Monday, February 23rd, 2015 Edition

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Monday, February 23, 2015 Jumada Al-Awwal 4, 1436 AH

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Rights commission probes Zaria extrajudicial killings >> page 10

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DHQ orders troops to capture Shekau alive

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N150 Vol. 15 No. 61

Jealous housewife bathes rival with acid in Onitsha

>> page 3

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Fayose threatening Buhari’s life, APC raises alarm l He’ll never rule Nigeria again, Fayose boasts

>> page 2

President Goodluck Jonathan (2nd left), in a handshake with the President, Catholic Bishop Conference of Nigeria, Archbishop Ignatius Kaigama, after mass preceding of the Bishop Conference, yesterday in Abuja. With them are Archbishop of Abuja, John Cardinal Onaiyekan (left), Papal Nuncio, Archbishop Augustine Kasujja (2nd right), and Senate President David Mark (right).

Photo: Joe Oroye

Interim government is P treasonable, says Jonathan

By Lawrence Olaoye

resident Goodluck Jonathan yesterday warned that suggestion of interim government is treasonable pointing out that such was unknown to the nation’s constitution.

The President however assured that elections will hold on the new dates of March 28th and April 11th as announced by Contd on Page 2

315 Days after Many feared killed in fresh Will the abducted Chibok >> page 3 Potiskum blast schoolgirls ever be rescued?

PAGE 2

PEOPLES DAILY, friday, February 20, 2015

News CONTENTS News 2-11 Editorial 13 Op.Ed 14 Letters 15 Politics 16-18 Business Stockwatch

19-22 23

S/Report 24-25 Feature 26 Education 28 Health 30

Interim government is treasonable, says Jonathan Contd from Page 1 Independent Electoral Commission (INEC).

According to him, interim government could only be set up by the military, which will not be acceptable to the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), African Union (AU) and the United Nations (UN).

Jonathan made the declaration at the opening of mass for the plenary Assembly of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria at Our Lady Queen of Nigeria ProCathedral, Garki.

He said that there was no way he that he who was elected with clear mandate of the people will push for an interim government, assuring that his personal ambition will never supersede the interest of the nation.

But the Archibishop of Abuja, John Cardinal Onaiyekan, has urged the President to warn his aides and supporters to desist from poisoning his resolve and declarations that elections will hold on the new dates set by INEC and that the may 29thinauguration of a new government remains sacrosanct.

Jonathan said, “There is no way Goodluck Jonathan elected by

people with clear mandate will now go and head interim government.

The only interim government anybody can constitute is that of the military government which, of course, will not be accepted.

ECOWAS, AU, UN won’t accept it. And Nigeria will not be a pariah state. Clearly, the insinuation of interim government, to me, is treasonable.

“Elections will be conducted as scheduled by INEC”, he said.

The President who again thanked Christians for the prayers for the nation, noted that the whole world was going crazy because of the bloodshed by terrorists, including Boko Haram.

Jonathan described the theme of the mass as unique, noting that even the Bible acknowledges that if the foundation is not right the righteous cannot do much.

He however condemned utterances that were overheating the polity, portraying the country as going up in flames anytime soon in the media particularly the social media. The President expressed the belief that Nigeria will soon overcome her challenges.

Onaiyekan stressed on the need

for a loving nucleus family for a peaceful nation, a normal society and a morally upright society, adding that the nation needs to do more in promoting family life as a good family make a good nation.

The Cardinal regretted the rivalry among political parties, urging them not to forget national priorities and justice among other things.

He urged that personal insults and caricature should give way to national discourse that will benefit all and that truth must be sacrosanct; it must be the hall marks of politics.

On the rescheduled election, the cleric asked politicians to use the extra time to mend fences. He warned that the dates should not be violated to avoid dire consequences.

He said while the president has promised that the elections will hold and that May 29th remains sacrosanct for a new government to take over, his supporters should desist from poisoning the air.

He said the dates are declarations by the President and he should be given the benefit of doubts.

According to Onaiyekan, “The nation will nevertheless be better served if we use the unexpected extra

time to work for better outcome in our elections. Can we spend the time left to change attitudes, repair broken relationships and build trust? For example, Mr. President has declared publicly that he is committed to a free and fair election. While we believe him, we hope that he will not allow any of his supporters to poison this holy resolve.

“In the same vein, he has declared that not only May 29th but also March 28 and April 11 are sacrosanct dates. There is no question of any new shift of dates. By the same token, he has excluded any idea of a much speculated “interim government” for which there no provisions in our constitution.

These are sacred declarations from our President, which cannot be violated without the kind of serious consequence that is in nobody’s interest. It would be better therefore that we give Mr. President the benefit of the doubt and stop sowing doubts that only raise tensions and create avoidable anxieties”.

Onaiyekan also urged the clergy not to make reckless remarks and political utterances capable of compromising their sacred role.

Sheriff’s thugs attack Gov. Shettima’s convoy - APC Chairman

By Umar Muhammad Puma

S Polls: Will economic issues motivate voters?

– Page 4

Metro

32

Int’l 39 S/World

39

Digest 40 Sports 41 Columnist 48

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ome political thugs associated with former Governor of Borno State, Ali Modu Sheriffon Sunday attacked the convoy of Governor Kashim Shettima smashing about ten vehicles, chairman of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Ali Bukar Dalori has said.

Dalori said the attack which seemed carefully planned allegedly with the apparent endorsement of Sheriff, took place at about 4:30pm on Sunday in Maiduguri, while Governor Shettima in convoy with some aides, was driving pass Sir Kashim Ibrahim way after the Governor, working for about six hours, went round different hospitals in the State capital, offering support to patients before his convoy was

attacked while returning to the Government House located at the G.R.A. Dalori said the thugs came out from a campaign office belonging to Sheriff called UTC and soon after the Governor’s official vehicle had passed, the thugs went after vehicles in the convoy, smashing wheel screens. Soon after he was informed while the attack was happening, Shettima was said to have ordered his security details to restrain their men from using fire arms or any form of assault in order not to heighten tension in the State and compromise ongoing counter insurgency operations.

“From all indication, these youths were sent by SAS, we know some of them, they are his boys.

He created thuggery in Borno State when he was a Governor, this administration is creating jobs

and building human capacity to discourage thuggery but SAS wants to take us to the era of thuggery.

“At about 4:30pm today, the about ten vehicles in the, Governor’s convoy were smashed

by PDP thugs loyal to Sheriff.

Governor Kashim Shettima quickly stopped his security details from any assault defense and also stopped APC youths from reprisal because he has always worked for peace.

“We live in Maiduguri, we are the people that stand to lose if peace is truncated, SAS lives in Abuja with houses all over the world, so he will not care if Maiduguri goes on flames. All the violence he is orchestrating is aimed at stopping elections in Borno State but God will never allow evil succeed over Good.

We are calling him to immediately call his thugs to order because the Government of Borno under the APC will not allow anyone to perpetuate violence in Borno State after all collective our efforts to fight Boko Haram and bring about peace in Maiduguri.” Dalori explained He said APC will not allow him succeed. “We will take every lawful step available to us.

Whether he likes it or not, his era has passed in Borno State, nothing can change that history insha Allah.”

Dalori called on the Federal Government to call SAS to order. “If he is above the law, the FG should tell us but we will not be lawless and we will not allow him have his way” Dalori said in a statement emailed yesterday.

to swear by the Holy Quran that he did not visit hospital in the United Kingdom last week, even as the APC presidential Campaign Council released photographs of Buhari attending some official engagements in the UK including a meeting with former British Prime Minister, Tony Blair.

The APC Presidential campaign spokesman, Garba Shehu had in a statement asked President Jonathan to call Fayose to order over his repeated attacks on Buhari, actions that are believed to have constituted threats to the life of the APC presidential candidate.

Fayose while speaking through his Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, said, “I wish they can see spiritually what I am talking about that Buhari, despite

the hullabaloo will never be president. I predicted my return as Ekiti State Governor and I am saying it again that Buhari will never rule Nigeria again.

“After President Goodluck Jonathan, there will be a young element in his late 50s from the North that will be Nigeria president. I want to liken this revelation to the story of Elijah and Elisha. I am the Elijah while my followers are Elisha.”

Maintaining that he was not wishing Buhari dead, the governor added, “I owe it a duty to Nigeria and its people to expose the antics of the APC cabal whose only interest is to seize power to further their selfish interests.

“Without doubt, it is obvious that these cabal in the APC are trying so hard to deceive Nigerians on Buhari’s health status. That’s

the reason they have been using photoshoped pictures to defend their lies on Buhari’s UK trip.

“First, they used a March 5, 2013 picture, claiming that Buhari was taking a walk in London on Thursday. Later they came up with another poorly cropped picture of Buhari with former British Prime Minister,Tony Blair.

“The same people who lied in September 2012 that they received a gold card invitation to attend the Democratic National Convention in the United States of America are behind the robing of Buhari in the garment of lies and I challenge Buhari to swear by the Holy Quran that he did not visit hospital in the United Kingdom last week.

“However, I want to disappoint this selfish cabal. Buhari is only raising their hope and that hope will be dashed,” Fayose said.

Fayose threatening Buhari’s life, APC raises alarm From Suleiman Idris, Lagos

T

he All Progressives Congress in Ekiti State has taken exeption to the path of political extemism taken by the Ekiti state governor, Ayo Fayose describing him as a “political stalker” who has of late constituted a threat to the life of Buhari.

It asked the governor to tender an unreserved apology for having the general on his death-wish list, saying the governor was afraid that Buhari as president would “clip his wings.”

Fayose had on Sunday boasted that the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (rtd.), “will never be Nigeria’s president gain.”

He also challenged Buhari

PAGE 3

PEOPLES DAILY, friday, February 20, 2015

News

DHQ orders troops to capture Shekau alive

By Joy Baba Yesufu

F

ollowing the spate of recent successes recorded by troops against Boko Haram insurgents in the north eastern part of the country, Nigerian troops have been put on red alert for any insurgents’ leader bearing the name of Imam Abubakar Shekau who is believed to be desperately looking for escape routes.

PRNigeria quoted a senior military source as saying that troops have been urged to try at all costs to capture Shekau alive so that he would face justice.

On at least two occasions now, troops have killed characters calling themselves Abubakar Shekau in videos but the insurgents manages

to find other individuals looking like him and pretend that he was still alive.

According to PRNigeria, the order to catch Shekau alive is therefore to ensure that it will no longer be possible to resort to the same trick.

“The rumour about Shekau’s invincibility is one of the factors that troops are afraid to confront the terrorists”.

Meanwhile troop’s morale has been greatly boosted in recent times by arrival of sophisticated armaments and the decision of senior military officers to lead the war against terror directly which also influenced the change of some commanders.

An intelligence sources was also said to have disclosed that some of the successes recorded in recovery

of big towns in the North-East were due to deployment of new strategies, improved disciplinary measures, and sincerity of participating countries in the regional alliance and the acquisitions of latest equipment.

“In the past, Colonels have led direct attacks in accordance with military tradition but because of the large scale desertions recorded, Military Generals then decided to directly lead the war and this has greatly boosted morale.

“It was even learnt that many of the troops that earlier deserted have returned while others have expressed desire to return to the front.

“Within a week of the massive operation, the troops have recovered Monguno, Marte, Gamboru Ngala,

Dikwa among other big towns and several surrounding communities in Borno State” the source further said.

The source also said with the acquisition of new equipment from various sources and the specialised training of the troops on guerrilla warfare, the military indirectly called the bluff of some deceptive western countries who are now trying to save face by claiming to work with our neighbours.

“The effective collaboration and mutual relationship with our neighbours is paying off as they now realise that inactions can pose disasters to their countries too,” he added.

R-L; Former Governor of Kwara state, Senator Bukola Saraki, former British Prime Minister, Mr. Tony Blair, APC Presidential Candidate, General Muhammadu Buhari, and Ogun state Governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun, during a meeting with Blair in continuation of the APC presidential candidate’s working visit to the United Kingdom on Saturday.

T

he presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, General Muhammadu Buhari, has assured Nigerians of succor from the effects of the ill management of the nation’s economy by the President Goodluck Jonathan-led Federal Government.

In a statement signed by the Director of Media and Publicity of the APC Presidential Campaign Organisation (APCPCO), Malam Garba Shehu, the APC observed the panicky and uncoordinated management of the national economy by President Jonathan

By Joy Babaa Yesufu

T and his economic team.

“It is apparent that the federal government has suddenly found itself in a bind with plummeting crude oil prices in the international market, but typical of a team that lacks capacity for anticipatory actions, the federal government has been running from pillar to post in a vain bid to stabilize the economy. Unfortunately, all conceived palliatives applied to save the nation’s declining economic indicators have merely scrapped the surface of the problems leaving the mass of Nigerians desperate, confused and hungrier.”

Shehu said that the nation’s debt

profile under the current federal government grew exponentially even while the country recorded the highest revenue accrued from impressive crude oil prices over a five-year period before the downward spiral of international oil prices.

“With external debt standing at more than $10 billion and our internal debts at more than $5 0billion, it is without doubt that President Jonathan is driving Nigeria into economic wilderness.

This should be a cause for concern for all well meaning Nigerians, more so when the federal government responses to these rising economic

PDP secretariat burnt down in Nasarawa

By Tobias Lengnan Dapam with agency report

R

eports yesterday indicated that some disgruntled elements have burnt the Secretariat of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Obi Local Area of Nasarawa State.

The ugly event occurred at about 48 hours after the party

M

any people were feared dead and several others injured in a bomb explosion on Sunday at GSM market in Potiskum, Yobe.

Some survivors suspected that a woman suicide bomber detonated the explosive, killing herself and others at the busy market.

Mr Toyin Gbadegesin, the Police Public Relations Officer in the state, confirmed the attack to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).

“Yes, there was a bomb attack at the Potiskum GSM market and our men have moved to the scene for rescue operation and to get details of the incident.

“As at this moment, we do not have the details of deaths and injuries. Our men are still collating the details” he said.

Meanwhile, some of the survivors said the bomb exploded after an argument between the suspected bomber and local security men at the market.

Troops recover abandoned arms in Baga

Buhari on mission to rescue economy - APC Campaign

By Umar Muhammad Puma

Many feared killed in fresh Potiskum blast

held its 2015 general elections campaign in the area.

Spokesperson of the Nasarawa state Police Command, Ismaila Numan, who confirmed the incident, said 18 suspects have been arrested in connection with the crime while police officers have been deployed to the scene of the incident to prevent further

breakdown of law and order.

Mr. Numan said the office was burnt a day after youth of the All Progressives Congress and those of the PDP clashed over vandalisation of billboards and campaign materials.

It was also gathered that the hoodlums allegedly came with petrol in gallons, poured it on the roof of the secretariat and

challenges have, at best, been casual.

“For our presidential candidate, General Muhammadu Buhari, it is a walk back through history.

Recall that the Nigerian economy at this time shares characteristics with the Nigerian economy of 1983 when he took charge of the reign of government on a rescue mission.

The naira was weak, crude oil prices were plummeting just as the national treasury, coupled with a heavy debt profile. Hopefully, APC will turn the nation’s economy around.

Our party’s economic policies are consciously conceived to be peoplecentred.” Shehu said.

then set the building ablaze.

Witnesses say the arsonists also drove away the security man before torching the building.

The incident was a spillover of the Friday clash between the supporters of the PDP and the APC where gunshots were exchanged, leaving casualties on both sides.

roops engaged in cordon and search in Baga have continued to discover more arms of various background and shapes abandoned in some houses and the surrounding by fleeing terrorists.

Heaps of weapons most of which were strange looking or destroyed are still being gathered while many abandoned or destroyed motorcycles are said to have also been discovered.

A statement signed by the Director of Defence Information, Major General Chris Olukolade said a soldier was stabbed while another was shot during a close quarter battle which ensued as troops involved in cordon and search caught up with some of the fleeing terrorists saturday evening.

The statement also said a number of individuals who claimed to be residents are also being interrogated in order to ascertain their identity and motive adding that the group, consisting mostly women continued to hail and cheer the troops as they conduct thorough search in the area.

Olukolade further said wanting to be sure the group was not working for the terrorists despite the excitement, they had to be placed under watch.

“The cordon and search as well as patrol of the localities continue while the offensive on terrorists is progressing in other areas of the theater of the counter terrorist campaign” the statement also added.

PAGE 4

PEOPLES DAILY, friday, February 20, 2015

Page 4 Report

Polls: Will economic issues motivate voters?

By Ochiaka Ugwu

2

8 of next month and April 11, Nigerians will be going to the polls to elect a new government that will pilot their affairs for the next four years.

This year also marks 16 years of democracy, but there are numerous economic challenges facing the nation ahead. Based on this prevailing reality, most political pundits are wondering whether economy will be uppermost in the minds of voters in next few weeks.

The writing on economic voting is large. Now, there are economic voting studies of virtually all established democracies, and many emerging democracies. By the 1980s, survey research came to the fore.

In parallel fashion, data appeared more and more often as a pool of nations, usually from a culturally defined region of the world. Most materials which were reviewed by scholars always link the economy and elections. The issue that examines the economy and election link has been revealed in different comparative studies.

In the case of Nigeria, this is certainly not the best times for its economy. The period can hardly be called a success for the economy. Growth rates slowed, and along with the financial crisis, the outflow of foreign capital from the country intensified without any prospect of it stopping now.

On the face of it, Nigerian’s economic woes are far from being over, but a closer look tells a more frustrating story. The country’s GDP growth has slowed to less than five percent (nearly half of what it was in 2013) and the Naira took a beating these past months, slumping to N190 to $1USD. Commercial disputes ranging from intellectual property to taxes are common, household items price inflation remains high and large infrastructure projects don’t seem to materialize at the rate that investors had hoped.

A chronically energy-starved nation, Nigeria can’t seem to find enough supply to satisfy its growing middle class, or to run the businesses that would fuel growth further. Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) into Nigeria slumped to almost 12% in the past few years.

When one looks deeper, however, the story is more complex. Further reforms will likely take place in 2015, as the Economic team led by Finance Minister; Dr (Mrs) Ngozi OkonjoIweala has initiated moves to create tens of thousands of badly needed jobs. To illustrate the point, it was reported that for the few jobs available in one of the new generation banks, nearly one million candidates appeared for the test. Although, Okonjo-

Voters waiting to be accredited

CMF Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala Iweala noted that Nigeria should return to a higher growth rate this year – though how high it can go is a matter of debate. Large corporations have hinted that they are holding back on mega investments until elections are concluded, and political stability is certain. So all in all, it appears that the economy is primed for an upward turn, but much of that depends on the results of the upcoming elections.

Economic experts have blamed bad policies of the present administration for the overall slowdown of the economy. The situation no doubt was fuelled by lack of structural reform in the economy, and a lack of leadership in the economic direction of the country. Nigeria’s export markets have also experienced economic sluggishness, which

is part of the problem, though domestic issues play a large part.

There are a number of powerful political bodies that oversee the economic trajectory of the country and they have not been in agreement as to what direction the economy should take- should it be redistributive or pro-growth, protectionist or market-driven?

Should it emphasize services or manufacturing for growth? How can it shift labour from agriculture into semi- and high-skilled sectors? How can the workforce be trained with the right skills to execute that transition? None of these questions seem to have a clear answer from the present administration. Direction from the top has been muddled, and work-arounds like the Economic Team (created to fast-track economic development) are only

a quick-fix. Nigeria’s institutions have not kept pace with the economic transformation that has occurred over the past 20 years, and need to be strengthened in order to spur the kind of growth we seek in 2020.

Another major problem is investor sentiment, which can be assuaged by implementing policies and regulations in a predictable manner, increasing certainty.

Inconsistent tax policy and the implementation of existing laws and regulations have also played a significant role in hampering investor sentiment.

To put the economy back to the track, the next government should have a clear set of economic policies in order to kick start a period of higher growth for the economy. Transparent and predictable regulations for the infrastructure and energy sectors should be a high priority, as should the passage of a Goods and Services Tax. One of the biggest opportunities ahead is the creation of industrial enclaves linking some of nation’s largest cities to each other via road and rail – Enugu, Kano, Sokoto, Lagos, Port Harcourt and a few others.

These passageways should be seen as an attempt at planning sustainable infrastructure and cities across the country, and will house large industrial complexes, around which jobs will be created, both direct and indirect. It should be largely supported by state-level leaders regardless of political affiliation, and have the support of the government and key stakeholders, who are financing

their development. They have the potential to affect over 40 million people, living in or near the galleries.

Indeed, it has been established that the political situation was largely responsible for the economic collapse last year.

But people are optimistic that balance of political forces will change after the elections and would throw up new alignment of forces to affect the economy for better.

However, in this election, it’s clear that Nigeria’s voters are calling for change. For decades they have cast ballots based on community identity, but this is changing in a dramatic way.

New voters -including the young and emerging urban and rural professionals are turning out to vote against corruption and, by all accounts, for good governance and economic development.

While it is hard to predict how this trend will play out on a national scale, it does augur well for better governance, which ultimately turns well for the economic wellbeing.

At this point, the economy calls for strong leadership, and the most effective way to ensure that is through electing the most competent candidates for all the positions. The All Progressives Congress (APC), Muhammadu Buhari is viewed as a more probusiness candidate than any other, but whether he could pull off significant reforms if elected will depend on many factors, including the strength of potential cabinet members who will drive the economy. They should already be planning what they will do to ensure political stability and decisive economic leadership.

As the elections draw nearer, many voters are hoping that the upcoming general elections will usher in a formidable individual known for his pro-business, pro-reform agenda, and anti corruption stance. However this is paramount, because we need urgent economic restructuring that will be deeper enough to uplift peoples living conditions.

Unless a strong willed persons come together to accomplish this, it is difficult to imagine the significant economic change that many are hoping for.

One of the most important trends in our nation today is the growing political involvement of the youth and middle class.

Frustrated with the status quo which rewards only a microscopic few, they have begun to demand change (economic, political and social) at the ballot box. Recent findings have shown that citizens are voting on issues of economic development, and are willing to accept personalities that have the potential to shake up the establishment.

PEOPLES DAILY, friday, February 20, 2015

PAGE 5

News Police rescue kidnapped Kogi director

T

he Kogi Police Command has rescued Alhaji Abdulazeez Ohere, Director of Local Government (DLG), Adavi Local Government Area of Kogi, who was kidnapped by gunmen on Feb.13.

A statement signed by the command’s Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), DSP Collins Adebayo, on Sunday, said Ohere was rescued from the kidnappers on Saturday after intensive hunt.

According to statement, Ohere was abducted from his Agassa home in Okene Local Government by about 10 gunmen, after scaling the fence.

Ohere was rescued at about 7.30a.m. on Saturday in Adavi by combined security agencies.

The statement said the kidnappers abandoned the official Toyota Hilux van with which they abducted Ohere, when they discovered that the security agencies were getting too close to their den. (NAN)

Group advises gov. Ngilari to be upright in handling state affairs From Umar Dankano, Yola

T

he Adamawa State Governor, Barrister Bala James Ngillari has been advised to be sincere and more practical in handling the affairs of governance as the people of the state are currently facing untold hardship.

The advice was contained in a press statement issued by a group tagged Adamawa Periscope and made available to Journalists in Yola yesterday lamenting that the four months old governor Ngillari’s administration is only exhibiting dictatorial tendencies.

In the statement, the group decried that the governor who was expected to be humbled based on the way he emerged as the substantive governor through a court ruling in line with democratic process has now turned out to be anti-democrat.

Spokesman of the group who signed the statement, Yakubu Damargi, cited the removal of Gombi Local Government chairman, Alhaji Rufai Umar, who defected to APC by the governor as undemocratic.

“When former Gov. Murtala Nyako defected to APC, Ngilari who was then his deputy did not follow him, a development Nyako described as normal in democracy.

“We now wonder why the same Ngilari will go ahead and dissolve an entire elected local government council and appoint a caretaker simply because the council chairman and his councilors defected to APC.”

R-L: Chairman, PDP Kaduna state, Malam Abubakar Gaya, Kaduna state Governor, Alhaji Mukhtar Ramalan Yero, Vice -President Mohammed Namadi Sambo, the state Deputy Governor, Ambassador Nuhu Bajoga, and his wife, Mrs. Naomi Bajoga, during a one year memorial church service in honour of the late Senator Isaiah Balat, yesterday at ECWA Church Tudun Nupawa Kaduna.

Boko Haram: JNI seeks probe of Professor Falaki’s killing

From Mohammad Ibrahim, Kaduna

J

ama’atul Nasril Islam JNI yesterday frowned at the killing of renowned Professor of Agronomy Ahmed Falaki of Ahmadu Bello University Zaria last week by mob that mistook him for Boko Haram member and implored his family alma-mata and employer to follow-up the matter appropriately.

The religious body also urged members of the National Islamic Centre (NIC), A.B.U. Muslim community and entire Muslims in the country to ensure justice was done to unravel his killers.

This was contained in a

statement signed by JNI’s Secretary General, Dr Khalid Abubakar Aliyu and made available to newsmen in kaduna.

He said JNI strongly believes that there is more than meets the eye with regards to the incident that led to the professor’s death.

The alleged foul play as they believe eminent Muslims were always the targets, despite evidences beyond doubts that they are not Boko Haram suspects?

“The news of his gruesome murder in the name of Boko Haram suspect was virile in the media. He was an unassuming renowned Professor of Agronomy of high repute, very intelligent, humble, affable and above all God

fearing.

“It is exactly a week now that the most unfortunate cowardly act betides the late eminent Professor.

After following all the events that ensued after his murder.

“JNI strongly believes that there is more than meets the eye. Why is Islamic dressing and or appearance now synonymous to being a Boko Haram suspect? Why are eminent Muslims always the target, despite evidences beyond doubts that they are not Boko Haram suspects?

“It is no longer news that many prominent Muslim scholars have either been quizzed by the DSSS, in some cases detained in the name of Boko Haram kingpins?

A case in point is that of Sheikh

Muhammad Yunus Nazeif of Kogi State University, still in DSSS custody.

“More worrisome is the fact that some Muslim scholars have been killed by unknown persons suspected to be Boko Haram members, yet nothing concretely seems to have been done to address this agony and impunity bedeviling the Muslim Ummah.

“Our solace lies in Allah the most high, as his decree does not go in vain, “And think not that Allah is unmindful of the excesses of the unjust”.

“Therefore, our consolation is that no matter how long this impunity takes, truth will always prevail” JNI explained.

APC accuses NIMASA of sponsoring hate campaign against Buhari

By Umar Muhammad Puma

T

he APC Presidential Campaign Organisation (APCPCO) says it has evidence that a top management

staff of the Nigerian Maritime Administration & Safety Agency (NIMASA) is behind the dirty campaigns of hate against the presidential candidate of APC, General Muhammadu Buhari

and his family aired in the recent documentary by AIT and NTA. The APCPCO’s Director of Media and Publicity, Malam Garba Shehu said that the Campaign office has confirmed that the agency

Delta PDP: Outrage over expulsion of decamped members From Osakhare Erese, Asaba

F

ierce outrage yesterday in the early hours enveloped the Delta State secretariat of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in Asaba when supporters of the alleged expelled members of the party in a protest match chanted war songs, barricaded Nnebisi road for several hours before they were sent away by security agents.

Their protester-supporters in placards read “PDP cannot dictate who to vote for, PDP expulsion of our candidate is fake, we will win

our election because our candidates are credible candidates, stop extorting people we are not slaves to PDP” While their supporters rained insults on the leadership of the party, Hon. Victor Ochie, Ovie Omo Agege, described their expulsion a charade adding that they dumped the party last year 2014 for other parties to pursue their political career.

On a telephone chat with our correspondent the duo said “PDP in Delta is Jittery very our popularity they will fail in its bid to check mate

us” adding they left the party on principles With the news of their expulsion, palpable tension including political rascality have enveloped the state with threats to lives and properties.

As it were the leadership of the PDP in the state had on Thursday okayed the expulsion of the party members who decamped to other parties in the state to contest the 2015 general elections.

According to the chairman of the party, Chief Edwin Uzor, the expulsion will serve as deterrent to others who run from part to party.

was indeed the sponsor of all the dirty campaigns against the APC presidential candidate on AIT, NTA and several other media platforms.

This, according to Shehu, contravenes the NIMASA Act, the Public Service Regulations, and the INEC Act 2010 as amended, among others.

The APCPCO decried the situation where a government agency uses public funds to sponsor a campaign of calumny against its candidate, which it said is not only illegal, but should also be condemned and investigated by the joint committees of the national assembly on marine transportation.

If these claims were not found to be true by the joint committee, the statement said, disciplinary action should be taken against the agency and its leadership “It is a well known fact that the Director General of the Agency, Mr. Ziakede Patrick Akpobolokemi was President Goodluck Jonathan’s and a well-known ex-militant’s errand boy.”

PEOPLES DAILY, friday, February 20, 2015

PAGE 6

News

PDP seeks probe of Lagos councils by EFCC

From Ayodele Samuel, Lagos

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he Lagos state chapter of PDP has called on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission,EFCC, to beam its searchlight on the treasury of

Civil group commends military for fight against terrorism

Lagos councils, accusing them of diverting council funds into prosecuting the ambition of APC governorship candidate, Akinwunmi Ambode.

The party in a statement signed by its Publicity Secretary Gani Taofik also accused Governor Fashola of frustrating and directing LASIEC not to conduct the local government polls.

According to him, the APC is scared this time because of the now unpopularity of his government and Party, APC; in the state.

The PDP opines that governor Fashola deceived lagosians by postponing the LG polls till March.

It further described as double

standard for governor Fashola to jettison conducting LG polls since the expiration date in October 2014, but now accusing the federal government of being behind the postponement of the general elections, when indeed one of the reasons governor Fashola stated to hold on to the LG polls is the non availability of an updated voters register.

“We have conducted our investigation into the flagrant non-conduct of elections into Lagos councils. Our reports show that governor Fashola actually frustrated the state electoral body (LASIEC) from conducting the polls, according to our source,

governor Fashola is not confident to conduct the LG polls for fear of the opposition parties winning the polls.

“His March date is a deceit and cannot be valid because up till now the state electoral body has not issued any notice of election; this is contrary to S.21 of the LASIEC law which stipulates a minimum of 60 days notice of election before the date of election. Indeed, it is even another show of Fashola’s disregard for the law and his display of pseudo democratic tendency for him to assume the role of the LASIEC chairman by unilaterally announcing poll date and constituting unconstitutional,

illegal and undemocratic local councils. By S.7 of the 1999 Nigeria’s constitution (as amended), only democratically elected local councils are guaranteed.

“But alas! Governor Fashola, a lawyer governor in conjunction with his propagandist Party, APC; have deprived lagosians the representatives of their choice at the Local government, yet they are quick to blackmail the federal government of postponing general elections.

“We challenge APC to justify its claim of being a Progressives and Democrats Party by immediately conducting LG polls in Lagos state and their other states”, PDP said

By Evelyn Okakwu

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itizens Advocacy for Social & Economic Rights (CASER), a civil rights group based in Abuja has commended the members of the Nigerian armed forces for their recent demonstration of bravery in the quest to rid the nation of terrorism.

In a statement signed the CASER’s chief executive, Frank Tietie the association stated that: “In spite of the overwhelming peculiarities of an insurgency war against Nigeria, our forces have remained focused against all odds. Much of our country is relatively safe today against a well-orchestrated Boko Haram conflagration that was meant to consume Nigeria”.

It noted that the responsibility for a peaceful Nigeria lies chiefly in the hands of the military. “The Nigerian forces must now fully realize that they only exist for the protection of the Nigerian citizen by striving to preserve the peace and safety of the territory known as the Federal Republic of Nigeria”.

The statement further said: “The recent success of the Nigerian Armed Forces against the insurgents is highly commendable”.

It therefore added that: “CASER wishes to express its profound gratitude to the members of the Nigerian Armed Forces. Who else could be nobler than the men and women who have laid down their lives for the preservation of the peace and future of a prosperous Nigeria? It called on Nigerians to demonstrate love and respect to the members of the Nigerian Armed Forces, and urged the leadership of the country to fully and immediately compensate the family members of fallen Nigerian forces.

“There should now be a better regime of conditions of service for Nigerian forces.”

The statement said the civil rights group, will not stand back and watch any form of shoddy treatment of all ex-service men and women while they await their pension.

L-R: Head of State and Chairman, Nigeria Prays, General Yakubu Gowon, and Gombe state Deputy Governor, Mr. Tha’anda Rubainu, singing during North East National Prayer Rally for Peace in Nigeria, yesterday at ECWA Church, in Bauchi.

Photo: NAN

National development planning manual for Nigeria under way – NPC

By A’isha Biola Raji

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he National Planning Commission (NPC), is planning a national development planning manual for Nigeria aimed at facilitating the coordination and integration of government policies, plans,

budget as well as monitoring and evaluation process.

In a statement signed by Salisu Haiba Badamasi, Head of Informatio of the commission, a Technical Working Group (TWG) on the preparation of the manual for Nigeria was inaugurated over the week end by the Acting

Secretary to the National Planning Commission, Bassey Akpanyung.

Mr Akpanyung said, “The development manual is part of government’s drive to facilitate the integration of policies and strengthen systems and processes for effective implementation of projects and programmes.”

Muslims join Christians to break Lenten fast in Kaduna From Mohammad Ibrahim, Kaduna

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uslims joined hundreds of Christians in breaking Lenten fasting together to strengthen and promote peaceful coexistence as well as religious tolerance in the country, particularly kaduna state.

According to them, they joined their Christian counterparts in a bid to promote religious understanding in the country.

Speaking to the Muslims who gathered at his Church, Christ Evangelical Intercessory Fellowship

Ministry at Sabon Tasha, Pastor Yuhana Buru said the aim of inviting the Muslims was to break the fast together.

“Our aim was for our Muslim brothers to join us in breaking the Lenten fast together so as to promote peaceful and understanding among followers of the two faiths.

“We know Muslims to do fast during the month of Ramadan and they do invite us to join them in breaking the fast. So, this is a kind of reciprocal. We hope this will strengthen more understanding between us,” he said.

Pastor Buru therefore called for continued peace and religious tolerance among adherents of the two religions in the state for posterity and unity.

Earlier, one of the Muslim leaders, Malam Yusuf Lawal Maduru of youth rehabilitation centre located in Rigasa, commended the pastor for his relentless effort toward promoting peace among Christians and Muslims in the state.

He charged Christians to use the Lenten period to encourage religious tolerance, repentance of their sins and to give assistance to the needy.

He said the manual will also assist in strengthening systems and processes for effective formulation and implementation of not only sector strategic plans but in the realisation of the objectives of NIPs and NV20:2020.

He noted that DFID/FEPAR programme had recently assisted the Commission in the development of her strategic plan and the manual for M&E towards strengthening the institutionalisation of the M&E system in the Federal MDAs Mr Akpanyung, also stated that, NPC is in the process of repositioning the Department of Planning, Research and Statistics (DPRS) in Federal MDAs for enhanced delivery of Government’s projects and programmes through skills upgrade of the DPRS officials in the area of development planning.

