Tue 18 Feb 2014

TheGuardian Conscience, Nurtured by Truth

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Vol. 30, No. 12,836

N150

www.ngrguardiannews.com

Yoruba leaders meet, take common position on confab From Iyabo Lawal (Ibadan), Seye Olumide (Lagos) and Terhemba Daka (Abuja) DESIRE to present a comA mon agenda has overridden the initial mutual disagreement by Yoruba leaders in the South-West over the planned national conference.

Indeed, several pan-Yoruba organisations and leaders, including those in the All Progressives Congress (APC) who had misgivings about the

• Okay secession, power devolution, resource control, partial immunity, regional police • ‘Tinubu’s men’ present at meeting • Abuja indigenes task minister on delegates planned conference, gathered in Isara-Remo, home of Chief Olaniwun Ajayi in Ogun State yesterday under the leadership of the Chairman of Afenifere, Chief Reuben Fasoranti, to take a common position on the Yoruba agenda at the conference.

The issue of the 15 delegates

that would represent the region was resolved, among others. It was decided that each of the six states is to produce two delegates while the remaining three delegates were conceded to the Yoruba leaders to decide.

The Isara meeting yesterday, which is a follow-up to an ear-

lier meeting held at the same venue last week, attracted, among others, former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Chief Olu Falae, members of the Afenifere Renewal Group (ARG) which organised the Ibadan, Oyo State capital meeting, some prominent members of the APC, in-

cluding its Interim National Chairman, Chief Bisi Akande.

Former Ogun State governor, Chief Segun Osoba, sent in a letter of excuse for not attending.

Also in attendance were the Oyo State Governor, Abiola Ajimobi; former Ekiti State governor and Interim Deputy

National Chairman - Southwest of the APC, Chief Niyi Adebayo, Mr. Ayo Afolabi, ARG Chairman, Wale Osun and some other close associates of the former Lagos State Governor Bola Tinubu who had opposed the conference.

Others that were present included former Managing Director of Punch Newspapers, Chief Ajibola Ogunsola, SenaCONTINUED ON PAGE 4

We’re in state of war, says Borno gov, Shettima - Page 2 Reps panel alleges N1.015b scam over printing of ballot papers - Page 5 Mark, others seek better deal for women - Page 5 Court awards N2.5m against police over rights abuse - Page 7 Afenifere chieftain, Ayo Adebanjo (left); Olaniwun Ajayi; Oyo State Governor Abiola Ajimobi and Chairman, Afenifere, Reuben Fasoranti; during the Yoruba agenda committee meeting for 2014 national conference in Isara-Remo, Ogun State... yesterday.

PHOTO: FEMI ADEBESIN-KUTI

National conference splits Igbo elite From Lawrence Njoku (Enugu) and Uzoma Nzeagwu (Awka)

C’ River to ask for compensation over Bakassi, resource control, others

GBO leaders are divided Itional over the forthcoming naconference.

by the Anambra State chapter of the ethnic nationality’s apex socio-cultural organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo.

Speaking at the end of their meeting held in Enugu, Secretary of the Leaders of Thought, Prof. Elochukwu Amucheazi, explained that the position was arrived at after various meetings and consultations embarked up-

While the Prof. Ben Nwabueze-led Concerned Igbo Leaders of Thought said yesterday that it has produced a position for the South-East geo-political zone with a strong, virile and balanced federation as its nucleus, his claim was dismissed

on by the group to ascertain Igbo interest.

At the meeting chaired by Nwabueze were Prof. Chukwuemeka Ike, Prof. Ginigeme Mbanefo, Archbishop Maxwell Anikwenwa, Chief Onyesoh Nwachukwu, Prof.

Obumselu, Chief Enechi Onyia (SAN), Elliot Uko and others.

Amucheazi said: “We have

now produced Igbo position for the conference and this is what we are going to make available to Igbo delegates going for the conference. The position is to protect Igbo interest but it is not different from the position of other ethnic groups. We want a balanced federation based on equity and justice. We want a true federation and the re-

structuring of the country based on the existing six geopolitical zones that constitute the country. We need a strong leadership.”

Amucheazi, who believed that the outcome of the exercise would ultimately give birth to a new nation, stated that President Goodluck Jonathan would be the father of modern Nigeria should he

actualise the conference.

He called for the support of Nigerians to enable the conferenace succeed, stressing that he was hopeful that the unity of the country was above any other interest.

But the Anambra State chairman of Ohanaeze, Elder Chris Eluemunoh, at a press briefing yesterday in Awka, the state capital, cautioned CONTINUED ON PAGE 4

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2 Tuesday, February 18, 2014

We’re in state of war, says Borno governor, Shettima From Saxone Akhaine (Kaduna), Mohammed Abubakar (Abuja), Njadvara Musa (Maiduguri) and Wole Oyebade (Lagos) IGERIANS and foreigners N who have not been directly affected by the crisis in the North-East may not truly grasp its gravity.

For such people, the picture may only become clearer after hearing what Borno State Gov-

• Briefs national security council, admits superior firepower of B’ Haram • Confirms 106 dead in Idzge • Northern leaders alarmed by persistent attacks • How to broker peace in N’ East states, by Shehu Sanni ernor Kashim Shettima had to say about the trouble of the region.

Shettima told the National Security Council (NSC) yesterday in Abuja that the North-East was in a state of

war.

The governor was in the federal capital following a summons by President Goodluck Jonathan.

The President, who flew into Abuja in the afternoon from Lagos, went straight to the meeting attended by the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), Air Chief Marshall Alexander Sabundu Badeh, Service Chiefs, the National Security Adviser (NSA), the DirectorGeneral of State Security Service (SSS) and the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) in his office.

It was learnt that yesterday’s meeting was prompted by renewed attacks on the border communities between Borno and Adamawa states, which led to the killing of 106 people in Idzge in Gwoza Local Council of Borno.

Briefing State House correspondents after the Security Council meeting, an obviously overwhelmed Shettima admitted that the people of the state and the North-East region were being confronted with a state of war, adding that this was what he had come to brief the President on.

The governor warned that the rate at which the killings were going required the commitment of more resources in the troubled area to be able to stop them.

“The sooner we stopped playing the ostrich and rise up to the challenges of the day, and marshal all resources towards … the antics of Boko Haramthe better for all of us.

“The bottom line is that we need more resources, more vote on ground. In all fairness to the officers and men of the Nigerian Army and police, they are doing their best given the circumstances they have found themselves in.

“But honestly, Boko Haram members are better armed and are better motivated than our own troops. And believe me, I am an eternal optimist as I have always said, but I am also a realist. Given the present state of affairs, it is absolutely impossible for us to defeat Boko Haram.”

Asked if he made the President to understand the enormity of the situation, he said: “I made it emphatically clear to the President that the Boko Haram members are better armed and better motivated, anybody who is following events in this country can attest to the fact that they have a very smooth sail over-running communities, killing people. Have we ever succeeded in thwarting any of their plans? They went to Konduga and did what they wanted to do; they held sway for over four hours before they left.

They were in Kawuri, Idzge and I don’t blame the Nigerian military. Honestly, we the leaders should be held responsible for our failure in leadership.”

He said that in Idzge alone, 106 lives were lost in the attack and eight other communities were raided. While he could not give the exact figures of casualties in the other raids, the governor said he would be in a position to give the exact number of people that were killed in other communities.

“Remember that some people were hospitalised with very great injuries, so I’m

afraid the figures might climb,” he said.

Shettima said he had no adequate facts on the alleged threat by Boko Haram to launch an onslaught on Cameroun if it assists the Federal Government to fight Boko Haram.

“I am not privy to such information but the President has assured us that he will put in his best to see that the unfortunate tendency of the Boko Haram over-running communities and butchering innocent souls is brought under control,” he said.

Asked if it was still possible to conduct an election in the state in 2015, Shettima said it was too early for anybody to talk about an election when human lives were being wasted.

“Power comes from God and he gives power to whom He wills. I don’t care a hoot whether elections are here but I do care that peace is restored in Borno and the North-East sub-region, so people should stop playing politics,” he said.

The military said yesterday that the attacks by terrorists would not stop from continuing the campaign against them.

A statement by the Director, Defence Information, Maj.Gen. Chris Olukolade, said: “The terrorists who move from village to village attacking innocent civilians are those escaping from the onslaught against their makeshift hide-out along the border and entry point from neighbouring countries.

“The fighting patrols by air and land are being stepped up in the forests and hills of the affected areas and other parts of the North-East where the Boko Haram terrorists are hiding. The security forces will continue to employ necessary firepower to enhance the effectiveness of the mission until the terrorists are duly curtailed. Meanwhile, locations that are prone to attacks are being reinforced while the general area is now under heightened surveillance and patrols. Some suspected perpetrators of the recent assault have been apprehended and weapons recovered from them.”

The 19 northern governors yesterday expressed worry about the Boko Haram in the North-East as they blamed themselves for not handling the situation well.

They pledged to support the Federal Government in a fresh move to defeat the insurgents.

On their part, Arewa leaders under the aegis of Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), during their 2014 Yearly General Assembly (AGA) yesterday, where the newly-elected leadership of the forum was ratified, highlighted their modest efforts in the past to end the terror by the insurgent group.

Though only five of the governors were physically present at the Northern States Governors’ Forum (NSGF) while others sent their representatives, the Chairman of the forum and Governor of Niger State, Dr. Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu, said as he opened the meeting that the fresh attacks by Boko Haram in Borno and other parts of the North-East were unaccept-

able.

“We woke up today to hear what has been happening in Borno in particular and North-East in general and many of the northern states.

And we must take a position so that if it is lack of political will on our part, we must create that political will so that from our own political will, it transcends to the Federal Government and to the people of Nigeria,” he said.

“To me, the situation is going beyond the traditional description that we give for Boko Haram. I think we need to really appreciate the gravity of the situation. Many countries would go to war for the death of one person, but it appears we are becoming a little callous that we don’t seem to care much about what is happening. We must continue to encourage the Federal Government to really do what it is supposed to do,” he said.

Delivering the ACF’s report, the outgoing Secretary-General, Col. Shehu Musa (rtd), explained that “the ACF being the foremost pan-northern socio-cultural organisation has been involved in some of the initiatives of the Federal Government which were mitigating the security challenges facing the North.”

“At a point, the insurgency escalated in the North-East and the Federal Government realised that the use of military might alone was not enough to solve the crisis and people were calling on the government to have dialogue with the insurgents. The Federal Government appointed a committee under the Minister of Special Duties and once again a representative of ACF was nominated on the committee.”

He added that “the effort of our forum towards promoting peace and unity in the country neither stops with providing consultancy for the Federal Government nor with participation in committees commissioned by government”, saying that “as part of our mandate, we initiated certain programmes which were aimed at promoting peaceful co-existence in our communities.”

Among the new leadership of ACF as announced yesterday at the meeting were former Inspector-General of Police, Alhaji Ibrahim Coomassie as the Chairman and the former Military Administrator of Kebbi State, Col. John Ubah (rtd) as the Secretary-General.

The District Head of Idzge, Malam Bulama Apagu and Madagali Local Council Chairman, Mr. Maina Ularamu, said yesterday that the death toll in the Boko Haram attacks had increased from 91 to 106 following the retrieval of more bodies in destroyed houses and nearby bushes and farmlands for burial.

The increase was discovered at different burial grounds after surviving relations of slain people, including women and teachers that attempted to flee their houses into the bush for safety were counted by the district head.

In a telephone interview, Ularamu told The Guardian that 60 bodies were buried on Sunday evening, including the 31 bodies retrieved from the market square.

He said the retrieval of 15 bodies on Sunday by the Volunteer Group Members were from houses and the nearby bushes, which the fleeing victims considered as their safe places against insurgents.

He, however, noted that more bodies could be retrieved by the volunteers group, as some of the residents fled into different directions for safety when the entire town was burning for over five hours.

On the fleeing displaced residents, Ularamu said: “The killings of many people in Idzge have terrified and shocked the survivors, mainly the elderly, women and children. These forced some of them to flee to the nearest safe place like Gulak, the council headquarters of Madagali Local Council of Adamawa State. You know that Gwoza is also not safe for the fleeing residents to take refuge. This was why more people of Idzge are fleeing on foot, bicycles and motorcycles to the administrative headquarters of Madagali Local Council, 30 kilometres away from Gwoza town in Borno State.”

He added: “As of Monday morning when I visited the temporary resettlement camps, we had over 10,000 Internally- Displaced Persons (IDPs); and more are coming into this camp because the people of other villages of Yazza, Bita, Waga Chakawa, Sabon-Gari, Gori and Jaje with a population of over 1, 500, are still trooping into Gulak town for safety and relief materials from either the state or Federal Government.”

He said that to effectively cope with the increasing number of internally-displaced persons, Governor Murtala Nyako should promptly visit all the attacked towns and villages in the state and emulate Shettima by assisting victims of Boko Haram.

Malam Bulama Apagu, the district head of Idzge, said the withdrawal of troops by the 23 Armoured Brigade, Yola, after the killing of 10 soldiers in a clash with insurgents on February 13, 2014 left the entire township vulnerable to Boko Haramterrorists’ attacks and killings on Saturday.

“I cannot speak further to you on this multiple attacks on my people that had done nothing against these gunmen in wiping off the entire town and residents. We need more soldiers and policemen to protect us against terrorists’ attacks and killings here in this destroyed town,” Apagu said yesterday in a telephone interview.

He said because of the increase in number of people killed, the volunteer group members were burying the bodies in mass graves of 15 each as the ground was hard to dig to accommodate more bodies for burial.

Reacting to the attacks, the Lagos State House of Assembly has accused the Presidency of a loss of focus in its priority to protect lives and property of the citizenry.

The House yesterday noted that though Jonathan swore to protect lives and property, and declared a state of emergency in the troubled region, “persistent killings in the North-East have shown that the Presidency is incapable of protecting the country.”

The Spokesperson for the Assembly and House Committee Chairman on Information, Strategy, Security and Publicity, Segun Olulade, said this yesterday while examining the implication of persistent killing of Nigerians by the Boko Haram.

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Tuesday, February 18, 2014

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Yoruba leaders meet, okay secession, partial immunity, regional police CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 tor Olabiyi Durojaiye, Dr. Kunle Olajide, former Minister for Power and Steel, Sarafa Ishola, Chief Dapo Durosinmi, Mr. Tokunbo Ajasin, Oladipo Olaitan, Prof. Kunle Ade Wahab, Mr. Jimi Agbaje, Mr. Fola Adeola, Erelu Abiola Fernandez, Supo Sonibare and Gen. Alani Akinrinade.

Chief Gani Adams, former Lagos State Governor, Alhaji Lateef Jakande, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, Senator Iyiola Omisore, Chief Rafiu Jafojo who have supported the conference were present, but Ekiti State Governor Kayode Fayemi, Ondo State Governor Olusegun Mimiko and former Ogun State Governor, Gbenga Daniel, were represented at the event that held at the residence of Olanihun.

Some of the decisions taken, which would be subject to ratification by the Yoruba National Assembly during a meeting scheduled for Thursday in Ibadan, Oyo State, include the right to secession proposed by the ARG, which was adopted.

It was also agreed that Yoruba federation maintains its six-region state with some boundary adjustment to accommodate Ekiti in Kwara to join Ekiti State, Igbomina and Ibolo in Kwara to join Osun State.

The meeting also recommended the Westminster model of parliamentary system of government, power devolution from the central to federating units, resource control and revenue allocation to be reviewed in accordance with the devolution of power, and that derivation should rather be based on the total revenue accruable to the Federation Account and not based on a single product as it is currently practised.

The Yoruba leaders also rec-

ommended that immunity for elected officials should be limited to civil cases only: “Where a prima facie criminal case is established against an elected officer by a court of competent jurisdiction, such officer shall vacate office during the trial.”

The gathering further advocated regional police with clearly defined roles and relationship with the federal police, while defence is to remain the exclusive responsibility of the central government.

But military commands, which are to consist mainly of indigenes of the region, are also to be headed by the indigenes of the region.

The meeting will reconvene in Ibadan on Thursday where a pan-Yoruba position, based on harmonised positions of every segment of the region, is expected to be taken ahead of the conference.

At the event, Ajimobi, said it was only a senseless Yoruba man that would see all the struggles the fathers of the region were doing to salvage it and ignore them.

He noted there were some elders in Yorubaland whose ways were not straight: “I wonder the problem with Yoruba; maybe because we are over-learned or exposed, we always oppose one another whenever a serious decision is to be taken.”

Stressing the need to address what he described as the lopsided revenue allocation system, Ajimobi said: “The present system is not profitable because Oyo gets a federal allocation of N4 billion monthly for over eight million people while Bayelsa gets N22 billion for just 700,000 people. This is something we should address critically at the conference.”

He enjoined Yoruba leaders to make the re-introduction

of regional government one of their major demands.

While commending the efforts of Yoruba leaders in the promotion of the interest of the race in national discourse, Ajimobi urged them to be more committed, loyal and honest, and also demonstrate a high level of integrity in advancing the cause of the Yoruba at the conference.

He also stressed the need for the constitution of a technical committee that would be saddled with the responsibility of co-ordinating and aggregating the official position of the Yoruba race at the conference.

While saying that the committee should consist of experienced technocrats who had held sensitive positions both within and outside the government, the governor said that all the states in the SouthWest geo-political zone should be equally represented.

A chieftain of the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO), Otunba Olabiyi Durojaiye on his part, urged more Yoruba people to support the conference. “It is now a common cause we must all fight and address together.”

Durojaiye said the Yoruba people must not be afraid to assert their position at the conference. “Those who planned this conference now have their reason. It is not possible to finish the conference within three months. In this wise, if the situation arises, we should press for adoption of the 1960 Constitution.

“We must look out for quality, educated and tested representatives, it must not be based on religion and we must emphasise that the delegates must swear to an oath they would not betray our collective interest.”

While giving a report of some of the Yoruba leaders with the Ooni of Ife, Oba Okunade Sijuwade, the Secretary-Gener-

al, the Yoruba Unity Forum (YUF), Dr. Kunle Olajide, said there was success.

Ajayi moved a motion, which was unanimously supported, that no other Yoruba group should organise any meeting with regard to the planned national conference apart from the one held at Isara-Remo. According to him, “Any group that does so would be fined.”

Falae said it was imperative for the Yoruba to take a concrete position over what they want to achieve at the conference, otherwise, some minority groups “who are still eyeing the Presidency are determined to ensure that the present presidential structure continues.”

National Co-ordinator, Oodua People’s Congress (OPC), Gani Adams, said it did not matter whatever any other region wants, “what is critical to the Yoruba is self-autonomy and others.”

To Yinka Odumakin, spokesman of ARG, “if the minorities want the presidential system to continue, two things have happened to us.

We have been lumped up together for too long, which has been impeding our development. From the report I am hearing, it is most likely the Yoruba alone will be strong on regionalism and parliamentary system. We must therefore be determined and this is where the issue of who and who represent us matters.”

Adebanjo wants people who know about conference, who could interface with others from other regions. “We cannot afford federal character as a modality to choose the delegates to represent us at the conference. It is not possible, the minorities we saved during the days of Chief Obafemi Awolowo cannot come and enslave us now. Should we go for another election on the

basis of 20 local councils in Lagos and 40 local councils in Kano State? The Yoruba have more advantages on regionalism.” He said that “from Falae’s report, the minority wants to enslave us.”

Adebanjo specifically warned that any delegate that betrays or sells out the interest of the Yoruba at the conference “would be betrayed.”

The people discussed issues pertaining to the conference as it affects the Yoruba race extensively and also reconciled and adopted some of the positions taken by the meetings held in Ibadan, Abuja and Asaba in Delta State. Other farreaching decisions were also taken.

Meanwhile, indigenes of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) under the aegis of the Original Inhabitants Development Association (OIDA)

have asked the Minister, Bala Mohammed, to quicken the nomination of delegates to the national conference.

In a statement signed by its President, Pastor Danladi Jeji, OIDA applauded the Federal Government’s convocation of the conference, saying it was an auspicious platform for all Nigerians - tribes, religions and regions to ventilate their grievances, real or imagined, about the continuous corporate existence of the nation.

OIDA said: “The national conference will give the Abuja indigenous people the opportunity to bring the issues of their statelessness, marginalisation and forceful usurpation of their lands without compensation by the Nigerian state to the limelight.” The group said it was well-prepared to be a part of the dialogue.

Prof. Femi Okunrounmu,, Confab Panel chairman

C’ River to ask for compensation over Bakassi, others at confab CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 Nwabueze who is renowned constitutional lawyer “to grow up .”

The chairman also strongly criticised Imo State Governor, Owelle Rochas Okorocha, who he said now parades himself as the new Igbo leader.

He alleged that Nwabueze’s comments were geared towards supporting the Yoruba agenda, while undermining the progress of his kinsmen who are the endangered species and dregs of Nigeria society.

According to him, Nwabueze’s recent public statements are outright falsehoods against Ohanaeze and Ndigbo, and “keeping quiet to such antics will mean his outbursts” are true, stressing that “since he is our son, and hails from this Anambra State, there is need for us to clear the air of his falsehood.”

Eluemunoh stated that Nwabueze had variously claimed to be leader of The Patriots, a group of Nigeria’s elders statesmen, and the mouthpiece for Ndigbo who has canvassed Igbo position for the national conference.

However, he insisted that Ohanaeze was the “only group that speaks for Ndigbo, and for Nwabueze to parade himself as the leader of

The Patriots and creating the impression that the Ohanaeze Ndigbo is divided and incapable of speaking for the Igbos is falsehood.”

Eluemunoh’s words: “He is simply playing the music of the Yoruba people. There is no case in court concerning Ohanaeze. We are not divided. Chief Garry Igariwey remains our President-General. Nwabueze is a good constitutional lawyer, he has grown and does not want anyone else to grow, but he should know that Igboland has good lawyers today.”

Taking on Okorocha whom he had earlier referred to as a confused man, Eluemunoh said: “What he is doing is a childish pranks because he knows he will never become Igbo leader. The earlier he realises this and stop selling Igbos to his Yoruba friends the better. Ohanaeze is not APC, so he should be advised to retrace his steps.”

And apparently articulating its agenda ahead of the exercise, Cross River State government has urged its delegates to forthcoming national conference to consciously advance positions that would be in the best interest of the state.

Making the charge while addressing indigenes of the state who included national

and state legislators, members of the state executive council, elder statesmen, youth groups and other political stakeholders, at the Government Lodge, Calabar, yesterday, Governor Liyel Imoke highlighted Cross River’s agenda to include compensation for the loss of the Bakassi Peninsula and the right to control its solid mineral resources.

Also to be canvassed by the yet-to-be nominated state’s delegates, according to him, are control of National Parks, Inland Waterways, as well as what constitutes the definition of federal roads in the state.

While insisting on the need for a true Fiscal Federalism, Imoke said the concept should be seen beyond mere control of resources to enabling states collect and remit revenues from solid minerals.

On Federal Government collecting revenue from waterways through department of Inland Waterways in states, Imoke wondered why it should be so instead of the states collecting revenue generated from water transportation.

Others are community policing in states to fight crimes but should not be involved in federal election processes since they are on

the

Exclusive List.

The governor similarly frowned on subsidy which is currently the basis for revenue sharing formula rather than on consumption.

He said the state strongly supports the conference because “as a people, we have a lot of challenges that have to be addressed and discussing it will be useful to the nation despite objections from certain quarters.”

Imoke added: “Though some people may say previous dialogues did not bring anything, this conference will create an opportunity to bring a lot of things to the address weaktable as well as nesses. We need to articulate on issues that will build the nation rather than separate us as a people.

“It is good for us to have representations that will understand the thrust of the conference right from the very first day as well as to understand the position of South-South and southern Nigeria.

“We need a strong voice to represent the people, not one that will not be seen or vocal, to participate in discussions that are not only specific to Cross River State but national enough, not on sentiments but capacity, because it is a meeting of the minds that will come out with a resolution.”

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Tuesday, February 18, 2014 NEWS | 5

News Mark, others seek better deal for women From Omotola Oloruntobi, Abuja ENATE President, David Mark yesterday called for better representation of women in the political space, adding that they were being marginalised in the political process of the country despite the fact that they have key role to play in the political and economic development of Nigeria.

Mark who was represented by Chairman, Senate Committee on Women Affairs, Helen Esuene noted that Nigerian women needed better recognition in the scheme of things.

Also, the Speaker of the House, Aminu Tambuwal while speaking also called on Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC to use the opportunity of incoming delineation of Federal Constituencies and Senatorial Districts to make such positions available for women.

The duo spoke yesterday in Abuja at the Nigeria Women Strategy conference.

Earlier, the Executive

S

Ondo State Governor, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko, (right) Head of Service, Toyin Akinkuotu, a former head of service, Ajose Kudehinbu and Chairman, Ondo State Information Technology Agency (ODSITA), Tunde Yadeka at the opening of the 3-day orientation exercise for newly recruited officers of the Ondo State Civic Data Centre (ODCDC), in Akure yesterday.

Tukur restates loyalty to PDP, chides APC From Azimazi Momoh Jimoh, Abuja MMEDIATE past National IDemocratic Chairman of the Peoples Party (PDP), Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, yesterday in Abuja described the All Progressives Congress (APC) as “All Commercial Party.”

Receiving a pressure group, under the aegis of the National Consolidated Group (NCG) during a courtesy call, Tukur said he remained irrevocably committed to the PDP and would continue to be in the party to give it the necessary support, adding that “this is because the PDP is the only reliable platform to serve Nigeria better.”

He called on PDP members who defected to other political parties to have a rethink and return to the fold of the party.

“The PDP is solid, intact and united as ever. This is evident by the influx of politicians to the PDP. Many more politicians, men and women of goodwill, will still join the party. Truly, the PDP is the party to beat. I enjoin all members of PDP family who have defected to other parties to have a rethink and return to the PDP fold.

International Understanding Month holds tomorrow HE International Understanding Month will be commemorated tomorrow,

by Rotary Club of Lagos District 9110 under the chairmanship of Dr. Michael Omolaye.

The event will feature a lecture with the theme, “Peace and Conflict Resolution”, at the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA), Kofo Abayomi, Victoria Island, Lagos.

Guest speakers are Professor Ibrahim Gambari, former Under Secretary General, United Nations and Prof. Akin Mabogunje.

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Reps panel alleges N1.015b scam over printing of ballot papers From Adamu Abuh and John Okeke, Abuja FTER previewing the way and manner the service wide votes were utilised from 2004 -2012, the House of Representatives yesterday accused the Presidency of embezzling N1.015 billion under the cover of printing the 2007 presidential poll ballot papers.

Meanwhile, ahead of the 2015 poll, the United States (U.S.) has urged the Federal Government to establish an electoral offences tribunal for the election.

Chairman of the House Committee on Public Accounts, Mr. Solomon Olamilekan, also pointed accusing fingers at the Dr. Bright Okogu-led Budget Office of hiding under the cover of the service wide vote to pilfer billions of naira from government coffers.

Olamilekan, who spoke with

A

• U.S. asks Nigeria to set up poll offences tribunal reporters after his committee summoned members of the Presidential Committee on Barracks Rehabilitation at the National Assembly complex, particularly claimed that the sum of N1.015 billion may have on two separate occasions been paid to a South African firm for the printing of ballot papers for the 2007 presidential election shortly after the Supreme Court of Nigeria issued a verdict that the then Vice President Atiku Abubakar be allowed to contest the presidential election on the platform of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN).

The lawmaker said the Presidency, Office of the Accountant General of the Federation and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the South African firm in question and

the Nigerian High Commission in South Africa, would be summoned by the House of Representatives to offer explanation as to why monies were twice paid for the printing of the presidential ballot papers in 2007.

Shedding light on how the transaction took place, he noted: “As a result of the late judgment and about five days to the presidential election, that they need to go round the clock and get a ballot paper that contains the name and logo of the party of Alhaji Atiku Abubakar.

As they were trying to work round the clock, the state House, with the INEC chairman and the CBN governor, had to call for an emergency meeting on how to address the situation since postponing the election was not in sight.

