2015 POLLS: Jonathan talks tough

...towards a better life for the people

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VOL. 25: NO. 62310

ONLINE | www.vanguardngr.com

THURSDAY, JANUARY 1, 2015

New year message:

Religious, political leaders sue for peace, unity 49

Army explains delay in recapturing towns seized by Boko Haram 8

2015 POLLS:

Jonathan talks tough zSays I'll not tolerate repeat of post 2011 polls violence zAssures on stability in the value of Naira

By Ben Agande

COLUMNISTS:

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BUJA — As political parties kicked off campaigns for next month's general elections in the country, President Goodluck

Caught between continuity and change •P.17

Signs and sounds of the new year •P.19 C M Y K

Your favourite companion, Vanguard, wishes her numerous readers a happy and prosperous New Year.

Jonathan talked tough yesterday, saying his administration will not tolerate the kind of orgy of violence that trailed the 2011 elections in the Continues on Page 5

Jonathan to spend N6.5bn on State House operations 8 this year

Mr & Mrs

2 — Vanguard, THURSDAY, JANUARY 1, 2015

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POCKET CARTOON

People waiting to cash money from ATM at Mile 1 in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, yesterday. Photo: NAN

2015 polls: Jonathan talks tough Continues from Page 1

forth-coming elections.

In a new year message to Nigerians, President Jonathan said his administration was resolutely committed to a free and fair election.

Jonathan said: "Decisive action will be taken against any individuals or groups who attempt to disrupt the public peace before, during or after the 2015 elections.

“The elections are very important for us as a country. Their successful conclusion will further strengthen our democratic institutions and place our beloved country even more firmly in the comity of truly democratic nations.

“Given the challenges that have characterised some previous electoral contests in our country, the eyes of the world will certainly be on the conduct and outcome of our fifth post-military rule general elections.

“I reassure all Nigerians and the international community

of our firm commitment to free, fair and credible elections.

My commitment to free elections and one man, one vote remains unwavering.

“Our administration has worked hard in previous elections to prepare all key stakeholders, including the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, security agencies and the electorate optimally, to ensure a progressively improved electoral process in the country under my watch. We will continue to do so for the coming elections.

Adequate funding for INEC

“We will continue to provide adequate funding to INEC and maintain the c o m m i s s i o n ’ s independence and isolate it from any form of interference or meddling in its day-to-day affairs.

This shall continue to guarantee its impartiality and ability to conduct

TAKE HEART

BY ELLA RANDLE

People become really quite remarkable when they start thinking that they can do things. When they believe in themselves they have the first secret of success — Norman Vincent Peale “It’s not what you are that holds you back,” says Denis Waitley, “it’s what you think you are not.”

Those who believe that they will never do well in a particular area probably never will. Those who believe they are not good at anything will forever feel inadequate. But those who believe that it is possible to succeed at what they attempt can surprise themselves.

The first secret of success: Believe in Yourself.

Nothing changes in your life until you believe you can do things that are important to you. And if you have a low opinion of yourself, nobody else is likely to raise it. Adopt the first secret of success and you might surprise even yourself.

more credible and acceptable elections.

“National security agencies will also be given all necessary support to enhance their ability to ensure that the elections are peaceful and violencefree.

“I am optimistic that with the cooperation of all law-abiding citizens of the country, our commitment to have a peaceful and violence-free election will be actualised.

Let us not promote sectionalism

“I will like to say this, once again, to my fellow politicians and political leaders. None of our political ambitions is worth the blood of any of our countrymen, women and children.

"The improvement of their lives and living conditions ought to be our primary motive and the driving force of our quest for political power and leadership positions.

“Let us not promote sectionalism, disunity, intolerance, hate, falsehood or the malicious abuse of political opponents.

"Whatever we feel or seek, we must have a nation and a people before we can dream of political ambitions. Let us put the nation and the people first.

“Let us all conduct our electoral campaigns with the highest possible decorum and civility towards political opponents. Let us give INEC the fullest possible support and cooperation it requires to conduct credible and violence-free elections in 2015.

Electoral violence

“After the 2011 general elections, some

unpatriotic elements embarked on an orgy of violence, resulting in the destruction of lives and property. That will not be allowed to happen this time around.

"This government will act decisively against anyone who disrupts the public peace, before, during or after the 2015 general elections.

“All Nigerians, of voting age, are free to vote based on their convictions. It is our duty to defend and protect that basic right, and let no one be in doubt, we will.”

I'll remain focused

He said the 2015 general elections will not distract his administration from its ongoing effort to significantly improve their living conditions.

He said his involvement in the campaigns and election as the presidential candidate of the Peoples’ Democratic Party, PDP, notwithstanding, he will remain fully focused on providing good governance and delivering better public services to Nigerians.

“By the special Grace of God, the Federal Government, under my leadership, has continued, in the past four years to lead our country forward, even under the most trying circumstances.

The progress we have made in priority areas bears us testimony.

On the economy

“Our national economy maintained a steady growth rate of close to seven per cent in the past four years and millions of fresh employment opportunities were created for our people as a direct

consequence.

“Being very conscious of the inherent perils of our over-reliance on income from crude oil exports for national development, we have focused on accelerating the diversification of our economy.

“The non-oil sector, which has grown by an average of 8 per cent in the last few years, is now a major driver of growth in our economy.

“The 2015 national budget, which is now before the National Assembly, is targeted at deepening our efforts at becoming a non-oil economy.

“The budget also includes measures to ensure that the downturn in the price of oil does not affect our development plans and our national economy too adversely.

We are adjusting our financial processes to safeguard our economy.

We are also taking steps to ensure that the poor and the low and medium income earners do not bear the brunt.

Stability of Naira in 2015

“In 2015, this administration will continue to lay the foundation for a vibrant economy that attracts significant Foreign Direct Investment and promotes policies that ensure economic stability.

“We will ensure stability in the value of the Naira by striving to take away speculative behaviours that cause market exchange pressures.

“We will continue to build and maintain a healthy external reserves position and strengthen fiscal buffers. We will ensure the Naira remains strong, and gives foreign investors the clarity and certainty that they need, to guide future investment decisions.

“We will continue to improve our payment

systems and strengthen risk-based supervision mechanism for Nigerian banks to ensure overall health and stability of the banking system.”

Assures on free, fair polls

The President reassured Nigerians and the global community of his administration’s resolute commitment to free, fair, credible and acceptable elections.

Wishing Nigerians a happy and prosperous 2015, the President urged them to enter the new year with renewed hope, patriotism and zeal to serve their fatherland.

He said: “As I have always maintained, none of the challenges before us is insurmountable. We must come together as a people and work with single-minded unity of purpose to overcome them.

“As we go into this new year, I salute the indomitable and resilient spirit of our people in Nigeria and wherever they are in the world. Our spirit of enterprise and the doggedness to succeed among all odds has been our strength.

“Let us continue our march to the future, towards the attainment of our collective vision of a strong, united, prosperous and harmonious nation – a secure nation for us and for our coming generations.”

On terrorism

He praised the gallant officers, men and women of the armed forces and other security agencies who have been in the forefront of the war against terrorism and violent extremism in Nigeria.

He noted: “I want to assure you that the terrorists will not get away with their atrocities: they will not win; they will be routed.”

6—Vanguard, THURSDAY, JANUARY 1, 2015

Army restrict vehicular movement in Maiduguri

JTF arrests six suspected pirates in Bayelsa, recover cache of arms

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HE 7 Division, Nigerian Army, Maiduguri, yesterday, announced a two-day restriction of vehicular movements in Maiduguri and environs during the New Year and Eid-ElMaulud celebrations.

Colonel Sani Usman, the spokesman of the division, said this in a statement in Maiduguri. Usman said the measure was aimed at preventing security breach during the holiday.

He said: “The Federal Government has declared both January 1 and 2, 2015, as public holidays to commemorate the New Year and Eid-El-Maulud, respectively.

“In view of the security situation in Borno State, which remains fluid and unpredictable, the 7 Division of Nigerian Army wishes to impose a total ban on vehicular movements within its area of responsibility from 6a.m., Thursday, to 6 p.m., Friday.

“This implies that movements by animals such as horses, bicycles, motorcycles tricycles and motor vehicles are totally banned in the state during the period.”

Two Germans killed

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WO German men have been killed in Nigeria, the foreign ministry in Berlin said yesterday, as media reported they were engineers shot dead while on a motorcycle trip.

“Unfortunately, we can confirm that two German nationals were killed in Nigeria last weekend,” a foreign ministry spokesman said.

“The German embassy in Abuja is seeking clarification and is in close contact with Nigerian authorities.”

The ministry did not release further details, either on the victims or the suspected killers.

Regional German newspaper, Ostseezeitung, said the men, one aged 34 and the other in his mid50s, were engineers working for German construction company, Julius Berger.

They had lived in Nigeria for years and were on a private trip when they were killed last Saturday, the newspaper said.

By Samuel Oyadongha

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ENAGOA—OPERATIVES of the anti-kidnapping and sea robbery squad of the Joint Task Force in the Niger Delta, code-named Operation Pulo Shield, have arrested six suspected pirates and recovered cache of arms in the creeks of Bayelsa State.

The arrest followed two separate attacks on JTF troops and other commuters along

Sangana and Santa-Barbara waterways off the Atlantic coast of the state, in which some soldiers and a boat driver lost their lives.

The suspects, among them four siblings, were nabbed during a week-long aggressive day and night raids, and stopand-search on the waterways by operatives of JTF. Items recovered by the JTF operatives include three Browning Machine Gun, with

registration Nos 1981 with stand, B572 Banel No Z90323 with stand, HMG - 50MG ST Kinetics Serial No 2405PM with sitting and its links ammunition buried under ground.

Others are one AK-47 rifle, one G3 rifle with No G310D792 and She rifle with No T67439 and Wooden Dummy rifle, three gunboat batteries, one HP laptop computer, one Police fragmental jacket, 1 x 200 horse power engine, empty cases of

12.7mm ammunition of HMG gun, one search light with batteries, one bag containing boat tools, one Nokia G6 mobile phone, two rifle butts and one plastic toy pistol.

The arms, according to JTF, were recovered at Ukubie in Southern Ijaw Local Government Area of the state.

Parading the suspects, all indigenes of Bayelsa State, in Yenagoa, the outgoing spokesman of JTF, Colonel Mustapha Anka, said the arrest of the suspects had brought peace to the waterways ahead of the 2015 polls.

He said: “The manhunt was launched on the suspected sea robbers that attack JTF troops and waterways users in Sangana and Santa-Barbara waterways in Bayelsa and Rivers states. Since the arrest of the criminals, the normal peace that existed in the region had returned in the entire waterways.

“The JTF command wishes to reassure the good people of the Niger Delta and Nigerians not to fear as JTF is on top of the situation. The recovery of the arms and ammunition as well as arrest of the suspected sea robbers was an indication that miscreants have been curtailed.

“The command, under the leadership of Major General Emmanuel Atewe, further reiterates its commitment at safe guarding the region before, during and after the 2015 general elections.”

2 docked over alleged attempt to dupe Gen Ogbeha

By Ikechukwu Nnochiri

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BUJA—THE Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, yesterday, charged Abiodun Akorede, A.K.A. Kwesi John Mensah; and Sherif Ajaga, A. K.A. Rowland Komolafe, before a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, for attempting to dupe Senator Tunde Ogbeha.

The accused pleaded not guilty to the charge before Justice Hussein Baba.

According to a statement by Mr. Wilson Uwujaren, Head, Media and Publicity at EFCC, the accused were arrested by operatives of the commission, following a petition by Senator Ogbeha, alleging an attempt to defraud him with a non-existent transaction.

The retired army general allegedly received a telephone call on December 5 from one Morris Williams, who claimed to be a staff of World Wide Organisation.

Williams was said to have told the petitioner that his company

was ready to award him (the complainant) the sum of £10,000,000 for his consignment that was mishandled by an unnamed courier company.

Williams was also said to have told the complainant that one Mr. Kwesi Mensah and a certain Mr. Rowland Komolafe would meet him in Nigeria to deliver the money.

There was, however, a caveat.

He would pay the clearing and service fee of £11,000.

Though he was not expecting any consignment, the petitioner told the accused persons that his driver would pick them on arrival in Nigeria to his Abuja office for further discussion.

It was during the meeting at his office that the accused were handed over to EFCC. One of the charges read: “That you Akorede, Ajaga, and others still at large on or about December 5, 2014, in Abuja, within the jurisdiction of this court, with intent to defraud one General Ogbeha, did attempt to obtain £11,000 under the pretence that the said sum was

meant for clearing charges for a non-existing transaction.

“Which pretence you knew to be false and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 8(b) of the Advanced Fee Fraud and Other, Fraud Related

Offences Act, 2006 and punishable under Section 1(3) of the same Act.” Justice Baba ordered that the accused persons be remanded in Kuje Prison and adjourned their trial to January 20, 2015.

Court remands 5 youths in prison for fraud, forgery

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Federal High Court sitting in Warri, Delta State, has remanded five youths of Ugborhen community in Sapele, Delta State, at the Federal Prisons, Okere, Warri, until January 7, 2015 when their bail application would be heard.

The youths were arraigned on a nine-count charge of felony, money laundering, forgery, falsehood, advance fee fraud and stealing the community and Seplat Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Plc Sapele funds.

The accused and others, now at large, were accused of misleading the Area Customary

Court, Amukpe, in a suit and deposing to an affidavit that the executive of Ugborhen community had asked them to apply for the administration of the account of the said community, which they allegedly fabricated and thereby, committed an offence punishable under Section 120 of the Criminal Code cap C38, laws of Federation of Nigeria, 2004.

In the charge, the accused Christopher Jemijaye, Edward Okpetshagha, Festus Igari, Gabriel Ofurhie, Etie Ufuoma and others, now at large, allegedly committed the offence between June 23 and July 9, 2014.

Vanguard, THURSDAY, JANUARY 1, 2015—7

UNPAID BILLS: UBTH frees detained 45-year-old cancer patient

By Simon Ebegbulem

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E N I N — F O RT Y- F I V E years old Madam Enoghayin Helen, a cancer patient, who was detained at the female surgical ward of the University of Benin Teaching Hospital, UBTH, over the inability of her family to pay N430,000 medical bill, yesterday regained her freedom.

Madam Enoghayin, a widow, had a successful surgery where one of her breast was removed to stem the spread of the ailment. She was, however, kept in a solitary female ward for two months due to failure to pay the hospital bill.

Her 20-year-old son, Esosa, who confirmed the release of his mother to Vanguard, expressed gratitude to the management of the hospital and members of the public for coming to their aid.

He said: “We went to the hospital this afternoon (yesterday) and some people came and asked after my mother. She met them and they

told me to go and pay any money I had.

“I told them I do not have a

dime. So, they said we should go. I want to specially thank Vanguard also because it was

after your report came out that my mother was freed. I am very grateful.”

Chickens' transporter heads for market at Mararaba, Nasarawa State, yesterday.

LEFT: Shoes For Sale At Mile 1 Flyover In Port Harcourt, yesterday. NAN PHOTOS.

NDLEA seizes 7,521.7kg of hard drugs in Kano

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HE National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, in Kano State, said, yesterday, that it had impounded a total of 7,521.7kg of hard drugs between January and December 2014.

The state commander of the agency, Mr. Garba Ahmadu, disclosed this in an interview with newsmen in Kano.

He said out of the total seizures, cannabis sativa or Indian hemp constitutes the largest with 3,839.7 kg; psychotropic substances, 3, 681.1 kg; cocaine 557.9grammes and heroine 167grammes.

According to him, the command was also able to arrest a total of 503 suspects for various drug offences within the year.

Ahmadu explained that the command had also secured the conviction of 193 persons at the Federal High Court, Kano, during the year, while 56 cases were still pending.

He said the agency had carried out what he described as ‘brief intervention’ to a total of 238 drug dependent persons at the command’s rehabilitation centre in Kano.

Ahmadu, who restated the commitment of the command to put a stop to illicit drug trafficking and abuse in the state, commended the state government for its continued support to the agency.

He said: “The command will not relent in its resolve to continue with the fight against illicit drugs in the state and the country at large.”

He called on all stakeholders in the state to continue to support the agency.

LUTH CMD urges striking health workers to embrace dialogue

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ROFESSOR Chris Bode, the acting Chief Medical Director of Lagos University Teaching Hospital, LUTH, IdiAraba, Lagos, yesterday, urged the striking health workers to embrace dialogue.

Bode made the appeal in an interview with newsmen in Lagos, while reacting to the ongoing nationwide strike by the Joint Health Sector Union, JOHESU. He said that incessant strikes were not the best way to press home demands.

The national body of the

union had, on November 12, embarked on an indefinite strike to press home its demands.

He said: “Doctors are on strike, nurses are on strike, JOHESU is on strike.

Nowadays, doctors in government practice earn more than double what doctors earn in the private sector. You can go and check it out. But are we giving that service?

“Are nurses who earn more than double what they earn in the private sector giving commensurate service? These are the questions you should

ask. If we are now earning so much, there should be a corresponding productivity that matches it.

“And if you compare salaries of health workers in West Africa and even some other parts of Africa, Nigerians get paid more than anybody else. So, where is the productivity?

“So, government will somewhere down the road, I am sure, have to ask those questions; we have been spending so much, where is the productivity? And that is the danger for us to continue this

incessant strike actions.

“We must embrace dialogue, especially now that we are in the era of democracy, and the currency of interaction in democracy is dialogue and lobbying.

“That is what we need to learn in the health sector and I am not talking of JOHESU alone. I am talking of every-body. They must learn how to lobby; they would get more than what they want if they lobby.”

Bode, however, appealed to health workers to call off their strike for the sake of Nigerians

and in the in the spirit of yuletide.

He said: “We are members of what is generally termed essential services. I am appealing to everybody that has gone on strike or that is still on strike, that we should eschew this strike syndrome and continue to dialogue.

“So in the spirit of the season, this yuletide season, come back to work as soon as possible.

Training is suffering, service is suffering. Nigerians have even stopped talking of the number of people dying.”

8—Vanguard, THURSDAY, JANUARY 1, 2015

Army explains delay in recapturing towns seized by Boko Haram

By Kingsley Omonobi

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BUJA—THE Nigerian Army said, yesterday, that the need to reduce collateral damage had delayed the recapture of some towns and villages seized by insurgents in Borno State.

Brig.-Gen. Olajide Laleye, the Director, Army Public Relations, gave the explanation while fielding questions at a news conference in Abuja.

He said: “We are not interested in collateral damage. The Nigeria Army is very careful about collateral damage. To that extent, our operations are carefully planned to make sure that collateral damage is reduced to the barest minimum.

“If certain areas have not been recaptured, it is because the Nigerian Army is giving such areas very careful plans. The plans are ongoing.

“At the right time you will see the outcome; we will not tell you, before hand, what we intend to do; but you will see the outcome.”

According to him, Nigerians will be pleased that at the end of the operations, collateral damage is reduced to the barest minimum.

He assured that law abiding Nigerians in those areas would be rescued from the insurgents, while the towns and villages will be completely freed from terrorism and insurgency.

Earlier, he said Gombi, Hong, Uba, Makera, Holma and Vimtim, all in Adamawa State, had been recaptured, adding that the current military offensive would be sustained until the enemy was “completely defeated.”

Laleye said new strategies had been introduced in the ongoing war after formations and units involved were evaluated, adding that this had impacted positively on the counterinsurgency operations in the North-East.

BRIEFING: From left: Mr. Deji Elumoye, Chairman, Nigerian Union of Journalists, Lagos Council; Mr. Femi Adesina, President, Nigerian Guild of Editors, NGE; Mr. Sam Omatseye, Chairman, Editorial Board, The Nation Newspapers; Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State; Mr. Gbenga Adefaye, General Manager, Publications/Editor-in-Chief, Vanguard Newspapers and former NGE's President; Mr. Yori Folarin of TV Continental, and Angela Ajetumobi of 60 Minutes with Angel, at an end-of-year briefing by Governor Fashola in Lagos, yesterday. PHOTO: Bunmi Azeez.

Jonathan to spend N6.5bn on State House operations

By Soni Daniel, Regional Editor, North

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ESPITE the downturn in the nation’s economy necessitating some austerity measures, the State House will spend N6.5 billion for its operations this year.

Of this amount, N1.162 billion is for capital projects, while the balance of N5.3 billion will service recurrent services.

The details of the expenditure are contained in the 2015 budget breakdown, which Vanguard sighted last night. The document also showed that the office of the Vice President, Namadi Sambo, will make use of N463.5 million within the year.

Among the items of expenditure is the repairs/ maintenance of buildings, which will gulp N826.6 million; purchase of canteen/ kitchen equipment, N303.9 million; purchase of medical equipment, N174 million and the provision of meals, N174.5 million.

Further analysis of the budget showed that the maintenance of residential office and residential buildings in the State House will cost the nation N913.5 million, while N131.9 million will be used for fuel and lubricants within the financial year.

The Presidency has also set aside N202 million for stationery and another N223 million for staff uniforms and

zSambo's office gets N463.5m; SGF’s, N6.9bn zN131.9 million for fuel, lubricants other clothings.

The Office of the Vice President is expected to spend N21.6 million on fuel; N12.7 million on generators; N11.5 on meals/refreshments and N15 million on honorarium within the year.

Major departments under the Presidency namely the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC; Bureau of Public Procurement, BPP; National Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies, NIPSS; Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, NEITI; Nigeria Atomic Energy Commission; Millennium Development Goals, MDGs; National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA and the Office of the Chief Economic Adviser to the President will spend about N20 billion for their operations this year.

EFCC gets N9.5bn

Of the agencies, the EFCC got the highest allocation of N9.5 billion, followed by NAEC, N1.4 billion; NIPSS came third with N1.2 billion.

The Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Anyim Pius Anyim, is to expend not less than N6.9 billion within the financial year.

Half of the amount will go for salary of workers in the office.

FG spends N500bn on power sector debts

Meanwhile, the Federal Government said yesterday, that it spent N500 billion to settle debts that threatened to truncate the power sector reform, thereby clearing the way for a smooth transition in the power industry.

Supervising Minister of Information, Dr. Nuruddeen Mohammed, who made the disclosure at a briefing in Abuja, also said that government was in discussion with power generating firms to tap what he called ‘stranded power’ into the national grid.

Among the firms being consulted by the Federal Government to channel power from their facilities into the national grid are Aluminium Smelting Company of Nigeria, Akwa Ibom, which has the capacity to generate 100 Mega Watts of power; Ajaokuta Steel Company, 85Mw; Lafarge Cement, 40Mw; and Kaduna Refinery, 33.5Mw. The Minister said that buying the additional power from the firms would help in

shoring up the available power in the country and boost its productivity at all levels.

Mohammed said the government had to urgently settle with forces among the workers of the defunct Power Holding Company of Nigeria, PHCN, to pave the way for the successful privatization of the company.

He said the workers had demanded their enormous payoff before the sale of the old electricity entity to the successor companies.

Mohammed said: “The Federal Government expended close to N500 billion to settle debts and pay-offs to allow progress in the power sector.

“The Federal Government through the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, has provided a N213 billion power sector intervention facility, to be disbursed to generation and distribution companies, as well as gas suppliers.

“The funds are intended to take care of legacy debts that had hampered the operations of the new players in the power industry.

“CBN, Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission and deposit money banks in the country have since signed a disbursement agreement in respect of the intervention fund.”

Vanguard, THURSDAY, JANUARY 1, 2015— 9

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10— Vanguard, THURSDAY, JANUARY 1, 2015

ECONOMY: Afenifere

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By Dapo Akinrefon

AGOS—AFENIFERE Renewal Group, ARG, has warned that if urgent measures to curb the dwindling state of the economy are not taken, the country may be heading towards the doldrums.

Addressing a press conference yesterday in Lagos, on the State of the Nation, ARG’s national chairman, Mr Olawale Oshun expressed worry that is faced with “a depressing economic outlook because of dwindling revenues, corruption and heavily flawed and extravagant budget.”

He added that “ worse still, divisive politics is now so pervasive that the concept of a free and fair election in 2015 is looking more like a mirage, especially the way the Independent National Electoral Commission’s, INEC, rating has plummeted in recent times. How we navigate 2015 elections in the reality of this context will determine the country’s survival.”

In his address titled: ‘Nigeria Democratic Governance Report: Curbing Political Instability and Extravagance’, the ARG chairman said Nigerians should be concerned over the country’s depleted tank of political instability “if certain reforms are not pursued as urgently as possible.”

In his recommendations, Oshun said the alleged corruption in the federal government must be tackled.

warns of bleak future

According to him, reforms such as restructuring of the current governance framework to reduce the cost and entrench maximum devolution of powers to federating units with a commensurate revenue allocation formula among other reforms must be taken into consideration.

He said: “The uncontrollable wastage and rapacious

corruption in the federal government necessitates the reduction of federal government’s share in the revenue allocation formula to 35 per cent, with maximum devolution of powers to the federating units. We must warn here, for the umpteenth time, that granting autonomy to local government administration’s is counter-productive in a federal

state. Remove LGS from revenue sharing and let each federating unit manage as many LGA as it could.”

He, however, said that “whether this advice is heeded or not, the ARG is conscious of initiatives geared towards protecting the Yoruba people and their interest, as other nationality groups in the country are presently doing.”

COUNTDOWN TO 2015: From left: Managing Director/CEO, Airtel Nigeria, Segun Ogunsanya, welcoming Lagos State Governor, Babatunde Fashola to the Airtel stand during the opening ceremony of the Lagos Countdown to 2015 festival, at Bar Beach, Victoria Island. With them is Corporate Affairs Adviser, Nigerian Breweries Plc, Kufre Ekanem.

‘Water pipes obstructing Lagos-Abeokuta pedestrian bridge' L

AGOS—MR Godwin Eke, the Federal Controller of Works in Lagos State, said yesterday, that underground water mains had stalled the construction of a pedestrian bridge at Iyana- Ipaja on Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway.

Eke said in Lagos that except the pipes which were on the right of way were relocated, the construction would not continue.

He said burst water pipes were also affecting road rehabilitation on the highway.

“We have an agreement with the Water Corporation that they should relocate the pipes, but they have not done that.

“We also have the problem of burst water pipes at Ilepo Market which is affecting repairs of the road.

“We have told the corporation to repair the pipes so that we can repair the road,” Eke said.

Eke said the problem of litigation on one of the pedestrian bridges on the expressway had been resolved.

According to him, the contractor is ready to pay up the compensations and return to

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site shortly.

“There are some shops that should be relocated before we can construct a pedestrian

bridge at a point on the road.

“The contractor has agreed to pay the compensations and move back to site early

Ologunde appointed DG of Ambode Campaign Organization

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AGOS—AN experienced political tactician, public administrator and ViceChairman of the Lagos West Senatorial district of the All Progressives Congress, Chief Folusho Ologunde, has been appointed the Director General of the Akinwunmi Ambode Campaign Organisation.

According to a statement by the media team of the campaign organisation, Chief Ologunde, who was also once the Deputy Publicity Director of the APC in Lagos State, will lead a team of seasoned and committed politicians and professionals to co-ordinate the activities towards the election of Akinwunmi Ambode as Governor of Lagos State in 2015.

The statement also announced Mr. Adeniji Kazeem as Deputy Director General of the

campaign organisation. Mr. Kazeem is an experienced lawyer and consummate strategist.

Similarly, a former Managing Director and Editor-in-Chief of National Mirror newspaper, Mr. Steve Ayorinde, was named as Director of Media and Communication for the organisation.

The Chief Ologunde-led team will assist the Epe born candidate, Akinwunmi Ambode, to intimate Lagosians with his manifesto of continuity and progress as well as co-ordinate the campaign that will witness a series of mega rallies, door to door activities and media outreach carefully designed to bring the message of Akinwunmi Ambode to every doorstep in Lagos.

next year.”

The controller said the problem of faulty design of the Dopemu pedestrian bridge had been corrected.

“The contractor will return to site in January 2015 to complete the project.”

Also commenting on the road, the State Commissioner for Works and Infrastructure, Dr Obafemi Hamzat, said the state government had completed two pedestrian bridges on the highway.

Hamzat said that the bridges at Ilepo and Ahmaddiyya bus stops awarded about nine months ago had been completed but the one at Cement Bus Stop was stalled by litigation.

“We completed two except the one at Cement that has a legal problem,” he said.

The commissioner said about seven other pedestrian bridges including the ones on Funsho Williams Avenue and Herbert Macaulay Way, Yaba, had been completed.

He explained that the problem on the bridge along the Nigerian Railway Corporation yard in Ebute Meta had been resolved, adding that work had reached an advanced stage.

LAGBUS provides free ride for Lagosians today

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AGOS—THE LAGBUS Asset Management Ltd, operators of LAGBUS metropolitan buses in Lagos yesterday said it would offer free bus ride across all routes for residents today, the New Year Day. This is contained in a statement by Mrs Oluyemi Junaid, the Public Relations Officer of the company.

The statement said that the gesture was aimed at easing movement on New Year day for the residents.

“LAGBUS, operators of the “BIG RED BUSES” shall provide Lagosians with free bus services on New Year Day. “A move aimed at promoting use of public transportation as well as reducing congestion on the roads during festive periods.

“LAGBUS will provide free bus services across all its routes,” it said.

NB Plc, Consolidated Breweries conclude merger

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AGOS—THE Nigerian Breweries Plc yesterday announced the conclusion of its merger with Consolidated Breweries Plc. A statement by the company in Lagos said the merger was effective from yesterday.

“This followed the receipt of approval of the Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC, and the sanction by the Federal High Court.

“Nigerian Breweries Plc has formally informed the Nigerian Stock Exchange, NSE, of conclusion of merger process as required by the listing regulations,” the company’s Managing Director, Mr. Nicolaas Vervelde, said in the statement obtained by the News Agency of Nigeria, NAN. It also said that the name of the enlarged company arising from the merger would be Nigerian Breweries Plc and that the company would remain quoted on the NSE.

Vanguard, THURSDAY, JANUARY 1, 2015 —11

Ekiti budget passage by 7 PDP lawmakers illegal —Omirin A

DO EKITI—THE Speaker of Ekiti State House of Assembly, Dr Adewale Omirin, has reacted to the purported passage of the state budget by the suspended seven members of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in the House of Assembly, dismissing it as illegal and exercise in futility.

He explained that the seven PDP lawmakers were lawfully suspended at a sitting two weeks ago in Ado-Ekiti where resolutions on the autonomy for the local governments and House of Assembly, among others, were passed and sent to the National Assembly as Ekiti State contributions to the constitution amendment process.

Omirin in a statement by his Special Adviser on Media, Wole Olujobi, described yesterday ’s exercise held behind closed doors as one in the series of comic tales by farcical politicians holding the reins of governance in Ekiti State.

“It is sad that Governor Ayodele Fayose has turned Ekiti State House of Assembly to a safari park where the macho posturing of misguided adults in G7 is being masterfully manipulated by this accomplished choreographer of political sophistry.

“In the sitting they themselves knew was illegal, they chased away print and electronic reporters that got wind of their plan to sit. They held the illegal meeting with

no in-house correspondents in attendance as they were also chased out. In their wisdom, they, as usual, reportedly had Lere Olayinka and Honourable Dele Olugbemi’s personal assistant in attendance.

“To them, the machination is yielding astounding results that confound and defy logic.

Clearly, this is illegal, unconstitutional and another toad-for-the-dinner sitting that responsible Nigerians know quite well does not have a place in our legal statue. The

Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is not a cocktail of brawn and sinews, neither does it condone the boisterous essence of gangsterism,” the Speaker said, adding that Ekiti State had grown beyond the motor park antics of pretenders to the throne of honourable members of the parliament.

Omirin insisted that APC members would continue to apply laws in whatever they do, stressing that what APC members swore to protect at

inauguration was the sanctity of the Nigerian constitution.

“As far as the constitution of Nigeria is concerned, the ‘Assembly’ led by Olugbemi is an illegal body that has no place in law. APC lawmakers shall continue in the path of constitutionality for our errant and misguided colleagues to know that it is only through law, truth and honour that we can take Ekiti State to the heights that will be a pride to all our people,” Omirin said.

COMMISSIONING: From left: Ogun State Governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun, Secretary to State Government, Mr. Taiwo Adeoluwa, Chief of Staff to the Governor, Professor Ganiyu Olatunde, and Commissioner for Women Affairs and Social Development, Mrs Elizabeth Sonubi, during the commisioning of Ogun Transit Home at the Juvenile Correctional Home, Asero, Abeokuta, yesterday.

Oyo REC assumes duty amid protest by CPP I BADAN—THE new Resident Electoral Commissioner, REC, of Oyo State, Mr Rufus Akeju, has assumed duty in Ibadan in spite of protest by members of the Coalition of Political Parties, CPP. The Head of Department, Media and Voters Education of INEC, Alhaji Ayodele Folami, told the newsmen in Ibadan yesterday that Akeju assumed duty on Tuesday.

Folami said that Akeju took over from Alhaji Nasir Ayilara, and had since signed his own aspect of the handover agreement.

He said that the protesters had the right to protest, adding that such action should be peaceful.

He also advised the protesters to guard against allowing hoodlums to hijack the protest.

“They started the protest on Monday and we have

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forwarded their demands to INEC headquarters in Abuja where the issue is being addressed,” Folami said.

Reacting to his rejection by the coalition, Akeju said that he had assumed duty and that nobody would stop him from carrying out his duty.

The Zonal Ex-Officio, South-West of PDP, Alhaji Isiaka Kehinde, told newsmen that the coalition would continue to protest until INEC addressed their complaints.

“We have made our point known since Monday when

the protest started; there is no going back on this. All we are saying is that INEC should change him,” Isiaka said.

Isiaka promised that if the demands of the protesters were not met, the womenfolks in the coalition would appear naked.

Oyo APC charges Nigerians over 2015

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BADAN—THE All Progressives Congress, APC, in Oyo State has charged Nigerians to make themselves celebrated heroes by supporting the presidential candidate of the APC, General Muhammadu Buhari (retd), to win the February 2015 election and thus assist the cause of positive change desired for the country.

The APC, in a New Year goodwill message which was contained in a statement issued by its Director of Publicity and Strategy, Olawale Sadare, congratulated all and

sundry on witnessing year 2015, predicting that the new year would usher in an unprecedented turn around in the history of Nigeria as a prosperous nation as this would also impart positively on the lives of the citizenry.

“This is a year our Lord has made for Nigeria and Nigerians to be liberated from the hands of clueless, incompetent and selfish impostors who parade themselves as political leaders.

We are glad to witness year 2015 and we rejoice with patriots who

had waited patiently for the opportunity brought by the New Year to reclaim their fatherland from charlatans.

“Also, it is delightful to note that the good people of Oyo State are demonstrating their support for the change project as championed by the APC. As much as we appreciate the high level of enthusiasm shown by the masses so far, we urge electorate not to despair but ensure they all use their votes to secure victory for Gen. Buhari, Gov. Abiola Ajimobi, among others.

INEC to display Osun Assembly candidates' list today

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SOGBO—THE Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, yesterday said that it would display personal particulars of House of Assembly candidates today.

A statement signed by its Chief Public Affairs officer, Mrs Adenike Tadese, in Osogbo stated that the exercise was in accordance with the provision of the Electoral Act as amended.

“Section 31 Subsection 3 of the Electoral Act 2010 (as amended), provides for Publication of Personal Particulars of all candidates contesting in 2015 general election within seven days of the receipt of form CF 001.

“The Independent National Electoral Commission, Osun State shall display at the State Office of the commission and 30 Local Government Offices and Area Office, ModakekeIfe, notice of list of the candidates and their particulars.

“By this act, members of the public by law, have the opportunity to scrutinise the documents submitted by candidates as pasted by INEC,” the statement stated.

Omoworare wins Osun APC Senate ticket

By Gbenga Olarinoye

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SOGBO—A FRESH primary election yesterday reconfirmed the choice of Senator Babajide Omoworare as the candidate of the All Progressives Congress APC in the February’s National Assembly election in the Osun East Senatorial District.

According to a statement by the Director of Publicity, Research and Strategy of Osun APC, Mr Kunle Oyatomi, Omoworare, the incumbent Senator, “defeated his only rival, Mr Sola Lawal in an open, transparent primary election” which took place at Ijebu-Ijesa in Oriade Local government Area of the State.

Omoworare polled 2193 votes to beat Lawal with 49 votes in the election that was performed by 2,305 delegates, drawn from 95 wards in the Senatorial district except Ife Central where both contestants hail from.

12 — Vanguard, THURSDAY, JANUARY 1, 2015

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Vanguard, THURSDAY, JANUARY 1, 2015—13

Youths shut down Rivers PDP secretariat over senatorial primaries result

By Jimitota Onoyume

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ORT HARCOURT— ACTIVITIES were grounded, yesterday, for several hours at the state secretariat of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, on Aba Road, Port Harcourt, Rivers State, as hundreds of youths from the eight local government areas that make up Rivers West senatorial district, protested what they described as the sham primary election of the party for the senatorial district.

The protesters, who demanded the cancellation of the exercise, insisted that there was no election on the said day.

Chief Boma Dappa and others who spoke to newsmen during the protest, said that the former Deputy Speaker, House of Representatives, Mr. Chibudom Nwuche, was robbed of victory in the primary election.

“Rivers West senatorial primary election was a sham.

We say no to imposition and Chibudom Nwuche is the peoples’ choice.

“We are here as members of our great party, to express our dissatisfaction with the

Ex-NDDC commissioner slams Edo PDP members returning to APC

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By Simon Ebegbulem

ENIN—THE former Edo State Commissioner on the board of the Niger Delta D e v e l o p m e n t Commission, NDDC and chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in Edo State, Mr Matthew Iduoriyekemwen, yesterday, said that those who defected to the party from the All Progressives Congress, APC, and are today returning to the APC because they failed to pick PDP tickets were lily livered politicians.

