PEOPLES DAILY NEWSPAPER | Tuesday, March 29, 2016 Edition

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Tuesday, March 29, 2016/ Jumada- Al-Akhir 17, 1437 AH

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Vol. 22 No. 46 N150

Yushau Shuaib resigns as FOSSRA consultant

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Court to FG: Account for recovered loot since 1999

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Former President Olusegun Obasanjo (middle), acknowledging cheers from students of University of Maiduguri, during his visit to Borno state Governor, Alhaji Kashim Shettima, yesterday at Government House, in Maiduguri. With him are Governor Kashim Shettima (left), and other government officials.

Fuel scarcity: Senate summons Kachikwu

By Ikechukwu Okaforadi s Nigerians continue to groan under fuel scarcity, the Senate yesterday summoned the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Ibe Kachickwu, to appear before it today for explanation on what he is doing to end fuel scarcity in the country.

The Senate Committee on Petroleum

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Resources (Downstream), which issued the summon to the Minister after carrying out on the spot assessment of the crisis in major filling stations within Abuja metropolis, therefore gave the federal government a marching order to end the fuel crisis.

Angered by the long queues in all the fuel stations, where the drivers were hanging out

Tunji Braithwaite dies at 82 pAGE 3

under the scorching afternoon sun waiting for the unavailable products, the Chairman of the Committee on Petroleum (Downstream), Jibrin Barau (APC, Kano), in conjunction with two other members of the team, said the minister has to come before it to explain the ugly trend and plans to end it.

Barau said the sufferings of Nigerians have

become very pathetic and bad, adding that this has attracted the attention of the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, whom he said, directed the committee to embark on oversight visit to the fuels stations and the NNPC for solutions to the ugly problem. “This situation is very bad and

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Troops winning Boko Army offers N1m for Haram war, Obasanjo tips on kidnapped says in Maiduguri Colonel pAGE 5

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PEOPLES DAILY, TUESday, MARCH 29, 2016

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News CONTENTS News 2-10 Editorial 11

A child with kidney problem, Miss Faith Andrew and her mother Evan, a widow, yesterday at the Specialist H o s p i t a l , Gwagwalada, in Abuja, begging for help from the public.

Photo: NAN

Op.Ed 12 Letters 13 Politics 15-18 Business Stockwatch

19-22 23

S/Report 24-25 Property 27 Motoring 28 Arts

30

Metro

31

S/World

39

Digest

40

Sports

41

Columnist 48

Atiku mourns Braithwaite, says he was committed to constitutional reforms

By Umar Muhammad Puma

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ormer Vice President Atiku Abubakar says the death of Nigeria’s veteran lawyer and politician, Mr. Tunji Braithwaite, has robbed the country of one of its greatest giants not only in the field of law, but also in politics.

Atiku, in a statement by his

media office in Abuja on Monday, said he particularly admired the late Braithwaite because of his unwavering commitment to constitutional reforms, especially his agitation for restructuring of the country.

The former Vice President explained that he shares in Braithwaite’s passion for

creating a fairer federal system that would reduce the fear of too much power and resources at the centre at the expense of the federating units.

Atiku said he was keenly following Braithwaite’s contributions on the issue when he was a delegate at the 2014 National Conference, adding that

his consistency in the pursuit of his convictions was remarkable.

According to him, the late veteran lawyer and politician was not “your typical Nigerian politician that opportunistically changes his opinions to ingratiate himself with the new powers that be.”

According to the Turaki Adamawa, “These are extraordinary virtues for which I admire him deeply and regard him as a role model. May his soul rest in peace.”

Yushau Shuaib resigns as chief consultant to FOSSRA ... Says Jon Ode panel misleading Buhari with bias report

By Ese Awhotu

T Yobe Govt. to support IDPs with agric. inputs — SEMA Page 14

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he Chief Media Consultant to the Forum of Spokespersons of Security and Response Agencies (FOSSRA), Mr. Yushau Shuaib has resigned his appointment after three years serving as an intermediary between all the major security and response agencies and the media in Nigeria.

Yushau Shuaib who was engaged by former National Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki to serve as media consultant to military, security, intelligence and response organisations under a unified platform, had as his core mandate the responsibility of positioning the agencies for desired public perception and changing the negative narratives regarding the war against terror.

In his notice of resignation served the Chairman of the forum and Director of Defence Information, Brigadier General Rabe Abubakar, Shuaib said he could no longer continue to serve FOSSRA which is under the auspices of Office of National Security Adviser (ONSA) because of what he termed “misleading report by presidential committee under the same ONSA” for unjustly accusing almost all institutions and individuals that served the office without fair hearing.

Shuaib said: “The retired AVM Jon Ode-Presidential Panel under ONSA is merely criminalizing critical institutions and indicting groups and individuals in the media without being arraigned in the court of law where the accused could prove their innocence.”

He queried the rationale behind empowering a Panel of Procurement of Arms that is composed of retired and serving military officers to also be saddled with probing contracts

and services that have nothing to do with arms and ammunition.

The Media consultant, in a PRNigeria press release yesterday pointed out that “while the Jon Ode led-Panel deliberately refuses to acknowledge successes recorded by previous administration in the war on terror, the team has only succeeded in misleading the president with its biased reports that create unnecessary anxiety in the polity.”

He advised President Muhammadu Buhari to be wary of those whose stock in trade is to blackmail and destroy others apparently as a way and means of venting their anger over their past frustrations or exerting revenge against their perceived enemies or rivalries while in the service.

“I wonder if President Buhari was able to conduct comprehensive background checks on some members of the panel before their appointment. A mere google check would have provided him a glimpse on the character and ethical capital of some of these individuals who may likely be showing frustrations occasioned by stagnation in posting, arraignment before court martial for indiscipline and fund misappropriation while in service apart from those that might have served as aides to controversial figures,” he said.

Shuaib, who was defending a PR agency, Image Merchants that works for security agencies since 2013 with over 20 staff on its monthly payroll said: “It is mere mischief for the Jon Ode-panel to indict an umbrella strategic communication outfit that was not involved in partisan politics but provided proofs of its assignment and paid the full taxes demanded by the panel only for the same panel to turn around and claimed nothing was done just few

days after an article we published exposing the lies being orchestrated that no weapons were bought by the previous administration for the prosecution of war on terror.

“The panels were even arguing with us on some contents of the published article forgetting that while most of them were on retirement we risk our live by engaging top serving military officers on various security issues and on the field which we disseminate through the media to the public.

“They seemed to be aggrieved with the disclosure in the article that the previous administration bought sophisticated weapons for the military, which included: Alpha jets, Armoured Personnel Carriers (APCs) APCs, Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles, advanced artillery pieces, assorted arms and ammunitions, highly sophisticated surveillance drones, T72 Battle Tanks and modification of F7 supersonic jet fighters.”

In the same statement, Shuaib clarified that at the twilight of Jonathan’s administration more than 22 towns in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states were recovered and confirmed with video and pictorial evidences through military press releases. Some of the towns recovered before the coming of President Buhari included: Abadam, Askira, Baga, Bama, Bita, BuniYadi, Damboa, Gamboru Ngala, Goniri, Gujba, Gulani, Gwoza, Hong, Konduga, Kukawa, Marte, Madagali, Michika, Monguno, Mubi, and others. A clear testimony to some of the accomplishments was the official DHQ release dated March 16, 2015 with reference No: DHQ/ ABJ/901/32/DDI and a title: “Troops Finally Rout Terrorists from Bama and Last Stronghold in Yobe.”

It further revealed that Jonathan’s administration achieved

the feat through adequate funding of Multinational Joint Taskforce (MNJTF) and participating neighbouring countries in additional to recruitments of ‘Special M Forces’ that stormed the terrorists’ camps from the air. The combined and collaborative security efforts, according to the consultant, weakened Boko Haram terrorists from disrupting 2015’s general elections which Buhari eventually won.

Surprisingly an article published by an aide of President Buhari eulogizing former NSA Dasuki over the accomplishments in the war against terror by Jonathan’s administration, which Shuaib cited in his article, has been deleted from the website of the newsmedia that published it. The original article where the media link was provided can still be read from this: Shuaib stated that while the Jon Ode Panel deliberately refused to appreciate PR intervention in crisis management, he said that “For genuine reasons and concern, our strategic team manages many humiliating and embarrassing reports from leakages, including alleged terrorists’ attacks in the hometowns of top security officers in the current administration.”

The consultant warned that: “While it is wrong to criminalize the military by subjecting their officers to scrutiny in an agency headed by a policeman, it is appalling the continued exposure of our judiciary to public ridicule in the sensationalised anti-corruption campaigns. In this context, it is foolhardy for anyone to now contemplate using a PR agency to rubbish media integrity as another critical stakeholder. PR people engage the media professionally and responsibly to achieve strategic objectives.

PEOPLES DAILY, TUESday, MARCH 29, 2016

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News

AfDB president charges African envoys to explore business opportunities

By Ese Awhotu

T

he President of the African Development Bank Group, Akinwumi Adesina, has urged African diplomats to work harder on promoting the development of the continent by exploring business opportunities that can mutually benefit their hosts as well as their home countries.

Africa, he said, can learn very useful lessons from the Republic of Korea which transformed itself from an aid-dependent nation to a donor country in just about a decade. Korea is an inspiration to me; a country that has transformed itself from receiving to giving aid ii a very short time,” he added.

Adesina spoke at the gathering of the African diplomatic corps and local business people in Tokyo and Seoul on Friday and Saturday, respectively.

According a release on the Bank’s website, the AfDB President also praised Japan for its long-standing support to the Bank and to Africa through its substantial contributions the African Development Fund as well as technical and bilateral funding packages channeled through the Bank.

The release said in his contribution, the Executive Director representing Canada, China, Korea & Kuwait, Hau Sing Tse said that Korea has been very strategic in both its development choices as well as support to Africa which has also enabled the country to advance its interests in Africa.

The gatherings were within the context of an ongoing working visit to three non-regional Asian members of the Bank Group by a team of senior officials led by the AfDB President which began in Japan on 24 March. The second-leg of the mission began in Seoul on Saturday while the third segment will commence in Beijing on 28 March.

African diplomats in both countries said the meetings with the AfDB have helped to identify areas where the Bank can make good returns on investment by supporting businesses in their hosts and home countries, respectively.

They urged the Bank not to forget the SMEs that account for a large majority of the African private sector.

Estifanos Afeworki, Eritrea’s Ambassador to Japan and dean of the African diplomatic corps in Tokyo, said that since African economies were performing well at this time, there should be more emphasis on private sector engagements rather than on aid in transactions between the continent and its rich partners.

Ag News Editor, Ese Awhotu

Market inferno: Kebbi govt sets up probe c’ttee From Ahmed Idris, Birnin Kebbi

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ebbi State Government has set up a high powered committee to look in to the Central Market fire incident.

The committee members comprises; commissioners, eminent politicians, traditional rulers, civil servants, business community, security agents, fire

service and market officials who are to ascertain the immediate remote cause of fire outbreak which gutted the new Central Market in Birnin Kebbi, the Kebbi State capital.

This was contained in a statement signed by the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Abubakar Mu’azu Dakingari, adding that the committee is to look at the level of the damages.

The Governor who was on

sympathy visit to the scene yesterday while inspecting the market gave the directive to the members of the committee to find lasting solution and possible ways to assist the affected people and look for immediate relocation of traders to a temporary site.

The Governor said the state government would provide relief measures to all victims to cushion the losses incurred from the

inferno, he advised the traders to take solace in Allah as a predestined divine act.

Speaking earlier, the Commissioner of Lands and Housing, Alhaji Abubakar Chika Ladan told the Governor that about one thousand two hundred and seventy temporary stalls and about three hundred and twenty four permanent shops were burnt based on an interim report.

Children with their parents having fun, during the Easter celebration, yesterday at Magic Land, in Abuja.

Photo: Mahmud Isa

FG urged to relocate CIPPO head office to Gwagwalada

By Usman Shuaibu

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retired Deputy Superintendent of Immigration, Armayau Ninge Mashi, has called on the Federal Government to as a matter of urgency intervene and secure the government official headhunters of the Civil Defence, Immigration, Prisons and Pension

Office (CIPPO) which was initially situated in Gwagwalada Area Council, now relocate to Garki, Abuja.

Mashi, who made the call in an interview with Peoples Daily, weekend, in Abuja, alleged that the authorities of Pension Transitional Agreement Directorate (PTAD) as well as CIPPO were renting residential house at Maitama,

Katsina-Ala Street N0 28, Abuja as their Head office at the cost of N150Million Per year.

He said that the former Chairman/Director of CIPPO, Abdulrasheed Maina was able to renovate the official head office of CIPPO in Gwagwalada before moving to Head of Service for special assignment as the Task Force chairman.

He frowned at the resources being wasted by the management of CIPPO in renting a residential house at Maitama that is alleged to belong a former minister under the Jonathan administration.

He, however, appealed to the government of the day to expedite action to probe the authorities of CIPPO to ascertain why the official head office was moved to Maitama.

Tambuwal: Effective democracy, panacea to insurgency, religious crises

By Usman Audu

E

ffective application of tenets of democracy will promote religious harmony and tackle insurgency and feeling of marginalisation, Sokoto State Governor, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, has said.

“Democratic governance can be used to effectively tackle problems of religious intolerance through the election of patriotic, selfless and

people-oriented politicians into positions of authority” who in turn carry all sections of the society along in executing their mandates, the Governor said in Osogbo Monday.

Delivering a paper titled: “Religious tolerance and the challenges of democratic governance in Nigeria” at the Fountain University, Osogbo, Osun State, Tambuwal said Nigeria can overcome the problem of religious intolerance if purveyors of violence and lawlessness are

properly exposed and penalised by law enforcement agencies.

He said there is the need for the citizenry to be roactive in promoting good governance, fighting corruption and kicking against bad leadership within the limits of the law.

According to him, promotion of “sincere and open discussions”, to be championed by religious groups, leaders, security men and traditional rulers on areas of interests, agreements and disagreements will

Tunji Braithwaite dies at 82 From Ayodele Samuel,Lagos

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ormer Presidential candidate of the National Advance Party NAP and elder statesman, Dr. Tunji Braithwaite yesterday died in Lagos.

The 82-year-old Lagos based lawyer and activist died at St. Nicholas Hospital in Lagos.

Reports quoted his son, Olumide, confirming the death of the colourful politician after a short illness.

Braithwaite founded the National Advance Party in 1979 for the Second Republic politics, with the aim of wiping out the ‘cockroaches and mosquitoes’ in Nigeria’s politics.

The party, however, failed to win

any seat in the legislature either at state or federal level.

Since then he had been a big critic of government policies, either under the military or the civilian administration.

Braithwaite during his life time vigorously advocated for the restructuring of Nigeria and a Sovereign National Conference.

enhance unity and understanding.

“We need to specifically mount robust enlightenment campaign that would foster inter-faith understanding. The tremendous achievements recorded by the Nigeria inter-religious council need to be consolidated by finding more strategies that would promote its envisaged objectives.

“There’s the need to control the many factors that are impacting directly or indirectly on religious disharmony such as unemployment, poverty, inadequate security, depletion of cultural values and bad politicking,” the Governor added.

While noting that ethnic and religious harmony has been exemplary in the history of Nigeria, Tambuwal opined that disputes and conflicts witnessed over the years in Nigeria have been more or less caused by poor education among the people, many of who are hoodwinked by unpatriotic persons seeking power at all cost.

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Page 4 Report

PEOPLES DAILY, TUESday, MARCH 29, 2016

Reducing the burden of tuberculosis in Nigeria T

he World Health Organisation (WHO) says that tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious bacterial disease caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis, which most commonly affects the lungs.

According to the organisation, tuberculosis is transmitted from person to person via droplets from the throat and lungs of people with the active respiratory disease.

It says that in healthy people, infection with Mycobacterium tuberculosis often causes no symptoms, since the person’s immune system acts to ``wall off’’ the bacteria. ``However, the symptoms of active TB of the lung are coughing, sometimes with sputum or blood, chest pains, weakness, weight loss, fever and night sweats,” it says.

However, WHO, in its Global Tuberculosis 2015 Report, says that TB remains one of the world’s biggest threats; killing 1.5 million people in 2014.

It says that TB is still a ``major public health problem’’ in Nigeria, with the country ranking fourth among the 22 high TB burden countries of the world. ``These 22 countries collectively bear 80 per cent of the global burden of TB,” it says.

However, a study by United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and KNCV Royal Dutch Tuberculosis Foundation says that the TB burden in Nigeria is further compounded by the current HIV/AIDS epidemic and the emergence of Multi-Drug Resistant Tuberculosis (MDRTB).

Highlighting the prevalence of the disease in Nigeria, Dr Kuye Joseph, Monitoring and Evaluation Officer, Federal Ministry of Health, said that 330 persons, out of every 100,000 persons in Nigeria, were suffering from the disease. ``In 2014, 330 persons were estimated to have TB disease among every 100,000 persons in Nigeria,” he added.

Joseph said that the rate of TB-induced deaths among persons who were not afflicted with HIV was 97 per 100,000 people, while the rate of TBinduced deaths among persons living with HIV was 44 per 100,000 people.

He reiterated that TB was the major cause of death among persons living with HIV/AIDS. Joseph noted that the most common symptom of pulmonary TB was productive cough, spanning two weeks or more, which may be accompanied by other respiratory symptoms like

Nigeria tuberculosis patient shortness of breath. ``However, any person living with HIV is considered a presumptive TB case if he or she presents with cough of any duration,’’ he added.

Joseph explained that drug resistant tuberculosis occurred when strains of tuberculosis germs were able to grow in the laboratory in the presence of at least two most important firstline anti-tuberculosis drugs. ``It is a condition that happens when normal TB is not managed effectively or if a patient fails to take treatment on time,” he said.

Joseph, nonetheless, solicited the support of the media in disseminating information about TB service delivery points in Nigeria and the need for infected people to embark on early tuberculosis treatment.

Sharing similar sentiments, Dr Gidado Mustapha, Country Representative of KNCV Royal Dutch Tuberculosis Foundation in Nigeria, advised people living with tuberculosis to refrain from spreading the disease.

He said that the adoption of basic cough etiquette, such as covering the mouth when coughing, would go a long way in preventing the spread of the disease.

Mustapha stressed that TB was curable, adding that the diagnosis and treatment of the disease are free in Nigeria. ``People living with

tuberculosis should ensure that they adhere to treatment. To prevent the spread of TB, ensure you obey simple basic cough etiquette: when you are coughing, cover your mouth. ``Do not throw your sputum all over the house because you have the responsibility to protect your family members and the community at large,’’ he said.

As regards TB diagnosis and treatment, Mustapha said that the Federal Ministry of Health and partners had established no fewer than 1,600 TB service delivery centres in Nigeria where people can be diagnosed and equally access TB treatment free of charge. ``In spite this, there is no good utilisation of these facilities, and, hence, Nigeria is not diagnosing and treating enough number of TB patients,’’ he said.

Mustapha blamed the shortcoming on the low community awareness of TB and available service delivery points.

He, however, urged TB patients to prevent the development of drug resistant TB by adhering to the treatment schedule religiously. ``Multi-Drug Resistant Tuberculosis (MDR-TB) occurs if one fails to manage the normal TB effectively, if patient does not take treatment on time,’’ he said.

Mustapha emphasised that the treatment of MDR-TB was always longer than the normal TB treatment because the patient

had to undergo treatment for 20 months or more.

He said that during the period, the MDR-TB patient would be receiving injection on a daily basis for a period of eight months. ``We know it is a very difficult situation for the patient and it is also a heavy burden on the TB programme in general. Therefore, our role is to prevent drug resistant TB from occurring,’’ he said.

Nevertheless, UN SecretaryGeneral Ban Ki- moon said that ending the TB epidemic by 2030 was one of the targets of the new

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). ``Therefore, progress in ending TB must go hand-inhand with other SDGs aimed at reducing inequalities, eliminating extreme poverty, ensuring social protection, achieving universal health coverage and ending HIV/ AIDS,” he said.

Ban, nonetheless, emphasised that total victory over TB would require a united front, adding that ending the epidemic would require actions that were beyond those of ministries of health alone. ``We must also do more to engage affected persons and communities, as well as nongovernmental organisations, researchers and the private sector. ``We need to eliminate stigma and ensure that all affected people have access to care. And we also have to be ready to keep people healthy in the face of complex emergencies and unprecedented movements of refugees and migrants worldwide.

On her part, Dr Margaret Chan, Director-General of WHO, said that given the prevalence of drug-resistant tuberculosis, ensuring high quality and complete care would also benefit global health security.

As part of efforts to draw global attention to tuberculosis, its diagnosis and management, the United Nations has designated March 24 as World Tuberculosis Day. The day is designed to increase public awareness that tuberculosis today remains an epidemic in most parts of the world, causing the death of nearly 1.5 million people every year, particularly in developing countries.

In line with this, stakeholders call for intensified global solidarity and action in efforts to end tuberculosis. (NAN)

“

On her part, Dr Margaret Chan, Director-General of WHO, said that given the prevalence of drug-resistant tuberculosis, ensuring high quality and complete care would also benefit global health security.

PEOPLES DAILY, TUESday, MARCH 29, 2016

PAGE 5

News Court insists FG accounts for F recovered loot since 1999

By Ese Awhotu with agency report

ollowing the refusal of the Federal Government to enforce its order to account for how stolen funds recovered from looters since 1999 were spent, a Federal High Court, Lagos has insisted that administration of President Muhammadu Buhari implement its directive.

The court has consequently reordered the Federal Government to publish widely the spending of recovered stolen funds since return of democracy in 1999.

Recall that the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) had dragged the Federal Government to court seeking transparency and accountability in the handling of recovered looted funds.

The Federal High Court in suit no: FHC/IKJ/CS/248/2011 entered judgment in favour of SERAP against the Federal Government.

However, the Federal Government is yet to enforce its decision on the issue.

In its new ruling dated 24 March 2016, the court noted that,

“Obedience to the rule of law by all citizens but more particularly those who publicly took oath of office to protect and preserve the Constitution is a desideratum to good governance and respect for the rule of law. In a constitutional democracy like ours, this is meant to be the norm.”

In the 69-page judgment signed

by Honourable Justice Mohammed Idris and sent by Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP to Mr. Abubakar Malami (SAN), Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice yesterday, Justice Idris stated that, “I am of the view that on receipt of SERAP request, the government had the duty to respond to same. If it does hold the information it must supply it within 7 days from receipt of the request. Where a decision to withhold information is taken, the government/relevant authorities

Police officer wounded in U.S Capitol gunshot, suspect arrested

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n alleged gunman was taken into custody, and a U.S. Capitol Police officer was wounded, after shots were fired Monday afternoon at the U.S. Capitol Visitor Center complex – an incident that sent the Capitol complex and the White House into lockdown.

Fox News is told there was a single shooter, who was shot by law enforcement and is now in custody. An internal security notice obtained by Fox News said the “shooter is down and on the way to the hospital.”

The same notice said “one individual was hit by shrapnel and is being taken to the hospital.”

Fox News is told a U.S. Capitol Police officer was shot, though was not believed to be seriously injured.

Fox News is told the FBI is responding, and there do not appear to be any threats to oth-

er parts of the city.

Diane Bilo, a visiting tourist from Cincinnati, told reporters her husband was inside the building when the shooting happened. She read a text she received from her husband that said “it sounded like a full clip.”

The U.S. Capitol complex remains on lockdown after the reports of gunfire first surfaced Monday afternoon. No one will be allowed to enter or exit any building, and those outside are being told to seek cover.

An internal message says U.S. Capitol Police were locking down the complex “due to a potential security threat.”

The White House also was briefly put on lockdown because of the report.

The situation was apparently contained to the Visitors Center but no further information was immediately available.

(Source: Foxnews)

must inform the plaintiff of its reason. In respect of the SERAP reliefs on recovered stolen funds since return of democracy in 1999, the government had kept mute.

Let me say that they have no such power under the law.”

It added that, “Transparency in the decision making process and access to information upon which decisions have been made can enhance accountability.”

The judgement read as follows: “There is public interest in public authorities and high-profile individuals being accountable for the quality of their decision making. Ensuring that decisions have been made on the basis of quality legal advice is part of accountability.”

“The judiciary has no choice but to enforce compliance with the Freedom of Information Act. There is no doubt that the FOI Act is intended to act as a catalyst for change in the way public authorities approach and manage public resources and records. The judiciary cannot shirk its sacred responsibility to the nation to maintain the rule of law.”

“I am of the view and do hold that the action should and does succeed in whole.

Documents relating to the receipt or expenditure on recovered stolen funds since return of democracy in 1999 constitute part of the information which a public institution and authority is

obligated to publish, disseminate and make available to members of the public. The government has no legally justifiable reason for refusing to provide SERAP with the information requested, and therefore, this Court ought to compel the government to comply with the Freedom of Information Act, as the government is not above the law.”

“Examples of cases where there may be a public interest in the disclosure of confidential information include: 1 Information revealing misconduct/ mismanagement of public funds.

2 Information which shows that a particular contract is bad value for money. 3. Where the information would correct untrue statements or misleading acts on the part of public authorities or high-profile individuals.”

“Freedom of Information Act 2011 is meant to enhance and promote democracy, transparency, justice and development. It is designed to change how government works, because we have all resolved that it will no longer be business as usual. What is done officially must be done in accordance with the law. Although the Freedom of Information Act requires no explicit public interest test, an assessment of public interest must still be made.

Therefore, all public institutions and authorities must ensure that they prepare themselves for the

effective implementation of the Freedom of Information Act.” “Disclosure of the information will not constitute an actionable breach of confidence if there is a public interest in disclosure which outweighs the public interest in keeping the information confidential. There is a public interest in ensuring public scrutiny of public authorities.

If the exemption under the Freedom of Information Act is wrongly applied and information is incorrectly withheld, a public authority may face sanctions under the Act for not complying with the duty to provide information.”

On its part SERAP stressed that it believes strongly that, “ the swift enforcement and implementation of this landmark judgment by the government of President Muhammadu Buhari will be litmus test for the President’s oft-repeated commitments to transparency, accountability and the fight against corruption, and for the effectiveness of the Freedom of Information Act in general,” The organisation said that, “The enforcement and implementation of the judgment should not be delayed as to do this is to continue to frustrate the victims of corruption in the country since the return of democracy in 1999, and will threaten to undermine the authority of our judicial system.

Fuel scarcity: Senate summons Kachikwu Contd from Cover page

unacceptable, hence, the need for the Minister to appear before us tomorrow (today), and unveil his plan of way out to us. Even if he doesn’t have any plan yet out of the lingering problem, the Senate President and the entire members of the committee are more than ready to rub minds with him for that needed purpose”, he said.

Speaking during the oversight visit, the Senate Minority Whip, Philip Aduda, who is also a member of the petroleum committee, said the All Progressives Congress (APC) led federal government must act fast to arrest the situation, saying that the

blame game is enough but that the APC government must do whatever it will take to resolve the situation and make fuel available to Nigerians, adding “what Nigerians needed his fuel and not blame game”.

He said also “The government should look for petrol and ensure that it is given to the people, demands are meant for the people, for us, to Nigerians. It is unacceptable, we are Nigerians and it will be bad for us to continue remaining in queues.

“If the APC leaders like, let them blame themselves that is their problem, but the most important thing is for us to have fuel in the Federal Republic of Nigeria. That is what we are looking for and that

is what we want. We want to see all these queues disappear “.

Meanwhile, all the fuel stations visited by the Senate Committee, including: Forte Oil, opposite Transcorp Hilton in Maitama District, Abuja, Oando Filling station, Zone 4, Abuja, Total Fuel Station in Asokoro District, all the managers complained of non availability of the product.

They said there is currently a sharp drop in the supply of the product from the NNPC, Suleja Depot, pointing out that NNPC which use to supply six trucks per day, now supply three in recent time, hence the scarcity of the petrol being witnessed a crossed the country.

in tackling the mayhem of the insurgency, Obadanjo said: “Talking to the president about the issue of insurgency particular and insecurity in general, I know that he is very very concern and not only very concerned, he has gotten it right.”

“First of all, he has allowed for military ascendancy over the insurgency, he has ensured that where they have occupied is cleared of any mines, where you have mines lives is not only insecured , people feel intimidated for you never know when you may step on it, when you blow your legs or limbs off or in fact killed”, the former president further declared.

He said he believed once the retrieved territories are cleared of mines, then the massive socioeconomic rehabilitation and development of the whole areas that have been devastated and affected

will take place.

In his remarks, Governor Shettima paid glorying tribute to leadership qualities of the former president, insisting that the Boko Haram crisis would not have degenerated this bad if he were at the helm during the outbreak of the insurgency.

According to him, should Chief Obasanjo had been in power the Chibok schoolgirls would not have been in captivity by now, lamenting that it took President Goodluck Jonathan 19 days after the kidnap of the girls to call him on phone on the issue.

He said from testimonies of former governor the former president was said to be on top of security issues in all the states of the country and at various times adverted what could have been major security breaches.

Obasanjo in Maiduguri, says troops wining war against Boko Haram From Mustapha Maiduguri

F

Isah

Kwaru,

ormer President, Olusegun Obasanjo yesterday said the federal troops are winning the war against the Boko Haram insurgents in the entire north east.

Obasanjo who was in Maiduguri to commission some projects as part of the 40th Anniversary Celebration of the University of Maiduguri (UNIMAID), said President Muhammadu Buhari since he came to office has evolved the right strategies in fighting the Boko Haram insurgency and the insecurity that have ravaged the nation for some times now.

It could be recalled that the former president, who sneaked into Maiduguri in 2011 to initiate the process of dialogue with the insurgency group.

He, however acknowledged what he described as remarkble difference from 2011 with now, with the situation showing that there is gradual return of normalcy.

Obasanjo during a courtesy call on Borno state Governor, Kashim Shettima said: “A lot of water has passed under the bridge in this part of the country. I must not forget to commiserate with all our people in this state and indeed the entire North East who have been victims of insurgency in the way we have never witnessed it in this country before.”

“As I have said with the governor, I do travel a lot in Africa and outside Africa and wherever I have gone in recent times what people want to know is what and how Nigeria is coping with the situation of insurgency. Today, now I think we are not out of the woods yet but it would appear that we can

see the light beyond the tunnel.

“There is no doubt that with the combined effort at the local level, at the state level and at the federal level and even at the community level, our security forces are on the ascendancy over the forces of destruction, the menace and danger of insurgency that we have experienced for almost six years now”, Obadanjo hinted.