The membership of the TWG on the preparation of the manual is drawn from public and private sectors.

PEOPLES DAILY, friday, February 20, 2015

News

From Osakhare Erese, Asaba

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jealous housewife, simply identified as Maryanna in Okpoko community area of Anambra State, has allegedly bathed her rival with acid water and thereafter jumped into river Niger..

The report said the housewife had complained of the frequent visits to the husband by the woman. On one of the visits, Rosemary was warned by the housewife that she would teach her some lessons.

It was reliably gathered that the husband a well-known business man started dating another woman when the wife became unruly.

It was gathered that she sometimes attack the husband with dangerous weapons. At some point, she was said to have ambushed her rival and poured substances suspected to be acid on her face. Police sources at the Okpoko Division Police Station said that the housewife disappeared after she attacked the rival Anambra State police Command’s spokesman, DSP

PAGE 7

Jealous housewife bathes rival with acid in Onitsha Uche Eze said he has no report of the incident, but police sources close to the Okpoko division Police confirmed that

the husband of the woman who had jumped into the river was arrested, disclosing that the incident took place on valentine

day, Saturday evening at Okpoko community by the river Niger bank She said that the corpse of the woman was yet to be found in

the water, while the acid victim was rushed to a private hospital in Onitsha and is currently receiving treatment”

Bayelsa monarch abducted in coastal community

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hief Collins Adikoko, a Deputy Paramount Ruler in Ikeinghenbiri, a coastal settlement in the creeks of Southern Ijaw Local Government Area of Bayelsa has been abducted by gunmen.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) gathered from a family source, who pleaded anonymity that three gunmen stormed his premises at about 2 a.m. on Saturday and whisked him away. ``They arrived at the residence of the traditional ruler in the early hours of Saturday, about 2.a.m. ``They were three in number that we saw clearly; two were wearing the uniforms of Civil Defence Corps and one was wearing the reflective jackets used by youth vigilante. ``They fired several warning shots and abducted the monarch, then escaped in a waiting speedboat anchored in the nearby waterside to an unknown destination,’’ the source said.

The Police Public Relations Officer, Mr Asinim Butwat, who confirmed the incident, said that the police had launched a manhunt for the gunmen in a bid to rescue the monarch.

Maj.-Gen. Emmanuel Atewe, Commander of The Joint Task Force in the Niger Delta, codenamed Operation Pulo Shield, gave assurance that the culprits would be apprehended as soon as possible.

Atewe said that the task force had received reports of the incident and activated its security network in the creeks to fish out the kidnappers. (NAN)

People queue to buy kerosene at NNPC Mega station along Gudu Market, on Saturday in Abuja.

Photo: Mahmud Isa

Banditry: 15 killed, 6 arrested in Niger

From Yakubu Mustapha,Minna.

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ix out of a large number of armed bandits suspected to be Boko Haram terrorizing various communities of Azza and Kintako in Lapai local government of Niger state have been arrested, while about 15 of them were killed in exchange of fire with joint security forces.

Investigation revealed that the suspects were well armed with sophisticated weapons, had made several attacks on the people who were also involved in many robbery operations in the area but were over powered by the security even most of them at large now, While police is investigating

those arrested.

It was gathered that the vigilantees in the area has been doing their best to assist the security agencies in getting the suspects from there hideouts.

When contacted, one of the leaders of the vigilantes, Abdulkarim Usman Bina lamented over lack of mobility to ease their operations as one of their constraint while security agencies usually took all the glory.

In the same vein, Niger State Government has disclosed that 11 out of 45 bandits terrorizing Azza and Kintako communities in Lapai local Government Area of the state have been killed.

He said soldiers deployed to contain the menace of recent attacks on the community are on

top of the situation.

In a statement signed by the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor of Niger State, Mr Israel Ayegba Ebije intimated that four of the bandits have been captured adding that they are presently with security operatives.

He said members of the bandits in the custody of security operatives will give information about the armed group. He however said government cannot confirm if they are affiliated to the dreaded Boko Haram.

“The men of Nigerian army are doing a very good job in flushing the armed bandits who invaded Aza and Kintako communities in Lapai local Government Area of Niger state. We do not know their motive and we also do not

know if they are affiliated with Boko Haram. We are however optimistic that those arrested so far will give useful information.”

“Let me therefore call on people of the area to go about their normal business as security operatives are on the tail of the fleeing bandits. They have been pushed very far away from the state. Soldiers are already making arrests and will not relent until every single member of the group is killed or arrested.”

He said the Government of Dr. Mu’azu Babnagida Aliyu will remain committed to securing lives and properties of people living in the state adding that operation against the bandits will be sustained until they are all flushed out of the area.

2 killed as armed robbers rob First bank in Benue

From Uche Nnorom, Makurdi

T

wo persons were killed and two others injured as 20 dare-devil armed robbers attacked First bank branch in Vandeikya local government area of Benue State.

An eye witness who pleaded anonymity told Peoples daily weekend that the robbers blocked all the entry points

into the main town as well as disarmed men of the operation Zenda before carrying out the operation.

He said the incident occurred in broad day slight, adding that the robbers came with more than 5 vehicles including a jeep, a Camry, a Toyota, a Corolla and a Senan, adding that stray bullets even hit some residents who were running for safety.

The robbers were said to have carted away huge sum of money which was lodged on the same day and escaped through AdikpoOgoja road.

But the State Police Public Relations’ Officer, DSP Austin Ezeani said eight (8) persons, 4 civilians and 4 police officers were injured during the operations.

He said the police after the operation trailed the robbers

through a narrow and lowly road from Korinyo in Konshisha local government to Oju where one of them were shot during a gun duel while 22 magazine, a Toyota car, a highlander jeep and Corolla E were recovered Ezeani advised members of the public to be on the alert for people with gun wounds and strange movement and report such persons to the police.

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PEOPLES DAILY, friday, February 20, 2015

PEOPLES DAILY, Monday, February 23, 2015

Page 9

News

Korea to strengthen cultural ties with Nigeria

By Ikechukwu Okaforadi

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he Republic of South Korea at the weekend said it would strengthen its cultural ties with Nigeria, to enhance the mutual cultural understanding between the Koreans and Nigerians.

The Director of Korean Cultural Centre Nigeria (KCCN), Kwon Yong Ik, stated this in Abuja during an event to mark the Korea’s Lunar New Year’s Day called ‘Seollal’.

Kwon Yong Ik, while addressing guests at the ceremony, also promised that the KCCN will continue to work hard on its cultural exchange programmes and events with Nigeria.

He said these exchange programmes will include expanding their open door policy to the Nigerians who

are willing to use the Centre for cultural activities such as students, teachers and other cultural organisations, as well as the Centre’s participation and support in local events in Nigeria.

Meanwhile, the event which was held to observe the Korean traditional new year celebration called Seollal, featured showcasing of traditional dances, delicacies and dressings of the Korean people.

The event was held to create awareness on the pattern of marking the traditional Korean new year celebration, as well as to highlight the areas of shared cultural heritage between Nigeria and South Korea.

Kwon Yong Ik who explained that Koreans regard 19th February of every year as the Korea’s New Year’s day called ‘Seollal, added that the lunar New Year is its real

New Year‘s day because solar New Year is the Western’s day.

While pointing out that the origin of ‘Seollal in Korea could be traced to the 6thcentury in history, Kwon Yong Ik said “I wish everybody in this event today a happy new year. In Korean, we say “Se hae bok ma ny ba der se yo”.

He commended the guests for honouring the event, noting that ‘Seollal’ is one of the most significant traditional Korean holidays during which many Korean people return to their hometowns to reunite with their parents and other relatives for three days holidays.

Speaking further, he expressed hope that through the practice, there would be an enrichment in the cultural sharing between Korea and Nigeria, in which both countries could understand its

culture with each other, and make a great memory of the New Year’s day of 2015.

Also speaking at the event, the Director of Cultural Industries and Heritage, Federal Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Seyi Womiloju, said there are lots of cultural similarities between Nigeria and South Korea.

He added that from the event, it is clear that South Korea wants a good cultural relationship with Nigeria, adding that both countries have benefited in exchanging cultural programmes and experts.

Highlights of the event were Sebae, which involves Children wishing their elders a happy new year by performing one deep traditional bow and say “Se hae bok ma ny ba der se yo”, which translates to “Please receive a lot of luck in the New Year”.

Minister of Youths Development, Mr Boni Haruna (3rd left), District Head of Uba Town, Adamawa, Alhaji Umar Babangida and his subjects during the NEMA assessment team visit to his palace, on Saturday in Uba, Adamawa state.

Photo: NAN

Kogi state Muslim ummah urges members to collect PVC

By Femi Oyelola

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he Ameer of Kogi State Muslim Ummah, Ustaz Shehu Ahmad has called on Kogi state Muslim Communities in kaduna to ensure that they collect their Permanent Voters Card(PVC) so as to perform their civil responsibilities in the forthcoming election, even as he called on youth in the country to be law abiding during the general elections .

He stated this in his acceptance speech at the formal inauguration of the council held in Kaduna over the weekend.

Ustaz Shehu Ahmad also called on the politicians to stop overheating the polite and focus their campaign on issue base

not campaign of calumny or character assassination.

The Guest lecturer Professor Adam Ahmad Abere, stressed the need for unity, fairness among the Muslim Ummah,saying Success and greatness is better achieved through adherence to Allah injunctions and faithfulness in the worship of Allah.

Prof. Abere who was represented by Engineer Zulqarmin Iman Abdulrahim welcomed the idea of coming together of the Muslims of Kogi state origin which will further enhance the collective efforts for the better understanding.

Speaking on behalf of other Kogi State community traditional rulers in kaduna state, the chief

of Igala, Alhaji Abdullahi Ogbo described the formation of the Ummah as a dawn of an era and also emphasised the need for unity among Kogi Muslims.

In his remark, the Special Guest of Honour, Alhaji Yahaya Aliyu appealed for support to the ummah and urged Muslims to use their Allah’s given resources in the cause of Islam and assist the less privilege.

In his speech the chairman of the occasion, Alhaji Abdulyekeen Mamman hailed the decision of the formation of the Muslim Ummah and appealed for unity of purpose which is a great factor that will make the objectives of the Ummah achievable in the spread of Islam.

The inaugurated executive

members are Ustaz Shehu Ahmad Bello - Ameer, Mallam Ibrahim Suleiman - Deputy Ameer, Alhaji Siyaka Ozovehe Sule - Secretary General, Mallam Lawal Abubakar – Assistant Secretary General, Alhaji Trjjani Suleiman - Financial Secretary, Alhaji Aliyu Shaba - Treasurer, Alhaji Musa O. Aliu - Director of Research and Documentation, Mallam Abdulaziz Jatto Yusuf – Public Relations Officer I, Alhaji Aliyu Abubakar- Public Relations Officer II, Mallam Yakubu Umar - Education Officer I, Alhaji Yunusa Aliyu - Education Officer II, Yunus Ustaz Usman - Legal Adviser and Former Ameer of the Ummah, Ustaz Abdulkareem Muhammad (Abu Mujahedeen) as ex-official.

Groups condemn passage of Zamfara road traffic agency bill From Ibrahim Sidi Muh’d, Gusau

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he Zamfara State chapter of the Northern Youth Assembly (NYA) and the Budget Working Group (BWG) have jointly condemned the alleged hastened passage of the Bill in recognition of the establishment of Zamfara Road Traffic Agency (ZAROTA) by the State House of Assembly.

In a joint Press Conference in Gusau, the state capital, the NYA Chairman and the BWG state Secretary respectively have challenged that, the bill which legalised the operations of ZAROTA in the state including mandate to arrest road users over 94 different traffic offences as well as charging fines up to 50,000, needs much time for consultations with stakeholders in order to avoid chaos in the state.

The groups have in totality condemned the act of the state Assembly for making it too secret while passing the bill, which according to them is virtually capable of raising dust that would eventually lead to the disrespect of the law makers as they only danced to the selfish tune of the state government in effort to create another source of income.

The groups further lamented that the bill did not states categorically the qualification of the Road Marshals who would serve as enforcement agents that ensure the traffic rules are working, their monthly salary or allowances which will help to avoid paying attention on taking bribes and corruption by the traffic personnel.

“Again, there is need for clarification on the content of the ZAROTA bill that seeks for the establishment of Central Motor Registry Office (CMRO), because currently we have one at the state board of internal revenue, and we don’t know if the state government is going to maintain the existing one or to establish another to make it two in one state”, the conference has challenged.

The conference further enquired on the meaning of the bill for seeking to establish a parallel License Registration Office (LRO) against the already existing one under state board of internal revenue which is managed by the Federal Roads Safety Corps (FRSC).

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PEOPLES DAILY, Monday, February 23, 2015

News

State of the nation: Dr.Fasheun meets Olumbas emissaries

From Matthew Aramunde,Lagos Governor Umaru Tanko Al-Makura, displays his Award as Most Transparent & Accountable Governor in Nigeria, during 2014 Transparency, Accountability, Good Governance and Integrity Heroes Award, on Saturday at Sheraton Hotel, in Abuja.

he Chairman Unity Party of Nigeria and founder of the Odua People’s Congress (OPC)Dr.Fredrick Fasheun over the weekend received in audience at his Okota office three emissaries from the Leader of the Brotherhood of the Cross and Star Olumba Obu. The three man delegation led

by Bishop Isaac Ekeh, Director of Evangelism, report had it, arrived at the Okota premises at 11:15 am and were immediately ushered before Fasheun where a closed door meeting with the octogenarian medical goctor turned politician held for several hours.

Though details of the discussion at the meeting were not made available to pressmen, an insider said both parties had a fruitful discussion which he said bothered on the current situation in the country and proffered the way forward.

However, the leader of the delegation, his lordship, bishop Ekeh, told reporters after emerging from the meeting that they had come to deliver a good will message from the leader of the BCS ,Olumba

Obu and as well extend an invitation to the statesman to grace the forthcoming “Remnants of the Earth” an annual event of the BCS scheduled for the 30th of March to 4th of April this year.

Asked why they did not choose to pay this visit to any other political figure that are in large numbers in the metropolis, the clergy man agreed that indeed such politicians are replete in Nigeria and promised to also visit them but maintained that “This is one Nigeria who is forthright and an epitome of truth who over the years stood for the emancipation of the common man.

Fasheun has not only resurrected the party of the late sage Chief Obafemi Awolowo but has clearly shown that he is not doing so for pecuniary reasons but to provide a plat form for the common man to reap the dividends of democracy” Ekeh said.

Fasheun on his part simply said he is highly inspired by the visit and noted that had this visit taken place during the biblical era, it would have been read to mean that three angels of God visited his office. He stressed that he will always relive the day

33 of 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended) and other regional and international Human Rights instrument, to which Nigeria is a party”.

Responding, representatives of the Academic Forum hoped for a speedy and just response from the Commission, saying justice delayed is justice denied.

It would be recalled that on the 25th and 26th of July ,2014 , a detachment of Nigerian Army headed by Lt. Col. S .O Oku in

a broad daylight murdered 34 people, including 3 of Shaikh Ibraheem Zakzaky’s sons, during the annual International Quds Day procession in Zaria.

Chairman of the NHRC, Professor Chidi Ansalem Odinkalu had also paid condolence visit to Shaikh Zakzaky, where he pledged that the commission “will seek all legal avenues and employ all legal mechanisms to ensure law takes its rightful course”

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Human rights commission probes extra judicial killings in Zaria

From Femi Oyelola,Kaduna

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he National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has pledged to set up a high-powered committee to investigate the killing of 34 people, mostly students by the Nigeria military during the International Quds day procession in Zaria on 25 and 26 July, 2015.

The spokesperson of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria, Mallam Ibrahim Usman

disclosed this in a press statement made available to the media in kaduna yesterday.

According to the statement, the move was as a result of a rally held at the headquarters of the NHRC by the Nigerian students from various tertiary institutions under the umbrella of Academic Forum of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria (AFIMN) last month, pressing for justice.

NHRC gave the assurance when representatives of the Academic Forum presented to

the commission detailed report of the killings, which included pictures and video clips in Abuja head office of the Commission, recently.

Receiving the supporting documents on behalf of the Commission, Executive Secretary of the NHRC Kabiru Alhassan stated that, “the commission will make an independent investigation to ascertain if what happened violated the victims’ right to life as guaranteed under section

Mrs Yero woos southern communities to be partners in development From Femi Oyelola,Kaduna

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he wife of Kaduna state governor, Hajiya Fatima Mukhtar Ramalan Yero, has called on Yoruba community and the youth and women wing of the South South Peoples Congress in Kaduna state to remove the tag which they labeled on themselves as non indigenes and start seeing themselves as part and parcel of the state and a stakeholder in the development, peace and unity of the state.

She stated this when she received the Yoruba movement for Yero and South South women in her office yesterday.

Mrs. Yero said since the women have found themselves in the state doing business and have invested in the state, they should start seeing themselves as stakeholders

in the state saying Kaduna state is a peace loving and accommodating everybody in as much as such person is a Nigerian.

“I commend you all for your support to this administration, the Yoruba community and the South South people has always formed an alliance which dated back to pre-independence day, so it is not surprise for you to come out openly to express your support for my husband’s administration.

“Our doors are open to every group of women with a program aimed at promoting peace, unity and improving the well being of women in the state.

“The Yero’s administration has been carrying the people of the state along, regardless of tribal, religious or political affiliation. I can assure you that such assistance could be extended to you, that you

can better your life, that of your wards and succeed in your chosen endeavour. I crave your endurance to support Governor Yero in the forthcoming election for continuity and stability in the state,” she said.

Speaking earlier, the secretary of the Joint Yoruba Movement for Yero 2015, Hajiya Zainab Abubakar and President of South South Women and Youth Wing, Princess Grace Akpan, said their visit is to register their support to Governor Yero in his bid for election because of the program of peace and security that has been implemented in Kaduna state.

They commended Mrs Yero and her husband for carrying everybody along in the state and making Kaduna state a home for everybody.

NGO provides 28 toilets, 10 hand pumps to Jigawa communities

A

Jigawa-based nongovernmental organisation (NGO), Water Consumers Association, on Sunday said it has constructed 28 ventilated latrines in the Malammadori Local Government Council Area of the state.

The association’s Secretary, Malam Muhammad Dodo, said at an environmental sanitation sensitisation exercise in Malammadori that the toilets were constructed at Malammadori and Garun-Gabas markets to check open defecation.

He said the association had also provided 10 hand pumps and two over tanks to various communities to enhance access to safe drinking water.

Dodo listed Dunari, Malammadori, Kampala and BareBari as some of the benefiting communities. ``We have also constructed animal water points as part of efforts to encourage livestock production,’’ he said.

Dodo explained that the association had also conducted waste evacuation and drains clearance exercise in the area.

The secretary said the association was also sensitising communities on waste management and the need to keep their environment clean.

He said the projects were executed in collaboration with a donor agency called Mobilisation for Development.(NAN)

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PEOPLES DAILY, Monday, February 23, 2015

News Kebbi communities trained on girl-child economic empowerment

L-R: Director General, National Orientation Agency (NOA), Mr. Mike Omeri, in a parley with Director General, Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), Mr. Sola Omole, during an investiture ceremony of WAGEPEACE2015 last Friday in Abuja.

From Ahmed Idris Birnin Kebbi

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CTIONAID in collaboration with Strengthening Women Empowerment to Deepen Girl Child Education (SWEDGE) and Active Support for Rural People Initiative (ASURPI) have established ACTIVISTA programme to train youth on how to mobilize parents on girl-child education alternative economic empowerment for women in Kebbi State.

In his remarks at the flagoff ceremony of the four-day capacity programme in Birnin Kebbi, the National Coordinator, National ACTIVISTA programme, Bashama Gombe said the programme kicked off with three communities namely Tungan Bature, Raishe and Gungun Tagwaye in Ngaski LGA of Kebbi State.

He said youth from the three communities that formed an ACTIVISTA cell will also come up with a business plan in which ASURPI and ACTIONAID will support the ACTIVISTA cells with grants for them to further enhance girl child education in their respective communities through income generating activities such as tailoring, Barbing Saloon, Petty Trading, Motocycling , Rice and Grain milling machines and Work bulls.

“ACTIVISTA aim is building a movement of young people who are empowered to actively participate in and influence political decision making and governance processes thus significantly adding value to Actionaid’s effort to end poverty, campaigning through mobilization and engagement of youth at local and national international level as well as providing opportunities for youth to engage in the fight for social justice on global scale.

“The focus of the training is to mobilize and empower young people to take ownership and action for girl child education, economic empowerment alternative for women,” he added.

Earlier, the coordinator/CEO of ASURPI, Ibrahim Ngaski said the ACTIVISTA group will be provided seed grants to enable the groups support girl child education in their respective communities.

Also, in his remarks, the CE0 Active Support for Rural People, Ibrahim Ngaski said the grants for them to further enhance girl child education in their respective communities through income generating activities such as tailoring, Barbing Saloon, Petty Trading, Motocycling , Rice and Grain milling machines and Work bulls.

Photo: Justin Imo-Owo

N7bn allegation height of mischief, desperation-CAN

By Evelyn Okakwu

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he Christian association of Nigeria, (CAN) has described as baseless and extremely mischievous, the recent allegations made against it, by a certain Pastor Musa Dikwa from Maiduguri State.

A statement signed by its general secretary Rev. Dr. Musa Asake said the mischievous act was rife with falsehood and could have only been propelled by desperation. “Our attention has been drawn to a report credited to one Musa Dikwa alleging that the leadership of Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) was given N7 Billion by President Goodluck Jonathan to campaign

for his re-election. Ordinarily, we would have ignored this baseless and worthless allegation but for the vulnerable public which believes in anything, no matter how incredible the source could be especially in this era of politics”.

“For the avoidance of doubt, CAN has no knowledge of any N7 billion transaction as alleged by Musa Dikwa who claims to be the Executive Director of a non-existent group, Voice of Northern Christian Movement. CAN is not a political party, let alone getting involved in partisan politics.. It is therefore surprising to hear that CAN is campaigning for one candidate”.

“The allegation by Dikwa is

masterminded by those who were not happy with our recent press statement in which we denounced the endorsement of the presidential candidate of APC, General Muhammadu Buhari (retd) by a group of people using the name of different Christian organizations to perpetrate fraud”.

“We are therefore calling on security agencies to commence investigation of the activities of this Voice of Northern Christian Movement and Musa Dikwa himself to unravel the N7 billion mystery which is intended by their sponsors to throw the country into serious crisis”.

“We repeat for emphasis, that neither Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, Bishop David Oyedepo, Pastor Bosun Emmanuel and CAN was given any money by the presidency, let alone N7 billion. The allegation is the height of mischief and desperation.

Unfortunately, our psyche as a nation has been bastardized and abused by the institutionalized corruption introduced by successive military rulers”.

“We are Christians and our candidate is Jesus Christ. So long as we believe that the Church is under threat, we will speak for Jesus Christ and maintain the ‘wake up Call to the church”, the statement noted.

Gombe farmers beg FG for inputs to boost irrigation

F

armers in Boltingo in Yamaltu/ Deba Local Government Area of Gombe State have appealed to the state and local governments to assist them with farming inputs to boost dry season farming.

Leader of the farmers, Malam Bala Ali, made the appeal in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) at the Kunuwal irrigation site on Sunday. ``This area has over 50

irrigation farmers and is in dire need of government’s assistance in the provision of fertiliser, insecticides and water pumps, among others, to enhance our production capacity. ``For several years, farmers in this area engage in dry season farming activities, but we are yet to benefit from government’s gesture.’’

Ali said most of the funding and other inputs needed for farming were provided through the small

savings from the farmers, and they now need government’s intervention to continue on. ``We will appreciate if soft loans can be made available to we the farmers to empower us economically in order to expand our farming,’’ he said.

Another farmer, Malam Mohammadu Isyaku, said the provision of such inputs would enable the farmers to increase their

production of vegetables and other crops.

He called on government to assist the dry season farmers with the necessary inputs to encourage increased food/cash crop production and reduce poverty in the country.

NAN reports that the Kunuwal irrigation site has large hectares of land which were yet to be cultivated in spite of the availability of water in the area.(NAN)

Fayose to resuscitate moribund first Ekiti radio station

From Adesoji Oyinlola, Lagos

A

s part of the Ekiti State Governor, Mr Ayodele Fayose’s promises towards community development in the state, the moribund Voice of Ekiti Amplitude Modulation (AM) station at Ifaki Ekiti will be turned to Frequency Modulation (FM) Station.

The station, which was established on September 26, 1979 ceased to function during

the administration of Dr Kayode Fayemi.

The Governor, who spoke through the Secretary to the State Government, Dr. Modupe Alade said support of the people of IfakiEkiti during the last governorship election in the state was immense.

Dr. Alade added that the Governor’s directives for the inspection of the equipment was a demonstration of his commitment to the people of Ekiti, adding that within a limited time the project will

commence.

She said the Voice of Ekiti AM Station, Ifaki stopped functioning during Fayemi’s led administration hence the need to revive the station as promised by Governor Fayose during his electioneering campaign as requested by the people of Ifaki.

The Special Assistant to the Governor on Public Communication and New Media, Lere Olayinka said Governor Fayose has come to rebuild the state, stressing that despite the financial challenges facing the

state, the Governor would strive to meet the demands of Ekiti people.

Olayinka added that the damaged equipments would be replaced to meet the required standard and would be changed to a Frequency Modulation station.

The representatives of the Governor, which also included the Caretaker Chairman of Ido/ Osi Local Government, Hon Deji Odutola also visited the BSES Staff quarters, which is in a deplorable state.

PAGE 12

CAPITAL TERRITORY ADMINISTRATION

INVITATION TO SUBMIT EXPRESSION OF INTEREST (EOI) FOR APPOINTMENT AS AN EXTERNAL AUDITOR

The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA), through the FCT Audit Department has provision in the FCT 2015 Statutory Budget proposal for the Engagement of External Auditors to Audit the Accounts of some Secretariats, Departments and Agencies of the FCTand intends to use part or whole of it to fund the project. Interested,competent and reputable Chartered Accounting Firms are hereby invited to submit Expression of Interests for the Auditing of some Secretariats, Departments and Agencies (SDAs). Interested Firms must have cognate experience in public sector accounting and familiar with FCT environment. Knowledge of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) is also essential.

A. Lot 1.

Lot 2.

Lot 3.

Lot 4.

Lot 5 Lot 6.

Lot 7.

Lot 8.

Lot 9.

Lot 10.

Lot 11.

Lot 12 Lot 13 Lot 14 Lot 15

The FCTA Secretariats, Departments and Agencies to be audited are as follows:FCT Muslim Pilgrims Welfare Board FCT Christian Pilgrims Welfare Board Directorate of Road Traffic Service (DRTS) Education Resource Centre (ERC) FCT Scholarship Board FCT College of Education, Zuba Abuja Metropolitan Management Council Abuja Infrastructural Investment Centre Satellite Towns Development Department FCT Emergency Management Department Department of Quantity Assurance (formerly DPI) FCT Health Insurance Scheme FCT Agency for Science & Technology Agency for Mass Education Abuja Environmental Protection Board (AEPB)

B. SCOPE OF SERVICES: The scope of services includes but not limited to the following: i.

Carry out a Review of organizational structure, operation andenvironment,Vision and Mission, factors affecting operations such as environment, Government Policies and relevant Laws etc. ii.

Review of Accounting System and Internal Controls in order to assess adequacy as a basis for the preparation of the financial statements. iii.

Review of Financial Statements to ensure compliance with relevant accounting standards, organization’s establishment law/act, financial regulations and government Circulars etc. iv.

Review of Accounting Policies for appropriateness, consistency and adequate disclosure. v.

Carry out Transaction Review of financial operation through tests and enquiries as deemed necessary for the purposes of the audit. vi.

Examine compliance with Public Procurement Act in the Procurement of Goods and Services. vii.

Carry out any relevant task as may be professionally required and proffer appropriate recommendations. viii.

Carry out the resource auditing to justify the judicious utilization of funds released to Secretariat, Department and Agency.

C. REQUIREMENTS FOR SUBMISSION OF EXPRESSION OF INTEREST Interested Auditors are required to submit application, enclosing the following: i.

Evidence of Registration with Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) and Articles of Memorandum of Association. ii.

Tax Clearance Certificate for the last three (3) years expiring December 31st 2014. iii.

Evidence of compliance with PENCOM reform Act in accordance with Section 16(I) d of PPA 2007 in terms of current and valid PENCOM Certificate. iv.

Evidence of ITF contributions in compliance with section 6 (2) of the Industrial Training Fund Amended Act 2011. v.

Corporate Registration with ICAN/ANAN. vi.

Evidence of registration with office of Auditor-General of the Federation. vii.

Company Profile and List of names of Key personnel to be deployed for the service, stating their designation, qualifications and experience. Enclose photocopies of professional certificate of the firm and its personnel and Curriculum Vitae (CV) where applicable. viii.

Evidence of up-to-date returns with CAC (2013). ix.

Evidence of Registration with the National Data Base of Contractors, Consultant and Service Providers by the Bureau of Public procurement (BPP) in line with section 5 (h) and 6(1)(f) x.

Verifiable documentary evidence of similar services successfully rendered within the last five (5) years. xi.

Audited Accounts for the last three (3) years by a Chartered Accounting Firm (2011.2012.2013). xii.

Bank statement of the Company for the last 12 months and reference letter from a reputable bank. xiii.

Sworn affidavit in compliance with the provisions of Part IV section 16, sub-section 6(c, e and f) of the PPA 2007.

D. SUBMISSION AND OPENING OF EoI The Expression of Interest (EoI) documents must be arranged in the order of the criteriastatedabove and loose-bound. Three copies of the EOI Documents (one original and two copies) should be clearly marked at the right hand corner boldly written “Expression of Interest for the Auditing of …………………………………. (Lot….)” and addressed to the Secretary, FCT Tenders Board, FCTA Secretariat, Area 11, Garki- Abuja.

The sealed EoI Document should be dropped in the Tender Box in Room 043, First floor, Block B, FCTA Tenders Board Secretariat, Area 11, Garki – Abuja on or before 12:00 noon of 10thMarch, 2015. The representative of the bidding companies and interested members of the public are invited to witness the opening of EoI Document on the same day immediately after close of submission at Room G9 (AkinolaAguda Hall), Archives and History Bureau No. 5 Peace Drive Area 11, Garki – Abuja.

Please Note that: i.

Late submission will be rejected ii.

Failure to satisfactorily fulfill the conditions as requested above will result in the invalidation of such EOI. iii.

FCTA reserves the right to verify the authenticity of claim(s) made by interested firmsand to reject any submission based on unverifiable information. iv.

Only shortlisted firms will be invited for further Tendering process. v.

A company is not allowed to bid for more than one (1) lot. Company (ies) that violates this rule shall automatically be disqualified.

SIGNED: MANAGEMENT

PEOPLES DAILY, Monday, February 23, 2015

Money Sense

Paying jobs at home while taking care of your baby

N

ew parents often have to make a difficult choice.

Deciding whether to put your child in daycare to continue working, or leave your job to stay at home can feel like a hopeless situation.

On one hand, having a job you go to provides financial security and a way to continue interacting with others.

However, it also means leaving your child in the care of others.

Staying home with your baby is a rewarding option but it can leave parents in the position of having to strictly budget.

If you have your heart set on staying home with your child, here are some jobs that you can do from home while taking care of your baby.

If you have a computer and feel comfortable in your writing abilities, there are a variety of writing jobs you can pursue as a stay at home parent.

Browse the blogging jobs at Jobs.ProBlogger. net for opportunities and information. You can even start your own local parenting blog about things to do and see, ways to save money, and recipes using local ingredients while selling ad space to local venues.

Closed captioning offers a unique way to earn some cash at home during nap time.

If you can craft, there are a wide variety of crafting opportunities you can pursue. Sites like Etsy.com are a wonderful way for crafters to sell their handmade items. Many buy and sell groups are popping up on Facebook as well. Joining several of these local groups may give you some ideas about items you no longer use around your house that you can sell for profit. If you craft, you can post your goods on these sites as well. If you have a baby carrier, you can take your baby along while you browse yard sales around town, buying and reselling items for profit online.

Numerous videos on

YouTube and step by step articles can give you ideas on refinishing old furniture items to sell for profit.

If you know a lot of people and have some networking skills, you can probably sell popular brands that people know and love. Get started by visiting the website of the company you are interested in selling for.

Most offer party host packages with options for commission.

There are numerous options for the stay at home parent to create a small business at home.

Virtual assisting, in home

daycare provider, and elderly advocate are just a few businesses you can start from home while caring for your baby.

Make business cards and brochures, and then take a day away from your baby to promote your business by visiting local businesses and communities that may utilize your services.

Whatever idea you choose, remember: promote your business online through social media, and don’t give up on your dream of being a work at home parent.

The sky is the limit!

Staff Writer

“

If you know a lot of people and have some networking skills, you can probably sell popular brands that people know and love.

PAGE 13

PEOPLES DAILY, Monday, February 23, 2015

EDITORIAL

he heat from the feverpitched campaigning in the presidential and parliamentary elections in March and April may make the various parties and their candidates to miss a very important issue that should define the campaigns. We pray they don’t because it strikes at the very heart of our fledgling democracy.

The latest report we have received is that 23 out 36 state legislatures have thrown out a carefully worked constitutional amendment that would have made local governments independent of the states. At present, they are strings for the shoes of state governors. Together, the 774 local governments named in the 1999 Federal Constitution make up the third tier of government. The first and second tiers are the federal government and state governments in that order. However, whereas the first two are fairly autonomous of each other, the third tier supposedly, is tied to the apron strings of state governments.

Although statutorily, local governments are entitled to a share of federally collected revenues, the money doesn’t go directly to them.

The state governors put it in a joint account, which is anything but joined. They control and even steal what statutorily belongs to the local governments. This is so because the constitution has contrarily made it possible for governors to remove even popularly elected council chairmen at any time they so wish and appoint their cronies as

caretakers of councils.

It was this constitutional blind spot that the National Assembly (Senate and House of Representatives) set out last year to remove. And the federal lawmakers did a painstaking job that took them to the six-geographical zones to sample opinions of Nigerians

“

T

Who is afraid of local govt autonomy?

A common good has been sacrificed on the altar of political self-interest. This way we hardly can grow our democracy. at public hearings. The result was an overwhelming yes vote for local government autonomy. But there was one snag that stopped them from moving forward. The Constitution provides that for their recommendation to become law it must be endorsed by a two-thirds majority in each state House of Assembly.

OUR MISSION “To be the market place of ideas and the leading player in the industry by putting the people first, upholding the truth, maintaining the highest professional and ethical standards while delivering value to our stakeholders”

Alas! It failed there. Only one-third of the 36 state legislatures passed the draft constitutional amendment. It is not difficult to see why the amendment failed to pass in the majority of the states. The state lawmakers there are in the pockets of their governors who paid to put them in the House in the first place. Several of the governors are up for re-election this year and losing control of the joint account would harm their return to power.

So they made sure the lawmakers, already in their pockets, did not bite the hand that feeds them. They did just as they were ordered.