According to him, “They should know that before they came to the PDP, people were already there working hard and it is expected that they battle for the tickets and not assume that the tickets will be left for them to take on a platter of gold, that is why you see them going back to the APC today.”

manner the Rivers West senatorial primaries were conducted. We know that Rivers State is a PDP state. We voted for PDP but the government we voted for has taken our mandate to the All Progressives Congress, APC. PDP now stands as an

opposition party. We are going to face an election next year as an opposition party. For that singular reason, we need candidates that can successfully win elections for the party. The youths you are seeing here are from the eight councils of Ahoada East and

West, Abua/Odual, Degema, Asari Toru, Akuku Toru and Bonny.

“Godfatherism in Rivers politics brought us to this level, therefore, everybody is aware now. Our people want the best choice to represent them,” Dappa said.

Imoke preaches hope at New Year

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OVERNOR Liyel Imoke of Cross River State, has assured the people of the state that all ongoing projects undertaken by his administration will be completed before the May 29 handover date.

Imoke, in a New Year message by his Chief Press Secretary, Mr Christian Ita, said that no project will be left uncompleted, adding: “All ongoing projects such as the Calabar International Convention Centre, CICC, the 18-Hole international Golf Course, the Ogoja township stadium, among others, will be completed and ready for use before May 29, 2015.”

Urging Cross Riverians to take the prevailing peace in the state into the New Year, Imoke said: “The year gone by might have shown a grim state of affairs, with stories of bloodshed, tragedy and human failures all around the world, but we in Cross River have enjoyed the peace for which we are known."

GRIDLOCK: Traffic gridlock at Mile 2, Apapa-Oshodi Express Way in Lagos, yesterday.

Crisis rocks Rivers Labour Party

By Jimitota Onoyume

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ORT HARCOURT—A CHIEFTAIN of Labour Party in Rivers State, Prince Joseph TamunosakiPrincewill, has approached a Federal High Court in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, to stop Prince Tonye Princewill from parading himself as governorship candidate of the party for the 2015 general polls.

Tamunosaki-Princewill, who spoke yesterday in Port Harcourt, alleged that TonyePrincewill emerged governorship candidate of the party by proxy, an act he said was not provided for by the constitution of the party.

He added that Tonye Princewill only rushed to the Labour Party after he failed to grab the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, governorship ticket, noting that he was still a member of the PDP. It will be recalled that Tonye Princewill was among the aggrieved governorship aspirants of the PDP who felt shortchanged by developments within the party in the state.

Tamunosaki-Princewill, who is asking the court to declare him governorship candidate of

the LP, is contending that “Tonye did not at any material time contest the LP’s governorship primary election in Rivers State in person, as he is still a card-carrying member of the PDP, where he bought the PDP’s governorship nomination form and contested the party ’s

governorship primary election held on December 8, 2014 in Port Harcourt.

According to him,“As of December 10, 2014, the sole LP governorship candidate in Rivers State for the February 28, 2015 governorship election was Prince TamunosakiPrincewill.”

Kinsmen task new Delta HOS on devt

By Egufe Yafugborhi

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A R R I — URHIEPHRON community in Delta State, home town of the new Head of Service, HOS, Mr. Patrick Origho, has called on him to develop their community, by ensuring the reconstruction of the ruined Uhurie Road in Ughelli South Local Government Area of the state before he vacates office.

The community, joined by neighbouring Egbo, Origho’s maternal community, also listed the development of educational infrastructures and employment of indigenes into the Delta civil service among priorities the new HOS must meet if he wants to retire home with honour.

The community made the

demand when the community, friends and associates hosted Origho to a gathering to celebrate his elevation to HOS. Chairman on the occasion and former External Relations Manager, Shell Petroleum Development Company, SPDCWest, Engr. Frank Efeduma, who made the disclosure, said expectations were high following the short term the HOS has to spend in office.

Efeduma said: “As the first HOS of Urhiephron extraction, you do not have much time to spend in this office considering your age now. So, you must make hay while the sun shines. You find that when you get to positions in Urhobo, most times, you just mind yourself and immediate family, and when you retire you are easily forgotten."

Anioma Economic Group commends Okowa on running mate

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NIOMA Economic Group has hailed Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa on his choice of Mr. Kingsley Otuara as his running mate in the Feburary 21, 2015 governorship election in Delta State.

This came as the governorship candidate of the ruling People’s Democratic Party, PDP, enjoined Deltans to unite and remain focused to usher in the New Year and a new leadership in the forthcoming elections.

In a statement, yesterday, the Secretary General of the group, Mr. McAnthony Ndukaeze, said Okowa has shown character and integrity in the face of the first major challenge to his governorship aspiration.

Ndukaeze said: “Those pressurising Okowa on the region that should produce his running mate were trying to complicate the already complex situation thrown up by those who wanted to impose their anointed candidate on Deltans.”

14 — Vanguard, THURSDAY, JANUARY 1, 2015

Vanguard, THURSDAY, JANUARY 1, 2015—15

Okorocha presents N141bn 'Budget of Total Rescue' for 2015

By Chidi Nkwopara

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WERRI — IMO State Government has proposed a budget of N141,219,133,849, termed “budget of total rescue and sustainability,” for the 2015 fiscal year.

Presenting the budget to members of the state legislature, yesterday, Governor Rochas Okorocha, said the budget represented an improvement from the last fiscal year ’s N137,684,678,119.

Okorocha also stressed that recurrent expenditure for the 2015 fiscal year would be 43 per cent, while outstanding 57 per cent would be channeled to capital projects.

“Our revenue projections for 2015 are N119,698,633,849 for recurrent items and capital receipts of N21,520,500,000,” Okorocha said.

The governor explained that the higher allocation for capital expenditure, which he said, was “the thrust of the budget since 2012, is a policy meant to sustain

the basic structure upon which other structures will stand to guarantee balanced development, industrialisation, private investments with high multiplier effects for wealth creation, employment generation, conducive business environment and improved welfare of the citizens.”

Continuing, Okorocha said the total allocation to economic and community development sector was N50.021 billion or 62.14 per cent of the total capital budget.

For the petroleum and

environment sector, the governor said N1.2 billion had been set aside for the sub-sector, stressing that government would pursue full implementation of waste recovery and recycling programme state-wide.

The social services sector, which includes education, information, women affairs, social development, youths, sports development, health, community government and culture, was given a budgetary provision of N12.993 billion or 16.14 per cent of the total capital budget.

Orji recounts security as main achievement for Abia

By Anayo Okoli

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MUAHIA — GOVERNOR Theodore Orji of Abia State, yesterday, said among his achievements as out-going governor was ensuring that security and peace reigned in the state.

Governor Orji, in his New Year broadcast to Abia people, lamented that when he assumed office in 2007, he met a state bedeviled with insecurity and division among the political elites but worked hard to change the situation.

Reeling other achievements in the last seven and a half years, the governor said: “On assumption of office in 2007, we met a state of insecurity where armed robbery, kidnapping and other illicit acts held sway.

"We met a state lacking in basic fundational infrastr ucture. We met demoralised and unempowered youths. We met a political class and elite in Abia State polarised into Abuja group, Umuahia group, Lagos group, among others.

"We met a culture of impunity where idolatry and

oath-taking at shrines were the order of the day."

The governor also assured that the moribund Golden Guinea Breweries would resume production before May 2015. According to him, work had reached advanced stage on it.

“Today, we have not only achieved unity and peace among our hitherto polarised political class and elite, but we have also restored security and placed our state as one of the safest states in Nigeria.

"Abians have also been liberated from bondage and

returned to God Almighty. Our government is building an ultra-modern permanent Government House and Governor ’s Lodge to end the era of a Government House being in a makeshift or rented apartment in the state.

INTERNSHIP: Governor Mukhtar Yero of Kaduna State (left), welcoming the Chairman, Subsidy Reinvestment Empowerment programme, SURE-P, General Martin Luther Agwai (rtd), at the commencement of SURE-P graduate internship scheme, in Kaduna, yesterday.

CBN releases N500m through Enugu govt for SMEs

By Francis Igata

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NUGU — THE Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, has released N500 million to the Enugu State Government

to finance 1,600 micro enterprise borrowers recommended by Enugu Small and Medium Scale Enterprises, SMEs, Centre under the state Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise

Development Programme, MSMEDP. The Special Adviser to Governor Sullivan Chime on SMEs, Mr. Anayo Agu, who disclosed this in a release, said

Chime urges Nigerians to build stable, prosperous nation

By Francis Igata

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NUGU — GOVERNOR Sullivan Chime of Enugu State has urged Nigerians to redouble their efforts at building a stable, secure and prosperous nation.

The governor who stated this in his New Year message, said citizens should learn from the mistakes of the previous years and commit

themselves to the task of ensuring that significant improvements were made in all facets of the socio-economic and political life of the country.

He urged Nigerians to eschew acts that could undermine the security and progress of the nation, stressing that they should remain prayerful and continue to seek the guidance and intervention of God in the

affairs of the country.

Governor Chime thanked the citizens, the security agencies and well-meaning organisations, for the support and cooperation offered the government in 2014 and assured that his administration would not relent in its current efforts to entrench good governance and bring about the total transformation of the state.

the fund represented the first tranche of over 3500 potential beneficiaries of the Enugu State-CBN MSMEDP. Agu said that the second tranche comprising of small and medium enterprise borrowers, was expected before the end of January 2015.

He noted that the release of the funds was a fulfilment of the promise by Governor Sullivan Chime to make capital available for small entrepreneurs to prosper and for rural farmers to grow.

Mr. Agu emphasised that the state SMEs loan was open to every entrepreneur in Enugu State irrespective of political affiliation, faith or state of origin.

2015: Ekwunife storms Nkpor market

By Vincent Ujumadu

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WKA — THE Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, candidate for Anambra Central senatorial district, Mrs. Uche Ekwunife, has stormed the popular Nkpor market in Idemili North Local Government Area of the state, promising the traders that she will continue with her quality representation if elected senator for the area in the 2015 election.

Ekwunife, who currently represents Anaocha/ Njikoka/Dunukofia federal constituency in the House of Representatives, informed the traders that she already knew how to attract amenities to her constituency, having been a federal lawmaker for two terms and urged them to support her.

She advised those who had not collected their voters’ cards to do so and be able to cast their votes.

The traders, who chanted solidarity songs for Ekwunife commended her for quality representation, assuring her that they would mobilise support for her during the election.

One of the traders, Chief Samuel Udokwu, described Ekwunife as a rare politician and listed the developmental projects she attracted to her constituency to include erosion control, power supply, water supply and massive empowerment.

Enugwu-Ukwu traditional ruler holds Iguaro festival

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HE TRADITIONAL ruler of Enugwu Ukwu in Anambra State, Igwe Ralph Ekpeh, will perform his Iguaro festival on January 3, 2015.

A statement by the Media Consultant of the Igwe Cabinet, Mr. Sam EKpe, said the state governor, Chief Willie Obiano would be the Chief Guest of Honour.

The statement read: ‘’Eze Enugwu-Ukwu na Igwe Umunri will perform his Iguaro festival on Saturday, January 3, 2015.

"The event which will also mark the 57th in the history of the ancient town, will be held in the new palace at Nkwo Enugwu-Ukwu, which has a seating capacity of 3,000 people.”

16 — Vanguard, THURSDAY, JANUARY 1, 2014

Don't abuse power, Bishop begs political office holders

By Anayo Okoli

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MUAHIA—THE Anglican Bishop of Arochukwu/Ohafia Diocese, Rt. Rev. Johnson Onuoha, has called on political office holders not to abuse the authority and leadership role entrusted on them by God, warning that God will one day demand for accountability from them.

Bishop Onuoha, who also lamented the pervasive moral decadence in the society, tasked church leaders to rise up to their responsibilities of inculcating good morals in the people.

Onuoha, who spoke at All Saints’ Cathedral, Ugwuavo Arochukwu, Abia State, during the 85th birthday and thanksgiving service of Madam Matilida Ohuabunwa, mother of Mazi Sam Ohuabunwa, emphasized that “it is only God that gives and takes power “ and urged those in positions of authority to utilize them to the glory of God. According to the Bishop, what Nigeria needed now was leadership of the righteousness, even as he lamented the massive level of immorality and corruption in the nation.

He added that Nigeria needed genuine repentance to attract God’s forgiveness and challenged the Ohuabunwa family not to depart from the good foundation laid in Christ by their mother.

In his remarks, Mazi Sam Ohuabunwa, said the family decided to celebrate their mother’s 85th birthday as a way of appreciating the good training and foundation she gave them, especially the need to always trust in God.

IMO GOV PRIMARIES: PDP dismisses Ararume's claim

By Chidi Nkwopara

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WERRI—PEOPLE’S Democratic Party, PDP, Imo State, has dismissed claims

by Senator Ifeanyi Ararume that he is the governorship flag bearer of the party in the state, even as some of the governorship aspirants in the state, including Senator Chris Anyanwu and Chief Chuka Odom, have accepted the outcome of the party primaries in good fate.

A statement jointly signed by the state Chairman and Secretary of the party, Chief Nnamdi Anyaehie and Sir George Eguh, the party made it very clear that the Deputy

zAs Anyanwu, Odom accept outcome of primaries Speaker, House of Representatives, Chief Emeka Ihedioha, was the party ’s governorship candidate of the party in Imo State.

The party also disclosed that the National Working Committee, NWC, of the party had already forwarded the name of Chief Ihedioha to the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC. While stating that there were no plans to replace Ihedioha’s name, the PDP chieftains equally advised party loyalists to resist the temptation of being confused into buying into Senator Araraume’s claims.

Meanwhile, some of the governorship aspirants in the state, including Senator Chris Anyanwu and Chief Chuka Odom, have accepted the outcome of the party primary in good fate.

In the words of Senator Anyanwu: “Though saddening that, for obvious reason, the just concluded PDP governorship primary, we have decided to move on with life. Be assured that all hope is not lost because power and mercy belong to Almighty God. Never have we given up because we are on course with history”.

In a similar vein, Chief Odom

SHOWCASE: From left; Osas Ighodaro, Ambassador Polo Luxury Group; Jennifer Obayuwana, Executive Director Polo Luxury Group; Zainab Ashadu, Creative Director Zashadu; Linda Mesorob-Sodeinde, Creative Director Ariaba Beads, At a showcase of Luxury designers at the Polo Luxury Group Headquarters, Lagos.

Okorocha urges prayers for Nigeria's unity O

WERRI—GOVERNOR Rochas Okorocha of Imo State yesterday called on Nigerians of goodwill to work and pray together for the oneness of the country to prove those who

had predicted the division of the country in 2015 wrong.

The governor in his New Year’s Message said the Almighty God never made the country one to divide it later.

Governor Okorocha said Nigeria would become stronger and more united in 2015 and beyond, and that whatever bitter experience the country was having now, was one of the

2015: Umeh makes in-road into Obi’s community

By Vincent Ujumadu

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WKA—THE candidate of All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, for Anambra Central in the February 2015 election, Chief Victor Umeh, has received a boost in Agulu, the home town of the immediate past governor of Anambra State, Chief Peter Obi, who recently defected from APGA to the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP. During Umeh’s visit to the town, the Amorji Parliament, a village in

has not only congratulated Chief Ihedioha on his success at the governorship primary but also directed all his supporters to give the PDP candidate their unflinching support.

In another development, Chief Ihedioha, has urged the people of the state to demand to know how the state resources have been utilized.

Ihedioha, who spoke in his New Year message to the citizens, said “as we celebrate, we are summoned to seek answers to how we are governed, how our resources are being utilized, the gap between promise and fulfillment and indeed, the distance between our dreams and the reality of our existence. I have come to the firm conviction that with focused planning and a judicious deployment of the financial, human and material resources of the state, Imo will rise again from the ashes of contrived deceit that has mortgaged the future of our unborn children, as the present administration is doing”.

While guaranteeing qualitative free education, creation of jobs and empowering youths and women, Chief Ihedioha, also promised that “we can provide technical education that will turn our pun ones into entrepreneurs instead being chronic job seekers.

We can provide reliable potable water instead of propaganda taps and we can indeed, make the investment climate conducive enough for enterprising compatriots, instead of scaring away the brightest and the best because of our sense of

Agulu, adopted Umeh as its sole candidate for the Anambra Central Senatorial Zone, assuring him that Agulu people had resolved to give him their total support.

They thanked Chief Umeh for the developmental projects he brought to Agulu through what they termed his sound piloting of the affairs of APGA as the national chairman of the party.

They also commended Umeh for his contribution during his short tenure as a delegate to the

national conference, noting that if he could do so much for Ndigbo within a space of 14 days, including successfully agitating for the creation of an additional state for the Southeast, he could do much more if elected senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

They specifically mentioned the support he gave to their son, Chief Peter Obi, which made it possible for him to do two terms as the governor of Anambra State.

Among speakers during the visit were Chief Azubike Okoye, Chief JC Obi, who is the custodian of the traditional authority at Amorji, the chairman of Agulu Parliament, Chief Okey Onyekwelu, Chief Francis Obi, Chief Sage Onyekwelu, Richard Obi, Ebere Ejiofor, member representing Anocha 1 in Anambra State House of Assembly and Mr. Ikeobi Ejiofor, the executive chairman of Anocha local government area.

indices of all the developing nations of the world.

He urged the elites to help the country by avoiding actions and utterances that would promote disunity instead of unity and hatred in lieu of love.

According to the governor, the problem of the country was the self-centeredness of the elite and not the common people on the street, because Nigerians had no problem living together.

He appealed to Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to use 2015 election to prove to the world that the country’s democracy had prospect of becoming one of the advanced and exemplary democracies in the world.

And for Imo people, the governor assured them that the new year would be more prosperous and more promising than 2014.

Vanguard, THURSDAY, JANUARY 1, 2015 — 17 violence that we witnessed in 2011 might be child’s play, if we do not act with greater wisdom and tact than at any other time in our country’s history, with the 2015 vote.

It is not often that I agree with former Foreign Minister, Prof.

Bolaji Akinyemi, but his recent call in that direction, in my view is spot on! The Nigerian people will be caught up in the middle of the struggle for power; between the advocates of continuity and those seeking change. It

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OLITICAL life interests me a great deal. That is one of the reasons I studied Political Science. As we begin the New Year 2015, it is clear that we will soon hurtle into what must be one of the most defining elections ever held in our country, especially since the 1999 transition.

There is a tremendous amount of expectations in the air. It is something akin to a pregnancy; we can all see a protruding belly, but no one can determine whether we will have a safe delivery or a stillborn baby. More than ever before, I think Nigerians are united in one direction, that of expecting that the elections should be free and fair, with an outcome which reflects the true feelings of the Nigerian people. But are we going to get a process that all will accept as reflective of this collective longing?

It was Dr. Hakeem BabaAhmed who pointed out the remarkable paradox of our political situation recently.

He said the 2015 elections would pitch a younger person in President Goodluck Jonathan, whose central argument will be more of the same and continuity; against

Caught between continuity and change an older opponent, General Muhammadu Buhari, who is running as the candidate of change. These two individuals represent the two main tendencies in search of power today with all the difficulties that Nigeria will have to deal with, whichever way the votes go, in February. Those who say that Nigeria is likely to be in trouble, whichever of

the candidates wins the election, are of course saying the troubling obvious. And it is the seriousness of the danger we are faced with, which has also triggered the suggestion that the leading candidates and their political parties must find a way to blunt the edges of vitriolic speeches and adversarial comments.

The situation building towards the February 2015 elections speaks for the most responsible conduct by the nation’s political elite. This is the time when a nationbuilding tendency must become the dominant ethos, to help achieve an elite consensus for an election that will not tear the country to pieces. The post-election

is in the best interest of the people that the struggle between these political tendencies does not degenerate to points where human lives will be endangered or the nation itself becomes pushed to the edge of the precipice. We have heard the politicians speak for their parties and we will hear them even more as we approach the coming elections. As we enter the New Year 2015, I do hope that our compatriots will think for Nigeria and its future. This is a very important juncture in our history. Happy New Year, 2015!

Travel in Borno: In the heart of insurgency (2)

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T is amazing to always behold the resilience of the human spirit. And in my Borno sojourn, the human spirit was asserting itself in a most defiant manner in the big and small events of each lived day. A curfew has been in place in Maiduguri for quite a while now. I was not staying inside the government residences, but in a hotel located not too far from the government quarters of the city. My assignment kept me away till very late in the night and it meant that to get to the hotel, I would have to be driven in a security convoy.

The drive gave a measure of the seriousness of the situation that people live through in the city. Maiduguri at night is literally dead: no vehicular or human traffic; no nightlife. The few vehicles around are often directly related to the security situation and there are groups of young men who mann checkpoints in the cold of night. It feels very uncomfortable and eerie to be driven through a dead city at night. But this is what residents of the city have lived through in recent years.

When day breaks, life resumes with vengeance! The streets are filled with all manners of vehicular transport: cars; buses; bhajajs; motor cycles. There is traffic jam along many stretches of roads in Maiduguri and that worried me a great deal, knowing just how many bombs had detonated in crowded areas in recent times. But people take their condition in their strides as they hit the streets in search of livelihood. The streets are festooned with the C M Y K

posters of candidates hopeful about the next elections and the political temperature is rising just like in other parts of the country. It seemed clear that the elections in Borno will have a peculiar edge to it given the configuration of the gladiators and against the backdrop of the insurgency; the accusations related thereto and the suffering that people have gone through in Borno state.

What is also noteworthy is how the semblance of normalcy is held on tightly in many scenes of everyday life.

Wedding ceremonies are still held; mosques are filled for prayers and the intrepid Borno businessmen, especially those selling embroidered dresses and caps, still have an eye for a

In Borno, our people have been living through the worst of times; our duty as a country is to turnaround the situation for the better. How we do that and with what speed, will say much about our collective humanity as well as the responsibility of the Nigerian state

good bargain. There is a building mini boom related to the Legacy Houses that the state government is constructing, which allows a lot of artisans to be employed and new houses are also being constructed inside schools for teachers. The insurgency has sapped life and I was thinking about the effect it has had particularly on the young people on both sides of the insurgency: those who joined the insurgency and those who have chosen to resist it. The young people here have seen horrendous acts of violence and must be deeply scarred by their experiences. How would that impact on our societies into the future? What remedial steps can be taken to rehabilitate those who have lived through the violence of the Boko Haram insurgency and the counter-insurgency activities of the state? What levels of help will come to those who have seen their loved ones brutalized, shot or been slaughtered like rams?

The portents for the future will be scary for as long as we haven’t begun to think of the post-insurgency period of rehabilitation and reconstruction of communities as well as of individual lives. It used to be that Nigerians enjoyed our comfort zones so much and assumed certain things could not happen in our country.

Not anymore! The Boko Haram insurgency and its various forms of violence have exposed the depth of depravity that humans in the Nigerian setting can go. But if we give ourselves the pause, we must also interrogate why we have created one of the

most unjust societies on earth. There are those who list the billionaires in Nigeria today and think they are emblematic of success. But the obverse of their wealth, are the despair, angst and the underdevelopment which have bred the crises phenomena in the land. In Borno, our people have been

living through the worst of times; our duty as a country is to turnaround the situation for the better. How we do that and with what speed, will say much about our collective humanity as well as the responsibility of the Nigerian state. So far, the state has not covered itself in glory, especially in Borno state.

The teenage suicide bomber of Kano

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AST week in Kano, security forces paraded a 13-year old female suicide bomber, arrestd in the wake of a recent attack in Kano. Zahara’u Babangida, told the security people that she had been taken to the bush by her father, where she was trained, along with other girls, by heavily armed men. They had threatened to bury these girls alive if they refused to be suicide bombers. The story went on about how she was taken to Kano along with two other girls to take part in the bombing of the Kantin Kwari market.

The story has touched me very deeply as a father of daughters, including one that is just about the same age as the unfortunate Zahara’u. This was a young girl that ought to be in school studying so she can eventually become useful to herself, community and our country. She was not in school, did not learn a trade and was handed over to become a suicide bomber. What might have pushed the girl’s father to willingly handover a daughter? We do not know anymore than what the young girl said about the father, but it is clear that there are deep-seated ideological and socioeconomic underpinnings for such an act. We also don’t know just how many young girls like Zahara’u have been brainwashed to become carriers of bombs that will target innocent people around our country. But the truth is that there is a lot of work to do, to uproot the basis of this type of indoctrination. This requires the combined efforts of the state and non-state organizations on a very sustained basis in communities and homes of individuals in the most vulnerable areas of Northern Nigeria, especially.

As for Zahara’u, I hope that conscious effort would be put into rehabilitating her. The effort should be to help her come to terms with her horrible experience; assisting her to reclaim her life as a young girl, who would also get the opportunity to be educated.

This is the greatest gift that this unfortunate girl can get from her country. Any other approach will only strengthen the tendency towards surrendering to the diktats of terrorist organizations.

And that is not what we all desire for our young girls and our country.

18 — Vanguard, THURSDAY, JANUARY 1, 2015 AS 2015 begins, people have high expectations. They dream their New Year ambitions. It is an annual ritual that helps brush aside failures of the faded year. The beginning of every year affords deep reflection on the past and the future. Some call these New Year resolutions.

To achieve required changes demand serious planning, concentration, focus and sacrifices. Many want to begin a New Year on a fresh slate. Great support is required from government policies for people’s plan to translate to reality. It is the duty of governments to ensure that right policies and programmes are formulated and implemented. Governments should ensure the enabling environment for the healthy growth of the nation and its inhabitants.

These are high hopes.

The New Year is charged. Elections are only weeks away, security challenges persist and governments’ anxiety over collapsed oil prices is palpable. The predictions are dreadful. Last year was not particularly one that helped the realisation of citizens’ potentials as most government policies were lost in the morass of the security challenges. Other policies were at

Happy New Year most pendulous.

With national elections in February, state governments are distracted with ensuring their desired transitions. The primaries of the various political parties remain contentious. The matters are in court while some candidates are causing more disruptions by joining new parties. The mollified treatment of thugs involved in the 2011 political violence keeps that line of political business promising. Impunity is on the rise.

Security would be a critical consideration throughout the year. There would be thousands of spots requiring protection, whether they are campaign grounds or polling booths, not counting others already under regular protection. The fighting in

the North East is an on-going operation that has shifted attention from other crimes. Politicians are bickering. It appears that is the only thing they know. Whether at the National Assembly, where they have to learn to tuck in their egos and get some work done or in the parties where discipline has broken down, the quest for power continues, sometimes, dangerously.

The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has a momentous role to play too. It must be transparent in its handling of the elections. Concerns persist over its issuing of voters’ cards. Many voters still do not have cards; there are doubts if they would get them before the elections, but Nigerians expect INEC to conduct free, fair and acceptable elections from February 14. Nigeria’s stability and its successes would largely be determined by the outstanding matters of 2014.

Possibly the most cr ucial of them are collapsed oil prices, security and preparations for the elections, really tough issues.

We wish our readers happier and more prosperous New Year.

OPINION

By Abubakar Galadima

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ORE than any other aspirant to Nigeria’s presidency in recent times, General Muhammadu Buhari has received the most criticism for his brand of politics, his undignified utterances and what many view as desperation. Buhari does not come across as an overly ambitious Nigerian politician but that posturing is just on the surface. Behind that façade that he is in politics for altruistic reasons lies a deepseated craving for power which has been obvious since his much criticized overthrow of the Shagari presidency in 1983. Not only did his coup plot set the country backwards by several decades, the way he went about exercising his power gave the first revelation of his character as a man whose decision can be biased by extraneous considerations.

Since his foray into politics, Buhari has built the essence of his aspiration for the presidency of this country solely on the high ground of moral rectitude. The much you can say of Muhammadu Buhari – indeed the only thing he flaunts – is that he is not corrupt. It is a claim that is quite contentious.

When added to the widely-held criticism that he holds bigoted views on religion and ethnicity, it becomes even more unlikely he will ever again lead this country in dire need of visionary leadership? In spite of all these baggage, Buhari continues to harbor the belief that his personal charisma among a few Northerners and his usual appeal to undue fundamentalism, are enough to drive his presidential aspiration. I doubt if he is right. In spite of Buhari’s pretentions to democratic ideals, the fear persists that if C M Y K

Buhari's self demystification given the opportunity, his government would jettison liberal norms in favour of draconian rules. The fear is a throw-back to the past.

The thoughtless execution of three young men, Lawal Ojuolape, Bernard Ogedengbe and Bartholomew Owoh on drug trafficking offences, is one instance that Nigerians would rather not remember. In spite of calls from public-spirited individuals, wellmeaning Nigerians and the international community, Buhari had ordered the killing for which he refuses to offer any apologies till today. Rather he rationalizes the retroactive law with which he carried out the judicial or state murder: it was not an error but a deliberate action by his government to discourage drug trafficking.

It was nothing short of premeditated murder.

Out of government for nearly 30 years, Buhari has done little to prepare himself to lead Africa’s largest economy. While former leaders like Jerry Rawlings of Ghana took to the podiums, delivering public lectures that have furthered the cause of democracy, peace and development in Africa, his predecessor in office, General Olusegun Obasanjo retired into a similar statesmanship, traversing the globe to further issues that help elevate humanity.

Even General Abdulsalami Abubakar, who had one of the shortest military reigns in Nigeria, still finds dignity in causes that advance democracy, good governance and peace. Standing aloof, Buhari is of a different hue, neither improving himself like Obasanjo who still shuttles between

classrooms, nor adding value to people around him. So how does a man who can hardly manipulate a laptop inspire the millions of upwardly mobile youths in Nigeria?

I recall only two times when he was brought out from retirement to engage in ‘worthy causes’. The first was when the late General Abacha saddled him with the duty of managing the Petroleum Trust Fund, PTF, while the second was when he was appointed by his state government in the early nineties as head of Gidaunniyar Jihar Katsina, a government-funded Trust for the state’s development. It is debatable if taking up such positions can be regarded as sacrifices.

So, why would a man who is so desirous of public office do practically nothing that would inconvenience him personally and/ or financially in furthering the cause of other people?

Many say the former Nigerian leader is not financially buoyant, but this raises questions of their own. How did ‘poor man’ Buhari fund three presidential contests in a row, and has entered the fray for the fourth? Buhari presents himself as a poor man but he did not flinch at his party’s decision to impose a N27.5 million fee for the purchase of a nomination form that should sell for N1 million at most. His decision to acquiesce with that daylight robbery is very curious indeed: his crusade for moral rectitude should have started from his own backyard.

The issue about how Buhari cornered a bank loan to fund the purchase of his nomination

form, will ring all through this presidential campaign.

At the NN24 presidential debate towards the 2011 elections, he gave an indication that if elected he would institute an inquiry into how money was spent by previous governments. Good, but the people’s fears are still not misplaced, mainly because Buhari has a long history of discrimination when applying the big stick. The discriminatory manner in which he handled events after the 1983 coup is a case in point.

Hoisting himself on the totem pole of moral rectitude and discipline, Buhari had proclaimed the Shagari civilian administration corrupt and had commenced an anti-corruption crusade that first received accolades until it became obvious he was sectional in applying it. A section of Nigerians will never forget how Vice President Ekwueme was roasted, literally, at Ikoyi prison by Buhari, at a time his kinsman and head of the ‘corrupt’ regime, Shagari, was treated with kid gloves on house arrest in another part of Ikoyi.

At 72, Buhari should have left the stage with whatever is left of his reputation. The man who, in the run-up to the 2011 presidential election, told his supporters to go on a lynching spree if the result did not favor him, eventually lost in a contest adjudged free and fair, but it did not stop the post-election violence that arose from that careless pronouncement. He still carries the stigma of indictment by the Sheikh Ahmed Lemu presidential panel that investigated those outbreaks of violence. *Mr. Galadima, a political analyst, wrote

from Kano, Kano State.

Vanguard, THURSDAY, JANUARY 1, 2015— 19

Signs and sounds of the new year

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ITH time, we got to know that the dates for the Christmas and New Year were fixed for 25 December and 01 January respectively. The New Year’s Day, which is the first day of the year in this part of the world, is one of the oldest and most universally observed festivals. The New Year has often been welcomed with rites and ceremonies that express love and lots of jubilation over life’s renewal.

Recorded history has it that New Year festivals have been celebrated for more than 5,000 years.

In modern times, New Year’s Day is a holiday in many countries and various customs and traditions are observed. New Year’s Eve provides an occasion for parties in homes, hotels and restaurants. At midnight, the New Year is ushered in with much noise and merrymaking. In Christian countries, the New Year has traditionally been observed with church services and the tolling of church bells.

The question of whether the New Year’s Day celebration has pagan

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or Christian connotation has not been resolved to finality. The views persist that the observation of New Year ’s Day on 01 January is anchored on the modern Gregorian Calendar as well as the Julian Calendar used in the Roman Empire since 45 BC. Originally, the Romans dedicated New Year’s Day to Janus, the god of gates, doors and beginnings for whom the first month of the year (January) is named. To that extent, there is validity in the claim that the New Year’s Day celebrations are founded on pagan tradition.

On the other hand, as a date in the Gregorian calendar of the Christendom, New Year’s Day liturgically marked the feast of circumcision of Jesus Christ and this is still observed as such in many churches today. This gives the celebration enough Christian colouration.

History also maintains that after Julius Caesar reformed the calendar in 46 BC and he was subsequently murdered, the Roman Senate voted in favour of deifying him on January 1 42 BC.

By Adeyemi Johnson

HE emotions and sentiments which build near the Nigerian elections compels one to further contemplate the awesome creativity of William Shakespeare in capturing the universality of the human mass psyche.

Reflecting on the sentiments being built in hyperbolic terms on the candidacy of Buhari by some sections of the public, one cannot help but quail at the comparison of the situation to Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar.

When the senators like Cassius who sought power needed justification for their cause just as being orchestrated now against President Goodluck Jonathan, they tried to sway the public by calling Julius Caesar a tyrant. In graphic terms, they described Caesar as a power hungry man who wanted to become King by destroying the Roman republican state just as some ‘’born to rule’’ consider Jonathan’s constitutional right to contest election as a threat to national 'stability' and should have in fact been a 'hero' according to Alhaji Ibrahim Coomasie and a handful of northern elders, if he had not contested the 2011 election and would not be a 'hero' if he goes ahead to contest the 2015 election. But and like in Rome, Mark Antony brought the public back to reality to separate facts from opinion, to compare Caesar's contributions in his quest for greatness for Rome to the public, reminding them how he refused the offer to be crowned king. As always, Shakespeare, master wordsmith, brings to life, the length to which those who plot to rise to power will go to erase public memory which is often shortened by any loss of physical comforts or prevailing welfare conditions.

In the same way, the emotive hyperbole being created around the Buhari candidacy as a disciplined strongman, is capable of inducing mass amnesia in the Nigerian public into problematizing their present condition as the work of Jonathan by blurring the facts of our history and the measured responses of President Jonathan to change the rot and psychological damages created by decades of military rule in Nigeria that Buhari is part of having truncated C M Y K

Most of the countries in Western Europe officially adopted January 1 as New Year’s Day before they adopted the Gregorian calendar.

For instance, in England, until the adoption of the Gregorian calendar in 1752, the first day of the New Year was the feast of Annunciation on March 25. The March 25 date was labelled the Annunciation Style while the January 1 date was known as Circumcision Style because this was the feast of circumcision considered to be the eighth day of Christ’s life, counting from December 25. This day was christened as the beginning of the New Year by Pope Gregory as he designed the Liturgical calendar.

The circumcision of Jesus Christ on the eighth day is congruent with the practice in Benin Kingdom where new born male babies are circumcised and named on the eighth day of life. Until recently, the baby girl was also circumcised and named on the eighth day of life.

As we celebrate in Nigeria today, there are countries where nothing is happening; and there are some parts of the world where the celebration is taking a different dimension entirely

Efforts to ban the shooting of fire crackers at Christmas and the New Year’s Day have remained largely unsuccessful. At the New Year celebrations held in Dubai to mark the beginning of 2014, the world record for the most fireworks set off in a single display was broken.

That single display lasted for six minutes and it saw the use of over 500,000 fireworks!

Nothing in the foregoing suggests any consensus in the date and mode of celebration of the New Year’s Day worldwide. The dates and modes of celebration differ from one place to another. As we celebrate in Nigeria today, there are countries where nothing is happening; and there are some parts of the world where the celebration is taking a different dimension entirely. Space will permit us to examine only a few interesting variations: In the Philippines, New Year’s Day is considered part of the Christmas holiday. At midnight on New Year’s Eve, earth-quaking noise is made with fire-crackers, horns and whatever material for noise is available. The horrendous noise is intended to dispel evil spirits and prevent them from bringing bad luck to the coming year.

Tables are laden with food for the midnight meal; and a basket of twelve different round fruits is displayed to symbolize prosperity in each of the coming twelve months. Public parties are organized by the city governments and they are usually free for all citizens.

In the Balinese Calendar, the New Year’s Day, usually celebrated around March 26, is called Nyepi.

It is a day of silence, fasting and

meditation. It is observed from 6 a.m. to 6 a.m. the following day. It is a day of self-reflection and nothing is allowed to interfere with it. Although Nyepi is a predominantly Hindu holiday, non-Hindus resident in Bali participate in it. Even tourists are not exempt: although they are free to do as they wish in their hotel rooms, no one is allowed into the beaches or streets. The only airport in Bali remains closed for the entire day.

The Water Festival is a New Year celebration that takes place in many Southeast Asian countries between 13-15 April. Originally, people sprinkled water on one another as a sign of love; but since the New Year’s Day comes during the hottest month of the year, many people end up dousing strangers and passersby in boisterous celebrations.

There is a related area where Nigeria has been wallowing in illegalities – the new Fiscal Year.

Before 1981, the Fiscal Year in Nigeria was 01 April – 31 March of the following year. But the Financial Year Act 1981 changed our Financial Year to the Calendar Year: 01 January – 31 December.

This Act has been obeyed more in the breach than in the observance.

Year after year, particularly since the advent of the President Goodluck Jonathan Administration, operation of our annual budgets has been pushed far into the second half of the following year. Until we amend the current Financial Year Act, this practice remains illegal.

Here‘s wishing our esteemed readers happy New Year, a year full of contentment!

