Female suicide bomber hits college in Niger

...towards a better life for the people

**

VOL. 25: NO. 62274

ONLINE | www.vanguardngr.com

N150

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2014

Nobody can stop Jonathan from coming to Delta — UDUAGHAN

13

Female suicide bomber hits college in Niger

By Wole Mosadomi, Johnbosco Agbakwuru & Joseph Erunke

M

INNA—TWO days after a suicide bomb attack killed about 50 secondary school students in Potiskum, Yobe State, another suicide bomber, a female, yesterday, attacked another school, the Federal College of Education, Kontagora, Niger State some 150 kilometres (90 miles) from the state capital, Minna. This is just as the Senate has summoned all Service Chiefs to explain why Boko Haram appears to be having the upper

•Conflicting reports over rate of casualties •Senate summons Service Chiefs today •The female bomber must have had an insider — Gov Aliyu

Continues on Page 5

Mixed reactions greet Jonathan's declaration for re-election CENTENARY NOTE:

8

President Goodluck Jonathan (below left) receiving the new One Hundred Naira note (N100) in commemoration of Nigeria's Centenary from CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele in Abuja, yesterday. Photo: Abayomi Adeshida.

Mr & Mrs

COLUMNISTS: USA: Thoughts Automatic from the heart of ticket to empire disaster •P.17

A reminder to retiring governors •P.19

•P.19

Naira suffers biggest official depreciation in three years

9

2 — Vanguard, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2014

C M Y K

Vanguard, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2014—3

C M Y K

4 — Vanguard, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2014

C M Y K

Vanguard, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2014 —5

POCKET CARTOON

RELIEF—Leader of Adamawa Peace Initiative (API) and President, American University of Nigeria (AUN), Margee Ensign (R), presenting relief materials to a woman during a visit to Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camp in Bole area of Yola town, yesterday. Photo: NAN.

Female suicide bomber hits college in Niger Continues from Page 1

hand.

There were conflicting reports on casualty figures of yesterday ’s attack in Kontagora. An account said no fewer than 10 persons died in the attack, others said only the female suicide bomber died while two others were injured and were receiving treatment

at Kontagora General hospital.

The incident caused panic among residents of the town as they started running helplessly and confused. Ahead of the decision of the college, many resident students vacated their hostels and took refuge in the town.

It was gathered that the female bomber was

LIFEWORDS

BY PASTOR ITUAH

The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today. Let us move forward with strong and active faith. Limit your doubts and develop your future.

TAKE HEART

BY ELLA RANDLE

If your daily life seems poor, do not blame it; blame yourself. Tell yourself that you are not poet enough to call forth its riches. First, say to yourself what you would be.Then do what you have to do —Nancy Etcoff

J

UST as the stones in every fast moving stream will eventually become smooth, rounded discs from years of friction and tiny collisions, it seems we human beings are destined to outgrow our suffering simply because we are constantly running afoul of it. Over time, we can’t help but learn to get better at dealing with what ails us.

So each time we butt heads with life — whether it’s in the form of a belligerent customer or a dishonest mechanic — we get a chance to learn something of immeasurable importance.

If you graciously accept the role of student and open yourself up to the wisdom of the enlightened individuals all around you, you’ll be miles ahead of the curve, and your wisdom will be no accident.

heading for the hall where many of the students were sitting for their examination but got the timing wrong as the explosive she was carrying exploded in front of the school library, few metres to the targeted hall. She was immediately blown into two parts.

Two others whose identity were yet to be ascertained sustained injuries and were rushed to the general hospital in Kontagora for treatment.

Niger State police spokesman, Ibrahim Gambari confirmed the blast by telephone from Minna.

He said commanders were awaiting further details from officers on the ground.

“We have dispatched our teams from here,” he said.

One of the students, Mary Okafor said the blast occurred as they were sitting for the end of semester examinations and saw everyone rushing out of class.

She said: “We saw bodies on the ground between the library and the female hostel. Among the bodies were two dismembered women who we believed were the bombers. At least 10 students were killed and several others injured.

They have all been moved to the general hospital. We have all been asked to vacate the school. The authorities in the town have asked all schools to close.”

Provost of the college, Dr. Nathaniel Adediran in a telephone interview thanked God for saving the lives of students and other workers of the college.

“We thank God for answering our prayers because God did not allow the enemy to succeed," he remarked.

He said the management of the college would meet to decide whether to close down the school temporarily or continue with normal academic programmes.

Speaking on the incident, Governor Babangida Aliyu condemned the mission of the bomber and called on citizens of Niger State to rise up to the challenge and be more security-conscious.

The governor at a lecture to commemorate his 59th birthday said he has directed the security agencies in the state to increase the security apparatus in all the schools in collaboration with authorities of primary, secondary and tertiary institutions in the state to guard against a similar occurrence.

The governor thanked God for the safety of lives of students and lecturers and other workers, adding that had the bomber succeeded in her mission, it would have been another national calamity.

The bomber worked with an insider — Gov

“When we talk of Boko Haram, there are franchisees. I am sure that whatever was done must have been done locally because security report from the area confirmed that she was not part of them and therefore, she must be a stranger but with collaboration with some insiders.

“We should not be partisan about security and that is the whole essence of government which is providing security for the lives and property of the people.

The moment security is provided, we believe other things will come into place and our emirs and other traditional rulers will be alerted immediately,” the governor said.

Senate summons Service Chiefs today

Meanwhile, the Senate, yesterday, summoned all Service Chiefs to appear today and brief senators on the security situation in the North-East and why the Boko Haram insurgents appeared to be having the upper hand in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states.

The meeting would also review the effectiveness of the State of Emergency declared in the three states.

Those invited to the meeting included Chief of Defence Staff, Air Marshal Alex Badeh; Chief of Army Staff, LtGeneral Kenneth Minimah; Chief of Naval Staff, Vice-Admiral Usman Jibrin; Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Adesola Amosu, the Inspector General of Police, Suleiman Abba as well as the Director, Department of State Service, DSS, Mr. Ekpenyong Nsah.

It was gathered that in addition to giving information on the security situation, the service chiefs would also be expected to give account of the amount of money earmarked to fight insurgency and how such monies were expended.

Chairman, Senate Committee on Defence, Senator Thompson Sekibo who briefed newsmen said: “I know as a Senate that we have done whatever we need to do to support the Armed Forces to combat the battle and bring insurgents to their knees.

I also believe that virtually all the directives the Senate has passed on to the President, he has also honoured them including the recent $1 billion loan that was requested for.

“I believe that in addition to the $1 billion through the Office of the National Security Adviser, they will also be providing funds for the

purchase of military equipment but for us to wake up and hear that we are being overrun in some areas is embarrassing.

“I believe that we cannot stay here while we have not heard from the service chiefs. That is why we have summoned the service chiefs tomorrow by one o’clock.

We want to hear from them, to know areas they have problems and whatever the problems will be, we want to advise them to properly open up because Nigerians are tired of asking the same questions.

“We want to ask questions different from what we had been asking.

I believe everyone is worried especially after the last bombing in the school in Yobe State.

“The elections are coming so fast in the next few weeks. People are going for primaries and we are worried whether our colleagues in the North-east can go for primaries. Where will they start from? I believe that after the meeting tomorrow (today), some of these questions will be answered.

“Between the last declaration of state of emergency till now, the President, heeding the voice of National Assembly, has procured some equipment and one of the issues we are going to have tomorrow at the meeting is to have an inventory of equipment we have on ground.

“We also want to be sure that we have competent manpower. How do the insurgents get their equipment? How do they get them through the border"?

It would be recalled that the Deputy Governor of Borno State, Zana Mustapha had recently lamented that the insurgents were capturing some territories in the troubled states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe.

6—Vanguard, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2014

52-yr-old man found dead in his Abakaliki office

A

By Peter Okutu

BAKALIKI—IT was a sad episode for the family of Egbara last Saturday, following the sudden death of their son, Mr. Dominic Egbara, in his Abakaliki office.

The deceased was said to have gone to work on Friday, but did not return.

It was the following day, Saturday, that his brother, Alphonsus Egbara, found him lying lifeless on the floor of his office.

The deceased was an Orthopaedic Plastic Technician at the Federal Teaching Hospital, Abakaliki, FETHA, and was Chairman, Staff Welfare Association of the hospital.

Ebonyi State Police Public Relations Officer, Chris Anyanwu, said he was aware of the incident, but added that investigations were still ongoing to ascertain the circumstances that led to his death.

However, a source claimed that the deceased was killed and dumped in his office.

Man kidnaps housewife in Jigawa

Three siblings burnt to death in Lagos fire

By Esther Onyegbula

zI can't kill myself; we haven't been paid for months, says fireman

L

AGOS—THREE children of the same parents reportedly died in an inferno that destroyed the top floor of a two-storey building at Jankande Estate, Mile 2, Lagos, at about 10p.m., Tuesday night.

The children, identified as Ayomide, 10; Kemi, 7; and Darasimi, 8 months, were burnt to death before men of the fire service could rescue them.

Vanguard gathered that the inferno was caused by a candle lit by the mother of the children, after they returned from church.

The burning candle was said to have fallen on some items in the apartment, causing the fire that gutted their flat and consumed the children, who were sleeping.

It was learned that the mother of the children was in her shop, a few metres away from the house, while their father was downstairs.

Speaking to Vanguard, a neighbour, Kingsley Efon, said: “The incident happened in the night. The children had just returned from church when their mother took them inside to sleep.

“I was downstairs when we noticed the fire. I raised the alarm. Neighbours and people around began to carry water upstairs to curtail the fire and rescue the children.

“But it was all like magic. In an instant, the fire had spread to the living room where the children were sleeping. There was no space to rescue the children, let alone the property.”

Christy Macaulay, one of the

The building. PHOTO: Esther Onyegbula. occupants of the building, said: “I am grateful to God for the courage he gave to me to open the burglary proof. That was how my children and I escaped.

“It was later I learned that my neighbour ’s three children were inside when the incident happened and all of them got burnt to death. It is just so unfortunate that things like this had to happen at this time.”

A neighbour was said to have called the Fire Service at Festac Town several times, but that the

firemen took hours to respond.

A resident said: “When we called, they said they were on their way; it took them several hours to arrive.

“Before they came, the Fire Service at Oshodi had arrived, and the inferno had spread to the next flat and consumed everything.

“Even when they came, one of the officials said they had not been paid for months and that he was not going to kill himself trying to put out fire.

By Tina Akannam

D

UTSE—JIGAWA State command of Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corps, NSCDC, has arrested one Inusa Usaini of Gandun Sarki in Malam Madori Local Government Area for allegedly abducting a housewife, Sa’adatu, who he kept in his custody for eight days.

The suspect, who hails from the same community, was said to have taken the victim to Kabi village in Kafin Hausa Local Government Area of the state.

The commandant of corps, Dr. Muhammad Gidado, said the woman was not abused by the suspect during the abduction, adding that the suspect was yet to disclose the motive behind his action.

Efforts to get the reaction of the husband of the woman failed, as he said he did not want a media show of the unfortunate incident, since Allah had rescued his wife.

14-yr-old, man docked for sodomy

By Onozure Dania

L

AGOS—A 14-year-old boy (names withheld) and 20year-old Gideon Harrison have been remanded in prison custody over alleged homosexuality, pending when they are able to perfect their bail conditions.

When they were arraigned at Juvenile Court, Ikeja, the teenager pleaded not guilty, while Harrison pleaded guilty to the charge.

They were arrested by the police at Ikotun, where they were allegedly engaging in homosexuality. The suspects were arrested after the residents, who saw them, handed them over to the police.

Trouble started when Harrison attempted to lure another teenager in the area into the act, but the boy refused and raised the alarm that attracted residents’ attention.

At the station, the teenager, who is from Abia State, admitted that he was lured into the act

by Harrison, who is from Delta State.

Harrison also told the police that he used to give the teenager between N200 and N300 and that he was not the only person involved.

According to him, there are other teenagers in the area who have also collected money from him and allowed him to

sodomize them.

The court, however, granted the defendants bail in the sum of N200,000, with two sureties each in like sum.

The court also ordered the sureties to deposit N200,000 to the Chief Registrar Account until the end of the matter.

The matter was adjourned to November 17, 2014.

“If the fire services had come on time, they would have been able to rescue at least one of the children.”

Fire Service boss reacts

Confirming the report, the Director, Lagos State Fire Service, Razak Fadipe, said three children died in the fire disaster, explaining that the service was not called on time to put out the fire.

“We got a distress call last night and when we got there, we discovered that it was a building that was on fire,” he said.

Fadipe confirmed the fire was caused by a candle lit by the family.

He said two water tanks were used in putting out the fire, adding that Oshodi and Festac Fire Stations were involved.

The Fire Service boss appealed to residents to desist from using candle, and canvassed the use of rechargeable lamps.

PDP chieftain submitted fake certificates to LASIEC, witness insists GCE result and affidavits to the 2011 local government

By Ofobike Hope

L

AGOS—A prosecution witness, who was formerly the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, Chairman of Agbado Oke-Odo Local Government Area, Segun Shodia, in the ongoing trial of forgery against a Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, chieftain, Otunba Ayinde Busari, yesterday, told an Igbosere Magistrate's Court that Ayinde submitted forged

Lagos State Electoral Commission, LASIEC in 2011.

Shodia, who was cross examined by the defence counsel, Fola Elegbinde, insisted that the documents submitted by the defendant were forged, adding that police investigations also confirmed that the defendant forged an affidavit before a Lagos High Court in Oyo State.

When asked by the defence counsel why the defendant was cleared by LAISEC to contest

elections if he actually forged the documents, Shodia said: “LASIEC requires candidates to submit all documents before an election, I do not know if he submitted it, but it is the job of LASIEC to verify a claim when raised by an opponent.”

The matter was adjourned to December 8.

The defendant, who was declared winner of Agbado OkeOdo election in 2012 by Justice S. Owobiyi, was arraigned for alleged forgery and perjury.

Vanguard, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2014—7

Mysterious fire razes 100 houses in Bauchi

By Suzan Edeh

B

AUCHI—ABOUT 100 houses have been burnt in Soro town in Ganjuwa Local Government Area of Bauchi State, following the outbreak of a mysterious fire.

Acting District Head of Soro, Alhaji Muhammad Kilishi, who disclosed this in an interview with Vanguard in Bauchi, said residents in the local government were yet to know the cause of the fire.

Kilishi said: “This fire is quite mysterious because it was not caused by an electrical fault or bush burning. We just noticed that fire from nowhere started burning and before we knew it, it had started destroying houses.

“This incident started mysteriously about a month ago, but no life has been lost since the outbreak. I do not know the meaning of this

strange fire which cannot be tied to a cause.

“Maybe it is a spiritual attack or something else; I cannot say for now. It is just that it is quite abnormal for a fire to appear from nowhere and start destroying property in the

communities.”

The district head said though no loss of life was recorded in the fire, property worth millions of Naira were destroyed.

He thanked the State Emergency Management Agency, SEMA, for rendering

assistance to the victims of the mysterious fire and urged other government agencies and nongovernmental organizations to come to the aid of the victims.

A victim, Murtala Shehu of Unguwar Fada Soro, called for prayers.

Defence lawyer asked me to scuttle kidnap case— POLICEMAN

By Chidi Nkwopara

O

WERRI—HEAD of the Surveillance Squad, Owerri Urban Police Division, Mr. Cyprian Ubo, yesterday stunned Imo State High Court presided over by Justice Paschal Nnadi, as he narrated how a defence lawyer (names withheld) in a kidnap case promised to give him whatever he wanted to scuttle the efforts

of the prosecution.

Ubo said: “A defence lawyer in this matter promised to pay anything, if I help to free his client.

“My life is being threatened.

I have been getting funny visits and calls. I am here to tell the court all I know in this matter. I will be forced to defend myself if any lawyer ever makes the mistake of visiting me again in connection with the matter.”

The policeman told the court that the suspects kidnapped one Chidiebere Ude and collected N4.7 million ransom and stole his vehicle.

Justice Nnadi described the report as “shocking,” adding that the lawyer knew he would be in trouble if the matter got to the appropriate quarters.

He was led in evidence by Assistant Director of Public Prosecution, Mr. Kevin Nwokorie.

DSS smashes car snatching syndicate in Anambra

By Vincent Ujumadu

A

WKA—THE Department of State Service, DSS, in Anambra State has smashed a car-snatching syndicate operating in the state, arrested eight suspects and recovered four vehicles from them.

Also recovered were two pistols and some live ammunition.

The arrested suspects are Chizoba Cosmos Agwuike, A.K.A. Malife; Kingsley Ifeanyi Okpara, Method; Arinze Philip Nweke, Onyedika Vincent Okoye, A.K.A. Don Pacino; Uche Ike, A.K.A. Uche White; Umeh Kelvin Afamefuna and Uche Chibuzo, A.K.A. Nwanwanyi Ukwuogbu.

The vehicles recovered from the suspects were Honda Accord, belonging to Anene Albert Onyemaechi, which was snatched from him in Awka and Ford Escape, belonging to Elochukwu Osondu, snatched

B

ENIN—TWO and half years after the accident involving the convoy of Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State, which claimed the lives of three journalists, five of the survivors have appealed to the governor to come to their aid as they now find it difficult to sustain themselves and their families due to injuries.

By Bartholomew Madukwe & Ebele Okafor

S

IX teenagers have been charged before an Ikeja Magistrate's Court in Lagos for belonging to an unlawful society, known as Awawa.

They include Kabiru Awolu, 18; Oyerogba Pelumi, 18; Quadri Adegbe, 18; Sunday Oyedele, 19; Moshood Otapo, 19; and Esther Lawal, 19.

The teenagers, who were charged alongside Okere Toyin, 35, and Olusola Abiodun, 24, are also accused by the police of causing grievous harm to one Adepegbe Rasheed.

However, when the charge was read to the accused persons before Magistrate Abimbola Komolafe, they pleaded not guilty.

Magistrate Komolafe granted the accused persons bail in the sum of N20,000.00 with one surety and adjourned the case to January 29, 2015.

Hoodlums lay siege to Ajegunle, 7 arrested

By Esther Onyegbula & Michael Ediri

T The suspects. INSET: The recovered cars. from him at Ogidi.

Others were Sienna Bus belonging to Christian Chike Okudo, which was snatched in Ogidi and a Toyota Camry belonging to David Onyiliofor, a lawyer, snatched in Awka.

One of the suspects, 20-year-

old Chizoba Agwuike, said they usually sell the vehicles for between N250,00 and N300,000.

Parading the suspects yesterday in Awka, the state Director of DSS, Mr. Alex Okeiyi, said his men have been

able to fight crime because of support from Governor Willie Obiano of Anambra State.

He also praised the efforts of sister state commands in the investigation of the matter, which took the command to Kaduna State.

Edo governor's convoy accident survivors seek help

By Gabriel Enogholase

6 teenagers docked for cult activities

The affected victims, who are now retired from the services of Edo State government, are Mr. Eddy Amakhu, cameraman; Gabriel Asika, photographer; David Acha, photographer; Henry Odeh, sound man; and Samson Enobemhe, driver.

Counsel to the survivors, Ebosele Okhifoh, in an open letter to the governor, recalled that on April 28, 2012, they were among the press crew of

the governor that were involved in a ghastly accident in Owan East Local Government Area, during his campaign, in which George Okosun and Olatunji Jacobs, both of ITV and Fidelis Okhai of AIT died.

They explained to the governor that the accident had taken a heavy toll on their lives, as Eddy Amakhu now has a broken waist and fractured legs and cannot

walk.

He said Gabriel Asika has knee and ribs problems, while David Acha has issues with his brain due to head injuries.

Similarly, the counsel said Henry Odeh remains maimed and cannot walk, while Samson Enobemhe was maimed and presently languishing on his sick bed at the University of Benin Teaching Hospital, UBTH, Benin.

HE Nigerian police have arrested seven persons in connection with the recent crisis in Ajegunle, Lagos State.

The crisis, which affected Shoga, Mosafejo, Adejiyan in Amukoko area of Ajegunle for about a week, left several persons injured.

It was learned that the suspects (names withheld), who are currently in the custody of Special AntiRobbery Squad, were arrested recently for their involvement in the crisis.

Vanguard learned that a large number of thugs had been terrorising Ajegunle and its environs in the past few days, breaking into people’s homes and shops, stealing and destroying property.

Mrs. Rukyat Awe, a food vendor at Mosafejo area of the community, blamed the unwholesome activities on political thugs and hoodlums in the community.

8 — Vanguard, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2014

By Clifford Ndujihe, Simon Ebegbulem & Dapo Akinrefon

T

HE polity was astir, yesterday, with mixed views on President Goodluck Jonathan’s elaborate declaration to seek for re-election.

Leaders of the main opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) yesterday insisted that the timing was wrong and insensitive, given the killing of 47 students in Potiskum, Yobe State, adding that they will give President Jonathan a thorough electoral beating at the 2015 polls.

However, the Professor Ben Nwabueze-led Igbo Leaders of Thought, ILT backed the President’s re-election bid, saying it believes the president has the wisdom and capacity to transform the country into a better united nation.

House of Representatives Speaker, Aminu Tambuwal, said Jonathan was leading a malfunctioning government just as the Labour Party, LP, described as unnecessary criticisms of the president’s action because he has the constitutional right to do so.

Rising from a meeting in Enugu, the ILT Executive Committee Deputy Chairman, Professor Chiweyite Ejike, commended Jonathan “For his wisdom in convening the National Conference, his humility, tolerance and ability to remain focused amid multiple distractions the country has never experienced before now. Some of these landmines are man-made but God gave Nigeria a wise and humble leader at this time of great tribulation.

Labour faults critics of Jonathan’s formal declaration The Labour Party, LP faulted criticisms of President Goodluck Jonathan’s formal declaration to run for office for a second term, describing it as unnecessary.

In a statement by its National Secretary, Mr Olukayode Ajulo, the party described the declaration as the president’s fundamental right as enshrined in the Constitution.

“Jonathan has the right to present himself for election just as the Constitution gives Nigerians equal right to elect or reject him” the party stated.

It noted that the declaration, like others by various aspirants from other political parties, is an action that will deepen the nation’s democratic experiments.

The party equally faulted allegations that Boko Haram was created by the government to cause destabilization and shift focus from 2015 general elections.

Noting that the Boko Haram predated the Jonathan administration, LP said “such unfounded allegation is myopic and amounts to trying to score cheap political points with an issue that threatens the corporate existence of the country.”

Jonathan danced on the grave of dead students, APC insists

Mixed reactions greet Jonathan’s re-election declaration zHe danced on graves of slain students, APC insists zWe have a malfunctioning govt in place — TAMBUWAL zHe will lose in Bayelsa and be voted out — OSHIOMHOLE zHe has constitutional right to run — LP In Benin City, the Edo State capital, the national leadership of the APC and governors of the party led by Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State, at a rally, faulted the second term declaration of President Jonathan, saying that the President danced on the graves of innocent children, who were killed by the Boko Haram sect.

Jonathan will lose Bayelsa in 2015 – OSHIOMHOLE On his part, Governor Oshiomhole declared that President Jonathan will lose in his Bayelsa State in 2015 and be sacked from Aso Rock for an APC President to take over, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Alhaji Aminu Tambuwal insisted that the PDP- led administration had failed the country, noting that Nigerians were deceived to vote President Jonathan in his first tenure, stressing that Nigerians must not vote any more based on sentiments but on credibility irrespective of the tribe of the person.

The leaders, who spoke at the six years anniversary celebration of Oshiomhole as governor of Edo include; National Chairman of the party, Chief John Odigie Oyegun; National leader of the party, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu; Chief Audu Ogbeh, former Head of State, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd) and former Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar.

Other dignitaries include Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo State, Governor Aliyu Wamakko of Sokoto State; Governor Rotimi Amaechi, who was represented by his deputy; former governor of Bayelsa State, Timipre Sylva; former governor of Ekiti State, Niyi Adebayo; Senator Chris Ngige; Chief Segun Oni, former governor of Ekiti State; APC national and state Assembly members; representatives of the Oba of Benin and many others.

At the well attended rally, former Minister of State for Works, Engr Chris Ogienwonyi and his supporters defected to the APC from the PDP. Governor Oshiomhole, who reeled out his achievements in the last six years pooh poohed Jonathan’s comment that the PDP will capture Edo and Rivers states in 2015 and 2016.

He said: “When President

VISIT: Arik Air Chairman, Sir JIA Arumemi-Ikhide (middle) presenting a gift to the Italian Ambassador to Nigeria, Dr Fulvio Rustico (right) when the Ambassador paid a courtesy visit to the airline. On the left is Arik Air's Managing Director, Mr. Chris Ndulue.

Jonathan was here in September to launch the South-South rally of the PDP, he was reported as saying that Edo State will fall to PDP. He went on to say that Rivers will fall to PDP. Look at the word he used ‘fall.’ I want to put him on notice that Edo State is not an enemy territory to be felled by an Armed Forces and the Commander-in-Chief must not target Edo for falling, Edo will stand and march on. On the contrary, APC will defeat the President in Bayelsa State.

“APC will defeat PDP in Rivers State. APC will defeat PDP in Cross River State. APC will defeat PDP in Delta State. APC will continue to bury PDP in Edo State.

What is the score card of the PDP in Edo State and in Nigeria? The PDP has commissioned the resurfacing of Ofusu to Benin in a period of 16 years. That is all PDP has to show in Edo State over a period of 16 years. Don’t forget that the PDP Federal Government controls 52.8 per cent of declared Federal allocation. Don’t ask me what is not declared.

“So I ask the President, with all due respect, what his party the PDP has done in Edo State. This afternoon, I want to remind you of those powerful statements made by the Edionwere of Benin Kingdom, Chief Edebiri who said that this generation of Edo people will never again vote for anybody who carries an umbrella that is torn. In 2011, the President scored 96 per cent in this state. Let him

commercial town in Adamawa state, if it has been taken by the insurgents, then this President should resign. If a military barrack equipped with our weapon to fight the insurgents, the armoury was abandoned and the soldiers fled, leaving the weapons for the insurgents under your watch and you said you want to run again, no. God forbids, if you refuse to go, we will sweep you away.’’

He warned the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC against collaborating with the PDP to rig the forthcoming elections and berated the commission for reducing the number of voters in Lagos from How Jonathan erred –TINUBU the six million used in the 2011 On his part, Asiwaju Tinubu, elections to 4.8 million. who commended Oshiomhole for We have a malfunctioning govt his achievements in Edo State, said President Jonathan made a in place –TAMBUWAL Tambuwal blasted the PDP-led blunder by declaring openly when girls abducted in Chibok by federal government saying, “The the Boko Haram sect were either system we have in place today is malfunctioning. The government killed or yet to be found.

According to him, “Jonathan is at the centre has failed in several stepping on the blood of Nigerian ways and when you have a system children and dancing on their that is not working, what do you graves by declaring yesterday do? You change to a better system (Tuesday). A wise President will that will deliver. The objective is stay in the villa and declare his to deliver good roads, provide intention to run in the memory of security, enhance development in those children. He said he will not this country.

“What we have at the moment step on the blood of anybody to be re-elected but he is dancing on is a cabal that has hijacked the their blood. No leadership of any instrument of authority of the nation will sit idle and watch any Nigerian people and we will do part of its own territory being taken everything humanly possible away by the so-called insurgents. come May 2015 to ensure that “Mubi is the second largest they are out of the villa.'' show us the 96 per cent contribution of development from PDP. All we see is PDP appropriating federal money in the name of SURE-P, which is SURE-Fraud...

“By the special grace of God, by February next year, we will not vote on the basis of tribalism. we will vote on the basis of who provides power. For 16 years PDP keep promising power but it is clearly power to their stomach. As long as PDP is in power, Nigerian people will be out of power. For as long as PDP has power, Nigerian people will never have power.’’

Vanguard, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2014 — 9

Naira suffers biggest official depreciation in three years ...As official forex rate rises; Experts predict more fall

By Babajide Komolafe, with Agency reports

T

HE Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) yesterday allowed the Naira to suffer its biggest official depreciation since November 2011, as the currency depreciated by 54 kobo at the official foreign exchange market.

This followed the continued decline in the nation’s external reserve, as the foreign exchange market defied all efforts of the apex bank to curtail foreign exchange demand and restore confidence in its ability to defend the Naira.

At the Bi-weekly Retail Dutch Auction System (RDAS) session conducted yesterday by the CBN, the official exchange rate rose to N156.39 to the dollar from N155.85 at the previous session conducted on Monday. This translated to 54 kobo depreciation of the Naira against the dollar, and the largest in three years.

Until last month the CBN had fiercely defended the Naira, maintaining the official exchange rate at the N155.75 since April 2013. But following increasing decline in the nation’s external reserves, rising demand for foreign exchange occasioned by foreign investors divesting from the country in response

to decline in price of crude oil, the apex bank started depreciating the Naira at the official exchange market. On October 15th, it depreciated the Naira by one kobo, and by two kobo on the 3rd and 5th of November. On Monday, November 10th, the CBN allowed the Naira to depreciate by five kobo and then yesterday by 54 kobo.

The last time the CBN allowed the naira to depreciate more than 50 kobo at the official market was on 28th of

November 2011.

But at the interbank foreign exchange market yesterday, the CBN intervened to halt the depreciation of the Naira, with the interbank exchange rate rising to N168.6 to the dollar on Tuesday from N165.8 last Friday. To halt this trend, the CBN conducted special dollar sales to banks, which caused the interbank exchange rate to fall to N167.6 to the dollar yesterday translating to N1 appreciation for the Naira.

Meanwhile, experts have

predicted further depreciation for the Naira, saying a sharp devaluation is inevitable. “The markets are starting to see the blood here,” said Emad Mostaque at Eclectic Strategy, a consultancy set up by former Deutsche Bank veteran, JohnPaul Smith.

“We are now entering a particularly dangerous period for the Naira as time constraints and low resources to fight against speculative attack make the currency vulnerable,” he said. “Everything is lining up

MEETING: From left: Head, Client Coverage, Stanbic IBTC, Mr. Anton Marias; Assistant Director, Retail Outlet Marketing, Department of Petroleum Resources, Mr. Usman Ndanusa; Head, Transactional Products and Services, Stanbic IBTC, Mr. Babatunde Macaulay; CEO, Stanbic IBTC Bank, Mr. Yinka Sanni; Dep. Director, Trade and Exchange, CBN, Mr. Joseph Ajewole; MD, Rainoil Ltd, Mr. Gabriel Ogbechie; Comptroller, PTML, Nigerian Customs Service, Mr. Folorunso Adegoke, and Head of Sales, Transactional Products and Services, Stanbic IBTC, Mr. Inwang Akpan, at the Stanbic IBTC Oil & Gas breakfast meeting in Lagos.

for that currency attack.”

There is in theory very little ammunition to defend the Naira.

Data from the Central Bank showed its liquid reserves have declined since the start of the year by $5.77 billion or more than 15 percent to $36.69 billion

by Tuesday.

Despite three interventions this week, the Naira closed at N167.60 to the dollar on Wednesday, well above the central bank’s trade band of 150160 - a range it burst out of in May and which appears to have become merely cosmetic.

Non-deliverable currency forwards - short-term contracts used by counterparties to lock in a future exchange rate indicate a naira-dollar exchange rate of 176 in three months, a roughly 5 percent depreciation.

Over 12 months time, forwards show the naira at 200.

A speculator attack may not necessarily materialise analysts point out that in a relatively small market it would be technically difficult to “short” the naira on a huge scale. But investors believe a fall triggered by an exodus of foreigners and locals from financial markets and banks is likely.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch analyst Oyin Anubi said his clients - U.S. equity investors - feared that as sinking oil prices deplete Nigeria’s war chest, a sharp correction is ahead: “Naira devaluation is fast becoming consensus,” he wrote in a note.

2015: Senators to battle PDP, Presidency over automatic tickets

By Johnbosco Agbakwuru

A

BUJA—THE battle between senators and governors elected on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, over the issue of automatic tickets for the lawmakers may not have been over following alleged moves by governors of the party to upturn the automatic tickets promised the lawmakers by the party leadership and the Presidency last week.

As a result of alleged hijack of the recent ward congresses of the party by the governors and the tacit approval of automatic ticket for some of them who were completing their second term in office to go to the senate, PDP Senators shunned their legislative duties last week.