He added: “There is no family in this state that has not suffered lost,” and asked the governor to accept his condolence and that of hisentire family.

According to the former president, Shettima and the entire people of Borno State have “shown what can be done if people resolve not to give way to evil,” adding that “we just pray for the repose of the soul of those that have lost their lives.”

While applauding the efforts of the President Muhammadu Buhari

PEOPLES DAILY, TUESday, MARCH 29, 2016

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News

We are taking the challenge to rebuild our lives – Yobe IDPs T he Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) who relocated to their villages in Yobe said they have taken the challenge to rebuild their lives as normalcy had returned to the communities.

Malam Bukar Ali, a returnee IDP told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Monday in Gujba, Yobe, that over 70 per cent of people who fled the village had returned.

He said that ``the presence of soldiers in the village had given us a sense of confidence and security

to resettle and rebuild our lives.’’

Malam Mohammad Zanna, another returnee, said the provision of food items and rehabilitation of boreholes by the state government had cushioned the hardship of the returnees.

He added that ``when we came back, some of us were lucky to have our houses not destroyed but our major challenge was food and water because we abandoned our farms for two years, while the boreholes were vandalised. ``We are happy that the state

government, through the State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), has provided us with food items and rehabilitated the boreholes.’’

The Yobe Government last Friday distributed 600 bags of rice, 300 bags of millet, 300 bags of beans, 400 cartons of Indomie noodles, 100 cartons of vegetable oil, 100 cartons of toilet soaps, 600 pieces of nylon mats and 200 pieces of blankets to the returning IDPs in Katarko and Gujba.

NAN reports that the five boreholes vandalised by

insurgents had been rehabilitated and were currently serving the people.

Meanwhile, Malam Modu Wakil, a community leader, said that the people were making preparations to resume farming activities as the cropping season would soon set in.

He said ``we are mostly farmers, we abandoned our farms for two years, we are now prepared to resume farming activities to rebuild our lives as normalcy has returned to our communities.”

(NAN)

L-R: Deputy Speaker, House of Representatives, Hon. Sulaimon Lasun Yussuff, and his wife Alhaja Omowumi Rasheedat Yussuff, were conferred with Bashorun of Obaagun and Yeye Bashorun of Obaagun

by His Royal Highness, Olobaagun of Obaagun, Oba Jimoh Adebisi Okunade, Kayode11, Obaagun, at weekend in Osun state.

Fuel scarcity: Group faults Tinubu’s rant against minister

By Stanley Onyekwere

T

he New Initiative for Credible Leadership (NICreL ) has lampooned a prominent chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, saying he cannot revive his fledging political influence by attacking a Minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

This it described as a move by Tinubu that has finally confirmed that he has been undermining the present government because

he could not impose his will on President Muhammadu Buhari.

A statement issued by Rev Steven Onwu noted that Tinubu should have offered practical solutions for ending the fuel crisis instead of playing to the gallery with the theoretical postulations in his statement titled ‘Kachikwu Needs to Know That Respect and Good Performance Will Do What Magic Cannot’.

It said Kachikwu’s frank comment that the APC chieftain reacted to were not unconnected

with the rot left behind by the former administration that he sometimes related within the past.

“Tinubu cannot in clear conscience exonerate himself from the atrocities committed by the Jonathan administration to which he was regularly ferreted to meet under the cover of darkness for nocturnal meetings to discuss his personal interests.

“It is common knowledge that the Lion of Bourdilon is no longer happy

with the president since his attempt to populate the cabinet with his handpicked men was rebuffed by Mr. President.

“We advise Tinubu to give strong thoughts to other options instead of his fixation on being the “shadow president; the government that emerged from the 2015 general elections is more important than the political party that produced that government and how the country is run is now to be subjected to Tinubu’s wishes,” the statement declared.”

Edo, Delta land dispute: Lawmaker, military bicker over alleged manhandling of protesters From Osakhare Erese, Asaba

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ilitary men deployed to Ovre-Eku Community in Ethiope East Local Government Area of Delta State over the protracted land dispute between Edo Delta State(s) have allegedly manhandled protesters from Ovre Eku Community who claimed the land belongs to them.

The soldiers armed, on Saturday allegedly manhandled the protesters who had taken to the streets of Ovre-Eku Community to be allegedly destroying properties but the commander of the unit deployed to the community to maintain law and order, Lt Edward Owarobo, denied the alleged manhandling of the protesters as untrue, saying that the protesters

stepped out of their boundary to break law and order.

He said the protesters acted in variance to cause break down of law and order and “our men did not allow them’’ dismissing all allegations as untrue.

Investigation revealed that since the escalation of the land dispute, military men were deployed to protect lives and property, especially PRESCO oil

mill property.

But the lawmaker representing Ethiope East constituency at the Delta State House of Assembly, Mr. Evan Ivwurie disagreed with the military claims, saying “the brutality my people are undergoing in the hands of the military is inhuman, especially last Saturday, the military manhandled old men and women protesting the land dispute’’.

FG earmarks N3trn for projects in 2016 — Presidential spokesman

G

arba Shehu, the Senior Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on Media and Publicity, on Sunday said the Federal Government had set aside N3 trillion for projects in 2016.

Mr. Shehu disclosed this while speaking with newsmen on the sidelines of a dinner held to celebrate the child dedication of Paul Ibe, the Head of the Atiku Media Office in Abuja.

According to him, the government of President Buhari will make sure that contractors are mobilised and paid for executing jobs.

He urged Nigerians to be patient with the All Progressives Congress (APC)-led government as it would deliver.

He added that “unlike what we have in the past, this government will award contracts and back them up with money to ensure their conclusion.

“Nigerians will be happy in a short while; let us just have a little more patience.”

The presidential aide, who said he attended the event to identify with the celebrator who had been a long standing companion, noted that the Federal Government had saved more than N3 trillion from the Treasure Single Account (TSA).

He said “Paul has been my friend for long; as a bureau chief and as editor; we have worked closely together for long.

“When he decided to leave ThisDay Newspapers, he accepted to serve with me at Atiku Media office.

“We were there as coordinator and deputy coordinator until my latest appointment.”

On her part, Titi Abubakar, wife of the former Vice-President, Atiku Abubakar, said that the hardship being faced by Nigerians at present would not be long.

She said some wrongs ought to be put right before the economy would pick up.

She added that “anything God gives us, we have to say thank you to him; if at this particular time there is change, we have to put the country right before things get well again.

“We have to endure the hardship for a while and all will be good for us by the grace of God. “Paul is my husband’s staff and we have come here to celebrate with him; God has answered his prayer and we give Him all the glory.”

Responding, Mr. Ibe said the reason for the gathering was to give thanks to God for wiping away his tears.

He said God had renewed his commitment to mankind -that if man remained consistent, his words would be fulfilled.

“When we remain committed to Him, His promises may be delayed but must come to pass,’’ he said.

Mr. Ibe said he had waited for long for a child, adding that with persistence, God would always show His glory to those who trusted in him.

The new baby boy was named `Onweghihekaririchukwu’ –nothing is bigger than God. (NAN)

PEOPLES DAILY, TUESday, MARCH 29, 2016

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NAFDAC decries high volume of fake drugs, drinks in Delta

Naval officers guiding some newsmen and stakeholders at a shooting exercise during the 2016 Exercise Obangame and Sahara Express in Nigerian Water.

From Osakhare Erese, Asaba

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Photo: NAN

Army offers N1m for information on abducted Colonel From Mohammad Kaduna

Ibrahim,

G

eneral Officer Commanding (GOC) 1 Mechanized Division of the Nigerian Army Major General Adeniyi Oyebade yesterday promised 1 million naira cash reward

for anyone with useful information that could lead to the release of Colonel Samaila Inusa.

Colonel Samaila was abducted by gunmen along Kaduna- Abuja express way on Saturday around 7 pm.

It was gathered that the GOC

earlier promised 500, 000 cash for any useful information that will lead to freeing the officer.

1 Division Spokesman, Colonel Abdul Usman in a telephone chat told Peoples Daily the new offer.

“We are offering 1 million naira cash to any information that will lead

Cultists Kill one in Ilorin

From Olanrewaju Lawal, Ilorin

G

unmen suspected to be members of a cult group shot dead one person in Ilorin, Kwara state capital.

The victim identified simply as Wasiu was killed around Ikokoro/Sakamo area of Ilorin around 3:10pm.

Wasiu, said to be in his 30s according to sources had hitherto fled the area to avoid being killed but returned recently.

He was allegedly belonged to

a rival cult group.

The gunmen numbering about four were said to have arrived the area in a commando style and shot the victim at a close range.

An eyewitness said the armed men shot the deceased in the face.

There was anxiety at the scene of the incident as residents and passersby scamper for safety.

It was learnt that the sporadic shooting rented the air forcing motorists and motorcycles plying the area to detour and

take escape route.

“It was like a theatre scene when the gunmen arrived. They started shooting that everybody around had to runaway. We didn’t know what happened; we only discovered that the style of operation of the gunmen appeared like they are cultists.

“Before now, we have been observing Wasiu (the victim) because his action too was suspicious. He might be a cult member that is why he was away for some time now before yesterday’s incident”, a source

to his freedom. We are also assuring that such information given would be treated with utmost confidentiality,” he said.

On whether the army officer abductors made any financial demands, he said “No, we have not heard anything from them,” he said.

said.

It was learnt that the remains of the victim were evacuated from the scene by a relative before the arrival of a detachment from the state police command.

It was gathered that armed policemen from C Division arrived the scene and inquired from neighbours accounts of the incident.

The spokesman of the state police command, Okasanmi Ajayi, promised to get back to our correspondent when contacted to confirm the incident.

Kidnappers of ex Delta Speaker’s brother jailed 50 years From Kola Eke-Ogiugo, Asaba

K

idnappers of the younger brother to a former Delta State House of Assembly Speaker, Tobeckwukwu Donald Ochei, who was abducted by a four-man armed gang on March, 27, 2012, were on Thursday sentenced to 50 years in jail with hard labour by an Asaba high court.

The court, presided over by Justice Cletus Emifoyie, while delivering its verdict, found the three accused persons, Igane

Enekorogha37, a fisherman; Godwin Sibeded, 36, a driver; and job Burutu, 47; guilty of the four count charge of kidnapping, conspiracy to commit the crime, demanding property with menace and illegal post session of firearms and were consequently sentenced by the court to 10 years imprisonment each with hard labour for the offence of kidnapping, seven years imprisonment each for conspiracy, three years in jail for each of the accused persons for demanding the sum of N300

million as ransom and another 10 years jail term each for illegal possession of firearms. The court, however, ruled that the sentences are to run concurrently.

The prosecutor from the Department of Public Prosecutions of the Delta State Ministry of Justice, Samuel Nwanne had told the court that Igane Enekorogha (m), Godwin Sibede (m), and Job Burutu (m) with others now at large, on or about the 27th day of March, 2012 in Asaba, within the Asaba judicial Division, kidnapped one

Tobechwukwu Donald Ochei in front of his of this gate around 6;30 am, while armed with guns and whisked him away in their operational vehicle to an unknown location before he was later rescued by men of the DSS, after spending four days in the kidnappers’ den, identified as an Iraq community inside the creeks. Prosecution also told the court that the kidnappers also made a call to the victim’s wife demanding a ransom of N300 million from the family before he could be released.

he National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has decried the high volume of adulterated, fake and substandard hot drinks in stock in most markets and shops in urban centers of Delta State.

Raiding some business centers where these products are being sold to unsuspecting members of the public in Asaba on Monday, the agency charged traders and consumers to buy processed drinks from only accredited, distributors to avoid purchase of fake drinks. NAFDAC official Mr. David Okorie, after one of its enforcement operations, held simultaneously in Warri and Asaba and said that about 20 cartons of different brands of popular alcoholic and nonalcoholic drinks were seized from 12 shops located at three different areas in Asaba.

He said that cartons of fake Tramadol, a controlled drug, and several cartons of expired drugs such as Febecap, Augmentine were also seized from a patent medicine shop in Asaba, Delta State, while those involved have been handed over to the police for prosecution.

Also commenting on the agency’s raid, a Chief Regulatory Officer, Enforcement Operations, NAFDAC, Mr. Joseph Idowu, said the enforcement held in Warri part of national efforts to remove fake and unwholesome processed drinks and drugs from the country.

In his words, “From the areas we have covered in Asaba we have seen a lot of counterfeit drinks which we have seized and loaded in two vehicles.

We decided to carry out this enforcement on wine sellers because of the report of surveillance we got are on wines’’.

He added, “Enforcement is an on-going process and NAFDAC is worried about the rate of fake products in the country. We are seeking the support of the media and other stakeholders to help in this campaign against fake products.’’ adding that the sale of fake drinks along side with the original ones was worrisome.

He said that the consumption of counterfeit food and drink items could cause kidney problems and other related diseases, calling on consumers to buy processed drinks and drugs from reputable places.

PAGE 8

PEOPLES DAILY, TUESday, MARCH 29, 2016

News

NDLEA discovers letter laden with heroin in Lagos

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he National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) on Monday said it had intercepted a letter laden with heroin in Lagos.

This is contained in a statement signed in Lagos by the agency’s spokesman, Mr Mitchell Ofoyeju.

According to the statement, the letter, which was sent from Bengalore, India, via Express Mail Service (EMS), was addressed to one Mr Yunusa Amusan, 33, in Mushin, Lagos. ``Upon interception by the NDLEA, about 480 grammes of powdery substance that tested positive for heroin, was found inside the letter. ``The thin parcels of heroin were carefully hidden in the letter in a manner that makes it difficult to detect. ``This is the first case of heroin letter discovered by the antinarcotic agency this year,’’ it said.

The statement also quoted the Chairman of the agency, Mr Muhammad Abdallah, saying that the arrest was recorded following the diversification of the agency’s operations. ``The operations of the agency have been diversified to cover mail services. ``Drug control is an intelligence-led operation and the NDLEA, under my dispensation, will spread its tentacles to all possible areas of narcotic smuggling. ``We will not relent in taking deliberate and sustained efforts towards preventing drug trafficking under any guise in the country, be it by air, land or water,’’ Abdallah stated.

The NDLEA boss added that investigations revealed that the suspect, already in custody, allegedly connived with his uncle, who lives in India, to import heroin disguised as letters to Nigeria. ``Their criminal plan did not materialise due to the superior intelligence gathering capacity of the agency. ``I assure Nigerians that the agency will always work towards a drug-free society,’’ he said.

The statement also quoted Mr Mabo Olugbenga, NDLEA Director of Operations and General Investigation, explaining that the suspect was apprehended following surveillance report on his illicit drug activities. ``The illicit smuggling of narcotic drugs under the guise of letters was reported and closely monitored by the agency. ``It was confirmed that Amusan was recruited by his uncle who lives in India, to take delivery of heroin concealed in letters, to avoid arrest by law enforcement agents. ``The suspect was arrested after collecting the letter and further investigation is ongoing,’’ he added. (NAN)

Children at the Apa IDPs camp during a public health intervention programme on child health, yesterday in Apa Local Government Area of Benue state.

Photo: NAN

Sack of VC’s: Protesters want education minister sacked for misleading Buhari

By Albert Akota

E

ven after President Muhammadu Buhari’s apology during the last National Executive Council meeting of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Abuja for dissolving the Governing Council of Universities along with Boards of parastatal, agencies, as well as the sack of the 13 Vice Chancellors, the Coalition of Civil Society Organisations who protested against the actions has called for the sack of the Minister of Education, Mr Adamu Adamu for misinforming the president.

This is even as it said the Executive Council members of the coalition after meeting have

decided to withdraw from the Industrial Court a suit (NIC/ ABJ/64/2016) filed against the Federal Ministry of Education in respect to this matter.

The group in a letter signed by the president, Comrade Etuk Bassey Williams and the Secretary General, Abubakar Ibrahim to President Buhari, yesterday in Abuja commended the President for rescinding the order that led to anomaly, said, “ the Minister and all those who have been found culpable either remotely, directly or otherwise in misinforming you into taking the action that led to this constitutional breach be made to take full responsibility through immediate resignation or sack so

that those who are by any chance still in doubt as to your tenacity to rid Nigeria of bad governance will be totally convinced of your uncompromising stance.”

He urged the president to march his words with actions as a way to tell a democratic story of a change government, adding that Nigerians are watching t and waiting to see this open apology made by him come to fruition, saying as 2019 approaches, Nigerians expects more democratic practices as well as sound economic reforms.

“This is our own way of saying thank you for yielding to the voices of several stakeholders who appealed to you to revisit your decision, which though taken

in good faith but known to all Nigerians to be predicated on the wrong counsel of an overvaulting public officer in the person of Mr. Adamu Adamu.

“While your decision to reverse an action that was taken in error is highly commendable, it is noteworthy that the constant embarrassment brought to your government by those who believe that it is still business as usual be ruthlessly addressed so that it can serve as deterrent to others.

This is one embarrassment too many by charlatans who are yet to understand that this change which is sweeping through all facets of the Nigerian society has truly come to stay,” the group wrote.

Boko Haram: Group hails Shekau’s latest video as major breakthrough

By Stanley Onyekwere

A

group, the Coalition for Women Advancement in Africa (COWAA) has described the new video purportedly released by Boko Haram leader, Abubakar Shekau where he announced what could best be described as a surrender as a major breakthrough by the military in the war against the Boko Haram insurgency.

Addressing a press conference on Sunday, Executive Vice President of the group, Mrs. Jummai Samuel Pukat said the group has recruited the services of forensic experts and can confirm the authenticity of the video by Shekau.

According to her, “The video

and proclamation by Shekau should be seen as a major breakthrough in the nation’s war against terrorism. In that video, we see and heard a Shekau who finally had the sense to admit that the end is nigh; we see a Shekau who has become gaunt ostensibly because the Army has successfully disrupted the supply routes for his terror group’s vital supplies.

“We see a Shekau who for the first time lost the ability to harangue the Nigerian state as he was not able to hop from one feet to the other, we see a Shekau whom the Nigerian Army has deprived of the succour and support of his devilish Amirs (commanders), who fell to the superior will of our gallant

troops in quick succession” The group commended the Army for sustaining the warfare in a manner that the degraded Boko Haram to the point where Shekau was flushed out to give proof of life to his own so called followers.

“However, our wish is to reiterate our resolve for lasting peace. We cannot get lasting peace by allowing Shekau and his remaining Amirs the luxury of being able to re-group and restore their ability to take on the Nigerian Army.

“The decision makers in the Army should let the federal government know what is needed to help these abominations called terrorists keep their appointments with their makers.”

She said the Army must not relent, but should get more ammunitions and artillery to further decimate the ranks of terrorists.

She adds, “while Shekau as the head of Boko Haram deserves whatever he gets, amnesty should be handed over to all those who were forcefully indoctrinated into the terror group’s criminality as a way of further decimating whatever structure the criminal thought would survive him.

“We reiterate our position that Amnesty should be granted to those who were forcefully indoctrinated into the movement while those who wish to remain on are treated as mere criminals by the Nigerian Army.”

PEOPLES DAILY, TUESday, MARCH 29, 2016

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Bauchi independent marketers deny fuel diversion, price hike

From Ahmed Kaigama, Bauchi

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etroleum Independent Marketer based in Bauchi AYM Shafa has denied the allegations of diversion of premium motor spirit, (Petrol) and increase in the price in the rural areas across the state.

The denial followed the allegations by some sections across the state that the marketer is diverting the product to rural communities and subsequent increase in the price.

The Executive Assistant to A Y M,Shafa independent Marketer Alhaji Mohammed Hassan in an interview with journalists yesterday in Bauchi, dismissed the allegations of diversion against the marketers saying

that they are doing their best to supply petroleum products in Bauchi State and beyond.

Hassan said that they have been steadily supplying products through their various filling station within and outside the state capital.

“I want you to monitor filling stations in the state metropolis we have about six filling stations two along Tafawa Balewa road, one in Wunti center, one along Maiduguri bypass and Maiduguri road all sales fuel so we are doing our best to see we supply the entire northeast with

the products”, he said.

He said that the chairman of the company, Alhaji Yakubu Maishanu Shafa has spent over two weeks outside the state and sending the products from Lagos, Calabar and other places.

He informed that the variation in pump price of petroleum was occasioned by the fact that most of the marketers buy the products from private depots that sell the product at about N126 which he said cannot be resold at the official government approved price of N86.50.

Residents of Bauchi metropolis however Commended AYM Shafa Independent Marketer for regular supply of petrol in the state.

Alhaji Kabiru Garba said “we have to commend him because of his effort in his effort to supply petrol in the state within all this period of scarcity he is doing his best”.

Meanwhile filling stations in Bauchi and other parts of the state have remained shut to motorists since Saturday following a sharp drop in the supply of petrol to the

market affecting business, just as government, securities, marketers battling to save situation.

Our correspondent gathered that oil marketers were no longer interested in importing the product mainly because of the rising exchange rate of the dollar to the Naira.

Findings revealed that the scarcity worsened within the last four days as the price per litre jumped from the range of N130 to N150 to around N180 in some filling stations in some local governments in the state.

Buhari felicitates with Tinubu at 64

By Lawrence Olaoye

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resident Muhammadu Buhari has felicitated with the national leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, as he clocks 64 years today.

According to a statement made available to newsmen by Special Adviser to the President on media and publicity, Femi Adesina, Buhari believed that the rising political profile of Asiwaju Tinubu since he was elected a Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in 1992 was a testimony to his forthrightness, diligence and doggedness, the same qualities that had endeared him to the electorates and given him allround success as a private sector worker, a businessman and twoterm Governor of Lagos State.

As one of the pillars of the APC, Buhari commended the visionary leadership style of the Asiwaju of Lagos, who is also the Jagaban of the Borgu Kingdom in Niger State, for creating a formidable opposition party in Nigeria that worked vigorously within a short period to oust a party that had been in power for 16 years.

The President assured the national leader that his patriotism and commitment to democracy and good governance, and his generous spirit will always be remembered and appreciated by generations of Nigerians.

He prayed that the Almighty God will grant the Asiwaju long life, good health, wisdom and prosperity as he steadfastly supports efforts to promote the development of Nigeria.

Bit-Bit Cultural Dancers of Tangale Community Entertaining, during the civic reception and award ceremony for Gombe state Deputy Governor, Mr. Charles Iliya by the Kalmai Community Development Association, yesterday in Billiri, Gombe state.

Photo: NAN

Easter: Cleric knocks FG over failed section of East-West Road From Osakhare Erese, Asaba

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he Parish Priest of St Theresa’s Catholic Church, Osubi in Okpe Local Government Area of Delta State, Rev Fr Nathaniel Ajogri, on Sunday knocked the federal government over the failed Sapele/Warri axis of the EastEast road even as he implored Nigerians not be discouraged about the state of the nation.

Speaking on Sunday at the mass service to mark the Easter celebration, the priest described the failed section of the road as a shame of a nation.

The priest who had gone out for out stations mass before returning to St Theresa’s Catholic Church, Osubi said his experience on the road on Easter Sunday (yesterday) was not good enough.

He narrated that scores

of motorists were trapped for several hours on the bad portion of the east-west road.

According to him, he was forced to make a u-turn to pass through Eku to get back to St Theresa’s Catholic Church Osubi after several hours spent on the deplorable section of the road.

The priest who arrived late for the 10 am mass, while apologizing for celebrating the mass late, said; “I am very sorry for starting this mass late. It was not deliberate. I was trapped on the bad portion of the Sapele/ Warri road of the East-West”.

“I must say that the deplorable section of the federal road is not only a shame of a nation, but a disgrace. The federal government must wake up now to fix the road where motorists are trapped on a daily basis,” he said.

But in his Homily, the priest

implored Nigerians not to give up hope about their country, saying there was hope for the country.

According to him, “Resurrection is a story of hope.

There is hope for our country. We should not be discouraged”.

“We are celebrating Christ today, who brought life to us.

He has come to redeem us and brought salvation to mankind.

This is the day of happiness, today is a great day. Jesus Christ has taken away our pains. And as Nigerians, we should be prayerful. We should pray for our country. Our current challenges are not forever. We should belive in our country, “Rev. Fr. Ajogri said.

Meanwhile the former Minister for information, Prof, Sam Oyovbaire has advised the federal and state governments to look critically at the all important

role of traditional institutions in peace building.

Prof. Oyovbaire, who was speaking at the 78th birthday celebration of the Owa monarch, His Royal Majesty, Dr Emmanuel Efeizomor II said it is time the various tiers of government looked at the uniqueness of the traditional institution and create the enabling role for their contributions to the stability and peace of the various communities and the nation at large.

He said that understanding the people of the nation and their value remains important; and according to them, recognition is very important in achieving peace and stability of the country.

He further noted that according due recognition to the traditional institution is vital towards the peace drive in the country.

PEOPLES DAILY, TUESday, MARCH 29, 2016

PAGE 10

News

Nigeria loses N10bn annually, hosting domain names offshore – NIRA

R-L: Malam Yunusa K. Mohammed, and his new wife, Malama Rukayat Mohammed, during their wedding reception, at the weekend in Okene, Kogi state.

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igeria is losing not less than N10 billion yearly through hosting its country code Top Level Domain (ccTLD), dotng (.ng) domain names outside the country, the Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NIRA) said on Monday.

Mr Sunday Folayan, President of NIRA disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos.

NAN reports that simply put, domain hosting is ‘renting a space’ on the internet to hold a website, so that anyone can find your website, by typing in your domain name.

He said that hosting of domain name was a pure business decision, which had both security and economic implications.

According to him, just one per cent of the .ng domains registered by NIRA’s registrars, is what is hosted in the country. ``And if we estimate, hosting has the income of about five times to 10 times the cost of domain name registration. You will see that it is a lot of money we are talking about. ``So 99 per cent of what NIRA has registered is hosted outside and NIRA has conservatively put what Nigeria is losing by today’s value of not less than N10 billion, in terms of hosting from the .ng domain. ``There are other .com domains that are also registered by NIRA, which could be more than five times the .ng registered. ``So we are talking of not less than N50 billion, plus the N10 billion from the .ng, making a total of not less than N60 billion,’’ he said.

The president added that information put on the internet were not safe, as people from anywhere in the world could hack into it.

He said that such data would be better secured, if hosted within the country, than outside.

Folayan decried the hosting of .ng domain names outside Nigeria, as it amounted to capital flight, and was not good for Nigeria’s economy.

The president said that NIRA had a total of 56 accredited registrars, who handled the actual registration of the domain names.

He said that of the 56 registrars, 79 per cent were Nigerians, while the remaining were from the UK, Germany and other countries.

According to him, of the 19,649 domain names registered and hosted by NIRA’s registrars, only 1.33 per cent is hosted in Nigeria. ``All the rest are hosted outside Nigeria. This is capital flight, it is something that bothers NIRA and we are looking at ways to mitigate that and help reserve foreign exchange, particularly at this very tight time for the country,’’ he said.

Folayan said that .ng (like our currency, the Naira and the +234 for country code) was the official Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN)approved ccTLD for Nigeria.

According to him, the availability of names is better on the .ng ccTLD than on the generic top-level domain (gTLD) like .com, .org. (NAN)

Photo: Raji S.O

2016 hajj: Kaduna Board warns against extorting intending pilgrims From Mohammad Ibrahim, Kaduna

A

s Kaduna State Muslim Pilgrims’ Welfare Board commenced registration of intending pilgrims for 2016 hajj exercise, the board leadership yesterday warned against extortion of intending pilgrims in the state.

According to the board, screening and registration is free of charge.

In a statement issued by the Public Relations Officer of the Board, Yunusa Muhammad Abdullahi, said that the Board has received several reports of some unscrupulous individuals who have been receiving bribes from some intending pilgrims under the guise of trying to secure Hajj seats for them.

Explaining the issue, Director of Administration and Finance of the Board, Barrister Umar Mustapha

Danraka warned Hajj officials not to collect any amount of money beyond the official deposit sum from intending pilgrims.

Barrister Danraka advised the intending pilgrims to pay their Hajj fares directly to the Board’s designated bank account after they have been screened and found qualified to perform this year’s Hajj.

He called on individuals to report any pilgrims’ official or tout found to be extorting money before

registering an intending pilgrim.

Danraka further warned that both officials and individuals who are caught either giving or collecting money to facilitate securing Hajj seat will face the full wrath of the law.

The statement further advised intending pilgrims to report any official that approaches them and asks for bribe in order to facilitate getting Hajj seats for them to security agents.

Group slams Tinubu over Kachikwu comment

By Doyin Ojosipe

F

ollowing the innovations and initiatives introduced by Dr. Ibe Kachukwu, the group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC), to make the organization more profitable and result – oriented, a non-governmental organization Media Network Against Corruption has appealed to the organized labour, national assembly and general public to support the change agenda of President Muhammadu Buhari in the petroleum industry.

In a press statement made available to newsmen recently by

the national coordinator of the group Mr. James Okoronkwo, MNAC noted that Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources have revived our moribund refineries, secured our pipelines and spectacularly saved Nigeria a trillion naira which would have corruptly enriched a few individuals through subsidy payments.

Before now, the NNPC through Crude Oil Swap and Offshore Processing Arrangement have lost huge revenue as a result of corruption but Kachikwu’s introduction of the Direct Sales – Direct Purchase (DSDP) model has curbed graft and entrenched

transparency in the crude oil production exchange transactions undertaken by the NNPC. Okoronkwo appealed to the national assembly, the organized labour and the relevant stakeholders to support President Muhammadu Buhari’s anti-corruption crusade especially in the oil sector by supporting the unbundling of the NNPC saying that “this is the only panacea to improve the fortunes of our ailing cashcow.”

Reacting to Senator Bola Tinubu’s public rebuke of the Minister of State, Petroleum Resources Ibe Kachikwu, over the lingering fuel scarcity, the group lamented that Tinubu’s disapproval

of Kachikwu’s candid statement that the fuel paucity will end by May 2015 was motivated by selfaggrandizement, parochialism and frustration for losing out in the APC power game especially in the appointment of a key figure in the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC). He appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari to emasculate and rein in reactionary forces in the APC whose sole design is to accumulate wealth and influence at the expense of his people oriented government noting that Tinubu’s caustic and self-serving reprimand of the group managing director of the NNPC is unbecoming of his status as APC national leader.

Aladja vigilante arrests suspected generator thief From Matthew Omonigho

T

he Aladja Community Vigilante in Udu Local Government Area, Delta State yesterday arrested a 26 years old suspected generator thief, Edirin Tudarho at about 7am within the community.

