Obasanjo becoming more confused - Presidency

C M Y K

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Vanguard, FEBRUARY 3,, 2013

SUNDAY VANGUARD, FEBRUARY 3, 2013 — PAGE 3

Cross River presents computers to teachers

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R OSS River State has flagged-off the Teachers’ L aptop Computer Distribution in the E-learning and Digital Literacy Programme with the presentation of 10,000 computers to teachers across the state.

Speaking while presenting the computers at West African People’s Institute (WAPI) Calabar, the state Acting Governor, Mr. Efiok Cobham, said that it is the state’s quest to transform its educational

system and bequeath a worthy legacy to posterity as well as achieve a service economy.

Cobham reasoned that the gesture was borne out of its desire to belong to the league of nations that have done it right in education revolution and transformation because any nation that neglects education will remain p e r p e t u a l l y underdeveloped.

The Acting Governor disclosed that it is because of the high premium which the state

places on education that a great part of its budget is allocated to it.

He disclosed that to become a leading Nigerian state will remain a mirage and elusive if it does not recognize and accord education a top priority and that is why since the inception of the present administration in 2007, it made it unequivocally clear that for it to join the league of educationally advanced states, it must provide an enabling environment to enhance proper learning and teaching.

Acting Governor of Cross River State, Mr. Efiok Cobham presenting a laptop computer to Mr.Thomas Ogboaka of WAPI, Calabar, one of the beneficiaries of the state government's E-learning and Digital Education Programme.

Councillors seek Gov Dickson’s intervention in leadership crisis

BY JIMITOTA ONOYUME

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OVERNOR Se riake Dickson of Bayelsa State has been urged to urgently intervene in the leadership crisis rocking Sagbama local government area of the state.

Former leader of the Legislative House, Hon Lovely Agwor and four others in a press conference in Port Harcourt, said trouble started in the council area when they allegedly impeached the leadership of the House over alleged failure to convene sitting for presentation of the budget.

Hon Agwor said the councillors were later invited by an aide of the governor who told them at a meeting that five of them had been suspended The councillors who described their alleged suspension as a huge joke wondered where the decision to suspend them was taken. “We don’t know where they sat to suspend five members of the House. All we heard was that five of us have been suspended. “Hon Agwor and the four others, Perebolador Kpodo, Akarhiunu Paul, Collings Egbegh and Gesiye Abidde pleaded with the governor of the state to step in as his aide was allegedly dragging his name into the leadership crisis rocking the local government council.

PAGE 4—SUNDAY VANGUARD, FEBRUARY 3, 2013

Boko Haram: Sambo meets Borno elders as visit paralyzes economic activities

BY NDAHI MARAMA

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OMMERCIAL activities yesterday came to a standstill for about 10 hours in Maiduguri, Borno State capital, when Vice President Mohammed Namadi Sambo paid an official visit to the state, the base of the Islamist group, Boko Haram.

It was Sambo’s first visit since Governor Kashim Shettima assumed the mantle of leadership in 2011. He met Borno elders on the dicey security situation in the state.

The visit, which took place amidst tight security, paralysed economic activities as most residents of the state capital stayed indoors.

Namadi landed at the Maid-

uguri International Airport at about 11:20 a.m. At the airport, security officials, suspected to be SSS personnel, brutalised some journalists.

Some residents told newsmen that the visit of the second citizen was a bad day as business activities were brought to a standstill. ”This is a sad day for me. The security has blocked all the road and there is no business going on,” 65- year-old charcoal seller, Abba Musa Yaro.

The VP, accompanied by Shettima and other dignitaries from within and outside the state, commissioned/inspected projects within Maiduguri.

He commissioned the newly constructed Maduganari Byepass road and the renovated Maiduguri Nursing Home,

named after General Muhammad Shuwa, who was assassinated by terrorists last year.

Sambo paid a courtesy call on the Shehu of Borno, Alhaji Abubakar Ibn Umar Garbai ElKanemi, at his palace.

At the palace, the royal father thanked the VP for the visit and called on the Federal Government to reduce the military check points on the streets of Maiduguri as, according to him, security situation has improved

in the state.

Responding, the VP assured the Shehu that government remained committed to the protection of lives and property and enhancement of socio- economic development in the state.

Edo LG Polls: ACN leaders at war SIMON EBEGBULEM

A

S the leadership of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) in Edo State screened its chairmanship and councillorship candidates yesterday, ahead of the April 20 local government election in the state, disagreement between leaders over the choice of candidates in the 18 LGAs

tore the party apart. Meanwhile, the leadership of the party in Oredo Local Government Council endorsed Mr Osaro Obaze as its chairmanship candidate. Some of the leaders at the meeting where he was endorsed include the leader of the party in the council, Chief Amos Osunbor, member Representing Oredo federal constituency in the House of Representatives,

Rasaq Bello Osagie, and Chief of Staff to the Governor, Patrick Obahiagbon.

In Etsako Central, A C N leader, Alhaji Waziri Oshiomah, was said to have insisted that the chairmanship position should go to Ekperi clan while that of the commissionership should be ceded to the South Umene clan (zone 111) as “ democracy is about the voice of the majority”.

SUNDAY VANGUARD, FEBRUARY 3, 2013 — PAGE 5

Why AGF took over prosecution of Farouk

BY JIDE AJANI

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RESH facts emerged yesterday on why the Office of the Attorney General of the Federation, AGF, took over the prosecution of Hon. Farouk Lawan and Boniface Emenalo, the erstwhile Chairman and Secretary of the House of Representatives Ad-hoc Committee on Fuel Subsidy Pprobe, respectively.

Sunday Vanguard was reliably informed in the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Abuja, that, contrary to the belief in the public sphere that pressure was brought on the AGF, Mohammed Adoke, SAN, to prosecute the duo, last Friday ’s prosecutorial action was consequent upon a conference held in the AGF’s Office with some senior legal practitioners a fortnight ago.

In the Office of the AGF that day were Adoke and Chief Adegboyega Awomolo, SAN, along with other lawyers.

The meeting, it was learnt, was informed by a similar case of bribery which Awomolo had successfully prosecuted on behalf of the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission, ICPC. The judgement, in Sunday Vanguard’s possession, was delivered on Wednesday, January 25, 2012, in the High Court of Justice, Edo State of Nigeria in the Benin Judicial Division holden at Benin City before His Lordship: The Hon. Justice E. F. Ikponmwen.

The case was between The Federal Republic of Nigeria, the complainant, and one Temple Nwankwoala, a Deputy Superintendent of Police, DSP, the accused.

The case number B/ICPC/2/ 06, according to very dependable sources at both the Office of the AGF and the ICPC in Abuja, is similar to the case brought against Farouk and Emenalo – it was about a sting operation which was conclusive and which made it easy for Awomolo to secure judgment.

The accused

President Goodluck Jonathan and the First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan (right) welcoming President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono of Indonesia and his wife, Mrs. Ani Yudhoyono during the visitors’ two-day official visit to Nigeria at the Presidential Villa, Abuja. Photo by Abayomi Adeshida. demanded N1,000,000 but received N500,000.00 for the purpose of compromising investigation; the demand was made on October 18, 2006.

In the three count charge proffered against Nwankwoala, he was

acquitted on counts two and three but was sent to jail for seven years on count one..

It was the details of this case and the authorities cited and which enabled Awomolo succeed that the AGF discussed at the meeting.

Sunday Vanguard was told

that it was after a careful strategy was put in place that the office set out to prosecute, using Awomolo.

But a source at ICPC lamented why the AGF did not collaborate with the commission fully on the Farouk matter.

Last Friday when the duo of Farouk and Emenalo were arraigned, Justice Mudashiru Oniyangi did not grant both men bail.

The charge alleged that the embattled men demanded and collected 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 Representatives Ad-hoc Committee on Monitoring of Fuel Subsidy Regime.

They were said to have demanded an aggregate sum of $3million, with a view to ensure that Zenon Petroleum and Gas Ltd escaped prosecution even though the Committee had ab-initio found it culpable in fuel subsidy fraud.

The AGF, through Awomolo, insisted that the offence they

committed was contrary to section 17 (1) (a), section 8(1) (a) (b) (ii), and section 23 (i) of the Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Act, 2000 and punishable under section 8 (1) 17 (1) and 23(3) of the same Act. Besides, the prosecuting commission alleged that Emenalo, while being a public officer, an Assistant Director and Clerk of the Committee on Education of the House of Reps, sometime in April 2012, while acting as the Secretary of the Ad-Hoc Committee, was offered gratification by Otedola but failed to report the offer to any officer of the ICPC or any police officer.

Whereas both accused persons were charged together in the first count of the charge, however, count 2, 3 and 4 were specifically preferred against Farouk while count 5, 6 and 7 were entered against Emenalo.

Meanwhile, shortly after they took turns and pleaded innocence to the crime, counsel to the ICPC, Awomolo, implored the court to remand them in prison custody pending their trial.

Game over for kidnappers in Delta – Uduaghan *As Ovie of Agbarha-Otor receives staff of office

BY FESTUS AHON

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ELTA State Governor, Dr Emmanuel U d u a g h a n , yesterday, said the game was over for kidnappers.

Uduaghan, who spoke during the presentation of staff of office to the Ovie of Agbarha-Otor Kingdom, Ughelli North Local Government Area of the State, HRM Richard Oghenevwogaga Ebelle Okorefe I, said kidnapping was a heinous crime which must be brought to a halt the way slave trade was brought to an end.

SOLUTION

Represented by his deputy, Prof. Amos Utuama, the governor said the sanctity of human life must be recognized and respected. He urged traditional rulers to work closely with local government council chairmen to promote peace and security in their domains.

According to him, if every traditional ruler was able to arrest the wave of criminality in his domain, it will translate to a crime-free Delta State and a crime-free Nigeria. He commended the people of the Agbarha-Otor Kingdom for the peaceful process of the ascension of HRM Okorefe I into the throne.

“I have no doubt that the

institution of the Ovie has great significance for the people of Agbarha-Otor and, as such, you will all strive to promote the integrity of the stool by according His Royal Majesty the respect he truly deserves. I urge you therefore to give him your fullest support,” he said.

Advising the monarch to discharge his responsibilities in transparent manner, the Governor enjoined him to imbibe the virtues of dialogue and consultation in all his dealings with his people.

Fielding questions with newsmen during the ceremony, first civilian governor of the state,

Olorogun Felix Ibru, described the event as great and something every Agbarha Otor indigene should be proud of.

He enjoined the people of the kingdom to be thankful to God because there was no problem of succession.

On his part, the commissioner representing Ughelli North and Ethiope East Local Government Areas in the Board of the Delta State Oil Producing Areas Development Commission, DESOPADEC, Chief Ominimini Obuiwebwi, described the ceremony as unique as Agbarha-Otor is the ancestral home of the Agbarha people.

Obasanjo becoming more confused —Presidency Continued from page 1 Obasanjo’s presidency and peaked during Yar ’Adua’s time and was merely inherited by the present administration.

He said it was therefore wrong and condemnable for Obasanjo or any Nigerian for that matter to accuse Jonathan of not tackling the security challenges headlong, saying that the man was doing his best to stem the tide of the crisis.

Gulak, who described Boko Haram as an international security threat that has its roots outside Nigeria, pointed out that the federal administration

had shown the will and capacity to deal with the situation the way it should be.

The Political Adviser said, “As far as I am concerned, Obasanjo is becoming more confused and Nigerians should not take him serious on the issue of his attacks on President Goodluck Jonathan.

“Nigerians have not forgotten that it was in Obasanjo’s time that Zaki Biam, Odi, bombing of oil facilities and militancy became very rampant in the country.

So let us not be distracted by his antics, which are either borne out of ignorance or outright mischief or both.”

The former President had been quoted in the magazine,

New African, as saying that Jonathan should blame no one but himself if he cannot address the Boko Haram crisis.

“If the president is the chief security officer of the country and there is a security problem, where do you go for the solution?”, Obasanjo said in his latest public criticism of the president.

“And if that solution is not coming from the chief security officer, who has everybody and can mobilise everybody inside and outside to get a solution, then he has the responsibility to solve the problem. And nobody else should be blamed but him”.

PAGE 6—SUNDAY VANGUARD, FEBRUARY 3, 2013

Mali: UK pledges more military support for Nigeria

By KINGSLEY OMONOBI, Abuja

T

HE United Kingdom (UK) said, yesterday, that following the shift of terrorists havens from Afghanistan and Iran to the Maghreb region and now Mali, it would devote more resources to providing more training opportunities and logistics assistance to the Nigerian armed forces to help contain terrorism in the West African sub region.

Chief of the Defence Staff of the United Kingdom, General David Richards, who made the disclosure when he paid a visit to his Nigerian counterpart, Admiral Ola Sa’ad Ibrahim, noted: “In view of the war against terrorism worldwide, Mali was the immediate imperative. It is important we resolve this threat of Mali especially for the sake of the African continent and the well-being of Nigeria . In doing this, I must say transparency should be a key factor ”.

Describing the relationship between Nigeria and Britain as historical and emotional, Richards said he was in the country to meet with his coun-

terpart to discuss and identify areas of strength on the part of the Nigerian armed forces and that of Britain so that areas of support particularly regarding the Mali challenge can be agreed on.

In his remarks, Ibrahim com-

mended the CDS of Britain for his interest and expected support of Britain for Nigeria over the crucial and expected role it is to play in tackling the evolving events in Mali .

“Your prompt decision to come and identify with us over

the troublesome situation in Mali, which is a cause for concern to nations in the sub-region, is appreciated and, together, the challenge would be surmounted,” the Nigerian CDS said.

“At the local level, we have our

challenges but we cannot afford to look the other way when a brother African country is being consumed. So, in spite of our challenges, we have to show our support. Your coming demonstrates your level of understanding of the challenge our armed forces will face.

Group alleges desecration of Ijaw forests

BY DAPO AKINREFON

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HE Ijaw Peoples Con gress, IPC, has kicked against the alleged desecration of the forests of Akparemogbene, Oyanfbene and Ayakoromo in Buruku local government area of Delta State by a firm.

In a statement, IPC national president, Mr Ekanpou Enewaridideke, said it was imperative for the firm to stop the collection of data in the communities, saying “this ongoing invasive desecration is being embarked upon without consensual discussion with these communities.”

Enewaridideke, who accused the company of creating problems in the respective communities, alleged that there was a hidden agenda to create disaf-

fection there.

He said, “The firm claims to be engaged in data collection and gathering in preparation for seismic exploration and we guess this is how they give wrong data to NNPC and lat-

er create problems to generations unborn and label the Ijaws militants when they agitate for corrective reversal.

Must data-collection in an area be carried out without the involvement of the people in the

territory? This will have to stop for the cascade of a procedurally acceptable approach. Why must the firm suddenly invade the forests of these communities if they had no evil intention?”

Govt making progress in disease prevention, control — Health Minister

BY ESTHER ONYEGBULA

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HE Federal Government says tremendous gains have been made in the prevention and control of disease epidemic.

The Minister of Health, Prof.

Onyebuchi Chukwu, who stated this in Lagos, at a public lecture organised by Nigerian Academy of Science held at the

University of Lagos, said there has been a huge success in the prevention and control of disease epidemic such as cerebrospinal meningitis, measles, lassa fever, guinea worm, poliomyelitis, yellow fever and HIV/ AIDS. Chukwu, who gave the key note address, said: “We have been able to do this over the years with an effective manage-

ment approach, proper governance, and appropriate strategy, reliable and reproducible mechanism for intervention.

“Our ability to detect and report disease increased tremendously lately as such we are now detecting more outbreaks than we used to do. These are possible with enhanced surveillance which makes it possible for prompt detection of diseases and early intervention”.

SUNDAY VANGUARD, FEBRUARY 3, 2013 — PAGE 7

PDP CRISES

Why govs are angry with Tukur ‘*As they await NEC meeting

BY HENRY UMORU

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HE quagmire in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is taking another shape as governors elected on the platform of the party have expressed dismay over what they described as betrayal of trust between the governors of the North East and President Goodluck Jonathan prior to the emergence of Alhaji Bamanga Tukur as the party’s national chairman in March, last year. The governors, as gathered, had entered into an agreement with Jonathan and Tukur before the March 2012 convention when it was becoming obvious that the coast was not clear for him to emerge.

Sunday Vanguard gathered that the North East governors are not happy with the PDP chairman who had promised then that, on assumption of office, he will not do anything that will affect the structures of the governors from the zone.

Following this disagreement, the North East gover-

nors wooed their colleagues, especially through the chairman of Nigeria Governors’ Forum and Rivers State governor, Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, to insist that a meeting of the National Executive Committee, NEC, must hold to resolve the several crises affecting the party.

Crises in the party have pitched Jonathan, Tukur, and some members of the National Working Committee (NWC) against some of its governors.

It was gathered that at a secret meeting held on Tuesday at the Rivers State Governor ’s Lodge before the National Economic Council which Vice President Namadi Sambo chaired also that day, the governors disclosed point blank that they were not happy that Tukur betrayed the understanding with the North East governors. A governor from the zone, who spoke on the issue in Abuja on the condition of anonymity, said, “There is this understanding between the presi-

dent and Tukur before he was elected as the national chairman. ” Recall that before Bamanga Tukur was adopted as the consensus candidate for the office of the national chairman, we, the North East governors, had adopted the former acting national secretary, Dr. Musa Babayo, from Bauchi State as the zone’s chairmanship candidate. “But immediately after the zonal congress, there was another meeting at the State House, where the president said he wanted Tukur to become the national chairman. The meeting was attended by the four governors of Bauchi, Adawama, Taraba and Gombe and we expressed our fears over having Tukur as national chairman.

“One of the fears was that Tukur was already among the elite opposing Governor Muritala Nyako in Adamawa State and there was this fear that his chairmanship will antagonize the PDP state structures. This is basically why state governors don’t want the national chairman to emerge from

their states.” The North East governor noted that it was Taraba State governor, Danbaba Suntai, who anchored the position of the zone’s governors at the meeting with Jonathan, Tukur, Amaechi and other stakeholders of the party.

The governor noted that after Suntai had presented their fears at the meeting, Jonathan spoke, allaying their fears, just as Tukur also spoke in the same vein, pledging that, at his age, he would be a father to all.

He added:“We all know bet-

ter now. There is a sense of betrayal now among us the PDP governors from the North East. Before Suntai’s accident, there was this fear that some senators from Taraba State were getting ready for a fight over the party executive in the state. ” Twice, meeting was called to look into the matter, but Suntai refused to attend because of this sense of betrayal by both the president and the national chairman.

“We are insisting that a NEC meeting be called to resolve all these crises within the party. The opposition parties are working on a merger and, therefore, we, as a political party, will not fold our arms and watch the party crumble due to internal power play. We are expecting the NEC to resolve

all these crises”.

The governor, who reiterated the position of the PDP governors on the ten members of the NWC that brought back the sacked Mijijinwa Kugama-led PDP Adamawa State, said, “As far as we are concerned, we don’t recognize Joel Madaki executive. “Tukur said that he delegated the deputy national chairman to preside over all issues affecting the PDP in Adamawa State. The same deputy national chairman said that the NWC has reinstated the sacked Adawawa State PDP executive. So, why the committee for harmonization? What are you harmonizing? We are waiting for the NEC meeting to know which of the factions will attend the NEC meeting.”

Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta/Chairman, Presidential Amnesty Programme, Hon. Kingsley Kuku, flanked by President, National Association of Niger Delta Students, Comrade Michael Tombara, and other executive members during the presentation of an award as the Most Outstanding Appointee of President Goodluck Jonathan from the Niger Delta to Kuku in Abuja on Friday.

Tension in Ondo community over chieftaincy stool *Stakeholders send SOS to Mimiko

BY DEOLA ADENUGA

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ommunity leaders in Etikan Kingdom in Ilaje Local Government Area of Ondo State have appealed to Governor Olusegun Mimiko, to save them from alleged harassment and intimidation by a businessman who allegedly has been parading himself as the oba-elect of the kingdom in defiance of a court order. In a statement, the community spokesman, High Chief Aseph Ikue-

san, lamented that Etikan Kingdom had known no peace since the individual started parading himself as the oba-elect despite the fact that he was not the choice of the kingmakers and the entire community. “We have to cry out to your excellency to save Etikan Kingdom from this individual and some thugs he has been bringing from Okitipupa, Akure and Lagos to harass members of the community for not supporting him.

He contested for the vacant royal stool with oth-

er candidates but he lost.

The candidate picked by the oracle was Barrister Busayo Adeola Oroyo.

Oroyo was also the unanimous choice of the kingmakers and the entire community.

We appealed to this individual to abide by the choice of the oracle and the people, but he has been threatening fire and brimstone, and he told us that Etikan Kingdom will not know peace unless we drop Oroyo and pick him”, he stated.

Bizzare barber: Yes, I wanted to kill my wife, but I quarrels. I don’t want still love her the court that her hus- him anymore. I also

BY DEOLA ADENUGA

”I lived in fear throughout my one year with him. I was always relieved anytime he went out.” A house wife, Mrs Oluwatosin Omoyajowo, disclosed this while praying an Agege Grade ‘A’ Customary Court, Lagos to put an end to her one-year-old marriage to her husband, Adewale., a barber.

The 22-year-old student, who lives at 2 Adejobi Street, Agege, told

band was fond of flogging her at will and threatening to kill her. ”He always threatens to kill me. His mother is always in support of him anytime there is misunderstanding between us,”she said.

The mother of a sevenmonth old baby said she could not continue the relationship with her husband, hence the prayer for divorce. ”My husband insulted my mother when she came to settle one of our

want the custody of the only child of the union,”she said. Meanwhile, Adewale, 28, told the court he was sorry for misbehaving and wanted his wife back. ”I still love my wife. I do not support the dissolution,”he said.

The court president, Mr Emmanuel Shokunle, told the couple to come back with their parents for chamber discussion and adjourned the case till Feb. 25 for counselling.

P AGE 8—SUND AY PA 8—SUNDA

Vanguard, FEBRUARY 3,, 2013

SUNDAY Vanguard, FEBRUARY 3, 2013, PAGE 9

All letters bearing writers' names and full addresses should be typed and forwarded to: The Editor, Sunday Vanguard, Kirikiri Canal, P. M. B. 1007, Apapa, Lagos. E-mail: sunvanguardmail@yahoo.com

Delta kidnappings: Which way out?

Dear Sir,

D

ESPITE the frantic effort of the combined Military Task Force set up by Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan of Delta State to combat incessant kidnappings in the state, the ugly phenomenon is growing at geometrical progression while victims bear the brunt.

Kidnapping in Delta is fast becoming a worthwhile business for some of the idle youths who felt it is the only way to make ends meet. The Governor even went as far to set up another Delta Police Anti- kidnapping Squad (PAS) and purchased heavily armored vehicles to security agencies in the state to combat digital kidnappings but no avail.

It is sad that the oil rich state is under the siege of kidnappers. This is preventing foreign investors from investing in the state for fear of being abducted. The kidnapping of the prominent individuals could be traced to political instability that has digitally crept into the state with no definite solution. The incessant arrests of abductors are yet to bring peace into Delta State in recent times.

Since 2010 to be precise, when Delta state kidnappers started professionally which was mainly traced to Niger Delta militants in Bayelsa State. Though the Amnesty programme set up by the then late President Musa Yar ’ Adua in 2010 which brought at least 75 percent reduction of kidnappings in the region while militants were

instituted into comprehensive trainings to foreign countries and Nigeria. Over 200 kidnappers have been apprehended.

To curb the menace, a bill was initiated by Uduaghan to the House of Assembly to be signed into law on Death penalty on Kidnappers or jail term of 44 years.

Some of the kidnappers’ victims in recent times are: Professor Hope Eghagha, Delta State Commissioner for Higher Education, Chief Gregory Oke Akpojene (MON), IDU President, Markson Macaulay, the son of the present SSG to the Delta State Government, Uchenna Abueme,

NYSC member, Reverend J. Isreal, Justice Marcel Okoh, Benedicta Offorkachi, Madam Suzanne Elumelu, Coordinating Minister and Minister of Finance, Dr Ngozi Okonjo Iweala’s mother, Okey Ofili, Obomejerio Aforkeya and others.

Kidnapping became rampant due to federal government's inability to tackle insecurity in the country despite the huge amount budgeted on security annualy. The mechanism to tackle security situation is yet to be defined by our security operatives in Nigeria.

The ban of motorcyclists popularly known as Okada without providing alternative is also a major cause of

kidnapping. Most of the youths now resort to kidnapping to survive.

In a nutshell, Governor Uduaghan needs to hold a comprehensive town hall meeting on monthly basis where all traditional rulers, elders, community leaders, security agencies, the 25 local government chairmen, and other stakeholders could find a lasting solution to kidnapping in the state. It is high time the state government employed private-public partnership in curbing crime in the state.

Godday Odidi, public affairs analyst, 20 Oro Street, Ajegunle, Apapa, Lagos.

SOS to Governor Uduaghan on Jesse Road Dear Sir,

I

N a letter to the Editor, Vanguard Newspaper dated 15/07/2012 titled Letter to Uduaghan on Jesse Road, we appealed to the amiable Governor of Delta State Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan to revisit the Jesse dual carriage way which is also his baby. We stated then that the Jesse Kingdom is not without government intervention in the area of infrastructural development (road construction, electricity extension and others).

It is a fact that the Jesse express road is a testimony of Uduaghan’s

interest in the infrastructural development of Jesse community which also falls within his avowed three point Agenda of peace and security, human resources and infrastructural development.

Jesse kingdom in the Ethiope West Local Government Area is one of the major food baskets of Delta State in particular, and Nigeria in general. It is an agrarian community that produces good amount of garri, plantain, starch and other agricultural commodities.

The completion of the Jesse dual carriage way would attract traders from Sapele, Warri, Benin and Lagos to have

access to the agricultural produce which are sold on market days.

Recently, we observed that there was an attempt to continue the road project but it was stopped without explanation.

The Jesse Community are full of hope that the road construction going on now across the state would be extended to the completion of the Jesse dual carriage way.

His Excellency, Dr. Emmanuel Udughan would also etch his name in the hearts of the Jesse people when the road project is adequately completed.

Sam Anagbo Temienor Sapele, Delta State.

PAGE 10—SUNDAY Vanguard, FEBRUARY 3, 2013 “land-owners”, with the connivance of corrupt council officials, made it impossible for the firemen to work that day and that escalated what might have been a minor to a total disaster.

Fire and floods in Lagos State: T Way forward

ere several disena H bling factors were at work making it virtually impossible for the Fire Services to perform their

Flight or fight?

“I have been impressed with the urgency of doing. Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Being willing is not enough; we must do.”Leonardo da Vinci

T

HE blinkers are finally slipping off the eyes of die-hard Nigerians, who

have just cotton on to what many have been saying so loudly, for so long. It is one that they customarily brushed aside, with the usual “God save Nigeria! Or “Nigeria will get better ”.

Such gullible people do so because they are fearful of causing a ripple or they do not want to face the facts that Nigeria has been progressively declining for so long and they failed to be part of the solution. Well, the penny (or the Kobos) has

finally dropped.

The perception index of Transparency International ranked Nigeria 144th out of the 146 countries, beating Bangladesh and Haiti to the enviable last position,is nothing to be proud of.

The United States was amongst the countries that have been very vocal that Nigeria is not doing enough to tackle corruption and they went as far as to describe the Jonathan led administration as ineffectual; not implementing the law, but perpetuating and engaging in corrupt practices with unrivalled impunity. They said in 2011, that “There was a widespread perception that judges were easily bribed and that litigants could not rely on the courts to render impartial judgments,” and that “citizens encountered

duties. First, what started out as a standard lane, wide enough to accommodate cars and trucks had over time been turned into a narrow tunnel which now can only be used by small cars. Buildings constructed, with or without government approval, had encroached on the land reserved for the lane so much the Fire Services truck could not get near the house on fire.

Second, an illegal mar-

There is an urgent need to reopen the lane at Mafoluku and to restore passage to a lot of roads which had been taken over by illegal markets in all the councils. Crying over spilled milk never makes sense

,

ket had developed around the entrance to the lane. Investigations revealed that the “Omooniles” or “landowners”, have for years, been collecting rent to allow people to erect sheds and place tables, kiosks etc on the road – with the full encouragement of the Local Government Council staff. The illegal mini-market, established by the

of circumstances were at play when a building went up in flames at Branco Street in Lagos Island. The formerly motorable road, off Massey Street, which is supposed to be a major road had long been rendered all but un-passable by street traders. Fire hoses could not reach the house that was burning away – until there was noth-

long delays and alleged requests from judicial officials for bribes to expedite cases or obtain favourable rulings.”

Sounds familar then?

So nothing has changed then?

Anti-corruption laws in Nigeria seem to be about window dressing, grand standing as the practice pervades thevery stratum of our society. The worse of all is that the practice continues unabated without fear of consequences. It seems the higher up the corruption, the more the licence to continue without scrutiny or they seem immune and

ish the guilty will adjudicate without bias and dispense appropriate sentence that fits the crime .

Ordinary Nigerians are left exposed and with no system to protect and serve the interest of any law abiding citizens.

So when will we collectively realise why there is so such fecund jungle justice, mob rule and anarchy in the country? We all know what is wrong with Nigeria but it is exasperating that it took this long for people to seek restorative justice?

The latest miscarriage of justice is the final

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HE floods of 2013 will soon visit their fury upon us; large scale destruction of properties will follow and the usual hand-wringing and official excuses will follow.

Yet it is an axiom of management science that a disaster which occurred twice should not be allowed to occur a third time because, if it does, it means that those in charge are not alive to their responsibilities. Floods will be back again in 2013; more devastating than ever before.

Are we better prepared this year than last year?

The first rains were experienced in various parts of Nigeria last week. In Ondo and Ekiti states, according to newspapers’ reports, properties were destroyed and two people lost their lives. In Lagos, there was no much loss of assets; but, a warning had been received that the rains, and the attending floods, this year will be as destructive as those of 2012, the impact of which is still being felt in many places. In fact, if care is not taken, some people might return to their homes after squatting somewhere for months in 2013, only to be sent

scrambling for safety a few months after. Lagos might be one of the states where that might occur.

However, while floods are seasonal, fire outbreaks are not. They occur year-round. And when they do, almost invariably, the Fire Services are blamed for tardy responses and sometimes for lacking water to tackle the inferno. So, recently, when there was a fire outbreak at Jayeoba Lane, off Mafoluku Road, Ikeja, I decided to investigate in order to determine if, indeed, the Fire Services were derelict in their duties. Lest anybody labours under the impression that this is an attempt to undertake public relations for the Fire Services, let me declare, right here, that they are reading this column at the same time you are. I never talked to them.

All I did was to go to the scene of the fire accident and, for days, and to interview as many people as possible about the incident. My findings were quite revealing. The men of the Fire Services, on whom we rain curses and maledictions, are sometimes the victims of the environment in which the fire incident occurs.

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“To sleep over problems before they become a crisis is better than lying awake about them afterwards”.

Anonymous. (VANGUARD BOOK OF QUOTATIONS p 201).

hird is the menace of street urchins and robbers, who, once there is fire outbreak, seize the opportunity to dispossess the victims of the fire of the little they manage to save.

The first thing they do is to take strategic positions from which they waylay the fire engines, pelting them with stones and bottles, all in a bid to delay the engines from reaching the inferno.

It is possible that nowhere else in the world do fire fighters have to fight for their lives on the way to the scene of fire and risk their lives again after reaching their destination.

Incidentally, a similar set

Ordinary Nigerians are left exposed and with no system to protect and serve the interest of any law abiding citizens

above the law.

Pardon me for stating the obvious: Our justice is an ass. We have known this all along but we hoped that there are those who are sworn to uphold the law and dispense justice to deter wrong doings and pun-

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nail in the coffin on common decency.

Here is the present situation in Nigeria: the police cannot serve or protect the citizens; our politicians are hell-bent in plundering the national coffers, misappropriating funds meant for

ing left but rubble. o me governments T need to do more to help people who, out of ig-

norance or stupidity endanger their own lives, as well as those of others in this way. Lagos State Ministry of Environment, which admittedly has a whale of a job to do, still needs to do more. There is an urgent need to re-open the lane at Mafoluku and to restore passage to a lot of roads which had been taken over by illegal markets in all the councils. Crying over spilled milk never makes sense; it makes even less sense when we through acts of commission and omission help to spill the milk.

HONOURABLE MINISTER; PLEASE OFFER PROOF OR STUFF IT

“In 2012, the first full year since the pledge, the West African country [Nigeria] produced an additional 8.1 million tones compared with a million target, Akimwunmi Adesina, said”. PUNCH, January 29, 2013, p 23.

Akinwunmi Adesina is, of course, our Minister of Agriculture, who has been going about making this claim without proof or corroboration by any independent institution; not even the Federal Bureau of Statistics. It was only last year that Dr Segun Aganga laid claim to 1.3 million phantom jobs created by the Bank of Industry, BOI. So Adewunmi cannot expect us to believe anything he says without offering proof. And after that balmy idea about ten million phones, some of us are beginning to doubt the man very seriously. Aganga, meanwhile had retired into golden silence. He no

essential services, safe roads, health care, education and maintenance of structures and systems. So the last bastion of legal protection and the defender of law can be bought and it is patently peddling its services to every get rich, disgraceful law breaking common, grand- scale thief.

In Abuja, there was an understandably public outcry to reaction of the two-year sentence for John Yusuf, a former director on the police pension office, who pleaded guilty for stealing N23 billions of N40 billion stolen from the Police Pension fund ( as if the police aren’t in enough trouble already) was staggering, it is shocking the amount that was stolen.Then what happens next could have been the stuff of movies, sadly it was not, the Presiding Justice, Abubakar Talba in his immeasurable wisdom, gave this grand thief a get out of jail card… an option of N750, 000 fine. Of course, the thief took the option, it is nothing to him just loose change. He paid and went home to his illgotten wealth. So who

longer announces jobs created. That is fine by me.

I am waiting, and so are millions of our Fellow Nigerians, for the evidence; otherwise, another Minister will be declared a liar.

He has two weeks.

WHY JONATHAN CAN NEVER PERFORM

“A large staff around a President can waste rather than save his time; and its simple existence can lessen the time he has for quiet thought and independent thought”. Arthur Schleisenger Jr, Adviser to President John Kennedy.

First, when surrounded by too many block-heads, each with his own personal agenda, it is impossible for a president to perform.

Second, when about eighty per cent of a president’s time is taken up by party politics, failure is all but assured. For two weeks, I counted all the newspaper headlines concerning President Jonathan, close to eighty per cent were about Jonathan and his power struggles within the PDP. Why? Is he now PDP President.

Madam Annah Bedwell Passes On, aged 88 years The death has been announced of Madam Annah Abiona Bedwell on December 10, 2012.

She was survived by children and grandchildren among whom are: Mr Rowland Bedwell, Mrs Catherine Bose Woods, Pastor Dele Bedwell, Maureen Tokunbo Bedwell, CEO of Maureen’s Kitchen, Towry Street, Lagos and others.

Burial service will take place on Thursday, February 7th 2013.

Announcer Maureen Tokunbo Bedwell.

Visit website www.delesobowale.com

tells you that crime does not pay? John Yusuf knows so!

What message is this man of the robe sending out to the likes of Yusuf; that crimes pay and it buys legal preferential treatment. Six days prior to the Abuja judgement, an Abeokuta Magistrate Court sentenced 49-year-old, Mustapha Adesina, to two years imprisonment for stealing vegetables worth N5, 000. Adesina had an option of N10, 000 fines.

He was jailed under Section 309 of the Penal Code Act, Cap. 532, Laws of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, Nigeria. The law says Adesina who stole vegetables worth N5,000 is far worse than someone who stole N23 billion, and besides, he was not clever enough. He should have stolen more so that he can buy his freedom with a relative paltry sum.

