Boko Haram got over N11bn to kill and maim

C M Y K

PAGE 2, SUNDAY VANGUARD, MAY 4, 2014

SUNDAY VANGUARD, MAY 4, 2014, PAGE 3

C M Y K

PAGE 4, SUNDAY VANGUARD, MAY 4, 2014

SUNDAY VANGUARD, APRIL 27, 2014 — PAGE 5

DELEGATES MEETING: From left: Brand Manager, Dettol, Reckitt Benckiser, Ms. Morolake Onifade; speaker for Rec kitt Benckiser on Gastro Oesophageal Reflux Disease, Dr. Michael Ezeanochie; member, Global Hygiene Council/ speaker for Reckitt Benckiser on Dettol, Dr. Nneoma Idika; and Marketing and Activation Lead, West Africa, Reckitt Benckiser, Mrs. Omotola Bamigbaiye-Elatuyi during the 54th Annual General Conference and Delegates’ Meeting of Nigerian Medical Association in Benin.

Vice President Namadi Sambo (left) with former Vice President Alhaji Atiku Abubakar during Atiku’s condolence visit to Sambo on the death of his brother ,Capt. Yusuf Sabo Sambo, at Aguda House in Abuja.

US warns: Terrorists may attack Lagos hotel TONY NWANKWO, with agency reports

U

S diplomats in Nigeria, at the weekend, claimed that “groups associated with terrorism” could be planning to attack a hotel in Lagos, in a travel note to citizens warning of security risks.

“As of late April, groups associated with terrorism allegedly planned to mount an unspecified attack against the Sheraton Hotel, in Nigeria, near the city of Lagos,” the US Consulate General in Lagos said in an advisory.

“There was no further information regarding which of the two Sheraton Hotels in Lagos was the possible target, or if both of the Sheraton Hotels are possible targets.

“There is no further information regarding the timing or method of attack. US citizens are cautioned to avoid these hotels at this time.”

The warning came the day after a car bomb exploded in Nigeria’s cap-

Nigerian police on Friday *Vows to help rescue abducted school girls said Boko Haram was ital Abuja, killing 19 people and wounding scores more, just yards (metres) from a bus station where a previous bombing on April 14 killed at least 75. Boko Haram claimed the April 14 attack and both bombings have raised fears about a possible change in tactics and targets by the Islamist militants, whose increasingly deadly, five-year insurgency has largely been confined to the north.

Concern has mounted that the violence could spread to other parts of the country.

A hotel attack by Islamist extremists would not be unprecedented.

Sheraton has two hotels in Lagos: the Sheraton Hotel Lagos in the Ikeja area near the international airport and the Four Points by Sheraton.

The latter is situated on Victoria Island off the expressway to Lekki, both of which are home to many wealthier Nigerians and expatriates.

SOLUTION

The US travel advisory said the security situation in Nigeria remained “fluid and unpredictable”, warning its citizens to stay away from all travels to Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states which have borne the brunt of the violence.

Meanwhile, the management of Sheraton Hotels has assured of adequate security following the the warning by American embassy.

The spokesperson for Starwood, owners of Sheraton Hotels in Nigeria, Nanji Tyem, said all their hotels were on high alert and operating with heightened security measures. She noted that the action was mere precautionary at this time as they were working with the security agencies.

In a related development, the US Secretary of State John Kerry has vowed that Washington will do “everything possible” to help Nigeria deal with the armed group Boko Haram, following the kidnapping of scores of schoolgirls.

“Let me be clear. The kidnapping of hundreds of children by Boko Haram is an unconscionable crime,” Kerry said in a policy speech in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, yesterday.

“We will do everything possible to support the Nigerian government to return these young women to their homes and hold the perpetrators to justice.

That is our responsibility and the world’s responsibility,” Kerry said.

The US, he said, was “ working to strengthen Nigeria’s institutions and its military to combat Boko Haram’s campaign of terror and violence”.

The schoolgirls were abducted by gunmen from the Chibok Government Girls’ Secondary School school in Nigeria’s Borno state, penultimate Tuesday.

holding 223 girls of the 276 seized from the school, The girls’ abduction has triggered global outrage

and prompted protests in a number of Nigerian cities, as desperate parents call on the government to secure their release. More than

200 people also held a rally, yesterday, in front of Washington’s Lincoln Memorial to bring attention to the girls’ plight.

‘Boko Haram got over N11bn to kill kidnap for ransom, drug and maim’ lu.In a telephone conversa- ing trafficking, weapons traf-

Continued from page 1

part of the revelations by retired Major Chris Moghalu of the United States of America’s military.

And whereas he first made the disclosure on the African Independent Television, AIT, morning magazine programme, FOCUS NIGERIA, hosted by Gbenga Aruleba, Sunday Vanguard was able to track Major Mogha-

tion preparatory to our full blown interview, he disclosed to Sunday Vanguard that he was “bothered about the embarrassment of the specific issue of the abduction saga, but more worried about the insurgency that has given Nigeria a bad name.” He added: “All people like us want to do is help”.

Sources said trans-national criminal activities includ-

ficking and armed robbery were sources of revenue for Boko Haram.

In collaboration with members of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsular, AQAP, and Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, AQIM, members of Boko Haram have been receiving support as reported by Sunday Vanguard two months ago.

SEE DETAILS ON PAGES 13 TO 15

You can’t separate Jonathan from Clark, Onuesoke tells Junaid Mohammed

BY EPHRAIM OSEJI

D

elta State Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship aspirant in 2007 general elections, Chief Sunny Onuesoke, has rebuked second republic lawmaker, Junaid Mohammed, over his statement against the Ijaw leader, saying Junaid cannot come between Jonathan

and Clark.

Reacting to Junaid’s statement advising Jonathan to distance himself from the former minister of information.

Onuesoke said the elder statesman has the right not only to associate with Jonathan but also any leader in Nigeria.

He stressed that Clark’s advice to Jonathan had been the motivating factor behind the

President’s good governance”.

Clark, according to him, is a father, an experienced administrator and a politician who had been using his wealth of knowledge in monitoring, guiding, protecting and motivating Jonathan in moving Nigeria forward despite the challenges from the opposition.

Suswam slashes own pay for him, ranked them among teachers’ salaries the highest paid in the

BY PETER DURU, MAKURDI

G

overnor Gabriel Suswam of Benue State has slashed his salary by 25 percent and also proposed a five percent cut in the salaries of civil serv-

ants to enable the government meet the demands of striking primary school teachers. Suswam, who made this known, yesterday, after swearing in two newly appointed members of the state executive council, in Makurdi the

state capital, said the new policy would effect only officers on levels seven and above. The governor, who disclosed that all political appointees would also forfeit 25 percent of their salaries, urged workers to support the decision of government in the interest of children of the state who had been at home for close to six months. Suswam gave an explicit picture of the increments and adjustments he effected in the salaries of civil servants in the state which, according to

country. He observed that between 2006 to 2011, the least paid worker in Benue enjoyed three successive salary adjustments which led to over 240 percent payrise amounting to N18,000 monthly pay as against N5,000 before the advent of his administration. ”Same benefits were extended to permanent secretaries; who before the advent of this administration took home N73,458 monthly but now earn N436, 784, amounting to over 585 percent increment.

PAGE 6—SUNDAY VANGUARD, MAY 4, 2014

Former Edo ANPP guber candidate, Edebiri, dumps APC for PDP

BY SIMON EBEGBULEM

F

ORMER governor ship candidate of the All Nigeria Peoples

SEPLAT AWARD: Dr Chioma Nwachuku, General Manager Corporate Affairs, Seplat Petroleum Development Company Plc, receiving the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) ‘Most Innovative and Impactful Company in the Upstream Oil and Gas Sector Award from a former President of the LCCI, Mr Goodie Ibru, during the LCCI 2014 Award Nite, held, last week.

Party (ANPP) and chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Edo State, Chief Solomon Edebiri, has

dumped the party for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), citing alleged dictatorial tendencies of APC leaders as reason for his action.

Edebiri was received at the Edo secretariat of the PDP by the state chairman of the party, Chief Dan Orbih, a former Chief Whip of the Senate, Senator Rowland Owie, among others on Friday.

Giving reasons for his defection, Edebiri stated that: “My major reason is lack of internal democracy in APC. The party is a one man show. Democracy in APC is not participatory. Everything in APC is imposition. I know that APC does not provide a fair environment for me to practice true democracy. I have consulted widely and I decided to leave.

“They imposed a candidate on me in my Local Government, I met

with all the leaders about it, but at the end of the day nothing was done about it. We did our ward congress, the governor canceled the first one because his cronies were not favoured. They did a second congress and people who never participated in the congress emerged winners.

“That was flagrant abuse of democracy and for me that is unacceptable. So I believe I do not belong to that environment”. Asked if PDP was a better alternative, Edebiri asserted that “I spent time consulting with most leaders in PDP and after my consultation, the explanation I received from the leaders indicated that the dictatorial tendencies in the PDP before is no longer there. PDP has democratized in Edo state and it is a lot lot better party, to deal with than the APC”.

Development: Delta community holds confab

O

KUREKPO com munity of Okpara, Ethiope East Local Government Area of Delta State at the weekend held its maiden annual conference where developmental issues to raise the status of the community were discussed.

The ceremony which brought all sons and daughters of Okurekpo community at home and in daispora together was described as the beginning of a new era to ensure that the community wears a new look.

Addressing members of the community, the chairman of the community,

Hon. Michael Eshebinama said that the community has in the past produced great people like late Sen. Mcneil Ejaife, late Justice Mitare Unurhoro and a host of others but that today, they have been put aside in the scheme of things.

Earlier, the chairman of the maiden conference and the chairman, Organizing Committee, Chiefs Joseph Oderhohwo and Comrade William Egbegbedia said that with the seriousness and commitment from all members that the conference will achieve its goal through self sacrifice.

Olutogun for burial May 10

T

HE death has been announced of Mr. Olusola Olutogun, aged 57.

Olutogun, a Zonal Manager of The Ogun State Agricultural Development Project passed on at his Unity Estate, Ijebu Ode residence on Friday April 25, 2014.

He is survived by wife Mrs. Racheal Olutogun (Nee Othihiwa), Topefolu, Olumayokun, Ibukun and Eniola (children).

Born on July 8, 1957, the Late Olutogun attended The Mayflower School Ikenne, University of Ibadan where he bagged Bachelors De-

gree in Agronomy and Masters Degree in Crop Science.

A statement by the family says the funeral will take place on May 10th at Abiokuta in Ogun State.

Late Mr. Olusola Olutogun

SUNDAY VANGUARD, MAY 4, 2014 — PAGE 7

2015: INEC moves to check fraud

FACES AT THE OLU OF WARRI’S 27TH ANNIVERSARY The activities to mark the 27th anniversary of the Olu of Warri, His Royal Majesty, Ogiame Atuwatse II, took place, last week. The event in pictures.

Photos by Barnabas Uzosike

Ekiti loses 108,529 ghost voters Osun too - 98,824

BY JIDE AJANI

P

ROFESSOR Attahi ru Jega’s Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, is moving against fraud in future elections with the full complement of the Advance Automatic Finger Identification System, AAFIS, exercise, which has seen 108,529 voters deleted from the voter register (VR) for Ekiti State.

The governorship election in the state holds on June 21, 2014.

In addition, the governorship election in Osun State, which holds on August 9, 2014, would witness the use of a voter register that has lost some 98,824 voters.

Sunday Vanguard independently and authoritatively discovered that the AAFIS programme of INEC - a process which is on-going - is meant to weed out spurious and frivolous names on the register.

In fact, Anambra State, which reportedly had 2,011,746, in 2011, has now dropped to 1,714,290. What this means is that 297,456 names have been removed from the VR by virtue of the detection of irregular or double registration or the absence of fingerprints, a basic hallmark of the biometric registration.

The in-house clean up, if carried through effectively, was seen by analysts as commendable.

And whereas the process of AAFIS is slow (and should be), it is the surest way to ensure that Nigeria gets a clean and valid VR. This is not the first time it would be attempted.

Once the AAFIS process is engaged using a cluster of computer systems, polling unit by polling unit, each registered voter ’s data is presented and mapped - face, biometrics and all.

Because science has succeeded in putting a lie to crookedness, individuals who had tried to be smart by doing multiple registration would have their names popping up

in the system separately (assuming they chose to use fake names).

But the science of AAFIS is that fake biometrics cannot be used.

What INEC has done with the AAFIS exercise is that fake names or faces without biometrics have been completely removed from the register.

(Details of AAFIS operations next week)

The Olu of Warriand his wife, Her Majesty Olori Gladys Atuwatse.

Find abducted girls, APC women plead with Jonathan

T

HE Women Wing of All Progressives Congress (APC) in Lagos State has joined other women across the country to demand that the Federal Government expedite action in effecting the release of the over 200 secondary school girls from Chibok, Borno State abducted by Boko Haram.

It lamented the “slow and lethargic response of the Jonathan-led government and security apparatus in handling the abduc-

tion of the girls and the whole security issues in the North-East”.

“We as women and mothers will not stop at just street protests to demand for action, we will mobilise, organise and fight for the protection of the rights of the girl-child in Nigeria. We will in this instance, not relent until this government does what is expected of it, to apprehend the perpetrators and bring back our girls”, the group said.

The Olu of Warri chiefs paying homage

We remain in PDP, aides to former Bayelsa governor insist

F

ACTS have emerged on why the former Deputy Governor of Bayelsa State, Chief Werinipre Seibarugu and members of the then state executive council parted ways with their former boss, Chief Timipre Sylva, who is now the leader of the All Progressive Congress APC, in the state.

Seibarugu, a close ally to Sylva, recently, led sixtyeight other aides of the former governor to the secretariat of the PDP to reaffirm their support and loyalty to President Goodluck Jonathan and the PDP-led administration in Bayelsa state.

Flanked at the event by his former colleagues in government, Seibarugu said the movement of their former boss to APC had nothing to do with their own decision to remain in PDP. “We did not defect to the APC at any time, even our former boss, Timipre Sylva, has confirmed it before that we did not join him to APC”, he said, adding, “Our visit to the state PDP secretariat was to correct that wrong impression and we delivered our message to Governor Seriake Dickson who was on hand to receive us along with the leadership of the PDP in the state”.

Ebokiti community, Warri, paying homage during the 27th anniversary of Olu of Warri on the throne

Chief Brown Mene (left) with the Olu of Warri and other chiefs.

50 houses burnt in Delta intra-community dispute

BY EMMA AMAIZE

O

VER 50 houses have been razed at Ibrede in Ndokwa East Local Government Area of Delta State, following an intra-community squabble over ownership of fish ponds.

Sunday Vanguard learnt that soldiers and policemen were deployed in the community, at the weekend, to quell the uprising between the Ugbo family and other members of

the community.

Delta State Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Celestina Kalu, told Sunday Vanguard, when contacted, yesterday, that she heard there was fighting, but had not been briefed by the Divisional Police Officer, DPO, in the area.

It was gathered that the Ugbo family, which claimed to be the rightful owner of the fish ponds, refused the plan of the other sections of Ibrede to appropriate the ponds as a communal

property.

The Ugbo family was disowned by a rival group, but troubled reared up when some members of the family attended a burial ceremony in another part of the town.

They were attacked by the other faction, which questioned their presence at the ceremony.

The attack led to counter-attack and breakdown of law and order, forcing the deployment of security agents in the town.

Hon. Daniel Reyenieju (left), with the CAN President, Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor

PAGE 8—SUNDAY VANGUARD, MAY 4, 2014

*Major General Paul Ufuoma Omu and wife Senator Stella Omu

*Diocesan Bishop, Rt Rev. John Usiwome Aruakpor

T

WO governors, Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom and Dr. Emmanuel Udughan are expected at next 3 rd session of the 5th Synod of the Diocese of Oleh,

Anglican communion, which holds at St. Andrews Anglican Church Igbide in Isoko South Local Government.

The Diocesan Bishop, Rt Rev.

Akpabio, Uduaghan preside at Synod John Usiwome Aruakpor will preside at the synod.

Also, Bishop Anakpkor

is also expected to present the Bishop’s charge on Saturday May 10, 2014 and playing

host are: General Paul Ufuoma Omu and wife Senator Stella Omu; O w o d o k p o k p o Archdeaconry.

Expected to draw their friends, sons and daughters to grace the occasion are: Dr. Emmanuel Eweta Uduaghan and Godswill Akpabio.

Aftermath of ‘Nyanya 2’ blast: Residents scared to leave their homes

BY SONI DANIEL

F

OUR days after the bomb blast that rocked the Abuja suburb of Nyanya, the second within a fortnight, terrified residents have opted to keep off public places.

Findings by Sunday Vanguard indicated that the residents of Masaka, Karu and Kugbo, which share boundaries with the bus terminal that was bombed in the first incident, have been overwhelmed by fear and shock.

Investigations also showed that banks, schools and other public utilities around the scene of the blast have also been shut, leaving their patrons stranded.

On Friday, none of the financial houses close to the scene of the blast was open to the public, while restaurants, business centres, pharmacies and drinking spots were also under lock and key.

The fear of the residents was heightened on Friday when the police cordoned off the scene of the blast, claiming that security agents discovered and defused three more unexploded bombs in the area.

The police also said they did now want anyone to contaminate the scene of the blast so that it could continue with its forensic investigation.

“The Bomb Disposal Squad of the Nigeria Police has along with other security agencies cordoned off the scene of the explosion, where the squad recovered and safely defused three unexploded Improvised Explosive Devices. In order to avoid the contamination of crime scene and protect the

public from the risk associated with such crime scenes, members of the public are strongly advised to keep away from all scenes of blasts and other related crimes,” police spokesman, Frank Mba, said.

Apparently fearing further attack, commuters have also avoided the bus terminal.

Many long buses being used by the Abuja Urban Mass Transport Authority were seen without passengers on the Nyanya-Abuja Road on Friday and Saturday despite repeated assurances by the FCT Minister, Bala Mohammed, that the residents would be protected from attacks.

Apart from visiting hospitals to assure the relatives of the bomb victims, Mohammed also told journalists that necessary steps had been taken to ensure the safety of the residents of Abuja but did not say what the measures were, leaving the residents to doubt that any attention had been given to their security. ‘’We have decided to remain indoors for now because we don’t trust anyone anymore,” Andrew Ichete, an ICT worker, whose compound in Kugbo was shaken by the force of the blast, said.

A resident of Masaka, Anne Nelson, said she and her husband had opted to remain at home until the security situation became clearer.

“Today, my husband and I did not step out of the house because we do not know what terrorists will do next,” Ann told Sunday Vanguard.

Meanwhile, soldiers and police continued with their ‘stop-and-

search’ operation on major roads leading to and out of the FCT yesterday.

The search of cars by security agents has led to gridlock on many parts of the capital city.

No fewer than 20 persons were killed on Friday when Nyanya was attacked by terrorists, the

second time two weeks.

The first attack, on April 14, left over 100 dead and many others injured.

Four killed in well trying to retrieve bucket O

NE after another, four men entered a water well and drowned while trying to retrieve a bucket when the string cut letting the bucket to sink to the bottom of the well.

The incident, which happened along Ogoja Road, Ikom in the Central Senatorial District of Cross River State, attracted sympathisers some of them attributing the tragedy to a spiritual force.

The first person to enter the well, John Ushie, according to a resident of the compound who gave her name as Janet, was preparing to go to work that morning and wanted to take his bath. Ushie decided to fetch water from the well but the string with which the bucket he was drawing the water fell inside the well.

When the string gave way, he decided to retrieve it by jumping into the well but ended up gulping water and drowned.

His brother, Boniface, who had left the house for his shop at the Ikom Main Market, was alerted on phone what had happened.

He rushed down on Okada and jumped into the well to rescue his brother but also downed in the process.

When Boniface could not come out, another neighbor jumped in to try to rescue the two brothers inside the well. He too drowned.

According to Janet, when the landlord of the compound, Eyung Ebam, saw what had happened, he jumped into the well to rescue the drowned men and he too drowned. “It was at this point that nobody was willing to get into the well and the National Drug Law

Enforcement, NDLEA, officials who were mounting a road block close to the house called the Fire Service and they arrived soon ”, the eye witness told Sunday Vanguard.

She explained that when the Fire Service men arrived, one of them jumped into the well with a rope with which he tied the landlord who was the last person to drown in order to pull him out. “He tied the

rope around his chest region and gradually his colleagues dragged him out but when he got close to the point they wanted to grab him and pull him out, the rope slipped and he went down again hitting the others inside which may have eventually killed everyone inside,” the neighbour said.

The four bodies were pulled out by the Fire Service men and taken to

County Hospital, Ikom Four Corners and the victims confirmed dead by Dr. Ukwam, the medical doctor, there. An official of the Cross River State Fire Service, Ikom, Mt Linus Ework, said he got a distress call at about 7 am and he and his men rushed to the scene to rescue the victims but “it was unfortunate that it was a little too late as three of them were pulled out dead”.

Man attacks police officer with machete to evade arrest

BY DAUD Abeokuta

A

OLATUNJI,

- 2 0 -Y E A R - O L D man, Segun Ogunleye, was arraigned before an Abeokuta magistrate court, sitting in Isabo, for attempted murder of a police officer.

The suspect, of Araromi area, Abeokuta, was reported to have attacked one Constable Bolorunduro Mayegun with a cutlass on forehead and hand to evade arrest.

According to the investigating police officer, George Ikhuoria, the injured police officer was on an assignment to arrest the suspect for assaulting his wife.

“The wife and the officer went to the man’s house to make the arrest but the accused refused to follow them. On their way back to the station, the accused followed them and suddenly attacked the officer with a cutlass on his forehead and hand”, he said.

The prosecution counsel, Banji Sangotokun, told the court that the suspect was facing one count charge which bordered on attempted murder, punishable under Section

320 (1) of the Criminal Code Laws of Ogun State, Nigeria, 2006.

The presiding judge, Anthony Araba, ordered that the accused be remanded in prison for consideration of bail.

Aginighan loses sister

M

RS Evelyn Enain amene Enieghan (nee Aginighan), elder sister of Pastor Power Ziakede Aginighan, a former acting Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), is dead.

“On behalf of the Aginighan family of Ogodobri in Bomadi Local Government Area of Delta State, I announce the call to eternal glory of my dear elder sister, Mrs Evelyn Enainamene Enienghan nee Aginighan, at the age of 64”, Aginighan said in a statement, yesterday.

According to the statement, the family will announce burial arrangements after receiving the approval of His Lordship, the Bishop of the Bomadi Vicariate.

Born on February 22,

1950, Mrs Enienghan attended Local Authority Primary School, Ogo-Eze, Western Ijaw Teachers Training College, now Esenaebe College Bomadi and College of Education, Abraka, now Delta State University, Abraka.

She holds the NCE in Mathematics/ Physics.

She rose through the ranks in the Delta State Teaching Service to the position of Vice Principal. For so many years she taught Mathematics and Physics at Government College Bomadi until her retirement in 2009.

She is survived by Pastor Aginighan who is the last of her siblings, Dr (Mrs) Powei Sylvester Ogbode (first daughter), Mr Ebipade Enienghan(first son), other brothers and sisters, children, grandchildren and many other relatives.

SUNDAY Vanguard, MAY 4, 2014, 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

May Day and Owambe unionism Dear Sir,

“Those that can give up essential Liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety”.

Benjamin Franklin HE fundamental accoutrements and appurtenances of the Lord of the Manor are the sordidly sadistic pauperization of the franchise and the hoi polloi in any collectivity.

Hence, a principled ‘Social Contract’, ergonomics and economic engineering processes are established and injected into the structural praxis to ensure the welfare of the labouring masses (workers), and to checkmate bourgeoisie plutocratism and employer’s tyrannism through organized Unionists and trade Unionism.

Unionism is the coalition and combination of Workers and Co-Labourers for the mutual protection of their common interest. Hence, trade unionism is an organized association of workers formed for the protection and promotion of their common interest, especially with regards to wages, working hours and working condition, etc.

In the pre-independence struggles to free Nigeria from the gyves and manacles of our Colonial Masters, Unionists constituted the integral arrow head of the struggle to entrench freedom and liberty into Nigeria’s political architectonics and administra-

T

tive organogram. The Nigerian Youth Movement (NYM) organized by Herbert Macaulay, the Nigerian Students’ Union (NSU) now National Association Nigeria students (NANS), Nigeria Railway Workers’ Union (NRWU) spearheaded by inimitable Pa. Imoudu etc.

Then, later, Unionists like Hassan Sumonu, Otegbeye, Kokori, Pascal, Oshiomole, etc came to the lime light, Nigeria’s politico-socio-economic history is laudably befuddled and replete with the positive escapades of our unionists to entrench workers welfare into the cerebral crackpot of Nigeria’s leaders. This must be commended, because it laid the foundational equipoise on which Nigeria’s minimal development is based today.

But, unionism in the later part of post-independent Nigeria is or has been fraught with maniacal corruption, prevarication, pusillanimous tergiversation, double speak and unionists have become Government’s Area Boys (GAB), apologies to FELA ANIKULAPO KUTI. The top echelons of most unions’ administrative hierarchy are government sponsored candidates and representatives, applying the man ‘who pays the piper dictates the tune’ syndrome.

The NUPENG and PENGASSAN took millions of Nigerians out on a massive strike action against “Oil subsidy”. They unilaterally called off the strike action without consulting and compensating Nigerian citizens who

lost loved ones during the strike action. It later turned out to be a splendiferous histrionics as the subsidy dividends were hijacked by the hierarchy and faceless politicians and their surrogates, after politicians of the so-called unionists have been ‘settled’ with bounteous largesse and filthy-lucre.

What a shame! And because of their Laodicean albatross the Federal Government is now working out plans to sell or privatize our Refineries (Kaduna, Portharcourt, Warri, and Eleme).

Our so-called Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) and National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) have remained nauseatingly silent. Is this unionism or unionistic Owambeism?

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Trade Union Congress (TUC) and other so-called union bodies like the NUT, NMA, NBA, JOHESU and NANS etc have become mercantile stooges and mercenary hirelings cocooned in the throes of governments’ circuitry and subterfuge. There are no state of the art hospitals in Nigeria, no justice, corruption has become our tradition and culture, no roads, no water, no houses, no drugs in our hospitals and no security. Yet, our unionists claim to be fighting for the masses and the flotsams and jetsams in Nigeria. What an Unprecedented Lie! Finally, let our Nigerian unionist paint and enter a new phase of unionism that shuns corruption and preben-

dalistic graft.

CHIEF BOBSON GBINIJE Mandate Against Poverty (MAP) Warri “08023250378”

Pursuing rats while our country burns Dear Sir,

I

T is very disheartening and sad that while our country burns and is gradually turning into a failed state with bomb blasts, killings, kidnappings, armed robbery attacks, general insecurity of lives and property and Nigerians are groaning under the worsening power outages since the illadvised privatization of PHCN, our President is busy pursuing rats by paying more attention to “Owambe Parties” and campaigning for his second term, instead of halting our country from hitting the rocks and sinking like the South Korean Ferry that sunk a few days ago!

Yours faithfully, Ifeka Okonkwo Phase II GRA, Awka.

PAGE 10—SUNDAY Vanguard, MAY 4, 2014

F

Boko Haram has not yet beaten, and will never, defeat our armed forces.

Let me quickly explain.

“The only battle that counts is the last battle.”

Richard Neustadt in POWER AND PRESIDENTS. While only the Almighty knows when the war – and we are engaged in a war - will end, the final outcome is not in doubt. Boko Haram will be defeated – just like the Tamil Tigers and the other separatist movements which terrorized their nations for years. In actual fact, Boko Haram has already lost this war. All that is left is the final battle.

Because no patriotic armed forces of any nation had ever been able to defeat any insurgent group, receiving massive support from external forces, without years of “blood, sweat and tears”, no leader of any country had ever been able to forecast, to the day, when the war in his country will end. But, they are forced by circumstances beyond their control, mainly, the pressure from their people, to pro-

Bring back our daughters "We have a powerful potential in our youth, and we must have the courage to change old ideas and practices so that we may direct their power toward good ends." -- Mary McLeod Bethune There is a saying that “a society is measured by the way it treats its weakest members”. In the eyes of the world, Nigerian society lacks compassion in the way we treat our young and the vulnerable. We, I mean the Nigerian society, has failed our young people spectacularly. We have let them down badly. This is not the time to sugar coat and I do not sugar coat, I have always called it as I see it.

This is not the time either to gloat but to stand shoulder to shoulder with parents and the relatives of the missing girls. First, as a parent myself, and as a concerned Nigerian, I am with the concerned Nigerians and decent people of the world, who are praying for the safe return of our girls and I am registering my frustration of the lackluster attempt of the federal government to find the girls and return them safely to their parents and their community.

I am appalled and I de-

spair that this government do not show proper leadership and commitment for the safe return of the girls.

This is not the first time, and it seems sadly, not going to be the last time. It seems that the life of a Nigerian means so very little. Every single day that the girls are missing spells dire consequences to their safety and it has been going on for such a long time. It is apparent for all to see that our government does not value the lives of Nigerians.

These young girls deserved protection rather they were exposed to danger. The intelligence is there for the so-called forces to explore and extrapolate : these murderous marauders busted into their school on April 14, snatched the girls and took them onto trucks and made away without any resistance from the authorities and made for the hills in a convoy of trucks flanked by numerous motorcycles into the remote, hilly, rough terrain of a known jungle hideout of Boko Haram in Bornu State.

Around 40 girls escaped early on and their harrowing account does confirm that their captors are indeed the Boko Haram. In the midst of pending danger,

these courageous girls aged about 18 years( they are mostly from Christian families) went to school to be educated ,with the hope to improve their lives and that of their families. We can only imagine the pain and torture the families of the girls are going through these past weeks and the government continues to meander and shilly-shally aimlessly.

You would expect any decent and capable government would have put all the available resources to ensure that the girls are found and returned to their families, no, not ours.

Everything this government has done has been a shamble from start to finish; the guards that were meant to be by girls school were absent on the day of

,

“A steady patriot of the world alone/ The friend of every country but his own. George Canning, 1770-1827.

ROM what one reads in the pa pers or on-line, or listens to on the electronic media, one might readily conclude that some “critics” of the Federal Government and the armed forces would wish that the country loses the war – just to be proved right that our men in uniform are incapable of winning this war. They cite various hit-and-run skirmishes in which the Boko Haram had achieved success, mostly against unarmed civilians and kids in schools as evidence that we cannot fight and win. Balderdash! I have bad news for those who think or wish Boko Haram will win as a result of these tactics – those who apparently love every other country more than Nigeria. No army, guerilla or regular, had ever won a war by killing or kidnapping civilians.

Victory for armed men, engaged in conflict, will always, be achieved by beating the other army.

intelligence of a rocket scientist to know that, given any state of Nigeria for them to govern, they would soon realize the total isolation from the rest of the world that the state would suffer.

How would it conduct trans-national trade, sign treaties, draft a constitution, issue currency, join the global ICT etc, etc?

Obviously, we are fighting with armed morons – not a disciplined army.

And, that is why they will ultimately lose. They

Boko Haram lost before the first shot was fired. If, indeed, their ultimate goal is to eradicate Western education from Nigeria, or even from the Northeast zone, it does not require the towering intelligence of a rocket scientist to know that, given any state of Nigeria for them to govern, they would soon realize the total isolation from the rest of the world that the state would suffer

,

“Politics without principles” Gandhi.

Question: What do the Okoroma, Nembe and Ogbia of Bayelsa State, the Bachama of Adamawa State, the Juguns of Benue State and the Orons of Akwa Ibom State have in common? Answer: they are all minority ethnic groups in those states which are dominated by one major ethnic group. When Tivs, Igalas, Urhobo and Ijaws complain about the overbearing influence of the Hausa/Fulani, Igbo and Yoruba in the political affairs of Nigeria, they deliberately forget that in their own states one ethnic group dominates the others as much as the WAZOBIA group. It will be far easier for ten camels to pass through the eye of a needle than for a Nembe to be governor of Ijaw-dominated Bayelsa State, a Jugun of Benue or Oron of AKS. We knew from Gandhi that politics without principles is destructive.

When in 2010 the nation was confronted with upholding zoning or merit, as the principle to be adopted for selection of candidates, most southerners opted for merit because of Jonathan.

Now, back at home in 2014, we are clamouring for zoning….

cannot even govern a local government without all the things education had made possible. People without commonsense can cause major disruptions, but, they can never govern. That is why we must not only support our government, but, we must allow them to patiently sort out the mess they inherited from as far back as 2007.

The closest analogy I

our armed forces as well as the intelligence and security people who are fighting 24/7 to defeat these monsters. Let me point out some of the reasons why guerilla armies are difficult to engage by the conventional army all over the world – not just in Nigeria……

PLIGHT OF MINORITIES IN MULTI-ETHNIC STATES –2

V i s i t : www.delesobowale.com or Visit: www.facebook.com/biolasobowale

double the government's stated number are actually missing.

It is a bit late for the information minister, Labaran Maku, to come out now to describe the abductions as "a national tragedy" and is now insisting that the state security forces are "on the heels of these kidnappers. This is not the time for empty rhetoric but sound facts and commitment. The President should drop everything and lead his armed forces and intelligence in time of this national crisis, and sadly, he leaves this to his gutless spin-doctors and lieutenants to inform the nation of his government‘s progress or lack of.

It is very sad and the rest of the world is looking at

gerian government of failing to act fast enough.

“They’d assured us they would rescue our children but today, its 11 days since the abductions and we still haven't seen our daughters”, she said. "We are going through the very worst moment of our lives”.

Wole Soyinka has called on President Goodluck Jonathan to convene an emergency security meeting over what he described as this "ugly development."

And on Tuesday, the White House branded the abductions "an abomination."

Every parent, every girl and every Nigerian home and abroad should demand and pressure the government to do everything that it can to secure the girls' release.

On Wednesday, the government announced publicly for the first time that it had officially engaged the services of a negotiator.

Former UK Prime Minister, Gordon Brown and other human rights activists expressed the widely-held fear that the girls could already be imprisoned in unreachable bush camps and held for years to be used as sex slaves. The UK Foreign Secretary, William Hague, said of the development: "The appalling abduction in northern Nigeria on 14 April is a stark reminder of the threat of sexual violence faced by women and girls in conflict-zone areas. I am very concerned that the majority of the girls are still missing."

The Nigerian military’s search and rescue operation has itself been the target of growing public alarm.

There have been state of

emergency legislation in three northern states, including Borno, yet the security forces failed abysmally to act decisively. This is worrying as the Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau had threaten to capture women and girls as slaves in a video released as far back as May 2013.

And no action or contingency plans were made.

Ms Shekarau, who is President of the International Federation of Women Lawyers Nigeria, said civil society groups felt powerless in the face of deep-seated public mistrust of the federal government's rescue efforts. “Eleven days have gone by and we still have no information about the whereabouts of these girls," she said. It seems that we cannot rely on our government to protect and serve us. If this is the case, we should be reaching out and seeking international assistance to resolve this growing helplessness. It is about time our government admit that it is not fit for the purpose and incapable of acting in the best interest of ordinary Nigerians, The British foreign office has since confirmed that it had offered support to Nigeria to help find the girls, but gave no details of what it might do - or whether the offer had been accepted.

"There is no doubt our nation is at war," Senate President David Mark told parliament on Tuesday, calling for Nigerians to unite against the Islamists.

If the world can search for a missing Malaysian (airliner), why can't the president ask them to help look for these children?

You would expect any decent and capable government would have put all the available resources to ensure that the girls are found and returned to their families, no, not ours

the abduction, there were no task force established to pursue the criminals despite numerous intelligence about the directions of the abductors. They have been instead confusion and misinformation about the number of girls abducted and the FALSE HEROICS of the army securing the release of some of the girls.

The parents of the missing girls have decried the government estimates as inaccurate and that more than

can think of is that of a parent who unfortunately has a mentally-retarded kid who also has a violent temper. The parent can’t strangle him/her, out of annoyance, but still something must be done to stop him from harming others – or even killing himself. Who is the parent who can tell when that problem will be solved? Tell me.

However, we can help Boko Haram to prolong the war if we continue to heckle and demoralize

,

Support our Armed Forces and security for your own sake (2)

vide reassurances about victories which will end the war soon.

When President Bush, threatening “shock and awe”, which he thought would bring the war in Iraq to a quick end, he never expected that more than eight years after he left office, and twelve years after he started it, the USA will still be fighting in Iraq. The Boko Haran insurgents, who started this war, also must have miscalculated.

Victory, which they expected would be achieved in a short time, had eluded them. Now, they are desperate. Out of desperation, they are now targeting mostly the civilian population. All their recent attempts to attack military barracks had been aimed at rescuing their members captured by the Nigerian armed forces to prevent the captives from talking.

Each had ended in humiliating defeat for them.

Rag-tag soldiers are never able to withstand professional soldiers in a pitched battle – unless they have overwhelming fire-power. Every loss represents a double blow to them. I will not explain that for now. But, they know what I mean.

To be quite candid, Boko Haram lost before the first shot was fired. If, indeed, their ultimate goal is to eradicate Western education from Nigeria, or even from the Northeast zone, it does not require the towering

,

such debacle. There is no word to describe the incompetence and mediocrity of our leaders and the people on top but, they are lame ducks incapable of leading our people in time of plenty or time of crisis. One of the parents of the abducted girls , Her 17-year-old daughter, Ruth, an art student at Chibok Government Girls' Secondary School, said she was about to sit for exams. Mrs Rahila Bitrus talked of her family's anguish and accused the Ni-

SUNDAY Vanguard, MAY 4, 2014, PAGE 11

Jonathan needs to sack more aides positive about government is believed while everything negative about her is doubted or disbelieved.

Government itself does not help matters as it hardly gives reasons for any of

content is anti-Nigeria, and establishes that Nyako is totally against Jonathan’s presidency, presumably because the latter hails from the South, and political power at the federal level belongs to Northerners, according to Maitama Sule’s ridiculous theory that Allah endowed Northerners with leadership qualities.

It is gratifying to note that the governors to whom the letter was addressed did not take Nyako’s hysterical Fulani irredentism seriously, and rightly so: only an individual thoroughly hateful and spiteful of Mr. President and the concept of “One Nigeria” can entertain the gospel of raw hatred in it.

Republic were at the forefront of Nigerian politics.

Dr. Azikiwe and others made mistakes; but they were not as corrupt, greedy and myopic as the politicians we have now. Moreover, considering the healthy economic growth of the 1960s, it can be plausibly argued that Nigerian politicians before the civil war were better managers of resources than the spendthrift politicians strutting around today as tin gods.

Although there is some progress in few areas of our national life since 1999, the fact that about sixty percent of Nigerians are poor is a serious indictment of our leaders. The present admin-

lessness and despair - an unmistakable sign of a society in decline.

Absence of social justice in Nigeria is blocking the emergence of resilient psychological foundation or mindset necessary for nation building. The problem lies primarily with the predominant egoistic mentality of Nigerians, particularly the leaders, because the leadership sets the moral tone in every society. Nigerian political leaders make fine speeches all the time, promising that government will do all in its power to improve their welfare. But from experience, Nigerians know that politicians, collectively, are untrustworthy people fond of making promises they do not really intend to keep.

It will be interesting to carry out a scientific research to ascertain the extent to which President Jonathan and governors of the thirty-six states have fulfilled their campaign promises during the last elections. The result would show, I believe, that virtually none of them has achieved up to fifty percent performance. Keep in mind that most governors employ vuvuzela-sounding propaganda in the media claiming phantom achievements to create the illusion of good governance. Of course, you can deceive some of the people some of the time or all the time, but you cannot deceive all the people all the time. Nigerians are gradually coming to terms with the chameleonic character of their politicians.

In my view, our leaders do not take us seriously. In their warped consciousness, leadership is about self-indulgent materialism,

not about service to the people. When President was asking Nigerians to vote for him before the last presidential elections in 2011, he spoke eloquently about his transformation agenda, about how he would deploy the country’s resources to fight those forces hindering our national development.

However, his scorecard does not match his fine rhetoric.

The President’s supporters and sycophants can praise him from now until “kingdom come” - after all, they are benefiting from the system. That would not change the fact that Mr. President is yet to deliver on his promise to transform the country, and there is no strong indication that he would do so even if he were re-elected in 2015.