But after a meeting the senators had with the party’s executive led by the National Chairman, Alhaji Adamu Muazu and President Goodluck Jonathan at the Presidential

Villa last week Friday, it was gathered that there was a promise of handing over two tickets out of three to the senators planning to return to the senate in 2015.

However, governors elected on the platform of the PDP, had stoutly opposed the alleged truce the senators led by the Senate President, David Mark, had with the party’s hierarchy and the president.

This development forced Senators of the ruling party to embark on emergency meeting immediately after plenary yesterday where it was gathered that they reviewed the situation so as to take a common position.

Although, the senators after the meeting, refused to brief the press, close sources revealed that the lawmakers resolved to renew their agitation with the party as well as shut down the national assembly following indications that the party and the Presidency would go back on the agreement with the lawmakers due to pressures

from the governors.

Sources in the National Assembly confirmed on Wednesday that PDP governors held a meeting with President Jonathan after his formal declaration on Tuesday where the governors urged the President to take another look at the issue of automatic tickets to Senators.

The source said that the governors insisted that instead of granting 40 automatic tickets to Senators, the governors should be allowed to take up the issue and review it on a state by state basis.

It was further gathered that since the ward congresses were conducted, most of the PDP governors had been spending most of their time in Abuja, lobbying the party’s leadership to reverse any position taken in favour of the senators especially on the automatic ticket.

It was gathered that the Senators saw the move by the Governors as a fresh move to outwit them and short-change

the lawmakers.

The source further said that the Senators were suspicious of the plan by the governors and resolved to send Senate President David Mark to the President and the party.

The source said, “We were told at the meeting that governors met with the President late on Tuesday and resolved that the party should allow them review the issue of automatic tickets to the governors on a state by state basis instead of granting automatic tickets to the Senators just like that. We see this as a ploy to outwit the senators and undermine our agreement with President Jonathan and the party.

“We believe that the move by the Governors is a fresh bid to shortchange the lawmakers and reverse the conclusion of the meeting we held with the President and the party.

Senators are not happy and I can tell you that a number of people are already contemplating ditching the party.”

The source further hinted that 11 Senators of the PDP from the North West have threatened to dump the party in view of what was considered high handedness of the party.

The source at the meeting also said that the Senators who frowned at the development lamented that ticket of the PDP was fast becoming a “poisoned chalice” in the zone and that the treatment being meted out to them by the governors was further compounding the situation.

It was gathered that the Senators decided to strengthen the hands of David Mark by asking him to take up the matter and brief them regularly.

Another source said that the senate unanimously said, “If care is not taken, the PDP could become a minority in the Senate before the end of the year. The danger again is that going back and forth on agreements reached with the highest organs of the PDP is painting a bad picture of the party.”

10— Vanguard, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2014

youths back Jonathan

Amosun, Osoba's loyalists clash in Ogun

L

zIt's not politically motivated—Govt

2015: Yoruba

AGOS—THE Yoruba Youth Initiative holds its endorsement of Mr. President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, as the consensus candidate for 2015 presidential election on Sunday, November 30, 2014.

A statement by the organisation said the endorsement would be held at the main auditorium, Administrative Staff College, Topo, Badagry, Lagos State.

The statement listed President Goodluck Jonathan, Vice president Namadi Sambo and Senate president David Mark as special guests of honour with First lady, Dame Patience Jonathan as mother of the day and PDP leader in the South West, Chief Buruji Kashamu, as chairman of the day.

We doubt Jega on free, fair elections in 2015 —CNPP

L

AGOS—MEMBERS of the Conference of Nigerian Political Parties, CNPP, Lagos State chapter, have shown their displeasure with the Chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Professor Attahiru Jega, over the poor distribution of Permanet Voters’ Cards, PVCs, in the the state, stressing that the commission lacked the integrity to conduct a free and fair elections in 2015.

BILLBOARDS' REMOVAL:

By Daud Olatunji B E O K U TA — T H E political atmosphere in Ogun State became charged, yesterday, following the removal of some giant billboards erected in some strategic areas across the state by Ogun State Signage and Advertising Agency, OGSAA. The Social Democratic Party, SDP, the new party of former governor of the state, Aremo Segun Osoba accused the state governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun of masterminding the destruction of its billboards and posters at Pakoto area of Sango, Sagamu interchange and in Ijebu-Ode among other areas.

Addressing newsmen yesterday, at the location of the billboard at the Sagamu Interchange, Chairman of the SDP in the state, Chief Olu Agemo and a Senator representing Ogun Central at the National Assembly, Senator Gbenga Obadara condemned the action, saying it is politically motivated.

Vanguard gathered that the SDP had on Sunday erected giant billboards in Abeokuta and other parts of the state.

It was further gathered that, on Tuesday, officials of the state government suspected to be operatives of the Ogun State Signage and Advertising Agency, OGSAA, backed by heavily armed anti-riot policemen tore down the billboards along the AbeokutaLagos Expressway and the Sagamu interchange along the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.

A

SDP reacts

According to Agemo; “The billboards were mounted on Sunday. We know that we have paid the contractors who might have paid for the signage and so, it’s surprising yesterday to discover that the billboards have been removed. This is unfortunate and we think that it must have been politically motivated because at least there must be about seven days grace for whoever mounts such a thing to go and pay for signage. So, that is the thinking of the party."

Corroborating the chairman, Obadara said the state governor and his agent have commenced an act of unleashing terror on the people of the state ahead of 2015 elections.

He said: “This is a provocative attack on our party, SDP by agents of Ogun governor which is un-called for.

“As good representatives of good people of the state, we will not in any way retaliate but we will not fold our hands to this unjust attitude and provocation of Ibikunle Amosun- led government.

“We do not expect the continuous tyrannical behaviour and unleashing of terror on us in SDP and we shall protect ourselves through the legal means as provided by Constitution of the country.”

In a swift reaction, the state Commissioner of Information and Strategy, Yusuph Olaniyonu, said: “There is an agency in charge of erection of

L

Monsur Olowoopejo

AGOS—GOVERNOR Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State, yesterday, said the DNA test result for 70 of the 116 victims of the collapsed six-storey building under-construction at the

Also defending the action, the General Manager of OGSAA, Akinlabi Bamidele, said the agency had only carried out its statutory function devoid of any politics by removing the SDP billboards.

He explained that the agency had since July this year informed the various outdoor advertising agencies that it would no longer allow the seven days of grace it used to give them to settle payment for billboards.

His words: “I’m sure you must have seen our people outside

to further demonstrate what our intentions were on the issue.”

z54 S-Africans, 16 Nigerians, Togolese, Beninoise, others identified Synagogue Church of All Nation, SCOAN, Ikotun-Idimu Local Council Development Area, LCDA, have been completed and ready for collection.

According to Fashola, out of 70 results released from the South African laboratory, 54 were identified to be South Africans, 16 Nigerians, while others were from Togo and Benin Republic.

On September 12, 2014, a six- storey building under construction within the premises of SCOAN, Ikotun suddenly collapsed and killed 166 persons and injured sveral others.

The governor who disclosed this during a courtesy visit by the South African delegation, led by a Minister in the

OGSAA boss speaks

AWARD: From left: Mrs Titilayo Solarin, Tutor General/PS, Education District II, Lagos State Ministry of Education, Mrs Abiodun Ogunniyi, awardee, 2013 Best Principal in Lagos State and Prrincipal, Oriwu Senior Model College, Ikorodu, Mrs Omolara Erogbogbo, Permanent Secretary, Lagos State Ministry of Education and Prince Adesegun Ogunlewe, former Head of Service, Lagos State, during the Lagos Ministry of Education 2013 annual education merit award in Lagos. Photo: Lamidi Bamidele.

SYNAGOGUE: South African envoy visits Fashola

By Olasunkanmi Akoni &

billboards in the state, the question is whether the billboards approved by the agency in charge?.”

Presidency, Mr. Jeff Radebe at the State House, Marina, Lagos, lamented that; “We regret that this has happened in Lagos.”

Fashola while reacting to the demands of South Africans for the urgent repatriation of the corpses due to the religious and cultural implications said; “Unfortunately, I have managed such issue during the previous plane crashes (Dana and Associated Plane crashes), I understand the anxiety of families and the religious undertone as well.

“And those cultures exist here.

I know that this is an issue that has attracted global attention.

Our responsibility is to ensure that families get closure.

“I understand the call by

relatives for the urgent release of the bodies, but we cannot at this time get the process wrong because if we release a body, we want to ensure that each family takes the body of their relative.

It will be un-pardonable for us to make mistake.”

Why DNA test was conducted in S-Africa

According to him; “The choice of South Africa for the DNA test, was a special decision to make the process easier for South Africans who bore the bigger brunt of the tragedy. So since the relatives are in South Africa, it was easier to use a laboratory in the country, where we could easily take samples from the deceased families for the test. It was meant

Identified bodies for collection

The governor said; “We have no reason to deny you the right to take those 54 bodies which DNA test results are ready. You have my word; you can take them whenever you are ready to do so. It is left for you to decide whether to take them in batches or wait until we conclude the exercise. But if you are ready, my team will ensure that you take them without any delay.

Coroner Inquest not to prosecute

Fashola, however, stressed that the ongoing Coroner Inquest set up by the state government was not to prosecute anyone but to unravel the cause of the collapse and what transpired after the building collapsed.

Vanguard, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2014 —11

A

ASUU threatens to shut UNILAG over promotion

By Dapo Akinrefon

DO EKITI—CRISIS seems to be brewing in Ekiti State over allegations and counter allegations of bribery levelled against All Progressives Congress, APC, members in the State House of Assembly by a group, the Ekiti Movement for Good Governance, EMGG. The group accused the APC lawmakers of demanding a sum of N135 million to clear commissioners and local government caretaker committee members appointed by Governor Ayodele Fayose.

But in a swift reaction, Speaker of the House of Assembly, Dr Adewale Omirin, described the allegation as blackmail and intimidation of Ekiti State House of Assembly by the state government.

He also said some lawmakers were molested for refusing to change parties as requested by Governor Ayo Fayose.

But the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Mr Idowu Adelusi dismissed the allegation, saying Governor Fayose did not order the account of the House to be frozen nor instigated assault on any member of the House.

“The allegations are very untrue. Governor Fayose has not ordered the freezing of account of the State House of Assembly.

And neither has the governor asked anybody to either insult or assault the speaker.

“The speaker is only playing politics and in the essence of that maligning the governor.’’

N135m bribery allegation

According to the group, the APC lawmakers were said to have demanded for the payment of their outstanding subvention of N48 million as condition to clear the commissioner nominees and the local councils caretaker committee, which Governor Fayose acceded to.

The group said the N48 million subvention had already been released to the lawmakers.

In a statement by the EMGG’s Secretary, Dr Abiodun Aina, the group alleged that after collecting the N48 million subvention approved by the governor, the APC lawmakers declined to attend to the screening and confirmation of the commissioner nominees.

The group alleged that, “this morning (yesterday), the APC lawmakers were called by their party leaders in Lagos, who prevailed on them to continue with their agenda of frustrating Fayose’s efforts to develop Ekiti State and render his government impossible.”

The group added that “instead of performing their legislative duties, for which they are being paid by Ekiti people, the APC lawmakers are asking Governor Fayose to give each member of the House of Assembly a sum of N5 million and the Speaker, N10 million, totalling N135 million.

“In a State already ran aground by the immediate past APC

By Dayo Adesulu

L

PROTEST: Members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, during a rally/ protest to sensitize students and the public on the plight of academic staff in the University of Lagos, Akoka, Lagos, yesterday. Photo by Lamidi Bamidele.

FAYOSE, ASSEMBLY FACE OFF:

Group accuses APC lawmakers of demanding N135m bribe zIt's cheap blackmail by Fayose —Speaker zFayose did not order the freezing of House accounts —Aide government of Dr Kayode Fayemi, it is ridiculous that some people will allow themselves to be teleguided by some foreign political merchants such that they will be asking for N135 million bribe in a State where public servants are being owed two months’ salary.

“We are aware that Governor Fayose has declined this obnoxious demand, opting to concentrate the State resources on welfare of the entire people, instead of a few APC lawmakers.

“It is therefore our plea to the APC lawmakers to allow Governor Fayose to perform his duties as a governor. The lawmakers should know that they are members of Ekiti State House of Assembly and not APC or Tinubu’s House of Assembly.”

decency in a fledgling democracy.”

Omirin, who said he would not have reacted if not for the gullible public that would be deceived by lies by the Executive, expressed worry over media reports casting the House of Assembly as a stumbling block to the governor ‘s bid to constitute his cabinet, noted that the reports in the media on the nominees are “misleading.”

He, however, stressed that the House will not be distracted from its record of integrity in making quality laws for Ekiti people as done in the last four years in making 74 laws without demanding for money.

It’s cheap blackmail — Speaker

Setting the records straight, he said: “The standard practice is to present the list of the nominees in the plenary while the nominees will follow with the submission of their credentials.

They will be screened before confirmation.

“The governor sent three nominees on Monday and the list was read. Since it is a public document, we read the letter second day in the plenary.

Nobody submitted any credential. We don’t know the nominees. They have not submitted their credentials for the appropriate committees to screen them. It is surprising that the governor expects the House to confirm the nominees as sent.

This is strange in parliamentary conduct.”

Reacting to the claim made by the group, the Speaker of Ekiti State House of Assembly, Dr Adewale Omirin, voiced concern over incessant blackmail and intimidation of Ekiti State House of Assembly by the state government, saying that Governor Fayose’s reactions to refusal by the APC members to dump their party for PDP are going beyond approved standards of modern governance.

A statement by the Speaker’s Special Adviser on Media, Wole Olujobi, said the latest allegation of demanding N135 million for the screening of Governor Fayose’s commissioner-nominees was a “propaganda taken too far and went against the grains of

Procedure for clearing nominees

Freezing of House bank accounts

Omirin, who regretted that the governor responded by freezing the bank accounts of the House of Assembly, maintained that “one arm of government cannot close down the activities of the other.”

His words: “How can you elevate intimidation and blackmail to an art of governance? The Chief Judge was blackmailed that he took bribes of N20 million to stall hearing on local council development areas case and another alleged N200 million to reassign the E-Eleven’s perjury case to Justice Olusegun Ogunyemi to return guilty verdict on the governor. After the judiciary had been blackmailed to submission, it is now the turn of the parliament to be brought to its knees by blackmailing members and freezing the accounts of the House as if the House is a department in the Governor’s Office.”

The lawmaker further warned that the governor will have “himself to blame if he continues in his anti-democratic conducts while all members mentioned in the bribery scandal would go to court to seek justice.”

He also threatened that that managements of the Ekiti radio and television would account for libel contained in their broadcasts, adding that “those involved in concocting these damaging acts will be made to account for their actions.”

AGOS—THE relative industrial peace being enjoyed by the University of Lagos, UNILAG may be hanging in the balance as the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, has vowed to embark on an indefinite strike next month if the institution fails to accede to their demands.

UNILAG-ASUU Chairman, Dr Laja Odukoya during a warning protest on campus yesterday, said: “If by next National Executives Council, NEC, meeting of ASUU slated for December 6 to 8, UNILAG authorities do not address our 2011 agreement, we shall go on indefinite strike.”

The union’s agitations, according to Odukoya bordered on negligence in promoting lectures who are due for promotions, adding, “I have people who have been assistant lecturers in UNILAG for eight years.”

He noted that many of the lecturers who are due for promotions were neglected on the grounds that there are no vacancies.

He said: “If you are due for promotion, they tell you there is no vacancy. As a result, you will not be promoted.

Odukoya who lamented discrepancies in the promotional exercise at the University of Lagos said: “Those who are junior to you in other universities are promoted and when they come here, they end up being your superiors and are even mandated to look into your papers.”

He explained that when a lecturer applies for promotion, it takes a number of years for the authorities in charge to process the letter.

The usual thing, he noted was that the promotion should take effect from the date the document was sent.

“What they do in UNILAG is to back date to two, three, four years and you will not get arrears.’’

12—Vanguard, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2014

Commercial tricycle operators in Bayelsa protest alleged extortion

By Samuel Oyadongha

Y

E N A G O A — Commercial tricycle operators in Bayelsa State, popularly known as ‘Keke NAPEP' have decried alleged extortion, harassment and high handedness by the police and threatened to disrupt the transport system in the state, if government and the police authorities do not call the policemen to order.

Keke NAPEP has become the major means for commuters in the state.

Some of the operators who spoke to Vanguard, while condemning the alleged arbitrariness of the police operatives, demanded immediate intervention by the state Police Commissioner, Mr. Valentine Ntomchukwu.

“The police are disturbing us and we want the commissioner to stop the incessant extortion of money from us. If policemen ask for particulars, no problem.

But they are always looking for every opportunity to extort money from us,” said Nnamdi, an operator along the Swali-Ox Bow Lake route.

He lamented that some operators were graduates who took to driving Keke to fend for themselves due to unemployment.

Also speaking, Jones, another operator, narrated how his Keke was seized by the police and he was made to cough out his hard earned money before it was released to him.

According to him, “This ugly trend brings bad image to the police. Keke is helpful, if they continue like that, the Keke drivers will start hiking fares which will not be in the interest of commuters.”

Delta 2015: 11 governorship aspirants warn against imposition

By Henry Umoru

A

BUJA—AHEAD of the December 8 governorship primaries of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, where candidates for the 2015 governorship election will emerge, 11 governorship aspirants in Delta State, yesterday, warned that the people of the state would vote against President Goodluck Jonathan and the PDP if urgent action was not taken to halt alleged manipulations to favour a particular aspirant.

They accused Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan and his predecessor, Chief James Ibori, of hijacking the party in the state especially during the last ward and local government elections, aimed at installing a candidate to the detriment of the people.

The aggrieved aspirants called on President Jonathan and the National Working Committee, NWC, to insist on a level playing field during the primaries.

Briefing newsmen at the Asokoro residence of former Federal Commissioner of Information and South- South leader, Chief Edwin Clark, they rejected perceived moves by Governor Uduaghan to single handedly pick candidates for state and National Assembly in Delta State.

Reading a communiqué on behalf of other aspirants after a meeting with the elder statesman, one of the aspirants, Dr. Esther Uduehi, said: “We, the undersigned governorship aspirants, having bought the governorship nomination and expression of interest forms of our great party, the PDP, and having followed the unfolding political developments in Delta State over the last two months, met at the home of our national leader, Chief E.K. Clark, on Tuesday, November 11, 2014, to review the state of affairs in our party in Delta State.

“After extensive deliberations, we resolved as follows; that we congratulate Mr. President for a successful declaration of his intention to seek re- election for a second term, that the unfolding events in our party

in Delta State, in the run-up to the 2015 elections are not satisfactory. We reject in its entirety, moves by the governor of Delta State to single handedly pick his successor by manipulating the processes. We further reject attempts by the governor to use state machinery and resources to intimidate and harass public officials and political leaders who have

refused to support his preferred candidate.

“That we also reject moves by an out-going governor to single-handedly pick candidates for state and National Assemblies in Delta State. That an out- going Governor who won his re- election with less than 10,000 votes cannot alone, deliver Delta State for Mr. President’s re- election bid without the support of all stakeholders in the party. In fact,

PDP will lose Delta State because of the governor’s conduct unless the NWC intervenes urgently to arrest the drift in the party."

Aspirants who signed the communiqué were Mr. Ovie Omo-Agege, Mr. Kenneth Gbagi; Victor Ochei, Ndudi Elumelu, Prof. Sylvester Monye, David Edevbie, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa, Prince Sam Obi, Esther Uduehi, Clement Ofuani, Johnson Opone, Gabriel Oyibode, Godswill Obielum and Peter Okocha.

AWARD: From left: Head, Regional Sales, South-South, Etisalat Nigeria, Mr. Enekwachi Aja; Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Education, Rivers State, Mr. Minabelem Michael-West and Deputy Vice Chancellor, Cross River State University of Technology, Prof. Gabriel Ikpi, at the Etisalat Merit Awards 2014, in Port Harcourt, yesterday.

Okonkwo condemns attacks on Oritsejafor over alleged arms deal

By Sam Eyoboka

W

ARRI—FORMER Vice President of Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, and presiding bishop of The Redeemed Evangelical Mission, TREM, Dr. Mike Okonkwo, yesterday in Warri, Delta State, berated those accusing the CAN President, Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, of involvement in any moneyfor-arms deal.

Describing Christianity as the most powerful cult on earth, Bishop Okonkwo averred that when anyone touched a cult member, all the cult members mobilized against such opponent, warning: “Touch any person who is a member of our cult and you are contending with God Himself.”

Speaking on a topic titled; The rising of the forgotten king on the third day of the ongoing Word of Life Bible Church’s 27th Jubilee Word Festival in Warri, the cleric insisted that if the attacks on the CAN president had anything to do with his

acquisition of a private jet, his accusers should be prepared because very soon almost every Nigerian cleric would be cruising in private jet.

Extolling the virtues of Pastor Oritsejafor before commencing his ministration, Okonkwo commended him for his “sacrifice, commitment, dedication and

faithfulness. Thank you so much for being a voice that can speak out in our days in spite of the different challenges. Thank you very much that even when you are maligned you are still standing. Thank you so much because when you are being misconstrued and abused in different fora, you are not intimidated but still speak

Man drags children to court over late wife's property

By Festus Ahon

U

GHELLI—CHIEF Executive Officer, CEO, Wellington Hotel, Effurun, Uvwie Local Government Area, Delta State, Chief Godspower Agbonifo, has dragged his children to Warri South Customary Court, praying the court to include him in the sharing of his late wife, Mrs. Mary Agbonifo's, property.

Respondents in the suit number No. WSACC/M/261/ 2014, include Deacon Tony Okene, Paul Okene, Efeturi

Okene, and Festus Agbonifo, as well as four new generation banks operating in Effurun/Warri, Delta State.

Reacting to the suit, a family member of the deceased, Chief Julius Ogbevire, expressed shock at the action of his late sister’s husband, saying, “We have not seen this in Urhoboland where a father takes his own children to court to be included in the sharing of his late wife's property. It is a taboo for a titled chief in Urhoboland to go to that extent."

Vanguard, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2014—13

Nobody can stop Jonathan from coming to Delta —Uduaghan

By Emma Amaize, Egufe Yafugborhi & Festus Ahon

W

A R R I — D E LTA G O V E R N O R Emmanuel Uduaghan of Delta State, yesterday issued a stern warning that nobody could stop President Goodluck Jonathan from entering the state and urged the ethnic groups to maintain peace.

The governor spoke against the backdrop of alleged threat by the Ijaw in Gbaramatu Kingdom, Warri South-West Local Government Area of the state to unleash mayhem in the area if President Goodluck Jonathan did not abort his planned visit for the groundbreaking of the $16 billion Ogidigben Export Processing Zone, EPZ. “Delta State is our state.

Nobody can chase the President away from the state.

Delta Gas City is a federal project that will benefit the entire Deltans and so, we are waiting for him to come and do the groundbreaking tomorrow (Friday)," he told Vanguard exclusively, yesterday.

An earlier attempt by President Jonathan, months ago, to perform the groundbreaking ceremony of the project was aborted due to squabbles over the naming of the project.

The governor said: “For the communities who are squabbling over the location of the project, there is no need fighting for the crumbs when the bigger cake is coming. The project is actually a Federal Government-driven project.

It is not a state project. The intention is to harness the country ’s abundant gas resources to realize its 2020 vision of becoming one of the 20 largest economies in the world. But the special thing for me and Deltans is that Delta, the Finger of God, is the host state and the impact will reverberate all over the state and country. Delta State Government is partnering with the Federal Government and other investors. We have issued a Certificate of Occupancy for the 2,700 hectares site for the Gas Revolution Industrial City.

There are lots more we are going to do as the project progresses.

“The Gas City is a greenfield development built around a major central gas processing facility that will produce pipeline gas from the domestic gas market, especially for power generation, and supply gas to an industrial complex within the Gas Revolution

Industrial City that will include world-scale fertilizer and petrochemical plants.

Actually, the wet gas is collected, dried and turned to dry gas. Like I said, with the gas city, there will be fertilizer and petrochemical plants and the agricultural sector will be transformed because a lot of fertilizer is required for agriculture.

For the petrochemical, it involves a lot of production and so, the gas city is a very huge project. It is an integral part of the Nigeria Gas Master Plan, and will serve as a model for future development elsewhere in the country. The development is being managed by the Ministry of Petroleum Resources, so you can see why I am excited. The whole idea is in consonance with our Delta-beyond-oil agenda.”

On the mobilization of communities for the project, he said: “We have tried to educate them. In fact, I had to hold a stakeholders’ meeting with the various communities and I brought technical experts on the project. They addressed them in Warri with slides and all that, telling them the gains.

But you see, it will take some time, it is a process, which is why whenever we have the opportunity, we try to educate them on the many opportunities that are there, and they should look more into the future. What is coming here, once it succeeds,

generations unborn will benefit so much from it.”

He said Koko in Warri North Local Government Area was to host the project, “but the anchor tenant – that is the company that will come and set up the fertilizer plant, found out when they came to assess the whole area that in the distribution of their product, it will be difficult for big ships to come into Koko.

So Koko, from their findings, will be challenging for evacuation of their products, except they use smaller ships and that is not cost effective because they might run at a loss if they do that.

“The alternative was dredging the channel into Koko and from the Nigerian Ports Authority, NPA, the initial assessment, is about $1 billion to do the dredging alone. And

after doing that, you are not even sure of how long it will take before the silting process starts again and it will require another dredging. Simply put, evacuation of the product will be quite complex and even the importation of the things to be used will require another location.

So, Ogidigben was chosen because it has a bigger channel.”

SUBMISSION OF NOMINATION FORMS: Abia State governorship hopeful Dr. Uche Ogah (2nd right), submitting his nomination and expression of interest forms to Alhaji Abubakar Mustapha, National Organizing Secretary of the party, at PDP headquarters yesterday.

....As Ijaw threaten mayhem EARLIER, the Ijaw in Gbaramatu Kingdom, Warri South-West Local Government Area of Delta State, had threatened to unleash violence in the area if President Jonathan did not abort his planned visit for the groundbreaking of the project pending the resolution of their grievances.

In a rally at the Gbaramatu City centre, Oporoza, community leaders, women, and youths, said the failure by the federal and Delta state governments and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, to define the kingdom’s stakes and accord them recognition like their Itsekiri neighbours of Ugborodo, was a call to chaos.

The demonstration was led by the militant wing of the Gbaramatu youths dressed in red on white war regalia, chanting war songs in readiness for battle.

The community’s position was read at the rally by

Benimowei of Gbaramatu Kingdom, Chief Godspower Gbenekama and member of the self constituted EPZ Stakeholders Communities of Gbaramatu Kingdom.

He said: “We have been reliably informed that the President will soon come for groundbreaking of the EPZ project without addressing the pending issues likely to cause problems in the area as they affect the project.We are convinced that NNPC and the Federal Government are taking sides with Delta State Government bent on promoting Itsekiri agenda aimed at continuous oppression and marginalization of the interest of the Ijaw of Gbaramatu in a project we have major stake in.”

Among the grievances, the Gbaramatu, who laid claim to a significant proportion of the land earmarked for the project, insisted: “The name of the project must be changed from

EPZ Ogidigben to another name reflecting joint ownership with the Itsekiri of Ugborodo”, citing the instance of Delta Steel Company, DSC, Ovwian/Aladja.

Other suggested panacea for peace, they highlighted, includeed being ceded a corresponding EPZ Interface committee to represent Gbaramatu interest, immediate dialogue with NNPC for a Memorandum of Understanding to be signed and for Gbaramatu to be carried along by Julius Berger in its ongoing work at the project site.

Similarly, the people of Sokobolou and Yokiri, Ogulagha Kingdom, Burutu Local Government area of the state, urged President Jonathan to stop the planned flag-off to avert another round of crises between the Itsekiri and Ijaw.

The people, in a letter by Adowei Binaebi and Daniel Comboye, Youth Presidents of

Sokobolou and Yokori communities, respectively and addressed to President Goodluck Jonathan, said: “As part of his promise to create employment for the youths, we heard from reliable sources that President Jonathan will flag-off the EPZ project on November 14, 2014. Unless our communities' name is attached to the project, it must not be flagged-off because our communities, (Sokobolou/ Yokori) are prominent hosts to the EPZ project. Governor Uduaghan, who was supposed to handle the issue, has resorted to lobbying Mr. President to flag-off the EPZ project. We strongly appeal to President Jonathan not to come to the project site to perform the flag-off ceremony because the project has not been properly named after the communities proposed to host it. Issues of how to award contracts that would be of benefit to host communities have not been addressed."

14 — Vanguard, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2014

C M Y K

Vanguard, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2014 — 15

Abia governorship apirant pledges to rebuild Aba

By Levinus Nwabughiogu

A

GOVERNORSHIP aspirant in Abia State, Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu, has promised to rebuild Aba and make it a true commercial nerve centre of the South-East of Nigeria, if elected governor next year.

Okezie, who hails from PROTEST: Activists for Good Governance, protesting over the hitches in the distribution of Obingwa Local Government Area Permanent Voter Cards, PVCs, In Lagos, from Sabo to INEC office, Yaba. Photo: Kehinde of the state, spoke yesterday during an interactive session with Gbadamosi his kinsmen from Ngwa community resident in Abuja.

He said: “Talking about Aba, I have worked closely with Aba people and I pride myself to say

By Demola Akinyemi others sustained various degrees of the hospital. We rushed 14 that nobody injuries on Ogbomoso-Jebba Road, Ilorin injured passengers with understands Aba LORIN — TRAGEDY struck, due to an auto crash. severe burns to University yesterday, as 14 passengers were Vanguard gathered that the accident of Ilorin Teaching terrain better than I burnt beyond recognition while 14 involved a fully loaded tanker and a lorry Hospital, UITH. Already, do. The problem is that the infrastructure It was gathered that the with the support of the was static but truck loaded with cattle Kwara State Transport population explosion and passengers was said Management Agency, was going on. So, the to be coming from one of KWTMA, we had housing stock is the the states in the North evacuated the wreck.” same but the while the tanker was Wakawa, while drainages and all believed to be heading cautioning road users that cannot save the towards the opposite against excessive speed, population and direction when they night driving and driving human traffic that is collided. exhaustion, said the 13 in Aba. So, there is Speaking, Kwara State charred bodies of the need for a new Aba. Sector Commander of victims had been given "But before you do Federal Road Safety mass burial. a new Aba, you must Corps, FRSC, Mary She attributed the also ventilate the city Wakawa, while accident to exhaustion as it exists and the confirming the sad adding, “our drivers way to do it is to do a incident, said it should stop long driving ring road around happened in the early at night. They need rest Aba so that the city hours of the day. to avoid human errors on will start expanding.

According to her, “one the roads.”

Then you retool of the heavy duty While speaking on this your drainage vehicles veered off its year edition of Road Traffic system. we have a lane and collided with Crash Victims River that we are the other. This was Remembrance Week in desperate to protect. around 5am. Both Ilorin, said the ratio of road So, we are not going vehicles went up in flame. traffic accident in Nigeria to throw storm water 13 persons died on the still remained high, 160 from the gutter into spot while one died in accidents to 10,000.. the river."

14 die, 14 injured in fuel tanker - lorry collision I

Imo begins payment of pension arrears, gratuities O WERRI—IMO State government has commenced the payment of pension arrears and gratuities to pensioners in both local government and state establishments.

Flagging off the exercise, Governor Rochas Okorocha, lamented the untold hardship faced by government pensioners due to inability of past administrations to pay their pension and gratuity, noting that the “Rescue Mission” government was determined to wipe away their tears by commencing with the payment of those who retired from 1993 to 2001.

Okorocha attributed the absence of strike by Imo workforce in the past three years to regular payment

of salaries, adding that he would not relent.

The governor explained that very old and sick pensioners would be paid in cash to lessen their stress while others would be issued cheques.

He urged them to endeavour to register and collect their Permanent Voter ’s Card, PVCs, to exercise their franchise in the 2015 elections.

In his response, the Chairman, Imo State Pensioners Association, ISPA, Chief Gideon O. Ezeji, noted that the governor had restored hope to them and their families by the kind gesture and prayed God to bless him with more wisdom in making Imo State better.

2015: Crosss River PDP consensus arrangement collapses

By Emma Una

C

ALABAR—PLANS by the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in Cross River State, to pick a consensus candidate out of the 22 governorship aspirants has hit the rock as 10 of the aspirants have each paid N13 million to purchase forms to contest the party’s primaries.