Peoples Daily gathered that the suspected generator thief,Edirin

Tudarho allegedly stole a Tiger generator from the Redeemed Christian Church of God, RCCG, situated at College Road, Aladja in Ekrewhare quarters while the Aldaja and Ogbe-Ijoh Communities were engaged in a fatricidal war on Thursday.

He was arrested by the Aladja community on his way to sell the

Tiger Generator in Warri.

An eyewitness said the suspect, Edirin Tudarho alleged gained access into the church after he bored a hole at the back of the church which is still under construction before stealing the Tiger Generator.

A cross section of some members of the church who spoke to Peoples Daily Correspondent expressed

shock at the development sayin, “The guy no fear God at All.” A source within the Aladja Vigilante who spoke with Peoples Daily on condition of anonymity said, “The suspect will be dealt with in accordance with the law so as to serve as deterrent to others and as well rid the Aladja Community of thieves, cultists and other social crimes.”

Page 11

PEOPLES DAILY, TUESday, MARCH 29, 2016

EDITORIAL

T

Learn from mistake

screened, out of which, 6,444 were he Borno state suffered much due to insurgency, found to be severely malnourished government confirmed has an under-five mortality rate and were treated under the recently that last year of 160 deaths per 1,000, second Community Management of alone, 450 people died to the North West with 185 Acute Malnutrition (CMAM) and from ailments and deaths per 1,000 population. He Infant and Young Child Feeding malnutrition in internally commended all the health care (IYCF) programmes of the state’s displaced persons (IDPs) camps partners, especially Medicines Primary Health Care Development in the state.Commissioner of sans Frontieres (Doctors without Agency (SPHCDA), supported by Health, Dr. Haruna Mshelia, Borders) for “not only providing coolly announced that figure care for malnourished children at a media briefing he called to in the state, but also renovating refute reports that had said and equipping structures and all the 450 dead were children facilities at Umaru Shehu and the cause of death was General Hospital in Bulumkutu, malnutrition. the State Specialists Hospital, “Contrary to the media reports”, General Mamman Shuwa he said, “statistics show that a Memorial Hospital (Nursing total of 54,000 children under Home), all in Maiduguri the age of 5 and below were Metropolis”. recorded in all resettlement All well said, Mr. Commissioner. camps, out of whom 98 (1.5%) But you should have spared had severe malnutrition and a thought for the anguish of died...” parents who lost their young Mshelia’s difficulty was that the ones because public servants earlier reports misrepresented like him failed to be proactive. the number of deaths among If, indeed, children aged 5 children put at 450 instead of 98. and below, were screened Even at that it is inexcusably high. for the 5 child killer diseases He, though, did not dispute the every often, how come the total death toll. Four hundred government did not see and fifty was it and that included there existed a high risk of both adults and children. infection? This would have nutrition programme support According to the commissioner, necessitated preventive action. partners like UNICEF, Save the they died from the “commonest As it happened, the government Children (SC) and Action Against ailments such as malaria, waited for the problem to show Hunger (AAH).

Diarrhea, Pneumonia, Measles its face, the fire brigade action As is typical of public officials, and, of course, malnutrition.” He which came too. Secondly, Mshelia strove to take credit even claimed that “all children under we deplore the tendency of in the face of the intolerably high five years living in IDP camps government official to always infant mortality rate in the IDP were screened every 2-3 months defend the indefensible. There camps.

According to take him, the for evidence of malnutrition; is nothing wrong in admitting a National Demographic and Health a child can be screened up to mistake has been made and we Survey Data (NDHS2013) reveals 4 times in a year... In 2015, move on. This is an honorable to that “even the North East that has over 200,000 children were do.

“

We deplore the tendency of infection government official to always defend the indefensible. There was is nothing wrong in admitting a mistake has been made and we move on. This is an honorable to do.

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PAGE 12

PEOPLES DAILY, TUESday, MARCH 29, 2016

Opinion

Bridging the financing gap and optimal tax rate

By Pat Utomi

I

t starts with south bound crude oil prices. But it should have started much earlier.

Public authorities in Nigeria seem to have rediscovered the concept of taxation. But can the push discourage savings at some point and bring forward images of Arthur Laffer, the Laffer Curve and supply side economics?

The spark for the issue to gain renewed prominence is the new tax on deposits in the banks. But the need for a proposition on optimal tax rates has been coming for years since oil receipts oriented government towards being less accountable to the people and less disposed to demanding taxation levels required for services the government was required to offer.

With high oil prices that strategy was easier. But rapidly declining oil prices in the last one year has constricted revenue flows and thrown up a financing gap.

The natural outcome of the deficits on the current accounts has been scarcity of foreign exchange, especially when response to depreciating

exchange rates is to retreat into controls with no recourse to the purchasing power parity as defining of where true exchange value should be. When divergence of nominal exchange rates from the purchasing power parity is so pronounced and a foreign exchange crisis is therefore evident a genuine crisis brews.

The urgency to bridge the financing gap which breeds these outcomes of discontent often pushes a rush to policy interventions.

A typical intervention with such a gap is to raise taxes. In proceeding down such a track of raising taxes, speed can ordain thinking. But we also know that policy rushed can produce undesired and unintended consequences.

We can debate the value of policy stance being taken by policymakers about the need for a strong naira but the fact cannot be controverted that policy choices can result in iatrogenic outcomes where the prescribed medicine does more harm to the patient than the original disease being treated.

Highly regarded US Senator and Harvard Professor, Daniel

Patrick Moynihan, made famous the idea of iatrogenic policy choice but we are the ones that seem, somehow, to make policies that deliver trouble routinely because of the low rigour in the policy process. Bearing this in mind, It would be helpful if discussion of the need for taxes to bridge evident financial gaps through new taxes takes into account two possible effects of raising taxes; impact on savings, investments and the growth consequent upon increased production. The other is the point beyond which a tax revolt results.

There are those who react to the N50 charged on deposits into accounts from an outright rejection of the idea of taxes when incomes are dropping. But that in my opinion is a throw up from many years of not paying taxes.

There is also the fact that people never do cheer new taxes. When the idea of Value Added Tax was being considered, many gave the Emmanuel Ijewere committee a hard time. But that tax has been a good tax and generally a fair tax, if we take away issues of how fiscal transfers between the centre and the states from VAT

receipts have been received.

I do think we need to raise taxes but ensure that those whose consumption does less for stimulating production pay more. The same should go for those who extract more rent than create wealth. But with a tax on deposits, we need to study more carefully its impact on savings.

What about the question of optimal tax rates and the rising tax incidence. Such questions bring to mind the reign of supply side economics and one of its chief disciplines, USC economist, Arthur Laffer.

The Laffer curve, as a template for gauging optimal tax rates and its author, who was a guru of the Ronald Reagan/Margaret Thatcher ideological partnership of the early 1980’s, does have value. Even though I have in the past argued that Laffer tried to “elevate” supply side economics to the level of a religion, for which I did not have an article of faith, it nonetheless has its value when considering raising taxes.

I think that at this stage in considering financing challenges, we need to find creative ways of raising taxes but be careful

and its revenue base is a most welcome, albeit well overdue development. In re-strategising and reforming the mining sector, the government has shown focus by seeking the assistance of the United States to determine the quantity and quality of solid minerals deposits available in the country. Data collection of the solid mineral deposits is key and the right direction to go in as the Solid Mineral Ministry makes headway in its reforms.

The recent statement by the Minister of Solid Minerals Dr. Kayode Fayemi encouraging states to exploit their mineral resources by either setting up their own investment corporations or by going into partnership with the private sector, notwithstanding the federal government’s exclusive right to mine minerals, is a giant stride by this administration in the right direction. He however advised that the states go about such exploitation in a legal manner that will not interfere with allocations already given to other stakeholders.

While this policy statement from the Minister is encouraging and does represent the present administration’s expressed support for the development of the Solid Mineral industry in Nigeria, it also shows intent by the Federal Government to collaborate with the States. However, the practical implications of the Minister’s statement is that the government is challenged by legal hurdles including item 39 of the Exclusive Legislative List of the Constitution which covers mines and minerals…oil mining, geological surveys and natural gas, the Mines and Minerals Act 2007 and the Petroleum Act 1969 which vest the control, regulation and

ownership of all mineral resources in the federal government while land ownership is exclusive to the state governments. The combined effect of these laws is that the federal government is the sole approving authority for mining licences and the regulation of the industry. This has far-reaching implications for the purposeful development of a solid mineral policy in the states.

To take an unprecedented step, which will then set the current administration apart from previous expressions of intention about the Mining Industry, the Federal Government should take the bold step of amending item 39 of the Exclusive Legislative List.

The Constitutional amendment is simple enough to avoid any major partisan arguments regionally or across party-political lines.

There is no gainsaying that if states were allowed to exploit their mineral deposits there would be less dependence on allocations from the federal government.

What is required is a framework whereby the states and the federal government can effectively collaborate in this regard. For example before the oil boom, the Nigerian economy was dependent on agriculture and mining. Coal from Enugu alone was enough to power railways and generate electricity. Currently coal is found in some 13 states of Nigeria but is not being commercially exploited in any of them. Nigeria was also a major producer of tin and columbite mainly found in Jos. Gold found in Oyo, Osun, Kogi, Niger, Kaduna and Sokoto is a huge potential source of internally generated revenue for these states. Appropriate legal frameworks will need to be ironed out to ensure there are fair and

reasonable mutual benefits. The sharing formula of taxes accrued must be agreed and tax incentives should be considered, as double taxation is a burden suffered by most legitimate companies.

Furthermore joint monitoring of the mines and registration of all levels of mining concerns right from the small scale upwards will be important.

Other countries have introduced models where the state and federal government share ownership of resources.

In Australia the relevant state/ territory owns almost all the mineral resources in that state/ territory and is the authority that grants mining licences. In the United States of America the federal, state and local governments control about 1/3 of all mineral rights but in special circumstances rights are split between ‘surface owner rights’ and ‘mineral estate rights’. Some states with ‘split estate’ systems are Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Colorado, Louisiana and New Mexico.

Therefore rights to a particular piece of land can be owned by two separate parties; the party who controls the mineral rights can develop and extract any subsurface resources. On the other hand, ‘fractional ownership’ refers to a situation where the surface owner owns about half of the mineral rights beneath their property, probably sharing with other family members, a company, or a government entity. In ‘severed ownership’, the homeowner has no mineral rights because ownership is vested in the federal government.

Another reason why states should be granted more control over their solid minerals is

not to move so quickly for it is like putting an addict into a rehabilitation programme.

The pacing matters. Besides, the Laffer curve held some fascination for me because Arthur Laffer, some 35 years ago, gave credit to a Nigerian PhD student of his for cracking the equation that led to the thesis.

Here I have to admit a certain preference for specificuse taxes where you can more readily relate the tax money to services enjoyed. Gasoline taxes for highway construction and maintenance, as the US example, is probably one classic case of specific-use taxation.

Communicating policy purpose and projected outcomes and benefits is very essential here.

But it has not been a territory of great strength for the extant order in the Federal Government and so needs particular attention.

Utomi, political economist and Professor of Entrepreneurship, is founder of the Centre for Values in Leadership.

Mining for economic growth

By May Agbamuche-Mbu

T

he new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) came into effect on 1st January 2016 with 17 goals and 169 targets which Nigeria adopted along with several other nations at the 70th United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York in September 2015. This new set of goals target tangible improvements in critical socio-economic areas such as the elimination of hunger, water and sanitation, economic growth, climate change, human settlements, livelihoods and employment, inequalities, energy, infrastructure and industrialisation. All are laudable and achievable goals however Goal 8, ‘promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all’ stands out as very important because if we as a nation want to succeed with this particular goal a good percentage of all the other goals will fall into place naturally as a knock on effect. President Buhari has quite rightly highlighted agriculture and mineral resources as two specific sectors that he will be focusing on and one can readily see the great potential effect these sectors could have on the nation’s economic growth, providing massive employment opportunities, investments, industrialisation, social development and hopefully a broadly better standard of living.

The drastic fall in oil prices may someday be looked upon as a blessing in disguise as we as a nation are now forced to look inwards for our sustainability. Take the mining sector for example, nearly every state can account for mineral deposits of some sort.

Therefore the government’s plan to diversify its mineral resources

that they would be in a better position to stop artisanal mining also known as illegal mining which has contributed to the loss of earnings from the mining sector. The reformation of this sector will require the protection of the community against environmental degradation caused by indiscriminate mining.

For example in Ogun State in Igun-Ijesha over 2,000 pits have been dug by miners in their search for gold. The miners proceed to sell the gold they extract at prices well below global levels and in continued, unchecked violation of s. 94 of the Nigerian Mineral and Mining Act 2007, which states that the purchase of minerals without an officially issued license is prohibited.

With joint collaboration the state government can have an effective mineral and environmental monitoring committee which should advise the Ministry of Environment on environmental degradation and the effects on climate change such as loss of land to natural causes through flooding and erosion. With that the ministry stands a better chance of fulfilling its supervisory and monitoring obligation under s. 17 of the Minerals and Mining Act. Similarly, in Ebonyi state illegal mining activities in Afikpo, Ivo, Ohaukwu and Ezza LGAs have resulted in adverse environmental impact for the host communities including health hazards and the destruction of their homes. The issue of reclamation of excavated areas has to be seriously considered to restore such areas to their former use as farmland, a win, win situation.

May Agbamuche-Mbu is a Public Affairs Analyst.

PEOPLES DAILY, TUESday, MARCH 29, 2016

PAGE 13

Comment

...Why Dogara’s Call For A North-East Int’l Donor Conference is Timely

By Turaki Adamu Hassan

T

he Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, has been making calls for the convening of an international donors conference that would holistically tackled the economic and infrastructural needs of the northeast part of Nigeria which has borne the brunt of the six-year violent uprising from adherents of theJama’atu Ahlus-Sunnah Lidda’Awati Wal Jihad, known commonly as Boko Haram.

Dogara, first made the call in a motion he personally sponsored in August last year, on the urgent need for rehabilitation, recovery, reconstruction and resettlement of the violence ravaged region.

Since then, at every fora, the Speaker has continued to champion the plights of the north east while arguing that the region deserve global attention as a member of the international community.

His call is inline with what has been happening since the end of the World War II where international conferences like that were held for Western Europe and Japan which were rebuild following adoption of the American Marshall Plan, Kosovo, Afghanistan, Iraq, Ukraine, Gaza and recently for Syria. There is therefore, no reasons why it can’t be held for the north-east of Nigeria. This is the kind of patriotic zeal that comes when true leaders that are visionary-inclined are allowed to lead.

It should be noted that, the scale of devastation, destruction and damage in the region far supercedes what happened in some of the countries and regions listed above but which the international community didnt hesitate to come to their aid.

The region, even before the violence erupted years ago, is one of the most poorest in the world. A recent report by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)

said Borno state alone has lost trillions of Naira economic wise while not fewer than 20,000 people were killed even though most of us who come from the north east strongly believe that the number of casualty far outweights the official figure of 20,000 with some putting it at over 100,000.

All one need to be convinced about a call for such is to take a trip to some of the villages recently liberated in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states.

Communities were not only totally razed to the ground but one is left with no option than to conclude that the insurgents were all out to extinct and annihilate every living and non-living beings in the affected areas.

These fundamentalist succeeded in leaving to waste large swaths of territories in those states, especially Borno state, which happened to be the epicenter of the violence.

Right now, officially over 2.2 million Nigerians are living as Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in several states of the country including the Federal Capital Territory, while thounsands others are refugees in Cameroon, Chad and Niger Republic. Again, the number of IDPs is far more than 2.2 million as it ranges between 5 million to 5.5 million because majority of those displaced are not living camps but are being housed by relations both within and outside the affected areas.

To buttressed Dogara’s call for an international donor conference, UNHCR Representative to Nigeria, Ms Angele DikongueAtangana, during the UNHCR 2015 stakeholders’ briefing of the commission’s representation in Nigeria, urged donors and partners to take a trip to the ‘field’ to be aware of the level of destruction for a better understanding of the situation.

This is because there are dozens of villages in the northeast that have

been totally destroyed. The case of the attack on Dalori is still fresh in our minds where reports said entire houses in the village were torched.

The enormity of the task ahead in rebuilding the area, especially the cost is something that even the federal government might not be able to totally shoulder hence the call for the donor conference.

This much was also agreed by the Chairman, Presidential Committee on Northeast Initiative, retired Lt.Gen. Theophilus Danjuma recently, when he said that conservatively, over two trillion naira (N2 trillion) will be required in the short-term to rebuild areas devastated by the Boko Haram insurgency. This is just for the short term measure!

He added that the rebuilding of the region would require the cooperation of all, considering that the magnitude of destruction was beyond the means of the federal or state governments. He further noted that rebuilding the Northeast would demand maximum cooperation and resources.

“Rebuilding the Northeast is one of the biggest and most complex challenges that Nigeria is facing today. To hold government or any one agency alone responsible for this task is to underestimate the enormity of the problem. The task would involve massive reconstruction of physical infrastructure, much of which have been totally destroyed and, of course, the more challenging one, which is the rebuilding of peace and social cohesion,’’ he said during the opening of a two-day security seminar, organised by the Alumni Association of the National Defence College.

The rebuilding effort being done by some of the governors of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa are mere drops in a vast ocean of need that wouldn’t make much difference. For example, Borno State governor, Kashim Shettima has been building some houses in Bama and other local

governments.

But without help from outside to address the destruction in over 20 local governments that were initially intermittently occupied and destroyed by the insurgents, it would not go far.

Moreso, the destruction in Gwoza and Bama, two of the worsthit local governments in Borno and their current needs goes beyond even the complete federal allocations that accrue to Borno state for now.

Same for other local governments in the state and other northeast states where their need stands beyond rebuilding houses.

But Issues of topmost important for the northeast revolves around not only the housing but health care, women and youth empowerment, education and agriculture.

Sufficiently meeting these needs would require the involvement of the international community. As with these areas targeted, the people of the northeast and the region in general stand the chance of having positive multiplier effect roll back on them.

This is why the call by the speaker for an international donor conference is apt, timely and holds the solution to addressing the destruction in the northeast, because other places have held such international conferences with success. The recent one was the International Donors conference for reconstruction and development in Dafur, held in Doha, Qatar from 7-8 April 2013.

This donor conference brought together representatives of the Government of Sudan, the international donor community, the development banking sectors, international and national NonGovernmental Organizations and international funds and foundations and provided a forum for the Darfur Regional Authority and the Government of Sudan to discuss with its development

partners the needs for economic recovery, development and poverty eradication in the aftermath of the conflict in Darfur.

Likewise the Syrian donor conference held in London where over $10 billion was pledged so much that the UnitedNations (UN) Secretary General Ban Ki-moon hailed the conference as a “great success,” saying, “Never has the international community raised so much money on a single day for a single crisis.”

Just like the speaker noted, the world now is a global village in which the effect of a massive population shift within the northeast could have spiraling effect on the world. Europe is battling to halt the massive influx of refugees from Syria, Iraq and the middle east; it is therefore in the collective interest of the international community that funds are raised to resettle the IDPs and refugees from Nigeria so as to avoid another surge to the mediteranian sea where thounsands of migrants are dying every year in their desperate effort to cross to Eupore.

Already the impact of the effect of the insurgents is felt in our neighboring countries and the need for such conference now can’t be overemphasised.

Consequently, just like the speaker has done, the leaders of this country should start persuading world leaders and work toward having something like that, even if it’s in Africa.

And Dogara, deserve not only to be supported but also commended by all for his consistency in pushing for the convocation of the confab.

The responsiblity of doing that now rests with the Federal government or the Executive as the parliament or legislature cannot delve into that since it is not within its powers to do so.

their dollar allocations.

The net effect is that the economy has slowed down and nearly grinding to a halt. Companies are retrenching staff as they cannot produce.

Unemployment and social misery are rapidly compounding and will compound in an accelerated fashion if the current policy is not reviewed.

Unlike the good intention professed by the President, Nigerians are not the ones benefiting from this current fixed exchange rate policy but a few Nigerians who are privileged to allocate or get dollars at official rate who are making huge fortunes on dollar price arbitrage. It should be emphasised that unlike President Buhari would have wished, that even those who get the dollar at N196, if they ever really do any manufacturing or trading, are not pricing their inputs and final products at N196 to a dollar. Every business is pricing their input at close to parallel market rates to determine their final shelf and market price. Imported inflation is skyrocketing and may continue to do so in accelerated fashion.

In essence, the Federal Government’s good intention of taming imported inflation by legislating an exchange rate has not materialised. Our current fixed exchange rate policy is therefore like an ostrich that buries its head in the sand or can be described as an attempt to hide behind a finger. The ostrich that buries its head in the sand does nothing really to manage

its danger but engages in a selfdelusion that it is doing so.

The indices of the test of the current policy are clear. It is not working. Output is down, inflation is rising and unemployment is beginning to accelerate as companies close down or rationalise operations. Investment confidence has been eroded leading to massive capital flight. In a country that needs foreign direct investment to support its low capital formation and national savings, current monetary policy flip-flops and uncertainty have not helped investor confidence.

The negative trajectory of the growth of our foreign reserves now at $28bn, its ongoing rapid erosion due to attempts by the Central Bank of Nigeria to artificially defend the naira at its overpriced value further erodes investor confidence and increases uncertainty concerns of investors who will either wait for the dark clouds to settle or fly with their capital. It should be emphasised that investors are less concerned about exchange rate or value than with the uncertainty of where the exchange rate will be tomorrow. Noone does anything when everyone is uncertain. The economy slows down and unemployment accelerates.

Meanwhile, speculators continue to bet against the currency of a country with eroding trajectory of reserves, front loading and amplifying demand for forex and further driving up differential between the official and the parallel market.

We join the call for the naira to be floated but with some exchange controls that ensure that short term arbitrage players have little incentives to bet against the naira.

A dollar that is priced close to its equilibrium price and market value will reduce artificial, speculative and front -loaded demand.

During a fuel scarcity problem, every car with a half tank who can still run for another week goes to queue up for fuel, amplifying demand and compounding the fuel scarcity problem. A floated market determined naira-dollar rate that ensures that “anyone who can pay will get” will eliminate speculation and front-loading. A floated exchange rate policy will also mitigate significantly the uncertainty concerns of investors reversing current capital flight while stemming the erosion of foreign reserves.

The national treasury will also be boosted by a dollar that is priced at its true market value to the naira.

The rent-seeking and arbitrage margins on the dollar sold through official market will be eliminated as these arbitrage differentials come directly into the national treasury boosting government revenue at this critical time of fiscal constrain.

A floated exchange rate policy will improve output and get more people back into jobs.

A floating exchange rate policy supported by prudent fiscal management including the

privatisation of refineries to bring investors who along with the Dangote Refinery in pipeline, will produce petroleum products locally, eliminate the huge pressure on the dollar by petroleum importers, which could even strengthen the naira.

What are the downsides of a floated exchange rate? A floating exchange rate policy may imply that the naira to the dollar rate will become significantly higher than the current N196 in the near term.

The fact however is that only a few privileged elite and their businesses get the dollar at current official rate.

Most Nigerians buy and price their production input at parallel market rate. The Nigerian economy cannot lose what it does not presently have in real terms in a strong naira.

A floated naira with exchange controls that mitigate against short term arbitrage incentives, where speculation and front-loading are eliminated may actually settle at a rate better than current parallel market prices.

The choices before us are simple.

An illusory strong naira that only a few privileged Nigerians get at official rate with declining output and rising unemployment or a naira priced at its relative real value with increasing output, investment and rising employment.

Turaki Adamu Hassan, is Special Adviser (Media & Public Affairs) to Rt. Hon. Speaker, House of Representatives.

Nigeria’s fixed exchange rate

By Olu Akanmu

W

hereas the Nigerian monetary authority fixed the official exchange rate at N196 to a dollar, there is today a near 50 per cent differential in the parallel market rate to the official rate. The fact that the exchange rate is not market determined, that the price of the dollar is not determined by the equilibrium of demand and supply means significantly that the dollar is officially priced far below its true market value. The incentive for rent-seeking and price arbitrage, given the increasing differential, has never been stronger. We are back in the days of essential commodity or import licence where you don’t need to work hard anymore to make huge fortunes. All you need is to have the connection to be allocated dollars in the guise of a legitimate transaction.

A manufacturer can potentially make a quick 30 per cent return in one month on her dollar allocation and does not then need to go through the trouble and risk of running a factory, importing raw materials, producing and distributing her goods, all which will give her a 15 per cent profit margin at best in one year. Meanwhile, factories are closing down, as genuine businesses that need the forex cannot get dollars and the lucky ones who get forex allocation are quietly changing their business model from manufacturing to round-tripping

– Akanmu publishes a blog on Strategy and Public Policy on http://olusfile.blogspot.com

PAGE 14

News

Yobe Govt. to support IDPs with agric. inputs — SEMA

T

he Yobe Government has pledged to support Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) relocating to their communities with agricultural inputs to boost farming and promote economic rehabilitation.

Alhaji Musa Jidawa, the Executive Secretary, Yobe State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), stated this on Monday in an interview with News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Damaturu.

The secretary said some of the IDPs had started relocating to their communities preparatory to the farming season, noting that government would ensure that it provided them with farm inputs this cropping season.

He said ``the IDPs have been displaced for two to three years and have not had the opportunity of farming, being their major preoccupation for these period; they will be supported fully for their re-engagement in agricultural production.”

Jidawa said government provided rice, beans, millet and cooking oil to supplement the immediate food needs of the returnees and would ensure that they returned to their farms with adequate support. ``The state government last week distributed 300 bags of rice, 150 bags of millet and 150 bags of beans to each of the two communities of Katarko and Gujba. ``The state government, through SEMA, followed the returnee IDPs to their communities and shared the materials in company of other partners like NEMA and Red Cross. ``Government also provided 200 cartons of Indomie noodles, 50 cartons of toilet soap, 50 cartons of cooking oil and 100 pieces of blankets each to Katarko and Gujba IDPs.’’ He, therefore, assured that government was committed to the resettlement, reconstruction and rehabilitation of the IDPs. (NAN)

PEOPLES DAILY, TUESday, MARCH 29, 2016

Zamfara govt to boost farming, revives ZACAREP

From Ibrahim Sidi Muh’d, Gusau

T

he Zamfara State Comprehensive Agricultural Revolution Program (ZACAREP) has concluded preparations towards procurement of adequate assorted fertilizers and other needed farm implements aimed at supporting small and large scale

farmers for this year’s rainy season.

This was contained in a statement by the State Commissioner of Agriculture, Engineer Lawal Jibril Jangebe which was signed by the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Alhaji Ibrahim Usman and made available to newsmen in Gusau the state capital.

According to the statement, the revival of ZACAREP in Zamfara

state was eventually conceived

by Governor Abdulaziz Yari administration to complement the Federal Government policy on boosting farming activities with a view to diversify the nation’s crawling economy.

The registration exercise of the targeted farmers will soon commence under the ministry of agriculture, this is to ensure that

only genuine beneficiaries were engaged in the trade so as to achieve the policy.

The commissioner further stated that, the ministry in collaboration with all the 14 local government councils will soon embark on the formal registration of farmers to avoid delay in the implementation of ZACAREP scheme.

of the occasion, said that the free medical services was informed by the need to compliment government efforts as well as to fulfill the campaign promise made to the people in line with APC change mantra. \’We are concerned with improved health delivery in the state and beyond and that inform his idea of mobilizing about 50 medical doctor\’s to carry out health delivery irrespective of political, tribal and religious inclination, “ the’ Speaker said

Dogara had urged the people from all walks of life to come out in mass to benefit from the free health services saying a lot of programme are under way for implementation in the state.

Speaking earlier, the leader of the medical team, Dr Haruna Kibo had expressed appreciation for the rear opportunity given to NGO to ensure the success of the programme.

Kibo added that during the programme, operation will be carried out on people suffering from various ailments, like

cataract while with diabetes, Lassa-fever among others will under-go medical screening, He commended the laudable effort of Dogara and described the step taken by the speaker as ideal apparently to rekindle the hope of the common man towards health delivery services.

He therefore urged the people to avail themselves with the opportunity given to them and support Dogara to succeed in his renewed commitment for the embodiment of democracy in the state.

NGO provides free medical services to 5000 patients in Bauchi

From Ahmed Kaigama , Bauchi

A

n NGO, Doctors On The Move Africa in collaboration with the Speaker, Federal House of Reps ,Rig0ht Hon Barrister Yakubu Dogara has provide free medical services to over 5000 patients cutting across all the 20 LGA\’s of Bauchi state.

The Speaker who was represented by Hon. Ahmed Yerima, member representing Danbam/Misau speaking at the Bauchi Teaching Hospital, venue

L-R: Founder/ President, Arewa Creative Industry Kaduna, Hajiya Halima Idris, a philanthropist, Hajiya Ramatu Abdullahi, during the 4th Qur’anic graduation ceremony of Madarastu Ashabul Qur’an, on Sunday in Barakallahu, Kaduna.

Photo: Bashir Bello

Committee warns bread producers against using bromate From Osakhare Erese, Asaba he Jigawa Consumer Protection Committee (CPC) has warned bakers of bread in the state against using bromate in making the pastry.

The Chairman of the Committee,

Alhaji Farouk Abdullah, gave the warning in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Monday in Dutse.

Abdallah said the Committee would soon collaborate with the state office of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration

and Control (NAFDAC) to rid the state of unwholesome foods.

He said it was wrong for any baker to use potassium bromate, which could cause numerous health hazards.

The chairman said the CPC was trying hard to make sure that

the state was safe of all forms of adulterated food, drugs and medical facilities.

According to him, the committee will make sure that what people consume in the state come from genuine manufacturers and producers. (NAN)

the waterfront and access road leading to both Aladja and OgbeIgjoh communities.

The waterfront and the access road were opened by the President of Aladja Community Council and the Aladja Community Vigilante on the orders alleged orders of the

Police Area Commander in Warri, ACP Adamu Mua’zu without any resistance from the Ogbe-Ijoh people.

President of Aladja Community Council, Mr. Elias Dogene hinted Peoples Daily Correspondent that the Aladja Community shut the

waterfront and access road in to the community for the safety of its people and for fear of reprisal attacks from the Ogbe-Ijoh people during crisis.

Mr. Dogene who described the crisis as “unfortunate” calling on the relevant government and

community leaders to shield their swords in the interest of peace.

Mr. Dogene assured the people that the government of his peoples’ preparedness to live in harmony with its neighbours saying, “we will not go to war if we are not hurt by our Ogbe-Ijoh brothers.”