It is natural for people to act when they have been pushed so far and there is nowhere left to

go. So when pushed to the absolute edge, there are only two options: to fight or flee . They have to fight with whatever is left.

SUNDAY VANGUARD, FEBRUARY 3, 2013, PAGE 11

Wanted in Nigeria: One good hospital Somewhere along the line, a large sign board with the inscription “Specialist” Hospital was erected at the gate of the hospital to signify a change of name from “General” to “Specialist”.

The explanation for the change of name was that the hospital having begun to recruit experts in different fields had to be appropriately redesignated. Later, the sign board changed again as a new title “State Hospitals Management Board” was designed. Much later, the name was

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O

NE vital aspect of Nigeria’s public affairs that is not transparently part of the transformation agenda of government is health care delivery. No one in authority appears to be genuinely interested in it. Indeed, not much happens even in the basic area of primary health care because the local government councils to which the subject is assigned merely pocket the little that their state governors allow them to have of their monthly allocations.

At the state level, those in charge of governance are not conversant with the shape of our public hospitals because they and their families are registered patients of foreign hospitals. Many political leaders at the federal level are similarly so disposed. Consequently, our politicians pay lip service to the nation’s health care delivery system- a feature that has been so for rather too long a time.

As a child, I grew up to know of the popular “General” Hospital in Benin City which was inherited from the colonial administration.

on account of the several deaths occasioned by the poor health system in the city was hardly functional. The story was the same in many other parts of the country. The situation was so bad that the poor state of our hospitals as mere consulting clinics was usually high among the factors which the military put forward to justify their incessant coups.

Unfortunately, civilian governors have since then not been able to place health care delivery as a priority. The late

Those in charge of governance are not conversant with the shape of our public hospitals because they and their families are registered patients of foreign hospitals

changed to “Central” Hospital. All through the transformation, the only change was the name.

The institution remained essentially a prescription writing centre with no drugs, beddings or other basic implements.

Even the mortuary which should have been active

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Rev. Fr. Moses Adasu, a catholic priest who surprisingly won election as Governor of Benue State in 1992 had threatened to convert Government House Makurdi to the State Hospital but was unable to do so because his tenure was cut short by the military. Today’s

PhD, Department of Philosophy, University of Lagos,

The growing cynicism about Nigeria’s future (2) edgeable men and women of integrity and backed by resilient noble traditions and alert citizenry willing to challenge abuse of power in all its ramifications, “democracy” could easily degenerate into kakistocracy. Nothing betrays the arbitrary misuse of office in Nigeria more than the shameful phenomenon of military and civilian heads of state allocating oil

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O give you an idea of the level of offi cial corruption in the country, some estimates suggest that about half a trillion dollars have been stolen from the public treasury by corrupt government officials and unscrupulous business tycoons since 1960. So you can imagine the level of economic development and industrialisation the country would have attained if the money was wisely invested for the benefit of the Nigerian people.

Some self-styled pro-democracy activists naively thought that mere inauguration of civilian government in 1999 would automatically translate into responsible, accountable and transparent leadership, forgetting that the fundamental attitudes of leaders that would emerge and the moral dominant ecology in the country are critical in shaping the exercise of political power – if these critical variables are negative, the rot would continue, albeit under different individuals functioning within the facade of “democratic” institutions and structures.

Moreover, without strong institutions run by knowl-

richer they become the poorer average Nigerians become as well. Keep in mind that allocating vast sums to satisfy the selfish bulimic appetite of members of the executive and the legislature in the three tiers of government is an insidious form of corruption which ensures continuous pauperization of the masses under the smokescreen of legality. Members of the ex-

The country is moving closer and closer towards a financial cliffhanger, except urgent steps are taken right away by government at all levels to minimise financial rascality and corruption

blocks to their relatives and friends, resources belonging to the citizens and which ought to be managed in trust for the welfare of the commonwealth.

The quantum of Nigeria’s wealth stolen by members of the ruling class and their acolytes since 1970 is inversely proportional to the level of development in Nigeria as a whole – the more they steal, the less the country develops. Similarly, the

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ecutive and the legislature at both state and federal levels are overpaid, overfed and overpampered. Nothing portrays the grotesque nature of our “democracy” than the fact that the average Nigerian parliamentarian earns more than his American counterpart. Remember, Nigeria copied the American presidential system of government; so let us briefly compare both countries. In virtually all

Governors would not think of such a thing. Instead each of them would seek to transform his state by building a “New Government House” for himself and a “Presidential lodge” should Mr. President comes on a visit. A typical state governor can easily be hailed as ‘Action Governor” if in addition, he refurbishes a few major roads in the state capital at twice the real cost. No leader thinks of hospitals because there is a conventional preference - ‘oversea’ treatment. This explains why Governor Danbaba Suntai of Taraba State has been in Germany instead of Jalingo since October last year when he was involved in a plane crash. Similarly, Governor Sullivan Chime of Enugu State is reportedly receiving medical treatment in a London hospital. Due to increasing public outcry on absentee leaders, it is no longer easy to know where they are and for what reasons. It is nosy journalists like this writer that use speculations to draw attention to their movements. For example whereas the aides of Governor Liyel Imoke of Cross River State would say that the Governor who has been away from Calabar for awhile is merely on “accumulated” leave, the rumour is that he is undergoing medical treatment abroad .

A confirmation that our political leaders do not see anything wrong with the trend is the solidari-

ty visit which a delegation of the Governors’ forum paid to one of their own - Governor Chime not in Enugu but in London. According to media reports, the delegation which included the Chairman of the Forum, Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers state also had Governors Gabriel Suswam of Benue and Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom states respectively. Although political opponents are more concerned about the politics of the medical travels of Nigerian leaders, such as the length of stay etc, the real concern should be why Nigerian doctors and hospitals are not good enough for those in power.

Again the official statements on the health travels of the leaders are sometimes merely comical. Hence only a skillful person can decode a few of the recent trips of our first lady. Last year, Senate President David Mark made a trip to Israel for medical treatment for an undisclosed ailment. His media assistant later described it as ‘minor’. Obviously, a nation whose leaders patronize foreign hospitals especially for minor ailments is in dire need of a standard hospital. David Mark himself underscored this point when he called on President Jonathan not long ago to declare emergency in our health sector. Mark who spoke at an interactive session of Senators and the partnership for Maternal,

Newborn and Child Health (PMNCH) in Abuja noted that government was committed to the reduction of child and maternal deaths, as Nigeria contributes only 2% to world population and yet accounts for 10% of the global maternal deaths It is however not easy to know if the nation is rich enough to better handle its health care delivery system because of the difference between budgets and actual release of funds. Regrettably, we are yet to hear the response of our heath minister, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu to the request by the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP), for information on how much has been spent on maternal health care delivery system and prevention in the country in the last five years.

It is however good to hear that President Jonathan has promised to provide Nigerians with world-class health facilities.

The President reportedly made the promise through his Vice last week while inaugurating a 150-bed China-Aided Federal Staff Hospital at Jabi, Abuja. Painfully, the President called the institution the NigerianChinese National Hospital. Can we as a nation not afford one standard hospital without outside help? Again, when will the plan to stop our leaders from ‘oversea’ medical treatment take-off?

parameters of socio-economic and political development, the United States is light years ahead of Nigeria. Furthermore, the average American lawmaker outperforms his Nigerian counterpart – how many Nigerian senators can match the prodigious legislative output of President Barack Obama when he was a senator? Therefore, there is no rationale whatsoever behind the obscene emoluments (or more appropriately larceny) of our federal legislators.

Another cause of the growing cynicism about Nigeria’s future is that since 1999 several probes against high profile businessmen and politicians have been carried out by the federal government. But till date the percentage of those indicted and sanctioned is infinitesimally low, a situation that has created distrust in the minds of Nigerians whenever government announces it is going to probe someone or something.

In fact, at the mention of the word “probe,” Nigerians just dismiss it as a silly joke by politicians to deceive them. On the issue of indiscipline and profligacy in governance, Obiageli Ezekwesili, former VicePresident (Africa) at the World Bank and minister in Chief Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration, recently accused both late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua and his successor, Goodluck Jonathan’s regimes of squandering about ten point six trillion naira left in two separate accounts by Obasanjo. Of course, there is no

doubt that Ezekwesili deliberately did not mention the profligacy of her former boss, probably because of residual loyalty. Still she must be commended for her forthright condemnation of brazen profligacy and mindless misappropriation of the country’s oil wealth in the last five years. Nigerians should take Ezekwesili’s assertions seriously for three main reasons. First, having been part of government and World Bank, she is in a vantage position to know what she was talking about. Second, her lamentation further buttresses repeated warnings by the Central Bank governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, that bloated overhead expenditure of the federal government is ruining the country.

Finally, at the current rate of spending by Jonathan’s government (which really is a continuation of Yar’Adua’s regime) Nigeria may soon become bankrupt.

Consequently, the country is moving closer and closer towards a financial cliffhanger, except urgent steps are taken right away by government at all levels to minimise financial rascality and corruption. Now the federal government has rejected Ezekwesili's accusation (which implies unwillingness to admit its mistakes and implement corrective measures). President Jonathan, we are told, is not a reckless spender. However, what happened to the princely sum of forty-five billion dollars in foreign reserve account and another twenty-two billion dollars in excess crude account

which constitute direct savings from crude oil sales, all of which, according to Ezekwesili, Obasanjo’s government handed over to the successor administration in 2007? If Yar ’Adua and especially Jonathan were not as reckless as Ezekwesili says, how come that after inheriting those billions and receiving additional billions of dollars that accrued to the country from 2007 till date an increasing number of Nigerians are becoming poorer, more hopeless and disillusioned about the future?

I am firmly convinced that the present generation of political leaders in Nigeria appears irredeemably corrupt and unpatriotic, because it is so entrenched in bulimic egoism and completely blind to the hard lessons of history.

What Nigeria needs now is a genuine turning point in her historical development led by the educated youth capable of making the right choices with respect to the controlling values that inform both their public and private lives. Anyone who actually thinks that the present leadership and its cash-and-carry parasites parading themselves as political leaders nationwide can trigger the kind of mental and moral revolution Nigeria sorely needs must be living in a cloud cuckoo land. These people, who constitute less than one percent of the population, are unwilling and incapable of moving Nigeria from where it is at the moment to where it ought to be in future.

Concluded.

PAGE 12—SUNDAY

Vanguard, FEBRUARY 3,, 2013

SUNDAY

Vanguard , FEBRUARY 3, 2013, PAGE 13

(TANGO OVER FOREIGN RESERVES)

Former Education Minister, Dr. Obiageli Ezekwesili, kicked up dust when she asked what the Goodluck Jonathan Presidency has done with the $67billion left by former President Olusegun Obasanjo. The dust is yet to settle as both the Obasanjo and Jonathan camps have been charging at each other. In the following articles, Femi Fani-Kayode, who worked closely with Obasanjo, and Dr. Reuben Abati, President Jonathan’s adviser on publicity, square up.

Ezekwesili, Jonathan and the $67b question, by Fani-Kayode tion were capable of enduring the rigours of serious economic recovery, prudence and fiscal discipline.

As far as the developed world was concerned Nigeria was only good for it's endless supply of sweet bonny light crude oil. Yet Obasanjo proved the world wrong and showed that Nigerians could do far better than they thought. After eight years of good stewardship and the display of fiscal discipline and remarkable prudence he built up those foreign reserves from a measly and pitiful 1.5 billion USD in 1999 to no less than 45 billion by 2007. This was quite an achievement yet sadly what took place after Obasanjo left power was very disheartening. It was not only a downer but it was also sad and unfortunate. I say this because by the Federal Governments own admission, and four long years after leaving 45 billion USD for the Yar’adua administration to build on in 2007, we still only have that same figure of 45 billion USD left in our foreign reserves today.

Worse still this was after it had plummeted to a shameful 30 billion USD under late President Umaru Yar Adua.

Had it not been for the fact that whatever was coming in after we left in 2007 and over the last 4 years was being recklessly shared and spent by the

knew anything about prudence, good management and fiscal discipline.

The difference is that under Obasanjo it was ”save, save, save” whilst under Yar ’adua and later Jonathan it has been ”spend, spend, spend’. Yet if they insist on spending the question is what do they have to show for such high expenditure and what has this cost the Nigerian people in real terms. I believe that these are legitimate questions. Mrs. Ezekwesili may have been inelegant or a little too harsh in her use of words when she made those weighty assertions in her speech but her analysis and conclusions surely cannot be faulted. Yet the Government has given no reasonable explanation or response to her or the Nigerian people and they do not even appear to like the fact that questions are being asked.

As a matter of fact they appear to believe that it is an achievement for us to be exactly where we were four years ago in terms of our foreign reserves by openly boasting that we have 45 billion USD saved today. The questions that we should put to them are as follows - did you not save anything in the last 4 years in either foreign reserves or the Excess Crude Account?

Where did all the money that accrued to you and that you ought to have saved go? How come 4 years after being handed 45 billion in foreign reserves and after billions have come into your hands through record price crude oil sales you still only have 45 billion saved? Is this not strange and absurd?

Is this the way a responsive and responsible government ought to behave? Do they know the true meaning of ''saving for a rainy day''?

I

t is not surprising that the Prime Minister of Great Britain, The Right Honorable David Cameron, asked just a few days ago where the 100 billion USD that Nigeria received from oil sales in the last few years has gone. Would our Government be good enough to answer his question and tell him even if they feel that they don't Fani-Kayode Olusegun Obasanjo owe the Nigerian people themselves an explanation? As far as I am concerned it is not something that our think that it is a pity that Presi and 2013 cannot be convincingly or government should be proud of that 4 dent Goodluck Jonathan's Gov logically denied. In 2007, President years after Obasanjo handed 45 bilernment declined to take up the Olusegun Obasanjo left 45 billion USD lion USD to them as savings in forchallenge of the former Minister of in our foreign reserves and 22 billion eign reserves they have not built on it Education, Mrs. Obiageli Ezekwesili, USD in our Excess Crude Account. If in all that time but rather they have to a public debate on the $67billion the two figures are added up the spent all the receivables and inflows USD savings that President Obasanjo amount that you will come up with is that came in after that time and that left behind in 2007. I do not think that 67 billion USD of savings for our counought to have been saved. our government ought to have run try. This is the figure that Obiageli Yet the story does not stop there. It away from the debating ring. Govern- Ezekwesili cited. It represents what gets worse. Apart from the sorry tale ment ought to have accepted the chal- was in both our foreign reserves and about our foreign reserves, the story lenge of a rigorous public about the usage and outright debate and allow the Nigedraining of our Excess Crude I sincerely hope that other than the usual insults, rian people to listen to it and Account is even more damning. make up their own minds It goes like this. When President intimidation, sponsored stories, persecution and baseless about who was right and who Obasanjo left power in 2007 the allegations that are channeled against and heaped on some was wrong. I thought that the Excess Crude Account had just response of the Special Assisover 22 billion USD in it’s cofof us the Federal Government will endeavour to change it's tant to the President On Pubfers. This figure was built up by ways and display a greater degree of fiscal discipline lic Affairs, Dr. Doyin Okupe, Obasanjo from zero in 1999 beto Obiageli Ezekwesili was cause at that time there was more logical and made far no Excess Crude Account. In more sense than that of the Honorable our Excess Crude Account put together. Yar’adua and later Jonathan adminis- 8 years he built it up from zero to Let us look at the history. When Presi- trations our foreign reserves ought to 2 2 b i l l i o n U S D . Ye t w h e n t h e Minister of Information, Labaran Maku's, but I still believe that dent Olusegun Obasanjo came to have doubled and reached at least 100 Yara’dua administration and later Ezekwesili was right. I believe that the power in 1999 Nigeria only had 1.5 billion US dollars by now. That is just the Jonathan administration came government's position on this issue billion USD in her foreign reserves and the foreign reserves alone and I am in ALL the money in that account and it's attempt to over-aggressively consequently no-one in the world took not even adding the Excess Crude w a s s h a r e d w i t h t h e s t a t e defend what I personally consider to us seriously. We were poor, weak and Account figures yet. If I were to do that governors and spent. be the indefensible is not only disin- lonely and we were viewed as a failed I would be talking about an expected The Federal Government saved genuous but it is also essentially dis- state and a pariah nation. No-one increase of up to 150 billion USD by nothing for a rainy day and instead trusted us, no-one wanted to do busi- today. That is what we ought to have chose to just spend all the money. honest and self-seeking.

The charge that our foreign reserves ness with us and no-one seriously be- in the savings kitty today if the two were heavily depleted between 2007 lieved that we as a people or as a na- governments that succeeded Obasanjo

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PAGE 14—SUNDAY

Vanguard , FEBRUARY 3,, 2013

Face-Off

(TANGO OVER FOREIGN RESERVES)

The hypocrisy of yesterday’s men – Reuben Abati A

loosely bound group of yesterday’s men and women seems to be on the offensive against the Jonathan administration. They pick issues with virtually every effort of the administration, pretending to do so in the public interest; positing that they alone, know it all. Arrogantly, they claim to be better and smarter than everyone else in the current government. They are ever so censorious, contrarian and supercilious. They have no original claim to their pretensions other than they were privileged to have been in the corridors of power once upon a time in their lives. They obviously got so engrossed with their own sense of importance they began to imagine themselves indispensable to Nigeria. It is dangerous to have such a navel-gazing, narcissistic group inflict themselves with so much ferocity on an otherwise impressionable public. We are in reality dealing with a bunch of hypocrites.

With exceptions so few, they really don’t care about Nigeria as a sovereign but the political spoils that accrue from it. And so they will stop at nothing to discredit those they think are not as deserving as they imagine themselves to be. President Jonathan has unfairly become the target of their pitiable frustrations.

Underneath their superfluous appearance, lies an unspoken class disdain directed at the person and office of a duly elected president of the country. It is a Nigerian problem, perhaps. In the same advanced societies which these same yesterday men and women often like to refer to, public service is seen and treated as a privilege. People are called upon to serve; they do so with humility and great commitment, and when it is all over, they move on to other things. The quantity surveyor returns to his or her quantity surveying or some other decent work; the lawyer to his or her wig and gown; the university teacher, to the classroom, glad to have been found worthy of national service. When and where necessary, as private citizens they are entitled to use the benefit of this experience to contribute to national development, they speak up on matters of public importance not as a full-time job as is the case in Nigeria currently.

What then, is the problem with us? As part of our governance evolution, most people become public servants by accident, but they soon get so used to the glamour of office that they lose sight of their own ordinariness. They use the system to climb: to become media celebrities, to gain international attention and to morph into self-appointed guardians of the Nigerian estate. They mask self interest motives as public causes and manipulate the public’s desire for improvements in their daily struggles as opportunity for power grab.

They are perpetually hanging around, lobbying and hustling for undeserved privileges. They exploit ethnic and religious connections where they can or join political parties and run for political office. They even write books (I, me and myself books, packaged as cerebral stuff); if that still doesn’t work, they lobby newspaper houses for columns to write and they become apostolic pundits pontificating on matters ranging from the nebulous to the nondescript. Power blinds them to the reality that we are all in this together and we have a unique opportunity to do well for the taxpayers and hardworking electorate that provide every public official the privilege to serve.

Unsatisfied with the newspaper columns, they open social media accounts and pre-

President Goodluck Jonathan

tend to be voices of wisdom seeking to cultivate an angry crowd which they feed continually with their own brand of negativity.

They arrange to give lectures at high profile events where they abuse the government of the day in order to gain attention and steal a few minutes in the sun; hoping to force an audience that may ‘open doors’ for them, back into the corridors of power.

These characters are in different sizes and shapes: small, big; Godfathers, agents, proxies. The tactics of the big figures on this rung of opportunism may be slightly different. They parade themselves as a Godfather or kingmaker or the better man who

Reuben Abati

stop hallucinating. The former Ministers, former Governors, former DGs, and all sorts who have been busy quoting mischievous figures, spreading cruel propaganda must be reminded that the Jonathan administration is in fact trying to clean up the mess that they created. They want to own the game when the ball is not in their possession. They want to be the referee when nobody has offered them a whistle. They seek to play God, forgetting that the case for God is not in the hands of man. One of the virtues of enlightenment is for persons to have a true perspective of their own location in the order of things. What they do not seem

rian Railway Corporation is up and running as a service organization. The rail lines have become functional from Lagos to Kano; Ewekoro to Minna, and very soon, from Port Harcourt to Maiduguri, Abuja to Kaduna and Lagos to Ibadan. They couldn’t do this in their time, now they are busy looking for money that is not missing with their teeth. When questions are asked, they claim they invented the ideas of due process and accountability. They once promised to solve the crisis of electricity supply in Nigeria. But what did they do? They managed to leave the country in darkness with less than 2,000 MW; abandoned independent power projects, mismanaged power stations, and uncompleted procurement processes. The mess was so bad their immediate successors had to declare an emergency in the power sector. It has taken President Jonathan to make the difference. Today, there is greater coherence in the management of the power sector with power supply in excess of 4, 200 MW; a better conceived power sector road map is running apace, and the administration is determined to make it better.

T

hey complain about the state of the roads. Most of the contracts were actually awarded under their watch to the tune of billions! They talk about corruption, yet many of them have thick case files with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, the courts and the police on corruption-related charges. One of them was even accused of having awarded choice plots of government land to himself, his wives, his companies and other relations when he was in charge of such allocations!

Really, have we forgotten so soon?

These yesterday men and women certainly don’t seem to care very much about the Nigerian taxpayer who has had to bear the brunt of the many scandals this administration is exposing in its bid to clear out the Augean stable. They’d rather grandstand with the exGeneral this, Chief that, Doctor this and ex(dis)Honourable Minister who has no record of what he or she did with the funds the nation provided them to deliver results to protect our interest so that we don’t end up continuing to make the same wasteful mistakes.

It is enough to make you shudder at the thought of any of them being part of government with access to the public purse; but then we’ve already seen what some of them are capable of doing when in control of public money, authority and influence; and to that the people have spoken in unison – they have had enough. Nigerians are wiser and are now familiar with the trickery from these persons whose claim to fame and fortune was on the back of their public service.

Our point at the risk of overstating what is by now too obvious: We have too many yesterday men and women behaving too badly. We are dealing with a group of powerpoint technocrats who have mastered the rhetoric of public grandstanding: carefully crafted emotion-laden sound bites passed off as meaningful engagements. That is all there is to them, after many years of hanging around in relevant places and mingling in the right corridors, all made possible through the use/abuse of Nigeria. Our caveat to their audience is the same old line: let the buyer beware!

They talk about corruption, yet many of them have thick case files with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, the courts and the police on corruption-related charges. Those who believe that no one else can run Nigeria without them must be told to stop hallucinating should have been king. They suffer of course, from messianic delusions. The fact that they boast of some followership and the media often treats them as icons, makes their nuisance factor worse. They and their protégés and proxies are united by one factor though: their hypocrisy.

It is in the larger interest of our country that the point be made that the government of the day welcomes criticism and political activism. This is an aspect of our emergent democracy that expands on the growing freedom of expression, thought and association but there is need for caution and vigilance, lest we get taken hostage by the architects of odious disinformation. Nigerians must not allow any group of individuals to hold this country to ransom and no one alone should appropriate the right to determine what is best for Nigeria. The accidental public servants who have turned that privilege into a life-long obsession and profession must be told to go get a life and find meaningful work to do.

Those who believe that no one else can run Nigeria without them must be told to

to realise or accept is that the political climate has changed.

When one of them was in charge of this same estate called Nigeria, he shut down the Port Harcourt airport and other airports for close to two years under the guise of renovation. The Port Harcourt airport was abandoned for so long it was overgrown with weeds after serving for months as a practice ground for motoring schools. It was reopened without any improvement and with so much money down the drain, and the pervasive suspicion that the reason it was shut down in the first place was to create a market for a new airline that had been allowed the monopoly use of the other airport in the city.

Under President Jonathan, airports across the country are being upgraded, rebuilt and modernized; in less than two years, the transformation is self-evident. Perhaps the greatest hypocrisy from our see-no-good commentators comes from the one who superintended over the near-collapse of the aviation sector who is now audacious enough to claim to be a social critic.

For the first time since 1999, the Nige-

Dr. Abati is Special Adviser (Media and Publicity) to President Goodluck Jonathan

SUND AY SUNDA

Vanguard, FEBRUARY 3, 2013, PAGE 15

zObi...The Bible says, first of all, that when the righteous people are in government, there will be progress and there will be peace

BY BASHIR ADEFAKA

A

s the deputy national chair man of the Peoples Democrat ic Party (PDP) and an associate of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, Chief Olabode Ibiyinka George, a retired navy commodore, bestrode the south-west PDP like a colossus. Severally, he went on collision with the Alliance for Democracy (AD) government in Lagos, his home state, under the leadership of Ashiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu. Then he fell from grace to grass after he was convicted of fraud while he was the chairman of the Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA). In this interview, Bode George tells the story of his imprisonment which he attributes to politics. Excerpts: Let’s start by looking at why you always say there can never be peace in a state of injustice. Something must have informed that.

I will look at what has informed it in two folds: One, from my own experience and, two, from the Holy Book. The Bible says, first of all, that when the righteous people are in government, there will be progress and there will be peace. But if you have it reversed and you have the evil one in government, there won’t be peace. And so I have looked at it from my experience, to see that once there is no justice in the land, anywhere, there will never be peace.

We don’t need to go too far to understand the depth of what I’m saying where you have people who are to manage the resources for the better-

Why Obasanjo’s comments about me were very annoying,

by Bode George •Imprisonment: I am taking my case before the people ment of the people, who are entrusted with the management of the resources and what you find in return is acquisition; senseless acquisition; thoughtless acquisition. Nobody came into this world with any mansion and nobody will go back with any mansion.

So, whatever it is that you have, when you have few that is okay and there are people at the baseline, who can’t even think of what to do, where to go, how to get there, yet you are privileged to put things in place to better their lot and you fail to do so, it is injustice to the people and there can’t be peace under such situation.

Take the Arab Spring scenario for instance. Remember it started in Tunisia and I have been to that country where they had a very powerful civilian president who was totalitarian. In fact, the fear of his name alone was the beginning of wisdom. It took just the

anger in a young graduate who struggled and could not get a job. And he bought a cart, pulling it and selling wears; and then the police came, arrested him and took the cart away from him. Just like what you see in the streets of Lagos. And he became angry and frustrated. He was really angered by that and he poured petrol on himself and set himself on fire. That was the beginning of the Arab Spring and it hasn’t died down.

I am saying this to the privileged, wealthy Nigerians. Let us be our brothers’ keepers. The masses are getting to a point that it will be difficult to tolerate what is happening..

Don’t you see the hands of the Federal Government in the things that can push Nigerians to this point?

People are always looking at President Jonathan as being responsible for

t h e s e p r o b l e m s . T h e y s a y, ’ a h , Jonathan has not done this, he has not done that’. He cannot do everything.

What he is supposed to do to every state and every local government, he has done every month; sharing the resources for the benefit of the people at the local governments and states. It is left to the people at the state level to ensure that they lift up the people under their care, same at the local governments. So many of them are doing it but some are not.

For instance, in my state (Lagos), how many scholarships are being instituted for the children of the underprivileged? You seized their motorcycles (Okada), you drove them away from their means of livelihood. What alternatives have you provided for them or are they not supposed to live?

But you are there because those people voted for you to manage their resources for them. They are your leaders, not you their leader. You are a servant-leader. But what are the people getting?

You see, a tree cannot make a forest.

In the old Yoruba parlance, they say “Oba kan otosi mejila” (meaning, one

Continues on page 16

P AGE 16—SUND AY PA 16—SUNDA

Vanguard, FEBRUARY 3,, 2013

Continued from page 15 king twelve poor). No, that is not the essence of living. And unless there is a deliberate policy of the government of the state to lift the standard of living of the people, they are heading for hell that will come.

We have most of the best governors whose states are making good money turning their states into paradise. Go to Akwa Ibom, go to Rivers, Delta.

And the Federal Government is implementing SURE-P. What is my state (Lagos) doing?

Making life impossible for the people? Is that why they voted for you? If somebody entrusted you to manage the resources on his behalf and you now turn around to make the man a slave, even if you can get away with it because of judicial rascality, God will not allow you to do it.

2013 is a track balancing year before we head on to the 2015.

Everybody must have a thorough retrospection that no, “Is this right? Will I be able to defend this before my creator?”

What about those who contorted the so-called NPA case against us?

A

nd what about that?

I mean what is your true story because the NPA issue has remained a subject of argument despite the striking out of your appeal on the judgment?

It would be a subject of argument because we were charged. Now we have taken our case to the people because, vox populi vox dei, the voice of the people is the voice of God. What were we charged for?

What were the charges? One, that we disobeyed Federal Government circular. There is no criminal law against that at the federal level. Our enemies provided their own law in Lagos State that we disobeyed Federal Government circular and so a law made by Lagos State House of Assembly was now applied against us; federal officers, part-time chairman of NPA. I disobeyed Federal Government circular?

Isn’t that a joke? Even the state attorney-general, Dapo Sasore, who is married to my cousin, now gave the then Federal Attorney-General, Andoakaa, fiat to try Bode George.

The second charge was that we split contract. In his judgment, he said, yes, he agreed that we didn’t do it directly but vicariously that we gave the people the plan of what we wanted, that they did it in a department and to the Board.

The man who presented the memo to the board was not even arrested. The contractors were not brought. Nobody was

zGeorge...I was in public service for a quarter of a century

`Why Obasanjo’s comments about me were very annoying’ b r o u g h t t o s a y, y e s , w e benefited from the contract or any of the members who owned the company. But in their judicial wisdom, we were sent to jail. Let Nigerians judge.

I was in civil service for over a quarter of a century, over 25 years. I served at a high level and retired as a general (commodore in the Navy). I have been in public service all my years. I had a lot of exposure, thanks to this beautiful country that gave me the opportu-

made by Sokoto State and be put in prison. Let them think.

And as long as there is injustice in the land, there would never be peace.

They wanted to drown Bode George. The political achievement that I have garnered which they are envying me for is as a result of a mission, not my personal mission. We will liberate our people from the hands of these people.

But before we get of this, the Federal Government circular in question, which they said

Is NPA under Lagos State government? So, tomorrow, this same Oyewole can be arraigned in Sokoto on the laws made by Sokoto State and be put in prison.

Let them think. And as long as there is injustice in the land, there would never be peace nity to have been to so many colleges; internationally renowned colleges, to know what formulation and execution of policies are all about. I had managed a state at that level to understand the legislative arm of a federated system. The state assembly made a law for their public officers.

B u t L a g o s St a t e j u d i c i a r y, Oyewole in particular, now expanded that public officers to mean federal public officers.

I s N PA u n d e r L a g o s St a t e government? So, tomorrow, this same Oyewole can be arraigned in Sokoto on the laws

you disobeyed, what was it actually about?

The circular was about the expenditure level. There was a law; 1991 Decree where the managing director of NPA, barring all other process in his office, can award up to N10 million; the executive directors can award up to N5 million; all of them sitting together as management can award up to N20 million or N25 million and then the Board N50 million.

They now said there was a circular in 2001 which never came to us because it bore the stamp of the Federal Ministry

of Water Resources. If it was meant for NPA, it would bear the stamp of the Federal Ministry of Transport and the Minister of Transport by the Act of NPA is the legitimate minister who can direct the NPA because the NPA is not just an organ, it is like transient parastatal. After NNPC, NPA is next.

This is the same parastatal we put in place, conceptualised and recommended the new operational scheme; where there is a concession, given to established companies to manage the operations of the terminals on behalf of the NPA. The amount of money the N PA m a k e s f r o m t h a t operation from little inputs is almost one thousand percent of what they were making before we did it; the same Board.

Today, we are being vilified.

Today we are culprits because they said we split contract.

Which contract?

The Board’s minutes are so clear: Some firms were recommended to be awarded the contract but we gave the job to the company that quoted the lowest. We didn’t cut it into two. So he (Oyewole) said ‘vicariously’. There was no proof of any benefit. He just pronounced us guilty because we must be sent to prison. Yes, they think they achieved their aim but they are not God. And God is God of vengeance.

But I, personally, because when they criminalise your name, they label you, they want to sink you. They didn’t create me. They didn’t create my family. They should go into record and find out ‘Who is Bode George?’ ‘Where does he

come from?’ Both from my father and mother in this Lagos, let them find out their names.

B

ut what happened when you were said to be celebrating criminality upon your release from prison and the whole place was agog just for you?

They said you mobilised people. Realising it was in the course of politics that you had the problem, what is your reaction to that and did that in any way demoralise you from wanting to continue to play in the field?

What is criminal in what I did? How could I have mobilised them? The people knew the truth. The News Magazine was the first to come out that Bode George was involved in N100 billion contract scam. We sued them but we didn’t know that was the beginning.

Nobody will plant evil and reap goodness. You will not plant cassava and reap cocoa yam.

What you plant you will reap.

We h a v e g o n e a n d c o m e back. We are taking our case now before the Nigerian people. Some of my friends like Dele Sobowale who wrote a lot of scraps about the story; scrap! I’m so sorry for him. I’m saying this in the public now.

When I read his report in his column when I was in prison, I shed tears for him, that ah, Et tu Brute, You too, Dele Sobowale! You who know my background? You who know where I come from and yet you got sunk into this nonsense bunch of people? Have they been able to help him?

You are Atona Oodua, crying woes of marginalisation by Federal Government under President Goodluck Jonathan. As a man at the centre of activities up there,

Continues on page 17

SUNDAY

Continued from page 16 where do you think things got wrong and what is the way out?

You know we are where we are because it is self-inflicted.

Nobody created it for us.

Jonathan did not create it but we created the madness. We played God and nobody plays God and survives. I believe that we have learnt our lesson. The fake Awoists led by Bola Tinubu who suddenly took over and said they were playing Yoruba politics, they don’t even understand who the Yorubas are.

Knowing from the background of what those founding fathers - Papa Awolowo, Papa Ajasin, Anthony Enahoro and all those others conceptualised in 1951 in Owo, Ondo State; that template that was unveiled at that time is as good today as it was at that time. These guys don’t even understand what democracy is all about.

`I am taking my case before the people’

Vanguard, FEBRUARY 3, 2013, PAGE 17

tain and be railroaded into the worst of the valley, you need the grace of the Almighty God to survive. So, I thank God. And then on daily basis the people who visited, the people who came, you couldn’t be bribing them. I didn’t bribe anybody. They came on their own volition throughout the period I was in prison and the

W

hat is democracy?

It is the manage ment of the resources for the benefit of the people because, democratising means allowing people to choose, allowing people to vote for you to manage their resources and affairs on their behalf. Everybody can’t be manager. Many people go to campaign and they think you are the best candidate who can give them what they want and so they picked you by votes.

But people have now learnt that reverse is the case. Are these people voted into power really managing the resources for the benefits of those people? People have now seen that they are only managing the resources for their own benefits. You can see their acquired mansions; the turns and turns of houses and landed properties, acquiring A, B, C D all over the place. Here in Lagos for instance, they have been acquiring facilities that are meant for the benefits of the people. What happened to the Nursing Hostel? What happened to the land that was supposed to be used for General Hospital for the Lekki Peninsular people? Have they built a General Hospital on the Lekki belt? Bola has acquired them. To do what? How many scholarships have they given to people? To me, people are getting impatient because we have a lot of highly educated people. No scholarship, no bursary, the university fees are shot into the sky, the children of the poor – and he came from that background – have no future. That is injustice and then how can there be peace?

Everybody just shout Jonathan. What is Jonathan’s

used for Bode George.

When the EFCC chairman at that time, Mrs Farida Waziri, said her major achievement was that she sent Bode George to jail, what was your feeling and reaction?

I laughed at her. Now she is out of office. If she is strong enough and she is bold enough, let her come for a debate. Now we go to the public domain. Achievement?

