CHIBOK GIRLS: We're closing in on abductors - FG

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SUNDAY VANGUARD, MAY 25, 2014 — PAGE 5

GOV NYAKO’S IMPEACHMENT MOVE

N250m donation splits Adamawa House of Assembly Under the circumstance,

four members who were in the opposition APC immediately switched their membership to the PDP, making the entire membership of the house to belong to the party.

It will be recalled that before Nyako defected to the APC last December, his former party, the PDP, had 21 members with the former ACN, having three and the defunct CPC, with one member. It was learnt that six candidates, including the deputy governor of the state, Bala James Ngillari, had already positioned themselves as potential successors to Nyako.

BY SONI DANIEL Trouble is said to be brewing in Adamawa State House of Assembly over the alleged disbursement of N250 million to facilitate the impeachment of Governor Murtala Nyako. The money, it was alleged, was to be shared to the 25 members to ginger them to impeach the governor, who, recently, accused President Goodluck Jonathan of committing genocide against the North in the name of fighting terrorism.

Each member of the House was to receive N10 million of the money said to have been given to a member of the Adamawa House of Assembly by a popular governor in the country.

The officer, who collected the money, allegedly shortchanged the lawmakers by paying them N8 million each and pocketing the balance.

Besides, the plot to oust Nyako was said to have suffered a setback when four of the members rejected the largesse, insisting that they could not work against the governor, who brought them into limelight. Apart from the four members, who rejected the alleged bribe, six others, who allegedly collected, have reportedly sworn not to jump on the bandwagon to remove Nyako, leaving the impeachment protagonists in a dilemma.

Sunday Vanguard gathered that the rejection of the money by the four and refusal of the six others to be part of the plot to remove Nyako is causing unease in the PDP in Adamawa State.

A source told Sunday Vanguard that to be able to remove Nyako, the lawmakers needed 17 members to make up the two thirds majority required by law.

The move to oust the governor intensified last week when the Speaker of the House threatened to declare vacant the seat of any member, who refuses to join the PDP.

We’re closing-in on Chibok girls abductors — FG Continued from page 1

the military was closing-in on the abductors

Fresh explosions rock Jos

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NCONFIRMED reports, last night, said explosions rocked Congo area of Nassarawa Gwong, Jos, Plateau State capital.

The said explosions came barely four days after twin blasts claimed about 118 lives in the city.

Yesterday’s explosions reportedly targetted a viewing centre where football fans were watching the final of the UEFA Champions League match between Real Madrid FC and Atletico Madrid FC.

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L-R: Governor Abiola Ajimobi of Oyo State; Aare Musulumi of Yorubaland, Alhaji Azeez Arisekola, and the Sultan of Sokoto, Muhammed Sa’ad Abubakar, during the commissioning of a Mosque and Islamic Centre in Bodija, Oyo State, at the weekend.

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of school girls from Chibok, Borno State.

It was learnt that the over 200 girls abducted from Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok, on April 14, may be rescued soon.

In an exclusive chat with Sunday Vanguard, last night, the Co-ordinator, National Information Centre, Mike Omeri, disclosed that the efforts of officers and men of Nigeria’s defence forces as well as the police and the Department of State Service, DSS, were paying off.

“We have made significant progress”, he said.

Pressed further, Omeri, who is also the Director-General of the National Orientation Agency, NOA, said, “The very nature of the sensitivity of what we are doing demands that we provide information only on a need to know basis. That is why some of the posers you have raised, I would not be able to yield”.

However reminded that the parents of the abducted girls have been waiting for all of 40days and hoping against hope, Omeri

hinted, “By God’s grace, we are looking at a matter of days”.

The Coordinator, National Information Centre went on: “We are already winning the war against terror because when you look at the activities of our defence forces, including the police and the DSS, especially the number of attempted bombings that have been thwarted, you will agree with me that we are winning the war.

“The total attention and focus of the military on this war gives the confidence that by the time this chapter in this

war is over, Nigerians would be pleasantly surprised and happy.

“Already, our troops are smoking the terrorists out of their hiding places.

“For instance, one of their hideouts in Darazo, Bauchi State, has been bombed repeatedly and they are now on the run.

“The support we are also receiving from our foreign partners has upped the tempo and we are confident that soon, very soon, the parents would have their children back and,

by God’s grace, in safe and sound health.

“We are closing-in on them. But there is a limit to what I can volunteer ”.

Don’t associate Islam with Boko Haram, Sultan warns

BY OLA AJAYI, Ibadan

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he PresidentGeneral of the Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs, who is also the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar, and the governor of Oyo State, Senator Abiola Ajimobi, have called on Nigerians not to associate the Boko Haram Islamist group with Islam.

They spoke in Ibadan while inaugurating the Bodija Estate and Environs Muslim Community Islamic Centre. The Sultan, who called on Muslims to continue to live peacefully with nonMuslims, stressed that Islam is a religion of peace. He urged Muslims to emulate

Prophet Mohammed.

In his remarks, Ajimobi denounced the association of terrorism with Islam, stating that it is a religion of peace.

The governor enjoined communities to always play active roles in

Islamic activities for the development of the religion, stating that whatever they did here on earth, especially building of mosques, they would reap the benefits hereafter.

In his lecture entitled,

“The Role of Mosque in Islam”, the Chief Imam, University of Ilorin Central Mosque, Prof.

Abdul-Ganiyy Oladosu, said mosques had the potential of uniting Islamic faithful without discrimination.

Chibok: Rivers, Ogun cancel Children’s Day celebrations

BY JIMITOTA ONOYUME & DAUD OLATUNJI

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IVERS and Ogun states have cancelled this year’s Children’s Day celebrations scheduled to hold on Tuesday over the abduction of the schoolgirls of Government Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State.

Rivers State

Commissioner for Social Welfare and Rehabilitation, Mr Joe Philip Poroma, yesterday, said in place of the celebrations, government would hold a solemn church service at the Civic Centre, Port Harcourt with children from various schools in the state to pray for the release of the kidnapped students. He said on Wednesday teachers would wear black attire to schools to appeal

for the release of the Chibok girls. A statement by the Secretary to Ogun State Government, Taiwo Adeoluwa, yesterday, said the cancellation of the Children and Democracy Days celebrations was to identify with parents of the abducted girls and for residents to spend the day in a sober reflection and prayer for release of the girls.

PAGE 6—SUNDAY VANGUARD, MAY 25, 2014

I forgive Obasanjo — Orji Kalu

BY PETER DURU

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former governor of Abia State, Chief Orji Kalu,

stated, yesterday, that he has forgiven former President Olusegun Obasanjo despite the moves against his businesses during the

Obasanjo presidency.

Kalu, who made the pronouncement when he spoke to journalists in Makurdi, the Benue State capital,

said he would however not forget what the erstwhile President did to his business empire.

He said, “I have forgiven Obasanjo but I have not forgotten what he did to my businesses because those

businesses employed many Nigerians who he rendered jobless. ”He shouldn’t have targeted my business when our differences and the issue at stake was nothing but political.

Onuesoke urges FG, Delta to focus on climate change

BY EPHRAIM OSEJI HE founder of Onuesoke Founda tion, Hon Sunny Onuesoke, has appealed to the federal and Delta State governments to focus on factors that will mitigate climate change in Nigeria.

Onuesoke, who made the appeal at Warri Airport, Osibi, Delta State while seeing off an expert on climate change from France who was on official visit to Onuesoke Foundation, said the causes of climate change could be traced to the emission of greenhouses gases like carbon dioxide and methane, deforestation and the growing world population.

According to him, government has to focus on climate change because it has disastrous effects which include increased incidence of high sea level, more frequent hot days, heat waves, draught and desertification which has hampered agricultural production mostly in African countries where between 75 and 250 million people are presently in the danger of dying of starvation.

He advised that the federal and Delta State governments need to solve climate change related problems including flooding which might lead to erosion uprooting settlements, loss of oil wells and loss of coastal vegetation such as mangroves.

Onuesoke advised that the myriad of climate problems call for the restructuring of our educational system as way of creating awareness towards surmounting problems.

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Ex-UN big wig sees ‘new Osun’

BY GBENGA OLARINOYE

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former Director, Af rica Region of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), Mr. Bunmi Makinwa, has described the achievements of the governor of Osun State, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, in the past a three and a half years as unrivaled in the country.

Makinwa, who observed that the state has been transformed under the leadership of Aregbesola, said what has emerged is a new Osun with an improved life and a promising future for the entire people of the state.

He affirmed that at no time in the history of the state has it witnessed such monumental changes in so many aspects of the people’s lives since 2010. The UNFPA chief attributed the development to the quality and selfless leadership Aregbesola brought to bear on governance in the state.

Makinwa stated that people are reaping the benefits of democracy because the governor embarked on programmes and policies that are better than what used to be offered traditionally.

SUNDAY VANGUARD, MAY 25, 2014, PAGE 7

EFCC investigates alleged scam in Assemblies of God Church

BY TONY EDIKE

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HE crisis rocking the Assemblies of God Church Nigeria has taken another dimension as the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has begun a probe into the financial transactions of the church following allegations of embezzlement and misappropriation of funds coming from the warring parties.

Top on the alleged scam is the purchase of N220 million property in Germany by the church through a loan obtained from a commercial bank.

Sunday Vanguard gathered that some key members of the church have been interrogated by operatives of the

commission while others suspected to be involved in the alleged scam have gone into hiding.

The probe is sequel to a petition by a faction of the church led by the Assistant General Superintendent, Rev Chidi Okoroafor, alleging that the Executive Council of the church was neither privy to the property bought in Germany nor gave approved the purchase.

They alleged that the said property whose purchase was said to have been completed in 2011 was non-existent, adding that its embattled G e n e r a l Superintendent, Prof Paul Emeka, singlehandedly handled the transaction.

But in a swift reaction,

Osun 2014: Commission warns Police Affairs Minister

BY ADEOLA ADENUGA

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HE Minister of Police Affairs, Mr. Abdul-Jelili Adesiyan, has been asked to be cautious in the way he conducts

himself in Abuja and his home state, Osun.

The warning came on the heels of the allegation that he used policemen to intimidate a former governor of Osun State, Senator Isiaka Adeleke, who was contesting the governorship primary of his party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), ahead at the

August gubernatorial election in the state.

A letter, dated April 11, 2014 and signed by its National Commissioner, Professor Razaq Abubakre, the Public Complaints Commission described the alleged conduct of the minister as a recipe for anarchy.

The ombudsman stated that the alleged action of the Police Affairs Minister was capable of sending wrong signals to stakeholders in the state and may obstruct peace, fair play and justice.

Emeka said his predecessor, Rev Charles Osueke, commenced the process of purchase of the property with an initial deposit of N20 million, adding that his administration continued with the transaction when it came on board four years ago.

He stated that the transaction was completed from a loan secured from the GT Bank, adding that the entire thing was based on the decision of the executive council of the church.

‘Jonathan wrong to claim that Nigeria is not a poor country’ RESEARCHED BY TAIWO OBE

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IGERIA is not a poor country”, President Goodluck Jonathan declared earlier this month in response to a World Bank report which listed Nigeria among the five poorest countries in the world. The claim is wrong and misleading.

A report from the World Bank in April listed Nigeria among the five poorest countries in the world, with the largest number of people said to live on less than $1.25 a day. The others are India,

Chibok: Council boss tasks northern leaders

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RANSITION and Caretaker Com mittee Chairman of Ethiope East Local Council of Delta State, Hon. Sunday Onoriode, has urged northern leaders to help in efforts to rescue the over 250 students of Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok, Borno

State.

Commenting on the security challenges in the country, Onoriode, who described the action of the Boko Haram sect as a scam, called on northern leaders to put an end to this barbaric act being perpetuated by the terrorist group.

The council boss also used the medium to call for total support for President Goodluck Jonathan come 2015, saying no amount of intimidation from the Boko Haram and their sponsors would stop Jonathan from contesting, adding that his developmental projects across the country speak for him.

2015: Jonathan, Uduaghan, Uduehi urged to declare

BY ABEL KOLAWOLE

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group under the aegis of ltsekiri Po litical Network, IPN, has called on President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, Governor Emmanuel Eweta Uduaghan and Dr. Esther Uduehi to declare their aspirations for 2015.

The group, which made the call at a meeting in Koko in Warri North local government area of Delta State, explained that the trio have the experience which stand them out among those jostling for elective positions.

The Chairman of the group, Comrade Hendrick Omatsola, said Jonathan’s transformation agenda is a testimony of his determination to fully transform the country for sustainable

socio-economic and political development.

He maintained that the full implementation of Uduaghan’s three-point agenda and the vigorous pursuit of the regime’s Delta beyond oil campaign

are indications that the governor needs to continue the good job he has been doing since assuming office. Omatsola said the Senate is the best platform for Uduaghan to continue.

Pa Akindeko remembered

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00 days of the passage of Chief Lawrence Kehinde Akindeko, the Baba Ijo of St Paul’s Anglican Church, Iju-Odo, Ondo State was marked

Pa Akindeko

•Members of the Grand Alliance Against Terrorism during a protest against Boko Haram insurgency at the Unity Fountain, Maitama, Abuja, yesterday.

Photo by Abayomi Adeshida.

last Thursday.

Aged 78, Pa Akindeko passed on to eternal glory on February 11, 2014 and his remains committed to mother earth on March 21, 2014.

He is survived by his wife, Aduke, children and grand children among whom are Dr Segun Akindeko, Mrs Modupe Ajele, Mr Eniola Akindeko, Mr Olusina Akindeko, Miss Iyabo Akindeko, Miss Yetunde Akindeko and Miss Rebecca Akindeko.

China, Bangladesh and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The report quickly drew criticism from Nigerian Finance Minister Ngozi OkonjoIweala, herself a former Wo r l d B a n k m a n a g i n g director. And in a speech in Abuja President Jonathanreportedly claimed that “Nigeria is not a poor country”, adding that “our problem is not poverty, our problem is redistribution of wealth” Africa Check examines the claims.

“Nigeria is not a poor country” Wrong and misleading.

President J o n a t h a n ’s c l a i m t h a t “Nigeria is not a poor country” is wrong and misleading, correct only in the narrowest possible sense.

In raw terms, Nigeria’s recently recalculated 2013 Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of 80 trillion naira, equivalent to around $510 billion, makes it the largest economy in Africa, well ahead of the $384 billion recorded by South Africa in 2012.

In the World Bank’s latest ranking, Nigeria is the 27th largest economy in the world, ahead of Austria, Denmark and the United Arab Emirates. According to the African Economic Outlook, the country’s economy grew at 7.4% in 2013 and will continue to post real growth rates of over 7% for 2014 and 2015.

H o w e v e r, g i v e n t h e huge number of people in Nigeria, that doesn’t make either the population or the country wealthy. The World Bank still categorises Nigeria as lower middle income.

The remark is therefore wrong and misleading.

“O u r p r o b l e m i s n o t poverty, our problem is

redistribution of wealth” Partially correct.

President J o n a t h a n ’s somewhat loosely phrased point appears to be that while the Nigerian economy is sizeable, the distribution of income means there are many (and he appears to argue too many) living below the poverty line.

Read this way, the claim is partially accurate.

But statistics show that the number of people living in poverty in Nigeria is actually increasing, despite strong headline growth figures. With this in mind, it might be more accurate to say that the problem is both poverty and the distribution of wealth.

In February 2012, the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics released what is today its most up to date survey on living standards, the so-called Harmonised Nigeria Living Standards Survey 2009/2010, which found that at that time 61.2% of Nigerians lived on one dollar a day or under.

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hat was an in crease of almost 10% since the last measurements were taken in 2004, and meant that at the time around 100 million Nigerians were living on less than a dollar a day.

The Wo r l d Bank’s benchmark for poverty measurement was then at or below one dollar a day. This has since been increased by 25 cents.

Absolute p o v e r t y, which is defined as the minimal requirements for food, water and shelter, also increased between 2004 and 2010, the bureau found. “Subjective” poverty, measured as those who feel themselves to be poor, had increased from 75.5% in 2004 to 93.9% in 2010, meaning that less Nigerians were happy with their lot.

When it released the report, the bureau pre-

dicted this rising trend was likely to continue, but produces data only every five years.

Its findings appear to be substantiated by more recent research by the World Bank. In its 2013 Nigeria Economic Report, the organisation noted that “poverty reduction and job creation have not kept pace with population growth, implying that the number of underemployed and impoverished Nigerians continues to grow ”.

It added that the countr y ’s progress towards the Millennium Development Goals, which aim to meet the basic social needs of the world’s poorest by 2015, has been “disappointing, with indicators in many areas resembling those in the poorest countries in Africa”.

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onclusion: The claim that Nige ria is “not a poor country ” is both wrong and misleading President Jonathan’s response to the World Bank report issued last month suggested Nigeria is “not a poor country ”. The problem is one of distribution.

According to the latest World Bank data – drawn from national statistics agencies – Nigeria is indeed a large economy however, given the size of population and the demands this creates, this does not make Nigeria a wealthy nation. It would not do so even if income were evenly distributed, which it is not.

The latest data appears, instead, to show both absolute and subjective poverty levels and steadily increasing and the country is ranked by the World Bank as a low to middle income country.

•Peter Cunliffe-Jones, Deputy Director AFP F O U N DAT I O N / D i r e c t o r, AFRICA CHECK •Edited by Eleanor Whitehead

PAGE 8—SUNDAY VANGUARD, MAY 25, 2014

NORTH-SOUTH DIVIDE ON RESOURCE CONTROL AT CONFAB National Conference: Rejection of regional autonomy will spell doom — Afenifere

Why we agreed to retain 13% derivation — Obong Attah

BY HENRY UMORU

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former governor of Akwa Ibom State, Obong Victor Attah, has given an insight into why the South- south delegates in the Committee on Devolution of Powers at the

on- National Conference agreed to the retention of the status quo of 13% derivation for oil producing states, saying the delegates, in their wisdom, decided that Nigeria must be considered first.

Speaking with Sunday Vanguard, yesterday, Attah, who is the Co- Chairman, Committee on Devolution of Power, said the decision to retain the 13% derivation was taken to ensure that certain things were protected within the entity called Nigeria and to guard against what may lead to secession or further inflict wounds against the backdrop that the country was, at the moment, facing security challenges.

Attah, who noted that the Justice Idris Kutigi-led 2014 National Conference will not be the last of its kind in Nigeria, stressed that the issue of resource control will certainly come up again for discussion.

“You just said it was volatile, it was incendiary and it was capable of scattering the conference; there is no doubt in my mind about that. So we recognised the enormous responsibility that was put on our heads and on our shoulders and we took a decision that however long it would take and to the extent that would be possible, we would discuss until we exhaust ourselves and come to a mutual understanding of the position that we know would not cause further disruption in the polity, but rather would help and move the country forward. It was not an easy task. It was a way of negotiating a mine field. It was a mine field and anything could have exploded, but, by God’s grace, it didn’t”, he said.. ”The conference delegate stated, using wisdom, we finally decided that Nigeria nust come first. Certain things must be protected within that entity called Nigeria; but where it must be subjected to the survival of the country, we must all agree to do so. I have said it, this is not the first conference and won’t be the last. There would be other such conferences.

And I am happy that we were able to reach all of our major decisions not just by consensus but in fact almost through full agreement. What happened at

BY HENRY UMORU, LEVINUS NWABUGHIOGU & DAUD OLATUNJI, ABEOKUTA

L-R: Representative of Chief Edwin Clark, Prince Oghene Egoh; Chairman, Peoples Democratic Party, South-South Forum Mr. Friday Akang; Chairman, PDP, Lagos State chapter, Capt. Olatunji Shelle, and his deputy, Hon. Ola Apena, during the South-South for “Goodluck must run” rally, held at the Lagos PDP State Secretariat, yesterday.

the plenary was very informative. Once a position is tabled and that position is not acceptable to some members, you discuss until you reach agreement; whether by voting or by consensus or whatever, that becomes the position of the committee.”

When asked whether it was through mutual understanding and members’ resolve to agree with the 13% derivation against the backdrop of the proposal from the North for 5%, the former governor said, “I do not want you to isolate the issue of 13%. Look at it from the angle of destabilizing the polity. At the beginning, some of us from the South said we wanted total resource control. We said we wanted to go back to where we will control our resources and pay whatever is prescribed which cannot be more than 20% to the centre.” ”He continued: The Constitution says oil, minerals belong to the Federal Government. We said we would like that clause changed. We wanted derivation to be 50%. At committee meetings, people brought out all kinds of statistics. ”There was a motion that if you want an increase in derivation beyond 13%, how do you view NDDC, how you do view the Niger Delta Ministry, how do you view Amnesty Programme? Are those not money that would have effectively added to the derivation? So if you want an increase in derivation, we are going to insist that you remove those three things. Any suggestion like that will set fire to the whole county.

Dichotomy “Some now said we may even consider small deri-

vation increase if we accept that dichotomy means that everything onshore belongs to everybody commonly and we only give derivation on what we produce. So, it was more or less you have to accept 13%. ”And we really had to be clever about it and I call it clever; there is a member of the committee that said there is no part of this country that cannot generate as much money as the oil states are generating.

“I brought an article that said that the money being stolen is even higher than what we are looking at in oil bunkering and that the volume of money that solid minerals could generate could even be higher than what oil is generating today. So the committee decided to set up a fund to make it possible for those with undeveloped potentials to be developed, to be brought into production so that everybody will have something from which they can get derivation.

“So it was a matter of where do we end up? We insisted that there must still be some increase, however small on 13%. ”We fought on the side of the people who are not talking about derivation and who at the moment have not developed their resources. It became clear to everybody that it will aggravate the already bad (security) situation that we have in the country. So we decided that if for the sake of the country we leave things alone for the time being, let us do so. As a group of people, we should know when to bend so that we don’t break. ”This is not a matter of

the South-south alone, it is about the whole country. People that were insisting on removing NDDC, Ministry of the Niger Delta, Amnesty Programme, they started with wanting to reduce the derivation to 5%. We said we could not reduce from 13% because the Constitution says so.

They also changed their position. There was a stalemate. Finally, we found a solution so that we don’t open old wounds, let us see how we can get along with these ideas of developing other sources of income for the various parts of the country. ”And this is not only for those parts that do not for now have anything because even the oil producing states also have large amounts of solid minerals and other sources of revenue that can be developed.

If these are harnessed, they would help the entire country to increase income, provide derivation for everybody and above all create massive employment.

Our conviction is that Boko Haram and the militancy that started in the Niger Delta was because of resources and lack of employment.”

Yoruba group, Afenifere Renewal Group, says the National Conference is the last option to save Nigeria from impending doom, saying “if appropriate care is not taken, we are on a roller coaster down the precipice.”

The group, which advised the delegates to approach all discussions with utmost sincerity and objectivity, warned that any attempt to sweep contentious issues, especially regional autonomy canvassed by the Yoruba of the Southwest, under the carpet might spell doom for the country.

The group’s National Chairman, Mr. Wale Oshun, who is a delegate to the conference; another delegate, Mr. Adebisi Adegbuyi; and other speakers, who stated this at an event held in Abeokuta, noted that the country had carried on as if the ethnic nationalities understood one another.

The Afenifere Chairman said there was the need to resolve lingering issues in the country.

“The National Conference is not a waste of time, if one takes into consideration the political developments evolving in the country currently. These are delicate times for Nigeria. If appropriate care is not taken, we are on a roller coaster down the precipice,” Oshun said.

“We want to keep our patience to go through the whole process of talking and negotiating, and that commonsense will prevail accross the country.

“We cannot pretend to be one people. We must understand our differences.

There must be things we will do differently. And the national conference offers us a veritable forum to resolve this,”he said.

While speaking on regional autonomy being canvassed by the delegates from the South-West, Oshun said there have been challenges from delegates from other parts of

the country who are against it. “We are still pushing on this, we will not give up. As it is now, the country cannot survive unless there is a change.

“And so if something tangible does not come out of the National Confab, then there is nothing to reverse the collapse of the country.

We hope we will be able to save the country.”

On his part Adegbuyi called for the re-structuring of the country along regional lines, warning that danger loomed if the country went ahead with the 2015 elections without resolving the differences.

He stated, “If we conduct elections in 2015 as we are now as a country with so many issues unresolved, so many fluids in the air, the bubble will burst.”

Also speaking on the issue of regional autonomy, yesterday, another delegate from the South-west to the National Conference, Yinka Odumakin, said, “Yoruba have always canvased for regional autonomy within the Nigerian federation.That was the essence of Awo’s engagement with Nigeria throughout his political career for which he spent 44 out of the first 66 months of Nigeria independence in one confinement or the other.The Yoruba can’t understand why any reform that would allow them any measure of autonomy is being shut down.They recall that the autonomy they had before independence and shortly after made them to think of WNBC/ WNTV which is today FRCN/NTA.” However, Chief Bode George, a South-west member of the Committee on Politics and Governance at the confab, said, “This idea of going back to regional government is absolute rubbish. It is nonsense. I don’t agree with that. It is not gonna fly. Do you want us to go back to Ibadan? Do you think any of these states is ready to go back to Ibadan? Why are you talking about region? Which region again?

That is gone. Who is talking about that? We have told them it is not gonna work.

I don’t support it. We can have economic cooperation r e g i o n a l l y . ”

Fayemi condemns attack on journalists

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AYODE Fayemi Campaign Organisation has condemned the attack on journalists at the Labour Party campaign rally in Ikere-Ekiti, describing it as the peak of irresponsibility and the height of desperation on the part of the perpetrators of the attack.

In a statement by its spokesperson, Dimeji Daniels, the organisation said under no circumstances should journalists who were carrying

out their constitutional responsibility be attacked in the name of politics. Some hoodlums had attacked correspon-

dents of AIT and vandalized their Outside Broadcasting (OB) equipment at the LP rally.

Uduaghan will hand over to capable successor – Esama

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HE Esama of Ukpedi Kingdom, Delta State, Olorogun Okiemute Oviri Okwagbe, has predicted that the Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan will hand over power to a credible successor. Ok-

wagbe, who spoke in Ughelli, explained that Uduaghan has displayed wisdom and administrative competence which transformed the state.

SUNDAY Vanguard, MAY 25, 2014, PAGE 9

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

Where are the ‘dogs of war’ in Chibok ?

Dear Sir,

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ET me state first that the above title is derived from the report

made by LUKA BINNIYAT on Sunday Vanguard, September 22, 2013 page18 captioned THE ‘dogs of war ’ in Boko Haram enclave.

Briefly, the report was about a show of sniffer and tracker dogs of the Nigerian Army Corps of Military Police (NACMP) at the parade grounds of the Nigerian Army School of Military Police, Basawa, Zaria, Kaduna State on Monday of that week. The report described how dogs were used to track huge armaments kept in a house, narcotics in bags and Improvised Explosive Device (IEDs) in a can-coke container hidden underneath a car. The news report indicated that the Handler Capt Nneka Olimma-Osakwe reported he had about 60 of these dogs and some are specialists performing different tasks such as crawl for long under enemy fire to rescue someone.

From my personal experience of these dogs, these dogs are more reliable, dependable in surveillance, security and protective actions than thousands of foot soldiers/police.

In the mid 70s on my return from abroad, took up employment with one of the leading International Oil Exploration & Producing company in Nigeria and was posted to Warri base. I lived in a bungalow house situated in an Estate which has no wall fence. My bungalow faced a forest which I loved seeing the green nature of the environment. One day, my house was burgled and my musical equipments and hundreds of music cassettes were carted away. On my report, the security department of my employer came with sniffer/tracker dog with a belief that my property might still be hidden in the forest. To my surprise, the dog led the security men from my house through the forest, burst to a village

and went into house where we met a young man who on opening the door, I recognised to be my house boy whom I have given days off to spend Easter holidays with his parents. On interrogation, the boy eventually confessed the robbery. End of the robbery story and the wonderful work of the dog.

Based on the foregoing, toward extent has our security outfits utilised these dogs on which the government

is expending huge financial, human resources and time to train. Reports have shown generally that where machines and humans may fail, the dogs don’t make mistakes. If Helicopters cannot be deployed for surveillance at SABISA forest, what about the use of these dogs?

The report concluded that the Military Working Dogs were operational in the North – East with excellent re-

sult at that time and was the innovation of the former Chief of Army Staff – Lt. Gen. Azibuike Ihejirika.

So the question is where were these dogs before the abduction of our girls in CHIBOK took place? Chikena!!

BakareAdekunle (Political & Economist analyst) 6 Akinwale Street, Ogba, Ikeja. email bilbak12@yahoo.com

Children’s Day: Child solidiers and war lords Dear Sir, ”Older men declare war. But it is the youth who must fight and die.

And it is the youth who inherit the tribulations and sorrows That are the aftermath of war”.Herbert Housear (1895-1964).

S the corybantic schmaltzy of any Catholic Communicant cannot stop the sartorial brio of the Pope from being festooned with the Zucchetto, so also no nation, state and society can cardinally tread the path of continuity, growth and progress if it does not fundamentally strategize for the future of its children. It is therefore the absolute grundnorm and also morally imperative for every society to imbibe and practice the principles of maxima debetur pueris revential” (The greatest respect is due to the children).

The Heraclitian dictum posits that society will always be in a state of flux and conflict. But the rancid intensity of bellicosity in most African nations and the use of our children as child soldiers call for immediate cessation. Child soldiers are teens used by African warlords to prosecute their demonic ambition for power, fame and wealth. The essayist Joseph Conard (1857-1924) asserts that “All ambitions are lawful except those which climb upwards on the miseries or credulities of mankind”.

In preparing the child soldier for war

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he is first and foremost indoctrinated and infused with propaganda to psychotically hate the so-called enemy. He is then given a terrorist and sadistic mindset which heightens his sanguinary proclivities. He now becomes an expert in handling all ranges of riffles, missiles and rocket propelled grenades. This prototype and phenomenal monster is let lose on the streets and battle fields under the influence of drugs and alcohol.

A warlord in most cases masquerades as a revolutionary fighting to liberate his people from oppression, poverty and death. They are usually endowed with the power of oratory. Their popular revolutionary speeches are taken from Karl Marx, Engels, Stalin, Mussolini, Fidel Castro etc.

There are warlords and there are indeed warlords. Some warlords are genuinely propelled to fight because of obvious political oppression, economic strangulation, tribal annihilation, social marginalization, religious discriminations and injustice etc.

But the use of teens as juvenile soldiers and cannon fodders in the political cannonade of warlords must be discontinued and condemned in no uncertain terms.

When the war is over there is an armistice, the African child soldier finds it difficult to live a normal life because of the multifaceted effect of his previous soldierlife. The sociology and psychology of violent crime must have emasculated his

mental vitality. He remains a function of grotesque variables with a predisposition to violent crimes.

We call on the United Nations, the African Union and other such –like bodies to protect the African child from the horrors of war and the ghoulishly bellicose antics of warlords. The idea of warlordism should be discarded. All warlords must be held accountable after the end of the war at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for crimes against humanity.

The atrocities of the Lords’ Resistance Army in Uganda, perpetrators of the genocide in Burundi, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Somalia, Eritrea, Abubakar Shekau of Boko Haram, leaders of the sadistic Revolutionary United Front (RUF) Army in amputating the hands and legs of innocent children in Sierra Leone, the Sudanese Government in the Lethal use of the Janjaweed guerillas to annihilate the black Africans in the Darfur Region and all the warlords in the seemingly endless war in the Ivory Coast and Congo must be brought to book. The action against the ex-Liberian warlord Charles Taylor must be commended.

African warlords must be prevailed upon to shun wars and imbibe the concept of dialogue and leave our children alone as the world marks Children’s Day. HAPPY CHILDREN’S DAY! Bobson Gbinije, Madate Against Poverty(MAP), Warri, Delta State.

PAGE 10 — SUNDAY Vanguard, MAY 25, 2014

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NDISPUTABLY one of the greatest historians ever, Plutarch brought us the story of the Athenian general – Phocion – who led his people to several victories – often acting against popular advice. Phocion later received the blessing of Mandela, who had this to say about leaders. “There are times when a leader must move ahead of the pack; go off in a new direction, confident that he is leading his people the right way.” Left to the young “Turks” of the African National Conference, ANC, South Africa, shortly after the Madiba became President, would have driven out the whites and seized their properties. But, Mandela, was more nationalistic and wiser. He knew what could ruin his nation and he was not going to promote such a policy. Phocion and Mandela had two things in common – they were old when monumental decisions affecting their nations had to

be made; and they made them with everybody’s vital interest in mind. Compromise was the bedrock of those decisions.

Thank God, Nigeria is not without its share of wise and old men. When the list of delegates to the on-going National Conference was released, one of the strongest criticisms was the large number of “old” people. In fact, given the statements and positions being canvassed by various groups, in the run-up to the “CONFAB”, I was happy that hotheadedness was going to be held to the minimum. The Power Devolution Committee, co-chaired by Architect (Obong) Victor Attah, former Akwa Ibom State Governor and Alhaji Coomasie, former Inspector General of Police, IGP, was bound to be the most explosive. The reason is simple. Our Federal Republic of Nigeria, since 1973, has been nothing more than “a geographical expression” based on sharing crude oil revenue. Devolution of power was just another euphemism for wrangling over how we will continue to share the crude oil revenue. Of the two coChairmen, one, Attah, had

Up the Creek without a paddle “Cowardice asks the question 'Is it safe?' Expediency asks the question 'Is it politic?' But conscience asks the question, 'Is it right?' And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular but because conscience tells one it is right. ”Martin Luther King, Jr. HEY say a day is a long time in poli tics. So, the last seven weeks in Nigerian politics must be like a lifetime.

The longer the girls remain missing, the more incompetent the Nigerian government look to everyone both inside and outside Nigeria.

Despite that, the comical Alis are out in full force spewing out conspiracy theories to down play the current situation in Nigeria. No amount of spin doctoring is going to wish this away. We have a big problem and we have no alternative but to face this impasse head on.

Amongst the theories doing the rounds; the whole BH is a North Islamic plan to grapple power from the present administration.

Those other major tribes is discrediting the Jonathanled government, that it is the APC’s plan to destabilise his administration, that North brought it on them-

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selves because they wanted Sharia law and BH sprang from that assertion.

Within Jonathan’s camp some even went as far as to postulate that the abduction of the school girls was orchestrated by Borno State and the president’s political adversaries in the run up to next year's election. Another is that there is APC plan to destabilise the Jona’s government, because of course, they don’t want him to “rule”! When I last checked, Nigeria is still a democracy and I would hope that regardless of what the theorists say we should be able to judge this administration by its record, have they done what they set out to achieve and has the standard of life for the average Nigerian improved?

If it is yes, to these questions, then I am sure that everyone will feel safe and protected regardless of where Jonathan comes from. We become paranoid and quick to use the tribe/ religious divide when things aren’t going our way.

Each of these theories are as tasteless as the next. Trust me you cannot make this up even if you wanted to. It seems while Rome burns, Emperor Nero plays on his fiddle and badly too. We are

so preoccupied with such conspiracy theories that we fail to see the pending disaster right in front of us.

The fact that Nigeria is and has been rudderless and without an able captain.

These die- hards, are so entrenched in their delusions, that they see enemies wherever they look.

It is sad to admit publicly the facts as it is, one cannot take delight in the fact that most successive Nigerian governments have led Nigerians to rack and ruin to the detriment of majority Nigerians.

Our young are without employment, training or education, the health of our nation is dire now than it has ever been, institutions and establishments are broken, derelict and unmanageable. Our system did not break overnight, no,

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“You are lucky you have a general who knows you – otherwise you would have been ruined a long time ago.” Phocion 402-318 B.C in Plutarch, 46-120 A.D, THE AGE OF ALEXANDER.

ument which was a parody of propaganda, aimed at reversing all the gains the Niger Delta had made since 1999, it is remarkable that the unprepared and negligent South South emerged unscathed after all the attempts to reduce its revenue substantially.

Let me illustrate what could have happened if the North has had its way with two oil producing states – Akwa Ibom and Bayelsa.

Reducing derivation from thirteen per cent to five per cent would have meant, at first, going down from N25

Fortunately, the Oba rules over one of the least populated areas in Lagos State. Anybody who wants to know how thinly populated Lagos Island is should come on a Sunday. Kabiyesi’s influence does not cross the lagoon – thank God for that

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billion a month to N9 billion for AKS and for Bayelsa from N19 billion to N7.32 billion. With the reintroduction of the onshore/ offshore dichotomy, AKS revenue allocation will dwindle to less than N500 million a month and that of Bayelsa about the same amount. In addition, the NDDC and the Niger Delta Ministry would have been scrapped and the Amnesty Programme would have come to a halt –with sever-

location without provoking another secession bid; this time spreading across the South? And when the war of secession starts, can anybody tell us, in advance, what the costs will be – in lives, properties and hopes destroyed?

Thank God for the old men who saved us from ourselves.

P.S. Part 2 of the series on Chibok will continue next week. This is urgent business. Thank you.

rican Security Summit at the Elysee Palace in Paris on May 17, 2014, declared that the BH insurgency as “the new frontier of the global war of terrorism…”

He said that Boko Haram “…is not anymore a challenge to Nigeria alone; it is a threat to each and every one” Nigerian prior to that the government spoke people were banging the drums for all to hear that Boko Haram was marginalized in the far northeast of Nigeria.

So it is transference of the blame of his government incapability to tackle BH. It is an incompetent workman that blames his tools, if you take the job and trappings of the office. It is apparent that his administration change in tact is due to local and international concerns and outrage at

rights has always been central to our counter-terrorism strategies, resulting in the adoption of rules and procedures to protect the civilian population from excessive collateral damage.”

Well, can someone tell our president that failure to act authoritatively continue to cost many lives, bereaved families and affecting everyday lives on a daily basis.

The fact is, his administration has not followed the rules of engagement and there are excessive violations of human rights under his watch.

It is public knowledge that many countries offered help once the news of the abducted schoolgirls was known. The US Embassy in Abuja made the offer almost immediately after the kidnapping. Yet it took up till May 4, for Goodluck to accept.

The death toll continues to mount and last Sunday, a bomb in the northern Nigerian city of Kano in a predominantly Christian area of the city. Within the week as well, many more lives were lost in Jos when a bomb ripped through the central market. Speaking about the bombing, the Plateau State Commissioner, Chris Olakpe said "Terrorists usually want to cause fear and trepidation,” and that “By tomorrow, we will get on top of the matter."

De ja vu. People want to know that they are safe and that the people charged with protecting their lives are doing their jobs and not just giving the same empty rhetoric.

And of course, after the blast the president left me to his people as usual to address the populace.