“Part of what they arrived at was that immediately, a South African company be contacted

How N5.6tr was expended, by AMCON chief From Bridget Chiedu Onochie and Azimazi Momoh Jimoh, Abuja ANAGING Director/Chief M Executive Officer of the Asset Management Company (AMCON), Mustafa Chike-Obi, yesterday gave account of how the sum of N5.676 trillion was spent on bail out of Eligible Financial Institutions (EFIs) by taking over Non-Performing Loans (NPLs).

Speaking at a one-day public hearing on the amendment of the AMCON Act 2010 organised by the Senate Committee on

Banking, Insurance and other Financial Institutions, ChikeObi also disclosed that the company issued N861.2 billion zero coupon bonds to recapitalise Enterprise Bank, Keystone Bank and Mainstreet Bank to full capacity without any risk to depositors.

He said: “Distinguished senators, when AMCON was created in 2010, the immediate action we undertook was to take over Non-Performing Loans (NPLs) from Eligible Financial Institutions (EFIs) and provide financial accommodation to

banks by issuing zero coupon bonds worth N4.042 trillion accruing to N5.676 trillion over three years.

“The bonds were used for: • Purchase of Eligible Bank Assets (EBAs) worth N3.67 trillion at a cost of N1.7 trillion (2010, 2011); • Issuance of N861.2 billion zero coupon bonds to recapitalise Enterprise Bank, Keystone Bank and Mainstreet Bank to full regulatory capital adequacy.

AMCON, through this action, owns 100 per cent of these banks.

to print a ballot paper at the cost of N16 per ballot paper.

Immediately that was done, there was need for them to raise the money. The controversy is this: there was a memo by the Chief of Staff to the President that mandated the Accountant General of the Federation to cause the issuance of the sum of N1.016 billion from the service wide votes account from the Consolidation Revenue Account to the CBN for the purpose of printing 65 million ballot papers.

Director, African Centre for Leadership, Strategy and Development, Dr. Otive Igbuzor faulted the Federal Government for failing to follow through on its gender policies.

Though he commended President Goodluck Jonathan for increasing appointive position of women to 31 per cent, he said Nigeria was still lagging behind and not respecting its own gender policy of 35 per cent.

He said government should demonstrate goodwill by respecting its own policies by ensuring that all appointive positions follow the gender policy of 35 percent He added that for Nigeria to move forward, stakeholders need to build opportunities for women in 2015.

Delivering the keynote address titled, Making a Difference in 2015 and beyond, at the conference, he stressed that since 1999, the country has been stagnant on the representation of women compared to other African countries.

According to him, “The development of any nation requires the participation of both men and women.

Women have been marginalised especially in area of political participation. In other countries, there is an increased participation of women but Nigeria has remain stagnant since 1999 especially in the representation of women in parliament.”

Speaking at the conference, the Technical Adviser of the conference, Saudatu Sanni expressed displeasure at the National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Ahmadu Mu’azu and other political parties in the country for failing to attend a conference that concern Nigerian women.

Amnesty Office sheds light on controversial budget figures, contracts From Abosede Musari, Abuja HE Amnesty Office in T Abuja has declared that it only received a total of N243.1 billion in budgetary allocation from the Federal Government since inception in 2010, as against N400 billion and N260 billion reported in the media.

Chairman of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, Kingsley Kuku, at a press conference yesterday, declared that the amnesty office received N8 billion in 2010 under the leadership of the then Minister of Defence, Maj. Gen. Godwin Abbe (rtd) and Chief Timi Alaibe who presided over the early phases of the programme.

In 2011, N102.1 billion was allocated to the amnesty office at the time it began the demobilisation of the ex-agitators. Kuku said that

the allocation was reduced to N66.7 billion in 2012. The same allocation of N66.7 billion was also given in 2013. The total amount for the four years, according to him, was N243 billion.

Kuku who gave a breakdown of how the funds were used each year, explained that the allocation in 2011 had to be higher because of the demobilisation exercise which was done that year and the cost of camping the ex-militants in Obubra, aside from the cost of paying them monthly stipends and in-training allowances.

He also explained that at inception, the programme was supposed to cater for 20,192 ex-militants who embraced amnesty in the first phase, but the figure was later increased by over 6,000 persons.

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NEWS Tuesday, February 18, 2014

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No regrets over denying Amaechi PDP’s ticket, says Obasanjo From Kelvin Ebiri, Port Harcourt ORMER President Oluesegun Obasanjo has taken responsibility for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) decision to deny Rivers State Governor, Chibuike Amaechi, the party’s governorship ticket in 2007.

Obasanjo who said he has no apology for his action then, however, lauded Governor Amaechi for his courage and tenacity which culminated in his 2007 Supreme Court verdict that ushered him into office as the Governor of Rivers State.

The former president, who visited Rivers State for the first time since 2007, stated

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this yesterday at a reception organised for him at the Nne Kurubo Model Secondary, School Eleme, which he also commissioned.

Obasanjo explained that prior to his political ordeal in 2007, he had received an indicting report on Amaechi who was then the Speaker of the Rivers State House.

Though he did not explain the details of the report, he said as a leader he had to take the drastic action that forced Amaechi to challenge the action of the party in court.

He explained that though he did not air his opinion on the Supreme Court verdict that declared Amaechi as the gov-

ernor of Rivers State publicly, he was one of those who found it awkward in the sense that how can a man who did not contest election and without being voted for be declared the governor of a state.

“A report came about him, which indicated K-leg, and I said yes, there is a K-leg and as a result of the K-leg, what was could not continue to be, but Amaechi did what is required in a democratic dispensation; he went to court to straighten the K-leg. I am one of those, who when he (Amaechi) got the judgment or the verdict, found it awkward. I did not voice it out publicly, but I

found it awkward. Awkward in the sense that how can a man who has not contested an election; a man who has not been voted for be declared the governor? But I mused about it and people went to higher court. I think he (Amaechi) took it to the Supreme Court and in the Supreme Court, he won,” he said.

He further continued: “As far as I am concerned, that is the end of the K-leg. If anybody is not satisfied after that, he has to wait for the judgment of the Supreme Being up there.

So, the K-leg has been straightened; not only day that, after his first term, he

contested and won with a landslide. Then what K-leg are you talking about again? Well that is that about K-leg”.

Obasanjo disclosed that some persons had tried to dissuade him not to visit Rivers State because of purported security concerns and the fact that the governor had renamed a street that was named after him by former Rivers State Governor, Peter Odili.

Obasanjo said he is not bothered about the decision of the governor to rename any street named after him because his concern is to have his name written in the hearts of Nigerians and people of the world.

Court fixes Feb 21 for hearing in N100b suit against Lagos over Badagry demolitions

By Bertram Nwannekanma

USTICE Ibrahim Buba of a Federal High Court Lagos yesterday fixed February 21, 2014 for hearing in a suit filed by affected residents of Atinporome in Badagry Local Council, over the demolition of their property.

The trial judge fixed the date after counsel representing the Attorney-General of Lagos State, M. T Ogunsanya, told the court that he was yet to see the processes from the applicants with which to respond to the suit.

He, therefore, prayed the court for more time to sort out his processes and regularize his position on the matter.

The aggrieved residents had filed the suit through their

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counsel, Declan Kemdirim, under the Fundamental Rights Enforcement Procedure Rules, on behalf of other residents of the community, claiming the sum of N100 billion against nine respondents, for alleged wrongful demolition of their houses.

In the suit, the applicants want a declaration that the forceful demolition of their premises by the respondents was wicked, oppressive and unconstitutional.

They also sought an order compelling the respondents jointly and severally, to pay the sum of N100 billion as exemplary damages for wrongful invasion and demolition.

In addition, they are claim-

ing the sum of N5 million as cost of action.

In the affidavit deposed to by the first applicant, Chief Charles Adu, the plaintiffs avers that on December 14, 2013, they received a letter from the police that residents of the area should vacate their houses and land.

“The said letter from the second respondent specifically mentioned Agemowo and Agelado Mowo, Badagry, while our community is at Atinporome, Araromi extension, and Mowo phase 2.

“We contacted our solicitors and informed them of the situation, and then, a letter was drafted to clear the air that our communities were at Atinporome; but all our efforts to serve the letter on the second respondent was rebuffed.

“All efforts made to also serve the letter on the third respondent’s office was equally rebuffed by the respondents, who chased us

out of the area command,” he said.

The applicants said that surprisingly on December 16, 2013 at about 4.30 am; over 100 armed policemen from the Lagos Task Force laid a siege to the community and began to pull down their houses with bulldozers.

“Over 1,500 houses were demolished, while a sixmonths old baby was killed in one of the houses demolished,” he averred.

According to the applicants, they were not allowed to pick anything from their houses before the demolition, while scores of residents and youths were indiscriminately arrested.

The plaintiffs in the suit are Charles Adu, Joshua Medepo, Korede Mayegun, Godwin Ogungbe, Oluseyi Adeleye, Alao Alapanla, Johnson Adebiyi, Justice Ovemurai, Afolabi Olukoya, Ibrahim Adedeji, Kolawole Adewumi, Edun Talabi, Joseph Onwueka and Joseph

Ibukun.

Others include, Adebayo Oke, Olanipekun Ayanleye, Sylvester Enebeli, Shittu Abdullahi, Afolabi Kehinde, Ahmeed Alade, Iwueze Emmanuel, Oladimeji Oluwaseun and Martha Adeogun.

Named as respondents in the suit are: The Inspector General of Police, Commissioner of Police, Lagos State, Area Commander, area K police command, Ministry of Police Affairs and Lagos Task Force on Environment and Special Offences.

Others are, Lagos State Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development, Lagos State Lands Bureau, Attorney General of Lagos State and Attorney General of the Federation.

NigComSat Board drops Ahmed-Rufai as MD

By Adeyemi Adepetun a ministerial FC oOLLOWING directive by the mmunications Technology Minister, Mrs. Omobola Johnson, the Board of Directors of Nigerian Communications Satellite (NIGCOMSAT) Limited has asked the Managing Director, Mr. Timasaniyu Ahmed-Rufai, to proceed on indefinite leave.

This directive, according to a statement signed by NigComSat’s Head of Corporate Communications, Mr. Sonny Aragba-Akpore, is to pave way for an investigation into the financial status of the company.

Consequently, the statement said that Abimbola Alale, the executive director (Marketing), has been named Acting Managing Director pending the conclusion of the investigation.

Ahmed-Rufai, who has extensive experience in both private and public sectors, started as project manager of NigComSat-1 before the establishment of NIGCOMSAT Limited in April 2006, when he was named managing director/chief executive.

Alale also started as a member of the Project team and was appointed Director of Marketing of NIGCOMSAT Limited in 2006 and rose to the position of Executive Director Marketing until her recent appointment as acting managing director.

Army disowns Facebook page HE Nigerian Army has disT tanced itself and the Chief of Army Staff from a fake Facebook account purportedly being operated by some individuals whose identities have not yet been identified.

A statement signed by the Director of Army Public Relations, Brigadier-General Olajide Laleye said, “It has come to the notice of the Nigerian Army that a certain dubious individual whose real identity has not yet been determined has created a Facebook account purported to belong to the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lt. General KTJ Minimah. The likely intension of this dubious individual could be to embarrass the COAS and/or defraud unsuspecting members of the public.”

Laleye concluded, “In view of the above, the Directorate of Army Public Relations wishes to state categorically that the Chief of Army Staff does not own a Facebook account.

Therefore, members of the public are advised to disregard any information emanating from the fake Facebook account.”

Gunmen abduct former reps member in Bauchi From Ali Garba, Bauchi NKNOWN gunmen numbering about 10 in security uniform have abducted a former member of the House of Representatives from 2007 to 2011, who is also All Progressives Congress (APC) senatorial aspirant, Alhaji Samaila Ahmed in Darazo Local Council of Bauchi.

The Guardian gathered that some yet to be identified gunmen were believed to have hidden in the bush for days monitoring the victim before they finally attacked him at his resident in Darazo about 24 p.m yesterday.

Residents of Darazo told our correspondent on telephone that they noticed the movement of some people in the bush and reported the matter to the police, but no action was taken

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Panic in Edo over rumours of workers sack From Alemma-Ozioruva Aliu, Benin City

HERE is panic in Edo State T civil service over rumours of plan to sack about 1,800 persons from various ministries and government departments owing to either haven reached the statutory time in service, or alleged discrepancies in their educational qualifications.

However, state Chairman of the Nigeria Labour Congress, Emma Ademokun, said yesterday after an emergency meeting of the congress in Benin City that since the news broke the state government has not informed labour, maintaining that he believed it is a working document. He added that, “labour would do what it knows best,” if government retrenches workers.

Ademokun continued that, “we are used to government verification of workers’ credentials,” adding that the state government could not be considering sacking workers, whose population he said was 15,000 when Governor Adams Oshiomhole assumed office in 2008, but alleged has since been depleted to less than 5,000.

Tuesday, February 18, 2014 NEWS

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Bauchi Assembly set to create additional districts, village areas

Court adjourns till Friday in Omisore’s N20b suit

From Ali Garba, Bauchi

From Ali Garba, Bauchi ENATOR Iyiola Omisore has sued the Oyo State government to court for unjustly persecuting him during his trial for the murder of the nation’s erstwhile Attorney General and Justice Minister, Chief Bola Ige (SAN).

Omisore, a former deputy governor of Osun State, had instituted a N20 billion suit against the government and joined the Attorney General, as well as the Inspector General of Police as defendants.

The defendants, through their counsel, I.O. Tijani, from the state Ministry of Justice and Funke Fawole, had filed a preliminary objection to Omisore’s suit.

When the matter came up before Justice Abimbola Obaseki of the Federal High Court, Omisore, through his counsel, Chief Albert Adeogun, sought leave of the court to substitute its earlier reply to the objection of the defendants.

The defendant’s counsel, however, said since they were just served, they needed time to study the reply.

Justice Obaseki then adjourned the matter till Friday, February 21, 2014.

AUCHI State House of Assembly has completed arrangements to create additional districts, village areas and repeal absolute laws.

Chairman, House Committee on Information, Alhaji Dayyabu Chiroma, who stated this yesterday at the end of the Assembly’s sitting in Bauchi, said the amendment was aimed to correct, identify imbalances, foster unity and provide administrative convenience.

He said the Principal Law is amended by deleting the Section Four, now, there are 196 districts and 980 village areas in Bauchi State.

On the absolute laws, Chiroma said the House has received the report of the House Committee on Justice and Judiciary on the matter of subjecting laws, with a view to identifying laws that are archaic and areas that need amendment.

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Primate of All Nigeria Anglican Communion, Most Rev. Nicholas Okoh (left); Archbishop, Province of Ibadan, Most Rev. Segun Okubadejo; Archbishop, Diocese of Ibadan-South, Rt. Rev. Jacob Ajetunmobi and Bishop of Ibadan Diocese, Most. Rev. Joseph Akinfenwa, on arrival for a standing committee meeting in Ibadan…yesterday

Taraba court awards N2.5m against police over rights abuse From Charles Akpeji, Jalingo Federal High Court Jalingo, A Taraba State capital, presided over by Donatus U. Okorowo has faulted the state police command and awarded N2.5 million against the force over its violation of the fundamental human rights of aide to Governor Danbaba Suntai, Sylvanus Yakubu Giwa and four others.

The judge gave the ruling yesterday in his final verdict in the suit instituted by Giwa alongside four other applicants against the former Commissioner of Police, Jubril O. Adeniji.

Citing various sections of the 1999 constitution as amended in the judgment that lasted over two hours, Okorowo

affirmed that the police have no “basis for the arrest and detention of the five applicants” noting that, “the respondent has no justification whatsoever to restrict the movement of the applicants.”

Okorowo ruled that the applicants were not only assaulted by the police, but that they were as well “dehumanized and degraded,” hence the need for the police to immediately comply by the judgment of the court.

He said “No basis for the arrest of the applicants. They have rights as citizens to meet anywhere. The arrest and detention of the applicants is illegal,” adding that the applicants “are entitled to damages in terms of compensation.”

Though the full amount

being demanded by the applicants was not granted, the judge ordered the police command to pay N500,000.00 each to the applicants, which adds up to N2.5 million as compensation “for the breach of their fundamental human rights.”

The applicants through their counsel, E.A Ibrahim Effiong had approached the court to as a matter of urgency declare that their arrest and detention constituted flagrant “disregard and willful violation of the inalienable rights of the applicants” as “jealously preserved and stoutly protected under Section 34 of the constitution and Article 5 of the African Charter.”

The reliefs being sought by the applicants include the

need for the police commissioner to issue a public apology published in two widely circulating national dailies and a mandatory order that the respondent pay the sum of N200 million each to the applicants, totaling N1 billion as compensation for the “Inexcusable breach of their Fundamental Human Rights as provided for and preserved by the constitution and the African Charter, etc.”

Giwa, alongside Elhamid Ali Ibrahim, Philip R. Kamishi, Elkabir Eldio and Anderi Imbred, it would be recalled were last year arrested and detained by the Taraba State Police Command, an act, which the judge described as “violation of the rights of the applicants.”

Owerri zone alleges marginalisation, wants guber slot in 2015 From Charles Ogugbuaja (Owerri) and Inemesit Akpan-Nsoh (Uyo)

• Group seeks power shift in A’Ibom

GAINST the backdrop of A the recent appointment of Prof. Ukachukwu Awuzie as

cial of the state government, who spoke on condition of anonymity, countered the claim by the group, saying that the governor was “thorough in appointments and spread of amenities in different parts of the state”.

Okorocha was a “child of circumstance and necessity,” who was imbued with a sense of fairness, he added.

Enwerenem, a former twoterm legislator in Imo State House of Assembly (Ezinihitte Mbaise 1999- 2007) noted: “Since the institution was relocated, the vice chancellorship position has emerged from Orlu. Our hearts bled to hear that the governor has appointed somebody again from Orlu.

“Substantially, there is no Owerri man in that governing council. It is very unfortunate that the governor will go and do that. This time around, the governor has decided to take action against Owerri people; yet without Owerri people, Rochas Okorocha would not have been the governor.”

Similarly, Enwerenem revealed that in the governorship space in the three senatorial districts in Imo State since 1979, an Okigwe man (the late Sam Mbakwe) ruled for four years; Chief Achike Udenwa

the substantive vice chancellor of the Imo State University, Owerri, the people of Owerri have accused the governor of marginalising Owerri zone.

Awuzie (from Orlu Senatorial zone of Imo State) was confirmed in a statement signed by the Principal Secretary to the Governor, Dr. Paschal Obi, after the Governing Council of the institution had recommended him after assessing other candidates.

Briefing journalists in Ihitta Ogada, Owerri-North Local Council Area, National Chairman of Odinma Owerri (a non-profit making and nonpolitical organisation in all the nine local councils in Owerri Senatorial District), Mr. Oliver Enwerenem, maintained that it was because of the alleged injustice and marginalisation as exhibited in the appointment, that all the political parties in the state should field their governorship candidates from the Owerri Senatorial District for 2015 poll.

Though several calls by The Guardian to the Senior Special Assistant (SSA) to Okorocha on Media, Mr. Sam Onwemedo, were not responded to, an offi-

(eight years- Orlu zone), Chief Ikedi Ohakim - Okigwe zone (four years), the late Chief Evan Enwerem- Owerri zone, ruled for only 18 months before the military truncated it in 1992.

He noted that apart from the fact that the zone hosts the state capital, for equitable zoning and rotation, Owerri man should occupy the seat of power in 2015, urging support from all the political parties in the state to field Owerri zone man as their candidate.

Meanwhile, following Governor Godswill Akpabio’s insistence that power should shift to Eket Senatorial District in the next gubernatorial dispensation in the state, Akwa Ibom Amalgamated Youth Movement, a pressure group in the state, has pledged its total support to the cause.

National president of the group, Jimmy Edemekong, explained that Governor Akpabio deserves commendation for following the footsteps of Obong Victor Attah who zoned the governorship position to Ikot Ekpene Senatorial District from where the incumbent governor emerged.

“Governor Akpabio’s posture will ensure that people from all parts of the state are not

only included, but also made to participate in the governance structure of the state.

You don’t necessarily need to be an indigene of any of the communities in Eket before you support this move for inclusiveness. Akwa Ibom will thrive better when we learn to consider and be fair to one another with a decision like this. This is the people’s decision and it must be respected,” said Edemekong.

He added: “We are happy to inform the national and state PDP that Akwa Ibom has decided that power should rotate in line with the constitution of the party”.

Also speaking with journalists, the movement’s Director of Media and Strategy, Mr. Dickson Akpan, said the call was timely and true because other senatorial districts of Uyo and Ikot Ekpene have produced governors. He stressed that it was the turn of Eket Senatorial District for the sake of justice and equity.

“The is not only timely, but also very reasonable in view of the fact that both Uyo and Eket senatorial districts have already produced two governors for the state. The move for the shift shows that Akwa Ibom people are thinking more of unity and a strong desire to avoid any step that will put undue tension on the thin fabrics of the state.”

The counsel to the respondent, Henry Ogbeiwi who admitted before the trial judge that he has lost “gallantly” told The Guardian “The judgment is a sound judgment.” He, however, added, “We may likely go on appeal.”

Also speaking to The Guardian, the counsel to the applicants, Ibrahim Effiong observed that the judgment “is a signal to the whole world that the court still remains the last hope of the common man.”

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Tuesday, February 18, 2014

THE GUARDIAN www.ngrguardiannews.com

PHOTONEWS

First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan (left) during her condolence visit to the FCT Minister, Senator Bala Mohammed, to commiserate with him on the death of his elder brother, Malam Yusuf Mohammed Baba at the minister’s residence in Abuja.

Managing Director/CEO, Bank of Industry (BoI), Evelyn Oputu (middle) assisted by Kano State Governor, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso (second right); representative of Emir of Kano, the Wambai of Kano, Abbas Sanusi and Executive Director/CEO, Nigerian Export Promotion Council, Olusegun Awolowo while presenting a cheque to one of the 800 beneficiaries of KNSG/BoI loan facility during graduation and empowerment skill programme in Kano.

Minister of State for Federal Capital Territory and Supervising Minister of Police Affairs (FCT), Olajumoke Akinjide (middle); Permanent Secretary, John Chukwu (left) and General Manager, Gilmor Nigeria Limited, Moshe Ben Nachom, during the signing of agreement for the provision of infrastructure in Wasa district in Abuja.

Chief Marketing Officer, MTN, Andrew Esihemomoh (left); Larry Annetts and OAP Oliseh Adibua at the company’s sponsored Valentine Rave party in Lagos.

Managing Director, NASD Plc, Bola Ajomale (left); Group Managing Director, GTI Capital, Abubakar Lawal and Vice Chairman, NASD Plc, Chike Nwanze, during the visit of the board of NASD to Nigeria’s first private trading floor built by GTI Securities in Lagos.

Chief Executive Officer, Arts Council of England and Chairman, the Governing Board, International Federation of Arts Councils and Culture Agencies (IFACCA), Allan Davey (left) and Director, Extension Services, National Council for Arts and Culture (NCAC), Nigeria, Hilary C. Ogbechie at the sixth World Summit on Arts and Culture in Santiago, Chile.

Past President, Association of Bureaux De Change Operators of Nigeria (ABCON), Tifase James (left); President, ABCON, Aminu Gwadabe and Deputy Director, Other Financial Institutions Supervision Department (OFISD), Yemi Bedu during the official launch of ABCON operational manual logo website in Lagos.

PHOTO: AYODELE ADENIRAN

The Managing Director of Kunden Services Limited, Abiola Bashorun (left) and the Executive Director (Development), Nigeria Interbank Settlement System (NIBSS), Crystabel Onyejekwe during the launching of the bank verification number and biometric data initiative in Lagos.

Tuesday, February 18, 2014 9

THE GUARDIAN www.ngrguardiannews.com

WorldReport Co-pilot hijacks plane to Geneva, seeks asylum N an attempt to seek asylum IAirlines in Switzerland, an Ethiopian co-pilot locked his fellow pilot out of the cockpit, hijacked a Rome-bound plane and landed yesterday in Geneva, officials said.

The Boeing 767-300 plane with 202 passengers and crew had taken off from the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa and landed in the Swiss city at about 6 a.m. (0500 GMT).

Officials said no one on the flight was injured and the hijacker was taken into custody after surrendering to police.

The plane first sent a distress message while flying over Sudan’s airspace on its way to Rome, an Ethiopian official said.

“From Sudan all the way to Switzerland, the co-pilot took control of the plane,” Redwan Hussein, Ethiopia’s communications minister, said. He did not elaborate.

But passengers on the plane were unaware it had been hijacked, officials said.

Even local authorities at first thought the Ethiopian plane

just wanted to land in Geneva for an emergency refueling before realizing it was hijacked, Geneva police spokesman, Eric Grandjean said.

Two Italian fighter jets were scrambled to accompany the plane, Geneva airport chief executive Robert Deillon told reporters.

sions of inquiry on Vatican finance will report their recommendations for reform and preparations get underway for a summit on family issues that will deal with the widespread rejection by Catholics of church teaching on contraception, divorce and gay unions.

In between, Francis will preside over his first ceremony to formally welcome 19 new cardinals into the elite club of churchmen who will eventually elect his successor.

In typical Francis style, the new cardinals hail from some of the poorest places on earth, including Haiti, Burkina Faso and Cote d’Ivoire.

The first half of Francis’ busy week will be devoted to the third meeting of his “Group of Eight” advisers, the senior cardinals representing every continent who Francis appointed to help him govern the church and overhaul the antiquated and inefficient Vatican bureaucracy.

They are due to hear recommendations from two panels

Pope Francis

Geneva, the co-pilot left the cockpit using a rope, then went to the police forces close to the aircraft and “announced that he was himself the hijacker,” Grandjean said.

It was not immediately clear why the co-pilot, whose name wasn’t released, wanted asylum.

We are keen on meeting with Taiwan president, but no rush, says China HINA said yesterday it was C keen on a meeting between President Xi Jinping and Taiwan President, Ma Yingjeou, but signaled it was in no rush to set a venue or timeframe for what would be a historic get-together.

Since taking office in 2008, Ma has signed a series of landmark trade and economic agreements with China, cementing China’s position as Taiwan’s largest trading partner.

But Taiwan said last week that China had rebuffed as “inappropriate” a request for the two men to meet at an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Beijing.

Pope opens critical week for reform, family issues OPE Francis is opening the P most critical week of his year-old papacy: Two commis-

The co-pilot, an Ethiopian man born in 1983, took control of the plane when the pilot ventured outside the cockpit, Deillon said.

“The pilot went to the toilet and he locked himself in the cockpit,” Deillon said. “(He) wanted asylum in Switzerland.”

A few minutes after landing in

of experts on reforming the troubled Vatican bank and rationalizing the Holy See’s overall financial and administrative structures.

Francis was elected with a mandate to reform the Roman Curia, as the Holy See administration is known, to make it more responsive to the needs of the 21st-century Catholic Church. He wants to make the curia more of a support to bishops trying to spread the faith rather than an obstacle.

He has made bureaucratic reform his first-year priority, paying special attention to the scandal-marred Vatican bank, long accused by Italian authorities as being an offshore tax haven for well-connected Italians and, more recently, a place where money could be laundered.

On the eve of the G8 meeting, the head of the Vatican bank pleaded his case to Francis’ hometown newspaper, telling Argentina’s La Nacion daily that his process of reform hadn’t yielded any “systematic violations” of the Vatican’s anti-money laundering laws but just some “black sheep.”

One of those black sheep is Monsignor Nunzio Scarano, an accountant in the Vatican’s finance ministry who is currently on trial for allegedly trying to smuggle 20,000 euro ($26,000) from Switzerland to Italy, and is also accused in another case of using his Vatican bank accounts to launder money.

The bank’s top two managers resigned in July after Scarano

Fan Liqing, spokeswoman of China’s Taiwan Affairs Office, told reporters the subject of a Xi-Ma summit was “not a topic for discussion” during last week’s landmark meeting between top Chinese and Taiwan government officials.

That meeting was an important step in pushing overall cross-Strait relations, she said, adding that further steps would follow, promising to benefit people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait.

“As for a meeting between the leaders on both sides of the

Strait, we have said many times that this is something we have upheld for many years, and we have always had an open, positive attitude towards it,” Fan said.

“Compatriots on both sides of the Strait all hope that the leaders can meet.”

She declined to elaborate on the topic of an appropriate venue for the two presidents to meet, adding, “APEC has its own rules, which should be handled in accordance with the memorandums of understandings.”

