The Nation July 05, 2015

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Six female suicide bombers kill scores in Borno Page 5

Military repels attempted invasion, recover bomb-laden SUV from insurgents

Buhari to Page 5 probe political assassinations

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TRUTH IN DEFENCE OF FREEDOM

SUNDAY

N200.00

JULY 5, 2015

NFF SACKS SUPER EAGLES COACH, KESHI

Page 8

Vol.09, No. 3267

Tambuwal, Kebbi gov head APC peace panels Page 4

Buhari, Atiku, Tinubu, Ogbeh make BOT list Govs, state chairmen consult over NASS crisis ANAMBRA Senators, Rep kick over Boko Haram suspects Obiano: I won't play Page 6 politics with the matter

I won't go Page 4 back to PDP, says Dogara

BUHARI FIRES HIS CSO, ABDULRAHMAN MANI

Page 4

•Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Kenneth Minimah (right), presenting the 'Sword of Honour' to the best cadet, Emmmanuel Nwachukwu, at the passing-out parade of cadets of the Direct Short Service Commission Course 22/2015 in Jaji, Kaduna State yesterday.

Says people's sovereignty greater than party supremacy

PAGE 2

THE NATION ON SUNDAY JULY 5, 2015

Indian teen hangs self after parents refuse to build toilet

CAPTURED

A safe seat

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N Indian teenager, Khusboo Kumari, 17, committed suicide because her parents refused to build a toilet in the house, police said yesterday.

“It seems she had repeatedly asked her parents to build a toilet in the house as she was embarrassed to go out to the fields to defecate, but they ignored her,” superintendent of police Vipul Shukla, said.

Kumari was found hanging at the weekend inside her home on the outskirts of Dumka town in the eastern state of Jharkhand.

Her parents reportedly told her that they were saving money for her marriage and could not spend it on a toilet.

The officer said the initial investigation suggested Kumari committed suicide but that all possibilities were being looked into.

According to the 2011 census, Jharkhand is one of India’s poorest states, lagging in many development indicators and about 78 per cent of households there do not have toilets.

In India, women have the added problem of lack of security if they have to use open fields away from their homes at odd hours.

“The girl’s parents did not realize how important it was for her to have a toilet at home,” the police said.

Kings and queens from around the world sometimes sit on some of the most unusual thrones. They don't come more striking than the royal seat of the Oba of Lagos, Rilwan Akiolu. Unless you look closely you might be forgiven for thinking that the traditional ruler is flanked protectively by two fearsome pets. But replica dogs mark the outer reaches of the royal seat. This shot was taken at the Iga Idungaran Palace, Lagos last week when the king received the outgoing Consul General of the United States, Jeff Hawkins.

PHOTO: MUYIWA HASSAN

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ORMER interim chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bisi Akande, issued a statement on Monday alleging that an agglomeration of polluted interests had plotted to undermine the APC federal government and create schisms between the North and the Yoruba. The allegations were weighty enough to draw a lot of diverse and intense flak, some of which are still searingly felt even now.

Many northern politicians responded bitterly to Chief Akande’s statement, which they described as divisive, intemperate and unwholesome.

Chief Akande had framed his diatribe indignantly thus: “Numerous among those calling themselves businessmen in Nigeria are like leaches, sucking from the nation’s blood largely through various governments and particularly through the Nigerian Federal Government. While all these schisms were going on in the APC, those who were jittery of Buhari’s constant threat of anti-corruption battle began to encourage and finance rebellions against the APC democratic positions which led to the emergence of Senator (Bukola) Saraki as the candidate of the PDP tendencies inside and outside APC.” As if this was not bad enough, Chief Akande added an even more inflammable supposition to his pungent thoughts. According to him, “Before the party knew it, the process had been hijacked by polluted interests who saw the inordinate contests as a loophole for stifling APC governments’ efforts in its desire to fight corruption.

sunday@thenationonlineng.net

Akande’s troublous APC analysis Most Northern elite, the Nigerian oil subsidy barons and other business cartels, who never liked Buhari’s anticorruption political stance, are quickly backing-up the rebellion against APC with strong support. While other position seekers are waiting in the wings until Buhari’s ministers are announced, a large section of the Southwest see the rebellion as a conspiracy of the North against the Yoruba.”

This last allegation, so direct and incendiary, was like a red rag to a bull. It was therefore not unexpected that the North would take umbrage in a spectacular fashion by adding their own counter-allegations, suggesting, among other unsavoury things, that Chief Akande had acted mala fide.

Responding, however, the former party chairman made startling disclosures about the motives, whys and wherefores behind his statement. Advising critics not to expand his statement beyond measure, he disclosed that he took the main plank of his argument from Senator Banji Akintoye’s last Sunday Tribune article, to wit, the point about the popular perception in the Southwest about a northern conspiracy to diminish the Yoruba in the Buhari government.

In his original Monday piece, however, Chief Akande made no reference to the renowned historian’s Tribune article. Not only did he fail to

paraphrase Prof Akintoye’s ideas on the controversial subject, he also did not quote him directly.

Chief Akande presented his statement as original to himself.

For a statement so hot and controversial, a little more care by Chief Akande would not have been misplaced. He was a former governor of Osun State and former party chairman. He ought to have taken his positions into consideration before issuing his Monday statement. Had he consulted a communications expert or a qualified

speechwriter, they would have advised him how best to handle the Prof Akintoye article in reference. At his level, he has an obligation to always take advice before going public in such a dramatic and effusive fashion.

The suspicion, however, is that notwithstanding his unsuccessful attempt to deflect the strident criticism against his apparently honest view of the APC crisis, he probably still believes what he said on Monday. More importantly, the view appears also somewhat widespread in the Southwest that some northern politicians may in fact be conspiring to diminish the role and influence of the Yoruba in the current dispensation. Whether this view is real or justified is

another thing entirely. Even then, Chief Akande should have framed his arguments better, more sensitively, and more courteously. Having chaired the party in its formative years, surely he had made contacts far wider than his Southwest base, and must, therefore, be aware of how certain thoughts and statements can be easily misconstrued not only in Nigeria’s ethnic patchwork but also in APC’s maze of special interests and contending power groups.

Those who take Chief Akande to task, especially the northern brethren, must pause to ask themselves whether no excuse had been given Chief Akande and other like-minds (no pun on the Saraki group) to feel queasy about the emerging power configuration in the APC. The positive effect of the Akande statement is that APC

leaders probably now know the powerful undercurrents flowing against their party, far more potent than the overt and bitter struggles for National Assembly leadership positions.

Assuming APC leaders altruistically believe in reconciliation and growth in their party, Chief Akande’s accusatory statement affords them the opportunity to make deeper, substantial and far-reaching efforts to reconcile party members, infuse the party with a unifying ideology, and build a formidable army of change agents and developmental prefects. If they will be honest with themselves, APC leaders must by now have known that they really have no party properly describable as one, and, worse, that those who are now on the ascendancy in the party do not possess the discipline and intellect to imbue the party with a distinguishing identity and mission.

Amnesty International, Nig Army and Gowon

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ORMER head of state, Yakubu Gowon, has an admirable patriotic spirit that makes him leap to the defence of anything Nigerian, especially when the country is under international attack. Last week, he leapt fiercely into the fray against Amnesty International (AI) for accusing the Nigerian Army of war crimes.

Speaking through his spokesman at a book launch in Abuja on June 30, Gen Gowon argued, “The [Amnesty International’s] report was most unfair and misleading; they were (ascribing) to the Nigerian military what the Boko Haram was doing against the Nigerian public – military and civilians alike. It is Boko

Haram that has been committing atrocities and horrendous, mindless killings of innocent citizens and security personnel. It is Boko Haram that must be condemned, not the Nigerian armed forces.”

Gen Gowon has not disclosed his corroborations.

Amnesty supported their observations with facts and figures, which can of course be controverted with superior arguments, if they are available.

Perhaps the general has his facts; but he did not feel compelled to make them available at the book launch.

More appropriately, however, no matter how much Gen Gowon or any other patriot wants to empathise with the often maligned Nigerian military, there is absolutely

nothing wrong in supporting investigations into the allegations. After all, the investigations are local.

Even in developed societies with sophisticated security forces, their armies sometimes come under investigations, and erring officers are punished.

Nigerians can express confidence in their army, but let them not stand in the way of investigations. Reports suggest that President Muhammadu Buhari is not

opposed to investigations.

That is the proper attitude to show in this matter. If Nigeria is to get international help in the increasingly fierce Boko Haram war, it has no choice but to allow investigations.

Who knows what facts may turn up?

If the army is exculpated, the country will rejoice. If war crimes are established, the guilty officers should be punished.

In any case, the guilt of a few soldiers does not imply the guilt of the entire army or whole country.

By ADEKUNLE ADE-ADELEYE

THE NATION ON SUNDAY, JULY 5, 2015

COLUMN

On principles and principalities (1)

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HE problem with principalities of power is that they hold political principles in utter contempt, particularly in “post” colonial polities where there are no stated ideals apart from the pursuit of private pleasures. In the political maelstrom of dark desires, they often achieve what Nietzsche has called the transvaluation of values, a state of mind in which values held dear by the society are given a short shrift. Honour, humility, piety and compassion for others become an irritating and vexatious nuisance.

The problem with principles is that without the political power to drive them, they become helpless victims and pawns of power play. The political graveyard is filled with the bones of many principled people. The prophets of selfless power must always be armed or they will find themselves in the cemetery of unsung patriots. But no matter how long it takes, the precept of public principles will eventually curtail the power of principalities.

There is an ongoing titanic battle for the soul of Nigeria. It did not end with the last election. As history teaches us, it may end in the mutual ruination of the contending classes.

Principalities never know when the balance of power has shifted against

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GREAT political drama is afoot in Kwara State. Dear readers, let us leave bombers, bunglers and the ailing Nigerian state alone this week for a trip to the land of Dadakuada music. In Ilorin, a fascinating and superbly choreographed royalist soap is winging its way to a fateful climax. It is absolutely riveting, a combination of Dallas and Dynasty with the old King Lear thrown in.

The stage is set. The firecrackers are crackling to the resounding beat of war drums in the eerie background.

The sanmoris, the jamas, the onitijus, the onigogos and the fanatical hordes of Oke Suna—the quarters of the faithful— are watching with keen interest. These foot soldiers with their core of itinerant Muslim preachers, politicised clerics, jaded jihadists and other spiritual wannabes have always been the real power behind the throne since the Islamic coup of Malam Alimi , and they make the former fiefdom of Afonja such a fascinating sociological case history.

But don’t forget that Napoleon once famously observed that a throne is only a bench covered with damask.

The end of a political dynasty or its metamorphosis is here. There are echoes of fierce ambition, of filial impiety and political perfidy. There are hints of a fey and slightly unhinged king Lear about to preside over the dissolution of his own political empire.

The main protagonists are very well known. In one corner of the royal ring prowls the aging political pugilist and much lionised avatar of Kwara politics, Abubakar Olusola Saraki, an outstanding surgeon of politics if ever there was one. A man of superhuman energy and vitality combined with extraordinary political dexterity, Saraki has grafted and sutured together a durable political dynasty which has endured all stress and storms. Like all thoroughbred feudal monarchs, Saraki does not take hostages. Behind his jovial and avuncular comportment lies steely glint and an iron will of implacable severity.

In the other corner, Saraki’s son and heir now unapparent, Abubakar Olubukola, crouches with tigrish fortitude and in fine feline fettle, too.

Bukola’s imperious airs of feudal entitlement and his occasionally fatuous and ill-judged pronouncements on national matters may not endear him to many, but there is little doubt that he has proved himself a formidable political dead ringer of his famous father. After eight years of being in charge of Kwara state, the medical

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nooping around With

Tatalo Alamu

•Senate in session

them. If they have ever do, they never become principalities in the first instance. All those who thought immediate change would come with the outcome of the last election must now be shaking their head in disbelief and anguish.

But not so fast. Mere elections do not guarantee change. Change is not expresso coffee, particularly in a society deeply enmeshed in millennial rot. Indeed as this column never tires of pleading, elections may actually open the floodgate to centrifugal forces besieging a structurally disfigured polity. Like a deep and festering wound that has to be opened up before it can be cauterized against more

fatal infections, elections also hurt.

To the extent that the last election blasted open the frozen dialectic of Nigeria’s post-independence history, it was a sine qua non for change. The Jonathan administration had reached the end of its historic tether and political possibilities. Except for the leeches and roaches benefitting from the misery and agony of the Nigerian people, it was a historic cul de sac with nowhere to go but hell. Those who are now singing alleluia at the teething problems of the Buhari regime are only being deeply mischievous or playing ostrich with their culpability in historic crime against the nation.

The last election and the historic

King Lear comes to Agbaji doctor on permanent sabbatical has cobbled together a canny alliance which has sent his father and benefactor packing from the royal castle and now threatens his political supremacy.

As far as political intrigues go, this is the father of all biological coups and the ultimate designer baby of political patricide. Thrown into the ring with them as hostage and hostess is the favoured daughter and latest pretender to the throne, Olugbemisola Saraki. A serving senator of the Federal Republic, the fetching and delectable Gbemisola is no Benazir Bhutto, the redoubtable daughter of the East, who had to face off her vagabond and wayward brothers to grab the ultimate laurel. It is more like a sea lioness being thrown into pool of crazed sharks.

But complexities and contradictions do abound. A democratic throne is a violent oxymoron. Modern Nigeria itself is a land of rowdy contradictions and at this point in time there is no point in ruffling feathers about the peculiar sociological and cultural milieu of Kwara state. Suffice it to note for now that baring a violent revolution in Nigeria which abolishes its last vestiges of feudalism, it is virtually impossible to win back in peace time what you lost on the pre-colonial warfront.

Had William Shakespeare lived around this time in post-colonial Nigeria, his extraordinarily fecund imagination would have found much grist to its ever churning mill. But even the great bard of Stratford-Upon Avon would have been forced to accommodate new pressing and urgent realities. King Lear has come to Agbaji, but the old royal baggage remains in Elizabethan England.

In King Lear, we see a sick, tired and worn monarch in a fit of senile grandeur trying to divest himself of his royal patrimony. In other words, a king is presiding over the dissolution of his own empire among his beloved daughters. His condition is as simple as it is simple-minded: protestations of love and devotion from the daughters. While the first two, Regan and Gonerill, faithfully and opportunistically began singing sonnets of love, the third, Cordelia, promptly demurred claiming that there is indeed no art to find the mind’s construction on the face. The father promptly disinherits her inviting a calamity of unimaginable magnitude.

Had King Lear been a modern day monarch, he would probably have been diagnosed as manifesting the

onset of senile dementia clinically known as Alzheimer’s Disease. He would have been sectioned or eased from the throne. As usual with Shakespeare, while he was rhapsodizing about the nobility and stoic lack of guile of an older world represented by the old king, he was also foreshadowing the arrival of a more complex and complicated society mediated by the Industrial Revolution and its urban pathologies. The new man is epitomized by Edmund with his ubiquitous savvy and Machiavellian audacity of courage.

As he took his case against his own son to the crowd of faithful in his Ilorin GRA redoubt with the cogency and the clinical clarity of an absconding medico, there was no sign of senile dementia in the older Saraki. Although now betraying signs of the depredations and corrugations of age, Abubakar Olusola Saraki was as nimble-footed as he was quick-witted. His beloved son has been misled by idiots, a furious democratic monarch charged. His logic is simple and compelling: if you subscribe to a royalist code of succession and benefited immensely from it, you cannot change the code in midstream. By toying with this sacred and divine order the son has joined the former henchmen of his father in the gallery of infamy and political treachery.

This is all well good, but there is something about Saraki senior which reminds one of the medieval rulers in the epoch of classical feudalism. Like King Louis of France who famously retorted that “l’etat c’est moi!!”, Saraki elder is proclaiming: “Kwara state is me!!!.” This monarchical veto and autocratic fiat is incompatible with a democratic dispensation. Like a medieval ruler, Olusola Saraki attributes divine wisdom and absolute infallibility to his choices which jars with the idea of the citizen as a discrete sovereign in his own right.

It is noteworthy that the camp of the son has been quite muted in its response and diplomatically coy about taking the battle frontally to the old man’s quarters. With the reins and levers of power firmly in his hands, Bukola appears content with running rings round his old man before moving for the kill with a little help from the federal might. A plebeian intruder who was rude to the founding father was quickly slapped down and sent to political Siberia.

Having prevailed over all his former associates turned mortal adver-

regime change that accompanied it are the iron precondition for radical changes in the Nigerian polity. But democratic elections, particularly in countries split down the line, must not be misconstrued for the agency of automatic revolutionary change.

They merely create the enabling and creative condition for change. Agents of reaction and storm troopers of the ancien regime still abound even where they seem to have exchanged the garment of retrogression with the garb of progressive hay making.

Electoral victory does not automatically translate to a total vanquishing of the old forces of disorder. To start with, the victorious party itself is still a medley and hotchpotch of conflicting and conflating tendencies. They are many who fled the old ruling party but with their soul still mortgaged to its tyrannical thralldom. There are a few who still carry the family genes of carpetbaggers and political rustlers. And there are

many diehards of the old order, particularly ethnic revanchists hobbled by civil war trauma, permanently unleashed to profit from national disorder.

It is the contradictions let loose by these forces that led to the coup against the wishes of electoral Nigeria on the floor of the senate in the early hours of June 9th. There are times to keep a strategic silence, and such times are these. This column has a historic feel of how these forces will play out. But this is a time to play the wily deaf and dumb.

This morning, in response to the inquiry of many Nigerians, this column brings you an earlier piece which accurately predicted the run of play in an earlier drama in which the principal combatant in the battle of the senate trumped and trounced the forces of his own father. Welcome to Shakespearean Nigeria and the Elizabethan tragedy of fathers and ambitious sons.

saries such as Adamu Attah, Shaba Lafiagi and lately Mohammed Lawal, it will amount to an epic irony if the older Saraki were to succumb to his own son in a royal battle of wits and will. That would be divine justice of punitively poetic proportions.

Having seen the inside of government and governance for eight years, what Bukola Saraki seems to be saying is that there is time for everything.

Even for a famous First Family, the patriarch’s wisdom cannot approximate to the collective wisdom of the people. The retort will be that the son was a political nobody before his father enthroned him and he is in absolutely no position to query his benefactor except he is succumbing to dark and sinister sibling rivalry and filial ingratitude masquerading as public order and morality.

In all this, the vaster multitude are nothing but bemused spectators in a play of giants. This has always been the case with this northernmost outpost of the old Yoruba Empire. Have cavalry and Islamic charms and will travel. Afonja, its old Yoruba ruler, a courageous but feckless generalissimo with remote maternal roots to the Oyo royal lineage, was the last coup maker of empire. He demanded and eventually got the suicide of the penultimate king, Awole, after accusing the latter of plotting to eliminate him.

After Afonja himself was sent down in a palace coup with a hundred arrows embedded in his body making him stand in stiffened erection like a crusader’s effigy, a succession of Fulani emirs were treated with absolute scorn and contempt by the warlords. One of them, Moma, was assassinated in 1895. In the case of the gifted but half-crazed Balogun Karara, he routinely marched on the capital from his Offa redoubt installing and removing emirs at will until the colonial intervention put an end to the road show.

This is the suzerainty that Olusola Saraki inherited by default. Ilorin has not always been the political hunting ground of the Sarakis. In 1964 when Saraki, a freshly qualified doctor from Britain, attempted to run as an independent candidate for the House of Representatives, he was given an electoral black eye and forced to beat a humiliating retreat to his Lagos base.

But he rallied, deploying the allure of increasing prosperity and the power of guileful generosity.

By 1983 when he helped the UPN’s Cornelius Tunji Adebayo to trounce, Adamu Attah, the sitting governor, Saraki had become the undisputed political boss of Kwara. But queries about his ambiguous pedigree and

dubious lineage persist. Till date, there has been no response to a devastating riposte from Abdul-Ganiyu AbdulRasaq, the notable Ilorin lawyer, that Saraki’s father was an Abeokuta indigene who only came to Agbaji for Koranic studies. But even then, the current rulers of the famous city are not indigenes themselves. In Saraki, Ilorin was merely obeying its old logic of political warlordism combined with spiritual predation.

There are tantalising possibilities in the current face off between father and son which show that history often moves forward by lurching sideway.

If the elder Saraki were to prevail against his son, would he have the courage and bloody-minded audacity to bring the full weight of treason against his adored son? If on the other hand, if the younger Saraki succeeds in vanquishing his father would the old man, now worn and exhausted by age and political misfortune, suffer the fate of cruel banishment like the old King Lear?

Either way, something tells snooper that the bell is tolling for the Saraki dynasty in Kwara. If Bukola prevails, he would have succeeded in opening up the democratic space in Kwara in a profoundly ironic and paradoxical manner. This in spite of himself and his decidedly reactionary worldview which he ventilates with imperial arrogance.

If on the other hand the father trumps the son, he would have succeeded in installing the first female executive governor in the history of the nation, a feat that has eluded far more progressive enclaves. If this feat were to be achieved in a harshly patriarchal bastion of feudal politics, it will show the cunning of history on spectacular display. Judging from what we have heard of her, nothing will then stop Gbemi from washing some dirty family linen in the public space if only to permanently see off her disloyal brother.

Every success contains the germ of eventual failure. There may be not much to choose between feudalised democracy and democratised feudalism, but history is still unfolding.

When President John F. Kennedy was assassinated, a political sadist cruelly taunted his bedridden father. “This is one deal old Joe cannot fix”. It looks like this is one deal Oloye cannot fix.

King Lear has finally arrived in Agbaji.

But it will be noted by many generations to come that a major political physician once passed through the plains of Kwara.

•First published in 2011.

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THE NATION ON SUNDAY JULY 5, 2015

NEWS

HE search for an enduring solution to the crisis among members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the National Assembly gathered steam last night with the governors of the party raising two committees to “liaise with the President of the Senate, Dr. Bukola Saraki, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, Sen. Ahmed Lawan and members of the Unity Forum and Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila.”

Governor Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto State and the immediate House of Reps Speaker heads a threeman committee to fashion out amicable resolution of the House crisis while Governor Atiku Bagudu of Kebbi State, a former Senator, is Chairman of another three-man panel on the way forward for the Senate.

The six governors in the two panels, according to a highly placed source, “will meet with all the warring groups and agree on a winwin formula to put the crisis behind the party.”

The two committees are expected to report to the

Tambuwal, Kebbi gov head APC peace panels •To liaise with Saraki, Dogara, Lawan , Gbajabiamila • Buhari, Atiku, Tinubu, Ogbeh make BoT list From Yusuf Alli, Managing Editor, Northern Operation

APC Governors Forum later this week after which an enlarged session of reconciliation will seal the deal.

“The choice of Tambuwal and Bagudu was informed by the fact that they are conversant with the politics of both chambers and they command tremendous respect from the APC members in the National Assembly,” the source said last night,” the source said.

“By the time they submit their report next week, we would have put the crisis behind us. We are not expecting any deadlock at all going by the responses of the key actors to this peace

initiative.”

The APC Governors Forum was meeting with all state chairmen of APC in the 36 states and the FCT at press time.

It was gathered that the meeting was part of the “broad consultations initiated by the APC governors.”

Another source said: “The governors have also decided to involve state chairmen in finding a solution to the logjam at hand.

“The crisis runs through all the organs and strata of our party. This is why it was imperative to meet with the state chairmen of APC nationwide.”

It was also gathered that heavyweights of the APC

have been included in the Board of Trustees (BoT) of the party.

The board is expected to provide guidance for the party to stem the type of ongoing crisis among party members in the National Assembly.

The membership of the BOT was ratified on Friday by the National Executive Committee of the party.

Those on the list obtained by our correspondent last night include President Muhammadu Buhari, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo , a National Leader of APC, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, exVice President Atiku Abubakar, National Chairman of APC, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun,

• President Muhammadu Buhari (middle) with some of the All Progressives Congress’ State Chairmen after meeting with him at the State House in Abuja, yesterday.

PHOTO AKIN OLADOKUN.

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RESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari has dropped his Chief Security Officer (CSO), Abdulrahman Mani following what sources described as a power tussle between Mani and the President’s Aide-de-Camp (ADC), Lt. Col. Mohammed Abubakar. A replacement has already been appointed. He is Abubakar Usman.

Both Mani and Usman are officials of the Department of Security Service (DSS).

Mani had, in a June 26 memo, overruled the ADC on security arrangement at the Presidential Villa whereby DSS operatives attached to the seat of power were barred from “Admin Reception, Service Chiefs Gate, Residence Reception, Rear Resident, Resident Gate, Office Reception, C-In-C Control Office, ACADE Gate, C-IN-C Control Gate and Panama.”

They were thus restricted to duty beats/locations within the immediate outer perimeter of the Presidential Villa alongside other security forces.

Buhari fires CSO From Augustine Ehikioya, Abuja

In effect only soldiers and policemen, trained as Presidential Body Guards (PBGs), are to “provide close/ immediate protection for Mr. President henceforth.”

The action of the ADC did not go down well with Mani who directed the DSS operatives to disregard Abubakar’s memo.

He claimed that Abubakar’s circular was a misrepresentation of President Buhari’s directive.

He said: “For the avoidance of doubt, Section 2 (1) (ii) of Instrument No. SSS 1 of 23rd May, 1999, made pursuant to Section 6 of the National Security Agencies (NSA) decree of 1986 which has been reenacted as Section 6 of NSA Act CAP N74 LFN 2004, empowers personnel of the DSS to provide protective security for designated principal government functionaries including, but not limited to the President and Vice President as

well as members of their immediate families.

“It also mandates the DSS to provide protective security for sensitive installations such as the Presidential Villa and visiting foreign dignitaries. For this reason, personnel of the DSS who are on this schedule are carefully selected and properly trained both locally and abroad.

Furthermore, continued background checks are maintained on them to confirm suitability and loyalty.

“In fact, the issues raised in the aforementioned circular tend to suggest that the author may have ventured into a not-toofamiliar terrain. The extant practice, the world over, is that VIP protection, which is a specialised field, is usually handled by the Secret Service, under whatever nomenclature.

They usually constitute the inner core security ring around every principal. The police and the military by training and mandate, are often required to

provide secondary and tertiary cordons around venues and routes.

“However, all over other security agencies including the army, the police and others have their roles to play. It is on this note that heads of all security agencies currently in the Presidential Villa and their subordinates are enjoined to key into the existing command and control structure. They are to work in harmony with each other in full and strict compliance with the demands of their statutory prescribed responsibilities.”

The President’s Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina declined to comment on the issues last night because as he said, “it is a security matter. “ He said only the DSS could comment on it.

Mani was deployed by the DSS as a security detail to Buhari in 2011 shortly before he launched his campaign that year.

President of the Senate, Dr. Bukola Saraki, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, all APC governors, all past governors (whether civilian or military), two Senators representing each of the six geopolitical zones and a member representing each state and the FCT. Also on the list are the pioneer Chairman of APC, Chief Bisi Akande, a former National Chairman of the PDP, Chief Audu Ogbeh, another former National

Chairman of PDP, Alhaji Kawu Baraje, ex-National Chairman of ANPP, Chief Ogbonnaya Onu, Prince Tony Momoh, Chief Barnabas Gemade, Alh. Yusuf Garba Ali, Mustapha Aliyu, the National Secretary of APC, Mallam Mai Mala Buni, and Gen. Ahmed Aboki Others are ex-Speakers and Deputy Speakers of the House of Representatives including Ghali Na’aba, Patricia Etteh, Agunwa Anaekwe, Bayero Nafada, and Chibudom Nwuche.

The list also includes Sam Ewang, Ex-Minister John Akpanudohedohe, exGovernors Olagunsoye Oyinlola, Abubakar Audu, Rabiu Kwankwaso, Kayode Fayemi, Murtala Nyako, Babatunde Raji Fashola, Isiaka Adeleke, Niyi Adebayo, Segun Oni, Prof.

Osunbor, Dr. Chris Ngige, Mohammed Sha’aba Lafiagi and Timipreye Sylva among others.

I won’t return to PDP, says Dogara • Says people’s sovereignty greater than party supremacy

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OUSE of Representatives Speaker Yakubu Dogara yesterday dismissed suggestion that he was planning to return to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

He said he would not be a party to the destruction of the All Progressives Congress (APC) which he worked hard with others to build.

Dogara who was apparently reacting to claims by his opponent in the June 9 contest for the speakership, Mr. Femi Gbajabiamila that he (Dogara) and some of his APC supporters in the House were preparing ground for their defection to PDP said “only a fool will believe that.”

Exchanging views with state chairmen of the APC who visited him in Abuja, the Speaker also said that those expecting the party to collapse on account of the leadership crisis rocking the party at the National Assembly would be disappointed.

According to him, the party can only emerge stronger from the crisis that was not strange to party politics.

His Special Adviser on Media and Public Affairs, Turaki Hassan said in a statement that Dogara however warned that any move to marginalize some members in the sharing of principal offices in the National Assembly may prove disastrous for the APC in the next general elections.

He said: “I want to discountenance this very ludicrous and laughable discussion that some of us that some of us in the house are even conniving with some people so that we can defect.

“Only a fool will believe that.

We have toiled day and night we control the government at the centre and in our states. Then we park and move to a house that we deserted before, it is even unthinkable and unimaginable that someone will make such assertions.

“We have been through a lot but obviously it is expected as it is a new party we are beginning to know ourselves. It was expected that from the beginning we would have some kind of friction but we cannot be consumed by those frictions. I guess that is one reason why we are here today”.

On the issue of party supremacy, the Speaker said: “It is my deepest conviction as a student of democracy I know that democracy is loosely defined as government of the people by the people and for the people.

“In actual fact, sovereignty in a democratic regime belongs to the people. The government is for the people and the party too is for the people.

“Absolute supremacy must be anchored on the sovereignty of our people because if we don’t pursue the interest of our people, you can guarantee the fact that sooner than later there may be no APC. “So the people must be at the centre of whatever policy we

formulate or whatever directive we will give to somebody from the party must have our people at the centre of that activity otherwise the people will rebel against us and we don’t pray for such.”He said his action and that of his supporters should not be viewed as signs of disloyalty to the party, saying, “All of us contributed immensely to the building of the APC. It is our duty to ensure that the party survives.

And they say it is only a mad man that will use the same hands that he used in building a house to pull it down. We are not mad, we are not fools.”

The Speaker, however, warned that to marginalise some zones in the sharing of positions principal officers of the National Assembly would cost the party in the next election.

“We have to extend the hands of friendship and brotherhood to them to ensure that we strengthened their position so that we can make considerable inroad into those states.

“If we don’t do that then we should be counting our days because if Nigerians didn’t save PDP, if we mess up they won’t save us. We owe more than just passing interest in ensuring that we continue in the task of rebuilding the APC.” He urged the leadership of the party to place national interest above personal ambitions as he hoped to partner PDP in moving the House forward.

“There was one judge who once remarked that there is one consideration that is even above the constitution even though the constitution of the land is the supreme law, the grand norm but the constitution does not even acknowledge it, he said that consideration is national interest. If there is no Nigerian there won’t be Nigerian constitution.

“As long as we put this national interest forward we are not going to have a problem, we want to be in this for the long hold and not a sprint race but rather a marathon.

“Sincerely speaking we cannot afford that APC becomes an exclusive club of certain privileged people. We must spread our hands otherwise we will diminish. And that therefore means that the work has just begun especially in states that we are not in power. “The House is always a one house, we work in such a way that we keep the house united in spite of our political party affiliations.

“If we have divisions in the House and if that division is sharply along partisan lines, most of the instructions you will give us in form of programme that you send to us through the executive may suffer delay.

“Our people will expect that we use our majority position to bring about leadership with cooperation from even the opposition party and deliver the promise of change.”

The delegation was led by acting Chairman, Alhaji Umar Haruna Doguwa, who is also the Kano state APC chairman.

THE NATION ON SUNDAY JULY 5, 2015

NEWS

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Buhari vows to probe political assassinations

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T won’t be business as usual on matters of political assassination, political harassment and intimidation of any Nigerian henceforth, President Muhammadu Buhari vowed yesterday.

He said he will personally ensure that all such cases are thoroughly investigated and the perpetrators speedily brought to justice, irrespective of their political affiliations.

President Buhari spoke in Abuja when State Chairmen of the All Progressives Congress (APC) visited him at the seat of power.

His Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Mr.

• Says govt won’t negotiate with Boko Haram from position of weakness From Augustine Ehikioya, Abuja

Femi Adesina, quoted him as saying that “at every point, the law must be supreme and everyone must respect the law, if our democratic system is to survive.”

The security agencies have failed to unravel several cases of political assassinations in the country.

These include the December 23, 2001 murder of the then Attorney General of the Federation/Justice Minister, Chief Bola Ige, in his Ibadan residence, the March 5, 2003

Six female suicide bombers kill scores in Borno •Soldiers repel fresh attack on Maiduguri CORES of people were killed on Friday night at Zabarmari village, 10 kilometres from Maiduguri, Borno State, by six female suicide bombers who blew themselves up amid panicked villagers fleeing an attack by Boko Haram terrorists, the army and witnesses said yesterday.

The carnage caps a week in which the sect killed about 200 people in separate attacks in the state, the bloodiest being Wednesday night’s attacks on residents of Kukawa as they gathered in mosques for Ramadan prayers.

But Boko Haram fighters were given a bloody nose on the same Friday night during a fresh attempt to invade Maiduguri.

The attack was smashed by soldiers who were supported by the vigilance group, otherwise known as Civilian JTF. A Sport Utility Van (SUV) full of Improvised Explosives Devises (IEDs) was recovered by troops after the Zabarmari assault.

The Defence Headquarters confirmed the suicide bombing, saying:”a total of six suicide bombers had detonated themselves around the garage killing scores of people while some people were also wounded.

A soldier also died.”

“Military explosives ordinance experts backed by police bomb disposal units are continuing with vigorous search for any bombs that might have been hidden or left unexploded in the area,” the Director of Defence Information, Maj-Gen. Chris Olukolade said.

He added that more troops and equipments were being dispatched to the state to stop the terrorists.

Local resident Haladu Musa, who fled the attack, told AFP that “large numbers” of fighters poured into the village, overpowering soldiers deployed to prevent the insurgents reaching Maiduguri.

“The soldiers were forced to retreat,” he said.

Then, as people began to flee, female suicide bombers started blowing themselves

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From Yusuf Alli, Managing Editor Northern Operation/ Duku Joel, Maiduguri with agency report

up in their midst, killing large numbers of people, he said.

“Most of the casualties came from the suicide bombings,” he said, without being able to give a precise figure for the dead and injured.

Musa said the militants looted shops and torched “almost half the village” before eventually being repulsed after the military sent in reinforcements.

Sources said the extremists who attempted to invade Maiduguri had converged on Koshebe village, close to Zabarmari in Jere Local Government Area from where they began to fire in the direction of Maiduguri at about 8pm on Friday.

There were at least 10 massive explosions sending frightened residents of Zabarmari to flee to Maiduguri.

Maiduguri residents themselves could not sleep on account of the heavy firing.

Soldiers and the vigilance group members responded promptly to the attack.

It was not immediately clear how many people died in the battle.

However, an eye-witness, Maimala Shehu said he saw volunteers evacuating corpses and the wounded apparently to the hospital.

Separate reports said Boko Haram members also attacked Bama and Koshebe village in Mafa Local Government Area on the same night.

On Wednesday night, Boko Haram terrorists gunned down up to 148 worshippers as they gathered in mosques in Kukawa for Ramadan prayers, shot women in their homes and dragged men and boys from their beds to kill them.

President Muhammadu Buhari condemned the attacks as “inhuman and barbaric” and again vowed to end the Islamists’ six-yearold insurgency which has killed at least 15,000 people and displaced 1.5 million others.

killing of the Deputy National Chairman of the defunct All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), Chief Harry Marshall in Abuja, and the July 27, 2006 killing of a leader of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Lagos State, Chief Funso Williams at his Ikoyi residence.

Also not resolved yet are the killings in Ekiti State of Mr. Tunde Omojola (2005), Dr. Ayo Daramola (2006) and Kehinde Fasuba (2009).

Speaking further yesterday Buhari said: “Injustice cannot survive for long. Justice will ultimately prevail.

We will make sure that those saddled with the responsibility of ensuring justice and equity do not rest on their oars.

“The only way we can sustain our democracy is to ensure that the law remains supreme at all times. If the law is upheld, people will have confidence that they can vote for who they want to vote for, without intimidation or threats. People must have protection to exercise their rights freely or we could be headed for anarchy.”

He said that he remained fully committed to providing

a level playing field for all Nigerians to get on with their daily lives or participate in electing their leaders, without fear of intimidation.

The President said that his administration will continuously strengthen the nation’s criminal justice system to curb the reign of injustice and impunity in the country.

The police and the judiciary, he stressed, “must ensure that justice is done in the country. We won’t allow impunity to continue in certain states, where the rights of the people are being violated.

“I have a personal commitment to fair play and respect of personal rights. This government will do all that is possible to enforce that.

“My address to National Executive Council of the APC was very clear. We are now in the frontline. We are the party in government. We must lead by good example and consolidate on the gains of our democratic system,’’ he said.

Buhari urged the APC State Chairmen and other political leaders in the country to keep to prescribed legal processes for the resolution

of political disputes and never resort to violence, criminality and other forms of unacceptable behaviour in seeking redress for any perceived injustice.

He also called on the state chairmen to work with the party’s elected officials to ensure that the APC delivers on its promise of better living conditions for all Nigerians.

The leader of the delegation and Chairman of the APC in Kano State, Umar Dogowa, said that the APC State Chairmen were on a visit to the Presidential Villa to reaffirm their support for President Buhari and his administration.

Also yesterday, Buhari said that the Federal Government will not negotiate with the terror sect, Boko Haram, from a position of weakness.

But he also emphasized that government will not shy away from any negotiation initiated by Boko Haram.

Adesina, in a statement entitled ‘Amplification of comments on negotiations with Boko Haram’, pointed out that the Americans also

negotiated with the Talibans in Afghanistan at some point in time.

He said: “Most wars, however furious or vicious, often end around the negotiation table. So, if Boko Haram opts for negotiation, the government will not be averse to it.

“Government will, however, not be negotiating from a position of weakness, but that of strength.

The machinery put in place, and which will be set in motion soon, can only devastate and decapitate insurgency.

“It is multinational in nature, and relief is on the way for Nigeria and her neighbours.

President Muhammadu Buhari is resolute. He has battled and won insurgency before he is poised to win again. It is a promise he made to Nigerians, and he is a promise keeper.

“But I say again, if the insurgents want to negotiate, no decent government will be averse to such. Didn’t the Taliban and Americans also negotiate in Afghanistan?”

•Ogun State Governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun (2nd right), his Deputy, Mrs. Yetunde Onanuga (2nd left), Speaker, Ogun State House of Assembly, Suraj Ishola Adekunbi (right) and Guest Speaker, Chief Imam, University of Abuja, Prof. Taofeek AbdulAzeez (left), during the State's Ramadan Iftar, tagged Sustaining the gains of 2015 elections: Muslims on call, held at the Arcade Ground, Oke-Mosan, Abeokuta...yesterday

Corruption is crippling National Assembly, says Action Aid

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ASSIVE corrupt practices at the National Assembly are crippling its effectiveness while much of its investigation of corruption in various ministries and agencies has ended up as futile efforts, a study has revealed.

The situation, according to ActionAid Nigeria, “has undermined the resolve and effectiveness of the body in the performance of their oversight functions.”

“The investigations of corruption cases by the National Assembly have ended up uncompleted,” it said, citing a 69-page study it conducted on corruption in the country.

It branded the situation in Nigeria as “mega-corruption”, pointing out that Ni-

From Jide Babalola, Assistant Editor, Abuja.

geria’s long - term development is now under threat while a frightening dimension of official corruption has ensured the spread of poverty in the country.

In the report entitled: “Corruption and Poverty in Nigeria”, the body said that those entrusted with running the machinery of government or providing checks have instead, opted for actions that hinder the country’s long-term development.

It said:”The legislators, executives and the ministries, departments and agencies at national, state and local government levels who control the machinery of government have at various times mismanaged re-

sources meant for development.”

It canvassed the adoption of effective checks on corruption at all levels of government as well as the private sector, saying that the absence of effective oversight and checks has enabled the private sector, including the extractive industry, to participate in the huge corruption system while monies meant for development end up abroad.

It added “Corruption in the judiciary and among law enforcement agencies as well as legal impediments that frustrate the trial of corruption cases, constitute a huge challenge in fighting corruption in the country.

“The level of impunity in the country is abnormally high with a recent study in-

dicating that 55 cases of corruption charged to court by the EFCC between 1999 and 2012 alone account for as much as N1. 3trillion.

“Poverty incidence in Nigeria has worsened since 1980 when it was 28.1% compared to 69% in 2010…

“The National Bureau of Statistics reported that the percentage of people living in poverty increased from 27.2% in 1980 to 46.3% in 1985, dropped to 42.7 % in 1992 and then increased to 65% in 1996.

“By 2010, the poverty level was 69%, indicating that about 112.4 million Nigerians are living below the poverty line.

“Nigeria is therefore aptly described as a paradox of poverty in the midst of plenty.”

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THE NATION ON SUNDAY JULY 5, 2015

NEWS

NCC staff want DG sacked

PDP insists on removal of INEC chair From Gbade Ogunwale, Assistant Editor, Abuja

•They are disgruntled,' says Ezekude

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From Jide Babalola, Assistant Editor, Abuja

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OME staff of the Nigerian Copyright Commission (NCC) are rooting for a change of guards at the antipiracy agency, saying the current management and its style of administration are hindering the parastatal from performing optimally.

They alleged corruption by the management and that the tenure of Director General Afam Ezekude expired last December and should make way for a successor.

However, Ezekude has dismissed the allegations as the handiwork of vested groups who are fighting back because of the changes and reorganisation that have affected their interests.

Top of the catalogue of complaints by the aggrieved staff which they sent to The Nation on Sunday are: contract splitting, same day approval of payments to a contractor, frequent overseas trips by Mr. Ezekude and his family, using First Class tickets, and a monthly withdrawal of N10 million from the Commission's account ostensibly to 'service' some unidentified personalities at the National Assembly.

They claimed that 10 members of staff of the agency "have died thus far, due to administrative pressure, financial challenges and unexplainable circumstances."

Other allegations are: · Questionable withdrawals from NCC's Pension funds account without the consent of board members; · Violation of Public Service Rules through massive rehabilitation and renting of over-sized office accommodation in Abuja, involving non-transparent payment terms; ·Illegal employment of over 200 staff in 2012, including inadequately experienced kinsmen placed on Grade Level 14 and above, without any newspaper advertisement of vacancies; · Random punitive transfers for staff perceived as potential threat without payment of transfer allowances; · Vindictive transfer of officers out of the Abuja Head Office for joining the Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (SSAN) On the DG's tenure, they said: "the said tenure extension (memo) is not known/seen by relevant departments such as Admin, Finance, Audit, Public Affairs, the Legal department in NCC and the Federal Ministry of Justice."

The aggrieved staff of NCC asked government to investigate their allegations.

Ezekude who is currently out of the country said 'disgruntled elements' including those who dislike the transfers and reorganisation he is carrying out were the brains behind the allegations.

In a swift response after listening to our correspondent's voicemail message on his United Kingdom telephone line, the DG said: "It is not new. The allegations have remained unfounded; it is just some disgruntled elements within the Commission and they have no proof.

"I advise strongly that these allegations should not be given any attention at all; this is always expected when you try to do the right thing, some people will just come up with false allegations

• From Left: Former Head of State, Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar; former President Ibrahim Babangida and former Senate president David Mark, at the graduation of El-Amin School in Minna, Niger State, at the weekend

South East Senators, Rep seek relocation of Boko Haram suspects from Anambra •Obiano to residents: "I can't use Boko Haram to play politics" in Rivers

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HE South East political class is mounting pressure on

the federal government to relocate from Anambra State, the Boko Haram detainees who were recently transferred to the Ekwulobia Prison in state.

The South East Senate Caucus said yesterday that the relocation was imperative in the interest of peace and security.

Senator Mao Ohunabuwa (Abia North) who spoke for the caucus in Abuja claimed there was no justifiable reason for the transfer of the Boko Haram detainees to a state far away from where the suspects were arrested.

Simultaneously, a member of the House of Representatives, Eucharia Azodo (Aguata, Anambra), sent a petition to the federal government to reverse its decision to transfer the detained Boko Haram members to her state, while Governor Wlillie Obiano of Anambra State who is being accused of complicity in the transfer by political opponents deplored what he called attempts to politicize the issue.

Ohunabuwa said that the presence of the suspects in Ekwulobia is capable of creating avoidable tension and fear of the unknown in the area.

He asked for their relocation immediately and threatened to raise the issue on the floor of the Senate should they be retained in Ekwulobia.

He said that such prisoners should be confined in the states where they committed the crime or any other state in the north with maximum prisons.

Ohuabunwa also regretted the renewed killings by the insurgents saying that no effort should be spared to flush out the insurgents from the country.

From: Onyedi Ojiabor, Assistant Editor/ Victor Oluwasegun and Dele Anofi, Abuja/Nwanosike Onu, Awka

And in her petition to the federal authorities, Azodo said the relocation of the detainees to Ekwulobia Prison has serious security and socio-economic implications for the people of the state.

She said her constituents are not comfortable with the prisoners' presence in their midst because the Ekwulobia prison does not have the capacity to accommodate such high risk inmates.

"Ekwulobia Prison in Aguata Local Government Area of Anambra State is not a maximum security prison," she said.

"The prison originally has the capacity to house 85 inmates but it is presently overburdened with 135 inmates. The new 47 Boko Haram inmates will over stretch the prison and that could pose dangerous consequences for the community and entire state.

"The arrival of these detainees has led to anxiety across the state with places like Onitsha, Ekwulobia and other major cities of

Anambra State witnessing protests.

"Many businesses including markets, filling stations have been closed as a result of the arrival of the Boko Haram detainees."

According to the lawmaker, the people feared the possibility of jail break that could lead to a culture of violent attacks within the communities.

"There is a general fear of the possibility of a jailbreak aided by their (Boko Haram) members. The relocation of the prisoners to Ekwulobia is in flagrant violation of the avowed wishes of the peace-loving people of Anambra State.

"Even though the management of prisons is on the Exclusive list, I urge the federal government to rescind its decision to relocate the Boko Haram detainees to Anambra.?"

Governor Obiano who has come under attack for allegedly conniving with the federal government on the transfer of the detainees to his state declared yesterday that contrary to

insinuations, he would not play politics with the pains and agony of his people.

He appealed to the people of the state to go about their normal businesses while he continues to engage the relevant authorities on the recent transfer of the detainees.

The governor through his media aide, James Eze said: "We wish to inform the general public that Governor Obiano NEVER made any comments to any media. Since the eruption of this controversy, Governor Obiano's position has been consistent.

For the avoidance of doubt, Governor Willie Obiano is aware of the strong feelings provoked by Boko Haram among NdiAnambra and the people of the South East.

"Therefore, he shall never use this subject of pain and anguish to play politics. Those who are not held back by any moral considerations in their pursuit of power, cheap popularity and vendetta are free to play with the agony of the people for their narrow interests."

France ready to hold fresh summit on Boko Haram

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RESIDENT Francois Hollande of France has offered to host a new summit of Nigeria, Niger Republic, Chad and Cameroun, all of which are currently locked in a battle with the terror sect, Boko Haram.