Nigerians are constantly sold a dream that has so far not materialised and yet the coffer is emptied and our commonwealth pillaged right left and centre

but it has been long time decline and every successive government have a hand in its demise. Nigerians are constantly sold a dream that has so far not materialised and yet the coffer is emptied and our commonwealth pillaged right left and centre.

So far it has been smokes and mirrors and that is now beginning to show its cracks for all to see.

So Jonathan did not visit Chibok and he instead flew to Paris at the behest of the French president. In Jonathan speech at the Af-

al hundred students stranded at home and abroad.

These were among the most obvious calamities averted.

But, these are only economic in nature. In reality, these old men averted a greater calamity than what can be measured in terms of naira and kobo. They saved lives and Nigeria. How? Then answer these questions.

Does anybody in his right senses expect the people of Akwa Ibom and Bayelsa, as well as other oil producing states, to meekly accept seventy to ninety per cent reduction in their revenue al-

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Derivation: Thank God for old men at Confab

been on record, since the 1994-5 CONFAB,for advocating RESOURCE CONTROL and a greater share of the oil revenue going to the oil producing states.

His co-Chairman, while not so publicly associated with a position on the matter, soon had that deficiency remedied by the Arewa Consultative Forum, Northern Council of Elders and other groups who were adamantly opposed to derivation and who actually wanted existing concessions, granted to the states of the Niger Delta, reversed.

They had two powerful weapons on their side -- The 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and a Supreme Court decision which appeared sacrosanct. Total and violent breakdown in communications or a stalemate were the only options available; and only wisdom would ultimately decide the outcome. Had the Power Devolution Committee ended in disarray, the CONFAB would also have closed shop long ago. That was how vital that committee was. Thank God for old men; the CONFAB continues.

The heroes of this minor miracle include the coChairman, already named, Chief Ayo Adebanjo and Professor A.B.C. Nwosu – former Federal Minister of Health. As Winston Churchill, 1874-1965, said, under different circumstances, “Never in the history of human conflict, had so many owed so much to so few.”

Given a well prepared assault on the status quo by the North, including a doc-

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the abduction of the school girls and the apparent failure of the national intelligence and services to locate the young girls over a period of time .

In his Paris speech he addressed the concerns of human rights organisations and the media of his government’s slothfulness to act. He defended his action he says “…were directed to adhere strictly to clearly spelled out rules of engagement and avoid any excesses that may amount to a violation of human rights.

Careful regard for human

LAGOS GOVERNORSHIP 2015: AN UPDATE “Nothing in the world is more powerful than an idea whose time has come.” Victor Hugo, 1802-1885.

(BOOK OF QUOTATIONS p 96).

The call for a Christian governor in Lagos State in 2015 started on this page in May 2011. Some readers reacted with hostility; others with derision; and many with alarm. Today, it is a reality. People who could not have summoned the courage to throw their hats into the ring are now candidates. Was it prophecy? You decide.

However, like most events which have a humble beginning, and which gained momentum, some of those who were originally opposed to it are hustling to cash in on the matter. One of the candidates recently launched a book during which his hand was raised by one of the traditional rulers in Lagos State. Unfortunately, the candidate had received the endorsement of a traditional ruler who would not want to see a Christian candidate emerge. Fortunately, the Oba rules over one of the least populated areas in Lagos State. Anybody who wants to know how thinly populated Lagos Island is should come on a Sunday.

Kabiyesi’s influence does not cross the lagoon – thank God for that.

Visit: www.delesobowale.com or Visit: www.facebook.com/ biolasobowale In this address, it reads that “Jonathan reaffirmed his government's commitment to take every necessary measure to find the girls and cooperate with other countries in the region to combat the Boko Haram menace." And he went on that “President Jonathan assures all Nigerians that government remains fully committed to winning the war against terror, and this administration will not be cowed by the atrocities of enemies of human progress and civilization," the statement said, adding that Nigeria was committed to implementing anti-terrorism measures and resolutions put forth at a recent summit in Paris.

Finally, it reads that “The president also said Nigeria was determined to ensure safety and security in schools in Borno State and other parts of the country and to rebuild the school in Chibok”. I won’t hold my breath as much as always been promised but none ever gets delivered.

The #BringBAckOurGirls, continue to gather momentum with or without our government’s input.

Everywhere I go to, I am asked for an update of the missing girls and concern for my fatherland. I try reply as candidly as possible, but I pray that the girls are found safe and returned to their respective families and communities. Of course, those that have lost loved ones in various insurgencies need our prayers, the communities will be affected for years to come and they will need much more support and rebuilding both emotionally and physically.

SUNDAY Vanguard, MAY 25, 2014 — PAGE 11

Enough of Kekehebu Democracy in Nigeria of recent attained a height never before experienced in Nigeria. Last month’s capture of over 200 harmless school girls in Chibok, Borno State is probably the most scandalous. Ordinarily, such a subject which has greatly dented the international image of the country should not have required

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OR the third consec utive time in one month, this column has had to premise its thoughts on one issue - insecurity. It is not that it is hard to find something else to talk about; the rationale has been to underscore the overriding importance of the subject by using the mass communication theory of ‘force multiplication ’. For the benefit of the layman, let me quickly explain that the theory propels the media practice of continuously publicizing a particular subject until it sticks.

The strength of the theory is that it can create copious awareness on a subject such that it becomes the interest of all and sundry. It is in earnest a theory which is most useful when the subject of discussion is a matter of public interest.

Against this backdrop, it has become expedient to continue to focus on the topic of insecurity which has

more commitment to the people’s protection, we cannot similarly commend our political class. Whereas our politicians publicly purport to be touched by the high level of insecurity in our clime particularly its toll on the people; neither their speeches and body language, nor their general disposition reveals any signs of sobriety. Rather, they have continued with politics, politics and politics all the way.

A youth corps member serving in Ekiti State told

What the political brick-bat suggests is that our two major political parties are not genuinely perturbed by the avoidable loss of lives in the nation. Indeed, they seem to be the source of the problem

any media hype to dissuade the nation from thinking of or doing any other thing until it is resolved. Unfortunately it is not so with us.

While giving kudos to our many patriots who have till date not relented in clamouring on government for

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this writer a few days ago that some elderly women in his neighbourhood have vowed not to vote for Governor Fayemi in next month’s governorship election in the state. According to the story, the women now prefer former governor Ayo

PhD, Department of Philosophy, University of Lagos,

Fayose for openly demonstrating against the abduction of the Chibok girls. If Fayose belongs to the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) that the whole world seems to hold accountable for the abduction, who was he protesting against? Was he playing to the gallery or was the public demonstration being used to replace the cancelled official launching of his governorship campaign by the President? To some people, PDP which claimed to have cancelled its campaign in view of the mood of insecurity in the nation is to be preferred to the All Progressive Congress (APC) which still held its planned campaign. As the main opposition party that has made so much noise about the nation’s security trauma, it should have been sensitive enough to put its campaign on a low key more so as it was held a day after the twin bomb explosions in Jos. Was the APC rally actually necessary considering that as the ruling party in the state, it knows how to garner ample votes by doing what incumbents normally do in Nigeria to win an election? Perhaps this accounts for why people condemned the rally. As expected, the rival party- the PDP seized the chance to do its own blackmail-another term for electioneering campaigns in Nigeria. It promptly organized a news briefing where Olisa

Metuh, its National Publicity Secretary accused the APC of hypocrisy. Of course the charge of hypocrisy is easy to sustain bearing in mind the earlier noise the APC made over President Jonathan’s presence in a rally in Kano a day after the Nyanya bomb blast What the political brickbat suggests is that our two major political parties are not genuinely perturbed by the avoidable loss of lives in the nation. Indeed, they seem to be the source of the problem. How else can we understand the revelation a few days ago by Governor Uduaghan of Delta State, that some politicians were piling weapons in the state, to unleash mayhem in the October 2014 local government polls and the 2015 general elections? When will our politicians do something to halt this ‘do or die’, ‘fight to finish’ and ‘winner takes all’ democracy? If they will not, what options are open to the masses concerning the nation’s ‘kekehebu’ politics?

The best way to answer this question is to first ask if Nigeria is a democracy.

From what political science describes as democracy, Nigeria cannot correctly lay claim to being one.

In a democracy, the most important feature is the sovereignty of the people because power belongs to them. Does that happen in Nigeria? Again, it is generally agreed that democracy is premised on the rule

of law; where everything is done according to the due process of law and where everyone is equal before the law. Is it true of Nigeria which has become notorious for justice for sale? Another feature of democracy is periodic free and fair elections. Yet, not many will dispute the general perception that our elections are usually fixed. Indeed, those who are declared winners in Nigerian elections are sometimes charitable enough to admit that they did not really win. One obvious effect of this is that we often breach the democratic principle of majority rulea feature which implies that a party or candidate with the highest number of votes carries the day. Is majority rule not an anathema in a country where even among state governors, 16 is greater than 19?

Civil society groups, artisans, farmers and workers must find a way of insisting on a reduction in the excessive material gains attached to our type of politics. Put differently it is time for Nigeria to take steps to make its politics less attractive. If elected officials are required to begin on salary grade level 08 like other public officers, the do or die politics will definitely reduce. If allowances of politicians are the same as those of public servants, our fight to finish approach to politics will also reduce. We obviously have had enough of kekehebu politics.

and Eternal Life, describes the phenomenon as an "impossibly vast and tantalisingly mysterious subject."

Preoccupation with death will continue as long as people are preoccupied with life, because life and

guided expectation of reward with eternal bliss in paradise for grotesque martyrdom. Belief in immortality tends to discourage individuals from fully exploring possibilities for happiness in this life. By postulating taboo morality as a precondition for heaven, for instance, religions tend to put unnecessary chains on human capacity for wholesome enjoyment here on earth by tendentiously labelling otherwise harmless activities as "sin" punishable in hell.

Courageous acceptance of death for what it is, that is, as complete annihilation of the possibilities of an individual, is very useful for developing certain attitudes conducive for productive life. It makes one aware of the necessity and imperative of doing whatever one has to do to the best of one's ability, in the full knowledge that death may strike at anytime without notice totally removing the possibility of a second opportunity. Realistic attitude to death also protects a person from the illusory comforts and anxiety of religious superstition encapsulated in the concepts of heaven and hell respectively. It reduces proneness to some of the anguish and pain associated with the death of those that we love and cherish, and permits a greater appreciation of life as a unique gift from our parents.

I have pleasant memories of my interactions with late Prof. Sofoluwe. Indeed, his demise was a personal loss to me. I cannot remember exactly how we met. However, it was clear to me that the late VC was keenly interested in my person and academic work. Perhaps, he considered me a bril-

liant young academic who requires encouragement to succeed. Hence, he always encouraged me to be more serious with my research. I vividly remember the day he said to me that he would not rest until I reach the peak of my academic career. Unfortunately, he would not be around to witness the fulfilment of his wish.

Although Prof. Sofoluwe was in Computer Science, he was also interested in the Philosophy of Science, which is my area of specialisation. Occasionally, he would send me photocopied materials on different aspects of science to improve my knowledge. Prof.

Sofoluwe was a kind and humane person. One day I was in his office, and there was discussion about a certain Professor whose records showed conflicting dates of birth. It was obvious that the woman in question ought to have retired three years earlier. Rather than apply the stipulated sanctions, the late VC opted to give her a "soft landing."

To his credit, Prof. Sofoluwe demystified the office of Vice-Chancellor. He was accessible to both staff and students, unlike some of his colleagues elsewhere who behaved like tin gods that must be feared and worshipped by everyone. Prof.

Sofoluwe demonstrated that occupying an elevated office is an opportunity to serve, not to be served, At the Senior Staff Club, the late VC usually went round to greet people, irrespective of the person's status in the university. Severally, I enjoyed his generosity at the club, although sometimes he would in a very friendly manner request that I should buy one thing or another for him.

The mystery of death: an essay in memory of Professor A.B. Sofoluwe

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he is separate, and yet part of, nature and other human beings. Imagination allows him to envision and picture possibilities in his mind, while rationality enables him conceive and understand the world, and ascertain the best means of

Late Prof. Sofoluwe counters with late Prof. Sofoluwe and his character traits that endeared him to me, it is useful to say a few things about the phenomenon of death. Now, of all living beings on earth, humans are the only ones with an acute consciousness of death, for it constitutes one of the basic conditions of human existence characterised by minimal instinctive determination of behaviour and maximal development of the brain, especially the neo-cortex. According to Erich Fromm, the noted psychoanalyst and philosopher, the human species is the only class of living creatures that has self-consciousness, imagination, and rationality.

The capacity for self-consciousness means that a human being is aware that

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WO weeks ago, the second annual me morial lecture in honour of the 10th ViceChancellor of the University of Lagos, late Prof.

Adetokumbo Babatunde Sofoluwe (fondly called ABS by some of his admirers), was held at Afe Babalola auditorium in the main campus of the university.

From all accounts, it was a well-attended lecture. Unfortunately, I was absent because I mistakenly thought that May 12 was a Tuesday, whereas it was actually a Monday. Therefore, a few hours after the lecture, when Prof. H.O.D. Longe, my egbon and a very close friend of the late VC, asked whether I attended the lecture, I told him the truth, that I took my vehicle to the mechanic workshop on Monday morning, thinking that the event would hold the following day, Tuesday. Prof. Longe informed me that some other colleagues made the same mistake, whereupon I decided to write this essay as my own modest way of celebrating and honouring the memory of Prof. Sofoluwe, who I consider to be the most humble and amiable VC of UNILAG since it was established in 1962.

Before discussing my en-

death are inseparable. Religion is one of the ways through which human beings try to cope with the inescapability of death by postulating an immortal soul. In my view, the attempt to obliterate the tragic sense of death, and, by

I have pleasant memories of my interactions with late Prof. Sofoluwe. Indeed, his demise was a personal loss to me. I cannot remember exactly how we met. However, it was clear to me that the late VC was keenly interested in my person and academic work

attaining his goals and desires.

The mental and spiritual qualities of humans reveal the existential dichotomies at the core of their being.

Nevertheless, the most fundamental of them all is the dichotomy between life and death. Each human being must die at a particular point in time. This sobering unalterable fact, and the centrality of death in religion and philosophical thought worldwide throughout the ages, might be the reason why John Hick, in his book, Death

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implication the uniqueness of individual human life on earth, through religion is wrong and futile. To begin with, it leads to the false belief that injustices in this world will be remedied at an indefinite future in the afterlife when God, the purported creator of the universe, will pass judgment on humankind, a belief that has failed to deter evil people from committing atrocities worldwide.

Again, mentally deranged religious fundamentalists deliberately commit suicide due to unshakable mis-

PAGE 12 — SUNDAY VANGUARD, MAY 25, 2014

By BASHIR ADEFAKA Olu Craig, a retired Colonel of the Nigerian Army and ex-military police officer, was imprisoned alongside former President Olusegun Obasanjo and General Shehu Yar’Adua by General Sani Abacha over the 1995 alleged coup plot. He speaks on the state of the nation in this interview.

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EFORE the kidnapping of the schoolgirls in Chibok, there was the allegation in certain quarters that men of the Nigerian armed forces attacked some Fulani herdsmen under the excuse that they were members of the Boko Haram.

When you begin to hear that kind of allegation, how does it sound to you, given your background as a retired colonel of the Nigerian Army?

That army people were the ones killing people, blaming it on Boko Haram?

That was the allegation.

No, this cannot be correct. You see, insurgency is not a conventional war. It is a most difficult warfare to prosecute because the insurgents live among the people.

In a conventional war, if the enemy is here, you are there.

This problem lingers not because our soldiers are incapable; you have to think of the humanitarian factor and then, our soldiers are overstretched. And some soldiers are also deployed to some individual politicians.

My appeal since the military is overstretched is that there is need to mobilize ex-service men, say about ten thousand. These are people who had gone to war (civil) before and so they have the experience. It will just be a matter of paying them some amounts for the duration and, in six months, the problem will be over.

At the same time, politicians behave irresponsibly in the response to the Boko Haram challenge. PDP and APC; I do not know what they gain in verbal assaults on each other. This is a civil war and in such a situation, all parties ought to rally round the commander-in-chief.

One of the reasons our problem has lingered is because we generalize the cause. You have just said ‘PDP and APC’ but what is clear is that the PDP has been very open in naming APC leaders as sponsors of Boko Haram.

How does a country move forward this way?

This is not the time for blame game. In situation of national crisis, all parties must rally round the commander-in-chief, whoever he is, whatever party he represents.

In America, during the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, all the parties rallied round their president and fought the common enemy.

So, whoever is responsible for Boko Haram, there should be no room for blame trading. Forget about political differences, rally round the commander-in-chief and contribute to the solution, jointly.

Some people say the office of the National Security Adviser, NSA, is weak, hence insurgency thrives. What exactly is the role of NSA in this regard?

The NSA is competent. What people do not understand is that his roles are defined in the Constitution. His role is to collate the intelligence in all the security agencies, pass the intelligence to the president and help in analyzing it.

BOKO HARAM: This is time to mobilise civil war veterans — Col. Craig (rtd)

The NSA is not a person that will carry the gun and go to the battle field. People are just blaming the NSA wrongfully and out of ignorance. And one thing with intelligence is that, in this kind of situation, everybody must be involved.

Look at Lagos, with what Governor Fashola has been able to put in place, every body is involved and people are alert. In the case of Ijora, it was the citizens who said, “Look, these faces are strange” and they got to the end of the problem that would have plunged Lagos into a terrorist situation. But if you say, “I don’t care”, what do you think would have happened?

The NSA, Col. Sambo Dasuki, has a good background in intelligence. Some people are just being malicious, blaming him unnecessarily. Even in Afghanistan and Iraq, America, with all its military might, have they conquered the insurgents there?

So, it is not a matter of military might alone. In the North-east, there is so much poverty which helped the situation to grow. Initially, people were saying it was a religious problem and that the North was using the insurgency to Islamise Nigeria. It is now that their eyes are opened to the fact that it does not have to do with religion. It is poverty which does not know tribe or religion. Agreed the people claim to act out an ideology but it is a useless ideology that they claim because Islam talks about peace and it is a religion of peace.

If we are one hundred percent religious people, all the problems we are having will not be.

CAN once said the North was using Boko Haram as an agenda to Islamise Nigeria. You said nobody should engage in blame game.

With due respect to most of our clerics, they have abandoned their religious responsibilities and are not intervening where they should.

In time of crisis like this, during the Second World War, what the clerics should be doing is to pray for the end of the war. It is easy to radicalize somebody who is jobless. That is the major reason Boko Haram festered to this level. Because many of their leaders are graduates, they feel that somebody who has gone to school and come out and cannot get a job means that Western education is useless.

That forms the basis of their ideology but they are hypocrites.

They are hypocrites because they are using cell phones and using flashy cars which are products of the West. They are just indoctrinating these people because they are not educated and they are very poor. They feel that they are fighting for an ideology but it is a stupid ideology that is not supported by religion.

An American security expert said Al-Qaeda and Al-Shabab have hands in Nigeria’s Boko Haram problem. The thinking in many quarters is that this could be a ploy for the US, which had long wanted to have a military base in Nigeria to now enter the country militarily considering the latest development where Secretary of State John Kerry, seizing the kidnapped

They are hypocrites because they are using cell phones and using flashy cars which are products of the West. They are just indoctrinating these people because they are not educated and they are very poor school girls issue, vowed that United States would help bring back the girls?

No. We must sing in unison.

America or no America, it is our country. We must unite. There is one Yoruba proverb that says, “If there is no crack in the wall, lizard will not enter.”

So, America or no America, it is our own national interest we are fighting for and we should not think about any other country.

We have to survive because, unfortunately for us, Nigeria is not like Liberia. If it happens, this is a country of 170 million people, where will all these people run to? Liberia is just two million; see what it caused West Africa refu-

gee programme.

And Nigerians are not liked by our neighbours. Those people beating the drums of war now, when it comes, they will regret.

The fact that people who caused this problem are the caterpillars of our country is crystal clear.

But the Federal Government should try to calm strained nerves because there is anger in the land.

Some people embezzled pension funds and they were not tried. The EFCC said they have tried this and that. They should mention one elite who has been tried. Not people who stole goat. We are not talking about people who stole N20 million. I do not want to mention names but there are people who stole pension money running into billions and many supposed beneficiaries of these funds have died and are still dying. In a good country, those people should be executed and the judiciary is not helping matters. You buy justice with money in this country because if you are rich, lawyers will take your money and they start adjourning your case.

It baffles me when I hear that there is no law to try one particular person for one particular offence, corruption inclusive….

Yes! Look at General Muhammadu Buhari government, did he waste time in dealing with corrupt people? People were sentenced to 30 years imprisonment and all of that for corruption. Same thing Jerry Rawlings did in Ghana and that is why Ghana is what it is today. The failure to tackle this problem the way it should is one of the root causes of the problem we have in Nigeria today.

There is this issue of seniority and ethnicisation that people talk about in the military. I mean, if a Hausa man is appointed the Chief of the Army Staff by a Hausa President, people say ‘hey, this is Hausa or Muslim government’. Now that the President is from the Southsouth and General Ihejirika was made the Chief of the Army Staff, in some quarters, people said it was South-south/South-east government. Ihejirika has been replaced with a Bayelsa man, another issue has been raised about an anti-Igbo agenda in the military or the government.

What does this look like, to you, as an ex-military officer?

It was in your paper that I read a columnist of Igbo extraction,

who said Ihejirika was retired as the Chief of the Army Staff because he is Igbo. I want to say that people just talk things that are unnecessary because of ethnic or religious sentiments.

In the military, maybe in about ten courses, only one person may be fortunate, based on his competence, to be the Chief of the Army Staff! That columnist and others who carry such ethnic sentiment around, I do not think they know that Ihejirika had spent more than his stipulated time because the military is the only detribalized institution that we have in this country today. They are people from various tribes but they are detribalized. They are people from different religions but they are never religious sentimental because, if you carry problems relating to these areas on you, how do you fight a war and win? You will be defeated.

Because if I am shot at the battlefront, I am a Christian, a Muslim colleague should come and help me. It is only in the military that you do not have religious sentiment and tribalism. Most of my friends are Hausa and I have so many friends across the country. I do not discriminate.

Ihejirika overstayed. The mandatory number of years is 35 years and he overstayed. And do not forget that when he was the Army Chief, some of his junior colleagues reached that mandatory number of years and were retired.

And the Constitution is very clear that the Commander-in-Chief can delegate operations authority to any officer.

What is your take on the National Conference?

The National Conference is a good thing. But many delegates do not know why they are there.

They are championing tribal causes. What they should work towards is true federalism. And what is a federation?

A federation means a permanent union of states which possess independent rights but nevertheless share a common government.

It is usually the desire for common development and greater international prestige that leads to federation and control over foreign relations and inter-state trade, armed services, currency and postal services has been transferred by the federating units to the central government.

So, federation is really a compromise and a useful way of reconciling conflicting or diverse interests.

SUNDAY Vanguard, MAY 25, 2014, PAGE 13

2015, THE NORTH AND JONATHAN

The consequences of baying for blood

This report by JIDE AJANI will show that whereas members of the Jama’atu Ahliss-Sunnah Lidda’awati Wal Jihad, otherwise known as Boko Haram, may have started out as a rag-tag group of Islamic evangelists who came in handy for political domination, it became a veritable tool of distraction to President Jonathan’s government in the build-up to and in the wake of the 2011 general election, before becoming a terror group with international network, contemporary reality is that with just about nine months to next year’s presidential election, even the incumbent, constitutionally guaranteed to seek re-election, is tongue-tied to verbalise his aspiration. But what this creates is a catch-22 situation whereby Jonathan, if seen to have been hounded out of power on account of this insurgency, would create a fresh life for another form of militancy, south of the Niger. The report would conclude that bad as things are today, Nigeria can ill-afford a country that may become discombobulate because of an insurgency from the North and fresh militancy affecting Nigeria’s crude production in the south.

zPresident Goodluck Jonathan

At a private session with President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, just after the Presidential Media Chat of Sunday, May 4, 2014, he expressed his sentiments about the role of God Almighty in his ascendancy to the presidency of Nigeria.

Against all odds, and at a time when the North (establishment North) was insistent on disallowing Jonathan to rightfully seek the position of the Office of the President and Commander-in-Chief of Nigeria, something divine happened. From far away Enugu State, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, was having its usual fair share of internal discord; but typical of the party, the then national chairman, Okwesilieze Nwodo, also from Enugu State, appeared not to be on the same page with his governor. This was not one of those Aso-Rock induced crisis. On the eve of the presidential nomination contest, Governor Sullivan Chime succeeded in ousting Nwodo with the instrumentality of a court order. It was that ousting that made Jonathan’s campaign in the North a bit easier than would have been possible. Reason: Haliru Mohammed, the then deputy national chairman and a northern prince, took over as PDP’s national chairman. His role during the campaigns was echoed by President Jonathan, in total submission to God, thus: “It was not planned; it just happened. God made it happen because nobody saw it coming. It may have been very difficult to go round the North to get votes had Nwodo remained as chairman. We went round the states of the North and we were received well”.

Continues on page 15

‘WHY NATIONS FAIL’ *Dangers of inequality and instability; lessons for Nigeria United states of America, USA, and Mexico are countries that border one another. Yet, their evolution as nations set them apart with the former far more prosperous. These excepts from ‘Why Nations Fail’ should be a reminder to Nigerian politicians who see 2015 as a do-or -die matter.

T

he city of Nogales is cut in half by a fence.

If you stand by it and look north, you’ll see Nogales, Arizona, located in Santa Cruz County. The income of the average household there is about $30,000 a year. Most teenagers are in school, and the majority of the adults are high school graduates. Despite all the arguments people make about how deficient the U.S. health care system is, the population is relatively healthy, with high life expectancy by global standards. Many of the residents are above age 65 and have access to medicare. It’s just one of the many services the government provides that most take for granted, such as electricity, telephones, a sewage system, public health, a road network link-

ing them to other cities in the area and to the rest of the United States, and, last but not least, law and order. The people of Nogales, Arizona, can go about their daily activities without fear for life or safety and not constantly afraid of theft, expropriation, or other things that might jeopardize their investments in their businesses and houses. Equally important, the residents of Nogales, Arizona, take it for granted that, with all its inefficiency and occasional corruption, the government is their agent. They can vote to replace their mayor, congressmen, and senators; they vote in the presidential elections that determine who will lead their country. Democracy is second nature to them.

Life south of the fence, just a few feet away, is

rather different.

While the residents of Nogales, Sonora, live in a relatively prosperous part of Mexico, the income of the average household there is about one-third that in Nogales, Arizona. Most adults in Nogales, Sonora, do not have a high school degree, and many teenagers are not in school.

Mothers have to worry about high rates of infant mortality. Poor public health conditions mean it’s no surprise that the residents of Nogales, Sonora, do not live as long as their northern neighbors. They also don’t have access to many public amenities. Roads are in bad condition south of the fence. Law and order is Continues on page 15

PAGE 14—SUNDAY Vanguard, MAY 25 , 2014

BY JIDE AJANI In this interview, Information Minister, Labaran Maku, explains the intricacies in the fight against terror and admonishes Nigerians to assist the Federal Government. He also says the war on terror is winnable.

Excerpts: HE meeting in France: what can Nigerians expect to come out of it?

What is important, firstly, is that the meeting took place. And because the meeting took place, it has brought international attention and coordination against terror. We have maintained over the years that Boko Haram is a domestic terror group with an international network. It is operating the same way as we have seen the Taliban operate in Afghanistan, and as we have seen the terror groups on Pakistan, Yemen, Egypt and in Algeria. So, it is an international network terror group that we are fighting.

To succeed, we need international cooperation. The entire Sahel region of West Africa, stretching from Niger, Cameroun, Sudan to Central Africa, is a theatre of war and is being staged by terror groups. We are very happy that France is involved because France is very crucial because we have had a lot of cooperation from Chad, Niger, and to a certain extent, Cameroun.

But that cooperation still needed to be worked on beyond just understanding but forces cooperation and information gathering and nations acting together and I believe that the Paris Summit has created a very good template for the enthronement of such a cooperation.

Was it that Cameroun was not fully on board with Nigeria or what?

Yes, the international task force which Nigeria established with the cooperation of Niger and Chad did not include Cameroun because that force has worked a lot in dealing with the insurgency. With Cameroun, the cooperation has been coming but not at the same level with what we’ve had with Niger and Chad. But in recent times, the government of Cameroun has increased its cooperation and with the meeting in Paris, I want to believe that the cooperation would become even stronger to the extent that Cameroun would not just share information but would cooperate fully with Nigeria in this fight against terror. If terror groups run from Nigeria to Cameroun, we don’t expect them to find a safe haven. It means no place would be a haven for terrorists.

If there is a threat from Cameroun to Nigeria, it is expected that Nigeria should rise and help out How come Cameroun was not in the initial task force agenda?

What happened was that ECOWAS as a region, had an alliance when President Jonathan was the chair; there was a pact between ECOWAS countries. Cameroun was not part of it. But now that this terror has thrown Cameroun into the mix, it is expected that Cameroun should become a part of it and it is now expanding according to the realities on ground. It was not as if Cameroun did not want to be involved or that Nigeria did not want to include Cameroun it. What is most important now is that we have the cooperation of the countries involved, including Cameroun.

What do we expect, in terms of physical response, particularly in the Alargano hills?

What we should expect now, even though we are beginning to receive help, is that a lot of the work is going to be done by the Nigerian armed

T

WAR ON TERROR AND PARIS CONFERENCE

We need Nigerians’ support to win — Maku, Information Minister *‘Cooperation between nations will strengthen our hands’

•Maku... battle line with insurgents not forces. They have told us that they are not going to have boots on the ground but that they are going to give us technical assistance, the details of which are being worked out between our forces and those rendering the assistance. As we move along, the issues would become clearer. The idea is not to advertise the efforts on television but to get results – we would give information as it becomes very necessary for public consumption.

We have to be very cautious because the battle line is not defined and anybody can be in harm’s way.

Training and competence of our armed forces Our armed forces are well trained and they are very competent. In fighting terror, it is not an engagement against a standing army where the lines are defined but this is our way and our armed forces are capable.

Which countries are involved, apart from France, USA and UK? As we move forward, we expect more cooperation.

On their own part of this war, if there is a threat from Chad, Niger and Cameroun, we expect effective response from each of these countries. This cooperation is important.

Terrorism is now an international movement and it moves from country to country and with the Paris meeting, the boundaries would begin to shrink such that armed forces can inter-relate and work together to stop them.

How do we calm nerves in Nigeria regarding this issue?

There is also a need for us to understand the nature of this war. We are not fighting a standing army and it is worse in this instance because there is no battle line. This is an asymmetrical war where the terrorists hide among the people and cause havoc. They choose the time to strike.

That international partners have come does not mean it would stop immediately. Mind you, there is an international coalition of forces in Afghanistan in the last 10 years and there is still terror in Pakistan; there has been a lot of work in Iraq, there is

defined. still terror.

Even in Somalia, USA was there but the people there are still grappling with the problem of terrorism. We believe that we should begin to win and gain ground but there is no guarantee that with this cooperation, terror will disappear. What we need to do as a nation, as a people is to unite behind the President of Nigeria to ensure that terrorism is contained and ultimately it is dealt with. A lot of information required to fight against terror would be provided by Nigerians.

It would require a change in the security architecture of the states and the local governments such that a lot of intelligence would be gathered at the state and local government levels.

No matter the level of international cooperation, we cannot win the war if the citizens do not cooperate and help in the area of providing information and intelligence. Certainly, international cooperation would give us more technical assistance but the real information; the real intelligence would come from Nigerians.

Would you say Nigeria is at war?

Certainly, if what we are witnessing in the North-east is anything to go by, then we are definitely at war against insurgents. That is the way it is in Afghanistan, in Pakistan, in Egypt, it is war. In the North East of Nigeria, we are at war with the insurgents.

We are in a state of war. That is why we believe that every voice must count and we have to be united. For so long as we are divided, the terrorists would thrive. It is because we have made it clear that this war is not between Muslims and Christians that is why we have not had the type of situations that the terrorists were hoping for.

Nigerians are more patriotic now and as such they have refused to fall for the trick of the terrorists.

In the area of information management, how is government faring?

You know, there is a limit to the type of information that you give out. If we start giving every detail of the area

where the terrorists’ attempts have been foiled; or where we have saved the day, Nigerians would begin to panic. But we are already exploring areas of cooperation between the military and journalists such that the journalists would relay to Nigerians what is happening there in the field.

But in the areas where the military have had to act discreetly, you cannot blame anyone for that.

Once Nigerians present a common front, coupled with the significant steps the President has taken, we are making progress.

How useful has the Nigeria Police acted in this war against terror?

The police are doing a lot of things.

The war is being prosecuted by all the forces. The police have borne the brunt. A lot of the attacks that we have been able to stop came from Police intelligence and police action in different parts of the North East and North West and mind you, the Police have suffered more than any other arm of the forces in the course of this insurgency. The police have done a lot to protect Nigerians. The police have been frontally doing their best. We need to give them all the support we can, give them more information to help to defend us better.

Specifically, what do you say on the Chibok girls?

In terms of participation, the police have done their best in this war against terror. Nothing has offended our sensibilities as a people and as a nation that can be compared to the abduction of these girls in Chibok.

The issue of girl-child education was a subject of international campaign and when the world now heard that girls were kidnapped in Nigeria, it made people rise. The real operation to get those girls free has been on. What we suspect is that these girls may not be in the bush but in some areas of the city. And that is why we are appealing to Nigerians to ensure that every piece of information they can offer with a view to rescuing these girls should be provided. From all the intelligence we have gotten so far, these girls may be hiding amongst us so we need every citizen to volunteer information.

In the area of arms and equipment for Nigerian forces A lot of the supplies that I am aware the armed forces have placed orders for have not arrived because these are not things you get at Oshodi or Wuse markets. This war is not about weaponry alone.

It is the nature of the war that has been part of the problem. Our forces have fought wars outside the shores of this country and we have always excelled. What we need now is the intelligence from our people to volunteer intelligence and help our forces to root out these criminals. If Boko Haram were to stand on one side and our forces are to stand on another side, the war would not last 30 minutes. What we need is every layer of support from all Nigerians. There is no better trained armed force in Africa than Nigeria; I can tell you that confidently on record.

SUNDAY Vanguard, MAY 25, 2014, PAGE 15

The consequences of baying for blood elites, smarting from their defeat at the polls in 2011, may have encouraged the then tempered acts of brigandage of the sect members. In fact, the statement credited to some northern political leaders that governance would be near impossible for Jonathan should he win the 2011 presidential election, appeared to have prepared the ground for the insurgency that followed. The statements were at once reckless and inciting.

A

zJonathan during one of his visits to the North

Continued from page 13 That much for patience, goodluck and providence! Today’s Nigeria, however, would require more than patience and goodluck. It would require facing the realities that confront the nation.

The North has not ceased to insist that it wants power back by 2015.

Even the merger between the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, and the Congress for Progressive Change, CPC, which brought about the All Progressive Congress, APC, is nothing more than part of the grand plan of the North to wrest power from Jonathan. Interestingly, the behemoth PDP is a political party that still has the largest spread – this is not an endorsement.

Except something cataclysmic erupts, the chances of the APC ousting Jonathan next year would be difficult.

The current validation of the voter register which has seen more names of ghost voters expunged has compara-

tively reduced the much-taunted numerical strength of the North against the South. According to investigations by Sunday Vanguard, by the time the exercise is concluded, Kano may lose close to one million ghosts.

Another pointer is the shambling going on in the APC regarding the quest for control. This has made the opposition unable to present a very strong challenge – at least for now – apart from the media outbursts between its Lai Mohammed and PDP’s Olisa Metuh.

Add to this mix the possible apathy that would be witnessed during next year’s election in the APC states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe because of insurgency. Yet, going back in time, it should be admitted that the role members of Jama’atu Ahliss-Sunnah Lidda’awati Wal Jihad, otherwise known as Boko Haram, has played and is playing is not desirable.

Indeed, the attitude of the northern

nd whereas today’s Boko Haram is not the same as the rag-tag, dane-gun-wielding militants of 2011, President Jonathan and his administration cannot be excused for being egregiously derelict in its handling of the sect. Even the recent abduction of girls in Chibok had to take the forceful intervention of other world leaders who took a cue from activists in Nigeria, before Mr. President could be roused from his slumber – that, after the First Lady had infused comic relief in a time of distress.

Back to the contestation for power: The story of Nogales, Arizona, in USA, and Nogales, Sonora, in Mexico, divided by a fence, is very similar to Nigeria’s North and South. (See box).

The story is also similar to the deepening inequality and poverty in parts of Nigeria – where stupendous wealth breaths down on stark poverty in the same locality – that was an evolution borne out of Nigeria’s colonial rule.

Today, governance at almost all levels has been reduced to a means of aggrandisement. Therefore, while the rich are getting richer, the poor are getting even poorer (See story on Page 7 about Nigeria being a poor country). It is this contestation for power as a means of getting richer that continues to drive politics in Nigeria.

That is why, even in spite of the insurgency and the need for all hands

to be on deck regarding the war on terror, some politicians are already seeing in the crisis a window of opportunity to get power back to the North. There is a need not to dwell on President Jonathan’s shambolic handling of the war on terror forever.

Therefore, in focusing on the future, politicians must take cognizance of Nigeria’s very fragile nationhood, its evolution and the tectonic plates that are quick to shift in the face of slight clashes of socio-economic and political interests. This is where good sense should come to play.

Whereas every Nigerian who meets the constitutional requirement to seek to become president should be allowed to seek the office, creating a fertile ground for instability which would then be used as a pole on which the failings of Jonathan would be hoisted cannot and would not bode well for Nigeria. As it is, the attacks (some justified, some purely malicious, others needlessly vicious, and yet a few seditious and inciting) against Mr. President would only serve to reawaken the militancy of some ne’erdo-wells from the South South geopolitical zone whose only sense of nationalism is hinged on the proprietoral hold they have on Jonathan.

In the event that this President is seen to have been hounded out of office (even if he loses in a free and fair election), Nigeria would find itself between the devil and the deep blue sea - insurgency in the North; militancy, and its attendant economic sabotage of oil facilities in the South South; and a political class that lacks the capacity for true nation-building, would be nothing more than a recipe for further, greater instability.

What Nigeria needs now is for all men of good intention to rally and ensure that the spirit of compromise takes root, if only to avoid the doomsday prophesy that political instability may be the ablution for the country’s disintegration in 2015.

WHY NATIONS FAIL Continued from page 13 in worse condition. Crime is high, and opening a business is a risky activity. Not only do you risk robbery, but getting all the permissions and greasing all the palms just to open is no easy endeavor. Residents of Nogales, Sonora, live with politicians’ corruption and ineptitude every day.