The governors also got help from a trade union turned black sheep – the National Union of Teachers (NUT). It broke rank with the National Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE) on the matter, the governors having convinced (or bribed) the former that an autonomous local government system would not be able to pay their wages. It is not as though the salaries are regular now. In Edo and Benue states, for example, teachers’ wages have not been paid for months on end. In Benue in particular, primary and junior secondary school were shut down much of last year because of a strike by teachers over nonpayment of salary.

We condemn state governors’ armstwisting of their lawmakers to kill an initiative meant to reinforce federalism and deepen our democracy. A common good has been sacrificed on the altar of political selfinterest. This way we hardly can grow our democracy.

OUR PEOPLE

OUR VISION

Chairman Malam Wada Maida, Oon, Fnge Director/Editor-in-Chief Rufa’i Ibrahim Hameed M. Bello

Editor, Daily

Chief Operating Officer Ali M. Ali

Deputy Manager, Production Abdul-Rauf Musa

Acting Editor, Weekend Lawal Sabo Ibrahim

Manager, administration Hassan Hammanyaji

Head, Lagos Bureau Adesoji Oyinlola

“To be a reputable, profitable, innovative and technologically reliant media company offering world class services and products”

PEOPLES DAILY, Monday, February 23, 2015

PAGE 14

Opinion

Nigeria: Emerging from the brink

By Ekeoma Ibe

T

he title of this piece is a modified version of John Campbell’s 2010 masterpiece, ‘Nigeria: Dancing on the Brink’. In it, the former United States ambassador to Nigeria bemoaned the fate of democracy and governance in these words: “Governance, let alone democracy, faces grievous structural challenges in Nigeria.” Five years after the first edition of that book was released, Campbell’s words still stare us in the face. It would seem that every time we come close to making a successful transition, there is a serious crisis.

The 2011 general election was characterized by pockets of violence.

The investigative panel established by the federal government reported that nearly 1,000 people died and property worth about $19m was destroyed. Already, the National Human Rights Commission in its report this week is reporting about 58 deaths in pre-election violence as of February 2015. The question one might wish to ask is why does violence attend elections in Nigeria?

Why does the cycle of violence keep recurring?

Perhaps a simplistic answer might be, lucrative political offices.

The idea that people seek political office for what it offers them – power, connections and often questionable wealth – rather than what they can offer has gained traction particularly since it emerged that Nigeria’s legislators are some of the best paid in the world. But there must be more to this than earnings.

The quest for power ought to be accompanied by the desire to use it for the “greatest good of the greatest number.” In our context, it seems power is wielded in a manner that excludes people of other persuasions.

Elections have become a zero sum game. If you win, you have access to everything. If you don’t, you’re treated as an outcast. Elsewhere, opposition politics aims to deliver the goods for citizens whose voices would otherwise be silenced. In Nigeria, opposition is perceived as the official enemy and often, unfortunately, plays politics of enmity rather than ideas.

This is one reason Nigeria’s fledgling democracy is under-performing.

There is also something to be said about over-reliance on a single income stream. Despite its incredible agricultural and solid minerals potential, Nigeria continues to operate a mono-economy. Her main source of income – oil – is as volatile as it is a diminishing asset. In the wake of falling oil prices, citizens have been compelled to adjust to a system where salaries are not paid as and when due and inflation is on the increase. To make matters worse, the national currency has been devalued. If only we sustained the tempo of agricultural and solid minerals development from the 1960s, perhaps, we might have become the leading exporter of crops such as cocoa, groundnut and oil palm as well as minerals like coal and bitumen.

The near-total dependence on oil also creates a scenario where component units of the federation – states – rely heavily on oil receipts to run their economies although many of them have the potential to sustain themselves and even contribute to the national purse. This penchant for dependence has unfortunately thrown up administrators whose primary preoccupation is travelling to the seat of power, Abuja, to collect monthly allocation and then sharing them according to their whims and caprices. The average Nigerian outside government is worse off for

this.

This background is useful to understand how we got to the point where routine elections are almost perpetually controversial. Nothing can be taken on the face value and everyone is perceived to have an ulterior motive. Although Nigerians should retain the right to elect people of their choice in a free, fair and transparent manner, entrenched interests appear to be contending with the will of the majority. How then can we get out of the woods?

For one, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) must be allowed to undertake its statutory responsibility of conducting the 2015 elections without interference from any quarters. The idea that an election scheduled over one year ago could be unceremoniously shifted barely one week before is rather unfortunate.

More so when INEC continuously offered assurances that it was ready to proceed with the elections. The excuse of military operation in the north-east, as plausible as it may sound, does not engender confidence given that the election could have proceeded in all but the four states in which military operations are supposedly on-going. Many Nigerians still struggle to understand why the same military that assured of its readiness to provide security for elections weeks earlier suddenly realized that it was no longer in a position to keep its promise. In a democracy, the military ought to be under civil authority and not the other way round. That institution needs to insulate its personnel from partisan politics to continue to command the respect of right thinking individuals in society.

The question of “permanent voters cards (PVCs)” collection rates is a bit more difficult because, on the one hand, there is no legal obligation

to collect these cards and therefore they will be individuals who, having lost interest in the political process, may be unwilling to collect their cards. On the other hand, we have heard a number of individuals who claim to have made several spirited attempts to collect theirs without success. Suffice it to note that we cannot have 100 percent collection for several reasons, including attrition, deaths, displacement and relocation. However, there ought to be a minimum threshold beyond which we should proceed with elections as we cannot wait in perpetuity. As of February 18, INEC chairperson Attahiru Jega announced about 75 percent of registered voters had collected their cards across the country. However, he admitted that between 800,000 and 1,000,000 cards had yet to be printed – prompting proponents of election postponement to say INEC was not ready after all.

Questions have been raised about the balance of collection rates across the country as well as statistically questionable collection rates such as 97 percent in parts of the country experiencing extreme violence.

There are no easy answers to these questions but one would hope that INEC will verify and validate its figures to avoid needless controversy.

We also hope that all the cards will be ready and more people would have collected by March 8 when the exercise is expected to end. Either way, PVCs will no longer be an acceptable excuse for holding up these elections.

Although it is difficult - given our peculiar history - the political class ought to think more in terms of the continued existence of Nigeria than their parochial interests. That would hopefully inspire them to think carefully before making any statement. In the recent past,

politicians have caused disaffection in the polity by their recourse to hate speech and ethic/religious bigotry. It is time to bring convincing arguments to the electorate. Religion and ethnicity without more cannot produce good governance and strengthen democracy. They will only succeed in polarizing a country that is better off staying together.

For the electorate, it is time to say no to violence, bigotry and distractions from politicians who mean evil for Nigeria. It is time to ask the right questions – what do they bring to the table? What improvements should we expect if we give them our mandate? If they are requesting another mandate, how well did they fare in the first?

Why should we re-elect them? These and more questions should form the basis of our decision not the money – often our money – that they throw around. We must stand up to the political class and let them know we are equal stakeholders in the entity called Nigeria. It is time to change the dynamic.

The best guarantee against further violence in the build-up to the 2015 elections is respecting the wishes and aspirations of the electorate – freedom to campaign anywhere in Nigeria; no hate speech during campaigns; equal access to media for aspirants; access to permanent voters cards to eligible and interested citizens; non-partisan security and electoral officials and no further postponement of election dates. If politicians and other stakeholders play by the rules, we can be rest assured that Nigeria will pull back from the brinks with limited reputational damage.

Okeoma Ibe is managing partner, Goodshare & Maxwells, a law/consulting firm based in Abuja, Nigeria.

Open letter to EFCC chair

By Musa Wada

O

bserving the Prince Audu and EFCC saga from the outside, I cannot help noticing some abnormalities in the operations of the EFCC, a very important antigraft agency. Indeed, the shabby, haphazard and mischievous manners in which the commission’s case against the former Governor of Kogi state is being handled suggests that the agency is sadly descending into an unwitting tool of intimidation, harassment and attack on individuals whose political belief is at variance with those of the powers that be.

While there is no gainsaying the fact that corruption has eaten deep into the fabric of the Nigerian polity and remains the greatest, most pervasive singular threat to our democracy and national development, measures aimed at mitigating it or bringing culpable individuals to book should as a matter of necessity adhere to due process. The exercise of the duties of the EFCC should be seen and accepted as being devoid of every form of partisan trapping.

Its mode of investigation, arrest, arraignment and even prosecution must be open, fair and reflect an unbiased pursuit of national sanity.

The manner and timing of the attacks and arraignments of Prince Audu over an alleged embezzlement of public funds during his tenure as

Governor of Kogi State depicts an insidious trend towards decimation of his towering political profile.

Going by the timelines of the attacks on him since 2006 when he was ambushed and arrested while on his way to attending the then ANPP campaign rally in Jos up to his recent arraignment in an Abuja High Court, it is quite obvious that Prince Audu, aside other considerations, is a victim of an orchestrated election time smear campaign. Over the time, Prince Audu has had four appearances in the high court of the state where the alleged crime was committed under four different judges and no substantial evidence of wrong doing has been proven against him. The endless forum shopping which cannot be said to be a mere coincidence as the arraignment and re-arraignments are carried out during election periods, betrays a political motive in the Prince Audu and EFCC saga. I see Audu’s travails in the hands of your agency as under-cover hostility driven by a personal obsession to bring Audu to ruination.

I am persuaded to write you this letter because having done an analysis of the various dynamics of the case, I find some of the claims, for instance, the amount said to have been embezzled as somewhat outlandish and spurious. The agitation that engages my mind over the matter is further

reinforced by the confession of one of the prosecution witnesses, Mr Irile Fidelis, in an open court room that he was forced to testify against the defendant, Prince Audu. This dramatic twist in the case leaves no one under any illusion that the affront and hostility being meted out on Prince Audu stems from a vengeful personal obsession borne out of a desperate desire to diminish his political relevance.

Prince Audu as Governor of Kogi state at a time when the monthly allocation from the federation account was only in the region of N300, 000, 000 Million Naira per month was associated with monumental successes in the state thereby winning many local and international accolades.

Nay, through his transformative leadership, the man endeared himself to his people both at home and in the Diaspora. Thus, he remains indelible in the minds of the people of Kogi state and beyond. As a matter of fact, Audu’s loss to Gov Ibrahim Idris in the 2003 general elections remains the greatest tragedy to have befallen Kogi state. And as was to be expected, that loss laid the state bare to nothingness and gloom; but Audu continues to emerge a winner in the consciousness of the people even several years after his exit from power. And with the birth of the APC, the mega opposition party in which Audu features

prominently and looks set to return to the Lugard house come October, it is only natural for the political forces mobilizing against him to seek to destroy his popularity and weaken his political chances.

Therefore, it is worrisome if the EFCC is found being reduced to an offensive instrument in a politically–motivated and sham litigation. At this time when our democracy and the rule of law are being threatened by the excessiveness of selfserving ambitions and political desperation, an agency such as the EFCC must be seen to stand firm in ensuring justice and to uphold the pre-eminence of the rule of law.

This is the only that it can bulwark against the excesses of political desperadoes and their bootlickers.

Seriously, the EFCC must be able to see issues and financial crimes through clear eyes, not through the prism of the political class. When and where it chooses to do otherwise, it is unwittingly conniving in overheating the polity and herding the nation to chaos.

Truth told, many decent Nigerians are watching the unfolding drama of the Prince Audu travails in your hands with alert suspicions.

The timing, circumstance of criminal investigation and charges brought against Audu has consistently prejudiced his rights. His recent and on-going re-arraignment is

replete with a clear departure from procedures and rules governing investigations. To say the least, instituting re-arraignment when the case is in pendency at another high court is sub-judicial and obviously geared towards undermining Audu’s political comeback given the unprecedented gravitation of the citizens of kogi state towards the candidature of their former Governor, a legendary achiever.

Prince Audu is a victim of conspiracy, the flip side of power which has come to afflict our politics in recent times. Much as there will always be these kinds of scenario, and many people are aware of the danger it portends to our democracy but yet helpless in the face of it, it must be pointed out that for a strategic institution such as the EFCC to yield itself to political compromise in prosecuting a case against a high profile political opposition figure is the height of immorality and treachery against constitutional democracy.

Needless to say you have a responsibility to the people and rather than succumb to sentiments and playing to the gallery, justice and rule of law must guide your actions. If you must pursue any case against Prince Audu, then free it from political trappings.

Musa Wada resides in Abuja, FCT.

PAGE 15

PEOPLES DAILY, Monday, February 23, 2015

Comment

Driving Nigeria’s mortgage refinancing system

By Bashir Ibrahim Hassan

A

ffordable housing is the ultimate objective of mortgage refinancing programmes, but different circumstances may lead different countries to introduce it. The Obama administration authorized several refinancing programs aimed at helping underwater homeowners take advantage of the historically low interest rates in the US. In Nigeria bridging the housing deficit may be the driving force.

According housing industry sources there is an estimated 17 million housing deficit in Nigeria. Filling this gap needed a good amount of liquidity, which only special intervention by any government of the day can guarantee. Not surprisingly, the Jonathan led administration came up with the country’s first mortgage refinancing institution-Nigeria Mortgage Refinancing Company (NMRC) based on public-private partnership model, and entrust it in the hands of Professor Charles Inyangete.

Inyangete came to NMRC with a clear visionof providing a l e ve l p l a y i ng g r o u n d a n d creating the required market for all stakeholders in line with global mortgage best practices in refinancing towards becoming a world class institution. This

vision, as Iyangete would always describe it, is predicated on four pillars—innovation supported by robust IT; integrity, as a hallmark of good governance; independence from undue external influence and inclusiveness.

Asked what Nigerians will expect of the NMRC in the next five years, the NMRC CEO answered: “In the next five years, we have projected that we will refinance close to the region of 400,000 to 450,000 mortgages for one segment of the market. When we go down to the lower segments of the market we expect to refinance proportion larger than that number. So Nigerians can expect to see mortgages refinanced in their hundreds of thousands perhaps close to a million in that period, depending on the buoyancy and vibrancy of the market and their activities in that period” Like elsewhere in the world the NMRC is a private sector driven company with the singular purpose of developing the primary and secondary mortgage markets by raising long-term funds from the domestic capital market as well as foreign markets and thereby provide accessible and affordable housing in Nigeria.

The mandate given to the NMRC is to provide primary mortgage Banks (PMBs) with access to long-term finance at an affordable

interest rate, which in turn will enable mortgages to be issued by these institutions to Nigerians at longer tenors and affordable rates.

Consequently, the provision of mortgage loans at longer tenors will provide the average working class Nigerian citizens an opportunity to buy a home and conveniently pay for it over a reasonable period of time without hassles.

Increasingly, provision of adequate housing is one of the indices for measuring the standard of living of people. Therefore, any effort to address housing deficit is an effort towards raising the standard of living of the people.

This effort cannot come at a better time than now when Nigeria is being ranked as one of the poorest countries in the world despite its vast natural endowments and being one of the leading exporters of crude oil and gas in the world.

Thus NMRC as novel idea, incorporated in 2013 can ill afford to fail. Nigerians have waited for long for this to come. Now that it is here, care must be taken to ensure success. With the World Bank approved concessional US$300 million 40-year interest free International Development Association (IDA) loan NMRC has financial wherewithal to make a difference in the Nigeria’s Housing sector. It is expected the lingering problems bedeviling the mortgage

sector will disappear when NMRC take off fully. Lack of focus of some PMBs on mortgage due to their pursuit of other more profitable ventures should be a thing of the past. With NMRC PMBs can borrow, pay out their cash within short term and go back to borrow again and again thereby increasing their own lending capacity.

Lack of ability of PMBs to mobilize funds will no longer be a problem for the Housing sector because with NMRC guarantees the Housing sector will be awash with more funds such the N5 trillion or so of pension fund in the market. With the law interest rate NMRC is bringing into the market it is a win-win situation for both the PMBs and the consumers of mortgage.

NMRC is mandated to increase the efficiency of mortgage lending by taking a lead role in proposing changes to the enabling environment for mortgage lending as well as by standardizing mortgage lending practices of financial institutions.

Standardization of lending practices is where NMRC may face some challenges. New legal frameworks, like foreclosure laws or the new underwriting policy just published by the NMRC will need to be develop and adapted which will take some time. The underwriting policy promised to

allow any player in the mortgage industry that wants to be part of the refinancing to be able to know the exact process from origination right through to the servicing of every mortgage. What will help is a well-articulated industrial relations programme that will address the need for the players to comply. Such industrial relations will have to go beyond the confines of Business-toBusiness communication. NMRC, as a new idea with the purpose of developing both the primary and secondary mortgage institutions, need to engage in massive public sensitization that will awaken Nigerians to the silver lining in the clouds.

Other areas to watch are the macro-economic environment the issue of inflation, which has impact on the construction industry—a critical sector in the mortgage industry process, double-digit interest rates, etc. This should not be difficult to monitor since the NMRC is a key component of the Nigeria Housing Finance Programme which was initiated by all our fiscal policy drivers— the Federal Ministry of Finance (FMOF), the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Federal Ministry of Lands & Urban Development & Housing and the World Bank/IFC. Bashir Ibrahim Hassan contributed this piece from Abuja.

Boko Haram is imperialist terrorism

By P. D. Lawton

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oko Haram is the excuse for US/UK military intervention in Nigeria. Boko Haram are Saddam Hussein`s weapons of mass destruction, Syria`s sarin gas, Gadaffi`s dictatorship, Somalia`s Al Shebaab, Central African Republic`s Seleka rebels, DR Congo`s M23 ( and now FDLR), Mali`s Islamic extremists, Uganda`s LRA, Liberia`s Ebola, Iraq`s ISIS and the Middle East`s Al Qaeda. In short Boko Haram are justification for militarization and foreign intervention according to the new international law called R2P. This stands for Responsibility to Protect.

This law was brought in just in time for NATO to bomb the hell out of Libya. And now the AU are sending 7,500 troops to Nigeria whose military might was quite capable of `restoring law and order` in Sierra Leone and Liberia during their civil wars/economic revolutions.

This is all linked to 9/11 and the resulting War on Terror which conveniently replaced the Cold War. The USA is based on a war economy.

This is called the military industrial complex, which means that the military forces of the USA are being used to defend the corporate interests of industry. Only fools are still believing that Saddam Hussein had WMDs which justified NATO bombing of Iraq and the death of 1.5 million Iraqis and the continuing carnage which is all part of the oil and heroin destabilization program.

The problem in Africa at present is the progress of a new banking system associated with the BRICS bloc, Brazil Russia India China and South Africa. This is the supreme threat to the Rothschild-owned Central Banking system that operates current global finance through the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund ( IMF),

the Federal Reserve of America and the Bank of England. All these establishments are privately owned by a British based cartel headed by the Rothschild family who have economic hegemony over Africa.

This hegemony was once called colonialism and is now called neocolonialism.

Under Muammar Gadaffi, Africa`s banking system was due to be changed from UK/USA/ Rothschild petro-dollar based debt system to the gold based system.

Libya had stockpiled gold reserves worth an estimated $6 billion.

Muammar Gadaffi was, behind the political scenes, bringing African leadership together to form an African economic union that would operate free of World Bank and IMF policy. Since his assassination and the destruction of Libya these gold reserves have disappeared.

The white-collar criminal network that disguises itself as NATO have stolen it.

If Nigeria joined BRICS this would mean the end of UK hegemony in West Africa. Or in other words the end of colonialism in West Africa.

Nigeria is particularly important to the Central Banking system because it has always been Britain`s St George. This term was how the British foreign office described Nigeria, according to declassified memos from the 1960s. St George was sent “to slay the Ghanaian dragon.” The Ghanaian dragon was Kwame Nkrumah and his new economic system was set to end colonialism/neo-colonialism/the British Empires economic control.

Kwame Nkrumah`s system was the Organization of African Unity. And Nigeria, Tanzania, Kenya, Liberia and many other rule-by-proxy African states of the 1960s did indeed slay the Ghanaian dragon and finally gave birth to a mutated corrupted version of Nkrumah`s

OAU. Today the African Union, as the OAU is now called, is how the Central Banking system/ British Empire/ imperialist powers conduct destabilization in Africa while looking African and Black.

The African Union is not overtly a proxy institution, it is controlled through voting so appears to be democratic. As long as the majority of member-states belong to the British Commonwealth voting is always in favor of pro-Western policy. Blackmail is routinely used against leadership that does not tow the line. This blackmail can be economic as in the case of Zimbabwe.

After Zimbabwe sent troops to aid Zaire from invasion by British agents Museveni and Kagame, the IMF called in Zimbabwe`s loans leading to the current economic collapse in Zimbabwe. Blackmail is also carried out by demonization, character assassination or governments overthrown by foreign engineered coups.

Nigeria has been the making of Royal Dutch Shell. This BritishDutch MNC has quite literally set new records for the word corruption.

This corporation has owned Nigeria in every sense of the word for decades and it is one of the pre-eminent corporations of the City of London, otherwise known as the Corporation of London, the raw materials hub of the Economic Empire. Nigeria is a prize asset because it is large, geographically strategic in Frenchcorporate dominated West Africa, full of oil and is industrialized with this currently being in the `right` hands. Nigeria is set to be one of the Central Banks/Empire`s Next Eleven. Next Eleven is the Goldman Sachs rating system for emerging economies.

Currently Jacob Zuma of South Africa is undergoing character assassination for his part in BRICS.

This is not to say that Jacob Zuma is a decent leader or has a government that behaves decently to its citizens.

Julius Malema`s EFF and the Democratic Alliance are part of a proxy process to bring down the ANC. The European and American sanctions against Russia are an attempt to bring down Putin.And although it is refreshing to see Blaise Compaore flung out of Burkina Faso this revolution more than likely involves Compaore`s interest in getting Burkina Faso to join BRICS. This is not to say that like Saddam Hussein`s WMDs, Boko Haram do not exist. Boko Haram do exist in a mutated corrupted form of the original if it is indeed Boko Haram carrying out these acts of aggression and terrorism and not a completely new movement based on British cultivated radical Islam aka ISIS. Something similar but on a lesser scale just happened in France with the terrorist attack on the Charlie Hebdo journalists. This event was like the many attributed to Boko Haram, staged acts to instil fear in the public and in government.

France had just prior to this event, muted a desire to end sanctions against Russia and had been in favor of recognizing a Palestinian state; both detrimental to the Central Banking system/the City of London and its desire to engineer the next Cold War with Russia over the Ukraine and to keep the Zionist State of Israel as the cuckoo of the Middle East ie Terrorism Central.

Kenya`s Westgate Shopping Mall was a staged terror attack ( very clearly staged) in preparation for the current invasion of Nigeria by AU forces and very likely a reprisal against Kenya-China trade deals.

When Ebola erupted Ellen Johnson Sirleaf embraced it with enthusiasm. So enthusiastic was she to allow Liberia to be militarized by US forces posing as nurses that she

attempted to shut down parliament and hold Liberia under martial law right done to its government.

Luckily she did not get away with this. So does Ebola exist or not?

The natural form of this disease exists in the fruit bat population of the jungles who most likely also supply immunity and a cure. The weaponized form of Ebola exists in a Tekmira laboratory in Canada and is most likely only passed on by injection/ `vaccination`.

Joseph Kony has proved a lucrative problem for the Ugandan Goverment.But does he exist? Most likely is that the LRA was formed

by Joseph Kony to resist the British agent in the Ugandan government who has a private war against the Acholi people of northern Uganda because they do not want to vote for him. And whilst having the duplicated version of the LRA, militarization of northern Uganda can be justified. For his troubles with terrorism, Yoweri Museveni is paid billions of dollars by the British Foreign Office and the American budget for supporting anti-terrorism is unlimited.

The man who founded Boko Haram was called Mohammed Yusuf. He was murdered in police custody in Nigeria in 2009.The rare photo of him does not resemble Boko Haram`s offspring of Al Qaeda/ISIS bearded , AK47 , RPG waving, black flag flying Islamic lunatics. And to disagree with Western education is not a crime and not necessarily a backward Taliban concept. Western education is flawed to extreme levels and a Darwinian concept of the Universe is not only atheist but spiritually and scientifically harmful.

P. D. Lawton is founder of africanagenda.net, a writer, researcher and revisionist historian working for true African liberation and a real end to colonialism.

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PEOPLES DAILY, Monday, February 23, 2015

Reps will stop polls elongation, ING-Falake From Ayodele Samuel, Lagos

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member of the House of Representatives and Lagos Coordinator of the Buhari /Osinbajo Presidential Campaign Organisation, James Abidoun Falake has said any form of tenure elongation will not succeed on the floor of the House of Representatives.

Faleke addressing newsmen at the weekend in Lagos insisted that every plot by the Presidency and ruling PDP against the APC presidential candidate General Muhammadu Buhari will fail.

APC said on Saturday that if the electronic card reader was

properly used during the upcoming elections, it would reduce voting time.

“Although the constitution allows a six months extension if the country is in war, but we are not in war; its only 14 local government in the hands of Boko Haram and the military has assures us of restoring peace but as far as I am concerned any tenure elongation cannot scale through in the House of Representatives.”

Faleke stressed that the country cannot survive another postponement of the election.

“We cannot allow the country to be plunged into another constitutional crisis. Any change

in the rule in whatever guise, is manipulation,” Faleke added.

Faleke noted that the APC was not afraid of the card reader, describing it as a facility that would eliminate rigging, voting by proxy and multiple-voting.

He advised voters not to give out the number of their Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) in exchange for money.

“Nigerians, please stop selling your future and don’t give out the number on your PVCs to anybody.”

The APC stalwart also stressed that the party was against the call for the use of Temporary Voter Cards (TVCs) to vote, saying that the migration from TVCs to PVCs

Group protests plan to postpone March 28 elections in Kaduna

Deputy Speaker, House of Representatives, and Governorship Candidate of PDP Imo state, Hon. Emeka Ihedioha, addressing his supporters, during governorship campaign Rally, at the weekend in Aba.

From Mohammad Ibrahim, Kaduna

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group under the auspices of ElRufai Youth Coalition yesterday staged a protest against another alleged plan by the ruling party to postpone the March 28 election, saying they will kick against such a plan.

According to the group, Nigerians are tired and will want the election to hold next month.

The youth raised placards during the protest with inscription such as “Save Nigeria with your PVC” “Election Must hold in March”, “Kick against Corruption and insecurity with your PVC” among others.

Addressing the crowd, leader of the coalition, Comrade Balarabe Birnin Yero called on Nigerians who are yet to receive their PVC to do so before the Election Day. “We call on the Federal Government, Security Agencies and Nigerians to give INEC maximum cooperation to conduct free and fair elections on 28 March and 11 April 2015.

“We also call on Nigerians to collect their PVC, comply with the electoral guidelines during elections so that we can achieve successful and non-violent election.

“We call on our members across the state to give Maximum Corporation to INEC officials, national, international observers and behave in orderly manner during the election.

Whoever is caught involved in any election malpractice or violence will be held responsible,” he said.

had detected double registration of more than four million people.

“Those insisting on the use of TVCs have something up their sleeves; we say no to the use of TVCs. “After all, the PVCs were used in the governorship elections in Ekiti and Osun states,” he said.

Faleke appealed to Nigerians who had not collected their PVCs to get it from their respective wards.

“The voter card is the people’s power that is stronger than the federal might.”

He also appealed to the military not to involve itself in partisan politics but to focus on protection of Nigeria’s territorial integrity.

Card readers to stop election rigging - Senator Hassan

By Ikechukwu Okaforadi

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he Senator representing Jigawa South/West on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the Senate, Abdulmumini Hassan has expressed confidence that the decision by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to apply the card reader in the forthcoming general election would drastically reduce rigging in the electoral processes.

Speaking with journalists after an interactive session between the Senate and the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Attahiru Jega, the lawmaker said those who had

reservations against the instrument have been cleared by the INEC chairman.

He further explained that if the card reader fails in any part of the country during the polls, the elections there would be shifted to the next day, before which the Electoral Officer (EO) concerned would report to the appropriate authority for a replacement.

He said the introduction of the card reader by Jega was an indication that the commission was prepared to do a credible election that would satisfy majority of Nigerians, even as he said he has confidence in the ability of the INEC boss to deliver on his mandate.

Meanwhile, he advised the

electoral commission to ensure that more Nigerians collected their Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs), adding that more trainings should be organised for the INEC staff to ensure that they have mastered the use of the card reader very well before the March 28 elections.

He also urged his constituents to go to their various local government INEC headquarters to collect their PVCs, so as to be able to vote for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the elections.

To this end, he expressed confidence that the PDP would win landslide in the upcoming polls both at national and state government levels.

Jonathan has no plan to rig March polls – Sulaiman

By A’isha Biola Raji

M

inister/Deputy National Chairman, National Planning Commission (NPC), Dr. Abubakar Sulaiman has declared that President Goodluck Jonathan has no plan to rig next month’s general elections.

Describing the President as a leader with large heart, the minister made the disclosure at the University of Abuja mini campus in Gwagwalada during a reception in his honour and other past Deans, organised by the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University.

This was contained in a press statement signed by Salisu Haiba Badamasi, Head of Information, NPC, saying the administration of President Jonathan is working and that the evidence is there.

He said, “I will continue to do more for the university and I can do better, and if you truly like me, vote to return Goodluck Jonathan.

“One thing we should all know is that Jonathan does not have the plan to rig himself back. If he had or has that plan, he would not have appointed Jega, an activist as the INEC chairman. Even on my appointment, Mr. President demonstrated a large heart.

“I was an active unionist during my days as a university lecturer, I led a protest against the then sitting VC, which we carried up to the government level, yet Mr. President decided, devoid of any sentiment, to appoint me a minister. It takes one with a large heart to do that.”

Reeling out the catalogue of Jonathan’s achievements, the minister stated that under President Goodluck Jonathan, 14 Federal Universities were built across the geo-political spread of the country and this is a great height achieved in educational development ever witnessed in the Nigeria In his remarks, the Vice Chancellor of the University, Professor Mike Adikwu, commended the minister for putting the university first in the course of discharging his duties as a minister, adding that “Dr Sualiman, has lived up to his billings as an academic in the federal executive council and has also made the university proud as his constituent.”

Adikwu expressed appreciation for the foreign training opportunity given to the university by the NPC under Sulaiman’s leadership, and expressed confidence that the minister will do more to for the institution.

PAGE 17

PEOPLES DAILY, monday, February 23, 2015

Polls: Southern Kaduna behind Yero -Group From Femi Oyelola, Kaduna

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L-R: Assistant Campaign Manager, Buhari/Osinbajo Presidential Campaign Organisation, Ikeja chapter, Mrs. Fola Awolala, Lagos state Coordinator, Mr. James Faleke, and Campaign Manager, Ikeja chapter, Mrs. Bank Anthony Funmi-Ade, during a news conference, on Saturday in Lagos.

Photo: NAN

Aliyu violated constitution, offence impeachable –Bwari From Yakubu Mustapha, Minna

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iger State Governor, Dr Muazu Babangida Aliyu has violated the constitution for handing over the reins of his office to the Speaker of the Niger State House of Assembly instead of the state Deputy Governor Hon. Ahmed Musa Ibeto.

Hon. Abubakar Bawa Bwari former Chief Whip, House of Representatives made the disclosure in a press statement issued in Minna yesterday, saying the action contravened Section 190 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria which states clearly that in the event that a governor is not available to do his functions, the power to act in his stead automatically rests on

the deputy governor of that state.

Bawa Bwari said “the section clearly sets down the processes which, in sum, direct the governor to transmit a letter to the Speaker of the House that he would not be available for a specified period of time. Immediately such a letter is received by the Speaker, the Deputy Governor automatically assumes the reigns until the governor transmit another letter to the Speaker that he was available and ready to resume his duties”.

It could be recalled that a letter written to that effect to the Speaker of the House by the governor with reference No. GHNS/13/72, dated 18th February, 2015 and signed by the Governor himself, stated that “I wish to inform Mr. Speaker that I intend to travel to the Kingdom

of Saudi Arabia to perform the lesser Hajj between 19th-26th February, 2015”.

“In my absence, the Honorable Speaker, Niger State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Adamu Usman will oversee my schedules as the Acting Governor” Bwari stated that the action of Governor Aliyu did not follow the laid down process and therefore violated the Constitution and thus has committed an impeachable offence.

He added that “the fact is, any blatant disobedience of the Constitution by a public office holder can be grounds for impeachment. The Constitution is not anybody’s play thing and we cannot choose when to obey it and when not to do so”.

The lawmaker between 1999 to 2007 intimated that the office

of the deputy governor was vital to any functional democracy, that it is not an addendum and that is why no governor were elected without first naming a deputy with which he hopes to lead the state.

“As a leader in the National Assembly for eight years, I am aware that this particular Constitutional provision mandating chief executives to handover to their deputies whenever they are otherwise unavailable to do their job has been violated on a number of occasions”.

He however noted that that does not make it right and the citizens must begin to insist that Constitutional provisions be followed to the latter if the nation’s democracy must grow.

head of the April 11th governorship election, a member of the Southern Kaduna Winning All (SOKWINA) and state General Secretary of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Mr. Katung Peters have said that Southern Kaduna people are solidly behind the incumbent Governor, Alhaji Muhktar Ramalan Yero in his election bid to retain his office.

A statement signed by a chieftain of the group, Katung Peters and made available to our correspondent, said the people of southern Kaduna have no doubt on the leadership qualities of Governor Yero and his capability to win the governorship election under the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

“Some members of this forum had embarked on a tour of almost the eight local governments of southern Kaduna for fact findings on whether or not the southern Kaduna people remain committed to PDP and its agenda.

“It is confirmed beyond all doubts that southern Kaduna people will never abandon PDP for any other party or candidate.

“We met with opinion leaders, youth and women leaders to sort their opinions.

“The general consensus is that from Presidential, senate, House of Representatives, gubernatorial and state House of assembly elections, it will be PDP all the way. The people of southern Kaduna believe that Governor Yero has so much in stock for the people of Kaduna State and southern Kaduna in particular.

“The recent inauguration of the committee of university of science and technology to be cited in southern Kaduna is another booster and hope to our people who are committed to late Patrick Yakowa’s legacies. Our people have regard for him because of his humility, respect for tradition and customs of the people, respect for elders and individuals, not matter their status” the group stated.

Yuguda/FCT Minister’s feud: Group blames Yuguda From Ahmed Kaigama, Bauchi

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political pressure group in Bauchi has apportioned blame on the state Governor, Isa Yuguda for embarrassing President Goodluck Jonathan during his recent campaign rally tour to the state.

According to the group, the fact that Yuguda immediately after the incident exonerated the opposition party and passed the blame onto the FCT Minister, Bala Mohammed means that Yuguda had his plans clearly defined.

It would be recalled that some unidentified but alleged hired political thugs in Bauchi embarrassed President Goodluck Jonathan when

they pelted the convoy of president with stones while on its recent campaign flag-off in the state.

The group, Northeast Youths Progressive Forum said, “It is unbelievable that Senator Bala Mohammed will plot this kind of public embarrassment to President Goodluck Jonathan”, as claimed

by Governor Isa Yuguda after the incident.

