2015 'll be bloodyif...— BUHARI

...towards a better life for the people VOL. 25: NO. 61623

SALAMI

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ONLINE | www.vanguardngr.com

N150

TUESDAY, MAY 15, 2012

Salami splits PDP leadership •P.5

BLOODBATH IN DELTA:

Robbers kill DPO, 5 policemen, 2 soldiers, 3 civilians •P.6 TUKUR

2015 'll be bloody if...— BUHARI

BY LUKA BINNIYAT

K

“If what happened in 2011 should again happen in 2015, by the grace of God, the dog and the baboon would all be soaked in blood.’’

•Says FG is biggest Boko Haram

A D U N A –

PRESIDENTIAL candidate of the Congress for Progressive Change, CPC, in the 2011 election, General Mohammadu Buhari, rtd,yesterday identified three types of Boko Haram in the country with the Federal Government topping the list, followed by those he described as criminals who steal and kill Nigerians in the name of religion, with the third group as the Continues on page 5

PINI JASON: Port reform and superflous agencies •P.17

Mr & Mrs

COMMISSIONING

: Wife of the President, Dame Patience Jonathan (right) and Delta State Governor, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan acknowledging cheers during the commissioning of Tamatare Health and Beauty Shop in Warri, yesterday.

FG raises professors' retirement age to 70 yrs —P.14 C M Y K

2— Vanguard, TUESDAY, MAY 15, 2012

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Vanguard, TUESDAY, MAY 15, 2012—3

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4— Vanguard, TUESDAY, MAY 15, 2012

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Vanguard, TUESD AY, MA Y 15, 2012—5 TUESDA MAY

POCKET CARTOON

2015 'll be bloody if...—Buhari Continues from Page 1 original one led by late Muhammed Yusufu.

Buhari spoke in Hausa while addressing members of the CPC from Niger State, who paid him a courtesy visit in Kaduna. He also warned that 2015 would be bloody if the elections were not transparent, just as he dismissed reports that he would not contest the 2015 presidency.

Buhari who painted a gory picture of Nigeria as that of a hound and a monkey engaged in a battle for survival said, “God willing, by 2015, something will happen.

They either conduct a free and fair election or they go a very disgraceful way.

“If what happened in 2011 (alleged rigging) should again happen in 2015, by the grace of God, the dog and the baboon would all be soaked in blood.’’ He did not elaborate further.

On alleged existence of three groups of Boko Haram, General Buhari added, “I will like to quote Professor Ango Abdullahi that said there are three Boko Harams including the original one led by Muhammed Yusufu who was killed

and his supporters tried to take revenge by attacking the law enforcement agencies and politicians. There is another developed Boko Haram of criminals who steal and kill... while the biggest Boko Haram is the Federal Government.”

He, however, said that he would make up his mind on the presidency when his party reorganises itself.

“That was what I told those who have visited me in the past but the press wrote that I said I have changed my mind about re-contesting.

On Boko Haram he said: “Since the leaders now don’t listen to anybody but do whatever they wish, there is nothing the North can do.”

FG has destroyed oil industry Commenting on the petroleum subsidy probe, he said: “The current leadership of the country has destroyed the petroleum industry.

These kind of things can only happen under the type of leadership Nigeria has. No where in the world can such things happen and no where in the world can

LIFEWORDS

BY PASTOR ITUAH

T

HERE is a lot to say for common sense, but common sense is sometimes not common. Take your time, think and meditate on issues, so that you are able to do things that make sense.

Good sense will protect you, understanding will guard you, it will keep you from the wicked and from those whose words are bad. But wisdom will help you to be good and to do what is right. Even a fool when silent is thought to be wise.

TAKE HEART

BY ELLA RANDLE

“Have regular hours for work and play; make each day both useful and pleasant, and prove that you understand the worth of time by employing it well. Then youth will be delightful, old age will bring few regrets, and life will become a beautiful success.” -Louisa May AlcottNo matter what motivates you personally…whatever you choose to do with your life, don’t expect instant success. The years of struggle, commitment and learning in excelling at whatever endeavour or trade you choose, is no easy task. I would wholeheartedly agree with that statement. It takes a lot of courage, character and discipline to achieve success in any field. Nearly all successful people have doubted themselves at some point and wanted to give up. Yet they carried on. So many people give up within an inch or two away from the gold in the seam down the mine – a “whisker” away from success. One thing is for sure: success breeds SUCCESS, as it gathers a momentum of its own and you get on a “winning streak”, when everything seems to fit into place.

government increase the cost of petroleum products by over 120%.

It is most insensitive.

Besides the air people breath, the next important thing to them are petroleum products, “Unfortunately for me, I know more about petroleum industry than others in government because I was there for over three years as a leader. We started with the Port-Harcourt Refinery producing

60,000 barrels per day. It was upgraded to 100,000 barrels per day. Another one was built there ( Po r t - H a r c o u r t ) producing over 150,000 barrels making a total of 250,000 barrels per day purely on Nigerian crude.’’

According to him, the Warri and Kaduna refineries, had capacities for refining 100, 000 barrels daily each with over 20 depots and more than 3,200 pipe lines.

Salami splits PDP leadership

BY HENRY UMORU

A

BUJA—STRONG indications emerged yesterday of a split in the national leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP over the recommendation of the National Judicial Council, NJC for the reinstatement of Justice Ayo Salami as the President of the Court of Appeal.

Vanguard gathered yesterday that some members of the National Working Committee, NWC of the party have taken a position against the recommendation of the NJC on Salami allegedly on the basis of what they claimed to be Salami’s past injurious actions on the party and some of its officials.

Among those said to be leading the opposition to Salami's reinstatement is the party ’s national secretary, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola.

Oyinlola remarkably was removed as Governor of Osun State in 2010 upon the ruling of the Court of Appeal then headed

by Justice Salami.

Another senior official of the party also said to be sympathetic to the anti-Salami lobby is the National ViceChairman, Southwest, Engr. Segun Oni. Oni like Oyinlola was removed as governor of Ekiti State by the ruling of the Court of Appeal in 2010.

In both cases, they were replaced by Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN candidates in the disputed 2007 gubernatorial elections,

Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola in Osun and Dr. Kayode Fayemi in Ekiti.

The party’s National Publicity Secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh, however, disclaimed any internal dissension over the recommendations of the NJC as he insisted that the party being purely a political party would not arbitrate on a judicial matter.

Metuh said yesterday that the presidency was in the best position to take a position on the recommendation being well equipped to analyse the recommendation of the NJC. “The presidency is in the best position to act on this since it is better positioned and has all the facts pertaining to the matter. The PDP being a political party and not a judicial body is not equipped to comment on such issues since it is not equipped with all the facts,” Metuh said yesterday.

Metuh’s assertion nonetheless, Vanguard learnt that members of the NWC were already mounting pressure on President Goodluck Jonathan not to return Salami to his position.

The lobbyists it was learnt are mounting pressure through the national chairman of the party Alhaji Bamanga Tukur to push their case to the presidency.

Another group within the party it was learnt is, however, pushing a neutral stance on the issue. The group it was learnt is aiming to prevail on the antiSalami group to await further judicial pronouncements on the

Salami matter as they argue that there are many cases on the Salami matter waiting to be concluded.

According to the source, Tukur was said to have refused to be drawn into the matter as he was said to have told his aides that there was the need for him to wait and hear from the President before he could take side on the matter, even as the source added that the PDP National Chairman is of the view that since the party was not actually a party to the removal of the judge from his seat, there was

no need for the PDP to be involved in the debate on his reinstatement.

Repeated efforts to get the presidency ’s reaction on the issue were not successful.

The NJC had last week recommended the reinstatement of Justice Salami as the President of the Court of Appeal following its earlier recommendation that he be suspended from office at the peak of the face-off between him and the then Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Justice Alloysius Katsina-Alu almost a year ago.

75% electricity to come from natural gas — Nnaji

BY FRANKLIN ALLI & PROVIDENCE OBUH

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AGOS—THE Minister of Power, Prof. Barth Nnaji, yesterday in Lagos, said the Federal Government has put plans in place to generate 75 per cent of the country’s electricity requirements from natural gas.

Nigeria currently has gas deposit of 184 trillion cubic feet, making it the 7th largest gas reserve in the world.

Speaking during the opening session of the Federal Ministry of Trade and Investment’s workshop on “Enhancing the Productivity of our Industries,” Nnaji, said

that by the year 2014 power generation would have increased to 15,000 mega watt and government is working to ensure that gas is used as a raw material to increase the power generation by 75 per cent, while 25 per cent will be generated from coal and hydropower.

While explaining his Ministry ’s short-term, medium-term and longterm framework to fasttrack power generation, transmission and distribution to homes and industries in the country, the Minister said as power comes, "we will deliver to industrial areas across the country like Lagos, Kano, Kaduna and Ogun State."

6—VANGUARD, TUESDAY, MAY 15, 2012

N2bn fraud: Court okays Sylva's ex-aides for trial

BY IKECHUKWU NNOCHIRI

A

President Goodluck Jonathan flanked by Governor Godwill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom State (right) and Governor Segun Mimiko of Ondo State; Agricultural Resources Minister, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina and Governor Murtala Nyako of Adamawa State (2nd left) moments after the President inaugurated the Agricultural Transformation Implementation Council at the State House, Abuja, yesterday. Photo: Abayomi Adeshida.

BLOODBATH IN DELTA:

Robbers kill DPO, 5 policemen, 2 soldiers, 3 civilians

BY EMMA AMAIZE & AUSTIN OGWUDA

A

SABA—THE UghelliAsaba expressway in Delta State was turned to a no-go-area, yesterday, as armed robbers massacred the Divisional Police Officer, DPO, in-charge of Abraka Police Station, Abraka, Ethiope-East Local Government Area of the state, five other policemen, two soldiers and three civilians.

Vanguard learnt that the bandits, who ambushed the DPO, Mr. Steve Chigbufuea, Superintendent of Police, SP, who was travelling to Police Headquarters, Asaba, for an official engagement, shot him dead and two of his men, among them an Inspector.

Delta State Police Public Relations Officer, Mr. Charles Muka, who confirmed the killing of the policemen, however, said five of the armed robbers were rounded up by the police when they struck at a new generation bank at Ibusa, Oshimili North Local Government Area of the state, later in the day.

Muka told Vanguard that the Commissioner of Police, Mr. Ikechukwu Aduba, would brief the press on the latest incident at Asaba, where the bandits would be paraded.

Vanguard learnt, however, that an Assistant Superintendent of Police, ASP, based at Ogwashi-Uku is among the six police casualties.

The two soldiers were

believed to be among the security operatives on joint patrol, while the three civilians were victims of circumstance, having found themselves in a theatre of war.

Traffic congestion A source who was travelling from Warri to Asaba told Vanguard yesterday afternoon: “It is a serious matter, there was a serious traffic congestion, we could not move further. We were going for the visit of the First Lady, Mrs. Patience Jonathan, to the state to commission a project, but we had to turn back to Warri because the road was not safe.

“There was fright and tension everywhere as the robbers overpowered the security agents and under such circumstance, it would be foolhardy for us to continue our journey on the road that armed security agents were killed in less than three minutes by gunmen.”

It was gathered that the robbers waylaid the DPO and his team to collect weapons for their operation, while they indiscriminately opened fire on the soldiers to prevent them from stopping them or coming after them when the news of the killing of the DPO spreads.

But Muka said the police confronted and arrested five of them at a new generation bank in Ibusa, where they went to minutes later

to rob the bank.

The robbery operation caused panic in the state in view of the visit of the First Lady.

A police source who spoke to Vanguard at about 7.00 pm said: “It was like a war in Delta State, armed robbers, suspected to be aggrieved ex-militants, unleashed a reign of terror on security agents, killing about five policemen and two soldiers.

“The most feared policeman in the state, Danladi, a Deputy Superintendent of Police, who goes about killing armed robbers was himself killed in addition to the DPO, Abraka Police Station and three of his men.”

Grenade recovered from robbers Vanguard gathered, last night, that a rocket propelled grenade, RPG, launcher, was recovered from the robbers by the police, assisted by youths of Ibusa community, who barricaded exit ways to the community when they struck.

The source said the police moved in with an Armoured Personnel Carrier, APC, to Ibusa to confront the robbers after they killed the DPO and Danladi at Igbodo area, and some of the robbers escaped, but three were gunned down.

He said: “The police recovered three AK 47 rifles, 96 expended AK 47 ammunition and 1000 unexpended ammunition, as

well as one of the vehicles used by the bandits.”

They reportedly escaped in a bus belonging to a transport company More than 30 policemen, including three DPOs have been massacred and injured in some cases by armed robbers in the state in the last few months.

An Assistant Superintendent of Police, ASP, in charge of Eku Police Station, Delta State, identified as Mr. Ayoola Adelodun was killed, last year.

BUJA — THE Abuja Division of the Federal High Court, yesterday, okayed three aides to the former governor of Bayelsa State, Timipre Sylva, for trial over allegation that they conspired and diverted N2 billion from the state treasury and shared among themselves.

Justice Donatus Okorowo, who dismissed an application that sought to prevent the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, from prosecuting the accused persons on grounds that the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mohammed Adoke Bello, SAN, did not authorise the initiation of criminal proceeding against them, said he was satisfied that a prima-facie case was successfully established against them by the antigraft agency.

Those ordered to appear before the trial court on October 11 for trial were the former Commissioner of Finance in Bayelsa State, Mr Sylva Opuala-Charles; former Director of Treasury, Mr Abot Clinton, and the erstwhile Director of Finance, Mr Anthony Howells.

The EFCC told the court that the accused persons had at various times between October 2009 and February 2010, connived

and secured loans from Union Bank Plc, in the guise of using the fund to augment salaries of civil servants in Bayelsa State, alleging that they subsequently divided the monies among themselves.

Though the former Accountant General of Bayelsa state, Mr Francis Okokuro, was earlier listed in the charge, however, he was delisted after he agreed to testify against the other accused persons.

Besides, EFCC alleged that on or about January 22, the accused persons converted N380 million, property of the Bayelsa State Government, through the account of one Habibu Sani Maigidia, a Bureau de Change operator with Account No. 221433478108, in FinBank Plc, with the aim of concealing the origin of the proceeds of the illicit funds.

They were said to have committed an offence contrary to Section 14(1) of the Money Laundering (Prohibition Act) 2004 and also punishable under Section 14(1) of the same Act. In its bid to prove the complicity of the accused officials, a lead investigative officer of the EFCC, Mr Adebayo Adebanjo, told the court that the six-count charge against them, culminated from a petition he said was forwarded to the agency by some persons under the aegis of “Concerned Citizens of Bayelsa State.”

Court dismisses Bank PHB's suit against FG, CBN, Keystone

BY INNOCENT ANABA

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AGOS— A Federal High Court sitting in Lagos, yesterday, dismissed the suit by Bank PHB against the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN; Keystone Bank and Federal Government, challenging the revocation of its banking licence, and takeover of its assets

by Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation, NDIC and Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria, AMCON. Trial judge, Justice Charles Archibong, upheld the argument of counsel to CBN and that of the Federal Government, that the CBN acted within its powers under the CBN Act, and particularly section 53 of the

Banks and Other Financial Institutions Act, 2004.

The Federal Government and CBN had argued that the persons suing had no authority of any of the organs of the Bank PHB (board or shareholders) to sue; and that NDIC and AMCON were omitted in the suit, when the plaintiff sought reliefs against them.

The court agreed with the argument of the defendants and observed that CBN licence was a creation of an Act of National Assembly, which empowers the CBN to intervene where it finds that depositors’ funds were in danger.

The court noted that documentary evidence available before it

showed that Bank PHB had a non performance loan of N475 billion, with its liquidity ratio below 25 percent, adding that the bank indeed showed a sign of a failing bank, which was in dire need of capital and in contravention of the provisions of the Act. The court said that it was unable to find that CBN acted beyond its powers or did not comply with the provisions of the law on revocation of banking licences of Bank PHB and consequently dismissed the contention that CBN Act of revocation was tainted with malice.

It added that “CBN cannot standby, once it is shown that depositors’ funds were in danger.”

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VANGUARD, TUESDAY, MAY 15, 2012 — 7

NCC’S N1.17BN PENALTY ON TELCOS:

Etisalat, MTN react, list challenges

BY PRINCE OSUAGWU

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Policemen yesterday took over the Unity Fountain in Abuja to stop a planned protest against alleged manipulation of subsidy's investigation report, by a group under the aegis of Anti-Corruption Network.

Revenue allocation: FG asks S-Court to dismiss 16 Northern states' suit

BY IKECHUKWU NNOCHIRI

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BUJA — THE Federal Government, yesterday, urged the Supreme Court to dismiss a suit filed before it by 16 Northern states of the Federation, challenging what they termed “lack of equity in the distribution of the nation’s resources.”

The Northern states had, among other things, prayed the apex court to compel the Federal Government to pay them N7 billion as outstanding value of the assets of the defunct Northern States Marketing Board, NSMB. The states behind the consolidated suit are Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Kogi, Kwara, Sokoto, Taraba, Yobe and Zamfara.

The Attoney General of the Federation was joined as defendant in the suit.

They told the apex court that in 1977, the then Federal Military Government forcefully took over the assets of NSMB by virtue of Decree No. 29 of 1977, adding that the then Supreme Military Council stated that the Federal Government would pay for the assets of the NSMB and the assets of any other commodity boards.

According to them, before the assets were transferred to the Federal Government, a valuation was carried out which put the total value of all the assets at N42 million.

They said: “Of the said N42 million, only N1.1 million was paid to the NSMB

by the defendant leaving a balance of N40 million.”

They put the cost of immovable assets and produce taken over at N11 million and N18 million respectively.

Bags, tarpaulin and twine as well as cotton stores complexes allegedly taken over were put at N2 million.

The Chief Justice of Nigeria, CJN, Justice Dahiru Musdapher, is presiding over a seven-man panel of justices of the apex court that has assumed jurisdiction over the matter.

Meanwhile, the Federal Government, yesterday, challenged the propriety of the suit, saying it ought to be dismissed as grossly lacking in merit.

According to a preliminary objection filed by counsel to the Federal Government, Mr Ade OkeayaInneh, SAN, by virtue of section 7(1)(e) of the Limitation Act, the suit was already statute barred.

The AGF who okayed the preliminary objection, said the cause of action upon which the plaintiffs’ suit

was predicated, were letters dated July 27, 1983 and August 13, 1984 in their statement of claim dated February 17, 2011.

He said “since the plaintiffs instituted this action by way of civil summons on February 17, 2011 in consequence thereof, the said action is at variance with section 7 (1)( e) of the Limitation Act. “Whenever a party’s action is statute barred, the party would lose his right of action and lose the right of enforcement."

EFCC lauches manhunt for FAAN MD

BY KENNETH EHIGIATOR

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AGOS — OPERA TIVES of Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, yesterday stormed the head office of Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, FAAN, in search of the Managing Director, Mr. George Uriesi over his recent petition to the agency.

Uriesi had in the heat of the disagreement between FAAN and Maevis Company Limited over revenue collection for the airports authority petitioned the anti-graft agency over the activities of the company and two new generation banks relating to revenue collection at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, and Nnamdi Azikiwe Interna-

tional Airport, Abuja.

Vanguard gathered that the operatives visited FAAN, following the failure of the managing director to respond to series of invitations to clarify some issues raised in his petition.

The anti-graft operatives were, however, unable to see Uriesi, who was said to have gone out on official engagement.

Confirming the development, EFCC spokesman, Mr. Wilson Uwujaren, said: “I can confirm that our operatives were at FAAN headquarters this morning (yesterday). They were there to get the FAAN MD to explain issues arising from a petition which he sent to the commission.

“The visit became necessary after he failed to respond to repeated calls to come and explain issues pertaining to his petition.

The petition is against

Maevis and two new generation banks.”

FAAN and Maevis have been having a running battle over revenue collection at the airports in Lagos and Abuja, culminating in the agency terminating the agreement it had with the company in 2007 for that purpose.

CORRECTION

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N our Editorial of Fri day, May 11, 2012, we stated that Mohammed Gambo-Jimeta was the Inspector General of Police when President Ibrahim Babangida enquired about the notorious armed robber, Lawrence Anini in 1987. The question was posed to then IG Etim Inyang and it was in 1986. Errors regretted.

—EDITOR

AGOS — SOME of the telecoms operators who were at the weekend penalised by the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, over poor quality of service have reacted to the decision, describing it as shocking and surprising.

The operators said poor quality of service was not only attributable to network capacity but also by other factors beyond their control.

They appealed that the NCC should show understanding of the critical industry-wide challenges by pushing for the telecommunications industry to be declared critical national infrastructure rather than rooting for penalties.

It's shocking —Etisalat For instance, Etisalat CEO, Mr Steve Evans, while reacting to the development, said it was shocking to his company to receive the news of the penalty, particularly when the same NCC had in the past three years of Etisalat operations in Nigeria, recognised it as the number one quality operator by the various measures conducted and published by the regulator.

He however noted that “the failure to hit some of the quality measures could

not be attributed alone to capacity expansion but also by other factors which represent industry-wide challenges. Foremost among these is the absence of reliable power which necessitates that everyone of over 3000 cell sites needs to be served by two generators which run 24 hours a day and need regular maintenance and provision of weekly supplies of diesel.

...MTN too Meanwhile, immediately after the penalty was announced, MTN Nigeria had reacted, outlining part of the problems that culminated into the mess in quality of telecom services, adding that it was still committed to ensuring the best quality of service for its teeming customers.

The company’s Corporate Services Executive, Mr Akinwale Goodluck, said inadequate power supply, lack of adequate security leading to indiscriminate vandalisation of its facilities and multiple regulation and taxation were also responsible for the weak service quality provided by the operators within the time under review.

According to Goodluck, MTN generates up to 80 per cent of its power requirements, expending billions of Naira annually on diesel alone.

14 oil wells suit: S'Court fixes July 30 for ruling

BY IKECHUKWU NNOCHIRI

A

BUJA — THE Su preme Court, yesterday, fixed July 30 to deliver judgment on claims by the Cross River State government that 14 oil wells were ceded to it by former President Olusegun Obasanjo before he left office in 2007.

The state had dragged the Federal Government before the apex court, contending that though the oil wells were validly ceded to them sequel to a mutual agreement it said was brokered by the erstwhile president in 2006, however, the Akwa Ibom State government was yet to relinquish its control over the said oil wells.

Consequently, the litigant equally joined the Akwa Ibom State government as a party to the suit which was heard yesterday and adjourned for

judgment.

When the matter came up yesterday, counsel to the appellant, Mr Yusuf Ali, SAN, prayed the apex court to compel the Federal Government and the Akwa Ibom State government to respect the sharing formula put in place by ex-President Obasanjo pertaining to 90 separate oil wells which had been a subject of dispute between the two states.

Nevertheless, counsel to the Akwa Ibom State government, Chief Bayo Ojo SAN, maintained that the issue before the court was whether Cross River, at present, is a littoral state or not.

He argued that the handing over of the western Bakassi to Cameroun in August 14, 2008, divested Cross River of its littoral status, saying it could no longer benefit from the oil wells.

8— Vanguard , TUESDAY, MAY 15, 2012

Varsity workers seek more pay

Petroleum, FCT ministers targets of rumoured cabinet reshuffle

BY VICTOR AHIUMAYOUNG

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LORIN—AS the 2009 agreement between the Federal Government and the non-academic workers in the nation’s universities is due for review in July, Labour leaders have given indication that they will demand pay rise to cope with the economic reality in the country.

The workers, made up of Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions, NASU, National Association of Academic Technologists, NAAT, and Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities, SSANU, said the demand would also be in line with the letter of the agreement.

The three unions working under the Joint Action Committee, JAC, recalled that separate agreements were signed by them following a protracted nationwide strike in 2009.

President of SSANU, Mr. Samson Ugwoke, gave the indication at the union’s National Executive Council, NEC, meeting at University of Ilorin after three-day training programme at Michael Imoudu Institute for Labour Studies, MINILS, for its members on:“Trade Unions Leadership and the Challenges of Personal Income Tax in Nigeria.”

He recalled that the Governor of Edo State, Mr. Adams Oshiomhole, brokered the peace that led to the signing of the agreement between the Federal Government Committee led by Deacon Gamaliel Onasode and the unions led by Mr. Promise Adewusi, who was then SSANU President, Peters Adeyemi, NASU General Secretary and Lateef Jokomba, who was also NAAT President at that time.

Ugwoke said: “We will continue to engage the government, because there is re-negotiation coming again by July and we will press for increase in salary. We need more money to keep us, especially in the university system and within the Nigerian economy.''

C M Y K

BY EMMMA UJAH, Abuja Bureau Chief

BUJA—THE rumour of imminent cabinet reshuffle, two weeks ago, was a ploy by President Goodluck Jonathan’s political opponents to

target some of his key ministers to weaken his administration.

A Presidency source, who preferred not to be mentioned, said, weekend, that the rumour was the handiwork of some political interests

eyeing the presidency in 2015 who decided to use rumour mills to undertake a deft political move against the administration.

The two prime targets, according to the source, were the Minister of the

Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Senator Bala Mohammed and his counterpart in the Ministry of Petroleum Resources, Mrs Diezani Allison-Madueke.

The source said other ministers whose political

CELEBRATION:From left,Governor of Zamfara State, Mr. Abdulazeez Yari; Deputy Speaker, House of Representatives, Mr. Emeka Ihedioha, Chief Willie Obiano, winner of First Distinguished Banker prize and Chief ( Mrs) Ebelechukwu Obiano, at the 2012 USAfrica, Best of Africa Awards in Houston, Texas.

FG, firm sign N155bn deal on mining

BY PROVIDENCE OBUH

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AGOS—THE Federal Government has signed a $1 billion (about N155 billion) memorandum of understanding (MoU) with a Swiss firm, Glencore International, on investment in mining, energy and infrastructure.

Glencore, based in Baar, Switzerland, is one of the world’s integrated producers and marketers of commodities, with worldwide activities in the production, sourcing, processing, refining, transporting, storage, financing and supply of metals and minerals, energy products and agricultural products, has 50 offices in over 40 countries.

Speaking at the ongoing industrial revolution workshop with theme, “Enhancing the Productivity of Nigeria’s Industries”, organised by the Ministry of Trade and Investment, yesterday, in Lagos, Minister of Trade and Investment, Mr. Olusegun Aganga, said the government was taking steps to revolutionalise the nation’s manufacturing

sector as a major driver of economic growth through job creation and increased contribution to Gross Domestic Product.

He said as part of the industrial revolution, the Ministry of Trade and Investment is working with the organised private sector and the Ministry of Power to reduce the cost of doing business in Nigeria and

ultimately increase the productivity of the manufacturing sector.

Aganga noted that the nation’s Industrial Revolution Plan would be based on areas where the country had comparative and competitive advantage, adding that the government had embarked on far-reaching reforms aimed improving the

business climate and making Nigeria the preferred investment hub in Africa and globally.

He said, “Africa’s share of the global trade is only three per cent. This is because Africa has been exporting raw materials rather that exporting finished products. For us as a country, manufacturing is very important because it

Court orders Kogi govt to reinstate 346 sacked workers

BY BOLUWAJI OBAHOPO

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OKOJA— A Kogi State High Court sitting in Okene, yesterday, ordered the state government to reinstate about 346 workers sacked following a screening in 2009 and pay them their entitlements.

Justice Sunday Oto, who gave the directive also said the workers were irregularly sacked.

The 346 workers had in 2009 dragged the government to court for omitting their names during direct payment of

salary by the Sally Tibot led-screening committee, leading to their eventual sack from the state civil service and asked the court to declare action null and void and order their reinstatement as well as payment of their entitlements.

During the hearing, counsel to the state government, Jamil had argued that the plaintiffs were sacked after the screening exercise and that the court had no right to impose employees on an employer, but counsel to the plaintiffs, John Uchechukwu, stated that laid down procedures for their sack were not

followed, hence they should be reinstated.

relevance were considered critical and whose removal from cabinet would brighten the chances of the opponents were the Minister of Niger Delta, Elder Godsday Orubebe; Minister of Information, Mr Labaran Maku; Minister of Labour, Mr Emeka Wogu; Minister of Interior, Mr Abba Moro; and that of Agriculture, Professor Akinwunmi Adesina.

Those behind the move were said to have decided to latch on to the fuel subsidy probe to mobilise public anger against Mrs. Allison-Madueke as being corrupt and therefore must be removed to demonstrate the President’s fight against corruption.

The highly-placed Presidency source, who prefered anonymity, said beside being seen as the most loyal crop of cabinet members in the Jonathan government, the opposition group, which has some converts within the ruling People Democratic Party, PDP, also believe that the ministers are partly responsible for the visible progress and successes so far recorded by President Jonathan.

In the case of Mohammed, he was considered, as “antiNorthern interests” and one of Jonathan’s most loyal cabinet members and being a Northerner, his influence was considered to have grown to an extent that it was becoming a problem for the opposition.

“The worst target or victim of this group of loyalists by this powerful opposition is the FCT Minister. Given that he hails from the North, these political enemies are worried that despite entreaty not to return to Jonathan’s government, Bala has remained loyal and committed to the political ideals of his principal, the President”.

NDLEA re-arrests suspect with creamy cocaine

BY LAWANI MIKAIRU & DANIEL EYEGHE

I

KEJA—OPERATIVES of National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, (NDLEA), yesterday, rearrested a 50-year-old drug suspect with 9.500kg of creamy concaine at Murtala Muhammed International Airport , Lagos.

This is the first seizure of creamy cocaine in the country by NDLEA .

The 9.500kg cocaine which looks like ice cream was being smuggled into the country in four big coolers by an unrepentant suspected drug trafficker, who is facing trial over unlawful importation of a kilogramme of cocaine from Brazil in 2010.

The suspect, Martin Ikechukwu, from Enugu State, was caught with the substance that tested positive for cocaine on his way from Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Vanguard, TUESDAY, MAY 15, 2012 — 9

Sofoluwe was a great man

Briefly

New Lagos FRSC chief takes over

—Fashola

T

HE new Sector Commander, Federal Road Safety Corps, FRSC, for Lagos State, Mr. Nseobong Akpabio, has assumed duty.

Akpabio, who was the immediate past Corps Officer, Public Education, at the national headquarters, Abuja, replaced the former Commander, Mr. Jonas Agwu.

At an interactive session with the organisation's staff, Akpabio said he will work to reduce road traffic crashes and called on road-users to take their safety as top priority.

Anniversary

M

EN Christian Union of Williams Memorial Methodist Church, Ago-Ijaiye, EbuteMeta, Lagos, holds its 70th anniversary on Sunday, May 27, at the cathedral while luncheon and other related events come up later at Arch-Bishop Soremekun Memorial Hall, old Methodist Boys’ High School, Lagos.

In commemoration, a lecture on “The burden of being a christian in present-day Nigeria,” to be delivered by Rt. Rev. O. Babalola, Methodist Bishop of Lagos Mainland Diocese, will hold during which the anniversary brochure would also be launched.

Mrs Branco dies at 82

C

HIEF (Mrs) Dorcas Olufunmilayo Branco, Iyalaje of Itoko, Abeokuta, Ogun State, is dead. Aged 82, Mrs. Branco’s death occurred on Sunday, May 6, after a brief illness. A child of the deceased, Mr. Dominic Omoniyi Branco, who announced the death, said burial arrangement is on-going and would be announced by the family. She is survived by children, grandchildren and greatgrandchildren.

Mrs. Dorcas Branco

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BY OLASUNKANMI AKONI

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ADIEU, GOOD MAN: A University of Lagos student signing a condolence register for the late ViceChancellor, Professor Adetokunbo Sofoluwe, at the front of the Senate Building, yesterday, while others wait for their turn Photo:Kehinde Gbadamosi.

Power, influx of Asian goods, stifle local manufacturers — LCCI

BY NAOMI UZOR

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AGOS—LAGOS Chamber of Commerce and Industry, LCCI, yesterday, said the manufacturing sector was one of the most vulnerable in the country’s economy because of competition.

It also raised concern over the influx of Asian goods into the country, which it noted was killing local manufactured goods.

LCCI's DirectorGeneral, Mr. Muda Yusuf, in a statement on the first quarter business environment report, said: “The manufacturing sector is one of the most vulnerable in the Nigerian economy because of competitiveness issues.

Its contribution to Gross Domestic Product remains very low, at less than five per cent. ''The usual challenges of

the sector persisted as high energy cost remains top on the list of the challenges facing manufacturing; market access is now an even bigger challenge for most manufacturing firms. ''The influx of Asian goods into the Nigerian market poses a major risk to the survival of many manufacturing enterprises; rampant cases of faking, counterfeiting, and dumping of sub-standard products, credit access and cost remains an issue with many investors in the sector and fuel subsidy removal increased operating cost.”

He noted that the economy needed a measure of regulation for good performance, adding that too many regulatory agencies could be counter-productive.

He said: “The key issues

Again, outage grounds Lagos airport zPassengers, others trapped in lifts

BY LAWANI MIKAIRU & DANIEL ETEGHE

I

KEJA—MURTAL A M u h a m m e d International Airport, Ikeja, Lagos, was, yesterday, thrown into darkness, while passengers and workers were trapped inside lifts for 45 minutes due to power outage.

The outage occurred at 12 noon.

According to an eye-

witness, those trapped in the lifts were heard screaming and kicking inside for help.

He added that the people who were trapped also tried to force the lifts open, but could not.

The screaming of the trapped victims attracted the attention of Federal Aviation Airports Authority engineers, who had to go to the sixth floor to work on the lifts before they could force them open.

identified by private sector players in the economy are too many regulatory agencies in the economy, some with overlapping functions; the agencies

are often more interested in revenue generation than on the real regulatory mandate and the charges of many of the agencies are prohibitive.”

Alleged N16bn fraud: Bank chiefs seek out of court settlement

BY ABDULWAHAB ABDULAH, ONOZURE DANIA & MICHAEL OLADEPO

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AGOS—THREE bank chiefs arraigned alongside former managing director of FinBank Plc, Mr. Okey Nwosu, yesterday, told an Ikeja High Court, Lagos, that they were at the verge of settlement with the prosecution over the theft and fraud allegations levelled at them.

The trial judge, Justice Lateefa Okunnu, subsequently adjourned till May 22, to enable the defendants reach a term of settlement with the prosecution.

They are being prosecuted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC. Nwosu is standing trial alongside Dayo Famoroti, Danjuma Ocholi and Agnes Ebubedike, who are planning a settlement out of court.

The four are facing a 26count charge of alleged stealing and illegal conversion of N16.2 billion belonging to FinBank.

At the resumed hearing in the case, counsel to

Ocholi (the third defendant), informed the court that events had overtaken the prosecution’s stance that court should adjourn till Tuesday (today) for them to produce their witnesses, who will be coming from outside Lagos because their settlement issue was already before the Presidency.

A G O S — GOVERNOR Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State has described the late Vice-Chancellor of University of Lagos, Professor Adetokunbo Sofoluwe, as a great man of the people, adding that his death was a huge loss to the academic community.

Fashola spoke when he paid a condolence visit to the family of the late vicechancellor at their residence.

Prof. Sofoluwe, who was appointed UNILAG vicechancellor, on January 30, 2010, was said to have slumped at a meeting on the campus last Friday and was first rushed to the institution’s medical centre and later to Lagos University Teaching Hospital, LUTH, where he died on Saturday.

Fashola, who conveyed the condolences of his family and Lagosians to the widow, Mrs. Funmi Sofoluwe, family members and senior university staff, said he was shocked at the news of the sudden demise of Sofoluwe, whom he described as a very dear friend.

According to Fashola, although he had not known the professor for long, their friendship picked up the first time they met, adding that he was a man who generated as much laughter as he could take.

SNG to sue FG over spending from Federation Account

BY DAPO AKINREFON

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AGOS—AS the twoweek ultimatum handed the Federal Government to prosecute indicted persons in the subsidy report expires, the Save Nigeria Group, SNG, says it will head to court to seek for judicial pronouncements on appropriation and spending from the Federation Account.

At a briefing in Lagos, Convener of SNG, Pastor Tunde Bakare, berated the Attorney-General of the Federation, Mr. Mohammed Adoke, SAN, for allegedly plotting to frustrate the report.

He described Adoke’s

statement on the matter as “double speak,” noting “the following recent developments, despite the collapse of our moral walls as a country, show that the AGF’s position is untenable.”

He said SNG may opt for public protest as a very last resort, adding “all we have heard hitherto has been mere rhetoric with no concrete actions from constituted authorities. We are ready to extend the rope to see what comes of EFCC’s promise within a reasonable time. We will watch every step they take with our firm resolve that this report will not go into the mortuary of probe reports.''

10—Vanguard, TUESDAY, MAY 15, 2012

Ondo students on rampage over alleged death of 20 colleagues ...As police arrest 19 secondary students for cultism

BY DAYO JOHNSON & GBENGA ARIYIBI

O

NDO—STUDENTS of Adeyemi College of Education, Ondo, went on the rampage yesterday and vandalised no fewer than 50 vehicles including that of the Provost, Professor Adeyemi Idowu, over alleged mysterious death of no fewer than 20 of their colleagues in the last one month.

Also, 19 students of a secondary school in AdoEkiti, Ekiti State, have been apprehended by the police for alleged cult activities.

During the Ondo protest, school buildings were badly damaged while those housing banks and eateries on the school campus were allegedly destroyed by the rampaging students.

Investigation revealed that the students had earlier in the day pasted posters on strategic places in the school to mobilise others.

Report said some of the students said to have died mysteriously were allegedly in good health before their death.

They were reported to have suddenly developed strange ailments, while some were vomiting blood before death.

Vanguard gathered that the students contacted the management of the institution to find a lasting solution to the incident, but to no avail.