Positive social transformation is not about speech making; it is not about praise-singers insulting those critical of the President’s inability to transform his good intensions into concrete achievement. Real transformation starts from within and spreads outwards - it is a thing of the mind. Therefore, the question is, has the President been able, through self-discovery and self-discipline, to mobilise his intellectual, emotional and spiritual (not religious) potentials to transform himself so that he can work effectively on his transformation agenda for the country? Judging by his decisions and actions, it is obvious that President Jonathan is yet to undergo the kind of psycho-spiritual epiphany which transformed Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela and Lee Kuan Yew from ordinary citizens into iconic leaders in their respective countries.

the same footing as those who breached certain rules and those dropped merely for political exigency are presented to the public the same way. Each time this happens, the officials affected, the government and its spokespersons as well as the general public, evolve and keep to different stories on the subject.

Only a few days ago, the Political Adviser to our President, Alhaji Ahmed Gulak

Criticism and the unmistakable signs of a society in decline (2) faultlines in intergroup configurations of the Nigerian state. Unfortunately, reactions to the Boko Haram phenomenon by some prominent Nigerians representing powerful interests calibrated along geoethnic and religious lines indicate that lessons of the Biafran war have not been internalised by President Jonathan’s supporters and his traducers alike. Some prominent indigenes of South-South see Boko Haram as a calculated attempt by disgruntled members of the Northern establishment to destabilise Goodliuck Jonathan’s government and portray him as a weak and ineffective leader, whereas a few hardcore Northern feudalists consider the sect a legitimate pressure group representing Northern interests.

Whatever may be the case, one thing is certain: the method employed by Boko Haram in pursuing its agenda is counterproductive because it brings pain and death to innocent Nigerians.

The odious and inciting letter to governors of Northern states by Murtala Nyako, governor of Adamawa state, accusing the federal government of genocide against Northerners in the pretext of fighting Boko Haram contradicts the concept of “One Nigeria” enshrined in the 1999 Constitution. It’s tone and

,

,

its acts- a good example being the sparse statements on the departure of every official from his office. Unknown to government, the idea of giving a soft landing to those relieved of their duties adversely affects government’s credibility.

The posture indeed places every sacked appointee on

08116759758

T

yet-to-be declared re-election bid. For a stalwart of Akpabio’s personality to categorically state that Jonathan’s re-election bid is yet to be declared clearly suggests that the President needs to sack more of his overbearing aides currently engaged in the electoral malpractice of premature public campaigns.

For no less than two years now, the President has had to publicly appeal many times not to be distracted from governance emphasizing that it was premature for him to make any declaration at the time. Although the promised time-2014 has come, the nation is yet to see any such declaration.

Is not embarrassing that any of those closest to government is among those being accused of holding rallies for 2015 in breach of the electoral law? Last year, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had to draw attention to Section 99(1) of the Electoral Act 2010, which states that: ‘the period of campaigning in public by every political party shall commence 90 days before polling day and end 24 hours prior to that day’. The Commission even called on security agents to apprehend anyone in breach of the provision. Since then however, no such person has been apprehended notwithstanding that their misdemeanor is public knowledge. It is thus not uncharitable for people to believe that such defaulters have official backing. It is therefore expedient for all of them to be disowned now.

The idea of giving a soft landing to those relieved of their duties adversely affects government’s credibility. The posture indeed places every sacked appointee on the same footing as those who breached certain rules and those dropped merely for political exigency are presented to the public the same way

PhD, Department of Philosophy,

HEREFORE, it is largely a frustrating and futile exercise to recommend solutions to a group of bulimic politicians preoccupied with acquisition and retention of power at all costs, and sustenance of official avenues for primitive accumulation. That said, since the negative repercussions of misgovernance affect mostly the poor, the powerless and the downtrodden, it is imperative that one should continuously draw attention to them and from time to time proffer ideas about how they can be eliminated or reduced to the barest minimum.

Now, Nigeria is in deep crises. In virtually all the important parameters for assessing quality of life, the country is experiencing the paradox of “motion without movement.” Boko Haram sponsored violence and destruction in different parts of Northern Nigeria has become more frightening since Goodluck Jonathan became President in 2011.

Of course, there are security concerns in the South as well: kidnapping, armed robbery, ritual murders and other hideous crimes are committed daily across the country. Nevertheless, the security challenges posed by the rampaging Islamic fundamentalist sect seem to have an international terrorist dimension, and bring out in bold relief gaping

ceased to hold that office.

Did he resign? If so, why?

Was he sacked? If so, for what offence? As usual, the story produced many versions. The government statement which announced the end of the appointment said the President thanked Gulak for his services to the present ad-

Presidency had no problem with Gulak, why should a blameless official leave office or be allowed to do so unceremoniously and with immediate effect? Is not likely that the sudden nature of the ‘sack’ explains the inability of government to name an immediate successor? If on the other hand, he had done anything wrong warranting his sack, what was the government statement thanking him for? As for Gulak’s version, it is only natural to expect those who have followed political events concerning him to disbelieve his version. Otherwise, how would such people understand a recent public complaint by the PDP chapter in Akwa Ibom State that the former Political Adviser was unduly interfering in the politics of the state?

According to a communiqué signed by Mr Paul Ekpo, the Chairman of the party in the state, Gulak reportedly “came to Akwa Ibom State to inaugurate a sectional and an unknown support group in favour of President Jonathan. Accordingly, the party advised him to first sort out PDP problems in his own Adamawa State, so as to deliver the state to the President “before rushing to safe territories, like the SouthSouth Nigeria, where Jonathan requires no campaign”. There was also the specific allegation credited to Governor Akpabio himself that the former presidential aide was associating with his political enemies under the pretext of working for the President’s

,

T

O place governance on some measure of intellect is to officially seek answers constantly to recurring posers in society. One such poser in Nigeria is the increasing level of public rejoicing whenever a government official is relieved of his appointment. It does not really matter how highly placed the affected official is. People do not also seem to care about the rationale for the removal of any political office holder. The undeniable response whenever an official is sacked is that several segments of society are immediately and spontaneously thrown into joy and applause. Is it that our people are sadists?

A simple analysis of the subject may reveal that public disenchantment with government makes people rejoice each time one officiala representative of government meets some misfortune. This point is underscored by the hyper cynical posture of the public with respect to anything government in which whatever is

ministration. The statement gave no reasons for the development. On his part, the former Special Adviser claimed that his departure was self-influenced. But as usual, the media quoted unknown reliable sources which suggested that Gulak’s departure might not have been unconnected with an alleged face-off with Governor Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom State. Gulak however rejected the speculation that he was sacked. As far as he could recollect, he left the presidency to join the governorship race in Adamawa State, saying “indigenes of Adamawa State are fed up with the misgovernment of Admiral Murtala Nyako”, whose accomplishments according to Gulak, have been very negligible and controversial. He reportedly added that the Adamawa people had been urging him to come forth and give them the type of leadership they deserved. To drive home his point beyond doubt, Gulak adduced three more points in support of his own version. First, that his relationship with President Goodluck Jonathan was very cordial. Second, that PDP was functioning as a family and third, that there was no faction in the party adding that the focus now was the determination of the party to win “50% of the governorship seats in 2015.”

Which of the above versions should people believe? Those who would have believed the government version may not be able to understand certain posers. If for instance, the

Absence of social justice in Nigeria is blocking the emergence of resilient psychological foundation or mindset necessary for nation building

,

Even if we accept that President Jonathan has performed below expectation with regard to security, comparing him to Adolf Hitler and alleging genocide against Northerners without solid evidence is, to say the least, irresponsible and highly reprehensible. Anyway, with the letter, Nyako has unwittingly demonstrated the intellectual hollowness of the ruling class in contemporary Nigeria, which is a far cry from what obtained when Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, and other prominent politicians of the First

istration was clever by half when it released statistics purportedly demonstrating that Nigeria’s economy is growing. The reality, however, is different: more and more Nigerians are sinking into poverty, because of increasing deindustrialisation and shambolic economic planning. It is a painful irony that while members of the ruling elite are enjoying the best things of life comparable to the jarring ostentatious lifestyles of a Saudi prince, an increasing number of Nigerians are trapped in the black hole of want, hope-

To be continued

PAGE 12—SUNDAY Vanguard, MAY 4, 2014

The lost girls of Chibok ty line. They closed ranks in the national interest.

Nobody blamed the president for a National Security slip that allowed terrorists to acquire a plane; operate under the radar of a vast and sophisticated American Surveillance capacity, and haul a deadly flying missile each on the World Trade Towers in New York, and the Pentagon in Washington DC, two powerful symbols of American power and invulnerability.

Whatever partisan reserve of animosity for the President was buried under the collective interest and the reserve of anger was fully and unalterably devoted to seeking American vengeance on the alleged perpetrators of the Attack on America and American citizens.

Nobody blamed George Bush for hunkering down, or for being at a classroom in Florida, while America was under attack, of for taking his wife Laura, to get some bad-ass ribs, while Americans mourned. It was all hands on deck. The Congress quickly initiated moves to provide the US president with all the extraordinary powers that he would need to retake the initiative and take the war to those who had “attacked America.” The battle itself was not framed as anything

The simple life; when less is more

E

DUCATION is a necessary tool in today's environment, it is the operating

system for our survival.

Being formally educated increases one's chances of getting good employment, we are more informed so we get more opportunities, know more about our world and even see more of it. Parents spend a good deal on children's education to equip them to survive and make a living when they become adults. It is not to say that people cant survive without formal education but education opens many more doors and creates opportunities. Lately I have become fascinated by the sheer number of people who have put their education aside to settle for a life that I used to believe was less than they deserved because they have found that less is more. By putting formal

education aside a lot of people have reinvented their careers and families and very soon I see the emergence of a new middle class who put more emphasis on quality of life rather than acquisition of wealth at the expense of family and good health.

Last March was a wake up call for me in business. I have always been able to retain staff because I am fair in my dealings with people and I have staff as old as the day I started my business almost twenty years ago.

Some of them have become family to me and I would venture to say at least 4 are necessary for my sanity. They would be in order of preference my Driver, my General Manager, My Accountant and Chief Security Officer. Of all the top 4, I have lost track of the number of times I have threatened to fire my driver and ac-

else but to reassert American capacity to defend itself and exert its full might over any one impudent or mad enough to attack its interest or its national space.

A quick internal audit process also commenced through congressional or legislative oversight to inquire into the security and institutional failures that allowed the September 11 attacks, and establish preventive protocols against any future attacks. I am not

claim by Governor Murtala Nyako that the Federal Government is sponsoring Boko Haram and genocide in the North. I’m afraid I’m unable to further comment on Nyako’s outburst. Much has been said already about it by the Nigerian commentariat, and there is no point adding to the decibel to what most agree as coming from a lunatic

ence or activity in Chibok?

Why did no agent of government respond quickly to forestall the abduction?

The President is not responsible for these failures. It is institutional failure: it is the failure of the police, the intelligence services, and other Federal Security Agencies who must account for their work and for all the funds expended on them. It is time for some reckoning.

The National Assembly must set up a Legislative inquiry into the operations of these agencies, and determine the source of the failures. Perhaps the President failed to heed, direct, or provide adequate funding as mandated by an appropriation law to these agencies established to protect Nigerians. Perhaps it is time to radically reorganize these federal institutions, including recruiting, retraining, and expanding their technological and operational capacities to meet with contemporary reality.

It is time indeed to reposition the National Police Service to meet with this Boko Haram and other domestic security challenges.

It is also time to publish the names and faces of these abducted girls, so that Nigerians can put a face and a name to them. These are the daughters of this nation. They must not just be treated like abstract victims. The president must issue, therefore, a definitive order to the Inspector General of Police and the Director of the State Service to secure the release of these young girls by all means necessary and to deal with Boko Haram within a clear time-frame or turn in their resignation.

didn't get. Her reaction was a complete breakdown and it left me in no doubt that the city had just broken her spirit; there was no conspiracy, just a primal need to get her life back. She, like other young couples in Lagos, lived on the outskirts of the city where accommodation was better

ways seemed tired.

As an employer I was severely inconvenienced and angry, but as a human being I was moved by her plight. I backed down on the salary refund and instead decided to give her a bonus that would help her start something small and she in exchange gave an ex-

time, nearby schools for their children, accommodation that is community based and the peace that is missing from all our city centres. Right now I am in the process of reworking hours so people can work in shifts to accommodate traffic, I am looking at the possibility of investing in accommodation at a reduced rate for staff members who qualify and lastly introduce a transportation means or bonus to make their lives a tad more simple. What this event has taught me is very simple; less can be more if it simplifies the complex nature of life.

It is also time to publish the names and faces of these abducted girls, so that Nigerians can put a face and a name to them. These are the daughters of this nation. They must not just be treated like abstract victims here suggesting that Americans got everything right, or that they did not make mistakes. The most extreme in my mind was the suspension of the Habeas Corpus in the enactment of the Patriot Act that basically triaged certain key inalienable citizenship rights and which has turned America today into one of the most extreme surveil-

countant but my manager and CSO have always been above the fray. I have actually never considered losing any of them to competition as I pay well but in the quiet revolution that is birthing the middle class I became a victim of the drain of good workers to the simple life. Without notice on the 2nd of April my manager informed me that she just couldn't take it anymore! She was done with the city life and all of its stress and would be taking up any job in her area that would give her a better quality of life at a pace she could handle.

To say I was in shock would be to underestimate the range of emotions running through me at the time and I am ashamed to say my initial reaction was rage. I felt like I had been set up. Who on earth quits a well paying job after 12 years of service with no notice? I was owed at least 3 months notice and I decided to invoke the clause in her employment that demands a refund of 3 months salary in lieu of the notice I

,

O

N September 11, soon after the ter rorist attack on the World Trade Center, the President of the United States then, George W. Bush addressed the American people. There was still much shock and disbelief in the air. It felt like an American apocalypse. But in the American president’s exhortation to the American people, he urged them that night to take their families out to dinner, or to a movie; a good restaurant; “have a family night out,” he said.

It was imperative to return a shocked people to some degree of normalcy to stave off the possibility of collective fear and deadening melancholy.

No nation must succumb to melancholy or its defeat by forces arrayed against it would only be half accomplished. That was my reading of President Bush’s call on the American people to rise above that mournful and despondent moment and get back some laughter or pleasure, some family-shared fun back into their lives. What the attack on New York City did was to unite Americans against what their government described as a dangerous enemy intent on destroying America. Americans themselves rose up and backed their president across par-

fringe. The president of Nigeria cannot embark on the subversion of his own government. There is much evidence that most Nigerians are missing the point though. It is true that a lot of power resides with the president, but even with such enormous powers, the president of Nigeria is not an absolute authority.

The power of the Federal government does not reside only with the president. As head of the Executive Branch, the president has limits placed on him by the constitution, and cannot expand his power into a tyrannical force.

This seems nonetheless to be the suggestion of those critics of the president who accuse him of being weak and unable to contain the insurgency. Nigerians, I’m afraid, are directing their attention to the wrong place. They ought to compel their elected representatives in the Federal Legislature to act with the power of their mandate. Has the president failed in authorizing a security initiative to quell Boko Haram or find and return the abducted girls? From where I stand, this president has issued the necessary orders.

The question that Nigerians should ask include: how did about 200 hundred girls just disappear from a boarding school without trace? Two hundred is a crowd. They could not simply walk out of town, or be driven away, without some rustle. Is there no Divisional Police Command in Chibok? How did they respond?

What level of equipment and training is available to these Federal Agents in Chibok? Why was there no ground human intelligence about Boko Haram pres-

lance nations on earth with its various “Big Brother ” mechanisms. But I use this example principally to contrast the Nigerian situation, and the questions that have arisen over the abduction of the girls of Chibok.

As I write this, reports of another bombing in Abuja fill the air, with many more casualties, and a nation askance, only two weeks after the last bombing of Nyanya and the abduction of the school girls in Chibok. In the wake of these, critical voices have risen against President Jonathan’s handling of the situation, and there have been demonstrations demanding serious government response, first to secure the release of the abducted girls, and secondly, to deal with the increasing Boko Haram menace. The criticisms against President Jonathan include the rather strange

By putting formal education aside a lot of people have reinvented their careers and families and very soon I see the emergence of a new middle class who put more emphasis on quality of life rather than acquisition of wealth at the expense of family and good health.

,

and a lot cheaper but the downside was the hard commute to work and back. Traffic was at best a nightmare, always congested and it cost whatever they saved in rent.

She got up daily at 5 a.m. and rarely managed to get to work on time but the real issue was getting back home. Lately she had been getting home around 10-11 p.m. and it had become a major issue in her marriage and her health; I took a second look at her and realised the pace was capable of killing her; she al-

tra month to train her replacement. I made it very clear that the door would always be open if she ever changed her mind, good workers are worth their weight in gold. Am I worried about her departure setting a precedent? Yes, very! So should all employers of labour; money or fairness is no longer the only reason people will stay in employment! You will be surprised that people are willing to take a hefty salary cut just so they can enjoy the simple things like getting home on

The last day of April saw a change in direction staff wise in my company and I can honestly say I bear no grudges. Could I have spotted the coming breakdown? Yes, I should have and Its a hard lesson. It teaches me to get involved in the state of affairs of my staff and see where their productivity is being affected. With my new found insight, I can forestall an exodus in my company.

Some steps need to be taken to simplify the life of other staff members who are as frustrated as my former manager; it will be expensive but very necessary. The bottom line is that the simple life offers a lot more than the city life.

SUND AY SUNDA

TERROR NETWORK MIND-BOGGLING FUNDS

‘Boko Haram got N11bn to kill, maim' zCan the N-Delta model stop the insurgents?

In what is turning out to be a DOUBLE WAMMY for residents of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Abuja, they would now have to contend with the episodic threats of bombings and bombings by members of the Jama’atu AhlissSunnah Lidda’awati Wal Jihad, popularly known as Boko Haram, on the one hand; and the lock down of the city because of this week’s World Economic Forum Africa summit holding in Abuja, on the other. Yet, after the summit, would the city remain in lockdown mode? This report examines, once again, Nigeria’s response to the insurgency that has crippled the North-east zone and which has made the city of Abuja a high value target.

Worse still, the philistinic collaboration between Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, AQAP; Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, AQIM; Hezbollah; AlShabab and Boko Haram makes the containment all the more challenging. Yet, some girls earlier abducted from Kondugha and Buni Yadi are not even on the table for discussion but the sheer number of the girls abducted in Chibok is what has made this incident remain in the front burner.

BY JIDE AJANI HARVEST OF FUNDS They made about $70million (about N11 billion) between 2006 and 2011. That was what members of the Jama’atu AhlissSunnah Lidda’awati Wal Jihad, popularly known as Boko Haram, harnessed.

This revelation was made last week by a retired American military personnel of Nigerian descent, Major Chris Moghalu, on national television.

But Sunday Vanguard has

also discovered that many of the bank raids and armed robbery occurrences which became rampant in some parts of the North were orchestrated by members of the sect.

A security source, while corroborating some of the revelations by Major Moghalu, disclosed that the funds did not just come from one mono-source of one trans-national criminal activity.

TRANS-NATIONAL CRIMINAL ACTIVITIES

With a clever web of a series of trans-national organized criminal activities, Boko Haram, a mere assembly of rag-tag political thugs masquerading as Islamic evangelists, has been able to rake in so much money from its sponsors. In the process, the group is also demonstrating that it can inflict maximum catastrophe and destruction on the nation.

The trans-national crimes used to secure funds for the group include but are not limited to the following: drug trafficking, smuggling,

Vanguard, MAY 4, 2014, PPA AGE 13

weapons trafficking, money laundering, kidnap for ransom, opinion sale and outright armed robbery.

CASH: AQAP and AQIM TO THE RESCUE It was gathered that the involvement of AQAP and AQIM, as well as Al Shabab from the East African flank, “has made the movement of funds very fluid and multioptional”, the security source disclosed.

Sunday Vanguard had exclusively reported on September 23, 2012, that one of the money couriers of Boko Haram was arrested with N4.5million. ‘The accountant’ was said to be in transit between Kano and Zaria with the cash belonging to the Islamist group when men of the JTF intercepted and arrested him.

Sunday Vanguard sources said he was travelling in a commuter bus as a cover.

The arrest came barely two days after security agents tracked and killed Boko Haram spokesman, Abu Qaqa, in an operation in Kano.

The Islamist group’s ‘accountant’, it was learnt, embarked on the journey which originated from Maiduguri, Borno State, to make cash transfers. The sources said his cover blew after he and another associate made some money transfers in Kano, an action that aroused the curiosity of bank officials who alerted security agents. The associate was arrested but,

by then, the ‘accountant’ was already on his way to Zaria. Subsequent manhunt yielded fruit as the ‘Boko Haram accountant’ was arrested in transit.

In fact, Sunday Vanguard was made to understand that “the arrest was responsible for the seeming lull in the activities of the sect in the Kaduna/Kano axis for a few months.”

INVASION BY FOREIGNERS In the area of collaboration, Sunday Vanguard found that the foot soldiers for AQAP and AQIM are now in Nigeria operating alongside Boko Haram.

As part of the network, it was discovered during investigation that the seeming exploits of the group in recent weeks is a direct function of the involvement and full participation of members of AQAP and AQIM. As a grand design to score maximum publicity (notoriety) with their activities in Nigeria, Sunday Vanguard was made to understand that the trio of AQAP, AQIM and Al-Shabab decided to deploy resources with a view to executing terror campaigns in Nigeria.

A security source pointed out that “ whereas there are still pockets of Boko Haram members domiciled in the country and are being picked up, the terrorists involved in cross-border activities are largely made

Continues on page 14

PAGE 14 — SUND AY SUNDA

Vanguard, MAY 4, 2014

How the N-Delta model can stop the insurgents Continued from page 13 up of foreigners”.

LESSONS FROM NIGER DELTA MILITANTS Sometime in the fading part of the third quarter of 2009, the then President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua made a bold move regarding the militants in Nigeria’s Niger Delta.

He sought to grant amnesty after dozens of months of militancy which had seen Nigeria’s crude oil output plummet to less than 20% of total output. But his major headache was how to convince the leaders of the militants who were not only making tens of millions of naira from illegal sale of the country’s crude but were also making the statement that the despoliation of the region needed attention.

Sunday Vanguard learnt last week from a source inside Aso Rock Presidential Villa of the strategy that Yar’Adua put in place and which eventually worked.

Firstly, the then President got a Niger Delta politician cum professional who was not only respected but who also had a voice and could reach out to the militants.

to the region.

In fact, Sunday Vanguard was told of how President Yar’Adua demonstrated his commitment and seriousness to keep faith, “that he sent his Defence Minister, General Godwin Abbe, as well as Chief Tony Anenih, Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Board of Trustees Chairman, to the creeks to meet with the militants that this was not just a government gimmick”.

Indeed, a drama of sorts ensued when the militants in Tompolo’s Camp 5 eyeballed General Abbe for threatening them. “They told him that his own community was already surrounded and if he thought he could come to their camp and threaten them, they were ready for him in equal measure to unleash terror on his community, too”, the presidential source said.

Another militant leader, Ateke Tom, had to be prevailed upon to disarm and convince his colleagues by this same set of leaders.

In his own case, a helipad was specially built in his camp so that a helicopter

Senator Ali Ndume, Borno South, spoke on the floor of the Senate of how they got information, got in touch with the military authorities about the impending assault on Chibok, but that the military headed in a wrong direction from where the insurgents struck The politician / professional could so do, it was disclosed, because his position as former Managing Director, Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, as well as his outreach agenda across the region, placed him in good stead to pursue the President’s mandate.

Ndutimi Alaibe!

That was how he became the chief negotiator preparatory to the amnesty programme which even the United States of America, today, is keen to get more information about because it is the first of its kind in the world where insurgents are disarmed, integrated and comparative peace restored

could land there for onward movement to Owerri International Airport, Owerri, en-route Abuja.

Both Tompolo and Tom met with Yar ’Adua – even then, Anenih still had to prevail on them to disarm. It was, therefore, heartwarming on the last day of the amnesty deadline when Tompolo’s boys engaged a procession to disarm.

Today, there is relative peace in the region.

Therefore, the principles are still the same and the processes that led to disarming the militants can be adopted in a way for the Boko Haram terrorists.

The British government and the IRA reached for a

*Boko Haram...Northern leaders under pressure to stop insurgency negotiated settlement after decades of a destructive face off. The Tamil Tigers also had to chill after decades of wanton destruction.

WHAT TO DO? Senator Ali Ndume, Borno South, spoke on the floor of the Senate of how they got information, got in touch with the military authorities about the impending assault on Chibok, but that the military headed in a wrong direction from where the insurgents struck.

Some observers have spoken about the need to boost the morale of the military.

To be fair, the many budgetary provisions made for both the emergency rule in the three states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe were allegedly not spent wisely to cater for the officers and men of the military.

There were insinuation in some quarters that the sacking of the immediate past Chief of the Army Staff, General Azubuike Ihejirika, was not unconnected with the welfare of the officers and men.

A source in the Presidency told Sunday Vanguard that just two weeks after the appointment of a new Chief of the Army Staff in the person of General Kenneth Minima, reports from the field suggested that the morale of the troops was heading for the sky because

they were being promptly remunerated.

However, whereas President Goodluck Jonathan would not be expected to be on the field issuing directives, leadership remains a very key factor.

Momentum and morale are key. It appears as though the momentum is on the side of the insurgents, the defence forces have also been doing their best.

“Were they not up and doing”, a Department of State Service, DSS, source told Sunday Vanguard, “ what we are complaining about today would have been nothing compared to the agenda of these terrorists”. He added: “But the pushback that the defence forces continue to give them bloodies their noses and, therefore, they resort to attacking soft targets”.

But targets are targets, soft or hard!

FOCUSED LEADERSHIP The question to ask is: Who can President Jonathan call on in the North to help spearhead a meeting with the Boko Haram elements?

Even Dr. Datti Ahmed, the respected elder statesman that would have been useful in the early stages of the insurgency, was sold out by some persons within the system. He has since refused to be part of any negotiations with the

group. But it is for Mr. President to intensify pressure and get people like that on board.

In his book, MARTIN LUTHER KING Jr, ON LEADERSHIP (Inspiration & Wisdom For Challenging Times), Donald T. Philips highlighted how King, though coming on the stage of emancipation struggle a little late than some leaders of the National Association for The Advancement of Coloured People, NAACP, or the Congress For Racial Equality, CORE, was able to “strategically set out to establish trust and build personal relationships with the leaders of the national civil rights groups.”

King’s Southern Christian Leadership Congress, SCLC, at some point, became the rallying point for the struggle - but not a major domo.

The real question to ask today is: How many of those who spearheaded President Jonathan’s ascendancy as Acting President, using the instrumentality of the Doctrine of Necessity, are still either on the same page with him today or are in constant consultation with him? No matter how wellintentioned the moves of the President are, he still needs people of character, of stature and of integrity to help at a time of national crisis as is the case with the insurgency today.

SUND AY SUNDA

BY FEMI FANI KAYODE

M

y worst fears have been confirmed and sadly the Haramites of Boko have struck again. Another terrible bomb blast has taken place in Abuja and many innocent people have been butchered, slaughtered and maimed. At the last count the number of those killed is no less than 39 despite attempts by the international and local media to play the number of casualties down. This damning display of primordial and pure savagery

by Boko Haram comes barely two weeks after over 100 innocent people, including women and children, were killed by another bomb, on the same spot and by the same people. This is surely too much for us to bear.

Worse still, the country, and indeed the international community, is still grappling with the Chibok affair in which no less than 234 young school girls were abducted from their schools and turned into sex slaves by Boko Haram.

At this juncture one is compelled to ask the following question: How much more can we take before the centre fails to hold and everything falls apart? How much more can we take before some madman in uniform gets up, takes advantage of the situation, does the unacceptable and unthinkable, seizes the broadcasting stations and subjects us to a familiar yet unwelcome early morning speech which is preceded by ‘’fellow Nigerians’’ and which ends with the announcement of a ‘’dawn to dusk curfew’’?

May God forbid that this should ever happen in our country again as it would be a tragedy of monumental proportions and it would set us back by at least 50 years. Worse still, Nigeria may not even survive it and it may well result in another civil war. I have no doubt that despite our monumental security challenges, the preservation of our fast-evolving democratic culture and structures remains the only way forward and that we must do all that we can to protect this dispensation.

The best that we can do is to continue to speak out, to protest, to write, to demonstrate, to create awareness, to march, to pray and to demand that our government and security forces do a better job by fighting Boko Haram with an equal and commiserate amount of viciousness and savagery that the Islamist terrorists are fighting us.

I feel a deep sense of outrage and shame and I utterly deplore the fact that the Federal Government has once again failed to protect the lives of the Nigerian people. Yet it is not just the Federal Government that has failed but government at all levels, including our state governors and local government area chairmen.

As a matter of fact every single one of us that is in the ruling class of this country or that is a member of it’s political elite has failed woefully. We must all carry a share of the blame in varying degrees. Every single one of us has a little blood on our hands as a consequence of our sheer indifference to the collective plight of our people and our inability to act at the appropriate time when we saw all this coming.

I hereby join millions of Nigerians in condemning this latest beastly attack on Nyanya and I have nothing but contempt and disgust for the Haramites and those that secretly support them.

May God deliver our country from the grip of these Boko demons that feed fat on human flesh and blood and that seek to terrorise us into submission and may the souls of those that have been killed rest in peace.

Yet let us get past the rather obvious and simplistic statements and submissions and let us look at this whole matter from a deeper perspective and in a more

Haramites of Boko

•Boko Haram ... We must flush them out refreshing, meaningful and holistic manner. Let us stop merely scratching at the surface and let us get to the root of the problem. It is time for us to get real and to speak some hard truths. Consider the following.

When some people are so hell bent on taking power that they begin to bomb their citizens in order to achieve it one has to begin to question the continued viability of our much flaunted unity.

When some people believe that it is their right to rule in perpetuity and that if they do not get their way they must make the country ungovernable and kill as many people as possible, one must decide whether or not we are really one nation.

When some people are prepared to use religion as a political tool, shed as much innocent blood as possible and pervert the very tenets of the faith that they claim to espouse, one must decide whether those of us that do not share their world view are prepared to remain in the same cage as those that are clearly nothing but ravenous beasts.

There is far more to the Bo ko Haram phenomenon than meets the eye and Nigerians just don’t get it yet. They are not prepared to hear the truth let alone accept it and, sadly, perhaps they never will. This is a nation that has an identity crisis and that still does not want to accept the fact that it is at war with itself.

They do not want to accept the ugly fact that there are some key individuals, who some of them still literally worship and rever, that are the ones actually encouraging, fueling and funding Boko Haram and that are waging war against our people.

They do not want to accept that there is an international dimension to this matter which is beyond their knowledge, understanding or comprehension. May God open their eyes and help them to recognise what they are up against before it is too late.

Until that happens and each and every Nigerian is prepared to take up arms against Boko Haram and those that are secretly behind it our people will continue to be terrorised, slaughtered, abducted and enslaved.

And whether anyone likes to accept it or not there are quite a number of people who fall into the category of Boko Haram sympathisers even though they remain in the shadows. For example there is a very combative, visible and vocal individual from the north-western part of our country who has been accused of covertly funding and supporting the Islamist cause and terrorism for many years.

That same individual was described to the FBI as a ‘’trusted mentor” by Umar Faruk Mutallab, the Nigerian ‘’underwear bomber”, who attempted to

blow up a plane filled with passengers as it was about to land in the United States of America a few years ago.

Again that same individual has been accused of having a hand in one of the most heinous and brutal sectarian murders in the history of our country when a young man by the name of Gideon Akaluka, from Benue State, was cold-bloodedly beheaded by a rampaging mob in Kano for supposedly ‘’desecrating the Quoran”.

Yet this individual has not been brought to justice or even questioned about these matters. Is it any wonder that Boko Haram appears to be going from strength to strength? The truth is that they have many friends in high places and President Goodluck Jonathan himself once alluded to this. Another individual, who was a former Nigerian leader, was quoted as saying the following in 2001. ‘’I will continue to show openly and inside me the total commitment to the Sharia movement that is sweeping all over Nigeria. God-willing, we will not

Vanguard, MAY 4, 2014, PPA AGE 15

extreme philosophies to take root are you not asking for trouble? When you give an inch will the beast not take a mile? When you compromise on fundamental issues such as the secularity of the state and allow Islamist ideology to flourish in the name of political expediency and compromise are you not asking for trouble?

When you run away from fighting a righteous war that must be fought sooner or later are you not postponing it for another day? Over ten years later we are reaping the consequences and rewards of our cowardice, indifference and indolence when faced with political Sharia. The truth is that all our leaders have failed to solve this problem over the years and their lack of firm resolve to do so has simply caused it to spread and to become more virulent.

Worse still, some have completely capitulated and bowed in shame and helplessness before the evil scourge. As a glaring example of this, just a few months ago, an elder statesman that was at the time no less a personality than the National Chairman of the ruling party described the Haramites of Boko as ‘’freedom fighters’’. Is there anything more shameful than that?

I really do wonder whose freedom they seek to secure and who they are fighting for? Is it the freedom to kill our people and to abduct and enslave our children?

Such sentiments and expressions of sympathy for the enemies of our people are a national disgrace and those that express them ought to be called out and held to account.

Sadly the next few months and years are very bleak for our nation. As a matter of fact we may not even have a nation left in the next few months and years if things continue this way. I just hope and pray that we all appreciate the fact that we are in for the long haul and that whether we like it or not Boko Haram is here to stay.

It is either that we succumb to them, accept their demands, bow to them and allow them to change our way of life or we fight them into the ground, eliminate every single one of them, flush them out, burn the Sambisi forest to the ground,

The Haramites of Boko have already made their choice and they made it long ago. And that choice is to subject the Nigerian people to terror, murder, humiliation, carnage and bondage and bring us to servitude and to our knees stop the agitation for the total implementation of the Sharia in the country.

Muslims should vote at the next presidential election only for someone who will defend their faith’’.

This former leader may not have any link with today’s terrorism or Boko Haram but has the words that he uttered on Sharia not made matters worse? Yet another former Nigerian leader did not help matters when he treated what he described as ‘’political Sharia’’ with kid gloves when he was in power. He failed to deal decisively with it at the time and he said that it would eventually ‘’fizzle out’’.

This did not happen and today we are witnessing the results of his complacence and his inability to crush the beast at an early stage before it grew fangs. Now that beast is biting us with those fangs day and night and it is eating our flesh and drinking our blood.

For those that fail to see the nexus between political Sharia and Boko Haram and that fail to appreciate the connection between the two, permit me to put the following questions. Was the movement for political Sharia not the precursor to Boko Haram? When you tolerate a monster and give room for

avenge our people, preserve our way of life and restore our self-respect and dignity.

It is either that we accept their evil, concede to the establishment of a Taliban-style Islamic fundamentalist state in the whole of our country and espouse it wholeheartedly or we fight a brutal, bloody, long and righteous war to preserve the unity of our nation, to protect the secularity of our state and to enthrone righteousness and justice. The choice is ours.

The Haramites of Boko have already made their choice and they made it long ago. And that choice is to subject the Nigerian people to terror, murder, humiliation, carnage and bondage and bring us to servitude and to our knees.

They will continue to effect this satanic agenda unless and until we get off our knees, stand up like men and say ‘’enough is enough’’. They will continue to do so unless and until we are ready to say that Nigeria is worth dying for and that we are ready to fight back . May God deliver Nigeria.

*Fani-Kayode was Minister of Aviation under Obasanjo administration.

PAGE 16, SUNDAY VANGUARD, MAY 4, 2014

SUNDAY VANGUARD, MAY 4, 2014, PAGE 17

bb pin: 75E17ABC

It’s a blessing when it’s natural

The big boobs boom

— Cynthia Agholor

S

omeone once told me that the only physical feature one can see at a glance that differentiates a woman from a man is the bust. For an average woman, it can be a source of pride, a symbol of womanhood and even an added advantage to explore all the fashion trends. And yet for different women, their busts mean different things.

While some believe it is a great blessing others do not think so and there are those that believe it has caused them more pain than joy. But in Nollywood, the tales seem to have one ending- a great gift from God to be flaunted. Here are some Nollywood damsels with great busts:

It makes me look sexy with my flat tummy — Joke Jigan

F

or the lovers of Yoruba movies, the Bisola Beyonce star, Joke Jigan isn’t just another famous face with a knack for driving home her roles as effortlessly as possible, she is also a voluptuous beauty that entrances her fans with just as much of her talent as well as a bosom that seems to jump out of the screen to play tricks on her hapless watchers.

When asked if her boobs are either a blessing or a curse, the light-skinned fashionista opened up her heart “ On a personal level, big boobs are a blessing to me rather than a curse.

Mine is a blessing, a gift from God .It makes me look sexy with my flat tummy .It enhances my sexiness and most Nigerian men love big boobs. It’s God’s gift to me’ She said.

But Joke doesn’t dote on her boobs alone “ Every part of my body is sexy to me, I can’t place a finger on which part of my body that is the sexiest. For me, I believe every part of my body is sexy” she told Potpourri.

C M Y K

M

B

eautiful, sexy and busty actress, Cynthia Agholor, who has been around in Nollywood for over a decade knows all the tricks when it comes to using what you have to the best effect. Her bosom never seems to be quiet even when the actress tries to be as inconspicuous as possible but then she is not one who goes begging to hide what God has blessed her with.

“I have it, that is why I’m flaunting it. And besides, I’m an international model, so why won’t I flaunt what God has endowed me with? ” she once said.

But recently in a chat with me, she reaffirmedherconvictionthatbigboobsare nothing but a blessing “ It’s a blessing when it’s natural. Nowadays it’s the in-thing. It’s sexy and beautiful when it’s big that is why people spend millions for enlargement.” she told me.

itchell Ozakpolor, known in Nollywood simply as Mimi, has once beaten her heavy chest that she has the biggest boobs in Nollywood, saying people believe Cossy has the biggest because she flaunts hers at will.

“One good thing about me is that I really don’t flaunt my “oranges”. I just wear dresses that I like and the “oranges” flaunt themselves, whether the neckline of my dresses are showing my cleavage or not. But my cleavage is just obvious because my “oranges” are massive. I think my “oranges” are the biggest in Nollywood” she said.

In comparison to Cossy Orjiakor’s legendary bust, Mimi maintains hers is bigger. “No, but people think she is.

She is not. If I pack up my “oranges” the way she packs hers, to be frank people won’t walk on the street, believe me.

I have friends begging for bigger boobs like mine — Mimi I try to pack mine in such a way that it won’t be obvious and so that some guys won’t jump on me and start begging me to kiss them.

It’s because not everybody has it. I have some friends, in fact, a lot of people that are begging and praying to God everyday for bigger boobs.

Big boobs are really attractive – Ifeoma Okeke

A

ctress, Ifeoma Okeke is big, beautiful and bold. She is a hot item who is never afraid to bare her mind on any issue.

Concerning her big boobs, typical Ifeoma is unapologetic.

“My breasts make me beautiful, I’m proud of what I’ve got, that’s all. It is my way of telling God that I love what I’ve got. I’m endowed all over. I am not trying to say that men run after me because I have big boobs but the truth is that big boobs are really attractive and people do appreciate it in their various ways. Most men like big boobs but those who like it normal will not fall in love with me and vice versa”

PAGE 18 — SUNDAY VANGUARD, MAY 4, 2014

How Amaka Igwe made me a star – Bob Manuel-Udokwu

The kind of man I would want to marry – Biola Ige

S

ince legendary Nollywood movie-maker, Amaka Igwe passed on, Tuesday, many top actors have been coming forth to reveal what impact the woman played in their careers. For the former Special Assistant to Governor Peter Obi on Creative Media and now Ambassador for ‘Sound Oral Health in Nigeria’, Amaka Igwe was a woman that would remain unforgettable as she paved the way for the actor to become what he is today.

Hear him: “I met Amaka Igwe in 1989 when as an undergraduate and the National President of the Nigerian Universities Theatre Arts Students Association, (NUTASA) I travelled from my school, University of Port Harcourt in Rivers State to University of Nigeria Nsukka,Enugu State to check their level of preparation for the Nigerian Universities Theatre Arts Festival which the school was billed to host the following year,(NUTAF ’90).

After my visit to UNN, I stopped over in Enugu to see my parents.

I met the then Amaka Isaac-Eneh who had come to Enugu to conduct audition for her upcoming television soap opera, Checkmate.

I attended the audition and passed. I was cast as Richard Haatrope in the pilot episode which was shot in Enugu and Udi,her home town in December of 1989.

Towards the last quarter of 1990 they invited me for another audition at PEC Repertory Theatre in Onikan, Lagos.