T

Aladja,Ogbe-Ijoh crisis: Peace returns, as Aladja community reopens waterfront, road

From Matthew Omonigho, Delta

D

ays after a crisis with its neighbours over a land dispute, peace gradually returned to Aladja Community in Udu Local Government Area of Delta State as they have re-opened

PEOPLES DAILY, TUESday, MARCH 29, 2016

PAGE 15

Ondo guber: I’ll floor Mimiko, PDP – Alasoadura

Senator Abdul-Azeez Nyako of Adamawa Central Senatorial Zone (left), condoling families of late Kefas Garkuwa, the Village Head of Goron in Girei Local Government Area of Adamawa state on Sunday.

A

Photo: NAN

Cleric predicts rapid economic growth for Nigeria A

cleric, Prophet Christopher Owolabi, yesterday predicted an aggressive improvement for the nation’s economy, following the passage of the 2016 budget by the National Assembly.

Owolabi gave this prophecy at a special Church service and prayer to mark this year’s Easter in Omu-Aran, Irepodun local government area of Kwara.

The News Agency of Nigeria

(NAN) reports that the cleric is the Prophet in-Charge of the Christ Apostolic Church, Ori-Oke Irapada, along Omu-Aran-Iloffa expressway, Omu-Aran.

He called on Nigerians to continue to intensify prayers for divine protection, wisdom and guidance, especially for those at the helm of the nation’s affairs.

Owolabi, who also predicted two-term tenure of office for President Muhammadu Buhari

under the All Progressive Congress (APC), urged leaders in the country to close ranks for progress.

He advised politicians, especially the leadership of the ruling APC to be more prayerful in order to remain united in the handling of national issues.

Owolabi, however, warned that the expected development for the nation needed a collective responsibility of all stakeholders,

through prayers and support, to become a reality.

The cleric described the present administration’s efforts towards re-invigorating the nation’s economy; especially the fight against corruption and other vices as worthwhile.

Owolabi also urged Nigerians to reflect on the significance of Easter and desist from involving themselves in ungodly acts.

(NAN)

South East APC condemns call for Kachikwu’s resignation

T

he South East chapter of the All Progressives Congress, APC, has condemned the call by some Civil Society Organizations that the Minister of State for Petroleum, Ibe Kachikwu, should resign or be fired for his inability to find a solution to the lingering petrol crisis in the country.

Mr. Kachikwu has come under

fire over his comments that the fuel scarcity being experienced in the country may likely continue for the next two months.

He also said he has no “magic” to find a solution to the problem before that time.

A leader of the ruling APC, Bola Tinubu, on Saturday lambasted the petroleum minister, saying his comments showed a lack of

respect and empathy to suffering Nigerians.

A coalition of civil society groups, Civil Society Coalition for Positive Change and Stand Up for Nigeria, SUN, on Sunday issued a 72-hour ultimatum to Mr. Kachikwu to resign from office over the prolonged scarcity of fuel.

The groups stated that the

inability of the minister of state to restore normalcy to the current fuel crisis shows his incompetence to manage the situation.

Venatius Torkuma and Labake Boboye, National President and Executive Director of the groups respectively, in a joint statement said the Minister of State for Petroleum has failed to justify his appointment.

ll Progressives Congress, APC governorship aspirant in Ondo State, Senator Tayo Alasoadura, has said only a credible and strong candidate can win for the party in the forthcoming election in the state.

Alasoadura, who represents Ondo central senatorial district in the National Assembly, spoke in Akure at the weekend while officially informing the State Executive Committee of his intent to contest the election on the platform of the party.

He advised the party not to make the mistake of giving its ticket to an aspirant that does not have all it takes to defeat Governor Olusegun Mimiko and his party in the election party.

The lawmaker warned against complacency among APC members, saying its major opponent, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, is still alive in the state.

“Members of our party need a General to lead them to the battle.

I now offer myself to lead you in the battle. I am going to crush Mimiko; I am going to crush his party if given the APC ticket,” he promised.

He noted that Ondo would not have been in the league of states in serious economic crisis today if the Mimiko-led administration had not veered off the path of development charted by the immediate past government of late Dr. Olusegun Agagu.

Alasoadura promised to industrialise the state as well as make youth and women empowerment a priority of his government. He said: “Late Agagu was a visionary leader.

“Being a geologist, he realised that a time would come when petroleum would no longer bring much money.

That was why he made efforts to industrialise the state.

“If Olokola Free Trade Zone had not been abandoned by the present administration, it could have employed more than 100,000 youths.

If I get APC ticket and eventually the mandate of the people, I intend to use Agagu’s policy paper and partner stakeholders to revive moribund industries in the state and create new ones”.

The state chairman of APC, Isaac Kekemeke, said there would be a level playing field for all the aspirants, urging Alasoadura to work hard for the party ticket.

Senator Gaya sympathizes with Kano traders over Sabon Gari market fire

By Eileen Ihemadu

T

he fire disaster that engulfed the Sabon Gari Market in Kano on Easter Sunday was an unfortunate accident that has befallen not just traders in Kano but the entire people of the north and indeed the entire country.

Senator Kabiru Ibrahim Gaya, (APC, Kano South) in a statement described the situation as tragic loss not only to the people of Kano but the entire nation, coming at time the country joined other Christians around the world to celebrate Easter.

He said that what has happened

is like throwing stone into a market where anybody could be a victim adding that a market is where anybody from anywhere could contribute to the economy.

The senator used the occasion to sympathise with Nigerians over the unfortunate incident, adding that the situation is more painful

going by the commitment of the people of state to the wind of change across the nation where people who invested their time and resources in ensuring that change come have loss cash and valuables.

The Sabon Gari Market, one of the biggest markets in Africa, was engulfed by fire destroying

unspecified amount of money and property.

The former Kano State governor called on the state governor not to be distracted by the incident or any similar one that could raise its ugly head, calling on the people to continue to support the governor to bring succor to the affected traders.

PAGE 16

PEOPLES DAILY, TUESday, MARCH 29, 2016

Politics

President Buhari felicitates with Asiwaju Bola Tinubu at 64

L-R: Speaker, House of Representatives, Hon. Yakubu Dogara, discussing with FRSC Corps Marshal, Mr. Boboye O. Oyeyemi, during the latter’s visit to the speaker, recently at the National Assembly in Abuja.

P

Photo: Mahmud Isa

Dogara announces 11-day free outreach medical services in Bauchi

T

he Speaker, House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, says he will provide an 11-day free medical service to the poor across the 20 local government areas of Bauchi state.

He said that the programme, which would be through the Doctors on the Move Africa, a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), would assist the vulnerable and less privilege in the society in accessing healthcare services.

Dogara said that the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa Teaching Hospital (ATBU-TH), Bauchi, would be used as centre for the exercise.

He said that the services would be in the areas of consultations, drugs, diabetics and hypertensive screening, provision of reading glasses and cataract operations.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the services to be rendered by the doctors included general minor and major surgeries such as Lipomas, hernia, fibroids and goitre.

The report added that the medical team would also provide services such as ultra sound scanning, HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis screening as well as public health campaigns.

Also speaking, Sen. Ali Wakil, Chairman, Senate Committee on Poverty Reduction, said that the initiative would solve the problem of lack of funds bedevilling poor people in the rural areas of the state.

He said that ensuring the health of the citizens was a sure way of enriching them and

reducing poverty in the society.

Wakili urged the beneficiaries to conduct themselves in orderly manner during the exercise in order to fully benefit from the programme.

The Team Leader of the NGO, Mr Joseph Kigbu, said that the exercise would be conducted by about 50 medical doctors.

He disclosed that the state have about 700 to 1000 cataract patients that are awaiting surgery, adding that the exercise will target all of them within the stipulated time. ``This exercise will bring ease to many people whom cannot afford cataract surgery which is about N20,000 to N30,000; as such members of the public should massively come out to cure

themselves from the ailment. ``The state has about 700 to 1000 cataract patients that are awaiting surgery; therefore we intend to conduct surgery to all cataract patients before the end of the exercise. ``Eye surgery will commence tomorrow (Tuesday) as we will begin screening for those with eye problems immediately,’’ he said.

Also speaking, the acting Chairman, Medical Advisory Committee (C-MAC) of the ATBUTH, Dr Said Kadas, applauded the initiative of the speaker, adding that it will go a long away in solving health issues in the state.

He called on the public to utilise the opportunity of accessing free health care services. (NAN)

resident Muhammadu Buhari has congratulated the national leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, as he clocks 64 years on March 29.

This is contained in a statement issued in Abuja yesterday by the president’s Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Mr Femi Adesina.

President Buhari noted that the rising political profile of Asiwaju Tinubu since he was elected a Senator in 1992 was ``a testimony to his forthrightness, diligence and doggedness.’’

He said that these qualities had also endeared him to the electorate and given him allround success as a private sector worker, a businessman and two-term Governor of Lagos State.

The President described Tinubu as one of the pillars of the APC who successfully created a formidable opposition that worked vigorously within a short period to oust a party that had been in power for 16 years.

He commended the visionary leadership style of the Asiwaju of Lagos, who is also the Jagaban of Borgu Kingdom in Niger State.

President Buhari assured Tinubu that his patriotism and commitment to democracy and good governance, and his generous spirit would always be remembered and appreciated by generations of Nigerians.

He prayed that the Almighty God would grant the Asiwaju ``long life, good health, wisdom and prosperity as he steadfastly supports efforts to promote the development of Nigeria.’’(NAN)

Presidency to begin town hall meetings soon – Aide

M

alam Garba Shehu, the Senior Special Assistant (SSA) to President Muhammadu Buhari on Media, says Presidency will soon begin to hold town hall meetings with Nigerians to furnish them with information.

Shehu made this known while answering reporters’ questions in Abuja weekend.

According to him, government decided to embark on such meetings because it has realised the importance of information communication to the people at the grassroots. ``I know that there is a plan that the Vice-President, Prof.

Yemi Osinbajo would start town hall meetings in zones.

``It would then be broken down to the states and so on. ``Government realises that there is a need to take information to the people and there are steps that are being taken in order to ensure that is done,’’ he said.

Shehu criticised the National Orientation Agency (NOA) for being indifferent to the Federal Government’s change mantra. ``We have an agency like NOA with 773 offices nationwide. ``Each has not less than 5 to 7 staffs and well-equipped, but you know also, sometimes democracy has its own dark side. ``The President came and he

wanted to really be fair to every Chief Executive. If he wanted to fire people on assumption (of office), he would have done it and he would not have violated any rule. ``He decided to give everyone a chance to see whether they would imbibe the change mantra, to see whether they were prepared to go along (with him). ``I will say with all sincerity that NOA was a source of worry for us in government; the people and the leadership never believed in what we are doing. ``They never believed in change. They just folded their arms and watched us for the period of 8 to 9 months that

they were there. ``I believe the new leadership would begin to formulate things for agencies like that,’’ he said.

The presidential aide praised Nigerians for steadfastly supporting the present administration especially during a period most people considered to be difficult.

Shehu congratulated Nigerians on the achievements the President had recorded fighting insurgency and explained that the military have tagged their success against Boko Haram a ``technical victory’’ because no city is presently under curfew.

The SSA said that with the

passage of the budget by the National Assembly, the next phase for the President would be to rebuild damaged facilities and infrastructure.

He said that with the Central Bank of Nigeria realising more than N3 trillion through the introduction of the Treasury Single Account and the passage of the budget, a lot of activities would pick up.

On the quest by Nigerians to know the amount of money the Federal Government had so far recovered from treasury looters, Shehu said the litigation hurdles associated with the looted funds would have to be scaled before Nigerians were availed of the figures. (NAN)

PEOPLES DAILY, TUESday, MARCH 29, 2016

PAGE 17

Politics Why we’re providing mobile clinics for IDPs – Dogara INTERVIEW

Y

ou are here in Wassa IDPs’ Camp to commission a mobile clinic, what informed your decision to reach out to the IDPs? I remember specifically, on the 7th of January, in this camp where as you heard before, we donated relief materials. I remember in the course of that ceremony, one rallying cry that came through was that there was no medical facility at the camp and we did promise that we were going to do something about it.

And thank God, we didn’t sleep on that promise as it were in the past. As soon as we went back to town, I opened up discussion with government agencies, but the response we got was that we had to wait for the budget and when the budget is released and monies voted, that is when they can intervene.

You mean there was no positive response from government agencies?

Yes, and because we weren’t satisfied with the response I was getting I shared it with some of our friends and said this was the kind of need that we are experiencing at the various camps and gladly, Captain Hosa took it upon himself and said if that’s the case, then I will figure out what I am going to do. I am going to donate a facility that will in the immediate, cater for the immediate needs of the IDPs. And I thought that was very commendable and I want to thank God that he didn’t renege on that promise. He has made this day possible, and that is why I implored him to be here. He really didn’t want to be identified as the person who donated this facility for this cause but I had to pull him out for so many things.

What call will you make to other well-meaning individuals?

I am calling on Nigerians to emulate what he has done because it is only through compassion and love that we can overcome grief and misery. When you look at the faces of the IDPs to say the least, they don’t have a facility that will take care of their immediate health needs, it is a serious problem because as they say, health is wealth and where you find a healthy people, they can engage in the pursuit of happiness, in the pursuit of wealth creation and generation. It is unfortunate, the events that brought them to this place but once they are here, as a community, as a nation, as individuals who are spirited, we should ensure that at least they have the barest facilities that can take care of their immediate needs. And that is why I am happy that through their efforts, we have put in place, this facility.

Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, recently visited Wassa IDPs camp in the Federal Capital Territory where he commissioned a mobile clinic which was as a result of an earlier visit he made on January 7th, 2016. He spoke with reporters at the camp, insisting that IDPs cannot be allowed to go back to the north east now until security is fully restored among other issues. Umar Muhammad Puma.

The facility you commissioned isn’t that big, do you think it will cater for their health need?

Someone may say it is too small and someone may feel disappointed because he felt it was a gigantic facility that was been built but I believe it is through efforts like this, no matter how little, that more can come. And if we can put this small facility in all the IDPS camps we have in Nigeria, I’m sure it will help the IDPs in no small way. I can’t recall any of the camps we have visited so far, that has a facility like this, as simple and as small as it looks. I can’t remember any, the chairman (of House of Reps IDP Committee) is here, whether you have seen this kind of facility anywhere.

How about the medical personnel that will man this facility?

We will not just put this facility here, we will discuss with relevant government agencies to ensure that they post medical personnel to this place. We are going to have a doctor that will be stationed here, we are going to have nurses, NEMA has agreed to provide a medical doctor, Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC) will as well provide medical personnel even up to the level of nurses so that in terms of even deliveries at the camp, sicknesses that are not too serious, they can be taken of here at the camp. All of us are first class witnesses to the state of the road, and if you have a woman who is caught up in labour, before that person is driven to Apo or Garki or somewhere in town, that person may have even delivered. So this facility can cater for that and

Yakubu Dogara thank God we have the medical personnel that will do the job. So I want to call in all Nigerians to borrow a leaf from this, that we reach out in other to show love to the IDPs. It is a challenge that all of us must rally to overcome.

We cannot continue to depend on stipends from outside or hoping that some angel from somewhere will come and solve the problem.

That is the problem we have in the country and I believe that if we rally ourselves right and through leveraging on individual energies supplementing what government is doing for the IDPs, we will be able to bring succor to them and ensure that for the period that they are living outside of their communities, at least their basic

“

We are assure all Nigerians especially the IDPs, that government is putting in all efforts in winning the war against the insurgents in the north east so they can return to their various homes in peace. Even though we are aware that no place is like home we will definitely not allow them to be caught up in the fight. We therefore, plead with them to remain patient and manage the little that is available here.

needs are being met. We want to thank the representative of the Victims Support Fund and the Presidential Initiative on the North East for the work they are doing and to urge them to collaborate with private individuals like this to donate or do things that will further improve the living conditions of the IDPs and I know that if we collaborate, we will be able to achieve more by God’s grace.

Are you considering doing same in other IDP camps across the country?

I remember we have some outstanding visits to some IDPs as well. The next visit was going to be an IDP camp in Plateau. Our plan in the House of Representatives was that we will visit all the IDPs that are outside the theatre of conflict in the North East first and when we are done with that, we will take a visit to Yola, then end it in Maiduguri. But we are having challenges with resources that we will take when visit these IDPs. But we are continuing, as soon as the resources come in, we will go to Jos, go to Gombe, go to Yola and then finally, end in Maiduguri and by the grace of God, we will visit all IDPs. Does that mean that government agencies can’t provide these kinds of facilities?

You all well know that to tackle their needs at government level, such issues cannot be taken care of in a haste due to the bureaucratic bottle-necks and the long process

of budget, which have to go through legislations. Though, the hope to get government support is not dashed, our problem was the timing. Knowing how important and urgent it is for them to have a health care facility, we called on our friends who are financially capable to come to our assistance some agreed and did worked together, the result is this health center which they are presenting to serve them for free. Among the most affected for whom we took urgent action are the pregnant women, who often go through stress and complications during labour having to go long distance to hospital for delivery. Your delivery can now be taken here! We have been given doctors and nurses who will take care of them. We will make sure that drugs are always made available. Our big brother from the Victim Support Fund in appreciation of our efforts has just promised that his office will endeavor to connect the bore hole to the medical center for adequate water supply, he also promised to provide vehicle that will be always used to convey the medical personnel and drugs to the health center. We use this opportunity to call on all other well meaning Nigerians to borrow a leave from what our friends who had made this huge effort and support the internally displaced persons. We will continue on part of the advocacy and encouraging others to come. We are assure all Nigerians especially the IDPs, that government is putting in all efforts in winning the war against the insurgents in the north east so they can return to their various homes in peace. Even though we are aware that no place is like home we will definitely not allow them to be caught up in the fight. We therefore, plead with them to remain patient and manage the little that is available here.

You have been calling for international donor conference for the North East, why do think that is necessary?

This, I believe, provide the platform for us to further that discussion. But the most important thing is that it was done for Syria. It was done for Kosovo and I don’t see why the international community will not respond to this crisis that we are faced with in Nigeria. The world is a global village and increasingly, problems affecting us in Nigeria, if they are not well taken care of, will have an international dimension sooner than later. The region is in dire need of assistance to address its challenges.

PEOPLES DAILY, TUESday, MARCH 29, 2016

PAGE 18

Politics

Arewa Youths berate Tinubu over Kachikwu

By Stanley Onyekwere

S

ome youths under the auspices of Arewa Integrity Youth Forum have taken a swipe at leader of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu, for tonguelashing the Minister of State for Petroleum, Ibe Kachikwu over his utterances on the ongoing fuel crisis in the nation.

The group while addressing newsmen yesterday in Abuja, expressed their support for the ongoing reforms in the oil sector noting that the advent of Kachikwu has cleansed the

oil sector of hawks which have over the years held the sector hostage.

Speaking on behalf of the group, the Coordinator, Mallam Ibrahim Abubakar, expressed dismay over the comments credited to Tinubu who had earlier in the beginning of the administration had advised Nigerians to be patient with the government as it is trying to undo damage caused by the previous administration.

According to him, Nigerians perfectly understand the current situation in the supply and distribution of fuel to reach

everyone and this is the major reason why there have not been any form of protest or uprising as was done in the past.

He therefore warned that any attempt to trigger Nigerians to embark on any mass action will be rejected by the Nigerian people without any further delay.

“We are today bewildered at the manner of double talk a revered leader in the caliber of Tinubu could engage himself, not minding his stand and position in the polity. Has he so soon forgotten that he advised Nigerians to be patient with thus government because the previous

administration had caused so much damage which had to be cleared?,” he queried.

The group has further accused the All Progressives Congress (APC), leader of fronting for sinister interest whose intention is to continue in the mold of the dismantled cabal and continue the looting of the oil sector, at a time when his party is begging for funding to move the party forward.

It has also warned Tinubu to steer clear the petroleum sector as all his actions point to the fact that he intends to discredit the good works of Kachikwu in order to

instigate his sack thereby making way for him to plant a stooge to continue in the looting regime as experienced in the previous years.

He said “Kachikwu has brought sanity into the oil sector, which is what is first needed to engineer development in any sector particularly that the present administration inherited a messy economy whose only cell is oil revenue.

Meanwhile the group has declared its support for the ongoing measures to sanitise the oil sector and called on Nigerians to bear with the hardship as according to them it is aimed at producing a solid institution.

Dogara eulogises Tinubu at 64 ... APC leader a formidable political force, Speaker says

By Umar Muhammad Puma

T

L-R: Prince Mahmud Afegbua, Chairman, Senate Committee on FCT, Senator Dino Melaye, Mr. Afeso Ogedengbe, and Mr. Gabba Damisa, during Senator Dino sisters’ wedding, at the weekend in Kabba, Kogi state.

How FG can avoid electoral violence - UPP

By Ikechukwu Okaforadi

A

s a way out of the violence which usually mars elections in Nigeria, the United Progressives Party (UPP) has said the full implementation of electronic voting system in Nigeria has become necessary in view of the complexity of violence trailing recent polls.

The Chairman of the party, Chekwas Okorie, stated this while speaking to journalists in Abuja, even as he pointed out that election in Nigeria has had electronic processes already incorporated in it.

He pointed out that

since registration of voters is electronically done, just as the accreditation of voters, the federal government should work together with the electoral body to produce an Electoral Act that will provide for electronic voting system.

“The government should work with INEC to produce an Electoral Act for the whole voting system to become electronic. All the critical sector of our election are now electronically done, except actual voting, and the law should be passed for that purpose”, he said.

He said if the electoral commission can achieve this, it will go a long way to reduce the

number of people at the polling units because a lot of people can cast their votes from their homes, shops, and also address the cases of ballot snatching.

He said if this is not quickly done, going by the level of violence in the Rivers re-run, there will be more violence in subsequent elections in the country, but added that this use of electronic voting will not only create issue based politics, but will create a flexibility in the election and voting time.

He also spoke on the Anambra Central Senatorial District re-run, saying that what the Constitution stipulates was that where the Appeal Court

nullifies an election, a fresh election should be conducted.

He said there is nothing like re-run elections in Nigeria Constitution, warning that the commission will not lose anything if it prevents the other political parties from participating in the elections.

Meanwhile, Okorie has lamented that Anambra central people are not being represented currently in the Senate, adding that going by the appeal which INEC has initiated, the case may progress to Supreme Court, which implies that the people of the area may not be represented at all in the 8th Senate.

he speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, has described former Lagos State governor and chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu as a formidable political force who has brought changes to the political landscape of Nigeria.

Dogara said this in a press statement issued by his spokesman, Mr Turaki Hassan, while congratulating Asiwaju Tinubu on the occasion of his 64th birthday.

The speaker also added that the entire House of Representatives is also using the opportunity to salute Tinubu for being a great leader who has attained milestones in Nigeria.

“On this joyous occasion of your birthday, we in the House of Representatives, salute you, great leader, for the milestones you have attained in Nigeria.

“Your feats are bold and exceptional; from business to governance and politics. As a governor, you made sweeping reforms that till date, your successors are still building on and making Lagos State proud.

“In politics, you have been a formidable force, helping to put together a great political party that won power at the centre in Nigeria.

You have proved to be a true hero of democracy, a light that cannot be concealed.

“As you mark yet another year, my prayer for you is that God will continue to consolidate your efforts and crown them all with success,” he said.

Page 19

PEOPLES DAILY, TUESday, MARCH 29, 2016

L-R: Speaker Ebonyi state House of Assembly, Hon. Ogbonna Nwifuru, President Enugu Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture (ECCIMA), Rev. Ugochukwu Chime, and Ebonyi state Commissioner for Commerce, Mrs. Elizabeth Ogbaga, during Ebonyi state day at the ongoing 27th Enugu International Trade Fair, yesterday in Enugu.

Photo: NAN

Fuel Scarcity: SMEs loses N30bn in 30 days

By Etuka Sunday

A

buja Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI) has lamented the persistent fuel scarcity in the country, disclosing that about N30 billion has so far been lost due to the situation.

ACCI made it clear to the

government that the issue of unavailability of petroleum products and its importation portrays our country in bad light.

It shows us up as an incompetent manager of our resources.

It said, NNPC from the comments of it’s officials may have given up. We may seriously need to divest our refineries.

ACCI in a statement said, businesses and our economy are being battered from all sides. Forex, energy supply, infrastructure, security concerns.

The list is endless.

The statement quoted the President, ACCI, Tony Ejinkeonye to have said that, “businesses especially MSME’s have lost over

N30B through inadequate supply of petroleum products. Labour productivity is low as employees have stayed off work since the hike of fares by providers and when they come, they are always late.

NNPC banned the use of kegs to buy petrol without considering that most households and

small businesses run on petrol generating sets. This has forced them to close shops. Buying with kegs is not the cause of scarcity but inadequate supply of products.

NNPC over the years have not proffered any meaningful solution. They are fond of treating symptoms instead of addressing the issue.

Fuel Scarcity: We are on top of the situation- NNPC

By Etuka Sunday

T

he Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) yesterday reassured Nigerians of its determination to end the current fuel scarcity in the country within the next few days.

NNPC said, the current Administration inherited a huge catalog of issues and problems in the downstream sector not limited to arrears of subsidy payments to Oil Marketers, corruption and inefficiencies in the supply and distribution chain, incessant vandalism of pipelines, refineries poor performance, among others.

It said, a combination of these issues resulted in most oil majors completely pulling out from the importation business and NNPC assuming a near 100% importation obligation without the necessary logistics put in place. In line with the change agenda of this Administration, NNPC Management initiated and made progress on various key solutions to providing a lasting end to these issues.

It gave some of the progress made thus: “The unpaid arrears arising from the subsidy regime had necessitated most oil marketers

to stop all forms of involvement in petroleum products imports.

Thankfully, with the firm support of Mr. President and the National Assembly, we greatly reduced this debt burden and since January, 1st 2016 we have been able to eliminate subsidy payments by managing prices at current levels through price modulation. This has resulted to savings of over 100bn Naira monthly for the nation.

Monitoring has been intensified to ensure full compliance with approved prices. Violations of approved prices and hoarding of petroleum products attract the following penalties a. Level 1: Giving out of petroleum products free to the public b. Level 2: Sealing off fuel stations found to be hoarding petroleum products and payment of a fine c. Level 3: Withdrawal of Marketer’s License d. Any NNPC, DPR, PPPRA or Government Agent found conniving / wanting will be sanctioned accordingly in line with public service guidelines and procedures.

As partners in progress, we encourage the general public to report product hoarders and saboteurs of this Administration’s change efforts as they are wittingly fighting every bold change effort currently

being put in place. We encourage everyone to shun panic buying and undue return trips as this attitude emboldens marketers to hoard products.• “Nationwide Petroleum supply and distribution have been ramped up to all states to ensure product availability in the country. The current supply to States is in excess of the normal consumption especially in the five major consuming cities.

“Supply constraints due to foreign exchange challenges are being resolved through collaboration with the Central Bank of Nigeria on innovative ways of closing the gaps in accessing foreign exchange.

Similarly, as a result of credible leadership provided by the Honorable Minster of State, Petroleum Resources/Group Managing Director, NNPC, the major international upstream oil companies have indicated their willingness to support major oil marketing companies with some of the required foreign exchange. “ We are vigorously pursuing an improved model for ‘crude oil for refined product’ exchange (the Direct Sale – Direct Purchase arrangement) which eliminates inefficiencies with an attendant cost saving for the nation of about $1 billion. This will guarantee

sustainable product supply to the nation.

The Corporation in a statement said, “in the medium term, NNPC is working on sustainable strategies to permanently address the issues and challenges facing the midstream and downstream sectors. The overarching objective is to make Nigeria a net exporter of Petroleum products as was the case in the 1970’s.

“Our commitment to ramp up our local Refining capacity and availability remains un-waivered with the ongoing rehabilitation works targeted at running all Refineries at a minimum 70% capacity utilization within the next 6 - 8 months. This is in addition to our initiative of increasing the combined capacity of the domestic refineries through co-locating smaller but cost efficient modular refineries within the existing refineries premises within a time frame of 12-24 months.

“As a result of the challenges that major oil marketers face in contributing their supply quota due to constraint in accessing foreign exchange and outstanding subsidy obligations, NNPC is burdened with the obligation to guarantee almost 100% in the national supply, since the domestic crude oil supply (445,000 bbls/d)

can only guarantee about 50% of the 45 million litres national requirement for petrol; we have secured presidential approval to take additional crude oil volume to guarantee national supply of petrol.

“To curb Storage and Logistics challenges, we are working on a joint partnership with technically and financially capable investors to ensure that petroleum products transportation and storage facilities are efficiently operated on an open-access commoncarrier user-tariff basis. Some of these Depots will be nominated as strategic reserves while we take possession of a strategic reserve vessel in the next 3 months.

Tangible results will be delivered within the next 3 - 6 months.

“Changes usually take time, effort and a lot of focus.

We understand the plight of Nigerians and the impact on the overall economy. We genuinely empathize with the attendant sufferings and wish to reassure that we are focused and committed to bring an end to this situation within the next few days and we kindly call on all Nigerians to partner with us on this journey to allowing the whole process of change come into fruition,” it said.

Page 20

PEOPLES DAILY, TUESday, MARCH 29, 2016

Energy

How Dangote refinery will end persistent fuel crises in Nigeria

By Etuka Sunday

A

s fuel crisis lingers unabated in Nigeria, the Dangote Group, which is currently building the world’s largest refinery, has assured that when its refinery comes on stream, it would put an end to the recurring fuel crises in the country.

Speaking to newsmen in his office in Abuja, Executive Director Stakeholder Management and Corporate Communications, Engr Mansur Ahmed, said by the time the refinery is ready; Nigeria will be transformed from fuel

importing country to an exporting country.

“That plant itself is the largest single refinery plant anywhere in the world. In addition to the refinery, we are also going to produce some petrochemical products from the same complex.

These are polyethylene and polypropylene,” he said.

He said the petrochemical plant which covers 250,000 hectares and located in Lekki Free Trade Zone in Lagos is expected to gulp a whopping $14billion, and has the capacity to refine 650million barrel a day.

He suggested that government

deregulate the downstream sector so that investors can play in the open market.

“One would prefer if it was deregulated so that we know that we are playing in the open market.

The key issue is that if I buy crude whether from Nigeria or anybody, I buy at an international price. If I produce product and want to sell, I should sell that product at an international price.