After they allegedly discovered that the management was not forth coming, they trooped into the street about 3.30 p.m. and barricaded the expressway with bricks, logs of wood and made bonfire.

The protest later turned violent as the students chanted war songs against the authorities

and eulogised their dead colleagues.

A detachment of armed policemen was deployed to the institution by the state Police Command to restore normalcy.

Contacted, the Public Relations Officer of the school, Moses Akinfolarin, said the students acted on impulse based on false information circulated by their colleagues.

He said: “It is not true that 20 students died mysteriously in the school, we only have record of two students that died and there is nothing mysterious about the two deaths so far reported to the management.”

The state Police Command said the crisis was an internal one between the students and their management.

Police Image Maker in the state, Adeniran Aremu, said men of the command had been drafted to the scene to restore sanity and ensure that the highway was free for traffic.

Meantime, the secondary school students arrested for cultism, 14 males and six females from ''All Souls’ Anglican Grammar School”, on new Iyin Road in the state capital, were said to have been arrested after one of them allegedly maltreated a female student in the school.

Some of the arrested students were said to have confessed membership of the notorious ‘Eiye Confraternity’ to security agents.

When contacted, the principal of the school, Mrs. Grace Ibikunle, said a male student had attempted to beat up a female student for refusing his love advances.

The principal noted that it was the highly-

Federal health workers suspend strike

BY OLA AJAYI

I

BADAN—REPRIEVE has come the way of patients in federal hospitals as the Joint Health Sector Unions, JOHESU, which directed members on May 7, to withdraw their services has suspended the strike till May 31 to give the government more time to

C M Y K

address members' grievances.

The directive for the suspension of the strike was given yesterday in Ibadan by Felix Faniran, of National Union of Pharmacists and Medical Laboratory Technologists and Professionals Allied, NUPMTAM, on behalf of JOHESU, joint front for health workers in country.

traumatised female student that mentioned the names of those that were alleged to be cult members and their ring leader, simply identified as ‘Afin’ (Albino).

According to her, “Some of the indicted female students had several tattoos on their shoulders and thighs with inscriptions such as: ‘Lady G, Lady D, Lady Elizabeth and several others. I met the records

that some cult members, who were not students of the school were arrested with charms and

dangerous weapons three years ago, though l was not in this school then.”

She blamed the menace of cult activities in the school to the proximity of the Satellite Campus of the Federal Polytechnic, AdoEkiti, to where the school is located.

The Police Public Relations Officer of the Ekiti State Police

Egba youths vandalise senator's office

BY DAUD OLATUNJI

A

B E O K U TA — HUNDREDS of youths from Odeda Local Government Area of Ogun

State yesterday invaded the Senatorial Office of the senator representing Ogun Central, Gbenga Obadara, on the platform of Action Congress of

DONATIONS: From left, Dr. Adetayo Olagbegi, Business Development Manager, Smith & Nephew; Mr Timothy Kolawole, Assistant General Manager, Morison Industries Plc; Mrs Osobu Popoola, Chief Nursing Officer, University College Hospital, UCH, Ibadan; and Dr Ayodele Iyun, Consultant, Plastic Surgeon, UCH, during donation of hospital items to the hospital by Smith & Nephew in Ibadan.

ACN prunes Ondo guber aspirants from 30 to 5

BY DAYO JOHNSON

A

KURE—THE leadership of the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, may have pruned to five the 30 governorship aspirants jostling for the ticket in Ondo State.

Sources in the party told Vanguard that the large number of aspirants was worrisome to the party leaders, but have used various variables to prune the number and it was gathered that the ticket has been zoned to the Northern Senatorial district area of the state.

The import of this is that many of the aspirants have automatically been edged out of the race.

Those that are been considered, according to source, include, Mr Rotimi Akeredolu, SAN; Chief Segun Abraham, Chief Jaiyeola Ajatta, Dr Olu Agunloye and Dr Tunji Abayomi.

But another source said other aspirants have not

Command, Mr Victor Babayemi, confirmed the incident.

He said the students were arrested following complaints from their teachers and parents over their alleged involvement in cult activities, adding that they were released to their parents after interrogation.

been written off by the leaders of the party, because, according to him, ”in politics anything can happen.”

The National Leader of the party, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, was said to have travelled outside the country and on arrival towards the end of the month would meet with other leaders to pick the candidate of the party.

Already, the aspirants are said to be jittery and have besieged the houses of leaders of the party in and outside the state on their chances.

Also, the Osun State Governor, Mr. Rauf Aregbesola, is said to have received delegation from many of the aspirants asking him to assist them.

Many of the aspirants have repeatedly assured that they would support anyone of them that eventually emerges as the party's flagbearer.

Reports from the camp of the aspirants showed

that plans were on for many of them to jump ship if they failed to clinch the ticket.

A chieftain of the party, Chief Olufemi Adekanmbi, who spoke with Vanguard, said the party should ensure that credible and acceptable candidate was picked.

Nigeria, ACN and destroyed property worth millions of naira.

It was gathered that the youths were protesting alleged imposition of a candidate for the forthcoming local government election in Odeda by Governor Ibikunle Amosun.

The senator, who hails from Odeda Local Government Area was said to be supporting the governor in the alleged imposition of chairmanship candidate in the local government area.

The youths, according to reports,went to the senator’s family house at Oke-Aregba area of Abeokuta and reportedly told his mother, Madam Obadara, to caution him on his perceived plan to field an unpopular candidate for the election.

The protesters, who displayed placards with inscriptions such as “Zoning is the answer in Odeda Local Government”, “Odeda says no to imposition of Chairman”, among others threatened to deal with the senator if he did not retrace his step.

The leader of the group, Wale Ademola, accused the senator of toeing the line of the governor to jettison the zoning arrangement in the local government area.

When contacted, the Senator denied being part of the plan on the alleged imposition of candidate.

LG workers tackle Ekiti over minimum wage

BY GBENGA ARIYIBI

A

DO-EKITI—LOCAL Government workers and Ekiti State Government are at loggerhead over the payment of N19,000 new minimum wage Meanwhile, the Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees, NULGE, in the state has directed its members in all the 16 local governments to reject the April salary.

According to a statement, in Ado-Ekiti, yesterday, secretary of the union, Olu Soyele, asked all the

treasurers in the local governments not to process the payment of the April salary on N13,000 old rate for the lowest paid workers.

But the government claimed ignorance of any rift between it and the council workers.

At a briefing, the Commissioner for Local Government and Community Development, Chief Dayo Fadipe and his Information Commissioner, Mr Funminiyi Afuye, said none of NULGE officials had presented their position to the government.

Vanguard, TUESDAY, MAY 15, 2012—11

Enthrone fiscal federalism to avert break up—Lokpobiri

BY SAMUEL OYADONGHA

Y

CHIEFS OF DEFENCE STAFF OF WEST AFRICAN STATES VISIT PRESIDENTIAL VILLA: President Goodluck Jonathan flanked by Vice President Namadi Sambo (3rd left) and the Defence Minister, Alhaji Haliru Mohammed; Minister of State, Defence, Erelu Olusola Obada (3rd right); Chief of Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal Oluseyi Petinrin (2nd left) and others, shortly after an audience the President granted Chiefs of Defence Staff of West African States at the Presidential Villa, Abuja. Photo: Abayomi Adeshida.

Edo PDP denies plan to manipulate voters’ register

BY GABRIEL ENOGHOLASE

B

ENIN—EDO State chapter of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has denied the allegation by its Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, counterpart, that it had perfected plans to manipulate and mutilate the voters’ register with a view to rigging the July, 14 2012 governorship election in the state.

The party also denied any meeting between Chief Tony Anenih, former Chairman of PDP Board of Trustees and Chairman of Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Prof. Attahiru Jega, anywhere in the country to discuss issues relating to the forthcoming election.

State chairman of PDP, Chief Dan Orbih, who addressed journalists in Benin, yesterday, on the allegation, said Chief Anenih had never met

with Prof. Jega since he was appointed Chairman of INEC, adding that the accusation against the national PDP leader was not true.

Orbih also denied the accusation that PDP was preparing to recruit people from neigbouring states as thugs to assist it in rigging the election, saying that the party had no such intention.

He said that the alle-

gation by ACN was an attempt to avoid facing PDP in the governorship election and called on the ACN governorship candidate, to formally withdraw from the election in favour of its candidate, Gen. Charles Airhiavbere.

He also called on political parties taking part in the election to ensure that their agents were present in all registra-

Vigilante nabs 3 over alleged theft of lunatic's day-old baby

BY FESTUS AHON

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G H E L L I — OKPARA Vigilante group in Ethiope East Local Government Area, Delta State, weekend, arrested three women for allegedly stealing a day-old baby boy from her lunatic mother.

The women, Vanguard gathered, were trailed by the local vigilante after

the lunatic, known as Yenrowon Akpotare, a native of Ughelli, though staying in Okpara-Inland, had raised alarm over the snatching of her day-old baby.

Chairman of OkparaInland vigilante, Mr Ovoke Ubuara, who spoke to Vanguard, alleged that the three women conspired to steal the child from the lunatic.

Gunmen kill Prison Comptroller in Borno A resident, Umar Ali prisons officer said in the

BY NDAHI MARAMA

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AIDUGURI— USMAN Askarima, an Assistant Comptroller of Prisons with the prison service in Borno State was killed in Maiduguri on Sunday. Witnesses said Laskarima died as a result of gunshots when some unidentified gunmen attacked him while discussing with his friends at a spot close to his house at Budum area of Maiduguri metropolis.

tion centres during the registration of voters, who have attained the age of 18 with a view to identifying strangers and reporting same to law enforcement agents for action.

He said that the PDP was well prepared for the election and promised that the party would ensure that any stranger brought in to rig the election was dealt with.

said, “The late assistant comptroller was trailed by three people who hid their rifles under their clothes. He was the only one that was attacked even though there were other people around. I think he was their only target, he was shot on the head and neck around 1pm and the attackers simply walked away as we all fled the scene in the ensuing confusion,” he said.

A senior official of the Joint Task Force (JTF) in Borno State who confirmed the killing of the

early hours of yesterday, “a cordon and search operation” was carried out at London Ciki and Gwange, two areas that have remained a black spot of violence in the last two years.

“During the search, two gunmen suspected to have shot the Assistant Prison comptroller were killed and five suspects arrested during the operation. Two locally made pistols were also recovered,” the officer, who did not want to be named, said in a telephone conversation with our reporter.

He said Patience Ikpesu, 32 and her elder sister, Vivian Ikpesu, 35, a widow and mother of three, took the baby from where the mother laid him, while Patience brandished a cutlass at the helpless lunatic apparently to scare her away.

Ubuara alleged that Queen Otite, 40, a native of Kokori married to Okpara man told them after she was arrested, that she was the one who informed the two sisters, who came in from Warri, of the lunatic putting to bed, a baby boy.

The vigilante chairman said, “Queen said she did not know that the two sisters would steal the child and drove them out of her house when she saw them with the baby some hours later.”

Patience Ikpesu, who confessed to the crime, however, said her intention was to take the baby to Port-Harcourt, Rivers State, where she resides for proper unbringing and not to steal him.

ENAGOA—SENA TOR Heineken Lokpobiri, representing Bayelsa West senatorial district, has warned that the country may be heading towards disintegration, should the Federal Government fail to take advantage of the proposed constitutional amendment to enthrone fiscal federalism.

Senator Lokpobiri, who spoke in Yenagoa, said the battle to rid the country of the ‘Boko Haram’ sect’s campaign of terror may turn out to be a mirage without identifying its political and religious head.

He said every state of the federation has one form of resource or the other to survive, adding that Nigeria needed to take advantage of the planned constitutional amendment to enthrone fiscal federalism to avert possible break up of the country.

He said: “We need to restructure this country along fiscal federalism. I have always contended, even on the floor of the Senate, that the reason why we are bedeviled with the kind of problems we have today is because we had deviated from the structure of governance agreed upon, based on several conferences that were held before independence."

Delta commissioner tasks youths on peace, security

BY VICTOR AHIUMA-YOUNG

Y

OUTHS in Delta State have been urged to key into the peace and security agenda of the state government in order to fast track sustainable socio-economic development of the state.

Commissioner in charge of the Directorate of Youth Development in the state, Mr. Ebifa Ijomah, gave the advice

during a peace building/ interactive forum with members of Ashaka Youths Movement in Ndokwa East Local Government Area of the state.

Ijomah noted that peace and unity were some of the basic ingredients needed to transform the socio-economic fortunes of Delta youths, adding that they should be united in their collective aspiration for social development.

Why PDP must win Edo —Babatope

BY GABRIEL ENOGHOLASE

B

ENIN—FORMER Minister of Transport in the General Sani Abacha regime and a member of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Board of Trustees, Chief Ebenezer Babatope, yesterday, in Benin, Edo State, said the July 14 governorship election in the state would be a rehearsal and a replay of the 1983 gubernatorial contest between late Prof. Ambrose Alli of the Unity Party of Nigeria, UPN, and Gen. Samuel Ogbemudia of the National Party of Nigeria, NPN, during the Second Republic.

He said Edo State was crucial to the party and Nigeria and as such should not be left in the hands of rascals.

He added that the entire national leadership of PDP would soon relo-

cate to the state to join in the campaign train of Gen. Charles Airhiavbere (rtd), the governorship candidate of PDP, to ensure his victory in the election.

Passage

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HIEF Jeremiah Ekee, the Akokotu of Erowha Kingdom, is dead.

The late Chief Ekee hailed from Irri Town in Isoko South Local Government Area, Delta State.

A statement by the family, said burial arrangement shall be announced later.

Late Chief J. Ekee

12—Vanguard, TUESDAY, MAY 15, 2012

Only God'll rescue Nigeria from insecurity, economic woes —Bishop Ide

BY FESTUS AHON

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BRIEFING: From left: Mr. Wall Amar, Chief Commercial Officer; Mr. Steven Evans CEO, Etisalat explaining some point and Mr. Oluwole Rawa, Director, Marketing Segment and Strategy, during a briefing by CEO Etisalat, on introduction of Etisalat Easy Business. Photo: Shola Oyelese.

Ogboru asks S'Court to reverse judgment on Delta guber poll

BY INNOCENT ANABA

D

EMOCRATIC Peo ples Party, DPP, governorship candidate in Delta State for the April 2011, general elections, Chief Great Ogboru, has asked the Supreme Court, Abuja, to reverse its judgment of March 2, 2012, which he argued, nullified the Court of Appeal judgment in the consolidated appeals, but failed to make consequential orders.

Ogboru, who is challenging the declaration of Dr Emmanuel Uduaghan of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP by Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, as winner of the governorship election, had contended that the lower tribunal erred in law by upholding his (Uduaghan) election. The Court of Appeal also upheld the decision of the tribunal.

Ogboru is asking the

apex court to direct that the said consolidated appeals be determined on their merit, either by the Supreme Court or the Court of Appeal, by a different panel of Justices.

Urging the court to revisit its judgment, he argued: “On March 20, 2012, this court, as per the lead judgment in the consolidated appeals, deliv-

ered by Justice I. Muhammad, declared the judgment of the Court of Appeal null and void. Instead of allowing appellants appeal and making the necessary consequential orders, the court struck out the said consolidated appeals.

“Justice W. Onnoghen, who presided, however, in his concurring judgment,

Y

ENAGOA—BARE LY some few hours to the expiration of the 72 hours ultimatum handed down to cultists to turn in their weapons and shun violence, a youth was, Sunday, stabbed to death in the riverine community of Igbomatoru in Southern Ijaw Local Government Area of Bayelsa State by suspected cultist.

Though the attack was

Igarra foiled bank robbery: Police quiz bank officials

BY SIMON EBEGBULEM

State Edo: ACN youths arrest fake INEC BENIN—EDO Police Command is investigating some senior official with DDC machine officials of the two new

BY SIMON EBEGBULEM

B

ENIN—TENSION heightened in Edo State, yesterday, when thousands of youths of Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, in the state stormed the state secretariat of Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to protest what they called alleged attempt by the commis-

sion to connive with Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, to rig the forthcoming July 14 governorship election in the state.

The protest followed the alleged arrest of a fake INEC official, who was caught with Direct Data Capturing Machine, DDC and allegedly confessed on camera that they had commenced the registration of voters since Sunday.

Cultists dare police, kill one in Bayelsa

BY SAMUEL OYADONGHA

allowed the appeal and held that he was abiding “by all the consequential orders made in the said lead judgment, including the order as to cost.

“Justice Onnoghen meant that the appellants consolidated appeals were indeed allowed; consequential order(s) were indeed made or supposed to have been made in favour of the success of the appellants appeals."

GHELLI—BISH OP of the Warri Diocese of the Anglican Communion, Delta State, Rt. Rev. Christian Ide, has said that only God will rescue Nigeria from the problems of disunity, insecurity, economic afflictions and political dysfunctions plaguing the country.

Speaking at the third session of the tenth Synod of the Warri Diocese, Ide called on the Federal Government to act on the findings of the various panels of investigation and bring to book all those found culpable.

He tasked the Delta State Government on peace and security, lamenting that “citizens of the state have been living at the mercy of kidnappers, armed robbers, ritual killers, assassins and similar criminals.”

Urging government and security agencies to

blamed on alleged supremacy tussle between rival cult groups in the area, it was gathered that trouble started when a minor disagreement between two youths, playing snooker degenerated into a heated argument with one stabbing the other to death.

The state Commissioner of Police, Mr. Chris Olakpe, who confirmed the incident, said the suspect had been arrested and was assisting the police in its investiga-

tion.

He said the law would take its course on the suspect, adding that the police had moved into the creeks to flush out the miscreants and cult members.

He said the police had earlier granted 72 hours of grace to cultists to enable them surrender their arms and shun violence and warned that at the expiration of the period, such persons would be arrested and made to face “the full weight of the new law.”

The suspect was also alleged to have said that he was asked by PDP to register people in Uromi and Igueben.

This came barely 24 hours after the state ACN raised alarm that the state PDP had perfected plans to rig the election “with the INEC ICT unit in Abuja and Benin, they needed to deploy excess DDC machines to enable them achieve their aim of manipulating the process in the forthcoming election. The PDP would also use such excess machines to register their imported thugs from neighbouring states to manipulate the entire electoral process.”

PDP has meanwhile denied the allegation.

Speaking through its state Publicity Secretary, Mr. Matthew Urhoghide, PDP denied the allegation and urged INEC not to be intimidated from doing its job, but to go on with the voters registration exercise scheduled to commence today.

be more proactive, he stressed the need for government “to begin the fight against crime and corruption from the Government House" He called upon the new Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, chairman in the state and other religious leaders to prevail on Delta State Government to account for looted funds, noting that the church has a great responsibility in the fight against corruption.

He told clergies to summon the courage to discipline their members over corruption, adding that many of those standing trial in high profile corruption cases are members of churches.

According to him, “In the matter of corruption in Nigeria, the church seems to have gone to sleep, we must know that God is looking up to His Church to deliver Nigeria.”

generation banks in Igarra, Akoko Edo Local Government Area of the state, where some dare-devil robbers attempted to rob last Friday.

It was learnt that the police is investigating how the robbers got the information that huge sums of money arrived the banks that Friday.

It will be recalled that

Pa James Erusiafe is dead

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HE Erusiafe family of Eku, Delta State, has announced the death of Mr. James Oruma Erusiafe, a retired Permanent Secretary in Lagos State and former AGM Spibat (Nig) Limited.

The late Erusiafe who passed on May 6, 2012, was aged 83. He is survived by his widow, four children and grand children. Funeral arrangements will be announced later.

the robbers stormed Igarra with three vehicles, and prior to their visit to the banks, they attacked the police station at Igarra with dynamite before heading to the banks.

However, the bank robbery was foiled after the police in Igarra got reinforcement and support from members of the vigilante group in the area.

Two of the vigilante members, Kehinde Julius and Eshovo Ukonga, were shot by the robbers and are currently receiving treatment in hospital.

At press time, one of the suspected robbers, who escaped into the caves with gunshot injuries had been caught by the police and members of the vigilante group in the community. Vanguard was informed that the robbers allegedly came from Kogi State.

Vanguard, TUESDAY, MAY 15, 2012—13

BY CHIDI NKWOPARA

Unlawful arrest: Court finds Anambra CP, others guilty O ...awards N100,000 damages against them

BY VINCENT UJUMADU

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WKA—AN Anambra Hight Court sitting at Otuocha has found Anambra State Commissioner of Police and the officer commanding special anti– robbery squad, SARS, Nnewi, guilty of unlawful arrest and detention of one Sunday Nwachukwu over alleged armed robbery.

Also found guilty was Mr. Chigbo Ndiribe who allegedly made the report to the police.

Nwachukwu was detained and allegedly tortured by SARS on May 10, 2010, and was allegedly denied access to his counsel, while some of his properties, including two vehicles, were confiscated.

Presiding Justice Veronica.N.Umeh said there was no doubt that the applicant’s fundamental rights were violated and, as such, should be entitled to damages against the respondents.

He also declared illegal, null and void and unconstitutional detention and torture of the applicant till he was granted bail, adding that the respondents were not able to justify their action, just as the 3rd respondent craftily dodged filing process in court against the applicant.

The Judge said: “I have carefully and meticulously perused the processes in the file and I have not been able to find any reasonable or justifiable reason, excuse, explanation as to why the respondents emitted the type or level of treatment they did on the applicant.

“Section 35(1) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, as amended has provided that every person shall be entitled to his respect and liberty and no person shall be deprived of such liberty save in cases enumerated in sub sections 1 a,b,c,d,e and f of Section 35 and which, of course, must be in accordance with a procedure permitted by law.

“From the facts of this application, which were not refuted by the respondents, it is my respectful view that the arrest and detention of the applicant by the police was not based on reasonable suspicion, but C M Y K

based on vendetta and selfish mission. Admittedly, the applicant’s rights have been violated and as such, should be entitled to damages.”

The Judge further ruled that the 3rd Respondent, Chigbo Ndiribe, should be made to shoulder the whole responsibility of the damages which the applicant prayed for and subsequently awarded

N100, 000 in favour of the applicant.

W E R R I — ACTIVITIES of armed hoodlums have continued unabated in Imo State with the reported kidnapping of another Imo son, Chief Raymond Ekeanya.

Vanguard investigations revealed that Ekeanya was

Kidnappers abduct another prominent Imo citizen abducted weekend in his home at Uvuru Ntu, Ngor Okpala local council area of the state.

Ekeanya, a prominent farmer, was reportedly relaxing in his parlour when his abductors stormed the place at about 8pm and took

Enugu govt to absorb 70 indigenes sacked by Abia

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NUGU—ENUGU House of Assembly has screened at least 70 indigenes of the state disengaged by its Abia counterpart in August 2011.

The screening, according to an official of the assembly, was to pave the

way for their possible absorption in the state civil service.

The Chairman of the assembly committee on civil service, Chief Joseph Ugwumba, said the exercise was to ascertain the workers’ true identity and

their number.

“After this exercise which we are concluding today, we will recommend to Enugu State Civil Service Commission to absorb all that have been cleared and are qualified for the job they claimed to be doing in Abia.

him away.

It was further gathered that the as soon as the hoodlums identified their target, they fired warning shots into the air, apparently to scare people away, before settling for their victim.

At the time of going to press, the hoodlums had not made any contact with the immediate members of Chief Ekeanya’s family or made any demand for ransom.

The Imo State Police Public Relations Officer, PPRO, Mr. Samuel Oodee, could not be reached for comments on the matter.

14—Vanguard , TUESDAY, MAY 15, 2012

Gunmen invade monarch's palace in Ebonyi...cart away N10m zAs monarch accuses LG boss, commissioner of complicity

BY PETER OKUTU

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BAKALIKI—FIVE suspected gunmen yesterday disrupted activities at the palace of traditional ruler of Ishiagu kingdom of Ivo local government area of Ebonyi State, Eze Moses Ngele.

Vanguard learnt that when the gang of unidentified gunmen invaded the palace with AK 47 assault rifles, there was confusion as people within the palace scampered for safety.

Eyewitnesses told Vanguard that the gunmen forced their way into the palace, shooting sporadically, adding that it was not clear whether the hoodlums came to kidnap the traditional ruler whose coronation had been a subject of litigation.

The traditional ruler accused chairman of Ivo local government area, Celestine Eze, and a commissioner in Governor Martin Elechi’s government of sending the gunmen after him.

But in a quick reaction, Chairman of Ivo LGA, Celestine Eze, denied the allegation that he organised a group of men to kidnap the king.

“It is not true. Somebody will just wake up and start alleging something against me. Why should I do such a thing? I don’t have anything to do with such an incident,” he said.

Confirming the incident, Divisional Police Officer of Ishiagu, Mr. Okey Obieke, stated that the men who came to the traditional ruler’s palace were simply boys who came to disrupt the meeting holding at the p a l a c e .

According to him, three of the youths were arrested but none of them was seen with guns.

Recounting his ordeal, the traditional said: “Five boys came to my compound at about 12 noon today (yesterday). One of them surrounded the people down stairs. So when he surrounded them with gun, he succeeded in carrying the N10 million I brought to do projects for the people of my area, then he threw the big parcel to one of his gang members who ran away from the fence.

“Then one of them climbed another fence through the window and met me in my room with a gun. He said that they were sent to kid-

nap me.

“Then the boy said I should give them N150 million to spare my life. So as I was shivering, then police arrived because those down stairs had alerted the

police. When the police came, they apprehended o n e of them that was still holding the gun.

“The one in the room tried to jump the fence to start

running, then police caught him as well. The boys confessed that their emissary told them to kill me and that if I resist kidnapping, I should be killed immediately".

VISIT—Captain Tito Omaghomi, former DC 10 pilot, Nigeria Airways; and Mr Mideno Bayagbon, Editor, Vanguard Newspaper, during the captain's visit to Vanguard Newspaper headquarters in Lagos, yesterday.

FG raises professors retirement age to 70 yrs zASUU hails Jonathan, NASS, others

BY EMMANUEL AZIKEN, POLITICAL EDITOR HE retirement age of university professors in the nation’s public universities was yesterday raised to 70 years after President Goodluck Jonathan signed the bill lifting the retirement age from the 65 years.

The bill which had been passed by the previous National Assembly and did not get the assent of former President Olusegun Obasanjo and President Umaru Yar‘Adua was again recently passed by the present National Assembly.

A joyful President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, Prof.

Ukachukwu Awuzie, confirmed the development yesterday as he praised the President for giving quick assent to the bill. He also praised the two houses of the National Assembly for expediting passage of the bill and the Minister of Education and the Special Adviser to the President on National Assembly, Senator Joy Emodi for her effort in getting the passed bill to the President’s desk.

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The bill titled: “Universities Provisions Miscellaneous Act, 2012,” makes provision for the retirement age of university professors to be raised to 70 years, a development aimed at keeping the nation’s professors in active service in the education sector. The bill has been a long standing pursuit of ASUU. Reacting to the development, ASUU President, Prof. Awuzie said: “It is a welcome development and we commend the president for treating the bill with the urgency it deserves and we also want to commend the National Assembly because if you look at all that is in the National Assembly and this bill was singled out, we have to congratulate the National Assembly, the presidency, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation and Minister of Education and her team for doing this work and getting it out now. We also commend specially the Special Adviser to the President on National Assembly, Senator Joy Emodi for her efforts in getting the bill signed.”

Adama Dam: Contractor denies abandoning project

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LAUNCH—From left: Mr. Tola Bademosi; Managing Director, BD Consult; Mr. Prahlad Gangadharan, Chief Operating Officer, La Casera Company Ltd; and Mr. Dave Van Rensburg, General Manager/Marketing, La Casera during launch of La Casara Apple story/thematic campaign in Lagos, weekend. Photo: Joe Akintola, Photo editor.

CNPP warns PDP over alleged plot to factionalize NLC

BY CHRIS OCHAYI

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BUJA—THE Conference of Nigerian Political Parties, CNPP, has warned that moves by the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, to factionalize the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, will cause a national disaster.

CNPP, said in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Mr. Osita Okechukwu, that the plot was designed to protect corrupt and incompetent PDP members in public offices.

The statement read: “the

truism is that the PDP is afraid of its shadow of crass incompetence in governance, monumental corruption and therefore ironically views the Labour Movement as an enemy rather than comrade in arms to better the welfare of the citizenry as provided in the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

“With the foregoing, we challenge President Goodluck Jonathan to use his good offices to call to order those unpatriotic, undemocratic and antilabour elements in his party and government whose plan is to factionalize and

indeed kill the Labour Movement in Nigeria to stop forthwith.

“CNPP is outraged when we received the worrisome news from the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, that the PDP-led Federal Government have perfected unholy plan to create a Labour Centre with the intendment to kill the Labour Movement in Nigeria.

“Our worry stems from the fact that to factionalize the Labour Movement, which always stood with the people in waging wars of attrition against antipeoples policy, will be a national disaster".

HE contractor handling construction of Adama Dam, Nsukka, Ruodo Nigeria Limited, has dismissed insinuations that it abandoned the project.

According to the company, the project was stopped by villagers who requested for compensation for their cash crops and cultural items by going to court.

Resident Project Engineer of Ruodo, Engr Nnanna Enwere, in a statement, said the company had tried to ensure early completion of the project to the benefit of Nsukka people but lamented that the host

community had not been co-operative.

He explained that the company after the flag-off of the project by the Ministry last year, deployed high calibre equipment to the site and started preliminary clearing.

“The community representatives asked us to stop work and took the matter to court. They insisted that there must be an agreed numeration of their cash crops and other economic and cultural items for adequate compensation by the government before they would allow us to continue work.

Deployment: Imo govt, workers reach agreement

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WERRI—IMO State government and organised labour in the state yesterday resolved the dispute over deployment of civil servants to their localities.

The civil servants were to be deployed to their communities as part of the government’s resolve to form a fourth-tier

government to develop rural areas.

In the statement jointly signed by Mr Evans Uzokwe, Head of Service in the state, and Mr Chuzzy Onyeka, the Secretary of the Imo Joint Negotiating Council, the parties noted that they jointly took the decision.

Vanguard, TUESDAY, MAY 15, 2012—15

ECOWAS: Nigerian troops leave for G/Bissau

BY VICTORIA OJEME

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BUJA—FEDERAL Government, yesterday, announced plans to deploy troops to Guinea Bissau on Friday under the auspices of the Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS, to force the junta out of power.

Minister of Defense, Dr. Haliru Bello, made this known in Abuja when he declared open the 30th meeting of ECOWAS Chiefs of Defence Staff.

Bello said Nigeria would soon deploy troops to Mali to restore the shaky transition process reportedly hijacked by that country ’s coupists, if ECOWAS gave the go-

ahead.

The Minister said: “Nigeria troops will be leaving for Guinea Bissau on the 18th of this month to arrest the situation and restore peace in the country.

We are also waiting for information from ECOWAS to airlift our troops and equipment to Mali for the same purpose.”

He said chiefs of defence staff in the subregion were out to ensure that threats in the Sahel region and Gulf of Guinea were dealt with to provide a secured environment for collective development of the sub-region, noting that the two areas were gateways to the socioeconomic development of West Africa.

HEALTH: From left— Dr. Femi Olugbile, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Health; Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State, and Dr (Mrs) Dolapo Fashawe at the ministry's Eko Free Health Mission programme at Ogudu Primary Health Centre, Ogudu, Ojota, Lagos. PHOTO: Shola Oyelese.

Nigeria's economy 'll collapse unless... —Sen Eze

BY HENRY UMORU & FAVOUR NNABUGWU

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BUJA—CHAIRMAN, Senate Committee on Works, Senator Ayogu Eze, yesterday, raised alarm that unless the Federal Government took urgent measures on the deplorable situation of the nation’s roads, the economy stood the risk of imminent collapse.

Speaking, yesterday, during a workshop on attitudinal change in the management and financing of roads in Nigeria, Senator Eze lamented that “Nigeria is nowhere to be found in terms of positioning in the number of quality road infrastructure within her territory.’’

Speaking further, Senator

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Ayogu said the place of road infrastructure was important to the development and growth of the economy.

“If we are developing federal roads and the states and local governments are not collaborating with us, the road development efforts

will not be robust and sustainable,” he added.

Meanwhile, the Minister of Works, Mike Onolememen, said yesterday that if Nigeria must be one of the top world 20 economies as well as achieve its targeted Vision 2020, Nigeria’s road

infrastructure must grow from its present 194,000km to about 300,000km.

Onolememen also warned that if Nigeria must get there, there must be a paradigm shift in the development of road infrastructure in the country.

... as Reps summon Accountant-Gen

BY BEN AGANDE

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BUJA—HOUSE of Representatives Committee on Public Accounts has summoned the Accountant-General of the Federation to appear before it tomorrow to explain why it failed to answer the House’s summon over the auditing of the Federation

Account as raised by the Auditor-General of the Federation, between 2005 and 2009.

Chairman of the committee, Mr. Solomon Olamilekan, who gave the directive, yesterday, also decried the contempt with which the office of the Accountant-General treats invitations of the House and threatened to invoke relevant constitutional provisions to compel the appearance of the Accountant-General.

According to the

committee chairman, apart from the three queries from the office of the AuditorGeneral of the Federation to the Accountant General of the Federation over the audited accounts of the Federation, the committee also raised eight queries which were ignored by the Accountant-General.

The committee chairman also revealed that the activities of Nigerian Deposit Insurance Company from 2006 till date would be investigated.

Remit N1.9bn tax to FG, Reps order FERMA

BY EMMAN OVUAKPORIE

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BUJA—FEDERAL Roads Maintenance Agency, FERMA, has been directed by the House of Representatives House Committee on Public Accounts to remit N1.97 billion unrequited tax to the Federal Government’s coffers. The agency was also said to have lost N586 million to some defunct banks, notably the defunct City Express Bank.

Based on this, the committee directed that the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, appeared before it to explain why the money

was written off simply because it was not insured.

The revelations were made at a meeting of the House of Representatives’ Committee on Public Accounts and select agencies, yesterday, Chairman of the committee, Solomon Olamilekan, wondered why FERMA had yet to remit N1,964,013,883.48, being withholding and Value Added Taxes, VAT, to government.

He drew the attention of FERMA’s management to N586,366,000 reportedly “written off” in 2006 because the money was trapped in some distressed banks.

NAICOM condemns insurers' foreign drive

BY FAVOUR NNABUGWU

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ATIONAL Insurance Commission, NAICOM, has condemned the expansion drive of the country ’s insurance companies in foreign countries over and above their spread in the country, at the expense of the nation’s untapped market such as microinsurance.

The commission was particularly peeved by those companies that cannot boast of 10 offices in Nigeria but have offices in other countries such as Rwanda, Ghana, Gambia, Cameroon, Uganda and Sao Tome and Principe, among others.

Commissioner for Insurance, Mr. Fola Daniel,

expressed his frustration at the inaugural meeting for diagnostic study of microinsurance by German’s Deutsche Gasellschaft fur Internationele Zusammenarbeit, GIZ, and Access to Insurance Initiative, AII, in Abuja, yesterday.

The GIZ, Daniel said, had a time line of 24 months to develop and market microinsurance for Nigerian insurance market, noting that 80 per cent of the country’s populace lived in the rural areas that insurance companies needed to reach.

The idea to develop and market micro-insurance, he said, was mooted by the commission which invited a combination of experts from Brazil, Canada, India, etc, under GIZ to help the country.

16—Vanguard, TUESDAY, MAY 15, 2012

UNILORIN 44 call for VC's arrest, detention

BY DEMOLA AKINYEMI

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LORIN—THE 44 lecturers of the University of Ilorin, UNILORIN, who were sacked by university and reinstated by the Supreme Court, have asked an Ilorin Federal High Court to commit to prison the Vice Chancellor and three other officials of the university for “neglecting to obey the judgment of the Supreme Court contained in its judgment delivered on December 11, 2009.”

The aggrieved lecturers based their latest demands on the fact that the university had refused to implement the apex court’s judgment by paying them

all their entitlements as directed by the court till date. Such entitlements include their accumulated annual leaves and promotions as contained in the judgment.

In a motion on notice filed by the applicants counsel, Toyin Oladipo, the lecturers are also seeking that the judgment debtors/ respondent be “detained in custody until they obey the judgment in all things that ought to have been granted to the judgment creditors according to the judgment.”

The applicants’ further stated: ‘’The Supreme Court delivered its judgment in this case on appeal on December 11,

2009, wherein it restored the judgment of the High Court, thereby granting them all their relief.

“The judgment debtors have refused to grant the judgment creditors their accumulated annual leaves and sabbaticals for the period they were unlawfully dismissed. The judgment debtors have refused to grant the judgment creditors their annual promotions for the period they were unlawfully dismissed. ”Forms 48 and 49 have been served on the judgment debtors and they still persist in their disobedience.”

The motion is slated to be heard on Friday, May 25.

Benue varsity medical students protest non-graduation after 10yrs

BY PETER DURU

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AKURDI— OBVIOUSLY tired

Transition

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RS Onolemionlen Isibor, nee Ibhafiudoobho Abadaike, of Ebhuru, Ubiaja, Esan South-East Local Government Area of Edo State, 68, is dead. She died yesterday.

She is survived by Adesua Obinyan, Chief Finance Officer of BusinessDay Media Limited; Patience, Ehidiamen, among others.

Late Mrs Isibor

Transition

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SS I S TA N T Comptroller of Customs, Mr. Samson Obire (rtd), 67, is dead.

He died April 17.

Burial is May 26 at Ikidioka St. Eku, Ethiope East Local Government Area, Delta State.

Christian wake keep will hold at his resident in Festac Town, by 5pm.

of spending about 10 years at the Benue State University, BSU, without graduation due to nonaccreditation of their courses, medical students of the university, yesterday, staged a peaceful demonstration in Makurdi, calling on both the school authorities and the state government to come to their rescue.