“What is more worrisome to all right thinking people however is the quick manner in which Governor Isa Yuguda make public statement to effect that he blames FCT Minister, Bala Mohammed for masterminding the heinous act”.

The chairman of the forum,

Comrade Maina Bukar alleged that Governor Isa Yuguda is capable of doing more than rocking the PDP boat to earn cheap political scores.

Bukar in a signed statement made available to journalists in Bauchi at the weekend stated, “President Goodluck Jonathan who did everything to Bauchi was publicly embarrassed by political thugs, an action that was condemned by everybody, including the opposition political parties”.

The forum chairman recalled that President Jonathan during his stewardship of the nation gave Bauchi two ministerial slots, National chairman of the PDP, Chairman and Executive Secretary of TETFund, Director-General of FRCN, and a host

of other juicy appointments.

This, Bukar said, is even as Bauchi State denied the President the needed twenty-five percent votes in the 2011 elections, saying what the President gave to Bauchi is more than fair share in fairness to other states that make up the federation.

“As the Chief Security Officer of the State, Yuguda is in a better position to know who masterminded what, but why didn’t he make any attempt to avert it since his President would be embarrassed?”, he queried.

“Yuguda as the PDP senatorial flag-bearer for Bauchi South never have his posters printed with the President’s picture just as during his senatorial campaign, he singled out

his name and remain silent on the presidential candidate of the party, possibly as part of his secret accord with the opposition”.

Bukar further alleged that Yuguda’s life consist of deceit, “We have not forgotten the intriguing manner in which he signed a secret pact in 2007 with some elements in the national headquarters of the PDP with the aim of opposing the collective party arrangement at the state only to return to it after deceiving the people to secure their mandate”.

Comrade Maina Bukar therefore challenged Yuguda to produce his campaign posters with the picture of President Jonathan if truly he is loyal to the party and the president.

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PEOPLES DAILY, monday, February 23, 2015

Agabi leads Nasarawa IDPs back to ancestral homes

By Umar Muhammad Puma

President Goodluck Jonathan (right), Soun of Ogbomoso Land, Oba Jimoh Oladunni Oyewumi (left), and PDP National Chairman, Alhaji Ahmadu Adamu Mu’azu (middle), during the president’s visit to the monarch on his campaign tour of South-West, on Saturday in Ogbomoso.

Photo: NAN

Ekiti rigging tape must be probed – APC

From Ayodele Samuel, Lagos

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he All Progressives Congress (APC) has renewed its call for a thorough probe of the Ekiti rigging tape that was recently released by an army captain who recorded the audio tape, saying it is wrong for anyone to label the tape a fake without a forensic investigation.

In a statement issued in Lagos yesterday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said the issues exposed by the tape are too grievous to be swept under the carpet or dismissed on the basis of nothing but gross partisanship.

It said the investigation is particularly necessary because of the alleged role the military played in the whole rigging scenario, and against the background of the court rulings against the deployment of troops for elections. ‘’If the government officials and politicians whose voices

were heard on the tape are not interested in clearing their name, what of the military institution that was dragged into the show of shame? Has the integrity of the military not been compromised by the alleged role of a general and hundreds of his troops in the rigging saga?’’ APC queried.

The party said the inconsistency of the federal government’s response to the whole saga has exposed its underbelly and made it more urgent for a forensic investigation of the tape to be carried out. ‘’First, those whose voices were heard on the tape rushed to deny there was any such meeting.

Later, after they were confronted with a preponderance of evidence, they started owning up one by one, starting with Police Affairs Minister, Jelili Adesiyan, then Minister of State for Defence, Musiliu Obanikoro and then Ekiti Governor, Ayodele Fayose, even though they all denied the meeting was about rigging. Of

course Nigerians know better. ‘’But these men, on the basis of their initial denial, are no longer credible as far as the rigging tape is concerned, hence it is necessary to have an independent investigation of the whole issue,’’ it said.

APC also said that while President Goodluck Jonathan had rushed to dismiss the authenticity of the tape, telling the Wall Street Journal ‘It’s all fabrications’, his campaign spokesman Femi FaniKayode said the exact opposite: ‘We have listened to the audio clip and we make bold to say that the discussion that took place in it did not make any mention of any form of rigging in the Ekiti State governorship election and neither did it contain any evidence of any conspiracy to rig.’ ‘’Can anyone listen to a non-existent audio tape? This confusion in the government circles is the clearest indication yet that they were so panicked by the revelation that they could not

fashion out a coherent response to it, hence the discordant notes by the major culprits and their oga at the top! ‘’We sympathize with them, but we are more worried about the effect this revelation will have on a respectable national institutional like the military, which was dragged into the rigging mess. This is why even the military itself must carry out its own investigation. ‘’If an Army General could be so bullied into submission by political partisans, to the point where he said he will cry, what will they not do to any other military officer or men? Does this whole rigging saga not call into question the role of the military in elections?’’ the party further queried.

It vowed not to allow the issue to be swept under the carpet in the interest of the nation, and commended the media and indeed all Nigerians for sustaining the discourse on the rigging tape.

The gubernatorial candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Nasarawa State, Alhaji Yusuf Agabi, over the weekend led hundreds of Internally Displace Persons (IDPs), who were displaced by communal clashes in Assakio and other surrounding areas back to their ancestral homes.

Dr. Agabi, who was in Assakio to see the Owusakyo of Assakio, HRH Francis Inarigu, assured the royal father that his administration would ensure that all those displaced by the incessant communal clashes in the area were returned home to start rebuilding their lives.

He said the protection of lives and property would be the pivotal preoccupation of his administration even as he promised to ensure that all the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in the state are returned to their ancestral homes within the first three months of his administration.

According to him, “The stories of Assakio and other adjoining communities are those of killings, destruction, apprehension and hopelessness in the past three years. It my singular commitment that within the first three months of my assumption of office all the displaced persons would return home and be reunited with their families”.

He said, if elected, his administration will be deeply involved in the rebuilding process, and appealed to politicians to desist from employing religion and ethnicity in canvassing for votes as that only serves to polarize the society and breeds hate.

Agabi who attributed the recurring communal violence in the state to institutional injustices made manifest in the recent past, stressed that his administration will tackle the menace and the state a new lease of life.

Youth coalition canvases for free, fair March polls From Raji Bello, Sokoto

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he Nigerian Youth Coalition Against Electoral Violence (NYCAEV) has condemned any form of political violence during and after the forthcoming general elections in the country.

This was contained in an eight-point communique jointly signed by Mr Idris Rogo, National

Secretary of the coalition and Mr Abdullahi Dadada, the YOWICAN, North-west coordinator.

The group also said it had concluded plans to embark on a nation-wide sensitization campaigns to ensure violence-free elections across the nation.

According to the group “the aim of the campaign is to stem the ugly tide of political thuggery

across Nigeria. We will also emphasize to the youths across the nation that the unity and peace of Nigeria cannot in any way be compromised for some selfish political, religious or ethnic reasons,” he added.

It stressed the need for social justice, equity and transparency in all the affairs of Nigeria, adding that the fulcrum of the campaigns

will be the football viewing centres and other social corners in the country.

It appealed to the youths in the country to steer clear of thuggery and all acts of violence. “CAN is part of this nation-wide efforts to ensure that the forthcoming polls were devoid of pre and post elections violence.”

“We reaffirm our resolve to

stay in peace with one another, before, during and after elections, and remain united as Nigerians, regardless of our regional, tribal and tribal affiliation,” the communique, added.

It among other things also condemned any attempt by some politicians to use religion to divide the youth for their cheap political gain.

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PEOPLES DAILY, monday, February 23, 2015

By Etuka Sunday

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he Dangote Group has expressed optimism that with its ongoing agricultural projects across the country, Nigeria is on its way of being self-sufficient in the areas of food production.

The Group reiterated its determination to support the Federal Government in its effort to revolutionize the agricultural sector and make Nigeria selfdependence in the areas of food production.

The Group which is reputed to be the single largest private sector employer of labour in Nigeria is currently investing in fertilizer, rice, tomato paste and sugar production, among others.

The Group is also building a 650,000bpd petroleum refinery

Dangote unveils plans to feed Nigerians which will be the single largest in the world.

Only last year the Group signed a Memorandum of Association (MoU) with the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to invest $1billion for the establishment of fully integrated rice production and processing operations across the country.

The statement said the MoU and the planned investment are a response to government reforms

of the Agricultural Transforming Agenda(ATA) launched in 2011.

The statement said the Group has acquired farmlands in Edo, Jigawa, Kebbi, Kwara and Niger States totaling 150,000 hectares to be used for commercial production of rice paddy.

The company will also establish two modern large scale mills each with capacity to mill 120,000 metric tonnes of rice paddy, while doubling the capacity within two years.

The statement said this will become the single largest investment in rice production in Africa.

The rice plants estimated to produce 960,000 metric tonnes, representing 46 percent of total rice imported into Nigeria.

Group President Aliko Dangote had said during the signing of the MoU that Nigeria,”is capable of producing rice that can feed the whole of

West African sub region.”

A statement from the Dangote Group also said it is investing in tomato paste production in Kano, as well as a $2billion fertilizer projects in Edo State.

The statement said however, the Group’s foray into Agric and food processing business began in 1997 when it keyed into the backward integration policy of the government in sugar subsector of the nation’s economy.

L-R: Minister of Trade and Investment, Mr. Olusegun Aganga, CBN Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefele, Executive Director, Persons with Disabilities, Mr. Adeboye Abioye, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Bank of Industry (BoI), Mr. Rasheed Olaoluwa, and Director General Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN), Alhaji Bature Umar Masari, during the National Council on Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, recently at the State House, in Abuja.

Photo: Joe Oroye

Local Content: NNPC reiterates commitment to in-country capacity

By Etuka Sunday

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he Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has reiterated its commitment to continue to promote in-country capacity by leveraging on indigenous companies with requisite technology to add value to the Oil and Gas industry in Nigeria.

A statement by the Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, NNPC, Ohi Alegbe quoted the Group

Executive Director, Engineering and Technology of the NNPC, Engr. Adebayo Ibirogba to have stated this while inspecting the fabrication yard of an indigenous company along with some NNPC senior staff from different subsidiaries in Lagos.

Engr. Ibirogba noted that Kaztec Engineering Limited is one of the indigenous clients of the Corporation, stating that the fabrication yard of the company is a model of excellence.

The GED stated that the

Nigerian Content Act of the Federal Government provides a veritable platform for indigenous companies to operate on a level playing field with other International Oil Companies in Nigeria.

According to him, the NNPC has been at the forefront of those supporting and encouraging the attainment of the local content target for the industry as it has done in other sectors.

Engr. Ibirogba said investing in local content would give some

advantage to local fabricators, adding that the Federal Government would ensure total encouragement of potential investors who want to invest locally.

He said the Petroleum Industry Bill before the National Assembly, when passed into law, would further promote the growth of indigenous participation in the petroleum sector.

Conducting the NNPC delegation round the premises of

the yard, the Managing Director of Kaztec Engineering Limited Mr. John Niezner said the company operates wholly in line with the Nigerian Content Act by engaging Nigerians majorly in all its welding and fabrication operations.

He said most of the Engineering designs and materials are locally sourced adding that the company’s operations contribute enormously to the country’s Gross Domestic Product.

Page 20

PEOPLES DAILY, monday, February 23, 2015

Money Market Naira devaluation to increase demand for non-oil exports –Awolowo

C

hief Executive Officer, Nigerian Export Promotion Council, Mr. Olusegun Awolowo has advocated that nonoil sector has the potential to transform the economy if properly developed.

According to him, devaluation of naira will surely make nonoil exports more cumbersome as exporters would generally spend more to do business, while importers pay with a stronger currency.

He stated that for instance, purchasing power of production inputs, machineries and

even training and manpower development that has foreign content has become costlier – thereby making non-oil export business less attractive.

He however noted that the other hand, the situation could lead to increased demand for Nigerian non-oil exports since it would make manufacturing exporters to look inwards in raising the bars of marketing indices such as quality of products, adaptation to demands, technical regulations, SPS standards, increase in production quantity, packaging and labelling requirements among others.

Nigeria’s non-oil exports for the second quarter of 2014 stood at $652.866bn. This figure gave a decline of 19.86 per cent against $814.672bn recorded for the first quarter of 2014. It further recorded a decline of 6.86 per cent when compared with the figure of $700.966m for the corresponding period of 2014.

He attributed the fall to increased informal trade, high cost of producing export goods, infrastructural deficiency, among others.

“In that time, we also worked on increasing our competitiveness

and reducing rejects through capacity development in standards, packaging, advocacy for better quality and concentration on select products of comparative advantage.

The recent debasing showed that Nigeria is the largest economy in Africa, and could therefore become a key player in the world economy.

Recent dwindling in world oil price has yet presented us (as a country) the opportunity to have a rethink on what positive things non-oil exports could do to our economy.

To me, it is a blessing in disguise because this offers us an opportunity to refocus our economy from its monolithic oildominated to the non-oil export sector. We have started preparing for this moment already, hence the economic transformation of this administration.

Nigeria does not gain much from exporting just raw materials, so we are working towards backward integration to ensure more manufacturing takes place here to enable us to get better value for our products in the global market.

Experts to brainstorm on better life for retirees at 2014 Inspen award

H

ow to ensure a better life for retirees would be the focus in the 2014 Nigerian Insurance and Pension (Inspen) Award.

A statement by the Chief Executive Office Inspen Media, Chuks Udo Okonta, said experts drawn from insurance, pension and sectors would be on ground to seek solution to the plights of retirees and make contributions on how to improve retirement benefits operations.

He noted that the Theme paper: Dimensioning Retirement Benefits will be delivered by the Managing Director Lancelot Ventures Limited, Mr. Adebayo Adeleke, Real Estate, Investments and Venture Capital expert, adding that the award presentation ceremony will hold on Thursday, February 26 2015 at the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry Conference and Exhibition Centre, Alausa Ikeja.

Time 11:00am.

Okonta said discussants were drawn from the National Insurance Commission; Nigerian Insurers Association; National Pension Commission; Lagos State Pension Commission; Nigerian Council of Registered Insurance Brokers; Pension Transition Arrangement Directorate and Pension Fund Operators Association of Nigeria.

He said the yearly award was designed to celebrate excellent performances exhibited by individuals and organisation and by extension deepen insurance and pension awareness.

Okonta said insurance; pension companies and individuals that distinguished themselves in 2014, would be celebrated and presented awards in different categories.

Women returnees buying and selling, last Thursday at Mararaba Mubi after flushing out insurgents by the army in Adamawa state.

Photo: NAN

CBN to exclude exporters from forex market Stories from Ngozi Onyeakusi, Lagos

T

he Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has warned exporters to repatriate their earnings into their domiciliary accounts within the stipulated period or be barred from the foreign exchange market.

In a circular by the Director,

Trade and Exchange Department, Mr. Olakanmi Gbadamosi, the CBN asked all authorised dealers to ensure strict compliance, citing the provisions of Paragraph (4) Memorandum (11) of the Foreign Exchange Manual in respect of the repatriation of export proceeds.

It stated, “Proceeds of oil and non-oil exports are to be repatriated into the export

proceeds domiciliary accounts of their respective exporters’ accounts within 90 days for oil exports and 180 days for nonoil exports, failing which the collecting banks will be liable to a fine of 10 per cent of the FOB value of the transaction, including other appropriate penalties as provided in the BOFIA Act of 1991, as amended.

“Where an exporter fails to repatriate the proceeds into the domiciliary account within the stipulated period, the exporter will be barred from participating in all the segments of the foreign exchange market in Nigeria.

“Please be guided accordingly and ensure strict compliance,” the CBN said.

Page 21

PEOPLES DAILY, monday, February 23, 2015

Capital Market

Stock market records 6.52% appreciation Stories from Ngozi Onyeakusi, Lagos

D

riven by activity in the financial services industry, transaction on the floor of the Nigeria Stock Exchange last week ended on a bullish trend as the twin market indicators gained appreciation.

Specifically, the Market Capitalization of listed equities appreciated by 6.52% to close on Friday at and N 9.804 trillion

from 9.204 trillion it opened with while the NSE All-Share Index equally appreciated by 6.52% to close at 29,383.93 basis points from 27,585.26 basis point recorded the previous week.

Similarly, all indices finished higher during the week with exception of the NSE Insurance Index that declined by 0.58%, while NSE ASeM Index closed flat at 1,213.36 points. NSE 30 Index appreciated by 89.48

basis points to 1,328.41, NSE Banking Index increased by 31.57 to 310.09, NSE Consumer Good Index went up by 30.38 to 751.74 point, NSE Oil/ Gas Index rose by 25.67 basis points to 383.63, NSE Lotus II grew by 154.10 to 2,060, NSE Industrial Goods Index 117.35 to 1,914.57 points.

Review of activity in the market showed that a turnover of 2.083 billion shares worth N22.467 billion in 20,805 deals were traded by investors in

L-R: Marketing Manager, Wealth Creation, Stanbic IBTC, Mr. Dapo Martins, Executive Director, Social Media Week Lagos, Mrs. Ngozi Odita, and Head of Business Banking, Stanbic IBTC Bank, Mr. Lloyd Onaghinon, during a forum to mark the 2015 Social Media Week, recently in Lagos.

ETF to boost market growth-Sotubo

T

he Chief Executive Officer, Stanbic IBTC Stockbrokers Limited, Mr. Oladele Sotubo, has called for awareness on the benefit of Exchange Traded Fund ETF adding that such would give room for growth of the market.

Speaking in an interview with the journalists on ETF which is relatively a new product in the Nigerian market, Sotubo who assured that market will definitely support the product noted that ETF will assist in deepening market growth.

“The market is growing gradually and the ETF will help deepen our market as well as diversify investors’ portfolio and risk. ETF represents baskets of stocks and a simplified method of investment whereby investors have a stake in many companies tracked by the ETF”, he said.

Speaking on the benefits of mega companies like telecoms listing on the Exchange, he equally assured that listing of such companies would assist in deepening the market.

“The listing of these companies will help deepen the capital market.

The regulators and operators

are currently discussing with the government on the best way to ensure that these companies list on The Exchange to help deepen the market. Beyond that, we will continue to play an active role in listing such companies on the NSE. The listing of SEPLAT, an oil and gas company, on the NSE is a clear example of our contribution as financial services group to deepening the NSE”, he said.

On measures to be put in place in order to restore confidence in the market after its crash in 2008, Sotubo gave assurance that the increase in retail investment products such as ETFs among others will also encourage retail investors’ participation in the market.

“Restoring confidence in the market after the global meltdown will be a gradual process as activities in the equities market is cyclical.

Foreign investment withdrawal from the market in 2014 was largely as a result of Macros fall in oil prices and currency devaluation and exchange rate instability.

Improved macro-economic situation will galvanise investors’ interest and boost retail investors’

confidence in the market. The increase in the number of more sophisticated domestic investors such as pension and asset management and insurance companies should drive participation in the medium to longer-term. We believe that the increase in retail investment products such as ETFs will also encourage retail investors’ participation”, he assured.

On future outlook of the market, he stated “ We expect continuous volatility in the equities market as macro concerns linked to the falling oil price and currency drive investor sentiment. The passive position of domestic investor has not helped the situation.

Despite the bearish outlook, we expect trading opportunities to continue to emerge for shortterm investors while longer-term investors take advantage of the falling prices to increase exposure in quality stocks. We also expect the political risk as we approach the general elections to weigh on investor sentiments in the shortterm.

However, we expect to continue to see investors’ interest in quality names”, he said.

contrast to a total of 1.950 billion shares valued at N27.836 billion that exchanged hands last week in 19,337 deals.

The Financial Services Industry (measured by volume) led the activity chart with 1.645 billion shares valued at N10.726 billion traded in 12,348 deals; thus contributing 78.98% and 47.74% to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively. The ICT Industry followed with a turnover of 148.155 million shares worth N609.070 million in 66 deals.

The third place was occupied by the Conglomerates Industry with 122.735 million shares worth N1.013 billion in 1,305 deals.

Trading in the Top Three Equities namely- Access Bank Plc, United Bank for Africa Plc and Guaranty Trust Bank Plc (measured by volume) accounted for 749.043 million shares worth N6.637 billion in 4,558 deals, contributing 35.96% and 29.54% to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively.

Forty (40) equities appreciated in price during the week, higher than eleven (11) equities of the preceding week. Twenty-six (26) equities depreciated in price, lower than fifty-three (53) equities of the preceding week, while one hundred and thirty (130) equities remained unchanged lower than one hundred and thirty-two (132) equities recorded in the preceding week.

Guaranty Trust Bank Plc led gainers table for the week in percentage terms, appreciating by 28.12 per cent or N4.78 kobo to close at N21.74 kobo, The Okomu Oil Palm Company Plc followed

with 21.47 per cent or N6.29 kobo to close at N35.58 kobo while FBN Holdings increased by 16.95 per cent or N1.08 kobo to close at N7.45 kobo. Other stocks that recorded price appreciation were Seplat Petroleum Development Company Limited 15.72 per cent, Presco Plc 15.64 per cent, May & Baker Nigeria Plc 14.81 per cent, National Salt Company Nigeria Plc 14.17 per cent, United Bank for Africa Plc 13.67 per cent, NEM Insurance Co (Nig) Plc 13.21 per cent and Zenith International Bank Plc 11.20 per cent Conversely, UACN Property Development Company Plc topped losers chart for the week, dropping by 17.50 per cent or N2.09 kobo to close at N9.85 kobo, Champion Breweries Plc 15.82 per cent or N0.94 kobo to close at N5.00 while Julius Berger Nigeria Plc loss 14.23 per cent or N6.32 kobo to close at N38.08 kobo. Other companies depreciated in price were Cadbury Nigeria Plc 9.73 per cent, Honey Well Flour Mill Plc7.94 per cent, International Breweries Plc 7.26 per cent, CAP Plc 6.84 per cent, R.T. Briscoe (Nig) Plc 5.95 per , A. G. Leventis (Nigeria) Plc, 5.0 per cent and Beta Glass (Nig) Plc 5.0 per cent Also traded during the week were a total of 97,786 units of Exchange Traded Products (ETPs) valued at N2.074 million executed in 35 deals compared with a total of 112,499 units valued at N1.698 million transacted last week in 36 deals.

Similarly, a total of 982 units of FGN bonds valued at N982,494.07 were executed in 5 deals. There was no activity recorded in debt board in the previous week.

NSE plans better investment position

I

n line with the bourse effort in keeping with its unwavering commitment to solidify its leadership position as Africa’s foremost securities exchange, the Nigerian Stock Exchange, NSE, has expressed it readiness to introduce initiatives that will help position it as attractive listing and investment destination across the globe.

This was disclosed by the NSE Chief Executive, Mr. Oscar Onyema, while addressing v n a press conference in Lagos.

According to him, the Exchange will focus on delivering several initiatives in support of its revised strategy within the year.

He highlighted some of the initiatives to include promotion of Nigerian capital market as an African hub for growth companies, attracting more domestic flows into the market; implementation of a more competitive price structure in conjunction with the regulator and other market participants; and intensifying its

efforts towards developing a more sustainable market.

Speaking on the bearish trend that prevailed in the market in 2014, the NSE boss said: “The Nigerian capital market and the business of the stock exchange will always be impacted by shining economic trends and investor demands, however, achieving success through growth that creates value will increase the bourse’s ability to operate efficiently and profitably in the transient-advantage economy that has unfolded in Nigeria and around the world.

“The effect of disruptive short-term market cycles can be reduced with the right market structure, a diverse set of products that perform well in different market conditions, and enabling policy that provides stability to the marketplace, and gives confidence to issuers and investors. Therefore, this will be the focus of the Nigerian Stock Exchange in 2015.”

Page 22

PEOPLES DAILY, monday, February 23, 2015

Business

President Jonathan says FG will open more inland ports in Nigeria

P

resident Goodluck Jonathan said at a meeting with the Igbo Market Leaders in Lagos that the Federal Government would open more inland ports in the country for easy clearance of imports.

He stated this at the State House, Marina, when a delegation of the Igbo market traders in Lagos visited him.

Jonathan said the FG had already approved an inland port in Aba, Abia State, and explained

that the intention of the ports was to decongest Lagos ports and expand business activities to other parts of the country.

The president thanked the traders for standing by him in his reelection bid and acknowledged

Ag. Director General of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Mounir Gwarzo (right) welcoming Deputy Governor (Financial System Stability) Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Dr. Okwu Joseph Nnana during a visit to the Commission headquarter on Thursday in Abuja.

CBN, SEC pledge collaboration to strengthen financial sector

By Etuka Sunday

I

n a bid to further strengthen the capital market and Nigerian financial system, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), have pledged closer collaboration in that direction.

This was made known shortly after the meeting between the Deputy Governor, Financial System Stability, CBN, Dr. Okwu Joseph Nnana (who was on a courtesy visit to the Commission) and Management of the SEC, led by the Ag. Director General, Mounir Gwarzo in Abuja.

This collaboration is coming on the heels of the decline in the price of crude oil in the international market and its impact on the Naira’s exchange rate as well as the Nation’s capital market.

Gwarzo described the

collaboration as timely especially given the difficulties being experienced in the economy at the moment and hoped that both regulators would work in tandem in finding solutions to the issues.

“You have come at the right time; we crave one-onone collaboration with various institutions as we believe it is very important in finding solution to our economic problems as a nation. We need to collaborate on major areas beyond the platform provided by the Financial Services Regulation Coordinating Committee (FSRCC)” he said.

He said that one of the policy thrusts of the present management of the Commission was the empowerment of trade groups in the Capital Market which he said would enhance collaboration in resolving complaints and developing the

market.

He explained that this was why the SEC had to review its complaints management framework to enable trade groups handle complaints and resolve them and this he said would be better for the market. He also stated that the Commission was leveraging on making it mandatory for every registered operator to belong to a trade group.

Speaking earlier, Dr. Nnana said he was on the visit to the Commission to familiarize with the Ag. DG and also find ways to strengthen the financial market.

He said, “We are here to familiarize with the new DG. There is much happening in the financial system and that is why I am here for bilateral meeting so that we can agree on a few things to revive the system particularly the capital market”.

that he could not compensate the Igbos enough for their support for his administration.

“In my political career, since I became the Vice President and later President, my strongest support base has been the South East,’’ he said.

He told the visitors that the fortune of the Peoples Democratic Party in the 2015 general elections remained very bright and urged them to support the party until victory was achieved.

A spokesman for the traders, Sir Nnamdi Nwigwe, had said that the traders believed in the transformation agenda of the president and would do everything within their powers to re-elect him for a second term.

Nwigwe also promised that the PDP would be returned in Lagos during the governorship polls.

The traders said that the Lagos state government had denied them the climate to do their businesses through incessant closures of the markets and double taxation.

He also asked the federal government to enlighten the traders on the various economic policies of government so that they could adapt without falling foul of the law, as well as the operations of the Free Trade Zones.

Another speaker, Chief Alex Odunukwe, the Chairman of the Balogun Market Business Association, told the president that the group was supporting his candidacy because of the

laudable achievements in his first term.

“We have seen the improvement of the road infrastructure in the country, improved fuel supply and the transformation in the agriculture and education sectors.

‘You do not need to be afraid of the election because what God has decreed for you in governance must happen,’’ he added.

In a related development, the Igbo community in Lagos, comprising Aka Ikenga, the Igbo think tank, Ohaneze Ndigbo and the traditional rulers assured Jonathan of their willingness to repeat the feat they accomplished in 2011 by re-electing him in 2015.

The President of Aka Ikenga, Chief Goddy Uwazurike, the Ezeigbo Lagos, Eze S.N. Ohazurike and the President of Ohaneze Ndigbo Lagos, Mr Fabian Onwughalu, said what the community had with Jonathan was “partnership”.

The community urged the FG to guard against the plan by some persons to allow illegal immigrants to vote in the 2015 polls and attempt to disenfranchise Nigerians through hoarding of Permanent Voter Cards.

The group alleged that it had identified 16 camps in different parts of Lagos where such illegal aliens from neighbouring countries were kept for use in rigging elections in the state.

(NAN)

FAAN vows to go tough on debtors, to publish names of airlines, others From Suleiman Idris, Lagos

T

he Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) yesterday vowed to go tough on its debtors warning that it’s period of grace to companies to settle their balances has elapsed.

The agency manages 22 airports across Nigeria on behalf of the federal government, but the exact amount of debts owe it is something FAAN will not disclose.

FAAN spokesman Mr. Yakubu Dati told journalists late Thursday evening the authority wishes to notify all its debtors, including airlines, concessionaires and other service providers, at all Nigerian airports, that the authority will soon publish a list of such debtors in major Nigerian newspapers as a prelude to other measures

designed to help the Authority recover all its outstanding debts.

“All affected customers of the Authority are hereby advised to approach the Authority’s Debt Recovery Department at its headquarters or Airport Managers across the country with relevant documents for reconciliation of accounts with the Authority.” He said in a statement.

He explained that the authority is constrained to take the measure because the level of indebtedness to the authority may soon begin to take a toll on its services which should not be allowed to happen, in the overall interest of safety and security at airports.

Dati said the authority has also observed, rather sadly, that most of its customers deliberately refuse to pay their charges/fees long after FAAN has rendered them statutory services.

PEOPLES DAILY, monday, February 23, 2015

Stock Watch

Report as at Friday, February 20 2015

PAGE 23

PAGE 25

Peoples Daily, monday, February 23, 2015

PAGE 24

Special Report

Nigeria’s enterprising fiveto-nine work ethic

By Nkem Ifejika

N

igeria has Africa’s largest economy.

It is mostly known for oil, but that wealth has not trickled down.

As it joins the global economic top table, what kind of businesses and businesspeople are thriving in Africa’s most populous nation?

“You’re supposed to hold something,” I was told. “Hold what?” I replied naively.

“A sample, you’re supposed to hold a sample of what you’re selling.”

Amaka was wondering what a reporter holding a microphone was doing hanging around Onitsha’s main market, neither buying nor selling. She looked at me with pity, as if to say, “if you don’t even know about samples, you have a lot to learn.”

I had been at the market for less than five minutes, and someone was already trying to get the measure of what my business was about.

There’s plenty to learn about Nigeria in Onitsha, a city in Anambra state on the banks of the River Niger in the south-east of the country.

Something like three million people flock here every day, and some call it the biggest market in the world. They come from across the region, to buy everything from high-end mobile phones to low tech plastic containers.

What’s your side hustle?

Everything is for sale, every price to be haggled, and everyone is involved. Take the market and replicate the buying and selling across millions of homes and offices across Nigeria.

Every Nigerian is familiar with the concept of the side hustle - a business on the side. This is a country where everyone has a start-up in their front room, including

Onitsha in Nigeria has one of the world’s biggest markets

He explains, “When I brought the first one I called the local people, and gave them some training, they assembled it perfectly and the price was cheaper.”

Much cheaper in fact: “When they are selling for about 150,000 [naira] for one motorcycle, I sold my own for 80,000 ($400; £260).”

Innocent’s bikes were nearly half the price of his competitors. He sold three containers’ worth of motorcycles in about three months.

“So I went back and brought about 10 containers,

and the 10 containers took me about one month to finish.”

By the time he had the process down he was buying 200 containers.

But Innocent’s advantage didn’t last forever, and soon everyone was copying his strategy.

“The price crashed to 60,000 but when I saw that the price had come down and everybody was doing it that’s why I built this plastic plant.”

Motorcycles were just the beginning for Innocent.

He had another realization, that he could manufacture

some of the motorcycle parts himself. Specifically the plastic parts.

Power cuts The Innoson Group now

makes all kinds of products.

His motorcycle business has expanded to cars and buses while his plastics plants now manufacture tables, chairs,

“

water drums, plates, boxes for electricity meters, and much else.

He believes anyone can follow his lead in Africa,

Elections have been postponed because of the insurgency raging in the northeast.

Corruption is still a huge problem.

Government revenues depend on the oil and gas industry, which benefits the few

which he refers to as a virgin place for entrepreneurs.

Innocent’s optimism is infectious and it’s easy to get swept up in the euphoria of success, but business in Nigeria is not easy.

Back in Onitsha market it’s also a microcosm of the obstacles entrepreneurs face every day.

The day I was there the traders were protesting against a new levy. The trade association decided to charge for a CCTV system, which the traders said the state governor had given them for free. It’s the sort of surprise cost that wrecks a business plan.

But corruption is not even the biggest problem in Nigeria. Other countries have thrived despite corruption, and Nigeria shouldn’t be different.

The lights go out constantly and nobody bats an eyelid or feigns surprise, everyone just carries on.

‘Credit tomorrow’ People make do with costly diesel generators, and that even applies to big factories.

For Innocent the high cost of energy is a necessary part of doing business in Nigeria. But it puts a real brake on what entrepreneurs can achieve.

The people I met are not put off by these obstacles. If you walk into some shops in Nigeria, there’s a sign which reads: “No credit today, come back tomorrow.”

If you keep waiting for the perfect conditions in which to do business, you’ll be like the shopper who returns day after day, hoping that the shopkeeper might sell them goods on credit.

Source: BBC

Innocent’s business now makes a range of plastic goods

my mother.

I’ll never forget coming home from school to find the entire living and dining area stacked floor to ceiling with cartons of sunflower oil for sale.

It was my grandmother who’d taught my mum that if you were lucky enough to have a salaried job, that was just pocket money. The real money came from your fiveto-nine, not the nine-to-five.

On the surface, Nigeria may not seem like a country that can teach the world much about how to do business.

Elections have been postponed because of the insurgency raging in the northeast. Corruption is still a huge problem. Government revenues depend on the oil

and gas industry, which benefits the few.

Motorcycle king But in Onitsha and elsewhere while making Six Routes for the BBC, the people I met show that the Nigerian economy is finding other lubricants.

Innocent Chukwuma is a successful businessman.

He owns five different manufacturing companies around the south-east, and is very optimistic about Nigeria’s future.

Looking out over his sprawling complex just down the road in Enugu, it’s easy to see why. The government gave him land to expand his business and now he’s probably the largest private sector employer in Enugu state. 4,300 people work at

the plastics plant we visited.

“In Africa today anyone who can invest in manufacturing - in a short time you’ll make money as you want,” says Innocent.

Innocent started small.

He was a spare parts trader in his native Nnewi. He had graduated from turning his brother’s spare parts side business to establishing his own import venture.

As the prices of motorcycles coming in from Japan increased in the 1980s, he noticed something about the way they were shipped.

They were coming in by barge in containers. And being a spare parts trader he recognized that a motorcycle is made up of individual parts.

And so, he thought, if he imported the motorcycle in pieces it would take up a lot less space in the shipping container. And he was right.

At the time importers could fit about 40 preassembled motorcycles in a single shipping container.

But as individual parts, Innocent could fit more than 200 motorcycles in each container. He now had a significant advantage over his competitors - and could sell his motorcycles for much less.

Labour costs Another advantage he had over his competitors was the cost of labour in Nigeria being relatively cheap. A factory worker in Nigeria would earn around $500 a month.

