sacrifice of death.

The finance minister knows that the best economic medicine is infrastructure spending. Yet she has kept the capital spending at a paltry 23 percent on average.

She equally knows that what Nigerians require at this time is a stimulus package and not austerity measures. The minister definitely knows a lot more than she is telling Nigerians at this time. She has consistently deceived Nigerians by saying that the country is not ‘broke.’ But today the truth is out in the market. With her austerity measures and currency devaluation by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) according to Obasanjo, “We (Nigerians) will all sink deeper in poverty except for those who have corruptly stashed money abroad and who will start to bring such illegal and illegitimate funds back home to harvest more naira. All the economic gains of recent years and the rebuilding of the middle class may be lost.”

To escape the looming economic woe, the president and his economic team must avail themselves of the timely advice of Obasanjo by reinventing and applying the needed ‘political will, the discipline, (and) the ability to take hard measures to reverse the trend’ which is grossly lacking at this time. Above all, Nigerians must not allow Obasanjo’s apocalyptic prediction based on sound evidence to came to pass. The only way to do that is by voting the present crop of leaders and their hired economic saboteurs out of office in 2015.

Frank posted this article on Abusidiqu.com

FCT: The challenge of security in 2015 polls

By Ray Edmund Oche

W

ith the recent lifting of the ban on political activities by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), activities on the political scene have heightened with politicians of different persuasions shunting from one campaign to another. Even with the increase in political activities, there are palpable fear and apprehension on the worrisome security situation in the country.

There is no doubt that those hell-bent on dismembering the nation are likely to step up their murderous campaigns. The security situation in the last few weeks in the northeastern part of the country is a veritable indication that without re-strategizing to contain the menace, Nigerians are likely to witness more scary nay nerve-wracking assault on their psyche.

The trend has become so worrisome that officials of INEC, some Nigerians and even foreign nations are already expressing reservations over the prospect or otherwise of holding the elections in some parts of Nigeria. The situation is so terrible that every

day brings a fresh dimension to the raging war against Nigeria’s sovereignty.

It is in realisation of this immutable fact that those who are all out to bring this unfortunate trend to a decisive end are working round the clock to achieve their patriotic aim. Some of them like the FCT Minister, Senator Bala Mohammed, prefer to work behind the scene to achieve their

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aim.

Though his efforts are hardly reported in the media, I intend to break away from that tradition by heralding some of the minister’s silent policies aimed at curtailing, if not totally halting the menacing nay bloodchilling influences of these centripetal cum centrifugal forces nibbling at the soul of Nigeria.

The trend has become so worrisome that officials of INEC, some Nigerians and even foreign nations are already expressing reservations over the prospect or otherwise of holding the elections in some parts of Nigeria. The situation is so terrible that every day brings a fresh dimension to the raging war against Nigeria’s sovereignty.

Since the most devastating of the bomb blasts went off in Nyanya at the outskirts of the FCT last year, the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) reviewed its security strategies in order to cope with the new challenge.

Some of the measures put in place include: procurement of patrol vehicles and stepping up of security patrols all over the territory; upgrading of motor parks with security gadgets; installation of bomb detectors in buses and other public places; radio/television jingles to sensitise residents on the need to be security-conscious; convocation of a security summit where all area councils, traditional rulers and other relevant stakeholders were active participants.

Judging from the actions of the FCTA under Bala’s superintendence, it is safe to conclude that it is adequately prepared to ensure that elections are held in an atmosphere of peace and tranquility.

Oche is a media consultant based in Abuja

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PEOPLES DAILY Weekend, saturday 20-sunday 21 December, 2014

Comment Nigeria: A people, an economy and prospects

By Bello Bwari

F

or years Nigerians and their leaders thought oil revenue would last forever.

The fact that it was a finite resource, requiring deft management so that maximum advantage could be derived from its limited years of exploitation, was sacrificed on the altar of politics, incompetence and greed.

Since 1956 when crude oil was first discovered in commercial quantity at Oloibiri in the present day Bayelsa State, the nation had obsessed over the commodity; its ownership, its sharing formular, its price in the international market and our share of that pie, which section of the country owns more oil wells, foreign dominance of the production and other processes of oil exploration, the effects of oil spills, the need to diversify from a mono economy, its influence on corruption, ad infinitum .

There is indeed no aspect of the oil matter that we have not x-rayed in this country and there is no doubt that it had more than a salutary influence on the decision to fight a horrific 30-month civil war or why we are determined to stick together as one nation after one hundred years of contentious existence.

The influence of oil on the core nature of our nation’s character and history, and our place in the comity of nations today can hardly be over emphasised. As the seventh leading producer of oil and Africa’s biggest economy, Nigeria’s share in the economy of the region is substantial. There are nations in West Africa that practically exist because of Nigeria. So any downward trend in the fortunes of our country has consequences beyond our shores, beyond even our continent.

The recent fall in our share of oil revenue as the market witnessed its lowest profits in half a decade and as Nigeria’s number one customer, the United States of America, refused to buy any of our oil, has sent ripples all over and this is a grave cause for concern.

Although there has been warnings over the progress of biofuel and the repercussion this could have on oil revenue, this recent shortfall caught our government floundering.

As oil prices hit a five year low, the Jonathan administration took a couple of

drastic measures in response to the crises.

It was obvious from the sudden policy shifts that we have not made preparations for such contingency despite all the warning signals.

Announcing a series of austerity measures, the government devalued the naira by eight percent and the currency immediately hit a low of 187.55 to the dollar.

Efforts by the Central Bank of Nigeria to peg trading within the usual brand of between N160–N176 to the dollar failed and the premium bank also failed to meet its dollar demand at its bi-weekly auction.

In a typical week, the CBN used to trade between $200 million and $300 million but as a result of this shortfall, it could only manage a high of $168 million. The consequence of devaluing the national currency in a non-productive economy with a moribund manufacturing sector is of course unpalatable.

To be fair, the government explained that it had to devalue the naira to halt the decline in foreign reserves which is now as low as $36.

8 billion from an acceptable figure of $44.6 billion a year ago, but with Brent oil trading at a middling $72 dollars a barrel, there was no way the government could keep doing business as usual.

Perhaps, an austerity measure is necessary. The N4.6 trillion budget for 2014 tagged “Budget for Jobs and Inclusive Growth” did not seem to have made any

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dent in the unemployment market. The envisaged growth of more than seven percent per annum is no longer feasible in the light of current realities. In fact, the money to be shared among the three tiers of government has been drastically reduced and a budget review is inevitable.

Despite protestations, Nigerians at least know that some sort of cut-backs are necessary. The real danger to me is if we are unable to redirect the austerity measures towards wealth creation via the informal economic sector as a major strategy, the consequences of these challenges will be far more catastrophic. It is not a hidden fact that our economy is largely propelled by the informal sector. Therefore, it is necessary to point out that the people outside government who work hard to make a living should not be made to bear the brunt.

What the situation calls for is a drastic change in priorities. We need to ensure that most of the cuts are in the over-bloated recurrent expenditure of high end public servants from the presidency to the 36 state governments, ministries and parastatals.

Let the austerity measure target the monies earmarked for running government and public office holders; the money for foreign trips, for courses at home and abroad, for feeding and entertainment, for stationary and renovation of offices and residencies, for

What the situation calls for is a drastic change in priorities. We need to ensure that most of the cuts are in the over-bloated recurrent expenditure of high end public servants from the presidency to the 36 state governments, ministries and parastatals. Let the austerity measure target the monies earmarked for running government and public office holders; the money for foreign trips, for courses at home and abroad, for feeding and entertainment, for stationary and renovation of offices and residencies, for laundering public image, ‘settlements’ and the ubiquitous conduit called security vote.

laundering public image, ‘settlements’ and the ubiquitous conduit called security vote.

According to reports, “only 4.5 million barrels of Nigerian oil arrived at U.S. ports, down from a record high of 40 million barrels seven years earlier and by July, the spigot was shut off completely. Over the next six weeks, not a single drop of Nigerian light, sweet crude arrived in the U.S. – all of it replaced at Gulf Coast refineries by fracked oil from fields like the Bakken formation in North Dakota and Eagle Ford in Texas.”

As a consequence, “Nigeria became the first formerly flush oil producer to essentially lose its entire share of the U.S. market, leaving it scrambling for new customers, less able to fund its internal war on terror and less important to the U.S.” Perhaps it is good that the crisis is coming to a head right now as Nigerians prepare for the 2015 elections. Faced with the reality that there is no longer a national cake, the people must see to it that they elect people who have proven track records of competency, honesty and ability to generate and manage wealth.

The federal government must truly invest money, time and world class expertise in the development of the agricultural, manufacturing and productive sectors. There is no shortage of potentials from mineral to horticulture, but we must be willing to accept the lessons of the Chinese proverb that ‘talk doesn’t cook rice’ and to put national interest ahead of primordial sentiments and make the necessary sacrifices. Unlike oil, these other sectors are heavy on human resource quotient and will not endure the sort of self entitlement, nepotism and patronage that was the hallmark of our oil industry.

These are hard times but if the austerity measures are handled well and with integrity, it might provide the much needed opportunity for the inevitable shift from a mono-economy and its attendant problems, to the full exploitation of the variegated resources with which our nation is so richly blessed. It is time to lose the stranglehold that oil has had on our psyche since that Sunday, January 15, 60 years ago when it was first discovered by Shell Darcy.

Bwari posted this piece on Premium Times

Yobe PDP: A clarion call for unity

By Hassan Gimba Ahmed

W

e are in the season of politics and in our clime, it is known for its rancorous nature. Because our democracy is still nascent, political actors find it difficult to conduct their affairs with maturity. In my state, Yobe, it is all the more so. Perhaps, because Yobe is still in its infancy in virtually all areas of human and infrastructural development, the rowdy political scene is, however, more noisy in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), a party that needs more cohesion if it is to be victorious in the next election.

Party primaries have been conducted across the country, but there are grievances being expressed in a number of states Yobe inclusive by those who were not successful.

In all cases, various sections of the party’s guidelines are being cited by those on either side of the contention, in order to justify the victory or grievances, as the case may be. I am not going into that, because I believe it is natural for those who lose to cry.

My concern right now is how the four contestants, viz Adamu Maina Waziri, Dr. Yerima Ngama, Alhaji Ibrahim Talba and Alhaji Hassan Kafayos will put heads together to deliver Yobe. Yes, there was a contest, there was a winner and there were losers; and

there are now cries from the losers, claims and counter claims that sometimes tend towards insults.

I am privileged to know each of them personally, even though I have met with Dr. Ngama only once and that was during the last Muslim fasting period, after he had resigned from being the Minister of State, Finance. I had an almost two-hour discussion with him and I came out impressed with his commitment to serve Yobe.

Alhaji Ibrahim Talba I have known for years. Being my family’s next-door neighbour in Potiskum, I have had cause to interact with him both officially and privately. He is a generous, magnanimous gentleman, who

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perhaps initiated the creation of Yobe State. He means well for Yobe.

I first met Hassan Kafayos the day he won a petition brought against his election as Chairman of Jakusko Local Government in 1999. I was the first journalist to interview him then. I still recall seeing him leaning against a Neem tree outside the courtroom, shedding tears of happiness. Needless to say, he had a successful tenure and accorded priority to education. He too loves Yobe.

Adamu Maina Waziri is a man passionate about Yobe and he wants to leapfrog it into the class of those states that are already ‘there’.

Agreed, he has lost elections in the past, but so did Sule Lamido. From where I come from

Alhaji Ibrahim Talba I have known for years. Being my family’s nextdoor neighbour in Potiskum, I have had cause to interact with him both officially and privately. He is a generous, magnanimous gentleman, who perhaps initiated the creation of Yobe State. He means well for Yobe.