Kerry accuses Assad of stonewalling in Syria peace talks NITED States Secretary of had harsh words for Assad’s U State, John Kerry yester- allies in Moscow. day accused Syrian President, Bashar Assad of stonewalling in peace talks and called on Russia to push its ally to negotiate with opposition leaders.

“Right now, Bashar al-Assad has not engaged in the discussions along the promised and required standard that both Russia spoke up for and the regime spoke up for,” Kerry said during a press conference in Jakarta with Indonesian Foreign Minister, Marty Natalegawa.

He said Assad’s team “refused to open up one moment of discussion” of a transitional government to replace Assad’s regime.

“It is very clear that Bashar Assad is trying to win this on the battlefield instead of coming to the negotiating table in good faith,” Kerry said Peace talks last week in Geneva ended with no progress toward breaking the impasse in the nearly threeyear-old conflict in Syria.

Kerry, who called Syria “a tragedy to the world,” also

“Russia needs to be a part of the solution and not be contributing so many more weapons and so much more aid that they are in fact enabling Assad to double down, which is creating an enormous problem,” he said.

Russia has told the U.S. it was committed to helping create a transitional government, Kerry said, but has not delivered “the kind of effort to create the kind of dynamic by which that could be achieved.”

On Sunday, Syrian Foreign Minister, Walid al-Moallem blamed the U.S. for the breakdown in negotiations, saying the U.S. tried to “create a very negative climate for dialogue in Geneva.”

United Nations-Arab League mediator, Lakhdar Brahimi apologized to the Syrian people for failing to reach progress.

“I am very, very sorry, and I apologize to the Syrian people that their hopes which were very, very high that something will happen here,” Brahimi said.

10

THE GUARDIAN www.ngrguardiannews.com

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Politics Battle of ego in Ekiti guber poll

Fayemi

Fayose

Bamidele

Adeyeye

Jega

By Muyiwa Adeyemi and Seye Olumide

swings, it does not matter as long as the opposition takes out of the way “Tinubu’s APC” ahead of the 2015 elections.

“We saw this same scenario in the elections in Ondo and Anambra States,” the source added.

Similarly, former vice presidential candidate of the defunct Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), Pastor Tunde Bakare, who virtually distanced himself from the APC merger, said the Ekiti State governorship election “has volume to say about what would happen to the APC merger, the Southwest and the 2015 elections.”

In what seems like a gang-up to achieve a paradigm shift of political power and control within the Southwest, using the forthcoming elections in Ekiti and Osun States, most of the PDP, LP and other nonpolitical figures are gradually aligning to work against the interest of the APC. Governor Mimiko is said to be no less interested in what happens in Ekiti and Osun, as he is also allegedly working and collaborating with others to penetrate Ogun, Oyo and Lagos States.

The younger members in the PDP are also not relenting in their attempt to establish their political hegemonies in the zone.

So, the ball is in the court of the people of Ekiti, who will actually determine the outcome of the poll, and thus confirm the positions being canvassed by the various parties that they are the team to beat.

non-violence and no undue meddlesomeness from whatever quarters.

This is the outcome of a stakeholders’ meeting in Ado-Ekiti, the capital city of Ekiti State, last week.

Guests at the meeting were leaders of political parties, traditional rulers, students and security agents.

Among them were: former governors of Ekiti State, Otunba Niyi Adebayo and Mr. Ayo Fayose; former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Alhaji Bello Masari, and Rep. Opeyemi Bamidele.

Others were: the Speaker of the Ekiti State House of Assembly, Adewale Omirin; Hon. Bimbo Daramola; Ekiti State Labour Party chairman, Akin Omole; PDP governorship aspirant, Dayo Adeyeye; Ekiti State APC chairman, Jide Awe; and Commissioner for Culture, Mrs. Ronke Okusanya.

Some of the attendees bared their minds on the way forward for the INEC to ensure free, fair and credible election.

According to the Chairman, Ekiti APC, Mr. Jide Awe, what is paramount to the party “is peace and violence-free election.”

“This is key and that has been our hope, that the key security agents would assist in ensuring that peace reigns during the coming election,” he said.

Awe posited that the APC has nothing to worry about because “the people are on the side of the performing governor (Fayemi), whose first term in office has significantly transformed and changed positively the face of Ekiti.”

He noted that, “the people know what is good for them” and that would be determined through their votes, adding, “all we are singing and praying is for peace to reign during the exercise.”

Nonetheless, the Secretary of the Labour Party in Ekiti, Mr. Abiola Olowokere, urged INEC to be wary of the category of observers it will use for the election.

He noted that, “some electoral observers in the last election later became chairmen of councils under the APC.” The chairman Accord Party, Dr. Dayo Onabayo, expressed concern over how INEC would address the issue of people coming from neighbouring states to vote for a particular party, which he did not disclose.

Meanwhile the state Chairman of the PDP, Mr. Makanjuola Ogundipe, commended Jega, as he expressed confidence in the ability of President Goodluck Jonathan, “to ensure the Ekiti State election is free and fair.”

The Chairman of the Ekiti Traditional Rulers, the Onitaji of Ijaji, Oba Adamo Babalola, who spoke for the people, urged the INEC to live up to its promise to deliver on the Ekiti election.

He commended the commission for trying to address its shortcomings in previous elections.

The traditional ruler called on the people to obey INEC’s rules and regulations before, during and after the election.

The Ekiti State Resident Electoral Commissioner, Alhaji Hussaini Pai, urged the people to make use of their educational awareness in ensuring that the election is conducted with decorum.

He said that the commission in the state had always been in touch with critical stakeholders, adding that this had largely advanced the process of electioneering in the state.

“Preparatory to the governorship election in Ekiti State, the commission has embarked on lot of laudable programmes, to create awareness and educate the general public, which include the voter education on electronic voting, an attempt to catch them young for democratic governance and prompt briefings on election procedures,” Pai said.

Addressing the gathering, the Chairman of INEC, Prof. Attahiru Jega, promised that the commission would organise a free, fair and credible election in Ekiti.

Jega specifically said that the poll “would be the best ever to be conducted by the commission.”

But he was quick to point out and also frowned at the erection of political billboards and posters by the aspirants, as “this negates the rule of the game.”

The commission boss said the erection of billboards and pasting of posters for now, “is purely illegal,” stressing that, “the action contravenes the 2010 Electoral Law (as amended).”

He ordered owners of such campaign materials to remove them without further delay.

Jega dismissed as unsubstantiated and spurious, allegations by some politicians that some officials of his commission were compromising their positions ahead of the Ekiti governorship election and the 2015 general elections.

To him, “this (allegations) is part of the political bickering people of Ekiti must dismissed and dispel ahead of the election.”

The PDP, specifically, Mr. Fayose, recently pointed out and alleged that some officials of the commission met in Lagos to perfect how to doctor the

voters’ register in favour of a particular party.

But Jega, demanding proof to substantiate the allegation, said: “If you have any evidence about any of us either being partisan with any political party, come out with it, but don’t distract us with your spurious and unsubstantiated allegations.

“We will do our best to remain impartial in the way we conduct our duties; anyone we see being partial, we will obviously deal with that.”

Jega promised that the commission was doing everything to ensure that the June 21 governorship election in Ekiti remains the best conducted so far by the INEC. He, however, urged politicians and political parties to do what was required of them and operate within the ambit of the law and avoid anything that could heat up the polity.

To ensure credible elections, Jega said the commission had taken adequate measures to improve the quality of the voters’ register.

He vowed that those found to have engaged in multiple registration discovered in the register would be prosecuted before the June 21 election.

Appealing to political parties and politicians to cooperate with the commission, he said a free, fair and credible election should be the concern of all stakeholders.

Jega allayed fears of those that raised the issue of multiple voting, saying security men would be more vigilant to guard against such eventuality.

He assured of INEC’s preparations for the election but pleaded, particularly with politicians, to eschew violence and allow peace to determine the exercise.

He said plans had been concluded to use the Permanent Voter Card (PVC), promising, “the commission will issue the voters their PVC before June 21st.”

“The PVC would not give room for fraud and only those issued with their voting cards would vote during election,” he said.

Citing the Anambra State gubernatorial election imbroglio, Jega allayed the fears Ekiti people.

“After what happened in the Anambra State election, when we tried to experiment with the electronic voting, we have stepped up efforts to correct all the shortcomings and improve on it; the Ekiti and Osun States elections will use the PVC,” he said.

“INEC will commence the voters’ verification and distribution of the PVC as from March 7th to 9th and no fewer than 688,880 voters in the state would be issued with their voter cards.”

HE June 21, 2014 governorship in T Ekiti State will be the litmus test for the All Progressives Congress (APC) to reaffirm its authority and control of the Southwest.

In the Ondo State governorship poll last year, the Labour Party (LP), which fielded Governor Segun Mimiko, defeated the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), which, along with other opposition parties formed the APC. The battle, of course, would come in three dimensions and reopen the bitter rivalry between the APC and the PDP over the control of the Southwest and Ekiti State in particular.

In the 2007 governorship election, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), under controversial circumstances, declared the PDP candidate, Chief Segun Oni, an engineer, as the winner.

But the Appeal Court later upturned the result and gave the victory to incumbent Governor Kayode Fayemi.

While there had been several issues surrounding the Court of Appeal decision, the coming election will actual determine which of the two parties is the most acceptable to the people of the state.

Secondly, the election will determine the score between Dr. Fayemi and Mr. Opeyemi Bamidele, a member of the House of Representatives, who wants to fly the flag of the LP at the election.

Fayemi and Bamidele were long-time Human Rights and political allies before their recent fallout.

Thus, the outcome of the election may make or mar the political career of Bamidele, and or destroy the chances and reputation of the APC, particularly the influence of former governor of Lagos State and national leader of the APC, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

One of the topmost leaders of the APC, who did not want his name in the print, said that: “The Ekiti governorship election is going to be a battle of wits between the APC and PDP and a battle of ego between Tinubu and Bamidele.”

According to him: “If the APC peradventure lost like it happened in Ondo, and particularly to the Labour Party, Tinubu would be finished politically in the Southwest.”

The APC source said that for now, the party’s findings are that the Presidency and some leaders in the Southwest are considering where to divert their resources of support: “whether to the LP or the PDP.” Whichever way the pendulum

INEC promises credible poll EANWHILE, about four months to M the election, the political atmosphere in Ekiti State has remained calm and devoid of tension.

This is a different from what happened in the previous governorship elections in Ondo, Edo and Anambra States, where the polity was tense and heated-up before poll day.

For sure, there had been one or two political bickering among the major parties — the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the rival Peoples Democratic Party (PDP); and between the incumbent Governor Kayode Fayemi and his estranged friend, Opeyemi Bamidele.

But then, not much heat has been recorded in the polity.

However, as the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and other stakeholders prepare for the June 21 governorship election, there is consensus on how to achieve not only a credible, but also an acceptable election.

There must be a level playing field,

Tuesday, February 18, 2014 NEWS 11

THE GUARDIAN www.ngrguardiannews.com

Fashola signs anti-smoking, hoax calls laws

By Kamal Tayo Oropo ENCEFORTH, any person smoking in public places across Lagos State risks three-year jail term, as Governor Babatunde Fashola has signed into law the bill regulating smoking in the state.

Also signed into law was the bill establishing the Lagos State Emergency Command and Control Centre as well as the desig-

H

• Three-year jail term, N500,000 fine for offenders nated 112 and 767 as emergency lines, even as threeyear imprisonment or a fine of N500, 000 awaits offenders and those who misuse the lines.

Assenting to the bills in Ikeja yesterday, Fashola expressed optimism that the laws would further strengthen the state government in its commitment to

protecting lives and property of residents.

He noted: “The bill that prohibits smoking in public places addresses serious public health issues. Before the bills are presented, I have read a lot of comments about the possibility of enforcing the laws. But our commitment to public health and safety is

stronger.”

Presenting both bills before the governor, the Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Ade Ipaye, said that government took cognisance of the dangers posed by public smoking to non-smokers.

According to Ipaye, “the law prohibits smoking in all of those areas that have been

Unpaid subsidy claims threaten fuel supply From Collins Olayinka, Abuja

IGERIANS may have to N brace up for the eventuality of the unpleasant scenes that accompany fuel scarcity in the country as petroleum marketers weigh their options following the Federal Government’s alleged inability to offset their backlog of subsidy claims.

The Guardian learnt yesterday of the pressure on the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) to release the first quarter allocation for Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) popularly known as petrol.

This comes as the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) said it has no particular interest in sustaining subsidy on kerosene if government decides otherwise. The Acting Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, Dr. Farouk Ibrahim, told The Guardian in Abuja yesterday that as a government owned entity, the agency is duty-bound to obey government directives.

He also debunked insinuations that kerosene subsidy fund was not appropriated by the National Assembly, explaining rather that it was not split into kerosene, petrol or diesel.

Meanwhile, the Minister of Power, Prof. Chinedu Nebo, has revealed that a new energy policy that captures all branches of the energy mix would soon emerge.

According to sources, the actual amount being owed the marketers is increasing on daily basis on account of foreign exchange differentials and interests accruing due to late payment, in addition to the principal.

“Government is forced to pay more because of late payment. Apart from the principal, it has to pay accumulated interests on loans and differentials in the exchange rates,” an industry source said.

“It is more appropriate for government to borrow from international finance bodies to finance subsidy payment.

If this scenario continues, there may be fuel shortage very soon because the reserve may get to an all-time low.”

Speaking yesterday in Abuja at the seventh yearly Nigerian Association for Energy Economics (NAEE) energy conference, Nebo decried the absence of a policy guide on energy provision in the country.

“Nigeria as at today does not have a policy on renewable energy, neither do we have

• New energy policy underway an energy conservation policy. The Ministry of Power is working on that right now in synergy with the Energy Commission, Ministry of the Environment and other relevant stakeholders.

“Government is determined to have a robust energy mix. We are learning on a daily basis what can happen if Nigeria relies on a single source of energy. This is the

reason we have to develop a robust energy mix that would include gas, hydro, wind, coal, solar and biomass. All these are critical for the survival of our country.”

Nebo disclosed that for 17 years, the defunct Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) did not hire a single engineer, adding that it was President Goodluck Jonathan that ordered the recruitment

of 523 engineers this year, just as the Power Training Institute was established to train young engineers to drive the reforms undertaken in the sector.

On his part, the International President of International Association of Energy Economics (IAEE), Prof. Wumi Iledare, called for a strong regulation of the new electricity assets owners, stating that privatisation does not mean absence of regulation.

designated as non-smoking areas, including museums, public toilets, libraries, nurseries, daycare centres and any facility used for the care of infants.

“Public telephone kiosks, public transportation vehicles, private vehicles where there are more than one person, school buses, restaurants and cinemas, theatres, amusement parks or any other place used by members of the public, like conference centres and exhibitions halls” are inclusive.

Also, “factories and other premises in which more than one person work and areas used as places of work, including the secretariat, are all defined in the law as public places.”

Ipaye said the law allows the owner of certain public facilities like restaurants to designate smoking areas, which must not be over 10 per cent of the entire size of the place, and ensure that the smoking area is properly ventilated.

They are also required to fix smoke detectors and ensure that those who go out to

smoke leave a buffer of about 10 metres to the facility. The owners also should stop smokers from infringing on the rights of nonsmokers because they are criminally liable for not stopping smoking in their facilities.

Meanwhile, “law enforcement officers, by this bill, could enter and inspect the premises.” Penalty for first offenders is N10, 000 and one to three months imprisonment. Repeat offenders may pay up to N50, 000 and get up to six months imprisonment.

Those who smoke before a minor or anyone below the age of 18 risks a fine of N15, 000 or six months imprisonment.

Also, 767 and 112 are now officially designated as emergency lines in the state, but no one, except for the purpose of informing the centre or for any event properly defined as emergency, is allowed to call the numbers.

Misuse of the lines, on conviction, attracts N500,000 or three years imprisonment.

TheGuardian

www.ngrguardiannews.com

12 | Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Conscience Nurtured by Truth

FOUNDER: ALEX U. IBRU (1945 – 2011) Conscience is an open wound; only truth can heal it. Uthman dan Fodio 1754-1816

Editorial Basic education fund neglect ANY state governments’ refusal to access about N41 billion of the M Federal Government’s matching grant through the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) to implement the universal basic education scheme is, to say the least, worrisome. In fact, the development is not only sad for the culpable states but also unhealthy for the country with a high percentage of school age children out of formal education.

Really, state governors who have failed to access the funds by simply honouring counterpart agreement have no excuse and people should rise and hold them accountable.

In every sense, the beneficiaries of universal basic education, launched 14 years ago to promote the interest of every child of primary and junior secondary school age, are the losers. Indeed, the case can be made that a crime is being committed against the children if the defaulting governors remain adamant and refuse to acknowledge that the neglected and underprivileged young ones being denied formal education are being condemned to a life without meaning. Every child, irrespective of his or her background or status must be given the opportunity to set feet on the road to freedom through basic education.

Education Minister, Nyesom Wike, had lamented at a forum of UBEC management and executive chairmen of state boards that both conditional matching grant and the non-conditional special education fund from UBEC had been neglected by the states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). This is not acceptable, especially when many of the states are ever complaining about paucity of funds to actualise their programmes on education. That a channel opens to seriously address the shortfall and the platform is not being utilised is, therefore, sickening.

As a matter of fact, the public deserves to know the defaulting states through regular publications by the relevant authorities. And their citizens should publicly demand explanation from the government.

As chief executives of the states in search of the best, it is trite to remind the governors that a lot of improvement could be done in the existing schools or in the establishment of new ones nationwide with such huge resources at their disposal except there are undisclosed impediments on the way to accessing the funds.

Every state has a duty to contribute to any fund that will be beneficial to the development of the people. Not all the states are guilty though as a few of them have made the most of the opportunity. Osun State is one.

And, as a testimony, it has climbed up substantially on the education development ladder from about the 34th position rating a few years ago.

Lagos has also done well with its aggressive approach to implementation of programmes.

The reported lukewarm disposition of most states is clearly against the spirit of Education for All (EFA) objective which most African governments embraced in Dakar at the 2000 World Education Forum together with the 2015 target of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The EFA and MDGs are supposed to form an integral part of the countries’ poverty reduction strategy. So, the current situation advertises not only non-commitment by the leaders but their criminal indifference to the future.

Agreed, initial progress was hampered by absence of an enabling law to execute certain aspects of the scheme after flag-off in 1999 but it is almost 10 years since the UBE Act 2004 became operational, making provision for basic education comprising early childhood care education, ECCE, primary and junior secondary levels, the funding of which is mainly the responsibility of states and local governments, easier and universal. So, the intervention of the Federal Government through the statutory two per cent consolidated revenue fund and contributions in form of Federal guarantee credits plus grants from international donors ought to be an added incentive and not a drawback for any serious state government. The structures are there in the SUBEBs and local government education authorities (LGEAs) as coordinated by UBEC. The objectives of universal basic education are laudable: reducing drastically the incidence of dropout from the formal school system through improved relevance, quality and efficiency of the scheme. The scheme also aims at ensuring the acquisition of appropriate levels of literacy, numeric manipulative, communicative and life skills as well as ethical, moral and civic values required for a solid foundation in life-long learning. A truly committed leader of the people cannot fault these if his intention is not to keep a generation in perpetual servitude and endanger a nation’s future.

LETTERS

We are the government In an article titled Failed kept lawn. It was an incredibly While we must hold our politiSin IR:Government or Failing Citizens disgusting sight – so incredible cal office holders responsible for January 2013, which expected- that I had to stop and take some fulfilling our legitimate expectaly elicited mixed comments, I attempted to challenge the belief system that makes us channel our creative energies towards blaming the government rather than taking responsibility for effecting change and proffering solutions wherever we can. While I got some degree of positive feedback, a section of my audience seems to believe that I am either “part of the Nigerian Government that has failed us” or I am “not exposed to the realities of a responsible government.”

The backlash notwithstanding, I still believe that poor performance on the part of the government should not breed indifference in the way we live our lives and conduct our personal affairs. My position was further strengthened on a recent trip to Ibadan, the Oyo State capital.

Entering through the Iwo RoadOjoo axis, I was impressed with positive developments that have sprung up since my days as an undergraduate at the University of Ibadan. For a city, which was listed by the Financial Times of London in 2012 as one of the “Big 5” cities in Africa, one shouldn’t have expected any less.

However, my excitement soon gave way to disappointment as I approached the University precincts. All the way from Barika to Agbowo, the median on the dual carriageway was adorned with bags of solid waste in place of the customary rows of ornamental plants or neatly

pictures.

At first I wondered if Oyo State has any agency that is responsible for waste management.

Upon realisation that it does, I wondered what kind of mindset would prompt supposedly enlightened Nigerians to dump household waste right in the middle of the road. Although I happened to have sighted this in Ibadan, similar situations exist across the country; and this has contributed in no small way to the outbreak of diseases and incidents of so-called natural disasters.

tions, I believe that as responsible citizens of this great nation, we should also hold ourselves responsible to basic standards of propriety regardless of the effectiveness or otherwise of government agencies and public systems. The most important things are not the things that the government will do for us.

To create the New Nigeria, each Nigerian must take personal responsibility, realising that we are the government. We will get it right someday.

•Philip Amiola, Lagos.

Who killed Sheik Albany?

IR: The gruesome murder of standing among religious SSheik renowned Islamic cleric adherents in the country. We Awal Adam Albany is sincerely believe that the permost unfortunate. The killing of the scholar who was noted for his deep analysis on most aspects of the Quran and habit of the Holy Prophet is a mark of the general insecurity in the country. Muslim ummahs particularly would not forget the killing, like that of Sheik Jaafar in Kano some years back.

What could have been the motive for the elimination of these Islamic scholars who are revered world-wide?

It behoves on the Federal Government to stem such crime against clerics who are known for preaching peace, unity and mutual under-

petrators do not fear God. Security agencies must be able to unmask the criminal elements spilling the blood of innocent citizens who are just expressing their God-giving talents for the benefit of humanity. Even as 2015 elections draw near, evil-minded people are likely to use such opportunity of security lapses in the country to unleash terror and throw the country into turmoil.

Nigerians should rise up to the occasion by exposing haters of peaceful co-existence of citizens.

• Bala Nayashi, Lokoja, Kogi State

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

THE GUARDIAN www.ngrguardiannews.com

13

Opinion Understanding Nigeria’s Sovereign Wealth Fund

By Luke Onyekakeyah HEN in 2010, the National Economic CounW cil (NEC) approved a plan to replace the Excess Crude Account (ECA), with a Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF), there was a lot of fuss from different quarters across the country. Many wondered what sort of idea was being thrown up. A Sovereign Wealth Fund! What could that mean? While the state governors, who were the direct beneficiaries of the Excess Crude Account, vehemently opposed the idea, preferring to have the money shared out as usual, ordinary Nigerians were not amused by what they thought was another drain pipe being hatched by government to fritter away money. Not a handful of Nigerians understood, believed or appreciated the import of a sovereign wealth fund.

Perhaps, the opposition against the SWF proposal arose from the fact that there was no public enlightenment prior to floating the idea. The governors were not educated on the nitty-gritty of the fund; what the country stands to gain.

That still needs to be done for wider public appreciation. Unfortunately, the corruption in the country has shrouded public reasoning to the extent that people no longer believed government policies and programmes. Every action or policy is viewed from the prism of corruption – “they want to steal money”!

People have been constrained to adopt a “wait and see” attitude towards proposals made by government. The proposals have to work first before they are believed. There is a nation-wide mind abuse among the citizenry. That apathy greeted the idea of the SWF. Many questioned the rationale for saving money when people are hungry and our infrastructure are decrepit. No one explained to the public that the SWF is a vehicle for infrastructure development.

From their own angle, the state governors did not take the matter lying low. They joined forces to sue the Federal Government over the Excess Crude Account and Sovereign Wealth Fund, seeking legal interpretation of Section 162 of the 1999 Constitution as it affects the diversion of funds, which ought to accrue to the Federation Account for sharing among the three tiers of government. Attempt was made to resolve the

matter out of court but it failed. The matter could still be resolved amicably, even though the Supreme Court has fixed March 24, 2014 for definite hearing on the suit.

I was invited by the University of Port Harcourt (courtesy, the Vice Chancellor, Professor Joseph Ajienka), to moderate a panel discussion on Nigeria’s Sovereign Wealth Fund, as part of the 3rd Founder’s Day lecture of the institution, held on February 6, 2014, at the Choba Campus of the University. The lecture titled “The Role of Sovereign Wealth Fund as a Tool for Economic Development” was delivered by the Managing Director and Chief Executive of Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority, Engineer Uche Orji, who is an alumnus of the University.

Orji’s lecture threw more light on what the SWF is all about such that many distinguished personalities in the capacity filled Ebitimi Banigo Auditorium, including top government officials, commissioners, principal officers of the university, professors and deans of faculties, confessed that they have become converted to the idea of a Sovereign Wealth Fund, which initially, they didn’t understand. More of such informed lectures are needed to enlighten different interest groups/stakeholders as well as members of the public.

The precursor of the Nigeria Sovereign Wealth Fund was the Excess Crude Account (ECA). The ECA was created in 2004 by the Obasanjo administration as a result of surging crude oil prices. Its objective was to “save” oil revenues above the approved benchmark for the purpose of stabilizing budget deficits against shock arising from shortfalls due to the volatility in crude oil prices.

From the outset, the constitutionality of the ECA was questioned, since the constitution provides that all monies accruing to the Federal Government must be deposited into the Federation Account.

According to Investopedia, the ECA increased almost four-folds from $5.1 billion in 2005 to over $20 billion in November 2008, thereby accounting for more than one-third of Nigeria’s external reserves at the time. However, the money was consistently shared by the three tiers of government and nothing was practically “saved”. No one could be held accountable for that huge sum of money that was shared out.

By June, 2010, the ECA had fallen sharply to less than $4 billion due partly to the steep drop in crude oil prices coupled with budget deficits at all levels of government in Nigeria. In the aftermath of the global economic recession of 2008/2009, the National Economic Council decided on a plan to replace the ECA with a Nigerian SWF, with legal basis to manage and invest the same excess oil revenues on behalf of the Federal Government. That was a wise decision. SWF is anti squander-mania.

Rather than being shared by the three tiers of government, the Excess Crude Account is set aside in a fund managed along the path of global best practice for the country’s future development goals. How the fund is used can now be accounted for. Perhaps, the fund is the first legally constituted strategic plan by the Federal Government that focuses largely on the future. It presents a new era of fiscal responsibility.

The Nigerian Sovereign Wealth Fund was formally created in 2011 by President Goodluck Jonathan via the establishment of the Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority Act. The Act mandates the Authority to have jurisdiction over the country’s excess crude oil money. With initial capital base of $1 billion provided by the Federal Government, the board was inaugurated on October 9, 2012. JP Morgan is the custodian of the funds.

Some informed views have expressed regrets that the Nigeria SWF is coming rather late; that it would have served the country better if the fund had been established when the ECA was created in 2004. Ten years later, the impact would have been felt, quite unlike the ECA, which had nothing to show. Experience shows that you need at least 10 to 15 years to reap the benefits of a SWF management. Immediate benefits are not common; the investments need time to mature.

While SWFs elsewhere focus on savings and stabilization funds, the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority has set out to manage three funds, namely: the Stabilization Fund; the Future Generation (Savings) Fund and the Nigeria Infrastructure Fund. There is also the social fund. By the Act, a minimum of 20 per cent of the capital base must be invested in each of the three funds, while the remaining 40 per cent is at the discretion of management.

Like the ECA, the Stabilization Fund is to cush-

ion shocks in the federal revenue earnings due to instability in oil prices. The future generation (savings) fund is for investment for future generations while the Nigeria Infrastructure Fund is to invest in infrastructure development projects and help close the infrastructure deficit in the country.

In a way, the structure is complex compared to what obtains in other countries that focus only on savings. How to ensure that these targets are met is now the issue. Many countries have used SWF to transform social infrastructure. Nigeria stands to gain in the long run.

Sovereign Wealth Fund is not a Nigerian invention. It is a tested economic development strategy, which has existed for over a century. The first SWF was established by the U.S. State of Texas in the late 19th century to fund public education.

Since 2000, however, the number of countries adopting it has increased dramatically.