High energy costs are a limiting factor for many Nigerian businesses

For many Nigerians, the five-to-nine is more important than the nine-to-five

PAGE 26

Feature

PEOPLES DAILY, monday, February 23, 2015

ANALYSIS

Letter from Africa: Haunted by ghosts

B

ut President Uhuru Kenyatta has seen not one, but thousands of them.

And no, they are not flying about invisibly around the International Criminal Court in The Hague, causing him sleepless nights.

These ghosts are apparently real, alive and well in his civil service - costing his government the equivalent of $1m (£620,000) in lost payments each month.

And so ignoring the urge to recruit a traditional healer, who might have offered a powerful concoction to smoke out the phantoms, this month the president went on a ghost hunt, armed with biometric technology.

He launched an exercise to document employees in the public service, so as to flush out ghost workers.

Known officially by the frightening name of the Capacity Assessment and Rationalisation of the Public Service, the biometric registration programme is expected to reduce the government wage bill and hopefully improve public service.

‘Managed by phantoms’ It is not unusual in Kenya for a dead public worker to continue receiving a monthly salary.

It is not clear what kind of expenses these workers might be incurring in their graves.

I actually wonder why Kenyan banks have not considered installing ATM machines six feet under the ground to capture this lucrative activity by spirits.

Neither is it surprising to hear about staff who retire, or are sacked from government employment, continuing to get paid.

Indeed a number of judges and magistrates who were dismissed by the official vetting board were reportedly still earning salary months after being sent home.

Similarly, hundreds of soldiers who left military service more than seven years ago were also said to transform themselves into invisible attritions that pocketed pay cheques.

In our series of letters from African journalists, media and communication trainer Joseph Warungu reflects on the Kenyan government’s decision to pursue the ghosts that are haunting the public service. Joseph Warungu writes

Not many people in Kenya will admit they have seen a ghost.

It remains a mystery why governments are usually unable to catch up with ghosts.

Could they be too scared of an encounter? Or perhaps the payroll system itself is programmed and managed by phantoms.

Kenya is by no means the only African country fighting ghosts.

Two months ago, Ghana said it had an estimated 3,000 invisible workers, who were costing the taxpayer about $120m.

And in Nigeria, the government earlier this year announced that it had discovered about 45,000 ghosts and taken them off the payroll, thus saving nearly $738m.

The Nigerian spooks were hunted down after a staff audit, and the implementation of its Integrated Payroll and Person-

nel Information system.

Kenya is only in its second week of ghost-busting, so it might be too early to say how successful the authorities will be in catching the invisible.

But there is a bigger problem affecting government workers: And that is ghost service.

‘Spiritual cheque’ Quite often you will walk into a government office to find long queues of people waiting to receive an invisible service from an invisible official.

The civil servant’s jacket will be seen hanging in an empty seat, but when you enquire about his whereabouts - you get ethereal answers: “He’s around.” “She’s having tea.”

“Come back at two.”

“Leave your papers on the

“

The government is accused of failing to improve roads

Quite often you will walk into a government office to find long queues of people waiting to receive an invisible service from an invisible official.

Queues are a way of life in Kenya desk - you’ll be served!”

But the servant and the service will be nowhere to be seen.

We also have haunted roads.

Sometimes when you consult an official map of roads, you will see a beautifully tarmac road, which was built or repaired at a cost of millions.

Yet when you drive to the actual location, no such road exists. Or it has simply a rocky donkey path - a ghost road.

President Kenyatta started his tenure of office by volunteering to take a pay cut to save the government wage bill.

He also personally launched the biometric registration of civil servants last week by having his own fingerprints taken.

So it is safe to assume that he is not a ghost president.

As he exorcises his civil service, Kenyans will expect that he can soon bravely declare that he has actually seen many ghosts, tackled them to the ground and that the fat civil service wage bill has truly gone on a diet.

But most importantly, many will hope that he will then switch his attention to turning the ghost service provided in public offices, into a real, timely, quality and efficient service, provided equally to all as the constitution of the land demands.

For the time being when I join a queue at the bank at the end of the month, I will still assume the rush of air around me is a ghost cashing their pay spiritual cheque.

Source: BBC

PAGE 27

PEOPLES DAILY, monday, February 23, 2015

Education ASUP to resume indefinite strike Wednesday

By Maryam Garba Hassan

T

he Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP) has directed its members nationwide to embark on an indefinite strike from Wednesday, 25th of March, 2015 to demand the implementation of a four-yearold agreement with the Federal Government.

The union had last year embarked on a nine-month strike which it suspended in July 2014, following a promise from the Minister of Education, Malam Ibrahim Shekarau, who was newly appointed then, that he would resolve the matter within three months.

The President of ASUP, Dr. Chibuzor Asomugha, who spoke with newsmen at the end of an emergency meeting of its National Executive Council (NEC), also called for the dissolution of the Governing Councils of Federal Polytechnic, Oko, in Anambra State and that of Ado Ekiti in Ekiti State for causing avoidable problems in their institutions.

Asomugha recalled that the union had issued a two-week ultimatum starting February 11.

He also called for the withdrawal of a circular issued by the Ministry of Education suspending the implementation of CONTISS 15.

Other grievances of the union include the continued discrimination against Polytechnic graduates in Public Service and in the labour market in Nigeria, the nonrelease of the White Paper on the Visitation to Federal Polytechnics, non- implementation of CONTISS 15 Migration for the Lower cadres and its arrears as from 2009 when the salary structure was approved and the non-establishment of a National Polytechnics Commission (NPC) and the wrongful continued recognition of the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) as the regulatory body for Polytechnics.

Others are non-constitution of Governing Councils for some Federal Polytechnics by the Federal Government, the snail-pace review of the Federal Polytechnics Act by the National Assembly and the gross underfunding of the Polytechnic sub sector and continued lopsidedness in the disbursements of TETFund grants and other interventions clearly designed to the disadvantage of the polytechnic sector.

“The non-commencement of the re-negotiation of the FGN/ASUP agreement as contained in the signed agreement, the worrisome state of most state owned polytechnics and the failure of some state governments to implement policies that would ensure standardisation of programmes and welfare of workers in the sector, the continued appointments of inappropriate persons as Rectors and Provost of Polytechnics, Monotechnics and College of Technologies by governments.

NPC, stakeholders hold roundtable on Almajiri schools programme A

By A’isha Biola Raji

strategic stakeholders roundtable on the achievements made on the Almajiri Integrated Schools programme was organised by the National Planning Commission at the weekend.

A statement issued by Salisu B. Haiba, Head of Information of the Commission, stated that the round table was aimed at assessing the key milestone achievements of the programme and also deliberate on the next steps to advance the programme in line with the Transformation

Agenda of President Good Luck Jonathan.

In his remarks at the meeting, the Minister of National Planning, Abubakar Sulaiman, stated that the Federal government will introduce School Feeding Programme for the Almajiri Integrated Schools in the successor Transformation Agenda of President Jonathan in the next four years.

“In the next four years, going forward, the successor Transformation Agenda will introduce School Feeding Programme for the Almajiri Integrated School’’ he added.

Dr. Sulaiman stated that it

is a project that will support government action towards achieving relevant aspects of the Millennium Development Goals and also explained that the overall goal of the programme is to reduce hunger and malnutrition among children in the Almajiri Schools and strengthen the achievements of Universal Basic Education in addressing the gaps in basic education in disadvantaged states.

He said, “Every pupil in the school is expected to be fed with quality and adequate ration comprising of three square meals and snacks/fruits each school day and weekends.

‘It is pertinent to note that

incorporation of agricultural programme and vocational components should be given critical attention.”

He said the present administration has constructed and commissioned 127 Almajiri Integerated Schools across the federation, equipped with adequate teaching facilities to provide access to basic qualitative bilingual education to the less privileged children in Nigeria.

According to the minister, several of such schools in Sokoto now have boarding facilities, and are being used as model for replication in the other states, especially in the north.

L-R: Executive Secretary National Universities Commission (NUC), Professor Julius Okojie, and Minister of Education, Malam Ibrahim Shekarau, after their meeting with President Goodluck Jonathan on education sector, recently at the State House, in Abuja.

Photo: Joe Oroye

Private school heads need more capacity building to enhance teachers’ performance, says NGO

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non-governmental organisation (NGO), Developing Effective Private Education in Nigeria (DEEPEN), yesterday said head teachers of some private schools display limited academic leadership skills to enhance the performance of their teachers.

Dr. Gboyega Ilusanya, Team Leader of the NGO, disclosed this to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in an interview in Lagos.

NAN reports that DEEPEN is a five-year project being jointly funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the British Department For International Development (DFID), for the support of private education in Nigeria.

Ilusanya alleged that such head teachers’ supervision of classroom teachers and general observations were usually inadequate.

He said most private schools’ management’s interpersonal relationships with their teachers were always very poor. ‘’As such, there is the need for a leadership and capacity building initiative for proprietors and administrators of privatelyowned schools. ‘’Those in leadership must have knowledge of the global practices and norms of schools which they must replicate in their schools to compete favourably with their counterparts, locally and internationally. ‘’There is so much talk about the high rate of failure

being recorded at the Senior Secondary external examination, the solution has to start from the basic classes,’’ he said.

Ilusanya said school proprietors should focus more on the teaching and learning outcomes of the children, rather than the profit that would accrue to them from such ventures.

He said proprietors should lay emphasis on teaching methodology and learning practices in the private schools because they accounted for about 70 per cent of the educational sector. ‘’If 70 per cent of the educational sector in Lagos is faulty, then the economy of Lagos is doomed and the nation will be affected,’’ he said.

Ilusanya said that DEEPEN, in partnership with the National Association of Proprietors of Private Schools (NAPPS), would organise a three-day retreat for proprietors of private schools later this month.

‘During the retreat, we will train head teachers and school proprietors on effective school administration, Ilusanya said.

He said it would also entail how proprietors could attract and retain their staff and how they could further lift the standard of education to greater heights.

Ilusanya said the organisation was also making efforts to collaborate with the government on how to ensure schools enforce regulations guiding their proper administration. (NAN)

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PEOPLES DAILY, monday, February 23, 2015

Education

Ensign advises AUN students to be Nigeria’s problem solvers Stories by Maryam Garba Hassan

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resident Margee Ensign of American University of Nigeria, Yola (AUN) has reminded students of the University of the critical time Nigeria is facing and to see the chance offered to them by their parents and guardians as an opportunity to become leaders who will analyze and solve the challenges facing Africa in the years ahead.

The President reflected on AUN’s unfolding legend, from being the only African university represented at the Hult Prize competition in Dubai, to winning an honorary award last semester

at the Model UN Conference in Washington D. C. and winning a leadership award this year, also in the United States capital.

“We are here as a community of passionate individuals, a development university, to give you the knowledge needed to lead Nigeria in this critical moment.”

She further tasked the students to make a difference in their classrooms and community, being aware of the conflict and poverty Nigeria faces.

She spoke passionately about the power of education to transform lives and the mind and to empower people.

Ensign further mentioned a quote she had adopted as a favorite, one given by one of the

21 Chibok schoolgirls enrolled at AUN under a scholarship.

The quote: “Education gives me the wings to fly, power to fight, and the voice to speak”, President Ensign said, represents the embodiment of true transformation of the human spirit through education.

Academic Vice President, Provost Charles Reith, described the American-style pedagogy as one that “musters critical thinking, analyzes ideas, and articulates information clearly.” He explained that this opens them to a broader and multidimensional understanding of the world.

“At AUN, instructors are the best instructors Nigeria

has to offer today. In order to reciprocate, the new students should be enthusiastic in learning and value every opportunity to fill all the gaps of knowledge.”

The Vice President of Campus Life and Dean Student Affairs, Byron Bullock, gave his traditional motivational speech encouraging the new students to embrace the challenges and learn from life’s lessons. “The road is not supposed to be easy, but the journey is worth it.”

President of AUN Honor Society, Ms. Hephzber Obiorah, and the President of Society for Ethics & Leadership (SEAL), Ms. Blessing Douglas, both encouraged the new students to work towards becoming part

of the AUN success story. Ms. Obiorah noted that the survival of Nigeria as a country rests on their (students’) shoulders, but not until they gain proper and fundamental training.

“You should apply yourselves diligently to your studies and engage in extracurricular activities that will be beneficial,” said Ms. Douglas.

Reassuring parents and new students on their choice of the American style of education offered at AUN, Assistant Vice President, Recruitment & Marketing, Mr. Linus Ikyurav, pledged to honor their choice of AUN by providing the tools that will aid their children become better future leaders.

UniMaid VC Commends FCE Yola Management for upgrading facilities

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L-R: Chairman, Education Committee, Faith Baptist Church, Mr. Sunday Oke Ogunniyi, Mrs. Grace Akanbi, and Mrs. Felicia Bolarinwa of the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology, during the send-forth service in honour of Mrs. Bolarinwa, yesterday at the Faith Baptist Church, Federal Housing Authority, Lugbe, in Abuja

Photo Joe Oroye.

ice-Chancellor of the University of Maiduguri, Professor Ibrahim A. Njodi, has commended the management of the Federal College of Education, Yola for striving to upgrade facilities in the College.

He said it is heart-warming to note that the Management of the College has been working tirelessly to upgrade physical facilities and to improve her human resources to ensure effective teaching and learning both at NCE and Degree levels.

He further described the partnership between the University and the College as a continuation of a deeply rooted policy of the university to bringing University Education to her teaming admirers all over Nigeria.

Responding, the Provost of the College, Professor Abdul-Mumin Sa’ad, said the achievement is an indication that the mission of making FCE Yola one of the best institutions internationally is on track.

He said, “Let me use this opportunity to reiterate that Management will continue to strive to ensure that we secure approval to introduce more degree programmes so as to better the chances of the teaming population wishing to further their education.”

Kwankwaso approves payment of tuition fee for 5 students of school of midwifery

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overnor Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, has approved the release of the sum of N140,000.00 to enable the payment of registration fees in respect of five Kano state indigenous students admitted into the School of Midwifery, Dambatta, Kano.

The approval was given at the 189th Kano Executive Council

Meeting held recently in the state.

The five students were unable to pass the National Qualifying Examinations at the first attempt.

Details on the students were presented from the state Ministry of Health and endorsed by the office of the Secretary to the State Government.

Also office of the Secretary to the State Government endorsed

the request from the Scholarship Board for the release of the sum of N1,935,180.28 to facilitate refund of one way air ticket fare in respect of sixteen 16 amongst the 501 State Indigenous Qualified Students sponsored for studies abroad. Out of the 501 students, 11 of them returned from Malaysia at the total cost of N1,362,863.17, 1 student returned from Uganda

at the cost of N89,132.00, Three students returned from Jordan at the cost of N244,094.52 and 2 students from China at the total cost of N239,090.59.

Meanwhile, the Council has also approved the release of the sum of N212,600.00 to enable payment of re – issue and upgrade fee in respect of air tickets issued to 2 of the sponsored state

indigenous students expelled from International University of East Africa, Uganda for a one – year top – up degree under the supervision of the Kano State Ministry of Science and Technology.

The Council has also approved the payment of the scholarship students at the American University of Nigeria, Yola.

Page 29

PEOPLES DAILY, monday, February 23, 2015

Health

Chronic heart failure

Introduction

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he Human Heart start beating when the fetus is about 3-4 weeks of age inutero. If we are to estimate the amount of blood pumped by the heart from that time till when the individual is about 50 years of age, then it will amount somewhere around 3 tanks of 33,000 liters capacity. Yes, the trailer trucks that conveys fuel around the country. It means that it even the human heart will need some servicing for working that long.

Heart failure is a clinical syndrome characterized by inadequate systemic perfusion to meet the body’s metabolic demands as a result of impaired cardiac pump function. This may be further subdivided into either systolic or diastolic heart failure. In systolic heart failure, there is reduced cardiac contractility, whereas in diastolic heart failure there is impaired cardiac relaxation and abnormal ventricular filling. The body, sensing inadequate organ perfusion, activates multiple systemic neurohormonal pathways which compensate initially by redistributing blood flow to vital organs, but later exacerbate the patient’s symptoms and lead to clinical deterioration.

Prevalence Heart failure is a common syndrome, especially in the elderly. Although more patients survive acute myocardial infarctions because of reperfusion therapy, most have at least some residual left ventricular systolic dysfunction which may lead to heart failure. Patients with heart failure account for about 1,000,000 hospital admissions annually, and another 2,000,0000 hospitalizations occur with heart failure as a secondary diagnosis.

One-third of these patients are re-admitted within 90 days for recurrent decompensation.

Causes The most common cause of heart failure is left ventricular systolic dysfunction (about 60% of patients). In this category, most cases are a result of endstage coronary artery disease, either with a history of myocardial infarction(s) or chronically underperfused yet viable myocardium. In many patients, both processes are present simultaneously.

Other common causes of left ventricular systolic dysfunction include; -Idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy, -Valvular heart disease, -Hypertensive heart disease, - T o x i n - i n d u c e d cardiomyopathies (ie, doxorubicin and alcohol), and -Congenital heart disease.

Right ventricular systolic dysfunction most commonly is a consequence of left ventricular systolic dysfunction. It may also develop as a result of; -Right ventricular infarction, -Pulmonary hypertension, -Chronic severe tricuspid regurgitation, and -Arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia.

Diastolic left ventricular dysfunction usually is related to chronic hypertension or ischemic heart disease. Other etiologies

include restrictive, infiltrative and hypertrophic cardiomyopathies.

Inadequate filling of the right ventricle may result from either pericardial constriction or cardiac tamponade.

A less common cause of heart failure is high output failure caused by thyrotoxicosis, arteriovenous fistulae, Paget’s disease, pregnancy, or severe chronic anemia.

Pathophysiology In left ventricular systolic dysfunction, regardless of the etiology, cardiac output is low and pulmonary pressures are high, leading to pulmonary congestion. Initially, as a direct result of inadequate cardiac output and systemic perfusion, the body activates several neurohormonal pathways in order to increase circulating blood volume. The sympathetic nervous system increases heart rate and contractility, both of which increase cardiac output.

Circulating catecholamines also cause arteriolar vasoconstriction in non-essential vascular beds and stimulate secretion of renin from the juxtaglomerular apparatus of the kidney.

Unfortunately, catecholamines aggravate ischemia, potentiate arrhythmias, promote cardiac remodeling, and are directly toxic to myocytes. Stimulation of the renin-angiotensin system as a result of increased sympathetic stimulation and decreased renal perfusion results in further arteriolar vasoconstriction, sodium and water retention, and release of aldosterone. Increased aldosterone, in turn, leads to sodium and water retention, endothelial dysfunction and organ fibrosis.

In heart failure, baroreceptor and osmotic stimuli lead to vasopressin release from the hypothalamus causing reabsorption of water in the renal collecting duct. Endothelin levels are elevated in heart failure and correlate with severity of disease and prognosis. Endothelin is an endogenous vasoconstrictor and growth factor. Levels of the pro-inflammatory cytokines also are elevated in heart failure, and contribute to cardiac cachexia and apoptosis. Although these neurohormonal pathways initially are compensatory and beneficial, eventually, they are deleterious, and neurohormonal modulation is the basis for modern treatment for heart failure.

In contrast, natriuretic peptides are hormones released by secretory granules in cardiac myocytes. They have a beneficial influence in heart failure, including systemic and pulmonary vasodilation, enhanced sodium and water

excretion, and suppression of other neurohormones.

With continuous neurohormonal stimulation, the left ventricle undergoes remodeling consisting of left ventricular dilatation and hypertrophy, such that stroke volume is increased without an actual increase in ejection fraction. This is achieved by myocyte hypertrophy and elongation.

Left ventricular chamber dilatation causes increased wall tension, worsens subendocardial myocardial perfusion, and may provoke ischemia in patients with coronary atherosclerosis.

Furthermore, left ventricular chamber dilatation may cause separation of the mitral leaflets and mitral regurgitation leading to pulmonary congestion. Enhanced neurohormonal stimulation of the myocardium also causes apoptosis or programmed cell death, worsening of ventricular contractility and death.

In diastolic dysfunction, the primary abnormality is impaired left ventricular relaxation causing high diastolic pressures and poor filling of the ventricles. In order to increase diastolic filling, left atrial pressure increases until it exceeds the hydrostatic and oncotic pressures in the pulmonary capillaries and pulmonary edema ensues. As a result, patients are often symptomatic with exertion when increased heart rate reduces left ventricular filling time and circulating catecholamines worsen diastolic dysfunction.

The American College of Cardiology and American Heart Association developed a classification of heart failure based on stages of the syndrome (Table 1).

Treatment a.Non-Pharmacological Therapies: Dietary sodium and fluid restrictions should be implemented in all patients with congestive heart failure. Limiting patients to 2 gm per day of dietary sodium and 2 liters per day of fluid will lessen congestion and lower the need for diuretics.

Cardiac rehabilitation may improve symptoms and exercise tolerance in patients with heart failure. This will also reduce or prevent skeletal muscle atrophy that may worsen exercise tolerance. Weight loss in encouraged in obese patients.

Patients should be counseled about smoking cessation.

Standard Medical Therapies: Some Common Classes of Drugs Angiotensin Converting Enzyme (ACE) Inhibitors Afterload reduction and neurohormonal modulation with

Health Matters Dr. Longwap AbdulAziz Saleh

e-mail: longwapabdul@yahoo.com, Text: 08039537913 ACE inhibitors improve mortality, heart failure symptoms, exercise tolerance, left ventricular ejection fraction as well as reduce emergency room visits and hospitalizations. The dose of ACE inhibitors should be titrated to the maximum that can be tolerated symptomatically. The main side effect from ACE inhibition is cough, which may necessitate change either to an angiotensinII receptor blocker (ARB) or the combination of hydralazine and nitrate. Of note, most patients who cough on ACE inhibitors have this symptom because of congestive heart failure rather than ACE intolerance, and may improve with further diuresis.

Two uncommon side effects of ACE inhibitors are angioedema and acute renal failure (because of bilateral renal artery stenosis), both necessitating immediate cessation of the drug. Eg Captopril.

Angiotensin Receptor Blockers (ARBs) These agents block the effects of angiotensin-II at the receptor level. They improve morbidity when added to ACE inhibitors and have fewer side effects.

Angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs) are recommended as second-line therapy in patients who are intolerant to ACE inhibitors because of cough or angioedema. They should not be substituted for ACE inhibitors in cases of hyperkalemia or renal dysfunction. Angiotensin receptor blockers may be useful for the treatment of diastolic heart failure.Eg losartan.

Beta-blockers Three beta-blockers, carvedilol, metoprolol succinate and bisoprolol have been shown to improve survival in patients with heart failure. The exact mechanism of beta-blocker action is unclear, but likely involves antiarrhythmic, anti-ischemic, antiremodeling, and anti-apoptotic properties as well as improved beta receptor pathway function.

Myocardial oxygen consumption is reduced with beta-blockers, primarily due to a reduction in heart rate. In heart failure patients, a beta-blocker should be initiated at a low dose and up titrated slowly as tolerated to target levels.

Digoxin Digoxin is a weak oral inotrope whose main effect in heart failure is neurohormonal modulation of centrally mediated sympathetic activity.

A large randomized controlled trial showed that the use of digoxin reduces the rate of hospitalization for heart failure, but has no effect on mortality.

Digoxin is renally excreted and so dose adjustment is necessary in renal failure. A low dose of digoxin (0.125 mg daily) should be prescribed to most patients, especially women.

Diuretics Diuretics are useful in relieving congestion and treating hypertension. Most patients with heart failure have some degree of symptomatic congestion and benefit from diuretic therapy.

Usually a loop diuretic is required, with the addition of a thiazide diuretic in patients refractory to the loop diuretic alone. Although useful for symptomatic relief, diuretics have not been shown to improve survival and may cause azotemia, hypokalemia, metabolic alkalosis and elevation of neurohormones. Egmoduretic and frusemide.

Therapies Patients with known coronary artery disease should be treated with aspirin and a statin to lower the low-density lipoprotein (LDL) to 70 mg/dl.

Calcium channel antagonists have not been proven to be beneficial in heart failure patients.

Short-acting calcium channel antagonists such as nifedipine are contraindicated because they increase mortality, elevate neurohormones, and worsen heart failure. Dihydropyridines such as amlodipine have a neutral effect on heart failure and may be useful for treating concomitant hypertension or angina pectoris.

Other Medical The use of warfarin to prevent cardioembolic strokes remains controversial in the absence of atrial arrhythmias, since the risk appears to be relatively low. Warfarin therapy is recommended in patients with atrial arrhythmias, left ventricular thrombi, or left ventricular aneurysms.

Electronic Therapies for Heart Failure: Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy Defibrillator Therapy Surgical Therapies for Heart Failure: Left Ventricular Assist Devices (LVAD) Ventricular Reconstruction Surgery Cardiac Transplantation Conclusion Heart failure is common complication of heart disease.

In most cases medical treatment is sufficient. Although much progress has been made in the treatment of heart failure, there is a 20% overall annual mortality, Many patients succumb to progressive pump failure and congestion, although half die from either tachycardia or bradycardiainduced sudden cardiac death.

Some patients die from end organ failure resulting from inadequate systemic organ perfusion, particularly to the kidneys.

PEOPLES DAILY, monday, February 23, 2015

Page 30

Healthy Living

How much water should I drink during pregnancy?

T his answer will vary from person to person, but as a general rule, you should get about six to eight 8-ounce glasses of fluids a day (if you’re very active or live in a warm climate, you may need to up your intake a bit).

While these guidelines can also include juices and foods from your diet that contain a lot of water (like many fruits, veggies, and soups), drinks with caffeine (which you should consume in moderation anyway) like soda, coffee, and tea don’t count because these can actually dehydrate you.

Getting plenty of water is essential during pregnancy. It helps carry nutrients through your body to your baby, helps maintain healthy levels of amniotic fluid, and can even help prevent bladder infections, constipation, and swelling, which are common complaints during pregnancy.

For these reasons, it’s important that you get plenty of water and don’t become dehydrated (especially later in pregnancy, when dehydration may cause contractions). To know if you’re drinking enough, check your urine -- it should be a light yellow color.

If you’re peeing less than usual or if your urine is very dark yellow, then you might be dehydrated and should increase your fluid intake.

Keep a bottle of water out at your desk at work, so you’re constantly reminded to sip it, or stash one in your purse or car so you always

have one at the ready. You can also try to drink a glass first thing in the morning (as long as it doesn’t make you queasy) or after you

Things that could affect a man’s Sperm

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ou probably know about some of the biggies like smoking, alcohol, illicit drug use or hot tubs impairing a man’s fertility but here are a few things you may not know about: 1. Morning sex = higher sperm count: If you are trying to conceive, time intercourse when his sperm count is at its highest.

Researchers have found that men generally have a higher sperm count in the mornings. Men’s sexual interest may be higher in the mornings as well.

2. His weight matters: Women are not the only ones who have weight related fertility issues. Men who are overweight or underweight are more likely to have problems with infertility.

Having too much or too little body fat may affect a man’s hormone levels. Scientists in one Finnish study found that a 20 lb weight gain may increase a man’s chance of being infertile by 10 percent.

3. Have more sex not less: Men with low sperm counts are often advised to abstain from sex in order to improve their sperm

count, but new research suggests that while this may improve sperm count, too much abstinence can damage the DNA of the sperm that is produced. Australian researchers have found that having daily sex actually improves the quality, if not the quantity of sperm. The thought behind this is that regular ejaculations get rid of the old sperm and make way for newer healthier sperm.

4. Folic acid is not only good for the goose, but it is also good for the gander.

Most women know that taking a folic acid supplement is important during childbearing years because it can prevent certain birth defects.

You may not have known that it is also important for men to eat a diet containing folic acid. A recent study by researchers at the University of California, Berkley found that men who had lower levels of folic acid (or folate) in their diets had a higher rate of chromosomal abnormalities in their sperm.

5. Avoid soy products.

A recent study published by Oxford University Press’s online publication Human Reproduction,

suggests that eating a diet high in soy foods could cause men to have a lower sperm count. According to the study, men who ate soy foods were more likely to have lower sperm counts (although not necessarily abnormally low) than men who did not eat soy.

6. Skip the lubricants.

Lubricants can impede the movement of sperm. A woman’s cervical mucous is designed to help transport sperm, but many commercial lubricants have the opposite effect. Lubricants like KY Jelly, baby oil, or petroleum jelly have been shown to slow down or damage sperm. Saliva can also damage sperm. One lubricant that is okay to use is Pre-seed. According to one study in the ASRM’s journal of Fertility and Sterility, Pre-seed

was not shown to harm or slow down sperm.

7. Watch out for cell phones and laptops. There have been a few studies that have shown that excessive use of laptops or cell phones can cause sperm damage. Laptops, if placed on a man’s lap, get hot over time. The increase in scrotal temperature may have a negative effect on a man’s sperm if he keeps a laptop sitting on his lap for extended periods of time. Similarly, cell phone emissions might also cause sperm damage. Keeping a cell phone in a close proximity to a man’s scrotum could potentially cause a decrease in sperm quality, according to a small research study from the Cleveland Clinic. justmommies.com

brush your teeth as another way to make sure you’re getting enough . parents.com

Health benefits of eating Broccoli

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our parents knew what was up when they told you to eat your broccoli.

This verdant vegetable is a powerhouse of nutrients.

It’s reputed to benefit digestion, the cardiovascular system and the immune system, and to have antiinflammatory and even c a n c e r preventing properties.

Plus, broccoli is low in sodium and calories, at about 31 calories per serving. It’s also a fat-free vegetable.

Broccoli has an impressive nutritional profile. It is “high in

fiber, very high in vitamin C and has potassium, B6 and vitamin A,” raved Victoria Jarzabkowski,

a nutritionist with the Fitness Institute of Texas at the University of Texas at Austin. “For a nonstarchy vegetable, it has a good

amount of protein.”

Broccoli is also packed with phytochemicals and antioxidants.

Phytochemicals are chemicals in plants that are responsible for color, smell and flavor. Research shows that they have numerous healthful benefits, according to the American Institute for Cancer Research.

Phytochemicals in broccoli are good for the immune system.

They include glucobrassicin; carotenoids, such as zeaxanthin and beta-carotene; and kaempferol, a flavonoid. livescience.com

PAGE 31

PEOPLES DAILY, monday, February 23, 2015

Benue guber race: Survey rates Tarzoor higher

By Stanley Onyekwere

A

survey conducted by civil society and prodemocracy groups led by the National Democratic Front (NDF), has indicated that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), candidate for the forthcoming governorship polls in Benue State, Terhemen Tarzoor is more likely to win in the forthcoming elections.

The poll results have indicated that the PDP’s Terhemen Tarzoor,

had a clear 68 percent compared to what the other aspirants from other political parties scored.

In the survey, the closest to him is the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Samuel Ortom with 25 percent.

Also, the survey indicated that Tarzoor has in his favour his youthful disposition and their support, which stems from the call for generational change.

The survey, according to the organisers, was a product of a questionnaire and interviews aimed

at discovering voters’ readiness for elections and knowledge of the various candidates.

However, the report also showed that the uncertainty of the candidacy of the APC candidate, Samuel Ortom is primarily accountable for the low support enjoyed by the candidate.

According to the survey, the voter orientation was high and the people were conscious of their electoral expectations.

“This poll has further revealed that the Benue electorate are

conscious of their rights and from their interactions, have shown a deep understanding of election and leadership requirements” it said.

Meanwhile, the coordinator of the polls, Comrade Agbese Philip, while presenting copies of the survey outcome to journalists, thanked the participants of the survey for their cooperation.

He also enjoined the people of the state to remain committed to their quest for committed service and also dedicated leadership as indicated in the survey findings.

Members of All Progressives Congress (APC), during their rally, at the Weekend in Lagos.

Ekiti rigging audio: Obanikoro’s US Attorney insists recording was fabricated From Ayodele Samuel, Lagos

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acopina & Seigel, New York based lawyers have initiated legal action against online newspaper Sahara Reporters for defaming the person of former Minister of State for Defence, Senator Musiliu Obanikoro after the media outfit published an audio recording where Senator Obanikoro allegedly had a conversation with other individuals over the Ekiti gubernatorial election.

In a ‘cease and desist’ letter dated 19 February 2015 , Joseph Tacopina, a top New York criminal lawyer and attorney to Senator Obanikoro writes to Mr. Sowore: “You recently stated during a February 14, 2015 “Sit Out” that Sen. Obanikoro “has killed many people in Lagos state” and is a “murderer.” According to my client, you simply have no factual basis to make such an utterly baseless and incredible statement. Indeed, the very fact that you would make such an outlandish statement evidences your

clear bias and that your “reporting” is merely propaganda for Sen. Obanikoro’s political opponents.”

Mr. Tacopina went further to dismiss Sahara Reporter’s Ekiti audio recording for which Senator Obanikoro has already sued the media outfit in Nigeria, describing the tape as “a complete fabrication.”

“I demand that you, Sahara Reporters and/or any entity under your control immediately cease and desist from making any false and disparaging statements about Sen.

Obanikoro on the internet or to any third party and immediately and publicly retract the above-referenced defamatory statements. If you fail to do so and continue your defamatory conduct, my office will aggressively pursue all legal remedies against you, Sahara Reporters and/or any entity under your control”, Tacopina wrote.

Hearing is yet to be fixed for the Lagos High Court defamation case filed by Senator Obanikoro against Sahara Reporters, Premium Times and Punch Newspapers.

Amo people endorse GNS From Ado Musa, Jos

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mo National Development Association, (AMONDA),the umbrella body of Amo people in Bassa LGA, on Saturday, resolved to support the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship candidate in Plateau State, Sen. Gyang Nyam Pwajok.

The association made the endorsement during a stakeholders meeting convened by Mr. Bitrus Nabasu in Katako community of Pengana constituency in Bassa LGA. The convener of the meeting, Mr. Nabasu, who contested the PDP gubernatorial primaries alongside 15 other candidates but lost out to Sen. Pwajok, said he believe so much in the competence, capability and credibility of Sen. Pwajok, that was why he convened a stakeholders meeting of the entire Amo nation to publicly declare their endorsement.

He said even though he also contested the primaries, he has decided to remain in the PDP because he believes that power comes from God and he gives it to whosoever he desires at His own time.

He argued that there was no need to vote for another party because the PDP, under the leadership of Governor Jonah David Jang, had fixed many pressing challenges in the state.

Explaining why GNS was endorsed by the association, its National President, Mr. Simon Harry, said the group resolved to look beyond ethnic considerations in the interest of good governance and development.

Harry who praised GNS work at the Senate, expressed appreciation to him for providing a community hall to the Amo people in Jengre, he noted that, apart from political expediency in terms of carrying all the ethnic groups in Plateau State along, there is a greater need of ensuring that a capable hand is given the mandate to take Plateau to a greater height and no other person is well positioned to do it than GNS and the PDP. Reacting to the endorsement, Sen. Pwajok thanked the people for the impressive turn-out to receive him and promised to give them quality leadership and making the dividends of democracy gets to the grassroots.

Stop removing our posters, billboards, PDP guber candidate warns Amosun From James Ogunnaike, Abeokuta

T

he gubernatorial candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), in the forthcoming general elections in Ogun State, Gboyega Nasir Isiaka has warned agents of the state governor and the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) against removal and destruction of his campaign posters and billboards.