The aspirants, who are mostly Governor Liyel Imoke’s aides and close political associates, include Mr. Joe Agi, SAN, Mr. Legor Idagbo, Mr. Peter Oti, Professor Ben Ayade, Mr. Larry Odey, Mr. Fidel Ugbo, Mr. Emmanuel Ibeshi, Mr. Mike Ania and Mr. Gody Jedy Agba.

Among the 10 who bought the forms, Mr. Agi, SAN, who returned his completed nomination form to the party's secretariat yesterday, told Vanguard that he was sure of succeeding Imoke in spite of claims that the governor had anointed his Commissioner for Works, Mr. Idagbo, to succeed him in 2015.

He said he submitted the completed form to the National Organising Secretary of the PDP, Alhaji Mustapha, who personally received it from him, saying: “It will interest you to know that I am the first person in Cross River State to submit the completed form and the National Organising Secretary of the party encouraged me and he spoke well and I appreciate his interest in personally receiving my nomination form.”

Agi dismissed insinuations that he ought not to have bought the form since he was not among the five aspirants that the state caucus of the party shortlisted as having performed well during the tour by aspirants round the local government areas to present their blueprints and manifestoes to the party’s stakeholders and elders.

He said: “I bought the form because I am a lawyer and I believe in the rule of law and I know that there is no provision in the constitution of the PDP forbidding any member of the party from vying for any office he is qualified to run for."

16 — Vanguard, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2014

C M Y K

Vanguard, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2014 — 17

I

arrived in Los Angeles, Cal ifornia, on the 15-hour Emirate Airline flight from Dubai, last Saturday. This is the second leg of my four-week holiday, out of Nigeria. I spent last week in Dubai; and I think a conversation I had with a mother and daughter from Norway, just summed up the city.

They had been visiting every year, since 2005, and they never stop marveling at the constant improvement in the infrastructure of Dubai. The buzz last week was about Dubai’s new tram system, which was expected to commence operation

by November 11. I did several trips on the Dubai metro, commissioned five years ago: clean, convenient and modern.

Very modern! And each time, I couldn’t help think about Nigeria; the arrested development and unrealised potentials.

Dubai expresses the triumph of thinking, commitment and action, even when there might be underlining currents of efforts to retain the legitimacy of a feudal order that has latched on to capitalist modernity and made a huge success of it.

Ruling classes all through history have been obliged to invent methods to achieve legitimacy and shore up hegemony. Even Abdulkareem Al-Maghili, in his treatise for the Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Rumfa, “OBLIGATION OF PRINCES”, had emphasized the importance of legitimising hegemony through winning of subjects’ consent.

Subjects' consent As our country lurches from one crisis to the other, I was wondering just how incompetent our ruling elite has increasingly become in the forging of processes that can assist their class project. The country is being killed by installment by its current set of rulers; they on the contrary, think they are the best to ever have had the opportunity to husband its welfare in recent years.

And the fanfare, which enveloped the declaration this week,

by President Goodluck Jonathan, just underlines the fearful reality that confronts Nigeria today. The backdrop of the killing of 47 students in a Potiskum secondary school was poignant in telling the country’s tale of woes, as much as the report I read online, in one of the Nigerian newspapers.

It had stated that some supporters of the President, headed

by Senator Aniete Okon, told a press conference that President Jonathan could no longer wait for the 219 Chibok girls to return home. Life must go on without them because there is the politics of re-election and it is the only thing that matters; just as much as a sense of urgency can no longer be devoted to the struggle against the Boko Haram insurgency.

Nigeria has lost a huge swathe of territory to the insurgents but party hacks in Abuja ensured a lockout of the city, in order to do the “Power Show” appropriate for the President’s acceptance of

USA: Thoughts from the heart of empire the challenge to run in 2015. The BBC was surprised that most Nigerian newspapers were sucked into the occasion, with the “wrap around” advertisements that graced most of them on this week’s Tuesday. A newspaper editor posted on an online chat site, that newspapers were paid the handsome sum of N15 million by the Transformation Ambassadors of Nigeria, TAN, to wear the Jonathan toga around them. And who would dare to reject such tidy sum?

So we are poised for the mother of all electoral battles, if Jega’s INEC can pull through a credibly free and transparent electoral process next year.

There must be a reasonable dose of apprehension in presidential circles, despite the public expression of bravado, given the manner that the insurgency has been badly handled by the government.

And how will the elections be held in the states consumed by the insurgency? If President Jonathan can be remorseful, won’t he honestly now publicly apologise to Kashim Shettima, the Borno State governor, who all those months ago, fore-

Shall we for once use our ballots and patriotic indignation to construct an electoral architecture very much in tune with what the present and future of Nigeria demands of all of us?

warned Nigeria about the different levels of equipment and morale between our troops and the insurgents? Was the governor not abused and called all kinds of names by presidential handlers?

Didn’t President Jonathan threaten on national television, to pull out troops from Borno, in order to see if the governor would be able to stay in Maiduguri Government House, for daring to tell the uncomfortable truth? How will the response to the insurgency condition the President’s electoral fortune?

Electoral fortune Will Nigerians be easily manipulated into ethno-religious laagers that make the exploitation of emotions easier? Or shall we for once use our ballots and patriotic indignation to construct an electoral architecture very

much in tune with what the present and future of Nigeria demands of all of us? The questions are legion!

I am writing these lines from the city of Buena Park in California’s Orange County. And as I had said earlier, I am very much in holiday mode. It was a really long flight from Dubai and because I am an almost incurable insomniac, I got the opportunity to indulge myself. I was finally able to watch Biyi Bandele’s HALF OF A YELLOW SUN, based on the novel by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. I wondered why the censors had stopped the showing of the film in the first place. There might be reservations about its perspective on Nigeria’s tragic Civil War, but there can never be one definitive narrative on any aspect of Nigeria’s history. And the film ought to be seen by all Nigerians, to help us have a greater appreciation of that

phase of our history. We need a re-engagement with history, in my view, as a vital element of building national consciousness. The lessons of the Civil War, the triggers and consequences should become better known by our young people as much as all other phases of our national life.

Ours is a young country today and they have been or are being educated at a period when history has literally disappeared from our schools’ curricular. I was also able to watch the old Second World War classic, CASABLANCA and the comedy, GOOD MORNING VIETNAM. I was pleasantly surprised that Emirates Airways had 15 classic songs by Fela Anikulapo Kuti; I tucked into them with relish as much as I had time to also read a couple of chapters from Mary Gabriel’s LOVE AND CAPITAL, the remarkable book which told the story of the love life of Karl Marx and his wife, Jenny. They were a wonderful way to break the boredom of the long distance flights.

The time difference between California and Dubai is 12 hours and with Nigeria, nine hours.

That should give you a peek into the kind of turmoil my body is going through this week.

Next week, I will be in Dallas, Texas. I will definitely try to reflect on Nigeria and the world of travel, ensconced in the belly of the whale of empire, the most powerful imperialist system in human history, the United States of America.

100 years of Government Secondary School, Ilorin

I

N the past two weeks, a number of activities took place in Ilorin, to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Government Secondary School, GSS, Ilorin. One of the grand old schools of Northern Nigeria, the school started in 1914 as a Middle School, it made a transition as a Provincial Secondary School, PSS, before it became the Government Secondary School, Ilorin. It was the school attended from my grandfather’s generation; my father and mother attended the school and I was also privileged to go through it. The motto is: “MANJADA WA JADA (NO STRUGGLE, NO SUCCESS)”.

And it was indeed a remarkable school in our times and there is no gainsaying the fact that character formation was central to the education that we received at GSS Ilorin.

They were some of the best years of our lives, and they reflected very much, the high levels of commitment that our country has increasingly lost over the past couple of decades.

It is part of the tragedy of our country today that parents have to spend huge sums of money to educate our children in very expensive private schools. In those years that we were at GSS Ilorin, it was only those who could not secure admission in public schools that attended private schools; and we always felt that they had an inferior education.

In our years, GSS Ilorin had superb laboratories for the sciences: physics, chemistry and biology. We even had a geography laboratory as well, not to forget that the education obliged us to learn a trade and for that we had very well-equipped wood works and metal works workshops. We also learned Technical Drawing. The sports infrastructure was excellent!

There were facilities for football (two fields), track and field, basketball, volleyball, lawn tennis, badminton, squash racket, fives, hockey and cricket. The school’s elite athletes were highly respected and had a special diet, while the four houses of my times: Fulani, Gambari, Alanamu and Ajikobi, healthily competed against each other in sports and the weekly Inspections to determine the cleanest house.

Cleanest house And the Advanced Level students had a special hostel, the White House; they dressed and carried themselves with so much grace. Science students were the stars of the school and there were really brilliant students who inspired the younger ones as role models of academic excellence.

The late Agbo Abegunde was certainly one of the most charismatic principals we had in my years; he ensured that academic standards were high while similarly placing sports at the very

top of the school system.

He was the Nigerian Team Manager to the 1972 Munich Olympic Games. He wore the jacket emblazoned with the Nigerian crest proudly to the school assembly when he returned to the delight and spontaneous applause of students. It was testimony to the high standards of those years that the school’s relay team (BRAVO, ALL-AFRO, ROCHESTER and AWALU ALIYU) won several invitation relays around the state and in states near and far. Awalu Aliyu was my college brother, and together with my cousin, Hameed Adio (ADIQUE), from Offa Grammar School, would run for Nigeria. Hameed Adio was in fact the captain of Nigeria to the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow.

They were all athletes from the well-structured schools’ sports programme that has gradually died in our country. Young people got a good education and also combined that with an active life in sports. No more! In 2013, I took my children to visit my alma mater, GSS Ilorin.

The state of rot shocked me and I couldn’t stop the tears that dropped from my eyes. My children couldn’t wrap their heads around what they saw of the school I had romantically described to them so many times before their visit. Things have deteriorated badly, but GSS Ilorin remains central to the human being I became. It is 100 years old this year.

18 — Vanguard, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2014 THE Independent National ElectoralCommission (INEC) Director of Voter Registry, Mr. Emmanuel Akem, recently said potential voters who failed to obtain their permanent voters’ cards (PVCs) by December 2014 would not be allowed to vote in the 2015 general elections.

The Commission recently organised the distribution of the PVCs and CVR in 21 of the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja in the first and second phases of the exercises. No date has been fixed for the exercises in the remaining 15 states.

The distribution of the PVCs in the affected states was characterised by a deluge of criticisms. Many could not find their names in the voters register. Some found their names but their PVCs were missing.

INEC officials were not available in some polling units to distribute the cards. Frustrated by the cumbersome process of obtaining the cards they described as elusive, some political parties and stakeholders accused the electoral umpire of hoarding the voter’s cards with the alleged plan of rigging the election in favour of cer-

By Rogers Edor Ochela

D

EVELOPMENTS experts and other relevant stakeholders have been effusive in their praises for its introduction by the Senator Bala Mohammed-led Federal Capital Territory Administration, FCTA, describing it as the panacea to infrastructural deficit bedeviling the territory. Considering the fact that it is loaded with all the ‘’ingredients” that have the potentials of transforming any city that is suffering from infrastructural barrenness, the rain of endorsements or better still, accolades being showered on FCTA’s Land Swap policy cannot be said to be misplaced.

Confronted as it were by the huge challenge of infrastructural deficit in the FCT, Senator Mohammed in his determination to tackle the devastating effects of such a critical challenge, pulled out a joker card called the land swap programme. At a Town Hall Meeting he convened on April 26, 2013 at the International Conference Centre, Abuja, the minister painstakingly explained in clear terms the necessity for the introduction of the policy, stressing that it was an uncommon determination to ‘’fast track the provision of infrastructure and to stave-off pressure on public utilities amd housing in FCT.” So, it is not surprising that land swap has been tagged Bala’s most revolutionary, nay audacious, programme till date. And the accolades, or better still endorsements, did not take long in coming. Apart from development experts that rose in its defence

20 1 5:V oting 201 5:Voting Without V ot er s Vot oter ers tain political parties.

The CVR’s meant for those who are 18 years and above were held at electoral wards and collation centres in the 21 states. It also had its hitches, which included malfunctioning data capturing machines and inability of many people to be registered during the registration period.

Given these challenges the INEC must ensure that the permanent voters’ cards get to the voters if they must be used for the 2015 election. Nigeria can ill-afford anything that will hurt the integrity of the 2015 polls. The elections must be free and fair and seen to be so. Disenfranchising a

sizeable proportion of the nation’s 73 million voters must not be allowed.

Since 2011, the INEC has been working on the PVC and the cards were to be ready for distribution as of December 2012. But two years after and less than six months to the election, INEC is still struggling with it. Major stakeholders fear that the Commission may not complete the distribution of the cards before the elections in spite of its claims that it recorded 71 per cent success in the distribution of the PVCs in the 21 states.

There have been low voter turnouts in the series of governorship elections held recently. They include Anambra (25 per cent), Ondo (40.1 per cent), Edo State (42 per cent), Ekiti (50.32 per cent) and Osun State (54.17 per cent). Incidentally, the elections in Ekiti and Osun were conducted with the PVCs with many people complaining that they could not get the cards. This should not be allowed to recur in 2015.

INEC must ensure that all registered voters get the permanent voters card or holders of any voters’ card-permanent or temporary, should be allowed to vote.

OPINION Endorsements for land swap in FCT immediately after it was introduced, the endorsements kept on rolling in, especially from relevant stakeholders in the territory, including top-ranking government officials.

Experts are of the opinion that it will be extremely difficult for the FCTA to afford the cost of infrastructure as envisaged by Abuja’s founding fathers without adopting revolutionary measures like the land swap policy.

Moreover, this policy is not peculiar to Nigeria alone as many developed countries of the world like France, Japan, USA, China, Germany, Egypt, India and Denmark, have adopted land-based financing techniques during periods of rapid urban development as is currently being experienced in Abuja. It is a policy that has received the endorsement of the World Bank as suitable for any country experiencing budget crisis like Nigeria.

Little wonder, it has been receiving effusive praises from all and sundry. It would be recalled that when speculations were rife that Bala was about to pull out from the Federal Executive cabinet to go and pursue his gubernatorial ambition in Bauchi State, the original inhabitants of FCT went on a spontaneous protest, calling on him to shelve his plan, principally because they wanted him to stay put as minister to nurture his pet project, the land swap policy, to fruition.

On the same page with the Abuja natives in their support for land swap are Nigerians in the Diaspora. At a recent summit in Ohio, USA, these Nigerians in Diaspora were so

enamoured of the huge potentials embedded in the land swap policy that they indicated their readiness to come and invest in Nigeria, especially the FCT. Next in line to endorse this wonderful policy is the FCT Council of Chiefs led by its Chairman, the Ona of Abaji, Alhaji Adamu Baba Yunusa when it paid a visit to the Aso Rock Villa recently. Apparently elated by the benefits derivable from the land swap policy, the Chiefs publicly gave President Jonathan and Bala a pat on their backs. The endorsement for the policy has become so pronounced that it is currently the rave of the moment in the FCT. The pertinent question to ask (and answer) is: What are the attributes of this policy that virtually all and sundry are falling over themselves in their quest to endorse it? The answers are not far-fetched. One of the fundamental features of land swap is its potential to open up districts in the FCT for accelerated development. For the first time in the history of the FCT, under this policy, the natives are being given opportunity as active stakeholders in deciding the nature and model of resettlement and compensation policies to be adopted by government to address their concerns.

With this unprecedented package, a silver lining has arisen on the horizon for the original inhabitants of FCT who virtually had a raw deal in the hands of officials since the founding of Abuja 38 years ago. In a MoU signed with the investors, the issue of

integration or resettlement of natives from the following communities, Azhata, Ketti, Dagaja, Anaknayita, Gofe, Kowyizihi, Burun, Takalafiya, Takushara 1, Takushara 2, Maraba 2, Anguwan Mamuda, Waru, Yiyimuttu and Burum Gbayi, has been incorporated into the land deals with the investors under the land swap policy.

Also, under this highly innovative programme, which is expected to rake in the princely sum of N300 billion into the coffers of the FCTA, credible investors in infrastructure, including multinational companies have accepted to deploy millions of naira into integrating the natives through several mechanisms, such as integration, relocation and compensation, all of which are hinged on international best practices.

Determined to adequately protect the interests of the natives, Senator Bala at a Town Hall Meeting last year assured them that in payment of compensation, their concern would be taken care of, a promise he has been keeping with fidelity since the implementation of the policy went full blast.

Furthermore, the natives have also been given all options to enable them take good decisions on the type of resettlement plan that will be convenient for them, just as the minister also assured them that notwithstanding the policy agreed to by all stakeholders, as a responsible administration, the FCTA shall intervene from time to time where necessary to ensure that they are treated fairly and justly.

•Mr Ochela, a public affairs analyst, wrote from Abuja.

Vanguard, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2014— 19

, A reminder to retiring governors

I

have watched the disengage ment antics of retiring governors with interest over the past six months, and I feel impelled to pen them this open advisory about the vanity of political greed and godfatherism. The retiring governors are those who have occupied the exalted seats for the maximum two terms and will be handing over to fresh hands by May 29, 2015.

Some of them do not actually plan to retire. They are plotting to dig in deeper and attempt to graft their children, brothers, inlaws or “trusted” friends and associates either as governors or principal figures in the coming legislatures at the state or federal levels. Many of them have served notice that they will be going to the Senate.

This seems very popular among governors of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP. We know, for instance, that the governors of Abia, Chief Theodore Orji (Ochendo Global); Delta, Dr Emmanuel Uduaghan; Enugu, Sullivan Chime; Benue, Gabriel Suswam; Akwa Ibom, Godswill Akpabio and others, are in this charmed circle. It is still a mys-

tery why Governor Sule Lamido, who was a member of the House of Representatives in the Second Republic over 30 years ago, has resisted the temptation to go to the Senate, even after he stepped down his presidential ambition.

I do not know why the trend is not quite the same in the opposition All Progressives Congress, APC. Perhaps it is because most of their retiring governors are eyeing the presidential or running mate ticket. We are aware that Chibuike Amaechi of Rivers; Comrade Adams Oshiomhole of Edo and Babatunde Fashola of Lagos, are being named for Vice President. Dr Rabiu Kwankwaso of Kano is running for president.

Majority of APC governors are first-termers, anyway.

The politics of anointment of successors has become very popular among retiring governors.

Most of them say it is because they want their laudable programmes to be continued. But the main reason for the overwhelming instinct to produce a favoured successor is self-preservation. After eight years in power, spending the resources of the state the way they want without

Give everybody a level ground; whoever emerges will respect you, even protect you because you were fair; your party will be stronger, and you will eventually be happier for it; a word is enough for the wise

,

let or hindrance from any quarters (including the House of Assembly that is supposed to check executive excesses) out-going governors need closure or individuals who will protect their interests.

In the past, the motive was more insidious. Departing governors wanted to install stooges who were assumed to be so docile that they would allow the departed governors or godfathers to run the government house from the comfort of their private homes.

Such a flight of fancy has usually come unstuck in the end, resulting in very bruising experiences for the departed governors. We saw it in Abia, Rivers, Enugu, Anambra, Zamfara, Borno, Gombe and others. The new men simply took over and later on, put their sponsors in the political doghouse sooner or later.

Right now, most of the governors are doing it to at least be

allowed to live in peace. One of them said in an interview recently: “You have to make sure that the person who takes over from you is someone you know very well. You cannot leave it open, otherwise one mad man will come here and ensure you don’t have a moment’s peace in your house”.

In the quest for that candidate who will suit the needs of the retiring governor, matters are often taken to ridiculous ends. The concept of zoning is often skewed to ensure it favours a carefully preconceived choice. Once that is done, the retiring governor then brings out his entire weight, structure and of course, the treasury of the state, to support such a chosen one. The usual upshot is that many legitimate aspirants for that office, some of them with sounder track records of achievement that would raise the level of leadership in the state, will be shut out.

Newcomers requiring to inject new values are forced out. Old hands who are not the preferred choices of the governor are left in the cold. Some of these chaps are quite popular within the party and the populace. The just-concluded ward congresses of the PDP witnessed a lot of this phenomenon, whereby large numbers of aspirants who are not favoured by the retiring governors or higher-level stakeholders were not allowed to position their people as party’s delegates to the forth-coming governorship primaries. They were not even allowed to see the electoral materials, let alone failing to win as a result of the popularity of the gov-

ernors’ preferred candidates.

Most of the retiring governors are using politics of exclusion to plant their successors while those not favoured will either fall in line or “do their worst”.

The consequences of this trend will be terrible in the various political parties where this is taking place. It is difficult to maintain a united political party after excluding people from their legitimate aspirations. Governors who shut out people’s legitimate aspirations love themselves above their political parties. In these days of a strong two-party system, the strongest opposition party will enjoy a bonanza.Most candidates will remain loyal to the party if they fought and lost on a level ground. But if they are shut out ab initio, the impulse to fight the party is usually overwhelming.

Finally, it must be borne in mind that in politics, the man you pushed everyone out to implant as your successor governor is very likely to be the first to bite you.

Even if he wants to remain loyal, the people who will surround him (including the hangers-on he inherited from you) will pressure him to shut you out and “be his own man”. Every small, innocuous move from you will be read as an attempt to “rule from his house”.

Give everybody a level ground.

Whoever emerges will respect you, even protect you because you were fair. Your party will be stronger, and you will eventually be happier for it. A word is enough for the wise.

Automatic ticket to disaster

A

T first, the title of this piece was to be “Follow-up Action: 2014 in Review”, in obvious acknowledgement of the fact that we are terribly defective in follow-up actions. An issue would arise, and no matter how threatening it is, we would entertain ourselves pleasantly with it and allow it to be swept under the carpet.

As a review, this is coming rather early. Again, this is deliberate as a way of avoiding the type of delay for which we have always accused others, particularly in the budgetary process.

Barely seven short weeks to the end of this Fiscal Year, there are no signs yet of any appropriations activities in virtually all parts of the country. The Federal Government must wait till the dying days of the year before throwing the Estimates into the National Assembly, of course, in fulfillment of all righteousness. The approval process will drag on till around July next year so that the approved instrument will have a short operational life span of just five months! This could be another clever money-saving device for the elections – five months’ allocation for governance and seven months’ for politics!

This is where the Edo State Government stands out as a clear leader in obedience to the nation’s Constitution. With the 2015 appropriations already approved, spending on that budget will start on the very first day of the New Year. Even defaulters in the budgetary process have attacked that budget in several fronts, including the fact that it was passed post haste. Let them tell that to the Marines!

If a House of Assembly that is

constantly alive to its oversight responsibilities has been in session in an entire year, with all its Committees working in tandem with the Executive and the relevant Ministries , why would anyone need 20 years to consider a simple financial document?

Human memory is quite short. Once upon a time, a state governor appeared before the Assembly to present his budget speech. While he reeled out those jawbreaking figures, a bullion van was stationed at the legislators’ parking lot, with the appropriate message, appropriately delivered. That budget was approved before the Governor was done with his presentation.

This column has forever been asking legislators to enact relevant legislations for a Budget Cycle, which will, among other things, compel stakeholders to submit and approve budgets within specific dates.

One central prognostication that ran across this Column in the passing year is the tendency for politicians and political parties to resort to the obnoxious practice of imposing candidates for the 2015 general elections.

From the field reports we have so far, 2014 promises to be the year of GRAND IMPOSITION. The name has changed from imposition to automatic ticket.

Automatic ticket is the worst form of imposition. It is a ticket to the past; a return to atavism; and a sentence to mediocrity, or sometimes, outright imbecility. At whatever level it is perceived, it only succeeds in driving a death

The only way to avert an impending disaster is to do what we preach – provide a level playing ground

C M Y K

knell on the p o l i t i c a l parties and it is the shortest way of kissing democracy goodbye.

The agents are many and their methods are crude.

You are better off ignoring them because you can’t beat them. Overnight, they turn those who disagree with them to enemies.

They resort to smear tactics, mud slinging, insinuations and innuendos of all sorts. By the time they roll out the big bucks, as they are already doing, they purchase everything in sight, including enlarging their rigging apparatus and all that. This means that essentially, they will win the battle at the primaries, if any. But will they win the war? Truly, they may win the battle and lose the war! Time will tell.

At the very top, a situation where Party ‘A’ printed only a single nomination form for the multitude of aspirants who originally showed interest is not the best.

What really is the difference between that and the theatricals now playing out in Zimbabwe? And a situation where a party’s incumbent Governors, Senators and possibly, members of the House of Representatives get automatic return tickets certainly portends danger for that party and the nation at large.

In all this, the only way to avert an impending disaster is to do what we preach – provide a level playing ground; let aspirants go out there and slug it out, devoid of any interference! Imposition, by whatever name, is evil and must be avoided like plague.

Lest we forget, we entered into the New Year with the State of the Nation Address Bill on President Goodluck Jonathan’s table, having been passed by both

chambers of the National Assembly. At that time, Jonathan refused to give his assent to the Bill. We had seen the State of the National Address as an opportunity for the President to x-ray the political, economic and social health of the Nation.

What has happened to that Bill? Why has the National Assembly not been able to over-ride the President’s veto?

Letters, letters and more letters. That was how this column described the deluge of letters addressed to President Jonathan early this year. In his 18-page epistle, former President Olusegun Obasanjo fired the opening shots. This was promptly followed by the sharp, if only inconsistent, shots from then CBN Governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi.

We agreed at that time that when Sanusi told the President about the sum of $49.8 billion missing from the public till, he might have, in the African tradition, attempted to cast the proverbial stone on the roof, with a view to locating the actual position of the house owner.

Truly, the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has since accepted that “only $10.8 billion was unaccounted for”!

One year down the line, has the $10.8 billion (more than N1 trillion) been accounted for? And what makes it impossible to ever audit the NNPC account? That is the essence of this review that we are starting today.

20 —Vanguard, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2014

By BALA AJIYA, Damaturu OTISKUM, the c o m m e r c i a l nerve centre of Yobe State, North East Nigeria, has in recent time consistently featured in the news for a most saddening reason bordering mainly on mass death and destruction. Indeed within a space of one week, two suicide bombers had succeeded in embedding themselves among gatherings of innocent people, killing scores and inflicted lasting injuries on several others. While heart-broken survivors are mourning their dead or nursing their wounds, fear presently rules the stricken town with most people unable to go out for their day to day businesses.

The first attack occurred during a procession by the Shittes Islamic group to commemorate the 2014 Ashura day. The suicide bomber had somehow found a place in the midst of the congregation made up mostly of women and children blew himself up, killing several people in the process.

As if that was not enough in Potiskum, just last Monday 33 students were killed by another suicide bomber who sneaked into the assembly ground of the Government Science Secondary School Potiskum and blew himself up. The tragedy occurred just as the students were about commencing the first assembly of the week.

P

Assembly of the week A witness of the Yobe school attack who pleaded anonymity said: “We were at the assembly ground waiting for our teachers to address us when suddenly I heard a very loud sound and before I knew it, many of my friends and colleagues were lying on the ground, with parts of their bodies scattered everywhere. Then some of us who were not injured or with lesser degree of injury started running away”.

Another witness, an SS2 student of the school, said: “After the explosion, so many dead bodies littered the ground, while lots of human parts were hanging on the wall.

It was the loudest sound I have ever heard in my life and wish never to hear such again”.

Shortly after the attack, people within the town rushed to the scene to help evacuate the dead as well as help those with various degrees of injuries to the Potiskum General Hospital which is just opposite the school. However, attempt by security operatives to gain C M Y K

•Some survivors receiving treatment at the hospital. Inset: Sympathisers at the scene of the blast.

Seven days of horror: Unending tears, fear over murder of 63 by terrorists access to the blast spot to give a helping hand was stoutly resisted by angry residents and a mob which claimed it was trying to prevent a possible repeat of the Shittes group attack whose death toll rose more than necessary allegedly as a result of perceived unprofessional and careless conduct by security agents.

The state Commissioner for Education, Alhaji Mohammed Alamin, in company of the state

We were at the assembly ground waiting for our teachers to address us when suddenly I heard a very loud sound and before I knew it, many of my friends were lying on the ground

Commissioner of Police, Mr Markus Danladi, who visited Potiskum town to have first hand information and to condole with the school and people of Potiskum, also was denied access to the town.

Deciding to err on the side of caution, the Education Commissioner, expressed the view that for peace to reign, it was better for the delegation to allow the aggrieved residents have their way.

He, however, led the delegation to the palaces of the Emirs of Fika and Potiskum to seek for their understanding and to call on their subjects to always cooperate with security operatives instead of preventing them from performing their lawful duty.

Alhaji Alamin used the opportunity to inform them of government’s decision to close down all public and private schools in order to forestall a re-occurrence of this type of tragedy in the state. He said the schools will remain closed until there was significant improvement of the security situation in all schools in the state.

The leader of the Shittes group in Potiskum, Mustapha Lawan Nasidi, had last week, after the blast that killed many of his members, accused the military of extra-judicial killings, alleging that many innocent people who were

mourning members of their families killed by the suicide bomber were shot by troops in the aftermath of the attack. It is against the backdrop of this accusation that security operatives on rescue operation at the scene of the Potiskum school suicide attack a week later were prevented from doing their job. For now, Potiskum town is calm but deserted as many people remain indoors for fear of the unknown.

Fear of the unknown The town being the largest commercial town in the state has over the years had its fair share of terrorist attacks since the commencement of Boko Haram insurgency. Several lives have been lost and property destroyed as people, particularly non-indigenes, have left the town for fear of more attacks.

Meanwhile, the state governor, Alhaji Ibrahim Gaidam, had while condemning the Potiskum attack, described it as callous and barbaric. He therefore called on security agents to continue to work assiduously towards curbing the menace.

He noted with regret that this was the fifth time in a little over a year “when our schools in Yobe State were brutally

attacked and students killed.

There was GSS Damaturu, GSS Mamudo, College of Agriculture Gujba, Federal Government College Buni-yadi and now Government Comprehensive School Potiskum”.

The Governor who deeply regretted that all of these dastardly attacks took place under emergency rule declared in Yobe, Borno and Adamawa states urged President Goodluck Jonathan to do more to end terrorist attacks on people of the state and beyond.

“In theory, the emergency rule declaration was a signal that more vigorous steps would be taken to protect the lives and properties of people in the affected states and deploy the full might of the Federal Government to restore peace and security. Unfortunately, this has not been fully the case.

Instead of forcing insurgents and criminal to flee, the insurgents are forcing innocent people to flee and make life miserable for every one,” he stated.

Governor Gaidam also expressed the belief that President Jonathan has a very urgent responsibility to explain to the people of Yobe State and other affected states why murderous attacks by insurgents are still on the rise despite the state of emergency.

The people of Yobe, just like their counterparts in Adamawa and Borno states, are in great mourning. But they also desire an end to their travail and the fear now holding them hostage.

They desire that peace should return soon so that they can resume their legitimate businesses for the growth and development of the state.

Vanguard, THURSDAY NOVEMBER 13, 2014 — 21

Frm left : Managing Director, New Horizons Systems Solutions Nigeria, Mr. Tim Akano; newly employed National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) member, Aregbesola Grace Olubunmi, Assistant Director, Public Relation NYSC Lagos, Mrs. Faniyi and Assistant Director, Skill Acquisition and Entrepreneur Development (SAED), National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), Mrs Racheal Idowu, at the 4th New Horizons/ NYSC SAED Job fair held in Lagos.

Regulators fine global banks $3.4bn in forex probe R

egulators fined five major banks $3.4 billion for failing to stop traders from trying to manipulate the foreign exchange market, the first settlement in a year-long global investigation. UBS and Citigroup, Royal Bank of Scotland and JP Morgan all face penalties resulting from the probe that has also put the largely unregulated $5 trillion-a-day market on a tighter leash. One regulator gave banks a 30 percent discount for settling early.

In the latest scandal to hit the financial services industry, dealers shared confidential information about client orders and coordinated trades to make money from a foreign exchange benchmark used by asset managers and corporate treasurers to value their hold-

$2.85

$2,890.00

+$29.00

$ 15.72

-$0.21

USD 82.85 USD -1.93 USD 76.90 USD -1.88

CURRENCY BUYING CENTRAL 154.78 247.6944 193.4286 160.4104 1.3617 0.2764 228.0521 25.2949 41.2582 25.9816 228.8113

155.28 248.4946 194.0534 160.9286 1.3661 0.2864 228.7888 25.3771 41.3914 26.0655 229.5504

155.78

249.2947 194.6783 161.4468 1.3705 0.2964 229.5255 25.4592 41.5247 26.1494 230.2896

CBN Exchange Rate as 12 /11 / 2014 C M Y K

found serious misconduct in precious metals trading, to hand over 134 million Swiss francs after failing to investigate a 2010 whistleblower’s report.