Thousands attended the audition including the late Francis Agu who eventually played my elder brother

S

ultry Nollywood actress, Biola Ige, has just about everything any woman can have to have a pick of any man she desires. But the actress would tell you ‘love’ is something she hasn’t been lucky with, as she told Potupourri recently “I don’t think guys in Nigeria have time for love or to love . Maybe it will happen soon,who knows tomorrow, I just haven’t fallen in love yet and I haven’t met anyone who is truly in love with me”.

Recently, the Pregnant Hawker star also told me she is not desperate to settle down even though she’s single and on the look-out for the right man that could have her hearts for keeps.

She has certain qualities her man must have. “ Well, I want someone who has had lots of experience in life, someone who will tell me; ‘Oh honey. this will work’ not someone who doesn’t know what to do at the right time and has no experience about life, it is just like we are both going into something like a blind couple” When I asked her if a poor man fits into her picture of a man with lots of experience, she laughed and said “ Nothing bad in building our future together but you must be focused, smart, and have a vision of where you are going in life, with a burning desire for success”.

Sexiness is being able to capture people’s attention – Annete Cookey

A

nnette Cookey is best remembered as the sexy girl who clinched the third runner-up prize at the debut edition of MTN’s Project Fame, West Africa. The Rivers State-born songstress, who disappeared from the music scene for a while only returned with a new video Magomago featuring the weirdo Denrele Edun.

For her drop-dead figure, Annette must be a big hit with the guys because she seems to be well accentuated at the right places with a bust that leads with an open ‘intro’. Taking recently with Potpourri on what she considers as being sexy, Annete said “My definition of a sexy woman is a woman who knows how to carry herself well. A woman who is cordial , polite, a woman who has self worth and respect, and also knows how to show respect and love to others. It’s fantastic to have a lovely physique, lots of hips, boobs, and a pretty face but beyond that, sexiness is being able to capture people’s attention regardless of how beautiful you are .I believe a sexy woman is a woman who can wow people regardless of what she looks like physically”.

C M Y K

Benibo in the drama series. I was again successful at the Lagos audition and retained the role of Richard Haatrope. I also met some other members of the cast there. They included Mildred Iweka (Ada), Bimbo. O. Manuel (Nduka)Edith Jane Azu,Tunde Euba(Akpan),etc.

Checkmate was mainly shot in Moving Movies camp in Ikorodu,Lagos State.

It hit the airwaves in April of 1991 and was an instant huge success! It ran from 1991 to 1995 and has not been rivalled ever since!

While still on the set of Checkmate,I was spotted by Kenneth Nnebue, Chairman of Nek Video Links who invited me to be part of a movie titled Living In Bondage. It was shot and released in 1992.

The success of Living In Bondage led directly to what is now known as Nigerian film industry (Nollywood.)

By God’s grace, I credit Amaka Igwe with providing me the platform that elevated me to a celebrity today in the entertainment industry, worldwide, with lots of awards to show. She was a star maker!

There was never a dull moment around her,whether during movie production or not.

She was a gifted writer, storyteller,hard worker and a core professional. There will never be anyone like Amaka Igwe nee IsaacEneh” he narrated.

SUNDAY VANGUARD, MAY 4, 2014, PAGE 19

Psquare begins work together again D

Beverly Naya not so green anymore

uring the face-off between the Psquare twins, the first person that gave a hint of possible reconciliation was Paul Okoye, who tweeted on his Twitter page that “After the storm comes calm. Hoping for better days ahead as one family..”

And it seems the better days have already begun as the brothers, Peter, Paul and Jude are now on set shooting their latest video O Set with Phyno. Peter who also just acquired a 2014 Bentley to celebrate the reunion posted their location picture on Instagram on Wednesday.

B

ritish-born Nigerian budding actress who said she has been bullied throughout most of her formative years, seems to have learnt a thing or two about life to stand tall in any situation she finds herself. And one area the vulnerable, undeniably sexy Beverly has learnt to hit back is in the matters of the heart.

She spoke her mind without mincing words last week with a gleeful picture of herself on Instagram, to show us all that she has indeed arrived and that she now knows the pros and cons of relationship, especially, concerningthe lying womanisers. “Some people will only love you as long as you fit in their box, don’t be afraid to disappoint them. Don’t be apologetic!” Beverly advised.

Yemi Alade going soft on her manager?

E

ffyzzie Music singer, Yemi Alade who recently premièred the hotly anticipated music video for her smash hit single ‘Johnny’ took to the social media to appreciate or is it to gush over her manager, Taiye Aliu who celebrated his birthday last week?

Yemi was so full of praises that people got thinking she might be revealing some hiding desires professionalism may not accommodate easily. “ The original Chocolate Royale! Happy birthday Tee for Tangarine. Boss of life, love you plenty. Some ignorant people do not respect managers. Little do they know that managers that take risks and are passionate about their jobs have the artiste life in their hands. The artiste career will go where the manager leads... Mr. Taiye Aliu, God bless you for me and all that love you” she wrote.

Yvonne Nelson in another raunchy photo shoot

T

op Ghanaian actress, Yvonne Nelson is known for so many things. Apart from her talent, her taste for hunky celebrities and indeed her talent in interpreting her roles to near perfection, Yvonne is also renowned for her knack of showing off her slim sexy body.

She has done it too often, in the studio, on location and on the beach.

Maybe not the African Queen type, Yvonne has got a figure as sensual and sexy as the entertainment world would permit and fan over. Recently she released some hot pictures on Instagram and as usual, she never failed to make that erotic impression.

C M Y K

Dr. Sid lands MTN ambassadorial deal

E

veryone knows Mavin boss, Don Jazzy has been on the ropes since D’Banj and Wande Coal left his label but it would seem the music maker has got a good top act to fill the vacuum in the person of Dr. Sid, who was previously relegated to operate from the background. With Dr. Sid’s Surulere and Tiwa Savage’s Emmenado, Mavin Records is doing just fine.

Now, with Dr. Sid’s latest conquest of adding his name to the list of MTN’s brand ambassadors, Don Jazzy could not hide his joy, probably with an eye on the growing bank balances, and he took to Instagram to break the news and also congratulate Dr. Sid who also added a year on Thursday “Shout out to my brother, Dr. Sid as he celebrates his birthday today and activation as an MTN ambassador.

Welcome to the Y’ello family brother. God bless” he posted.

PAGE 20 — SUNDAY VANGUARD, MAY 4, 2014

which celebrity or guest story has inspired you the most and why?

Pretty much, all the celebrities have inspiring stories to tell.

They have had to overcome different things to get to where they are now, and each story is inspiring. All were exciting in different ways -some because the guests said things they shouldn’t have, and some because the guest was absolutely hilarious. Presently, we are working on making sure The Juice is available to an even wider audience

My father never wanted me in entertainment —Toolz S

ince Tolu Oniru known simply as Toolz came back from the United Kingdom with a degree in Business and Mass Communication from the London Metropolitan University to take up a job in the broadcast media, things have been on the up and up for her. The vivacious beauty who was born in Lagos to the famous Oniru family of Lagos is respected as an on-air-personality for her blend of natural humour, love of most things, showbiz, passion for music and strong African entertainment

What is it like being a top female media personality? Are the challenges different on account of your gender?

There are definitely challenges as it is still a male dominated industry, but things are gradually changing.

How did you get the job as a host for The Juice? Was it based on a recommendation or did you go for auditions?

No audition! I got a call and they told me about the project, fast forward a year or so, and here I am!

knowledge. In this interview with Potpourri, Toolz lets us into her world. Excerpts:

By ESTHER ONYEGBULA It’s been over three years since you moved back to Nigeria from the UK, how has it been? Are there any regrets?

I moved in 2009 actually. It has been one of the toughest but most rewarding journeys I’ve been on (and still on). I try not to focus on regrets. I miss constant electricity, hate Lagos traffic, but I believe I have made an impact here that I wouldn’t have, if I had remained in the UK. People feel you have gotten to this height in your career, so quickly, because of your

I think the Nigerian media industry is still very young, and over the next years we can expect lots of developments.

More choice, more content, better quality content and different ways to access Nigerian entertainment privileged background; what is your response to this?

That is not true. For the first 1218 months of my career, a lot of people didn’t know my surname, and were not really aware of my ‘privileged background’. My family have been supportive, but they don’t really get involved - my father wanted me to be a doctor/ lawyer, so he wasn’t particularly thrilled with my decision to get into entertainment. Now he sees me on TV, in magazines, hears me on radio and he respects how hard I have worked. He never wanted me in entertainment.

Now let’s talk about your career, what do you think about the current direction of the media industry?

I started doing radio, and have been doing that for over four years, so I’m definitely more comfortable there. Television needs more focus, skills etc., but it is still very

C M Y K

What is the next big thing for you and what keeps you going?

The next big thing for me is under wraps now, but what keeps me going are my goals, and my need to make a positive impact in the industry.

How would you describe your style (fashion& dress sense)?

My dress sense is very womanly and comfortable. I wear what I think suits me and what is comfortable.

enjoyable.

However, I think the Nigerian media industry is still very young, and over the next years we can expect lots of developments. More choice, more content, better quality content and different ways to access Nigerian entertainment When you started out, did you have any map for your career trajectory? If yes, has it gone according to plan?

Getting on radio happened accidentally, it was my first radio gig, and I wasn’t sure I was any good. In fact I was certain I would be fired in three months, but that didn’t happen. My career was initially on a ‘planas-I-go’ basis, but now I try to plan more and set more long term goals.

The last season of The Juice featured a lot of celebrities,

What is your typical day like, from dawn to dusk?

On weekdays, I’m up by 8am – if I don’t have any meetings before my radio show, then I am at the Beat FM from 11am till 4pm. Most days, I will have to film (for The Juice or any other projects) or have a meeting or two. My day often ends at 9/ 10pm.

How do you unwind?

I love to sleep! Reading also helps me unwind – a good crime thriller normally helps me forget a stressful day.

Which city, country, would be a choice holiday destination for you and why?

I’ve never been to the Caribbean, so I would love to go to the Bahamas for the beaches, relaxed island life and cocktails!!

POTPOURRI TEAM Kehinde Ajose Juliet Ebirim

SUNDAY VANGUARD, MAY 4, 2014, PAGE 21 Email: vanguardwoman@gmail.com

Why misdiagnosis is inevitable in Nigeria —Dr Chinwe Okechukwu, Betterlife Medical boss

D

r. Chinwe Okechukwu is the Medical Direc tor, Betterlife Medical.

She is also the Deputy Editor of MIMS Nigeria, an independently written publication which aims at providing pharmacists and other healthcare professionals with up-to-date information about the use of medicines. In this chat with Esther Onyegbula this graduate of Medicine from the University of Lagos shares her experiences in the field as well as on misdiagnosis in Nigeria. She also gives an insight on MIMS Nigeria among sundry issues.

Abroad, if a patient walks in with a headache, they do CT scan to find out the cause, but here, it is different; patients have constant headache and they are treated for malaria

Misdiagnosis in Nigeria

I

think the issue of misdiagnosis is a multi faceted issue. The way our system is, someone could just graduate from medical school and just begin to treat just anything.

So, we need a system restructuring. Also, there should be training and retraining for doctors. The medical system works efficiently with availability of facilities and there are very few hospitals that have CT and MRI and these are facilities that are available in almost every hospital abroad. Abroad, if a patient walks in with a headache, they do CT scan to find out the cause. But here it is different; patients have constant headache and they are merely treated for malaria. And some times even when there is availability of these facilities, some patients can’t afford to pay for the services. Most of the patients that go to the hospitals and do MRI and CT scan are those whose companies pay for their medical bills. The cost of a CT scan is about N80, 000.

How many average Nigerians are willing to part with that amount?

Often,it has to do with the system. When doctors do not have the right tools to work with, misdiagnosis is inevitable. But the right tools equip doctors to make the right diagnosis. So, misdiagnosis is multifaceted and sometimes the doctor is at a loss as to what to do.

Sometimes they make informed guess and administer treatment, and sometimes, the outcome is good while at other times, it is not.

So doctors do guess work

hospital especially when the service is funded by government.

Dr. Chinwe Okechukwu too?

It is informed guessing in the sense that doctors have been trained for years; learn from experiences, reading of books that one plus one is two. A lot of time a doctor makes informed diagnosis based on medical experiences and he is right.

Dealing with patient’s insincerity and misinformation...

T

rained medical practition

ers are able to detect deliberate misinformation and insincerity of patients without making the patients feel uneasy. For instance, it is common to find parents bringing a full grown adult and lie about their age, or they bring someone who is not their relative. Imagine an Igbo couple bringing a Yoruba person and claiming they are related even when it is obvious they are not, just to access NHS in a

There are times when a patient will come and say I have been having this pain in my back for two days and I have taken aspirin yet it didn’t go. And then you ask: "How many days did you take the aspirin?" and the patient is like for five days.

And then the doctor asks "What else did you take? and the patient says "I took ibuprofen". And then he finds out the patient has taken Ibruprofen for three days. So, just from the

interaction, it is obvious that the headache didn’t start two days ago. The patient won’t know when he or she is revealing all these details. Sometimes, mothers bring children that have chronic diseases and they are like this is the first time they are noticing something like this. They go ahead to claim it has never happened before.

What is MIMS Nigeria all about?

M

IMS Nigeria is a prescribing reference for healthcare professionals, doctors, nurses, pharmacists, physiotherapist and in fact any healthcare practitioner.

This is because, when they come in contact with patients, they also come in contact with the patient’s prescription. They know the drugs are taking at any particular time. So, the book contains the different types of drugs that are available in Nigeria, according to their different specialty. From elementary, all the way to poisoning and toxicology, it talks about the indication, what the drug is used for and the dosage. It also talks about the interaction, and if this drug reacts with another drug, it will indicate the effects. It also shows us about contraindications. For pregnancy, it uses the FDA category from A-X and the risk factor attached to each drug usage.

'Rescue missing girls, save girlchild education'

BY JOSEPHINE IGBINOVIA

O

UTRAGE over the failure of government to rescue the over 200 schoolgirls abducted 20 days ago from their dorm beds in Chibok, Bornu State, is growing by the day. This is particularly as the fate of the teenagers remains vague with unverified reports claiming they are presently being forcefully married off and taken to neighbouring countries.

Considering that this is happening at a time when girlchild education is only beginning to gain relevance in the northern part of Nigeria, women groups fear this new twist to the over 5year-old insurgent in the

region would stall progress on the education of girls.

One of such groups is a world-wide organization of professional women, Soroptimist International of Nigeria.

“It is very unfortunate and sad that this is happening at a time when the girlchild education in the northern part of the country is witnessing a boost and parents are now being motivated to send their female children to school. If this trend is not stopped now, the consciousness of the girlchild education in the north will be adversely affected.

While measures are upgraded to rescue the missing girls, we advise that stringent security measures

should be put in place to protect other schools there because the girlchild must be given the opportunity to reach her optimal best in the society”, President of the group, Funlola BuraimohAdemuyewo, said, while also appealing to the abductors to immediately release the girls and calling on government to intensify rescue efforts.

Meanwhile, President, Women Arise Initiative for Change, Dr.Joe OkeiOdumakin, has on her part expressed worry over the failure of the Federal Government to rescue the girls 20 days after.

Odumakin, who regretted that the insurgent had shifted to women and girls, described the development

as horrific, saying, “it is very unfortunate that innocent girls, Nigeria’s future, are now the target of Boko Haram.”

Averring that government’s effort towards the girls’ release was grossly inadequate, Odumakin condemned the incongruent figure regarding the number of girls said to have been abducted.

“The way they are going about it has even showed that the situation is beyond them. Look at the conflicting figures they are giving regarding the number of girls abducted and the ones that have escaped from the abductors. A more proactive stance is needed at this stage”, she said.

PAGE 22—SUNDAY VANGUARD, MAY 4, 2014

NEXIM Bank

Between Brand Building & Brand Equity

President Goodluck Jonathan and Dr. Ngozi Okonjo Iweala tact and the otherwise ‘poor showing’ on issues relating to the Bank’s expected involvement in the real or outside world (its market). I couldn’t really figure out what is responsible for that disconnect then, but I was quite sure if the Bank gets well-funded, it will post more impressive results, so I stopped worrying about my fears.

So, it is understandable that the Minister of Finance praised the Bank’s performance at the inauguration of the present Board of Directors, on August 23, 2013. At that same meeting the Minister said identified with the three areas of the Bank management’s strategic thrust I listed above. What counted at that meeting were the results evident, upon financial report and clientele expansion. Evidently, this was a time when the Bank that was hitherto a financial drain pipe started posting profit, three years back-to-back. If we put in consideration that this same bank is in dire need of fresh funds, one can only join the SME in praising the leadership of Mr. Orya.

But the truth is that NEXIM Bank is disconnected from the critical mass within its target market group, and not optimizing its potentials in its efforts towards opening up our economy BECAUSE the tool of marketing communication is not effectively and efficiently complementing the efforts of the Bank’s technical component - to drive its over-all market performance.

NEXIM Bank is only present in the minds of the elite locals and foreign or international targets for purpose of mind presence. Even the media platforms NEXIM Bank is present are far removed from the critical mass segment of its target audience group, taking

the bottom-line in the nation’s economic transformation agenda into consideration. The media engagement strategic focus must be of at least 60% presence among the educated male and female population within 28/40 years age bracket. Like in the days of MAMSA, NEXIM Bank should be at the vanguard of driving change for economic independence, self-employment, entrepreneurship, innovation and creativity for economic productivity. NEXIM Bank’s engagement should be structured to galvanize grass-root economic participation, stimulate creativity, industry and entrepreneurial spirit among the youth population, being

,

B

Y its constitution, own ership, role and market definition, the Nigerian Export-Import Bank (NEXIM Bank) is far removed from the category of the regular brands that could be profiled for direct demonstration of the interplay and influence of Equity and Brand Positioning, as brand management ingredients. In the first place, it is an institution of government, it has defined mandate, and its ownership or ‘share-holding’ as its owners prefer to be called, are the Central Bank of Nigeria and the Federal Ministry of Finance. To that extent, one is constrained to see it purely as a government institution or agency. Add to that, the Bank is funded by these two powerful government institutions, and their investment is guarded and guided by a Board of Directors carefully selected and appointed by them.

Established by Act 38 of 1991 as an Export Credit Agency (ECA), it started off with a total investment capital of N50billion, owned in equal equity participation between the Central Bank of Nigeria and the Federal Ministry of Finance Incorporated (whatever that means). NEXIM Bank’s vision is “TO BE THE LEADING AFRICAN EXPORT DEVELOPMENT BANK” while its mission is ”TO BECOME A FIRST CLASS INSTITUTION PROMOTING A DIVERSIFIED EXPORT BASE THROUGH THE PROVISION OF FINANCE, RISK BEARING AND ADVISORY SERVICES IN LINE WITH GOVERNMENT TRADE POLICY”.

MC&A DIGEST was once relating with this brand. The perspective of engagement then was one of advocacy, having built some level of belief around its mandate and reason-for-being. My brief interaction with the Managing Director/CEO, Mr. Roberts U. Orya, left me with the impression of a mission driver dedicated to his job. The only issue we did not align perfectly on is the strategic importance he places on ‘Nollywood’ as an economic growth driver, for which he is committed to spending as huge resources as he can gather.

Beyond that, his initiatives for economic diversification through focused investment in non-oil sector, especially solid minerals, agro-processing and the Coastal corridor for trans-national shipping...are quite laudable. We also shared thoughts on issues bothering on adequate financing for the Bank, in the face of the growing number of investment opportunities, with potentials for driving Nigeria’s economic diversification and employment generation, open to the Bank.

My take from the interaction with the establishment, when I did, is it’s near in-exact target market profiling. It bothered me when I tried to relate the air of ‘good performance’ around the Bank at close con-

Bank has a mandate to deliver on, and the shareholders have provided funds; the challenge therefore would be in driving CHANGE in entrepreneurial spirit, economic engagement, self-application and productivity. To achieve these, the Bank must structure a communication strategy that will address its core essence and deliver at the very critical value touch-points, which in the case of NEXIM bank is driving economic development through attitude change and human capital appreciation and engagement.

Some may argue that NEXIM’s mandate does not expressly include human capital development, but let it be

NEXIM Bank is only present in the minds of the elite locals and foreign or international targets for purpose of mind presence. Even the media platforms NEXIM Bank is present are far removed from the critical mass segment of its target audience group

,

the future of this country. NEXIM Bank must expend enormous resources towards driving this group for productivity, using communication for economic development as the driving force - in the case of NEXIM Bank.

Suffice that for a strategically important development finance institution such as NEXIM Bank, communication is such an important tool for effective and efficient performance, since it is not too seriously challenged in profit generation as indeed a commercial bank, for instance. The

known that orientation and innovative thinking are part of human capital development.

NEXIM should be involved in advocacy, awareness generation, sponsor innovative learning, etc., to galvanize the youth for economic re-orientation. The one common vehicle for this is grass-root communication. Under this concept, town hall meetings, workshops, skill development centers, theme awareness campaign in conventional and penetrative media will all help the bank connect with this group of people. I have met

with young entrepreneurs who have been scrapping to work out agro-processing businesses and yet never knew of NEXIM. Some are so innovative and prospective, you will lend to them. Yet these people, mainly young graduates, are left wallowing in poverty, borrowing from friends and relatives, while NEXIM Bank is busy selling its ‘products’ in foreign magazines, newspapers, digital platforms…because they must be present in the news platforms of international market.

MC&A DIGEST like to state, categorically, that Bank’s Communications strategy need some measure of rework. It should not be cosmetic and patronizing of regulators and top-end investors who can support them at times of accountability (based on half-truth). It should stimulate CHANGE among the youth for creativity, productivity and economic empowerment …the economically weak but educated young people who are skilled enough to drive change, if empowered.

The global perspective for NEXIM as indeed all Development Funds Institutions is connecting the bottom of the pyramid of the local economy with the global opportunities, which is in line with the World Bank and World Economic Forum’s focus on global competitiveness and economic development. That is exactly what EXIM Bank of India is doing, driving grass-roots presence for fundamental economic change and development.

As a brand, NEXIM Bank its marketing communications strategy must align its drive for Brand image manifestation with the growth in its equity value, optimizing its achievement in delivering on its promise, at the critical value touch-points that will help its target audience’s endorsement. So when we expend so much energy in trying to create any brand’s desired image, we must be guided by its projected equity value. If at the end of its total personality value, the perception scores higher than its achievement in the area of its core value essence, the brand would have invested in propaganda instead of brands communication; that is what NEXIM Bank must run away from at this time. Accountability beacons and we must be exact in our projections and target achievements.

NEXIM Bank’s communications present strategy amounts to propaganda. The brand will need proper Brands Management expert engagement with bias for Marketing Communications to drive its efforts towards higher productivity.

SUNDAY VANGUARD, MAY 4, 2014, PAGE 23

08112662589

Some women actually provoke their partners to violence!

I

N a healthy relation ship, it is natural to feel cross with your partner. Women in particular have been known to let rip their anger when provoked. But up to the point of violence? Gbenga, a television technician has been going out with Leila, a florist for three years. According to Gbenga: “I row more with Leila than I ever did with my previous girlfriends. That’s because she’s more provocative and loves to pick a fight. We have very, very serious fights and although everything’s fine once they’re over, when we’re in the middle of them, I can’t ever see the end. At the moment, we’re having about two major rows a week. They probably last two hours on average but that depends on how long it takes for the rows to come to a head. They usually get to a boiling point when one - or both of us becomes physical.

“Leila has tantrums like a child and starts lashing out She’ll bite and scratch and nothing can control her. The irony is that, all her friends think she’s loud and argumentative but they have no idea that she can behave like this. Only her mum has seen these tantrums and she’s expressed

her anxiety about her only daughter ’s well-being.

Leila blames her moods on pre - or post-menstrual tension, but I don’t believe it because they seem to happen all the time. I used to find it scary but now it just makes me angry because of the noise and disruption and because it makes me feel violent. My parents used to have loud arguments and I fear the same thing would happen to us.

As it is, our close neighbours are aware of our outbursts and see us as nothing but a nuisance.

“The thing is, I am much more controlled than her, although I suddenly reach my limit and start yelling back-real hard. Occasionally, I’ve grabbed her and in extreme cases, I’ve given her a couple of slaps to calm her down. Unfortunately, this doesn’t do any good and only makes her scream louder. I’m afraid of my own anger and what I might do to her. I always feel utterly ashamed after resorting to physical violence, although it does seem to have the effect of bringing the argument to an abrupt end because of the shock we both feel. I know she means it when afterwards she promises me

she’ll never be like that again but I’m also aware that she can’t control her temper.

“I thought getting married will cure her of her insecurity but unfortunately, since coming back from our honeymoon, she seems to flare up even more easily. I think it has a lot to do with the fact that she’s not happy at work and so she takes all her tension out on me.

We tend to row about very insignificant things -usually about each other’s behaviour. If I say or do something when we’re out and

she doesn’t like, she’ll always bring it up later. She’s a terrible one for bearing grudges and sometimes drag things up to what happened three years ago.

“They say opposites attract, and she gets frustrated by my lack of zest. I am hoping we’ll reach a fine balance and that if we ever have children (she’s now expecting) that will calm her down. She’d like to change me in many ways, and I’ll like to change her, but it’s precisely that power struggle which makes the relationship so vibrant. I

believe it has a bit to do with her sexual preference too.

After most quarrels, she believes if they don’t end on a marathon shag, her anger is not spent. Afterwards, she’s all smiles and loving - until the next time when her demons take over...”

Thankfully, not all lover’s tiffs end up in a boxing match*, I don’t row or have heated arguments with my boyfriend,” says Jumobi, an up and coming actress in her 3Os, “and neither have I done so with past boyfriends.

My style is to ‘needle’ him and see how much I can get away with. When I go too far, he either withdraws or snaps at me, at which point I’ll shut up because arguments frighten me. Only there are times he goes too far. If I’m having the upper hand in an argument, he calls me a ‘Waka Pass’ actress, and he knows this always gets my goat I hit him without meaning to and he pins my hands behind me, forcing me to the bedroom where we often have violent sex. He thinks by behaving this way, he’s showing me he is the aggressor. Even when I reason with him he shouldn’t be violent, he ignores my advise. I iove him though. And that is the reason most women who

suffer abuse from their men use for staying in the relationship.

“Looks to me as if a lot of couples row about totally unnecessary things. For instance, the car might break down, or they get late to a social engagement and blame the other person.

Sometimes, my boyfriend says that I’ve had a go at him in public but that’s not true. He misinterprets what it’s all about and thinks I’m trying to get at him because I know he would never retaliate in front of other people. But the truth is, it’s about nothing - just a bit of showing off in front of his friends, that’s all.

“I can’t remember the last argument we had.

More often, we have what I would call an upset. They usually boil down to my lack of earning power and end up with my feeling utterly worthless. He’s forgotten the rules could change at any time and I could be the one earning mega bucks when I land leading roles! All I know is that if that happens, we would easily find other things to argue about, it’s irrelevant really, whether or not it enhances the relationship!”

08052201867(Text Only)

Yoga and sports

I

was watching televi sion one evening, the programme was a sports one, there wa s a coach and his athletes and he had been taking them through some exercises.

At one point in time the sportsmen had to sit down and touch their toes with their finger tips. There must have been about fifteen men, hefty, in the region of 2001bs and a bit over. None of these men was capable of executing the exercise. And I thought, “these are people who make a living from sports - applying their bodies! What unfit bodies they had. The thought crossed my mind, “these men would have to shape up well and truly well to make the team if I were the coach”. Their stiffness made a mockery of the men as professionals.

Their size and musculature meant they had the power for their game but their lack of flexibility also spelt that they became susceptible to pulls, tears and strains.

Now, I think the idea of an athlete training for his event or game by exercising set muscles to the neglect of others must be looked into by both trainer and athletes.

Take running for instance. The long distance r unner has stronger, shorter, hamstrings (rear thigh muscles) and on that account tends to pull his weaker quadriceps (from thigh muscles), To explode out of the blocks the sprinter who employs his quadriceps has weaker hamstrings and “the back of his thigh is where he grabs when he gets that tearing sensation midway in the 100 yard dash”.

The physiotherapist Joseph Zohar states, “the balanced conditioning of individual muscle groups not only protects the body against injury but also improves its performance to unprecedented levels.

Dr. George Sheehan who is also a distance runner warns that “structural imbalance of even minor degrees can result n incapacitating injuries and persistent disability.

He continues: “prevention and treatment of muscular skeletal problems in the athlete rests on the establishment of structural balance and architectural integrity of the body and its re-establishment should injury occur”. Sheehan believes “there is very little place

in the treatment of these diseases for injections, medications and manipulations”. Treatment rests almost completely on the following: * Biomechanical treatment of the foot. This means providing a foot support or othortic which keeps the foot in proper balance. Ordinarily this entails the preservation of the neutral position of the foot. What we do is bring up the ground to meet the foot thus preventing it from flattening or coming over on the inside, (prompting). * Flexibility and strengthening of the muscles ordinary training involves the continual repetition of one motion and the use of one main axis

of muscles. This results in two unwanted effects (a) shortening and less of flexibility in the exercised muscle, the prime mover and (b) weakness in the antagonist which opposes it. Additional exercises are needed to prevent this”.

Dr. Sheehan also states that “when faced with an injury not due to a fall or collusion the runner must assume that he is out of the structural balance. No medication is going to restore that balance. He must get down to basics, diagnose where he is out of line and correct it. He will get temporary relief with whatever the doctor recommends, i.e. rest, cortisone shots or whatever.

* The Spread Eagle posture

But as soon as he resumes running he will quickly get into trouble again”.

Below are some of the most frequent running ailments and proposed treatment as found in Sheehan’s book. On running: * Achiles tendenitis: cause - short Achiles, gastroe, hamstring axis; unstable heel; inverted heel; weak arch; excessive use of toe flexors. Treatment - stretching of achilles heel lifts, arch supports, anterior crests. * Numbness of the feet (distance r unner ’s newropathy) cause - sciatic revenue pressure.

Treatment - stretching of hamstrings along with abdominal sit ups (bent legs) and isometric tummy backing. *Other sciatic syndromes, pain in the thigh and buttock cause right hamstrings, weak abdominal treatment - use flexibility and strengthening exercise, use a sacrogard belt. * Shin Splints Cause weakness of the anterior chamber muscles. Treatment strengthen muscles by flexing foot with weight over toes, anterior crest to lessen use of flex or, stretching for the opposing

muscles, the achilles, gastroe and hamstrings.

Groin pain cause - unknown but probably a mixture of the abductor muscles, the short leg syndrome and biomechanical difficulties in the foot. Treatment - advise flexibility exercises along with exercises drawing leg toward the mid-line, attention to any biomechanic problems of the foot however mild”.

All this points to one thing: namely - the prevention of injury in sports.

A lot can be achieved in correcting the imbalance in muscle strength because as one expert puts it, “When one muscle group is excessively stronger than the opposing muscle group the odds of injury in the weaker muscles are greatly increased” Strengthening and endurance exercises act to shorten muscles and minimise flexibility and it is this lack of flexibility that many observers believe is a major cause in pulls, tears and strains.

The answer to this lack of flexibility Dr. Sheehan says, “is yoga in which the stretching is smooth, gentle and achieved over a period of time”.

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

P AGE 24—SUND AY Vanguard , MA Y 4, 2014 SUNDA MAY

bunmsof@yahoo.co.uk

08056180152,

SMS only

The marriage that survived two affairs

A

FFAIRS used to sound the deathknell to an otherwise stable marriage especially if it was the wife that was the culprit.

Kelechi met her husband. Sunny, over 20 years ago at university and they eventually fell in love. “He was a very shy man and I pursued him”, she confessed. “He was really good-looking and I had friends in the house he rented with other undergraduates, so I was always hanging around him because I felt he needed to be loved.

He didn’t have much of a relationship with his father and was raised by his mum along with his two siblings. As a result of this, his self-esteem was low, but I knew he could be a really nice guy underneath that reserve of his, so we became an item.

“Eventually, we got married and decided to go abroad to test fresh waters. We’d both been a couple of times on holidays and it was easy reconnecting with old friends who were already residing in Britain.

We had two boys inside five years and they were looked after by staff in the pre-school playschool they attended.

While 1 had a job as a carer augmented by some trading on the side.

Sunny had no problems starting jobs, but he’d soon lose interest and his job instability soon became a source of friction.

We didn’t save and there were times we bounced cheques or couldn’t pay the rent. On top of which I’d put on weight after I’d had our second child.

I wasn’t that much interested in sex but if Sunny wanted it, I’d do it to make him happy though I didn’t feel good about myself.

‘Then I found a wellpaid job in a fairly big company after I’d retrained and my life changed. In no time at all, I became friends with Tom, a most unhappy man who was going through the trauma of a divorce. A Sierra Leonean, the wife from whom he was separated was set to take him to the cleaners. He’d moved into a bedsit and Sunny now worked outside London. It was easy for Tom and I to start an affair. I was lonely and wanted a break from thinking about our financial problems. Instead of talking about how I felt with my husband, I took the coward’s way out. It was painful for me to hurt him like this. I didn’t like myself much while I was with Tom. I remember thinking; he isn’t like Sunny. He isn’t for me.

“Unfortunately, I have a group of friends I shared my problems with. Sunny was hurt that I preferred to confide in my friends, rather than talk through our

problems with him. He was hurt about my affair when he eventually found out from a ‘friend’ and left us to live with a relative. He wasn’t bitter, just hurt but throughout our separation, he was there for me and the kids. It was inevitable he met a ‘comforter ’ who gave him the female attention he’d missed. I was furious. But what right did I have to stop the affairs? I started it and now I didn’t like the dose of my own medicine.

S

unny and I had resolved to give our boys what we didn’t have as children to feel loved, to know we would always be there for them and be close to each other. Our various affairs now threatened this resolution. By this time, I was the breadwinner of the family and this seemed to trouble Sunny more.

“When he found a better job, he was over the moon. He showered us with gifts and I started

seeing the old Sunny and liking what I saw. In the end, 1 asked if he’d want to move back home and he readily agreed. It was then he confessed he didn’t know how he’d function without his family. As for me, I used to believe that all you had to do was meet somebody you love and get married and the rest would take care of itself, which shows how naive I was. I never realised how difficult it is to make a marriage work. Love alone will not do it. Marriage required respect, thoughtfulness, openness, give-and-take-all of it. It took us a while to learn to trust each other again but we did it. I’m grateful that we persevered. Our love has grown as we have grown up.

“Would our marriage have survived both affairs if they’d happened here in Nigeria?

I honestly don’t know. I was grateful that we were back together when we f i n a l l y decided to come home six

So I know what liking is!

I know what striking is!

As I stroke stone against stone So I know what the spark is!

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"

I know

I know what seeing is!

As I saw you that day for the first time

I know what rubbing is!

As I rubbed heart against heart So I know what love is!

CENT OBAMA +2348061379003

Until I met you!

I never know that true love exist until I met you. You crept into my life like

years ago. Looking back, our relationship isn’t def i n e d in one big gesture but in lots of different little ones. ;

T

he communica tion amongst the family is relaxed and we’ve both discovered it’s not worth getting upset over little things. We might have had some rough start, but we’re proud of where we are today. And maybe we had to go through all that trauma to be where we are. Our house makes us happy. Our friends and family give us joy and who knows, in another few years we might even be grandparents...”

So how do you get on with your marriage after an affair? Infidelity may seem like the ultimate love breaker, but most marriages in which one partner strays do not end in divorce, says a social worker. In the aftermath of an affair, she advises the following: Seek professional help.

A couple have to under-

stand how they got off track with each other. A counsellor will keep the conversation fair and productive. Each partner should talk about his or her own needs, without getting defensive or accusatory.

Don’t put the children in the middle - making children choose sides is unfair, whether they’re seven or 27. Because they want to love you both, it can be extremely damaging when one parent starts speaking negatively about the other. Talk to the children together, emphasizing that you’re getting help from a third party, if you don’t tell them someone else is helping, they’ll think it’s their job.

A Word Enough For The Wise? (Humour) Late at night, there was a knock at the door and when the wife answered, a man demanded, “Do you know how to have sex?” the woman closed the door in alarm and the man went away. But for the next three nights, he returned, shouting at her through the letterbox:: “Do you know how to have sex?” he kept repeating.

Now her husband had been away on business for the week, but when he returned on Friday, he could see she was very upset. It didn’t take long for him to find out what had been happening so he advised her to open the door and he’d be waiting behind it to deal with the pest. Sure enough, later that night, the man returned banging on the door. The wife opened it as he shouted: “Do you know how to have sex?” “Yes, I do,” she replied. “Then give it to your husband,” he said angrily, “and tell him to leave my wife alone.”

a snake but instead of of the poisenouse bite of a snake, you infested me me with a noiseless affectiom. Everyday I thought of you and eveery night I dream of you.

Without you there is no worthy life.

Ogoo Stan stanogoo@yahoo.com

Until I met you!

Though you are far away, I can't forget you. Forgetting you is like forgetting the words to my favourite song. I will love you till the sun grows cold ....

Moses O. 07032936851

SUNDAY Vanguard, MAY 4, 2014, PAGE 25

08116759757

Mystery killings amid Delta kidnapping trial *How cousin allegedly arranged SSG’s son’s abduction

By EMMA AMAIZE, Regional Editor, South-South

T

he abduction of Mackson Macaulay, son of Secretary to the State Government, SSG, Delta State, Mr. Ovuozorie Macaulay, in 2012, was allegedly organized by his (SSG) relation. This information came to light after the killing, March 27, of two kidnap suspects by gunmen, who attacked a police patrol team conveying them to court, along Oboh-Ogwashi-Uku Road. Two defence counsel in the main case were also killed on the same day. *Cloudy affair WHEN Justice O.A. Onojovwo of the Delta State High Court, sitting in Ozoro, April 2, transferred the case of the kidnapping of Mr. Mackson Macaulay, son of the Secretary to the State Government, SSG, Mr. Ovuozorie Macaulay, before his court to the Chief Judge of the state for reassignment to another judge, it was clear that there was something wrong.

Six days earlier, March 27, two lawyers, Horace Ewgonor Dafiaghor and Samuel Ekuwangji, defence attorneys to two suspects, Sunday Ugbebo and another, charged before his court by the police for the 2012 kidnapping of Mackson, were murdered in Isoko South Local Government Area.

The lawyers had been taken by their killers on the UghelliIsoko Road on their way to the court in Ozoro and taken to the Olomoro Shell Location Road, where they were brought out of the vehicle and killed.

Assistant Superintendent of Police, ASP O. Agbede, also confirmed to the judge, April 2, that two other kidnap suspects, Efe Edhike and Ogaga Enueme, one of whom the lawyers had filed a habeas corpus suit for his release, met their untimely death on March 27.

Agbede said that Edhike and Enueme were to be arraigned, same day, at a Magistrate Court in Oleh, seemingly on a holding charge, in connection with Mackson’s kidnap when gunmen waylaid the police patrol van conveying them to court at Oboh-Ogwashi-Uku Road and engaged the police in a shoot out. The two suspects died while a police sergeant, Suleiman Ahabi, was seriously injured. The police vehicle was riddled with bullets.

Apparently because of the manner the lawyer, Dafiaghor, who had complained to the judge severally in open court that his life was under threat, and his colleague were killed, and the death of Enume, who was also to appear in court, April 2, following the court’s order to that effect, Justice Onojovwo snapped. He struck out the case.

The judge remarked that the case had turned a bloody one and

*Slain lawyers: Dafiaghor (left); Ekuwangji anybody handling the matter, including him, was not safe.

Expectedly, the murder of the two lawyers has raised more questions than answers. *NBA points fingers The Nigeria Bar Association, NBA, Warri, which held a fourhour protest procession, penultimate Tuesday, in Warri over the murder, accused the police of complicity.

Branch chairman, Ben Oji, reacting to the Delta State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Ikechukwu Aduba, said the police account of the death of Enueme, one of the suspects in respect of whom the murdered lawyers filed application, was suspicious.

“The police account is that he was being taken to court with another suspect when they were ambushed by armed men who engaged them in a shootout which left one of the suspects dead. From the facts, we see a clear direct connection between the two incidents, especially as they occurred same day. It is no coincidence,” Oji said.

“Incidentally, when two of our colleagues were killed, the bodies, we understood, were discovered by policemen guarding the location. So, we can say that the bodies were discovered. But in the case of the suspect, he died in police custody, so the policemen should tell us what happened.

“If we are convinced as we are that the two incidents are related, then tackling the killing of the suspects will, in a way, involve unraveling the murder of our colleagues. So, the police cannot at this stage where, to my mind, possibilities are still on board, come out to absolve self of blame. Let them go and conduct investigation first.”