In contrast to their northern neighbors, democracy is a very recent experience for them.

Until the political reforms of 2000, Nogales, Sonora, just like the rest of Mexico, was under the corrupt control of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or Partido Revolucionario Institucio-nal (PRI).

How could the two halves of what is essentially the same city be so different? There is no difference in geography, climate, or the types of diseases prevalent in the area, since germs do not face any restrictions crossing back and forth between the United States and Mexico. Of course, health conditions are very different, but this has nothing to do with the disease environment; it is because the people south of the border live with inferior sanitary conditions and lack decent health care.

But perhaps the residents are very different.

Could it be that the residents of Nogales, Arizona, are grandchildren of migrants from Europe, while those in the south are descendants of Aztecs? Not so. The backgrounds of people on both sides of the border are quite

similar. After Mexico became independent from Spain in 1821, the area around “Los dos Nogales” was part of the Mexican state of Vieja California and remained so even after the Mexican-American War of 1846-1848. Indeed, it was only after the Gadsden Purchase of 1853 that the U.S. border was extended into this area. It was Lieutenant N. Michler who, while surveying the border, noted the presence of the “pretty little valley of Los Nogales.” Here, on either side of the border, the two cities rose up....

Santa Ana, son of a colonial official in Veracruz, came to prominence as a soldier fighting for the Spanish in the independence wars. In 1821 he switched sides with Iturbide and never looked back. He became president of Mexico for the first time in May of 1833, though he exercised power for less than a month, preferring to let Valentin Gomez Parfas act as president. Gomez Parfas’s presidency lasted 15 days, after which Santa Ana retook power. This was as brief as his first spell, however, and he was again replaced by Gomez Parfas, in early July. Santa Ana and Gomez Parfas continued this chance until the middle of 1835 when Santa Ana was replaced by Miguel Barragain. But Santa Ana was not a quitter. He was back as president in 1839, 1841, 1847 and finally between 1853 and 1855. In all, he was president eleventh times, during which he presided over the loss of the Alamo and Texas and the disastrous Mexican-American War, which led to the loss of what became New Mexico and Arizona. Be-

tween 1824 and 1867, there were 52 presidents in Mexico, few of whom assumed power according to any constitutionally sanctioned procedure.

The consequence of this unprecedented political instability for economic institutions and incentives should be obvious. Such instability led to highly insecure property rights. It also led to a severe weakening of the Mexican state, which now had little authority and little ability to raise taxes or provide public services. Indeed, even though Santa Ana was president in Mexico, large parts of the country were not under his control, which enabled the annexation of Texas by the United States. In addition, as we just saw, the motivation behind the Mexican declaration of independence was to protect the set of economic institutions developed during the colonial period, which had made Mexico, in words of the great German explorer and geographer of Latin America Alexander von Humbok, “the country of inequality.” These institutions, by basing the society on the exploitation of indigenous people and the creation of monopolies, blocked the economic incentives and initiatives of the great mass of the population. As the United States began to experience the Industrial Revolution in the first half of the nineteenth century, Mexico got poorer.

Culled from the book ‘Why Nations Fail’ ( The origin of power, prosperity and poverty) by Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson.

PAGE 16— SUNDAY VANGUARD, MAY 25, 2014

C M Y K

SUNDAY VANGUARD, MAY 25, 2014, PAGE 17

By DAMILOLA SHOLOLA

I love my legs because they are spotless — Vanilla

U

pcoming Nollywood actress, Asibor Kenneth, commonly known as Vanilla is a hot item both on and off the set. She’s beautiful, unassuming and sometimes, could hit below the belt. But that does n’t mean the actresss is an open book that could be read back and forth.

As she has said many times over, there are things she wouldn’t dare do and that includes taking it all off for a movie role.

“It is normal in our country, Nigeria, for men to walk up to ladies even though they don’t like her, most of them do it for the fun of it . I enjoy it when men approach me, but as a lady you should know how to respect yourself, though, I have many male friends” she once declared in an interview, meaning Vanilla isn’t so wet behind the ears when it comes to flirting with the opposite sex But ask her what the best part of her body is, and she would tell you “The best part of my body is my skin, my fresh hot legs, my boobs, but mostly my face. I love my skin because its so soft, fair and beautiful, I love my legs because they are spotless and my face because it catches men’s fancy”.

‘What’s your selling point’ is a term coined by D’Prince, a singer, in his goody bag track. However, we are not here to talk about music, we are here to reveal to you some of Nigeria’s hottest celebrities and how they display their ‘selling points’ or what they consider the most attractive parts of their body.. There’s no subtlety in their expression and they show off their assets for you to look and be captivated.

I’m a vver er eryy good kisser — Beverly Naya

B

ritish-bred Beverly Naya has been the shy type, who would rather run away than stand to fight. It is not out of fear but just for the simple reason that Beverly is so much of a lady. She once told Vanguard that she was severally bullied while growing up by her peers.

But that does not mean Beverly doesn’t have a strong streak in her person. As an actress she has coped with her own share of challenges. Taking part in blockbusters like Weekend Getaway, Alan Poza, Tinsel, among others, must have come at a certain price.

When she was asked what her selling point is, she said ‘’I get compliments for my eyes and my lips a lot. So I’ll say maybe that is what it is, but I don’t know. I’m a very good kisser though”

Don’t blame me for my big boobs

–Yvonne Jegede

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any remember ebony beauty, Yvonne Jegede as the girl in 2Face’s African Queen video but this model turned actress is as provocative and voluptuous as they come.

After a long absence from the scene occasioned by the actress’ need to further her education in Cyprus, Yvonne came back with a bang and has since remained a toast of producers who continue to assail her with movie roles. The fun-loving lass has never been out of a job. In a recent interview with Vanguard she confirmed what seems so obvious, that her massive boobs are the sexiext part of her body. She admitted they are massive and confessed later to Potpourri that she doesn’t really like to flaunt them because of the commotion they cause.

“I have big boobs, so if the clothes are not big enough to cover my boobs you would not blame me for that. I am not the person who made my clothes, I just put the clothes on”, she told Vanguard’s Showtime recently.

I like flaunting my boobs — Bimbo Thomas B

IG, beautiful and bold Bimbo Thomas is a popular Yoruba actress who is never afraid to tell the world what’s on her mind. She became popular for her sterling role in Omo Ghetto and a few other flicks and wherever you find Bimbo it isn’t so hard to guess what makes her such a success in her chosen field- guts, plenty of guts.

Bimbo once took Cossy Orjiakor to the cleaners over her huge boobs, saying Cossy boobs aren’t as sexy as people C M Y K

thought, that hers are sexier. She claims her boobs are firmer and bigger than Cossy’s which to her, has lots of stretch marks and are slack.

“I like flaunting my boobs because they are firm and I have no single stretch mark on my boobs. But some ladies like Cossy still flaunt flabby ones that have stretch marks. Don’t they know that stretch marks are not meant to be displayed? Some ladies flaunt cleavage that stretch marks have finished and the boobs have gotten back to where it was formed. It’s not worth it. Such a cleavage can’t be sexy. No doubt my boobs are my selling point”

PAGE 18 — SUNDAY VANGUARD, MAY 25, 2014

My boobs and legs are the sexiest — Princess E

ven though Princess Chineke is not yet a household name in Nollywood, this beautiful lady is not to be ignored.

After emerging Miss UNIBEN in 2002, she went on to do other pageants, commercials and has starred in movies such as Last Flight To Abuja, Lady Gaga, to name a few.

Not only is this model and actress beautiful, sexy and intelligent, she is also a shrewd businesswoman and a humanitarian with her Voice Initiative NGO. Her selling point is her boobs and her long legs which she shows off in sexy photo shoots. “ I have sexy boobs. Not necessarily big but very sexy. My legs are also very sexy. Though, I will say my selling point is my talent but then, these my physical features cannot be ignored” she once said.

My sexy body drives men crazy — Memunat Yunusat •Princess Chineke

People comment a lot about my ass — Ella Mensah E

Ella Mensah

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lla Mensah is a Ghanaian ac tress, based in South Africa but does most of her movies in Nigeria. She has declared many times that she loves Nigeria and its people. So, when she confessed to Vanguard that she is dating the Mercy’s of the Lord crooner, Oritse Femi, it began to figure why this sexy lady has not been able to stay away from the country for too long, at any time.

She also confessed that she had never heard of what ‘selling point’ is, until she started frequenting Nigeria and thus let go so easily when she was asked the question.

“I heard that word “selling point” for the first time in Nigeria. Most of my friends say it’s my lips and I think it’s true. Then my height, my face and my ass. People are attracted to different things. Personally, I think it’s my face, height and lips. But people comment a lot about my ass” she said.

But Ella, as her friends call her, has her principles, and those do not include going totally nude in a movie.

“I don’t mind showing certain parts of my body, especially when playing a seductive role. I can wear a bum short or maybe a net top. But I’ll never go nude, not even for ten million dollars!

What’s the point? “

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emunat Yunusa, a budding Yoruba actress isn’t a name that will ring a bell at a mention be cause she is just coming into reckoning in the industry. But when you whisper the mane Mimiano, you might find some who would jump up with some lustful looks of recognition on their faces, because many still remember the fire Memunat turned on in her most notable film Mimiano.

Of course, Memunat or Mimiano has confessed in an interview that her sexy body usually drives men crazy.

But if you ask her what the sexiest part of her body is, she would tell you “You tell me, it’s not for me to say because I can’t see myself but people around me do. I wouldn’t know, after all you are a man and you know what you saw in your wife before you married her.

So much about my sexy shape! I know what some will say, ‘Oh I love your shape. You’ve got hot shape, beautiful legs, blah blah, blah. But I just know that God gave me a nice body. I know I am sexy and my sexy body usually drive men crazy” she revealed in an interview.

•Memunat Yunusat

My selling point is my beautiful face – Munachi Abii M

•Munachi Abii

UNACHI Abii popularly known by her stage name, Muna, won the Most Beautiful Girl in Nigeria (MBGN) in 2007 and she later turned into a rapper and songwriter. Even though she has been in music for a while, she is recognized more for her physical appearance rather than her musical talent.

She is the lady that was giving Lola Omotayo sleepless nights when she was going out with Peter Okoye of P-Square who later dumped her to settle for Lola. But it would appear it took no hair off the skin of the beauty queen who even showed off a new catch, Tomi Thomas on Lola Omotayo and Peter Okoye’s wedding day.

It is rather obvious she is a very beautiful woman, that says so much for her winning the Most Beautiful Girl in Nigeria (MBGN) in 2007 and when she revealed in an interview that her figure and her beautiful face is her selling point, it was no big surprise.

She also revealed that she has been receiving advances from men since her teen years. “ I have been aware of my beauty since I was a teenager.

Men have since then been making signs and advances at me. If you ask me, my selling point must be my beautiful face and a whole lot more I have inside” she said.

SUNDAY VANGUARD, MAY 25, 2014, PAGE 19

Caught in the act!

Biodun Okeowo, Kunle Adegbite

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eautiful Yoruba actress and producer, Biodun Okeowo and actor and director, Kunle Adegbite were recently caught together, almost naked in bed! But before your mind starts running wild whether the two Thespians are actually having a carnal union, the picture was merely a scene from a movie they are currently shooting.

It was Kunle Adegbite who posted the picture on Instagram last Wednesday, expressing his satisfaction with the way shooting of the film was going. For delectible Biodun, this must be another big score after the success of her latest film, Ore 1 and 2.

Ayo Makun, Omoni Oboli turn villagers

Top celebrities storm private screening of October 1

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ce comedian, Ayo Makun, popularly called AY, must really be getting to base with his acting skills as it appears he is working hard to make it as an actor just as he is doing as a comedian. The starry-eyed actor posted a picture of himself and top actress, Omoni Oboli, turning out tricks in a village scene. Though much about the movie Being Mrs Elliot has not been let out but the picture says so much about AY and Omoni catching up on some village lovey-dovey.

The movie is said to be full of romance, drama, comedy and deceit and has a rich cast that includes Michel Majid, Sylvia Oluchi, Seun Akindele and Uru Eke.

olden Effects Pictures in partnership with foremost Nigerian arts promoter, Terra Kulture, recently played host to heavyweights in Nigerian entertainment, business, government, media and the diplomatic communities at the private screening of Kunle Afolayan’s latest thriller flick, October 1.

The exceptional cast led by Kunle Afolayan comprised renowned actors like Sadiq Daba, Kenneth Okonkwo, Fabian Adeoye Lojede, Demola Adedoyin, David Baile and Kayode Olaiya. Topmost fashion designer, Deola Sagoe who played the role of Funmilayo RansomeKuti, Kehinde Bankole and Nick Phys were also part of the cast.

where we are coming from and the older generation to see if we are moving in the right direction,” adds Mr Afolayan. He went on to thank the cast for doing a fantastic job in delivering this utterly compelling movie.

Notable faces spotted at the event included art patron, Chief Rasheed Gbadamosi, CEO Nigerian Export Promotion Council, Segun Awolowo, MD, Standard

Chartered Bank, Bola Adesola, MD, Leadway Assurance, Mr. Oye Hassan-Odukale, Consul General of France, Francois Sastourne, Consul General of South Africa, Ambassador & Mrs Mokgethi Monaisa, Executive Director, Bank Of Industry, Mr. Waheed Olagunju, Richard MofeDamijo, Mo Abudu, Ruth Osime, Noble Igwe among others.

October 1, according to Kunle Afolayan, is a thought-provoking movie that isn’t only about entertaining viewers but serves to communicate important national messages. “We want the younger generation to know Tunde Kelani, Kunle Afoloyan, Francois Sastourne, Bolanle Austen-Peters, Mahmoud Ali-Balogun & Sadiq Daba 2

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PAGE 20— SUNDAY VANGUARD, MAY 25, 2014

I have a spiritual connection with my instrument’

cook and I am actually very shy.

What is the concept behind the Pidgin opera you are working on?

It’s about a Queen’s song and through her songs, she writes about the realities of the countries of the world. The whole journey is about her finding the peace song.

The peace song is a song that unites us all in Nigeria, Africa and the world. It’s a bit of a social commentary and it’s also written to give hope to all of us. We are one and that’s what we should focus on.

— The Venus Bushfires

By KEHINDE AJOSE

Helen Osamede Isibor a.k.a The Venus Bushfires, is a fast-rising Nigerian-born London-based singer cum songwriter who explores unimaginable depths with the sound of her instrument called the hang. From her unconventional hairstyle, to her African inspired musical sounds, she can be compared to an eagle, ready to soar to great heights with her music. She opens up on her humble beginnings, creating music for Sony play station, the spiritual connection she has with her instrument and many more.

How did music begin for you? y name is the Venus Bushfires, a name that celebrates the sky, the stars, and the bush we walk on. The fire represents the birth of inspiration, the birth of opportunity, and the birth of possibilities, that’s what the Venus Bushfires stands for. It’s a collective of one and many. It can range from one member, four members to twenty members . It’s a changing collective with me as the constant member. I have always been a musician my whole life even when I was in Nigeria. I was born in Ibadan, lived in Edo State till I was seven years old. I am from a musically inclined family. My dad is a guitarist and every Sunday, back then, we had what we call music Sundays. He actually ignited my love for playing musical instruments. I wrote songs when I was growing up, changed the words in some of Michael Jackson’s songs, and by the time I was eight/nine years old I was writing my songs. I love music because it gives me the avenue to share. You don’t have to be from any tribe or speak a particular language to connect to a brand of music.

What is your take on contemporary Nigerian music industry?

I think it’s a growing industry. A lot of things are happening; more and more artistes are emerging, going back to our roots, adding a bit of our own language to their music.

I think it’s now a way for people to identify with our music, we’ve got our own very strong voice now and I think it’s positive. Everybody is talking about the Nigerian music industry at the moment around the world.

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How do you classify your genre of music?

I think its neo afro pop or neo afro folklore. I am telling stories that my grandparents told me. Its real and its African inspired. I share many positive things about Nigeria and being a Nigerian, about my memories, about here, and the experiences I am experiencing right now as a musician.

Do you do music for the passion, fame or the money?

I do music for the passion. Anybody who is in it for anything other than passion is fooling himself because the other two are elusive. If you don’t love what you do, it’s a nightmare because you may not gain C M Y K

•The Venus Bushfires

I think it’s now a way for people to identify with our music, we’ve got our own very strong voice now and I think it’s positive. Everybody is talking about the Nigerian music industry at the moment around the world.

Who are the Nigerian artistes you will love to work with?

I love D’banj, and think he is great with melodies. I also love Fela Kuti, unfortunately that may not happen. I grew up listening to his music. I also love Femi Kuti as well. I think he is really inspiring . I love lyrics and melodies and somebody like Don Jazzy will be really interesting to work with because he is good with melodies. I also love Tiwa Savage. She is very positive and using her music to say positive things about Nigeria .I want to work with people who are positive. She is also contemporary.

You play a unique music instrument, can you tell us about it?

It’s called the Hang, pronounced (Han) it’s a Swiss instrument that looks Nigerian. It is made of steel.

It is a melodic percussive instrument.

the fame and the money that you desire. It’s the only thing for me that is constant that I can control.

When did you leave Nigeria?

I left Nigeria in 1989, but I have been coming back frequently. For now, I am here making the move to come back. I am here half the time and I am in London half the time.

This is where my heart is at the moment, this is where myself is calling me. I am here to give back to my country in the way I know how to, through music.

What is that one thing people hardly know about you?

The one thing people hardly know about me is that I am a great

Tell me the story about your love for the instrument?

I love it because I heard it when I was walking on a beach in Spain, a girl was playing it and I fell in love with it. When I heard the sound, I said to myself: ’This is heaven’ and I think that that just inspired me to desire to recreate the sound. So when I heard it, I knew I just wanted to get the instrument. I wrote about a hundred faxes to the people that make it and reached them via e-mail.

It only took me about two weeks to get it and normally the waiting can be up to seven years. I have a spiritual connection with the instrument and my getting it was a proof that I was meant to have it.

SUNDAY Vanguard, MAY 25, 2014, PAGE 21

Our efforts to deepen capital market practice — Fayokun, NBA Section on Business Law Chair Tominiyi Owolabi, Partner, Olaniwun Ajayi LP, Mr. Kalu Abosi, Partner, SPA Ajibade & Co. and Mrs. Olayemi Anyanechi, Partner, Sefton Fross. In constituting the panel of discussants, we were keen to have the perspective of stakeholders in the sector and, being a lawyers’ event, also thought it important to have the perspective of legal practitioners.

Generally, we are keen to ensure

BY INNOCENT ANABA Mrs. Olubunmi Fayokun is the Chairman Nigerian Bar Association, NBA- Section on Business Law, SBL, Committee on Capital Market. The committee has linedup programmes for the SBL conference, slated for May 25 to 27 in Lagos. In this interview, she speaks on the conference and some national issues.

AN you give us a peep into your line-up of top ics and discourse at the 2014 Annual Business Law Conference?

This year the Capital Market Committee of the NBA Section on Business Law is focusing on the nascent Over-the Counter Market, OTC, in Nigeria, in order to raise awareness about this segment of the Nigerian capital market. The theme for this year’s Capital Market breakout session is “Spotlight on the OTC Market in Nigeria” and we have a line-up of high profile speakers and panelists who will be speaking at the event.

Mr. Bola Onadele, the Managing Director/CEO of FMDQ OTC Plc, will be speaking on the evolution of the FMDQ OTC while Mr. Bola Ajomale, the Managing Director of NASD Plc, will be speaking on how the NASD OTC is filling in certain gaps within the capital market.

Papers to be delivered by the speakers will be discussed by a panel of seasoned legal practitioners and industry participants.

We understand that you derive your sub-topic/themes from the general theme of the conference. How do you hope to interpret this at your breakout session this year?

The general theme of this year’s conference is “Exemplary Governance: Enhancing Economic Development in Nigeria” and those who are familiar with the OTC Market will understand

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Price transparency is essential for building investor confidence and fostering the growth of the OTC Market Mrs. Olubunmi Fayokun that one of its salient characteristics is price transparency. Price transparency is essential for building investor confidence and fostering the growth of the OTC Market.

In the same vein, one of the key elements of exemplary governance is transparency, which leads to increased trust. As it is impossible to achieve economic development without transparency and trust, we are hoping that this will be one of the learning points that participants will take away from the breakout session.

What informed your choice of the selected speakers and panelists?

Our choice of speakers was informed by a desire to hear from individuals who have a thorough understanding of the OTC Market in Nigeria and, thus, are able to educate participants on the workings of a sector which remains rather complex to many.

It is truly a privilege to have these speakers participate in our breakout session this year.

Our panelists are Mr. Nnamdi Nwizu, Head of Fixed Income, Citibank Nigeria Limited, Mr.

that our participants have a balanced view of the topics.

What are the critical highlights and focus of your committee programme and what benefits will this bring directly or indirectly to participants at your breakout session?

One of our mandates as a committee is to enhance capital market practice among Nigerian lawyers. One of the methods of enhancing capital market practice is to highlight, and educate legal practitioners on new developments within the economic

landscape, with a view to building capacity and providing opportunities for more diverse legal service offerings.

As the OTC market is a relatively new concept within the Nigerian capital market, we hope that participants at the breakout session will be better educated and embrace the OTC Market by becoming participants in the sector either as investors or through improved and more diverse legal service offerings.

What are your expectations of the 2014 conference?

We expect a large turnout at this year ’s conference as the Conference Planning Committee has invested a significant amount of time, effort and resources towards ensuring the success of the conference. It is expected that this, along with the support and goodwill of our sponsors and partners, will result in a very successful 2014 conference.

Do have a word for intending participants at this year’s conference?

Although Nigeria is experiencing very challenging times, we cannot allow these challenges to stop us in our quest for a better future. There are vast commercial opportunities in Nigeria, which we can only gain an insight into and learn about from individuals who are actively involved in the creation of such opportunities. As the NBA SBL annual conference is a convergence point for such individuals, participants will have the privilege of learning directly from these individuals. The conference also presents excellent networking opportunities. In view of the rich content of the 2014 conference, every participant will have a chance to gain new knowledge and greater insights into various aspects of Nigerian commercial law. Therefore, the conference will provide participants with an opportunity that should not be missed.

‘Why oil companies should relocate headquarters to the N-Delta’ The oil and gas sector is the major source of revenue generation for Nigeria’s economy.

The sector is always in the news for reasons ranging from lack of transparency by those managing the sector to the activities of multinational oil companies. Recently, President Goodluck Jonathan disclosed that $1billion is needed to tackle oil theft in the country, even as he read riot act to oil thieves. Mrs. Grace Aghoghovbia, an expert in strategic management and the President, Niger Delta Advocacy group in the United Kingdom, a non-governmental organisation (NGO) advocating for accountability in the sector and sustainable development of the nation’s economy to create jobs, speaks on the need for government to ensure better living standards of people in the region.

World Economic Forum on inclusive growth and creation of jobs?

Our group is saddled with the responsibility of highlighting issues affecting the development of Nigeria’s economy, the Niger Delta and its inhabitants due to constant neglect of its environment by the multinational and indigenous oil companies doing business in that region. We want better living conditions for the people, who have suffered neglect emanating from poor environmental degradation, oil spillage and gas flaring from the extractive processes by multinational and indigenous oil companies in the area. We are also campaigning for globally recognised corporate social responsibility principles, with particular emphasis on the Indonesian Model, to be embodied by companies involved in the extraction of oil in Niger Delta communities.

HAT is the signifi cance of your NGO in terms of economic development, especially as Nigeria just hosted the

The President disclosed that 1$billion is needed to tackle oil theft, even as he read a riot act to oil thieves in the country. As an expert in strategic

BY UDEME CLEMENT

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This is not just about oil, we want inclusive development of the nation’s economy, creation of jobs and poverty reduction.

Recently government came up

Mrs. Grace Aghoghovbia management, what is your take on this?

We want transparency in all the activities going on in that sector of the economy. So, government must put measures in place to ensure greater transparency, accountability as well as mandatory corporate social responsibility for multinational and indigenous extractive industry players in oil and gas.

This is the only way we can achieve tangible growth in the industry.

We want better living conditions for the people, who have suffered neglect emanating from poor environmental degradation, oil spillage and gas flaring from the extractive processes by multinational and indigenous oil companies in the area. with a list of different natural resources in all the states of the federation. Notwithstanding, it is a known fact that the Niger Delta region has suffered years of neglect. The terrain is in a precarious situa-

tion. All tiers of government hold it as a duty to do the needful in developing the region. We are calling on the multinationals and indigenous oil firms as a matter of urgency to re-locate their administrative head offices to the region, where the crude oil is taken from.

As the Chief Executive Officer of Unique Personnel, UK Limited, how have you impacted on the lives of common people in Nigeria?

The company has positively impacted on many individuals through the services we provide. Through the ongoing employment, we have been able to empower women who were out of work for a long time, mostly due to raising their children. We also fueled the provision of work for most people within the community.

Through our active involvement in the local community, we provided work placement for secondary school students and apprentices to help foster a brighter future for many youths.

P AGE 22—SUND AY Vanguard , MA Y 25 , 2014 SUNDA MAY

bunmsof@yahoo.co.uk

08056180152,

SMS only

Teacher’s chilling portrait of pupils neglected by their mums

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O keep busy whilst waiting for a job where her administrative skills would be much needed, Andrey settled for a teaching job. “The school is a fairly decent nursery and primary school and a walking distance from my parents house”, she explained. “When I began teaching children in the primary section, I expected my job to be full of challenges and surprises - from fueling the pupils’ love of reading to watching their characters develop. What I didn’t imagine was that the bulk of my time would be spent not teaching, but making up for the neglect of the children’s parents.

“On Fridays, I introduced a sort of showand-tell session where pupils brought in something they ’d made or bought at the weekend and told stories about what they’d done. It was a chance to find out about the children’s lives and what made them tick.

The show-and-tell where Robby, a shy nine-yearold who struggled to make friends, spoke is one that will always stick with me. ‘On Saturday night, my dad slapped my mum in the face’, he told the class. ‘She was screaming and there was blood everywhere. She tried to phone for help but my dad was shouting and took the phone off her..

“It was something I was quite unprepared for. I quickly got up from my seat and told Robby that was all we had time for in that segment. Later on, I took him to one side and he told me how he and his brother had hid in their bedroom until all the screaming stopped’.

It broke my heart that he looked so surprised when I said that mummies and daddies shouldn’t behave like that. In keeping with the procedure, I had to in-

form the principal. I’d like to say that such alarming incidents were rare during my threeyear stay at the school, but evidence of violence and neglect were shockingly common. Colleagues at the nursery section often complained of changing nappies of kids who hadn’t even been toilet-trained, or buying stuffs at the tuckshop for ravenous children sent to school on empty stomachs.

“I was only a few weeks into my first term as a teacher where I started at the nursery section when an incident occurred.

Once again, it was storytime and the children were gathered on the carpet around me when I noticed some of them were giggling, holding their noses and pointing at Chuks, a cheeky four-yearold boy. I took him to the toilet and discovered that not only was he in a soiled nappy, but that he’d clearly been wearing it for some time - probably all night.

‘Do you know how to use the toilet, Chuks?’ 1 asked him. But a combination of embarrassment and poor language skills meant he stared at me blankly. I cleaned him with paper towels and reported the incident to the principal who confessed she spent far more time troubleshooting issues with problem families like Chuks’ than she did dealing with the day-to-day running of the school.

“Chuk’s mother, who appeared to be too young and inexperienced, was told that her son must be toilettrained and that it was not a teacher’s job to change nappies. She apologised and did as she was asked.

Unbelieveable as it may sound, it hadn’t occurred to her that children should know how to use the loo by the time they started school. The problem of children still in nappies at four and five years old became so common that the school began keeping a supply of nappies and baby wipes

paid for out of petty cash.

The biscuits in my classroom cupboard I paid for myself after I found one of the pupils scavenging through the waste-paper basket, desperately looking for the half-eaten cup-cake she’d seen me toss in there earlier. When I asked what she was doing, she explained that her tummy kept rumbling because she was so hungry. I asked if she had eaten breakfast and she replied: ‘No ma.

Mummy didn’t get out of bed in time’.

“One of the things that upset me most during my time as a teacher was the total lack of curiosity some children showed in the world around them.

While some pupils talked excitedly about what they wanted to be when they grew up and the countries they wanted to visit, others displayed no flicker of interest whatsoever. But what can you expect when most of their weekends and holidays were spent indoors on computer games? It’s now months since I quit my job, sick of trying to be parent as well as teacher to the children in my charge, sick of dealing with parental neglect and incompetence. I stuck it out a little longer than the 50 per cent of teachers who quit in their first

two years or so on the job but having learnt the harsh realities which come with wanting to ‘make a difference’, I can’t blame them for getting out before I did.”

Giving Your Confidence A Boost In her book: How to shine in a crowd, Susan Roane gives the following strategies to help you work the room when you find yourself alone in a huge crowd, where no face looks familiar.

The Entrance: There is no such thing as being ‘fashionably late’ for a meeting. Arrival is based on the start of the event, not making a conspicuous entrance. Take a deep breath, stand tall and walk in. If you stand in the doorway, people think you’re scared.

Give the room a quick once-ever. Check out the bar, the food, where most people are congregating.

“One man I know who has difficulty talking to people always positioned himself between the door and the...buffet’, says Susan.

“Everyone has to walk by him to get to the food and he is always surrounded by people”.

First Contact: Look around for people you know. If you see someone

All for love

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

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

I know what seeing is!

As I saw you that day for the first time So I know what loving is!

Innocent Oluku oluku@yahoo.com

I try day and night to be me, to be free, to be good.

I try to be better everyday, trying my best to be better than yesterday. But I came to realize that I will be practically nothing, going nowhere than in circles, if I don't have love... love from God and from you.

Loving God elevates me, saved me. Loving you defined me, tickles me. I know you feel it too but words might not be enough to express it so we make do with wishes. Only to hope to be better in all we do, all for love.

Stan Opio 08158630778, 07035709315

My everything

You're the best girlfriend ever and that's all there is to it! Whenever I'm talking to you, I feel like the

who looks even vaguely familiar, go and introduce yourself. Only two things can happen -either you’ll be right and renew an acquaintance, or you’ll meet someone new to chat to.

Use Your Friends: One of the main advantages of going to an event with a friend is that you can introduce one another around the room. You will know people he or she doesn’t and vice-versa.

Give people enough information about your friend and be positive. If neither of you know anyone, split up and start chatting until you do.

Get Moving: If you are on your own and don’t recognize anyone, do not be tempted to melt into the wall. Look out for what Susan calls the “hard knuckle drinker ”.

They are clutching their cup or glass so tightly that their knuckles are really hard. They ’re scared to death and they ’re always alone.

They will usually welcome your conversation because it saves them from anonymity.

Opening Lines: Don’t hang around waiting to make the perfect opening gambit. Even if what you say isn’t going to bring the house down, do not

lose the chance to start a conversation. The best opener may just be a smile and the word ‘Hello’, other areas for easy comment are the event, the food, the organization, the traffic, even the weather. Avoid negative comments such as “the food looks pathetic”, because people will think you are a whiner. If you start with a question, make it relevant.

“How long have you worked with the company for instance”. If you start with a statement about yourself, make sure it is positive.

Breaking In: There is a difference between including yourself in other people’s conversation and intruding. It requires boldness but sensitivity. Avoid approaching two people who look as if they are having an intense conversation, Approach groups of three or more. Position yourself across to the group. Give only facial reaction to remarks being made. When you are included, either by verbal acknowledgment or eye contact, feel free to join in.

Staying Power: Even people who make wonderful self-introduction can be caught by the next step, what to say next. The best way to build up knowledge is to read at least one newspaper a day. You don’t have to be an expert on everything but you will be well read enough to contribute to conversations.

Pay Attention: A good talker will not necessarily be a good listener. It means more than just concentrating and responding.

Extrication: There is no need to feel uncomfortable when you end a conversation. You have been invited to circulate and meet other people. The idea is not to talk to one person the whole time.

All it takes is two words “Excuse me”. To make it easy, wait until you have just finished a comment and then smile and say “Excuse me, it was nice meeting you”.

luckiest guy in the whole wide world.

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SUNDAY Vanguard, MAY 25, 2014, PAGE, 23

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By SEGUN OLATUNJI, Abeokuta

natives of Abia State.

The deputy PPRO also disclosed that one Muibat Yusuf and her brother who are both indigenes of Kwara State were arrested in connection with the incident.

He added that the matter had been transferred to the State Criminal Investigation Department, Eleweran, Abeokuta for further investigation.

The state Commissioner of Police, Ikemefuna Okoye, who later undertook an on-the-spot assessment of the area, urged residents to be vigilant, particularly about their neighbours.

Some days after that incident, the police in Ogun and Lagos State in a joint operation, arrested five persons in Joju area of Ado-Odo / Ota LGA for allegedly being in possession of a human head and pieces of flesh.

T

his, indeed, is an unusual season for the residents of Ogun State. Lately, sleeping with their two eyes closed has become a Herculean task.

They now have to constantly look above their shoulders as they walk on the streets due to the new wave of crime in Abeokuta, the state capital and other major cities in the state.

Kidnapping, child stealing and ritual killings have virtually taken the place of conventional crimes such as armed robbery, theft and other social vices.

The gory scenes in the state began early this year when the police, one morning, arrested a man, Adelani Ayomide, who concealed 18 human skulls in a sack in Otta, Ado-Odo/Otta Local Government Area.

Early last month, the police in the state arrested a suspected lunatic allegedly found in possession of decomposing meat and intestines suspected to be human parts at Iyana Egbado in Ewekoro Local Government Area.

The suspected lunatic, simply identified as Gbenga, was alleged to be carrying out his operations under a bridge located about 250metres away from the gates of a popular cement factory along the Abeokuta-Lagos Expressway and suspected to be a ritualists’ operational base in the area.

Putrid stench oozed out from the suspected lunatic’s den, littered with decomposing human parts chopped into pieces; plastic containers filled with human blood, ladies under wears, ladies’ and men’s shoes, blood stained dresses and duvets.

Other items found in the suspect’s den included knives, disused electronic equipment and cartons of assorted soft drinks.

Gbenga, said to be the sole occupant of the site, was first apprehended by some residents of the area, one of whom was said to have snatched the polythene bags in which he was concealing the suspected human parts.

Our correspondent gathered that the suspected lunatic was exposed when he attacked a female passers-by who was however rescued by another male passers-by.

The male passersby was said to have become suspicious of the polythene bags the suspect had in his possession and attempted to forcibly take them away from him.

It was in the process that the polythene bags got torn and their contents spilled on the ground.

The male passersby immediately raised the alarm attracting a crowd from the nearby cement factory and Egbado village.

The crowd attempted to lynch the suspect.

The suspected lunatic pleaded with the mob not to kill him as he was ready to confess to the alleged crime.

An eye witness, who identified himself as Samuel Oladele, said the suspect then brought out a mobile phone and put frantic calls across to some unknown persons.

Oladele disclosed that the

Gory scenes in Ogun! * *

Grisly head in cellophane, headless body in uncompleted building, ritualists coffin in estate Residents fight back, resort to jungle justice

suspect confessed that he belonged to a five-man syndicate operating in the Ewekoro axis in the past nine months.

Police men from Itori later came and whisked away the suspect, said to have claimed to hail from Ado Ekiti, Ekiti State.

Barely 24 hours after the incident, residents of Akinremi Estate, Adigbe, Abeokuta uncovered another alleged base of alleged ritualists.

The police from the Adigbe Division, Abeokuta arrested a woman believed to be the wife of the suspected owner of the house and rescued three pregnant ladies as well as three children from the place.

The duplex in which the incident occurred was alleged to have also doubled as a baby making factory.

Hundreds of youths who trooped to the area to catch a glimpse of the alleged ritualists’ base set the building ablaze.

Some residents of the estate claimed that one of the victims had, the previous day, escaped from the house, ran into another building located about 200 meters away and pleaded with the occupants to save her from her assailants.

The pregnant victim, said to have hailed from Abia State, was said to have informed the neighbours that her elder sister sold her and her unborn child to the alleged ritualists for N100,000.

The neighbours informed the police who raided the premises at about 11p.m.

As news of the incident filtered into town, angry youths, mainly students of the Moshood Abiola Polytechnic (MAPOLY), Ojere, Abeokuta, stormed the duplex and ransacked some of the rooms after breaking the padlocks earlier used to lock

The male passersby immediately raised the alarm attracting a crowd from the nearby cement factory and Egbado village. The crowd attempted to lynch the suspect them by the police.

The irate youths were said to be in search of a food warmer and a Jerry can allegedly filled with fresh human blood and used by the alleged ritualists.

After the search of the building, the youths allegedly emerged with several items suspected to be ritual objects, including an ivory plate containing fresh blood,a coffin, a human image made of wood, a live scorpion and assorted charms.

Also discovered in the house were an international passport, identity cards of the students of Sacred Heart Catholic College, Oke -Ilewo who eye witnesses said might have been victims of the suspected ritualists.

White prayer gowns said to belong to some victims who might have been kidnapped and killed were also recovered from the house.

Property set ablaze along with the building were two vehicles: a Toyota Camry car marked (Lagos) EKY 942 AJ and a Mitsubushi car marked (Lagos) AGL 971 BH parked within the premises.

The intervention of the officials of the Ogun State Fire

Service, who raced to the scene in two fire engines, saved the building from being completely consumed by the inferno.

Policemen who had earlier stayed aloof and watched the angry youths suddenly started to fire live ammunition and tear gas to disperse the crowd which was becoming restive.

Police Armoured Personnel Carriers were subsequently deployed in the area to strengthen security.

A large number of the youths, who were arrested, were whisked away to the Ogun State Police Command headquarters, Eleweran, Abeokuta.

The command’s Deputy Public Relations Officer, Abimbola Oyeyemi, confirmed the incident but said only two victims were rescued, while two other suspects were also arrested in connection with the running of the alleged ritualists’ base.

Oyeyemi, an Assistant Superintendent of Police, gave the names of the rescued victims as Jennifer Goodluck, who is nursing a two-month old baby and Oluchi, a heavily pregnant victim.

All the victims are said to be

The suspects were arrested following a tip-off.

The suspects were identified as Kubura Salami, Tantolorun A b i m b o l a , K a f a y a Popoola,Waheed Ibrahim and Adamu Rafiu.

The human head and human flesh were kept in a container stained with liquid substance suspected to be blood.

Ogun State Police Public Relations Officer, Muyiwa Adejobi confirmed the arrest.

Adejobi, a deputy superintendent of police, added that the Ogun State Commissioner of Police, Okoye, ordered that the case be handed over to SARS in Lagos for investigation since it’s a followup to an ongoing investigation by the police in Lagos.