(Yobe), all those who believe in God know that he gives power to whom he wants and when he wants. You can’t force him to do otherwise. It may amount to attempting to taunt him when you throw accusations when someone loses an election. You may be implying that you have the power to wrest what you want from him if it were you.

Having said all this, I want to reiterate that all the four contestants love Yobe. Since Waziri has been declared the winner, I implore the others to bury the hatchet, sheathe the sword and join forces with him. With their combined effort and the help of Allah who gives power to whomever he wishes and when he desires, he will be able to form a great government and the credit will be theirs. And as Sule Lamido has done in Jigawa after many failures, Waziri will no doubt do wonders for Yobe. This they all know.

In the same vein, I urge Waziri to be magnanimous in victory. He should carry all of them along. They all respect him, but it is up to him to give them a sense of belonging. To be fair to him, in his acceptance speech after being elected, he promised to “bend forward and backwards” in order to position the party for victory.

Ahmed is an Abuja based journalist and can be reached at agimbah@ gmail.com

PEOPLES DAILY Weekend, saturday 20-sunday 21 December, 2014

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Online Comments APC Vs PDP: Who wins 2015 presidency?

Um_malkohi says: 2015 is going to be a year of surprise due to inter-party switching from our political gladiators. God bless our beloved nation NIGERIA! Preco01 says: I see a lot of people sacrificing personal ambition to help salvage Nigeria. I see a very thorough primary process leading to the emergence of Buhari and a dedicated internal negotiation process leading to the choice of Yemi Osinbajo. May God reward all those whose sacrifices produce this dynamic winning team. God bless you all, God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria Party primaries and internal democracy Austyle Kwuazu says: The writer of this article has shown complete bias and unmitigated partisanship which is unethical in journalism. He did not hide his disdain, disrespect and detestable posture against the ruling party. As a paid or hired writer; he closed his eyes to the prevailing circumstances in the northeast, for his unquenchable hatred for the party; he glossed over the tragedy of carrying out any business albeit emotionally laden primaries in such an environment. Even with the issue of kidnapped committee members; he did not see any reason for taking the primary outside the area. That is the kind of change the opposition and their cronies are proposing for Nigeria. God will save Nigeria from power-mongers.

How Israel is gaining a foothold in Nigeria Pai Urama says: I do not know what Abdulbaqi Aliyu Jari Katsina is talking about, but he cannot rewrite history. It is in Nigeria’s interest to have ties with Israel. Abdulbaki should be asking the Arab-Muslim neighbours to accept the fact that Israel has the right to exist. I do not understand what it is with Islam that all over the world they are spilling blood from Egypt, Libya, Algeria, Nigeria, Somalia, Iraq, Syria and Pakistan.

Are there no elders in Islam who can speak up? It is time to say “enough is enough”.

The world needs peace now. And we all need each other. Our diversity should be our strength in Nigeria and not our undoing.

Ahmad Shehu says: Comrade Abdulbqi is right, It seems you don’t know the conspiracy of Israel.

The Israelis are cruel and inhumane being.

If Israel were America they would have wiped away our country. They consider themselves as the only people loved by God. They are selfish and that was why Hitler dealt with them.

Ebola, its hysterics and the media Porter Holz says: Get protected with http://www. ebolavirusprotection.n.nu/ CBN pegs mobile money operators capital at N2bn Quadri Opeyemi says: Mobile money is the way forward and Nigeria can learn from Kenya’s M-pesa.

ACF, NEF to proffer solution to terrorism Miles says: He said the same thing before the Anambra State election.

What does your tongue say about your health?

Isah says: Good. I hope this would be available in Nigeria soon.

Shi’ite Procession: Zakzaky, Gumi trade words over blockade Isah says: It is good that Dr. Gumi advised the Shi’ite leader now that the former has

INEC Chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega

President Goodluck Jonathan

accepted that his group is now practising shi’ism unlike in the last few years where he kept denying it maybe because he has reached his target of getting it rooted hence no more taqiyya.

The earlier the shi’ites heed this noble nasseha and stop the processions the better for all, as they are meaningless.

and back up our God given president…

Once more, Mr. President this is a job well done!!!

PHRANQ says: I have no doubt that Nigeria is a great nation, all we need is the right mindset and leaders. God bless the initiators. God bless Nigeria.

Alhassan Mohammed says: I am an electrician from Kogi State, I got the message too late to participate in the induction at NAPSAS because I am based in Lagos State. Infact, the message came around 3:45pm on Tuesday and the registration closed at 8:00pm on Wednesday. I want to appeal to those in charge of the exercise to consider those of us from far places that could not make it due to distance and the short notice given to reconsider us. Important messages like this should be sent at least two days to the commencement of the exercise.

Thanks to NAPSAS for this good initiative to address the problems facing the power sector.

Buhari unveils 9-point agenda for Nigeria’s devt Abubakar Ibrahim says: This is the time for change and we all know who the honest public messenger that will be able to revive the nation is.

As for me, I believe in one Nigerian and change. Buhari is the man. The refineries were built during his regime, corruption was nowhere to be found. It is time for change. Nigerians! Please wake up, this is the time for change. Buhari for change.

Printing PVC abroad responsible for hitches – INEC S. Maigari says: The REC is tactless for disclosing this information, not to talk of where the printing is being done. What makes him think that those who want the cards badly for whatever purpose would not go to China and get them?

Power: FG, States to train 7,400 technicians, artisans under NAPSAS Zuokemefa Woyengibarakemi says: This is what we, the great Nigerian youths, have being craving for. Mr. President has done well. He has made us proud and has shown that he has our interest at heart. Yes, we need more of this to keep us meaningfully engaged. I hereby urge my fellow youths to stand by, support

Bode George obstacle to PDP victory in Lagos, says Obanikoro Abdullahi Ozemoyah Abu says: What do you expect from old breed plotician if not confusion? ’Na una sabi’.

Buhari inches towards clinching APC ticket Napdong Domven Longs says: Atiku does not need a blind man to tell him that he should step down. Doesn’t he know that we know what he will do if he gets the ticket?

Abdullahi Ozemoyah Abu says: Good name is better than riches, Atiku please step down to avoid the wrath of the people. Nigeria needs leadership with

Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, (rtd.) commitment not leadership of 30 children and four wives. Nigerians are in dire need of helpers to salvage us from imminent and inept corruption that has eaten deeply into the society.

Ige Hameed says: Atiku should have known that the ‘money’ dracula of APC, Senator Bola Tinubu, only needs his money. He should have known that there is no way he, Atiku, could have been the APC flagbearer. Was Atiku so dumb to think that Obasanjo and Tinubu will ever allow him to become president? Atiku was the most politically unwise of all the aspirants. Good for him.

He was blinded by the quest for power.

This is a disturbing trend Abdullah Musa says: They will not. I mean the authorities will neither improve the structures of the prisons nor decongest them.

The federal government has been so dysfunctional such that the best appeal to make them act is to request them to do nothing. When people are made to join long queues of vehicles in the night only to be waved on, is it any wonder that suicide bombers still operate?

When the insurgency became all pervasive there was a compelling need to fashion out new security networks and infrastructure upgrade. Nothing happened.

Only 2015 is on their mind, the moment they get it, then 2019…..3019.

People are the doormats to stamp upon to reach there.

Kano bomb update: 2 female suicide bombers, 4 others killed-Police Shashi says: May God save Nigeria from these evil doers. Amin

PEOPLES DAILY Weekend, saturday 20-sunday 21 December, 2014

PAGE 42

Interivew

Defeating el-Rufai is easy for PDP Contd from Page 2

the man died seven days thereafter out of frustration.

So we don’t want somebody who will take over Kaduna and makes life unbearable for its citizens. We are looking at a temperate person who works quietly and let the result show.

For us in the PDP, his emergence is not a threat. For us, it is like a walkover. We thought a more astute politician would have been given the ticket to give us a good a fight but the APC chose to give somebody who has been calling himself ‘accidental public servant’ to us therefore he’s an accidental governorship candidate.

We are not looking at him as a threat and we are also not over confident that the APC is not a party.

We are looking at it from two ways: the emergence of credible opposition like the APC is not just what should be taken for granted. But like I said our structures in the PDP are solid, the structures that brought people like el’ Rufai to limelight because if you asked them, they will never tell you el’ Rufai, but the former minister.

But the former minister from which platform? He became minister under the platform of the PDP. And if you look at the array of those parading themselves as APC faithful, they are never APC faithful they have not been together for two years. The merger of the opposition parties is less than six months. The APC is a marriage of aggrieved persons and I don’t think that is how a political party should emerge and be managed. I also don’t think political parties should come together just for the purpose of fighting. There is really nothing that they have told the people that they can do. He (el’ Rufai) has not given any credible blueprint other than threatening to demolish people’s houses. So we don’t want such government in Kaduna and our people are very conscious. We are waiting and I can assure you that come 2015 Kaduna will still remain a PDP controlled state.

To what extent did the processes of selecting delegates to the primaries influenced the outcome of your election?

Actually, in the constituency that I come from you know there are two local governments and if you

know the politics of Kaduna you will appreciate that my constituency is the most complex. Apart from the Hausa/ Fulani, the second and third, fourth and the fifth tribes in Kaduna state are in that constituency. Naturally, when you have such a mix of all competent and also equally ambitious you must always create room for give and take.

I am from Jabba the local government joint together with Zango Kataf to form a federal constituency and Jabba compared to Zango Kataf by voting power is smaller by whatever classification. So having been privileged to come from Jabba and have done two terms, I knew it was always going to be a massive fight.

It was something that no Zango Kataf man would have stomached had we gone beyond two terms. So the issue of ‘it’s the turn of Zango Kataf’ came up and being a leader in this arrangement it could have been Herculean for me to return to the House. I think that was what influenced my inability to return to the House.

Some say you had enemy within, do you subscribe to that?

You see politics is basically a game of intrigues. I am not surprise that most of those who worked against me were actually people close to me. They just felt I should not become an institution in the House of Representatives. They also felt it was time for me to move on and so they fought from within and without.

Let me tell you, if the system had allowed mass participation of the party faithful the outcome would have been different. When you pick former NNPC GMDs, permanent secretaries, ex-heads of service as delegates, people we don’t really relate with, my duty is to represent my constituents who are residing within the geographical expression called Jabba/Zango Kataf, so when they brought such calibre of persons there was a disconnect between the wishes of the people at the grassroots and those of them who are at the top.

With the emergence of Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, there are fears that the PDP’s presidential ambition has come under very serious threat?

Gen. Muhammadu Buhari has been there in the past three presidential elections. Therefore, he is not a new entrant into the race. Buhari was a flag bearer in 2003, 2007, 2011

all in separate platforms. He has changed parties three times: ANPP to CPC and now APC, all because he wants to rule Nigeria. He has been a flag bearer. We, in the PDP, have remained in the PDP. Irrespective of whatever name of political party he may want to come with, to us he is the same person.

We are prepared. We know him and he knows us and we know where we can get our votes and he knows where he can get his votes. We know if there is a debate now between him and President Jonathan: let them educate Nigerians on what they can do for this country, Buhari has limited ideas. It is not just about telling people ‘I am coming to fight corruption’ that is not what we should get from someone who has had three different attempts at ruling Nigeria. Let us talk about the economy, about core issues.

We don’t believe people should say change just for the sake of change.

It should be change for good. But where are the good that is coming along with it? We have not seen any.

There is nothing in their speeches that showed that they are coming for good.