Worldwide, there are now over 83 Sovereign Wealth Funds with a total financial asset of over $20 trillion. The funds include assets, investment portfolios, pension reserve funds, development funds and state-owned corporations’ funds.

Regrettably, African countries are lagging behind in the SWF trend. So far, only seven have adopted it. These include Botswana, Angola, Nigeria, Gabon, Mauritania, Equatorial Guinea and Ghana, with a total capital base of $13.75 billion.

Botswana has the largest SWF capital base of $6.9 billion, followed by Angola with $5 billion and Nigeria trailing in the third position with $1 billion. Gabon, Mauritania, Equatorial Guinea and Ghana have $400 million, $300 million, $8,000 million and $7,000 million respectively. The capital base of each country merely reflects the objective the country sets out to achieve rather than a measure of the wealth of the country.

Now that Nigeria has joined the club of global SWF countries, managing the fund well and ensuring that it works like in other countries is most critical. The Nigeria SWF should be allowed to prosper. The man at the helm of affairs, Engr.

Uche Orji, has solid track record as an internationally acclaimed investment manager. The board, which largely is composed on politicians, should not politicize the fund in other not to prove cynics right. Nigeria has a lot to gain from the fund.

Thoughts on constitutional development

By Akin Ajose-Adeogun EORGE Herbert (1593-1633), the English clergyman and metaG physical poet, stated in Jacula Prudentum (1651) that “I had rather ride on an ass that carries me than a horse that throws me.”

This rather sound advice on pragmatism is one that was heeded by General Yakubu Gowon when he inaugurated the Ad Hoc Constitutional Conference of September 12, 1966, which was intended to resolve the evolving political crisis and end the bloodshed and disorder that had overtaken the country since the bitter disagreements over the results of the federal general elections of 1964. In his opening speech to the Conference, he had suggested that the conferees may even propose an entirely new form of government for Nigeria which is “yet to enter into any political lexicon.” Unfortunately, this conference, which was well on its way to resolving the political impasse (it had produced an interim report), was wrecked by the fresh outbreak of large scale violence in the Northern Region on September 29, 1966.

As we once again approach our rendezvous with destiny at the coming national constitutional conference, one can only hope that the conferees will, in similar vein, not limit themselves to merely tinkering with the existing political edifice, but also seriously consider whether the form of representative government long practised in the advanced societies of the Western world are, in reality, suitable for our own relatively backward societies. It is undeniably, except to the wilfully blinkered, that the quality of our politicians and the nature of our politics has considerably worsened since Sir Kitoye Ajasa (1866-1937), a pioneer lawyer called to the Nigerian Bar in 1893, uttered the following prophetic words in Lagos in 1921 : “ ...An election constituency is composed of men of questionable intelligence, experience and true patriotism, and is guided mostly by enthusiasm, prejudice, selfishness and sham patriotism...” (See The Nigerian Pioneer, April 22, 1921). A few months later, this former leader of the Nigerian Bar and patriot of the highest integrity, stated that “...The people are not ready or ripe enough to appreciate or benefit under any new and foreign system of electioneering ....” (See The Nigerian Pioneer, February 24, March 3 and 10, 1922).

Instead of trying to keep up with the “Joneses” in the West who are at an entirely different stage of development, and therefore mulishly clinging on to a system of government that has not de-

livered – and may never, on the basis of the evidence emerging, do so – the goods required the Nigerian people, the conferees would do well to break the mould and seek an accommodation with reality. A form of government suitable for our very peculiar circumstances should be our goal. Alternative forms of government should be looked at, even if they do not accord with current Western political thought, concepts, and practice. One political model, to take just one example, that commends itself to Nigeria in particular, is some form of corporatism and technocracy which is adapted to the Nigerian environment. Corporatism is the theory and practice of organising the whole of society into corporate entities subordinate to the state. According to the theory, employers and employees would be organised into industrial and professional corporations serving as organs of political representation.

According to the proponents of this political concept, it is a system of social organisation that has at its base the grouping of men according to the community of their natural interests and social functions; and as true and proper organs of the state they, through their representatives, direct and coordinate the affairs of the state in matters of common interest. Its chief spokesman was Adam Müller (1779 - 1829), court philosopher to Prince von Metternich, who conceived of a “class state” in which the classes operated as guilds, or corporations, each controlling a specific function of social life. This idea found favour in central Europe after the French Revolution. A technocracy, on the other hand, is the government or control of society by technical experts.

In our case, this political model has the great merit of completely excluding the professional politicians and political adventurers, who are, and have always been, the bane of our society. Under this political system, the federal and state legislatures would be composed only of the elected representatives of registered professional associations and labour unions, such as the Nigerian Bar Association, Nigeria Labour Congress, Nigerian Union of Teachers, Nigerian Medical Association, National Association of Nigerian Students, etc. Service would be on a part-time basis, and only sitting and travelling allowances, etc., would be paid. The legislatures, in turn, would act as the electoral colleges (as under the Lebanese Constitution) that would elect or nominate the members of the executive – i.e. the president/prime minister, governors/premiers, and ministers/commissioners.

The conferees would also do well to put the creation of states on

a rational basis, rather than in the haphazard, emotionally driven, uneconomical, and ultimately unsustainable, fashion that has guided us for far too long to our own detriment.

States/regions should be established along the major linguistic lines, as was done in post-colonial India by Jawaharlal Nehru. Under this formula, there would be 10 states/regions for the 10 major ethnic nationalities. These would be Hausa-Fulani State; Kanuri State; Nupe State; Tiv-Jukun State; Yoruba State; Igbo State; Edo State; Urhobo-Isoko State; Ijaw State; and the Ibibio-Efik-Annang State. There would also be seven multi-ethnic states/regions for the remaining minority ethnic nationalities : Bauchi State; Adamawa State; Plateau State; Central State; Niger State; Ogoja State; and a state for the non-Ijaw ethnic nationalities in the present Rivers and Bayelsa States. Most of the powers and authority of government should be transferred to these states/regions. The Federal Government should deal with matters of common concern to the federation, e.g. foreign relations, defence, etc.

States/regions should have the power to draft their own constitutions within the framework of the aforementioned political concept of general corporatism and technocracy. States/regions should, in consonance with elementary justice and fair play, control most of the resources that they have been endowed with by nature. States/regions should, on the principle of equality of the ethnic nationalities, and regardless of population, have equal numbers of representatives in the federal legislature (as obtains in the U.N. General Assembly, but without the invidious veto powers given to the “superior” permanent members of the Security Council).

It is worth noting that China’s unprecedented growth in the last few decades was primarily due to the Communist Party’s good sense in finally opting for a pragmatic, rather than doctrinaire, solution to their country’s monumental problems. By so doing, China’s leaders measured up to Walter Lippmann’s (a notable American journalist) definition of the rational man in his book, The Public Philosophy (1955) : “A rational man acting in the real world may be defined as one who decides where he will strike a balance between what he desires and what can be done.” It is a definition that one hopes that the conferees at the national constitutional conference will similarly measure up to for all our sakes.

• Ajose-Adeogun is a Lagos-based lawyer.

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Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Opinion Where did Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi err?

By Andrew Uchendu N a newspaper publication of February 1, Iand2014, two of my friends, Dumo Lulu-Briggs Beks Dagogo-Jack, bared their minds on the unfolding events in Rivers State. Dumo Lulu-Briggs in his “Rivers State: A crisis foretold”, rightly stated that I was in the entourage of His Excellency, Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, during his January 1, 2007 visit to his residence. He further stated that Rivers State is in crisis because Amaechi did not heed to his advice of “broadening the political space”. While Beks Dagogo-Jack stated amongst other things that “Rivers people are not under attack;” and that “Amaechi’s Save Rivers Movement is a fraud and a crime against the people of Rivers.”

Since our two illustrious sons disagreed with each other, it is the place of some of us much older than them and who are in touch with the people to offer some valid clarifications. Possibly, this could make greater meaning to them and some others who may be interested.

Truly, human memories are short-lived.

Were it not to be so, how can we as a people forget so soon that Chibuike Amaechi became Governor, when the state was on its throes, half of our middle-class had left the city; citizens walked the streets with their two arms up. There were shootings in all the nooks and crannies of the state; life was bestial and militants bestrode our city recklessly.

Many of our people could not go to their homes, not to talk of burying the dead in their places of nativity. Of special mention is the case of Okrika and Kalabari communities.

Some tolls must be paid to some “overlords” before burials could take place. These illustrations are not imaginary, they are real and they all took place in Rivers State. The governor in collaboration with the security agencies in the state mapped out strategies and invested heavily and finally returned the state to the path of sanity in almost a year.

Port Harcourt started to come back to life, until the CP Mbu distraction halted it a few months ago.

I am greatly troubled and wonder where were these ‘new converts and patriots’ when ‘Rome was burning’? Let me advise: political power and offices are highly ephemeral and the transience of power is real.

Chibuike Amaechi, on assumption of office as governor of the state, and faced with a beleaguered and despondent citizenry, consulted with key stakeholders of the state, before he established the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The commission was headed by an eminent jurist, Late Justice Kayode Eso. Armed with the recommendations of the report of the commission, so many ethnic groups were reconciled, mutual suspicion was reduced and self-confidence was rebuilt, and the political space was broadened and my friend Dumo Lulu-Briggs and many others were brought into the greater task of governance of the state.

The Commission’s Report elaborately dwelt with the issue of waterfronts and signposted them as major Criminal Havens that must be demolished, if Rivers State and indeed Port Harcourt would know any meaningful peace.

The government embarked on these measures without discrimination or hate. The gov-

ernor, in order to run an all-inclusive broadbased government, in addition ensured that he consulted with his senior brother, the President, in setting up the Cabinet of the State.

He did, and rightly so, kept in abeyance the recommendation of profiling and prosecution of some high-profile individuals, who were, by complicity alleged to have aided human right abuses of some citizens of Rivers State. Now tell me what next the Governor would have done with the Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

Surely, my friend who posited in an unapologetic way that the “Save Rivers Movement is a fraud and a serious crime against the people of Rivers State” should not be taken seriously; I sincerely believe that the Grassroots Democratic Initiative (GDI) is the one that is a fraud and a crime against Rivers State.

Someone stood up to obtain a court judgment against a truly legitimate Party Executive that was elected nine months after the party Congresses have been concluded. The defendants went on appeal and the plaintiff turned around gallivanting the entire state, organising massive rallies which they deceitfully tagged ‘Thanksgiving Service’ the platform of which was used to abuse an elected government and campaigned for Mr. President our brother, who is yet to declare his ambition for the 2015 elections. To some of our brothers, this is no fraud and is not a crime. Be rest assured that Rivers people know better, they can no longer be fooled by any group of betrayers.

If I may ask, how else can a people be under attack? An elected Governor was addressing some citizens of the state, and his micro-

phone was snatched from him; the Rivers State Jet was grounded at Akure on very spurious reasons; a $200 million African Development Bank Loan for the Rivers State Water Project cannot be drawn-down because the Federal Government has decided not to assist in perfecting the necessary documentation; the NLNG TRAIN 7 which will generate more than 10,000 jobs for Rivers people and Nigerians cannot be executed because Brass NLNG has to take-off first; the hallowed chambers of the Rivers State House of Assembly was invaded by five House Members and some militants in the presence of the police. The state cannot be under attack when teargas are being hauled into the Government House, the seat of the Government of Rivers State; when a legal assembly of Rivers people at the College of Arts and Science, without any provocation was invaded by the Nigeria Police to the extent of shooting innocent citizens including a serving Senator of the Federal Republic; so many kilometres of Federal Roads have been executed by the Rivers State Government without any refunds to date. Need I say more! Our forefathers have over the years fought for the retention of Soku in Rivers State. In our very eyes, the oil wells and accruals thereto have been handed over to Bayelsa. Should a Governor under oath sit idly by and watch these things go on without raising an alarm?

Truly, and I dare say with every sense of responsibility, Rivers people are under attack and highly endangered. May God help us.

• Uchendu is a member, House of Representatives, representing Ikwerre/Emohua Federal Constituency.

Currency trafficking: Confusion or collusion?

By Henry Boyo N October 2012, several media reports confirmed that two Imission men were helping Economic and Financial Crimes Com(EFCC) operatives with information on how they came about $986,000 found on them at Lagos and Kano International Airports. The duo were apparently arrested in separate operations as they were about to board their flights to Dubai. One of them was nabbed with the sum of $700,000 in Kano while the other was arrested with $286,000 in Lagos.

“The two arrests, according to the reports, came barely 48 hours after the arrest of a 24-year-old man, whom EFCC described as a bulk money smuggler, with over $7 million at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos, en route the United Arab Emirates!

“In a related report, the EFCC noted “Globally, bulk cash smuggling is usually associated with proceeds of crime, where illegitimately earned funds are processed outside the banking system”.

Incidentally, such arrests are not uncommon.

“In a statement on November 3, 2010, the incumbent Central Bank of Nigeria’s Corporate Affairs Manager, Mohammed Abdulahi, had reported that “CBN had been inundated with complaints from foreign countries that some Nigerian travellers indulge in cross border transportation of large sums of foreign currencies in cash, and that Nigerian Customs Service’s returns show that large amounts of up to $3 million cash had been taken out of Nigeria by individuals in single trips.” (Business Punch 4/11/2010).

“However, CBN’s sanctimonious posturing may just have been a subtle form of image laundering for the apex bank, whose misguided policies liberally fund the foreign exchange sources for currency traffickers, smugglers and money launderers.

“The truth, of course, is that the huge sums of moneys trafficked were most certainly purchased from various BDCs, to which CBN regularly disburses hundreds of millions of dollars monthly! Indeed, liberal market dollar supply was one of the policy support instrument demanded by the IMF and the London and Paris Credit Clubs before Nigeria’s controversial debt exit, which fleeced over $12 billion from our tattered pockets in 2006, in the name of debt forgiveness.

“Our monetary authorities had cleverly put a positive spin on this IMF directive, by suggesting that such free dollar sup-

ply would reduce the existing huge gap between the official and the black market rates of exchange. Although the black market and the official rates are much closer, some analysts believe that the liberal supply of public sector dollars to BDCs for better exchange rate management may, in reality, be akin to smashing a cockroach on a glass table with a sledge hammer, when a less destructive repellant or insecticide could have been applied.

“Incidentally, the difference between official and black market exchange rates continue to be between N5 and N10, a margin, which is still attractive enough to encourage underhand practices in the banks. In successful economies everywhere, it would be apocryphal for public sector dollars to be liberally sold to BDCs, whose cash flows are traditionally derived from the itinerant tourist market.

“The recent EFCC arrests suggest that BDCs may have graduated from merely meeting the retail requirements of travelers, to becoming hard-core suppliers of foreign exchange to major money launderers and smugglers! In other words, CBN’s ill-advised liberal dollar allocations have become a supportive tool for national economic sabotage! For example, the near collapse of our industrial landscape is partly the result of the black market forex funding of the inflow of contrabands from aggressive industrial economies.

“Similarly, the motivation for money laundering and currency trafficking is facilitated by free access to public sector dollars made available to BDCs by CBN. Ultimately, the adoption of IMF’s conditionality on liberal dollar supply to BDCs has evidently done much harm to the economy. This much was made evident in the past, in several of our articles in this regard, see for example, “Banks and Money Laundering”, September 2009 and “Funding Smuggling and Money Laundering from BDCs”, August 2011 at www.lesleba.com.”

The above is an excerpt from an article, “Currency Trafficking, BDCs & CBN”, first published in October 2012 (see www.lesleba.com).

However, in a belated recognition of its ‘inadvertent’ or possibly, even, knowing support of money laundering, currency trafficking and capital flight with its liberal dollar supply to the market, the CBN, in late 2013, threw overboard its obviously failed wholesale forex auction system, and replaced it with the earlier tested, failed and discredited retail auction system, which restricts direct forex sales specifically to end-

users, in place of the speculative hoarding by banks, under the Wholesale Forex Auction System.

Regrettably, however, despite the return to RDAS, forex demand still remained untamed. Consequently, in the latter part of 2013, the CBN announced the reduction of its weekly allocation of forex to BDCs from $1million to $250,000. Expectedly, this measure only instigated dollar scarcity, with attendant naira exchange rate depreciation, as a margin of over N20/$1 soon evolved between official and black market rates!

Furthermore, in a clear demonstration that the CBN did not thoroughly think through its strategy, only a few months later in January 2014, the apex bank, in a rash policy somersault, lifted the $250,000 limit on forex sales to BDCs, and instead, directed banks to sell forex on demand to BDCs, so as to increase dollar supply, and reduce the margin between official and black market exchange rates, without minding the antisocial threat of money laundering, bulk money trafficking or capital flight.

Conversely, the EFCC Chairman, Ibrahim Lamorde, only last week, at a press interview in January, identified BDCs as major conduits for funding bulk currency movements, which obliterate the tracks of huge funds stolen from the treasury!

Lamorde, therefore, passionately pleaded with banks to be more circumspect, and to also, thoroughly document their forex sales to BDCs, so as to facilitate investigations of corrupt practices. Lamordes’ pleas would certainly have been more appropriately directed to the CBN, which is obviously the primary source of easy dollar supply in the system.

Besides, it is curious that in addition to the CBN’s halfway attempts to control bulk currency importations, lately, there is nothing to suggest that Lamido Sanusi has forwarded the huge dossier he claimed to possess, in his September 2013 letter to the President, on trails of money laundering uncovered by the apex bank in certain sectors, especially in the acquisition of private aircraft!

Nonetheless, the truth, of course, is that the naira will become appropriately priced with minimal variations in market rates, when CBN refrains from creating excess or surplus naira against rationed dollar supply in the market, when it constantly unilaterally substitutes naira allocations in place of dollar certificates, for payment of dollar-derived revenue!!

• Boyo is a financial and public affairs analyst.

Tuesday, February 18, 2014 15

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TheMetroSection Woman, 56, slumps after ‘verbal war’ with co-trader From Muyiwa Adeyemi, Ado Ekiti OMMERCIAL activities were temporarily halted in the popular Bisi Market in Ado Ekiti yesterday as a 56year-old woman, Mrs Bosede Ajayi, slumped and died after having a shouting match with another trader Mrs Raheem Aminat over a space in the market.

An eyewitness revealed to newsmen that the two women had engaged in a war of words for about 30 minutes over where to display their wares in the market that used to hold every five days, which was said to have been settled between them by other traders.

The Ekiti State Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) Mr Victor Babayemi, who confirmed the incident, said it was a case of homicide, but hinted that the altercation according to an eyewitness, Mr Marcus Adedayo, did not degenerate into exchange of fisticuffs.

Babayemi said the 40-year-old Aminat has been arrested and detained at the Okesa Police Station in Ado Ekiti.

Babayemi explained that preliminary investigations have confirmed that the matter was settled between the duo and Mrs Ajayi had started displaying her wares before she slumped and died.

He said the woman was immediately rushed to the Comprehensive Health

C

The two women had engaged in a war of words for about 30 minutes, over where to display their wares in the market, which used to hold every five days...Shortly after, she fell and fainted.

Centre in Okeyinmi area of Ado Ekiti, where efforts to save her life had failed.

The Police spokesman added that medical experts confirmed that the victim had died, which he said prompted his men to immediately arrest the suspect.

Babayemi said: “Yes, I can confirm to you that the suspect is in our custody at Okesa Police Station. The woman struggled with another person on where they should display their wares and, shortly after, she fell and fainted.”

“The victim’s body has been deposited at the morgue in Ekiti State University Teaching Hospital (EKSUTH) in Ado Ekiti while investigations are ongoing on what led to her death.”

D

told newsmen: “Dance is very relaxing, and people can dance to whatever music they are familiar with. Whatever you are familiar with, you need to get off your backside and do something for your own health. You need to keep your joints moving, to prevent arthritis.”

One of the participants, Ariyo Funmilola, a nurse, stressed how dancing helps fitness.

“The exercise helps my lungs, my muscles and helps me to flex everything and makes me much more stronger,” she stated.

Acting Managing Director of Lifebridge Medical Diagnostic Centre, Francis Etim, stressed that dance could help people live longer.

He said: “Looking at the lifestyle of people here in Abuja, we have people living unhealthy life style.

This doesn’t help anybody.

The mortality age has actually reduced. During our fathers’ days, people live up to

HE death has occurred of T Mrs. Agnes Ajiyemikpiahan Ogbakpah, at the age of 97.

A statement signed by Chief Johnson Amatseruleghe and the Queen of Mosogar Kingdom, Esther Omene, on behalf of the children said: “A service of songs holds on Thursday, February 27, at her residence, 12, Ofotokun Road, off Macpherson, Sapele, Delta State at 5.00p.m.”

She will be buried on Friday, February 28, after a funeral service at First Baptist Church, 31, Palmer Road, Sapele at 10.00a.m.

Entertainment of guests/Inlaws’ greetings continue on Saturday, March 1, at Ethiope Mixed Secondary School, at 10.00a.m.

Ogbakpah

Ogbodu, 89, for burial HE families of Ogbodu in T Awhire in Agbarha-Itor in Ughelli North Local Council

Ekiti State Police Commissioner, Felix Uyanna

Dance, fight stroke, stay healthy, the Abuja way From Emeka Anuforo, Abuja ON’T ignore that music.

Before you get ready for the day, turn on the music, dance, exercise and elongate your life.

Beyond listening to good music and nodding on your chair, you can dance your way to a healthy living, according to experts.

Caught by the dancing bug, many Abuja residents at the weekend gathered at the Millennium Park where they joined the Abuja Dance and Fitness Club to adopt dance as a good form of exercise.

They gathered in their numbers: women and men, young and old took to the pitch and danced away under the supervision of medical instructors.

Coordinator of the dance club, Dr. Biodun Ogungbo, called attention to the need for increased awareness about dance and healthy living.

Ogungbo, a brain surgeon with Spine Fixed in Abuja,

Briefs Ogbakpah, 97, passes on

80-100 years. People just walk and the next thing they slump and die.”

“All work and no play make Jack a dull man. We are at the forefront of pushing this, and to ensure that people imbibe that culture of a healthy lifestyle. No matter how busy you are,

you find time, create that time, at least 30 minutes to an hour a day to at least walk down and bring the numbers down. That is the essence of this.”

He went on: “There are a number of benefits to dancing: keeping your weight down, your heart working

A cross-section of dancers at the event

better, thereby keeping blood pressure in check and managing diabetes, sometimes without medication.”

“Experts recommend a twice-daily session lasting 30 minutes each and devoted to any form of exercise: walking, gym work, or dancing with your family.”

and Kaniga of Etevie Quarters , Ozoro , in Isoko North Local Council, both of Delta State have announced the death of James Ejenakevwe Ogbodu alias Ame, at the age of 89.

He will be buried on Saturday, February 22, in Warri, Delta State. Lying-in-state is at Agbarha-Otor Primary School, Agbara-Otor, Delta State at 11.00a.m.

Memorial service holds on Sunday, February 23, at God’s Kingdom Society Services Hall, Salem City, Warri, Delta State.

Ogbodu

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16 Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Briefs Ogun to distribute two million treated nets to fight malaria GUN State government in collaboration with the Society for Family Health (SFH) has concluded arrangements to distribO ute 2.6 million Long Lasting Insecticidal Nets (LLINs) to every household in the state this year.

The Commissioner for Health, Dr. Olaokun Soyinka, who made this disclosure at a press briefing in Abeokuta, indicated that the LLINs mass distribution campaign was part of the holistic measure to eliminate malaria scourge in the state.

According to Dr. Soyinka, the exercise is scheduled to hold between March 15 and 19, adding that a nine-day mobilization campaign would be held between February 21 and March 1.

He expressed optimism that when used appropriately, LLINs could reduce malaria attack by 50 per cent as it provides necessary protection against malaria-causing mosquitoes.

“We expect media practitioners to be partners in progress for the successful implementation of this campaign by providing adequate publicity before, during and after the campaign on the benefits, care and maintenance of the nets to avoid misconceptions,” Soyinka stated.

On his part, SFH team leader, Dr. Ernest Nwokolo, explained that LLINs mass campaign is a national strategy used to reduce malaria prevalence, saying that the collaboration was meant to ensure that the nets reach all targeted beneficiaries.

Fire kills Nigerian journalist, wife JOURNALIST in Yola, Adamawa State, Aliyu Zubairu, and A his wife, Nazira, died on Sunday night in a fire outbreak allegedly caused by electric surge.

Mr. Zubairu, who was the Adamawa State House of Assembly correspondent for the Nigerian Television Authority, NTA Yola, was asleep when the fire broke out after electricity was restored at about 1 a.m. on Monday.

According to neighbours and relatives of the deceased, the smoke from the fire suffocated Mr. Zubairu, whose wife refused to be rescued until her husband was safe too.

“The smoke from the burning fire may have contributed to the death of Zubairu and his wife. We all saw the smoke and the flames, and we all trooped out to give a helping hand; but sadly Zubairu had already fainted due to inhalation of too much smoke.”

“We were able to break the window and found that the wife was still alive, and when we told her to escape through the window, she said she would not until her husband was helped out. And before we could say Jack Robinson the fire engulfed the whole building making it impossible for us to help out. That was how they both died in the fire,” a neighbour said.

The Chairman of the Nigerian Union of Journalists, NUJ, Adamawa State Council, Salisu Mohammad, commiserated with the family of the deceased. He eulogised Mr. Zubairu as a hard working, easygoing and god-fearing man.

Mr. Muhammed implored all working journalists in the state to subscribe to the NUJ Life Insurance package which he said would go a long way to assist bereaved families of journalists.

At centenary celebration, Nigerians call for genuine love for the nation

By Isaac Taiwo HE very fact that Nigeria’s centenary celebration fell on the same day the entire world celebrated Valentine’s Day, apparently made the celebration exceptionally unique.

Divergent views from Nigerians greeted the coincidence with each school of thought driving its point home but all arriving at the same conclusion that the entity called “Nigeria” would be able to wriggle out of various predicaments plaguing her, if leaders and those in authority are ready to be patriotic enough to embrace her in perfect love.

While some were busy enjoying themselves in the spirit of Valentine, others engaged their time to rub minds on how Nigeria would emerge from her quagmire and not only be relevant among the developing nations of the world, but also establish her feet among the comity of nations.

A civil servant, Michael Edun did not see any reason for centenary celebration because according to him, there is nothing to show for it that the nation is 100 years old.

“You will agree with me that a man of 100 years old, if still alive would be packing up.

One would expect that he has spent his life to achieve all he desired and it would be preposterous for him to now start thinking of how to meet some obligations in life.

“We all agree that there is nothing the nation is not blessed with but credible leaders.”

T

“Many nations that attained their independence after Nigeria had come out of their challenges and in the forefront with Nigeria still crawling,” he lamented.

Along with concerned Nigerians was the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (NIPR) that organized Centenary Valentine Breakfast for Chief Executive Officers and top executives with the theme: “Being in Love with Nigeria: The Role of Public/Private Sectors’ Decision Makers in Building & Managing World Class Reputation for Nigeria” at Sheraton Hotels & Towers, Ikeja, Lagos.

The Chairman of the occasion, Senior Lecturer, Department of Industrial Relations, University of Lagos, Dr. Francis Anyim described as historical, the Federation, Nigeria clocking 100 years.

“To some, it is a glamorous event that gladdens the heart and deserves celebration while to others, it is worrisome and a pitiful state of affair that does not call for celebration but sober reflection. However, there is nothing esoteric about the two lines of thought as the universe is full of contradictions.” “ Anyim hinged the movement of the nation forward to critical examination of power generation and distribution, revamping ailing industrial sector, employment and jobs creation, local content, insecurity in the country, clean environment in our cities and urban centres, privatization of public enterprises, internet fraud and other financial crimes among others.

The Guest Speaker at the occasion, Special Adviser on Tertiary Education to Osun State

Government, Alhaja Mulikat Bello, described being in love with Nigeria as having an emotion of a strong attraction and personal attachment to Nigeria, investing in bonding or otherwise identifying with Nigeria, greatly valuing Nigeria and being deeply committed to Nigeria.

She underscored the importance of building the eroded reputation for the nation to be spearheaded by the decision makers who in this case can be regarded as political leaders.

The Guest of Honour, former Executive Director, Corporate Affairs, Guinness Nigeria, Chief Ulu Uba said the beginning of love for the nation should start from home where the children at home should be made to love themselves. He admonished Nigerians to see themselves as one.