Buhari, Jonathan and national amnesia democracy that would have taken a firm root by now.

Some present welfare discomforts are capable of inducing national amnesia. For instance,when we forget that under Military rule, the head of state answers to no one, no legislature and makes laws for the courts to follow. It is capable of erasing our memories of Chief Bisi Onabanjo and Pa Adekunkle Ajasin, honest politicians who were detained for corruption by Buhari, and jailed for several years without proof that they corruptly enriched themselves in power. The hype of some current discomforts can make people lure us back to dictatorship, as power seekers tell us that what we need are strongmen.

To induce national collective amnesia, they will attribute all the ills of society to the federal government and not a faulty federalism. They will ignore how state and local government responsibilities in their jurisdictions also failed to ease these discomforts. How they did not make university fees affordable, how they did not open government contracts to open bidding to create opportunities for all at state and local governments, how local roads are riddled numerous pot-holes until they started scrambling near elections to get these holes filled. But to foist a return to a forgotten dictatorship of three decades, they

If we believe these hypes, we will not need, fight Boko Haram because in voting for Buhari, the nation will have capitulated to dictatorship and Sharia zealots without firing a shot

will want us to forget the good works of Jonathan.

They will want us to forget that Jonathan raised the minimum wage from 7,500 naira to 18,000 naira despite resistance from many of them, placing a minimum of 11,500 naira in the pocket of most workers.

That he erased petrol queues and saved billions for SURE-P funds which many of them now spend at state and local government levels even though they left Jonathan alone to defend the subsidy removal they all agreed should be removed.

To induce a national collective memory of military dictatorship, they want us to forget that all the promises of reviving railway lines only became prominent as the Jonathan administration made it a core part of the transformation agenda, that travelling by rail from Lagos to Kwara or Lagos to Kano had been forgotten even though individual military dictators had over 450 million United States Dollars in over 10 accounts. That obtaining agricultural inputs from government was a scam for enriching friends, and distribution of fertilizers was reserved for powerfully connected friends of dictators until Jonathan’s government introduced the eWallet policy.

They will hype Buhari as a phenomenon, urging us to forget that in 2001 in Kaduna, he promoted religious intolerance by advocating for the practice of Sharia all over Nigeria; that he has compared the religious supremacist demands of Boko Haram to the economic demand of Niger-Delta militants.

They will like us to forget that Jonathan built the first transformative schools for rehabilitating Almajiris, that Jonathan built 10 universities in northern Nigeria in three years between 2011 and 2013, more universities than all northern leaders built in the north between 1960 and 1998.

They will want us to see Buhari as a clean uncorrupt leader, without drawing our attention to the fact that when he was in charge of the petroleum ministry, 2.8 billion dollars went up in smoke, that he worked

under the most corrupt military dictatorship in Nigeria under Abacha, administering funds from petroleum, yet he used the funds for only the northern parts of the country, leaving all the consultancy for all projects under the care of his relatives (Afriproject Ltd) without any enduring project in the South of Nigeria. But they will like us to ignore how the Jonathan government has ensured an even spread in the rehabilitation of roads across the country, how the power sector reforms will transform every section of the country generating jobs and opportunities and cutting down out-of pocket spending for generator fuel when the new operators steady power supplies.

In hyping Buhari, the power seekers, will want us to forget Decree no 2 and Decree no 4 which Buhari used to detain people like Ajasin and Onabanjo indefinitely and gag the press. No one compelled Buhari to sign these laws, even if he signed reluctantly he did not hesitated to use them, he even killed three Nigerians using retroactive decrees.

But the new power seekers will want us to see this as necessary to create order and discipline. They will rather not want us to see possible law and order when we use laws like the Freedom of Information Act signed by the Jonathan government something the Obasanjo regime for eight years rejected.

They hype Buhari as the strongman required for security against Boko Haram, but the nation is not told that a strongman is in charge in Russia where the Chechnyan rebels are still bombing train stations in Moscow, that strongmen who hold nuclear weapons control Pakistan where bigots shoot passengers at the national airport and health workers during polio immunization.If we believe these hypes, we will not need to fight Boko Haram because in voting for Buhari, the nation will have capitulated to dictatorship and Sharia zealots without firing a shot.

•Mr. Johnson, a political analyst, wrote from Lagos.

20 — Vanguard, THURSDAY, JANUARY 1, 2015

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VANGUARD, THURSDAY, JANUARY 1, 2015 — 21

From left: Mr. Tony Ibeziako, Head, Mainboard, Nigerian Stock Exchange, NSE; Bunmi Dayo-Olagunju, Executive Director, Stanbic IBTC, Asset Management; Mr. Haruna Jalo-Waziri, Executive Director, Business Development, NSE; Olumide Oyetan, CEO, Stanbic IBTC Asset Management; Oladele Sotubom, CEO, Stanbic IBTC Stock Brokers and Dapo Martins, Head, Wealth Marketing, Stanbic IBTC, at the Stanbic ETF listing

Oil falls below $56, heads for biggest annual drop since 2008

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il dropped below $56 a barrel on Wednesday and was heading for its biggest annual decline since 2008, pressured by weakening demand and a supply glut prompted by the U.S. shale boom and OPEC’s refusal to cut output.

Reuters stated that the price of global benchmark Brent crude has nearly halved in

2014 as demand growth slowed, the United States expanded output and OPEC, dropping its strategy of trimming supply to keep oil around $100 a barrel, chose instead to defend market share.

On Wednesday, prices came under further pressure from a survey showing China’s factory sector shrank for the

first time in seven months in December - a bearish indication on the strength of oil demand in the world’s second-largest consumer.

“Here we are on the very last session of the year and Brent is making new lows, again,” said Tony Machacek, an oil broker at Jefferies Bache in London. “There’s no reason to see why the downtrend should

not continue.”Brent was down $1.72 at $56.18 by 8.26 a.m., after earlier dropping as low as $55.81, its weakest since May 2009. U.S. crude was down $1.19 at $52.93. The annual decline for Brent is set to be the biggest since 2008, when demand crumbled in response to the financial crisis.

Prices were, eventually, propped up by

OPEC’s last formal decision to cut production.

In contrast, OPEC at a November 27 meeting this year decided against a cutback to defend its market share against shale oil and other competing supply sources, despite its own forecasts of a growing surplus in 2015.

Controversy trails allocation of import quota for rice

By Franklin Alli

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ONTROVERY has continued to trail the allocation of higher import quotas to new investors in the nation’s rice sector.

Specifically, existing millers in the sector are complaining that the allocation of higher import quotas to new investors who have neither paddy nor rice milling facility is a threat to the realization of the backward integration policy by the Federal Government.

Vanguard’s investigation revealed that in a bid to promote self-sufficiency in local rice production and milling, the Federal Government initiated a new rice policy.

The policy specifies preferential levy of 20 percent and duty of 10 per cent for existing millers and new

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investors in rice milling and a higher levy of 60 percent and a duty of 10 percent for other rice importers.

Consequently, an interministerial committee was appointed to determine the national supply gap and the appropriate volume of import quota of the two categories need to close the gap.

Also a methodology of allocating quotas, which assigned weight to key criteria of self-sufficiency in rice production and milling in Nigeria, was developed by the Ministry of Agriculture in collaboration with the rice stakeholders and rice experts as supply gap of import grade was determined to be 1.5 million metric tonnes for 2014.

Subsequently, a letter was sent to existing rice millers and new investors, to submit their Domestic Rice Production Plan (DRPP), and

based on their submissions a total of 1.3 million metric tonnes of rice import quotas was issued to 28 qualifying companies at the preferential levy of 20 percent and a duty of 10 percent.

The remainder 0.2 million metric tonnes of rice imports will be at the higher levy of 60 per cent and duty of 10 per cent for other rice importers.

Vanguard further learned that, however, to the disappointment of the existing rice millers, new investors without milling capacity or investments in paddy farms received the highest quota of the allocations to import, while millers did not receive allocations and in some instances received very low allocation.Similarly, the list of beneficiaries of the preferential import quotas, quantities of rice imports approved and

corresponding size of performance bond to be submitted shows that of the 28 beneficiaries, only 16 have mills, while the remaining 12 have no mills and account for higher imports than millers.Investigations also showed that many of the new investors who got the import allocation quotas have only submitted expression of interests to invest in the sector without commensurable form of investments in the sector, and are already trading it to interested stakeholders at between 60 to 80 per cent levy having got the same at 20 per cent levy.

$175.0

-$0.65

$2,975.00

$14.94

$10.00

-$0.05

$62.15 +$2.88 $56.91 CURRENCY BUYING DOLLAR 167 STERLING 259.6349 EURO 203.6064 FRANC 170.0957 YEN 1.3865 CFA 0.2935 WAUA 242.0204 RENMINBI 26.8337 RIYAL 44.4918 KRONA 27.3609 SDR 241.9329

+$2.41

CENTRAL 167.5 260.4123 204.216 169.2167 1.3906 0.3035 242.745 26.9145 44.625 27.4428 242. 6573

168 261.1896 204.8256 170.23 1.3948 0.3135 243.4696 26.9953 44.7582 27.5247 243.3816

CBN Exchange Rate as 31/12/2014

22—Vanguard, THURSDAY, JANUARY 1, 2015

Think about the good things happening in your life and work your way toward making every day an even better day

BUSINESS

Starting a business from scratch A

re you thinking of starting a business from scratch? Here are some essential steps to building a business from the ground floor up. They will empower you to take that first dramatic step toward starting your own business and doing it right the first time. *Act like you know what you are doing even when you don’t Boasting is nothing to be ashamed of. If you move full speed ahead with aplomb, people are bound to move with you despite the fact that you have no clue as to what you are doing. You won’t always feel confident, but that doesn’t mean you can’t perform. *Be patient if you want BIG clients Landing the big one takes time. It’s like fishing.

You bait the hook and swing it high and mightily, but it can take hours to catch a big one. The same holds true for landing a corporate giant. Finding strategic customers or vendors who know your industry and believe in your product or business is manna from heaven. But it won’t take days or months to woo them. Count on years. *Believe in yourself If you do not believe in yourself, who will? Every day, look in the mirror and say, “I am the best I can possibly be and I am going to do great things today!” You have to convince yourself first before you can convince others. *Build a core team of people unlike yourself When the going gets tough, you want people at your side who are responsible, accountable and reliable. Look for people who complement you, compensate for your weakness or offer a fresh perspective. Impose on them to challenge you constantly by taking a critical or contrasting position. How else will you and the organization grow? *Create luck Sure, we all run into bad luck at some time or another but the secret is learning how to

*Exude enthusiasm and positiveness What turns you on - an enthusiastic and positive person or one who never smiles and never jumps up and down at your new idea?

Start jumping up and down and look for people who will happily join you. *Get a grip on cash To run a lean, alert and ready-for-challenge business, you have to tidy up your balance sheet and have enough money at your disposal. Know where your money is coming from and where it’s going. Most new businesses fail, and many do so because they are under-capitalized. Small businesses by definition tend to be thrifty even in good times, and bad times are all the more the reason to keep belts tight. *Go to the bank when not desperate Just like going to the store when you are hungry makes you buy more than you intended, going to the bank penniless places you in a very vulnerable position. Get the paperwork for a loan done well in advance of being in a desperate situation and build a relationship before the economy sours. You want to always be in a position to weather the storm. *Have a mentor Nothing beats turning to someone who’s been there and can provide you with perspectives that you are unable or unwilling to see. Mentors spare you from making costly mistakes or learning lessons the hard way.

Mentors spare you from making costly mistakes or learning lessons the hard way

squeeze out the negative and only work with the positive. In other words, search for ways to turn a misfortune into a benefit. Give yourself plenty of time to turn things around. The key to creating luck is to seek opportunities. Think about the good things happening in your life and work your way toward making every day an even better day. *Define your business but always put the customers first Refer to Henry Ford’s classic statement, “An American can have a Ford in any colour so long as its black.” The business is not about you, it’s about the vision you have that should serve customers.

Theodore Leavitt had it right when he said, “The purpose of a business is to get and keep a customer.” Peter Drucker stated, “Companies are not in business to make items, but to make customers.” *Delegate when you can Control freaks, perfectionists and compulsive people are “out.” Delegators are “in.” Who’s going to get more done, the person who delegates the work to 100 people or the one who does it all himself? By delegating responsibilities early on, you will have time to consider the needs of the business as a whole. *Don’t quit your job until you have your first BIG customer What’s a business without at least one rock-solid customer? It’s a frustrating hobby. Before you even think of starting a business and running it full time, you better have a BIG customer or a handful of small ones who pay well and are committed for the long haul.

*Hire the best team you can afford Don’t be cheap. Don’t be stupid. Offer what you can afford and be willing to explain why.

If there is more to come, tell them so. If that’s unlikely, then say that too. No one ever walked away from a great opportunity just because the money wasn’t there. They turned it down because the person behind the offering wasn’t a straight shooter. *Invest in the people you hire Think vacation and flex time, bonuses, health clubs, recognition for performance, opportunities for growth and advancement and the need for respect, sponsors and mentors. Employees look at both the “soft” and “hard” sides of the job before they decide to take it. Invest in your people. They are precious assets that will appreciate as you grow. *Keep your business plan simple Don’t over-complicate your business plan.

It should be easy to follow, easy to execute and easy to modify. Clarity is more important than bulk. Use the plan as a compass to guide your business. Keep it clutter-free. *Live more like a farmer than a parachute salesperson A parachute salesperson drops in and stays for a moment. A farmer, on the other hand, plants different seeds to mature at different times and harvests them constantly. Properly nurtured crops (customers) can take care of you for the rest of your life.

Source: Globetrade.com

AWARD: Prof. E.J. Etuk, Chairman, Advisory Board, Institute f Technology (left), presenting the award for the Best Storage Tank of th National Plastics, Mr. Sunday Adetunde at the 2014 African Product F

Myths about self-made billionaires ByJohn Sviokla & Mitch Cohen

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1984, Dietrich Mateschitz was a bored, forty-year-old marketing executive at the German cosmetics company Blendax.

He spent his days peddling toothpaste and cosmetics to retailers around the world.

Then on a routine trip to Thailand, Mateschitz learned that the Japanese manufacturer of a line of supersweet “health” drinks popular in Asia was the biggest taxpayer in Japan.

There was nothing like them in the West. Mateschitz decided right then to quit his job and start a company to manufacture and market the drinks in Europe. Within a few years, Red Bull had launched its signature carbonated beverage in Mateschitz’s native Austria and in Slovenia. Today, Red Bull is far more than the drink that carries its name.

That success is not evenly distributed across the range of good ideas made us ask the question, what enables self-

made billionaires to create such massive value? A lot of the truisms that get touted as the keys to successful entrepreneurship don’t stand up to data.

Age: Our tech-dominated era populated by savvy wonderkinder - has left the impression that most self-made billionaires cross that billion-dollar finish line early in their careers. While it is true that people like Bill Gates, Michael Dell, and Mark Zuckerberg made their first billion while still quite young - and with the first companies they formed the majority of people in our sample are like Dietrich Mateschitz, who didn’t hit the billion-dollar mark until well after his fortieth birthday. For more than 70 percent of the sample, the idea or transition that catapulted them to billion-dollar success happened after age thirty.

Industry: Technology dominance has also led many to believe that the main path for selfmade entrepreneurs is the tech sector, which is so often held up as a bastion of new wealth and meritocracy, where anyone with a

Vanguard, THURSDAY, JANUARY 1, 2015 — 23

More than 75 per cent of self-made billionaires were raised in households with affluence levels in the middle class or above

& YOU

for Government Research Leadership he year 2014 to the Sales Manager, Rida Forum in Abuja.

great idea and the willingness to code for long hours can rise to the top. In fact, less than 20 percent of our sample of self-made billionaires came from tech. The money management and the consumer products industries are not far behind tech in terms of the number of self-made billionaires.

Overall, more than nineteen different industries were represented in our sample, including oil and gas, apparel, food and beverages, publishing, printing, real estate development, entertainment, and hotels, as well as technology and tech services, among others.

Greenfield innovators: There is a general belief that self-made billionaires create “brand-new” things. There’s no question that exploring new market spaces has the potential to yield large profits, but it’s not the route that most selfmade billionaires chart. More than 80 percent of our sample of

There is a general belief that self-made billionaires create “brand-new” things

self-made billionaires earned their billions in red oceans highly competitive, mature industries.

Dietrich Mateschitz again offers a case in point for this fact - he inserted Red Bull as a new product category (the “energy” drink) into an existing beverage market. He signalled its difference from existing drinks with both the skinny 8.4ounce can and a premium price more than double that of a can of Coke. Such seemingly small tweaks may not seem as awesome as a new market innovation, but the value is still there.

Exploitative practices: It’s difficult to find any successful organization that hasn’t been accused by someone, somewhere, of unsavoury practices. Billionaires in particular are easy targets for such accusations. While we make no claims about their universal purity, as a group the businesses launched by the self-made billionaires in our sample lean toward the socially responsible end of the scale in their industries. Furthermore, a large number of self-made billionaires have signed the Giving Pledge, promising to give away more than half of their net worth; a significant portion are active in philanthropy or social projects.

Overnight success: It may seem that certain individuals form companies and suddenly enter the public consciousness with a meteorically successful product, but the reality is that many self-made billionaires reach extreme success only after many years of professional investment and commitment to a particular market space. They often exhibit early entrepreneurial drive: more than 50 percent had a first job before age eighteen; nearly 30 percent had launched their first entrepreneurial venture before age twenty-two; and almost 75 percent before age thirty. Note that while some billionaires had the kind of humble upbringing that necessitated an early entry to work, they are in the minority - more than 75 percent of selfmade billionaires were raised in households with affluence levels in the middle class or above.

These are just a few of the counter-intuitive findings that made it clear to us that there was a mismatch between what many claim to “know” about extreme success and what the data report. *Culled from The Self-Made Billionaire Effect: How Extreme Producers Create Massive Value, by Sviokla and Cohen.

Is success the birthright of any organisation?

By ‘Uju Onwuzulike

“Success seems to be largely a matter of hanging on after others have let go” — Arnold H Glasow

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ne thing that is common with virtually all the companies in the world is the desire to be successful in one’s area of business operation. One thing I also know about success itself is that it does not have any specific best friend. In order words, no one can boldly say, “even if I did not do anything (or engage in any meaningful activity), success is already dwelling in my house or in my company”. The key message for us is that success respects only those who have worked for it, and not to those who assume they naturally deserve success.

It is not wrong for any organization to desire success in whatever they do. What is wrong is when they are merely dwelling on wishful thinking.

And the quickest way to know such an organization is when they announce their lofty visions, expectations and initiatives without having a step by step action plans on how to achieve them. This also explains why so many strategic plans and priorities

BY ‘UJU ONWUZULIKE lot of people have is that some big organizations or corporations literally have attained success such that success on itself has now become their birthright. One key fact such people have not realized is that success is only but a journey, it is something we need to intentionally seek for everyday and not occasionally. And when we do not seek it as we ought to, others will be glad doing it.

In my days as an employee, I also used to think that some organizations are invincible that nothing will ever make them to fall or probably lose their leadership position. Now that I am older (proverbially), I have realized that no organization owns the monopoly of success; no

Having the desire to be successful is not enough and unfortunately “Mr Success” will not grant success to such people or organisations with only desires fall by the way side. Because it is not enough to be successful by having a well laid down strategic plans without going the extra mile in executing them. This is why I always tell organizations in any of my strategic management workshops that the best plans on the planet earth that were not executed is as good as having no plan at all.

A misleading mindset that a

organisation has success as its birthright, and importantly no organization is too big to fall.

Whenever I discuss with CEOs and business owners on running successful companies, I always tell them two things. The first is that they should be careful when they are successful because the enemy of success itself is “success”. This comes with “I have arrived mentality”, and

meanwhile other competitors are still running the “Relay race”, and probably might get there before you. The second thing I always tell them is that what makes them successful yesterday or in the time past might not make them successful today. As a matter of fact, may be the cause of their downfall tomorrow or in the future. The key lesson for leaders and CEOs is to be more strategic in their thinking (which is why I always recommend that CEOs and senior management be trained in Strategic Thinking), and always keep an eye on the changing environment.

Final note: In as much as it is true that no organization has success as its birthright, at the same time, it is possible to plan one’s way to success. This requires commitment across the board, having the right attitude and going the extra mile for one’s organization come rain or shine. Having the desire to be successful is not enough and unfortunately “Mr Success” will not grant success to such people or organizations with only desires, but will grant success to those organizations that are committed in whatever they have set out to do.

Call or email us for your views or perspectives.

Email: uju@hainescentre.com Mobile: 09091142093 www.hainescentre.com C M Y K

24 — Vanguard, THURSDAY, JANUARY 1, 2015

IMF suspends financial aid to Greece

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MOU SIGNING: From left: Hassan Osuwa, Legal Division, Bank of Industry; Waheed Olagunju, Executive Director, Small and Medium Enterprises, Bank of Industry; Gbenga Shobo, Executive Director, Lagos and West, FirstBank and Abdul-Ganiyu Mohammed, General Manager, Small and Medium Enterprises, Bank of Industry at the signing of the MoU between FirstBank and BOI to fund SMEs in agric and allied businesses.

he International Monetary Fund, IMF, has said it is suspending financial aid to Greece under its huge rescue program until a new government is formed.

IMF spokesperson Gerry Rice said discussion on the completion of the sixth review of Greece’s bailout will resume once a new government is in place. Mr Rice added that the holdup in the programme would not impact the country ’s finances in the short term. The decision comes after Greek lawmakers failed to elect a new president in a final round of voting.

It leaves the country facing an early election that could derail the international bailout

CBN defends naira with $5.3bn •Forex inflow falls by 5.4%

By Babajide Komolafe

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HE Central Bank of Nigeria sold $5.3 billion to defend the naira in October even as foreign exchange inflow into the economy fell by 5.4 percent during the month.

Disclosing this in its economic report for October, the CBN said that the decline in foreign exchange inflow was driven by 21.3 percent decline in receipts from crude oil exports.

The report revealed the impact of the decline in crude oil prices on the nation’s economy and especially on the foreign exchange market.

The report stated, “Provisional data indicated that foreign exchange inflow and outflow through the CBN was $3.23 billion and $5.30 billion, respectively, in the review month, resulting in a net outflow of $2.07 billion, compared with the net outflow of $0.02 billion in the preceding month. Relative to the level in the preceding month, inflow fell by 23.7 per cent, but indicated a growth of 1.7 per cent above the level in the corresponding period of 2013. The development, relative to the preceding month was attributed to the decline in crude oil prices, the absence of foreign exchange swaps and decline in non-oil receipts during the month under review.

“Foreign exchange outflow through the CBN, however, increased by 24.7 and 66.7 per cent to US$5.30 above the levels in the preceding month and the corresponding period of 2013, respectively. The development was attributed,

largely, to increased foreign exchange sales at the rDAS, Bureau-de-Change (BDC) and interbank segments of the market during the review period.

“Provisional data on aggregate foreign exchange flows through the economy indicated that total inflow was $14.09 billion, representing a decrease of 5.4 below the level at the end of the preceding month. It, however, increased by 26.9 per cent above the level at the end of the corresponding period of 2013.

The development, relative to

the preceding month was driven, mainly, by a decline of 21.3 per cent in receipts from crude oil exports. Of the total inflows, receipts through the CBN and autonomous sources accounted for 22.9 and 77.1 per cent, respectively.

“Non-oil public sector inflow, at $0.73 billion (5.2 per cent of the total), was down by 30.9 per cent below the level in the preceding month but rose by 58.4 per cent above the level in the corresponding month of 2013. Autonomous inflow, which accounted for 77.1 per cent of the total, increased by

1.9 per cent above the level in the preceding month.

“At $5.40 billion, aggregate foreign exchange outflow from the economy increased by 17.2 and 66.9 per cent above the levels in the preceding month and the corresponding month of 2013, respectively. Thus, foreign exchange flows through the economy resulted in a net inflow of $8.69 billion in the review month, compared with $10.28 billion and $7.86 billion in the preceding month and the corresponding month of 2013, respectively.”

Ecobank named Investment Bank of the Year

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cobank has been named Investment Bank of the Year - Nigeria in the Wealth & Finance International magazine Finance Awards 2014.

The 2014 Finance Awards were developed to recognise and reward excellence, best practice and innovation in finance. It is open to individuals and firms operating and working in a wide range of industries, including personal finance, corporate finance, accountancy and financial management.

Wealth & Finance has welcomed nominations for firms throughout the globe, from very small niche practices to large corporations and have ensured that those who do go on to win one of these highly sought-after awards have been selected on merit and are based upon the votes received, the further evidence supplied and based on its own in-house research.

The Ecobank Group is a fullservice bank providing

wholesale, retail, investment and transactional banking services to governments, financial institutions, multinationals, local companies, SMEs and

individuals.

In naming Ecobank Investment Bank of the Year Nigeria, Wealth & Finance was impressed with the bank’s customer-focused approach.

Dickson calls for liberal banking services

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ayelsa State Governor, Hon. Seriake Dickson has called on financial institutions operating in the state to make their services more liberal for the people of the state to benefit The Governor however commended Sterling Bank Plc for its strategic branch expansion policy aimed at taking its quality products and services closer to its customers.

Governor Dickson, who spoke while commissioning a new branch of the Sterling Bank, Plc in Yenagoa, decried a situation where some banks only show interest in the collection of deposits from

their customers without doing anything to better their financial standing.

Describing Bayelsa as Nigeria’s best kept secret; the governor reiterated his administration’s determination to provide an enabling environment for businesses to thrive in the state.

While thanking the management of Sterling Bank for heeding to his earlier call, Governor Dickson urged other financial and private institutions to emulate the bank in building befitting corporate offices to enhance the development of the state.

programme it needs to keep paying its bills. The only candidate in the race, former European Commissioner Stavros Dimas, matched the result achieved in the second round of voting before Christmas. However, he fell short of the 180 votes needed to become president.

Under Greek law, a parliamentary election must now be called, leaving financial markets and Greece’s European Union partners facing weeks of uncertainty that could undermine fragile signs of economic recovery and derail its public finances. A general election is now expected to be held by early February.

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said Greece must stick to agreed economic reforms regardless of the outcome of the election.

In a statement, Mr Shaeuble said “these tough reforms are bearing fruit, they have no alternative.”

The radical leftist Syriza party, which wants to tear up Greece’s bailout agreement with the EU and International Monetary Fund and wipe off a big part of its debt, has held a steady lead in opinion polls for months, although its advantage has narrowed in recent weeks.

Divisions among potential post-election coalition partners for both Syriza and Samaras’ conservative New Democracy party have also complicated the outlook, increasing the risk that any new government would be short-lived.

Underlining the potential volatility facing markets, the main Athens stock market index accelerated losses to fall 10.7 percent after the vote, while Greek bond yields jumped above 9%.

Prime Minister Antonis Samaras urged lawmakers at the weekend to elect Mr Dimas to succeed the 85-year-old head of state Karolos Papoulias and allow the final round of bailout negotiations to be completed.

But having offered a deal to bring forward elections scheduled for mid 2016 to the end of next year, he ruled out new concessions and said he was confident of winning any election. Mr Samaras, who had been pushing for an early end to the deeply unpopular bailout programme, brought forward the presidential vote earlier this month in a bid to end gathering political uncertainty hanging over his ruling coalition.

A negotiating team from the “troika” of creditors from the EU, IMF and European Central Bank, had been due to resume talks in Athens next month to wind up the €240 billion bailout and agree an interim, post-bailout programme.

Vanguard, THURSDAY, JANUARY 1, 2015 — 25

*From Left: Mallam Muhammad Sani Aliu, Director Academic Programmes, National Commission for Colleges of Education (NCCE); Mrs Olufunto Igun, Executive Director, Corona Schools’ Trust Council (CSTC); Prof. Muhammad I. Junaid, Executive Secretary, NCCE; Mrs Ifueko Thomas, Director, Corona Teachers’ College(CTC); Prof. U.T. Muhammad, Chairman, Accreditation Panel, NCCE and Mrs Joan Omole, Head, Business Development, CTC at the handing over of Provisional Approval to mount the Nigerian Certificate in Education(NCE) programme in Abuja.

Education in 2015:

‘It would be a turbulent year’

By Amaka Abayomi & Tare Youdeowei

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ESPITE considerable progress experienced in the education sector in 2014, stakeholders are still concerned that Nigeria is yet to overcome its numerous challenges bordering on; rot, kidnapping and killing of innocent school children in their schools by Boko Haram insurgents, increase in the number of out-of-school children, incessant strikes by staff unions over welfare and the state of teaching and learning facilities, and the dying prospect of meeting the 2015 United Nations’ deadline for Education for All. Others are inadequate access to tertiary education, steep hike in tuition fees in some tertiary institutions, the rising army of unemployed graduates roaming the streets, mass failure in national examinations, craze for foreign education, and brain-drain as a result of mass exodus of teachers to foreign institutions, among other worrisome issues.

As we step into a brand new year, we ask leading figures in the education sector for their assessment of the sector in 2014 while predicting what 2015 holds in store.

For the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, South-West Zonal C M Y K

Coordinator, Dr. Adesola Nasir, there is no radical change as there is no departure from what was obtainable in 2013 especially as the kind of environment and policy needed to launch the knowledge industry is still lacking.

“Technical colleges that are to power the industrial sector are yet to take off with a good number of them not functional due to lack of required facilities. The Universal Basic Education

thing is not what it is supposed to be and this is responsible for the state of public schools.

“Higher education is not left out because, despite all efforts by ASUU, ASUP and COEASU to get the right funding for these institutions, we still do not have the right funding that would take us to the next level. Apart from the initial N220bn, government is yet to

Mathematics professor advocates five-year training for teachers Pg. 26

Parents tasked to spend quality time with children Pg. 27

Continues on page 26

FG to inject N1.2 trn into varsities' infrastructural devt

By Dayo Johnson, Akure

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HE Federal Government says it intends to inject N1.2 trillion into the nation’s universities for infrastructural development and capacity building within the next three years.

President Goodluck Jonathan stated this at the 25th and 26th convocation of Federal University of Technology Akure, FUTA.

According to him, in the last one year, government in its pursuit of transformation of the nation's universities has released N30 billion to all Federal Universities to clear arrears of earned allowances due to the various categories of staff.

With similar intention, government has also approved and disbursed N200 billion special intervention for capital projects to the Universities.

Speaking through Prof Azikwe Nwalu, the President pointed out that the

revitalisation of the Universities is in line with the present administration’s transformation agenda.

He therefore urged the leadership of the universities to ensure prudence, accountability, transparency and delivery of value for money all the time.

President Jonathan also implored staff (teaching and non-teaching) to be committed and give the

Continues on page 26

26 — Vanguard, THURSDAY, JANUARY 1, 2015

‘It would be a turbulent year’ Continued from page 25

*From left: Chairman, Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), Dr Musa Babayo; Executive Secretary, TETFund, Prof. Elias Bogoro; member, Board of Trustees (BOT), Prof. Patricia Donli; another BOT member, Mr Richard Anetekhai and Acting Chairman, Federal Inland Revenue Service, Alhaji Kabir Mashi, at the TETFund 2014 Taxpayers Forum in Lagos.

Mathematics professor advocates five-year training for teachers •as alumni marks family picnic

By Dayo Adesulu & Bose Adelaja

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PROFESSOR of Mathematics with Tai Solarin University of Education, Ogun State, Abayomi Arigbabu, has advocated for a five years training programme for teachers in place of the existing four years in Nigerian tertiary institutions.

This according to him will save the nation from mass failure in Mathematics.

Arigbabu who is presently on sabbatical leave with the department of Science and Technology University of Lagos, spoke with Vanguard Learning last Sunday shortly after his alma mata, Ijebu-Ode Grammar School Old Boys Association JOGS 74/79 set, held their annual family picnic at the Fun Factory, Ikorodu.

Out of the five years programme, he proffered that the first four years be spent studying the content while the remaining one year should be spent on the pedagogy of teaching.

The professor who also doubles as the National Vice President of the national body also gave factors for mass failure in Mathematics which includes teachers, parents, environment, students and government, saying that Mathematics is unconsciously a routine in every home, even at market places. ‘ ’Teachers, students, government, environment and parents should be blamed. The teachers should realize that all C M Y K

students are not on the same level and all they need do is to be patient and systematic in introducing the content. We come across Mathematics in our daily life, for instance, when you board a cab for N120 and you pay with N500 emblock, you have a balance of N380, this is Mathematics.

Also, if you give a cloth to a tailor, he needs to apply Mathematics before sewing it.

The same thing applies to house wives, traders, journalists, medical doctors, engineers and other professionals who are usually logical in their fields,” he siad.

In terms of professionalism in schools, the professor advised teachers to be well grounded, ‘’ The teacher should be well grounded especially Mathematics. Those who studied pure Mathematics should get the pedagogue and those who are not should go for

two years full time training rather than attending crash programmes. Finally, the government should not pay lip service to education,” Earlier in his welcome address, the president of JOGS 74/79 set Mr Dimeji Ogunniyi, urged Nigerians to pray for the release of over 200 students of Government Secondary School Chibok, who were held captive for the past months.

Dimeji said the annual family picnic was the 15th edition to afford members of the families an opportunity to mingle together.

In line with the programme, the executive members led by the pioneer president and a senior medical consultant with Ikorodu General Hospital Dr Demola Olowu, paid a visit to Great Faith Orphanage Ogijo, Ikorodu where they donated food items and toiletries

FG to inject N1.2 trn into varsities' infrastructural devt Continued from page 25 highest level of performance engendered by patriotism, dedication and selflessness He urged students to eschew violence, shun all forms of anti social activities and ensure full time concentration in their studies.

The Vice Chancellor of the University, Prof Adebiyi Daramola said the university has made landmark achievements in teaching,

research and community service.

Prof Daramola lauded the federal government for providing N5.6 million to the university for the special intervention on Needs Assessment the for disbursement in two phases.

Honorary degrees were also awarded to the founder of Afe Babalola University, Aare Emmanuel Afe Babalola SAN and an industrialist Alhaji Bashari Aminu.

release more money and we are in deficit. We are still not there, the world is moving at a very fast pace and we lack the kind of input necessary to compete.”

On what should be expected in 2015, Nasir said; “It is quite difficult to predict what would happen in 2015. Though it is clear that 2015 would be a turbulent year in Nigeria, not just for the education sector but all sectors, we would continually assess the situation.”

In the same light, the President, Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics, ASUP, Mr. Chibuzor Asomugha, said the education sector in 2014 was filled with hiccups with nothing remarkable to celebrate.

“2014 had its ups and downs, but majorly more downs, and the perpetual neglect of the sector began to show with the prolonged unrest by the various academic unions which left a near irreparable damage in the sector, coupled with the fact that funding has been low.”

On his predictions for the sector in 2015, Asomugha said; “There are no indications that anything remarkable would happen in 2015, except for the fact that we have better qualified officials in the education ministry who, if allowed to stay longer and given the right tools and environment to work with, are bound to make the right and necessary changes.”

When asked if the union would embark on another strike action should government fail to fulfill its end of the agreement due to the dwindling oil prices that would affect the budgetary allocation to the education sector, the ASUP President said; “Strike actions are not usually the first line of action unions take and since the education sector is part of the larger subsector of the economy, what happens in one sector is bound to affect others. Rather, government should have the political will to take the right steps for the sector to progress as nobody is against government’s tightening of its belt.”

The President, College of Education Academic Staff Union (COEASU), Mr. Emmanuel Asagha, is of the view that the sector is still miles away from its destination as sincere commitment to purposeful education is constantly eclipsed by corruption.

According to him, “the operators have no stake in the sector and nation at large so failed promises have come to characterize activities in the sector while our leaders continue to play costly politics with the future (education and health) of this country.

“In 2015, our trust for a new order rests with God because without a change of attitude, the deterioration will be colossal.

Government should try to be responsible and act with the fear of God.”

Neo-liberal capitalist policies Stressing that year 2014 was an especially bad year for the education sector due to government’s relentless pursuit of antipoor and neo-liberal capitalist policies that effectively priced education out of the reach of the poor, the National Coordinator, Education Rights Campaign, ERC, Mr. Hassan Soweto, said there was intensification of efforts on government’s part to make education the preserve of the rich and an intensification of struggle to resist this anti-poor capitalist agenda by students and education workers.

“From the Lagos State University to the Obafemi Awolowo University, Olabisi Onabanjo University and most federal and state higher institutions, fee hike and intensification of commercialisation policies were the dominant features of the education sector in the year 2014.

“We also saw the continuous collapse of teaching and learning infrastructures in public primary and secondary schools as a result of the failure of the Universal Basic Education (UBE) programme to effectively turn around the fortunes of public education and increase enrollment.

“Also, the percentage of out-of-school children increased to about 10.5 million, which is one of the worst cases in the world, meaning that Nigeria has failed to meet the key mandate of the Millennium Development Goals whose target is the year 2015.

“Off course the rampage of the Boko Haram terrorist group which saw the burning of school buildings and abductions of school pupils, including the over 200 Chibok girls, also marked a significant drawback in government’s stated policy of promoting universal enrollment of all school-age children in Nigeria.

“2014 also witnessed tremendous struggle by staff unions like the ASUP and COEASU to compel government to implement signed agreements, revive our dying polytechnics and colleges of education and annul the dichotomy between HND and B.Sc Continues on page 28

Vanguard, THURSDAY, JANUARY 1, 2015 — 27

Rivers Education commissioner bags MDG Icon award

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*L-r: Registrar, Dr. Olumuyiwa Oludayo; Vice-Chancellor, Professor Charles Ayo; Lecturer, Professor Amos Alao; Representative of Chancellor, Covenant University, and Resident Pastor, Living Faith Church, Canaanland, Pastor Ubong Ntia and Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Covenant University, Professor Taiwo Abioye after the University’s 37th Public Lecture in commemoration of the Chancellor’s 60th birthday.