According to Isiaka, who

dropped the warning at a site of the removal of his statue-like posters at OPIC Roundabout, OkeIlewo in Abeokuta at the weekend, alleged that the posters, which were erected at some strategic locations in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital on Thursday, were removed by the agents of APC led government at midnight.

The PDP governorship candidate, who was in company of former state Chairman of the party, Joju Fadairo and some members of

his campaign team, noted that the posters were suspected to have been removed by Ogun State Advertising and Signage Agency on the order of the governor and the APC, warning that the PDP would not condone such “an illegality on the part of the state government.”

When Isiaka was asked on what might have necessitated the removal and destruction of his posters, he said “even if they wanted to remove its for whatever reason, they ought to mark it and ask us to remove it

rather than removing it at midnight, saying that “it is condemnable and we will not condone that.”

In the meantime, an Abeokutabased religious leader, Seye Senfuye has admonished Nigerians, especially politicians to watch their utterances and be cautious of their attitude so as not to heat up the polity and put the country into chaos Senfuye, who is the Pastor and Overseer, Treasure House of God, said inflammatory words from an individual or politicians can set the

whole country on fire if not checked, adding: “your words are capable of making a great success of your ability and there is no way an evil person will speak good things”.

Senfuye, while delivering a sermon on the importance of being cautious with one’s statement during Annual Prayer session for the country and the Second Year thanksgiving of the Church, said words if not checked have the potentials and ability of changing good intents to an evil.

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PEOPLES DAILY, monday, February 23, 2015

USEFUL PHONE NUMBERS ON ANY EMERGENCY Council endorses the useful phone numbers submitted by the security agents for easy access in case of any emergency on the metropolitan Roads. Accordingly, the general public may easily Contact KAROTA for: Breakdown of Vehicle(s), Traffic Congestion, Accidents, and Illegal/Wrong Parking to kindly Call KAROTA through the following numbers on – 08091626747. Similarly, the State Police Command could be contacted on – 08032419754, 08123821575. In addition, the State Fire Service can be contacted on – 07051246833, 08191778888.

189th KANO STATE EXECUTIVE COUNCIL MEETING

Sure, steady and with his sustained characteristic vigour, Governor Engr. Rabi’u Musa Kwankwaso, FNSE presided over the one hundred and eighty ninth (189th) sitting of the Kano State Executive Council on Thursday 19th February, 2015 (29th Rabi’ul Thani, 1436AH).

Typically, issues that center on the transformation of the lives of the citizenry in Kano State for the better were tabled for deliberation from ten (10) MDAs in atotal of thirty nine (39) memoranda amongst which twenty five (25) cutting across six (6) sectors were approved for execution with an expenditure of Six Hundred and Ninety Eight Million, Five Hundred and Fifty Four Thousand, Four Hundred and Thirty Naira, Fifty Eight Kobo (N698,554,430.58) covering nineteen (19) projects while the remaining six (6) are on policy issues as follows;

1.

THE HEALTH SECTOR The current administration upholds that “Health is Wealth” which connotes that a healthy society is a wealthy one – cognizant to which commendable effort is dissipated towards the positive transformation of the Health Sector in all aspects and ramifications.

The physical (infrastructural, equipment, materials, medical consumables); professional/personnel; etc. requirements are continually provided by the execution of series of approvals granted on projects/programmes/schemes under the Health Sector. Such include the following examples and more; • Renovation/repairs and upgrading of all categories of health care delivery facilities across Kano State such as the Murtala Muhammad Specialist Hospital; Muhammad Abdullahi Wase Specialist Hospital; Sir Sunusi Specialist Hospital; Hasiya Bayero Pediatric Hospital; Kano Dental Center; the Infectious Diseases Hospital (IDH); Cottage Hospital at Kwankwaso Town; the General Hospitals at Gaya, Kura, Yar’ Gaya, etc.

• Establishment of Kano State Primary Health Care Board.

• Establishment and Sustenance of the Kwankwasiyya Mobile Medical Outreach.

• Continuous conduct of the polio plus days immunization programme.

• Employment/deployment/training/retraining of relevantly trained health professionals, etc.

In this vein, the State Executive Council approved the execution of four (4) memoranda under the Health Sector at its one hundred and eighty ninth (189th) sitting as follows; a) Presentation on the Need to Pay the Monthly Salaries of the Newly Employed Doctors in the Dollar Currency or its Naira Equivalent to the Months’ Current Parallel Market Exchange Rate:It is pertinent to note that series of developmental policies aimed at improving the socio – economic wellbeing of the state citizens have been introduced by the current administration.

Apart from sponsoring of large number of State Indigenous Youth to pursue education in the Health Sector, Government also goes further by employing expatriate (i.e. Egyptian Doctors) in order to train the young nurses which will go along way in boosting the health care delivery services in the State.

It is against the background of the foregoing development, the expatriate through Ministry of Health requested for increase payment of their monthly salaries in line with the fluctuation in the exchange rate of a Dollar.

Accordingly, Council considered and approved the increase in the salaries of the Egyptian Doctors. b) Request for Funds to Enable Purchase of Dental Health Technician Textbooks for the Accreditation of the Dental Department at the School of Health Technology, Kano:The contents of this memorandum notified members of Council that, the Dental Health Technician Registration Board of Nigeria recently paid accreditation visit to the School of Health Technology, Kano and drew attention of the authorities at the School to provide the necessary textbooks pending accreditation of the Dental Department.

In line with the above, the office of the Secretary to the State Government endorsed this request from the Ministry of Health in the sum of N1,483,325.00 for the procurement of necessary textbooks to meet the accreditation criteria and presented it to Council for consideration.

Accordingly, Council considered and approved the release of the requested sum for the commitments. c) Request for Funds to Reimbursement Expenditure Incurred to Contain Cholera Outbreak in Kalahadi Village, Gaya Local Government Council Area:This request from the Ministry of Health was endorsed by the office of the Secretary to the State Government and presented to Council for consideration.

In a nutshell, Council was informed, through contents of this memorandum that, one hundred and fifty (150) people of different age groups were affected by the outbreak of the epidemic disease

Governor Rabi’u Musa Kwankwaso (cholera) and five (5) amongst which died despite the commendable effort of the Ministry of Health which sourced funds to contain the situation to the tune of N2,277,300.00 which was requested for release as reimbursement. The incurred expenditure was; i. Provision of drugs and other consumables – N1,438,500.00. ii. Procurement of Laboratory Reagents – N338,800.00. iii. Supervision/Monitoring – N500,000.00.

Accordingly, Council considered and approved as requested. d) Presentation of Report on the Conduct of Eye Surgeries (Cataract and Lid) Free of Charge in Some Selected Local Government Council Areas of Kano State:The Kano State Government (Ministry of Health) collaborates with the Health and Development Support Programme (HANDS) to conduct the cited commendable activity.

Details were summarized and presented to Council for information as follows; i.

Cataract Surgery – 760 people went through cataract surgery at three (3) Centers (Bichi, Kiru and Albasu). ii. Lid Surgery – 1,981 people at three (3) Centers benefited (Albasu, Shanono and Zakirai). iii. Refractive corrections – 65 people benefitted. iv. Management of other eye problems – 6,720 people benefitted. v.

Referrals – 321 people.

Council acknowledged the presentation appreciatively.

2.

THE EMPOWERMENT SECTOR Empowering the citizenry in Kano State towards self actualization/reliance is a cardinal preoccupation of the present administration under the humane leadership of Governor Engr.

Rabi’u Musa Kwankwaso, FNSE. Series of approvals are continually granted for the execution of projects/schemes/programmes by a cross section of relevant MDAs under the Empowerment Sector which cut across all segments of the society in providing access to professional/ academic education locally and abroad; access to training for employable skills and take – off capital; access to capacity building for serving civil servants; access to support for the needy; etc.

The number of beneficiaries who benefitted from the empowerment programmes of this administration is very commendable and impressive along the lines of which the State Executive Council approved the execution of twelve (12) more memoranda at its one hundred and eighty ninth (189th) sitting which can be sub – divided into three (3). Viz; provision of access to professional/academic education = 6; access to capacity building = 4; access to support for the needy = 2. Total = 12.

Therefore; • Provision of Access Professional/Academic Education:i.

Approval was granted for the release of the sum of

N140,000.00 to enable the payment of registration fees in respect of five (5) Kano State Indigenous Students admitted into the School of Midwifery, Dambatta who were unable to pass the National Qualifying Examinations at the first attempt. The details presented from the Ministry Health and endorsed by the office of the Secretary to the State Government were considered. ii. The office of the Secretary to the State Government endorsed the request from the Scholarship Board for the release of the sum of N1,935,180.28 to facilitate refund of one way air ticket fare in respect of sixteen (16) amongst the 501 Kano State Indigenous Qualified Students sponsored for studies abroad.

Details were summarized and presented as follows; - Eleven (11) students returned from Malaysia = N1,362,863.17.

- One (1) student returned from Uganda = N89,132.00.

- Three (3) students returned from Jordan = N244,094.52.

- Two (2) students returned from China = N239,090.59.

Accordingly, Council considered and approved the release of the stated sum of for the commitment. iii. Council approved the release of the sum of N212,600.00 to enable payment of re – issue and upgrade fee in respect of air tickets issued to two (2) expelled Kano State Indigenous Students sponsored for studies at International University of East Africa, Uganda for a one – year top – up degree under the supervision of the Kano State Ministry of Science and Technology. The details summarized and presented as follows were considered. Thus; - Re – issue of tickets at N19,300.00 x 2 = N38,600.00.

- Re – issue and upgrade of seat at N87,000.00 x 2 = N174,000.00. iv. One hundred (100) additional Kano State Indigenous Qualified Students gained admission into Bells University of Technology, Otta, Ogun State. Council considered and approved the release of the sum of N123,000,000.00 in respect of their tuition fees and other charges for the 2014/2015 academic session.

The details submitted from the Ministry of Higher Education were considered. v. Council approved the release of the sum of N4,500,000.00 requested by the Ministry of Higher Education to enable full affiliation/accreditation of the Rabi’u Musa Kwankwaso College of Advanced and Remedial Studies, Tudunwada. Details were summarized and presented as follows; - N500,000.00 as affiliation fee.

- N1,500,000.00 as payment for conduct of mandatory resource visit by Members of the IJMB Governing Council to appraise the College.

- N2,500,000.00 as cost of accreditation. vi. Request for Funds to Enable the Payment of the Kano State Scholarship Students’ Bill for Spring and Fall 2014 Semester at American University of Nigeria, Yola:Itisonrecord that, the present administration is taking a giant stride in the area of education by sponsoring a large number of the State Indigenous Students to pursue both under and post graduate studies locally and abroad.

It is in line with the noble policy, the Ministry of Higher Education through contents of this memorandum intimidated members of Council on the twenty four (24) State Indigenous Students sponsored to study at American University of Nigeria, Yola on agreed 20% discount to cover Spring and Fall 2015 Semester.

The sum of N69,600,000.00 was requested for release to enable the settlement of the tuition fees and other charges in respect of the twenty four (24) sponsored students.

Accordingly, Council considered and approved for the release of the stated sum for the commitments.

• Provision of Access to Capacity Building for Serving Civil Servants:i.

The office of the Head of Civil Service notified Council that forty one (41) Midwives were recently posted to Kano in addition to the one hundred and nine (109) already present and serving in the State.

Essentially, the Rural Posting Incentive Allowances (RPIA) in respect of the forty one (41) newly posted Midwives for five (5) months (October, 2014 to February, 2015) to the tune of N4,100,000.00 was approved for release. Further, Council approved the Standing Order for the release of N20,000.00 monthly with effect from March, 2015 to each of the newly posted Midwives. ii. Approval was granted for the release of the sum of N1,985,000.00 to enable provision of the three (3) items required to enable conduct of the first (1st) Batch 2015 Civil Service Examination (CSE) for three hundred and twenty (320) participants of ten (10) cadres. The details presented from the office of the Head of Civil Service were considered. iii. Council appreciatively acknowledged the presentation from the office of the Head of Civil Service that ten (10) participants are nominated from the State Civil Service for the 2014/2015 Indian Technical Cooperation (ITEC) Courses.

Contd on Page 33

PAGE 33

PEOPLES DAILY, Monday, February 23, 2015 Invitations for four (4) of the nominees are already available while the remaining six (6) are expected soon. iv. The brief presented on a request from the Kaduna State Government, through the Kano State Ministry of Works, Housing and Transport to the Kano State Government to grant approval for collaboration between the two (2) parties in the establishment of a Transportation Regulatory Agency such as KAROTA in Kaduna State as was copied from Kano State by Zamfara State, was considered and approved for execution.

In a related development, it is pertinent to note that several laudable policies initiated by the present administration were copied by other States such as Banning of Street Begging, Auren Zawarawa (Mass Widow Wedding), Banning of Achaba, etc.

• Provision of Support to the Needy:i. Council approved the release of the sum of N8,630,000.00 requested by the Kano State Hisbah Board to enable payment of three (3) months requirements in respect of the enforcement of the Law banning street begging in the State.

The summarized details below were considered.

S/N Profile Amount (N) i.

Fuelling of operational vehicles 1,800,000.00 ii. Allowances to 100 Corps 4,500,000.00 iii. Allowances To Four (4) Chairmen Of Disabled Association 240,000.00 iv. Allowances to four (4) Disabled Chieftains 240,000.00 v.

Repatriation 900,000.00 vi. Feeding of apprehended beggars 500,000.00 vii. Documentation 450,000.00 Total 8,630,000.00 . ii. In appreciation of the laudable performance of Kano Pillars Football Club for winning the Premier League three (3) times sequentially this gives the club opportunity to participate in the Continental Championship. All these were possible due to the support given to the club by the current administration towards sustaining sporting activities in the State.

In order to sustain the tempo, approval was granted for the release of the sum of N323,003,390.00 in support of the Kano Pillars Football Club to participate in the 2014/2015 Nigeria Premier Football League. Details summarized to four (4) items were considered from the Ministry of Information, Internal Affairs, Youths, Sports and Culture.

3. THE INFRASTRUCTURAL DEVELOPMENT/ MAINTENANCE SECTOR General performance/achievements recorded by the present administration in the State are heralded by the physical developmental transformation attained within the shortest possible time of three (3) years plus nine (9) months.

Series of approvals granted for the execution of projects/ schemes/programmes related to the provision and maintenance of qualitative infrastructure for use by the good people of Kano State ensure this across sectors. For example, schools/ classrooms are continually built/renovated as part of the essential requirements of the education sector; roads/related structures are continually constructed/renovated as cardinal requirements of the transportation sector; Government Offices/Secretariats are continually renovated/maintained as essential requirements of the administrative sector; hospitals/health facilities continually constructed/renovated/upgraded as part of the essential requirements of the health sector; vehicles, machineries, equipment, tools, materials and general consumables provided across all sectors among the essential requirements; etc.

In fact, the achievements recorded by the performances in the infrastructural development/maintenance sector stand out as beacon and indelible signature of the commendable Legacy of the present administration under which an unprecedented copious pace is set vehemently calling for continuity cognizant to which the Kano State Executive Council approved the execution of six (6) more memoranda under the infrastructural development/ maintenance sector at its one hundred and eighty ninth (189th) sitting which can be sub – divided into two (2). Viz; roads/related structures = 3; public utilities = 3. Thus; • Provision of Roads/Related Structures:a) Request for Funds to Enable Provision of Road Marking Paints for Nine (9) Additional Roads in Kano Metropolis:The Ministry of Works, Housing and Transport endorsed this request from KAROTA and submitted it to Council for consideration. Nine (9) Metropolitan Roads were identified which include Maiduguri Road; Ibrahim Dabo Road; BUK Road; Ibrahim Taiwo Road; Katsina Road; Airport Road; Emirs Palace Road; Sabon Titi Mandawari Road and Aminu Kano Way. Council appraised the request for funds to procure paint (Black/white) and petrol/materials and granted approval for the release of the trimmed sum of N20,000,000.00 for the stated purpose. b) Request for Funds to Enable Maintenance and Replacement of Damaged Crash Barriers along Katsina Road:Crash barriers provide relief to various road users and those available along Katsina Road were identified to be in urgent need for repairs and replacements at many locations for which the Ministry of Works, Housing and Transport submitted this request for the release of the sum of N3,190,935.30 to enable execution of the required repairs and replacements.

Council noted, considered and approved as requested. c) Request for Funds to Enable Payment of Compensation for Thirty (30) Properties Affected by the Construction of Kabuga Underpass Way Project (Phase II):The contents of this memorandum intimidated members of Council to note that, the construction of Kabuga Underpass Way Project is one out of the numerous developmental projects initiated by the present administration aimed at improving quality of life, transformation, expansion, decongestion and beautification of roads in the State as well as boosting the socio – economic wellbeing of the citizenry.

In line with this, the Ministry of Land and Physical Planning conducted a compensation valuation exercise at the site of the

project where thirty (30) properties were identified as affected by the construction Project (Phase II) and estimated to cost the sum of N107,482,650.00.

Accordingly, Council noted, considered and approved the release of the requested sum for the stated purpose.

• Provision of Public Utilities:a) Presentation on the Need to Sanitize All Segments of Commercial Transport Operations in Kano State to Enhance Security and Accelerate Revenue Generation at No Cost to Government:This presentation was sequel to an earlier one based on which all operators of commercial vehicles (Buses, Taxis and Trucks) agreed to be inscribed with side numbering and security registration. Such an exercise will enable commencement of the collection of daily operation permits with a predetermined sharing formula. Two cardinal prayers were forwarded to Council for consideration on the issue. Thus; - Council to consider and approve organization/ sanitization of all segments of commercial vehicle operations in Kano State to enhance security, accelerate revenue generation and the signing of agreement between the State Government and a named Consultant.

- Council to consider and approve the commencement of the collections of daily operation permits with a sharing formula of 35% to the State Government; 60% to the Consultant and 5% to the Transport Unions.

Council acknowledged the presentation and approved execution of the two (2) prayers forwarded on the issue. b) Request for Funds to Enable Procurement of Fifty Seven (57) Scanners (Carriage) for Use in Kwankwasiyya Girl – Child Initiative Buses:Realities of the present day instigated authorities at the Kano State Ministry of Education to submit this request endorsed by the office of the Secretary to the State Government and presented to Council for consideration. Such effort will enhance operations of the Corporate Security Guards recently deployed to ensure security in the buses.

The fifty seven (57) scanners are estimated to cost the sum of N632,700.00 at the Contractual sum of N11,100.00 each which was requested for release.

Council noted, considered and approved as requested. c) Request for Funds to Enable Replacement of Transmission Equipment at Abubakar Rimi Television (ARTV) Corporation, Kano:This request from the Ministry of Information, Internal Affairs, Youths, Sports and Culture was endorsed by the office of the Secretary to the State Government and presented to Council for consideration.

Reportedly, the stated transmission equipment was damaged during the conduct of an official activity. Details of the replacement requirements were summarized and presented as follows; S/N Damaged Equipment Cost (N) i.

High Base Mount 2,800,000.00 ii. Bull TX/TX Feed Horn 1,750,000.00 iii. Windscreen (Front) and Side Mirror 26,000.00 iv. Three (3) Tripod Stand 375,000.00 v.

3rdGenerator Tiers 5,000.00 vi. Camera Cables/Connectors Cat 250,000.00 Total 5,206,000.00 As such, Council was requested to approve for the release of the sum of N5,206,000.00 to enable replacement of the stated transmission equipment at the ARTV Corporation, Kano.

Accordingly, Council noted, considered and approved as requested.

4. THE INFORMATION/COMMUNICATION SECTOR This sector is the capable image maker of the present administration and documents all activities of the Government for posterity. In other words, it is a reliable lieutenant and right – hand of the Government. As such, the sector is carried along in all activities of the present administration attestation to which the Kano State Executive Council approved the execution of one (1) memorandum under the sector at its one hundred and eighty ninth (189th) sitting. Thus; Request for Funds to Enable Production of Thirty Six Thousand (36,000) Copies of 2015 Official Gazette:This routine request from the Government Printing Press was endorsed by the office of the Secretary to the State Government and presented to Council for consideration.

Details on the requirements estimated to cost the sum of N5,745,000.00 which was requested for release were presented to Council for consideration as per table below; S/N QTY Items Rate (N) Price (N) i.

24 Packet of Laser Film 6,500.00 156,000.00 ii. 480 Plates 1,250.00 600,000.00 iii. 240 Ream of 20x30 Bond Papers (80gsm) 8,000.00 1,920,000.00 iv. 480 Impressions 1,500.00 720,000.00 v.

480 Finishing 1,500.00 720,000.00 vi. 65 White A4 Printed Envelops 1 2 , 0 0 0 . 0 0 780,000.00 vii. 50 Address Stickers 12,000.00 600,000.00 viii. 60 Production of Half Yearly Bound Volume of Laws for all Members of the State Executive Council 3,500.00 210,000.00 ix. Distribution/Month 39,000.00 Total 5,745,000.00 Council noted, considered and approved as requested.

5.

THE ADMINISTRATIVE SECTOR This sector regulates, smoothens and facilitates efficient function of governance by employing/deploying relevantly trained personnel into the public service. Council approved execution only one (1) memoranda under the administrative sector at its one hundred and eighty ninth (189th) sitting as follows; a) Presentation of Brief on the Implementation of First

(1st) and Second (2nd) Interim Reports of the Staff Screening and Verification Committee:It could be recalled that, upon inception, the present administration constituted a Committee for screening and verification of the State Civil Servant aimed at articulating the actual number of workforce in the State with a view to ensuring proper utilization of public resources.

In line with above, the office of the State Head of Civil Service submitted this brief notifying Council of the implementation of first (1st) and second (2nd) Interim Reports of the Staff Screening and Verification Committee.

Essentially, Council was notified, through contents of this memorandum that, the sixty six (66) MDAs affected in the first (1st) and second (2nd) (40 and 26 respectively) were instructed to implement the decisions as they affect their staff and submit reports confirming full implementation. Full compliance was reported.

Meanwhile, the third (3rd) Interim Report of the Committee comprising fourteen (14) Zones under the KSSSMB was referred to the Board for immediate implementation along with the instruction to submit report of full compliance within two (2) weeks (evidence inclusive).

The presentation was appreciatively acknowledged.

6.

THE FINANCE SECTOR This sector provides the energy that powers the performance of the present administration by prudent provision of the required funds for the execution of all approved projects/schemes/ programmes. The commendable expertise displayed by this sector prompted the present administration to venture into the establishment of thirty seven (37) Microfinance Banks across Kano State in collaboration with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

Unfortunate developments in running all the thirty seven (37) established Microfinance Banks prompted Council to approve the execution of one memorandum under the finance sector at its one hundred and eighty ninth (189th) sitting as follows; Request for Funds to Enable External Auditing of the Thirty Seven (37) Established Microfinance Banks in Kano State:The Director General endorsed this request from the Board of Directors of the Kano State Microfinance Banks Agency and presented it for consideration by Council.

Details on the plausible reasons and genesis of the issues that instigated submission of the cited request were submitted along with request for the release of the sum of N15,000,000.00 to enable External Auditing of all the thirty seven (37) established Microfinance Banks by an established reliable named firm of Chartered Accountants.

Approval was granted as requested since the endeavor is in line with the Public Accountability Policy of the present administration.

UPDATE ON ACTIVITIES AT THE 189TH KANO STATE EXECUTIVE COUNCIL SITTING 1. GOVERNOR’S OFFICIAL VISIT TO TETFUND OFFICE, ABUJA Council noted with delight the grand visit by Governor Engr.

Rabi’u Musa Kwankwaso, FNSE and his entourage to TETFUND office in Abuja where he met and discussed with the Chairman, Executive Secretary and other senior Staff of the organization.

The Governor commended them towards their support to the newly established Northwest University, Kano University of Technology Wudil as well as other Tertiary Institutions in the State. Accordingly, the Chairman of TETFUND assured the Fund’s continued support to the development of the Institutions.

2. COMMISSIONING OF THE NEW WATER BOARD OFFICE HEADQUARTER NAMED AFTER ENGR. ABDULAZEEZ UMAR Council noted the successful commissioning of the new office building for Kano State Water Board located at Kofar Nassarawa within the Metropolitan city by former Managing Director of the Agency. The ceremony was supervised by His Excellency, Governor Engr. Rabi’u Musa Kwankwaso, FNSE on 13th February, 2015.

In a related development, the building was named after the former Managing Director of the Agency in person of Engr.

Abdul’azeez Umar.

3. GRADUATION CEREMONY OF 500 WOMEN TRAINED ON HOME BASED TRADES, 150 TRADE CERTIFICATE TRAINEES, AGOA 50 TRAINEES AND 200 TRAINED ON FIRE PREVENTION IN MARKETS Council noted the successful graduation ceremony of the following empowerment programmes; • Five hundred (500) women trained for the period of four (4) months on home based trades and empowered with N20,000.00 each.

• One hundred and fifty (150) participants trained for the period of four (4) months on various trades certificate and empowered with N150,000.00 each.

• Fifty (50) participants trained on AGOA and empowered with training packages of N30,000.00 each.

• 2 – Tock Solution Company trained two hundred (200) participants on fire prevention & control and posted them to the three (3) markets in the State.

PREPARED BY: Council Affairs Directorate, Office Of The Secretary To The State Government, Government House, Kano.

PAGE 34

PEOPLES DAILY, Monday, February 23, 2015

Satellite towns: Succour for residents as FCTA rolls out sanitation equipment Feature

By Stanley Onyekwere

E

ffort towards ensuring a clean and healthy environment for residents Federal Capital Territory (FCT) received a boost, as the FCT Administration through its Satellite Towns Development Department (STDD) rolled out assorted heavy duty sanitation management equipment for the satellite towns in the Territory.

The set of the equipment are: 2 Pail Loaders, 2 Actross Skip loader (Roll-on-Roll-Off trucks), 49 numbers of 12 cubic meters refuse bins and 15,000 pieces of 240 litres waste receptacles.

This is coming on the heels of the recent engagement of the services of 34 environmental sanitation companies, in a bid to improve waste management in the grassroots communities and satellite towns across the six area councils of the FCT. Performing the commissioning of the equipment last week, the minister of state for the FCT, Oloye Olajumoke Akinjide, explained that the procurement was due to the expensive and unsustainable evacuation of waste dumps to the proper dumpsites, by a committee tagged “Clean and Green Greater Abuja Initiative,” with members drawn from relevant stakeholders organizations and Department in FCTA. She however revealed that 85% of the total cost of the sanitation equipment was defrayed by the Subsidy Re-investment Empowerment Programme (SURE-P).

Recalling how she had observed a glaring defect involving the filthy nature of the environment in villages and satellite towns, occasioned by heaps of garbage littering their entire landscape, during a familiarization tour

FCT Minister (State), Olajumoke Akinjide, cutting the tape, during the commissioning of the newly procured heavy duty sanitation equipment. of the six area councils in 2011, Akinjide, said consequently the FCTA resolved to forestall, any further degeneration of these environments through a concerted programme action.

She added that the FCTA took note that if nothing was done and promptly too, the risks of epidemic was real and the health and welfare of the entire residents in danger, The minister stressed that the image and cost of a Federal Capital City surrounded by filthy communities did not bode well for a territory that aspires to be a first class city, hence the setting up of a sanitation committee on August 28, 2012.

According to her, the Committee, which was charged with the task of mopping up all the refuse heaps in the satellite towns and villages as well as to salvage the environments, was also required to educate and sensitise

the residents on the need and practice of proper waste disposal. “ Their operations involved daily hiring of vehicles, machines and equipment such as pail loaders, tippers, excavators, bulldozers etc; the exercise was obviously expensive and unsustainable.

“It was against this background that the FCT Administration embarked on the procurement of these basic sanitation vehicles and equipment; this is with the obvious intention to enable STDD and the area councils manage solid waste in our communities, in a more efficient, cost effective and sustainable manner,” the minister explained.

She adds: “We are not unaware of that these pieces of equipment are not enough to make us attain international best practices in the area of environmental sanitation.

“We however, are not resting on our oars; we shall continue to

A cross section of the sanitation equipment procured for onward distribution to satellite FCT satellite towns.

add more equipment annually to beef up our stock.”

On the modality for the use of the equipment, Akinjide disclosed that the RORO bins shall be placed at markets, motor parks and other commercial areas in the satellite towns with regular evacuation by the RORO trucks, while the Pail loaders will be used to evacuate illegal open dumps.

Similarly, she said the waste receptacles shall be made available at highly subsidized rates to the residents at different centres in all the six area councils of the FCT. While urging all the inhabitants of satellite towns to buy the 240 litres waste containers for packaging their wastes neatly to enhance easy evacuation by FCTA contractors, the minister implored them to stop indiscriminate dumping of refuse on roads in the FCT. In the same vein, Director of the STDD, Engr. Mohammed Soso, said the equipment would help boost its capacity to deliver on its cardinal objective of ensuring effective and sustainable management of the environment.

Equally, he assured residents of the FCT satellite towns it will not hesitate to facilitate the efficient management of waste in the area.

While commending the FCT Administration for its support to the area councils, Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON) President and chairman of Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC), Micah Jiba, said the six area council chairmen are encouraged by the commitment of the both FCT ministers.

“Particularly, the effort of minister of state towards

the development of the FCT area councils, at ensuring that every community in the rural communities looking much better from how it used to be before.

“The minister of the FCTA through the STDA has played more part to provide better infrastructural services to the six area councils communities” he said.

Aside the procurement of the assorted sanitation equipment, the engagement of services of 34 environmental sanitation companies for satellite towns, according to the STDD, will complement the effort of the existing waste management companies in timely evacuating waste, especially in the satellite towns.

The Deputy Director of the STDD, in charge Environment Unit, Olawowu lateef, noted that the waste management companies, in an agreement with the FCT administration expressed commitment to duty.

He assured that all the needed equipment will be deployed to sanitize Abuja, especially the satellite towns, where environmental abuses are very conspicuous.

He however pleaded with the FCT Administration to ensure prompt payment of the waste management companies, to encourage diligence, commitment and sincerity in their duty of keeping the FCT environment clean.

Interestingly, over time, even with the availability of waste receptacle disposal bins scattered along most streets of the city centre and districts for public usage, it is either subjected to abuse or equally if not most important to ensure that they are not abused in any form.

Consequently, it is not uncommon to come across many refuse bins overflowing with dirt everywhere in the city centre, particularly in the satellite towns and suburb areas of the Territory, where they were hitherto to now absent.

Also, heaps of refuse are being dumped on the roadside, inside local lawns and flower hedges, including front of residential and business areas in the city, especially most rural communities of the FCT. It therefore pertinent to note that the effective utilization of the sanitation tools would no doubt bring about a lot of succour to residents of villages and satellite towns in the FCT, notorious for having massive heaps of garbage everywhere, making them unwholesome and unbefitting of the FCT status.

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PEOPLES DAILY, Monday, February 23, 2015

International international_peoplesdailyng@yahoo.com

ANALYSIS

By Jaime Gonzalez

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lanca Katsura will never forget the night of 6 January 1943.

She was 12 at the time and living with her parents and two siblings in northern Peru.

On that night, two officials came to their home and took away her father.

MrKatsura, who owned a small general store, was arrested because he was part of Peru’s prosperous Japanese community.

“My father told them he hadn’t done anything wrong, but they didn’t listen to him,” she recalls.

Latin American draw Japanese people began migrating to Peru in considerable numbers at the end of the 19th Century, drawn by opportunities to work in the mines and on sugar plantations.

By the 1940s, an estimated 25,000 people of Japanese descent lived in Peru. Many had become lawyers and doctors, or owned small businesses.

Their prosperity, further fuelled by racism, soon triggered anti-Japanese sentiment in Peru, Stephanie Moore explains.

Ms Moore, a scholar at the Japanese Peruvian Oral History Project, says after the outbreak of World War Two, the Japanese community in Peru became a target, and their assets were confiscated.

“In May 1940, as many as 600 houses, schools and businesses belonging to citizens of Japanese descent were burned down,” she says.

Following Japan’s 1941 attack on the US naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, the US government asked a dozen Latin American countries, among them Peru, to arrest its Japanese residents.

Records from the time suggest the US authorities wanted to take them to the US and use them as bargaining chips for its nationals captured by Japanese forces in Asia.

Deported Mr Katsura was among the 2,200 Latin Americans of Japanese descent who were forcibly deported to internment camps in the US. Italian, German and Japanese residents of Latin America are seen leaving a temporary internment camp in the Panama Canal Zone Many JapaneseLatin Americans were taken to a camp in the Panama Canal Zone first Blanca Katsura, who is now 83 and lives in Northern California, remembers how she learned of his fate.

“A month after my father was detained, he sent me a letter because it was my birthday,” she recalls.

“He had been taken to Panama from where they were planning to send him to the US,” she adds.

Six months later, Blanca Katsura’s mother decided to take

The Japanese-Peruvians interned in the US during WW2

Many Japanese-Peruvians did well in their new homelands and set up successful businesses (photo courtesy of Art Shibayama’s family) her three small children to the US to search for her husband.

“When we arrived in New Orleans after a month-long trip, they confiscated our passports and then sent us by train to the Crystal City camp.”

As many as 4,000 people were interned during World War Two in this camp in Texas run by the US Immigration and Naturalization Service.

Most of the detainees were of Japanese descent, although some German and Italian immigrants were also held there.

It was at Crystal City that Blanca Katsura was reunited with her father. “I was shocked, he had lost so much weight,” she remembers.

For the next four years, her family lived in the barracks at the camp.

Her memories of that time are not particularly traumatic, she says.

“Being a child at the time time, I had no worries and made

lots of friends.

“We were able to go to school and learn Japanese,” she adds.

MsKatsura says she later learned that the camp authorities were keen for the children to learn Japanese so they would be able to speak the language once they were deported to Japan.

Really bitter Chieko Kamisato’s memories of life at Crystal City are less positive.

“You could call it a concentration camp, because we were surrounded by barbed wire fences and guards with guns,” she says.

“We couldn’t go out at all, although we were free to move around inside,” she recalls.

“My parents were really bitter about the situation because they were forced to come to the US. They had no choice,” she says.

M s K a m i s a t o’s father had moved to Peru from Japan in 1915 and had worked hard to open a bakery in the capital, Lima.

Now 81, she lives in Los Angeles.

Reparation debate of the 2,200 Latin Americans of Japanese descent to be interned in the US, 800 were sent to Japan as part of prisoner exchanges.

After World War Two ended, another 1,000 were deported to Japan after their Latin American home countries refused to take them back.

MsKatsura’s and MsKamisato’s families successfully fought deportation and were eventually allowed to remain in the US. In 1988, then- P r e s i d e n t Ronald Reagan signed the Civil Liberties Act and apologised on behalf of the US government for the internment of JapaneseAmericans.

Under the act, the government paid tens of thousands of survivors of the camps $20,000 (£13,000) each in reparation.

But Japanese-Latin Americans did not qualify for the payments because they had not been US citizens or permanent residents

of the US at the time of their internment.