Hollande spoke after talks in Yaounde, the capital of Cameroon with President Paul Biya. "Nigeria and Cameroon need to have the best relations ... to work together. This corresponds well with the spirit we had at our last summit in Paris to take important decisions about Boko Haram, whose threat is getting stronger," Hollande said.

"I am ready to gather

anew, as soon as the presidents give me a date, this conference so that we can better act together," the French president said.

The first summit took place in Paris in May 2014 where the four countries pledged to wage a joint war against the terrorists.

They agreed to share intelligence and co-ordinate action against the group.

That summit was called a month after the sect abducted 223 students of Government Girls’ Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State.

Although, a few of the girls managed to escape, over 200 are yet to be found.

The joint operations have dislodged the insurgents from

many of the territories under their control.

The sect leader, Ahmed Shekau, who had formed the habit of releasing video messages to mock the nations fighting his group has disappeared from the radar for some time now.

However, the sect has stepped up its attacks in Borno State, southern Niger Republic and Chad lately apparently in a desperate bid to demonstrate that it has not lost its bite.

Last week alone about 150 people were killed in Boko Haram attacks in Borno State.

President Muhammadu Buhari has vowed to crush whatever remains of the rebellion.

HE Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday insisted on the immediate removal of the newly appointed Acting Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Mrs. Amina Zakari.

The party said information at its disposal confirmed that Mrs. Zakari enjoys "a strong relationship" with President Muhammadu Buhari and an unnamed APC Governor in the Northwest.

National Publicity Secretary of the party, Mr. Olisa Metuh, alleged in a statement that the unnamed governor was collaborating with APC to ensure that INEC, under Zakari, posts Resident Electoral Commissioners of its choice to Kogi and Bayelsa states ahead of the forthcoming governorship elections in the two states The party also alleged that there were moves to use the period of Mrs. Zakari's stay as head of the Commission to tinker with electoral personnel and materials for the two states in favour of the ruling APC. "President Buhari, in appointing Mrs. Zakari, failed to take into cognizance the moral call to detach himself from the operation of the electoral body, thereby completely eroding the independence of the Commission", Metuh said.

He said that Zakari's competence and performance in office were not the issue, but "her closeness to the President and some key APC leaders" smacked of nepotism and called to question the independence of the electoral body under her watch.

According to him, "We want Nigerians to know that with this appointment, INEC has been stripped of its independence and can no longer command the confidence and respect of the citizens and all other critical stakeholders in the nation's electoral process.

"We however find it astonishing, discouraging and disheartening that the spokesperson of the President will address Nigerians and lie to the entire citizenry that Mrs. Zakari never had any relationship with the President or an APC Governor in the Northwest. This is the height of deception coming from the respected office of the President of our dear country.

"We ask: is the spokesperson of the President, oblivious of the public fact that the Acting Chairman of INEC was once a staff of Afri-Project Consortium, a company well associated with the President?

"Is he, by any means, feigning ignorance of the fact that Mrs. Zakari also worked in the past as Secretary of Health and Human Services, Social Development and later, that of Agriculture and Rural Development in the Federal Capital Development Authority, then under a current APC governor of the Northwest?

"How much of Mrs. Zakari's roles in the last general elections does the spokesperson of the President, who has just been appointed, know to warrant his brazen defence?

"Even where we concede to the worn-out argument that the President has the powers to appoint any person he deems fit as the INEC Chairman, does moral obligation not demand that in doing so he should take into cognizance the sensitivity of the position? Otherwise he can as well appoint his wife or brother as the electoral umpire on an argument of merit."

THE NATION ON SUNDAY JULY 5, 2015

NEWS 7 ‘Four years Akwa Ibom stakeholders SSANU not enough reject Nuclear power plant calls for for Buhari to ergy sources available to the the promoters are, precisely.

KWA Ibom State Leadcountry have not been fully In each question category, removal of ers’ Caucus has called tional standards guiding the tapped or exhausted. the answers that popped up on the Federal Govfix Nigeria’ Okon said: “Our opposi- did not add up on the scale of ernment to have a rethink on implementation of civil nu-

NUC boss

From Nicholas Kalu, Calabar

T

HE Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) at the weekend called for the removal of the Executive Secretary of the Nigeria University Commission (NUC), Prof.

Julius Okojie, over his alleged role to stop funding of University Staff Schools by the Federal Government.

Placard bearing members of the union, as well as teachers of the University of Calabar Staff School recently embarked on a peaceful protest from the National Arts Theatre to the office of the Vice Chancellor of the institution against the proposed plan.

National President of SSANU, Comrade Samson Ugbokwe, said the move would throw thousands of workers out of employment prematurely in violation of the 2009 Federal Government/ SSANU agreement.

Represented by the Vice President of the Eastern Zone, Dr. Leku Ador, he accused the NUC of working with other government agencies to introduce the new policy.

He said the since the NUC had initially claimed it was the National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission (NSIWC) that recommended the withdrawal of institutional funding for the schools, SSANU wondered what role the NUC played in advising the National Salaries Incomes and Wages Commission against unilaterally recommending the breach of an item in an executed agreement, which the NUC not only provided the platform for its negotiation that lasted three years, but of which its Executive Secretary effectively and fully participated in.

The SSANU boss said the staff schools were established by statutes and workers duly employed by the Universities’ Councils.

He asked: “Why single out the Universities’ Staff Schools for discrimination when the Federal Government still funds the Navy, Army, Air force, Police Staff Schools,” adding, “It is a sadistic irony of great proportions that the National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission can attempt to impugn an agreement which both the Commission, the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Labour, the State governments and state universities fully participated in its negotiation that lasted nearly three years before conclusion by a mere circular.

“These schools that the NUC and its cohorts are attempting to scarp have produced a crop of eminent Nigerians who form the nucleus of the human infrastructure driving Nigeria’s development. It is like attempting to scrap the Unity Schools!

“It is even worse in the case of the Universities Staff Schools where their sustainability is the product of a negotiated and collective bargaining. If it is truly the dawn of a new era in Nigeria, the government should distance itself from this impunity being cooked up by the NUC.”

A

From Kazeem Ibrahym, Uyo

its decision to establish a nuclear power plant at Itu Local Government Area of the state.

Briefing newsmen in Uyo, the state capital, Senator Anietie Okon, who spoke on behalf of the group, described the proposal as a “monumental disaster-inwaiting” for the people of the state.

Okon explained that the plan to build the power plant did not conform to interna-

clear programs across the globe.

The project, he warned, will put several communities in the state and the lives of millions of people at risk in a country like Nigeria with a poor track record in the management of power infrastructure.

The group also queried the insistence of the Federal Government to embark on the project when other en-

tion to the location of the plant in our state is not borne out of ignorance of the benefits of the project, but more because of the peculiar experiences in our country and the disastrous consequences that failure of nuclear plants have brought to even more discerning climes.

“We ask ourselves what the fascination is with the Nuclear Power Plant project and what the intentions of

altruism.

“These questions are asked bearing in mind that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) had warned that Nigeria does not possess the right competences to handle nuclear issues. Technical Impact Assessment at the international level also indicated that nuclear plant is not suitable for Nigeria for now for very obvious reasons.”

• From L-R: Rotarian District Governor, Otunba Bolaji Onabadejo, Chairman, Diamond Bank Plc., Dr. Chris Ogechie, outgoing President Rotarian Club of Lagos, Ayo Banjo, the New President, Larry Agose, former Chief of Defence Staff, General Alex Ogomudia (rtd) during the Investiture Ceremony of Rotarian Larry Agose as the 55th Presiden t (2015/2016 Rotary Year) and Induction of Board of Directors/Annual Fund Raising Dinner in Lagos yesterday.

PHOTO: MUYIWA HASSAN

Fiscal Responsibility Commission makes case for retention

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OLLOWING the raging debate about the proposed scrapping of some Federal Government agencies, the Fiscal Responsibility Commission (FRC) has appealed to the Federal Government to rather strengthen it to implement its anti-corruption agenda.

The commission’s Head of Press, Mr. AbdulGaniyu Aminu, who made the appeal in a press conference at Abuja, said that the Steve Orosanye report, which recommended the scrapping of some agencies, has become an albatross hampering FRC from performing its mandate.

He said: “The Orosanye Report and the White Paper on same that the Commission be scrapped have been hanging

From John Ofikhenua, Abuja

on the Commission like the proverbial albatross. This has hampered the ability of the Commission to discharge its mandate. The earlier the Federal Government takes a decision on the Commission the better.”

According to him, the cost of running the Commission is less than the revenue it induced from the Scheduled Corporations under the FRA, 2007.

He maintained that the FRC is the least dependent agency of the Federal Government, because it has the lowest expenditure provisions in the Federal Government annual budgets.

The FRC, he added, is a

custodian of public funds rather than a spending agency, while noting that its social benefits far exceed its costs.

Aminu revealed that about 10 states have so far enacted the Fiscal Responsibility Law at the instance of the FRC, while others are at various stages of passing the legislation.

He further disclosed that the FRC has been monitoring and enforcing the FRA 2007 by Scheduled Corporations in the areas of the preparation of the MTEF, rendition of Audited Accounts and payment of 80% of their Operating Surplus to the Federal Government Consolidated Revenue Fund.

He recalled, “In 2013, due to the acceptance of the Fed-

eral Government recommendations to scrap the FRC, the remittance of operating surplus rather than increase, dropped drastically as most agencies are no longer disposed to cooperating with the FRC in the discharge of its functions. In the light of the foregoing, we make bold to suggest that rather than being scrapped, the FRC should be strengthened and further empowered so as to diligently enforce the provision of FRA, 2007 to the letter.

“In addition, the FRA, 2007 should be amended to remedy some weaknesses discovered in the course of monitoring and enforcing it. For example, while some offences are specified, no corresponding sanctions are provided for.”

Tribunal admits evidence against Jang

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HE National Assembly Election Tribunal has admitted exhibits tendered by the All Progressive Congress (APC) senatorial candidate in the last general elections, Mrs. Ayisa Sambo.

Sambo, who lost the election of Plateau North senatorial zone to the PDP candidate and immediate former governor of the state, Senator Jonah Jang, had gone to the Tribunal to challenge the results declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) alleging over voting, rigging and intimidation of her party agents during the election.

From Yusufu Aminu Idegu, Jos

Counsel to Jang, Sunday Oyawole, had objected the admissibility of the exhibits on the basis that the exhibits were not tendered personally by the state Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Dr. Godwin Kwanga.

The admitted exhibits are electoral results sheets used for the controversial election.

The Resident Electoral Commissioner was represented by the Head of Legal Unit of the Commission, Barr. Stephen Iorlumun Ibyem.

Ibyem, who appeared be-

fore the Tribunal as a “Subpoena” witness, identified the exhibits ranging from pulling units results, ward results, local government results, voter registration and the manual guide for the 2015 general elections, as well as the declared result sheet for the Plateau North senatorial district.

Two other “subpoena” witnesses from INEC, Mr. Muda Kunle Orisundare for Barkin-Ladi and Mr Yahaya Tanko Huseni for Jos-south local government areas appeared before the tribunal and affirmed the results (photocopy) as being entered in

their respective areas of assignment.

On the exhibits, Counsel to Jang said, “I want the court to reject these exhibits not only because they were brought by a representative, but these documents are mere photocopies and not original copies.”

He also argued that some of the witnesses were not listed in the petitioner’s witness list.

But Counsel to INEC, David Mishe, argued that the documents are true certified copies of the commission, saying he has no objection on the exhibits.

By Remi Adelowo

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CHIEFTAIN of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and former governorship candidate of the defunct Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), Ambassador Nurain Mumuni has expressed the need for the Buhari administration to be offered a second term opportunity by Nigerians through their votes in 2019.

Speaking at a political stakeholders’ meeting in Abuja yesterday, Mumuni emphasized the need to allow President Buhari a second term in the office in view of the mega rot his administration inherited from the immediate past government.

According to Mumuni: “The truth of the matter is that Buhari needs more than four years to fix Nigeria back to the track of sanity and sound economy, in view of the mega rot his administration inherited from the immediate past government. The corruption in the oil sector alone will take a reasonable length of time to be addressed and halted. We should not forget that Nigeria as a country has in the last 16 years went through hell in the hands of PDP leaders who almost milked it to death in virtually all sectors of its economy; so we should not expect magic from Buhari, rather we should all brace up for the challenges ahead. The task of fixing Nigeria back to normalcy is a collective one; it’s not a one-man responsibility.’’

Reacting to the alleged slow pace of Buhari’s administration, Mumuni implored Nigerians not to be worried about the allegation because, according to him “from all the available indices, Buhari has been living up to his responsibilities as Nigeria’s president.’’

“Nigerians should not get worried over such insinuations, because Buhari has been performing well since he came in as president. The whole misconception revolves around the fact that some people still see Buhari as a soldier, who should operate with military fiat, forgetting that he’s now a democratically elected president. There is a limit to how he exercises his powers. His powers are clearly defined in the constitution. He can’t just act out of the constitution and throw Rule of Law to the winds. He cannot be acting on mere suspicion and rumour; he must be law abiding in all his activities and avoid blunders in his decisions; or else he would end up a subject of litigation almost on a daily basis, because people will go to court if they are unnecessarily punished for the offence they did not commit.

And don’t forget it is the same people who accusing him of being too slow that will turn round to castigate him for punishing people without having his facts.’’

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NEWS

NFF sacks Keshi HE Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) yesterday terminated the appointment of Stephen Keshi as Head Coach of the Senior National Football Team, Super Eagles.

According to a statement by the body’s Executive Committee, it said the decision was made, “having thoroughly reviewed the reports/ findings of the NFF Disciplinary Committee and NFF Technical and Development Committee, as well as having reviewed the actions and inactions of Mr. Stephen Keshi, in the performance of his duties as Super Eagles’ Head Coach, which we found to lack the required commitment to achieve the Federation’s objectives as set out in the Coach’s employment contract.”

It added, “To this end and pursuant to the provisions of Clause 4.3 of the Employment Contract between Mr. Stephen Keshi and the NFF (The Contract) and the various clauses therein, the Nigeria Football Federation has decided to exercise its option to summarily terminate the employment contract of Mr. Stephen Keshi with the Federation with immediate effect.”

The statement said the termination was “without prejudice to the settlement of any existing and due financial obligations between the NFF and Mr. Keshi.”

NFF first Vice President, Seyi Akinwunmi, speaking on behalf of the entire Executive Committee of NFF, assured Nigerians that the decision was not taken lightly or with any prejudice, but in the ultimate interest of Nigeria football.

He thanked Mr. Keshi for his services to the country and wished him the very best in his future endeavours.

“In the interim, the Super Eagles’ team affairs will be jointly managed by Assistant Coach, Salisu Yusuf and the Technical Directorate of the NFF headed by Coach Shuaibu Amodu, until the Federation names in due course a new Head Coach, who, along with the NFF will chart a new direction for the Super Eagles to ensure credible participation in international competitions and assist in building a sustainable football culture for the country,” said Akinwunmi.

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THE NATION ON SUNDAY JULY 5, 2015 LAGOS State Governor, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode on Saturday, stressed the need for constant review of the educational curriculum in schools to reflect current challenges in the nation.

He spoke at the official commissioning of Brownsville College in Ikoyi.

While giving an assurance that the state government will continue to encourage private sector participation in education, he however added that in achieving this, quality and standard will not be compromised.

In a statement signed by

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Ambode stresses need for constant review of school curriculum his Chief Press Secretary, Habib Aruna, the governor said that while knowledge acquired through education should prepare young people to face present and future challenges with confidence, it must be structured in a way that is effective and align with changing times in the 21st century.

He said, “Let me however

reiterate that for us to achieve our goal of nurturing a new generation of responsible leaders with a broad knowledge base, the educational system needs to undergo a wide range of reforms with a curriculum that is constantly reviewed and updated to reflect current challenges.

“While we continue to en-

courage private sector participation in education, quality and standard will not be compromised. The Quality Assurance Department of the Ministry of Education will be strengthened and empowered to ensure that basic minimum standards are maintained.”

Ambode disclosed that his administration is considering

CFM to hold retreat

By Medinat Kanabe

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•Lagos State Governor, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode (3rd right), his wife, Mrs. Bolanle Ambode (right), the Chairman, Brownsville College, Mr. Hameed Kasumu (middle), his wife, Alaba (3rd left), her son, Mohammed (2nd right), Dr. Victor Obiakor (left) and his wife, Mirna (2nd left) jointly cutting the cake to officially commission Brownsville College.

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FORMER member of the House of Representatives, Mr. Opeyemi Bamidele, has hailed President Muhammadu Buhari for his intervention in the leadership crisis rocking the National Assembly among the All Progressives Congress (APC) lawmakers.

Bamidele also praised Buhari for emphasising the need for all members of the APC to align with the doctrine of party supremacy.

The former Chairman, House Committee on Legislative Budget and Research, said the President by placing himself under the authority of the APC, has automatically resolved the leadership crisis rocking the two chambers of the National Assembly.

In a statement issued in

Bamidele hails Buhari’s intervention in NASS leadership crisis From Odunayo Ogunmola, Ado Ekiti

Ado Ekiti, the Ekiti State capital on Saturday by his media aide, Ahmed Salami, Bamidele urged the Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, to embrace what the leader of the party had demonstrated, in order to restore lasting peace to the party.

He urged the duo to reciprocate the party’s gesture as communicated by its National Chairman, Chief John OdigieOyegun, that their elections

stand recognised, even in the face of breaching the party’s directive to actualise their aspirations.

Bamidele said, “What President Buhari demonstrated was a paradigm from the old order where a party was often being treated as an appendage of its powerful members. With this clear position, I believe the crisis in APC is over.

“President Buhari promised Nigerians change and he has started demonstrating this by showing how a good party structure must be under an ideal democratic situation.

The party supremacy is a global convention and Nigeria cannot be an exemption no matter how we perceive our style of politics.

“I see no reason why members would continue to feud when the national leader of the party had made it clear that the positions of the party is incontestable and must be respected at all times.

“The two factions must concede to each other. They must shift positions and concede where necessary in order not to blow away the party’s goodwill with Nigerians.”

Alleged harassment: UI SSANU, NASU, NAAT condemn ASUU

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HE Non-Academic Staff Union (NASU), Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) and National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT) , in the University of Ibadan (UI), have condemned a recent statement credited to the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) of the university, alleging that some of its members were harassed during the protest carried out by the unions on Wednesday.

From Tayo Johnson, Ibadan

In a statement issued over the weekend by the UI SSANU Chairman, Mr. Wale Akinremi and its counterparts in NAAT and NASU respectively, Mr. Saka Ogundele and Segun Arojo, they noted that the protest carried out by the members of the unions on Wednesday was carried with utmost observation and decorum.

While denying that any

member of ASUU was harassed during the protest, the unions described the allegation as “spurious, unfounded, malicious and pedestrian.”

It added, “As unions, we have noticed with disrelish that whenever we embark on a cause that also affect their welfare, the leadership and of followership of ASUU have always taken delight to impugn the characters of our union leaders and unnecessarily antagonise them.

“We have only embarked on a legitimate cause and we are saying unequivocally that any attempt to intimidate or victimise our members in our various offices will be resisted vehemently.”

The unions also demand the adequate security must be provided for its members to carry out their civil obligation without fear of molestation or victimisation in the university.

FUTA mourns murdered, ex-VC, Ilemobade

HE management of the Federal University of Technology (FUTA) in Akure, the Ondo State capital, at the weekend, paid a condolence visit to the family of the former Vice-Chancellor of the institution, Prof. Albert Adeoye Ilemobade, who was gruesomely murdered by two of his domestic staff.

At the home of the late don, the Vice-Chancellor, Prof.

the reintroduction of computer-based test in all its public secondary schools, while expressing optimism that it will aid students to prepare adequately for future post-secondary school examinations, particularly the University Matriculation Examination (UME) which is now computer based.

Adebiyi Daramola, who led a delegation of the institution’s Principal Officers, was received by the widow of the deceased and his children.

Daramola described the late don as a patriarch of FUTA whose immense contributions and sacrifice for the development of the institution will remain evergreen.

He said in and out of of-

fice, Ilemobade showed keen interest in the development of FUTA. He further said the late Vice Chancellor would be sorely missed for his valuable counsel as an elder statesman and a renowned academic who boasted an enviable track record in university administration.

While paying his tribute to the deceased, Daramola wrote

in the condolence register: “The last few days have been very terrible for us at the Federal University of Technology, Akure. This is particularly so given the fact that our former Vice-Chancellor, Professor Ilemobade was in the University less than 24 hours before his death to grace a wedding ceremony. The news of his kidnap and eventual death

under a most gruesome condition has left us all in shock and grief. On behalf of the Governing Council, Staff and Students of FUTA, we say ADIEU OUR DADDY. May your gentle soul rest in peace in Jesus name.”

He said the University was in close liaison with the family in order to give the former ViceChancellor a befitting burial.

HE Foursquare Gospel Church in Nigeria, National Council of Foursquare Men (CFM), will from Wednesday to Friday hold its 2015 annual men’s retreat.

With the theme ‘Empowerment for great glory,’ the event will hold at Foursquare Camp, Ajebo in Ogun State.

Speaking to journalists during a press conference at the church headquarters, Yaba, CFM National President, Elder Churchill Peter Ayerume, said men will be empowered during the retreat.

“First we are going to empower them with the word of God, because all that man needs to succeed is the Word.

If you are able to apply the principles in the Bible, you cannot lack. We will also empower them intellectually as we are bringing in resource persons to lecture and train them on different skills.”

According to him, CFM decided to hold the retreat because God saved Nigeria when men rose against her during the last general elections.

“We can see what is unfolding in our nation. Given all that transpired during and after the general elections, we see God extending peace to us in our nation even when disaster seemed to loom everywhere.

St. Peter Catholic Church celebrates 30 years anniversary

By Julius Okorie

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HE St. Peter Catholic Church Ejigbo, would today mark its 30th year anniversary.

The event, which will be graced by the Archbishop of Lagos, Most Rev. Dr. Alfred Adewale Martins, will showcase among other highlights, the confirmation of Catholic Church of the Annunciation Orioke as a Quasi-Parish and the announcement of a parish priest for the new Quasi-Parish.

The event would be graced by some prominent priests who have contributed immensely to the milestone recorded by the church including Rev. Fr Cusimano SJ, Rev. Fr Ranji SJ, Rev . Fr ED Debany S T,Monsignor Pascal Nwaezeapu, Rev. Fr Michael Onwudiegwu, Rev Fr Thaddeus Okafor, Rev. Fr Gabriel Iheanachor and current Parish Priest, Rev. Fr Mathew Ogunyase.

THE NATION ON SUNDAY JULY 5, 2015

Tears in Bayelsa as Navy buries rating killed in B'Haram combat

Group to Buhari: appoint Ali as Chief of Staff

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A T I O N A L Coordinator, Single Parents Association, South South zone, Tina Wilson has stated reasons why President Muhammadu Buhari should appoint Colonel Hamid Ali (rtd) as Chief of Staff.

While drumming up support for Ali, Wilson, a woman activist, said President Buhari cabinet needs a person like Ali to stabilise itself and prosecute a successful war towards the eradication of corruption.

"Ali has wealth of experience having served as secretary of the Arewa Consultative Forum, ACF, and remains a popular choice ahead of other contenders in the race for the job of the President's top aide."

NEWS

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HERE was a steam of tears in Opume community, Bayelsa State, yesterday following the burial of Seaman Paul Alex Amaseimogha, who died fighting the Boko Haram insurgents at the North East.

Amaseimogha, aged 25, who was killed at the battlefield in Borno State in May, was buried according to the tradition of the Navy.

He was among the young soldiers trained on counterterrorism in Belarus and deployed in Borno to flush out the Boko Haram sects.

He was, however, attacked and killed by the insurgents. His remains were brought home for burial on the request of his family.

From Mike Odiegwu, Yenagoa

The father of the late soldier, his mother, Darling, twin brother, Silas and his fiancée, Yusuf Emma-Ojo cried uncontrollably throughout the brief funeral service.

Elders in the community rained curses on Boko Haram as well as their alleged sponsors.

All the commanding officers of the Central Naval Command (CNC) attended the occasion with the Flag Officer Commanding (FOC), CNC, Rear Admiral Stanley Ogoigbe representing the Chief of Naval Staff.

Among the senior naval officers who trooped out to honour the late soldier are Commodores A.K. Owo-

Chuks, B. Babagbale, C.A. Ofor, F.O. Teimisan, U.B. Onyia and M.A. Eno. Ogoigbe who read the naval citation of the slain rating described his death as a great loss to his family, the navy and the country.

He said: "He died fighting to ensure a peaceful Nigeria.

Because of the insurgency, he was among the people sent for special training in Belarus. He did very well. He came out and was deployed happily.

"We never expected he would die. None of us that join the military look forward to death. He is a hero. He paid the ultimate price for his life and patriotism to Nigeria. Alex has gone to sleep. He has done his best for Nigeria. We are very

proud of him.

"On behalf of the Chief of Naval Staff, officers and ratings of the Nigerian Navy, I wish to express our gratitude and appreciation to the family, the great people of Opume and Bayelsa for giving us a worthy son that contributed immensely to ensure peace," he said.

The FOC presented the deceased military accoutrement comprising shoes, cap and naval flag to Silas, the late soldier's next of kin.

He also gave a cash of N250,000 from the chief of naval staff to the family for the burial expenses and asked Silas to begin the process of collecting all the entitlements of his late brother.

Calabar deep seaport ready in 18 months - Ayade

Siasia expresses interest in Bayelsa governorship From Mike Odiegwu, Yenagoa

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OSES Siasia, an international businessman and younger brother to the National Coach Samson Siasia, has expressed the desire to join the 2016 governorship race in Bayelsa State.

Siasia who declared his intentions at a news conference in Yenagoa yesterday lamented the unemployment rate in the state saying over 85 per cent of Bayelsans were jobless.

Siasia, 35, said he was hoping that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) would give him a platform to actualise his dreams.

Siasia, who hails from Sagbama, the Local xxx Government Area of the current Governor Seriake Dickson, said the state needed productive mindset to solve its the socio-economic problems.

Rivers CJ to lawyers: serve the needy

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ROSS River State governor, Senator Ben Ayade has assured private investors that the proposed Calabar Deep Seaport would be ready for use in 18 months.

Governor Ayade gave the assurance yesterday on the occasion of the official commissioning of the 40 million litres capacity tank farm, FYNFIELD Petroleum, at the Calabar Free Trade Zone.

He said his administration is desirous of creating a conducive environment for private sector to operate.

The governor disclosed that the state's signature projects, "the dual carriage super highway and Calabar Deep Seaport were earmarked to provide a safety pad for the private sector to strive."

Ayade who thanked the Managing Director of FynefIeld Petroleum, Mr Gabriel Ogbechie, for choosing Calabar to do business, explained that "the essence of the proposed superhighway from Calabar to Obudu was to enhance the efficient evacuation of petroleum products from the proposed deep seaport to South East, North East, Niger Republic and Chad."

On the company's request for the expansion of the number of jetties to serve the 25 tank farms, Ayade explained that "work on the special port which will be completed in 18 months thereby easing the hardship encountered by those involved in the lifting of petroleum products would soon commence.

Governor of Delta, Dr Ifeanyi Okowa, who commended Ayade for his vision and mission for Cross River, described him as " one governor with a difference who brings business into governance and with this, there is a great hope for the state and Nigeria."

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From Rosemary Nwisi, Port Harcourt

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•Members of Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) and other stakeholders on a protest march seeking removal of the Executive Secretary of the Nigeria University Commission (NUC), Prof Julius Okojie, over his alleged role in the move to stop funding of university staff schools by the Federal Government in Calabar, Cross River State over the weekend.

PHOTO: NICHOLAS KALU

Killing of nursing mothers: Police quiz traditional ruler

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HE traditional head of Uzaire kingdom, His Royal Highness Imonike Omogbai has been quizzed by operatives of thee Edo Police Command over the killing of two nursing mothers, last weekend.

It would be recalled that a trigger-happy policeman alleged to have accompanied

From Osemwengie Ben Ogbemudia, Benin

HRH. Imonike Omogbai to a funeral in Ivhiokhile quarters in Fugar, the administrative headquarters of Etsako Central Local Government Area of Edo State, reportedly killed two women in an "accidental discharge" during the event.

The Public Relations Officer

for Edo State Police Command, DSP Stephen Onwochei disclosed this while giving update on the unfortunate incident in his office in Benin City, the Edo State capital yesterday.

"The traditional ruler has made useful information, you know that he did not play any role in the shooting other than

he had security details to himself," he stated.

He did not however confirm whether the traditional ruler secured the approval to have police orderly from the Inspector-General of Police or not.

Attempt by The Nation to get the royal father's comments was futile as at press time.

Former Edo PDP governorship aspirant, others defect to APC

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ORMER governorship aspirant of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Barr.

Kenneth Imasuangbon yesterday led thousands of his supporters to defect to the All Progressives Congress (APC) party at Ewohinmi, Esan South East Local Government Area.

I m a s u a n g b o n , popularly known as 'Rice Man' revived the PDP in the state in 2009 when he reconciled warring factions in the party that was already in disarray.

He was a founding member and a major financier of the defunct Action Congress.

Speaking at the event, Imasuangbon said he was returning to his base to support infrastructural development in the state.

From Osagie Otabor, Benin

He said, "I joined APC since January this year but we have not had the opportunity to celebrate it due to the elections. But thank God we are

celebrating today. I wish to reassure you the people of the state that your sacrifices would not be in vain. I promised to continue to sacrifice my time, energy and resources as I have done over the years in

adding value to the lives of Edo people."

Leader of the APC, Victor Eboigbe said the coming of Imasuangbo would add value to the APC in Edo Central and the state as a whole.

Protest in Edo community over relocation of transformer

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CTIVITIES in Igarra, headquarters of Akoko-Edo local council was grounded yesterday as hundreds of people from the town and neighbouring communities protested the alleged deliberate blackout of the town by officials of the Benin Electricity Distribution Company (BEDC) for the past six days over what they claimed was their refusal to allow officials of the company take away one of the t transformers bought for the community.

From Osemwengie Ben Ogbemudia, Benin

The community members said the company's claim that parts of the town and some other communities would be served by a transformer under the National Independent Power Project (NIPP) was not acceptable as that particular said transformer has been epileptic.

President of Igarra Youths Association, Mike Oseh told journalists that "For over three months, the

officials of BEDC have been planning to remove one of the 2.5 step down transformers from Ugbogbo area on the ground that a 7.5 step down brought under NIPP project could serve the other parts of Igarra and neighbouring communities."

Contacted, the spokesperson of BEDC, Curtis Nwade said the protesters were economical with the truth as he claimed that the 7.5 MVA they claimed was not working was even being under used.

HE Acting Chief Judge of Rivers state, Justice Daisy Wotube Okocha, has urged set of newly sworn-in Notary Public to ensure the needy of the society receive service as at when needed.

Justice Okocha gave the charge shortly after swearing-in 18 lawyers into the office of Notary Public, to assist in verifying and endorsing public documents, including land related documents and affidavits to check fraud and corruption in the system.

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Group seeks Buhari's intervention over relocation of tribunal to Abuja From Uyoatta Eshiet, Uyo

NON-GOVERNMENTAL, nonp a r t i s a n organisation, Akwa Ibom Ofon-ama Initiative has appealed to the President Muhammadu Buhari, to "take a democratic look into the electoral petition tribunal of Akwa Ibom State moved to Abuja."

The group, in a communiqué made available to The Nation after their state-wide meeting at the weekend at Uyo, Akwa Ibom State capital, reminded the President of his now famous declaration on his inaugural day, May 29, 2015, "I belong to nobody, I am for everybody."

The National President of the group, Amb. Ukai Udeme Emmanuel urged President Buhari not to tow political party position that may want to use all means to snatch the state from the governor the people voted for.

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THE NATION ON SUNDAY, JULY 5, 2015

NEWS Ebonyi APC group accuses rival of sabotage 10

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OME members of the All Progressive Congress (APC) in Ebonyi State has accused some other members of working for the interest of the ruling party in the state, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), to destroy the APC. Mr Benjamin Mkpuma , the Youth Leader of the Eze Nwachukwu-led group, made the allegation in Abakaliki, alleging that Ben Nwaobashi and his loyalists were sponsored by the PDP. “We have uncovered plans by the Nwaobashi and his supporters to decamp to the ruling party in anticipation of not losing out in appointments at the national level which they feel would not favour them.

He noted that the APC in the state recently condemned the appointment of Ebonyi Chief Judge’s Wife as the Sole Administrator of the State Local Government Service Commission but the Nwaobashi group made a counter pronouncement.

“In its pronouncement, it claimed that the APC has no right to question any appointment made by the PDP, as the party should mind its business and leave the ruling party alone.

He noted that this shows that Nwaobashi’s group is anti-APC as no APC member has supported Chief Olisa Metuh, the PDP National Publicity Secretary’s recent attack on

From Ogochukwu Anioke, Abakaliki

President Muhammadu Buhari and the APC. “We are then informing our party leaders and members all over the country that the Nwaobashi-led group is an instrument used by the PDP to destroy the APC in Ebonyi State.

He noted that the party has evidences to prove all its claims, noting that the publication made on the Chief’ Judge’s wife’s appointment was sponsored by the PDP. “We also have evidence on its plans to defect to the PDP.” In his reaction, Nwaobashi noted that the Nwachukwu-led group was operating illegally and are not leaders of the APC in Ebonyi State.

He noted that the Nwachukwu’ group’s claim that he was working for the PDP was ‘foolish’ as he could not work against a party which he is the authentic chairman.

“What we are contending in the publication over the appointment of the chief judge’s wife is that Nwachukwu has no constitutional right to speak as the APC state chairman on such matters.

PDP Chairman in Ebonyi, Chief Joseph Onwe, said he was not disposed to comment on the issue as at the time he was pressed to make a comment.

Anambra PDP Stakeholders meet over congress, factions HE People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in Anambra State has apologized to the members of the party in the state over its inability to win the last election in the state. The party chieftians also called on the party’s National Working committee (NWC) to approve a congress for the state without delay so as to further strengthen its weak structures ahead of forthcoming elections.

Rising from a stakeholders’ meeting held at the Marble– Arch Hotels in Awka, the state capital at the weekend, the governorship candidate of the party in the last election, Chief Tony Nwoye, said the meeting was called because they were tired of factions in the state. The meeting brought together most PDP’s eggheads in the state, including present and former lawmakers, former Secretaries to the State Government, former commissioners and former state chairmen of the party among others.

Addressing the stakeholders, Tony Nwoye, told them that the time to get it right before any other election in the state was now.

According to him, “the aim

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From Nwanosike Onu, Awka

of this meeting is to tell you that our party is intact, Anambra is the heart beat of Igbo land, we should hold ourselves together for the journey ahead” “Since the members have decided that we should hold our congress in the state, from ward to local government to the state, of which our votes must count, we are going to liaise with the National Working Committee (NWC) for it” “What we want now is for our members, other stakeholders who feel aggrieved over the outcome of the 2015 elections to come back and embrace the party for us to move forward,” Nwoye said.

Nwoye, said each local government area should nominate two persons as those who would be summoning the meetings for the PDP in the state.

Speaking at the stakeholders meeting, former Deputy Speaker of Anambra State Assembly, Chief Kenneth Enemuo, declared that the members were tired of factions in the state.

No payment for idle LG workers—Ikpeazu

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HE governor of Abia State, Dr. Okezie Victor Ikpeazu, has warned workers in the state civil service, especially those working in local government councils in the state, that he was not going to pay idle workers.

Ikpeazu who spoke when Transition Committee (TC) chairmen of the 17 local government council areas paid him a courtesy visit, said he would do everything to cut down frivolous expenses in the state and block revenue leakages.

Ikpeazu, lamenting nonchalant attitude of workers towards their job, said he was prepared to pay only staff that were working and not those that sit in their offices doing nothing. He stated that he

From Sunny Nwankwo, Aba was ready and determined to confront individuals who constitute themselves to sit on the wheel of progress at local government and state levels.

The government used the opportunity to call on Abians to re-examine themselves and do away with the sabotage of the state.

He also saluted the transition committee chairmen who according to him have worked tirelessly for the state and expressed the desire of his administration to partner with them, adding that the issue of ghost worker syndrome cannot be sustained without the support of those of them at the local government tier.

L-R: Regional Bank Head, Imo &Abia Regional Bank, Fidelity Bank Plc., Charles Okoro, Executive Director, South, Fidelity Bank Plc., Aku Odinkemelu, Governor of Abia State, Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu and Managing Director/CEO, Fidelity Bank Plc., Nnamdi Okonkwo when Fidelity Bank management paid a courtesy call on the Governor, yesterday

‘Southeast deserves SGF’

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CHIEFTAIN of the All Progressives Congress in Anambra State, Chief John Onunkwo has said that given the place of the region in the socio-political sphere of the country, the southeast geopolitical zone should be considered in the appointment of the next Secretary to the Government of the Federation.

Onunkwo, who blamed election riggers for the APC’s poor performance in the zone during the last general election, also added that with his track records, experience and leadership qualities, former governor of Anambra State, Senator Chris Ngige is adequately qualified to be the next Secretary to the Government of the Federation.

He said though he was rigged out of the last elections thereby being denied of the chance of being the Senate President in the current

dispensation, Senator Ngige’s forthrightness, love for the people and fearless stand him out as a good leader.

“Senator Ngige speaks the truth no matter whose ox is gored, even if it is his relative’s ox. Ngige is a man that believes in fair play and justice, technocrat per excellence, an allrounder, a former governor, a senator, a former director in civil service” he said.

Onunka added that “Ngige’s political and academic paraphernalia could dizzy one’s arithmetic of memory. He is so intelligent that his linguist prowess always calm frayed nerves whenever tensions are high.”

He described Ngige as “a man who stood in opposition despite the carrots that were jangled at him, despite the numerous offers made to him

by PDP cannot be said to be

frustrated. You see, sometimes when one appears to be principled and is refusing to budge, then they make all kinds of claims that he is frustrated, that is nonsensical. This is a man who refused to play ball with the so called godfathers in Anambra, who staked his life for the good of the Anambra people. So those saying he is doing this just to get the slot of SGF or a ministerial position are clowns and should be treated as such and I can assure you that these are the antics of a drowning men,” he said.

On the emergence of Senator Ike Ekweremadu as Deputy Senate President, he said it was so unfortunate that Ekweremadu became a beneficiary of APC’s victory.

“He cannot attend any of the APC’s caucus meetings as a PDP senator. This is someone whose party shamelessly rigged out persons like Senators Ngige and

From: Ugochukwu Ugoji-eke, Umuahia

this. We must work together to give them a better deal,” she stressed.

According to her, Governor Ikpeazu is gender friendly and has many programmes planned to take care of Abia women and children, adding that she will soon make public her pet project.

In an earlier address, Permanent Secretary of the ministry, Dr. Nnenna Chikezie, promised to work with the First Lady as a

Osita Izunaso who would have been ranking members and most qualified to lead the National Assembly,” he lamented.

On insinuations that President Muhammadu Buhari is slow and dragging his feet on several matters, he said the President was not ready to take several decisions that may not fix Nigeria’s problems totally.

“This is a nation that was bled for 16 years. If you know what Nigerians lost as a result of the PDP’s leadership, if you wish this country well, you would understand that it will require strategic thinking and planning to get this country at full throttle.

“President Buhari understands these things and he is trying to set things right by understanding the real situation.

In due course Nigerians will appreciate this measure”.

First Lady promises better deal for women

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IFE of the Governor of Abia State, Mrs. Nkechi Ikpeazu, has urged the state’s Ministry of Women Affairs, to collaborate with her office to give fillip to the welfare of women and abused persons in the state. Speaking in Umuahia when officials of the ministry paid her a courtesy visit, Mrs. Ikpeazu charged them to be dedicated in the discharge of their duties.

The Governor’s wife emphasized on the need for her office and the ministry to work together to ensure that women and children in the state take delivery of the numerous dividend of democracy meant for them under the new administration of her husband, Governor Okezie Ikpeazu. “We owe the women and the children

team to achieve common goal.

She highlighted that the ministry is saddled with the responsibility of taking care of people with disability, the elderly, women and children and prayed that God will help the governor to give Abia state good leadership. Responding, Mrs. Ikpeazu said that her husband need prayers and support while urging the people of the state to always acknowledge God at all times.

Confusion in Anambra over suspension of LG boss

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HERE is tension in Orumba South Local Government Area of Anambra state following the indefinite suspension of the council chairman, John Onyeakpa, by the councilors over allegations of misconduct and poor performance among others. Already, Anambra state police command had deployed more security operatives to the area to maintain law and order.

Before his controversial suspension, the chairman was served with an impeachment notice on July 2nd, 2015. In reaction to the move by the legislators, Onyeakpa dragged the Councillors and the Chief Judge of the state to court,

From Nwanosike Onu, Awka

seeking discontinuation of the impeachment process.

Specifically, the LG boss urged the Court to stop the Chief Judge from setting up a panel to investigate him.

But in a surprise statement on Friday at Umunze headquarters of the council area, after their sitting, the Councilors announced the indefinite suspension of the Chairman and directed him to hand over the affairs of the council to his deputy, Sir Emma Enwere, within 24 hours.

According to reports, the motion for his suspension was

moved by the leader of the house, Sir Chukwudi Okwuma, and was supported by all the 15 legislators present out of the 18 member house.

Okwuma alleged that the chairman had crippled the activities of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) in the council area and had equally accused Governor Obiano of sponsoring the councilors to impeach him at all cost. Also, chairman information and security, Hyginus Umeaka alleged that the chairman had turned the council area into a private business, while Mr. Stanistus Nnaka accused him

of being stubborn.

But there is confusion over the state of things in the council as Onyeakpa has vowed to resist all attempts to wrongly and forcefully remove him from office.

Although he could not be reached for his reaction, a close aide of the embattled LG boss said it is unlikely that Onyeakpa will give up without a fight.

“Don’t forget the matter is in court already. I am sure the Chairman will seek justice till the very end. He will not succumb to this extra judicial act by the councillors.

He will resist them,” the aide said.

THE NATION ON SUNDAY JULY 5, 2015

NEWS

El-Rufai to speak on oil fortune at Wole Soyinka Lecture

I never said Ortom will lose seat - Banire

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ll Progressives Congress (APC) National Legal Adviser Dr. Muiz Banire yesterday refuted the media report that he has warned the party leadership that Benue State Governor Samuel Ortom may lose his seat to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Terhmen Tarzoor, at the tribunal.

He said the purported media report was malicious, false and unfortunate, adding that it did not emanate from him. The Legal Adviser refrained from commenting further on the matter, stressing that it could amount to a contempt of the court.

Last week, it was reported that Banire had written a letter to the APC National Chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, warning that the APC may lose the litigation arising from the governorship election to the PDP, owing to the case instituted by an aspirant, Hon. Emmanuel Jime, at the Federal High Court, Abuja, challenging the validity of the APC primaries. The report emphasised that the case instituted by Jime and other four aggrieved APC aspirants against the party has not been withdrawn.

According to the report, Tarzoor, who polled 313, 878 votes during the election, is asking the tribunal to declare him winner, claiming that Dr. Ortom, who scored 422, 932 votes, was not the authentic candidate of the APC. However, Banire, who dissociated himself from the report, said that it was false.

He said: "It is not true. I did not say so."

PAN's failure due to FG's negligence Ganduje From Kolade Adeyemi, Kano

K

ANO State governor, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje has observed that the failure of the Federal Government to protect Peugeot Automobile Nigeria Ltd, PAN, led to the company's dwindling fortunes.

"If the Federal government had protected it, we would by now be competing like India, who are making their culture and technology go together," the governor maintained.

He made the assertion while receiving the Managing Director of the company, Alhaji Ibrahim Boyi, who visited him in his office, pointing out that India's indigenised technology took advantage of their huge population to make socio-economic headway.

According to him, Nigeria should have closed its doors to what he termed as "other brands" and concentrated on locally produced products like Peugeot cars, expressing optimism that with its sound economic policies, the Buhari administration would see to the revitalisation of local manufacturing plants across the country.

He expressed happiness that the new management of the company is trying its best to restore its productive capacity, assuring that the government of Kano State would patronise its products within limits of the available resources.

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• . From left: Chairman, Nigeria Union of Journalists, Plateau Council, Mr. Yakubu Taddy; assistant Education Secretary, Catholic Archdiocese of Jos, Mrs. Rose Agur; Principal, St. Louis College, Rev. Sis. Ikeremary Miaphen and Gov. Simon Lalong of Plateau, during the graduation and prize-giving day of St. Louis College in Jos at the weekend

Youths are dragged into Boko Haram through internet - Emir Sanusi

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HE Emir of Kano, Malam Muhammadu Sanusi II yesterday said exposure of the youths of nowadays to information technology and new social media dragged them into joining Jihadist and Boko Haram groups.

Speaking during the 10th Annual Ramadan Lecture organised by VON, NTA/FRCN held in Kaduna yesterday, the Emir said the youths learn new ideologies from the internet and after watching they get up to go to Iraqi and Syria to join the Jihadist group.

According to him, "Through information technology and emergence of internet and social media, today's youth go on the computer and they learn Islam from facebook and twitter. They learn Islam from videos they watch on facebook and after 14 to 15 hours of watching new things, they decide that they need to become jihadists. They

From Abdulgafar Alabelewe, Kaduna

get up and go to Iraq or Syria or somewhere and join the group. And there are no controls. Right inside your house, your son can be sitting upstairs in the bedroom getting indoctrinated into an extremist without your knowledge. We need to watch what our children watch. And we need to talk to them. If we do not give them the correct Islamic Education, they will find the wrong education on the internet.

"Now, this is very important because we have spent so much time in ignorance. I know we must send our children to school to acquire western education, which is very important. You have children going to England and becoming radicalised in American on the internet, not only in the Muslim countries. So we need to make sure that we give our children correct Islamic edu-

cation, especially to take them away from religious Extremism.

"In the 21st century, the Muslim ummah is facing enormous challenges. This century is facing challenges such as changing from traditional lifestyle to modern lifestyles. The increasing independence of women and awareness of their rights, which represents huge challenges for this caused by Boko Haram, especially on matters of marriage and divorce. Are we still living in the era in which fathers can force their daughters into marriage without their permission? Yes we are. Early marriage, yes we are in Nigeria. And it is hurting and destroying our society. We are the ones to address these social issues and they are problems.

"And you know that taking her out of school and forcing her into marriage without

education, results into having a child from her who does not have a mother that can give him training. That is a child that gets on drugs, hemp or joins Boko Haram. All these things are connected. We have to face these challenges," he said.

Meanwhile, Director General of Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria, FRCN, Ladan Salihu, advocated for regulations of Islamic preaching, which tends to pollute the minds of the Muslim ummahs.

"I am one of those who subscribe to the fact that preaching must be regulated.

The situation we have now is people whose preaching are not checked. In fact, those who preach nowadays are preaching to win group to their sides, not souls to the way of Allah," Salihu stated.

The topic of the lecture was "The Challenges of Muslim Ummah in the 21st Century."

Sunday Sanitation not targeted at Christians, says Kano Govt

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HE Kano State government yesterday refuted the report making the rounds that the extension of the sanitation exercise to Sunday was designed to deny Christians in the state from worshiping in their various churches.

Speaking to reporters in his office, the state Commissioner for Information, Malam Muhammad Garba said in no time did the Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje's administration declare restriction of movement of people, Christians or Muslims, to attend places of worship in the name of a direct policy or under the guise of any other policy.