We have records of what she did. Why was she removed unceremoniously from office?

She convicted Bode George and she thought that’s a pride? Intellectually, morally, we can’t meet. She went to War College from the police.

The fellow who was her teacher there was my own student.

I didn’t even know this woman until she met me and introduced herself to me in the Villa. Now she is no longer there. Let her come for a debate, public debate to discuss this issue.

I

zGeorge ... all the reports are in the public domain

I was very annoyed about the comment made by Baba after I was released from prison. How could I hold a thanksgiving to God over my release and people said I was celebrating criminality? business about Lagos State?

If he does not give them their allocation on a monthly basis, then you can screw him up.

Promptly they get their allocations.

There is this talk about Obasanjo’s hands in your travails at that time. How did it get to that point and how can you two move Yoruba and Nigeria forward?

I played my part. It was a privilege to work with Baba at a time and I believe, personally, anybody can say whatever he likes, but I played my role. As a Christian, I leave the rest to God Almighty to judge. I never undermined anybody.

Yes, I was very annoyed about the comment made by Baba after I was released from prison. How could I hold a thanksgiving to God over my

release and people said I was celebrating criminality? The fact that the people always rallied round me was a pointer to the kind of person I am and that was what kept me going. In my active service in the military, I attained and remained a general (commodore) because I had soldiers under my command and around me. When I look back and see people behind and around me, it keeps me going because if you don’t have people who would remain resolute with you passing through this kind of experience, except it is a blessing of the Almighty God, you would have crumbled. You wouldn’t have survived.

To have come from your background, from experience, from the highest office in the land, from the topmost moun-

place became like a Mecca. I didn’t create it and I’m sure that those who convolutedly conspired to do it, if they knew it was going to turn out that way, they probably wouldn’t have done it.

Because of what? What did we do? The people are not stupid. That’s why I said vox populi vox dei, that the voice of the people is the voice of the Almighty God. They knew: disobedience of Federal Government circular was now criminalised by the law of Lagos State government.

Aje ke l’ana omo ku l’eni.

Tani ko mo pe Aje t’oku l’ana l’opo t’oku leni? (A witch moaned yesterday and a baby died today. Who doesn’t know the witch is responsible for his death?). That is the issue.

What is the business of Bode George as NPA Board chairman with Lagos State government law? And Sasore, the state attorney-general, now gave the federal attorney-general, Andoakaa, fiat to prosecute Bode George. Andoakaa could not prosecute because he knew he didn’t have the law. A circular that is not about a strong issue. It was an administrative function. And this law created by Lagos State has never been used for anybody. It was meant to be

told you that the report now is in public domain.

Let them go and read the judgment and the charges. I now know that someday they will go to one state, use the law there to prosecute and put her in the cooler. She is lucky that President Jonathan is a coolheaded leader who is godly and so doesn’t want to witch-hunt people. Mrs Hillary Clinton, as the United States of America’s Secretary of State, came to Nigeria and publicly said that these are not the kinds of character that should be in that office.

Wasn’t that what she said?

About Andoakaa, the American government also joined issues with him and they withdrew the visa, which they gave him. The SAN body disrobed him. Did I cause that?

He sat down there as the chief law officer of the federation and now subverted the law of this country. Because I was a part-time chairman of a federal parastatal, because my greatest enemy politically is in Lagos, they now brought me, made a law and then Sasore, who is married to my cousin, now decided to give Andoakaa fiat to prosecute me and he went ahead to do so.

What a charade!

I’m saying it publicly now because all the reports are in the public domain! They are not going to gain anything.

What we do today will judge us tomorrow. I have gone and I’ve come back and they have not reduced one pin from me.

But I would say it, I would mention it and I would shout it on the rooftop so that the future generation will know those who are genuinely interested in the upliftment of this country.

PAGE 18—SUNDAY

Vanguard, FEBRUARY 3, 2013

Diary of an ex-militant kingpin in the creeks

I was like a walking corpse for two years *’Why we withheld information on Gen Togo’s death’ the worst. I never thought that one day; I could regain my freedom. I am now enjoying my freedom, I meet with JTF officials often, and we talk and have fun.

What is your new resolution?

Any intention to go back to the

,

I do not know where to start.

The only hope I have is God and my university certificate, which nobody can take away from me. Whether Amnesty Office disappoints me or not, I will dust my certificate because I am a professional

,

...Reason for militancy not yet addressed

BY EMMA AMAIZE, Regional Editor, South-South

“

CAPTAIN” Mark Anthony was the spokesperson for the Niger-Delta Liberation Force, NDLF, a defunct militant group, led by “General” John Togo who was killed in a bombardment by the Joint Task Force, JTF, on Niger-Delta in 2010. Togo initially accepted amnesty in 2009, but reneged when he returned to the creeks to wage a fresh oil war. He, however, did not live to tell the tale and, because of his action, the Post-Amnesty Office, Abuja did not enlist his boys, who surrendered thereafter in the postamnesty programme, until lately, when the Federal Government reviewed its position. Anthony, now breathing an air of freedom, spoke to Sunday Vanguard in Warri on his days in the creeks, how he escaped the manhunt by the JTF in which his boss, Togo, paid the ultimate prize, and his new resolve.

Y

ou were reported to have been fatally injured and flown abroad secretly by a prominent Niger-Deltan after you were injured in the bombardment on Israel Barracks of the defunct NDLF, in 2010. How did you C M Y K

survive?

Which prominent Niger Delta indegene is that and which country did I escape to?

Our major problem then was not JTF, but our Ijaw people, who wanted all of us dead.

They were our problem. My protection was not because I was too intelligent or flown abroad, but let me tell you the secret of being alive today.

Until this final pardon by Mr. President, God covered me in his bosom and, as a Christian, I believe in the power of God. So, while we were in the creeks, I did not believe in those charms they hung around their necks. However, for the fact that you had no choice, you had to tie and drink whatever charm they passed over to you.

Nevertheless, to answer your question, my being alive is a miracle and I have given the testimony in my church. I was like a walking corpse for two years, without calls from anybody apart from my organization members. My parents hardly called me on my usual phone and, most times, my line was switched- off and they did not know the reason why it was usually off. I used three or four SIM cards a month, the more I felt my SIM was being tracked by security agencies, the more I destroyed the SIM cards. These went along with the modems for my laptop. It was a special operation and I was ready for

creeks after the state pardon whenever the time arises?

(Laughter) Do you know why I am laughing? Your question amused me. Are you asking me to go and commit suicide or drink poison? Did you not hear when I said I am enjoying my freedom? Besides, I have sworn to an oath with the Bible with the Federal Government never to go back to militancy or any kind of violence to create insecurity in the country.

Although what happened in the last two years was similar to a suicide mission, I will never try it again. However, for the fact that the things that made us to go to the creeks have not been achieved, I will not abandon the intellectual advocacy for the betterment of Niger-Deltans, which is through non-violence.

‘My wife eloped with my children’ Let me tell you, do you know that after two years of hiding in the creeks, I lost almost everything I had; my wife abandoned me and got married to another man? I do not know where my three kids are. I do not know where to start. The only hope I have is God and my university certificate, which nobody can take away from me.

Whether Amnesty Office disappoints me or not, I will dust my certificate because I am a professional.

On official pardon

H

owever, I thank Mr. President for granting all John Togo’s NDLF men official pardon. I also commend the present National Security Adviser, NSA, Sambo Dasuki, and the Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta Affairs and Chairman, Post-Amnesty Programme, PAP, Hon Kingsley Kuku, who recommended to Mr. President that General John Togo’s boys should be granted amnesty and Mr. President endorsed it. I also commend Ijaw national leader, Chief E.K. Clark, and President, Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, who also pleaded with Mr. President to grant NDLF members pardon.

My gratitude also goes to Delta State Governor, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan, who directed the Secretary to the State Government, SSG, Comrade Macaulay Ovuozorie, to hold series of meetings with the leadership of NDLF before the final arms surrender/ disarmament in Delta State and instant payment of stipend to solve our immediate rent problem after leaving the city for two years. I particularly laud the courage of the SSG, who exhibited good leadership and leadership by managing us until the final day of arms surrender on behalf of the Federal Government of Nigeria.

I use this opportunity to thank every other person who contributed towards the success of the NDLF state pardon.

Community shuts out exmilitants I am appealing also to the community executive of Ayakoromo town not to make things difficult for members of NDLF, who hail from that town.

The boys are complaining to me that the community shuns them for participating in militancy and that they should pay fine before they would be allowed to live in the community. I want to appeal on behalf of my organization to the leadership of the community to embrace the boys, as they have taken an oath with the Federal Government to turn to a new leaf. These boys living in exile may not help matters in the future. I urge the Delta State government and JTF authorities to intervene in the matter.

Iexclusively got information that your late

boss, John Togo, was killed in the JTF’s 2010 bombardment, unknown to the soldiers, who carried out the raid, but when I got in touch with you, you denied the information. Why did you lie to me then?

It was not Capt. Mark Anthony ’s sole decision to keep the news of the death of General John Togo out of public knowledge. It was the decision of the entire leadership. In Ijaw culture, when prominent persons die, the subjects withhold the news from the ears of neighboring villages. It is some privileged persons that are privy to such information and NDLF had not done anything strange by keeping the news of his demise. General John Togo was to us a hero and now a martyr, so it is in line with our culture. He was a great warrior and freedom fighter of the Niger Delta Republic, declared by the late Isaac Adaka-Boro. It would have amounted to an abomination for us to declare the news of John Togo’s death on the pages of the newspapers, just 24 hours after his death.

That means we, his foot soldiers, did not give him the desired respect at death.

However, I can tell you that John Togo is not dead because his boys are alive and the record he created remains forever.

‘Why Togo returned to the creeks’ The government of Nigeria got all the ex-generals after the 2009 amnesty by the late President Yar’Adua to say all was well in Niger Delta, but John Togo proved both the Federal Government and those ex-militant generals wrong. He maintained that the amnesty was a political amnesty and a deceit to the people of Niger Delta and the world has seen the record.

It is only Federal Government and the oil companies that are benefitting from the amnesty programme. What I am saying is that he did not die for nothing; he died like every other hero, like Isaac Boro and Ken Saro-Wiwa. It is only men without vision that die, men with great vision and achievement never die. We are appealing to Mr. President to release the corpse of our leader, John Togo, to enable us give him a befitting burial for his ghost Continues on page 19

SUNDAY

Vanguard, FEBRUARY 3, 2013 — PAGE 19

‘My wife eloped with children during struggle’ Continued from page 18 to rest in peace.

T

he Delta SSG raised the alarm, last month, that your men did not surrender all the arms in their possession.

What really happened?

No, NDLF surrendered all arms/ammunition in its possession. The Delta SSG position was not wrong and he made a good observation based on the security report available to him. However, what he did not know was that NDLF was a joint force from different parts of Niger Delta.

We, sometime ago, raised the alarm that we lost a large quantity of arms to a militant commander who was in the Bayelsa wing. He latched on the delay of Federal Government to disarm NDLF promptly to break into our armory and made away with a cache of sophisticated weapons, such as RPGs, GPMGs and other mortars. He went away with these arms, recruited fresh boys and formed a militant camp. He then called me to announce him as successor to John Togo to continue the arms struggle where John Togo stopped.

Nevertheless, I told him no and that the NDLF had surrendered, and, again, that he was not the most senior in rank to succeed John Togo. By hierarchy of NDLF, the person to succeed John Togo was Peter Doloebiwei. I warned him to return our weapons to us, but he refused and, at last, he collaborated with MEND and championed MEND’s fight. The militant commander was a good fighter; he exhibited his potency of arms management, but he died with all our heavy weapons in one of his encounters with JTF in Bayelsa creek, which was why NDLF’s arms was reduced.

Even at that, we submitted awesome weapons that deserve applause from government. This is because if those weapons remained in the hands of civilians, it portends a great danger tomorrow. Therefore, the Delta State government did a good thing by taking the courage to disarm the dreaded NDLF on behalf of the Federal Government.

Are you satisfied with the level of development in Niger Delta in terms of infrastructures?

No, I am not satisfied with President Jonathan administration on the development of Niger Delta.

Mr. President should open his eyes very well. I know Mr. President has good intention for Niger Delta, but the problem is his close associates, who he delegates power to. They portray Mr. President in bad light before the society. My greatest worry is that after Mr. President’s tenure, we will not have this

zRough life in the creeks excellent opportunity to develop Niger Delta again, and we will have nobody to blame. The knife and the bread are in our hands, and yet, we are dreaming in daytime. Mr. President is dancing round without music and when the music starts playing, he would have been been exhausted. At that time, they will laugh at him and say,”Ijaw President failed his people when the whole power was with him”.

Y

ar ’Adua was to meet with MEND’s Aaron

team When we talk of Niger Delta development, General John Togo’s oil war was to push government to convene a postamnesty conference, where fundamental issues of development, such as abolition of Land Use Decree, equal sharing formula of oil and gas revenue, strategies for massive infrastructural development, among others, were to be deliberated in a round table.

However, our Niger Delta President, Goodluck Jonathan,

Jonathan why he is scared of Niger Delta post-amnesty conference. He made the whole thing appear absurd by undermining the Niger Delta to only vocational training, as if we fought because of job creation only, there are fundamental issues bigger than job creation.

I tell you, if these issues are not tackled, amnesty or no amnesty; permanent peace will be unattainable in Niger Delta except justice reigns. If the many years of Niger Delta arms struggle ended in only vocational training of carpentry and welding, what it means is that it is an insult to the sensibility and psyche of all Niger Delta oil- bearing communities.

If the oil in Niger Delta was found in the North and they are being maltreated the way the South-South people are suffering in their hands, the entire northern youths, elders, women, men and children will turn to militants and go up in arms to kill all South-South people one day or disintegrate Nigeria.

When the former leader of Libya, the late Gaddafi,

allocation’ Look, we had expected that there should have a developmental agency under the Amnesty Office. However, what do we see? A paltry N80 billion annual budget for the Amnesty Office is only three days oil/gas daily production revenue and people are complaining that the whole money of the country goes to the Niger Delta people. I want to suggest to the lawmakers from the Niger Delta to lobby their colleagues for the passage of a bill that oil and gas production revenue for seven days, which translates to between N190N200 billion, should be the annual budget of the Amnesty Office. This fund can enable the office to create developmental office in the amnesty programme to carry out development in the oilbearing communities. It is only then that the Niger Delta oilbearing communities could directly benefit from the amnesty programme.

Again, some of my boys are asking whether amnesty programme will end in 2015, I told them that the amnesty

It would have amounted to an abomination for us to declare the news of John Togo’s death on the pages of the newspapers, just 24 hours after it happened was scared of the North (our slave masters) and failed to convene such a golden conference to discuss Niger Delta development issues.

Nevertheless, at a point in time, President Goodluck Jonathan pleaded with Boko Haram to negotiate with them.

If he can negotiate with murderers, what stops him from negotiating with the Niger Delta freedom fighters? Do you know that before the death of the late President Yar’Adua , who was a northerner (not South-South President), he boldly showed readiness to convene post-amnesty conference with MEND’s Aaron team before the unfortunate thing happened.

Why is Jonathan afraid of post-amnesty conference?

Somebody should help me to ask President Goodluck

predicted that Nigeria ethnic groups would go their separate ways eventually, they were calling for his head.

Some called him a mad man.

Now, what is happening in the country? People are killing innocent persons in the North because a South-South man won a presidential election.

Nigeria is standing on a keg of gunpowder, which will explode one day. We do not need Prophet T.B Joshua to confirm it. When we struck in 2010 because of the failure of the Federal Government to implement the promises by the late Yar ’Adua on amnesty, everybody went up calling for our heads. Even at that, we did not go to the streets and continue to throw bombs to kill innocent people; we only bombed oil pipelines/stations to draw government attention to our demands.

‘Increase Amnesty Office

programe would not end, as it is guided by law, endorsed by government and that it is like any other parasatal in Nigeria.

If one says or fears that amnesty program shall end, that means the Ministry of Petroleum, which is created by law, shall also end. I made them to understand that as far as oil flows in the land of Niger Delta; they will be receiving amnesty payment until death, even to be inherited by their next of kin.

There is no job from oil companies for our communities. Presidential amnesty payment is the only advantage for the unemployed youth in Niger Delta.

‘The name ex-militant is insulting’ I want to suggest that the name should be changed by law to Niger Delta Youth Empowerment Scheme. How can you call me ex-militant

and be paying me salary in that dirty name that is incriminating wherever I go.

Many of us have no option, that is why we allowed them to document and film us in the name of ex-militant with thumbprint. Government should rethink the name of that office.

NDLF recently offered to help in combating kidnapping/robbery in Delta State. How do you plan to achieve this?

Well, I will not announce our strategies on how to fight kidnapers and armed robbers on the pages of newspapers.

When the enabling environment is provided, you will see the result. Look, we know some of these bad boys and they know us. We have penciled down some of their names already. It is a matter of full support by government, I am optimistic that the Delta government will cooperate with us and Deltans will see the result. This is a warming to kidnappers/robbers in the state; they should flee, as the state will be soon a no- goarea. We are not boasting and we do not believe in making noise. This is not to say that security agencies are not working. They are doing their best, but we want to complement their work. It is a kind of civilian/military joint force.

Look, fighting kidnapping and terrorism is the strongest and most intricate battle on earth. It sometimes appears that you are fighting ghosts; in some areas, victims kidnap themselves. That is what we call arrangee kidnapping.

While in some cases, close family members are members of the kidnap gang. Such groups normally give out some of the wealthy persons in their families to their group. Therefore, such persons are privy to information on the movement of the family members and security men, and they always counter positive attack by police by acting as informants to their gangs. Majority of kidnapping have insiders and so, the fight against kidnapping/terrorism should be anchored on technology. Nevertheless, by the grace of God, we will do our best if our offer is accepted.

What is your panacea for permanent peace in Niger Delta?

There must be sincere infrastructural development in Niger Delta. Justice and equity must reign, that is the only recipe for peace and create jobs for the large army of unemployed graduates.

Look, the only major road project in the Niger Delta, the dualization of the East West Road is in limbo. It is like an abandoned project; where are we going?

C M Y K

PAGE 20 — SUNDAY VANGUARD,FEBRUARY 3, 2013

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Re: Global ploy to debase womanhood

I

F women want to be respected by the world, they will have to do more to uplift their image themselves. They shouldn’t feel that because they rear children for the world and keep homes, they are entitled to respect, irrespective of their own behaviour and character. This was the opinion of the majority of our readers who wrote in on the piece we put out some weeks ago.

These readers may have a point, but isn’t it the responsibility of the world to help improve the image of those responsible for nurturing human beings? Shouldn’t those women who are behaving out of character be guided to what befits their sex? “ We read recently on the internet that two very drunk female passengers on a flight from the U.K to north Africa were so disruptive, threatening the crew and other passengers with violence, that the plane had to go make an emergency landing in France where the women were taken off the plane, and sent back to the U.K on another plane. Most of the comments on the incident on the Yahoo board condemned the women, calling them all sorts of names, saying that they are a disgrace to the female folk. I’m sure if the culprits had been men, comments wouldn’t have been that condemning.

This reaction showed that there are certain character traits expected of women, and behaving in a drunken/ disorderly manner is not one of them.

They ’re expected to comport themselves gracefully and decently.

This expectation is normal and has been there from the beginning of the world. Why is it then that things are done to women to give them a contrary image?

“Madam, I appreciate your concern about the way women are usually given roles in nollywood films which show them as screaming out-ofcontrol creatures, but my question is, do they have to accept these roles if they feel that they demean femalehood? They keep accepting these roles, so, the script writers feel it’s okay for the Nigerian woman. I watch a lot of these home videos and it’s my opinion that the characters that these screaming actresses are portraying can still come across effectively without their behaving like demented human beings. Also, if you women roundly condemn those singers whose songs/raps are always saying demeaning things about Nigerian women, I’m sure they will re-write their songs and acts. - Dave, Lagos.”

“Sister Helen, I too am a recipient of those text messages cracking lurid jokes on women. They’re still coming in. They started off as lines of popular sayings, and then graduated into mild jokes on romance, the bedroom, dating, etc. Even though I’m male, I find these so-called jokes offensive and childish. Maybe the staff of that telecomm feel they’re entertaining.

They are not. Must we be force-fed C M Y K

View-Point

Helen Ovbiagele Woman Editor

In the picture, the young lady seemed very happy about what was going on. If there’s anyone to be blamed, and that’s if you feel blame should be apportioned, it should be the ladies who offered themselves to be groped subtle porn in unsolicited text messages from a service provider who should be keen on improving its deli very services?”

“Mrs. Ovbiagele, make no mistake. Those ladies who were collecting money for AIDS victims by allowing their boobs to be fondled by men, were not forced into the act, so, that cannot be classified as global conspiracy to debase women. I saw the article in that news magazine too. In the picture, the young lady seemed very happy about what was going on. If there’s anyone to be blamed, and that’s if you feel blame should be apportioned, it should be the ladies who offered themselves to be groped. They could have chosen other means by which they could raise money for the worthy cause. - Tony, Onitsha” “In my view, madam, women are the ones pulling themselves down. They do things which attract debasement. Have you seen the indecent ways that some of our women - even mature ones - dress? Boobs are exposed in a provocative way, and their dresses or skirts barely cover their bums. Then they walk in dizzy heels at the risk of their spine! Who told them that those are symbols of civilization? I’m female myself, and I do love to wear nice things which I feel are in fashion, but I’m careful enough to expose only those parts that can be exposed decently.

Let’s face it; most ladies dress to attract the attention of the malefolk. Being half-naked may very well attract the attention of men,

but it would be in a negative way, because those men would only be seeing them as sex objects, not materials for a wife. They may be admired and pursued, but they are clearly not respected by those men.

Thank you,ma, for the way you write to promote women, but I think we need to promote ourselves in decent and positive ways. - Jenny, Abuja.”

“Helen, I agree with you that all over the world and in many countries, things are said to, and done to women to debase them.

Look at the recent news of the young girl who was gang-raped to death in India. Thank God that the government has charged the culprits to court after a huge public outcry! Some people are demanding the death penalty. The truth is that women are still seen as objects of jokes, and not to be taken seriously and respected. Yet, more and more women are breaking zones and reaching great heights, and contributing to national development everywhere!

It’s unfortul1ate that some women either in quest of fame, wild adventure or a means of livelihood, allow things done to them which lower their worth and self-esteem.

Some incidents are beyond their control, like attacks on them during wars, riots and mayhem, but sometimes they themselves do things which they know someone of their sex should never do. You wonder how such girls or women will rear their children and help them grow into responsible and well-adjusted adults. They simply

can’t; for the simple reason that they haven’t behaved in ways that would make their children respect them, listen to them and obey them. Any wonder why there are so many misfits and hoodlums in societies everywhere? Women everywhere should remember that they’re meant to be rearers or human beings and they need to be of exemplary behaviour. - Bola, Ibadan.”

“Aunty Helen, with regards to ‘Global Ploy to demean Womanhood’ It’s a known fact world-wide that women are very gullible.

Metaphysically, the act of women stripping naked doesn’t in any way enhance their chances of contacting their dead relatives. To make contact with the spirit of the dead is a very simple process, but your hands rriust be clean. Those ‘Psychics’ are mere charlatans. - From Celeste, mnse. “ “Women should not only conduct themselves well and be of good behaviour, they should bring up their children, particularly the girls, to be of good character, and do things which bring them self-respect. In my own childhood, even though there wasn’t much money and enlightenment in the system, women, right from childhood were consciously taught to be of decent behaviour at home, and in public.

They were raised not to do anything which would bring disgrace to the family. The school joined hands with the home to ensure good character and decent manners. These days, I’m sorry to say that many homes and schools themselves don’t have good character, so, they can’t raise wards of good character. - Pa Tom, Lagos. “

Indian Bridal Jewelry Gold Latest Fashion 2013

by Sonoor Jewels ...www.gossipgurus.com

SUNDAY VANGUARD, FEBRUARY 3, 2013, PAGE — 21

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Spa services promote good health

— Adeline Balogun Chief(Mrs)Adeline Ogboaya Balogun is the CEO of New “U” Spa in Lagos. Though a Paris-trained graduate of French with background in Secretarial Administration, the frequent transfer of her military husband (now an Army General) scuttled her ambition of building a career in language.

Chief(Mrs.)Balogun eventually discovered her passion for rendering beauty and wellness services, and decided to remain a private French teacher to her children to preserve her knowledge of the language. Now a fulfilled grandmother and still in the business of beauty and wellness, she shares her experience with Vista Woman.

Enjoy!

Chief(Mrs.)Adeline Balogun...the awareness for fitness is increasing in Nigeria

By JOSEPHINE IGBINO VIA IGBINOVIA How has the spa business been? thank God that the awareness for fitness is increasing in Nigeria.

Nigerians are responding so well to the trend. In the early years, it was thought that applying certain substances to one’s face could cause irritation rather than treat them. But now, we know the face gets rejuvenated instead and looks younger. At 63, I feel strong, youthful and fit! I might be on the big side, but the point is that I’m very fit because I use the gym. Using the gym tones up your muscles and makes you fit, even if there’s no actual weight reduction.

What has been the challenges?

If you go out to compete, you’ll definitely face challenges. But if you come out to be yourself and render services you feel are suitable for your clients and make changes where necessary, you find things easier. The major challenge however is price tag disparity in the spa business.

How do you keep abreast with trends in the industry?

Though I trained with a professional outfit before venturing into this business, I’m always surfing the internet because virtually all updates are available there! Also, when I go on holiday abroad, I try to gain as much

I

knowledge as I can by visiting different spas. Some of my workers however go for short-term courses abroad.

There are many health conditions in the world these days and experts are already attributing most of them to lack of fitness…

That’s true. Even when one cannot engage in exercises, it is important to walk some distance regularly because walking is part of exercise. Treadmill is walking and bicycle too is walking! However, I want to say that despite the awareness that has heightened over the years, majority of Nigerians still do not understand why they should exercise or use the gym unless their doctor tells them to. Hence, you find that most of the people coming for exercise are coming on doctor ’s recommendation.

Amazingly, they start feeling very good as soon as they begin doing those exercises. Some ailments could be fended off through regular exercise.

Considering that the cost of spa services are usually on the high side, are there packages designed to assist indigent people who want to keep fit?

I do that at my discretion even though I don’t have it advertised.

However, this is not frequent practice because value could be misinterpreted. Naturally, my charges are not tied to how well-off I think a client is. They are liberal and reasonable.

Your philosophy of life…

Life is what you make of it. Relying on people could be disappointing and could make life frustrating.

Life as a married woman taught me a lot of patience. Life as a mother taught me a lot of patience and tolerance. Life as a businesswom-

an also taught me a lot of tolerance.

We’ll always have friends because we can never be alone in life, but over the years, life has taught me to understand friends. Some might be unreliable though they truly would love to be of help. I’ve come across several kinds of friends over the years, and I’ve learnt to understand them all. In a nutshell, life has taught me understanding, tolerance and patience, and these have helped me remain in marriage with my husband who is Yoruba, for about forty-one years, though I’m originally from Opobo.

Hence, you find that most of the people coming for exercise are coming on doctor’s recommendation. Amazingly, they start feeling very good as soon as they begin doing those exercises. Some ailments could be fended off through regular exercise.

C M Y K

PAGE 22 — SUNDAY VANGUARD, FEBRUARY 3, 2013

Her spy reported falsely Dear Rebecca

I

AM a 20 year old boy in love with a girl of 21. We started our relationship right from J.S.S 1. My problem now is that she was told by one of her friends that I was seen with another girl. That girl happened to be my friend’s girlfriend. I have tried explaining that to her but she would not listen.

To be frank, my girlfriend has her faults, as she is not a truthful person, but I’ve lived with this fault. I respect her so much that since we started dating I’ve not made love to her and I’ve always assisted her academically.

Do you think her action towards me is right or should I look for another girl?

When she notices that you are keeping your distance from her, she would want to come back to you if she is still fond of you and she cherishes your relationship. Continue with her if you want to.

You have conducted your self well so far by assisting her with her studies and by not demanding sex from her.

However , don’t feel cheated than you’ve behaved this way and she is giving you a cold shoulder, based on false information You should be proud that you have comported your self like a gentleman . However, if the relationship ends now.

You’ll both meet other people and be happy. It isn’t a marriage situation after all, so, you too can move on.

Dear Rebecca

I

AM 29, while my girlfriend is 33.

I got to know her real age only recently.

She’s independent, while I am still building my business and doing my best to secure my own apartment. This lady tells a lot of lies.

Whenever she’s found out and I ask why she lies, she would reply in a very rude manner.

She allows me access to her only when it pleases her. The heartache and trauma I have encountered in this 3 year relationship is weighing me down. She hardly honours my calls, talk less of getting to see her. Now I want to de-friend her on my Facebook friends’ and twitter, because I can’t let my self esteem be devalued just like that, even though I’m mindful of the negative

She's causing me heartache meaning that could be read into my decision. I will deeply appreciate your kind advice.

Lonely fellow, Lagos State.

REPL Y REPLY

S

ome people, going by your mail, would say that you’ve stayed too long in this relationship where you’re clearly not respected. I would agree with them too. However, my view would be based on her choice of language while addressing you, not on your grudge that she only allows you to see her when it pleases her. Now, any human being, male or female,

REPL Y REPLY

T

he course of love is never smooth. It is always bumpy.

What you do is to go on and take things as they come. You are getting to understand the opposite sex. So you must be patient. In your relationship with the next girlfriend, you would already have learnt that girls sulk and refuse to talk to their boyfriends if they suspect them of seeing other girls on the side. You would also have learnt that girls watch their friends’ boyfriends keenly, and they go to report any unpleasant act, innocently or maliciously. You are gaining experience with this girl. Calmly wait for her to regain her good humor.

You have attempted to explain things to her , but she wouldn’t listen, so, leave her alone. For your self- respect, never beg a girl to remain in a relationship with you, no matter how much in love you think you are with her. Trust is a part of the fondness we have for the person we are in love with. If you know that you’ve told her the truth, you have every reason to feel hurt that she’s keeping her distance from you. Where there’s good friendship she should have given you the benefit of the doubt, and believed you. However if you’ve always told her lies, you can’t blame her attitude. Leave her alone.

should be civil in her manner of expressing him/herself. Politeness is important in the human make-up to set us apart from animals who snarl, growl, grunt, etc while expressing themselves. For a lady, it’s even more important to for her to guard her utterances because she’s going to be a mother, and a rearer of children. A man may even refuse to marry her based on the uncouth way she expresses herself, because he wouldn’t want her to disgrace him in public each time she opens her mouth, and he wouldn’t want his children brought up by a woman who is rude.

I don’t think it’s because she’s four years older than you are that this lady talks to you anyhow, or because she’s independent (whatever that means), and you’re still building up your business and doing your best to secure a place of your own. It’s just her nature to be rude.

So, I don’t think anyone would blame you for dropping her. I doubt if she would mind herself.

I suggest you just stop communicating with her, and allow the relationship to dry out. If she asks why you no longer pursues her, tell her that you feel it’s best you part, because you’re very far from wanting to settle down, and you want to

give her space to do her own thing.

Stick to this decision.

Next time, let good friendship be established between you and a girl you fancy first, before you start a romantic relationship with her. It’s during friendship that you study and understand the character of the lady, and you would know if she’s the type you would want for a girlfriend or not. It isn’t every girl that you’re friendly with who you must have a romantic relationship with. Sometimes, it could just be ordinary friendship which suits both of you.

Also, please don’t whine about a girl not visiting you, unless that is agreed on the onset that she must come to your place, or you to hers.

At 33, this lady is very ready to get married, so, she would normally want to be courted by men who are in a position to settle down soon. You are not in that category yet, so, it isn’t in her own interest to have you hanging around her place, as this would discourage men who may want to propose marriage to her.

Even if she is fond of you enough for you to be ready to marry her, there’s no guarantee that when you’re ready you would want to marry her. You may find her too ‘old ‘ then, as she’s already 33 now.

Should I marry now?

I

AM a 32yr old man.

My girlfriend is 24yr old. On a visit to her one day, I rang her to ask if she was home, she replied that she was.

I then told her that I was outside her house and she should come out to meet me. This was at about 9.45 pm. She then told me that she was at her sister’s place. I then told her that I would come meet her there. On getting there I discovered that I couldn’t reach her again because she had switched off her two gsm lines. I then guessed that she must have been with a male friend.

When I asked her the next day what happened, she didn’t give me any reply. She’s a worker,

but I lost my job last year. We’ve been dating for a year now and are from the same State.

I’m thinking of ending our relationship. What do you think?

REPL Y REPLY

O

ur stand at Dear Rebecca is that when a relationship is not going the way that appeals to you, you should quietly end it. However, if it’s a marriage, then some efforts should be made at getting to the root of discontent together, and finding a way to resolve it.

In your case, you’re just boyfriend/girlfriend and loosely attached at

that. There’s nothing worth getting distressed about. You’re neither engaged nor talking of marriage, so, you don’t have to hang on in there. Besides, you have to put yourself in her shoes. She’s 24 and a worker. The next natural step for her is to get married, so, don’t expect her to be satisfied with waiting for you to be in a position to propose marriage to her. She has to make herself available to be courted for marriage by other men. This doesn’t mean that she’s not fond of you. She’s only being realistic. If you were already engaged before you lost your job, she would be expected to

coast along and wait for marriage. But without that assurance, a girl has to look out for herself, because at the end of the day, when you do get a job and are ready to settle down, there’s no guarantee that you would marry her. You may consider her too ‘old’ for you then, because you’ve been dating a long time. You may prefer ‘young’ girls to date for marriage.

Where does that leave her? She would then be back on the market for marriage proposal!

I suggest you leave this girl alone, and if she

does shows interest in you again, tell her it’s best you’re just ordinary friends, and that since you’re not yet ready for marriage, you’re letting her go so that you don’t stand in her way.

When the time is ripe, you’ll get another girl.

After all, you were yet contemplating marriage with this one. The important thing now if for you to get a job. Pick up any available one to occupy your time, give you some respectability and bring in some money while you wait for your dream job. Good luck.

•All letters for publication on this page should be sent to: Dear Rebecca, Vanguard Media Ltd, Kirikiri Canal, P.M.B 1007, Apapa, Lagos, Nigeria. E-mail: dearrebecca2@yahoo.com

SUNDAY Vanguard , FEBRUARY 3, 2013, PAGE 23

Infidelity — A case of chop-and-wipe mouth?

O

NE thing about sinking your teeth into the forbidden fruit is you never know when to stop.

It is a fearful prospect.

You are married, probably with a few kids. The loveof-your-life is no longer as starry - eyed... about you as he used to be. He has other irons in the fire.

How to keep his family afloat the bread line, how to hold down his highly competitive job. On top of which there are a few temptations he just couldn’t resist himself.

You are bared. Apart from the excitement of getting dressed for the office, there is virtually nothing to tickle your fancy when you get home. Hubby is scarcely there and when he eventually shows, he bolts down his dinner, makes a play of showing interest in what the kids were up to during the day, then crawls into bed, snoring his head off in minutes!

At least this was the situation that Tina found herself some months back. Then she dropped her bombshell: “I’ve met up with my ex,” she said excitedly, her eyes sparkling, “and we’ve had awesome sex, twice now!” Just like that? “I get so much romance and affection from him than the man I ended up mar-

rying” she defended herself. Just turned 40, her husband is two years older. They’d been married for 14 years and have three children.

“I hooked up with my ex through Facebook,” she went on with this forbidden-fruit story. “He also has three children but has never been married. His kids live with their mothers so it was easy to meet up at his flat. The first time I set foot in the flat, my heart was pounding, I’d never been unfaithful before and there was this fear I might get caught. My ex didn’t look much different after all these years and as soon as I sailed through the door, he made a grab for me, kissing me passionately. The past years ceased to exist. It was magical as I was transported back to the days when we couldn’t get enough of each other. Ignoring the drinks and snacks he had ready on the dining table, we just went for the sex - and it was as good as ever.