Outraged, they filed a classaction suit and 10 years later, the US government agreed to pay them $5,000 each.

Most accepted, but a small group headed by camp survivor Art Shibayama decided to hold out, demanding to be paid the same as Japanese-Americans.

Blanca Katsura says that even though her childhood at the camp may not have been traumatic, no amount of money can compensate her family for its loss.

“My parents wanted to go back to Peru but couldn’t. They missed the life they had there,” she recalls.

“The Peruvian government sold us out to the US government and that is not a very nice feeling.

How would you feel about it?”

“

The Greek stock exchange rose 3% on Wednesday in morning trading in Athens as news of the loan extension application emerged.

Many Japanese-Latin Americans were taken to a camp in the Panama Canal Zone first

PEOPLES DAILY, Monday, February 23, 2015

Page 36

International Details emerge as twin blasts in Mogadishu are investigated

Gunmen seize 89 boys from South Sudan camp

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rmed men have abducted at least 89 boys in South Sudan, the United Nations children’s agency has said.

The incident happened in a camp in the northern city of Malakal that hosts thousands of people displaced by fighting between the army and rebels.

Unicef says the unidentified gunmen went from house to house and seized boys over the age of 12.

Last week, Human Rights Watch accused both sides of using child soldiers, a charge denied by the government.

The South Sudan conflict began in 2013 after President SalvaKiir accused his sacked deputy RiekMachar of plotting a coup.

MrMachar denied the allegation, but then raised a rebel force to fight the government.

The UN believes 12,000 children were used as child soldiers across South Sudan last year.

About 1.5 million people have been displaced by the fighting and 2.5 million are facing severe food shortages.

South Sudan is the world’s newest state, gaining independence from Sudan in 2011.

Mugabe turns 91, SLOWLY Sheds Pariah image

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imbabwean President Robert Mugabe turned 91-years-old on Saturday showing no sign of giving up power as the West slowly eases pressure on a man who has been an international pariah for the last decade.

Mugabe, one of the Africa’s most divisive figures, is the only leader that Zimbabwe has known since independence from Britain in 1980.

Leaders from his generation like South Africa’s Nelson Mandela have died while others like Zambia’s Kenneth Kaunda retired long ago, but Mugabe plans to run in the 2018 election, his last under a new constitution, when he will be 94.

Last December Mugabe fired his deputy of 10 years, changed the ruling party constitution to concentrate more power in his hands and promoted his wife Grace into the top rungs of the ZANU-PF decision-making politburo.

The EU and United States imposed travel and financial sanctions on Mugabe and his acolytes in 2002 accusing the veteran leader of vote rigging and human rights violations.

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omalia’s government has released new details on Friday’s al-Shabab attack on a popular hotel in Mogadishu, where at least 25 people were killed and more than 50 were wounded.

Somali Security Minister Abdirizak Omar Mohamed told VOA’s Somali service that the first of two bomb blasts came from a vehicle filled with explosives parked near the mosque of Mogadishu’s Central

Hotel. He said the second blast was set off by was a female suicide bomber who had worked at the hotel for eight months. Gunfire followed the two blasts.

Mohamed said an investigation was underway. On Friday, security agencies spokesman Qasin Ahmed Roble said a car filled with explosives had entered the hotel grounds during Friday prayers. He said officials were questioning hotel guards about who

had detonated the explosives and how.

The hotel is popular with officials, including members of parliament and government ministers.

Mogadishu’s deputy mayor, Mohamed Aden Guled, and Somali legislator Omar Ali Nor were among those killed in the attack, officials said.

Among the wounded were Somalia’s deputy prime minister,

Somali police arrive at the Central Hotel after explosions were touched off by al-Shabab in Mogadishu.

Mohamed Omar Arte, and Transport and Aviation Minister Ali Ahmed JamaJangali.

President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud condemned the attack via Twitter, calling the incident an “outrage” and saying his thoughts were with the injured. He met Saturday in Mogadishu with visiting Djibouti President Omar Guelleh.

U.N. Secretary General Ban Kimoon called Mohamud on Friday to express his condolences. A spokesman for Ban said the secretary believed “the terrorist attacks cannot deter the collective will of the Somali people to move forward, or the commitment of the United Nations.”

U.S. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki also condemned the attack. “This murderous attack targeting government ministers and members of parliament once again highlights that al-Shabab stands only for death and destruction and is firmly opposed to the Somali people’s efforts to build a secure and prosperous future,” she said.

Al-Shabab has claimed responsibility for the attack. The Islamist extremist group has carried out repeated attacks on government and civilian targets in Somalia in recent years as part of what it says is an effort to establish its version of Islamic law.

Ebola crisis: Liberia to open borders as infection falls

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iberia is to reopen its borders following a reduction in the number of Ebola cases being reported in the country.

President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf made the announcement on Friday and said nationwide curfews would also be lifted.

New infections have dropped to one-tenth of the level seen when the virus was at its peak.

But health officials warned the decline has levelled off in the last month.

Dr Bruce Aylward, who leads the World Health Organization’s official Ebola response, said data showed the steep decrease in infections had now flattened, at a rate of around 120 to 150 new cases a week.

“It’s what keeps me up at night right now,” MrAylward said. “This is not what you want to see with Ebola.”

More than 9,300 people have died since the outbreak of the virus early last year.

However, Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone have pledged to achieve zero Ebola infections within the next two months.

Liberia was hardest-hit by the outbreak, but has been leading the recovery, with only two confirmed cases in the week leading to 12 February. This compares to 74 in Sierra Leone and 52 in Guinea.

In a statement on her website, President Johnson Sirleaf said “health protocols” would prevent the virus being carried across

the country’s borders when they reopen on Sunday.

Borders were closed last year and an overnight curfew imposed as part of a state of emergency.

Schools in Liberia have also reopened in recent weeks in a bid to help the country return to normal.

Staff have been given thermometers to take pupils’ temperatures and buckets of chlorinated water for them to wash their hands.

Lesotho electoral body ready to organize election

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he Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) of Lesotho says a cross section of citizens will participate in planned advance

voting on Saturday ahead of the February 28 general election.

Lesotho’s electoral law stipulates that security forces, nurses, media

Lesotho’s Prime Minister Thomas Thabane attends a European Union-Africa summit in Brussels

houses, embassy officials and officers from the electoral commission who will be on duty on election day, are permitted to vote ahead of a scheduled general election.

TuoeHantsi, spokesman for the electoral body, says the IEC is ready to administer a transparent and credible election.

“The [IEC] is so ready. All is in place. The materials have been sent to the stations where the voting is going to take place. The main one on the 28th,” said Hantsi. “The politicians all stakeholders are now together and would see to it that we are having a successful election on the 28th.”

Sharp disagreement between rival groups in Prime Minister Thomas Thabane’s government led to an attempt to overthrow the administration. Analysts say tension in the government spilled over into the

security agencies after the police and the military reportedly supported rival groups in the administration.

Basotho, as Lesotho citizens are called, have expressed concern that the prevailing political tension could create violence between rival supporters which they say could scare prospective voters and undermine the credibility of the election.

Hantsi admits the prevailing tension would not be good for the election.

“The tension between the security [groups] basically I can’t say it will be as calm as ever. But, we hope things would be sorted [out] then. It’s not as bad as one is saying, but it’s never been like this before,” he said.

He said the IEC will continue with its close collaboration with security agencies to ensure the election is peaceful despite the existing tension.

PEOPLES DAILY, Monday, February 23, 2015

Page 37

International Asia & Turkey enters Syria to remove Middle East Australia to precious Suleyman Shah tomb challenge Propaganda

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undreds of Turkish troops in armoured vehicles have entered war-torn northern Syria to remove a historic Ottoman tomb and evacuate its beleaguered guards.

The mausoleum was demolished and the remains of Suleyman Shah, who died in the 13th Century, were moved to a site in Syria closer to the Turkish border.

Turkey considers the shrine sovereign territory.

Islamic State (IS) militants in the area had threatened to attack it last year.

The government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, which has lost control over much of northern Syria as a result of the country’s civil war, condemned the incursion as “flagrant aggression”.

It said that Turkey had informed its Istanbul consulate about the operation but had not waited for Syria’s consent.

Suleyman Shah, who lived from about 1178 to 1236, was grandfather of the founder of the Ottoman empire, Osman I. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said his government and the armed forces had carried out a “successful operation which is beyond all kinds of appreciation”.

All the relics at the tomb and the Turkish soldiers who had been guarding it had been brought out “safe and sound”, he said.

One soldier was killed accidentally in the overnight raid, the military said.

online

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where he met with Afghan leaders and American military commanders.

Carter is to receive briefings from military commanders on progress in training Afghan security forces.

“We want to make sure that the Afghans themselves are able to preserve the environment which our forces have created over the last few years, one of relative security and stability,” he said.

‘Rethinking details’ of mission Carter said the United States is “rethinking details” of its mission in Afghanistan, including whether to slow down the withdrawal of U.S. troops, whose mission is changing from combat to training as Afghan troops take on responsibility for fighting the Taliban.

He told reporters the issue is on the agenda when Afghan President Ashraf

Ghani visits Washington next month.

Carter met with President Ghani, discussing both the drawdown and Afghan efforts to fight the Taliban.

President Ghani told reporters that prospects for peace with the Taliban are better now than they have been in more than three decades, although he gave few details. He said “the direction is positive” but added he would not make “premature announcements.”

Carter also met with soldiers in Kandahar, the regional hub for the U.S.trainingmission.“Whatyouaredoing righthereinKandahar...isnowbecoming the heart of the effort in Afghanistan that will make the success that we have been aiming for all these years, and have sacrificed so much for, stick,” he said.

he Australian government plans to monitor social media in real time to try to combat terrorist propaganda on the Internet.

Ministers said the effort will help authorities identify and dismantle online messages of hate from groups such as Islamic State.

One of Canberra’s most pressing security concerns is homegrown extremism, and the ability of radical groups overseas to reach out to Australian Muslims through the Internet.

About 90 young Australians are thought to be fighting with Islamic State militants in Syria and Iraq.

Attorney-General George Brandis said the plan to monitor social media would help thwart extremists who use the Internet to “weaponize information.”

Brandis said the new initiative, announced on the sidelines of a White House summit to counter violent extremism, would help dismantle Web content that supports terrorism.

“We are monitoring social media for the purpose of identifying and, where appropriate, taking down terrorist propaganda,” he said.

Would need support The plan would need the support of Internet service providers (ISPs) and companies such as Google and Facebook to trawl social media looking for offensive posts and videos.

There are concerns that Australia’s efforts might infringe privacy, but Jon Lawrence from the digital rights advocacy group, Electronic Frontiers Australia, believed individual freedoms were not at risk.

“I don’t think we’re necessarily looking here at something that’s going to be sort of wading through individual people’s Facebook pages until such point as they might have been identified as somebody of interest,” Lawrence said.

The government also wants to counter hate-filled propaganda videos with its own messages to try to prevent young Australian Muslims from being recruited by militants online.

group -- made up of the U.S., Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia -- would curb Iran’s nuclear activities in exchange for sanctions relief.

Kerry, who met with the British foreign secretary in London Saturday, said the P5+1 remains united on Iran.

“There is absolutely no divergence whatsoever in what we

believe is necessary for Iran to prove that its nuclear program is going to be peaceful in the future,” he said.

The latest talks come as a new report from the United Nations nuclear agency said it remains concerned about the possible existence of “undisclosed nuclearrelated activities” in Iran that could include work linked to the development of a nuclear payload

for a missile.

But the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said Iran is in compliance with some provisions of a nuclear agreement.

Iranian state media quoted Iran’s IAEA ambassador, Reza Najafi, as saying the findings show his country’s “full transparency” and the peaceful nature of its program.

The Turkish flag was raised at the new burial site near Esmesi in the darkness.

Suleyman Shah, who lived from about 1178 to 1236, was grandfather of the founder of the Ottoman empire, Osman I. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said his government and the armed forces had carried out a “successful operation which is beyond all kinds of appreciation”.

All the relics at the tomb and the Turkish soldiers who had been guarding it had been brought out “safe and sound”, he said.

One soldier was killed accidentally in the overnight raid, the military said.

The tomb of Suleiman Shah was the one and only Turkish enclave abroad, in accordance with a treaty signed in 1921. This was the burial site of Suleyman Shah, the grandfather of the Ottoman Empire’s founder Osman I - which meant it had historical significance too.

Turkey was concerned with the rising Islamic State threat in the area.

In March 2014, IS threatened to attack the site unless Turkish troops guarding the tomb were withdrawn in three days; but such an attack did not take place. If the tomb had in

fact come under attack, that would have provoked serious reaction from Turkey.

In August 2012, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan - then PM - had warned that an act against the tomb would be considered “an attack on our territory, as well an attack on Nato land”. Last year, the Turkish parliament authorized the use of force against IS militants.

Commentators in Turkish media say the fact that the tomb is now moved and soldiers are evacuated is a relief for Turkey.

US defence secretary reviews troop plans in Afghanistan

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ewU.S.DefenseSecretaryAshton Carter is in southern Afghanistan to review plans to withdraw U.S.

troops from the country within two years.

On his second day in Afghanistan, Carter flew to Kandahar from, Kabul,

Defense Secretary Ashton Carter speaks with U.S. military personnel at Kandahar Airfield in Afghanistan.

Kerry, Zarif join nuclear talks in Geneva

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he top U.S. diplomat and his Iranian counterpart are meeting in Switzerland Sunday in an attempt to reach a deal on Iran’s nuclear program by a March 31 deadline.

John Kerry and Mohammad Javad Zarif are joining the talks that have already begun in Geneva between Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization chief, Ali Akbar

Salehi, and U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz.

The round of discussions between the U.S. and Iran’s top diplomats and energy officials is aimed at helping resolve ongoing technical disputes standing in the way of an agreement between Iran and the six world powers known as the P5+1.

A deal between Iran and the

PEOPLES DAILY, Monday, February 23, 2015

Page 38

International Blast Kills Two in Ukraine-Controlled Kharkiv

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wo people were killed Sunday in a bomb explosion in the Ukrainianheld city of Kharkiv as government supporters there and elsewhere marked the one-year anniversary of the overthrow of the country’s pro-Kremlin president, Viktor Yanukovych.

Authorities said at least another 10 people were injured by the blast during a march commemorating the ouster of Yanukovych.

Kharkiv is more than 200 kilometers from the front line where pro-Russian separatists have been battling Kyiv’s forces, but rebels have carried out violent protests in eastern Ukraine’s biggest city during the past year.

Police said several suspects were arrested in the latest attack, with a Ukraine security aide saying they had received weapons and instructions in Russia.

Kyiv march Several thousand people, led

by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, held a peaceful ceremony in Kyiv’s Independence Square marking the anniversary and the deaths a year ago of 100 anti-Yanukovych protesters.

In the year since Yanukovych’s overthrow, Russia annexed

Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula and fighting broke out in largely Russian-speaking eastern Ukraine between separatists and Kyiv’s forces that has killed more than 5,600 people.

Yanukovych escaped to Russia after his overthrow. In an interview with Russian state television broadcast Saturday from

an unknown location, he said, “The most terrible thing that I was afraid would happen, did happen - blood was spilled and war began.”

The former Ukrainian leader said the only way for the war to end is if Kyiv gives the Russianspeaking people in eastern Ukraine “guarantees that selfadministration will be sufficient

for these regions in order to protect their rights.”

Military officials say both sides in Ukraine’s conflict have agreed to pull back their heavy weapons from the frontlines in eastern Ukraine. It is a positive sign for the implementation of the latest cease-fire that has been repeatedly violated, including Sunday.

A policewoman walks near the body of a victim covered by a Ukrainian national flag at the site of an attack in Kharkiv, in northeastern Ukraine.

Greece debt deal: Reforms will ‘combat tax evasion’

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reece will crack down on tax evasion and streamline its civil service in its bid to secure a bailout extension, minister of state Nikos Pappas says.

The government is working on a package of reforms that it must submit to international creditors on Monday.

If the reforms are approved, Greece will be granted a vital four-month extension on its debt repayments.

Mr Pappas said the reforms being proposed would take the Greek economy “out of sedation”.

“We are compiling a list of

measures to make the Greek civil service more effective and to combat tax evasion,” he told Greece’s Mega Channel.

He added that talks this week would be “a daily battle... every centimetre of ground must be won with effort”.

The agreement reached on Friday with European finance ministers extends Greece’s financial rescue programme by four months - but creditors gave Athens till Monday to come up with a list of reforms.

The reforms must then be approved before eurozone members ratify a bailout extension on Tuesday.

Many analysts have described Friday’s agreement as a climb down.

On Saturday, Greece’s Prime Minister Alexis Tspiras said in a televised address that his government had “won a battle, not the war”.

If the reforms are approved and the deal stands, the immediate risk of Greece running out of money would be removed, giving the country time to negotiate further to change the terms of the bailout.

Greek Finance Minister YanisVaroufakis has said he would work night and day to devise the reforms.

“If the list of reforms is not agreed,

this agreement is dead,” he said.

The new Greek government was elected by promising to reverse austerity.

It says the conditions imposed on the country by its lenders have had a devastating effect on the economy.

Greece borrowed €240bn (£188bn) from the EU, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund, on the condition that it cut spending and raised taxes to reduce its debt levels.

The economy is now 25% smaller than it was at the start of the financial crisis, with youth unemployment standing at almost 50%.

Somali militants threaten to attack western shopping malls

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he U.S. homeland security chief said authorities are taking seriously a threat made

by Somali-based Islamist militants against Western shopping malls.

Homeland Security Secretary

Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson arrives on Capitol Hill in Washington to testify before a House Homeland Security Committee hearing on the impact of President Barack Obama’s executive action on immigration.

Jeh Johnson was reacting to a video released by al-Shabab terrorists, appearing to call for attacks on shopping areas.

Speaking Sunday, Johnson said the global terrorist threat has evolved to militant groups “publicly calling for independent actors in their homelands to carry out attacks.”

He said, “We’re beyond the phase now where these groups would send foreign operatives into countries after being trained some place [else].”

US, Canada, Britain mentioned Al-Shabab claimed responsibility for a September 2013 attack that killed 67 people at the Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi, Kenya.

The terrorist threat specifically mentioned shopping areas in the

United States, Canada and Britain.

Among them was the Mall of America, in the northern U.S. state of Minnesota. The area is home to a sizeable Somali immigrant population.

U.S. law enforcement officials have been concerned about the potential for radicalization among members of immigrant communities.

A Minnesota man was indicted last week on charges of conspiring to support the Islamic State extremist group and lying to federal agents investigating recruitment by militant groups.

Prosecutors said dozens of people from Minnesota, many of them Somali-Americans, have traveled or attempted to travel overseas to support groups such as Islamic State or al-Shabab since 2007.

Europe and Americas

Obama: New Free-Trade Deals Will Create More Jobs

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.S. President Barack Obama has promoted the value of free- trade deals to the U.S. public, saying they will make American businesses more successful and competitive in a 21st century economy.

In his weekly address Saturday, Obama said past trade deals have not always lived up to the promise of “leveling the playing field” for American workers and holding all countries to the high labor and environmental standards the U.S. abides by.

But he said that does not mean the U.S. should close itself off from new opportunities and remain idle while other countries determine its economic fate.

The president said the U.S. should “seize” those opportunities, saying they will create “good new jobs for decades to come.”

Obama urged the U.S. Congress to act on “trade promotion authority.” He said that is bipartisan legislation that will protect American workers and promote American businesses with strong new trade deals from Asia to Europe that are free and fair.

Malcolm X remembered, 50 years after his death

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everal hundred people gathered Saturday in New York City to remember controversial civil rights leader Malcolm X, 50 years to the day after his assassination at age 39.

One of Malcolm X’s daughters, elected officials and other civil rights figures were among those who attended. Speeches were given and a moment of silence was observed in the building where he was shot in 1965, which has been renamed for Malcolm X and his wife.

Malcolm X, born in Omaha, Nebraska, advocated black selfd e t e rm i n a t i o n a n d re j e c t e d integration, putting him at odds with other civil rights leaders, including the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. After a troubled childhood, Malcolm X went to prison, where he encountered Muslims and transformed his life through education and a religious conversion. He also changed his name from Malcolm Little to Malcolm X. For 12 years, he was the spokesman for the Nation of Islam, a black Muslim group that he broke with shortly before his death.

Malcolm X has been the subject of a film by director Spike Lee and an autobiography co-written by Alex Haley.

PEOPLES DAILY, Monday, February 23, 2015

Page 39

Strange World Priest who died for 48 minutes says he met God and she’s a woman

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e’ve all seen the traditional depictions of God as a clouddwelling figure with a flowing mane and a white beard.

But now, a Catholic priest in America has apparently claimed that God is female, after he officially died for 48 minutes following a massive heart attack.

According to an unverified report, Father John Micheal O’Neal, 71, briefly went to heaven and met a ‘warm and comforting’ motherly figure as doctors battled to save his life at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Although doctors feared that the religious cleric would have suffered brain damage, he woke up only 48 hours later and has recovered from the heart attack.

Recalling his experience, the priest apparently said that he was engulfed by a feeling of

A Catholic priest from Father John MichealO’neal claims he went to heaven and met a female God.

unconditional love as he met God, who he described as a mother-like ‘being of light’.

He said: ‘Her presence was both overwhelming and comforting.

‘She had a soft and soothing voice and her presence was as reassuring as a mother’s embrace.

‘The fact that God is a Holy Mother instead of a Holy Father doesn’t disturb me, she is everything I hoped she would be and even more.’

O’Neal has reportedly said that he will continue to spread the word of God, despite the Archbishop of Boston moving to rubbish the claims of a ‘Holy Mother’.

He added: ‘I wish to continue preaching. I would like to share my new knowledge of the Mother, the Son and the Holy Ghost with all Catholics and even all Christians.

God is great and almighty despite being a woman.’

The milk of human kindness came before intelligence: Skulls of early humans show they developed compassion up to 3million years ago - before they could even speak

Early humans are believed to have shown compassion and caring, like the Australopithecine (pictured) that lived around 3million years ago and carried pebbles with markings that looked like babies’ faces

E

arly humans carried pebbles shaped like babies’ faces and appeared to care for disabled children in a sign they developed kindness and compassion millions of years before intelligence, researchers have claimed.

Evidence has been found that humans living more than 3million years ago may have looked after and

even helped each other to survive before they learned to speak, and these emotions may have actually helped intelligence and reasoning evolve.

Researchers point to a skull, dating back 1.5 million years, found with no teeth, suggesting people in the group may have helped this early human find soft food to survive. And evidence of tracks

found in east Africa - dating back 3.5million years - appear to show adults being followed by a child.

The findings, revealed in a study by Penny Spikins of York University, undermine current theories that early humans were characterised by violence and competition, killing each other in a desperate battle to survive.

‘Evolution made us sociable, living in groups and looking after each one another, even before we had language, ‘ Spikins, a human origins researcher, told the Sunday Times.

‘Our succe ss s ince the n, including the evolution of intelligence, all sprang from that.’

Spikins cites an early example of the Makapansgat pebble, found in a cave in South Africa with australopithecines - which date back approximately 3million years.

She suggests the pebble, which has pits and markings shaped like a baby’s face, may have been carried several miles by these early humans because the markings reminded australopithecines of a child.

‘It is impossible for tell for sure but this is not the only tantalising sign of something perhaps approaching tenderness,’ she added.

Language skills and intelligence are thought to have developed in the past 500,000 years and maybe as late as 150,000 years ago.

In another example Spikins cites a Dmanisi skull, dating back 1.5million years, which showed evidence of someone surviving for years with no teeth. The group probably helped this early hominin, a Homo erectus found in Georgia, find soft food so it could survive.

Another Homo erectus skull was found in Kenya, which showed

evidence of it being cared for after a long illness. Spikins also points to groups of Homo heidelbergensis, which lived around 450,000 years ago, who cared for disabled youngsters. A deformed skull of a child with learning difficulties from this period was found in Spain.

Evidence is also seen in some of the objects created by early man.

A handaxe, believed to have been created around 250,000 years ago, was found in West Tofts in Norfolk with a fossilised scallop shell as the centrepiece. Rather than being purely functional, the presence of this scallop shell suggests early

humans may have had a sense of aesthetics and creativity when creating the tool.

Spikins suggests that the combination of evidence of care and compassion, as well as creativity in making tools, is evidence of feelings millions of years ago. She said that while competition and fighting did happen it would have been a ‘risky’ business in the struggle to survive.

‘It suggests early humans, from 2million years ago, were emotionally similar to us,’ she added. Spikins’ findings are to be published in a book

Researchers said a toothless Dmanisi skull dating back around 1.5 million years shows evidence of compassion among the group which probably helped this early human survive by helping them find soft food

Page 40

PEOPLES DAILY, Monday, February 23, 2015

Digest

A

chunk or two of chocolate a day may reduce high blood pressure, according to U.S. researchers.

They’re testing this in a new trial involving 120 men and women with high blood pressure who are being given 10g of extra dark chocolate and a drink containing 2.5g (about half a teaspoon) of cocoa powder every day for two months.

The researchers, from Boston University, will then measure

blood pressure as well as artery stiffness, a marker of heart disease risk. It’s thought the antioxidant effects of compounds called polyphenols, found in greater quantities in dark chocolate, may help to relax arteries.

The results are expected this year.

A healing heel to beat leg ulcers Wearing a protective cast may tackle hard-to-heal leg ulcers.

Heel casts, which are moulded from lightweight glass fibre and

A chunk or two of chocolate a day may reduce high blood pressure

Can chocolate lower high blood pressure? are placed over a standard wound dressing on the foot before a shoe is put on, are being used in a clinical trial for diabetes patients with chronic heel ulcers. These take on average 200 days to heal - though some never heal and can lead to amputations.

There is some evidence that wearing a heel cast can speed up healing, with one small study finding they reduced healing time to around 40 days, but until now there has not been a large clinical trial. Now a team led by Nottingham University Hospitals will test the casts in a trial of more than 500 people.

One theory is the cast reduces how much the tissue on the surface of the ulcer stretches as the foot moves.

Lack of iron linked to dementia risk Could boosting iron levels lower the risk of dementia in women?

A new study based on 16,000 men and women, half of whom had dementia, found that women with the condition were twice as likely to have previously been diagnosed with iron-deficiency anaemia.

The researchers from Taipei Medical University Hospital, Taiwan, reported that 6 per cent of these women had been anaemic, compared with 3 per

Women with dementia ere twice as likely to have previously been diagnosed with anaemia

cent of the women who didn’t have dementia. One theory is that anaemia reduces the amount of oxygen getting to the brain, because a lack of iron stops the blood cells that transport oxygen from working properly.

The results, published in the Journal of Neurological Science, did not show the same correlation in men for reasons that aren’t clear.

Source: Dailymail.co.uk

Have TV-free days to keep the weight off

H

aving regular TV-free days can prevent you becoming overweight, the health watchdog is advising.

Obesity rates have nearly doubled over the last ten years, according to Professor Mike

On other days, avoid eating meals in front of the television and limit yourself to just two hours’ viewing, it says.

The advice, in guidelines issued

by NICE – the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence – is similar to a campaign in the US that has seen people encouraged to have one TV-free day a week. The 42 pages of guidelines are aimed at those who are in good health and not overweight.

Scroll down for video They also advise sticking to lowfat milk and yoghurts, cutting meat out of meals as much as possible, and having breakfast – ideally wholegrain cereal or toast – to stop the temptation of mid-morning biscuits or a pastry.

NICE says that obesity levels have risen to such an extent that men and women of a healthy weight are now in the minority.

The average adult is a stone overweight and only 30 per cent of men and 40 per cent of women could consider themselves slim.

Some have questioned why NICE has produced such detailed guidelines for the healthy when there are more pressing issues.

But Professor Mike Kelly, director of the Centre for Public Health at NICE, defended the guidelines, being emailed to doctors, councils and other groups.

He said: ‘Obesity rates have nearly doubled over the last ten years and continue to be a huge concern.

Following a healthier diet and being more physically active is important for everyone, not just if you are already overweight or obese.

‘We all know we should probably take the stairs rather than the lift, cut down on TV time, eat more healthily and drink less alcohol. But it can be difficult to know the most useful changes that we can make.’

NICE says that aside from encouraging a couch potato lifestyle, watching TV makes us more inclined to eat snacks due to constant adverts for food.

Those who have dinner in front

Health watchdog NICE has advised people to avoid eating meals in front of the television of the television tend to eat more as they are distracted from enjoying the meal so feel less satisfied.

The watchdog did not say whether families should introduce TV-free days monthly or one day a week – for example, at the weekend. But in the US some schools encourage TV-free Tuesdays – or entire weeks without TV – with the time spent doing exercise instead.

Tam Fry of the National Obesity Forum said: ‘Advice is one thing: getting millions of people to do what it says on the tin is quite another.

‘What should be done is that we should be educated into a healthy lifestyle at a young age.’

Dr Ian Campbell, a GP and expert in obesity, said he hopes more of his patients would follow the advice.

Source: Dailymail.co.uk

SporT 41 Page

Peoples Daily, PEOPLES DAILY, friday, thursday, February october 20,2, 2015 2014

sports@peoplesdailyng.com, SMS- 08142929046

Track World Championships: Trott keeps Britain hopes alive

>>>Pg 44

By Albert Akota

O

ut of contract Super Eagles coach Stephen Keshi is currently the favorite from a shortlist of three coaches penciled down to handle the Burkina Faso senior National team.

53 year old Keshi is the youngest among the three men shortlisted for the job by the country FA on Wednesday, younger than Milovan Rajevac who is 61 years old and Gernot Rohr who is 62 years old.

The AFCON 2013 winning coach currently enjoys the favor and backing of FA boss Sita Sangare, who viewed the Nigerian as a young alternative above the other two shortlisted for the job.

Keshi failed to qualify Nigeria for the cup of Nations after winning it in 2013, ironically beating Burkina Faso in the final, the team he is now in contention to coach.

Sangare according to the country media favors a young manager who will be on a renewable long term contract to succeed Paul Put, who failed to take the team past the group stage at the just concluded cup of Nations, despite reaching the final two years ago.

His other contestants for the job also have knowledge of Africa Football as Rajevac steered Ghana to the final of the 2010 African Cup of Nations and the last eight of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

Meanwhile Rohr took Gabon to the quarter-finals of the 2012 Nations Cup on home soil and also managed Niger at the 2013 edition but failed to get them out of the group stage.

A new manager for the Stallions is expected to be named in two weeks.

Keshi

Golden Eaglets seal World Cup ticket >>>Pg 42

Entente Setif beat Al Ahly on penalties to win the CAF Super Cup

>>>Pg 43

PEOPLES DAILY, friday, February 20, 2015

Page 42

Sport Modibbo, Saidu, Adamu, Ayi retain seats

A

number of incumbents retained their seats as elections into the boards of the Football Associations of the 36 States and the FCT continued around the Federation on Saturday.

In Jalingo, at elections supervised by Member of the NFF Executive Committee and Chairman of the States Elections Monitoring Committee, Alhaji Ibrahim Gusau, incumbent chairman of NFF Executive Committee member, Hussaini Modibbo retained his seat.

Hon. Essien Ayi, Member of Parliament, retained his seat as he was unopposed as chairman of the Cross River State Football Association, at elections conducted in Calabar and supervised by Member of NFF Executive Committee, Alhaji Babagana Kalli.

There was contest in Bauchi State, where incumbent Yahuza Adamu won 17 of 26 votes to retain his seat, against Kabiru Ahmed who won nine votes.

Former Nigeria international, Pascal Patrick (MON) was elected as 1st vice chairman of Bauchi State FA. In Gombe, incumbent Auwalu Musa retained his seat but vice chairman Manzo Mohammed failed in his bid to return.

Alhaji Mohammed Nasir Saidu was re-elected in Sokoto State after sweeping all 23 votes despite not being opposed, in what the secretary of the States Elections Monitoring Committee, Tunde Aderibigbe declared as transparent and credible.

The elections in Sokoto held despite moves by some powerful forces on Friday to scuttle the polls.

In Keffi, a tough battle raged as Haliru Ibrahim battled incumbent Mohammed Alkali hard. Both men polled nine votes each in the first round, but in the second ballot, Alkali prevailed with 10 votes against eight for Ibrahim. Haladu Akwasiki was elected vice chairman.

Siasia boys destroy Gabon in Gabon

S

amson Siasia boys took a big step towards qualifying for the final round of the All African Games Qualifiers as Ajayi Junior scored twice in a 4-1 first-leg win over Gabon in Libreville on Saturday.

3SC striker Ajayi Junior handed the Dream Team VI a one-nil lead two minute into the game.

The hosts weren’t in the mood to easily go down and they launched some attacks.

It took the composure of goalkeeper Emmanuel Daniel to keep the scoreline at 1-0 in the opening thirty minutes.

With two minutes to the end of the first half, Bayelsa United attacking midfielder Tonbara Tiongoli forced his way to the 18yard area and earned his team a penalty.

In-form striker Etebo Oghenekaro easily dispatched the spot kick and the first stanza ended 2-0 in favour of Samson Siasia’s wards.

The Dream Team VI

Golden Eaglets seal World Cup ticket

By Albert Akota

N

igeria defeated Zambia 3-1 in their final Group A game at the African U17 Championship on Saturday to seal their semi-final ticket and a place in the FIFA U17 World Cup. The victory at the Stade Municipal Stadium ensured that the current world champions zoomed to the semi-final of the cadet competition currently going-on in Niger Republic.

Nigeria pushed forward with two chances on target in the opening fifteen minutes, while

Samson Siasia celebrating

By Albert Akota

Technical crew

continued to press forward at the beginning of second half, and the menacing Ajayi Junior grabbed his second goal of the day in the 49th minute.

Six minutes later, the Gabonese side reduced the deficit through Meye Axel.

Midfield maestro Azubuike Okechukwu also caused all sorts of problems with his precise passes and ball winning skills.

His free kick struck the upright fifteen minutes to the end of the match.

Wing wizard Godwin Saviour went on a solo run after he skillfully dribbled through the opponents’ defence line, but the Plateau United kid bomber missed from close range.

Before the homers could recover and make the second leg match a keenly contested affair substitute Peter Onyekachi delivered the 4th goal for Nigeria.

Members of the Nigerian community in Gabon made a good presence and cheered the Dream Team loudly at the Stade Augustin Monedan a Sibang.

Nigeria host Gabon in the second leg next forthnight.

Zambia managed only one strike on target.

Paston Daka was the most dangerous outlet for the Zambians as he wasn’t afraid to take the game to the Nigerian side.

Ten minutes to the end of the first stanza, the Nigerian side went in front.

Energetic striker Victor Osimhen gave the West Africans the lead with a wonderful finish.

Team captain Kelechi Nwakali handed the Golden Eaglets a two-goal cushion in the 45th minute. It was his third goal of the tournament

The Zambians who were no match for the Nigerian boys had their woes compounded in the 47th minute when Victor Osimhen made the scoreline three-nil.

Zambia stepped up the plate and they were soon rewarded as their danger man Paston Daka finally found luck in front of goal with a strike of his own.