*Police declare 5 wanted Delta State Police Command, which, penultimate Tuesday, declared five suspected kidnappers/armed robbers: Chucks, Obeji, Kelvin, Kaya Morgan and Shakara, wanted over the death of the lawyers, wondered what they were doing defending suspected kidnappers when the NBA in the state had earlier taken a decision that its members should steer clear of kidnap cases.

According to Aduba, the state Police Commissioner, “Delta State branch of the NBA had taken a resolution persuading lawyers from the state branch to steer clear of cases of kidnapping, bearing in mind

complicity of law enforcement agents, Aduba said the police legal team joined issues with the defence counsel on the habeas corpus application, which the court ruled on. *Puzzling development From Sunday Vanguard investigation, it was discovered that the other kidnap suspect, Edhike, killed with Enueme, March 27, is a family member to the Delta SSG, Mr. Macaulay.

It was learnt that Enueme, who allegedly confessed his involvement in the kidnap of Mackson, was arrested by the police, while the trial of Sunday Ugbebo and another for the offence was still pending before Justice Onojovwo.

The lawyers had been taken by their killers on the Ughelli-Isoko Road on their way to the court in Ozoro and taken to the Olomoro Shell Location Road, where they were brought out of the vehicle and killed the saying that he who rides on the back of the tiger may end up in the tiger ’s belly ”.

He said the assassinated lawyers were defence counsel to some of the arrested members of the alleged kidnap gang, currently undergoing trial and whose colleagues had been declared wanted.

Dismissing alleged

He was said to have owned up in police custody and named Edhike, a cousin to Macaulay, as the mastermind of Mackson’s kidnap.

Enueme reportedly told the police that their earlier plan was to rob one Victor of the money that was handed over to him to pay for some agricultural products, but Edhike changed

the plan when he found out that Mackson was in the village to visit his grandmother. Edhike, who, as learnt, was supposed to be with Victor at the time of the planned robbery, was to pretend that he knew nothing about it.

On the strength of Enueme’s purported confession, Edhike was arrested in February, and he allegedly opened up. He and Enueme were being taken to the court by the police when they were waylaid.

A security source narrated how Enueme was arrested: “He was observed to be in the habit of going out to make phone calls whenever the case of Sunday Ugbebo and another was on.

Detectives, who had been monitoring him, followed him outside the court and confronted him on one of the occasions. That led to his arrest. The arrest paid off, as we believe he is a gang member.

“The lawyer argued in his application that his client was arrested in the court premises; that is not true.”

It was gathered that Edhike and Enueme had made startling revelations to the police on the gang, while the lawyers in the course of their brief, also stumbled on some secret information.

The main case, which is the State vs Sunday Ugbebo and another is what Justice Onojovwo transferred to the chief judge for reassignment to another judge.

The judge had, in his ruling on the habeas corpus case, ordered that the suspects should be brought to court on April 2 and it was on confirmation that the two suspects and lawyers were killed same day that he washed his hands off the case.

Aduba, the state Police Commissioner, confirmed that Edhike was a relation of the S S G . M r. Macaulay also admitted to Sunday Vanguard that his relation was arrested over his son’s kidnap in February. *Questions The March 27 murder has led to several posers: Has it anything to do with the threat Dafiaghor complained to the judge of or did the gang snuff life out of the foursome because it wanted its secrets covered?

If Victor Macaulay is the same Victor that Edhike arranged with his gang to rob, is his concern merely that Dafiaghor should not use technicality to get him (Edhike) out? What were the lawyers doing on the lonely road where they were found dead?

Were they tricked or forced there and thereafter killed?

As things are, nobody has on the spot answers to the questions. However, Aduba told Sunday Vanguard, “At the conclusion of the ongoing investigations, some of the questions will be answered.

There and then, we may conveniently draw up a conclusion.”

PAGE 26, SUND AY SUNDA

The

Vanguard, MA Y 4, 2014 MAY

Fulani story (2)

By WALE AKINOLA

T

he Fulani are tradi tionally a nomadic, pastoralist trading people. They herd cattle, goats and sheep across the vast dry hinterlands of their domain, keeping some-

what separate from the local agricultural populations.

They are the largest nomadic ethnic group in the world.

The Fulani follow a code of behaviour known as pulaaku, which consists of the qualities of patience, self control, discipline, prudence, modesty, respect for others (including

foes), wisdom, forethought, personal responsibility, hospitality, courage and hard work.”

That is how Wikipedia describes the Fulani.

In many parts of Nigeria where the Fulani domicile, there has been an increasing trend of farmer (sedentary) –

grazier (pastoral nomadic) conflicts. Such conflicts begin when cattle stray into farmlands and destroy crops. The often results in violent attacks and reprisal counter attacks being exchanged between the Fulani, who often feel their way of life and survival is being threatened, and other populations who often feel aggrieved from loss of farm produce.

The Fulani have often requested for the development of exclusive grazing reserves to curb conflicts. The stories from northern states of Plateau, Benue, Taraba, Kaduna, Adamawa, Bauchi, Nasarawa and Gombe where there have been killings and large scale destruction of property arising from the Fulani – host communities conflicts tell how turbulent their relationship is.

The relationship is not less violent in some southern states where conflicts triggered by the Fulani cattle straying into farmlands and destroying crops have not only been the order of the day,

the herdsmen have also been accused of engaging in unwholesome activities like armed robbery and rape. The President of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, captures the sentiment against the Fulani in many parts of the country when he says: “They (Fulani) have terrorized Nigeria.

There is no state where they don’t kill people. Where did these people get AK 47 rifles from? Who taught them how to shoot?

How is it that these people are never apprehended? I have reports that there are communities where they have destroyed crops, killed people, raped women, yet, at the end of the day, it is the local people the police go after.”

Meanwhile, a northern leader, Prof. Jubril Aminu, has a counter position: Fulani herdsmen are no killers; they are in fact victims. This is the continuation of the Fulani story!

Oyo: The problem with the ‘Borroro’

“T

HE fear of Fulani ‘Bororo’ herdsmen in Oke Ogun area of Oyo State is the beginning of wisdom. Stories are told about how the locals believe the herdsmen have no regard for human life. So, it seems normal to them when their cattle, during grazing, eat up crops of farmers in the savannah region.

Besides destroying farmlands, they allegedly engage in criminal activities like armed robbery, rape and abduction.

Oyo State Police Command has severally paraded Fulani herdsmen as die-hard robbers and serial rapists. Stories are told about how Oke Ogun locals believe they use their cattle to obstruct unsuspecting motorists on the bumpy and lonely Saki road and, in the process, rob them. It is alleged that they use dangerous weapons like dagger, bow and arrows, guns to attack. A visit of the State Chief Judge, Justice Adeniji Badejoko, to Abolongo Prison in Oyo town revealed that ‘Borroro’ herdsmen outnumbered other inmates in the facility.

The herdsmen are said to be notorious in attacking commercial buses, killing and dispossessing passengers of their property. The South West Bureau chief of a newspaper

claimed to be among the victims of ‘Borroro’ herdsmen attack in Oke Ogun. Relating his experience to Sunday Vanguard, he said the armed herdsmen attacked their bus around 7pm on the fateful day, beating and robbing them of money and other property. He added that the men were about raping a 13-year old girl in the presence of her mother before help came their way. Lecturers and workers of the Polytechnic, Ibadan, Saki campus were said to have fallen victim to the ‘Bororo’s’ attacks many times.

One of the farmers in Oke Ogun, Mr. Amos Ogunjinmi, said Oyo State government needed to check the suspected Fulani herdsmen. When speaking with Sunday Vanguard on phone, he said, “These Fulani men are growing in number daily. They spoil our farmlands and leave us in hunger. Many a time, they graze their animals at night when farmers must have gone home. We come in the morning only to discover all our crops have been eaten up by their cattle. Since we did not meet them there and they are many in our area, you cannot hold any of them responsible. Government should please help us.”

Another farmer, in the area Oguntona Abraham Kayode, said security agents in Oke Ogun have been unable to check the herdsmen because of

their large population. “It is about nine years since trouble started. Many people have been killed in other parts of Oke Ogun but in our own area, they only use machete on our people. If government can help us to check their population, we will be happy. They have almost outnumbered us here.

We don’t know what to do about the problem, “Kayode said.

A legal practitioner, Mr. Adeola Fehintola, who has

,

By OLA AJAYI, Ibadan

Fulani herdsmen who have been killing our people. They are very hostile. They use their cattle to destroy our farmlands.

They are warlike in nature,” Fehintola said.

“The Boko Haram problem forced many of them to come around with their cattle. Also due to desertification in their area, they troop down here in droves to graze their cattle.

Here, you know our means of livelihood is farming and if

They believe they can kill human beings to protect their animals.

Their population is increasing and this is due to some factors. One is that we live in the savannah area, they know that their cattle grow bigger here than elsewhere because they have enough grass to eat. Two, we have land that is large enough for them.

handled cases involving farmers and Fulani herdsmen in Oke Ogun, also spoke with Sunday Vanguard. “The first thing is that you have to distinguish Fulani. They are of two types. There are local Fulani men who are very friendly with us here. There is another type we call ‘Bororo’. They are the

,

someone wants to destroy your livelihood, you will react. In the past, there used to be a solid arrangement between farmers and them. If their animals destroyed farmlands, they used to pay for the crops they destroyed. But the people soon discovered that what they usually paid as damages was not

commensurate with the crops they destroyed. So, farmers don’t even want to have any issue with them.

“It is either Yoruba kill them or they kill Yoruba. To date, we can say about 20 or 30 people have lost their lives since the problem started. They are many in areas like Irawo, Agbonle in Saki East Local Government, Igboho, Igbeti, Iganna.

“They believe they can kill human beings to protect their animals. Their population is increasing and this is due to some factors. One is that we live in the savannah area, they know that their cattle grow bigger here than elsewhere because they have enough grass to eat. Two, we have land that is large enough for them.

Another factor is the issue of Boko Haram. There was a time they even pleaded with our traditional rulers to allow their people to come down and live here because of the problem of Boko Haram in the North. On market days, if you see them, they almost outnumber indigenes. Another thing is our proximity to them. We share boundary with Niger Republic”.

Efforts to get the leader of the Fulani in Oyo State, Sarki Shasha, resident in Shasha area of Ibadan, Oyo State capital, to speak on the relationship between natives and herdsmen in the state were unsuccessful.

SUND AY SUNDA

Vanguard, MAY 4, 2014, PAGE 27

By SAMUEL OYADONGHA, Yenagoa

B

ayelsa State is predominantly riverine with a large population of the natives involved in fishing and subsistence farming.

Farming is always done along the bank of the rivers and creeks.

Crops such as yam, pepper, cassava, sugar cane and garden egg, among others, are cultivated by the rural folks, especially women who constitute the bulk of the farming population.

Thus, there is always tension between Fulani herdsmen in search of pasture for their herds and the rural farming folks many of whom depend on the little income from the harvest from the farm for the up keep of their families.

Interestingly, the farmlands are situated along the bank of the River Niger and its tributaries that cris-cross the communities due to the rich alluvial brought by overflowing rivers during the perennial flood season.

It was reliably learnt that some of the locals, often times, pose as land owners and collect money from the herdsmen as passage fee to enable them graze their flock in the communities.

The invasion of the farmlands by the Fulani herdsmen, whose cattle trample on and destroy the crops these women had laboured under the scorching

Bayelsa: Cautious hosts restrict herdsmen

sun to cultivate, had, in the past, triggered tension in the communities.

But for the quick intervention of the chiefs and the community development committees, CDCs, of the communities, such tension could have snowballed into bloodletting as recently witnessed at Aruke and Ogboropre farmlands on the bank of Forcados River.

Sunday Vanguard learnt that the incessant face off between the herdsmen and locals over the destruction of farmlands along the bank of rivers may

have informed the decision to restrict the Fulani herdsmen access to the communities, especially the farmlands, a development that has gone a long way to ensure relative peace in the rural enclave.

A concerned Bayelsan, who simply identified himself as Laweni, said, “Farming here is basically for subsistence and it is always done during the dry season along the river banks.

And in a bid to starve off the perennial friction between Fulani herdsmen, whose herds most times destroy the crops of

these poor women in the course of their search for grazing land, the leadership of our communities barred them (herdsmen) from entering the communities with their cattle and this brought about relative peace.”

This was the situation until last December when one Ebamugha Akeni, an indigene of Trofani in Sagbama local government area of the state, was gruesomely murdered by suspected Fulani herdsmen.

The deceased, a cement merchant in his early thirties, was planning to tie the knot with

his heart throb before his untimely death. Akeni was returning to Trofani from Odi when he was attacked by some suspected Fulani herdsmen along the Odi-Trofani Road.

Sunday Vanguard learnt that the leadership of the community had earlier expelled the herdsmen from their land following complaints by the folks of the destruction of their crops.

The sin of the deceased, a source said, was his boldness in challenging the herdsmen on why they obstruct traffic on the road with their cattle.

The deceased youth, riding on his motorcycle, was said to have been shot.

Though he managed to escape into the forest with gunshot injuries from where he allegedly used his mobile phone to alert the community folks of his ordeal, it was a fatal shot that cost him his life.

A search party was reportedly organized which found him in his pool of blood and rushed him to Sagbama General Hospital.

But the doctors referred him to the Niger Delta University Hospital, Okolobiri where he gave up the ghost. The attack though heightened tension in the area as the youths vowed to avenge the killing, the quick intervention of the elders and security agencies prevented a breakdown of law and order in the area. Aside this isolated incident, there have not been reported cases of death resulting from Fulani herdsmen and natives clash in the predominantly riverine state.

Ogun: Endless friction between locals and herdsmen

By DAUD OLATUNJI, Abeokuta

I

n Ogun State, the relationship between Fulani herdsmen and the people of Ketu in Yewa North local government area has been one of cat and mouse.

And the locals seem to be at the receiving end of the menace of the Fulani herdsmen.

Recently, hundreds of the locals protested over the killing of four of their kinsmen allegedly by Fulani herdsmen.

The protesters said the state was sitting on a keg of gun powder owing to government’s failure to decisively address killings in the area. “We are helpless, hence our SOS to Governor Ibikunle Amosun”, they added.

The protesters, under the aegis of Ketu Advancement Front (KAF), Ketu Alliance and Peoples Assembly, called on Amosun to speedily constitute the implementation committee as contained in a memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed on Tuesday, December 17, 2013 between Ketu people, the state government and Fulani herdsmen.

Speaking on behalf of the groups, their spokespersons, Ranti Ogunsola, Kunle Abiose and Lasisi Jelili, said, “We recall that while the MoU was being signed on December 17, 2013, the herdsmen were on killing expedition in Ketu.

We drew government attention to this and requested the herdsmen’s exit before signing the document to allow for the control of their arms but government felt otherwise. We

reluctantly signed the document hoping that the implementation committee jointly agreed upon would be swiftly put in place and empowered to work”.

They narrated the plight of the people of Ketu in the hands of Fulani herdsmen: “Since October 2013, majority of the people have abandoned their farms with the hope that government would intervene decisively to create a conducive

atmosphere required for them to go back to the farms where they earn their living.

“We regret to note that since the signing of an MoU arranged by the state government, the same government has gone to sleep over the issue while the herdsmen continue to kill and maim our people. “We have cried loud that on that December 17, 2013, four Ketu people were shot by

the herdsmen. Out of the four, one Alade Eyo died on the spot while one Bondu Oladeyo died the following day. “ This was besides the fiveyear old Ajimoh Adisa, who was gruesomely murdered on her father’s farm on December 2, 2013. On December 6, 2014, one Fasola Simon was hacked and shot on his farm. “ We are taken aback that government is still foot dragging on the implementation of the MoU despite reporting all these incidents to the appropriate quarters. We further recall that between 2000 and 2012, twenty-three other people had been sent to their early graves by the herdsmen in gruesome manner.

“The waiting is becoming an endless game with hunger ravaging them. Despite this, they can’t participate in the on-going preparation of land for the next planting season for fear of attack by the herdsmen”.

But the state government claimed that all issues on the prolonged friction between farmers and Fulani herdsmen in Ketu and environs was being addressed with the signing of the MoU.

PAGE 28 — SUND AY SUNDA

Vanguard, MAY 4, 2014,

Three fears Nigeria must address to survive, by ABC Nwosu

By LEVINUS NWABUGHIOGU

P

rofessor Alphonsus Bosah Chukwurah (ABC) Nwosu was a political adviser and later Minister of Health in the administration of President Olusegun Obasanjo from 1999 to 2003. Before then, he superintended the Igbo secretariat at the 1995 Constitutional Conference. At the ongoing National Conference, he is a delegate representing Anambra State. In this interview, Nwosu speaks on resource control among other issues.

W

hat do you say after the c e n t e n a r y celebrations?

Nigeria after 100 years makes me sad. I was in secondary school when Nigeria got independence in 1960.

I was in Government College, Afikpo and we were full of hopes.

We were trained with the spirit of public service and we were expecting to build a Nigeria that will be a pride to Africa and would add value to the black skin. In fact, some of us were so starry eyed that we thought we could do for the black skin what Japan did for the yellow skin. It has been excruciating pain to see Nigeria go down before our very eyes. The educational system has gone down. Anybody can quote statistics. When I went to secondary school, from class one, we had our test tube racks. You could pour dilute acid unto chalk and identify the gas with litmus paper in my class one, in a village primary school. At school cert in 1962, we were 55 that took the examination, two streams,

45 had distinction in mathematics, 49 had distinction in literature while three persons had distinction in all the subjects they took and most of us were children of illiterate mothers. Some, children of palm wine tapers. Some, children of farmers, drivers of permanent secretaries also had their children there. There were equally ministers children. So, there was equal access.

It is for that reason that many of us speak the name of Dr. M.I. Okpara as if he was a saint. We believe he should be a saint. Leaders of that time came there for our prize giving.

They bothered about the children of tomorrow and they built a society that if we had followed in their tracks, Nigeria wouldn’t be where it is now. So, if you see the free fall in education, health, transport, it is saddening. Talking about transport, during holiday, I would be given a warrant, I am sure children now don’t know what is a warrant. I would get to the railway station, get into the second class coach, stop in Kafanchan, spend a week before proceeding to Kano. We had a canteen in the train. So, you can see that what is happening now is not a very good experience for us.

Are you casting aspersion on successive governments?

I don’t believe in blame game. I think what has happened is that especially since 1970, because of the 1967/70 war, we failed to plan for population increase. Population increases in geometric proportion and it is still the same old Government College, Afikpo with

The leaders of that time planned for the increase that they were expecting and gave quality education. What has happened is that we didn’t plan that there would be many people in Lagos the same old test tube racks. No addition, no anticipation of increase in population. But before then, there was Government College, Umuahia. They added Government College, Owerri and Afikpo. And then they added Queen’s School, Enugu which was government college for girls. The leaders of that time planned for the increase that they were expecting and gave quality education. What has happened is that we didn’t plan that there would be many people in Lagos. We didn’t plan that they would have more cars in Lagos; instead we went on to say we could

have odd and even numbers. That is the kind of things we do that doesn’t take place anywhere. So, in summary, what I am saying is that when a leadership fails to plan for the population, even what it has will deteriorate. I also refuse to make a distinction between military and civilian regimes. The same blame that goes to the military, goes also to the civilian and I am kind to the military because I went to a school with a cadet unit and I know that some of the best brains either chose to go to the university or the military.

We don’t have a peoples army in Nigeria. We have an elite army. So, some of them became Heads of State and planned and achieved something and they can point to it.

And some of us civilians became Heads of Government and did nothing and we can’t point at anything. So, it is just intellectual laziness. The only area where military has not been good to us was that being military they have a single command; and therefore, they tended to concentrate power at the center and in the process destroyed the painstaking negotiations which our founding fathers did to give us a federation. So, we now have a pseudo - federation with power at the center. You couldn’t just wake up under our founding fathers and create 10 states or 19 or 36 states.

It took due democratic process to create Mid West as a fourth region in 1963.

What do you say about the people of Nigeria? We have fought a war and it does appear that those reasons for the fight are still a recurrent decimal, now, threatening to tear the country apart.

I like the word you used “recurrent”. When something is recurrent it means you haven’t found a solution to it. Let me tell you the recurrent things: the fear of the minority, that they would be dominated by the majority; the fear Fears of injustice and inequity; the fear of unemployment; the fear of fallen standards in social and physical infrastructures. These are genuine fears and we see them playing out everyday. So, these are recurrent issues and we should deal with them. If we don’t deal with them, we may go on as long as we like, in the next 100, they will even become

worse. But I have a greater fear. I think there may not be the next 100 years if we don’t resolve the fears now. Three are three fears. we have to address the fears. One, when a fear is so palpable that you can almost cut it with a knife, you better do something about it or you face insurgency. You have faced serious insurgency in the Niger Delta. It started with Isaac Boro. We must address why that insurgency is and it is the fear that after the oil is gone, they would be left with nothing. They look at Oloibri and it is clear to them.

The fear of insecurity came second that your lives are not secure in parts of Nigeria which you call your own and therefore the Igbo decided to find their own state called Biafra. It took so many lives. It took everything. It’s over. We have to realize that we have to address that insecurity. Then came the fear of unfairness and inequity in the exploitation of the mineral resources and we saw again insurgency in MEND. It took a very God-fearing and smart President in former Yar ’Adua to surgically excise this fear through his amnesty programme. May God bless him.

Now, we are facing the fear of insurgency and we can clearly see it’s a problem of poverty and under development. We must address them. If we don’t address them, they will address us. And the collateral damage will be so much that nobody will be saved. That’s why I said that we may not have the next 100 years.

These things are no longer ethnic or religious. You can hide between ethnicity and religion but they are not really ethnic and religious. I am quite clear that wherever you have insurgency, either low level or high level or civil war, the insurgency has to be dealt with decisively. Then you can start the rebuilding process.

Talking about insurgency and the ways to deal with it, many people are of the view that government lacks the political will to deal with it?

I sympathise with the government of the day because the President, speaking specifically, is not from the area and he needs the support of the leaders of the area in order to be decisive. If he doesn’t have this support; if the leaders of the area are ambivalent, then the President has to be circumspect because we

Continues on page 29

SUND AY SUNDA

Continued from page 28 have to keep this country one. I will be more specific. You cannot be complaining that your children are being killed in schools and yet asking for the military to be withdrawn from your area or even threatening to take the military commanders to the International Criminal Court.

Nobody likes to die. The military doesn’t even want to die. So, if they are dying and losing their lives, the least we can do is to give them support. Military leaders died in the civil war on either side. All that is gone and we are one country struggling to become one nation. I was a witness to the so many private meetings between Gen. Gowon and the late Odimegwu Ojukwu. If both of them could meet, shared meals and discussed before Ojukwu died, it shows you that all that is gone. But you cannot go and do decisively the same thing here again.

Now, there is a National Conference going on where many issues including the ones you mentioned are being discussed. You are a delegate.

Can you say that the conference will resolve all those problems?

I hope that the conference will address many of the problems decisively and frankly. I was very happy at the plenary; that it was a no-holds-barred plenary and you will notice that the comments were dominated by insecurity.

Everybody body was against insecurity and urging the leaders to take a cue from the conference and not make this a divisive issue. It is not a matter of politics. But talking about many other things, I am happy in the Committee I find myself: Devolution of power.

Devolution of power deals with true federalism, resource control and revenue sharing. I am happy to be there because I believe that it is concentration of power in the center that is responsible for most of the problems in Nigeria. In Nigeria, power is not power to do good. It is not power to give public office. It has degenerated into power to dispense patronage; power to do unto my own what I would not want to be done unto others. You don’t see the unfairness in the fact that you are giving patronage to mainly your own people. So, everybody now wants to be in charge of the Presidency because all the power at the center is vested in one man-the President - and he becomes about the most powerful person in the world. If we look at the power and shares it as our founding fathers did between the center and the federating units; maintaining the equilibrium, I think that whether you are at the center or at the state, you will not be civilian dictator. I am also interested in resource control and revenue sharing. I think that’s is where a lot of the issues to stabilize this country will be centered. The situation where the Federal Government takes 56 percent and gives to states 20 percent and peanut to local governments makes absolute nonsense of federalism. For example, what are local governments doing in a Federation Account? They are not federating units. So, unless you are a member, you are not there. That’s

Vanguard, MAY 4, 2014, PAGE 29

but it carried a moral force. So, the outcome of what we do is out of our hands. We can make recommendations.

But my determination is that it should have such a moral force that you ignore it at your peril. Two plus two is four.

Two times two is four.

Two squared is four. However you look at it, you arrive at the same answer. If we arrive at the same solution that the power at the centre is too much, if we arrive at the solution that we need to be more equitable and fair in treating the Niger-Delta region, if we arrive at a fair solution to the poverty and the consequent insecurity in the country along with many things, I want our decision to be so right and so banked on that those who ignore it will do it at our peril. We have neither the mandate nor the power to legislate nor to force other Nigerians but we have tried it to complement them. I think that this conference is not antagonistic to the National Assembly or to Mr. President. If we submit what we have to them, it is to help them see directions where we can go. Many have said that we are not an elected body. Many people in this conference will never run an election. But the fact that you are not elected does not detract from your quality.

Aside election, quality by quality, you will see people who you should not ignore. The fact that I didn’t run an election to become a member does not diminish me in any way whatsoever. In fact, many people, when we have looked at the electoral process, you would see that what is the issue is getting the right people, people with public service to come in. So, I think that saying that I cannot win an election in my ward is neither here nor there. I have run election before. I ran election in 1998. If I have refused to run election thereafter, it is my decision. This is a very quality conference and I am hoping we will arrive at quality decisions with new arguments that will help this country address the recurring issues. Those who say they don’t want to look at it, the consequences of the future will be on their heads. It will not be on the heads of those who have done what they should do. So, I am not going to worry myself and, by the way, I know Professor Ben Nwabueze very well. He knows that I have tremendous respect for him. I have worked closely with him. I have been guided by a lot of what he has written. I have enriched myself enormously from Professor Ben Nwabueze’s profound knowledge of the law. I only disagree with him on the deal with these matters? Already we ethnic nationality thing. Nigeria have too many bureaucracy. Let us has since moved away from the go one way: derivation. You collect 1960 era. We cannot be talking it provided that what you get from about ethnic nationalities in derivation goes also to the 2014. communities where you get them. I think that if we do that and the That is my view. I cannot overriding principle is fairness and downplay it. But anything about justice, we will get it right. Finally devolution of power, you will see on this area, there is enormous that I am almost 100 percent mineral wealth across Nigeria. guided by Professor Ben Precious stones. I am talking of very Nwabueze’s views. So, you will valuable minerals. Why don’t you find out that what we are arguing deploy these things to attract foreign has not excluded anybody. We are exchange for us so that these states also respecting the National can also benefit from derivation Assembly’s authority and power formula? If we look at it this way, we to legislate. We are also respecting will be able to arrive at an Mr. President’s power to execute. understanding.

So, we might end up giving them

Three fears Nigeria must address to survive, by ABC Nwosu why you find that during Federation Account, the local governments are not there. But this money is given to states to pass onto local governments and then you begin to examine, do they get to the local governments? Or did we trap them at the state? Or did we put our people at the local government? Why don’t we do the simple thing and say Federation Account is between the federal government and the federating units? I am also not happy that the money between the Federal Government and the states has to be kept by the Federal Government.

They come for meetings and sit with the federal Minister of Finance and account-general of the federal government. Why can’t we have a Director-General or AccountantGeneral of the Federation? Even though the Presidency is in charge, it has its own minister. Let its minister sit there but not as the chairman.

The Federation Account belongs to the Federal Government and the states and they should decide. It is not even a matter of everybody rushing here, wasting money on hotels and haggling and sharing.

No. If the formula is decided, at the end of every month, the people who are to draw from it are credited with it. Let the federating units go and deal with their local governments in their areas. Now, the resource control and revenue allocation. In a democracy, there is the rule of law.

But in life there is also what is right, what is wrong, what is just and what is not just. A friend talked to me and said ‘this is the law of the sea, this is

In Nigeria, power is not power to do good. It is not power to give public office. It has degenerated into power to dispense patronage; power to do unto my own what I would not want to be done unto others the law of the land, the law under the sea, the law of above the sea’. I am not a lawyer. But I know that you pay derivation. You don’t pay derivation to Anambra. You don’t pay to Enugu. You don’t pay to Ebonyi, Kogi, Benue and Katsina.

Why do you then pay to Rivers, Delta,etc?; it is a recognition that this resource is physically in their areas. Are we right to say that what is in somebody’s area does not belong to him? It can be done. And I hope we will provide Nigeria with a template for doing it. Let me also tell you one of the things we must look at in doing it: we can have a single pronged approach.

Derivation. Take your money. But in that derivation, a lot of derivation should also be taken care; just like we take care of the state where it is got, we must also look at the communities from where they are got because states are richer but communities from where the oil is extracted are not richer. Another way we should look at it is: do we really need to create more bureaucracy?

NDDC, Niger-Delta Ministry to

Many people including Professor Ben Nwabueze are expressing doubt over the legitimacy of the ongoing National Conference.

What is your take?

I was involved in the 1994/95 conference as the head of the Igbo secretariat and you can see that conference produced a draft constitution that was not made law

draft bills and all that along with our report. What they do with it becomes their own business.

Basically, the purpose of this country and why many of us are there is to remove all these recurring impediments to Nigeria’s development so that the country can proceed to develop and improve on the quality of lives of Nigerians.

PAGE 30 — SUNDAY Vanguard, MAY 4, 2014

The Gambia ‘Roots’ and remnants of man’s inhumanity to man

The Roots Experience In 1738, the Gambia was said to have been relinquished to the British and, when slavery was abolished in 1807, James Island became an integral part of the fight against illegal slave trade.

Some three million slaves are believed to have been taken from the region during the slave trade period.

Today, one of the most popular heritage products is the Gambia Roots Tour, inspired by Alex Haley’s book, ‘Roots’.

‘Roots’ sold nearly six million copies. It won a 1977 Pulitzer Prize and a 1977 National Book Award.

The 1977 mini-series was seen by an estimated 130 million people.

Many who have not been to the Gambia, but have seen the best selling novel and the drama of Alex Haley’s ‘Roots’ will be fascinated about the trip to the village where Haley and other black Americans traced their roots.

In the Gambia, the impact of

One of the tour guides said, “Kunta Kinteh Island forms an exceptional testimony to the different facets and phases of the AfricanEuropean encounter, from the 15th to the 19th centuries

,,

That the Gambia is fast becoming the most sought after destination in West Africa for various categories of holiday makers is undisputed.

Thousands of international visitors go to the Gambia each year, drawn by its beaches, birdlife, sunshine and its people.

JIMOH BABATUNDE, who was part of journalists who went to the Gambia recently, reports on what has been pulling tourists to the country.

‘Roots’ was huge. It made the country, where hundreds of thousands of slaves were taken, the allegorical home of the estimated 12 million sold into slavery. An annual ‘Roots’ festival was created and still runs each year. Kunta Kinte’s home town of Juffure turned into a commercial tourist attraction, as did nearby James Island and the village of Albreda.

We ( journalists) looked forward to the trip as we were debriefed that we will be travelling for two hours on a leisure boat cruise down the Gambia River. For those who have phobia for water, it was not the best thing to imagine - two hours on water.

Boarding the Pleasure Sport Boat run by Rachael Joyce, a Briton, and her team of Mai, Aisha and Ebraheem, among others, at the Banjul port, the two hours trip to the Island of Kunta Kinteh was fun all the way.

I spent better part of the trip in the kitchen with Mai and Aisha preparing lunch for the tourists on

board. It was opportunity to learn about the local dish of the Gambians.

I took time to teach them how to prepare the Nigeria ‘jollof rice” and to explain why some of us take a lot of spicy foods.

Joyce came in occasionally to the kitchen to chat with us and she ran down to ask me to catch a glimpse of Dolphins as we were getting close to the villages of Albreda and Juffurah where Kunta Kinteh hailed from.

Cruising The River Gambia, apart from sighting Dolphins, you can see some fishermen and women fishing with boat on the river and as well tourists.

Getting to the village, we were immediately received by tour guides at the gates who explained to us the historical importance of the island.

One of the tour guides said, “Kunta Kinteh Island forms an exceptional testimony to the different facets and phases of the AfricanEuropean encounter, from the 15th to the 19th centuries. The River Gambia was particularly important forming the first trade route to the inland of Africa.

“The site was already a contact point with Arabs and Phoenicians before the arrival of the Portuguese in the 15th century. The region forms a cultural landscape, where the historic elements are retained in their cultural and natural context.”

From the gate we moved to the museum where we found out more about the history of the slave trading posts and a replica of an 18thcentury slave ship. A children’s center has crafts that tourists can buy, helping the schools — and keeping kids from begging in the streets.

We later met Mariama Fofana, known in Juffure as an eighthgeneration descendent of Kunta Kinte, under a covered portico; she sits in a plastic chair next to a cousin. She speaks not at all, just smiles as people shake her hand.

She sells on the history of the family which many buy from her.

With kids waving to tourists as we moved about the villages, arriving back at the Cruise boat, a buffet lunch was ready for us to help ourselves while we cruised slowly to Fort James Island also known as the Kunta Kinte Island.

A colleague of ours refused to make the journey in small boat as we made our way to the Kunta Kinteh Island that sits in the middle of the Gambia River.

Nobody lives here.

Nobody sells anything.

The island reminds one of the notorious scenes of man’s inhumanity to man, a reminder of history that no man will be proud of. Visitors wander the sad, sinister ruins on the shrinking island covered with naked baobab trees. The island is only one sixth as big as it used to be, as the river had washed away the evidence of major slave trading in West Africa.

After the tour, we began the journey to Banjul as we kept looking out for some pods of Dolphins playing along the boat.

ECOTOURISM Many will take to their heels seeing a baboon in the jungle or the baboon runs away from man, but that is not the case at the Makasutu culture forest where nature has blended well with environment for the enjoyment of man.

This afternoon, baboons were seen playing around in the village undisturbed by the movement of tourists around. The most amazing thing was when a baboon sighted a man with a camera; it jumped on a chair posing for a shot. With the click of camera flashes, the baboon changes positions severally for different shots.

That is one of the pulls at Makasutu culture forest, widely regarded as one of the finest ecoparks in the Gambia with an abundance of wildlife including birds, fruit bats, baboons, birds and fish.

One of the tour guides at the village, Omoha Sanya, disclosed that the village, which sits on about a thousand hectares, has three partsthe cultural village; the Madinah lodge and the base camp.

SUNDAY VANGUARD, MAY 4, 2014, PAGE 31

BALARABE MUSA RAISES THE ALARM

‘2015 presidential election may not hold’

BY OL AYINK A AJ AYI OLA YINKA AJA

V

eteran politician and second republic gover nor of old Kaduna State, Alhaji Balarabe Musa, is worried that there appears to be a conspiracy to stop the 2015 presidential election. Balarabe, in this interview, also speaks on the insecurity challenge the nation is facing, the hostilities between Fulani hersdmen and locals in some parts of Nigeria, and the on-going National Conference which he describes as President Goodluck Jonathan’s strategic committee.

How do you see the clashes between Fulani herdsmen and their host communities, the most recent of which is the clash in Benue State that saw Governor Suswan narrowly escaping death?

The latest we have now is the problem of criminal activities beyond cattle rearing and it’s becoming an insurgency which is worse than Boko-Haram.

Some people are of the opinion that the alleged violent herdsmen are Boko-Haram members in disguise?

They are not Boko-Haram members in disguise. They are worse than that. They are more organized and better equipped than Boko-Haram.

All I can say is that the insurgency is purely orchestrated to destabilize Nigeria for political reasons starting with the North and then spreading throughout the country. Already it is active in the North-east, North-west, South-south. I believe they are organized by internal forces big enough to challenge the Federal Government in collaboration with outside forces that have interest in controlling Nigeria; these people are not just local BokoHaram and cattle rearers. The bombing in Abuja is a clear indication.

It is a continuation of the distabilisation of the peace of Nigeria for political reasons.

The aim of the insurgency is to disorganise our co-existence as a nation.

Some people are of the view that there is the need to re-creates grazing route to bring peaceful co-existence between

host communities and the Fulani herdsmen?

That is not a problem because President Jonathan is already doing that. In the first place, the Fulani herdsmen are not organized enough to embark on negotiating an issue like that.

How best do you think insurgency in the country can be curtailed?

Unfortunately we don’t have a National Conference that is truly democratic in nature. It is a National Conference that is built on what the President wants. If it is a true legislative National Conference, it can start the process of resolving the problem because it would have been national and it would have been representative. Why we need the National Conference to do that is because the government is partially responsible for what is happening either in terms of connivance or in terms of incompetence.

Do you mean the ongoing National Conference is not credible enough to address the issues facing us as a nation?

The on-going National Conference is not democratic and does not represent us enough to address the issues facing us as a nation. The means of selecting the delegates was not electoral in process because nobody there was elected. In other words, you can say that every delegate there was appointed by the President either directly or indirectly. So the conference is not a true representation of the nation.

With the undemocratic nature of the National Conference, I don’t see it having any impact on the problems facing us as a nation. Insurgency is a true indication that the CONFAB is not genuine enough to solve our problems is as a country. We cannot have a truly on-going National Conference and insurgency will be going on! The National Conference can never be relevant because of these challenges! Here are strategic national problems, they should be able to deal with them. But the President

Alhaji Balarabe Musa

•Balarabe Musa wants a National Conference and there is no need wasting time fighting the President over it, let us see what the conference will expose. The National Conference, as far as I am concerned, is not a true National Conference, it is a strategic committee of Mr. President. because he appointed everybody without election and he also pointed out the agenda that guides what would be discussed and what should not be discussed.

He also decided whether the report will be submitted to the National Assembly or make it legal through referendum. You are aware that in our nascent democracy, the President is so powerful that he can decide anything and no one will challenge him.

Look at what is going on the NNPC alleged missing $10 billion. The suspended CBN Governor Lamido Sanusi first alleged that it was $ 20 billion which led to the action against him and they admitted that it is $10 billion but it has not been accounted for, and what is the orchestrated National Conference doing about it? Is there any country in the world with this kind of scandal and nothing is done to address it?

We are talking about an amount equivalent to the 2014 budget of the Federal Government and nobody is talking about it. With that situation, do we expect anything

It is probably the reason the insurgency is becoming stronger because maybe the intention is not to have the 2015 presidential election

good to come out of the conference? This is the reason the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwa, said the President is encouraging corruption because where does the money to fund the conference come from? Of course it is not from the 2014 budget because it has not been provided for. This is similar to what former President Obasanjo did and got away with it.

What do you think is the best way to curtail insurgency bedeviling the North?

It is in the hands of government to solve the problem; if they can’t, the southern people can keep to themselves through whatever means until it will reach the stage when the sovereign people of Nigeria will withdraw the mandate they gave them under the 1999 Constitution.

With the multifarious challenges facing the nation, do you see Nigeria remaining one nation come 2015?

It is probably the reason the insurgency is becoming stronger because maybe the intention is not to have the 2015 presidential election and, you know, it is stated in the 1999 Constitution that if election is not held, the President has no power to hand over to anybody but to continue.

Let us not ignore the fact that it could be a conspiracy staring us in the face.

PAGE 32, SUNDAY VANGUARD, MAY 4, 2014

NA TIONAL CONFERENCE OUT COME NATIONAL OUTCOME

How to avoid a repeat of Obasanjo Third Term scenario - Senator Esuene *‘My ambition to succeed Gov. Akpabio’

BY JOHNBOSCO AGBAKWURU

Senator Helen Esuene is the Chairman, Senate Committee on Women Affairs and Youths Development; she represents Akwa Ibom South (Eket) Senatorial District. In this interview, she speaks on the National Confab and why she is the best person to govern Akwa Ibom State in 2015. Excerpts:

W

HY is it that we don’t have many women in elective positions in the country?

We don’t have enough women in elective positions in Nigeria, and that is what women have been clamoring for. In appointive positions, we can say a lot of progress has been made, but in elective, we are still lagging seriously behind other African countries. A few issues are responsible. One is culture but other African countries share common cultures with us and their women are treated better.

The second issue is the system of government we run. In some of the African countries, their constitutions are a little bit elastic. They have provisions for appointed parliamentarians in their constitutions. They even have quota for some groups like the disabled, the youths, even the military. These are some of the things that give women in those nations a head start. In our case, we are not saying bend the rules, but give us a level playing ground because politics in Nigeria is rugged and sometimes quite violent and that inhibits many women.

A woman contested against the President at the last PDP primaries. But despite the number of women at the convention, they didn’t vote for her. Don’t you think that women are sometimes their own enemies?