This is coming on heels of the killing of a doctorate student of the university, Mr. John Gber, yesterday by his neighbour, who allegedly stabbed him to death in Makurdi, the Benue State capital.

Narrating the incident to newsmen, Miss Janet Gber, a sibling of the deceased and eyewitness, said the deceased was allegedly stabbed by one Mr. Akaa at about 10am in front of their

NEMA advocates state emergency agency for Borno

BY NDAHI MARAMA

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AIDUGURI— DIRECTORGeneral of the National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA, Alhaji Mohammed Sidi has called on Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno State to

establish its own emergency relief agency in Maiduguri, the state capital.

According to Sidi, such a centre would not only compliment the efforts of the Federal Government in assisting victims of the Boko Haram insurgency, but also serve as an emergency unit.

CIPM holds AGM, election

A Late Mr. Obire.

father’s house, at Logo One area of Makurdi.

Police Public Relations Officer, PPRO, Assistant Superintendent of Police, Alaribe Ejike confirmed the incident and said that the police had since arrested the suspect, adding that he would soon be charged.

Meanwhile, the protesting students, who trekked from the school through the streets of Makurdi, converged at the Government House Round-about decked in their white over-all gowns, but were prevented by security operative who wielded guns and tear gas, from gaining entrance.

The students claimed that they had an appointment to see Governor Gabriel Suswam, who was in Abuja for an official engagement at the time of the protest.

BUJA chapter of the Chartered Institute of Personnel Management of Nigeria, CIPM, the apex professional body of human resources management practitioners in the country, will hold its

Annual General Meeting, AGM, elections and swearing-in of new executives tomorrow.

This was contained in a statement by Mrs. Beluchi Nwanisobi, Publicity Secretary of the branch.

Vanguard, TUESDAY, MAY 15, 2012—17

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Port reform and superflous agencies should be disbanded. I have my reasons.

A Customs officer is one of the best trained persons anywhere in the world. And that includes the Nigerian Customs. And by the way, Customs is an international organisation and what obtains in the UK or Australia used to obtain here; I don’t know of now. Elsewhere in the world, the only people you find at the ports are Customs, Immigration, Quarantine and Port Health officers. The Ports Authority is usually the landlord. Those who search for and intercept hard drugs or prohibited plants, animals and food in other ports of the world are neither NDLEA nor NAFDAC type of oddities.

They are Customs and Quarantine.

In the golden days

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n the golden days of Customs and Excise with Mr. Henry Duke as Chairman and Chief Executive, the Nigerian Customs officer was, and I should believe is, trained to do his job, including what the NDLEA, NAFDAC, SON etc pretend to be doing at the ports today. That is why, in addition to the powers invested on the Customs under the

,

AST year or so, the Federal Government did the wise thing to send many so-called security agencies packing from the nation’s ports. This was in order to rid Nigerian ports of bottlenecks that hampered the clearing of goods within maximum of 24 hours. The aim is to make our ports userfriendly, facilitate trade, improve on revenue collection which is currently lost to more efficient neighbouring ports and finally contribute to vision of 20:2020.

Before the Federal Government wielded the big stick at the ports, there were such agencies like Customs, Immigration, Quarantine, National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and Control, Nigerian Drug Law Enforcement Agency, Standards Organisation of Nigeria, National Security and Civil Defence Corps, (can I catch my breath please?), Nigeria Police, Mobile Police, State Security Services, Army, Navy, Airforce, Interpol and many others I can’t remember now! Each of these agencies arrogated to itself the power to examine, detain or release goods! It was like every new agency created by the government deployed itself to the ports. Let us not deceive ourselves. There was a thriving egunje culture at the ports. This frustrated importers and added to the cost of goods.

When you think of some of the silly things we have done and still do in this country you would agree with me that we are simply ridiculous!

Last week, I watched one gentleman from the NDLEA on a national television making a case for his agency to return to the ports. The man simply looked pathetic! He made it sound as if we would all die if the NDLEA did not return to the ports. He did not prove that more cocaine has come into Nigeria since NDLEA was sacked from the ports. My view after listening to the man was that if the NDLEA can only be relevant by working at the ports, then it had no job and

The Customs should be provided with modern equipment and facilities and not have their responsibilities out-sourced to other agencies and foreign companies backed by powerful politicians and retired Generals!

The Federal Government MUST not go back on the sacking of the interlopers from the ports. Come on! Do we need journalists at the ports to intercept prohibited pornographic materials?

Customs and Excise Management Act, CEMA, the Customs was also invested with the powers of the Police!

Any good released by the Collector in the shed stood released before God and man!

Any subsequent query was raised by the Valuation, Manifest and Investigation seats of Customs or by Ministry of Finance, if is that serious revenue loss.

But unfortunately, apart from dumping demobiliser soldiers

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on Customs, the powers of Customs were vitiated during the military regime and its job was out-sourced to other organisations in and outside Nigeria.

You will recall that military regime was famous for “government-by-proposals”. If you knew any General, you packaged your proposal about how to make easy money. Your proposal became policy and a decree was churned out to back it! That was how a smart Alec

Terrorism: Why negotiation is not so simple

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INCE the POLITICALLY MOTIVATED Islamist terrorists decided to trash the country, the well-timed popular refrain has been that the Federal Government MUST negotiate with a murderous terror gang or else the bloodletting will not stop.

The latest voice to that effect was the Vice President who last week called for ceasefire and discussion. It sounded like surrender! This followed that of the Senate President, David Mark. Last week also Senator Mark said among other lamentations: “I would like to add that those misguided groups are our brothers and sisters.

Government must therefore explore all avenues to discuss with them”. Such sentiment coming from the Vice President and a man atop an institution charged with making laws for the good governance of Nigeria must have elicited jubilation in terrorist camps from Maiduguri to Mogadishu!

When people resort to such

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mushiness, do they spare a thought to the families whose father, son, uncle, brother, mother, wife, sister, daughter and aunt have been murdered by these terrorists? Comrade Kabiri Olaitan Oyerinde was buried last week. Those who murdered him in his home in Benin City are equally our misguided “brothers and sisters” and the Federal Government “must” also negotiate with them! The armed robbers and kidnappers are also our misguided “brothers and sisters”. Why hound them instead of negotiating with them? It seems the only “misguided” group that is not our “brothers and sisters” are members of MASSOB who are being shot at sight, arrested and jailed just for wearing Biafran flag!

Since the terrorists have access to the media, posting video clips and issuing press releases, they should first state their grievances publicly so that we know what the negotiation should be all

about. We all knew the grievances of the Niger Delta militants and every fair-minded Nigerian sympathised with them even before the Federal Government engaged them. All we know today is that the terrorists are on a Jihad to Islamise Nigeria and they reject Western education. Moreover, their media/intellectual arm is confusing us. Everyday the reason for the terrorism changes meaning that they are shopping for grievances.

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t will be better if the Northern Governors and political leaders start the negotiation with the terrorists. Such negotiation must be open so that Nigerians are not swindled into concessions that could set the nation on more serious conflagration. Mark my words; if we are not careful, it could tear Nigeria apart for the Federal Government to jump into negotiation with terrorists with hidden agenda and makeshift

grievances, especially in a manner that suggests a weak position. Where the so-called grievances are such that the governments in the North cannot deal with them the Federal Government could then assist. I think that it was mere histrionics for Alhaji Datti Ahmed to have called off his negotiation with the terrorists. What is there in their so-called grievances that the negotiation must be so secret that you could not even mention the word “negotiation”?

The claim of poverty as the reason for this high stake power game played with innocent lives has been thoroughly floored even by the utterly ridiculous conditions and ultimatum the terrorists are giving to President Jonathan. It is obvious that one of the purposes is to humiliate and ridicule the President. Is all the money spent on bombs, sophisticated guns and logistics not enough to change the lives of at least one million poor youths in the North? Poverty indeed!

packaged the fraud called preshipment inspection, brought in a foreign company and everybody concerned made money while the Customs was reduced to onlookers as people brought in containers of saw dust! Today we are talking about “destination inspection” as if it is a new invention, and I ask myself, what was the Customs doing before “preshipment inspection”? Was it not destination inspection?

Why did we need to position a foreign company now to do destination inspection? Why not equip the Customs with the same scanning machines to do its job like its counterparts elsewhere? This type of daylight robbery which ordinary Nigerians do not easily comprehend really makes me angry! I seem to have digressed.

As I said earlier, a Customs officer is very well trained to carry out this same duty for which NDLEA wants to be at the ports. Any importer bringing in chemicals and medicinal products had to back his Bill of Entry with a permit issued by the Pharmaceutical Board of Nigeria. Although Nigeria has become more corrupt and people have mortgaged their integrity now, I can say that the Pharmaceutical Permit was never issued frivolously by the Board. Even forged ones, like forged invoices and Bills of Laden were still detected by Customs officers. So, once an item entered by the importer falls under chemicals and chemical products or required special permits, a Customs officer demanded for these additional documents. And if not produced he or she queried the Bill of Entry.

Today's techonology and sniffer dogs

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oday, concealment, hard drugs and smuggling of other prohibited items have become a problem. The answer to such problems is technology and sniffer dogs, not superfluous agencies whose operations are manual anyway.

In modern world, before goods, accompanied or unaccompanied, are positioned for Customs inspection, they are scanned and trained dogs sniff them for hard drugs. This is not to say that interception and interdiction of prohibited goods at the ports are 100 percent foolproof. But that is why there are raids by Customs and Drug Enforcement Agencies within the country. All these other agencies should concentrate on internal raids to stop those who succeed in beating Customs, Immigration and Quarantine from benefiting from their illicit acts.

The Customs should be provided with modern equipment and facilities and not have their responsibilities out-sourced to other agencies and foreign companies backed by powerful politicians and retired Generals! The Federal Government MUST not go back on the sacking of the interlopers from the ports.

Come on! Do we need journalists at the ports to intercept prohibited pornographic materials?

18 — Vanguard, TUESDAY, MAY 15, 2012 XCHANGE by its accepted nature is E a two -way traffic with possible diversions. There is giving, there is taking.

Where the Stock Exchange is involved, investors give their money in exchange for shares in organisations of their choice.

Matters are not that simple as the exchanges at the House of Representatives investigation into the crash of the capital market is showing. The exchanges are clear departures from the concerns of Nigerians, which centre on why the capital market crashed. What went wrong? Could the situation have been redeemed? Would it happen again?

Exchanges between Miss Arunma Oteh, Director-General of the Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC, and Dr. Ndi Okereke- Onyiuke, former DirectorGeneral of the Nigerian Stock Exchange, NSE, are closer to theatre than reality.

People want answers to questions about how their shares acquired less value than sheets of paper.

Thousands of investors, lured to the Exchange by the huge dividends companies paid, thought someone was watching over their investments. When the

A stuck Exchange Exchange crashed, they expected someone would accept responsibility, particularly for the sheer looting through some of the banks.

Failure of the Stock Exchange was worse than the bank failures of 1994. The shares not only crashed, some investors suffered a double loss. Banks in which they had investments died through marginal loans that gave impression of high activity at the Exchange. The manipulations of the market with those loans deceived investors.

The Exchange acquired plaudits from global market experts on its growth. SEC acquiesced as the malpractices went on, possibly, it was clueless about them, including acquisition of quoted banks without considering investors.

What worries most people is the trend at the House hearing. What will this hearing achieve? When will the exchanges get to causes of the collapse of the capital market? Should that not be the focus of the hearing?

For a nation that scandals no longer shock, cataloguing who stole what and who did not leads nowhere close to resurrecting the Exchange. Yet it may be reasonable to know why an Exchange would reward anyone with a time-piece worth more than N1 million which Nigeria does not manufacture.

Wastes abound in our systems. One way of punishing deliberate waste and the attendant criminality is stringent laws that are no respecters of personalities. The operational procedures of many organisations need standardisation to be proper guides against misconducts.

If the House hearing achieves these, it would have gone far in freeing the Exchange from factors holding it captive. The collapse of the banks through marginal loans is not a trifle matter. No investigation of the capital market is complete without it.

Enough of the theatre, the House should ask real questions for real answers.

OPINION

BY CHUKWUDI ENEKWECHI

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HE Abuja Metropolitan Management Council (formerly AMMA) came into being in year 2005 as a response to the increasing development challenges besetting an evolving federal capital such as Abuja. AMMC is comprised of five departments namely: Parks and Recreation; Urban Affairs, Development Control, Facilities Maintenance and Management; Administration and Finance. From all indications, these departments are meant to complement each other towards ensuring optimum service delivery to the residents of FCT. Regrettably, the Council in the past was famous for demolition of properties, more than any other function. It appeared as if the organisation was set up to inflict pain on property developers in the federal capital. Conversely today, it is consoling that the Abuja Metropolitan Management Council, under the new leadership of Reuben Okoya, an architect, has decided to refocus the organisation in a way that its core mandates can be realised in the interest of Abuja residents.

For example, the new leadership has taken the gauntlet to ease the problems usually associated with the processing of building plans in the FCT. Hitherto, it took upwards of one year to get a simple building plan to be approved by the Council.

Obviously, these delays and laxity caused untold hardship to many property developers and investors who want to invest in FCT. Going by the new policies being enunciated by the Okoya leadership, it would take only two weeks from now to process all qualified building plans. This is based on the reasoning that prompt processing and approval of legitimate building plans will greatly enhance economic development, investment opportunities and housing needs in the territory. In addition, if the call by government for the C M Y K

Task before Abuja metropolitan council private sector to join in developing Abuja will yield the desired result, then all obstacles towards realising the goal must be dismantled.

In the area of demolition of illegal structures in the territory, it is gratifying to know that the Okoya leadership has decided to carry out their duties with due diligence and human face. This is commendable considering that the Jonathan administration which was founded on popular support by most Nigerians should not be seen to be acting with hostility on the same people.

Democratic governments all over the world are notable for being humane and considerate in handling public issues.

Therefore, that the Okoya leadership has decided to tread softly on issues related to demolition is a thing of joy. Furthermore, that AMMC does not compromise standards in their operations, and yet remaining considerate in operations is commendable. In truth, demolitions should not be carried out just for the sake of it, as was the practice in times past.

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n the new dispensation, demolitions are carried out with due diligence, observance of rule of law and decorum such that once it takes place, the Department of Parks and Recreation under AMMC swiftly moves in to fence off the area, thereby avoiding resurgence of squatter settlements.

In the area of emergency management, it is worthy of note that AMMC, through their Fire Service Department responds to fire disasters and other emergencies within the shortest possible time. Indeed, FCT is known nationwide to have the

shortest response time to disasters or emergencies as they occur, which at the last count was five minutes. This is what it should be; after all Abuja, as the nation’s capital, must be seen to show example to other states in Nigeria. For example, when Thisday was bombed by terrorists, AMMC was the first to arrive the scene, put off the fire and attended to several wounded victims.

Gladly enough, Okoya has given the marching orders to the FCT Fire Service to extend their operations to all nooks and crannies of the city as a way of creating easy access in case of fire disaster or other emergencies. The affected areas include Karu/Nyanya, Kubwa, Maitama, Gwagwalada and Zuba axis.

On FCT Parks and Recreation, the AMMC leadership has embarked on a programme of reassessing the operations of the open parks to ensure that they meet the acceptable minimum standards. In this connection, a committee was set up to evaluate the operations of the parks in FCT. Obviously, these moves are meant to sanitise the operations of the parks to ensure that they operate according to the original usage for which they were allocated. A situation where these parks have been turned into drinking joints and prostitution areas is unacceptable and the Okoya leadership is geared towards redressing this anomaly.

From all indications, Okoya is determined to help the FCT Minister, Senator Bala Mohammed, achieve his mission of transforming FCT, and providing liveable Federal Capital Territory comparable to any other capital in the civilized world for all Nigerians. All hands must, therefore, be on deck to support these laudable efforts to make Abuja, not only a home for all Nigerians, but for generations yet to come.

*Mr. Enekwechi, a journalist, wrote from Abuja.

Vanguard, TUESDAY, MAY 15, 2012— 19

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HE Vanguard, Thursday, April 19, 2012 carried the following in its News Section: "States of the South-South region are to tap from the experiences of Rwanda in resolving its conflict and tackling the security challenges and economic problems of the region. Already a delegation of the states, including the chairman of the South-South Governors Forum, Governor Liyei Imoke of Cross River State and his Delta counterpart, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan, had met with President Paul Kagame of Rwanda to work out the modalities of the cooperation. To cement this new partnership, President Kagame will be in Nigeria this month to give a talk during the Second Economic Summit of the South-South States billed for Asaba, Delta State between April 26 and 28".

This initiative is reminiscent of ventures of regional governments of the First Republic that had their own foreign policies and did pursue collaboration with governments of their own choosing. I say the South-South initiative was reminiscent of the constitutional autonomy of the regional governments of the First

Republic in the foreign policy arena, and not that they had identical autonomy. It is important to note that the constitution of 1979, 1989 and 1999 have placed external affairs in the Exclusive Legislative List of the National Assembly. If it is assumed that the South-South States in the organisation of their Second Economic Summit were exploring new terrains that can enhance their policy capabilities, the presence of the Vice President of the Federation and the National Security Adviser is evidence of active Federal support for the Summit. And it is in this Federal support that we locate a problem in the agenda of the South-South States. The SouthSouth Governors are seeking partnership with Rwanda on conflict resolution in addition to fostering economic cooperation.

The first thing to be noticed is the disparity in the character of the South-South States and Rwanda.

The South-South States are a zone of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, while Rwanda is a national independent entity. Under the 1999 Constitution, the SouthSouth cannot conduct their own

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foreign policy; their interest in drawing from the experience of Rwanda has to be mediated by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs whose executive head is the Minister of the Ministry. Nigeria has diplomatic relations with Rwanda and I presume that Nigeria has an embassy in Kigali and an Ambassador in charge of Nigeria's business with that country. If all of the above is statement of facts, then it is to be expected that the Foreign Affairs Ministry would not only to have been consulted and through this prior consultation , the Ministry would determine the feasibility of the profitableness of the intended South-South partnership with Rwanda and assessed the strategic advantage to Nigeria for instituting that bilateral collaboration through a subnational diplomacy.

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hese comments are necessitated because there is now in place a worrisome incursion of event branding diplomacy characterised by bringing heads of states, foreign ministers and heavy weights of the international business to give speeches and dispense wisdom in social entertainment settings. I believe it will not be farfetched to call this Nigerian innovation as Glamour Diplomatic Cameo Events. President Clinton, the Sec-

INEC, APGA and leadership in Igboland democratic gains and development benefits

BY CHUKWUNONYELUM ANUWEZE

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HE Independent National Electoral Commission of Nigeria, INEC, as an election management body, must show consistent leadership vision, transparency and due process not only in its management of Nigeria's “electoral matters but also both in the registration of new political parties and in the establishment of internal party democracy within Nigeria” political parties. The recent charade that is the PDP national convention that threw up key party ‘selects’ as elected party officers cannot pass the standards of due party democratic elections since ‘godfatherism’ and imposition of candidates by the party’s ultimate presidential power managing from Aso Rock diminishes the voice of party stakeholders from the grassroots. The embarrassing cacophony of protests from the zonal and state aspirants, who felt shortchanged by the party’s unjust process, shocked the Nigerian media and civil society became a dangerous prelude to the convention proper. Genuine democratic voices of the party’s grassroots are yet to be given political voice to elect who they want.

The national spread and political power of the party is yet to demonstrate a genuine leadership and programme of democratic dividends that will benefit Nigerians.

It is under this disturbing background and national context that one must analyse INEC’s umpire role and appreciate the increasing grassroots democratic leadership played by other political parties in Nigeria such as the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, achieved under Chief Victor Umeh, leading to giant-

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to the Igbo nation despite the imprecations of political buccaneers like Chekwas Okorie, its sacked founding Chairman. One can currently, for the purpose of analysis, use a comparative framework in positing two historical eras in this emerging leadership challenge-the era of avante garde individualism under Chekwas Okorie who saw himself as the Lord fiefdom of the party, he who must be obeyed, often for selfish reasons, and the Victor Umeh era that saw APGA as a party of law, rules, and rights of participation, leading to its being nationally and regionally redefined as grassroots tool for development. This comparative analysis is beyond ordinary paradigmatic shift since this fundamental leadership change from Okorie to Umeh saw the party releasing its democratic soul from bondage and throwing the party open for membership to civil society and the people, to belong, interact and own which aligns very well with the fundamental vision for the party as defined by the great Ikemba and other chieftains in Igboland. The point of this shift lies in the democractic verity that one man cannot own, start or sustain a political party which is Okorie’s vision of internal party structure and democracy, the point of disagreement and departure between him and Ojukwu and other party chieftains; the point of the sack by the party hierarchy represented by Chief Ojukwu and Chief Umeh. It is very disheartening and disappointing when Chekwas and his foot soldiers tend to narrow down the historical and dialectical analysis down to a mere disagreement either between him and Ojukwu or Umeh or Governor Obi or Rochas.

Even though Chekwas attempted to amputate this great democractic vision and

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Sharing leadership experience: The South-South and Rwanda

If a country is to be chosen whose experience could be profitably theorised, Sri Lanka may be more promising of strategic value than Rwanda

retary of State, Hilary Clinton, General Colin Powell, Tony Blair and his wife have all made their appearance on platforms that are more suited for parties to bring to a close the hard work of global policy making, than that is typical of the assembly at Davos. The South-South convener of the Second Economic Summit have extended this tradition. They invited the 17th Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Principal Military Adviser to the President of the United States and Secretary of Defence, National Security Council and a former Mayor of New York City, Mr. Rudy Giuliani, and the above named did accept the invitation. They were invited according to Saturday Vanguard, April 28, 2012 "to share their perspectives with the South-South Governors and other stakeholders on security development and investment" at the Economic Summit. Those in charge of the Security of the United States concluding that the South-South was an unsecured political space prevailed on the invited not to attend the Summit.

There may be more to the US decision than concern for the safety of these officials. After all said and done, President Clinton and Prime Minister Tony Blair have been hosted in Abuja, a place not more secure than Asaba, the venue of the Summit. Can it be that bringing these global policy makers to such a summit was deemed inappropriate? Someone at the State Department may have reached such a conclusion after an appreciation of the event.

Similar appraisal ought to have been made at the Nigerian end on the choice of Rwanda for best practice conflict resolution praxis relevant to the Niger Delta.

Rwanda's experience of conflict resolution is one of successful state making not of a conflict over equitable control and utilization

The fact of the matter lies in the struggle by Ojukwu, Umeh and others to stabilise and achieve APGA’s eternal vision and search for internal party democracy

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party structure through wiles and guile of his planted minions in the Iwu-led INEC through legal gerrymandering that threatened the party leadership, vision and programmes for the masses in Igbo land, Chief Victor Umeh stood unshaken, resolute and committed in translating Chief Odumegwu Ojukwu’s vision for political and democratic liberation of Igbos and Igbo land into establishing APGA as a credible grassroots party in Nigeria. From one Igbo state to two— Anambra and Imo states, Chief Umeh has shown that he is a better party leader, manager and lover of Igbo land which is what the great Ikemba wanted and defined as APGA’s eternal mandate.

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t is not true that the party tussle was just between Chekwas Okorie and Ojukwu; it is not true that the conflict was between two APGA chieftains, Okorie and Umeh, as portrayed by some biased sections of the the Nigerian press while the tussle lasted. The fact of the matter lies in the struggle by Ojukwu, Umeh and others to stabilise and achieve APGA’s eternal vision and search for internal party democracy that will establish it as a mass movement in Nigeria. This vision and search was represented by the great Ikemba and Chief Umeh, with stakeholders like

of the oil and gas resources of the Niger Delta. The Niger Delta conflict escalated to resource control war waged by the militants against the oil companies and the Federal Government is not in the main a war waged to establish a new country, a new order of power and authority. Paul Kagame has no counterparts in the Niger Delta, even among the leadership of MEND. Therefore by what process of the course of war did the consultants to the SouthSouth Governors Forum reach the conclusion that the course of ethic-national state making in Rwanda contained best practice and worst case lessons relevant to the Niger Delta? If a country is to be chosen whose experience could be profitably theorised, Sri Lanka may be more promising of strategic value than Rwanda.

Of course Paul Kagame has much to gain in the currency of image laundering and the South-South Economic Summit was tailored made for such occasion. This is a case where second opinions ought to have been sought about the choice of cases for comparative analysis of appropriate lessons.

The South-South Governors are not poor in professional expertise that can be enlisted. All is not lost even in the choice of Rwanda. The point is that Paul Kagame was a leader of insurgency that successfully overthrew a constitutional state and transformed its insurgency into state making and the establishment of a new regime of government and security. Paul Kagame has led the founding of a new state. He is one of a few of such leaders in Africa. The Eritrean insurgency that effected the establishment of two states in Eritrea and in Ethiopia is another example. Insurgents' transformed into state makers can be excellent teachers of counter-insurgency statecraft. Perhaps there is a case of serendipity here.

Governors Peter Obi, Rochas Okorocha and others. This vision runs against the mills of party selfish fiefdom and dictatorship which Okorie opposed and led to a fallout with Ojukwu, Chief Umeh and other party stakeholders. This contest between the vision and values of internal party democracy and authoritarianism cannot be wished away as pedestrian struggle for party leadership. This patent disagreement between Okorie’s personal party democracy and Igbo grassroots party democracy led to his sack in the party because he became a threat to the best ideals that Ojukwu wanted to achieve in Nigeria and Igbo land for Igbos through the agency of APGA. Having used all avenues, legal and illegal, to truncate the great Ikemba’s APGA vision and programmes, and failed with distinction, the Supreme Court directed him to return APGA’s certificate to Chief Umeh since his initial sack was through a genuine party disciplinary process sanctioned and backed by the party rules and regulations.

We must also evaluate his recent efforts to register a new political party cloned after the logo, name and acronym of APGA which he calls UPGA(that is if Professor Jega allows that illegality and perfidy of confusion and chaos). We will come to that later in the article.

In the context of the national and worldwide mourning of Chief Ojukwu’s transition and the national liberating effect which his death brought upon Nigeria’s political and social mood we must,once more, re-examine the great ideals that defined the party, what APGA stands for and seek to understand the newest efforts by the man Okorie to once more, attempt to destroy the party in Igbo land and decimate Ojukwu’s national marching mandate of the APGA. Continues tomorrow on page 18 *Mr. Anuweze, a political analyst, wrote from Abuja.

20—Vanguard, TUESDAY, MAY 15, 2012

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Vanguard, TUESDAY, MAY 15, 2012 — 21

IITA, ILRA plan increased collaboration for agric development

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WO major international agricultural centres have pledged to upscale efforts to tackle the hunger challenge in Africa, a statement by both firms said.

The two centres are the Ibadanbased International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and the Nairobi-based International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI).

The two centres are part of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR).

The CGIAR is a strategic alliance that unites organisations involved in agricultural research for sustainable development with the donors that fund such work. These donors include governments of developing and industrialised countries, foundations and international and regional organisations. The work they support is carried out by the 15 members of the Consortium of International Agricultural Research Centres.

The centres work in close collaboration with hundreds of partner organisations, including national and regional agricultural research institutes, civil society organisations, academia and the private sector. The CGIAR now has 64 governmental and non-governmental members and supports 14 research centres and one intergovernmental research centre , AfricaRice.

The CGIAR is sponsored by three UN agencies the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFA D ) , t h e U N Development Programme (UNDP) and the World Bank. The statement signed by IITA’s Corporate

FG urged to build parks at Lagos ports to ease highways

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HE Federal Government has been urged to build truck parks around the Lagos ports to reduce traffic congestion on the adjoining roads. Mr Emmanuel Iheanacho, the Managing Director of Integrated Oil and Gas Ltd., made the suggestion in an interview in Lagos.

He said that rampant congestion on Oshodi-Apapa Expressway was not caused by petroleum tankers alone.

Iheanacho said that about 70 per cent of the trucks causing congestion within the ports, were trucks moving containers in and out of the ports. The oil magnate said that with the level of port expansion and development, there was the need to upgrade the roads and parks within the ports.

“To put a lasting solution to the incessant traffic congestion along the Oshodi-Apapa Expressway, I think government needs to invest more on infrastructure such as road, parking lot, among others,’’ he said. He, however, commended the Lagos State Government for its directive to truck drivers to desist from parking on the expressway.

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Communications Officer, Mr Godwin Atser, said that both centres planned to build synergies that would unleash the power of crop and livestock improvements to address poverty and malnutrition in Africa.

It said that IITA Director-General Nteranya Sanginga and ILRI Jimmy Smith were holding discussions in this

direction in Ibadan. Sanginga had said at a dinner organised in honour of Smith that he foresaw closer partnership between the two institutes.

He said that IITA alone could not solve all of Africa’s problems, hence the need for partnership with institutes that have vision as IITA. He recalled that both institutes had joined forces in the

past in bringing benefits to African farmers in projects such as ‘Promoting Sustainable Agriculture in Borno’(PROSAB), the statement said.

“That project which was implemented in northern Nigeria helped raise incomes by 81 per cent among participating households and also improved the nutrition of beneficiaries.

Minister of Trade and Investment, Mr. Olusegun Aganga (left) and Minister of Finance, South Africa, Mr. Pravin Jamnadas Gordhan, during a meeting on cooperation between African countries on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

NDDC invites EFCC, ICPC to investigate its activities T

HE Niger-Delta Development Commission (NDDC) has invited EFFC and ICPC to investigate its activities and to prosecute officials found to be involved in corrupt practices. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) are the two antigraft agencies in Nigeria.

The Managing Director of NDDC, Dr Christian Oboh, made the statement in Port Harcourt during a sensitisation campaign on Strengthening the Culture of Institutional Integrity, Transparency and Accountability. Oboh said the commission was willing to partner with anti-corruption agencies to ensure transparency and accountability to fasttrack the development of the NigerDelta region. He said that “the public perception of NDDC will change if officials are investigated. We are even the ones inviting the anti-graft agencies to re-evaluate our activities.”

The managing director said the agency had introduced measures that

would check corruption in its operations.

He said: “the commission’s processes are now open to the public.

Recruitment examination is online and e-payment has been introduced in the issuance of contracts.

“Our books are open. The law allows people to ask questions on what we are doing; we should not develop the Niger-Delta on the pages of newspapers.” Oboh promised that his administration would not relent in its desire to eradicate corruption from the commission.

Earlier, Mr Ekpo Nta, the Acting Chairman of ICPC, said that the transparency and accountability of an organisation depended on the credibility of individuals running it.

Nta urged NDCC to strengthen and empower its anti-corruption unit for more effective results. The Chairman of EFCC, Mr Ibrahim Lamorde, represented by Dr David Turaka, said NDDC was an important organisation that must get things right in its bid to develop the Niger-Delta.

176.75

-1.90

2,308.00

-30.00

20.20

-0.25

112.11

-0.62

96.27

-0.81

CURRENCY BUYING CENTRAL SELLING CFA KRONER EURO POUNDS RIYAL SDR FRANC DOLLAR WAUA YEN RENMINBI

0.2868 26.9473 200.3548 249.3487 41.2623 237.8508 166.7565 154.75 237.2707 1.9356 24.5194

0.2968 27.0344 201.0022 250.1544 41.3956 238.6193 167.2953 155.25 238.0374 1.9419 24.5991

0.3068 27.1214 201.6495 250.96 41.5289 239.3878 167.8341 155.75 238.804 1.9481 24.6787

CBN Exchange rate as at 14/05/2012

22 — Vanguard, TUESDAY, MAY 15, 2012

Shareholders seek prosecution of fraudulent operators …Say companies presented falsified accounts at AGMs

BY MICHAEL EBOH

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HAREHOLDERS, under the aegis of Ibadan Zone Shareholders Association, have called on the Federal Government to bring to book individuals that fleeced investors of the investment and who operators who fraudulently contributed to the decline in the Nigerian

capital market.

The shareholders, in a communiqué presented at the end of their oneday national seminar, with the theme: reversing the declining trend in the Nigerian stock market, the way forward,” lamented that investors and shareholders’ funds in the market was eroded due to the fraudulent

activities of operators.

According to the shareholders, some companies presented falsified accounts to shareholders at their Annual General Meetings, AGM, while share certificates were verified without the necessary approval and shares sold without proper authorisation.

The shareholders also

called on the government to check the proliferation of shareholders’ association, saying this is not healthy for the capital market.

They also kicked against the issue of multiple taxation in the capital market, lamenting the fact that they are taxed when buying and selling

shares, despite the fact that companies profit are also taxed.

On the factors that contributed to the decline in the capital market, the shareholders blamed inadequate regulatory framework, leadership problems and non-implementation of code of good corporate governance in many of the quoted companies.

According to them, the regulators did not properly analyse annual reports presented to shareholders, so as to vet information being made available to investors.

Other factors, according to the shareholders, are the indiscriminate liquidation of quoted companies in which people have investment as a result of poor management, persistent illiquidity in the stock market, low financial literacy, as people invested without

relevant education; careless investment activities by shareholders due to lack of information from professionals and unfavourable pronouncements from regulatory authorities as regard the market situation.

On the solutions for market recovery, the shareholders in the c o m m u n i q u é advocated, “The creation and implementation of investors protection fund and trade Guarantee fund; institution of penalties against erring stockbrokers who indulge in defrauding their clients; emphasis on Investors’ involvement in serious research before investing; Investors’ are advised to diversify as no investment is riskfree. Besides, investors should not be emotional in making investment decisions.”

Ecobank total asset hits $17.8bn, unveils electronic banking platform From left: His Majesty, Nnaemeka Achebe,Chairman; Mr Atedo Peterside, Non-Executive Director; Mr Thabo Mabe, Managing Director and Senator Udoma Udo Udoma, Non-Executive Director, all of Unilever Nigeria Plc, at the 87th Annual General Meeting of the company in Lagos. Photo: Biodun Ogunleye

Poly Products to delist from NSE

BY NKIRUKA NNOROM

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HAIRMAN, Poly Products Plc, Mr. Michael Bruce, said the company plans to delist its shares from the Nigerian Stock Exchange, NSE. Making the disclosure at the 45 th Annual General Meeting, AGM, with shareholders, in Lagos, Bruce explained that the board and management team decided to toe that path following the high cost of retaining listed equity status at the NSE, adding that application would be made to the NSE and Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC, to that effect on securing shareholders approval.

He also listed other hiccups that warranted the plan to include lingering economic depression in the C M Y K

country as well as excessive cost of printing and distributing annual reports and accounts to its over 11,000 shareholders.

He said, “Various factors, including the general slowdown in the economy, high cost of doing business, statutory requirements of listed companies, cost of administering the register, cost of convening AGMs and Annual Reports & Accounts printing and postage pose difficulties for the company.

“There are 11,000 shareholders, 10,246 of whom hold less than 10 per cent of the total equity.

The administrative cost of managing such list is very high and it constitutes a significant drain on the resources of the company.

“Between 2003 and 2008, the company faced

severe problems that could easily have led to liquidation. Although this situation was averted, operational cost remain high.”

He assured that the company would work with the existing rules in determining the exit price that will be fair to the parties involved.

He said, “We have not set the exit price, but there are certain guidelines we must follow. The price must not be less than the value of the shares on the floor of the NSE in the last three months. The Nigerian Stock Exchange will be working with us in this regard to ensure that every stakeholder is fairly treated.”

While also giving the approval to the management to consummate the transactions, Mr. Timothy Adesiyan, a shareholder,

said that the delisting plan was not surprising, as the shares have been dormant in the last three years.

He urged the management to ensure that it take the number of years the company has been transacting its business with investors’ money into consideration before working out an exit package for them.

Also speaking, Sir Sunny Nwosu, National C o o r d i n a t o r, I n d e p e n d e n t Shareholders Association of Nigeria, encouraged the company to consider exit package of N5.00, according to general demand by shareholders.

The company recorded 7.2 per cent decline in turnover to N2.24 billion from N2.41 billion in 2010. Profit after tax fell by 16.5 per cent from N60.7 million in 2010 to N50.7 million.

BY PETER EGWUATU

A

part of its support for cash less economy being canvassed by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Ecobank has launched a new electronic banking platform designed to provide cash management solutions for corporate entities, just as its total assets rose to $17.8 billion.

The new electronic banking platform product, Ecobank OMNI, is integrated electronic banking platforms that will help firms meet their various payment needs.

Speaking at the launch last week in Lagos, Managing Director, Ecobank Nigeria, Jubril Aku said Ecobank Omni offers a comprehensive suite of flexible online Cash Management solutions – all designed to enhance productivity, manage cash flow and maintain efficient management of a company ’s working capital cycle.

Ecobank is now a stronger bank with presence in all the 36 S

states of the “We carry out your banking transactions at any of the more than 600 Ecobank Nigeria branches across the combined network in Nigeria, making your banking more convenient and more accessible. Our total assets stand at $17.8 billion following our merger with Oceanic Bank International Plc.” “Customers can now use their debit (ATM) cards free of transaction charges across all 890 Ecobank ATMs as well as use their debit cards free of charge at all POS terminals in the country.”

He added.

The Group Corporate Bank Head, Charles Kie said Ecobank is bringing you a world of added convenience, better, simpler, faster, and safer banking with OMNI, corporate internet banking platform.

He said the product comes as a direct response from the constructive feedbacks received from Ecobank’s numerous customers corporate, institutional and public sector.

Vanguard, TUESDAY, MAY 15, 2012—23

Nigeria needs one land-line per household — MD, Hayes Meridian Group

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that we are having an expo in Ghana it’s very embarrassing.

N June 4 th and 5 th 2012, at the Shehu Musa Yar ’Adua Centre in Abuja will be a beehive of activities. Leaders and stakeholders in the telecommunication industry will be converging there for the Nigerian Wireless Communications Expo (NWCE). Speaking ahead of the expo, Banji Oyewunmi, Managing Director, Hayes Meridian Group, the organisers of the event, explains why Nigeria should go back to having at least one land-line per household, reports FRANKLIN ALLI

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Oyewunmi They get trained and come back here. I, for instance, have an IT background and I also have management background. That is why we are technologically based companies and we speak business terms.