Malam Garba said that

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UTHORITIES of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) in Kebbi State have arrested no fewer than 73 drug peddlers and confiscated illegal drugs weighing 1,505.561 kilograms from January till date.

State Commander of the Agency, Alhaji Abdullahi Zungeru, who made this known to newsmen in his office, disclosed that this feat was achieved through the con-

their readers at what time the Christian leaders in Kano made any attempt to see the governor or any other government official on the alleged policy and were turned down.

According to him, "To put the record straight, one of the first programmes implemented by the Ganduje's administration is the 'Keep Kano Clean' campaign, where a whole week was dedicated to ridding Kano of refuse and ensure clean and healthy environment, as well as guide against flooding in the state, which residents in the state embraced wholeheartedly."

The Commissioner categorically described the report

as, "a complete lie, false, lacks any iota of truth and substance, mischievous and aimed at tarnishing the image and good reputation of Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje and his administration."

Malam Garba said, "The government is very much aware and mindful of the freedom of religion as enshrined in the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and will not do anything to curtail, restrict or subvert that freedom and right. Christians have the right to practise their religion and attend their places of worship, as they deem appropriate and shall continue to enjoy that right and freedom in Kano state."

NDLEA arrests 73 drug peddlers in Kebbi

with the support of their spouses.

"The agency would embark on grassroots mobilisation campaigns to raise public awareness on the dangers of drug abuse and trafficking," he said.

He identified logistics such as patrol vans, as challenges facing the agency in the state, pointing out that the agency is faced with funds shortage and motivational welfare packages, among other challenges.

From Kolade Adeyemi, Kano

the administration extending the monthly sanitation exercise up to Sunday was meant only for the staff of the state Refuse Management and Sanitation Board (REMASAB) to have enough and more time to evacuate the heaps of refuse brought out by residents.

He said, "The Sunday evacuation exercise was not meant to restrict the right of movement of any person or persons like any other day; but was for the staff of REMASAB to clear the heaps of refuse that must have piled up in their surroundings."

Malam Garba, however, challenged all the papers that published the story to tell

From Khadijat Saidu, Birnin Kebbi

certed efforts of Officers and men of his Command.

He explained that the drugs confiscated include 41.397 kilograms of Canabis Sativa, otherwise known as Indian Hemp, and some psychotropic substances weighing 1,464.164 kilograms.

The suspects, according to him, include 70 males and three

females. He added that the agency has rehabilitated 72 drug addicts between the ages of 14 and 35 years.

He lamented the increase in drug abuse in the state, adding "the consumption of the medicinal cough syrup with codeine has increased, compared to other drugs abused."

The drug law boss also revealed that married women are involved in drug rafficking,

IGERIA and the oil fortune, or perhaps, misfortune, is the focus for discussion at the Seventh Wole Soyinka Centre Media Lecture Series which holds on Monday 13 July, 2015 by 1pm at the Ladi Kwali Hall of the Sheraton Hotel, Abuja.

Malam Nasir El Rufai, Governor of Kaduna State, former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory and former Director-General of the Bureau of Public Enterprises will speak on the theme.

The lecture this year is organised by the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism (WSCIJ) in collaboration with the Natural Resource Governance Institute (NRGI), Pan-Atlantic University and Premium Times, to kick-start the partners' Media for Oil Reform programme. The programme will include capacity development outreaches at various levels of the media to support the watchdog's ability to report the sector more accurately.

Mr. Sam Omatseye, Chairman, Editorial Board of The Nation Newspapers; Mrs. Funke Kasali, former Executive Secretary of the Petroleum Equalisation Fund and Mr. Deji Haastrup, General Manager, Policy, Government and Public Affairs at Chevron, are confirmed discussants for the event, while, Mr Tunji Lardner, Executive Director of West African NGO Network, will compere the meeting.

The plan is to use the lecture to contribute to strategic thinking on charting a way forward to ameliorate threats on oil as the mainstay of the Nigerian economy and better define the media's role in contributing to the much needed reforms.

One corps member dies, as 35 gets extension in Kano Kolade Adeyemi Kano

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HE Kano State Coordinator of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) Mallam Yusuf Baba, yesterday disclosed that a corps member in the state lost his life as a result of a brief illness.

Baba, while speaking to reporters, said that 35 others from among the corps members who just finished their one-year service, were sanctioned for various offences ranging from extension to outright repeat of service.

He added that the state has passed out 1, 663 of the 1, 699, 2014 Batch B corps members posted to it for the one-year service.

Mallam Baba, during the passing out ceremony of the corps members, said the state's NYSC lost one of the corps members during the period, after a protracted illness.

He commended the corps members for utilising their Community Development (CD) service to impact on their immediate environment, especially in the area of sanitation, capacity building, skill empowerment program and health campaigns among other strategic areas.

He advised the graduating corps members to explore the advantage of the skill acquisition programs they had learnt through the MDGs and NYSC War against Poverty programs to be self-reliant after service.

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THE NATION ON SUNDAY, JULY 5, 2015

Ropo Sekoni

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Page 14

Femi Orebe Page 16

SUNDAY, JULY 5, 2015

Amor Vincit Omnia tunjade@yahoo.co.uk 08054503906 (sms only)

America sanctions same-sex marriage as ‘victory for love’. Oh love, I am coming home!

otufodunrin@thenationonlineng.net

08050498530(SMS only)

Youth-bashing

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•Old men who had been in love for over 50 years celebrate the victory

•Anti-gay supporters

S

OME decades back, a Yoruba musician sang about some future date when bush rats would be shooting hunters.

(Lojo’waju o, okete a ma yinbo f’oloko), he said.

That musician must have been speaking metaphorically, though. But his message is not lost: that a time would come when things stranger than fiction would be happening. I had always expressed optimism that I would have been long gone before bush rats would be shooting hunters. Alternatively, I should be a bush rat myself.

Or better still; if I happen to be around at that time, humans must have developed more potent weapons that would make the guns the bush rats would turn against them look like a child’s toy.

But that time that I had thought would take eternity to come if it ever did appears to be here, with as many as 21 countries legalising same-sex marriage, the United States being the latest of such countries.

Other countries that had done same since the Netherlands went that way in 2001 include Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Luxembourg, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, South Africa, Spain, Sweden the United Kingdom and Uruguay. With the judgment by the American Supreme Court on June 26, it would appear that supporters of gay marriage in the United States finally had the last laugh. That day would therefore forever remain indelible in their minds, given the bitter contest and activism for the soul of the marriage institution between the ‘naturalists’ (the one man one wife people) and the ‘un-naturalists’ (those in support of gay marriage).

Five judges voted for gay marriage while four opposed it. Expectedly, the judgment has elicited reactions that could be described as mixed; or simply different folks, different strokes. Whilst those in support of the judgment have been celebrating across the country, those who object to it also have expressed their dissatisfaction.

Indeed, to demonstrate how shocked some Americans were about the court’s decision, some counties initially refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples after the judgment, with their officials insisting that doing that also offends their religious sensibilities. But it is apparent it is only a matter of time for all across the country to comply with the judgment.

Although there is a 25-day period after a decision is handed down where individu-

•Pro-gay supporters (Photos: the guardian)

als can petition the Supreme Court for a rehearing, hopes of supporters of traditional marriage would appear dimmed because the court had almost never granted any rehearing.

So, what are the likely consequences of this judgment that has been variously described as ‘freedom for marriage’ and ‘victory for love’, for the rest of the world, now that the all-powerful America has pitched its tent with those that many people feel are depraved?

I mean how does it feel when a man decides to take on another man from behind, in the name of marriage? Or when a woman has to do it orally with another woman? Or, when it has to be done differently through ways that were not contemplated by God as enshrined either in the spirit or the letter of the holy writ, the Bible?

Holy Moses! When God created man and woman, He did so for some purposes, among which is procreation. Again, God first created man and then created woman to be his helper.

Let’s even assume that same-sex marriage does not in any way hamper the help-mate aspect of the relationship; that is, that man can still help man and woman can still help woman in same- sex marriage, what of the aspect of procreation? Are we not going the way of the Tower of Babel? Or Sodom and Gomorrah?

Of course, nothing here suggests that homosexuality is new even in our own country.

Indeed, one has heard several tales, some sounding like moonlight tales, about its prevalence in very high places and even among some students in a particular part of the country. Moreover, the competition

As I have always argued on this page, one man’s meat is another man’s fish (please pardon my adulteration of the original saying). The rest of the world too should have the right to freely decide whether given their sociocultural circumstances, they want it gay or straight. That is the beauty of democracy.

among leisure spot owners and some hoteliers in Lagos for the pockets of their clients has pushed many of them to engage young girls and ladies of between 18 and 38 years of age to work as strippers and dance provocatively nude in their bars. In some cases, the girls even reportedly engaged in anal sex in the open. It was the 14 years imprisonment by the National Assembly for gay sex that has reduced the activities of these girls and their patrons who at the height of arousal reportedly engaged in homosexuality, also openly.

Of course, too gonorrhea we know; syphilis we know, even staphylococcus we know as sexuallytransmitted diseases (STDs). As a matter of fact, a time there was when gonorrhea became so common in the country that it was referred to as a sickness of the famous (arun gbajumo). When in the late 1980s (or thereabout) I wrote a piece titled “The danger down below”, I had thought that the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) was going to be the height of the consequence of sexual perversion.

But, with same-sex marriage, the worst is probably yet to come.

With this latest development, it would appear that America has passed the mundane stage of ‘victory for democracy’ that we perpetually celebrate whenever a court gives any judgment in our favour in Nigeria. That appeared settled many years ago in America, their America. In America, what is in vogue is ‘freedom for marriage’; ‘victory for love’, etc. In effect, in America, love conquers all (Amor Vincit Omnia).

But America has to be careful about this its usual ‘one-cap-fits-all policy all over the world. It must resist the temptation to impose this as world standard as it tried to do by threatening Nigeria with sanctions when the then President Goodluck Jonathan signed the anti-gay marriage bill into law last year. This was even as America’s Supreme Court was yet to give its blessing to same-sex marriage. As I have always argued on this page, one man’s meat is another man’s fish (please pardon my adulteration of the original saying). The rest of the world too should have the right to freely decide whether given their sociocultural circumstances, they want it gay or straight. That is the beauty of democracy.

CHIBOK GIRLS: STILL ON MY MIND

AIDE, not her real name, must have been fed up with hearing complaints from many that the youths of today are not as ‘serious’ as they should be.

When the same complaint came up last Tuesday at a seminar, she could barely wait to grab the microphone and as politely as possible respond to the unending youth bashing which she said was not fair to her generation.

“Someone said the youths of today don’t read newspapers, they don’t want to read any serious thing, they are glued to their phones. I don’t think you should blame us for being born in this technology age. The fact that we don’t read print editions of newspapers as much as the older people does not mean we don’t read news. We do but maybe not like you people do.

“It is not our fault that we are different and you have to understand us for what we are,” Laide stated.

The young lady made a point which I agree with. As much as the old generation may have reasons to complain about the youths, we need to avoid blanket condemnation which sometimes gives the wrong impression that all the youths are the same.

While many may not meet the high standards we are used to, there are others who have proved that the new generation holds a lot of promise even when their ways of doing things are different from ours.

Like Laide rightly stated, we need to appreciate that we live in a new world where technology and many other factors have altered what we are used to.

We can no longer insist on having things done exactly the ways they were done in our days.

What the young ones of today are exposed to is in no way comparable with ours. I grew up like most people of my generation without having access to telephones. Not many had television to watch in their homes. We had limited or no access to computers and the Internet which are today available to even toddlers.

While not compromising on the right principles, we need to give the youths the benefit of the doubt, instead of having a fixed mindset about how they behave and what they are capable of doing. Sometimes we need to try hard to make them understand why we want things done in a particular way and not assume they should know.

There will always be many reasons for the old generation to complain about the youths and they must not shy away from doing so when there are good reasons to do so.

What Laide and her generation, however, need to know is that what is regarded as youth-bashing is not new.

Every generation always thinks the younger ones are not meeting up with the high standard it was subjected to.

The complaints are usually borne out of love and what is required is mutual understanding by the young and old.

If the youths know what their elders know, they will understand why they usually warn them about the consequences of their actions and inactions.

The youths must learn to take criticisms in good faith and make necessary amends based on wise counsel of elders.

14

THE NATION ON SUNDAY JULY 5, 2015

COMMENT

Speed or efficiency of the political machine of change?

It is clear by now that 1968 will go down as the year the new politics of the next decade or more began….And therefore this is the year when the old politics must be a thing of the past. But if this is true—and I profoundly believe that it is—then there is no more important question than what the new politics is. What are its components, and what does it mean to the future of the country? The most obvious element of the new politics is the politics of citizen participation, of personal involvement.—Senator Robert Kennedy, Speech at a San Francisco press gathering, May 21, 1968

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HE result of the presidential election of March 28, 2015 promised the emergence of a new politics in the country. It marked the end of years of a governance system that was driven by impunity, a governance model that was older than Goodluck Jonathan but that came to its nadir under his presidency. The enragement of citizens fostered by the last four years of PDP governance in the country led to momentous civic engagement that encouraged hundreds of Nigerians to do more campaigning in the social media for Buhari’s presidential bid than was done in the traditional media.

Many people are now insinuating in the social media that was one of the bulwarks of support for Presidential candidate Buhari that the new president is slow. Even some traditional media houses are insinuating that President Buhari’s failure to appoint ministers three weeks into his tenure had grounded governance, despite the President’s directives that permanent secretaries in the ministries should continue to provide leadership for the ministries.

Given the enthusiasm with which voters went to the polls to elect Buhari in March, it is not out of place for citizens to get impatient with the president’s seeming slowness in appointing ministers. Such complaints are not out of order in an ethos in which citizens, not necessarily belonging to professional civil society organisations, have volunteered since the beginning of the year to promote more civic engagement than before. But appointing ministers is not as urgent as getting the machine to effect change properly oiled for the job. The

If there is any urgency now, it is not announcement of ministers but providing appropriate response to the herculean task in front of the new president: finding solutions to the looming crisis of unpaid government workers at the federal, state, and local level National Assembly, to use the phrase of enthusiasts of speed in governance, ‘has hit the ground running’ without functioning in compliance with the manifesto of change. But the NASS is not the focus of today’s column. The focus is on why President Buhari needs to do his homework thoroughly before naming ministers, if the impact of such appointments is to serve the need of change.

In his covenant with Nigerians, President Buhari had stated clearly what his objectives and activities would be in his first 100 days in office. President Buhari on behalf of his party promised an administration that will change the culture of public service in major sectors of the polity and society: Insecurity from Boko Haram in particular; providing a national strategy for fighting corruption; addressing through policy initiatives the collapse of health and education sectors; and restoring economic stability.

Certainly, he would need ministers to do most of these things but not before doing due diligence on potential candidates for jobs that call for a new mindset that is distinct from the business-as-usual mode, a code word for government as a facility for self-enrichment.

When President Buhari made these promises, among others, the culture of secrecy and governance by bill boards in vogue until May 29 did not allow him to discover the geography or ecology of the Augean stables the new president finally inherited at the end of May. Even though the new opposition party has quickly characterised the revelation that the PDP government failed to provide handover notes until the eve of the inauguration, the facts that were unearthed after the swearing-in ceremony show that Buhari had inherited a federal government that was in the last few months borrowing money to pay federal workers while leaving many states in the lurch, all on account of sudden decline in petroleum prices. If inheriting a virtually empty treasury is not an excuse for caution in rushing to appoint ministers, citizens should wonder what other excuse for caution on the part

of the new president is acceptable to those who left the seat of power broken and soiled.

The jury may still be out on how empty the treasury inherited on May 29 is, what is clear from the recent visit of governors to President Buhari on the need for an immediate bail-out of states to enable them pay salary arrears is an indication that governance at every level was very poor by the time President Buhari took over.

If there is any urgency now, it is not announcement of ministers but providing appropriate response to the herculean task in front of the new president: finding solutions to the looming crisis of unpaid government workers at the federal, state, and local level.

While many countries have become attached to the ritual of the first 100 days of a new president or prime minister, Nigeria has a peculiar situation that calls for extreme caution before major appointments are made. The old mindset is that political office is an opportunity to enrich the individual and that politicaloffices are to be shared among political party stalwarts, with little regard to the principle of governing as a means of actually improving public service beyond the usual rhetorical assurance. Undoubtedly, Nigeria is endowed with talented people and richly credentialed individuals, but if the emphasis on change demands a search for men and women of character, the searcher may give the nation a better service by not rushing to name ministers until proper diligence has been done.

The emphasis that may be needed after decades of poor governance should not be on speed of the new president to appoint ministers. The need to chart a new course in the way the country is governed may require the kind of caution that President Buhari has shown in the last three weeks. He has been busy enough with consultation with other West African countries that collaborate with Nigeria in fighting the menace of Boko Haram. He has also been spending time on consulting with foreign countries that can assist Nigeria in efforts to recover proceeds from looting of the country in the last few years for

the purpose of bringing life back to the economy. He had ensured that a process of due diligence was adopted in selection of the Accountant-General, a post that is crucial to the work of ministers. This is the first time there is a real democratic change of regime in country and selecting ministers requires proper planning.

Citizens who had witnessed failure in governance in the past may have reasons to expect earth-shaking policy statements from new ministers, but such statements may be meaningless without knowing exactly how strong the economy is. In a system where the buck stops at the president’s table, it is in order for a president who is as concerned about the culture of governance especially quality of public service as he is about the character of ministers to assist him to err on the side of slowness than to err on the side of rushed poor judgment.

Given the theatrics regarding election of principal legislative officers in both houses, it is proper to expect the president to use appointment of ministers to seize some of the attention of the media, if only to show existence of order in the other branch of government. But the times are now different. There is a dire need for deep reflection on appointing ministers capable of staying the course of fundamental change in the polity and society. Just as President John Kennedy said about the relevance of the first 100 days: “All this will not be finished in the first hundred days. Nor will it be finished in the first thousand days, nor in the life of this administration, nor even perhaps in our lifetime on this planet.

But let us begin.” In more recent times, President Barack Obama’s observation on the significance of the first 100 days is worth citizens’ attention: “The first hundred days is going to be important, but it’s probably going to be the first thousand days that makes the difference.”

It will not be out of place if President Buhari needs the first hundred days to plan how to save Nigeria from its ugly past, in view of the state of the nation he inherited three weeks ago.

THE NATION ON SUNDAY JULY 5, 2015

COMMENT

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Adam and Steve Yes, in the United States, Adam may now take Steve as his legally wedded wife in a same-sex ‘holy’ matrimony

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HE United States of America has finally crashed the last wall of resistance in the Western world against same-sex marriage. In a landmark judgment by the US Supreme Court, June 26, 2015, five justices against four ruled that denying same-sex couples the right to marry is against the constitution.

According to Justice Anthony Kennedy, who delivered the majority lead judgment: “No union is more profound than marriage, for it embodies the highest ideals of love, fidelity, devotion, sacrifice and family”. Perhaps justifying the reason for this historic ruling, Kennedy expressed an especial concern and sensitivity to children in this kind of relationship, noting that: “...Their children suffer the significant material costs of being raised by unmarried parents, relegated through no fault of their own to a more difficult and uncertain family life.

The marriage laws at issue here thus harm and humiliate the children of same-sex couples.”

Before this ruling, 37 out of 50 states in the US had already legalised and recognised same gender marriage. And 20 countries of the world, including the United Kingdom, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Sweden, Brazil, Argentina, South Africa and Belgium have either totally legitimised or given one form of consent or the other to gay marriage right. With this ruling, it has become a fait accompli for the few resisting states of US as they are now bound by law to recognise and indeed, license same-sex marriages in their domains.

It is indeed a historic judgment because with America now giving a free rein to the gay movement, the entire free world could be taken to have allowed what only a few years ago was an abomination which could lead to immediate and violent death for the victim. The question is that, is the contest between the ‘natu-

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HE emergence of Muhammadu Buhari as the President seems to remain a mystery to some people as they thought he would never be taking into cognizance because of his antecedent as an anti-corruption crusader. The apologist of this hypothesis argued that so long as the economic saboteurs and cancer worms of this country are still alive, PMB would never be allowed to rule as he will expose or jail them. To those people, I say wake up

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TRUTH IN DEFENCE OF FREEDOM

•Editor Festus Eriye

•Managing Director/ Editor-in-Chief Victor Ifijeh

•Deputy Editor Olayinka Oyegbile

•Chairman, Editorial Board Sam Omatseye

•Associate Editor Sam Egburonu

•General Editor Adekunle Ade-Adeleye

speak ‘ill’ of gay people. In some Western countries, homosexuals and bisexuals now stand proud and walk tall in their new-found freedom than the ‘normal’ heterosexual people. In fact, homophobe is the new, ‘ugly’ name for those who express concern about this imploding affair.

Both Christianity and Islam abhor homosexuality and describe it as sodomy. The Bible, the Christian canon holds same-sex cohabitation in utmost disdain and makes no excuses for people who engage in such sinful, if not evil act. Sodomy actually derives from the Biblical cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, which God destroyed by fire in exasperation over the utter depravity of their inhabitants.

Opponents of homosexuality have also raised concerns about possible long-term effects of this new way of life. Some of these fears include: health issues associated with anal sex; procreation; the possible decimation of the human race and child rearing in same-sex homes. There are also fears that if same-sex relation is acceptable, people may begin to ask what is wrong with polygamy, bestiality, pedophilia and other sexual deviations.

As we have stated before, we still believe that homosexuality is not the natural design for humanity and that it cannot be unconnected to a severe psycho-social disorder that require medical attention. The world needs to be wary about opening what looks like the floodgate of the unknown upon the human race. We urge the so-called civilised world to tread a bit more cautiously and continue to interrogate this odd phenomenon.

Lastly, the West must desist from harrying and haranguing the rest of the world to get on this bandwagon. They must always remember that what is human right in one corner of the world could be taboo in another.

LETTERS

Buhari has no excuse

from your slumber because it’s dawn already.

As we all know, Buhari’s route to presidency was crooked and tough that only the brave, focused and the determined could venture. In 2003, he contested against the then incumbent president, Chief

Race for Jega’s job

AVING worked and retired at the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the enormity of the responsibilities and challenges that confronted Prof Atahiru Jega was not lost to me. Neither was it lost to discerning Nigerians who have had a long close contact with the working of the system. Jega’s efforts as reflected in the outcome of the elections conducted during his tenure have been progressively commendable. More commendable have been his innovations, his compartment in the face of provocations and his tenacity to principles.

His successor must have these in copious quantity. He must also be ready to build on

ralists’ and the ‘un-naturalists’ finally over; is the battle won and lost now that America has finally gone gay? Maybe not entirely, but the ground covered so far holds significant implications for humanity in the years ahead.

The conservatives, the naturalists and religionists seem to have lost the battle as the issue moved rapidly in recent years from morality to the realms of law, individual freedom and human right. The argument of pro-gay people basically, is that same-gender co-habitation and copulation is the only type they know and that it is their ‘natural’ sexual preference. They think it is indeed ‘ungodly’ to deny them their right to co-habit, to love, to be loved, to matrimony and even ‘procreation’ among their kind.

The anti-gay world has, however, moved from being outraged by the very idea of a liaison between two men or women to the stage of confusion and the current acquiescence and surrender. Early gays would declare their inclination openly at their peril. They were stoned to death, discriminated against and ostracised. Today, they have completely left the closet. They have evolved from stealthy holding of hands and stolen moments to legitimised and elaborate wedlock.

Today, it has become politically incorrect, inelegant and indeed unlawful to as much as

the innovations on ground and be ready to curb the excesses of his field operatives.

This is an area that Jega did not have right in the South South geopolitical zone.

While the eggheads from the universities may be okay for appointment as Commissioners and RECs, not many of them are effective. Good materials from the pool of retired INEC staff, civil society advocates with integrity and legal minds who can subsume their personal interest for that of the nation will be a good workable mix.

The successor to Jega must be patriotic and selfless.

•By Elder Ekong Ebienang Retired INEC Director.

Olusegun Obasanjo, he failed.

Having fallen he didn’t give up and went to fight again in 2007.

He was beaten by the late Umaru Yar’Adua, which was greeted with mixed feelings and reactions due to the perceived irregularities and manipulations. To buttress it, the late president once said that the election that brought him into power was flawed.

As if he was not thoroughly beaten, he went to the ring again against the immediate past president (Dr. Goodluck Jonathan) in 2011 and his pre-

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vious defeat was replicated.

The aftermath of the election can only be imagined as countless numbers of lives and properties were wasted especially in the northern part of the country.

Many at that time thought that would be his last attempt, but with his never-give-up spirit, he took many unawares as he resurfaced on the ring in 2015. With perseverance and determination, he was able to break the jinx by being the first presidential contender to unseat an in-

cumbent president in the country. It ought not to be a big deal but in Africa it is because African leaders are power-drunk.

It is either them or nobody.

They don’t lose election.

Whichever way you want to look at it, his uncommon sportsmanship has cost Nigerians less lives and properties.

I doff my hat for his rare courage. Off course, the electoral umpire cannot be left out of this accolade as what happened can be likened to biting the finger that fed you. It is like firing your boss after employing you. Only a man of integrity like Professor Attahiru Jega can do that.

With the mantra of

‘change’, PMB breasted the victorious tape as Nigerians could not wait for change despite the campaign of calumny against him. In fact, he surmounted the challenges.

Now all eyes are on him to perform magic. Some Nigerians are already running out of patience as the expected change is not yet in sight.

Like other curious Nigerians, I have been waiting to see the names of the captains and engineers of his economic team that will navigate the ship of this nation, but am yet to see. Does this suggest he is ready for the task?

•By Emmanuel Onoja School of Post Graduate Studies, Bayero University, Kano.

NASS members should collect N5, 000 monthly

F, indeed, the members of the National Assembly represent the people who voted them to power, they should reject the jumbo allowances that the Revenue Mobilisation and Fiscal Revenue Commission, RMFRC, is allocating to them. Governors have not paid the salaries of workers in several states while oil prices are unpredictable and Mr. Vice President has said that most Nigerians are

living on less than a dollar daily.

A governor has cut down the size of his cabinet from 19 to 13, and has cut his salary as well. If that is the case, why should members of the National Assembly collect furniture, wardrobe allowances when the people who voted them there are hungry, homeless and unemployed?

The statement credited to one Chief Joe Edionwele, a

member of the House of Representatives representing the PDP Esan West, Esan Central and Igueben Federal Constituency of Edo State that bankers and oil workers earn more than NASS members, is irresponsible and downrightly immature. The NASS is not a place you go to, to earn a living: people go there to serve their people.

Even though while they should earn a living, this member should not be

making a fuss out of agitations being made to cut allowances of NASS members.

In the spirit of the change being canvassed here and there, I would suggest that members of the NASS be paid the monthly N5, 000 that is being arranged for Nigerians who are ‘poor’ and unemployed.

•Bob Majiri Oghene Etemiku Benin City.

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THE NATION ON SUNDAY, JULY 5, 2015

COMMENT

The unnecessary hoopla about Buhari’s non appointment of ministers Now, are Nigerians, by our hoopla, eager to have President Buhari bring into positions of responsibility all manner and shape of characters to do same or worse or, rather allow him to get a grip of the Augean stable he inherited and appoint Nigerians he believes will share his vision of a corruption-free government?

“Woe unto you, O land, when your king is a child, and your princes feast in the morning!” –Ecclesiastes 10:16 ORGETTING that when an old man falls he looks backwards to reflect on the cause of his fall, much has been the hue and cry over President Muhammadu Buhari’s non appointment of ministers, even in a mere one month. The noise has become so loud you begin to wonder if this is not a carryover of the military’s era of ‘with immediate effect and alacrity’; when appointees first heard about their appointments, as well as dismissals, on the airwaves. Little, I guess, are Nigerians aware that a man of the president’s age, experience and overall exposure, cannot be expected to be driven by undue enthusiasm to jump into those same excitements that have so poorly served Nigeria. I recall that at his second coming, one of President Olusegun Obasanjo’s most harrowing regrets about governance in Nigeria was the fact that literally every modicum of infrastructure and institutions he left behind to drive a developing economy, among them, the Nigerian Airways and the National Shipping Line, had been vaporised by his successors beginning from Alhaji Shehu Shagari, through IBB and the murderous General Abacha, terminating with Abubakar, none of who failed to appoint ministers with alacrity. Nor did the soporific, pitiable Jonathan government delay in appointing ministers. But what did we see of those ministers of a directionless government whose overarching concern was to maintain a policy of appeasement towards every Tom, Dick and Harry President Goodluck Jonathan believed

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would be useful in his re-election scheme which had commenced as soon as he was sworn in on 29, May 2011.

These ministers were active in condoning oil thefts running into 400, 000 barrels per day even where they had gifted their cousins multi-billion dollar oil pipeline protection contracts just as they were complicit in the heist of the tiny cabal that smoked us all up through the oil subsidy scam. When finally the president and minister thought of doing anything to ameliorate the economically crippling situation, Nigerians woke up on the very first day of January, 2012, to hear that every kobo of ‘subsidy’ had been removed, in a case of blaming, and punishing the victim.

Nor was that all with these selfsame ministers. Edo State Governor, Comrade Oshiomhole, recently alleged that the Finance Minister granted multi-billion waivers, the total of which, I know Mrs Okonjo – Iweala never really told the nation. In Oshiomhole’s words: ‘The Federal Government (obviously on the advice of the coordinating minister) illegally granted waivers to various organisations, running into hundreds of billions of naira that ought to flow to the federation account’. The governor equally informed that this was further compounded by the fact that both the Ministry of Finance and Petroleum Resources, working together, simply refused to transfer to the federation account a lot of the money that ought to have accrued. According to him “over the past four to five years, the NLNG had every year made huge payment -between $1.5 to $2 billion which ought to go to the federation

account. This money was never transferred to the federation account but was unilaterally expended by the Federal Government.”

Now, are Nigerians, by our hoopla, eager to have President Buhari bring into positions of responsibility all manner and shape of characters to do same or worse or, rather allow him to get a grip of the Augean stable he inherited and appoint Nigerians he believes will share his vision of a corruption-free government? I think we should ponder these things before we get consumed with the jeremiads of some people whose business projections in a continuing PDP government have been dramatically altered.

I will be the first to concede that some who argue for early appointments are truly concerned. For instance, I saw the purity of heart in Dele Momodu’s letter to the president which, for me, was advisory, unlike the adversarial types that have emanated from some partisans, especially to respected professional bodies who are surreptitiously being encouraged to up the ante of public discontent. For instance, after denigrating some of those working quietly with the president as gerontocrats, some of those who are keen on business as usual, have also quarrelled with his not making earthshaking economic policy pronouncements even when they were themselves key to helping the Jonathan government pulverise the country’s economy.

Those who quarrel with the president for preferring to see the entire picture of the akudiaya –wobbling economy handed over to him on May 29, 2015, in the words of one of the key exponents contend as follows: a) The way the Federal Government works is that absolutely nothing happens in any ministry in the

absence of a minister. b) To even consummate commercial transactions between one company and another in the oil sector, the minister has to approve it. c) It’s the minister that signs certificates of occupancy for land deals in Abuja. d) It’s the minister that approves payments to vendors, contractors, etc and concludes by saying that the system grinds to a halt when the minister is not there.

These have largely been dismissed by those who should know.

For instance, a retired federal Permanent Secretary posited as follows, in rebuttal: “Statement No. 1. is false. Statement 2 may be right for some matters like filling station licence etc, which may require the approval of minister but as regards procurement, the Permanent Secretary handles the implementation. The minister is not involved except for information only.

This is in accordance with the provisions of Public Procurement Act of 2007. Involvement of ministers in procurement matters is a violation of the Act. Statement No. 4 is absolutely incorrect; again, all procurement matters stop at the table of the Permanent Secretary (PS) including approval of payments to vendors and contractors. The Act only provides that the minister should be informed by the Permanent Secretary for information only so that the minister is aware that the aspect of the annual budget is implemented.

Therefore, to say that activities in the Federal Ministries, Departments and Agencies will be at a standstill in the absence of the minister is not correct, though, some matters that will require the minister’s approval under the law or Civil Service Procedure like Citi-

Gaining perspective Gaining perspective begins when we realise that even the hottest ambitions still end on the deathbed; and many such beds are made hotter for the regrets that flow into them from lips confessing missed opportunities and wrong fisticuffs

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NE foreign commentator said long ago that the sad thing about Africa is that her political leaders never seem to get the total picture: that they are expected to lift their countries up by leading the development drive. I added that the leaders apparently don’t even want to get the total picture, until they reach their deathbeds. Oh, you should visit some deathbeds — full of stories, confessions, or even fights with the Grimm Reaper – you know, that skeleton that myths say goes around with a scythe.

So, like Sisyphus, people scream, ‘it is not yet my time; I have just been made a senator! It is not fair; can’t you take someone else who is poor?’ They might even attempt to bribe their way out, trust your Nigerian. So, most go protesting noisily, like Italian tenors forced to sing operas they hate. Very few go quietly or peaceably, like.

For many, especially those who have held one position or the other, the deathbed is the time they suddenly become full of regrets about the opportunities and chances they squandered and frittered away in mundane bodily enjoyments or squabbles about trifles which do nothing for their communities, nation and the world. I say, that is when you hear them mutter with hoarse, dying lips, ‘Please, help me up so that I can write a check of restitution to the people...’

Unfortunately, that is also the time

that relatives in the form of children, nephews, nieces, friends, helpers, hangers on, strangers, etc., are many, and extra sharp. They are also especially cooperative with each other.

Jointly, without any prompting, they hold the dying one down firmly on the bed and ask him to get some rest while they also hold the check as far from him as possible. Restitu ko, restiti ni, they mutter as the unearned, stolen billions fall on their strange laps. And when fortune falls indiscriminately on one’s laps, what is a man, or woman, to do?

The reason, like you and I already know, is that more than ninety-nine per cent of Africa’s political leaders seek posts for the sake of it, and yes, to escape poverty. Who can blame anyone for wanting to escape the mercilessly grinding teeth of poverty? I can’t. The only problem now is that there is this vast field of sociopolitico-economic development challenges gripping the average African, and our politicians are only stopping at helping themselves. I believe the main reason is this failure to gain the correct perspective.

It’s easy to gain perspective. Let me illustrate. Once, this very busy motorist was stopped at a traffic point for exceeding the speed limit permitted on that road. After the policeman had told him the reason why he stopped him, the motorist was in-

credulous. ‘The earth is going round the sun at the velocity of 107,000 km/ hr, and the solar system is moving round the galaxy at 901,000 km/hr; and you are booking me for driving at 60 km/hr in a 45 km/hr zone? Are you serious?’ Now, that is what I call perspective.

Let me tell you what someone else did. This youngster had failed mathematics, and some other subjects. In fact, his report card appeared to be bad. Well, he took it to his dad and began the conversation. ‘Dad, what would you do if I had a lifethreatening sickness?’ His father said he would have to run around getting the best medical help he could find; and that would naturally take a toll on his and the mother’s own health.

‘Would you have the money for it?’

Well, there is the insurance and the family savings, but we cannot know how far both will go. The father then became suspicious. Are you trying to tell me something? Do you have a life-threatening disease? The young one replied that what he was about to tell him should be put in its proper perspective, considering he, the son, was thankfully in good health and sound mind.

Yes, you are right. The life of the country is hanging in the balance, grown men and famous fathers are fighting in the House of Representatives and here I am running around with my usual jokes. Never mind. The point we are making is that gaining perspective requires one to take in the entire picture. Take Nigeria and

our politicians as an example. Do they have the whole picture of the place of their country in the world in their view? I would say not quite. If they did, they would know they have an enormous task before them but too many of them are too easily satisfied with obtaining and enjoying their material gains, hence the fisticuffs.

If our politicians had a true perspective of their role as the nation’s leaders, I do not think members of the House of Representatives would have taken to using fists to settle points in the view of the entire nation. I do not also think that a politician would desperately take thugs to the courthouse to intimidate court witnesses or judges as has been happening in Ekiti State. I do not think any politician would consider the life of someone else so worthless that it can be sacrificed ritually or metaphorically to their ambition. I do not think that any politician would actively seek to promote two nations in one Nigeria: the nation of the haves who trample on the rights of others, and the nation of the have nots whose rights are trampled upon. I say, if Nigerian politicians had a true perspective of their role, the crisis precipitated by the elections in the national assembly would not exist.

Let’s wax a little philosophical here. I have always held that there are three basic things a man would do well to remember that he can choose: to live well (in contentment), to do his best (in strength), and to die well (in peace). Don’t bring up any

zenship matters in the Ministry of Interior may wait for the minister’s approval. Once the annual budget is passed into law as Appropriation Act, the implementation is that of Permanent Secretary as the minister has no approving authority on procurements.”

In further canvassing patience, those who argue on the side of the president’s measured pace, given that the ‘ancien regime’ was very hesitant in giving him facts and figures, have further posited as follows: “If a minister is being assigned to a ministry, he/ she should know what to go there for in order to have the promised change.

Detailed problems are currently being discreetly sorted out in the various ministries and MDAs by the Permanent Secretaries and Chief Executive Officers currently functioning as Acting Heads. Ministers, they contend, are politicians who would need to be put through on their assumption of office. If hurriedly appointed, there could be the tendency for some to go there to create wrong pictures or even cry wolves where there are none.”

For me nothing demonstrates the wrongheadedness of un-reflected appointments – appointments with immediate effect and alacrity, especially at the topmost levels of our past governments, more than the present parlous state of the economy and, indeed, the wholesale paralysis currently engulfing every aspect of our national life. As you read this, fuel scarcity has again hit the filling stations, Power Holding Company, at its various discos, are eagerly dispensing darkness just as 23 out of 36 states of the federation are grappling with unpaid workers salaries resulting largely from very powerful ministers shortchanging the federation account from where the states largely fund their sustenance. objections now; just accept. Thank you.

It will not do to begin to seek to write a check of restitution on one’s deathbed to the millions of Nigerians that have been defrauded by one’s diversionary antics. Many have sought, in vain, to return such stolen opportunities (whether in funds, positions or objects) because they have caused greater losses in the end. Too late, they realised that nature is one wicked paymaster: what is taken by force or contrivance, nature will deduct by force or contrivance.

It is important that each Nigerian, to the last man, bears the whole picture in mind. To seek the development of the entire landscape of Nigeria where everyone can have access to basic things that make life possible – affordable food, shelter and clothing – is the responsibility of everyone. It is important then that we all should seek to lift off the veils of religion, tribe or language which are hanging in front of all of us and determining our many actions. For instance, I have noticed that nearly all the appointments made so far by our president have been of people from his corner of the earth. That should not be so because the corners missed out in appointments or opportunities are only several boko haram spots waiting to happen in future. As the father of all, the president is expected to ensure that no corner of the country is left behind.

Gaining perspective begins when we realise that even the hottest ambitions still end on the deathbed; and many such beds are made hotter for the regrets that flow into them from lips confessing missed opportunities and wrong fisticuffs. As passing ships on this benighted earth, let us all, our politicians especially, get our perspectives right on the whole picture: which is to help the country gain earthly paradise.

THE NATION ON SUNDAY, JULY 5, 2015

COMMENT

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(123) Ko pasi, ko faili, ko kuro lojukan!

[He neither passed nor failed; he was neither promoted nor demoted!]

Moses Olaiya, aka “Baba Sala” One

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HE joke that stands as the epigraph for this week’s column comes from a far more ordinary human predicament than the one on which I will be reflecting this week. In the joke which is rendered in the linguistic idiom that the late Professor Dapo Adelugba gave the term “Yorubanglish”, the comic maestro, Moses Olaiya, laments the underachieving sluggishness of his son in school. Most parents are familiar with this theme in the drama of the preparation of the young for the future through schooling: as much as we all want to succeed in life, we take great comfort if it appears that our children will have much better lives than we have had. Alas, oftentimes this does not come to pass and younger generations sometimes face much more dire circumstances than the generations of their parents and grandparents. It is the predicament that results from the thwarting of this universal desire of all parents that leads Moses Olaiya in our joke to ruefully squeeze relief from the near impossible phenomenon of an offspring that is neither passing nor failing in school.

More than two months after being elected and some five weeks after being formally inaugurated into office, President Buhari and the new ruling party, the APC, maybe said to be in the same circumstance as the son in Baba Sala’s joke: if it is still too early to say that they are passing, it is equally too early to say that they are failing. Moreover, like the son in Moses Olaiya’s joke, we do know that Buhari and the APC have barely moved Nigeria and its teeming millions of desperately hopeful citizens one jot from the spot of very dire material impoverishment and confounding psychological insecurities in which Jonathan and the PDP left the country throughout the length and breadth of the land. The question that arises from this state of affairs is this: do the President and the new ruling party have a clear and pressing sense of the problems and dilemmas they inherited from the previous administration and ruling party? Here’s another question that arises from the analogy with the predicament of Baba Sala’s son: Buhari and the APC promised that they would hit the ground of governance running hard and strong from Day One; do they think that Nigerians and the world have either forgotten that promise or will not hold them answerable for its nonfulfillment?

Two It may be useful to recall here that the inauguration of Obasanjo as President and the PDP as the ruling party in 1999 was, like the present time of the coming into power of Buhari and the APC, marked by an almost unquantifiable quotient of hope and goodwill all around, at home and abroad, in Africa and the world at large. True, the sudden and still largely unexplained death of M.K.O. Abiola in Abacha’s dungeons left millions of Nigerians at home and in the diaspora bitter, confused and almost unwilling to simply “move on”. But it is also incontestable that outside the core Southwest geopolitical zone, other parts of the country were indeed not only willing, but quite eager to “move on”. At any rate, with regard

Mixed signals and ambiguities galore: scattered reflections

•Buhari and Nigeria once again in the good graces of world opinion - how long will it last this time around? to the international community, especially the Americans and the European Union, the support, the goodwill that Obasanjo and the PDP got was almost limitless. And in this connection, it is instructive to recall now that just as the goodwill that Buhari and the APC now enjoy throughout Africa and the international community comes from relief that the 2015 elections did not lead to civil strife or worse, so was the support given to Obasanjo and the PDP in 1999 based on great relief that the annulment of Abiola’s electoral mandate and his mysterious death in prison had not led to the fragmentation of Nigeria.

Did Obasanjo and the PDP know and fully appreciate the hopes that millions in our country and throughout Africa and the rest of the world placed on their success, their promise to unite our peoples and end the long reign of military and civilian rulers that had bled the country dry at the expense of the tens of millions of the dispossessed and the disenfranchised? I testify then that I knew then, right then at that moment, that Obasanjo and the PDP would never be equal to the hopes that the country and the rest of the world placed on their shoulders. I testify that I was not alone in this presentiment of the coming historic failures of Obasanjo and the PDP. I testify that even their Euro-American backers knew or suspected that they were pinning their hopes on people who could not - and eventually would not - perform. At any rate, we have the evidence of the annual American State Department Reports on Obasanjo and the PDP’s Nigeria in which, year after year, we read a catalogue of misuse and abuse of power and the nation’s wealth all pointing to the probable end of the country as one national entity. From having been one of the PDP’s strongest backers, the Americans, by the end, had become one of the party’s most unrelenting external foes.

Do Buhari and the APC recognize how uncannily similar are the expressions of the goodwill and hope that they now command around the African continent and the international community to what the PDP used to command around Africa and the world when the party came to power in 1999? Do the new President and the ruling party have a sense of history of the kind that would make them avert the fate that overtook the PDP? More than a sense of history is of course the inclination and the will to truly unite our peoples and redress the terrible injustices to the millions of the poor and the looted that the PDP left in the wake of its ejection from the seat of governance and power. This point leads directly to our closing section on the mixed signals and myriad of ambiguities that are indicated in the title of this piece, all relating to the performance of Buhari and the APC in the first few months of their ascension to power.

Three Unquestionably, the most troubling expression of ambiguity is in the pace, the almost inertial rate in announcing acts and policies that would give strong and clear indications of what Nigerians and the world can expect from the new powers that be in Aso Rock and the National Assembly. On the one hand, on this point, it could be said that Buhari is taking his time both with regard to forming his cabinet and actually putting into effect policies that depart from the wasteful and thieving status quo that Jonathan and the PDP left behind.

On the other hand, this same slow and over-deliberate pace may very well be an indication that Nigerians and the world will wait in vain for decisive, game-changing and life-enhancing policies from the new president and ruling party. Supporters of the APC and the Presi-

dent point to several things that could arguably be said to be major departures from the existing status quo: the sale of NINE planes in the presidential fleet of Jonathan; the already announced downward review of the salaries and allowances paid to our lawmakers; and the downscaling of the number of cabinet ministers in the new president’s Executive Council. On these points, it does say a lot that there seems to be broad agreement or consensus between all factions of the new ruling party.

But could it not be equally argued that there is consensus on these particular initiatives precisely because though they are significant, they do not cut deep into the structural foundations of squandermania and economic injustice in Nigeria?

During his electioneering campaign, Buhari promised that he would make expenditure on capital projects for growth and development much bigger than expenditure for recurrent aspects of federal and state budgets. Every president under the PDP also made this promise but not one ever even began serious policy discussions within the ruling party about it, let alone put it into effect. So the question that arises here is this: when will Buhari put this benchmark policy change into effect and will he be able to carry all factions within his party with him?

How does the successful Saraki anti-party and anti-democratic “coup” that gave him the Senate Presidency figure into these reflections? On the surface, it doesn’t.

That is because Saraki did what nearly politicians in all our ruling class parties does and that is fight with every weapon of deceit, treachery and cynicism that he or she can get, not for the good of the party, not for the good of the Nigerian people but in the pursuit of naked self-interest. Saraki’s great miscal-

culation was to have done this at a far more cynical and blatant level and at a time when possibilities for real change were/are there. But on the other hand, Saraki and his band of cynical desperados fit perfectly into these reflections. This is because as far as anyone can tell from the bitter recriminations between the factions for and against Saraki, there doesn’t seem to have been any ideological or policy implications in what Saraki did; all that was at stake was the sacrifice of party cohesion and party discipline on the altar of the naked pursuit of office and power. Since politicians everywhere in the world engage in this sort of opportunistic brinksmanship, there is nothing peculiarly Nigerian about it. What is peculiar to our political order and what will haunt the President and our new ruling party in this period when it is still too early to say whether they are passing or failing is the fact that this is the sole and exclusive axis of factionalism and internal bickering in all our political parties.

We wait for the time when the factions within the new ruling party will be structured around policy and ideological differences, together with where the President will throw his weight when this happens. What if this development never takes place? Well, then, Baba Sala’s joke would have found its true political incarnation in a party which comes to power on the winds of change but remains rooted to one spot of neither passing nor failing, neither being promoted nor demoted. The suffering and the hardship of the majority of Nigerians would continue. Let us hope that their resolve to take their destiny in their hands will still be strong, resolute, unwavering.

Biodun Jeyifo bjeyifo@fas.harvard.edu

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THE NATION ON SUNDAY, JULY 5, 2015

COMMENT

sms only: 08116759748

I

F anyone has a good chance of breaking the Boko Haram insurgency, it is President Muhammadu Buhari. He has the experience – having chased killer Maitatsine Muslim fundamentalists all the way into Chad in the 80s.

He has the knowledge of the terrain, having worked in several senior capacities in the North East. Although he would not be functioning as an officer on the battlefield, his background as a one-time army general should help him relate better with those charged with doing the fighting today.