The misconduct at the banks stretched back to the previous decade and up until October 2013, over a year after U.S. and British authorities started punishing banks for rigging the London interbank offered rate (Libor), an interest rate benchmark. RBS, which is 80 percent owned by the British government, received client complaints about foreign exchange trading as far back as 2010. The bank said it regretted not responding more

African countries record economic growth without prosperity –Report

BY PETER EGWUATU, with Agency Report

$188.7

DOLLAR STERLING EURO FRANC YEN CFA WAUA RENMINBI RIYAL KRONA SDR

ings. Dozens of traders have been fired or suspended.

Dealers used code names to identify clients without naming them and created online chatrooms with pseudonyms such as “the players”, “the 3 musketeers” and “1 team, 1 dream” in which to swap information. Those not involved were belittled. Switzerland’s UBS swallowed the biggest penalty paying $661 million to Britain’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).

UBS was also ordered by Swiss regulator FINMA, which also said it had

quickly to the complaints. The other banks were similarly apologetic. Their shares were under pressure in European trading.

Reflecting exasperation that banks failed to stop the activity despite pledges to overhaul their culture and controls, the FCA levied a $1.7 billon fine, the biggest in the history of the City, but gave a 30 percent discount for early settlement. The FCA also launched a review of the spot FX industry that will require firms to scrutinise trading and compliance and may involve looking at other markets such as derivatives and precious metals.

“Today’s record fines mark the gravity of the failings we found and firms need to take responsibility for putting it right,” the FCA’s Chief Executive Martin Wheatley said.

“They must make sure their traders do not game the system to boost profits or leave the ethics of their conduct to compliance to worry about.”

Barclays, which had been in settlement talks with both the FCA and the CFTC, made a “commercial decision” to pull out of the discussions, the FCA said. Its investigation of the banks continues. The FCA said its enforcement activities were focused on the five banks plus Barclays, signalling that Deutsche Bank would not face a fine from it.

Lenders are expecting more penalties, however, with the U.S. Department of Justice and New York’s Department of Financial Services still investigating the scandal. Britain’s Serious Fraud Office is also investigating and there is the threat of civil litigation from disgruntled customers. The CFTC, which regulates swaps and futures in the United States, fined the five banks more than $1.4 billion as part of Wednesday’s group settlement.

Since 2012 financial firms have been fined nearly $10 billion for rigging market benchmarks.

A

FRICAN countries have continued to record eco nomic growth but are faced with serious problems in health , education, safety and security which have impacted negatively on their long term development and shared poverty, the Africa Prosperity Report said.

The Africa Prosperity Report l which was launched in Kigali at the annual African Leadership Network conference confirms great successes across the continent in terms of economy and entrepreneurship & opportunity.

Commenting on the report, Nathan Gamester, Programme Director of the Prosperity Index, said, “Prosperity is not just about having a strong economy; it is about having great education, healthcare, and freedom to choose among other things. As African economies grow, a chief concern for many governments is how to ensure that the fruits of growth benefit a majority of the population and contribute to true long term prosperity.”

By exploring both wealth and wellbeing, the Africa Prosperity Report provides a broad overview of Africa’s performance. In addition to the traditional economic indicators, it assesses how a nation performs in vital areas characterized in the form of eight sub-indi-

ces: Education, Economy & Opportunity, Governance, Health, Personal Freedom, Safety & Security and Social Security.

The report was published by The Legatum Institute, a charitable public policy think-tank and independent member of the Legatum Group. Majority of the data and analysis were taken from the flagship Legatum Prosperity Index™, which explores the foundations of prosperity in 142 countries around the world.

The 2014 Africa Prosperity Report identifies and examines three distinct groups of people who are identified as drivers of African prosperity: the well-educated, female entrepreneurs and the middle class.

Solene Dengler, Research Analyst in the Prosperity Index team states, “By supporting education quality, female entrepreneurship, and the rising middle class, African countries could avoid a future where inequality and chronic poverty persist alongside wealth and prosperity. In turn, this will empower disadvantaged groups that have been left out of the current economic boom, raising personal and national wellbeing.”

Improving the basic education system and developing the right set of employable skills remain the biggest challenge for Tanzania and many other African nations. Education is key for prosperity because a well-educated person is more productive, more likely to participate in political processes, demand better governance and take part in societal development.

22—Vanguard, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2014

,

Crowd funding is an effective alternative method of raising finance for people with creative projects to fund their goals

,

Lessons an investor learned after losing his job

T

HE late Jim Paul went from a poor Kentucky boy to serving on the board of governors of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange through a series of lucky breaks and smart investments. But his hubris grew alongside his success, and a series of terrible investment decisions led to his downfall in 1983.

His brokerage firm took away his job, his reputation was ruined, and he lost $1.6 million, $400,000 of which was borrowed from friends.

Paul spent the rest of the decade getting himself back on track. By 1990 he was working in the futures research department at Morgan Stanley Dean Witter & Co., managing a team that included investment advisor Brendan Moynihan.

Moynihan and Paul paired up to write a book about his experience called “What I learned los-

quires taking many risks, and not all of them will result in success. But smart high-risk decisions are still very different from gambles. Gamblers marry their ego to their money, which is what Paul did. "They want to be right. It's not about the money.

In gamblers, that is a disease...

Money is just a ticket to enter.

They're there for the adrenaline rush," Moynihan wrote.

Emotional decision-making is dangerous.

You're a human being. It's natural to have emotional reactions to situations, whether positive or negative. Just make sure you learn how to set feelings aside and look at something objectively before making a decision. Paul wrote about an example of when he let his emotions guide his trading, which he would do on an even grander scale with the soybean in-

When you lose money, people tend to internalize that. They tend to equate self-worth with net worth

,

ing a million dollars,” which was published in 1994.

Moynihan, who is now the managing director of Marketfield Asset Management LLC, in an interview about the book, broke down three of the key takeaways, which he says are less about investing and more "about the psychology of the mistakes we make."

Internalizing failure will keep you from rebounding.

"When you lose money, people tend to internalize that. They tend to equate self-worth with net worth," Moynihan says, referring to the way that people tend to equate their failures with their identity. If you lose a massive amount of money or suffer another big setback, you will be holding yourself back from a rebound if you see yourself as a failure rather than someone who failed.

It was this fear of being a failure that kept Paul from aborting his investment in the soybean oil trade, despite multiple indicators of a sharply declining market. Looking back, Paul wrote, he wished he would have simply accepted the failure and moved forward before putting himself through even more difficulties.

There's a difference between risk-taking and gambling.

Being a smart investor re-

,

vestment that lost him over a million dollars.

In 1980, his business partner told him he got a tip that a company was a potential takeover candidate within the next two months at $60 per share. Paul ended up buying tens of thousands of options when they were selling for just several cents and told all of his clients to do the same. Within three weeks, the stock rose to $38 and the options were each worth $4.

He could've made a hefty profit by selling at this point, but he, his partner, and his clients pushed each other to hold out for the rumoured takeover.

It would have made Paul $7.5 million, and he and his fellow option-holders began tossing ideas of grandiose vacations back and forth as the market closed on Friday. On Monday, the stock opened down $6 and he learned that the rumoured takeover was off the table. The options were worthless.

In retrospect, Paul wrote that he saw this as a prime example of the dangers of groupthink, where he and his fellow investors lost sight of the fact that they were not trading off reliable information. Despite that, they actually had a chance to all make plenty of money had they decided to sell that Friday. *Culled from Business Insider

BUSINESS NAIRA EXCHANGE RATES Date 12/11/14

Currency DOLLAR STERLING EURO FRANC YEN CFA WAUA RENMINBI RIYAL KRONA SDR

Buying(N) 154.78 247.6944 193.4286 160.4104 1.3617 0.2764 228.0521 25.2949 41.2582 25.9816 228.8113

Central(N) 155.28 248.4946 194.0534 160.9286 1.3661 0.2864 228.7888 25.3771 41.3914 26.0655 229.5504

Selling(N) 155.78 249.2947 194.6783 161.4468 1.3705 0.2964 229.5255 25.4592 41.5247 26.1494 230.2896

BY YINKA KOLAWOLE, with agency report

H

AULAGE is about transporting of goods (products) from one place to another. The haulage business is therefore the business of making goods available when and where they are needed. It starts from the point of extraction or loading to the point of delivery of the goods (products) for the satisfaction of the final consumers.

Types of goods: Petroleum products such as Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), Dual Purpose Kerosene (DPK), Automotive Gas Oil (AGO), Low Pour Fuel Oil (LPFO) and other Petrochemicals. Building materials such as sand, clay, granite, cement, iron rods etc. Agricultural products. Containers/cargoes from the ports. Heavy duty equipments like generators, transformers, pole etc. Solid minerals and other finished products. Commodities like sugar, flour, salt etc.

Economic importance.

Haulage involves the movement of goods by both rail and road, but since the collapse of rail system in Nigeria, road haulage has taken the lead.

The country has enough population and a good network of roads linking the 36 states and Abuja, though not in very good condition.

The transport sector is an important component of the economy impacting on the development and the welfare of the huge population of about 140 million. When transport systems are efficient, they provide economic and social opportunities and benefits that result in positive multipliers effects such as better accessibility to markets and additional investments.

The following points emphasize the importance of haulage: Moving of material from

Engaging in haulage business the natural stage; Conveying raw materials to the factory and helping manufacturers convey their goods to wholesaler or distributors; Helping manufacturers reduce the content of the warehouse; Helping the wholesalers (distributors) get their purchased goods to their stores; Increased competition - when transport is efficient, a wider array of goods and services become available to consumers through competition which tends to reduce costs and promote quality and innovation; Enhance land value land serviced by good transport services generally has greater value because it is open to many activities; Contributes to economic development through job creation and its derived economic activities - a large number of direct (freighters, managers, shippers) and indirect (insurance, finance, packaging, handling travel agencies, transit operators) employment are associated with transport and; Makes goods and services available where and when they are needed - pro-

vides market accessibility by linking producers and consumers.

Types of haulage and vehicles required.

There are different areas of haulage business one can venture into depending on capability and other factors. Also, the type of vehicles or equipment used in haulage business differ depending on the type and nature of haulage.

Quarry breaking: This involves the use of heavy equipment to break mass deposit quarry into smaller granite sizes. These equipment, most often are rented from leasing company. The quarry breaker is an expensive equipment which is usually purchased by leasing companies or banks and rented out to quarry companies.

Tipping: This is the use of tippers of different sizes to transport granites from quarry site or sand from the lake or sea for use in construction industries/ sites. Tipping trucks or dumping trucks are used to convey granite or sand. They are usu-

22—Vanguard, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2014

,

Crowd funding is an effective alternative method of raising finance for people with creative projects to fund their goals

,

Lessons an investor learned after losing his job

T

HE late Jim Paul went from a poor Kentucky boy to serving on the board of governors of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange through a series of lucky breaks and smart investments. But his hubris grew alongside his success, and a series of terrible investment decisions led to his downfall in 1983.

His brokerage firm took away his job, his reputation was ruined, and he lost $1.6 million, $400,000 of which was borrowed from friends.

Paul spent the rest of the decade getting himself back on track. By 1990 he was working in the futures research department at Morgan Stanley Dean Witter & Co., managing a team that included investment advisor Brendan Moynihan.

Moynihan and Paul paired up to write a book about his experience called “What I learned los-

quires taking many risks, and not all of them will result in success. But smart high-risk decisions are still very different from gambles. Gamblers marry their ego to their money, which is what Paul did. "They want to be right. It's not about the money.

In gamblers, that is a disease...

Money is just a ticket to enter.

They're there for the adrenaline rush," Moynihan wrote.

Emotional decision-making is dangerous.

You're a human being. It's natural to have emotional reactions to situations, whether positive or negative. Just make sure you learn how to set feelings aside and look at something objectively before making a decision. Paul wrote about an example of when he let his emotions guide his trading, which he would do on an even grander scale with the soybean in-

When you lose money, people tend to internalize that. They tend to equate self-worth with net worth

,

ing a million dollars,” which was published in 1994.

Moynihan, who is now the managing director of Marketfield Asset Management LLC, in an interview about the book, broke down three of the key takeaways, which he says are less about investing and more "about the psychology of the mistakes we make."

Internalizing failure will keep you from rebounding.

"When you lose money, people tend to internalize that. They tend to equate self-worth with net worth," Moynihan says, referring to the way that people tend to equate their failures with their identity. If you lose a massive amount of money or suffer another big setback, you will be holding yourself back from a rebound if you see yourself as a failure rather than someone who failed.

It was this fear of being a failure that kept Paul from aborting his investment in the soybean oil trade, despite multiple indicators of a sharply declining market. Looking back, Paul wrote, he wished he would have simply accepted the failure and moved forward before putting himself through even more difficulties.

There's a difference between risk-taking and gambling.

Being a smart investor re-

,

vestment that lost him over a million dollars.

In 1980, his business partner told him he got a tip that a company was a potential takeover candidate within the next two months at $60 per share. Paul ended up buying tens of thousands of options when they were selling for just several cents and told all of his clients to do the same. Within three weeks, the stock rose to $38 and the options were each worth $4.

He could've made a hefty profit by selling at this point, but he, his partner, and his clients pushed each other to hold out for the rumoured takeover.

It would have made Paul $7.5 million, and he and his fellow option-holders began tossing ideas of grandiose vacations back and forth as the market closed on Friday. On Monday, the stock opened down $6 and he learned that the rumoured takeover was off the table. The options were worthless.

In retrospect, Paul wrote that he saw this as a prime example of the dangers of groupthink, where he and his fellow investors lost sight of the fact that they were not trading off reliable information. Despite that, they actually had a chance to all make plenty of money had they decided to sell that Friday. *Culled from Business Insider

BUSINESS NAIRA EXCHANGE RATES Date 12/11/14

Currency DOLLAR STERLING EURO FRANC YEN CFA WAUA RENMINBI RIYAL KRONA SDR

Buying(N) 154.78 247.6944 193.4286 160.4104 1.3617 0.2764 228.0521 25.2949 41.2582 25.9816 228.8113

Central(N) 155.28 248.4946 194.0534 160.9286 1.3661 0.2864 228.7888 25.3771 41.3914 26.0655 229.5504

Selling(N) 155.78 249.2947 194.6783 161.4468 1.3705 0.2964 229.5255 25.4592 41.5247 26.1494 230.2896

BY YINKA KOLAWOLE, with agency report

H

AULAGE is about transporting of goods (products) from one place to another. The haulage business is therefore the business of making goods available when and where they are needed. It starts from the point of extraction or loading to the point of delivery of the goods (products) for the satisfaction of the final consumers.

Types of goods: Petroleum products such as Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), Dual Purpose Kerosene (DPK), Automotive Gas Oil (AGO), Low Pour Fuel Oil (LPFO) and other Petrochemicals. Building materials such as sand, clay, granite, cement, iron rods etc. Agricultural products. Containers/cargoes from the ports. Heavy duty equipments like generators, transformers, pole etc. Solid minerals and other finished products. Commodities like sugar, flour, salt etc.

Economic importance.

Haulage involves the movement of goods by both rail and road, but since the collapse of rail system in Nigeria, road haulage has taken the lead.

The country has enough population and a good network of roads linking the 36 states and Abuja, though not in very good condition.

The transport sector is an important component of the economy impacting on the development and the welfare of the huge population of about 140 million. When transport systems are efficient, they provide economic and social opportunities and benefits that result in positive multipliers effects such as better accessibility to markets and additional investments.

The following points emphasize the importance of haulage: Moving of material from

Engaging in haulage business the natural stage; Conveying raw materials to the factory and helping manufacturers convey their goods to wholesaler or distributors; Helping manufacturers reduce the content of the warehouse; Helping the wholesalers (distributors) get their purchased goods to their stores; Increased competition - when transport is efficient, a wider array of goods and services become available to consumers through competition which tends to reduce costs and promote quality and innovation; Enhance land value land serviced by good transport services generally has greater value because it is open to many activities; Contributes to economic development through job creation and its derived economic activities - a large number of direct (freighters, managers, shippers) and indirect (insurance, finance, packaging, handling travel agencies, transit operators) employment are associated with transport and; Makes goods and services available where and when they are needed - pro-

vides market accessibility by linking producers and consumers.

Types of haulage and vehicles required.

There are different areas of haulage business one can venture into depending on capability and other factors. Also, the type of vehicles or equipment used in haulage business differ depending on the type and nature of haulage.

Quarry breaking: This involves the use of heavy equipment to break mass deposit quarry into smaller granite sizes. These equipment, most often are rented from leasing company. The quarry breaker is an expensive equipment which is usually purchased by leasing companies or banks and rented out to quarry companies.

Tipping: This is the use of tippers of different sizes to transport granites from quarry site or sand from the lake or sea for use in construction industries/ sites. Tipping trucks or dumping trucks are used to convey granite or sand. They are usu-

24 — Vanguard, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2014

Vanguard, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2014 — 25

Education for all in 2015:

Mirage or reality for Nigeria?

population, the Chairman, Governing Board, National Commission for Mass Literacy, Adult and Non-formal Education, NMEC, Dr Esther Udehi, at this year ’s International Literacy Day in Awka, Anambra State, said: “Nigeria is home to some 64 million adults that are illiterate, and it is shameful that in the 21st century, a country could have that number of illiterates.”

A 2010 literacy survey conducted by NMEC defined adult literacy rate as the percentage of people from age 15 and above who can, with understanding, read and write a short, simple statement on their everyday life. That definition put the overall literacy rate for adults in the country at 56.9 per cent.

Reversing the trend

In Nigeria, many teenagers who should be in school are hawking in the traffic to make ends meet.

By Amaka Abayomi

Nigeria’s glaring inability to achieve that goal, especially when placed alongside the fact HEN 164 countries, that Nigeria houses over 10.5 million out-of-school-children Nigeria inclusive, (OOSC), 35 per cent of its pledged to achieve Education young adults illiterate, and for All by 2015 at a World with no obvious effort or Education Forum in Dakar structure being put in place by government towards Senegal in 2000, achieving this hopes were high enviable feat. that, by 2015, all Though there has school-age children been significant would have access to increase in net education while enrolment rate in adult illiteracy would Nigeria is recent years, but be a thing of the past. reports show that This was because 15 home to 64 Nigeria has one of the years was such a million lowest spends per long time to achieve head for education; 40 adults that such a goal.

But with less than are illiterate per cent of children aged six to 11 do not two months to 2015, attend primary c o n c e r n e d and it is schools; while the stakeholders have shameful Northern region expressed fears over

W

N3B research grant is too small for Nigeria — Nnaji

We have young people who have no idea of their history — Mautech VC

records the lowest school attendance rate in the country, especially for girls.

Despite government’s claim to have been working tirelessly towards attaining the 2015 goal, concerned educationists

are of the view that its effort can be compared to pouring water into a basket as the challenges facing the sector are getting worse.

Acknowledging Nigeria’s growing number of illiterate

Worried by this, Udehi added that Nigeria’s dream of attaining the objectives of EFA in 2015 would become elusive unless something was urgently done to reverse the trend.

Aware that attaining EFA 2015 would be a herculean task, the Chairperson, State Universal Basic Education Board, Lagos State, Mrs. Gbolahan Daodu, said government is putting in place measures to overcome the numerous challenges militating against achieving that goal.

“The federal government, through the Universal Basic Education Commission, UBEC, has commissioned so many programmes targeted at reducing the number of OOSC and illiterate adults.

Continues on page 26

Certification without content is the bane of Nigerian education — Prof Kila

By Dayo Adesulu

P

ROFESSOR Anthony Kila has stated that the bane of Nigerian education began when people decided to have certificate without the corresponding content of certification.

"We go about certification but we don’t think about content."

He said: "’There are people managing schools and classrooms who do not have business with schools. There are people who do not have business with classrooms but are teaching in classrooms." According to him, the knowledge such people are transferring to students is far away from what education should be.

The Professor who lamented the poor reading culture of students said that even when they read, they are reading the wrong books. He suggested that students need to have less of motivational books and more factual literature books. "It is a

huge problem that needs a radical approach."

He added.

Explaining what Out Come based education is all about, Kila disclosed that from the day a student gains admission to study any course in the university, he should know that the reason for studying the course is to get a job.

According to him, a good education acquired by any student should factor in what an employer of labour and the country needs. He, however noted that if you are going to study and learn for learning sake, learn it to the best adding that no knowledge is waste. Studying for study sake makes you a good individual.

He said: “There are stages of what you ought to teach people, education never happens by chance, it only happens by design, discipline and dedication.

If we are to solve the problem of education Continues on page 26

26 — Vanguard, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2014

N3b research grants is too small for Nigeria — Nnaji

From left Project Manager, British Council Nigeria, Sephora Imomoh; UK Visa Immigration Representatives, Giulia Jenkins and Project Officer, British Council Nigeria, Maria Kuforiji at the UK Education Exhibition in Lagos.

By Laide Akinboade

F

Mirage or reality for Nigeria?

Continued from page 25 “The Lagos State government has done a lot and is continually appealing to corporate organisations and individuals to partner with it to, if not achieve that goal, reduce the numbers.”

Pointing out that Nigeria has, once again, failed to ensure that all schoolaged children have access to education, the National Coordinator, Education Rights Campaign, Hassan Taiwo Soweto, called for a state of emergency to be declared in the education sector.

“The increasing number of OOSC and this year’s WAEC results are clear indications that there is crisis in the sector.” Soweto said.

On the way forward, the ERC boss said: “there is need for us to reexamine why the universal basic education programme failed as government still retains the failed philosophy that education should be mildly funded by it.

“With the lack of democratic control of funds for schools, funds meant to address issues in these schools end up in individual pockets and this has led to squandering of billions of naira that would have been used to turn the fortunes of the sector around.

“We have gotten to the stage where a state of emergency should be declared in the sector as we are confident that if government can propose a fool-proof strategy to move the sector forward, Nigeria can, within 10 years, reduce the number of OOSC, improve access to education and quality of education.”

In the same vain, the Lagos State Chairman, Nigeria Union of Teachers, Comrade Segun Raheem, said: “the attainment of any respectable standard for 2015 is a ruse, as government has failed to put in place any meaningful effort to fast-track achieving that. This is because education is the process of integrating the youths into the society and it is glaring that we are far from achieving that.”

Raheem proposed that government puts in place a structured teachers’ salary scale and call for stakeholders’ meeting of all education professionals to enable them chart ways of moving the country out of this quagmire.

In the words of Otive Igbuzor, PhD, of ActionAid International Nigeria in a paper titled The State of Education In Nigeria; “if current trends continue, the target of achieving universal primary education will be missed by, at least, a decade!”

Certification without content is the bane of Nigerian education Continued from page 25 in Nigeria, he said, we have to understand that we have an emergency and declare a state of emergency in the sector.

“If we do not see the educational system as disastrous and in need of emergency, we will not seek an intervention. The same way we handle terrorism or a natural disaster, we should handle the educational system . It is not a case of gradual reform, it needs a radical reform."

His words: “We need to rediscover the importance of primary and secondary education to know that that is actually a crucial aspect of education. After that, we need to train and retrain teachers and restructure the school. Screen the people working there. When you start doing that, you should know you are going to step on toes."

Meanwhile, Malam El-Rufai who spoke in Lagos at CIAPS' intake of 50 students, said that corruption, illiteracy and joblessness are the three things bedevilling Nigeria today.

Rufai who was represented by Mr Jimi Lawal said: “Things do not always

appear the way they are. Appearance can be deceitful. Any educational pursuit by any student must be able to add value to the society. "

ORMER Minister of Power and Chief Executive Officer of Geometric Power Limited, Professor Bart Nnaji, yesterday, said the N3billion intervention grant given for research by the federal government to tertiary institutions is too small to encourage research development.

He stated this at the National Higher Education Forum, organized by Tell magazine in collaboration with Tertiary Education Trust Fund, TETFUND, in Abuja.

Nnaji also urged the Federal Government to establish an agency that would oversee research and award grants to researchers in the country.

According to him; "N3 billion is not enough, though it sounds a lot to an individual but for a country it is nothing.

Funding of education is not enough in this nation, because education is the engine of the minds of the people. If we do not have adequate funding we cannot have adequate infrastructure, we would not have enough teachers. There is need for the Federal Government to provide enough incentives for teachers to stay in classrooms.

Benefit of society "Most institutions are trying to find a way to continue to do research because in a university you cannot become a Professor without having done research, that is just the fact. Some of them have to go abroad to get things done but research has to be done here for the benefit of our society.

"The federal government has a critical role to play, government should be the one to support the research of tertiary institutions that is how it is done everywhere. There should be certain amount dedicated every year to research by the government. The academicia should compete to get the grant and they must deliver on what they say they are going to do, otherwise they would not get research grant anywhere again and that is how it is done all over the world.

"Students also participate in research.

Professors do not just do the research they involve the students and we are not doing that now. We must start doing that if we are really interested in progressing the industrial space because it is from this research project that employment can occur

•Professor Bart Nnaji and prosperity of the society is based on this.”

He stressedthat it is imperative for the government to establish an agency that awards grants for research that is transparent and devoid of corruption.

“Now a government program that awards grants must completely be structured to ensure transparency and to ensure that corruption cannot set in. without getting into details of this, I would say that government needs to establish an agency that does not merely handle research and development awards. It should also empower the major ministries, like Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Science and Technology, to have the ability to support basic research and operate a small business innovation research and development program.”

The Vice Chancellor, University of Lagos, Prof. Rahamon Bello, while speaking to journalists said, apart from the fact that research is not well coordinated, the nation has not been taking research seriously.

“Funding research is not the main thing to get meaningful research done that would translate and move the nation forward. It is quite an expensive exercise and Nigeria has not been taking it seriously. If we really want to move on and become one of the developed nations then we need to put a lot of money into research.""Funding does not have to come from the government alone and one of the problems of research is that we do not have risk funding in Nigeria. A funding agency would have to take risk.

Atamu gives 10 students scholarship awards

By Bartholomew Madukwe

I

N demonstrating commitment to education in Urhobo, Delta State, a social club known as Atamu has given 10 students from different institutions of higher learning across the country scholarship awards.

Beneficiaries who were present at the presentation of cheques, held at Lagos State Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Ikeja, include Ogidigbo Ruth, Ogboru Tessy, Clement Onaepoberuo, Ayiofor Loveth, Etaoghene Mudiaga and Ighomrore Hope.

In his welcome address, the president of Atamu Social Club of Nigeria Mr Johnson Agagbo, explained that the road to the realization of the scholarship programme did not come easily, it came many years after the launch of the Atamu

Education Endowment Fund.

He said: “As a futuristic group, we see Nigeria’s tomorrow as one belonging to those who possess the right knowledge and skill. We, therefore, consider it our sacred duty to ensure that the Urhobo Nation is not trapped in the past and left behind when the rest of the nation advances to occupy positions of advantage in the future that is already beckoning.

“That clearly explains why we feel strongly that for the Urhobo Nation to move triumphantly into the glorious future of Nigeria, our youths must be ready educationally. Yet, most of our youths who possess the intellectual potential to do us proud lack the financial capacity to take any practical step forward in that direction.”

One of the beneficiaries who is a student

of Delta State University, Abraka, (Loveth) stated that the money would be used for her academic “like buying of textbooks, fixing other issues, which is the main purpose for the money. I will as well appreciate God.” Patron of the club, Chief Charles Majoroh, described the event as one that should be emulated by all social cultural groups for rapid development of the country, saying “I think Atamu should be commended for their effort in making this project a success. Those who do not have but need education can still have it if every social cultural group can do this. It is a fantastic idea and it should be encouraged because giving money to people who are indigent is a way of ensuring that all persons get education. I am very impressed with it.”

Vanguard, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2014 — 27

How MUSON scholar excels in American varsity Miss Agatha Ibeazor, a beneficiary of MTN Foundation scholarship scheme at the MUSON centre, Lagos, and a scholar of late Dr. Levi Ajuonuma, to study music at the Truman State University in the United States, where she bagged a degree in Music. In this interview, she spoke of her feat in Music in the USA and Sundry issues in education. By VICTOR AGI. Excerpts:

T

ELL us about your family and educational background I am a native of Ogidi in Anambra State, Nigeria and the fourth child of five children, born in Ebute Metta West, Lagos, on July 13, 1989. My siblings and I were raised by my mother, Mrs. Fidelia Ibeazor because my father, Chief Francis Ibeazor died when I was just four years old.

My dad was a businessman; he imported commodities and was quite successful at it, but he died at the age of 39.

After his death, my mother started her own business of running a restaurant. That was how she was able to provide for us, but we were not able to maintain the same lifestyle that we had while my father was alive. My mum struggled to take care of us and sent us to good schools.

I attended Mount Carmel Catholic Primary School and Marywood Grammer School, both in Ebute Metta, Lagos. I graduated from Marywood in 2005. Consequently, I was admitted to study Law at Anambra State University, but I had to forgo it because my mother couldn’t afford the fees.

I did Grade One MUSON Theory of Music exam, at the MUSON School of Music, Onikan, Lagos, the same year I graduated from secondary school.

The MUSON School of Music was introduced to me by my then church choirmaster, the late

• Miss Agatha Ibeazor

Stephen Olarinde. When I could not afford to go to university, he told me about the MUSON Diploma school and said that the tuition expenses were paid for by MTN Foundation for admitted students. I got admitted to study at the school and attended for two years, completing my Associate Diploma degree and graduating with the Best Prize for Voice.

Two years after my graduation, I was awarded a scholarship by former NNPC Spokesman, the late Dr. Levi Ajuonuma.

Love for singing This enabled me to attend Truman State University in the United States, where I just graduated from with honours (Magna Cum Laude) and received my Bachelor of Music degree.

When did you realise your love for singing?

I do not think I realised my love for singing, because I have been singing all along. As a matter of fact, my mother said that I sang before I talked. Singing was as natural as breathing to me. I remember as a three or four year old child, when I went to church with my aunt, I always looked back at the choir. I would ask my aunt; “When would I join the choir?” She would answer; “When you grow up.” I would ask her, “When will I grow up?

Would I ever grow up?” My mom would also give testimonies of how I could not read, but I could sing the words of a book to any tune that came to my mind.

I was able to join the 8am choir of St Paul’s Catholic Church, EbuteMetta, when I was just seven. I was too anxious and caused too much trouble, so my mom convinced them to let me join the youth choir. No member was as young as I was.

Essentially, I guess the answer to the question is that singing was such a natural and essential part of my existence that I did not even think about

how I loved to sing ever since I was a toddler up until age 13.

When I had performed a solo for the church choir, I realised that I actually loved performing in front of an audience and bringing joy to them through my singing.

People applauded and one woman even cried.

Why are you more interested in the Opera as opposed to being a recording artist?

I am a Catholic and we are more associated with Latin Gregorian Chants, which is essentially the history of classical music. So, I have always been moved by soft, slow, and soul touching music by my association with a Catholic choir. For me, classical music does it. It has that power to make you cry, laugh, be melancholic, and confused all at the same time. Can you imagine an art form that can make you feel all these emotions at the same time and sometimes with just one performance? I am more interested in changing people’s lives with my voice than just to entertaining them. I believe classical music has the power to do this, because it changed my life.

There was a critical moment in my life. On one Easter Sunday, my mom and I happened to listen to a broadcast from the Vatican on the radio, and the singing of Handel’s I Know My Redeemer Liveth entranced us both. It was like the voice of God, as I have never heard anything like that. My mom was quiet throughout the entire performance, and afterwards my mom said; “I wish you could sing like that.” I have never forgotten what she said, and Ihave never forgotten that voice on the radio that changed my history.

My mother said that I sang before I talked. Singing was as natural as breathing to me.

I remember as a three-four year old kid, when I went to church with my aunt, I always looked back at the choir

• Agatha Ibeazor Do you think Opera is popular in Nigeria?

No, it is not. Even some of my classmates at the MUSON Centre had discouraged me from pursuing classical music because of the fear of not being able to make a living. It is not just Nigeria, but around the world, the art form is dying. I feel it is my duty to preserve this beautiful art that can touch so deeply, and no country needs this kind of art form like Nigeria does!

How were you selected to benefit from the MUSON scholarship scheme given by the MTN Foundation to study music?