Parents tasked to spend quality time with children

By Ediri Ejoh & Tare Youdeowei

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HE coordinator and founder of Mothers’ Summit, under the auspice of Funke Adejumo Foundation, Rev. Funke Adejumo, has clamoured for the need for parents to continuously map out quality time for their children to teach and guide them in the right direction in life, adding that a preserved childhood is better than a repaired adulthood.

Disclosing this at the Mothers’ Summit 2014 held recently in Lagos, Adejumo said there is need for parents to pray and teach children the pre-requisite skills to enable them overcome the temptations in society.

Teaching of basic principles Her words; “It is a pity that some parents have failed in the upbringing of their children.

Some mothers do not have the time to monitor and teach their children basic principles about life, not to mention fathers who have become absent in the upbringing of children simply because they feel their contribution should be only financial.

"The various institutions as well as the Sunday school lessons created by churches for learning cannot take the place of a parent in the molding of the child.”

To address the challenges affecting women in the society, she explained that; “the Mothers’ Summit is an avenue for mothers and intending mothers to come together and pray for their children and to know God’s plan and purpose in their lives with a vision of nation building.

“We however make it a priority to educate the mothers on important aspects of life by placing value on the female folk

and moral lessons that would conform to our culture and way of life. It is important that they be thought spiritually to know the standards of God and have a relationship with God." Speaking in the same vein, Pastor Bola Olawole, said this is the fifth edition of the conference with over 4000 in attendance.

“We had started with over 500 women when we first started. It is to show that mothers understand the importance of praying for their children and they have had course to testify of the benefit it has brought."

Reverend Adejumo further added that; “We sensitize the mothers on the need to educate the girls early on sex. When this is not done, the society, peers and television would impact on them negatively. We need to teach our daughters about virginity and how well to appreciate themselves and be dignified in it by not falling for cheap talk or money.

"The vision is prayer majorly, with some teaching that would enable mothers go back home and put the child in order for a better nation.

She further stated that that parents may not have enough time to teach their children or wards on a daily basis, but should ensure whatever time is spent, is quality time. Her words; "You may not have all day or hours to talk to your children, but you must create a little time everyday to impart them positively. If you want to be present in the life of your child in the future, you must be present now."

To this end, she urged women to shun numerical delivery of children but ensure that they not just bare children but also raise them. It is advisable for a mother to know the number of children that she can bare and rear as well, instead of given birth and not taking adequate responsibility to train that child."

HE Rivers State Commissioner for Education, Dame Alice Lawrence-Nemi has bagged the Award of Millennium Development Goals Icon.

The award was presented to the Commissioner during the 2014 MDG Awards which was organized by MDG Global Magazine at the Sheraton Hotel, Ikeja, Lagos.

She was honoured for her unprecedented achievements in Nigeria Millennium Development Goals, especially with the goal connected to Education, Poverty Reduction and Sustainable Environment in Nigeria.

The Publisher of the MDG Global Magazine, Chuks Nwoko, said the leadership style of the Rivers State Education boss is responsible for the achievements recorded in the education sector in the State. ‘’Your interpretation and execution of leadership vision on Education in Rivers State has been globally acknowledged. The basic components and core values of the Millennium Development Goals include transparency, integrity, accountability, project evaluation and monitoring etc.

•Dame Alice Lawrence-Nemi

You surpassed in all the above described areas and more.

When the report on Nigeria’ Millennium Development Goals is finally written, your mention will be prominent.

This award is in appreciation of your forthrightness, passion, talent, ability, competences, patriotism, zeal, loyalty and commitment to Nigeria’s Millennium Development Goals and its cores’’ he said.

The Publisher of the MDG Global Magazine also called on other State Governments to emulate the Rivers State Government in the area of education development. He said that Rivers State has recorded numerous achievements especially the recruitment of 13 thousand teachers and the model schools concept.

Internet connection ‘’Rivers State is the first State in Nigeria to introduce the study of ICT at the primary school level. All the schools in Rivers State today are equipped with ICT facilities, and internet connection as the State is eager to make all her pupils and students technologically ahead of their counterparts in other parts of the country’’ he stated.

The Rector Olawole Awosika, School of Innovative Studies Prof. Abiola Awosika in her address called on Nigerians to make Girl Child education a priority. She said that women have a lot to contribute to national development. Prof Awosika stated that education remains the mainstay of every nation's development and believes that women will contribute their quota when given the necessary support and education.

Crescent varsity alumnus bags PG distinction in Scottish varsity

By Dayo Adesulu

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FIRST-class graduate of Crescent University Abeokuta recently lined up alongside students from the best universities around the world when she finished her Master ’s degree with a distinction at Aberdeen two weeks ago.

A statement from the public relations office of the university said Rafiat Gawat, who is the pioneer first class graduate of Mass Communication graduate of Crescent University obtained an MSc in Corporate Communication and Public Affairs from the Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, with a

score of 74 per cent in final dissertation and an overall aggregate of 70 per cent.

After the convocation on December 8 in Aberdeen, Gawat said she owed her success to Almighty God and the Mass Communication undergraduate curriculum of Crescent University which prepared her well for postgraduate study at international level.

She said that in spite of the inclement weather, she was able to make 100 per cent attendance, complete all assignments on time and was commended for good character and exemplary behaviour due to the regime of high moral

instruction and character moulding inspired and encouraged by Judge Bola Ajibola, Proprietor of Crescent University.

Reacting to the news, Judge Ajibola said he was happy and grateful to Almighty Allah for allowing his vision of academic and moral excellence to begin to yield fruits within the first decade of establishing the university.

He said his intention from inception was to establish a university unique for placing the fear of God side by side with quality academic programmes.

“We aim to train high quality, morally uprightprofessionals not brilliant beasts and brigands, he said.

Head of Department of Mass Communication, Dr. Kola Adesina, who was in Aberdeen for the convocation, said a quiet revolution in the Mass Communication instruction and assessment has begun at the university.

Adesina who was a senior lecturer of Media Studies and an Assistant examiner with Oxford and Cambridge RSA Examinations Board (UK) said ”we are happy with the performance of our alumni in employment and further education at home and abroad, with us, newsrooms in town are in constant touch with our lecture rooms while we are fulfilling the most basic function of a university.

C M Y K

28 — Vanguard, THURSDAY, JANUARY 1, 2015

SUCCESS RECIPE WITH UDEME ARCHIBONG successrecipe2009@gmail.com www.worldlightbearesint.com 08035095243

New Year! New Mind! New Perspective! A New You!!!

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*Rose Okonta (4th left) with other contestants for the Africa Students at Vitebsk

UNN to partner with Abia State govt on agric, personnel devt

By Kelechukwu Iruoma, UNN

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N a bid to develop, strengthen and expand partnerships of the University, the Vice Chancellor of the University of Nigeria, Professor Benjamin Ozumba on his recent courtesy visit to the Governor of Abia State, Theodore Orji, has expressed the desire to partner with the Abia State government in different fields, including agriculture and personnel development.

Speaking during the visit at the Government House, Umuahia, Prof. Ozumba noted that the visit was meant to develop partnership between UNN and Abia state government.

The VC in lauding the leadership qualities of Gov. Orji in his role as both Chief Executive Officer of Abia state and Chairman of South-East governors’ forum said; “The university is very proud of your achievement in the areas of constructing a befitting governor’s lodge, government secretariat, reconstruction of schools and developing elibrary in Abia state.”

The VC implored the Governor to extend the State’s hand of fellowship to the University of Nigeria, noting that the institution had shown interest in the development of states in the South East.

In his response, Gov. Orji commended the VC and his entourage for the visit, stating that the trip was a

demonstration that the VC knows how to get what he wants. “I want to place on record that you are the first VC of UNN that has paid me a courtesy visit, with this, I want to assure you that you will do well in your tenure.” Gov Orji said.

He expressed the readiness of the State to partner with UNN in any discipline, maintaining that Abia state has all the human and natural resources to enforce the partnership.

He also noted that his administration placed premium in education, which is why the State had, in the past two consecutive years, maintained second position in the general performance of students that sat for the West African School Certificate Examination.

‘It would be a turbulent year’ Continued from page 25 certificates. Unfortunately, little progress has been made in this regard due to the recalcitrance of the Federal Government.”

On the prospects of 2015, the ERC National Coordinator said in all probability, intensification of anti-poor education policies and mass resistance would play out in 2015.

“As a result of the decline in crude oil price and devaluation of the Naira, Nigerians should expect intensification of austerity measures in the education sector because I strongly believe that austerity has always existed in the education sector in form of low funding and budget cuts. This C M Y K

is because, for close to five years or more, funding to education has often been far below the UNESCO benchmark of 26 per cent.

Capital projects “If during the over one decade of oil boom our economy grew by about 7.5 per cent, and government pursued a policy of education underfunding and scant investment in capital projects in schools, then the worse should be expected now with falling crude oil price and a reviewed growth prospect of just around five per cent.

“This means that less funding

will go to the education sector in the 2015 budget leading to a slowdown and, in some cases, halt of on-going capital projects in various schools, lack of funds for new projects, while tertiary institutions will be under pressure to ‘look inwards’ to seek for funds, which is another name for fee hike.

“ERC is particularly apprehensive that the concession gained by ASUU during the 6month long strike in the later half of 2013 which saw the release of N200bn intervention fund to universities will be breached while other agreements with staff unions will most likely be affected under the excuse of economic crisis.”

NCE upon a time a citizen was arrested by one of the Barons andlocked in a dungeon. He stayed in the dark dungeon for twenty years. Each day the jailer would come into the cell to give him a pitcher of water and a loaf of bread and immediately afterwards the door was closed again.

After twenty years the prisoner had reached his limit and he decided he was not going to continue living in that condition any longer so he planned that rather than committing suicide he was going to assault the jailer who would then kill him in self-defence. He decided to test-run his plan, as he caught the door handle and turned it, to his amazement the door opened.

On close examination he discovered that the door had never been locked and in fact there was no lock upon it and never had been. In all those twenty years that he was in the cell he had not been locked in, except in his mind.

He found his way out and the soldiers around never paid attention to him; he walked out a free man. For twenty years he had been living in an illusion rather than in reality; he was held captive in his own thoughts; he was imprisoned in his

The year 2015 will probably be like the previous years if you carry the same mind-set you had in previous years into the New Year mind.

In life, it is the mind that imprisons and it is also the mind that sets free. Your mental concept determines your life condition.

A new year has begun. Will you make the most out of the year? You can never make the most out of the year until you make the most out of life; you can never make the most out of life until you make the most out of yourself; you can never make the most of yourself until you make the best use of your mind; you can never make the best use of the mind if you are not in control of your thoughts; you can never be in control of your thoughts if you do not choose your thoughts wisely. The New Year is an inanimate thing; it does not bring anything to anybody. It is not really the New Year that counts; it is what you bring into the New Year that counts and what you have brought into the New Year is YOU.

Refleclltion of inner world The year 2015 will probably be like the previous years if you carry the same mind-set you had in previous years into the New Year. You see your physical world is a print-out or a reflection of your inner world, mental world, emotional world and your spiritual world. If you want to change your physical world, you must first change your inner world.

We must realize and understand that our present condition and circumstance is a product of our level of thinking. As the story above reveals; many people are held captive by their own mind, imprisoned by poverty, marital disharmony, lack of inner peace, lack of true happiness and the joy of living, lack of job satisfaction, wrong and unhappy relationships with people, bad habits, the list goes on and on.

The unfortunate thing is that blaming the government, economy, people, circumstances and everything except ourselves only worsens our present state. Blaming and complaining in a universe that is governed by laws only makes us sink deeply into despair and frustration.

As Stephen Covey rightly states, “When you think that the problem is out there, stop, that thought is the problem”. You can never rise above your circumstance until you rise above the thoughts that had attracted the circumstance. In life you attract the events, people, circumstance that are in harmony with your most dominant thoughts. Therefore, your state of life is determined by your state of mind. An improved life is the result of an improved mind.

Remember, mind transformation leads to life transformation.

Vanguard, THURSDAY, JANUARY 1, 2015 — 29

Messing up at LASU To murder one’s reputation is a kind of suicide….

—Henry Fielding, 1707-1754, in TOM JONES

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*A cross section of University of Nigeria, Nsukka trained pharmacists during the 2013/ 2014 Batch A Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences 113th induction/oath taking ceremony held at Princess Alexandria Auditorium, UNN.

UNILAG hosts SETPOM annual confab, as YABATECH shines in essay competition

By Tare Youdeowei & Olatide Faith

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NIVERSITY of Lagos has played host to the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Pollution Mitigation, SETPOM, for its annual conference and yearly essay competition recently.

The conference which was tagged; Emerging Environmental Pollutants and Public Health Concerns had Dr Adeiga Adesina of Nigerian Institute of Medical Research Yaba, Lagos, present his findings on Emerging Public Health Concern,Engr.

Timothy Iwuagwu lecture on Marine Pollution Causes,

Consequences and Control and Mrs Bolanle Akinleye – Opara on Urban Living and Air Pollution.

SETPOM’s highest award, Fellow, was also conferred on stakeholders whose works have made tremendous impact in environment and pollution control, amongst whom was Engineer Timothy C. Iwuagwu, the Chairman, Lagos branch of the Institute of Safety Professionals of Nigeria (ISPON).

Also at the event, the winner of the annual SETPOM essay competition was announced with the students of Yaba College of Technology,

YABATECH, Secondary School, Lagos, coming out top.

The essay competition which was on; Climatic Changes and Effects on Agricultural Products had YABATECH Secondary School beat the University of Lagos Staff School amongst others to clinch the top prize.

In the light of the occasion, lectures and talks were delivered by various Non Governmental Organisations such as the Nigerian Conservative Foundation (NCF) and the Institute of Safety Professionals of Nigeria (ISPON).

PCN inducts UNN trained pharmacists

BY KELECHUKWU IRUOMA, UNN

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OT less than 112 trained University of Nigeria, Nsukka, pharmacists were inducted into the Pharmacists Council of Nigeria during the 113th 2013/2014 Batch A induction and oathtaking ceremony of the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, held at Princess Alexandria Auditorium, UNN. Delivering his address on behalf of the Vice Chancellor of the University, the Dean, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Professor Emmanuel Ibezim, said; “It is arguably an event for celebration, an opportunity to appreciate the great God for yet adding to the pharmacy world, a brand new set of tested and trusted pharmacists.”

Addressing the graduands, Prof. Ibezim said; “To you, our graduands, like I have always mentioned in numerous fora, your particular set of graduands, is in many ways very unique and peculiar. You

have proven to be innovative, articulate and imbued with inestimable foresight.”

Encouraging the inductees, the Dean said; “I encourage you, the 2014 class, to go out in this might and zeal of yours and be worthy representatives of the Faculty.

"I am convinced beyond doubt that this graduating class will bring to an end, some pockets of unsavory and unpleasant reports we have been getting in recent past, about some of our graduates.

You have given me the assurance on this."

Trained pharmacists Before inducting the trained pharmacists, the Registrar, Pharmacists Council of Nigeria, Pharm. Elijah Mohammed charged the graduands to show what they have learned and the knowledge they have acquired to the society at large, adding that with this, the lives of people will be impacted.

He also enjoined the inductees to follow the ethics, the rules and regulation guiding the pharmacy profession in discharging their duties as pharmacists in their various places of work, adding that they should go for any job that comes to their door step, noting that, salary to be paid should not be a determinant to choosing where to settle.

In expressing his happiness as an inductee, Desmond Tummy said he felt very happy and excited. “Like every right thinking human, I feel happy and excited. It was really a rigorous journey here in Pharmacy, but with all efforts put together, God blessed the effort and I excelled.”

He also added that having acquired the required knowledge that he was ready to go into the society to serve humanity and to impact positively on them. According to him, “I want to go and serve mankind, serve humanity. I want to impact on people’s lives through the knowledge I have acquired.”

AGOS State University, LASU, was conceived by the Governor Jakande government as a university which will not only provide university opportunities for Lagos State residents but for all Nigerians and which would quickly attain a national and global standard befitting Nigeria’s selfproclaimed Centre of Excellence. I recall reading our Daddy’s, late Chief Sanu Sobowale, 1931-1990, copy of the lengthy proposals concerning LASU, when he served as the Commissioner for Justice and Attorney General for Lagos State.

Furthermore, the education was going to be made affordable to ensure that nobody, brilliant, is denied the benefit of university for lack of funds. Those were lofty goals and to me, as an economist, the objectives were daunting. Funds, which even in the early 1980s were more readily available, compared with the demands now placed on public finance, would always be a challenge to governments and to the university authorities.

There was no question about that. But, institutional integrity has nothing to do with funds. It is a matter of leadership.

Nothing has changed that perspective regarding the goals of the university. Today, even the most generous observer of LASU must agree that it is not a national leader; it is far from being one of the top on the continent. Its rank globally had better be forgotten. Granted, some might argue that LASU cannot be expected to have attained the standards of universities started centuries ago – Oxford, 13th century, or Harvard, 1636 – as well as other great global universities in just a few decades.

Universities require years to secure their reputations, based on the quality of the graduates they send to the global market in all disciplines. But, every university, once established, must strive to achieve ever increasing standards in those courses it offers to its students at all levels. Those certificates issued are like national currencies – each has its global acceptability and convertibility. That explains why nations always jealously guard the value of their currency. Universities do the same with their certificates. And, just as a nation’s currency loses acceptability, once it is mismanaged, or riddled with counterfeits, a university which places its own certificates under suspicion will work for years to restore its integrity.

Restoration of integrity That is what makes the handling of the nineteen Ph. Ds withdrawn so painful to me as a Lagosian and a Nigerian. The collateral damage will turn out to be larger than anything imaginable by the authorities. Because the matter might eventually end up in the law courts, I hope this will not be regarded as contempt. However, the matter raises a lot of questions needing answers and which the explanations given had not satisfactorily addressed.

To begin with, most people are under the impression that every university follows laid down procedures when awarding degrees and giving certificates at all levels. It is also generally taken for granted that no single person or department is allowed to grant awards without checks and balances by others. The most obvious question is: were the procedures violated when these doctorate degrees being recalled were awarded and who did? A related question is: why has it taken so long to detect the irregularities which dictated the withdrawal of the certificates? But, the most troubling question is: since very few doctorate degree certificates are issued, compared to undergraduate degrees, how can anyone be sure that a university which messes up on nineteen has not been fouling up on the several hundred bachelors degrees it issues annually and for how long?

I read the interview granted by the Vice Chancellor, Professor John Obafunwa, and while admiring his moral courage in taking the bull by the horns, could not help wondering if he had considered other options before going public with the withdrawals. It is possible that withdrawal, which had been done, could have waited until all the relevant issues had been sorted out. At the moment, some people had been punished by being disgraced publicly, and the general public is not even sure what the offences committed were and who was the culprit.

Is it possible, as some of those affected were claiming, that LASU had deliberately or inadvertently punished the victims of what might have been gross mismanagement by the authorities of the university itself?

Visit: www.delesobowale.com or Visit: www.facebook.com/ biolasobowale or follow on Twitter @DrDeleSobowale

30 — Vanguard, THURSDAY, JANUARY 1, 2015

Research & Development

How nutrition, contraceptives affect reproductive health AT the Inaugural Lecture Series of University of Lagos, Professor of Biochemistry, Mrs Olubunmi Abiola Magbagbeola, presented to the Vice Chancellor, the University and the society at large, her findings in the focus areas of; Nutrition and Nutritional Status, FertilityRegulation/ Family Planning/ Contraceptive Technology, Infertility prevention and treatment, and Cervical and Breast Cancers, management and treatment, in a compendium;Reproductive Health of Women and Men: A Biochemist’s perspective which seeks to highlight the role biochemists play in human nutrition, female and male reproductive health.

Here are excerpts of her and her team of researchers’findings, contributions to knowledge and recommendations.

By Tare Youdeowei

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EPRODUCTIVE health from a Biochemist’s perspective is a multifaceted area of research employing biochemical techniques with the aim of having a state of complete physical and mental wellbeing in all manners relating to the functions and biochemical processes of the male and female reproductive systems. My sojourn through this field enabled me to make contributions in area described subsequently.

Nutrition: Based on the assessment of quality of three major Hausa meals; Koko and Koasi normally taken as breakfast, Danwake as lunch and Tuwo da miya kuka as dinner, analysis for their proximate composition, vitamin content, mineral elements, amino acid composition, calorie value and nutritive value were carried out on the meals as sold in the local markets and prepared with known proportion of ingredients in the laboratory.

All the meals were found to be inadequate in protein on an average level of intake. The vitamin contents of the meals were able to supply the daily requirements of vitamins B1, B2 and C, if taken together per day.

Mineral elements The ‘standard meals’ were adequate in mineral elements although cooking was found to cause losses of minerals and vitamins. All the meals were deficient in sulphur amino acids and marginal tryptopan. Lysine was low in tuwodawa with kuka soup and koko with kosai.

Cooking Danwake was found to bring about major losses in sulphur amino acids, phenylalanine and tyrosine, while amino acid pattern of the two meals were less affected.

Hausa women who took part in the study were advised to; use less water in the preparation of Dan wake and use its usually discarded water for soup preparation. Reduce frying oil for Kosai, as well use the left over oil for stew at other meals. Eat more meat along with Tuwo and more Kosai along with Koko, based on their methods of meal preparation Protein quality in terms of ability to support growth and development of infants and evaluate physiological advantage of the different protein level contained in three different infant weaning formulae available in Nigerian markets at the time; soy-ogi produced by Federal Institute of Industrial research and Cow and Gate products; oat and barley, was compared.

Protein retention efficiency The parameters measured included protein efficiency ratio, net protein ratio, protein retention efficiency, coefficient of digestibility, biological value, blood urea, blood and urine creatinine and urine non-protein nitrogen using albino rats.

Our results show that the Cow and Gate single cereal oat formula treatment was found to be superior in promoting animal growth efficient utilisation of the dietary protein than the cow and gate mixed cereal than locally produced soy-ogi and control case in diet. The protein retention efficiency and net protein ratio were not found to be different and suggests that the quality of single cereal is similar to that of mixed cereal formula. Thus single cereal should be preferred as infant weaning diet and percentage protein in any weaning food should not be more than 17.

Infant formula: It is believed that breast fed infants may benefit

contraceptive) and Nordette (a lose dose type) resulted in withdrawal of Ovral from Nigerian Market and their replacement with low dose contraceptives by the sole distributors of the drug in Nigeria.

I directed my research on the metabolic effects of the Oral Contraceptive Agents, OCA, or contraceptive pills, and on the health of Nigerian women using them, as well as developing less expensive and efficacious alternatives from Nigerian medicinal plants.

From our studies we showed that a lower dosage of OCA gives reduced side effects and minor biochemical effects on vitamins A, E, ²-carotene and B6.

Also when combination pills are prescribed, the trend should be towards the use of lower dose preparations to ensure the long term safety.

*Stimulated gut model

Long term safety *Schematic diagram of the infant gut model from a gastrointestinal micro flora that is predominated by bifidobacteria and lactobacilli.

One important aspect of this is improved protection from certain gastrointestinal infections. Brest feeding is therefore always encouraged but is not always feasible due to inconvenience or other complications that necessitate lactose free or plant based formulae. Pro, pre and symbiotics are thought to inhibit gastrointestinal tract infections and/or stimulate the growth of bifidobacteria and/or lactobacilli, thus altering the gastrointestinal micro flora.

Weaning blends, formulated in a 60 – 70 percent cereal to 30 – 40 percent legumes and nuts combination using maize, tiger nuts, groundnuts and melon were prepared by traditional processing methods of natural fermentation, germination, roasting and steaming using Isomil, an imported lactose free soya based formula, and unprocessed plant materials as controls.

The formulated infant weaning foods possessed high nutrient density with therapeutic potentials. While germination produced finer flour, decreased viscosity, increased energy density, increase in protein digestibility and showed apparent increase in protein, fat and ash (and thus increase in some minerals) and vitamins, fermentation was found to confer better therapeutic effect on the formula. Roasting, on the other hand, improved sensory qualities and achieved inactivation of destructive enzymes which improves the storage and nutritional qualities of products.

Combination of different

processing methods thus led to an increase in nutrient content, quality, availability, shelf life, flavour, aroma and reduced bulk in the weaning formula. The seeds used for the formulation have protective nutrients which are of prebiotic grade. The infant weaning foods formulated are a cheaper and safer alternative to imported commercially available formulae for the management of lactose intolerance, protein energy malnutrition and mammalian milk allergic infants.

This we hope to patent soon.

Fertility and family planning A major part of reproductive health is family planning or contraception. Investigation carried out in my laboratory on some biochemical effects of Ovral (a high dose of oral

Low dose of OCA enhances fertility after stoppage considering the number of rat litters (8) produced compared to controls (5) also average weight of pup was affected by the dose of the OCA. The return of fertility was also found to be dependent on the dosage of the OCA. The higher the dose the less possibility fertility returned to the lab rats.

Our findings on the biochemical effects of different contraceptive agents on Nigerian women showed that these women have associated increase in markers for cardiovascular risks and that rate of return is delayed beyond the length of usage and some time may not return for those who stopped usage wanting to get pregnant.

This was observed especially in injectable contraceptives.

Continues next week

Nigerian wins Queen of Africa Students contest in Russia

By Bartholomew Madukwe

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Nigerian schooling in Russia, Miss Rose Okonta, has won the Queen of Africa Students at Vitebsk State Medical University.

Okonta, a 100 level student of Foreign Language for Medical Department, contested with 10 students from Africa and emerged winner.

The 22-year old Nigerian who hails from Ika South Local Government Area of Delta State got as winner, among other things, a Diploma to add to her certificate for work and recognition from the institute.

She described her victory as one that was unbelievable, saying; “I never thought I could make it. It was really wonderful and I give

God thanks even though I never expected to be picked as winner in the Queen of Africa Student competition.”

Vitebsk State Medical University was founded in November 1934. The University is situated in the center of the city of Vitebsk and it is one of the biggest establishments of the city.

Presenlty about 630 foreign students from the different continents such as Asia (India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Malaysia etc.)

Europe (Greece, Germany, Poland, Hungary, Romania etc.)

Europe (Greece, Germany, Poland, Hungary, Romania etc.)

Latin America and Africa are studying in the University.

The overseas students have been studying at the University since 1981.

Vanguard, THURSDAY, JANUARY 1, 2015 — 31

UK varsity appoints Onalo as Professor of Credit Management

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Members of the Methodist Boys High School Ibadan Old Boys Association (85-91 set) in a group photograph after their annual reunion held at the school premises in Ibadan on Friday (Boxing Day).

EGISTRAR/Chief Executive Officer of the Institute of Credit Administration (ICA), Dr. Chris Onalo, has been appointed a Professor of Credit Management by the London Postgraduate Credit Management College (LPCMC), United Kingdom (UK) in collaboration with its affiliate universities across the world.

In a statement released by the college’s International Programmes Director, Danette Gayle, LPCMC considers this a justified designation as Dr. Onalo has had a great influence and profound impact on the credit

management profession in the world of credit industry workforce in Nigeria and beyond the frontiers of the country.

“He has been quite instrumental to the establishment of a number of credit management development infrastructures such as his involvement with Nigerian Institute of Credit Administration (ICA), the Postgraduate School of Credit & Financial Management (PSCFM), Nigeria and an International Director of London Postgraduate Credit management College UK (LPCMC).

FOSSU Lagos elects executive member

By Ademola Fagbemi

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HE Federation of y o State Students Union (FOSSU), Lagos state chapter on Saturday, December 6 elected executive members who will steer the affairs of the Oyo state students who are in the tertiary institution across Lagos State for the 2014/ 2015 academic session.

The election, which was said to be free and fair, lasted for about 5hours at the main auditorium of Lagos State Polytechnic (LASPOTECH) Isolo campus.

A student of University of Lagos (Unilag), Babalola Davis emerged the president of the union, Lasisi Abdul and Adebayo Azeezat from Yabatech were voted as Vice President and Welfare Director, Adesokan Gbemisola, also from Unilag emerged as Assistant General Secretary, Lawal Ridwan from Lagos State University (LASU) was elected as General Secretary, Adejinmi Oluwatoyin from Adeniran Ogunsanya College of Education (AOCOED) emerged the winner for the post of Social Director, Jammed Dauda from Federal College of Education Technical, Akoka (FCET) was elected as Treasurer while two students from LASPOTECH, Lawal Samson and Abdulsalam Abdul-wasiu emerged the winner for the post Financial Secretary andInternal Auditor O

32—Vanguard, THURSDAY, JANUARY 1, 2015

Federal, state pensioners in Ogun tell tale of woes •Issue 21 days ultimatum to govt

By Daud Olatunji

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HIS is certainly not the best of time for both the federal and state pensioners in Ogun State, as unpaid gratuities and irregular payment of pension have made life very miserable for the senior citizens.

In the words of one of the aggrieved pensioners, “is it a crime to use once active days to serve his country? Apart from the fact that the amount they expect on monthly basis is too small, between N2, 000 and N4, 000, the payment is also irregular.”

Pension and You findings revealed that both federal and state pensioners from government, Ministries, Agencies and Parastatals, MDAs, local government and civil service are affected.

A chat with the Secretary of Nigeria Pensioners Association, Ogun State chapter, Bola Lawal, insisted that the story was not palatable for the senior citizens who used most of their productive years to serve their country but, had been abandoned to their fates.

Three years gratuities Lawal who appealed to the state government to pay their three years gratuities since 2012, said the membership of the organisation which comprises retired state workers, was about 22,000.

He claimed that despite spirited efforts to harmonise the payment mode of the members, the government had refused to implement the report.

According to him, “imagine, some members of the organisation are still collecting N2,000 while others are collecting N4,000 per month. We have been agitating that there must be harmonisation in the payment mode. The government set up a committee to look into this and the committee submitted its report, but, the government has not implemented it.”

Lawal however, commended Governor Ibikunle Amosun, for settling some arrears he met while assuming the office in 2011, saying “Ogun State is in the forefront when we compare it with others. We have better welfare package. But, the government still owes us

President Goodluck Jonathan gratuities outstanding since his inception, November 2012.”

Council pensioners demand unpaid benefits Meanwhile, the state Local Government Pensioners’ Association has called on the state government to pay its members their outstanding pension arrears.

Chairman of the Ijebu-Ode branch of the association, Babatunde Ali, who spoke, disclosed that members of the association had yet to be paid their pension arrears from 2004 to 2007. He said the association had yet to discuss the minimum pension allowance, which pensioners were supposed to enjoy with the government.

He said “we want to appeal to the state government to help us look into the payment of pensioners’ arrears. We served the government faithfully for more than 35 years and we don’t think the government should deny us our rights and entitlements. Many of us are sick, and dying, while some are aged and the only thing we rely upon for survival is our monthly pension which we have not been receiving.

Gov Ibikunle Amosun Although some of us may be physically challenged, if we are properly taken care of, government can draw from our wealth of experience in developing the state.”

Ali however, explained that efforts made to get the pension arrears paid during the last administration were unsuccessful and appealed to Governor Amosun to urgently look “into the cry of the pensioners.”

Plight of the pensioners Similarly, chairman, Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, in the state, Akeem Ambali, while speaking on the plight of the pensioners in the state begged the governor not to leave the contributor pension debt behind after he left office.

According to Ambali, the Contributory Pension Scheme, CPS, problems were inherited from the administration of Otunba Gbenga Daniel, but Governor Amosun should try to settle the debt completely.

He said “the problem was

Otunba Gbenga Daniel inherited

by Amosun government.

The outstanding remained unsettled completely. Amosun is trying to settle some arrears owing us. The monthly pension, many are yet to get alert. Amosun has settled backlog of arrears, but, we don’t want him to owe us before he leave office like the past government. “We will continue to engage him. He has promised to settle us by December. It appears that the government is having challenges of fund. The Internally General Revenue, IGR has improved tremendously. As he does infrastructure development, he must do human development. Those who are active and those that are retired should be developed.”

Labour issues ultimatum: Already, the state Joint National Public Service Negotiating Council, has issued a 21 day ultimatum to Governor Amosun to address pension deduction amounting to about 50 months.

In a letter dated December 16,

2014, addressed to the governor, the body also asked the government to address unwarranted staggering of salaries in the public service.

The letter was signed by the Acting Chairman and the Secretary of the union, Abiodun Olakanmi and Modiu Akanbi Bello respectively.

The Union said immediate solution to issues raised will avert palpable industrial unrest in the state.

It said the government has refused to react to various letters written to the Governor adding that the government was clearly not interested in the welfare of its workers.

“The Joint National Public Service Negotiating Council, Trade Union Side, Ogun State is heavily constrained and concerned that in spite of its several letters ending with the latest dated December 2, 2014 has painfully, yet elicit any positive reaction from the government. The refusal of Government to acknowledge our letter let alone, call for dialogue to jointly resolve the issue is a clear manifestation that the government, unfortunately, is not interested in the welfare and future of the entire public servants in the state.

“In the light of this precarious situation of the Public Service of Ogun State currently find themselves, has mandated the Joint National Public Service Negotiating Council, Trade Union Side, Ogun State hereby put government on notice of 21 day ultimatum to positively and urgently deploy all necessary actions at resolving issues raised. Our demand therefore is to request of the government to effect immediate solution to these identified issues without delay. It will perhaps, avert palpable industrial unrest in our peace loving state,” the statement read in part.

On his part, Chairman of Nigeria Union of Pensioners, NUP, Chief Kessington Odukoya appreciated the governor for always keeping the welfare of the pensioners at heart and craved that he continued to put smile on the faces of the elders who had served the state meritoriously.

Amosun spends N27bn on pensions, gratuities

R

ESPONDING, the state government said it had spent about N22billion as payment of pensions and N5billion as gratuities in the last three and half years and pledged that it would neither owe the pensioners nor its workers.

Governor Amosun said his administration had cleared the backlog of gratuities owed by the previous administration from 2008 to November 2012, adding that but for one month – December

2012, the administration had cleared 5years backlog of gratuities.

The pensioners had requested the settlement of pension arrears owed them from 2003-2006, implementation of increment on pension from 2010-2011, harmonization of pensions and payment of outstanding gratuities from 2008 among other things.

On the harmonization of pensions, the governor said “the disparity in the amount paid to

pensioners is determined by the number of years served. It would be unfair for people who did not serve the government for their entire probable years in service before moving elsewhere to earn as much as those who committed the entire working life to the State and completed their service years before retirement.”

The governor explained that the last salary earned by the pensioners was the amount expected to be paid to them as

pensions, but added that the government could look into the possibility of reviewing it, noting that it was not in the budget for the on-going year.

Amosun urged the pensioners to show more understanding as he was presently clearing backlog of pensions and gratuities he never owed saying he had not defaulted in the prompt payment of salaries and assured that by next year he would have cleared the backlog of pensions.

Vanguard, THURSDAY, JANUARY 1 15 —33 1,, 20 2015

BITS Bits

Textile workers get 15% pay rise

Towards Labour's 2015 : Matters arising ….posers over NLC's appointment of scribe

N

ATIONAL Union of Textile, Garment and Tailoring Workers of Nigeria, NUTGTWN, and and the Nigeria Textile Garment and Tailoring Employers Association, NTGTEA, have reached an agreement for a 15 percent improved basic earning in the industry.

In a statement by the President of NUTGTWN, Mr. Oladele Hunsu and its General Secretary, who is also a Vice President of Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, Mr. Issa Aremu, the union said “One major achievement of the union during the year is the just concluded national negotiation between the Union and the Nigeria Textile Garment and Tailoring Employers Association which has improved basic earning in the industry by 15%.

This year’s agreement is the 44 th national collective agreement since 1979. With the new national agreement workers in the textile industry has improved wage with effect from October 1st, 2014.

NASU issues 21-day strike notice to WAEC

N

ON-ACADEMIC Staff Union of Educational and Educational and Associated Institutions, NASU, has handed down a 21 day ultimatum to the management of West African Examinations Council, WAEC, to revise purported abrogation of an existing agreement with NASU on deployment of serving officers of the union or risk industrial unrest.

Members of NASU in West African Examinations Council, WAEC/Libraries and other trade group council at their 2 nd regular meeting in Anambra State, said “the council-in-session therefore called on WAEC management under the leadership of Mr. Charles M. Egwuridu to objectively look into these issues and revalidate the agreement reached with the Union on non deployment of serving union officers and expunge all the retrogressive policies imported into the reviewed scheme of service within the 21 days ultimatum given by the Union to avoid industrial breakdown in the Council.”

Comrade Abdulwaheed Omar, NLC President

By Funmi Komolafe

F

OR sometime, now, politics indeed desperation for positions has be come the norm at the headquarters of the nation's foremost labour centre; the Nigeria Labour Congress so much that the leadership seems to have acted contrary to acceptable labour standards.

This edition of Labour Vanguard takes a look at the recent appointment of the NLC general secretary and its implications .

Intrigues was at play at the highest level when the leadership of the NLC could not take a firm decision on who should act as the general secretary of the organization after the controversial exit of the substantive general secretary, Comrade John Odah. Millions of Naira ; workers hard earned money was spent to pay some Senior Advocates of Nigeria on an issue which clearly showed that the leadership was guilty of indiscretion. After wasting so much money, the case was settled out of court.

Untidy manner Let it be stated clearly that this article is not about the person who was appointed but about the untidy manner in which the leadership of NLC chose to violate its own constitution and condition of service in the process of appointing a general secretary.

At the end of its National Executive Meeting held in Enugu, Enugu State , the NLC in a communique issued on August 15, 2014 signed by its president, Abdulwaheed Omar and the then acting general secretary, Chris Uyot announced , “ the appointment of a substantive General Secretary in the person of Dr Peter Oso-Eson, who until his appointment was the Chief Economist and Head of Research Department of the Congress”.

It also announced that the “next Delegates Conference of the Nigeria Labour Conference would take place in Abuja from February 9-12, 2015”.

Dr.Ozo- Eson However, there has been a controversy on the manner in which the NEC of the NLC failed to stick to its own rules in the appointment of a general secretary.

First, let's refer to the internal advertisement of the NLC on the post of the General Secretary, which stated, “ Those who wish to apply for this post are expected to meet either of the following requirements” 1. A suitable and qualified Deputy General Secretary of Congress who has shown manifest vocation for the post and inspirational collective/ leadership attributes and team work.