It’s all about sentiment; coming for the purpose of just changing without a focus will backfire. We had seen it before when he was a military Head of State he introduced something that at the end he could not sustain. He was breaking people’s shops and selling their goods at prices the economics of demand and supply could not guarantee. At the end, you broke into everybody’s shop and sold the goods at the prices that you think was pro masses, so what happened when there was no replacement, did it not backfire?

So, we are looking at a person who doesn’t believe in change just for the mere purpose of change, but continuity, sustainability of what we have been able to attain since 1999 and subsequently moving forward.

I think the PDP still holds the ace.

We are dealing with the person that we know. Let us look forward to the outcome of 2015 but I can tell you clearly now that Buhari’s emergence as the APC’s flag bearer doesn’t give us sleepless night.

What will you be doing at the end of your tenure?

I will remain a committed PDP member and like I said you

Gen. Buhari can serve your country in different spheres not necessarily as an elected representative. One thing I kept telling people, once you are in politics it is difficult to say you are no longer in it. You may not necessarily stand election but you are in.

In any case, I have always seen politics as an avenue to serve not as a profession. It is a vehicle to serve the people and when that vehicle is not available you can go back to your profession so that when they need your services they know where to find you. Before coming to the House, I have been practising as a water engineer/geology and my company is still in existence and alive I can return there to manage it and it will still be part of service to humanity.

The episode in the National Assembly that led to lawmakers scaling fence to gain access to the green chambers has drawn flaks, what is your reaction?

Well, there were so many assumptions. First, the police said they had security information that Mr. Speaker was coming into the assembly with unauthorised persons and the Speaker too felt since his security details had been withdrawn he needed some forms of protection.

So when the people heard he will be coming with persons not authorised to entre the complex the police felt it was important to lock the gate and then screen everybody.

Those of you who were on hand that must have noticed that most of those with Mr. Speaker were not

“ Lawmakers scaling fence

suppose to be let into the assembly complex: They were not members of the NASS, not workers at the NASS. So if the police must do their job, it is only fair that they must make the environment safe and secure. But that was not guaranteed because those who watched the recorded clips would have seen faces that were neither lawmakers nor staff of the NASS. The second was the assumption that the PDP members were allowed access to the chambers as early as 8.30am and that they were in the chambers working out how to impeach Mr. Speaker so those from the opposition who heard it believe and that created anxiety and desperation to get into the chambers and “scuttle” what they think was going on. That warranted the scaling of the fence by some lawmakers. They thought locking the gate was to deny the opposition coming in, in their own thinking, to scuttle what the PDP members were assumed to be doing.

To me, I think there were lot of misinformation, disconnect in communication, unnecessary mutual suspicion. However, the summary is that what happened was unwarranted and that shouldn’t have been shown to the world as the kind of democracy that we practice. It should have been maturely handled, done in a manner that will not bring ridicule to this House. If there is any conduct at variant with the respect that should be accorded this House naturally no Nigerian will be happy or that it should repeat itself.

He has not given any credible blueprint other than threatening to demolish people’s houses. So we don’t want such government in Kaduna state and our people are very conscious.

PAGE 43

Biographies

PEOPLES DAILY Weekend, saturday 20-sunday 21 December, 2014

Sir Siddiq Abubakar III (1903–1988)

H

e was a Nigerian Muslim leader.

He served as the sultan of Sokoto between 1938 and 1988.

Nigerian Muslim leader, Sultan of Sokoto. Born at Dange, on 15 March 1903, same day on which the British finally subdued the Sokoto Caliphate ~Son of Usman Shehu, grandson of Mu’azu, direct descendent of Usman Dan Fodio. Abubakar is the fourth heir to the two century-old throne founded by his ancestor, Sheikh Usman Dan Fodio (17541817) leader of the Maliki school of Islam and the Qadiri branch of Sufism.Had Islamic Education Held several administrative posts before succeeding his uncle, Hassan Ibn Muazu, at age of 35, in 1931, he was appointed a local authority councillor of the Sokoto Native Administration.

Head of Talata Mafara. He distinguished himself by his administrative competence and the able way he dealt with appeals from traditional courts and supervised district and village heads.

Saurdauna of Sokoto until 17 June 1938, when he became Sultan Abubakar III. As the 17th Sultan of Sokoto and Sarkin Musulmi, he became the most important Islamic personality south of the Sahara, and highly respected. Leader of 50 million adherents of the Islamic faith in West Africa.

Although he did not occupy a visible political position in Nigeria, his de facto political influence was considerable and throughout his life he worked towards

“

The late Sir Abubakar

the promotion of Nigeria’s unity, he used his decisive influence over public affairs for the political and social advancement of Nigeria as one nation.

He contributed a great deal to the maintenance of order and calm among the population of the then Northern Region after the 1966 coup in which Sir Ahmadu Bello was killed.

During the civil war, he helped to mobilise men for the Federal forces.

Abubakar saw the development of his

country in a different light from many of his more conservative co-religionists.

He encouraged further education for females and voting for women in purdah, and urged the liberation of women in these respects.

As a result the Women Teacher’s Training College in Sokoto was founded.

His faith in and identification with the quest for knowledge led to his appointment as Chancellor of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, which awarded him an honorary LLD degree.

Abubakar saw the development of his country in a different light from many of his more conservative co-religionists. He encouraged further education for females and voting for women in purdah, and urged the liberation of women in these respects. As a result the Women Teacher’s Training College in Sokoto was founded.

During his life, however, Abubakar, in common with other traditional rulers, witnessed several inroads into his power base, such as loss of control over the local courts, prisons, and police. But because of his mature outlook he did not allow these developments to affect his concern for the welfare of his people. He saw these changes as inevitable in the wider context of the country’s politics and in the overall interest of Nigeria’s development.

When Northern People’s Congress was formed in 1951 and his support was needed to launch the new party and mobilise the Northern people for the independence movement, he readily gave it.

Abubakar took the post of Minister withough Portfolio in the Northern REgional Government in order to give the new administration headed bu Sir Ahmadu Bello. He stood head and shoulders above the politicians of all hues, in a way that allowed him to be accessible to all.

When party politics became divisive he stepped out of it to safeguard his role as the spiritual leader, but continued to be looked up to by other leaders on certain governmental issues. ~He was knighted by the British in 1944 and after Nigeria attained independence was made Grand Commander of the Order of Niger by the Federal Government.

He had great love of poetry and, as a traditionalist, kept the culture of his people alive while recognising the need to develop their potential and achieve progress in the modern world. He ruled the emirate for one of the longest reigns in its history, from 17 June 1938 to 1 November 1988 when he died, having celevrated only four months earlier his fiftieth year in the throne. ~He left behind 52 children and 320 direct grandchildren.

Sultan Abubakar III is best remembered by his compatriots as a religious leader who rose above the religious dissensions of his day and throughout his life played the role of peacemaker and father of all.

PEOPLES DAILY Weekend, saturday 20-sunday 21 December, 2014

PAGE 44

Archive

Black 14-year-old boy exonerated 70 years after he was executed G

eorge Stinney Jr became the youngest person to be executed in the US in the 20th century when he was sent to the electric chair in 1944, but more than 70 years after his death his conviction has been overturned.

Circuit Judge Carmen Mullen said the speed with which the state meted out justice against the boy was shocking and extremely unfair, and that his case was one of "great injustice" in her ruling exonerating Stinney Jr. The 14-year-old black boy was sentenced to death for the murder of two white girls in a segregated mill town in South Carolina, in a trial that lasted less than three hours and reportedly bore no evidence and barely any witness testimonies.

He was kept from his parents and any legal counsel when he was interrogated by authorities, and his supporters claim that the small, frail boy was so scared that he would have said whatever he thought would make the police happy, despite there having been no physical evidence linking him to the death of the girls.

Stinney Jr and his sister Amie Ruffner were the last people to see the two girls, aged 7 and 11, alive when they were out in a field near the town of Alcolu. Stinney Jr’s father had been part of the search team that found the girls’ bodies hours later in a ditch, badly beaten with crushing blows to their skulls.

Stinney Jr had been arrested and executed within the space of around three months. Execution-

George Stinney Jr’s conviction was overturned because he was not given a fair trial ers noted that he was too small for the electric chair when he died; the straps did not fit him, an electrode was too big for his leg, and the boy

had to sit on a bible to fit properly in the chair.

His case has long been spoken of as an example of how a black

Aime Ruffner receives support from family and friends after testifying at the hearing to reopen the case for her brother

person could be railroaded by a

justice system during the era of Jim Crow segregation laws where the investigators, prosecutors and juries where all white.

The boy’s family have insisted that he was innocent, and in January they asked a local judge to order a re-trial and clear Stinney Jr’s name, claiming there was new evidence about the crime.

This time Stinney Jr’s case was given a two day hearing in which experts questioned his confession and the autopsy findings, while the judge heard accounts from the boy’s surviving brothers and sisters, and someone who had been involved in the search. Most of the evidence from the original trial was gone and almost all the witnesses were dead.

It took Mullen nearly four times as long to return her decision on Stinney Jr’s case than it had originally taken to arrest and have him executed in 1944, and said in her ruling that she could “think of no greater injustice” than the boy’s case.

Judge Mullen found that Stinney Jr’s confession was “highly likely” to have been coerced by authorities, while few or no witnesses were found to have testified in the trial.

The judge said she was overturning the boy’s conviction because the South Carolina court had failed to grant a fair trial in 1944.

Source: independent. co.uk

Defense witness Katherine Stinney-Robinson leaves the stand after her testimony in the case for her brother in January

PEOPLES DAILY Weekend, saturday 20-sunday 21 December, 2014

Digest A

disadvantage philosophers face when they take taxi rides or go to drinks parties is that answering the question ‘What do you do?’ generally brings the conversation screeching to a halt. One way to get things moving again is to mention a buzz word like ‘neuroscience’ or ‘psychotherapy’ or, of course, ‘love’. Not surprising, perhaps, given that love is the third most searched-for ‘what is’question on Google’s list for 2014.

So what do philosophers talk about when they talk about love?

One long-standing question which needs to be cleared up early on – much as the kitchen needs to be cleared up before you start cooking lunch – is whether love is one or many. For if it’s many - if ‘love’ stands for lots of different things, not just one - then asking what it is won’t get us very far.

Plato’s Symposium explains the origins of love by means of a fable: once upon a time all human beings were spherical, and since we’ve split we have always been looking for our ‘other half’. 2,400 years ago, have philosophers got any further on the subject of love?

Philosophical discussions often distinguish between three types of love: eros (sexual love), agape (the love of God for man and man for God, the ‘charity’ of I Corinthians 13), and philia, which rolls up care and companionship and disinterested concern – among other things. But are there really as many as even these three?

The nature of God’s love for man is a theological not a philosophical question, and even if philosophers were competent to pronounce upon it, surely the nature of God’s love can have little to teach us about the psychology of imperfect humans, so let’s set agape on one side. That leaves eros and philia.

Freud was suspicious of the distinction: he thought that not only a couple’s love for one another, but the parent’s love for the child and the child’s for the parent were basically of the same kind, because ‘really’ sexual. But to make this come out true, he expanded the notion of the sexual so broadly as to empty it of any meaning. Nonetheless he was on to something. How can a little girl and her mother be rivals for the father’s love if there isn’t one thing – plain love – that they’re competing for?