Registrar, NIPR, Dr. Stephen Adebayo, President/Chairman, Governing Council, Dr. Rotimi Oladele, Chairman of the Occasion, Senior Lecturer, Dept. of Industrial Relations, University of Lagos, Dr. Francis Anyim, Guest Speaker, Special Adviser on Tertiary Education to Osun State Government, Alhaja Mulikat Bello and Special Guest of Honour, Former Executive Director, Corporate Affairs, Guinness Nigeria, Chief Ulu Mba during the Centenary celebration at Sheraton Hotel & Towers, Ikeja,Lagos...

Chapel redeems N6 million pledge to LUTH, builds crèche

By Eno Bassey HE Chapel of the Healing T Cross, Idi-Araba, a non-denominational Christian assembly, last Friday presented N6 million cheques to the College of Medicine of the University of Lagos.

It also performed the symbolic turning of the sod ceremony, which formally indicated the commencement of the construction of a crèche for the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Idi-Araba.

The cheque presentation and the commencement of the building of the crèche were in redemption of a pledge the Chapel made last year as part of events marking the 50th anniversary of its establishment.

Presenting the cheques to the college, the Chief Resident Minister of the chapel, Venerable Tunde Osho, an architect, who led a team of clergymen and laity to the event, said the money was for the establishment of an endowment fund, in perpetuity, for the best graduating students in three faculties of the College of Medicine, University of Lagos.

The faculties, whose best graduating students will be awarded N200, 000 each from the endowment fund are Basic Medicine, Clinical Sciences and Dental Sciences.

According to him, the Chapel, initially founded for the Christian community in the College and LUTH, was merely giving back to the community in appreciation for the foresight of staff, stu-

dents and patients of the medical facility.

In response, the College Secretary, Oladejo Azeez, who received the cheques on behalf of the Provost, Prof.

Folashade Ogunsola, thanked the chapel for the gesture and said the endowment will definitely serve as a motivating factor for both staff and students of the institution.

Earlier, the Chief Medical Director (CMD) of LUTH, Prof.

Akin Osibogun, had performed the turning of the sod ceremony to begin the construction of the crèche, a child-care and learning facility, designed to serve the teaching hospital and the college.

Speaking at the occasion, Osho also said the facility was part of its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). According to him, everything

has been put in place to complete construction of the facility in four months, adding that the crèche would be commissioned in June this year.

In response, Prof. Osibogun thanked the chapel for the gesture and pledged that the facility would be put to judicious use. He also used the occasion to urge Nigerians to begin to use the upgraded facilities in LUTH instead of going to foreign hospitals.

Last year, the chapel donated N6 million to LUTH for the acquisition of an echocardiogram machine as part of the activities marking the 50th anniversary of its establishment.

The church also refurbished an existing cardiology laboratory in the teaching hospital as part of its CSR to the community in addition to the just redeemed pledges.

Osho (left) presenting the cheques to the College Secretary, Oladejo Azeez, who represented the Provost at the event...on Friday

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Business Govt eyes $25b new ICT investment, begins broadband campaign

By Adeyemi Adepetun O make Nigeria more competitive on the global space, the Federal Government is targeting additional $25 billion investment in the country’s Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector soonest.

Already, the sector, especially the telecommunications arm has so far attracted over $25 billion investment within the last 13 years.

Speaking about this plan, the Minister of Communications Technology, Mrs. Omobola Johnson in Lagos, yesterday, said the Federal Government is keen on ensuring that the country is enabled to be able attract the right investment.

Johnson, who launched a new campaign broadband campaign with the theme: ‘Connected Nigeria, Connected Nigerians’, said “we need $25 billion more in the next few years into the country. As I speak with you, the Nigerian Communications Commission is going around, as the ministry also does, to win more investors into the country to boost broadband penetration in Nigeria.”

Johnson said though the broadband penetration is the country currently stands between six and seven per cent, stressing that the ministry was working with all stakeholders to ensure that the National Broadband Plan 2013-2018 implementation is

T

Commissioner of Finance, Lagos State, Ayo Gbeleyi (left); and Group Chief Executive Officer, UBA Capital Plc, Mrs. Oluwatoyin Sanni, during the visit of the management of the bank to the Ministry of Finance, in Alausa, Ikeja…Lagos. achieved.

“To ensure that the Plan is monitored, we set up the Broadband Council in 2013 to ensure proper monitoring of the Broadband Plan implementation,” she said.

She explained that with ICT sector currently contributing about eight per cent to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), in Nigeria, while adding that to fast-track the broadband infrastructure

deployment by telecoms firms, the ministry has been working with state governments and other stakeholder to address technical and financial and environmental obstacles for the operators to

accelerate broadband deployment.

The minister cited the effort which the ministry has made in Lagos State to reduce the cost of fiber optic deployment by 85 per cent, stressing that

similar move is being made to ensure the the Right of Way, RoW, cost is drastically reduced for faster infrastrstructre rollout.

Speaking on the objective of the broadband campaign, the minister said it was meant to get Nigerians to be aware of “what can happen when you have broadband access and what can happen when you use broadband.”

She said the campaign, mainly targeted at individual internet users, is to also sensitise end users on cyber security and online protection, among others.

“So, the campaign is not premature. We want people to understand and know what is possible and benefits about the broadband,” she said.

In his remarks, the President, Association of Telecoms Nigeria of Companies Member, and (ATCON) Broadband Council, Lanre Ajayi, the broadband campaign would be useful in sensitising Nigerians about applications of broadband access when they have it.

Ajayi, who commended the effort on RoW reduction, also called on the operators to embrace co-location, saying co-location is a great success factor to achieving broadband penetration.

The ministry said it would soon unveil a number of campaign initiatives in the print media, broadcaster and new media as a way of deepening communication for development.

FBN Holdings acquires Oasis Insurance

By Chijioke Nelson BN Holdings Plc, through its subsidiary- FBN Life Assurance Limited, has acquired a majority stake of 4,630,595,326 ordinary shares of 50 kobo each, representing 71.2 per cent of the total issued ordinary share capital of

F

Oasis Insurance Plc. The acquisition, which was effected through the execution of a share sale and purchase agreement with the majority shareholders of Oasis Insurance, was also assessed to be devoid of antitrust law in the sector.

The transaction, also received the approvals of the board of directors of FBN Life Assurance, FBN Holdings Plc and the selling shareholders, as well as the requisite regulatory approvals from the National Insurance Commission, Securities and

Exchange Commission and The Nigerian Stock Exchange.

The acquisition move, according to FBN Life, was strategically aimed at diversifying into general insurance service offerings, even as it plans to complement its existing life assurance busi-

ness with a range of general insurance products as part of the plan to deepen insurance penetration in Nigeria.

But the Chief Executive Officer, FBN Holdings, Bello Maccido, said: “We are delighted with this new addition to our group. The formal

acquisition of Oasis Insurance provides us with an entry point into the general insurance sector of the Nigerian Insurance Industry.

“With this acquisition, FBN Holdings will continue to leverage synergies across the CONTINUED ON PAGE 18

LCCI advocates ease of doing business at Lagos ports

By Femi Adekoya

o aid the ease of doing T business in the country, especially for import dependent firms, the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry has emphasized the need for government to address the issues of cargo

clearance delays and evacuation.

Specifically, the chamber urged the Federal Government to resuscitate the rail system designed to evacuate cargo as well as ensure stakeholders’ compliance with the 48-hour deadline set for the clear-

ance of cargo at the seaports.

Already, manufacturers in the country had lamented the delays in the clearing process of goods at the ports, describing such delays as holding up their raw materials and potentially leading to shortfalls in their first-quarter bottom-

lines as their production processes have been slowed down or brought to a halt altogether.

Indeed, the stakeholders had attributed the slowdown of the goods clearing process at the ports to fallout of the introduction of the Pre-Arrival Assessment

Report (PAAR) by the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS).

The LCCI noted that the delay in clearing cargo at the ports was having serious effect on the cost of doing business in the country.

President, LCCI, Remi Bello, in a statement made available to The Guardian, recent-

ly, raised concerns that the delay at the ports had become a major cause for concern for the business community.

Hitherto, the LCCI had urged the Customs, shipping companies and termiCONTINUED ON PAGE 18

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Tuesday, February 18, 2014

NIMASA seeks alternative for arbitration in maritime industry

By Taiwo Hassan IrECTOr General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Patrick Akpobolokemi, has said that alternate dispute resolution

D

is a tool that has the potential to enhance the growth of the Nigerian maritime sector.

He stated this while playing host to the Maritime Arbitrators Association of Nigeria (MAAN) in Lagos,

decried the pace at which maritime sector disputes were adjudicated in the courts.

He said that maritime disputes in some instances linger in the courts for

LCCI advocates ease of doing business at Lagos ports CONTINUED ON PAGE 18 nal operators to seek ways to waive the accumulated demurrage for those concerned because the delays were not caused by importers and it would be unfair if they are compelled to pay for what is not their fault.

He said: “Persistent delays in the clearance of cargo at the Lagos ports have become a major cause for concern for the business community. One of the major shortcomings of the investment environment in Nigeria is the speed of cargo clearance at the ports; the 48-hour target set by government is far from being achieved”.

He listed the implications of the current situation to include high demurrage charges and disruption of production schedules, as

raw materials were not delivered in good time to factories.

Others are high risk of corruption at the ports; risk of exacerbation of inflation; and high cost of borrowed funds by importers.

According to Bello, the delays in the positioning of cargo at the port terminals are caused by inadequate equipment for cargo handling; high incidence of cargo block-stacking; poor access roads to the ports; and poor road network within the ports.

Others, according to him, are frequent breakdown of the server of the Nigeria Customs Service; delays in cargo release from shipping lines; and tight deadlines for cargo examination booking.

On the need to resuscitate the rail system, Bello said:

“Above all, the rail system designed to evacuate cargo from the Lagos ports need to be resuscitated as a matter of utmost urgency. The menace of trucks, trailers and tankers on Lagos roads, in particular, and the national road network in general, has assumed an unbearable dimension.”

With the high transportation cost taking its toll on the operating cost in the economy alongside low productivity in the economy, inflationary pressures resulting from uneconomic and inefficient haulage process and road and traffic congestion in both intercity and intra city transportation with attendant loss of man hours, the chamber urged the federal government to come to the aid of many businesses.

decades adding that this was to the detriment of the maritime sector.

He also assured stakeholders of the NIMASA’s commitment to providing the enabling environment for maritime arbitration to thrive in Nigeria as a dispute resolution mechanism.

“For the maritime sector which is an international industry, arbitration has proven to be an effective tool for dispute resolution and we at NIMASA are committed to ensuring that Nigeria embraces this trend to fas-

track the growth of the Nigerian maritime sector,” he said.

President of the association, Dr. Omogbai Omo-Eboh, commended the NIMASA Director General for his efforts in repositioning the agency towards its primary role of providing an enabling environment for the development of the Nigerian maritime sector.

While noting that the Nigerian judicial system has challenges in adjudicating maritime issues, Omo-Eboh pledged the readiness of the association to work closely

with NIMASA to resolve issues relating to the progress of the sector.

“In order to continue to maintain the role of Nigeria as the lead maritime sector in Africa, Nigeria needs the arbitrators,” he declared.

Omo-Eboh noted that setting up of an arbitration centre in Nigeria is more desireable than the present practice of traveling to New York, United States of America and Singapore amongst other places for arbitration, a practice he described as a drain on Nigeria’s foreign exchange.

FBN Holdings acquires Oasis Insurance CONTINUED FROM PAGE 17 group to grow its businesses profitably, reinforce its leadership position whilst driving its business forward. The new investment will also leverage off the extensive branch network of FirstBank and FBN Life’s existing distribution infrastructure.”

Also, the Managing Director /Chief Executive Officer of FBN Life, Valentine Ojumah, said: “We are delighted to formally announce our acquisition of Oasis Insurance Plc. Having received regulatory approvals from both the Securities and Exchange Commission and the National Insurance Commission, FBN Life Assurance Limited has set the stage for its emergence as a dominant player in the insurance industry.

“The proposed acquisition will not violate any antitrust laws in the insurance sector in Nigeria and it is expected that the business combination will enhance both efficiency and profitability, as FBN Life will be expanding its portfolio of services into the general insurance business while leveraging on FirstBank’s national footprint.

“Upon completion of the transaction, we shall be absorbing the share capital of Oasis into that of our listed entity, thereby minimizing the potential impact on market capitalization on the Nigerian Stock Exchange.

“With the support of management and the board of directors of both institutions, we intend to complete the

transaction and integration before the end of the 2nd quarter in 2014.”

Oasis is a general insurance company in Nigeria, incorporated as a private company in November 1992, later became a public limited liability company in November 2004 and was successfully recapitalized in 2006 through an initial public offering and subsequently listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange in 2007.

The company is licensed to carry on non-life insurance business in Nigeria, spanning fire, general accident, motor, marine, aviation, oil and gas, bond and engineering all-risk policies and currently operates from 13 branches spread across Nigeria, with considerable network of brokers and agents.

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Bayelsa records N10b internal revenue in one year

By David Ogah HE government of T Bayelsa state said at the weekend that its revenue

from internal sources had gone up from the mere N4billion of last year to about N10 billion, saying land owners in the state should be prepared to pay taxes on their landed property in the attempt to further shore up the state’s Internal Generated Revenue (IGR) Governor seriake Dickson told newsmen in Yenagoa at the week end, when he marked his second year in

Ernst & Young acquires Greenwich Consulting RNsT & Young, a global E leader in assurance, tax, transaction and advisory services, has announced the acquisition of Greenwich Consulting, a company specialising in strategy consulting with key strengths in the fields of marketing, distribution, client relationships, digital transformation, data analysis and growth strategies. speaking on the acquisition, EMEIA Advisory Leader, Andrew Embury said: “I am pleased to welcome our new Greenwich Consulting employees to EY. This acquisition is part of EY’s global growth strategy and will help consolidate our service range, notably in growth strategy, marketing, digital and data-analysis.”

On her part, senior Advisory Partner, EY Nigeria, Bunmi Akinde said: “We are particularly happy to be associated with Greenwich; together we are better equipped to meet our clients’ expectations especially in telecom, media, utilities and financial services. We are already working together and our Greenwich colleagues will be visiting by March this year.”

For Woody Driggs, EY Global Advisory Customer Lead: "We are very excited to welcome the Greenwich team across our different member firm geographies worldwide. This acquisition aligns with EY’s ambitious growth plan. These combined operations will expand our ability to meet our clients’ expectations.

We are delighted that the highly talented Greenwich team has decided to continue their careers at EY.” With more than 15 per cent growth per annum in the Europe, Middle East, India and Africa (EMEIA) region, EY Advisory will use the acquisition to strengthen its position but across the world as a major partner in corporate and administrative performance and transformation.

Greenwich Consulting Group is a management consulting firm structured into sector-dedicated practices; namely, telecom, media, utilities and financial services.

office, that he was determined to make the state rely less on oil and gas revenue, adding that the 60 per cent increase in IGR already recorded would be raised tremendously in due course as the state was already looking up to revenue from other sources within the state.

Calling for the active participation of the Organised Private sector, (OPs), in improving the revenue base of the state, the governor said that his administration had provided enabling environment for local and foreign investors.

In the realisation of his economic goal, the governor, while signing additional three new bills into law, said that the impending land and property taxes, was in line with his administra-

tion’s tax policies put in place to improve the revenue base of the state.

The laws: Bayelsa state Investment Promotion, Bureau for Development Cooperative and Bayelsa Anti Corruption Amendment, now brings the total number of laws already signed by the governor since he assumed office to 37. They are aimed at creating institutions for effective governance and for the progress of the state.

According to the governor, the state’s tax policies were aimed at creating wealth and to maintain a sustainable economy that was not dependent on revenue from oil and gas.

Expressing his determination to make Bayelsa selfsustaining, especially in the payment of salaries without

relying on proceeds from the Federal Allocation, the governor disclosed that in due course the people would stand to benefit from government’s diversification programme.

The governor also commissioned the offices of the state Geographic Information system Agency, saying the Bayelsa Geographic Information system, (BGIs) would act as a one-stop shop for the handling of all title matters, adding that it would go a long way in protecting the people’s investments in land and other valuable property.

“With the BGIs Law in place, you have to be prepared to pay property tax. BGIs is one stop shop for all title matters. Every land transaction must be consummated

within 60 days,” he said.

In another development, Governor Dickson has launched the registration of Tax Identification Number, (TIN) as part of government’s new revenue drive.

Tax Identification Numbers (TIN), were also issued to Governor Dickson and his deputy, Rear Admiral Gboribiogha John Jonah (rtd).

Under the new dispensation all taxable adults would be captured in TIN, as he directed inter-ministerial teams to work together and ensure the success of the exercise “Our teams are working on the law that will harmonise all revenue legislations in the state with the intention of ensuring that every person that is taxable in this state is captured. For the for-

mal sector, we have done a lot but for the informal sector, we know that the challenges are there” Giving an insight into the TIN programme, Executive Chairman of the state Internal Revenue Board, Godson Torukuru said that the scheme was a collaborative effort between the state and federal governments to shore up the Internally Generated Revenue, IGR. He also highlighted the benefits of the tax identification initiative which, according to him included, access to free medical services for some categories of persons, obtaining government contracts, driving license, international passports and would aid the processing of land documents among others.

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AVCA to enhance SME’s growth with provision of funds, others

By Helen Oji

FRICAN Private Equity A and Venture Capital Association (AVCA) has expressed commitment to grow Small & Medium Enterprises (SME) in Nigeria through provision of funds, as well as establishing standard governance structures and growth plans to enhance business sustainability.

Besides, the company also expressed readiness to finance indigenous companies with high growth potentials and business structure.

With investment figures close to $3 billion in 2013, the Chief Executive Officer of the company, Michelle Essome at a news briefing in Lagos at the weekend, explained that Nigeria had been a vibrant economy and a major part of private equity in sub-Saharan Africa, adding that the company played a crucial role in financing the SME sector which she described as the engine of economic growth all over the world.

She explained that this sector had potentials to boost local economies, adding that once they grew to a certain level, they would continue to create wealth and attract foreign direct invest-

ment into the country.

She pointed out that the reforms in the various sectors of Nigerian economy had necessitated the need to finance these sectors and prepare them for listing so that retail investors would have fractional share of these investments.

“When a private sector plays a major role in a sector, private equity comes in to create wealth and add value to the company.

We identify companies that will benefit and the potentials to move to the next level are high.

Companies that are ready to be institutionalised with good structuring & governance and are ready in the next few years to take on the value we bring in any private equity and create an enduring legacy like being listed in the market.

“We support them with funding and in other areas that would add value to the company. Our role is to prepare them for listing where retail investors can have fractional shares of the investment. We also create enabling environment to attract capital and investment from investors looking for where to invest so that they will invest in private equity without going through unnecessary risks.”

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Plateau poultry farmers to access N220b loan HAIRMAN, Plateau Poultry Farmers C Association (PAN), Julius Gusan said at the weekend that farmers in the state would access the Central of Bank’s Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise Fund.

Gusan told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Jos that the CBN had on February 11, held a sensitisation workshop for poultry farmers to educate them on the facility.

He said that the farmers were informed of the conditions that they needed to satisfy to benefit from the scheme, which would be facilitated by the association.

“We as farmers will access the loan through microfinance banks and we have gone ahead to open accounts with some microfinance banks for our farmers to access the loan.

“It is not going to be a problem because we are going to guarantee our farmers to take the loan to expand their farms, generate more income and improve their standard of living,” he said.

He disclosed that the inclusion of his members to access the loan and the sensitisation workshop was as a result of the training they received from the Industrial Training Fund (ITF).

“The CBN knew that PAN members received training from the ITF and therefore, they can now handle poultry issues,’’ he said.

Gusan added that the new office accommodation the

association inaugurated last week was to enable it to operate in a better environment and be more accessible to farmers.

“The office is a centre for us to coordinate the activities of all the farmers ranging from production to marketing of poultry products.

“We are talking with feed millers that produce quality and standard feeds to bring and keep them here so that our farmers can buy.

Tuesday, February 18, 2014 BUSINESS

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Ogun signs MoU with Malaysia on paddy rice, cassava farming HE Ogun government T has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Malaysia’s Ministry of Agriculture and Development Institute (MARDI) for development of paddy rice and cassava for ethanol production.

The state Commissioner for Agriculture, Mrs. Ronke Sokefun, made this known at a press briefing in Abeokuta on Saturday.

Sokefun said that she signed the MoU on behalf of the state government in Kualar Lumpur, Malaysia.

She said that the agreement covered training of farmers and research activities, which would ensure food security and industrial revolution in the state and Nigeria in general.

The commissioner said that the MoU was a demonstration of the state government's determination to further improve agricultural production through the use of modern techniques.

"The state government has been unrelenting in agricultural development as it embarked on landmarks such as purchase of agricultural equipment and the establishment of a model farm estate.

She listed other agriculture project of the state to

Amosun

include rice farming, cassava multiplication, and cultivation of 50 hectares of cashew plantation, 50 hectares cocoa plantation and Green House project for cultivation of tomatoes.

She urged all farmers and young agriculture graduates in the state to make the best use of the opportunity, which the MoU would provide.

Speaking, the Group Chairman of MARDI, Dato Mohammed, commended

the state government for giant strides in agriculture development.

Mohammed gave assurance that his ministry would impact positively on grassroots farmers and young agriculture graduates through modern training.

He gave the assurance that MARDI would soon embark on training of farmers and cultivation of rice and cassava in the state to boost food production.

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Enterprise Bank reiterates support for cashless scheme

By Chijioke Nelson NTERPRISE Bank E Limited, at the weekend, reiterated its readiness to improved service delivery as the cash-less policy introduced by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) enters into its second year of implementation.

The bank assured it customers that make use of the bank’s electronic transactional systems across the nation that it would strengthen network for seamless operations.

A statement from the C o r p o r a t e Communications Department of the bank noted that the financial institution would also ensured that those who will sustain their patronage of the different platforms and channels in which the bank serves the public would continue to enjoy seamless banking services, as the bank has fully strengthened its ATMs, POS terminals, Mobile and Internet Banking services across

the country.

“Through the Internet banking channel, customers will be delighted with the different platforms, which allows transactions from the comfort of peoples’ offices and homes anywhere in the world.

“These transactions range from checking account balances, viewing or downloading statements of accounts, requesting for cheque books and banking transfers to as much as N10 million at once. The banking transfers can be intra or interbank as the case may be, with the use of Personal Computer or smart phones.

“The interesting thing is that both new and existing customers of the bank can sign on for these safe and secured services that will, in addition to providing transaction options in the face of the cash-less policy, also give added value in the form of convenience banking in any of the bank’s branches,” the statement said.

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Microfinance banking is potent tool for poverty alleviation, says expert HE Managing Director of T Citiserve, a micro-finance bank, Dr. Salaudeen Jubril, has identified microfinance banks as potent tool for poverty alleviation in the country.

Jubril made the observation while delivering a lecture at the trade seminar and annual general meeting of IMAN Trust, a non-interest coopera-

tive society of the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital (UITH), yesterday.

The financial expert, who spoke on “Islamic Microfinance Development: Challenges and Initiatives”, said that micro-finance banking was bridging the needs of low-income earners and the poor .

According to him, the beneficiaries of micro-finance banking are people whose economic standing excludes them from formal financial systems .

He said that micro financing occurred when “access to services, such as credit, venture capital, savings, insurance, remittance, is provided

on a micro-scale. ” Jubril also pointed out that studies showed that the exclusion of the poor population from the formal financial system was responsible for their inability to participate in the development process.

“In a typical developing economy, the formal financial system serves no more

Firm seeks evolved transport, logistics businesses

By Chijioke Nelson VOLAD Nigeria Limited has A reiterated the need for evolve an effective transportation and logistics system that may encompass data capturing and monitoring digital w e i g h i n g .

Also, additional services like carriage of goods to their various destinations, especially when the goods are not accompanied by the owner, raises the need for tracking at all times to ensure that clients’ needs are met timely and efficiently.

The Managing Director of the company, Dr. Bayo Oluyamo, said though the present transportation system offers more options such as carriage of goods from one destination to another, the basics of just entering a vehicle and alighting at destinations should take a new dimension .

According to a statement from the company, software can be used to achieve the purpose and enable the client

Association to collaborate with govt on aviation sector projects HE Air Transport Services T Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (ATSSSAN), at the weekend pledged to collaborate with the federal government toward the completion of ongoing projects in the aviation sector. President of ATSSSAN, Benjamin Okewu made the appeal in Lagos.

He told journalists that the gains recorded so far in the sector was a challenge all stakeholders must strive to uphold even with the exit of the immediate former Aviation Pinister, Stella Oduah.

"On behalf of the members of our union in the aviation and allied industries, we are driven by patriotic fervour and an unalloyed commitment to the sustainable transformation of our great country, to recognise the monumental changes currently ongoing in our polity.

"As we commend the federal government for its boldness in charting these audacious steps, we also enjoined all stakeholders to maintain hope and strive to make our country the cynosure of all eyes in the world," he said.

According to him, the union was not averse to change “since it is the only thing that is constant in life.” .

Okewu urged the president to appoint another committed Nigerian that had passion toward the development of the nation’s aviation industry.

He said that ATSSSAN members would provide the necessary support for the new minster of aviation to succeed. .

to carry out all the requisite weighing and storage of data.

It will also enhance information gathering and easy tracking and monitoring of the goods, thereby creating smoother and more efficient operations .

“The software also gives client access to update the informa-

tion which appears on the passenger’s luggage and on the system regularly. Some of the features, theoretically unlimited records, question up to p50 user-defined input.

Different labels can be added, barcodes can be printed on the labels, records can be filtered by dates, Excel, Access or a text document can be stored

and data exported as text,” the statement said.

Avolad Nigeria, the sole distributor of Kern weighing equipment in West Africa, had embarked on a comprehensive technical training in Germany to reposition the product in Nigeria and West Africa as a whole.

than 20 to 30 per cent of the population,” he said.

He also said that the inclusive financial system was the central goal of policy makers and planners across the globe.

Jubril said both Microfinance and Islamic finance had a common goal that emphasised ethics, moral, social, and religious factors to promote equality and fairness.

The financial expert said that the Islamic finance approach to poverty alleviation was more inclusive than the conventional finance institutions.

He said that Islamic finance provided basic conditions of sustainable and successful microfinance, blending wealth creation with empathy for the poor.

Also, in another lecture by Dr. Abdulhakeem Mobolaji, a former head of the Department of Economics, University of Ilorin, said that cooperative societies had vital roles in restoring national economic security .

In the lecture entitled “Rich Nigeria, Poor Nigerians: Role of Islamic Cooperative Societies,” Mobolaji said it was reasonable for the societies to promote financial inclusion.

He said that the challenges facing these cooperative societies were numerous, but surmountable.

The don said that right attitude and continuous striving were the key driving forces to achieve these desirable objectives of saving the world from imminent and persistent global economic insecurity.

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Appointments Vocation training as elixir for retirement

By Yetunde Ebosele DEQUATE planning is key A to making good retirement decision.

Retirement, which is inevitable, takes various forms and dimensions depending on laid down structures and processes.

However, while some organisations enumerate in detail retirement procedures, others go a step further by providing training avenues for employees and subscribers.

According to experts, importance of training and planning ahead of retirement cannot be over emphasised.

The development may have prompted the management of Trustfund Pension Plc, to organise another pre-retirement seminar for its subscribers in the Southwest Zone, in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, recently. The zone is comprised of Ekiti, Oyo, Osun, Ogun and Kwara S t a t e .

The seminar, which is in two series, is the first for the region this year.

Besides, the seminar had facilitators who taught the participants on how to prepare toilet wash and dish soaps, while a Medical Doctor was on ground to give a talk on healthy living.

Speaking on the development, the Regional Manager Southwest, Femi Arobadi said the seminar was organised to educate Trustfund’s subscribers within the region on quality living after retirement and equip them with small skills vocations.

In a chat with The Guardian, Arobadi said Trustfund decided to embark on the Pre-retirement seminar because it forms part of its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) to customers and the society.

He explained that the vocational training is in the interest of retirees and other members of the society.