His job has been made easier by the fruits of former President Goodluck Jonathan’s last throw of the dice. It wasn’t too long ago when at least 14 local government areas in three states in the North East were under Boko Haram control.

Today, on account of the multinational military operations of February and March, the insurgents have been driven out of the major towns they held. They have been reduced to attacking soft targets in villages in noman’s land along our borders with Chad, Niger and Cameroun.

More importantly, Buhari is not bogged down by politics that made clearheaded analysis of the problem impossible at the highest levels of government in recent times. In the last two years of his tenure Jonathan and security agencies like the Department of State Security (DSS) spent valuable time trying to sell the fiction that Boko Haram was being sponsored by leading lights of the then opposition All Progressives Congress (APC).

It’s over five weeks since the opposition became the governing party.

You would have expected the ‘sponsors’ to call off their goons and claim credit for peace returning to the ravaged areas.

On the contrary, we’ve witnessed a spike in attacks that have claimed hundreds of lives in this short period.

Of that huge toll, the massacre of the last few days in Kukawa and surrounding villages in Borno State account for as many as 150 or more of those casualties.

Judging by the unrelenting bloodbath not much has changed since the handover. If anything the insurgents seem to be sending out a message that the election-induced military offensive of February had not destroyed them as a fighting force. Their defiance can be better understood against the backdrop of widespread expectation that Buhari’s tough guy reputation would work the magic where Jonathan’s vacillation didn’t.

I think the president understands that the extremists are not just going to disarm because of his history. He also appreciates that they are a different proposition from the bow and arrow and dane gun-wielding maniacs he crushed in the Second Republic.

Boko Haram is a more sophisticated fighting outfit whose funding sources remain a mystery. They have been implicated in bank robberies in the past, but that cannot be enough to sustain an operation that has spread into four countries and withstood everything their collective armies have thrown at it. It is certainly getting substantial funding from somewhere. It is also recruiting enough people to refresh its ranks in spite of the heavy losses it suffers regularly in combat.

This should trouble us. Aside from conscription, it is evident that many people are joining up with the sect of their own free will. How is it that a group which takes as much delight in killing Muslims as it does in slaughtering

E-mail: festus.eriye@gmail.com Twitter: @EriyeFestus

Will Boko Haram demystify Buhari?

•Buhari

•Jonathan

•Shekau

•Joseph Kony

Christians, still manages to attract followers in territories where Islam is the predominant religion?

It is the same puzzle that surrounds the appeal of the Islamic State (IS) such that it is attracting young people who grew up in America and the United Kingdom to suddenly abandon their families and comfortable lifestyles to join up with Jihadi fighters in the Middle East.

The pat explanations about economic marginalisation are no longer enough to explain the phenomenon. It is possible that some were initially lured to join the sect in the hope that they would be better off. But we’ve also heard enough stories from defectors and escapees who speak of crushing poverty within the ranks of the insurgents.

Something more powerful than bread and butter is at work here. Wars cease when sides in a conflict decide they are fed up with death. This isn’t the case in a conflict where one side is only too glad to die in the hope of arriving speedily in Paradise into the warm embrace of 72 virgins! When death becomes the fast track to a better reality conflict can no longer be conventional.

That should also affect our expectations as to how this war would

be resolved. When militants took up arms in the Niger Delta their grouse was economic and environmental.

They had demands that could be negotiated and the compromise was the Amnesty Programme that silenced the booming guns. The arrangement may not be pretty but at least it brought closure – after a fashion.

But how do you deal with enemies who are not willing to negotiate? Their only condition for peace is that you bow to their way of thinking and worship.

In a multi-religious and multi-ethnic setting like Nigeria that is a non-starter: leaving only an option – a fight to the finish until only one side is left standing.

Such face-offs are usually wars of attrition that are long-drawn. A striking parallel on the African continent is the conflict between the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) and the Ugandan government. The rebels formed their organisation in 1987, took up arms in the 90s and have been killing and maiming for over two decades.

Just like Boko Haram the LRA’s activities spilled out of Uganda and over the years affected South Sudan, the Central African Republic and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

While claiming to be committed to the

establishment of multi-party democracy, this ‘Christian’ cult aims to rule Uganda according to the Biblical Ten Commandments. Its religious roots mirror that of the North East insurgents who are pushing a brand of Islam that views Western education as sinful.

A Wikipedia entry about the LRA says it “is not motivated by any identifiable political agenda, and its military strategy and tactics reflect this and it appears to largely function as a personality cult of its leader Joseph Kony.”

The same entry quoting a report funded by United States Embassy in Kampala in 1997 said: “the LRA has no political program or ideology, at least none that the local population has heard or can understand.” (Who in Nigeria has been able to explain what Boko Haram is fighting for, or why it enters a town and mows down 150 unarmed men, women and children?)

This ragtag army at the height of its infamy had thousands enlisted in its ranks. But over the years offensives by the Ugandan army as well as joint operations with neighbouring countries depleted its cadres to the extent that by some estimates it now has only a few hundred fighting men

“Irrespective of the tack the government wants to adopt it now has to manage a crisis of expectations. Jonathan did so poorly in his handling of the insurgency that people naively expect Buhari like some ‘Rambo’ character to waltz into Sambisa and gun down every one of them. And they expect it to happen fast! In reality this Boko Haram business will not have a Hollywood ending.”

it can call upon to commit havoc.

Even with the intervention of the United States which in 2011 provided 100 military advisers and $4.5 million per month to defeat the rebels, they stubbornly carry on.

In March 2012 a four-nation African Union military force was created with Uganda providing leadership. The brigade of 5,000 drew soldiers from the DR Congo, Central African Republic and South Sudan with the mandate to track down Kony and the remnants of the LRA. (That force is much like the one Nigeria heads – involving three of our neighbours.)

But as of today the rebel leader remains at large and his diehard followers keep moving between four countries.

Without doubt Buhari and his team are determined to approach the problem differently. It is certainly too early to begin to see the effects of that new strategy when even the process of relocating command and control to Maiduguri is yet to be completed. Still, I don’t see him reinventing the wheel.

Judging by the moves he has made in the last few weeks, were seeing a replay of what has been tried in East Africa against the LRA with a limited measure of success.

That isn’t to say that it might not work better here because unlike the Boko Haram situation, the Ugandan rebellion despite its religious colouration had deep ethnic roots. This afforded the rebels a measure of acceptance by the dominant tribes in the northern part of the country. Our Islamists have never aspired to be part of the mainstream political arrangements and don’t care about winning the affection of local people in territories they conquer.

Irrespective of the tack the government wants to adopt it now has to manage a crisis of expectations.

Jonathan did so poorly in his handling of the insurgency that people naively expect Buhari like some ‘Rambo’ character to waltz into Sambisa and gun down every one of them. And they expect it to happen fast! In reality this Boko Haram business will not have a Hollywood ending.

We must begin to prepare for the long haul. This sect, just like the LRA, isn’t going to totally disappear because we don’t have enough soldiers to police huge expanses of territory in the country side far from regular military outposts.

They may become a pale shadow of the fearsome terror machine whose maniacal leader, Abubakar Shekau, taunted us with boastful videos from time to time at the height of their notoriety. But they would not totally disappear. Such is the bloodlust that they have become accustomed to that there would be nothing else left for them to do other than kill and be killed.

The government must complement the goal of military victory with winning the war for the minds of those who have been enslaved by the evil Boko Haram ideology. That is the only way of killing the insurgency because what is driving it is the power of an idea.

Unless that approach is taken Buhari would be reduced to celebrating military success one day and issuing unending commiserations the next - just like his predecessor. After a while many would not remember that he was the feared general who once put rampaging extremists to flight in the 80s. They would only remember his record with Boko Haram.

LIFE

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SUNDAY

THE NATION ON SUNDAY, JULY 5, 2015

Citing a plethora of cases of incestuous abuses, Medinat Kanabe reviews the horrible effects of incest on victims, while also exploring the signs and effectiveness of the legal system.

•Continued on Page 20

THE NATION ON SUNDAY JULY 5, 2015

20 SUNDAY LIFE •Continued from Page 19

•Itoro Eze Anaba

•Valentine

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SUNDAY LIFE 21

• A rape victim, bemoaning her plight

“He started to sleep with me when I was five, but at age 13, I just told him that I wasn't doing it again. He tried one or two times more, but I insisted that I was no longer allowing him.”

• A rape victim

THE NATION ON SUNDAY JULY 5, 2015

22 SUNDAY LIFE The speaker could not see his audience; but the audience too could not audibly hear his speech. This was the scenario at the International Conference on Disability (ICD) held last week at 'Interest Room 3' of the Civic Centre, Lagos as Joke Kujenya was there.

•Ajuwon

• Prof Ajuwon with Farida a PWD (middle) and others

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SUNDAY LIFE

23

Hope and Benice: Bonded against disability One of the participants at the conference was visually-impaired Hope Okeke, 29, who told a touching story of her friendship with speech-impaired Benice Adekeye to Joke Kujenya.

•Okeke

Girl needs N5m for head operation

• Comfort Obiegba

THE NATION ON SUNDAY JULY 5, 2015

24 SUNDAY LIFE

Idowu Olufemi Samuel extols the virtues of Chief Regina Olayinka Akande, mother of billionaire businessman, Chief Harry Akande, who recently clocked the rare age of 100.

•Kadiri

THE NATION ON SUNDAY JULY 5, 2015

30 SUNDAY LIFE EXTRA Dare Odufowokan traces the contests and intrigues that eventually led to the emergence of the new Ayangburen of Ikorodu, Oba Kabiru Adewale Shotobi

•Shotobi

PAGE 33

JULY 5, 2015

• Abubakar

• Lalong

• Umahi

• Yuguda

• Jang

• Elechi

Governors battle predecessors Pages 34 & 35

NASS crisis: Will Jonathan presidency Ekweremadu was minus for survive the Niger Delta storm?

- Charles Okah Pages 36

Pages 38

How far can Zakari go as INEC boss?

Pages 40

34

Transition has remained turbulent in more than 10 states since the May 29 handover in Nigeria as some new governors are currently engaged in serious battle with their predecessors over alleged frauds, indecent debts, and sundry political differences. In this report, Associate Editor, Sam Egburonu, Assistant Editor, Dare Odufowokan, Yusufu Aminu Idegu in Benue and Austine Tsenzughul in Bauchi, present the intrigues in Benue, Plateau, Ebonyi and Bauchi states. This is the first installment of the intriguing face-off INCE the May 29, 2015 handover of power in Nigeria, many of the states have experienced turbulent transitions as the new governors battle their predecessors. From Rivers State in the SouthSouth geo-political zone, where the Nyesom Wike-led Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) government took over from the Rotimi Amaechi-led All Progressives Congress (APC) government, to Bauchi State in the North-West zone, where the Mohammed Abdullahi Abubakar-led APC government took over from the Isa Yuguda-led PDP government, the transition has been turbulent.

The situation is the same in a state like Ebonyi in the South-East zone, where Dave Umahi-led new PDP government took over from another PDP government led by Chief Martin Elechi. In all of these cases, the new governors have raised alarm that the former administrations squandered common patrimony. While they swear to retrieve all stolen wealth, their predecessors allege attempts to tarnish their images and diminish their political stature. The verbal exchange is hot. Beyond words, some of the new governors are already on the streets and the homes of former officials to retrieve multi- million Naira properties. From the camp of the affected officials, it is all about political vendetta.

Bauchi As soon as former Governor Isa Yuguda, who governed Bauchi State between May 29, 2007 and May 29,2015, bowed out last month, associates of his successor alleged that his government not only left sour and bitter taste in the mouth of the people, but a diarrhea that Governor Mohammed Abdullahi Abubakar has come to clean and cure.

In his first state-wide broadcast, Abubakar said his government is a product of the peoples' resilience and commitment to uphold their yearnings for improved living standards. He vowed to strengthen weak institutions and revive essential facilities including public service capabilities.

He also alleged that "the previous government literally lived at the expense of Bauchi State's populace for the last eight years.

The shocker, he said, was that "we have taken over a government owing a cumulative external and domestic debts to the tune of N125 billion, made up of N48, 743, 196, 021.79 domestic loans."

"Foreign loans $87 million (N18, 915, 644, 597. 04), Contractual liabilities of N42, 556,123, 229.05. State Workers' Gratuity arrears of N7, 741, 016, 737. 19, and a local government workers' gratuity arrears of N1, 670, 407,774.00."

Additionally, the new governor inherited three months unpaid civil servants' monthly salary arrears that add up to N5.2 billion.

The new governor lamented, "I met an absolutely empty treasury", adding, "Bauchi State treasury had next to nothing of accessing funds." He also informed that for 8

S

THE NATION ON SUNDAY, JULY 5, 2015

POLITICS

Turbulent transition: Governors ba years, the Yuguda government got N864 billion, besides ecological funds.

Given this reality, the current All Progressives Congress (APC) government, which came into office at the eve of farming season, is, according to Abubakar's associates, in a dilemma on how to source some essential farm in-puts, such as fertilizer and others for farmers in the state since the immediate past administration did not leave any stock of the commodity.

The new government also needs N572 million as subsidy for the state's intending Muslim pilgrims to Saudi Arabia later in the year. The empty treasury is crippling the feeding of students in boarding schools across the state.

However, faced with this Herculean task, the governor, by way of immediate action, has mapped out strategies for areas of dire concern in his "quick-win programmes" among which include the reduction of his and the DeputyGovernor's salary by 50 percent monthly.

Based on interim findings and recommendations by the 41 member Transition Committee he set up in April 2015, Abubakar has set up a no-nonsense Recovery Committee, headed by a retired Air Commodore Ahmed Tijani Gamawa.

The committee has, among other duties, to recover all government properties illegally carted away by operatives of the immediate past Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) regime headed by Mallam Isa Yuguda.

As at Thursday evening last week, the committee recovered 59 assorted vehicles, including Sports Utility Vehicles (SUVs)."Of this number, 25 vehicles were recovered from former Gov. Isa Yuguda's four wives", committee chairman Tijani-Gamawa informed The Nation, in Bauchi.

The committee has asked a printer and business tycoon in the state, Alhaji Garba Noma, "to stop forthwith further development" on a large parcel of land belonging to former BACAS, now Specialist Hospital in the state capital.

It also directed those who bought 85 plots of land belonging to Bauchi State Agricultural Development Programme in the state capital to keep off as they are institutional parcels of land.

The Nation can authoritatively reveal that most of the vehicles, parcels of land and other state government's movable property, including houses, were approved on May 28, 2015 by then Gov. Isa Yuguda.

In a brief chat with our correspondent, Tijani-Gamawa said "we have been given a state assignment to recover these government properties and we owe Bauchi people and God a duty to put in our best".

"We have recovered 57 assorted vehicles, 2 from a local government area chieftain. Other people have been calling and bringing in their cars. But others we do go to their places to recover the cars".

"We do not have a limit of cars to recover but we are targeting about 150 or more. For now, we are on vehicles, land, we are yet to go for the money and other things taken by individuals and or in the name of organizations, "the committe boss revealed.

Shading more light on why the properties were being recovered, the Recovery Committee chairman explained "there is a laid down procedure which was completely thrown away.

Those who were using these vehicles were supposed to return them to the pool for a certain committee or surveyors to assess their value in Naira before those interested could apply and perhaps buy.

"But this process was not followed. Some of those that went away with their cars applied to the governor on May 27, 2015 and the governor approved same day. Their applications did not pass through any person or process; this is illegal and we say no to that".

"It is Bauchi people's properties and should be returned to them. Things must be properly done", he stressed.

Gov. Abubakar in his maiden address to the people had vowed that "our government shall recover such illegally acquired funds and properties and use the same in developing our dear Bauchi State."

• Abubakar

• Yuguda

Already, Mallam Isa Yuguda had responded to Gov. Abubakar, saying, "The governor has no right to reverse what I did in my capacity as an Executive Governor of Bauchi State".

With this stand and if the unconfirmed stories making the rounds are anything to go by, it seems clear that the coast is already clear for former Bauchi State governor Isa Yuguda with his over 4000 political aides and the sitting governor, Mohammed Abubakar's regime to sustain the already unfolding head-on collision.

Benue Ortom battles Suswam Regardless of all efforts made by immediate past governor, Gabriel Suswam, to wheedle his way into the heart of his successor, Dr. Samuel Ortom, the new Benue State helmsman is insisting on probing the former administration which he claims left the state on the tenterhooks with nothing to show for Suswam's eight years at the saddle.

Suswam, whose party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), lost the April governorship election to Ortom's All Progressives Congress (APC), extended several olive branches to his erstwhile political arc enemy before and after his May 29 exit from the Government House. In his own words, "these hands of fellowship are meant to ensure a smooth transition from one administration to the other."

On one occasion, Suswam openly pleaded with Ortom to look after him after his exit from office in May. Suswam made the plea at the Banquet Hall of Government House, Makurdi, when he played host to the then governor-elect.

He said, "When I leave (office), I will be a burden on you and you must take care of me."

On another occasion, Suswam assured the people that his party, the PDP, will not challenge Ortom's mandate in court, stressing that litigation was an unnecessary distraction.

The former governor also bought some SUVs and gave them to Ortom before the later was sworn-in as governor on May 29.

But it appears Suswam's effort yielded no fruit as Governor Ortom, on taking office, while lamenting that he met an empty treasury, told the people of the state he planned to look thoroughly into the books of the past administration of his predecessor with a view to unearthing what led to the precarious state he met the affair of the state.

According to Ortom, the internally generated revenue of the state is completely zero. And the financial affairs of the state have been badly handled. He argues that unless a thorough inquisition is carried out to establish what happened in the past, it may be difficult to correct the anomalies.

"I met an empty treasury which if it is qualified, it can be put at 10 times-minus zero.

When the allocation in the month of May came, there was an overdraft of about N1.9b and because of transition; the banks have held the facility. When we came in, the state needed over 350m to offset the April salary.

• Ortom

The internally generated revenue is zero.

This is because of backlog of debts, bond, salary, pension and gratuity arrears, as well as obligation to contractors," Ortom stated.

Of course, Suswam's camp reacted to the allegations and the result is the current turbulent transition from his administration to the Ortom's new one. According to an aide of the former Governor, there is an orchestrated attempt to paint the past administration in very bad light before the people.

"The effort to vilify Suswam's administration will do nobody any good. The new government should bury all hatchets and concentrate on governance. To tell Benue people the former Governor did nothing in eight years is to say there is no single drop of water in the sea. People know the truth and the records are there for all to see," he said.

Reacting, Ortom insisted probing Suswam is one of the urgent desires of the people of the state and he wishes to please those who voted for him. "Whatever we do will certainly be in tandem with the wishes and aspirations of the people of Benue State who massively voted for change in our state and not the contrary. Our state has been literally grounded and the most important objective at the moment should be how to offset salaries and allowances owed workers and stabilise for a smooth take off," he explained. The governor equally frowned at the last minute massive recruitment into government ministries, parastatals and agencies as well as indiscriminate promotion allegedly done in the twilight of the last administration, maintaining that while some of the recruitments were fresh, others were being backdated or documented as replacements.

THE NATION ON SUNDAY, JULY 5, 2015

POLITICS

rs battle predecessors

• Lalong

• Jang gathered that apart from the examination board, the transition committee also uncovered alleged fraud in Benue Investment and Property Company (BIPC), Benue Links Transport Company and Ministry of Finance.

With all these alleged scams already uncovered, and Ortom's vow to check all the books of his predecessor, it appears there is no end in sight yet to the turbulence in the transition in Benue State.

• Suswam

Regarding this, he said, "We want to warn that these recruitments, however documented in addition to the promotions, are in bad faith and cannot stand. Beneficiaries must be aware and civil servants used to perpetrate this illegality must face dire consequences."

Ortom, who described what happened to the state as an evil spell, said he is working hard to lift the spell allegedly cast on the state.

While inspecting moribund companies in some parts of the state, he noted that the collapse of all industries in the state indicated that it was under an evil spell to have allowed the high level of economic decay and rot of all her industries.

He said "This is my first time of coming into the state-owned oil mill and from what we have seen, Benue is under a spell. There is no reason for this factory to be lying fallow; this factory is a gold mine, greater than Benue Cement. The raw materials are here and when the factory starts working, farmers, our mothers, and the youths will smile."

And just as it was being hoped that the faceoff between Suwam and his successor will abate, the transition committee set up by the governor to scrutinise the handover notes of his predecessor, Gabriel Suswam, uncovered alleged massive fraud at the State Examination Board.

The committee, headed by former Head of Service (HOS), Mike Iordye, claimed that the management of Benue State Examination singlehandedly coughed out N15 million from the accounts without approval. The said cash was said to have been donated to the PDP during the last general elections.

It was also gathered the board also bought a Toyota Hilux vehicle at N10 million, which was also donated to the PDP. It was also

Plateau I won't forgive last minutes looting- Lalong The suspicion that the last administration was involved in last minute looting of the state was raised by the All Progressive Congress (APC) shortly after the party won the governorship election in the state in April 2015.

State Chairman of the party, Mr. Latep Dabang, who disclosed his discovery in a press conference said, "It has come to our notice that the outgoing government has engaged in last minute looting of the state resources. As at the time the outgoing government was expected to be compiling its handover note, they are making efforts to compile more debt for the incoming administration by applying for all forms of loan from banks and carting away government properties from the Government House and agencies.

That allegation by the leadership of the party actually set the tone for the probe of the PDP-led former administration. The state governor, Simon Lalong, had before his inauguration vowed to probe his predecessor as soon as he resumes office. He said, "Even if I overlook all that happened before my election, I will not forgive the outgoing administration for the last minutes looting of state resources; when I come, I will make sure I recover them.

And I want to also sound a note of warning to all banks in the country, any of the banks who grant credit facilities to the outgoing government after my election is doing that at his own risk because I will not recognize such loan when I take over; it is fraudulent and unnecessary for an outgoing government to take any credit facilities, I will not accept that," he said.

As soon as the new APC government was inaugurated on May 29, the governor mandated the transition committee that oversees the transition to further investigate the contents of the handing over note received from the last administration. The transition committee, which is headed by the state deputy governor, Sunny Tyoden, has since been expanded and broke into various sub-committees to be able to handle specific sector of the state.

The investigation of the last administration of Jonah Jang was also necessitated by the claim by the last government that it left a debt burden of N104 billion which the new government doubted. Governor Lalong believed that with thorough investigation, the debt profile of the state could be more. The governor said, "The state's debt profile as contained in the handing over note I received from the immediate past administration headed by Jonah Jang stand at

the N104 billion. This figure excludes seven month's salary arrears owed workers as well as unpaid pension arrears. So, I m not sure the debt profile was well captured by the last administration; there is the need for a careful verification so as to know the true situation of the state."

The ongoing probe by the transition committee is said to be a preliminary stage for a full investigation of the last administration in the state. A member of the transition committee who would not want his name in print said, "This preliminary probe is for government to have facts to table before the judicial panel of inquiry to be set up later for the full probe; government will not just set up panel of inquiry without giving the panel working documents, this is what we are doing now."

The source said "even at this preliminary level, we have discovered so many shoddy deals which will shock people of the state when we release the report. We have seen cogent reasons why the last administration has to be probe."

The APC administration has reasons to suspect that the last government defrauded the state. In 2013, the Plateau State House of Assembly received a petition of mismanagement of funds against the government of Jonah Jang, but the House failed to investigate the petition as a member of Jang's family, Yakubu Jang, dragged the House of Assembly to court for making attempt to investigate his father.

The same petition filled by a group known as Plateau Patriots is now being considered by the transition committee in the ongoing probe.

Governor Lalong had refused to occupy the new Government House constructed by his predecessor on the allegation that the project was used to defraud the state. Lalong said, "I am not going to use the new Government House because that project was a misplaced priority, that project has gulped up to N15 billion and still remains uncompleted, I don't need such elaborate office to work for the people of Plateau State."

The new Government House project is also being looked into in the ongoing probe considering the fact that the construction of the project was reviewed upward severally from its original cost of N4 billion up to N15 billion and yet remained uncompleted.

To ensure a hitch-free investigation of the handing over note, Lalong has appealed to stakeholders in the state to join hands with the transition committee to be able to do a thorough job. The appeal was contained in a statement signed by the Director of Press and Public Affairs, Samuel Nanle. The statement said, "The Executive Governor of Plateau State, Rt. Hon. Simon has directed that all Heads of Boards and Parastatals who are yet to forward to the Debt Management Office and the Transition Committee their current Statement of Financial Indebtedness and Affairs respectively, to do so not later than Monday, 8th of June, 2015.

"The debt stock of the Jang Administration covers contractors' arrears, commercial bank loans, pension and gratuity arrears, severance gratuities, internal loans, judgment debts and other sundry indebtedness which are liabilities on the administration of Governor Lalong.

"Need we mention that the lack of prioritization of government expenditure on none essentials have no doubt allowed essentials to remain as debts which the Jang administration has transferred; and for which the Lalong administration in her commitment to the social wellbeing of the citizenry will have to address.

"It is necessary to state that the APC Government of Rt. Hon. Simon Bako Lalong is starting on a difficult footing with the insolvent position of government finances as inherited; the near absence of operation vehicles, office consumables and the disturbing state of indebtedness which will make it a near impossibility for any take-off financial life line from the banks that the state is indebted to. To therefore call the issue of the over N104 billion indebtedness 'trivialities' is to say the least laughable.

35

Governor Lalong has repeatedly stated in his campaign and inauguration speech that he is not interested in witch hunting anybody; this however does not preclude the right of Plateau State people to hold accountable anyone who has plundered the common wealth of the state.

"The days of groping in the dark are over and as the facts agree with the truth on the statement of Affairs of the State as inherited from former Governor Jang when the transition report is received for which it will be incumbent on government to make known to the good people of Plateau," said Lalong Lalong has declared that the APC-led administration is on rescue mission in the state considering the sorry financial status of the state.

He stated this in Government House Jos, while swearing in the Secretary to the State Government, Hon Rufus Bature, Chief of Staff Government House, Hon. John Dafan.

"Let me sustain my appeal to the good people of Plateau State to leave behind all that took place in the past and rally round this government as a new vista of opportunity is opened for us. Indeed we are in an era of collective participation that is expected to engender the holistic development of our state," said Lalong.

As it is, citizens of Plateau State are waiting eagerly to see the end of the ongoing probe; most of them believed strongly that the Agricultural Services and Training Center (ASTC) established by the last administration in conjunction with and Isreali investors was only a conduit pipe used for money laundering by the last administration. Weather the allegation is true or not, the ongoing probe will unveil the true position of the project and others.

However, the attempt to probe the last administration is not without a challenge from the immediate past administration.

Senator Jang, who headed the last administration for eight years, has alleged that the attempt to raise allegation of fraud against him was an attempt to witch-hunt him and tarnish his image.

In a press statement released by Jang's media aide, Garuba Clinton, the former governor said, "The attention of the immediate past Governor of Plateau State and Senator Jonah David Jang has been drawn to a story making the rounds to the effect that he left the state with a debt profile of N104bn.

He said, "While it is true that in the handover notes given to the new administration the debt profile is as made available to newsmen, it must be pointed out that the Jang administration did not borrow N104bn as is being insinuated in some quarters.

"The immediate past government only borrowed an external debt of about N18bn with evidence of several developmental projects to show for it. The balance of the said N104bn spreads across contractual agreements for ongoing projects and those approved but not yet mobilised, outstanding of 6 months salaries of civil servants.

"Dr. Jonah David Jang is committed to the development of Plateau State beyond individualism and party affiliations and has therefore committed to work with the Lalong administration in the task of moving Plateau further, to take its place of pride in the comity of states in Nigeria. It is his desire that the current administration does well for the people of Plateau State and is pledging his support to the government in order for it to surpass the modest achievements of the last administration in the state.

"It is in realisation of this that we advise Your Excellency to focus less on trivialities and focus more on improving on our modest achievements while correcting our perceived mistakes because at the end of your administration, Plateau people will not judge you on the number of accusations and counter accusations but on the extent to which you have met their yearnings and aspirations through the number of developmental projects that directly affect their lives."

Umahi, Elechi's cat and mouse game in Ebonyi Although the new governor of Ebonyi State, Chief Dave Umahi, says he has no

•Contd. on page 68

36

THE NATION ON SUNDAY, JULY 5, 2015

POLITICS

NASS crisis: Will Ekweremadu survive the st T

HERE seems to be no end in sight yet for the crisis at the National Assembly. From all indications, the bad blood generated by the election of principal officers by the two chambers of the National Assembly might tarry a while longer. Sources within the ruling party, the All Progressive Congress (APC), says it is unlikely that the gladiators involved in the crisis will simply let the matter rest.

Investigations by The Nation revealed that while the aggrieved national lawmakers within the APC are willing to allow the Senate President, Senator Bukola Saraki, enjoy his reign, as consented to by their party leadership, the same cannot be said of their disposition to the position of Senator Ike Ekweremadu as the Deputy Senate President.

Ekweremadu, a member of the minority Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), was elected alongside Senator Saraki in the controversial election that is still being contested by a large majority of APC senators who were not present in the chamber when the election was held.

It was also gathered that the leadership of the APC may also insist on the removal of Ike Ekweremadu as the Deputy Senate President as a condition for peace when the senate returns from its recess later this month. Given this scenario, many pundits are wondering if the days of the Enugu-born politician in his current position, are numbered.

"APC Senators and the leadership of their party would never allow Ekweremadu to keep such a sensitive position. There is no gainsaying that this would definitely tamper with the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari. More so, the rules of the house are very clear on who occupies such position.

I have no doubt in my mind that we are yet to hear the last about the NASS crisis because the ruling party will not rest until the anomaly is corrected. I see them coming out harder against Ekweremadu when the senate resumes. This should be understood for what it is; politics and the need for the ruling party to secure its administration against infiltration and interference from the opposition party.

Those reading other meaning to the push for Ekweremadu's removal should get the facts straight. It is all part of multi party politics. It is part of the unending struggle for power in a democracy," a national assembly source said.

The source also added that President Muhammadu Buhari is not happy with Ekweremadu as deputy president and has made this clear to the Senate President on several occasions. "All the efforts made

by Saraki's camp to sell the candidacy of Ekweremadu to the President have yielded no fruit, as Buhari allegedly refused to be taken in by their explanations.

Buhari reportedly made his feelings known at a meeting with a delegation of the Unity Forum at the Aso Rock Villa recently. The forum is the group of senators backing Dr. Ahmed Lawan, the APC anointed candidate for the Senate Presidency.

"The President gave us audience and admitted that the development in the Senate was a setback but he expressed confidence that APC will overcome it," a source at the meeting said.

"He said there was no basis for the split among APC Senators which led to the concession of the office of Deputy President of the Senate to the PDP. He said PDP did not give the opposition such an opportunity in its 16 years in power.

"Buhari told Lawan and others not to take the law into their hands as the leaders of the party explore reconciliation options.

Since Senator Ike Ekweremadu emerged the Deputy Senate President in an APC dominated Chamber, leadership of the ruling party has been kicking, describing the development as unacceptable. In this report, Assistant Editor, Dare Odufowokan, reports on Ekweremadu's chances of surviving the intrigues

• Ekweremadu

He said peace and the survival of the nation's democracy should be paramount more than any other thing."

Asked to assess the President's mood at the session, the source added: "He was not happy about the development in the Senate but he was hopeful that the situation is redeemable if some leaders can sacrifice their ambitions for the survival of APC and his administration."

Aggrieved Senators, angry party Signs that Ekweremadu may still lose his seat emerged when aggrieved APC senators, recently demanded for his immediate resignation. The senators, who are loyal to Senator Ahmad Lawan, the party's candidate for the Senate presidency, insisted that Ekweremadu's resignation was one of the conditions that would make the faction continue to recognise Senator Bukola Saraki as President of the Senate.

The aggrieved lawmakers, under the auspices of the Senate Unity Forum, however stated that they had nothing personal against Saraki and Ekweremadu.

However, the spokesperson of the SUF, Senator Kabir Marafa, said "We demand that Senator Ike Ekweremadu must resign his position because he needed at least 55 senators to emerge as Deputy Senate President. Ekweremadu is a lawyer and an experienced lawmaker. He knows he is not qualified to win the election with 54 votes."

Marafa further said the pro-Saraki lawmakers should tell the party leadership why they rushed to the chamber on June 9 and hurriedly conducted the election, while the rest of the APC lawmakers were at the International Conference Centre, expecting the arrival of President Mohammadu Buhari.

"The Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, was not properly elected. He requires a simple majority vote of 55 to win the election but he got 54, so he did not win and we cannot recognise him. We refuse to.

Our party has asked us not to talk to the press but we will not keep quiet internally," he said.

Buhari and the pro-Lawan Senators are not alone in their insistence over Ekweremadu as the leadership of the All Progressives Congress during the week allegedly insisted on removal of the Deputy Senate President, Ekweremadu, of the PDP. The Nation learnt that at a recent stakeholders' meeting, it became obvious that the ruling APC was still dissatisfied that Ekweremadu is still in office as the Deputy Senate President. "We will continue to reject Ekweremadu. There is no way we will allow a senator from a minority party to take over the duties statutorily assigned for the majority party," our source said.

Speaking further on why the APC may insist on Ekweremadu's exit, our source said,

"If you don't know, let me inform you that the Deputy Senate President is automatically the Chairman, Senate Committee on Constitution Amendment. Do you still think it is wise to leave such a position in the hands of the opposition?

Crack within?

Pundits have also been talking about a recent statement by the Senate President on the continued stay in office by his deputy.

According to reports, Saraki, while denying any deal between him and the PDP over Ekweremadu's emergence, expressed sadness over the development.

"It is unfortunate that we have a PDP man as Deputy Senate President. It is painful.

It is painful for any APC member because we went through the struggle. That was not what we signed for.

"But it has happened; but it is unfortunate and it is not fair to put the blame on one side because it is a combination of errors and miscalculations that led us to have what we have.

"So, to suggest that it was out of a desperate act to emerge is what I reject completely and those who followed the events would know that I didn't have that deal to emerge," Saraki reportedly lamented.

The argument is that with Saraki not comfortable with his deputy, how longer will the PDP senator stave off the numerous calls for his removal from office?

THE NATION ON SUNDAY, JULY 5, 2015

he storm?

"If it is true that Saraki had no hand in Ekweremadu's emergence, then it may be difficult for the latter to keep his current position. And if you consider the claim that he got elected with 54 votes out of 109, then there may be a strong ground to agitate for his resignation," Barrister Jide Awodun, an activist, said.

Also, former Governor of Kano State and Senator representing Kano Central, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, said the position of Deputy Senate President, currently being held by Ekweremadu, did not belong to the PDP, and must be returned to APC, adding that for the 16 years that PDP ruled the country, at no time did the opposition get the benefit of having such a position.

But the Deputy Senate Leader, Senator Bala Ibn Na'Allah, contended that the APC should leave Ekweremadu alone. Na'Allah, while speaking with newsmen, warned that external influence from the APC would worsen the ongoing leadership tussle in the National Assembly rather than solve it.

He said: "I know that as loyal party members, we are not happy with the situation (regarding Ekweremadu's position), but as matured people, we should be able to make good of what has happened and then move the country forward. Let me say that we do not have a crisis in the Senate.

What we have are disagreements between our colleague senators on how certain things should be done. So, it is going to be a very simple issue to settle provided the external influence ceases for the time being."

However, a senator from Edo State, Clifford Ordia, said no amount of gang up by leaders of the APC would lead to the sack of Ekweremadu. Ordia, who spoke against the backdrop of continuing bickering by leaders of the ruling party over the emergence of Ekweremadu, said it is God's wish that the PDP senator will be Deputy Senate President once again.

Reacting to statements by Kwakwanso, discrediting the election of the two senate leaders, the Edo lawmaker advised the APC to sheath their sword. He reminded political leaders in the country that the era of imposition was over and warned those rooting for Ekweremadu's ouster to either accept his emergence or maintain their cool.

Ordia said PDP senators will not fold their hands and allow him (Ekweremadu) to be removed. "We will defend the mandate of Ekweremadu with every drop of energy we have," Ordia said.

The Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to Ekweremadu, Mr. Uche Anichukwu, declined comments, when contacted on the phone yesterday to talk on his Principal's chances of weathering the raging storm. Now, it is left to be seen if the Enugu-born politician can go all the way in this battle.

Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, said the position of Deputy Senate President, currently being held by Ekweremadu, did not belong to the PDP, and must be returned to APC, adding that for the 16 years that PDP ruled the country, at no time did the opposition get the benefit of having such a position

POLITICS

37

How I will transform Cross River -Ayade Governor of Cross River State, Prof Ben Ayade, on Monday met with reporters in Calabar in his inaugural press briefing as governor. The governor who has already promised ambitious signature projects as a new seaport and a 240km superhighway, among others, in his first tenure as governor, explains how he intends to achieve them. He also commented on his plans on Tinapa, the Summit Hills, and the Obudu Ranch Resort.

Correspondent Nicholas Kalu was there. Excerpts:

H

OW would you go about the funding of your signature projects? People are happy about them but are concerned how you would fund them given how difficult things are financially for the state?

Every time in life I keep saying this, what really has made a difference between me from the family I was born to where I am today is because I always dream than is possible. At any point in life you put your soul above your problems, your body would follow. You only go down when you acknowledge problems that are within your capacity to overcome.

Where there is a vision there is always a provision, particularly when it is inspired by God and when it is intended to serve mankind and to add value. No matter what enterprise if your intention is to make money and enjoy your life, you have missed the point. The true essence of life is when you add value to mankind. That is why when questions come that government is over bloated and there is no cash; they ask if I am going to shrink the government, my answer is always very strange.

The announcement I will make very soon is that I am going to expand the government. The psychology is that in reverse theory in romantic economics, when the foundations of government are supposed to be the building pillars that sustain the structures and systems.

When society has an economic structure that is weak, particularly the sluggish African economy of ours, government must come in to leverage and provide succor and create a society where there is an egalitarian redistribution of wealth.

What would you do with other projects you inherited like Tinapa that has not been fully realised, the Summit Hills that is just springing up and Carnival Calabar?

On the issue of Tinapa, I have had extensive meetings with the Assets Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) who had actually tried to acquire Tinapa, so that we can convert its liabilities to assets. Actually Tinapa in conception was designed to provide leisure and business in one place. A wonderful concept which otherwise would have given us the opportunity to kick off as the Dubai of Africa.

Unfortunately, there were certain legislations that needed to be in place. Those legislations were not in place as at the time the originator left office, which is what the last government worked extensively to see that all of those legislations that would give it toll free status were granted. Imoke has achieved that. In all of these processes; trying to acquire these, Tinapa left behind a debt burden which to me, in relation to the assets, is reasonable and requires proper management. So, at this point in time when the economy of the entire nation is really in shambles, it is difficult for us to sustain a direct investment from the state purse. Indeed, we need to reengage investors who would show interest in Tinapa and that is already ongoing.

Hopefully, if all the calculations are right now that we have reengaged AMCON, we hope that AMCON would come back on board and actually give us the drive required. There is a company out of the United States, Triple Five, which has been taken as the preferred bidder to take over Tinapa and run it as a business resort.

So, Triple Five would be coming on board very soon and when that happens, you will see the verve will come. The structure of breathing life into Tinapa is such that the state government

• Ayade does not necessarily have to put in money. The only part of Tinapa that we are coming in is that we are coming to build a brand new city. If you remember in my campaign, we promised to build a new city called CalasVegas. It would be the most beautiful city on earth, which would be built here in Calabar. The design is completed. It was made in Korea. So, when that city is ready, it would add another component.

Senator Liyel Imoke was smart enough, he loved Tinapa a lot to say the only way he can breathe life into Tinapa was to create traffic to go to Tinapa to shop and traffic for Tinapa hotel. And to do that, you need an international conference centre. And so he built a facility that can house over 5000 guests at a go with provision for a hotel that is overlooking a waterfront. So, he has done his best and brought it here. So, it is my duty finally to breathe life into all of these.

So for me, I see them as low hanging fruits and not as liabilities. For every liability there is a potential in it. Just explore and I am an exploration professor, I really know how to do it. So my thinking is that if we all work together, we would get it right. So I don't see Tinapa or the Summit Hills slowing down.

The president said he met an empty treasury. At your level, there has been talks that you inherited 30 billion to hit the ground running. Is it true or did you meet an empty treasury too?

I inherited a state with great potentials.

Never measure the wealth of a nation by the naira and kobo in the account. I did not inherit N30 billion and I did not inherit an empty treasury because I inherited a state with great potentials.

You promised that in your first 100 days there would be a project that would employ Cross Riverians. What is it?

In my first 100 days in office, I would create a thousand jobs and I would tell you how. If you go to the new bypass, you will see massive work going on there; the location where we are constructing the garment factory. The construction work is going on already. The design has been completed - all equipment procured as I speak. The commitment on that factory started long before the elections. I made a personal commitment that the hardship was too much and I looked at the hardest pressed and saw it was the widows. Nigeria is richly endowed with human and natural resources but we import socks, singlets, T-shirts and other clothing. We almost import everything.

Clothing falls in the lowest pyramid of need which means it is a basic need. How can you ignore food, clothing and shelter which in that pyramid form the basic needs? So I looked at that pyramid and said I would focus on it and that would create the real energy that would create a change. If you look at Turkey, 40 per cent of their employment is on garments; same for some other countries. So, what I did is to focus on the garment factory to create at least 500 jobs for widows. The focus is to create jobs for women. The challenge is that we don't have the raw materials and would have to export.

This would be expensive, so we are recruiting the very best in terms of management staff who will think of the creativity to use our African fabric to get out the best. More importantly it creates the opportunity for me to take advantage of my experience at the national level as a former senator to recognize the fact that the Federal Government can do

interventions, when they know that the garment centre is aimed at recruiting women.

Some weeks ago you came down hard on the Anti-forestation Task Force of the Forestry Commission. Some of them were arrested. What is going on?

The Anti-forestry Commission was dissolved because a United Nations report states it clearly that over 6000 square metres of forests were stolen in the last few years from Cross River State. This happened when it was under the watch of an antideforestation task force, which meant that those responsible for watching over our forests failed. Internal research shows that most of them were even part of those compromising the process by operating with those doing illegal logging to move out our trees. For those people they were committing murder of mother earth and that is why I called for their arrest and they are being investigated because the process is clear. We have people who are willing to testify that many staff of the anti-deforestation task force were the ones aiding illegal logging. The forest is being depleted. We were not making money and we were not conserving the forests because they were being stolen. By next week we are announcing a new team of anti-forestation task force.

The Obudu Ranch Resort is not functioning properly now. Workers are owed for months and traffic there is poor. What are your plans to have it restored as a tourism flagship?

The Obudu Ranch is in a very bad state.

And it is not the fault of management. People don't get it right. How would you expect the ranch to function when there is a mythical story that the mountains there have magnetic influence on planes? Creating an artificial fear that scares people of flying to the ranch.

So going to the ranch by air has become a scare and going by road is a nightmare. So you have a beautiful edifice in the middle of nowhere which is the essence of the 240km superhighway. Essentially speaking, the ranch is in a bad state and cannot function until we fix that super highway to create access to the ranch. So, for me at this point is to keep it at minimal level, do maintenance, introduce a solar programme for 24 hour electricity. So we need a lot of maintenance.

But it will not be a key focus of my administration now. My focus is just to sustain it at skeletal level. Emphasis would be on the road. When once that is done, the ranch itself would spring up naturally. By my third year ask me about the ranch and you will be surprised with what you will see.

Local government employees are embarking on strike because they have not been paid for three months. What are you going to do about this?

My total number of office today is seven days. When I assumed office, I was here the first five days and for the urgency and activities I had set as my agenda to accomplish key signature projects, I left the shores of this country in search of core investors for my signature projects and so I was away for two weeks. I only returned last week. So today is my second day in office since I returned and seventh day on the desk here. But the two weeks I travelled was all on official visit. In truth, all the times I gave standing orders for salaries to be paid I thought all the salaries where being paid. There is no way on earth you pay the state civil servants and leave the local government servants like that. That is being unfair. I never knew. All that I have been doing since morning is articulating their payments. So, today as I speak, I have concluded all arrangements for their payment this week. Now to be able to pay them, we also looked at all the documentations on the processes. There were so many issues that called for concern. So I needed to show some caution. There were issues of ghost workers, deductions and local government joint account not having the kind of income that used to come from the federation allocation. It has nosedived tremendously. So what comes in is totally insufficient to pay their salaries, which was compounded by the deductions being made. So with the issue of ghost workers and all of that it became clear that if we did a blanket electronic payment, we are going to have the challenges of leakages and insufficient funds. So what we needed to do was a purification of the process and see how we can tidy up.

POLITICS

THE NATION ON SUNDAY, JULY 5, 2015

For the past five years, Charles Okah has been awaiting trial for his alleged role in the Independence Day 2010 bombing of Abuja. He maintains he's innocent of the charges against him and in this interview with our reporter sheds light on his current living conditions in prison as well as his five year odyssey in detention. He also discusses the Niger Delta struggle and why his younger brother, Henry, fell out with notable militants who embraced the amnesty programme. Excerpts

Bayelsa Governor, Chief Timipre Sylva and a few others as conspirators in a bogus assassination attempt on Goodluck Jonathan at the Eagle Square during the Independence Day celebrations by means of car bombs on the 1st of October, 2010. I bluntly refused to be compromised, tossing the line back at them with disdain.

I knew from that moment that I was marked for destruction. Now that my adversary has been swept out of power by the peoples' brooms of change into the dust bin of history, I can now expect to face a fair, impartial trial in an independent court of law.

Would you say the Jonathan presidency was a plus or minus for the Niger Delta struggle?

Of course it is an obvious minus for the Niger Delta region as Goodluck Jonathan was not prepared or cut out for leadership. Coupled with stark corruption and a lack of vision, the region has not progressed by way of political gain and infrastructural development. Thugs became instant billionaires, lavishing this sudden wealth on luxury items without any management skills to maintain it for the long term. His government created dependants from a fraudulent unsustainable amnesty programme where grown men have become lazy, lacking creativity and reliant on monthly handouts which they hope will be perpetual. The root issues which created militancy were never addressed. Today, we are worse off because our opportunity has been wasted. Like my brother Henry said in an interview with your paper, it is morally wrong to expect so much from President Buhari what we could not demand from Jonathan in six years. The Niger Delta had never been at peace during the tenure of Goodluck Jonathan.

The attacks on oil installations by militant groups like the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) only recently ceased after a unilateral ceasefire in May 30, 2014 that was squandered by the Jonathan government.

Pirates and other criminal gangs had a field day. The unrest was constantly covered up by the propaganda machinery he put in place to give a semblance of peace, while millions of dollars were lost due to production disruptions, gas and crude oil pipeline attacks and vandalisation, oil theft, piracy, kidnappings, etc.

Some former militants like Asari Dokubo had warned of a return of militancy in the Niger Delta if Jonathan wasn't reelected. Now that he's out, do you see the upheavals of the past returning to the region?

Now that the Nigerian people voted Goodluck out of power with total disregard to the threats of some so-called ex-militants, including Asari Dokubo, he has been exposed as a coward and noise maker. He is so used to easy and ostentatious life style made possible by questionable contracts. His threat of returning to the creeks and militancy from the comfort of his air-conditioned hotel room is only a bluff. Besides, armed fighters inside the creeks will not welcome him with open hands.

What should the Buhari administration do to sustain the relative calm which has prevailed in the Niger Delta in the last few years?