“So, I would not be affected by the decision of local pricing, it is on that concept that we went into refining. We expect that we would buy our input, especially crude on an international market price and

that when we produce products we will sell those products at an international price.

“The refining industry is a global industry, if you use those international benchmarks you shouldn’t really worry about price.

“It is about time Nigeria completely deregulated the downstream industry. The kind of reason that has compelled government to fix petroleum product prices has not been tenable.

“If it is said it is done because of the ordinary people when you do the study you do not see the

ordinary people benefit from it, it is a few people who benefit. This is the best time to deregulate.”

Speaking on the ongoing reforms by the Federal Government, Engr Mansur said it is a continuation from past governments, adding that it is in the right direction.

He however added that: “We haven’t seen the full implementation of the reforms so it would be unfair to make any judgment. But in my view, unless those independent units are clearly self-accounting and one can see whether these units are actually making profit or loss.”

L-R: Managing Director, CAP Plc., Mrs. Omolara Elemide, Chairman, Nigerian Institute of Architect (NIA) Lagos state chapter, Mr. Ladipo Lewis, President, Interior Designers Association of Nigeria (IDAN), Ms. Titi Ogufere, and Marketing Manager, CAP Plc., Mr. Dominic Oladeji, during the special briefing of professional bodies on the 2016 Dulux Colour of the Year (Monarch Gold), recently in Lagos.

Oil edge lower in thin holiday trade; banks warn of $30 levels

O

il futures edged lower for a second straight session on Monday in thin trade as European markets observed the Easter holiday and as hedge funds and other big speculators were still hesitant to wager on a two-month long price rebound amid hefty crude inventories.

Sentiment in Brent and U.S. crude’s West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures remained soft with investment banks, such as Barclays and Macquarie, warning that market fundamentals were weak

enough to pull prices back to $30 a barrel levels.

“There’s just been too much U.S. crude builds lately for the market to ignore,” said Tariq Zahir, who is betting WTI for delivery in the near-term will weaken further versus long-term contracts, expanding the market’s so-called contango structure.

Brent LCOc1 settled down 17 cents at $40.27 a barrel. Reuters data showed trading in the Londonbased benchmark at just over 73,000 lots versus the 200,000 typical on a regular session.

New York-based WTI CLc1 finished down 7 cents at $39.39.

Both benchmarks are up about 50 percent from 12-year lows hit in mid-February.

Despite that advance, weekly data from the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission suggested money managers, including hedge funds, were hesitant to wager all the way on a WTI rally although a few were betting on another price collapse.

Managed money’s gross long positions in WTI 3067651MLNG have barely risen since January

and inched up by just 6,000 lots to around 300,000 lots in the week to March 22, CFTC data showed.

The number of short positions 3067651MSHT slipped to nearly 64,000 lots, or around 64 million barrels of oil.

U.S. crude inventories USOILC=ECI rose 9.4 million barrels in the week to March 18, three times larger than analysts’ expectations, to their sixth consecutive weekly record high.

Most banks expect little upside to oil prices in the near future.

“The market likely remains

oversupplied by around 0.6 million bpd (barrels per day) through 1H16 and inventories will continue to build from already high levels,” analysts at Jefferies International forecast for the first half of the year.

Barclays said net flows into commodities totaled more than $20 billion in January-February, the strongest start to a year since 2011, and prices could fall 20 to 25 percent if that were reversed.

“Were such a scenario to unfold, the price of oil could fall back to the low $30s,” it said.

PEOPLES DAILY, TUESday, MARCH 29, 2016

ICT

Microsoft meets with private equity over Yahoo deal

M

icrosoft Corp executives are in early talks with potential Yahoo Inc (YHOO.O) investors about contributing to financing to buy the troubled Internet company, a person familiar with the situation said.

The talks are preliminary, the person added, and Microsoft is focused on preserving the relationship between the two companies. Microsoft and Yahoo have longstanding search and advertising agreements.

Private equity firms interested in Yahoo approached Microsoft, the person added. Microsoft declined to comment.

Yahoo is auctioning its core Internet business, which includes search, mail and news sites. The faded Internet pioneer has been struggling to keep up with Alphabet Inc’s Google and Facebook Inc in the battle for online advertisers.

Verizon’s Chief Financial Officer Fran Shammo said in December that the U.S. wireless carrier could look at buying Yahoo’s core business if it was a good fit.

Activist hedge fund Starboard Value LP moved on Thursday to overthrow the entire board of Yahoo, including Chief Executive Marissa Mayer, who has struggled to turn the company around in her nearly four years at the helm.

Microsoft’s interest in Yahoo comes nearly a decade after another approach. In 2008, then-CEO Steve Ballmer tried unsuccessfully to buy Yahoo for about $45 billion.

Website Re/code previously reported meetings between Microsoft and investors. (Reuters)

Page 21

VAS providers seek favourable revenue share

M

r Chijioke Ezeh, the National Coordinator, Wireless Application Service Providers Association of Nigeria (WASPAN) has called for favourable revenue share for Value Added Service (VAS) providers in the country.

In an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Monday in Lagos, Ezeh said that the current revenue sharing formula was not favourable to VAS providers.

NAN reports that there is currently a revenue share of

60 by 40 per cent, between the telecommunications network providers and the VAS providers.

He said that such revenue share might run down the businesses of VAS companies, which in turn would affect job creation.

Ezeh called on the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to look into the area of revenue-sharing among mobile operators and VAS providers in its proposed regulations to guide the sector.

According to him, more

revenue should be given to VAS providers, because they are the content providers and they have to be commended for that. ``The revenue shares need to be more favourable to Nigerian companies as opposed to the current scenario where it is not so,’’ he said.

The WASPAN coordinator added that the most prominent challenge in the VAS sector was the absence of clear-cut laws to protect Nigerian companies in the business.

He said that not all the Mobile

Value Added Service (MVAS) companies could match the financial might of some of the foreign companies.

Ezeh said that WASPAN was aware of the problems illegal deduction of subscribers’ monies and had joined forces with the networks providers to stop such.

WASPAN is a consortium of Nigerian MVAS firms that are professionally committed to providing top-notch services both to the mobile networks and Nigerian mobile phone users.

(NAN)

Facebook stumbles again with ‘Safety Check’ after Lahore blast

F

acebook Inc apologized to users on the other side of the world from Sunday’s suicide bombing in Pakistan who received computer-addressed notices asking if they were safe.

Facebook users as far away as New York and Virginia showed notifications they received on social media site Twitter.

“Unfortunately, many people not affected by the crisis received a notification asking if they were okay,” Facebook said in a post on its site. “This kind of bug is counter to the product’s intent... We apologize to anyone who mistakenly received the notification.”

Some of the notices went out as text messages to mobile

phones and asked, “Are you affected by the explosion?” without giving any indication of where, or how close, the recipients were to danger.

More common notices displayed on computer screens and mobile devices said the explosion was in Lahore. The blast by a suicide bomber at a park killed at least 65 people,

mostly women and children.

The flawed notices were the latest stumble in Facebook’s evolving “Safety Check” practice of prompting users to quickly let their friends know they are okay after being in the vicinity of a tragedy.

In November, hours after blasts in Nigeria, Facebook activated Safety Check after

criticism that it was being selective about deploying it. A few days before those blasts, Facebook had used it after gun and bomb attacks in Paris but not after suicide bombings in Beirut.

Facebook previously had used the feature after natural disasters, but not bombings or attacks.(Reuters)

Page 22

PEOPLES DAILY, TUESday, MARCH 29, 2016

Business

L-R: Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi (Ojaja II), wife of the Founder of FCMB Group, Olori Abimbola Balogun, wife of the Ooni of Ife, Olori Wuraola Ogunwusi, and Founder of FCMB Group and Olori Omo-Oba Akile Ijebu, Otunba Michael Olasubomi Balogun, during a visit by the Ooni to the Founder of FCMB Group, recently at his residence in Lagos.

Forex: it’s 20% cheaper to use cement for road construction-Dangote

By Etuka Sunday

W

ith the fall in the value of naira and cement prices, it is now about 20 percent cheaper to use cement for road construction in Nigeria, the Dangote Group has said.

Speaking to newsmen in his office in Abuja, Executive Director

Stakeholder Management and Corporate Communication, Engr Mansur Ahmed said it was time Nigeria switches over to rigid pavement.

“Based on the current cost of imported asphalt and given the high rate of foreign exchange and given the fact that we are bringing cement prices down, we have established beyond

reasonable doubt that for the same length of road and for the same terrain, a concrete road today will cost anything between 15 and 20 percent lower than the equivalent cost of an asphalt road,“ he said.

Engr Mansur said it is just that in Nigeria we are so used to normal asphalt.

He expressed optimism that

in the next two years most raod construction workers will opt for concrete roads.

He said concrete road is far more durable than asphalt; while concrete road can last for more than 50 years, asphalt may last for up to 20 years only.

He added that concrete roads are easier to maintain.

He said the durability

of Concrete roads will allow governments to use their funds for other projects rather than re- awarding contracts for dilapidated roads.

Only recently the Dangote Cement constructed a 24KM concrete road at Ibese in Ogun State where Dangote Cement plant is located.

N350bn stimulation fund: Financial expert tasks FG on proper planning

A

former President of the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN), Mr Okechukwu Unegbu, on Monday urged the Federal Government to specify strategic areas that the proposed N350 billion stimulation fund would be injected into.

Unegbu told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos there

must be proper planning before the injection of such funds in the economy, to avoid excess liquidity.

He said that there must be proper clarity and planning where the funds would be channelled into, for economy growth and development.

Unegbu said that government should work closely with the

Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), to streamline fiscal and monetary policies.

He explained that there must not be any disconnection between the apex bank and government in policy management.

Unegbu, however, expressed concern at the disparity between the CBN’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) and the

Federal Government in the management of the economy.

He stated that the major reason for increasing interest rate to 12 per cent from 11 per cent was to reduce excess liquidity.

According to him, government should work closely with the CBN to avoid a policy somersault.

NAN reports that the Federal Government announced its readiness to inject a total of N350 billion into the economy in the next few months.

Mrs Kemi Adeosun, Minister of Finance, said that part of the money would help to offset the debt owed to local contractors, who had laid-off their workers due to lack of funds. (NAN)

PEOPLES DAILY, TUESday, MARCH 29, 2016

PAGE 23

Stock Watch: Thursday, March 24, 2016 Company

Previous Closing Price

Opening Price

High

Low

Close

Change

Trades

Volume

Value

Company

Previous Closing Price

Opening Price

High

Low

Close

Change

Trades

Volume

Value

7UP 170 170 170 170 170

MBENEFIT 0.5 - - - - 0 - -

0 6 151,035 25,675,959.95

MCNICHOLS

ABBEYBDS 1.25 - - - - 0 - -

1.21 0.03 2

ABCTRANS 0.5 - - - - 0 - ACADEMY 0.55 - - - - 0 - ACCESS 4.05 4.11 4.1 4.06 4.06 0.01 59 1,887,248 7,709,066.30 ADSWITCH 1.63 - - - - 0 - -

1.18 1.21 1.21 1.21 270,464 327,261.44

MOBIL 150 - - - - 17 10,350 1,521,554.60 MORISON 1.73 - - - - 0 - MRS 49.66 - - - - 0 - MTECH 0.91 - - - - 0 - MTI 0.5 - - - - 0 - -

AFRIK 0.5 - - - - 0 - -

MULTITREX 0.5 - - - - 0 - -

AFRINSURE 0.5 - - - - 0 - -

MULTIVERSE 0.5 - - -

AFRIPRUD 2.58 2.46 2.46 2.46 2.46 -0.12 26 979,264 2,412,030.84 - 0 - AFRPAINTS 2.59 - - - - 0 - -

NAHCO 4.02 4 4 4 4 -0.02 22 251,094 1,001,583.80

AGLEVENT 0.77 - - - - 2 5,500 4,165.00

NASCON 6.86 - - - - 9 80,100 560,610.00

AIICO 0.8 - - - - 6 62,998 50,338.15 AIRSERVICE 2.29 - - - - 1 4,588 10,001.84 ALEX 9.84 - - - - 0 - ALUMACO 7.75 - - - - 0 - ANINO 0.25 - - - - 0 - ARBICO 5.04 - - - - 0 - -

NB 99.99 99.94 99.94 98.5 99.9 -0.09 68

293,234 29,196,308.21

NCR 11.02 - - - - 0 - NEIMETH 0.72 0.69 0.69 0.69 0.69 -0.03 5

NESF 552.2 - - - - 0 - NESTLE 700 715.5 700 700 700

ASHAKACEM 24 - - -

0

-

NIG-GERMAN 4.91 - - -

15

109,227 2,671,023.97

ASOSAVINGS 0.5 - - - - 0 - -DUNLOP 0.5 - - - - 0 - EKOCORP 3.72 - - - - 0 - ELLAHLAKES 4.26 - - -

518,000 357,600.00

NEM 0.73 - - - - 6 134,441 99,520.75

41

75,818 52,951,924.47

- 0 - NIGERINS 0.5 - - - - 0 - NIGROPES 7.46 - - - - 0 - NNFM 6.65 - - - - 1 433 2,736.56 NPFMCRFBK 1.08 - - -

- 0 - ENAMELWA 29.78 - - - - 0 - -

-

1

4,760 4,950.40

NSLTECH 0.5 - - - - 0 - -

EQUITYASUR 0.5 - - -

OANDO 3.48 3.65 3.49 3.47 3.47

- 0 - -

-0.01

ETERNA 1.76 1.84 1.84 1.84 1.84 0.08 6 97,300 177,432.00

OKOMUOIL 30 - - - - 5 12,300 364,216.00

84

3,565,310 12,378,579.44

0.5 - - - - 0 - ETI 15.6 - - - - 14 177,450 2,635,288.67 OMATEK OMOSAVBNK 0.92 - - - ETRANZACT 3.1 - - - - 0 - EVANSMED 0.5 - - - - 0 - FBNH 3.79 3.93 3.86 3.8 3.8 0.01

184 90

PAINTCOM 1.04 - - - - 0 - PHARMDEKO 2.14 - - -

5,055,956 19,275,492.20

- 0 - -

FCMB 0.87 0.84 0.87 0.84 0.85 -0.02

- 0 - -

PORTPAINT 3.36 - - - - 0 - -

29,249,726 24,926,812.18

PREMBREW 2.95 - - - - 0 - -

FIDELITYBK 1.21 1.22 1.22 1.22 1.22 0.01 12 128,900 157,724.34

PREMPAINTS 10.93 - - -

FIDSON 2.69 - - - - 27 614,065 1,572,223.05 - 0 - PRESCO 34 35.7 - - - FIRSTALUM 0.5 - - - - 0 - 0.5 - - - - FLOURMILL 18.4 18.99 18.99 18.99 18.99 0.59 27 197,247 3,727,672.78 PRESTIGE PZ 21.9 - - - - FO 342 - - - - 6 15,200 4,938,480.00 RAKUNITY 0.5 - - - - FORTISMFB 5.15 - - - - 0 - REDSTAREX 3.8 - - - - FTNCOCOA 0.5 - - - - 0 - REGALINS 0.5 - - - - GCAPPA 14.46 - - - - 0 - RESORTSAL 0.5 - - - -

GLAXOSMITH

24.17 25.37 25.37 24.99

25.33 1.16

29

5 11,400 412,350.00 0 - 12 36,726 816,355.90 0 - 3 12,500 49,875.00 0 - 0 - -

ROADS 6.6 - - - - 0 - -

501,798 12,648,111.26

ROKANA 0.6 - - - - 0 - -

GNI 0.5 - - - - 0 - -

ROYALEX 0.5 - - - - 0 - -

GOLDBREW 0.97 - - - - 0 - -

RTBRISCOE 0.5 - - - - 1 941 470.50

GOLDINSURE 0.53 - - -

SCOA 3.96 - - - - 0 - SEPLAT 302.48 317.6 318 318 318

- 0 - -

15.52 30

GUARANTY 16.87 17.45 17.45 16.59 16.66 -0.21

149

388,650 123,626,470.56

SIMCAPVAL 103.24 - - - - 0 - -

3,576,744 59,751,776.00

GUINEAINS 0.5 - - - - 0 - -GUIN-

SKYEBANK 1.08 1.12 1.08 1.07 1.07 -0.01 39 1,959,858 2,104,852.11 SKYESHELT 100 - - - - 0 - -

NESS 118 - - - - 10 15,500 1,818,000.00 SMURFIT 1.02 - - - - 0 - HMARKINS 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.5 0 2 5,004,000 2,502,000.00 SOVRENINS 0.5 - - - - 0 - HONYFLOUR 1.37 - - -

-STACO 0.5 - - - - 0 - -

-

STANBIC 14.15 - - - - 5 37,001 523,343.90

4

20,000 27,916.00

IAINSURE 0.5 - - - - 0 - IKEJAHOTEL 2.89 - - - - 0 - INFINITY 1.42 - - - - 0 - INTBKPREF 13.5 - - - - 0 - INTBREW 20 20 - - - 6 14,700 284,197.00 INTENEGINS 0.5 - - - - 0 - INTERLINK 4.21 - - - - 0 - -

Top Gainers Company

Previous Closing Price

Opening Price

High

1.73 1.73 1.73 1.73

1.73

13

0

1,104,932 1,911,701.10

STUDPRESS 2.19 - - - - 0 - TANTALIZER 0.5 - - - - 0 - THOMASWY 0.61 - - - - 0 - -

Top Losers Low

Close

Change

Trades

Volume

Value

SEPLAT 302.48 317.6 318 318 318 30 388,650 123,626,470.56 GLAXOSMITH

STDINSURE 0.5 - - - - 0 - STERLNBANK

24.17 25.37 25.37 24.99 29

501,798 12,648,111.26

FLOURMILL 18.4 18.99 18.99 18.99 18.99 0.59 207,732 3,926,887.78

Company

Previous Closing Price

Opening Price

High

Low

Close

Change

Trades

Volume

Value

AFROMEDIA 0.5 - - - - 0 - LENNARDS 3 - - - - 0 - RTBRISCOE 0.5 - - - - 1 941 470.50

WAPCO 80 80.5 80.5 80.5 80.5 19 14,337,554 1,154,154,991.51

DUNLOP 0.5 - - - - 0 - -

DANGSUGAR

ETI 15.6 - - - - 14 177,450 2,635,288.67

5.44 5.36 5.6 5.36 44 2,017,332 11,033,075.32

ETERNA 1.76 1.84 1.84 1.84 1.84 0.08 97,300 177,432.00

INTBKPREF 13.5 - - - - 0 - -

LEARNAFRCA 0.81 0.85 0.89 0.85 0.08 610,400 526,304.00

UBN 5.3 - - - - 8 24,412 126,491.00

UNITYBNK 0.6 0.63 0.63 0.63 0.63 0.03 501,617 316,018.71

PREMBREW 2.95 - - - - 0 - -

PAGE 25

Peoples Daily, Tuesday, March 29, 2016

PAGE 24

Special Report

South Sudan conflict: What chance of peace?

By James Copnall South Sudan analyst

T

he soldier lying face down in a puddle of his own blood, the child caught in the lethal crossfire, the female patient raped and then shot in her hospital bed - nobody is counting the dead in South Sudan.

No-one can accurately predict when the fighting will stop, or how the proposed power-sharing deal between the warring parties would repair the many fractures created by a year of bloodshed.

And who can truly estimate the trauma enveloping families hiding in the bush after their village was burnt, or consuming the teenagers forced into military service as they pull the trigger for

the first time?

One thing is clear, however - the civil war which began in South Sudan a year ago has been a disaster for the country and its people.

The conflict is the result of many factors.

At independence in 2011, South Sudan was desperately underdeveloped, a militarised society run by old antagonists who often fell out in the long liberation struggle against Sudan.

The political ambitions of the divided ruling class exploded in the face of the people.

On 15 December 2013, shots rang out in the capital, Juba.

President Salva Kiir announced that he had overcome

an attempted coup, but few around the world believed him.

Over the next few days, a large number of civilians from the Nuer ethnic group of former Vice-President Riek Machar were killed in Juba.

Nuer military units deserted, and Nuer civilians grabbed their guns and rallied to a new rebel army - led by Mr Machar.

They, in turn, carried out massacres of civilians in Bor, Bentiu and Malakal.

Chased out Both the government and the rebels have been accused of horrifying human rights violations, often against civilians from perceived “rival” ethnic groups.

Children have been among those who have suffered most in the conflict

South Sudan quickly descended into civil war after gaining independence Ethnicity is only one of the elements of the war, but 12 months of fighting have exacerbated tensions between the country’s two biggest ethnic groups, the Nuer and the Dinka, President Kiir’s group.

In the early months, the military balance rocked back and forth like a palm tree in the wind.

Many children, like these from the Nuer ethnic group, are now living in camps

The conflict has created hundreds of thousands of refugees

Conflict in numbers: The rebels took several major towns, as well as oilfields in Unity

state, only to be chased out of many of their conquests.

The town of Malakal, a major trading hub on the White Nile, changed hands six times.

The fighting has cut South Sudan’s oil production in half, halted development, and left people all over the country scrabbling to find their next meal.

The UN warns that renewed heavy fighting could lead to famine.

South Sudan’s civil war is a

regional affair too.

Ugandan troops and a Sudanese rebel group have fought for President Kiir, while Sudan is accused of supporting Mr Machar’s rebels.

Nearly half a million people have fled into refugee camps in neighbouring countries, and another 1.4 million are displaced within South Sudan.

Once the rainy season started the intensity of the conflict diminished, but it has never

The rivalry between Mr Machar (l) and Mr Kiir (r) goes back decades

stopped, despite the cessation of hostilities agreement both sides signed.

The mediation efforts of the regional body Igad brought the warring parties to the table, but they have yet to commit to peace.

They are squabbling over the powers a rebel prime minister presumably Mr Machar - would have in the proposed transitional government.

Trust is a real issue.

‘Not sincere’ Mr Machar blames Mr Kiir for the war.

“If he turns against his own population, why would he still retain legitimacy?” Mr Machar

The World Food Programme has been working to help internally displaced South Sudanese people told the BBC in May. “He is destroying South Sudan, he is dividing South Sudan, he’s discrediting the whole nation.”

President Kiir, in turn, told the BBC that Mr Machar had created the chaos - and could not be trusted.

“

“If he was sincere to his words, I can trust him, but if somebody is not sincere it will be very difficult… to trust such a person.”

However, South Sudanese history is full of enemies who eventually agreed to work together - including Mr Kiir and Mr Machar after they fell out in

A power-sharing peace deal is a possibility.

But that alone would not resolve the country’s problems.

South Sudanese rights groups, and international organisations such as Human Rights Watch, have warned that the belligerents must be held accountable for their crimes.

1991 during the liberation war against Khartoum.

A power-sharing peace deal is a possibility.

But that alone would not resolve the country’s problems.

South Sudanese rights groups, and international organisations such as Human Rights Watch, have warned that the belligerents must be held accountable for their crimes.

“The unaddressed abuses and bloody cycle of ethnic revenge killings in the South Sudan conflict create an urgent need to hold those responsible for atrocities to account,” says Elise Keppler of Human Rights Watch.

There has been almost total impunity throughout the decades of conflict in what is now South Sudan.

In part this is because of the obvious difficulty of persuading military men to sign peace deals which could result in them facing trial for abuses committed by their troops.

A major national programme to restore trust between divided

communities will be needed too.

‘No clear future’ But many South Sudanese wonder how the country can be peaceful as long as Mr Kiir and Mr Machar are at the forefront of political life.

“Between the two there is no clear future for South Sudan,” says Mawan Muortat, a political analyst.

“Until these two guys go, things are not looking great.

“But it is very unlikely that the two will go, because they represent very strong constituencies in South Sudan.”

For the moment, though, the main priority has to be stopping the war.

So will Mr Kiir and Mr Machar still be fighting in 12 months’ time?

“In a year, probably,” says Mr Muortat. “But in five years, no.”

For those mourning the uncounted casualties throughout the country, even a day more of conflict seems too long.

Source: BBC

Page 26

PEOPLES DAILY, TUESday, MARCH 29, 2016

Feature It’s sometimes said that there are more mobile phones than light bulbs in Uganda - where did this idea come from, and is it true?

Does Uganda have more mobile phones than light bulbs?

Mobile phones are very popular in Uganda That gave him a total of five million bulbs.

So using these figures it looks as though there are three times more mobiles than bulbs in people’s homes.

In comparison, in 2011 there were about 600 million light bulbs in British homes and at the end of 2014, there were 89.9

Yoweri Museveni, President of Uganda

I

n 2009, journalist Dara Kerr wrote about Uganda as “a place where cell phones could outnumber light bulbs”. This appears to be the first time such a comparison was made.

It’s worth noting, however, that in her article for CNet technology magazine, Kerr only said that this could be the case. Over time, as people have repeated the idea, the word “could” seems to have been lost.

Now it’s often stated as fact even by Vodafone.

“The first time I heard about this was at the e-learning conference in Kampala in 2014,” says Ugandan lawyer, Gerald Abila. “This intrigued me.” So he decided to find out if it was true and started gathering statistics.

According to the Uganda Communications Commission there are 22.6 million mobile phone numbers registered in the country.

But that doesn’t mean there are 22.6 million phones - it just reflects the number of Sim cards, says Calum Dewar of GSMA Intelligence, a research group that provides mobile phone data.

The number of Sim cards is “not a very good measure of mobile usage or ownership,” he says. It is “above 100% of the population in many countries and it’s actually above 200% in some”.

In Uganda’s case, people who own a mobile phone have, on average, 1.5 Sim cards, he says.

They are swapped in and out of phones to take advantage of deals on different networks.

With that in mind, Dewar thinks the number of mobiles in Uganda is likely to be closer to 16 million.

Next, Abila looked at light bulbs. The Uganda National Household Survey 2012/2013

“ There are more electric bulbs than mobile phones in Uganda reveals that the country has 7.2 million households, of which 14% use electricity for lighting - so approximately one million homes have electric lights.

There’s no data on how many bulbs each one might have

though, so Abila had to guess.

He assumed there was one light bulb in use for each person in these households. According to government data the average home has 4.7 people, so for ease Abila rounded this up to five.

Most Kampala residents have more than one SIM card

million UK mobile subscriptions.

Abila admits his calculations for Uganda are rough and his figures don’t include bulbs in offices, airports, stations, cars, shops, universities, restaurants, or other businesses.

But even if his estimate for bulbs is doubled from five million to 10 million to try to

The number of Sim cards is “not a very good measure of mobile usage or ownership,” he says. It is “above 100% of the population in many countries and it’s actually above 200% in some”. In Uganda’s case, people who own a mobile phone have, on average, 1.5 Sim cards, he says. They are swapped in and out of phones to take advantage of deals on different networks. With that in mind, Dewar thinks the number of mobiles in Uganda is likely to be closer to 16 million.

allow for this, the number of mobiles still seems to be greater.

There are more electric bulbs than mobile phones in Uganda With so few concrete figures though, it’s probably safest to

stick to Dara Kerr’s original comment - Uganda is a place which could have more mobiles than light bulbs.

Source: BBC

Page 27

PEOPLES DAILY, TUESday, MARCH 29, 2016

Defence

Boko Haram: Military and Shekau’s apology

By Joy Baba-Yesufu

L

ast week, a video purportedly released by Abubakar Shekau saying he has surrendered to the Nigerian Military went viral on line with so many people praising the efforts of the gallant soldiers that has brought Shekau to his knees.

The Acting Director of Defence Information, Brigadier General Rabe Abubakar in a swift reaction to the video clip warned Nigerians against letting their guards down that it may be a ploy by the insurgents to make them feel relaxed and hit them in a more terrible manner.

He further assured Nigerians that the military will not be carried away by the video clip since they don’t trust the purported Shekau or his replica and his intents adding that they would continue to fight in order to consolidate the successes recorded so far and assuring Nigerians that no inch of the Nigerian territory would be allowed to be bastardized by any force of darkness again.

According to the statement “It has come to the notice of the Defence Headquarters about the online video clips purportedly released by the Boko Haram Terrorists Leader, Abubakar Shekau or his replica in Arabic and Hausa Languages showing remorse and asking for forgiveness. The Defence Headquarters (DHQ) wishes to state emphatically that not minding the contents of the video clips, the Armed Forces of Nigeria would continue to fight in order to consolidate the successes recorded so far and assuring Nigerians that no inch of the Nigerian territory would be allowed to be bastardized by any force of darkness again.

“The DHQ is also reassuring the good citizens of our great country that all captives under the coffer of the Boko Haram Terrorists, would regain their freedom with the ongoing military’s final offensive against the terrorists.

“While the Nigerian Military would not rest until all the remnants of the terrorist group are completely wiped out of our blessed land, the Chief of Defence Staff, General Gabriel Olonisakin, wishes to commend all officers and men of the Nigerian Armed Forces for their sacrifices, determination and courage to degrade the terrorists and task them to complete the good job they have started soonest in line with our rules of engagement.

“The said video clips should therefore be discountenanced as it could be another ploy or antics of the terrorists to keep our innocent citizen off their current security alertness to maximize casualties if attacked. The Nigerian Armed Forces are now determined more than ever before to end this ugly trend.

“Members of the public are also advised not to be carried away by the video clips, but to be extra vigilant and be security conscious at all times during Easter celebration and beyond. Public is also reminded to report any suspicious strange faces, movement and object to the nearest security agency so as to counter any unholy plans of the Godless terrorist group” Same last week in an onslaught at different insurgents camps, Nigerian troops killed and arrested some of them which has led to total closure of some hideouts.

153 Task Force Brigade, 5 Brigade within

Gen. Abayomi Gabriel Olonisakin, Chief of Defence Staff same week had an encounter with terrorists at Musari village on Monday.

A statement by the Director of Army Public Relations Col Sani Usman said during the clearance operations, though a soldier paid the supreme price, the troops killed 58 terrorist and recovered 2 hand grenades, 52 motorcycles, several bags of foodstuffs such as beans, onions, sweet potatoes and guinea corn, as well as cartons of fish.

The 29 Task Force Brigade troops later in that week also conducted a clearing

“

operations on the remnants of Boko Haram terrorists in their area of operations with remarkable success.

Another statement from Col Usman said the units under the Brigade cleared the remnants of Boko Haram terrorists hibernating in areas like ; Abukarti, Baradili, Borgozo, Gaijaribul Abukar, kolomi, Marguba, Umarumi and Yasori 1 and 2.