Why did you choose Nigeria for the conference?

It’s a natural choice; I’m a Nigerian. The inspiration to organize this expo in Nigeria came when I attended the recently concluded

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What’s your company ’s profile and track record?

Hayes Meridian Group was established in 1997 with Headquarters in London and offices in Honk Kong and Abuja. The Group is made up of four divisions. They are Hayes Meridian Communication (HMC), Hayes Meridian Information Technology (HMT0, Hayes Meridian Security (HMS) and Hayes Meridian Training (HMT). The divisions operate distinctly, assisting both domestic and international radio communication systems, including clients with a wide range of solutions including secured two-way digital communication systems, security and defence solutions, information technology systems, training as well as equipping public order agencies and counterterrorism professionals with the latest in protective equipment, explosives detection and disruption systems and high explosives mitigation technology. We actually started operation as social provider and in the last few years, we added radio communication as part of our offerings and that’s in response to demand when we moved into Nigeria.

Originally, our core business is in IT, with focus on radio communication. As I said earlier, we‘ ve been in operation since 1997. As a company, most of our deliveries have been in the UK. We have delivered for companies like the BBC, Police Offices in UK; more recently for the Ministry of Police Affairs and also for the Nigerian Police Force. Right now in Abuja, we have Engineers who have just come back from training in Romania. Since we’ve been in Nigeria, we have Office in Abuja, but we train them abroad. We want them to be properly trained and equipped like any of Nigerians abroad.

Why the choice of Abuja, bearing in mind most telecommunication companies is based in Lagos?

That’s a very good question.

Originally when I came up with this idea, I gathered my team and informed them we would be having an expo mid March, and Lagos and Abuja seem obvious. But my CEO said the challenges of moving one expo from Abuja to Lagos or vice –versa, simultaneously is huge. The things coming from abroad we have to ship down in hundreds of kilograms and the rest of it.

It became clear to me that most of the private sector companies, government agencies reside in Abuja. And most of our clients that bare coming are based in Abuja.

But we know we can’t ignore Lagos. In fact, most t of our colleagues and partners coming from abroad want us to have it in Lagos, and they were not happy when I said no, it’s not Lagos. You must understand this is something almost privately funded. By the time you multiply the resources and the cost, we are going to have one good expo, and before you know it it’s 2013 and we are going to have a second expo. We can even do it in both Lagos and Abuja.

can be like Las Vegas. Just because Abuja didn’t have water and beaches doesn’t mean things can’t happen.

When I saw how beautiful the expo was from the aesthetic point of it and all the value that came from it, I cried in my heart “Why can’t we have it in Nigeria? We have brilliant Nigerians as Engineers and IT W hat do you intends to software Consultant across the achieve? world and at home. If In fairness, my sense of Nigerians don’t have visa to go there, why don’t we bring it reasoning is very altruistic; it home? Must it be of the same wasn’t a Dollarised decision.

In do we have to gain, In terms of what we have to gain, it’s nothing.” The expo is selffunded and we are not likely to breakeven. That’s not the point. Ultimately, if we succeed in just creating that environment where people can call themselves a community, where wireless community comes together, that is what we want to achieve. For me, it’s an inward investment drive.

There are too many broadbrand and telecom company out there who would like to come to Nigeria. I don’t think they will come here if there’s a trade fair to sell doors, engines and switches, etc. But if it is a specific size, I said no; but we must industry-type expo, then, start from somewhere? I’m they would come. India is a not the one who would say natural hub for there is better climate and programmers. I am sure electricity in Ghana, let’s take there are a lot of people here it to Ghana. No. I can’t in Nigeria who can imagine anywhere else. The programme. We want to use Americans won’t bring the the expo as a real tool for trade expos here. So location was and investment. never an issue. It’s either What is required to Abuja or Lagos. If you hear participate in the expo?

I attended a meeting in London, the consultant got the job from one of the major government’s agencies and they were looking for local partners and from the meeting we had, it was clear from the discussion that a company in India got the contract but they have never been to Nigeria before but they got the contract. Now they are looking for local companies to execute it.

,

International Wireless Communications Expo that took place in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA. The convention centre is not as big as this. In the summer people see Las Vegas as a place for gambling, conventions and expos and the rest of it and that’s entire industry on its own. Abuja

We make no demand on anyone. Participation is free but if you want to be a speaker at the event, that is a different thing and there are certain requirements for speakers.

You need to have a track record and know what you want to talk about. Just register free and turn up. In terms of exhibitors, we made it nominal. The expo is not about money.

What’s your assessment of the ICT sector in Nigeria?

The sector is currently dominated by foreign companies and foreign names. If you are a Nigerian company with Nigerian name looks for a job, of course the foreign company will get the job. I don’t understand that because it is the same Nigerians in the Diasporas that they will send to come and do the job. So the ICT policies and the rest should be localized. They have to recognise that we have the intellect, and we can do a very good job. The fact that I’m a returnee is a good example and there are many more there that are good at what they do.

About ten days ago I attended a meeting in London, the consultant got the job from one of the major government’s agencies and they were looking for local partners and from the meeting we had, it was clear from the discussion that a company in India got the contract but they have never been to Nigeria before but they got the contract.

Now they are looking for local companies to execute it. I felt embarrassed. They have never been here and they have no intention of coming.

They will pay in foreign currencies-pounds sterling and Dollars and look for local companies to do the job.

That ‘s our IT policy; we are hoping that if we can show that our companies which is fully Nigerian can deliver time and time, and other companies can do the same, there will be less dependency on foreign companies to execute contracts in Nigeria. Nigerians are good enough.

What informed your bias for Motorola products?

I don’t have a bias for them, I have relationship with them.

Motorola is one of our partners. Others are American International Radio Inc; Safemobile, Silverage Group, Crosshall International and T3 Media & Communications. I’m agnostic when it comes to technology. If it works, it works.

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24—Vanguard, TUESDAY, MAY 15, 2012

SUPPL OVEMENT SUPPLYY IMPR IMPRO VEMENT::

BRIEF

OTC boosts Emval Group business

BY CLARA NWACHUKWU

C

ONTRARY to speculations that Nigerian companies participation in the annual Offshore Technology Conference, OTC, in Houston Texas, US, is more of a jamboree than business development, Emval Holdings Limited, has said that participation in the conference has brought it vast business opportunities.

The Managing Director of Emval, Mr. Valentine Obidi, who spoke with Vanguard during the just concluded OTC, said not only did exposure to the conference enhanced its businesses locally, but also, interntionallly.

He revealed, “Through our participation in the OTC, we have been able to secure partnerships with some foreign companies interested in setting up manufacturing outfits in Nigeria for some of our products – gas slates and valves.”

Furthermore, Obidi said that through its subsidiary company, Submar West Africa, the group was able “to get the opportunity of negotiating licence agreements to produce concrete mattresses used for a number of services in the oil and gas industry in 17 African countries, which started with the Nigerian outlet opened in June last year.”

With the Nigerian outlet, he said the group is licenced to sell its products to the rest of the countries until it is able to open shops in them, adding that the products are already present in Angola, Ghana and a number of other African countries.

The Emval boss disclosed that these successes did not come cheap, as the group started off only as a visitor to the fair 14 years ago, before graduating to an exhibitor four years on.

“When we started coming to the OTC, we were just visitors, coming to observe what business opportunities there are, and it cannot be compared to the benefits we now have as exhibitors,” he added.

NERC calls for embedded power ... Seeks regulation of gas through power

BY CLARA NWACHUKWU

O

ne of the ways of inreasing generation caapacity, thereby, improving on electricity supply and delivery in the country, is through embedded power production, the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC, has said.

Through embedded power, the commission argued thta capacity can then be aggregted and availability improved, noting that at the rate the power situation is going, there may not be enough electricity until 2015.

The NERC Chairman, Dr. Sam Amadi, who spoke with Vanguard on the sidelines of recent international energy summit, said that through embedded power states and local governments can invest in smaller generation capacities like 5 or 10 megawatts from different sources.

He further explained, “The model is not based on big capacity, but focuses on strategic long term solutions.

It is embedded because it is not open to all, but captive in a way. But unlike captive power, which goes through the transmissions, this power is bought directly by the distribution companies, DISCOs. “The embedded producer sells to the DISCOs like any other generator, and the DISCOs pay for supply. But the end user tariff will remain the same, so the DISCos will have power at cheaper cost because they have eliminted transmission costs.”

Amadi also noted that it is easier to fund embedded power, as funding can be sourced through the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN N300billion Intervention Fund, of which about N200billion is still very much availble.

He argued that notwithstanding the faact that there is a $200billion World Bank partial guarntee facility, power projects under this fund, will take a while before they can be relaised.

“It an take up to three to four years before the World Bank fcility aan be feasible, because so far, the facility remains frozen ecause feasibility depends on the bankability of

the project and this takes a long process for due diligence, so there is an inevitable time lag,” he added.

Weak governance He insisted tht part of the short term challenges being witnessed in the power sector is traceable to the fact that some of the power projects under the National Integrated Power Project, NIPP, have not been delivered.

He attributed this to “a multuiplication of weak

governnce and inefficient regulatory control,” adding that the NERC was now bringing these projects under its regulatory control.

Amadi further noted that gas supply issues are also contributing to the poor power situation, saying, “Gas supply is totally inefficient and to have gas to power regulted by the Ministry of Petroleum Resources ha serious regulatory control issues,” adding that “pricing gas without the knowledge of the

electricity market is not responsive and vice versa, and so there is no integration.”

He noted that globally, gas to power regulation is domiciled with the Ministry of Power or Energy. “In the United Kingdom, the regulation of electricity is same as gas. Even in Ghana, which is our West frican neighbour, it is the same thing – the idea of gas for the domestic market if for electricity.”

From left: Snake Island Free Trade Zone Representative, Mr. Monssour Jarmkani; Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs Diezani Alison-Madueke, and Director, Department of Petroleum Resources, DPR, Mr. Osten Olorunsola, on tour of companies exhibiting at the Nigerian stand in the just-concluded Offshore Technology Conference, OTC, in Houston Texas, USA.

PIB, cat aly or oil, gas inves tments cataly alysst ffor investments — Ajumogobia

BY NNENNA EZEAH

T

he former Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Mr. Odein Ajumogobia, has said the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), when eventually passed into a law, will serve as the catalyst that the country’s oil and gas industry needs to revolutionise the sector.

Speaking at the ESQ Oil & Gas Summit 2012, held in Lagos recently, Ajumogobia said, “The PIB is an ambitious attempt to revolutionise the Oil and Gas industry with just one legislation.

“The PIB when it is passed will provide guarantee for potential investors who want to invest their money in the sector.”

“Now people are conscious about investing because they feel there is no legislation that offers protection for them adding that continued nonpassage of the bill has not allowed potential investors, both local and foreign, to make very huge financial commitments in the sector,” he said.

Ajumogobia said the PIB is proposed as a transformative piece of legislation that aims to consolidate 16 different Nigerian petroleum laws into a single document establishing a new legal and regulatory framework, as well as new institutions and regulatory authorities.

Delivering a paper earlier on, “Structuring Oil & Gas Projects for International

Financing”, Mr. Jason Kerr, Partner, White & Case, UK, said although the country possessed what it takes to attract offshore financing for various projects in the Oil and Gas industry, but it needed to put in place certain structures.

According to Kerr, these include strong legal framework, thriving domestic banking sector, and compelling need for investment in infrastructure, political reforms, functional refineries and petrochemical plants, among others.

Other areas deliberated on at the well-attended submit include: gas revolution, Third World countries in the global oil sector, local content development and financing projects in the industry,

Vanguard, TUESDAY, MAY 15, 2012—25

BRIEF

NIPP delivers four power projects in Lagos, Kaduna

An electricity transformer

N

iger Delta Power Holding Company Limited, NDPHC, owners of the National Integrated Power Project, NIPP, said it has completed about four projects in Lagos and Kaduna states, and has handed them over to Power Holding Company, PHCN, and Transmission Company of Nigeria, TCN. The power company said the handover of the projects are in line with its commitment to ensure projects completion thereby strengthening transmission and distribution infrastructure in the country.

“In Lagos, 4 x 60MVA 132/ 33kV transformers were completed and delivered on Friday March 16, 2012 in Oworonshoki and Ojo transmission stations. 2 x 60MVA were added to each of these stations. The projects were executed under the NIPP Lot 11 contract,” NDPHC said in a statement made available to Vanguard last week.

In Kaduna, it added that two distribution substations located at Zambia Crescent and Narayi areas of the town were completed and handed over to the Kaduna Electricity Distribution Company Ltd, a successor distribution company of PHCN. The Zambia Crescent substation is a 2.5MVA 33/ 11KV injection substation with 30 completely self-protected, CSP transformers, while the Narayi injection substation is a 2 x 15MVA 33/11kV injection substation with 123 CSP transformers of 50kVA capacity each, the statement further said.

The Managing Director and Chief Executive, NDPHC, Mr. James Abiodun Olotu, was quoted as saying that the completion of the projects was in line with management’s commitment to deliver on some power every month for the use and benefit of all Nigerians.

“I have said it when we were commissioning one of our completed projects last year in Lagos that our commitment is to deliver project every month, I stand by that commitment,” he said.

RURAL ELECTRIFIC ATION: ELECTRIFICA

Many communities still grope in darkness

BY KUNLE KALEJAYE & NNENNA EZEAH

W

HEN the Nigeria Rural Electrification Programme was launched in 2005, the Federal Government aimed to connect about 1,500 communities to the national grid by 2007, and to achieve 85 percent electrification by 2010 (compared to 40 percent in 2005).

But more than 12 years on, many rural areas in Lagos State and other parts of the country are yet to benefit from this programme.

Rural electrification is the process of bringing electricity power to rural and remote areas.

Electricity is used not only for lighting and household purposes, but it also allows for mechanisation of many farming operations, such as threshing, milking, and hoisting grain for storage. In areas facing labour shortages, this allows for greater productivity at reduced cost.

In Lagos for instance, many communities have been deprived of electricity supply even when they have electricity poles and

transformers that are used to transmit electricity.

Some communities under the Amuwo Odofin and Oriade local government areas of Lagos like Ibasa, Ibeshe, Imare, Imase, Igbo 1, Igbo 2, Ikare, Yagbe, lament of marginalistion as far as electricity supply is concerned.

Chief N.A Buraimoh, from Ibasa Ijegun community who spoke to Vanguard, said Ibasa and 17 other communities are experiencing the same fate in electricity supply.

“For the past four years, we have not seen power supply

PRIV ATIS ATION: BPE releases PRIVA TISA PHCN bid documents I

N keeping with the revised timeline for the privatisation of the successor companies created from the unbundling of Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN), the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) has released the final industry and transaction documents to the 152 potential investors interested in the privatisation exercise.

The 13 bid documents were sent to the potential investors on Friday, May 11, 2012.

The transaction documents are: Share Sale Agreement; Shareholders Agreement; Performance Agreement; and Concession Agreement.

The industry documents

are: Gas Sale and Aggregation Agreement; Gas Transportation Agreement; Bulk Power Purchase Agreement (Thermal); Bulk Power Purchase Agreement (Hydro); Vesting Contract; Transmission Use of System Agreement; Grid Connection Agreement; and Ancillary Services Agreement.

It would be recalled that the BPE had on March 30, 2012, issued the revised industry and transaction documents to the bidders, and informed them that it expected to receive all comments on the documents by April 20, 2012.

In the wake of bidders’ feedback, another meeting of all industry stakeholders was

held in Abuja on May 5 and 6, 2012 to finalise the bidding documents.

The next stage of the privatisation exercise is the harvest of the bidders’ technical and financial proposals, which has July 17, 2012, as deadline for generation companies and July 31, 2012, for distribution companies.

The transaction timeline reveals that the evaluation of the technical bids will take place between August 14 and 28, 2012. The National Council on Privatisation (NCP), will approve the results of the technical evaluation on/or before September 11, 2012.

from the government. But we were informed that the power line that supplies our communities’ electricity was cut-off by a ship crossing the river at the Mile 2 Jetty. That was what resulted into the problem we have with regard to electricity supply.”

“We have contributed money for the problem to be solved, but nothing has come out of it,” he added.

Besides, he explained that the land owner, where a pole is supposed to be mounted for the connection of electricity, requested that she be paid some money amounting to millions of naira in order to allow the community to have access to electricity.

As a result, he said the communities sent a delegation to the Lagos State Government, but nothing has come out it, as yet.

“So, we all make use of generators if we want light, and the most annoying part of it is that we have to cross over to the other side of the river to buy fuel for our generators.”

Vanguard also visited some of the riverine areas in Lagos state that don’t have access to power supply.

Our correspondents also gathered that the Ojota community in Oto Awori Local Government since its creation have not had access to power supply.

The Traditional ruler of the community, Oba Aamisu Hassan, who spoke in local dialect (Yoruba), said the community has never haad electricity from either the state or federal government since its creation.

“I cannot say for sure when this town was created because to get the precise date will mean that I have to go and ask my fore fathers that are late. Although we were given a community generator by former Senator Ojelabi, who is currently the Commissioner of Rural Development in Lagos, and he promised us that we will have power supply.”

He noted that through the rural development scheme under the Lagos state government; their community was able to have solar street lights.

Similarly, other riverine communities like Itogbesa, Erekun, Okonudu, Ebode, Ponponkun, all under the Ojo Local Government Area have been supplied with electricity poles and transformers, but still do not have access to the scarce product.

These communities have been deprived of access to basic social amenities and the dividend of democracy, and unless the situation changed rapidly, they will continue to feel the anguish of maintaining and fueling their generators especially with the recent increases in fuel price, bearing in mind that their main occupation is fishing and farming.

26—Vanguard, TUESDAY, MAY 15, 2012

BRIEF

PHCN nabs two vandals

BY NNENNA EZEAH

P

From left: Chairman, Gas Terminalling and Distribution Limited, Mr. Alex Ogedengbe; Commissioner of Energy, Lagos State, Mr. Taofeek Tijani and Chief Financial Officer, Gas Terminalling, Mr. Afolabi Oladele, during the Cylinder Warehouse Scheme and Gas Products launch, in Lagos. Photo: Lamidi Bamidele.

Shell finds two oil leaks in Nigeria’s Delta R

oyal Dutch Shell said it found two fresh onshore oil pipeline leaks in Nigeria’s Delta region last week, three days after the company declared force majeure on exports of the high grade Bonny Light crude due to outages caused by oil theft.

“Two new leaks were reported on May 7, on the trans-Niger pipeline at Akpajo and K-Dere in Ogoni land, after a similar number of leaks caused by hacksaw cuts were repaired at the weekend,” Shell spokesman Precious Okolo, said told Reuters.

“A joint investigation team will determine the cause and extent of the leaks preparatory to repair work,” he added.

An amnesty in 2009 sharply reduced militancy in the onshore swamps and waterways of the Niger Delta, but criminal gangs tapping oil pipelines and bunkering large scale organised theft is still a major problem.

Shell no longer operates in Ogoni land after lengthy disputes with local Nigerians over pollution. It still has pipelines and other infrastructure there and says it is committed to clearing up spills, whatever the cause.

A United Nations report in August last year criticised Shell and the Nigerian government for contributing to 50 years of pollution in Ogoni land, which it says needs the world’s largest ever oil clean-up that could take up

C M Y

to 30 years.

Shell and the Nigerian government pledged to investigate the report but they have not made any findings public.

Shell said on Friday 60,000 barrels per day of Bonny Light crude oil production had been shut down due to oil theft and

declared force majeure meaning it is unable to deliver on contractual agreements to supply oil to customers.

Traders said the loadings of Bonny Light have been delayed by about eight days following the force majeure and most of its May loading cargoes had been affected.

A Shell spokesman declined to comment about the loading delays.

Bonny Light has low sulphur content and is in high demand from refineries in the United States and Europe.

Shell has complained in recent months that oil bunkering is on the rise and has called for a greater security crackdown. It said up to 150,000 barrels per day, bpd is stolen from Nigerian fields each year.

With crude prices above $110 a barrel oil theft is a lucrative business.

Group advocates democratic management of PHCN

BY NNENNA EZEAH & EBELE ONUORAH

R

ights group, the Campaign for Democratic and Workers’ Rights, CDWR, has called on the Federal Government to make room for transparency and democracy in the management of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria, PHCN. The group called for the involvement of elected representatives of electricity workers and consumers in order to guarantee safe and uninterrupted power supply.

The Minister of Power, Prof.

Barth Nnaji, had recently sacked three top PHCN officials, including the Managing Director, Transmission Company of Nigeria, TCN, Mr Akinwunmi Bada; Head Operator of the Nigerian Electricity Market, ONEM, Mr. Uzoma

Achinanya; and the Executive Director, Human Resources, PHCN, Mr. Olushoga Muyiwa, over alleged sabotage of power supply in the country.

The group opined that putting the blame on them for the crisis in the power sector is farcical, adding that it is a mere bourgeois tactics to invent false hope as a means of stabilising the unjust social order.

They argued, “This claim of sabotage has not been proven but sabotage is inherent in a bureaucratically run company; particularly managed to guarantee private profit and interest.

“Goodluck Jonathan privatization program will further deepen the pursuit for private interest, which will consolidate on the failure to provide improved power supply to Nigerians.

Privatisation of PHCN will usher in a worse power situation or where power supply is improved, the majority of Nigerians will not benefit from it because it is going to be unaffordable.”

Addressing the future hike in electricity tariff by at least 600 percent (actually 11 percent), the group said: “a calculation anchored on false premise that it is only such huge and unaffordable tariff that can guarantee foreign investors profit and attract them to invest. Whereas, the huge public sums being looted at all levels of government is more than enough to invest in the power sector and other basic infrastructure.”

“We must also remember that there was hike in electricity tariff last year from N8 to about N11 per kilowatt hour and yet, power supply had gone from bad to worse.

OWER Holding Company of Nigeria, PHCN Orile Business District, has nabbed two suspected vandals who tried to cart away equipment worth millions of naira belonging to the National Integrated Power Project (NIPP).

The vandals tried to steal the equipment to sabotage the operations of PHCN. This was disclosed to Vanguard by the Business Manager Orile District, Mr Francis Okosobo-ibe, at the weekend just before handing them over to the police.

Okosobo-ibe said they caught the vandals trying to steal 11kv busbars belonging to NIPP for project expansion programme that are in the container within the district.

He said it has been the usual practice by vandals as they tried to frustrate their efforts at carrying out effective services to their customers.

“The vandals are always hampering and sabotaging the effort of PHCN,” as this was not the first time they were carting away PHCN equipment.

He also pleaded with customers for their cooperation and support, by being vigilant in their area to help reduce the effect of the vandals on PHCN equipment.

SON awards NIS certification on Conoil lubes

S

tandards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), has approved conoil lubricant brands through the special certification of three of its engine oils, as world-class quality.

The lubricants, Quatro HDX, Okada Golden Super20w50w and Quatro Ultra20w50, according SON, met the specific requirements of the relevant Nigerian Industrial Standards, NIS, after series of rigorous and extensive tests of their content and production procedures.

Quatro HDX engine oil is multi-grade diesel oil that provides excellent service in medium and turbo-charged heavy duty engines, while Quatro Ultra 20w50w is the most advanced multi-grade lubricant for petrol engines specially formulated to give all-year-round engine protection.

Vanguard, TUESDAY, MAY 15, 2012—27

T

HE International Energy Agency (IEA) said that tension between Iran and the West is likely to keep oil prices high despite a dramatic improvement in world supply and a big build in stocks.

The agency, which advises 28 industrialised nations on energy policy, said soaring global oil supply from the Orgaanisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, OPEC, and the United States far outpaced global demand, curbed by poor economic activity in developed nations.

The agency said global oil supply rose 600,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 91 million bpd in April and was now 3.9 million bpd over year ago levels, with 90 percent of the increase coming from OPEC. Saudi Arabia said it pumped 10.1 million bpd last month, its highest for more than

Oil prices likely to stay high despite good supply — IEA

A Floating Production Storage and Offloading, FPSO vessel in deepwater

30 years, in a bid to meet growing demand and curb oil prices,

which hit a three-anda-half-year high in March.

But the IEA said in its monthly Oil Market Report that uncertainty

remained and the agency, which last year released strategic oil stocks to compensate for the outage of Libyan production, would be ready to act if necessary.

“The path of market fundamentals for the rest of the year remains highly uncertain and geopolitical risks will likely continue to keep prices high,” the IEA said.

“The IEA will monitor market conditions and stands ready to act if supply conditions warrant it.”

The agency kept its forecast for global oil demand growth this year broadly unchanged, raising it by just 20,000 bpd from its previous report to 790,000 bpd.

This would bring global oil consumption this year to around 90

million bpd, it said.

World oil supply was likely to more than match the increase in demand, the IEA said.

OPEC oil supply had risen by 410,000 bpd in April, with Iraq, Nigeria and Libya providing 85 percent of the increase, well ahead of demand for OPEC oil.

“OPEC producers have stepped up to the plate and raised supply,” David Fyfe, head of the IEA’s Oil Industry and Markets division and one of the authors of the report, told Reuters.

North Sea Brent crude futures rose above $128 per barrel in March as investors worried conflict between Iran and the West could cut off oil supplies from the Middle East Gulf.

But prices have fallen sharply over the last two months on the disappointing performance of the European and U.S. economies and as geopolitical tensions have eased. Brent was trading around $111.80 by 1000 GMT on Friday.

“The oil market is still jittery but it is much less uneasy now that supplies and stocks have improved,” Fyfe said. “A lot will depend on how much Iranian crude is lost to the market.”

The IEA’s estimate of demand for OPEC oil for 2012, its ‘call on OPEC crude and stock change’, was raised by 200,000 bpd to 30.3 million bpd.

At the same time, non-OPEC supply would grow by around 600,000 bpd this year, helping inflate oil inventories.

OECD commercial oil stocks had risen above the five year average for the first time since May 2011, bringing forward demand cover to 60.3 days of consumption, three days above the five year average, the report said.

The IEA’s assessment of global oil market conditions is broadly in line with the views of the OPEC, which said on Thursday it was pumping enough oil to keep world markets more than satisfied.

28— Vanguard,

TUESD AY , MA Y 15, TUESDA MAY

2012

Unending pains of Lagos patients as doctors-govt face-off lingers S

BY BOSE ADELAJA

W

HEN, recently, medical doctors in Lagos State embarked on a three-day warning strike to protest what they described as government failure to fulfill its promises to them based on an agreement reached between the two parties, few could have predicted that their action would result in their being sacked by their employers. But irked by the strike action which it felt was unjustified, the state government had immediately issued queries to the striking medical doctors, a situation which did not go down well with the latter who responded by going on an indefinite strike.

The situation took a turn for the worst when the Lagos State Government announced on Monday May 7 the sacking of the 788 striking doctors and the engagement of 373 new doctors for immediate employment.

Unfortunately the face-off between government and doctors has become synonymous with the popular saying that when two elephants fight, the grasses suffer. This is because since the outbreak of hostilities, the average Lagosians have become victims of lack of medical services resulting in many avoidable deaths.

Worse hit by the unfortunate development are the lessprivileged individuals who could not afford to patronise private hospitals whose bills are beyond their reach. In spite of the intervention of some interest groups, there seems to be no end in sight to the present stalemate which seems to be spiralling out of control. Even the action of government in recruiting new doctors to fill in the gap has not yielded any significant relief as the situation approaches a crisis point.

Many of patients who cannot afford private hospital bills have since given up hope. A good example is 54 years old Ayinde Mudasiru, a resident of Meiran, a suburb of Lagos State. He has suffered hernia for some time and has been a regular patient at Ikeja General Hospital and was due to undergo surgical operation on April 23.

Although one of the striking doctors directed him to his private hospital at Alimosho, that was before the ongoing strike, but “Baba Ila”, as he is fondly called, could not afford C M Y K

Meanwhile, the least paid medical doctor earns a minimum of N173,000 monthly. ometime last year, VM’s visit to General Hospital Lagos revealed that many of these doctors are agents to some pharmacies and medical laboratories and many patients are usually referred to those places for laboratory tests and purchase of prescribed drugs on commission basis, leaving the pharmacies almost ineffective.

During VM’s visit to some private hospitals in Lagos, many of a crowd of patients were heard bitterly of exorbitant medical bills, which they blamed on the strike action. A good example is a commercial driver, Chukwuma Felix, whose seven years old son is currently undergoing malaria treatment at a private hospital in Orile-Agege. “I have going about trying to borrow as the medical bill is not less than N10,000. The bill would have been less if the strike has been called off,” he lamented.

Before the strike action, VM could authoritatively say that the medical doctors spend less time on each patient but write long, mystifying medical reports without conducting proper tests.

But this is unlike what obtains in their private clinics where patients get full attention.

To avoid further casualties, concerned observers say the striking doctors and the Lagos State government need to come to the negotiation table to strike a balance so that the strike will be called off and Lagosians can heave a sigh of relief.

Front view of BT, LASUTH under lock and key last Monday the exorbitant medical bill at the private hospital and he has since resigned to fate. s at the time of filing this report, Ayinde writhes in pains, dying silently while he waits in forlon hope for the doctors to call off their strike.

Meantime, he has resorted to taking roots concoction soaked with local gin, popularly called Paraga. But his wife Fatimo informs of plan to take him to his home town in Modakeke, Osun State, to seek traditional assistance. “If this strike is not called off, I am likely to become a widow overnight,” she told Vanguard Metro, VM, amidst tears.

Three days ago, another

A

victim, a hair dresser, Madam Abegunde Tolulope, also lost her life during child birth when she was refused admission at Gbagada General Hospital owing to the strike action. The mother of two became unconscious and died while efforts were on to take her elsewhere.

During VM’s visit to some general hospitals in Lagos, some senior medical doctors were seen carrying out some skeletal services out of humanitarian consideration. Also, VM‘s investigations revealed that many of these doctors engage in private practice; they are owners of private hospitals where they refer many patients

for treatment.

At Isolo General Hospital, for instance, all the patients in the ward had been discharged; few outpatients come and are attended to by three very senior doctors while the physiotherapy clinic is open on daily basis.

Also, skeletal services were being offered at both dental and eye clinics as well as the laboratories department. he practice among some medical doctors in Lagos is to engage the services of other doctors and pay them as low as N50,000 per month and their nurses, mainly auxiliaries, between N5,000 and N10,000 per month and they are required to work for long hours.

T

Relief for families of drowned school children

BY OLASUNKANMI AKONI

R

ELIEF has come the way of the families of school children who lost their lives in a boat mishap on February 13, 2012 as the Lagos State Government at the weekend gave cash as compensation to them. The children, who were ten in number, were on their way to school in Igbede in Ojo Local Government Area when they met their untimely end during a heavy rainstorm.

The state government also distributed three tricycles to the Ojota riverine community of Oto Awori Local Council Development Area, LCDA, as a palliative measure to enable the children to get to their school at Igbede safely instead of having to do so through ca-

noes.

It also flagged-off the newly constructed Ojota to Ese-Offin, four kilometers road to the community so that the children will not have to travel by water anymore.

Speaking at the handing over ceremony, Commissioner for Rural Development, Mr. Cornelius Ojelabi, explained that the state government, after the boat mishap, promised that a palliative measure be put in place pending the time that the state would build a link bridge.

While giving the families of the victims of the boat mishap an undisclosed amount of money as compensation, the Commissioner urged them not to see the money as compensation for the life of their chil-

dren but rather as a kind gesture of the government in cushioning the effect of their loss, particularly since most of them could not immediately return back to their means of livelihood after the tragic incident.

To ensure smooth and purposeful operation of the tricycles, Ojelabi said the materials would be managed by a five-man committee comprising of two members of Ojota community, two members from Education Authority and one from the LCDA. Ojelabi went further to appeal to the community to cooperate with the electrical department of his ministry which would be moving to site soon to ensure proper electrification of the community.

He implored them to give maximum support to the engineers and to see the project as their own, more so as paucity of funds compelled the Ministry to rely on direct labour for the installation rather than contractors whose bills were considered rather too much. According to him, contractors invited to do the electrification were asking for between N48 million and N52 million which is even more than the total amount the ministry has for electrification, adding that the department would use only N20 million by direct labour and as a result needed all the support they could get for the project to be successful. He said with the cooperation of the people, “Ojota should have light in the next four months”.

C M Y

Vanguard, TUESDAY, MAY 15, 2012 — 29

ool ffor or promoting Social Inclusion MTN Pulse: Youthful ttool STORIES BY PRINCEWILL EKWUJURU

S

OCIOLOGISTS concede that life for young people in the contemporary society is both challenging and uncertain.

They insist that the individual life courses of today’s young are less predictable and more individually framed than ever before.

The decline in the stability of social structures such as family, work and social security is only one of the factors that have been blamed for this situation. Others in-

clude loosening of the ties between structures such as education and employment in addition to the increased diversity in household and family life.

These have created in youths a feeling of rejection which leads to a lack of trust and unwillingness to take part in the framework of normal organisations.

Experts have termed this marginalization or social exclusion. While no commonly acceptable definition for the term marginalisation or being at risk of social exclusion exists. For this

purpose, this reporter will work with one that wouldn’t contribute to further stigmatization. Thus, marginalised youth refers to “young people with fewer opportunities.”

However, sociologists have harped on the urgent need to seek new and innovative ways of approaching young and excluded people, and for promoting their re-integration into the societal circle.

Perhaps, this is one good reason to listen to those who argue that mobile networks and telephones could serve

as the main infrastructure for social inclusion.

Undeniably, the mobile phone is today central to the lives of young people of various social, economic, educational and cultural groups. Nigerian currently has over 90 million connected lines.

Studies utilising qualitative and quantitative measurements to explore the usage of mobile phones across youth indicate that mobile phones are a vital tool for young people’s social lives.

Clearly, what needs to be

done is to enhance this social attribute of mobile phones by introducing online mobile communities to serve the need of youth to belong to a community, both explicitly and implicitly. And since the youth already see their phone as a part of their person and identity, one gets the sense it should work neatly. The mobile phone is more than just a means of communication; it is also a matter of expressing one’s identity and style. Evidently, the highly visible action of

using the phone, and the ever-present need to be part of the virtual community and to have access to it, are more than just an effective use of a tool. Without doubt, MTN Pulse is a veritable tool for social inclusion, conversation and meeting of like minds.

Additionally, the mobile phone gives young people independence and privacy as well as enabling them to function in a world which is in their control. So we can safely say that through the concept of online communities, ICT has the potential to serve as a gateway to social inclusion.

And the fact that mobile phones provide instant connection on the move makes it really attractive.

That is why MTN officials swear that there is no limit on friendship, freedom and fun on the platform.

Sonnex Nigeria, Ghana’s Kasapreko sign trade agreement

S

ONNEX Nigeria, a subsidiary of Mohinani Group and Kasapreko Company Limited of Ghana, owners of the Alomo bitters alcoholic beverage has signed a multi-million Naira trade agreement.

Under the agreement, Kasapreko, will import over 60 million packaging containers annually from Sonnex Nigeria whose production lines produces about 40,000 bottles per hour from 10, 000.

Speaking at the formal signing ceremony in Lagos, Anil Mohinani, Managing Director of Mohinani Group, said that the agreement between both companies will further create employment opportunities in Nigeria and as well boost import.

Sonnex which is involved in flexible packaging, chemical and trade distribution said there is so much potential in the subregion.

Mohinani who said the company which is keen in growing export business noted that the deal between the two companies will further create employment.

He, however, regretted plethora of check-points along the West African subregion which he said were slowing down trade transactions in the subregion.

30— Vanguard,

TUESDAY, MAY 15, 2012

*Oshiomhole

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S the quest by the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP in Edo State to oust Comrade Adams Oshiomhole as governor of Edo State a matter of life and death? No, claims the PDP. But the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN which is the ruling party in the state disagrees as it alleges the complicity of the opposition PDP in the recent spate of death to have befallen associates of Governor Oshiomhole or those travelling with him.

The latest casualty and perhaps the most striking hit on the side of the Comrade Governor was Mr. Olaitan Oyerinde who until life was snuffed out of him in the early hours of May, –, 2012 in his residence in the upscale GRA area of Benin was the governor ’s principal private secretary.

Oyerinde 44, was a carry over from Oshiomhole’s activist days as a labour leader and was on leave from the Nigerian Labour Congress, NLC. One of the brightest stars of the Nigerian labour movement, he was a senior operative of the NLC who Oshiomhole brought into government in Edo State to coordinate his inner engine room in the Edo Government House.

Oyerinde, was not the only C M Y K

EDO GUBER:

The bloody side THE Edo State gubernatorial campaign has lately been punctuated by the death of those associated with the incumbent governor. Any coincidence or is blood now a factor in the campaign? casualty to have fallen on the side of the ACN since the campaign for the July 14, gubernatorial election kicked off.

His death came barely one two weeks after three journalists lost their lives in a ghastly motor accident involving the convoy of the governor. The accident which caused the death of the three journalists was upon the reported collision of a tipper with the governor ’s convoy along Warrake-Auchi Road after a rally in Afuze, Owan East Local Government Council of Edo State.

The Governor had been scheduled to kick off his governorship campaign in Edo South senatorial district of the state on Saturday, April 28,2012 at the Museum ground in Benin City, when thousands of ACN supporters gathered for the occasion learnt that the

,

BY SIMON EBEGBULEM

*Airhiavbere

And on the killing of Oyerinde, the PDP urged the governor to look inwards as they claimed to have no reason to kill Olaitan whom they described as a very brilliant young man

governor had narrowly escaped an accident.