2.

A suitable officer of the rank of the General Secretary of an affiliate union with proven vocation, skill and knowledge with cognate experience of not less than five years on the post provided s(he) has the required qualification required for the post of Deputy General Secretary of Congress. This will also include commitment to appropriate social and political orientation consistent with the Labour Movement.

3. A Congress staff who has worked at the Congress for a minimum of ten years and has held or holds the rank of Senior Assistant General Secretary or its equivalent”. In addition, the internal advert stated, “ They must meet the following conditions”.

1. A minimum academic qualification of first degree/ HND in any discipline .(additional qualification shall be an advantage) 2.

A minimum age of 45 years.”.

When NLC announced Dr. Oso- Eson, a reputable intellectual as its General Secretary,

The manner in which the NEC of the NLC, appointed its current general secretary seems to have fallen short of its own rules

not a few were taken aback. Why? First is that the egg head has not been a general secretary of ANY industrial union. Secondly, the new general secretary is over 60 years and perhaps the oldest person to be appointed into that office.

More disturbing is that NLC which has been in the fore front of campaigns against contract employment, went ahead to appoint its general secretary on “ contract basis” contrary to the provision of the condition of service of the NLC. The controversy did not end there. Dr. Peter Ozo- Eson became a full time staff of the NLC when the then president of the NLC, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole set up dependable research department for the NLC ; named Labour Centre for SocioEconomic Research ( LASCER) . However, the secretariat re-organization Committee in its report to the NEC of the NLC held in Kano in 2008, first reported by the Guardian on September 2, stated “ The original concept of employing Dr. Ozo Eson was to replicate the NALEDI of South Africa in the NLC which was to be known as Labour Centre for Socio-Economic Research. The committee observed that the original intention of Congress for employing him was not being realized”.

The Committee then stated that “ arising from this problem, Dr. Ozo Eson should be re-designated as Chief Economist to the Congress while efforts should be made to employ a qualified Researcher to take care of the envisaged Data bank in the research department.

Very dependable sources at the NLC secretariat confirmed that with his first appointment, Dr. Oso- Eson 's salary was way ahead of that of the General Secretary, because “ of the special assignment and the fact that he was not a potential general secretary”.

Potential general secretary Labour Vanguard also learnt that with the 'contract appointment', which has an initial term of four years, the General Secretary of the NLC will be 71years old. Clearly, the age of the new general secretary creates a wide gap with many of the people he is to relate with such as workers, students and members of the civil society group.

A veteran labour leader asked rhetorically “ How can the NLC manipulate itself to appoint someone who is closer to the Pensioners' Union as General Secretary?”.

During his recent interview with a group of journalists in Lagos, Dr.Ozo- Eson spoke of his intention to relate with the students movement "to try to see if we can bring ideas and ideology back to the functioning of a contestation within the movement”. How realistic is this? Given the wide generational gap between the NLC general secretary and the current leadership of the student movement.

A contestable decision - The manner in which the NEC of the NLC, appointed its current general secretary seems to have fallen short of its own rules. Should an affiliate decide to contest it in a court of law, the NLC will lose the case.

34—VANGUARD, THURSDAY, JANUARY 1, 2015

•Supreme court of Nigeria

Judiciary and the strain of justice in 2014

By Ikechukwu Nnochiri

E

ARLY January, the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, issued a 30day to the Security Adviser, NSA, and the Inspector General of Police, IG, to unmask those behind an explosion that rocked premises of a Rivers State High Court at Ahoada on January 5.

The incident activated the panic button both within and outside judicial cycles, with the NBA, giving the NSA and the IG, 30 days to unmask those behind the explosion.

The body of lawyers described the attack as “sacrilegious”, saying it was a desecration of the temple of justice.

As legal activities gradually kicked-off after the long vacation, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, on January 13, approached the Federal High Court in Abuja for an order of perpetual injunction restraining the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu

Tambuwal and 52 other lawmakers from altering or changing the leadership of the House.

In an affidavit in support of its motion on notice for interlocutory injunction, PDP told the high court that a ‘rebel’ group of 46 lawmakers, led by the Minority Leader of the House, Femi Gbajabiamila, had perfected plans to change the leadership of the House of Reps (1st defendant) upon resumption from their recess.

It prayed the court to compel the lawmakers, including those that decamped to the All Progressives Congress, APC, to maintain their status-quo pending the hearing and final determination of its Motion on Notice.

On that same day, Justice Ademola Adeniyi of the same court ordered that funds standing to the credit of the judiciary in the federal account/ consolidated revenue fund, should be paid directly to the heads of courts of the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory.

Delivering judgment in a suit filed by Judiciary Staff Association of Nigeria, JUSUN, an umbrella body of workers in the justice sector, the court, held that going by the provisions of sections 81(3), 212(3) and 162(9) of the Constitution of Nigeria, 1999, as amended, it was illegal and unconstitutional for the judiciary arm of government in various states of the federation

The NBA, on January 31, announced its decision to boycott the National Conference in protest against the fact that the association was given only a single slot at the confab

to continue receiving their statutory allocations in piecemeal through the states’ Ministry of Finance as and when the governors so desire, a system it said breeds corruption.

On January 17, the Supreme Court, directed the Federal Government to prosecute the eldest son of the late Head of State, General Sani Abacha, Mohammed, over his alleged complicity in the illegal diversion of public funds to a foreign account that belonged to his father.

In an unanimous judgment, a five-man panel of Justices of the apex court held that Mohammed had a criminal case to answer regarding the 123count charge that was earlier preferred against him by the Federal Government, which bordered on criminal conspiracy, breach of public trust, receiving and helping to starch stolen funds abroad.

The NBA, on January 31, announced its decision to boycott the National Conference in protest against

the fact that the association was given only a single slot at the confab.

On February 14, respite came the way of the erstwhile Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr Dimeji Bankole, as the FHC in Abuja discharged and acquitted him over allegation that he used fake companies and defrauded the federal government to the tune of N894 million while he was in office.

Justice Evoh Chukwu freed him after his no-caseapplication against the 16-count charge that was filed against him by the EFCC was upheld.

The PDP, on March 6, dragged the Senate President, David Mark, and 11 other serving Senators that were elected on its platform but defected to opposition APC before the FHC Abuja, asking that their seats be declared vacant.

It urged the court to order INEC to conduct elections in the affected senatorial zones to fill the vacant seats.

Aside political matters, the year under review equally witnessed the trial of alleged members of the Boko Haram sect. The FHC had on March 7, denied bail to Dr. Mohammed Yunus, a lecturer at the Kogi State University, accused of being the spiritual leader of a Boko Haram cell situated at Igala land in Kogi State. On March 9, tBayelsa Continues on page 35

Nigeria's future depends on electoral Jailbreaks: Lawyers call for rehabilitation, —PG.35 reformation of prisons choice — Odinkalu —PG.36

VANGUARD, THURSDAY, JANUARY 1, 2015—35

Judiciary and the strain of justice in 2014 Continues from page 34 state government dragged the EFCC to court, asking that the sum of N1.4billion and another $1.3million that were recovered from the former governor of the state, Diepreye Alamieyesiegha, be remitted to its treasury.

More so, it prayed the court to order EFCC to pay 21 per cent interest on the N1.4 Billion and the $1.3 million from November 1, 2013, until the judgment day.

President Goodluck Jonathan, on March 17, approved the appointment of 25 new Justices for the Court of Appeal.

Criminal charge Their appointment which was prompted by the demise, retirement and elevation of some Justices of the court to the Supreme Court, increased the number of Justices of the appellate court from 70 to 90.

On March 20, the former Governor of Bayelsa State, Timipre Sylva, challenged the jurisdiction of the court to try him over a fresh 42-count criminal charge that was preferred against him by the EFCC. Sylva, who was accused of using three separate companies to siphon money from the state treasury, insisted that the anti-graft agency ought to have filed the matter in Bayelsa state where the alleged offence was committed. On March 20, four survivors of a botched recruitment exercise of the Nigerian Immigration Service, NIS, that resulted to the death of 18 persons nationwide, took the Federal Government to court.

The plaintiffs, Charles Ugwuonye, Friday Danlami, Chinedu Onwuka and Samson Ojo, urged the court to declare that the conduct of the recruitment exercise was illegal, unwarranted and amounted to a gross violation of the applicants’ fundamental rights to life.

EDITORIAL TEAM Innocent Anaba ( Head) Wahab Abdulah Ikechukwu Nnochiri Dayo Benson (Supervising Editor) 08056180119 dayobenson@yahoo.com

Besides, they prayed the court to award the sum of N50m to families of the deceased applicants as general damages and also declare that the federal government, violated the applicants right to protection from inhuman and degrading treatment, right to dignity of the human person, right against discrimination on the basis of the circumstances of birth, and right against unlawful taking of the property of a person; under Sections 33, 34, 42 and 44 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999.

Meanwhile, following the stoic stance the Federal Government took despite pressure from different quarters, a United Kingdom based Nigerian, Mr. Teriah Ebah, sued the Government to court, argued that the newly

enacted same sex marriage law, was inconsistent with the provisions of sections 34 and 37 of the 1999 constitution, as amended.

He sought for an order of perpetual injunction restraining the Nigerian government, whether by itself or by its officers, agents, servants or privies, from enforcing the provisions of Same Sex Marriage (Prohibition) Act, 2013, particularly sections 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 of the said Act. Likewise, the Court of Appeal in Abuja on May 12, declined to quash the criminal charge that was preferred against the former Chairman of the House of Representatives Ad-hoc Committee on fuel subsidy probe, Farouk Lawal, by the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission, ICPC.

The duo were specifically accused of demanding and collecting bribe from the Chairman of Zenon Petroleum and Gas Ltd, Femi Otedola, as an inducement to remove the name of his company from the report of the House of Reps Adhoc committee on monitoring of fuel subsidy regime. Farouk was said to have pocketed the sum of $620,000 as part payment for the illegal deal.

Securing a release On June 3, former Minister of Education, Dr. Obiageli Ezekwesili, wife of former CJN, Mrs. Maryam Uwais and 15 others, went to court to challenge the powers of the Nigerian Police Force to ban any form of protest within the Federal Capital Territory, FCT,

aimed at securing the release of the over 200 Chibok schoolgirls that were abducted by the Boko Haram sect.

In an application for the enforcement of fundamental human right to peaceful assembly and association which they filed before an Abuja High Court at Maitama, the plaintiffs, insisted that the Commissioner of Police for the FCT, Mr. Joseph Mbu, was bereft of the constitutional powers to stop the “BringOurGirls” protests.

On June 9, the Police, in a bid to fast track the process for the extradition of Aminu Ogwuche, the alleged mastermind of the April 14 bomb explosion that killed over 100 persons at a motor park in Nyanya Abuja, entered charges against him before the Federal High Court in Abuja.

Nigeria's future depends on electoral choice — Odinkalu

By Abdulwahab Abdulah

C

HAIRMAN, Nigerian Human Rights Commission, NHRC, Professor Chidi Odinkalu has said the corporate existence of Nigeria depends on the choice make by Nigerians, especially on the general election.

Odinkalu, a professor of law made the remark at the annual lecture he presented recently in honour of the former Chief Justice of Botswana and former Director General of the Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, NIALS, Justice Akinola Aguda.

In the paper titled: “The Place of Good Governance in Nigeria’s Human Rights Philosophy ”, Odinkalu cautioned Nigerians that they cannot afford “to fail to find our values this time.”

The law Professor, who argued that there is no reason for the nation to fail, however opined that extreme care and caution must be exercised for the country to sustain her corporate existence. He noted: “With such demographics, (religion, ethnic multiplicity, etc) Nigeria’s failure would be akin to a piece of fine China dropped on a tile floor-it would

simply shatter into potentially hundreds of pieces.

“There is no reason why this must happen. Yet there is no reason to think it cannot. Whether we realise it or forestall it will depend on the choices that citizens, communities, institutions and leaders make.”

According to him, there are five issues that needed urgent resolution for the country to move forward and for her to pride herself in the comity of nations.

He listed them to include-Nigeria electoral system, safety and security crises, the nations population growth, impunity and ability to fight cope with climate change.

On the conduct of election, Odinkalu said: “The crisis of governance without legitimacy from the people is the original source of the Nigerian pathology. To change it, we need to minimize and then eliminate the over-judicialisation of access to power in Nigeria and end our system of “democracy by court order.

“As long as our political process does not reward honesty or is reduced to a system of hunting judges and lawyers with corruptly acquired resources, we ‘ll not make any progress on the

things that matter, especially on the leadership values.”

On safety and security, he said, “If we are going to address our safety and security crises, we need to re-construct the police and policing. The incapacity of the police in Nigeria is reflected in the fact that the Army is presently deployed in internal security operations in 32 out of the 36 State of the Federation and is fighting insurrections effectively in three of the six geo-political zones in the country.”

He therefore suggested that the government should invest in policing to give rise to the confidence required to undertake their difficult task.

Odinkalu noted that Nigeria must address her “demographic acceleration clearly outstrips our capacity to extract a demographic dividend from our population growth.”

He declared that impunity is affecting equity and justice in all ramification in Nigeria. He said: “We need a judiciary that is less accountable and a legal profession that is committed both accountability and value for money professionalism.

Among the dignitaries at the event were Hon. Justice Alade Eunice, Mrs O. Akinola-Aguda, Justice F. O. Aguda-Taiwo, Mrs Dare Soetan and Prof. Akanki.

36—VANGUARD, THURSDAY, JANUARY 1, 2015

By Innocent Anaba

E

MINENT lawyers in the country have urged the Federal Government to take proactive steps in the rehabilitation and reformation of the prison system in Nigeria, so as to forestall incidences of jail breaks in the country and also ensure the decongestion of the prisons.

Some of the lawyers attributed the problems of prisons, to the lip service paid to the prison system generally in the country, stressing that such indifference had caused more harm than good.

Chief Felix Fagbohungbe, SAN, blamed the spate of jail breaks in the country, on the neglect by government, for the prison system.

He noted that the prison was set up to serve as a rehabilitation centre for inmates, and so, deserved adequate attention, adding that government had lost concern for this purpose.

Fagbonhungbe also stressed the need to relocate prisons, so as to create adequate accommodation for inmates.

“Some of these prisons have old structures and were built years ago, with a minimal capacity; but as time progresses, the number of criminal cases increases, and so, the prison cannot house the same number of inmates.

“The prison system has completely been abandoned by the government; they are overcrowded and the inmates are not given the necessary attention.

The prison structures in place are in a bad shape; a prison that was built for about 500 inmates, now houses over 1000 inmates.

Adequate planning There is no discipline in the prison; the warders are not motivated in terms of remuneration, and so, even the inmates given stipends to these warders who allow them have their way in custody.

“It therefore, follows that there is a need for adequate planning by the government, on ways to rehabilitate the prison system, to improve its standard. There is also the need to relocate prisons so as to cater for new development especially in terms of the growing population of inmates,” he said.

Fagbonhungbe also stressed the need to separate convicted criminals from those awaiting trial, in a bid to avoid breeding more hardened inmates, and forestall incidences of jail breaks.

“Although the prison is not a place of rest, it however, requires certain minimum living standard for its inmates,” he said. Mr Olusina Sofola, SAN, is of the view that the prison system was not established specifically to punish, but to serve as a rehabilitation and corrective centre for the inmates.

“Where a prison meant to be occupied by about five inmates is now been occupied by 15

•A Nigerian Prison

Jailbreaks: Lawyers call for rehabilitation, reformation of prisons inmates, then you find a situation where a person accused of pickpocketing is lumped alongside a convicted armed robber. The obvious consequence of this, is that these persons accused of minor offences may come out worse than they went in, because of the specie of inmates they met in custody.”

Sofola therefore, stressed the need for the prisons to be well funded, and adequate facilities provided, so as to ensure that the prison served its purpose of reforming inmates. Similarly, another lawyer, Mr Emeka Etiaba, urged Magistrates to carryout routine visits to the prisons, and conduct summary trials for inmates charged with simple offences.

He expressed dissatisfaction with the activities of inmates who use telecommunication services in the prisons, adding that this was a major factor which triggered jail breaks.

“One of the worst things that has happened to our prison system is allowing prisoners use mobile telephone. When you visit the prisons, you find these prisoners using telephone and that is why it is so easy for them to communicate with those with whom they plan these jail breaks.

“In a bid to forestall these incidences, there is the need to ban the use of telephones in prisons, and also, modernise the prison to take care of security lapses. Some of these prisons were constructed before the second world war.

“There is also a need to have human personnel guard the prisons; when you visit the

prisons, you find few warders manning the prisons, and these can hardly stop any organised force from invading the prisons.

Again, there is the need to decongest the prisons, and ensure adequate consideration for the prison staffs. “You find that in a prison with a capacity of 1000 inmates, there are about 3000, and out of this number about 97 per cent are awaiting trial; so, if we must forestall jail breaks, there must be a decongestion of the prisons. The Magistrates should also visit the prison at least twice a week and

•Fagbonhungbe, SAN

conduct summary trials, because some of these awaiting trial inmates, might have actually served more than the term they would have served if convicted,” he said. A lawyer and Civil rights activist, Mr Spurgeon Ataene, believes that jail breaks were an offshoot of the unpalatable condition of the prisons in the country.

“There are dilapidated structures in the prisons and these structures have been there for several decades. The prison system is supposed to be under the Federal Ministry of Interior,

and so, there should be budgetry allocation to expand and rehabilitate the prisons.

“The use of phones by inmates in custody is one of the major causes of jail breaks in the country. Some of these prisoners plan their escape while in custody, through the use of these mobile phones. if there are no telecommunication system for these prisoners, how can they plan escape in custody? I think these inmates are being over indulged by the warders, and this should be a source of concern.

“I had earlier in the year petitioned the Chief Judge of Lagos State, then Justice Ayotunde Philips, on the need to ensure an efficient justice system, so I think there is more work to be done,” he said.

Ataene called on the government, to put in place adequate measures and planning, to reposition the prison system in the country.

A non governmental organisation, Rights and Accountability Initiative, RAAI, in a research on the state of the Kirikiri and Ikoyi prisons, Lagos, urged government to take necessary step in restructuring the prison system. Director of RAAI, Mr Tony Makolo, condemned the rising spate of jail breaks in the country, stressing the need for urgent measures to be taken.

In its recommendation, RAAI urged that the existing structural design of the prison be reformed, so as to enable inmates have access to better living standards.

It also urged the introduction of Information Communication Technology system, to capture the biometric data of inmates, as well as routine seminars for judiciary stakeholders, on prison practices, and the rights of inmates.

RAAI stressed the need for the adoption of Community services for first time offenders, in a bid to reduce the population of inmates.

Our criminal justice system is at breaking point — Aboyade

By Bartholomew Madukwe

A

Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN, Mrs Funke Aboyade, has called on the National Assembly to fast track the passage of the justice sector reform bills, stressing that the criminal justice system was at breaking point.

Aboyade said that corruption was major challenge in the judiciary, adding that the immediate past Chief Justice of Nigeria, CJN, Justice Aloma Mukhtar, confronted the issue headlong.

Speaking with Vanguard Law and Human Rights, in Lagos, she stated: “ Our criminal justice system is at breaking point. Happily, the situation is not for lack of not knowing what to do. There are presently several justice sector reform bills before our National Assembly. Our legislators should be encouraged to fast track the passage of those bills before we fully enter the season of politics. The senior advocate pointed out that

ethics and discipline at the bar poses a serious threat to the legal system, noting that the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, and the Body of Benchers must stand firm to apply effective •Aboyade sanctions a g a i n s t offenders to deter others.

“Colleagues in legal practice need to brace up for the challenges of globalisation of legal practice which is not only on our doorsteps but is alive and kicking on our shores. Playing the ostrich in the sand will not help us. The challenge is: what do we do? We also must improve ourselves and acquire new legal skills continuously if we hope to even be serious players not just globally but internationally,” she added.

VANGUARD, THURSDAY, JANUARY 1, 2015—37

Extent of application, realities of section 38 of 1999 constitution (3)

By Abiodun Owonikoko

VERACITY APPLICATION:

OF

T

HE application of section 38 of the Constitution with respect to religious freedom finds judicial accommodation under section 46 of the Constitution. It is the exclusive route through which an infringement of the right is redressed by way of enforcement in any high court in a state.

A plethora of cases have settled the point that the Federal High Court and State High Court have concurrent jurisdiction in matters relating to the enforcement or preservation of fundamental rights under Chapter IV of the Constitution going by the interpretation given to S. 46 (1) of the 1999 Constitution. See GRACE JACK v. UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE, MAKURDI2AND TUKUR V GONGOLA STATE3 So how have the courts interpreted or enforced the provisions?In the case of PROVOST KWARA STATE COLLEGE OF EDUCATION, ILORIN & 2ORS v. BASHIRAT SALIU & 2ORS(supra); the Court of Appeal comprising HUSSAIN MUKHTAR, ABUBAKAR DATTI YAHAYA and MASSOUD A. OREDOLA JCA were faced with an appeal against the judgment of the Kwara State High Court in a fundamental rights enforcement application brought by three female students of the Kwara State College of Education and its Provost of the College over a dress code restriction which prohibited female students from wearing head covering known as hijab.

•Owonikoko, SAN knowledge of their actions. enjoin believing women …to cover their adornments to draw their veils over their bosoms and not to reveal their finery except to their husbands, fathers, husband’s fathers, sons, step sons, brothers, brother’s/ sisters sons, women servants and slave girls‘ male attendants lacking in natural vigour, and children who have no carnal knowledge of women.’

The Al-Kairawani in his book MatnAr- Risala at page 9 Chapter 3 says thus: “And the least thing of clothes the woman may be sufficient for her to pray in while wearing is

Unanimous decision The trial court upheld the claim of the applicants that the policy infringed their right to freedom of religion under section 38 of the Constitution.

In dismissing the appeal by a unanimous decision save on a minor issue that is irrelevant to our present discourse, it was held per MUKHTAR JCA: “One may say without fear of contradiction that the respondents have Constitutional right to use veil in school or elsewhere save under the exception mentioned in the Qur’an. In Chapter 24 verses 30 to 31 of the Glorious Qur’an, Allah SWT has said, “Enjoin believing men to turn their eyes way from temptation and to restrain their canal desires. This will make their lives purer. Allah has

Use of veil by the respondents, therefore, qualifies as a fundamental right under section 38 (1) of the Constitution

a perfect full sound garment that covers the back of her feet, and a veil to cover her face with”.

With above affirmation of the religious precept, the court of appeal; came to this conclusion: “The respondents have a Constitutional right to freedom of thought conscience and religion. Use of veil by the respondents, therefore, qualifies as a fundamental right under section 38 (1) of the Constitution. It is immaterial whether it is compulsory or not.

The emphasis is on the respondents’ right to manifest and even propagate their religion or belief in worship,teaching, practice and observance. …

The veiled dress is recommended for Muslim women which the respondents undeniably are, and which also enhances the preservation of honour and chastity. It is their fundamental right to practice and observe religious injunctions in any part of Nigeria ….”

One would have thought that this appellate decision was clear and explicit enough – having been written in English language and thus requiring no transliteration or translation form Arabic.But alas!

A lower court sitting in Lagos in a similar case where the above authority was robustly canvassed came surprisingly to converse decision. It was a case brought under fundamental right procedure to protect the right of two female Muslim students in a secondary school admittedly of underage who were prohibited from wearing Islamic hijab over their approved school uniform on pain of punishment by the school principal if they did not comply.

The suit was brought by the

affected students along with the registered Trustees of Muslim Students Society of Nigeria for enforcement of their fundamental human right under section 38 of the Constitution amongst other laws including the African Chapter on Human and Peoples Rights. See MISS ASIYAT ABDULKAREEM (MINOR) and 2 Ors. V. LAGOS STATE GOVERNMENT &2ORS4 In dismissing the matter, her ladyship Justice Onyeabor reasoned as follows: ”In respect of the Judgment of the Court of Appeal CA/IL/ 49/2006, this court,with respect, is in agreement with the distinction made by the Learned Solicitor – General between that suit and the instant case to the effect that the parties in the instant suit are minors as distinct from the Ilorin case.

Significantly also is the fact that in the Ilorin case, there was no prescribed or regulation uniform as in the instant case where a State policy existed in respect of same …..

This issue has been considered in other jurisdictions in ether context of a secular setting. The European Court of Human Rights considered it extensively in 2005 in the case of LERYLSAS Sahin vs.

Turkey55 … it is to be noted that Turkey ,though reportedly predominantly Muslim is by its Constitution, a secular State like Nigeria. The facts therefore were most apt and relevant to the instant case. The European Court on Human Rights, sitting in Strasbourg reiterated that pluralism is in dissociable from a democratic society and that “religious freedom is primarily a matter of individual conscience.”

Religious freedom This decision is very relevant to the instant case. S.10 of the Constitution of 1999 makes the country a secular State. The primary and secondary schools in question are State Primary and Secondary Schools, funded and run by the State and therefore is the competent authority to make rules and regulations thereto, which regulation it has made in this case prescribing a uniform for all students.

In such a setting, the decision of the European court provides guidance to the effect that the prohibition or denial of wearing of hijab over the school; uniform cannot be said to be a breach of the fundamental rights of the applicants as guaranteed by Ss. 38 and 42 of the 1999Constitutionby reason of

the provision of the said Constitution. .

As already stated above, the prescribed uniform engenders uniformity and allows students focus on and pursue their education together in an atmosphere that is mutually supportive devoid of all and any distracted by signs of religious beliefs and affiliation. In other words, a refusal to allow the hijab to be worn over the prescribed school uniform is not tantamount to a breach of the freedom of religion guaranteed by the Constitutionof1999. I so hold.”

The scope of this paper, and limitation imposed on me professionally not to comment on a case that is subjudice limits my freedom to critique this judgment as robustly as I would like to. However, I believe in an academic environment and forum like this where the catchment audiences are intellectual and scholars, it behoves that I express some views albeit tentatively on the judgment of Onyeabo J. Especially as it involves public interest litigation which any Nigerian without need to show locus Standi is entitled to prosecute – even on appeal.

REALITY CHECK:ISSUES arising from the decisions of the High Court of Lagos State in ASIYAT ABDULKAREEM’s case.

1. There appears to be a clear departure from the ratio of the court of appeal decision in KWARA STATE case.

Prerogative to wear hijab With respect to the application of the views expressed by their lordships. In that case as reproduced above, their lordships made clear that the right to be accorded a female Muslim student the prerogative to wear hijab coves anywhere in Nigeria.

2. To whittle down or restrict the application of the pronouncement made by the court of appeal in that case and limit it to only one state does not recognize the doctrine of covering the field, a general affirmation of right under the Constitution as being available to every Nigerian regardless of where they reside is to disregard the covering the field with the effect of the interpretation and application of section 38 (1) and 42 in respect of wearing hijab by student generally. See the application of that doctrine received a most illuminating review by the apex court recently in a case involving Lagos State Government recently.

To be continued

38—Vanguard, THURSDAY, JANUARY 1, 2015

Assembly It would be the moment of truth for presidential and National Assembly candidates on this day. Candidates whose names are not published in their constituencies would inadvertently be ruled out from participating in the election.

•13th JANUARY: National Assembly resumption.

The two chambers of the National Assembly resume into a lame duck period.

Regrettably, while the eyes of political and finance stakeholders would be fixated on the National Assembly, little is expected to come out of the legislature as many of the legislators would be involved in the politics of reelection where they are not seeking higher offices.

Crucial issues facing the legislature include the passage of the 2015 Appropriation Bill and crucial bills including the Petroleum Industry Bill, PIB.

Resumption of the legislature

2015 political milestones IT is the year that had been the issue of politics in Nigeria for the past four years. The year, 2015 is finally here

BY EMMANUEL AZIKEN, POLITICAL EDITOR

W

ITH democracy taking firm roots in the country and the four year cycle of elections becoming a culture, political stakeholders had in the past four years approached the year, 2015 with calculated steps in the hope of correctly positioning themselves and interests for ascendancy.

Indeed, appointment of ministers by the president and commissioners by state governors had largely been dictated by political considerations of 2015.

In some states, commissioners appointed by powerbrokers opposed to the incumbent governor’s exit or re-election plans have been booted out.

The year is saturated with political activities, the climax of which is undoubtedly the presidential election due on February 14.

Significant milestones preceding and following the

elections equally bear significance for the polity.

•13th JANUARY: Last day for change of names for governorship and House of Assembly candidates On this day, all

The year is saturated with political activities, the climax of which is undoubtedly the presidential election due on February 14

permutations as to who is candidate or not of the major political parties would be decided.

As the year opens today, there are still contending issues as to the genuine candidates in states like Ogun and Imo where different factions of the party are laying claim to the ticket of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP. Especially of interest is the governorship ticket in Ogun where former Speaker Dimeji Bankole and Gboyega Isiaka are laying claim to the ticket of the PDP. Also of interest is the contention for the Ogun East Senate ticket which former governor Gbenga Daniel and party chieftain, Kashamu Buruji are disputing.

On this day, governorship candidates who had pushed forward dummies as running mates would finally be exposed.

Eyes would be on the Labour

Party governorship candidate in Delta, Chief Great Ogboru and the All Progressives Congress, APC, governorship candidate, Chief Otega Emerhor, both of whom reportedly had to push in dummies as running mates when submitting their forms.

• 13th JANUARY publication of official register of voters On this day, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, would be expected to officially publish the register of voters eligible to vote in the election.

It would be anxiety time for a number of the candidates if their names are not found on the voters’ roll as that could be a legal issue for them entering into the election.

It would be recalled that the candidate of the PDP in the last Anambra State governorship election, Comrade Tony Nwoye could not find his name on the voters register.

•13th JANUARY: Publication of list of nominated candidates for presidential and National

The 2015 budget which is expected to receive extensive remake in the face of dwindling oil price may remain hanging until after the presidential election which is not due until one month after the resumption of the legislature.

The House of Representatives would also be faced with the Tambuwal question as the presidency and key supporters of the president face the embarrassment of dealing with a House in the firm grip of Speaker Aminu Tambuwal.

If the House treats the budget immediately, eyes would be on the Inspector General of Police, Sulieman Abba coming to defend his budget in a session before lawmakers appointed by Tambuwal who he, Abba claims not to recognise as Speaker.

• 27th JANUARY: Publication of list of nominated candidates for governorship/House of Assembly.

INEC is expected on this day to publish the list of nominated candidates for the governorship and houses of assembly. It is the end of the road for any governorship or house of assembly aspirant whose name is not listed by INEC. •28th JANUARY publication of notice of poll.

INEC is expected to give formal notice of all the Continues on page 39

Vanguard, THURSDAY, JANUARY 1, 2015 —39

2015 political milestones Continues from page 38 elections including the presidential, National Assembly, governorship and House of Assembly. The notice would be given on the same day. th •29 JANUARY submission of names of party agents for presidential candidates.

All political parties are expected to forward the names of their polling agents for the elections to INEC by this date.

Unlike the past where only the once dominant PDP submitted names throughout the country, the PDP would be matched in every polling booth by the APC.

•7th FEBRUARY National Assembly goes on election break The two chambers of the National Assembly are expected to go on election break on February 7, that is where members have not on their own already gone.

•Jonathan: I have unfinished business

•Buhari: Our situation must change!

•Tinubu: The pathfinder for the opposition

•Mu'azu: PDP's game changer

Impending exit Just before this date, it is expected that the two chambers would be having difficulties forming quorum for sitting. However, the practise is that issues of quorum are overlooked especially as members who are not involved in campaigning strive to remain in the limelight ahead of their impending exit from the legislature.

•12th FEBRUARY Submission of names of party agents for governorship/state House of Assembly.

On this date, parties are expected to submit the names of their agents for the governorship and State Houses of Assembly election.

•12th FEBRUARY Last day for campaigning for presidential elections.

It is the last day for campaigns for the presidential election which is due the day after.

Newspaper and broadcast advertisements would not be allowed.

Attempts by politicians to place advertisements in the name of their rivals would be expected but most newspaper publishing houses and broadcasters normally see through such deceits and

block them.

elections.

14th FEBRUARY: Presidential election.

On the day that is tinged by romance all over the world being celebrated as St. Valentine’s day, Nigerians go to the polls to elect a new president. It is the most crucial decision facing Nigerians in the year.

MARCH 7th: National Assembly resumes from election break The National Assembly is expected to resume after the election break.

The outcome of the election and how it is taken by different stakeholders could decide how the National Assembly forges ahead to carry out outstanding issues.

Among pending issues at this time may be the budget, the investigations into the alleged N10 billion expenditure on hiring a private jet by the Minister of Petroleum, Mrs. Diezani Allison-Madueke, the PIB among others.

The legislators will take another break for the Easter Holidays and sit until June 5th when the life of the 7th National Assembly is expected to come to an end.

15th/16th FEBRUARY: Nigerians would be compiling results and it is expected that the result should be out latest a day after.

In advanced democracies, concession speech is made by the loser before the winner proceeds to make a victory speech. But such is not expected in these shores.

14th FEBRUARY presidential run-off

•26TH FEBRUARY Last day for campaigns for governorship/House of

•Jega: The Audacious Umpire Assembly.

It is the last day for campaigns for governorship and houses of assembly across the country.

Election adverts are not expected to be produced after this day.

28th FEBRUARY governorship election

Voters go to elect governors in 30 states and legislators for all 36 state Houses of Assembly in the country.

Results are expected to start trickling in by the night or latest by the following morning. it is expected that whoever won the presidential election may also pull his party along in the state level

MAY 29: PRESIDENTIAL INAUGURATION!

40 — Vanguard, THURSDAY,

JANUARY 1, 2015

Reality made me abandon the gov contest — Hong, ex-minister Dr. Idi Hong a medical doctor turned full time politician served as minister in three different portfolios including Ttourism, health and foreign affairs. A long time political associate of Prof. Jibril Aminu, himself a medical doctor turned politician, Dr. Hong had aspired for the governorship ticket of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP in this year’s governorship election due next month. However, circumstances and other factors pushed him towards seeking the Senate ticket which he obtained in the party primaries conducted last December in Abuja.

In this interview he speaks on issues flowing from the primaries among other issues. Excerpts:

By Jimoh Babatunde

W

HY did the primary hold in Abuja instead of Adamawa?

The PDP National Working Committee is statutorily empowered to take decisions on behalf of the party. It is the highest day to day organ of the party to take decision before NEC calls for review or the convention of the party to make strategic decisions like rectifying, or changing constitution.

So the working committee of the party based on available information, first and foremost, the issue of security in the three states where we have emergency in the North East could be one of the reasons they considered.

Two, when we were given the opportunity of conducting the primary in Adamawa State for the House of Assembly, there was a very nasty experience on the part of those sent by the national secretariat to carry out the exercise.

Illegal leadership This was so because after their arrival in the state, they were held hostage, they were made to work with illegal leadership of the party which had been suspended by the party.

So when the team from Abuja went to Adamawa State, the former chairman of the party gave them a list to use, but those people because of the briefing they had before leaving Abuja said it was not possible because they were not informed and if there was any new change they need to hear from Abuja.

Unfortunately, when they discovered that those people were not complying, they went the extra mile by holding them hostage, ceased their materials and conducted an exercise supervised by an illegal structure of the party. At the end of the day they were thinking they had conducted primaries, but the panel members on getting back to Abuja wrote a report that they disassociated themselves from what happened in Adamawa

because they were not party to it.

Two, that they were molested and held against their wishes.

That the materials used for the exercise were forcefully taken from them and they were conducting the exercise with an illegal delegate list.

Based on that they advised the NWC not to append their signature to what happened in Adamawa state in the case of the State House of Assembly’s primary election. It was based on that experience of molestation of the panel in addition to the underlining insecurity in the state, I think the NWC in its wisdom decided to bring the other primaries to Abuja.

Mind you, it is not the first time that primaries will be held in Abuja. In 2007, some states did their primaries in Abuja.

Secondly, the PDP NWC might have respected the safety of its membership by bringing the exercise to Abuja.

The NWC has the power to do what they did because they have the constitutional power to change the venue or location of the congress. It is within their power.

In fact, we all contributed money to charter 747 aircraft to pick them from Adamawa to Abuja. We also hired over 200 buses that brought in delegates to Abuja for the congress. We had more than 1500 delegates, supporters and leaders of our party in Abuja for the congress.

So, the exercise was conducted in the open, it was free and transparent.

On the allegation by some

I was thinking very robustly in my mind that if the factors are in place and I emerge as the governor there are lots of things to contribute

DELTA: SDP, only credible — Idawene, Delta SDP chairman DR Oke Idawene is chairman of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in Delta State. In this interview, he boasts that the SDP remains the only alternative to the electorates in the state.

Giving reasons why the party is yet to pick a candidate for the 2015 governorship election in the state, he said “we are taking the right steps to give Delta State the best.” He bares his mind on other burning issues.

Excerpts:

By Dapo Akinrefon

V

IRTUALLY all the respective political parties in Delta State have elected their governorship candidates for next year’s election, why is your party yet to pick a candidate?

Emphatically, we are taking the right steps to give Delta State the best.

Can one say this is due to lack of structure considering that your party is just new?

Not at all! We have established

•Idawene the name SDP fully in Delta state.

We are the only alternative right now that is credible in the State.

So we shall be giving Deltans The very best they deserve.

Do you think your party has

•Hong: I am Senate bound! stakeholders that they were not given enough time for the Abuja congress?

I don’t think I am in a position to defend the NWC on this matter.

They should go and asked them, just like they were informed so we were informed and we took advantage of that to prepare and work hard.

If you are a serious candidate who wants to contest, you should have complied except you want to constitute yourself to a power bloc or become the working committee on your own.

Those of us who were serious aspirants and have respect for the superior organs of the party took

alternative the wherewithal to contest and win elections next year?

We won election in the just concluded LGA elections in Delta State.

Right now we are better positioned, ready to rumble and take Delta State by storm, winning seats beyond peoples imagination and expectation by the Grace of God. We are ready and will win.