To be sure, in one case this love will express itself in sexual behaviour and in the other not, but this is a relatively superficial difference. Look at lions mating, and then look at a lioness with her new-born cubs – there’s very little behaviourally the two have in common. But look at two adult lovers, and then look at mother and baby clinging to each other, staring adoringly into each other’s eyes, not wanting to be out of each other’s company (one of Aristotle’s marks of philia). Sexual behaviour in human beings is a specialized expression of a much more fundamental phenomenon: attachment. And it’s attachment that lies at the root of love, whether ‘romantic’ or familial.

What developmental psy-

Page 45

What is love? .we’re . . Thousands of the years on and still asking same question

We haven’t found the answer - but are now looking to Google to find out chologists call the attachment system is part of the biological endowment which human beings, as a species, possess as a result of natural selection. We have all heard of the unignorable pitch of a baby’s screams, but don’t forget the unignorable charm of a baby’s smile: via their attachment to a very small number of special others, vulnerable human infants enlist those others’ care, and this helps them to survive to maturity.

(It kicks in later in human than in primate young, perhaps because – historically – human mothers were more likely to die in childbirth, so attachment to that spe-

“

cial other at too young an age was a bad bet.)

The rootedness of human love in the biology of attachment helps to solve some other puzzles about love which trouble philosophers.

One is the relationship between love and reasons. Lovers are expected to have something to say in answer to the question ‘Why do you love me?’. But even when we believe the answers fully as we say them - which we don’t always: ‘the most beautiful baby in the world’ – the answers we provide (‘your sense of humour’, ‘your sparkling brown eyes’) are often highly generic, features shared by

countless other people. And yet we wouldn’t swap our loved ones for anyone else. (At this point philosophers often say ‘not even for an exact replica’, but surely losing a loved one and getting a replica would make things a whole lot worse.)

Attachment theory helps to explain why the reasons we give for our loves are so unhelpfully general compared to the absolute non-substitutability of our loved ones: before reason even gets a look in, nature does the work, via our attachment system, of hooking us up with just that person, and only a few times over in any

The nature of God’s love for man is a theological not a philosophical question, and even if philosophers were competent to pronounce upon it, surely the nature of God’s love can have little to teach us about the psychology of imperfect humans, so let’s set agape on one side. That leaves eros and philia.

human life.

Attachment also helps to dig the philosophy of love out of one more hole. This is the question whether love by definition involves respect, or care, or constancy, or intimacy, or various other good things. It looks like it might, until we remember lovers (and loved ones) who are overpowering, or possessive, or dependent, or neglectful – the list of the ways love can trap or diminish lives as well as fulfil them goes on and on. But didn’t Shakespeare himself say ‘Love is not love that alters when it alteration finds’? He did, but that isn’t Shakespeare’s attempt at a definition of love – why would a poet be in the business of giving definitions? – but his expression of an ideal of love, something love lives up to when it’s at its best.

Now according to attachment theory, our primitive disposition to form attachments comes in different styles – secure (warm and accepting of the other’s independence), insecure-avoidant (respectful but remote), and so on. So it helps to explain how the variously imperfect forms taken by human love – respectful of differences or not, caring or neglectful, cool or warm or clingy - can nonetheless be elaborations of a single basic phenomenon. Could ‘attachment’ be a top ten search term in 2015?

Source: Independent. co.uk

PEOPLES DAILY Weekend, saturday 20-sunday 21 December, 2014

Page 46

International

Kenyan president signs security law

Activists protesting outside parliament as MPs passed the amended bill in Kenya

K

enya’s President, Uhuru Kenyatta, has signed into law a controversial security bill which saw MPs

trade blows in parliament.

It was passed during a chaotic parliamentary session, with opposition MPs warning

that Kenya was becoming a ‘police state’.

The government said it needs more powers to fight

militant Islamists threatening Kenya’s security, as Somalia’s al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabab group has stepped up attacks in Kenya.

The new anti-terror legislation requires journalists to obtain police permission before investigating or publishing stories on domestic terrorism and security issues.

It also stipulates that the police must approve publication or broadcasting of information relating to investigations on terrorism.

“We must all remember that we are still at war and still vulnerable to terror attacks,” Kenyatta said in a televised address, defending the law. He denied that it infringed on civil liberties.

The security bill has gone through various amendments.

The provision giving the security and intelligence agencies power to intercept phone conversations without a court order was dropped.

Suspects in police custody

How Obama, Bush helped drive down oil prices

By Rick Newman

U.S. airstrikes kill 3 ISIS leaders

U

T

he price of oil has fallen by nearly half in just six months, a surprising and steep plunge that has consumers cheering, producers howling and economists wringing their hands over whether this is a good or bad thing.

Few people foresaw the nearly 50 percent plunge in oil prices this year. But the forces reshaping the oil market have been aligning for nearly a decade, with part of the impetus coming from Washington.

In 2007, Congress passed the Energy Independence and Security Act, which President George Bush promptly signed.

The EISA raised federal mileage requirements for passenger cars for the first time since 1990, in an effort to reduce U.S. gas consumption and make America less dependent on foreign oil.

The new rules required automakers to achieve average fuel economy of 35 miles per gallon among all the new vehicles in their fleet by model year 2020, up sharply from a requirement of 27.5 MPG for cars and 22.2 MPG for light trucks (pickups and SUVs) at the time.

President Obama raised the MPG goal further in 2012, requiring average fuel economy of 54.5 MPG for all new vehicles sold by model year 2025. Automakers argued that the technology developments necessary to reach those levels would add thousands of dollars to the cost of a car, but so far they have been making progress without causing sticker shock for car buyers. A combination of electric vehicles, hybrids, diesels and far more efficient gas engines has helped improve overall average fuel economy by 5.3 MPG during the last seven years, according to the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute. That is a big

will only be held for 24 hours and not 360 days as suggested in the original bill, unless a court order is issued. The opposition, civil society groups and the media have all said they will go to court to challenge the legislation.

The special parliamentary sitting, which turned into mayhem live on television, shocked many Kenyans, a BBC correspondent said.

Opposition MPs tore up papers and chanted antigovernment slogans, there was a fist-fight and the deputy speaker had water poured over her. Kenyatta condemned their behaviour as ‘deplorable; saying the law was only meant to “protect the lives and property of all Kenyans and disrupt any threats to our national security”.

Since last month, al-Shabab has killed 64 people in two attacks in the north-eastern region of Mandera, which borders Somalia. Last year it was also responsible for the Westgate shopping centre siege in Nairobi in which 67 people died.

Mr. Obama, improvement that would cut the typical driver’s gas consumption by about 70 gallons a year.

Overall, the MPG improvements have been working, with lower U.S. oil and gas consumption achieved, as this chart shows: The consumption decline that began in 2007 is partly due to people driving less during the recession of 2008 and 2009.

However, gas consumption continued to fall until 2012, before ticking up again in 2013.

Even with that slight increase, gas consumption last year was at 2002 levels. When adjusted for population growth, consumption has fallen to levels of the late 1960s, when there were far fewer cars per household.

Reduced gas consumption in the United States is hardly the only factor affecting the price of oil, which trades globally and is determined by many variables.

A surge in U.S. crude production has added to global supplies and aided in pushing down prices.

Saudi Arabia has kept its own

Mr. Bush

production levels steady rather than decreasing output as it has done during past gluts to prop up prices. Meanwhile, a sluggish global economy has kept demand for oil lower than many producers expected.

Still, a weaker demand for gasoline in the world’s largest economy accounts for some of the slack demand for oil. With the government’s performance generally poor during the last decade of partisan fighting, the hike in MPG standards is a rare example of a policy with bipartisan support accomplishing what it was supposed to.

That is helping now in political confrontations with long-time foes such as Russia and Iran. Bush and Obama couldn’t have foreseen the way cheap oil is inadvertently helping the west turn up the pressure on Russia in response to its role in Ukraine’s civil war. But Iran and other oil producers, such as Venezuela, are U.S. antagonists that policymakers have long sought leverage over. Score one

for Washington.

Fuel-economy improvements should continue and even accelerate, since the biggest gains are slated for the years approaching 2025. From 2020 through 2025, for instance, the MPG goal will rise from 41.7 MPG to 54.5, a 31 percent increase. From 2009 through 2014, it rose from 27.5 to 34.1, a 24 percent improvement. (MPG figures are slightly different from the Michigan numbers, which measure actual fuel economy of vehicles on the road.) That will continue dampening U.S. oil and gas consumption for the foreseeable future.

Demand for oil and gasoline will rise elsewhere, as more people drive in emerging economies such as China, India and Brazil. But those nations also will benefit as technology developed to reduce gas consumption in America proliferates and becomes cheaper.

And that is an American export they won’t even have to pay for.

.S. airstrikes have killed two top-level and one mid-level ISIS leader, a senior U.S. military official said.

Haji Mutazz was Abu Bakr alBaghdadi’s deputy in Iraq; Abd al Basit was his military emir in Iraq; and Radwan Talib was his Mosul emir. Their deaths resulted from multiple strikes going back to midNovember, it has taken until now to determine conclusively that they were killed.

“I can confirm that since midNovember, targeted coalition airstrikes successfully killed multiple senior and mid-level leaders within the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant,” Pentagon press secretary, Rear Adm. John Kirby, said in a statement.

“We believe that the loss of these key leaders degrades ISIL’s ability to command and control current operations against Iraqi Security Forces, including Kurdish and other local forces in Iraq,” he said.

News of the killings was first disclosed by Joint Chiefs Chairman, Martin Dempsey, in an interview with the Wall Street Journal.

In addition, President Barack Obama signed deployment orders for 1,300 troops to Iraq. This is the lion’s share of the 1,500 additional troops he authorized last month. By February, the U.S. will have roughly 3,000 troops on ground.

U.S. troops are also going further afield than they previously were: There are now nearly 300 U.S. forces at Al Asad base in Anbar province, up from just 50 earlier this month. The U.S. military is following through on announced plans to deploy these military advisers and trainers outside of Baghdad and Erbil.

PAGE 47

PEOPLES DAILY Weekend, saturday 20-sunday 21 December, 2014

Business

Decline in oil revenue and naira depreciation

By Mohammed Usman

E

conomically, the value of money is what it can afford.

In Nigeria, the store of value is crude oil. This is because about 90 percent of our foreign earning depends on it. However, Nigeria’s store of value is weary at the international market and its effect has been low revenue accruing to the federal government as a result of price fall, naira depreciation and inflation. In a bid to create confidence and stabilise the naira, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) officially devalued the naira and adjusted its monetary policy.

The naira which depreciated between N150-N160 to a dollar was devalued at N168 to a dollar.

Also, interest rate was raised to 13 percent from 12 percent and the bank’s reserve ratio was increased to 20 from 15 percent for private sector bank deposits, it also maintained the 75 percent for government.

Justifying this decision, the CBN governor said it was meant to create confidence and stabilise the naira. “Depreciation at the interbank and BDC segments largely reflected demand pressures arising from the falling oil prices and dwindling external reserves. As part of the demand management measures, the bank in two recent circulars excluded certain import items from the Retail Dutch Auction System (RDAS) window. Despite the tight measures, the high demand for foreign exchange has continued unabated, this demand does not seem to have any bearing on the genuine foreign exchange needs of the country, which the bank stands ready and has the capacity to meet. The current level of external reserves provide approximately seven months of imports cover.

“Development in the external sector since September 2014 manifested in a build-up of pressures in the foreign exchange

market, while the bank sustained its efforts to maintain the stability of the naira exchange rate at the RDAS window, a considerable degree of weakening was recorded at both the interbank and Bureaude-Change (BDCs) segments.

“The exchange rate at the RDAS window during the review period opened at N157.31/US$ and closed at N157.32/US$, reflecting a marginal depreciation of N0.01k. To maintain and stabilise the exchange rate at that level, gross official reserves declined from $40.7 billion on September 17 to $36.75 billion at the end of October 2014.