The advert was placed in newspapers and my choirmaster told me about it, as he was a beneficiary a year before.

I realised how this was a great opportunity for me to get some form of education, so I studied hard for a whole year on my own to prepare for the entrance exam and audition because I did not know much about music theory

at that time. With a lot of hard work, I auditioned, did the written exam and when the results came out, I passed. I was one of the lucky people that got admitted as it is a highly selective process.

I am truly grateful to MTN Foundation as they did not only pay for my tuition but they gave me stipends for transportation which made going to school easier. The sponsorship by MTN gave way to my dream of becoming a Nigerian Opera singer.

How was your time in MUSON School of Music, Was it exciting or was it just about learning the rudiments of music?

It was a very exciting experience. The teachers there are very learned and they know the art well. They have some of the best teachers that the country and even the world can offer.

Alongside learning the rudiments of music, we also had hands-on experiences.

28 — Vanguard, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2014

We have young people who have no idea of their history —MAUTECH VC Professor Kyari Mohammed is the Vice-Chancellor of Modibbo Adama University of Technology, MAUTECH, Yola, Adamawa State.

In this chat with Vanguard Learning in Yola, the Professor of History and Director of the Centre for Peace and Security Studies at the university, speaks on the removal of history from secondary school curriculum and its impact on society. He says that part of the problem bedevilling the nation is the fact that many of the youths know next to nothing about the history of Nigeria. Excerpts:

By Ebele Orakpo

W

HAT was the rationale behind the removal of history from the curriculum?

Well, not necessarily removing it. The government is doing something about it though. The Historical Society met with the President sometime in February this year. The President has agreed that History will now be taught in secondary schools.

But why did they think of removing it in the first place?

They had removed it long ago.

It is under the new National Policy on Education.

Under the new policy, history was removed as a compulsory course in senior secondary school so at the junior secondary school level, they introduced Social Studies. This was to incorporate some history, political science, some sociology, civic education and some form of citizenship education.

Citizenship education I guess that was the idea, but after several years, some of the problems that we see in our country is that we have come up with young people who have grown up to be adults but have no idea of where they are coming from. That partly explains some of the problems we have in Nigeria where someone will just wake up one morning to say he will fight you on the basis of your religion or ethnicity or your region without understanding the historical basis of Nigeria.

If they had read history and come to realise that in spite of all our differences, people had actually existed within the same territory called Nigeria long before British colonial rule; then that would have helped substantially.

One other thing that history would have told them is that Nigerian had been trading for thousands of years. It is not something that came up in 1914 when the British said okay, we are going to amalgamate British territories of Southern and Northern Nigeria.

These are things they would

have learnt from history but as it is now, you see people who have finished secondary school without having any idea of the history of their country. So anything an illiterate says on the pages of newspapers or radio or television, they take it as the Bible truth so actually.

Some sense of historical consciousness and knowledge of history will add substantially to our understanding of ourselves as citizens of Nigeria. We should also understand the relationship between Nigerians and other Africans and the role of Nigeria in the wider world. I am sure some sense of history will definitely help. Though it is coming back after a lot of destruction has been done.

Most of our graduates, upon graduation look for white collar jobs instead of creating jobs. Do you think our curriculum should be made more practical?

We are all doing white collar jobs so why should they go for difficult blue collar jobs? If there is a structural problem and unemployment in our country, we should find a means of identifying and dealing with them. I know you are coming from all this talk about adding entrepreneurship into our education. These are all coming from the IMF and the World Bank.

No matter what level of entrepreneurship education you

• Prof Kyari Mohammed

give, you are still going to have a substantial number of the population who are unemployed for as long as the economy grows along those lines, as long as we have several millions coming out of the universities when the economy itself is not expanding, and as long as the informal sector of the economy is not supported by the state. There will be several problems.

Entrepreneurship will not

employ everyone either. We cannot all be entrepreneurs. The Nigerian economy is large because of the informal sector so if you want to create jobs, then you support the informal sector especially the small and medium scale rather than saying people that come out of the universities should be entrepreneurs. Okay, I have some good entrepreneurial ideas, how do I fund it? That itself becomes a

problem. You talk about You-Win or Sure-P, it is still a form of tokenism, it is not going to solve the problem. There is a fundamental problem with the economy. We are running a system very much like the US. A high percentage of the income in this country is in the hands of a few so that is a major problem.

So we should practice Socialism as China?

China has one of the fastest growing number of billionaires in the world now so also is Russia. The number of millionaires is very high and the number of poor people is very high so Nigeria is not an exception.

Mass failure in WAEC, who is to blame?

I don’t want to accuse an examining body. We probably will have to look at our educational system completely.

Those of us in the universities complain about the products that come into the university so if you need to look at your education, you have to look at the primary school that feeds the secondary school and you have to look at the secondary school that feeds the university; you have to talk about the quality of teachers in those schools, the facilities in terms of classrooms, laboratories, reading materials etc., then there has to be a conscious government policy of making sure that public schools work.

La Roche Foundation refurbishes school building

By Victor Agi

A

KINWUNMI Ambode’s La Roche Leadership Foundation, a non-profit organization focused on developing the next generation of leaders, has handed over the refurbished St. Jude Primary School, Ebute Metta, recently.

The public school which is the Lagos State governorship aspirant, Akinwunmi Ambode’s Alma Mata, is now up to standard as was provided by the foundation’s administrator, Mrs Marina Osoba, during the handing over at the school’s premises. Her words: “There was a lot of structural damage, which we dealt with first. The building was painted, toilets were renovated, the environment was made beautiful and child friendly. An indoor area was done for the children.

Instruments were made available for the band because music helps children learn, makes them more intelligent.

We have energized the PTA and they have promised to assist with other things. We have

done most of the work but more needs to be done.”

Concurring with delight, Head Teacher, Mrs Augustina Nwaezeapu expressed: “Ambode sent La Roche Foundation to us; we did not even know him or know that he graduated from here. They said they wanted to know where he started life. If we have this kind of old students, things will really be better for us and education as a whole. At first I thought it was just a political thing, that they will not return after taking pictures, but they returned, asked for our needs which I gave them and today we are filled with joy, we even have 10 white boards now. We are very grateful to La Roche Leadership Foundation; I hope and pray that even after I leave other people will continue to help St. Jude.”

On the aim of the foundation with St. Jude Primary School, youths and leadership, Osoba said: “Founded

by Ambode, the work we do is with children and young people to help them have a solid education and be leaders and be here for us and carry the state forward.

Prof. Bertrand to speak at AUN Founder's Day

R

I cannot understand why anybody who works for the government of Nigeria, a public servant or political office holder will send his children to private school

ENOWNED public health don and chair of Tulane University’s Payson Center for International Development and Technology Transfer, Professor William Bertrand, will deliver the keynote speech at the 9th th Founder ’s Day and 10 anniversary celebrations of the American University of Nigeria on November 15.

A release made available to Vanguard and signed by Mr Daniel Okereke, Executive Director, Office of Communications and Public Relations of the institution said •gFounder’s Day at AUN is a time for the university community to celebrate and reflect on the

dream, vision, and generosity of its Founder, former Nigerian Vice- President Atiku Abubakar, as well as in its mission as a development university.•h D r. Bertrand, a leading authority in public health issues and senior consultant on HIV/ AIDS to the World Health Organization, is the Vice Chairman of the AUN Board of Trustees and has extensive experience in Africa and other parts of the world. He also has research interests in epidemiological methods, institution building, integrated monitoring and evaluation of service delivery systems, quality of life measurement systems,

management information systems, information technology use and transfer, international social policy on technology impact assessment and development, social impact assessment, economic development, and individual and organizational modernization and innovation.

Bertrand has directed numerous AIDS-related projects in Uganda, Rwanda, Côte d’Ivoire, Congo Democratic Republic, and Vietnam. He is the Wisner Professor of Public Health, Tulane University, School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine.

Vanguard, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2014 — 29

Imperial College Alumni celebrate Stella Adadevoh, others for national dev’t

I

N its quest to encourage graduates of Imperial College to take pride in contributing to national development, Its alumni celebrate late Dr Stella Adadevoh, Mr. Uzoma Dozie and Mr George Osahon for their contributions to humanity.

In a release, the President, Imperial College Alumni of Nigeria, Mr. Olugbenga Adelana said: “The late Dr Stella Adadevoh was I993 graduate of Imperial College Hammersmith Hospital Medical School.” According to him, Adadevoh was an epitome of selflessness and professionalism in the delivery of healthcare service in Nigeria. He recalled, “When the Ebola scare broke out in Nigeria, Dr. Stella’s show of compassion and humanity towards a sick foreigner in her care marks her out as a modern day Florence Nightingale."

Closely allied to the giant stride of Dr Adadevoh, is Mr. Uzoma Dozie, a 1998 Master of Business Administration graduate of Imperial College Business School whose over 18year experience in the Nigerian banking sector

culminated in his appointment as Group Managing Director of Diamond Bank Plc October this year.

Said Adelana: “Uzoma has hitherto been the chief driver of Diamond Bank’s award winning retail banking franchise and technology based innovative banking solutions; quietly building on the Diamond Bank Integrated Banking Solutions pioneered by his father and founder of the bank.

“The alumni association is indeed happy to associate with Mr. Dozie in his strides towards making his “Diamond heritage” last forever.”

Also, he pointed out Mr George Osahon who is an alumnus of Imperial College and former President of Nigerian Association of Petroleum Explorationists (NAPE).

Mr George Osahon, he noted was appointed as the substantive Director of the Department of Petroleum Resources, the apex regulatory, policy and administrative agency of the Nigerian Government for the Oil and Gas sector.

Cross section of the six awardees of Mind Builders School scholarship scheme held in Lagos.

Mind Builders School awards scholarship to 6 best students

M

IND Builders School has announced scholarship awards to six outstanding pupils who excelled in various criteria and subjects. This was disclosed by the school authority during their 2013/ 2014 prize giving day where several prizes were given to outstanding pupils.

Six pupils who performed outstandingly in the 2014/2015 entrance examination of the school were awarded a sixyear scholarship by the school.

Three of the pupils were from Mind Builders Nursery and Primary School, while the other three were from other primary

schools.

The beneficiaries from Mind Builders School include; Ailuelohia Oseghale, Dawodu Moyosoreolouwa and Adigun Bolu Anjola. Others are Olawole Mercy of Children Companion, Ogba, Ikeja, Akinsola Oluwadamllola of Sunnydale School, Ikeja and Quadri Feranmi of Trinity Primary School, Mowe, Ogun state.

Meanwhile, the Chairman, Board of Director of Mind Builders School, Mr. Bosun Falore, while explaining the criteria used for the award said; “the school selected the best pupils in the entrance examination in which the sIx

winners scored above 80 percent.”

He explained that the scholarship is part of the school’s corporate social responsibility with the aim of promoting and rewarding excellence. According to him, the scholarship will relieve the parents and provide a solid foundation for brilliant pupils to make them super stars in the future.

While explaining the need to keep the awardees on their toes, Falore noted that the excellence of the students must be sustained throughout the 6 years education in the school for the school to continue the award.

Loral School rewards hardwork

By Christopher Njoku

I

N its determination and commitment to continue to improve the standard of education, Loral International School, Festac, Lagos has rewarded many of its pupils for outstanding performances. Speaking during the annual induction ceremony of the students into the Platinum Club of the school, the Principal, Mr. Benjamin Uzoukwu said the annual programme was to encourage a healthy competition among the students and to reward those who perform outstandingly in their academic tasks.

He explained that the school uses the annual event to award a PTA Book Scholarship to deserving students, stating that over ten (10) students have received the scholarship from 2012 to date. According to him, the school raised the standards for the platinum membership this year to make it tougher and more competitive.

“This club was created to encourage

hard work. By this idea, every student put more effort in their studies so as to be in the schools platinum club. It helps to keep them on their toes, as those who are in bronze aspire to move to upper bronze, while those in upper bronze want to move to silver.

“Here in Loral, we have various stratification and platinum happens to be the highest. We have the Upper gold, Gold, Upper silver, Silva, Upper bronze and bronze. For a student to be a member of the platinum, they must have distinction of 75% and above in a certain amount of all the subjects that they offer, including at least, a credit in Mathematics and English language,” the principal explained.

Congratulating the students for their wonderful performance, Uzoukwu said, some students fail, because most of them have bad handwriting.making it difficult for examiners to understand what the student may have written.

PZ Cussons launches chemistry challenge

F

OLLOWING the success of the maiden edition of the 2013 PZ Cussons Chemistry Challenge, PZ Cussons Foundation has launched the 2nd edition of the competition for SS2 and SS3 students of public and private schools in Lagos State. Speaking at the launch, the Vice President, Board of Trustees, PZ Cussons Foundation, Mr. Tunde Oyelola, said the aim of the challenge was to stimulate and promote the study and knowledge of chemistry among students.

“One of the primary objectives of the

PZ Cussons Foundation is to stimulate the study of chemistry among students and promote the role of chemistry in the society, and this challenge underscores how the right motivation can bring out the best in students.”

The challenge, which is open to SS2 and SS3 students, has the following requirements: only two students can enter from each school; open to only schools in Lagos; and the forms should be endorsed by parents and school principals.

Entry closes November 24, 2014.

C M Y K

30 — Vanguard, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2014

Don tasks Nigerians on values

Academics tasked on research, mentorship

By Kelechukwu Iruoma & Faith Ehiremen

T

HE Deputy ViceChancellor, Research Technology and Innovation (RTI), Prof. G.A. Olatunji, has charged senior academic staff in the University to inspire their younger colleagues to excel by providing mentorship on how to conduct research and write grant-winning proposals.

Prof. Olatunji, who made this call while declaring open a workshop on African Humanities Programme (AHP) for Ph.D. thesis competition and PostDoctoral Fellowships in the Humanities, explained that if this is done, the individual academic would benefit while the University would also have better rating in Africa and in the world.

Pointing out that there are human angles to the Sciences, the Deputy Vice-Chancellor stressed the need for scholars to be multi-disciplinary in order to enhance the quality of their work.

He also urged scholars not to restrict themselves to their localities but be global in their outlook.

While disclosing the

C M Y K

University’s plan to provide laboratory facilities to scholars in the Humanities, Prof. Olatunji said; “If we do not research, we stagnate, and if we stagnate, the consequences are enormous.

The management is suggesting that we mentor the junior ones and we encourage them to take advantage of the senior ones.”

In his presentation at the workshop, the resource person, Prof. Lawrence Owusu Ansah of

the Department of English, University of Cape Coast, Ghana, emphasised that for any applicant to be successful, he must adhere strictly to the application guidelines because any deviation from the rules automatically invalidates the application.

Prof. Ansah noted that “the grant is designed to strengthen scholarship in humanities in SubSaharan Africa and it is strictly meant to fund researches.

By Kelechukwu Iruoma & Faith Ehiremen

P

ROFESSOR Noah Yusuf of the University of Ilorin has urged Nigerians to imbibe the spirit of positive work ethics, whjich he listed among them as industrious, committed , dedicated and transparent, as the only way to guarantee Nigeria’s development. th Delivering the 151 Inaugural Lecture of the University titled “ work, industry and society: the synergy that mirrors the reality

UNILAG awards scholarship to 982 students

By Olatide Faith & Igboanugo Stanley

A

TOTAL of 982 students have benefited from the 2012/2013 Endowment Scholarship Awards of the University of Lagos. The students received the awards on Thursday, November 6, 2014 during the scholarship awards ceremony held at the Julius Berger Lecture Theatre, UNILAG Main Campus, Akoka.

The event, organised by the UNILAG Office of Advancement, was held under the chairmanship of the V.C, Professor Rahamon A. Bello. The Endowment Scholarship Awards Ceremony was initiated by authorities of the University to encourage hard-work and zealousness among students

in their academic activities. The awards which are in various categories attract various monetary values.

In his address, the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Rahamon A. Bello said; “For the year 2012/2013 awards, a total of N41, 450,000.00 is to be disbursed to 982 students, who qualified, and that is why we are having this ceremony. Out of these 67 are for Academic Excellence (students with CGPA of a 4.5 and above) with the sum of N 50, 000 each, 8 are for students with Leadership Qualities in the sum of N 25,000 each, 61 are for outstanding sportsmen and women at N 25,000 each, 173 are for needy (indigent) students collecting N 25,000 each.

of our everyday existence”, the Prof. Of Industrial Sociology noted “the realization of these goals would lead to the building of a prosperous society capable of meeting the needs of today and preparing for the challenges of tomorrow.

Indeed, the synergy among work, industry and society serves as the mirror which reflects the reality of our everyday existence.”

The don stressed the need for Nigerians to begin to appreciate the value of hardwork. He said “if Nigeria must develop, people must work diligently.” He however stated that “the crave for flamboyant lifestyles among the political class and the rich in the society should be discouraged because it is sending wrong signals to the youths that they can also live a good life without hardwork.” lamenting the nonchalant work attitude of public service workers in the country, the don said “public sector workers in Nigeria are associated with negative attitudes like lateness to work, idleness, nonchalant, low commitment among others.

Adding “all tiers of government must take measures to reverse theses attitudes to positive ones.

Vanguard, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2014—31

BY TUNJI OLAOPA

B

eing Keynote Lecture Delivered at the 4th International Conference of the Faculty of Administration, Nasarawa State University, on ‘A century of Public Sector & Corporate Governance in Nigeria, 1914-2014’ held at the Assembly Hall, Keffi on the 8th of October, 2014.

Continued from last week If government fails to recruit and retain the best in the labour market, then how can it achieve the objective of building a Human Resources Management structure that will backstop its vision of a world class public service institution?

Back to Shakespeare: To be or not to be?

For sixty years now since the inauguration of the Nigerian Civil Service, NCS, we have suffered the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. Isn’t it time to take arm against a sea of troubles, and by opposing, to end them?

It took a while for Hamlet to resolve his indecision and that came by chance. On the contrary, the Nigerian Civil Service cannot leave anything to fortune. From what point can we begin to undermine our hesitancy?

The imperative of professionalising the Nigerian Civil Service (2)

NCS is through changing despite its compromised institutional growth trajectory. When the wave of democratisation began in the early 90s, Nigeria had to decide whether it still wanted to be a hesitant reformer or make the urgent push for advancement in reform management.

From 1985 to date, we have had five specific reform attempts aimed at refurbishing the professional status of the Nigerian civil servant — the 1985/1988 Phillips Commission, the Ayida Reform of 1995, the Obasanjo Renewal Programme, Yar’Adua Civil Service Reform Programme and the present Jonathan Transformation Agenda.

Put together, all these reforms had a very simple objective: Reconstructing the persona of the Nigerian civil servant through professionalising the NCS and its HRM architecture. Some of the essential steps taken in this direction include: (a) To reprofessionalise as a means of creating a new generation of officers and technocrats with sufficient skills, knowledge and motivation for institutional Democratic innovation; (b) the conduct of state vigorous and systematic To be or not to be? That is the evaluation and reporting of essential question that the NCS professional performance to must necessarily answer if it must make policy-makers accountable indeed earn the epithet of a for resources used and for results; functional democratic state that (c) modernizing core operations is committed to an efficient and and systems of the NCS using effective service delivery to its ICT; (d) creation of a number of citizens. more specialized cadres; (e) In the first part, we saw how putting in place a system of since its inauguration, the capacity utilization wherein core evolution of the NCS constitutes skills are better matched with the sum total of outstanding jobs; (f) injection of high skills starts; evolving, immature and and competencies available in weak structures; ambivalent other sectors of the economy into decisions; bold steps; the public service, using a range compromised reforms and of incentives; and (g) f o r t u i t o u s strengthening policy breakthroughs. This and research synergies evolution simply through enhanced implies that the collaborative projects, organisational including public-private growth of the NCS partnerships. has failed to reach a Yet, reconstructing the point of maturity modus operandi of the from which it could NCS requires more commence a than just token attention reformulation of its to the imperative of original objectives. reform. It requires, Thus, most of the essentially, a paradigm reform efforts since shift. The simple reason its inauguration is that we can never have been mere hope to continue at this attempts at damage hesitant rate and hope control. Hence, to achieve a world class when Prof. status with the same Reform Adamolekun indecisive level of categorised Nigeria must create administrative as a hesitant the functionality. reformer, it is not Transforming into a difficult to see the government ‘new public service analogy with context for involves answering two Shakespeare’s simple but basic agencyHamlet. questions: How do we It is often said that level want to be seen as an when a person or an administrative systemic institution is through institution? What must changing, then it is changes to we do to achieve this through. It doesn’t take root new perception? really appear that the

zOlaopa: The civil service can't leave anything to fortune...

The National Strategy for Public Service Reform, NSPSR, provides a straight forward answer to the first question: The Nigerian civil service ought to be perceived and to function as A world-class public service, delivering government policies and programmes with professionalism, excellence and passion.

Its mission statement is also simple: To efficiently and effectively implement the policies and programmes of government, operating collaboratively and transparently with other stakeholders to ensure quality delivery of public services.

The answer to the second question follows automatically: To achieve this large vision of a world class and democratic public service, we need to urgently get the basics of reform execution and management right. Getting the basics right implies the need to build the fundamental strengths of our public service institution before deploying best practices to ignite the changes we desire.

Government context Consequently, reform must create the government context for agency-level systemic changes to take root. In a 2008 essay titled The Public Service of 2025, Jocelyne Bourgon outlined five fundamental trends around which the vision of the NSPSR can coalesce if its mission statement is to become a reality for Nigerians.

These paradigmatic trends include: Trend One—Hybridisation of Public Human Resource Models.

This would involve a civil service system exploring the possibility of a mixed regime that combined the career-based and positionbased models of recruitment into the civil service.

Trend Two—A Reduction of Protection, Immunity and

Privilege. In this regard, there has been a serious encroachment on the traditional permanent tenure of the civil servants in favour of flexible and fixed-term contract appointments.

Trend Three—Emphasis on Individual Performance. Such a future civil service would also be concerned with how its HRM framework can been capacitated enough with pay, compensation and incentives to build individual and unit performance that would result in organisational progress.

Trend Four—Decentralisation of HRM Policies. This involves achieving flexibility and freedom in HRM policy implementation through devolving powers to implement to MDAs. Such a decentralisation would be done within several frameworks that could have no central agency, a single agency or multiple agencies facilitating the implementation.

Trend Five—Cultivation of a Senior Civil Servant System.

This would be an attempt to separate a top echelon of intelligent and competent administrative officers that would focus the leadership of the civil service and direct its policy formulation and implementation capacity.

If the NSPSR provides the vision and the mission statement, and Bourgon gives us a framework within which the vision and mission can be calibrated into a dynamic futuredefining new public service anchored on a functional HRM architecture, then McGregor identifies a further underlining component that motivates the paradigm shift. This involves challenging existing bureaucratic behaviour.

Since we are basically concerned with the persona of the Nigerian civil servant, it becomes inevitable that we transit from an administrative behavioural framework that Douglas

McGregor calls Theory X to another he calls Theory Y. Theory X, for McGregor, derives from a very strict administrative regimen and gloomy picture of human nature at three levels: first, management involves the deployment of people, material and money as means towards the achievement of particular economic objectives; second, that organisational objectives require the control and motivation of people; and, third, that without a strict organisational regimen, humans are usually unproductive and resistant to organisational needs.

On the other hand, Theory Y has at its base a picture of a transformational leadership and a philosophical insight which insists that that humans are motivated by the need to satisfy the higher-order needs like social relationship, the search for esteem and dignity as well as the need to exercise their creative genius especially with regards to organisational performance. The responsibility of a Theory Y leader is therefore to provide the atmosphere that unleashes these potentials of his already motivated employees.

Dynamic framework

The paradigm shift in HRM framework therefore demands an ingenious mix of components of Theory X and Theory Y to achieve a dynamic framework for creating a new generation of neoWeberian professionals sufficiently capacitated and incentivised to function differently and outside of all existing bureaucratic pathologies afflicting the Nigerian civil service.

These new professionals will be dedicated to the demands of a new productivity paradigm undergirding the performanceoriented dynamics of the NCS. And they will be backstopped by the evolution of management competencies, values and ethics necessary for the successful management of the reform processes in the public services.

This takes issue with the HRM policy and framework of the NCS. A dynamics HR framework isn’t just personnel management or even HRM. It involves a strategic framework that goes beyond mere people management to coordinating HR practices and policies with the need and requirements of the organisation itself. The strategic human resource Protection, Immunity and Privilege. In this regard, there has been a serious encroachment on the traditional permanent tenure of the civil servants in favour of flexible and fixed-term contract appointments. z CONCLUDED. Dr. Tunji Olaopa is Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Communications Technology.

C M Y K

32 — Vanguard, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2014

C M Y K

Vanguard, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2014 — 33

C M Y K

34 — Vanguard, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2014

C M Y K

Vanguard, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2014 — 35

C M Y K

36—Vanguard, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2014

Anambra North: Why Oduah deserves the Senate

By Charles Nwachukwu

T

HE proverbial tale of the Tortoise who went to his in-law’s house to ask for their daughter’s hand in marriage, but got carried away by the food offered, while a more serious person came and took the lady away is quite popular. This tale applies to the situation in which the people of Anambra North Senatorial district have found themselves since 2011 when they elected Senator Margery Okadigbo to represent them in the Senate.

Since then, four years ago, they have not heard wim! from the Senator. Okadigbo has not initiated any bill that would address any problem of the Anambra people or used her influence as a senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to attract any Federal project to the area rather she has been enjoying the goodies of senators in Abuja while her people gnash their teeth in suffering in the villages. Anambra North is made up of seven local government councils including Oyi and Anyamelum, Ogbaru, Onitsha South and West, Anambra West and East.

Now the people have said,

enough is enough’.They want strong, dedicated and purposeful representation in the Nigerian Senate .The leaders of the people have found a worthy voice in Princess Stella Adaeze Oduah, who for a long time, they and their people have been mounting pressure on to contest election to represent them in the Senate. Oduah’s catalogue of achievements as Federal Minister of Aviation stands her out as a performer. Check out her massive revolutionary remodeling and refurbishment of 22 Federal airports and the ongoing building of four new international airports. Which Aviation minister has done that in the past 40 years?

Who gave the Igbos their first international airport at Enugu after over 50 years of Nigerian independence? Princess Oduah.

But now, we must ask the question: what have the good people of Anambra North comprising seven local governments gained from four years of Mrs Okadigbo representing them at the Senate? The answer is: Nothing! Yet there are a legion of burning issues and knotty problems that have been affecting ‘Anambrarians’ for so long that need urgent

attention by the Federal government of Nigeria. These include increased federal development projects in Anambra, effective tackling of gully erosion, more jobs for Anambra youths, more technical schools and colleges, good roads, Federal Medical Centre, among others.

We all know that Princess Stella Adaeze Oduah is a stellar performer. While many are waffling over the problem ,she takes her time to study it, analyses it unsentimentally and come up with innovative solutions. And then, she boldly makes things happen.

Last week, members of Omambala Progressives Forum, OPF, a socio-political movement from Anambra North Senatorial Zone paid a solidarity visit to Oduah.

The OPF members said that the recent decision of Princess Oduah to pick a nomination form and contest the 2015 senatorial election in the Anambra North, on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP is a step in the right direction.

Leader of the forum, Hon. Osy Chinwuba who led the OPF delegation to Oduah’s country home, at Akili Ozizor in Ogbaru Local Government Area of An-

ambra State, commended her for hearkening to the voice of Ndi Anambra North to contest the election, pledging their unflinching support to ensure her victory at both the party primaries and the general election.

General election According to Chinwuba who is a former chairman of Anambra East LG,and member of the Anambra House of Assembly, the Ogbaru Federal constituency which Oduah hails from is the only one among the four federal constituencies in the area that has not produced a senator. The situation was the same at Onistha, the famous centre of Igbo culture and commerce, when leaders of the Onitsha community threw their weight fully in support of the decision

by Princess Stella Oduah to vie for the Anambra North Senatorial seat on the platform of PDP. At a stakeholder’s meeting convened at the Knights of St. Mulumba Retreat Centre, Onitsha, the Obi in Council, the Agbalanzes, the Odu women society, the Ikporo Onitsha and

the President General of Onitsha town union home and abroad were unanimous in arriving at a decision that Oduah is not only eminently qualified to be the voice of the people in the National Assembly but that they will support her all the way to ensure that she clinches the seat during the election.

The representative of Obi in Council, the Akpeh Olodi, Chulo Asika while offering the kolanut prayers asked God to bless all and most importantly to bless and grant the aspiration of Princess Oduah for whom they have gathered.

Chairman of the Princess Stella Oduah Campaign Organization and former two time Member representing Ogbaru Federal Constituency in the National Assembly, Hon. Okwudili Ojiba Uzoka said at the occasion: If you see Adaeze Oduah doing anything noble, it shouldn’t surprise you because she is only following the footsteps of her parents. Her father, the late Igwe Dennis Oduah in the early 70’s set up an endowment fund in the name of Zik at the University of Nigeria Nsukka for the training of engineering students. Her mother, Josephine Oduah also set up another fund for the training of young girls in school at that time when many young girls were literarily sold into marriage.Princess Stella is following their footsteps.”

VANGUARD, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2014—37

Judges have failed to assert their independence — Akeredolu CHIEF Rotimi Akeredolu IS the former Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, President (2008-2010). He was called to the Nigerian Bar in 1978 and appointed Ondo State Attorney General in 1997, a position he held until 1999. And in 1998, he was conferred with the rank of Senior Advocate of Nigeria.

Akeredolu was also Chairman of the Legal Aid Council (2005–2006). In this interview with Vanguard Law & Human Rights, he spoke on a better way of running courts, election petition tribunals, the judiciary and the conferment of rank of SAN on lawyers. Excerpts: judgments.

By Bartholomew Madukwe No judge had been physically attacked until the HEAD of 2015 general occurrence of Ekiti incident, election, how would you what do you think is wrong at describe the judgments of election petition tribunals this point in time?

The judiciary is still respected. delivered so far?

They deserve our respect and There have been no doubts we should give them. What some decisions in election petitions that one cannot fathom happened in Ekiti State is an the reasoning of some judges. unfortunate situation and it is And again, you look at it and because everything in Nigeria wish that such pronouncements has become politicized; except were never made. But they have the judiciary stands up to protect been made and it has brought its own and asserts its authority. the judiciary into disrepute. I What happened in Ekiti is just infraction on the know the task they have now to an change or have a u-turn of some independence of judiciary. If it of those decisions that have no is not corrected, somebody will basis in law. One will not shy repeat it.

On the independence of the from condemning those who are responsible for it. A number of judiciary, despite a court judges are still doing very well. judgement, there is still no That is why, even in election autonomy of the judiciary. petitions, you cannot have a What is your reaction?

To me the judiciary is blanket condemnation of the autonomous. Independence of

the judiciary is guaranteed by our constitution. The judiciary is independent. It is the judges themselves that delight in tying themselves with rope and carry themselves to the executive.

You have an institution where nobody can just sit down and say he is removing a judge.

That gives you a guarantee of tenure. It is only when a body like National Judicial Council

A

(NJC) agrees with an allegation against a judge, then that judge can be removed.

Even in the military era, no judge can be removed by its governor. So what we have now is even better.

It is the judges who have failed to assert their independence because of so many reasons. Some are timid while some are corrupt and they allow the executive to pull them by the hooks. I am not opposed to having the allocation for judiciary on the first line charge.

Guaranteeing independence

What happened in Ekiti is just an infraction on the independence of judiciary. If it is not corrected, somebody will repeat it again

But that is not to guarantee their independence because at the end of the day, even if all the money comes to them, some will want more because they feel that the executive has more.

So they will still go back to the executive because they want some money from them. All their (judiciary) money, even if given to them, it is more of salaries and money to maintain their courts.

The way the judiciary is run, take it or leave it, there is one or two things that the executive must provide. It is the executive that provides accommodation,

Hon Justice K.O. Anyah (rtd): The last of the titans begins the final journey

— PG.39

transport and others for judges.

If those are still going to hang on the executive for their provision, then, those who are corrupt, who want more than one car and better houses, will still believe the executive has money and they want to get from it.

One of the major problems we have is that judges are not supposed to run the funds of their courts. The funds for a court are supposed to be with the Chief Registrar of the court.

This is because if anything happens the Chief Judge will be called to explain how funds are spent. It does not make sense. When I came into practice, the Registrars or Chief Registrars of the court were very powerful because they were the accounting officers. Their Chief Judge might be their approving officer but they must account for all the funds.