He also said they further recovered several items including 1 single barrel gun,

A statement by the Director of Army Public Relations Col Sani Usman said during the clearance operations, though a soldier paid the supreme price, the troops killed 58 terrorist and recovered 2 hand grenades, 52 motorcycles, several bags of foodstuffs such as beans, onions, sweet potatoes and guinea corn, as well as cartons of fish.

motorcycles, drums and bags of millet and dead cattle that ran into Improvised Explosive Device (IED) buried by the Boko Haram terrorists.

“Similarly, the troops detonated an IED in one of the buildings at Yasori which was equally discovered that prior to the clearance, the terrorists have also been frequenting Borgozo general area which they used as harbour and staging area when conducting their nefarious activities” Sani added.

These are a few of the many onslaught of the military of late on the insurgents that has led to Shekau throwing in the towel.

In as much as Nigerians don’t trust the supposed apology video, one thing that comes to mind is that the military has dealt with the insurgents to a point of them coming openly to apologise to them (military).

It has never been heard since the dreaded Boko Haram started unleashing terror on the Nigerian State and her citizens that they ever said they were sorry for their dastard acts.

In as much as Nigerians don’t trust the supposed apology video, one thing that comes to mind is that the military has dealt with the insurgents to a point of them coming openly to say sorry.

What this means is that the terrorist are feeling the heat of the Nigerian Army in all their enclaves and hideouts. This singular action (Shekau’s purported apology) has shown that the military is really on top of their game and are very ready to wipe out this terrorist as directed by the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces, President Muhammadu Buhari.

PEOPLES DAILY, TUESday, MARCH 29, 2016

Page 28

Agriculture Federal Gov’t reaffirms commitment to support FG to distribute local production of agricultural products 73 motorised harvesters to oil palm farmers - Official

I

T

he Minister of State for Agriculture and Rural Development, Sen. Heineken Lokpobori, said the Federal Government will provide 73 motorised harvesters for farmers to boost oil palm production in the country.

This is contained in a statement signed by the Director, Information and Protocol in the ministry, Mr Tony Ohaeri and was made available to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Friday in Abuja.

The statement stated that the minister made the pledge when he received a delegation of the Oil Palm Growers Association (OPGAN) in his office. ``The Federal Government has procured 73 motorised oil palm harvesters to ease the suffering and loss that the farmers experience while harvesting and also to help in providing quality and world standard palm oil. ``The motorised harvester will be given to the farmers at a subsidised price and that farmers will be trained on how the harvester will be operated,’’ he said.

The minister said government was committed to helping the farmers’ access single digit loan from the CBN; Bank of Agriculture and Bank of Industry to boost production and attain food security.

On land tenure and site clearing, Lokpobori said the Federal Government would partner with states and the communities to achieve the required result.

He said that state governments would be sensitised and encouraged to key in to the programme to support farmers as food security had become everybody’s concern.

Earlier, the National President of the Association, Mr. Hilary Uche, commended the Federal Government for responding to the plight of oil palm producers.

He urged the government to further assist farmers with high yielding seeds, pointing out about nine million high yielding seeds were needed by the group to meet national demand. (NAN)

n order to reduce the high demand for foreign exchange as a result of huge importation of food items to the country, the Federal Government has reaffirmed its commitment to support the sustainable local production of agricultural products in the country.

The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh said this during a meeting with the management team of PZWilmar Company Limited led by its Chairman, Chief Kola Jamodu in his office.

Chief Ogbeh decried the high demand for foreign exchange in the country which he put at 1.5 billion dollar per week as a result of high importation of food items into the country. He said the present administration was working on reforms and initiatives in ensuring that governments at all levels support local production of agricultural products .

The minister said the Ministry would collaborate with the

Ministries of Finance and Industry, Trade and Investments to brainstorm on the challenges militating against local production of food items due to the Free Trade Zone policy.

He commended the delegation for their efforts in wealth and job creation through the local production of palm oil in the country. He charged them on the need to evolve measures that would expand the operations of out growers in the industry.

The Minister maintained that the focus of the present administration was to increase local production of agricultural products in order to achieve food sufficiency and boost the Nigerian economy. He thanked the delegation for their visit and assured them of the ministry’s support.

Earlier in his remarks, the Chairman, PZ-Wilmar Company Limited and leader of the delegation, Chief Kola Jamodu said his team was in the ministry to seek for more support and

cooperation for their investments in the nation’s agricultural sector.

He solicited for the support of the ministry in area of Nigeria’s backward Integration Policy which he said should apply to Palm oil production because of its economic potentials to the country.

He called on the government to review the Free Trade Zone Policy which had negatively affected the backward integration policy of the government.

In his presentation, the Chief Executive Officer, PZ- Wilmar Co m p any Limit e d , Chri s t o s Ginnopoulos said PZ Wilmar which was established in 2010 as a joint venture between two international businesses with connections in Nigeria.

Mr. Ginnopoulos said the company was committed to building a sustainable future for palm oil in Nigeria and support the government’s Agricultural Transformation Agenda (ATA).

He explained that PZ -Wilmar which launched the production

of Mamador oil of Devon Kings in 2013 had acquired 26,000 hectares of land for palm oil plantations in Cross River state. The Chief Executive Officer added that the company would invest a total of US650 million dollar foreign direct investment on the development of sustainable palm oil in Nigeria out of which US165 million dollar had been expended so far on the project.

Mr. Christos noted that his company had set up measures to protect the host communities by developing critical infrastructure such as roads, access to drinking water, funding community projects, payment of royalties among others.

He added that his company had also set up palm oil mills across all estates of their operations for the use of the company and small holders /out growers in the oil palm industry, and also urged the government to implement more policies that would create a favourable environment for their businesses to thrive.

Nigerian women, working to refine palm oil locally

RIFAN targets production of 1m tonnes of rice annually

R

ice Farmers Association of Nigeria (RIFAN) in Kebbi says it targets production of one million metric tonnes of rice annually on the platform of Central Bank of Nigeria’s Anchor Borrowers Programme.

The Chairman of the Association in Kebbi, Alhaji Sahabi Augie, said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Birnin Kebbi on Sunday.

He said more than 70,000

farmers nationwide would participate in the programme to achieve the targeted quantity.

He also said farmers who cultivated between one and three hectres of rice would be placed in clusters to enable them to benefit from the programme, while others cultivating less than that would be recognised on individual basis.

He said inputs worth N210, 000 would be given to each farmer per hectre as loan in the scheme. ``Inputs and equipment such

as fertiliser, seedlings, insecticide, chemicals and water pumping machines will be given to each farmer to enable him cultivate one hectre. ``The association will also work closely with officials of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Bank of Agriculture and state officials to ensure success of the programme,’’ he said.

Also, Alhaji Abdullahi Argungu, the Chairman, Wheat Farmers Association in the state, said that

10,000 farmers were participating in the programme.

He, however, said that the infiltration of bad seeds had affected wheat production in the state. ``At the start of the dry season, farmers got unfit seeds; the anomaly will be reversed next dry season farming. ``The number of wheat farmers would also be increased from 10,000 to 20,000 to produce more during the period,’’ he said. (NAN)

Page 29

PEOPLES DAILY, TUESday, MARCH 29, 2016

Agriculture

Averting economic recession in Nigeria via agriculture

N

igeria’s economy has been forecast to be amongst the top 20 largest in the world by 2030, according to a recent report of Bloomberg -- one of the world’s leading financial services firms -- on the new world economic order.

Nigeria is ranked 19th, just above Netherlands, which is graded 20th in the recent forecast report.

Recent global economy reports have placed Nigeria as one of the fastest growing economies in the world; reports which tallied with 2014 re-based Gross Domestic Product (GDP) figures that placed Nigeria as the largest economy in Africa, pushing South Africa to the second position.

Cheering as the Bloomberg’s survey may look; leading economic indicators suggest that the Nigerian economy may be heading for an economic recession, unless urgent steps are taken to avert a repeat of the1980 recession.

Economic experts say that an economic recession implies a fall in real GDP, adding that it also connotes a period of negative economic growth for two consecutive quarters in an economy.

They say that economic recession is primarily caused by a fall in aggregate demand -- total spending on goods and services -- due to several factors such as financial crisis, rise in interest rates or fall in asset prices, among others.

The experts maintain that the main features of a recessive economy include higher interest rates, which reduce borrowing and investment; falling real wages and falling consumer confidence.

In an economic recession, they add, credit crunch provokes a decline in bank lending and, therefore, lowers investment.

It is also a period of deflation with falling prices, which often encourages people to delay spending, while causing deflation to increase the real value of debt; thus, making debtors to be worse off.

Although this development causes appreciation in currency exchange rates, it often makes imports expensive, while reducing demand for exports.

Mr Suleiman Muhammed, a Lokoja-based economic analyst, said that although the Nigerian economy could not be said to have gone into recession per se, it was very necessary to introduce some proactive measures to forestall the development.

This is not to suggest that President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration is not mindful of the repercussions of the imminent economic recession, as it is taking the necessary steps to avert it.

For instance, the VicePresident, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo,

Snail farm

said that plans were underway to create a 25-billion-dollar fund with public and private financing to modernise the country’s infrastructure and avoid an economic recession.

The situation has provoked the government and enlightened observers to ponder on practical ways of saving the nation from the looming economic recession.

For instance, President Buhari, in his address at the conference of the Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA), called for more private investments in the agricultural sector of the economy.

He said that increased investments in the agricultural sector remained the best way to unlock the country’s economic potential and curb its excessive dependence on oil revenues. ``Growing our own food, processing what we produce, becoming competitive in export markets and creating jobs all across the economy are crucial for our national security,” he said.

Buhari, who noted that the agricultural sector was the largest contributor to the country’s GDP, pledged that his administration planned to make Nigeria selfsufficient in rice production within the next two years.

The president said that since Nigeria was one of the world’s

largest producers of agricultural products like cassava, improved investments in agriculture would boost the country’s exports and lessen its dependence on proceeds from petroleum.

Buhari said that enhanced private-sector investments in agriculture would also facilitate the fulfilment of government’s efforts to diversify the economy, adding that Nigeria had immense agricultural potential.

His words: ``Nigeria has huge agricultural potential with over 84 million hectares of arable land, of which only 40 per cent is currently cultivated. The country also has some of the richest natural resources for agricultural production in the world. ``The urgency of unlocking our agricultural potential is even more pertinent because Africa spends about 35billion U.S. dollars annually on food imports. Agriculture should no longer be treated as a development programme; agriculture must henceforth be treated as a business.’’

However, Dr Tunde Arosanyin, the National Technical Adviser, All Farmers Association (AFAN), underscored the need for increased investments in the agricultural sector, saying that Nigeria was facing several economic challenges which included decline in oil prices and over-dependence on imports.

He said that the other challenges were poor infrastructural facilities such as electricity, roads and water, which inhibited secondary production and industrial growth, as well as corruption and insecurity.

He stressed the wisdom in addressing the challenges pragmatically, insisting that at the moment; Nigeria ought not to be importing products like textiles, biscuits, fruit juice, rice and sugar.

Arosanyin added that considering the vast agricultural potential of the country, it should be able to produce these products, among others, locally. ``It is unfortunate that the Nigerian economy is driven by proceeds from crude oil in the last 40 years. ``The way forward is for the present administration in the country to tackle the problems head-on by focusing its attention on the structured development of agriculture, solid minerals and tourism sectors. ``In driving this policy, the Federal Government should invite technocrats and tested professionals with proven track record to generate a blueprint on how to develop and diversify the economy,’’ he said.

Arosanyin, however, emphasised that the government’s agricultural policy include immediate, medium-term and long-term actions and programmes.

He said that if agriculture sector was well-funded and properly developed, the government’s efforts to avert any economic recession would be fruitful.

He argued that agriculture, apart from solving hunger and food security problems, was also capable of generating over millions of job opportunities; thus reducing the menace of unemployment.

Sharing similar sentiments, Mr Devakumar Edwin, the Group Executive Director of Dangote Group of Companies, said that tangible efforts should be made to reduce the effects of the collapse of crude oil prices in the international market on the nation’s economy.

He stressed the salvation of the Nigerian economy would largely depend on increased agricultural production and local manufacturing.

Edwin underscored the need to fully exploit the vast agricultural potential of Nigeria in efforts to restructure the national economy.

He called on entrepreneurs to invest in agricultural and manufacturing projects to speed up the country’s economic growth.

All in all, analysts believe that increased investments in Nigeria’s agricultural sector will spur the country’s development, while ensuring its economic revival and guarding against any economic recession.

NAN

Page 30

PEOPLES DAILY, TUESday, MARCH 29, 2016

Feature A Kashmiri boy who refused to leave police custody

four-year-old boy has become the centre of a controversy between India and Pakistan - and between his father and mother.

Iftikhar Ahmad was in police custody, in a cell in Ganderbal town, near Srinagar, in Indiaadministered Kashmir, for the last five days.

He hadn’t been arrested - but his father, Gulzar Ahmad Tantray, had - and Iftikhar refused to leave without him.

Mr Tantray, who grew up in a village in Ganderbal, crossed over to Pakistan-administered Kashmir in 1990, allegedly for arms training at the peak of the insurgency against Indian rule.

He returned to Indiaadministered Kashmir last Thursday along with Iftikhar, and was taken into police custody on Friday.

Mr Tantray was released on bail late on Tuesday, and he and Iftikhar left police custody.

However, Rohina Kayani, Iftikhar’s mother in Pakistanadministered Kashmir, has accused her husband of kidnapping the child and running away to the Indian side.

Mr Tantray’s family has denied the charges.

In fact, the two sides can’t even agree whether Mr Tantray is Iftikhar’s biological father or not.

The BBC’s Geeta Pandey in Delhi explains the different sides of the story.

Mother Rohina Kayani’s story Rohina Kayani says she married Mr Tantray in 2002 and as the couple did not have any biological children, they adopted Iftikar in January 2012.

“I lost several members of my family during the devastating earthquake in 2005. Among the dead was my favourite brother, Iftikhar, so I named my baby after him,” she told BBC Urdu’s Aurangzeb Saifullah at her home in Muzaffarabad, in Pakistanadministered Kashmir.

“The child brought immense joy to our lives,” she said.

But, the happiness did not last.

“On 12 March my husband took away the child saying he was going to attend a wedding in Haripur, in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa [in Pakistan]. He said they would return in the evening.”

However, he did not return, and by the next day, his phone was switched off. When a three-day frantic search yielded nothing, she called her husband’s parents in Ganderbal.

“That’s when I found out that he had arrived in the Kashmir Valley via Dubai. I have no idea when and how he arranged travel documents for himself and the child.”

She has now lodged a complaint at the local police station in Muzaffarabad, accusing her husband of kidnapping their child.

“I think I’ll never be able to see my child again,” she says, tears rolling down her cheeks. “He was my only hope. Now he’s been taken away from me.”

Pakistan-based human rights activist Ansar Burney has written letters to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Indian high commission in Islamabad, urging them to restore Iftikhar to his mother as soon as possible.

“This is trafficking,” he told the BBC. “If the child has a Pakistani passport, shouldn’t he be brought back to Pakistan?

“The child’s welfare is paramount. I think a mother is the mother, whether she gave birth to him or adopted him and nurtured him. He should be returned home as soon as possible.”

The Tantray family defence As Gulzar Ahmad Tantray has been in police custody for the past few days, BBC Hindi’s Majid Jahangir met his father Mohd Maqbool Tantray at his home in Saloora village, Ganderbal district.

“How can a father kidnap his own child?” asked Tantray senior, adding that the charges against his son were “totally false”.

“My grandson loves his father a lot so he came here with him,” he said.

Gulzar Ahmad Tantray is thought to have been among thousands of Kashmiri youths

Rohina Kayani calls Iftikhar her “only hope” who began crossing over to the Pakistani side after 1988 to join militant training camps and fight for freedom from India.

Since November 2010, when the Indian government announced “a policy to allow for return of exmilitants to Jammu and Kashmir state”, hundreds have returned home to the valley, many of them with families.

Mr Tantray’s family denies that Iftikhar is adopted.

His brother, Zubair, told The Indian Express newspaper that Gulzar had two wives in Pakistan and Iftikhar is his child from the second wife who is now dead.

Rohina Kayani, he says, is the child’s stepmother, and that is why his brother decided to bring the boy with him.

Police ‘at a loss’ The controversy has highlighted just how separate India-administered Kashmir and Pakistan-administered Kashmir are.

The region has been a flashpoint between India and Pakistan since it was split in 1949

“

Gulzar Ahmad Tantray with his wife and child - and direct travel between the two sides is not possible.

What should police in Ganderbal have done with a four-year-old who refused to leave their custody and who reportedly refused to go with his father’s family because he was not familiar with any of them?

The boy was not charged with any offence, officers told BBC Hindi’s Majid Jahangir.

However, they were at a loss about what to do with him.

“How can we arrest a fouryear-old boy. He is allowed to go anywhere. But he doesn’t want to leave,” the paper quoted police official Asif Iqbal as saying.

That problem was finally resolved when Mr Tantray was granted bail on Tuesday night.

Source: BBC

A four-year-old boy has become the centre of a controversy between India and Pakistan - and between his father and mother.

Iftikhar Ahmad was in police custody, in a cell in Ganderbal town, near Srinagar, in India-administered Kashmir, for the last five days.

He hadn’t been arrested - but his father, Gulzar Ahmad Tantray, had - and Iftikhar refused to leave without him.

Mr Tantray, who grew up in a village in Ganderbal, crossed over to Pakistan-administered Kashmir in 1990, allegedly for arms training at the peak of the insurgency against Indian rule.

PEOPLES DAILY, TUESday, MARCH 29, 2016

PAGE 31

FCT Elections: Eight persons in police net over political clash in Gwagwalada

By Stanley Onyekwere

S

equel to the directive handed down to the security agencies in the Federal Capital Territory by the FCT Minister, Muhammad Musa Bello, eight suspects allegedly involved in the Gwagwalada political conflict are now cooling off in police net.

A statement from Deputy

Director, Press at FCTA, Muhammad Sule, the violent political clash on Saturday in Dobi Village, in Gwagwalada Area Council has claimed the life of one Haruna Adamu, in addition to the destruction of property worth millions of naira in the area.

According to the statement, the FCT Police Commissioner, Mr. Wilson Inalegwu, who made

this revelation on Easter Sunday said that the eight suspects were arrested by the Command.

According to him, investigation has already reached advanced stage to unravel the remote and immediate causes of the fracas; stressing that all those found wanting would soon be taken to court for prompt prosecution.

Inalegwu warned that no stone would be left unturned in applying the law fully in order to serve as deterrent to anyone who may want follow the same barbaric path.

The Commissioner noted that normalcy has returned to the area and therefore assured the residents of the FCT that the security agencies are on top of the

situation.

It may be recalled that the FCT Minister, had directed the Security Agents in the Federal Capital Territory to fish out perpetrators of the Gwagwalada violent political skirmish.

The Minister equally directed that all those involved be made to face the full wrath of the law because nobody is above the law.

A middle age man hawking local mart in kubwa, Abuja.

FCT residents demand end to fuel scarcity

S

ome residents of Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) have urged the Federal Government to intensify efforts to end the lingering fuel scarcity in the country and turn around the economy.

This is the view of many of those who spoke with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in separate interviews yesterday in Abaji.

One Mr. Felix Wodi, who resides at Abaji, FCT, said ``I did not enjoy this Easter at all because I have been on queue at petrol station for hours and there

has been no power supply for more than a week in my area.

“I am appealing to the Federal Government to find lasting solution to this fuel scarcity as soon as possible because it is tearing Nigerians apart gradually.’’

A resident of Kwali, also in the FCT, Mr. Saleh Abu, said he had been on queue for a while to buy petrol in his bike, saying he was not happy with the present situation in the country.

“I have been on queue since morning to get fuel for my bike

but till now nothing; the pump metres have been adjusted but we have no choice.

“The Federal Government is trying its best to ensure better living condition for the public but we Nigerians also need to pray more for the country,’’ he stressed.

The situation at Gwagwalada was not different as many motorists were seen at ASO filling station waiting for a petrol tanker to discharge fuel.

A resident of Kuje, Mrs. Laraba Hassan, told NAN that she could not slaughter any chicken this Easter because of the hardship

she was facing at the moment.

“It is quite frustrating that you can’t eat what you want in a festive period like this; I could not even afford a chicken to eat with my children.

“Easter celebration should be a time to have fun but as it is, it is looking miserable with the present economic situation.

“I urge all Christians to use this Easter period to pray for the restoration of peace and economic stability in our nation, Nigeria,’’ she said.

Not left out, an artisan in Kuje, Mr. Abraham Gado, said he and

his family were celebrating Easter on a low key as they could not travel to the village.

Similarly, a businessman at Sauka in Kuje Area Council, Mr. Emeka Nonso, said that the economic downturn with the fuel scarcity across the country made the holiday boring.

At the popular recreational spot in Kuje called ‘DHALZY POINT’ usually populated during festive periods, NAN observed that only a few fun seekers were there to enjoy the Easter Holiday.

(NAN)

PEOPLES DAILY, TUESday, MARCH 29, 2016

PAGE 32

Photo Splash

A butcher off-loading his meat from Keke NAPEP, yesterday at Garki Market, in Abuja.

People buying oranges, yesterday at Garki, in Abuja.

A pickup van loaded with scraps, yesterday at Area 10, in Abuja.

Elderly women waiting for alms from good Samaritans, yesterday in Nyanya.

A man taking a nap in his make-shift shop, yesterday at Durumi, in Abuja.

Photos: Justin Imo-owo

PEOPLES DAILY, TUESday, MARCH 29, 2016

PAGE 33

Metro

Children having fun during the Easter holiday celebration, yesterday at Millennium Park, in Abuja.

Photo: NAN

We want integration, not resettlement, compensation – Abuja Natives insist

By Stanley Onyekwere

I

ndigenes of Garki, Apo Akpajenya and Dagbalo communities in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) have called on the Muhammad Mus Bello-FCT Administration to consider the option of integration policy rather than relying on the ‘failed’ resettlement and compensation policy, as previous administrations have tampered with the original Abuja master plan.

While speaking to journalists in Abuja yesterday, the Youth leader of the communities, Rev. Danjuma Tanko, insisted that the communities remain

highly cooperative with the original master plan structure, maintaining that the style of telling lies to communities in waiting was worse than the deceit earlier perfected against the following indigenous communities; Maitama, Sabo Wuse, Maitama Tsoho Kukwaba, Upa and Nyikuru amongst others.

He said for over 40 years, his peoples have not denied, rejected or resisted any policy

by FCT Administration, but the government has so far tactically forced the people out of their original heritage with false promises that have not been fulfilled to this date.

According to him, “We want

to inform Nigerians and the world over that the FCTA/FCDA (Federal Capital Development Authority) has perfected evil act against this three communities, Abuja natives and siphoned government treasury at the cover of resettlement that is never truly done.

“They converted the land and shared the land to themselves, families, close associate, well informed citizen otherwise favored elite.

“It is in this regard, having seized, confiscated and converted our land for themselves for money making denied us means of survival within and round this communities, they are now left

with total exposure to their failures not properly and adequately implementing master plan as well resettle this communities.

“We want the Federal Government to safely and cheaply forget about any resettlement of any community in the FCT except for overriding purposes.”

The youth leader further adds that “as citizens of FCT and like other Nigerians, we deserve total right to our heritage beside, the case is in the high court which they force us to go as a result of attempt to use force against us by employing the services of dozen of platoon of armed Mobile Policemen to force us out sometime on 25th June, 2008.

“As far as we are concerned the case is in the court for more than four years now, we don’t trust or have any reason to believe any action or inaction by same officials of FCDA who have converted Nigerians.”

He however noted the main reason for the media briefing was to inform the Federal Government of Nigeria, FCT Administration, FCDA to be noted by the Senate House of Representative Chambers, Nigerians and the world that no Authority was assigned to represent these communities to neither negotiate nor enter into any agreement regards the resettlement and compensation with the FCDA.

Environment: Meat consumers decry unhealthy abattoirs in Kuje

M

eat (beef) consumers in Kuje Area Council of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) yesterday raised alarm over the deplorable state of infrastructure and unhealthy operational environment of the council’s abattoir.

Some of the consumers, who spoke to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Kuje, faulted the reliance of the abattoir on stream water for the washing of meat before conveying to market.

A meat consumer, Mr.

Adekunle Odunayo, said the use of stream water and car tyres for roasting meat for human consumption was unhealthy.

He said that “the state of the abattoir, as you can see, is not healthy because in the first instance, there is no water to wash the slab after use.

“It is not healthy using stream water to wash meat for human consumption because the water is flowing from places where it has been messed up.

“People defecate and throw all

manner of things inside the water before getting to where it is being used to wash meat for human consumption; that is unhygienic.’’

He, therefore, called on relevant authorities, particularly Kuje Area Council administration to restore water supply to the abattoir by repairing the borehole that was originally servicing the abattoir.

Another meat consumer, Mrs. Esther Okoro, faulted the use of motorcycles to convey meat from the abattoir to the market,

attributing this to the deplorable state of the road linking the abattoir.

She said, “if the road is fixed, the abattoir operators will certainly resort to use of vans to convey meat to the market.

“It is really not healthy conveying meat to the market with motorcycles because on several occasion, we have seen them falling off on the road with the meat.

“The annoying part of it is that the same meat is being carried to the market and consumers are forced to buy because they have no

option.”

Okoro therefore called for the rehabilitation of the road so as to encourage consumers to patronise the abattoir directly without having to wait for the meat to get to the market.

In the same vein, another meat consumer in the area, Mr. Ike Nwosu, also called on the area council to ensure the rehabilitation of essential infrastructure in the abattoir to enhance healthy operational environment. (NAN)

Page 34

PEOPLES DAILY, TUESday, MARCH 29, 2016

Money Sense

Save money, capture fuel from animal manure and plant waste

C

onverting animal and plant waste into energy can be a triple-hitter: It not only helps reduce waste going to landfills or from being released as gas into the atmosphere, but saves energy and money. Waste materials; ranging from animal manure for methane to wood chips for direct heat to waste vegetable oil for straight use or conversion to biodiesel; also have a positive energy and carbon balance. That is, more energy is derived from the fuel than is spent converting it. Therefore, no net CO2 is generated.

The Blue Spruce dairy, a member of Vermont’s Cow Power program, uses an anaerobic digester (pictured) to turn manure into methane, which is used to generate electricity. Photo

by Vern Grubinger Anaerobic digesters have traditionally been geared toward large livestock confinement operations, which produce a lot of manure. The digester’s broader-use potential, however, has spurred manufacturers to explore scaling down the technology for small- and midsized farms. China and India have long promoted smaller digesters. And nearly 2,000 farm-based digesters operate in Europe, where researchers are trying to improve efficiency and cost-effectiveness for smaller operators by combining food and animal waste.

Digesters resolve multiple problems simultaneously: • When the liquids and solids are separated and treated, odor is reduced. The liquid portion is much easier to apply as fertilizer and is often mixed directly with irrigation water.

• The odor- and pathogenfree solids can be sold as compost or reused as bedding, either generating new revenue streams or saving producers money on purchased bedding.

• Fly populations in and around the manure storage systems are reduced, as are weed seed populations in the compost.

• Biogas is captured and burned to power the farm and/or generate electricity to be sold back to the power supplier. Capturing and using the methane prevents its discharge to the atmosphere, where it has 21 times more global warming potential than CO2.

In 1998, AgSTAR, a collaborative effort of various federal agencies, selected the 1,000-acre, four-generation Haubenschild family farm near Princeton, Minn., to demonstrate the effectiveness of an onfarm digester operation. The Haubenschild’s digester receives, on average, 20,000 gallons of manure per day, producing 72,500 cubic feet of biogas, most of which is used to power a 135 kW generator. Waste heat recovered from the generator’s cooling jacket is used to heat

Nature has always used anaerobic digestion; bacteria breaking down organic material in the absence of oxygen; to recycle waste. Modern anaerobic digester systems on livestock farms work on the same principle: The solids in manure are converted by bacteria into biogas, primarily methane, which can then be used to generate electricity. the barn. As an added benefit, the Haubenschilds are able to supply enough electricity for an additional 70 households, and

by December 2005, the farm had generated a total of 5.8 million kWh. The energy produced by the digester prevents the equivalent of burning 50 tons of coal per month. Because it reduces methane release, the Haubenschild Farm can sell 90– 100 tons of carbon credits per week through the Environmental Credit Corporation. The farm has also saved an estimated $40,000 in fertilizer costs because they use resulting “digestate” as a soil amendment.

The Haubenschilds are committed to conserving resources and saving money in other ways as well. For example, they reuse milk cooling water for cow drinking water and to wash

the floor, then reuse this water for the digester. They also use four tons of recycled newspaper per week as bedding because it promotes excellent anaerobic breakdown of manure.

While promising, digester technology is still evolving, and installation and operating costs are high. Digesters are very sensitive to temperature, alkalinity, loading rate of waste and hydraulic retention time.

They require consistent oversight by at least one person. Other challenges include high capital costs, low wholesale electricity prices, still-emerging industry support and hooking up to the grid.

A unique partnership between an investor-owned utility and several Vermont farms is making “cow power” more feasible for a number of growers by allowing customers to choose sustainable

energy. Thousands of Central Vermont Public Service (CVPS) customers have signed up to get a portion of their energy through the CVPS Cow Power program.

They pay an additional 4 cents per kWh knowing that 100 percent of the premium supports Vermont dairy farmers who use digesters.

It currently takes about 500 milking cows to produce enough energy for Cow Power to be economically viable, so a number of small-scale farms are considering combining their manure to become eligible.

Fuel from waste or converted vegetable oil has pros and cons, but both confer many environmental and economic benefits. Used oil contains nearly twice the energy value of coal and more energy than No. 2 fuel oil.

Compared to petroleum diesel, biodiesel produces fewer volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and

Fuel made from plant waste is made primarily from either waste vegetable oil (WVO) or WVO converted into biodiesel, a diesel fuel made either partially or wholly from biological materials. With a few exceptions, WVO requires modifying existing equipment, while WVO converted into biodiesel can be used in most diesel-burning engines.

particulates and less CO2, sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide and mercury. Some studies suggest that biodiesel produces slightly higher levels of nitrogen oxide (NOx) pollution, but researchers are investigating new additives and diesel technology that could significantly lower these emissions.

Mike Collins and Rebecca Nixon of Old Athens Farm in southeastern Vermont decided to switch to straight waste-vegetable oil to heat their three greenhouses after using as much as 3,000 gallons of No. 2 oil in one winter.

Each greenhouse now has a waste oil burner, generating 350,000 BTU for 3,200 square feet.