About three days after, suspected kidnappers struck in a private school in Aso Rock area of Obantoko, Abeokuta almost succeeded in abducting some children.

Six pupils of the school were said to have escaped abduction.

Our correspondent gathered that after a failed attempt the previous day to abduct the pupils, the suspected kidnappers returned to the area the next morning and attempted to kidnap another pupil.

According to eye witnesses, the pupils were returning from school where they had gone for holiday lesson when about four men in a sports utility vehicle (SUV) allegedly seized them.

Recounting their experience, two of the rescued pupils, Oreoluwa and Adebayo, said that one of their abductors, who was dressed like a Muslim cleric, had requested that they give them water to pour in the overheating radiator of their car before they were kidnapped.

They were then taken into an uncompleted building in the area where they tied their hands.

But Oreoluwa, whose hands were not properly tied, untied her colleagues when three of the

Continues on page 25

PAGE 24 — SUNDAY Vanguard, MAY 25, 2014

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By ADEOLA ADENUGA

C

ALL it a surge and you won’t be wrong. Call it a swarm and you also will be right. School pupils in front of St Joseph’s College, Ondo were giving the bus officials a hard time. Exceptionally neat and well maintained, the bus is one of the many dedicated to conveying primary and secondary school children to and fro school. On this particular Thursday, the bus would later come to pick the rest of the children, officials assured, but the youngsters, typically of people in their age bracket, would not be outdone by their colleagues.

They wanted to go home right now, not later, and that was it. It was indeed a hectic time. But the bus administrators would not budge: overloading was a cardinal sin, as they had strict orders from the state government to maintain the safety of students.

The bus, like others in its category, would not leave any student behind in school, as they would ply the roads till very late in the day, yet the youngsters surged forward in a get-homebefore-my-friend game. My

Pupils celebrate free ride on Mimiko’s ticket colleague standing nearby looked at me and remembered a Yoruba proverb: ‘’Agba wa bura b’ewe o ba se e ri (‘’Elder, can you vow you were never subjected to the follies of the youth?”). I nodded, but reminded her that we never rode a free bus to school in the early 80s, let alone a state-of-the-art one. This Mimiko of a guy is something else, she quipped.

Numbering five (with 80 seating and 20 standing spaces) on that spot alone, the buses were painted in the orange/off white curve of the new Ondo outlook, and were busy loading, with officials of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) and the bus administrators controlling the movement of the youngsters so that they did not injure one another out of pure delight. Facing right, the buses would, we were to learn, glide through Ife Garage, Civic Centre, Sabo,

*Pupils...The bus helps us!

Lipakala, Adeyemi College of Education, Catholic Junction, Oka, all the way to into Odojomu, Oja, etc, and facing left, they would head to Gani, Better Lab, Ade Super, Molasuru, NEPA and Akinjagunla, all the way to Akure Garage and beyond, picking and dropping students at designated bus stops shaped like an

umbrella and painted in the Ondo colours, with a bus stop administrator ensuring the smooth flow of proceedings. The students— from St Monica’s Girls Grammar School, Ondo Anglican Grammar School, St Joseph’s College and a few other adjoining private schools—were eager to quickly get home after a

hectic day at school, and each had kind words for the state governor, Dr Olusegun Mimiko. “We like these buses,” they said as they rushed in. ”Governor Mimiko has promised that we will not suffer again, so we know that these buses will be available every blessed day,” said a boy as he shuttled quickly between boarding a bus and dealing with a seemingly stubborn mango, totally impervious to the criticisms of his fellows who demanded greater decorum because of our (adults) presence.

“Governor Mimiko did not say that we could not eat mangoes in this bus,” he said rather seriously, occasioning general laughter.

“Mimiko is indeed a fantastic governor; he has made life much easier for us and our parents, as transport fare for students in Ondo State is now a thing of the past. My mother was telling her friend just yesterday that we have never seen anything like this in Ondo State,” offered Joke Olubunmi, a JSS2 pupil. Another student, Gideon Oluwaseun, an SSS 3 student, said, “This bus helps us in many ways. We will not be trekking again like we used to do before. My mum used to spend N100 per

OSINKENNIA Unravelling the mystery in herbs, roots

By ABEL KOLAWOLE

C

ertain ailments that defy western drugs are believed to respond to African herbs and roots.

And only a handful of herbalists have successfully broken that natural health code.

Chief (Prof) Elias Egoigwe Osinkennia is among the few. He has distinguished himself in the application of natural roots and herbs for the cure and treatment of ailments; thereby proving that such could be flushed out of the human system completely. In an interaction during a conference entitled, “Way forward for natural African herbs and roots”, in Lagos, Osinkennia disclosed: “With proper diagnosis, meticulous administration of the right herbs, doses and period of administration, a sickness could be eliminated from a patient’s system completely and he/she becomes fully fit again”.

Blaming quackery, seeming government’s lack of interest, foreign influence/campaigns for the relegation of African medicine and treatment to the background, he said all hopes are not lost.

Throwing more light on the issues he identified as the collective key impediments to the growth, development and standardization of local medical roots and herbs

research, production and administration, the acclaimed Egbengwu Nimo, Njikoka Local Government Area of Anambra State-born herbalist blamed the infiltration of the profession by unregistered and untrained hands as a major drawback.

He, however insisted that quackery is not enough reason for the authorities to throw away the baby with the bath water. According to him, every forward looking society must provide for ways to fight deviants within its fold.

He described the use of natural herbs and roots as one of the agelong methods to cure ailments..

And that it clearly worked for our forebears without side effects.

His membership registration certificate as an authorized and recognised herbal medical practitioner which he said reinvigorates and reaffirms the confidence of those who come to consult him from foreign countries and all parts of Nigeria was conspicuously displayed amongst other such important notices in his consulting room.

Describing his professional calling as hereditary, Osinkennia disclosed that his father and grandfather were all reputed herbalists in their days, with their feat reverberating beyond the frontiers of Eastern Nigeria. And that so far, two of his own sons-David and Emmanuel- are taking after him.

Osinkennia, who stated herbal practice under his father(Egoigwe) in 1964, said he has received many awards for professional ethics, community service, leadership and industry.

Botanical gardens Saying his involvement in herbal healing is a mystery that no one including himself could ever fully understand, he says whoever the gods want they take. “The gods actually approached me through several means but since I was unable to decipher the signs, life became Herculean for me until I yielded to the natural calling for service to humanity. My accomplishments can only be testified to by the public who are the greatest beneficiary.” Osinkennia presented more than 126 awards he has received over the years. There were also commendations by eminent Nigerians including a former Anambra State Chief Judge, Justice Godwin Ude Ononiba; St Mary’s Catholic Church Nimo where he is patron; and Igwe John Okoye-Agilo of Nimo in whose palace Osinkennia is a titled cabinet member.

The very low level of government interest in herbal research and roots development, he pointed out, was the main reason for the lack and near absence of botanical gardens around, that would readily have been providing local herbalists with necessary ingredients. Such gardens as could be seen in places like India, Pakistan, Indonesia and even Switzerland enable the drug manufacturers with easy access to the roots and herbs they require for their products.

Osinkennia disclosed that what we have today as “food supplements” are granulated natural roots and herbs tactically packaged in fashionable presentations by smart herbalists from other countries.

* Osinkennia

SUNDAY Vanguard, MAY 25, 2014, PAGE, 25

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Pupils celebrate free ride on Mimiko’s ticket Continued from page 23 person daily before and we are five in number. I want to say that he (Mimiko) should continue the good work and God will continue to bless him.”

A bus administrator explained: “We can’t overemphasise the benefits that parents have derived. This place is like localisation of schools: St Joseph’s, St Monica’s, St. Helen’s, Ondo Grammar School, Ondo Boys. We can’t estimate the number of students we’re conveying every day. That helps their parents. Again, the safety of the students is paramount and the governor is very passionate about that.

The services he is providing are not for the people to say that he’s doing well but for him to satisfy his conscience; the governor is trying to assist parents in saving money. Gone are the days when, at 10 am, you find students roaming the streets.

Most of them boarded Okada (motorbike) and some were involved in avoidable accidents.” He then turned to the crowd: “If I don’t call you, don’t come in.”

Continued from page 25 suspected kidnappers left the uncompleted building and the fourth member of the gang went to ease himself.

A teacher in the school, Gabriel Adesoga, said that a gang of suspected kidnappers came to the area and attempted to kidnap a male pupil who screamed, alerting the school and the neighbourhood.

A search party organized by some of the residents was said to have found a dilapidated building located in a bush in the area and allegedly being used by the suspected kidnappers.

Policemen were later deployed in the area.

The dust on the failed kidnap of the six pupils had yet to settle when a Nigerien, Mamodu Bashir Ibrahim, allegedly beheaded a two-year-old infant and also raped his mother in Owode Egba, Obafemi-Owode Local Government Area of the state.

The suspect committed the crime after having carnal knowledge of the mother of the boy, who had gone to ease herself in a nearby bush in Ofada area of the town.

The suspect trailed her to the spot where he pounced on her.

A resident who suspected the movement of the Nigerien was said to have followed him to the crime scene.

The suspect was, however, said to have escaped with the head of the infant while the resident rescued the woman with the headless body of her child.

When the suspect was arrested, he led men of the state Criminal Investigation Department to the C M Y K

In the afternoon of the following day, Friday, we chatted with some students as they boarded the free shuttle buses in Akure, the state capital, home-bound. At the Fiwasaye Bus Stop in Alagbaka, one Afenifemi Omobololanle, a JSS3 student of African Church Comprehensive High School, quipped: “It (the bus) is fine. It’s been helping us. All around our community, the shuttle buses are there. Instead of us spending money, we are seeing a free bus ride here now. It’s helping my parents not to waste their money on transport; they will only spd money on food. I thank

Governor Olusegun Mimiko.

God will always provide for him and his family.” Dada Oyindamola, an SSS3 student of Fiwasaye Girls Grammar School, Akure, could not agree less. Her words: “It is very good; it helps people in saving money. Those that are poor and do not have money to give their children for transport to school now have a respite. Some people have four children in school and do not have enough money to give the children for transport, but this one will save them, to and fro. This is a new agenda and everybody is pleased with it, even the old women.

Some people have four children in school and do not have enough money to give the children for transport, but this one will save them, to and fro. This is a new agenda and everybody is pleased with it, even the old women.

“At least, dropping and picking your children is a good thing and everybody is happy with it. Even if our parents give us money for transport, we save it and use it for other things. Parents are saving what used to be transport money, which at times was more than school fees, to buy other things. My advice to Governor Mimiko is that he should keep on doing good to us and any other governor that is coming after him should continue. You know, if another governor comes now, he may stop this. This programme should continue.”

But the state Commissioner for Transport, Nicholas Tofowomo, dismissed the fears about the project being abandoned by coming administrations, disclosing the internal mechanisms devised to ensure its sustainability. He said, “When you build a meaningful foundation, a rock-solid foundation that has rules and regulations and has embraced a lot of resources, human resources and is not a one-man show, having a clear cut template—

Gory scenes in Ogun!

crime scene.

The head of the infant could not be found but the knife with which the suspect carried out the attack was recovered.

The police said the suspect claimed to have sold the head to a woman in Ibadan, disclosing that detectives had launched a manhunt for the buyer.

The suspect, in a chat with news men at the scene of the crime littered with blood, confessed to have raped the woman, killed her son and cut his head which he claimed to have thrown into the bush.

The police however saved the suspect from being lynched by angry residents of the area.

Meanwhile, the police recovered the boy’s head in a bag in a bush when the suspect took the investigation team to Mokola

area of Ibadan, Oyo State.

The police have yet to unravel the identity of those who gave the suspect the job.

The rampant activities of ritualists and kidnappers in Ogun has, however, given room to rumours which have led to attacks, destruction of property and the killing of innocent persons.

The fears of falling victims to the ritualists and kidnappers have resulted in a dangerous development whereby, at the slightest suspicion, the destitute and mentally sick persons have become targets of lynching by mobs in the state.

Only recently, a man, alleged to have sprayed an unknown substance in the face of two secondary school girls around

Kugba, Saje area of Abeokuta in a bid to kidnap them, was lynched by a mob and his body set ablaze.

Also, on April 21, at the Enugada and Lafenwa areas of Abeokuta, respectively, two persons of unsound mind (mad men) were attacked by some miscreants on the suspicion of being kidnappers and battered before they were rescued by the police.

On Easter Monday, angry protesters stormed a two-storey building in Agbole - Ogun Compound in Ijaiye area of Abeokuta, vandalizing the property belonging to a former top police officer (names withheld).

The intervention of the men of the Nigeria Police, the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) and the Ogun State Vigilance Service prevented the burning down of the building rumoured to have been a suspected ritualists’ den littered with human parts.

Policemen had to shoot into the air to scare and disperse the restive mob, resulting in a commotion in which some people sustained injuries.

The State VSO Public Relations Officer, Soji Ganzallo, said: “The rumour came from no where and before we knew what was happening, there had been distress calls from all our units at Ijaiye area. When we got here we decided to seek the permission of the Balogun of Ijaye, who equally heard received similar distress call.”

The Balogun Ijaiye, Alhaji

that is what we’ve put in place in the Ministry of Transport. Our school free shuttle is not driven by an outsider; it is driven by the ministry in such a way that the Chief Transport Officer, the bus driver, the fuelling and maintenance— everything is driven by this ministry, so that when the government leaves, these people would still be here.

This is the first of its kind anywhere in the world, dedicated solely to students.

The buses are never hired out.

“All those people that are driving this concept are not politicians; they are civil servants, except me, the head, whom Governor Mimiko has given directives to and I have been able to inculcate those directives into the system, whereby even if I’m out of the system, there will be sustainability.

For instance, the school free shuttle was started in Akure.

The drivers we employed have a minimum of school certificate, they are civil servants and they are trained to look after the vehicle if it breaks down. If we are out of the system, the drivers would still drive the vehicles and they would be able to manage them.”

Chief Balogun Alemo, confirmed that the “intervention of the Police, the VSO and civil defence prevented the burning of this house.”

Worried by the development, the state police command has warned residents to desist from meting out jungle justice to anyone suspected to be involved in kidnapping or ritual killings or risk prosecution.

Towards this end, the police in the state recently arraigned in court 17 persons arrested for allegedly carrying out a mob attack on the house belonging to a retired deputy superintendent of police over allegations that the property was being used as ritualists’ den.

Ogun State government, in the same vein, vowed not to fold its arms and allow criminal elements to take over the state.

As part of the efforts to check crime, the state Commissioner for Community Development and Cooperatives, Chief Samuel Aiyedogbon, spoke on the need for leaders of Community Development Associations to take charge of community policing.

Aiyedogbon said if such a move was made, it would go a long way in checking rising crime, particularly in the areas of babymaking factories and ritualist’s dens.

Aiyedogbon advised landlords to always ascertain the business their tenants engage in before renting their buildings to them.

He also urged owners of uncompleted buildings to ensure that the environment of such buildings were kept clean so as not to serve as hideouts for criminally minded people.

PAGE 26—SUNDAY VANGUARD, MAY 25, 2014

C M Y K

SUNDAY VANGUARD, MAY 25, 2014 PAGE — 27

C M Y K

PAGE 28—SUNDAY VANGUARD, MAY 25, 2014

W

hat is your impres sion so far on the National Conference as delegates debate reports from the 20 Standing Committees?

We are the last hope of the country. The composition of the conference is quite formidable; you have former governors, former presidents of the Senate, former speakers, former chief justices, former retired justices of the Supreme Court; you have everybody, all the way down to the people from the NYSC and civil and trade based societies. Nigeria is as though in a bad dream; it is like we are being chased by the buffalo, we tried to run, but we are being knocked in the feet. This confab is a wakeup call; after it, it may not be so golden again.

So we have all those reports of past conferences, reform committees, the review committees and the presidential committees on the way forward. This is our last chance; the only challenge we have now is the final approval. Former members of the National Assembly in the confab should be able to persuade the incumbent lawmakers to grant us a referendum to endorse the outcome of the National Conference. They should not tinker with it. I think we have learnt from our past mistakes. So all we need to do is read the old reports and look at the recommendations and check which of them has been implemented and what the others are. We now prioritise it and present it as referendum, then Nigeria will start moving.

You are at the plenary stage where recommendations of the various committees are to be subjected to scrutiny, adoption and the rest. What are we looking at? One of the major recommendations of your committee is mapping and registering the entire land space in Nigeria. How feasible is this?

The Land Use Decree is a misnomer and should go. So what do you replace it with?

That is what we are talking about: A National Land Commission. It is our own modification of the Land Use Decree.

The inland waterways actors take away both sides of the river up to 500meters; so where do you want the Ijaw communities to call their own land as we live by the river? If you give out all that to the inland waterways, C M Y K

National Conference is Nigeria’s last hope — Diete-Spiff

King Alfred Diete-Spiff, the Amanayanabo of Twon – Brass, in Bayelsa State, was the governor of Rivers State at the age of 25 from May 1967 to July 1975 during the military administration of General Yakubu Gowon. He is presently a delegate on the platform of Elder Statesmen Category to the National Conference and a member of the confab’s Committee on Land Reform and National Boundaries.

In this interview, he bares his mind on the conference, what Nigerians expect from it, state police, federalism, resource control, the role of traditional rulers, NYSC, among other issues.

By HENRY UMORU then we have no land. Some of these laws were made by the military, but they were not written by military lawyers, they were written by civilian lawyers.

We really need to look at the issues dispassionately and come up with what is best for Nigeria. If we are going presidential, which is what we are doing now, then anybody that has the power to make laws must have an enforcement agency of its own. States are not nonentities that they cannot have their own police.

Even before now, states were prevented from starting their own universities. We should get to the stage where some of the things in the Constitution needn’t be there.

In advanced countries, for instance, there is nothing called NYSC. NYSC is national youth service, but we are giving that opportunity only to graduates. How many graduates are there out of the Nigerian youths?

So we are deceiving ourselves that we are reaching out to Nigerian youths.

Instead it has become another robbing of Peter to pay Paul.

If we are going presidential, every federating state must have their own law enforcement agencies, including the local government. There are county police in America and then we come here and look at our local governments as though they are nonentities that cannot run their own system, it is insulting and, in that case, we should scrap them.

But one of the reasons people are saying the issue

•King Alfred Diete-Spiff

We really should encourage every federating unit to improve on its resources of state police should be jettisoned is because of this idea of it being used by governors against others.

Does it matter if the commissioner of police is used by the governor? Young men

who have been rascals in school, you make them prefects and they change. So give the governors the power; their states assemblies make laws, they should also have bodies to enforce the laws. Even now,

how much money is being spent by the state governments on the police? So let it be the full responsibility of the state to set up. If any of the state says they don’t want, that they cannot afford to train, equip and manage their own police, fine, let them come together to run the police if they can. They should not hold back the rest of the states. A law should be there to set it up.

Oil theft has remained a major problem in the country. How do we address the problem?

Fortunately, oil has signature; so anywhere Nigeria oil appears, they can trace it back to Nigeria and more than 50% of it is being stolen. Well, this is Nigeria.

Like somebody said, it is only in Nigeria that people put oil money in their pockets instead of the national treasury. But if you are now robbing Peter and taking the oil from the people and denying them, they would not have the zeal to protect it. We can get back to the stage where oil is treated like any other mineral and prospectors now pay government royalty and tax and the people themselves are part of the prospecting for oil.

Oil can be found in Nigeria everywhere later.. We have minerals; there is uranian, there is gold, there is bitumen; many of these other things, but we just concentrate on oil and how much of the oil money am I benefiting from? People who are not in the oil producing areas are the ones who you find in London parading themselves as coming from an oil rich country. So it is the same robbing of Peter to pay Paul and it is very bad because it kills incentive and initiative. We really should encourage every federating unit to improve on its resources.

The issue of resource control has been generating bad blood. Some conference delegates are saying derivation should be 5%. What is your take on this?

People should take it easy.

It is a matter of saying, let every state develop at its own pace and this is what Zik, Awolowo and Sardauna agreed to in 1957 at the London Conference. It allowed every federating unit to develop at its own pace. Don’t slow others down; this is the same principle we are working on.

SUNDAY VANGUARD, MAY 25, 2014, PAGE 29

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These days you need diplomatic skills to conduct an affair!

W

HENEVER Lilian, one of the ‘gang’ is bored or restless, she noses around for an affair. This time around though, she didn’t have to look very far.

Jake, her new target was introduced to her at a seminar, and I was the first person to call when the bait bit.

“He called, the next day we exchanged cards”, ‘Lilian gushed,” and we arranged to meet in his office.

You can imagine how tall I felt when I announced my name at the reception and there was a member of staff hovering around specially positioned to take me straight to Jake’s office as soon as I arrived. An executive director, Jake looked quite distinguished and handsome in his tastefully furnished expansive office.

He sent for lunch so we could talk. And did we talk!

He confessed he’d always fancied me but had such high regard for my bro he didn’t want to hurt his feelings - and he would feel bad if I were to say no.

I confessed I wouldn’t have given playing around a thought then as I was wrapped up in my family.

But now that Rex seems to be enjoying a bit of fun, why shouldn’t I test the waters myself? We didn’t rush things of course. Just talked and reminisced, then had one or two snogs. I’m seeing him again next week”.

It was good to see Lilian sparkle for a change. She’d shed a bit of weight (or was it the girdle?) and she looked different already.

She’d signed up at the gym nearest to her office and boasted she would soon be ‘drop it like it’s hot’ to handle!

I was, therefore, worried when next I saw her and she seemed to have lost a bit of her enthusiasm. I’d come in from a rather taxing presentation but she ignored my tired appearance and dropped her clanger: “I think 1 would give this affair thing a miss!” Having a conscience already?

What happened? “You remember Joan, my nextdoor neighbour?” she asked. Well, who would have missed her? She is tall, quite pretty and a yummy mother of three.

Her husband had refused to relocate to Nigeria with her. The last we heard of him, he was shacking up with a loaded foreign chick, though Joan didn’t give a toss. She’s done very well for herself too - lives in her own house and with a couple of state-of-the-art cars in the drive. Not overly friendly, she was currently having a hot affair with a public figure. I wouldn’t have matched him to any ‘office’ if Lilian hadn’t pointed him out a couple of times in some of the softsells.

“Lover boy’s wife was at Joan’s house last night”, Lilian told me dramatically. “1 was having a quiet snack when the maid rushed in excitedly. ‘Someone de damage mama Jnr’s (that is Joan) car ’, she shrieked. I raced to the dining window where I could see into her drive. Smash!

A ferocious and extremely angry woman was swinging a contraption that looked like the pedal lock of a car and crashing it on the front and rear screens of Joan’s Jeep, ‘whore!’ she screamed for all the neighbours to hear. Joan hurried out of the house looking visibly shaken. ‘Are you mad?’ she yelled at the enraged woman as she surveyed the damage to her car. “You’ve been shagging my husband”, she spat, giving the jeep a couple more swipes.

‘Come here if you dare so

we would know who the mad woman really is.’

Joan rushed at her but she got a big punch in the face!

A few seconds later, Joan’s driver appeared with some of the night guards and started rough-handling the wild woman. Almost by magic, a couple of policemen arrived on the spot. It is always amazing how the police always show up when the problem has nothing to do with armed robbers.

“The mad woman was taken to the police station with Joan. I learnt she was charged for assault, causing actual bodily harm, and criminal damage. Thank goodness there was no lasting damage to Joan’s face.

What if she’d been hit by the pedal lock instead of a fist?

That incident got me thinking - the same thing could

happen to me if I start an affair with Jake!” “Don’t be absurd,” I chided, finding the whole episode hilarious.

Some wives are really something else. It takes two to tango. One would have thought this irate wife would have smashed her philandering husband up a bit before having a go at the mistress. Fancy her taking the fight right to the doorstops of the enemy!

“I bet we wouldn’t be seeing lover boy for a while” Lilian interrupted my thought. I reminded her that affairs are meant to be secret - not to be conducted in such a way that you’re caught’. Who would lay siege trying to catch her in the act? Rex? She shrugged.

“I bet Joan didn’t bargain for what she got either’, she said stubbornly. A few days later, Lilian asked me to meet her at our usual buka.

A decent place with a downto-earth decor, one of its delicacies is fresh fish pepper soup. You point to any of the wriggling fish in the big bowl that you like, and it’s instantly killed and steamed in deliciously hot sauce! “Jake has agreed to meet us here after work,” Lilian gushed. Wasn’t she living close to the edge?

What would she tell Rex when she eventually got home? “That I was with you,” she said smoothly.

“These days, he lets me get away with murder once in a

while.” We were about to dig into our steaming bowls of fresh fish when Lilian nudged me. “Here he is,” she thrilled as this handsome guy walked through the door in a twopiece native garb. So this was the gent Lilian had been raving about?

“Pleased to meet you,” he said as we were introduced, shaking my hand, his voice confident. As we all chatted, I felt pleased Jake and Lilian seemed to be getting on like a house on fire.

She needn’t tell me she’d had a bite of the forbidden apple when next we met.

She was full of how she was made a fuss of by Jake, the gifts he bought her and the way he actually held the door open for her! Was it any good? I asked her. She knew what I meant. “It was magic! I’m just trying not to compare him with Rex!” I warned her never to even give it a thought. Since she was Jake’s flavour-of-themoment, she would naturally have his attention. I bet he wouldn’t be that lovey-dovey with his wife after all those years of marriage. “I don’t care,” she laughed recklessly. “I’ve been rejuvenated by this fling already” - she said, her eyes clouding over for a few seconds. Just as long as she realizes that affairs are only horsd’oeuvres; they shouldn’t be mistaken for the main dish...

08052201867(Text Only)

Helping the prostrate gland INBOX

P

LEASE I need Yoga cure for prostate and stroke. Tanks for your regular and highly educative Sunday Vanguard column. A. A. There is an exercise routine to help the prostate I do not know about a cure for stroke but if the doctor advises on exercise for stroke then yoga might come in handy. But first get the go-ahead

from him. Yoga is not necessarily a substitue for medical care.

This you must understand.

Doctor says yoga exercise will help if the prostate enlargment is at its lower level. In this case what type of exercise do you advise? Thanks and God bless. A. A.

day, so get a copy.

My Sunday is never complete without a copy of the Vanguard Health/ Fitness column in particular. Thanks and God bless you all. A. A. .

The prostrate gland can be affected by hyperplasia or an abnormal growth of the prostrate gland. Prostrate problems can also arise due to prostatitis, an inflammation of the prostrate gland bringing on pain and obstruction in the outlet from the bladder.

*Heels-To-Crotch Posture (Supine)

The Heels-to-Crotch and others will be of great benefit. I will publish some of them for you sake and others this Sun-

*Heels-To-Crotch Posture (Seated): Duration 10-20 seconds

*Legs Up The Wall Posture: Duration 5-10 minutes

*Relaxation Pose: Duration 10-20 minutes * Leg Stretch( Forward): Duration 10-20 seconds C M Y K

Yoga classes STARTED at 32 Adetokunbo * Leg Stretch (Supine Sideways): Duration 10-20 Ademola, Victoria Island, Lagos, 9.10am on Saturdays seconds

PAGE 30—SUND AY 30—SUNDA

Vanguard, MAY 25, 2014

“Traditional democracies will end up in the garbage heap.” Alberto Fujimori. 1998.

F

ujimori, Peruvian President of Japanese descent, not only was removed from office, but ended up being prosecuted for, among other crimes, not implementing the nation’s annual budget. Nigeria, under the military, could be counted on for one thing – the budget for the year would be delivered on time. It was so when the nation’s financial year ran from April 1 to March 31 of the following year. And, the practice remained unaltered until 1999, when General Abubakar handed the reins of power to President Obasanjo – a retired General turned civilian Head of State. Unexpectedly, the fiscal discipline which had characterized military administrations was lost from the time Obasanjo became President.

In his eight years in office, not only were the annual budgets presented late to the National Assembly, NASS, which had been under the control of the PDP from 1999, not a single year’s budget was implemented fully till today. Thus when Dr Yemi Kale announced the result of the rebasing exercise, the nation’s Statistician-General, discovered that his ground breaking effort, which deserved commendation, was greeted with widespread skepticism.

The head of the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, was a victim of guilt by association. Nigerians cannot believe that a nation whose leaders had demonstrated such monumental indiscipline with regard to the annual budget could overtake South Africa which, by comparison, had exhibited seriousness in the implementation of its economic programmes. The laxity started with Obasanjo, ably supported by the PDP-controlled NASS and the pattern has not changed till today.

One of the most important implications of this, which had escaped the attention of most observers, is the fact that the Nigerian economy has been, and remains, on “auto pilot” for years now. President Jonathan, like his predecessors, Obasanjo and Yar’Adua, is no more in control of the Nigerian economy than anyone of us. The major drivers of the economy are not subject to his control; and he has done very little to exercise control over them. They drift along subject to forces which the President of Nigeria neither understands nor can influence. Let me illustrate with some examples.

Rebasing of the GDP had confirmed what most astute economists knew for a long time, namely, that sale of crude oil does not constitute the overwhelming percentage of our economic output as conventional wisdom had led us to believe.

However, crude oil provides the largest pool of foreign exchange providing the capital for other activities to take place. Crude oil, more than any other revenue generator, illustrates the impotence of the Federal government of Nigeria to control the economic activities which have the most significant impact on our lives.

Global crude oil prices fluctuate

President Jonathan

Okonjo-Iweala

David Mark

Tambuwal

ET 2014: Going the way of the rest constantly based on so many external variables over which the government of Nigeria has no control. Let us consider two.

Global supplies and demand for crude oil. Crude prices rise and fall depending on the volume some other oil producers can export and what the consumers can absorb. Any disruption to the supplies from a major supplier, e.g Iraq, drives the price up. We have benefited from these disruptions since 1999 and the rising global demand for crude. And each year we had promised to diversify our economy to reduce the dependence on oil.

The measures required to achieve diversification invariably get incorporated into our annual budgets – which are never passed on time nor implemented when eventually approved. This year is proving to be the worst in the fourteen years since we returned to civil rule. From the very first mistake in 2000 till now, our three Presidents and the ruling party have increasingly turned budgeting to

an annual joke from which the nation is rescued by the turbulent global politics which had almost always guaranteed that the price of crude remains high.

B

ut that only means that we are gambling with Nigeria’s future.

Certainly, those in government, Executive and NASS, would regret the annual delays which occur with regard to preparing and passing budgets.

All it takes is for the world, at least the Middle East, to experience six months of peace and for Libya and Iran to start exporting up to their quota levels and the price of crude will drop drastically. When that

happens, it will not matter any more whether the budget is passed on time or not. Neither the Federal nor the state governments will be able to fund their projects, especially those designed to help diversify the economy, and everybody will feel the lash. Certainly, those in government, Executive and NASS, would regret the annual delays which occur with regard to preparing and passing budgets.

Finally, nobody needs to be an economist to know that the 2014 budget cannot be implemented anymore – for two reasons. One, a budget finally approved half wat into the year had already deleted those projects and programmes which should have been completed by midyear. Two, once 2015 election fever starts in the second half of the year, few Ministers, lawmakers or top government officials will concentrate on implementing the budget. Even the President, whether as candidate or party leader will be distracted.

The Executive branch will be busy with elections and the NASS will abandon their supervisory functions.

Obviously, the 2014 budget can be regarded a total write off. Pity.

¨This report was prepared before the budget was signed into law.

SUNDAY Vanguard, MAY 25, 2014, PAGE 31

Email: vanguardwoman@gmail.com

It isn't only maids that could chase your husband —Ayo Jaiyesimi, Group Head, Human Capital, First Bank

M

*Ayo

rs.Ayo Jaiyesimi is the Group Head of Human Capital & Development at First Bank of Nigeria Plc., where she has successfully managed its over 18,000 staff since 2008. An unusual professional who believes religious principles shouldn't be compromised even in workplaces, Ayo sits on the board of various not-for-profit organizations, including Needs and Special Purposes Foundation which caters for children with auditory impairments and Societal Positive Impact Initiative-SPIIN which is involved in community projects with emphasis on ethics and family. In this interview with Feminista, she speaks on how women professionals could achieve work-life balance and also reign as role models. Enjoy! and more.

Sometimes, my mother still goes out with me when I’m doing things like presentations and would signal me when I’m probably too fast.

BY JOSEPHINE IGBINOVIA

C

AN you share with us one of the greatest challenges you have surmounted as a woman in your profession?

It’s trying to not only be a Sunday Christian but a Christian every day of my life. This is because I believe whatever one’s value-base is as a Christian should permeate every aspect of one’s life, including work and family life. So, I’m always battling with the challenge of applying the principles of fairness, equity and standards in a country where you have so much corruption. By and large, I guess that’s why one has been sent out into the workplace and into the community, as a Christian woman, to be the light and make a difference.

What skills have given an edge so far?

C M Y K

I could say I have a very good sense of purpose and even when I feel down, I get back up easily because I know I’m not on earth by mistake. I believe I’m here for a purpose and therefore, wherever I work, I try to connect with that purpose. If you have that sense of purpose, then you find that you enjoy wherever you are.

I’m a Human Resource person but in every interaction with people, I cease the opportunity to touch a life.

Was growing up of any advantage to you as well?

Yes of course. I come from a ‘home’ and I believe that has shaped my ideology. I had a very good childhood.

I grew up with both parents, so, my father played his roles- he took me to school, taught me the multiplication table by himself, put me on his back, plaited my hair,

Your father did all of that for you? But why do we have dads these days relinquishing every parental role to mothers?

I just think it’s a failure on the older ones in the society because if you don’t mentor people, they may never know what they’re meant to do. I’m not going to blame

have ‘daddies’ and not ‘fathers’, and even surrogate mothers who give birth and leave their children to computer games without knowing jack about what is happening to these children. So, if we’re going to make a change in this generation, we must start with the family. Don’t forget: a family makes a community and a community makes a nation.

Combining work with family life is tough for most women; didn’t you have to rely on househelps while raising your children?

I’ve had maids of course, and I think it’s a good way to support yourself if you have to work.

But didn’t you fear they would steal into your

The closest person within your network could also do such. Your husband doesn’t need to look at your maid if he wants to run after somebody... It’s about you having confidence in yourself, and treating your maid right because whatever a man sows, he reaps. this generation of fathers only. Women too are culpable; we don’t have people telling younger people the essence of life and therefore, many are just living as they wish. Now, we

matrimonial bed?

Don’t forget it’s not only maids that could do that to you; even the closest person within your network could also do such. Your husband doesn’t need to look at your

maid if he wants to run after somebody; he can run after anybody or even a neighbor.

It’s about you having confidence in yourself, and treating your maid right because whatever a man sows, he reaps. I believe that if you invest in the life of your maid, God himself will invest in your own life.

Do you agree women are their own worst enemies, especially in workplaces?

Considering a number of situations, I would say yes because you hardly find a lot of women mentoring or networking with fellow women even when they have the required knowledge. They tend to hoard things. You also find that most women can’t cope with a female boss.

But how are you mentoring other women in your own capacity?

I’ll talk on two levels. As the head of Human Capital in a huge organisation such as First Bank of Nigeria Plc, I cannot claim it is possible to touch every woman because we have over 18,000 employers in various locations. But when I come across those with challenges, I try to mentor them. Also, as an organization, First Bank is setting up a platform for women because we’ve realized women specifically do need our support.

Sometimes, they probably just need someone to talk to, to overcome certain issues.

PAGE 32 — SUND AY SUNDA

Vanguard, MAY 25, 2014

U

NEASY calm pervades Magbon community in Badagry local government area of Lagos State over alleged unresolved murder cases.

The murder cases reached the peak at 8:30pm penultimate Friday at the Okada park in the community when 30- year-old Joel Ajose, described as an Odua Peoples Congress (OPC) leader, and 35-five-year old Segun Durojaiye were allegedly killed in cold blood by five men who laid siege to the community.

Before the death of Ajose and Durojaiye, residents said a football fan was murdered in a viewing centre during a UEFA Champions League match.

According to the residents, efforts to resolve the murder cases hit a brick wall at the Area K Police Command and Divisional Police Station, Marogbo which allegedly took no positive action notwithstanding that reports were lodged.

According to the Vice Chairman of Surulere CDA, Olushola Olabintan, who is also the Chairman of the Okada riders in Magbon, one Kenneth and an alleged accomplice with a locally made gun were arrested in connection with the Okada park murders but were later released by the police.

Meanwhile, youths in the neighbourhood issued an ultimatum to the police to apprehend the criminals terrorising the area.

T

he youths also threat ened showdown if government failed to replace the Area Commander at Area K Police Command and the Divisional Police Officer at Morogbo Police Station.

It was alleged that on some occasions when suspects were arrested in the community and handed over to the police, the suspects not only found their way back to the community but also organised the murder of whoever was in the forefront of their arrest.

Giving on insight into what might have led to the murder of Ajose, the ViceChairman of the CDA, Olabintan, said on April 1, 2014, one Kenneth and another young man disrupted business activities at the community’s shopping complex by brandishing a gun publicly before Ajose and himself apprehended him and both of them handed him and his accomplice over to the police.

He said after they and the suspects were made to write statements, the case was turned against him (Sola) and the police detained him alongside the suspects.

He said, “After handing the C M Y K

Controversy over the murder of OPC leader in Lagos community *We need help – Magbon chief suspects (Kenneth) and his accomplace over to the police, I was invited to write my statement. But I was surprised that the police suddenly turned the case against me, saying I was the one who sent someone to bring the gun from my house. I was detained for five days within the period I was supposed to celebrate my child’s naming ceremony.

Even while we were at the station, the suspect boasted before the Area Commander that he

*Chief Agbaje

was going to deal with Ajose for bringing him to the station.

“On May 2nd, Ajose was relaxing at the Okada park with friends. They came from the back, shot him and also used a matchete on him.

Another person who just came out to eat was also hit by stray bullet because they

kept firing. The only person we are suspecting of this murder is Kenneth.

That is the problem we are facing in this community.

Anytime someone is arrested and handed over to the police, they will turn the case against the complainant and before you know it the suspect will be freed and he

*Bereaved: The wife and children of Ajose, the slain OPC leader

Behold the WAEC hacker!

By SIMON EBEGBULEM, Benin-City

A

comes back to kill the person who facilitated his arrest.”

The baale of the community, Chief Zachaeus Kolawole Agbaje, criticized the Area Commander and the DPO, saying the community is better off without them.

He said, “We are appealing to the Federal Government to come to our assistance regarding killings here. I don’t know the job of the police in this community. Instead of investigating cases reported to them, they will turn a complainant to the accused.

“When they were called that Ajose was shot with another person, instead of taking the other victim to the hospital since he was still breathing, they took him to the police station where he died. We have been doing our best for peace to reign in this community but the police have been making this impossible.