“I would have married him if I hadn’t met my husband. I chose my husband because I knew he would be a better provider. I didn’t particularly love him, but I have grown to. You may say it is just lust with my ex

but I feel a connection with him and I want to be like a wife to him. I wish we’d never broken up. My husband works long hours and he doesn’t give spontaneous sex like my ex. He’s not even romantic. My ex is still not financially well off, so there’s no way I would leave my husband for him. But I crave a man who shares romantic moments with me and my ex does. I just might juggle the two of them so I get financial security with my husband and hot sex with my ex!”

How naive can you get?

Unfortunately, when a woman gets so much hot ants in her pants, coun-

selling her is a waste of time until she burns her fingers. The normal ups and downs of married life had obviously led her to idealise an ex who gave her a very exciting break from her dull marriage.

Tina knew on which side her bread was buttered.

If she left her husband for her ex, she would soon realise that life on the breadline could be really frustrating - especially with her kids and his. Has she tried talking to her workaholic of a husband? She didn’t give me a convincing answer. She was still high on her new found ex!

When I next saw her,

she still had the glow. “I feel like Jezebel!” She confided. Now what?!

“My husband must have suspected 1 was up to no good when 1 was no longer interested in luring him to bed. If he wanted sex, it was on my terms - and most times, I told him 1 was tired.

He’d played that game a few times himself. Let’s see how he liked it! One evening, after I’d had a particularly hot session with my ex, I hurried home and couldn’t have a wash before my husband showed up.

“It was obvious he wanted sex. Well, let him stew in his own juice ror once, I wasted a lot of time coming to the bedroom convinced he would be snoring his head off, by the time I did. But he wasn’t. He was making a pretence of reading the dailies. Ig ot into bed and pretended to be really tired. He was having none of it as he began with is predicdtably crude loveplay When I protested we should wait tillthe next day, eh was adamant. I’d postponed about thrice now, he grumbled, and before I knew it, he’d yanked up my nightdress and has his head between my thighs. Oh my goodness, I thought, alarmed,

I’d just made love with another man and there was my husband giving me a blow job? Did he suspect anything? Obviously he didn’t and I had to do my best to give him the type of sex he craved ... “ She actually felt a bit contrite by what happened. Just how long did she think she could go on with this charade? I urged her not to settle for things the way they were at home. Instead of turning to an ex who’s had three children by two women and had never married, she should try and turn her husband into her lover. Tough as it may sound, she should stop seeing her ex so she could give her husband a chance. He needs to know there is a crisis in their marriage and they both need to work to save it. Tina just shrugged. She’s tried but would her husband listen?

I know it’s a matter of time before she comes down her euphoric state with a thud! Maybe when her previous irresponsible ex finds a new play thing or when one of the mothers-of-hischildren comes calling, ready for battle. When that eventually happens, she’ll get nothing but Itold-you-so from me!

Now bring your head to rest on the floor and then gently remove both hands from the floor and grasp your ankles.

Duration: You may stay in this position from 20 seconds to a minute or more as you improve.

Then spread out the hands on both sides of your body.

Benefits: The triangle pose is one great toner of flab about the thighs.

It instills great strength in the legs as a whole.

08052201867(Text Only)

Exercise: Secret to long life

C M Y K

brought on by exercise also makes the heart itself stronger, allowing it to pump blood more efficiently.

In terms of the sick, such as in the case of someone who is hypertensive, it is known that exercise taken in therapeutic doses is capable of reversing the condition.

If exercise taken in sensible measures can restore health, then it goes to show that we need it all the time. We need to have a certain amount of physical fitness to keep ailments at bay.

Even when sleep has not been as long as we would have it, sometimes we can still instill some exuberance, some vitality into the body by tapping our energy reserves through some simple stretching and flexing exercises.

If you can wake up every morning and in-

voke the discipline to work out the body for as little as 15 to 20 minutes, that, coupled with good nutrition must guarantee you great vitality.

We all have different levels of vigour but the truth is, we can gradually train the body to

,

I

happened to be dis cussing health with a friend. I mentioned that everyone needed some form of exercise; even the sick. At this my firend shot back that he only needed his food and water to stay healthy. He also didn’t see how an ailing individual could exercise.

True, next to air, we must have food and water for life. But it is also true that when the body loses tone on account of insufficient physical activity air, food and water never seem tobe enough.

If this trend of lack of muscle tone is allowed to go on, very soon, a lack of zest and drive, and of energy, becomes one’s lot.

When we move the body in physical activities, we take in more oxygen by breathing deeper and fuller to balance the outflow of energy. The increased heart rate

If you can wake up every morning and invoke the discipline to work out the body for as little as 15 to 20 minutes, that, coupled with good nutrition must guarantee you great vitality

,

give more, to do more.

Life is for living with enthusiasm, with vitality, with zest, with drive.

If you lack these, it’s time to go shopping!

We start from here.

The shoulders stand Technique: Lying on your back, draw up your knees. Place both hands at the back with thumps to the hipz. Now, with a bit of momentum, hoist the legs up and point the toes skyward. For a beginner a half-minute in this posture will do until over the longrun you can stay for upwards of five minutes.

Benefits: The shoulder stand allows the right stimulation for under - or over functioning of the endocrine glands. For instance, under active thyroid can be improved to help stave off excess fat.

The “A” head stand For those not capable of doing the full head stand, the abbreviated version called the “A” head stand will suffice.

Technique: Stand with feet very wide apart.

Now slowly and carefully lower your trunk with your hands planted firmly down on the floor.

Benefits: The posture directs blood to the head especially nourishing the brain and the pituitary gland, the master gland, because it has a say in how the other glands should function.

The triangle pose Stand with feet wide apart then turning the trunk to the left bend the left knee to waist level. The right foot should be diagonal to your waist. The knee must be locked.

* The Triangle Pose

Yoga classes at 32 Adetokunbo Ademola, Victoria Island, Lagos, 9.10am on Saturdays

P AGE 24 —SUNDAY Vanguard , FEBRUARY 3 , 2013

bunmsof@yahoo.co.uk

08056180152,

SMS only

Throw your old clothes away with the old year!

H

OW many times have you opened your wardrobe, determined to be rid of clothes you definitely haven’t worn for years, only to come up with exvuses why the clothes have to stay?..

When it comes to giving things away, a lot of us could be very sentimental. Recently, I went through the process of trimming down my wardrobe yet again - and got stuck as usual. It happens to all of us all of the time. Determinedly, you approach old clothes.

They are definitely going, you tell yourself. But wait a minute - isn’t that the dress your beau bought for you on his last trip abroad just before you broke up? And how many ‘good-luck’ dresses do you have?

Dresses you met your spouse in, the ones for those successful job interviews and the ones you convince yourself always make good things happen whenever you put them on! Could you afford to pass the luck they bring onto someone else?

Then there are dresses that are a size or two smaller. What a waste of good designer clothes that cost a fortune? Supposing you can slim back into such clothes! You were that size once, who says you couldn’t be that size again? But if you slimmed down what would happen to your other new clothes? Decisions, decisions! Whilst you’re making them, the clothes gather more dust.

Thankfully, there are clothes you have to throwaway no matter how expensive.

Chainstore dress bought for you by your cheapskate ex, but which you painstakingly wore to please him. Now that he’s thankfully out of the picture you happily give such clothes to younger

relatives or any of the charitable organizations.

Better still, why don’t you see how they look on the maid?

However, every one of us has this superstitious belief that certain clothes are nothing but bad luck.

We swear that whenever we put such clothes on, something disastrous always happens, so who do you give such clothes to?

Your worst enemy? A friend who’s always been lucky with her men and who you secretly wish has just one tale of woe to tell? Whichever way you look at it, clothes, like photographs, always have interesting parts to play in your life.

How to nail the fiveyear itch The seven-year itch used to be the time when you should start noticing the rut in your marriage and try to revamp it. The period has now been reduced to five years. According to one multi-university study, unhappy married couples who stuck it out and worked through their problems reported being happier five years after a rough patch than couples who threw in the towel. Here are tips to help you stay the course.”

Embrace Change: Over time you and your spouse will each evolve.

Acceptability that change is inevitable makes it easier to be flexible and help you to focus on big picture bonding points like building a strong family.

Expect that there will be hard times: Many couples think “if we were right for each .. other, it wouldn’t be this difficult”. But that isn’t accurate. Love temporary cools.

Marriage is like the stock market. Troughs and normal, and it is usually best to ride them out.

Fight Right: It’s not

Y

OUR column to express your loving thoughts in words to your sweetheart. Don’t be shy. Let it flow and let him or her know how dearly you feel.

Write now in not more than 75 words to: The Editor, Sunday Vanguard, P.M.B. 1007, Apapa, Lagos. E.mail: sunlovenotes@yahoo.com Please mark your envelope: “LOVE NOTES"

Dear Theresa,

I guarantee that we'll have though times,that at some point both of us will want to get out of this but

what you argue about but how you argue it. Avoiding name calling (it is disrespectful); put compromises ahead of the need to be right (harmony outranks “ winning”); be quick to forgive - and quicker to say, “I apologies”.

Remind yourself why you married him: Remember how your pulse raced the first time he kissed you? Calling up positive memories like that during less-than blissful moments can be an effective attitude adjuster.

So you think resolutions are a waste of time?

Every year, majority of us break the promises we made on January 1.

Whether you vowed to turn-around your career for the better, quit smoking or even .learn to make your own dress, a group of experts have got this fast plan for getting you back on track when your resolves melt. ..

Forgive your inner slacker: You’ve probably had lapses in behaviour since making your list.

Don’t fret: “Backsliding is not a failure” says Leslie Groene, author of Picture Yourself and the Life You Want. “It’s easy to see what we haven’t accomplished - and to forget the steps we’ve already taken. But, any effort or

energy we spend focusing on the negative will only slow us down.

Don’t be too fixated on dates either. There’s no difference between starting something on January 1 or March 21.

Here are more helpful hints from the author: Make it easier to succeed: Ask yourself why you broke your resolutions in the fIrst place.

Relapses tell you what you failed to account for.

Did you fold in the presence of stress or temptations?

What could you do differently? When you feel yourself sliding back into old behaviour, try distracting yourself with another healthier activity. Step outside for fresh air or call a friend to talk. Take a walk, spend time with your pets. Watch some comedy on television. Just do something, anything else.

Draw a road map: Break lofty goals into manageable steps and your likelihood of success increases-tenfold.

If you want to learn to do salsa, for example, you would write down; “Buy salsa shoes. Sign up for salsa class. Take 10 lessons ... “Once you’ve spelled out the details for yourself,

I can also guarantee that if I don't ask you to marry me I'll regret it for the rest of my life. I can guarantee from the depth of my heart that you're the only one for me.

Derek Nakpodia, dereknakpodia@gmail.com 08062811130

Missing you,

My love, each time I wake up in the morning, I look at the side of my bed and find it empty. I step into the kitchen, you are still not there. When I sit and switch on my television, I look at my side and felt a strong emptiness in my soul. Baby, am drowning, am sick missing you. Oh! My sweet cheerful partner, where are you? Life is boring without you, my life is empty without you. I miss you so much.

you’ll be better able to visualize achieving your goal.

Be your own cheerleader: Buy a calendar and check off the days you work out, sew, take photos, and have lunch with a mentor or anything that gets you closer to your goal. Hold yourself accountable for further change. Set aside some time, daily or weekly, to review your progress and plan what you will do to move forward.

Leave some wiggle room: Find solutions, not excuses. Can’t afford a vacation in a faraway locale? Shop, dine and dance like a tourist in your hometown. Is work interfering with your vow to increase family time?

See if the kids can visit you at the office. Too busy to see friends you’ve sworn to catch up with?

Ask them to run errands with you. It’s the end result that matters so don’t sweat the details.

Use daily reminder: If you’d like to get into shape, paste full-length pictures of yourself on the fridge and bathroom mirror. For other resolutions, post phrases or affirmations all over the house. Seeing them every day will strengthen your resolve.

Right before going to bed, repeat a mantra to yourself, for example: “I am a nonsmoker now and forever “or” I am becoming thinner and thinner,” it’s like putting files into your subconscious. After 30 days, you’ll see yourself this way without even trying.

Get pals involved: Enrol others in your success.

Tell them what you’re doing and ask for their assistance. Your friends may be willing to go walking’ or take dance classes with you. They may also be a great source of moral support. If your resolution is to leave office earlier, for example, your friends could e-mail you something like “if it’s after 6 p.m., it’s time to go home.)

Trick yourself: Small changes can reap big rewards. Resolved to walk more? Put sneakers next to the door. Want to save some money? Have it automatically deposited into a savings account every month. Vow to spend more time reading? Turn off the phone and TV. Build slowly on your successes by adding a new goal every month.

You’ll be amazed at how much you accomplish. If you’re trying to eat healthier, start by increasing your water intake. The next month, increase your servings of vegetable. Doing things in small doses helps sustain long-term change.

Stay committed: If you feel like giving up, look at the big picture. Think about what a difference changing your behaviour will make. Then think about what not changing it will cost you. When you see the consequences, you’ll be a lot more motivated. Still need help? Imagine yourself as an old person, thinking back on the significant moments of your life. What do you wish you had done?

Please come back soon.

Kelechi Ndubisi (KC) kconeofafrica@gmail.com, 08185515552

Life is a mystery

Life is a gift,I accept it.

Life is an advanture,I dare it to the fullest.

Life is a mystery,i'm unfolding it.

Life is a puzzle,I'm solving it.

Life is game,I play it.

Life can be a struggle, I'm facing with God backup.

Life is beauty,I praise it.

Life is an opportunity,I took it.

Hmm,and above all,Life is always good!!!

Chris Onunaku dekris4real@gmail.com 08032988826/08184844015.

SUNDAY Vanguard, FEBRUARY 3, 2013, PAGE — 25

ANAMBRA RIVER FLOATING BODIES’ MYSTERY

Massacre not ruled out ....As pathologists move to resolve puzzle

BY VINCENT UJUMADU, Awka

W

HEN will the mys tery surrounding the human bodies found floating on the Ezu River bordering Enugu and Anambra states be solved?

That has been the question on the lips of the people of Anambra State, particularly the communities of Amansea, Ugbenu, Awba Ofemili, since the decomposing bodies were sighted on the banks of the river.

Since the discovery of the bodies a fortnight ago by some women and children who went to fetch water, several efforts had been made to unravel the mystery. When Sunday Vanguard took a trip to the communities that have direct access to the river, one issue was observed and that was that all indications pointed to the fact that the bodies were dumped from the top of the bridge at Amansea into the river few days before the chilling discovery.

Indeed, massacre is not ruled out as the men sent by the traditional ruler of Amansea, Igwe Kenneth Okonkwo, to find out what happened said they saw traces of what looked like blood on the bridge, even as there was no sign of scuffle in the area. In their thinking, the victims were killed elsewhere and brought to the river where they were dumped.

However, because there had neither been communal clashes among the communities in the area, nor road accidents that might have caused the death of such large number of people at the same time,

zDecomposing bodies exhumed after burial close to river

everything pointed to the argument that the bodies were dumped from the bridge into the river some days before they started floating.

Though 23 decomposing bodies evacuated from the river were earlier given a mass burial close to the river, the uncertainty surrounding the deaths necessitated that they be exhumed for autopsy to be performed on them. Pathologists from the Force Headquarters, Abuja and Nnamdi Azikiwe University Teaching Hospital, Nnewi, thereafter exhumed three bodies and took specimens from the corpses for the autopsy.

However, following what was described as a startling revelation during the autopsy on the three bodies, the Anambra State government ordered that all the bodies be exhumed and samples from them taken for autopsy. Anambra State commissioner for health, Dr. Lawrence Ikeako, explained that it would be out of place to

use the result from the three bodies originally taken away for autopsy to represent the cause of the death of all the other victims whose corpses were found floating on the river. Prof. Anthony Agbata of the Nnamdi Azikiwe University Teaching Hospital, Nnewi led the team of the pathologists, while those of the police were led by a commissioner sent from the Force Headquarters.

One fact established by the police was that all the victims were males and at the time they were being evacuated, some wore only singlet, while others wore pants. Anambra State commissioner of police, Mr. Bala Nasarawa, confirmed that there were no gun injuries or machete cuts on their bodies as earlier speculated.

Nasarawa stated that investigations were continuing on the matter, assuring that the police would provide additional information on the matter as they became available.

z Traces of blood on bridge

An attempt by reporters to visit the site of the exhumation near the Ezu River was stalled as the police cordoned off the area. The policemen there directed all enquiries to either the state commissioner for health or the commissioner of police. However, the commissioner for health, Dr. Ikeako, said he was yet to be briefed by the team of pathologists. He also explained that the bodies had gone so bad, having been buried for over one week and urged those seeking information on the matter to be patient until he had adequate information to give on the findings of the autopsy.

Ikeako said the state government had already picked a bill of N1.5 million from the morticians and those who evacuated the bodies, even as more bills were being expected for the autopsy proper and embalmment.

Job for security operatives

Meanwhile, a governorship aspirant in Anambra State , Dr. Alex Obiogbolu, expressed worry over the inability of security operates to nip in the bud the dumping of dead bodies in Ezu River . Obiogbolu, who is aspiring on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, observed that lackadaisical attitude on the part of security agencies had been responsible for continued thriving of criminal activities in the society.

He urged state governments to de-emphasize the idea of spending fortunes of the people’s money on the purchase of patrol vans and walkie talkies for the police which, he noted, was fast becoming annual rituals, arguing that the best government could do is to invest more on youths empowerment to discourage them from going into crimes.

Succour

Soon after it was discovered that the communities were in trouble over the pollution of their source of water supply, the senator representing Anambra South, Dr. Andy Uba, and a philanthropist, Dr. Obinna Uzor, visited the area with thousands of bags and cartons of water to assist them in the interim. They however promised that they would liaise with with the appropriate government organs to find a lasting solution to the problem posed by the pollution of the river.

Boreholes

THE senator representing Anambra Central in the senate, Dr, Chris Ngige, who visited the communities, had concluded arrangements to sink boreholes in the area to avert communicable diseases.

Ngige, who spoke after visiting the polluted river, observed that it was a big risk for the people to still be depending on Ezu River for their water needs.

z Corpses dumped in river?

PAGE 26 —

SUNDAY Vanguard, FEBRUARY 3, 2013

‘How we delivered woman of horse’

BY SIMON EBEGBULEM, BENIN CITY

E

vangelist Silver Wealth Iyamu, the General Overseer of the World Liberation Ministry, found himself in a controversy September 11, 2012 when a woman was said to have been barren for over fifteen years after marriage allegedly delivered a creature that looked like a horse in his church located in the heart of Benin City. The incident attracted attention both from Nigeria and abroad and it was reported by Sunday Vanguard. It would be recalled that while a consultant gynecologist, Dr. Jerry Uwaifo, said it was not medically possible for a woman to deliver an animal, the church members insisted that it was a miracle.

However, Sunday Vanguard met Wealth,on Wednesday, after a crusade at the Benin Cultural Center, where several people also reportedly received miracles of different types, to inquire about the incident of September last year and he disclosed that the woman in question, who disappeared shortly after the deliv-

ery at the church, resurfaced weeks later to see him in his office. Asked about the woman, the young evangelist narrated: “Our church is a prophetic one and people come all the time and we don’t really know where they come from.

They come all over the state and we don’t have the time to find out who they are. On that particular day, that was one of the miracles that happened in the church. After the miracle, the woman visited twice and she pleaded that she didn’t want to go public so that she won’t be stigmatized. And we agreed because such miracles are for the church and not for the public. I was actually shocked when I read them in the papers.”

“As for the woman”, he continued, “Yes, she attended service once or twice after that incident. She came to see me in the office but pleaded that she did not want attention and that, that was her family decision. She came before Christmas to visit us and I asked her how she was doing she said all was well that she resided in Delta and doing well in her business. God is working mir-

EFFECT OF LOVE GOING TRULY BLIND

`My husband was out to ruin me'

BY ADEOLA ADENUGA

Evangelist Silver Wealth Iyamu acles every day and I thank God he is using some of us to do this. Miracles are mysteries, an ordinary man cannot understand the face of the spirit because those who are born of the flesh are of the flesh. They see miracle they don’t understand except if their heart is prepared to understand. It is just unfortunate that we criticize every good thing that comes to us. Even Jesus Christ was accused that he cast out demons with evil powers. As a man of God that is used to signs and wonders, people must criticize you, I believe that until you are totally rejected, you cannot be totally accepted. Criticism is part of our ministry, some persons have criticized us in the past, but today they are members of my church. They have found out the truth. Those who are criticizing, I pray for them that God should open their eyes so that they find out the truth and they understand that the gospel we preach is goes with signs and wonders”.

Nurse stuns court:

My husband used my money to chase other men’s wives

BY ADEOLA ADENUGA

H

e goes after any thing in skirt, be it old enough to be his mother or she is of our child's age. "I have become a laughing stock, even in the church.

I made all efforts for him to stop this disgraceful act but he won't listen.

"He collects money from me and uses the money to chase other men's wives. I am tired.

I don't want the marriage anymore". These were the lamentations of Mrs Comfort Oladepo. She spoke in her evidence-in-chief before an Orile Agege Grade 'B' Customary Court which she prayed to end her twenty five-year-old marriage to her husband, Kayode, who he accused of adultery, lack of care and drinking habit.

The 44-year-old nurse, who lives at 9, Shodipo Street, Papa Ashafa, Orile Agege, stunned the court when she said her husband not only refused to work for 20-years, but he also used her money to chase other men's wives.

"My husband refused to work for 20 years; so I was the one feeding, paying house rent and clothing the family including my husband”, Comfort stated.

"He is so lazy. All he knows how to do is to drink to stupor, knocking married women's doors at night and chasing single ladies in the neighbourhood.

"I established him, but he ruined the business because he was spending all the money on his concubines.

"As if that was not enough, he asked my friends and my

young and older siblings out.

"I have endured for twenty years, I want to stay alone so that I don't have a husband.

He is useless. I see no reason I am still with him."

Meanwhile, Kayode, 54, told the court that when he was working, he provided for his wife and children.

"I may not have money but I am caring. When one of our children was sick, I was with him for three months in hospital, doing all what his mother could not do”, the respondent said.

"I protect the family, take care of them while she brings home money.

"I still love my wife and I will always love her, I don't want the dissolution".

The court president, Mr Joseph Adewusi, adjourned the case till Feb. 13 for judgment.

"I married my husband when he had nothing. I fed him, clothed him. I bought two buses for him for commercial use; he sold one and kept the money from me.

"I gave him my ATM cards, so it enabled him to withdraw my money at will. I loved him passionately. I leaned on the promises he made to me not knowing that they were all fake”, a 28year-old woman told an Orile Agege 'B' Customary Court, Lagos. She wanted her six-yearold marriage terminated over desertion and adultery.

Mrs Maria Igbaji, who lives at 10, Oyewole Road, Orile Agege, said, "All the money he realised from the transport business, he kept it away from me.

"While I was busy providing for the upkeep of the house, he was busy saving the money he realised from the business.

"I was so blindly in love that I could not see that this man is a gold digger and that he was out to ruin me completely."

The mother of one said her husband told her in Dec. 2011 to go to her village for Christmas not knowing that he had another plan.

Her words: "My husband told me to go my village in Dec. 2011 for Christmas. After the festive period, he called me to say I should not to come to Lagos yet, that he wanted to pay for another accommodation for us.

"When it was almost a month after he called me and I didn't hear anything from him again, I came to Lagos without telling him. But to my amazement, I found another woman in the house.

"My husband told me that he didn't love me anymore and that I was now stinking. Since then, he abandoned me and our child at home and left for an unknown place. " I still love him but I cannot force him on myself but before I leave him, he should settle me for all I went through while trying to please him." Maria, in tears, said she wished she could draw back the hands of time, and wished it never happened.

Mr Benjamin Igbaji, 35, a business man who lives at Echura Estate, Banana Island, B8, told the court that he left the house because his wife wanted to control him.

"She nags a lot, she does not listen to me, she accuses me wrongly, she always wants to do what pleases her and not what I want.

"It is true, she assisted me in my business and I paid her by showing true love to her but she is just to hard for my liking.

"I left the house because of her trouble, I don't love her anymore and I can't change my mind about that. "I want her to leave my house and go back to her parents house,"he said.

Meanwhile, the Court President, Mr Joseph Adewusi, adjourned the case till Feb.7 for judgment.

’

SUNDAY Vanguard, FEBRUARY 3, 2013, PAGE — 27

BY EMMA AMAIZE,

I

N some of the areas af fected by last year ’s flood disaster, the state governments practically abandoned the internally displaced persons, IDPs, to their fate, soon after they returned from the emergency relief camps, as it is most things Nigerian.

The IDPs have also found out to their chagrin that they are on their own, as there were no homes to return. Only some few have been able to rebuild their destroyed houses and many are asking questions about the grant the Federal Government gave states for the flood victims.

In Delta State, where Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan showed passion for the flood victims by regularly visiting, providing for and celebrating his birthday with them and inviting Nollywood actors, Osita Iheme, aka Paw Paw and Chinedu Ikedieze, aka Aki to motivate them, the situation appears different.

Besides setting up a PostFlooding Rehabilitation Committee, headed by Justice Francis Tabai, a retired Justice of the Supreme Court, the governor also set up a Technical Committee on Flood Impact Assessment in Delta State, headed by the Vice Chancellor of the Delta State University, DELSU, Abraka, Prof Eric Arubaye. The committee carried out research on the damage wreaked by the flood in the state and proffered technical advice on how to manage future occurrence.

The report of the technical committee is already with the United Nations, UN, whose officials were being expected in the state soon on an assessment tour. One of the state governments, which allegedly rushed a similar report to the UN, was told to borrow a leaf from the ‘ scientific approach’ of Delta State.

It was palpable that the federal and state governments did not prepare for the natural disasters that had hit the country in the last 50 years. However,

by Monday, January 28, about two months or so after the flood receded; Delta State House of Assembly had passed the Delta State Emergency Management Agency Bill; it was signed into law by Uduaghan at the public presentation of the report in Asaba.

Commissioner for Special Duties, Mr. Tony Nwaka, in his welcome address, said the governor knew the greater problem would be the post-flood management of the disaster and that was why he set up the techni-

Post-flood:

The Delta ‘scientific approach’ the course to President Goodluck Jonathan, National Emergency Response Agency, NEMA and other relevant agencies.

Okonjo-Iweala’s father, others react hief Jerry Ossai from Aniocha North local government and chair, Transition Committee, Warri South West Local Government, Rev Sam Ken expressed surprise that the committee did not mention their local government areas in the report. The monarch of Ogwashi-Uku kingdom , HRM Chukwuka Okonjo, who is the father of the Minster of Finance, Prof Ngozi OkonjoIweala wanted to know if the committee proffered any advice to Deltans on likely climate change in future.

The traditional ruler of Ofagbe , Odiologbo Matthew, reasoned in the same manner, saying the people want to know what would happen in the state in the next 42 years since the last major flood that was not as devastating as that of 2012 was about 1969. Mike Nwabueze from Ndokwa East was aghast that the committee did not enumerate human casualties, but a member of the committee replied that it is in one of the chapters.

The committee chair apologized, saying the committee would visit the two local governments that were left out in the next phase of its study, which the governor has approved.

C

From left; Gov Emmanuel Uduaghan; ,Prof.Eric Arubaye, VC, Delta State University; and Juustice Francis Tabai (rtd) during the presentation of the report of the technical committee on flood impact assessment in Delta State . Photo : Nath Onojake cal committee to assess the impact and advise on mitigation measures.

Chair of the committee, Prof Arubaye, hailed Uduaghan for the vision, saying Delta was the only state government that deemed it necessary to commission a team of experts, including professors of various disciplines, scientists, engineers, doctors and educationists to

sures that should be adopted by government to alleviate the plight of the victims.

Short/long terms measures mong the long-term (structural measures) are post-impact assessment studies, construction of flood-walls, construction of dispersion/diversion structures, channelization of flood-waters,

A

Speaking at the occasion, Uduaghan said, “I am amazed at the details of the work by the technical committee. What actually happened was that I was called by some persons in the World Health Organiztion, WHO, and other people from outside that they wanted a technical study.

“But I asked myself why we have to go to the United States

Some of the short-term measures are rehabilitation of failed sections of roads, bridges, rebuilding of damaged buildings, supply of farming implements, including cassava grating machines, seedlings and healthcare for the internally displaced persons carry out a detailed study on the flood in the state.

N9. 6 billion property damaged he technical report gave details of the farmlands, buildings and livestock that were destroyed in the various communities. The impact on crops was put at N3.1 billion, while that of livestock stood at N2.5 billion. In all, tangible property damaged by flood amounted to N9.602 billion. The committee said its reserved estimate for rebuilding a mud house is N100,000, while a block house is N2.2 million.

The committee determined the worst hit local government area in the state and recommended short-term and long-term mea-

T

construction of delay action dams, construction of bypass structure, dredging of River Niger and the tributaries/distributaries, limiting use of flood plain.

Some of the short-term measures are rehabilitation of failed sections of roads, bridges, rebuilding of damaged buildings, supply of farming implements, including cassava grating machines, seedlings and healthcare for the internally displaced persons.

Arubayi, however, disclosed that the committee came under pressure by some unnamed persons and groups to influence its report to their favour, but the members rebuffed the lobbyists.

I’m astonished – Uduaghan

of America and Europe to get people when we have experts in our universities. I contacted the vice chancellor of DELSU and he said we have the men and, today, I am happy that we have a comprehensive report.”

The governor said the committee actually finished the report in December, but because of the comprehensive nature, he felt it should not just be presented to him, but the entire Deltans to enable those that have observations to raise them.

“As I speak, the United Nations already has the report that is being presented today”, he asserted, confirming that a UN team was being expected in the state soon to carry out a postflood study. He also said the report would be handed over in

Fresh mandate on structures on natural waterways duaghan, who re sponded to the vari ous remarks by the people, noted that some people, including government, were constructing structures on natural waterways, saying he had mandated the Commissioner for Environment, Mr. Frank Omare, to remove any structure found on any natural waterway in the state.

He assured that no affected community will be left out by the technical committee, pointing out that there were indications that the disaster was as a result of heavy rainfall and release of water from a dam in a neighboring country.

U

PAGE 28 —

SUNDAY Vanguard, FEBRUARY 3, 2013

SUNDAY Vanguard, FEBRUARY 3, 2013, PAGE — 29

PAGE 30—SUNDAY

Vanguard, FEBRUARY 3, 2013

.... CRIME AND NATIONAL SECURITY

Terror in Lagos as Navy, Police show strength over Okada I

t started off like an argu ment between some po licemen attached to the Lagos State Task Force on Environmental and Special Offenses, and two naval ratings, while the policemen enforcing the state traffic law impounded a motorbike belonging to the ratings for allegedly driving against traffic.

Within minutes, the row degenerated into a confrontation as the angry ratings ran back to their base and reinforced. A navy Ops Mesa team, led by a warrant officer and a navy lieutenant, stormed the spot where the bike was impounded at Trebo Roundabout, off Warehouse Road, Apapa. The naval personnel descended on some Rapid Respond Squad,RSS, policemen manning an Armored Personnel Carrier, ACP, stationed at the roundabout when it became apparent that the task force policemen who impounded the erring motorbike had left with the bike. The policemen attempted to escape with the ACP when it became apparent that their lives were in danger as the armed naval personnel allegedly opened fire on them, Sunday Vangaurd gathered that the naval personnel ordered the RRS policemen at gunpoint into their ACP and instructed them to drive to the NNS Beecroft Base of the Western Naval Command, Apapa. The policemen, who were terrified, instead of obeying the order, took a different turn when, on getting to Point Road Junction, they headed for the Area B Police Command Headquarters, just a few meters away. A police source said, “ The naval team wanted to use the APC as bait to get back their motorbike”.

The naval personnel, on noticing the detour by the policemen ,reportedly start-

ed shooting indiscriminately. There were said to have also attacked and beaten up policemen they sighted along the way. A police inspector attached to Zenith Bank along Liverpool Road was allegedly beaten,stripped naked and his rifle taken away.

Motorists, workers and residents scampered for safety as sounds of gun fire enveloped the air. An eyewitness, a clearing agent, said he abandoned his car and took to his heels. He narrated, ” I was coming from the Island that Friday and heading to Liverpool when I heard the sounds of gun fire. I was highly terrified because I thought it was armed robbers operating in one of the banks along Liverpool Road. I abandoned my car and ran for safety. But when I stopped and I looked back to know what was going, I saw some naval personnel shooting at the police station and also at some police vehicles parked outside. I wasn’t the only person who abandoned his vehicle on the road, there are many other people who also did. The shooting didn’t stop until some senior naval per-

M.D Abubarkar, Inspector General of Police

,

BY IFEANYI OKOLIE

The lieutenant pleaded with the policemen, but they refused to listen.

The lieutenant then demanded that they all go to the Area B Police Command Headquarters

,

sonnel came to the scene.”

When contacted, the Western Naval Command information officer, Jerry Omodara, denied that the navy personnel attacked the police area command office. He explained

*A police Armoured Personnel Carrier

Rear Admiral Dele Ezeoba, Chief of the Naval Staff

that a police RRS patrol team , which accosted a team of the navy and policemen, hijacked the situation as they opened fire at them thus escalating the situation.

According to him, “What happened was that two naval ratings were on their way home on a motorbike after the close of work and policemen manning a checkpoint at Point Road Junction towards Liverpool stopped them. The ratings tried to explain that they were personnel closing from work but the policemen refused to let them go. ”The scene where the incident occurred was close to the Hydrographic Office of the navy and a rear admiral who saw it happen sent a lieutenant to the scene. ”The lieutenant pleaded with the policemen, but they re-

fused to listen. The lieutenant then demanded that they all go to the Area B Police Command Headquarters.”But on their way to the Command, an RRS patrol van approached and hijacked the situation.

The RRS policemen opened fire on the navy and snatched the motorbike from them and then there was a confrontation.” But another eyewitness, who simply identified himself as Kolawole, said it took maturity on the part of the police as the crisis unfolded to prevent a repeat of the 2011bloody incident in Ibereko, Badagry, where the Divisional Police and Crime Officers, DPO and DCO, Badagry Police Station and an army officer were killed during a clash between the police and army. According to him; “ I watched as the navy personnel was shooting at the police station and destroying vehicles at the premises and I asked myself what may have caused it. But as the shooting and destruction of police property went on, the police did not retaliate. They didn’t fire a shot back at the rampaging naval personnel. In fact, some of the policemen ran away; it was only a few that stood by to protect their station. I know the police station is filled with arms and they have enough men to use the arms. Imagine if they weren’t mature enough to allow the navy have their day and then leave, it would been very painful and terrible like what happened in 2011 where a DPO and DCO were killed by irate army officers in Badagry.”

C M Y K

SUNDAY

Vanguard, FEBRUARY 3, 2013, PAGE 31

BIRNIN GWARI

A place where armed robbers rule When they struck, the initial conclusion was that these were members of the Jamaatul Ahjlil Sunna lidawati wal Jihad, otherwise known as Boko Haram, who had just some 48hours earlier agreed to a ceasefire. However, Sunday Vanguard investigations reveal that these are thieves that have taken over an entire emirate covering Kaduna, Katsina and Zamfara States. Last October when they stormed Dogon Dawa to free some of their comrades-in-arms, leaving 24 people dead, Sunday Vanguard did an extensive coverage of their activities and how state governments were responding. But last week, the heavily armed bandits who move in a group of between 50 and 100, stormed Birnin Gwari. Here is the chilling account of their raid and the seemingly helpless lamentation of an emir.