I wouldn’t specifically say so.

When it comes to elections, if a man is contesting, he is not contesting for the men, the same goes for the woman, she is contesting for everybody and you have to do the needful, you have to work hard and talk. With due respect, I think that was lacking in the two times that the woman came out to vie for the presidency, but we still appreciate her courage in coming out because it will speak for her that she was the first woman to have done that. Meanwhile, standing for an election is not specifically a gender issue. If I contest, I am a woman but I am not contesting just for women to vote me in.

Why do you want to govern Akwa Ibom State?

Why I want to stand for the gubernatorial election in Akwa Ibom State is because I am quite familiar with the terrain of that

state. I know it very well, I know the people, I know the strengths of the state, I know the weaknesses, I know the ethnic interplay, I am very confident that I will be able to build bridges that will usher in peaceful co-existence because in whatever developmental strides or efforts the government may make, if you cannot assure peaceful co-existence, it may not be sustainable. Where there is peaceful co-existence, when the populace is happy, that is when you will have their best in terms of contributions, attitudes, cooperation and everything. So, I feel I am the right person for the job at this point in time.

Godfatherism is a major issue.

What is your relationship with Governor Godswill Akpabio.

Are you his candidate? How are you going to face the challenge coming from men?

Godfatherism is there but politics is dynamic. What you see in the morning is not necessarily what you see in the evening. I have a very healthy relationship with my governor.

Has he given you the go ahead?

He has given me the go ahead.

I discussed with him; if he is not carrying me along right now, it is not an issue because, as I said, politics is dynamic because what happens today doesn’t mean the

Senator Helen Esuene my full tenure; so the senatorial seat is supposed to move to the next constituency which is Oron.

When I was contesting, it was a big issue during my campaign and the issue was since you are

I quite agree that a conference such as the one that is being held is necessary; let Nigerians come and talk freely about what they feel about their country because if that is not done, it is bottled up same thing is going to happen tomorrow.

What is actually your attraction to the Government House?

Why not come back to the Senate and make a mark in legislation?

When I was campaigning for the Senate, in my senatorial district, the unwritten agreement is that each federal constituency that occupies the senatorial seat should do so for two terms and then it moves to the next federal constituency. When Senator Udo Udoma was here, he was representing Ikot Abasi federal constituency and he was here for two terms and, thereafter, Mrs. Eme Ekaite came on board from Eket federal constituency. I am from Eket federal constituency as well.

By next year, I would have done

going for the first time, are you sure you won’t want to go back, and I gave them my word that I would do one term and get out, I wouldn’t want to go back on my promise.

Since you believe you are the right person to succeed the governor, are your constituents with you?

I have always impacted on the lives of my constituents even before I came into politics. I enjoy a lot of good will within my constituency and the Akwa Ibom people as a whole. They know me, they can speak for me, they know what I can do. With the position I have occupied in the last three years, I have been able to impact lives, I have able to do what a representative should do in terms of reaching out to them,

I know the issues that are uppermost in their minds; one of them is employment. Immediately after I came on board, I put in place a job network center which is like a one stop shop to bring employers of labour and applicants together. It is a data base facility which is still on. That facility has enabled people to get employment, we even go a step further by organizing courses for applicants on how to present themselves at interviews.

I have done many constituency projects. I commissioned one last month and I am working on commissioning another one next month. The constituency projects span the entire area. Mine is one of the biggest senatorial districts in the country with 12 local governments, it is bigger than some states and I have been able to do that. I also set up a cooperative society for women to empower them.

Let’s talk about the bills, motions you have sponsored or cosponsored in the Senate?

I initiated about five or six bills, some on gender. I initiated the bill that seeks to amend the Universal Basic Education Act; there is another one on the Child’s Right Act to incorporate taking care of unaccompanied children or abandoned children during strife. I have a bill on how to restore the mangrove forest in the country.

Another bill that I put in place is to regulate the use of weapons of mass destruction. We have another bill on how to manage nu-

clear products but we need a bill on weapons of mass destruction.

In what stages are the bills?

Some have gone through first reading. There was one also on women equal opportunities right that went through first reading; at the second reading, there were some technicalities as some bills had captured some of the issues raised there.

Some members of the National Assembly have described the ongoing National Conference as a jamboree. What is your position on the conference?

In 2005 during the National Political Conference in which I was a delegate, the same sentiment was expressed that it was a jamboree. Unfortunately the critics were right. But this one is not a jamboree. However, whether something good comes out of it will depend on how we manage the outcome, the recommendations. I believe that bringing Nigerians to talk about the contentious issues in the country is important; the National Assembly members cannot claim to be the sole custodians of knowledge about Nigeria. I quite agree that a conference such as the one that is being held is necessary; let Nigerians come and talk freely about what they feel about their country because if that is not done, it is bottled up. The President has done so well to set up this national dialogue to defuse tension in the country. I think at the end of it, whatever recommendations they have, the Presidency will reduce them into bills and send to the National Assembly. I wouldn’t advise that there should be one bill because if one aspect in that bill doesn’t sail through, it will affect all. There should be several bills in their different components seeking to do one thing or the other and the National Assembly will take them one by one.

I am saying this so that we can avoid the experience of the failed constitutional amendment that was to be carried out under the Obasanjo administration when because the lawmakers wanted to kill the then President’s Third Term ambition, the entire exercise was shelved.

What would be your agenda as the governor of Akwa Ibom State?

Unity amongst the various segments is top on my agenda. I also consider it very crucial at this stage in our country that people should be gainfully employed, people should be encouraged to do something, it will bring about a lot of positive reactions and reduction in crime. Of course, industrialization and agriculture will help to generate employment, that will be on the front burner of my administration.

SUNDAY VANGUARD, MAY 4, 2014, PAGE 33

Constitution Making: Ekwer emadu’s Expositions In America

BY EMMANUELAZIKEN, POLITICAL EDITOR

The Deputy President of the Senate, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, recently, spoke to faculty and staff of the John Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies, SAIS, Washington DC on the efforts to reform Nigeria’s constitution. The meetings uncovered the underlying frames and fractures in law making in Nigeria

I

T was not surprising that the John Hopkins Univer sity’s School of Advanced International Studies, SAIS, picked on Senator Ike Ekweremadu to throw more light on Nigeria’s ongoing constitution reforms. The two-time Deputy President of the Senate was concurrently Chairman of the Senate Committee on Constitution Review, SCCR, and was the first among the three persons to have held the office in the fourth republic to successfully lead the National Assembly to alter the 1999 Constitution.

With headquarters in Washington D.C, the SAIS, established in 1943, offers international perspective to some of the world’s most significant developments.

from Nigeria earlier that day of the bus park bombing in Nyanya, Abuja which killed scores. Before he commenced the lecture, the Deputy President of the Senate called for a time of silence in memory of the victims.

Before Ekweremadu, the Senate effort in Constitution review had been led, first by Senator Haruna Abubakar, now late, and Senator Ibrahim Mantu. The latter effort by Mantu was overshadowed by the third term controversy which culminated in the abandonment of all the amendments.

It was not until 2010 that the first set of alterations to the 1999 Constitution were made under the Ekweremadu leadership of the Senate Committee.

The Deputy President of the Senate, who gave a rundown of his experience in leading the process that led to the first 2010 amendments after the botched attempts in 2003 and 2006, however, lamented challenges that continued to militate against the fine-tuning of the Constitution. He cited among others, inexperience, ethnic bias and lack of politi-

My view is that we can adopt the Canadian model and leave local governments as state affairs. The states should determine the number of local governments they want and how to fund such local governments The school became an affiliate of the prestigious John Hopkins University in 1950.

It has, however, progressed to establish campuses in two in Europe and Asia.

The spotlight on Nigeria’s constitution reforms was the focus of the school at the lecture entitled, “Constitution review in an emerging democracy”, delivered

by Ekweremadu to faculty and students of the school in Washington.

Other dignitaries present include some members of the Nigerian community in the United States (US) led by Ambassador Ade Adefuye. There was also representation from the US State Department.

Before the lecture, Ekweremadu paid a courtesy call on the dean of the school.

A pall of gloom had preceded the event following reports

cal will by many stakeholders.

He particularly lamented the failure of the state Houses of Assembly to adopt the proposal for their financial autonomy supposedly out of fear of their governors.

Ekweremadu who recently called for the adoption of single term limit as a solution to the crisis of succession in executive offices, again raised the issue, saying the country should adopt what he advocated for such offices for a transition period of 30 years during which the country’s democratic culture would have mature.

He also suggested modification of Nigeria’s system of government to make ministers give regular account of their stewardship to parliament in a system that would make erring ministers vacate office

The Director of African Studies Programme, School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University, Washington DC, Prof. Peter Lewis, presenting a gift to the Deputy President of the Senate, Ike Ekweremadu, at the end of a lecture delivered by the Senator at the school recently

should they lose the confidence of the legislature.

Noting the relative success of the 2011 election which he attributed to the amendments made to the Electoral Act in 2010, he said the National Assembly was now set to push ahead with further amendments that would fine-tune the electoral process. Prominent among the proposed amendments is a clause which the Deputy Senate President said would ensure that all election disputes arising from the polls in 2015 are settled before the winners take office.

Ekweremadu also spoke on the relationship between local and state governments as he called for local governments to be fully integrated under the control and structure of the states. ”My view is that we can adopt the Canadian model and leave local governments as state affairs. The states should determine the number of local governments they want and how to fund such local governments. The sheer size and population of India necessitated the Indian model where local governments constitute a third tier of government”, he stated.

The Deputy President of the Senate called for the decentralisation of policing, saying Nigeria is the only country he knows operating a federal structure with a central police system.

The decentralisation of polic-

ing, according to him, would significantly help the campaign against crime including the insurgency mounted by the Islamist Boko Haram group. ”It must be said, however, that prevalent global trend in crimefighting and the realities of security challenges in the country make the decentralisation of policing inevitable. Decentralised policing gives the police the advantage of knowing the environment in which they operate geographically, culturally, socially, politically and even economically”, he stressed. ”More so, the concern that decentralised policing might lead to abuse by state governments appears quite untenable in our situation. This is so because even with the total control over the police residing with the federal government, it is still being variously abused at all levels. The decentralised police will be effectively monitored by an independent Police Service Commission to ensure that abuses are reduced to the barest minimum.”

In advocating for a single term limit, he said:”Among other advertised benefits, singleterm would avoid the distractions, manipulations and divisiveness of re-election campaigns, while facilitating a more rapid circulation or rotation of power among the various Nigerian groups. But critics contend that such a change in term limit could remove electoral incentives for good governance, while further entrenching corrupt ethnocentric politics.”

Ekweremadu took questions from the audience. One of the faculty members raised issues with Nigeria’s stern law against homosexual practice.

Responding, the Deputy Senate President said that every society has its culture and core beliefs and that, while Nigeria respected the values of Americans, the international community to respect the core values held by Nigerians.

After the lecture, Ekweremadu had an interactive session with members of the Nigerian community in the US during which time he addressed many concerns raised by the community.

He also spoke to journalists on the US visit. His words: “The major thing I came here to do was to present a paper at John Hopkins University. Outside that, I had meetings with some interest groups. I met with the National Security Adviser in President Bill Clinton’s administration, Mr. Sandy Barger, and we spoke about security issues in West Africa and how they could be of assistance to us using their experience, and he was very, very forth coming. He spoke about the issue of border control and how that has been a panacea of sorts in the Middle-East and we are going to take it up from there as I intend telling our National Security Adviser of our discussion so that the two of them can take it up from there. ”I also spoke with officials of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies and they wanted an assurance that there would be free and fair elections and I made it clear to them that we have been in the process of electoral reform since 2010.

The group had earlier met with Dr. Doyin Okupe and Alhaji Lai Mohammed and my meeting with them was more like a follow-up. I assured them that we are working with Prof.

Atthairu Jega, the Chairman of the Independent and National Electoral Commission, to ensure that the elections in 2015 will be very transparent. ”They wanted to find out what would happen in the North-east.

I told them that we are very optimistic that matters would have been settled before then and that Nigeria is considering a lot of options in dealing with Boko Haram including a joint effort on the level of the Chad River Basin Commission which would mean Nigeria, Chad, Niger being involved in finding a solution to this problem because that had been the major problem in Nigeria’s engagement with Boko Haram. So, because of the sub-regional implications, it became necessary for Nigeria to involve other countries within the sahel region to ensure that we have a concerted effort in dealing with this matter. I am aware that in Chad they are selling AK 47 rifles on the streets; so if they are not involved, we will be wasting our time because the supply of arms will go on unhindered. ”And I made it clear to them that we are open to dialogue on ideas on how to deal with insurgency; we want our friends to be part of any effort to resolve the issue.”

PAGE 34—SUNDAY Vanguard, MAY 4 , 2014

Worries as cement price hits the roof STORIES BY UDEME CLEMENT

T

HE rapid increase in the price of cement from N1,800 in December 2013 to about N2,500 now is unsettling for builders, especially those in the housing sub-sector of the economy.

Sunday Vanguard, during a visit to some block industries

in Lagos learnt that the sudden increase in cement price, which is about 15 per cent took everyone in the industry by surprise.

Speaking, Mr. Sunday Imoh, the manager of Sunny Block industry at Ojodu area of Lagos, explained that the increase in cement price may be connected with the new mining levy imposed by government on cement makers in the country.

He said, “The increase in cement price now is unusual because we are already in rainy season. Cement price is often high in dry season

Cement ought to be cheap but the cost of production due to dearth of infrastructure is so huge. Consider even the cost of transportation because that is the peak of construction activities in the country. The price of cement in the last few months went up by almost 25 per cent. For instance, in the last quarter of 2013, the price went up from N1,800 to about N1,200 in November .”

He went on, “The high cost of this commodity greatly affected people in Lagos, Ogun and

Cement... out of the reach of common man

other states, where construction activities witnessed unprecedented growth in recent years. This is not the first time we are experiencing increase in cement price, because in May 2013, the price of cement rose to about N2,900 per bag. The situation then moved the Federal Government to issue a new directive compelling all producers in

the country to cut the price” However, Dangote Cement, said it has not increased its unit cost of cement in the past five years notwithstanding the rising cost of production.

The Director, Sales and Marketing of the company, Mr. Ekanem Etim, explained that the price of cement in the company has been stable in spite of high production cost, which

include power generation and other costs associated with doing the business efficiently. He said that aside from ensuring stable price, Dangote Cement is committed to maintaining a high standard. To achieve this, the company embarks on regular training and retraining programmers for block makers in the countr y.

He said, “Cement ought to be cheap but the cost of production due to dearth of infrastructure is so huge. Consider even the cost of transportation. Notwithstanding, the cost of moving our products to our customers is the lowest in Nigeria. In Dangote, we provide quality at a lower price.”

In the same vein, the Chairman, Cement Manufacturers Association, Mr. Joseph Makoju, said that their members have not increase cement price in the last four to five years, despite the huge amount the spent on production, diesel and transportation.

Desist or face the law, Customs warns smugglers .Intercepts Tokunbo cars

T

HE on-going battle be tween Oyo/Osun Command of Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) and unrepentant smugglers within the border community has taken a new dimension, as the Customs Crack Team intercepted a convoy of

eight tokunbo cars loaded with prohibited goods from IgbetiSaki axis, the route linking Nigeria with other neighbouring countries.

Sunday Vanguard, learnt that the culprits who smuggled in the vehicles with other contraband goods came in a large convoy with armed escort in a bid to escape security checks but met a fierce opposition, as Customs seized the cars along with all the items. Some of the goods include textile materials, baby clothes, jean trousers, soap and second-hand shoes, among other prohibited items.

In the same vein, the Command impounded two 20footer trucks, two Faka-buses and a Canter loaded with rice. In a chat with Sunday Vanguard, the Customs Area Controller (CAC) of the Command, Mr. Oteri Richard, explained that the two Faka-buses were arrested along old Abeokuta road, by the Crack-Team, led

by DSC Alajogun J. A. “They also intercepted a Canter-bus loaded with rice at IgbooraEruwa road. Team D and F made seizure of two trucks of rice along Iseyin-Saki axis. A total of 1,300 bags of rice were seized from April 2 to 16, 2014, with a Duty Paid Value (DPV) of over N16.4million”, he stressed.

He added, “The Command’s resolve to keep re-strategising its operational modalities, es-

pecially in the area of antismuggling has continued to pay off. The tokunbo cars were seized through the intelligence network of our Crack Team, notwithstanding the fact that they came in a large convoy with armed escort, which posed a threat to the officers.

The vehicles fully loaded with rice as you can see here were also intercepted by vigilant officers during operations. We are warning scrupulous importers trying to sabotage government policy on rice to de-

sist from this illegal act or face the wrath of the law, as we will not hesitate to prosecution those sabotaging our economy.”

He went on, “The seized rice do not belong to legitimate importers saddled with the duty of rice importation through the seaport. Importation of rice through the nation’s borders is prohibited by government, yet smugglers still go to the neighbouring borders to bring in rice through the back door.

Their aim is to smuggle in rice without following the due process in passing through the

The CAC of Oyo/Osun Customs command, Mr. Oteri Richard and other officers, inspecting rice intercepted by the Command.

seaport to pay import duty, which is 10 per cent for rice.

The Comptroller General of Customs, Alhaji Abdullahi Inde Dikko, has zero tolerance for rice and smuggling and we must enforce the law strictly”.

Our investigations revealed that the seized rice came from different companies with inscription like premium rice, queen rice and king rice, all packaged in 50kg bags.

The Tokunbo cars, loaded with different contra-band items seized by Oyo/Osun Customs Command, along Saki axis.

Expert decries high rate of sub-standard projects in Nigeria

A

project management professional, Dr Sam my Ojigbo, has condemned the high rate of project abandonment and the execution of poor quality projects in Nigeria, describing it as the bane of infrastructure development in the country.

The project engineer who retired recently from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation,NNPC, blamed the situation on the lack of req-

uisite skills about handling of projects, while stressing the need for the country to build capacity in the area.

“Project failure is a very common phenomenon in Nigeria; ranging from small, medium to major projects at the government, private and individual levels, as a result of poor project management and poor maintenance culture for the commissioned projects..

He noted that execution of

projects on the basis of distorted tribal or political sentiments coupled with corrupt intentions, which is often the case in Nigeria, rather than proper objective project goals setting, is highly unlikely to produce completed quality projects.

He also regretted that often monies meant for the execution of projects are wasted as the projects are never completed and put to use as sup-

posed.

Stressing the importance of capacity building in Project management, Ojigbo said, “The world is in dire need of professional project managers and Nigeria is not left out. The world currently needs an approximately 32.6 million employees with project management skill between now and 2016 according to the survey carried out by the Project Management Institute (PMI)”.

SUNDAY Vanguard, MAY 4, 2014, PAGE 35

The prospects of Delta Green Economy – Paul Odili and recommend a strategy for developing waste into economic resource. The average business interests involved in sustainable development as a business understand the value chain of waste and, as such, do not see waste as it is, they see waste as an economic resource. There are conversion technologies that can turn your wastes into commodities and become resources to other business interests that will convert it into a final product at a profit. From the front end, if you have the right technology, you can convert your waste and, at the backend, it becomes an economic resource that somebody uses. The technical mission will work with our project team in the ministries.

For water, for instance, the issue is not just about water, but you will look at how do you access water in an efficient and sustainable manner. Those are the things that the study will cover.

BY OLAYINKA AJAYI

Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan of Delta State is a passionate environmentalist, championing initiatives that support environmental awareness and protection. He was the first governor to call attention to the harmful effects of climate change and why Nigeria should be proactive in confronting this problem. His administration seeks to diversify Delta’s economy from over reliance on crude oil, a known major source of environmental pollution and carbon emission. One of the steps the Uduaghan administration is taking to promote its Delta Beyond Oil vision is by adopting green initiatives. Paul Odili, Communication Manager and Green Economy Project lead, gives further insight into the quest by Uduaghan to build a green economy in the state.

W

HAT is the Green Economy initiative of the state about?

Sustainable development and climate change has been part of this administration’s agenda.

When the governor talks about ‘Delta Beyond Oil’, there are critical pillars that support that initiative. Beyond just diversifying the economy of Delta State from reliance on crude oil as a major source of revenue, it was important that we also think in terms of sustainable development initiatives. It simply means the ability to consume resources in a more efficient and environmentally friendly manner, such that we do not waste resources and it does not compromise the ability of the future generation to also have access to those resources.

There are different ministries and MDAs pursuing green initiatives – the Ministry of Energy has done a lot of work in solar street lighting, the Ministry of Environment has done a lot with waste recycling plants, the Ministry of Transport is also doing quite a bit of it.

But it was important that it is consolidated further. I need to also add that since 2009 when he (governor) began to speak out on climate change, he was the first governor to have spoken out very forcefully, calling the attention of the nation to the issue of climate change and our apparent indifference to it. He was also one of the governors that formed the R20 Region of Climate Action, which is an international NGO that is led by the former Governor of California (Mr Arnold Schwarzenegger). The governor is the Vice Chairman of Africa and Middle East of this body.

We have had all kinds of different initiatives. We have had various reports and studies that have been done; for instance, the IEA report that looked at the Delta State Renewable Energy opportunities, a very interesting report and everybody acclaims it as a very solid work. We have had partnership with UNDP to produce the TACC Report – Territorial Approach to Climate Change. It is a vulnerable report that looks at the impact of climate change on the most vulnerable segments of the society. It also takes cross-sector approach

• Paul Odili to the effects of climate change and has issued the Integrated Ter ritorial Climate Report (ITCP). We have also had a partnership with Phillips; they did an energy audit of some government facilities on and renewable energy and efficiency system in the state. Today, we have some ideas of the investment this requires, the emission reduction and the payback if we adopt this measure.

Some things have been going on; it is just that it makes sense to now consolidate. The only way to do that is to have a structure, which is why the governor decided that it is more effective if you have everything put together in a

development; it is about also creating an economic structure that is sustainable. The way to do that is you have a structure that is able to do a lot of research, attract investment, coordinate green economy policies and implement green economy projects and programmes in the state, working with ministries, which also in many respects have mandates that are related to green initiatives. e know that there are busi ness models and technolW ogies out there that are accessi-

ble and interested to partner with us. The point then becomes if you

It would also improve the public welfare. A fully embedded green economy is one that recognises the welfare and well-being of the people first. It does that across a whole range of sectors – agriculture, transportation, water, energy, public health structured form such that even beyond him, if it is backed by law, it can continue to have a lot of effect on the state.

Is there an enabling law right now for it?

There is no enabling law right now, but what has happened is that the step the governor has taken is to initiate a process of consultation and brainstorming. We had a series of workshops that culminated in producing the Delta State Green Economy Policy document. This is a policy document that articulates the requirements of the state, the current position, what it needs to do, the strategies it needs to adopt and the structures it needs to drive forward the sustainability initiative of the government to be able to promote green development in the state. It is not just about green

need to do all that, you have to have a formal structure and policy in place and it has to be backed by law. What the governor now did after the workshop in February was to very quickly send it to the House (of Assembly). That bill is in the House and we are hoping that very soon it will be passed into law. When it is backed by law, you are now in a position to engage any stakeholder or business interest.

The GGEI (Global Green Economy Index) assesses not just on leadership and structure, but also on cleantech. What have you done in this regard?

We have commissioned a lot of studies; we are expecting a technical mission in May to do waste characterisation study. For instance, it will look at the trend and scope of waste in Delta State

oes the state have plan to explore cleaner alternaD tive power source?

The IEA report on renewable energy in the state identified three very promising energy sources - solar, wind and waste.

Waste can be converted to energy use. For now what we are looking at from the studies we conducted are solar PV, which will convert sunlight, to electricity; solar thermal, which is water heating and drying for residential and commercial use. The point is, ultimately, there is the need for renewable energy in order to be able to bridge the energy gap in the state, which is why it is very critical that we move in that direction, especially for offgrid and rural areas, we could have off-grid energy solution whether it is wind or solar. The model that we will use may be in partnership or government will have to go into it solely as a social responsibility to support economic activities in those areas.

These are things we would come to at some point and we are looking in that direction; we already have a report and we are taking it to the next level to do a detailed analysis. hat are some of the pro visions of the bill setting W up this commission?

The law intends to set up the commission and the mandate is simple. It will initiate, coordinate and implement green economy policies and programmes in Delta State. It will collaborate with MDAs. Deltans, like most Nigerians, are sceptical about commissions, they see it as avenues to siphon public funds….

No, no, no. This is a very unique strcuture in that its mandate is to attract investments, initiate programmes and implement projects… ..It will also spend money It will spend money but we have adopted a self-funding model, which is to say that government will fund the commission for 10 years; after that it will become self-funding. It will become a source of revenue for the state.

Will government fund it wholly during the 10-year gestation period?

No, we expect that it will be deescalating. In order words, by the fifth year, government will only fund half of the cost and, as the years go towards 10th year, it will be self-funding. As the funding from government decreases, the agency is actually earning money to be able to offset some of its costs and operations. That is an indication that it is growing towards that self-funding target. We see tremendous promise and potential. ow does it benefit the state and the ordinary H Deltan?

It is very beneficial. You see when we talk about Delta Beyond Oil, it simply aims to end overdependence on oil, diversify the economy, expand the industrial base of the state, create employment and reduce poverty. When you are going green, you are also promoting an economic development that recognises and reduces environment risk of development. Traditional ways of economic growth and development have always been done at the risk of environmental sustainability.

This is saying it can be done taking into account the fragility of the environment. That is how this initiative complements the overall objective of government.

The social component will empower the people; it will create employment and economic growth. It would also improve the public welfare. A fully embedded green economy is one that recognises the welfare and wellbeing of the people first. It does that across a whole range of sectors – agriculture, transportation, water, energy, public health. In urban planning, if you are ecofriendly, you recognise that one of the major challenges of developing society is rapid urbanisation that leads to congestion and pollution. But if you are ecofriendly in your planning and practice, you factor in such that you prevent urbanisation that will pollute the environment and create public health issues for the people.

hy did the governor wait till the tail end of its adW ministration before initiating

this project? Also, some activities of this government have been everything but eco-friendly…

That is not true.

Instead of investing huge sums of money on the IPP, you could have put it into wind or any of those clean and green sources We are using gas, an energy source that is eco-friendly. Gas has a very low emission. But the point is, we have not gone into full green economy, the process is on; that is why you need to have some awareness and structure that will coordinate and guide policy making. But in future, the standard would change, whether in construction, production, consumption and whatever we do in the state some. It will be much more environmental friendly. It will be much more efficient in terms of resource use and resource effects on the society. We are taking the right steps. In a short while, people will see the effect.

PAGE 36—SUNDAY Vanguard, MAY 4 , 2014

T

HE discovery of oil in the Niger Delta has brought a mixed grill of fortune and misfortune. The irony in the natural resource in Nigeria is that it is more beneficial to “outsiders” than the hosts.

It is the realisation that the huge revenue derived from oil and gas exploration has been used to improve and grow the Human Development Index (HDI) of other lands other than the owners of the revenuespinning resource, that militancy and agitation grew in the Niger Delta.

The fad then was for oil multinationals to undertake expansive oil and gas exploration activities and simply abandon the communities from which the resources have been extracted.

Over time, the flora and fauna of those communities began to suffer adverse environmental degradation. And that grossly affected the day-to-day living standard of the people.

That was when some oil multinationals began to consider a measly attention to the welfare of the host communities, many of which had become hollow like sucked and discarded oranges.

Today, such measly attention is what is described as Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). While some oil and gas companies merely engage in “just any project” to fulfill all righteousness, some others really connect strongly with

Midwestern Oil and Gas: Beyond the oil business the host communities by understudying their need profile before embarking on projects that will be ultimately and maximally beneficial to them.

Midwestern Oil and Gas is one of the companies in the latter category.

After commencing business in 2001 and upstream opera-

With a running plant in Umusadege, Delta State, Midwestern Oil and Gas synergized with the community in such a way that both parties have, as it were, become partners, one complementing the needs and operations of the other tions in 2005, Midwestern Oil and Gas started off well by ensuring that the drawbacks of old oil companies were avoided. The company thus seemed

to have developed a template of amity with its host community.

With a running plant in Umusadege, Delta State, Midwestern Oil and Gas synergized with the community in such a way that both parties have, as it were, become partners, one complementing the needs and operations of the other.

The company ’s ease of operation is not by accident.

It is guided by regulations like the Nigerian Content Act, which seeks to correct many oil firms which short change their host communities.

Speaking on its community relations, the Managing Director, Adams Okoene, explained the mission and plans of the company.

“In Midwestern Oil and Gas, our vision is to become a model indigenous oil and gas producer in terms of profitability and community coexistence, and a mission to leveraging on best assets in our people, facilities and through unflagging innovation for the continuous benefit of all our stakeholders,” he said.

Meanwhile,the Federal Ministry of Environment has written to commend

Midwestern Oil and Gas for being environmental friendly.

And even beyond the Nigerian shores, awards have been coming the way of the company by stakeholders for compliance with standards as approved by the MPR and DPR as shown in the evacuation of hydrocarbon products as well as having competent and dedicated workforce.

The awards include the Africa Oil & Gas HSE of the Year Award; Global Green Award; and the International Star Award for Quality from the Geneva-based Business Initiative Directives.

Also, the company was shortlisted for the Global Green Award and the International Star Award for Quality.

According to industry watchers, the company is set to be on top of Africa’s leading annual oil & gas awards,the African Oil & Gas Awards.

Last November, the company attained a milestone when it celebrated six million manhours loss time injury (LTI)free operation.

Speaking during the celebration of the milestone achievement in Lagos the Managing Director, Okoene,

said the achievements were a reflection of the significant progress the company had made in health, safety and environmental policies.

Okoene said the achievements also reflected the controls the company applied to all the projects and services it executed.“ Also commenting on the awards coming the way of the company, the HSE Manager of Midwestern Oil and Gas, Anthony Okoye, noted that the HSE Award in South Africa was the result of all the company had done on its health, safety and environment objectives.

Speaking on the Global Green Award,the Financial Controller of Midwestern, Blessing Ayemhere, who spoke on behalf of Okoene, said, without applying for the award, presented in Berlin, Germany, the company was shortlisted from among about 180 representative companies across the world, based on its excellent performance in HSE. In so short a time, the company is not only making waves within the oil industry, it is impacting on lives and welfare of its host community.

The company has been awarded 70 per cent interest in Umusadege field located in OML 56, situated at the northern area of Delta State, which it operates in a strategic alliance with Suntrust Oil Company Nigeria Limited and Mart Energy Services Limited.

The unfolding power shift drama ahead Delta 2015

By JESUTEGA ONOKPASA

T

HE Delta 2015 guber natorial race is fast emerging as the most complicated and probably most confusing race for any Government House nationwide. Pundits are continuously shifting their bets, laboring beneath a debilitating cluelessness on how those bets may safely be hedged against the background of ever surprising developments which keep springing up to dominate the political landscape in the high-octane race to 2015.

While the idea that the governorship would shift to the Delta North Senatorial Zone was hitherto more or less a given, serious contenders for the governorship have solidly emerged from all three zones.

Needless to say, where does that leave advocates of power shift like me?

I have often interrogated my support for political inclusiveness. However often I choose to embark on that exercise, I end up right where I began.

It is not possible that God created any group of people not fit to rule.

But I also have a closer-tohome reason for my stance.

Few people bother to remember any more that the existence of the state we are at daggers drawn to rule is traceable to efforts led by a man of Delta North extraction. Denis Osadebe, Premier of the defunct Mid-west Region was the man

who spearheaded its creation from the defunct Western Region. At the time of the struggle, my late father, Benedict Etedjere Onokpasa was a member of the Action Group, AG. When it dawned on him that Obafemi Awolowo was immovably opposed to the creation of the Mid-west Region, he decamped to the Nnamdi Azikiwe led National Council of Nigerian Citizens, NCNC, a party that tacitly supported its creation. Matters came to a head for my dad, when the AG, as was its clandestine nature in those days, brought trumped-up charges against him alongside other decampees including a fellow Okpe man, the late Chief Brass Ometan. They were arrested in Warri and environs, transported to Asaba and marched before a judge. It was Denis Osadebe, the irrepressible bulwark of the Mid-west movement who defended them. Incidentally, it was the same Osadebe who coined the term Anioma and I simply cannot see how he could have championed our collective libration from the Western Region, been the Premier of the Mid-west Region, and for some reason, another person from Delta North cannot become the Governor of a state created from the same region he was most instrumental in creating.

As we say in Urhobo, it is the man who calls you that you answer. Yet I had known Dr.

Festus Okubor, present Chief of Staff to Governor Uduaghan, long before I ever met Ochei, and had served with him on the Delta PDP Campaign Council, 2011. Dr. Okubor is an interesting fellow.

Remarkably humble, unassuming and perennially down to earth in a political theater of egotistical individuals, there are few heights, this medical doctor has not attained in politics. Between 1996 and 1998, he emerged on the national political landscape when he became National Publicity Secretary of the defunct Grassroots Develop-

ment Movement, GDM. Later in 2002, he became Chairman, Ika North East Local Government, and a year later became the State Director of Protocol, Government House, Asaba.

Okubor was then appointed Commissioner for Special Duties in 2006, later as Commissioner for Information and then Commissioner for Health in 2007. In 2008, he became Chairman, Delta State Hospitals Management Board. In the hair-raising morass of the 2010-2011 electioneering season which saw two gubernatorial elections held in Delta in remarkable quick succes-

sion, Okubor emerged as Deputy Director General, Uduaghan Campaign Organization.

The challenge with Okubor derives from his remarkably cool approach to politics, something I have come to situate within the worldview of a man not desperate for power. Indeed, a PDP chieftain, Chief Olori Magege, jokingly threatened to ‘kidnap’ him into the race should he continue to exhibit reluctance to throw in his hat.

ONOKPASA writes from Warri

Monarch sues for peace in Edo communities

T

HE Ukor of Ihievbe Clan, Edo State, His Royal Highness, Alhaji Jimoh Awudu, has enjoined the people of the Community to continue to live in peace with neighbouring communities.

He made this appeal at the opening ceremony of the 2014 Ihievbe Annual Conference held recently in the town, assuring that as the custodian of all moveable and immovable property of his people, he was open to peace initiatives aimed at resolving all issues arising from indiscriminate

encroachment on Ihievbe land by individuals and some neighbouring communities of Owan East and Akoko-Edo Local government areas.

The royal father noted that the responsibility of protecting the lives and property of the citizenry was a joint responsibility of individuals in the society and cannot be left to the government alone.

He called on the State Commissioner of Police to consider the re-opening of the Ihievbe police station, just as he commended members of the vigilante group in the area

for living up to expectation, in ensuring the security of the community since the closure of Ihievbe police station.

The Ukor of Ihievbe Clan also commended Governor Adams Aliyu Oshiomhole for the various people-oriented development projects across the three Senatorial Districts of Edo State, and congratulated the Executive Chairman of Owan East Local Government Council, Hon. Jimoh Ijegbai for delivering dividends of democracy to the people of the Local Government Area within his one year in office.

SUNDAY, Vanguard, MAY 4, 2014, PAGE 37

Plum wedding of Jerry Gana’s son

W

UNILAG Council Members; From left, University Librarian, Dr. (Mrs.) Olukemi Fedehon , Igwe of Umunya HRH Igwe Sir Kris Onyekwuluje, VC, Prof. Bello, father of the groom, Prof. Jerry Gana, the couple , groom's mum , Mrs. Jerry Gana, Dr Perry Okonry, DVC Prof. Babajide Alo, Prof. Abayomi Akinyeye , Vanguard's Editor-in-Chief, Mr Gbenga Adefaye.

hen James Boye Gana, son of former Minister of Information and presidential aspirant, Professor Jerry Gana and his sweetheart, Jessica Edet ,were united at their traditional marriage in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State on April 19th, many thought there was nothing more to be seen, in terms of glamour and gltz but their White wedding which held penultimate Saturday at Living Faith Church in Abuja was even more colourful.

Photos by Gbemiga Olamikan

L-R:Minister of State for FCT, Oloye Akinjide Olajumoke , Minister of State for Agriculture, Hajia Asabe Ahmed new couple Mr and Mrs James Boye Gana and Minister of Water Resource, Mrs. Sarah Ochekpe .

Officiating Minister , Bishop David Abioye of Living Faith Church Goshen-Abuja with the couple.

Prof. and Mrs Jerry Gana, groom's parents with the couple.

L-R:Bride’ father, Mr Edet, Senator Ufort Ekaette and bride’s mother, Mrs. Edet.

Ordination of Deaconess Funmi Komolafe, 9 others The ordination ceremony of 10 female members of Laughter Foundation International Ministry as Deaconess by Pastor Gbenga Oso, General Overseer of the church was held on Easter Sunday. Photos: Bunmi Azeez

The couple's mothers;Mrs. Jerry Gana and Mrs. Edet

From left: Mr. Kayode Komolafe, Deaconess Funmi Komolafe receiving certificate of ordination from the General Overseer, Laughter Foundation,Pastor Gbenga Oso.

Kayode Komolafe, Deaconess Funmi Komolafe with their children receiving certificate of ordination C M Y K

From left: Pastor Matthew Eguroba, Deaconess Merry Eguroba, receiving certificate of ordination from Pastor Oso.

Pastor Oso (right) presenting certificate of ordination to Deaconess Oyesola Inegbedion. To her left is Pastor Inegbedion with their children

From left: Pastor Kayode Ojudun, Deaconess Abiodun Ojudun, receiving certificate of ordination from Pastor Oso

PAGE 38—SUNDAY VANGUARD, MAY 4, 2014

‘The Presidency underestimated Boko Haram sponsors’ Comrade Joseph Evah is coordinator, Ijaw Monitoring Group and former National Publicity Secretary, Ijaw National Congress. In this interview he says President Goodluck Jonathan retains everything that oils terrorism and insurgency in the North-east . Excerpts:

BY TONY NWANKWO

Many Nigerians were in doubt that President Goodluck Jonathan could find the courage to convoke a National Conference. Now it is on.

What do you say?

We are happy that the President was able to actualise his dream as far as the conference is concerned. Patriotic Nigerians will support any move by government that will make the country stay together. So, the President is conscious of the crisis all over the country, cries of marginalization, the Boko Haram insurgency, but it can’t be acceptable that when you are agitating against this marriage called Nigeria, you then decide to kill innocent people, you gang up to destroy the country.

The state of emergency in three states of the North-east, is not tackling the problem.

Infact, Boko Haram seem to be emboldened. What went wrong?

The state of emergency is not working. It is not working because of the way it was handled from the beginning.

We advised the President to come up with the state of emergency, when we realised that those with the Boko Haram agenda are heartless.

And we found out that the political class were also behind Boko Haram. After the bombing of the Catholic Church in Abuja, our group decided that the President should declare a full state of emergency. In a full scale state of emergency you are expected to remove the governor and appoint a sole administrator.

Nigerians would understand and support you. You remove political structures. Nigerians would understand. A situation where you need to secure lives and property, Nigerians would understand and support you. It should not concern governors, commissioners, speakers, etc., these are political ceremonial people, they are part of the problem. They can’t be functioning in a state of emergency. Obasanjo declared a state of emergency in Ekiti and Oyo States and he removed the governors. These are ceremonial people. But President Jonathan declared state of emergency in wards and local governments. If Mr. President had declared, a state of emergency, removed the

governors, appointed sole administrators and dismantled political structures because of the security situation, the surviving governors will organise neighbourhood watch on their own. They will then sincerely pursue the agenda of the Federal Government. State of emergency as presently constituted in the three states is no longer effective. The governors, the political class of these states used Boko Haram to pursue their political agenda, it is now a monster bigger than them to manage. The only solution would have been to remove them from office, appoint sole administrators to manage the problem.

Can this still be done?

Yes, it can be done, but now there will be a problem. We are now in an election year, so the President can be blackmailed.

They will say he declared the state of emergency in order to capture these areas and install his own governors. The timing now will be wrong.

Lamido of Adamawa says his dukedom extends to Cameroun. Does this say anything about the manner of leaders in the north?

No one should be surprised on the man’s remarks. Some of them are so arrogant even when they are depending on the resources from other parts of the country. If you consider the level of insecurity in his Adamawa State, if a real state of emergency was declared there, he would not be talking.

If he had grappled with the level of checkpoints he would encounter in Adamawa, he would not have the chance to come to Abuja to drink tea. He would have the proper mindset to respond to issues. If it happens, Cameroun will not allow him to cross the border into their country. Camerounians are only interested in bringing mercenaries to come and destroy Nigeria, they wouldn’t allow anyone a free hand to operate in their country. Aside the insurgents, Cameroun will not allow true Nigerians to cross to their country.