“What we do is to equip them with a vocation before they retire. We are in partnership with Skills Acquisition Centres in our various regions to ensure that our retirees are well equipped before they collect their benefits and that they already have an idea of what they want to do at retirement”, Arobadi said.

Explaining further, he said: “The seminar is basically to educate them on life after retirement because being retired doesn’t mean one should be tired. With the trainings given to them, they will be able to find a niche for themselves after retirement without having to only rely on the monthly stipends they are entitled to.

“Besides, they can even at the end of the day be employers of labour if they choose to toe the line of the training given to them. By so doing, they also contribute back to the society in terms of job creation. To ensure that our subscribers live a worthy life after retirement, Trustfund as a socially responsible enti-

Regional Manager Southwest Operations of Trustfund Pensions Plc, Femi Arobadi, a subscriber, Olufunmilayo Alli, a Medical Consultant, Dr. Kayode Adedapo, another subscriber, Oyeyemi Taiwo and Head, Customers Service Trustfund at a Pre-retirement seminar held for Trustfund's subscribers within the Southwest region in Ibadan. ty decided to adequately equip them with vocational trainings “Actually the preretirement seminar is done twice a year and with each seminar, we train them in two vocations including training on how to make toilet cleaners and dish washers.

“We choose trainings that wouldn’t take much of their time as well as that, which would not involve much capital investment. You know that these products are for everyday use and comes handy, hence our decision to train them on this vocation.

“We have other vocations that we have also outlined before the end of the year such as hat making, pastries, bead making and a whole lot of others.

This vocations being less capital intensive are equally less stressful to embark on.

The whole essence is to ensure that even after retirement, they are active and making money thereby contributing back to the society without having to be liabilities at old age,” Arobadi said.

According to him, there are follow up to the trainings, adding that, “We equally provide health talks for our subscribers about healthy l i v i n g ” He said apart from pre-retirement seminars, which comes up twice every year, Trustfund also organises customer forums where issues are exhaustively discussed.

“Even after they retire, we still keep tab on our subscribers. In fact, we have more than 15,000 retirees that we pay nationwide on a monthly basis. We call them and usually keep them abreast with happenings as regards their pensions regularly.

“One of the focal point of the pre- retirement seminars is also to keep our subscribers abreast on their monthly subscription, because most

times they retire without knowing their status. We usually educate them on the need to always check their status of remittance with us before they retire. We equally use the forums to enlighten them on the need to check their remittance status because according to the pension act, if employers for instance don’t remit to us even after deduction from employees, we are not mandated to pay such subscribers after retirement.

“We usually encourage them to walk into any of our offices to demand for their statement so that they can have an idea of their status and probably rectify any anomalies before retirement.

“We usually bring with us mandate forms so that subscribers can update their details at such forums”.

Speaking in a similar vein, Head of the Benefits Department of Trustfund, Tunji Longe said the essence of the seminar is to equip the subscribers with basic and necessary information required before retirement.

Longe said: “The whole essence of this pre- retirement seminar is to equip them with the necessary information they need that has to do with their retirement”.

He said Trustfund’s Unique Selling Point (USP) is; “our spread because we are available in all states of the federation. Another uniqueness about Trustfund is that we are not owned by an individual but by institutions. The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Nigeria Employers Consultative Association (NECA), Trade Union Congress (TUC), Niger Insurance and so on own us.

That alone makes us stand out among all other PFAs (Pension Fund Administrations).

“In terms of service delivery, we now have what we call

mobile office, which is a one stop office, once it’s parked anywhere, we generate official processes such as your pin and so on. Whatever issues you bring to us there

we are sure to tackle them.

Presently we have such services in Abuja and Lagos, while management is looking at making it available at all locations nationwide.

“We have six types of exit from the scheme. We have voluntary, temporary disengagement, immigrant, Medical grounds, Mandatory retirement and by death”.

Before the Ibadan seminar, Trustfund Pensions Plc had also organised a pre-retirement seminar for its subscribers in the Midwest region.

Speaking at the event, the regional manager, Obruche Akponah, said the essence of the pre-retirement tutorial is to ensure that their clients retire without problem.

Akponah said: “This seminar is to ensure that they know what their conditions will be after retirement; what to expect so that they can prepare for it and, above all, what to expect in terms of benefit payments.

“We are also trying to find out what their blood pressure, sugar and pulse levels are, and to ensure that in post-retirement they are healthy. The seminar is essential for intending retirees as a lot is learnt in the process”.

He wondered why some would-be retirees fail to attend the session despite

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Role of vocation training in retirement plan Continued from Page 25 the wealth of knowledge passed across at the seminar, adding that employers should always allow intending retirees to attend such seminars.

The key facilitator of the seminar, Rev. Tony Akinyemi, senior pastor Shepherd Flock International Church, Lagos, said the most important thing is for the retirees to remain healthy after retirement in order to enjoy the fruit of labour.

He said: “As a facilitator, I will address the intending retirees to sensitize them to the type of preparation they need to start making from now, and also talk to them about life in retirement, how to maximise their life in retirement.

“We are looking at health primarily, how to continue to remain healthy after retirement because you need good health to enjoy what you have worked for all your life.

The essence is to help them to enjoy the fruit of their labour after they have collected their retirement benefits.

“We are also looking at how to remain relevant after retirement because some people think when they retire they are no longer useful, we’ll let them know that they can still be useful to themselves, the community, to the nation. After retirement you are now loaded with a wealth of experience and you can apply all of that for the benefit of the whole community, or family”.

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UNN boosts manpower development in climate change From Collins Olayinka, Abuja HE University of Nigeria T Nsukka (UNN) has become the latest institution in the country to introduce courses that will boost manpower availability in climate change and its impact on human developm e n t .

Unveiling the courses in Abuja recently, the Deputy Vice Chancellor (Academic), Prof. Polycap Achigbu, said that the dearth of manpower in understanding climate change and the desire to reverse the trend influenced the development of the courses.

He added: “Well, we are aware that climate change as a course is not something that is popular in Nigeria before now. It is true that there are some Nigerians who have first degrees in climate change that they are not many. As we speak there is no Nigerian university offering the course at the Master and Ph.D level. We have no doubt that the courses will advance scholarship and boost understanding in this area for national development and growth.”

Prof Achigbu also revealed that the institution had the capacity to teach the various courses that would be offered at Masters and Ph.D levels, saying: “We have the required manpower to offer the courses. That is why the National University Commission (NUC) has

accredited the course. We all know that the NUC is thorough with its accreditation procedures and that it will not accredit the courses if we are not ready. We have the required lecturers in the university and we also have people who have cultivated experiences in this field over a few decades that would be resource persons.”

The Director of Africa Climate Change Adaptation Initiative (ACCAI), Prof.

Ifeanyiwa Achike, who expressed the readiness of UNN to offer the courses successfully, explained that relevant experts have been mobilised to participate in the programme.

She stressed that the university was eager to produce the next generation of climate change experts that would be trained to international level in order to compete with other experts around the world.

Her words: “The UNN wants to train the next generation of climate change experts.

Our aim is to train people that will be able to compete with the best in the world.

That is why we have convened this stakeholders’ forum to discuss the best possible ways to make the dream become a reality. The reason we organised this forum in Abuja is to move the idea closer to the people that matter. We want inputs in terms of ideas on how to ensure high quality pro-

gramme and also ensure that ministries and government parastatals are encouraged to send their staff to take the courses.”

Evidence has shown that economic sectors such as agriculture, fishery and tourism have been particularly vulnerable to climate change. It is also projected that at the middle of the 21st century, parts of Africa might experience reduced agricultural production by 8.5 per cent compared to current levels.

Despite these gloom future, there is hope that the anticipated calamities can be lessen by through regional and country-level adaptation strategies. But, even the adaptation process is hindered by acute shortage of responsive human resource capacities as well as institutional capabilities for achieving multi-sectoral and sustainable adaptation.

On the expected impact of the courses, Prof. Achike said: “The postgraduate courses are aimed at responding to the needs of education, training and research, for understanding and tackling climate change impacts, mitigation and adaptation. It is also intended to bring about a critical mass of knowledgeable, skilled and competent specialists that will improve the policy response to and management of climate change adaptation and mitigation.”

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Experts link higher productivity to energy access From Collins Olayinka, Abuja HE desire to achieve higher productivity by workers cannot be achieved until access to energy is improved upon, the Nigerian Association of Energy Economics (NAEE) has said.

President of the Association, Prof. Adeola Adenikinju, who disclosed this in Abuja while speaking on the energy conference taking place in Abuja currently, added that the giant stride recorded by the Asian Tigers was influenced by the increased energy access to the rural areas as well as cottage industries located outside of the capital c i t i e s .

His words: “The economic growth and development of any nation is tied to the level of energy access that the people have. The reason there is better live in the developed countries is because of increased access to energy.

This is because energy is the key to modern way of life.

Energy drives mass movement of the people, provide cottage jobs, ensure increased productivity and make economic activities happen at cheaper rates. That is why the costs of doing business is higher in Nigeria because most firms depend on generating sets for power p r o v i s i o n . ” He explained that NAEE was an organisation that brought all professional bodies in the energy sector together under one umbrella with a sole aim of providing solution to the challenges confronting the

T

sector, saying: “we look at energy access as the bedrock for any meaningful economic growth and development in a sustained manner.”

Prof. Adenikinju, who decried non-equitable distribution of energy in the country, said the urban areas are favoured against the rural p o p u l a c e .

“Those in the urban areas have more energy than those in the rural areas. Again, this is anti-economic growth. The rural areas are the ones producing food and if life is not comfortable there, there will be shortage of food that can be produced. Therefore, we need power in the rural areas to serve as incentives to those staying back and also contribute to a reduction in the cost of production,” he stated.

He submitted that there is no way Nigeria could achieve the objectives of economic transformation if access to energy by all Nigerians was not improved upon, adding that energy access was critical if the country was serious about reducing poverty and u n e m p l o y m e n t .

Adenikinju stressed that the two-day confab, which began in Abuja Monday is examining alternative policies that various countries have adopted and see the linkage and areas of possible converg e n c e .

He also stressed the need for the regulatory agencies to police the sector especially now private sector has taken over most assets in the sector.

He said: “Regulator must be

transparent and guide against being captured by the stakeholders because if that is not done, state or government monopoly will simply be replaced by market monopoly. What the new energy system needs is once the needed capital and the managerial capacity of the private sector have been injected; reduction of corruption and bureaucracy in the system must be the next agenda to achieve.

“If there is no strong regulation, we may likely find companies supplying rich neighbourhood at the detriment of

poor communities especially if the needed capitals are not forthcoming. This is why the regulator must ensure there is equitable distribution of p o w e r . ” On his part, the President of International Association of Energy Economics (IAEE), Prof. Wumi Iledare, said that Nigeria must guarantee access to energy on three major frontiers that include affordability, sustainability and availability.

He urged regulatory agencies to constantly interrogate the motives behind investors’ decision to partake in the

energy sector reform. He insisted that though profit was a main priority, he argued that that itself is not sufficient as national interest should take priority.

“We must ask what is the interest of the investors? This is important because that will determine if the needed infrastructure that is needed will be provided and allowed to mature instead of investors looking out for quick return on their investm e n t s . ” As new owners take over energy assets, Iledare called on the involvement of the

academics in ensuring stand a r d s .

While labelling the universities the cheapest labour sources, the IAEE boss said that energy issues must be allowed to form core discourse topic among the academics for sustainability.

Again, he submitted: “If we do not prepare energy professionals for the energy reform, we may fail. If there is any fear I have in respect to these individual companies is the possibility of inequality in the distribution. No nation leaves energy distribution to ability to pay alone.

Marketing/Public Relations Manager, Intel Nigeria, Adim Isiakpona (left), Sustainable Development Manager, Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited (SPDC), Bolarinwa Onaolapo, Commissioner for Science and Technology Akwa Ibom State, Iboro Ekanem, Head Marketing, Interswitch Transnational, Ms. Enyioma Anaba and Manager, Government and Community Relations, East, SPDC, Edesiri Akpomudjee, at the 2014 National School Science Fair press conference in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State.

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Crisis brews at complaints commission over appointment of secretary

By Lemmy Ughegbe EriOUS crisis is looming at SCommission the Public Complaints (PCC) over the

appointment of Peter Nwakpa as the secretary of the Commission as staff have threatened to go on strike should the said appointment not be reversed by the Chief Commissioner, Justice George Uloko (rtd) whom they accused of “arbitrariness and abuse of power in the process leading to Nwakpa’s engagement.

A cross section of staff who spoke with The Guardian on the matter after pleading anonymity owing to Civil Service rules which bars them from talking to the media, said that it amounted to an affront on the part of the chief commissioner, PCC, to appoint Nwakpa, whom they described as an “outsider” having been brought recently from Ministry of Labour, to the office of the Secretary to the Commission, which is the equivalent of the exalted position of permanent secretary. impeccable sources said that the only time an outsider was appointed as secretary to the Commission was sometime in the nineties, pointing out that upon an official memorandum written by the then Chief Commissioner, the said appointment was reversed.

“The position of secretary to the Commission is the position of our permanent secretary. We have several directors who have been in the commission for over twenty, twentyfive years. They have mastered the process and grown through the ranks. They are wonderful ombudsmen. How can you now bring a complete outsider from the Ministry of Labour who was promoted as director just last year to come and head professionals who have been directors for several years? This is wrong and does not promote industrial harmony,” one of the leaders of the union stated.

Speaking on behalf of Justice Uloko, the Head of Public relations, Mr. Emeka Nwosu admitted to the crisis, which he described as baseless even though he said that his boss was already holding talks with the union [staff] to calm nerves and resolve their differences. “if you want to see the Chief Commissioner strictly on this issue, i think it’s needless. You cannot see him. i can speak for him. And i speak for him because i am the Head of this Public relations Unit and, therefore, i am his spokesman. indeed, there are some disagreements over the appointment of secretary and the Chief Commissioner is meet-

Pensioners elect new officers

By Toyin Olasinde HE Nigeria Union of T Pensioners has elected new officers 20 years running the affairs of the organization without an election.

The appointees are, president of the union, Dr Abel O Afolayan and General secretary, Elder Actor Zal. Speaking during the commission of the new office of the national president of the pensioners, Dr

Abel.O.Afolayan charge the newly elected officers to be good example for other members.

He said: “the jinx has been broken. The walls of Jericho have fallen.”

The state chairman of the union, Comrade Dele Joseph said there objectives is to bring succor and welfare to teeming members who have been left to wallow in pains in the past due to non-payment of their arrears and gratuity

ing with staff on the matter and it shall be resolved,” Nwosu said.

“But it should be on record that the disquiet, protest and unrest are baseless because the Chief Commissioner has acted within his powers as provided by Section 3 [1] of the Public Complaints Commission Act which empowers him to employ or recruit servants and personnel to help him and his commissioners function well.

The Chief Commissioner derives his powers from the Act and can appoint whomever he deems fit as secretary. As we speak, if the Chief Commissioner sees you and likes you, without any hesitation he has the power to appoint you immediately as secretary to the commission,” Nwosu added with emphasis.

Section 3 [1] of the PCC Act reads: “The Chief Commissioner shall appoint such additional officers and servants [not being commissioners] as he may determine to assist him and other Commissioners in the discharge of the functions under this Act.” Quizzed how the Chief Commissioner would upon “liking” a person appoint him as secretary to the commission, his spokesman said: “i am not the one saying so, the law has said it clearly. Once the Chief Commissioner is convinced he can appoint anyone as secretary to the commission. May be we should read the provision of the Act for emphasis and clarification,” he retorted.

But a senior officer at the commission said that the powers of the Chief Commissioner however large could not be used in a manner so described by his spokesman.

She said, “the chief has powers by our enabling law, but the powers must be used in such a way that it promotes industrial harmony and growth,” stating that the decision to bring somebody from outside to occupy the position of permanent sec-

retary amounts to injustice and keeps all the directors that have served the commission for several years stagnated.”

Explaining the internal structure, she said that PCC directors could not be promoted to the position of permanent secretary in any other agencies of government. “Our staff is not in the pool. Our career begins and ends at the commission. We are not in the pool. That means we have only one slot for permanent secretary, which is secretary to the commission. it’s therefore too much injustice to take away our birthright by bringing in an outsider to become secretary. it is unacceptable and unless this is reversed, we shall go on strike to make our point known. ” Yet another staff said, ‘we have 15 directors in the commission eligible for appointment as secretary to the commission, the position of permanent secretary is not a political one, so it cannot be used for political settlement. When the chief commissioner met us the last time, he said that the National Assembly forced the Nwakpa on him as secretary and pleaded with us to accept it. We said no to him because we cannot have 15 well-groomed ombudsmen and accept an outsider.

These directors are already getting frustrated. The oldest director within should naturally emerge.”

He said, “if this is not reserved, we will go on strike and we will shut down everywhere until the right thing is done.”

When The Guardian sought the opinion of a legal practitioner, Johnbull Adaghae on the provisions of the Act vis a viz section 3[1], he said a law that allows unfettered powers to a chief executive to unilaterally hire and fire was a “primitive” law that should be immediately remedied.

“At a time when we are talking about checks and balances and promoting equity and fair play, an Act has conferred exclusive unilateral powers on a Chief

Executive of a government agency? This is unbelievable. i have gone through the PCC Act and it is definitely obsolete and needs to be immediately reviewed lest we continue to

expose the commission to the whims and caprices of one man – the chief commissioner without any check and balance,” Adaghe said.

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CIPM seeks inclusion in National Conference NUMbER of reactions have A begun to trail the recently released Federal Government modalities for the nomination of delegates to the proposed national conference, which has been tentatively fixed to hold in Abuja and to last for three months.

While most of these reactions hinged on the exclusion of their professional groups and bodies, others were as a result of inadequate nominee slots to represent their association.

The Institute has decried the exclusion of the Chartered Institute of Personnel Management of Nigeria (CIPM) from the list of nominees, and they have, in a letter addressed to office of the Secretary to the Government

of the Federation requested a meeting with the Secretary to the Government of the Federation Senator Ayim Pius Anyim to redress this.

While commending the expeditious consideration given by the Federal Government to the report of the Presidential Advisory Committee on National Dialogue and accepting the recommendations for imminent implementation as well as in coming up with such an extensive list of nominees to cover almost all key decision making areas of the federation, CIPM expressed the need for the Institute to be included among the professional bodies that would add their own quota during the national discourse, projected to move the nation forward.

The Chartered Institute of Personnel Management of Nigeria [CIPM] is the regulatory body for the practice of Human Resource Management in Nigeria. The Institute was established in 1968 and started as the Personnel Management Association of Nigeria and in 1973; it was renamed and has since taken on the current name – CHARTERED INSTITUTE OF PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT OF NIGERIA. The Institute was chartered

by Decree No. 58 of 1992 and charged with the responsibility of regulating the practice of Human Resource Management in Nigeria.

Practitioners, thereby contributing to sustainable

ALSCON appoints first indigenous MD From Inemesit Akpan-Nsoh, Uyo HE management of T Aluminum Smelter Company of Nigeria, [ALSCON] Ikot Abasi, and Akwa Ibom state, has announced major changes in its management with the appointment of its first indigenous actingmanaging Director, Mr Ime Inyang. before his elevation, Inyang was the Technical Director of The plant.

The company board of Directors had in March, 2013 temporarily suspended smelting operations at the plant because of several challenges.

Among the challenges are non-availability of uninterruptible gas supply resulting in high operational losses, lack of physical infrastructure for transmission of gas and

power; high operational cost, legal uncertainty surrounding the smelter and bureaucratic bottlenecks as well as continuous decline of aluminium prices on the London Metal Exchange.

The management of ALSCON is presently working with the Federal Government on quick solution of the issues with the view to restart smelting operations.

In a statement made available to The Guardian in Uyo and signed by Anastasia Voronkov, other senior managers appointed are, Dr. Ikpa Etukafia, Acting Director, Human Resources; Elder E. A. Amba, Acting Director, Finance and Mr. Ata Udom, Acting Director, Commercial while Ibrahim Magaji, Company Secretary/legal

Adviser, now heads the Legal Unit.

The following staff retained their positions in the multinational aluminum company, Engr Ekpenyong Antigha, Director, Energy and Utilities; Engr. Charles Anyaefuna, Director, Cast House and E n g r .

Uyime Udofot, Director, Reduction Plant as well as Mr. Alexy Kuksin, Director, Resources Protection and Uduak Obot, Director, Quality, Health, Safety and Environment.

As ALSCON’s Acting Managing Director, Inyang would report to UC RUSAL’s Moscow office, Russia, while it is hope that the company would break new ground as well as expand partnership with the host communities and stakehold-

National Development, also mandated it to promote excellence in the acquisition and application of knowledge and skills.

Over time, the Institute has had notable involvements in Manpower Development in Nigeria and made significant contributions to issues of national discourse, including publishing a memorandum of advice during the recent impasse between the Federal Government and the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).

Apart from having well over 10,000 members in Nigeria and beyond, with recognition and respect from other global Human Resource Management and Development Institutes; CIPM has also produced renowned thought leaders like its erstwhile presidentsDr. Christopher Kolade, Dr. Micheal Omolayole, Chief (Dr) Abel Ubeku among others.

Mr. Sunday Adeyemi, the Institute’s Registrar/CEO, on behalf of the Institute, said that the presence of representation from the Chartered Institute of Personnel Management of Nigeria (CIPM) at the national conference would without doubt add value during sessions and contribute to the successful resolution of issues to be discussed during the conference.

He reiterated that CIPM, the only Institute regulating HR practice and management in Nigeria therefore awaits an opportunity to avail itself of the opportunity to renew to the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, the assurances of its highest consideration.

Lagos disburses N47.4b into Retirement Savings Accounts

By Adeniyi Idowu Adunola AGOS State Government L has so far disbursed over N47.4 billon into the Retirement Savings Accounts, (RSAs), of the state retirees under the Contributory Pension Scheme.

The Director-General, Lagos State Pension Commission (LASPEC), Rotimi Adekunle Hussain, disclosed this recently, at the 10th Retirement bond Certificates presentation to employees, who recently retired from the state’s public service.

Hussain, said the state government had been steadfast in its commitment at sustaining full implementation of Contributory Pension Scheme even beyond the present administration.

He added, “From the inception of the scheme in 2007 to date the government has contributed about N47.4b being monthly deduction of 7.5 per cent of the basic, rent and transport allowances from the salary of every worker and counterpart 7.5 per cent contribution by the state government, into the RSA of every employee with the state approved Pension Fund Administrators (PFA).

“The development is in line with Fashola administration’s determination to make life meaningful for employees of the public service after their retirement.”

He further explained that LASPEC remained resolute

Fashola that every employee in the state public service is adequate equipped and empowered with the necessary knowledge contribution pension scheme before exiting the scheme.

According to him, the Lagos State Pension Reform Act 2007 is aimed at protecting the retirement benefits of the workers, promote good pension administration and reduce the risk mostly associated with the previous pension laws to the barest minimum.

To this end, Hussain advised all the retirees to live their life in retirement responsibly and not to engage themselves in businesses that could put their retirement benefits at undue risk. before this recent development, the state government was said to have paid a total accrued pension right of N18.97bn into the RSA of 3,489 retirees.

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Lagos Island Business Exchange programme to sensitise informal sector OP traders and business T enterprises, in informal or semi-formal sub-sector comprising over 15 Trade Unions with over 10,000 members within the Lagos Island metropolis under the aegis of Lagos Island Business Exchange (LIBEX) Will on Thursday, February 20, 2014 gather at the Banquet Hall of City Hall, Lagos with the aim of building capacity of the informal sector, which is seen a the high target employer of labour that fuels economic growth in Nigeria and Lagos in particular.

The event would be held as panel sessions covering key topics such as; Repositioning for Increased Access to

Finance and Investment, Building Successful Transgenerational Businesses; Lagos Island Business Landscape: Prospect & Challenges and Leveraging Technology for Business S u c c e s s .

The objectives which LIBEX aim to achieve include to showcase the untapped potentials of the informal sector; encourage an understanding and implementation of business structuring strategies for Small and Medium Enterprises while participants will also gain knowledge of modern-day business processes for business sustainability and growth; promote access to institutional funding for

expansion and building foundations for successful transgenerational businesses.

According to the organisers, ABN Limited, research has shown several of these top businesses have an annual

turnover exceeding N200m per annum but have capacity to do more if properly structured and empowered;.

“The outlined programmes at LIBEX aims to begin the

process of achieving these laudable objectives. In order to avoid a ‘talk show’ LIBEX has been structured to include networking/matchmaking between participating organizations and the par-

ticipants in a Business to Business Session which would follow the panel sessions. This is so as to allow a closer interaction between the participating organisations which is hoped will lead to business

LEAP Africa to host leadership workshop

By Gbenga Salau Africa, a nonprofit LwillEAP organisation in Nigeria, be hosting twenty “change makers” to a leadership and advocacy workshop in Lagos from March 3 to 7.

The workshop, which is aimed at developing their

competencies, is expected on the long run to enable them have greater impact on the society.

In a statement issued by the Communication Affairs Officer, Kehinde Ayeni, twenty outstanding Nigerian social change makers aged 18 to 30 were inducted as Fellows into

the Social Innovators Programme, a year-long fellowship developed in 2013 by LEAP Africa in partnership with YouthActionNet. YouthActionNet is a programme of the International Youth Foundation, which strengthens, supports and celebrates the role of young peo-

ple in leading positive change in their communities.

Each initiative is creatively solving problems identified within their communities, thereby benefitting hundreds of individuals.

Their ideas range from orienting youth on the effects of HIV/AIDs and other Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs) to creating mobile applications to help ease job searching in Nigeria.

LEAP recognises that passion, commitment and creativity are the main thrusts of any social innovation, and for the Fellows to excel in their ventures, a deep understanding of how to sustain them is important.

Therefore, LEAP Africa is promoting social change among youth and ensuring sustainability by providing support to fuel this drive through workshops in 2014.

These workshops are led by LEAP and a team of experts, and are divided into various modules covering subjects such as social development ethics, leadership, advocacy, public and private sector partnerships and more.

“We know no one person will solve all the problems we see in our world,” says Oje Ivagba, Director of Programmes for LEAP Africa.

Total appoints first female Managing Director for upstream companies in Nigeria From Collins Olayinka, Abuja RS Elisabeth Proust has M emerged the first female Director/Chief E x e c u t i v e of the Totalupstream companies in Nigeria.

Her portfolio includes Total E&P Nigeria Ltd, Total Upstream Nigeria Ltd and several other subsidiaries.

Mrs Proust is also the Total Group representative in Nigeria, with effect from Wednesday, February 12, 2014.

A statement from Total said by her new position, she becomes the first female Managing Director in the over 50 years history of the company in Nigeria. Mrs. Proust succeeds Mr. Guy Maurice who has been assigned to other duties in the Total Group.

“We have great confidence in the ability of Mrs. Proust to steer the ship of the upstream companies in Nigeria at this critical period in the Group’s activities in the country” stated YvesLouis Darricarrere, Upstream President of Total SA. Mrs. Proust arrives in Nigeria with over 34 years extensive experience in the oil and gas industry.

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Labour ILO blames institutional policies for social inequality From Collins Olayinka, Abuja HE unending widening T gap between the rich and poor is majorly promoted by the economic and institutional policies of governments across the world, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) has said.

This is contained in a new book released by the labour body, it states that in the last 20 years, income distribution has shifted in favour of the rich, while the relative income position of the poor and of much of the middle class was deteriorating in most countries, including global economic powers such as the United States, Germany and China.

According to the new ILO book, entitled, Wage-led growth: An equitable strategy for economic recovery”, the ILO argued that the unhealthy trend is only partially associated with technological change.

The book says: “The main reason workers are getting a

• Adeyemi cautions against review minimum wage law smaller share of national income are policies over the last 30 years that have distributed income in favour of capital and against labour. What is called the labour income share began to fall around the 1980s in many advanced economies, including the United States and Japan, and a similar trend has been observed in recent years in emerging countries, notably China.”

In addition, the book further stresses that the smaller share of labour income was distributed more and more unequally between workers – with striking results.

The new book portrays a rather depressing but familiar picture, “for the advanced countries, the labour income share on average has decreased by about 10 percentage points from the peak level of the late 1970s. Yet, this significant reduction hides even wider income inequali-

ty, as the top one per cent of earners are included in the labour income share. If the top one per cent were not taken into account, the share the ordinary workers get would fall by another two to six per cent points.”