Substantial currency depreciation has occurred in comparator oil exporting countries, but the naira has depreciated by only 1.74 percent.

The CBN Monetary Policy Committee also noted that “unlike in previous episodes, the current downturn in oil prices is not transitory, but appears to be permanent; being a product of technological advancement.

Currently, the US which used to be Nigeria’s former major oil export destination now meets about 80 percent of its domestic oil demand from local shale oil.

Analysts are of the view that the decision by the CBN would only worsen the situation for Nigerians as most of goods consumed are imported. Some even said that raw materials for industries are imported too.

Nigeria is not the only country facing the crude price fall, but as the giant of Africa, it seems to be more affected as some states are groaning of inadequate revenue from the federation account.

This is something that can be cushioned if alternative sources of revenue are being utilised.

A pamphlet made available at a sensitization programme recently by the Raw Materials Research and Development Council, disclosed that beside agriculture and oil, Nigeria’s other

CBN governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele.

Men drilling Crude Oil mineral resources include coal, bitumen, iron ore, gypsum, kaolin, phosphate, limestone, marble, barite, gold, bentonite, gemstones and so forth. Unfortunately, they have not been developed to a stage that Nigeria can fall back to it at this excruciating moment.

An international businessman, who deals in gold, told a national daily that the Nigerian government can get foreign exchange from refining and exporting finished gold. “Nigeria can depend solely on gold and make a lot of revenue from it.

Many people will come here to buy and export gold. Nigerian traders don’t like going to India as the government is involved in the trade. It is risky for a Nigerian to deal in gold in India.’’

Responding to a question on why Nigeria is not refining gold for export, he said “I blame the government solely for the

anomaly. They don’t want the poor to be self or gainfully employed. Saudi Arabia is not as rich as Nigeria, but they are diversifying from oil. Dubai has since diversified from petroleum products and so are many oil producing countries. Nigerians are gifted, many of our people are all over the world, but our

“

government is not doing enough to encourage our professionals, technicians among others.

Revenue from gold can boost our economy. Our leaders are just consumers and spenders of petro-dollars abroad without considering the fall of the price of petrol in the world market.

Nigeria can depend solely on gold and make a lot of revenue from it. Many people will come here to buy and export gold.

Nigerian traders don’t like going to India as the government is involved in the trade. It is risky for a Nigerian to deal in gold in India.’’

Crude Oil

PEOPLES DAILY Weekend, saturday 20-sunday 21 December, 2014

PAGE 48

Business

World set to end year in brittle economic state

T

he global economy is ending the year in a fragile state with factory activities shrinking in China, euro zone business growth remaining weak, and emerging market giant, Russia, in a spiraling currency crisis.

“These are uncertain times again and there is a risk of another global downturn,” Stephen Webster, Chief European Economist at 4CAST, said.

Poor to mediocre business surveys in Asia and Europe released on Tuesday are likely to put pressure on both the European Central Bank and People’s Bank of China to come up with more stimulus.

They also threatened the overall 2015 outlook given the two economies’ huge global reach.

But it was events in Russia that were eye-catching.

Russia’s central bank took drastic actions to defend its roubled currency in a surprise midnight raising of interest rates by 650 basis points to 17 percent.

But despite that the rouble was down four percent against the dollar, having opened about 9 percent stronger, and the dollardenominated RTS share index fell more than 11 percent.

It has lost around 50 percent to the dollar this year.

A relentless slide in oil prices -- Brent crude has almost halved in price since June -- while a blessing to most rich world consumers, is becoming a curse for countries reliant on resource exports.

The Russian economy still depends in large measure on sales of oil and gas, which account for about two-thirds of exports

and Indonesia became the latest Asian casualty when its currency caved to fresh 16-year lows.

Russia, however, is also being hit by Western sanctions over its relations with Ukraine.

MOODY DATA Euro zone businesses are ending 2014 in slightly better shape, but growth remains weak and firms are still cutting prices to encourage trade, surveys showed.

Markit’s Composite Flash Purchasing Managers’ Index, based on surveys of thousands of companies and seen as a good growth indicator, rose to 51.7 from a 16-month low of 51.1.

That beat the forecast in a Reuters poll for a rise to 51.5 but was the second-lowest reading in over a year.

“Although the PMI has not been a perfect guide to GDP over recent quarters, it suggests that the euro-zone economy barely expanded in Q4, if at all,” said Jonathan Loynes, Chief European Economist at Capital Economics.

Still, German analyst and investor sentiment rose sharply in December for the second month running, as a decline in the euro and oil prices boosted hopes for a pickup although a composite PMI covering Europe’s largest economy showed weaker growth.

Coupled with a PMI for France, which highlighted a continued decline, the euro zone survey suggested there was a renewed upturn in the bloc’s smaller periphery countries.

“The periphery is seeing faster growth but you are in danger that if the (euro zone) core remains weak, that will spread

to the periphery and everything will come down again,” said Chris Williamson, Markit’s chief economist.

Williamson said the PMIs pointed to fourth-quarter GDP growth of 0.1 percent, weaker than the 0.2 percent predicted in a Reuters poll last week, but that very weak expansion is coming at a cost: firms cut prices for the 33rd month.

Inflation in the bloc cooled to a five-year low of just 0.3 percent last month, well within the European Central Bank’s “danger zone”, adding to expectations for more policy easing.

Weak growth and deepening concern that plunging oil prices may send the euro zone into a deflationary spiral that will push

the ECB to buy sovereign debt early next year, a Reuters poll found last week. [ECILT/EU] ASIAThe mood in Asia was little better after a measure of Chinese manufacturing activity from HSBC/Markit fell to 49.5 in December from November’s 50.0.

Anything below 50 indicates contraction.

“The manufacturing slowdown points to a weak ending for 2014,” said Hongbin Qu, chief economist for China at HSBC. “The rising disinflationary pressures, which fundamentally reflect weak demand, warrant further monetary easing in the coming months.”

Worries about disinflation,

and whether it could morph into outright deflation, have spread world wide and the risks are such that investors are wagering the U.S. Federal Reserve might go slow on policy tightening next year even if its economy continues to outperform.

The central bank starts a twoday meeting later on Tuesday and there is intense speculation on whether it will drop a commitment to keeping rates near zero for a “considerable time.”

British inflation fell to its lowest level in more than 12 years in November, coming in at half the Bank of England’s two percent target and leaving it under no pressure to raise interest rates anytime soon. (Reuters)

Weaker oil prices will not derail growth Chevron cancels Canadian Arctic drilling W as oil prices slide e maintain our bullish outlook on the UAE’s economy even in an environment of weaker oil prices.

The country has substantial fiscal buffers to shield growth from lower oil prices and construction projects will continue apace given their political expediency.

Consumer and business sentiment remains positive, underlining our particularly upbeat views on household consumption and fixed investment over the coming quarters. Following real GDP growth of 5.2% in 2013, we are projecting the economy to expand by 3.9% in 2014 and 4.0% in 2015, with growth primarily coming from the non-oil sector.

The UAE will continue to record impressive rates of growth

C

hevron Corp is putting a plan to drill for oil in the Beaufort Sea in Canada’s Arctic on hold indefinitely because of what it called “economic uncertainty in the industry” as oil prices decline.

In a letter to Canada’s National Energy Board, the company withdrew from a hearing on Arctic drilling rules because it has walked away from

plans to drill in the EL 481 block, 250 kilometers (155 miles) northwest of Tuktoyaktuk, Northwest Territories.

The drilling project is the largest to be put on hold after oil prices dropped by nearly half over the last six months, even as a long list of oil companies cut their budgets for 2015 because of the price drop. (Reuters)

over the coming years, even with weaker oil prices. Our core scenario sees real GDP growth of 3.9% in 2014, before growth picks up to 4.0% in 2015. Within the UAE, we are most bullish about Dubai, particularly its real estate, shipping and construction sectors. We expect growth in Abu Dhabi to be constrained by limited gains in the hydrocarbon sector and weaker OPEC oil prices which we forecast to average USD95/ bbl, USD93/bbl and USD93bbl in 2015 2016 and 2017 respectively, from above USD100/bbl in the past three years.

A host of leading indicators point to further expansion for the UAE. The country’s purchasing managers’ index for October came in at a record high of 61.2,

underlining our bullish outlook on the country’s non-oil economy.

In addition, consumer sentiment towards the UAE is picking up, with prices across real estate and equity markets set to head broadly higher over the coming quarters, which bodes well for the prospects for a positive wealth effect. On an emirate level, we expect Dubai to be the main growth driver as the emirate’s retail, housing and construction sectors continue growing apace.

While growth in Abu Dhabi will be restrained by the plateauing hydrocarbon sector, growth in the emirate’s real estate and transport sectors will ensure that growth rates remain healthy.

From business monitor

PEOPLES DAILY Weekend, saturday 20-sunday 21 December, 2014

Oddities

Dog saves owner’s life after ‘crying near cancerous lump’ A

fter a lifetime of owning dogs, Josie Conlan never thought one of her beloved pets would one day save her life.

The 46-year-old mother from Stockton suffers from chronic fatigue syndrome and also has benign breast disease which causes regular lumps. She had thought nothing of a lump which appeared on her breast, but the border collie’s cries and sniffing alerted her to the fact that it could be something serious.

“I just had another lump. I’d had it for a couple of weeks.

I did not think anything of it. Then Ted started nuzzling at it and crying. I had heard dogs could smell cancer so I asked my husband, Brian, if I should go and get this checked out.

Ted started sniffing it and at that point I knew I needed to do something about it.”

Within two weeks of visiting the doctor, Josie was referred to a breast clinic which confirmed two-year-old Ted’s constant nuzzling had spotted breast cancer. Josie, who is mum to Hannah, 26, and Megan, 14, said: “I had read that dogs could do that but never thought in a million years that my life could be saved by Ted. When we got him, he looked so sad. The vets told us he had been kept in a confined cage for a long time.

“He was terrified of everything. It took him about 10 months to really settle. We have worked so hard to bring him out of his shell. This just feels like the best reward. If Ted had not found it we would not have known and it would have been different. He has saved the family. Ted is the most incredible gift to our lives. People say I rescued him and now he has rescued me.”

Ted’s heroic story has already been shared over 1,000 times online.

J

ade Sylvester, 25, who developed the craving while pregnant, eats one roll a day and says ‘different brands taste differently’.

The mother-of-five first developed the bizarre snacking habit while she was expecting her youngest son, Jaxon.

Jade, of Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, said: “Two months into the pregnancy, I started craving toilet roll. I still don’t know why. I like the feeling of the texture in my mouth, rather than the taste. I like the dryness. My family tells me it isn’t very good for me, but I can’t help it.”

Despite giving birth to her son more than 15 months ago, Jade still cannot tear herself away from the paper snack whenever nature calls. The full-time mum waits until she needs to go to the toilet and while eats a few sheets of toilet tissue in private. She chews and swallows one roll a day.

“While I was pregnant I went to the loo and looked

PAGE 49

Compiled by Isioma Nwabasha

Family lived with corpse for 6 months awaiting resurrection

A

Canadian family lived with a corpse in their upstairs bedroom for six months because they believed the deceased man would be resurrected if they prayed. The body was discovered when the family was evicted for not paying their mortgage.

Kaling Wald, 50, pleaded guilty to failing to notify police that her husband had died, an offense under the provincial Coroner’s Act, and was sentenced to probation and counseling.