Like I mentioned earlier, there has been nothing like relative peace in the Niger Delta, but only a cover-up. Mr. President should facilitate the release of political prisoners like Henry, who is being held hostage in South Africa where his sham trial and conviction had the hand of the

38

Jonathan presidency was minus for Niger Delta - Charles Okah

H

OW long have you been held in prison and what are the current conditions under which you are being held?

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to have my voice heard through your widely read and respected newspaper. There is no pain on earth that doesn't crave a benevolent witness. I have been held in prison custody as an 'awaiting trial' inmate since December 24, 2010. Prior to this time, I had spent two months and eight days at the headquarters of the Directorate of State Security (DSS), Abuja on the bare floor of a subterranean dungeon after my arrest along with my son on Saturday, October 16, 2010, at my residence in Apapa GRA, Lagos on trumped-up charges relating to the October 1, 2010 Independence Day bombing. My conditions only improved remarkably from October 8, 2014 after threat of a lawsuit I filed against the Prisons and Interior Minister, as well as intervention from the International Red Cross and British High Commission, who had earlier visited the Kuje Prison, Abuja, where I am currently remanded and seeing first hand, the appalling, inhuman and punitive conditions I was being held.

The British High Commission completely renovated the block, making it fit for human habitation. Basic amenities like sleeping beds, light and water were installed, and ventilation and natural lighting improved. The Red Cross on their part provided mattresses, mosquito nets, blankets, and ensured medicines were made available to inmates who previously had to purchase drugs prescribed by the clinic. This was an absurd arrangement, considering that these medicines are factored into their budget and many inmates have no financial support from families who have long abandoned them.

Currently, I exercise outdoors, read books and attend church where I sing in the choir. All of the above were previously denied me by a satanic order that came from 'above'. I still make private arrangements for my feeding as the official ration is horrible. Compared to other detention facilities, I am told the food in Kuje is better. I have witnessed half-starved young men with 'xylophone ribs', sunken cheeks, thin necks and 'gangling arms' transferred from the custody of the Army, DSS and Police Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), gain weight after few months in Kuje Prison. I no longer encounter snakes and scorpions in my cell, except for rats. The prison is infested

• Okah

with these vermin after all the cats which managed to control the rat population were eaten by inmates to supplement their protein intake.

What change has the transfer of power to a new administration had on those conditions?

Aside from a remarkable improvement in the power supply, the status quo since October 8, 2014 has not changed. With the wind of change blowing its sweet breeze over a raped nation, I expect that I will be given a speedy trial to put an end to this inherited charade. My health is not too good at the moment as my only kidney retains water (hydronephrosis), causing pain and discomfort. The court ruled on June 25 that I should be taken to the National Hospital in 48 hours. I am long overdue for a thorough medical check-up abroad in the hospital where I donated my left kidney to save another life. A case mate, one Francis Osuwo, who I met for the first time at the DSS, died in Kuje Prison right before my eyes in 2012 after succumbing to reactions to the fumigant sprayed into our cells while still locked inside. Francis never got the opportunity to defend himself on charges of complicity in the March 2010 bombing in Warri, Delta State. I do not want to face a similar fate and hope my long overdue trial can end so that my reputation can be redeemed.

In the past you had run-ins with the prison authorities. What is the nature of your relationship now?

The situation has improved to the mutual benefit of both parties. After my bail request was denied in December 2010, the presiding judge granted my application to be remanded in prison. The DSS were not happy I was slipping from their clutches where they believed my stay with them would make it easier to torture, coerce or bribe me into implicating myself and other perceived

enemies and critics of Goodluck Jonathan. So, in order to stampede me into trial at a time when both passion and prejudice had not yet dissipated, they imposed their oppressive punitive detention style on the Prison Service officials who were too timid and intimidated to refuse the interference and meddlesomeness of one independent service over another. Now, it seems the leadership of the Prisons now have a mind of their own.

How much confidence do you have that the process you are passing through will deliver justice in the end?

My trial only started proper about two months ago. I have some confidence in the judicial system when there is no interference.

I also have confidence in the trial judge who I have observed from the dock to be a man of integrity. If the prosecution can prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt with evidence that links me to the so-called assassination attempt on former President Jonathan, then the judge will have no qualms in sentencing me to death. But where he finds out that the prosecution relied on assumptions, wild conjecture, hearsay, fabricated evidence and a shoddy investigation, he will set me free to build back the lost years.

Do you think the exit of former President Goodluck Jonathan could affect the eventual outcome?

Absolutely! The entire charges are trumped-up. Two days after my arrest, during interrogation, I was thrown a life line by my captors. A typical Nigerian quid pro quo‌They offered me my freedom and that of my son, including promises of lucrative contracts in exchange for providing false statements to implicate myself and betray my younger brother, Henry, and implicate political threats and staunch critics at the time, such as former Head of State, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida, present Kaduna State Governor, Malam Nasir El Rufai, former

If the prosecution can prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt with evidence that links me to the so-called assassination attempt on former President Jonathan, then the judge will have no qualms in sentencing me to death. But where he finds out that the prosecution relied on assumptions, wild conjecture, hearsay, fabricated evidence and a shoddy investigation, he will set me free to build back the lost years.

•Contd. on page 68

THE NATION ON SUNDAY, JULY 5, 2015

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HAT is your opinion about the allowance

controversy at the National Assembly?

I am a bit concerned when we talk about these allowances. The salaries paid are there for the job carried out by the lawmakers.

The allowances are for the legislators, not even allowances per say, they are to carry out specific legislative functions, oversight functions, our oversight responsibilities and public hearings. Except you do not want us to carry out some of our assignments and you people do not want us to do our functions, then it would not take anything away from us. If you people want us to do part time legislation, we are ready. But if you people want us to do good laws, the process of making laws is very expensive.

How would you describe the emergence of Saraki and Dogara in NASS? Clearly, what you saw there was democracy in place. You saw the will of the people; the right to vote and be voted for. That is freedom of opinion being expressed on the floor of the National Assembly. The constitution guarantees the right to vote and be voted for.

Everybody on that floor has the capability, the ability to be whoever the person wants to be, either the Speaker or the President of the Senate. In line with that, we decided to choose those we chose; we defer from the Tambuwal era, the imposition of candidates.

Let me use this opportunity to caution that any time, the National Assembly sees the hands of outsiders, no matter how good that candidate is, it falls within the practice of interference, that candidate either he or she in that process must have lost that election. It therefore means that if you want your candidate to succeed, you should stay away from the House. You saw it in the Tambuwal era; we saw the House go there. Tambuwal was not the choice of the people but because there was a different candidate entirely endorsed by the PDP. It was even the PDP that led the revolution because we insisted that there must be independence of the legislature. It is guaranteed under section 4 of the constitution that talks clearly about the principles of separation of powers. The executive, the legislature and the judiciary have the same responsibility. A scenario or situation where the executive wants to impose candidates by government would be resisted by this arm of government because we do not often impose candidates on the executive.

How would you describe the role played by Mr. President in all these?

He is a good democrat and I commend him very well for that.

He has started well and we want to appeal to him to continue with that process. If he keeps it up, he will go a very long way. But if he doesn't, he can be assured that there is a very virile opposition ready to push everybody to shape, in line with the democratic principles.

What are some of the new things that you would like to see in the new dispensation?

Buhari, please save our face

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• Ogor

Opposition ready to push everybody to shape -Ogor Honourable Leo Ogor of the House of Representatives in this interview with Yetunde Oladeinde, talks about some national issues, including the National Assembly politics, PDP's loss at the polls, strategies for 2019 and affirmative action for women. Excerpts Respect for the rule of law, transparency, accountability and due process.

What about security?

Yes, security is very, very important. When you look at the provisions of section 14 subsection 2, it states that the primary responsibility of any government is security and welfare of the people. That is why any government in place, the issue of security is actually nonnegotiable. It is the primary responsibility and every Nigerian must support every government, whether good or bad to ensure security.

What is the implication of the crisis in the National Assembly?

There is no implication. What you have seen clearly is government in action. What you have also seen is development in action, as it borders on our law making process. We clearly want everybody to stay away from the National Assembly because the National Assembly is an arm of government. Watch out and see what happens in 2019. 2019 is going to be magical, because first and foremost, we are not going to sit down and watch things go the way it has played out. We have allowed Nigerian people to respect what has happened. We are not going to do that gain but at the end of the day, we want democracy to play out. Look out and watch the way we would play the game in 2019. Expect the coming back of PDP in 2019.

Four years is a long time, how will you sustain this?

Why should I expose my strategy?

Women are complaining about the dwindling representation of women in the House this time around?

There is nothing like affirmative Action. Go and study the provisions of section 42 of the Constitution. Freedom of discrimination, there should be nothing like a woman or a man doing anything that borders on the law making process. The law stipulates clearly that woman and man are equal, so if you start giving some preference to men and women, it negates, violates and offends the provisions in section 42 of our constitution.

There is also geographical affirmative action in Nigeria?

That is your own assumption, there is nothing like that and I am telling you that this is what the law says.

There are ministers from every state of the Federation and you say there is nothing like geographical affirmative action?

That is about appointment. I am not in the position to talk about appointments. I am not in the executive, I am a lawmaker and as a lawmaker, I am guided by the provisions of the constitution. I am telling you clearly what section 42 of the constitution states. If you are in doubt, you can get the constitution, read and study the section and after that you would say, yes I am not a man or a woman. I am woman friendly, I have nothing against women.

HEN General Muhammadu Buhari opted to try his luck at securing the presidential ticket of the All Progressives Congress, the support he got came from many corners- politicians and non politicians. Yes, we realised that while the decision was up to the partisans- registered members of his party, but patriots had to get involved in the campaign. He appeared the ready material to fight for Nigeria.

The PDP and former President Goodluck Jonathan had so hopelessly managed national affairs that it was clear that the vehicle could only crash if the mistake of handing the key to the PDP candidate was ever made.

President Jonathan lacked ideas, had no charisma and was probably not even interested in the progress of the country. To effect, he also unleashed a woman who was more of a political liability than an asset on the country. She was more of a distraction than a complement. She failed her husband and failed the nation.

And, unfortunately, the President could not rein her in.

At that point, realising the enormity of the task of wresting power from an incumbent President in a developing country, we knew only Buhari on the platform of the APC coalition of forces could do the job. Before the last push for the job, Buhari had contested thrice and lost. He had shown resilience and fought doggedly. He said the right things and presented us with the prospect of a leader who could show understanding of demands of leadership, seal the leakage points and demonstrate the will to work for the common people.

He is not one given to idolizing material possession and his military background made him the nationalist needed to succeed a lackluster President.

Many of us expected that he had been sufficiently prepared that he would hit the ground running. We thought he had enough time to be prepared for governance. We thought he knew the people were fast losing faith in government and governance and the Here and Now Syndrome that had taken roots. We thus thought he would seek to give a new direction to the rudderless ship of state and say and do the correct things that would give confidence in the people.

So far, there is nothing to indicate that we read the man well.

He has been so painfully slow that even his friends in and outside the media are finding it difficult to defend him. The few decisions he has taken so far do not assure anyone that the man has good advisers, even in unofficial capacity and are beginning to sow doubts as to his ability to make the right appointments. How could anyone justify his appointment of two senior spokesmen with schedules poorly defined? Who is really in charge, no one knows? In

communication, this is a recipe for disaster. The media would in due course reach out to the one and the other and they may contradict themselves and that would be the real story. Something must be done.

Then, in appointing Professor Jega's successor, the President has not acquitted himself well. He knew the tenure would expire June 30.

Jega also wrote to inform him, but mum was it from President Buhari.

That was until the departing INEC chairman was forced to take a decision- he appointed, ultra vires I must agree, an acting chairman.

But, what could Jega have done?

He had to leave and on his last day in office, the dithering BOSS failed to act. Jega could not have handed over to the Secretary of the Commission to warehouse the office since there were serving National Commissioners. They could not be asked to take instruction from the commission's secretary. If they had to meet to take urgent decisions and steps on any matter, the secretary could not preside. This is different from the ministry where, in the absence of a minister, the Permanent Secretary, even without being so charged, takes charge. So the Professor made an appointment. Only then did our President wake up to realising that he has a responsibility to fill the vacuum in acting capacity or nominate a substantive chairman.

Could his delayed action be excused on the ground that the President and his party had consistently campaigned for a thorough reform of the electoral process which includes the mode of appointing the national commissioners, the chairman and Resident Electoral Commissioners?

This could not have stopped Mr. President ffom making an acting appointment as he came round to doing eventually.

This is a wake-up call on President Buhari. The country can no longer wait for President Buhari to show that he means business. He should realise that perception is important in this business and that initial impressions could take long to change. Change is important, but it must take effect at the appointed time. This is the appointed time.

President Buhari, please rise to this occasion; walk your talk.

• Buhari

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POLITICS

How far can Zakari go as INEC boss?

President Muhammadu Buhari's appointment of Mrs. Amina Bala Zakari as the Acting Chairman of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), replacing Prof. Attahiru Jega, has generated so much interest. In this report, Associate Editor, Sam Egburonu, takes a look at the chances of the new chief electoral umpire to emerge the substantive chairman of the sensitive commission

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HEN on Tuesday, June 30, 2015, the outgoing National Chairman of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Attahiru Jega, formally handed over to Amb. Ahmed Wali, one of the National Commissioners in the commission at the hand-over ceremonies; many thought Wali was the chosen one. This was because, long before the formal handover, reports had filtered in that Jega actually preferred Wali to succeed him notwithstanding the formal declaration that Wali, whose tenure as a National Commissioner of the commission would expire in August 11 this year.

Even when Wali, while accepting the mantle of leadership But just few hours after Jega's celebrated handover, President Muhammadu Buhari appointed a different National Commissioner of the commission, Mrs. Amina Bala Zakari, as the new Acting National Chairman of INEC. The Head of the Civil Service of t h e Federation, Danladi Kifasi, who communicated t h e appointment to Zakari in a letter, said t h e appointment, which took immediate effect, would remain in force until the

appointment of a substantive Chairman for the electoral body.

The Director of Communications for the Head of Civil Service of the Federation, Haruna Imrana, in a terse three-paragraph statement then announced the appointment formally on Tuesday night.

Since then, the appointment has generated so much interest in the polity, leading to concerns over Zakari's chances of surviving the political intrigues and ultimately emerging the substantial National Chairman of the electoral body.

For example, barely a day after the announcement of her appointment, the national leadership of the leading opposition party, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), announced the party's rejection of the appointment, alleging that the new acting boss of the electoral body "is too close to the Presidency."

Chief Olisa Metuh, the National Publicity Secretary of PDP, declaring the position of the party in a crowded press conference said his "party would want the acting chairman of the commission to state her alleged closeness to the Presidency and one of the governors of the All Progressives Congress from the North-West."

Aside the alleged closeness with the presidency, many other reasons have been attributed as being responsible for the varied interests generated by the appointment of Amina Bala Zakari as the new INEC boss. For example, Zakari is the first woman in Nigeria's history to be appointed the overall boss of the electoral body, though hers is still in acting capacity. This gender factor has been pointed at as responsible either for the support for her suitability or skepticism over her ability to step into the big shoes of the former INEC boss, Jega.

A n o t h e r immediate reason that attracted s p e c i a l interest over her

appointment is the seeming clash between the choice of the former INEC boss, Jega, and that of the president.

There was an initial report that Jega will leave the plum seat with all the national commissioners in the commission. This led to speculations that Jega's successor would either be an outsider or one of the influential State Resident Electoral Commissioners. This speculation however changed when it was later revealed that not all the national commissioners' tenure would expire as at the time of Jega's exit on June 30, 2015. That notwithstanding many observers dismissed speculations that one of the remaining national commissioners whose tenure will expire later in the year will eventually succeed Jega.

So, when Jega eventually handed over to Wali, who immediately pledged to work with the other remaining national commissioners within the six weeks he would hold the office, observers thought Jega consulted with the presidency before making his choice. So, when Buhari came up few hours later to name Zakari as the new head of the commission, observers showed special interest in the politics of the appointment.

The woman, Zakari A widow and mother of five children, Mrs. Amina Bala Zakari, Nee Husaini Adamu, is a registered pharmacist and was, before her current appointment, a National Electoral Commissioner with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

According to her public profile, Mrs. Zakari who hails from Kazaure Local Government of Jigawa State was born on the 23rd of June 1960.

She completed her elementary education at Shekara Girls Primary School, Kano in 1971 and proceeded to the prestigious Queens College Yaba, Lagos for her Secondary Education where she obtained her School Certificate/WASC in 1976.

In 1976, she went to Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria and graduated with a Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.) Degree in Pharmacy with a Second Class Upper in 1980.

After her National Youth Service Programme at the Federal University of Technology, Bauchi between 1981 -1982, where she set up a Pharmacy and Drug Store Dispensary as her service year project, she began her professional career at the Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital, Kaduna as a Senior Pharmacist in 1984.

She was at CVS Pharmacy Hartsdale, New York, USA between 1993 and 1994 as an Intern Pharmacist and returned to Nigeria to join the Consolidated Health Services, Abakpa Kaduna,

I must say a lot has been done to improve the electoral processes in Nigeria through the past Chairman, Professor Attahiru Jega and a lot more needs to be done

• Zakari

THE NATION ON SUNDAY, JULY 5, 2015 where she became the Chief Pharmacist/ Consultant from 1996 to 1997.

She was a Special Assistant to former President Olusegun Obasanjo and was deployed to the Federal Capital Territory Administration where she, between 2004 and 2007, served as Secretary of Health, Human Services and Social Development, and later that of Agriculture and Rural Development.

A member of the Pharmacist's Society of Nigeria as well as that of the Nigeria Institute of Management (NIM), she has also worked with the National AIDS and STDs Control Programme (NASCP), Federal Ministry of Health 2002, Project Director for National Primary Health care Development Agency in 2003, Project Coordinator for FCT Federation of Muslim Women's Organisation (FOMWAN) 2003, National Consultant, National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC) 2004, Lead Consultant/ Project Manager, Songhai Medical Centre Limited 2008, Consultant, Complete Medicare Limited and Accessible Managed Care Limited 2008 and Consultant, Millennium Development Goal Office 2008.

Her other academic qualifications include Certificate in Managing Drugs Supply for Primary Health Care from the International Drug Agency, MHS Amsterdam, Netherlands and a Certificate in General Management Programme, Executive Education in Business and Management and Harvard Business School (HBS) Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. Although she has a rich career in pharmacy and management, and is the Chairman of NYSC Governing Board, Mrs. Zakari's greatest experience for her new job is perhaps her appointment as a National Electoral Commissioner at INEC since ‌.

Her vision and action plan Commenting on his appointment, Zakari said during the week, "I accept my appointment with humility and with dedication to serve. I believe it is just a continuation to what the former Chairman, Professor Attahiru Jega, has started which has been at a high level and there shouldn't be any problem. I have been part of the process: I have known the problems, challenges and I have seen the successes. What is remaining is for us to build on the successes and try to tackle the outstanding challenges.

"I must say a lot has been done to improve the electoral processes in Nigeria through the past Chairman, Professor Attahiru Jega and a lot more needs to be done. I must say it is like trying to reach an equilibrium because the bulk of the work has been done by former Chairman, Professor Jega, to bring the quality of changes to election management to a high level. So, all we need to do is to put all hands on deck to improve further on what he has done and improve on the good practices he has left behind. Basically, with the cooperation of all, and the support of staff and the people of Nigeria, we should be able to do it pending when a new Commission is put in place."

On the likely challenges she may face and how she hopes to tackle them, she said, "Challenges cannot be envisaged because they come as the need arises. So we tackle them as they come-one day at a time. And then try to sort out administrative issues then the major electoral issues, which a lot has been put into.

We just need to improve where INEC seems to have failed or erred during the last elections.

"Basically, half of the Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs) are on seat and half of the National Commissioners are on seat; so we will deliver the best we can until a new Commission is put in place.

"We will continue working until a new Commission is constituted. The job will continue; we still have the Secretary, the Directors and the Commissioners. The Commission will be doing what it needs to do."

How far can She go?

Following the huge achievements recorded by Jega in the two general elections he conducted and the drama that played out before she was named the new Acting National Chairman of the commission, some observers have expressed fear over her chances of surviving the current intrigues to emerge the substantive chief electoral umpire.

Some Nigerians however said she appears to be the right choice at a time like this and is therefore likely to succeed. Dr. Yomi Makinde, a political scientist in Lagos, told The Nation that "as a career woman of proven integrity, Mrs. Zakari is the type of INEC boss Nigeria needs now. She is an insider and seems disciplined enough to take INEC to the next level."

For now, Nigerians hold their breath as they wait to see if this bespectacled mother of five will be the one to preside over the 2019 general elections.

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2015 elections and the way forward Recently, Political Parties Leadership and Policy Development Centre of the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies brought together stakeholders in the electoral process in the country to take stock of events leading to the 2015 elections. In this report, Tony Akowe in Abuja reports on the way forward proffered by the stakeholders

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OR many Nigerians, the 2015 general elections may have come and gone. But for stakeholders in the election, it is time for stock taking and probably pacing the way forward. Finding the way forward may be why the Political Parties Leadership and Policy Development Centre of the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies brought together stakeholders in the electoral process in the country to take stock of events leading to the election. 29 political parties were represented at the event which aimed at providing an opportunity for stakeholders involved in the 2015 elections, including representatives of political parties, candidates, CSOs, the media, local election observation groups, as well as security agencies to critically review the elections with the objective of identifying what went wrong, what was done right and how to improve the conduct of elections in Nigeria.

Professor of Political Science with Babcock University, Prof. Adele Jinadu, set the stage for the discussion at the conference, advocating the unbundling of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in keeping with global best practices and in other to make the nation's electoral system more effective. Director General of The Electoral Institute of INEC, Prof Abubakar Momoh, said the commission as presently constituted lack the capacity in terms of finance and personnel as well as the legal frame work to adequately monitor campaign finances as proscribed by law.

Jinadu, who said the nation's democracy was in perpetual crisis said political leadership in the country lacked the political will to introduce and legislate reforms that will strengthen internal party democracy mechanism in political parties in the country.

He said further that one of the ways of moving the nation's democracy forward was to reform political parties in the country to make them less oligarchic and more democratic since this has been a major challenge in the nation's democratic struggle. He believed that what is required in moving forward after the 2015 General elections is to create and mobilize networks of countervailing forces in state and society, including members to keep up the pressure on the political leadership to demonstrate the political will to promote internal party democracy in their parties in line with the recommendation of the Electoral Reform Committee. He maintained that there was the need to create a political Parties and Regulation Commission to regulate the registration of political parties and monitor their activities to ensure that they conform with the provisions of the law, while INEC is left with the responsibility of conducting elections, adding that INEC as presently constituted has been saddled with too much responsibility and therefore has not been able to adequately carry out its assignment.

Director General of The Electoral Institute of INEC, Prof. Abubakar Momoh,

• Buhari

• Zakari

said the hostility of political parties due to what they considered infraction on the part of INEC has practically made it impossible for the commission to track campaign funds by the parties and their candidate. He believe that the current laws in the country which only mandates INEC to track campaign funds by the political parties and not the individuals has practically encouraged over spending on elections. He stressed pre-election financing and pre-election campaigns are not captured in the funds that should be tracked by INEC. He argued that INEC need prosecutory power for violation of campaign finance regulations and stringent penalty such as vacating the seat if discovered to have made false claims and not swearing in any elected official who has not disclosed his campaign funds.

Momoh lamented that party executives no longer have control over the parties they were elected to lead; stressing that with the current development where candidates canvass for funds outside the party will make it practically impossible for INEC to track campaign funds adequately. He explained that there should be a law that makes it mandatory for fund used for pre and post election activities to be tracked

by INEC, adding that political parties and their candidates have often disregarded the provisions on campaigns by campaigning outside the designated campaign time of 7.

00am to 6.00pm. The two day conference was organised to review activities of the 2015 elections and also to serve as an avenue to review the curriculum of the Centre which is the first of its kind in Africa.

Jide Ojo, Executive Director of OJA Consult linked the inability of state government across the country to pay workers salaries to the huge expenses made by the states during the last election. Ojo argued that as long as state governors spent money belonging to their states for election purposes, adding that the time has come when Nigeria should be able to peg election spending both by the parties and individuals and do away with third party spending in elections. He also suggested that campaign offices of the candidates standing elections should not be separated from that party office since it is the party and not the individual that is expected to make report to INEC on campaign funds. He argued that if the status quo ante is to be maintained INEC should insist that the candidates and not the parties make disclosure of campaign expenditure.

Some however argued that the gulf between candidates and party on fundraising and campaign expenditure, as well as the multiple layers and forms of campaigns have made it very difficult for INEC to monitor pre-election financing and campaign. The unwillingness of political parties to fully disclose party and campaign finances make oversight on party funding difficult.

Director General if the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies, Prof. Tijjani Muhammad-Barde, said the conference was aimed at understanding what actually transpired during the election with a view to

forging the way forward. He said the institute played a critical role in the Abuja peace accord signed by all the political parties that took part in the elections. The NIPSS DG said some of the issues of concern were lack of Internal Party Democracy among the parties, low participation of women and youths in the process and near non participation of people with disability in the entire process. He stressed that even though the card reader worked well during the election, there was the need to refine the system so that it worked perfectly and at the required maximum. He also spoke of the need for more political education for election Observers and the need to continuously engage the people on election matters.

Director of the Political Parties Leadership and Policy Development Centre of NIPSS, Prof.

Habu Galadima, expressed confidence that the lessons learnt from the 2015 elections will make the way for strong political parties ahead of the 2019 elections and put them in better competitive position. He also expressed the hope that that a strong opposition that will be policy driven will emerge in the country. He said the country need an opposition that is issues driven and not personalities and contribute to national development as well as deepening the nation's democracy. He argued that the Abuja Peace Accord signed by all political parties that took part in the Presidential Election set the stage for substantial compliance with democratic principles. According to him, the political leaders felt at that point that they have responsibility to the nation and that they needed to exercise decorum in whatever they had to do. He believed that the Abuja Accord also set the stage for the acceptance of defeat by former President, Gookluck Jonathan. He however believed that since the nation was still in a learning process, there was the need to continuously build the capacity of the political

You organise elections for political parties. For the next 100 years, my take is that no democracy will operate without political parties and so, political parties will still be the foundation on which democracy will function

parties so that they will engage in issue driven campaigns rather than focusing on personalities of the individuals. He stressed that while some parties focused on personalities during the campaign, others based their campaign on issues of governance, policies and development.

Project Director of DGD II, Dr. Mourtada Deme, said there was the need to faction out how to support political parties since they are the main actors in any election, pointing out that "like it or not, you don't organise elections for civil society organisations or for international development partners. You organise elections for political parties. For the next 100 years, my take is that no democracy will operate without political parties and so, political parties will still be the foundation on which democracy will function". He argued that disagreements are normal in any political environment and contest, pointing out that there are also many areas in which the parties need to agree, such as civilized behaviour, having a code of conduct, accepting the results of a fair poll, rejection of violence which he said are part of basic requirement which is expected from political parties.

The Chairman of Inter Party Advisory Council (IPAC), Yunusa Tanko was however more concerned with the issue of cross carpeting by elected representatives of the people from one political party to the other and still retaining their seat. While believing that the 2015 election has substantially restored the credibility of Nigeria in the international community, he argued that the challenges faced by the parties should not be ignored. He said the National Assembly must revisit the law that allow elected officials to dump the party that sponsored them and still retain their seat, pointing out that allow such practices has continued to weaken the strengths of some political parties in the country. He also kicked against the provisions of the Electoral act which allow last minute decamping of aspiring candidate, pointing out that it has allowed for parties to hijack popular candidates from other parties on the eve of election. He maintained that INEC does not have the power to reject such candidates because it is the political parties that present candidates, adding that this has given room for political parties to change candidates at will because they want to win election. He wants a complete overhaul of the Electoral Act so that the parties can come together and agree on a frame work for what the Electoral Act should look like.

Some leaders of the political parties spoke of the need of having a virile opposition. Gani Galadima, National Chairman of Action Congress Party of Nigeria (ACPN) argued that the context of the word opposition has been misunderstood in the country. He believes that opposition is not about attacking government. He said "you must be objective and not always attack. When there is something good in the government, point it out and when they did not do well, say it.

Don't allow your sense of judgment to becloud your sense of reasoning and don't play it the destructive way like it is done in Nigeria. We must set agenda for government and contribute meaningfully.

Godson Okoye, the National Chairman of the United Democratic Party (UDP), aligns with his ACPN counterpart. He argued that opposition must be objective and must also have information to work with. He believes that the All Progressives Congress (APC) has shown tenacity of purpose and has been able to build a party and take power from the PDP, while President Buhari has shown a high sense of responsibility. Chairman of APC youth wing, Ismail Ahmed, also agreed to the need for a virile opposition. However, he believe that opposition parties often keep quiet when the governing party does something well because they belief that if they speak out, the ruling party will use it to score cheap political point. Chinwe Nnorom who represented the PDP at the event said while the need for a virile opposition cannot be over ruled, it has often been a gang-up against the government in power than providing an alternative government. He believes that the only thing those in opposition in Nigeria understands is how to occupy the Government House.

THE NATION ON SUNDAY, JULY 5, 2015

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Rivers' borrowing spree

Wada's 'hide-andseek" game in Kogi

• Wada

ongues are wagging in Kogi State as Governor Idris Wada keeps the people guessing over his second term ambition. While groups sing songs of endorsement for him daily, Wada keeps parrying questions that have anything to do with his next plan politically. Close aides and associates are even worried

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that the governor may be playing a dangerous political game with his re-election bid.

On many occasions in the recent past, as the state's gubernatorial election approaches, questions have been publicly posed to the governor over his aspiration, but on all occasions, he deftly side-stepped all such enquiries, leaving not only reporters, but also the public, guessing about what his plans are.

Just recently, Wada in Abuja where he attended the National Economic Council (NEC) meeting hosted reporters, including Christians, but later went for a Ramadan fast breaking at the Government House, after which he responded to questions, including the payment of civil servants' salary arrears.

On whether or not he will contest for a second term, the governor said the decision was in the hands of God. "I think you should have asked that question after we have done the Tharawi prayer. But since we are in a Holy month, I must answer truthfully. Second term is in the hands of God Almighty, that's where I am. Thank you very much," he said.

But few minutes after making the above speech, Wada was treated to an endorsement ceremony by the Kogi Elders Council, during the Ramadan fast breaking with members of the Correspondent Chapel of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Kogi State Council, at the Government House. The next day, some youth groups in Lokoja, the state capital, took to the streets in a rally meant to "beg" Wada to seek re-election.

As the drama in Wada's camp continues, Kogi people are getting ready to exercise their franchise in choosing the next man to govern them.

In Bayelsa, it's a waiting game too

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S the November date for the 2015 governorship election in Bayelsa State draws nearer, many people of the oil-rich region are waiting on former governor, Timipre Sylva, to announce his readiness to declare interest in the seat once again even as the All Progressives Congress (APC) chieftain insists he is yet to make up his mind on whether or not to contest.

Close associates of the former governor told The Nation several efforts have been made to spur Sylva into announcing his interest in the governorship race, "but he seems to be more interested in building the APC in the state into a more formidable party for now." It was gathered that Sylva is of the opinion that the party should be placed over and above any personal ambition.

"And as such, he is keeping the issues of his aspiration close to his chest for now. But we feel it is high time we know what he intends to do. The time is close enough for that," a worried aide said minutes after the former governor, while speaking to reporters at the National Headquarters of the • Ishaku APC, after a delegation of elders from Bayelsa State paid a courtesy call on the party's National Working Committee, explained that his immediate concern was how to ensure that the party takes its pride of place in the affairs of the state.

Asked if he was taking another shot at the governorship, Sylva said, "I don't know yet. That is the honest answer, I don't know yet.

My role is to make sure that the All Progressives Congress wins the governorship election in Bayelsa. That is my role. The APC is going to win, that we are very sure about."

Good talk. But the question now is, "who is that candidate that will win the next governorship election for APC in Bayelsa State? Will it be Sylva?"

• Umar • Sylva

• Wike HERE is anxiety in Rivers State following speculations that Governor Nyesom Wike is planning to borrow more money from banks within and outside the state.

Experts and others who should know are worried that the governor's borrowing spree may jeopardize the future of the oil-rich state.

Already, the governor has borrowed N30 billion; N10 billion and N20 billion respectively within three weeks.

And now unconfirmed reports have it that the former Education Minister intends to obtain more loans in tranches of N30 billion and N40 billion, within the next two months.

On June 11, the House of Assembly gave Wike the nod to borrow N10 billion from Zenith Bank Plc to fund major projects. On June 30, the Assembly, comprising 31 Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) members and one APC, again approved the governor's request to borrow N20 billion from Access Bank Plc. Wike said the N20 billion would be repaid with Internally Generated Revenue (IGR).

The governor claimed that the loans would be used to finance road projects, including Rumueprikom-Iwofe, Abuloma-Woji, Elelenwo-Akpajo, Oroigwe-Igwuruta and Igwuruta-Chokocho roads and the fencing of Government Girls' Secondary School at Rumuokwuta, Port Harcourt. But his critics are bothered about the governor's hurried interest in executing the projects at a time he is expected to be laying the foundation for the smooth take-off of his administration.

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Taraba: Between Ishaku and ex Ag. Gov Umar

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lthough the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) managed to wade off the efforts of the All Progressives Party (APC) to oust it from the Government House, Taraba State may have returned to its days of volatile politics following statement by former Acting Governor of Taraba State, Alhaji Garba Umar, that Governor Darius Ishaku is ignorant of the state's problems.

Umar, who is in the same party, PDP, as the governor, made the statement as he condemned the ongoing mass retrenchment of workers employed during his administration, saying the action shows the state governor is ill informed about governance in the state. Of course, the development has pitched his camp against that of the governor and pundits say political sparks should be expected soon.

While Ishaku insists he has to sack people because of the huge wage bills, his predecessor says the state is not troubled by over-bloated staff but outright stealing or unbridled corruption through odorous and nauseating behaviors like the cancerous ghost workers syndrome.

"Taraba has not formally recruited staff for over 20 years except during Alhaji Umar who recruited out of very serious need to ameliorate the situation.

The comical reversal of recruitments and transfers of all staff since November 2012 clearly demonstrates that the government is completely ignorant of the problems of Taraba State," Umar insists.

But in the governor's camp, there is a feeling that Umar went to town with the statement to discredit and ridicule Ishaku following the mass retrenchment of workers employed during his administration. Sources say the former acting governor will "hear from the governor's people soon."

EZEJI

Football is more lucrative than banking

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THE NATION ON SUNDAY, JULY 5, 2015

‘My art collection began as a hobby’ C

HIEF Abdulazeez Udeh has always been one of the greatest art collectors in Nigeria. This is one habit he formed many years ago that today, he cannot even count or remember the number of art works in his possession. An avid follower of developments in the contemporary art world, Udeh was at the opening ceremony of In the Heart of Things Fall Apart, an exhibition of drawings and watercolours on Chinua Achebe’s epic novel, Things Fall Apart. The event which held at the Quintessence Art Gallery, Ikoyi, Lagos, was the product of three artists in the persons of Krydz Ikwuemesi, George Odoh and Henry Mujunga, an Ugandan.

Udeh in an interview described the book itself as an enduring classic which also encouraged these three artists to embark on this wonderful project to document the book in a visual form. “Things Fall Apart is known all over the world and it has been translated into many foreign languages. There is hardly anywhere in the world where the book is not known or has not been recommended in schools.

The work itself which has now been interpreted into drawings and paintings shows that there is no aspect of it that cannot be put into proper academic exercise,” he said.

He opined that the work of art in the calibre of Things Fall Apart can only be best understood when put into visuals. “You can then begin to imagine the images and the scenes created by the author. Achebe used this book to mirror deep into the Igbo society but not only the Igbo society per se.

You can see in it the level of civilization in Africa before the incursion of the West. As Achebe’s most famous work, what the artists have done is to further lend credence to the place of such a great literary work in the minds of the academics. And part of the reason why I am here today is to identify with this great iconic book and classical literary work which has transcended boundaries since it was published more than fifty years ago,” Udeh who was once a publisher, decided.

He delved a bit into the background that gave birth to the book. “Things Fall Apart was purposely written to disseminate the level of cultural development and affinity in Igbo land long before time. The book showcases the typical way of resolving conflicts in a well-patterned society where respect for the norm was in place.

Achebe took his time to look into the real values of the Igbo nation. There is hardly any part of the norms and taboos of the people that the book did not touch. Therefore, in situating these art works, we can further see those elements of traditions that once defined the Igbo society before the advent of the West.”

He related the importance of the book to what Africans were in the threshold of achieving before that developmental move was disrupted. “The incursion of Europe as an external force did more harm to the norms of the people. Most of the drawings here attest to that fact as you can see.

From chapters one to twenty-five, each artist gave his own ideas of the main theme and cultural message in the book. That way one can really comprehend and follow the issues raised by the author.”

Udeh’s contention is that by keeping these works, one is actually involved in encouraging artists to do more. And in consequence, generations yet unborn will one day come to realize the historical and cultural values of a wonderful book like Things Fall Apart. “By telling the story of Umuofia in a remarkable way, we have been able to see a continuation of the story of Biafra. It is the same pattern which the civil war in Nigeria took. And you can see how the story of one man, written as a fic-

Chief Abdulazeez Udeh, a book publisher and businessman is one of Nigeria’s oldest and greatest art collectors whose repertoire of visual arts is indeed enviable. At the opening of the ongoing exhibition of drawings and paintings of Things Fall Apart, in Lagos, where he came to view the works, he told Edozie Udeze why he is passionate about art collection and the metamorphosis of modern arts in Nigeria and lots more

•Udeh tion has shown that an artist is a prophet.

And I dare say that since the civil war ended we’ve not been the same, particularly in Igboland. We’ve lost so much in terms of respect and preservation of what holds us together as a people.”

From an indigenous point of view, he noted, the book has done justice to the ever resilient nature of the Igbo person. “The Igbo resisted the incursion and menace of the Europeans till 1929. So, what Achebe has written has shown that it was not all that easy when it came to the destruction of the Igbo norms and values. At the same time all we can do now is to make ourselves open to other cultures or alien cultures if you like and then take what we can to help us grow. In the same way, those aspects of our traditions which we abandoned in a hurry but now think they are relevant, we should bring them back.

Cultures and traditions form part and par-

cel of societal norms.

What the Igbo people need now, he reassured, is to try to manage the influx of the Christian culture in order to make concerted progress. “Unfortunately, the Igbo people have not been able to achieve this such that these alien cultures have more or less subsumed the indigenous cultures of the people. And because the Europeans could not overcome the Igbo, they then destroyed their cultures, saying they were primitive. Now, this culture of using the visual to preserve some of those salient elements of the people’s historical past should be encouraged. These works have truly proved that if given the wherewithal, our artists can do it.”

He however berated most Igbo leaders and traditional title holders who often combine the tradition of the people with Christianity. “This habit is not good enough for the preservation of the people’s

“You can then begin to imagine the images and the scenes created by the author. Achebe used this book to mirror deep into the Igbo society but not only the Igbo society per se. You can see in it the level of civilization in Africa before the incursion of the West. As Achebe’s most famous work, what the artists have done is to further lend credence to the place of such a great literary work in the minds of the academics”

beliefs and norms. It is even improper for a title holder to say he wants to have a Christian-traditional title. It is not done.

It is either you believe in tradition completely or you are a Christian. The two should not go together. If you cannot stick to tradition completely, then forget it and follow the one you think is best for you.

This is what you cannot see in most other traditions and so it has brought so much confusion in the annals of the Igbo”.

To him, the total break-down of moral values is traceable to this scenario, mostly amongst the Igbo. “This is why my love for the art is ever enduring. Yes, I began collecting visual arts a long time ago. Call it a childhood passion or so, but it began well back in the 1960s. Although my background is in publishing, arts form the greater part of what I have long developed to help the sector grow. But above all, I got into it to prove the Europeans who said that Nigeria had no art wrong. Today, Nigeria’s indigenous arts are seen all over the world competing effectively with their counterparts all over the world. That is the joy we derive from what we do from being collectors.

Arts in Nigeria and Africa generally, no longer depend on excavations of artefacts exhumed by Europeans and Anthropologists who once determined African history. To this extent and more, the likes of Udeh have taken it upon themselves to encourage modern arts to prosper and go places. “You can see the likes of Bruce Onobrakpeya, Uche Okeke, Demas Nwoko, Obiora Udechukwu, Yusuf Grillo and others who have taken up the mantle to enrich Nigerian arts. There is nowhere in the world where their works are not displayed or recognized and we continue to say that our art ranks among the best in the world. When the Zaria Rebels began to champion the cause of Nigerian art in the late 50s most people then did not understand them. But today that struggle has come to give vent to the indigenous modern art.

Udeh who began his business in the 1960s as a book publisher insisted that with the determination of Nigerian artists who refused to be so intimidated by their European teachers, contemporary art has come to occupy centre stage today.

“I can tell you that they also used that medium to resist the Europeans. Today Europeans are borrowing from us, from our artistic ideas. It is a situation that has further enriched our art. And so for me as an art collector, I owe it to myself and to the society to help build a formidable art world for our people. Even the works of Ulli Beier and his life, Suzan, further gave impetus to the Nigerian art,” he said.

Now with the birth of Osogbo art and the rest, the Nigerian arts began to reach out to the rest of the world. “Even today, Nigeria arts are seen in the best art galleries in America and Europe. The pendulum has changed that today Europeans want to identify with our arts more than we want to identify with theirs. It is like they have run out of steam and ideas. This is why art collection is a big thing for me.

Right from the 1960s till 1970s my idea of art collection had been there, depending on the resources available to me. I have been collecting and today my collections are so large and varied,” he postulated.

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THE NATION ON SUNDAY,

ARTS

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HE drop in the reading habits of Nigerians have generated lots of controversies over the years.

Last Saturday the issue pop up once more , this time around lovers of good books x-rayed the challenges facing writers especially upcoming writers and traced this to poor reading habits.

However another school of thought believed that the trend was changing thanks to the opportunities available online.

Venue was the book Reading of the book Hope on the Go written by Victoria Praise Abraham. The publication which is filled with life changing inspirational messages was read to an audience the Terra culture in Lagos.

Abraham informs that: “This is the first book that I would have a seating audience and I am excited.

The book has pictures and makes it exciting to read. It is filled with words of wisdom that are short and precise.”

Interestingly, she has a special genre of writing designed to fire up individuals to live lives to the full in a God-given ambit. Her style which is simple but

JULY 5, 2015

Making it hopeful

•Victoria Praise Abraham and Anisha at the book reading

By Yetunde Oladeinde

unique ascribes a deeper purpose to living beyond the ordinary and mundane.

The vignettes come with illustrative photographs on aspects of life being discussed, which makes it also visually and

aesthetically pleasing.

The first reading was done by Anisha Oruwariye explores the messages on page seven and more. Here you get quotes like: Greatness lies within you and your business is to show its, Action is the mother of dreams, take action now, If

you cannot take risk, you cannot break through.

Other interesting quotes from the book includes: Contentment is great gain, your time is your gain, A lazy man can live long, but poverty would be his bedmate, Life requites a push, don’t just stand, When life

Scenic images of a classic I

N his own concept of the interpretation of the scenes in Things Fall Apart, Dr. George Odoh, painter, graphic designer and a lecturer in the department of Fine and Applied Arts of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, (UNN) took the title of his drawings from each chapter of the novel. The phrases were carefully chosen, to provide compelling visual narratives which lie at the heart of Things Fall Apart.

The 25 drawings done by Odoh were part of the project termed In the heart of Things Fall Apart originally meant for the celebration of epic novel in 2008. On display at the moment at The Quintessence Art Gallery, Lagos, the works show the in-depth interpretations and explanations of some important scenes in the book. The visual presentation is part of the project embarked upon by three select artists to further promote the place of the novel as an irrepressible classic.

In an interview, Odoh said: “We thought that after 50 years, if you really want to re-engage Things Fall Apart, visual would be the best option. This is a book that appeals to you each time you pick it up. This is the reason I and the other artists, Krydz Ikwuemesi and Henry Mujunga got into it.

It was really to research into the heart of Things Fall Apart.

Through these drawings, you can reap open the heart of the book and dissect it and let the world see these salient scenes that define the novel 50 years ago.”

The book itself is a motivational one taking it in its entirety. When the author crafted the book, it all looked simple and all that, but the images and the messages inherent in it are deeper than the ordinary eyes can perceive. To Odoh, this notion

gives you a knock, do not cower and fall.

The second reading of the book handled by Victor takes a look at the messages from pages 230. The messages here talks about Creativity as the mother of change, think outside the box. To win in life, she admonishes her reader to have a winner’s mentality. Until, you live the crowd, you cannot find a path. Once this is done, you are likely to see opportunities while others see threats.

Yesterday’s tears, Abraham opines should not be allowed to destroy tomorrows dream.

Other motivating information in the book advices that there is no point going into marriage if you are going to divorce. People, she stressed are your greatest asset. You do not need a million friend’s, all you need is a handful. Life is not about the troubles but about moving on in spite of the troubles.

Failure, the author reiterated is refusing to try again. So it is important to be yourself because if you

decide to be someone else, you would become a bad copy. And if all, you do is wait in life, then life would pass you by.

Next the author goes on to talk about procrastination and how some successful people have been able to overcome it. “ For years , I knew that I was born to achieve greatness but didn’t know how I was going to be great.”

Although, Abraham has written other books on inspiration for successful living in a troubled world, her recent book, Hope on the Go (Holyseed Publication, Lagos; 2014) comes in a quick-look or quickreference material, perhaps with the lazy reader at the heart of its conception. Yes, the lazy reader, who dreads voluminous stuff, will find Hope on the Go a delightful reading material.

Its unique nature is in its short, snappy content, with each page making up a special ‘topic’, as it were, of its own. The lengthiest topic per page has just about 50 words in it! So, a page can be read in a blink. It’s the sort of book you’d read even while working, walking, travelling or just about everywhere without suffering distraction.

Honours for Chukwuemeka Ike

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•Obierika confronting the whiteman on the death of Okonkwo

By Edozie Udeze

partially defined his involvement in the project that when he was invited to be part of it in 2008, he took to heart the fact that this novel “is quite expressive in terms of the scenes it presented.”

When the novel was published in 1958, the first illustration on the cover page was designed by one of the Zaria Rebel artists, Uche Okeke. A versatile and erudite scholar, Okeke did justice to the true image of Okonkwo that anywhere Things Fall Apart was presented, that picture spoke volumes. Now, Odoh, a younger artist coming into the picture many years after, keyed into this phenomenon to present equally remarkable drawings to depict his own ideas of Things Fall Apart.

In this regard, he said,

•Odoh

“Even for the fact that Uche Okeke illustrated the first picture of the novel was an enough motivation for me to be involved. I thought that it would also be an honour to see how my own works would come to bear in interpreting some of the scenes. The essence of it all, was for us to read the novel chapter by chapter and then try to grasp the central scenic message in each chapter.

In other words, you needed to find the story that anchors each chapter and then try to represent it in visual form.”

This way, Odoh was able to represent some of the most memorable scenes in the book. His drawing of Obierika and the white man is awesome. His views about the Igbo masquerades are equally thoughtprovoking. Thus, all these scenes have come to unearth a different view of the

novel. “The idea,” Odoh explained further, “was really to see how Things Fall Apart depicted in scenic views in the Igbo culture, life experience, culture-conflicts and so on. These were the broad areas we looted into.”