The news of the accident forced the campaign director of the Oshiomhole Campaign Organization, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu to postpone the rally.

The rally was rescheduled for Saturday, May 5, 2012. But to the disbelief of many in the state, a day before the event Oyerinde was murdered in cold blood on Friday 4 May, 2012.

Before Oyerinde’s killing, the

,

governor perhaps on the basis of the suspicious tipper collision with his convoy a week or so before, had accused the PDP in the state of a hand in the accident. He petitioned the state Commissioner of Police over the accident and called for serious probe.

However, the police was still busy with that when Oyerinde was killed.

The war of words between the Governor and the PDP in the state became intense,

particularly after the Governor disclosed that he received a security report where the PDP leaders held a meeting and concluded that it would be difficult for them to win the election and that the only way to make head way would be to destabilize the state through kidnapping of people close to the governor and assassinating people around the governor.

Oshiomhole was particularly bitter because according to him, “ less than 48 hours after I submitted this petition that the PDP god father and his cohorts are planning to cause mayhem in the state, planning fake accidents, kidnapping and killing of those close to me, they went and killed my son, Oyerinde”.

But the PDP in a statement signed by its Publicity Secretary, Mathew Urhoghide, denied the involvement of the PDP in the accident that led to the death of the three journalists, and queried the state of the governor who drove him self on that trip. The party alleged that speeding may have caused the accident. The went on to accuse the governor of raising false alarm with a view to cover the alleged N10billion mansion allegation leveled against him by the party.

Continues on page 30

Vanguard, TUESDAY , MAY 15, 2012—31

Continues from yesterday

BY ROSS ALABOGEORGE

I

N his exclusive piece published online and titled: “Buhari’s burning rhetoric” available at http:// w w w. p e o p l e s d a i l y online.com/opinion/opinion/ 8133-buharis-burningrhetoric, Yawe wrote: “Much later, I learnt that President Shehu Shagari, a man of mild manners was very angry. The troops had been moved into Chad without consent from him as the Commander-inChief.

The man who went to war on behalf of Nigeria without the knowledge and approval of the President Commander-inChief of Nigerian Armed Forces was General Muhammadu Buhari, GOC of Third Division.

A few months later, there was another round of troop movements; this time they were not headed for Chad but Lagos. On 31st December 1983, they sacked President Shehu Shagari”.

Mallam El-Rufai has talked and written so much about how instrumental he was to the emergence of President Umaru Musa Yar ’Adua in 2007. No one who knew his

Continues from Page 30

And on the killing of Oyerinde, the PDP urged the governor to look inwards as they claimed to have no reason to kill Olaitan whom they described as a very brilliant young man. ensing that the PDP may capitalize on the tragedy that hit the governor and the ACN in the state, the leadership of the ACN in the state decided to proceed with the governorship campaign on Saturday 5th of May, 2012, about 24 hours after Oyerinde was killed.

That day, there was a heavy down pour that commenced at about 8:30am, but thousands of ACN members and admirers of Oshiomhole defied the rain and waited patiently to listen to Oshiomhole who showed the grief that had befallen him.

Okada riders, market women and youths were observed carrying a mock coffin of the PDP and with their placards reading “Oshiomhole we are with you always”, “PDP has murdered sleep”, “Police must find the killers of our Comrade or we will find them” and several others.

While apparently managing to suppress his grief, Oshiomhole was able to tell the crowd on his suspicions on the death of Oyerinde and the three journalists.

“Just yesterday, they killed my son in cold blood right in

S

C M Y K

EL-RUFAI: Too role in the Obasanjo administration will doubt that claim. Before and during the elections, he spoke highly of the late president; he campaigned for him and in fact was one of the principal image makers for then candidate Yar’Adua.

Shortly after the governor (Yar’Adua) became president and for some reason they disagreed [unconfirmed reports suggest the disagreement stemmed from Yar ’Adua’s failure to appoint el-Rufai as minister], Mallam el-Rufai became disgruntled and went on a self-exile.

With the assurance of the safety provided by distance, he launched a vituperative titled: “Umaru Yar ’Adua: Great Expectation, Disappointing Outcome” against President Yar ’Adua who was then struggling with his failing health, el-Rufai continued until the man died.

In his scathing attack on Yar ’Adua, the man he campaigned for, using his self professed image as a reformer in the OBJ administration, elRufai tore into Yar ’Adua, jacking him ruthlessly from

small to be president

the belt of his high school days and dragging him through mistakes he had made as a young man in his life, his irresponsible smoking habits, his insubordination to school authority, which according to el-Rufai, gave President Umaru Yar ’Adua the high school nickname of ‘Bad Man’.

Though the CPC’s constitution is silent on the issue of zoning, Buhari and El-Rufai are from the same zone- Northwest. If Mallam El-Rufai emerges finally, it would throw up the zoning conundrum of why a candidate from the same zone as Gen. Muhammadu Buhari should emerge as flag-bearer.

If General Buhari emerges, it will also throw up the question of a one-man party, and the candidate’s protracted presidential bid and unwillingness to handover to a fresh generation.

This loathness of the old breed Northern leaders to dismount the soap box is a major problem of the North and was evident in the emergence of Alhaji Bamaga

*El-Rufai Tukur, a man just twenty three years away from being a centenarian. In a press conference just before the PDP congress which produced him (Alhaji Tukur) as party chairman, he said: “This

EDO GUBER:

The bloody side his bedroom.” with apparent reference to the rain that was still drizzling at the time of the rally, he said: “When they have spoilt the atmosphere even God in heaven was angry and decided to bring water to wash away the evil that these guys have committed so that we men of God may have a clean rally.

We respect elders only that we disagree with any policy that says the god father first. And that was why we even started the tarring of roads from the village of the god father.”

“They decided to kill Olaitan, they planned to kill me in an accident. They wasted three young men in an accident.

Their crime was that they are covering an election like this.

And who was defending them.

Suddenly the police became the police prosecutor. They said I was drunk. I have told them that he who kills in the 80s will have death awaiting him. That is why we choose not to cry but I won’t cry. In our second term, (in memory of the dead journalists) those dead journalists we will build an edifice with their names in gold in Benin City and we will put the heading that they died so that the god father will not

*Oyerinde prevail. Forever and ever it will be there for historians. Today the god father is dead and finished. He is on political oxygen, he can remain in that oxygen and because we serve Jesus Christ he cannot wake up”.

Tension further heightened

in the state after Oshiomhole’s gave the police 14 days to find Oyerinde killers or the people of the state “will find them”.

Following his threat, PDP leaders disappeared from the town, fearing that they may be attacked by ACN youths.

Oshiomhole who wept

position is for the Daddies”, scorning his much younger rivals. For these old breeds, the likes of Mallam Nasir elRufai are still babies and will have to wait - they are too small.

Concluded

profusely when the ACN governors paid him a condolence visit, reiterated his ultimatum to the police and vowed that Oyerinde’s killers must never go unpunished.

Oshiomhole took his campaign to Esan last Tuesday and outlined his developmental projects in the area and assured the people that as Adolor of Esan land, “I will ensure that more projects are executed in Esanland”.

While he tried to combine his grief with politics, his opponents in the PDP, Airhiavbere and that of the ANPP, Solomon Edebiri, have been mobilizing for votes also across the state.

Oshiomhle, last wednesday, to the shock of many and the admiration of many others, at the service of songs of the late Oyerinde at Government House Benin City, announced that the Delta Crescent, where Chief Tony Anenih’s mansion was situated be renamed after the late Olaitan Oyerinde.

The political tension is heightening every day in Edo and there is no doubt that within the next one or two weeks, the police is expected to come up with a lead as regards the killers of Oyerinde.

Oshiomhole has appealed to youths of the ACN to be calm while the police is given the opportunity to investigate the matter.

32—Vanguard, TUESDAY, MAY 15, 2012

Faulty mortgage sector, impediment to affordable housing •Low-interest mortgages as way out

BY JUDE NJOKU

W

ITH a housing shortfall estimated at between 16 -17 million units, Nigeria is believed to have one of the highest number of homeless people in the world. Majority of these people fall within the low-income or vulnerable group. Apart from the nonavailability of land as a result of the Land Use Act of 1978, dearth of housing finance has been fingered as the greatest factor inhibiting the provision of shelter for the Nigerian masses. Not even the National Housing Fund NHF which came into being via Decree No. 3 of 1992, to provide cheap loanable funds to those who want to build or buy their own houses, has made any significant positive impact.

Nigeria has a total of 102 Primary Mortgage Institutions PMIs and each of these PMIs has capital base of N100 million. The argument in many quarters is that the PMIs lack the financial backbone to finance residential housing developments in the country.

The near absence of a secondary market and the high rate of interest charged by banks, has made mortgage financing very unattractive.

Thus, cash and carry in property sales is the order of the day in Nigeria. Built environment and financial experts posit that this trend will not worsen the housing problems in the country.

A former National Secretary of the Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers, Mr. Kola Akomolede noted that because of the capital intensive nature of building or owning a property, it is not often that an

•Is this property insured?

•LSDPC Estate in Lekki II .... Lack of mortgage facilities makes such properties unaffordable.

individual can muster the savings from his legal income to buy or build a house. In the civilized world, he said, “ nobody expects you to pay fully at once to buy a house”.

High interest rates killing mortgage finance “ But here in Nigeria, it is “cash and carry ” even for houses built and are being sold by the government. In other parts of the world, all that is required of you is a proof of employment with steady income and five to 10 percent of the cost of the house and you can secure a mortgage for as

long as 30 years repayment and a reasonable interest rate of between four to six percent per annum. But what do we have in Nigeria, an interest rate of about 18 percent and 22 percent where applicable,” Akomolede who is the President, FIABCI Nigeria lamented.

His views were corroborated by a past NIESV president, Mr Joe Idudu. Idudu who is the immediate past president of the Estate Surveyors and Valuers Registration Board of Nigeria, described mortgage finance as crucial in the delivery of houses. “It is only in Nigeria that you are expected to pay

Hazards How to reduce exposure to dust at home

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MONG the health hazards we may encounter in our homes are those that cause and contribute to asthma.

Exposure to dust inside homes can have adverse health outcomes, such as respiratory problems, asthma, allergic reactions, and lead poisoning (if the dust contains lead).

Dust comes from two sources.

First, dirt and dust can be carried in from outside on shoes or blown in through windows and doors. There are also indoor sources of dust, particularly dust mites.

While it is impossible to have a dust_free home, it is possible to live in a home that minimizes dust that is carried C M Y K

in from the outside and to avoid conditions that can promote allergens in dust.

These simple measures will help to reduce the dust in your home. * Because nearly two-thirds of the dust in our homes is tracked in from outdoors, one key strategy is to build and maintain homes that help occupants track off dust before it is carried inside. Simple steps such as using a mat at the entryway of a home, building steps or using grates to scrape dirt off shoes, and encouraging residents to remove shoes inside will all make a difference. * Use materials that are easy to clean. Dust is easily

removed from smooth and cleanable surfaces (smooth flooring such as wood, tile, linoleum, and vinyl) through vacuuming and mopping. * Use a vacuum cleaner with high filtration features. * Carpets are generally more difficult to vacuum effectively than hard surfaces. But among carpets, short-and closedloop-pile carpets (such as commercial grade carpet) are typically easier to clean than loose-pile carpets, which allow dust and dirt to fall through to the underlying material. * Keep dust mites under control. Dust mites contribute to dust problems, so taking precautions against them can also help reduce exposure.

Requirements for accessing NHF Loans •To access the National Housing Fund mortgage

loans in Nigeria, you must be registered with the NHF and open a National Housing Fund Loan Account. This can be done directly through your employer or through a primary mortgage lender.

•You must own a piece of land with transferable title. Allocation paper is not acceptable.

• You cannot obtain NHF loan to buy land.

•You must be a contributor to NHF for at least the past six months.

•Open a home ownership account and build up 10 percent equity contribution to the funding of the project.

•Have satisfactory evidence of regular flow of income to guarantee the loan •Have an approved building plan cash and carry a property.

Elsewhere, especially in the civilized world, houses are bought through mortgages and the balance is structured in a way that it doesn’t impinge on your income. Here if you are buying a property of N20 million, you will be expected to pay cash,” he lamented.

He stated that the phenomenon of advance rent is not the creation of the estate surveyors but the financiers (banks) who demand repayment of loans in two years at very high interest rates.

According to him, the only way to get out of the problem to pass it unto the tenant in form of advance payments. “Mortgage finance is the sinequa non to housing delivery. Although

land, materials and labour are costly, you can pay for them and solve a lot of the problems that go with housing if you have money,” he said.

Low contribution to GDP eputy Governor, Financial Services Surveillance, Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN Kingsley Moghalu, was quoted as saying that mortgage finance currently contributes less than one percent of the country’s GDP. This is in contrast to other emerging markets, like Malaysia, where it accounts for over 25 percent, 29 percent in South Africa and 85 percent in New Zealand.

D

Continues on page 33.

Vanguard, TUESDAY, MAY 15, 2012—33

Experts explore use of concrete in road pavement

BY JUDE NJOKU

P

OOR maintenance culture has often be adduced as the major reason for the collapse of Nigeria’s 195,400 kilometers of roads infrastructure. Against this backdrop, construction experts have called for a cost effective solution to road construction and maintenance in the country. The experts who brainstormed on Exploring cement based option for sustainable road construction in Nigeria organised by the Cement Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, CMAN and Business Day, canvassed the use of concrete in road pavements in view of its durability and costeffectiveness.

Speaking at the one-day conference, the Chairman of Cement Manufacturers Association of Nigeria CMAN, Mr. Joseph Makoju, an Engineer, bemoaned the decay in the nation’s roads infrastructure and the absence of a viable rail system. He observed that all road constructions in Nigeria have been done with asphalt or plain laterite for rural roads because cement was relatively scarce and expensive. But with the installed capacity of local cement companies increasing

•Road being constructed with concrete in US

from 3,000 metric tonnes per annum in 2003 to 28mtpa, the country has moved from the previous position of the world’s leading importer of the product in 2006, to a position of selfsufficiency.

Faulty mortgage sector, impediment to affordable housing Continues from page 32 Moghalu identified some of the major impediments to housing/ mortgage finance in the country as the dearth of longterm funds; absence of mortgage re-finance/liquidity companies or a secondary mortgage market and inadequate branch network of Primary Mortgage Institutions PMIs for easy disbursement of loans from the National Housing Fund.

Others include: a poorly designed National Housing Fund; inadequate capital and weak corporate governance of the FMBN; inadequate skilled labour and high cost of building materials.

C M Y K

Poor capital base of PMIs The president of the Real Estate Developers Association of Nigeria, REDAN, Mr Olabode Afolayan enumerated a plethora of factors affecting the mortgage industry in the country. According to him, the 100 million Naira capital base for primary mortgage institutions PMIs and N5 billion for the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria, FMBN, are inadequate to do effective mortgage banking transactions. The REDAN boss regretted the absence of foreclosures in Nigeria, also faulted the operations of commercial banks who are only interested in giving out hot funds for real estate development.

But the Managing Director of Safetrust Savings and Loans Limited, Mr. Yinka Adeola is more interested in what would be done to make the sector more effective. He listed a number of factors that could help in reforming the mortgage industry. They include long term funding supported by the availability of secondary refinancing windows and low interest rates, less government regulation and control, amending the Land Use Act and computerising land titling through the use of Geographic Information system GIS to hasten and reduce cost of transactions in land thereby enhancing accessibility for development purposes.

Others include the establishment of cooperative housing models and stability of economic factors such as interest rates, inflation and exchange rate.

Noting that the lack of maintenance culture played a key role in the deterioration of Nigeria’s roads infrastructure, Makoju said it was imperative to look for an alternative surfacing material which when compared will asphalt, will require minimal maintenance.

“Benchmarking against international practice, it is worthy to note that about 40 percent of the roads in the developed countries like USA and Germany are made of cement concrete whereas it is only about two percent in emerging economy countries like India and less than 0.1 percent in Nigeria,” he said.

Although the CMAN boss and the Publisher of Business Day Newspapers, Mr Frank Aigbogun admitted that cement manufacturers have an enlightened self interest in promoting the use of cement for concrete roads, they stated that the final decision on what material to apply for roads constructions would be the outcome of a sound technical and commercial appraisal of the available options.

The Managing Director of Lafarge WAPCO Cement, Mr. Joe Hudson declared that the Nigerian cement industry is poised to fulfill the demand for rapid infrastructure development.

Describing cement consumption in Nigeria as still low when compared to other developing countries, was however optimistic that the cement demand will continue to increase, due to investment in energy supply, road, water, housing and other

infrastructure projects. With a capital investment of about N1.8 trillion, Mr. Hudson said the Nigerian cement industry will be exporting cement to other West African countries by 2015 and rank second to Egypt in cement production.

In its own presentation, titled Sustainable construction; the necessity for concrete pavement alternative in Nigeria CMAN stated that flexible pavements are more economical for lesser volume of traffic whereas rigid pavements are more economical for heavily trafficked roads with heavy axle loads. In other words, such roads in Nigeria like Lagos – Shagamu – Ore – Benin – Asaba; - Onitsha – Enugu, Lagos – Ibadan, Ilorin – Abuja – Kaduna – kano; Enugu – Aba – Port Harcourt, etc, need rigid pavements. Also our attitudinal maintenance habit recommends rigid pavement for most of the primary roads in Nigeria According to the cement manufacturers, rigid pavements have a high compressive strength, which tends to distribute the load over a relatively wide area of soil.

The organisation listed the advantages of properly constructed rigid pavements to include: low maintenance costs, long life with extreme durability, high value as base for future resurfacing with asphalt and load distribution over a wide area. Other advantages include ability to be placed directly on poor soils and the fact that it does not get damaged from oil and greases, Continues on page 34

Building materials watch Cement Dangote cement per bag of 50kg ---N1,900.00 Burham Cement per bag of 50kg ---N1,900.00 Elephant cement per bag of 50kg ---N1,850.00 Sandcrete Blocks 6 inches vibrated per block--N120 9 inches vibrated per block--N140 6 inches hand mould per block---N80 9 inches hand mould per block---N90 Sand Soft per tipper load ---N12,000 Sharp double tipper load--N22,000 Gravel double tipper load--N25,000 Gravel single tipper load--N18,000 Granite per tipper load---N165,000 Reinforcement 8 mm (153) pieces per ton --N125,000 10 mm (153) pieces per ton--N136,000 12 mm (93) pieces per ton--N161,000 16 mm (93) pieces per ton--N172,000 20 mm (53) pieces per ton--N122,000 Woods Timber (hard) 1x1x12--N1,000 Timber (hard) 2x2x12--N800750 Timber (hard) 2x4x12---N700 Softwood 2x2x12---N260 2x3x12---N300 Plywood 3x3x8---N3,500 2x4x8---N2,400 Roofing Sheets Corrugated iron sheets per bundle---N10,000 Asbestos (Super) 4x8 per piece--N1,600 Asbestos (Solo) 4x6 per piece--N1,500 Building materials watch Wall tiles (ceramic) 6 x 6 per square metre-------------------------------------N1,200 20 x 20 (China) per square metre-------------------------N1,100 20 x 25 (China) per square metre-------------------------N1,400 Floor tiles (ceramic) 14 x 14 (Spain) per square metre-------------------------N1,800 14 x 14 (Brazil) per square metre------------------------N1,420 13 x 13 (Spain) per square metre------------------------N1, 550 45 x 45 (Spain) per square metre------------------------N1,900 40 x 40 (Marble Spain) per square metre--------------N3,800 30 x 30 (Marble Spain) per square metre--------------N2,000 Plumbing Materials Galvanised conduit pipes per length 20 mm diameter -----------------------------------------N170 25 mm diameter------------------------------------------N170 PVC conduit pipes 20 mm diameter per length ----------------------------N120 25 mm diameter per length-----------------------------N130 Source-----------Cement tiles and building materials market along Lagos/Abeokuta Expressway.

34—Vanguard, TUESDAY, MAY 15, 2012

Why we evicted under bridge squatters, trucks in Apapa — Bello A

PART from sanity being restored, great relief has come the way of Apapa and its environs as the task force team of Lagos State Government comprising the Police, Military men, LASTMA officials and KAI personnel swung into action last week to clear off illegal structures, trailers and tankers parking along Apapa/ Wharf Road especially at Liverpool Bridge, Marine Beach and Navy Dockyard area.

The State Commissioner for Environment, Mr. Tunji Bello who led the operation disclosed that the activities of the people living under the bridge were causing security threat, traffic gridlock and also weakening the bridge which might eventually result into possible bridge collapse if the state government did not take the urgent action to clear the area.

The enforcement team which acted on the instruction of the Governor cleared shanties, illegal parks and structures which had been hideouts for criminals in the area.

Bello said “our objective here is to make commerce and movement in Apapa to be smooth and free.

Before now, there was bottleneck and people

could not access the road easily. Governor Fashola paid a visit to the area and saw people sleeping under the bridge and carrying out all sorts of illegal activities.

Their activities and those of tanker drivers had affected the delivery of goods at the Port. It is also one of the reasons why people could not access the Port in time. Several companies have shut been down because of the degradation and abuse of the area” The Commissioner said that cutlasses, knives, guns and other dangerous weapons were recovered by the enforcement team.

The Environment Commissioner who said that serious damage had been done to the Marine Bridge,therefore called on Federal Government to examine the bridge from Ijora to Apapa. The clearance of the illegal structures according to him, would afford the Federal Government the opportunity to ascertain

thus making it suitable for airport aprons. On the negative side, the cement manufacturers listed its long curing period (14days) and high initial costs as the major disadvantages of concrete roads.

Also speaking at the conference, the Director of Technical Services and Product Development, American Concrete Pavement Association, Mr Robert Rodden stated that concrete is everywhere and is used more than any other man-made material in the world.

Concrete, according to him is durable and gets stronger with age.

The Senior Vice President, Infrastructure at the Africa Finance C M Y K

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•Mr Tunji Bello

the structural integrity of the bridge and make amendment where necessary.

Bello who said the Federal Government gave its support to the clearing exercise, assured that the state government would complete the restoration of sanity in the area. Citing Oshodi as example, he said that the regeneration of the Apapa area would be

sustained.

In his own contribution, the Commissioner for Transport in the State, Mr. Kayode Opeifa explained that the State Government would not tolerate a situation where roads meant for vehicular movement would be blocked with parked trailers while motorists struggle for space to move.

Construction sector under pressure, says RICS survey

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ORTHERN I r e l a n d ’ s construction sector remains under extreme pressure despite a

Concrete in road pavement Continues from page 33

Agenda for UN climate change talks

Corporation, Mr. Amadou Wadda who xrayed Financing options for road development, case for greater private sector involvement, declared that Nigeria’s Road Sector has a strong potential to attract significant private sector funding if additional policy reforms are implemented.

He explained that fsources and applicable financing instruments have a strong relationship with the project life cycle, that is stage of development.

Mr. Wadda who suggested that the role of public sector should be on policy and strategy formulation not asset operations, explained that fengineering can unlock additional value thereby help attract additional investors.

marginal improvement in its downward trend, industry experts have said.

The latest RICS (Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors) Construction Market Survey showed the downturn eased slightly in the first quarter of 2012.

But the study confirmed that the industry remains in the doldrums and continues to lag far behind improvements in business being reported in Britain.

Northern Ireland remains the region with by far the largest number of chartered surveyors reporting declining construction workloads.

RICS spokesman Jim Sammon said: “The challenges remain the same, a lack of private finance, delays in processing planning applications and the fact that public spending is under significant pressure.

“2012 will be an extremely challenging year, with construction

work in Northern Ireland scarce and many local companies competing for work outside of Northern Ireland.”

The survey, which measures the percentage shifts in surveyors reporting rises or falls in workloads, found a net balance of -43 in Northern Ireland, compared with -53 in the last quarter.

The latest figures showed Scotland register a -3 decline, while London and the South East saw a +19 rise in work in recent months.

With the figure for the UK as a whole found to be +8, the data shows a growing divergence between Northern Ireland and Britain.

All construction subsectors in Northern Ireland other than public housing experienced a fall in activity during the three-month period to March, the survey showed. Expectations for the construction sector also remain negative, with further falls in workloads, employment and profits expected.

HE world’s poorest countries have issued a bold plan to make the UN climate change talks more likely to reach their goal of having an effective and legally binding agreement ready for governments to adopt by 2015.

In its submission to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Least Developed Countries LDCs listed their demands. They include: that ·The new legally binding agreement should take the form of a new protocol under the convention that builds on and enhances the commitments under the Kyoto Protocol.

•Parties should agree new rules to allow the adoption of the Protocol by a 75 percent majority, not by consensus as under current rules.

•A final negotiating text should be ready a full year ahead of the 2015 deadline rather than the usual six months deadline that the UNFCCC imposes.

•Raising the ambition of commitments to mitigate climate change before 2020 must be the top priority.

•The new Protocol should have as a key objective, the full implementation of mitigation, adaptation and finance and capacity building among others.

•Systems for monitoring, reporting and verifying finance and mitigation actions must not be weaker than but should build upon those that already exist in the Kyoto Protocol.

The chairman of the LCD Group, Ousman Jarju stated that “At last year’s conference of parties to the convention in Durban, parties agreed to complete negotiations by 2015, but such deadlines have been broken before. Our countries cannot wait. We are already feeling the effects of climate change, but the time has come for us to be leaders in the international effort to address this global challenge.”

“The creation of a new body to negotiate a second protocol under the Convention represents an overdue acknowledgment by all Parties that the Convention and the Kyoto Protocol alone are insufficient to drive action consistent with the ultimate objective of the Convention,” he said.

,

BY KINGSLEY ADEGBOYE

We are already feeling the effects of climate change, but the time has come for us to be leaders in the international effort to address this global challenge

,

“Urgent action is needed by all Parties to prevent dangerous interference with the climate system, and in particular to stay below 2°C and keep open the possibility of limiting warming to 1.5°C above preindustrial in the long-term as called for by the most vulnerable countries.”

As negotiators gather in Bonn for the latest round of talks this week, the LDC group also proposes changes to the way the negotiations work to make them faster and fairer.

To ensure that all issues can be dealt with, the group says the number and duration of future negotiation sessions must be agreed in Bonn, along with a timetable to discuss particular issues.

The group also says parties should consider electing officers to the bureau that will run the talks for more than the usual two year period, to ensure continuity – and that the size of the bureau should perhaps be expanded given the urgency of its task and that wide range of topics it must work on.

“The LDC group comes to the Bonn climate change talks with a strong set of recommendations,” says Pa Ousman Jarju. “In the spirit of international cooperation and with our desire to see the UN climate change convention meet its objective, we urge other parties to join our call for these improvements to the negotiating process and its final goals.”

Vanguard, TUESDAY, MAY 15, 2012—35

Burooj Views Tower ready for handover in Abu Dhabi B

UROOJ Properties has announced successful completion of Burooj Views Tower. The main developer of the project, Tamouh, has announced that construction process has been completed and ‘snagging’ process has begun already, and is the first step for handover.

The construction on the project began in 2006, and after having received a building completion certificate from Abu Dhabi Municipality, Burooj Properties has now begun the delivery process.

Burooj Views has drawn considerable investor interest, with its design and panoramic views, constructed over an area of 350,000 sq. mts., comprising a 45 storey tower which houses two luxury penthouses, three parking levels, and 350 residential units.

Given, its prime location as part of Marina Square development at Al Reem Island, it is one of the most attractive r e s i d e n t i a l developments in the

Gulf. The Marina, spreading 26.7 hectares, features 14 buildings covering an area of 827,000 sq. mts., forms a part of the 5mn square meters island development, the project gained international interest as one of the first free zones in Abu Dhabi.

Burooj’s portfolio comprises prime locations in the Jawaher Madinat MBZ, the Sharjah Marina, and the Al Qurm Gardens project. At a regional level, Burooj is collaborating with Egyptian Real Estate developer, Palm Hills Development in the new Cairo-based project. The development is a masterplanned residential community, and the first joint project between Burroj and Palm Hills.

HE Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Raji Fashola has described the

AMCOW launches framework for water security

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HE African Ministers Council on Water (AMCOW) will launch The Strategic Framework for Water Security and Climate R e s i l i e n t Development during the 4th Africa Water Week, May 14-18, 2012, in Cairo, Egypt.

The Framework was developed by AMCOW to help senior professionals and decision-makers to identify and develop “no or low regret” investment strategies, to integrate these into planning processes, and to influence future development activities so they become more resilient to climate change and variability.

According to Mr Bai Mass Taal, AMCOW Executive Secretary, the Framework “has been formulated to support the implementation of climate change related commitments expressed

by African heads of state C M Y K

N a bid to ease the pains of motorists plying Federal highway, the Ministry of Works said last week that it has commenced the removal of illegally parked vehicles along the Abuja-Kaduna road Minister of State for Works Amb. Bashir Yuguda who disclosed this when he received leaders of the National Association of Road Transport owners NARTO and the Association of Petroleum Tanker Drivers PTD in his office, described as unacceptable, the illegal parking of tankers and other articulated vehicles at Tafa along the expressway..

He said the government has taken it as a responsibility to protect the road and road users from abuse and danger posed by the indiscriminate parking along the road..

Amb. Yuguda also frowned at the indiscriminate disposal of refuse along the highway, saying it is inimical both to the health of road users and the life span of the road itself.

He solicited for the cooperation of NARTO and PTD as well as the Kaduna State Government to rid the road of illegal activities.

Responding, the presidents of two groups - Ibrahim Bataiya and Comrade. Dr. Timothy Ogbu expressed their readiness to work with the ministry in solving the problem.

FERMA commences closure of open man-holes

Raise school clubs against climate change — Fashola

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in the 2008 Sharm el Sheikh declaration on water and sanitation. The Sharm el Sheikh Declaration in particular calls for African countries to put in place adaptation measures and investment plans to improve the resilience of countries to the increasing threat of climate change and variability to water resources, and enhance capacity to meet the water and sanitation targets.”

Mrs Rhoda Peace T u m u s i i m e , Commissioner for Rural Economy and Agriculture at the African Union Commission calls the Framework “a key milestone towards the attainment of the Africa Water Vision 2025 of equity and sustainability in the use and management of water resources for poverty alleviation, socioeconomic development, regional cooperation, and the environment.

FG rids Abuja-Kaduna road of illegally parked tankers

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•Burooj Views Tower.

BY KINGSLEY ADEGBOYE

PROPERTY BRIEFS

Climate Change Club in Lagos Schools as the home-grown solution to the global scourge of climate change.

Fashola who spoke at 4th anniversary of the club in Lagos last week, said children are central to the climate change and human security agenda. “They are among the populations that are most vulnerable to climate change, and may be the greatest advocates of adaptive and mitigative practices’’, he said.

The Climate Change Club was launched in 2008 in Lagos State as part of efforts to combat climate change and prepare young people for collective response to the rapidly changing environment.

According to Fashola, school children are veritable change agents who have vital role to play in the global fight against climate change.

Praising the efforts of students who expressed the climate change message in music, drama, rap music, essay, calisthenics and other green projects, Fashola charged all to embrace the three Rs – Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.

The Commissioner for the Environment, Mr.

Tunji Bello aid that Climate Change Clubs were launched as part of the government’s “bottom-up” approach to address the problem of Climate Change in the State.

The clubs, he said, were established as part of the Schools Environmental Advocacy Programme with the maxim catch them young.

“It is common knowledge globally that the effects of Climate Change respect no geographical boundary, race, status nor class.

The fact that the whole world is united on the issue of Climate Change as a global phenomenon which requires the collective effort of both the young and the old,” he said.

The commissioner who described children as most vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change, stated that the club members were ambassadors who would spread the message of mitigative and adaptive measures against the threat the world faces from global warming and climate change.

He expressed satisfaction at the achievements of the clubs.

A

PPARENTLY complying with ministerial directive that open man-holes that dot Federal roads in Lagos should be closed without further delay, the Federal Roads Maintenance Agency FERMA has commenced the closure of open man-holes in the state.

This was disclosed to newsmen by the new Zonal Coordinator of the Agency in Lagos, Mr. Oladipo Oladele Fagbamila, an engineer.

According to Fagbamila, the need to close all the open man-holes on Federal roads in the state became imperative to save the lives of motorists and commuters who ply these roads. He pointed out that a novel idea had been introduced to the development in place of the aluminum covers hitherto used for covering the man-holes. He said concrete slabs have been introduced.

The measure it was learnt, is to minimize the rate of theft as the former covers which were made of aluminum were easily vandalized by unknown persons. The introduction of concrete slabs as covers for the man-holes would apart from lessening the rate of theft; also ensure longevity for the slabs.

The Zonal Coordinator said personnel of the agency had commenced the closure of open man-holes along the Old Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway from the Ile Zik end up till Abule-Egba.

Fagbamila who said the closure of man-holes is in line with the policy thrust of the new administration of Gabriel Amuchi, the managing director of the agency, further noted that certain measures were being put in place to ensure that FERMA’s activities were noticed in all the nooks and crannies of the state.

NBRRI holds conference on collapsed buildings

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HE Nigerian Building and Road Research Institute NBRRI, will today, flag off a two-day conference on how to curb the rising occurrence of collapsed buildings in the country.

The conference according to the Director-General, of NBRRI, Danladi Matawal has Curbing the incidence of building collapse in Nigeria as the theme.

Speaking at a pre- conference briefing in Abuja, the NBRRI boss said the collapse of buildings in Nigeria are more rampant in the cities of Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt. Lagos accounts for over 60 percent of such collapses while Abuja. accounts for 20 percent.

He blamed the rising occurrence of structural failures on the use of quacks and poor building materials.

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Vanguard, TUESD AY, MA Y 15, 2012 TUESDA MAY

Nigeria, worst place to be a mother — REPORT

BY SOLA OGUNDIPE

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BY SOLA OGUNDIPE

• The 2012 State of the World’s Mothers shows clearly that this crisis of chronic malnutrition has devastating effects on both mothers and their children. Urgent global leadership on malnutrition is required. Photo: Courtesy Save the Children.

IGERIA is the worst place to be a mother among the less developed countries of the world. Data from the Save the Children’s 13th State of the World’s Mothers Report which compares 165 countries around the world in key areas such as mother’s health, education and economic status, as well as critical child indicators such as health and nutrition, places Nigeria as 80th out of 80 countries in the Less Developed countries category .

Released ahead of the crucial G8 meeting, where food will be discussed, the Report focuses on nutrition as one of the key factors in determining mothers’ and their children’s well-being malnutrition being the underlying cause of at least a fifth of maternal mortality and more than a third of child deaths.

The report details a vicious cycle of how mothers, who may themselves have been stunted in childhood, go on to give

birth to underweight babies who have not been adequately nourished in the womb. If a mother is impoverished, overworked, poorly educated and in poor health, she may not be able to feed the baby adequately, with largely irreversible effects. Save the Children notes that in sub-Saharan Africa, up to 20 percent of women are classified as excessively thin. The report highlights that the best method for breaking this vicious cycle and protecting the pregnant mother and her baby from malnutrition is to focus on the first 1,000 days starting from pregnancy.

Calling for more global action to tackle the vicious cycle of maternal and child malnutrition among the G8 leaders, Susan Grant, Save the Children Nigeria Country Director said: “The 2012 State of the World’s Mothers shows clearly that this crisis of chronic malnutrition has devastating effects on both mothers and their children. We urgently need global leadership on malnutrition that results in

Optometrist Board shuts fake eye clinic in Lagos BYCHIOMA OBINNA

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HE Optometrist and Dispensary Registration Board of Nigeriahas shut down a fake eye clinic located at Shop 35, University of Lagos Main shopping complex, Lagos.

Investigations reveal that the operator had on its sign board the inscription “Dudu Ventures”.

Luck ran out of the owner, Mr. Dudu Yemi Oladipupo, a school certificate holder, when an enforcement unit of the Board stormed his shop following a tip off.

By the entrance of the shop, members of the public were given the impression that the shop was for shoes, clothes and hair accessories amongst others.

But in reality, the owner who has no formal training on eye related issues was actually carrying out eye tests and treating other eye diseases.

Information available to Good Health Weekly revealed that already, three people have been permanently blind due to the ac-

tivities going on in the place.

Speaking, Head of Inspection and Registration, Optometrist and Registration Board of Nigeria, Dr Okafor Igbo, said the operations of quacks are seriously threatening Nigeria’s attainment of vision 2020.

Igbo who regretted that many unsuspecting Nigerians have suffered or manners of eye injury even

later life blindness due to the operations of quacks in the profession warned that the attention of the board have been drawn to their activities.

Stating that not less than 15 eye clinics have been shut so far by the Board, he warned that if caught, defaulters would be severely punished.

He said the Board had been following the activities of Dudu Eye Centre activities for weeks following a complaint from some victims.

Further, he explained that such activities also lead to refractive errors, cataract, and glaucoma amongst others.

“We have recovered so many things from him. It takes an optometrist or an eye doctor to pass five credits including English, mathematics, chemistry, Biology before going through JAMB. You will need to study for at least six years, do your in-

Continues on Page 37

NAFDAC commissions Enforcement Directorate office

BY CHIOMA OBINNA & GABRIEL OLAWALE

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•The fake eye clinic shut by the Optometrists Registration Board.

key nutrition projects being rolled out for mothers and babies to ensure their health and survival.”

In new research for the report, Save the Children found that the simple measure of supporting mothers to breastfeed could save one million children’s lives a year. Yet the report also shows that less than 40 percent of all infants in developing countries receive the full benefits of exclusive breastfeeding. This is due, in part, to countries lacking strong commitment and complimentary programmes that enable mothers to breastfeed.

According to Susan “Our report shows that a mother’s breast milk - one single nutrition intervention - can save a million children’s lives each year. Policies and programs must be put in place in all countries to ensure all mothers have the support they need to choose to breastfeed if they want to. Acting now not only saves lives, but saves dollars as well.”