Peter Wald, 52, died in March of what authorities believe were natural causes, following a foot infection linked to his diabetes. His wife left him in bed and sealed up the bedroom in their Hamilton, Ontario, home to prevent the odour of decomposition from disturbing the busy household, which included five of the couple’s six children, as well as other adults living in the home.

“Just as Jesus raised Lazarus after the fourth day, so too did she believe God would resurrect her husband in due time. The family was active in Christian street ministry and outreach in Hamilton, an industrial city about 70 kms southwest of Toronto. There clearly was an overexuberance of one’s faith,” the prosecutor added.

The corpse was discovered in September when the local sheriff arrived to evict the family after they defaulted on the mortgage. It had attracted rodents and was badly decomposed, but the family had packed his things in preparation for the eviction and did not attempt to conceal the corpse.

Boushy said his client now understands what the law required and would not do the same thing again. “She certainly was remorseful and was teary-eyed. Indeed, she noted that she was not able to cry over the passing of her husband, but this seemed to have been an emotional breakthrough after the court proceeding. I think counseling is certainly going to be beneficial for her.”

‘I can’t stop eating toilet paper’ at the toilet roll and thought ‘I have to eat that’ I know it sounds silly. Today I try and hold off going to the bathroom because I know if I go I will eat the paper.

I usually eat around eight pieces per visit sometimes I go to the bathroom just to get some toilet roll. It does fill me up quite a bit. At first I used to eat a couple of squares at a time, but I keep eating more and more,” saying her favourite are the supermarket-own brands, rather than more expensive products like Andrex.

“Different brands taste different. I have one roll in the bathroom for eating and one to be used normally.”

Miss Sylvester has struggled to kick the habit since giving birth. “I thought the cravings would stop after I gave birth but they haven’t.

I can’t quit. I keep coming back for more. It can’t be doing my insides any good, but it hasn’t caused me any health problems or any illness.”

PEOPLES DAILY Weekend, saturday 20-sunday 21 December, 2014

PAGE 50

Healthy Living

How sleep deprivation affects your body

A

lot of health i s s u e s result from inadequate sleep. Among the chronically sleepless, cortisol (the stress hormone) remains at a high level instead of dropping in accordance with the body’s circadian rhythm, the natural body clock that controls physiological processes like sleep. The body’s inability to regulate cortisol contributes to high blood pressure and can increase the risk of calcification of the coronary arteries.

Inadequate sleep may also be linked to chronic illnesses like cancer and heart disease. Though the connection between sleep disorders and diseases are not entirely understood, lack of sleep may increase inflammation throughout the body and impair cell repair. For women, getting fewer than six hours of

sleep, increases the risk of coronary heart disease.

Sleep is important for the immune system.

People who don’t get enough sleep are usually unable to fight infection.

Sleeping fewer than five hours increases the risk of death by about 15 percent.

Adequate sleep is not a luxury. We need to make it a priority. Prior to having electricity in the home, the body’s circadian rhythm dictated sleep patterns. Light was a powerful timekeeper in the morning, sunlight coaxed people to stay awake and at sundown, it was time to hit the hay. Today, simply by switching on a light at night, our bodies are pressured to stay alert and awake, as opposed to following their natural rhythm. The prevalence of electronic devices makes the situation even worse.

When laptops, tablets and smartphones enter the bedroom, problems

arise. The blue light they emit confuses the body.

It is stimulating and disturbing, leading to an ‘on call’ type of lighter sleep that is not deep or fully restorative.

How to improve your sleep routine Total darkness in the bedroom is recommended by experts, as it promotes higher secretions of melatonin which encourages sleepiness, regulates body temperature and blood pressure and inhibits cancer cell growth.

Turning off electronics an hour before bedtime and keeping devices away from sleep zones go a long way towards encouraging more restorative sleep.

S u r p ri s i n g l y , interrupted sleep can be just as bad as getting no sleep at all. A pilot study from Tel Aviv University concluded that when sleep is disrupted during the night, even when

Adequate sleep is essential participants slept for seven hours, it was equivalent to sleeping half that time, causing the same fatigue, depression and confusion

What your eyes say about your health

T

he eyes are the portal through which signs of certain health problems can be discovered, not only eye disorders like cataracts and glaucoma, but also systemic illnesses like diabetes mellitus and cardiovascular diseases.

Sometimes the signs of these

Bright eye

diseases are visible in, on, or around the eyes long before the symptoms appear.

“The eyes truly are unique real estate. They are the only place in the body where you can see a bare nerve, a bare artery and a bare vein without doing any cutting. And the

disease processes we see in the eye are probably occurring in the rest of the body,” Andrew Iwach, MD, Associate Clinical Professor of Ophthalmology at the University of California, San Francisco and Executive Director of the Glaucoma Center of San Francisco, said.

experienced by the severely sleep-deprived. The most crucial time is the deep slumber that occurs during the third stage of the sleep

The list of systemic diseases that can have ocular manifestations is a long one; in addition to diabetes and cardiovascular disease, it includes aneurysms, HIV, cancer, and rare hereditary diseases. This is one reason why eye experts recommend periodic checks.

“Everyone should have a comprehensive eye exam by age 40,” Ruth Williams, MD, an ophthalmologist and glaucoma specialist in Wheaton, Ill, said. People who have a family history of eye problems should be seen earlier and anyone who is having eye trouble should see a doctor right away. But people shouldn’t wait until they experience symptoms to see a doctor, because many eye problems are silent, meaning they cause no symptoms.

Some ocular manifestations of systemic disease can be seen only by a trained specialist during the course of an eye exam. Others are plain for all to see.

Here are some of the common eye signs and what they might be saying about your health: Bloody eyes. The eye’s transparent outer layer called the conjunctiva is nourished by numerous tiny blood vessels. If these burst, blood may pool on the white of the eye (sclera). A sub-conjunctival hemorrhage, as it is known among doctors, can be caused by a blow to the eye, but in most cases has no obvious cause. In rare instances, it can be a sign of severe high blood pressure or a platelet disorder, which can interfere with clotting.

cycle. This is when the body goes into overdrive to produce healing and repairing hormones.

Bulging eyes.

Though prominent eyes may simply be a family trait, it may also be evidence of thyroid disease. Abnormal levels of thyroid hormone cause tissues surrounding the eye to swell, making it appear that the eye is bulging.

Different coloured eyes. Also called heterochromia iridis, this condition is usually inherited. A change in colour may be due to bleeding, a foreign body in the eye, glaucoma, inflammation in the eye or other conditions such as Waardenburg syndrome or neurofibromatosis.

Droopy eyelid.

This condition, known among doctors as ptosis, can simply be a sign of aging. But in rare cases it is evidence of a brain tumor or a neuro-muscular disease known as Myasthenia Gravis (MG). It is an auto-immune disorder that weakens muscles throughout the body.

Rings on the cornea. A rare hereditary disorder known as Wilson’s disease can cause copper to accumulate in various tissues, including those in the brain and liver. Copper deposits sometimes form on the inner surface of the cornea.

These ‘Kayser-Fleischer rings’ are harmless, but without appropriate treatment, they disease can be fatal.

Yellow eyes. Diseases of the liver including hepatitis and cirrhosis can turn the scleras to a yellowish colour. The colour is caused by the buildup of bilirubin, a compound created by the breakdown of hemoglobin.

Culled from Webmed

PAGE 51

PEOPLES DAILY Weekend, saturday 20-sunday 21 December, 2014

Christmas: A celebration of deliverance (II)

M

erry Christmas to you in advance! I’m pleased to bring you the concluding part of this message which I began last week. I am looking at the significance of Christmas – the birth of Jesus within the context of Luke 1:67-75. That Scripture says, “Then his father [John the Baptist’s father], Zechariah, was filled with the Holy Spirit and gave this prophecy: ‘Praise the Lord, the God of Israel, because he has visited and redeemed his people. He has sent us a mighty Savior from the royal line of his servant David, just as he promised through his holy prophets long ago. Now we will be saved from our enemies and from all who hate us. He has been merciful to our ancestors by remembering his sacred covenant - the covenant he swore with an oath to our ancestor Abraham. We have been rescued from our enemies so we can serve God without fear, in holiness and righteousness for as long as we live’” (NLT) My focus is on that statement: Now we will be saved from our enemies and from all who hate us.”

And I started talking about Jesus being born to deliver or save us from our enemies and those who hate us. So Christmas is a celebration of deliverance which Jesus brought.

Last week, I said the number one enemy Jesus came to deliver us from is sin. “And she will have a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins,” said the angel Gabriel to Joseph in a dream. (Matt 1:21) What other enemies was Jesus born to deliver humans from? Jesus was born to deliver humanity from the enemies that the number one enemy, sin, has introduced into the lives of men and women. Most prominent among these enemies are sicknesses and diseases. That was why Jesus devoted much of his time on earth to healing the sick

and delivering people from diseases.

Acts 10:38 says, “And you know that God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power.

Then Jesus went around doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.”

Jesus’ passion against sicknesses and diseases flowed from his divine assignment. Matt 4:23 says, “Jesus traveled throughout Galilee teaching in the synagogues, preaching everywhere the Good News about the Kingdom. And he healed people who had every kind of sickness and disease.” (NLT) Because the government was (is) upon the shoulders of Jesus, he delegated his government or authority to believers before leaving this earth instructing them to lay hands upon the sick. “They will be able to place their hands on the sick, and they will be healed.” (Mark 16:18 NLT) It is God’s will that the sick be healed. Therefore, believers should minister healing to others and also receive their healing and beyond these walk in divine health. Ps 103:2-3 says, “Bless the Lord O my soul and forget not all his benefits who forgiveth all they iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases” (KJV) Christmas is a celebration of healing. As I write this, there is a trumpet of healing being blown and as I’m blowing it through this medium, healing is being communicated to the sick.

Sicknesses and diseases are enemies of humans and God wants to deliver you from them. Receive your healing in Jesus’ name. “When you arrive in your own land and go to war against your enemies who attack you, sound the alarm with the trumpets. Then the Lord your God will remember you and rescue you from your enemies” (Num10:9NLT) If you’re sick, you shall be delivered from the enemy called sicknesses and diseases. There is an anointing for healing upon this

message and the Lord will heal your sickness and diseases in the name of Jesus. “He sent his word, and healed them and delivered them from their destructions” (Ps 107:20 KJV) There’s no better time to be healed than Christmas. Be healed in Jesus’ name.

The third enemy Jesus came to deliver you and me from is all forms of captivity and oppression of the devil, powers that are working against our destinies, against the purposes of God for our lives. These include ancestral forces – demons that defeated your great grandfather or grandmother, grandfather or grandmother, and father or mother and are fighting you; they want to force your life to follow the pattern of your ancestors. These are powers that want the failures of your ancestors to be replicated in your life.

But Jesus has come to deliver you from these powers that may be controlling your life currently.

“The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is upon me, for the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor.

He has sent me to comfort the brokenhearted and to proclaim that captives will be released and prisoners will be freed. He has sent me to tell those who mourn that the time of the Lord’s favor has come, and with it, the day of God’s anger against their enemies” (Isa 61:1 NLT) God is set to deliver you from the powers that make you go through labour pain only to end up without giving birth to any child – that is, you end achieving nothing. Isa 26:18 says, “We have been with child, we have been in pain, we have as it were bought forth wind: we have not bought any deliverance in the earth” Bringing forth wind means giving birth to nothing after going through the pain. That amounts to going through needless and useless pain. No pregnant woman enjoys

From the Pulpit green pastures

By Pastor T. O. Banso

cedarministryintl@yahoo.com GSM: 08033113523 that even if what comes out of it is a still birth not to talk of not being born at all, dead or alive. The New Living Translation renders it thus: “We, too, writhe in agony, but nothing comes of our suffering. We have not given salvation to the earth, nor brought life into the world” Jesus was born to deliver us from these enemies. O Lord our God, others have ruled us, but you alone are the one we worship.” (Isa 26:13) This Christmas season, you shall be delivered from powers other than the power of God lording it over you. “ Jesus did not come to do a partial deliverance. It’s an allinclusive deliverance. Not only you will be delivered, your children shall be delivered too. The deliverance God is bringing is not for you alone.