Odoh who also noted that his watching of the Igbo and English versions of the film helped him to catch some of the idea of the novel said, “Achebe touched lives through his work. Even though he’d left the faculty by the time I arrived, we all could still feel his ubiquitous presence and impact on the campus. Some of the artists who taught me had personal relationship with him. I guess all this robed off on us the younger artists when we got into Nsukka as undergraduates. And it helped us somehow to understand some of his concepts as an artist of international reckoning.”

HE management of University Press Plc has honoured veteran Nigerian writer, Chukwuemeka Ike at its seventh annual Author’s Forum.

Held on Wednesday, June 24, the occasion marked the 50th anniversary of the Ike’s life as an author.

Addressing a gathering of authors and stakeholders, Chairman of the Board of Directors of University Press, DrLalekan Are describe Professor Ike as an acclaimed creative writer “whose first novel, Toads for Supper was published in London in 1965.”

According to Are, as an author, Ike uses his creative works to mirror, command, reproach and persuade the society with the intention of having a better society. “His stories centre on the transformation of society at large.

This is a laudable achievement worthy of emulation.

We are proud to have him as one of our valuable and esteemed authors,” Are said.

Presenting a keynote address titled Celebrating Ike: A Literary Icon of out Times, at the event was a renowned scholar of English Studies and English Literature, Professor KanchanaUgbabe.

Ugbabe stated that she is drawn to Ike’s effective and appropriate use of literary devices in his books.

“Fifty years ago, when Chukwuemeka Ike’s Toads for Supper was first published, Nigeria was a newly emergent, independent nation. Ike was writing at a time when there was no tradition of the African novel to fall back upon or draw inspiration from, no trend to speak of,” she noted.

According to her, it is evident from Ike’s first novel, Toads for Supper that prejudices operated at the institutional and personal levels as well. The mirror that Ike held up to nature, she said, re-

•Ike

By Ovwe Medeme

flected the good and desirable as well as the ugly and evil aspects of nature.

“Toads for supper took on the cankerworm of tribalism head-on, the culture conflict resulting from this is seen in the lives of Amadi and Aduke, the central characters.

Simultaneously, the novel brings to the fore the conflicts experienced by young people between tradition and modernity,” Ugbabe added.

Professor Ike served on the board of university Press for 24 years, between 1978 and 2002. He became the paramount ruler of Ndikelionwu town in Anambra State in October 2008. Also, in recognition of his contributions to the literary world and the society ingeneral, Ike was conferred with the Nigerian National Order of Merit (NNOM) award in 2013.

THE NATION ON SUNDAY, JULY 5, 2015

Page 58, 59

No end to bank fraud

Innoson Group, GTBank square up over N30b lawsuit •Agbaje

•Chukwuma

Page 59

• Ikpoki

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-- Page 53 ‘There are opportunities for telecoms players in Nigeria’ Page 60

Expert optimistic Nigeria can benefit from $10tr global outsourcing market

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•From left: General Manager, Listing, Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), Mrs. Taba Peterside; Executive Director, Business Development, NSE, Mr. Haruna Jalo-Waziri; Chief Executive Officer, Stanbic IBTC Holdings Plc; Mrs. Sola David-Borha; Chief Executive Officer, NSE, Mr. Oscar Onyema, and Chief Executive Officer, Stanbic IBTC Capital, Ms Yewande Sadiku at the Standard Bank Africa Investors Conference in London…recently

A

‘Tax awareness still low in Nigeria’

LTHOUGH tax revenue is a sustainable way of generating income for government, the irony, however, is that the level of tax awareness is still poor across the country.

Chief Mark Dike, immediate past president of the Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria (CITN) gave this insight in an exclusive interview with The Nation at the weekend.

He lamented that efforts by various governments to evolve viable tax system in the country as a panacea for economic growth and development have failed to truly translate to better living conditions for majority of the citizenry.

According to Dike, "Saying that tax awareness has

Stories by Ibrahim Apekhade Yusuf

increased in Nigeria is neither here nor there. The awareness depends on how you look at it. If you're looking at it from the perspective of government or from the perspective of the citizenry, especially those who are supposed to pay tax, if you're looking at it from the perspective of government, then I can say there is this realisation by government that tax is the only way for government to raise sustainable revenue that it can utilise to prosecute government business. And prosecuting government business is not just to pay salaries but more importantly, to provide public goods and services for

all citizens, whether you're in employment of government or not, whether you're a paid employee or self-employed person."

Pressed further, he said: "If you now look at it from the point of the citizens, the awareness is not adequate.

Yes, they know they have a duty to pay tax but people have this attitude that why do I need to pay tax. There is this maxim in taxation, if you talk about tax policy. Qui bono, for what purpose, why am I paying tax because as long as the quid pro quo, you give and you expect something in return, is not there, then there is a problem with such a system."

Dike who condemned what he termed bastardisation of tax holiday by the federal government

MTN not a monopoly, says Ikpoki

C

HIEF Executive Officer of MTN Nigeria, Mr. Mike Ikpoki, has refuted allegations that the telecoms giant may be deliberately stifling competition in the nation's telecommunications industry.

Ikpoki, who spoke in an interview with The Nation, said it is unfair to perceive that a particular operator was threatening the growth of other players in the telecoms sub-sector.

The MTN boss who was reacting to insinuations from some sections of the telecoms industry, that MTN is intimidating other operators with its large network size, accommodating over 61 million subscribers out of the 140 million subscribers from

across the four GSM operators, said MTN has worked tirelessly to set the pace in the highly competitive telecoms sector, a move, he said, has helped in no small measure to enable progressive growth of the largest subscriber network in the country.

MTN Nigeria had been accused of using its large network size in suppressing smaller operators in the areas of interconnectivity and interconnect rates, as well as collocation of telecoms facilities and revenue generation.

Responding to the allegation, Ikpoki said: "Look, MTN is a company competing in a market like every other businesses. MTN, like other companies were given a

license in 2001 and we have been running our business as efficiently as we can. I really don't understand what this issue is all about. Nigeria is a very competitive market, which is the bottom line for businesses and the industry we have found ourselves. What we have tried to do over the years is to compete, but we have invested very aggressively.

With all modesty, we are not where we are today because we folded our hands and watch.

We have invested heavily.

"Today, MTN Nigeria has invested over $15 billion since inception into the Nigerian economy. We have paid taxes of over N1trillion we have created jobs for lots of partners that you see today, which have had a multiplier effect on the

which he partly blamed for the low tax-to- GDP ratio, described the current practice as means of enriching the pockets of friends of those in government rather than using it as an incentive to spur corporate organisations to do more public work, as part of their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).

"Giving tax holiday is not free lunch; there are benefits and agreements at-tached to it. In fact, there must be quantifiable and verifiable evidence for tax holiday to happen. We feel statutorily obliged to initiate programmes and discussions that would not only help in critically addressing these issues, but would also find solutions to the numerous problems bedeviling our economy," he added. economy. So, we have run a successful business in a very difficult terrain. We don't see why our quest for wider and improved service delivery should be seen as a threat."

All telecommunications players, the MTN boss stressed, "have equal opportunity to compete in the market. All of us are competing out there, so I don't know why there is this whole issue about one player taking the whole profit. I can tell, we are running our business the best way we can, rendering se enabling economic investing, managing our channels, working with partners, employing people, among others. We are doing the best we can. So, for me, I think the market is a competitive one and the good thing about competition is that the value has been for the customers."

HE federal govern-ment has been urged to reposition the outsourcing business to enable the country benefit from the $10trillion global outsourcing market.

Making this appeal was the Director General, National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Peter Jack.

He gave this charge at the 2015 Outsourcing Expo organsied by the Association of Outsourcing Professionals of Nigeria in partnership with Integrated Corporate Services, Whytecloen, lifewort, Vic Lawrence and Associate in Lagos.

Tagged: 'The Value of Outsourcing', the event brought together hundreds of professionals, government agencies, captains of industries and top media practitioners.

According to Jack, the federal government is putting into place a national working document to regulate the outsourcing business in Nigeria so it can be reposition to play in the $10trillion global outsourcing space.

Jack, who was represented by a member of the board of NITDA, Sunday Afolayan noted that there are many companies trying to force exiting resources into an outsource model because of greed and they end up missing the abundant opportunities of outsourcing business.

On many emerging economy like India, he said the

By Adeola Ogunlade single driver of growth in India is outsourcing and it value to the economy in India is evident.

"African is not taken advantage of the numerous opportunities of the outsourcing sector as 10% of the global value of outsourcing is shared between South Africa, Egypt, Kenya, Mauritius who are taking the lead in the region," he said.

Earlier, the President of Association of Outsourcing Professionals of Nigeria AOPN, Dr. Austin Nweze called on the federal government to put in place infrastructure that would help Nigerians access the potential in the outsourcing sector.

He said countries are either in the supply or demand side in outsourcing depending on how we are able to leverage on their skill labour, infrastructure and governance structure for value in h outsourcing space.

He cited a recent World Bank report that 2020, the size of online outsourcing industry will be in the range of US$15 to 25$billion and has the capacity to employ at least 30 million registered worker will create about 30million jobs across the world.

Nweze said outsourcing provides broader access o specialised skills, more flexible and faster hiring processes and 24 hours productivity.

MTN, firm to host first technology confab

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HE Nigerian technology industry is set to witness a major boost, as leading telecommunication company MTN Nigeria in partnership with Connect Marketing Services (CMS), a marketing and consumer engagement company has announced its plan to hold Tech+. Tech+ is Nigeria's first technology conference and exhibition to hold later this month, with the theme "Leadership in Digital Technology."

The event, scheduled to take place at Eko Hotel and Suites, Victoria Island between July 2425, 2015, will showcase the future of technology in Nigeria.

Commenting on the conference, Mr. Olubayo Adekanmbi, Chief Marketing and Strategy Officer, MTN Nigeria described the two-day event as an innovative annual platform for consumers and businesses to maximise their technology experience.

"Tech+ will offer platforms for engagement and new

experiences in the world of technology. It is unique because of the range of benefits it holds for all, including investors, exhibitors and individuals who are expected to participate at the event.

Technology has come of age, but sadly, not many individuals and businesses fully understand how they can tap into the array of opportunities these technologies offer and that is what we seek to address," Adekanmbi said.

Expanding on the expectations at the event, Mr. Richard Iweanoge, General Manager, Consumer Marketing, MTN Nigeria, said Tech+ does not only 'tell' but 'shows' how consumers can fully utilise technology to advance their course.

Speakers at event will include: Mr. Jim McKelvey (co-founder of Square), Mr. Wael Fakharany (Google X Middle East and Africa), Mr. Nicolas Martin, CEO, Jumia Africa.

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THE NATION ON SUNDAY JULY 5, 2015

BUSINESS

EPORT of thefts in banks is no longer news as the media is continuously inundated with stories of malfeasance in banks and other related institutions.

Perhaps aware that as in all human endeavours, there are criminal elements within who try to compromise the system for their selfish ends, financial institutions worldwide have continuously try to strengthen the system to curb the incidence of fraud through the deployment of the right security measures including cyber security and other hi-tech support.

Thankfully, Nigeria, which is also a part of the global community, has naturally keyed into this by investing in appropriate technology.

But whether these measures have had much of an impact remains to be seen judging by the rapidity of frauds and forgeries in banks these days.

Spate of bank frauds The regularity of bank related frauds has been rather unprecedented in recent times compared to years past.

For analysts who have monitored the ugly trend, the spate of bank thefts is a serious course for concern.

According to the latest report on Frauds and Forgeries in Banks by the Financial Institutions Training Centre (FITC), Deposit Money Banks recorded a total of 8,502 fraud cases between January and September 2014, amounting to N23.34billion.

The FITC is Lagos, a foremost Nigerian institution, where Dr. (Mrs.) Lucy Newman sits atop as the Chief Executive.

The report is based on 66 returns received from 22DMBs. The Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Unity Bank, Mr. Henry Semenitari, said that much at the 30th quarterly meeting of the Committee of Chief Internal Auditors of Banks in Nigeria hosted by the bank in Lagos.

He said the N23.34bn fraud cases were committed through Automated Teller Machine withdrawals, computer manipulation, over-the-counter withdrawals, suppression of entries, and opening/operating of accounts.

He said, "Fraud is an epidemic that has eaten deep into the banking sector and the Nigerian economy. Its devastating effect manifests itself in the deteriorating balance sheet of banks as well as economic backwardness of third world countries, including Nigeria.

"Over the years, it has been established that substantial part of banks' revenue is lost to fraud with no single bank spared.

"From the FITC Report on Frauds and Forgeries in Banks (January - September 2014), a total of 8,502 cases were reported.

"The total amount of money involved was N23.34bn out of which N3.01bn was actually lost. N20.33bn of the total amount involved was recovered through the collective efforts of banks' internal and external control techniques as well as intervention of the law enforcement and anti-graft agencies."

Semenitari told chief auditors of banks present at the meeting to make fraud prevention their main focus.

He noted that fraud had succeeded in killing organisations and "sending home everybody right from the gateman to the Managing Director/ Chief Executive Officer; the case of Enron Corporation is a popular case study."

He argued that banks were spending fortunes trying to recover money lost to fraud.

He said, "The recoveries (of part of the money lost in fraud cases) could not be achieved without costs direct and indirect, thus impacting negatively on the performances of our organisations. This implies that it could have been better for us to prevent the fraud than pursuing recoveries after it has been perpetrated."

Semenitari described operational efficiency as banks' ability to operate profitably by matching or exceeding every customer's satisfaction while adopting good cost control strategies across all balance sheet indices.

No end to bank fraud

Bank related frauds and forgeries have been on the rise in recent times with over N23billion losses recorded in the last one year. Ibrahim Apekhade Yusuf in this report examines the issues

• Central Bank of Nigeria Headquarters, Abuja

He said, in the past, banks had built their business model and revenue strategies around deposit mobilisation, creation of risk assets, treasury activities and traditional front-end business coverage.

Modus operandi deployed by bank fraudsters No doubt since e-banking commenced some years ago, banking operations and services to customers have been made easier. But there are also setbacks and risks the banks and customers face from time to time.

The Nation can authoritatively report that there is a rise in bank frauds as fraudsters cash in on modern technology to fleece unsuspecting depositors.

A banker in one of the leading commercial banks in Nigeria, who craved anonymity, confirmed the rise of insider collaborators in fraud.

He noted that the network of criminals is so strong that it is extremely difficult to pin down the culprits.

The source said the most elementary aspect of the fraud is due in part to dereliction of duty on the part of bank staff who neglect the all-important task of checking and confirmation of personal data and addresses of fresh bank customers who want to open new accounts.

"In a situation where there is no confirmation, the accomplice goes ahead to open such accounts, which are used in defrauding people. In effect, when fraud happens, the suspects cannot be located with the addresses in personal data forms. He stands a better chance of evading prosecution at this point," the source said.

Expatiating, he said, fraudsters usually connive with insiders to compromise account numbers and other details of persons they know have sizeable cash deposits.

"They come and pretend that they have forgotten the signature they signed for the account in question.

They request that the manifest be opened for them to see their signature and remember. Once the insider opens the manifest, the fraudster could also request to snap the signature with his

phone, under the pretext that he doesn't want to forget it again. These are questionable demands, but the insider grants it because they are in collaboration. Of course, we know there are expert forgers," he explained.

The man, who pleaded anonymity, said he had over N3.2 million in his account and went to withdraw N200,000. He had not withdrawn cash for a while, noting that the transaction was done. But since his GSM number which receives SMS alerts was inoperative, he requested for written balance, only to discover that N2.1 million had been withdrawn.

"I raised alarm and upon investigation by the management of the bank, it was discovered that someone forged my bank documents, impersonated me with an identity card and also cloned my GSM line. The money was transferred into an account in Abuja, but I couldn't get the alert. The bank later discovered I never made the transfer or withdrawals and refunded my money, but it suspended the cashier who authorised the payment," the victim said.

Fraud within the banking sector manifests at different levels and it is systemic in nature.

A source said a bank staff would not ordinarily open doors for a thief to come in and steal money from the vault.

He said what obtains is that corrupt bank staff carefully arrange for a lapse to occur, so they can explore that window.

A staff of one of the old generation banks who asked not to be named because of the sensitive nature of the issue said experience has shown that it is almost impossible to hit any bank without internal assistance.

"One of the common examples of fraud amongst the top officers of banks is in approving fraudulent loans for their proxies. They register companies in the name of their friends or families, put documents together and approve huge sums to these companies which largely exist only on paper."

Pressed further, the source said: "Working in cohort with proxies, they go ahead to approve all manner of

concessions and waivers, practically giving themselves these monies, robbing the bank of legitimate income.

Billions of naira are stolen this way, accumulatively."

Investigation further revealed that in most cases even where these companies truly exist with verifiable business on ground, they cannot access bank loans on record time without reaching a compromise with the bank officials on what percentage they will get as kick-backs.

"In doing so, even where there are danger signals to warrant reconsideration, they will be overlooked and approval will be given," another source added.

According to him, these monies are not captured in the books of the banks because they could raise suspicion by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), saying it denies the bank of income.

"With the cooperation and understanding of the bank management, they move these sums around from time to time to avoid CBN's unscheduled inspection. You will rarely see the real owners of these monies in the banking hall, as they have their agents who are well-known by the banks and can access these monies at any time of the day," he added.

CBN onslaught against bank fraud Worried by the increasing cases of fraud, the CBN on January 19 through a circular issued a directive urging banks to take steps to curb the trend. The directive, signed by Mr. Dipo Fatokun, Director, Banking and Payment System Department, also stated that the abuses center on identity theft and abuse of authorization.

The apex bank therefore announced measures to check such and gave a December 31, 2015 time limit for compliance by all banks or a N50,000 fine daily after the expiration of the deadline.

Experts argue that what you get with the lower ranks of bank officials is not frequent and they also come in various forms because the opening is not always there. They insist that in some cases, double deductions occur

on same amount on an account where the customer has made same type of deductions, by not crediting the customer's account with deposits, yet issuing a teller to the customer.

They could also connive with robbers to hit the banks premises or bullion vans if they notice that guards are loose on certain days or times. There are also cases of signature forgery and altered cheques.

But he however cautioned that whereas banks keep updating their fraud counter-mechanisms, a lot more depend on the integrity and prudence of the staff to succeed. The banks may need to also reconsider the current practice of contract workers who handle transactions far above their pay grades. "You cannot employ a graduate, place him on contract and pay him less than 50 percent of what a similar graduate in the same system earns, who is not on contract. Temptation will be there."

In furtherance of its efforts at combating fraud within the banking industry, the CBN has directed all deposit money banks (DMBs), mobile money operators (MMOs), switches and all payment service providers to establish and maintain a dedicated Fraud Desk in their respective organisations.

The apex regulator said the Fraud Desk shall be appropriately staffed with personnel that have requisite training on emerging fraud trends on various electronic payment channels.

The policy, according to the banking sector regulator, takes effect from July 1, 2015, and failure to comply shall attract appropriate sanctions.

The CBN stated this in a circular titled: "Establishment of Industry Fraud Desks," addressed to all DMBs, switches and payment service providers obtained by our correspondent.

The circular signed by the Director, Banking and Payment System Department, CBN, Mr. Dipo Fatokun, was dated June 11, 2015.

The desk is expected to provide support to customers on electronic frauds with a minimum of 10 dedicated phone lines, manned and available to customers at all times; make available the option for calls to contact centre, in respect of fraud alerts or complaints, to be redirected to fraud desk.

Block and/or place no debit restrictions on account upon receipt of fraud complaint; and receive customers' stop-transaction instructions to block their accounts through short codes service provided to customers by the banks.

In addition, the dedicated bank officials are expected to log all customers' fraud alert and/or complain and escalate in line with internally predefined escalation path; submit reports to the Nigeria Interbank Settlement System (NIBSS) Plc on fraud information logged by the fraud desk; honour 'hold' instructions from NIBSS with respect to fraud matters and grant NIBSS permissions to view details on logged transactions and sensitise customers on e-fraud and the Fraud Desk Services.

In the circular which reads in part, the CBN said: "In furtherance of its efforts at combating fraud within the banking industry, established the Nigeria Electronic Fraud Forum (NeFF) to proffer solutions towards addressing frauds arising from the increased adoption of electronic payments."

The NIBSS was also mandated to have responsibility as industry coordinator of the fraud desk across all banks, mobile money operators, switches and payments service providers and was expected to among

THE NATION ON SUNDAY JULY 5, 2015

BUSINESS

59

Innoson Group, GTBank square up over N30b lawsuit

A

•Emefiele

•Newman

•Isiavwe other things, provide electronic platform for fraud desks in banks, MMOs, switches and payment service providers to log frauds; and maintain direct and dedicated phone lines and e-mail contacts to all banks, mobile money operators, switches and payment service providers' fraud desks for the purpose of exchange of information and coordination of industry response to fraud attempts/incidents.

Measures against cyber crime The Information Security Society of Africa-Nigeria is optimistic that with the signing of the bill on cybercrime into law, its urgent implementation would help sanitise the country's cyberspace already riddled with a web of frauds and malpractices.

The ISSAN President and General Manager, Union Bank, Dr. David Isiavwe, said that with the law now in place, it would no longer be business as usual for criminals whose business was to defraud innocent people of their hard-earned money and resources through the Internet and other electronic means.

"We are delighted that Nigeria has joined the few countries in Africa and indeed the world at large, to have a law which provides effective, unified and comprehensive legal, regulatory and institutional framework for the prohibition, detection, prosecution and punishment of cybercrime in the country.

"It will also ensure the protection of computer systems and networks, electronic communications, data and computer programmes, intellectual property and piracy rights," Isiavwe said.

"For sure, it is no longer business as usual for cyber criminals. From the petty criminals operating in cybercafés to the major hackers, email scammers and other computer-based fraudsters, the law stipulates heavy penalties, which the criminals should be made aware of before they embark on their 'suicide' mission," he said.

N otherwise cordial relationship existing between Innoson Group and Guaranty Trust Bank Plc has since gone awry no thanks to irreconcilable differences among both parties.

At issue is the N30billion lawsuit filed against Guaranty Trust Bank Plc

by Innoson Group.

Details of the suit showed that Innoson Group, including Nigeria's first indigenous automobile manufacturing company (Innoson Vehicle Manufacturing Company Limited), sued GTB as follows: N20 billion for freezing of their bank accounts in all Nigerian banks from September 1, 2014 to June 15, 2015.

Besides, following the striking out of the suit on June 10, 2015, the firm asked for N5 billion for reputational damages and/or injuries suffered by the companies; N5 billion for general damages and a 22 percent interest on the sum claimed from September 1, 2014 till judgement and thereafter at the same rate till liquidation of judgment debt.

A cursory look at the issues in contention showed that Innoson and GTB's relationship started in 2003.

However, things went sour when the Nigerian Customs Service Board seized and auctioned some goods imported by Innoson despite providing evidence that it satisfied the importation requirements.

Innoson incurred a lot of cost thus compelling the former to seek redress in court.

Subsequently, the court had ordered GTBank to pay Innoson N2,048,737,443.67 from Customs account. GTBank appealed the judgment, but the Court of Appeal, Ibadan affirmed the judgment of the Federal High Court, ordering GTBank to pay the judgment debt of N2,048,737,443.67 to Innoson.

Delivering judgment, Justice Chidi Nwaoma Uwa of the Court of Appeal, Ibadan, had said inter alia: "I cannot see any reason to fault the order of the learned trial judge. In the final analysis, the order absolute is hereby affirmed. The appeal is without merit; I dismiss same. The Ruling of the trial judge Shakarho, J. of the Federal High Court, delivered

Ibrahim Apekhade Yusuf in this report examines the ongoing rift between Innoson Group and Guaranty Trust Bank Plc over a N30 billion lawsuit

• Agbaje

•Chukwuma

on 29th July, 2011 in Suit FHC/L/ CS/603/2006 is hereby affirmed."

In her submission, Justice Monica Bolna'an Dongban-Mensem stated: "I have nothing useful to add to the lead judgment prepared by my learned brother Chidi Nwaoma Uwa JCA. The decision of the Federal High Court holden in Ibadan pronounced by Hon Justice J. E. Shakarho (J) on the 29th day of July, 2011 is hereby affirmed and the consequential orders are as made in the lead judgment."

Echoing similar sentiments, Justice Obietonbara Daniel-Kalio said: "I have had the privilege of reading, in draft, the lead judgment delivered by my Lord Chidi Nwaoma Uwa J.C.A. My Lord covered all the salient questions that arose under the issue for the determination and came to a conclusion that I entirely agree with.

I am also of the view that the appeal lacks merit. It is accordingly dismissed."

Prior to that, Innoson Nigeria Limited had got a facility of N2.4 billion from GTB in 2010 to partly finance the importation of new motorcycles and motorcycle spare parts, agricultural spare parts and plastic manufacturing equipment

respectively for a period of 365 days.

In 2011 the facility was restructured to a three-year-term loan and was said to stand then at N1,478,386,859.66 as at July 31, 2011.

But in 2012, Innoson discovered that there were some curious charges on its account with GTB. It got its account audited and it was found out that GTBank had deducted N786,205,955.99 as charges. It sued the bank. On May 16, 2013, Justice Salihu granted Innoson the sum of N559,374,072.09 against GTB, "with a 22 percent interest on the admitted sum to be paid from March 1, 2004 and at the same rate of 22 percent till satisfaction of the judgment debt." Justice Salihu added: "Again the 1st defendant/respondent (GTBank) is to pay a penalty of 100 percent of the amount as provided by the Central Bank of Nigeria Monetary, Credit, Foreign Trade and Exchange Policy Guideline for Fiscal Year 2012/2013 (circular No.39 of January 2012)."

On May 23, 2013, Justice Salihu granted an order of garnishee nisi of N4,739,037,712.66 against GTBank to be paid to Innoson.

GTB subsequently appealed the judgment of the Awka High Court, but the Court of Appeal, Enugu

Division, upheld the judgment and ordered GTB to pay the judgment debt, which stood at over N5.7 billion, into an interest-yielding account in the name of the Chief Registrar of the Court of Appeal.

However, GTB has appealed to the Supreme Court.

But Guaranty Trust Bank Plc did secured an ex parte order on Innoson Nigeria Limited, dated September 1, 2014 with suit number FHC/L/ CS/1119/2014, filed before a Federal High Court in Lagos, between Guaranty Trust Bank and Innoson Nigeria Limited, issued by Justice Okon Abang, ordering that, pending the hearing and the determination of the substantive suit, all commercial banks in Nigeria were restrained from accepting, honouring, or giving effect in any manner whatsoever to any mandate or instruction presented to them by Innoson companies or any of its agents or nominees for withdrawal of any sum of money standing to the credit of any account maintained by the company in all the banks.

On June 10, 2015, Justice Saliu Saidu of the Federal High Court, Lagos struck out the ex parte order freezing the bank accounts of the companies in Innoson Group.

Innoson then slammed a N30 billion suit on Guaranty Trust Bank for what it had suffered in monetary terms and reputational terms during the months when the accounts of its companies in all Nigerian banks were frozen.

With Innoson winning both cases at the High Court and both cases at the Appeal Court, and GTB appealing, both cases are awaiting the verdict of the Supreme Court.

Meanwhile the fresh N30 billion naira suit has just gone to the High Court to start its legal journey.

While the legal fireworks rage, stakeholders anxiously hope the issues would be resolved amicably between both parties.

'Why we acquired Oando downstream business'

H

ELIOS Investment Partners and the Vitol Group, the world's largest independent oil trader, have opened up on why they acquired the downstream business of Nigeria's Oando Plc. Justifying the need for the acquisition, in a statement released by the consortium, they said new downstream and retail business will be established as a standalone, independent company, led by a local management team.

The assets, they stressed, will comprise over 400 service stations in Nigeria with supporting infrastructure, including 84,000 tonnes of storage and a newly built inbound logistics jetty as well as complementary businesses, chiefly LPG filling and distribution, lubricants and an interest in a supply and bulk distribution company in Ghana.

It may be recalled that the two foreign firms had recently announced that they were coming together as a consortium, to acquire 60 per cent of the economic rights and 51 per cent of the voting rights in the West African downstream business of Oando Plc, an integrated oil and gas company headquartered in Nigeria, for a sum of US$276 million, subject to the receipt of regulatory approvals and customary purchase price adjustments, including working capital.

Vitol Group has in past partnered with NNPC in the export of Nigerian crude and supplying products to Nigerian oil importers and marketers.

Ian Taylor, President and CEO, Vitol said; "Vitol has a long history of working in Nigeria and is proud to have served our customers here over many years. This investment is a further reflection of our confidence in the Nigerian economy, and will be independent of the services we provide to our long standing Nigerian customers. We are looking forward to building this new downstream business, alongside our many other business activities in Nigeria."

Tope Lawani, co-founder and Managing Partner of Helios Investment Partners, said; "This is a market leading downstream energy business with a strong brand and exciting growth potential. Given our successful partnership with Vitol to create Vivo Energy, a leading downstream business which distributes and markets Shellbranded fuels and lubricants in 16 countries across Africa, we are confident that our expertise and regional presence will support the

management team in capitalising on its strong market position and the compelling growth opportunities in Nigeria."

According to Vitol, there are good opportunities to invest in Nigeria and this demonstrates growth and their belief and commitment to Nigeria and Africa.

Its trading portfolio includes crude oil, oil products, LPG, LNG, natural gas, coal, electricity, agricultural products, metals and carbon emissions.

•From left: Chief Marketing Officer, Etisalat Nigeria, Angelone Francesco; Marketing Manager, Etihad Airways, Folasade Akinboro and Director, Consumer Segment, Etisalat Nigeria, Oluwole Rawa, at the launch of Etisalat/Etihad Airways High Flyer Reward, held in Lagos…recently.

PHOTO: MUYIWA HASSAN

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M

THE NATION ON SUNDAY JULY 5, 2015

BUSINESS TN has evolved from a

telecommuni-cations firm to an Information and Communi-cations Technology (ICT) firm.

What informed this transformation?

I think the reality of our business is that MTN has been primarily a voice business. But we have grown our core business, which are voice and data beyond imagination.

However, about a few years ago, we recognised a new opportunity in ICT, which redefines our focus, by so doing investing in infrastructure.

Today, we have 47 data centres across Africa. We have fibre all over Africa. We have technology platform that enable us provide other services, especially to support other sectors of the economy. That is why we have expanded to become an ICT business. It was part of the reason we created MTN Business to focus on how do we service corporate, the Small and Medium scale Enterprises, to see how we can enable them with all forms of solutions, and make businesses a lot more profitable and efficient. So that is really how we have evolved. Our focus now at MTN, even as a group is to support business developments beyond the horizon. Our believe is that to grow our economy in Africa, there is need to grow business and we believe that our role at MTN is closely and significantly tied to that.

As a full-fledged ICT firm, what are the new challenges envisaged?

I think they are the usual challenges if you are in key business like ours. We are used to have challenges, which include fibre cuts, v multiple to over regulation and the rest. To me, what I considered the biggest issue, which is a challenge, also an opportunity is how to we create more digital literacy. For instance, when we talk about SMEs, if you are one today and planned setting up a business, you don't have to spend money on IT, because MTN has cloud services where you can download information from the cloud at a fraction of a cost. From there you can get software that helps you run your business efficiently.

But the biggest issue today is how to get more people aware of these opportunities. How do we create that literacy so that more and more people, businesses, even established ones can find that some of these solutions can become useful to them for efficient business management.

So I think that is really the big issue. Our core business of voice is natural, people can pick up a phone and talk, but tide is fast changing and technology is developing at the speed of light, so we believe that Nigeria and indeed Africa should not be left behind.

As such, it has become necessary to create digital awareness. For me that is

'There are opportunities for telecoms players in Nigeria' Michael Ikpoki, a lawyer by training, once served as the Managing Director of MTN Ghana before his appointment as the first indigenous Chief Executive Officer of MTN Nigeria in 2013. In this interview with Ibrahim Apekhade Yusuf he speaks on the milestones recorded thus far by the largest telecommunications firms in Nigeria, which currently has over 60 million subscribers. Excerpts: the challenge, which is a good one and if we can overcome it, then it means we can have more people becoming digitally literate and our ecosystem becomes robust for it. Looking at the informal sector from the angle of SMEs, it has been said that these set of businesses are critical to growing the economy.

What infrastructure does MTN has in place to help deepen broadband penetration in the country for improved quality of service?

I think the issue about data is about investments and more investments. I can tell you that we have invested quite heavily on infrastructure. For example, on the international bandwidth, we have the West African Cable System (WACS) cables. A huge investment has gone into that. We equally have investment in data collection, such as metropolitan fibre, but I think the reality of data, if you remember, there was a time we didn't have voice coverage everywhere, but today, voice coverage has gone to over 90 per cent of the country, but in data, it is just about 50 per cent of the country because it takes time. We have to upgrade our sites to 3G, build in fibre to support it; provide backhaul structure, the build out of all those infrastructure take time.

What we are trying to do is to focus on lots of places where we have more densed coverage and as you know, data unlike voice, where you can talk for about three to five minutes, data, people are on it all the time. So, the experience, the speeds are very important and the more customers you have on data, it means you have to continue to roll out services and improve your coverage.

Our focus now is densifying coverage in lots of the key markets. We are monitoring new customers that come in and we are ensuring that we improve coverage in most of those of markets, so that we can give the right kind of speed that is required. The reality is that data, just like voice, it will take us sometime, but we shall continue to invest to ensure we meet the need of our customers.

Could you expatiate more on what MTN is doing to improve services generally?

•Ikpoki

Generally, the most important thing in managing services is about investment. This is because at the end of the day, if you are acquiring customers, you have to make sure that you have enough infrastructures to support good quality service.

The most important as I said earlier is having quality investment on ground. As you know, MTN shall continue to invest aggressively to making sure that we acquire more customers and give them required services. Another thing is operational improvement, last you will recall that we did some changes in our organisation structure by outsourcing the management of the network to third party.

Last year, we moved about 230 of our engineers into Ericsson and Huawei, because these are technology companies, which have the responsibility to manage the networks. We have done that and equally made some changes in our organisational module,

where we sold our towers to third party, a company called INT. What they will be doing is that they will help us manage our towers with focus on ensuring that the infrastructure is working, they can deal with the many issues around by making sure there is adequate availability of service, among others.

So, with that whole model, we are seeing improvement and I think our focus is to make sure that we continue to invest and support the partners to deliver on the right quality of service expected. Having said all these, there are other factors, which are also reality. For instance the environment in which we are in; power supply, which dropped significantly last month to about 1.5 megawatts, so that tells you lots of the outages we have had are power related.

The issue about having a robust power sector is very critical. No matter how hard we try, it is still an issue we have to contend with. It is however an area been given lots of attention by

government.

There is this issue around Internet of Things (IoT).

How is MTN championing that revolution in Nigeria?

Well, lots of ways. It is a simple way by which machines talk to themselves. The most basic example is machine to machine, vehicle tracking.

Today, by putting a machine in your car, you can actually track where the car goes to; track location, the speed and others. So, it is basic tool. For example also, today, if you look at the economy, the logistics around putting such chip in your vehicle, you can easily track and manage the efficiency of how you use your fleet, so that is a basic step.

As we go further, the technology become more complex, by then, we will be looking at your fridge talking to your car talking to you. You will have smart home concept, meaning that within your home you can regulate how things work.

The onus of it is you're using technology to secure your asset, that is the stand point and as the economy continues to grow, more services of such will come on board.

But to what extent do you think the IoT will impact the economy generally?

If you talk about SMEs for example, one thing that is key in this their survival is lowering the cost of entry, making it easy for people to do business at cheaper cost and by providing the kind of services we are providing, we can actually enable a lot of SMEs to survive because we lower the cost of operation, so if you get to the MTN Yhello directory today, and subscribed to some of the services we have, including Software as a Service (SaaS); Cloud as a Service (CaaS), among others, MTN is able to reduce the cost of entry. A lot of SMEs don't survive the first two years because of the high barrier cost, which in itself is an opportunity.

Secondly, I think even for larger companies, at the end of the day, every company must work hard to reduce cost and improve efficiency.

A lot of the tools are there, even for bigger corporates.

MTN can house your entire IT infrastructure in our data centre. Today, we have a Tier 3 data centre in Lagos, an international world

class one, where we can host IT infrastructure, so today, for quite a number of banks, we host their infrastructure because it is not their business. So we take away those operational costs, which they would have had to in cure while managing to kinds of IT needs. Those are examples and as we go along, we shall continue to impact businesses positively with our infrastructure. We have different tools to manage businesses using technology.

There are insinuations in some quarters that MTN is monopolising the industry's profit. How would you react to this?

Look, MTN is a company competing in a market like every other businesses. MTN, like other companies were given a license in 2001 and we have been running our business as efficiently as we can. I really don't understand what this issue is all about.

Nigeria is a very competitive market, which is the bottom line for businesses and the industry we have found ourselves. What we have tried to do over the years is to compete, but we have invested very aggressively.

With all modesty, we are not where we are today because we folded our hands and watch. We have invested heavily.

Today, MTN Nigeria has invested over $15 billion since inception into the Nigerian economy. We have paid taxes of over N1trillion we have created jobs for lots of partners that you see today, which have had a multiplier effect on the economy. So, we have run a successful business in a very difficult terrain. We don't see why our quest for wider and improved service delivery should be seen as a threat.

All telecommunications players have equal opportunity to compete in the market. All of us are competing out there, so I don't know why there is this whole issue about one player taking the whole profit. I can tell, we are running our business the best way we can, rendering se enabling economic investing, managing our channels, working with partners, employing people, among others. We are doing the best we can. So, for me, I think the market is a competitive one and the good thing about competition is that the value has been for the customers.

For instance, prices for these markets have come down on the account of improved competition. In the last four years, prices have come down by over 70 per cent in the Nigerian telecommunications sector.

I think, the Nigerian market, like others in the world is a competitive one and we shall continue to compete.

My view is that all operators should strive to improve on their system.

The situation where some players will be complaining about others is not fair.

MTN don't complain about other operators, we compete with them.

61

THE NATION ON SUNDAY, JULY 5, 2015

Latest tricks swindlers use in market

•Market place

T

HIS week I had planned to respond to various messages and queries I have been receiving from readers, but something which I cannot keep for long happened.

Customers being robbed in the markets and shops is no news, that has been going on for ages, but the news is that the robbers are becoming more daring and employing more tricks.

There was mayhem. It was like something from a movie.

It was unbelievable. Exactly eight days ago, at Shop X on Balogun Street, at Balogun Market, Lagos, Mrs. Kemi Adetunji, a trader in Ibadan, came as usual to buy goods at wholesale prices for retail in her shop located on the popular Owo Rd. Ibadan.

Her customer for years, Mr. Innocent Ojukwu, who has several shops in the market and known for stocking up on designer laces, georges, etcetera, was on hand to attend to her with his three salesmen. The shop, of course, was brimming with lady customers who like patronising Innocent as he is known for selling high quality goods at good prices.

As usual, Mrs. Adetunji selected various fabrics and after agreeing on the price with Ojukwu, she counted out N600,000 and handed to one of the supposedly sales men closest to her.

Gesturing to her two assistants to carry the goods to where her vehicle was parked, she turned to leave, happily waving to Ojukwu and other people in the shop. The shop owner at that point reminded her jokingly that she was yet to pay for the goods.

Turning around, as she had already made to leave for the exit door, Mrs Adetunji matter of fact said that she had already given the money to one of the salesmen and continued to walk towards the door.

Looking at the three salesmen who were busy attending to customers, Ojukwu asked which of them collected the money so it could be handed back to him and the three men denied knowledge of any money.

Calling Mrs Adetunji back, Ojukwu informed her that none

of the salesmen agreed to have received money from her, asking her to identify the man she gave money to. Glancing around the shop, she said that the particular salesman she gave the money was no longer there. That may be the shop owner may have sent him on an errand.

Hearing that, Ojukwu immediately realised that something had gone wrong.

Abruptly rising and striding towards Mrs. Adetunji with his voice slightly raised, he informed her that he had only three salesmen who were currently in his shop serving customers, so who exactly did she make the payment to?

In panic, she looked all around her extensively to see if she could sight the person she gave the money to. She said she gave the money to one of the men, whom she had thought was one of the salespersons, as he seemed to be actively involved in the shop, assisting customers, admiring fabrics etcetera.

Who is the man, and where has he gone to? Nobody could answer. Ojukwu noted that when Mrs. Adetunji walked in, three men walked into the shop with her. Cutting him off, she said that the two men were her aides but that she did not know the third person. So, while the shop owner thought that the man who was, obviously, a swindler and had been trailing Mrs. Adetunji, was with her to make purchases, Adetunji only saw him in the shop and believed him to be a salesperson as he participated in the trading banters.

Mrs. Adetunji, now wailing and cursing, said that she could not forfeit N600,000 as losing such an amount would ruin her business and Mr. Ojukwu by then had recovered the goods from her aides, querying why she should hand money over to someone else when he was the person that attended to her.

Of course, by now a crowd had gathered. As is usual in Nigeria, a majority of the people started attributing it to charms, alleging that the swindler must have used charms to confuse Mrs. Adetunji and distract the shop owner.

On June 30th, a woman shopper went to the ground floor of Ecobank Shopping Plaza on Balogun Road in Balogun Market to buy laces, georges and other wrappers.

According to the owner of the shop, Mrs. Ngozi Ikolo, the woman who had been her customer for two years met her two sales boys as she was not in the market that period.

"My customer bought goods worth N74,000.00 and paid to another boy whom she thought was working for her.

Immediately he collected the money from her, he quietly and swiftly left the shop. At the end, when the shopper wanted to leave the shop with the goods, the other two sales boys asked her for payment and she said she had paid one of them," narrated Mrs. Ikolo.

The female shopper who erroneously paid money to the swindler said she thought he was one of the sales boys as he responded to her questions and assisted her in selecting fabrics and matching colours. She said that she also observed the boy assisting other customers.

Finding the incidents unbelievable and overwhelming, I went in search of the union chairman, only to find out that the market has numerous associations and unions. In fact, each of the Shopping Plaza has a chairman.

The man who simply identified himself as chairman explained that the method was the most recent way swindlers have engaged in stealing money from shoppers.

"The most common is where you have elderly women as old as 70years pretending to be intending buyers but actually in shops to pilfer from unassuming customers.

You will least expect someone that old to be a thief, so when you come across them in shops, you will not be on guard but if it is a young person, you will immediately clutch your bag tighter," said the chairman.

"Thieves mingling with customers and sales boys and actually impersonating sales boys and receiving payment from shoppers is a new trend in Balogun Market," he lamented.

Counselling customers, he

said they should make sure of the identity of the person they want to give money to while calling on his fellow traders to gently challenge any person found in their shops who does not seem to be making any purchase.

Speaking with the owner of 'Jesus Reigns Stores', Shop 3, Alatise Plaza, 6/7 Balogun Street, she lamented that it was the latest way of stealing in the market.

Asking the amiable lady, who is a big time dealer in high

quality georges, blouses, lace materials and head ties, how she would have handled the issue if it had happened to her customer, she responded "Well, I will find a way of sharing the loses with the customer but I pray it doesn't happen to me."

Konga trains children on computer programming N IGERIA'S largest online mall, Konga.com, has kickstarted its 3rd anniversary celebrations with the announcement that it will partner Audax Solutions to train the next generation of computer programmers at the Audax Code School.

Beneficiaries of the Konga grantages 9 - 16, will be selected

by Audax from public schools, orphanages and nongovernmental organisations (NGOs).

Audax Code School is an initiative of Audax Solutions which provides in-depth introduction to computer programming skills based on the fundamentals of web and mobile apps development.

With the programme, the children will be provided an indepth introduction to computer programming skills based on the fundamentals of web and mobile apps development.

Olatomiwa Akande,

Konga's Head of PR, made the disclosure, and noted that the initiative is in line with the company's vision 'to utilise internet and mobile technologies to create a pan African platform that enables trade and commerce for millions of sellers and buyers...".

Konga's third year celebrations tagged 'KongaBIG' are billed to hold all through the month of July. Akande recounted some highlights of the company's operations in Nigeria since it was founded by Sim Shagaya in July 2012.

"Konga started by selling beauty, personal and baby care products to online shoppers in Lagos. The company grew quickly with the rapid expansion of product categories and geographic reach. Today Konga delivers products to every state in Nigeria and now has a massive array of over

200,000 products listed for sale on its site. We have a strong social media followership of close to 2 million people."

According to Akande, "Konga truly has revolutionised the e-commerce industry in Nigeria with quality products at great prices, innovative offerings and unparalleled services to our customers across the country.

Our multiple award-winning company is growing rapidly with over 700 employees, offices in Lagos, South Africa and China; warehouses and distribution centres all over Nigeria. The expansion continues with a move to a bigger warehouse facility scheduled this July. This, will enable us cater more efficiently to the demands of our customers.

"We believe these milestones are indeed worthy of celebration for a company that has been in existence for only three years.�

THE NATION ON SUNDAY, JULY 5, 2015

62 INSIGHT •Continued from Page 32 longer in vogue. “ He agrees though that the relegation of subjects like Biology and Economics somehow makes the current policy suspect.

He said “I agree that you need a basic knowledge of science for somebody who has gone through secondary school. For a student who has not gone through a Biology class, the disadvantage is that if in the future when they have to write aptitude test for job interviews, they may find out that they have been short-changed. They are not versatile. When a student does not know something as basic as the definition of a stem, then you find out that that person is seriously disadvantaged. And for that reason, many states have taken the bold step to redefine this national curriculum.”

He revealed that Lagos State for instance sent a circular that subjects like Biology and Economics should be made compulsory. That way a student knows about his body system and health, as well as a bit about economy and business.

He recalled certain occasions whilst his school was still trying to play along with the original curriculum: “From time to time, a parent would come and make a lot of noise, “I don't know of a school where Biology will not be taught. I don't know of a school where my child would not do one science subject...;” and they would go on and on and on.

On the diminishing status of Geography, Ashiegbu said this is where a student needs a counsellor, so he doesn't make wrong subject combination. He said a child who wants to study Aeronautic Engineering or Urban and Regional Planning or even Architecture will definitely need Geography, and even if he gains admission without it, he most likely would still find out that he has short-changed himself, by not offering it in secondary school.

Ashiegbu said “Students now have five compulsory core subjects as approved by the Federal Ministry of Education, namely: English Language, General Mathematics, one entrepreneurial subject or what you call the trade subjects,

Losing our sense of HISTORY

Computer or ICT and of course Civic Education. Then they now pick any three that will define their career or chosen path. Right now we have four departments: Humanities, Science and Mathematics, Technology and Business Studies.

Students speak Elias Fatade, an SS3 science student of Ronik Secondary School admits that he has never done History or Government all his life, but says he does not in any way feel he is missing anything, since both subjects are not related to his core area of specialisation. He also thinks that Civic Education, which he is compelled to offer, stands in for whatever he might be missing in History or Government. He explained that Civic Education comprises topics on governance, the parliament, how nations are run, value system, plus everything he needs to know about Nigeria.

His colleague in the same school, Uzoma Ndulue who is in SS3 Arts class is proud to say that she does not offer Biology. She has

never been in a Biology class; although she chipped with visible enthusiasm that she does Health Science.

She seemingly dispels her VP's fears about not having an option of choice, should she feel like changing career choice at some point, when she said “I'm doing Health Science and I think that should suffice.”