Collins and Nixon, who grow organic vegetables and berries for direct markets on two acres, and produce greenhouse tomatoes, cucumbers and eggplants, collect waste oil from nearby restaurants.

The restaurants are within normal vegetable delivery routes, saving transport-related time and energy. Collins and Nixon avoid oil with hydrogenated fats as it does not perform well in waste oil burners.

The oil, generally kept in containers ranging from five to 50 gallons, is brought to the farm, filtered through a screen and then stored in large plastic tanks in the greenhouse. Because it solidifies in cold weather, any oil kept outside in the winter must be prewarmed before use.

Like all new energy systems, a vegetable oil system requires initial start-up costs. For Collins and Nixon, each burner cost about $5,000 and another $500 to set up. About four hours per week are required to collect the oil, and to maintain the heaters.

Assuming labor costs of $10 per hour, their waste vegetable oil system costs them an additional $2,000 annually in labor.

But the payback is quick.

Eliminating expensive fuel purchases meant that during the 2005–2006 growing season, the farm saved almost $7,000 in fuel costs. With heating oil prices just above $2.25 per gallon, payback on this system could be as fast as three and a half years.

Like straight vegetable oil, converting WVO to biodiesel can be cost effective: less than $1 per gallon in materials, plus labor. Matt Steiman, biodiesel project supervisor at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pa., has longpromoted its benefits. In 2005, on behalf of Wilson College, he received a SARE grant to teach farmers to convert vegetable oil into biodiesel, holding six handson workshops and attracting more than 100 growers from Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia and Pennsylvania.

Several participants are now receiving seed money to produce biodiesel on their own farms. www.sare.org

PEOPLES DAILY, TUESday, MARCH 29, 2016

Page 35

world news Pakistan’s politicians also to

international_peoplesdailyng@yahoo.com

blame for Lahore attack analysis

By Tom Hussain

P

akistan celebrated its national day last Wednesday with a full military parade in Islamabad, for the second consecutive year. The event used to be a routine matter until the Taliban’s Pakistani offshoot launched a bloody insurgency that has killed more than 70,000 people since 2007.

The ensuing crisis simply made it unsafe to stage the only open-air event attended by the country’s political and military leadership.

The resumption last year of the Pakistan Day parade reflected the marked improvement in security conditions, following the launch of a nationwide counteroffensive in 2014, and provided an important boost to national morale. The same was the case this year, with the government declaring that the counteroffensive was drawing to a successful conclusion.

Those declarations of “mission accomplished” were exposed as hollow half-truths by the suicide bombing attack on an amusement park in the populous eastern city of Lahore on Sunday.

Certainly, the military counteroffensive has deprived the Pakistan Taliban of its territorial strongholds in the tribal areas bordering eastern Afghanistan, just as intelligence-led operations in Karachi and other cities have disrupted urban terrorist activity.

Victory in the territorial war owever, those operations were launched belatedly and the insurgents had years to prepare for that inevitability, so most went into hiding or relocated to the other side of the Afghan border before the opening shots of the counteroffensive were fired.

H

The problem with Pakistan’s foreign policy n honest Pakistani state would have informed the public that great progress has been made, but that victory in the territorial war would come at the cost of a lengthy campaign of terrorist attacks that would last for many years.

An honest Pakistani state

A

particularly corruption. Thus they are primarily engaged in hogging credit and deflecting responsibility, rather than addressing the root causes of terrorism.

Sadly, that description equally fits all pillars - elected government, the military, bureaucracy, judiciary or my colleagues in the Pakistani media.

The state’s duplicity aturally, the terrorists use the state’s duplicity against it. Attacks on soft targets such as the amusement park in Lahore undermine public trust in the state, thereby preventing a singular rejection of the terrorists and their pseudo-Islamist ideology.

N

A woman injured in the bomb blast is comforted by a family member at a local hospital in Lahore, Pakistan [AP]

would have informed the public that great progress has been made, but that victory in the territorial war would come at the cost of a lengthy campaign of terrorist attacks...

A wise Pakistani state would have encouraged public examination of the political mistakes and socioeconomic conditions that have fuelled the insurgency, so that the nation could come to terms with its greatest tragedy since the loss of its eastern wing, modern-day Bangladesh, in 1971.

Indeed, a brave Pakistan state would have swept aside the false narratives that have long corrupted national politics and returned to the high moral ground upon which Mohammed Ali Jinnah founded the country in 1947.

Simply stated, Pakistan

was to be a country guided by a constitution and laws, and the government’s primary responsibility was to ensure the rights of its citizenry.

Unfortunately, if predictably, the Pakistani state is held hostage by its inability to admit its fallibility, as demonstrated by the blame-shifting exercise that persists, to this day, on all matters of national importance, including security.

After Sunday’s horrific attack in Lahore, Pakistan’s raucous broadcast and social media were ablaze with accusations that it was the fault of the “civilian institutions”, or caused by the diversion of police resources to protect visiting opposition leader Bilawal Bhutto, or retaliation for the recent arrest of an alleged Indian spy.

In their rush to point fingers,

“

most influential personalities forgot to mention the Pakistan Taliban - unless in the context of a wider foreign conspiracy.

That mindset, more than any terrorist faction or foreign covert threat, is Pakistan’s biggest problem, because it is easily exploitable. A nation can only move forward with common purpose when it is reconciled with its past and has forged a shared identity.

Pakistani relatives mourn over the body of a victim during a funeral following an overnight suicide bombing in Lahore [AFP] However, the resultant unity entails vigorous accountability of all pillars of the state, which makes it undesirable to those preoccupied with power and its exploitation for selfish ends,

Indeed, the Lahore attack took place as thousands of extremists tore through Islamabad to protest against the execution of a policeman who murdered Salmaan Taseer, the governor of Punjab province, in 2011 because he called for the reformation of blasphemy laws repeatedly abused to victimise Pakistan’s non-Muslim minorities

Will Pakistan be able to counter expanding extremism? ndeed, the Lahore attack took place as thousands of extremists tore through Islamabad to protest against the execution of a policeman who murdered Salmaan Taseer, the governor of Punjab province, in 2011 because he called for the reformation of blasphemy laws repeatedly abused to victimise Pakistan’s non-Muslim minorities.

Unsurprisingly, the protesters felt no obligation to suspend their march out of respect for the victims of the attack in Lahore.

Thus the public response to the Lahore attack has been a mixture of anger, fear and panic.

Late on Sunday, private schools announced that they would be closed on Monday because of the dubious security situation. Even if they hadn’t closed, parents were unlikely to have sent their children to school, because of the lack of leadership or an honest narrative from the state.

The Pakistan Taliban may have lost the war, but it is being handed propaganda victories on a platter, at the cost of many innocent lives.

Tom Hussain is a journalist and Pakistan affairs analyst based in Islamabad.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial policy.

I

Source: Al Jazeera

PEOPLES DAILY, TUESday, MARCH 29, 2016

Page

News From Africa

Somali forces kill ‘more than 100’ al-Shabab fighters A

t least 115 fighters of the militant Islamist group al-Shabab have been killed in heavy fighting with progovernment forces in northern Somalia, the regional government says.

A further 110 militants were captured during the fighting, the Galmudug government added in a statement.

There has been no independent confirmation of the claims.

The al-Qaeda-linked militants have drifted north after losing ground in southern and central Somalia.

Who are al-Shabab?

Al-Shabab and IS fight for supremacy Galmudug’s President Abdikarim Hussein Galaud said the security forces were determined to “wipe out” the militants, and to prevent them from establishing bases in stable

al-Shabab in southern Somalia, where it was formed nearly a decade ago to fight for Islamic rule.

Last month, the militants overran an AU base in the southern town of el-Ade. Somalia’s President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud said about 180 Kenyan troops, which were part of the AU force, were killed in the attack.

Al-Shabab has been trying to gain a foothold in northern Somalia

parts of the north.

The militants were defeated after four days of fighting along Galmudug’s border with Puntland,

give casualty figures for progovernment forces.

The African Union (AU) has some 22,000 troops battling

the government statement said.

A few of them managed to flee into rural areas, it added.

The statement did not

Angolan rapper Luaty Beirao jailed for rebellion

A

prominent Angolan rapper has been sentenced to five-and-a-half years in prison for planning a rebellion against President Jose Eduardo dos Santos.

Luaty Beirao was sentenced by a court in the capital, Luanda, along with 16 other activists who were given jail terms of between two and eight years.

The 17 were arrested in June after discussing a book about non-violent resistance at their book club.

Mr dos Santos has ruled oilrich Angola since 1979.

Elite ‘hoard’ Angola’s wealth Beirao, also known by his stage name Ikonoklasta, has been an outspoken critic of the government, calling for a fairer distribution of the southern African state’s oil wealth.

He embarked on a five-week hunger strike in September to demand his release.

The trial had prompted global outrage, with rights groups saying it showed that Mr dos Santos’ government was becoming increasingly repressive in its attempts to remain in power.

Prosecutors defended the arrests, arguing that the 17 were planning an uprising among students and workers “with incalculable consequences”.

The jailed activists, who belonged to a youth

Algeria military helicopter crash in Tamanrasset region

A

military helicopter has crashed in southern Algeria, killing 12 soldiers, the defence ministry has said.

The Russian-made Mi-171 came down while on a reconnaissance mission in Tamanrasset region, some 2,000km (1,200 miles) from the capital, Algiers.

The helicopter apparently experienced technical failure, but the exact cause of the crash is yet to be established, the ministry added.

Critics say Algeria has a poor aircraft safety record.

In 2014, 77 people were killed in a military plane crash.

Two military aircrafts collided during a training exercise in 2012, killing both pilots.

The reason for the helicopter’s mission is not clear but militant Islamists are active in Algeria.

In 2014, Vietnam grounded its entire fleet of Mi-171 helicopters after a crash near the capital, Hanoi, killed 18 soldiers.

The bespectacled rapper has been an outspoken critic of the president

movement, had previously held demonstrations demanding the resignation of Mr dos Santos, who has been in power for 36 years.

Their book club had discussed the 1993 book by Gene Sharp called From Dictatorship to Democracy: A Conceptual Framework for Liberation.

Angola is Africa’s second-

largest oil producer, and has witnessed an economic boom since the end of a civil war in 2002.

However, critics of the elected government say the wealth has only benefited a small elite.

Who is Gene Sharp?

Gene Sharp is a US academic who researches non-violent revolution.

He is credited with the strategy which led to the toppling of Egypt’s long-time Hosni Mubarak leader in 2011.

His most translated and distributed work, From Dictatorship to Democracy, was written for the Burmese democratic movement in 1993, after the imprisonment of Aung San Suu Kyi.

The Algerian military has experienced several air crashes in recent years

PEOPLES DAILY, TUESday, MARCH 29, 2016

Israel backs down in Brazil diplomat stand-off

Page

Asia&Middle-east

Lahore attack: Pakistan PM Sharif demands swift action on terror

I

srael has reassigned its nominee for ambassador to Brazil, whose appointment Brasilia refused to accept, apparently because he is a former settler leader.

Dani Dayan will now become Israel’s consul general in New York, ending a seven-month diplomatic stand-off.

Israel had previously said it would not replace Mr Dayan as its nominee.

Mr Dayan’s appointment caused outrage among left-wing groups in Brazil, which lobbied President Dilma Rousseff to reject it.

The Argentina-born official was chairman of the Yesha Council, an umbrella group representing Jewish settlers in the occupied territories, from 2007 to 2013.

The fate of Jewish settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem - land claimed by Palestinians for a future state - is one of the most contentious issues between Israel and the Palestinians.

In a statement on Monday, the Israeli prime minister’s office announced Mr Dayan’s new appointment, without any reference to Brazil.

Mr Dayan said his deployment to New York was “a victory over the BDS” - the pro-Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement which targets Israel politically, economically and culturally.

“I think those elements who did not want a settler leader in Brasilia, got a settler leader in the world’s capital,” he told an anti-BDS conference in Jerusalem.

Brazil is Israel’s largest trading partner in South America, but relations have been tense since 2010, when Brazil said it recognised Palestinian statehood in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem.

They soured further in 2014 when Brazil recalled its ambassador from Israel in protest at what it called the “disproportionate use of force” by Israel in its summer offensive in Gaza.

In response, an Israeli foreign ministry spokesman called Brazil a “diplomatic dwarf”.

T Dozens of children were among the dead

J

ump media playerMedia player helpOut of media player. Press enter to return or tab to continue.

Media captionThe BBC’s Shaimaa Khalil reports on distressing scenes at the funeral of 16-year-old boy, Sharon Pakistan’s PM has urged better coordination between security agencies against terror, a day after a suicide bomb killed more than 70 in Lahore.

At a meeting of security officials, Nawaz Sharif said the nation’s resolve to deal with militants was growing.

A number of arrests were made and weapons seized in five raids by security forces, the army said.

Taliban splinter group Jamaatul-Ahrar said it carried out the attack against Christians celebrating Easter.

At least 300 people were injured, with officials saying they expected the

death toll to rise.

The area was more crowded than usual, as members of Lahore’s minority Christian community had gathered to celebrate Easter at a funfair in the park.

However, most of those who died in the attack were Muslims.

At least one funeral, of 11-year-old Christian boy Sahil Pervez, was held on Monday.

The bombing of the amusement park in Lahore on Easter Sunday was the bloodiest on Christians in Pakistan since the 2013 Peshawar church bombing that killed more than 80 people.

But many believe there may be a wider context to the latest attack - 27 March was the deadline set by an alliance of more than 30 religious groups for the provincial government

of Punjab to withdraw a new women’s rights law they oppose.

And supporters of Mumtaz Qadri, a police guard executed last month for the 2011 killing of a provincial governor who advocated reform of the blasphemy laws, have also launched protests. They brought forward the customary 40th day mourning for Qadri by 13 days to coincide with 27 March and several thousand have now occupied a high-security zone in Islamabad to press demands which include the implementation of Sharia law.

Sunday’s carnage in Lahore was claimed by Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, an increasingly effective faction of the Pakistani Taliban which has carried out several attacks in the northwestern Peshawar valley region during the last few months.

Bangladesh court upholds Islam as religion of the state

Leaders of the Qawmi madrasa-based organization Hifazat-e Islam shows victory sign after the high court ruling on the state religion of Bangladesh [Mahmud Hossain Opu/Al Jazeera] [Al Jazeera]

D Mr Dayan’s reassignment ends a sevenmonth diplomatic stand-off

Syria civil war: Army ‘steps up offensive from Palmyra’

haka, Bangladesh Bangladesh’s High Court on Monday rejected a 28-year-old petition calling for the removal of a constitutional provision recognising Islam as the official religion of the Muslim-majority South Asian nation.

The court ruled that the petitioning organisation, the Committee against Autocracy and Communalism, did not have the right to be heard in the court.

Justice Quazi Reza-Ul Hoque, one of the three judges sitting on the

bench, said that the court found that “the petitioner does not have locus standi and that is why the petition will be summarily rejected”.

The organisation’s lawyer, Subrata Chowdhury, said that he was “100 percent disappointed” with the decision.

“Without a hearing and without giving us any chance to present our argument on the point of locus standi, the court dismissed the case,” he told Al Jazeera.

Others, however, were pleased with the decision.

Lawyer Maulana MA Raquib, the president of the religious party Nezam-e-Islam who was present in court, said: “This is the decision of the highest court in the land. Islam should be the state religion. The majority of people in this country believe in Islam.”

He argued that having Islam as the state religion would not affect minority religions. “Minorities will not be discriminated against as there is a guarantee in the constitution for the minorities,” he said.

The petition was originally filed in 1988 after the then President Lieutenant General Hussain Muhammad Ershad declared Islam as the state religion in a symbolic bid to win popular support while major political parties campaigned to oust him from power.

“We filed the petition then because Bangladesh was founded as a secular state, and having a state religion contradicts the basic structure of the constitution,” Professor Anisuzzman, one of the leaders of the petitioning organisation, told Al Jazeera.

he Syrian army, backed

by Russian warplanes, is reported to be continuing its offensive against so-called Islamic State (IS) after recapturing the ancient city of Palmyra on Sunday.

Fighting was taking place around IS-held towns to the north-east and south-west of the city, reports said.

The army says it will use Palmyra as a launchpad to expand operations against IS and cut its supply routes.

It retook the city after days of fighting backed by Russian air strikes.

IS seized the Unesco World Heritage site and modern town in May 2015, publicly destroying some ancient buildings and artefacts. Experts are now assessing the damage.

Syrian military sources quoted by AFP news agency said the army was targeting IS-held towns including alQaryatain, south-west of Palmyra, and Sukhnah towards the north-east.

“The army was concentrated around al-Qaryatain, and today [Monday] the military operations began there,” the source said.

“That is the next goal for the Syrian army. They also have their eyes on Sukhnah.”

Syrian state media also said Palmyra’s military airport had been reopened.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group also said pro-government forces were battling militants north-east of Palmyra.

It said warplanes, believed to be Russian, had targeted the main road east towards Deir alZour, a key town besieged by IS. Some militants were still holed up inside Palmyra, the observatory added, and had targeted Syrian troops with car bombs and suicide attacks.

Russia has promised to send de-mining equipment and experts to help clear the city of any booby traps.

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Media captionDrone footage has revealed the ancient city is largely still intact, as Ben Bland reports Meanwhile, experts have said that damage to the ancient ruins does not appear to have been as bad as feared.

PEOPLES DAILY, TUESday, MARCH 29, 2016

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Europe & Republicans begin to thaw on Obama’s Supreme Court pick

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everal Republican senators have taken steps to consider Merrick Garland’s nomination to the Supreme Court despite calls from their leadership to leave the selection to the next president.

Republican leader Mitch McConnell has said the Senate will not hold confirmation hearings.

However, some Republican senators in tough re-election battles have agreed to meet Judge Garland.

One of them, Mark Kirk of Illinois, will meet Mr Garland this week.

President Barack Obama nominated Mr Garland, a veteran federal appeals court judge, to fill the vacancy left by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia.

If Mr Garland is confirmed, it would shift the balance of power on the court, which often has the final say on divisive issues in US politics.

Appointed to life time terms, justices frequently face a contentious confirmation process.

Scalia had been part of a conservative majority on the court for several years.

Republican leaders maintain that court vacancies should not be filled in an election year. However, no formal rules prohibit justices from being confirmed prior to elections.

Several national polls have found a majority of voters particularly independents - favour holding hearings for Mr Garland.

Senators Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania and Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire - both facing formidable opponents in November - have also agreed to meet Mr Garland.

However, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and Rob Portman of Ohio - also locked in tight re-election fights - have stood firm, despite pressure from their opponents and Democratic groups.

The meetings, a traditional courtesy for court nominees, do not mean the senators support hearings for Mr Garland, but some conservative critics see them as a first step towards hearings.

Some Republicans already support hearings.

Senator Jerry Moran of Kansas, moderate Republican Senator Susan Collins of Maine and Senator Kirk have recently broken with party leaders and called for hearings.

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What the 1916 Easter Rising means for Ireland today

D

ublin, Ireland - This week Irish people mark the centenary of the Easter Rising with commemorations across the country lasting until April 24. The uprising against the British Empire, which took place in Dublin and other cities and towns in Ireland during Easter week in 1916, marked a turning point in Irish history.

On Easter Monday, 100 years ago, rebels seized buildings across the capital and declared an Irish republic. But the empire responded and 485 people were killed before the rebels laid down their weapons and surrendered.

Hundreds of thousands of people gathered in Dublin on Sunday to mark this anniversary in what was the largest commemorative event in the country’s history. President Michael D Higgins laid a wreath at Kilmainham Gaol, where 14 of the 16 rebel leaders executed by the British were killed by firing squad.

Thousands gathered for commemorations in Dublin during 100th anniversary of Ireland’s Easter Rising against Britain, which inspired the country’s eventual independence [Peter Morrison/AP]

“The nation has journeyed many miles from the shell-shocked and burning Dublin of 1916,” said the president. “We can see that in many respects we have not fully achieved the dreams and ideals for which our forebears gave so

much. A democracy is always and must always be a work in progress, and how we use the independence we have been gifted will continue to challenge us, morally and ethically.”

Further commemorations

Fidel Castro scorns Obama’s Cuba visit

are planned to remember all the victims throughout the month.

Al Jazeera spoke to some key figures in Irish society about the significance of these events for Ireland today.

Michael D Higgins was elected to the Irish presidency in 2011.

He is the ninth president of Ireland, an author, poet, politician and sociologist who has been heavily involved in the 1916 commemorations.

“No matter what way you view it, 1916 is a major foundational event in terms of the Irish state, as it has emerged.

“Nineteen sixteen always played an important role in my life. For the 75th anniversary, I participated as a poet in an event called ‘The Flaming Door’, which was ran by poets and took place at the GPO featuring around 100 readings.

Later that day in Kilmainham gaol, where 15 leaders had been executed in 1916, there was a concert to honour those victims.

Brussels attacks: Belgium releases terror murder suspect

A

Fidel Castro said Mr Obama’s words of reconciliation were “syrupy”

F

idel Castro has broken his silence over President Obama’s Cuba visit in a damning letter published in staterun newspaper Granma.

Fidel, who handed power to his brother Raul a decade ago, said Cuba didn’t need any gifts from the “empire”.

He described Mr Obama’s words of reconciliation as “syrupy” and warned they could give Cubans a heart attack.

Mr Obama had suggested that it was time to bury the last remnant of the Cold War in the Americas.

In his 1,500-word letter, Fidel also reminded readers of the Bay

of Pigs invasion of 1961, in which a CIA-sponsored paramilitary force of Cuban exiles attempted to take over the island.

However, the 89-year-old ex-leader also said his “modest suggestion” was that Mr Obama “reflects and doesn’t try to develop theories about Cuban politics”.

During his visit, Mr Obama invoked “a future of hope” for Cuba in an unprecedented live TV address delivered from the Grand Theatre in Havana.

He told Cuban President Raul Castro that he did not need to fear a threat from the US nor from “the voice of the Cuban people”.

He also called for the lifting of the 54-year old US trade embargo against Cuba, a remark which was met by loud applause.

The embargo remains one of the main sticking points in USCuban relations but can only be lifted by the US Congress.

Mr Obama’s visit to Cuba was the first by a president since the Communist revolution in 1959.

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Media captionYoung Cubans: “We don’t want a lot of McDonalds and Starbucks”.

man known as Faycal C, the only person arrested and charged with involvement in the Brussels attacks, has been released for lack of evidence.

Belgian media have given the man’s full name as Faycal Cheffou.

Police have released CCTV footage in their efforts to identify a third suspect in last Tuesday’s bomb attacks on a Brussels airport.

Attacks on the airport and the city’s metro system killed 35 people and injured more than 300.

The attacks were claimed by the so-called Islamic State militant group.

A man referred to officially as Facyal C was released on 28 March after being arrested on 24 March in Brussels and charged with “participation in the activities of a terrorist group, terrorist murders and attempted terrorist murders”.

Salah Abdeslam - arrested on 18 March in the Molenbeek district of Brussels. Key suspect in the Paris attacks last November.

Charged with “terrorist murder” ‘Amine Choukri’ - arrested on 18 March with Abdeslam, real name not yet known. Also used the alias Monir Ahmed Alaaj. Documented by German police near Ulm in a car with Abdeslam last October. Charged with “terrorist murder” over the Paris attacks.

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Strange

world

Female Canadian rugby player born without arms and legs becomes a CrossFit sensation

By Clemence Michallon

A

Canadian rugby player born without arms and legs has become a CrossFit sensation after a video of her working out went viral.

Lindsay Hilton, 30, of Halifax, joined a CrossFit gym in September after winning a burpee contest.

Hilton, who has played rugby since high school, won a free membership by completing 34 burpees in just one minute, the Washington Post reported.

Since then, she has figured out how to adapt CrossFit’s mix of Olympic weightlifting, cardio and bodyweight exercises to her body.

A recent video of one of Hilton’s workouts shows her using hooks and velcro straps to lift a barbell.

She carries it on her shoulders and takes a few steps.

Then, Hilton’s partner helps her get rid of the hooks and straps, and Hilton completes a series of burpees, jumping over her barbell each time.

Later on, she uses another pair of hooks to tackle a set of pull-ups.

One of Hilton’s friends filmed the video at Hilton’s request because Hilton wanted to check her form.

Hilton, who told the Washington Post she didn’t set out to be inspirational and was just doing ‘everyday activities’, didn’t expect the footage to go viral.

‘Because I’ve been the same way my whole life, I don’t see myself as different than anybody else,’ she told the newspaper.

But CrossFit posted the video on its Facebook page, where it

has gathered more than 6 480 000 views in less than a month.

The footage has also received 5,700 comments, most of them raving about Hilton’s prowess.

‘It’s kind of crazy... I definitely was not expecting that many people to see me do that workout,’ she told Metro Canada.

Hilton has been active her entire life and played soccer in middle school as well as hockey in high school.

That’s also when she found rugby, which she still practices as part of a team in Halifax.

‘I had a great childhood,’ she told the Washington Post. ‘I had great coaches and teachers who were always willing to make things work for me and encouraged me to take risks.

Adaptive athletes — especially young ones — need people who say, “Let’s figure it out!” versus “No, it’s too scary.”

‘I’ve had more of the “Let’s figure it out” type people in my life and that video is proof.’

Hilton has taken advantage of CrossFit’s philosophy, which encourages all members to adapt the proposed workouts to their physical abilities.

A budding athlete, for example, might use an elastic band to do assisted pull-ups before graduating to the real thing.

Hilton has gone through a similar process, finding her own way through the routines.

‘There is no blueprint,’ she told the Washington Post.

‘Basically, everything I have accomplished with CrossFit has been trial and error. I may not be able to do every movement, but my attitude is I’ll just figure out a way to make it all work.’

DailyMail on Facebook

In the video (pictured), Hilton uses hooks and velcro straps to lift a barbell. She then takes a few steps around the room with the barbell on her shoulders before setting it on the ground

Lindsay Hilton (pictured), 30, of Halifax, was born without arms and legs and has been active most of her life. She began playing soccer in middle school and later tried hockey and rugby, which she still practices.

Hilton joined CrossFit in September after winning a burpee contest and earning a free membership. A video of one of her workouts (pictured) has gone viral, receiving more than 6 480 000 views in less than a month

Later on, Hilton uses another pair of hooks to complete a series of pull-ups (pictured). The video has received more than 5,600 comments, most of them raving about her performance

Hilton (pictured) says she doesn’t see herself as different and didn’t set out to be inspirational. Growing up, her coaches and teachers encouraged her to see what she could do as an adaptive athlete

PEOPLES DAILY, TUESday, MARCH 29, 2016

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Digest

How your sense of smell could increase the risk of addiction

By Lisa Ryan

I

t is known that substance abuse problems stem from a variety of factors.

Addiction can be born of a genetic predisposition, a difficult childhood and many other factors.

But now, experts have revealed that for some people, the mere smell of alcohol can send them on a downwards spiral towards dependency.

Getting a whiff of the aroma of wine, beer or liquor makes it harder for people to control their behavior, experts from Edge Hill University said.

Dr Rebecca Monk, a senior lecturer in psychology at Edge Hill, said: ‘We know that alcohol behaviors are shaped by our environment including who we’re with and the settings in which we drink.

‘This research is a first attempt to explore other triggers, such as smell, that may interfere with people’s ability to refrain from a particular behavior.’

The team of scientists conducted a computer-based study, the results of which were published in the journal Psychopharmacology.

Participants were asked to wear a face masked that was either laced with alcohol or a non-alcoholic citrus solution.

They were then instructed to press a button when either the letter K or a picture of a beer bottle appeared on screen.

The scientists measured the amount of times the participants incorrectly pressed a button raising a ‘false alarm’.

The false alarms indicated a decrease in the person’s ability to inhibit their behavior when they were expected to, the scientists explained.

Dr Monk said: ‘During the experiment, it seemed that just the smell of alcohol was making it harder for participants to control their behavior to stop pressing a button.’

Another Edge Hill professor, Dr Derek Heim, noted that studies of this nature can help further the understanding of addiction

Scientists revealed the scent of alcohol can serve as a trigger for certain people, inhibiting their ability to control their own behavior and substance abuse.

Dr Heim said: ‘This research is an early laboratory based effort that, while promising, needs to be replicated in real world settings to further its validity.

‘Our hope is that by increasing our understanding of how context shapes substance-use behaviors, we will be able to make interventions more sensitive

to the different situations in which people consume substances.’

A recent US government report revealed key factors that lead to addiction set in before birth.

Those biological, psychological, social and environmental factors take root during pregnancy.

The stresses a child experiences before the age

of eight also play a big role in addiction later in life, according to the National Institutes of Health report.

Childhood development problems - including lack of school readiness skills, insecure attachment issues and signs of uncontrolled aggression - were found to later increase the likelihood of addiction.

Likewise, difficult

experiences during vulnerable transition times - such as a parents’ divorce or moving to a new home - were also found to be risk factors for drug and alcohol abuse.

Interventions to help children cope with such stresses are thus critical to prevent substance abuse, the report noted.

Source: Dailymail.co.uk

Experts tested alcohol’s aroma on study participants, half of whom were wearing masks laced with alcohol.

Those wearing the alcohollaced masks had a harder time following instructions

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Eagles dare Pharaohs today as winners take it all

How Eagles can beat Egypt today

>>Pg 42

CAF deduct 3 points from Nigeria, Egypt, fines Chad >>Pg 43

Simon Moses of Nigeria challenged by Omar Gaber of Egypt

By Albert Akota

F

riday’s 1-1 draw between Nigeria and Egypt and the shock withdrawal of Chad have doubled the stakes riding today’s AFCON 2017 rematch in Alexandria.

Chad results in the qualifiers have now been nullified for Egypt to remain top of Group G with four points, still two points clear of Nigeria with Tanzania bottom on a point.

Chad’s withdrawal also means that this group can only produce one qualifier and the three teams will not be considered for the two best losers slots.

After today’s rematch, Egypt will travel to Tanzania for their last group game, while Nigeria welcome the Tanzanians in September.

A draw could therefore still be good enough for Egypt today, while Nigeria have to win on the day to ensure they still have their destiny in their own hands.

Egypt may have won the AFCON a record seven times, but they have not qualified for the previous three editions of the tournament since their last conquest in 2010.

Nigeria failed to qualify for the 2015 AFCON and should they not feature at Gabon 2017, it will be the second time that the country will fail under the troubled administration of NFF president Amaju Pinnick.