Isa 49:24-25 says, “Shall the prey be taken from the mighty, or the lawful captive delivered. But thus saith the lord, even the captures of the mighty shall be taken away, and the prey of the terrible shall be delivered.

For I will contend with him that contend with thee, and I will save thy children” Your children must not be failures; your mistakes must not be replicated in their lives. A new grace must come upon your children; life must be easier for them. Your life may have been manual but the life of your children must be automatic! Your children are for

signs and wonders. Before you leave this earth, it must be said of you that you are a good man. “A good man liveth an inheritance for his children‘s children” (Prov 13:22 KJV) Did you see that? No reference to his children. Their inheritance is a forgone conclusion. That is a responsible man. An irresponsible man bequeaths to his children and even his children’s children a bill (to settle) rather than a will (to inherit).

You won’t become a liability to your children and grand children.

Only Jesus can deliver a person from repeating the failures of his or her fathers and mothers; only him can deliver one from conforming to a negative family pattern. This Christmas, that power in the name of Jesus is setting you free in Jesus’ name. The Lord will give you victory over your enemies and disgrace those who hate you. (Ps 44:7 NLT) God told the children of Israel “You shall sow your seed in vain for your enemies shall eat it” But this shall not be your portion as you start or continue to obey the Lord.

You won’t labour for another person to reap; you won’t build in vain. I declare that your enemies shall fall before you in Jesus’ name henceforth and forever. And the government shall be upon his shoulders. Thank God for the government being upon the shoulders of Jesus. Merry Christmas once more!

Knocking heaven’s door until it is opened Matthew 7:7-11

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his brief passage contains a lot for the education and edification of every child of God in every age. The privilege and power of prayer is not left on the unreachable branches of a tree of philosophy but the branches are low enough for all members in the family to pluck the fruits. In these verses, the Lord has not given us some deep well of theological mystery with nothing to draw with, He has brought the supply of every need to the table and we do well to come and dine.

The opening verse supplies the key to the interpretation and application. We are to ask, seek and knock. These three verbs are in the present imperative in the original text.

That simply means that they demand continual, repeated action. Ask and keep on asking until you receive; seek and go on seeking until you find; knock and continue until the door is opened. Pray and keep on praying until the Father answers according to His promise. The whole process is put in the family setting. We are not asking as a beggar from an unknown stranger, we are asking as a trusting child from a loving Father. We are not seeking as a traveller seeks water in a desert, we are seeking fruit as a member of the family in the family garden. We are not knocking at the door of a house guarded by wild dogs, we are knocking at the door of our Father’s house Who is waiting to open

the door and receive us.

1. IMPORTUNITY IN PRAYER SYMBOLIZED BY KNOCKING Matthew 7:7,8; Acts 12:13-16; Luke 11:5-10; 18:1-8; Genesis 18:2333; 32:24-28; Deuteronomy 9:1820; Daniel 9:2,3,10-14; Acts 12:5-12; Hebrews 4:14-16.

“Knock, and it shall be opened unto you.” Comparing Matthew 7:7,8 and Luke 11:5-10, it is obvious that the Lord is teaching us and calling us to importunity in prayer. We often give up too soon, just before the door to heaven’s storehouse is opened. Our lack of supply is often the result of our lack of importunate supplication. A few of us are ignorant of what is in the storehouse for us. Others knock at the door of the storehouse so feebly that they are barely heard. So very few ever knock continually with a firm hand of the prayer of faith.

There was a great famine in Egypt.

The famine had spread beyond Egypt to other nations. To meet the needs of all people, Joseph had beforehand filled the vast storehouses in the land.

As the people came from all the land, “Joseph opened all the storehouses” (Genesis 41:56). Everyone who came received enough sustenance from the opened storehouses. Jesus is waiting for us to come and knock at the door. Whatever our needs are, the door will be opened and we shall be satisfied with justification, salvation, regeneration, transformation,

By Pastor W.F Kumuyi provision, restoration, imputation, sanctification, impartation, protection, preservation and finally, glorification. We are not knocking only to stop after receiving an initial supply of grace; we keep on knocking until we receive abundant grace, sufficient grace, grace for every need.

2. INTENSITY IN PRAYER SIGNIFIED BY KNOCKING Matthew 7:7,8; Luke 13:25; 11:510; Hosea 12:3,4; 1 Samuel 1:9-20; 1 Kings 18:41-46; James 5:16-18; 2 Kings 20:1-6; Acts 4:23-31; Romans 10:1-4.

The fervency of our prayer and force of our faith often show how important our request is to us. Coming back to the illustration of knocking, the desperate man who is knocking at the door to meet a pressing need will knock differently from a casual visitor with no definite purpose. Those who knock casually in prayer often

have wandering thoughts in prayer; they are formal and repeat the same phrase each prayer time; they do not have any specific need in prayer; they habitually sleep off when praying; they lack freshness of thought and have no grip on any promise of God; they do not remember what they have prayed for and they are not conscious of their spiritual state; like the Laodiceans, they are lukewarm in the closet, too lazy to seek urgent remedy for their spiritual malady.

Intensityinprayerisdemonstrated by the righteous whose fervent prayer avails much. Watch Jacob at Peniel; observe Elijah on mount Carmel; visit the plains of Mamre with Abraham as he intercedes for Sodom; follow Moses to the mount where he pleads for backslidden Israel on the verge of destruction; kneel beside Daniel as he prays for Israel’s seventy-year captivity to end; feel the great heaviness and continual sorrow in Paul’s heart as

he cries in prayer for the salvation of his kinsmen according to the flesh, and you will catch a glimpse of what it means to knock with importunity and intensity.

3. INIQUITY IN PEOPLE SPECIFIED AS STUMBLINGBLOCK WHILE KNOCKING Luke 13:25-27; Psalm 66:18; Isaiah 59:1,2; Jeremiah 5:25; Ezekiel 14:1-11; Isaiah 1:4,12-20; Psalm 32:5-10; Ezekiel 18:30-32; 2 Timothy 2:19; Job 22:23-28.

God is so eager to bless us and if we are as eager to be blessed, our spiritual stature will change so quickly that it would be difficult to recognize us. Our lack of thoughtfulness is often our greatest hindrance. We hinder ourselves more than any enemy, demon or Satan can ever hinder us.

Holding on to iniquity or sin is the major reason why we knock and knock in vain. Sin is dangerous and deadly in itself and it also hinders the opening of heaven’s door of blessing.

We commit two evils against our soul in one stroke: we poison ourselves with iniquity and at the same time prevent remedy and infinite goodness from coming to us. Repentance and cleansing in the fountain of Christ’s blood will remove all hindrances.

Then we shall pray and God will answer; we shall knock and the door will be opened; we shall also decree a thing and it shall be established unto us.

S p or T

PEOPLES DAILY Weekend, saturday 20-sunday 21 December, 2014

PAGE 52

Ramos misses Real Madrid training ahead of Club World Cup final today

>>PG 55

Difficult to coach cadet teams, Amunike admits >>PG 53

I have written Keshi to look elsewhere -Onigbinde >>PG 53

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PEOPLES DAILY Weekend, saturday 20-sunday 21 December, 2014

Sports

Difficult to coach cadet teams, Amunike admits

By Albert Akota Coach of U-17 Emmanuel Amunike has confessed that handling the cadet national team is very complex.

According to the former African footballer of the year, the complexity of the team surpassed that of the senior national teams “we must make one thing clear, this category is very complex.

They are not like U.23 or the Super Eagles, because after picking them, you have to subject them to MRI test to certify that they are eligible”.

Continuing, the former FC Barcelona winger said “we are aware of all these and the football federation is also aware. Our objective is to qualify first, then we would take it from there.

“I am not promising anybody that I would win the

trophy, but our aim is to win our matches in the African championship and qualify for the World cup proper in Chile, then other things would follow”.

He said the team would do its best to replicate what happened in 2013, but would need to prepare adequately “our objective is to go to the world cup and win. For us to do that we must prepare very well.

The players must understand what it takes to win. To win at the World cup, you must have that winning mentality” he said.

Amunike however denied been under any form of pressure to win, however pointed out that life is all about pressure “I am not under any pressure whatsoever, because we have nothing to prove at the U.17 level again. But we

Coaching crew of Golden Eaglets led by Emmanuel Amunike

have to show to the world the high quality of players we have at this level.

But in football you cannot

do away with its ups and downs, because football is all about pressure, but am not under any pressure

whatsoever to win the trophy or not, but to qualify first” the former Zamalek of Egypt player concluded.

I have written Keshi to look elsewhere -Onigbinde

Keshi Stephen Keshi

F

ormer Super Eagles coach, Adegboye Onigbinde has disclosed that he personally written to out of contract Super Eagles coach; Stephen Keshi to quietly seek greener pastures elsewhere.

Onigbinde Of late the calls have been deafening mostly from former Nigerian managers for the erstwhile Mali and Togo coach to leave Super Eagles’s job after the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations misfire with latest calls coming from Christian Chukwu, Shuaibu Amodu, Kashimawo Laloko, among

others.

Onigbinde said he will not like to be seen repeating himself on Keshi Eagles’ job as he has specifically asked him then to politely thank the president for considering him worthy for recall and bow out honourably.

“On the very day the

presidency asked him to return to his job I personally sent him a text message to politely thank Mr president for the offer and bow out honourably and quietly, too.

“Keshi respectfully replied the text message thanking me and that was it as he went ahead with the two remaining 2015 Afcon qualifying matches against Congo and South Africa, I’m sure the rest is history.

“I volunteered the advice to Keshi because I understand that he won’t work with the presidency but a different set of people as well as an entirely different environment.

“Now that others have picked up the calls I’ve the privilege to have said over two months ago I won’t like to engage in an exercise that will appear repetitious so that I won’t be accused of having interest in the whole matter.

“I’m not used to pressurising people to act in certain way, I’ve passed my view directly to him, I don’t need to pressurise him further on same thing,” said Onigbinde.

Onigbinde insisted that administration is the bane of the nation’s football

development while he condemned the football house for half-heartedly implementation of his suggestions on match analysis.

“The major problem of football in the land is administration, I’ve written several papers on the need for a virile technical department which is key to football development.

“In other lands it’s called technical and development department because without development then everybody could as well go to sleep.

“I suggested that some people be trained as match analysts but the persons I saw on the list the NFF wants to train made me to laugh.

“The major mistakes we keep repeating are to assume that ex-footballers are automatic administrators, it’s quite wrong.

“Jose Mourinho and Arrigo Sacchi weren’t star players but you can’t rival their administrative and technical finesse.

“Being a star player doesn’t make you sound administrator or technical expert, it’s clearly a special calling,” said Onigbinde.

Page 54

Sports

Kelechi Iheanacho, Mohammed Musa and goalkeeper Dele Alampasu posed with individual awards during U-17 World Cup, presently in Frying eagles camp ahead of AYC

S

hortly after the Flying Eagles defeated Jamba FC 4-1, SL10. ng had a chat with Coach Manu Garba who spoke on his team readiness for next year’s Africa Youth

with the fitness level of some of my players but some still have work to do.