“The Area Commander has even gone as far as calling me a fake baale. I am surprised. Any effort I make to bring peace into the community, he frustrates it. We don’t know what he wants to turn the community, even the whole of Badagry into.”

31- year-old man, Akharamen Ehizokhai, alleged to have hacked into the website of the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) has been arrested by the Edo State Police Command. The alleged fraudster was said to have opened a website where he posted fake questions and answers of Senior School Certificate Examination (SSCE) for candidates on agreed fees.

He allegedly charged per subject and had been involved in the illicit deal for two years. On the internet, the suspect allegedly collected N5,000 per subject.

Some of the students who got in touch with the suspect were said to have been directed to pay into a bank account with the name Akharamen Ehizokhai Fa-

vour.

Following persistent reports by parents and candidates over the alleged fraudulent activities of the suspect in Edo and neighbouring states, crack detectives from the Edo Command were detailed to trail him. Consequently, he was arrested in Ekpoma. He was paraded by the Edo State Commissioner of Police, Funso Adebanjo. The suspect admitted to have committed the crime, saying the purpose was to make money by defrauding unsuspecting WAEC candidates.

According to him, “ I have been into this business for some time now and it is because I have no other means of livelihood. I am sorry and I want God to help me out of this problem”.

Adebanjo described the suspect as the leader of a syndicate that tracks various websites of institutions in the country. “He has been into this business for over a year

•Akharamen Ehizokhai as we gathered and his activities have frustrated many candidates who wanted to pass exams through quick means. We got information about him and trailed him.

This is another 419 and because a lot of our children these days don’t want to read for exams they fall victims. I

want to use this opportunity to advise students to read their books or face failure.

And it is also unfortunate that sometimes parents indulge in this illicit act by giving their children money to pay people like this. This is wrong and that is why we are noticing lots of failures these days in examinations and that is not good for our country. Parents must resist the temptation of ensuring that their children pass exams by all means so that we will put this kind people out of job. We are going to charge him to court for fraud”.

Parading 32 other suspects, Adebanjo stated that five were arrested for robbery, nine for stealing, two for cultism and unlawful possession of firearm, one for abduction and two for fraud. The Police Commissioner listed the items recovered from the suspects to include 12 guns, five live ammunition, 67 cartridges, seven laptop computers and two vehicles.

SUNDAY VANGUARD, MAY 25, 2014, PAGE 33

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here have been reports of attacks allegedly carried out by political parties in the runup to the Ekiti gubernatorial election. What measures have you put in place to ensure the poll is peaceful?

We have been proactive in the sense that right from the commencement of the political campaigns, we had interactive sessions with the stakeholders especially the candidates of the political parties including their party executives. This is to ensure that they maintain a levelplaying ground and that they talk to their supporters. We also ensure that they comply with the Electoral Act. Besides talking to them, we are using the carrot and stick approach so that if you cross certain lines and infringe on the law, you will be charged to court. If you look at the statistics, since the commencement of the campaigns, there was an increase of violence, but because of the actions we have been taking, not minding the personalities, we were willing to step on toes, the incidences have gone down drastically.

We have charged to court and the cases cut across the three major political parties.

Since the beginning of this month, we have only recorded one case and most of the cases have been charged to court.

Once they see you to be fair and that you are maintaining a level-playing ground, they will respect you. But I want you to know that the three major political parties have been accusing the police and I feel happy when all of them accuse me rather than just one accusing me.

H

ow have you been handling cases of attacks that are genuine, trivial and outright falsehood in the course of the electioneering campaigns?

Those that engage in outright falsehood are those that report but do not follow up. Some of the parties come to make a general statement that their billboards have been pulled down and when you ask them to substantiate some suspects they fail.

The genuine cases are the ones that when you investigate, and those involved are charged to court.

We have recorded cases as minor as tearing of party posters to issues of attempted murder.

The level of violence we have witnessed is not unexpected, but it has not gone to the extreme. Nobody has been

been partnering with them including the traditional rulers.

The police have been accused of being compromised in previous elections. What measures are you putting in place to ensure this does not occur this time around?

We have been training our men at the command level and the area commanders, DPO levels. We do lecture our men in Tuesdays and electoral officers have been invited to lecture the DPOs and his men.

C

OMMISSIONER of Police in Ekiti State, Mr Felix Uyanna, is working round the clock to ensure that the June 21 governorship election in the state is conducted in a peaceful atmosphere.

In this interview, Uyanna speaks on what the Police Command, under his leadership, is doing to provide security ahead of the poll.

Excerpts:

A

By DAPO AKINREFON killed, no house has been set ablaze, no car has been burnt but we have had cases of breaking of vehicle windscreens and occasional assault.

The only case we have had that is extreme is attempted murder and we have charged to court.

Tell us what the inter-agency consultative committee on the election is doing to ensure free and fair poll.

I co-chair the committee with the Resident Electoral Commissioner in Ekiti State and the duties are defined. As the Co-chairman of the committee, I am more concerned about safety and security, to make sure that we provide a level-playing ground for all stakeholders.

To make that possible, I provide security for the electoral process. The integrity of the electoral process is to be ensured by the election management body, that is INEC. INEC will be the one that will comment on the issue of integrity but that does not mean that I am not taking any keen interest in that because once there is lack of sincerity or lack of justice, it is a recipe for violence.

I should be interested in knowing what INEC is doing though it is not my duty but as the person co-chairing the inter-agency consultative committee on election security, I also take interest in what INEC is doing so that they will conduct an election that is credible.

What about security before, during and after the elections We are working with other security agencies. Within the inter-agency consultative committee, we have the security sector forum. The committee comprises of the police and INEC with their heads as executive chairmen.

You also have the army, the SSS, the civil defence,

Mr Felix Uyanna,

Commissioner

Ekiti State

We are set, we are going to deploy enough Amoured Personnel Carriers and water canons, all in an attempt that we give everybody a level-playing ground immigration, road safety, the National Orientation Agency, the National Youth Service Corps who are part of the inter-agency consultative committee.

T

here is also the security sector forum, which I also chair, and which excludes INEC, the NOA and the NYSC. In this forum, we discuss issues that will ensure a level-playing ground for all the political parties.

The political parties apply to the Commissioner of Police before they can hold rallies and we make sure we give them approval. It is also our duty that, at the venue, they are not attacked or molested.

In the venues where the parties hold rallies we have approved, the DPO and his men will be there. We send

patrol vehicles and, of course, we tell the neighboring DPOs to be on the look out and make sure that people are not molested at the rallies or attacked.

And because we have been doing this, so far, the level of violence has been brought down drastically. We are just four weeks away to the election and people were looking forward that by now there would have been mayhem.

To that extent, I would say we are doing our best but I agree that we can still improve to reduce everything about violence to the barest minimum. But we are managing human beings.

Like I mentioned, beside talking to the leaders, we have had interactions with all sectors of the society, we have

t

the command headquarters, the Resident Electoral Commissioner came and lectured me and my men.

CLEAN Foundation has been a partner with the police. They will be coming to lecture us on issues relating to elections, election offenses, the conduct expected of police on election duty.

For the election, we expect that there will be more policemen from outside the state than the number I have on my strength, they will be coming to assist us. There will be a diffusion and a blend between the policemen coming from outside the state and the ones already on ground. I expect 6,000 in addition to the 4,000 that I have here and we are also expecting 1,600 from other security agencies. All these will blend and work together.

Some of them will be coming 24 hours to the election, under that circumstance, I do not think they will compromise.

Note also that we are going to use permanent voter’s cards which have chips inside and will will not be easy to forge.

The era of stealing of ballot box is gone.

I expect also that during that time, we will have sniffer dogs, I expect to have one police helicopter for aerial surveillance. I am also expecting that we will have police horses to help us have crowd control. We are set for the elections.

How optimistic are you that the election will be violence free and devoid of irregularities?

We cannot guarantee 100 per cent but I believe that a huge success will be scored because if you score more than 80 per cent in any examination, you have done well. We are set, we are going to deploy enough Amoured Personnel Carriers and water canons, all in an attempt that we give everybody a levelplaying ground. If there is any issue relating to violence, we will be able to counter it both from the air and on ground.

PAGE 34—SUNDAY VANGUARD, MAY 25, 2014

2015:

By Levinus Nwabughiogu Solomon Ewuga is the senator representing Nasarawa North in the Senate. He is said to have provided the “platform”upon which Umaro Tanko Almakura stood to become the governor of Nasarawa State in 2011. Meanwhile, things have changed and Ewuga has jilted their common political party, the APC, for the PDP. In this interview, he says Almakura would have a moral burden to contend with in his desire for second term in 2015. Excerpts: What informed your coming back to the PDP I have come back home. It is a party we formed in 1998 and I contributed immensely to the formation. Key players in the party in Nasarawa at that time were quite unseemly in their disposition towards my seeking any electoral position in the party and I am a gladiator.

And I felt that their conduct was antithetical to the b0asic tedium of democracy and I left.

But I have always been a founding member of PDP. It allows you to seek electoral fortunes, manifested in terms of capacity and re orientate you in view of any unacceptable attitude or behavior. I am back to the PDP. What did you see now in the PDP that was there then? What has changed?

Politics is about interests and if my interests manifest especially in the present dispensation, what is wrong with that?

I have worked according to the wave of the interests I represent. I have a community of interests and you notice that for whatever change that I have experienced; there has been a wave of change also. So, it means I am not doing it on a self-serving mission. I am doing it with a corporate value of interest and that is why I am doing what I am doing.

Speaking of interest, 2015 election is around the corner.

It is a popular knowledge that you want to become the next governor of Nasarawa State.

What are your chances?

Rather, I want to be able to provide service at any category of dispensation I find myself in. Being a governor is just one of the positions which orchestrate my interest politically. I started in 1982 in the then NPN. I contested for the popsition of state secretary. I didn’t get it but I ended being the publicity secretary in Plateau State, before the military took over. So I have held one office or the other nationally, in one party or another. I was the national auditor of the UNCP. I was the assistant national legal adviser, north central of the PDP when it started. So I have been visible as a politician and my visibility has an

No second term for Gov. Almakura —Senator Ewuga interest that manifests in gladiatorial terms the moment you participate in politics. So, if one does that, there must be a reason. It must also be understood that the supreme interest of providing service far surpasses any short term value that will manifest in the course of this business. But you can see that at every turn, there was a change, I went with people.

I didn’t go as a person that is on a solo trip to nowhere.

But it does appear the incumbent governor also wants re-election despite the fact that he preferred one term. You were a key player in his emergence and now want to contest. How do you reconcile these?

It is not for him to deny it. It is for him to be fixed with concrete details and data produced in the newspapers and sponsored by Taal organization, his own group. I was reading one the other day and was laughing. You don’t deny what you have done because of short term interest. You live by it and request to be considered given by what the dispensation allows you. But for you

Politics is about interests and if my interests manifest especially in the present dispensation, what is wrong with that? I have worked according to the wave of the interests I represent

to challenge it that you didn’t say it, it is brazen lie. You don’t do it. On whether I am contesting governorship, wouldn’t you if you have the opportunity?

PDP has got a lot of bashing since its formation in 1998.

Consequently, many people think it will not win an election in 2015. What chances do you stand?

Every re-election of candidates is always faced with difficult circumstances. It is not only in Nigeria, but all over the world. Once a person subjects himself for re-election, the difficulties are legendary.

Senator Solomon Ewuga ...Nasarawa governor should keep promise But it is how you manage the to those people and say, ‘look, difficulties that determines I didn’t say so’ or ‘ when I was your capacity to sail through. saying so, I didn’t mean it.

And opposition manifests in Now that the sweet in the apvarious forms. It is not because ple is irresistible, I want to conI would wish to contest for gov- tinue’. So, what is my own inernorship or not that will make side? It has to do with him not the PDP lose in 2015, it is more me.

Crisis recently enveloped of the capacity of the PDP to position itself as a party that is Nassarawa State. Of course, ready to sustain power that will the Eggon crisis is still fresh make it the real thing to look in the memory of some peoat. I was in CPC. I didn’t reg- ple. How did that happen?

You have forgotten that there ister in APC, so I wouldn’t say about the machinations. But, if have been similar crises in the what you are concerned with is southern part of the state. Peothe scenario that is on ground, ple were completely displaced. what I will tell you is that the The are still displaced. The dePDP is constant. APC is a flu- struction caused by those peoidity. So, in a movement of that ple is more but the governor sort, where do you think the is very happy to see that he gravity is tilting to? To the pole brands first the Eggon. Two, where the constance manifests develop out of that branding, more clearly because the clogs a criminalization process that in the other party have not puts all the people who are visstarted yet. When they start ible within the Eggon community and thirdly, to see how he you will see it.

Was Gov. Almakura’s one can use that to advance his term agreement with you in limited political interest. And every time, he does that, it principle or...?

He said it. I didn’t say it. shows red to him and, thereThere was no promise between fore, I must be out of the way. him and I that says ‘ when I fin- That is what it is. Let it be notish I will give you’. There was ed that before the Justice nothing like that. But when Gbadeyan report came out, he you say it as an open thing, it had gone to one of ours elders is even in the papers, his or- in the state to say he was goganization expressing it. What ing to sign a detention notice else do you want me to say? It on me and the man told him: is left for the people whom he ‘You can’t do that. He is a senpromised to say it. And he ator of the Federal Republic. didn’t say it behind my back. The processes are different.

He said it with me in the cam- You can’t sign a detention nopaign tour and I kept telling tice on him’. That was in Auhim ‘don’t say that’. But he gust 2012. So he had had this wouldn’t agree. He now wants fear that I could be his limitpower. So, what is my own busi- ing factor in developing his reness in it. It is for him to back election ambition. So, consistently, he has maintained that

issue. When he brought out that White Paper, it was a third party action orientation.

These are the two issues; one, that I am suspected to be a financier and abettor of Ombatse and so, I should be investigated further towards prosecution. Secondly, I gave false testimony under oath. In each of these reports, it requires an action before my criminalization. So the stage you could see is to embarrass me because if the intention was towards prosecution, he could have done it right from the beginning, instead of wasting so much of tax payers’ money and ending up in a non-conclusive indictment. If you want to say I gave false testimony under oath, bring the truth. It has to be balanced against the background of the lies I produced under oath. Well, you need to conjecture what exactly the intentions are. But you know what, not only is that an issue.

Our elders committee had gone to him to plead that his intention to go to Alakio should not happen because, as a community, we were meeting on the 9th; he went to Alakio on the 7th. We said don’t do it, that we are almost curing any malady arising from the problems you think are on the ground. But look at the disaster that came out of it. 12 trucks went, for God’s sake, for one, senile old man. It failed and I feel very sad because it pains us. It was less than 200 people that live in that community. I didn’t know. When I went there, I said what could have orchestrated a plan for 12 police vehicles to go there? I still don’t understand.

I feel very sad about the state of difficulties we have gone through. I feel very sad too that we are being demonized but where the profile of a person has been, to insist on a scenario that is not my own. He is the chief security officer of the state. It is his business to calm the issues but if he doesn’t, what else can you do?

Now, wait and see what direction he intends to take. Let me tell you that both individually and corporately, people have come to him to tell him that he must find a more accommodating spirit. But since he has allowed it to pervade for too long, I want to know why he is allowing it to go to this level where things are getting out of control across the state.

Going forward, what would you tell him?

Let him do what is right.

There is no advice that I haven’t given him. But he has a different perspective on the way he wants to handle it.

There is nothing new about what I am telling you. When you go to him, instead of addressing the issues, he will give you the White Paper. I am in court to challenge the White Paper.

SUNDAY VANGUARD, MAY 25, 2014, PAGE 35

•Gov. Sullivan Chime

June of the same year. Chime narrated his story: Chimaroke invited me and pleaded that I should join his administration. I heeded the call because I wanted to contribute to the building of the state. I worked quite closely with him. At some point when the executive council was dissolved, I was the only commissioner for about a month. No other commissioner was appointed until later. But unfortunately when it comes to some ideas, I may not always have my way. If the head doesn’t share your view, what do you do?’’

According to Chime, the situation, however, came to a head when Chimaroke invited him to Protea Hotel, Abuja, shortly after returning home after several months outside the country.

Chime stressed that on the occasion, in June 2007, his former boss invited him to his suite at

•Senator Ike Ekweremadu

2015: The battle for Enugu *The Chime suspense; Ekweremadu at the cross-roads

BY EMEKA MAMAH

W

HO takes over from Governor Sullivan Chime of Enugu State when he leaves office on May 29, 2015? This is the question that has been agitating the people’s mind since Chime announced that his successor would come from the Nsukka zone without mentioning who he would support.

Chime made this known during a Town Hall meeting with stakeholders in Enugu in May 2013.

According to the governor, whose speech then was punctuated with thunderous applause from the audience during the meeting of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, the arrangement was for the party to pick its next flag bearer from Enugu North (Nsukka).

The governor, from the PDP which has ruled the state since 1999, hails from the Enugu West Senatorial District and would be completing his eight-year tenure of four years each in May next year. He took over from Dr Chimaroke Nnamani who also completed eight years in office from Enugu East Senatorial District, leaving Nsukka as the only zone which has not produced a governor in the state since 1999.

Chime said there is an unwritten rotational arrangement in the selection of its governorship candidates within the PDP in the state. The state caucus of the party has since endorsed Chime’s position, as emphasised by the former Senate President, Chief Ken Nnamani, in Abuja weeks ago.

Low Level of Political Activities

However, despite the ovation which greeted the governors speech during the town hall meeting supporting the zoning formula, no governorship aspirant

from the zone has publicly declared interest in spite of the fact that several names are being touted as aspirants. Before Chime made his declaration, many aspirants were believed to have been nursing governorship ambition. Those said to be nursing such ambition are Senator Ayogu Eze, who represents the area in the Senate, the Chairman of the PDP in the state, Chief Vita Abba, Speaker of the state House of Assembly in the last eight years, Eugene Odo, a former member of the House of Representatives, Ambassador Fidel Ayogu, the proprietor of Peace Mass Transit Company, Chief Samuel Maduka Onyishi, two members of the House of Representatives, Hon Ifeanyi Ugwanyi and Dr Pat Asadu.

Others include Prince Emeka Mamah, a scion of the Ifesinacchi dynasty, and the former Secretary to the State Government, SSG, under Chimaroke Nnamani’s regime, Dr Dan Shere.

It is believed that Chime’s proclamation that his successor would come from Nsukka zone has instead of enbolding aspirants to come forward with their programmes, doused the tempo.

An aspirant who spoke on the condition of anonymity said that some of the aspirants were showing interest to ensure that they would be remembered during the sharing of positions in the party. ‘’There is nobody in the PDP that does not know the powers of a governor produced by the party in the scheme of things. We are all waiting for whoever the governor would anoint”, he said.

Everybody waiting for Chime’s endorsement

Apart from Senator Ike Ekweremadu, the deputy Senate President, who openly challenged Chime initially for zoning the position to Nsukka, no other politician of note has made his ambition open.

Every other political activity in

Enugu is nocturnal.

Politicians would confront journalists at functions for not mentioning their names among those in the governorship race in their analysis but would not want to be quoted directly as saying they nurse such ambition. Political gladiators are watching with keen interest the political atmosphere and the body language of Chime who once said he would prefer somebody who had worked with the PDP political family to succeed him instead of outsiders.

Ebeano family factor

The former governor of the state, Nnamani, introduced the former Ebeano (the place to be) political structure under which he selected those that held positions at the state and federal levels. It will indeed be correct to say that most political gladiators in the state today passed through the tutelage of the Ebeano godfather and they know the rules of the game. While Nnamani held sway, it was sacrilegious for any member of the Ebeano family to struggle or aspire to any position as members waited for the leader to allocate positions to them.

It was like a military formation where the most senior officer usually ‘’thinks for the rest and nobody thinks when the oga is around.’’

Chime emerged from the Ebeano political family. Others who belonged to the strange family include Ekweremadu and Ayogu Eze as well as all the present members of the National Assembly from the state.

Cracks in

Ebeano

However, a lot of water has passed under the Ebeano bridge in the last seven years. The cracks in the family started shortly after Chime won elections in 2007 and reached a climax when “Chimaroke snubbed the governor at the Protea Hotel, Abuja sometime in

Despite the ovation which greeted the governors speech during the town hall meeting supporting the zoning formula, no governorship aspirant from the zone has publicly declared interest in spite of the fact that several names are being touted as aspirants

Protea Hotel, Asokoro, Abuja.

He went on: “When I got there, I met him and we exchanged pleasantries. He was sitting with some other people. Before I could sit down, he got up, picked his phones and said he didn’t want to see me and that when he was ready to see me he would send for me again. I thought it was a joke. But he went inside his room.

We were there still wondering what was happening. When he came out of the room he repeated it that he was not prepared to see me.

And he walked out on me, went downstairs and entered his car.

He said he would tell me when I would come to see him when he was ready. So, the other three gentlemen followed me downstairs and we even attempted to

see if we could catch up with him, but by the time we got downstairs, he had driven off. I also entered my car and drove off. That was my first meeting with my predecessor. That was someone I spoke with on phone earlier that day. I didn’t just go there; he invited me over. We agreed that I was coming. So, do you want me to force myself on him? Then, I was still fresh as governor. He had been there as governor and knows what being a governor means.

You invited me as your governor and I came. And the next thing you do is to walk out on me. How do we describe such a behaviour?

It is on record that I went to meet with him. That was the treatment I got from him the first time I met him. Can you imagine the treatment, as governor? I am still waiting for him to say `I want to see you!’.

Politicians

queue

However, in the last few months, there have been indications that politicians have been lining up behind Chime and Ekweremadu, who is obviously fighting to avoid being prematurely retired from politics. Chime is said to be interested in contesting the Senate seat for Enugu East which Ekweremadu, a former local government chairman, chief of staff to the governor and Secretary to the State Government, currently occupies and, with the governorship seat already zoned out of Enugu East where he hails from, there is no other higher position for him to contest, hence he is afraid of premature retirement from public glare.

Dark horse

A dark horse may emerge as governor of the state in 2015. Although Chime has kept his preferred candidate close to his chest, whoever he eventually anoints will likely face Ekweremau’s preferred candidate. The Deputy Senate President has been spending most of his days in Enugu State at Nsukka where he is believed to be mobilising support for his candidate. This was even as the former Minister for Information, Chief Nnia Nwodo, was quoted as asking politicians from other zones to allow Nsukka people chose a governor of their choice for the state. Nwodo spoke at a party hosted for Ekweremadu at Nsukka by one of his supporters, Mr Chinedu Onuh.

However, political developments in the last few months indicate that none of the present crop of aspirants embarking on nocturnal campaigns would occupy the Lion Building as the Enugu Government House is known. Apart from Ekweremadu, a cold war is currently raging between the governor and those the local PDP supporters refer to as Abujabased. The governor was alleged to have incurred the wrath of the Abuja politicians when he was quoted as saying most of them who had spent two terms would not be re-elected. Chime was said to have made the declaration in view of the zoning arrangement in most of the constituencies in the state.

If the governor ’s threat sails through, it would mean that almost all the members of National Assembly would lose their positions for fresh blood, hence the no-love-lost between them and their leader in the state.

PAGE 36—SUNDAY VANGUARD, MAY 25, 2014

The North must not force Niger Delta youths to take up arms again —Dudu Prince Ebile Dudu is the National Coordinator, Niger Delta Youths for Jonathan. In this interview, he says President Goodluck Jonathan deserves second term, insisting that the people of the Niger Delta will not forgive Jonathan if he fails to declare his intention for the 2015 presidential election soon. Excerpts: ou have been drum ming support for President Jonathan in the states, May we know how it has been?

It has been so fine. We want the President to come back even though he has not declared his interest; Niger Delta youths want him back. If he refuses to come back, we will not forgive him. This is our time, the West took their eight years; if Yar ’Adua was alive, he would have taken his eight years and the North has been ruling us for years. We believe that it is President Jonathan’s constitutional right to run for second term. That is why we have been touring the country to convince youths from other regions on why they must support Jonathan. Jonathan is doing very well as President and we need his experience.

Boko Haram This insurgency did not

Y

Prince Ebile Dudu start from Jonathan’s time; he inherited most of these problems. The first time Boko Haram struck was during the administration of the late President Yar’Adua but they now intensified their activities during Jonathan’s tenure.

We are aware that their aim is to distract government but in a couple of months their activities will be over.

Again, talking about poverty and our economy, these are problems that have eaten deep into our lives for years, just like corruption.

And you don’t expect this President to end all the problems, created over 50 years ago, in four years.

When Jonathan came, he increased the salaries of Youth Corps members; our

And this insinuation people always make that Jonathan is slow in taking decision or that he is weak is not true, we forget that we are in a democracy railway system has started working; look at our airports; the economy is growing and investors are coming every day. So if he is given another term, poverty will be a forgotten issue.

And this insinuation people always make that Jonathan is slow in taking decision or that he is weak is not true, we forgot that we are in a democracy, and in a democracy, you don’t take decisions on your own; you have to consult. If the man decides to take decisions like the military now, people will say he is a dictator. Now he has been given approval by the National Assembly for the extension of state of emergency in three of the troubled states in the North, after he

requested for it.

That is how a leader should behave but we will recall that some leaders in the past will not seek the approval of the National Assembly before taking such decision.

But the argument is that the state of emergency has not achieved anything. So why ask for extension?

That is not true, it has achieved success. Boko Haram activities have been on there for over 10 years, so they had solidified their structure. Six months of state of emergency cannot dismantle the structure of over 10, 15 years. The problem we are have is that we tend to politicise everything in this country and it is not doing us any good.

Do you think Jonathan actually deserves second term considering the fact that projects even from his area, like the East West Road, are yet to be completed?

He deserves even more than second term because this is a President that met

so many problems more than any other President in the past, yet he is dealing with them. The East West Road you are talking about is 80 per cent completed and we believe that before the end of this year he will complete it. Remember that he did not start these projects, but when you look at the progress made so far you will know that he is committed. Apart from that, you should also know that he is not the President of the Niger Delta but of Nigeria; so he should be tackling all the problems in other regions as well. I seriously believe he is doing his best in all the regions and if he is given more time Nigerians will never regret it.

What has been the response from the states you visited?

We have visited many states and the response has been quite encouraging. We have been to Delta, Akwa Ibom, Edo, Rivers, Bayelsa, Ekiti and we are continuing. But what I have observed in the Niger Delta is that there is consensus among the states that our son, President Jonathan, must come back. That is why we are calling on him to declare his intention soonest because we want him back to complete his good works. But if he said he does not want to, we all will come to Aso Rock to force him to do it, even if

they want to kill all of us, they can go ahead. It is our turn and nobody can stop us.

But the North says it is their turn I don’t see what the North has that we don’t have. We even have what they don’t have, oil. However we respect them and expect them to reciprocate. They have been there for a long time; let them support us. When Yar ’Adua was there, we supported him. So I don’t see any reason the North should not support us now.

Again no threat will break up Nigeria as people are saying. Nigeria did not break up when the North was ruling, so it will not break now that Jonathan is in-charge. And I want to urge delegates to the confab to also know that the purpose of that conference is to find solutions to our problems and not to go there to look for issues that will divide us or run down the President. The youths of Niger Delta are not ready to take up arms again but they should not make us to take up arms because it will not be to the benefit of all of us. We are already tired of Boko Haram;so we should not look for another problem. Again people will be making a big mistake by trying to use Boko Haram to stop Jonathan’s presidency in 2015, there is no way it will work.

Zoning is part of Akwa-Ibom politics, says PDP aspirant

BY UDEME CLEMENT A gubernatorial aspirant on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Mr. Robert Umoette, in this interview, reviews the crisis in the party, stressing that zoning has been part of Akwa Ibom’s politics.

D

O you think it is possible for the PDP to loose Akwa Ibom State following the crisis rocking the party now?

Well, it is possible if the party gives a candidate that is rejected by the people. That is why we are calling for transparency and open ballot system in the conduct of the party primaries for the governorship election. The process for selecting the candidate should be transparent and the policy of inclusiveness must be practised. This will afford the people an opportunity to pick the candidate of their choice.

What is your reaction to the statement credited to Don Etiebet on the PDP’s zoning principle in Akwa Ibom?

I respect Atuekong Don Etiebet a lot. However, I disagree with his position on zoning. Trying to drag

the Presidency into the matter did not go down well with Anietie Okon, which is why he reacted immediately. Such a comment on the pages of newspapers does not dignify the PDP, considering that the party’s constitution recognizes zoning and zoning has been applied since 1999 until 2007 in the state.

This principle will not be abandoned now to some people outside Eket Senatorial District, that is, Akwa Ibom South . No one should drag the Presidency into the affairs of the PDP in the state, because the Presidency has its own challenges.

I will advise them as elders of the party to come together and resolve the matter behind closeddoors. Whatever the situation is, we can sit together and resolve it. I am aware that all this is all about 2015 gubernatorial election and who succeeds Akpabio, but that is no reason we should set the house on fire with our remarks.

In Akwa Ibom, the people will decide who they want based on zoning principle, as far as governorship is concerned.

How do you see the issues he raised?

Atuekong Etiebet alleged

Mr. Robert Umoette that the governor is not carrying the elders of the party along and that he has pocketed the party in the process of determining who becomes the governor of the party come 2015. He also said that there is nothing like zoning of the governorship position; rather, all aspirants should be allowed to contest the primaries.

Now I will like to shed light on that. As an elder of the party, I believe he knows the fact that there has always been zoning in the state. Zoning has been an integral part of Akwa Ibom politics. You will recall that in 1999, it was resolved that Uyo District should produce the governor and Obong Victor Attah became the governor.

And ahead of the comple-

Akpabio should think seriously about the process that produced him as the governorship candidate of the party and allow the people to choose their candidate tion of his tenure, Obong Attah, as the leader of the party in 2005, decided with the executive of the party and elders that governorship position should be zoned to Ikot Ekpene Senatorial District. Since the Annang constitutes the majority, an Annang man, in the person of Akpabio, became the governor. So it is only right to allow the third leg of the tripod, which is Eket, Akwa Ibom South Senatorial District to produce the next governor. On the basis of this, zoning has always been there, and I see no reason why it should not happen again.

It does not mean that anybody who is not from Eket should not contest, but the

position of the party is that the governorship position is zoned to Eket. You can see that the whole crisis is all about fear that the governor may anoint a successor for the 2015 election, and I think all party leaders in the state should not disrupt the peace in the party. Akpabio should think seriously about the process that produced him as the governorship candidate of the party and allow the people to choose their candidate from Akwa Ibom South.

What is your view about security in Akwa Ibom?

The state has been very peaceful and everyone goes about his daily activities without fear of attack. Unfortunately, in the buildup to the 2011 elections, there were attacks, kidnapping and assassinations. The whole thing came to a stop and recently people started raising the alarm that crime might raise its ugly head again as the elections are approaching, especially with the recent murder of a politician, who is a strong member of the PDP in Abak, Albert Ukpanah.

I implore all politicians in Akwa Ibom to fear God, knowing that they cannot

create life.

What measures will you advise President Goodluck to adopt in tackling killings by Boko Haram?

It has been over a month since the girls were abducted and there have been series of attacks. It is terrible and grossly unacceptable.

It is very unfortunate and this is almost going out of control. The Federal Government must be pragmatic in tackling the situation.

There should be no sacred cow, if there is anybody who has been linked with Boko Haram, such person must be brought to book.

Also international collaboration with the United States and UK in the areas of intelligence and military hardware is a welcome development. They will give direction on how to tackle the menace. I am happy about their readiness to assist. Also, the governments of Cameroon, Niger and Chad should live up to their neighbourly responsibilities by assisting Nigeria instead of providing support for these criminals. Government should also look at the urgent need to build proper border line to make our borders less porous.

SUNDAY Vanguard, MAY 25, 2014, PAGE 37

DAYS AFTER JOS TWIN BLASTS

Still searching for missing pregnant wives! *’Francis, a peaceful man, dies violently’

different at the Bingham University Teaching Hospital where relatives trooped to, to identify the corpses or check those on admission.

People of different tribes and religion were seen at the hospitals evacuating the corpses of their relatives for burial.

Jos on Tuesday after the bombers struck

BY MARIE-THERESE NANLONG.

T

HE fragile peace in Jos, the Plateau State capital was on Tuesday shattered when two suicide bombers detonated bombs in two separate vehicles at the central business district of Jos known by residents as Terminus.

The police said the space where the bombs were detonated was 100meters apart while the primary and secondary blasts occurred within a 20 minutes’ interval.

Many banks, shops and other businesses operate along that axis of the town and residents prefer shopping there as traders have abandoned the burnt Jos Main Market in the neighbourhood as well as the newly built Satellite Market at Rukuba road, Jos where they claim low patronage.

The traders set makeshift shops while others engage in street trading in the area where the blasts occurred and these account for the high casualty rate.

About 100 might have lost their lives and over 120 others critically injured.

The injured are receiving treatment in hospitals across Jos. A report on the bombings casualty released on Wednesday by the state Commissioner for Information and Communication, Mrs. Olivia Dazyem, said, “Plateau State Specialist Hospital has 35 injured, 44 deaths; Bingham University Teaching C M Y K

Most of the corpses seen on the floor of the hospital’s mortuary were women and children, including some pregnant women Hospital has 30 injured, six deaths; Our Lady of Apostle Hospital has 10 injured and no death; Jos University Teaching Hospital has 45 injured, 25 deaths; FOMWAN Clinic has five injured and no death while Yellow Clinic has one injured and the person later died.

Security agencies cordoned off the two sites of the explosions.

When Sunday Vanguard visited the site on Friday, people were still combing different hospitals in search of missing relatives.

Most residents remained indoors except those who went to secure their shops or verify the whereabouts of their missing loved ones.

The Red Cross, National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA and its state counterpart as well as other stakeholders were seen on duty.

Banks rendered skeletal services, shops along major streets in the city remained locked while school children stayed indoors as their schools were also closed.

Sunday Vanguard’s visit

to the temporary site of the Jos University Teaching Hospital, JUTH, Bingham University Teaching Hospital and the Plateau State Specialist Hospital revealed a high number of victims as many charred bodies including those of children were seen in the mortuaries.

Officials approached declined comments but a medical personnel at JUTH, who pleaded not to be quoted, said “many corpses were brought to the hospital on Tuesday and the injured persons were taken to the permanent site of the hospital for medication”.

An official at the Plateau State Specialist Hospital said 15 of the injured victims brought were in need of blood.

He called for people to donate blood as the hospital needed a lot more to treat the victims as about “35 people are still on admission” in the hospital.

Most of the corpses seen on the floor of the hospital’s mortuary were women and children, including some pregnant women.

The situation was not

Peaceful man, violent death Most of the victims’ families who came to evacuate the corpses were distressed to speak but some told their stories.

According to a native of Orlu, Imo State who said his name was not “important”, he and his people were in the morgue of the Plateau State Specialist Hospital to evacuate “the corpse of Francis, a peaceful man who did not deserve a violent death”.

He said, “Francis was a Keke NAPEP (tricycle) driver, a father of three who died and left an old mother in the village.

“I am not related to him by blood but we are from the same village, lived in the same area here in Jos and worshipped in the same church. We met on Monday evening and, as usual, we were together discussing how business went on the day.

“On the fateful Tuesday, these evil people came.

Francis passed by my shop at Railway Line and waved as if he knew he was saying final goodbye”.

He described the deceased victim as “an easy going man who went out in search of daily bread but was killed by these evil people”.

Another person, who gave his name as Chilobi Amadi and is also the Chairman, Railway Line Traders’ Association, who was physically shaken, said he was still going round to check the whereabouts of his people.

He said, “I am the owner of Do Good Curtain World.

Tuesday was terrible. I was in the shop with my wife and children. At about to 3pm, I was expecting my pastor who was to come and pray for me because is business in not moving well. Before he came, I went to my friend’s shop to see him. Then the pastor came; immediately we ended the prayer inside my shop and I said amen, we heard an explosion.

“People started running, fire was raging and before we knew what was happening, the second one

exploded. I just gathered my family and we found our way out”.

Amadi thanked God for the survival of his household but was distressed as many members of his association were affected.

“We are still searching for missing family members of some of our members. Two of our members’ wives were pregnant; some, their attendants are still missing, we are searching for them.

The case of the pregnant wives is particularly distressing. We have been to many hospitals where victims of the blasts are receiving treatment and the mergres without seeing them. We only pray they are not dead. If they are dead with their unborn children, it will be so sad. Even then, dead or alive, we are desperate to find them”, the traders association boss stated.

At JUTH, one Abdulahi Musa said he came to the hospital to recover the body of his friend, identified as Aminu Mailemu.

He said the victim was selling orange in the market and was last seen pushing his wheel barrow in the area where the incidents took place.

Bereaved cleric A cleric, Godwin Ejeh, of Kingdom Dominion Chapel, Dadin Kowa, lost his 18year-old daughter, Shekina, who was sent to the market to buy groceries and was caught up in the blasts.

Another survivor, who gave her name as Regina, said she came to buy things in the market and had almost finished her business when the bombinbgs occurred.

She lost all she bought, ended up with a broken arm but is thankful that she is alive to tell the story.

The President of Igbo Community Association, Chief Jonah Ezekwueme, in company of his people, was seen trying to identify Igbo victims of the blasts.

Ezekwueme said that they identified eight Igbo among the dead victims and nine injured at the Bingham University Teaching Hospital and Our Lady of Apostles Hospital.

“We are on our way to other hospitals to carry out further identification,” he added.

Security agencies and other stakeholders said they were investigating the blasts.

PAGE 38— SUND AY SUNDA

Vanguard, MA Y 25, 2014 MAY

Nigeria and the ills of child marriage *The Kano child-bride suspected of killing husband, friends as case study

By FUNMI AJUMOBI

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ASILA Umar, a 14-year-old child bride, made news in April when she killed her husband and four of his friends through food poisoning.

Wasila’s case as a child bride was not the first but attracted public attention because it resulted to murder after 17 days of marriage to her husband. She alleged it was a forced marriage to a man she did not love and didn’t want to have relationship with. This was purely a violation of the right of the girl. No girl should be robbed of her childhood, her education and health, and her aspirations. Child marriage is increasingly recognized as a violation of the rights of girls for the following reasons: *Effectively ending their education *Blocking any opportunity to gain vocational and life skills *Exposing them to the risks of tooearly pregnancy, child bearing, and motherhood before they are *physically and psychologically ready *Increasing their risk of intimate partner sexual violence and HIV infection The right to ‘free and full’ consent to a marriage is recognised in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) prohibits child marriage.

Under the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), governments have committed to ensure the overall protection of children and young people aged under 18. Child marriage and the range of rights implications it has substantially infringe the protection.