Since this problem started, have you heard of people who are not part of the problem crossing to Cameroun. They will not allow them.

Former CBN governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, never believed the President could relieve him of his position?

The matter is in court, but I

Evah...Political class behind Boko Haram really had problems with Sanusi. I placed full page adverts against Sanusi when he was taking over commercial banks, especially Oceanic Bank. Even then, our Niger Delta leaders including the President, were alerted on his activities and the method he was using, nobody answered us.

We knew someone had to understudy the agenda of Sanusi as CBN governor. He is a radical, he is a fanatic. When he was taking over banks, I appealed to the South-south governors to help secure

It is not working because of the way it was handled from the beginning

Oceanic Bank. I appealed to people like Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor to go round the South-south to make sure that Oceanic Bank which represented our interest was protected. If they understood the agenda of Sanusi, Oceanic Bank would not have been crushed.

How do you rate the Buhari, Atiku, Tinubu APC, vs PDP presidency in 2015?

I am not a politician. Everybody knows that. I am not a card carrying member of any political party. I am a Southsouth man. A South-south man is managing the affairs of the country. Every South-south ethnic group must assist him, because in 20, 30 years time, this presidency

will affect our region. We are trying to strengthen the ability of Jonathan to deliver so that the masses will return him to power. That is the agenda. So, whatever he is doing right, we praise and mobilise support for him, and if he is doing wrong, we challenge himm because we are on ground, we are in the field. See the railways that Jonathan has rehabilitated, it has never happened in the history of this country. We are praising him for that. Go to the airports, they have been rehabilitated. The shame of Nigerians coming into dilapidated airports from abroad has been removed.

But a situation like the Eastwest Road that has not been completed, we have been confronting the President and the Minister of the Niger Delta.

We have asked the President to hand the road over to the Minister of Works instead of the Minister of the Niger Delta to guarantee accelerated completion. We confront our son to say that. If we can’t confront our son like that, then we are wicked people. Even with security distractions in the country, President Jonathan, has done creditably well. We are telling Nigerians to give the South-south a second term. We have been voting for other people, let other people encourage us. That is our prayer. We are also telling our son that performance is the key that can guarantee our campaign for the position. We cannot possibly say to our future generations in 100 to 200 years, that we abandoned our constitutional rights for two terms in office.

We would want to see electricity, power supply change in this country, because power supply is very important to the people.

Ijaw leader’s son, Ebikeme Clark was recently kidnapped and released without ransom.

What happened?

We thank God for saving the situation. Some hooligans

wanted to embarrass the Ijaw nation. You want to kidnap J.E. Clark’s son because you are looking for money. No matter your level of poverty, people must look before they leap.

These are the fall outs of unemployment and poverty. In the Niger Delta, we can make plastic products, plastic chairs, we can produce tyres for cars.

We have petrochemical and we have rubber. Eleganza in Lagos, for instance, is producing a lot of things with petrochemical. Why can’t Niger Delta governors provide industries for petrochemical.

All the jetties at Apapa and environs go to fish in our side of the Atlantic. The over 500 jetties you see at Apapa, travel to our axis of the Atlantic for commercial fishing. They cannot do that level of business at the Lagos axis of the ocean.

It is only at the Bakassi, Bayelsa, axis of the ocean.

Today, no Niger Delta government own fishing trawlers for commercial fishing to create jobs. Is it a spiritual problem?

We should take notice of the plight of Northerners today.

With all the leaders, military presidents/ heads of state, ministers, legislators they produced over the years, they never invested in their people.

Today, they are saddled with bomb blasts and violence. For all the years they ruled this country, it was bread and butter for them, their families and their cronies. Now these leaders have abandoned their areas to Abuja. The children they neglected are now pursuing them. With the recent Nyanya bombing, they should now be running to Togo or Benin Republic. That is what you get when you don’t get your priorities right. Niger Delta leaders must learn from this.

Now they have the opportunity, they are not engaging the idle brains in our area. The same fate will befall them if they don’t invest in the people. We should avoid it. That is my advice.

SUNDAY VANGUARD, MAY 4, 2014, PAGE 39

PAGE 40 — V anguard Vanguard anguard,, SUNDAY, MAY 4, 2014

National Confab redrawing Nigeria’s foreign relations

By Levinus Nwabughiogu

P

erhaps, the report of on-go ing National Conference in Abuja would not be complete if it does not take into consideration the voting right and well-being of Nigerians living abroad.

Five minutes with Gambari.

When penultimate Thursday, Sunday Vanguard visited the room in Nicon Luxury Hotels in Abuja where the Committee on Foreign Policy and through subcommittees. Matters of the National Conference was sitting, it was clear that the issues were being dissected.

The main committee is chaired by seasoned diplomat and former Minister of External Affairs, Professor Ibrahim Gambari.

In a chat lasting five minutes, Gambari explained what was going in the committee.

He said: “National Conference Committee on Foreign Policy and Diaspora is looking at the issue of Nigeria’s image abroad as well as the issue of the treatment of Nigerians abroad and the contributions that Nigerians abroad can make towards the goals and objectives of foreign

z Gambari policy. ”The committee is giving everybody a chance to say what he feels about foreign policy, how the foreign policy objective of the country has been implemented, what the gaps are and the downside?. And we broke into five sub-committees. The first deals with the concept of foreign policy since the Tafawa Balawa era. The sub-committee is also looking into the issue of good neighborliness, the concept of non alignment, the concept of African centered approach to our foreign policy, the issue of concentric circles of interest and policies beginning with Nigeria as epicenter in its relationship with neighboring countries, ECOWAS, Africa and the rest of the world. ”Then you have economic diplomacy as articulated by one of our former foreign ministers, Ike Nwachukwu, and the concept of Middle Powers by Professor Bolaji Akinyimi as well as Ojo Madueke’s concept of citizens diplomacy. So, this sub-committee is looking into it to see how adequate they are for a Nigeria that is changing, an Africa that’s changing and the world that is changing. ”The second sub-committee deals with major issues and challenges including the treatment of Nigerians abroad, the role of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as a central instrument for our foreign policy, peace keeping.

What are the cast and benefits of those activities? ”Then we have another sub-committee which we devoted to legal matters, extradition, domestication of treaties, universal jur i s d i c t i o n . ”We also have a sub-committee on Nigeria’s participation in international organizations such as ECOWAS, African Union (AU), United Nations (UN) and its agencies, the Commonwealth, OYC, the Gulf of Ginunea Commission and, finally, the diaspora. What are the contributions that they can make? How can they be supported? How can they be facilitated and what kind of structures are to be put in place to get the best from the diaspora. ”Also, the issue of diaspora voting. I am happy to say that the committee is working to bring some consensus. Foreign policies are the fundamentals of a country and that’s why in many countries, foreign policy enjoys

z Udechukwu bipartisan support because it is not about political parties, not even about the current government but the permanent national interest a country wants to pursue and how does it manipulate the international environment in support of its foreign policy objectives?”

On Nigeria’s image abroad and the treatment meted out to Nigerians, Gambari said, “It wasn’t like that. So we have to ask why. The behaviour of a few among us; rotten apples that corrupt the rest. Secondly, the determination of the government to take Nigerians from unjust and unlawful treatment by whosoever. This is one of the key challenges we have. We are going to make recommendations because, in international relations, reciprocity is the basis of interaction. So, you treat our citizens as you would want your citizens in your country to be treated, with respect and dignity. And Nigerians wherever they are will have to respect the laws of the land in which they are. They have to be careful that they don’t further compromise the image of our country.”

However, one of the notable figures in the diaspora community from London, United Kingdom who is also a delegate to the conference. Mr. Christain Udechukwu, in an interview, said the per-

,

They are found in almost every part of the world. They are equally successful in their callings.

But they feel marginalised.

Although their work and businesses have taken them out of the shores of their motherland, they display gargantuan patriotism.

They have continued to contribute to the growth of the home economy by remitting $21 billion every year.

They also established businesses that provide jobs for the citizenry.

But despite these contributions, they feel sidelined by their home government. With the ongoing National Conference in Abuja, however, there is a sigh of huge relief as they believe that those challenges would be frontally addressed.

These are Nigerians who reside outside the country. From Europe to America, Asia and the rest of the black world in Africa, they are called Nigerians in diaspora, but they prefer to be addressed as Nigerians living abroad. This is because, according to them, the diaspora description conveys an impression of alienation from the rest of the compatriots. Admitted that they don’t live in Nigeria, they however said they are full blooded Nigerians and should not be discriminated against in the scheme of things: politics, economy, etc.

There are also a host of other issues that bother them as Nigerians living in foreign countries.

The issues include foreign policy that protects them and their businesses, legal and extradition matters, domestication of treaties, universal jurisdiction, Nigeria’s image abroad and the big one, voting right.

These Nigerians are also concerned over inhuman treatments some of their host countries mete out to them without corresponding response from their home country. Though there may be some rotten eggs amongst them, they insist that they are largely worthy ambassadors of Nigeria.

They have not had proper guidance and so not have applied their talents and intelligence properly. There is a whole lot of work going on now by both the state and private individuals to try and hep channel those energies and that is of course through dealing with issues of unemployment and so on because when jobs are created, those creative mind become preoccupied but when jobs are not there, it might become an excuse.”

Voting right Perhaps, the essential part of the cravings of the diaspora Nigerians hinges most on a right to partake in election processes of their country. They are not happy that with their input to the economy which runs into $21b annually, they still can’t vote in elections like other Nigerians.

While the government may still be thinking of ways to achieve this, they have already articulated a mechanism. The mechanism is to use Nigerian embassies and consulates across the world as voting centers and then push the result to INEC via the internet to collate. Gambari and Udechukwu are very particular on the voting right.

Gambari: “The diaspora, according to the world bank report, are sending as remittances be-

The second sub-committee deals with major issues and challenges including the treatment of Nigerians abroad, the role of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as a central instrument for our foreign policy, peace keeping

ception of Nigeria and Nigerians was on the positive side.

He said: “The perceptions of Nigerians abroad are that we are extraordinary, clever people.

We are a people endowed with high level of intelligence and extreme capacity for creativity and this is an energy which those Nigerians who have channeled positively have become global icons. We have global icons in many, many fields that I cannot even begin to mention now. There are also those who have broken into a whole new world but have not found avenues for their creative talents to be unleashed.

,

tween $12 to $21b annually and that is likely to continue for the next three or four years which is bigger than the foreign aids we are receiving. So, we must find a way to encourage them to continue to invest. It doesn’t mean that all Nigerians should come home. Those who want to come home should come and the country should facilitate their relocation. But then we should encourage them wherever they may be to continue to excel and to benefit from their expertise. ”We will recommend seriously for voting right because you cannot just take their money and

refuse to give them any right in terms of politics. That’s is not r i g h t . ” Udechukwu: “What Nigerians abroad crave for are a nation that protects and cares for them as citizens living abroad, that stands up for them against foreign countries or agents of other countries that want to impede their progress. They want a nation that offers them great opportunities to be the best they can be and contribute the best they can contribute to sustain the future and development of Nigeria. They want a nation that is fully functional, that defines their role in each development that enables them to access opportunity to contribute in those roles and they seek to have opportunity to actually vote and perhaps, through that external vote which comes from abroad, which is not subjected to a lot of suspicions that surround local election to use that as a way to force politicians to think about their agenda for Nigeria because the patronages and so on that have become entrenched in Nigeria are not evident abroad. So a politician who is coming to US or London or anywhere else to campaign will think seriously about what he is offering the people. Where a group of Nigerians may have become used to not asking questions, the ones that are living abroad that are used to citizens asking politicians questions and holding them to account will have a different approach. They will ask questions. They expect politicians who make commitments to fulfill them and deliver on them. And if the don’t, then they will actively work to make sure that those politicians don’t get reelected. So, It is for this reason that a lot of Nigerians abroad are canvassing for diaspora voting because this is their homeland. Regardless of those who live abroad become Americans or UK citizens, they still Nigeria as their homeland and they want to be able to see that Nigeria has a functional first rate political system. That is what we are craving for. ”Nigerians abroad remit $21 billion annually into the Nigerian economy. As Nigerians living abroad, we show the greatest of confidence in Nigeria by sending that money home every year globally. And that is far greater than any foreign direct investment that comes into Nigeria wether it be in oil and gas. So with that, when foreigners, the world bank , IMF and all those who keep tab at remittance flows, when they see that Nigerians are remitting $21 billion every year into the economy, they are a bit more careful about what they say because if we have the confidence to invest in our homeland,then there is very little effort that we need to make to ensure that foreigners come in because we are doing it ourselves.”

Bottonline Gambari is one of the Nigerians who will be sad if eventually the outcome of the National Conference is jettisoned and so, he warned: “We don’t want our report to be a theoretical exercise.

I am a professor by training but also a diplomat. So, I feel that what will serve Nigeria better is a report that is not academic but a report enriched by practitioners who live and practice foreign policy everyday.”

SUNDAY VANGUARD, MAY 4, 2014, PAGE 41

PAGE 42 — SUNDAY

Vanguard, MAY 4, 2014

Tribute

Pini Jason: One year after

Let’s have an inclusive dialogue now!

I

n August 2010, Ambassador John Campbell published the following views about Nigeria: “Nigeria is in trouble.

National elections scheduled for 2011 have the potential to undermine the country’s current precarious stability by exacerbating its serious internal ethnic, regional and religious divisions. Since 1999, national presidential elections have adhered to an informal power sharing arrangement between the Muslim North and the Christian South, thereby avoiding regional and religious conflict.

“But in 2011, there is the risk that power sharing will be abandoned, with the presidential incumbent Goodluck Jonathan, a southern Christian contesting against a northern Muslim candidate. The fact that credible elections are unlikely may tilt the balance of power in favour of the incumbent president and open the door to protests - perhaps violent - from the losing candidates and ethnic groups.”

As usual, we live in denial. We shouted Mr. Campbell down. We called him names. Fake patriots accused him of trying to divide the country as if we need him or any

outsider to do just that. We capped all that unreasonableness with denying him visa to Nigeria!

When I knew John Campbell between 1991 and 1993, he was head of the Political Desk in the US Embassy in Nigeria. He returned in 2004 as Ambassador.

Having been in these two positions, he probably understands Nigeria better than some of his abusers. Trouble is that we resent it when outsiders tell us the truth we would rather not tell ourselves.

Compare Campbell’s ominous prediction against what some of our own leaders said at about the same time. “Anything short of a northern President is tantamount to stealing our Presidency.

Jonathan has to go and he will go. Even if he uses the incumbency power to get his nomination on the platform of the PDP, he would be frustrated out. (If Jonathan emerges President next year). The North is determined; if that happens,to make the country ungovernable for President Jonathan or any other southerner who finds his way to the seat of power on the platform of the PDP against the principle of the party’s zoning policy” - Alhaji Lawan

Kaita, a former governor of the old Kaduna State on October 5, 2010.

Here is another: “Nigerians do not want a peaceful change. We wish to state that we support the position of our mentor, Turaki Abubakar, that what Nigeria needs is not a peaceful change.

This is no threat. Boko Haram will be a child’s play compared with the action our members can take.

We have been patient enough. And enough, they say is enough” Mallam Abubakar Ibrahim (President) and Dr. Yakubu Ahmed (Secretary-General), Coalition of Atiku Northern Supporters (CANSU), December 15, 2010.

There were other equally vitriolic effusions and ominous prophesies during that period, all warning us about trouble ahead.

These warnings may not be connected with what we have witnessed in the North since the presidential elections. The real motive of the authors of the violence in the North has been shifty and slippery. But because we are often forgetful, we tend to obfuscate all these and conveniently codename it Boko Haram. But I recall that in 1966 when the North lost power, it resorted to pogrom. Violence was not an option in June 1993 because they could annul MKO Abiola’s election and retain power.

Of course, it has been said in many places that had Abiola been sworn in as President in 1993, there would have been dire consequences. Recall that Abiola at one time escaped from the country for fear of his life. Recall also that he died in detention because he would not renounce his Epetedo declaration of himself as President.

A closer reading of some of the writings of some northern elite in recent times reveals a subtle reference to the zoning brouhaha in PDP as well as a rationalizing parallel being drawn between Boko Haram violence and the Niger Delta militants violence. It seems that someone is telling President Jonathan that if you got the Presidency because the Niger Delta militants pointed a gun on our heads we can also reclaim what we lost by putting a gun on your head! True or not, the useful lesson is that no group in this country has a monopoly to violence. This should also be a lesson to those behind Boko

Haram.

On Wednesday July 20, 2011, it was reported that President Jonathan met with North-east elders and the Arewa Consultative Forum,ACF. The call for dialogue with Boko Haram is increasingly becoming popular. I have no quarrel with that. Indeed I agree completely with Marafan Sokoto, Alhaji Umaru Shinkafi, that “as long as the opportunity for dialogue exists, it should not be discarded” (Daily Sun; July 21, 2011)). But I have one worry. I worry about piecemeal dialogue with aggrieved sections of Nigeria. We would, once more, be playing games with the nagging National Question.

T

he issues for which Nigeria fought a civil war still remain unresolved. They surfaced in Ogoni. They surfaced in the South-west as “June 12”. They surfaced in the Niger Delta. They surfaced in the Middle Belt. They have surfaced in the North.

Nobody knows where else they will surface. The problem of Nigeria is simply about democratic space for every group

The issues for which Nigeria fought a civil war still remain unresolved and every culture for selfdetermination.

A democratic system that works is that which reconciles the diversity of the various groups not one that tries to obliterate it. It is a shame that in a country as diverse as Nigeria we have failed to create workable democratic space in every group. The centralized “Federal” system we insist on is simply not working for the majority of Nigerians. It is no longer even working for those who took advantage of it in the past. Our Federal system is a mere

The lingering memories of Pini Jason

By Melville Obriango

P

ini, my very good friend, those of us you left behind in this wonderful, sinful and godless world are still grieving your demise 365 days after. It is unbelievable that a whole year has rolled by since death enveloped you. We will not see you or read your column on the pages of newspapers or hear your voice calling me “Enerable” again. All I am left of you is your book, “A Familiar Road”, and memories of your screaming philosophical words reminding me of what we should not have ordinarily known. Like a properly tuned acoustic percussion or guitar, your inspirational words and kind deeds echo in my mind.

Words are awfully inadequate to say all about you.

I am only emboldened by the fact that we started

our working life in the Department of Customs & Excise where I was privileged to see the beginning of your great writing prowess.

Pini, you were a special gift to humanity. I miss your very candid and frank opinions on nagging national and international issues. I am left only to imagination what your opinions would have been on issues like the ‘DSS attempted jail break’, ‘Immigration employment deaths’, ‘Sanusi and the Central Bank brohaha’, ‘the Ibadan ritual house of horror’, ‘defection of politicians from one party to another’, ‘Nigeria as the largest economy in Africa’, ‘National Conference’, ‘Oscar Pistorious trial in South Africa’ and ‘Boko-Haram insurgency’. Your indepth analysis would have given an insight into these and many more national and international

aberration.

From June 1999 to 2001, the Sweden based inter-governmental organisation, International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, I-IDEA, at the request of President Obasanjo, sponsored a democracy assessment in Nigeria. This field work was carried out by 53 international resource persons, including some of the best scholars in this country who went round Nigeria to interview the people. The report is titled, ‘Democracy in Nigeria: Continuing Dialogue for Nation Building’. It was deliberately titled ‘...Continuing Dialogue(s)..’ because democracy is a continuous process not an event.

There are many dialogues the Nigerian state must have with the diverse peoples of Nigeria to determine their stake, their expectations and obligations in a democratic Nigeria.

Incidentally, three regions of Nigeria likely to threaten our democracy were highlighted and given special focus in that report.

These are the Niger Delta, Northcentral (or Middle Belt) and the North- east. These areas have since witnessed violence foretold!

The causes of the violence witnessed in these regions and the solutions were highlighted in that report! During the dissemination workshop held in the six geopolitical zones in 2001, the choice of the people was “review the Constitution” or “convoke a National Conference” as either the first or second choice. These choices were expected to deepen democracy.

Instead of piecemeal dialogue with groups when they get angry and put a gun on our heads, President Jonathan should summon the courage today and convoke a genuine National Conference, and let us all dialogue with one another. Those who quickly say that a National Conference will dismember the country have no point. The way Nigeria is going, we do not need a National Conference for it to unravel. We have been talking at one another but not with one another! Piecemeal dialogue will not solve the problems associated with nation-building!

And we must stop thinking that once our group’s problem is solved, Nigeria’s problem is solved. * (This piece was first published in Vanguard of Tuesday, July 26, 2011).

stories. See what you have done to the numerous devoted readers of your column. Like the Biblical Lazarus, at times, I wish you could come back and put pen on paper and let us know why you decided to leave us at this crucial time of our nationhood. Death that took you away should have known that you were husband to Oby; father to Amandi, Kelechi and Ozodi; and grandfather to Chisom and Chinezirim. Pini, to say we miss you is an understatement. For 365 days, your family has shed enough tears that would have brought you back were it possible. We are however consoled by the fact that you are resting in the bosom of the Almighty God. And we thank God that you were not silent.

God bless your family. Rest in perfect peace my very good friend.

SUNDAY

Tribute

Vanguard, MAY 4, 2014 PAGE 43

Pini Jason: One year after national party.

It has the potentials, but the Afenifere members of AD must learn to respect those who disagree with them. For example, a case where the former Chairman of AD, Ambassador Jolly Yusuf was called a saboteur simply because he resigned, leaves a sour taste in the mouth. I used to think that there is a clear distinction between democracy and dictatorship.

It is one year exactly today since ace columnist, Pini Jason Onyegbado, passed on. In his memory, we present extracts from the book he was working on at the time death came entitled, ‘Nigeria-The Years of Impunity’.

The book, now ready, will soon be out. …when I am dead Everyday I write, I am conscious that I am crafting my own elegy for all these will form my book of tearful song when I am dead. The funeral orchestra will plunk its rhythm from the scoresheet I have written. Someday, when death silences this space, I will be too dead to fill it with words, but the silence will provoke a vigorous noise, the void will generate its own words in celebration of what we said here.

And the power of the word will leap the dead back into life.

National Conference is the answer To launch Nigeria into the orbit of a modern, efficient, progressive and stable nation, Nigeria must be returned to a true federation. This will require a far-reaching reform of the constitution through a pro-people, process led participatory mechanism.

Such reform must resolve finally the secularity of the nation and deal with the modus vivendi between the federating units and the central government and the power relationship among all tiers of government. The reform must also address the revenue allocation collection, management, and fiscal responsibilities. The reform must enthrone a electoral process that is credible so that only the people chosen by the electorate must occupy our public offices, not charlatans who rig their way into power. But above all, the restructuring must aim at setting a common value or objective on which the modem Nigerian nation will be founded. I believe a National Conference is the best mechanism to reach consensus on these issues.

Stop the panic, give us petrol For excuses, the Petroleum Ministry and NNPC officials have only NEPA as competitors. Ten government officials speaking on the petrol matter at the same time are bound to give us ten different excuses. But the one I find very amusing is that refrain that the long queues at the petrol stations are due to panic buying!

Whenever officials come out with this statement, I always wonder why they believe they have made such a profound revelation or why they think they are telling us what we don’t know.

We panicked all right. Why not?

If petrol is available who would panic? Who in his right mind will choose to go and sleep at the petrol station? There is panic my friends.

And we panic because we can’t find petrol! What do you mean panic buying? Do you guys think we are all masochists?

Once we can’t find petrol we are bound to panic! We panic because we can’t go to our offices. We panic because it means the children can’t go to school. We panic because our lives are disrupted. We panic, panic, panic.

Stop the panic, give us petrol.

C M Y K

Late Pini Jason

To launch Nigeria into the orbit of a modern, efficient, progressive and stable nation, Nigeria must be returned to a true federation The National Question There are two components of the National Question. One relates to the relationship between the various tiers of government - the federal, state and local governments, what should be the responsibility of the federal government vis-a-vis the state governments, how strong should the federal government be and other questions. It is just a few free loaders and their toadying accomplices East and West who are holding the rest of us to ransom. I have seen ordinary Nigerians from all over the country under one roof and all pulling in one direction to make Nigeria better. The National Question is also not a question of conceding power or giving the presidency to the South as some people condescendingly imply. I don’t think any section needs any concession in that regard once the parameters are collectively set and respected.

The minorities’ question If we think the problem of the oilbearing minorities will simply go away, we are mistaken. What Ken Saro-Wiwa set in motion is irreversible. Nigeria has to come to terms with the grievances of the minorities.

If, on the other hand, we are waiting for the minorities to kill off them-

selves to remove any resistance to an unrestricted exploitation of oil, we are equally mistaken. Instead, we will all roast in the Niger Delta oil.

The multinational oil companies know that they cannot do business in their home countries the way they are doing it in Nigeria. Yesterday, the whole of Nigeria pretended as if the plight of the Igbos didn’t matter because Biafra was far away, as far away as Vietnam!

Today Ogidigben, Ogbe-Ijoh, Jesse, Modakeke are also far away places and don’t matter. But who knows where else Nigeria’s next faraway place will emerge? We must learn to share the pains of other communities that make up this unstable project called Nigeria.

Who’s conceding to whom?

Why does the North conveniently forget that it is really the South that has been making concessions to the North? It was a great concession to have allowed the 1914 amalgamation.

That the North ever got to rule this country was due to the concession of the South. But for NCNC in 1959, Nigeria’s political history would have taken a different trajectory.

All over the country, all I see is Southern concession. The South conceded quota, federal character, cutoff marks and all such administrative hurdles that keep Southerners down today. Nobody in the South is asking for concession in the matter of power shift to the South. Abiola did not win his election as a concession. All concessions, like the rotation of the presidency, which were coined since the criminal annulment of the 12 June, 1993 presidential election won by Chief M.K.O. Abiola, were really meant to reassure the North.

Afenifere I expect Afenifere to reappraise its perception of other Nigerians, its manner of addressing others.

Nigerians and its manner of relating to other Nigerians. The Afenifere should work the AD into a truly

The leadership Nigerians want What the political parties must appreciate is that Nigerians are not likely to take kindly to politics of business as usual after the years of trauma they’ve been through. Some of the sentiments on which the parties and the politicians are basing their calculations count for nothing now.

More than anything else, Nigerians want an honest dedicated, credible, articulate and intelligent leadership that has the mind for details to prudently manage our economy, and the heart to do justice to ALL Nigerians, not a leadership that offers nothing but the ability to balance the interests of those with their sticky fingers permanently poised at our national treasury.

Murtala Mohammed in his brief shining reign, exemplified what a unifying leader ought to be. He was not sectional. He was not petty. He was not a prisoner of any cabal. He was fair to all Nigerians. You know, his ADC who died with him was a Yoruba!

Just one great mind…

It is Nigerians that have created the self-cannibalising environment that wastes our talents, our youths and our best. It is Nigerians that enthroned mediocrity and banished merit thus declaring a never-ending season of everyman-to-himself. It is Nigerians who created a nation where nothing works except the perverse. So running away from comparison of how a Nigerian mind works and how other minds work is not an attempt at solution but a convenient looking away from the reddened boil full of pus. I strongly believe that one great mind, just one great mind combining the palpable patriotism of a Kennedy, the selflessness of a Grandhi and the oratorical power of an Ojukwu can pull this nation out of its present rot.

Selflessness and greatness Perhaps Nigeria’s problem is really that she is not lacking in patriots! But I doubt if a lot of us know the attributes of greatness. If we do, we seem not to care.

Selflessness is one single attribute of greatnes that is lacking in Nigeria.

Overwhelmed by our problems Why is it that all our problems, even the most elementary ones, seem to defy us as a nation? What is it that makes our problems intractable? What manner of people do we put in charge to solve our national problems? If they are the best, why are they not solving our problems? If they are not the best, why do we have them there? What kind of a nation just sits unconcerned while every little problem becomes a major one that overwhelms it?

To be continued

PAGE 44—SUNDAY VANGUARD, MAY 4, 2014 sameyoboka@yahoo.com

WUKARI PEACE DEAL:

BY SAM EYOBOKA

F

OLLOWING a break out of another clash in Wukari Local Government in Taraba State, President of Christian Reformed Church of Nigeria, CRCN, Rev. Caleb Ahima, has raised concerns about a purported peace deal at the instance of the acting governor, Mr. Garba Umar.

A statement made available to Sunday Vanguard asked: "Has the peace deal in Taraba yielded any good? The answer is, No! We are aware that it may take time for things to settle, but there should at least be some concrete evidence of cessation of hostility. We speak because we are a major Christian denomination in Taraba State, and we have suffered heavy tolls in human lives and personal effects. We want the world to know the truth of what transpires here in southern Taraba, where we have a preponderance of our membership."

Continuing, the cleric averred that several farmers responding to the news of the peace deal ran into several ambush by mercenaries and were wounded or killed. "An Umaru Agyo Kuyu in Gindin Dorowa, one of the towns invaded by the insurgents, was slaughtered in his farm at Mbambya (outskirt of Gindin Dorowa) as he went to commence farming. This is just one that has been revealed because his body could be found, bearing the characteristic murderous acts of the insurgents. Only God knows how many more innocent Nigerian lives will be lost in this scenario."

08023145567 (sms only)

Cleric says it's deceitful

Rev. Ahima maintained that it was during this incidence that some Fulani mercenaries who had sneaked into Gindin Dorowa started burning a nearby Tiv hamlet (Abeda-chechiya) and the locals reported to soldiers on peace mission to the area. "But for the timely intervention of the soldiers, the hamlet would have been completely destroyed. We call upon the soldiers in the Gindin Dorowa-Bantaje axis of the Wukari Local Government Area to intensify surveillance/patrols, and protect the lives of the people against operations of the mercenaries.

"It is worrisome that with insurgents

still in the area, the Taraba State government would come on air to announce peace and by implication, call people to return to their devastated and insecure settlements.

"Who were the parties involved in the crisis for which peace deal is said to have been reached? To the best of our knowledge, Christians and all nonMuslims in Wukari LGA were targeted by the Islamic insurgent mercenaries.

It has been claimed by Christian defenders of the Taraba deputy governor, that the Taraba crisis had no religious coloration. However, in the false peace

deal reached, Muslim and Christian representatives were invited to sit and make peace, and they are the two key religious groups in southern Taraba.

What were they signing for if the crisis was not religious?

"True and acceptable peace and reconciliation procedure, governments and charity organisations normally respond with aid to the victims. Did the Taraba State government give any aid to the wounded and traumatized people as part of the process to restore confidence for peace building? RememContinued on Page 45

Nigerian family presents Easter Oblata to the Pope

O

Chief Tony Chukwu's family presenting the Easter Oblata to the Catholic Pontiff, Pope Francis during the Resurrection Mass at St. Peter's Basilica, Vatican City, Rome.

N Easter Sunday, April 20, 2014 history was made under the new Pope as a Nigerian family, Chief & Mrs Tony Chukwu was chosen to present the Resurrection Service Oblata on behalf of the 1.2 billion Catholic faithful at the St. Peter’s Basilica, Vatican City.

Easter is the most important date in the Christian calendar as it is the triumphant morning of Christianity. The message of Easter is contained in the declaration: “Christ is Risen” The Easter Mass is celebrated to reconcile mankind with the Risen Christ.

That the family of Chief Tony Chukwu was chosen to present the Easter Oblata to the Pope is very significant as the center of Christ’s work which He Continued on Page 45

Fix power, Nigerians'll come to invest---US-based preacher

D

side and the government does not come in their defence. Anywhere a US citizen is the government is there for him. The Nigerian government should speak and defend her citizens anywhere in the world.

OCTOR Paul Vincent, an Abia State-born Nigerian Preacher, is a Captain/Chaplain in the United State's Army. He is a US citizen. In this interview with our JIMITOTA ONOYUME in Port Harcourt, Dr. Vincent spoke on the success of Nigerians in diaspora, their expectations from their home government and burning political issues.

Nigerians in diaspora God has blessed Nigerians in Diaspora so much that you find them everywhere doing great things. The ones we hear more about are those into crime, fraud. Every country has criminals and Nigeria being a very big country, has its own share of crime. The most educated immigrants are Nigerians and they contribute positively to the American economy.

How is your Ministry?

My ministry is doing fine. I was a minister before I joined the US Army as a chaplain.

As a dual citizen what are the things you expect government to do for Nigerians in diaspora?

I am a US Army officer and the US does not recognise dual citizenship.

Nigerian government has been gracious enough to give me two years multiple

*Paul Vincent visa. The government can do a lot to help Nigerians in diaspora. Some countries treat Nigerians with disrespect and the government can play a role here.

When a country treats your citizen disrespectfully the government can stand up to tell the country that 'we treat your citizens with dignity in our country, so we demand same from you.' It's unfair when Nigerians are treated unfairly out-

Do you think Nigerians in diaspora should vote in the 2015 election?

Yes! I think they should be allowed to vote. I presume the fear of manipulation is why they are not allowed to vote. If they can come up with means to ensure their vote count, it will be fine.

I know politics is a do or die thing for many Nigerian politicians. They are so desperate and even ready to kill. It is not supposed to be so. We should see political office as an opportunity to serve the people. We as a people should begin to redefine public office as a place to serve the people. In the developed world, people donate five, 10 dollars to political campaigns because they believe the people are going to serve. It should be the driving force.

Any message of hope for Nigerians back home?

I want to encourage Nigerians not to

give up. I want to challenge the leadership of the country to do something in the area of power; because it affects investment. This is why some people prefer to go to neighbouring countries where there's regular power. If the government fixes power our economy will pick up. The power issue is also why some Nigerians don't come home regularly. Nigerians are tough people, they don't give up easily but the government should help them.

People in public office should also do the right thing; corruption is part of the problems. I want to encourage Nigerians not to give up, I see a new dawn coming. I see restoration. The role the leaders play have a lot to do. Our leaders can prolong our story as a nation.

Look at the children of Israel, they would have made it into the promised land within a short time but because of disobedience they ended up wandering for 40 years.

Those in power and the followers should do the right thing. Nigeria will be a better place. Nigerians should begin to have a change of attitude in all they do. It is also a systemic problem.

You hear people say this is how we do things. If everybody continues like this the system will not grow.

Nigerians should begin to see themselves as agents of this change then they can all achieve a healthy nation.

SUNDAY VANGUARD, MAY 4, 2014, PAGE 45

me the truth.”

I

had always want ed to build my own house. I would buy “House and Garden” magazines and look at so many different house designs. As a child, I wanted to be an architect. As an adult, it was clear the nearest I would get to fulfilling that dream would be in designing and building my own house. I disliked even the best houses I saw. There was always something missing; always something out of place. But I knew that one day; I would build a house that would put all other houses to shame.

Mission unaccomplished Finally, one day, my dream came true. I built the house of my dreams.

It was by far the greatest day of my life. My house was an architectural masterpiece. It was fabulous. It was glorious. It had everything I wanted exactly where I wanted it. Of course, it cost a fortune to build: one billion naira to be precise.

People came from near and far to admire my house. The verdict was unanimous; there was none like it. Everybody who was anybody adored my house. A whole edition of “Ovation” was devoted to celebrating it. Tourists came just to take photographs of my house.

Nollywood film-directors begged me to feature it in their movies.

Everybody, from presidents to senators to business-tycoons, readily came for my seasonal parties. My house was without a doubt the talk

Group remembers volunteer

BY VERA SAMUEL ANYAGAFU

H

EAD, Catholic Charismatic Renewal of Nigeria at St. Charles Parish, Ajegunle in Lagos, Mr. Mouegbunam Pius, has stressed the need for Nigerians to be more active in activities aimed at promoting cordial relationships in the country.

Speaking at a lecture in remembrance of a volunteer, Mr. Uzoye Augustine Okafor, Mr. Muoegbunam said there is enormous joy in giving back to the society.

"I challenge all to be devoted in the things of God," he said, adding that Nigeria is currently un-

The denouement

BUILDING A HOUSE ON THE SAND of the town.

But one day, I noticed something odd. The roof in the den upstairs started leaking when it rained. Worse still, mysterious cracks started appearing in the walls.

I tried everything but just did not seem to be able to identify the cause. Finally, in desperation, I went to see my Father in Ibadan, and told him about my predicament. His reaction irritated me a great deal. First; he laughed at me. Then he rubbed salt into the wound by saying: “Femi, what do you really know about building a house? You have little or no experience in these matters.”

“How can you say that?” I retorted, “I have built a house that is by all accounts the best there is in Lagos.” “So how come the roof is leaking and the walls are cracking?” he asked mischievously. Papa had a simple solution.

“I will send you my Structural Engineer. He will stay with you for a couple of weeks. He will identify the faults in the building and suggest ways to rectify them.”

Disagreeable redeemer A few days later, a

dergoing several challenges, "but we will surely overcome when we allow God to rule our lives."

Also speaking, Rev. Father Innocent Ayonote, acknowledged the fact that Mr. Okafor, who battled several hurdles in his quest to fight for productive and progressive Nigerian youth, was one to be reckoned with in the society. He therefore urged participants to follow the legacy of the selfless volunteer, who during his most trying times on earth remained focused in advocating for peace among Christian societies in Nigeria.

“Mr. Okafor’s approach to solving many seemingly unsolvable situations was quite remarkable and until his last days on earth, he never relented in making sure that justice is given to who it is due,” he added.

My house cost a fortune to build: one billion naira to be precise mild-mannered man knocked on my door. He introduced himself as the Structural Engineer my Father had spoken about. He moved into one of the many bedrooms and set out to inspect the entire building. I showed him the problems I was having in the den. He smiled knowingly and immediately identified where the leak was coming from. I was very impressed and could not help but seek the approval of such a connoisseur about my mansion.

“Apart from these minor details,” I said dismissively, “I am sure you will admit that this is such a magnificent house? It cost no less than one billion naira to build it” The Engineer seemed a little amused by my statement. “I take it,” he replied, “that you haven’t yet noticed the faults in the kitchen?”

The kitchen? What kitchen? What fault could there be in the kitchen? The kitchen was nothing short of extraordinary. Everything there was well appointed and custom-made. I

don’t mind saying so myself. The kitchen was quite simply a work of art.

Not one to argue, the Engineer took me to the kitchen. One-by-one, he showed me all kinds of structural defects I had not even noticed before.

I was crestfallen but decided to put a bold face on it. “Thank God you are here,” I said. We can fix it, right?” I was looking for some kind of reassurance, some words of comfort from this gentle man. But I was more than taken aback by his response. “And then what do you propose to do about the study?” he asked.

Killing me slowly “The study,” I shouted, livid. “What study?”

Suddenly, I took another look at this mild-mannered man. He did not seem so mild-mannered anymore. It was becoming clear to me that this man was up to no good.

Why did I ever allow this so-called Structural Engineer to come into my house? It was time to show him the door.

Yes, I knew there were some things wrong with

Pope prays for peace Continued from page 44 admonished us to always remember is His last and greatest work: the work of redemption. The Oblata is a memorial in remembrance of the finished work of Christ.

Chief Chukwu, a devout Catholic and an outstanding philanthropist, seeks the return of peace and harmony to our country and the worship of God in truth and spirit. He is building what is considered the most modern cathedral in his hometown in Imo State and devotes his time and resources to the pursuit of general good for mankind.

Presiding over the Easter Mass attended by more than 150,000 faithful, televised by all the major international television networks and

watched by more than one billion people, the Pope prayed for peace and stability in Nigeria.

He advised Boko Haram to shun violence,

the den. I noticed them myself and had brought them to his attention. I am even prepared to admit there were some things wrong with the kitchen. I never argued with him when he showed them to me. But there was no way he, or anyone else for that matter, was going to convince me that anything was wrong with the study. I spent more time designing that room than I did with any other room. I supervised its construction to the very last detail when it was being built. It was the room in the house where I spent most of my time.

If anything were to be wrong with the study, I would have been the first to know.

But in his characteristically no-nonsense manner, the Engineer walked me into the study. Again, he systematically showed me all the things wrong with the room. I could not believe it. There were more things wrong in my favourite study than there had been in both the den and the kitchen combined.

I was crest-fallen. It seemed like my whole world suddenly came crashing down. In desperation, I turned to this mild-mannered Architect. “What can we do?”

I pleaded. “We can fix it, can’t we? Please tell embrace dialogue with the government and seek reconciliation with the citizens of Nigeria. The Pope also prayed for peace in Syria and Ukraine.

Pope Francis, who was elected Pope on March

Where's the peace in Wukari?