BY LUKA BINNIYAT

T

he swath of the Guinea Savanah North West of Kaduna State that thins into the Sahel in Zamfara and Katsina States - perhaps the size of Imo and Abia States combined - has silently, but bloodily slipped from government control into the firm grip of bandits.

The Emir of Birnin Gwari, Alhaji Zubairu Jibril II, whose emirate has been overrun by the brigands had affirmed this to the Governor of Kaduna State , Alhaji Mukhtar Ramalan Yero, last Wednesday when he ran to Sir Ibrahim Kashim House on a save-our-soul mission.

Birnin Gwari is located about 150kms west of Kaduna town. The Emir, who may have had a premonition of the impending invasion of the headquarters of his emirate by the outlaws 24 hours after his visit, betrayed the helplessness and desperation of a king whose kingdom was under siege and on the brink of being captured, when he lamented to the state governor.

They are now in charge of my emirate - Emir

Here was what he told Governor Yero: “The entire Birnin Gwari Emirate has been overtaken by armed robbers. Only Birnin Gwari town is standing now.

“Unless the state government takes a drastic step towards arresting the situation, it will come to a point where the villagers will be forced to abandon the community “You must rescue us from the clutches of these armed robbers.

“We are disturbed, because as I talk to you now, neither you (Yero), our governor, nor I is in charge of security in some of the villages in Birnin Gwari; these bandits are in charge. The armed bandits have taken over our land.

“They dictate what goes on in the villages under their territory. They move around with their

weapons in broad daylight even in the market with nobody to challenge them. The only town they are yet to penetrate is Birnin Gwari town. So we hope the governor will come to our rescue.

“The emirate has been put under intense fear because the bandits now move from house to house at will and at anytime of the day to rob villagers, maim, kill and rape their female victims.

“So far, the bandits have stolen about 700 cattle belonging to the villagers and nothing has been done about it.

“Our people

to pray to God for a lasting solution”.

How they struck – resident

Unfortunately 24 hours later the brigands struck Birnin Gwari town where the Emir had thought was immune from the brigands.

An eye witness narrated the encounter thus: “They arrived this town around 10am and went about enjoying themselves and we all know they were thieves”, said a source known to Sunday Vanguard who does not want

when they were taking away the corpse of the last Policeman.

They bombed the Police station and killed five Policemen. They opened the cells and released all the inmates.

“It was after they chased away the Police that they turned to the Banks. They used explosives to open the ATM machines at the two banks (names withheld).

“I don’t know if they got into the vaults of the banks, because the Police did not allow us inside. Only my manager was allowed into the bank.

“But they destroyed everything from furniture to the ceilings, computers and even our only operational van”, he said.

Confirming the incident, Kaduna State Police Spokesman, DSP Aminu Lawan, told Sunday Vanguard that, “in the early hours of today, some armed robbers attacked a Police Station in Birin Gwari and two Banks. They killed three policemen. I was informed that the arm robbers were between 50 and 100. When our men could not face them, they retreated. They burnt the Police station. They also killed one other person after robbing the banks. We have not made any arrest, but we are investigating”, he said.

According to Sunday Vanguard findings, revelations suggest that even the Nigeria Military appears afraid of confronting the bandits.

They are said to be staying in camps with their wives and children where they live in a normal communal setting.

“In some of the camps, their children even attend schools in some of the local villages.

The village heads of some areas actually take orders from the bandits or get killed. It is a totally different world. Some of the areas in Birnin Gwari LGA under the grip of the thieves, according to Sunday Vanguard findings are: Kuyallo, Damari, Kazaga, Tsamari and their satellite villages.

A history of banditry in Zamfara and Kaduna August 2011: Armed robbers went from house to house in search of members of the vigilante groups in some villages under Dansadau Emirate, Maru LGA of Zamafara State. 10 persons were reportedly killed in the attack by the gang. The killers were said to be on a revenge mission after some of them were said to have been extra-judicially executed by members of the local vigilante groups mobilised by the people of Dansadau and environs to halt incessant robbery cases.

are worried; the government promised to secure the area from these bandits but we are still waiting for that intervention”, he said pleadingly.

It is a task for three states - Yero

In response to this lamentation song, Yero said: “This is a serious problem indeed. But it is a responsibility of the three states that share boundaries with Birnin Gwari.

“The three states are Kaduna, Katsina and Zamfara. So it is the responsibility of the government of these three states to sit down and fashion out ways to tackle this problem of armed bandits.

“I want to assure the Emir that this administration would do everything humanly possible to assist the community. I urge you to enjoin your subjects

October 2011: Bandits again returned and killed 23 persons and injured many others in the same village; they made away safely. his name mentioned. He works with one of the affected Banks.

“The bandits here fear no one and no one challenges them.

“When they arrived in four buses and several cars and motor cycles, some people started leaving the town.

“They went to drinking joints and had fun. Then around 1am, we heard the sound of gunfire.

“There was shootings and sounds of heavy explosions.

“It went on for over about two hours. I was praying that they don’t go from house to house.

“But the sounds were only around the Police station and the Banks’ area.

“When it was morning, we went out to the scene. I arrived

January 2012: Not less than 15 traders were ambushed and killed, their corpses burnt in Birnin Magaji Local Government Area of Zamfara State, allegedly by the same gang.

June 2012: The same gang returned to Dansadau; they went from house to house, killing the residents and setting their houses ablaze unchallenged for hours by security agencies. 27 residents were killed in that orgy of bloodbath July 2012: Armed robbers said to number about 50 invaded some two villages in Chikun LGA of Kaduna State, looting and killing 11 persons.

October, 2012: Dogon Dawa was thrown into mourning as 24 people lay dead after a rescue mission by armed robbers to free some of their arrested comrades in crime.

PAGE 32—SUNDAY

Vanguard, FEBRUARY 3, 2013

NASARAWA ETHNIC CRISES:

We arrested herdsmen with AK rifles

— Police Commissioner

BY ABEL DANIEL Nasarawa State commissioner of police, Mr Akerele Abayomi, speaks on the ethnic clashes in the state that allegedly claimed 12,500 lives in four villages.

HAT role have the police played in the crises that have bedeviled the state in recent times?

The role of the police so far is to be neutral and to allow the law to take its course. What we do is to investigate whoever may have committed or involved in one crime or the other, and to make sure such person or persons are brought before the court for the law to take its course. We don’t want to get involved in any political, religious or ethnic crisis.

That is why all those found with AK 47, locally made guns, those who used offensive weapons, those who attacked their fellow human beings during the crises have been arrested and some charged to court while some are still under investigation.

W

There is never a crisis in the state that the police did not made arrest of suspects. At Asakio, suspects were arrested and charged to court; in Agyaragu, 19 suspects were taken to court.

Most of the suspects were even remanded in police custody for a very long time, but when the court and the DPP found some of them not directly connected with the crisis and because we didn’t have sufficient evidence to link them to the crisis, their release was granted. That does not mean police is not doing its job. Those found guilty after investigation and linked with the offence of causing public disturbance were charged appropriately. I can boldly tell you that the police in Nasarawa State have been playing their role of investigating and arresting suspects, but we don’t want to be involved any form of political, ethnic or religious crisis even though some people are trying to drag us into it.

In the Agbashi clash, how

The act, the man

C

AN a man's act truly be separated from his per son? Let me simplify and maybe even personalize the question. Are you what you do? Can your entire life be defined by one single act? This question has been weighing heavily on my mind all month long and it is causing me to question a lot of beliefs and even fears that form my opinions and values. I am of the Christian persuasion and I am finding that the practice of some Bible truths are not as easy as one would assume. There are some gut reactions that most of us can't control; repulsion and fear are those I have had a bit of trouble controlling. There were many intentions that never happened last year and I had very late last year started making moves to fulfill them this year. I have always had a soft spot for troubled souls; I believe everyone except for grace could be driven into situations and acts that can change the course of their lives for ever. Second, third

and as many chances as possible should be the right of anyone who truly is penitent and this view informed my conviction to join a ministry that catered to prisoners!

To the average person; prison is far removed from reality and is a place of dread, broken dreams and dangerous people.

That would not be crazy thinking as there are some very dangerous people serving time for offenses that would chill the blood but that is hardly the full story. Prison is a place of confinement to punish crime and separate individuals deemed dangerous to the public.

There are no luxuries, life is regimented and all freedom tightly controlled to provide an environment where penitence and hopefully rehabilitation and correction is achieved. In reality rehabilitation and correction are only possible where individuals are convinced of their guilt and sorry to begin with. Prison can be a place to get more hardened

*Mr Akerele Abayomi many suspects did you arrest?

The crisis actually started at Agbashi but escalated to other villages. The cause was traced to Agbashi in Ekye Development Area, based on the allegation that a particular farmer inflicted machete cuts on somebody’s arm, but the people involved were arrested by the police. The crisis further spread as far as to Bassa where people took it upon themselves to kill their fellow humans beings. We made arrests; two herdsmen were apprehended and found with AK 47 rifles with 60 rounds of live ammunition. We strongly believe the arms must have used in that particular locality.

Overall, 22 suspects were arrested and are still at the CID custody for further investigation.

Some of the suspects were in possession of machetes and locally made guns.

Some groups have alleged that the police are not proactive enough, and that was why crisis as experts in crime are within very close quarters to teach even more evil. I have been to a few and I can tell you it is not half as frightening as one might imagine. Its more like an old and rather basic grammar school and within its confines exists a human community with its own laws and regulations. I will admit that my first visit to minister about 10 years ago frightened me to no end but I left with a different

,

*’We do not take sides’

I am determined to develop my mind to a level where I can separate a man or woman from their acts; judgement is pedestrian and a preserve of the divine

,

appreciation for nature of the institution.

The Bible says clearly that there is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not

easily spreads in the state.

As Shakespeare said there is no how one can read man’s heart on the face. No human being can be so proactive as to act in advance of crisis. We cannot read people’s minds, nobody told us that somebody was going to cut another man’s hand at Agbashi on that fateful day; so if people are saying that we are not proactive enough, it means they want to stretch us beyond our limits to act on what has not happened.

But I think from what happened, we acted well within our capacity. Don’t forget, in the course of the crisis, the IG sent men from Kogi, Benue and Niger to assist us. In some of the places where crises happened early last year, our officers are still stationed there. To say that the police is not proactive enough to stop any of these crisis from escalating is a very difficult job. We have held peace meetings with the people on several times and they still went ahead to do what they had in mind.

In many societies, you have people who are simply nonconformist; no matter what you do or tell them not to do, they will still go ahead. Those are the kind of people we are after. So what has not happened we cannot know not to measure it or prevent it. What has not happened we cannot judge or use any barometer to measure or determine anything.

What is your message to the warring parties, the injured, the displaced, and the communities affected?

My counsel to such people is in line with the appeal made by his excellency, the governor, asking those who are displaced to return to their homes and settlements. I want to add that eight security units have been created by government to provide adequate security to villages that

are evacuated. The government has equally urged that people should resume their normal businesses.

My advice is that the displaced people should go back to their places in line with the government policy as adequate security is being put together to ensure the safety of the people in those areas. We will make sure that nobody or community is attacked. Nobody should exercise fear of reprisal attack; the police is out to protect lives and property. The police is working hard to make sure fear is removed so that people can move freely.

Furthermore, people should have the courage and confidence to go back to their homes.

Anybody who knows about any sect or person threatening the existence of their community should not hesitate to inform the police nearest to their domain.

To the warring parties, the governor, while addressing the people involved in crises acoss the state, said they have lived together for years, and what is bad is bad. We should therefore not hide under any guise to cover what is bad by trying to trigger off communal clashes here and there, we should fish the perpetrators because they don’t mean well for us. If people have been living together for so long and all of a sudden they start to kill and destroy themselves, it then suggests that some people are behind that act. Nobody should allow himself to be used to cause confusion in the community. Anybody who allows his head to be used to break coconut may not live to eat that coconut. Don’t allow anyone to use your head to break coconut either. Do not allow yourself, under any circumstance to be used to make trouble, that can expose you to danger and you may not live to tell the story.

after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

I truly believe this but I have heard and seen some things lately that cause me to wonder if there is a cut off point. Before religious people start shooting me with darts of outrage, please hold your peace and let me explain. Zeal to bring relief to those who are without hope and encouragement can be dampened when you come face to face with people who have committed some crimes that border on sacrilege and abomination.

There is no great differential between criminals in prison except that some are condemned and some aren't. I come across those who join us for fellowship and are reaching out for love and hope that only the word of God brings, there are also those who are of a different faith doing their own thing nicely but then again there are those who look at you through eyes of malevolent evil and you wonder whether redemption should indeed have a cut off point. Even in prison they continue to perpetrate crime and terrorize other inmates!!

One thing that never fails to amaze me is the diversity of the prison population both male and female. Its best to not ask questions about the crimes that brought most of the prisoners there as you fall into the trap of judgement. The truth is that most inmates don't look or sound like they belong in prison and its only natural to begin to wonder! There are young girls, innocent and

beautiful, young men who look like they should be working in a bank, grandmothers; gentle and matronly. This past week I found myself looking into eyes that were very familiar and a tad friendly and I wondered where I had met this seemingly innocent soul. It took a while to connect the dots and I finally remembered where and who it was I had seen. One of the most heinous and gruesome crimes perpetrated in recent times was committed by this person yet here he was praying and crying for a second chance. My flesh initially was repulsed till I remembered that God's love is none judgmental; he was no worse than Paul who had supervised the killing of the first christians.

I am determined to develop my mind to a level where I can separate a man or woman from their acts; judgement is pedestrian and a preserve of the divine, the rest of us pray that grace is made available to us at our worst.

A man is not the same as his acts; people change. It was the same Solomon, that was crowned King and deemed worthy to build God's house that degenerated to a has been, broken and dejected and I end with one of his wisest quotes... " I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.

SUNDAY VANGUARD, FEBRUARY 3, 2013, PAGE 33

‘Deposit banks need modern technology for cashless economy’

BY UDEME CLEMENT

Y

OUR company has just introduced world class payments and information management solutions to Nigerian banks.

Can you give us insight into ho w these solutions will

function in our banking industry?

To start with, the solutions will enhance the cashless monetary policy of the CBN. The system foundation has total hardware, database and platform independent because all systems are built to customer specifications. The system foundation also has the components like data validation, offline mode, audit and logging engine, notification and escalation engine and report writer. The solutions are conformed to international banking security compliance standard. We have payment solutions for information management with Automated Transfer Service (ATS) branch solution, cheque solution and corporate. The branch solutions has full integration with core banking front-end, which are integrated with different payment streams like cheque imaging and work-flow, full offline capability, document management solution, signature verification system among others.

Does this solution capture teller overview during transactions?

Yes, because it is fully integrated into the existing systems to enhance customer’s verification with extensive hardware support for teller devices. It reduces time to ensure immediate transaction feedback in processing of cheques and deposits at teller lever. The benefits of this solution include reduced operational costs and clearing procedures. For Teller Capture Enhancement, the solution provides for module that includes brand new easy-touse interface and bank

Mr. Pieter Du Toit payment switch. The solution curtails fraud in the system through signature verification, cheques security and image quality assurance.

How can this solution fast track Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT)?

In EFT we have a solution called Corporate-to-Bank Module. It is very efficient in EFT because it paves the way for core banking processing and e-payments which the cashless policy of the CBN is promoting. This implies that corporate offices can transmit payments from the comfort of their offices. It allows direct debits and credits in EFT, real time liquidity monitor, real time transaction status and tracking, swift payments and truncated images. This is a cost-effective solution, which

,

In line with the policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to fully implement cashless economy across the country, a leading software technology company in Africa, Sybrin Systems Limited, in collaboration with its marketing partner in Nigeria, Proactive Technologies Limited, have introduced new payments solutions to commercial banks operating in Nigeria. The New Business Executive, West Africa , Sybrin, Mr. Pieter Du Toit, speaks on the need for deposit banks and other financial institutions in the country to adopt modern payments solutions to enhance efficiency in electronic banking system.

system?

We have Identification Verification Solution (IVS) covering boarding of customers, biometric signatures, signature pad support and full signature. It is a comprehensive tool used to capture, store and verify signature. It allows a financial institution to digitise signatures and mandates for use whenever signatories need to be verified against a known reference. We also have solution for imaging and work-flow to transform banking from paper base to paperless by imaging transaction documents into a central repository. It stimulates a work-flow for each bank and processes that can be linked to archival and retrieval. The benefits include reduction in filling places and paper consumption, reduced paper movement/courier costs, customer delight due to reduced processing time and improved productivity. We also offer banks what is called Statement Solution, which imports statement dump from core banking solution. It manipulates statement into format, logo and marketing materials. The solution adds images of cheques to real truncation and such corporate

It is fully integrated into the existing systems to enhance customer’s verification with extensive hardware support for teller devices. It reduces time to ensure immediate transaction feedback in processing of cheques and deposits at teller lever

,

enables corporate offices to control, perform, track and reconcile bulk credit and debit payments through a web client interface. For instance, the Corporate to Banks Module assists with tracking and reconciling transactions as well as viewing of transactions status with the ability to generate reports.

Also, Corporate to Banks solution can be used to submit bulk collection files and bulk payment. The advantages for corporate include reduced transaction time, because it helps to track batches of EFT transactions, while advantages for banks include no lengthy queues, web based interface, multi-level authorisation and secure access using smart cards.

How do you handle the issue of identity verification in order to check fraud in the

statements are print, email and others.

What is Swift solution?

At Sybrin, we offer Swift solution to capture points like branch levels and corporate offices. This has to do with scanning of all swift mandates and authorisation by swift department through matching with signatures and mandates as well as mandates database solution, automatic matching of signature and mandates. We also have Image-based Centralised Cheque Solution, which is a proven, robust and flexible software solution for high speed document imaging and transaction processing applications.

Document Management Solution (DMS), for document processing system and information repository to capture all forms of unstructured business information. Front Office

Solution, which functions as an interface for banks through incorporation of multiple technologies, to provide a single solution for all teller functions. Imaging and Workflow Solution, which is developed to capture documentation and presents it to users in a single interface.

Once all information is unified in our database, unique and intuitive workflow can be created to guide the users.

How do you meet the demand of your clients in various countries?

It is very simply. We have regional offices in Nigeria,

Kenya, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Tanzania and other places.

Over 21 years, Sybrin has established itself as the leading software technology company in the provision of payment solutions amongst bank in Africa , clearing houses and corporations. Some of our clients include Barclays (PanAfrica), Bankserv (South African Clearing House), The Electronic Cheque Clearing House (ECCH) in Malawi , The Zambia Electronic Clearing House (ZECHL), The Kenya Bankers Association ACH (KBA), among other financial institutions.

In Sybrin, we take pride in our ability to supply innovative, market-leading solutions. Everywhere we deliver is based on our specialist, first-hand skill of the global payments, information and document management industries.

Electricity: Succour coming on ‘crazy bills’

BY KUNLE KALEJAYE

S

MALL and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) may soon heave a sigh of relief as Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC, has taken a resolution to conduct a public hearing to arrive at a more affordable fixed charge for them and other stakeholders.

The new fixed charged will ensure the sustenance and growth of the sector.

It would be recalled that the Multi-Year Tariff Order released in June 2012 saw to the increase of fixed charge for some customers.

The revision was done to ensure the viability of the electricity sector, but after monitoring the economic impact of the tariff regime on different customer classes, the commission decided to reduce the impact of the tariff on the SMEs. Chairman of NERC, Dr. Sam Amadi, who gave the hint,

said, “This is in line with standards of international best practice on economic regulation of the electricity sector.”

According to a statement, the commission also reviewed the requests made by some electricity distribution companies (DISCOs) to unbundle customer classes (R2 and R3), a development that will see to customers in the R2 category, who are mostly lowincome/working class customers paying less for electricity without undermining the capacity of the operators to recover their costs.

The DISCOs have also requested for an imposition of Kilo Volt Amp (KVA) charges to users of heavy industrial machinery that are known to cause stress to the system.

This charge will serve as a deterrent to such customers and compel them to install capacitor banks that will be used to reduce this impact.

From left: Mr. Segun Fayose, Head of Public Relations, MultiChoice Nigeria; Mrs. Busola Tejumola, Consumer Insight Manager; Mrs. Omotogunja Esther I. Wumi, winner of a Renault Duster SUV in the DStv Mega Promo; Mr.Akinola Salu, General Manager, Trade and Distribution, MultiChoice Nigeria; during the prize presentation held at the MultiChoice head office, Tiamiyu Savage, Victorial Island, Lagos . PHOTO: Kehinde Gbadamosi.

PAGE 34 — SUNDAY VANGUARD, FEBRUARY 3, 2013

BY KUNLE KALEJAYE

A

S part of the measures by the F e d e r a l Government to generate more employment in the country ’s petroleum industry through the Local Content Initiative,

the Jonathan administration plans to engage more Nigerian engineers in the sector.

The commitment is sequel to the successful completion of Oredo OLM 111 gas plant constructed by indigenous engineers.

The project, estimated at over three hundred and fifty thousand dollars ( $ 3 5 0 , 0 0 0 ) approximately (N54, 950,000), was funded by an indigenous contractor, the Network Oil and Gas Nigeria Limited.

While commissioning the project, Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Allison Madueke, expressed satisfaction with the engineers that handled the project.

Madueke also

Nigerian engineers feat on OLM III gas plant raises hope on local content expressed the resolve of the Jonathan administration on the local content initiative with a view to encouraging Nigerian engineers in participating in the oil industry.

“We commend the leadership of the President for giving the support and providing the resources and political leadership without which today would not have been a reality”, she noted.

On his part, the Executive Director of the Network Oil and Gas

Nigeria Limited, Mr. Osawaru Clifford, commended the Federal Government and the management of the NNPC for making the project a reality, explaining that apart from the fact that the gas plant was purely an indigenous initiative, over one thousand Nigerians are expected to gain employment in the plant.

“This plant was built in two years and it is quite an expensive venture.

Nigerians successfully completed the project without No man hour

lost, no injuries. The total man hour is over one million without any fatality. The significant of this plant to our power generation is that it will add additional 500megawatts of electricity to the national grid” C;ifford said.

“The plant was hundred per cent built by local content, the Network Oil and Gas, an indigenous company with qualified Nigerian Engineers. And we are sending a message that Nigeria do not need to import engineers from outside the country to

come and build a gas plant. It can be done locally with less funds instead of importing expatriates.

“We are happy that the Minister and officials of the NNPC found time to come today to officially commission the early first gas of the Oredo OLM 111, to enable the nation meet up with the promise made by President Jonathan to Nigerians that he will improve power supply in the country. This is one of the promises that have come to past, as the Minister was accompanied with

other officials to commission the first indigenous 100 per cent local content gas plant built in Nigeria”.

He added: “The successful completion of this plant is just an eye opener to many of us and a great opportunity for Nigerians to exploit the opportunities which President Goodluck Jonathan has given to Nigerians. This will tell you that there is nothing Nigerians cannot do if we are determined.

“We believe that if we continue in this manner a lot of our graduates will be employed and there will be massive engineering revolution in Nigeria and it will make the nation depend on its citizens instead of allowing our engineers to leave the country looking for greener pastures. With this kind of opportunity the President has given to us, our engineers will prefer to reside here in Nigeria and it will add value to our system.”

Delta seeks increased participation in oil & gas sector

T

HERE is an increasingly w o r r i s o m e development among oilproducing communities and states all over the nation. This stems from the idea that these communities have not enjoyed so much from the benefits of oil exploration and exploitation.

And especially when we remember that whenever the environmental problems erupt, it is these communities that bear the immediate brunt, the development assumes frightful dimensions.

That perhaps was what informed a stakeholders conference initiated by the Delta State government to ameliorate the increasing alienation of the oil producing communities and states from the benefits of oil, and to stimulate both state and communal participation in the oil and gas industry.

The conference was held at Wellington Hotel, Effurun, Delta State under the theme, “Synergy: Sustainable Partnership for Development in the Oil and Gas Producing Communities in Delta State.” It was also aimed at helping to promote training and investment that would prepare oil and gas producing states and communities to master and own the business ventures of oil exploration, production, processing and m a r k e t i n g .

Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan, while declaring the conference open through his deputy, Prof Amos Utuama, who represented him, affirmed that the nature of economic relationship between states and

Federal Government was altered by the promulgation of the Petroleum Decree by the military government in 1969 which took away the rights of the states to the minerals produced in their territories and placed them squarely under the exclusive control of the federal military government, reiterating that all the other policies derived from this seminal document, and further compounded the alienation of the oilproducing communities and states, especially the hazards and permanent damages arising from oil production.

He said the overwhelming control ofthe oil and gas industry and the benefits arising it from by the Federal Government is unprecedented and in any other sector of the Nigerian economy or i n d e e d anywhere else in the world.

So many institutions, agencies and businesses have been created to monitor, police, take and spend profits from the industry by the Federal Government without ceding any role, responsibilities or direct benefits to the states and communities in whose territory the oil is p r o d u c e d .

It is in the attempt to win back some of these roles and responsibilities that Delta State needs a well structured institution in the nature of the Ministry of Oil and Gas to drive the process for state and community participation in the industry.

The state is also committed to the crucial need to have the independent capacity to monitor and keep records of production figures from its territory.

The dire unemployment

,

BY GAB EJUWA

Gov. Emmanuel Uduaghan situation in Delta requires that the Ministry of Oil and Gas maintain close monitoring of companies and investments in the sector to ensure that justice is done in the employment of our people and the utilization of the skills that are abundant in the state.

Because of the unjust importation of skills that are abundant in Delta State, the oil and gas industry is not growing at its optimum and income tax and other revenues are lost by the State Government and its people.

It is the expectation that the Nigerian Content Law otherwise called the Local Content Law and the envisaged Petroleum Industry Act should help expand and deepen the participation of the government and people in the business of oil and gas in its entire s p e c t r u m .

Earlier in his welcome address, the Commissioner, Ministry of Oil and Gas, Delta State, Mr. Omamofe Pirah, said the conference was the first of its kind in the state and was put together by the Ministry of Oil in collaboration with Chevron EGTL, the

The State government is keen on building a synergy for constructive engagement among all stakeholders in the industry in the State, maximize the benefits accruing from the changing scenario

Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) and many other contributing companies. He revealed the key objectives of the forum as to provide an opportunity for interaction among all stakeholders in the oil and gas industry in Delta state. The State government is keen on building a synergy for c o n s t r u c t i v e engagement among all stakeholders in the industry in the State, maximize the benefits accruing from the changing scenario, forge a harmonious relationship between oil and gas companies, their

,

host communities and government, building consensus among all stakeholders while pursuing and implementing growth factors that will increase investments in the industry in order to grow employment and other profitable engagements for the people of Delta state.

In her speech during the conference, Mrs. Dieziani Allison Madueke, Minister of Petroleum Resources, who was represented by the MD of NRPC, Mr. Paul Obelley, lauded Uduaghan on his commitment to the development of the oil and gas sector. He urged

the stakeholders in attendance to make good recommendations on core issues.

Some of the discussants at the conference were, Dr. Akpo Mudiaga Odje, Chief Charles Akeni, Barr. Chris Erhi Umoru, Emmanuel Opia, Mrs. Uju Ifejika, Hon. Tam Brisibe, Mr. Emmanuel Adokpaye, Prof. Mary Olire Edema, AugustineAvuru, Barr.

Robinson Ariyoh and Dr. Martins Odukuye.

Personalities from Ministry of Oil and Gas, Delta State, departments and agencies of Government of Delta State, oil and gas companies operating in DeltaState, oil and gas service companies, c o n t r a c t o r s , equipment leasing companies, JV partners and others, representatives of host c o m m u n i t i e s , development partners, Nigerian Content Development and Management Board, Federal Ministry of Petroleum, Department of Petroleum Resources, NNPC and representatives of the State Legislature and National Assembly were all in attendance.

•Dr. Chioma Nwachukwu, General Manager, Corporate Affairs of Seplat Petroleum Company (r), with Emmanuel Otokhine, Head, Corporate Communications, when the firm hosted journalists to an end of the year gettogether.

SUNDAY

Vanguard , FEBRUARY 3, 2012, PAGE 35

Commonsense should prevail in Syria —Polyakov, Russian Ambassador *’Some of the factions in the conflict have Boko Haram ideology’

BY VICTORIA OJEME The Russian Ambassador to Nigeria, Alexander Polyakov, speaks on the crisis in Syria.According to him, the position of his home government is that solution to the crisis lies in political dialogue between the government and the opposition.

Excerpts: What is the position of Russia on the crisis in Syria?

Russia is convinced that the Syrian crisis does not have a coercive solution since the conflict is rooted in confrontation between various ethnosocial groups, not the government and the society.

For some of these groups, the support of the Assad’s regime is simply a matter of their own existence and survival. As for the opposition, it embraces not all the country’s Sunni majority, but various armed fractions which have no common goal except the overthrow of the regime. Among them, there are gangs whose ideology and behaviour are quite similar to those of Boko Haram.

Unfortunately, those influential external powers, without the active support of which the rivals of Assad’s regime would never be able to confront the government forces almost on equal terms, do not particularly seem to ponder over the consequences of a quite possible Islamist takeover in Syria.

What do you think is the solution to the crisis?

From the very beginning Russia has been coming forward for the political resolution of the Syrian crisis.

We believe it is possible only on the basis of a political dialogue between the government and the opposition, without laying down any preliminary conditions other than the end of the bloodshed by both sides.

Such a dialogue, however, is not likely to take place if one of the sides, supported and encouraged from abroad, inherently refuses to enter the negotiations.

Nevertheless, Moscow hopes that the common sense will eventually prevail and all the parties involved in the armed confrontation, as well as various social, ethnic and confessional groups, will be brought to the table of negotiations.

In this regard we support efforts made by the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General Mr. Lakhdar Brahimi aimed at finding the way out of the this complicated situation.

Do you see in the nearest future President Assad handing over power to the Free Syria Army?

President Assad’s opponents in Syria and abroad left him no other choice but to fight back right up to the bitter end.

We shouldn’t also forget that the Alawites, a religious minority which is considered to be the main political stronghold of the Assad’s regime, apprehends not without a reason that it will likely to face total extermination if the regime falls.

The current scenario brings grim

Russian Ambassador to Nigeria, Ambassador Alexander Polyakov,

President Assad’s opponents in Syria and abroad left him no other choice but to fight back right up to the bitter end. Moscow hopes that commonsense will eventually prevail prospects for Syria’s other religious communities like Christians and the Druze.

Sadly enough, the continuation of this brutal carnage with tens, or even hundreds thousands of casualties seems quite feasible. And the victory of the militarized opposition by no means will bring an end to violence. Quite on the contrary, I would say.

Why has Russia suddenly passed a bill on the ban of child adoption by American families?

Well, this issue didn’t come out of nowhere. The so-called Dima Yakovlev Act was passed not only as a result of an accumulating dissatisfaction over the existing practice of adoption of Russian orphans

by Americans, which is far from being flawless, but rather as a response to numerous outrageous accounts of violent and reckless treatment of already adopted children by their new parents.

One of the most disgraceful parts of this story was a weird policy of the US federal government that practically deprived adoptees - still citizens of Russia - of a right for diplomatic assistance despite the bilateral adoption agreement between Russia and the United States.

Apparently it is beyond normal when the US mother avoids any prosecution after getting bored with her Russian kid she’d adopted and simply sending him back to Moscow with a one-way ticket.

Or when the American adoptive dad escapes a jail term after leaving his toddler in the locked vehicle exposed to a torrid sun for nine hours, causing a cruel death.

Not everyone in Russia supports this initiative, but as you can see, there were some reasonable grounds to approve the bill banning US citizens from adopting Russian children.

What is the reason or do you foresee threat to national security for the country?

It wasn’t national security, but rather national self-respect and prestige

behind this legislative move. Russian lawmakers had to respond to the cynical so-called Magnitsky Act, which had been adopted by the US Congress shortly before.

To get a better understanding of the situation, let’s just imagine that the United States impose sanctions against the Nigerian officials who investigated the sensational Halliburton case a few years ago.

I mean, sanctions without judicial or any other evidence of the guilt. How would you like it?

How many visas and scholarships were issued to Nigerians in the year 2012?

Traditionally, Russia is not considered to be a top destination among Nigerians traveling abroad.

The number of Russian visas issued last year in Abuja and Lagos surpassed 1500, thus showing slow but steady growth.

At the same time young Nigerians remain really interested in higher education opportunities offered by Russian universities.

By now we provide 70 statesponsored scholarships for Nigerian applicants per year and the annual quota has been growing gradually.

Another option eagerly used by Nigerians is to study in Russia on a commercial basis.

PAGE 36—SUNDAY

Vanguard, FEBRUARY 3, 2013

Why Abuja demolition must go on —FCT Dep Director of Devt Control R

ecently, the Federal Capital Territory Au thority, FCTA, demolished some structures in Mpape community and Minanuel Estate along the Airport Road, Abuja, saying they were illegal. It also went ahead to publish a list of 37 other estates to be demolished.

Following the out- cry that trailed this action, Sunday Vanguard sought the position of key government officials directly involved in the demolition. The Deputy Director of the Development Control Department of the FCTA, Hamza Tayyub, articulated government’s stand on what has become a major controversy involving not only low income earners but also the rich and powerful in Abuja In this interview, Tayyub justifies the demolition and explains why government cannot stop the exercise in the present circumstances. The official also speaks on the challenges FCTA faces in dealing with developers; how developers are ripping subscribers off and what they are doing to bring discipline into the system. Excerpts: What led to the demolition of Minanuel Estate?

The designation of Lugbe Airport Road has changed from Area Council to Phase 5 of the city because of the strategic importance of the road because everybody coming into the city will appreciate a well planned Abuja city. If you leave it for the Area Councils there might not be a planning consideration for a beautiful place that would give rise to a place people will like to see from the airport and new people and foreigners should have a first impression of the city. So, this was what led to the change of status and, before this, we stopped all development activities.

If an area is declared under planning, the development is put on hold. And until the planning is over or when the new planning is ready, you will not be able to implement new plans.

Somewhere along the line, we discovered that people were building estates there and we asked for their title documents and building approval. They showed titled documents from Abuja Municipal Area Council, AMAC, and, honestly, AMAC does not

*’Big cartels behind illegal estates’

Hamza Tayyub.....We tried to alert the public about developers scam. is a limit to what they can approve. They can only approve something like bungalows and at most two-storey building.

Not a whole estate or a complex building because to approve such, you need professionals like architects and enWe started the gineers and all the complexities involved. So they couldn’t demolition of have approved estates.

Minanuel Estate Have you gotten the alleged approved lists of estates that right from the were approved by AMAC? foundation. The No, in fact, right from time, more we if somebody wants approval for estate like the estate in demolished, the FHA and AMAC, even more they built at a Lugbe Gwarinpa, when he comes, it is the FCDA that would plan much faster rate. and then give it to them and Their belief was then he will bring the proposthat once they could al. Honestly, AMAC didn’t approve any estate; if anybody finish, they will be company asks them for the pitied, and it would or approval of any estate, what they normally do is to direct end there them to us; but if it is a bungalow, they just go ahead and have authority to allocate land approve but if it is a threefor estate right from the begin- four-storey building and you ning. These papers were read- approach AMAC, they would ing dates that were between refer such application to De2003 and 2004, so we asked velopment Control.

If somebody comes and says AMAC, have you approved AMAC approved estate for estates along Airport Road?, and AMAC said they do not him, we will be surprised behave the power to approve cause it is not even in their land for estate development. jurisdiction to do so.

These estates have allegedThey also cannot approve land to build estate because there ly been approved by AMAC. What is FCT administration

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BY EMMANUEL ELEBEKE & LAIDE AKINBOADE

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doing to alleviate the suffering of these common Nigerians?

AMAC never approved the estates. I insist the titles they got were forged, though, we sympathise with these Nigerians.