What do Deltans stand to benefit from SDP’s entrance in Delta politics?

SDP is the party for the common man where the future is guaranteed, social security, no more hunger and starvation, no more joblessness, in fact , eyes have not seen ,neither ears have heard what SDP will do in Delta State and Nigeria at large.

How would you assess Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan’s administration as he completes his tenure?

I will access Governor Uduaghan’s administration according to his 3 point agenda, Namely: Peace and Security, Human Capital Deveplopment

the directives and went ahead to participate in the exercise and we were delivered.

You wanted to be governor, why did you shift attention to the Senate?

I had an aspiration to be the governor, I was thinking very robustly in my mind that if the factors are in place and I emerge as the governor there are lots of things to contribute, but as events unfolded I saw realistically that the strength I was thinking of mustering both human and material to emerge as a governor in a big party like PDP was not there.

and Infrastructural Development.

In Peace and Security, I score him an A, we in Delta state can all attest to it. In Human Capital Development where most Deltans don’t understand, I will throw some light. Delta has the largest number of state owned tertiary institutions functioning at optimal level in the country.

These will make our great State in few years one of the best in sophisticated manpower in all spheres of life. I score the Governor a capital A for this.

For infrastructural development, I score him a C, urging him to finish strong by completing on-going projects.

In all, his administration has performed 70 per cent we only need to bring a good hand to continue from here.

Some political parties are planning to adopt and support President Goodluck Jonathan’s second term bid, will your party be toeing the same path?

The SDP is the only credible alternative as we all know.

President Jonathan represents progress and future. When the SDP takes it’s stand, we shall all know, we are still consulting to bring the best for Nigeria.

Vanguard, THURSDAY, JANUARY 1, 2015— 41

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42—Vanguard, THURSDAY, JANUARY 1, 2014

Astrazeneca supports local research with US$0.3m

DRS invents anti-malaria paint

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LOBAL biopharmaceutical came before us but because we winning proposals were Concern, AstraZeneca is had set up strict guidelines selected. investing $300,000 in research regarding Subject and Budget, Amongst them was the on healthcare challenges in we passed them over”, said Dr. Research Proposal on the Effect Nigeria.

Funmilayo Lesi, Consultant of Diabetes Education on the At its Inaugural Research Gastroenterologist and Control and Quality of Life in Grant Award Ceremony held in Hepatologist at the College of Type 2 Diabetes submitted by Lagos, the company said the lack Medicine,Lagos.

She Senior Registrar, Endocrinology of credible data on diseases and emphasised that the grant was at the LUTH, Dr Opeoluwa other health issues affecting focused on proposals that Fasanmade.

Nigeria’s population was not established epidemiological Another awardee, Prof. only embarrassing but a data for Non-communicable Oladiran Famurewa of the hindrance to proper policy Diseases such as diabetes and Department of Microbiology, formulation. Karl Friberg, hypertension amongst many Ekiti State University, will Country President for South more. After a thorough and conduct research on how the Africa and Subpainstaking process, five Staffold virus contributes to Saharan Africa, Acute Flaccid Paralysis of said estimates unknown origin. from international organisations may have understated the true prevalence of diabetes in Nigeria.

It was this need that led AstraZeneca to invite Research Proposals from Academicians and Scientists interested in the Medical and Healthcare fields •From left: Dr Dike Ojji, Honorary Consultant Cardiologist, University of Abuja Teaching in February 2014.

“There were Hospital; Honorary Consultant Paediatrician, UCH, Ibadan, Prof. Adegoke Gbadegesin; Gastroenthologist and Hepatologist, Dr Funmilayo Lesi, CMUL and Dr. Seun many good Consultant Jewoola, Medical Liaison Officer, AstraZeneca Nigeria, during the AstraZeneca Research Proposals that Grant Award ceremony.

Common sexual problems and their solutions

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FOUND a condom in my nineteen year old son’s room and I am in shock. I cannot believe my child is having sex and I am not sure how to confront him about it – Mrs Okorie As parents, we are never really prepared to accept that our children are growing up until something like this happens. If you are wondering what to say to him, there really isn’t much to say. To make yourself feel better, you can try telling him not to have sex. But we both know that’s not going to happen. Our parents told us the same thing. And then we went off to the university and had sex anyway.

I think your son is smart for thinking about protecting himself. Many young people don’t prepare themselves for a chance encounter with a girl that may lead to sex. If more young people thought about protection, we wouldn’t have all these cases of folks dying of AIDS. It is a pity you had to find out this way but kids grow up. Your nineteen year old son is no longer a child. He is a man now and his sex life is his private business. You have to get used to it – Uche I like oral sex but I hear that one can also contact a sexually transmitted disease through oral sex. Since I cannot wear a

condom over my mouth, what else can I do for protection?

Samson Samson there is a novelty called a Dental Dam. It is made of latex, the same material most condoms are made of and it comes in square flat sheets. You place it over the female genitals before oral stimulation to serve as a protective barrier between the mouth and the genitals. So you can use a Dental Dam for your protection – Uche Hello, Zee. I have a girl whom we’ve agreed 2 marry, but, I’m worried now because I have seen her about 4 times in my dreams in a luv affair with somebody else. Then, one day she gave me her phone 2 use & a number which was stored in her phone started calling her but, I didn’t take d call. Later d person sent a text saying” I am disappointed in u. I can’t marry a girl who is not straight forward”. I was shocked. But, when I confronted her, she was crying & begging for days that she has nothing to do with d person. Please I need to know what to do – Sam Dear Sam, the text message you saw has told you everything you need to know. The girl you want to marry is in a relationship with another man and she is making it worse by lying about it. This is an easy decision. You cannot marry a

playgirl. Marriage is hard enough when you find the right girl not to talk about marrying the wrong girl. So do yourself a favour and find another girl that wants to be in a relationship with only you – Uche My wife comes home very late at night and is often too tired for sex. Her libido is okay.

But we both leave for work very early in the morning and the only time we can really be intimate is at night. But then she is too tired after work.

Please what should we do? IK The average couple needs ten to fifteen minutes for standard intercourse without the elaborate romance and special effects. A bath and a good massage will rejuvenate the body enough to spare a few minutes for sex at night. So give her a massage after work. The Anti-Stress Massage Oil is very good for this. If the massage doesn’t work, then go for a stamina drink like Wonderland.

It is all natural, fruit flavoured and works well with no side effects – Uche Happy New Year everyone.

Zee Virtual Media remains closed for the holidays and will resume on the 5th of January 2015. Adults in need of these treatments/novelties can place their orders on www.zeevirtualmedia.com

By Emmanuel Elebeke CCORDING to World Malaria Consortium, malaria costs Africa $12.5 billion a year and kills 2,000 children every day. Malaria is also said to make over 70 million people sick every year, the main reason children miss school and is a leading cause of work absenteeism globally.

It was against this backdrop that Divine Rewards Services limited, a subsidiary of ABS Powder has invented an antimalaria paint called Sin-Out. The water based paint is said to be repellent to mosquitoes and other insects and does not have any harmful effects on humans.

Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, CEO of the companyý, Chief Uche Sylva while presenting the novel products at the weekend in Abuja, said it was the company’s own way of contributing to the global fight against the scourge of malaria.

The ISONEM products which comprise of sin-out the paint that dispels mosquitoes, soil water trap that ensures rain water is trapped in soils and cement mix isomix that averts structural collapse.

He said that it is about time Nigerians leverage on the much hyped national potentials in terms of human and material

resources and added that the basics of healthy human living is not mere existence but health, shelter and agricultureý.

He also said that Isomix which is added to cement mixture helps to prevent building collapse that has become prevalent in the country.

His words: “So with this product we are giving the fight against malaria a strategic boost and delivering better health and productivity to the populace.

“Isomix, helps to prevent building collapse while the soil water trap is for green revolution and an all year round fruitful yield. ”This product helps to trap water in the grounds thus helping better agricultural yields and making all year round planting and harvesting a reality.

“The positive impact of this product on our food security is better imagined. We believe this could be one of the veritable tools for our sustainable national growth and development.

“All hands must be on deck to ensure that we retool, reequip and reposition our beloved country Nigeria to take its rightful place in the comity of nations. It is about time we tapped into our much hyped national potential in terms of human and material resources.

HIV infection linked to hearing problems

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DULTS with HIV may have poorer hearing than those without HIV infection, a U.S. study has said. To determine if HIV and antiretroviral therapy are associated with hearing loss, Peter Torre III of San Diego State University, California, and colleagues evaluated the hearing of 262 men, of whom 117 were HIV positive, and 134 women, of whom 105 were HIV positive.

The men had an average age of 57 years and the women were an average age of nearly 48. The study found people with HIV tended to have worse lower- and

higher-frequency hearing compared with those without HIV. The results, published in the U.S. journal JAMA Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery, were independent of long-term exposure to antiretroviral medications, HIV viral load, current count of CD4+ cells, the immune cells that HIV attacks and kills. “To our knowledge, this is the first study to demonstrate that HIV+ individuals have poorer hearing across the frequency range after many other factors known to affect hearing have been controlled for,” the study concluded.

•Young males with HIV face hearing face risk of hearing loss.

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Vanguard, THURSDAY, JANUARY 1, 2015—45

2015: It’s Itsekiri’s turn to produce next Delta South senator —EMIKO

By Egufe Yafugborhi & Akpokona Omafuaire

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HE All Progressives Congress, APC, candidate for Delta South senatorial district for the 2015 elections, Prince Yemi Emiko, has said that it was the turn of Itsekiri to produce the next senator for the area.

Emiko, while promising better representation for the area, if elected, told newsmen in Warri, yesterday, that there was a tacit agreement among the different ethnic groups in the area for rotational representation for the Delta South senate seat.

According to him, political positions in Delta South were shared among Isoko, Ijaw and Itsekiri, contending that having served three terms for Delta Ijaws, Senator James Manager, who currently occupies the seat, should, in line with the said agreement, step aside as it was now the turn of the Itsekiri nation to take over.

Emiko, a former journalist with the Nigerian Television Authority and one time editor of defunct Bendel Broadcasting Service, said

Igbodo community honours Nwaeke, 16 others

By Festus Ahon

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S A B A — I N appreciation of their contribution to the development of Igbodo community in Ika North East Local Government Area, Delta State, the kingdom has honoured 17 of its sons and daughters, including Mrs. Mary Nkem-Nwaeke, of the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, and the Director General of BRACED (Bayelsa, Rivers, Akwa-Ibom, Cross River, Edo and Delta) commission, Ambassador, Joe Keshi.

Mrs. Nkem-Nwaeke is the wife of a journalist with the Delta Rainbow Television, DRTV, Warri, Nkem Nwaeke.

The awardees, who were honoured at a weeklong programme of the community tagged ‘Igbodo Mass Return Home 2014’ held at the palace of the Obi of the kingdom, were described as worthy ambassadors of the community.

APC was the only alternative to end perceived bad governance the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, had inflicted on the country.

On his interest for the Delta South Senate seat, he said Delta South, which he

considers to have contributed immensely to the nation’s economy, has nothing to show partly due to poor representation at the Senate.

“There is nothing to show for the years of PDP's rule in Delta South for those who represent

us. Our vision is to bring about effective representation.

Despite the huge resources in our land, our communities are in complete darkness and those who represent us don’t speak for us. The APC will fix this mess,” Emiko said.

BUDGET: Governor Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom State (left) presenting the state's 2015 budget proposal to the Speaker, Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly, Mr. Sam Ikon.

Buhari'll fuel devt in 2015, APC senatorial candidate assures

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HE All Progressives Congress, APC, senatorial candidate for Edo North, Mr. Francis Alimikhena, has expressed optimism that Nigeria will be a better and more peaceful place when former Head of State and presidential candidate of the party, Geneal Muhammadu Buhari, emerges the next president of Nigeria in 2015.

The APC chieftain, at the home town of Governor Adams Oshiomhole in Iyamu, during the end of year celebration, described Oshiomhole as a servant who has dedicated his life to the service of mankind.

The senatorial candidate said that the people of Edo State would not have tasted the dividends of democracy if Oshiomhole had not emerged as governor.

He thanked the people of the state for their support and encouragement for the governor.

Wishing Nigerians a happy new year, Alimikhena thanked the media for its level of objectivity and sense of

judgment as well as equal attention given to various political parties irrespective of the region.

“This is a new face of journalism in Nigeria and we must strive to maintain the standard in order to catch up with world practice. Much more is expected from the Nigerian media as we step into 2015 today.”

The APC senatorial

candidate, said: “Nigeria has a long way to go in order to redeem our lost ground and APC is the vehicle that will take us on this rescue mission.”

He assured the people of Edo North of effective representation with the provision of water, good health facilities, good schools, a growing economy as well job creation through micro-credit scheme and skill acquisition centre.

2015: Okowa group to garner 40,000 votes for PDP

By Godwin Oghre

S

APELE—AHEAD of the 2015 governorship elections in Delta State, a political group in the state, Okowability Prosperity Network, with over 2,000 membership strength across the 25 local government areas, has directed its members to mobilise at least, 20 voters each, amounting to 40,000 votes for the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in the governorship and presidential elections.

The party’s governorship flag bearer, Dr Ifeanyi Okowa, and its

presidential candidate, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, got the acceptability of the group, following what it described as “Their track record of successful programmes that have touched the people's socio-economic lives and the general infrastructural development of the state and the country as a whole.

Its state Chairman, Mr Solomon Okowa, after an emergency meeting in Asaba, said it had directed all its members to ensure full compliance, hinging its stand on “The laudable transformation agenda of the two candidates.”

Ogomudia urges soldiers to abide by oath of allegiance

By Perez Brisibe

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G H E L L I — FORMER Chief of Defence Staff, General Alex Ogomudia (rtd) has charged those in active service in the Nigerian Army to abide by their oath of allegiance in the discharge of their duties as military officers.

Gen. Ogomudia, at Owhelogbo, in Isoko North Local Government Area of Delta State, during the thanksgiving service of Brig. Gen. Anthony Okpobrisi (rtd), who recently retired from the Nigerian Army, charged those in active service to be loyal and dedicated to the tenets and professionalism of the Nigerian Army.

Describing Okpobrisi as a hardworking and dedicated military officer, Gen. Ogomudia charged young officers to have a passion for excellence in their service to Nigeria.

Earlier in his remark, Gen. Okpobrisi described his service in the Nigeria Army as goodwill from God, stressing that from his commissioning in December 1979 as a medical doctor till his retirement, God has been faithful to him.

Delta community inaugurates 5-man interim exco

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GHELLI—A fiveman interim executive of the Orogun Progress Union, OPU, Ughelli North Local Government Area, Delta State, has been inaugurated with Mr. Josiah Ntekume as President-General.

The executive, with its members drawn from the five quarters of the Orogun Kingdom, has Mr. Andrew Oviri, as its Vice President General; Dr. David Idoge, Secretary General; Mr. Daniel Onobruche, Treasurer and Mr. Alex Ichide, Organizing Secretary/Publicity Secretary.

46—Vanguard, THURSDAY, JANUARY 1, 2015

Enugu inaugurates 800 vigilance groups

Anambra Speaker empowers farmers

By Francis Igata

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NUGU—IN a bid to compliment efforts of the security agencies in Enugu State, the state government has inaugurated 800 Neighbourhood Watch group in 472 communities in the state.

The groups are to work with security agencies in the state

By Vincent Ujumadu

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WKA—THE Speaker of Anambra State House of Assembly, Mrs. Chinwe Nwaebili, has distributed 150,000 yam seedlings to farmers in Ogbaru Local Government Area of the state as part of her empowerment programme for her constituents.

In the previous farming season, Nwaebili distributed 15,000 yam seedlings to farmers in the area, which many of the beneficiaries said uplifted them after the harvest.

Speaking during the distribution exercise at Odekpe, Nwaebili explained that the second phase of the exercise would take place in January 2015, during which she hoped to distribute another 150,0000 yam seedlings to enable those who have not benefited to do so.

She said the seedlings were not on loan, but were gifts. She charged the beneficiaries to utilize the proceeds for the benefits of their families.

The Speaker, who is the House of Representatives candidate of All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, in the February 2015 election for Ogbaru federal constituency, urged the people to remember her in prayer and give her their support during the election.

to ensure that crimes are reduced to the barest level, especially in the rural areas.

While announcing this, Commissioner for Human Capital and Poverty Reduction, Mr. Godwin Ogenyi, said: “In this year alone, we have inaugurated 230 Neighbourhood Watch groups. The idea is that we are striving to ensure that criminals

do not have a hiding place, especially in the rural areas.

“We do not want a situation whereby criminal elements will hibernate in the rural areas, where the search light of security agencies will not easily reach them. Enugu has recorded remarkable feat as being relatively secured when compared to other states. Government will be

paying the group members monthly stipends.

“Security equipment and gadgets are equally made available to them. Communities in the state should participate in securing their lives and property because that is the idea behind the establishment of Neighbourhood Watch groups.

Its operations have made crime rate drop drastically in the state.”

Join hands with Jonathan, Delta Speaker tells Nigerians

S

PEAKER of Delta State House of Assembly, Peter Onwusanya, yesterday, advised antagonists to the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan to change and join hands with the President to address the current insurgency and dwindling economy to better the life of Nigerians.

The Speaker, who gave the advice in his New Year message, expressed the hope that the 2015 would enhance the political and economic fortunes of Nigeria and Nigerians.

He said: “The position of the opposition in the current political and economic situation is becoming unpatriotic. Every Nigerian must co-operate to find solution. Those who are consistently opposed to government policies without preferring solution are not helping the country.

“Therefore, we must all appreciate the need to support the government so that Nigerians would smile.”

Onwusanya, who represents Oshinmili South constituency, commended the people of Delta State for their peaceful disposition that had paved the way for the

administration at both the state and federal levels to excel.

While saying that Delta State had remained one of the most peaceful states in the federation, he attributed the situation to the co-operation of the residents, who were

law abiding and ready to support government programmes and policies.

He said the state House of Assembly would cash in on the peoples’ co-operation to ensure that laws were made for the betterment of the populace, stressing that it

was the belief of the lawmakers that Deltans would reap the benefits of democracy.

The Speaker urged Nigerians to live in hope because 2015 will bring better things and prove cynics wrong, and that the country will overcome the subsisting challenges.

... as UAD lauds Nigerians' courage

By VICTOR AHIUMAYOUNG

U

NITED Action for Democracy, UAD, has urged Nigerians to brace up for a ceaseless struggle in 2015 against austerity measures that could worsen the already excruciating burden of the working people, women and youth.

UAD, in a New Year message by Baba Aye, its National Convener, saluted the courage and perseverance of Nigerians who lived through this tumultuous year.

He said: “We equally remember those martyred by the debilitating state of existence in the country, including the victims of the ongoing war in north-eastern Nigeria.

“However, it is not for us to weep or agonise. The unfolding moment is one that calls for us to organise, organise and organise.

“It is only through struggle that we can overcome the state of hopelessness that the ruling elite in Nigeria is keen on throwing the immense majority of the country’s population into.

“If we rest on our oars, all hope is indeed lost. But if we dare to struggle, we dare to win.

We, the Nigerian people, must not allow ourselves to be fooled by politicians who seek to mobilize us around ethnic, religious and other mundane lines, when their sole aim is to retain or seize power.

“Our struggle in 2015

must be based on a concrete understanding of concrete reality with programmatic demands and mass action.

“UAD, as the pan-Nigerian coalition of pro-poor people civil society organisations, with a rich history of fighting against oppression and for democratization that prioritizes system change, will wage ceaseless struggle against austerity measures that could worsen the already excruciating burden of the working people, women and youth.

“We will work closely with organisations of workers, the urban poor, exploited rural folks and other change-seeking Nigerians to ensure that we are not made to bear the brunt of the economic cataclysm, which the bosses and their governments have plunged society into.”

What is your New Year wish for Nigerians?

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AY we live in a world at peace and with the awareness of God's love in every sunset and sunrise, every flower's unfolding petals, every baby's smile, and every wonderful, astonishing, miraculous beat of our heart. God is in all things.—Mr. Barbarty Majek, Worker.

A

NOTHER year filled with sweet memories and joyous times; better than the past. With Christ in our lives, every moment is an occasion to celebrate. I hope Nigerians have a great year ahead. I wish everyone a very happy New Year.— Miss Okereke Bukola, Student.

A

S a country, we are supposed to let go of the past and start off anew. We are supposed to forgive all those who hurt us and be open to new relationships, with open arms and open heart. That is why it is called the 'New' year. May Nigerians have a Happy New year and better things ahead.— Mr. Samson Robinson, Worker.

M

AY 2015 bring more happiness to all Nigerians much more than last year. May Nigerians have an amazing year. May the year bring to us the warmth of love and a light to guide our path towards a positive destination.—Miss Chimezie Ezembu, Communicator.

L

AST year was indeed a sorrowful one for Nigerians; many lives were lost to insurgency.

I pray this new year becomes brighter and more secure than the one before. May we enjoy good health and happiness and blessings by the scores. Happy New Year.— Mr Ismaila Aremu, Businessman.

W

ITH the passing year shall pass the pains and troubles of the past. I urge Nigerians to stop thinking about the times that are gone. Rather, let us all pray for 2015 to bring us smiles and no sorrow, especially as we draw closer to the general elections. It is well.—Mrs Ifeoma Anyambuba, Self Employed.

Vanguard, THURSDAY, JANUARY 1, 2015 — 47

Jang tasks Nigerians on love, forgiveness

NEW YEAR:

By Marie-Therese

J

Nanlong

OS—PL ATEAU State Governor, Mr Jonah Jang has called on Nigerians to imbibe the spirit of forgiveness, love, reconciliation and rededication to the service of God and humanity in the year 2015.

The governor also urged the political class to pursue issuebased campaign during the electioneering period, instead of campaign of calumny, hatred and must –win- at allcost syndrome.

In his New-year message to Plateau citizens and Nigerians by his Director of Press and Public Affairs, James Mannok, Jang noted that “If all Nigerians carry the spirit of accepting each other as one, the electoral process in the year 2015 will be peaceful and transparent.”

He urged Nigerians to take a moment to reflect and count their blessings over the past year and give God all the Glory for the privilege of witnessing

another year. He thanked the citizens of the state for their support in the past seven and half years.

Wishing all a memorable and prosperous year ahead, the governor promised to continue “to strive to meet

the expectations of more Plateau people and Nigerians in the remaining days of his administration.”

BIRTHDAY: From left: Chief Rasak Okoya, General Niyi Sangotade (retd), Justice Adesola Oguntade (retd), Chief Ahmed Onibudo, Ashipa of Lagos, celebrator, Chief Muyiwa Ajisafe, and Chief Gbenga Obasa, during the 75th birthday of Chief Ahmed Onibudo, in Lagos. Photo: Lamidi Bamidele.

Prayers, patriotic conducts, key to successful 2015 polls —Ekweremadu A

By Joseph Erunke

BUJA—AS Nigeria prepares to go into general elections this year, the Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, has challenged them to consider prayers and patriotic conducts as great tasks they must embrace to ensure the success of the polls.

He said the longevity of the current democratic dispensation, which according to him, surpassed all others before it, was made possible by sacrifice, commitment, and determination on the part of Nigerians.

Senator Ekweremadu, who stated this in his goodwill message to Nigerians at New Year, described the forthcoming elections as a potential milestone

for the nation’s democracy and development .

“The current democratic dispensation is unique in many respects. For the first time, we have been able to transit from one civilian administration to another. We have also enjoyed an unprecedented 15 years of

D

UTSE—THE Jigawa state governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Malam Aminu Ringim has pledged to give priority to peace, security, and provision of infrastructures for the benefit of the people of the state if elected in 2015.

Malam Ringim, spoke when he addressed thousands of party supporters when Governor Sule Lamido led the flag off Jigawa North senatorial zonal campaign

political class, to make the process free, fair, and credible,” he said.

On the challenges resulting from the fall in oil revenue, Senator Ekweremadu assured that with President Goodluck Jonathan, the nation was in good and competent hands.

Kogi dep gov assures citizens of prosperous 2015

By Boluwaji Obahopo

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OKOJA—KOGI State Deputy Governor, Mr. Yomi Awoniyi, has urged Nigerians not to entertain fear about 2015, saying that the year will be of

Jigawa PDP gov candidate pledges to prioritise security

By Tina Akannam

democratic rule.

“Therefore, year 2015 presents us with yet another opportunity to build on our democratic gains.

The elections call for a high sense of patriotism, decorum, forbearance, and strict observance of the rules among Nigerians, especially the

for PDP candidates for the National and state Assemblies as well as governorship candidate who hailed from the Zone on Tuesday in Kazaure City.

He assured that his administration will work closely with traditional leaders, Council of Ulama, Elders forum, students Unions, Fulani, farmers association, security agencies, the media, local government councils and promised that they will all be carried alongintakingdecisionsintheInterest of the state.

blessing and filled with bountiful opportunities for the country.

Awoniyi in his new year message, congratulated Nigerians for entering yet another year and called for prayers for the nation to witness a peaceful general elections.

“I equally urge for prayers for the nation to overcome its current security challenges. The nation will only attain its full potentials in an environment that is peaceful. I appeal to politicians and their supporters to play by the rules of the game, warn against provocative utterances and to eschew violence before and after the 2015 general elections. The country and not personal interest should come first in the minds of Nigerians.”

He commended the state governor, Capt Idris Wada, “For the purposed and focused driven leadership the state is

experiencing. I pray God to grant him the wisdom, knowledge and understanding to continue to pilot the affairs of the state to the desired destination.”

Awoniyi solicited the support of the people in the new year, urging them to be watchful, and remain vigilant at all times, especially in view of the need for citizens to be security conscious.

He said that he was optimistic that the transformation agenda of the governor will attain its full peak and meet the yearning and aspirations of people of the state in 2015.

The state governor, Capt.

Idris Wada on his part, rejoiced with Nigerians for witnessing the 2015 new year celebrations and enjoined them to pray for peace and orderly conduct of the forthcoming general elections.

2015: Group

urges more support for female politicians

M

By Peter Duru

AKURDI—THE W o m e n ’ s International League for Peace and Freedom, WILPF, has called on all the political parties in the country to ensure improved support for women vying for elective positions in the 2015 general elections.

WILPF said: “By so doing, women will also have a voice in key decisions and policies.”

President of WILPF and Coordinator of TEAM 2015, Joy Onyesoh, yesterday, in Makurdi, Benue State, noted that Nigerians would enjoy responsive and accountable governance if greater number of women assumed leadership positions in the country.

“For us in Nigeria, this is a defining moment. As we match towards the coming general elections, we must explore all entry points for the women folk. This will ensure that our women gained elective positions and can meaningfully influence and impact governance at all levels. This way, we will be creating opportunities for sustained peace and development to become a reality in Nigeria."

Deltans 'll vote for Emerho, says APC chieftain

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KU—A prominent member of the All Progressives Congress APC in Delta State, Chief Isaac Emetitiri, has assured that the people of the state would gladly cast their votes for Olorogun O’tega Emerhor, governorship candidate of APC in Delta State.

Emetitiri, who gave the assurance yesterday at Eku, in Ethiope East local government area, also described Emrehor as God sent to liberate the state and enhance the fortunes of the people.

According to him, “ Emerhor has a unique vision and is determined to laying a solid foundation for the future of our children and unborn children.

I sincerely encourage our youths who are the leaders of tomorrow to ensure that the February 2015 governorship election was not rigged.”

Emetitiri explained that Emerhor was more qualified and urged Deltans to give him the chance to exhibit his progressive ideas to improve on the lives of all Deltans.

48—Vanguard, THURSDAY, JANUARY 1, 2015

PRESENTATION: Chairman, Imo PDP, Nnamdi Anyaehie (middle), presenting Hon. Emeka Ihedioha, Deputy Speaker, House of Representatives and PDP governorship candidate (left), and his running mate, Chief Chuma Nnaji (right), to the public, during a PDP stakeholders' meeting, in Owerri.

CONFERENCE: From left, Permanent Secretary, Ministary of Information, Dr. Folasade Esan; Supervising Minister of Information, Dr. Nurudeen Mohammed, and Director-General, Nigeria Television Authority, Mr. Shola Omole, at a news conference on achievement of President Goodluck Jonathan, in Abuja, yesterday.

BIRTHDAY: From left, former Deputy Chief of Staff in the Presidency, Chief Olusola Akanmode; the Celebrator, Professor Eyitayo Lambo; Kogi State Governor, Capt.

Idris Wada, and wife of the Celebrator, Dr. Esther Olufunmilayo Lambo, during the 70th birthday celebration of Professor Lambo.

TURBANNING: From left, former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja,MallamNasir El-Rufai, and member,Board of Directors, Etisalat Nigeria,Junaid Dikko,at Dikko's turbanning as Turaki Babba of Zazzau by the Emir of Zazzau, last Monday.

INAUGURATION: From left, Minister of Water Resources, Mrs. Sarah Ochekpe; runing mate to Pateau PDP governorship candidate, Mr. Yilji Gomwalk; governorship candidate, Sen. Gyang Pwajok, and Chairman, PDP Plateau, Mr. Raymond Dabo, during the inauguration of PDP Governorship Action Campaign Committee, in Jos, yesterday.

FELLOWSHIP: From left, members of Young Wives' Fellowship of Nativity, YWFN: Wife of Vicar, Mrs. Kikelomo Oduwole; Coordinator, YWFN, Mrs. Kate lsa, and Mrs. Efe Etomi, during the annual thanksgiving & rededication of the Nativity Young Wives's Fellowship, at the Church of The Nativity Christmas Carol Service of Nine Lessons, in ParkView Estate, lkoyi, Lagos.

BRIEFING: From left, Mr. Adekoya Ademola, Kemi Lateef, Ope Ganiu, Tayo Famakinwa, Kenny Fadipe,Titilope Ahide,and Yinka Ganiu, all of Pishon Properties, during the press briefing and end of the year party, at Genesis Hotel, Ajayi Road, Ogba Lagos.

PARTY: From left, Lion Amusa O Akibu,Membership Director; Lion Soyinka Abiodun, Assistant Secretary; Adeniyi Dipeolu, 2nd Vice Present; Lion Osinowo Olubunmi, President; Lion Onitilo Femi, Secretary, and Lion Eribake Kemi, Region 4 Chair, all members of Ikeja New Era Lions Club, during the club's co-sponsored Xmas party for Ola Formolatimi, at Agindingbe, Ikeja, Lagos.

Vanguard, THURSDAY, JANUARY 1, 2015— 49

NEW YEAR: Religious, political leaders sue for peace, unity •Nigeria shall triumph – Mark •Brace for tougher 2015, NLC tells workers •Care for IDPs, Tambuwal charges Nigerians •Archbishop Martins, Ekweremadu, Buhari, Okorie, others speak

By Sam Eyoboka, Clifford Ndujihe, Victor Ahiuma-Young, Emman Ovuakporie, Levinus Nwabughiogu, Johnbosco Agbakwuru, Joseph Erunke & Olayinka Latona

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AGOS—ON the lips of eminent religious and political leaders across the nation, yesterday, were words of hope and optimism that 2015 will bring good tidings to Nigerians. The exception is the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), which told workers to brace up for a tougher year because, in its estimation, 2014 was tough.

Among those who spoke, yesterday, were National President of the Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor; Catholic Archbishop of Lagos, Most Rev. Alfred Adewale Martins; Senate President, David Mark; House of Representatives Speaker, Aminu Tambuwal; Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu; All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Candidate, Major-General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd); United Progressive Party (UPP) Presidential Candidate Chief Chekwas Okorie and Delta State Deputy Governor, Professor Amos Agbe Utuama.

We must overcome –Oritsejafor

The CAN president, in a statement urged all Nigerians, especially Christians, to brace up for the challenges ahead both as individuals and as a nation.

“As we reflect on the events of the past year and look forward to the times ahead, I want us to concentrate on the issue of overcoming. In this light, it is important to emphasize the postulate that all challenges are timely, and they are not accidental,” Oritsejafor said, adding that God tests us in such ways to enable us realize His greatness.

“That which does not kill us makes us stronger ” - these words of the famous philosopher demonstrate that we are the instruments in the hands of God. “I have dwelt on these words of encouragement because I want all Nigerians to approach this New Year with a renewed sense of vigour and the understanding that we all must work for the kind of society that we desire to have. If we want peace and prosperity then we must work for it and not lament

over the challenges,” Oritsejafor stated.

He continued: “Nigerians must learn to support their leaders in prayers and physical support in this New Year and above all things we must all exhibit love and sacrifice for ourselves and our nation in our collective quest for a better Nigeria beginning from 2015."

Let’s draw nearer to God – Archbishop Martins

Catholic Archbishop of Lagos, Most Rev. Adewale Martins also called on Nigerians to draw nearer to their creator in 2015 and to commit themselves to the unity and peaceful coexistence of the country.

He insisted that most of the challenges plaguing the nation can be overcome through prayer, selflessness and tolerance of one another, noting that no nation can excel without the help of God. “Any nation that drives God to the background is only toying with doom. For us to move forward as a nation, we must bring God to the front burner this New Year, so that His spirit of love, peace and joy can permeate in our hearts and in the core of our nationhood.”

On the forthcoming general election, the prelate urged Nigerians to be alive to their civic responsibilities by casting their votes in favour of only credible candidates with impeccable integrity, stressing that they must be ready to monitor and defend their votes at all cost in order to ensure that only credible candidates are elected into positions of authority.

We must exercise caution –Ademowo

His Anglican counterpart, Most Rev. Ephraim Ademowo said there is need for caution on the part of our leaders and the citizens, noting that there is need for everyone to seek and fear God. According to him, “a nation where people are becoming less sensitive to God in pursuit of power and popularity at all cost is a signal to danger", maintaining that 2015 will determine the political and economic future of the nation.

“I call on the political elite to play politics devoid of rancour, bitterness, thuggery, destruction of lives and property and shedding of innocent blood,” Ademowo said, adding that every

Nigerian must be practically committed to a smooth transition of power to another democratically elected government at all levels.

Nigeria shall triumph –Mark

Also speaking, Senate President Mark urged Nigerians not to lose hope as a result of the socio-economic and political challenges facing the country, saying there will be light at the end of the tunnel.

He said: “There is no doubt that the situation especially insecurity is challenging. We cannot pretend that all is well with us. But we are a nation of good faith in one God. When it seems impossible.

God will make it possible.

“This trying time is only but a phase in our match to greatness. With cooperation, dedication, honesty and patriotism on the part of all of us, we shall surely triumph.”

He said that all that was required was for both the government and the governed to see the nation’s challenges as a collective problem facing every citizen because there is no problem too difficult for the nation to surmount if everybody come together in one accord to confront the menace.

He assured that the National Assembly will give accelerated passage to the 2015 Appropriation Bill without compromising due process and critical assessment of the proposal.

He reasoned that quick passage of the budget would facilitate its implementation and ensure that the dividends of democracy are promptly delivered to the Nigerian people.

Care for IDPs, Tambuwal charges Nigerians

Also, Speaker Tambuwal urged Nigerians to take special interest in the plight of internally displaced persons who have been forced out of their homes as a result of the insurgency in some parts of the country.

In a New Year message issued by his spokesman, Malam Imam Imam, the speaker said Internally Displaced Persons,IDPs in various camps within and outside the country deserve our support at all times, adding that governments at all levels must put in place comprehensive and coordinated strategy that will enhance the welfare and

living conditions of the affected persons.

According to him, the House of Representatives, in conjunction with other arms of government, will support any effort aimed at finding durable solutions to the challenges of the IDPs. “The National Assembly, House of Representatives in particular, will work with other arms of government, national and local NGOs, donor agencies and our development partners to put in place durable solutions to the challenges faced by IDPs in Nigeria and those staying in our neighbouring countries. We hope to develop national framework, structure and policies on internally displaced persons and ensure that these policies are implemented at all times, “ he said.

There is hope in season of despair –Buhari

In his new year message issued by Dele Alake, director, Communications, Buhari Campaign Organisation, Buhari said the announcement made by the Presidency and its agencies in the last one month "has put many Nigerians in sadness.

Electricity shall cost more.

The devaluation of the naira means the price of goods and services shall rise. Essential goods are being removed from the reach of the poor.

Indeed, the Presidency has declared a regime of austerity that will be executed in 2015. To quote the press reports, the President himself has declared that Year 2015 shall be “tough” on our people.

"Against this season of despair foisted on our people, I bring to you, a New Year Message of hope and optimism. I share the anxiety of the middle class and the poor who have borne the brunt of the policies of this government for so long with increasing burden. I share the fear of the unemployed whose hopes for new jobs in the new year is being dashed because companies will cut jobs to escape inflationary spirals. I share the concerns of the manufacturers whose import-dominated production will be challenged by the austerity measures.

Brace up for a tougher 2015, NLC

tells workers

The NLC in its New Year Message, called on Nigerian workers to brace up for a tougher 2015, lamenting that 2014 was very tough for workers.

In a statement by its President Mr. Abdulwaheed Omar, titled “Tough times don’t last forever”, it recalled the spate of strikes across the sectors, especially in health and education largely because of the refusal or inability of government to honour agreements it voluntarily entered into with the unions.

He said: “Collated reports from our state councils indicate that a number of state governments and some federal MDAs have not paid their workers for December as the year comes to an end. Of the 30 states reporting as of 30th of December, 11 subjected their workers to a Christmas/New Year celebration without the December salary. Three of these owed their workers arrears of salaries ranging from 3 to 8 months!

Some federal government employees in the Ministries of Education, Labour and Productivity, among others, are owed arrears of salaries ranging from 1-3 months.

“We condemn this insensitivity to the welfare of workers. Any state governor, who cannot pay workers their salaries, as and whe n due, has no moral

justification to take his own salary and allowances. We call on workers to massively reject these anti-worker politicians in the 2015 elections. Meanwhile, we direct our state councils in the three states mentioned above to serve appropriate ultimatums on their government to pay the arrears of salaries or face disruption of services.”