She also said she has no regret not having an opportunity to have a look-in into other subjects because she chose her area of interest after careful consideration.

Besides, she said “I don't really need those extra loads.”

Oni Ifeoluwa, a Year 11 (SS2) Business Studies student of Cayley College neither offers History, nor Biology, nor even Geography; but she is still in line with the Federal Ministry of Education's requirement for school certificate examination.

She doesn't exactly feel she's missing anything because “Government has kind of compensated for whatever she might have been

missing in History.

She also claims to know a bit of Nigeria's history, especially as it concerns the 1950s and 1960s. She may not know much about the Ghana Empire and Mali Empire, but she does know about the old Oyo Empire, which is closer to home.

She also says that the new curriculum has given her an opportunity to learn Marketing earlier in life, as against the norm before now, where you only have your first taste of it in the higher institutions.

And she feels fulfilled with her subject combination because they are in line with her ambition to study Banking and Finance and later Financial Economics for Master's degree.

Oni's classmate in the Business Studies class, Onuigbo Adanna, also has never done Geography, History; neither has she ever been in a Physics, Chemistry or Biology classes. She believes she already had a taste of the sciences in the Basic Science class in Junior Secondary School and should

‘History has been pushed to the wall’ •Continued from Page 32

ficult. So, in other words, the awareness in the secondary school years is very low.

Pretty low indeed.

What they do now is to orientate people towards Government. That is why in the SSS years they do Government. Unfortunately again when they get to the university to seek for admission this becomes a problem. If you have a credit in Government and you do not have in Mathematics you cannot go to the Social Sciences to get admission. It is like the end of the story.

That is for Political Science. Or can you do International Relations without Mathematics? So, that is the challenge.

What is the effect of this curriculum in the university?

Yes, back to the effect on curriculum in the university and even in secondary schools, we need to revatilise History and let it be taken from JSS 1 into the senior classes. Let the foundation start from the moment you gain admission into secondary school, so that our children would be able to know who they are and where they are going. So, we did a comprehensive study which we sent to the federal government.

In fact, President Jonathan got to know about it in 2013 or so. He also was scandalized. This was when the HSN and some older Historians went to him on this issue.

But what was the intention, why did government have to do that?

I can't categorically say what they had in

mind. You know the military and their ways. One can only hazard a guess, however. But that guess cannot really pinpoint it. But I think it is this whole thing of using Civics to replace some subjects. While in school, some of us did what was then called Civics. If you like, if you want to extend it in their thinking, it looked like what has to do with Current Affairs, Civic Education and so on. This is so, because I know that this thing called Social Studies is an amalgam of Religious Studies, History, Geography and this is the basis of the problem. You can now talk about the manifestations of not exciting young minds early enough, especially in secondary school years.

Now I can talk about the manifestations at the university level. And that is that they come not directly to read History. But in those years, those who would willingly want to read History would come in to do so. But today in a year they may never number up to ten. Why? A few pass it in JAMB. I don't think it has significantly improved now. Now, you ask me how we have been surviving.

We have been surviving through admitting into History students who couldn't make Law or International Relations or Political Science. This is due to the challenge of Mathematics. So, we bring them in and if we do not, we'll not get anybody to study History.

So, now we have what you call disaffected students coming in to meet unexcited teachers. Because they come in with some of them still carrying on with this notion

that this is not what I have come in to study.

And when you ask them, they'd say oh, they gave me History to study. Then they begin to battle with it. However, one approach we have adopted is to be very liberal and allow them not to come in hoping to read History single honours. It has been the tradition here over the years. We allow them to combine either subjects or courses like English, Religious Studies, Philosophy or Political Science and Sociology. That was what was operating in the 70s when we came here as undergraduates. This was why we came up with this innovative idea of combining it with International Relations. It is now a very popular combination in this university and students want to identify with it.

So if in any year you are admitting students into the department, 90% are combining History with International Relations.

This way, it has been easier for them to stay in gainful employment thereafter. In fact, the acronym History- InterRel has come to stay. When you give them form to fill and they write History Inter Rel… those early years of their stay here we would shout at them. But that has come to stay and it has given the department a new feeling. It is popular because students now feel that if you study this combination, it smoothens your entry into government. So a lot of them feel that they can now work with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs or even go into the diplomatic service when they graduate.

That indeed gives them some sense of fulfillment and it is good yet. What we are say-

really now face her choice area.

Also she believes that Government adequately compensates for not doing History and does not feel like she's missing anything.

Another Cayley College student, Joseph Moboluwajidide, who hopes to study Mass Communication, feels he has chosen the right subject combination, even though he also has missed out on Biology and History subjects.

He believes he learnt enough to apprise himself with minimal knowledge in science when he went through Basic Science, Basic Tech and Agric Science in Junior Secondary School, and whatever knowledge he needs to access in the future, he can always go read it up on the internet.

Should he suddenly decide it has to be Law and not Mass Communication, Moboluwajidide says “I do Government and Literature.” And like Oni above, he also has chosen Marketing as his trade subject, because it has prospect for his future, in case he decides to run his own business.

ing is that a lot are still missing in the early years of our youths and this is why a lot of them do not indeed know about the culture of their past.

Now, by the time they get to the classes and you mention the names in History like Nzilikanzi, Mansa Musa, Idris Alooma, they are shocked; they have not heard about them before. Coupled with that is that they are afraid of dates. They complain that the dates are too many to remember. This is made worse because they did not become exposed to them on time.

Now we deal more with events and phenomena. The ability to recall the circumstances and all that and what happened during the period in question now occupies most of our time when we teach. So, now, you can see the devastating effect of what not teaching history on time has caused our youths. So this is the crisis of sending to us people who are not duly prepared to read History or to become Historians.

Has this in anyway affected the cultural perception of our youths about their cultural past?

Now what we teach them in part one or two which is History of West Africa is what they ought to have learnt earlier on. The text book we used in secondary school is what I use to teach them now. It is still very relevant because this is the first time they are being exposed to them. Indeed it is about a generational problem. So, even then, some of them are not interested in what happened in the past. They are eager to know about internet and the like.

Some of them cannot even sit down to read a comprehensive and serious history books. A few they can gather from the internet, that is for those who really care is enough for them. But that is not the History we want, history is meant to shape the society for today and tomorrow.

63

THE NATION ON SUNDAY, JULY 5, 2015

INTERVIEW

‘Nigerians must practise peace-based religion’ H

OW did it occur to you to start this inter-faith organisa-

tion?

You know I am a prophet.

So, it came through a revelation from God because of the crisis between Muslims and Christians all over the world.

The two religious bodies believe in one God but there is a missing link between the practices that lead to intolerance and violent reactions.

So, I kept asking God if the two religions are real.

Christianity is from the west while Islam is from Arabic countries. So, God said I should gather adherents of both faiths and ask them where they do what they do.

I believe both religions have to prove themselves. Nigeria is one but these two religions keep fighting for the same God. To live in peace, we must understand ourselves and where the other person is coming from. So, that is why we are doing what we do.

So, how have you been going through this?

We have been organising discussion forums in local communities for people to understand the other persons.

We believe that the more we talk, the more we generate empathy and understanding.

We have been recording amazing results and it’s been very incredible what people are finding out about the other religion.

We are the verge of organising a Christian/Muslim understanding conference Will the conference be looking at which of the religions is better?

I believe behind every argument is someone’s ignorance. What we offer is just a platform to hear out others on what they believe with a view to getting understanding. I believe it is not about who is right or wrong because the truth is Islam and Christianity have come to stay. Nei-

Prophet Iwu Ogbu is the national president of Christian and Muslims Peace Advocacy and Enlightenment Initiatives (CAMPAEI).

He spoke with Sunday Oguntola on why adherents of both religions must collaborate for peace. Excerpts: ther can neutralize the other because there will never happen. The conference should hold sometimes in September in Abuja.

But you are a Christian?

Yes, an orthodox Christian.

Do you run a church?

No, I don’t run a church.

You attend a church?

Yes, I am a Sabbath worshipper. I believe in the commandment of God that we should worship Him on Sabbath day. So, you will find me in any church that worships God on Sabbath days.

I don’t have a particular church but as long as you hold your worship on Saturdays, you will find me there.

Won’t the conference blend more towards portraying Christianity as the best?

There won’t be anything like that. I just told you that we don’t believe one religion is better than the other. We just want to hear others and promote interfaith understanding.

When two people are fighting, you cannot make peace until you find out what the problem is. So, let’s meet, chat and see the way forward.

You have Muslims in your organisation?

Sure, the national secretary is a Muslim lawyer based in Minna. We have so many Muslims with us.

What relationship do you have with Muslims? Are some of them your friends?

I have many Muslim friends. I don’t discriminate based on religion or anything. I relate with people because they are human beings first. Every other consideration is secondary. I don’t have anything against

•Ogbu Christianity and Islam.

Won’t the conference be tension-soaked when discussions start?

Not at all. We will not allow sentimental or emotional statements. We just want to hear out the others and listen well. We want answers on doctrinal beliefs, practices and actions. We

will look at what both religions teach and promote peace.

Yes, we have differences but we are saying God is one.

When we meet, we will understand why I said this.

But some Christians will say their God is not the same with the Islam… … I believe that is one of

the stereotypes that promote intolerance. The Muslims don’t have a separate God; the Christians don’t have a separate God. God is one. It is what we believe about Him that differs. But sometimes our approaches to Him may be wrong and faulty. I believe God does not have a religion. He loves peace and won’t support the religious violence we have now. The conference won’t be a one-off. I believe we have to sustain it because the wall of hostilities will take years to dissolve.

It’s important to talk because we have found out that some forces are behind the religious tensions in the world. They profit from it and we have to help Nigerians realise that someone could be triggering off the violent reactions we see sometimes some thousands of kilometers away for personal purposes.

Are you saying some World Powers could be behind the religious tension in Nigeria?

The truth is what we are seeing is a clash of foreign cultures. The Christians want to impose western values because they believe it is biblical. That is where the religion comes from, so they tend to want to see what obtains in the west here. That is what makes them feel Christianity is alive here.

In the same vein, the Muslims want Arabic culture everywhere. To them, the more Arabic Nigerians look, the more Islam is spreading.

That is the root cause of the religious tensions you see here.

But is Nigeria going to ever get to a point where there won’t be religious tension again?

I believe that time with come with better information and enlightenment and interaction. When people know the truth, they will act differently. What we are seeing playing out is a reflection of global tussle for supremacy between Christianity and Islam. That is the truth. You find hate preachers thinking they are working for God, not knowing the devil is using them to fulfill his agenda.

We don’t like facing the truth and that is we are where we are. You cannot fight for God. You practise your religion in a way such that you don’t hurt or disturb the other person. That is what true religion means to me.

The true reflection of religion is when you treat others well.

What is your reaction to the chaos in the National Assembly?

What happened at the National Assembly was ungodly. God does not want such occurrences. It was more saddening that the senate president emerged after a deal with the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) members.

The PDP ruled us for 16 years and we can all see the results. I urge the President to step in and take over otherwise Nigerians will hold him responsible if this current administration fails.

How can we tackle the insecurity challenge in the nation?

You see Boko Haram is borne out of the fact that Nigerians are ungodly. We have the highest number of churches and mosques yet we are morally bankrupt.

You see Boko Haram is not a political, religious or ethnic problem. The battle against Boko Haram is of the Lord.

NEWS

Rows over proposed regulation of religious bodies

C

HRISTIAN leaders last week protested the Exposure Draft of the national Code of Corporate Governance 2015 proposed by the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria (FRCN) to regulate the operations of religious bodies and Not-ForProfit-Organisations (NFPOs).

They accused the FRCN of acting out a script to emasculate religious organisation, warning such attempt will further embolden terror attacks across the nation.

At the public hearing of the code in Lagos, the church leaders, who mobilised

By Sunday Oguntola

themselves, queried the rationale behind the proposed regulations.

They specifically faulted section 9:3 of the code which specifies that founders of religious bodies and NGOs who have been in charge or attained 70 years must resign.

Barrister Tomi Vincent, who represented the Lagos State chapter of the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN) at the hearing, said such provision was against the operations of churches.

He said there was nowhere in the world where a

government or its agency will specify the age limit or years of service for religious bodies.

Vincent also faulted the provision for appointment of executive directors, saying such move will “rebrand churches as business entities.”

He also queried the provision for statement of accounts of faith-based organisations to be circulated to members, arguing that such move will expose churches to armed robberies and criminal elements.

The chairman of Christian Association of Nigeria

(CAN) in Lagos, Apostle Alexander Bamgbola, said the quest for accountability and transparency for religious bodies was commendable.

He however called for cautions, saying “in correcting things, we have to be mindful of the state of the nation. I strongly advise that you leave out churches and mosques from the regulation.”

The Vice President, Finance and Investment of the Nigerian Baptist Convention (NBC), Rev Dr Moses Adebayo, said the Christian community was wary of the real intention of the FRC.

“I want to tell you that we suspect your intentions. You did not get inputs from stakeholders. It seems this is a forceful exercise,” he stated.

He advised the regulatory agency to engage and consult with stakeholders to promote proper understanding.

“We don’t want draconian laws for the church otherwise we will resist it with everything,” the chartered accountant warned.

The founder of Macedonian Initiative, Ladi Thompson, said: “It would seem that those behind this Financial Reporting Council

of Nigeria were commissioned by unnamed people in the shadows to create an occasion for the conflagration of Nigeria by terrorists.

“On the surface the document seems innocent enough until the arsenic drops show up in sections 8.2, 8.3, 8.4, 9.4 etc.

“When a carpenter attempts to sew a shirt the product will speak for itself.

How else do you address the buffoonery that asks a mosque to employ executive directors or a church to jettison its diaconate when the law of God prescribes something else?”

64

THE NATION ON SUNDAY, JULY 5, 2015

WORSHIP

‘How the church can help homosexuals, lesbians’

S

AME-SEX practitioners and promoters need love, not outright condemnation, chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), South West region, Archbishop Magnus Atilade, has stated.

He challenged the church to treat homosexuals and lesbians as helpless sinners who need redemption.

Atilade said the church should set up effective counselling mechanisms that will rescue same-sex practitioners, instead of the current trend of condemning them.

By Sunday Oguntola

According to him: “We should not condemn same sex advocates and practitioners.

“We should show them love and understanding. The last thing the need is condemnation.

“We should see rescuing them as part of our mission as a church. Some of them can’t help themselves.

“The church should offer counselling and rehabilitation plans just as we do for drug addicts and prostitutes.”

Atilade, a medical practitioner, said he encountered many homosexuals and lesbi-

ans while practising in the United States of America (USA).

Giving insights into how they behave, he said: “By coordination, orientation and acclamation, some of them are conditioned to think like that.

“They have psychological problems and cannot help themselves. We should expect what they do as a wrong choice but we shouldn’t condemn them,” he explained.

He said the church should set up special rehabilitation units for same-sex victims so that they can be redeemed.

Be a real change agent, cleric tells Buhari

T

HE founder, Christ Apostolic Church, Canaan land, Prophet Hezekiah Oladeji, has advised President Muhammadu Buhari to live up to the change slogan of the All Progressives Congress(APC).

He told the President to prove to Nigerians that he can indeed bring about positive changes in the nation.

Oladeji spoke with reporters in Erio Ekiti on the progress made so far since the commencement of the seven-day Ayo Babalola Power explosion crusade’ on Erio mountain.

He expressed confi-

By Adegunle Olugbamila

dence that Nigeria will experience change under Buhari if he imbibes the spirit of selfless service.

Oladeji therefore appealed to President Buhari to always stand on the truth and not distracted by criticisms from various opposition groups.

He urged Nigerians to continue to pray for Buhari to lead the country from her economic quagmire.

According to him: “I have never lost hope in Nigeria’s project. This country can witness change if the present leadership believes it is there to work for the people

and not themselves.

“Our founding fathers had a dream of making Nigeria a great country and they have to work towards this dream. The only way to achieve this is by shunning corruption and redirecting our ways to the path of God.” Oladeji was equally optimistic that the days of rampant kidnappings, robbery and general insecurity in the country were numbered.

He said his ministry would continue to serve as veritable platform to counsel leaders on how to govern well and liberate many afflicted Nigerians from their spiritual bondage.

•L-R: Rev (Mrs.) Carol ighele; Mrs. Josephine Ugwu, the Lagos airport cleaner who returned $12 million and president of the proposed Sharon University of Agriculture and Rural Development Bishop Charles Ighele, during his 60th birthday in Lagos... recently

RCCG parish raises Lagos community

R

ESIDENTS of Owode community in Ibeju Lekki, Lagos recently received free mosquito nets, household materials, food items, medical treatment and drugs courtesy of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) area 021, Lagos province 35.

The gesture was part of the Community Social Responsibility tagged reaching the unreached initiative.

The church also planted

T

HE World Christian Council Association (WCCA) has praised a Christian women leader, Special Mother-In-Israel E. Oyemakinde, who died recently at 81.

Founder of WCCA, Primate Ayoola Omonigbehin, in a statement, described the

By Ibrahim Adam

a parish for the community to worship.

Pastor Emmanuel Emola of the Foursquare Gospel Church, Okun-Ise, Ibeju Lekki spoke on deliverance from captivity.

He said until men stayed away from sin, there would be no deliverance.

The parish pastor of the New Creation Chapel, Ajao Estate, Pastor Igho Orienru, said the outreach was to affect lives

of those yet to accept Christ.

One of the beneficiaries, Lana Williams, said: “It is a fascinating programme, which aims at giving free medication in accordance with the Lagos state free health outreach programme.”

Mrs. Abosede James also added: “It was a wonderful idea to remember us here with all they gave us, it encouraging and we thank God for them.”

WCCA mourns Oyemakinde deceased as a selfless woman.

He said she sacrificed her life for the improvement of children’s ministry and proved to be the light in her environment.

Omonigbehin said: “This is a big loss to Christendom, not

only to Cherubim and Seraphim alone but to all churches.

“She was a house wife with respect for all and her ability to nurture children ministry of the church was unequalled.”

COLUMN

Living Faith

By Dr. David Oyedepo

Serving God Pays!

W

ELCOME to the seventh month and the second half of this year. It shall be far more glorious than the first in Jesus’ name.It is important to know that Kingdom stewardship is the most profitable venture as it does not only pay, but pays the most and the best.

This is because it offers incomparable dividends and out-of-this world order of blessings. As it is written: And ye shall serve the Lord your God, and he shall bless thy bread, and thy water; and I will take sickness away from the midst of thee. There shall nothing cast their young, nor be barren, in thy land: the number of thy days I will fulfil (Exodus 23:25-26).

From the above scripture, ‘Bless’ means sorrowfree blessings. That is, blessings immune to all kinds of sorrow. It is written: The blessing of the Lord, it maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow with it (Proverbs 10:22; see also Exodus 23:25-26).

We must recognize that there is no pay anywhere in the world that is sorrowfree, it is always inadequate. However, when God pays, it is always sorrow-free. Serving God (Kingdom stewardship) is what qualifies us for His irreversible blessings, which makes us ‘uncursable’ by the devil and his agents.For instance, Balaam, an anointed prophet of his time said: How shall I curse, whom God hath not cursed? or how shall I defy, whom the LORD hath not defied? (Numbers 23:8; see also Genesis 12:3; Numbers 23:20).Serving God and the interests of His Kingdom also entitles us to supernatural supplies, which delivers us from begging, lack and want. It is written: If they obey and serve him, they shall spend their days in prosperity, and their years in pleasures (Job 36:11; see also Exodus 23:25).

Moreover, no one serving God is permitted to be barren or cast their young.

That is, it secures poster-

ity. It also procures longevity, health and vitality. Remember, Moses was still serving God at the age of 120 and the Bible records that his eyes were not dim nor his natural force abated. Also, Anna was an 84year old widow serving with prayer and fastings, day and night (Deuteronomy 34:7; Luke 2:37).

Furthermore, Kingdom stewardship entitles us to supernatural joy. When we are ‘on the go’, serving the interests of the Kingdom, we will always return with joy, which secures our harvest (Joel 1:12; Luke 10:17).

Indeed, serving God is the master key to a life of fulfilment and sweatless triumph.

But, what is Kingdom Stewardship?

Kingdom stewardship is serving God and the interests of His Kingdom as a lifestyle.

That is, commitment to the growth, expansion, enlargement and overall advancement of the Kingdom.Kingdom stewardship can be classified into two: Physical Stewardship: This involves our engagement in various service groups in the church.

Spiritual Stewardship:We engage in spiritual stewardship in two main ways, among others: Prayer & fasting: This involves serving the interests of the Kingdom by engaging in Kingdom-promotion, Kingdom-advancement and Kingdom-enlargement prayers. We understand from scriptures that Anna was a widow, who served God in prayer and fastings, day and night, for the advancement of the Kingdom of God in her days. Also, when Jesus taught us to pray, He urged us to engage in Kingdom-focused prayers when He said we should pray thus: ‘...Thy kingdom come....’ (Matthew 6:9-10; Luke 2:37).

Thus, we serve God through prayer and fasting by praying for salvation of souls, establishment of new converts in the faith, for church growth, effective outreaches and impactful services, among others. Furthermore, it includes praying for the rain of lifetransforming Word and the

good Word of the Lord that engenders strange order of testimonies among His people (Psalms 2:8; Isaiah 66:78; 2 Corinthians 3:18; Colossians 4:12; Hebrews 6:5).

The returns on Prayer and Fasting Stewardship include: Destruction of yokes:Is not this the fast that I have chosen? toloose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke? (Isaiah 58:6) Express answers to prayers: Then shalt thou call, and the LORD shall answer; thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am... (Isaiah 58:9; see also John 15:16).

Divine Direction: And the LORD shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not (Isaiah 58:11; see also Ezra 8:21-23).

Supernatural Breakthroughs: It is written: Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?…And the LORD shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not(Isaiah 58:6, 11; see also Isaiah 58:12, 14).

Are you born again? This means, have you accepted Jesus Christ as your Saviour and Lord? If you haven’t, you can do so as you say this prayer: “Lord Jesus, I come to You today. I am a sinner. Forgive me of my sins. Cleanse me with Your precious Blood. Deliver me from sin and satan to serve the Living God. Today, I accept You as my Lord and Saviour. Thank You Jesus for saving me! Now I know I am born again!”

For further reading, please get my books: Wisdom that Works, Walking in Wisdom, All you need to have all your needs met, Winning Wisdom and Excellency of Wisdom.I will conclude this teaching next week.

I invite you to come and fellowship with us at the Faith Tabernacle, Canaan Land, Ota, the covenant home of Winners. We have four services on Sundays, holding at 6:00 a.m., 7:50 a.m., 9:40 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. respectively.

I know this teaching has blessed you. Write and share your testimony with me through: Faith Tabernacle, Canaan Land, Ota, P.M.B. 21688, Ikeja, Lagos, Nigeria; or call 7747546-8; or E-mail: feedback@lfcww.org

NEWS

‘Prayers not America can stop insurgency in Nigeria’

O

NLY prayers and not assistance from the United States of America can stop insurgency in Nigeria, the Chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN),Agbado/Oke Odo Local Council Development chapter, Monsignor Livinus Ukah, has said.

Ukah spoke during a special prayer summit

with the theme”bringing back Nigeria’s lost glory” at The Apostolic Church, Agbelekale, Abule Egba, a suburb of Lagos.

He said: “America cannot solve our problems, especially insurgency which is confronting the nation’s peace.

“Americans have intervened in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and Yemen yet terrible things are happening in these

countries.

“Many problems have confronted us as a nation and we have solved them by ourselves without any foreign assistance.

“The major problems confronting Nigeria is ethnicity and they are best resolved through prayers.

Therefore, we are asking God to intervene in our problems today.”

THE NATION ON SUNDAY, JULY 5, 2015 CHANGE OF NAME CHANGE CHANGE OF OF NAME NAME

65 CHANGE OF NAME

OLUKOYA Formerly addressed as Kehinde Oriyomi Olukoya, now wish to be addressed as Mrs. Kehinde Rereloluwa Ishie.

Former documents remain valid. General public take note.

OMOTAYO Formerly addressed as Miss Titilola Loretta Omotayo, now wish to be addressed as Mrs. Okoye Titilola Loretta. Former documents remain valid. General public take note.

OLAOTI Formerly addressed as Miss Titilola Olaoti Lawal, now wish to be addressed as Mrs. Titilola Olaoti Akinbode. Former documents remain valid. LASG, NIESV and general public take note.

UGBABE Formerly addressed as MISS CHARITY OLUCHI UGBABE , now wish to be addressed as MRS. CHARITY OLUCHI AGBO. Former documents remain valid. General public take note.

OKORO Formerly addressed as Miss Okoro Osasum Wen Osemwinvie, now wish to be addressed as Mrs. Obasuyi, Osasumwen Osemwinvie.

Former documents remain valid.

General public take note.

ALPHEAUS Formerly addressed as Miss Alpheaus Chinasa Glory, now wish to be addressed as Mrs. Duru, Chinasa Glory. Former documents remain valid. General public take note.

JOHN Formerly addressed as John Saviour John, now wish to be addressed as John Saviour Effiong.

Former documents remain valid.

General public take note.

SULE Formerly addressed as Sule Taofiki Sunkanmi, now wish to be addressed as Sulaimon Taofik Sunkanmi. Former documents remain valid. General public take note.

QUILI Formerly addressed as QUILI BONIFACE, now wish to be addressed as ONWUNIRI BONIFACE. Former

CHUKWUMA Formerly addressed as Chukwuma Ferdinand, now wish to be addressed as Osmond Ikechukwu Tom. Former documents remain valid. General public take note.

NWOSU Formerly addressed as Kelechi Stacy Nwosu, now wish to be addressed as Kelechi Stacy Etokakpan. Former documents remain valid. General public take note.

IDOWU Formerly addressed as Miss Khitrat Olubukola Idowu, now wish to be addressed as Mrs. Khairat Olubukola Idowu Jimoh.

Former documents remain valid.

General public take note.

CHIANU Formerly addressed as Miss Modester Obiageli Chianu, now wish to be addressed as Mrs. Modester Obiageli Ejim. Former documents remain valid. General public take note.

DARAMOLA Formerly addressed as Daramola Oluwabunmi Bukola, now wish to be addressed as Ayodeji Oluwubunmi Daramola. Former documents remain valid. General public take note.

OYADELE Formerly addressed as Mrs. Bolakale Oyadele, now wish to be addressed as Mrs. Bolakale Oyelola Oladipo.

Former documents remain valid. General public take note.

EZEBINGAYA Formerly addressed as Ezebingaya Mercy Oluchi, now wish to be addressed as Justus Mercy Oluchi.

Former documents remain valid.

General public take note.

USMAN Formerly addressed as Miss Usman Bolanle Nasimat, now wish to be addressed as Mrs. Balogun, Bolanle Nasimat.

Former documents remain valid. General public take note.

FAGBENRO Formerly addressed as MISS FAGBENRO ASISAT OLAIDE,, now wish to be addressed as MRS. LAWAL ASISAT OLAIDE. Former documents remain valid. General public take note.

OZEKOME Formerly addressed as Miss Linda Ajala OZEKOME, now wish to be addressed as Mrs. Linda Angela Augustine-Ehigimentor.. Former documents remain valid. General public take note.

DZER Formerly addressed as Miss Josephine Dzer, now wish to be addressed as Mrs. Josephine Aondokaa. Former documents remain valid. St. JohnBosco, Aliade, Benue State, WAEC, JAMB and general public take note.

ONWUMERE Formerly addressed as Miss Nonye Gladys Onwumere, now wish to be addressed as Mrs. Nonye Gladys Ogbah. Former documents remain valid. General public take note.

EDDO Formerly addressed as Miss Eddo, Oluwafunke Emmanuella, now wish to be addressed as Mrs. Akintayo, Oluwafunke Eddo.

Former documents remain valid.

General public take note.

OLADAPO Formerly addressed as Oladapo, Oluwaseun Gloria, now wish to be addressed as Mrs. Philemon Oluseun Gloria. Former documents remain valid. WAEC, NECO, N.M.C.N and general public take note.

NDUBUISI Formerly addressed as Anaele Austin Ndubuisi, now wish to be addressed as Anaele Charles Ndubuisi. Former documents remain valid.General public take note.

UGHOLEH Formerly addressed as UGHOLEH NATHANIEL OGHENEWORO, now wish to be addressed as BRIGHT NATHANIEL OGHENEWORO. Former documents remain valid.General public take note.

ABIOYE Formerly addressed as Miss Abioye, Jane Anuoluwapo, now wish to be addressed as Mrs. SteveAdewuyi, Jane Anuoluwapo.

Former documents remain valid.

NAFDAC and general public take note.

OMODEHIN Formerly addressed as Miss Kehinde Beatrice Omodehin, now wish to be addressed as Mrs. Kehinde Beatrice Ajao. Former documents remain valid. General public take note.

OLAWALE Formerly addressed as Olawale Habeeb, now wish to be addressed as Onilenla Olawale Habeeb.

Former documents remain valid.

Lagos State Local govt. Service Commission and general public take note.

JELEEL Formerly addressed as Olatunde Abdul Jeleel, now wish to be addressed as Olatunde Jelili.

Former documents remain valid.

General public take note.

OJO Formerly addressed as Miss Ojo, Oluwayemisi Esther, now wish to be addressed as Amin Oluwayemisi Esther. Former documents remain valid. Hospital Management Board, Akure, Ondo State and general public take note.

JAYEOLA Formerly addressed as Miss Jayeola Sarah Yetunde, now wish to be addressed as Mrs. Idowu, Sarah Yetunde. Former documents remain valid. General public take note.

AKINSOLA Formerly addressed as Miss Akinsola, Bosede Comfort, now wish to be addressed as Mrs. Anifowose, Bosede Comfort.

Former documents remain valid.

General public take note.

IBRAHIM Formerly addressed as Miss Maryam Omolola Ibrahim, now wish to be addressed as Mrs. Maryam Omolola Kuye. Former documents remain valid. General public take note.

OGUNMOLA Formerly addressed as Miss Ogunmola, Hannah Taiwo, now wish to be addressed as Mrs. Falon Hannah Taiwo. Former documents remain valid. General public take note.

ODUMOSU Formerly addressed as Odumosu, Yetunde Olubunmi, now wish to be addressed as Olaogun Yetunde Olubunmi. Former documents remain valid. General public take note.

OBASI Formerly addressed as Obasi, Chidubem Patience, now wish to be addressed as Pepple Obasi Patience. Former documents remain valid. General public take note.

IYANG Formerly addressed as Miss Idorenyin John Inyang, now wish to be addressed as Mrs. Idorenyin Uwem Usanga. Former documents remain valid. General public take note.

ADEDOKUN Formerly addressed as Adedokun Jamiu Kayode, now wish to be addressed as Dosumu Tajudeen Temitayo. Former documents remain valid. General public take note.

OGAH Formerly addressed as Miss Ogah Ndidiamaka Favour, now wish to be addressed as Mrs. Ishajobi Damilola Favour Ogah. Former documents remain valid. Abia State University(ABSU) and general public take note.

OLAITAN Formerly addressed as Miss Olaitan Mutiat Adeola, now wish to be addressed as Mrs. Akinola, Adeola Abiodun. Former documents remain valid. General public take note.

IGOH Formerly addressed as Igoh Faith Matins, now wish to be addressed as Mrs. Faith Katumuowajilor Wilson. Former documents remain valid. General public take note.

documents remains valid. INEC and general public take note.

OGUNBIYI Formerly known as Miss Ogunbiyi Kabirat Bukola, now wish to be addressed as Mrs. Fashola Rebecca Olubukola. Former documents remains valid. General public take note.

ABDULAZEEZ Formerly known as Miss Abdulazeez Rabiat Okikiola, now wish to be addressed as Mrs. Alamotu Rabiat Okikiola Former documents remains valid. General public take note.

AGANGA-WILLIAM Formerly known as AgangaWilliams Jaiyeola, now wish to be addressed as Aganga- Williams Oluwaseyi Olukayode. Former documents remains valid. General public take note.

ATSU Formerly known as Miss Atsu Helen Adeshi, now wish to be addressed as Mrs. Ihejieto Helen Adeshi. Former documents remains valid. Nigeria Meteorological Agency and general public take note.

ONOVUGHAKPOR Formerly known as Miss Onovughakpor Frances Oghenewv-Oghagha, now wish to be addressed as Mrs. Obidike Frances Oghenewvo Ghagha.

Former documents remains valid.General public take note.

OKAJA Formerly known as Miss Okaja Jennifer Gloria, now wish to be addressed as Mrs. Onyeanu Jennifer Gloria. Former documents remains valid.General public take note.

ONO Formerly known as Mrs Ono Roseleen Ayedun,also my children Micheal,Rowland and Samuel now wish to be addressed as Mrs. Oke Roseleen.ears OKE as surname Former documents remains valid.General public take note.

OLAKUNLE Formerly known as MR.M MUTIU OLAKUNLE, now wish to be addressed as MR. OLAOGUN OLAKUNLE MUTIU. Former documents remains valid.General public take note.

SIKIRU Formerly known as Sikiru Motunrayo Shakirat, now wish to be addressed as Agbaraojo Motunrayo Shakirat. Former documents remains valid.General public take note.

AGBAJE Formerly known as Miss Bisi Agnes Agbaje, now wish to be addressed as Mrs Bisi Agnes Alabi. Former documents remains valid.General public take note.

EMIRIE Formerly known as Evelyn Evielo Emirie, now wish to be addressed as Evelyn Evielo Ozore. Former documents remains valid.General public take note.

ODEJAYI Formerly known as Miss Feyisola Omoniyi Odejayi, now wish to be addressed as Mrs. Feyisola Omoniyi Fatoyinbo. Former documents remains valid. Ministry of Education, Lagos Education District 1, Agege and general public take note.

OLALUYI Formerly known as Olaluyi Taiwo Adedayo, now wish to be addressed as Ayo-Bello, Taiwo Adedayo.

Former documents remains valid.

RCCG and general public take note.

OLALUYI Formerly known as Olaluyi Taiwo Adedayo, now wish to be addressed as Ayo-Bello, Taiwo Adedayo.

Former documents remains valid.

RCCG and general public take note.

OTI Formerly addressed as MRS. OBIORA PATIENCE OTI now wish to be addressed as MISS OKERE PATIENCE FAVOUR. Former documents remain valid. General public take note.

OYEWUMI Formerly addressed as Miss AWESU KAFAYAT AJOKE, now wish to be addressed as Mrs. TAIWO AWESU KAFAYAT AJOKE . Former documents remains valid. INEC and general public take note.

OYEWUMI Formerly addressed as Miss OYEWUMI CHARLOTTE OYEBOLA now wish to be addressed as Mrs. ADEYEMI CHARLOTTE OYEBOLA. Former documents remains valid. INCE and general public take note.

CHANGE OF NAME

CHANGE OF NAME

AJAYI Formerly addressed as Miss Ajayi Olubukola Racheal, now wish to be addressed as Mrs. lsola Olubukola Racheal. Former documents remain valid. Lagos State Polytechnic and general public take note.

OLOPADE Formerly addressed as Miss Olopade Latifat Abiodun, now wish to be addressed as Mrs. Olusola Latifat Abiodun. Former documents remain valid. General public take note.

IKECHUKWU Formerly addressed as Miss lkechukwu Nnennaya Rosemary, now wish to be addressed as Mrs. Chukwuma Nnennaya Rosemary.

Former documents remain valid.

NYSC and general public take note.

KOLEOSO Formerly known as Miss Koleoso Bushirat Motunrayo, now wish to be addressed as Mrs. Abiodun Bushirat Motunrayo. Former documents remains valid. General public take note.

UKACHUKWU Formerly addressed as Miss Ukachukwu Ekwutosi Gertrude, now wish to be addressed as Mrs. Ibeleme Gertrude Ekwy. Former documents remain valid. GTBank, Greenlife and general public take note.

ONUZO Formerly addressed as Dr. Marauwa Uchenna Onuzo, now wish to be addressed as Dr. Marauwa Uchenna Akomas.

Former documents remain valid.

Life Spring Specialist Hospital, Owerri and general public take note.

NWOKOGBE Formerly addressed as MISS NWOKOGBA EVELYN now wish to be addressed as MRS. CLIFFORD MOSES EVELYN. Former documents remain valid. General public take note.

EBIARE Formerly addressed as MISS ALICE ONGBONYA EBIARE, now wish to be addressed as MRS. ALICE ONGBONYA GODWIN. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

SALIU Formerly known as Saliu Josephine Imoikpe, now wish to be addressed as Alimasunya Josephine Imoikpe.

Former documents remains valid.

General public take note.

CHINONYE Formerly known as Miss Rita Chinonye Ocheli, now wish to be addressed as Miss Rita Noney Ocheli-Mbah. Former documents remains valid. General public take note.

OLAIYA Formerly known as Olaiya Gbemisola, now wish to be addressed as Oluwa Jinadu Wakilat Ajibike. Former documents remains valid. General public take note.

CONFIMATION OF NAME SOMONI BEAUTY and Mrs. NENE NGO-HORSFALL. refers to one and the same person, now wish to be known as Mrs. NENE NGOHORSFALL. Former documents remain valid. R.S.U.B.E. and the general public please take note.

ISAH Formerly addressed as MR. ISAH JOSEPH EGWU, now wish to be known and addressed as MR. MICHEAL EMAIKWU EGWU. Former documents remain valid. The general public take note.

OJIKA Formerly addressed as MRS. MONICA HENRY OJIKA, now wish to be addressed as MRS. MONICA ONOLEMEMEN OJIKA. Former documents remain valid. General public take note.

CORRECTION OF NAME

CHANGE OF NAME

IGWE Formerly addressed as Miss Gloria Otuomasirichi Igwe, now wish to be addressed as Mrs. Gloria Otuomasirichi Okafor. Former documents remain valid. General public take note.

DADA Formerly addressed as Mrs. Dada Abosede Oyebimpe now wish to be addressed as Mrs. Morakinyo Abosede Oyebimpe. Former documents remain valid. General public take note.

CONFIRMATION OF NAME I, AUGUSTINE KENNETH NWABUGHIOGU and NWOKOAGBARA KENNETH NWABUGHIOGU refers to one and the same person. All former documents remain valid. General public please take note.

ANAELE Formerly addressed as MISS ANAELE CORDELIA N.,now wish to be addressed as MRS. ECHEGENWA CORDELIA N. Former documents remain valid.

ESUBEB and general public take note.

UGBEBOR Formerly addressed as Miss Ugbebor Uche Obiajuru now wish to be addressed as Mrs. Mosanya Uche Obiajuru. Former documents remains valid. General public take note.

UGBEBOR Formerly addressed as MISS ABDULKAREEM MUFIDAT OLAYINKA now wish to be addressed as MRS. ABDULKAREEM-ABDULFATAI MUFIDAT OLAYINKA. Former documents remains valid. LAUTECH OGBOMOSO, NYSC and general public take note.

OLUOKUN

Formerly addressed as OLUOKUN FUNKE ESTHER now wish to be addressed as ADELEKE FUNKE ESTHER.. Former documents remains valid. General public take note.

ONIFADE Formerly addressed as MISS ONIFADE BANKE FOLASAYO now wish to be addressed as MRS. FOLORUNSO BANKE FOLASAYO. Former documents remains valid. General public take note.

SABU

Formerly addressed as Miss SABU ESTHER ABIODUN now wish to be addressed as Mrs. OLOGUN ESTHER ABIODUN. Former documents remains valid. General public take note.

OGUNSHAKIN Miss OGUNSHAKIN OLUWATOMISIN ROSEMARY now wish to be addressed Mrs. MARCUS as OLUWATOMISIN ROSEMARY. Formerly

addressed

as

Former documents remains valid. General public take note.

OGBONNA Formerly known as Miss Ogbonna Nwakaego Favour, now wish to be addressed as Mrs. Ibe Nwakaego Favour. Former documents remains valid. General public take note.

AGBAJE Formerly known as Miss Agbaje Olabisi Agnes, now wish to be addressed as Mrs. Alabi Olabisi Agnes. Former documents remains valid. General public take note.

UZOSIKE Formerly addressed as MISS CHARITY UZOSIKE now wish to be addressed as MRS. CHARITY MATHEW OBA. Former documents remain valid. General public take note.

DIKE Formerly known and addressed as Miss NGOZI LILIAN DIKE, now wish to be known as Mrs. NGOZI LILIAN UGOALA. Former documents remain valid general public please take note.

OKEKE Formerly addressed as Miss CHISOM MAUDLINE OKEKE, now wish to be known as Mrs. CHISOM MAUDLINE AWOTULA. Former documents remain valid, general public please take note.

AKANNI Formerly addressed as Miss IBUKUN BOLADARI AKANNI, now wish to be known as Mrs. IBUKUN BOLADARI GIADOM. Former documents remain valid general public please take note.

NDUKA Formerly addressed as Miss NDUKA BLESSING CHINYERE, now wish to be known as Mrs. ANDREW FINEFACE BLESSING CHINYERE. Former documents remain valid general public please take note.

NNAM Formerly addressed as Miss DEBORAH ONYINYE NNAM, now wish to be known as Mrs. DEBORAH ONYINYECHI NWATU. Former documents remain valid general please take note.

UKENYE Formerly addressed as Miss RITA CHIDINMA UKENYE, now wish to be known as Mrs. RITA CHIDINMA CHUKWU. Former documents remain valid general public please take note.

ODIDE Formerly addressed as Mrs. ODIDE OKELE, now wish to be known as Miss ODIDE NNATE LEKWA. Formerly documents remain valid. General public take note.

IKEMEFUNA Formerly addressed as Miss IKEMEFUNA ANASTASIA .E., now wish to be known as Mrs. AKOGWU E. ANN. Former documents remain valid general public please take note.

CONFIMATION OF NAME NNOROM OGADINMA and NNOROM ODINWONMA. refers to one and the same person,now wish to be known as NNOROM ODINWONMA. Former documents remain valid. General public take note.

CONFIMATION OF NAME ABDULRAHAMAN HASSAN and HASSAN ISHAKU JAWABI. refers to one and the same person. now wish to be known as HASSAN ISHAKU JAWABI. Former documents remain valid, general public please take note.

My name was eroneously spelt in my NECO June/July 2013 as Adeyeye Oluwaseyi Timoteu instead of Adeyeye Oluwaseyi Timothy. Timothy is the corrected name. and my rightful name is Adeyeye Oluwaseyi Timothy. OSPoly, Iree anPublic take note.

ODUSAMI Formerly addressed as Miss Olusola Oluwakemi Odusami, now wish to be addressed as Miss Olusola Oluwakemi Imam. Former documents remain valid. General public take note.

ADEYINKA Formerly addressed as Miss Adeyinka, Adenike Bosede, now wish to be addressed as Mrs. Ayeh, Adenike Bosede. Former documents remain valid. General public take note.

UTONG Formerly addressed as Miss Glory Itong B. Utong, now wish to be addressed as Mrs. Glory Itong Tom Otikor. Former documents remain valid. Hopital Management Board, Rivers State, Ministry of health, Rivers State, general public take note.

ADEJIMOLA Formerly addressed as Miss Olasumbo Esther Adejimola, now wish to be addressed as Olasumbo Mrs Esther Idowu. Former documents remain valid. General public take note.

DADA

Formerly addressed as Hamed Afolabi Dada, now wish to be addressed as Lamidi Afolabi Gbadamosi. Former documents remain valid. General public take note.

OLUWAKEMI

Formerly addressed as Oluwakemi Adebisi Aboderin, now wish to be addressed as Dr. Mrs Oluwakemi Adebisi Aboderin-Shonibare.

Former documents remain valid.

General public take note.

LOSS OF DOCUMENT This is to inform the general public that the original C of O known as Block 4 Plot 1B, Lekki Phase 1, registered as No: 21 at page 21 in volume 1991k, dated 21st day of February, 1991 lost in transit and all efforts to trace it proved abortive.

ONIYEMOFE Formerly addressed as ONIYEMOFE OLUREMI PEREMINI now wish to be addressed as ONIYEMOFE OLUREMI HANDSOME. Former documents remains valid. General public take note.

OJIKA Formerly addressed as EHIAGHE DIVINE OJIKA, now wish to be addressed as EHIAGHE MICHELLE OJIKA. Former documents remain valid. General public take note.

ADESIDA Formerly addressed as Miss ADESIDA ADEOLA ADIJAT now wish to be addressed as Mrs. AYANLERE ADEOLA ADENIKE. Former documents remains valid. General public take note.

OJIKA Formerly addressed as OSEJIE MITCHELL OJIKA, now wish to be addressed as OSEJIE BRIAN OJIKA. Former documents remain valid. General public take note.

OMINIKE Formerly addressed as Ominike Awharitoma Cyntia, now wish to be addressed as Eyube, Awharitoma Cyntia. Former documents remain valid. General public take note.

PUBLIC NOTICE THE ROCK BREAKERS GLOBAL MINISTRY

47, AKARAKPA ROAD OFF ADO-ODO ROAD BADAGRY, LAGOS STATE

This is to inform the general public that the name ministry has applied to the Corporate Affairs Commission Abuja for registration under part “C” of the companies and allied matters Act 1990.

THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES - Pastor Olufemi Gabriel Bello - Pastor Adewale Aiyedun Jeremiah - Mrs Rebecca Bello - Pastor Alero Florish Nanna

(President) (Secretary) (Treasurer) (Member)

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES - To win soul to Jesus Christ and bring restoration to captives - To raise missionaries for Christ and send the them around the world - To carry out any function to further these aims of objectives.

Any objection to the registration should be forwarded to the RegistrarGeneral Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) plot 420 Tigris Crescent of Agunyi Ironsi Street, Maintama Abuja within 28 days of this publication SIGNED Pastor Olufemi Gabriel Bello Pastor Adewale Aiyedun Jeremiah (President) (Secretary)

THE NATION ON SUNDAY JULY 5, 2015

66

2015 and a peoples aspiration

EBERE WABARA

WORDSWORTH S 08055001948

ewabara@yahoo.com

Balance, not change

T

HE NATION ON SUNDAY Front Page of June 28 did not defend its freedom: “Five northern govs raise alarm (the alarm) over ‘evil forest’” In headline casting, it is usually the tradion to drop ‘the’, but that should not affect fixed/ stock or idiomatic expressions. Alternatively, avoid such words or phrases.

“Marcel Witschard Jr. and Carl Witschard said it will (would) take at least a week for them to remove the bees.”

“It declared tomorrow black Monday during which there will be no lectures at (on) all the campuses of the institution in honour of the dead.”

“UN agency praises Nigeria’s drug control (drug-control) master plan (masterplan)” “As a matter of fact, they (legislators) can even remove each other’s (one another’s) teeth with blows….”

“As we removed his cloths (clothes) to clean him up, we noticed his back.”

Still on THE NATION ON SUNDAY under review: “I use (used) to patch my trousers by myself…”

“At a time like this when the fortune (fortunes) of oil is (are) dwindling and the economy is nose diving (nosediving)…reports that a peep into the potentials (potential/potenialities) in cashew production can be the launching pad (launchpad).”

“It is only when they fail to act that we may see a full blown (full-blown) crisis over the issue.”

“Media seige (siege) on (of) Abia: The limit of indulgence” (THE NATION ON SUNDAY Bold Headline, June 28) From DAILY SUN of June 29 comes the following: “National Assembly crisis: APC holds make or mar (make-or-mar) meeting tomorrow” “Politician arrested over (for) theft of polls documents” “It was believed that he was abducted by unknown gunmen.” Crime watch today: Is it possible to know the gunmen?