Have you informed the law enforcement agencies over the alleged forged documents?

This is another angle this thing must take because this thing has been on for a long time in so many places in Nigeria! It is not only in Abuja, forgery is everywhere. After all, people forge money and certificates, so it is not new. The problem is that it is a big challenge.

Maybe now more and more people are aware because the thing is now the talk of the town.

We must fight this canker worm collectively and get to the root of it.

Now, you intend to demolish about 37 more estates.

What are you doing to save the affected people from the agony it might cause? Are you not worried about this?

Definitely we are; definitely we are, it is not the minister, it is the policy that has been there.

When you say you have a master-plan you want to implement, you have to implement it. Any minister will do the same, it doesn’t have anything to do with this minister or that minister but the policy must be followed. It is the system, there is no minister that would fold his arms over this. The president has already given him a mandate, “ Deliver me a world class capital” and any public officer will want to do that.

Quite okay our sympathy goes to subscribers; even the subscribers need to have done better than they did because if you want to go into something, the onus is on you to make sure that you do a thorough search before going into it. You must verify the authenticity of the documents you got.

Are you sure people are aware of the position and work of Development Control?

You mean you are building and you don’t know that Development Control exists?

Then you are not serious. If you are renting, you don’t have anything to do with Development Control but those that are buying do. Those who are building with their money are supposed to check with Development Control and en-

sure that the estate is approved before they start building.

Honestly, after this demolition of Minanuel Estate, if you see the number of the people coming to find out, what they are supposed to have done. It doesn’t have to take demolition for them to find out.

But why can’t you stop development from the onset to avoid demolition?

We have a photo clip, this was when they cleared the site and, we were there and we told them to stop. This was early last year but rather, foundations started springing up.

And our machine started removing the foundation. We started the demolition of Minanuel Estate right from the foundation. The more we demolished, the more they built at a much faster rate. Their belief was that once they could finish, they will be pitied, and it would end there. As we demolished, they built again. As structure increased in the site we went to demolish.

A

re there no ways of stopping them by put ting security men at the site in order to check them from continuing with the buildings?

We tried creating awareness by putting adverts in the broadcast media and newspapers. We tried to alert the public in addition to radio and television announcements, everything we were supposed to do under the law we did. People are generally stubborn and lawless. What is going on is lawlessness. The developers in most cases recoup their money; it is the subscribers that bear the brunt of the problem.

Some don’t even buy the land, they just forge documents and divide the land and start selling to innocents Nigerians.

And the same people will use their money to build and they are the people that lose at the end of the day.

What is Development Control doing about the low quality of buildings in some of these estates to avert building collapse?

The reason all these are happening is because they don’t have approval from Development Control. They will use fake approvals. Area Councils have stopped issuing approval since 2004 but what they do is to backdate the approval and say it was given in 2003. The same approval they said they got from AMAC in 2003 is the same approval they got and start building.

SUNDAY

*Mini-buses to give way to high capacity buses in the FCT

Angst as ‘Araba’ is forced out of Abuja roads *

zWe are stranded – Commutters z30,000 drivers will lose jobs – Union zWe will readjust, then relaunch mini -buses ban – FCTA

L

ugbe, Kubwa and Nyan ya-Keffi highways are unarguably the busiest roads that connect Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) to other satellite towns such as Nyanya, Karu, Kubwa, Dutse, Zuba, Bwari, Gwagwalada, Lugbe, Kuje, etc.

About 90 percent of the workforce in the FCT reside in these suburbs. This brings to the fore why there is always traffic jam in the morning and at the closing hours on daily basis on these roads, as well as some strategic business areas of the Nigerian political capital.

As part of the effort to bring sanity to the transport system in the FCT, the FCT Administration, on January 14, announced the suspension of mini-bus operations in Abuja. The move that did not go down well with commuters and drivers of the green buses sparked off violent protests in all the routes that enter the nation’s capital.

The Minister of FCT, Senator Bala Muhammed, said the administration had approved designated points where commuters from the satellite towns would drop, to join SURE-P buses that will take them to the city, noting that about 191 buses had been purchased to ease the plight of the residents.

Sunday Vanguard gathered that commuters coming from Nassarawa /Keffi road in the mini bus town service vehicles were expected to drop off under Nyanya Bridge, while those coming from Kubwa would now have Berger bus stop as the terminal point.

Meanwhile, the enforcement of the ban on January 14 halted economic activities in some satellite towns of the FCT on January 15, as commercial bus drivers, under the aegis of Self-Employed Commercial Drivers Association, Abuja, SECDAA, violently protested the transportation policy of the FCT administration.

Not comfortable with the policy, the drivers, who were forced out of Motor Park at Nyanya with the help of solders on Monday (January 14), for the long buses to take over, had announced that they were embarking on a peaceful demonstration to the National Assembly and the FCT Minister’s office to find out whether the new policy was approved.

The protest, however, assumed a violent dimension as the drivers allegedly smashed windscreen and glasses of SURE-P vehicles as well as setting bonfires in the middle of the road. For fear of the un-

known, many offices and shops in the area remained closed while the protest lasted, as there was traffic jam resulting in commuters trekking long distances to get to their destinations.

The drivers had to beat a retreat after discovering that the initial plan to march to the National Assembly and the minister’s office had been thwarted as a result of the blockade at the major roads to the capital area occasioned by the Armed Forces Remembrance Day celebration.

For three days that the mini buses, popularly known as ‘Araba’, was banned by the FCT administration, commuters and stakeholders, who spoke to Sunday Vanguard, said they suf-

Vanguard, FEBRUARY 3, 2013, PAGE 37

fered untold hardship.

A commuter at Karu, Clement Ajiboye, wondered why FCTA was bent on frustrating the masses, lamenting the nonavailability of the high capacity buses which were supposed to replace the mini buses.

“Before embarking on this kind of policy, there ought to have been high capacity buses on ground or even rail line in the FCT to convey people to various destinations,” he said.

“Meanwhile, transport fares have increased by 100 per cent as few privately owned buses were seen plying the NyanyaKeffi Road”.

Blessing Uzoma, an apprentice, said, “During the three days of ban, people were stranded in the city centre, especially at Wuse zones where people trekked long distances”.

A nursing mother, Cecilia Nwagwu, said she was very tired and worried after trekking a long distance without hope of getting a bus. “I thought the world was about to end”.

A civil servant, Aminu Azeez, said government should have enlightened the people and provided buses before implementing the policy in order to reduce suffering of the people.

“The policy has not only affected human beings it has also hugely affected productivity”, Azeez added.

National Secretary of FCT Owners and Drivers of Mini-Bus Town Service Association, Prince Charles Ikwegbu, said described the policy as antimasses, stressing that if the FCT Administration is allowed to carry on with the policy, it will bring large scale hardship to drivers and commuters in an obnoxious manner.

“The policy will make 30,000 members of the mini-bus association jobless. We call on the FCT minister to consider the consequences of the policy in the interest of people”, he insisted.

A bus operator and member of the National Union of Minibus Drivers, Abuja, Okechukwu Chukwu, bemoaned the manner of the enforcement, saying the action has affected their

*Commuters ...where are the high capacity buses?

business. “Initially they instructed us to paint our vehicles in national (or Abuja) colours, we complied. They asked us to register our vehicles and obtain fresh driver’s license, we did.

Now we don’t know what they want,” he said. He alleged that the government-owned mass transport or high capacity buses, which the FCTA intends to replace mini buses with, have proved insufficient to cater for the transport needs of FCT residents. Meanwhile, in an interview with the Head of Public Relations to the FCT Transport Secretariat, Mrs. Stella Ojeme, she said that the FCTA had already provided 78 capacity buses for the Nasarawa/Keffi axis and 15 buses for the Kubwa route, adding that Kubwa had only 15 because the ‘araba’ buses were allowed to ply the road.

On whether there was a notice before the implementation of the new policy, she said: “We gave them notice. We distributed flyers and the announcement has been on the radio since December 1, 2012 and if you tune on your radio today to WAZOBIA FM and Aso Radio they have been doing the adverts since December 1, everyday”.

Noting that the banning and the reaction of the people are turning to a dangerous dimension and that it might be hijacked to bring down government, the Minister of FCT, Senator Bala Mohammed, announced the suspension of the ban on the use of green minibuses in the FCT for three weeks.

He said the rationale behind the suspension of ban on minibus operators in Abuja was to enable the administration make re-adjustment to reduce the hardship commuters faced during the ban.

His words, “Drivers of minibuses are not helping matters; we will see how we can provide some succour in the form of hire purchase as a way of sustaining their families. “We have over 700 hi-capacity buses in the FCT, the Abuja Urban Mass Transit Company (AUMTCO) has about 300, the NURTW has about 200, and other licensed operators have about 200.

“But the mini buses will not allow them to work seriously.

You only work on the basis of profitability, you will see the high capacity buses burning their gas without any passenger because the mini bus people will not give them any breathing space, moreover they are reckless and indisciplined.

“So we want to get a minimal cavity of monopoly for the highcapacity buses and routes have been designated for the mini buses and the high capacity buses, this will decongest the traffic gridlock being experienced in the city”.

Vanguard, FEBRUARY 3, 2013

BY LEKAN BILESANMI

D

r. Ezekiel Olajide Ad eniji is the Chairman, Governing Board of t h e Federal Road Maintenance Agency, FERMA! In this interview, he explains why it appears as if the agency is not doing enough but insists that if state governments maintain their portions of bad roads, the work of his agency would become more appreciated. He says Nigerians should expect more from the agency that has suffered a barrage of criticisms in recent months.

Excerpts: Could you just assess FERMA? I believe in continuity of governance. The only thing that happened is that we had to improve on what we met. FERMA is not an adhoc agency but one that has a system. Since we came on board, there has been a lot of improvement in the management of the agency.

In my first encounter with journalists when I came onboard, they put a question to me on our many sign posts as against the work done, and I assured them that in the next few months, there would be a reverse of that, that there would be more work than sign posts. And i am sure you will agree with me that there is more work than sign posts now; there is a lot of improvement on Nigerian roads. And the way we run FERMA now is not concentrate on one region while neglecting the other. The whole country is taken as a constituency.

In December and January, there was this programme we called, ‘Near zero pothole programme,’ which we organised to fix the roads and, to the best of my knowledge, reports from those who travelled at the end of the year is that the programme achieved a lot.

What plans do you have to make maximum use of this dry season for the fixing of roads?

FERMA is an agency with a system. Most staff members are engineers’ who know when to be serious and when to relax, so everything is planned. In fact, there is a department of planning and engineering services that takes care of the planning and during the dry season, we do more work.

How do you strike a synergy with the Federal Ministry of Works?

The ministry of works is an umbrella ministry for roads. It does more of policy for construction and after a new road is constructed, they hand it over C M Y K

Jonathan has provided funds to fix the roads – Adeniji, FERMA boss z’We will deliver on mandate’

Dr. Ezekiel Olajide Adeniji ...Road maintenance more than what people think

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PAGE 38—SUNDAY

In December and January, there was this programme we called, ‘Near zero pothole programme,’ which we organised to fix the roads and, to the best of my knowledge, reports from those who travelled at the end of the year is that the programme achieved a lot

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to FERMA to maintain and maintenance starts from the day of commissioning. Once a road is commissioned, dilapidation starts though not visible to the eyes, so it is handed over to FERMA for maintenance. FERMA is not only for pothole patching but also for maintenance. And maintenance is more than what people think about.

Rehabilitation is maintenance, it’s only new alignment that does not pass for maintenance and Ministry of Works handles such a thing. But no matter the level of dilapidation of any road, if it is under maintenance, FERMA can handle it.

What is the process for the selection of contractors who handle projects?

Before any contract is awarded, there is the room to prepare a bill for engineering measurement and evaluation where a process of effective costing and survey is done as well as thorough engineering analysis to get the actual cost of what is expected to be done. When the contract is awarded afterwards, we make sure that the contractors meet the specifications. It’s only when you don’t know what to expect from the contractors that there is the tendency for them to cheat you.

But how do you explain away situations where roads supposedly maintained go bad so quickly?

Since I’ve been in FERMA I’ve not seen such a thing.

But what could be responsi-

ble for this because there had been situations like that?

It ’s e i t h e r t h e w o r k w a s awarded to a quack or the work was not properly supervised.

For FERMA I’d say that the roads that we have been involved with before and after I took over are effectively monitored and supervised. There’s nothing like you do it this year and next year you have to do it again.

Because of competing interests, I’m sure you work under pressure from politicians...?

There may be pressure but we only succumb to pressure that is genuine while discarding self centred ones. And if you talk of North-East you cannot say that the region is marginalised because of what is being done there and the same goes for the South-East region. All the committee chairmen in the National Assembly are all from the South-East, in fact particularly from Enugu State. So there’s no how they can say that they are marginalised. If any other region would talk they would say that the SouthEast is the one suppressing them because they have a lot of projects in the region that have been put into the budget because of their advantage.

The committee chairman of works and FERMA in the House are both from Enugu State as well as the chairman for the committee of works in the House of Representatives.

So there is no how those three men can come from that place and they still talk of marginalisation; that is not marginalisation.

As chairman, governing board of FERMA, how would you describe Nigerian roads today?

Well, we are doing our best.

When we took over, the level of dilapidation was very bad but thank God for the effective president that we have. He has e n c o u r a g e d u s a l o t . Tw o months ago on AIT, I told listeners that if the rehabilitation and maintenance of roads is not properly done, I should be held responsible and not the president because he has done his part by releasing money to us, ours is to make sure that these things are done thoroughly. We

have a 34, 120km road network that belongs to the Federal Government and a 56,000km road network that belongs to state governments. So if we do the roads that belong to the FG and the states refuse to do theirs, you find out that it amounts to nothing. So we are doing our part and hope that the state governments would do theirs.

In 2007 a law was passed that allows us to have 5% fare charge of petroleum products; of this 5%, 60% goes to the state government while 40% comes to FERMA. But state governments that want to benefit from the 60% must have an established road maintenance agency. They have been informed and are fully complying so that they too can be maintaining their own roads and we, ours, as soon as the law is implemented.

Is this law being implemented?

In fact there’s a lawyer that took us to court to force us to begin implementing it. He took the FG, FERMA and NNPC to court to get them to release money for the implementation because the law has been passed.

So once the money comes the state governments would be able to do their business effectively.

There’s going to be a measure put in place to monitor the way they spend their money.

Can you tell us what is delaying the implementation of this policy?

Bureaucracy Based on your budget for this year can you briefly tell Nigerians what to expect by the end of the year?

First of all by law, we have no budget now; we only have a proposed budget. Budget is a law. Once it’s passed it’s a law and has to be implemented if the money is provided. So as at now we don’t have a budget until the president assents to the budget.

I can’t comment on the budget as it is now.

But you can still assure Nigerians that...

I want to assure Nigerians that they would get the best value for their money as far as road maintenance is concerned. You have been seeing changes and you’ll see more changes.

SUNDAY

Vanguard , FEBRUARY 3, 2013, PAGE 39

SUBSIDY SCAM

The futile bid to save Farouk and Emenalo from detention

BY IKECHUKWU NNOCHIRI

T

he accused persons are here by remanded in prison custo dy,” Justice Mudashiru Oniyangi’s voice re-echoed in their brains like some discordant tunes from a horror movie. It was like a jolt from the blues! They couldn’t believe it.

Suddenly, the haughty smirk that was hitherto on the face of the erstwhile Chairman and Secretary of the House of Representatives Ad-hoc Committee on fuel subsidy probe, Farouk Lawan and Boniface Emenalo vanished.

Clad in a well starched white flowing Agbada and matching cap, both Farouk and his co-accused person, had exuded so much confidence while in the dock. Never did they envisage themselves spending a whooping one week at Kuje Prison.

Specifically, the duo will remain in Prison till February 8 when their bail application will be determined by the trial court. It was indeed a smooth transition from ‘parliamentary chambers’ to ‘prison chambers’ for Farouk.

Their trial which came after so many months of suspense, commenced at exactly 9:15 am on Friday morning with the court room witnessing a massive turn-out of spectators who came to observe the much anticipated trial.

Both men sauntered into the court room some 20 minutes earlier after they managed to escape the probing lenses of numerous photojournalists.

Immediately the court clerk called up the case, Justice Oniyangi not only ordered them to mount the dock, but personally read the 7-count criminal charge to them.

The Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission, ICPC, had in the charge, alleged that the embattled men demanded and collected 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 Representatives Ad-hoc Committee on Monitoring of Fuel Subsidy Regime.

They were said to have collected an aggregate sum of $3million, with a view to ensure that Zenon Petroleum and Gas Ltd escaped prosecution even

though the Committee had ab-initio found it culpable in fuel subsidy fraud.

The anti-graft agency maintained that the offence they committed was contrary to section 17 (1) (a), section 8(1) (a) (b) (ii), and section 23 (i) of the Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Act, 2000 and punishable under section 8 (1) 17 (1) and 23(3) of the same Act. Besides, the prosecuting commission alleged that Emenalo, while being a public officer, an Assistant Director and Clerk of the Committee on Education of the House of Reps, sometime in April 2012, while acting as the Secretary of the Ad-Hoc Committee, was offered gratification

by Otedola but failed to report the offer to any officer of the ICPC or any police officer. Whereas both accused persons were charged together in the first count of the charge, however, count 2, 3 and 4 were specifically preferred against Farouk while count 5, 6 and 7 were entered against Emenalo.

Meanwhile, shortly after they took turns and pleaded innocence to the crime, counsel to the ICPC, Chief Adegboyega Awomolo, SAN, implored the court to remand them in prison custody pending their trial.

He told the court that the accused persons had only served him with their consolidated bail application yesterday morning, saying he had anticipated such move and prepared legal authorities he said would guide the court into deciding that it was in the interest of justice to allow the duo to be remanded in prison.

Relying on section 8, 10, 17 and 23 of the ICPC Act 2000 and the decided case-law in Asari Dokubo Vs FRN, 2007, 12 NWLR, Awomolo, SAN, said: “We are opposing the application for bail and urge your lordship to refuse it. The accused persons are charged with an offence punishable by 2 to 7 years imprisonment and therefore not ordinarily bailable.

“An application for bail is an application in equity which requires my Lord to exercise your discretion judicially and judiciously. T h e principles that guide the court in granting bail have been well enunciated in the case of Bamaiyi Vs State, 2001, the nature and gravity of the offence and the likelihood of the accused committing another offence while on bail. “The offence by which

* Farouk ... Docked

,

* Emenalo ... Faces a 7-count charge the accused persons are standing trial is the case of corruption by a public officer at the highest level, particularly in the legislative arm. The accused person, in the affidavit did not give an undertaking that if they go back to the National Assembly, they will not be members of another committee and that they will not demand or obtain bribe in the discharge of their official duty. “ Your Lordship needs to be assured

that what prompted them to demand $3million will also prompt them to demand $10million.The accused persons were part of the making of the ICPC Act, they knew the intention of the lawmakers and deliberately violated the law, on that ground alone, I urge my lord to deny them bail,” Awomolo added.

Earlier, the accused persons had

Continues on Page 42

PAGE 40 — SUNDAY

Vanguard , FEBRUARY 3, 2013

The making of a scam within a scam

BY JIDE AJANI

T

his is the authentic story of the Chronology of the inconclusive sting operation conducted by the Department of State Service, otherwise referred to as the DSS, involving House of Representatives member and Chairman, Committee on Subsidy Management, Lawan Farouk, and oil and gas magnate, Femi Otedola. The complicity of both men in this scam signpost a deeper mentality of dishonourable conduct that is pervasive in Nigeria and the alleged entanglement of the executive arm of government in the subsidy probe. This exclusive report was first published mid-June last year, some two weeks before the telecast of the audio recording on Channel’s Tv..

IN THE BEGINNING, 15 BECAME 13 ecause the heart of man is clouded, the truth about who approached who may never really be known, without prejudice to the claims being made by Femi Otedola and Farouk Lawan. The truth, however, is that the one approached the o t h e r.

What is also established, moving forward, is that Otedola’s Zenon Oil and Gas allegedly collected forex to the tune of $232, 975,385.13 from the Petroleum Support Fund, PSF, scheme whereas he did not import petrol. There was another company, Synopsis Enterprises Limited, said to have collected $51, 449, 977, for the same purpose but did not deliver - so said the report of the House Committee, presided over by Farouk.

On the second day of the presentation of the report, a Wednesday, April 24, Farouk told his colleagues on the floor of the House that the now notorious Clause 29 (5) and (6) of the committee’s report needed attention. That fresh information had come upon the committee which suggested that some companies were erroneously listed as beneficiaries of PSF, whereas it was merely an error and, therefore, the names of the companies should be removed from the list. The House agreed to the amendment of the report. And, therefore, Otedola’s Zenon was removed from the list of indicted companies; ditto, Synopsis.

B

,

12 HOURS EARLIER, AT OTEDOLA’S RESIDENCE he meeting between Farouk and Otedola was meant to hold by 1am, the very first hour of April 24, 2012. It did not. 2am, it did not.

At about 4am, according to the timing on the recording device (which was used to bug Otedola’s residence) Farouk entered the premises of Otedola in Asokoro, Abuja. There, $500,000, out of a set aside $3m, was ready in cash.

According to visuals on the recording which Sunday Vanguard was privy to at that time, Farouk came in wearing a white Kaftan not the long flowing and sweeping Senegalese type but a three quarter/near full length design.

There was no cap to match. It

T

zOtedola...The alleged bribe giver

recording, was dressed in a Niger-Delta like attire. He collected the two parcels, put them in the trouser pockets which swallowed the packages - one in each pocket. The Niger Delta top did not betray the dollar cargo in the pockets of the trouser. He left. Mind you, the disputation between the combined sum of $600,000 and $620, 000 came about as a result of the alleged declaration made by Emenalo that he actually collected just $100,000, as against the alleged

The funds Otedola parted with were said to have been provided by the DSS, it was part of the $3m that Farouk allegedly demanded for and which had been set aside for the operation

was very late any way - 4am.

Otedola also wore his now familiar white guinea brocade ‘buba and sokoto’. After the exchange of some banters, the $500,000 was handed over to Farouk and he left.

Sometime later, some four to five hours later that morning, Boniface Emenalo, the secretary to the committee, who had been nominated by a very senior high-ranking member of this administration entered. The recorder kept rolling. Emenalo was handed two packages containing $120,000.

Emenalo, according to the

,

$120,000 Otedola gave to him.

The funds Otedola parted with were said to have been provided by the DSS. It was part of the $3m that Farouk allegedly demanded for and which had been set aside for the operation. The point of convergence between the video recording of money changing hands and the now infamous bribery saga is the removal of the name of Zenon from the list of 15 later that morning on the floor of the House. The video recording had very clear audio accompaniment. The DSS experts moved in afterwards to develop the recording into a full

* Farouk ... Standing trial for alleged graft

fledged audio-visual production.

A copy of the recording was given to Otedola. Now, whether Otedola made it available to former President Olusegun Obasanjo or not could not be verified. But it was Obasanjo, in his characteristically garrulous and rambunctious manner, who openly told the world at a conference in late May last year that there were thieves in the National Assembly. This drew the ire of legislators. It was later suggested that Otedola may have informed Obasanjo of what transpired between himself and Farouk, a long-time small fly in Obasanjo’s ointment while the latter served as President and Comm a n d e r - i n - C h i e f .

About the bribe money, however, what was verified was that there was a balance of $2.5m to be allegedly collected later at the airport.

THE AIRPORT RECORDING THAT NEVER HAPPENED he next phase and scene of the sting operation was to be the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja. There, the balance of the money was allegedly kept for Farouk. Otedola insistently told Farouk that he could not carry $2.5m cash to his residence and, therefore, wanted Farouk to meet him at the airport for the collection of the remainder of the money. Now, whether Farouk had a premonition that he was likely to be set up or that he just didn’t want to be spotted at the airport in the company of Otedola, he simply refused to meet Otedola at the

T

airport afterwards.

Instead, according to records of the telephone conversation that was bugged, Farouk suggested that he would send a third party to collect the money.

According to the recordings, he gave the telephone numbers of the nominee. He, according to the recorded conversation between him and Otedola, actually spelt the name of the nominee to Otedola. But all these were activities in futility.

The high command of the DSS would not have a third party collect the balance of $2.5m. A senior security source told Sunday Vanguard at that time that the reason why the airport operation was aborted was that since it was Farouk that was being expected to show up and was now planning to send another party, there was no need to continue.

Had he shown up and collected the money, he would have been arrested immediately, a source confirmed.

WHY FAROUK WAS NOT ARRESTED EARLIER n fact, Sunday Vanguard was made to understand that the “only reason why he was not arrested at the residence of Otedola that early morning was because options would be limited in proving that the episode was bribery related; and Farouk could insist that he was just set up, with cash brought in to justify the action”.

More importantly, Sunday Vanguard was told that “arresting Farouk on the morning of the day he was

I

Continues on page 42

SUNDAY

Vanguard , FEBRUARY 3, 2013,

We will explore death penalty for corrupt public officers – Hon. Tsokwa Says IG could not prosecute Farouk Lawan for lack of evidence

* Tsokwa ... We will consider the Asian option for corrupt officials

T

he Chairman of the House of Representa tives Committee on Rules and Business, Hon. Sam Tsokwa (PDP Taraba) heads a very vital committee which could be likened to the engine room of the Green Chambers of the National Assembly. In this no-holds-barred interview he granted to a group of journalists, he postulated that the Farouk Lawan saga was contrived by the executive arm of Government to rubbish the report of the House Committee on Petroleum Subsidy which the embattled Lawan chaired.He asked why the Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Abubakar who investigated the allegations against Farouk refused to charge him to court?

Excerpts: Don’t you think that being a House that is primarily designed to make laws, all this talk about fighting corruption and probes every now and then is an unnecessary distraction to the House?

Law making and oversight functions of the legislature are constitutional issues. The legislature is constitutionally empowered to legislate for peace and good governance of Nigeria. The legislature is constitutionally empowered to approve Mr. President’s budget; the legislature is constitutionally mandated to oversight the executive arm over the money it appropriates. So the power to investigate is not the making of the legislature; it is a constitutional duty which the legislature must perform. So we are not doing a Father Xmas kind of job because there are so many MDAs to oversight.

What we are doing is just a tip of the ice berg. So I think the Nigerian press and the Nigerian people should call on

NASS to carry out more probes and investigations because it is our constitutional duty.

Many Nigerians are of the view that when you fight corruption you cover your own...?

(Cuts in) Can you give examples?

For instance, the Farouk and Hembe cases?

The Farouk and Hembe cases are the only two you can give in a House of 360 people.

When you reduce that to percentage, it cannot give you up to 10 percent of the House.

Take a corruption index of Ni-

,

BY OKEY NDIRIBE & EMMAN OVUAKPORIE

Farouk has a case to answer let him go to court. The House is handicapped we cannot prosecute him.

In the case of Hembe, the matter is still in court. Now in what way is the House covering its members? We beg the press to help us and expose those we are covering up because we are not covering up anybody.

But the House Committee investigating the Farouk Lawan matter has deliberately refused to submit its report on the issue?

It is an inside kind of exer-

By the time two or three people lose their lives due to corruption, politicians will think twice before stealing government money

geria; more than 60percent of those in position of trust are corrupt. Now when the Farouk issue came up, the man who gave him money claimed he did so in conjunction with SSS and the House subsequently suspended him from being the Chairman of House Committee on Education.

Now the SSS has distanced itself saying they know nothing about the sting operation.

The matter is presently with the police. Please, ask the IG why he has not prosecuted Farouk. It is simple; there is no evidence. So we all take it that the allegation was made to rubbish the House report on Petroleum subsidy.

I told you from the beginning that the executive arm set up a committee to further investigate the issues raised in the House report and they confirmed that the House report was true. If anybody thinks

,

cise and at the end of the day, the House cannot prosecute.

We have our inter nal disciplinary mechanism via the Ethics and Privileges committee but where a member is found wanting we cannot prosecute; only the agencies responsible for that can carry out such actions. I told you earlier to ask the IGP why he has not prosecuted Farouk if he has evidence.

I am inclined to believe that there is no evidence to prosecute Farouk because they called it a sting and the SSS they claimed they used said they are not part of it. This obviously points to the fact that whoever made that allegation was telling lies.

So far since June 2011 that the Tambuwal led 7th Assembly took off how will you assess the performance of the House?

The 7th Assembly started off by designing and setting a

Legislative Agenda which was properly debated on the floor of the House, approved and circulated to all members and Nigerians. The document became a pact. We committed ourselves to it by living and keeping faithfully to our duties as true representatives of the people.

I am not saying Nigerians are satisfied but speaking for myself and the House, I am saying that we have lived up to our own expectation. But it is left for Nigerians to look at what we have done and see whether we have really performed. You will recall that we have taken many firsts since the House was convened. For instance, we had to cut short our Xmas recess in 2011 when the Executive arm gave Nigerians a New Year gift that was not accepted by the people. By that I mean the withdrawal of fuel subsidy. Our sitting on a Sunday was for the first time that happened in the history of the Nigerian legislature. We did this to prevent the crisis that ensued which would have been more disastrous if we had not sat on that day. Although our sitting did not stop the crisis, but it went a long way in watering it down. In a nutshell we did a lot to avoid the disaster.

I will however give kudos to Mr. President who eventually reversed himself in accordance with the wishes of Nigerians. The Sunday sitting kick started the probe into the fuel subsidy regime. Our findings and resolution were that there was rot in that fuel subsidy regime. As you are aware, the executive arm set up a committee whose findings confirmed that of the House.I therefore say at least we drew the attention of the nation to the fact that the oil industry needs drastic re-organisation and this opened the eyes of many Nigerians to other areas of governance. I

PAGE 41

will equally say that this kick started what is going on in various sectors of our economy.

What about corruption?

We have started confronting corruption headlong even though corruption has deep roots in our system and cannot be solved in one day. But I believe we have taken the right step in the right direction.

Why is it that every day people bring trivial issues such as presence of potholes on roads or collapsed bridges to your committee for listing on the order paper when there are more serious issues that need attention in the country?

Every member is elected from a constituency; each constituency in Nigeria has its peculiar problem and that is why I keep saying that if I am Mr. President, I will do my budget in consultation with the grassroots.

But if in my constituency, the only road we have has potholes and this has been killing people everyday, can you call that trivial? Yes it is trivial because you have expressways in your place. In Abuja here out of 24 hours electricity we have at least 12 hours. In my place in a whole month if we have light for 3 days that is Xmas gift. So if I come to the floor of the House to discuss it will you term it as being trivial?

N

igeria is such a big place; such an enor mous place that the need of one area may not be the need of another area. So what is trivial to you may not be trivial to me. And what is important to you may not be important to me; that is why you have various motions.

Actually that is representation?

It is to represent what your people need in your constituency.

Concerning the issue of oversight, I saw a piece in a newspaper about theft at the Security Printing and Minting Company and I checked online to confirm. Immediately I confirmed, I sent a motion to the floor of the House and the matter will be investigated.

Some people may consider it trivial.

You once suggested the Asian option which stipulates capital punishment as a way of dealing with corruption. Do you think that option can work in Nigeria?

Yes we will look at it and see how a bill can be sponsored in that direction; but you will see how people will condemn the move. But we will not consider the quantum of the crime when doing that. The offence of the politician who stole one dollar and the one that stole one million dollar will carry same weight. By the time two or three people lose their lives due to corruption, politicians will think twice before stealing government money.

C M Y K

PAGE 42—SUNDAY

Vanguard ,

FEBRUARY 3, 2013

The futile bid to save Farouk and Emenalo from detention Continued from page 39 through a team of two Senior Advocates that represented them in court yesterday, Chief Ricky Tarfa and Chief Mike Ozokhome, begged the court to either grant them bail on self recognition on most liberal terms.

Moving their bail application dated February 1 and filed pursuant to section 35, 36 (5) of the 1999 constitution as amended, and section 340 and 341(2) of the Criminal Procedure Code, Tarfa, SAN, urged the court to take cognizance of the fact that the 1st accused, Farouk, had in the course of investigation into the matter, reported to the Police on 37 different occasions, noting that the duo never violated the administrative bail that was given to them by the Police.

“The 1st accused have had cause to travel out more than four times since the commencement of the investigation, the 2nd accused have had cause to travel to the USA more than two times since then. My Lord, the 1st accused has been a full time member of the Reps since 1999; he is also a member of the ECOWAS parliament and has been a member for the last twelve years.

H

e is one of the founding members of the said ECOWAS parliament and he is presently chairing the committee on Administration of Finance.”

Consequently, Tarfa, relied on decided case-law in Owudalu Vs State, 2008, AFWLR, and Ebute & Ors Vs State, 1994, 8NWLR, and argued that not only did the accused persons failed to abscond when they had the opportunities, he said they had voluntarily submitted themselves to the Police for investigation.

“The accused persons are willing and ready to face their trial. My Lord should also take cognizance of their status and position in the society and grant them bail in self recognition.

The constitution says they should be considered innocent until proven guilty,” he insisted.

In his short ruling, trial Justice Oniyangi, said he would need time to consider the application, saying the accused persons should be remanded in Prison till February 8 when the case was subsequently adjourned to.

Basically, two of the charges against them read: “That you Hon. Farouk Lawan (M) while being a member of the House of Representatives and chairman of Ad-hoc committee on Monitoring of fuel subsidy C M Y K

* Emenalo (m) in court ... on Friday regime sometimes in April 2012 or thereabout at Abuja within the Federal Capital Territory under the jurisdiction of this honourable court did while acting in the course of your official duty corruptly obtained the sum of $500,000 (five hundred thousand dollars) for yourself from Mr. Femi Otedola Chairman Zenon Petroleum and Gas Ltd as an inducement to remove the name of Zenon petroleum gas ltd from the report of the House of Representatives Ad-hoc committee on Monitoring of fuel subsidy regime and you thereby committed an offence contrary to section 17 (1) of the Corrupt practices and other Related Offences Act, 2000 and punishable under section 17 (1) of the same Act.” ”That you Mr. Emenalo Boniface (M) while being a public officer, an Assistant Director and Secretary of the House of Representatives Adhoc committee on Monitoring

of Fuel Subsidy Regime sometimes in April 2012 or thereabout at Abuja within the.

Federal capital territory under the jurisdiction of this honourable court did while acting in the course of your official duty as Secretary, corruptly asked for the sum of $3,000,000 (three million US dollars) for yourself from Mr. Femi Otedola, and you thereby committed an offence contrary to section 8 (1) (b) (ii) of the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act, 2000 and punishable under section 23 (3) of the same Act.” Shortly after the Farouk Lawal led panel released its fact-finding report that exposed astronomical fraud perpetuated by various companies under the subsidy regime, Otedola, in a retaliatory move, released an audio tape with a view to proving that the probe panel demanded cash-for-clearance.

Otedola specifically accused Lawan of demanding for

* Farouk ... ready to face trial $3million to exonerate his company, emphasizing that the lawmaker even went to the extent of stuffing monies in his cap on one of the occasions he came to receive bribe on behalf of the panel.

H

owever, Lawan, through his lawyer, Chief Mike Ozokhome, SAN, refuted the allegation that he stuffed money in his cap, stressing that contrary to insinuation that he traveled to Lagos to collect bribe as alleged, he only received money from Otedola on two separate occasions at his room at Protea Hotel at Apo Abuja and at Otedola’s house at Aso Drive Asokoro also in Abuja.

Describing the audio tape which was released to media houses as “a devilish caricature”, Lawan had urged Nigerians to give him the benefit of doubts, insisting that he would not rest until he

proved that the primary intention why he collected the money was to uncover the level of corruption within the oil sector of the Nigerian economy.

More so, in a bid to further puncture the probe report, Otedola alongside his company, Zenon Oil and Gas, filed a suit before the High Court, where he is seeking the sum of N250billion against Farouk and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal, as exemplary damages for alleged oppressive and arbitrary actions he said was meted against him.