2015 is year of decision – Chekwas Okorie In his new year message, Chief Chekwas Okorie, said giving the challenges the country faced last year, 2015 is year of decision, especially for the electorate, who will elect those who will lead the country in the next four years.

He urged Nigerians in the message from his presidential campaign organisation entitled: “A time to decide,” to exercise their franchise and ensure that they vote for candidates of their choice in all elections, and ensure that their votes are counted and count in the overall result.

Prayers, patriotic conducts, keys to success of 2015 polls —Ekweremadu On his part, Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, challenged Nigerians to consider prayers and patriotic conducts as great tasks they must embrace to ensure the success of the 2015 polls.

He said the longevity of the current democratic dispensation, which according to him, surpassed all others before it, was made possible by sacrifice, commitment, and determination on the part of Nigerians.

“The current democratic dispensation is unique in many respects. For the first time, we have been able to transit from one civilian administration to another.

We have also enjoyed an unprecedented 15 years of democratic rule. Therefore, year 2015 presents us with yet another opportunity to build on our democratic gains."

50 —VANGUARD, THURSDAY, JANUARY 1 , 2015

BRIEFS

Palestinians seek to join ICC

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Beach parties, fireworks herald new year across the globe A

fter a turbulent year marred by terror, woes, Ebola outbreaks and a horrific series of airline disasters, many could be forgiven for saying good riddance to 2014 and gratefully ringing in a new year.

Across the globe, revelers looking for a respite from the gloom converged on the beaches of Brazil, the shores of Sydney harbor and New York’s Times Square to welcome 2015.

A look at how the world is celebrating:

crowd cheered as a 12minute firework display was launched. A tribute to two hostages killed in the December siege inside a downtown cafe was displayed on the

pylons of the Harbour Bridge during the main fireworks display.

Prayer in Indonesia

Despite the loss of AirAsia Flight 8501 and a deadly landslide in

Central Java muted celebrations in Indonesia. In the capital, the city conducted prayers for the victims of the tragedies, in addition to the annual Jakarta Night Festival.

Sydney takes pride in welcoming New Year

Sydney takes pride in being one of the first major cities in the world to welcome each new year, and it greeted 2015 in its trademark glittery fashion — with a tropical-style fireworks display featuring shimmering gold and silver palm tree pyrotechnic effects.

More than 1.5 million revelers crowded along the shores of the city’s harbor in warm summer weather to watch the vivid eruption of light over the Harbour Bridge, Opera House and other points.

At midnight, the

Putin praises Crimea’s ‘return home’ in new year address

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Breaking a bright record in Dubai

The Gulf Arab emirate of Dubai was aiming to break the world record for the largest LEDilluminated facade.

Some 70,000 LED panels wrapped around the world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa, which draws throngs of thousands of spectators every New Year ’s Eve for an impressive fireworks display.

Buddhist monks and believers pray during a ceremony to celebrate the new year at Bongeun Buddhist Emaar Properties said a team from Guinness World Records monitored the preparations. Last year, Dubai won the title for the world’s largest firework display, according to Guinness.

ALESTINIAN Authority President Mahmoud Ab bas has signed the Rome Statute in a bid to join the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Mr Abbas signed the founding treaty of the ICC at a meeting in Ramallah.

Correspondents say membership could pave the way for the Palestinians to pursue Israel on war crimes charges.

The move follows the rejection of a UN Security Council resolution demanding an end to the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories by late 2017.

Eight members of the 15-strong Security Council voted for it while the US and Australia voted against.

The resolution, condemned by Israel as a “gimmick”, needed the support of at least nine members in order to pass.

Grandfather Frost - the Russian equivalent of Father Christmas and his granddaughter joined Kyrgyzstan’s new year parade in Bishkek

AirAsia QZ8501: First bodies returned to airport

T

HE first two bodies from the AirAsia Flight QZ8501 crash have arrived back in the Indonesian city of Surabaya, where relatives are waiting.

Meanwhile, next of kin has been asked for DNA samples to help identify the victims.

The Airbus A320-200, carrying 162 people from Surabaya to Singapore, disappeared on Sunday and remains were located in the sea on Tuesday.

The authorities say seven bodies have been retrieved, but bad weather is hampering further salvage efforts.

A public memorial will be held in Surabaya on Wednesday evening local time, and the governor of East Java province has told the BBC that all New Year’s Eve celebrations have been cancelled.

On board the plane were 137 adult passengers, 17 children and one infant, along with two pilots and five crew.

It is not yet clear what happened to the plane but its last communication was a request from air traffic control to climb to avoid bad weather. The pilot did not respond when given permission.

A three-day search cul-

minated on Tuesday with the discovery of remains including aircraft parts, luggage and the bodies in the Karimata Strait, southwest of the town of Pangkalan Bun in the Indonesian part of Borneo.

AirAsia CEO, Tony Fernandes said it had now been narrowed, with all assets involved in the search being moved to two areas where the aircraft could be.

The bodies were flown to Surabaya’s Juanda airport on Wednesday afternoon from a hospital in Pangkalan Bun, where they had been sent from the crash site.

USSIAN President Vladimir Putin said in a tele vised New Year ’s address yesterday that the “return home” of Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula to Moscow’s control would forever remain an important chapter in Russia’s history.

Putin is facing the biggest challenge of his 15year rule as the Russian economy is sliding sharply into recession, hurt by Western sanctions over the Ukraine crisis and falling prices for oil, Russia’s chief export.

His comments are likely to strike a chord in a country where many people have always viewed Crimea as part of their homeland because of centuries of shared history and the region’s mainly ethnic Russian population.

Iran says new U.S. sanctions violate spirit of nuclear talks

I

RAN criticized the latest U.S. sanctions on nine targets who Washington says have helped Tehran avoid existing sanctions or commit human rights abuses, saying they contravened the spirit of international talks on Iran’s nuclear program.

The new targets include five individuals and one entity suspected of assisting the Iranian government to buy or acquire U.S. currency, and two companies linked to human rights violations.

Iran said the U.S. move contradicted the spirit of the nuclear talks between Iran and the six powers known as “P5+1” - the United States, France, Germany, Russia, China and Britain.

Greece dissolves parliament for January vote

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REECE’s parliament has been dissolved ahead of an early election that will be watched by markets and international creditors concerned that the austerity-weary country could start unwinding unpopular fiscal reforms.

It was parliament’s failure to choose a new president in three successive votes this month that triggered the snap poll.

As its first order of business, the new chamber must elect a successor to 85-year-old Karolos Papoulias, whose five-year term ends in March.

Pussy Riot member among protesters arrested in Moscow

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Relatives of victims have been regularly praying in the Surabaya crisis centre

ORE than a dozen protesters, including a member of punk rock group Pussy Riot, have been arrested in central Moscow.

Maria Alyokhina was among those detained after demonstrating all night against the conviction of prominent opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

More than 200 others were arrested at the rally on Tuesday.

Navalny tried to join the protests but was detained.

He was convicted of fraud hours earlier in a case he says is politically motivated.

VANGUARD, THURSDAY, JANUARY 1, 2014 — 51

AFRICAN NEWS

Ebola-hit UK nurse treated with survivor’s plasma, trial drug A

British nurse who contracted Ebola in west Africa is being treated with the blood plasma of someone who survived the virus and an experimental anti-viral drug, the doctor supervising her care said yesterday.

Pauline Cafferkey, who had been volunteering at a British-built treatment centre in Sierra Leone, is being treated at the Royal Free hospital in London, which has the only isolation ward in Britain equipped for Ebola sufferers.

Doctor Michael Jacobs said she was sitting up, reading and talking to medics from inside her isolation tent but warned that the Ebola virus was unpredictable and that her health could get worse.

“We’ve decided to treat her with two things, the first of which is convalescent plasma,” Jacobs told reporters.

“The second thing that we’ve given her is an experimental antiviral drug.”

The plasma was taken from the blood of a patient successfully treated in Europe and chosen from a shared European stockpile as the most appropriate for Cafferkey.

The antibodies it contains should help her fight the virus, Jacobs explained.

The experimental drug is not ZMapp, the drug used to treat fellow British volunteer nurse William Pooley, who recovered from Ebola, because “there is none in the world at the moment”, Jacobs said.

Infectious Diseases Consultant Michael Jacobs said; “There is no specific treatment for Ebola that has been proven to work,” he emphasised.

Cafferkey is the first person to test positive for

Ebola in Britain and the second to be treated for the virus in the country after Pooley, who has since returned to Sierra Leone.

Cafferkey expressed concern about her temperature to airport

T

was cleared to take a connecting flight home to Glasgow.

She was eventually diagnosed with Ebola on Monday and flown from a Glasgow hospital to London on a military plane.

“Ebola runs a very variable course and the next few days are going to be very critical,” Jacobs said.

23 killed in Yemen suicide bombing

A

A healthcare worker diagnosed with Ebola after returning from Sierra Leone is wheeled in a quarantine tent trolley into a Hercules Transport plane at Glasgow International Airport on December 30, 2014

Gambia president returns home after coup plot

T

HE Gambia’s President Yahya Jammeh has returned to the country after a reported coup attempt, sources say.

Heavy gunfire was heard near the presidential palace in Banjul on Tuesday but officials say the military takeover was thwarted.

Details remain sketchy an official told the BBC that everything had now returned to normal.

Mr Jammeh seized

power in the tiny West African nation in 1994, and is accused of not tolerating any opposition.

Journalist Omar Wally told the BBC’s Focus on Africa programme that businesses had reopened, after closing on Tuesday.

He said military checkpoints had been set up at the Denton Bridge which links the island capital to the mainland and cars were being searched.

S/African church to evict hundreds of refugees dormitory.

HE New Year brings an uncertain future for more than 500 people who are being evicted from the Central Methodist Church in downtown Johannesburg, which has been a haven for refugees and homeless for the past 14 years.

Messages of thanks and praise are scrawled onto the church’s walls, tributes to Bishop Paul Verryn who opened the house of worship to the needy.

In one of

officials when she returned to London from Sierra Leone via Casablanca in Morocco on Sunday.

Her temperature was taken at London Heathrow Airport but did not raise alarms and she

Johannesburg’s grittiest blocks, the Methodist church offered shelter to those who fled neighboring Zimbabwe and other troubled African countries, as well as South Africa’s own homeless.

Verryn believes the church has the responsibility to be more than a place of worship and to help those new to the city integrate into an unforgiving urban environment.

Verryn’s policy was controversial as the church became a teeming

“As many problems as there are, there are just as many of the most incredible people with the most spectacular potential,” says Verryn of those who pass through the church’s front door every day. “It is an exposure into a different way of being church.”

In 2000, the church began to take in a few dozen people who were too vulnerable to live on the street and soon attracted undocumented migrants, especially from Burundi, Rwanda and Zimbabwe.

•President Yahya Jammeh

suicide bomber killed at least 23 people in central Yemen yesterday when he blew himself up at a cultural center where students were celebrating the Prophet Mohammad’s birthday, state news agency Saba said.

At least 48 people were also injured, including many women and children and women, the deputy director of the provincial health department said, according to Saba. The celebration, in the city of Ibb, was organized by the Houthis, the group that controls most of Yemen.

No one claimed responsibility for the attack, but it resembles bombings carried out by al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), which operates in Yemen. AQAP regards Shi’ites, the sect of Islam to which the Houthis belong, as heretics.

Tensions have increased in Yemen since the Houthis captured Sanaa in September and expanded south and west of the capital. The Western-allied country, which shares a long border with the world’s top oil exporter, Saudi Arabia, had been trying to overcome an al Qaeda threat before the Houthi advance.

Many killed in Burundi-DRC border clashes

A

T least 22 people have been killed in clashes between Burundi’s army and members of an unidentified rebel group near the Democratic Republic of Congo border, sources have said.

“The security forces are still combing the area where there was fighting and the valleys where the members of this armed group are hiding,” a top Burundian army official told AFP yesterday, the day

after the rebel group launched the attack on the central African nation.

Burundian officials and witnesses said the group of around 200 rebels crossed into Cibitoke province north of the capital Bujumbura overnight on Monday.

The rebels crossed into the country from Democratic Republic of Congo’s eastern Kivu region, an unstable and resource-rich area that is

home to dozens of rebel groups.

Security forces then fought to prevent the group from reaching the Kibira forest, an area used in the past by rebel groups as a base to stage further attacks inside Burundi.

Previous attacks in Burundi’s border region have been claimed by a splinter faction of the National Liberation Forces (FNL), whose full name is Party for the Liberation of the Hutu People.

52 — Vanguard, THURSDAY, JANUARY 1, 2015

Vanguard, THURSDAY THURSDAY,, JANUARY 1, 2015—53

P R O LO G U E

Nigeria Kills Ebola

By Ikeddy ISIGUZO, Chairman Editorial Board

E

BOLA was always a distant issue to Nigerians. Discovered in 1976 at Nzara, Sudan, and Yambuku, Democratic Republic of Congo, now Zaire, it was named after Ebola River, in order not to stigmatise Yambuku which is 100 kilometres from the river. Outbreaks of the highly fatal Ebola have been around Zaire, Gabon, Uganda, Congo, South Africa, Sudan and Cote d’Ivoire. None of the outbreaks rang the bell of March 2014 when Guinea had what the World Health Organisation called, “the largest and most complex Ebola outbreak since the Ebola virus was first discovered in 1976.” More deaths than all other outbreaks combined, more spread across countries (Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Nigeria, Senegal, United States of America, and Spain) has been witnessed since the Guinea Ebola. Almost 8,000 have died since, with almost all social activities (football games and elections inclusive) stopped in the highly infected countries, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

Ebola is deadly. Without a cure or a vaccine, it shares the same symptoms with malaria which is common in West Africa, yet it is worse than malaria. Contact with the infected, or anything that the infected person has used, including bedding and clothing, results in more infection. Transmissions are through blood, sweat, semen and breast milk. Health-care workers are frequently infected while treating patients with suspected or confirmed Ebola Virus Disease.

Mourners with direct contact with the body of the deceased person can transmit Ebola. It is that deadly.

C M Y K

When the Liberian-American Patrick Sawyer arrived Lagos on July 8, he was infected, he was dying. Many factors aided the discovery that he bore Ebola. Before then, the lethal spread had begun. Those who received him at the airport, a very African offering to anyone in trouble, the medical crew at First Consultants, where he was treated, were infected. In all, eight died in the Nigeria infection that got as far as Port Harcourt.

The vigilance of the medical staff at First Consultants, particularly Dr. Stella Adadevoh, who physically restrained Sawyer, helped in containing the spread. First Consultant also had the facilities to detect Ebola.

Expensive equipment Ebola practically ruined the hospital. Its expensive equipment had to be stripped, destroyed, to contain the spread. Its clientele fled.

Normalcy is returning, and the Lagos State Government, which set up a camp and tracked those who could have been infected, as was the case in Rivers State, recently compensated First Consultants. Over 1,000 persons, with direct or indirect contact with Sawyer, were tracked and confined. The States and the Federal Government abandoned raging political differences to tackle Ebola.

What could have happened if Sawyer entered Nigeria through the land borders?

Suppose he was taken to a hospital without appropriate facilities? Or where the staff were not knowledgeable about Ebola?

The consequences can only be imagined.

Nigerians are out-going. We like our hugs, among other body contacts, which are impossible with over 167 million on the move.

Common use of facilities is a way of life. How

can someone suggest that we restrain our mourning at burials by not touching the corpse, if tradition demanded that we do so? How were we to know that a sick relation had Ebola and should therefore await medical expertise?

The exuberances at our social outings were to be curbed. The use of hand washers became the rule and body contacts were minimised, these were unNigerian. Nigeria’s medical excellence, in this instance, built on commitment, sacrifice and knowledge stunned the world. Nigeria not only halted Ebola on its strides, but had an expertise that it is lending to other infected countries. This has been barely acknowledged by those who are eager to report bad news about Nigeria.

Vanguard Editors chose Nigeria’s management of Ebola as Personality of The Year, in tribute to those who sacrificed their lives to contain the Ebola outbreak and in celebration of the Nigerian spirit of excellence.

Our Issue Of The Year is the Chibok girls who were abducted in April. We hope they would be freed this year. Tony Elumelu is our Business Personality Of The Year for his commitment to new development to improve businesses across Africa, especially his concept of African capitalism and entrepreneurship.

Nigeria is closing in on its 16th year of democratic governments, which is unprecedented in our history. Our Editors chose three departing Governors for the Democratic Governance Awards. They are Godswill Akpabio (Akwa Ibom), Sule Lamido (Jigawa) and Babatunde Raji Fashola (Lagos).

Welcome to 2015 with all the possibilities it holds for a greater Nigeria, which you can help in attaining, by the choices you make in the elections that are six weeks away. Hopefully, you would make choices that would place the interests of Nigerians first, in a year of anticipated economic challenges.

Welcome to 2015 with all the possibilities it holds for a greater Nigeria, which you can help in attaining, by the choices you make in the elections that are six weeks away

54—Vanguard, THURSDAY THURSDAY,, JANUARY 1, 2015

By Adekunle Adekoya, General Editor CITY dwellers will probably find it easy to judge the governor; all they need do is compare the state of their area when the governor came in, and now. For those in the non-pressure parts of Lagos State, like Epe, Badagry, Agbowa-Ikosi, Ikorodu, and other outliers, they would be right in singing the praises of the governor, yet, others like Mowo, Agbara, Ajangbadi, Ikoga and others might not have much to sing about. However, development is not about roads alone; which states have been building since the Roman Empire.

Governor Fashola wormed his way into the hearts of Lagosians at just one bus-stop: Oshodi. Prior to 2007, Oshodi was chaos personified; a spot in the heart of the city where traffic never moved; where traders displayed their wares on one full lane of the road (both sides), it was also the headquarters of all kinds of undesirable characters in society, from pick-pockets to daylight thieves, dare-devil robbers and killers for hire.

For people born in Lagos who know Oshodi, and migrants/settlers, the transformation of Oshodi definitely counted for an achievement.

For most Lagosians, any governor who ensured that traffic moved in Lagos would be their champion, even if he did not do any other thing, just like most Nigerians would celebrate the president that gives them uninterrupted electricity, so, getting the city to work by ensuring that traffic moves had underpinned the achievements of the Lagos State Government under Babatunde Fashola.

His major achievement is in raising revenue from taxation. From a mere N600 million monthly in 1999 to approximately N20.5 billion in 2013, the Lagos State Government, particularly under Fashola has changed the game around internally generated revenue, IGR, thereby making the state less dependent on federallyallocated revenue. In September, the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, released its data on internally generated revenue, IGR, of 14 States in 2013. From the data, Lagos State was miles ahead of others. Of the N590.60 billion generated by the 14 states, Lagos alone accounted for N384.26 billion or 65 per cent.

Security is a major challenge in Lagos. Though it remains, Governor Fashola conceived the idea of a security trust fund for the state and by September 2007, barely four months in office, the trust fund was established by a Law of the Lagos State House of Assembly. The idea of establishing the fund which would be modeled with funds from the Security Trust Fund on a public/private arrangement became and corporate organisations, and imperative when the Governor received the somehow, the Police, hitherto scarce, were report of the high powered Security Committee everywhere on patrol. There just remains he established under the chairmanship of Alhaji a snag — and a big one — many large Musiliu Smith, former Inspector General of areas of the metropolis still do not have Police. motorable roads and when the citizens Almost overnight, brand new patrol vehicles send distress calls to the police, they became common sight, donated to the Police never could get there on time while the

Babatunde Raji Fashola: Loud Ovation In Most Places

hoodlums escaped on motorcycles which are able to speed on the bad roads.

The list of achievements is long; so also is the waiting list. A private-public sector arrangement, financed by a bank, sees refrigerated vans transport meat from the abattoirs and slaughter

Sule Lamido: Creator Of The New Jigawa

By Ochereome Nnanna

I

N 2006, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Dr Charles Soludo, gave a lecture in Kaduna in which he disclosed that poverty was “a Northern phenomenon”. He also said that Jigawa State was the poorest state in the North, and by extension the poorest in Nigeria.

This created mixed feelings among politicians and intellectuals in the North.

Since Soludo was merely reiterating a glaring truth which had been repeatedly depicted in the facts published by the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics (NBS), some of them took the sobering disclosure as a challenge. While the Governor of Jigawa then, Alhaji Saminu Turaki, who was about to complete his eight-year tenure was incensed, the gubernatorial candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) Alhaji Sule Lamido, described the ranking of his state as “embarrassing”, and vowed to change the situation if elected.

Unlike many occupants of the office of state governors, who never underwent proper grooming, a major advantage Lamido enjoys is the benefit of experience and vision. He knew exactly what he intended to do and how to go about it. As a media savvy politician, Lamido involved his wide network of media contacts from day one to help keep a tab on his performance.

It was possible to establish that the rating of Jigawa State as the poorest in C M Y K

the country was actually an understatement. Dutse, the state capital, had only one tarred road running through it, and the regime of former Governor Saminu Turaki had merely put a median on a narrow existing road.

The only visible structure in Dutse was

the Information and Communication Technology Tower, which Lamido later named after Turaki.

Ministries and parastatals were scattered all over the State. Schools were more like poultry sheds. There was a particular case of the College of Arts and Islamic Studies in Hadejia which had its roof blown off, and boarding students huddled under trees when it rained. The school compound was flooded during the rainy season and bullfrogs made conversation among humans nearly impossible with their noise.

Most teachers in primary and secondary schools could not communicate in English, let alone teach in the official language. It was difficult to imagine how Lamido and his new team would start.

With five months left of his two-term tenure as governor of Jigawa State, Sule Lamido has successfully and effectively exited his State from the bracket of the nation’s poorest States. In fact, Jigawa State has joined the front row of States that have virtually conquered infrastructural deficit, particularly in the areas of roads.

Jigawa is one of the few States where you can travel without encountering potholes, except on the few remaining federal roads that are yet to be reconstructed by the Lamido administration.

Dutse, a small city, today is a sight to behold, in terms of its beauty, even at night. It does not have a single street that is untarred. Each of the 27 local

Vanguard, THURSDAY THURSDAY,, JANUARY 1, 2015—55

slabs to markets, a vast departure from past unhealthy practices.

While the issue of open defecation and urination remains untamed by the Fashola government, an initiative launched in 2011 failed woefully when a directive to owners of petrol stations in the state to build toilets for public use went largely ignored.

In Nigeria, Governor Fashola’s biggest public health achievement is on Ebola, but on the global stage, it is what has earned him plaudits. How Ebola got to Nigeria through a Liberian, Patrick Sawyer, and how a brave physician, late Dr Stella Adadevoh identified Sawyer’s illness are rapidly becoming history.

It is on record that the robust, effective and all-encompassing containment efforts by the Fashola administration probably saved the whole world the spectacle of the worst epidemic it might have seen. There had been palpable fears that Ebola, which has already claimed more than 5,000 lives Liberia, Sierra Leone and other west coast countries, would assume epidemic proportions with catastrophic consequences should it spread to Lagos. Despite a doctors’ strike, Fashola’s Lagos quarantined nearly 1,000 people feared to have been infected since Patrick Sawyer came into the country. It was no mean feat, especially when the World Health Organisation announced that since Nigeria had had no new cases for six weeks, it was now officially rid of the virus. It is instructive to note that even after being declared Ebolafree, the anti-Ebola campaign is still on in Lagos.

While the governor deserves an inspiring pass grade, perhaps an A, especially if you live on Lagos Island, Victoria Island, Ikoyi, Apapa, Ikeja, Surulere, and other like areas, the governor is a woeful failure if the assessors live in Ejigbo, Egbe, Ijegun, Ijagemo, Ijeododo, Aboru, and Egan, all in Alimosho Local Government.

The residents of these areas wonder what their offence is. An area that deserves more attention is the environment. Quite a lot has been achieved, especially with the proactive initiatives of the Environment Ministry in terms of garbage collection and disposal, but a huge window remains in the area of industrial pollution, septic tank evacuation disposal, indiscriminate fires, open hearth cooking anywhere, and of course open defecation and urination. There indeed remains a lot to be done, including maintenance of law and order, but it now seems the task is that of Fashola’s successor.

For him, the ovation is loud.

government headquarters has been developed with a uniform model. Each has a modern secretariat and suitably appointed accommodation to encourage officials to reside in their domains rather than come in from Kano to share local government allocations and go back, which used to be the case. Every major street is tarred, with drainage and solarpowered street lights. This has encouraged well-to-do indigenes to start putting up modern houses in their hometowns and to visit home more frequently.

In agriculture, Jigawa is one of the States where the frequent clashes between farmers and herdsmen have been eradicated. This was possible because a law was made to give 30 metres on both sides of major highways as herdsmen’s right of passage. This enables cattle to feed without going into people’s farms. There are solar-powered watering boreholes over the state. On the other hand, farmers have been equipped with ox-drawn carts which enable farmers to till the land with plough and move their products through rural footpaths to the markets.

Lamido has not only fixed the dilapidated schools, he also has systematically upgraded the teaching staff after transferring the untrainable teachers to other areas where they can remain employed. As part of the permanent solution to the problem of poor quality teaching staff and public servants, Lamido set up the Jigawa Academy for Gifted Children, JIGACAD, in Bamaina, his hometown.

Akpabio: Akwa Ibom’s bridge to modernity I

By Emmanuel Aziken, Political Editor

T was an uncommon vision by its leadership that propelled the once laidback state into a physical turnaround that has made its capital city the toast of many Nigerians. Uyo, the capital city of Akwa Ibom State, today, boasts of not just some of the best designed roads in the country, but also, a landscape that was transformed within the shortest possible time.

Akwa Ibom State was once famed for being the biggest depository for subservient houseboys and maids.

The inclination of the large section of its people was for the preservation of the status quo. Not many people thought that the system and structure that had kept the people in primitive comfort should be altered. Then Mr. Godswill Akpabio, elected governor of the State in 2007 shook the psyche of the people.

Unlike contemporaries in some other States, he did not cover up the foundation he met.

The first act was to open up the state to the rest of the world and handy to him were two legacy projects conceived by the preceding administration of which he was part of.

The Uyo Airport was completed in record time and became an entry point for the rest of the world into Akwa Ibom, a development that was helped with the completion of the Le Meriden International Hotel.

Not surprisingly, Nigerian professionals, lawyers, engineers and such who before only came to Akwa Ibom in search of houseboys were now happily visiting for conferences and holidays.

The Akpabio administration’s success in transformation of the road network is underpinned by the fact that most of the headquarters of the 31 local government areas in the state are connected by state of the art roads. All major roads into Uyo, the state capital, have been reconstructed into dual carriage ways.

Dwellers of Uyo who had before Akpabio never seen a flyover bridge have seen the emergence of three overhead bridges that have recast the image of the city. At least 320 asphalted roads spanning 1,300 kilometers have been constructed in the state. State officials who take pride in the sophistication of the road network in the state tell you that within minutes of any major rainfall in Uyo, that the streets are completely drained of the rains on account of the drainage system. Indeed, all the new roads constructed in the state capital come with covered drains linked to a N13.8 billion flood and erosion control scheme.

Governor Akpabio’s uncommon

touch which has been well pronounced in the road network has lately been appreciated also in sports. The opening of the Uyo Stadium brought further admiration for the governor. The stadium which unarguably has the best aesthetics in the country marries the beauty of the South African National Stadium with the elegance and firmness of Allianz Arena, the base of Germany’s Bayern Munich FC. Three Presidents - Goodluck Jonathan, John Mahama of Ghana and Alassane Quattara of Ivory Coast – were at the 17 November commissioning of the facility.

Obong Akpabio’s power of vision is undoubtedly driven by a determination to relocate his people from the backwaters into the ease and sophistication of modern life.

His drive for the modern life has sometimes been faulted by critics as a misplaced priority, but the man is unwavering in his drive.

Such critics point to the Ibom Tropicana Entertainment Center one of the legacy projects of the governor as an example of his desperation to forcefully force an opulent lifestyle on his citizens. The Ibom Tropicana

Entertainment Centre, a leisure and business resort, is conceived in the image of the famous Disneyland in Orlando, Florida, USA. It has a shopping mall with 59 standard shops, banks, a convention centre, a five-star hotel, a theme park with wet and dry rides and sits on a land space of 82 hectares. When in full operation, the center is expected to provide job opportunities to thousands of people.

The pursuit of infrastructure development has remarkably not deterred the administration of Governor Akpabio in the last seven years from the provision of social welfare schemes including free education and free health services to the populace. It has also not distracted him from playing a leading role in the politics of the country.

When his party, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP seemed to lose bearing in coordinating its governors, Akpabio stepped into position as Chairman of the PDP Governors Forum, giving coherence to the party’s governors.

Like him or hate him, Obong Akpabio has redesigned the physical landscape of his state in a way that anyone who passes through the state would bear notice of his imprint.

C M Y K

56—Vanguard, THURSDAY THURSDAY,, JANUARY 1, 2015

Vanguard Business Personality Of The Year

Tony Elumelu

High Priest Of African Capitalism created on a far larger scale, with broader participation than exists today.

Thus value and wealth creation can no FRICA has long been described as a dark longer be a niche business and continent where nothing good is investment practice: they should drive happening apart from savagery and war of attrition. all private sector development in Africa.

This notion has in the past tended to make African The Africapitalism concept which asserts stars to be clouded out of reckoning by others. Today, value creation through a new vocabulary called African capitalism has entrepreneurship is Africa’s entered into the global business unique future. Like capitalism dictionary. It is the idea of an itself, the Vanguard Business African, a Nigerian who is making Personality Of The Year 2014 is waves in the international business urging African businesses to arena, whose voice can no longer view their operations from the be ignored. He believes that perspective of creating economic Africa should take its destiny of value in a way that also creates economic emancipation in its own value for society by addressing hand. As it was in Europe in the needs and challenges.

16th century when some group of Tony O. Elumelu is the voice business men in search of profit crying in the African business developed Europe and America, wilderness for Africans to look this eminent Nigerian also inwards and imbibe the spirit of believes that African businesses knowledge economy to develop can change the face of Africa and Africa. transform it from a poor and needy Elumelu was born on 22 March continent to an industrialised one.

1963. He is a Nigerian economist, The high priest and chief banker, investor, and advocate of this noble idea also philanthropist. Elumelu as of believes that the current trend, Tony today is the Chairman of Heirs where in Africa, the primary Elumelu is the Holdings, a pan-African advocates for investing with social impact – that is the creation of voice crying in proprietary investment company with interests in strategic sectors value, jobs, and wealth, are of Africa’s economy. He is the philanthropic agencies and NGOs the Africa founder of the Tony Elumelu can be replaced by African business an Africa-based and businesses taking the lead in wilderness for Foundation, African-funded not-for-profit development. He has set up organisation (NPO) that is Africans to institutions to instill dedicated to the promotion and entrepreneurial values in African look inwards celebration of excellence in youths to make them stand out as and imbibe the business leadership and employers of labour instead of entrepreneurship across Africa. ending up in paid white collar spirit of Elumelu holds the Nigerian jobs. knowledge national honour, the Commander He believes that for Africa to of the Order of Nigeria, CON. successfully achieve optimistic economy to New African magazine recently growth targets, particularly in the develop Africa listed him as one of the 100 most consumer sector, wealth must be

By Gabriel Omoh, Business Editor

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C M Y K

influential people in Africa.

He has a Bachelor’s degree from Ambrose Alli University and a Master of Science degree, also in Economics, from the University of Lagos. He is an alumnus of Harvard Business School’s Advanced Management Programme.

In his early career, Elumelu made a name for himself when he acquired and turned Standard Trust Bank into a top-five player in Nigeria. In 2005, his corporate reputation as an African Business Leader was sealed when he led the largest merger in the banking sector in Sub-Saharan Africa to acquire United Bank for Africa, UBA. In five years he transformed it from a singlecountry bank, to a pan-African institution with over 7 million customers in 19 African countries.

Following his retirement from UBA in 2010, Elumelu founded Heirs Holdings, which invests in the financial services, energy, real estate and hospitality, agribusiness, and healthcare sectors; all of which help to create economic prosperity and social wealth across the continent. In the same year, he established the Tony Elumelu Foundation, an African-based and African-funded, philanthropic organisation dedicated to the promotion of excellence in business leadership and entrepreneurship, to enhance the competitiveness of the private sector across Africa.

In 2011, Heirs Holdings acquired a controlling interest in the Transnational Corporation of Nigeria Plc , Transcorp, a publicly quoted conglomerate that has business interests in the agribusiness, energy, and hospitality sectors. Elumelu was subsequently appointed Chairman of the Corporation.

World Economic Forum’s member He serves as an Adviser to the USAID’s Private Capital Group for Africa, PCGA, Partners Forum. He sits on the Nigerian President’s Agricultural Transformation Implementation Council, ATIC. He is also vice-chairman and a key driver in the formation of the National Competitiveness Council of Nigeria, NCCN, and serves as Co-Chair of the Aspen Institute Dialogue Series on Global Food Security. He additionally chairs the Ministerial Committee to establish world-class hospitals and diagnostic centres across Nigeria, at the invitation of the Federal Government.

He was a member of the World Economic Forum’s Regional Agenda Council on Africa. His presence on the Bretton Woods Committee, which brings together senior leaders in the global banking industry, is recognition of his work on African development.

He is a Fellow of the Nigeria Leadership Initiative, NLI. He insists that Africapitalism is not capitalism with an African twist; it is a rallying cry for empowering the private sector to drive Africa’s economic and social growth.

Elumelu subscribes to Michael Porter’s concept of Creating Shared Value (CSV). He studied under Professor Porter at Harvard Business School and Professor Porter is the Founding Patron of The Tony Elumelu Foundation.

Recognition In 2013, Mr. Elumelu received the Leadership Award in Business and Philanthropy from the Africa-America Institute, AAI, Awards. He was also named African Business Icon at the 2013 African Business Awards.

Vanguard, THURSDAY THURSDAY,, JANUARY 1, 2015—57

By Ochereome Nnanna

O

N the night of 14 April 2014, the insurgents capitalised on security laxity in Government Secondary School, Chibok, in the southern end of Borno State, and swept away 276 girls.

The girls were reportedly staying back to write their final school certificate exams. Though the West African Examination Council, WAEC, had expressed misgivings about the safety of the candidates, the Borno State Government assured WAEC that there would be adequate security, as Chibok was not one of the areas in the State considered “unsafe”.

The circumstances under which the wholesale abduction took place created a lot of furore worldwide, sparking allegations in certain quarters that it must have been a carefully organised conspiracy, since there was only one unarmed security personnel on duty that night at the school premises.

The boarding school was in darkness, and the children of the teachers and senior officials of the school managed to be absent when the abductors came.

Certainly, it was one of the signs of the failure of leadership and governance at all levels. Intense recriminations across the political divides followed the incident.

ISSUE OF THE YEAR

Chibok girls:

the bone in Nigeria’s throat

Political divides A reasonable number of the kidnapped girls escaped, leaving a total of 219 still in captivity. The Chibok girls’ abduction ignited a global outrage and thus was born the hashtag campaign: #Bring Back Our Girls (#BBOG) along with other platforms, which within a matter of weeks, generated millions of signatures calling for the intensification of efforts to rescue the girls. Friendly foreign countries pledged a variety of supports for the rescue effort and the war on terror, though most of them turned out to be mere lip services. Predictably, media houses in Nigeria commenced daily countdowns to keep efforts towards the rescue effort in focus. A former Minister of Education, Dr Oby Ezekwesili, led a local chapter of the #BBOG in Abuja. It made several futile efforts to storm the Presidential Villa and confront President Goodluck Jonathan personally.

An overwhelmed President Jonathan, on 5 May, pledged, “Wherever these girls are, we will get them out soon”. But that undertaking has petered into a philosophical handover of the matter to fate. In his recent media rounds, the Senior Special Adviser to the President on Public Affairs, Dr Doyin Okupe, said there was now no time limit if the girls are to be brought back alive, since any attempt to storm a rescue could lead to their being killed by the terrorists as we witness with similar attempts around the globe even by

America.

The kidnap of the Chibok girls was a great strategic masterstroke for the insurgents. It gave their demonic campaign a massive boost. With confusion and recriminations reigning supreme, and great political capital being made of the issue by the two main political parties, the insurgents saw that the abduction tied the hands of the Federal Government.

They leveraged the apparent weakness of government and leapt out of Sambisa Forest, where they had been pinned during the period Lt-Gen Azubuike Ihejirika was the Chief of Army Staff.

Ceasefire with insurgents They started seizing towns and villages, some of which included Bagga, Bama, Gwoza, Chibok and Konduga in Borno State, and later swept south into Adamawa to capture Michika, Madagalli, Hong and Mubi, including Vimtim, home town of Air Marshall Alex Badeh, the Chief of Defence Staff.

Nigerians were shocked when, on 17 October, a presidential adviser, Hassan Tukur, and later CDS Badeh himself, announced a ceasefire with the insurgents, saying they had agreed to release the girls based on certain terms and conditions. It turned out to be a humiliating hoax.

The insurgents seized that opportunity to make massive territorial gains. By now, with about 700,000 internally displaced persons languishing in refugee camps, about 15,000 people lost to the insurgency and unquantifiable loss of schools, churches and mosques, it dawned at last on some that Nigeria was faced

with a genuine challenge to her territorial integrity. The insurgents were no longer a ragtag local outlaw, and curtailing them required more than mere police action. It had graduated into a multinational Islamist force, just like its peers in the Maghreb, Somalia, Iraq/Syria, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Mali.

The gallantry of our soldiers and the might of the Federal Republic of Nigeria are gathering momentum. Today, most of these territories have been recaptured; the command and control as well as many camps of the terrorists appear to have been smashed. For quite some time now, no further news of territorial gains by the insurgent has been reported, though they appear to have switched again to the use of suicide bombers, deploying women in hijab to hit crowded places in Kano, Maiduguri, Azare, Damaturu and Jos. There have also been a rash of jailbreaks in Minna, Ado Ekiti and Koton Karfe, and the insurgents are suspected to have staged them to free their captured mates.

The kidnap of the Chibok girls was a major coup for the terrorists.