“Exclusive breastfeeding would go a long way to address malnutrition and improve child health in Nigeria and Health workers are critical to ensuring an increase in exclusive breastfeeding in the country-currently at 13 percent- by ensuring that every baby is put to breast with one hour of delivery” Susan saidNigeria

O further strengthen the activities of its enforcement department and ensure that duties are carried out in a conducive environment, the National Agency for Food Administration and Control(NAFDAC) weekend commissioned the first-ever Enforcement Directorate office in the country.

Commissioning the office complex in Lagos, the Director General of NAFDAC, Dr. Paul Orhii, who spoke extensively on the importance of the directorate to its activities said the building of the office at the Apapa area of

Lagos was borne out of the need to find a permanent site for the directorate after fire razed down their former office at the Federal Secretariat, Ikoyi in 2003.

Orhii said since the incidence, the Directorate had been squatting in various places without a place to call its own, a situation which he decided to change upon his assumption of office.

His words: “Since Enforcement Directorate left the Federal Secretariat in Ikoyi after the unfortunate fire incident of 2003, the directorate has been squatting in various

Continues on Page 37

Vanguard, TUESD AY, MA Y 15, 2012 — 37 TUESDA MAY

New NIMR IRB urged to abide by WHO recommendation

BY CHIOMA OBINNA

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• Lagos state Ministry of Health heid the Eko Free health mission programme at Ogudu primary health centre last week. From left, Dr Femi Olugbile , Perm Sec , with Governor Babatunde Fashola and Dr. Dolapo Fashawe during the activity. Photo Shola Oyelese

EMBERS of the newly reconstituted Nigeria Institute of Medical Research, NIMR, Institutional Review Board, IRB, have been urged to abide by the World Health Organisation’s, WHO, recommendations on human subject protection.

Inaugurating the Board in Lagos, Director General, NIMR, Prof Innocent Ujah said the primary responsibility of IRBs is human subject protection, which involves protecting participants’ dignity and rights, facilitating good research, managing conflicts of interest, providing ethics education for self and research-

NAFDAC commissions Enforcement Directorate Continues fromPage 36 places. I took it upon myself to provide a permanent and befitting office accommodation for all directorates of the agency.”he said.

Noting the importance of the department in NAFDAC, he noted that the role of the Enforcement Directorate was a very important one in the agency and that it was necessary to provide a well equipped facility which would enhance its efficience and ef-

fectiveness.

Orhii said with its mandate to safe guard public health, the importance of having an efficient enforcement department could not be over emphasised, noting that the “role of the Enforcement Directorate is a huge one and key to the overall mission of the agency”.

“It is therefore very important to ensure that the directorate works in an environment where they can carry out their duties effectively. “he said.

He added that the establishment of the edifice also was a way of showing Nigerians that the agency was concerned about the welfare of its staff and would continue to ensure that they worked under the most favourable conditions.

Corroborating his views, NAFDAC Director of Enforcement, Dr. Garuba Macdonald said that the establishment of the new office meant that the directorate would enable the department perform its duties

effectively.

Describing it as history making event, Garuba noted that it was the first time the enforcement department of NAFDAC would have its own office since its creation in 2001.

He further commended the efforts of the DG in making the dream come true.

He promised that his team will work harder and perform better especially with the comfort they now have. “I want to

Nigeria should invest in family planning supplies, programmes — SHEFFIELD

BY SOLA OGUNDIPE

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ITH a 20 percent unmet need for family planning in Nigeria, the need to invest in country-specific family planning supplies and programmes has been stressed. President of the Women Deliver, Jill Sheffield who disclosed this in an interview, said: “Nigeria should invest in family planning supplies and programmes, which would drastically reduce the number of unintended pregnancies, maternal deaths, newborn deaths, and unsafe abortions.”

Sheffield, who spoke to Vanguard in a follow-up interview to the Regional Consultative conference that took place in

• Jill Sheffield

Kampala Uganda, about specific areas in which Nigeria and other African countries required more capacity building, skills empowerment, and technical support for improved maternal health, observed that latest data released by Countdown to 2015, showed that 1 in 23 women in Nigeria will die of complications during pregnancy and childbirth.

“The good news is that the vast majority of maternal deaths are entirely preventable. By strengthening health systems, training more community health workers and ensuring the availability of necessary medicines and equipment, governments across Africa can prevent or manage lifethreatening pregnancy-related complications and save countless women’s lives.

But none of this is possible without strong political and financial commitments at the local, national and international scenes.”

Commenting on the response of African governments to the challenge of maternal health, Sheffield observed there has been progress on maternal health in many parts of Africa, as evidenced by the 26 percent decline in maternal mortality

over the past two decades.

“Strong leadership from African policymakers has been key to this progress. More than 30 countries launched the Campaign for Accelerated Reduction of Maternal Mortality in Africa (CARMMA), which sets clear, country-specific priorities and goals for reducing maternal mortality.

“And even more recently,

delegates at the Inter-Parliamentary Union in Kampala passed a resolution calling on members to take all possible measures to achieve MDGs 4 and 5 by 2015.

However, with nearly 600 women in sub-Saharan Africa still dying every day of pregnancy-related causes, there is more work to be done.

Continues on Page 39

ers and ensuring the application of good clinical practice.

He said: “In addition to reviewing research, IRBs should also monitor approved research, because ethical approval alone does not necessarily ensure protection of the safety and welfare of research participants throughout the research, hence the need for approved research to be monitored by IRBs.” Ujah lamented that the work of IRBs in Africa has been fraught with a number of challenges, adding that the capacity of IRBs in developing countries to review research protocols is often influenced by the complex environment in which they operate.

He said: “It is usually characterised by power inequalities between government, sponsors and researchers and the communities and this has invariably led to compromising IRB independence especially where it is difficult to challenge authority and debate complex issues.”

Other factors that may constraint good ethics review in Africa, include; lack of transparency and conflicts of interest, limited local expertise, technologies and financial resources.

He admonished those conversant with the National Code for Health Research Ethics, NCHRE which had been provided as the national guideline for all ethics Boards and researchers in the country by the National Health Research Ethnics Committee.

Earlier, outgoing Chairman of NIMR-IRB, Prof. Femi Soyinka represented by the Vice Chairman, Dr. Philip Agomo said during the three- year period, 75 protocols were submitted to the Board for review. Forty three were approved, 15 were voluntarily withdrawn while 14 are still undergoing the review process.

He said the remaining three came in for renewal of approval as a result of their delay in the commencement of their previously approved protocols.

Nigerian women worse off in life than Continued fromPage 36 ternship and one year NYSC before applying for licence to practice as an eye doctor. How come a school certificate holder is now operating an eye clinic?

“The contact lens is meant for qualified optometrist snot for a market man or woman or such places like this. We discovered ortho-refractive equipmentand so many solutions and some basic things you need for tests. He is now treating eye diseases and people are going blind. We have got three cases from UNILAG alone. eople are getting blind.

Who knows who will be the victim tomorrow?”

Igbo advised Nigerians to visit

registered clinics for their eye needs in order to save their sight from avoidable damage or later life blindness.

Reacting to the allegations, Oladipupo who admitted to be a school certificate holder and never had any form of training on eye treatment denied he was only selling frames before an eye clinic, Day Spring Eye clinic started supplying him with contact lenses and other eye solutions.

Oladipupo who told Good health weekly that he was planning to enrol with the University of Benin to study ophthalmology said: “I am not running an eye clinic.

What I do is to collect their prescriptions. I have been selling

frames for five years now before I registered with Day spring eye clinic. I was selling frame before Day spring eye clinic started supplying us with contact frames.

It is not all the people that I ran test for unless if they bring their prescription from LUTH before I will go to the Laboratory to do it.

If you want to do refraction, we take you to Day Spring or Besco at No.2 Ojuelgba.

“Before now, I was asked to come and enrol in the University of Benin. I was asked to be attending lectures every weekend. I am not yet a student. It was the Nigerian Medical Optical Association. They called me from university of Benin. I told them that I will join them by September.”

38 — Vanguard, TUESD AY, MA Y 15, 2012 TUESDA MAY

Persistent weight loss, hotness in the body Dear doctor,

D

OCTOR, I have been having hotness in the body and weight loss for the past one year now.

I went to the hospital and all the results of tests favoured me, but the problem persists. What should I do?

James from Nassarawa

Stooling after taking 3 bottles of beer Dear doctor, OCTOR, I am 55. For quite sometimes

D

now when I take two or three bottles of beer, I will start stooling and the stool comes with blood.

If I stop drinking for two days it will stop. What is the cause and remedy? Secondly, I have erectile dysfunction, what do I do?

Can’t get pregnant Dear doctor,

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OCTOR, I had a miscarriage about five months ago. Since then I have been trying to get pregnant but no way.

I did scan which confirmed that I am ok, but pregnancy is notforthcoming.

Janet, Owerri Answer EVEN when you are too anxious you are not going to get pregnant. Take it easy and calm down. It will come naturally.

Jonathan, Lagos Answer, IF the bloody stool is associated with beer, I think the logical thing to do is to quit drinking. However, if at your age you are having bloody stool, you need to go for full clinical assessment to rule out haemmorrhoids, cancer of the colon, and also sort out the erectile dysfunction.will reflect as well.

I am 3 months pregnant for another man Dear doctor,

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OCTOR, I am 24 with a child. I am also three months pregnant for another man and we don’t both want it. Can I still do D and C, or any drug that can be used?

Bola, Ibadan

Answer

DILATION and Curettage, D and C , can still be done but I would not encourage it. Since both of you decided to keep it for this long I honestly think you should leave it. D and C may be dangerous at this stage especially if not handled by an expert; neither should any drug be used. What happened is not a big deal. Keep it.

Worry over blocked tube, itchy privates Dear doctor, OCTOR, I am a lady of 31, had stillbirth even with operation in 2007 and since then has been trying to conceive. HSG has been done which confirmed left tubal blockage.

Also, I will be expecting my menses in a week and I am experiencing itchy vagina. It stops after menses. What should I do?

Lara, Abuja

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Answer

WHAT was the cause of the stillbirth then? Were you told? Again, what was the postoperative condition like? If uneventful, no problem. If HSG revealed left tubal blockage, and your right tube is in order, you can still get pregnant all other things being equal.

Like your hormones being in order, your husband sperm count being normal. Even the left tube can be opened up by hydrotubation. See a Gyneacologist. For the itchy vagina, do a swab test.

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Weak erection problem Dear doctor,

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OCTOR, I have a problem of weak erection. I am hypertensive and diabetic on insulin injection and some BP medications. It is affecting my marriage. Please help.

Kolawole, Ogun State Answer THERE are three possible conditions in you that are likely to cause this.

Hypertension, diabetes when they are poorly controlled, and possibly BP medications. Almost all BP medications have these side effects, except the new ones like Angiotensin Receptor Blockers, ARBs. It does not mean

My body is open and my partner hates it Dear doctor,

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OCTOR, my body is open and my boyfriend doesn’t like it.

I have used alum but still wide. What do I do?

Amaka, Aba Answer,

IT is difficult to say you are at fault.

What if he has micropenis? Never try alum again; you may be introducing an infection in a way. I am not sure of any treatment for a condition like this but see a Gynaecologist. So you are good.

Never try alum again; you may be introducing an infection

Irregular menses for 10 years, wants to get pregnant OCTOR, I am a single lady of 34. I have been having irregular menses for almost 10 years.

Last year, I saw a gynaecologist who told me to go for hormonal assay which I did at a reputable laboratory in Lagos. The result was that of ovarian failure. He placed me on parlodel which I took from May to October. During this period my period flow but not with the normal 28 days at times 35 days.

After I stopped taking the drugs in October my period came in November, December and January, and then stopped. I saw it again on 1st February exactly 10 days after the last one. Am in a relationship and I need to get pregnant.

Answer, I DON’T know the kind of tests you did but did you do Thyroid Function and HIV tests, or better still let me have an idea of the tests you did and results. You can scan them to my box.

How can a woman detect ectopic pregnancy?

Joy, Ibadan Answer OBVIOUSLY there is a problem. Please I want you to do something for me. Repeat the hormonal profile to include progesterone, prolactin, Oestradiol, FSH, LH, Thyroid function test and do a pelvic scan. Text to me the details of the results.

Thanks. I am expecting please. Or scan them to my box. everybody on other groups will have this side effect. Common ones are calcium channel blockers, of which you have amlodipine, nifedipine. Mind you, a lot of people take these on a daily basis without hassles. It depends on the body. For example, some people take chloroquine and itch, while some take and no reaction.

Based on the above, review your hypertensive and diabetic status vis a vis your medications with your doctor. Watch out for your BP medications I beg. If any of them is culpable, stop it.

The erection will automatically switch on.

Concern over fibroid size Dear Doctor,

D

OCTOR, I have a huge fibroid up to the size of six months old pregnancy.

This has been there for two years now.

The doctor has advised me to remove it since but I am afraid of surgery.

Please I want you to assure me of the safety.

Evelyn, Benin city Answer MY sister, we are all in the hands of God. My prayer is God Almighty to direct us to the right place in a situation like this.

There is no two way about it. You need surgery; otherwise you will be at risk of kidney failure later which is more deadly.

To get started, ask God for divine favour. Do all that the doctor might request for in terms of tests.

Let the doctor be happy with the bill.

Then, summon courage and go ahead.

Please identify the right place to go.

All the best.

Vanguard, TUESD AY, MAY 15, 2012 — 39 TUESDA

Entries open for BRCA Award

A

•Clearline Health Management Organisation recently hosted a health service providers forum at the Maryland Shopping Mall in Lagos. From right :Dr Segun Ogundimu, MD/CEO Clearline ,adressing participants while Mrs Evelyn Olokun,NHIS representative centre and Dr Charles Fagbohunlu,Head of Quality Assurance and Medical services, Clearline left look on

PPLICATIONS have been called for the BRCA Award, instituted by the Sebeccly Cancer Care and Support Centre, SCCSC, an independent initiative established to acknowledge excellence and commitment in cancer journalism and shed light on the pivotal role journalists play in informing the public on matters of cancer.

The Award, to be hosted for the first time in July 2012 during the Cervical Cancer Workshop for media professionals is to promote good cancer journalism helps people prevent cancer, detect cancer early and improve support for cancer patients.

A statement said the Award is open only to journalists (electronic and print) who have demonstrated outstanding ability in reporting cancer stories.

According to the statement, two

PAN advocates for pneumococcal vaccination T HE President, Paediatric As sociation of Nigeria, PAN, Dr Dorothy Esangbedo, has again reiterated that pneumococcal disease remains a significant burden in Africa, accounting for 20 per cent of under five deaths in Nigeria.

Esangbedo spoke at the Africa Middle East Pneumococcal Summit in Dubai, United Arab Emirate (UAE). In her paper entitled “Epidemiology and Burden of Pneumonia in Africa’’ she said the use of the pneumococcal vaccine in some developing coun-

tries like Saudi Arabia, Gambia and Jordan had shown tangible results. ``We must take action to prevent its burden, it is our duty, as health care providers, parents, family members and citizens to place prevention at a high priority.

“It is our responsibility to protect our most vulnerable citizens who are our future, especially given that pneumococcal vaccine and immunisation programme has demonstrated tangible results.

She said there was need for effective prevention to continue, especially before the age of five

to reduce infant deaths and morbidity. ``For Nigeria and indeed most African countries to attain the MDGs, there was urgent need for inclusion of the pneumococcal vaccine in the routine immunization programmes of these countries. ``Pneumonia is responsible for more infant deaths than malaria and HIV combined, we still have three years to 2015 and I believe we can arrest the situation, if urgent steps are taken to introduce the vaccine.’’

Esangbedo however, cautioned

health care givers to take time to run tests on patients especially children under five years, who present with symptoms of malaria. ``Pneumonia and malaria most times present with the same symptoms, and most health care givers confuse the two. Sometimes the two co-exist, and care givers treat malaria and leave pneumonia.’’

She asserted that the pneumonia burden was worse in Nigeria due to reduction in exclusive breastfeeding, which remained at 13 per cent.

reporters will receive the BRCA Awards with a cash prize of N100,000 each. Full details can be obtained from www.sebecclycancercare.org.

All report materials- articles/materials/recordings/tapes must be received by email or post before 31st of May, 2012

Family planning Continued from Page 37 “The progress Africa has made on maternal health to date shows us that success is possible. If African leaders continue prioritising and investing in the health and well-being of girls and women, I believe we can bring about a sea change across the continent,” she stressed.

In her brief, Sheffied said: “African countries and governments already have national and regional frameworks they can use to address maternal health challenges. In 2006, African Heads of State adopted the Maputo Plan of Action, which sets out a framework of clear goals, outcomes, outputs, indicators, timelines, and costing for countries to improve reproductive health. Renewed focus on MDG5, and the African Union’s Campaign on Accelerated Reduction of Maternal Mortality (CARMMA), also offer a crucial opportunity to help countries fulfill the Maputo Plan of Action.

COMMON SEXUAL PROBLEMS AND THEIR NOVELTY BASED SOLUTIONS (ADVERTORIAL) Please I need your advice. Many years ago, I was good friends with a man. His name is Mike. Our relationship was developing and I was crazy in love with him. And then one day, I heard he was engaged to someone else.

I could not believe it. I thought I was the one for him. I was upset and confused but still loved him madly.

Eventually, I started dating his friend Andrew. We are now married with two children. My problem now is that my marriage to Andrew was a mistake. I am not in love with him. I married him to stay close to Mike. I feel trapped in the wrong relationship. It is not working out for me and we are not meant to be together – Samantha Dear Samantha, none of that matters anymore. The past is history. You are married now with children and so is Mike. It is time to move on. I will not advice any woman in your situation to walk away from their husband and children in search of true love. You do realise that the only way you can have your so called true love is to walk away from your husband and children and snatch mike from his wife and children. How does that sound to you?

That is not an option. This true love talk is for young and unmarried people. You have a family now. Learn to love your husband Andrew and stop comparing him to Mike.

If you give Andrew a chance and try to accept him for the man that he is, you will find out that what he has to offer is good enough. Whether or not Andrew is your true love, you can make a happy life with him. You just need to get mike out of your head. Family comes first Samantha.

Remember that – Uche

Please what do you recommend for a woman who is circumcised and has never had an orgasm before? It is becoming a source of worry to me – Rose Dear Rose, there is a secondary pleasure spot located on the vaginal roof, about an inch inside. It is called the G spot and massaging this spot skilfully can give satisfactory

pleasure as well. You can do this with a G Spot vibrator or a G Spot Rabbit Vibrator. G Spot vibrators are cheaper, an example of which is the Water Proof Slender G Spot Vibrator. G Spot Rabbit Vibrators however are the best for circumcised women like you because they combine both G Spot and Rabbit vibrator qualities. An example is the Shane’s World co-ed G Bunny. I also need you to know that when the female body loses the clitoris to circumcision, the body naturally develops an alternative pleasure spot. You have to explore your body to find this new location – Uche

Please Uche my penis often falls immediately after ejaculation and the ejaculation is always premature.

Please help a brother – Lanre Dear Lanre, you can actually have your penis remain erect after ejaculation with the use of a device called a Cock Ring. A Cock Ring basically traps blood in the penis to enable you maintain your erection for twenty to twenty five minutes and it works well too. As for premature ejaculation, a simple delay cream will enable you last longer. Get Prolong Plus Delay Cream - Uche

My wife has very low interest in sex. She tries to have sex with me not because she wants it but because I want it as her husband – Maxwell Maxwell your wife has low sexual desire. Let her take Max Desire or Cock Star for Women supplement. They will restore her sexual interest and enable her enjoy sex as well. Adult movies are also good for arousal - Uche That’s it for today. Adults in need of these treatments/ novelties can call 08027901621 or 08051924159 or any other number here to order or they can order online at www.zeevirtualmedia.com. Zee Virtual Media delivers to you wherever you are in Nigeria. For enquiries, send your emails to custserv@zeevirtualmedia.com - Uche Edochie, MD, Zee Virtual Media.

Love is a bitch! (2) HI One of the most painful experiences a spouse can go through is discovering suddenly that what he/she shares with the other is a ruse. That he/she is only being stringed along.

That time, emotions and hope have all gone to waste.

What does one do when you discover that the whole relationship has been a lie? You may think that the right answer will be to walk away.

However, as they say, the heart is not so smart. The heart wants only what it wants, so it keeps falling again and again.

Today, we will be reading an expose from a young lady on her quest to finding love. Though she makes no attempt to hide her shortcomings, she is bold to state that her heart remained with the guy who could not love her the way she ought to be loved.

I do not intend to pass any comments here. I want to leave that to you, our readers. Please, Amy as she identified herself will be happy to read your views and advice for her.

Our address remains: the Human Angle, Vanguard Media Limited, 1007, Apapa, Lagos. Or e-mail a d d r e s s : humananglepage@yahoo.com We look forward to your contributions.

“The road which leads to happiness varies, it depends on the path”. – My Love We spoke like three times

today before I came over, so he couldn’t possibly pick up my calls with my contact stored as “bitch”. He’s not that wicked, (now in tears)... I’m not his bitch, I never have been, I gave him my womanhood, and he didn’t meet me as a bitch, so when did I become that to him?

When, I’ve been with only him and I don’t think he

,

C M Y

40—V anguard, TUESD AY, MA Y 15, 2012 40—Vanguard, TUESDA MAY

it mean anything to you? Is that what I truly am to you?

Why the entire pretense?” so who’s she? “She’s my past, I’ve known her for about five years now, but we’re no longer together. (what a relief) but…” but what? “She’s my present, because she has my child, who’s about three years old now, that’s why she was here today, to settle things

We hooked up and I just knew it, so I let him know outright that he won’t see me again because I’m grown and no longer the little girl he knew and I know what I feel now and it’s not love

doubts that, so what have I done to deserve this?

I got up to leave, only to fall to my face. My legs failed me, but I just had to leave this god forsaken place, I had to leave.

Oh God, please let my legs carry me, I have to leave… then he woke up, his eyes red as usual and I loved them, but I couldn’t stare into them, because those eyes had failed me, that smile, so fake, it just revealed itself.

The cuddling, the hugs, they were just as unto a bitch. Wow!!! Then he looked into my eyes and said “now you see why your heart was racing? I’m sorry, but I didn’t store your contact that way, she did”.

Who did? “Her name’s Francesca, she was here today, she changed your contact”. “So when you knew, why didn’t you change it?” I replied “didn’t

,

about my child’s school. I called her your name mistakenly, that’s why she did what she did to your contact. I’m sorry” Oh God! This is too hard to swallow… another girl, then a child, and I’m the bitch? Wow… still he tells me always that my patience is what is still keeping us together. What is expected of me now, Patience? Or perhaps foolishness… well this is the last straw. Or is it?

The story goes on. For the mean time, off we went, because I couldn’t do this.

Funny enough, this was not the end of my love, it was only the beginning, because emotional trauma set in and the struggle between flesh and mind, to either let go or hold on, to forget him or forget him not, all began.

10th May, 2010 “I’ve missed you so much

dear, I’m sorry if I hurt you again, I need to see you so we can talk, please, I’m no longer with her, just let’s see and discuss”.

Those were the words I heard each time we parted and had to come back together. But you see, I never got tired of hearing them, won’t deny that, I always felt glad that he wanted to settle, because I missed him too.

Going back to him, maybe that was a mistake, but since I’ve chosen not to regret my actions, then I’ll say it was my decision.

Nevertheless, we were at it, off and on, lovers today, haters tomorrow; but I refuse to go on without letting you in on what rebounds took place this period.

First, it was Matthew, although, we met sometime on the holidays in the suburbs where I hail from, he was friendly and all through the holidays, my cousin and I seemed to have found a friend to hang out with, that was in 2006.

Since then, he’s been all over me, or so he said, making me know his feelings towards me. Well, since I was just a child in 2004, there was room for infatuations, like exchanging looks and hidden smiles and so on.

The next time I saw him, though we had phone conversations constantly, was in 2010 and there, even when we talked, I let him know what I felt for him was not as much as he felt for me.

We hooked up and I just knew it, so I let him know outright that he won’t see me again because I’m grown and no longer the little girl he knew and I know what I feel now and it’s not love. I should say that the rebound was because there was a bridge between my love and I then and as is the case with every other guy I met, I told him about my “past”.

For him, there was no second meeting.

BY ONOZURE DANIA

S

OME women think playing hard to get is a game in a relationship, but really it is not.

What is the opposite of being hard to get? It is easy to get. How has that worked out for you?

Hard to get is about building romantic tension.

Hard to get is about being in control of your dating, love life and your future.

Being hard to get means you will not have to ever settle for less than the happiness you want and deserve.

By being hard to get you will discover how the chase will be thrilling and memorable for both of you.

You will have love, fun, respect and excitement.

However, you can be hard to get and easy to be with at the same time. It's a balance and men like the chase.

Men value most what they work hardest for.

As a lady, you are the prize and a prize is not easy. Men work for the woman they view as the prize.

Think of it like this. You are not a cheap material that is easy to get and usually has a low price tag.

You are a top shelf material and top shelf does not come easy. So when you are playing hard to get, when he does get your time, it is important to be easy to be with.

A woman who is easy to be with is just herself. She does not look to him for validation.

She is upbeat, fun, flirty and never puts pressures or demands on him. She conveys an attitude that she is fine with or without him.

This sets off an alarm in his head. He thinks you are different and it’s going to take more to win you over.

This is a huge turn on for

men.

You aren't worried if he will call or if you will get another date. You are just fine with you and your wonderful life.

This makes him want to be a part of it. He will want to learn more about what makes you tick.

What a woman! You are fun to be with and you don't put the pressure on or question him. He feels safe to move forward. He does not fear you becoming the clingy needy crazy women of his past.

The magic formula in playing hard to get is give a little and then pull back, give a little and then pull back.

Rinse and repeat. Its like a schoolyard game of tag and you are it. If you just stand still he will stop chasing you. If you keep moving, he will keep chasing you.

When a man sees you as his only social outlet and you are always available to him he will not bother to pencil himself in. Why should he, you aren't going anywhere.

That is why it is so important to have your own life. If you have your own life, you are naturally hard to get.

He may be competing with your time, but he is competing and men love competition. That’s how you pull back. It's not like you are shutting him out, you just have other things going on.

Getting your time is not so easy. It makes him crave it more.

When a man is in pursuit mode, he gets the same feeling he gets when he is playing a slot machine in a casino.

He can lose ten times in a row, but he will still be on the edge of his seat thinking, "I'm almost winning" and he will keep playing.

s h i p . 0 8 1 6 2 9 0 9 0 5 1

Friends Searching Males

•Emeka, 25, resides in Lagos, needs a hot lady, aged 18-30, for a serious relationship.

0 8 1 2 3 0 8 2 1 7 5 •Ade, mature, good looking and fun to be with, needs a pretty but mature lady, for a relations h i p . 0 8 0 9 5 2 7 8 9 7 0 •Frank, 29, dark in complexion, a business man, from Delta state, but resides in Lagos, needs a girl for a relationship. 08136159502 •A guy, 27, slim, tall, fair in complexion, sexy and pretty, needs a young lady, aged 30-45.

0 8 0 6 0 2 4 5 7 2 1 •Ben, 45, handsome and a professional, employed, in Lagos, needs a female medical doctor , banker or lecturer, aged 35-40, for marriage.08120353700 •John, 6ft tall, a student, from Benin, needs a lady, who is humble, cool, 5.5ft tall, fat or slim, educated and average height, aged 22-24.

08052272680, 07031385221, 08087749011 •Tony, 40, good looking and a business man, needs a pretty girl, who resides in either Lagos, Ogun or Oyo state, for mutual and sexual satisfaction. 07055344389 •Tunde, 34, a medical doctor, in Benin, needs a pretty girl with attitude, aged19-40. 08095755876

Playing hard to get

•Stanly, 25, resides in Delta state, needs a girl,

•Ric, resides in Warri, needs a good looking nice

and sexually active lady, for a lasting relationship. 08069796112 •Tobore, 25, needs a beautiful girl, for a sexual relationship.08186705223 •Biyi, 39, single, a Christian graduate and employed in Lagos, needs a woman for marriage.

08074597408 •Steve, 35, an IT consultant, needs a nice, decent, God fearing and employed lady, for a relation•Dear readers, please note that neither Vanguard, nor Yetunde Arebi will be liable for any error in the publication of requests on the Lovezone that may result in any form of embarrassment to any member of the public.

Also note that we do not run any match-making agency in or outside the country. Any reader who transacts business with anyone claiming to be our agent does so at his/her own risk.

Henceforth, only messages sent through the numbers readers want to be contacted on will be published.

This notice is necessary in order to serve you better in our refreshingly different style. To get your requests published, just text it to the code number 33055. For further enquiries, call 08056180122. Cheers!

who is caring and God fearing, for a serious relationship, aged 18-23.

08053101571 •Ben, 51, a business man, who resides in Lagos state, needs a woman, aged 33-45, for marriage.

0 8 0 6 8 4 0 8 1 7 5 •Udoh, 32, a graduate, resides in Rivers state, needs a single and very wealthy mature lady, aged 41-45, for a hot relationship.08083871544 •A guy, needs a Yoroba or Hausa lady, aged 20-27, for marriage.07030990788 •Sunny, 30, a graduate, from Delta state, needs a girl, aged 18-28, for a serious relationship.

0 8 0 3 8 9 1 8 2 6 5 •A man, with two kids, needs an employed woman, aged 38-48.08167232735 •Dennis, 29, dark in complexion, slim, loving, good looking and employed, from Delta state, but resides in Lagos, needs a God fearing and caring lady, aged 25 and above, for a serious relationship, that can lead to marriage.08136159502 •Olalekan,33, 5.6ft tall, a Christian and a businessman, from Oyo state, but resides in Lagos, needs an employed, humble Yoruba lady, for a serious relationship, that will lead to marriage, aged 2530. 08102750586

Vanguard, TUESDAY, MAY 15, 2012 — 41

Prof. Adetokunbo Babatunde Sofoluwe: 1950-2012 NIGERIA- 1914 TO DATE:

TRIBUTE

The chequered journey so far (2) Prof. Ango Abdullahi presented this paper at the 50th anniversary of Sam NdaIsaiah, publisher of Leadership newspaper. The first part was published last Friday ria was about to

By ANGO ABDULLAHI have good TRIBALISM/ethnicity/section- leaders with alism: It is my contention that potential caMap of Nigeria tribalism, ethnicity and section- pacity to proalism played the most part of Ni- vide good govgeria’s political instability. Most ernance, which might have led sibly succeed and therefore the of the military interventions ex- the country to regional and glo- sooner it is terminated the better perienced in Nigeria were in- bal greatness were quickly sub- for its component parts. To supspired by tribal and ethnic ten- verted by foreign neo-colonial port their position they point as dencies inherent in the country’s vested interests using their local examples many countries with social diversity. The civil war, the agents. Good governance should similar features and history as creation of states and local gov- have meant that Nigeria and Ni- Nigeria who tried but at the end ernments over the years have sim- gerians would take their destiny failed to build and keep their ply been a response to continu- in their own hands, while the countries. ing pressures arising from tribal consequences of bad governance ‘Earshot'- Media in the Nigeand ethic loyalties. The constitu- as we have seen since 1960 mean rian Project tion of the country was changed the surrender of Nigeria’s reSince we are today celebrating or amended several times since sources to foreign control leav- one of the country’s best journalindependence, and this was ing, as it were, the Nigerian cit- ists, we should also use the oplargely to address political in- izenry to wallow in abject pover- portunity to appraise the role of stability arising from tribalism, ty. Good governance in Nigeria the media in the Nigeria project ethnicity and sectional senti- should have been freedom from so far. At 73 I am in a position to control and manipulation of neo- know what roles the media have ments. imperial agencies like the World so far played especially in the Neo-colonialism after 1960 Nigeria’s colonial history and Bank, IMF etc. political and social life of NigePrognosis about the future: ria. In the first republic you could heritage unfortunately provide the conducive atmosphere for While it is easy to look back into easily predict the home base of neo-colonial interests to manifest the history of Nigeria and its de- any newspaper by simply glancand thrive. These interest have velopment, it is far more difficult ing at their main headlines. The been deeply entrenched and to look into its future in the face papers were replicas of the mahave so far continued to under- of all the odds that have so far jor political parties in the three mine Nigeria’s self esteem and continued to challenge it during regions of the Federation, the self reliance. They have aggra- the last 98 years. Let us start from NCNC in the Eastern Region, vated the country’s over-depen- the optimistic view point that na- the AG in the Western Region, dence on foreign ideas and for- tions are not necessarily built and the NPC in the Northern Reeign technology. The overall con- overnight. Nations usually evolve gion. sequence of this is that the coun- from the hard work, sacrifices and Whatever issues were at stake, try has virtually lost control of the resilience of their own peoples. the newspapers in these regions, commanding heights of its econ- We may also further argue there regardless of their ownership, reomy. That is why the country is is nothing like a perfect nation- ported only the partisan and paparadoxically both rich and poor at the same time!!

Bad governance/corruption et al: Instability in the Nigerian polity could be both the cause and the effect of bad governance with all the other attendant ills such as corruption, inept leadership, poverty and general insecurity.

The demise of the first republic marks the beginning of political hood where every citizen is hap- rochial positions of their leaderpy or is in agreement with every ship and their respective areas. happening in his country. So, The question now is whether from this optimism, we may fur- there is any significant change ther argue that we are unfairly in Nigerian journalism today. being impatient with the failings The honest answer in my opinof Nigeria and Nigerians only ion is “NO”. In fact it could be after a relatively short period of argued that there is more paro98 years of becoming a country. chial and divisive journalism toAfter all the countries we are try- day than in the first republic. And ing to copy to-day have taken there is no indication yet that the much longer than 100 years to media will be balanced and neuarrive at where they are to-day. tral in their reporting of events On the less optimistic point of in Nigeria. It is this sensational view it may be argued that Ni- divisive reporting on Nigerian gerians are not deliberately work- affairs by the Nigerian media ing hard and diligently enough which gives foreign interests the PROF ANGO ABDULLAHI to make the Nigeria project work. materials with which to project On the contrary while there may the “likely disintegration” of the instability in Nigeria and the in- be those who would genuinely country in not too distant future. evitable consequences which believe in the Nigeria project, However in every general rule arose from un-elected leaders- there are those who believe that there is always an exception no both military and civilians. The the Nigeria project could not pos- matter how small the margin of only two occasions when Nigeerror.

,

There is more parochial and divisive journalism today than in the first republic. And there is no indication yet that the media will be balanced and neutral in their reporting of events in Nigeria

C M Y K

During his tenure as vice chancellor of University of Lagos, Professor Sofoluwe brought his magnanimous wealth of

By MCPHILIPS NWACHUKWU experience to the transformational leaps that the THE death last week in Lagos, university witnessed during his of an A list Vice Chancellor of the era.

University of Lagos and Professor It is to the credit of the late of Computer Science, Prof. astute scholar researcher also that Adetokunbo Babatunde one can attribute all the speed Sofoluwe, sadly marked an end and efficiency with which to a progressive era of academic programmes at both the governance and productive undergraduate and graduate scholarship. Said to have died of classes were pursued and cardiac arrest, Professor accomplished. Sofoluwe’s tenure Sofoluwe, who reports said was brought a lot of dynamism to healthy and lively on the eve of graduate scholarship and Friday preceding his death, ensured that both students and became the 10th vice chancellor their supervisors worked to time of the nation’s university of first to avoid undue delays and choice, University of Lagos on unhealthy political interests that January 31, 2010. previously delayed completion of Born on April 15, 1950, the late doctoral programmes. university administrator studied It might not be surprising, Computer Science, and therefore, to say that Sofoluwe’s graduated with a Second Class era witnessed the highest Upper Division Honours in number of doctoral Special Mathematics in June students’graduation ever 1973 from the University of produced by the University of Lagos, all due to his ardent h u m a n i t y, s i n c e r e scholarship and abiding faith in research as the needed vital tool for progressive civilization. It is also on record that the University of Lagos remains one of the most visible ICT compliant universities in Nigeria today.

This is because, Sofoluwe’s tenure as vice •Late Prof. Adetokunbo Sofoluwe chancellor of the Lagos.

During his university made it possible for the undergraduate years, he served university to hook up to the raging the prestigious German ICT grid of knowledge scholarship award for academic production and dissemination. brilliance; and was deployed to This was, and still is, an important serve in the National Youth Corps achievement for the late ICT in the old South Eastern State of scholar.

Nigeria.

However, it is important to state He also proceeded on here, that Sofoluwe did not do Commonwealth Scholarship to all that he did by chance and Edinburgh University, Scotland, magic. He understood the power where he earned a Master’s and importance of human capital Degree in 1975 and Doctorate in and effectively appropriated it to 1981. A scholar-researcher, late good use. He was a good team Adetokunbo started his teaching player and carried along his career as a Graduate Assistant at colleagues and members of the the University of Lagos and rose university’s governing council in through the cadres to hold all important and critical important institutional decisions. All through his appointments. Apart from being leadership tenure of the two-time Acting Head of the university, he was not seen to Department of Computer Science exhibit the “I know it All" from 1989 to 1991 and 1994 to syndrome that define high offices 1996, he also served as the Dean in Nigeria, which often times of the Faculty of Science between negatively breed rancour, anger, 1998 and 2002. hatred and antagonism. But he Professor Sofoluwe was elected witnessed interesting times. His member of the Governing humility and spirit of group effort Council of the University of worked for him, and helped to Lagos in 2000, for four years. By provide the needed peaceful virtue of his appointment as atmosphere devoid of rancor and deputy vice chancellor unchecked politicking for him to (Management Services), he excel in his call to duty. Adieu returned to the Governing great achiever.

Council in August 30, 2006.