“I will recover all loots—Buhari” (DAILY SUN Front Page Headline, June 24) ‘Loot’ is uncountable.

“Our grouse with (about) oil firm” (DAILY SUN, June 9) The next set of flaws id from Vanguard of June 25: “2 remanded in Kirikiri Prison over N465m fraud” “Ondo set to flag off (in-

augurate/auspicate…) ultra-modernabattoir” “Probe alleged killing of vigilante (vigilance) leader, Delta community urges FG” From Vanguard COMMENT comes this: “We think it is something that should still come with a lot of consideration for its general impact on the economy, which literarily (literally) runs on petroleum products.”

“As you leave today the other person will also leave tomorrow so there is nothing like witch hunting (witch-hunt of) anybody.” “…with regards (regard) to any car in my possession.” Alternatively, as regards any car….

“Itsekiri oil producing (oil-producing) communities allege marginalisation Do you know that most people use “change” in place of “balance” when asking for their outstanding money in a transaction. It is very wrong! According to Longman Advanced Dictionary of Contemporary English, among other reference books consulted, ‘balance’ (money/uncountable) means: “The money that you get back when you have paid for something with more money than it costs: Here’s your change, sir. b) money in the form of coins, not paper money: in change / have about a dollar in change. I asked for some spare change (=coins that you do not need). C) coins or paper money that you give in exchange for the same amount of money in a larger unit: change for £1/$10 Excuse me, have you got change for a pound? / make change AmE (=give someone change) can you make change for $20? THESAURUS MONEY BALANCE: the balance the amount of something that remains after some has been used, spent, mentioned etc SYN the rest: The firm owns about 96% of the portfolio, with the balance belonging to our family.

FEEDBACK AT the end of your opening paragraph (The Sun blazes on Shema), you wrote: “Insha Allah, your light will never deem, Your Excellency.” So what happened to DIM?” (Watchingthewatcher/ 08098384624) THE correct expression is simply “at the helm” without any other thing— affairs, etc. (Folurunsho B. F./09033604976/Ilesa) A news report recently quoted a wealthy lover of football as saying that “I developed a likeness for the team...” The word “likeness” (noun) means “being

alike, resembling sb/sth”, while “liking” (also a noun) means “to become fond of sth or sb”. So, Paul has a liking for Manchester United or Chelsea, but definitely not likeness, a common error.

Also, when someone “controls what happens in a situation, organisation or relationship”, he is said to be “in the driving seat” (British English) or “in the driver’s seat” (American English), according to the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English for Advanced Learners, page 1570. Oxford Advanced Learner’s equally supports “in the driving seat (idiom). Definitely, both fixed expressions are grammatically correct. Related to this is the expression “driving licence” (British English) while it is “driver’s licence” in American English. (KOLA DANISA/ 07068074257) BETWEEN 2006 and 2015, “a lot” (much/a great deal) had happened on the political plane to further strangulate the economy and further spread mass poverty, since strangely, the so – called paper growth hardly resulted in development, “talk less” (not to talk/not to speak about/not to say/not to mention or let alone) of mass prosperity. – THE NATION ON SUNDAY EDITORIAL, June 28, 2015.

Grammar and Usage Notes: “a lot” (two words) not “alot”, like “a lot of” and “lots of”, is obsolescent, and depending on the context, has been replaced, in modern usage, by the following phrases: a great deal of/a number of/a great number of/plenty of/ a good number of/a good many of/a large quality of, and so on.

In affirmative sentences, “many” (for countable nouns) and “much” (for uncountable nouns) are generally replaced by the above phrases. Besides, Editorials must be written in Editorial English (Standard English) because Editorial writing is a statecraft.

Above all, editorialists or editorial writers must keep abreast of the changes and the current tendencies – the dynamics – in the language.

Correct usage will always win. Usage is king! (BAYO OGUNTUNASE/ 08056180046) From Oguntunase’s language laboratory: Health is wealth (wrong); Health is better than wealth (right); Practice makes perfect (wrong); Practice makes perfection (right); All hands on deck (wrong); All hands to the pump (right)

ENATOR Ibikunle Amosun of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has commenced his second term in office as Governor of Ogun State. This follows his conquest over Gboyega Isiaka of the Peoples Democratic Party( PDP) at the April gubernatorial election. Amosun trounced Isiaka with 306, 988 votes against Isiakas 201, 440 votes.

However, the poll result is particularly of essence to APC members in Ogun West Senatorial district as they contributed 89,181 votes or 29.1% of the 306, 988 votes Senator Amosun recorded at the polls.

The result is particularly important because in the runup to the 2015 election, sentiment was sky high that the guber election should be the moment for the coronation of a governor of Yewa-Awori origin having failed in 2011.

Hence,two sons of the senatorial district got the tickets of the PDP and the Social Democratic Party (SDP )for the race.

But at the end of the polls,Amosun whipped the two Yewa-Awori indegenes in their own backyard in ogun west. The OwuAbeokuta born governor polled 89, 181 votes while Isiaka,who hails from Imeko/Afon local government could only muster 69, 380 votes. Odunsi from Adoodo/Ota got a paltry 9, 200 votes. Indeed the SDP man couldnt muster beyond 25,826 votes in the entire state.

Contrary to popular believe that Yewa-Aworis didnt vote for Senator Amosun, the governor, in fact secured more than 40% of the total vote cast in each of the five local councils that made up the senatorial district.The result effectively put a lie of the erroneous perception that Yewa-Aworis voted for their sons in the election.

The result carries a lot of implications for both the people of Ogun west and APC members in the district.

Yewa-Aworis have used the vote to say in unmistakable terms that the two candidates raised against Amosun doesnt have their backing.

They also said that they will rather wait for 2019 and present a viable personality as the candidate of the area.

For APC members, it’s a victory of a sort. Despite being overlooked in terms of appointments, APC members braced the odds and defied all obstacles to secure the victory. It was a heroic performance for many reasons. Two distinguished Yewa-Awori sons were overlooked by their people for the incumbent. It takes a lot of guts and political maturity to achieve that!

They practically made nonsense of the popular aphorism ‘to whom much is given much is expected’.They were given little but they delivered much. For reasons best known to Governor Amosun, just a handful of appointees were picked from the senatorial district during the first term. The five local governments that made up of Ogun West had just four commissioners, two Special Advisers, two Senior Special Assistants ,two Special Assist-

•Amosun

By Sarah Olabimtan

ants ,chairman of State Universal Education Board( SUBEB) along with the Speaker of the State House of Assembly.

In politics, electoral success is measured based on the quantum of trusted personnel on the field as well as the number of projects and level of political patronage on offer.

The Ogun West experience is in sharp contrast to the array of appointees from Ogun East senatorial district.

Ogun East with nine local governments produced the Deputy Governor,10 commissioners, Chief of Staff to the Governor, Secretary to the State Government, Chairman of Teaching Service Commission( TESCOM ) as well as numerous Special Advisers, Senior Special Assistants and Special Assistants.

In terms of project siting, Ogun west also holds the short end. The number of projects located in the district are few when compared to what obtain in Ogun East and Ogun Central. Indeed, the poor state of some busy roads like the Ilaro-owode road, contributed immensely to the not too-impressive performance of the APC in Yewa-South. The choice of the House of Assembly candidate is another drawback in the local government.The presence of the Dr Bolaji Otegbeye,an unfluential indigene ofYewa South on the senatorial turf on the path of SDP was equally a problem.

Ilaro,the political headquaters of Ogun West,cuts a pathetic figure in terms of deprivation when compared to its peers. case.Ijebu-ode, the headquarters of Ogun East district, enjoys far better patronage and attention than Ilaro.During the first term, Ijebu-Ode,for instance, produced chairman of TESCOM, three commissioners,two Special Advisers and numerous Senior Special Assistants

and Special Assistants.It also produced the Deputy Speaker to the state House of Assembly..But only one commissioner,chairman of SUBEB and a Special Assistant were picked from YewaSouth.

Several landmark projects,including two 6lane flyovers that run across the dreaded Sagamu-Benin expressroad and that resolved the usual traffick gridlock at Lagos Garage area of the town,were equally constructed in Ijebu-Ode. The only government project in Yewa -South is a model secondary school ;and it is yet to be completed!

All pleas to get the government to rehabilitate the decrepit Ilaro-owode road fell on deaf ears.

However,despite all the patronage and attention,Amosun lost in Ijebu-Ode. PDP won with 11,381 votes to APC’s 10,570 votes.

Indeed,when placed side-by -side with Ogun East district, APC members in Ogun West should be proud of the feat they attained during the election.

While Governor Amosun marginally outscored the PDP candidate in Ogun East votes by 95, 526 to 94, 087, the governor polled 89, 181 votes in Isiakas Ogun West backyard.Isiaka got only 69, 380.

With the 2015 electoral feat,voters in Ogun West have demonstrated that they believe the governors several avowals to produce a successor of Ogun West extraction in 2019.The ball is now in the court of Mr. Governor to make good his promise by empowering the Yewa-Aworis by appointing several of them into key positions as he continues his mission to rebuild our state.

•Olabimtan, Ph.D, a public affairs analyst wrote from Ota,Ogun state. She can be reached on saraholabimta@ymail.com

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THE NATION ON SUNDAY JULY 5, 2015 Southern African leaders to probe Lesotho ex-army chief murder

T

HE Maseru police headquarters after military men disarmed police and occupied the premises on August 30, 2014, during what Lesotho Prime Minister Tom Thabane described as a coup attempt (AFP Photo/Mujahid Safodien) Johannesburg (AFP) Southern African leaders on Friday ordered a regional probe into the murder last week of Lesotho's former army chief, an incident that has plunged the kingdom into fresh security crisis.

Leaders and representatives from six member states of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) resolved to send investigators to the tiny mountain nation after emergency talks over the crisis sparked by the killing of Brigadier Maaparankoe Mahao.

Mahao, who was aligned with former prime minister Thomas Thabane, was shot and killed late last week, reportedly by a group of soldiers.

His killing comes two months after Thabane -- now head of the opposition -- fled Lesotho, claiming he was the target of an assassination plot.

The leaders, meeting in Pretoria, "decided, as a matter of urgency, to establish an independent commission of inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the death of Brigadier Mahao," they said in a statement.

Agreement reached on Iran sanctions relief

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ORLD powers and Iran have reached tentative agreement on sanctions relief for the Islamic Republic, among the most contentious issues in a long-term nuclear agreement that negotiators hope to clinch over the next several days, diplomats told The Associated Press on Saturday.

The annex hammered out by experts, one of five meant to accompany the agreement, outlines which U.S. and international sanctions will be lifted and how quickly. Diplomats said senior officials of the seven-nation talks, which include U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, still had to sign off on the package.

Still, the word of significant progress indicated the sides were moving closer to a comprehensive accord that would set a decade of restrictions on Tehran's nuclear program in exchange for tens of billions of dollars' in economic benefits for the Iranians.

Officials had described sanctions relief as one of the thorniest disagreements between Iran and the United States, which has led the international pressure campaign against Iran's economy. The U.S. and much of the world fears Iran's enrichment of uranium and other activity could be designed to make nuclear weapons; Iran says its program is meant only to generate power and for other peaceful purposes.

Tunisia declares state of emergency after hotel attack T UNISIA President Beji Caid Essebsi declared a state of emergency on Saturday to hand his government more authority following

an Islamic militant attack on a beach hotel, where 38 foreign tourists, mostly

Britons, were killed.

Tunisia's emergency law temporarily gives the

government more executive flexibility, hands the army and police more authority, and restricts certain rights such as the right to public assembly.

Egypt kills 12 militants in air strikes as Sisi inspects troops

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GYPT launched air strikes in North Sinai yesterday,, killing 12 militants, security sources said, and the Egyptian president visited the restive province where the bloodiest fighting in years erupted earlier this week.

The sources said the air strikes hit militant targets near Sheikh Zuweid in North Sinai province, killing 12 militants and destroying weapons and explosives caches.

The sources also said that border security forces had found about half a tonne of explosives in a tunnel on the border between Egypt and Gaza.

•Armed members of Tunisia security forces deployed to the beach of Sousse

North Sinai has been the epicentre of an insurgency in Egypt where an Islamic Stateaffiliated group, Sinai Province, is most active. The Peninsula borders the Gaza Strip, Israel and the Suez Canal.

The insurgency, aimed at toppling the Cairo government, has intensified since the army ousted Islamist president Mohamed Mursi after mass protests against

his rule in 2013.

The army said on Wednesday that at least 100 militants and 17 soldiers had been killed in the fighting. The army has since launched further strikes on militants.

Egyptian president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi visited North Sinai yesterday to inspect soldiers and police, the presidency said in statement.

To Him will be your return –– of all you. The promise of Allah is true and sure. It is He who beginneth the process of creation and repeateth it, that He may believe and work righteousness, but those who reject Him will have draughts of boiling fluids and a penalty grievous because they did reject Him.

Qur’an 10 vs 4 Sponsored by ALHAJI KHAMIS TUNDE BADMUS Asiwaju Musulumi of the Yorubaland

Syrian army and Hezbollah launch major assault on border city

T

HE Syrian army and its allied militia have launched a major assault on the rebel-held Syrian city of Zabadani, the Lebanese Shi'ite Hezbollah group's television station said yesterday.

It said heavy artillery and aerial bombardment

were being deployed to capture the city, located west of the Syrian capital near the frontier with Lebanon. An announcement of the start of a military campaign by the Syrian army and "resistance forces", a term used by the Lebanese group to describe Hezbollah's forces, had been

expected in recent days.

The group that is fighting alongside the Syrian army in Syria against radical jihadists, has in recent months stepped up its assault on their outposts along the Qalamoun mountain region straddling the Lebanese Syrian border.

Hundreds march in Istanbul in support of Uighurs

H

UNDREDS of people have marched in Istanbul to protest against China's treatment of its minority Muslim Uighur community.

The group, which has cultural ties to Turkey, has complained of cultural and religious suppression under Chinese rule.

The protesters on Saturday carried flags representing the Uighurs' homeland and called for a boycott of Chinese goods. The demonstration was peaceful but the Dogan news agency said a group of nationalists tried to attack a group of Korean tourists which they mistook for Chinese nationals. Police rescued the tourists.

Relations between China and Turkey have been strained over Turkish reports that Uighurs were banned from worshipping and fasting during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. China expressed displeasure after Turkey this week took in 173 Uighur refugees from Thailand.

Putin tells Obama he wants dialogue based on equality and respect

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USSIAN President Vladimir Putin (front) delivers a speech at the gala concert of the 15th International.

Russian President Vladimir Putin called for dialogue based on equal treatment and mutual respect with the United States on Saturday in a congratulatory message to President Barack Obama marking U.S. Independence Day. Putin said U.S.-Russian relations remained important for solving global crises. The

two countries have disagreements over the conflict in Ukraine, defense matters and democracy.

"In his message of congratulations, the Russian President noted that, despite the differences between the two countries, RussianAmerican relations remain the most important factor of international stability and security," the Kremlin said in a statement.

Putin expressed confidence that Russia and the United States could find so-

lutions to the most complicated international issues and meet global threats and challenges together if they based their relationship on the principles of equality and respect for each other's interests, the Kremlin added.

The statement did not provide further details and did not mention Western sanctions imposed over Russia's role in the Ukraine crisis and Moscow's annexation of Crimea peninsula from Ukraine in 2014.

The statement from the president's office said Essebsi would give a speech on national television to give more details at 1600 GMT(1200 EDT).

The attack on the Sousse beach resort last Friday followed a gun attack on the Bardo museum in Tunis in March: two of the worst militant assaults in Tunisia's modern history, and a pressing threat to its vital tourist industry.

Tunisian officials say all three gunmen in those two attacks had been trained at the same time, over the border in jihadist camps in Libya, where a conflict between two rival governments has allowed Islamist militant groups to gain ground.

Tunisia last had a state of emergency during the 2011 uprising against autocrat Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali.

RAMADAN GUIDE WITH FEMI ABBAS e-mail: femabbas@yahoo.com Tel: 08122697498

Indebtedness (1)

I

INDEBTEDNESS in Islam is not just about loan. Neither is it about money or material objects only. Indebtedness can also be spiritual, or moral. Each of these is considered a problem for which Islam proffers a solution.

In the spiritual realm, a Muslim may become a debtor when he skips certain daily prayers (Salat).

And, until he observes such prayers, no matter how late, he remains a spiritual debtor. He may also become a debtor when he misses some days of fasting in Ramadan for whatever reason or when he fails to pay Zakah at the appropriate time.

Also, his refusal to perform Hajj when he has the ability to do so can amount to indebtedness. In each case, the only rectification in lieu of payment is to atone for the omission.

Such rectification can be made by the debtor himself or by someone else (in the case of Zakah and hajj). As for Salat the rule is different. No other person can help in pay any debt incurred by you. The payment must be done by the very person who incurred the debt. It must be remembered that there is no excuse for missing Salat.

In the case of fasting, there is a temporary indebtedness and there is a permanent one. An example of a temporary indebtedness is that of a menstruating woman or a wayfarer or a sick person. Each of them is to rectify the omission by himself/herself when Ramadan might have been over.

But a person who is unable to fast due to old age or permanent ailment is not expected to fast after Ramadan.

What he has to do is feeding one indigent person each day of Ramadan. That is permanent indebtedness. Other areas of indebtedness in Islam include Zakah and Hajj. Zakah can be paid on behalf of the estate owner either by his offspring or the beneficiaries of his legacy. This often happens posthumously or if the principal turns infamy. Hajj, on the other hand, can only be performed by proxy if disability prevents the person concerned from going through its rigour or he is unable to perform that function till his death. Any good Muslim from among his children, relatives or friends can do it on his behalf. Please continue tomorrow.

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THE NATION ON SUNDAY, JULY 5, 2015

POLITICS

Governors battle predecessors •Contd. from page 35 intention of probing his predecessor, former Governor Martins Elechi, while always in the same breadth vowing to recover all mismanaged funds in the state, observers of the politics of the state say the former Deputy Governor may be doing everything possible underneath to make his former boss account for alleged mismanaged fund under his watch.

It was during his maiden worship at the Government House Chapel, few days after he was sworn in, that Umahi first made his now popular vow to spare Elechi, who he deputized before emerging governor, of any embarrassment and victimization after office.

He said: "although I will have zerotolerance on corruption, I will not probe Chief Martin Elechi's administration.

"I was part of the administration but we must ensure that all mismanaged funds meant for the state are recovered."

Assuring his former boss, who according to sources close to both politicians, made several effort to seek Umahi's forgiveness before and after leaving office, of his intention not to bother him in any way, the governor reportedly said, "Chief Elechi as my mentor, showed me the way forward, gave me the freedom to exercise my rights and I bear no grudge against him."

But today, it is unclear how the new governor intends to keep his vow of not probing his former boss because it appears he is more committed to the other half of the vow; "to ensure that all mismanaged funds meant for the state are recovered."

Barely two days after his resumption in office as governor, Umahi raised alarm that he inherited empty treasury from the past administration of Chief Martin Elechi.

Lamenting what he described as the worrisome financial state of Ebonyi, the governor re-iterated his earlier promise to recover stolen funds.

"While it is not the desire of the governor to embarrass anybody, let alone his former boss, it is in the interest of the state for him to go after stolen and mismanaged funds, especially now that the state is left with an empty treasury by the former administration.

"He needs money to run the government. Allocation is daily dwindling and the internally generated revenue is pitiable. Yet, some people are in possession of money belonging to the state. It is just normal that the new administration should seek to recover such fund and use it to better the lot of the hapless people of the state," an aide of the governor said.

Continuing what some people have come to see as his clampdown on the Elechi

• Umahi

• Elechi

administration, Umahi reversed the appointment of 16 Permanent Secretaries appointed by the immediate past administration a week to the end of his administration.

The governor gave the directive for the reservation of the appointment during a meeting with the leadership of the Organised Labour in the state; the NLC, TUC and the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) at the Akanu Ibiam International Conference Centre, Abakaliki.

Umahi, who blamed his predecessor for the confusion created by his decision to sack the permanent secretaries, noted that there was no fund in the state as his administration inherited empty treasury from the past administration and that appointing new permanent secretaries means creating more problems as the state will be in difficulty paying workers' salaries.

Umahi who, days later, terminated the contract of contractors lately awarded by the past administration for the evacuation of refuse dumps in the capital city, was to later direct the previous contractors engaged by the government to take over the job to ensure that the environment was properly cleaned up.

And while efforts were reportedly being made by some mutual associates of the duo to get the new governor to give his ex-boss some respite, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) came into the picture as it invited former Governor Elechi for interrogation.

The commission also invited the former governor's son, Nnanna Elechi, for interrogation. Sources at the commission said

they were questioned over some missing and misappropriated funds. Though he was released afterwards, the commission said it is still investigating the former governor. Wilson Uwujaren, the spokesman of EFCC, confirmed the information.

Explaining why it may be difficult for Umahi to look the other way and ignore the alleged financial atrocities of the past administration, Chief Onyekachi Okwor, a chieftain of the ruling PDP in the state, said the current state of things in Ebonyi beg for decisive action by the new administration.

"There is deep rottenness in Ebonyi today.

The administration of Chief Martin Elechi destroyed the lives of Ebonyians. Under his watch, poverty was promoted and corruption asserted itself and reigned supreme while the entire state witnessed a retrogressive development as it was under the administration before him.

The repercussion was that our state wallowed in its growing problems over the years and it was left lagging behind other states that were hitherto either trailing the state from behind or at the same par with it economically or otherwise. This is our present condition.

If you consider this sad situation, you will understand why the governor cannot listen to those telling him to allow some people go away with funds meant to develop the state. He is not in any way victimizing anybody, rather, he is upholding the pledge he made to us when he was being sworn in," Okwor said.

In spite of the things he had gone through barely a month after leaving office, Elechi says

he is not worried about what people think about him now that he is out of office.

According to him, his former deputy who is now the governor, is at liberty to probe him if he so wish.

"A traditional ruler once told me something. The man said that the only thing people have not accused him of is being pregnant because nobody will believe it since he is a man. But if it were possible for a man to be pregnant, they would accuse him of that. There is nothing I have not been accused of but what are the supporting facts?

I have always emphasised that election results must be respected,' he said.

Explaining what happened between him and the new governor before and during the last governorship election, Elechi said he disagreed with Umahi over the manner the latter emerged as the flag-bearer of their party.

"Nothing brings down a regime as fast as tampering with election results. I also emphasised that if truly we are in a democracy, everybody is free to make a choice. My deputy will confirm that I told him 'initially I was supporting you but I have reasons to change my mind, however, the decision is that of the congress.' I have remained consistent on this and I will not deviate from it.

Whoever emerges freely in the congress is my choice, whether it is my deputy or another candidate. What I was against was manipulation of the congress, whether by my deputy of any other person. I didn't say that in secret, I said that in public and I continue to say it. That is still my position," he explained.

On allegations that he worked against the smooth transition of power to his successor before the May 29 swearing-in date, the former governor said there is no truth in such assertions.

"If you say we are working to ensure there is no smooth transition, I don't know what you mean. How can anybody do it?

Can I stop the Chief Judge from swearing-in my deputy on the D-day? Will I stop people from going to the stadium? Will I refuse to hand over on that day? How do you justify the allegation? I find it embarrassing.

We are in a free country. If anybody thinks I have violated any laws, by all means, let him do what he thinks should be done. I am never afraid of my future because it is in the hands of God. I am not at all disturbed by whatever any future regime, whether federal, state or local government may think about me. That is immaterial," he concluded.

With the duo playing hide and seek over their soured relationship while the situation gradually degenerates into open hostility, it is left to be seen how the political face-off between successor and predecessor will end.

‘Jonathan presidency was minus for Niger Delta’ •Contd. from page 38 Jonathan government with the tacit support of Jacob Zuma. The Niger Delta is sitting on huge gas and oil reserves and those who have threatened war can only be neutralised by my brother who has the respect of several fighters from the different tribes. The president can then proceed to discuss the root issues affecting the region with genuine leaders and activists.

Your brother, Henry, currently servicing a jail term in South Africa is often projected in different light by different people. Some see him as a dangerous terrorist, while others say he's a good man concerned about the welfare of his people and region.

Who is the real Henry Okah?

Henry has always been a courageous, intelligent and altruistic person. His word is his bond. With the advent of extremist insurgents in the North-East of Nigeria, a 'dangerous terrorist' can now be defined by even a child in kindergarten. My brother is not a terrorist.

Some of his harshest critics are those who were fellow travelers with him in the

Niger Delta struggle. What went wrong between them?

These envious critics and betrayers, chief among them being Asari Dokubo, lack foresight. Today, with the end of the Jonathan government, it is clear to all if Henry's position was wrong or right. Henry vehemently opposed the amnesty programme of the government because it made no provision for dialogue whatsoever.

Henry refused to be bribed with an oil block or pipeline and waterway security contracts, amongst others. His problem with his critics stems from his insistence that there must be dialogue before disarmament for the Niger Delta question to be addressed. He was opposed to the monumental fraud in the amnesty programme and his blunt message to Jonathan was that the struggle was not about the Ijaws alone or a Jonathan presidency.

How hopeful are you that his sentence would be overturned by the South African Supreme Court?

For a High Court in South Africa to rule for the arrest of the Sudanese President indicates there is hope in its judicial system

and they have the political will to confront evil. The lower court where Henry was tried in a sham trial lacked jurisdiction to have tried him in the first place. I am optimistic my brother will be set free by the appellate court.

Do you have a message for the new Nigerian government?

First of all, I want to use this opportunity to congratulate a resilient President Buhari on his well-deserved victory in spite of the massive and sustained smear campaign launched by political opponents against his emergence as President. Having now assumed the reins of power, I expect Mr. President to probe the immediate past administration and ensure that looted funds and ill-gotten assets worldwide are recovered. I also expect that he will give robust attention and focus to the Niger Delta region by appointing men of proven integrity to engage the region… Apart from the huge debt and an empty treasury, the new government has inherited from the past one, political detainees and an unjust system where many of our compatriots are languishing in prison for years awaiting trial - Because the mere act of filing charges

in Nigeria carries along with it a strong presumption of guilt, prosecutors have the upper hand and have dumped and forgotten so many in the prisons while trials drag on for years. This injustice should be addressed as they impact negatively on the wider society. Those still awaiting trial are presumed innocent and as such should not suffer. I have observed that there are men here whose trials have not been concluded for over ten years due to one flimsy excuse or another. Their businesses, like mine, have collapsed.

Jobs are lost and relationships are affected.

Without conjugal visits for people presumed innocent, spouses, especially newly married ones, would have a forced family planning imposed on them. They are exposed to temptation at the outside, giving room to infidelity and divorce.

Years apart often dissolves emotional bonds between husbands and wives and for small children who had never really known their jailed parents, there are no bonds to be dissolved. If my five year old son is brought before me today, I will not recognise him.

THE NATION ON SUNDAY JULY 5, 2015

I

T is just three weeks since the Eight Senate was inaugurated on the proclamation prepared by President Muhammadu Buhari. Since then, a lot has happened within the institution which under normal circumstances should have attracted positive attention from members of the public, including the ardent critic of the nation’s legislature. However, all the developments in that upper chamber of our legislature had been overshadowed by the din emanating from the circumstances in which its leadership emerged.

The quest and hunger for sensationalism and controversy by the press and its audience as well as the deliberate propaganda by a power group in the polity has made it impossible for people to see the Senate beyond the externally propelled and inspired schemings, quarrel and struggle for power that attended the election and selection of its leadership.

After the June 9 inauguration in which Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki was elected Senate President, he has continued to articulate the issues which he believed should be the focus of the eight Senate. The man had talked about the need for the Senate in particular, and the National Assembly, as a whole, to be prepared to support the programmes, policies and projects of President Buhari with enabling laws, motions and moral force necessary for their accomplishment. The President had spoken about addressing the issues of security, unemployment, corruption, development of agriculture and mining as ways to diversify the economy, improving on power and fuel supply, among others.

The Senate President therefore believe there is need for the federal legislature to develop a legislative agenda which will complement the identified direction of the Presidency.

There are two indicators that can give anybody the direction that Saraki is already nudging the Senate. One is the various groups that the Senate President has hosted so far. Another one is the committees that he has set up and the address to the visitors and the committee members.

The Senate President had deliberately opened his office doors to visitors who can be of help to the realisation of his plans. First to visit was the civil society. They visited Senator Saraki exactly a week after his election

69

Senate: Beyond the noise

•Saraki

By Yusuph Olaniyonu

•Ekweremadu

as Senate President. Their visit was to open discussion with the Senate President on how to create an open, transparent and just process in the affairs of the federal legislature.

In his address to the group under the aegis of Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre (PLAC) and Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room, Saraki said the 8th Senate has an agenda to bring the lawmaking process through broader participation. “ We are determined to have a more focused legislative session that will prioritise on bills that will help us deal with revenue leakages, inculcate accountability, reduce impunity and ensure prudence in our public governance through a concerted oversight function”.

He enjoined the civil society to help “galvanize civil support and provide field feedback that will enrich the deliberation and implementation of these agenda”. “We believe that this will further enrich our democratic process, guarantee public buy-in and ultimately empower our people”. The ultimate aim of engaging with the civil society is “to help the government of the day to actualise its policy agenda of reducing unemployment, infrastructure renewal, improvement of the business environment, power generation, justice delivery and agriculture”.

By June 24, the next critical group of visitors were the National Executive

Council members of the Nigeria Bar Association led by Mr. Augustine Aleghe (SAN). The Senate President believe there is need for partnership between the bar and the law making institution so that the instrumentality of the law can be used to effect the positive change that APC promised Nigerians in the last general elections.

He told the senior lawyers that “ the NBA has been at the forefront of advocating and advancing legal and political reforms in Nigeria (and) the change that our people voted for is in line with the ideals the NBA has consistently advocated over the years : better justice system, accountability, improved business environment , reform of the criminal justice system and the advancement of our people’s rights and opportunities”.

He said the federal legislature under his leadership aim to help the executive plug the loopholes in the revenue mobilization and management systems which have made accountability of public funds very weak, leading to brazen corruption and mismanagement in the system.

From now on, he said the Senate will improve on the budgeting process to make it easier for scrutiny, interrogation and accountability.

Saraki appealed to the NBA to help the Senate to achieve a reform of the justice system to improve justice

delivery system, strengthen alternative dispute resolution systems, reduce delay in courts, improve our people’s confidence in its processes and incentive arbitration and remove regulatory bureaucratic bottleneck.

Then, the oil sector operators gathered under the umbrella of the Oil Producers Trade Section (OPTS) of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce to discuss with the Senate President. The Senate President used the occasion to articulate the objective of the Eight Senate which included partnering with the government on how to deal with the common challenge of falling price of oil in the international market.

“We are desirous of having an oil industry comparable in structure, systems and output with international best practices...The oil and gas industry in Nigeria needs to evolve . We know the importance of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) in making this happen”, the Senate President’s speech directly posed a challenge to the team led by Mrs Elisabeth Proust, the Managing Director of Total Oil. As he told the OPTS, the Senate President in an earlier speech while receiving the delegation from Shell Production and Development Company led by the MD, Mr. Osagie Okunbor stated that the falling oil price presented a golden opportunity for the oil companies to retool and become much more efficient and proactive.

“It is high time we eliminated gas flaring in the country, deal with oil spills and third party related spills in a manner that is responsible and just to those affected”, he said. He expressed the willingness of the Senate to work with operators in the oil industry to ensure that the PIB is passed into law to stimulate investment in the industry.

“We are open to your suggestions and opinion on how we can move the industry forward so that investment decisions are not tied down. We are determined to ensure that our partnerships endures and we can do our best to promote the growth of the oil and gas industry in Nigeria so that it becomes an index for measuring international best practices, competition, transparency and environmental friendliness”, he said.

In the last three weeks too, Saraki

played host to envoys from United States, Britain, China and France, all of whom came to assess the man and listen to his agenda, particularly to judge whether he shares the same goals and objectives with the new President of Nigeria. However, all the envoys had left fully satisfied that a competent, mature, exposed and intelligent man is heading the new Senate and that there is no cause for alarm in the synergy that will exist between the two critical arms of government in Nigeria that is destined to change for the better.

Incidentally, the Senate President had used all the occasions to also tell his guests about the two committees he inaugurated on June 25 with the aim of markedly defining the road map for the Senate. The Committee on Finance of the Senate is billed to submit its report this week. The report is aimed at opening up the financial process in the Senate for public scrutiny so that members of the public can easily access the facts and figures on the finances of the institution. The plan is to eliminate rumour and exaggeration concerning the budget and funding of the senate.

This will encourage accountability, transparency and financial discipline in the Senate.

As for the committee on Legislative Agenda, their duty is to develop a plan of action for the Senate. The primary aim of the plan is to improve on service delivery to the people.. This plan of action becomes the barometer and standard with which members of the public can measure the success or otherwise of the Eight Senate. Thus, the Senate is putting itself up for public scrutiny, judgement and periodic assessment.

Accompanying the Senate President to these sessions were Senators from the two parties who also use the occasion to familiarise themselves with the goals and objectives of the new Senate leadership.

One would think that debating some of these plans, goals and objectives emanating form these sessions with degrees will help the legislative institution to grow and serve the purpose for which the members are elected, rather than focusing on the issue of what complexion the leadership has and which camp they belong to or who is sporting their candidacy.

•Olaniyonu is Special Adviser (Media and Publicity) to the Senate President.

Al-Makura, politics and living with disability

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EOPLE aspire to be wealthy and powerful; but what is the true measure of a man? Does race, intelligence or character make you superior to other men? Or are those who are able bodied better than people living with disabilities? These were the questions on my mind as I watched Governor Umaru Tanko Al-Makura deliver a thought-provoking keynote speech at the International Conference on Disabilities which held recently in Lagos.

As many are well aware, he entered the race to become Governor of Nasarawa State in 2011 as a person living with the disability of deafness in both ears. He contested at that time on the platform of Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), a political party newly formed by Muhammadu Buhari which was barely four months old in at the time of elections. The CPC had no template for electoral victory since it had never ruled before; yet Almakura defeated the sitting governor at that time and was re-elected for a second term in 2015 under the All Progressives Congress (APC). After four years of outstanding political stewardship, which goes by the moniker: "Buhari's political laboratory", Umaru Tanko Al-makura has successfully carved a niche for himself as one of Nigeria's leading champions of government accountability and transparency, with Nasarawa State ranked among the top three states in the country with high fiscal discipline by Transparency International.

Prior to the coming of Al-makura,

By Yakubu Lamai the standard practice was for the government to borrow N800 million each month from banks to pay workers salary. He promptly halted this financial haemorrhage and rejected the option to take monthly bank loan but insisted on a stringent strategy of fiscal discipline and cost-cutting measures to pay the salary of workers.

Today, as the saying goes; the rest is history. The governor was able to pay up the huge debt of N37 billion which he inherited within two years without taking a loan from any bank and his innate sense of sacrifice ensured that the state has not failed to pay workers' salary for four years running since May 2011. Indeed by all indices of good governance, Governor Almakura has proved to be a worthy ambassador of people living with disabilities. For anyone who is disabled, the turbulent terrain of politics is not the most ideal. First, disabled people cope with the consequences of negative attitude towards people with disabilities as a whole, and every day they must endure a certain measure of physical discomfort, even if it is wearing a hearing aid for almost 18 hours. Some people who lose their limb, eyes or their arms and are forced to crawl through life on bare hands or pushed from place to place on a wheelchair endure endless bodily pain and often exist in a state of mourning. It is like living your life in a bad dream where you constantly reach for your arms, only to suddenly remember that you no longer have hands!

But how do we ascertain if our own society discriminates against the disabled? In a CCD report, it noted that: "If a deaf person comes to the Police Station in Nigeria to make a complaint there are no sign language interpreters, and he is asked to either write down his complaint or a family member will report on his behalf!" The Report then posed the question: "What then happens when the complaint is against the said family member, how do we ensure that this disabled person will get justice?" In the same vein, the Chairman of National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), Professor Chidi Odinkalu, who describes Nigeria as an "oral society" where we talk without keeping track of what we say or putting action to words, recently promised to summon financial institutions in Nigeria over discrimination of citizens with disabilities' because they have no access to banking halls and no special platform to provide them with financial services.

On his own part, Cosmas I.B. Okoli, Chairman, Mobility Aid and Appliances Research and Development Centre, Lagos notes; "It is obvious that the disabled people in Nigeria are living daily in an environment that is hostile to their yearnings and aspirations. The society has unknowingly denied them all forms of integration be it social, economic or political. They have been cast aside as non-issues and subjected to a heavily tensioned psychological trauma!"

It is instructive to note that there is no denying the fact that we pay lip service to the care and integration of disabled persons in Nigeria. For

instance, Uganda has no less than six different legislations covering different aspects of lives of persons living with disabilities, while Kenya enacted its own disability legislation as far back as 2003 and Ghana passed the "Person with Disabilities Act" in 2006! Without effective national disability legislation, some "compassionate" states in Nigeria have for long been left to sprinkle the milk of human kindness on the disabled in whatever way they deem fit.

All the efforts of Al-makura and others like him are without doubt commendable, but the enactment of an active Disability law is wholesale, mandatory and has deeper long-term impact. According to President of the World Bank Group, Robert B. Zoelleck: "Addressing the health, education, employment, and other development need of people living with disabilities is fundamental to achieving the Millennium Development Goals. We need to help people with disabilities gain equitable access to opportunities to participate and contribute to their communities. They have much to offer if given a fair chance to do so!"

My personal view is that even the way we talk or write about people living with disability is "unconsciously" tainted with some measure of detachment, isolation and discrimination. It is as if those of us who are able bodied see the disabled as "THEM", very distinct and separate from "US", meanwhile the fact is that "Disability is part of the human condition. Almost every one of us will be permanently or temporarily

disabled at some point in our life!" And that is the plain truth, at infancy we are yet to develop the ability to fend for ourselves and at later stages of life, accident or ill health and finally old age might leave us so incapacitated to the extent that we are unable to take care of ourselves.

Without doubt, comprehensive care for persons living with disability and their inclusion into the economic centre and fabric of society can be institutionalized in laws and legal frameworks, but the deepest inclusion must come from our hearts. This is where I must quote one of my favourite aspects of the keynote speech

by Governor Al-makura where he stated that: "It is only when we interface and transact rather than despise the disabled, show care rather than neglect, that together we can have an inclusive society. This must take place in government agencies, corporate concern; media etc., failing to do this will amount to what I can call institutional genocide against People Living with Disability!"

The keynote speech by Governor Al-makura at the International Conference on Disabilities in Lagos had one central message. It asked all of us to take the first step and open our hearts to our friends, neighbours and fellow humans who are disabled in order for us to build an inclusive society.

•Lamai is Senior Special Assistant, Public Affairs & Media Strategy to Governor Al-makura of Nasarawa State

QUOTABLE “Let us as members of the APC, no matter our personal differences, get together and use the mandate given to us by this country. This is my personal appeal to you in the name of God. Whatever your personal interest or ambition is, please keep it close to your heart and in your pocket.”

SUNDAY, JULY 5, 2015 TRUTH IN DEFENCE OF FREEDOM VOL. 9, NO. 3267

—Muhammadu Buhari pleading to ACP members.

L

AST Friday’s National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting of the All Progressives Congress (APC) merely attempted to paper over the cracks in the party. But Nigerians want the ruling party and their leaders to concretely resolve their differences and move forward more sure-footedly to provide or inspire solutions to the country’s multifarious problems. It is doubtful, however, whether they have the courage and wisdom to do this. Notwithstanding this deficiencies, they must consider themselves lucky to be facing grave, life-threatening intra-party crises early in the day. There is still a chance they may overcome the main crisis tearing the party apart; but the resolution is unlikely to come through the disingenuous compromises some party leaders are proposing, or through living in denial of the true nature and dimensions of the problem, as the presidency appears to be doing.

Given the tempo and direction of the said NEC meeting, it seems the solutions being proposed by party leaders are unlikely to tackle the fundamental grounds of the disagreement. These grounds pertain to the principles, ideology, character and identity of the party. Attention is disproportionately placed on securing peace and moving on. Attention should, however, more appropriately be put on what kind of foundations are being laid for the party, and how the edifice would be built, an edifice whose silhouette won the last polls. The solution the party leaders devise will flow from how they frame the problem. From all indications so far, they have framed the problem as a twin issue of securing the independence of the legislature, and checkmating the influence of one or two leaders of the party.

But the problem really is how to ensure the party has an identity, character, inspiring principles; and then to identify and promote to prominence the men and women upon whose strong will, philosophy and moral grandeur an enduring party can be built.

By framing the problem simplistically along the lines of engendering legislative independence and of also curbing a few influential or domineering party leaders, it was not surprising that the crises confronting the party had coalesced around personalities and the conjuration of ogres. It led to and brought into bold relief the machinations of Bukola Saraki, the Senate President, whose election, once it was concluded, determined the outcome of the elections in the House of Representatives. The senate leadership election is a great opportunity for the party to look itself in the mirror and determine whether it likes what it sees. So far, a majority of party leaders appear to like the image they see in the mirror. But because the problems that accompanied that election are disturbingly visible and have accentuated the ugly cracks in the party, party leaders may wish to pause and take a second and closer look.

If they are competent to frame the party’s problems correctly, they may, in the light of that deeper understanding, want to examine the processes that led to the election of Senator Saraki on June 9 and ask themselves a number of questions. It was obvious the election proceeded from a clear Machiavellian exertion of plots and schemes. While the election has been legitimised, senators and the public must wonder whether those who wished to reform the country, those who wished to offer the country role models, those who wish to set standards for public morality and behaviour, should embrace the tactics of rushing an election among 108 senators when 51 of them were yet to arrive at the senate chamber. Instead of framing the problem as one in which the party was yet to accommodate certain tendencies and legacy parties in the APC, the country must wonder what other dis-

APC lucky to face crises early

•Saraki

turbing moral monstrosities inhere or are incubating in the minds of those who emerged from such amoral and controversial legislative electoral processes. The country must wonder how competently and morally those who embrace such tactics can make great laws for the country. Winning anything is not everything; how victories are procured go a long way in determining what kind of peace will be enjoyed, and to what noble end that victory would be put.

If the APC summons the wisdom to see their crises in far wider and deeper ramifications than are apparent to a majority of Nigerians and analysts, they will recognise the onerous responsibility confronting them and the huge courage they will require to boldly reset their party’s foundations. Admittedly, this task will be left to a few within the party, for the majority often neither sees any complexities nor understands the nuances that shape the moral and existential fibres of a political organisation. To reset a party’s foundations will therefore be a long, brutal, and agonising enterprise, a task that is, in the case of the APC, compounded by President Muhammadu Buhari’s seeming timidity and lack of perspective. It was hoped that before the crucial APC NEC meeting of last Friday, the president would have recognised where the problems actually lie. His statements do not give hope that he did. However, it is still an advantage to the party that early in its life as a ruling party, the president is embroiled in the crisis, either as a self-professed onlooker, or as a victim of collateral damage.

Here is why.

President Buhari has not suggested he has any misunderstanding with any APC leader, or whether frictions are being promoted between him and a few party leaders. But, given the rancour in the party, he must face the great challenge of correctly identifying the roots of the problems confronting the APC. How he carries out that identification will determine what kind of solutions he inspires, and what measure of success he will have as president.

The seemingly interminable acrimony in the party is an opportunity

•Dogara for him to now begin reexamining his ideas and political behaviour, and assessing party leaders, principles and values. If he had done that early in the day, perhaps before assuming office, he would have seen the hollowness of staying aloof from the leadership elections in the National Assembly.

What the public disdain is not for a president to show his preferences, but for that president to acknowledge and accept the outcome, even if his candidates were defeated.

President Buhari missed a great opportunity to inaugurate the National Assembly. He had no reason in the world to be absent, not only for its rich symbolism had he done so, but also for its denotative and connotative meanings to his presidency. Now, except he wins reelection, he will never get that chance again. More importantly, this early APC crises should afford the president the opportunity to reflect on what his political beliefs really are, what he stands for, who he is in the scheme of things, and, beyond the clichéd stories of his personal life, what his presidency should represent to present and future generations. He does not have the luxury of time to acquire and imbibe these ideals, for he is already in office. All he can do now is to provide remedies and engage in deeper reflections, if he is capable of either task.

He stood virtually aloof from the NASS leadership elections, as he himself had said and every Nigerian knows. But it is also known that his candidate was actually Senator Ahmed Lawan, whose candidacy he failed to back with presidential wherewithal. As a result of the APC crises, the president must now take very seriously the task of erecting a defensive perimeter around himself and coming to an understanding of the philosophy upon which his presidency must be built. In terms of a defensive perimeter, a concept he is perfectly familiar with, he must by now have understood that by failing to get his own men into key po-

sitions, he actually stands the risk of being encircled and even held hostage by politicians whose political behaviour may grate on his nerves, weaken his mandate and programmes, or, worse, castrate him and make him pliable. Proceeding from this, he also needs to avoid being encircled by northern politicians and caucuses, as he seems to be gravitating towards, a predilection his current appointments inadvertently indicate.

APC’s early crises should also have the positive effect of concentrating the president’s mind wonderfully in terms of which idea(s) would dominate and propel his presidency. So far, there is absolutely no indication what that idea is.

For had it been obvious from the outset, it would have helped him approach the NASS leadership elections much more philosophically, futuristically and forcefully. Every presidency, whether in the United States or elsewhere, or any other great government or leadership for that matter, is always balanced on a fulcrum of great and noble idea(s), whether conservative, traditional or progressive. A government must have a philosophical raison d’etre. Let President Buhari study the presidencies of Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush, if he needs recent examples, and other great statesmen in general. If he does not construct his own fulcrum, others less competent and less principled than he, and without a point of view, will design one for him, as now seems very likely. Or they will design something much worse, perhaps a pellmell of contradictory and ineffective ideas, as many waiting in the wings are getting set to do. Surely, he will remember that atrocious cabals hijacked the presidencies of Umaru Yar’Adua and Goodluck Jonathan. President Obasanjo built his own fulcrum but lacked the depth, knowledge and wisdom to make his presidency a roaring success.

The tragedy of the APC NASS leadership and structural crises is that it is a manifestation, if not an outright exemplification, of the decline in quality of leadership. The decline is obvious everywhere, whether at the state or national level. For all their faults, First Republic leaders were far more intellectual and altruistic than the present generation of leaders, many of whom have been thrust into national consciousness by their association with former coup leaders and military regimes. President Buhari must urgently appreciate these delicate nuances and trends in order to reorder his presidency away from where it seems tragically headed. He made mistakes in the first few weeks of his presidency, some of them showing in his initial appointments, a pointer to the fact that he seems to be associating with the wrong crowd and taking inappropriate advice.

But the presidency is neither a joke nor a garish display of ephemeral splendour. It is a tough, introspective and exceedingly deep business. President Buhari may not have all the attributes to match the gravitas of the presidency, but he can get help from the right people. So far, neither at the NASS, where a torrid display of political exhibitionism and atrocious and amoral politics are afoot, nor at the presidency, where so far no one of great consequence has shown any intellectual wizardry and principles, can the president find that much-needed help. All Nigerians ask of him is that he get the right help from whichever quarter. If all the problems engulfing the APC lead the party and the president to reform and rebuild, then the crises would have been worth the troubles.

PALLADIUM WILL BE ON VACATION FROM NEXT WEEK

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