Here, one could argue that it is Islam that encourages child brides.

However, Islam alone is not sufficient to explain why child brides exist in such a wide geography that spans in the North. In as much as Islamic marital jurisprudence regulates the marriage contract (Nikah), one could argue that it is people who participate in the practice and give (verbal or written) consent to the signing of the contract that should be looked into.

However, the situation requires us to ask whether participation is voluntary or forced and the consent, the act of a free individual or an act of compliance. In Islam, according to research, the Nikah requires consenting partners. In theory, Islam does not encourage forced marriages—it annuls them but in C M Y K

practice, the boundaries of consent are blurred. Could we argue that every “Yes” translates into consent?

On the contrary, in many cases, those participating in the practice are given no other chance than to participate, which reduces their consent to mere formality. It is not a 14-year-old girl that is making the decision here. The decision is taken on behalf of her by the family, relatives or the community.

In Nigeria, particularly northern Nigeria has some of the highest rates of early marriage in the world. The Child Rights Act, passed in 2003, raised the minimum age of marriage to 18 for girls. However, federal law may be implemented differently at the state level, and to date, only a few of the country’s 36 states have developed provisions to execute the law and those who have developed it are not doing anything to implement it. To further complicate matters, Nigeria has three different legal systems operating simultaneously— civil, customary, and Islamic—and state and federal governments have

*Nigerian children...not well protected! control only over marriages that take place within the civil system.

Unfortunately the persistent underaged marriage especially in the North, according to a UNICEF report, is that six out of the eight-point agenda for the world achievement on Millennium Developmental Goals by 2015 would not be achieved unless something urgent is done. This

simply means the international community will not achieve its commitment to reduce global poverty unless it tackles child marriage. As the world celebrates Children’s Day on Tuesday, one thing is clear: Under the Sharia law practised in Kano State, Wasila’s social injustice should be looked into.

We spoke to some child rights experts on the implementation of the Child Rights Act.

Wasila is a child in conflict with Taiwo Akinlami is a child protection specialist; an independent legal & social regulatory expert; a consultant on child’s rights & responsibilities and a consultant to UNICEF on child protection. He speaks on the chances of Wasila escaping death if the court finds her guilty of killing her husband because our laws are against sentencing children to death

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he story of Wasila Umaru is another clear but sad signal that children reject the retrogressive practice of child marriage, particularly in the North.

Please note that, having spent 17 years pleading the cause of the Nigerian child and his/her right to protection, I do not believe that parents who give out their children in marriage are wicked people, who do not want the best for their children. I think it is, in most cases, that the parents lack the right knowledge, skill and attitude in determining the present and the future of their children. I believe that there is the need for back-breaking and relentless reorientation efforts, aimed at enlightening the parents on this serious matter and others relating to the welfare and future of the children..

I have also said it times without number that until we address the problem of poverty as a nation, we are not ready to address the issue of child’s rights and child is protection.

Poverty is stronger than religious hold. As a matter of fact, many people see religion as their only hope, when they cannot make ends meet. I think that is why Karl Marx said and I verily agree with him that ‘religion is the opium of the people.’

When the existence of a people, who are supposed to give care to children either as primary of secondary caregivers is abused, it will be unrealistic to expect them not to abuse their children.

If we do not arrest the trend of child marriage through reorientation of parents and eradication of poverty, the cases of child marriage may continue and we may again have in our hands cases of disgruntled children expressing their frustration like Wasila Umaru did.

place of child offenders. When a child commits an offence, it is not the position of the law that he/she is allowed to go free simply because he/she is a child. He/she is called a child in conflict with the law. A child in conflict with the law is not also exonerated simply because he/she commits or omits to commit the act because of a noble or justifiable cause. The thinking of the law is that no citizen should take law into his/her hands. It is called jungle justice. Therefore it is very important to educate other children, who may be married today against their will and are considering the ‘Wasila Umaru Option’, that it may be counter-productive.

If their goal is to be free from the marriage, they will definitely be free from their forced marriage but they may not be free from the wrath of the law and if they will be free, it may not be immediate.

On Wasila’s rights On her rights, I think it is important to note that she is innocent until proven guilty as provided in the Constitution. It is also important to know that our law recognises the

If Wasila is found guilty The good news for Wasila Umaru is that even if she found guilty by the court, she will not be sentenced to death because our law is against sentencing children to death.

SUND AY SUNDA

Vanguard, MAY 25, 2014, PAGE 39

Killer bride-child has no protection under the law — Prof. Owosanoye Professor Bolaji Owasanoye, Executive Director of Human Development Initiatives, and member, Lagos State Child Rights Implementation Committee, analyses the Sharia law, the Penal Code and the Child Rights Act.

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hat becomes of Wasila Umaru, the child bride who killed her 35-year-old husband, especially as the girl has confessed to the act, justifying it on the grounds of forced marriage to a man she didn’t love?

This unfortunate incident arose from the prevalent but harmful practice of child marriage in parts of Nigeria especially the North. According to a recent UNICEF Situation Analysis of Women and Children in Nigeria, the average age of marriage nationwide is: North West 14.6; North East 15; South East 20.2; South West 20.2; North Central 17. From there statistics, the region with the lowest age of marriage is the North West. The practice of child marriage is commonest in northern Nigeria and is strongly linked to religious and cultural beliefs which ignore the physical and emotional limitations of the girl-child for marital and parental responsibilities.

The practice is also rooted in the reluctance of the North to invest in Western education, an attitude that forms one of the misconceived grievances of Boko Haram for launching insurgent and terrorist attacks against the North East since 2009.

In the southern states of Nigeria, the Criminal Code applicable set the age of

•Professor Bolaji Owasanoye criminal responsibility at 17. In the northern states, the Penal Code of 1960 specifies that seven is the minimum age of criminal responsibility and it categorizes juvenile offenders as those under the age of 17. According to the Sharia law, children are eligible for had (for which the prescribed punishment is mandatory) and qisas (punishment by

the law — Akinlami Please note that the Child’s Rights Act 2003 has made copious and revolutionary provisions about the perception of the law on children in conflict with the law. The Child’s Rights Act, 2003 has provided for Child Justice Administration (Sections 204 –259) to replace the Juvenile Justice Administration, which has been in existence for several decades in Nigeria and supported by legislations like, Children and Young Persons Act (CYPA), Penal Code, Criminal Code and the Sharia Penal Code. Under the former Juvenile Justice Administration, which was punitive in nature, children in conflict with the law were in most cases tried like adults, especially those who have committed serious or capital offences like robbery, murder, rape or similar severe offences. As a result, children offenders have their cases tried in regular courts, sentenced to jail and imprisoned with adults instead of being given more reform-oriented, noncustodial forms of sentences. Section 204 of the Act provides: ‘No child shall be subjected to the criminal justice process or criminal sanctions, but a child alleged to have committed an act which would constitute a criminal offence if he were an adult shall be subjected only to the child justice system and processes set out in this Act.’ Please note that Kano State is one of the C M Y K

states which are yet to domesticate the Child’s Rights Act, 2003 as a state law and therefore Juvenile Justice Administration, which is punitive in nature as described above, is still in force.

As regards, the Boko Haram threat, I think it is the failure of the state that our government cannot guarantee the security and the welfare of its citizens.

I think it is beyond child marriage.

How did Boko Haram kidnap close to 300 girls, loading them into six trucks without any intervention. The school, where the children were kidnapped, was locked for about four weeks because of the tension created by insecurity. When the children are to be lodged there to take their examination, what security measures were put in place to protect the children?

Call to government The lasting call is for us to engage government to make a firm commitment to child protection systems. Systems’ thinking is the global trend in child protection today.

It is to put in place formidable structures which are targeted towards prevention of all forms of abuse instead of focusing on sporadic response to child abuse.

•Taiwo Akinlami

retaliation) punishment from the age of puberty.

Under Sharia law applicable in Kano where the offence was committed, age of criminal responsibility is set at puberty. Given the fact that Wasila was married off because she had attained puberty at age 14, she is likely to be made criminally responsible for her crime.

Sharia courts are given jurisdiction in criminal proceedings thereby supplanting the extant Penal Code and even Children and Persons Law applicable in lieu of the Child Rights Law. Under the Sharia regime, sanctions and punishments applicable to adults apply to children because no distinction is made for children. Thus, whatever punishment is reserved by Sharia law for murder will be applied to Wasila and this is likely to be capital punishment unless there is a robust defence with a strategy to appeal the inevitable outcome of sentence to death at the Sharia court.

Wasila was 14years at the time she committed the crime. Is it not possible to try her under a separate child justice system?

Under the Child Rights Convention domesticated at the federal level and by 24 states in Nigeria, Wasila would be handled under a separate child justice system that takes account of her age and the circumstances of her forced marriage to a man twice her age.

Unfortunately, Kano, being one of the 12 states of the federation yet to pass the Child Rights Law and operating the Sharia legal system, Wasila has no protection under the child rights regime except immediate plans are made not only to use her case as advocacy for the ills of child marriage but also to arrange a robust defence with a strategy to appeal the inevitable outcome of the sentence to death at the Sharia court.

What message do you have for children as the world celebrates Children’s Day? As the world celebrates Children’s Day 2014, it is important to remember thousands of children in Wasila’s tragic position. Many of them have been forced into marriage ahead of their ability and capacity to be wives or mothers.

PAGE 40— SUND AY SUNDA

Vanguard, MA Y 25, 2014 MAY

BY LAJU ARENYEKA

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rowing up, Nigerian children would play games pretending to be robbers. The average child would create a makeshift gun with his index and middle finger, while clenching his fist and pointing it at his counterparts, and ask: ‘Your money or your life?’

The game would always climax in a cheerful glee; the children knew that neither money, nor life would be lost. Times are different now, children, especially girls in many parts of northern Nigeria, have been forced to grow up too fast, too soon.

The fake guns have been replaced with real ones, and the terrorists are not playing games. Neither did they ask any questions of the nearly 300 girls kidnapped from Chibok last month.

Stuck on the lower rungs of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, Nigerian children, especially those in the North-east, are now being forced to choose between living a life resigned to ignorance and living at all.

Even those only touched by fear and uncertainty are faced with an unsettling choice: Education or your life? Terrorists, who fight against Western education, now feed on the undeniable truth that the average parent would rather have a living, breathing, uneducated child than a kidnapped or dead one. This is double tragedy, as more girls may join the country’s estimated 10.5 million children who are out of school, six million of whom are girls.

Speaking to CNN recently, an unidentified female student from the north said: “If this goes on, many parents will no longer let their girls go to school.

Schools around many of the communities are difficult to find, so many times children go farther from home to get good schools. But with the current insecurity, many parents are afraid and might refuse to let their children go to school. When this happens, the girls’ dreams are crushed.

Many girls from the North have dreams; it’s not every young girl that wants to be married off at a young age.

They want to be lawyers, doctors…only about two percent just want to be married.”

Amy Oyekunle of the Kudirat Initiative for National Development, KIND, said: “Before now, the C M Y K

BRING BACK OUR GIRLS:

The fight must go beyond Chibok ‘Your money or your life?’

Only the people united and organised can win the war against terrorism and save public education North has had really poor indices with regards to girl education and retention in schools. There is a great probability that this will further worsen these indicators. This current wave of insecurity has a deteriorating effect on education, it is like we are going five steps backwards

after having gone one step forward.

“In this day and age, the importance of education cannot be overemphasized.

Investing in education, especially girl- child education, is the smartest investment anyone can make. There are so many challenges, especially the heartbreaking situation of these missing girls. But these girls must be found and we must continue the fight for girls to be educated in the northern region.”

The National Coordinator of the Education Rights Campaign, ERC, Mr. Hassan Soweto, told Sunday Vanguard: “The incident will no doubt drastically affect school attendance.

Ordinarily, school enrolment in the North is low. This will plummet further. While pupils are afraid of going to school, their teachers too will be scared of staying at their duty posts.

The implication is that public education may be annihilated in the North in the foreseeable future and that is one of the principal objective of Boko Haram. For

the sake of the Chibok girls; for the sake of other Nigerians who are daily victims and for the sake of public education, we must win the war against Boko Haram. But the capitalist ruling elite cannot win this war because their unjust system and policies gave rise to Boko Haram.

Only the people united and organised can win the war against terrorism and save public education.”

Child Psychologist, Olalade Hector Fowoagbaje, has this to say: “It would definitely have an adverse effect on the girl child education as generally parents may prefer to keep their children at home and get them to learn a trade instead.

“For the girls that were attacked by BH, the trauma and other likely effects like PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder) they may suffer may incapacitate them for a long time to come.

Consequently, many may opt to stay at home/ help their parents in their trade. Those with stronger personalities may fare better though and

continue their education when they feel their environment is safe. It all boils down to stopping these insurgents.

“Even those in schools now in other areas don’t feel safe.

Their attention span may be very poor at the moment.

This doesn’t augur well for their education and psychological development.

Nobody functions well under extreme fear; not even adults.

“Ensuring that children have safe, secure environments in which to grow, learn, and develop healthy brains and bodies is not only good for the children themselves but also builds a strong foundation for a thriving, prosperous society.

“Science shows that exposure to circumstances that produce persistent fear and chronic anxiety can have lifelong consequences.

“Fear has the potential to affect how children learn, solve problems, and relate to others”.

To improve girl child education in the light of these challenges, she says: “Fight and end terrorism!

Even children in other parts of Nigeria are partaking of the fear and trauma of Boko Haram.”

Before now, various challenges have made education of girls in northern Nigeria a Herculean task.

Child marriage, which gained widespread condemnation on social media last year, is one of

Continiues on page 41

SUND AY SUNDA

Continiued from page 40 such. “Child marriage, from available statistics, ultimately hampers the efforts of these young adolescents from acquiring an education, as sooner than later, they find it difficult to combine the onerous responsibilities of being a wife and mother, with schooling,” says Maryam Wais, chairperson of the Isa Wali Empowerment Initiative (IWEI).

The IWEI boss, in an interview with Sunday Vanguard, spoke on the dire consequences of early marriage on education: “They drop out, if they have not been removed for the purpose of marriage, in the first place.

Consequently, 70.8% of young women aged 20-29 in the North-West zone are unable to read or write.”

UNESCO, in a 2014 report, said that at the current rate, it will be 2086 before access is reached for poor, rural African girls.

According to the United Nations Children’s Fund, “the number of schools, facilities and teachers

Vanguard, MAY 25, 2014, PAGE 41

The fight must go beyond Chibok How dare the Taliban take away my right to be educated? It is not true that the Islamic religion forbids girlchild education available for basic education remain inadequate for the eligible number of children and youths. In the North particularly, the gender gap remains particularly wide and the proportion of girls to boys in school ranges from 1 girl to 2 boys to 1 to 3 in some states. Another cause of low enrolment, especially

in the North, is cultural bias.

“Most parents do not send their children, especially girls, to school and prefer to send them to Qur’anic schools rather than formal schools. Even when children enrol in schools, many do not complete the primary cycle.

According to current data, 30% of pupils drop out of primary school and only 54% transit to Junior Secondary Schools. Reasons for this low completion rate include child labour, economic hardship and early marriage for girls.”

A study conducted by the UNESCO found that school children in Nigeria, particularly those in the northern provinces, are at a disadvantage in their education, with 37 per cent of primary-age girls in the rural North-east not attending school, and 30 percent of boys not attending school; according to the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Index, Nigeria is ranked 106 out of

136 countries based on women’s economic participation, educational attainment, and political empowerment.

These challenges may be considered as child’s play when compared to the recent insecurity virus plaguing not just the education sector, but the nation as a whole. So why fight for education? Why risk the lives of children? No one can answer that better than a girl like Nobel Prize nominee, Malala Yousafzai, a young Pakistani activist who survived a gunshot to the head, simply because she was fighting for her right to be educated.

At the age of 10, she told journalists in an interview: “How dare the Taliban take away my right to be educated? It is not true that the Islamic religion forbids girl-child education. If I have a meeting with the Taliban, I will tell them that Islamic religion promotes girl- child education.”

Yousafzai, who is currently

lending her voice to the BringBackOurGirls online campaign, understands that the benefits of women’s education go beyond higher productivity for 50 per cent of the population. More educated women also tend to be healthier, participate more in the formal labour market, earn more income, and provide better health care and education to their children, all of which eventually improve the wellbeing of all individuals and lift households out of poverty.

It was James Garfield who said: “Next in importance to freedom and justice is popular education, without which neither freedom nor justice can be permanently maintained.” Prayers, words and thoughts are with the Chibok girls, and no words can explain the impact of their kidnap on them and their loved ones. But the fight to bring back our girls must continue even after the Chibok girls are found-The fight for education which is the basis of true freedom, justice and equality for every girl in Northern Nigeria.

Ekiti 2014: Fayemi’s victory is certain –-Ekundayo Honourable Tayo Ekundayo, Ekiti State Commissioner for Information and Civic Orientation, says APC has repositioned the state such that no group of individuals or political mercenaries would have it easy, as was the case in the past, to foist upon the state, through ballot rigging, an undesirable character as governor after the June 21 election.

T’S been said, in some quarters, that the 2014 Ekiti governorship election, scheduled for June, promises to be a close race between the incumbent, Governor Kayode Fayemi, and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, ex-Governor Ayo Fayose…

I do not know your source of information, but I believe, very strongly, that that information cannot be correct, because what we have on ground in Ekiti State does not speak in that direction.

What we have are people who are very appreciative. We have a people, who have been able see and touch what Governor Fayemi has been able to do within a space of three-and-a-half-years. Beyond this, between Fayemi and Fayose, the difference is clear: You are talking about light and darkness, with Fayemi standing for light, and Fayose standing for darkness.

The impression in some quarters is that the APC is the ruling party in Ekiti but the party is not on ground?

We, in the All Progressive Congress, (APC), are very much on ground and we’ve been able to feel the pulse of all the people of Ekiti and the expectation is that Fayemi is going to score a landslide victory. This is the clear picture on the ground, but we are not unmindful of the fact that the

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Honourable Tayo Ekundayo PDP has a notorious predilection for rigging election in Ekiti, like what happened in 2007, for which we had to go to court, in protest against what we perceived to be a case of undisguised injustice against Dr. Kayode Fayemi our flag-bearer, who actually won that election. But, we do know, that every well-meaning tax-payer and voter in Ekiti is a lot wiser: we’re not going to wait until the mandate is stolen again, such that we’ll have to go through the long, costly process of legal contest to regain power, as handed over to us by the good people of Ekiti state.

It will interest you to know that the seven-and-a-half years of the PDP in Ekiti was, to the generality of the people, like years of the locusts. The average man or woman, voter or tax-payer, in Ekiti does not want to relive that agonising, sorry experience. That being the case, we, in the APC, strongly believe that with what we’ve been able to do and the rugged determination of the Ekiti people to root in against any evil

It will interest you to know that the seven-and-a-half years of the PDP in Ekiti State was, to the generality of the people, like years of locust.

The average man or woman, voter or tax-payer, in Ekiti state, does not want to relive that agonising, sorry experience design to impose a candidate on them, the election is for us to win.

In Ekiti state, what that presupposes, ever since the cadmean victory of Fayemi at the court, is that we don’t brook indiscipline, political rascality: see how Fayemi, remained philosophically calm, in the face of consuming injustice after the PDP had robbed him of his well-deserved victory at the polls. That is what we in Ekiti State, today, stand for: respect for the law.

The governor has been linked to violence in the course of the electioneering campaign. People say he is desperate to return to office.

Fayemi is a refined student of politics. He believes that you don’t, necessarily, have to be rascally to win a gubernatorial race – in the course of which costly blood would be shed, property

would be destroyed, and, more than anything else, a climate of fear would be in the air in the affairs of Ekiti state. No – repeat, no; that is not what the APC or the Fayemi administration would encourage. Today the APC administration, headed by Fayemi is all about tolerance, peace and sustainable human development. Fine, all that comes with a prudent and transparent use of tax-payers’ money.

And that, I think, should be the guiding principle or motto of a people-oriented, democraticallyelected party or administration.

Today, under the Fayemi administration, Ekiti State is a haven of profound peace, which, if you ask me, is a prerequisite in any political setting; it comes with orderliness and that, in itself, makes for orderly progress of human development – whichever way you look at it.

Does the Fayemi-led administration make opposition politics in Ekiti irrelevant?

As I said earlier, the 2014 governorship race, which comes up in June, is for the APC to win. I have little doubt about our party’s ability to win the election.

But, still, there seems to be a certain jinx about politics in Ekiti state, for which some people, based on historical experience, tend to believe that no governor does a second term – as in Oyo state. We’ve had a couple of military administrations, then, in 1999, there was Otunba Adeniyi Adebayo, who ran the compass of his four-year term, until the election of 2003, which was heavily and criminally rigged throughout the South-West, except in Lagos, that was able resist the temptation of wanting to be an extension or appendage of the Obasanjo administration at the centre.

But about three-and-a-half years into that, the PDP operatives realised that the Fayose administration, which, in any case, had been foisted upon the state, was not what Ekiti state deserved. And, so, Fayose was impeached. In effect, he never completed the four years he was expected to be in office. His successor, Mr. Olusegun Oni, became governor through a heavily-rigged election; eventually, the court invalidated his victory. But, in retrospect, there have been some seven governors in Ekiti State. And,during those years that those past governors were in office, it was turbulent: one day, as it were, one trouble or crisis, until we, in the APC, came into office.

What is your general assessment of the Fayemi administration?

Fayemi is actually moving, with a lot of confidence, to finish his four-year term. He’s on the homeward stretch already.

Fayemi, as you and I know very well, has been able to show that with a tenacity of purpose and deep-seated commitment to developing Ekiti you can finish your first four-year term and – with some justification – request, somewhat humbly, for a second term. Still, we, in the APC, are not unmindful that a good government, like the Fayemi administration, which has laboured so hard to serve Ekiti people, should have an opposition to keep it on its toes. There is, yes, a vibrant opposition in Ekiti, but if the Fayemi administration is doing the much it can do, you can’t wish it away: you do not throw away a first-rate team; a winning team is always allowed to continue. That is the situation report in Ekiti.

PAGE 42—SUNDAY VANGUARD, MAY 25, 2014

How to boost non-oil exports – NEPC

BY DAYO JOHNSON

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HE Nigerian Ex port Promotion Council(NEPC), yesterday, called on exporters and stakeholders to take advantage of the infrastructure available at the council to boost non-oil exports and economic growth.

Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer of NEPC, Mr. Olusegun Awolowo, said this at a one-day session on Nonoil Exports as a Catalyst for Economic Growth in Akure.

Awolowo said there was need to educate stakeholders “on how to penetrate foreign markets.”

He noted that Nigerian exporters, Small and M e d i u m Enterprises(SMEs) and other potential exporters should also be aware of the financial opportunities opened to them. ”This is part of the efforts of the Nigerian Export Promotion Council in ensuring that all stakeholders in the export chain are sensitized on the prevailing export regulations and improved practices so as to enable them to be conversant with the dynam-

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ics it’s of export trade. ”It will also guarantee improved production for export with attendant benefit in increasing foreign exchange earnings for the country and boost economic development,” he said.

The Zonal Controller of NEPC in Akure, Mr. Boma Benibo, said the

NEPC had over the years employed a number of promotional strategies aimed at motivating Nigerian exporters and potential exporters.

He noted that the seminar would prop them to grow to enviable heights in their export ventures as well as build up their export skills.

AfDB president, top economists to brainstorm on CSR

BY ADEOLA ADENUGA

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NI ONUK, a member of the, World Econom ic Forum, WEF, Global Agenda Africa Council and convener of the annual African CEO Roundtable on Corporate Sustainability and Responsibility (AR-CSR) through her company, Thistle Praxis, says this year ’s edition of the roundtable will discuss the real impact and interplay of financial inclusion. ‚‘More often, financial inclusion is discussed as a financial issue and not an economic sustainability trigger. In addition, the event will again feature all the regular programmes: CEO Round-table, Conference, Sustainable Solutions Showcase, Gala Dinner, Eco-Tourism etc.

Every year, the AR-CSR™ stands out in the quality of

discourse, speakers, spinoff initiatives and ideas. It is the business meeting to attend annually,“ she said in Lagos, saying the theme for the 2014 edition is:‘The Intersection: Financial Inclusion, Economic Sustainability & Social Benefit.‘ Explaining the theme, Onuk said: “Financial inclusion means that the lowincome population in any economy will have equal (if not special) access to financial services of the same quality and at rates they can comfortably afford.

“Second, financial inclusion is effectively a measure of the extent to which economic agents utilize the financial tools at their disposal, to affect the desired exchanges by supporting the development of the often marginalized groups in the economy.”

SUNDAY VANGUARD, MAY 25, 2014, PAGE 43

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INTRIGUING EXPERIENCES

WOMEN BEWARE: SEX-FOR-JOB VIDEO

My story, by female banker *How suspect lured 12 victims to bed, blackmailed them with nude photos —Police

*Nnamdi, the suspect

BY EVELYN USMAN

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wo years ago, the media was awash with stories on the gruesome murder of 25-yearold Cynthia Osokogu, daughter of a retired general, inside a hotel room in Amuwo Odofin local government area of Lagos State by friends she met on the facebook social network. Today, some individuals still engage in using the social media to commit criminal activities. The latest is the arrest of a 32-year-old graduate of the Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Anambra State, Iweka Chigoziem Nnamdi, by policemen at Ajah Division, Lagos.

Penultimate week, in Saturday Vanguard, we published how the suspect, who allegedly posed as prominent Nigerians on the face book, used the medium to woo his unsuspecting victims, mostly women, through the offers of job and business opportunities.

When people applied, he would select only the females, married and single, and invite them to a hotel where the purported interview was scheduled. However he would identify himself as the agent or personal assistant to the prominent Nigerian that has the job and

demand for sex , with a promise to facilitate the application.

But unknown to the victims, a hidden camera is activated once the ceiling fan is switched on, records all the fondling and sexual activities, at the end of which the suspect would blackmail them, with a threat to post their nude pictures and videos on the internet if his demand for money was not met.

He allegedly succeeded in blackmailing about 12 married women.

The last straw was said to be an

suspect who posed as Mike Adenuga on the internet and was convinced because of Adenuga’s photograph.

They got chatting; at a point, she accepted an invitation to meet him in an hotel two months ago. But when she got there, she met Nnamdi who identified himself as Adenuga’s P.A and told Judith that she would have to go through him to see his boss. One thing led to the other and she found herself in bed with him. But she got the shock of her life when Nnamdi called her on phone to pay some money into his account, threatening to post her sex video on the internet if she didn’t cooperate. Judith called his bluff but was shocked when Nnamdi made good his threat by first posting photographs on the internet . Judith was yet to recover from the shock when Nnamdi went ahead to download the video of them making love on her facebook timeline. About 325 of Judith’s facebook friends watched the video.

“The video cost her, her five years relationship. After that, Nnamdi kept calling and threatening to post the second sex video on the internet if Judith did not pay him. It was at this point that she reported the case to policemen at Ajah who asked her to play along , in the process of which he was arrested”.

Laptops containing videos and pictures of different women were said to have been recovered by policemen during a search of the suspect’s apartment in Ikota Villa Estate, Ajah.

Police sources said about 12

Judith is presently a shadow of her former self because of Nnamdi’s mischief. This is because she got information about her sex video on the internet from close friends encounter with a 27-year-old female banker identified simply as Judith.

A close friend of the banker, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, narrated the story: “ Judith is presently a shadow of her former self because of Nnamdi’s mischief.

This is because she got information about her sex video on the internet from close friends. She met the

victims contacted on phone revealed that they were married women, with some of them lamenting that the scandal destroyed their marriages.

One of them(names withheld), who spoke with operatives on phone when asked to come and testify,was quoted to have said: “ I do not care if he has been arrested, killed or alive because the harm has already been done. Can you imagine that scoun-

drel sent a video of me and him on bed to my husband? Today, I have been sent out of my matrimonial home. Of what use is my coming to testify? Will that restore my marriage?”

Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer, Ngozi Braide, who confirmed the suspect’s arrest, narrated: “The case was reported to the police on April, 20, 2014. The complainant alleged that the suspect chatted with her on the facebook for months until he invited her to hotel in Ajah, under the pretence that he was Mike Adenuga, the Chairman of Globacom.When Nnamdi finally met with the victim on March, 14, 2014, he chatted with her and finally convinced the complainant to have sex with him. Unknown to her, the suspect had bugged the hotel room with camera. So while they were having sex, the entire action was being filmed.

“After this affair, the suspect started sending threatening text messages to her, demanding she pay various sums of money to him, otherwise he would send the nude pictures to her friends and colleagues at her office.

He also sent a GTB bank account number into which she was to pay.

“After his arrest on April, 21, 2014, in an hotel at Ajah and following interrogation, police recovered the suspect’s laptop in which he had quite a number of sex pictures and videos of the complainant and also a host of other victims. He made a confessional statement to the effect that he did all that police recovered in his laptop, his BB and Techno phone. On his laptop, police discovered that he had a list of prominent Nigerians such as Mike Adenuga; Pius Ayim Pius; Nwabara Adolphus; Van Vicker, a Ghanaian actor; and Joy Nnwedu, among others. He had been using these images and names to defraud unsuspecting Nigerians.

In fact, he has broken marriages as confirmed by our investigations.”

The suspect, according to her, has been charged to court on an eightcount charge, informing that the case comes up tomorrow ( May 26) at Court 6, Tinubu, Lagos State.

According to the police spokesperson, the suspect was as “cool as cucumber” after he was arrested, smiling like he had not committed any crime.

SUNDAY VANGUARD, MAY 25, 2014, PAGE 45

The ‘area boys’ headache in Abuja The commuters can identify the vehicles they want to enter themselves, the driver can load the vehicle themselves, but the area boys under the guise of agberos will still come out to extort money from us. What is the use of the agberos in the motor parks and bus stops?

Area boys.... A platform to rob, extort

By FAVOUR NNABUGWU

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F you think the menace of hooliganism is limited to Lagos, then be prepared to face the social miscreants, popularly known as area boys, in the Federal Capital Territory and other parts of the country such as Oyo, Kwara, Ogun, Osun, Sokoto and Bauchi as they are fast spreading their tentacles across the nation.

The hangouts of the so-called area boys, who are either forced into that way of life or are born into that particular social strata, are bus stops, major highways and the streets where they steal from pedestrians or forcefully take money from people going about their daily businesses.

With little or no education, they are products of broken homes while their criminal activities range from rape, theft, arson, intimidation to extortion.

Many FCT residents have had experiences with the area boys.

They have been made to part with money and precious items by the boys.

One Mohammed Shehu, a selfconfessed area boy, told Sunday Vanguard how he had dropped out of secondary school at 13 after his father could no longer pay his fees. Swapping the classroom for the streets, the youngster quickly became addicted to drugs.

Now aged 22, he makes his living by claiming ownership of a space by a bus stop in road junction and charging motorists to load their vehicles for them.

Mr Stephen Ararewa , the Secretary of Area 1 Motor Park, said most of the area boys do not belong to any of the transport unions.

“Most of the area boys are not members of the National Union of Road Transport Workers, NURTW, though they behave as if they are members of the national union, a platform which they use to rob and extort people”.

The major places they do this in the FCT include Area 1 and Area 3 junction. Many of them are criminals. They constitute a problem to the national union” “The truth of the matter is that

when the national union marshal or task force is in operation, you would know because they have I.D. cards, they have operation vans, they wear vest and once the national union arrests a driver operating without the required permission, they take you to their office at Jabi or Utako where they are made to pay fine and register their vehicles”, Ararawa said.

“The area boys in Area 1 are a major problem. Even some of us who are members of the national union don’t go near them because they will embarrass you. No matter what paper you present to them, they will not let you go till

they collect money from you. So, we are calling on government to help us flush the area boys out of the parks and bus stops in the FCT. “Area 1, Area 1 roundabout going to Game’s village, Area 3, Jabi and Berger have become a den for area boys. If you stay in these areas very early in the morning or late at night, you may be robbed by these area boys, ” Akande Sunday, a member of the NURTW in Wuse Berger Park, appealed to the FCT administration to come to help them rid the parks and bus-stops of area boys “We have been calling on

government to take them out of the streets and the parks. They wreak havoc on taxi drivers, we get harassed and, at times, they vandalise our vehicles when we refuse to be extorted of sums ranging from N50 to N100 under the pre-text that they are ‘Agbero’, that is, they will load your vehicle without your permission and collect money by force Akande said.”

“The commuters can identify the vehicles they want to enter themselves, the driver can load the vehicle themselves, but the area boys under the guise of agberos will still come out to extort money from us. What is the use of the agberos in the motor parks and bus stops? I will like to call on government to take the area boys out of the motor parks and bus stops especially bus-stops that have to do with

Benue pupils home alone!

•No end to six months teachers strike

BY PETER DURU, Makurdi GOVERNOR Gabriel Suswam of Benue State faces an uphill task finding solution to the state government’s dispute with striking primary school teachers who decided to down tools some six months ago.

The grouse of the teachers is the inability of the state government to implement the national minimum wage in primary schools in the state.

Though the Benue government has variously appealed to the striking teachers to see understand the financial implication of their demands, all interventions by major stakeholders in the state have failed to convince the teachers to reconsider their stance.

Suffice it to state here that the state government was been the first state governments to implement the 27.5 percent increment in teachers salaries.

This is aside the increment in the wages of the teachers which presently rank them among the highest in the country, however their demand for minimum wage has certainly opened a new vista in Benue’s wage system.

Only recently, the Special Adviser to the Governor on Local Governments and Chieftaincy Affairs, Prince Solomon Wombo, did a break down of the financial implication of implementing the de-

Gov. Gabriel Suswam mands of the aggrieved teachers.

He disclosed that no teacher in the state earns less than the N18,000 minimum wage being demanded by the striking teachers owing to the various increment carried out at the inception of the administration.

“The wage bill of teachers at the moment stands at over N1.1billion and the minimum wage teachers are asking for with a new 27.5 percent increment would push the amount to about N2.2 billion”, Wombo said. ”And if you put that together with the salaries of local government staff, you would have far over N3

billion monthly wage bill at that tier of of governance.

It then means that we’ll have to borrow every month to pay the salaries of local government staff and teachers without doing any projects at all. ”It’s not that we collecting huge amount of money and resort to telling people stories. The allocation that goes to local government accounts on a monthly basis are always published in national dailies for everybody to see.”

Also speaking on the issue, Suswam, at a recent stakeholders meeting, disclosed that local governments in Benue get an average of “N2.8billion and Value Added Tax, VAT, of N450million monthly”, saying that cannot accommodate their demands in the present circumstance.

“The governor stated: I vividly recall that at the inception of this administration, we met a backlog of unpaid teachers’ salaries. That issue was tackled. That was followed by upward reviews of teachers’ salaries because there was enough money to take care of the issues, unlike the economic crunch we are facing today.”

He explained the increment and adjustments he affected in the salaries of civil servants in the state which according to him had made them one of the highest paid in the country.

taxis in Abuja FCT now that we don’t have buses”.

The area boys phenomenon began in the early 1980s from small bands of bullies fed by the steady flood of unemployed people that migrated into Lagos from across the country.

Speaking to Sunday Vanguard on the headache of the miscreants, FCT Police Public Relations Officer, PPRO, Hyelhira Daniel, said the invasion to the FCT has been a problem to the police that is working hand in hand with the Abuja Environmental Protection Board, AEPB. All the same, Daniel opined that the areas boys could be reformed and turned into good citizens as some security agents do make use of them in achieving enforcement.

“We have been working with environmental (AEPB) to clear area boys in Area 1 where they have been giving the FCT a lot of headache”, the police spokesperson said..

“We have small challenge in that some of the agencies engage those boys to achieve enforcement and we have been working with some of those agencies to streamline their activities with the area boys to make them useful and be better citizens of this country”.

The FCT PPRO implored parents to take proper care of their children and closely monitor them because most of the area boys are forced into the menace due to negligence and lack of care from parents and families.

According to a salary schedule between 2006 to 2011, the least paid worker in Benue enjoyed three salary adjustsments which led to over 240 percent increment in salaries amounting to N18,000 as against N5,000 that was paid before the Suswam led administration came into office.

Same is the situation with the highest paid, who are the permanent secretaries; who, before the advent of the administration, took home N73,458 but now earn N436, 784, amounting to over585 percent i n c r e m e n t .

Suffice it to state here that this salary adjustments stretched across all the cadres and salary grade levels in the civil services.

Given the troubling situtaion, Suswam, at the last Workers’ Day rally in Makurdi, announced the decision of his government to slash his annual salary and those of political appointees by 25 percent.

He also proposed five percent cut in the salaries of civil servants to enable government augment the salaries of the striking primary school teachers.

He said the new policy would affect officers on grade levels seven and above, stressing that, at the end of the day, it would enable government meet the demands of the striking teachers.

While reiterating the government’s commitment to the welfare of its workers, he urged them to support the decision in the collective interest of the children of the state who had been at home for close to six months.

PAGE 46 — SUNDAY VANGUARD, MAY 25, 2014

By OLAYINKA AJAYI Katsina State Commissioner for Youth and Sport, Aminu Safana, was, until recently, in charge of the environment portfolio. He speaks on how desert encroachment is being tackled from his state axis in this interview, among other environmental issues.

HE desert is said to be gradually encroaching into Borno and Katsina from Niger Republic. What is your state doing to mitigate the effect?

The state government is mindful of the fact that desert encroachment is a menace to warrant a response from Governor Shema. We have about four different approaches to tackle the challenge; we have the state Ministry of Environment which is like the coordinating ministry to deal with the environmental problem; we have the Department of Forestry headed by a special adviser who reports directly to His Excellency; we have the Katsina Arid Zone Program which was formerly the EEC (European Economic Commission) and we have KATAPU (Katsina Afforestation Project Unit). These bodies under the ministry are charged with the responsibility of tackling environmental challenges particularly those to do with Sahara desert. Even though not scientifically proven, it has been said that the desert encroaches about .6 of a km annually. This means the state needs to wake up and do more and that gave the justification for the structure we have. In addition, His Excellency has made it clear that every year, the state government raises about 3.5-5 million seedlings whereby they have different planting models; you have economic trees on farmland, shelter belts, road side planting, schools. Seedlings are given to people free; in some cases, we take them to market places so that people just pick from there and go back to their homes to plant or to their farms. We also have a program for each of the 34 local governments which, every year, has the capacity to raise about 30 000 seedlings. So, in Katsina State, the capacity to tackle desert encroachment as well as experienced staff due to the coming of the EEC program whose personnel were here for years and trained our own staff.

So we have the capacity to raise seedlings and nurture them to maturity.

There is a difference between having the capacity and getting it done. Have you been able to get it done?