,

42—Vanguard, TUESDAY, MAY 15,

2012

Asaba Airport: Cuddling hearsays and fantasies T

At the time, it was taken that he was genuinely desirous of ensuring that tax payers’ money is not spent frivolously given his thinking that the project was all about removing a “small pile of sand” at the airport. First, I wrote to the Vanguard whose editors

Delta airport, Asaba the issue to regional perception.

There was no such thing in the response of the Delta State Government. Just like every other Nigerian, Baba-Ahmed is entitled to demand explanations from the Government of Delta State on how it appropriates public funds. In fact, in raising the issue, Baba-Ahmed provided a platform for the Government to correct the impression that was inadvertently created. If Hakeem Baba-Ahmed had questioned the facts as presented, his article would have been a refreshing piece. No. He ignored the explanations and preferred to present the thoughts of unnamed

,

It must be stated emphatically that cracking the hill was part of the airport project ab initio with the main contractor

graciously published my article on Friday, May 4, 2012 which was entirely devoted to giving the facts of the project. A more lucid and precise explanation with figures and insights was also given by Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan, governor of Delta State when aviation reporters who had undertaken a tour of all the facilities at the airport took him up on the subject. To the credit of the journalists, they relayed the issues as they saw it.

C M Y K

By VERA SAMUEL ANYAGAFU

D

By CHIKE OGEAH HAT policies and projects of governments, especially those of states are often misunderstood and questioned are healthy features of making public servants holders accountable as holders of public trust. In his weekly column in the Vanguard of May 2, 2012, Hakeem Baba-Ahmed had sought explanations on the continuing work at Asaba Airport.

As a responsible government, Delta State duly obliged him with an informed reply. Curiously, the same writer in the Vanguard of Wednesday, May 9, 2012, treated his readers to another round of inquisition on the propriety of the airport. As he did the previous column of May 2, 2012, Hakeem Baba-Ahmed had anchored his criticism on newspaper reports that N7.4 billion was used to demolish a hill on the approach to the airport’s runway.

Asylum: Best option for intending migrants?

,

persons. His intention here is again curious, to say the least.

Certainly, the Delta State Government could not have ignored the right of the people, including Baba-Ahmed himself to have the correct facts.

Curiously, Hakeem BabaAhmed in his May 9 column basically repeated what he had written the previous week, demanding that the project “should be explained, at the very least.” What made his stance even more curious was that he never made reference to the response he demanded from the Delta State Government that was capped by the explanations of the Governor. I do not want to assume that Baba-Ahmed could have missed my response in the paper he writes for or the informed articles of aviation reporters published in over half a dozen newspapers who actually visited the locus in quo.

At the risk of sounding repetitive, the facts, once again, are that commercial flights at Asaba Airport began less than a year ago, precisely on Monday, July 18, 2011 following the successful installation of necessary navigational and operational facilities and it is presently serviced by Overland Airways and Arik Air. Despite having the longest runway in the country with the most modern navigational equipment, including facilities for night flights, only medium size propeller jets could land at the airport. Even though the runway was built on elevated ground, the hill on the approach to the runway crucially prevented larger jets from landing safely.

So, despite high passenger traffic, the airlines were forced to deploy only the propeller planes when using the bigger jets made better economic sense.

Rather, he kept referring to the reactions of unnamed people that tended to question his interest in the project and reduce

The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) had withheld approval for bigger planes to land at the airport with the

express directive that the hill on the approach to the runway must be brought down before full approval can be given. In effect, from the conception of the project, cracking the hill was factored in; it was not an overnight thing or after thought. However, contrary to the thinking that the said N7.4 billion was appropriated solely for the levelling of the hill, the amount was part of the entire amount budgeted for the project.

The fact of the matter is that at every stage, the Delta State Executive Council evaluates the level of work done before it authorises actual disbursements to any contractor from the prebudgeted amount. It must be stated emphatically that cracking the hill was part of the airport project ab initio with the main contractor. However, due to the slow pace of work, two additional contractors were later involved just to fast track its completion.

That there was no attempt to shield the amount of money being paid to the contractors at this stage is a testament to the fact that the administration of Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan has an undeniable antecedent of bringing every facet of its major engagements to the public domain. The only thing missing in this case was the failure to adequately give details of the expenditure. We hope BabaAhmed will take time off and read the response to the poser he raised, at least this time. As we stated earlier, Asaba Airport is not just another airport. Its viability was carefully evaluated and worked out. Although it is about the newest in the country, its strategic location has seen it rapidly diminish the status and viability of older airports.

We would gladly provide additional explanation to BabaAhmed should he ask for one. In executing his projects and connecting with the people, Dr. Uduaghan is not disposed to frivolities and will certainly not be bogged down by an uninformed debate. We invite Baba-Ahmed to visit Asaba Airport to see things for himself.

Chike Ogeah is the Delta State Commissioner for Information

UE to the harsh economic situation in Nigeria, more citizens are reported to be seriously involved in seeking asylum to gain entry to foreign countries, even when Nigeria is not conflict struck. In Sweden for instance, asylum applications have risen by 22 percent in figure from the first three months of 2012 compared with those that came in 2011. Those with the intention of entering Sweden through the above means are hereby notified of asylum laws which they are mandated to abide.

Asylum laws: Consideration for asylum is possible if an applicant has a genuine reason for seeking asylum, especially if he is afraid of attacks or persecution for reasons that he is unable to be protected from authorities in his home country. It could also be for reasons of race, religious or political beliefs, sex, sexual orientation, or being member of a certain social group.

Applicants can also be granted what is known as subsidiary protection in cases of severe physical punishment, torturing or exposure to certain other inhuman or humiliating treatment. In this situation, the applicant is immediately granted permanent residency permit that is valid for at least three years. In an exceptional case, the validity could be limited, but the permit of residency is never granted for a period less than a year, with specific instruction stating that asylum applications are treated individually.

Refusal of asylum application: When you are refused entry by the Swedish Migration Board with immediate enforcement, it means you do not have protection, nor have any other reason to remain in Sweden. Entry refusal by the Swedish Asylum law Imigration Board (SIB)with immediate enforcement has responsible for several reported cases of Nigerian deportees.

Surprisingly, you have the option to appeal against the SIB if you feel the decision taken on your request is unfair. On this note, you do not have the right to remain in Sweden while waiting for a decision on your appeal as well as the right to a public counsel in your appeal case.

The appeal which must be in writing is expected to reach the SIB, within 21 days from date that you were notified about the decision.

The case will again be reviewed by the Immigration Board, and if the Board upholds it earlier decision, it will forward the appeal to the Migration court at one of the three administrative courts in Stockholm, Goteborg or Malmo, for onward verification to either change or confirm SIB’s decision on your case.

Refusal of entry with immedi-

ate enforcement Refusal of entry with immediate enforcement indicates that you do not have the right to a residence permit and as such is expected to leave the country as soon as possible.

It indicates also that you have limited opportunity for you to participate in any organised employment, but when at the time of return, you corporate, you are accorded right to certain compensations as well as right to emergency healthcare until the day of your exit from Sweden.

Aside opportunities to participate in any organised employment, access to enjoy other rights are applicable to children, including right to education until such a time they are due to exit the country. Swedish law also expects that you must return your debit card if you were previously receiving financial compensation from the Swedish Migration Board and in doing so, the SIB shall in turn give you practical support in order to facilitate and make your trip back home a wonderful experience.

But if the Migration Board is dissatisfied with your conduct following notice of refusal of appeal, it has the right to reduce any daily allowance and if in any case it is suspected that you may make yourself unavailable, the Board will place you under supervision or even in detention, pending the date of your exit.

Implementing the decision As part of its law, the Board also has the right to have you handed over to the police, if it is suspected that you could exhibit conduct that may make it impossible for it to implement the decision on you to leave Sweden.

Subsequently, the police also have the right to issue a description for your search, as well as force you out of Sweden if need arises.

Supervision and detention It is often not to ones advantage when he or she is under supervision or detained for reason of refusal to leave Sweden.

If you are being supervised, the law demands that you shall always report at the times and places where you received information concerning your status.

Being in the category of those who are expected to exit the country with immediate enforcement makes it a must for you to relinquish your passport and other identity papers before your departure. Note that when placed in detention, your freedom of movement is restricted and as such secured under close monitor by the SIB. When children are involved, they are detained if the SIB does not believe that it is sufficient to put the child just under stiff supervision.

E-mail: consularadvisory@vanguardngr.com

Vanguard , TUESD AY, MA Y 15, 2012—43 TUESDA MAY

•The Evoque : Rear

•The Evoque

Range Rover Evoque emerges best again

T

he Range Rover Evoque weekend continued its winning streak by adding Diesel Car Magazine car of the year 2012 awards and best crossover title to its string of awards.

This brings to113 the number of the awards by the British-made compacts sports utility vehicle across the world.

The Evoque which is due for launch in Nigeria by Coscharis Motors has witnessed tremendous success since its launch in the international market due to its classic design, technology, and capability.

Also, the Land Rover Discovery 4 clinched the best 4x4 title for the third year in a row while the Ranger Rover emerged as runner up to Discovery 4 in best 4x4 category.The judges acclaimed Evoque as “stunning to look at and stunning to drive…a car that is instantly a classic”.

Ian Robertson, Diesel Car editor, said: “Already an icon, the Evoque combines stunning design and brilliant engineering to great effect.”

While Evoque claimed the ultimate prize, the Land Rover Discovery 4 demonstrated the

diverse capability of Land Rover design and engineering by taking the ‘Best 4x4 Award’ for the third successive year. No challenger has yet to do better than the Land Rover, which has occupied the top spot ever since it was launched, and is described by the magazine as “everything you could possibly want in a car”.

With a nod to the recently completed ‘Journey of Discovery’ in which the 1,000,000th Discovery was driven over 10,000 miles in 50 days, Robertson added: “Land Rover’s continent crosser reigns supreme as the world’s most completely clever 4x4.”

Consolidating Land Rover’s achievements, the Range Rover took the runners-up position behind Discovery 4 in the ‘Best 4x4’ category.

Land Rover UK Marketing Director, Laura Schwab said: “We are delighted that the Range Rover Evoque continues to set standards for design, engineering and performance right around the world.

“With the lowest CO2 figure of any Land Rover of 129g/km, from the efficient 2.2 eD4 diesel engine, this latest

award from Diesel Car Magazine is a further demonstration of Land Rover’s continuous focus on technology and customer requirements.

“Moreover, the continuing success of Discovery 4 in these awards and the high praise for Range Rover represent a valuable, independent judgement on Land Rover’s acrossthe-board approach to delivering the highest standards throughout its model range.” The Range Rover Evoque featuring Land Rover’s powerful yet efficient 2.2 litre diesel engine is available in SD4 190 hp, TD4 150 hp and in eD4 two-wheel drive 150 hp guise, while the Discovery 4

•The Evoque : Interior benefits from a 3.0 litre SDV6 advanced sequential turbo diesel engine producing 255

hp and 600Nm of torque.

The Range Rover is powered by the 4.4 litre TDV8 twin sequential

turbo charged diesel engine delivering 313 hp and 700 Nm of torque.

Lagos evacuates 2000 abandoned vehicles

T

he Lagos State Government has said it has evacuated about 2000 abandoned vehicles within the city metropolis.

The state Commissioner for Transportation Mr. Kayode Opeifa disclosed during his annual ministerial which held last week at the Alausa, Lagos. “ Through the work of the Abandoned and

Disused Committee and Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA) activities, the ministry continued the removal of accident, abandoned and disused vehicles from major highways in the state, working with C o m m u n i t y Development (CDA/ CDC), the ministry is now engaged in the removal and disused vehicles in the neighbourhood and

inner streets” he stated.

He urged CDAs, resident associations and individuals to alert the ministry whenever they notice any abandoned vehicles in their communities or on the roads.

Reviewing the ministry ’s scorecard over the last year, the commissioner disclosed that the state has embarked on massive enlightenment of road users in the state.

To this end, he said pavement markings have been completed on 44 roads in the state, while work is ongoing in on 21 roads.

He added that government has concluded plans to commence pavement marking work on 16 roads within the metropolis, adding that the efforts was meant to educate road users on how best to use the roads.

44— Vanguard, TUESDAY, MAY 15, 2012

C M Y K

Are Chinese brands becoming threat to others?

BY THEODORE OPARA

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HE Chinese auto brands recorded about a 100 per cent growth in 2011 in Nigeria when compared to their performance the previous year. According to import statistic from the nations' ports, a total of 4,508 Chinese vehicles were sold in Nigeria in 2011 as compared with 2356 units in 2010. This means that the Chinese brands are fast becoming a threat to the Japanese, Europeans and American brands in the country.

It should be recalled that when the first set of Chinese models entered the Nigerian market some years back, not many gave them a chance to survive the highly competitive market where the tastes of average Nigerian were very high. To many, it would only take a matter of time for the Chinese models to fizzle out.

The Chinese models then were poorly finished, lacked latest technology as most of them were fitted with outdated engines from Japanese makers, especially Mitsubishi. But unlike Nigeria, the Chinese knew where they were heading to in the automobile industry. They knew that there is hardly any nation that has a thriving economy that does not have renowned automobile brands or thriving auto industry. The examples are countries like the United States, Germany, France, Britain, Japan, Korea to mention a few.

It has even been discovered that in most cases, the auto brands are more popular than their countries of origin like in the case of Volvo and Sweden.

So, the Chinese continued to improve with every successive model launched into the markets, knowing that one day they would get it right. Although, the Chinese are not yet there when it comes to first class automobiles, one could attest to the fact that the Chinese models that are being introduced into the market today are much more improved when compared to the earlier models launched into the country years back. Today in Nigeria, the Chinese models are no longer the laughing stocks but are even marketed by reputable companies like CFAO Group, Coscharis Group, SCOA Group and many others.

From the sedan to pickups,

Sport Utility vehicles, Mini buses and trucks, the Chinese vehicles have shown strong presence and even have dominated certain segments of the market. Commercial buses like Jinbei, Foton, Joylong and others have been given the Japanese brands like Toyota and Nissan a serious fight in their categories. Even in the luxury bus segment, the Yutong is coming up with beautiful models that are yet to be tested in the Nigerian market. Some of these vehicles are sold all over the world including Europe.

They have proved to be alternatives to those who do not have the huge sum to purchase European, Japanese and American made buses in their various categories.

Brands like GrateWall, Geely, Brilliance, Chana, FAW, Lifan, Forland, JAC have continued to adorn the Nigerian roads, with many models. While some of these models can be said to be good, others are below average and Nigerians are beginning to separate the good from the bad ones. It is therefore not

•A Foton truck

,

C M Y

Vanguard, TUESD AY, MA Y 15, 2012 — 45 TUESDA MAY

But unlike Nigeria, the Chinese knew where they were heading to in the automobile industry. They knew that there is hardly any nation that has a thriving economy that does not have renowned automobile brands or thriving auto industry.

surprising that brands like ZX Autos, and few others have gone under probably due to their quality and poor

,

backup.

Aware that they could not compete in the upper car market segment, the Chinese

•A Joylong bus

•Geely Panda winner budget car of the year in Ngeria 2011

have concentrated on the budget and lower car category to penetrate the Nigerian market. Brands like Geely, MG Rover, Brilliance, Cherry, BYD have proved that the Chinese can compete favourably in the passenger car segment. Although the Chery and BYD presence seems to have gone down due to lack of proper push, the Geely, MG Rover and Brilliance have continued to establish their presence in the market with latest models.

Geely small car, Panda, won the budget car of the year in Nigeria in 2011.

Most of the Chinese models

have undergone tremendous transformations in the last few years. For instance, apart from the early Brilliance models like Grandure and Splendor, Hyra Motors had launched the improved models of this brand into the market, including the Brilliance FRVSports Sedan and hatback as well as Geely Panda. Though the earlier models of Brilliance were produced with old Mitsubishi engines, the current models of these brands now come with Chinese made engines which are more refined with latest technologies.

The Geely models, however, are the real revelations from China.

The MG Rover from China, which used to be a British brand is out of this world. The MG Rover range can give any European, Japanese or American made sedan a good contest any day.

They are the hallmark of Chinese auto technology.

During a recent test-drive by the Nigerian Motoring press, the MG Rover models received accolades from the motoring press, who concluded that the models have the potentials to rule their various segments. But how long they can last is another question?

Having made tremendous improvement on the brands over the years, the Chinese brand cannot be said to have impressed its customers in terms of after-sales and warranty. Most of their customers believe that the brands offer little or no warranty on most parts compared to the Japanese, Korean and other car markers.

But it is only a matter of time, the Chinese brands would catch up with the other auto powers mentioned earlier.

This leaves us with the question, “ what is Nigeria really up to on the world automobile map?

46 — Vanguard, TUESDAY, MAY 15, 2012

C M Y K

Vanguard anguard,,

By Joshua Adeyemo Phone 08056180139

CANCER; You will be in good position to consolidate on progress made yesterday. However you will need to watch your mood from 9.46am to 12.43pm.

LEO; It is important you don’t take things for granted around mid-morning and early afternoon period so that you will not run into avoidable disappointments.

VIRGO; If you are in position to control your actions you would fare better if you can wait till after 12,43pm before you make an important move. Be family minded.

LIBRA; Your being receptive can enhance your prospects but that is not to say you have to be naïve, especially during mid-morning and early afternoon periods.

TUESD AY , MA Y 15 TUESDA MAY 15,, 2012

— 47

LEISURE

YOUR LUCK TODAY

THOUGHT FOR TODAY

By Richard Eromosele

I

N our part of the world, the normal practice is to spoil other people.

Take out others for a treat. Buy all sorts of things - snack, take-away etc for loved ones, while n e g l e c t i n g

Spoil yourself ourselves.

Today, make a uturn. Today, make a different from the norm. Today, keep to yourself. Today, enjoy your company. Today,

TERROR MUDA

spend the money on yourself. Today, spend the time on yourself. Today, buy something for yourself. Today, spoil yourself.

Today, forgive

in “Never say goodbye”

yourself.

You have a right to life. What this mean is that enjoying life should be a natural thing to you.

So no matter what you are going through now, don’t abridge your life.

Spoil yourself

By Kola Fayemi

SCORPIO; Success is boldly printed on your cards and like yesterday if priority attention is given to money the scope of your success will be wider.

SGITTARIUS; Although things may be happening around you, you are the right person to make things happen and give others opportunities.. Be wise.

CAPRICORN; Take note that others may break promises made before early afternoon period; that is to say you should not take anybody for granted before 12.43pm AQUARIUS; Although friends are willing to assist you circumstances may not allow complete help as expected. 9.46am to 12.43pm can be a bit sensitive.

PISCES; Emphasis will continue to be on career related issues. However you will not be wrong if you take matters-of-the-heart more seriously now. Be more loving.

ARIES; Mid-morning till early afternoon period may bring more promises than it can actually deliver; your being clever will see you through. Be very practical.

KAPTAIN AFRIKA

in

“Princess Shii’

By Andy Akman

TAURUS; Continue to attach necessary importance to your family values. Here is a day when joint ventures can bring you under pressure between 9.46am and 12.43pm.

GEMINI; Other people will continue to feature in your activities; that is to say you will need to be as co-operative as reason permits. Watch it between 9.46am&12.43pm.

ASTROLOGICAL COUNSELLING Send yyour our dat th ttoo the As tr ological datee and place of bir birth Astr trological Counselling, PP.M.B .M.B 1100 00 7, Apapa, Lagos 007,

Who am I ?

VIRGINIA

dadadekola@yahoo.com

Dear Joshua I don’t want my data published but tell me everything I should know about myself. Sometimes I am confused the type of a person I am, especially when others misunderstand me. Thus I am asking you who is actually in me- Astrologically.

Akin-Ogun.

Dear Akin, At face value one may be tempted to wrongly take you for a very soft person but, with the preponderance of fixed quality and fire element in your Astrological make ups here is a determined and ambitious Soul with stronger will-power (actually once your mind is made up on any important issue you rarely change).

Saturn as the only planet at home when you were born pointed to a person who will always take important decision when and if his career will not be put in danger; meaning my career first.

Although, the Sun is the Centre of the Solar system and wherever is placed in any given horoscope is the heart of that horoscope, by implication placement of the mighty Sun in Cancer here means that you are mainly a Cancer born person, with more than two (there were actually four) heavenly bodies placed in Kingly Leo when you were born, you are equally a Leo born person as Leo was serving as the stellium during your birth hour.

Equally it is important to point out prominence of bold Aries in your chart as it hosted your natal Moon.

Anyway equal distribution of planetary placement in push-full and non-push-full positions will ensure balanced personality with powerful LEADERSHIP skill in you. Your natal Sun, Moon and Stellium in Cancer, Aries and Leo respectively are indications of your being mainly a Cancer born person and partly Aries/Leo; meaning that basic characteristics of the three Star signs mentioned (namely Cancer, Aries and Leo) are highly pronounced in your inner-self.

Commen3

by Lawrence Akapa

48—Vanguard , TUESDAY, MAY 15, 2012

Ondo empowers farmers

Judge chides lawyers

I

U

N its quest to improve the working conditions of farmers in the state, the Ondo State government has increased its fleet of tractors from 57 to 129 for improved yields of crops just as the number of tractors’ hiring units in the state has increased from four to 18.

According to the state Commissioner for Agriculture, Mr Ademola Olorunfemi, the purchase of additional tractors would encourage farmers adding "that with the development, every farmer in the state can now rent the tractors regardless of location.”

Olorunfemi further said that the development was also aimed at easing the problem of farmers ‘accessibility to land preparation machinery and enhance mechanised farming,which was the best means of increasing farm produce thereby resolving the food needs of the people, as well as revenue generation for both farmers and the state government.

He, however, declared government’s readiness to assist farmers in every way possible as according to him, the era of subsistence farming was gone, as it remained the best and most possible way of reducing employment and turning youths into employers of labour.

BY ANAYO OKOLI

CONVOCATION—From left: Representative of President Goodluck Jonathan, Minister of State for Education, Mr Ezenwo Nyesom Wike, Chancellor, University of Jos, Oba Rufus Aladesanmi, Ewi of Ado-Ekiti; and Vice Chancellor, University of Jos, Prof. Hayward Mafuyai during the 25th convocation of the University of Jos, weekend.

Fashola, Imoke hail Akpabio

G

INVESTMENT GALA—From left: Joseph Habineza, Rwandan High Commissioner in Nigeria; Dr Olusegun Aganga, Minister for Trade and Investment; Mrs Clementine Vervelde MureKatete, Chairperson, Limitless Minds Africa; Sandra Idossou, partner, Limitless Minds Africa and Chief Edem Duke, Minister for Culture and Tourism during the Rwanda/Nigeria investment gala, yesterday.

Textile workers condemn sack of 778 doctors by Lagos govt

BY EMEKA MAMAH

L

AGOS—THE National Union of Textile and Tailoring Garments Workers of Nigeria, NUTGTWN, weekend condemned sack of 788 medical doctors by the Lagos State government, describing it as "a direct assault on Nigeria’s labour market laws and practices.’’

Secretary General of the union, Comrade Issa Aremu, who made this known in a statement entitled: "Doctors: Sack the problems, not the doctors; all parties should return to negotiation." The statement read, "sadly, in Lagos, we are burying some patients who could have lived not because there are no hospitals, but because the government that built the very hospitals lack the capacity to engage the working people namely; doctors and nurses who are expected to ensure service d e l i v e r y . ’’All labour market actors

MUAHIA—JUSTICE Garuba Muhammed Umar of the Federal High Court, Umuahia, Abia State, has frowned at lawyers who do not respect their colleagues, even in the court.

Umar specifically admonished a police lawyer, Mr. Francis Emereole Orji who appeared before him, warning him to present his objections in civilized manner during court proceedings and desist from shouting at fellow c o u n s e l .

He told Mr Orji, who is in charge of Legal Matters at Zone 9 Police Headquarters, Umuahia, that he had no right to shout at people, even in the p o l i c e .

The Judge was reacting to Orji who not only shouted at his colleagues who attempted to correct him, but also lost his cool on a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN, Mr. Jerome Okolo.

Orji represented six members of Zone 9 police and the Inspector General of Police in a N1 billion assault suit instituted by a businessman, Chief Marcel E z e .

namely government, employers and trade unions should impress it on Lagos State government and striking medical doctors to urgently return to the

negotiating table and address demands of the doctors and plights of agonizing patients. ‘’The demands of the doctors in particular and the medical workers in general

for improved conditions of service and full implementation of the Consolidated Medical Salary Scale, CONMESS, call for dialogue".

PHCN privatisation: BPE to name winner in October

T

HE Bureau for Public Enterprises, BPE, said weekend that the preferred bidders for PHCN assets would be announced in October, hoping to alleviate chronic electricity shortages holding Nigeria’s e c o n o m y .

Nigeria plans to sell off 11 distribution and six generation companies as part of plans to privatise a power sector rife with inefficiency and corruption.

The BPE said the 152 potential investors had been sent transaction documents and once bids had been received they would be v e t t e d .

”The announcement of the preferred bidder for the 17 successor companies by the National Council on Privatisation, NCP, will be made on/or before October 23, 2012,” a statement by Chukwuma Nwokoh, BPE spokesman, said. BPE has said Nigeria’s economy could be growing at over 10 percent if it solved its power crisis but it would need $15$20 billion of investment in the next three years.

Nigeria holds the world’s seventh largest natural gas reserves but decades of corrupt governments have chosen to cash in on crude oil rather than investing for domestic power needs.

Nigeria only provides its 167 million inhabitants with around a quarter of the amount of electricity used

by New York City, leaving those who cannot afford it to use expensive diesel generators and those who can’t to live without any p o w e r .

President Goodluck Jonathan has made reforming the power sector a priority and a significant upsurge in electricity output would bring him support from the Nigerians who have been disappointed with his progress since taking office last year.

OVERNORS of Lagos and Cross River states, Mr. Babatunde Fashola and Senator Liyel Imoke respectively weekend hailed Governor Godswill Akpabio for his vision in embarking on radical transformation of infrastructural development in Akwa I b o m .

The governors spoke during the third re-union banquet organised by Akwa Ibom Government for members of Class 88 of the Nigerian Law School, Lagos at Government House, Uyo .

Governor Fashola lauded Akpabio for his radical transformation of the state through the provision of

good roads, free medical health-care services to the elderly and free, compulsory education for Akwa Ibom children, saying that these legacies would make him to be remembered.

Senator Imoke on his own, applauded Akpabio for his vision that has brought about infrastructral transformation to different sectors in the state.

The Secretary to Government of the Federation, Senator Anyim Pius Anyim furthermore, commended Akpabio for hosting Class 88, and pledged to host the re-union meeting in November this year at his country home in Ebonyi S t a t e .

Former Sokoto Dep Gov dies

BY ABDALAH ELKUREBE

F

ORMER Deputy Governor of Sokoto state, Alhaji Isa Mohammed Wasugu , 72, is dead.

Wasagu died on Sunday at his residence on Isa Wasagu Road, Sokoto.

He attended Barewa College, Zaria; School of Basic Studies, Kano and Azhar University, Cairo.

Wasagu served as Deputy Governor when Col Magashi Bashar was Military Governor of Sokoto

s t a t e .

He also served as Principal Secretary to former Governor of Northwestern Region, Usman Faruk; permanent secretary in nine ministries and Commissioner in seven different ministries, before retiring in 1991.

Left to mourn him are his wife and nine children, among whom are Mohammed Nasir of the National Health Insurance Scheme, Abuja, Hajiya Fatima Wasagu and Amina Wasagu, both lecturers at the Sokoto State Polytechnic, Sokoto.

Youth summit postponed

C

ONVENERS of the First Nigerian Youths Multi-Stakeholders dialogue summit have announced a shift in date of commencement to July 2, 2012.

In statement by its chairman and secretary respectively, Messrs Abdullahi Abdulmajeed,

and Yinka Sotade, the summit organisisng committee said the decision to postpone the summit was necessitated by the need for a more robust and wider consultation with relevant stakeholders at the grassroots in a bid to bringing all possible views to the roundtable.

V anguard, Vanguard,

TUESDAY,

MA Y 15, 2012 — 49 MAY

Nigeria to send troops to Guinea Bissau N

IGERIA, West Afri ca’s regional powerhouse, will deploy troops to Guinea-Bissau this week, Defence Minister Bello Haliru Mohammed said yesterday at a meeting of regional defence chiefs. Nigeria remains “committed” to its pledges to deploy troops to Guinea-Bissau and Mali in the wake of coups in both countries, he said, adding: “Our troops are ready.”

“In Guinea-Bissau, we will deploy before the 18th of this month,” he said, without stating how large a force would be sent to the former Portuguese colony whose government was overthrown on April 12.

“In Mali, we await the signals from (the regional grouping) ECOWAS. We have all our forces and equipment ready for airlift,” Mohammed add-

•President Jonathan ed. West African leaders decided at a summit in Abidjan on April 26 to deploy between 500 and 600 troops from at least

four countries -- Nigeria, Togo, Ivory Coast and Senegal -to Guinea-Bissau following the coup there.

The summit also decided to deploy a regional force to Mali where a coup overthrew President Amadou Toumani Toure on March 22. The minister said that regional instability caused by internal conflicts in some member states was “a severe impediment to achieving the desired political and economic development in our sub-region.” Developments in Guinea-Bissau and Mali were cause for concern about the long-term survival of democracy in the region, Mohammed said.

The situation in Mali, especially a rebellion in the northern part of the country, “portends grave danger to our sub-region due to the assemblage of disparate armed groups whose reach extends far beyond the sub-region,” he also said. “If not decisively tackled, the devel-

Face book CEO turns 28 H

E famously wears a hoodie, jeans and sneakers, and he was born the year Apple introduced the Macintosh.

But Mark Zuckerberg is no boy-CEO. Facebook’s chief executive turned 28 yesterday, setting in motion the social network’s biggest week ever. The company is expected to start selling stock to the public for the first time and begin trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market on Friday. The IPO

•Zuckerberg could value Facebook at nearly $100 billion, making it worth more than such iconic companies

as Disney, Ford and Kraft Foods.

At 28, Zuckerberg is exactly half the age of the average S&P 500 CEO, according to executive search firm Spencer Stuart. With eight years on the job, he’s logged more time as leader than the average CEO, whose tenure is a little more than seven years, according to Spencer Stuart. Even so, the pressures of running a public company will undoubtedly take some

getting used to. Once Facebook begins selling stock, Zuckerberg will be expected to please a host of new stakeholders, including Wall Street investment firms, hedge funds and pension funds who will pressure him to keep the company growing.

Facebook, of course, got its start in Zuckerberg’s messy Harvard dorm room in early 2004.

opment is capable of destabilising the entire region,” he warned. Mali coup leader Captain Amadou Sanogo agreed last

month to a deal brokered

by ECOWAS that led to a new transitional government.

Hollande assumes Frenc h Presidency ttoda oda rench odayy

F

RANCE faces a new era of its political evolution today when the Socialist candidate in the May 6 presidential runoff election Francois Hollande takes the oath of office at Champs Elysee today. Hollande who will arrive at his first appearance as French president in one of Citroen’s flagship cars, a hybrid from PSA Peugeot Citroen’s upscale DS line for his inauguration celebration ride.

The coming of another Socialist President since Francois Mitterrand left office in 1995, will no doubt be of majr interest to Europe and Africa where Hollande has vowed to take a second look at the policies of defeated Centre -Right cnadidat Nicholas Sarkozy.

Hollande is expected to start his presidency on high note diplomacy with a visit to Berlin for a working dinner with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and talks on the eurozone debt crisis. Merkel had declared that she would welcome Hollande “ with open arms” but that “the fiscal economic pact negotiated and

•Hollande signed by 25 countries in Europe is not negotiable. ”But Hollande had said during his election campaign that he wanted a re-negotiation of the fiscal pact, which was agreed at a difficult summit in Brussels in December. He wants more emphasis on growth in the pact. Hollande has held talks with Herman Van Rompuy, president of the European Council, but the chaotic political situation in Athens, which could lead to Greece being simply forced out of the Eurozone, was a more urgent matter for discussion than Hollande’s longer-term plans for the fiscal pact.

NEMA delivers relief to Congo

Romney carpets Obama on same sex marriage

I

R

N the spirit of African brotherhood, the National Emergency Management Agency has delivered relief materials approved by the Federal Government to the government of the Republic of Congo to assist the 14, 000 persons displaced by the recent ammunition depot explosions in Brazzaville. Director General NEMA Alhaji Muhammad Sani Sidi who delivered the items on behalf of the Federal Government of Nigeria in Brazzaville said the gesture was in solidarity with the Congolese government to support the local efforts in addressing the huC M Y K

manitarian challenges triggered by the disaster.

He conveyed the condolence of President Goodluck Jonathan, noting the courage and forthrightness which the Congolese have been able to handle the situation. He said with the successful handling of the initial emergency challenges and the 14, 000 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camped in different parts of the country, the Nigeria’s relief items would provide succour in meeting some of the basic needs of the people in the camps.

Alhaji Sidi assured the commitment of the Nige-

rian Government to support the Congolese authorities in addressing the challenges, particularly in the areas of sharing ideas on the best practices in the management of the disaster.

EPUBLICAN presi dential candidate Mitt Romney sought to calm fears that his Mormon faith would be an obstacle to evangelical Christian voters, stressing shared conservative

values while acknowledging religious differences. In a speech at conservative Christian Liberty University where it is taught that Mormonism is a cult Romney stressed their common goal of service

UN resumes talk on Iranian Nuke programme

S

ENIOR U.N. nuclear watchdog officials left an Iranian diplomatic mission in Vienna after around five hours of talks on the Islamic state’s disputed atomic activities on Monday, declining any comment to media waiting outside. A spokeswoman for the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the Vien-

na-based U.N. nuclear agency, later said the talks would resume on Tuesday as originally planned but gave no further details. The team led

by Herman Nackaerts, deputy director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), was driven away in a black van. The two days of talks are to deal with

the IAEA’s concerns about possible military dimensions to Iran’s nuclear programme. The U.N. nuclear watchdog signaled yesterday that it would press Iran for access to a military facility where it suspects the Islamic state has built a chamber for high-explosive tests that could serve a bid to develop nuclear weapons.

to God and declared his opposition to gay marriage, a position essential for winning the majority of evangelicals in November. “People of different faiths like yours and mine, sometimes wonder where we can meet in common purpose, when there are so many differences in creed and theology,” the presumptive Republican nominee said in a commencement speech, addressing his Mormon faith. “Surely the answer is that we can meet in service, in shared moral convictions about our nation stemming from a common worldview,” said Romney to warm applause.

50—Vanguard, TUESDAY, MAY 15, 2012

MEDIA. L-R: Canadian High Commissioner to Nigeria, Chris Cooter; Ekiti State Governor, Dr Kayode Fayemi; Professor, Media and International Affairs, George Washington University, Steven Livingston, during the New Media and Governance Conference, in Abuja

L-R. Vikram Mansukhani, Marketing Manager, Emel Building Materials; Suresh Iyar, Sales, FG Glass; Olumide Osunsina, Managing Director, Megamond Nig. Ltd, and Gbenga Osunsina, Director, Megamond Nig. Ltd, during the launch of Emel New Products at the 4th Nigeria Infrastructure and Construction Exhibition, organised by the CWC Group

Gov Aliyu berates senator over ‘unguarded’ comments

G

OVERNOR Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu of Niger State, weekend, took a swipe at Senator Ibrahim Musa for allegedly casting aspersion on the policies and programmes of the PDP-led administration in the state, saying the lawmaker’s comments about the state give him away as someone that was out of tune with the times.

Senator Musa who represents Niger North Senatorial District on the platform of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) in the Senate had in a recent interview dismissed the PDP led government in the state as a failure.

But Governor Aliyu’s Chief Press Secretary, Danladi Ndayebo, described the allegation as false, untrue, wicked and a big insult on “an administration that has made welfare of the common man an article of faith.”

He said Senator Ibrahim Musa’s charge of non performance against the PDP led government in Niger State was far from the truth, adding that the senator’s remarks were not based on sound understanding of issues in the state.

The statement said: “From education to agriculture, works and infrastructural development to tourism, Aliyu has stamped his seal of excellence.”

The statement said the state’s free education policy, its commitment to the development of agriculture, graduate employment programme,ward development projects and other interventions make Governor Aliyu’s five year administration the closest to a revolution in Niger State.”

RE-UNION 2012

Vanguard, TUESDAY, MAY 15, 2012—51

Members of the Nigeria Law School class 1988 had a reunion in Uyo, May 12, 2012. Governor Akpabio conducted the guests on a projects tour of Uyo before hosting them in a gala night.

•Governor Godswill Akpabio and his wife, Mrs Ekaete Unoma Godswill Akpabio at dancing at the occasion

•First Lady of Akwa Ibom State, Mrs Ekaete Unoma Akpabio exchanging pleasantries with the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Chief Pius Ayim (r), while the Governor of Cross River State, Senator Liyel Imoke looks on

•Akwa Ibom First Lady, Mrs Ekaete Unoma Godswill Akpabio, chatting with the Akwa Ibom Deputy Governor, Mr Nsima Ekere, during the Gala Night in honor of the Class of 1988

•Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State enjoying the popcorn of the Cineplex of the Tropicana Entertainment Centre in Uyo, behind him is Governor Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom State, who took the Class of 1988 on tour of projects in Uyo

•Governor Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom State in a handshake with the Acting Chairman of ICPC, Barr. Ekpo Nta

•Pastor Mrs Aity Dennis-Inyang, a gospel artiste, regalling guests in the Gala Night C M Y K

•SGF, Chief Pius Ayim

•Akwa Ibom First Lady, Mrs Ekaete Unoma Akpabio in a warm hanshake with Ambassador-designate Chief Ojo Madueke

52—Vanguard, TUESDAY, MAY 15,

2012

Vanguard, TUESDAY, MAY 15, 2012—53

Gunmen kill 12, raze Adamawa villages

G

U N M E N yesterday set villages ablaze, killing at least 12 people and wounding 48 others in violence that could spread as attackers remain hiding in the region, the Nigerian Red Cross said yesterday.