In the opinion of the book, the time to rethink and rebalance economic policies across the world and by major economic powers has indeed come.

Therefore, the publication challenges the widespread view that ‘growth should be in the driver’s seat and distribution in the backseat’. It also questions the common assumption that wage moderation can boost economic growth and hence reduce poverty.

The book analyses the dual function of wages in market economies - the fact that they are not only a cost of production but also a source of demand and productivity. It

argues that if a critical mass of countries pursues prolabour distributional policies simultaneously, there will be significant improvements in aggregate demand and growth, as well as reduction of inequality.

The book estimates that if the labour income share was increased by one percentage point in all G20 countries simultaneously, overall Gross Domestic Product (GDP) would increase by 0.36 of a percentage point. As G20 economies account for more than 80 per cent of world GDP, a ‘wage-led growth’ strategy could be seriously considered as a global policy alternative.

It declares that the world needs a “rebalancing” of policies in order to bring about more equitable growth adding that this desired step will require strong policy coordination at the global level.

The book calls for new thinking around the role of wages in macroeconomic and growth policies, and we can certainly see significant policy shifts in some countries.

This comes at a time Nigeria was thinking of shrinking minimum wage by decentralizing the structure from the national to state government. This is promoted in the National Assembly where a legislation to that effect has been perfected by the Federal Government.

Observers say the findings of the book is a wake-up call on developing countries that are perfecting ways to reduce worker’s wages.

The General Secretary of the Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions (NASU), Peter Adeyemi, said the findings of the ILO is a vindication of the labour movement in Nigeria on the need to leave the National Minimum Wage

law under the Exclusive list rather than move it to concurrent list where state governors and private sector will have the justification to pay below the national wage.

Adeyemi said: “The revelation in the ILO book has justified what we have been telling government concerning minimum wage. It is wages and social security that are the major instrument to redistributing national wealth. It is only when workers earn a wage that is living that they can overcome poverty and contribute meaningfully to the growth of the economy. We said that moving the National Minimum wage from exclusive legislative list to concurrent legislative list will open the door for state governments and the private sector to pay ridiculous wage to workers. On our part, we have not hidden our contempt for that move and we are poised to resist it anytime the National Assembly progress along that line.”

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NASU protest over welfare condition of members From Charles Ogugbuaja, Owerri ON-academic staff of Imo Polytechnic, Umuagwo, has forwarded a letter of protest to the supervising minister of education, Nyeson Wike, over alleged non implementation of six welfare programmes by the federal Government.

Under the aegis of NonAcademic Staff Union of Education and Associated Institutions (NASU), the group led by Donates I. Ihejirika, recently presented the protest letter to the institution’s Rector, Rev.Fr Wence Madu through the Deputy Rector, Academics, Dr. Paulinus Aju.

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The Rector is expected to present the protest letter to the supervising minister of education.

According to the protest letter, the demands are for the government “to address the issue of exclusion of NASU from the membership of the needs assessment committee of public Polytechnics; budgetary provision for the continued implementation of the Consolidated salary Structure of Tertiary Institutions (CONTISS), renegotiation of the 2010 FGN/NASU agreement for the Polytechnics sector; inadequate funding of the Polytechnics, Integrated

Personnel Payroll Information System (IPPIS)”, among others.

Receiving the letter Aju, said the institution’s management would forward the letter to the Minister as requested.

Ihejirika explained that the protest is neither against the institution or the state governor, Chief Rochas Okorocha.

He added that the group intends to continue with the strike called by the national body on November 19, 2013.

They commended the state governor for making available N12, 000 Christmas bonus last year.

FCT minister approves promotion of workers From Terhemba Daka, Abuja HE Federal Capital T Territory (FCT) Minister, Senator Bala Abdulkadir

increase service delivery to the residents of the Federal

Mohammed, has approved the immediate promotion of 2,201 staff.

A statement issued by the FCT Minister's Chief Press Secretary, Hazat Sule, quoted Mohammed as saying that the promotion was intended to motivate the staff and increase their productivity.

The Minister stated that the gesture was also aimed at spurring the staff to greater heights and by extension

Mohammed

Capital Territory in accordance with the Transformation Agenda of the Federal Government.

He said: “The promotion exercise became necessary in order to motivate staff, enhance productivity for better service delivery”.

The Minister explained that out of the 2,201 promoted, 1,892 are senior staff while the remaining 309 are junior staff.

Mohammed charged the beneficiaries of the promotion exercise to reciprocate the gesture by improving on their productivity to the country.

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Govt vows Naira intervention as stocks decline in global markets IGERIA’S central bank N said it has adequate reserves to keep defending the naira as the slumping currency prompted a selloff of the country’s stocks, with the all-share gauge posting the world’s worst performance today.

“There is a great need to defend the currency because we don’t want volatility,” Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)’s Deputy Governor Sarah Alade said by phone from Lagos yesterday.

“Whenever there is need to intervene, we will do so.”

The naira strengthened two per cent to 162.13 per dollar in Lagos, snapping three days of losses. The currency weak-

ened 0.4 per cent yesterday to 165.36 per dollar, the lowest level since Bloomberg started compiling data in 1999.

The Nigerian Stock Exchange All-Share Index fell 1.6 per cent by the close in Lagos, bringing its weekly decline to 4.9 percent, the most since June.

Stocks, bonds and currencies from developing nations have been sold since the start of stimulus reduction by the Federal Reserve last month.

Equities in Nigeria, Africa’s biggest oil producer, fell 6.2 per cent this year, compared with a 4.7 per cent decline in the MSCI Emerging Markets Index.

The naira has retreated 1.1 per cent this year while foreign

reserves that Africa’s biggest oil producer uses to bolster the local currency dropped to $42 billion this week, the lowest since October 2012.

“All of these things are causing panic,” Pabina Yinkere, head of research at Lagosbased Vetiva Capital Management Limited, said by phone. “For an international investor, if the currency is going to devalue, it will affect his own returns.”

Guaranty Trust Bank Plc, the country’s biggest lender by market value, dropped five per cent to 24.73 naira, the lowest since September 18.

Nigerian Breweries Plc (NB) retreated 2.4 per cent to 142 naira, a ninth day of declines

in the longest stretch of losses since October 2008.

The naira has also been falling since the central bank last month removed the weekly limit of $250,000 that may be sold to a bureau de change.

The central bank sells foreign currency at twice-weekly auctions to shore up the naira. It also sells dollars directly to lenders at irregular intervals.

The “Central Bank intervened heavily yesterday, which is impacting on the naira today,” Kunle Ezun, an analyst at Ecobank Transnational Inc. in Lagos, said by phone. “The central bank tried to cover gaps created by the short dollar supply

at its last auction.”

The Abuja-based regulator sold $196.7 million at an auction February 12, the lowest since October 2, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

The bank will probably increase supplies at next week’s offers, Ezun said.

The Central Bank may increase cash reserve requirements for lenders to hold government deposits for the second time this year to 100 per cent from 75 per cent, Governor Lamido Sanusi said at a conference on Feb. 12 in Lagos. “ It will probably raise the requirement on private funds to 15 per cent from 12 per cent,”

Automobile expert laments influx of Chinese buses

By Taiwo Hassan HE Managing Director, Weststar Associates Limited, franchise owners of Mercedes Benz in Nigeria, Mirko Plath has raised alarm over the influx of variety of Chinese buses in the country.

Plath, while speaking at the launch of Mercedes-Benz Neobus NewRoad N10 into the nation’s commercial market in Lagos, lamented that the move by some renowned fleet operators to patronised the Chinese buses were not the best step to take as it will have adverse effect on road accidents and safety of lifes and property.

According to him, the Chinese products are not good for Nigerian roads, adding that they are not

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meant for the Nigerian environment and the weather condition.

Plath told reporters that because of the influx of the Chinese products in the country, his company is now evaluating its products in the market for fears of being adulterated especially its spare parts.

He said the proliferation of Chinese buses is a concern to genuine dealers of renowned buses’ brands in the country.

Consequently, the inability of the regulatory agencies to restrict or ban the buses has taking a dip into the automobile market as buses sales are going down for lack of patronage by fleet operators.

“Chinese products are product we have to deal with in

Farmers seek govt support on poultry production HE National Chairman, ``Running poultry business T Poultry Farmers is not an easy task; farmers Association of Nigeria, Ogun need to have enough money Chapter, Samuel Odunsi, has urged the Federal Government to ensure availability and easy access to funds to boost poultry production by farmers.

Odunsi made the appeal in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abeokuta on yesterday.

He said that most small scale poultry farmers were unable to expand their farms because of lack of funds.

The chapter chairman noted that more poultry farms had stopped production due to inadequate funds, increase in interest rates on agriculture loans and high cost of raw materials.

Odunsi also identified obtaining of loan from banks as another major problem facing poultry farmers.

He expressed the fear that the challenges might lead to low productivity and marginal profits if not checked.

to fund the business because it is capital intensive. ``The birds need to be fed on daily basis in order to have good products. ``This does not leave out the money spent on buying vaccines to prevent the outbreak of diseases which can be disastrous for the farmer when it happens,” he said.

He urged the Federal Government to enable poultry farmers to have access to single digit bank loan, saying that it would enhance steady growth in the agriculture sector.

Odunsi appealed to the government to always involve the poultry farmers when decisions that would affect them were made. ``We believe that as key stakeholders in the agriculture sector, government must seek our own input on any issue that concern agriculture in the country,” he

this market as the proliferation effect of these products is causing market instability,” he said.

On the new buse, the company’s helmsman said that Weststar entered into a strategic cooperation with NeoBus of South Africa for the bringing of the buses into the Nigerian market.

He said plans are already concluded for the penetration of the buses into the Nigerian market, adding that the buses are good for the country’s environment and weather condition.

Plath stressed also that incentives are in place for fleet operators to get it on a discount or through credit facility by the banks.

Sanusi

Sanusi said.

The regulator raised the deposit level to tighten liquidity while keeping its benchmark lending rate at a record high of 12 per cent.

“To protect the naira over the next six months, we believe that the CBN will continue to use the CRR as its first policy option, rather than raising interest rates,” Kato Mukuru and Ronak Gadhia, Africa equity analysts at Londonbased Exotix Partners LLP, said in an e-mailed note yesterday. “Reserves of $42 billion, and import cover of some 10 months, give plenty of ammunition to support the naira in the near term.”

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MarketReport EQUITY MARKET SUMMARY

AS AT 17-02-2014

PRIMERA AFRICA www.primera-africa.com

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MARKET INDICATORS

Tuesday, February 18, 2014 CAPITAL MARKET 65

AS AT 17-02-2014

PRIMERA AFRICA

Integration of West African capital markets receives boost

By Bukky Olajide NTEGRATION of the West Africa capital markets may soon be a reality as the National Assembly at the weekend, reached an agreement in the process of the West African Capital Markets Integration Council (WACMIC).

The first phase of integration programme will begin April this year, while 2015 is being targeted for the final phase.

Last year, the Council was inaugurated by the President of ECOWAS Commission, Kadré Désiré Ouédraogo in Abuja, as the apex governance organ for integrating the region’s capital markets.

Speaking at the second sensitisation workshop organised

by WACMIC in Abuja, Chairman, Senate Committee Capital Markets, Ayoade Adeseun, said the Nigerian parliament in particular and ECOWAS parliament in general are fully in support of the integration process.

According to him, the integration of the capital markets would lead to the economic growth of the region with many benefits while challenging the council to fast-track the integration process to enable the capital market contribute to the growth of the regional economy and Nigeria in particular.

He assured the Council of the support of Committee of the

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capital market in the Nigerian Senate as well as ECOWAS parliament that the creation of the necessary and enabling framework,(that will engender economic growth), whether legal or otherwise, will be vigorously supported,” he said.

Speaking in the same vein, the Chairman, Securities and Exchange Commission, Suleyman Ndanusa, pledged the support of the all regulators in the sub-region towards the success of the integration programme.

According to him, the subregion would better optimise their potential and competitiveness by coming together.

“The initiative will clearly broaden the capital raising space for listed companies with positive impact on industrial development. I believe that access to wider market which integration provides could encourage more companies to embrace the capital market for funds and listing, and further deepen the regional markets,” he said.

Ndanusa noted that the reality is that the region stands to benefit more from integration than remaining in silos, adding that given the mapped out implementation strategies of the Council and with support of the various stakeholders in the region, the capital market integration will be successful.

Stakeholders laud Forte Oil’s repositioning exercise

By Helen Oji

TAKEHOLDERS in the Slauded nation’s capital market have the repositioning exer-

What Happened?

The NSE All-Share index gained by 51bps (0.51%) and closed at 38,964.75. This represents a year-to-date performance of - 5.72%. Market Capitalisation also apppreciated 0.81% to close at N12.527trillion. Total value traded increased 11.44% to N5.43 billion and total volume traded increased 27.54% to 559.77 million units.

Where?

At the close of trading, the banking sector represented 63.30% of the total market value traded, while the breweries sector represented 7.47% The Top 5 stocks as a % of total market value traded were: ZENITHBANK (21.00%), GUARANTY (11.30%), ACCESS (7.82%), NB (7.47%) and NESTLE (7.18%).

On a volume basis, the Top 5 most traded stocks for the day were: ZENITHBANK (55.58m), ACCESS (53.03m), TRANSCORP (40.65m), FCMB (39.34m) and AFRIPRUD (39.17m).

cise embarked by Forte Oil Plc repositioned the company from a loss position of N19 billion in 2011 to N1.15 billion profit in 2012 and subsequently N6.52billion in 2013.

They expressed optimism that the turnaround witnessed in the company is sustainable, adding that the company posted the best returns on investment for 2013 with shareholders’ investment in the company soaring by 1,164.55 per cent.

The company grew its profit from a loss of N19 billion in 2011 to N1.15 billion in 2012, while it recorded a growth of 467 per cent to N6.52 billion in 2013.

Also, the company’s revenue rose by 41 per cent to N128 billion from N91 billion recorded in the corresponding period of 2012, while earning per share increased to N4.32, from 93 kobo posted in 2012 financial year The directors of the company proposed a dividend of N4.31 billion, culminating to N4 per share due to every shareholder of the company for the 2013 financial year.

Stakeholders attributed the turnaround to FO acquiring controlling shares in the Geregu Power Plant in Kogi, which has enabled the company to carve a niche in the power generation sector, which, according to them was a clear focus on business transformation initiative.

Speaking on the company’s

performance the Managing Director of Lambeth Trust Securities Limited, David Adonri, said: “FO has surprised the market for being first to release its full year result. Its growth in profit is astonishing while dividend of N4 declared is impressive”.

He pointed out that the performance is sustainable following the company transformation agenda, which, according to him will turn FO into becoming investors’ toast in due course.

The President of Progressive Shareholders Association of Nigeria, Boniface Okeize said that the company embarked on a transformation programme to position the company back to profit, saying the recent performance seen is sustainable.

“The power investment is part of the company’s business growth strategy to diversify from its primary business of petroleum products marketing into related high margin business such as upstream exploration and production that would guarantee continued increase in shareholder value”, he said.

The company attributed the improved performance to capital reorganization to offset accumulated losses of more than N55.98 billion against share premium, as well as its successful diversification into Nigeria’s power sector with the acquisition of 414MW Geregu power plant under the FGN-led privatization programme.

Other factors include

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Law

Quote of the week

“Withholding information is the essence of tyranny. Control of the flow of information is the tool of the dictatorship.”

Bruce Coville

Challenges of beaming searchlight of FoIA on government’s business The assent to the Freedom of Information (FoI) Bill by President Goodluck Jonathan on May 28, 2011 after the National Assembly passed it into to law on May 24, 2011 was greeted with celebration in the Nigerian media. BERTRAM NWANNEKANMA reports that three years on, the enthusiasm and vigour that initially greeted the epochal event seen, as a climax of an 11-year struggle in the Nigerian parliament, seems to be ebbing.

FOCUS HE agitation for the FoI Act, which provides T citizens with broad access to public records and information held by a public official or institution was first made under military rule, specifically in 1993, when the Nigerian Union of Journalists, Civil Liberties Organisation, and the Media Rights Agenda began to clamour for it.

Although, the bill was passed by the National Assembly in the last days of President Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration in 2007 but the former president refused to sign the bill into law over objections to clauses in the bill.

However, since the bill was eventually passed into law in 2011, the FoIA has become a major focus of media practitioners and other rights activists in Nigeria. It is also believed that FoIA makes both government and private institutions serving public functions accountable.

This is, perhaps, because freedom of information is the corner stone in promoting democratic participation and good governance.

Reason been that an independent media has the capacity to not only scrutinize government but also hold it accountable.

This fact is based on the premise that good journalism leads to good government policies and programmes. But for the policies and programmes to be good, people must be engaged to making them work. Moreover, for people to do this, they must have access to information and ideas in an open and free environment. It is also indicative that for a democracy to answer its name it must embrace the spirit of free press in principle and practice. After all, democratic governance is not about provision of infrastructure or amenities alone but respect and promotion of peoples’ rights and freedoms.

Moreover, worst tyrants who have been able to provide better critical infrastructural needs of their people, could not save themselves from the wraths of the people because of the regimes poor human rights records.

The prevailing awakenings in parts of the world are a pointer in that direction In providing broad right of access, clear procedures to follow and establishing exceptions in acknowledgement that no right is absolute; the legislation is a good starting point.

Coming from a culture that brands the most innocuous public information as "secret," the new law elevates Nigeria's public information management and record-keeping to alltime revolutionary pedestals.

The FOI Act, is therefore, expected to make public records and information more freely available. It also provide for public access to public records and information, protect public records and information to the extent consistent with the public interest and the protection of personal privacy, protect serving public officers from adverse consequences for disclosing certain kinds of official information without authorization and establish procedures for the achievement of those purposes.

In Section 3, public institutions are mandat-

Mohammed Adoke AGF

Falana (SAN)

ed to provide detailed description of their corporate profiles, programs and functions of each division, lists of all classes of records under their control, and related manuals used in administering the institution's programs. They are to provide public access to documents containing final opinions, including concurring and dissenting ones; orders made in the adjudication of cases, and those covering policies, contracts, receipts, or expenditure; and reports and studies conducted by the institutions.

The law directs public institutions to ensure that the public's right of access to information shall not be prejudicially affected by the institutions' failure to publish any information under this subsection. Although Section 12 (1) excludes information that may be injurious to the conduct of Nigeria's international affairs and defense, no application for information shall be denied where "the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs whatever injury that disclosure would cause."

In other words, the onus is on the public agency to establish why the information should not be released.

There are also provisions for seeking redress for denied applications and penalty for wrongful denials.

In any proceeding before the court arising from an application under section 20, the court shall take precaution, including when appropriate, receiving representations ex parte and conducting hearings in camera to avoid the information disclosure by the Court or any person of any information or other material on a basis of which any public institution will be authorized to disclose the information applied for.

Although, provisions in the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act looks beautiful in papers, the implementation and application has remain an albatross for many stakeholders in the legal and media profession.

Many of institutions, which ordinarily

should volunteer information, normally footdrag, thus defeating the very existence of the Act. According to a Lagos-based lawyer and Executive Director of the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP), one of the few groups that has capitalized on the Act to seek information from government, a lot Nigerians have not yet appreciated the monumental possibilities and opportunities offered by the Act in terms of enhancing transparency, accountability and openness.

Voicing his frustrations, Mumuni enthused: “Our experience has been mixed in respect of our organisations’ engagement with the FoI Act.” The lawyer, who believes that the FoIA should be given maximum publicity, said the judiciary has not appreciated that the proceedings under FoI must be conducted with speed.

“Cases filed under FoI generally take an average of six months to complete. The established bureaucracy is still very much frustrating the goal and intendment of the FoI. “Bureaucrats still behave as if a new regime of openness is not in place with the emergence of the FoI,” he added.

Another area of concerns in the application of the FoIA was the growing resistance or lukewarm attitude by many of the 36 states of the federation to apply the law.

In some cases, state governments are reluctant to release information on the ground that the FoI being a legislation of the National Assembly is only applicable in relation to public records of government of the federation and not of the states.

There is also a contention that the power to make laws on public records had been concurrently shared between the National Assembly and the State House of Assembly in their

Cases filed under FOI generally take an average of six months to complete. The established bureaucracy is still very much frustrating the goal and intendment of the FOI. Bureaucrats still behave as if a new regime of openness is not in place with the emergence of the FOI

Mumuni

Ugwummadu

respective sphere of jurisdiction.

To them, therefore, FoI was not applicable to the records of states in the federation so far the states had not enacted same as laws vide their respective Houses of Assembly.

Speaking on this scenario, a human rights lawyer, Malachy Ugwummadu, said the objective of the FoIA is noble and consistent with the ideals of constitutional democracy conceived to promote transparency through unfettered access to information.

The Act, he said, was enacted to redress some of the vestiges of official secrecy in governance by empowering the citizenry to hold government accountable.

He, however, regretted that the act has come under immense attack and resistance particularly, from agencies of government whose activities are still shielded in secrecy.

According to him, there is also a contestation as to its application to states that are yet to pass a law to that effect.

“The rational for any resistance to the act can only be located within the warped logic that the business of government could only go on effectively in secrets, that alone underscores the degree of fraud and other financial transgressions that go in our society,” he said.

While praising the courts for showing great desire to accommodate litigations on this score, he noted that enforcement mechanisms of orders of courts in this regard are still challenged.

But renowned human rights lawyer and Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Femi Falana believes that the judiciary has always intervened in appropriate cases by granting relevant orders, saying that the success rate has been high and encouraging.

Justifying this position, the revered lawyer said the Court of Appeal had in Dododo vs.

EFCC ruled that anyone who lodges a complaint of corruption to an anti -graft agency is entitled to a copy of investigation report by virtue of Article 9 of the African Charter on Human and People's Rights.

Falana also said a High Court has ruled that the FOI Act is applicable all over the country and binding on state governments.

According to him, it is only in one case that a court called on the government to review the law to prevent abuse of the provisions of the law by meddlesome interlopers and busy bodies.

But the legal adviser of London-based rights group, the Amnesty International, Dr. Kolawole Olaniyan wants state governments to “as a matter of law and principle,” embrace the Freedom of Information Act and ensure its direct application to their states.”

Olaniyan’s view was encapsulated in an article he wrote to persuade state governments to willfully volunteer information in other to guarantee good governance.

He stated: “Bad government thrives in the dark—a truth, it would seem President Goodluck Jonathan understood when, defying conventional wisdom, he signed into law the Freedom of Information Act (FoI) Act.” “President Jonathan did what the previous government could not or would not do.

One only has to look at the way Jonathan’s mentor, former President Olusegun Obasanjo, initially handled the FoI Act. President Obasanjo repeated-

To be Continued on page 68

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Legal education and the profession: A reality check

By Fabian Ajogwu Introduction T is received wisdom that sound education is a prerequisite for honouring the trust we hold as legal practitioners in our different callings. This is the trust we hold for others - the future generation of lawyers.

There is no gainsaying the fact that legal education in Nigeria has gone through the trials and thrills of a developing concept in a developing society, from its glorious heights when it simply followed the British system in training the very few persons enrolled in the mid-60s, to the present, when lecture auditoriums are bursting with pressure from an everincreasing enrolment. While it may be difficult to pass an absolute judgment, given the facilities, class size and the environment of the modern law faculties and school, one undisputable fact is that law and the practice of the profession has changed significantly from what it was in the early days.

While it is tempting to have recourse to the age-old saying “the good old days - when things were better”, and succumb to the sweeping statement that standards are falling, it is also remarkable to note that the Nigerian legal education system has also recorded some successes - training and producing world class and eminent jurists, judges, legal practitioners and members of the academia.

Educational funding I have at different fora stated a fundamental truth, which is that education has a cost

I

that someone must bear.

Someone must write the education cheque and this does not change when the education is legal education. I am of the view that even where education is stated to be “free”, the reality is that someone essentially has to bear the cost so that it would appear free to the beneficiary. For instance, the government of the old Western Region of Nigeria put in place a plan that would ensure not only free education to the beneficiary, but free quality education.

Ademola Ajayi captures this thus: “The Minister of Education for the Western Region, Chief S. O. Awokoya, presented a comprehensive set of proposals calling for a free, universal and compulso- Ajogwu (SAN) ry education otherwise known as the Universal 41.2 per cent during the periPrimary Education (UPE) for od (Table 4). In the 1958-59 the Western Region by financial years, for instance, January 1955 (Awokoya’ s 41.2 per cent of the total Proposal 1952). To make such recurrent budget was devota programme possible with- ed to education alone. This, out lowering standards dras- undoubtedly, represented tically, the minister included one of the highest proporin his proposal a massive tional expenditures on eduteacher-training programme, cation, the world over. That the expansion of teacher- was an ample demonstratraining facilities and second- tion of the great importance ary schools, the introduction that the regional governof secondary technical educa- ment placed on education. tion and Secondary Modern However, the fact should school (Western House of equally not be ignored that Assembly Debates: 30 July the more money spent on education, the less there was 1952).”[2] This was a comprehensive for the sectors that could approach that involved a clear provide employment and policy and plan of implemen- other services.[3] It is, therefore, not difficult tation, strong emphasis on teacher training, and ade- to see how quality education quate funding. As noted by came about in the old Western Region - simply by Ademola Ajayi: Between 1954 and 1966, educa- the set of choices made, and tion attracted the largest a decision by the governshare of the Western Region’s ment to write the cheque for priority sector. recurrent budget, having var- that ied between 28.9 per cent and Unfortunately, there has

been a trend reversal over the years, with less capital allocation to education as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product or even recurring expenditure. Aare Afe Babalola (SAN) takes the view that the priority accorded education in the 1960s has somewhat diminished - At the moment, security challenges being experienced around the country has ensured that Defence gets the highest budgetary allocation; this has left many federal and state universities bereft of funds.

In the year 2012, Nigeria was ranked 20th in a World Bank survey on the percentage budgetary allocation to education in 20 countries.

It should be noted that of the 20 countries listed, 12 including Nigeria, are African countries. So, if the survey had been limited to the 12 African countries

Challenges of FoIA’s searchlight on government’s business Continued from page 68 ly promised to sign the FoI Bill into law but backtracked, citing unsubstantiated infringements on ‘national security’ as an excuse.

“Openness, once denied, is now a right.”

“Nevertheless, the growing resistance or lukewarm attitude by many of the 36 states of the federation to apply the law now casts doubts on its enforcement and the hope of reversing years of official corruption, under-development and lack of respect for internationally recognized human rights.”

“Already, it has been reported that one group, SocioEconomic Rights and Accountability Project, is testing the FoI Act in court to ensure its direct application to all the states of the federation.

“Amnesty International will back any such initiative if the case does go to court.”

“Some state governments and senior lawyers have argued that unless states themselves pass the FoI Act, it will only apply to the Federal Government and not the states. They cited Schedules 4, 5 and 6 of the Concurrent List of the 1999 Constitution as the legal basis for this viewpoint.”

“This will hardly come as a surprise to many, especially given the well-documented concerns about the absence of transparency and accountability in many of the states during

the Obasanjo administration.”

“It is true that Schedules 4, 5, and 6 grant powers to both the federal and state governments to make laws relating to archives and public records.

But by the application of the legal doctrine of covering the field, the signing of the FoI Act into law ipso facto renders it unnecessary for any of the 36 states to take any further action on the matter.

The Act has now become binding throughout the federation.”

“The plain language of the law makes it clear: there is no room for any of the 36 states of the federation to circumvent it.

As such, the states would be deemed to have been ousted from the field.

“This position is backed up by several judgments of the Supreme Court of Nigeria.”

“There are fundamental principles of human rights and democracy at stake, ones that no elected state governments should be seen to undermine or impede.

Moreover, the FoI Act is so vital to the effective functioning of Nigeria that no serious government should contest its direct application within its state.”

“Here is why the state governments must have a rethink: Openness is not a threat to better government but an

incentive to it.”

“The direct application of the FoI Act to the 36 states of the federation will not burden the states but rather strengthen the legal and institutional framework for democracy, human rights, transparency and accountability within the states’ borders.”

“The FoI Act promises access and transparency, a new contract between government and the people it governs.”