We have been able to achieve quite a lot compared to what it used to be. The fact that we do have this challenge, we have the capacity as well because if you go to most of this desert prone local governments, you can see that even the local people have imbibed the culture of setting up their own private nurseries because they have the capacity to do so; people now see it as a commercial venture and government buys the seedlings from them Planting the seedlings has economic viability because the labour is not as intensive as the farming of grains and what have you.

Now let’s talk about sanitation. In Lagos and the

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How we are saving the North from the desert — Safana, Katsina Commissioner

other states in the South-west, the issue of monthly sanitation is the order of the day such that whoever is caught not cleaning up or is on the road between 710am when the exercise is supposed to be holding is taken before a mobile court. What is your government doing in the area of sanitation? That is one.

Two, I saw some people yesterday collecting refuse who looked unkempt; you can’t be doing sanitation and you are not clean yourself. Three, those I saw were old men. Why were they looking unkempt and the staff so old?

Let me start with the first one.

Monthly sanitation was reintroduced in the state I think about 5-6 months ago; so it’s more like it’s new even though we had it long before now, Second, you find that we have been doing quite a lot on sensitization; it’s not something that you just…..the very first month and then you want people to comply; it’s a gradual process.

From the very first month we started till date, we have witnessed growth in the interest on sanitation. The only challenge is that in some local government bordering some states, commercial drivers are not aware of the reintroduction. It happens that the day we are doing our own here they don’t do theirs on that day; so you find out that they will drive in during the exercise and we will block them.

I assure you that the success we are recording now is not how it was when we started. We have

E v e n though not scientifically proven, it has been said that the desert encroaches about .6 of a km annually.

This means the state needs to wake up and do more and that gave the justification for the structure we have also liaised with the Ministry of Justice to set up mobile courts.

The very first six months, we are going to make sure that we create awareness and, immediately after, we are going to start prosecuting offenders for noncompliance which I’m sure would be from next month. On the issue of old age and the staff, government owes the citizens a duty to provide them with something to do, earn a living.

So, all the people you see are being supported by the program because they are not strong enough to go into manual labour in the construction industry and what have you. On the issue of some of them being unkempt, if you had checked very well, you

would have found that some of them were not even in their uniform.

Those that I saw were in their uniform.

Yes, they were in their uniform but you find that most of them have been provided with tool and safety wear etc to operate. Of course you shouldn’t expect someone who cleans garbage to always look clean but there have to be protective wears; mass covers, gloves, boots etc which the agency do provide to them on monthly basis.

But do they wear them?

Majority do but the problem is that some of them may decide to keep the items for one reason or the other, some will even sell them; that’s what we have to find out. But we are always hard on them, whoever is caught operating like that, sometimes we punish them. I believe the executive director, by the time he gets to know, will take action on it.

I spoke to the Ruasa boss on the issue of water supply. I told him that though there is water everywhere, it’s not available for the people to drink and he said that is outside his jurisdiction because his project is basically rural based. I saw some people defecating openly in Katsina metropolis. Those two things-water and open defecation-pushed me into asking the questions and he said they are out of his jurisdiction; open defecation is an environmental issue?

It is an environmental issue for sure but you find that the Department of Water and Sanitation Agency are the ones charged with the responsibility of water provision and sanitation.

They are experimenting with two or three communities; so it’s surprising for the ED to say it’s outside his scope. But whatever it is, it’s the government responsibility whether RUASA or SEPA or whatever to take care of the environment. Let me start with the water program that is being handled by the state government. His Excellency has bought three water tankers for each local government across the state…….that’s about 102 tankers to provide water for the communities, schools, hospitals.

That is where they don’t have and I believe in most of these local government areas, they are doing their best, they move around from one community to the other.

I know a community where they have developed timetable; today they are going to take water to a particular community, tomorrow another, next day-hospitals and what have you. So they have the school’s program, the hospital’s program and even the community ’s program; so it’s surprising to hear that people don’t get water. I know you don’t expect everybody to get water in his house but at least you go to a designated point, you have access to water there-potable water. On open defecation, sometimes the local authorities play a role.

There are certain areas marked for public resting and in some cases meant for refuse dump. So it is for the authorities to look after it.

You talked about a program the state government is doing in conjunction with the Federal Government to tackle desert encroachment. What is the program all about?

Actually it’s an initiative of the African Union. In 1980 or

thereabouts, the late Burkina Faso head of state, Thomas Sankara, initiated it at one of the forums and they agreed to set up a belt to tackle the encroachment of the desert which would start from Dakar, Senegal. All the participating countries are expected to plant at least 15km wide, then stretch it to the next neighboring country and that idea re-echoed in 2006 when approval was given by the African Union for different countries or affected states to go and implement it. Last year, President Jonathan Goodluck approved the implementation and made funds available for the program which has taken off. We have visited some of the places already implementing, like Senegal, they were the first country to start, and we saw the operation which we have replicated in Katsina. We have set up the steering committee of the program headed by the deputy governor and then we have the state implementation committee headed by the commissioner for environment and also the local government implementation committees headed by local government chairmen. The aim is to provide the enabling environment for the planting and the nurturing of this plantation to maturity.

The state government is supporting this program through the provision of fencing materials and technical support for four different professional agencies or government bodies.

I understand that every Thursday is set apart as the environment day. Could you through more light on that?

Environment challenges are issues that require proactive measures, so you don’t sit and wait for something to happen before can act. Every Thursday, we go out to look at issues of environmental impact. We visit some factories, agencies and so on. We tr y to appraise the environmental practices within Katsina metropolis as well as the seven local governments where we have offices. We do that with the sole aim of identifying the kind of environmental challenges that we have and the perceptions and yearnings of our own people.

Now Thursdays have been selected for that; even the dress code for Thursdays in the ministry has always been green, everybody wears green top and face cap.

Are you getting results?

We are getting results. Initially we didn’t have a mechanism for monitoring the issues on erosion control, but we have made a point that every now and then, we will receive reports on monthly basis based on these outings. So we do get reports on outings on Thursdays. Some of the projects we execute now are based on the reports and inputs we get from these outings.

The general impression is that some ministries including yours are being starved of funds.

No we are not being starved of funds. Budget is projection; it’s like you plan that you will get N50 this month from the federation account and, at the end of it all, you end up getting N20. To actualize your of spending N50, you have to adjust, you have to look at areas and environment is one of the areas that can be used to adjust and get things done because of the ecological funds that we have.

SUNDAY Vanguard, MAY 25, 2014,

Page 47

Between Oshiomhole and critics

BY DAN OWEGIE

VIEWPOINT IN BRIEF

Why the APC will sweep the next polls in Edo

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ONGUES have been wag ging since some few persons opted to resign their membership of the All Progressive Congress in Edo State. The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has cashed in on it to make reckless comments about the person of the Edo State governor, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole. Like in previous elections, they are boasting around that they will win the general elections in 2015 and go ahead to put a PDP government in place at Dennis Osadebey Avenue in 2016.

What is at stake here is Edo State and the future of Edo people. Those resigning and decamping must be truthful in letting Edo people understand

their motives. Why do they move from one political party to the other? Is it not because some were not appointed Commissioner or Special Adviser.

Is it because the recently organised party congresses did not go their way or the congresses will not make some become governor? If such persons now become governor with their selfish motive, what will be the fate of Edo people under their administration?

Many questions begging for answers.

But these runaways and those believing the many lies exuding from the stench of their breath today forget the simple fact that Oshiomhole’s tenure ends in November 2016 and that means he still has well over two years to serve as governor of Edo State.

What that further means is that Edo people still have over two years to enjoy the dividends of democracy from the very first government which has

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VIEWPOINT

and waste bins put in place by the administration in the cities and still throw wastes all over the roads? Why do traders, in spite of repeated warnings, still use the pedestrian walk ways as racks for their wares? Why would a driver, private or public, drive against traffic? Why should he beat red traffic light? Why should a responsible citizen not pay his tax? These are policies and programmes introduced by the Oshiomhole administration to get Edo out of the woods and put it at par with civilized societies.

Those complaining today, when they travel overseas, they pay their taxes, rates, rents and obey traffic rules.

Europe and America were developed by their citizens.

America can help look for our missing girls in Sambisa forest where the PDP federal government has failed to do so, but America and Europe will not repair Edo State for

America can help look for our missing girls in Sambisa forest where the PDP federal government has failed to do so, but America and Europe will not repair Edo State for us

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demonstrated the passion to develop Edo State and its people. From every intent and purpose, and from every new policy and programme, Oshiomhole administration is pro-poor and people-centered. One thing is clear: The average black man needs a little bit of force to compel him to do the right thing.

Otherwise, why do some citizens see the beautiful roads

us. It is our collective responsibility as Edo people to do so and that is the cross Oshiomhole is carrying and leading us to achieve.

This is why I have repeatedly said that history will remember Oshiomhole in Edo State long after he would have left office. Today, the PDP is telling Edo people that citizens would not be made to pay their taxes. This is a retrogressive promise, because even Jesus Christ paid tax and instructed his followers to pay as well. Tax is important if we have to sustain the tempo of development, more so in the face of dwindling nationally shared oil revenue and competing social and developmental needs in Edo State as Oshiomhole has opened the people’s eyes to behold his monumental achievements in all sectors. · Dan Owegie is a chieftain of the APC in Edo State.

Kalu’s unending harangues

BY HILDA IFEOMA IFEGWU

VIEWPOINT IN BRIEF When a former governor takes on political foes

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FORMER governor of Abia State, Chief Orji Uzor Kalu, is becoming a brand in making unguarded statements. When you think he has learnt his lessons and may keep quiet, he explodes like a bomb abandoned by rebels on the run. His behaviour shows him as someone greatly troubled.

Where can you place Kalu?

Is it on his ideological stand or on issues of faith and

importance?

Where does he stand on national and international issues? Which is his present political party? Kalu claims to be a registered PDP member, yet he was in the South -west campaigning for the return of the governors who are staunch APC members. If he is a real PDP member as he claims, should he not be tried for antiparty activities?

He is known to have constantly denigrated elder statesmen; he has not relented in abusing leaders like former President Olusegun Obasanjo who was the Commander in Chief when Kalu was only 16 years. The name-calling he extended to former VicePresident Abubakar Atiku last

year is still ear tingling.

Kalu is never afraid of starting things he cannot finish. Ten years ago, he wanted the Igbo presidency, then he buckled. In

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VIEWPOINT

Kalu went into governance at 41, what did he achieve if the best comes from the youth?

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2012, he went everywhere with the Igbo presidency mantra. He claimed he made a presentation at the British parliament and toured some

West African countries preaching the same gospel.

Now with more fury and intensity as he claims now to be campaigning for President Goodluck Jonathan.

Where do we place Kalu?

What has Kalu offered? As Kalu was reported to have said of the National Conference, “What fresh ideas can these sleepy old men offer on the way forward?” Is Kalu aggrieved that he was not nominated to the National Conference?

His eight years as governor of Abia State have made him a guest of EFCC. Kalu should be told some home truth. His description of the delegates as sleepy old men cannot change the fact

Mama ‘Ojeake’ Njokanma, good night’

BY JOHN IFEYINWA NJOKANMA TRIBUTE IN BRIEF The passage of a humanist Death is a necessary end which will come when it will irrespective of age.

O

NE very important aspect about death is that no matter how old one is, the passage is always felt by his loved ones with tears flowing down their cheeks uncontrollably. So it was recently on the passing on of a woman of substance, a philanthropist and kind Christian of the Catholic faith. Mrs. Regina Mgbolie Njokanma.

Mama Ojeake Nkokanme, as she was fondly called, hailed

from the famous Anioshe quarters of Ubulunor and married to Ozoma of Ogwashi-Uku also of the famous Njokanma family of Ogwashi-Uku in Aniocha South Local Government Area of Delta State.

I was just five years old when you, mama ‘Ojeake’, was ‘banished, with my other siblings, to Ogwashi-Uku from Ibadan in 1955. It was only after graduation from secondary school in 1965 that I was reunited with you. Therefore at the crucial formative years of my childhood, I was deprived of your tenderly and motherly care!

However whatever I lost as a child was given back to me in later years as you poured love and care from your inexhaustible fountain to me, wife and children, especially Chimnonso, Olisaemeka and Chigbamume, all of whom you nursed at birth. By the time we had Chiwete, old age

had crept in and so you could not render your ‘omugwor’ service any longer.

You were a mother to all and sundry and your home was a haven for hungry relations and friends of your children, despite the fact that you had to sustain the children entrusted to you without financial support. No wonder ‘Ojeake’, you had to work very hard, day and night to sustain yourself and us, your children, even hawking ‘akamu’ on the streets and becoming the head of “Akamu Association of OgwashiUku! You were magnanimous in heart and absolutely loyal and faithful to our daddy, ‘nna anyi’ as you called him, never uttering foul or negative words about him to our hearing and thereby biasing or polluting our young minds.

You kept ‘hammering’ to our hearing the fact that you were an only child, orphaned at very tender age.

Therefore, no amount of hardship or cruelty will make you abandon your children. You were resolute on this philosophy and stuck to us until death. As a result of your sacrifice and love you built one indivisible and in-

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VIEWPOINT

As a result of your sacrifice and love you built one indivisible and inclusive family of papa, you and all of us children, a legacy we are cherishing today

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clusive family of papa, you and all of us children, a legacy we are cherishing today. Because of your goodness, God rewarded you abundantly with longevity

that he is not part of the deliberations.

Last time he took a swipe at Abia PDP leaders like Ambassador Ojo Maduekwe, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, Chief Onyema Ugochukwu, Chief Vincent Ogbulafor, General Ike Nwachukwu, among others. He has formed a habit of abusing elders.

The Igbo say he who does not respect the aged would not attain old age.

Kalu went into governance at 41, what did he achieve if the best comes from the youth?

He may have forgotten the Igbo saying that what an old man sees sitting cannot a youth cannot see atop a tree.

Ifegwu is resident in Enugu of life.

He made your childhood dream come true such that at over 8oyears old, ‘nna anyi’ , who then was over 90 years, took you to the altar at St Mary’s Catholic Church, Ogwashi - Uku, for the sacrament of holy matrimony.

This event we believe will go into the record books. Above all, your dream never to sleep eternally in Ogwashi - Uku but in UbuluUnor was fulfilled as God made it possible for your children to build a house in your ancestral home of Anioshe. There your physical body will lie for eternity while we know that your soul is with our Lord Jesus Christ who you served diligently with absolute faith.

Yes we will miss you but God loves you more and has called you. After all He gave you to us.

May mother Mary who you called upon six hourly everyday for intercession, come to your aid so that you will rest eternally in the bosom of Jesus Christ in heaven - Amen. Komesie Ezinne Ojeake 1 of Ubulu -Unor.

PAGE 48 — SUNDAY VANGUARD, MAY 25, 2014 sameyoboka@yahoo.com

08023145567 (sms only)

Nigerians should be beacons of light---Iluyomade

*Pastor Idowu Iluyomade

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ASTOR Idowu Iluyomade graduated in 1981 from the University of Ife, Ile Ife and was called to the Nigerian Bar the following year. He did his youth service from 1982 to 1983 in the Lagos State Ministry of Justice as the Director of Public Prosecutions. He presently combines his legal practice with his ministerial responsibilities as the Pastor-in-Charge of The Redeemed Christian Church of God (City of David). He is also the provincial pastor of Lagos Province 4 and the head of the Apapa Family, proprietors of Excel Charity Foundation, a social intervention vehicle with emphasis on transforming lives restoring dignity and reforming the society. He spoke to newsmen in his office on plans for this year's Excel programme and sundry national issues. Our SAM EYOBOKA was there. Excerpts...

Theme of this year's event is; “Signs of Change” and it’s scheduled for May 31 and Sunday June 1. On May 31, all our churches will embark on massive CSR. We will commission additional 16 solar-powered streetlights in about six streets in Mushin, bringing the total to 38 solarpowered streetlights we have provided between last year and now.

Sunday will be for the service at Tafawa Balewa Square at 7:00 a.m.

Mushin was the beneficiary last year and this year. Why Mushin? Are you from Mushin?

No! There's a lot crime in the Akala area of Mushin; and we have seen massive change in that area since last year. I believe that if you institutionalize whatever you are doing, there’ll be greater change, greater impact. And I believe that if signs of change are seen in that area which is the most problematic area in Mushin, then the whole of the community will be transformed. We believe that it’s good for us to concentrate, especially when it comes to streetlights, in one area for now, and hoping that people will see what we are doing and other churches and organisations will join in and then we can spread the impact all over Lagos.

Who are we expecting at the year's occasion?

On Sunday, we are expecting our General Overseer, Pastor E.A. Adeboye who will be ministering along other men of God. We are also expecting captains of industry, members of the diplomatic call and

the general members of the public.

Are we talking about change in Lagos State or change in the nation?

Change starts from the individual.

You cannot change anything unless you change first. So our primary focus is transformed lives, transformed thinking in line with the Bible. So wherever you are, you are the change, that’s why we said 'be the change.' Our base in the Apapa Family, with over 1,000 churches all over the world. So the impact is not only for Lagos. As we are doing this year, they are doing it in all our centers all over the world. But ofcourse you know they say charity begins at home.

What would you say is unique in this year’s event?

The uniqueness of this year’s event is that over the years, we have institutionalized all the things we are doing in the various areas of intervention. We have intervened in the area of health care, education, youth development and entertainment, infrastructure, sports and various other areas of intervention. Those little things have grown, right now we have a cancer screening and diagnostic center which we dedicated in 2011 in Surulere and it’s the first by a church.

And we have treated over 10,000 people at subsidized rates. Most of these things are free. Right now, we have a full fledged hospital and diagnostic center, Healing Stripes Hospital that cost over N200 million.

In the past few years, we have treated

about 8,000 people. We also have a dialysis center. In March alone, we performed about 80 free dialysis for people. Between January and March, we have had about 560 dialysis intervention for people. There’s Mercy Ship, we take people there free.

In the area of food, initially when we started, we had just one soup center, but we have moved from one to 17 soup centers. We were feeding about 10,000 people daily, but right now, we are feeding 60,000 daily.

In the process also, we have served over 1.2 million meals to people between 2011 and 2013 at a cost of over N200 million. Also about 9,512 souls have been saved. Concerning the food initiative, we spent over N500 million in recent times.

So the uniqueness of this year’s event is to let the world know that our church is not a church that just takes from people; we give back to the society much more than anybody can give to the church, and I believe that is the gospel that we have come to preach; love in action. This year is unique because we are showcasing the growth, the signs of change, the massive impact that we have had in various areas.

In sports, we are the only church that has a football club that has seven teams; from the first team, to the Under 16, to the women’s team, and that we are in the national league. We have a professional football club, COD United. So we are making great impacts, taking the children off the streets.

Pastor Adeboye had used the programme to endow professorial chair for mathematics for some universities. Where is he going this year?

Our general overseer because of his love for education decided to endow chairs in mathematics at various universities in Nigeria, and right now he has done five. Because he identifies with what we are doing, every year he gives about N50 million to the universities so that research can be done in various areas, and a professor will be appointed to the chair, and lectures will be given, in the department of mathematics, because he is a mathe-matician. He has done five right now at the cost of N250 million to show us also that the church is giving back to the society.

If G.O. has endowed chairs in five universities, it is sufficient, and we need to make sure that those chairs are occupied. Of the five chairs, it’s only Unilag that has appointed a professor to occupy the chair. So there’s no point for us giving the money to various other universities until we see that they are appointing professors and doing what they are supposed to do. So that’s why we said this year we are not going to endow more chairs, let’s make sure that the ones that were endowed are working.

I just want you to throw more light

on what the Family is doing in the area of education.

Apapa family has about 30 schools including some in rural communities where we pay the teachers, feed the children everyday and buy uniforms.

We have indigenous schools where we teach Hausa, Yoruba and things like in Lagos. We have a school, Hope Centre Primary School in Makoko. We built the school, feed the pupils. We built a house for the Baale there and of course there is a medical outreach, and we are building a clinic there. We have a rural school in Oko-abe which is offshore Epe. When we discovered that some children travel by boat to come to school in Lagos, we decided to built a school there beginning with a primary school. We are now building a secondary school for them and they don’t pay anything. We also built houses for the teachers and headmasters. And we have similar schools in the east.

If you were in President Jonathan's shoes, what would you be doing at this point in time regarding the security challenges facing the country?

I believe just like our G.O. has said, help is coming. We believe as Christians that the spiritual controls the physical so you must opt for prayers. The Bible says that if we pray that He will heal our land. In RCCG, we started this year with a 100 days fast, and I believe that the situation would have been worse if we did not fast. I believe that we must start from the spiritual realm. Second, I believe we shouldn't see the thing essentially as a religious problem, that Muslims are attacking Christians. We see each individual as a soul, we must have a burden for every soul.

It cuts across religious grounds. So we are not going to be involved in all the polarization that is coming. It’s a problem which started as a spiritual problem. The devil is out there working through the terrorists and all the things that are happening in this country. I believe that the government should have been more responsive at the initial time when these things started. Concerning the Chibok schoolgirls, a lot of things have happened before the girls were kidnapped. Twenty people had been kidnapped, some have died, if you go through accounts, you’ll see that a lot of things have been happening in that community that nothing was said. I believe that the government should look at our citizens as souls that must be helped and taken care of. If we do not do anything, they’ll end up in hell. We need to be more responsive to anything that is happening to the citizens of this nation. My advice to Christians and Nigerians is that we should continue to be beacons of light, be our brothers' keeper, we should be the change and catalyst of change, and make sure that whatever we are doing to improve our little community are measurable.

SUNDAY VANGUARD, MAY 25, 2014, PAGE 49

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FARMER was living in a remote village.

Every day, he had to walk several miles to the market in another village, carrying his goods on his head. He would start out early before sunup and come back home very late after sunset. The strain was already telling on his health. His feet had grown big calluses and blisters. After some time, he developed hernia.

New vehicle Then his brother had pity on him and bought him a truck. When the farmer came back home one day, he found the truck parked in front of his house. There was a letter waiting for him with the key of the truck. However, the farmer was illiterate and could not read the letter. Instead of looking for someone to read it to him, he simply dumped it on the mantelpiece in his living-room.

A year later, his brother came to see him, only to discover that he was still walking to the market every day. “What happened to the truck I sent you?” he shouted at him.

“What truck?” replied the farmer; puzzled. “I sent you a truck last year,” insisted the brother, “so you would no longer have to walk to the market.” “I never received anything like that,” replied the farmer. But when they got back to his farm, there was the truck parked in front of his house. It had never been used.

“I thought you said you did not receive the truck?” queried his bro-

THE ABUNDANT LIFE IN JESUS CHRIST ther. “So what is this parked in front of your house?” “Is this a truck?” asked the hapless farmer.

“What did you think it was?” his brother replied angrily. “Look, if you really wanted to help me,” said the farmer, “ why couldn’t you have sent me a horse?”

Living water Jesus met a Samaritan woman by the well of Jacob. The woman had a bucket with which she fetched water from the well. Jesus asked her for a drink and the woman started to show off. “How can you ask me for a drink? Don’t you know you are a Jew and I am a Samaritan? Why can’t you get your own bucket?”

So Jesus told the woman: “why are you making such a big deal out of something as inconsequential as a bucket? All a bucket enables you to get is ordinary water. But the person asking you for a drink has living water.

Don’t you know you cannot compare natural water to living water? It is the owner of living water that should be showing off, and not the owner of natural water.”

“If only you knew the person asking you for a

Adeboye prays for artisans, traders

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ENERAL Over seer of the Re deemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), Pastor Enoch Adejare Adeboye, recently described business venture as warfare, stressing the need for business men and women to embrace God and humble themselves in order to overcome the battles of life, reports OLAYINKA LATONA. Ministering at a special prayer session for professionals, artisans and traders, businessmen and captains of industries at RCCG headquarters, The Throne of Grace, EbuteMetta, Lagos, Adeboye also prayed that God should have mercy on

the nation and put an end to Boko Haram insurgency.

Speaking on the topic: “Overflowing Harvest”, the cleric also lamented high interest rates on lending, which discourages businesses.

In his words: “Success in business requires grace. God can create holes in the pockets of somebody. (Haggai 1:69). Many people are suffering from spiritual attacks, backwardness and series of inexplicable calamities.

“Business is warfare and aside from competitions with other businessmen, you also need to fight the bank’s high interest rates, which is ca-

Don’t assume the life Jesus came to give is the same life billionaire Bill Gates lives. drink, you would not be so uppity. Instead, you would seize the opportunity to ask him for living water and he would give it to you completely free of charge. Everyone who drinks natural water will thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.” (John 4:4-14).

So what did the Samaritan woman do? She opted immediately for Jesus’ living water.

“Please give me this water,” she pleaded, “so that I won’t get thirsty again, and won’t have to keep coming here to draw water.” But the question is this: how many Christians today are like this Samaritan woman? How many would like a drink that would ensure we never thirst again? Indeed, how many Christians have drunk from Jesus’ fountain of life and, therefore, no longer thirst for the “waters” of this world?

pable of crippling businesses and this is the reason you need to get close to God. “Just as whoever comes to equity must come with clean hands, anyone who wants to come to God for His assistance must come with clean hands and clean mind. Therefore, you should be clean in all your business dealings and also get God as your partner in business and the sky cannot be your limit” he admonished.

Addressing journalists after the service, the S.A. to the General Overseer on Administration and Personnel/pastor-incharge of the headquarter church, Pastor Johnson Odesola, urged businessmen to take advantage of Nigeria, being the largest economy in West Africa, to increase their investment.

New life Most of us don’t even believe living water exists. As far as the Samaritan woman was concerned, if it was water, whether living or dead, it had to come from Jacob’s well. That was the water David thirsted for. That was the water for which the Hebrew mighty men of valour risked their lives, just in order to get David a cool drink. (II Sam 23:15-16). Therefore, the woman wondered if Jesus was presuming to be greater than David.

The Samaritan woman could not conceive of water that could be more refreshing than the one from the well of Jacob.

But I wonder how many people would make a big deal of well water today?

How many people would like to drink from Jacob’s well today, if it is even still there in Bethlehem?

Today, we can get different types of pure bottled water. Besides, we can drink them chilled from a refrigerator and not from

a well. Nobody would make a big deal of well water today because greater knowledge and civilisation has since come. But in over 2000 years, knowledge does not seem to have grown about living water. Both Christians and nonChristians are still yearning and making a fuss about the water from the stagnant wells of this world.

Jesus says: “I have come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly.” (John 10:10). But why should we assume the life he has come to give is the same life we have always aspired to live? If he has come that we might have life, then he could not have been talking about the same life men and women were living before his arrival.

Clearly, the life he is now offering is a life foreign to this ungodly world.

New wine In the early 1970’s, I came home to Lagos from Rome to spend my holiday with my older brother; Biodun. Biodun had a car that was nothing short of remarkable. It was virtually held together with safety-pins. In order to get it going in the morn-

ings, it needed to be pushed and pushed. Little Folusho, Biodun’s three year-old son, usually joined others in pushing it. The car would jerk and cough until finally it would grudgingly come alive.

A year later, my old man sent Biodun a brand new car. But something funny happened after it arrived.

In the mornings, little Folusho would come out dutifully to push the new car. It took him a while to recognise that this car did not need to be pushed. As far as Folusho was concerned, all cars had to be pushed before they could start because that was what he had been used to since birth.

It is the same with natural water and living water. Don’t assume that living water is the same as natural water. Don’t assume the life Jesus came to give is the same life billionaire Bill Gates lives. Don’t assume it is a life of possessions.

Don’t assume it is designed to enhance our status in the world. It is not that kind of water Samaritan woman. It is not that kind of life beloved Christian. And since it is not, are we still interested?

Jesus presents us with an either or proposition. If he is our shepherd, then we would no longer yearn for the vanities of this world. If we are complete in him, then we would no longer seek fulfilment in houses, child-ren or bankaccounts. If we accept his living water, then we would no longer thirst for well water.

Word of Life floats Eagle Heights varsity

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HE Eagle, reputed to be a very powerful bird, with a heavy head and beak, which normally builds its nest or eyries in tall trees or on high cliffs, is set to land in the woodland and forests of Omadino in Warri South Local Government as Word of Life Bible Church has perfected plans to float its own university to be known as Eagle Heights University. The university designed to offer a first class education to students from all walks of life.

A statement from the office of the chancellor of the proposed university and President of Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor says President Goodluck Jonathan is expected on June 3 for a ground breaking ceremony of the university at Omadino.

Eagle Heights University brings to six the number of universities in Delta State and the third private university.

President Jonathan recently performed the ground breaking ceremony of Nigeria Maritime University at Okerenkoko in Warri South-West Local Government Area of Delta State, with a call for hu-

man capacity development, identified as a major component for national transformation and development. Twenty three days after that ceremony, the president is returning to Delta State for the ground breaking of another university.

President of Eagle Heights Schools and wife of the National President of CAN, Pastor (Mrs.) Helen Oritsejafor said the president, accompanied by the state governor, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan and other national and state officials including traditional rulers from the area would perform the ground breaking ceremony at the site in Omadino.

According to the statement, Eagle Heights University is the latest addition to its award winning group of schools, Eagle Heights International Schools on the mission to provide a range of world class educational, social and religious experience as well as an environment appropriate to the age, potential and the needs of its students and pupils.

PAGE 50—SUNDAY Vanguard, MAY 25, 2014 japhdave@yahoo.com 08056402376

PLAY READING

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he need for proper of funding plays in Nigeria was re echoed last week when the National Troupe of Nigeria (NTN) hosted its 30th play reading session with the reading of Omo Uwaifo’s ‘One Kingdom, One Monarch’ at Cinema Hall II, National Theatre, Iganmu, Lagos. It was observed that there is need to sponsor cultural plays like One Kingdom, One Monarch that can lift the spirit and add value to the people instead of turning the country into dumping ground of foreign films. The event which was chaired by renowned poet and essayist Odia Ofeimun was attended by many theatre lovers and students of creative arts.

In his opening remarks, Martins Adaji, Artistic Director of the National Troupe while welcoming the guests said that the idea is make people cultivate the idea of reading plays, try them on stage to test how realistic the play can be as a performance piece when staged. It was also meant to expose the work to theatre experts so that they can come out with criticisms that will make the playwright come out better.

Before the commencement of the reading, drama students of the Creative Arts Department of the University of Lagos directed by Joshua Alabi performed an excerpt from the play in Agit prop style, a way of compressing the entire play into small scenes used by producers to save cost.

After the short performance, Odia somehow deviated from the normal norm by inviting criticisms of the short performance. The system was criticised by some of those that spoke as it failed to bring out the historical contents of the play. Deputy President, National Association of Nigerian Theatre Arts Practitioners (NANTAP) Steve Ogundele, who started, described ‘One Kingdom, One Monarch’ as a traditional play and that Alabi’s employment of agitprop is commendable.

Adaji commended Alabi’s directorial approach and noted that the play highlights the importance of dialogue in resolving conflicts. On her part, Director, Drama of the Troupe, Josephine Igberease noted that it’s a cultural and historical play and that Alabi choice of agitprop was to reduce production cost.

On his part, Odia who started by highlighting the pedigree of the playwright, an electrical engineer urged all to identify with him. “He is an inspiration to many of us who write in the city; he has also put in a consistency that is admirable though he is an engineer that chose to be a writer, a playwright” .

He continued by noting that a play truly becomes one after

At One Kingdom,One Monarch reading, experts call for funding of plays

•An excerpt from the play performed by Creative Arts depart ment of UNILAG it is staged and enjoined the audience to critically critique the students and the playwright. “You don’t h—ave to be nice to the playwright because he is an engineer; he’s a bloody playwright,” Odia reiterated.

After that, Odia selected five persons, Ogundele, Muyiwa Odukale, Efe Orhorha, Soibifaa Dokubo and Williams Ekpoto to the stage to read excerpts from the play set in 18th century Benin Kingdom and centred on Oba Akengbuda and a general of the Edo military, Ogbe. The Oba is fond of the warrior because of his courage and inventiveness but a minor misunderstanding between the duo leads to a needless war that claims several lives.

Again, Odia instead of calling for comments from the floor, stampeded the readers to speak on how they felt after reading the play and they expressed their views too.

By MICHEAL J.C ECHERUO REVIEW

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must commend our author, Loolo Florence Chinyere Duru, for her deep interest in the Igbo language and its proverbs.

Proverbs are the wisdom of a people in a nutshell. Complex stories and situations are concentrated in a few words and phrases which capture and retain the essential meaning of the experiences from which they derive. As the author points out, we cannot fully or properly understand these proverbs if we are not schooled in the traditional life and thought of the Igbo people who invent and use them. To understand Igbo proverbs, and enjoy their power and beauty, therefore, we have to know the language and the cultural context in which these proverbs are used. This Compendium not only lists the proverbs, but tries to convey their general meaning in English, both literally and idiomatically.

The author also reminds us that the Igbo language has several “dialects.” As a result, many of us may not immediately understand the meaning of proverbs owing to the perhaps

Another issue was on the use of Agit prop, here some of them supported it that it is good for some plays to save cost but others

,

By JAPHET ALAKAM

agitprops.

Odia however agreed with the majority, noting that “agitprop only works when a play has been properly staged.” He however acknowledged that budgeting is a big issue in choosing a directing style for a play. There can be no performance without a thriving economy that derives from estab-

He is an inspiration to many of us who write in the city; he has also put in a consistency that is admirable though he is an engineer that chose to be a writer, a playwright

disagreed pointing out that the style will stifle the play’s elevated language noting that historical plays should not be done with

,

lished industries functioning optimally, adding that the National Troupe ought to be adequately funded to produce

three major plays in a year.

Contributing, veteran TV producer, Femi Robinson held that supporting theatre in Nigeria is the most important thing and that any directing style can be chosen.

Igberease, who noted that culture and commerce has to be mixed proportionately, explained that the play is a big cast production that will need at least six weeks of rehearsals and gulp up to N20 million to stage.

Director, Dance of the Troupe, Arnold Udoka while commending the play said, “ you can migrate it to other directorial styles but you need to stay faithful to the playwright’s work. I will just ask the playwright to revisit the wordiness so that the poetry becomes tighter. It is wonderful historically but too verbose. Then you don’t have to change the format because of the budget; don’t cut corners. Look for budget and face its historicity. Give it the

respect it deserves because it can compare with Shakespeare.”

Commending the playwright, Adaji said that though ‘One Kingdom One Monarch’ needs more work structurally, “it is a director’s play. In fact, it is a good play for it to have elicited this kind of dialogue. It means you have done well sir.”

Responding, Uwaifo who confessed that he was thrilled at how the session went said that all the comments will be taken on board and reiterated that every writer must subject their works to critics because no body know it all.

Igbo proverbs made easy strange dialect of words therein contained. I believe—indeed I know—that languages are made richer by the wealth of dialectal variation which they can demonstrate. As we become more acquainted with these dialects, we begin to appreciate our total inheritance as Igbo language speakers. Inevitably some words and phrases in these dialects will fall by the wayside; but many— very many—will become part of our language-world.

A Compendium of Igbo proverbs in their original dialect is, therefore, very much to be appreciated: We thereby come across new words, become aware of new local customs and habits, and perhaps appreciate the complications which entered our language when the various Christian denominations confronted the three Igbo dialect words, enyi, iko, and oyi, for example. his book lists nearly 600 proverbs and idioms grouped under eight sections: Human, Weather/Elements, Plants, Mad Person, Marriage, Death/ Dead, Animal, and General. My

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earnest plea is for the author to expand some of these sections with more instances.

In this regard, I will urge readers of this book to encourage this pioneering effort by submitting additional examples of Igbo proverbs to the author.

Loolo Florence Chinyere Duru has acquitted her responsibility most admirably as a wise Igbo mother should. I go further to urge her to consider publishing

Uka Wu Ilu – a compendium of Igbo idioms and proverbs; Florence Chinyere Duru; Oyster St. Iyke & Prince Osita Ike Ventures; 2014.

a companion audio version of these Igbo proverbs and their meanings in English, for the benefit of many would-be users, young and old, who have not acquired the facility of reading Igbo well, especially when other dialects are involved.This Compendium is a work of pure love for her native Igbo language and culture for which our author deserves our congratulations and our generous patronage”. eautifully produced with a remarkable, indeed unique, embossed Nsibidithemed cover design, and laced with illustrations, the publishers must be commended for an aesthetically alluring, error-free package that will enhance the attraction to this invaluable compendium as a collector ’s item. Statesmen, leaders, citizens, scholars and institutions must add this compendium to their libraries, if they wish to be considered authoritative and up to date on the traditions of one of the world’s most vibrant, vivacious, visionary, inimitable and enterprising people – Nd’ Igbo.

Ndewo.

B

SUNDAY Vanguard, MAY 25, 2014, PAGE 51 japhdave@yahoo.com 08056402376

By PRISCA SAM DURU CELEBERATION

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•L-R Betty Abah, Profs. Elechi Amadi, Ini Uko, Ebele Eko and Prof Elechi’s wife, Priye at the event

Garlands for Elechi Amadi, Ebele Eko

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T was all accolades for lit erary icon, Professor Elechi Amadi who recently turned 80, as the literati gathered at the University of Calabar to celebrate the renowned writere.

Prof Elechi Amadi, famous for his bestselling novel, The Concubine, as well as other bestselling titles, had his 80th birthday (March 12), celebrated alongside another literary giant, Professor Ebele Eko, a poet, eminent scholar and former Deputy ViceChancellor of the University of Calabar. Prof Eko who is also renowned as the biggest authority on Amadi’s works, clocked 70 and was celebrated in a variety of activities as she retires from the University of Calabar.

Guests at the event all praised the duo for their immense contributions towards the growth of African literature.

It was in recognition of the giant strides of both icons that the annual International Conference on African Literature and the English Language (ICALEL) was held.

The event themed “African Literature, the English Language and the Environment,” kicked off with the ICALEL Conference on May 6. As it was customary, the conference featured the usual papers presentation revolving around the theme. The entire package included the conference and a gala night which featured

a member of the National CONFAB who gave the key note address, ignited the first fire of controversy in his presentation titled ‘Literature and the Environment’.

But Dara, who spoke mostly extempore, left many astounded as he chose to go historical and ‘upturned’ all known logics especially in biblical history. His assertion that Egypt was the cradle of civilization and that the civilization as powered by blacks, elicited an acerbic response from Dr. Peter Onwudinjo, a lecturer at the ELS department. Dr Onwudinjo confronted him with the fact that the race in Egypt as at that time, from historical and archeological findings, were not blacks.