It helped them to go further than merely hiding up in Sambisa Forest and harassing rural hamlets. It was a major definer of the war on terror in Nigeria in 2014. It has changed the lives of the abducted girls forever and ground the emotions of their families to the dust. No one knows what will eventually become of the girls and when their ordeals will come to an end.

There have also been a rash of jailbreaks in Minna, Ado Ekiti and Koton Karfe, and the insurgents are suspected to have staged them to free their captured mates C M Y K

58 — Vanguard, THURSDAY, JANUARY 1, 2015

environment. This current production of the musical filters all this into a medley of trials, misfortunes and love, presenting them in 14 acts. It retains much of the flavours of the first outing, as it regales the audience with Nigeria’s rich musical history through beautiful renditions of the good-old-days hits and original compositions. This aural treat is well complemented with first-rate choreographed dances.

Breathtaking entertainment

•A scene from the musical dance drama, Saro 2 The Musical at the Shell hall, Muson Centre, Onikan, Lagos

Saro 2 The Musical brings back Lagos theatre life

By Japhet Alakam

T

HE 2014 Christmas season might have come and gone , but one of the major high points of the season in Lagos was the return of The Biggest Broadway Theatre, Saro 2 The Musical to the theatre circuit. The highly acclaimed musical dance drama made a dramatic return after its hugely successful first outing last year and for 5 days the Shell Hall of MUSON Centre in Lagos was the centre of attraction as people from all walks of life who are passionate about theatre, defied the city ’s forbidding traffic and trooped out in their large numbers to see for themselves, according to Bolanle Austin-Peters, the brain behind the production, the newimproved form of the ‘Saro 2, The Musical ’.

This year’s show which was proudly sponsored by Access Bank PLC delivered an even bigger showcase of dazzling performances in lovely and colorful costumes, enigmatic and well-choreographed dance steps, and an exquisite fusion of jazz, afro-beat, hip-hop, highlife, juju, apala, and such other contemporary Nigerian music genres.

Starring a highly talented cast made up of last year’s muchlauded performers as well as an infusion of exciting new actors, songs, dance, and drama scenes, Saro 2 was a mind-blowing reincarnation, as the show greatly improved upon its 2013 version.

For Lagosians who are always busy and in a hurry and had no time to relax, the play afforded

them the desired opportunity to relax with their families and they did not miss it as they followed it for the 5 days it lasted. The venue was some how colonized for the six days by the organisers and each day people trooped out enmasse to witness the big show.

And as the first show was rounding up, viewers who had already purchased their tickets for the second one will be outside waiting for the first to end. It was a classic encounter with the best of dance drama and as expected, it was a titillating experience and the audience responded with the thunderous applause and rapturous praise as the 100-man cast dazzled and awed them

It was indeed a breathtaking entertainment at its best and a clarion call for all to rise up and support the move for the revival of theatre life in Lagos and Nigeria

with an impressive repertoire of captivating original music, beautifully reimagined covers breathtaking dance routines, as well as the colorful, flamboyant costumes.

From the very first day it opened where the presidential aspirant of All Progressives Congress, APC General Muhammadu Buhari and other APC bigwigs took time out to watch it till the last day, it was an absolute delight from the start to the end as the big musical unfolded on stage

with deft interpretation of the journey of four young men to the city in pursuit of their dreams.

Like in the first edition, the story line has not changed, it is, meanwhile, the same familiar tale of a quest for greener pastures, which eggs on four young men to migrate to Lagos.

This quartet is armed with not more than their hopes and dreams. Their journey of selfrealisation sucks them into a vortex of strengthening experiences for their new

The Shell hall venue of the show was well designed, and with the colourful and expressive costumes, elaborate light and sound input, plus the actors, dancers, musicians, stunts-men showed that the scale and quality of vision of the producers of the show was indeed remarkable.

It was indeed a breathtaking entertainment at its best and a clarion call for all to rise up and support the move for the revival of theatre life in Lagos and Nigeria. Apart from the entertaining aspect of it, one big lesson of the production and its success story is the very fact that whatever Nigerians put their minds on, plan very well, they always come out with the best.

For Austen-Peters, founder and managing director of Terra Kulture, who brought the idea that gave birth to SARO The Musical, the story so far can be seen as a success story. This she attributed to her over seven years engagement with theatrical production and promotion through the Theatre@Terra scheme, an initiative that had imbued her organisation with the capacity and boldness to envision a grand theatrical package of the musical magnitude.

Homebound: for the love of country F

OR most Nigerians in Diaspora coming back home after spending several years in the Whiteman's land usually comes with mixed feelings. The cultural shock of moving back, the traffic, the epileptic power supply makes the decision very difficult. In spite of these numerous challenges associated with the transition process, every true Nigeria will tell you that there is really no place like home.

Narrating her experience, the author Angel Okwuosa, reveals her experience through the eyes of an eight year-old girl named Ona Chukwu the eldest of three children in the family.

The 77 pages book spread over 12 chapters, published by Xlibris publishing has a subtitles like: A rude Awakening, Welcome to Nigeria, Starting school and domestics, Church,

Friends and family, Common entrance exams, Party time, Holidays, First year of secondary school and the flight, Back to America, The comparisons and The end of the beginning.

Sudden announcement The book which is an easy read with simple narrative language structures that are easily comprehended centres on a family of five how a family relocated from the United States to Nigeria; the sudden announcement, the preparations, the trip back and the experiences living in Nigeria within the first year.

Set in major city in London and Nigeria, the first chapter subtitled: a rude awakening narrates the shock the children

experienced when they were initially informed that they were moving and how they wished it was a nightmare they would wake up from. Unfortunately it was a harsh reality they had to deal with.

First, as a good story teller, Anaecheri introduced the intrigues of surprises at the outset, employing elements of flashback that reveals hers narrative technique as seen in the lives of the major characters. The novel also provides a window into western and Africa culture, comparing their different ways of life.Although the story is fascinating, each chapter in Homebound is almost predictable. Despite what they encountered, their transition challenges, adaptation process not withstanding was understandable.

—59 Vanguard, THURSDAY, JANUARY 1, 2015—59

Former Former UNIBENUNIBEN bursar bursar bags ANA/ bags ANA/Chevron prize Chevron prize By Prisca SAM-DURU Sam-Duru

By PRISCA

F

ORMER Bursar of the University of Benin (UNIBEN), Prof May Ifeoma Nwoye, last week, emerged one of the winners at the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) national convention held in Ibadan, Oyo State.

Her novel, Oil Cemetery, won her the most coveted ANA/ Chevron Prose Prize on Environment which is worth $2,000. The prize, which has the highest prize money and sponsored by Chevron, is used to reward works that address themes on environment.

The laureate, Prof Nwoye is one of the progressive female creative writers in the country whose works have won and received diverse nominations – in 2004, she was one of the nominees for the NLNG prize for Literature.

Nwoye’s winning entry highlights how people in the Niger Delta region cope with the environmental degradation that has complemented the unearthing of oil wealth in their communities.

Published in 2013 by

Strategic Book Publishing and Rights Agency, Houston Texas, United States, the story is woven around a young girl, Rita and her family.

Interestingly, it is the young girl Rita who leads a subtle revolution that would later shock her entire community.

Winning the prize, she said, is a major boost in her writing career. “I feel good that my work was appreciated. As you know, I feel very concerned about the condition of the voiceless people, their feelings and expectations. Human beings are the raw materials with which and about whom I write. so by

Prof Nwoye is one of the progressive female writers in the country whose works have won and received diverse nominations

•Prof. Femi Osofisan, Prof. Nwoye and Prof. Remi Raji winning this award,I feel as if I am being listened to. For all these, I thank God for his kindness to me.”

Beyond being an academic and administrator, Prof Nwoye is an advocate that is passionate about children, women, environment and family values. She has become a proactive influence in the crusade for women economic emancipation and empowerment. She is the President of Intervention

Council for Women in Africa, a non-profit organisation, and a member of Board of Trustee of the Centre for Population and Environmental Development (CPED).

Her passion is seen in her literary works that span two decades. Since her first novel, Endless Search (1994), Prof Nwoye has brought forth an impressive collection of 11 novels and short stories. That includes Tides Of Life (a

Ecstatic documentation of reality in Debayo’s A Man Like Me

By Olutayo Irantiola

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HERE comes a time in the life of a young man when he ascertains his manliness when he gives birth to a child after marriage. As Africans, a man is extremely proud when he has a son. This led to the foray of ‘Debayo’s writing as a father to his son.

The 153 page-book is about an expectant father who went on an “adrenaline flight”. His desire was to write a short note on social media pages but the flow culminated into a collection of notes.

Although, ‘Debayo calls it a note, I see it as a letter. Each of the note ends in a sign off.

As he wrote in the book, Debayo’s first son was born in 2014 and he wrote this book in a futuristic manner; this book has all the desires of a father to his son.

There are many instructional advices that are essential for living which include continuity of family traditions. ‘Debayo wants his son to teach his children what he has been taught by previous generations. He states that, “My mother was a very positive influence on me, I wish you had met her but don’t worry I will teach you all

she taught me” page 9.

Unfortunately, his wife too had lost her father but from her account written by ‘Debayo, “my PD could not stop telling the story of how her father would come pick her from school, bare her on his shoulders and talked with her as they walked back to his office… I love that act and since your maternal granddad is no more around to do that for you I will be helping him out” page 12.

Another advice for the son is A Man Like Me ( A noteography of a putting God ahead in all Father To His Son) ; ‘Debayo Coker; things. This he PP.153; 2014 mentioned using Biblical allusion in courage. the book, there were 4 Bible ‘Debayo encouraged his son verses mentioned, the parable to volunteer for the collective of the talents, wealth that degood of the community. This velops wings, story of Joseph, was through his involvement Pharaoh, Saul, in Environmental sanitation Nebchadnezzar, Joshua-like

in their locality which comes up on the last Saturday of the month in some states in Nigeria. This is mentoring by examples.

Respect for everyone is also an advice for his son. Everyone has the trait of getting so full of one another but with such advice, the son has been taught humility. This was illustrated in the story of Aunty Kore and Uncle Charles.

Every child must be taught about responsibility. ‘Debayo made his son know some area that he needs to be responsible: in his dressing, in his academic pursuit, in handling properties, to adults and to humanity.

Parental discipline is crucial in the life of a child. ‘Debayo was able to portray that discipline goes beyond caning a child; he checked his son’s school bag to find an x-rated magazine there. He advised him against taking things from classmates. Similarly, he warned his son against unauthorized borrowing out of books from his study, this will be sanctioned by purchasing the missing books from his pocket money.

Realities of life was shown in the book through wrong exposure, loss of jobs, disaster, sickness, drunkenness, suffering, psychiatric chal-

collection of short stories), 1995; MIRAGE in Breaking the Silence (1996); Edible Pet (1995); Blind Expectations (a collection of Stories, 1997); Death By Installments, 1999; A Child Of Destiny, 2000; Fetters And Choices (2003); Ancient Tales From Africa (The Broken Promise), 2009 and Broken Melodies (an international version of Fetters and Choices, 2014).

lenges, teenage pregnancies, premarital sex, rape of a daughter by her father, gays in boarding schools and stealing of other’s items.

‘Debayo narrated a part of his growing up to his son, which shows the desire of a father that do not want his son to repeat the same mistakes that he committed while he was young. He, thus, laid bare his life before his son and got so close to him. The closeness helped his son to be free to tell his father everything about him. His father was able to detect his interest and helped him to pattern his life towards it.

The chapterization of the book deals with each topic per time, but it would have been expected that the chapters become longer because the young man has matured beyond short notes. It would have been expected that the chapters become longer from the time in which the young man got into Secondary school.

Although ‘Debayo attempted to answer questions that would have been asked by his readers. The responses of the boy to his father’s notes.

“In the meantime, I want to seek your permission to do a compendium of your responses to the notes I have written to you so far.”

60 — Vanguard, THURSDAY, JANUARY 1, 2014

2015: Borno indigenes kick against imposition of Imam as PDP candidate

By Dapo Akinrefon

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EMBERS of Ye r w a - O o d u a socio-economic Society, yesterday kicked against the imposition of Alhaji Mohammed Imam as candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Borno State for the 2015 governorship election.

The group, which is a union of concerned indigenes of Borno State in the South-West said the choice of Imam as the PDP governorship candidate gives worry for the future of the state.

The group, which said it was not affiliated to any political party, accused the former governor of the state, Senator Ali Modu Sheriff for allegedly imposing Imam on the PDP. Addressing newsmen yesterday in Lagos, secretary of the group, Mr Haruna Wamdio said “Our new worry is the future of our state. We know the developments going on in Borno state and we are all full of hope that the problems will one day end if our leaders in the state remain committed as they are now.”

Wamdio noted that the group will support any of the political parties that wins next year’s election adding that “in the event anyone of them wins, Borno will have a good future.”

He said “as we speak, the former governor of Borno state, Senator Modu Sheriff has imposed on the PDP someone that is unfit in any way to be governor of Borno state even in normal times not to talk of the critical time Borno has found itself.”

Northern govs urge Nigerians to pursue peace in 2015

By Wole Mosadomi

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INNA—NORTHERN States Governors Forum (NSGF) has described 2015 as very crucial to Nigeria and has therefore called on everyone to remain more focused on building the culture of peace for the survival of the Nation.

“2015 is a crucial year for Nigeria and irrespective of religious, political or ideological differences people

must support genuine efforts aimed at ensuring that the forthcoming general elections is successful and devoid of needless bickering capable of threatening the nation’s corporate existence,” the Forum stated.

The forum chairman and Governor of Niger state, Dr Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu in a statement signed by his Chief Press Secretary, Israel A. Ebije, enjoined Nigerians to enter the year 2015 with

INAUGURATION: From left: Minister of Water Resources, Mrs Sarah Ochekpe; runing mate to Plateau PDP Governorship candidate, Mr Yilji Gomwalk; the governorship candidate, Sen. Gyang Pwajok and Chairman, PDP Plateau State, Mr Raymond Dabo, at the inauguration of PDP governorship action campaign committee in Jos yesterday.

A

BUJA—CURRENT National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Alhaji Adamu Muazu and his predecessor, Bamanga Tukur, last night pleaded with Nigerians to prove to the world that Nigeria can conduct a peaceful election.

This, the two party leaders claim, would prove to the world that Nigeria had come of age in the conduct of polls like other democracies.

the forthcoming election is devoid of violence. All hands must be on deck. The electoral body and other critical establishments connected to the forthcoming elections must be ready to go extra miles in the execution of their respective assignments. We also expect security agencies to subject their personnel to necessary preelection monitoring trainings and programs”.

According to the statement,”It is indeed instructive for politicians to desist from overheating the polity with inciting comments, hate speech as well as blackmail. We should think of what benefits the entire country than what individuals stand to gain. This is the only country we can call our own. It is our collective responsibility to ensure that things go on well.

The numerous doomsday prophecies bandied around by evil men can be reversed.

Nigerian is sure to survive even this electioneering period”.

The Governors wished Nigerians a prosperous and fruitful 2015 just as they urged all Nigerians to be prayerful, lawabiding to see Nigeria as a collective dream and aspiration that can only be achieved when people work hard and remain committed to core societal ideals.

The Forum predicted that Nigeria is on the verge of attaining greatness beginning from this very year adding that those who think the nation won’t survive the general election will be put to shame at the end.

At last, Ngilari recognises Ribadu as PDP gov candidate

By Soni Daniel, Regional Editor, North

A

FTER many weeks of aversion to his candidacy, Adamawa State Governor, Bala James Ngilari, has finally acknowledged former Economic and Financial Crimes Chairman, Nuhu Ribadu, as the governorship candidate of the Peoples

zPledges to work for his victory Democratic Party in the state.

Besides, the governor has promised to team up with other PDP stakeholders in the North East state to work for the victory of Ribadu in the February 28 governorship poll.

Ngilari, who spoke in Yola on Wednesday while formally

Pray for safe return of Chibok girls, Mu’azu tells Nigerians

By Soni Daniel

renewed hopes, stressing that Nigerians cannot afford to miss out in numerous opportunities that the new year has to offer.

The Forum called on politicians to play politics according to the rules of the game adding that stakeholders must shun acts capable of plunging the entire country into avoidable crisis stressing that the unity and developmental aspirations of Nigeria is sacrosanct.

“We must all make sure that

The admonitions were contained in their New Year messages made available to Vanguard last night in Abuja.

Muazu asked Nigerians to pray for the safe return of the over 200 girls, who were seized from Chibok and for the unity of Nigeria as the country forges ahead with the polls.

The chairman said: “I wish to take the opportunity of this New Year message to urge all Nigerians to pray for peaceful polls in 2015,

enhanced national security and the continued development of our dear country by the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan.

“I also urge Nigerians to pray for the families of our missing school girls and the victims of the various bomb blasts in Nigeria, just as we thank God for the mercies granted us by freeing us from the scourges of Ebola and the positive transformation of our country in various fields.

receiving Ribadu in his office, declared that the contention for the party’s ticket was over and called on party loyalists to rally round its candidates for various posts to ensure victory at the polls.

The governor said there was no need to continue to dissipate energy on the candidature of Ribadu, having been nominated by the people to serve them.

Recalling that it was fate that brought him into office of the governor, Ngilari, said that he had accepted whatever had transpired during the primaries of the PDP in the state as an act of God, and pleaded with those still aggrieved over it, to forget the past and move on.

Ngillari stated that he and Ribadu had come a long way, since the days of the Oputa Panel, and would continue to work together in the new terrain of politics.

The governor said: “I know you personally as an upright person and a man of principle. A lot of people don’t know that we have

a long history. I hereby endorse you and we will work hard for your victory and all other candidates.

Ribadu said he decided to visit the governor on arrival in Yola to give him his due recognition as the leader of the party in the state and as the one who will lead the party to victory in the forthcoming elections.

“We are a family. We are united and we will face a common front for the success of our party. We come to thank the governor for his uncommon support and amazing sacrifice in the larger interest of the party.

“All that we did was in the bid to get Adamawa on the right track and since we have a common goal, we are going to forge ahead as one family under your leadership,” Ribadu said.

It will be recalled that Ngilari, backed by the suspended Chairman of the PDP in the state, Joel Madaki, had opposed Ribadu’s candidacy on the grounds that the primary election in Abuja that produced him was stage-managed by Abuja politicians and was null and void.

Vanguard, THURSDAY, JANUARY 1, 2015—61

Fuel scarcity in Edo worsens

By Gabriel Enogholase

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ENIN—AS the effect of the scarcity of petroleum products bites harder in Edo State, long queues of vehicles and traffic of anxious buyers of the products in jerry cans, have characterized petrol stations in Benin City, Edo State, and its environ.

Vanguard investigations indicated that virtually all the filling stations on the busy Akpakpava Road were closed for business, following scarcity of the products.

However, Con Oil filling station on the road was seen dispensing fuel with only two dispensing pumps to long queues of vehicles, just as anxious buyers with jerry cans clustered round the dispensing pumps.

It was also observed that the few dealers selling the products cashed in on the scarcity to adjust their fuel pumps to between N100 and N110 per litre and consequently, this has raised inter-city fares by over 100

percent.

At Ugbowo axis of the city, where the University of Benin is located, only few filling stations were opened to motorists, as travellers groaned over the abnormal increase in the pump price of the product.

The situation at the Upper

Sakponba Road axis in Benin City was not different as some dealers were more interested in selling the product into jerry cans at higher cost.

Meanwhile, the Chairman, Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, IPMAN, Benin depot, Mr. Douglas Iyike, said there

SHOPPING: Commercial activities at Balogun Market in Lagos on New Year's eve.

Shun divisive politics —IMOKE C

ROSS River State governor, Senator Liyel Imoke, has urged politicians to eschew all forms of bitterness and divisive tendencies and close ranks in order to build a more formidable state that can compete favourably among its peers, in furtherance of his vision of building a harmonious and politically stable state.

Imoke, at a public presentation of a book, The Civil Servant and Public Administration: An Imperative for Good Governance, authored by the state’s Head of Service, Mrs. Mary-Theresa Ikwen, pointed out that ugly trends in the polity such as sectionalism, ethnicity and nepotism, were unnecessary, noting that “today, politicians seek relevance from these tendencies.

“It is obvious today that you can’t be relevant as a politician unless you create something that makes you relevant. You may find some people becoming relevant because they are championing ethnic cause. As politicians, we create a divide and rule tactic, which is why the country is so polarized.

"As politicians, we have come to realise that our relevance comes from the small empires we create for ourselves. And as we continue to fight ourselves, like what some people are trying to do in Cross River State, these divisions are played up to keep

was no cause for alarm, as most marketers have resolved to buy the products from Lagos or Port Harcourt.

Iyike, who expressed hope that the products would be available soon, said major marketers have continued to buy the product from private depots.

us apart. This is what I have fought against vigorously.

“I like to tell people that no matter how you try to seek relevance, you can’t use your small community to make a representation in Abuja except it is the name Cross River State. I cannot go to Abuja

today and claim to be representing Itigidi, as nobody knows Itigidi. But as Cross Riverians, we are proud because anywhere you enter and mention that you are from Cross River, people start asking questions about the various tourism offerings.

“Today, others look at us as achievers, as being successful in the community of states. It is what we are that makes us who we are and gives us strength and power as a people. It is imperative that we all speak with one voice, collectively, not as a divisible entity, in all issues as a people for the sake of Cross River."

2015, year of change, says Oshiomhole

By Simon Ebegbulem

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ENIN—GOVERNOR Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State, yesterday, said that the New Year 2015, will be an important one for Nigerians to vote for change and get the country back to the path of greatness, rather than the present system at the federal level where nothing works.

According to him, “This new year presents Nigerians with a unique opportunity to vote out the party which produced bad leaders, who buffeted us with different excuses and fed us with empty rhetorics on why Nigeria is yet to achieve her greatness, after being in the saddle for 16 years.

“In 2015, Nigerians must rise in unison to elect credible leaders, who will rise above the lethargy of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, government to confront the challenges facing the nation.

“It is ironic and saddening that while they preach to the downtrodden masses to tighten their belts and prepare for austere times, they continue to

display nauseating indifference to the plight of the people by coming up with a war chest running into several billions of naira to prosecute a project to further impoverish the people.

“However, as progressives, we remain optimistic in the

Nigerian project and we urge the people to join us and avail themselves of the opportunity, next year, to punish these bad leaders with our votes and ensure that the desired change is achieved for the benefit of all."

C-River senator dumps PDP for Labour Party supporters, he had declared

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By Emma Una

ALABAR—SENATOR Bassey Otu, the senator representing Southern senatorial district of Cross River State, has dumped the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and picked the ticket of Labour Party to contest the re-election in the 2015 general elections.

The exit of the senator from the PDP followed his defeat in the senatorial primaries by Mr Gershom Bassey, Chairman of the Cross River State Water Board.

He said: “Today, I announce my resignation from the PDP.” Senator Otu said that after due consultation with his political friends and

for the Labour Party on which ticket he shall contest the 2015 election for the post of senator.

“In the 2015 general elections, under the banner of Labour Party, I shall re-contest for the Senate seat which I currently occupy.”

I won't dump PDP —EDOJA

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senatorial aspirant of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in Delta State, Mr. Solomon Edoja, has denied media report that he was about decamping to the All Progressives Congress, APC. He has meanwhile, called on Deltans and Nigerians in general to come out en mass and vote for President Goodluck Jonathan and all PDP candidates in the 2015 general elections.

Edoja, in a statement, yesterday, said: “My attention has been drawn to the false publication in the media to the effect that I am about decamping to the APC. I am a PDP member and shall never contemplate such a move despite the outcome of the senatorial primaries.

“I remain committed to the party and shall work assiduously to deliver all our candidates in the 2015 polls.”

Rivers, JOHESU meeting hits deadlock

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By Davies Iheamnachor

IVERS State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Sampson Parker, has appealed to the state Joint Health Sector Union, JOHESU, to suspend the ongoing strike by the body or commence emergency services, adding that the state union was properly funded and not supposed to join in the strike.

The meeting, yesterday in the state, hit a deadlock as members of the union insisted that the said strike was a national one, stressing that the body will not even involve its members in emergency services as requested by the commissioner.

The state secretary of JOHESU, Dr. Chris Mbata, who spoke to Vanguard after the meeting, said that the union had refused to accept such appeal, noting that the strike was a national directive which the state body must comply with.

62 — Vanguard, THURSDAY, JANUARY 1, 2015

Eagles camp in full swing •Amokachi in subdued birthday celebration •.Valere Denies CAS Intention

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NLY Emem Eduok, who is reportedly in Tunisia and Igudia Godwin, who replaced Erhun Obanor, who is with the U23 national side are yet to arrive camp as all invited players made it to the Bolton White Apartment Hotel of the team on Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning. All the players had lunch with the technical crew comprising Dan “the Bull’ Amokachi, Houandinu Valere and Ike Shorunmi.

Amokachi who addressed the players after lunch told them to brace up for the challenge of training only seven days for two grade A international friendlies against Cote ‘D Ivoire and Sudan in Abu Dhabi. He added that only 19 players from the 25 invited to camp will make the trip and that current form and not sentiments or past appearance in the team’s camp will be the yardstick for picking the players.

The national team assistant gaffer who marked his birthday on Tuesday December 30 in a subdued form, said as he grows older, he has become wiser and it will show in the forthcoming friendly games against Cote D’ Ivoire and Sudan, even as he acknowledged the huge influence, Stephen Okechukwu Keshi has had on his

coaching career.

Meanwhile, Super Eagles Assistant Coach, Houandinou Valere, has denied stories making the rounds that he intends to drag the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), to the Court of Arbitration for Sports in Switzerland, noting that even if he has outstanding salaries to collect he will never do such a thing.

CELEBRATION . . . Super Eagles players celebrating their victory in one of their matches last year.

Chelsea hope to bring New Year cheer to fans C

HELSEA travel to White Hart today looking to maintain their 3 point lead at the top of the table with a win over Tottenham Hotspur. The festive period has so far

seen Chelsea go unbeaten with wins over Stoke City and West ham but after the draw with Southampton Mourinho’s men will be looking another victory.

Spurs will be looking for revenge after the reverse fixture at Stamford Bridge saw Chelsea overcome a poor first 15 minutes to defeat their London rivals with rela-

ever and this time round should provide a much tougher test for the Blues throghout the whole 90 minutes.

Mikel nominated for EPL top award

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MASTER DRIBLER . . . Chelsea’s striker Didier Drogba (R) tries to beat West Ham United’s midfielder Kevin Nolan during their English Premier League match at Stamford Bridge in London. Chelsea won the game 2-0.

Photo: AFP

Man Utd’s Di Maria returns to training

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•Di Maria

tive ease. Eden hazard, Didier Drogba and Loic Remy were the scorers in a 3-0 triumph. Tottenham appear to have turned a corner since then how-

ANCHESTER United star Angel Di Maria is back in training, but is unlikely to start tomorrow’s New Year’s Day clash with Stoke City. The Argentina international has been absent since the 1-1 draw with Aston Villa earlier

this month due to a pelvic injury. The Villa game was only a fleeting return, with United’s record signing having previously bee sidelined with a hamstring problem.

But the former Real Madrid man has now returned to training.

A place in the side to

face the Potters would be a big surprise. Indeed, given his lack of football over the past couple of months, he may not be included in the squad at all. But United fans will be relieved to have him back in action for the rest of January ’s Premier League schedule.

IKEL Obi will battle Swansea striker Wilfried Bony, Sadio Mane of Southampton as well as Alex Song from West Ham for the best African performer in the EPL for the month of December.

Giving details, New African Soccer’s Awards Director and CEO Tunde Adelakun stated that the choice was a difficult one, given the busy schedule of games in the EPL in December.

“We had varying and diverse opinions from our followers, and this is understandable,” he said, “given the many matches that were played in December and the involvement of a high number of Africans”.

“Wilfried Bony has featured in the shortlist on two occasions in the past, as he continued to lead the line for Swansea City. His physical presence, tenacity and knack for goals has

brought the attention of many clubs to him, and Swansea might have a job keeping him with the January transfer window looming. Swansea has dropped marginally in the EPL log but Bony’s presence and impact is noticeable”, Adelakun said.

•Mikel

Vanguard, THURSDAY, JANUARY 1, 2015 — 63

Wenger wary of Southampton A

RSENE Wenger is wary of making too many changes when Arsenal play their third Premier League game in seven days at Southampton on Thursday.

Arsenal have enjoyed a productive festive period so far, recording 2-1 victories at home to QPR on Boxing Day and at West Ham two days later.

Their New Year’s Day clash at St Mary’s Stadium represents their third fixture in quick succession, and Arsenal boss Wenger concedes it is a difficult task to maintain their winning momentum whilst giving players sufficient rest.

“We have Southampton which is another game that will demand a high intensity and commitment, so I will have to look at how we recovered because we gave a lot in the last two games in 48 hours,” he said.

ARETH Bale has d i s m i s s e d speculation linking him with Manchester United by hinting that he could stay at Real Madrid beyond the end of his contract in 2019.

The Welsh winger signed in a world record €100 million transfer from Tottenham in the summer of 2013 but has faced pressure for his place from Isco and James Rodriguez this season.

Reports in Spain and the

10th of this month.

The meeting among others is expected to chart a new road map for the administration of the game in the country with a view to taking a holistic appraisal of its activities in the past few months which culminated in the failure of the Super Eagles to qualify for the African Cup of Nations (AFCON), kicking off in Equatorial Guinea on the 11th of this month.

A lot of angry reactions have trailed Super Eagles failure to be in Malabo to defend the trophy which they won in South Africa in 2013.

Presently, many soccer analysts have called for the total overhauling of the national team including the removal of Coach Stephen Keshi but forces within and outside the NFF have not allowed this to happen.

It was also understood that the board would look into the issue of Keshi’s appointment and come out with a position on the matter.

“I can confirm to you that the board will be meeting on January 8, but in Lagos. Remember that the Glo-CAF awards will also be taking place C M Y K

UK suggested Bale was considering a switch back to the Premier League with Manchester United his most likely destination.

But, speaking from Dubai where he came on as a halftime substitute in Madrid’s surprise 4-2 friendly defeat against AC Milan, he told Marca:”Manchester United? I’m happy in Madrid. I love the city, the weather and the club. I’m eager to win more silverware here.

Eduok passes Esperance medical medical at Esperance

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OLPHINS star striker Emem Eduok has passed a medical at Esperance and he is now closer to signing a contract of three and half years at the top Tunisian club.

“Emem has passed his

•Bale

Eagles job Continues from B/P

Bale rejects Man U G

in Lagos around that time so the board members will use the opportunity of that event to meet and deliberate on many issues concerning the development of football in the country”.

Meanwhile, the General Secretary of the NFF Musa Amadu says he will use the opportunity of the board meeting to table the request of Iyke Igbokwe for the setting up of an Arbitration Panel to look into the dispute that has emanated from the September 30, 2014 election into the board of the NFF. Amadu told journalists in Abuja that since Igbokwe was a contestant in the said election and having said he was not satisfied with the outcome of the Electoral Appeals Committee which came out with two reports with the majority upholding the election, he has no option than to table the demand before the board at the meeting.

The scribe however noted that the decision to set up the committee does not lie with him but the executive committee of the federation hence his resolve to notify them of the demand.

Pillar of Sports challenges govt remarkable impact in IGERIA Pillar of Ejidike in a new year the world.

N Sports, Chief message sounded that Donatus N. Agu-Ejidike has tasked the Federal and state governments to revitalize sports sector as panacea to dwindling fortunes of sports in Nigeria., * Chief Donatus

•Danagogo

there is the need to quickly arrest the sports situation if the country must take its rightful position in the world of sports., * The Nigeria Pillar of Sports noted that even though there were few records of success at some levels, it is disheartening that Nigeria could not defend the Africa Cup of Nations, AFCON won by the Super Eagles of Nigeria in 2013., * “With the avalanche of talents in Nigeria, it is highly desirable if the nation could take advantage to rule the continent and make

Friendlies which will also be staged

Continues from B/P revealed plans that the Super Eagles will be playing six international friendly matches in 2015.

Nigeria will be hoping to maximise the FIFA free windows in 2015 to engage the national team as the task of rebuilding commences.

The games include the much-advertised Brazil friendly in Uyo billed for March, there are other five matches

in the country but have not decided whom the opponents would be.

The NFF leadership has promised to make use of all the FIFA windows, which are June 8-16, August 31 to September 8, October 513 and November 9-17 for those FIFA friendly games in 2015.

These matches against Cote d’Ivoire and Sudan in Abu Dhabi early this month will be played by players from the domestic league.

and he will this week sign a contract for three and half years pending the approval of his Nigerian club,” a top source i n f o r m e d AfricanFootball.com AfricanFootball.com first reported the interest of Esperance in the striker, who netted a recordequaling 20 goals last season amid various denials.

F/Eagles Continues from B/P Eagles will open 2015 with an endurance drill this morning.

“We will begin 2015 with hard work,” said Flying Eagles assistant coach Nduka Ugbade.

“There is still a lot of work to be done before our first match at the AYC and so we cannot afford to relax even for a day.

“All celebrations therefore have to be put on hold until we have met some of our targets.

“Our New Year ’s day will be when we would have qualified for the World Cup in New Zealand.”

The African Continental Hotel in Kaduna, which has severally been home to the Nigeria U20s, plans a special treat for the squad thereafter.

M e a n w h i l e , Tottenham Hotspur youngster Musa Yahaya and Chidera Eze from Portuguese club FC Porto have promised to join up with the Flying Eagles squad by the

January 15 deadline handed them.

“We have been following up on the release of the foreign pros called up for the African Youth Championship and so far the signals have been very encouraging,” said team secretary Auwal Aliyu Ibrahim.

“For instance, Musa Yahaya is off to Malaysia for an invitational tournament with the Spurs youth team and he has called to say he will join us as soon as he returns.

“Chidera Eze has also assured he will come in before the January 15 deadline set by the coach for all overseasbased players to report to the training camp in Kaduna.”

Sweden-based Taiwo Awoniyi and Musa Muhammed are so far the only pros now training with the AYCbound squad.

The other foreign pros called up include Moses Simon, Kingsley Madu, Isaac Success, Kelechi Iheanacho and Chidiebere Nwakali.

Vanguard, THURSDAY, JANUARY 1, 2015

NFF plans six grade-A friendlies for Eagles H AVING failed to qualify for this year ’s Africa Cup of Nations tournament in Equatorial Guinea, the

Eagles job: Keshi knows fate Jan 8

Super Eagles will have no dull moment beginning this month with two international friendlies against Ivory Coast and Sudan.

Apart from the two AFCON warm-ups billed for Dubai, the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) have

Continues on pg 63

•Keshi

F/Eagles celebrate New Year’s day with endurance drill

BY JUDE OPARA, Abuja

I

T is New Year ’s day and while most Nigerians will begin the day with church services and families getting together to mark the day, members of the Flying

T

HE first meeting of the executive committee of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) in 2015 will take place in Lagos on January 8. Sources at the secretariat of the federation in Abuja told Sports Vanguard that the meeting will be holding outside Abuja so as to enable members to fully participate in the forthcoming Glo/CAF award slated to take place in Lagos on the

Continues on pg 63

Continues on pg 63

•Garba

Today's fixtures

HECTIC: Flying Eagles players being drilled for challenges ahead.

Wenger wary of Southampton — Pg 63

Stoke City Man City Liverpool Newcastle Aston Villa QPR Hull City West Ham Southampton Tottenham

v v v v v v v v v v

Man United Sunderland Leicester City Burnley FC Crystal Palace Swansea City Everton West Brom Arsenal Chelsea

1:45 pm 4 pm 4 pm 4 pm 4 pm 4 pm 4 pm 4 pm 4 pm 6.30 pm

QUICK CROSSWORD

TODAY'S

PUZZLE

YESTER DAY'S YESTERDAY'S

ANSWERS

ACROSS 3 Untrue (5) 9 Attacker (6) 10 Canopy (6) 11 Elicit (5) 12 Inactive (4) 15 Story (4) 17 Inclined (7) 20 Entrap (3) 21 Singer (5) 23 Hero (4) 25 Dandy (4) 26 Long (5) 28 Couch (3) 30 Keenly (7) 33 Paradise (4) 35 Board-game (4) 36 Obscure (5) 38 Assault (6) 39 Ebb (6) 40 Pattern (5)

DOWN 1 Track (5) 2 House (5) 3 Charge (3) 4 Passionate (6) 5 Plunder (4) 6 Sheep (3) 7 Giant (5) 8 Representative (5) 13 Determined (7) 14 Like (5) 16 Reconstruct (7) 18 Kind (5) 19 Crowd (3) 22 Revolt (5) 24 Shelter (3) 27 Character (6) 28 Started (5) 29 Thick (5) 31 Sovereign (5) 32 Rustic (5) 34 Nimbus (4) 36 Vigour (3) 37 Fish (3)

YESTERDAY'S SOLUTIONS ACROSS: 1, Rescue 5, Shamed 9, Unite 10, Sprite 11, Easter 12, Embed 14, Iced 17, Yap 18, Sore 20, Canoe 22, Elder 23, Profane 24, Saver 26, Debit 29, Clad 30, Fen 32, Tutu 33, Hades 35, Raised 36, Voting 37, Repel 38, Dodged 39, Reeled.

DOWN: 1, Rustic 2, Screen 3, Mute 4, Enemy 5, Steep 6, Head 7, Method 8, Darker 13, Baffled 15, Canal 16, Doped 18, Sleet 19, Remit 21, Err 22, End 24, Scored 25, Varied 27, Burial 28, Tugged 30, Faded 31, Never 33, Here 34, Sole.

How to Play Sudoku

P

lace a number (1-9) in each blank cell. (No line can have two of the same number).

Each row (nine lines from left to right), column, (also nine lines from top to bottom) and 3 X 3 block within a bold block (nine blocks) contains number from 1 through 9. This means that no number can appear twice in any block, column or row.

No mathematics is involved – no adding, subtraction, division or multiplication, just plain logic and your imagination.

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C M Y K