The Pharaohs are not leaving anything to chance with the interior ministry now allowing for 40,000 fans to watch this rematch after the crowd bans since the tragic incident in 2012 when 72 fans died at the Port Said Stadium.

They will also expected to a lot more adventurous than they were on Friday, when they generally stayed put in their own half of the pitch only really opening up to chase the game after Oghenekaro Etebo opener on the hour.

The Nigeria defence will be fully stretched today as Mohamed Salah, Ma-

hamoud Trezeguet and Ahmed Hassan ‘Kouka’ led the home team’s attack again.

The Eagles will be without first-choice goalkeeper Carl Ikeme, who has missed training due to a stomach problem, and it is expected that South Africa-based Daniel Akpeyi will start in goal on Tuesday.

Nigeria will be boosted with the return from a three-match ban of Lazio midfielder Ogenyi Onazi for Etebo to play a more attacking role in midfield.

Samson Siasia’s teams love to attack and are always capable of scoring goals, but the coach would also have to take a second look at his strike force should Victor Moses start or should another striker lead the attack other than Watford star Odion Ighalo, who was largely ineffective in Kaduna?

“We will take the game to Egypt in front of their fans,” declared Celtic defender Efe Ambrose.

“We need all three points in Egypt. It’s a tough task, but we’re capable,” added Akpeyi.

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Sport

Biffo blames poor pitch, wards for defeat

By Albert Akota

N

iger Tornadoes Technical Adviser, Abdullahi Usman Biffo has blamed poor to his 1-0 defeat to Abia Warriors in week of the Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) in Umuahia yesterday.

Biffo said that both teams did not enjoy good display of football and called on the

League Management Company (LMC) to do something about it.

The tactician also blamed his wards for refusing to take their chances in the first half as Jackson Daniel squandered a glorious opportunity from Gabriel Wassa crossing that only needed a tapping, but went just wide.

“The pitch did not allow free flow of football, apart that we (Tornadoes) did not

enjoy the field it also affected the host team, but I must blame my boys if the had taken there chances we won’t have Umuahia empty hand”, he said.

He however remained optimistic that his talented young side will soon secure the vital away points as the league progress.

Niger Tornadoes were the better side in the first half and could had been two goals up, but some how the host were saved from

How Eagles can beat Egypt today S

ince we now know that Mikel has been targeted and cordoned off, we need to introduce a player that is able to dribble and carry the ball forward at pace.

Victor Moses showed that difference when he came on the pitch and the coach might need to give Ahmed Musa a rest and start Alex Iwobi.

In defence, I see Ambrose Efe as a weak point one fact that Hector Cuper would also have noted.

dropping yet points at home again.

However on the resumption of second half Abia Warrior had to double their spirit and Chisom Chikatara became handful to Tornadoes defenders and in the 83 minutes Chikatara lashed on a cross to secure the 3 points for the Warriors of Umuahia and the result left Tornadoes frustrated because the were close to picking their first away points.

Eagles’ goalkeeper back to England

Whether there is a credible replacement for Ambrose is a million dollar question.

Siasia must also ensure that his players break their neck to get in the box when they are attacking the more Eagles can get into the opposition, the greater the probability to score.

Lastly, in the defensive third, the players must play to the last whistle there is no break in play until the ref has whistled. Please no rising of hands, you are not in a lecture class!

Eagle’s goalkeeper Carl Ikeme

W

Nigeria skipper Mikel Obi

o l v e r h a m p t o n Wanderers goalkeeper Carl Ikeme did not travel with the rest of the Super Eagles squad to Egypt as the team’s chartered flight was delayed for more than two hours so as to get an airspace clearance.

On Sunday, the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) announced Ikeme was suffering from a stomach upset which stopped him from training and as such he has been ruled out of today’s AFCON rematch against Egypt in Alexandria.

Ikeme has been Eagles firstchoice goalkeeper since September

after Lille star Vincent Enyeama retired from international football after a major falling out with former coach Sunday Oliseh.

South Africa-based Daniel Akpeyi is now expected to be between the posts today with Sunshine Stars shot stopper Ikechukwu Ezenwa his cover.

In the meantime, the Eagles departure to Egypt was held back for almost two hours as the chartered Arik Air flight sought clearance to fly across the air space of Sudan.

The Eagles are expected to have a feel of the pitch at the Borg El-Arab Stadium in Alexandria later today.

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Sport

CAF deduct 3 points from Nigeria, Egypt, fines Chad

T

he Confederation of African Football (CAF) has deducted three points from Nigeria, Egypt and Tanzania, all members of Group G, following the withdrawal of Chad from the ongoing qualification race for the 31st edition of the Africa Cup of Nations, Gabon 2017.

Chad was due to travel to Tanzania for the fourth match in the group, but instead made the announcement of a shocking withdrawal, citing financial constraints.

CAF swiftly applied its rules in conformity with Article 61 of the regulations of the competition which states: “If a team withdraws from the qualifying phase organised in groups, all its results shall be annulled (points, scored and conceded goals)”.

“Consequently, the three matches of Chad of Group G are cancelled and the results will not be taken into consideration”, CAF said.

Following the deduction of three points each, Egypt still lead the group with four points, while Nigeria have two. Tanzania have a point.

CAF further said that in accordance, with the rule set by CAF Executive Committee on 15 January 2015, any group reduced to three teams following the withdrawal of a team will have only the group winner qualifying for the final tournament.

Furthermore, the Chadian Football Federation has been fined 20,000 US Dollars and also barred from participating in the next edition of the AFCON in conformity with Article 59 of the regulations of the Competition which states “any association declaring forfeit after the start of the matches is liable to a fine of twenty thousand (20,000) U.S. dollars. It will also not be allowed to participate in the next edition of the AFCON”.

Chad national team

NFF, police trade blames over Kaduna overcrowding

T

he Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) and the country’s police have traded blames over the overcrowding at the Ahmadu Bello Stadium in Kaduna during an AFCON clash against Egypt, which could now earn the wrath of CAF. More than 40,000 spectators crammed into the 25,000-capacityAhmadu Bello Stadium with some of them perched on television platforms, the scoreboard and on the athletics track of the arena.

Nigerian police chief Solomon Arase said the NFF ought to have

placed a restriction on the fans in the form of a gate fee rather than throw the gates open.

However, NFF general secretary Mohamed Sanusi said crowd control was for host Kaduna State Government and the police.

“We did everything, we played our role but we have no control over the crowd. NFF is not a security agency; we can’t go and mount the gate,” he defended.

“We are not responsible for security in Kaduna State. It is the responsibility of the state government and the corresponding security operatives.”

Amapakabo eyes NPFL title with Rangers

E

nugu Rangers now have the belief that they can win the Nigeria Professional Football League title this season after Sunday’s 2-1 win over champions Enyimba in Enugu.

Bobby Clement and Chisom Egbuchulam netted first-half goals to condemn the Peoples Elephant to their third away defeat of the season.

Rangers head coach Imama Amapakabo believes the win at the Nnamdi Azikiwe Stadium has given his side a huge psychological push as they look to win their first league title in more than three decades.

“I discussed with my players before the game how important it was for us to win against Enyimba.

“That game against Enyimba was the game that was going to make us league champions.

“They scored first and we knew we had to dig deep because for us to emerge as league champions, we have to beat teams like Enyimba,” Amapakabo said.

Rangers stay top with 17 points from nine matches after the win against Enyimba.

Imama Amapakabo

Nigerian players’ union condemn attack on 3SC officials

By Albert Akota

N

Nigeria fans jam the TV platform at the Ahmadu Bello Stadium

igerian players’ union, the National Association of Nigeria Professional Footballers (NANPF), have condemned the attack on the general manager of 3SC Rasheed Balogun on Sunday during a Nigeria league match between Sunshine Stars and 3SC in Akure.

According to a statement signed by general secretary Austin Popo, the attack by some supporters of the home team on the top 3SC official was unwarranted and barbaric and can’t be allowed to thrive in our football and especially now that our league venues are becoming safer.

“The players’ union no doubt support and encourage developments that will provide the enabling work environment for their members to perform and any threat to that such as the incidence in Akure can’t be accepted,” read the statement.

“We therefore call on the League Management Company to investigate the incident and place the required sanctions on the culprits.”

Rasheed Balogun

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PEOPLES DAILY, TUESday, MARCH 29, 2016

Sport

Wrestling names 10-man squad for Algeria in Olympic qualifiers

By Albert Akota

N

igeria Wrestling Federation (NWF) has named 10 Wrestlers that will represent the nation at the Africa/Oceanic qualifier slated for Algeria between 1st to 4th April, 2016.

The team comprises of five female wrestlers, four male freestyle and one Greco Roman wrestler.

The list of female wrestlers are: Genesis Mercy (48Kg), threetime African champion, Aminat Adeniyi (58Kg), seven-time African champion and captain, Blessing Oborududu (63Kg), Hannah Reuben (68Kg) and Blessing Onyebuchi (75Kg).

The male freestyle wrestlers are: Welson Ebikewenimo (57Kg), Daniel Amas (65Kg), Melvin Bibo (74Kg) and Soso Tamara (97Kg) while in Greco Roman, Nworie Emmanuel (66Kg) will seek to redeem his image after a disastrous outing at the African championship.

Odunayo Adekuoroye who have qualified for the 2016 Rio Olympics after winning a bronze at the 2015

World Wrestling Championship held in Las Vegas, USA will accompany the team to cheer them to victory The Technical Director NWF, Damien Ohaike, in Abuja said the various coaches are working round the clock in ensuring that all the weight categories qualify for the Olympics.

He added that the wrestlers are at the peak of their careers and going to the games will be the joy of the federation.

“We did it at the African championship in Egypt, I’m very sure the team most especially the female wrestlers will make Nigeria proud”, Damien said.

He recalled that the female team and the President (Daniel Igali) were received by the minister of sports, Solomon Dalung, adding that it has given the girls a boost of morale and Igali promised nothing but the best at the outing.

It is worthy to note that at the 2016 Africa Championship, the Nigerian Wrestling team won four gold, three silver and three bronze medals.

Blessing Onyebuchi in action

Murray to become world number one in doubles

J

amie Murray will make history as the first Briton under the modern ranking system to become a world number one.

The 30-year-old Scot, Andy Murray’s older brother, will take top spot in the doubles rankings on Monday, 4 April, replacing Brazil’s Marcelo Melo.

Murray will be the first British world number one since Virginia Wade achieved the honour in doubles in 1973.

However, no Briton has previously topped the computer rankings introduced by the ATP and WTA during the 1970s.

Read more: How Jamie beat Andy to the top of the rankings Murray gained his first Grand Slam doubles title in January, winning the Australian Open alongside Brazilian

partner Bruno Soares.

Melo has relinquished his world number one spot after losing at the Miami Open on Sunday.

The Brazilian’s failure to reach the quarter-finals means he will drop enough points to fall behind Murray, even though the Briton had already been eliminated from the tournament.

Computerised rankings were introduced by the ATP for singles in 1973 and for doubles in 1976. The WTA introduced computer rankings for singles in 1975 and doubles in 1984.

Before that, world rankings were compiled by leading tennis journalists and issued annually. Fred Perry topped the men’s world rankings in the 1930s under this system, while fellow Briton Angela Mortimer was the women’s singles number one in 1961.

I want to unify welterweight division — Kell Brook

Brook controlled the fight against Bizier from the start

K

ell Brook believes he can take on anyone in the welterweight division after he successfully retained his IBF title.

The Yorkshire fighter came back from a 10-month absence to beat Canada’s Kevin Bizier with a second-round stoppage.

He has now set his sights on fellow world champions Danny Garcia and Jessie Vargas, as well as former two-weight world champion

Jamie Murray (left) beats his brother Andy (right)

Thompson wants Wales 2026 bid for Commonwealth Games

B

aroness Tanni Grey-Thompson says Wales should bid to host the 2026 Commonwealth Games.

The legendary Paralympian believes Cardiff’s hosting of the World Half Marathon should prompt an attempt to bring the games to her home country.

Cardiff staged what were then known as the Empire Games in 1958.

In July 2014, Wales’ First Minister Carwyn Jones said there was no guarantee Wales would bid to host a future Games.

But Baroness Grey-Thompson said the half marathon won by Kenya’s Geoffrey Kamworor could

only help a bid.

Australia’s Gold Coast will host the 2018 Commonwealth Games while Durban in South Africa is the 2022 destination.

Baroness Grey-Thompson says financial backing for a bid from Wales would need to be solid, adding: “A lot of the venues are already here in the south Wales area and we do know it brings in money, it brings in people, it brings in tourism.”

Britain’s Mo Farah won bronze behind Kenya’s Geoffrey Kamworor in wind and rain in the Welsh capital on Saturday and the double Olympic and world champion backed the Cardiff course.

Mo Farah with other athletes

Tim Bradley.

Brook, 29, who extended his record to 36-0 with 25 wins inside the distance, admits he may have to contemplate a move up to the lightmiddleweight division in the next couple of years, so is keen to make his remaining time at welterweight count.

Brook’s promoter Eddie Hearn claimed it is proving ever more difficult to match his charge against marketable fighters.

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Sport

Page 45

P-i-c-t-o-r-i-a-l

Britain’s Andy Murray and Heather Watson both go through to the next round at the Miami Open as players struggle in the heat.

Nick Blackwell is in hospital after suffering a bleed on the brain following his British middleweight title defeat by Chris Eubank Jr in London on Saturday.

Crystal Palace striker Emmanuel Adebayor will lead Togo’s charge for 2017 African Cup of Nations qualification with the burly forward to start against Tunisia today.

Ex-Katsina United defender Rabiu Shehu debuted for Kano Pillars in the Nigeria league clash at home against FC Ifeanyi Ubah.

Rivers United woes have been compounded following injuries to no fewer than six top players including star midfielder Frederick Obomate with two defenders serving out match bans.

PEOPLES DAILY, TUESday, MARCH 29, 2016

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Sport

Why Joseph Yobo is Nigeria’s most underrated player

P

erhaps Joseph Yobo is the most underrated player in the history of Nigerian football.

A player of the highest quality, Yobo demonstrated immense composure, commitment, leadership, discipline and professionalism at his peak as he achieved the prestigious honour of becoming the first male Nigerian footballer to reach 100 international caps.

He attained this milestone after 13 years of service, scoring seven goals and playing his part in some magnificent triumphs.

It is interesting to note that Yobo began his international career at the U20 level as a striker!

During the World Youth Championship (WYC) hosted in Nigeria, he sported the No. 14 jersey playing in attack alongside the likes of Julius Aghahowa, Pius Ikedia, and Eddy Dombraye.

Who could have foreseen, back then, all he would achieve for the national side?

He made his Super

Eagles bow as a right back in March 2001, against Zambia in Chingola in a 2002 Cup of Nations qualifier.

He showed his versatility at the World Cup later that year by featuring in three different positions in each of Nigeria’s three group matches, impressing as Nigeria dropped out of the competition at the first hurdle.

From his early days in the national team, he exhibited leadership traits and by his fourth year, Yobo was consistently captaining the team despite just being the second vice captain.

He eventually received the honour after the 2010 World Cup. In his time with the Super Eagles, he never conceded a penalty and was never sent off, testament to his enduring composure under pressure and his ability to negotiate different types of attacking threats.

His most disappointing moment was the ill-fated game against Angola in June 2004, when he was widely criticised for some slack defending, allowing

Fabrice Akwa time and space to score the lone goal of that encounter.

It was a rare blooper in a fairly immaculate international career.

Yobo played eight consecutive seasons with Everton; 2002-2010, a period that coincided with the Toffees qualifying for both the Uefa Champions League (although they fell during the qualifiers) and the Uefa Cup. The 2006-07 EPL season saw Yobo featuring in all 38 games without missing a single minute of league action.

He was only the second player in the history of Everton to achieve this milestone, and his consistency made him a key figure during some of David Moyes’s finest It is baffling to note that whenever soccer fans or pundits list their all-time Nigerian XI, Yobo’s name is consistently omitted.

How many Nigerian defenders played with such regularity at the same high level as Yobo? Perhaps only Celestine Babayaro can

Nigeria at the 2002 World Cup, as Yobo demonstrated his superb versatility

Yobo during the early years of his Nigeria career

compete with the centreback, and how much would guys like Godfrey Oboabona or Kenneth Omeruo love to emulate the achievements of their former skipper?

This was a defender that was on the verge on joining Arsenal in the summer of 2006 and who featured at three World Cups, six Afcon tournaments—leading Nigeria to her third Nations Cup in 2013.

Here is Nigeria’s record appearance holder at the World Cup with 10 matches.

Nor was Yobo one to shirk the responsibilities that came with his lofty status; despite the tempestuous demands of EPL competition, Mr. Reliable never missed a match at a summer tournament for

Joseph Yobo with AFCON trophy

Nigeria during his playing career excluding the Super Eagles’ no-show at the World Cup in 2006!

Even in the latter stages of his career, when he moved to Turkey, he missed just two summer commitments, and it was telling that Stephen Keshi turned back to Yobo to take his spot in the heart of the defence for the national side’s foray to Brazil in 2014.

Unfortunately, Nigerians failed to truly appreciate his efforts and sacrifices, a clear case of ‘see finish’.

The Rivers State government must be commended for deciding to honour a worthy servant to the nation and a son of the soil.

PAGE 47

PEOPLES DAILY, TUESday, MARCH 29, 2016

Some Interesting Facts • A cat’s urine glows under a black light.

• (removed, duplicated) • Starfish have no brains.

• Polar bears are left-handed.

• Humans and dolphins are the only species that have sex for pleasure.

• In France, it is legal to marry a dead person (Contributed by Loes - 16 May 2015) Table Mountain in Cape Town is believed to be one of the oldest mountains in the world.

2. The world is divided into six floral kingdoms. All these kingdoms encompass several countries, and in some cases, several continents. South Africa, which has a floral kingdom

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wholly contained within the country, is the one exception.

The Cape Floral Kingdom has 9,600 plant species, 70% of which are not found anywhere else in the world.

3. Table Mountain alone has over 1,500 species of plants, more than the entire United Kingdom.

4. South Africa is the second largest exporter of fruit in the world.

5. South Africa has the longest wine route in the world.

6. Kruger National Park supports the greatest variety of wildlife species on the African continent.

7. South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Mozambique are tearing down fences between the countries’ game parks to create a 13,500 square mile game park, which will become the largest conservation area in the world. It will be bigger than Switzerland, Belgium or Taiwan.

8. South Africa has a penguin colony, which thrives thanks to the cold Antarctic currents on the west coast near the Cape.

Gender’ and the unending ‘War of the sexes’ Contd from Page 48 male ego. It is ‘not dawn yet’, they would say, ‘until the rooster crows’! Meaning that it is not morning until the men are arisen. But San Kyi replied the men of her country thus: “it is not the prerogative of men to bring light to the world”! Women, she said “with their capacity for compassion and self-sacrifice, their courage and perseverance, have done much to dissipate the darkness of intolerance and hate, suffering and despair” all of which war-mongering ‘man’ has consciously wrought on the world!

Little wonder that American reformer Elizabeth Cady Stanton preached the need for women to approach the war of the sexes not as a battle to liberate the woman, but as a rescue mission to save man from himself. Because “the male element” she said “is a destructive force”, and that what is needed is “a new evangel of

womanhood to… lift man up into the higher realms of thought and action”. And that sounds more like it. Women have got to approach ‘man’ swinging and ‘swiveling’; not ‘singing’ and ‘groveling’. They must ‘square up’ with us to ‘take’ and not ‘squat down’ to us hoping to ‘get’!

In truth, I do not believe in ‘affirmative action’. Nor should women. Any conscious attempt at so called ‘equalization of the sexes’, will not work. The Indira Gandhis, the Margret Thatchers, Corazon Aquino, Benazir Bhutho, Bandaranaike, Angela Markel and others, did not ride on the crest of any premeditated ‘affirmative action’. They rose above the male tendencies of their climes and distinguished themselves to command the respect of men.

These ‘successful’ women scaled obstacles and they chipped away at man-made barriers; they did not quiver, they did not

shiver; nor did they submit to the intimidation of male gender omnipresence. Their goal was to climb to the peak; and without turning back, without hesitation, they marched on –because all the truth they knew was ‘marching on’. And that is why even today, they stand tall in our estimation; and they continue to endure in our reverent remembrance.

Back home here, Gambo Sawaba, Margret Ekpo, Mogaji etc, are abiding icons in our memories –taller than many men of their times- not because they were beneficiaries of any male gender grace. But because they dared to rise, to challenge and to be different. And that was the heart of the message by the American black suffragist, Maria Steward when she said: “Daughters of Africa, awake!

Arise! Distinguish yourselves”.

She did not say ‘lobby the men’!

PHOTO OF THE DAY

Sshh, I’m sleeping: One moggy sneaks a nap in its white bed which matches its coat.

Source: Dailymail.co.uk

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TUESday, march 29, 2016

SPORTS latest

Pharaoh fans blast Zambian ref

W

hile Nigerian fans may be fuming at the way Salahs last gasp goal was scored preventing them of securing three vital points in Kaduna, Egyptian fans showed their happiness after the 1-1 draw on the air waves in Egypt and on Social Media.

Hamada Tolba, Zamalek and Egypt defender took the bulk of the praise from the fans who appreciated his effort in corralling the Nigerian strikers all day - most notably preventing a superb goal by Victor Moses.

Of course they were also pleased with Mohammed Salah’s persistence and nose for the goal. They however dismissed the claims from the Nigerian camp, especially from coach Siasia who insinuated the Egyptians failed to play fair and give the ball back to the Super Eagles after GK Ikeme had played it out, responding to Oboabona’s injury.

They claimed the Nigerians had started to waste time and were trying to just hold on and let the game expire.

Rather they blasted Zambian referee Janny Sikazwe claiming he ended the game prematurely as Salah was on his way to net his second goal after waltzing through the deflated Eagles defense.

Both teams will now meet for the second game in Alexandra on the 29th which Nigeria has to win to keep any chance of making it to Afcon 2017.

Zimbabwe crushes Swaziland 4-0

Z

imbabwe swept aside Swaziland 4-0 in their 2017 Africa Cup of Nations Group L qualifier yesterday.

The hosts, who earned a 1-1 draw in Swaziland on Friday, dominated the return match in Harare to move three points clear at the top of the table.

Knowledge Musona opened the scoring on 53 minutes from the penalty spot and Costa Nhamoinesu made it 2-0 six minutes later.

Evans Rusike extended the advantage and Khama Billiat sealed the win late on.

Swaziland remain on five points, three points above Malawi and Guinea who play each other today.

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QUOTABLE QUOTE Security is a collective effort not only that of security agencies as government alone cannot provide security absolutely to its citizens without the support and cooperation of its citizens — The Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Sadiq Abubakar

Gender’ and the unending ‘War of the sexes’

T

hrice the bill on ‘gender equality’ (or ‘parity’, if you will) came before a male dominated – allegedly ‘chauvinistic’Legislature, NASS. And thrice, with ‘legislative impunity’, that obnoxious (?) bill was thrown out, for want of normative and metaphysical diligence. Those proposing the bill seemed to love themselves to the point of loathing those who would give them approval. They wanted the men to sign a piece of document instantaneously raising ‘women’ to ‘parity’ with their ‘gender masters’! This would require more than just the ‘will power’ of the ‘slave-master’ signing the ‘Emancipation Proclamation’.

Because the fight for ‘gender equality’ is not just about the woman wanting to be ‘free’ from the control of a ‘gender-master’.

It is about the woman asking to hold rival position with the Master. But hey, “Self-love” as Shakespeare said “is not so vile a sin as self-neglecting”!

And you’d think it is the ‘tenacity of their demand’ or the ‘audacity of their faith’-or both- that propels to action these stubborn ‘daughters of Eve’ –no, ‘daughters of Adam’, the ‘rib’ was taken from ‘us’ remember?so that giving the consistency in proposing and re-proposing this bill, you would think that the ‘Serpent’ of the Garden is already at work again! Lucifer had deployed the agency of the feeble woman to cause man the greatest gift of God, Eden, and now even as we try to eke a living out of a derelict and decrepit ‘earth’, the fiend is in conspiracy with the woman again!

Each of the three times the ‘gender equality’ bill had to show its ugly face back at NASS after it had been thrown out, the document still contained that same obnoxious provision: ‘Equality’, not ‘equity’! The women have persistently refused to be diligent enough to know that ‘equality’ is not the hallmark of nature; but that ‘Equity’ is. ‘To hell with Equity’, they said, ‘Give us Equality, or give us NOTHING!’ And the men, in all honesty have been ‘consistently fair’ in this regard. They have always said to the women: ‘Equality, you won’t have! And the ‘NOTHING’ that you asked for as alternative to ‘equality’, that you already have, take it with you, -the obnoxious bill. It is ‘NOTHING’ to us but ‘paper’!

And you wonder: ‘when will the women of this country ever get it into their greasy ‘affirmative’ heads that men the world over, cannot spare any more ‘rib’ after the loss of that precious one in the Garden of Eden? When will the women get a hint and ‘come off the chests of men for good’?! Someone should tell them that the ‘wound’ has not healed yet, since when God unilaterally carved them out from our pristine ‘rib case’! In fact the

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Senator Bukola Saraki way the women are going about this ‘gender parity’ thing, we may not be averse after all to the idea of asking for that one ‘rib’ of ours back! That was a ‘unilateral contract’; there was no ‘consensus ad idem’ between us and God before the ‘rib’ was taken!

‘LIB’ OR ‘RIB’?

I should confess first, being the son of a ‘mother’, that I hold this to be self-evident truth, that ‘women’ –God bless them- are endowed from birth with virtue; and they posses therefore such transcendent qualities of love, forbearance, compassion and such other sublime attributes which ‘man’, having neither the courage nor the desire to grow, is alleged often to debase. And the modern woman nowadays –no matter the height that she has attained- feels herself grossly unfulfilled. She has psychologically fixated her mind on, and has thus burdened herself with what ‘chauvinistic’ man tags ‘gender protest’ -in continuation of a phony ‘war of the sexes’ to ‘liberate’ the ‘women’ from so called ‘male gender domination’!

And maybe –just maybepristine women did love one another; but assuredly, we all know that modern ones do not!

You saw in 2011 how they left one of their own, Serah Jubril, stranded on the ballot. Only Serah voted for Serah at the 2011 PDP Presidential Primaries. I thought that the rallying mantra for electoral propriety has always been ‘One Man, One Vote’.

Serah’s ‘One Woman, One Vote’ was so, so ‘self-neglecting’, it should make Shakespeare puke!

Serah alone voting Serah mocked at the very rationale behind ‘Affirmative Action’ itself. It revealed women as anglers who wait to ‘take’ including what they can ‘earn’ by sheer ‘numbers’.

Women want ‘gender equality’ yet women regale in the reputation of standing only behind ‘successful men’.

A lot has been said about the ‘woman’ as an enigma of enigmas; -the one creature that ‘genderbiased’ man laments although he ‘can’t do with’, yet he also ‘can’t do without’. But Serah apart, the penchant by the two genders for chipping away each other’s ‘virtue’ has been both pristine and primordial.

Man has said the ‘woman’ it was who made him eat the ‘forbidden fruit’ and that it is the reason he now has two ‘hidden balls’ in his ‘scrotal’ and one ‘crooked lever’ (Adam’s Apple) up on his glottal. And even as the ‘women’ grudgingly admit in those ‘balls’ are humanity’s ‘regenerative power’, yet they insist man’s ‘Adam’s Apple’ is emblematic of his primeval ‘greed’. Without situating their causal role in its formation, they say that ‘Adam’s Apple’ is a physiological testimony of the thieving credentials of man during his disgraceful sojourn even in the ‘blissfully-provident’ Orchard of God. Ironically today, the ‘woman’ who started it all at Eden, has come off the whole Garden saga with neither ‘balls’ to stand up to the ‘bully’ of man, nor with her own ‘Eve’s Apple’ to match insatiable greed of man. The woman all along has only been guilty of man’s greed ‘by association’ -having come from the crooked rib of man. But Horace Porter had said that even the parable of a profoundly sleepy ‘man’ in Eden losing a precious ‘rib’ to the creative genius of God, has been perverted by ungrateful man who claims that by that event ‘his’ very ‘first’ sleep unfortunately became his last ‘repose’. Because since then, neither God nor man has known rest!

Is it true then that ‘man’ had enjoyed peace aforetime until the ‘woman’ was created into his world? I do not think so. Because if, as some creation theorists say, the woman was ‘created from a rib closest to man’s heart’, only love could have been engendered by this event, not ‘rivalry’. And it is from this unending schism (whether ‘woman’ was created from a ‘rib’ closest to man’s heart or from the ‘croockedest part’ of him) that whenever the woman radiates virtue, women insist she is self-personifying; but in her flaws, frailties and foibles they

claim she is only emblematic of the ‘crooked’ rib from whence she came!

But then you may also ask ‘if there is a gender war, should it be about the ‘liberation of the woman’ (women’s lib) from the control of her primordial master, or should it be about the retrieval of the missing ‘rib’ of man?

Nothing can be more iniquitous than the demand for ‘equality’ between ‘man’, (the ‘whole’) and ‘woman’ who, ab initio, was merely a tiny ‘part’ (the rib) of a bigger ‘part’ (the rib case) of a ‘whole’(the ‘man’). To raise the woman above her tangible origin, a new theory must be developed to weigh the tangible ‘worth’ of one lonesome ‘rib’ to the intangible ‘value’ of a whole grown ‘man’.

And so ‘creation theorists’ came up with the idea that since man was a cheap creature – having come from the ‘dust’ of the earth- and the woman was ‘pure calcium’ extracted from one of the rugged parts of man, his ribman is thus ‘base and earthly’, but that the woman is ‘strength’ and ‘vigor’ all rolled in one. And Chauncey Depew said: “in all ages woman has been the source of all that is pure, unselfish and heroic in the spirit and life of man”.

The movements of history he said “are mainly due to the sentiments or ambitions she has inspired”. Simply put the ‘woman’ is humanity’s tonic and ‘man’ is its drag. She is the veritable fecundating ground without which even the regenerative power of man counts for naught.

The woman it is who owns the non-physical phallus of procreation; man only bears about its scrotal burden!

POSTSCRIPT Years back in a speech at the Beijing Women Conference, Burmese opposition leader and strong-woman San Kyi, joked about an outmoded Burmese proverb which the men of her country had used to titillate their Contd on Page 47

DAN GAYE

Troops winning Boko Haram war – Obasanjo

Yes, It is obvious

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