Continued from page 44 ber, these are people who lost dear ones and personal effects, and have not been helped yet; and are coerced into signing a so-called peace deal. Is this the right thing for the government to do?

"Usually, it is parties at war that sit to find lasting solutions to their crisis, formulate a peace document.

It is such a document that can be relied upon and used to judge any reneging party.

"In the case of the so-called peace document signed in Wukari, it was formulated in Jalingo, by the Deputy Governor and his administration; and all who signed the document were coerced into doing so. Can this be a document that can promise lasting peace? The Federal Government needs to know that the peace that is said to have returned to Wukari is a peace forced upon invaded and wounded people who are still nursing their deep mental and physical wounds," the statement further stated.

The Architect looked at me with great intensity.

“Do you really want to know?” he asked. “Yes,” I said, resigned to my fate but now afraid to look him in the eye.

“What we need to do,” said the Architect, “is knock the entire house down and start all over again with a completely new building.”

I could not believe my ears. “Knock the house down?” I protested.

“This house cost one billion naira to build.” My nemesis was completely unimpressed.

He smiled at me in that enigmatic manner of his that drives me up the wall. "Do you not see all these things?” he asked.

Assuredly, I say to you, not one stone shall be left here upon another, that shall not be thrown down.” (Matthew 24:2).

This is how I embarked on my tumultuous relationship with that wonderful Architect whose surname is the Holy Spirit. I thought he came by agreement with my Father to stay with me for just a few weeks, make some vital repairs and then leave. But since he arrived, he has never left and obviously has no plans of leaving.

I have watched in consternation as he has set about to demolish every single stone of my once magnificent house. The agony of it all has been excruciating. Every protest from me hit against the same brick wall: “Unless the Lord builds the house, they labour in vain who build it.”

(Psalm 127:1).

13, 2013 is known as the people’s Pope. He seeks the eradication of poverty, diseases, starvation, wars and conflicts in the world especially in Africa.

It would be recalled that on January 1, 2013, also at St. Peter ’s Basilica, Chief & Mrs. Chukwu carried the Oblata to Pope Benedict XV1, in the new year mass.

That the Chukwu family was once again chosen to carry the Redemption Oblata is of great significance to Nigeria and Africa.

The Easter Oblata is not ordinary as it is meant to reconcile mankind with the finished work of the Cross and those carrying it represent the whole of God’s people.

Through the Chukwu family, God has accepted the reconciliation of the faithful in Nigeria and indeed the world with the Risen Christ.

Page 46, SUNDAY Vanguard, MAY 4, 2014

Akpabio finishing strong

BY IBIPOBONG UDOM VIEWPOINT IN BRIEF Akwa Ibom administration’s promise not to leave abandoned projects for successor

I

n recent times, Akwa Ibom State governor, Chief Godswill Akpabio, has managed to stay out of the news and I had begun to wonder if the man has lost his steam. For a governor who has received sponsored media bashing for different reasons, from the genuine to outright asinine, managing to go for weeks without much hoopla about his ‘benevolence’ or his ‘total support’ for the Presidency appeared to me as remarkable.

But wait, has Akpabio stopped giving? Has he stopped being angry and transforming Akwa Ibom State? These were the questions on my mind, questions I had begun to play up and thinking how the media must have succeeded in ‘clip the wings’ of Akpabio battle, who, to me, and majority of media practitioners both in and out of the country is one of the very few good guys as far as good governance is concerned.

An international standard airport, a world-class erosion control system, a first-of-its’skind e-library, massive physical and human development projects and a ton of awards and recognition for good governance and human development, are enough reasons to tag him as one of the few good guys. Only Raji Fashola of Lagos State can be compared to Akpabio, and he too will come a distant second because Lagos is not what the pro-APC media make it seem.

A visit to some places other than the Lagos main city will reveal the stunted growth in the state as opposed to the picture of beauty being painted in the media.

So, I thought since not much had been heard about Akpabio in recent time, save his role in repositioning his party, the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP), at the state and national levels for the electoral battles ahead, maybe his anger, which he noted had led him to achieve unprecedented developments and transformation of the state, had cooled off.

But a business visit to Akwa Ibom State soon put paid to my thoughts about the governor cooling off. I had first seen a newspaper advert publication purportedly for projects com-

,

VIEWPOINT

Akpabio according to findings within the seat of power and from those who are very close to him wants to end his era in the Hilltop Mansion strong and that is why he is leaving no stone unturned towards achieving that

,

missioning schedule across the state, about 500 projects or thereabout but knowing our politicians, I waved it off as a publicity stunt. But I was not completely convinced that it was a mere stunt, for Akpabio had made it an annual ritual to list hundreds of projects for commissioning and none has been challenged to be bogus claims by the opposition party in the state (is there even one?).

However, my trip to Akwa Ibom and several interactions with my friends on the ground in the state convinced me that, indeed, the last one month had been one of silent harvests in the state. For instance, in the publication, sev-

eral projects which were of immense benefit to the people at the grass roots, such as construction and renovation of classrooms, construction of solar-powered water scheme, renovation and construction of laboratories and rural electrification, were listed as due for commissioning in all the 31local governments of the state.

But I never thought such efforts had indeed reached Isaac Inyang’s village; in Ekim, Mkpatenin Local Government Area. Inyang was my course mate at the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. But when I phoned Isaac, who has always been a critic of Akpabio, that the state government lied about development projects in his village, I was confounded when he said it was not a lie.

Such had been the ways of Akpabio, he has succeeded in changing the minds of people about governance even those in the opposition camps have come to respect him for keeping to his promises.

Though the point they have always made about Akwa Ibom being the highest earning state in the federation is true, it is indubitable that high allocations do not often transmit or translate to good governance, as a state could earn so high and perform so little

depending on the vision and mission of the man at the helm of affairs, in this case, the governor.

I once heard the governor telling his very close associates at a public function that he will not hand over to his successor any abandoned project anybody who would take over from him on May, 29, 2015, would have to wait until he was done with the commissioning of projects on the handing over day.

Akpabio according to findings within the seat of power and from those who are very close to him wants to end his era in the Hilltop Mansion strong and that is why he is leaving no stone unturned towards achieving that.

But then, the question of who succeeds Akpabio has become another germane issue. The state needs a successor that will improve on what has been achieved and continue to give the people more bountiful harvests in terms of good governance, as this season of harvests must continue not only in Akwa Ibom but also across the country lest the people become disillusioned with democracy and lose all hopes in political office holders.

•Udom is an Abuja based public affairs commentator.

Delta: Time up for 'The People’s General'

BY DENZEL UMUKORO VIEWPOINT IN BRIEF

The Urhobo move ahead of 2015 polls

D

URING the last four gov ernorship election in Delta State, Urhobo threw away the toga of lifelong political mainstream player to completely support Great Ovedje Ogboru and his Democratic People’s Party, DPP. The Urhobo support for Ogboru, championed by the Urhobo Progress Union – UP U-climaxed during the 2011 general elections.

In spite of this massive support, Great Ogboru, popularly referred to as ‘the People’s General’ because of his role in the 1992 Orkar coup, lost the governorship race.

However, his party won nine seats in the Delta State House of Assembly, two in the Federal House of Representatives and one Sen-

ate seat in the 2011 polls.

Then Urhobo watched helplessly as Ogboru’s DPP was devastated by infighting that progressed to desertion of all their legislators at state and national levels with most of them decamping to the PDP. The fortunes of Ogboru’s DPP fell further when his running mate in the 2011 polls, Fidelis Tilije, dumped him and joined the APC. When a political party ‘owned’ by one man falls apart, the buck should stop on the table of the owner. On this ground alone, Ogboru should be held accountable for the demolition of his political platform. First, he had no vision beyond Delta State, earning his party the tag of a micro party. Second, after every election, Ogboru practically goes to sleep, unseen and unheard, perhaps because he believes he can always count on the undivided support of Urhobo. Third, while he watched, his key associates, Chief Frank Kokori, Chief Richard Odibo, Chief Ede Dafinone and many others, fled the DPP. It

,

VIEWPOINT

Urhobo started their march back to relevance when they voted for the PDP during the 2013 Delta Central Senatorial bye election

,

was their reaction to support fatigue - mental, physical, financial and emotional exhaustion with no end in sight. These cumulative events mean that Ogboru’s electability gap has now widened into an unbridgeable gulf, a decline confirmed by the third position of the DPP in what was supposed to be its stronghold in the Delta Central Senatorial District bye election in October of 2013.

Urhobo’s total support for Ogboru and the DPP cast Urhobo into

the political wilderness, unequalled in its illustrious history.

There was a complete absence of political appointments at all levels of significance and complete lack of federal presence which means that federal structures, institutions and infrastructure due to Urhobo land went elsewhere in the state or even outside the state. So for the support of Ogboru, Urhobo paid dearly.

By withdrawing support from Ogboru and DPP, UPU has taken a bold step that is not aimed at demonizing Ogboru but at advancing Urhobo stated objectives and goals. UPU and Urhobo supported Ogboru without reservations. It is now time for Ogboru and his supporters to support the stated position and directive of UPU to propel the collective interests of Urhobo who supported him without reservations under the leadership and direction of the same UPU. It is unfortunate that Ogboru,

‘The People’s General’ has not done the kind of strategic generals are known for and even if he does so now, it is too late for the battle of 2015. Going forward, unless Ogboru joins a mainstream political party, his best days as a politician are behind him. So, it must be emphasized that Ogboru is not the problem, his political platform is.

Urhobo started their march back to relevance when they voted for the PDP during the 2013 Delta Central Senatorial bye election. To quicken the march out of the wilderness, out of what I know is an abundance of loyalty to Urhobo, Ogboru should in words and deed support UPU’s directive. Anything less will reveal ingratitude to UPU and Urhobo of unfathomable magnitude, taking with it the reverence he has enjoyed from Urhobo who had supported him with everything.

when I need it, to give me hugs, when I miss your dad to make me feel better, when I feel down. I wish you were still here I miss you Kewve my son, I love you son, Kewve forever and always Kevwe born on the 6th April 1973 to late Chief Thompson and Madam Florence Kohwarien. A graduate of International Relations from Obafemi Awolowo University,Ile-ife. Kevwe who

believed in possibilities switched into the IT sector and achieved uncommon milestones in his life time. You can do all things through Christ that strengthens you he will always say. He rose to an exalted position of Business Partner Manager in IBM. My son stood for the truth. He was a promising young man who

* Umukoro can be reached via denzelumukoro@gmail.com

Kevwe Kohwarien (1973-2013) VIEWPOINT

BY FLORENCE KOHWARIEN

VIEWPOINT IN BRIEF

Kevwe, I wish you were here.

A mothers tribute to her son

M

ADAM Florence sobbed,shaking her head in anguish as she handed over the picture of her late son ,Kevwe Theo-

dosius Kohwarien to me,tell him l am still waiting for his return,one year today, I have not heard nor seen him. Where is my son?I wished you were here Kewve. …........When ends life’s transient dream, when death’s cold sullen stream over me roll; I wish you were still here to help me out,to tell me the wrongs from the rights, to shine some light on the dark days, to give me advice

Late Kevwe Kohwarien

Continues on page 47

SUNDAY Vanguard, MAY 4, 2014, Page 47

IGNORANCE + POVERTY + GREED = CORRUPTION

BY CHIMDI MADUAGW VIEWPOINT IN BRIEF A word for the National Conference on Nigeria's challenges I still want those who are discussing “us” now in Abuja to focus on few more items. They, as our representatives or better, delegates, should search for answers to our questions. We, the represented, or the non-delegates, have the privilege to give them terms of reference as they seek answers to the questions. We shall be like the philosophers of old, who raise the questions and let them pretend to be scientists of the new generation who claim to have the answers to the questions. The terms of reference will not be long, but if they start getting unwieldy, I plead with you, favoured ones, to bear with me. After all, you all have the liberty to formulate and reformulate terms. In fact, you can even redefine terms. Less I weary you all, the terms are summed up in this statement: put the bits and pieces together and show us the shape, our shape. Locate SORROW and exterminate it!

Everybody in the country sings corruption. Ask the high and the low and they will pour out their

disgust for it. Many have suggested measures that could be taken against corruption. Governments have created institutions to combat corruption, some of which include Shagari’s National Ethical Reorientation Agency, Buhari’s War Against Indiscipline, Babangida’s MAMSER (NOA), and Obasanjo’s Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC) as perhaps the biggest and most visible.

Very many intelligent and well placed citizens have also pontificated, and are still doing so in the direction of either plummeting or eliminating corruption. Unfortunately, corruption sits on top of all the labour put in so far. Could now be the time to get to the high place where it dwells and negotiate with it or destroy it or, is it not better to let it be so that other issues of equal interest could be discussed? Whatever the case may be, corruption must be invited to the confab and appropriately interrogated. Looking at Nigeria, it is not easy to determine the conditions which provide fertile grounds for corruption.

This is because they are hidden and, most of the times, overshadowed by the effects of corruption.

We have largely misconstrued the efforts against corruption as we are unable to distinguish between its causes and effects.

The first condition for corruption is ignorance. Could it be a cause

,

VIEWPOINT

The first condition for corruption is ignorance. Could it be a cause or an effect?

,

or an effect? Many of us continue to eat up one another, blame one another, hate one another, deride one another and disdain one another as we strive towards having a good grasp of the meaning of corruption. We know that corruption is related to standards, and varies from individual to individual, organization to organization, institution to institution and even country to country.

There is a bench mark in all human activities largely expressed in codes, norms, rules, regulations and laws governing all endeavours. A reduction, or fall in the standard application, implementation or execution of any, or all of these is in simple terms, “corruption.” I like the Christian scriptural characterization of the concept as “… short.” In the Epistle of Paul to the Romans, it is written that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” Falling short of glory (the original) is equated to sin and that is corruption. Many of us

are certainly not wise enough to realize this. Our inability to realize that is ignorance. If we knew, we would act better. The havoc that ignorance has wreaked on this country is certainly a topic of discussion for another day.

The next condition for corruption is poverty. It is easy not to associate poverty with corruption because everybody thinks of corruption as elitist. Those who are derided for this ugly practice are the people in high places; the aristocrats, the technocrats, the political class, the business tycoons, and their likes. Much as I agree that they have fallen short of expectations, I also think that those who “expect” from them have equally devalued true expectations thereby bringing about a corrupt set of expectations. It becomes extremely difficult, therefore, to know who is are the major exponents and engineers of corruption.

Poverty can be seen from two perspectives: physical and spiritual.

While physical is aggressive and does a lot of violence to our sense of aesthetics, the spiritual insults the humanity in us; they are jointly victims and catalysts of corruption.

When a man in penury is placed in charge of resources, he believes that it is a God-given opportunity to escape from his debased physical position (thank God women are not included in this). He is over-

whelmed by the responsibility he is entrusted with and is likely to misappropriate the resources. Well this is pitiable and should I say, somehow understandable because we now know the role of IGNORANCE in the entire miasma. But when a man of means, in fact, distinguished by economic opulence and thus, privileged, misappropriates resources he is entrusted with, there is no doubt that he is under the spell of another agent of corruption known as GREED. All greedy individuals are poor, spiritually poor.

Greed thus takes its place as the third condition for corruption. It is insatiability in the human being. It is not really an obvious physical trend; rather it is more of a psychological propensity. Those who have and go on to seek more are justified to do so, but when they take advantage of the poor, encroaching into the little available to them and appropriating it, then they are obviously fickle minded, and certainly unwell. It is so when it has become an all consuming impulse and, as such, eliminates decency in its victims. It is one sickness that makes a father starve his children because he wants more for himself. It makes one to even steal from oneself. *MADUAGWU can be reached via chimdimaduagwu@gmail.com

Wary of China? Yes I am VIEWPOINT

BY ABDULJELIL ABOLADE VIEWPOINT IN BRIEF

Posers over the NTA/Star TV Network pact China’s economic engagement in Africa has sure offered some benefits to the continent, especially in terms of industrialisation and projects that require large investment and long pay-back terms that traditional donors are unwilling to provide.

China, however, is not the one to insist on good governance, respect for human rights or a crusade against corruption. Its goal is to subjugate such ideals to economic gains.

That is not a model I admire. The Chinese model is souless. In many parts of Africa, Chinese-owned businesses are notorious for abridging workers’ rights. Most notably, this takes the form of inordinately long working hours, rampant union busting, arbitrary pay cuts and refusal to pay during maternity periods.

The Joint Venture agreement between the Nigerian Television Authority, NTA, and StarTV Network, promoters of StarTimes, gives too much to the Chinese partners.

StarTimes is licensed to provide Dig-

ital Terrestrial Television, DTT, in Nigeria. The agreement produced NTAStarTV Network, in which the NTA has 30 per cent shareholding, acquired at the cost of N750million, which the Federal Government paid as licence fee on behalf of the NTA to the National Broadcasting Commission, NBC. The agreement kicked of on 1 March 2010, initially as a trial, and was launched just four months later.

The purpose of the agreement, according to the website of NTAStarTV Network Limited, is “to provide digital pay television services to Nigerians”, a purpose at variance with the one given by the Federal Government to NTAStarTV Network Limited to assist the country in its bid to realise the aims of digital migration.

While the agreement allows the parties involved to provide part pay TV and part free-to-air services of their DTT platform, NTAStarTV Network only provides pay TV service.

When subscription expires, viewers are immediately disconnected from the payTV platform as well as the free-to-air channels. The terms of the agreement also prohibit the NTA from entering into any relationship with another broadcaster, satellite or terrestrial. The terms demand NTA to annul those it had entered into prior to the dalliance with StarTimes. This implies that sources of income, which the NTA got

through shared sites, have been blocked. The potential for further erosion of Nigeria’s interest is also inherent in the agreement. On account of its 157 transmission sites across the country, the NTA has been recommended as the public broadcasting signal distributor. One of the team’s first step may be the ratification of the NTA as the signal distributor, a development that will make NTA the custodian of all distribution frequencies in the country and operators will have no other option other than to go to the NBC for licensing and the NTA for frequencies. This has the potential of handing a sector as sensitive as broadcasting to a Chinese firm. In similar vein, NTA, as the public signal distributor, will have near-total control over broadcasters, which will be dependent on it for frequencies.

In Kenya, the Nation Media Group, NMG, which is the biggest media organisation in East and Central Africa, took on StarTimes, the Chinese software and media giant, last year. NMG alleged that the Chinese company issued 5% of its shareholding to Kenyan government officials to smoothen the way through which licences were obtained. NMG wondered why a joint application for licensing by Nation Media and Royal Media was rejected for a lack of a bond of $5,700 when the two companies had the capacity to provide

such. “We are questioning why the licensing is being done in a discriminatory manner,” said their lawyer.

The same year, there was also vociferous dissent from Communication Commission of Kenya against Star Times for charging its subscribers for free-to-air channels. Similar anger was expressed in a dispute between Ugandan and the company, which allegedly sold subscribers outdated decoders to over 130,000 complainants allegedly duped into paying for the outmoded appliances.

In Mozambique, the Centre for Public Integrity, an advocacy group in the country, last month, alleged that the $133million contract awarded to the software arm of StarTimes for the digitalisation of radio and television lacked transparency. The group argued that the contract was awarded “without a public tender”, a charge denied by Gabriel Muthisse, the country’s Minister for Communications and Transport. A forthnight ago, the software arm of StarTimes, lost some of its rating in Ghana. The West African country, which awarded the contract for the country’s $95million digital migration project to StarTimes, appears to be having second thoughts, a hint of which was provided by the country’s Minister for Communications, Dr. Omane Boamah. The minister’s reservation was expressed during a visit to his office by the new

Chinese Ambassador to Ghana, Sun Baohong. Shooting straight, Boamah said the government of his country has become worried by delays in the release of funding for Ghana’s migration from the analogue to the digital terrestrial television system. Funding for the migration project, billed for completion this December ahead of the June 2015 analogue switchover deadline, is expected to come from the Exim Bank of China.

Up till now, StarTimes is yet to receive funds from the bank, a development that is causing the Ghanaian government some apprehension and forced Boamah to threaten that his country may be forced to seek an alternative source of funding in the next few weeks to ensure its objective of migrating before the deadline of analogue switchover is realised.

Ghana’s migration from analogue to digital television broadcast kicked off last year to enable the country meet a deadline of the end of this year. However, delays in the release of funds pose threat to the successful realisation of the project.

While it is not yet impossible for StarTimes to come good, the Ghanaian experience is likely to invite scrutiny to the Chinese involvement in Africa, not only in the continent’s media industry.

*Abolade, a broadcaster and writer, lives in Oshogbo

Kevwe Kohwarien (1973-2013) died at he Redemption camp Continued from page 45 during the 2013 Holy Ghost Service. He was married to Mrs Oghogho Kohwarien and was blessed with two children.

During his life time, he carved a niche in the IT industry where he attained a managerial position. He was an active member of Redeemed Christian Church of God. No doubt, this God fearing, successful,

vibrant and peace maker will forever be missed. Kevwe ran the race and made it to eternal glory. This is the legacy he has left behind for others to follow. He stood for every thing ‘Just’,not embracing the

short cut to success and not minding sacrificing everything he had built rather than being compromised.

He was also committed to what he believed showed strength of character.

If we had one wish, it would be for you to still be here with us but we know you are better of in eternity. May your light continue to shine, for we have no doubt that you are with the creator.

PAGE 48—SUNDAY

Vanguard, MAY 4, 2014

l want to add that as Christians, the implication of cheating is serious (proverb 5,6 and 7).

Cheaters (both men and women) are playing with fire.

How I wish after reading the book of Proverbs as quoted, people could turn to God and live a holy life. I will love it, if you will write on why married women cheat too.

Thanks BJ. Abuja.

Dear Yetunde, Guys cheat if they are not really getting what they want from their relationships. A guy who is not sure of the position he occupies with his spouse would like to keep another girl on the side just in case that one disappoints him.

Morenike, by e-mail Dear Yetunde, A guy would cheat if after marriage he begins to see what he did not see in the woman.

A lot of women are dirty and pretentious. When they are courting a guy, they will go to his house every weekend to wash his clothes and clean the house. All in a bid to impress him to make him believe that she is wife material.

Alas, the opposite will be the situation once he puts the ring on her finger and she knows that he cannot go anywhere again.

Another reason is that some women just let themselves go after marriage or childbirth.

And if the husband complains and the wife refuses to do anything about it, she will cease to appeal to him.

However, there is a new trend in town. Some guys these days are just too greedy. If they learn

that a particular lady has money and is a big spender, whether she is married or not does not matter since married women also cheat, they will not mind sacrificing their wives to get some of the money. Everybody in Nigeria is crazy about money these days. If you read many of these gossip papers you will be shocked what our men get up to. They are now worse than the women.

Adejoke Fagbulu. Lagos.

Dear Yetunde, I know you may find this a bit strange, but I have heard guys say that when they want to deal with their wives, they will give her emotional problems by having an affair and letting her know it. They say that when their wives know that they are doing something outside, they sit up and behave themselves because they know they cannot afford to lose their marriages.

African tradition has so caged the woman and she feels she must stay in her marriage no matter what. Then there are some men who can’t control their sexual urge.

Once they are attracted to a woman, they will do almost anything to have the woman.

I think this is peculiar to men generally and not only African men. They will not care what will happen to their marriage at that particular time.

Long distance relationships also promotes cheating, especially for men because of their physical need.

Susan Egwu, Warri.

etremly sexy with a curvy and alluring behind needs a mature man aged 55 and above for a romantic union. 08052428758 •Ouintana, 32, tall, exceptionally beautiful with a very appealing body dat will satisfy a man needs a serious man aged 50 and above to Friends Networking/ Sponsorship call her own 08036703491 Searching Females •Goodness, 22, tall, pretty and •Angela, sexy and friendly, •Ifeoma, 36, a single mum tall and fair in complexion, needs a man, dark in complexion, needs a needs a tall and sexy girlfriend in aged 45 and above for a serious renice person with a good heart Abuja .07066341182 to help in furthering her edu- •Cindy, 21, a student, needs lov- lady who is financially ok, for lationship that will lead to marcation .08186992633, ing, caring and nice cute friends friendship. 08132350847, riage. 08145237404 •Prisca, 25, needs a man, for a rela07012225536 around Owerri and 08026974333 Lovers tionship.08066396534 •Faith, 25, needs a P.A or a sec- Ph.08102237726 •Favour, 26, bust y and sexy, retary job in Port-Harcourt or •Nathasia, 19, average height, Searching Female Lagos, to enable her take care chocolate in complexion beautiful •Chinennye, from Enugu, needs needs a hot and dynamic man of myself and her younger and resides in Delta state, needs a man, who is caring and a Chris- for a relationship. 08068684663 ones.08153925960 mature male and female friends, tian, aged 33, for a serious rela- •Gladys, 23, needs a cute and tionship. 08134339405 romantic guy, for a relationship.

•Chioma, resides in Agbor, Del- aged 18-50. 08165436904 •Mimi, 26, a graduate, good 08148568562 ta State, needs God fearing looking, well behaved, needs an •Comfort, 21, a student, chocoand well meaning Nigerians, Searching Males who can help in financing her •Femi, 40, 6ft tall, dark in com- employed guy, aged 30-35 for a late in complexion, average plexion and from Delta, needs a serious relationship that can lead height and resides in Abia state, education.07050780075 needs a matured Christian who •Okey, 28, a computer engi- female friend to keep him compa- to marriage. 08094404484 •Princess, 24, sexy, pretty, young is a medical doctor or a civil neer graduate, needs ny.08126855239, 08064476759 sponsorship,needs sponsorship •Kc, 19, tall and resides in Lagos, and very bursty undergraduate servant for a serious relationship to set a computer training insti- needs a girl friend aged 17-19 needs a kind and generous man that will lead to marfor sexual relationship. riage.08173211559 tute. 08130260561,08176539000 .08134929046 •Rome, 23, needs a female 08102362446 •Anna, 24, sexy and a student, friend, aged 18-22, from Delta, •Vivian, 26, tall, dark, slim edu- needs a sexy, strong and fun lovLinks •Charity, Akhilor, wants to link Rivers, Bayelsa or Edo cated and from a well cultured ing man.08107310599 up with Grace Eke, whose S t a t e s . 0 8 1 1 5 6 1 5 4 1 8 , background need a mature, lov- •Freda, a graduate, needs a remother works with Nigeria Col- 08146437162 BB pin 2799efb2. ing and caring man aged 45 and sponsible and matured guy, to lege of aviation technology Zar- •Ulisan, from Delta state, needs above to call her own. show her love and care. a responsible and respected 08189073753 07062588127 ia. 07038329915 •Nicky, fair, big, bursty and •Vivian, 25, sexy and busty, needs a man, who is active and can make her feel like a woman.

Dear readers, please note that we neither operate, nor are we an affiliate of any match–making agency in 08148568562 or outside the country. Any reader who transacts business with any one claiming to be our agent does •Ada, 45, a single mother, educated, a Christian, from Abia so at his/her own risk. Our mission is only to provide a platform for social networking. state, but resides in Lagos, needs Also note that neither Vanguard, nor Yetunde Arebi will be liable for any error in the publication of a God fearing and employed requests which may result in any form of embarrassment to any member of the public. We therefore man, aged 50-65, for marrequest that text must be sent through at least one of the numbers for contact. This notice is necessary to riage.08138468138 enable us serve you better in our refreshingly different style. You can send your requests to 33055. For •Vicky, 26, God fearing, a gradenquiries, text or call 08026651636 uate, employed, resides in Abu-

ja, needs a serious God fearing man, who is a graduate, from Imo, Abia, Anambra and Rivers for a serious relationship.

08079130132, 08032618492 •Faith, 28, needs a God fearing man, for a relationship that can lead to marriage aged 3040.07038282302 •Joy, 42, God fearing, needs a God fearing man, from Edo or Anambra, aged 48-50, for marriage.08112301721, 07038647372 •Bukky,31, employed and resides in Lagos, needs a man, who is Yoruba by tribe, for a serious relationship, aged 3540. 08131318901,08028131718 Searching Male •Prince, resides in Auchi, needs a lady, who is a nurse, for a serious relationship, that would lead to marriage, aged 23. 08056147879 •Jeff, 30, 5.6ft tall, handsome, romantic and from Warri Delta state, needs a tall, pretty lady, who is busty plumpy and romantic, aged 19-45 for a relationship.08038033960 •Innocent, 35, honest and needs a caring lady, for marriage, aged 28-34.

08033362527 •Godwin, 22, fair in complexion and good looking, needs a nice girl, aged 17-22, who resides in Onitsha. 08091514563 •TY, 35, fair in complexion, handsome, romantic, Yoruba by tribe, Christian and a law graduate in Lagos, needs a beautiful, Christian Yoruba Medical Doctor, Pharmacist, Lawyer or Banker lady, aged 24-34, for a romantic relationship that may lead to union. 08127698004

Why do men cheat?

Readers have their say!

By Yetunde Arebi

H

i!

Last Sunday, I did promise that I will publish some of the responses that have been pouring in ever since we ran the first part of the above titled article. It would appear that not quite a few people find the issue of cheating worrisome, while some also feel it is a natural human reaction or instinct of the average man. What about you? What is your opinion about why our men cheat on their spouses?

Feel free to share your views with us as there is no time limit to this discussion.

I have been asked to write on why women also cheat in their relationships. I promise to do this very soon. “ Your wish is my command” as the saying goes. And for those whose letters have not been published, just bear with me. Remember you can always reach me via the email address inthelovezone@yahoo.com for counselling or answers to your questions on relationships. Let’s meet here again next Sunday.

Cheers!

Madam, you could count on your fingers the number

of men that have not cheated on their wives!

Let the truth be told, most married men who could not suppress their polygamous nature, once the care, attention and love they showered on their wives at the early stage of their marriage begin to wane, they start to cheat on them. I am guilty of this ugly trait of most married men and I regret giving my wife high blood pressure by cheating on her.

As Jesus said, ‘’there is nothing hidden under the sun that will not be revealed’’,

man, so I can explain more better. When it comes to relationships, be it marriage or otherwise, men cheat on the long run due to the time factor. As a man lives or stays with a particular woman everytime, overtime she becomes boring to him.

It’s like eating a particular food everyday. One is bound to get tired, so he looks for that spark or fireworks which have long gone out the window by finding a new catch. Another twist to the tale is the NIGERIAN WOMAN FACTOR. This is so because the ladies don’t take good care of their skin and shape after long years in marriage. Some become extremely fat and would also stop performing kinky

When I say kinky, I mean the BJ’S, the Doggy’s, 69’s, etc, because this type of sex can drive a man crazy and into another woman’s arms who does it for him consistently well!

because both men and women who secretly cheat on their partners, are eventually found out, period.

It should be noted that our wives love us more than we love them and that they are more faithful to us than we are to them. This is the plain truth!

Ifeka. From Awka.

Dear Yetunde, First and foremost men are born natural cheaters cause it’s in the hormones. I am a •Joyce Adodo, wants to link up with Abidemi Akintola, whom she lost contact with since 1988, when she left Jaji Barracks on transfer to Port Harcourt Barracks. 07038647372

DISCLAIMER!

sex acts on their men, that’s if they ever did it in the first place. When I say kinky, I mean the BJ’S, the Doggy’s, 69’s, etc, because this type of sex can drive a man crazy and into another woman’s arms who does it for him consistently well!

Omoefe. by e-mail Dear Yetunde, I read your article on why do men cheat part(2) and I found it very interesting and educative.

God fearing female friend, aged 43-50. 08064822681 •Samson,25, needs a good and responsible girl, aged 28,who resides in Benin, for a relationship, that can lead serious frendship. 08077113614 •Nicolas, 33, dark in complexion, a driver, nice and cool, from Ohaozara in Ebonyi state, but resides in Lagos, needs a mature

SUNDAY Vanguard, MAY 4, 2014 PAGE 49

Buhari, Tinubu and critics

BY WILLIAMS ADELEYE

T

Democratic credentials It was also convenient for Aribisala to overlook the fact that President Shagari was a northern-Muslim whose questionable election victory of 1983 over Chief sbafemi Awolowo, a SouthernChristian, was one of the grounds for the military putsch of December1983. Which ethnic or religious chauvinist will overthrow a President who shares the same ethnicity and religious persuasion with him? Were Buhari to be a religious bigot, would he not have used military fiat to make Nigeria a member of the Organisation of Islamic Conference, O.I.C. during his reign as military Head of State especially when his deputy was also a Muslim? Was it not Buhari as Head of State that routed the Maitatsine sect from Nigeria in 1984? I have it on good authority that Buhari himself as Head of State led the operation against Maitatsine from Yola.

As a corollary to above, Aribisala referred to Buhari and Tinubu as dictators - Buhari for overthrowing a government (that was lacking in legitimacy) and Tinubu for

Buhari foisting candidates (including his wife) for election on his party, and for making his daughter the Iyaloja of Lagos State. He also accused Buhari of calling on his supporters to go on the rampage if he lost an election. These cannot be farther from the truth. In the first place, very few contemporary Nigerian politicians can be more democratic than Buhari. A man who kept subjecting himself to seeking political office through the ballot box cannot be said to be a dictator. Who can be more democratic than a man who resorts to the law courts for redress anytime he felt cheated at the polls? I think it is libelous for some people to continue to peddle the lie that Buhari asked his supporters to protest violently if he lost the 2011 election. The truth is that Buhari warned of possible dire consequences if the elections were rigged.

On the allegation that Asiwaju Bola Tinubu imposes candidates including his wife on party members, I want to ask, ‘Does he also impose the candidates on the electorate?’ If indeed, the electorate had any problems with the candidates of Tinubu’s party, they would have used their votes to express that. This allegation smacks of jealousy. He was also accused

by Aribisala of imposing his daughter as the Iyaloja of Lagos. Market women and men are a very vibrant and organised set of people. I am not sure that you can impose a leader on that kind of group without a fight. I am not aware that the market men and women registered any protest on the emergence of the new Iyaloja.

Asiwaju’s detractors would wish they had the kind of ardent followership that God has given him the grace to enjoy. Those who understand what leadership means know that the major task of a leader is to set direction for his team and convince them to buy into it. Obviously, reaching a consensus on candidature for election may not be possible at all times but the majority view will always prevail. What political opponents of Asiwaju call imposition is actually consensus building which is an acceptable mechanism for decision-making.

Political dynasties On the emergence of his wife as a senator, when has it become a sin for the spouse of a successful man to also become a success in the same vocation? The question should be whether or not Mrs. Oluremi Tinubu has the credentials to become a senator.

The people of her senatorial district have already answered that question with their votes. I think Aribisala should go and read the stories of family political dynasties to understand that there is nothing essentially negative about this.

The Clinton, Bush, Kennedy, Cuomo,

Tinubu Rockefeller, Roosevelt, Daley, Adams, and Harrison families in the United States of America, the Aquino family in Philippines, and the Gandhi family in India are relevant examples here. In contemporary times, the Bush family has produced two Presidents and two state governors. Mrs. Hillary Clinton may well be on her way to becoming America’s first female President.

I do not think it is a sin to aspire to public office just because a relation has made a success of public office. Perhaps, we should be asking successful men and women in business and politics why their off-springs do not follow in their footsteps. It could be a case of leadership failure at the home front. Like a Harvard Review article puts it, ‘Democracy does not eliminate political dynasties; even the most enfranchised nations in the world have them. Voters tend to give political scions one free election before evaluating them on their own merits.’

,,

hese are interesting times in Nigeria’s political landscape. And it is not surprising. The 2015 general elections are around the corner and politicians are at liberty to dig into their bag of tricks to sway potential voters to their side even if some of them have to demonize their opponents. What is however worrisome is the activities of some so-called commentators and political analysts whose comments and write-ups are nothing but outright partisanship. Indeed, it will not be out of place to describe such commentators favour-seeking cronies of the government in power.

The interest being expressed by all shades of opinion and groups since the formation of APC is confirmation of the discomfort of the ruling party on the one hand and the expectation of deliverance from poverty and want by the long-suffering people of Nigeria. However, there are those who have resolved that the only way to slow down the growth of the APC is by demonizing its leaders through outright lies and falsehood in the hope that lies repeatedly told can become truth.

The recent article by Femi Aribisala in Vanguard of Tuesday, April 15, 2014 at page 17 is a classic example of a political hatchet job carried too far. In his article entitled, ‘There is nothing progressive about the APC’, Femi Aribisala tried in vain to confuse his readers and create doubts in their minds about the credentials of the APC as government-in-waiting.

He engaged on a rehash of the well-worn (to use his own words) and ineffective tactics of the PDP - referring to the APC as a Muslim party and demonizing its national leaders. In all, Aribisala listed some grounds which he thinks will justify his deep-seated hatred for General Muhamadu Buhari and Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu – two personalities he has chosen to vilify for reasons best known to him.

He alleged that the APC is a regressive party. The only reason he gave for such a conclusion is that Buhari ‘truncated’ a democratic government – an apparent reference to the 1983 coup that ousted the Shagari civilian administration of the Second Republic. What he failed to add in his jaundiced allegation is that the 1983 coup of Buhari and his colleagues in the military was a popular movement which did not come as a surprise to many at that time. Indeed, Nigerians today still relish the 20 months of Buhari/Idiagbon administration as 20 months of order and probity in public life. Of course, there would be certain decisions and actions taken during that period that he (Buhari) would not take today with benefit of hindsight. But that was 31 years ago as a 40year old!

I do not think it is a sin to aspire to public office just because a relation has made a success of public office On corruption, Aribisala questioned the anti-corruption posture of Buhari and Tinubu. According to him, Buhari built a palatial guest house in Daura as a Head of State. If this is all he can come up with against Buhari, then Aribisala deserves pity. If after a meritorious military career during which he was Petroleum Minister, military governor, and then, military head of state, not to talk of various command positions, all that Buhari can be accused of is building a palatial guest house in Daura and not series of choice properties in Abuja, Lagos, New York, Dubai, Paris, or London, then Buhari should be hailed as Mr. Clean. Let me remind Aribisala that Buhari was the only military head of state who did not promote himself while in office. He became head of state as a major general and remained so until he was overthrown 20 months later. The facts on ground suggest that Buhari is the most exemplary head of state (military or civilian) that Nigeria has had. Aribisala also accused Buhari of serving a corrupt Abacha government. The question for

Aribisala to answer is whether any Abacha loot has been traced to Buhari or his relations. Should we then conclude that President Goodluck Jonathan is corrupt for honoring Abacha during Nigeria’s centenary celebration?

Rule of law As to the alleged discharge and acquittal of Tinubu on technical grounds by the Code of Conduct Tribunal, I hope Aribisala is not suggesting that the Code of Conduct Tribunal was compromised.

Whatever corruption allegations anyone has against Tinubu should be proven in a law court and not on the pages of newspapers. It does appear that Aribisala does not believe in the rule of law as he would want us to believe. He would rather that people be sent to jail on mere allegations of operating foreign bank accounts. Interestingly, even he could not conjure up any allegation of corruption against Tinubu in his article.

Aribisala was also uncomfortable with the decision of APC to allow defecting members of the PDP to join the party. This is gibberish. People like Aribisala were the ones who accused the late Awolowo of being a political puritan who did not relate with some politicians that could have helped his political cause because they were not ‘clean’. Does anyone need to be reminded that this same Awolowo predicted some decades ago that a time of political alignment and realignment was coming in Nigeria, when progressive forces everywhere will come together under the same canopy? Why should a political party be afraid of allowing people to willingly join it? What is important is for the party to have clear code of ethics which will guide the conduct and behaviour of members.

Perhaps, what gave Mr. Aribisala away as engaging in political jobbery is his decision to join the PDP in painting the APC as a Muslim party. He concluded that the APC is a Muslim party just because some members of its Interim Executive Committee bear Muslim names.

He conveniently listed all those he considered to be Muslim and left out those who are not. Let us for the purpose of argument agree that majority of the interim officers of the party are Muslim, how does that make the party a Muslim party? Is there a written or unwritten code that precludes non-Muslims from occupying leadership positions in the party? Does the fact that majority of delegates at the on-going National Conference are Christians make it a ‘Christian’ Conference? Has the APC declared any ideology or principle in its manifesto that gives the impression that the party is pro-Islam and anti-Christian?

Indeed, it is people like Aribisala that should be accused of religious bigotry and ethnic chauvinism by reading religion and ethnicity into every issue. Are Kayode Fayemi, Rochas Okorocha, Rotimi Amaechi, Adams Oshiomole, George Akume, Tom Ikimi, Timipre Sylva, etc Muslims? Even some of the recognisable leaders of the party who are Muslim have proved to be religiously moderate and tolerant Nigerians who are married to Christian spouses and have allowed them free rein to practice their faith.