Some judges have been accused of lobbying for inclusion in election petition tribunals, what is your view?

I think it is true. You find out they repeatedly use some judges and it is becoming a recurring decimal, instead of spreading it out. It does not have to be that a particular set

Continues on page 38

38 — VANGUARD, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2014

Continues from page 37 of judges have to be the ones that will be attending to election tribunals. It is good to spread it out, so that people will have experience. Why do they lobby?

It is for money, promotion or peculiar interest. Far above the stipend they are given for sitting, whatever it is, it has become a practice that some judges have gone for two or three rounds. People want to lobby so as to be recognized.

So I know that they lobby.

How would you describe government’s response to issues of kidnap, looking at the immediate past president of NBA, Okey Wali SAN, who was released last week and the Chibok girls?

When death knocks on your neighbor’s door, you have to be very careful. Therefore those of us who were ones NBA President have to be very careful. The other time in Warri, two lawyers were killed. So it is a frightening development because lawyers have become endangered species now.

Endangered species The development that is even more scaring is the approach of the government. The government, like in Chibok girls, has gone to sleep.

Nobody is bothered, nothing is being done and we have heard nothing. There has to be a pressure group that must sit on the neck of the government, to force them to do something.

So what do you think is responsible for the rise in the cases of kidnapping?

The issues of kidnapping and insecurity have risen. The government at the central is PDP. Logically, whatever government that is there, it is the government that is the cause. Maybe one of the reasons is corruption; it is stinking.

So, people now feel that armed robbery is not lucrative as kidnapping. When a government is blatantly corrupt and the people are languishing in poverty and nothing to eat, so they will have to try make ends meet. These kidnappers

EDITORIAL TEAM Innocent Anaba ( Head) Wahab Abdulah Ikechukwu Nnochiri Dayo Benson (Supervising Editor) 08056180119 dayobenson@yahoo.com

Judges have failed to assert their independence — Akeredolu are even graduates.

If we have a government that is not bothered about employment, a government that has done little or nothing to employ people- that government is responsible for it. And at this time, it is PDP that is the government. They are not providing proper leadership for

this country, in terms of job creation, security and reducing corruption. No doubt, it has to be put at the door step of PDP as the government at the centre, for being the cause.

Some lawyers have condemned the conferment of the rank of Senior Advocate of Nigeria, on lawyers, what is your opinion?

My opinion is that being

made a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) is just a privilege. SAN is a preferment; it is just a privilege. The people in the Privileges Committee set criteria and determine what they want to do, and that is all.

There is nothing anybody can do about that. You are not going to be called to do an exam!

Although these days, they would call you and do some interview.

But it is a privilege and I do

not see any reason why we would complain. I think the best you can do is to let the body of senior advocates have influence on who represents senior advocates at the privilege committee and you will get there. If they set criteria for this preferment, whatever it is, when they arrive at their decision, it is a privilege and we cannot complain about it.

From left: Jude Igbanoi, Francis Famuroti, Olisa Agbakoba 9SAN), Theodora Kio-Lawson John Austin Unachukwu and Mrs. Prescilla Ogwemoh

VANGUARD, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2014 — 39

Hon Justice K.O. Anyah (rtd): The last of the titans begins the final journey

By Awa U. Kalu Esq., SAN

I

N mythology, the Titan is thought to be one of the 12 children of Heaven and Earth, ancient gods of Greece, probably of the pre- Hellenic population according to the New Webster’s Dictionary of the English Language, International Edition, In conventional usage, a Titan is someone or something of very great strength, size, intellect or importance, also named after the Titans in Greek mythology who belonged to a family of giants.

I have no doubt that the late judge and jurist, Hon. Justice K. O. Anyah (Rtd), belonged to a family of giants, at least having regard to his pedigree and the company of legal and judicial brethren that he kept in his active years in the service of the law. I have referred to him as the last of the Titans because two of his contemporaries departed this sinful world a little earlier. His friends for a long time, Hon. Justice Chukwudifu Akunne Oputa who retired as a Justice of the Supreme Court and The Hon. Chike Ofodile SAN, one-time Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, were definitely in that family of giants.

Go a little further back in time, several other names come to mind- Hon. Justice Mbanefo, erstwhile Chief Justice of Nigeria, Hon. Justice Phil-Ebosie, Hon. Justice Aseme are some of his contemporaries, now deceased.

Valedictory court session Hon Justice Oputa, Socrates of the Supreme Court was buried amidst pomp and glory a few weeks ago. By some coincidence, Hon Justice K.O Anyah and Chief Chike Ofodile, will both be given what in these parts, is called a befitting burial this weekend.

While late Hon. Justice Anya will be honoured with the customary valedictory court session on Thursday, 13th November, at the premises of the High Court Complex, Umuahia, Chief Chike Ofodile, will be so honoured the following day at the High Court, Onitsha. Similarly, their respective interments will be just one day apart. On a lighter note, it is likely that both of these deceased legal luminaries will be neighbours in the land beyond.

Hon. Justice Kalu Okpan Anyah is aptly regarded by many as a ‘man of many firsts’. He is the first son of Ohafia and the third from the old Bende Division of Abia State (after the late Barrister E.K Uku of Arochukwu who was called to the Bar on September 14, 1949

and late Barrister Echeme Emole of Abiriba who was called on September 2nd 1952), to become a lawyer. Late Dr. Jaja Anucha Wachuku (who was called to the Bar on the 1st October 1947) was the first person of Abia State extraction to become a lawyer.

Called to the English Bar on February 11th 1954, and enrolled as Barrister and Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Nigeria on March 27th 1954, Hon. Justice Anyah shared illustrious company in his set.

Eminent dignitaries Notable and eminent dignitaries such as Chief Kehinde Sofola, SAN, and Margaret Thatcher, former British Prime Minister, (both deceased) were of his class.

Upon his return from England, he had a short stint in private practice as a legal practitioner. He found immense satisfaction in legal practice and this took him through the Southern Cameroons before his preferment to the lower Bench as the first Magistrate from the present Abia State.

After his appointment to the Magistracy, Justice Anyah rose steadily through the ranks and became the first lawyer of Abia State extraction to be appointed a Chief Magistrate. A short while later, he was entrusted with the office of Chief Registrar of the High Court of Eastern Nigeria. On the 15th of March 1966, he was elevated as judge of the High Court of Eastern Nigeria (vide Eastern Nigeria Gazette 1966 No. 36 Vol. 15 page 376, Eastern Nigeria Notice No. 525; Bench

He is one of eleven officers who opened the Police College, Ikeja in 1949 (which started as the Police Training School, Enugu)

and Bar in Nigeria by Gani Fawehinmi, page 78). Upon the creation of the defunct East Central State, he became a judge of the High Court of that state and was subsequently inherited by the High Court of Imo state when that state was created in 1976.

Happily, other Bende sons were to join him on the bench much later. To name but a few of these gentlemen: Abai Ogbonaya Ikwechegh was appointed a Judge of the High Court of East Central State on 3rd February, 1972 (vide Nigeria Official Gazette 1972 No. 6 Vol. 59 page 201, Government Notice No. 379; Bench and Bar in Nigeria by Gani Fawehinmi, pages 136, 137 and 89 respectively). Hon. Justice Anaga Kalu Uche, also deceased and of Ohafia extraction, cannot be easily forgotten. Several distinguished judges of Abia extraction have also joined the roll of honour.

Roll of honour A goldfish has no hiding place.

Consequently, Hon. Justice Kalu Anyah was later translated to the Court of Appeal in 1977 as a Justice of that Court. His distinguished career saw him catapulted later to far away Borno State as its first indigenous Chief Judge, on secondment from the Court of Appeal Bench. He later retired from his position as Chief Judge in 1985.

His retirement from judicial service did not afford him any respite from public service.

Consequently, he served as Chairman of the Governing Councils and Pro-Chancellor of the University of Benin, Benin City, Imo State University, Okigwe and Abia State University, Uturu.

While in judicial service, he acted as Chairman of several Tribunals of Inquiry. The most notable was the Investigative Tribunal into the late Fela Ransome-Kuti’s Kalakuta Republic. As the reader would clearly recall, the report of that Panel generated so much controversy that has not altogether abated.

Hon. Justice K. O Anyah recalled the sittings of the Panel with nostalgia and believed that the controversy was generated by those who never read or studied the report. At any rate, he believed that the life of most great men is dogged by controversies. Perhaps it was this belief that entangled him with politicians during his tenure as the Chief Judge of Borno State. An attempt to remove him unjustly from office by the Governor, acting in collusion with the House of Assembly was vigorously challenged through the courts culminating in an appeal

*Late Justice Anyah to the Court of Appeal, Kaduna.

The full court in a landmark decision held that the Chief Judge of a State could be removed under the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1979, by the Governor of the state on the address supported by two-thirds of the House of Assembly in respect of proved inability to discharge the functions of his appointment and established and proved misconduct or contravention of the Code of Conduct before the law courts and the Code of Conduct Tribunal respectively (see The Hon. Justice Kalu O. Anyah v. Hon. AttorneyGeneral of Borno State & Anor 1984 5 NCLR 225). His tenure as a judge is clearly borne out by his lucid judgments in the Law Reports particularly East Central State Law Reports and the law reports containing judgments of the Court of Appeal during his tenure.

Affairs of local community Up until he passed on, Hon. Justice Anyah was still actively involved in the affairs of his local community, Amaekpu, Ohafia, and was a member of the Abia State Council of Elders- a forum where elder statesmen analyse the policies of government and offer wise counsel. The Bende Forum and the Bende Consultative Assembly are organisations through which Justice Anyah was able to give service to the State and exercise his intellect. It is difficult to chronicle the track record of a man who returned to the country as a lawyer in 1954just about sixty years ago.

In recognition of his immense and rich contributions to his community, the state and the entire nation, Hon. Justice Kalu Anyah has been rewarded with several honours. For instance, he was the Okpezue of Ohafia and is recognised by the Abia State Government as ENYI ABIA- a title reserved for those eminent sons of Abia State who have dedicated their lives to unrelenting public service. Perhaps, it is fitting to note that Hon. Justice Anyah was the proud father of many successful children five of whom are lawyers in their own right- Mrs. Ngozi Afocha Ibe (nee Anyah) being on record as the first female lawyer

from Ohafia, Abia State. The rest, in order of seniority are Mrs Egoro Awa-Kalu (nee Anyah), Anyah Kalu-Anyah Esq., Nnenna U. Kalu-Anyah and Mrs. Nwaobiara Ugenyi-Kalu. His first daughter, Mrs. Grace Iruoha majored in the physical sciences while Nnoke Anya Esq is still holding his own in public service while his other daughter, Mrs. Odide Okoro, is a chartered accountant.

Chartered accountant His longevity, of course, rewarded him with the good fortune of seeing several grandchildren qualify in different fields including law, economics, politics, education and the sciences including architecture.

The great grandchildren are multiplying by the day and are showing signs of dominance in the near future. Surely, the preservation of his legacy is assured.

To cut a long story short, prior to his sojourn abroad to study law, Kalu Okpan Anyah joined the Police Force as a Constable in August, 1940 and served until 1951 when he left the shores of this country for further studies. He passed out as best all-round recruit from a squad of 56 and won the Best Stick. He is one of eleven officers who opened the Police College, Ikeja in 1949 (which started as the Police Training School, Enugu). He lectured in Criminal law, Evidence and Police Duties and was a contemporary of a proud son of Nigeria, Chief Etim Inyang, who ended his distinguished career in the Police Force as the Inspector-General of Police.

Hon. Justice Kalu O. Anyah (Rtd) as would be expected, is survived by several children, grand children and great grand children. His widow, Elder Mrs. Margaret Eke Anyah is a wellrespected octogenarian, a celebrated homemaker, church leader, community leader and a mentor of several generations of notable mothers. Hon. Justice K.O. Anyah’s departure is a huge loss to the Ohafia community, Abia State and the entire nation.

Certainly, he played his part and has left the stage. May his soul rest in perfect peace.

40 — Vanguard, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2014

Jonathan celebrates Africa’s most famous female dramatist, Tess Onwueme

By Japhet Alakam

R

ECENTLY, in far away America, one of Nigeria’s respected playwright, Prof Tess Onwueme, an eminent Professor of Global Letters at the University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire was honoured by her university. It was in celebration of the Archival Collection of Professor Tess Osonye Onwueme,The distinguished Professor of Cultural Diversity and English was honouredfor her contributions to the literary world. It was such a wonderful occasion that attracted many scholars and dignitaries, including His Excellency, President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, GCFR,who was represented by Molara Wood, (Special Assistant to the President on Documentation).

Prof. Onwueme is one of the most important playwrights the country hasproduced. Sheis,withoutdoubt, the most published and celebrated female playwright to emerge from the continent of Africa. Most of her plays include; ‘Tell It To Women’ and ‘What Mama Said’; ‘Then She Said It’ (a play) and ‘Riot In Heaven’ (drama for the voices of colour) and others.

At the well attended event, many speakers spoke glowingly about her, among them were; Dr. Sonja Darlington (Beloit College, Wisconsin), who delivered a paper on the work of Tess Onwueme. Dr Onyeka Iwuchukwu (National Open University of Nigeria), who spoke in commendation of Dr. Tess Onwueme. Berith Danse (Artistic Director, Theatre Embassy, The Netherlands), who also spoke in honourofDr.OnwuemeandJames C. Schmidt, Chancellor, University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire who delivered remarks on why the university was honouring the Playwright and her works.

In his remarks, President

Jonathan who brought greetings on behalf of himself and the good people of the Federal Republic of Nigeria commended the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire on the occasion of the celebration of hosting of the Archival Collection in honour of Professor Tess Onwueme who is unarguably Africa’s most famous female dramatist.

According to him,”The letter informing me about this event from the Chancellor and Foundation offices of the university, eloquently describes Prof Onwueme as “a national icon that Nigeria and the UnitedStatessharewiththeworld”.

Thatdescriptionsuccinctlycaptures the essence of the great woman of letters and internationally acclaimed scholar and poet who earned her place in the globe writing plays with themes of social justice, culture and the environment. She belongs to the distinguished community of conscience for whom art is not for its own sake but rather for the sake of life. In her various literary exploits she has used her art to give loud voices to

The honour is befitting, very few playwrights are candidates for the canon with their very first works

Oba Akiolu harps on proper documentation of cultural values

By Japhet Alakam

P

ROPER documentation of old cultural values, artifacts and art works are very important in the preservation of our culture and tradition as this goes a long way in familiarizing the generations yet unborn with the history of the African continent’.This was the submission of the Oba of Lagos, Oba Rilwan Akiolu, when the Management team of the Centre for Black and African Arts and Civilization (CBAAC) paid him a courtesy visit to his Palace recently.

The traditional ruler who as-

sumed office in 2003, in his remarks noted that the African tradition especially the Yoruba culture is a very rich and interesting one. While citing examples of different cultural beliefs, he promised to put in all necessary efforts in propagating it to the rest of the world. He opined that although he was born a muslim, he has a 100% belief in the traditional customs and values as the sustainability of what is left of the African world after the white man’s invasion can only be found in our culture.

He further acknowledged the fact that it was needful for Afri-

A scene from Tess Onwueme's play, The Reign of Wazobia performed at the event. PHOTOS:

Courtesy University of Wisconsin Eua Claire

traditionally silenced views such as African Women, life in Africa, the youth and the global poor.

“This special recognition by the university where she has distinguished herself as a Professor of Cultural Diversity and English is the icing on the cake on her too numerousrecognitionsandawards over the years." He congratulated Prof Onwueme and encouraged her to continue to churn out more andmoreliteraryoutputstoreshape the world which is in dire need of pedagogy from nurturers of global civilization in her mould.

He wished that this great icon will continue to serve as a figure of expression of the great bond between Nigeria and the United States of America, adding that “the people of Nigeria are proud of her and her accomplishments, just as we cherish the monument Wisconsin University has erected in her honour.”

He stated that “the Honour is befitting. Very few playwrights are candidates for the canon with their very first works. Prof. Tess Osonye Onwueme is one of those rare few.

Fromthebeginning,herworkstood out with a striking poise; and three decades of prolific literary production have only confirmed, with copious proof, her original promise.”

Prof. Onwueme’s career is characterised by a trajectory of consistency, range, beauty and energy.

She has engaged the environment

in every sense of the word. She has explored gender relations, and has created a fresh paradigm for performance aesthetics. Her works have also helped revive a dimension of that unity of conception and performance that the world is in danger of forgetting.

Having emerged as one of the most vibrant voices of the radical theatre tradition in the Nigeria of the 1980s, Onwueme went on to become a leading voice of politically committed drama in our country. She was one of the ‘Cock Crow Voices’ in what is now known as the ‘Alternative’ tradition of Nigerian letters during our Second Republic, fearless artists that engaged in the daring quest for a better Nigeria.

Through the fierce beauty and commitmentofherwork,Onwueme

has stood against all forms of oppression,includinggenderdiscrimination and environmental exploitation in the Niger Delta.

According to Prof. G. G. Darah, Prof. Onwueme “challenged the orthodoxies of drama by women writers... she took on the issues of women victims of exploitation in the oil industry and attendant environmental crisis... Many of her female protagonists are activists who resist marginalisation and gender stereotype.”

Dr. Onwueme’s works have become canonical and we in Nigeria are proud of her achievements. Her energy remains a source of inspiration to generations of young men and women at home and now, evidently, in the rest of the world. Her commitment to her art has also inspired a new dimension of respect

Tess Onwueme'(middle) show the dancers how best to do it

for their countries, the needful for us as Africans is to reinvent our lost values and emOba Rilwan Akiolu(sitting ) flanked by members b r a c e them of the CBAAC team and members of his cabinet again,” cans to move forward and see the he noted. In response, the Dipast as gone. “Often times, I had rector-General of CBAAC, reasons to argue with some forFerdinand Anikwe thanked the eign expatriates on how they revered monarch for his insighthave influenced our cultural valful comments and observations. ues especially among the He said the visit was essential younger generation. Now that as the Oba’s assistance, blessmost of these expatriates have left ings and co-operation is highly

important in order to help project African cultural values to the outside world, which is one of CBAAC’s mandate. He reiterated the fact that for CBAAC to succeed excellently, the Oba and his council’s collaboration and partnership would make a significant impact and as CBAAC is a stakeholder in the Cultural sector, an affiliation with the traditional ruler would go a long way in helping the Centre achieve laid down goals and ambitions.

The Oba pledged his unflinching support for the Centre and promised to attend any of the Centre’s functions, if invited.

CBAAC Directors present at the visit included: Mrs. Funmi Ladele, Dr. Tony Onwumah, Dr. Mrs. Chuma-Ibe, and Mrs. Osaro Osayande.

Vanguard, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2014 — 41

C M Y K

42—Vanguard, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2014

•President Goodluck Jonathan and Vice-President, Namadi Sambo

After Jonathan’s declaration:

Next dicey steps PRESIDENT Goodluck Jonathan’s declaration for a second term took place in an ambience of amity and acclamations of his achievements. The next stages would be raucous.

By Henry Umoru, Assistant Political Editor

A

BUJA, the nation’s Capital City literarily stood still on Tuesday as supporters of President Goodluck Jonathan’s second term aspiration stormed the town to witness his formal declaration for the 2015 Presidential election.

Present were politicians, stakeholders, chieftains of the president’s ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, businessmen and women, diplomats, footballers, students among others.

Not surprisingly, the occasion at the Eagle Square led to traffic gridlock and residents of the FCT had no choice than to endure a harrowing day with long hours wasted in the traffic. All the roads to Eagle Square were barricaded by heavily armed security men.

Only the top dignitaries were allowed to near the square in their vehicles and only a lesser still were driven into the square.

Indeed, there was a massive security lockdown with roads within a five kilometre radius of the Eagle’s Square closed to vehicular traffic with the spill over effect felt as far away as the Airport Road and other major highways leading into the city.

Many residents could not get to

work or their places of business for most of the day as people trekked long distances to their destinations.

Workers in Abuja living in the eastern flank of the capital city and adjoining Nasarawa State neither did those from the western flank and the adjoining Niger State. Though the Federal government did not declare the day a public holiday, it was practically so for federal workers as the event paralysed economic activities and government businesses, even as civil servants at the Federal Secretariat, Bullet House, Federal Capital Development Authority, FCDA, among others took a holiday.

Some commuters however expressed frustration and counted their loses as a result of the declaration.

Besides the president and his wife, Vice-President Namadi Sambo was there with his wife at the event which had the majority of the PDP caucus in the National Assembly, and top officials of the ruling party, governors among others.

Conspicuous but not surprisingly absent was President Olusegun Obasanjo, undoubtedly, President Jonathan’s political godfather who by several accounts is not supportive of the president’s

second term ambition.

Governorship and senatorial aspirants on the platform of the party used the opportunity to advertise their aspirations. The aspirants danced round the venue with supporters carrying their banners and posters, just as hawkers of various commodities, drummers, market women, NonGovernmental Organisations, NGOs, praise singers were equally not left out.

A Zamfara State Governorship aspirant, Sagir Hamidu; Yobe State Aspirant, Waziri Maina; Abdallah Wali of Sokoto State;

Conspicuous but not surprisingly absent was President Olusegun Obasanjo, undoubtedly, President Jonathan’s political godfather who by several accounts is not supportive of the president’s second term ambition

Ramallan Yero of Kaduna State; Nyesom Wike of Rivers; Tony Obuh, Prof. Sylvester Monye; Victor Ochei; Senator Ifeanyi Okonwa; all from Delta; Murktar Shagari for Sokoto State, Uche Ogar for Abia State; Engr. Musa Nashuni for Katsina State; Roseline Chenge fir Benue State, were among those who stole the show.

Security presence The Senator representing Anambra South and Chairman, Senate Committee on INEC, Senator Andy Uba had a canopy to himself with his supporters, even as the Senator representing the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Senator Philip Aduda were also conspicuous in their outing.

While many people were inside, some of the supporters who came from the states could not enter because of the security presence, leaving them to hang outside. Hawkers, beggars, praise singers were also not left out as they took advantage of the event to make quick money. The Shehu Shagari Way was turned to a market with wares of different kinds raging from caps, shirts, and others being sold.

Different groups like Transformation Ambassadors of Nigeria, TAN; Diplomatic Youth Movement Nigeria; Women for change and Development initiative; Team Goodluck, Market women Association led

by Madam Felicia Sani; South South Peoples Initiative; south East Women Diamond Star; Nigeria Muslim Women for Jonathan/Sambo 2015, among others were on ground.

PDP will be making history with Jonathan because no one would

be contesting with him for the PDP ticket after two rivals were shoved aside by the party hierarchy.

Before the President spoke, Vice President Namadi Sambo who introduced him had described President Jonathan as a blessing to Nigeria and said that with him, Nigeria has witnessed tremendous transformation.

In his remarks, Chairman of the PDP Governors’ Forum and governor of Akwa Ibom State, Godswill Akpabio, who spoke on behalf of other governors elected on the platform of the party, said all the PDP governors resolved not to contest against Jonathan because of the achievements recorded in the last four years, adding that with the achievements recorded in the first term of Jonathan’s administration, the PDP would capture about 30 states in 2015.

Transformation agenda Akpabio who commended the transformation agenda of the administration in the area of power, agriculture, rail, housing and the economy, boasted that victory was assured for Jonathan and the PDP in the 2015 election.

Senate President, Senator David Mark, who spoke on behalf of PDP members of the National Assembly, said Jonathan has proved to be a trusted leader, adding, “You have proved to be a leader that can be trusted; you have been a great inspiration to youths and a reliable leader. We support you and you have laid solid foundation for the development of the country,” Mark said.

Vanguard, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2014—43

PVC: Disturbing tales dim expectations of credible polls The current controversy over the distribution of Permanent Voter’s Card, PVC, by the Independent Electoral Commission, INEC, has for the umpteenth time, thrown up fears about the commission’s capability at rewriting Nigeria’s history of flawed elections.

By Charles Kumolu

I

NDEED, the apprehension is so terrible that the little sympathy the commission had garnered among Nigerians, is beginning to wane.

Though it does not come surprising to anyone, considering the country ’s history of having electoral umpires that most times come short of its statutory expectations.

A quick flashback to the era of defunct Federal Electoral C o m m i s s i o n , F E D E C O, National Electoral Commission,NEC, and National Electoral Commission of Nigeria, NECON, provides a reminder of how electoral commissions had aided the creation of a ill-chequered electoral process in Nigeria.

Notwithstanding, the pledges in 2011 of an improved register were such that the electorates had no option than to accept them with a pinch of salt.

History of flawed elections The commission had planned to replace the temporary cards with the new permanent cards.

In that direction, 73 million prospective voters were targeted.

Since the project promises to redress most electoral bottlenecks that had worked against having a credible exercise, the INEC Technical Committee consequently approved the printing of 40 million cards for the first phase.

The commission explained it would cost about N2.6 billion.

It was supposed to be ready before December 2012. But the plan was not realised due to administrative bottlenecks-an occurrence many have described as familiar justification for failure.

In a manner that did not prove pundits wrong, attempts at commencing the first phase of the exercise were unimpressive leading to more fears across the land.

Accordingly, the exercise took

place in the states of Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Enugu, Abia, Benue, Kogi, Zamfara, Kebbi, Taraba and Gombe.

The second phase began in 11 states on Friday, August 15 and ended on Sunday, August 17. The states are Bauchi, Yobe, Jigawa, Sokoto, FCT, Kwara, Ebonyi and Anambra, Ondo, Oyo, Delta and Cross River.

INEC may not complete distribution of PVC The outcome of the second exercise was not different from the one that preceded it, leading to criticisms over the manner the commission is handling the exercise.

Sadly, the known pattern the challenges had assumed, has created the impression that the exercise is likely to compound the nation’s electoral woes.

Consider this: Many people could not find their names in the voters’ register. Some had

Against the backdrop of this trend, many are in doubt that using the PVC for the 2015 elections might disenfranchise would-be-voters

•Jega to travel long distances to their polling units and yet could not get the card. Some who found their names in the register had the problem of their PVC not being available.

Against the backdrop of this trend, many are in doubt that using the PVC for the 2015 elections might disenfranchise would-be-voters.

Hence, there are fears that INEC may not complete the distribution of the cards before the elections, despite the current extension of the exercise.

The anxiety over the matter cuts across party lines, confirming arguments that INEC has so far, performed an unimpressive job.

There is confidence deficit in INEC –Bugaje Commenting on the issue, a former Secretary of the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, Dr. Usman Bugaje, said: ‘’I am just worried. They have not come to my state. They postponed it.

What is playing out has shown that INEC has not been too independent as it should be.

What is happening shows that the commission has confidence deficit. They have to work hard and improve because people don’t trust them. It is important that they improve.’’

INEC must do the needful – Ikokwu Also speaking a former Peoples Democratic Party,PDP, Chairman in Anambra State, Chief Guy Ikokwu, urged the INEC to do needful and ensure that any Nigerian that is 18 years and above is not disenfranchised.

It should be made a daily exercise –Esele On his part, Esele said: ‘’I think no system is perfect.

INEC is trying to make things

better. What they are doing will make us know the actual number of voters at the end of the day. I believe INEC is also doing what they are doing to minimise rigging. If that is achieved, it will be good for our democracy that is developing.

There is no perfect system, that is why they keep on improving.

Where I have grouse with the process, is the number of days approved for it. That has not resulted into good results. For instance, the Lagos State government had to declare a public holiday to enable Lagosians participate. That leads to loss of manpower. I will suggest they make it a daily thing so that Nigerians can do it at their convenient time without challenges.’’

INEC should do more publicity – Adebanjo To Adebanjo, who has collected his PVC, “I think the problem with INEC is that they don’t seems to do enough publicity. Several people were not aware of the development and I learnt there were several complaints all over Lagos.

Electoral commission I think the INEC needs to educate Nigerians more on this process.’’

Similarly, Senator Gbenga Ashafa (APC, Lagos East), the challenges showed that the electoral commission was never ready for the exercise, saying: “I want to use this medium to appeal to INEC to wake up to their constitutional responsibilities for the betterment of all citizens by making sure that nobody is disenfranchised for lack of PVCs in 2015 general elections.”

With this deluge of

condemnations, appearing like a vote of no confidence on INEC, the commission in its usual defensive manner dismissed fears that its handling of the third phase of PVC distribution is shoddy.

It denied conspiring with any group and assured the public of its commitment towards ensuring that registered voter get the prized card.

Mr. Kayode Idowu, Chief Press Secretary to the chairman of INEC, Prof. Attahiru Jega, who spoke in defence of the commission, said contrary to allegations in some quarters, no duly registered person has been delisted from the register of voters, neither will any be denied their PVC. He said, “In particular, it is completely false that INEC has removed the records of 1.4 million persons from the Register of Voters compiled in 2011 in Lagos State. It is true that at the end of the 2011 general registration exercise, the commission announced a figure of 6.2 million registrants in the state. But when that data was subjected to the Automated Fingerprints Identification System software, 82,892 multiple registrations were eliminated.

“Also, there was the technical challenge of loss of data and incomplete data affecting about one million records – mostly in 1,792 polling units that were identified and made public before the present exercise.

That was why and how the Post-Business Rule figure for Lagos State on the basis of which PVCs were printed came down to about 4.6 million registrants.”

In spite of Idowu’s assurance it is doubtful if the current hitches would not hamper the conduct of the 2015 elections.

44—Vanguard, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2014

PDP WARD CONGRESSES:

The playing field in Abia was level — Okpara Commissioner for Special Services, Legal Matters and Due Process, Office of the governor of Abia State, Mr. James Okpara in this interview deflated claims that the recently conducted ward congresses in the state was not credible. He also spoke on other issues. Excerpts:

By Charles Kumolu

T

HE fallout of the recently held ward congresses, has continued to generate mixed feelings. What is your position on it as someone, who participated actively in it?

We have to understand that Congress is entirely the business of the party. The party through the State Chairman has given an account of how the congress was held in Abia State and stated that it was free/ fair and peaceful. The party’s national headquarters sent a body to conduct the congress in Abia and their report to the best of my knowledge is that it was free and fair. They say that pictures do not lie and video recordings showed party members engaged in the process of electing the delegates.

It is therefore the height of dishonesty and falsehood for anybody to state that no congress was held in Abia. The public should also know that this was the same way that the delegates for 2011 election were elected.

The process that led to 2011 election was repeated this year.The senators who were the beneficiaries of the 2011 process acclaimed it as free and fair. Now that they think that their delegates will not be elected delegates for 2015 election, they are now crying imposition and unfairness.

Is there any aspirant that does not have a list of persons he would want elected to specific posts for given tasks?

Specific posts Even in Student Union election,there are interest groups with their list of candidates.

In Labour Union elections and indeed in any electoral contest, every contestant or group will have their list of persons to be elected- Is there any aspirant that did not buy Delegate Forms for their own supporters? Is there any aspirant that did not spend money to ensure that ‘his own delegates were elected?

There is a governorship aspirant who deals in oil and gas who has been distributing dollars and vehicles to make him become the PDP governorship candidate. He has also been busy distributing thousands of dollars and brand new vehicles to party official outside Abia State. Those criticizing the Congress are pure hypocrites and disconnected from Abians. Why is it that a process is declared free and fair when it favours some people?

When they lose out, it becomes undemocratic and an imposition?

But some have expressed fears over the likelihood of imposition of candidates on the party?

Okpara It is only somebody who is delusional that will be talking about imposition of candidates in Abia State. Was anybody prevented from buying forms and campaigning in Abia State? The fact is that those representing us at the National Assembly have not done well. Abians want change.

For the banker and the oil and gas magnate, they are not on ground and they do not have experience in public service or governance. That you throw dollars to people in Abuja will not make you Governor of Abia State. Abia State governorship is not for the highest spender. It is not for sale. You cannot become Governor by changing your place of origin.

The pertinent question to be asked is that all the time that Ochendo has been extremely loyal and supportive of the President and the party, where were these people? The banker’s classmate and soul mate is a former PDP governor who defected to APC. If he becomes governor today, first thing he will do after swearingin will be to join his soul mate in the APC. How true is it that the governor and his son are allegedly working towards imposing Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu on the PDP? It is a blatant lie, PDP is in the process of electing candidates for various posts and as at today there are about 11 governorship aspirants in Abia PDP. Neither the Governor nor his son imposed Dr Ikpeazu.