The Nigerians tried without success to score more goals in the explosive encounter which ended 3-1. At the end of the Group matches, the Golden Eagles amassed a total of seven points from a possible nine points.

Jay Jay Okocha emerges Delta state FA chairman

By Albert Akota

F

Austin Jay-Jay Okocha

ormer Super Eagles’ captain, Austin Jay-Jay Okocha has been elected chairman of the Delta State Football Association.

At the elections conducted in Asaba, and supervised by Member of the NFF Executive Committee, Babagana Kalli, Okocha polled 26 out of the 27 votes cast.

One of only two Nigerian footballers to play at three FIFA World Cup finals, Jay-Jay Okocha’s club career took him through Germany, France, England and Turkey, and he is presently Head of the NFF Technical Study Group.

Okocha, who had served as vice chairman before the elevation, replaces Mr. Amaju Melvin Pinnick, who announced his intention to relinquish the post on the very day he was elected President of Nigeria Football Federation, September 30, 2014.

Page 43

PEOPLES DAILY, friday, February 20, 2015

Sport

Swansea claims double over Manchester United

M Entente Setif

Entente Setif beat Al Ahly on penalties to win the CAF Super Cup

E

ntente Setif became the first Algerian club to win the African Super Cup, beating Egypt’s Al Ahly 6-5 in a tense penalty shoot-out after the match had ended 1-1 in normal time.

The prestigious fixture was played in Blida, 45 kilometres south of Algiers in front of a strong security presence.

Setif, the African Champions League winners, were leading 1-nil following Abdelmalek Ziaya’s 72nd minute strike.

Ahly then struck a

dramatic equaliser four minutes into stoppage time.

The Confederation Cup holders made it 1-1 through veteran striker Emad Meteb with virtually the last kick of the game, to take the contest to a penalty shoot-out.

The home side eventually won the cup 6-5 on penalties after Ahly’s Bassem Ali missed his kick.

Ahly have won the one-off match, played between the winners of the Champions League and the Confederation Cup holders, a record six times.

But Setif went into the

game as favourites because the match was staged in Blida, and in the past, home advantage has proved crucial in most of the annual games.

Since the Champions League winners began hosting the fixture in 1996, 17 of the 19 matches have ended in home victories.

Only 1,000 of the 25,000 tickets for the showdown at Stade Mustapha Tchaker, 45 kilometres south of Algiers, went to Ahly supporters.

But it is thought the stadium was far from full, after bad weather made

conditions difficult for supporters.

This is a first success for Algeria in a match won nine times by Egyptian clubs.

The Super Cup did not exist when the ‘Black Eagles’ were previously African champions in 1988.

Champions League success led to Setif being voted Caf Club of the Year, Kheireddine Madoui voted Coach of the Year and ElHedi Belameiri and Akram Djahnit finishing runnersup in the Africa-based Footballer of the Year.

anchester U n i t e d suffered only their second Premier League defeat since November as Bafetimbi Gomis’s second-half goal gave Swansea victory.

Ander Herrera’s low strike put United ahead, but the hosts responded immediately as Ki Sungyueng flicked in from Jonjo Shelvey’s cross.

Louis van Gaal’s side dominated the second period but failed to score.

Shelvey’s 73rd-minute shot deflected off Gomis to give the Swans a first league double over United.

Defeat means United drop to fourth place in the Premier League - Arsenal leapfrogging them by beating Crystal Palace and hampers their hopes of making an instant return to

Malaga wins shocked Barcelona

the Champions League after failing to qualify for Europe last season.

Swansea won 2-1 at Old Trafford on the opening day of the season to ruin Van Gaal’s first competitive match as United boss.

And the Welsh club pained the Dutchman again by inflicting only a second defeat on United in 20 matches across all competitions.

The Red Devils’ misery was compounded by the sight of Robin van Persie leaving the Liberty Stadium on crutches, with a protective boot around his right ankle after suffering a late injury.

The Netherlands striker had been recalled from injury as United made three changes from their FA Cup win at Preston.

Shelvey

Manchester City close gap on Chelsea

M

Jordi Alba looked as the touches the net

B

arcelona missed the chance to go top of La Liga as they suffered a shock home defeat to seventhplaced Malaga.

Juanmi scored the seventh-minute winner following a Dani Alves mistake as Barcelona’s 11-match winning run ended.

A second home league defeat of the season means Barcelona stay a point

behind Real Madrid.

And it was far from ideal preparation for the Catalans’ visit to Manchester City next Tuesday for the first leg of their Champions League last-16 tie.

Barcelona had scored 42 goals during their recent winning run - with top scorer Lionel Messi contributing 10 goals in his last five league games - but could not find one to cancel out Juanmi’s early strike.

Alves inadvertently created the chance with a weak backpass to goalkeeper Claudio Bravo, which the 21-year-old intercepted to take the ball around the keeper and slot into the empty net for his fifth goal of the season.

The goalscorer almost made it 2-0 on the break with a shot that was saved

by Bravo, before Barcelona piled on the pressure in the second half.

But despite dominating possession they were unable to create any clear-cut chances and overhaul Real Madrid who plays at Elche on Sunday.

Having drawn 0-0 in the first league meeting of the season between the sides last September, Malaga became the first team since Getafe in 2007/08 to keep Barcelona scoreless over two games.

anchester City recorded their biggest Premier League victory of the season to overwhelm Newcastle and cut Chelsea’s title lead to five points.

David Silva scored twice in an emphatic win as the champions took advantage of Burnley’s surprise draw at Stamford Bridge to give notice that their title defence is far from over.

With Yaya Toure back from the Africa Cup of Nations to add authority to their midfield and new £25m striker Wilfried Bony starting on the bench, City began with an intensity lacking from their recent performances at Etihad Stadium.

They made the perfect start when Newcastle gifted them a penalty after only 28 seconds, and went on to produce their most fluent attacking display of the

season.

Helped by some more awful Newcastle defending, Samir Nasri soon made it 2-0 from Edin Dzeko’s cross before the Bosnia striker ended his 15-game goal drought to put the game beyond Newcastle with only 21 minutes gone.

Along with his energetic performance, the control and composure Dzeko showed to put away Silva’s pass was a sign to the watching Bony that he is not guaranteed his place.

But this was an evening where City’s entire attack impressed. While Manuel Pellegrini’s men have been pedestrian in possession in recent weeks, this time they were fast and furious in their attacks.

At the heart of it all was Toure, making more touches than any of his team-mates and orchestrating their slick one-touch passing game.

Page 44

PEOPLES DAILY, friday, February 20, 2015

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THE TRUSTEES ARE: 1. Okonkwo David 2. Okonkwo Ngozi Mary 3. Abodunrin Olayemi Naomi 4. Edozie Godwin Menyelim 5. OkonmaOdigwe Nelson AIMS/OBJECTIVE: 1. To preach the gospel of Jesus Christ.

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PEOPLES DAILY, friday, February 20, 2015

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PUBLIC NOTICE DR GREG’S REPRODUCTIVE AND SEXUAL HEALTH AWARENESS INITIATIVE

THIS IS TO INFORM THE GENERAL PUBLIC THAT THE ABOVE NAMED INITIATIVE HAS APPLIED FOR REGISTRATION IN THE CORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSION UNDER PART C OF THE COMPANIES AND ALLIED MATTERS ACT NO. 1 OF 1990.

THE TRUSTEES ARE: 1.DR. AIGBE GREGORY OHIHOIN - CHAIRMAN 2.MRS. OLUSHOLA ADEGBONMIRHE 3.MRS. DEBORAH ONI 4.MRS EBIEREH CLARA HERBERTSON 5.DR. JOHN ANIEMEKE 6.DR. (MRS) ESTHER NGOZI OHIHOIN - SECRETARY 7.MR. NELSON OHIHOIN 8.MRS. EBELE NNAJIOFOR THE AIMS AND OBJECTIVES ARE: 1.PROMOTION OF GOOD SEXUAL AND REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH PRACTICES IN THE COMMUNITY. 2.COMMUNITY BASED ADVOCACY TO TACKLE ISSUES RELATED TO SEXUAL AND REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH SUCH AS IMPROVING FAMILY PLANNING SERVICES AND REDUCING THE UNMET NEED FOR CONTRACEPTION. ANY OBJECTION TO THIS REGISTRATION SHOULD BE FORWARDED TO THE REGISTRAR-GENERAL CORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSION, 420, TIGRIS CRESCENT, OFF AGUYI IRONSI STREET PMB 198, MAITAMA, ABUJA WITHIN 28TH DAYS FROM THE DATE OF PUBLICATION

SIGNED:BARR. EWERE EFOSA 08027120022,SOLICITOR

PUBLIC NOTICE MUJIBAT FOLASHADE IDEWU FOUNDATION

PUBLIC NOTICE UPRISING UNITED SOCIAL CLUB

The General Public is hereby notified that the above named foundation has applied to the Corporate Affairs Commission, Abuja for registration under Part ‘C’ of the Companies And Allied Matters Act, 1990.

The general public is hereby notified that the above named CLUB has applied to the Corporate Affairs Commission for Registration under part “C” of the Companies and Allied Matters Act of 1990.

THE TRUSTEES ARE: 1. Uthman Kemi Pinheiro (SAN)- Chairman 2. Rukayat Yetunde Pinheiro 3. Kameel Damola Dada 4. Sabit Folakunmi Pinheiro 5. Mutiat Olatunji - Secretary

THE TRUSTEES ARE: 1. ODO KENNETH 2. EMEKA AGBO 3. UGWUOKE CHARLES 4. ABONYI JOSEPHAT 5. EZE ERNEST 6. ONA ERIC

Aims And Objective 1. To contribute to education and continuing professional development through the award of educational grants and scholarships.

2. To promote, encourage and support, through charitable donations, individuals and non profit charities involved in community development and corporate social responsibility.

Any objection to this registration should be forwarded to the Registrar-General, Corporate Affairs Commission, Plot 420, Tigris Crescent, Off Aguiyi Ironsi Street, Abuja within 28 days of this publication.

Signed: Secretary

AIM AND OBJECTIVE 1. TO FOSTER PEACE, UNITY AND PROGRESS AMONG THE MEMBERS. Any objection to this Registration should be forwarded to the Registrar General Corporate Affairs, plot 420, Tigris Crescent, off Aguiyi Ironsi Street, Maitama, Abuja within 28 days of this publication.

SIGNED:BARR. CLEM. CHUKWUEMEKA ODO KARINA TUNYAN (SAN) & CO. BARRISTERS, SOLICITORS & NOTARY PUBLIC, 28 BLANTYRE STREET, WUSE II, ABUJA. 08039668121

PUBLIC NOTICE

LOSS OF DOCUMENT

HOPE RESTORATION DIVINE TEACHING MINISTRY

THIS IS TO INFORM THE GENERAL PUBLIC OF THE LOSS OF REGULARIZATION OF LAND TITLES AND DOCUMENTS OF FCT AREA COUNCIL. WITH FILE NO:40924.THE LETTER OF OFFER OF TERMS OF GRANT/CONVEYANCE OF APPROVAL FROM AMAC BELONGING TO MR TOSIN MOMODU GOT MISSING.ALL EFFORT MADE TO TRACED THE SAID DOCUMENTS PROVED ABORTIVE IF FOUND PLEASE RETURN TO THE NEAREST POLICE STATION OR TO MR PAUL DIBIA OF ABBEY BUILDING SOCIETY, NO 1 AYANGBA STR AREA 11 ABUJA. SIGNED:PAUL DIBIA

THIS IS TO INFORM THE GENERAL PUBLIC THAT THE ABOVE NAMED MINISTRY HAS APPLIED FOR REGISTRATION IN THE CORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSION UNDER PART C OF THE COMPANIES AND ALLIED MATTERS ACT NO. 1 OF 1990.

THE TRUSTEES ARE: 1.CHIZOR REUBEN - CHAIRMAN 2.IFEMESIA IFEYINWA NWABUZO - SECRETARY 3.CHIZOR STEVE 4.OKOH IFEANYI PATIENCE THE AIMS AND OBJECTIVES ARE: 1.TO PREACH THE GOSPEL OF OUR LORD AND SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST. 2.TO ORGANISE CRUSADE,SEMINARS,WORKSHOP AND REVIVAL SERVICES FOR THE WORK OF THE GOSPEL. ANY OBJECTION TO THIS REGISTRATION SHOULD BE FORWARDED TO THE REGISTRAR-GENERAL CORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSION, 420, TIGRIS CRESCENT, OFF AGUYI IRONSI STREET PMB 198, MAITAMA, ABUJA WITHIN 28TH DAYS FROM THE DATE OF PUBLICATION SIGNED: BARR. IFY ARUM 08033807616

CHANGE OF NAME

I,OBI -DURU REGINA NGOZI FORMERLY OBI REGINA NGOZI NOW WISH TO BE KNOWN AND ADDRESS AS DURU REGINA NGOZI, ALL FORMER DOCUMENTS REMAIN VALID, GT BANK, ACCESS BANK, NYSC AND IBTC AND GENERAL PUBLIC SHOULD PLEASE TAKE NOTE.

Page 46

PEOPLES DAILY, friday, February 20, 2015

PUBLIC NOTICE LAKEVIEW HOMES PHASE 1 RESIDENTS ASSOCIATION

THIS IS TO INFORM THE GENERAL PUBLIC THAT THE ABOVE NAMED ASSOCIATION HAS APPLIED FOR CHANGE OF TRUSTEES IN THE CORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSION UNDER PART C OF THE COMPANIES AND ALLIED MATTERS ACT NO. 1 OF 1990.

THE OLD TRUSTEES ARE: THE NEW TRUSTEES ARE: 1.ALH. ABDULATEEF TAYO SHITTU - RE APPOINTED 1.NANA ABU-ALI - REMOVED 2.ANNE ABIMIKU - REMOVED 2.BARR. HADIZA ALIYU - RE APPOINTED 3.UMAR ABBAS - REMOVED 3.MR. MARTIN AHACHI - RE APPOINTED 4.HAJIA MARIAM BELLO 4.KEHINDE AKINOLU (SAN) - APPOINTED REMOVED 5.DR. MRS. CHIDUBEM MOMAH - APPOINTED 6.SULEIMAN DANTSOHO IBRAHIM - APPOINTED 5.SYLVIA OKOLI - REMOVED 7.ALH. DANJUMA IBRAHIM - APPOINTED 6.IBRAHIM BOYI - REMOVED 8.ABDULLAHI BAPPAH AHMED - APPOINTED 7.MOHAMMED SHEHU ABUBAKAR 9.ISA MOHAMMED INUWA - APPOINTED - REMOVED 10.MR. THOMAS AHMED - APPOINTED THE CONSTITUTION IS ALSO AMENDED AS FOLLOWS: THA THE FOLLOWING TRUSTEES SHALL HOLD OFFICE FOR LIFE: 1.ALH. DANJUMA IBRAHIM 2.KEHINDE AKINOLU (SAN) 3.BARR. HADIZA ALIYU 4.MR. MARTIN AHACHI 5.ISA MOHAMMED INUWA WHILE THE FOLLOWING TRUSTEES SHALL HOLD OFFICE FOR 4 (FOUR) YEARS TERM: 1.DR. MRS. CHIDUBEM NWAKAME MOMAH 2.ABDULLAHI BAPPAH AHMED 3.SULEIMAN DANTSOHO IBRAHIM 4.ALH. ABDULATEEF TAYO SHITTU 5.MR. THOMAS OMUYA AHMED AIMS AND OBJECTIVES REMAIN THE SAME. ANY OBJECTION TO THIS CHANGE SHOULD BE FORWARDED TO THE REGISTRARGENERAL CORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSION, 420, TIGRIS CRESCENT, OFF AGUYI IRONSI STREET PMB 198, MAITAMA, ABUJA WITHIN 28TH DAYS FROM THE DATE OF PUBLICATION SIGNED:BARR. SALLAU.

CHANGE OF NAME

I FORMERLY KNOWN AS OJOECHEM, NGOZICHUKWUKA Y. CHIETO NOW WISH TO BE KNOWN AND ADDRESS AS OFOEFULE, NGOZICHUKWUKA Y. C. ALL FORMER DOCUMENTS REMAIN VALID GENERAL PUBLIC TAKE NOTE.

CHANGE OF NAME I formally known as miss Blessing Olah now whish to be known and addressed as Blessing Uloko. All former documents remain valid, general public should please take note.

PUBLIC NOTICE

PUBLIC NOTICE

hamza bin abdul mutalib masjid

THIS IS TO INFORM THE GENERAL PUBLIC THAT THE ABOVE NAMED center HAS APPLIED FOR REGISTRATION IN THE CORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSION UNDER PART C OF THE COMPANIES AND ALLIED MATTERS ACT NO. 1 OF 1990.

THE TRUSTEES ARE: 1.suleiman m. baba 2.balogun jubril badiru 3. zakari musa 4. garba ubale 5. mohammed usman naibi 6. mohammed ndarubu 7. sham’un abdullahi

THE TRUSTEES ARE: 1,Ibrahim hamisu 2,Danjuma usman.

3, Aliyu sulaiman.

4, hafizu hamisu.

5, Asiya abubakar.

6, Ibrahim yusif.

7, Ibrahim abdulkadir.

8, Abubakar salmanu.

9, Adamu Usman

THE AIM AND OBJECTIVE is: 1.to give islamic educational assistance ANY OBJECTION TO THIS REGISTRATION SHOULD BE FORWARDED TO THE REGISTRAR-GENERAL CORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSION, 420, TIGRIS CRESCENT, OFF AGUYI IRONSI STREET PMB 198, MAITAMA, ABUJA WITHIN 28TH DAYS FROM THE DATE OF PUBLICATION SIGNED:secretary

PUBLIC NOTICE

QUEEN OCHEFIJE FOUNDATION

PUBLIC NOTICE PARKs & GARDEN OWNERS ASSOCIATION, ABUJA.

THE TRUSTEES ARE: 1. SIR. JIMMY INEKE - CHAIRMAN 2. CHIDI ABANOBI - SECRETARY 3.MRS. JULIE OSENI - TREASURER. 4. ALH. ABDUL ABECHI -FINANCIAL SECRETARY.

- CHAIRMAN -SECRETARY

THE AIMS AND OBJECTIVES ARE: 1. TO RUN A CHARITABLE ORGANIZATION. 2. TO HELP THE LESS PRIVILEGE. 3. TO ASSIST THE INTERNALLY DISPLACED PERSONS. ANY OBJECTION TO THIS REGISTRATION SHOULD BE FORWARDED TO THE REGISTRAR-GENERAL CORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSION, 420, TIGRIS CRESCENT, OFF AGUYI IRONSI STREET PMB 198, MAITAMA, ABUJA WITHIN 28TH DAYS FROM THE DATE OF PUBLICATION SIGNED:SIGNED: P. O. OBUTE ESQ. 08035975739.

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES : 1. TO HELP ONE ANOTHER. 2. TO ENCOURAGE VEGETATIONS IN ABUJA AND IT’S ENVIRONS. 3. TO MAINTAIN CLEAN ENVIRONMENTS IN PARKS AND GARDEN IN ABUJA. ANY OBJECTION TO THIS REGISTRATION SHOULD BE FORWARDED TO THE REGISTRAR-GENERAL CORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSION, 420, TIGRIS CRESCENT, OFF AGUYI IRONSI STREET PMB 198, MAITAMA, ABUJA WITHIN 28TH DAYS FROM THE DATE OF PUBLICATION SIGNED :P. O. OBUTE ESQ. 08035975739

PUBLIC NOTICE

PUBLIC NOTICE

KINGS SANCTUARY COMMUNITY CHURCH INT’L

NATIONAL BANANA AND PLANTAIN GROWERS, PROCESSORS AND MARKETERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA

Signed: BARR. NGOZI SOLOMON-BALOGUN

PUBLIC NOTICE

PUBLIC NOTICE

FEDERAL HOUSING AUTHORITY ESTATE, LUGBE CENTRAL RESIDENTS ASSOCIATION

PRAISEWINE INTERNATIONAL-PINNACLE OF GLORY MINISTRY

SIGNED: SECRETARY

SIGNED:secretary

THE TRUSTEES ARE: 1. OCHEFIJE B. INEKE 2. JOSEPH E. INEKE

Any objection to the registration should be forwarded to the Registrar-General, Corporate Affairs Commission, Plot 420 Tigris Crescent, Off Aguiyi Ironsi Street, Maitana, Abuja within 28 days of this publication.

ANY OBJECTION TO THIS REGISTRATION SHOULD BE FORWARDED TO THE REGISTRAR GENERAL, CORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSION, PLOT 420 TIGRIS CRESCENT, OFF AGUIYI IRONSI STREET, MAITAMA, P.M.B 198, GARKI ABUJA WITHIN 28 DAYS OF THIS PUBLICATION.

ANY OBJECTION TO THIS REGISTRATION SHOULD BE FORWARDED TO THE REGISTRAR-GENERAL CORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSION, 420, TIGRIS CRESCENT, OFF AGUYI IRONSI STREET PMB 198, MAITAMA, ABUJA WITHIN 28TH DAYS FROM THE DATE OF PUBLICATION

THIS IS TO INFORM THE GENERAL PUBLIC THAT THE ABOVE NAMED association HAS APPLIED FOR REGISTRATION IN THE CORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSION UNDER PART C OF THE COMPANIES AND ALLIED MATTERS ACT NO. 1 OF 1990.

AIMS/OBJECTIVE: 1. To organise crusade, seminars, workshop and revival services for the work of the gospel.

2. To preach the gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES 1. To promote the exercise of the rights of all residents of the estate and maintenance and improvement of their housing conditions, amenities and environment.

2. To further the community interest of residents in relation to the estate and to uphold equal opportunities and work for good relations amongst all members.

THE AIM AND OBJECTIVE is: The aim is to build Islamic school

THIS IS TO INFORM THE GENERAL PUBLIC THAT THE ABOVE NAMED HAS APPLIED FOR REGISTRATION IN THE CORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSION UNDER PART C OF THE COMPANIES AND ALLIED MATTERS ACT NO. 1 OF 1990.

THE TRUSTEES ARE: 1. Oletu Ajiri Godspower 2. Oletu Patricia Pudigha 3. Masoje Roseline Okeoghene 4. Okweni Obokparo 5. John Dennis

THE TRUSTEES ARE: 1. Babatunde Bashiru Suleiman 2. Ifeanyi Ejindu, Esq 3. Olatunji Stephen 4. Alhassan Ahmed 5. Lamanti Labetek 6. Njoku Jude 7. Felix Ifeanyi Okonkwo 8. Okereke Patrick 9. Kamil Oyinlola 10. Odelana Adesina

Kashiful Gumma Islamic center

THIS IS TO INFORM THE GENERAL PUBLIC THAT THE ABOVE NAMED HAS APPLIED FOR REGISTRATION IN THE CORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSION UNDER PART C OF THE COMPANIES AND ALLIED MATTERS ACT NO. 1 OF 1990.

The general public is hereby notified that the above named CHURCH has applied to Corporate Affairs Commission for registration under the part ‘C’ of the Company and Allied Matters Act, of 1990.

THE GENERAL PUBLIC IS HEREBY NOTIFIED THAT THE ABOVE NAMED ASSOCIATION HAS APPLIED TO CORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSION, ABUJA FOR REGISTRATION UNDER PART “C” OF THE COMPANIES AND ALLIED MATTERS ACT, NO. 1 OF 1990.

PUBLIC NOTICE

The General Public is hereby notified that the above named CHURCH has applied to the Corporate Affairs Commission Abuja for Registration under Part “C” of the Companies and Allied Matters Act, No. 1 of 2004.

THE TRUSTEES ARE: 1. Ilesanmi Adekunle 2. Ilesanmi Tinuade 3. Akinuli Tokunbo THE AIMS AND OBJECTIVES ARE: 1. To establish and maintain an environment where people can praise and worship God in an atmosphere of love, joy and peace.

2. To proclaim God’s word, demonstrating God’s power, and empowering God’s people to discover and fulfill their ministries.

Any objection to the registration should be forwarded to the Registrar-General, Corporate Affairs Commission, Plot 420, Tigris Crescent, Off AguiyiIronsi Street, P.M.B. 198, Maitama, Abuja within Twenty-Eight (28) days from the date of this publication.

SIGNED: BARRISTER TOKUNBO AKINULI

The general public is hereby notified that the above named ASSOCIATION has applied to Corporate Affairs Commission for registration under the part ‘C’ of the Company and Allied Matters Act, of 1990.

THE TRUSTEES ARE: 1. Adjarho Oghenekaro Joshua 2. Dr. Cephas Ocheola Okwori 3. Alh. Mohammad Tukur Bello 4. Manga Manzi Yusufu 5. Prof. Alphonsus Ekwerike 6. Dr. Solomon Joe Ekong 7. Prophet Patrick Idonije Omokhudu 8. Mallam Ishaku Garba 9. Mr. Kayode Ogunsua AIMS/OBJECTIVE: 1. To promote the business of Banana and Plantain throughout the country with particular reference of Growing, Processing and Marketing.

2. To collaborate with the Federal Government to transform the traditional methods of farming to mechanize system.

Any objection to the registration should be forwarded to the Registrar-General, Corporate Affairs Commission, Plot 420 Tigris Crescent, Off AguiyiIronsi Street, Maitana, Abuja within 28 days of this publication.

Signed: ASIA OMOTEJOWHO A.P

08032008219

PUBLIC NOTICE

ERIC IGBAN FOUNDATION

The general public is hereby informed that the above named FOUNDATION has applied to Corporate Affairs Commission Abuja for registration under part “C” of Companies and Allied Matters acts 1990.

THE TRUSTEES ARE: 1. Hon. Andrew Igban Omagbemi - Chairman 2. Mrs. Endurance Omagbemi Igban - Secretary Aim and Objectives are: 1. To promote the development of Nigerian citizens into effective national and global leaders through leadership training and mentorship.

2. To promote the rehabilitation of delinquent and troubled youths through counseling, reorientation, education and entrepreneurship training.

Any objection to the registration should be forwarded to the Registrar-General, Corporate Affairs Commission, Plot 420, Tigris Crescent, off AguiyiIronsi Street, Maitama, Abuja within twenty-eight (28) days of this publication.

SIGNED: Secretary

PAGE 47

PEOPLES DAILY, friday, February 20, 2015

Some Interesting Facts

W

hip makes a cracking sound because its tip moves faster than the speed of sound • Two animal rights protesters were protesting at the cruelty of sending pigs to a slaughterhouse in Bonn. Suddenly the pigs, all two thousand of them, escaped through a broken fence andstampeded, trampling the two hapless protesters to death • If a statue in the park of a person

on a horse has both front legs in the air, the person died in battle; if the horse has one front leg in the air, the person died as a result of wounds received

Leisure

in battle;if the horse has all four legs on the ground, the person died of natural cause. Awesome!

• The human heart creates enough pressure while pumping to squirt blood 30 feet!!

• Relatives don’t always know better.

• Skeletons in family closets will always be there to haunt you.

Say what?

SUDOKU SUDOKU EASY 250

PHOTO OF THE DAY

The photographer shows the moving moment a girl cuddles her cat - the pictures were taken in Moscow and Andreapol, in Russia.

Source: Dailymail.co.uk

www.peoplesdailyng.com

. . . putting the people first

monday, february 23, 2015

QUOTABLE QUOTE If only politicians played the game of politicking according to the rules , political thuggery and other forms of violence wouldn’t be happening.

– Emir of Argungu, Alh. Ismaila Mohammadu Mera

SPORTS Obasanjo and his peers latest

Moses nets winner for Stoke City

N

igerian winger, Victor Moses, was the hero for Stoke City in the club’s 2-1 win over Stoke City at Villa Park as the Barclays English Premier League entered match day 26.

Moses netted a 90th minute penalty as the Potters came back from a goal down to defeat the Villans on Saturday.

Moses was cynically fouled by Villa’s Dutch defender, Ron Vlaar and the 22-year-old Nigerian picked up the ball and decided to take responsibility.

He showed nerves of steel to calmly send his penalty into the bottom left hand corner of Brad Guzan’s net, sending the American the wrong way in the process.

The goal, which was Moses’ second in the league this season was his second in almost four months.

It also represents the first time in three seasons that Moses will be scoring more than one league goal in a single season.

Saturday’s win takes Stoke up to 10th in the Premier League standings with 36 points from 26 matches.

Arsenal survive Palace rally to go third

F

irst-half goals by Santi Cazorla and Olivier Giroud gave Arsenal a 2-1 victory at Crystal Palace in the Premier League on Saturday that ended up closer than expected.

Glenn Murray, the Palace substitute, replied in injury time and almost grabbed an improbable point for the South London side when his last-gasp header rebounded off the post.

In the end it was not as comfortable a form of preparation for Wednesday’s Champions League visit of Monaco as it appeared for most of the game, but it was good enough to lift Arsene Wenger’s side to third place.

Alan Pardew’s Palace is now 13th and although their unimpressive home record continues to be a concern, they will take heart from the battling second-half display that almost brought them an unlikely draw.

Advert: 0806 business: 0704 news: 0814 lagos: 0805 0803

F

or the eight years he was President, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida never took any comment made by Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo on the state of Nigeria lightly. Each of such statements was tracked and its ramifications for the country and government diligently analysed. By August 1985, Babangida was no longer a stranger to the power game here.

Two presidents before him, Shehu Shagari and Muhammadu Buhari were overthrown – just after Obasanjo criticised them.

Obasanjo of the 80s was outspoken and controversial, different from the pot-bellied, colourless officer we knew before.

In 1979, he handed over the presidency to Shehu Shagari and the UPN unleashed its powerful propaganda machine against him. His response was to retire meekly and gracefully to his farm, not uttering a single offensive word. But midway into Shagari’s presidency, Obasanjo released his first book, My Command, a very egocentric account of the Nigerian civil war. In the book, every other participant in the war blundered. The book did not even spare two of his predecessors, Gen. Murtala Mohammed and Gen. Yakubu Gowon. Murtala was accused of prolonging the war with his bravado, while Gowon who was the Commander in Chief in the war against Biafra was demoted to something else. The war was fought and won under ‘Obasanjo’s Command.’ The book should have served as a warning signal to us that Obasanjo has this capacity to run his peers down. But I guess we did not look deep enough.

Then the 1983 elections were held and Shehu Shagari was re- elected as President with a landslide victory. Immediately he

Monday Column Emmanuel Yawe royawe@yahoo.com 08024565402

formed a government in October, Obasanjo granted an interview to Dele Giwa, Editor of the Sunday Concord in which he brought down Shagari to ground zero.

Shagari to him was an unserious President leading a bloated and corruption besotted government.

On 31st 1983, the military struck.

The Buhari government that came in advertised itself early enough as an “offshoot of the Murtala/ Obasanjo administration”.

Then in August 1985, Obasanjo delivered a stinker to the government at a public lecture in Ibadan. The government was overthrown within a few days of the speech.

It is then no surprise that Babangida as president asked his aids to watch Obasanjos lips.

Evidently he managed the delicate balance between public policy and Obasanjo’s sensibilities very well until the introduction of the SAP, the key economic policy of his government. Obasanjo responded that the policy had no “human face and no milk of human kindness.”

The hawks in Babangida’s government like my friend Yusufu Maman dismissed the criticism as the ranting of a “frustrated chicken farmer”.

Still when the riots came against SAP, Babangida introduced some palliatives like the Peoples Bank with Tai Solarin to give

“

SAP a “human face”. Babangida took other measures to humour Obasanjo like the absurd attempt to make him the Secretary General of the United Nations. How on earth did Babangida believe the UN would accept a man who dressed to public places like a village palm wine tapper for its Secretary General?

Anyway, the efforts paid off. The crusading Obasanjo was pacified for some time. Then Babangida’s transition became inconclusive leading to the June 12 debacle.

From that point, Obasanjo declared war on IBB. He summoned prominent retired Generals, politicians & academics to his farm in Ota on May 25 1993 to declare war. Paraphrasing and re-echoing what the Zikist Raji Abbdallah said at his trial by colonial masters in 1950, Obasanjo declared “this is no time for speeches or petitions but time for blunt positive action against Babangida”. Not long after that, IBB stepped aside. For Gen. Abacha, Obasanjo had no time. He believed Abacha ought not to have even aspired to be Head of State.

In January 1994, Obasanjo gave a speech at Arewa House Kaduna in which he criticised the Abacha government saying it was lacking in credibility and moral fibre. By 1995, Abacha took Obasanjo and his Deputy Gen Yaradua to a secret military court which convicted them of high treason and

For Gen. Abacha, Obasanjo had no time. He believed Abacha ought not to have even aspired to be Head of State. In January 1994, Obasanjo gave a speech at Arewa House Kaduna in which he criticised the Abacha government saying it was lacking in credibility and moral fibre. By 1995, Abacha took Obasanjo and his Deputy Gen Yaradua to a secret military court which convicted them of high treason and sentenced them to death.

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Published by Peoples Media Limited, 35, Ajose Adeogun Street, 1st Floor Peace Park Plaza, Utako, Abuja. Kano office: Plot 3, Zaria Road, Opposite Kano State House of Assembly. Lagos Office: No.8 Oliyide Street, off Unity Road, Ikeja, Lagos. Tel: +234 814 292 9046. Cell: +234 802 443 2099; 803 7007 759. e-mail: contact@peoplesdailyng.com; pmlnewsdesk@gmail.com ISSN: 2141– 6141

sentenced them to death. Yaradua died mysteriously in prison but Obasanjo survived to emerge later as an elected President in 1999.

After 8 years in office, he handed over to his selected pair of Musa Yaradua and Goodluck Jonathan.

Early in the days of his government, Yaradua rocked the boat by reversing many major decisions taken by Obasanjo.

Infact, if Yaradua lived long enough, one wonders what the relationship between the two would have been. But by the time Yaradua was on his deathbed, Obasanjo issued a public statement not to wish him recovery but to urge him to quit office. On Yaradua’s death, Obasanjo led those who facilitated Jonathan’s elevation to the high office. He even worked for his election in 2011. Now, things have fallen apart. I have watched Obasanjo closely since 2013. Given what those of us who fought his government in the 70’s know of his antecedents and every move he has made against the president, it is clear that Jonathan’s men have underrated his capacity to destroy.

Are they relying on Jonathan’s legendry good luck? That will be sad because no Nigerian has more good luck than Obasanjo. This is the man whose contribution to the war against Biafra is debatable.

But he is credited with obtaining the instrument of surrender.

In 1976, traumatised by the assassination of his boss, Murtala, he decommissioned himself, loaded his things in a lorry and was headed for Abeukuta when TY Danjuma dragged him before the Supreme Military Council and made him a Head of State. In 1999, this man was sitting in Yola prison, waiting for the hang man’s noose. Suddenly the gates of prison were opened and the man was made a President from prison.

Jonathan should have done what IBB did in 1985; keep an eye on him, watch his lips, humour him etc. As it is now, the old soldier with his vagaries is miles ahead of Jona.

DAN GAYE Interim govt is treason – Jonathan

What about unnecessary polls shift?