In Lagos, Asiwaju Tinubu, as governor returned Christian mission schools to the owners. The same man instituted an Annual Thanksgiving Service every January with a well-known Christian clergy presiding. That tradition subsists till today under another Muslim governor without the Muslims in Lagos complaining! People like Aribisala should recognise and promote this in their writings. As if by some divine arrangement, all the South-west governors of APC with the exception of Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola are married to practising Christians. In all the APC – controlled states, no one, including Aribisala has heard of any form of discrimination against any religious or ethnic grouping. APC does not and will not elevate any religion above others. The party is not built on any religious philosophy but on the principles of fairness, equity, and justice for all. No attempt to give it religious coloration by any one or group will succeed.

•Adeleye, a political analyst, lives in Lagos.

PAGE 50—SUNDAY Vanguard, MAY 4, 2014 japhdave@yahoo.com 08056402376

BOOK FESTIVAL

T

he city of Port Harcourt, capital of Rivers state, Nigeria last week entered into the history book as it became the first sub-Saharan African City to be named UNESCO World Book Capital. At an elaborate ceremony which was witnessed by literary icons and dignitaries within and outside the country including the former President, Abdusalam Abubakar (Rtd) in Portharcourt, the deputy governor of Bangkok, Mr Ammorn Kitchawenghui formally handed over to Rivers state governor, Rt Hon. Rotimi Amaechi the right and title of the UNESCO World Book Capital 2014, with this feat the city will bear the title from April 23rd 2014 till April 22nd 2015 when it will eventually hand it over to Incheon (South Korea).

The week long event witnessed lots of activities of celebration, reading, drama, dance, book presentation etc, but the climax of the ceremony was the actual handover of the UNESCO World Book Capital Title to Port Harcourt from Bangkok.

Amidst pomp, confetti, lights and so much glamour, the deputy Governor of Bangkok handed over the WBC Emblem to the Governor of Rivers state who was flanked by Dignitaries at the occasion.

Before then, the Bangkok delegation thrilled the audience with presentations of traditional poetry, dance and a puppet show. The Deputy Governor of Bangkok also presented gifts to Governor Amaechi from his Bangkok counterpart.

It was fun and celebration through out the days, but one important lesson of the ceremony was the revelation of the power/influence of books above all other issues politics inclusive. In a country where the quest for money had made many to abandon education, the array of dignitaries present and what they said about books remind all of the popular adage that knowledge is power. This was even evident with the way and manner, President Jonathan and Governor Amaechi threw away their party divides to agree for once again on the importance of books to the society. Though politically they’ve fallen apart but their love for books united them as they joined other speakers in celebrating writers and acknowledged their impact on humanity.

In his speech, President Goodluck Jonathan who was represented by his Special Assistant on Documentation, Ms. Molara Wood stated that “The role of the writer in society is unassailable.” According to him this can be seen as in the life and work of the great author Gabriel Garcia Marquez who died last week at the age of 87, and whose

immense contribution to world literature has elicited a flood of tributes from world leaders, eminent writers and book lovers in attestation to his incomparable influence on their lives.

“May we all reflect on the example of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, the late Chinua Achebe and our luminary writers, and the enormity of their influence, and fondness of their memory, derived through written word, and always remember as we celebrate the book, and strive to elevate our reading culture, t h a t words, written or read, are veritable tools for the re-direction and development of mankind.”

Ms. Molara Wood, also commended the Mrs. Koko Kalango-led Rainbow Book Club (RBC) and the Rivers State Government for collaborating to win Port Harcourt the bid.

* A cross section of writers and students during the opening ceremony

Reverberating tales from Port Harcourt, World Book Capital 2014

,

By CHRIS ONUOHA

to what can be achieved when well-meaning individuals and organisations are supported by government to push forward ideas that will transform and enrich the society,” he said.

On his part, Governor Amaechi, who is a strong advocate of edu-

Though politically, they've fallen apart but their love for books united them as they joined other speakers in celebrating writers and acknowledged their impact on humanity

“The Rivers State Government under the leadership of Rotimi Amaechi must also be commended for its direction and wonderful support for the Rainbow Book Club and the World Book Capital bid.

Today’s event is a testament

,

cation reiterated his belief in education as panacea to ills afflicting the society. Amaechi recalled his experience with Rivers State when he assumed office in 2007, the Governor stated that he realised that the quickest way to accelerate develop-

ment in the state was through quality education and books. He said, “Our thinking was that if we could address literacy and get poor children back in schools, we could also directly guarantee sustainable development and effective governance.”

He then recommended education and agriculture as solutions to the Boko Haram.

Speaking in his capacity of the chairman of the occasion, Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar (Rtd), said that Port Harcourt city has brought pride to Nigeria and Africa in general by clinching the World Book Capital 2014 nomination especially at the period Nigeria is celebrating centenary year. He said what made this important is that Port Harcourt was chosen against other strong bidders like Oxford, Lyon, Incheon, Moscow and also been the first

harity show ffor or Mr owot Mrss Sof Sofowot owotee She Lives On, a ccharity

A

s part of their desire to save the life of Motunlayo Adefunke Sofowote, a part time photographer and founder/president, Glowing Channels’ Foundation, a non-profit organisation, who is critically ill and in dire need of help to overcome cervical cancer, a group of friends known as ‘Mrs. Adefunke Sofowote Cancer Fighting Fund Team’ is organizing a photo exhibition to raise funds for her treatment.

The exhibition, which is taking place under the theme, ‘She Lives On’, would open on May 4, 2014, at Freedom Park, Broad Street, Lagos, at 4 pm prompt and would run for one week. The exhibition would be declared open by Dame Abimbola Fashola, the First Lady of Lagos State.

Mrs Sofowote has lived a better part of the last 15 years helping the needy and the less-privileged in society. But today, the 67-year old woman is critically ill and in dire need of help to overcome cervical cancer.

“The exhibition is a creative way of raising the necessary funds for her treatment,” Charles Ayo Dada noted. Dada is the coordinator of the exhibition. “The idea is to give back something to the patrons,” he

•Mrs Motunlayo Adefunke added. In his view, those who would support the cause of this exhibition would come in different categories. In his words: “Those pictures have their own appeal, so there are those who would buy because they love art.

But there are those who may be moved to give more than the cost of those pictures, if they see it as a fundraising activity. There would also be those who would buy because of the theme of the activity, particularly because they know the woman at the centre of it all and they want to identify with the project.”

As a dedicated part-time photographer with longstanding experience, Sofowote has quite a unique collection of photographs, out of which 40 have been selected for the exhibition.

“We have had to go through a collection of photographs she had taken over the years, to select the ones we would put on display,” Dada noted.

According to her husband, Segun Sofowote, the renowned dramatist, writer and veteran broadcaster, “Every session of treatment she undergoes costs the equivalent of well over a million naira. We need now N25 million to pay for her hospital bills, another N5 million to pay for her medications and prescriptions and another N5 million to take care of her living expenses in Germany.”

to win it in the sub-Saharan Africa.

Gen. Abubakar commended President Jonathan, Rivers State governor Rotimi Amaechi and the Rainbow Book Club for making it possible for PH to emerge as WBC. According to him, the government of Rivers under Amaechi deserves some commendation especially on his giant stride towards education development in the state which can be seen in the modernization of schools and heavy investments in school infrastructure, teachers training and welfares.

He also commended the effort of the Rainbow Book Club owner Mrs. Koko Kalango for promoting the culture of reading and writing through a successful show that has lasted for 8 years that culminates to success of clinching the World Book Capital 2014 title. He finally said that he is sure that the effect of this World Book Capital 2014 clinch will reverberate across Nigeria and beyond our shores but laments that Nigeria really needs peace, for without peace, the books cannot be read.

The keynote speaker, Professor Soyinka in his characteristic manner who began his speech by sending this important message to the Presidency. “Do not impose tax on books!”condemned the activities of Boko Haram insurgents and the lukewarm response by the federal government to their onslaught. He also expressed his displeasure over the way President Jonathan had been handling the war, noting that he could do more to contain the insurgents.

Kongi lamented the abduction of the schoolgirls in Borno State by the insurgents and noted that rather than expend energy on the ‘Bring Back the Book’ initiative launched some years ago, President Jonathan should concentrate on bringing back the girls.

The event also featured the public presentation of 100 years Around Port Harcourt, a book of sights and sounds of Rivers State as told by the children. A communal story written by 230 children drawn from 23 public junior secondary schools in River State within the age range of 10 – 14 under the supervision of their teachers and edited by Koko Kalango and Titi Horsfall.

SUNDAY Vanguard, MAY 4, 2014, PAGE 51 japhdave@yahoo.com 08056402376

WS@80: Pyrates Confraternity rolls out drums

By JAPHET ALAKAM CELEBRATION

A

,

frican’s first Nobel Laureate for Litera ture, Prof. Wole Soyinka will be 80 in July and as the entire world rolls out drum to celebrate him, the National Association of Seadogs (Pyrates Confraternity) has mapped out its own plans for a unique celebration of the literary icon whom they described as one of the initiators of the idea of Pyratism, and unarguably the most visible Pyrate since the confraternity’s inception.

Addressing the press at the formal presentation of the dedicated Website of the Wole Soyinka Annual Lecture Series sponsored and organized by the National Association of Seadogs (Pyrates Confraternity), in Lagos Ide Owodiong-Idemeko NAS Cap’n disclosed that this years celebration will be special and symbolic in many respects. It will start with The Wole Soyinka Annual Lecture Series, a conception of the National Association of Seadogs (Pyrates Confraternity), dedicated to

honouring one of Nigeria and Africa’s most outstanding and enduring literary icons: Professor Wole Soyinka (Nobel Laureate).

The Lecture Series, which is an annual event, holds in the month of July and is aimed at promoting good governance, social justice and the advancement of democratic ideals in Nigeria and beyond. Since its inception, lectures have been held in three continents around the world (Africa, Europe and North America).

According to him, this year’s lecture which is the 17th in the Series is significant and symbolic in many respects. It coincides with Prof Wole Soyinka’s 80th birthday and the centenary of Ni-

11, 2014 at the Cultural Centre, Abeokuta, Ogun State at 10:00am. The lecture will be delivered by two great and inspiring Nigerians, Most Rev. Matthew Hassan Kukah, Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Sokoto and Dr. Oby Ezekwesili of the Africa Economic Development Policy Initiative (AEDPI), Open Society Foundation and co-founder of Transparency International.

The body also announced the establishment of the Wole Soyinka Award for Humanistic Ideals aimed at celebrating individuals or organisations who have undertaken activity or action that has provided solution to a public service prob-

The Wole Soyinka lecture series is aimed at promoting good governance, social justice and the advancement of democratic ideals in Nigeria and beyond

geria’s existence as a country.

The Lecture with the theme “This House Must Not Fall -Renegotiating Nigeria’s Social Contract after 100 Years of Nationhood”is scheduled to hold on Friday July

,

lem or addressed social injustice within a community or state.

The Wole Soyinka Award for Humanistic Ideals would be

•Prof. Wole Soyinka awarded by an Independent Award Committee composed of eminent figures, accomplished professionals in their chosen fields of endeavour. It will attract a cash award of US$ 6,000.00 (Six Thousand United States Dollars) with a commemorative plaque and would be awarded to

individuals and organisations who meet the pre-set qualification criteria, without recourse to their location, place or country of residence.

Another key initiative of the National Association of Seadogs (Pyrates Confraternity) is the NAS Free Medical Mission (NFMM).

This has featured blood donation by Seadogs to various hospital blood banks, donation of drugs and medical equipment to health facilities, payment of medical bills of indigent patients, and conduct of free medical missions by branches of the confraternity.

The key responsibility of the office included developing, organising and strategizing for the growth of the community free medical services.

The event was now structured as a quarterly event was held in 2012 at Ogbe Ijaw Community, Warri. This year, four more medical missions will hold and these include Uselu (Edo State) in May, Isara (Ogun State) in July to coincide with the celebration of Professor Wole Soyinka’s 80th birthday.

Speaking about the WS Digital Dialogue, Ide stated that “it is conceived to be a forum for continued discussions and commentaries on topical issues and events affecting our national lives as Nigerians, issues and events of global dimensions, which impact on us individually and collectively as a nation and as a community of humanity.”

The WS Digital Dialogue will set out to develop and facilitate dialogue among citizens and groups. To galvanise public opinion, publicize these opinions and avail government and policy makers of statistical information, arrived at by virtue of the forum’s activities. It will hold quarterly, a guest speaker will headline the issue or subject for the Digital Community to dialogue on.

Drinking from Oba Erediauwa’s fountain of ideas

By R.N. GODWINS REVIEW

T

he book, titled, Resolv ing Boundary Disputes, written by ThankGod George Ekine and published by Pearl Publishers, Port Harcourt is timely since the timing and theme of this latest book is very auspicious, coming at a time when the city of Port Harcourt is on the global book stage as the World Book Capital. It is a 260 paged collection and display of facts on boundary disputes resolution.

The forward to the book was brilliantly written by our own dear Deputy Governor, and Chairman of the Rivers State Boundary Committee, His Excellency, Engr. (Sir) Tele Ikuru, FNSE. Structured into nine Chapters with two tables of Cases, and of Statutes; a Bibliography, an Index, and an Annexure of the National Boundary Commission Act (2006) – the book deals with the distinct, critical issues associated with boundary disputes, and the techniques for resolving such disputes.

The book’s Table of cases parades a total of seventeen local and foreign judgments; as well as eighteen statutes, including the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, and the United Nations

Charter.

The first chapter of the book introduces the notion of boundary in real estate vis-à-vis the underlining concepts of interests, rights and benefits- all of which fall under the broad gamut of ownership.

In the second chapter of the book, which deals with Classification of Boundaries, the author defines boundaries, and their different classifications. Here, the author highlights the challenges of Border Demarcation, and the applicable principles for demarcation.

T

he third chapter of the book traces to 1914, Nigeria’s Boundary Problems, when the amalgamated nation inherited what the League of Nations left of the territory after the scramble for Africa in 1885 till 1914 upon the amalgamation of the Lagos colony with the Southern and Northern Protectorates.

The fourth Chapter of the book examines the vexed issue of Boundary Delimitation against the background of Internal boundaries, Boundary delimitations and demarcation etc and an over–view of the salient provisions of the National Boundary Commission (Establishment) Act (No.12 of 2006).

An appraisal of the international legal framework which defines and regulates maritime boundaries, and the acceptable

methods for resolving disputes arising from such boundaries, under the broad subject of the Law of the Sea, as contained in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, 1982- is the thrust of the fifth Chapter of the book.

Conflict Resolution Techniques are broadly examined under the Sixth Chapter of the book, while chapter seven discusses the specific Role of Traditional Institution in Governance, and Boundary Dispute Resolution.

The next chapter critically reviews the Lessons from the

,

How ttoo resolve boundar boundaryy disputes in Nigeria

The book deals with the distinct, critical issues associated with b o u n d a r y disputes, and the techniques for resolving such disputes

based thereon, and unambiguously faults the judgment.

The author in the last chapter postulates a working template for effective Boundary Conflict Resolution. Premised upon the disputed Soku oil wells between Bayelsa and Rivers State, he brilliantly analyses the interplay of critical factors, which may warrant the decision to intervene in a boundary conflict; and proposes a template which may be developed from certain parameters.

Thus, “Resolving Boundary Disputes is a must read for all as all humans are always confronted by the problem of boundary dislocation and ambiguities.

,

Bakassi Peninsular case. Tracing the origin of the Bakassi Peninsular to Nigeria, and the curious circumstances of the protracted diplomatic dispute between the two neighbouring countries, over the rich peninsular; and the unfavourable judgment of the International Court against Nigeriathe author exhaustively analyses the facts of the dispute, and the Court’s decision

Resolving Boundary Disputes; Thankgod George Ekine; Pearl Publishers, Port Hacourt, Nigeria; PP. 260 ;

PAGE 52, SUNDAY VANGUARD, MAY 4, 2014

SUNDAY VANGUARD, MAY 4, 2014, PAGE 53

How Jonathan can resolve the Boko Haram mystery —Primat eA —Primate Ayyodele

BY BASHIR ADEFAKA

P

rimate Elijah Babatunde Ayodele is founder and Spiritual Leader of INRI Evangelical Spiritual Church, Lagos. Last week, the Ikere, Ekiti State-born prophet of the white garment church of difference told Sunday Vanguard that his prophecies were exactly the words directed by God but that he was always worried whenever his warnings to the nation came to pass due to indifference on the part of operators of the system.

He, however said Boko Haram is not the making of President Goodluck Jonathan, adding that the insurgents are not, in fact, Islamists but members of a satanic group hiding under the garment of a religious ideology.

Excerpts of interview: From what background is Primate Ayodele coming from and how did you come about prophecies that have distinguished you among the ministers of churches in Nigeria?

I come from a Christian background in Ikere-Ekiti, Ekiti State. Well, it is a grace when you are chosen amongst your kinsmen or among over 170 million people or thereabouts to serve in God’s vineyard. Prophecy is a grace. It is not my own making but God’s grace. If not for the grace of God, I would not have worked in God’s vineyard.

Had you not been a minister of God, what would you have been?

I would have been a military man, a lawyer, a politician or a journalist. Those were my options. I never thought of working in God’s vineyard until it happened. And then with my experience, working in God’s vineyard is a privilege. If I have the opportunity to come back to the world after this one, I would want to still work in God’s vineyard because it is a position that is higher and more honoured than the position of the president of any nation.

Yours is a white garment church but, on its own...

(Cuts in) You have used the right word and I would now reply you in a rightful way. Since I have been receiving journalists who come to interview me, you are the only journalist who has used the right word in describing my church. White garment church on its own. It is not Cherubim and Seraphim, not Celestial Church. It is a white garment church that believes so much in fasting, prayers and in practising the word of God. We don’t go to the stream, we don’t kill... and we don’t do all sorts of things that many other white garment churches are known for. Our practice is ordained by God. We pray, we fast and even if you come from any Pentecostal church, you would easily understand what we are doing.

We have different services: morning, afternoon and evening.

Now we are planning for an extension because of the overflow. And in the process of the extension, we are trying to do a maternity centre, a school and we are trying to do an ICT centre as well.

Are those things going to be part of your NGO? No. I am talking about the church now, not the NGO. But what makes you discuss the world and not just your locality in the course of your prophecies?

I cannot discuss the world because I do not know anything about the world. I can only discuss the world if the Lord says, ‘Tell so, so and so; tell any President; tell whoever that matters this, this and that.’ And I move immediately. Let me tell you one thing about the world.

We had it in our book before now that there was going to be crisis between the United States of America and Russia, which has now happened. And if care is not taken, that crisis that has just started in Ukraine will drag on for the next 17 years. This is

and when you are Prophet, you have got to have in you the qualities of a prophet.

An Arewa leader was quoting you to me in Kaduna about your prediction warning President Jonathan not to contest 2015 elections for the safety of the country. Could you throw more light on this especially on whether it is true that when the President invited you, you were said to be proud not to honour his invitation?

Primate Ayodele is a household name and there have been many prophets before him. Everybody has his own time but, in my own case, I do not want it to be of a particular time. I want my own prophecies to happen till I leave this world. That is why I am being very careful about whatever I do today so that my tomorrow will give birth to my today.

Personally I don’t have anything against President Jonathan. In 2011, I warned him not to contest and the reason has happened. That is number one.

Does it mean the President doesn’t listen to the advice or warning from men of God, which is not from me? Does it mean that the President doesn’t believe

There are three terrorists in Nigeria that we have not really addressed. We are just treating one out of the three because America wanted to reduce Russia’s influence. And I said America would drop from being number one powerful country in the world to about three or more. Other countries like Germany, China and so on will rise to take the place of America. That is one.

Now the issue of Syria, if care is not taken, military intervention could be used against that country. The Syria crisis has to be handled with care because attack on Syria will lead to the Third World War that will erupt from Asia. In a nutshell, the whole world should be very careful about religious war that will emanate from Asia. That is the word about the world.

And let America be careful because I see sporadic shooting going on around it and, of course, Russia and America should pray against natural disaster so that it will not take so many people’s lives. And we all have to pray against airborne disease that may come from the western world. There is more to talk about the world that if I continue, I will keep talking and will not finish here. But in the month of July, I am giving you an invitation to be here for the public presentation of our book, “Warning to the Nation”, so that you will then know what it really is.

Prophet and primate, which one are you, really?

Primate is just a title like bishop, evangelist, reverend or apostle. But prophet is ordained

what the word of God says or some advisers surrounding him are blocking him from listening? Number two, Jonathan did not make the terrorists but his government is just unfortunate to be the one that is having these challenges.

Jonathan has a good mind to transform this country but he has bad advisers. People surrounding him are only interested in what they would gain from him because they want to be empowered, they want to be powerful.

That is why this government cannot fight corruption. They can only do their best which will not ever be enough. Jonathan will have to overhaul his security team.

On your question about why some said I was proud, let me start by saying that we started this in 1994 and our first prophecies came out in Weekend Times of December 7, 1994.

When all the prophecies came through, especially the warnings and especially when there was an impediment danger and the people concerned did not take it serious until they came to pass, that worried me a lot. So, where is the need to be expecting to be compensated with financial or world gains having done what the God asks me to do? It is not a matter of being proud. Just like I have been saying, the Malaysian missing plane they are looking for is not anywhere.

Let them ask the Malaysian government. And so about the terrorists that have been disturb-

Ayodele...Boko Haram people are not Muslims ing us in Nigeria, America should be queried because they have what could be used to help President Jonathan. Either Jonathan is there or not, the problem of Nigeria is compounded that only God can solve it.

Boko Haram not Islamists There are three terrorists in Nigeria that we have not really addressed. We are just treating one out of the three. If Boko Haram fizzles out, another one will come. How many years have we been fighting this? This book, “Warning to the Nation”, was sent to the security agencies in 2010 but they did not recognize it. And we had never heard about terrorists in Nigeria then.

When a prophet speaks, then we respect the word of God. Irrespective of religions, God is everywhere. Boko Haram people are not Muslims. They are members belonging to the Satanic group of end-time. So, anybody who says Boko Haram is an Islamic group is wasting his time and misleading the nation.

They are not Muslims! As for people who report and describe Boko Haram as Islamic sect or Muslims, it is human research. I don’t believe in human research. I believe only in what God says. The problem is that people don’t listen to the word of God as delivered by the prophets.

I have a feeling that people don’t believe in the message because they see the messengers as prophets of doom. Also why is it that you seem not to be comfortable with the CAN President?

One thing first; prophecy is security report, not made by man like you or me. There is nothing like prophet of doom.

God will always be God and He will forever be God. He can use a mad man to talk to you. He can use your driver and even your dog to talk to you but when you don’t understand and you fail to seek clarifications, you miss it. The problem we have in this country is that religious leaders bamboozle and brainwash people. The Imam would say he does not believe in the

Christian and the pastor would say it is his religion that will take you to heaven. It is not true. No such religion will take you to heaven. It is what makes you a person and what you have in you that can take you to heaven.

That is what we call born again but born again in the mouth is what we normally do. Everybody has to be born again. You are born again in yourself, in your attitude and then you become a refined person.

That takes us to why I keep talking about CAN or no CAN, Christian Association of Nigeria and why Ayo Oritsejafor should realize that he has failed the Christendom. As CAN President we advised him and Ayo Oritsejafor came out on the pages of the newspapers and started insulting me. We do not operate at the same level. He is a pastor and not a prophet. And there is a lot of differences between a pastor and a prophet. I only offered advice to assist him and he started to insult me. I am not running to become CAN president! I am far above all of that.

He should have talked to me as a leader to say, ‘Oh, what is the matter all about and what do you think we can do?’ I advised that he should have ambassadors.

He is trying to do this interreligious thing but Ayo needs a lot to do in Christianity. That seat he is sitting on is not by his own power.

God wanted him there as a trial to see what he can do and how he can go in putting things straight in Christendom. And you know that in CAN there are different groups: Catholic, Pentecostal, the white garment churches, the Anglican and all of that. It is just like the political system where the man at the helm of affairs doesn’t have his own say because, he is a puppet put there by his party.

In conclusion of this, there is no prophecy that really scares me like when you are warned and you don’t take it serious until it has come to pass; especially the negative one. The astronauts had said there was going to be rain in Lagos for about 235 days. We should put our preparations in order.

PAGE 54, SUNDAY VANGUARD, MAY 4, 2014

Champions League:

Madrid’s historical battle in Lisbon O

NE match, one pas sion, one dream, one city. For the first time in the history of the European Cup and the Champions League, the final will be disputed by two teams from the same town as Real Madrid meet Atletico in the competition’s showpiece in Lisbon on May 24. All eyes on Spain, then, and a derby with a difference.

Madrid and Atleti are deserved finalists. Carlo Ancelotti’s side battered Bayern Munich 5-0 on aggregate in the semi-finals to move to within 90 minutes of their Decima dream, but Atletico are there on merit too after impressively knocking out Chelsea with a brave 3-1 win at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday. It’s the first all-Spanish showpiece since the meeting between Madrid and Valencia in 2000 and, perhaps surprisingly, Barcelona aren’t involved.

The Catalan club are Spain’s last winners of the competition (in 2009 and 2011) and have dominated domestically in recent years, winning La Liga in four of the last five seasons. The Blaugrana had appeared destined to meet Madrid in a Champions League final at some stage, with both sides in the last four in each of the previous three seasons, but before a Clasico in Europe’s greatest game, comes a derbi.

That’s a success story not only for Diego Simeone’s super side, but also for La Liga, derided not so long ago as a two-team league. Yet two teams from that league will now dispute the continent’s foremost fixture - and they are not even the two most would have expected. On top of that, Barcelona were knocked out by Atleti in the quarter-finals, Sevilla eliminated city rivals Betis in the Europa League en route to a lastfour clash with Valencia, so of the other Primera Division sides in continental competition this term, only Real Sociedad have seen their European hopes ended by a nonSpanish side, the Basques missing out in the group stages in their Champions League campaign. It’s a remarkable return for Spanish football in 2013-14 and shows there’s a lot more to La Liga than Barcelona and Madrid.

Atletico’s story, however, is the most amazing of all. Languishing in 10th

BRING IT ON... Real Madrid Striker, Ronaldo, and his rival from Atletico Madrid, Costa, ready to battle in Lisbon place when Simeone took over from Gregorio Manzano in 2011-12, the Rojiblancos went on to win the Europa League that season and with virtually the same squad (even after selling their best player Radamel Falcao last summer), they now sit at the head of Europe’s top table.

Almost all of Atleti’s squad were in place prior to Simeone’s arrival, with only David Villa (a cutprice summer signing from Barcelona), Diego (who was on loan at the club in 2011-12 and returned in January) and a few fringe players added by the Argentine in recent seasons.

Simeone’s success has been in the ability to work with a tight budget and make this group gel. After the Europa League, the club claimed the Uefa Super Cup in 2012 and then the Copa del Rey last season by beating Madrid for the first time since 1999. Now, the Rojiblancos are two wins from claiming La Liga and also on the verge of winning Europe’s premier club competition. It is surely the greatest impact made by any coach in modern football.

And while Atleti’s ascent has been made possible on a shoestring, with a small squad and relying on an on-loan goalkeeper (Thibaut Courtois), youth-team graduates (Gabi, Koke, Mario Suarez) and substitutes who wouldn’t feature at many big clubs (Emiliano Insua, Jose Sosa, Toby Alderweireld), Real Madrid’s march to the top could not have been more different.

After dispensing with coach Jose Mourinho in the summer following a disappointing season in 2012-13 which ended with a third successive semi-final exit in the Champions League and Copa defeat to Atletico,

Madrid brought in Carlo Ancelotti. They splashed a record 100 million on Gareth Bale to lead an exciting new project on the pitch, with Cristiano Ronaldo soon putting pen to paper on a new deal to make him the world’s highest-paid player.

Real have already won the Copa del Rey this season after beating Barcelona in the final earlier this month and Los Blancos are still in with an outside chance of winning La Liga. Their success, however, has come after huge investment in the playing squad (Ronaldo and Bale are the two most expensive players in the history of football) and a bumper contract for Ancelotti to lead this new project, with winning the club a Champions League for the first time since 2002 his prime objective.

“Obviously I’m very happy,” Ancelotti said.

“We have to enjoy these positive moments. It’s a great satisfaction to lead Madrid to the Champions League final for the first time in 12 years.”

At Atleti, meanwhile, Simeone has had to fight to retain many of his players due to debts and been forced to work with a small squad punching above their weight.

“I let it all out after the third goal [against Chelsea],” Simeone said following his Mourinhoesque touchline celebration. “We are fighting against rivals with greater financial power.

Madrid are a powerful club and they are used to being in these situations, but we have been waiting many years to reach the final.”

In many ways, then, little has changed. Atletico, a club always associated with the working class, up against the rich rival from across town, long linked with the establishment, wealth and power.

SUNDAY VANGUARD, MAY 4, 2014, PAGE 55

AWC: Falcons still the best in Africa, says Cameroon coach D CAF bans Gambia for

ESPITE falling be hind at two consecutive Africa women championship, Nigeria’s senior women national team are still to be feared. Coach of the Cameroon Indomitable Lionesses, Enow Ngachu made the charge in Abuja after the first of the two-leg friendly involving the two continental rivals.

The Falcons missing some of the to professionals beat Cameroon by a lone goal, but according to Ngachu whose team denied the Nigerian women the chance to shine at the All Africa Games in 2011 and the London 2012 Olympics, said that the Falcons reamian the team to beat at next year ’s AWC billed for Nambia.

“The result of the friendly does not in any way diminish the position of Falcons. They are still the best in Africa.

They are still the best, but they should watch out for other African countries working seriously and improving the quality of their female football,” said the coach.

The Nigeria Football Federation in effort to

two years

C

FIRING... Nigeria’s Ebere Orji of Nigeria (right) fight for ball possession with Simphiwe Dludlu during a contest at the African women championship. boost the team has invited foreign-based professionals ahead of their AWC qualifier against Rwanda.

The players invited are: Perpetua Nkwocha (Sunnana SK, Sweden), Sarah Micheal (KIF Orebro, Sweden), Francisca Ordega (Pitea IF, Sweden), Onome Ebi (Min-

sk FC,Belarus), Osinachi Ohale (Houston Dash, United States), Faith Ikidi (Pitea IF, Sweden), Desire Oparanozie (Atasehir Belediyespor, Turkey) and Helen Ukaonu (Sunnana SK, Sweden).

The Super Falcons will face the She-Amavubi of Rwanda on May 24 for a

Lagosians shun ‘Ibile’ games T HERE has been low turnout of spectators in some of the venues for the ongoing Lagos State Sports Festival, tagged Ibile Games.

At the Teslim Balogun Stadium, one of the venues currently hosting Taekwondo and Swimming events on Friday had only a hand full of spectators to watch the competitions.

There was also low turnout at the venue for Table Tennis event at the National Stadium, Lagos.

At the Charlisco Sports Centre, Oshodi area of Lagos, the spectators who came out to watch boxing, the only event at the venue was also low.

However, at the Rowe Park, Yaba, the situation was different as many spectators turnout to watch events like gymnastics, basketball and weightlifting.

NAN correspondent gathered that the poor turnout was a result of an apparent poor pub-

licity ahead of the start of the Games.

Again, some of the events ongoing right now are still the so called lesser sports.

However, Bode Kenku, a member of the Local Organising Committee (LOC) said: “The low turnout of spectators cannot be as a result of poor publicity.

“We organised street shows, billboards, banners and radio jingles to announce the Games.

The spectators may have other reasons which can be mere apathy.

“But I am optimistic that spectatorship will pick up by next week when events like athletics and boxing will begin”.

Kenku enjoined the sports-loving Lagosians to avail themselves of the opportunity and come out en masse to watch the athletes perform.

Also Shameed Oseni, a taekwondo coach with Surulere Local Government Area, urged the organisers of the ongoing

Lagos State sports Festival, “Ibile Games”, to ensure athletes were fulfilled.

He said rewards and adequate compensation remained the major safety net that would discourage athletes from seeking greener pastures in another state.

“There must be good conditions and allowances on ground for participating athletes in this game; the reason is to encourage them so that they will not run to other states.

“This is our own state festival and it will be good to enjoy the benefit of the athletes we train from these Games to DAWN Games and the National Sports Festival.

“The coaches that groom the athletes must also not be ignored because when both are happy, Lagos State will stand out in any national festival,” he said.

NAN reports that 25 sports are featured in seven designated centres, holding from April 30 to May 10.

slot at the 2014 African Women Championship to be hosted by Namibia later in the year. And Okon insists that the foreign-based recruits must report early to camp in order to ascertain their fitness level, adding that only players who are able to prove themselves will be selected for the qualifier.

ONFEDERATION of African Football has suspended Gambia for two years from all its organised competitions for fielding five over-aged players during an African Youth Championship qualifier against Liberia.

Gambia was sanctioned based on ‘Article 37 Paragraph 1’ of the regulations of the African U-20 Championship, which states “for any deliberate intention to foul or cheat in any matter involving the falsification of documents, the defaulting association shall be suspended for two years from all CAF competitions”.

This was one of the decisions arrived at by the executive committee meeting chaired by CAF president, Issa Hayatou on April 29-30 2014, at the CAF headquarters in Cairo, Egypt.

Fifteen (15) points were on the agenda including revision of the regulations of the Orange Africa Cup of Nations, Interclubs competitions and the CAF Disciplinary Code, for which a working group

was established.

The committee called for the immediate adoption of the regulations of all CAF competitions, which states that any country whose club or national team is involved in the pirating of CAF rights will be immediately disqualified from the said competition and suspended for the next edition.

A report of the various inspection missions carried towards the preparation of upcoming competitions was also presented to the committee.

These include: African Women’s Championship Namibia 2014; African U17 Championship Niger 2015; Orange African U20 Championship Senegal 2015 and the Orange Africa Cup of Nations Morocco 2015.

The Executive Committee has decided to readjust the period of the African U-17 Championship Niger 2015 from 2-16 May 2015 to 15 February -1 March 2015 to ensure the young players compete in milder weather conditions.

EXPEDITION TO LISBON- The Marketing Director Nigerian Breweries Plc, Mr. Walter Drenth (2nd from left) and the Public Relations Adviser, Nigerian Breweries Plc, Mr Ekanem Kufre, with the Lisbon bound Lucky Consumers who were part of the viewing experience at the Heineken House Lagos

Golf: Men’s Clinic Nigeria lifts ARM Directors’ Cup with unofficial handi-

W

ITH 60 netscore garnered over 18 holes, Team Mens’ Clinic Nigeria lifted the Director’s Cup at the ARM 20th Anniversary Golf Tournament, which took place last week at the Lakowe Lakes Golf and Country Club, Lekki, Lagos State.

The tourney, which for-

mat was Team stroke play (best net score per hole), saw the better gross score for the hole counting for the total team score. The corporate golf tournament had players organised in teams of two from each company competing for the ARM Directors Cup. Golfers

caps, were given a handicap by the tournament director based on 18 for men and 24 for ladies or as otherwise instructed.

The tournament was at the instance of Asset & Resource Management (ARM) Company Ltd, which was celebrating its 20th year in business.

SUNDAY Vanguard, MAY 4, 2014

RESULTS West Ham Aston Villa Man Utd Newcastle Stoke Swansea Everton B’Dortmund Hamburger SV E’Frankfurt Freiburg

2 3 0 3 4 0 2 3 1 0 0

Tottenham Hull Sunderland Cardiff Fulham Southampton Man City Hoffenheim B’Munich B’Leverkusen Schalke 04

0 1 0 0 1 1 3 2 4 2 2

TODAY’S MATCHES Arsenal Chelsea

BRAZIL 2014:

v v

West Brom Norwich

2,30 pm 5.00 pm

Salami is better than Ideye, Pinnick tells Keshi D

ELTA Football Association boss, Pinnick Amaju has suggested to Super Eagles coach, Stephen Keshi that Warri Wolves striker, Gbolahan Salami is a better option to Brown Ideye who is likely to make the list of players to the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

Ideye had always featured in Keshi’s team even as the FC Dynamo Kyiv player came up for criticsim by fans.

“Salami is one of the best strikers Nigeria can boost of anywhere in the world now. He has scored five goals in five games played so far for Warri Wolves, that’s a massive record,” Pinnick declared on a radio programme.

“Keshi should give him chance to be on his World Cup team, he merits it. Personally, I will choose him ahead of Brown Ideye.”

The 23-year-old Salami has been capped at ‘B’ international level and featured for Nigeria at the recent CHAN in South Africa.

He also said West Bromwich Albion striker Victor Anichebe should not be pressured to play for Nigeria as he has now shown enough interest to do so.

“The only player I don’t want to see on the Eagles list is Anichebe, he hasn’t shown interest in playing for Nigeria, so

SUPER STRIKE.... Stoke City’s and Nigerian striker, Peter Odemwingie (foreground) scores his team’s first goal during the English Premier League football match between Stoke City and Fulham at the Britannia Stadium. The 4-1 defeat consigned Fulham to relegation. AFP PHOTO there is no reason to beg him because if we do, we won’t get the best from him,” he argued.

Mikel confirms Inter talks

S

UPER Eagles midfield maestro, John Obi Mikel may be switching cities after the World Cup as his agent John Shittu confirmed that talks are on-going with Inter Milan.

The arrival of Nemanja Matic and Jose Mourinho’s prefrence for David Liuz for the holding role have almost kept Mikel out Chelsea’s starting line up.

Mikel, who came close to joining Turkish outfit Galatasaray last summer, is one of Inter’s top transfer targets and is keen to rebuild his reputation with the fallen Serie A giants.

Shittu, revealed that his client has met with Nerazzurri chiefs, and would relish the chance to anchor the Inter midfield.

He said: “Inter? What I can

tell you is that I met with my client and the directors and they are interested in him.

“He is a great player who won the Champions League and the Africa Cup of Nations, so he is suited to Inter ’s standards.

“Inter is a possibility, but right now Mikel is a Chelsea player.

“I cannot tell you anything more on the negotiations. The fact remains that Mikel now has a contract with the Blues.”

Manchester United skipper Nemanja Vidic has already agreed to make the switch to Italy this summer, and owner Erick Thohir has openly expressed his desire to rejuvenate his squad with experienced stars as Inter look to force their way back into the Champions League.

City prepare world-record bid for Messi

M

ANCHESTER CITY are ready to launch a worldrecord bid for Barcelona star Lionel Messi.

Reports in Spain claim Manuel Pellegrini’s side have pre-

pared an eye-watering £164million (about N44.2b) offer as they look to bring one of the planet’s best players to the Etihad.

City owner Khaldoon Al

Mubarak has been keeping tabs on Messi since taking control of the Sky Blues in 2008, and feels the time is right to go after a player some believe to be the greatest of all time.

CROSS WORD PUZZLE ACROSS 1.Nigerian state (5) 3.African river (7) 7.Near-extinct animal (5) 8.Roof part (5) 9.Greek alphabet (3) 10.Supplement (3) 12.Widespread (4) 14.Replies (7) 17.Let (5) 19.Limb (3) 20.Donkey (3) 21.Cots (4) 24.Pitcher (4) 26.Reverential fear (3) 27.Goal (3) 28.Peruses (5) 30. Sure (7) 34.Eleven (4) 35.Flying mammal (3) 37.Unwell (3) 38.Hausa boy’s name (5) 39.Possessor (5) 40.Wearing away (7) 41.Commonplace (5)

DOWN 1.Prevents (6) 2.Church part (4) 3.Queen Amina’s old city (5) 4.Anchors (5) 5.Bird of prey (5) 6.Notions (5) 11.Niger-Delta tribe (8) 13.Zealous (5) 15.Nigerian state (8) 16.Bar (3) 18.Vital liquid (5) 21.Animal (5) 22.Therefore (2) 23.Exist (2) 25.Misery (3) 29.Polluted (6) 30.Wireless (5) 32.Excuse (5) 33.Synthetic fabric (5) 36.Pie (4)

SOLUTION on page 5

Printed and Published by VANGUARD MEDIA LIMITED, Vanguard Avenue, Kirikiri Canal, P.M.B.1007, Apapa. Advert Dept: :01- 7924470; Hotline: 01-4544821; Abuja: 09-2341102, 09-2342704. Email website: sundayvanguard@yahoo.com, editor@vanguardngr.com, news@vanguardngr.com, sunvanguardmail@yahoo.com. Advert:advert@vanguardngr.com.

Internet: www.vanguardngr.com (ISSN 0794-652X) Editor: JIDE AJANI. 08111813023 All correspondence to P.M.B. 1007, Apapa Lagos.