The attacks targeted four villages early Sunday morning in a remote area of Adamawa State, which borders Cameroon.

The number of dead could rise as relief workers remain unable to reach the villages affected and about 2,000 people have fled, the Red Cross said.

Agency reports said volunteers “could not get safe access to these affected communities as the gunmen are said to be in the bush around the communities changing plans.” It estimated as many as 100 gunmen attacked the villages. The dead

included at least one police officer, the report read. Those injured suffered gunshot and machete wounds.

Relief workers had warned, weekend, that people had begun fleeing the Lamurde local government area as rumours of an attack spread through the villages. The attack likely is a reprisal from Hausa Fulani cattle herdsmen over another killing earlier this year, the Red

Cross said.

Soldiers apparently had surrounded the area

by Monday. Yushau Shuaib, a spokesman for Nigeria’s National E m e r g e n c y Management Agency, said yesterday that officials were aware of the violence, but had no further details. Police officials in Adamawa state could not be immediately reached for comment.

L-R: Medical director, Unity Hospitals Group Ltd, Lagos, Dr. Michael Obafunso Peters, with his wife, a retired principal, Unilag International School, Akoka, Mrs. Olusola Peters; the Home Computer instructor, Mr. Mike Adefemi Adeife, Home principal, Mrs. Folake Durowoju and vice principal, Mrs. Florence Kayode at the operation of one of the 10 new HP computer systems and accessories donated to the Modupe Cole Memorial Home for the physically impaired at Akoka, Yaba Lagos, to fulfil his pledge to the home on his 70th birthday.

Shell loses 43,000 bpd to oil theft

R

OYAL Dutch Shell’s Nigeria joint venture is losing 43,000 barrels a day (bpd) of crude oil to theft, while deliberate damage to pipelines accounted for more than three quarters of oil spilt last year, the oil major said.

Shell has increasingly complained in recent

months about bunkering tapping into pipelines to steal the oil - which it says is on the rise in the country.

The company wants a greater security crackdown on the practice, which it has estimated deprives the country of some 150,000 bpd.

“The Shell Petroleum

Development Company of Nigeria (SPDC) ... suffers a daily loss of at least 43,000 barrels to crude theft and illegal bunkering, in a trend that negatively impacts the environment, robs the country of badly-needed revenue and fuels criminality in communities,” SPDC spokesman Precious

Okolobo said in statement, yesterday.

in 118 incidents,” last year. a

SPDC is a Shell-run joint venture between Nigeria’s state oil firm, Shell, EPNL and Agip.

Okolobo added that bunkering had been the cause of “11,806 barrels spilled from SPDC facilities

Pipeline sabotage by militants campaigning for a greater share of oil revenues, or by local criminals looking to benefit from clean-up contracts, are common in the delta, a network of creeks and wetlands where the Niger river empties into the Atlantic, and where Nigeria’s oil industry is based.

54 — Vanguard, TUESDAY, MAY 15,

2012

Strike, sack, evict and there are no doctors!

•An empty emergency unit at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, Ikeja...yesterday

Stories by SOLA OGUNDIPE & CHIOMA OBINNA

T

ODAY, a visit to the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, LASUTH and several other state government hospitals in Lagos shows empty casualty departments. There are few or no cases waiting at the outpatient wards. In the admission wards, there is no sign of medical staff trying to attend to patients. The usual heavy rush of patients is absent. The beehive of activities which usually perpetuate the health scene has vanished. In short, the teaching hospital and its satellites have become ghost towns.

Certainly something is amiss.

But the mystery is not far-fetched.

All the members of the healthcare delivery team are present, but doctors, acknowledged as leaders of the medical team – are conspicuously missing.

Scenario in state owned hospitals This scenario is played out severally in virtually all State-owned hospitals in Lagos. Hapless patients have had to cope with a semblance of health care services without doctors at their duty posts. With this development, hundreds of thousands of patients unable to access medical care and more disturbingly, the rising death tolls, despondency, desolation and desertion mildly describes the precarious situation at any Lagos hospital in the last two weeks or so.

It is no longer news that doctors employed by the Lagos State government have been on strike several times in the last three years over issues bordering on the Consolidated Medical Salary Structure. Records have it that it is difficult to ignore the num-

ber of days that the doctors, under the aegis of the Medical Guild, have been on strike, because it took a large chunk of the 1,800 days of the Governor Babatunde Fashola administration.

Till this moment, Lagosians are still at a loss as to why the doctors and the government cannot reach an amicable agreement as responsible and responsive stakeholders in whose hands they have placed their health needs.

Negotiations between the two parties have hit a brick wall almost as many times as the physicians have downed tools, and the state’s health sector has been the worse for it. For so long have the Medical Guild and the Lagos State government been locked in battle over the CONMESS palaver, and at each time, Lagosians have been the worse for it. All too often, the dark

clouds of uncertainty gather over the health sector in Lagos whenever doctors in the public arm of health sector exhibit their dissatisfaction. Their discontent and restiveness is so palpable. Strikes by doctors this year alone have had severe toll on the welfare of patients in addition to placing massive burden on ancillary health services.

Queries and summons But Monday last week, the Lagos State government decided enough was enough. It summarily sacked 788 striking doctors. Chief among reasons given for the mass sack were allegations for failing to respond to the three queries and summons issued by the state Personnel Man-

agement Board. To replace those dismissed, an indicated 373 new doctors are being recruited. The sacked doctors were asked to vacate their premises through an eviction notice issued from the office of the state’s Head of Service. They complied, but though the Governor has issued a counter order, and the affected doctors authorised to ignore the eviction notice, the Medical Guild, nevertheless, has gone to court.

Actually, it was the Medical Guild that drew the first blood in the face-off. Prior to their sacking, the doctors embarked on a nerve-wracking three-day warning strike to protest the non-implementation of the full CONMESS. The warning strike, which brought healthcare services in the state to its knees, set off a chain reaction. Intended to be followed by an indefinite strike

to press for the doctors’ demands, the warning strike was called off on schedule, but the people were yet to heave a sigh of relief when the restiveness in the sector escalated as the doctors were queried and summoned to appear before a disciplinary panel, a move that precipitated the indefinite strike which lead to the sacking of the doctors.

But even as implications from the agony of the doctors’ sack hangs more threateningly over the State even much more than the threat of their indefinite strike, the issue of strike remains a permanent feature in the nation’s health industry. And worse may be yet to come if the threats by the Nigeria Medical Association to embark on a nationwide solidarity doctors’ strike as from Friday May 18 are anything to go by.

Doctors’ sack: We have shortlisted 55 locum staff for employment –Prof Oke, CMD, LASUTH As part of the restructuring of the Lagos healthcare system, new doctors are daily being recruited to replace the sacked doctors. Chief Medical Director, LASUTH, Ikeja, Professor Adewale Oke sheds light on ongoing efforts to restore sanity into the system. Excerpts

F

•LASUTH CMD, Prof. Adewale Oke

OLLOWING the order by the Gov ernor, Thursday last week, we interviewed 100 locum staff, and 55 out of the 100 were short-listed. Some are young; some are already in the practice. They include 10 consultants, paediatricians, anaesthesiologists, dentists, dental officers, etc. The Special Assistant on Public Health to the Governor, Dr. Mrs. Yewande Adesina, helped to conduct an orientation exercise for them so they can have a feel of what we wanted on the codes of conduct ex-

pected of doctors in the civil service. The Ministry is actually using the opportunity to revamp the health sector.

Today, we have deployed medical officers to the LASEMS, paediatrics, the various clinics, and haematology department, because of the HIV affected patients who cannot afford to miss their drugs. Medical officers have been deployed to the family health department.

Restoration of activities: For now, the obstetric unit is not available because Ay Continues on page 55

Vanguard, TUESDAY, MAY 15, 2012—55

Doctors’ sack: We have shortlisted 55 locum staff for employment –Prof Oke, CMD, LASUTH Continues from page 54

inke House is still under construction. All medical directors have been implored to employ medical officers. Indeed, if you go around now, you will see that there are little activities going on.

Emergency services can be handled here. In the next one week or two we will be able to provide some outpatient services. We can prevent patients from dying suddenly. If need be, we have identified some hospitals for them to be taken to. I can assure you no patients have been turned back.

I know in some hospitals, the gate men were turning patients away, but that has since stopped. Not too many patients are coming now because the strike has been on so many times, the patients have developed some form of option.

Deaths: When the strike began, many patients went home, some were discharged by the consultants, and in the wards are a few patients who have acute illness.

But as much as possible, nurses

were on ground to cater to them, but some died and we cannot say it is the strike. I can say No exceptional cases of patients dying.

Only one came in as an acute case, but was reviewed and died along the line but he was actual-

ly attended to.

Tired of strikes: The Ministry is tired of strikes; this is the first time in the history of this country as a democracy that the issue of strike has got to the point of sack-

ing doctors. One good thing about these new doctors is that most of the doctors who came are actually engaged somewhere.

They are very passionate about their profession vis-a-vis their

profession. If the kind of response we got from these doctors is anything to go by, we will get to the point of running the out-patients services and also the in-patients wards. We want to prevent unnecessary deaths. The governor actually said he wants to prevent unnecessary deaths, which he wants the hospitals to be running.

He directed we should ensure services are running. If you have people on casualty, severe bleeding and the arteries open, with capacity here now, we can handle it now.

Hippocratic Oath: Is it still valid?

M

y patients shall be my primary con cern.” This part of the famous Hippocratic Oath sworn to by doctors on graduation from medical school is no doubt the key to the essence of medical practice all over the world. In the healthcare industry, the patient is king. The patient is the reason for medical practice in the first place. Without the patient there will be no doctor, nurse, pharmacist or any other medical professional. But of late, the patient has become a pawn with which to bargain or settle discord. And such bargaining episodes are certainly not in the patient’s interest.

In the wake of the crisis currently bedeviling the Lagos State health sector, occasioned by the face-off between doctors under the Medical Guild and the state government, a big question mark lies on the Hippocratic Oath. Is it still relevant? Most especially must

I tread with care in matters of life and death.

Are doctors treading with care today in Lagos and Nigeria as a whole? From the way and manner doctors go on strike, can they truly be said to be treading with care?

Another part of the Oath states: “But it may also be within my power to take a life; this awesome responsibility must be faced with great humbleness and awareness of my own frailty. Above all, I must not play at God.” When doctors go on strike, what is the implication? Could it be that they have declined to save lives or are exercising their power to take lives and playing God in the process?

It is questionable whether the part of the Oath which states: “I will not permit considerations of religion, nationality, race, party politics or social standing to intervene between my duty and my patient,” is still valid

considering that the whole essence of the strike is about the welfare of the doctors and their social standing.

“May I always act so as to preserve the finest traditions of my calling and may I long experience the joy of healing those who seek my help.” The validity of the declaration of this part of the Oath is currently in doubt. Multitudes of patients in Lagos have been seeking to obtain healing which they have been promised. But their cries have been in vain as the doors of the health houses have remained firmly shut against the key essence of the physicians’ practice.

“If I do not violate this Oath, may I enjoy life and art, respected while I live and remembered with affection thereafter. I make these promises solemnly, freely and upon my honour”. Today, the Hippocratic Oath may have been reduced to mere words.

This government is tired of strikes — Dr. Jide Idris, Lagos State Commissioner for Health This government is tired of strikes. Lagos State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Jide Idris who confirmed this in an interview with Sola Ogundipe and Chioma Obinna, was only echoing the thoughts of millions of Lagosians and Nigerians as a whole. Idris who said the sacking of 788 striking doctors was a difficult decision for the government, however, argued that it was in the overall interest of the health sector. Denying claims that it was a premeditated decision, he said the priority now is to reduce the negative effects of the crisis on the patients. Excerpts: EFORE resorting to sack ing, was there no other measure government could have taken to avoid the impasse between it and the Medical Guild?

Government did everything possible. The last time the doctors went on strike, the government gave many concessions and that was what formed the basis of the agreement. That same agreement has been implemented. Contrary to the information they have been spreading, we are paying CONMESS figure for figure within the platform of the state health policy. It was on basis of the doctors’ agitation that we published the figures. If they have anything contrary, let them bring it up.

After the last strike, it was decided by both parties to resolve matters amicably by dialogue.

The governor was actually at one of their meetings in which the doctors promised never to go on strike again. It was on that basis that since the beginning of the year, we have been discussing everything with them. The first notice of the strike was a text message that took us aback. We were

C M Y

surprised. Three weeks before then, we had met, issues were raised and we were going to call them to a meeting. So when the text came, we called them immediately to say that was not our agreement. We even showed them all the papers to state the position of our agreement.

The doctors have been saying the publication does not reflect the true position…

Well let them bring evidence. I actually went back to confirm af-

,

B

•Lagos State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Jide Idris tient’s rights. The role of government is to provide platform for the patients to access to health but when it comes to a situation where that access to health is being impeded by those who should provide it, then government has to do something about it.

But the hospitals are still shut...

As of today, none of the hospitals is shut. I have taken stock, yes

No reasonable government that has the interest of the people at heart would plan to sack 788 doctors just like that

ter the publication and it was confirmed, two sources confirmed. So let them bring evidence that it is not so. Figure for figure, we are paying CONMESS. Has government not violated the right of the patient to health?

To the best of my knowledge, government has not violated the pa-

,

services are down, but work is not completely paralysed.

How open is government to dialogue?

Government has taken advantage of many opportunities. For instance, the governor publicly appealed to them during the 1,800 days celebration, then the House

of Assembly waded in, but the doctors insulted everybody. Since all this began, we held meetings and got concerned parties to listen to our own side of the story, and then they went and listened to their own side too.

We had two meetings, Thursday, during which we gave our own side. A past president of the NMA came to a meeting with us, I gave him all the information including letters written by the NMA Lagos branch and he said he had warned them not to write the letter. They are not telling the full story, only whipping up sentiments to the public. Government has tried, but things would get to a stage where steps have to be taken to prevent further degeneration. This action bordered on what holds the fabric together which is discipline and regulations. We had to save the situation.

Is there possibility that any of the sacked doctors may be reinstated or asked to reapply?

That matter is covered by civil service regulations. We will cross the bridge when we get there. I do not want to preempt anything.

Is the dismissal of 788 doctors a premeditated act as being touted in some circles or is it a quick measure to salvage the system?

No reasonable government that has the interest of the people at heart would plan to sack 788 doctors just like that it. It was not something government was happy to do and was actually a hard but inevitable decision.

We had to make a choice between sacking and the negative effects of not sacking on the overall system. First, if a house officer is paid teaching allowance, then others in the health system and even beyond will come forward and demand to be paid as well.

The cost on government would be too much. Second, the attitude of the doctors leaves much to be desired.

To be concluded

56—Vanguard, TUESDAY, MAY 15, 2012

L-R: Ogun State Commissioner for Commerce, Mr. Bimbo Ashiru; President, Odua Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mine and Agriculture, ODUACCIMA, Mrs. Alaba Lawson, the Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi; Oba AdedapoTejuoso, Osile OkeOna of Egbaland and first deputy president of the Institute Senator Remi Okunrinboye, at the Investiture of Mrs. Alaba Lawson as new president of ODUACCIMA in Ibadan, Oyo State

Ejigbo LCDA Chairman, Kehinde Bamigbetan (l) presenting a copy of Ejigbo Tiger at Work magazine to the DPO of Ejigbo, Afolabi Folorunsho, when the latter paid a courtesy visit to the chairman in his office

C M Y K

Vanguard, TUESDAY, MAY 15, 2012—57

C M Y K

58 — Vanguard, TUESDAY, MAY 15, 2012

Final league tables Italy

England Team Man City Man Utd Arsenal Tottenham Newcastle Chelsea Everton Liverpool Fulham West Brom Swansea Norwich Sunderland Stoke Wigan Aston Villa QPR Bolton Blackburn Wolves

P 38 38 38 38 38 38 38 38 38 38 38 38 38 38 38 38 38 38 38 38

W 28 28 21 20 19 18 15 14 14 13 12 12 11 11 11 7 10 10 8 5

D L 5 5 5 5 7 10 9 9 8 11 10 10 11 12 10 14 10 14 8 17 11 15 11 15 12 15 12 15 10 17 17 14 7 21 6 22 7 23 10 23

GF 93 89 74 66 56 65 50 47 48 45 44 52 45 36 42 37 43 46 48 40

GA Gd 29 64 33 56 49 25 41 25 51 5 46 19 40 10 40 7 51 -3 52 -7 51 -7 66 -14 46 -1 53 -17 62 -20 53 -16 66 -23 77 -31 78 -30 82 -42

Pts 89 89 70 69 65 64 56 52 52 47 47 47 45 45 43 38 37 36 31 25

Team Juventus AC Milan Udinese Lazio Napoli Inter Milan Roma Parma Bologna Chievo Catania Atlalanta Fiorentina Siena Cagliari Palermo Genoa Lecce Novara Cesena

P 38 38 38 38 38 38 38 38 38 38 38 38 38 38 38 38 38 38 38

W 32 28 17 17 15 16 13 14 13 12 12 12 13 12 13 12 12 9 10

D L 42 2 73 3 18 11 7 14 11 12 7 15 15 10 10 14 11 14 13 13 11 15 11 15 8 17 10 16 4 21 7 19 6 20 14 15 7 21

GF GAGd 121 52 89 114 29 85 59 44 15 54 53 1 53 46 7 54 50 4 44 61 -17 42 46 -4 48 47 1 49 52 -3 40 51 -11 46 52 -6 47 56 -9 46 56 -10 53 73 -20 36 61 -25 35 56 -21 39 53 -14 42 69 -27

Pts 100 91 61 58 56 55 54 52 50 49 47 47 47 45 43 43 42 41 37

Team P W D L GF GA Gd Pts Montpellier 37 24 7 6 66 33 33 79 PSG 37 22 10 5 73 40 33 76 Lille 37 20 11 6 68 38 30 71 Lyon 37 19 7 11 61 47 14 64 Bordeaux 37 15 13 9 50 39 11 58 Saint-Etienne 37 16 9 12 47 42 5 57 Rennes 37 16 9 12 48 44 4 57 Toulouse 37 15 11 11 37 32 5 56 Evian TG 37 13 11 13 54 54 0 50 Marseille 37 12 12 13 45 40 5 48 Nancy 37 11 12 14 37 44 -7 45 Valenciennes 37 11 7 19 37 49 -12 40 Nice 37 9 12 16 35 43 -8 39 Lorient 37 9 12 16 34 47 -13 39 Sochaux 37 10 9 18 39 60 -21 39 Brest 37 7 17 13 30 38 -8 38 Caen 37 9 11 17 38 56 -18 38 Ajaccio 37 8 14 15 38 61 -23 38 Dijon 37 9 9 19 38 58 -20 36 Auxerre 37 7 13 17 45 55 -10 34 NOTE: French League ends this weekend.

•Messi

L 0 6 10 12 9 14 14 12 13 13 12 12 14 16 15 17 18 18 20 24

GF 58 74 52 56 66 58 60 54 41 35 47 41 37 45 37 52 50 40 35 24

GA 20 33 35 47 46 55 54 53 43 45 52 43 43 45 46 62 69 56 65 60

Gd 43 41 17 9 20 3 6 -1 -2 -10 -5 -2 -6 0 -9 -10 -19 -16 -30 -36

Pts 84 80 64 62 61 58 56 56 51 49 48 46 46 44 43 43 42 36 32 22

•Zlatan

But in typical Ferguson style, the Old Trafford boss was defiant, bullish and champing at the bit to burst City’s bubble.

The pain of losing the title on goal difference to Manchester United’s archrivals will live with him for ever.

Yet the Scot wasted no time in warning the cocka-hoop Blue Mooners they

Team Dortmund Bayern Munich Schalke Monchengladbach Bayer Leverkusen Stuttgart Hannover Wolfsburg Werder Bremen Nuremberg Hoffenheim Freiburg Mainz Augsburg Hamburg Hertha Berlin Cologne Kaiserslautern

P 34 34 34 34 34 34 34 34 34 34 34 34 34 34 34 34 34 34

W 25 23 20 17 15 15 12 13 11 12 10 10 9 8 8 7 8 4

DL 6 3 4 7 4 10 9 8 9 10 8 11 1210 5 16 9 14 6 16 1113 1014 1213 1412 1214 1017 6 20 1119

GF 80 77 74 49 52 63 41 47 49 38 41 45 47 36 35 38 39 24

GA Gd 25 55 22 55 44 30 24 25 44 8 46 17 45 -4 60 -13 58 -9 49 -11 47 -6 61 -16 51 -4 49 -13 57 -22 64 -26 75 -36 54 -30

Pts 81 73 64 60 54 53 48 44 42 42 41 40 39 38 36 31 30 23

•Klass

Spanish La Liga Top Scorers Pos. 1 2 3

Player Lionel Messi Cristiano Ronaldo Radamel Falcao

Goals 50 46 24

Premier League Top Scorers 1 RVP 30 Arsenal 2 Rooney 27 Man U. 3 Agüero 23 Man C 4 Yakubu 17 Blackburn

German Bundesliga Top Scorers •Nene

It’ll take City 100 years to catch us up – Fergie

A

D 15 8 10 6 13 7 8 11 12 13 15 13 13 11 13 10 9 12 11 10

German Bundesliga

French Lique 1

LEX FERGUSON tried bitterly to spoil Manchester City’s title party, sniping: It will take you 100 years to match our history.

Fergie somehow found it in him to congratulate Roberto Mancini’s men, after Sergio Aguero’s incredible added-time strike had helped them end 44 years of hurt.

W 23 24 18 16 16 17 16 15 13 12 11 13 11 11 10 11 11 8 7 4

•RVP

Spanish La Liga Tean Real Madrid Barcelona Valencia Malaga Athletico Madrid Levante Osasuna Real Mallorca Sevilla Athletic Bilbao Getafe Sociedad Real Betis Espanyol Vallecano Zaragoza Granada Villarreal Sporting Gijon

P 38 38 38 38 38 38 38 38 38 38 38 38 38 38 38 38 38 38 38 38

are light years away from eclipsing the 19-time champions.

Fergie barked: “They can go on as much as they like.

That’s what you would expect. But the history of our club stands us aside.

“We don’t need to worry about that. I think we have a rich history, better than anyone, and it’ll take them a century to get to our level.

1 Klaas-Jan 29 Schalke 2 Gomez 26 Bayern 3 Lewandowski 22 Borussia

Serie A Top Scorers 1 Zlatan 28 AC Milan 2 Milito 24 Inter 3 Cavani 23 Napoli

French Ligue 1 Top Scorers 1 Nene PSG 21 2 GiroudMpellier 21 3 Hazard Lille 17

•Ronaldo

Team Barcelona Real Madrid Atlético Madrid

Vanguard, TUESDAY, MAY 15, 2012 — 59

Yak ubu tto o lea kburn akubu leavve Blac Blackburn B

LACKBURN Rovers boss Steve Kean has accepted he is likely to lose Nigerian forward Yakubu Aiyegbeni this summer.

Yakubu has scored 17 goals for Rovers this season but it was not enough to save them from relegation.

Kean said: “We were the ones that took Yakubu out of the wilderness.

“He’s had his highest scoring season for a number of years, hopefully he can stay.

“If he doesn’t stay then we’ll deal with that

•Baotelli celebrates with Dzeko.

e made U nit ed suf Balotelli: W We Unit nited sufffer M

ARIO BALOTEL LI believes Manchester City inflicted greater psychological damage to Manchester United by snatching the title with a last-gasp winner.

Alex Ferguson’s men were on the pitch after their 1-0 win at Sunderland waiting for news from the Etihad when City pulled it back to 22 with QPR at the EtHe said: “It was better to win like that than 6-0, when you are sure to win.

“United have suffered a little bit, it is better for us.

“When I was on the bench, warming up with Micah Richards and they scored their second goal, Micah was upset but I said ‘Don’t worry, we will win’. “That’s what we did. I thought it was really possible. I believed in it and I was right.”

when it happens.”

The likes of Yakubu, Steven Nzonzi, Martin Olsson and Scott Dann are also on several clubs’ wish list, but Kean says Rovers have to fight to keep their stars.

Kean said: “The rebuilding starts straight away. In any type of rebuild you have to fight for the players you have got under contract because the clubs will be swarming around and trying to take the service of some of our players.

“It is about making sure you can keep the

•Yakubu majority of the squad together.

Villa sack coach

Drogba, TTorres orres ma mayy ssttar artt against Bayern R

•Drogba and Torres.

Bar aces 9-game ban Bartton ffaces

J

OEY BARTON faces a NINE-game ban after being sent off at

•DOWN .. Joey Barton kicked Sergio Aguero after his red .

Manchester City.

The Rangers skipper will be hit hard by the FA for seeing red — and then admitting he tried to get a City man sent off.

Rangers stayed up because Bolton failed to beat Stoke, but boss Mark Hughes will consider selling Barton this summer.

The midfielder was dismissed in the 55th minute for elbowing Carlos Tevez in the face.

Then he kneed Sergio Aguero in the back of the thigh and attempted to head-butt Vincent Kompany.

Barton said: “Can do nothing but apologise to players and the fans. Still don’t think it’s a sending off. Tried to take one of their players off with me.

“The head was never gone. Once I’d been sent off, one of our players suggested I try to take one of theirs with me.''

O B E R T O Di Matteo has revealed he had the Champions League final on Saturday in mind when he paired Didier Drogba and Fernando Torres in Chelsea’s win over Blackburn Rovers.

Di Matteo, the caretaker manager, has not started the strikers in tandem since taking charge just over two months ago but confirmed he had been looking at potential options for the showdown with Bayern Munich this weekend during the 2-1 win over relegated Rovers.

“I tried a few things to just have a look and see how it could work out,” he said. “It’s always difficult because obviously it’s going to be a different opposition. But I’ve been trying to figure out a few things.”

•McLeish Aston Villa have sacked manager Alex McLeish after 11 months in charge.

The 53-year-old former Scotland manager said his farewells to the club’s staff on Monday morning.

Villa have endured a poor Premier League campaign, finishing just above the relegation zone after winning only four of 19 games at home.

McLeish was an unpopular appointment as he arrived from Birmingham City last year but poor results and per-

formances worsened his relationship with fans.

A club statement read: “Aston Villa can confirm that Alex McLeish’s contract has been terminated with immediate effect. The club has been disappointed with this season’s results, performances and the general message these have sent to our fans.

“The board wishes to assure supporters that we are conscious in every sense that Villa expects and deserves more and we will strive to deliver this.”

Mikel declares 100% for Eagles

C

HELSEA midfielder Mikel Obi has again declared 100% effort and commitment to Nigeria ahead of a hectic month of qualifiers.

Mikel said that he will be available for all the Super Eagles qualifiers against Namibia, Malawi and Rwanda, if picked by coach Stephen Keshi. ”I am always happy to play for Nigeria and my commitment should never be in doubt,” said Mikel, who has yet to feature for the country

under Keshi.

“I am 100% ready to play for Eagles under new manager Stephen Keshi, who has been doing well since he took

charge.

“I am ready to honour all the call-ups and give my best on the pitch.”

Van Nistelrooy quits

F

ORMER Manchester United striker Ruud van Nistelrooy has called time on his career.

Van Nistelrooy, 35, has endured a difficult time since joining Malaga from Hamburg last summer, scoring just five times in 32 appearances.

Despite a lack of goals, he helped the Spanish club to their first ever top-four finish and Champions League qualification for the first time in their history.

60—Vanguard, THURSDAY,

MAY 15, 2012

Taming the monster called exam malpractice

F

ROM the look of things, examination malpractice has become institutionalized and no matter how we talk or write against it, the monster would continue to rear its ugly head in our academic environment. This is because the parties involved in this nefarious act no longer see it as a crime as it has become the easiest and quickest means of achieving their goals in life.

Another reason why it cannot be easily eradicated from our system is that the people who are regarded as the stakeholders in the education industry, especially private school owners who always want their schools to excel at all cost in order to woo more students are knee-deep in the act.

More dangerously, our education, social and political environment lay more emphasis on paper qualification so much so that however skilful or knowledgeable one is he/she cannot be given a chance to prove his capability unless he/ she presents a certificate.

So, students who have

Terrorist attacks in parts of the country

THE robbery of banks and terrorists attacks which are carried out on daily basis in

thrown reading to the wind, and who are eager to enter higher institutions now see exam malpractice as the easiest means to succeed.

Consequently, they are ready to pay any amount demanded by their teachers who have already reached an agreement with the invigilators and supervisors in order to get the certificate. In this process, the teachers are allowed to assist their students in the examination hall or the

,

Dear Sir,

Students who have thrown reading to the wind, and who are eager to enter higher institutions now see exam malpractice as the easiest means to succeed

invigilators and supervisors would close their eyes against whatever other arrangement the teachers make to assist

,

their students.

The teachers on the other hand see the occasion as a windfall for them, especially

when they have not been paid for several months. The sudden windfall therefore serves as a source of relief from their predicament of salary starvation.

The invigilators and supervisors see the occasion as a rare opportunity which they cannot afford to miss as it enhances their means of livelihood.

So, in order to minimize the ugly trend,. I suggest that journalists should wade into the matter by involving themselves to supervise all the external exams.

Nkemakolam Gabriel Warri 08072257360

Emulate the Roman Catholic Church Dear Sir,

I

would like to use this medium to appeal to all religious organisations especially Churches to emulate the Catholic Church which has been building hospitals in Nigeria. Many of us met hospitals built by this religious body in the world. It is like continuing where our Lord Jesus Christ stopped in bringing succour to the poor and those who suffer afflictions.

This call becomes imperative in view of the constant industrial actions embarked

the north, will totally collapse the economic development of that region.

It is like the present administration has not answer to the security challenges in the country.

Lives a n d properties are n o longer safe.

Some influential northerners a r e allegedly behind the insurgents in the north today. The bombers in the north and the southsouth militants a r e frustrating the efforts of t h e Federal Government to make

upon by our public hospitals especially those operating in Lagos which is unarguably the most populous state in the country. It has been observed that the masses are mostly affected by these strikes. It is no longer news that many patients lose their lives during such strikes.

An example that readily comes to mind is an eye-clinic where three or more months appointments are always given to patients for their first appearance. If before the appointed day there is downing of tools, the three

months previous appointment will go with the strike, only for the patients to wait for another date. Many eye-patients have experienced deterioration of the condition of their eyes or outright blindness as a result of undue delay before belated attempts are made to treat them.

I particularly thank Ancilla Catholic Hospital Eye-Clinic in Agege, Lagos State for assisting me to regain my sight after one eye had gone blind.

One would therefore not surprised that the few Nigerians who can afford to treat their ailments abroad

leave the country in search of good health. The masses are now left at the mercy of our illequipped and unpredictable public hospitals that go on strike at every conceivable excuse.

Both business organisations and other religious bodies that can afford to build hospitals should supplement governments’ efforts by saving the lives of Nigerians especially the young ones that will make the next generations.

James O. Adeyemi, Oke-Odo, Via Abule-Egba, Lagos. 08026106556

tribal sentiments and injustice.

Romanus 08057123287

On NYSC Nigeria a safe place for people to live in Alhaji Mani 08081643296

Debate on tenure elongation

The ongoing debate about whether President Jonathan should go for another term is quite unnecessary because, constitutionally the president is not qualified to contest. The president is on his 2nd term and should focus on thegovernance of the country for which Nigerians voted for him.

John Gbatimo 07054257946

Okonjo Iweala loses world bank job

I am the happiest person on earth because Okonjo Iweala didn’t get the World Bank job.

No Nigerian deserves any international position till our house is put in order.

Pastor Segine 08071002130

Boko Haram’s activities and northern leaders

The initiative adopted by the northern leaders in finding ways to curb the menace of Boko Haram’s activities in the north is a welcome idea.

There’s need for it as peace is

the only weapon for stability, physical and human development. It is an herculean task.

They cannot sit down and watch while the activities of Boko Haram is about disintegrating Nigeria as such was what led to the Nigerian Civil war. The colonial masters should also take the bunch of the blames of wars in Africa because of their occupation and imposition of a system that divides rather than uniting us for their benefits.

Solo Aloba 07052624455

Boko Haram and blasts

Lets have a national conference and discuss about the survival of Nigeria and how to tackle

The NYSC was well intended but so many years after, the modus operandi needs to be changed. It is my humble opinion that if they are directed towards agricultural production they will be more productive and useful to the nation as manpower will not be lacking, in view of the number that graduates every year.

To make this possible, every state must set up a reasonable farm of any type as may be dictated by their climatic condition. When this is done, food will be plentiful and some of them may even take to agriculture at the end of graduation.

Ben. Ezumezu 08037458074

SAYINGS OF OUR ELDERS 1.The stream may dry up but the water course retains its name.

2. Silence is also a statement.

Osagie Joshua O. (08036986103), 29B, Agbonrofo Street, Off Etefe Road, GRA Benin City, Edo State.

Send us your Sayings of Our Elders. They must be African sayings or proverbs. Biblical or English proverbs are unacceptable. You will be paid N100.00 for every saying published. Address your sayings to: The Co-ordinator, Sayings of Our Elders,Vanguard Media Ltd., PMB 1007, Apapa, Lagos.

Vanguard, TUESDAY, MAY 15, 2012—61

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62—Vanguard, TUESDAY, MAY 15, 2012

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Vanguard, TUESDAY, MAY 15, 2012—63

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VANGUARD, TUESDAY, MAY 15, 2012

Redknapp wants Chelsea to lose

H

ARRY Redknapp has a message for his nephew Frank Lampard: Hope you lose in Munich.

Tottenham’s Champions

League bid depends on Lamps’ Chelsea losing to Bayern Munich in Saturday ’s final after Arsenal nicked third place.

Manchester is Blue M AN CITY celebrated their Premier League success with an open-top bus parade through Manchester yesterday.

Around 100,000 fans lined the route of an open-top bus parade in honour of City being crowned champions of England for the first time since 1968. Fans paved the streets to catch a glimpse of their heroes as City travelled round to the tune of The Beatles classic Hey Jude.

City won the title in dramatic fashion on the final day of the season on Sunday, beating Queens Park Rangers 32 at Eastlands in a match where they scored twice in stoppage time after being 2-1 down.

Victory ensured they pipped defending champions and crosstown rivals Manchester United, the defending champions, to the title on goal difference.

“It’s great for everyone that we can have the trophy and these celebrations,” said City captain TODAY'S

Spurs boss Redknapp insists football comes before family as he bids to lead his team back into the big time next season after they finished fourth despite a 2-0 win over Fulham.

Redknapp said: “Frank knows there’s no love lost.

My allegiance is only to Tottenham.

BLUE IS THE COLOUR.....Manchester City fans, estimated at 100, 000 cheer the 2012 Premier League champions on the streets of Manchester yesterday. PHOTO: AFP

Vincent Kompany. “It’s for the fans.”

City’s Italian manager Roberto Mancini, reflecting on the extraordinary climax to Sunday’s match, added: “We had the best five minutes of our life. It was an incred-

PUZZLES

ible moment.”

Meanwhile, Sergio Aguero, who scored the all-important winning goal, spoke through team-mate and fellow Argentinian Pablo Zabaleta on Monday to say he had cried “a litYESTERDAY'S

ANSWERS

tle” in the celebrations.

“Thank you - you guys have been amazing,” he told the massed ranks of fans who had gathered in front of the town hall in Manchester ’s Albert Square.

“Thank you, thank you, ACROSS 1 Poke (4) 4 Feline (3) 6 Hut (4) 9 Girl’s (3) 10 Trade (8) 11 Sign (4) 14 Because (3) 16 Indolence (5) 19 Contemplate (8) 21 Beleaguer (5) 23 Depute (8) 24 Trite (5) 27 Can (3) 31 Crease (4) 33 Follower (8) 34 Observe (3) 35 Peruse (4) 36 Cover (3) 37 Immense (4)

thank you.”

Manchester City and England goalkeeper Joe Hart confessed he feared the club were about to lose out on the title as the game approached the final whistle. “I didn’t think it was

going to happen, to be perfectly honest,” he said.

“The place was shaking, I was shaking. You lose control in situations like that. It was one of the best and most dramatic days of my life.”

QUICK CROSSWORD

DOWN 2 Chamber (4) 3 Moist (4) 4 Rusted (8) 5 Bank (4) 6 Reef (5) 7 Border (3) 8 Upright (5) 12 Scour (5) 13 Alliance (5) 14 Untruth (3) 15 Readjusted (5) 17 Harmonium (5) 18 Loathed (5) 20 Enjoyed (8) 22 Number (3) 25 Ascended (5) 26 Helped (5) 28 Shout (4) 29 Cunning (4) 30 Comfortable (4) 32 Meadow (3)

YESTERDAY'S SOLUTIONS ACROSS: 1, Spring 5, Virile 8, Taciturn 9, Luck 10, Gnu 12, Faced I5, III, 17, Nil 18, Inn 19, Aid 20, Await 21, Lad 22, Irk 23, Cue 24, Dud 26, Earth 29, Tie 33, Pair 34, Merchant 35, Wedged 36, Extort

How to Play Sudoku

THE VIGILANTE

DOWN: 2, Plain 3, Ibis 4, Gouda 5, Venue 6, Rule 7, Local 10, Grand 11, Undid 12, Flake 13, Chair 14, Ditch 15, Inlet 16, Lodge 25, Usage 27, Aimed 28, Terse 30, Inner 31, Drag 32, Shot.

e-mail: rowolove@yahoo.co.uk

Place 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: 01-8944295. Advert Dept: 01-7924470; Hotline: 01-8737028; 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.

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