“The FoI Act guarantees the people of Nigeria’s right to request information on the activities of government from the various ministries, offices or other sources, whether or not such information is contained in any written form.”

“They don’t even have to claim any special interest to do this. If the requested information is not released within a specified time, they can ask the court to compel the authorities to release the information. And it is an offence to refuse to release information, punishable by three years imprisonment.

Wilful or deliberate destruction, alteration, falsification or misrepresentation of information is similarly punished.”

“This can only have a positive and direct impact on the lives of Nigerians.”

“By forcing problems into the open earlier, access to information cuts the risks of serious human rights violations -particularly prolonged violations.”

“The FoI Act will provide a means by which people can know about their rights and entitlements, identify when their rights are being violated and hold governments to account for fulfilling their constitutional and international human rights obligations.”

“It can also serve as a powerful tool for enabling individuals, the media and civil society to advocate successfully for a range of human rights. From the right to life, to the rights to human security and dignity and to basic economic and social rights, freedom of information can empower civil society to demand that legal and policy commitments are translated into practical realities that benefit people’s lives.”

“State governments with nothing to hide have nothing to fear.”

“Therefore, all responsible and responsive governments: federal, states and local council: must embrace the FoI Act not only as a matter of law but also principle.”

“Civil society, who feels justifiably proud and whose remarkable work brought about the FoI Act in the first place, will need to mobilize and be perpetually vigilant if light is to prevail over the dark side; and if the veil of secrecy in public life, which has dominated Nigeria for decades, is to be lifted.”

alone, Nigeria would still have been rated lowest. It should also be noted that with the exception of Norway, USA, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) all other countries on the survey including Nigeria can adequately be classified as belonging to the developing world. So yet again if the survey had been confined to countries in the developing world, Nigeria would have still ranked last.

In a bid to reverse the trend and demonstrate a desire to bring about positive change in the fortune of Nigeria’s education sector, President Goodluck Jonathan on the 10th of October 2012 presented a budget of N4.9trn to the National Assembly of which the sum of N426.53bn was allocated to education.[6] This is commendable, but I urge government to increase the effort in this direction until the minimum of 25 per cent of the national budget prescribed

by UNESCO is achieved, and possibly surpassed.

At the Afe Babalola University Distinguished Fellow Lecture on March 19, 2010, Arthur M. Sussman, Professor of Law, University of Chicago stated as follows: “State funding has been decreasing as a percentage of public university budgets, and in some cases, it has been decreasing in actual dollars.

Some state universities receive as little as 8 per cent of their budgets from the state. Few receive more that 35 per cent. The average state institution receives 22 per cent of its revenue from state support. In reality, the economies of many state and private universities are similar. Both depend heavily on student fees. For state institutions it averages 17 per cent of revenues. For private institutions it is 26 per cent.”

I particularly admire the logic behind the 1996 Recommendation of the Committee of Registrars of Nigerian Universities to the Federal Government, where they proposed that universities should show what it costs exactly to provide their services. Looking for instance at University of Lagos – What does it cost the university to provide X number of medical students in their Y semester study?

This requires that all costs elements (e.g. Biochemistry 101)

per X number of students per semester must be computed.

This means that it will be possible to determine what it costs to educate a medical student at the University of Lagos. Now, if the government says anyone who goes for medical school need not pay, what it means is that the government is disbursing to the university exactly what it costs the university to provide the service for each student. Otherwise both government and college authorities are engaged in a murderous game of make -belief for the training of doctors.

The Registrars' suggested solutions in 1996, which are still valid today and are based on the principles that include that Parents who can pay fees should be allowed to pay instead of preventing them by declaring a free education that we do not match with commensurate financial backing…

Importance of legal education to the society The role of lawyers is a very influential one, straddling the economic, political social life, as well as all spheres of the society. There is no overstating the fact that the state of a society mirrors the kind of lawyers in that society. You can decipher the kind of lawyers in a country just by looking at the state of the nation. Lawyers, as judges, in private or corporate practice, in the academics or in government, shape the society and the lives of their fellow human beings. However, a lawyer can only be as good as the system of legal education that produced him. Legal education (academic as well as vocational) is a vital ingredient that affects the quality of our justice system and the role of lawyers in the political, economic and social development of our country. We see this daily in relation to litigation where the role of lawyers is most visible.

The quality of judicial decisions and the coherence of the reasoning underlying a judgment also depend upon the quality of the argument presented to the court and upon the legal knowledge and skill possessed by the judge as well as his integrity and character.[7] These factors are dependent on our legal education system.

TO BE CONTINUED

First African law firm to attain UK Law Society practice standards B & David, a West AfricaA based law firm with head office in Accra, Ghana has become the first African law firm to secure the Law Society of England and Wales International Law Management Quality Mark, "Lexcel".

Lexcel is a recognised international accreditation scheme for law firms and inhouse legal departments, which is only awarded to those who meet the highest management and customer care standards.

Lexcel accredited practices undergo rigorous independent assessment every year to ensure they maintain required standards of excellence.

Nicholas Fluck, President of

the Law Society said" Gaining and maintaining Lexcel is no mean feat. As business becomes increasingly global so does our profession. Law firms and their clients demand the same high standards of practice. We are delighted to see the first African Law Firm join the list of international Lexcel firms."

AB & David is a multi-specialist business law firm dedicated solely to advising businesses and governments in Africa. It has affiliate firms in several African countries including Nigeria, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Senegal, Cote d'Ivoire and Zambia. The new West Africa head office is meant to consolidate its cross-border West Africa practice.

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Focus Stakeholders disagree over capital market’s recapitalization requirement BUKKY OLAJIDE reports on the various arguments for and against the new capital base requirements for capital market operators INCE 1953, the world has had 10 recessions.

Sprime The last one was in 2009, when the submortgages came home to roost. And Nigeria was affected. But before then, Nigeria’s capital market was one of the most profitable investment havens in the economy. It accumulated about N12.6 trillion (about $84 billion) around the first quarter of 2008. With the absence of discipline, ethical practices and other ethos, margin loan was introduced in order to reap what was not sowed. Banks raised over one trillion naira and made provisions for non-performing loans.

But by the fourth quarter of 2009, the global economic meltdown and other peculiarities reduced the capitalisation to about N 5.4 trillion ($36 billion), with the all share index cascading from 31,500 to about 23, 550 points.

From six million naira in the early 1980s, the minimum paid-up capital for banks has gone up variously to N12 million, N20 million, N40 million, N50 million, one billion (two billion for new banks) and finally to the present N25 billion.

The Nigerian banking industry has been affected by inconsistent monetary policies, unstable macroeconomic variables such as the exchange and interest rates, and general inflation. The idea of minimum capitallisation for the banking sector was invented, due to banks’ huge exposure to non-performing loans (margin loans). However, whether meeting the minimum capital requirement eventually translates to the achievement of all the objectives is another thing entirely.

Insurance sector For the insurance sector, the Federal Government raised the minimum capital base to between N2 billion and N10 billion.

Life Assurance companies were required to recapitalise to the tune of between N150 million and N2 billion, while the composite insurance firms were required to jack up their minimum capital base from N350 million to N5 billion.

Besides, non-life-underwriting companies must have a minimum capital base of N3 billion, up from N200 million if they want to remain in business. For reinsurance companies, N10 billion was the new capital base, from N350 million.

The rationale for the new capital base includes Nigeria’s insurance penetration and density, as well as the level of per capita income of Nigerians and their dispensable incomes towards buying insurance policies.

Others include the number of insurance companies operating in the country, the level of capitalisation in other developing markets and emerging markets.

The Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) had on Dec. 31, 2013, said that the new minimum capital requirements were the outcome of extensive consultations with stakeholders within and outside the nation’s bourse. The committee raised up for the purpose, SEC said, featured representatives of the capital market, industry trade groups such as ASHON and the Chartered Institute of stockbrokers (CIS) A breakdown of the new capital requirement showed that a Broker/dealer now requires a minimum capital of N300 million, an increase of 328.57 per cent over the current minimum capital base of N70 million. A Broker is now required to increase its capital to a minimum of N200 million from N40 million, while a dealer’s minimum capital now stands at N100 million from N30 million.

An issuing house now requires minimum capital of N200 million from N150 million, while underwriters are now expected to have N200 million as working capital from N100 million. A registrar should have a minimum capital of N150 million from N50 million.

Trustees capital requirement has been raised to N300 million from N40 million, while a rating agency is to have a minimum of N20 million to N150 million.

Now, if the reason for setting a minimum paid-up Capital for banks is actually to ensure that a new or an existing bank has enough

Oteh capital to cover its fixed assets requirement so that depositors’ funds are not used to fund fixed assets, and to make sure that depositors’ needs could be met any point in time, and for insurers to be able to pay claims as at when due, then, the big question is what does a capital market operator do with own capitalised money. What does a capital operator do with his recapitallised money? And what is his role?

A stockbroker is specially trained and certified to participate in the securities market on behalf of clients. When the stockbroker acts as an agent for the buyers and sellers of securities, a commission is charged for this service. As an agent, the stockbroker does not own the securities but is merely performing a service for the investor.

This means that the broker will buy for the buyer and sell for the seller, each time making sure that the best price is obtained for the client.

He actually collects money from people, buys and sells stocks for them and making a commission in the process. So why does he need to capitalise?

However, capital market operators are basically the ones responsible for administering the stock market. This involves the management of the daily business transactions. The operators could be composed of stockbrokers, market makers and fund managers.

Those who opposed the capitalisation of the capital market said that stockbrokers act as only intermediaries, by buying and selling shares with others like the Issung Houses, Rating Agencies and Registrars using more of their heads than money.

They argued that, while the regulators might give reasons like, strengthening of the market as major reason behind the capitalisation, “what if the integrity that comes with money is not there, which means that a drug pusher with free access to money can come in and invest.’’

According to the opponents, too much money at their disposal would make them compete with their clients as they have more access to information, more sophisticated and more privileged. To them, SEC should emphasise more on intellectual capacity rather on money.

Other opponents said that the likely implication is the issue of mergers and acquisition, because the stockbrokers may not be able to capitalise until they merge. Others may resort to selling their licences and “this will encourage foreign stock brokers to come in.”

They stated: ‘’How many stockbrokers do we have? If company A is acquired by company B, few operators will remain within the industry, and this will lead to what is called the oligopolis-

Okonjo-Iweala tic market and the financial giant will defeat the weak.’’

They further expalianed that the capitalisation would discourage the penetration of stock market activities into the rural areas which will nullify the previous campaign on the need to spread into rural areas.

A member of the Association of Stockbroking Houses of Nigeria, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, also said that the new capital requirement was a clear departure from earlier agreement reached between SEC and the operators two years ago. According to him, the agreement was that the NSE should provide specification on office standards, human capital and the technology to be deployed by the operators.

He said: “Over capitalisation is very dangerous for the market because too much funds will be chasing few stocks and can lead to what happened in 2008.”

The operator said that the brokers decided not to make the recapitalisation an issue in order not to overheat the system.

He said the new capital requirement would be detrimental to retail investors because brokers would make better money trading for themselves instead of buying and selling on behalf of investors.

The Managing Director, APT Securities and Funds Mallam Garba Kurfi, in Lagos, however, said that there were consultations, but brokers expected lower capitalisation. Kurfi also urged brokers to embrace mergers and acquisitions to meet the minimum capital requirement as announced by SEC. Also speaking, a former President, Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN), as well as the Managing Director, Maxifund Investment and Securities Ltd., said that the new minimum capital requirement for capital market operators would dampen the growth of the market. According to him, SEC failed to consider the peculiarity of the Nigerian environment before making the pronouncement. He said that the new minimum capital requirements for market operators would affect market growth in the first quarter.

He said that the announcement of the new capital base would affect market expectations and investors’ confidence in the nation’s bourse. He described the new capital requirement as diversionary and an obstacle to market recovery.

According to him, market operators are now challenged to concentrate more on ways to meet the regulatory requirements than their

businesses.

“Leaders and regulators do things with impunity in this country without considering the impact and reactions,” he said.

He said that the timing of the policy was wrong as the market was just recovering from the financial meltdown of 2008.

The market operator said that SEC should learn from the mistakes of the past consolidation in the banking industry, insurance sector and microfinance banks.

Unegbu, who is also the Legal Adviser, Association of Stockbroking Houses of Nigeria (ASHON), said the brokers who acted as intermediaries under the new capital base required more capital than issuing houses that carried more risks. According to him, they agreed that the NSE should provide specification on office standards, human capital and the technology to be deployed by the operators.

“Over capitalisation is very dangerous for the market because too much funds will be chasing few stocks and can lead to what happened in 2008,’’ he said.

But for the Chief Executive officer of Financial Market Dealers Association, formerly, Money Market Association of Nigeria, Wale Abe, SEC, as a regulator, must have thought through before coming out to raise the minimum capital level of the capital market operators.

According to Abe, SEC as a regulator, takes care of management of external risks, apart from other oversight functions. “Making sure that operators have adequate capital is one of the regulators’ major functions,’’ he said.

Also, a financial analyst, Dr. Kayode Fayehun, said that the issue of capitallisation is a common philosophy in a financial world. This means that an existing company might have been deteriorated to the point that it might not be able to sustain itself unless funds are injected. According to Fayehun, the net worth of a company, at times, may be negative, meaning that the price of shareholders’ fund has gone to the drain, hence they find it difficult to meet working capital.

“You would see some symptoms of liquidity problem in that kind of organization or company’’, he said.

He said there was a difference between liquidity and profitability, explaining that “liquidity is the real situation where a company is unable to meet its financial obligation when it should, while profitability is a situation where your income is in excess of your expenses, having written off overheads. He added: ‘’This is the genesis of capitalization.”

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Sports Ahead Brazil 2014 World Cup

Eagles’ squad list out after Mexico friendly Eagles’ Assistant ShasUPER Coach, Daniel Amokachi revealed that the list of players for the Brazil 2014 World Cup final training camp would be made known to the public after the March 5 international friendly against Mexico.

This comes on the heels of a revelation that the coaches, led by Stephen Keshi, could drop Villarreal striker, Ikechukwu Uche, due to

• ‘Indiscipline’ may cost IK Uche Mundial spot • FG promises adequate funding for national team ‘indiscipline.’

Nigeria take on Mexico on March 5 in Atlanta, Georgia, in the only FIFA free window available before the World Cup in June.

Coach Keshi has listed three uncapped players, including Belgium-based striker, Imoh Ezekiel and Michael Uchebo and Ramon Azeez from La

Liga side Almeria, for the game.

Amokachi said yesterday “the World Cup is a long way from now. We still have five months, we still have a game to play in America, and then after that we will know what the Eagles team would look like.”

The former Everton of

England striker also spoke on Nigeria chances at Brazil 2014, saying Africa’s flag bearers as a whole stand a good chance to excel.

“It’s football, you never know what would happen. We are going to Brazil as the dark horses, you know the Africa has never gone beyond the quarter-finals, but with the kind of players not only Nigeria but the Africa representatives have, why not

probably 2014 would be a good year for the African continent?” he asked.

Uche is most likely to again miss out on the World Cup with Keshi saying that he is not disciplined.

Uche has scored 12 goals thus far in the Spanish La Liga, but Keshi has again overlooked him for next month’s crucial World Cup warm-up against Mexico.

“Keshi said Ikechukwu (Uche) is not disciplined and that was why he did not call him up for the Mexico game,” a top official told MTNFootball.com The striker has already said he will not be shocked if he does not make the final squad to Brazil 2014 despite his goals in the Spanish top flight.

Uche missed out on the 2010 World Cup on account of injury.

He was one of Nigeria’s most consistent goal scorers before Emmanuel Emenike emerged on the scene.

He was the country’s leading scorer for the qualifying tournament for the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations.

But at the competition proper in South Africa, he strug-

gled to shine as Emenike used the tournament to establish himself on the international scene.

Meanwhile, Sports Minister, Bolaji Abdullahi has promised that the Federal Government will adequately fund the team to the World Cup. Abdullahi gave the assurances the cash will be available for the team in good time, adding: “The Nigeria Football Federation has submitted their financial plans to the National Sports Commission and we have finished work on it and sent it to the appropriate quarters and we believe that it would receive priority attention.

“I have no doubt in my mind that the plans for the World Cup would go very well.

“We would give all the support that is necessary to the NFF to succeed because if they succeed, everyone is happy.”

Nigeria will set up a training camp in Houston, USA, from May 25.

The African champions are drawn against Argentina, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Iran in the first round of the World Cup, which kicks off in June.

Victor Ochei International Wheelchair Basketball tourney begins

By Adeyinka Adedipe HE Ghana and Benin T Republic wheelchair basketball national teams have arrived Lagos for the third edition of the Victor Ochei International Wheelchair Basketball Championship, which begins today at the sports hall of the National Stadium.

Some teams from Togo and Ghana are also expected today for the championship, which has brought together the best wheelchair basketball teams in the sub region.

The foreign teams are expected to add colour to the event,

which has N5 million at stake as prize money. They would be joined by 18 other teams from the country.

The President of Wheelchair Basketball Federation of Nigeria (WBFN), Bukola Olopade said the teams expected to arrive today from Ghana and Togo are having immigration issues at the border, adding, however, that the federation through the National Sports Commission (NSC) was handling the matter.

He assured that they would join their counterparts before the championship dunks off this afternoon.

Kano sacks Pillars’ management over Champions League failure HE board and manageT ment of Kano Pillars have been sacked following the team’s exit from the CAF Champions League.

Pillars failed to advance to the first round of the Champions League at the weekend and the Kano State government wielded the big stick by firing the Abba Yolaled board and the management headed by Abba Galadima.

Special Adviser to Kano State Governor on Sports Development, Ahmad Shuaibu Gara Gombe said a new board has been constituted following the failure of the last board to meet the state government’s expectation.

Gara Gombe further explained that the last board was insubordinate to the con-

stituted authority, lacked accountability and prudent management of public resources, adding that there was no cooperation and synergy among the members.

He said other problems that militated against the last board include poor quality of technical officials and the composition of both management of the club and board without clearly spelt out demarcation of responsibility and the condition of service.

In new Kano Pillars’ board of directors are Ibrahim Haruna as chairman, Garba Nuhu Danburan, vice chairman; Aminu Dan Amo; Lawan Adda’u; Sabo Abdullahi Kofar Mata; Bashir Muazu; Abubakar Naziru Aminu; Kabiru Ali Dawaki; Nasiru Garba Bichi and Garba Umar.

Tuesday, February 18, 2014 SPORTS

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UEFA Champion League

Barcelona offer Man City toughest test to date Manchester FtestREE-SCORING City will face the toughest yet of their European credentials when they face European aristocrats Barcelona, in the first leg of the standout tie of the Champions League round of 16 today.

Both teams will start what promises to be a memorable duel at the Etihad Stadium boosted by superb wins on Saturday, with City returning to their best form in beating Chelsea 2-0 in the FA Cup and Barcelona crushing Rayo Vallecano 6-0 in La Liga.

Both were also boosted by the return of important players after injury.

Samir Nasri came on as a second-half substitute for City after missing seven games and scored City’s second against Chelsea within minutes of his arrival while Neymar also returned as a substitute in the second half for the Spanish champions to score a stunning goal after four matches out to complete Barca’s scoring.

Neymar is likely to be on the bench at the start, which may offer some relief for the home team, who will probably have to raise their already impressive game to even greater heights if they are to knock out the four-time European champions.

City Coach Manuel Pellegrini is well aware of what Barca are capable of

from his time with Villarreal, Malaga and Real Madrid in Spain, while City’s free-ranging midfielder, Yaya Toure spent three years at the Nou Camp and won every major honour with them, including the Champions League in 2009.

In an interview with Champions Magazine, Toure said he expected City to win the first leg to show how far the club has come since the injection of Sheikh Mansour’s cash totally transformed them from domestic alsorans to potential European champions.

“Our fans deserve a victory against a big club to show

how the club is progressing,” he said. “Barcelona are a perfect example, a great club with an exceptional history with players who might currently be the best in the world, like Lionel Messi, Iniesta, Xavi, Pique, Busquets.

“It will be a great match and we really have the desire to show City are on the right track.”

City are in uncharted waters as far as the Champions League is concerned, having been knocked out at the group stage in their two previous appearances.

But they are the highest scoring team in this season’s competition with 28 goals.

Sterling Bank thrills Arsenal fans HEAD of the crunch UEFA A Champions League tie between Arsenal Football Club of London and Bayern Munich Football Club of Germany tomorrow, Sterling Bank is set to delight football lovers, especially Arsenal fans in the country, by offering them 700 free tickets to experience Cinema-style thrilling soccer at the Silverbird Cinemas in Lagos and Port Harcourt.

Under the bank’s “Fanatic Experience” initiative, sports journalists, entrepreneurs, professionals, administrators, academicians and students

will be part of this experience organised by the bank as part of activities aimed at bringing the benefit of its partnership with Arsenal to life.

The choice of this match may have been influenced by the history of both teams at the competition.

It would be recalled that both teams also met at the quarterfinal stage of the competition last season and they both won their away games.

However, Bayern Munich, which eventually won the title, edged out Arsenal FC on the “away goals” rule, having defeated the London club 3-1 away, but lost 0-2 to Arsenal in

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Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Conscience, Nurtured by Truth

By Omobolade Olutade Continued from yesterday Why Ethics Matter NHERENTLY, development is ethics-driven.

Since high ethical standards provide the basis for a strong institution and, as such, it serves as the fulcrum for solid socio-economic cohesion.

Ethics are, therefore, the building blocks on which any organized society can thrive.

Development is eroded or becomes an anathema when and where rules are ignored. Besides, ethics provide meaning for international relations. International business codes of conduct are not arbitrary but agreed and acceptable rules among nations. Because of its acceptability and universality, it has become a way of life, defining both bilateral and multilateral relationships; and any country failing in its ethical expectations is left in the lurch of underdevelopment. Painfully, our pathetic ethical stance has debarred the country from benefitting maximally from global economic opportunities.

When a country spurns global standards, it loses its economic integrity and becomes subservient to others regardless of its sovereignty.

Certainly, other countries, which are ethically disciplined will exercise suzerainty over its resources. In this regard, today, Nigeria’s wealth is virtually in the hands of foreigners as many rich Nigerians put their resources in foreign land, bringing about capital flight. More painful is that a big chunk of such wealth is stolen. Even when foreign investors decide to invest in an unstable and uncharitable environment like Nigeria, they do so reluctantly and with heavy socio-economic cost on the country.

Such investors, who were normally “begged” to invest, demand for unimaginable tax moratorium among other strenuous conditions before embarking on any venture because of the unpredictability of the economic environment arising from corruption, policy instability and insecurity. Hence, typical investors deal with the country cautiously while serious-minded investors avoid it like plague. Essentially, good governance is an important attraction for foreign direct investment (FDI) regardless of other incentives such as lower taxes and wage cost.

Our culture of impunity and persistent shirking of etiquette, make our shameful descent to irrelevance almost irredeemable.

Undoubtedly, Nigeria is fast becoming an ethical liability on Africa as it continues to set unwholesome precedents. Recently, it was reported that certain Nigerian judicial officers serving in the Gambian judiciary were involved in unethical conducts and summarily dismissed. Also in the USA, two U.S.-based Nigerian attorneys were convicted of fraud. In Nigeria, such odious occurrences are pastimes that go unchecked. Many highly placed Nigerians are serving various jail terms all over the world, but several high profile Nigerians in Nigeria, guilty of fraud and other misdemeanors, are free men. Our ethical posture has enfeebled our institutions thus criminalising governance.

The level of moral perception determines the degree of leverage any nation would command in the committee of nations. Nigeria’s leverage has waned over the years. This is why most countries would chide Nigerians at drop of a hat. Pathetically, Nigerians attract “special”, curious, undeserving, contemptible attention everywhere they go even in countries Nigerians redeemed with their blood. Mere mentioning of the name, ‘Nigerian’, makes our neighbours quiver with anxiety of unfathomable depth. All because we have lowered our moral guards.

As a consequence of lack of moral depth, Nigeria’s myopic worldview militates against accountability and transparency resulting in unsustainable policies. Thus, immediate gratification takes over long-term investment and personal interests override public wellbeing.

Strong ethical standards, rigorously pursued, engender transparency, responsibility and ultimately, development. In most cases, even what could pass for gains are easily frittered away on the altar of bad governance. Sadly, in Nigeria, moral turpitude has continued to define our interactions both privately and publicly. As we decide against the normal ethical standards in every sphere we are vehemently and rigorously

I

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Ethical imperative in governance and development in Nigeria (2)

President Goodluck Jonathan deepening poverty.

In politics, politicking is reduced to a wild game where all tactics are employed without regard for humanity. We have thus turned the political arena to the unfits, misfits and charlatans who are nothing but development repellants.

Where other factors of development like good geography exist and the culture of ethical impunity abounds, development, at the best, becomes comatose and stymied. Natural resources would only be relevant when man inputs his creative value into harnessing it for his own progress. As the endogenous econom-

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OLOJA

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ABC (ISSN NO 0189-5125)

ic growth theorists would argue, what grows people is not external, but intrinsic and endogenous to them. Succinctly, factors of development are not in the nature of things absolutely, but in the nature of beings that populate a particular environment. Thence, knowledge and intellectual upliftments buoyed by ethical discipline, ultimately, determine the heights a nation can attain. In Nigeria, investment in education and human development is abysmally lower than 10 percent of the country’s annual budgets while countries such as Ghana and South Africa dedicate more than 38 per cent of their budgets to the knowledge sector. The impact of investment in education in Ghana is manifest and globally acknowledged.

In fact, Ghana is swarming with Nigerian students while Nigeria’s education sector has been asphyxiated. Piteously, due to low human development, Nigeria is languishing at the bottom of the Human Capital Index, ranked 114.

The fault is not in geography, but in the thin moral carapace upon which Nigeria’s development is expected to bloom.

Sheer endowment in natural resources is not sufficient to lead a country to economic freedom. Observably, the expanse of natural resources has become an albatross for Nigeria.

Oil and other resources are now sources of conflicts while illegal exploitation of resources gnawed at the country’s economic soul. Oil theft is a booming business, costing the nation an estimated $250 billion monthly in revenue.

Interestingly, the oil thieves are not only alleged to be acolytes and surrogates of those in power, but are “elites” themselves. An approximated 50 billion dollars was lost to illegal mining and exportation of unprocessed gold between 2011 and 2012. The thriving Illegal mining has its health and environmental issues. More than 400 children had died of lead poisoning in Zamfara State due to illegal gold mining. Invariably, low ethical standards have created a problem of survival for the geographical expression called Nigeria.

In our daily activities, we are too cunning to be profound in thoughts and deeds. Nobody trusts us; we do not trust ourselves. Absurdly, in this milieu of ethical depravity, we continue to sermonise growth albeit without conscious action towards its attainment. We turn every good concept on its head and continuously crave development. We are not only joking, but we are a huge joke. We will continue to grovel in the abyss of hopelessness and helplessness.

That is the truth. We ridicule morality in all facets of our lives; we chastise ethics as irrelevant and glorify corruption – in governance, in politics, in commerce, in community life and in religion. We disrobe openness and thrive on deceits and deceptions. We rationalize irrationalities and call it wisdom. We remove all ingredients of development and strive to grow.

It is an aberration. It is unnatural. It has never happened and will never happen. Nature abhors and destroys such attempts. We will continue to endure the state of subservience eternally unless we change our ways. The leadership engages in propaganda against its people - perfecting the art of deception to a level of perfection. The Government ensconces in duplicity and calls it diplomacy and continues to bask in euphoria of pseudo growth. Our politicians politicize truth while the economists economize facts. Religious leaders thrive on heresies and intellectuals are adept in blatant opportunism. Nigerians do not trust their leaders and the leaders do not give a damn and do not even pretend to give a damn! What a pain! Indeed we are damned! We need a moral rebirth.

Maintenance of good ethical standards is the basis of good institutions and harbingers of good governance, which engenders prudent usage of resources. Perverted values and crooked orientation bring mockery to a people. Both globally and internally, our moral turpitude has created for us a problem of survival. We should seek lofty goals, aspire for the finest of ideals, pursue smoothest of values and profess purest of views. It is then that our path to honour, development and growth will be assured.

CONCLUDED •Olutade, olutadejapheth@yahoo.com