But are you saying that the Governor and his son are precluded from having their own choice? Should the Governor not be interested in who succeeds him? The truth is that Abia State will be very lucky if Dr Ikpeazu succeeds Ochendo. Dr Ikpeazu is well read, humble, honest, competent, humane and God fearing.

Vanguard, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2014—45

Warri South business people back Edema for re-election

B

USINESSMEN and women, on the auspices of All Main Markets Political Forum, yesterday tasked the people of Warri South Local Government Area on the need to support the administration of Mr. Matthew Edema, Chairman of the local government.

Chairman of the Forum, Chief Dickson Odjo, in a statement in Warri, Delta State, appealed to the people for maximum support and cooperation, saying it will help bring dividends of democracy to the area.

He said re-election will ensure that Edema consolidated on the giant strides recorded during his first term in office and spur him to do more for the people.

Automatic ticket for PDP senators risky, says former S'South scribe

By Gabriel Enogholase

B

ENIN— FORMER South-South Secretary of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Chief Joe Edionwele, yesterday, said the decision

by Presidency to give automatic tickets to serving senators in the National Assembly would not stand the test of time.

He contended that giving the senators automatic tickets would create infighting and

division within the party, which might affect PDP in the 2015 elections.

He said: “It will not stand the test of time because it is the will of the people that will prevail.

It is the electorate that will decide who will go back the National Assembly. It is going to be based on your performance and not by arrangement with anybody.

“If the President was going to do such a thing, he would have done it in consultations

with the elders of the party in their various constituencies. As long as that did not take place, I do not think it will stand the test of time and nobody is going to accept it.

“If at all it took place, I can tell you that nobody is going to accept that because, at the end of the day, you also have to win election. So we must take our best, the first eleven, to contest; people that have character and honour.”

ANNIVERSARY: From left— Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, former Vice President; Maj.-

PAPDAN organises phone expo

T

HE Phone and Allied Products Dealers Association, PAPDAN, said it has plans to showcase the best of mobile innovation at the Phone Expo Nigeria 2014/ PEN 2014, next month in Lagos.

Chairman, PAPDAN, Mr. Iyke Nwosu, announced in Lagos that the trade group of phone dealers in the country would leverage PEN 2014 to bring the best in mobile handsets, devices and technologies “under one roof for the benefits of Nigerian consumers.”

Organiser of the expo, Technology Times Events, said it will take place at the University of Lagos, and that it would feature exhibitions of latest mobile technologies and co-locate unique events at the annual gathering of the mobile ecosystem.

Nwosu said the event will bring members and consumers together.

Gen Mohammadu Buhari (retd), former Head of State; Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State and his Deputy, Dr. Pius Odubu, at the celebration of Governor Oshiomhole's 6th anniversary in Benin, yesterday.

Delta governorship aspirant harps on human devt

By Gbenga Oke

P

EOPLES Democratic Party, PDP, governorship aspirant in Delta State, Mr. Peter Okocha, has said the focus of his administration, if elected, will be to radically eliminate unemployment and accelerate the rate of human development.

He also said he will, as a matter of urgency, build a minimum of nine industries in each of the three senatorial zones, adding that his administration would support small and medium scale businesses to ensure unemployment was eradicated in the state.

He said: “We are going to encourage creativity and entrepreneurial activities by individuals and groups to cushion the menace of unemployment and underemployment, knowing that small and medium scale businesses provide the shock absorber for an industrializing and developing economy.

Itsekiri Eta holds anniversary

U

GBARAJO Omuge Iwere, Lagos, Omuge Owunre Yuge Itsekiri Etan, will hold its 20th anniversary, launching of calendar, and award C M Y K

ceremony next Saturday.

The event, which will hold at LA Primary School, AgoHausa, Ajegunle, by 1p.m., will have Mr. Rexon Golly as Chairman.

“Employment generation and state investment shall receive profound interest during my tenure and we shall directly, or in collaboration with the private

sector, provide an enabling environment for investment in high impact job creation initiatives, particularly through agriculture.”

... as LP youth leader backs UPU's stand on election

N

ATIONAL Youth Leader of Labour Party, LP, Mr. Andrew Ukpebitre, has said Urhobo Progress Union, UPU, must be commended on the agitation for the Urhobo to produce the next governor of Delta State.

Ukpebitre also said, contrary to insinuations, there was no alliance between LP and

Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, at the national level.

He said: “Urhobo have 65 percent of the voting strength of Delta State. So UPU has the right to defend and protect Urhobo votes, just as Arewa can protect and defend the voting right of Hausa; Ohanaeze Ndigbo, for Ibo and Afenifere for the Yoruba.”

S'South farmers assured of FG loan

T

HE South-South Apex Farmers Association, SSAFA, has assured members of access to Federal Government’s loan granted farmers and small scale industrialists in the country.

Chairman of SSAFA, Mr. Josiah Okunbor, who is also the Chairman of Delta State Agricultural Co-operative Council, gave the assurance at the meeting of the association at Boji Boji, Owa in Ika NorthEast Local Government Area of Delta State.

He told the farmers that their coming together as a body was to foster the relationship that would create the enabling environment, encourage the federal, state and the local governments to partner and champion the cause of farmers in the South-South geo-political zone.

He advocated a minimum of N3 billion agricultural budgets for farmers’ agricultural loan/grant in each state, beginning from the 2015 budget.

Ovesuor outlines plan for Isoko Fed constituency

M

R. Elias Ovesuor, an aspirant for Isoko federal constituency seat in the House of Representatives, has promised to check the influence of incumbency, tenure elongation phobia and lack of commensurate infrastructure development in Isokoland, if elected.

He made the promise while submitting his expression of interest and nomination forms at the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, national secretariat, Abuja.

He assured that if elected, he would ensure t r a n s p a r e n t representation through equitable distribution of constituency projects throughout Isoko land.

NDU commends DSIEC on Ndokwa East election

By Ediri Ejoh

T

HE Ndosimili Development Union, NDU, has commended Delta State Independent Electoral Commission, DSIEC, for the cancellation of the October 25 election in Ndokwa East Local Government Area of the state.

The group called on the commission to ensure that there was no repeat of the alleged malpractices in the re-run election expected to hold later this month.

In statement by the President, Capt. F. A. Adone and the Secretary, Chris Uzoalu, respectively, the union said: “After a careful study of the process, we noticed that politicians of Ndokwa East did not exhibit maturity during the elections.

“They failed to control their followers for a peaceful and fraud-free election. The leadership of NDU further express dismay over reported cases that in entire Ndokwa East, electoral materials did not get to the communities.”

46 — Vanguard, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2014

Abia REC worries over non-collection of PVC by voters

ASUU denies receiving money from FG

N200BN VARSITY FUNDING: Vincent Ujumadu WKA—THE Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, said yesterday that no government– owned university had received funding from the N200 billion earmarked for revitalizing the university education in 2014, one year after it reached an agreement with the federal government on the matter.

Chairman of Nnamdi Azikiwe University branch of ASUU, Dennis Aribidor, who spoke in Awka, as part of activities marking the one anniversary of the killing of former ASUU president, Professor Festus Iyayi, by the convoy of Kogi State governor, Captain Idris Wada, said the conditions that led to the strike were still there in the universities.

Aribodor expressed worry that tension was again mounting among the unions in the institutions, regretting also that no university had received money to pay arrears of earned allowances owed staff from 2009 to 2013, as agreed with government, apart from the 30 per cent released during the ASUU strike.

A

Anayo Okoli MUAHIA—ABIA State Resident Electoral Commissioner, Professor Jacob Jatau, yesterday decried the level of apathy by electorate towards the collection of the Permanent Voters Card, PVC, for the 2015 elections, saying it had become a source of serious concern to the commission.

According to Jatau, the commission has recorded less than 50 per cent of collection in the exercise which commenced six months ago, noting that the state was among the first 12 pilot states for collection of PVC. He expressed the fear that if the apathy persisted, it would lead to disenfrichisement of many electorate during the 2015 elections.

“Six months after and only three months before the general elections, sixty per cent of the Abia electorate are yet to collect their PVCs," he said.

U

2015 DTHA: Union

leaders endorse

Oharisi

U

GHELLI—THE Delta State Chairman of the National Union of Road Transport Workers, NURTW, Comrade Ifeanyi Obi, and the Ughelli branch A Chairman, Comrade Uteme Batere, have endorsed Ughelli kingdom monarch’s younger brother, Prince Eric Oharisi’s ambition to run for Ughelli North constituency 11, inDelta State House of Assembly.

Obi said the union endorsed

I

sympathize with the parents of those that lost their child in that bomb blast. Again, l would say that Governor Gaidam is not improving on security intelligence.

The President’s fault is that he allowed partial emergency rule. Mr Emmanuel Dike- Self Employed

Prince Oharisi, who is the state deputy chairman of the union because he served the union well and had decided to move ahead to contest for the state's House of Assembly seat.

While calling for support for one of their own, Obi explained that Prince Oharisi had paid his dues in the union and had also worked for the party at the ward and local government levels where he is contesting and urged all to give him their maximum support.

Noting that it would appear that what Iyayi was fighting for before his life was cut short was in vain, the ASUU chairman observed that the most fundamental problem bedeviling the educational system in Nigeria was that emphasis was placed on self enrichment and individual aggrandizement, instead of

emphasizing knowledge acquisition geared towards public good and national development.

He said: “Nigerian educational system is characterized by chronic underfunding, bad leadership, infrastructural decay, poor conditions of learning and service,

promotion of mediocrity, shortage of personnel and entrenchment of orthodoxy, parochialism and chauvinism.”

He insisted that ASUU would continue to reject what he called 'the ongoing systematic privatization of education and selling off of public educational institutions.’"

Awka traders protest alleged extortion, intimidation by Police Vincent Ujumadu WKA—HUNDREDS of aggrieved traders in Awka, the Anambra State capital, yesterday stormed the state police command headquarters, protesting alleged extortion and intimidation of their members and customers by policemen from the command.

The traders, mainly business operators along the popular Zik’s Avenue in the town, accused the police of

A

constantly harassing them and deflating tyres of vehicles of their customers who parked along the road to patronize them.

They lamented these incessant extortions, harassment and intimidation had badly affected their businesses.

Spokesman of the traders, Chief Vincent Okoro, said the activities of the police had led to the collapse of

many business outfits in the area, appealing to the state police commissioner, Mr. Hosea Karma, to wade into the matter immediately.

Okoro said: “They see no reason for the police to be harassing them because they pay their taxes and other levies, including that for business premises, business permit, sanitation levies, among others, amounting to about N6,500 annually by each trader.”

BOKO HARAM: Rise to your responsibilities,

PENGASSAN tells FG, military Kelechi Azubuike AGOS—PETROLEUM and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria, PENGASSAN, yesterday, called on the Federal Government and the military to rise to their responsibilities and end insurgency and wanton destruction of lives and properties in the country.

In a statement, PENGASSAN decried the level of insecurity, especially the killings by the Boko Haram insurgents in the North Eastern part of the country

L

and called on President Goodluck Jonathan to step up the political will to deal with the crisis.

Condemning the blast that killed 47 school children and injured 79 others in Potiskum, Yobe State on Tuesday, PENGASSAN President, Francis Johnson, said the government should use all the powers to deal with the situation and ensure that Nigeria was a safe place to live.

According to him, “attacks on the Northern part of the

country and killings of innocent Nigerians have been on the increase and taken a new dimension since the government announced the controversial ceasefire pact with the Boko Haram.”

While calling on government to bring full force to bear in containing the activities of the sect, Johnson, who described the killings of the school children as barbaric, lamented that since the insurgency started in 2009, many Nigerians had been killed, while many more were rendered homeless and turned refugees in their own country.

On suicide bombing of 50 students in Yobe

W

ickedness does not win any battle, it is our past misgovernance.

GEJ, since he came, has determined to right the wrongs but are the past politicians and leaders of thought determined to put things right? Mr. Uche AnyambubaStudent

I

t is high-time the government put a stop to this mess. Let us pray and do good work, the work of making our positions an instrument to put smiles and reduce stress and poverty. God bless Nigeria! It is well.

Mr Chukwu LinusWorker

G

od almighty is our only security, let us have faith in Him. It is not for us to have faith on man because God appoints the leaders. We should continue to pray for Nigeria, not the political party. Mr Francis OnilogboaWorker

O

n whose shoulder rest this responsibility of the childrens protection?

That the students are not checked in to the school in a manner to dictate such dangerous objects is another error. Miss Constance AnwulikaGraduate

T

he unthinking massacre of innocent school children qualifies as the most barbaric display of humanoid degeneracy. People who commit these grotesque acts of destructive exuberance are simply deranged.

Mr Darlington EhondorCommenter

Vanguard, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2014 — 47

Voter's cards registration start with hitches in Plateau

By Marie-Therese Nanlong

J

OS—THE continuous voters cards’ registration by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC , started in Plateau State yesterday with hitches.

This came as the state government decried the conduct of the recently-concluded distribution of Permanent Voter Cards, PVC, in the state.

The exercise was frustrating in many polling units visited in Jos North and Jos South as INEC officials did not show till noon.

In some centres, it took as late as 2:00pm for INEC officials to appear, even when prospective electorate came out as early as 7am.

The shoddy arrangements were compounded when many of the laptop computers’ batteries ran down, even before the exercise started.

Reacting to the development, the state government in a statement issued by the Director of Press and Public Affairs, Mr. James Mannok, said it was a disappointment and a calculated plan to disenfranchise the people of the state., He said: “We observe the high number of what the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC term zero units across the state. We equally note that there are certain areas with cases of alleged crashed computer whereas polling units adjacent to such places do not have issues.

“This is no doubt suspicious but we do not want to give it any meaning. Of note is the fact that one of such units is Governor Jonah David Jang’s in which the electorates there did not get their PVCs.''

Vanguard's driver escapes death as mob burns circulation bus in Makurdi

By Peter Duru

M

AKURDI—THE driver a of a Toyota bus conveying copies of Vanguard newspapers to Makurdi, Mr. Goddy Ozuagbelu, Tuesday morning, narrowly escaped being killed by a mob who burnt a bus-load of copies of Vanguard newspapers at the Welfare Quaters Area of Makurdi town.

Ozuagbelu was conveying copies of the newspapers from Asaba to Makurdi when at about 7:45 am, he ran into three pupils, while on their way to school.

The accident, which left the children in serious but stable condition, attracted angry youths in the area who set the vehicle and its content ablaze.

Vanguard gathered from an

eyewitness that it took the spirited effort of the Police to rescue the driver of the vehicle from the mob who had wanted to burn him with the ill fated bus.

The eye witness said “The driver and his assistant would have been burnt with the vehicle if not for the Police, who gave them cover and also assisted in ensuring that the children were rushed to the hospital.”

At the time of this report, the driver was still in the protective custody of the “E Division” of the state Police command while the accident victims were receiving medical attention at a private hospital in Makurdi.

When contacted, the Police Public Relations Officer, PPRO, Daniel Ezeala said the command was investigating the matter.

Microsoft unveils Lumia 535 series

By Emeka Aginam

M

ICROSOFT devices Tuesday announced the introduction of its latest flagships, Lumia 535 and Lumia 535 dual SIM smart phones running the latest Windows Phone 8.1 operating system.

The smart devices, according to Microsoft, would start rolling out to key markets this November, and would be available in bright green, bright orange, white, dark grey, cyan and black.

Bringing the latest Microsoft experiences to an affordable price levels, the products has price tag of about 110 euros before taxes depending on the market.

“Lumia 535 comes with our “5x5x5” proposition,” Jo Harlow, Corporate Vice President for Phones at Microsoft, said.

C M Y K

According to him, “Innovation should be available to everyone, and we are doing this through the very best integrated Microsoft services free and out-of-the-box, a 5 MP wide-angle front-facing camera and a spacious 5-inch, qHD screen, at an affordable price.”

The device features five free integrated Microsoft experiences with spacious 5-inch display and a 5 MP front facing camera, The new products has the capacity to make memorable Skype video calls and seamlessly switch between voice and video with built-in Skype integration.

It also allows users to access, edit and share Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents and OneNote notebooks wherever you are, with the pre-installed Office suite.

LUNCHEON: From left; Mr Udeme Ufot, Group Managing Director, SO & U Group; Mrs Dorothy Ufot, SAN; Ben Akabueze, Commissioner for Budget and Planning, Lagos State with Chidi Duru, Chairman/President, Lagos Business School Alumni, Northern Zone and Kunle Akinkugbe, CEP 17 at the Lagos Business School Alumni Association Govering Council luncheon in honour of Mr Udeme Ufot on his recent conferment of a national honour held in Lagos. Photo by Akeem Salau.

ASUU, NLC sue Kogi govt over Prof Iyayi's death

By Johnbosco Agbakwuru

A

BUJA—ACADEMIC Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, in collaboration with the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, have instituted a case of murder against Kogi State government over the death of labour activist, Prof. Festus Iyayi.

Prof. Iyayi was killed last year on his way to resolve the prolonged ASUU strike by the convoy of Kogi State governor, Idris Wada.

National President of ASUU, Dr. Nasir Isa, in a commemorative media briefing at the Labour

House, Abuja yesterday, decried the reckless use of convoy by government officials which he said was an extension of impunity in the polity.

The ASUU President, who was represented by the Deputy President of the union, Prof.

Biodun Ogunyemi, hinted that there were plans to approach the authorities on the possibility of coming up with a legislation to reduce the reckless being exhibited by government convoys that often resulted in the death of innocent Nigerians.

He said ASUU was exploring all possible means, including the

Diaspora group hails Jonathan's re-election bid

By Marie-Therese Nanlong

J

OS—NIGERIANS in diaspora have said the declaration of President Goodluck Jonathan to contest for a second term in office in the 2015 elections was a fulfillment of the yearning of Nigerians at home and abroad.

In a statement issued in Jos yesterday, Coordinator of Goodluck4Nigerians Movement, an association of supporters of the President in Diaspora, Mr. Charles Sylvester, said the action would enable President Jonathan continue with his transformation agenda.

Sylvester added Nigerians in Diaspora were proud of the achievements of the present administration under Jonathan and called on Nigerians not only to support him, but also ensure he succeeded.

“Nigerians in Diaspora salute the courage and resoluteness of the President to declare his intention to run for the presidency again. We also salute him for heeding the

calls of Nigerians both at home and abroad and across all spectrum to contest.

“It is the hallmark of statesmanship and on our part, we pledge our loyalty and commitment to the President’s transformation agenda and will to continue to project the country in positive light in our dealings with the countries where we live and transact businesses,” he said.

judiciary, to ensure impunity was reduced in the polity.

He also described the late Prof.

Iyayi as a labour activist that made conscious efforts to live his life on the side of the oppressed and exploited.

Isa said labour leaders would continue to battle the establishment that killed Prof.

Iyayi who had made efforts to ensure that the disagreement between the government and the union that led to the closure of universities in the country for about nine months was resolved.

He said: “As you all would recall, Professor Iyayi was killed on Tuesday, 12th November, 2013 in a road accident involving the convoy of the governor of Kogi State, Group Captain Idris Wada (retd), while on his way to Kano to attend a NEC (National Executive Committee) meeting of our union called to find ways of resolving the needless crisis the Federal Government had foisted on us.

“We say needless because if the FG had faithfully implemented the Agreement it willingly entered into with our union in 2009, there would have been no need for the strike.''

Jega faces contempt of court charge

By Boluwaji Obahopo

L

OKOJA—THE Federal High Court, Lokoja Division, was yesterday asked to jail the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Professor Attahiru Jega, for alleged contempt of court.

Counsel to Olamaboro Local Government Area and 18 others, Alaji Onoja, in a suit asked that the INEC chairman be committed to prison over his refusal to restore Ogugu state

constituency within the Kogi State House of Assembly.

The plaintiffs/applicants in Suit No: FHC/LKJ/CS/19/2014 are seeking the committal of the INEC chairman to prison over his refusal to obey an earlier court order for the restoration of Ogugu state constituency.

Justice P. Ayua had in a judgment he delivered on September 29, 2014, ordered the restoration of the “suppressed Ogugu state constituency”.

The case has been slated for November 19 for hearing.

48—Vanguard, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2014

ONIGBONGBO DAY: From left, Chief M .S. Dada, Baale of Ojota; Mr. Richard Okotie, and Chief Akiola Ajose, Baale of Mende, Maryland, during the 'Onigbongbo Day, and Fund Raising for the Ultra Modern Palace project, at the Palace, Maryland, Lagos.

Photos: Kehinde Gbadamosi

From left, Chief B. A. Matiku, Baale, Yakoyo; Alhaji J.A Akinyemi, Baale, Akiode, Col. Isang Akpamontia, Garrison Command, 9 Brigade, Nigerian Army, Ikeja, during the Onigbongbo Day

TOUR: From left, Abimbola Gold Oladipupo, Manager,Youth Segment, MTN; Tiwa Savage, MTN brand ambassador, and Shodeinde Zainat Afolashade, a student of Federal College of Education, Akoka, at MTN Season of Surprises Tour, at the Federal College of Education, Akoka, Lagos.

CONFERENCE: From left, Mr. Segun Oyeniran, Head of Unit, Childrens Development Centre, CDC; Mr. Ani Charles Bassey-Eyo, Axion Leaning Solutions; Dr. Yinka Akindayomi, Service Director; CDC, and Mrs. Queen Onalaja, Innovative Teaching and Learning Company, during the Finding Normal Disability Awareness Workplace for the year 2014 press conference, in Lagos.Photos: Akeem Salau

FLAG-OFF: From left, Dr. Vivian Omo-Ogoja, Medical Director of Sapele Central Hospital and President, Delta State chapter of Medical Women Association of Nigeria; Chief Vincent Omorie, SSA to the Delta State Governor; Chief O.E. Temiagin, representing the Orodje of Okpe; Dr. Chioma Nwachuku, General Manager, External Affairs and Communication at SEPLAT, and Mrs. Gloria Ojogo, representative of the Delta State Commissioner for oil and gas, during the flag-off of SEPLAT’s annual 'Safe Motherhood' programme, in Sapele, yesterday.

....Marian Ometan,Head of Room, Pre-School Unit, CDC (left), and Ebele Oputa,Head of Oper- ....Mrs. Chinazom Nwosu (left), and Mrs. ations and Human Resources, CDC, at the press Bukola Elugbaju, at the press conference. conference.

LAUNCH: From left, Managing Director, Mr. Olivier Fages; Senior Brand Manager, Prestige, Ms. Lola Ashafa, and Marketing Director, Mr. Sola Oke, all of Pernod Ricard Nigeria, at the launch of Martell Caractere, in Lagos. Photo: Kehinde Gbadamosi

SUBMISSION: PDP Gubernatorial frontrunner in Rivers State, Major Lancelot Anyanya (rtd, left), submitting his nomination form to the Deputy National Organizing Secretary of PDP, Okey Nnadozie, at PDP National Headquarters, Abuja.

Vanguard, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2014—49

C M Y K

50 — Vanguard, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2014

C M Y K

Vanguard, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2014 — 51

Amaechi, Obiano not working against Jonathan's re-election — APGA YOUTHS Embrace new Nigerian Passport System–NIS Boss

By Vera Samuel Anyagafu

T

HE Nigerian Immigration Service's Comptroller General, Mr. Bashir Ismail, has urged Nigerians to embrace the new passport system which came into force in August this year.

Ismail who made this appeal while speaking on the importance of acquiring the new passport, which he said has security features to safeguard travellers, said that the new passport contains 64 pages, making it all the more accommodating, especially for applicants who make frequent travels.

He said the new passport system was considered after a thorough examination of the challenges that Nigerians faced with the old system, adding, “the Nigeria Immigration Service after 10 years of issuing the last passport had to review the administration of passports in order to serve Nigerians better”.

He also stated that the introduction of the new passport also became necessary to reduce the extent to which people frequent the immigration offices to renew their passports.

Modality of passport issuance: The second aspect of the Nigerian passport reformation, Bashir said,

ensured that passport issuance is carried out in accordance with stipulated passport fees as relates to different classes of applicants.

Vanguard Consular Advisory authoritatively gathered that the modality of passport issuance came after series of productive meetings by top management of the NIS. It was agreed that ages zero to 18 years, known to be dependants and senior citizens from age 61years and above should pay the sum of N18, 500 for their passport, while those who are ages 19 to 60, would have to pay N22, 500.

The passport fee of N22, 500, he said, was for those who are considered as working class citizens. He also related that part of the reform was implemented to ensure that the new passport regime is gender friendly, given the fact that most single women would at some point change their maiden names to their husbands’ names. He added that the new passport has introduced a more secure way of maintaining data, passport delivery, address check and monitor facilities.

Ismail said, “That is why a little amount is added to the passport fees and this will enable us confirm addresses of people travelling outside Nigeria. I will advise Nigerians to give correct

addresses in order to get correct travel documents. We have also opened an office that checks applicants that are minors and dependants to monitor incidences of child trafficking. This includes children that escort families to travel”.

Canada welcomes •2m new citizens

By Prisca Sam-Duru, with Agency reports

F

OLLOWING changes to the Canada Citizenship Act which has given fresh opportunities to well deserving individuals to be welcomed in Canada, more than 200,000 individuals have become new citizens. Canada’s Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, Chris Alexander, who made this known, said that the 200,000 people became citizens of Canada in 2014.

He said, “50,000 people have become citizens since a simplified application and approval process came into operation on August 1, 2014. This represents an increase of 172 per cent on the same period last year. Backlogs in applications have been reduced by a simplified process and an increased number of staff working on the files.”

A

WKA—THE Youth wing of the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, yesterday, dismissed insinuations that Governors Willie Obiano of Anambra State and Chibuike Amaechi of Rivers State, have been meeting to undermine the second term election of President Goodluck Jonathan.

At a briefing at Awka, Anambra State, the youth on the aegis of the APGA Greater Tomorrow for Good Governance, AGTGG, insisted that there was no iota of truth in the rumours, saying “No member of APGA at any level is or has been meeting with or working closely with Governor Amaechi or even his proxies."

Spokesman of the group, Mr. Emenike Sunday, noted that neither Mr. Dozie Nwankwo nor Governor Obiano, as individuals or in concert with each other had ever been with Amaechi in same political party at any time at all.

Emenike said, “When Amaechi was in the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Nwankwo was in Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, and now that Nwankwo has moved on to APGA, Amaechi is in All Progressives Congress, APC. They all have their minds fixed on particular ideological goals for their constituents."

While blaming those he described as political prostitutes who had been shuttling from one

political party to the other for all the confusion and sponsorship of the smear article, he said Governor Amaechi’s wife had no political involvement outside Rivers State, pointing out that in Kwara State, the Saraki political dynasty had different colourations, where Senator Bukola Saraki, a two-time governor of the state belonged to the APC, whereas his sister, Gbemisola Saraki is in the PDP.

Ebonyi Speaker battles for survival

By Emman Ovuakporie & Levinus Nwabughiogu

A

BUJA — EMBATTLED Speaker of the Ebonyi State House of Assembly, Chukwuma Nwazunku, yesterday, insisted that he remained the Speaker of the House.

Nwazunku who was reportedly impeached on Tuesday, said he was still in charge of the State’s legislative body, despite alleged attempt by State government’s sponsored politicians and thugs to remove him at all cost.

According to him, “this whole issue of impeachment or no impeachment that you have been hearing in the media is nothing other than desperation for 2015."

52—Vanguard, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2014

BY VICTOR AHIUMAYOUNG

T

HE National Pension Commission, PenCom, has disclosed that no fewer than 111,210 employees who retired on the Contributory Pension Scheme, CPS, since 2007, have received payouts of over N268 billion.

Director-General of the commission, Mrs. Chinelo Anohu-Amazu, who revealed this in Lagos at a social gathering to commemorate the 10th anniversary of pension reforms in Nigeria, noted that the cardinal principle of separation of custody from management and supervision had resulted in a pension scheme with sound internal mechanism for transparency and accountability.

She reiterated that “whereas the Pension Fund Administrators, PFAs, manage the pension funds, they do not have access to same as custody is vested in the Pension Fund Custodians, PFCs, and the commission ensures both parties adhere strictly to regulations governing pension funds.”

According to her, “the ring fencing of pension fund assets and regulatory non- interference has resulted in the consistent growth of a large pool of pension assets worth about N4.5 trillion which are invested in structured and safe financial instruments; a remarkable growth when compared with huge estimated pension liabilities in the public sector prior to the reforms in 2004. The reforms has also engendered a regime of regular

Pensioners at a recent sensitisation programme organised by National Pension Commission, PenCom.

111,210 pensioners get N268bn payouts from CPS payment of retirement benefits to all employees who retired under the scheme since 2007 without any delays as was the practice in the old system. Since inception, 111,210 retired employees have received payouts of over N268 billion.

"Also, through an enhanced compliance regime, 6.26 million contributors have so far been registered into the CPS. Despite these records, we are by no means suggesting that journey has reached its destination. We

are not unmindful of some challenges that are yet to be extinguished, for instance issues around the old Defined Benefit Scheme in the public sector. In addition, there are some issues that cropped up only in the course of implementing the PRA 2004.

“In the quest to usher the Pension reform into its second decade, a major review of the PRA 2004 was carried out with a view to proffering solutions to noted implementation challenges.

"Having undergone extensive

legislative scrutiny, the Pension Reform Act 2014 was re-enacted in July, 2014. Some of its salient provisions include the expansion of coverage for private sector employees, upward review of minimum contribution rate geared at enhancing the adequacy of pension benefits, upward review of sanctions and penalties against infractions, informal sector participation in the scheme, standards for the participation of states and local governments in the scheme, amongst others.

"As we focus on the implementation of these new provisions, we seek your usual unflinching support in order to sustain what we collectively achieved over the past 10 years.”

The Director-General recalled that “the pension reform process commenced in 2003 with the inauguration of the Fola Adeola Pension Reform Committee, PRC, by President Olusegun Obasanjo. The high point of the committee’s recommendations was the establishment of the CPS for both the public and private sectors through the enactment of the Pension Reform Act, PRA, 2004. The reform was envisioned as a well thought-out process of addressing a catalogue of challenges that impeded pension administration in Nigeria, all of which could be summarized into the failure to deliver on a promise of consistent and timely income for workers at retirement.

Pains, struggles of Bayelsa pensioners

BY SAMUEL OYADONGHA & EMEM IDIO

D

I have children's school fees to settle and I am struggling to survive. I was involved in a very serious accident before I retired from service and as you can see I cannot walk like others because of the injuries I sustained. I am always indoors hoping that my gratuity will be paid so that I can take care of myself. I am lucky I have a roof over my head. Some of my contemporaries have died out of frustration. Their landlords evicted them because they could not pay their house rent. Even when they returned to their respective villages, many do not have homes of theirs to go to.”

ESPITE spending their productive years for the common good, the nation's senior citizens have continued to wallow in penury.

The picture of haggard-looking pensioners collapsing on queues for their pensions during verification exercises speaks volumes about the inherent rot in the nation's pension system, especially the defunct Defined Benefits Scheme, DBS. A pensioner, who identified himself as Sampson John, noted with sadness that retirement, which NUP speaks ordinarily should be embraced with joy, has become Speaking, Chairman of Nigeria Union of Pensioners, a source of sorrow and frustration to him and many NUP, in the state, Chief Emmanuel Namatebe, said: others.

“When the Governor came in 2012 and upon his Bemoaning his fate, he said: “In an ideal clime, resumption, he promised to offset the gratuities of all having put all my life into active service, I should not pensioners that will be retiring from 2012. That is, nobody be seen struggling to collect my gratuity. It has been would retire without being paid. But when he started a trying period for me and my family in the last two work, the story changed. Before he came in, he had set years after my retirement.” up an eight-man committee to look Like his contemporaries who are anxiously into the plight of pensioners. The waiting to collect their gratuities, he relived committee was headed by a retired his experience and serial frustrations. permanent secretary, one Philip “I was employed in 1977 in the then old Daunemigha. The committee Rivers State. By the nature of my job, I was commenced work in March 2012 and posted to Government House. I served submitted its report to government in governors throughout my working career as April, 2012. The committee a photographer. Now I am retired after 35 recommended that about four billion years of meritorious service in April 2012. I Naira as at March 2012 be set aside am yet to collect my gratuity. There are for the payment of gratuities. After the others who retired in 2008, 2009 and have submission of the report, the governor not been paid their gratuities. Some have did not look into the report and he died due to frustration and lack of care. As said all the pensioners involved would an old pensioner, you need to take care of Chief Emmanuel be paid. So, the pensioners were yourself and that is the money (gratuity) we Namatebe, State NUP anxiously looking up to government banked our hope on to take care of ourselves but government refused to take action Chairman and family.