Dara parried the question and said another conference should

It was in recognition of the giant strides of both icons that the annual International Conference on African Language was held

a command performance of Amadi’s play ‘’The Woman of Calabar by ELS students, to the admiration of the audience. The event also attracted several people in the academia and beyond

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and like many literary conferences, was prone to possibilities.

Professor G. G. Dara of the English and Literary Studies Department, Delta State University, popular columnist and currently

be held to further explore the issue. On his part, Dr. Emmanuel Adedun, the deputy dean, Postgraduate School, University of Lagos and currently a visiting professor, Department of English, University of Education, Winneba, Ghana and one of Eko’s many protégés, said the Urhobo authority on oral literature should infact have titled his keynote as a ‘deconstruction of the Bible’ in light of his ‘dissection’ of many biblical accountsincluding the fact that

Music, dance, dr ama loud at 2nd TTaruw aruw es tiv al drama aruwaa ffes estiv tival DRAMA

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OR four days, June 4 to June 7, 2014, the city of Lagos will be treated to an unforgettable experience as Taruwa Festival of Performing Arts in Nigeria [TAF] returns with a second edition themed ‘Telling Our Stories’. The festival which debuted a year ago will feature an assortment of events spread out through four days at the prestigious arts and culture hub, Terra Kulture,Victoria Island, Lagos.

The debut edition of the festival, which held in June 2013, garnered rave reviews from a stage adaptation of Bobo Omotayo’s bestselling book London Life Lagos Living, a children’s show, screening of short films, Open Mic Theatre, a mega concert, and the final closing ‘Ankara Ball’; a grand evening of amazing performances and fine dining.

Based on the success recorded in the first edition, the second edition of the festival will be a 4 day cocktail of rich events telling the Nigerian and African story through Music, Spoken word, literature, dance, fashion, a workshop and the stage production of a book by an ‘interesting’ female writer.

Taruwa Festival of Performing Arts is a carefully planned collection of events, and the team is working to ensure everyone who attends has a memorable experience, a goal Taruwa has strived to achieve over the years.“Fulfillment for us comes from seeing the smiles on the faces of our audience after experiencing a stage production, a music performance or any of our shows and we got a lot of that, including rave reviews at last

,

By JAPHET ALAKAM

The passionate team of TAF plans for the festival to be the largest and most consistent performing arts festival in Nigeria

,

year’s edition of the festival” Says Bee Azubike, Creative Director, Taruwa “This year, we plan to give our audience an even better experience through remarkable stories” Though in its second year, the passionate team at TAF plans for the festival to be the largest and most consistent performing arts festival in Nigeria, attracting visitors from all over the world, and making it a festival of National importance, highly valued as a catalyst for cultural and community development.

Taruwa Magazine, an annual festival Taruwa Festival of Performing Arts in Nigeria, which debuted in 2013, as well the recently launched Arts, Culture and lifestyle website Taruwa Magazine Online.

The event holds at 6:30pm at Bogobiri House, Ikoyi, on the •A scene from the play London life last Tuesday of every month.

Lagos Living Taruwa Festival of Performing TARUWA (a Hausa word mean- Arts in Nigeria (TAF) is an annual ing ‘gathering’), is an event cre- performing arts event which holds ated by Gbagyichild Entertain- in June, in Lagos, Nigeria, prement. It is a gathering of artistic senting ground breaking work in and intellectual minds, which Performing Arts (Theatre, Music, creates a platform for artistes to Comedy, Spoken Word, Dance express themselves in a comfort- and Fashion) focusing on Nigeable and intellectual setting. On ria and Africa, but also including a typical TARUWA evening, there the global artist. are poets, vocalists, instrumental- The vision of the festival is to exists, comedians and spoken word pand the horizons of Nigerian artistes, performing. It is always artists and audiences with work a rich artistic cocktail. In its al- that is visionary, genre-bending, most 7 years of operation, Taruwa multi-disciplined, impressive and has grown to be a phenomenon, original. with a quarterly print publication,

Ovu Foundation holds quiz competition for primary schools

T

HE Caretaker and Transi tion Committee Chair man of Ethiope East Local Government Area of Delta State, Hon. Sunday Onoriode Eromedoghene, has commended a Non Governmental Organization, Ovu Foundation, for organizing quiz and reading competition for both public and private primary schools in Ovu community.

The chairman who was represented by his Vice, Hon. John Esenone, gave this commendation during a quiz and reading competition organized by the Ovu Foundation at the community

town hall, Ovu, saying that the foundation’s ideology to improve on the lives of the primary school pupils through its rich educational programmes and empowerment is a welcome development worth emulating.

The competition which was held with four private and eight public primary schools in participation was won by Oquodi Primary School, Oviorie Modern Primary School, Ovu taking 2nd position and Patmos Primary School taking 3rd position.

In an address by the president, Dr. Akpofure Rim-Rukeh said that the essence of the quiz and read-

ing competition was to stimulate reading culture among the pupils from the foundation level, pointing out that the foundation will soon embark on establishing reading centers in all the primary schools in Ovu community.

Responding on behalf of the primary schools, the Ethiope East Local Government Chief Inspector of Education, CIE, Mr. Ojeil Charles Emeka, the President General of Ovu Development Union, ODU, represented by Chief Julius Ogbevire, thanked the foundation for organizing the quiz and reading competition for the pupils.

the Garden of Eden was actually sited in Tanzania!

But ICALEL, founded over three decades ago by Professor Ernest Emenyonu (now US-based) and others including the retiring Eko, is no stranger to controversies. He drew the best literary and sometimes most unconventional writers from across Africa and beyond and was a major global gathering especially in the 1980’s. It provided many a literary enthusiast and aspiring writer an opportunity to catch a glimpse and to be inspired by leading literary figures such as Ngugi Wa Thiongo, Ayi Kwe Amah, Kofi Awunor, Chinua Achebe, Zulu Sofola, Wole Soyinka, Bessie Head, Cyprian Ekwensi and hundreds of eminent writers. While launching a 656-page book, titled “The Masterpieces of African Literature (Volume One), a collection of reviews of 100 of the best of African literature”, Eko, one of the last persons standing among the ICALEL organizers, said she was committed to keeping the spirit alive. .

Dr. Idom T. Inyabri, a young lecturer in the department who worked with the Head of Department Dr. Stella Nsa towards the success of the conference, said the theme was quite apt. “It has keyed into the global issues of our time.

More importantly, it has shown that the conference is sensitive to the development of African literature, and provides an opportunity for critics and writers to engage on the emerging study of the ecocriticism, eco-linguistic and green cultural studies.”

Steve Rhodes: Six years after - a commemorative exhibition

M

ay 29, 2008, while Nigeria was celebrating yet another ‘Democracy Day’, our father, grandfather, mentor, teacher and inspiration to generations of artists of diverse hues, STEVEN BANKOLE OMODELE RHODES, passed on to eternal Glory.

He was 82.

It will be six years on May 29, 2014 that the ElderArtsMan and Music Impresario – as his numerous associates and mentees revered him — transited to greater higher service, after a protracted illness.

To mark this anniversary, the Steve Rhodes Foundation (SRF) — which was founded in the aftermath of his passing – as well as the Steve Rhodes Memorial Anniversary Committee has decided to honour his memory. The commemorative event is designed especially to celebrate his eminent contributions to the Nigerian (and African) music and artistic heritage with an exhibition of the rich and resourceful collection of photographic recordings of his over six decades of illustrious career.

The week-long exhibition will be formally opened by the Nobel laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka on May 29 at the Museum gallery of the Freedom Park, Lagos.

PAGE 52—SUNDAY

Vanguard, MAY 25, 2014

Hitting without missing!

By Yetunde Arebi

L

AST Sunday, I de scribed orgasm as the release of built up sexual tension in both men and women during a sexual encounter. I also said that while it is pretty easy for the male to achieve orgasm the opposite is the case for the woman and not a few reasons are responsible for this. Several major research work on human sexuality record that only about 25 percent of women climax or experience intense sexual pleasures during sex with their partner. The rest of us either hit-or-miss, depending on the night, or never experience a female orgasm during intercourse at all. For many women, not being able to climax can be caused by everything from unrealistic expectations, to awful sex, to discomfort with their bodies, discomfort with their partners or discomfort with sex itself. But while biologists have been trying with little success to figure out the whole concept of the elusiveness or even why females orgasm at all, since their reproduction does not depend on it, one thing they have been successful at doing, is figuring how to achieve one.

Almost every woman can learn how to have an orgasm.

One of the first steps is identifying those body parts or sex organs that gives you pleasure. I suggest you first do this on your own because it takes off the pressure of being under another person's scrutiny.

And since you are supposed to be telling your partner what

you want and guiding him to do it the way you want it done, you are not likely to be able to do this if you have no clue about what gives you pleasure in the first place. By touching yourself (masturbating) privately, you will not feel rushed or under the impression to perform for the other person. You can also give in to your fantasies about what turns you on without worrying about what someone will think about you.

Please, forget all the crap about what masturbation is or

Please never forget that clean hands and neatly filed fingernails are important if you want to go exploring, you don't want to snag anyone's skin down there. Plus, try to be innovative, don't just go straight for the clit, work around it first to prepare for

Please never forget that clean hands and neatly filed fingernails are important if you want to go exploring, you don't want to snag anyone's skin down there is not. If you are serious about playing this game, then you don't need to be a prude.

Once you have identified what you want and need to do, then you can turn to your partner. Ask him to touch, rub, caress, kiss, bite or even suck on anywhere you desire such action before, during or after sex.

Remember, to guide him by placing your fingers over his fingers or hands and over the spot. Don't forget to let him know the motion and frequency that you need for it to work.

And just in case, you may want to help him out by using your own hands too. The truth is •Emmanuel, 26, honest, God

Networking/ Sponsorship •Megie, 19, average height, intelligent and a student, needs an educated, wealthy and a God fearing man to sponsor her education.

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that foreplay is very essential especially for the woman because of its direct focus on the clitoris which we have identified as the key to the female orgasm.

fearing and from Imo state, but resides in Anambra, needs a good and caring female friend, aged 18-26.08067347878, 08038609074 Lovers Searching Female •Prisca, 24, needs a sexy and fun loving man to make her happy.08148595415 •Vivian 24, a Corper in Delta state needs an employed guy, aged 30–35,for a serious relationship.07030896451 •Princess, 24, sexy, pretty and very bursty young undergraduate needs a kind and generous matured man for a sexual relationship.08102362446 •Sylvia, sweet, sophisticated, pretty, God fearing, humble and intelligent with ebony boobs, curvy behind needs an older man aged 45 and above for a serious relationship.08106611894 •Trichia, 27, student, dark and

what is coming. Work on her feet, legs, thighs, bum, pelvis, vulva and everything in between and you can bet that she will be the one swooning all over you for what you have to offer.

A little help won't hurt anyone. Some women for certain reasons ranging from medical to psychological, find it more difficult to produce enough lubrication needed for a seamless sexual intercourse. A few drops of lubricating gel will also come in handy here. It will reduced the friction generated by a dry vagina. Friction causes bruises and pain for the woman and may even

attractive needs a caring man aged 35 and above to call her man.07055925219 •Pat, 23, needs a hot and sexy man, for a relationship.

08148568562 •Vera, 24, needs a romantic man in her life.08066396534 •Temi, 33, plump, pretty, educated and mother of one child, needs a well mannered, decent, responsible, good looking and employed man, for marriage, aged 3850. 08133533159 •Genevive, 55, single and a Nurse by profession, from Imo state, a dedicated Catholic, needs a widower, who is Igbo, by tribe, gentle, caring and a Catholic, aged 55 and above, for a serious relationship.08179014151

cause same for the man in severe cases. A variety of lube gels are available at the pharmacies, ensure to ask for the right one if you are not sure. Stay away from using petroleum jelly and non water based gel to avoid infection.

Your sex position is also important. You may find it interesting to indulge yourself in all the position in the legendary Kama Sutra, but not all these positions can work in your favour in pursuit of the big "O".

Remember that the emphasis is on making contact with the clit as much as possible. So you need to choose sex positions that will allow for ample contact with the female body. The woman on top and the doggy, also known as rear-entry, are the most recommended for this exercise. This is because the woman-on-top position has more potential for clitoral stimulation than the missionary position. On top, a woman can have more control over the amount of stimulation, rhythm, and pacing. She can also move her hips to reach his pubic bone, or he can change the angle of his hips. With the doggy, he can reach around to caress the female clitoris. However, feel free to discover your own favourite sex position as depending on preference, some sex positions may feel more exciting than the other and may differ with each experience. You can also incorporate two or more sex positions each time you have sex.

Just as is the case with men, sexual stimulation is largely a cerebral activity for women too.

This means that if you want to really turn her on, you must pay attention to her brain as well as her body. You don't have to indulge in dirty talk, but you need to speak the sex language.

Whisper in her ears what all women love to hear; how lovely or beautiful she looks at that

al background and employed for a sexual relationship.08158741214 •Lin, 54, a businessman, Ibo, separated, without an issue, in Lagos, needs a Christian lady, who is educated and employed, aged 36-43, for marriage, single mothers with only one child are also welcomed.08057002189, 07065557964

•Ben, from Delta state, needs a pretty and well educated, God fearing and social girl, for a relationship, that will lead to marriage, aged 18-28.08026389307 •David, 32, employed and resides in Abuja, needs a lady for a relationship.08105347521 •Tunde, 53, gainfully employed and based in Warri, needs a discipline and decent divorcee or widow who is a Yoruba for a serious relationship that could lead to marSearching Male riage. 07013135757 •Israel resides in Benin, •Emmanuel, 26, tall, fair in comneeds a beautiful lady, aged plexion, handsome an d a student, 35-45, with a good education- needs a tall and pretty lady, aged 18-23, for a relationship.08065672281 •Nelson, 28, single, a Christian Dear readers, please note that we neither operate, nor are we an affiliate of any match–making agency in and resides in Lagos, needs a lady, serious relationship, or outside the country. Any reader who transacts business with any one claiming to be our agent does for 08067327456 so at his/her own risk. Our mission is only to provide a platform for social networking.

•Ade, needs a lady, for a serious Also note that neither Vanguard, nor Yetunde Arebi will be liable for any error in the publication of relationship, aged 20-30. requests which may result in any form of embarrassment to any member of the public. We therefore 08180903381, 08076316909 request that text must be sent through at least one of the numbers for contact. This notice is necessary to •Sam,33, tall, slim, a graduate, enable us serve you better in our refreshingly different style. You can send your requests to 33055. For employed and from Edo state, enquiries, text or call 08026651636 needs a lady from Edo state, who

Friends Searching Females • Faith, tall, sexy with a charming personality, needs friends, who are fun to be with, cool, exciting and matured.08060366297 •Stina, 24, needs male and female friends, from a rich family.08108856292 •Rose, 19, from Delta state, but resides in Ph, needs male and female friends, who are nice, caring and God fearing.

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DISCLAIMER!

moment, what her touch or sounds is doing to you, what you want to do to her or just how turned on you are, blah, blah, blah! This is enough turn on for most women.

If you are the modern or cosmopolitan partners, you may up your sex game a notch by adding sex toys to it. There are a variety of items to choose from starting with the regular vibrator to nipple clamps and stretchy rings, depending on what you need. It allows you more hands to work/play with.

Beyond all the above, always remember that if you are generally satisfied with your sexual activity, there is no need to be dismayed by your lack of vaginal sensation or feel pressured to feel pleasure or orgasm during intercourse especially if you have already tried all the things mentioned above. Most of the time, our demons are in our minds and we need time to sort them out. So, don't feel too discouraged if things don't click right away. Learning is a process, it might take a while. Also, note that it is near impossible to have fulfilling sex with a stranger in a one night stand, you need to be with someone you are comfortable with and feel confident enough to share your mind and body with. How long the relationship has lasted is not really the concern here but what the two of you are willing to share. So, just chill will you?

Dear readers, you are aware that due to space constraint, not everything can be discussed on this page. However, I may reach me on the email address above: in thelovezone@yahoo.com for further discussion o this topic or any other of your choice.

Cheers! is a Christian, for marriage.

08069698869,08163531685 •Henry, 28, from Delta state, needs a lady, for a serious relationship.08167775406 •Emeka, needs a responsible and an educated girl with a caring heart for serious relation ship.

08064052114 •Cozy, needs a girl, with hips, busty, pretty and romantic, for a relationship.08103601339 •James, 52, resides in Owerri, needs a lady who has flair for business and ready to be a second wife and also ready to have babies.08034357879 •Cj, 30, resides in Delta state, needs a loving and caring lady, aged 35-50, for a serious relationship.08106829077 •A man, needs a single mother, with 2 kids, aged 35-38, who is either from Uhrobo or Isoko, for a serious relationship.

07052301019 •Dave, 30, employed, resides in Warri, needs a caring lady in Warri.08058998773 •Dan, 55, a pastor resides in Warri, needs a God fearing, Urhobo lady, who is a teacher for marriage, aged 35-45. 08111056667, 08028260406 •Sunday, 30, from Togo, dark in complexion and resides, in Sapele, Delta state, needs an employed lady, who is also from Togo, for marriage. 08165306762 •Ejiro, resides in Warri, needs a lady that is ready for a serious relationship. BB 255044c5

Our honeymoon is over!

BY FEMI FANI-KAYODE

I

“

F they ever tell my story let them say I walked with giants. Men rise and fall like the winter wheat but these names will never die...let them say I lived in the time of Hector, tamer of

horses...let them say I lived in the time of Achilles”- the Iliad, Homer.

The words of Odysseus in Homer ’s epic and ancient poem entitled,’’The Iliad’’, have always moved me. Those words are deep and profound; they stir my soul and rekindle my spirit.

How I wish Nigeria had it’s own ancient poets and great thinkers like Socrates, Plato, Aristotle and Homer who could remind generations to come about our past exploits with their inspiring, compelling and historic prose.

Yet I look at our country today and I am not encouraged or inspired. Many have asked why I should say this. Permit me to answer that question by posing a few of my own.

I start by asking: is this the Nigeria of Murtala Muhammed and Theophilius Danjuma? Is this the nation that helped to liberate Angola, Mozambique, Zimbabwe and South Africa?

Is this the nation that restored sanity to Sierra Leonne, that brought an end to a civil war in Liberia, that fought so gallantly in Burma, Congo and Somalia and that quelled a military coup in Sao Tome and Principe?

Is this the nation whose wealth once knew no bounds and whose middle class once owned the finest cars and properties in London, Paris and New York? Is this the nation whose beautiful people once graced the streets of Belgravia, Chelsea and Knightsbridge?

Is this the country that once nationalized BP and that gave Margaret Thatcher sleepless nights over apartheid South Africa ? Is this the nation that once stood up to the mighty Boers and whose ancestors studied at Oxford and Cambridge?

Is this the nation whose inhabitants and various ethnic nationalities once ruled vast empires and whose progenitors contributed so much to the traditions, religion and culture of Ancient Egypt?

Is this the country that once fought a bitter and brutal civil war, yet declared ‘’no victor, no

vanquished’’ and, in the spirit of love, came back as one? Is this the country which has been through thick and thin and yet whose people remained ever so resilient and always put a smile on their faces?

Is this the country where giants once held court and where the greats of old once presided? Where did we go wrong? What has happened to our people and what has afflicted our country? When did our leaders become spineless cowards and deceivers? When did the green white green of our nation’s flag become soiled with faeces and when was it torn to

,

C M Y K

SUND AY Vanguar d, MA Y 25, 2014 — PAGE 53 SUNDA anguard, MAY

The honeymoon is over and the glory has departed, one hundred years of a forced and failed marriage has ended in a bitter yet undeniable divorce

shreds?

When did we shy away from fighting our own battles and prosecuting our own wars?

When did we start bowing our heads in shame as events unfold in our country? When did we start sitting down silently as international newscasters speak about our nation in painful, disdainful and condescending tones?

What has happened to the ever courageous, ever smiling, ever confident and ever dependable Nigerian who shook the world with his arrogance and confidence and who spoke of his nation with pride and joy?

What has happened to our great army that was once the pride of Africa and that once made us so proud? What has happened to our great intellectuals and our men and women of courage and vision who once, like a collosus, bestrode the world?

What has happened to the stubborn and proud yet warm, friendly and profoundly good people that Nigerians once were? What has happened to the people that were once regarded

•Femi Fani-Kayode

as the hope of Africa and the pride of every black man on the planet?

Where and when did we go astray? How and when did it all go wrong? When did we lose our strength, our wealth, our honour and our power? When did we lose our excellence, our confidence, our dignity and our self-respect? When did we become so weak and so helpless?

When did we become so pitiful that the whole world mocks us and heaps insults on us so easily? When did they start saying that we have ‘’no serious government’’, that we have ‘’lost control of large portions of our nation’’ and that we can’t even protect our own children? When did we become incapable of defending our borders?

When did we turn into a laughing stock and a reference point for incompetence, stupidity, cowardice, ignorance, evil and all that is bad to the rest of the world?

When did other nations start giving us lessons on how to fight insurgency and how to prosecute our wars? When did our people start clamouring for foreign armies to enter our land, violate our sovereignty and march on our sacred soil?

When did we start having to ask others to come and solve our local problems? O Nigeria, how are the mighty fallen. Truly ours is a nation afflicted. She is finished and there is little hope of any form of redemption or resurrection.

The honeymoon is over and the glory has departed. One hundred years of a forced and failed marriage has ended in a bitter yet undeniable divorce.

We have lost it all and there is no going back. Those that wish to break up our nation for sport and bring our people to their knees have had their way.

Those that wish to watch us slaughter one another in an orgy of mindless violence and that wish to establish their AFRICOM in our shores will

soon be here and we shall be occupied forever.

Sub nations

O Nigeria, how are the mighty fallen. I loved Nigeria but now I have stopped believing in her.

She is saddled with many different sub- nations that were simply incompatible right from the start.

She is plagued and cursed with one particular sub-nation whose ruling elite are dangerous and unyielding, whose guile and deceit is second to none, who treat their own people with contempt and derision, who believe that they were born to rule, who think that power belongs to them, who suppress the religious and ethnic minorities within their ranks and who were taught from an early age that there is none besides them. Those people have killed Nigeria.

Our nation has become a cruel joke- she is a maliciously contrived contraption that has shattered many dreams and frustrated many ambitions and aspirations. This was a country that was created for the benefit of just a few at the cost of the misery and pain of so many.

I will never accept the idea of living in a nation with religious extremists who slit the throats of children, who habitually slaughter the innocent and who abduct and rape small girls.

Animals have no place in the homes of men.

It is time for us to stop pretending: let the terrorists and their friends in high places break away and establish their own country where they can marry as many young girls as they please and chop off as many limbs as they want. Let them form a nation where they can stone adulterers and turn women into chattel that are not even worthy of life.

Let those of us from the west establish Oduduwa and let us celebrate and enjoy our freedom from the bondage and ineptitude of a cruel failed state

that has no soul and that lacks humanity and compassion.

Let us be liberated from the deceit that is known as Nigeria: a nation that once was but that is no more. Let us be free of Nigeria: a nation where injustice, persecution, insensitivity, impugnity, terror and wickedness reign supreme.

Let us be rid of Nigeria: a country where those of us that had the misfortune of being born on the ‘’wrong’’ side of the regional and religious divide are butchered for our heritage and can never be treated as equals. Give us Oduduwa or let us die.

Yet we will eventually take our freedom by force if it is not freely given to us. We shall take it by fire: by the shedding of blood and by our own bleeding if necessary. We will take it by sacrificing our lives if that is what we are forced to do.

What we will never do is continue to live in perpetual slavery in a nation that is afflicted with feeble rulers and peopled by religious bigots, sexual deviants and bloodthirsty terrorists.

We shall not allow ourselves to be consummed by the ineptitude of our present-day rulers and the sheer incompetence of those that do not have the courage or the moral authority to crush the beasts that have abducted our girls.

Timely are the words of Wole Soyinka, our only true sage and great thinker. On May 9, 2014 on BBC’s ‘’Hardtalk’’, he said, “if we don’t find the girls, then for me it will be better we sit down and decide that Nigeria is too much to manage.

That it is easier, for instance, to manage a crisis of this kind or to prevent it if we were a smaller nation”.

The Nobel Laureate is right.

I have had enough. I say goodbye Nigeria: give us Oduduwa or let us die.

•Feni Kayode was Minister of Aviation

PAGE 54 — SUNDAY VANGUARD, MAY 25, 2014

World Cup Special: Mexican coach slams sex ban on players M

EXICO manager, Miguel Herrera, has slapped a sex ban on his players for the duration of the World Cup in Brazil next month.

“No, no one,” Herrera told Reforma newspaper. “If a player can’t go one month or 20 days without having sexual relations, then they are not prepared to be a professional player. All the players we have selected have a pretty good resume, they all have won great things, they have been champions and obviously, they know what they want to achieve.”

Herrera said the ban replicated the cut-throat nature of the World Cup where one off day can bring about a swift exit from the tournament.

“So then we will not be looking for sex or having sex at the World Cup just to have it, we are going to go after what we came for, a competition that gives us the opportunity to rise above and do something really great. So I don’t think that the guys even have this [sex] on their minds.

They don’t have an idea about it. We talked about it because

there was a buzz about it and we got criticised because I commented that in a team you have to worry about what is best for the team. In a club, you lose one week and you get a second chance the next week. But on a national team, you lose once and you are out of the World Cup.” Herrera later admitted there was no way to enforce the ban.

“I am not thinking about prohibiting sex. I am thinking about football. I hope the players are thinking the same way,” he said. “Forty days of sexual abstinence is not going to hurt anyone.”

The Mexican national team have struggled since the last World Cup in South Africa in 2010. They were one of the last teams to qualify for 2014 after they failed to earn an automatic berth in the CONCACAF group finishing behind the US, Costa Rica and Honduras. They made the final 32 only after beating New Zealand in a sudden-death tie. Herrera was appointed to the job in October last year and was the fourth national team manager Mexico had

within a month following their troubled qualification campaign.

At the 2011 Copa America Mexico finished last in their group after eight players were removed from the team for inviting prostitutes to their hotel in Quito, Ecuador.

Former Arsenal striker Carlos Vela was one of two players banned for six months in September 2010 after allegedly throwing an all-night party following Mexico’s 1-0 win in a friendly against Colombia in Monterrey.

NO NIGHT KICKING... Mexican player Havier Hernandez and Nigeria’s Kenneth Omeruo contest for ball possession during a friendly match.

Messi, Neymar dream of final clash B

RAZIL star Neymar is dreaming of beating Barcelona team-mate Lionel Messi’s Argen-tina in the World Cup final.

Luiz Felipe Scolari’s men impressed at last year’s Confederations Cup as they beat reigning world champions Spain 3-0 in the final and Neymar is hoping for a similar performance this summer.

“I shall try to play at the best of my abilities while Lionel will try to do the same. And after the

match, we shall embrace each other. These two things will be there for sure, the rest is unknown,” Neymar told Times of India.

“Actually, we had such conversations in the Camp Nou dressing room and I had always said that if we meet in the final, we shall be the winner. But he says the same too.

“It’s really great to know such a talent from close quarters. I am really lucky.”

Brazil will possibly meet

Spain in the round of 16, but Neymar has stressed that the World Cup hosts will be ready for each opponent.

“These days, there is nothing unknown about your opponents.

We know about them, they know about us. When you are trying to be the best, you cannot choose your opponent, can you?

You have to play at the best of your abilities against each and every team. Only then you can be the best.”

SUNDAY VANGUARD, MAY 25, 2014, PAGE 55

Brazil 2014: Super Eagles kick off preparations S

Starting Block... (from right) Vincent Enyeama, Victor Moses and John Mikel Obi. Key players who will make things happen for the Eagles in Brazil 2014.

NPFL: Sharks aim for victory as Wolves threaten to ‘bite’

BY EDDIE AKALONU

S

IX games will be decided today in the elite league and one of such is in Warri where leaders, Sharks of Port Harcourt are sure to go all out to consolidate their lead away to Wolves. Sharks

Ameobi, Magpies part ways

S

TRIKER Shola Ameobi has left Newcastle after 14 years at St James’ Park.

The 32-year-old is out of contract and, after discussions with the club, is to move on, although he has signalled his intention to return one day.

Ameobi, who was handed a senior debut by former manager Sir Bobby Robson as a teenager, said: “Following discussions with Newcastle United, both parties felt it was the right time for us to part company. I have been at Newcastle United all my career and I have enjoyed every moment and always worn the famous shirt with pride. I am now looking forward to starting a new chapter in my career.

“I would like to place on record a big thank you to everyone at Newcastle United. I wish the club great success in the future and I’m sure with the team and management they have, Newcastle United will go from strength to strength. Finally, a big thank you to the supporters who have always been fantastic.

BY BEN EFE

F

BY BEN EFE TEPHEN Keshi and his Super Eagles are scheduled to fly out today for London, to keep a date with the Scottish national team May 28 at Craven Cottage.

The game will officially kick off the Super Eagles preparations for the Brazil 2014 World Cup, where they are aiming to reach the semifinal as stated by goalkeeper, Vincent Enyeama.

Bulk of the team players most of whom are already in Europe will be met by Keshi in London tonight, where the camp will open at the Hilton Cobham Hotel in London.

However, it was gathered that some of the foreign -based players are already in Nigeria holidaying. Five home-based players Chigozie Agbim, Daniel Akpeyi , Azubuike Egwuekwe, Kunle Odunlami and Ejike Uzoenyi will leave with the technical crew.

Coach Keshi is using the match against the Scots to access the fitness of his key players who are either recovering from injury or did not play regular football with their respective clubs.

After the match at the home ground of Fulham FC, the Eagles will leave for Philadelphia, USA where they will play another friendly on June 3 against Greece, who sacked the Eagles from the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. On June 7, the Eagles will square up against Jurgen Klinsmann’s Team USA and finally on June 10, the Eagles will fly out to Sao Paulo, Brazil prepare for their world cup opener against Iran on June 16.

“Everything concerning the team’s movement and stay both in the U.S. and Brazil have been sorted out,” said Nigeria Football Federation spokesman, Ademola Olajire.

Beware of dope traps, Urhobo warns Okagbare

“I hope to come back to Newcastle United one day in some capacity to help repay some of the faith and loyalty that everybody connected to the club has shown me during my time here,” said the player who will likely make Stephen Keshi’s team to the Brazil 2014 World Cup. Ameobi, whose younger brother Sammy remains on the books, made 397 senior appearances, 178 of them as a substitute, and scored 79 goals. He has made more appearances as a substitute than any player in Premier League history.

•Shola Ameobi

will be banking on the 1-0 win over Enugu Rangers mid-week.

From all indications, they have an even chance to win or draw.

Victory is definitely on their mind. However, the Paul Aigbogun tutored Wolves may prove hard nuts to crack, because they are fifth on the log and would need the three points to move up.

Club sources say the 2-1 week 15 losses to Crown is worrisome.

Wolves Media officer, Etu Moses predicts a tough match against Sharks. “Sharks as the leaders have something up their sleeves but we are equal to the task because we know them very well and would play to win having known and assessed their strength and weaknesses during pre-season” Dolphins versus

Bayelsa in the Garden City is the fan’s delight with the Port Harcourt outfit far from top of the log, a desire to win is the tonic that would spur them to an all out war to, following the midweek loss to Nembe City. Sharp on the heels of Sharks, second placed Nasarawa and third placed Lobi both play away in Ijebu Ode and Uyo respectively and except any pull off a win away, the table may just change in the event of Wolves or Crown, who meet Abia Warriors in Umuahia notching up wins.

Enugu Rangers, beaten by Sharks midweek have a chance to return to winning ways, as they host Gombe United.With both teams struggling to hit top form, this is one that could go either way.

ORMER Athletics Federation of Nigeria president and Nigerian head coach, Tony Urhobo has expressed fears that African sprint and long jump sensation, Blessing Okagbare is liable to testing positive to drugs if she was not cautious of manipulative mangers whose only agenda is to make money from her exploits in the grand prix meets.

Urhobo, explained that the pressure of keeping up with big performances at the grand prix meets and meeting mangers’ expectations have always tempted athletes to resort to supplements to keep them going and most often, those supplements resulted into testing positive to banned substances on the IAAF list. A-list athletes like Asafa Powell, Justin Gatlin, Tyson Gay, Veronica Campbell Brown have been smeared and even one of Okagbare’s rivals, Shelly Ann Fraser-Pryce tested positive to stimulants in the Diamond League in Shanghai, China, but walked away with a six months suspension in 2011.

“I fear for our track queen. I pray that she doesn’t get involved in any scandal during her time on the tracks.

“Most key athletes in Jamaica and USA are into it, as reports have stated. We’ve known years back of these acts by the big world power sporting Nations. So when you begin to allow or hand over your athletes to foreign professionals whose only commitment is cash and nothing more; then expect the worst as these coaches are more interested in the winnings of their athletes at the Grand Prix where good cash rewards are received by both athletes and their coaches depending on their contract agreements.

“I am speaking from experience. Once these athletes get into the IAAF Circuits you can’t control them anymore. American athletes and coaches are deeply involved in supplements and substance abuse,” Urhobo stated.

Danagogo trumpets importance of sports in social devt

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PORTS minster and National Sports Commission (NSC) chairman, Tammy Danagogo has identified sports as a catalyst for social development and peaceful co-existence. The Minister made this statement when the Special Adviser to the President on Special Duties and Social Development, Mrs. Sarah Pane paid him a courtesy visit in his Abuja National Stadium office.

Dr. Danagogo opined that sports and social development are closely related as sports can serve as a

developmental platform to tackle specified social issues in the society.

Speaking further, the Minister noted that sports can be employed to unite individuals and communities; highlight common interest as well as bridge cultural, gender, religious and ethnic divides. According to him, “sports have the capacity to bring about peace and prevent conflict thereby strengthening interaction between communities, peoples and culture”.

•Blessing Okagbare

SUNDAY Vanguard, MAY 25, 2014

Flying Eagles thrash Tanzania heroes

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HE Flying Eagles on Saturday beat their visiting Tanzanian counterparts 4-1 in Kaduna to qualify for the third and final round of the 2015 African Youth Championship (AYC) qualifiers.

The national under-20 men’s football team qualified on a 6-1 aggregate, after winning the first leg match two weeks earlier 2-0 in Dar es Sa-

laam.

They will now face the winners of the second round match between Lesotho and Angola in August to secure a berth at the AYC in Senegal in March.

In the match played at the Ahmadu Bello Stadium in Kaduna, hosts Nigeria took the lead in the seventh minute through Alhassan Ibrahim whose low shot beat goalkeeper Hamad Joma.

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE

Real Madrid are Kings of Europe

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OMETIMES reality is better than fiction — and for Atletico Madrid players and fans, this soccer season has been a pure fairy tale. But it wasn’t going to be a sweet ending as Real Madrid survived a scare, shook off the dust and destroyed Atletico 41 to win the 2014 Champions League at the Luz stadium in Lisbon, Portugal.

Diego Godin had given Atletico a dream start in the 36th minute and they held off pressure from Real for all of the 87 minutes of grinding soccer action. But just when Diego Simone was urging Atletico fans to cheer on his battling players, Sergio Ramos draw level on injury time and peharps that deflacted the fighting spirits of Atletico.

Gareth Bale, Mercelo and Ronaldo competed the rout for Real.

By all standards Atletico can hold their heads high. They shouldn’t have reached the UEFA Champions League Final, let alone have a decent chance of winning the coveted soccer trophy. The Madrid team is one of the most heavily in debt in Spanish sports, which means, for one thing, that it lacks the financial firepower to buy high-profile international players such as Cristiano Ronaldo and Gareth Bale of Real Madrid, which it’ll meet in the final.

Last season, underdog Atletico pulled in 120 million euros ($163 million) in revenue, while Real had an impressive

GRINDING DUEL....Real Madrid’s Portuguese defender Fabio Coentrao (l) vies with Atletico Madrid’s midfielder Raul Garcia during the UEFA Champions League Final Madrid at Luz stadium in Lisbon. sity of Barcelona academic Jose Maria Gay. It’s a different picture for Atletico, which is weighed down by debt that’s more than 16 times its net worth.

“Atletico has been a surprise

$519 million on the top line.

When it comes to debt, Real’s debt-to-equity ratio sits at 1.73 — seen as acceptable in the world of Spanish football, according to a report by Univer-

DOWN 1. Planet (7) 2. Helicopter blade (5) 3. Church part (4) 4. Corner (4) 5. Japanese dish (5) 9. Snooze (3) 11. Paradigms (6) 12. Flag (6) 14. Sister (3) 15. Spanish for “friend” (5) 16. Cavort (6) 17. Emperor’s realm (6) 19. Zodiac sign (3) 22. Nigerian state (3) 25. Interval (3) 28. Nose (7) 30. Deity (3) 32. Saddam’s nationality (5) 34. Shop (5) 35. Classroom furniture (4) 36. Twelvemonth period (4)

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financial situation for Atletico is extremely difficult. Even if they win the Champions League, it won’t be enough to recover from its economic situation.”

AWC: Falcons dismiss Rwandan women

CROSS WORD PUZZLE ACROSS 1. Nigerian state (8) 4. Nupe chieftain (4) 6. Arrogant (5) 7. Typesets (6) 8. Arise (5) 10. Tennis refs (7) 13. Evil (3) 15. Fruit (5) 18. Otherwise (4) 20. Add (3) 21. Chief (4) 23. Pal (3) 24. Current unit (3) 25. Aim (4) 26. Firearm (3) 27. Press (4) 29. Yoruba thunder god (5) 31. Mine (3) 33. Hates (7) 35. Father (5) 37. Used with pestle (6) 38. Father Christmas (5) 39. Colour (4) 40. Receipt (8)

this year, because they had to compete with a lower budget and less good players,” said Jaume Llopis, a soccer finance expert from the IESE business school in Barcelona. “But the

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IGERIA’s senior women football team, the Super Falcons, on Saturday in Gisenyi trounced hosts Rwanda 41 in a first leg match in the 2014 African Women Championship (AWC) qualifiers.

Asisat Oshoala, however, opened scoring in the 37th minute with a volley from inside the box, while Desire Oparanozie set up Oshoala three minutes later for the second goal.

The six-times African champions made it 3-0 immediately after resumption when team captain Evelyn Nwabuoku found Esther Sunday who beat the Rwanda

goalkeeper with a low shot.

Rwanda pulled a goal back in the 65th minute when Clementine Mukamana’s free kick beat Precious Dede in goal for Nigeria.

Seemingly stunned by the goal, the Nigerian girls piled pressure on their hosts and Oparanozie was brought down inside the penalty box.

She rose to convert the resultant penalty kick for the Falcons’ fourth goal in the match.

Speaking after the game, Falcons’ coach Edwin Okon said it was a good game for her side, even though he felt the scoreline did not justify the game.

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