Meanwhile, Sunday Vanguard investigation has revealed that the ICPC may produce Otedola in court to testify against the two lawmakers who are currently having a feel of what may befall them should the court find them guilty on the 76-count charge.

The making of a scam within a scam Continued from page 40 supposed to be presenting the continuation of the report of the committee, especially since Zenon’s name was still on the list of 15, would appear as if he was to be pressured into removing Zenon’s name and when he refused, he was set up for blackmail”. According to the security source, such a “development would have made it appear again as if the government of the day simply decided to overshadow the presentation of the report with the arrest of Farouk”. These were the issues that weighed heavily on the minds of the DSS high command. They let Farouk go. All these were not known to Farouk at all.

AND THE MATTER BLEW OPEN olice sources confirmed to Sunday Vanguard at that time that “contrary to what was being published, it was the police who first wrote Farouk, seeking to know who the people that were piling pressure on him were and those who were behind the threat to his life” – Farouk had granted an interview where he alleged that some people were attempting to compromise him and the work of the committee. Farouk responded to the Police request and that actually marked the beginning of investigation into the matter by the Police. Sunday Vanguard was also made to

P

understand that investigations by the Police had commenced before the matter blew into the open. Indeed, it was the panic move by some powerful people both in the corridors of power and a few who rose in defense of Farouk that unwittingly blew the whistle in their bid to keep the matter out of public glare. Sunday Vanguard learnt that a very disappointed senior government official, who brought Emenalo in to work with the committee and who had suspected that the matter was already being handled by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, made a move to find out the culpability of his ward.

This was also another act which unwittingly blew the lid off. By mid-June last year, it had become obvious that the matter had spread like wild fire in the House. This was what necessitated the statement from the House declaring that it would investigate the matter. fully. Farouk was immediately suspended indefinitely by the House at that time. And Otedola’s Zenon and Synopsis were both reindicted by the House of Representatives’ Committee of the whole. At the trial last Friday, Farouk’s lawyers insisted that they would prove that what transpired was nothing more than a genuine intention on the part of Farouk to prove that Otedola intended to truly bribe him with a view to compromising his committee’s report.

SUNDAY

Vanguard, FEBRUARY 3, 2013 — PAGE 43

Why we are on membership drive ——Princess Grace Akpabio-Akpoveta

BY JEMI EKUNKUNBOR

people will pay less than a club of 20 members. But that is why we look for professionals to join the clubs, people who can afford to render service to others. You can have a carpenter as a member but of course, a carpenter who has done well and who is able to pay dues. We look for professionals who can afford it. The truth is, for you to help others you must be able to afford it. But if you don’t have the money, you must be able to contribute your four Ts- that is your Time, your Talent, your Treasure and Thinking.

In the past, people even thought Rotary was a cult but it’s not. You can walk into any club anywhere in the World and join. And the beauty of this club is that anywhere in the world, as a member, you can walk into any club, present your Rotary pin and once they see you are Rotarian from XYZ club or place, they take you in because we are a family doing the same job of helping people. In Nigeria for example, we are trying to help eradicate polio in Nigeria.

From 1905 when Rotary was founded, membership was restricted to men alone until about 27 years ago when the rules changed. Almost three decades gone, there is still a wide gap in the membership between men and women. Women in Rotary in district 9110 have taken up the challenge to go on membership drive with a Rotary Fair planned for next weekend in Lagos. Rotarian Grace Akpabio Akpoveta, Chairman Women in Rotary Committee, speaks on the forth coming fair

S

O what is this week about?

The women in Rotary are organizing a fair, a Rotary fair which will showcase the works of 79 Rotary clubs in District 9110 and other family of Rotary organizations. The programme is also aimed at creating awareness for the women in Rotary Actually, this fair should have been in January because January is Rotary awareness month but because we had so many programmes lined up for January, we decided to have it in February. And February is the World Understanding month. So, we are trying to see how we can create awareness about the club and get more women to join us. The programme comes up on the 9th of February at the District Centre in GRA Ikeja.

I

was an Innerwheel member for a long time because my husband was a Rotarian. But after his death, I became a member of Rotary club.

What exact programmes have you mapped out for this fair?

Well, for the 9th of February, which is next week, we plan to have a talk.

Two male Rotarians and two female Rotarians will be speaking on “Rotary: what is the way out?” They will talk about the way forward for Rotary and people will ask questions. We would also have fashion parade. There will be dances and entertainment. The whole idea is to create awareness about the club, about how to help people and to have fun. On that day also, we plan to have a raffle draw and the winner

Rotarian Grace Akpabio Akpoveta.... We are trying to help eradicate polio in Nigeria. will go home with a KLM ticket to travel to Armsterdam. It’s going to be fun.

As a club, what kinds of activities or projects does Rotary carry out?

,

Why the need to get more women, are women marginalized in Rotary?

For a long time since 1905 when Rotary started, members were mostly men. It is only about 27 years ago that women joined Rotary. Before then, the wives of Rotarians were known as Inner wheel members. But now that women have been admitted into Rotary, we are still not many. The percentage of women still stands at about 19-20%.

And we still have women who still do not know that women can now join Rotary.

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What we do is that we go to communities to find out what their needs are and we check what we have and then help. There are clubs that are building schools for the blind. We care for the needy

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At the fair, there will be clubs who would take booths to display the things they have done. Districts will also exhibit some of the things they have

done. But generally, Rotary is a global network of community volunteers united to provide humanitarian service, we encourage high ethical standards and help build goodwill and peace.

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n my club for example, we have some people that we sunk borehole for. What we do is that we go to communities to find out what their needs are and we check what we have and then help. There are clubs that are building schools for the blind. We care for the needy as a matter of fact and through our Rotary Foundation, we get grants from abroad which we use to fund some of our really big projects.

There are women who would like to join but they stay away because of the financial committment? How else do you finance your projects?

As a Rotarian depending on the club, we pay dues. And whatever dues we are tasked to pay, is shared amongst the members of that particular club.

For example, members of a club of 50

o you think Nigerians are big on doing charity?

Yes, they are. We have had people come to us to join and when we told them what we are about, they are happy to join. A particular man said he likes helping people so Rotary is a place he would like to be. You know when you do things as an individual, people may read meaning into your good action or even come after you.

But Rotary gives him a platform to without drawing attention to himself; helping people and making the world a better place. We have these our four way tests that we take. Anything we do or say is it fair to all concerned?

Will it build goodwill and better friendship? You have to have all these qualities to be a Rotarian. What ever you do let it build goodwill and better friendship with the other person. And whatever you are doing, will it be beneficial to the other person? So once you think about that and you remember that you have to apply the four way tests, believe me, some of the things you do, you will restrain yourself from doing them. Anybody cannot be a Rotarian. You have to be able to abide by these things.

Now back to the gender issue, where are the women now in the District?

Well, we have them assisting the governors but we hope that one day soon, maybe years, we would have them as District governors. Don’t forget that women are so occupied with work and family and if you want to be a district governor, it is full time work.

You won’t have time for your own business and for a woman, she has to think about her family first.

PAGE 44—SUNDAY VANGUARD, FEBRUARY 3, 2013

LEO-STAN EKEH DAUGHTER’S WEDDING The wedding between former Miss Gozy Andrea Ekeh, daughter of Mr & Mrs Leo-Stan Ekeh, and Mr Tolulope Kolawole Ijogun,son of Mr & Mrs Olusiji Ayodele Ijogun, took place at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic Church, Victoria Island, Lagos yesterday. Shots from the occasion by Biodun Ogunleye

From left: Senator & Mrs Ike Ekweremadu and Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos.

Mr & Mrs Olusiji Ayodele Ijogun, groom’s parents flanked by Pastor & Pastor Mrs Taiwo Odukoya.

Mr & Mrs Olusiji Ayodele Ijogun, groom’s parents.

Chief Uzoma Igbonwa (left) and Senator Chris Ngige.

Otunba and Yeye Gbenga Daniel and Prof. Dora Akunyili.

Mr & Mrs Leo-Stan Ekeh, bride’s parents.

HRH Eze George Ekeh and HRH Ugoeze Mercy Ekeh.

Mrs Maiden Ibru (left) and Ms Comfort Obi.

Dr. Franklin Adejuwon flanked by Otunba & Chief Mrs Yomi Nubi.

The newly wedded couple, Mr & Mrs Tolulope Andrea Ijogun.

Chief & Chief Mrs Mike Inegbese (right) and Chief & Mrs Don Etiebet.

SUNDAY VANGUARD, FEBRUARY 3, 2013 --- PAGE 45

sameyoboka@yahoo.com

08023145567 (sms only)

PFN 12th BIENNIAL CONFAB:

Who succeeds Oritsejafor?

*REV. JAMES ABAYOMI BADEJO (1985-1992)

BY SAM EYOBOKA ELEGATES to the 12th national biennial conference of the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria, PFN have started arriving the Akwa Ibom State capital, Uyo for the crucial meeting scheduled to open at the Uyo Township Stadium on Tuesday.

The opening ceremony will be preceded by a crucial meeting of the National Advisory Council, NAC, of the Fellowship tomorrow at 4.00 p.m.

The conference will run under the theme; “A People With A Mandate”. Nigeria, no doubt, is passing through trials but the leadership says "troubles have almost become part of life with Nigeria and Nigerians since 1960, with grave and dangerous events of 1966, 1967, 1983, 1993, among others. The recent developments have however become so heightened; thereby making the events of those days mere child’s plays."

The outgoing president, Pastor Oritsejafor said the conference is scheduled to "reawaken us as a people given a mandate! A representative with authorised charge even from the Almighty God, Our Father, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, founder and owner of the world, the whole earth! He takes absolute control but has put us in charge by a mandate! It is only a matter of self reflection for us to consider how the nations have faired, particularly our nation, Nigeria.

"The conference is therefore envisioned to reposition or restore us in our mandate and the task for the mandate, to the glory of our Father, and the blessing of Nigeria and her peoples," he stated.

The PFN conferences in the past 11 editions, Oritsejafor stated, have proved to be "a platform for reawakening generals and foot soldiers for the Lord. Pastor Enoch Ade-

*PASTOR ENOCH ADEBOYE (CFR) *ARCHBISHOP BENSON IDAHOSA (1995-1998) (1992-1995)

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*BISHOP MIKE OKONKWO (MFR) (1998-2005)

? *PASTOR AYO ORITSEJAFOR (CFR) *WHO TAKES THE BATON? (2005-2013) boye and many frontline leaders have had cause to testify severally, to the effect that, the truths which most often general overseers, bishops, archbishops, senior pastors and other category of leaders are not opened to, within their respective denominations are found, on the platforms of PFN conferences."

The attention of the over 80 million Christians in Nigeria will focus on Uyo for very obvious reasons, because the 12th biennial conference of the PFN is unique as it provides an opportunity for mandate renewal and of course the expected change of leadership.

There are tremendous expectations among Christians generally because the PFN which produced the current CAN National President is already facing monumental challenges from within and without and there is an urgent need for the Fellowship to rise up to the challenge and fashion a fresh approach to restore confidence in the Fellowship.

Little wonder, millions of Nigerians are showing interest in who emerges as the next national president of the Fellowship. If the next president can be determined by

human manipulations as it happens in political settings then some interest groups concerned about the outcome of that elections would not be having sleepless nights by now.

Sources say that several persons from outside the Fellowship who are not comfortable with the audacity of the outgoing president, are working night and day for obvious reasons, to influence the outcome of the elections.

Such interests, we hear, were behind recent speculations in the Media about those who have indicated interest to succeed the outgoing president. Our checks revealed that there was no truth in all the speculations, as a source close to the Fellowship said emphatically that emergence of the Oritsejafor ’s successor will be determined by an elite club known as the National Advisory Council, NAC, of the Fellowship.

The 26-member NAC has the onerous responsibility of choosing who will lead the Fellowship at the expiration of the tenure of Pastor Oritsejafor. Our informant argued that the outgoing president was similarly picked in 2005 at the biennial conference that

took place at the headquarters of TREM, in Lagos by the NAC in a similar fashion.

“He was chosen by the NAC and he grudgingly accepted the offer after due consultation,” our source said, adding that the elders of the Fellowship are so mindful of what ungodly people can use the Fellowship to accomplish that they have refused to subject the issue of succession to the vagaries of politicians in the Church.

According to the source, members of the NAC including Pastor Enoch Adeboye, Dr. Uma Ukpai, Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, Bishop Mike Okonkwo, Archbishop Margret BensonIdahosa, Rev. William Okoye, Rev. Obiora Ezekiel, Rev. Paul Emeka, Bishop David Oyedepo, Pastor William Kumuyi, Pastor Emmanuel Kure, Rev. Moses Iloh, Pastor Wale Adefarasin and 13 other eminent clerics would first gather to pray for God’s leading before going into some kind of Conclave to choose the next set of officers.

They will now present their choice before the National Executive Council for ratification.

The offices to be filled include the national president,

deputy national presid-ent, 7 zonal vice presidents, national secretary, deputy national secretary, treasurer, deputy treasurer, finacial secretary, deputy financial secretary, publicity/media secretary, legal adviser and one auditor.

In 2005 when Oritsejafor assumed office which concided with the 20th anniversary of the Fellowship, he set a 5-point agenda for his administration which included membership drive, improved relationship with CAN, identifying and empowering the Northern Church against constant aggression, disipline and the PFN national secretariat building. Former Lagos State governor, Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu pledged to give the Fellowship a befitting land for the construction of a national secretariat. The government of Lagos did fulfil its promise, but in order not to let God down, the outgoing administration took a bold step to acquire our own land in Isolo, very close to our present office in CPM, to build a fivefloor edifice as National Secretariat of the PFN. The secretariat building, we are told, was due for commissioning in October but the contractor made an error. It will now be commissioned by the last week of April.

As far as the Northern Church is concerned, they have not had so good. On several occasions, Pastor Oritsejafor had lead PFN delegations to the troubled North for empowerment projects towards ameliorating the sufferings of some of the northern pastors in the areas of micro needs for mobility on one hand, and economic empowerment for their wives, on the other hand.

These, to a large extent, have boosted the zeal of the brethren in the North to continue in Kingdom service, where they have been divinely located.

PAGE 46 --- SUNDAY VANGUARD, FEBRUARY 3, 2013

Nigeria will be among 10 greatest nations if...---Guobadia

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GOD DOES NOT FORBID BAD THING

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HERE is a misun derstanding prevalent among Christians, especially those weaned on the “prosperity gospel.” It is assumed that when the Lord gives a report, he always gives a good report, and that the report of the devil is always bad. Thus, we say repeatedly in “Naijanese:” “God forbid bad thing.” However, this comes from fundamental lack of understanding of Jesus’ kingdom dynamics.

In the kingdom of God, the way up is down. The Lord kills and makes alive. He makes poor and makes rich.

He brings low and lifts up. (1 Samuel 2:6-7). He wounds and he heals.

(Deuteronomy 32:39). Therefore, before the Lord gives a good report, he first gives a bad report.

The report of the Lord is first and foremost a bad report

God’s bad reports

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f the report of the Lord were al ways good, as is commonly as sumed, why would Isaiah ask: “Who has believed our report?” (Isaiah 53:1). What is so difficult to believe about a good report? If the report of the Lord were the same as the prosperity messages prevalent in the churches of today, why were the prophets of God in the bible often beaten up, jailed and killed? Thus, Jesus lamented: “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you.” (Luke 13:34).

The truth is the report of the Lord is first and foremost a bad report. Why else would Jeremiah bring charges against the Lord? He complains: “O Lord, you deceived me when you promised me your help. I have to give them your messages because you are stronger than I am, but now I am the laughingstock of the city, mocked by all. You have never once let me speak a word of kindness to them; always it is disaster and horror and destruction.”

(Jeremiah 20:7-8).

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ecause this world is steeped in evil and corruption, the report of the Lord is often bad. It is usually of God’s anger at the sins of men and of his impending judgment. But inside that bad report is often buried the promise of a conditionally good report. Thus, Noah gave the bad report that God would destroy mankind in a flood. However, he also said those who took refuge in the ark would be saved. It is the devil and his agents that give good reports which then turn out to be bad. They are determined to give us a false sense of security.

Let us go back to Genesis to get a foundational understanding of this kingdom dynamic. God told Adam at the dawn of creation: “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

(Genesis 2:16-17).

This was a bad report and it came

from God. It was a report of certain death as a consequence of disobedience. Who then gave the good report?

It was the devil. “The serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die.

For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” (Genesis 3:4-5).

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hose report did Eve believe? She believed the good report of the devil and rejected the bad report of the Lord. Therefore she ate the forbidden fruit and also gave it to Adam, her husband. Immediately they ate the forbidden fruit, Adam and Eve died spiritually. Their death was not forbidden by the Lord: their death was decreed by the Lord.

The tendency to reject the bad report of the Lord in favour of the good report of the devil is endemic. In the case of Adam and Eve, it resulted in their being driven out of the Garden of Eden and denied access to the Tree of Life. (Genesis 3:24). Today, it results in Christians being denied entry into the kingdom of heaven.

Double-edged sword Why is God’s good news often hidden in his bad news? The answer lies in the surgical nature of the word of God. It is like a double-edged sword.

(Hebrews 4:12). Thus, the Lord asks Jeremiah: “Is not my word like a fire and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?” (Jeremiah 23:29). Fire consumes the chaff, so the word of God burns and consumes fake Christians.

But fire also purifies, so the word of God purifies true Christians. The hammer, of course, is used both to destroy and to build.

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he same pillar of cloud that brought darkness to the Egyp tians provided light for the Israelites. (Exodus 14:19-20). The same Red Sea which destroyed the Egyptians saved the Israelites. Similarly, the gospel leads many to condemnation, even as it leads a few to salvation. Jesus says: “the last will be first, and the first last. For many are called, but few chosen.” (Matthew 20:16).

Thus, the word of God is often bad news and good news simultaneously.

But it is usually bad news before it is good news. Jesus, the word of God, would cause the bad to happen before the good would happen. Indeed, his speciality would be in bringing the good out of the bad. Accordingly, Simeon prophesied that Jesus will cause people to fall before causing them to rise: “This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel.” (Luke 2:34).

Therefore, James counsels believers: “Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he will lift you up.”

(James 4:10). Jesus himself also says: “Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

(Matthew 23:12).

Stumblingstone

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ouched in this manner, the greatest trap of all will be Jesus himself.

Isaiah warns: “He will be as a sanctuary, but a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense to both the houses of Israel, as a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

And many among them shall stumble; they shall fall and be broken, be snared and taken.” (Isaiah 8:14-15). As we run from the bad that following Jesus entails, we miss the good he provides. Jesus says: “You will be hated by all nations for my name’s sake... But he who endures to the end shall be saved.” (Matthew 24:9/ 13).

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ccordingly, the gospel is bad news to those who reject its bad report.

But it turns out to be good news to those who accept its bad report.

What is the bad report before the good report of the gospel? Jesus says: “Whoever loses his life will preserve it.” (Luke 17:33). “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33). “Whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be my disciple.” (Luke 14:33).

Don’t say to this: “God forbid bad thing.” The rich young ruler came to Jesus seeking eternal life. The gospel required him to sell all he had, give the proceeds to the poor and then follow Jesus. But the man rejected the bad news of losing his wealth and, thereby, forfeited the good news of inheriting eternal life.

Even so, those who reject the bad news of the gospel forfeit its good news.

ATIONAL Coordinator of Global Restoration Movement, Apostle John Guobadia has been battling with a vision to gather the entire Church of God in this country for a battle to save the soul of the nation from the clutches of Satan.

When he strolled into the corporate headquarters of VANGUARD Media Limited during the week with two of his associates, to preach the message of restoration of Nigeria, it was obvious that I was faceto-face with a man with a heavy burden to salvage a nation that has gone astray.

He was emphatic when he said that in the space of another 10 years a new Nigeria that will become one of the 10 most prosperous and peaceful nations in the world will emerge from the current rumbles.

Hmmm! Really?

Before I could ask the question that was play-ing in my thoughts, the man of God added a caveat, saying: “The task of rescuing and restoring the nation to her place of pride and fulfillment should be seen by all Nigerians as a collective responsibility.”

He maintained that the Church has left its first love and is now pursuing worldly things, hence it has lost its power to deal with satanic operations, noting “the state of the nation is a reflection of the state of the Church, which is the hope of the nation.”

One of the things, we must we urgently, he said, is to raise an altar of praise at the nat-ion's capital, Abuja.

According to Guobadia, who is based in Ughelli, Delta State, he had been carrying the burden for years now and initially it appeared he was not making any appreciable progress and almost decided to throw in the towel in resignation, but the Holy Spirit and his other associates who are willing to run with the vision won’t let him.

Said Guobadia: “It is a call for those that have been prepared by the Lord to come together for a crucial battle to restore the Church, and free Nigeria and thereafter other nations from the encumbrances of Satan, and by so doing restore Nigeria to her place in destiny.”

He therefore appealed to all ministers of the gospel who desire to shine the Light of God to key in to this vision and join hands with him to raise an altar to pray for the peace and betterment of the nation which is currently being tormented by Satan.

Guobadia explained that within the 10 years divine operation to reposition the nation, the Holy Spirit will send 10 elders at the nation's gate to liberate and prepare other nations for the end time harvest, adding that the Lord has chosen Nigeria to pre-pare the rest of the nations for the harvest.

Don't destroy CAN, Cleric appeals to Catholic Church

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ENIN---FORMER national chairman of the Youth Wing of the Christian Association of Nigeria (YOWICAN), Dr. Dele Oluwatade has appealed to the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria, CBCN, to review its decision to pull out of CAN, saying that such action would provide a leeway for the enem-ies to destroy the Church, reports GABRIEL ENOGHOLASE. Reacting to the reasons given by the Catholic Church for pulling out of CAN, Dr. Oluwatade told Vanguard in Benin that, “the allegation that the CAN President was too close to government should be well looked into and analyzed so as to understand exactly what is happening because the Bible says we should pray for our leaders including presidents, governors, Obas and all those in government.

“So, the Catholic Church has to clarify the issue for the sake of national interest where the CAN President is compromising with the government, that is critically important for an arm of CAN to say no”, he said, adding that there were several avenues within the hierarchy of CAN where disputes could be resolved without going public. He insisted that it was the lack of mutual respect and understanding among church leaders that is responsible for the scourging of churches in the North by the Islamic sect, Boko Haram.

According to him, “that is the major problem that we are facing and that is the divine reason why the Boko Haram will continue to scourge the church; until all our leaders purge themselves of their pride and wickedness."

SUNDAY Vanguard , FEBRUARY 3, 2013, PAGE 47

C M Y K

PAGE 48—SUNDAY VANGUARD, FEBRUARY 3, 2013

chimeena@yahoo.com 08026350360

Yasmin el-Rufai Creative Writing Workshop, 2013

Diagnosis of Achebe’s There Was A Country in Port Harcourt READING

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believe quite frankly this country is at war...” these words, spoken by Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka at the unveiling of Port Harcourt as UNESCO World Book Capital 2014 during the 5th Garden City Literary Festival, were reechoed at the Rainbow Book Club’s January Reading of Chinua Achebe’s ‘There was a Country’. The Reading which held Friday 25 th January at the poolside of Le Meridien, Ogeyi Place, Port Harcourt,, was nothing short of explosive! While Prof.

Soyinka made his comments in reference to the killings of the ‘Aluu four’ last year, the sentiments at the reading were from 1967-1970, the years of the Nigerian Civil War. Chinua Achebe goes to great length to put the war into geographical and political context; quoting numerous sources and narrating the events in simple everyday language, thus making his account accessible to a wide audience. This however was all but lost on the book club members who were more concerned with the content than the delivery of it. Some members felt that while Chinua Achebe is entitled to give his personal account of the war, his memoir coming forty two years later, was a bit late, opening old wounds and inciting new ethnic hostilities.

On the other hand were those who felt that his book was timely, for, as one member pointed out, ‘Has the war ended?’ referring to the killings by Boko Haram in the north and other parts of Nigeria. Indeed this group felt that the book was precautionary and that our leaders need to be students of

WORKSHOP

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history to prevent it from repeating its self.

An ex-biafran soldier, with scars from the war front, amused the aud en ice

Prof. Chinua Achebe

suffering, famine and death.

‘War is not simple’, said Mrs. Judy Nwanodi, whose stay in Nigeria pre dates Independence. Aunty Judy, who relocated to Nigeria

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BY DANIELLA MENEZOR

BY PRISCA SAM-DURU

An ex-biafran soldier, with scars from the war front, amused the audience with his war tales and kicked the hornet’s nest when he asserted that Ojukwu started the Biafran war

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with his war tales and kicked the hornet’s nest when he asserted that Ojukwu started the Biafran war. While, in his book, Achebe is careful not to lay the blame squarely on Ojukwu’s shoulders, the exsoldier, still referring to himself as a Biafran, went on with his own eye witness account, oblivious to the din his statements were causing, and were it not for his constant controversial statements, his was a sobering tale of

from England with her husband in 1958, encouraged members to read as many accounts of the war as they could, because one person’s account could not adequately capture the numerous complexities of war. She told of how her husband, who was actively involved in the creation of the old Rivers State, had all his law books burnt by the Biafrans and on one occasion, along with others, he had to be imprisoned for his

own safety.

The youth, who though were not witnesses to the events in question, were surprisingly well informed on the subject.

Debating the issue of meritocracy over the government quota system, the house was once again sharply divided among those who felt that meritocracy was the only way Nigeria would be able to move forward, adding also that meritocracy would remove ‘tribe domination’, however those opposed to this said that it was the responsibility of government to address the social, political and economic inequalities that exist in the country, and that until these were addressed, the quota system remained a necessary evil.

The Reading ended with the announcement of next month’s Reading, th February 24 and the book, Fine Boys, the author, Dr Eghosa Imauesen will be in attendance.

xodus 4 Art, a literary organization will be holding a creative workshop on Prose fiction.

The workshop which is scheduled to take place from April 8th till April 9th, is organized in memory of Yasmin el-Rufai, the late daughter of the former Honourable Minister of the FCT, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai and his wife, Hadiza elRufai.

Consequently, Exodus 4 Art invites interested participants aged between 14 and 21, to the Yasmin elRufai Creative Writing Workshop, 2013.

The essence of the workshop according to its organizers is to keep the memory of the young Yasmin who departed in November 2011 in London, alive.

The workshop will take the form of a class, during which participants are assigned a wide range of reading and daily writing exercises. This is aimed at improving the craft of writers.

Interested participants are given up to 20th of February, 2013 to submit all materials which should cover candidates name, address and phone number, date of birth, few sentences about oneself and an essay of not more than 500 words which could be either fiction or non-fiction, via email while notification of selected candidates will be made by 18th, March, 2013

Yasmin

SUNDAY VANGUARD, FEBRUARY 3, 2013, PAGE 49

JP Clark’s metadialetics Continued from last week

negative associations.

BY EKANPO ENEWARIDIDEKE CRITICAL INTERVENTION

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Prof. J.P. Clark there in front of your altar to our creator …”

Baffled, Chief Bekederemo asks Mitovwodo if she has seen such surprise performance before and she asks him back. He extends the question to Branuvwere, a poor household slave, who admittedly confesses that he does not understand Izon people.

Bekederemo maintains that the news will move Yenken his sister. To Mitovwodo, the news sweetens everybody: “It is honey on all our tongues, oil for our lamps in the white man’s night market he calls Nigeria.” Chief Bekederemo miraculously gets a message from Ngbile through Fetaroro that he will not die and this becomes joy to all; he still has work to do for his own people.

Clark’s story centres on Chief Bekederemo, a court member, middleman, a trader in palm oil and kernel from Kiagbodo, who becomes rich by his own hard work and prudent management of resources; Chief Dore Numa, a paramount Chief and president of Native Court of Appeal Warri from Odogene village who is a colonial agent that leases people’s land to the colonial masters for building of offices, barracks, etc without their knowledge and consent and Col. M.C. Moorhouse, an officer that acts in the absence of Frederick Lugard who uses Chief Dore Numa to deprive the people of their lands through fraudulent acquisition methods and still showers medals on Chief Dore Numa in recognition of his manipulative atrocities. Chief

Bekederemo’s moves are towards the elimination of the atrocities of Chief Dore Numa through his catalogue of complaints launched in col.

M.C. Moorhouse’s office which does not produce the result desired by him because of manipulation. Chief Dore Numa sees Chief Bekederemo as an opposition who should be crushed so that the way will be cleared whereas Col. M.C. Moorhouse sees Chief Dore Numa as a potent tool deployed towards the actualisation of the thrust of

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n his sickbed, he reviews h i s actions and agrees that he is rather too hard on Chief Babigha over the excrementpouring, the dehumanising tying and the burning down of the shrine and that he has to build bridges before he dies.

His wife Mitovwodo assures him that he will not die since he has withstood greater challenges in his life – like Chief Bekederemo’s survival when his half-brother Sabolo shoots hin in the chest with a double barrel gun, when Chief Dore Numa sends an ark of small pox to him and when Agbodobiri people tell Chief Dore Numa and the white friends that he has committed multiple murder in the matter of twins, Erekebena, Chief Bekederemo’s wife, her father and entire family absolve him of the murder charge. Chief Dore Numa has to sacrifice bullocks to his ancestors to save his life when Chief Bekederemo floats the ark of smallpox back to him.

Mitovwodo awakens Chief Bekederemo to the fact that even Uyo of Amatolo who says Bekederemo is the son of a daughter on both sides of Kiagbodo and so should go to Okpokunu and Tebegbe or even Ugbokoto (Bekederemo’s mother ’s father ’s place in Itsekiri) is no more. Uyo has run to Akotogbo. With all these Mitovwodo is convinced that Chief Bekederemo will not die. Chief Bekederemo recalls how his own father has actually fought for ungrateful Kiagbodo town. His own father fights for Kiagbodo against Okpokunu (his father’s town) and that when his own father loses the power of his lower half, he shares his young wives among his selected sons. Chief Bekederemo hears a noise and tries to know what is wrong and he hopes that crocodiles have not found their way into land because he knows he has cleared the land of crocodiles since crocodiles kill two of his daughters. Then Branuvwere announces the arrival of Fetaroro, Chief Babigha’s son. Fetaroro claims that he is sent by his ancestor Ngbile to tell Chief Bekederemo that he will survive this illness because he still has work to do for the people. Fetaroro speaks to Chief Bekederemo thus: “… you will not die of this illness …. Never mind the people of Kiagbodo. Your mission reaches far beyond them. And when your mission here in these rivers is finished, a great tornado will come upon this land, and then, in spite of all the walls of brick you build around yourself, your life will go out with that oil lamp you have set up to burn forever

Clark surveys his business life and portrays him as a rich honest trader who is not exploitative and then in his activist role, portrays him as a man dedicated to the liberation of the masses from the tricks of Chief Dore Numa and as a family man, he portrays him as a caring man of many wives with traces of dictatorship. In the management of his home affairs he does not accept counter views. He marries his daughters off to men in Sagbama creek against their will. At first he marries Aminose (his daughter) off to Niger company ’s manager and later to Fenatangbe in Sagbama creek like Temagha.

He quarrels with his wife Mitovwodo when she protests against it. Bekederemo’s mother’s father Ofiagbere is Itsekiri by extraction and this empowers him to protect Itsekiri’s interest where it is threatened by Chief Dore Numa.

Bekederemo comments that Itsekiri’s marry their children to white men in order to get power and influence and similarly he gives out his daughters to men in Sagbama creek because he wants to reward them for the free labour they have given him. He single-handedly gives Fiobode to Chief Egbe as wife against his father ’s wish and dislikes Yenken his elder sister for marrying Suoware without his approval.

Even without good reasons, Chief Bekederemo burns down chief Babigha’s shrine though in his sickbed he admits being too hard on him and would like to make amends. Chief Bekederemo over pampers his children; he

Clark surveys his business life and portrays him as a rich honest trader who is not exploitative and then in his activist role, portrays him as a man dedicated to the liberation of the masses

his colonial policy on the natives. Col. M.C. Moorhouse sees any opposition to Chief Dore Numa as an opposition to the colonial administration.

Chief Bekederemo is cast as a saviour-figure, activist who can liberate the Ijaws, Urhobos, Itsekiris, Isokos, Abohs and Kwales from the oppressive manipulations of Chief Dore Numa in the colonial days when palm oil and kernel trade hold sway. In the portrayal of Bekederemo’s glorious contributions, Clark does not spare him: he throws light on both his positive and

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marries wives for his sons and caters for his daughters in their matrimonial homes; and to an excessive degree, he is generous with gifts and food to his children, relations and guests in the house. Chief Bekederemo, who, in what could be cast as a narcissistic self-adulation more in defiant trivialisation of Ajayi Crowder’s exhortation to him on education, proudly talks about how he becomes wealthy without education and manipulative collusion with the white men, shows little or no interest in the education of Fuludu and

Okemeji (his children) though he eventually sends his children Orumala, James and Ajaluwa to Government school in Warri and demonstrates phenomenal interest in the education of his grandson Clark already sent to his favourite daughter Ovughurugha and her husband Robert Milne for the purpose of educational advancement.

The beauty in the portrait of Chief Bekederemo is that, even with his occasional flaws or wrong actions, he demonstrates ability to identify them and correct them for the purpose of tomorrow; this I think, is the Jesus Christ in him. Bekederemo shows capacity to forgive and to beg for forgiveness when he knows he has erred.

Clark’s portrait of Chief Dore Numa is that of insensitive, cunning, exploitative, domineering, unrepentant, oppressive, arrogant, envious, manipulative, dishonest, irresponsible and insincere man who does not want to see anybody progress and rise above him in life; his manipulative preoccupation is to deprive the Ijaws, Urhobos and Itsekiris of their lands by leasing them to white men without their knowledge and consent. Chief Dore Numa is a sadist: he always congratulates himself on having dealt with Nana by driving him to Accra and back to Koko and by sending the Oba of Benin on exile to Calabar; no wonder he tries to kill Chief Bekederemo by sending an ark of smallpox though he misfires. He is unrepentant, wicked and vindictive. When Chief Babigha tells him how Bekederemo humiliates him, he promptly sends white men and soldiers to arrest him without investigation because he does not want to see any opposition from him. Dore Numa’s manipulative gimmicks are nondiscriminatory: he manipulates all tribes in Warri including Itsekiris. What matters to him most is his own survival. Chief Fore Numa is a land-grabber, manipulator who lives only on what the white men give as reward for his perfidy and dedication to manipulation. Even with his manipulation, he is not as rich as Chief Bekederemo. Chief Bekederemo once asks Dore Numa in infuriation if he has ever had a thousand English pounds for his perfidious labour for the white men.

Chief manipulates litigants to give him money and gifts; he always gets jars of gin from Ijaw people as gifts; even Ayakoroma people use to give him fine ALOKU poles but Bekederemo’s agitation stops all that. Chief is a cankerworm in any society.

To be continued

PAGE 50—SUNDAY Vanguard, FEBRUARY 3, 2013

2015 PRESIDENCY

Some people are insulting Igbo —Ikedife, former Ohanaeze president *’Easterners invested more in Nigeria’s unity than Yoruba, Hausa’ *Says the problem of Nigeria is PDP The pan Igbo socio-cultural organisation, Ohanaeze, recently, held its election to usher in a new leadership. But the election did not go without some hitches. Chief Emma Nwankpa from Enugu State, one of the contenders for the seat of deputy president, was shot in the legs just a day to the election. He lost the seat to his only opponent, Chief OAU Onyema.

The Chief Gary Nnachi EnwoIgariwey-led new leadership was sworn-in immediately after the election.

Some members of the group opposed to the poll have gone to court to challenge the validity of the election.