C M Y K

with the committee’s report. “After six months, the pensioners held a press briefing on November 22, 2012. After the briefing, the governor was very angry and accused me of coming to disturb his administration.

"I had told the governor categorically during the press briefing that the rights of pensioners are constitutional and that he, as a lawyer, should respect the constitutional rights of pensioners. I also quoted Section 201 and subsection 3 of the 1999 Constitution which clearly states that pensions should be reviewed every five years in line with the civil service salary review in the country.

“Thereafter, the governor set up another six man committee headed by the present Head of Service, while abandoning the work of the Daunemigha committee. He also appointed me to be a member. He released N500 million to the committee to commence payment of gratuities and pension arrears.

We exhausted the first N500 million in January 2013. By April 2013, he released another N500 million for us to pay. The issue is that the retired permanent secretaries go home with between N30 and N40million naira as gratuities, so the N500 million is inadequate. By the time two to three retired permanent secretaries are paid, the rest are left to suffer.” lWatch out for Governor Seriake Dickson and former Governor Timipre Sylva's views on pensioners' woes on this page in the weeks ahead.

Vanguard, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2014—53

C M Y K

54—Vanguard, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2014

Foundation donates to widows, children of soldiers

By Kingsley Omonobi

A

B U J A — FOLLOWING several deaths recorded by officers and soldiers of the Nigerian Army in the ongoing battle to dislodge Boko Haram terrorists from the North East and the hardship their families are subjected to, the Support Our Troops Foundation yesterday at Mogadishu Cantonment, distributed bags of rice to widows, while children were given school bags.

The relief materials came in as a source of joy and relief to the families of the deceased and incapacitated soldiers.

Speaking on the occasion, Master Abdullahi Ibrahim, one of the beneficiaries, enumerated the difficult times they and their children had been subjected to since they lost their bread winners to the ongoing insurgency in the North East.

He thanked the foundation for the gesture, saying it showed that they had not been totally abandoned, even as he prayed for the end of the insurgency and killing of children in particular.

The special guest of honour and former Minister of State for Defence, Senator Musiliu Obanikoro, stressed the need to support the Nigerian troops in the trenches, ensuring that the country remained one.

Obanikoro, who is also the patron of the foundation, particularly asked that families of soldiers who had paid the supreme sacrifice in service to humanity were continually supported in to further encourage those in the field.

AWARD: From left— Patrick Olowokere, Corporate Communications/PR Manager; Chisom Onyeka, PR Assistant; Utibe-Abasi Utuk; Kufre Ekanem, Corporate Affairs Adviser; Emete Tonukari, CSR/Sustainability Manager; Edem Vindah, Corporate Media & Brand PR Manager; Inalegwu Adoga, TC Systems and Process and Niyi Alabi, Head Learning and Development, all of Nigeria Breweries, at the presentation of the firm's SERA award for Best CSR Company in 2014.

Why Jonathan deserves second term— INFORMATION MINISTER

By Emmanuel Elebeke

T

HE Supervising Minister of Information, Dr. Nurudeen Muhammad, has said President Goodluck Jonathan deserved another term in office to consolidate on the gains so far recorded through the implementation of the Transformation Agenda.

He made the remark while speaking in a programme on Nigerian Television Authority, NTA, in Abuja.

He said through the creative management of the economy, Nigeria emerged as the fastest growing economy in Africa, with an inflation rate of eight percent, against 12 percent when the President came into power.

Dr. Muhammad stated that the micro and macroeconomic framework introduced by the President and the consistency in policy implementation had boosted investor confidence in the economy, which attracted over $65 billion dollars in Foreign Direct Investment.

The Minister said the provision of infrastructure across the country by the present administration was unprecedented, and mentioned the construction of 62 roads, covering 25,000 kilometres, revival of the

railways, introduction of the standard gauge rail-line, construction of 10 power plants, establishment of 12 universities and over 125 Almajiri schools as some of the salient

A

S part of build up towards total switch over of Nigeria from analogue to the digital broadcasting platform, Nigeria Broadcasting Commission, NBC, yesterday, issued a DirectTo-Home, DTH, operating license to ChaptersDtv Limted.

Presenting the license at NBC headquarters, the Director General of the commission, Mr. Emeka Mba, said the company was considered worthy of the license, having, in September, met the stringent scrutiny and prerequisites for operating a

to defeat Ebola Virus Disease, halt the rise in HIV and contain the spread of polio in the country from 300 cases, when he came into power, to six reported cases this year.

Maku debunks report on defection

By Emmanuel Elebeke

F

ORMER Information Minister, Labaran Maku’s Campaign Organization has debunked reports that Maku was planning to defect from Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, to All Progressives Congress, APC, describing it as the handiwork of enemies.

The organization, in a statement by the Director, Legal

Services and Publicity, Mr. Yusuf Edego, said the sponsored publication was motivated by the desperation of Mr. Labaran Maku’s opponents in PDP and APC, against his integrity, as one of the most loyal and consistent leaders of PDP in Nasarawa State since 1999.

The statement read in part: “The fictitious and childish publication was motivated by

the desperation of Mr. Labaran Maku’s opponents in PDP and APC to impugn on the integrity of Mr. Maku, one of the most loyal and consistent leaders of PDP since 1999.”

The organization said the publication was aimed at casting aspersions on his person and loyalty to the President and Federal Government.

Omeje faults USA's partnership on fight against terrorists

By Kingsley Omonobi

A

BUJA—WORRIED by the seeming lackadaisical attitudes of some foreign allies in the war on terror, the United States of America, USA, has been urged to provide more concrete support to Nigeria beyond the current ambivalence and grandstanding.

NBC issues new licence to ChaptersDtv

By Emmanuel Elebeke

achievements of the Jonathan administration.

He remarked that through the purposeful leadership provided by the President, he was able to mobilize the nation

DTH service in Nigeria.

He said: “This is a welcome development in the Nigerian broadcast sector. We are into exciting times.

“This action is a demonstra-tion of ChaptersDtv ’s faith in Nigeria and the potential to open up the opportunities.”

The National Coordinator, Citizens Initiative for Security Awareness, CISA, Mr. Chidi Omeje, made the call during a media interaction hosted by I-Nigerian Initiative in Abuja.

The civil society group, which engages in creating and spreading security awareness among Nigerians, wondered why the acclaimed global linchpin in the fight against terrorism was foot-dragging in assisting Nigeria in the face of deteriorating insecurity orchestrated by Boko Haram terrorists.

Omeje said: “This is not time for playing hide and seek. It is a period for actions, real actions, against unnecessary excuses and blame-games.

“For almost two years, USA refused to label Boko Haram a foreign terrorist organisation,

FTO, even with glaring evidences of atrocities displayed by the group against unarmed citizens.

“Following the abduction of Chibok schoolgirls, USA and its allies announced that they were sending military help.

“However, the less than 20 personnel sent by USA have continued to stay in the cosy offices of American Embassy in Abuja, while data gathered by the country’s mission in Chad through reconnaissance over North East Nigeria has never been shared with Nigeria.

“We also discovered that for about 20 years, United States government has not endorsed the sale of military hardware to Nigeria and our country always resort to supplies from alternative market or shop from other power blocs.”

Vanguard, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2014—55

C M Y K

56—Vanguard, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2014

benefits. Only that we do not make a big fuss about it and we are not marketing them like their equivalents mostly in Western countries.Funny enough, Western superfoods are looking increasingly now to Africa. People over there are paying an arm and a leg for a small portion, while we are hardly having time for those.In Germany I coincidentally

Superfoods (1) O

NE of the major hypes in nutrition in recent years has been about ‘supperfoods’.

The Macmillan Dictionary defines ‘superfood’ as a food that is considered to be very good for your health and that may even help some medical conditions.

The Oxford Dictionary definition states a superfood is “a nutrient-rich food considered to be especially beneficial for health and wellbeing”.

Many recent superfood lists contain common food choices whose nutritional value has been long recognised as exceptional. Examples of these would be berries, nuts and seeds in general, dark green

•

Hakeem Jimo’s

Ve ggie Victory

veggienaija@gmail.com vegetables (such as spinach, kale, collard greens, Swiss chard, Brussels sprouts, and broccoli), citrus fruits, vegetables with bright, dark, or intense colours (such as beets and their greens, and sweet potatoes), many legumes (peanuts,lentils, beans, raw cocoa), and whole grains as a group. Almost all of the mentioned superfoods are vegetarian per se. There are just

Variety of superfoods

n o n vegetarian superfoods like few fatty fish such as s a l m o n , mackerel, and sardines.

In Africa, we know a whole range of foods with apparent super health

passed by an entire shop only for Moringa products. In West Africa, many people have forgotten about the Moringa benefits known for centuries and wonder why Moringa trees are in their backyard. Tradition aside, are any of these plants and foods actually good for us?

Many studies have confirmed the benefits of superfoods.

Continues next week

Reload multivitamin meets WHO standards —Ekanem

A

professor of Paediatrics, University of Calabar, Prof. Emmanuel Eyo Ekanem has endorsed Reload multivitamin for growing children saying, it meets the World Health Organisation’s standard for multivitamins.

Ekanem who gave the endorsement during the gathering of Nigerian pharmacists in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State explained that the most crucial thing about Reload Multivitamin Syrup is that it meets the WHO’s criteria for micro-nutrients and vitamin mixes for optimum intellectual and neurological development of the child.

The new infant multivitamin drop and syrup are formulated with an enriching taste to reduce the chances of nutritional deficiency in kids.

In his lecture entitled ‘The Role of Trace Elements and Vitamins in Neurocognitive and Immunological Development in Childhood”, Ekanem lamented that almost half of the children in Nigeria have one form of macro-or micronutrient deficiencies. “There are certain nutrients we call micro nutrients. These nutrients required in small quantity are very important for the intellectual development of the child and for the development of the

child to resist infection. “The very important ones are Vitamin A, D, Iron, Zinc, Iodine and vitamin B group, etc. When these things are deficient in the child, the effect will show in the child intellectual development and cause poor attention which will make the child not able to concentrate in school. “So the child must be supplied with these nutrients very early in life. The first two years of life are critically important. But if you miss that window period, the intellectual deficiency will continue into its adolescence and adult life.

Therefore, we need as recommended by World Health Organisation, Micro nutrients and vitamin mixes that will supply the Nigerian child these micro nutrients in adequate quantity.

Also speaking on Reload Multivitamin, the Chief Operating Officer, Pharmacy Plus Ltd, Mr. Obi Chukwuemeka said the Reload Liquid Range comes in three different types: Reload Tonic which helps recuperating children as well as the Reload Kidz Syrup and Reload Infant Drops that have been scientifically formulated to enhance a healthy diet and help ensure that kids get the nutrition they need every day.

COMMON SEXUAL PROBLEMS AND THEIR NOVELTY BASED SOLUTIONS (ADVERTORIAL)

H

ELLO Mr Edochie. I am in a bit of a dilemma and I feel you may be able to advise me. Last weekend, I was at a friend’s birthday party. We drank a lot and I woke up the next morning with a woman beside me that looked like my wife but wasn’t my wife. She is my wife’s twin sister and I had sex with her. I am going crazy here because I don’t know why my sister in law didn’t try to stop it especially as she knew that I was drunk. Should I tell my wife? The news will really kill her – James James people do a lot of strange things when they are drunk, so a part of me believes your story. But not everybody will believe you, especially your wife.

It is also true that identical twins have been known to sometimes deliberately have sex with their sibling’s lover. Maybe it is a jealousy thing but it happens.

So this makes your story a bit more believable. There are two choices here that you are faced with and none of them are perfect. You can make a moral decision and tell your wife or you can make a common sense decision and be quiet about it especially since it was an incident that took place under the influence of alcohol. They say the truth shall set you free.

Unfortunately, telling your wife the truth can cost you your marriage so it might be best to say nothing and continue with your life. It is also best for you to totally avoid alcohol from now onwards. I can assure you that if you had been involved in a drunk driving accident instead and killed somebody, nobody will be feeling sorry for you – Uche I want another bottle of that X Again Enhancer for weak erection and a cheap vibrator for my wife.

Two of my friends are interested in X Again Enhancer too. I will text you their numbers – Moses For a cheap and effective vibrator, go for the Waterproof Turbo Glider. But for something bigger and of higher quality, get Diving Dolphin rabbit vibrator – Uche The X Again Enhancer you recommended for my

weak erection has helped me a lot and it kept working even the following day. Please how often should I be taking it? Prince Prince take it every three days. X Again Enhancer is a 72 hour formula, meaning that one capsule is capable of working for up to three days – Uche I experience vaginal dryness and sometimes I fail to get aroused even during intercourse. What type of vagina tightener do I need? Iris Iris you don’t need a vagina tightener. What you need is an arousal lubricant and I have a good one for you. Ask for the 69 Nipple and Clit Arousal Gel. It is a wonderful and flavored gel for women that lubricates against vaginal dryness and also awakens the sense through nipple and clitoral stimulation – Uche I hear that there is a way to keep my erection strong even after ejaculation. Please I need to know how. It takes me too long to get a second erection after climaxing - George Yes it is true. You can achieve that through the use of a Cockring. A Cockring has the unique ability of retaining blood within an engorged penis in order for a man to maintain his erection for up to twenty additional minutes, after ejaculation – Uche I used the Prolonging Cream for premature ejaculation last year and it is hands down the best of them all. Please can you still get it for me? Nwokedi Prolonging Cream is available. Men fighting premature ejaculation like it a lot. Call the numbers below to get it – Uche That’s it for today. The names of the people featured here have been changed for their privacy. Adults in need of these treatments can call us on 08027901621 or 08051924159 or any other number here to order or they can order online at www.zeevirtualmedia.com.

We deliver to you wherever you are in Nigeria. For enquiries email us at custserv@zeevirtualmedia.com - Uche Edochie, MD, Zee Virtual Media.

VANGUARD, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2014 — 57

Ukraine crisis: Russian troops crossed border - NATO N

ATO officials have seen Russian military equipment and Russian combat troops entering Ukraine this week, its top commander has said.

“Russian tanks, Russian artillery, Russian air defence systems and Russian combat troops” were sighted, US Gen Philip Breedlove said.

Russia’s defence ministry denied that its troops were in eastern Ukraine to help pro-Russian separatists there.

However, the rebels have admitted being helped by “volunteers” from Russia.

The United Nations Se-

Ukrainian soldiers have been battling to regain eastern Ukraine from pro-Russia separatists curity Council is convening an emergency session later on Wednesday to discuss the reported sightings.

Heavy artillery fire rocked the east Ukrainian city of Donetsk, the industrial hub

held by pro-Russian separatist rebels, yesterday morning. It was unclear whether the fire came from besieging government forces or the rebels themselves, or both.

A stable and secure Nigeria: An asset to America, by Adefuye

T

HE continued insurgency by the Boko Haram sect remains sore point in the relations between the Nigeria and the United States of America. The Nigerian Ambassador to the United States, Prof.

Ade Adefuye addressed the US Council on Foreign Relations in Washington on November 10, 2014. Here is the concluding part of the text of his speech first published on Wednesday, November 12, 2014.

WITH the approach of general elections in 2015, the Boko Haram issue is becoming heavily politicized. Opposition media provide half-truths, exaggerated accounts which are then aired by the foreign media,forming the basis of reports sent to the capitals of Western nations. We have implored our colleagues in the embassies of Western nations based in Nigeria to check and recheck the facts,and not use half-truths and rumours as the basis of their reports and recommendations to their capitals. A famous philosopher said that “facts are sacred; opinion is free.” I hereby assert as a fact opinions on human rights violations by Nigerian defence forces are biased, were not subjected to the necessary verification.

This unfortunately is the basis of America’s refusal to sell to Nigeria the

•Ambassador Ade Adefuye necessary lethal equipment to use in the fight against Boko Haram We implore the Council on Foreign Affairs to put pressure on the State Department and the Department of Defence to re-examine the basis of their refusal to sell the equipment to Nigeria.

Our people are not very happy with the content of America’s support in the struggle against Boko Harm. The terrorists threaten our corporate existence and territorial integrity. There is no use giving us the type of support that enables us to deliver light jabs to the terrorists when what we need to give them is the killer punch. A friend in need is a friend indeed.

The true test of friendship is in the times of adversity.

A stable and secure Nigeria is an invaluable asset to America. It was the democratically elected, stable and secure Nigeria, under President Goodluck Jonathan, that ensured the triumph of democracy in Ivory Coast, Guinea Conakry, Mali, and has

prevented the collapse of Guinea Bissau. Even in spite of our present challenges, President Jonathan is taking the lead in ensuring a quick return to democracy in Burkina Faso. America’s strategic global objective aims for a stable and secure Africa as an integral part of a peaceful and stable world.

A peaceful, stable and secure Nigeria, free from the ravages of Boko Haram, is a necessary prerequisite.

Ladies and Gentlemen, we are hereby conveying our feelings on the Boko Haram issue to your council. Now that the midterm elections are over, we will carry our case to Capitol Hill, seek support from other think-tanks, and the American public.

We are of course aware that the ultimate responsibility for ending the scourge of Boko Harm rests on us. We are therefore prepared to exercise our rights as a sovereign nation and use whatever means available to assure the security and territorial integrity of our country.

58— Vanguard, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2014

C M Y K

Vanguard, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2014—59

C M Y K

60 — Vanguard, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2014

Congo sweats on the fitness of star trio C

ONGO National Team manager Claude Le Roy is sweating on the fitness of Férébory Doré, Ladislas Douniama and Delvin N’Dinga ahead of Saturday ’s African Cup of Nations qualifying fixture against Nigeria.

The Red Devils continued preparations for the important clash against the African champions with another training session on Wednesday morning.

The practice started at 09h00 hours local time and ended one and half hours later, under the tutelage of the experienced French coach, Claude Le Roy. CFR Cluj forward Férébory Doré, Guingamp’s Ladislas Douniama plus Delvin N’Dinga of Olympiakos all picked up knocks during Tuesday ’s training, but the medical team is working round the clock to get the trio fit for the game.

This afternoon, the squad will continue fine-tuning their strategies at the Stade Municipal de PointeNoire , venue of the match, from 15h00 hours to 17h00 hours.

•Bifouma Thiery of Congo tackles Ramon Azeez in the first leg clash in Calabar.

Keshi Prays for good luck in Point Noire C OACH Stephen Keshi is praying for good luck in Point Noire when they face their Congolese counterparts in a must win Africa Cup of

Nations qualifier.

The Super Eagles will surely need some luck when they face the Red Devils, knowing that anything short of a win – possibly with a two

Russian FA cannot afford Capello’s £6.8m salary A

RUSSIAN Football Union executive has admitted that the governing body cannot afford to pay national coach Fabio Capello’s controversial £6.8m annual salary.

Sergei Stepashin, a member of the RFU’s executive committee, said Capello’s salary, which has not been paid at all since June, remained unaffordable.

“I can declare that the money to pay Capello is not there,” he said.

“Clearly it’s wrong to fail to pay the salary of your national team’s coach, but when they signed the contract they should really have thought about how to fund it. Today we’re still looking for a source of funding.”Capello

goal advantage – will end their chances of qualification.

And as a result, the former Hawks of Togo manager hopes ‘everything works well’ in Congo.

The 52-year old has also told SL10.ng that he is impressed with what the players have shown so far in training.

“I think I like what I’m seeing, I hope we just concentrate and continue with the same attitude and atmosphere and pray that everything works well for us in Point Noire,” he told SL10.ng.

The 52-year old coach will have a couple more

days to train with the team before they travel to Congo, but he added that they do not have enough time to prepare for the game.

“It’s just that we don’t have enough days for training, we just have three days training sessions. Wednesday will be the second day and probably Thursday before we travel,” he added. They will travel to Congo on Thursday night aboard a chartered flight from Abuja, and will return to Nigeria immediately after the game and prepare for the last group game against South Africa.

Sharapova, Bouchard for WTA Awards

T

HE WTA Tour has announced its nominees for the Most Improved Player of the Year and the Comeback Player of the Year Award and fans can cast their vote for the awards on the WTA Tour website. The fan vote will count as one of the media votes that determine the winners in the categories.

Canada’s Eugenie Bouchard is the frontrunner for Most Improved Player of the Year after her break-out season where she reached the final at Wimbledon and the semifinals at the Australian and French Open. She will compete with American Coco Vandeweghe, Czech Karolina Pliskova, Australian Casey Dellacqua and Frenchwoman Caroline Garcia for the award.

Meanwhile, Russian Maria Sharapova will be the favourite for the Comeback Player of the Year Award. The Russian missed the second half of the 2013 season due to a shoulder injury but bounced back to win her second French Open title in July and ended the season as World No. 2.

Spainn’s Garbiñe Muguruza, Swiss Timea Bacsinszky, Australian Jarmila Gajdosova, Britain’s Heather Watson and Croatian veteran Mirjana Lucic-Baroni are battling Sharapova for the award.

•Sharapova

World Tour Finals: Berdych tames Cilic

T

•Capello admitted earlier this month that his patience over the dispute was running out, saying he felt “close to the limit …

I’m somewhere near”. The financial crisis at the RFU this week led to two members of Capello’s

coaching staff, Christian Panucci and Massimo Neri, refusing to travel with the side to their Euro 2016 qualifier in Austria due to what the governing body called an ongoing “contractual dispute”.

OMAS Berdych thrashed US Open champion Marin Cilic 63, 6-1 on Wednesday to remain in the hunt for a place in the semi-finals of the ATP Tour Finals.

Czech world number seven Berdych had been routed by Stan Wawrinka in his opening match at London’s O2 Arena, but he bounced back in style

•Berdych

and could qualify for the last four with a victory over defending champion Novak Djokovic in his final Group A tie today.

“I think today was more about fighting and getting through the match,” said Berdych. “It’s not my first year. I have the experience of losing the first match in the past and I know how to come back.''

Vanguard, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2014 — 61

I’m not a flop—Ideye

Enyeama faces fitness test S

UPER Eagles goalkeeper trainer Ike Shorunmu said Nigeria’s No 1 shot stopper Vincent Enyeama would undergo a late fitness test to know if he would be ready for the AFCON qualifier against Congo this weekend.

Ike confirmed that Vincent Enyeama has suffered a slight shoulder injury when he featured for French Ligue 1 side Lille in a recent game.

“I cannot say now if Vincent would be in between the posts for the game against Congo this weekend,” Ike stated. Vincent has a slight right shoulder injury which he sustained while in action in his club. But he has seen the team doctors who have communicated to me that it’s not too serious. So during

training I would confirm if it’s good or not and that would determine whether or not he would be in goal for the game.”

In the meantime, coach Stephen Keshi has restated England-based

winger Victor Moses remains very much part of his plans even though he did not call him for the AFCON qualifiers against Congo and South Africa this month.

N

•Ideye

Hayatou: AFCON hosts to be named in 2-3 days

C

ONFEDERATION of African Football (CAF) president Issa Hayatou has revealed that the new host country for the 2015 African Cup of Nations will be

•Hayatou

announced in the next two to three days.

In a live interview with French channel France 24 on Tuesday, Hayatou explained that the country replacing Morocco as AFCON hosts will be disclosed in the coming days.

The Executive Committee of CAF confirmed, following their meeting in Cairo on Tuesday, that Morocco had been barred from the upcoming tournament following their refusal to host the showpiece event

amidst growing concerns over the Ebola virus which has struck West Africa.

Eagles continues from B\P next year ’s Nations Cup. The team are expected back in the country immediately after the match so that they could begin preparations in earnest for their final qualifier against South Africa on Wednesday, November 19, in Uyo.

I G E R I A international Brown Ideye has stressed that he will not depart West Brom in the near future despite criticisms from supporters on social media.

The ex Dynamo Kiev star is yet to score for the Baggies in the Premier League since they paid £9 million for his

signature back in July.

The 26 - year - old has fallen down the pecking order of strikers at the club, having failed to make the 18 - man squad for the last two games.

“I have found it difficult but people can’t criticise, pull me down or have a gun at my head for not playing,” Ideye told Telegraph UK.

Uche continues from B\P South Africa disclosed that he was back and was willing to help Nigeria beat Congo in Pointe Noire on Saturday to qualify for the 2015 Nations Cup. “I am very happy to be back in the team and I thank my fans and football loving Nigerians for the support they gave before I rejoined the team. I am resolute and ready to contribute my quota to ensure the

Eagles emerge victorious in Congo,” Uche said yesterday.

“I am a team player and I will play with my colleagues to achieve victory against Congo, although it will be very tough because [the Red Devils] are a very tough team but we will work hard to win.”

He added that he had no problems with coach Stephen Keshi on his return to the team adding every thing was okay and very good.

62— Vanguard, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2014

Ss Peter and Paul wins Archbishop Martins Cup S

S Peter and Paul C a t h o l i c Church, Oke-Afa has emerged winner of the 1st edition of the Archbishop Alfred

Adewale Martins football tournament organised by the Lagos Archdiocesan Catholic Men Organization, Nigeria (LACMON).

The Isolo Deanery champions defeated the hard fighting Catholic Church of the Assumption, Falomo 1-0 in the final played at the

Keshi

Continues from B/P new contract since his first deal with the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) elapsed after the 2014 Fifa World Cup in Brazil.

But Keshi has now stated that contract talks is not an issue at the moment. He added that his future is not dependent on the Nigeria head coach job.

The former Mali and Togo manager believes there is life after managing the Super Eagles should he not be handed a contract at the end of the 2015 Afcon qualification.

“I don’t think it is proper to say my fate is tied to this (Nigeria) job.

My concern right now is

C M Y K

the game against Congo, and not whether I will still be in charge of this team after the match against Congo or South Africa.

“I think you all need to stop this because my destiny is not tied to Nigeria. I came from somewhere (to take up the Nigeria job). It is wrong to say my destiny is tied here because this country is bigger than any individual. If I am not the Super Eagles head coach today, my life will still go on. Also there are other places where I can go if I stopped being the coach of this country.

“But right now, I have a job to do and that is to ensure that the team qualifies the country for the Nations Cup. God

forbid if we don’t qualify what will happen? It will not only affect Stephen Keshi, it will also affect you and every other Nigerian who love this sport. So I think this is not about Stephen Keshi but about Nigeria. All I want from my countrymen is to pray for the team and not me because I am just one man,” Keshi told journalists in Abuja, on Wednesday.

Keshi has been in charge of the African champions since November 2001 and has overseen more than 50 matches as the Nigeria head coach, including their 2013 Afcon triumph and appearance at the 2014 World Cup.

Onikan Stadium, Lagos on Saturday, November 8, 2014.

The elated team was presented with gold medals and tournament trophy by Archbishop Alfred Martins.

In the 3rd place

playoff, Our Lady of the Holy Rosary Catholic Church, Arida beat St Gabriel’s Catholic Church, Ladi-Lak 5-4 on penalties after full time ended 1-1.

In his remark, the Archbishop of Lagos,

Most Revd Dr Alfred Adewale Martins expressed satisfaction with the organisational standard of the tournament, which he said will promote friendship and love among Catholics in Lagos.

Congo Continues from B/P Coach Stephen Keshi has cautioned his players that the trip to Pointe Noire will be a tough one.

Addressing a media parley in Abuja yesterday, Keshi said his experience of the Congolese shows that they could be very hostile to the team in various ways including the reception at the airport, hotel and reven on the pitch.

“I have already conditioned the minds of the players that Congo

will be very tough because they also want to be at the Nations Cup. I have told them to know that this is Africa and so they must drop every European mentality and be ready for the worst of reception.

“I hope to have a good game because from what I have seen in training if the players can keep the momentum then I am optimistic that we will get the desired result from what I have observed, the players are ready to give it their all and I pray they

remain in the same spirit”.

Meanwhile, returnee striker, Ikechukwu Uche has expressed his delight to have returned to the national team after more than one year of absence which started since after the 2013 African Cup of Nations (AFCON) championship in South Africa.

The Villarreal of Spain forward also used the opportunity to thank the Nigerian football fans for their unflinching support to him especially during the period he was away.

Vanguard, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2014—63

C M Y K

VANGUARD, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2014

Congo ‘ll be tough, Keshi warns Eagles

BY JUDE OPARA, Abuja

A

HEAD of the make or mar 2015 African Cup of Nations

(AFCON) qualifier against the Red Devils of Congo this weekend, Super Eagles Chief •Continues on Page 62

I can do without Eagles job, says Keshi S

UPER Eagles head coach Stephen Keshi has shrugged off the issue surrounding his contract extension with the country ’s football federation, NFF saying his “destiny” is not tied to the Super Eagles job.

The African champions face their Congolese counterparts, the Red Devils, at the Stade Municipal in PointeNoire in a 2015 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying match this Saturday which Nigeria must win by a two-goal margin to put life back into their hopes of defending their title.

The 52-year-old coach is yet to be offered a

•Continues on Page 62

•Enyeama

Ike Uche grateful to fans S

UPER Eagles striker, Ike Uche said he was grateful to Nigerian fans who showed him support during his days of absence from the national team. Uche who played his last game for the Eagles at the 2013 Nations Cup in •Continues on Page 61

•Uche

Eagles depart for Congo

T CAN I RELY ON YOU?...Super Eagles coach, Stephen Keshi (r) gives Mikel Obi (l) some tips on the battle against Congo.

HE Super Eagles will fly out to Congo from Abuja today for a crucial AFCON qualifier on a chartered flight.. Discovery Air will airlift the contingent to Congo.

Nigeria battle Congo on Saturday afternoon in Pointe-Noire in a game that could well determine whether or not they will qualify for •Continues on Page 61

QUICK CROSSWORD

TODAY'S

PUZZLE

YESTER DAY'S YESTERDAY'S

ANSWERS

Across 1 Restraint (6) 5 Mood (6) 8 Fish (8) 9 Location (4) 10 Skill (3) 12 Decree (5) 15 Posed (3) 17 Scull (3) 18 Moose (3) 19 Heated (3) 20 Consumed (5) 21 Sick (3) 22 Curve (3) 23 Total (3) 24 Nothing (3) 26 Abrupt (5) 29 Enclosure (3) 33 Notice (4) 34 Clear (8) 35 Proper (6) 36 Delicate (6)

Down 2 Speak (5) 3 Deserve (4) 4 Pass (5) 5 Pick-me-up (5) 6 Haze (4) 7 Additional (5) 10 Pale (5) 11 Sum (5) 12 Upright (5) 13 Bury (5) 14 Taut (5) 15 Scrimp (5) 16 Claw (5) 25 Outcome (5) 27 Expel (5) 28 Agreeable (5) 30 Live (5) 31 Sort (4) 32 Fruit (4)

YESTERDAY'S SOLUTIONS Across: 1, Chic 4, Dip 6, Said 8, Trance 9, Stance 10, Pry 12, Beset 14, Tepid 15, Seamy 18, Tossed 20, Eraser 24, Outer 26, Ditch 28, Poked 30, Ant 32, Divest 33, Absent 34, Pert 35, Met 36, Dais.

Down: 2, Horse 3, Confess 4, Deep 5, Posy 6, Stale 7, Incline 11, Rim 12, Bet 13, Tee 16, Ado 17, Yet 19, Orifice 21, Rep 22, Aroused 23, Rod 25, Urn 27, Cheat 29, Ennui 30, Atom 31, Tart.

How to Play Sudoku

P

lace a number (1-9) in each blank cell. (No line can have two of the same number).

Each row (nine lines from left to right), column, (also nine lines from top to bottom) and 3 X 3 block within a bold block (nine blocks) contains number from 1 through 9. This means that no number can appear twice in any block, column or row.

No mathematics is involved – no adding, subtraction, division or multiplication, just plain logic and your imagination.

Printed and Published by VANGUARD MEDIA LIMITED, Vanguard Avenue, Kirikiri Canal, P.M.B.1007, Apapa. Phone: Newsroom: 018773962. Deputy Editor: 01-4548355. Advert Dept Hotline: 014544821; Abuja: 09-2341102, 09-2342704. E-mail: editor@vanguardngr.com, news@vanguardngr.com, letters@vanguardngr.com. Advert:advertproduction@yahoo.com Website: www.vanguardngr.com (ISSN 0794-652X) Editor: MIDENO BAYAGBON. Phone: 01-7742861, All correspondence to P.M.B. 1007, Apapa Lagos.

C M Y K