After this exercise what next?

What we doing now is what you can call the first phase which will end on the 20th of December, the second phase will commence from the second week of January.

Will you say you are on track in terms of readiness for the AYC 2015 in Senegal?

I can only say that after assessing my players based abroad, who will be joining the team at the second phase, this is for the local lads based at home so things will really take shape when we gather in January.

Have any players among the local lads caught your eye?

Yes I can say that but very few there is still room for improvement from some, but forgive me as I won’t be mentioning any names in particular, it’s still early for that.

From what you Manu Garba poses with the trophy and his medal after his team won the have seen so far, is FIFA U-17 World Cup UAE 2013

Championships.

Coach how is the preparations going?

Very well, this is just the first week and we are just two weeks old, and so far, so good. I’m pleased

AYC: We’ll return with trophy - coach there any chance of having a breakaway star in the mold of Kelechi Iheanacho and Isacc Success?

There is always a possibility because of the abundance of talents we have in this country but I won’t mention names like I said a while ago, I never mentioned Success, Yahaya or Iheanacho during camping, the World saw them for themselves.

Is there any room for players to break into this team?

Of course yes but they have to be better than what we have, but we have a base from which we are building from, the team that won Silver at the Under-17

AYC and Gold at the World Cup as well as they secured qualification for us to be in Senegal.

Which position on the field needs improvement?

We are not limiting ourselves to any position, all positions in the team are open to good players, the idea is to create a competitive atmosphere where only the best will be picked.

What is the secret of the success of Manu Garba’s youth teams?

Honesty and above all Allah blessings aside that I try to teach these boys a brand of football I call total football, where we play as a team when attacking and defending and it has been working for me.

Sports

PEOPLES DAILY Weekend, saturday 20-sunday 21 December, 2014

Page 55

Eduok agrees to join Sarpsborg of Norway N

i g e r i a n international Emem Eduok has agreed a move in principle to Norwegian club Sarpsborg 08, supersport.com has been informed.

Eduok has agreed personal terms with the Norwegian outfit and has also agreed a three-year contract with Sarpsborg 08 after he recently travelled to the country to seal the deal.

Dolphins have been offered around $150 000 (around N28 million) as transfer fee for Eduok, and supersport.com has also been told that the Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) club have been offered a sell-on clause in the deal that could see them earn as much as 50 percent in future transfer of the player.

But no deal has been agreed yet for the player between the two clubs.

“Emem has agreed a three-year deal with Sarpsborg 08 of Norway.

He has agreed personal terms and the club have also talked to us (Dolphins).

He (Eduok) will go for a transfer fee of $150 000.

Eduok

But it is from the sell-on clause that we will benefit from as it is around 50 to 60 percent of future transfer,” a source close to the player told supersport.com.

Sarpsborg sports director Thomas Berntsen kept the name of their new player close to his chest while being quoted by Norwegian media this week.

“I hope that we can give Sarpsborg football audience a real Christmas present.

We are in contact with a player, but there are still details left before the player can be ready. I do not want to confirm the name or nationality of this player,” said Berntsen.

Sarpsborg before now had Aaron Samuel, who made his international debut this year with Nigeria’s Super Eagles during the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations qualification.

Eduok scored 20 league goals for Dolphins last season, including six in the club’s 6-0 thrashing of Nembe City.

He is expected to join the Norwegian club in January once Dolphins and Sarpsborg agree a fee for the player.

Walcott, Chamberlain return in Liverpool clash

W

Theo Walcott

inger Walcott hope to return from a serious knee injury earlier this season, but has since been troubled by a groin complaint.

The versatile OxladeChamberlain has been contending with a similar issue after limping off late in Arsenal’s 4-1 victory over Newcastle United last weekend.

However, manager Wenger is hopeful that both men will be fit to face Brendan Rodgers’ men at Anfield. “[There is] a very slight chance for Walcott. We hope

that Oxlade-Chamberlain will be fit,” Wenger told Arsenal’s official website.

“He [Walcott] is back in training today. I might take him, I don’t know yet until he’s back to full training.

Let’s see.

On Oxlade-Chamberlain, Wenger added: “We’ll see on Saturday after a test.

He’s not in training at the moment.”

The Frenchman is also hopeful of welcoming back defender Nacho Monreal, while goalkeeper David Ospina and midfielder Tomas Rosicky are back in training after injury lay-offs.

Ramos misses Real Madrid training ahead of Club World Cup final today

Sergio Ramos

R

amos misses Real Madrid training ahead of Club World Cup final today Real Madrid defender Sergio Ramos took no part in training ahead of the European champions’ Fifa Club World Cup final against San Lorenzo today.

Ramos scored the opening goal in Real’s 4-0 semi-final win over Mexican side Cruz Azul on Tuesday before later being replaced by Raphael Varane due to a muscle injury in his thigh.

He was not among the group of 21 players assembled at the Stade de Marrakech on Thursday morning as Carlo Ancelotti put his side through their paces before Saturday’s match. Instead, he remained at the team’s hotel base to take part in a recovery session.

All Real’s other stars took part in the training session with Gareth Bale, Cristiano Ronaldo and Karim Benzema among those present.

BIG PUNCH We have been quite reckless as a country.

We have not managed our finances. If we formulate a budget at the rate at which oil price is falling and the rate at which non-oil revenues are coming in, we will have a lot of crisis in our hands.

SATURDAY — SUNDAY, DECEMBER 20-21, 2014

Saturday Column By

Kolawole Olaniyan

H

ow corrupt is the government of President Goodluck Jonathan?

The answer may vary depending on who is interpreting the latest global corruption index from Transparency International.

According to Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) for 2014, Nigeria is up eight places to 136 out of 175 countries ranked by the index. The government has unsurprisingly interpreted this to mean that Nigeria is “winning the war on corruption under President Goodluck Jonathan’s watch.”

The government has also said in a rather celebratory tone that, “It may not be immediately apparent to those who do not understand the dynamics of applying creative techniques in upturning an age-old habit that has cost this country a lot in terms of financial resources; but to those like the officials of Transparency International that are knowledgeable in the nuances of fighting corruption, a lot of grounds have been covered.”

Two central observations have become clear; first, the statement seems to take a dig at government’s critics for lacking ‘creative techniques’ in the fight against corruption, but creative techniques? I am sorry but no serious observer of the government will succumb to this cheap shot.

Secondly, the government also may be accused of inconsistency and political opportunism because having previously questioned the validity and credibility of the index, it now seems to have become its strongest ‘apostle’ by suddenly acknowledging the ‘knowledge’ of Transparency International “in the nuances of fighting corruption.”

The government’s response is nothing more than a standard public relations tactic. But this triumphal tone needs to be moderated; and its real record in the fight against corruption has to be placed in proper perspective.

The country’s current ranking is clearly better than its score for 2013 but it doesn’t really tell us something we don’t already know: that this government is still considered highly corrupt, as the country still ranks in the bottom half of the index. As a matter of fact, Nigeria shares 136th position with well-known corrupt countries Advert: business: news: lagos:

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like Cameroon, Kyrgyzstan, Iran and Lebanon.

The CPI ranks countries on a scale from 0 (perceived to be highly corrupt) to 100 (perceived to be very clean). More than two-thirds of the 175 countries surveyed, including Nigeria, scored below 50. Nigeria is clearly not the country with the lowest score on the index (its score was 27 percent), but according to Transparency International, any country that scores below 50 percent on the index is still considered ‘highly corrupt’. This shows that corruption is rife as it ever has been in the country, making this government one of the most corrupt on earth.

This is therefore no time to feel comfortable with Nigeria’s sheer mediocrity on the index.

But the government’s response says something about diminished expectations for a country that is endowed with enormous human and natural resources and should be doing much better in terms of socio-economic and infrastructural development to see the 27 percent on the index as good news.

Millions of Nigerians who continue to live from hand to mouth, unsure of the next meal, while their ‘leaders’ enjoy the commonwealth with their families and friends certainly won’t celebrate this score. And they won’t celebrate a score that still shows a serious breach of the country’s international anti-corruption obligations and commitments. It would seem that the government doesn’t even understand the depth of disgust Nigerians feel over the increasing level of corruption among high-ranking government officials and the impunity of perpetrators.

For many years President Jonathan has devoted dozens of speeches to rooting out corruption.

For example, the president once promised to “fight for justice, for all Nigerians to have access to power, for qualitative and competitive education, for healthcare reforms, to fight corruption, and to fight for your rights, but it is now another election time and he has not even published his assets declaration (to show the way in the fight against corruption) let alone “fight for your rights.’’

Under the president’s watch, no high-ranking public official has ever been brought to book for

8620 9705 9046 1969 0344

—Sen. Muhammad Maccido, speaking on the challenges before the 2015 budget

How corrupt is Nigeria?

EFCC Chairman, Lamorde corruption, despite widespread and increasing allegations of corruption at the highest level of government.

By celebrating a marginal movement on the index, the government isn’t focusing on the job of fully and effectively combating corruption by highranking public officials. Instead, it is downplaying the magnitude of the problem and seems to be kidding itself and millions of Nigerians. This is unwarranted, counterproductive, and on balance, does more harm than good.

This government has to come clean and be straight with the Nigerian people on its record in fighting corruption. Nigerians are aware of the lack of integrity, trust and credibility of their political institutions and the lack of quality behaviour from their politicians generally. They know pretty well that corruption is still a major problem in Nigerian politics, with various government agencies becoming more involved with the widespread use of our common wealth to enrich themselves even at the highest level of government.

The simple fact is that Nigeria’s corruption has been institutionalised into the political system and democracy has been replaced by ‘Nairaraincracy’ (or more accurately ‘Dollaraincracy’, as most of the country’s politicians

consider the US dollar as the legal tender) and where politicians are elected to provide self-serving favours to donors and ‘godfathers’.

It is clear that the government is still largely run for the benefit of the very rich, socially and politically connected.

When people say, ‘it is not what you know but whom you know’, then there is a problem.

A corrupt judiciary and weak anti-corruption mechanisms illustrate the damaging lack of political will by this government to confront corruption and impunity.

Serious human rights violations, including poverty, crimes against humanity and the environment are now considered normal. Yet, lack of prosecution of high-ranking government officials for corruption has created an impression that they are above the law. No wonder, corrupt officials are so unfazed in their wrong doings, they are all doing it openly and don’t even bother to hide their misdeeds.

Unfortunately, the more corrupt a country becomes, the less motivated its leaders and politicians are to end it. This doesn’t present much hope for the future.

But we can’t simply throw our hands up in the air in frustration.

Progress is not only possible but necessary as it is unacceptable to continue with ‘business as usual’. The government will need to move swiftly to improve the

independence of anti-corruption agencies to genuinely fight corruption. These agencies should be free to investigate and prosecute allegations of corruption.

It is time for the government to let the country’s anti-corruption agencies off its chain and allow them prosecute those indicted by the KPMG report, involving largescale corruption in the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC); the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) audit report, which exposed 10 years of corruption in the upstream and downstream sectors of the oil and gas industry; ‘pension funds corruption report’; ‘corruption report’ in the capital market, and of course the case of the missing $20 billion from the account of the NNPC. Some level of transparency and accountability won’t hurt the country. In fact, it will ensure better governance. One can only hope that the government genuinely begins to address corruption and human rights violations. Nigerians deserve this. The success (and sustainability) of the country’s democracy depends on this.

Olaniyan, Legal Adviser, International Secretariat of Amnesty International, London, posted this article on Sahara Reporters.

DAN GAYE Okupe belongs to the wrong side of history –Dr Maduekwe

Is his boss any better?

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