Sunday Vanguard spoke with one of Ohanaeze’s past presidents, Dr Dozie Ikedife, who is the medical director of Ikedife Hospital based in Nnewi, Anambra State on the issues in Ohanaeze and Igbo.

Excerpts

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RISIS in the Oha naeze appears to be unending. When will it

stop?

In any organization, there must be divergent views and it will be unconventional if everybody in a big organization has the same single answer to any question. Naturally, there is freedom of expression; if your mind has not been manacled by dogma, then you may not be able to express your opinion or have your own view. But where you have freedom and you are free, that is the part of the life of any democratic organization. And then you say the minority have their say, the majority will have their way.

It is natural, it is healthy, it is not a monolithic or dictatorial organization where somebody says bend down, everybody bends down, where you say sit down and somebody says where, it is normal to ask why rather than where. It allows you to see the other side of the coin and the crisis you are talking about, it is your invention. There is no crisis to be called crisis. But there is freedom of expression, of divergent views and opinions.

How about the violence! I mean the contender for the Ohanaeze office who was shot?

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I don’t know about this violence you are talking about. I did not hear of it. Don’t forget, there have been abductions, robberies, I don’t know whether it is a coincidence that the person you talked about was shot by armed robbers or some people sent to incapacitate him so that he would not be present at the election. I have not heard but I believe that your information must be correct. People sometimes have road accident. For example, a journey from Lagos to Nnewi here and you have accident, you will not say I caused it or some other fellow who wants to get here before you caused it. It may be pure coincidence. You can, if you have a fatal imaginative mind, give it any interpretation.

So, to you, there is really no crisis within the group?

There is no crisis to talk of.

Don’t forget, I was the past president of the group. A new president is on seat now and he will be the better person to tell you whether there is crisis on his table or not. As far as I am concerned, Ohaneze is an on-going organization, there may be disagreement in the discussion of some issues, but I won’t call that crisis.

Look at the political parties.

Can you say they have crisis?

How about the government of the day, can you say it has crisis? It depends on what you mean by crisis. It is your definition of crisis. It could be your extended definition of discussion, divergent views, disagreement. From divergent views, you can go on to disagreement and then you can go on to crisis. Divergent views, yes. Disagreement, perhaps. Crisis, no.

There is the agitation for a sixth state in the South- East. Is the sixth state in the zone economically viable or it is just for political expediency?

On the viability of the state, I have propounded that many of the states in the country are not economically viable. I said it that the 36 states are too many for Nigeria, that the current geopolitical zones should be converted to states and the present states be converted to provinces and then we forget about local government because many of them, when

Dr.Dozie Ikedife....Create the sixth state in the South East you look at the cost of maintaining them and the dividends they produce, you know that they are not necessary. That one rests on its own merit. But I must tell you that today many of the existing states are indebted, they borrow money here and here. But Anambra, as at today owes, nobody any money. No internal or interna-

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BY BILESANMI OLALEKAN

Is there no contradiction here?

There is what we called sense of equity, fairness and justice. Create the sixth state in the South East and then if you are going to coalesce these geo political zones into states, coalesce the six, where there are seven, coalesce the seven. There is no contradiction. That I propounded this does not mean it must be ac-

Anything and everything is possible in 2015 including Igbo presidency. If we have the will, if we have decided, if we have the accommodating spirit, it will work. You are talking as if some people are second and third class citizens in this country

tional borrowing or debt, yet it is executing a lot of its projects. That is a measure of evidence of viability. Now the sixth state as requested, demanded and expected by the South East is only fair.

There are six geo-political zones, four of them have six states, one has seven and one has five. Is it fair?

A c t u a l l y … . .

Answer me yes or no. If you won’t answer, then I won’t continue. Be honest . I wont continue this discussion with you, just tell me. Is it fair?

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cepted or implemented. And until it is accepted and implemented, let us have the sixth state for the sake of equity, justice and fairness. Similarly, at the federal level, the bicamera legislative house seems to me unnecessary duplication. They say and do the same thing but they just go on drawing salaries. There is no place where you may call division of function or a function one house cannot perform. Why do we have to have two? That is what I call wasteful bureaucratic establish-

ment. They are not necessary and I seriously mean it.

There is clamour by the South East for the presidency. Do you think such request is feasible in the shortest possible time of 2015?

Anything and everything is possible in 2015 including Igbo presidency. If we have the will, if we have decided, if we have the accommodating spirit, it will work. You are talking as if some people are second and third class citizens in this country. It is this supercilious approach that makes things very difficult.

How? The way you have just spoken. You said Igbos have been clamouring as far as you can remember, I don’t know how far your memory goes. You are a young man, so your memory cannot be farther than mine. But to say it that way is patronizing supercilious insulting. It is insulting to the Igbo nation. Why should a Yoruba man be the president of this country? Why should an Hausa man be president, or why should Ijaw, Fulani or Urobo man be the president of this country? And you are here saying the Igbos are clamouring, that is insulting.

You are provoking me to the point of slapping you now.

How can you be saying that?

It is a pity. I don’t know where you have been drinking from.

You must have been drinking from a very poisoned well against Igbos. But that is what it is now. From the fullest of the heart, the mouth speaketh. The Igbos have contributed sufficiently to the welfare, development and growth of this country. They are the people who have invested so much in the unity of this country, more than the Yorubas, more than the Hausas, more than any ethnic group. How many Yorubas have houses in Nnewi or Onitsha? Let me tell you a story.

In the early 60s, a Yoruba man was being examined at the University College, Ibadan.

In the area where you ask verbal question and the person answers, the examiner asked, ‘Suppose you are in a bus travelling from Ibadan to Onitsha and then down the road, a big accident takes place, how would you handle Conitnues on page 51

SUNDAY Vanguard, FEBRUARY 3, 2013, PAGE 51

2015: ‘Only Jonathan can ’ y s r rs e v o ov tr n o c e th e lv lve o s re

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resident Goodluck Jonathan should let Nigerians know where he stands on the contentious issue of 2015 presidential election, according to a public affairs analyst, Mr Fidel Anujuo.

“I believe President Jonathan should at this time come out and let Nigerians know where he stands on the issue.

He has been a bit evasive on the matter, and this has brought about a lot of tension and anxiety ”, Anujuo, who spoke in Lagos, stated. He went on: “I believe a man should stand by his own words. Although, constitutionally, Jonathan has every right to contest or seek re-election, he should try to be a man of his words that he would spend only one term. Why should somebody of his caliber, hold-

Anujuo: I believe a man should stand by his own words ing the highest position in the land not keep to his words?

Moreover, after spending six years in office as president,

what does he want again? He should act like a true patriot, and statesman. He should resist the pressure on him to run.”

Asking Jonathan to keep to his word not to seek re-election, Anujuo said the issue has of late been overheating the polity.

“This issue of 2015 should be handled carefully. From the intense debate the 2015 issue has been generating among the different ethnic groups, individuals, one doesn’t need to be a seer, or a psychologist to know that trouble is looming, and if the matter is not carefully handled, it might snowball into a political crisis that can threat the nation’s peace and stability. Let Jonathan come out now and speak once and for all on where he stands on this issue”.

Anujuo noted that the presi-

dent still has a lot to do in terms of delivering on his electoral promises while campaigning to be elected in 2011.

“Why should we even be talking about 2015 when we should be talking about the president’s scorecard? Has he been able to deliver on his promises to Nigerians?. There is still a long way to go. Nigerians are yearning to have a taste of dividends of democracy under President Jonathan. He needs to tackle so many issues. Youth unemployment is on the increase, the power sector is still erratic, while the state of infrastructure across the country is appalling. Federal roads in many parts of the country, especially the South the South-East, have become death traps.

Again, power is key to the growth and survival of many industries, if Jonathan can ensure that he fixes the power sector, our economy will receive a boost. And in the area of security, the president needs to do more to give Nigerians the assurance that we have a government in place that can secure lives and property”.

Speaking on the agitation for the creation of new states, Anujuo noted that the SouthEast deserves to be given an additional state.

According to him, it is only the South-East geo-political zone that has five states while other five zones have six each.

“I strongly believe that in the spirit of fairness and equity, the South-East deserves at least one additional state.

This zone has been marginalized for too long, it is the only zone that has five states, while the remaining five geo-political zones have six each. I also believe that the current revenue allocation system should be reviewed. Under the arrangement I am canvassing, the six geo-political zones should receive their revenue which will thereafter be disbursed on a ratio agreed upon by component states in each geo-political zone,” he said.

On the face-off between Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo State, and Senator Chris Anyanwu, Anujuo described the convoy clash between the two prominent citizens as uncalled for.

’Easterners invested more in Nigeria’s unity than Yoruba, Hausa’ the situation’. The man said, ‘Haa, I am not going to go to Onitsha o. Ask me another question’. It just shows the insularity of the thinking. That is how some of you people see some of us. I am sure somebody must have told you that if you come to the East, they will kill and eat you, that is the wrong perception you people have. This is the most friendly area in the country till date. I will rather injure my brother than injure a stranger. That is our attitude here. So please give us what we deserve. You see this country is drifting and it requires the character of an Igbo leader to give it direction and until it is so done, you are like a little boat in the sea swinging this way and that way, going no where.

Is that a threat?

It is not a threat but a statement of fact. Check it out.

Where are you going? Where have you gone since 1999?

How far have you gone?

At the moment, who amongst the lot is credible and acceptable enough to vie for the presidency even if all the regions decide for an Igbo presidency?

You have started your insult again. The leadership in Yoruba land, tell me the ones that are most credible. Was Obas-

anjo credible? Was Olabode George credible? There are so many of them. We have a plethora of people who will be good president for this country. I can give you 30. And you will agree that any of them is capable. Exposed, qualified too. But without campaigning for anybody, you must have heard of the gentle man called Ogbonanya Onu, the first governor of Abia State. He is capable and he will lead aright if given the opportunity. If you don’t give anybody a chance, you won’t know whether he can play tennis or not. There are some people who are potentially number one in the world but if you don’t give them the chance there is no way of knowing.

There are a lot of them. Many from Anambra, Imo, Enugu, Ebonyi, Abia.

There is agitation that the North Senatorial District of Anambra won’t be allowed to produce the governor in this year’s election even as some have said there are really no acceptable candidates from the zone.

Zoning, as far as I am concerned, is good because it helps engender a sense of belonging. But you must not take it to a ridiculous end that you now implant mediocre. It is not true to say Anambra North senatorial has no candidate

for the governorship. It is another insult which I will not like anybody to inflict on them or anybody for that matter.

And I will not want it repeated. I am not from there. I am

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Conitnued from page 50

Zoning, as far as I am concerned, is good because it helps engender a sense of belonging. But you must not take it to a ridiculous end that you now implant mediocre

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from Anambra South. The North has materials to work with.

Who are the candidates that constitute these materials you are talking about?

People who I know showing interest in the governorship from the zone, one of them is Alex Obiogbolu, a medical doctor. He is a former chairman of Anambra State Local

Government Service Commission. He is a member of the PDP. He is very credible, beautiful young man with clear vision. There is Obaze who is the present SSG. There is Paul Odenigbo, a former SSG. There is the Emanaka family. There are many of them. So there are enough potentially gubernatorial materials from Anambra North, even presidential materials. Obiogbolu is of the PDP but the party is a bad one and that is why I left the party. It is a bad group. As individuals, they may be good but once they go under that umbrella, they act mad.

But Dr Alex Ekwueme, a respect politician, like many others, is a member of the party?

So what? As I said, as an individual, he is a good man.

But under that umbrella, he is a different person. The problem of Nigeria is PDP. That is rather too judgmental Of course I have to be judgmental, whether it is right or wrong, it is my right to say so.

You may agree or disagree. You may be a PDP card carrier, that is your headache. You may be a nice person, but once you are under that umbrella, you become a different person.

What makes them bad people?

Because of the way they act,

the way they accommodate things. Let me give an illustration. There was a gentleman from Yoruba land, very nice by all standards. He was charged for embezzlement, found guilty in the court of public opinion, found guilty in the court of legitimate jurisdiction and authority, found guilty in the Court of Appeal, then he went to prison for a short time and came out and when he was coming out, Owambe people, aso ebi people, heads of organizations went to go and dance to welcome him back and he even went to the oldest churches in Lagos, even a former head of state went there to dance and celebrate with him. Celebrating what? That he was a criminal, found guilty in the court of law, confirmed by the Court of Appeal? Is that not a shameful show? How can you say you are projecting Nigeria and you are celebrating rogues? That is PDP. Don’t push me into saying more. Are you happy with that? May be you even went to dance with him because from the way you are laughing, I am sure you did. But I tell you, it is wrong.

When they want you to do something and you say no or you express an opinion that is independent, they go and rake up old record and show you and say, ‘My friend, you better behave.’

PAGE 52—SUNDAY VANGUARD, FEBRUARY 3, 2013

SURE-P investigation and democracy

BY FIYEOFORI LAWSON VIEWPOINT IN BRIEF The need for government officials to attend parliament public hearing.

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N every democracy, there are rules.

For some time now, I have watched with amazement the overbearing attitude of the executive, and the impression I have is that we all appear to have forgotten how we arrived here. We all seem to have also forgotten that but for the people, the freedom we all enjoy today would not have been possible. The legislature, no matter how imperfect, remains our democracy’s bastion and, unequivocally, our most potent connection to government. This is so because of its representative nature and we must not allow this important arm of government to be ridiculed.

The recent in what I consider a series of calculated affront

on the legislature by the executive arm is the aborted public hearing by the joint investigation panel of the House of Representatives into the implementation of the Subsidy Re-Investment and Empowerment Programme, SURE-P. The public hearing, which had attracted the interests of most Nigerians, was stalled due to the failure of some key ministers and senior government officials to show up.

To me, this is unacceptable because it is a wilful and premeditated conduct against an important arm of government.

So what these public officers did with their absence constitutes contempt of legislative procedure which is fast assuming a life of its own under the present administration.

S

URE-P is Federal Gov ernment’s immediate response to the well organised and coordinated protests across the country occasioned by the partial removal of fuel subsidy on petroleum products on the first day of January last year. On the surface, SURE-P

has the loftiest of objectives.

According to its terms of reference, the body was set up to alleviate the immediate impact of petroleum subsidy discon-

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VIEWPOINT

The legislature, no matter how imperfect, remains our democracy’s bastion and, unequivocally, our most potent connection to government

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tinuation especially on the poor and the vulnerable in the country. SURE-P also has the onerous task of accelerating economic transformation through investments in critical sectors and social safety nets. In addition, the programme is also expected to

promote investments in the petroleum sector.

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herefore a public hearing on the journey thus far should naturally have elicited interest not just by anxious Nigerians but also by those directly involved in the management of the allocation to SURE-P. But quite unfortunately, the ministers shunned the meeting and denied Nigerians the opportunity of making an informed judgement as regards the application of this all-important fund. In fact, I watched Dakuku Peterside, Chairman of the joint committee and one of the most respected member of the House, because of his forthrightness as he described the ministers’ absence as an intentional disrespect for the parliament and its work. According to Peterside, this is a ‘deliberate contempt. He however acknowledged that it was only the Chairman, Dr. Christopher Kolade, who notified the joint committee of his absence.

So far, I must say that I am impressed with the maturity of

members of this joint committee. They could probably have resorted to self-help if they had so desired because there are enabling laws. Legislative Houses (Powers and Privileges) Act as severally amended for instance gives the legislature the power to issue warrant to compel attendance.

And refusal to answer or failure to attend, the person or persons shall be guilty of an offence and therefore liable on conviction to a fee or to imprisonment for three months or to both fine and imprisonment.

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s February 12, the new date for the public hearing beckons, we are waiting and watching to see if these ministers and public officers will honour our representatives. Whatever happens, that date will determine the peoples stand on some very troubling issues afflicting this administration especially with regard to policies and implementation. * Lawson, who lives in Warri, Delta State, is of Anti-Corruption Network

Vanguard Security Summit and Neighbourhood Watch

BY JOSEPH OVIASUYI VIEWPOINT IN BRIEF The gains of the talkshop to address the nation’s security challenges.

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HE flagship of the Ni gerian print media, the Vanguard Newspapers, has been truly exemplary in patriotism, public service and corporate responsibility. The recently organized National Summit on Security Challenges in Nigeria held in International Conference Center, Abuja, is yet, another eloquent testimony to Vanguard’s commitment to the unity and development of our nation. Kudos to the publisher, Mr. Sam Amuka, and his management team, for the sponsorship of the summit.

It is a worrisome fact that trajectory of violent crimes has let loose in Nigeria. Nigerians have been held hostage and captive by criminal gangs across the nation in the last two or three years, heightened by the Boko Haram insurgen-

cy in the North. Of course, security agencies will not admit it, but the spate of armed robbery, kidnapping and bombings, with the attendant destruction of lives and properties, prove beyond doubt that they have been practically overwhelmed.

Several eminent Nigerians across relevant disciplines and work experiences presented papers at the summit. During the two days talk shop, critical issues bordering on our national security were thoroughly dissected and broken down to the minutest details.

My interest was particularly arrested by the paper presented by the Chairman of Edo State Neighbourhood Watch, General Charles Omoregie. It was the first time some of us heard him speak on topical public issues. He spoke on the topic: Militancy, Terrorism and Arms Proliferation; Implications for National Security.

Having listened to his seamless delivery, one could not but agree with the propriety of his choice as Chairman of Edo State Neighbourhood Watch.

The perspectives he brought to the fore were uniquely in-

depth, incisely brutal and immeasurably illuminating. But the questions that poked my mind as I listened to him were: where has he been? Why have we not seen enough of his

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VIEWPOINT

The Vanguard National Security Summit has shown that the man at the helms of affairs has the requisite knowledge and experience to deliver on the mandate

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operations in Edo State?

The establishment of Edo State Neighborhood Watch is generally seen as a strategic response to the unacceptable upsurge in violent crimes especially kidnapping that was

once thought to be alien to these climes. That is why the perspectives of the Chairman, Edo State Neighbourhood Watch at the Vanguard Security Summit were of interest to the citizens.

The Vanguard National Security Summit has shown that the man at the helms of affairs has the requisite knowledge and experience to deliver on the mandate. From interactions with the people, it would appear that he enjoys enormous goodwill and respect among the critical segment of the populace. It seems that his little contact with people has yielded good rapport which is quite important. Perhaps, his Command of the JFT in Niger Delta within the same region few months before retirement has been helpful in this regard. I also think the composition of the Governing Board is confidence inspiring as key stakeholders including the security community are well represented. But these structures require the support and commitment of the Chief Executive of Edo State to succeed.

All security organizations must recruit and train the right manpower, acquire the right equipment especially vehicles and communication systems that are suited for its operations. A couple of years back, some security communication systems were installed in the Government House by Lucky Igbinedion’s administration but the facility was said not to be meant for the poor masses but a few rich people.

Records show that only government functionaries and their privileged associates were connected to the security system and enjoyed the services at that time. The equipment is said to have worked satisfactorily but lack of commitment to maintenance compromised its performance and stalled operations. This government is pro-people and markedly different in focus and commitment to good governance. It should urgently revive and upgrade the communications equipment for the benefit of the traumatized people of Edo State. * Dr. Oviasuyi, political strategist lives at 10 Agbonkpolo Street, Benin City.

SUNDAY Vanguard , FEBRUARY 3, 2013, PAGE 53

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SUNDAY Vanguard, FEBRUARY 3, 2013 --PAGE 54

Good Night Baba Ellenski !!!

…a tribute in memory of late Deacon Elijah Ayodele Ositelu (1943-2013)

BY GBOYEGA OKEGBENRO “OKAY young man. Go right away to the NTA office inside the National Stadium and give this note to Mr. Fabio Lanipekun.

He will direct you to the sports hall. Watch as many bouts as possible till about 6pm and bring your report.

“I will be waiting here to see what you can do,” said Ayo Ositelu, flashing his trade-mark smiles as I made my way out of his small-sized office on the wooden decks of Punch Newspapers’ Editorial department that sunny afternoon of October 1983.

That was barely two minutes after I had been introduced to him as an avid sports follower by my late friend and brother, Jide Kutelu, with whom I had developed a strong bond of friendship over the preceding 11 months as youth corpers and teachers at Majidun Community Grammar School, Ikorodu, Lagos State.

Of course, I went and did as he directed and pronto, he published my report on the Punch Sports pages the next day. Being a complete journalism rookie however, I did not look out for the report next day or anytime afterwards. I merely disappeared and kept up my job hunts on other fronts until about two weeks later, when I wandered my way again to Jide’s desk at the Features department on another casual visit.

I was making my way down the stairs to the reception area when I saw him disembarking from his car, with heaps of foreign magazines and documents and I said hello. He recognized me immediately, saying he had been looking for me since the day the report was published and had told everyone to seek me out at the stadium. He led me straight to the expansive

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Punch newsroom and introduced me to his then deputy, Segun ‘’Eddie” Adams, who was to be my direct boss for the next two years and thus began my long-running journalism career.

As a boss, leader, friend and mentor, Arena treated and acted towards all with immeasurable warmth, honour and sincerity.

As a writer, Arena was in a distinct class. He elevated sports writing and reporting beyond the bonds of mere information sharing and delivery. He was an educator, coach and demonstrator of all that was key in the various sports.

From basketball to tennis, baseball to hockey; boxing to track and field; Ayo was unmistakably the Lord of the Arena. He did not just write elegantly on all sports, but possessed tremendous knowledge and insight on all sports no

•Late Ositelu matter how unpopular.

Through his writings, anchored on his flowery lexicon, he won fans over for a lot of hitherto unpopular sports in these parts.

My mentor had a weakness for “photos that speak” as he described action pictures during productions.

Arena was interesting to work with. He practically freezes when John Ebhota lands with his trade-mark, expressive action pictures.

Arena would simply jump off his seat, race to a corner of his room and grab an offcut. ‘’Oya, oya, aburo

….fancy this caption…Amazing Shot”, he would say excitedly as he scribbled his usually captivating RLB captions on our action-photo-stories, which was one of our desk’s niche under Arena’s watch.

A master of big-stage international coverage outings, Arena never missed any world-class event no matter how far on the globe. Often times, he funded his own travels and would for weeks, upon return, write and write from diverse angles on not just the championship but its superstars.

Once upon his return from covering the World Athletics Championships in Helsinki, Finland; he delayed unusually in handing out souvenirs to one of our female typists in the newsroom. Being a master at giving people different monikers himself, the lady loudly hailed him as he bounced into the newsroom with a face-cap bearing Helsinki. The lady hailed……. ‘’Baba Ellenski”; an apparent corrupt pronunciation of the city Helsinki.

From that day, the Arena had the moniker, Baba Ellenski, added to his list less aliases in the Punch newsroom. Of course, being a master at nicknames himself, he laughed and laughed as the entire newsroom took the dimension of a comedy venue. To be sure, had Arena not found a home in sportswriting and commentary, he would have long blazed the multi-million earning trail in comedy, ahead of Ali Baba and the like.

He was a master of the wits business and could get ribs cracking in seconds.

He was adept at producing situation-fit slangs, lingos and nicknames for people around him; and he would always offer supporting gists behind such names.

When in 1984, Nigeria’s Nduka Odizor, took the tennis circuit by storm, shooting up to number 82 in world rankings and reaching the round of 16 at Wimbledon, Arena simply christened him.

“The Duke”. At the last count, this his aburo had no less than four different nicknames christened him

by Arena; all with unforgettable accompanying incidents or stories.

As the remains of my mentor, friend and product of the illustrious Igbobi College and Ositelu family of Ogere Remo, Ogun State; the great Uncle Ayo, Lord of The Arena, finally returns to his creator, I join his numerous friends and fans at home and in the diaspora to mourn this illustrious writer, commentator, sports historian, sports statistician, politician and servant of God. To his immediate and extended family, I say, remain strong and consoled by the fact that Ayo lived a most fulfilled life; touched several souls and impacted lives over generations.

Adieu, my mentor.

SUNDAY Vanguard, FEBRUARY 3, 2013 — PAGE 55

Q/final cracker:

Nigerians fear for Eagles

By OSARETIN EMUZE

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IGERIANS are persimistically optimistic about Super Eagles quarter final match against the Elephants of Cote d’Ivoire who they meet today in the quarter final of the on-going Africa Nations Cup holding in South Africa.

A cross section of football stakeholders spoken to on the great match expressed fears that Nigeria may not go pass the quarter finals as the Ivoirians are clear favourites to lift the trophy.

They argued that Cote d’Ivoire have what it takes to defeat the Eagles who struggled to qualify for this stage.

To them the fear of African footballer of the year, Yaya Toure, Didier Drogba, Salomon Kalou, Emmanuel Ebue and Kolo Toure, among others, is the beginning of wisdom.

First to speak was veteran sports journalist, Ndanusa Ocholi who said that it would be a very tough game for the Super Eagles considering the

profile of the Ivorians.

“If Nigeria should play as they did against Ethiopia, the Ivorians will punish them severely, but if they could lift their game, they would give their opponents a good run for their money and possibly beat them. They better be tactically disciplined and put up a good effort and determination. If they do that they may win but if they are lackaidasical in their approach, they won’t carry the day,” he stressed.

Ocholi however, said it will be an herculean task. “Without mincing words, it is not going to be an easy game.”

Seun Ahmed, a football analyst and a lecturer at the Lagos State University, Ojo said the Eagles match will be 70/ 30 in favour of Cote d’Ivoire.

Technically and tactically, the Ivoirans are superior, the players too have carved a niche for themselves in the game of football across the world playing for big clubs.

He however, said in football anything can happen. “Eagles should put in their utmost best to win the match but I have my

•FLYING HIGH: Algeria’s forward Islam Slimani (R) falls over Ivory Coast goalkeeper Daniel Yeboah (bottom) during a 2013 African Cup of Nations Group D football match in Rustenburg. The match ended 2-2. Photo: AFP

fears,” he stressed.

Francis Ehikhaise, Sports Editor with the Voice of Nigeria, said 90 minutes will judge. “I have my heart in my mouth, but football is not played on the pages of newspapers, it takes 90 minutes to know the winner. Whoever is more determined will win,” he said.

Taribo says Elephants’ll fall F ORMER Super Eagles defender, Taribo West believes the Super Eagles will stun Cote d’Ivoire when the two nations clash in today ’s quarterfinals at the ongoing Africa Cup of Nations in South Africa. The former Inter Milan player has allay the fears of many Nigerians who feel their side will come up short against their West African neighbours.

“I am sure Nigeria will beat the Ivorians. The team has made great progress during the competition and I am very sure they will surmount this hurdle

and qualify for the semifinals,” Taribo told supersport.com.

Appealling to Nigerians to be patient with Stephen Keshi as he continues his “rebuilding process” with the national team, Taribo said, “This is a young team and Nigerians must be patient to see it grow. The talk

of disbanding this team if we don’t win the Nations Cup should not arise at all.

“The great teams in the world today were not built in a few months. Keshi must be allowed to continue with his good work after this tournament,” he stated.

Ghana squeeze past Cape Verde

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HANA reached the semifinals of the Africa Cup of Nations after Mubarak Wakaso scored a controversial penalty and a breakaway goal.

After a dour first half, Ghana

L- R Managing Director DHL Exepress, Mr Randy Buday, Osayame Igbinomwanhia;Mr. Anthony Prunster; and Manager West Africa Business Development , Hercules Offshore Nigeria Ltd , Mr Jason Crowe, at the DHL/Hercules Lagos Oilment’s Scramble Golf Tournament held at the Ikoyi Club Lagos recently. Photo By Diran Oshe

won a spot-kick when Asamoah Gyan fell after a Carlitos shoulder barge and Wakaso smashed home the spot-kick Cape Verde responded well and Ghana goalkeeper Fatau Dauda made superb saves from Platini, Djaniny and Heldon.

But Wakaso raced clear with the Cape Verde keeper stranded to seal the win.

It was a harsh ending for Cape Verde, who came so close to an equaliser that would have been deserved on balance of play in the second half.

That they were undone by a dubious penalty decision and a last-minute goal when they had thrown everyone forward will be a bitter memory to reflect on when they look back at their first Nations Cup finals.

The Blue Sharks shaded a cagey first half as both sides looked more afraid to make a mistake than be prepared to try to make something happen.

Eagles v Cote d’Ivoire: Shut up, Ojidoh tells boastful Nigerians

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a John Ojidoh is disappointed that Nigerians have suddenly become boastful about today’s Nations Cup quarter final match against Ivory Coast.

And sadly, he says, Stephen Keshi has joined them.

“It will be a different mentality against Ivory Coast,” Don’t Worry about Ivory Coast,” were some of the headlines attributed to Keshi. Chief Mike Umeh said that “Nigeria will teach Ivory Coast a lesson.”

He is the Vice President of Nigeria Football Federation.

Interestingly, the Ivorians who are favourites have spoken about Nigeria with respect.

“We know Nigerians, they are a strong side and it will be a

difficult match. We will do our best in the match,” Emmanuel Ebue told the BBC. Ojidoh has reacted this way: “My son, Keshi, his crew, players and other Nigerians are playing risky mouth football.

They should shut up and take everybody by surprise. Skill and luck win matches not name or wishes. The 2013 Nations Cup is full of surprises like Cape Verde and Burkina Faso.

It will not be over until it is over.

So, let’s pray and be ready to accept the result that comes our way. What belongs to all belongs to none. The winner of Sunday’s (today) match isn’t necessarily the ordained winner of the Cup.”

Adamu sure on Eagles

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S the Super Eagles battle Cote d’Ivoire in the quarter final of the Africa Cup of Nations today at the Royal Bafokeng Stadium in Rustenburg, South Africa, former Director General of the National Sports Commission, NSC, Dr. Amos Adamu has urged the team to attack their opponents from the blast of the whistle.

The former CAF and FIFA Executive Committee member who sent his opinion via an sms to Sunday Vanguard sports in Lagos at the weekend said the Stephen Keshi-tutored team should concentrate and be focused throughtout their game in order to overcome the Ivorians.

“They should concentrate and be focused. I believe they will beat the Ivorians (because) they are more scared of us so we should attack them from the onset.

We can beat them,” he affirmed.

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SUNDAY Vanguard, FEBRUARY 3, 2013 RESULTS

Ghana

2

South Africa

1 (1)

C/Verde

0

Mali 1 (3)

TODAY'S MATCHES

Cote d’Ivoire vs

Nigeria— 4 pm

Burkina Faso vs Togo — 7.30 pm

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LAYERS of the Super Eagles realize that today’s Cup of Nations quarter final duel with the Elephants of the Cote d’Ivoire is the biggest test of character that any of them will ever go through in a long time to come.

They chorused while training in Rustenburg that today’s clash will be like none other.

On paper, the Ivorians have better rating as a team and on the balance, as individual players. But this tournamet is different and has everyone that football is all about current form.

There is hardly anything to choose from five previous Cup of Nations clashes between these two West African giants.

On their way to lifting their first title, on home soil in 1980, the Eagles led by Christian Chukwu could not break the Ivorian defence in a 0-0 draw in Lagos, and had to battle hard to overcome resilien Egypt in their third game to reach the semi finals.

Ten years later when Algeria hosted, both teams were in the same group. In the final group phase match Nigeria held on to a goal by Rashidi Yekini (of blessed memory) in the second minute to go through to the semi finals.

Four years later when both teams clashed in the semi finals of the 19th edition of the Cup of Nations in Tunisia, the Ivorians went ahead twice but Nigeria replied each time, and the affair had to be settled by penalty shoot-out after 2-2 draw, which Nigeria won 4-2.

Again in Egypt in 2006, Elephants avenged by pipping the Eagles 1-0 in their semi final clash, the same result when both teams clashed in the group

Eagles ready for huge test against Elephants •Enyeama ready to stop the Elephants of Cote d’Ivoire today phase at the 26th finals in Ghana in 2008.

Vincent Enyeama, arguably the best goalkeeper in Africa, will stand between the rampant Ivorians and goal and he has sparkling pedigree to do a great job. Nigeria has never lost a Cup of Nations quarter final match with Enyeama in goal.

In 2006 in Egypt, Enyeama was the hero when Nigeria eliminated Cup holders Tunisia

Make Nigerians smile, Senator Mark urges Eagles

BY HENRY UMORU

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HEAD of the Super Eagles and Elephants of Cote d’Ivoire quarter final encounter today, Senate President David Mark has charged the Nigeria team not leave anything to chance.

According to him, the Eagles have no reason not to defeat the Cote d’Ivoire team against the backdrop that they have all it takes to overwhelm their counterparts and sail to victory.

Speaking at the tee-off of the 2nd edition of Pa Aikwuta RESULTS QPR 0 Norwich 0 Arsenal 1 Stoke 0 Everton 3 A/Villa 3 Newcastle 3 Chelsea 2 Reading 2 Sunderland 1 West Ham 1 Swansea 0 Wigan 2 S’hampton 2

Mark MemorialPro-am Golf tournament in honour of his late father in Otukpo , Benue State yesterday, Senator Mark called for team spirit amongst the Eagles during the encounter.

According to the Senate President, Nigerians have fasted and prayed for the Super Eagles’ victory, stresssing, “All that is left for the players is to do their own part of thegame and put smile on the faces of Nigerians”.

Senator Mark urged the Eagles and their handlers to do all that was needed to bring the trophy to Nigeria, adding, “You see, Nigerians love soccer. I don’t know of any other thing that truly unites Nigerians. Any time we are playing, it is Nigeria and Nigeria. ”That is the uniting spirit we crave for in the nation. The Eagles are the medium to actualise this unity.”

the kick that took Nigeria to the last four.

Enyeama, whose massive intervention 36 seconds after Victor Moses’ first penalty, kept Nigeria in the good against Ethi-

opia on Tuesday, is expected to be protected by skipper Joseph Yobo, Godfrey Oboabona, Kenneth Omeruo and Elderson Echiejile.

Elephants dread Enyeama UDDENLY, the Ele efforts of Ethiopia in pulling S phants of Cote d’Ivoire an upset against Eagles.

Cote d’Ivoire are favorites in have realized that today ’s

But Konan Didier and Max Gradel are aware of the heroics of Enyeama and are dreading that he could play the spoiler against them today.

“You’ve a very fantastic goalkeeper who has so much experience. He was good in the World Cup and has been fantastic in this Nations Cup”, they said.

on penalty shoot-out on another memorable evening in Port Said.

In 2010, Enyeama stood firm against the Zambians in Lubango and kept his nerve to score

quarter final battle with the Super Eagles may not go their way with Vincent Enyeama in goal for Nigeria.

Enyeama has been in sparkling form and thwarted all the

today’s match with bookmakers tipping them to stroll over the Super Eagles who struggled in the prelims before firing two penalty goals to knock out Ethiopia in their last match.

CROSS WORD PUZZLE ACROSS 1. Nigerian state (5) 3. Snarled (7) 7. Of the dark race (5) 8. Respond (5) 9. Consumed (5) 10. Wit (3) 11. Church part (5) 13. Entrance (4) 15. Stitch (3) 17. Deed (4) 19. Hope (6) 21. However (3) 23. Thanks (2) 25. Curve (3) 26. Class (5) 29. Important (5) 30. Before (3) 31. Revise (4) 34. Mate (4) 36. Italian City (4) 39. Push back (5) 40. Heed (4) 42. End of day (5) 43. Exposed (8) 44. Halt (5)

DOWN 1. Rubbish (7) 2. Go in (5) 3. Proceeding (5) 4. Eye-socket (5) 5. Fortune (4) 6. Faculty head (4) 14. Newt (3) 15. Heavenly body (4) 16. Damp (3) 18. Keen (4) 20. Treaty (4) 22. Goad (4) 24. Always (4) 25. Beer (3) 27. Grow old (3) 28. Stray (3) 32. Lucifer (5) 33. Fashion (5) 34. Schemes (5) 37. Leer (4) 38. Otherwise (4) 41. Pup’s cry (3)

SOLUTION on page 15

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