Suicide bombers hitmilitary church in Jaji

...towards a better life for the people VOL. 25: NO. 61761

Crisis in Ojukwu's family •P 6 escalates

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MONDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2012

Presidency wades into unpaid subsidy palavar •P.10

A BOOK YOU MUST READ

The Nigerian Defence Academy —A Pioneer Cadet's Memoir

BY COL. PAUL OSAKPAMWAN OGBEBOR (RTD.) •Pgs.46&47

Suicide bombers hit military church in Jaji •Over 50 killed, many injured — Eyewitnesses • Only 11 killed, 30 injured — Army spokesman •Attack, a surprise, embarrassing — Source •Newsmen, NEMA, SEMA denied entry •Gunmen kill Family of three in Kano

SONI DANIEL, REGIONAL EDITOR, NORTH, KINGSLEY OMONOBI, EMMAN OVUAKPORIE & LUKA BINNIYAT

K

ADUNA – OVER 11 persons were feared dead, yesterday and several others seriously injured when a suicide bomber rammed into the Saint Andrews Protestant Church, inside the Army Cantonment, Jaji,

Continues on Page 5

AMCON, Capital Oil negotiation in jeopardy —P.6 Mr & Mrs

INSTALLATION—

From right: Prof. Fidelis Okafor, Vice-Chancellor of Anambra State University; Governor Peter Obi of Anambra State and HRM Orodje of Okpe, Orhue I at the Orodje's installation as Pro-Chancellor of Anambra State University, Uli, weekend.

2 — Vanguard, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2012

Vanguard, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2012 — 3

4 — Vanguard, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2012

Vanguard, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2012—5

POCKET CARTOON

Suicide bombers hit military church in Jaji Continues from page 1 in Kaduna.

A military spokesman told the British Broadcasting Corporation, BBC that two vehicles were driven into the barracks in Jaji in what he described as “surprising and an embarrassment”.

The unprovoked attack, according to witnesses, took place between 11:30am and midday when the first set of worshippers were about to depart after the first service.

The attacker, it was learnt, had aimed at killing most of the worshippers as they were coming out of the church.

Scores of lucky worshippers and passersby were also severely wounded by the force of the blast, which shocked many residents of the cantonment who are mostly middle cadre military officers undergoing their compulsory command and staff training programmes.

It was gathered that most of the critically wounded were rushed to the Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital, while others were taken to a nearby hospital with life support facilities. The bodies of the victims were also

taken to nearby mortuaries in the city.

A military source confirmed the blast and the death of many persons but said it was too early to give the specific casualty figure.

Sources told Vanguard that the vehicles were driven into the Jaji cantonment through the bush, thereby escaping all the military checkpoints mounted at the entry and exit points into the cantonment.

Military sources disclosed that the suicide bombers, who died in the blast, came through the Maraban-Jos axis, and thereby escaped being detected at the Abuja-Minna-Kaduna axis.

The source said: “It is true that a suicide bomber attempted to enter the St. Andrews Protestant Church inside the Cantonment but he was stopped from gaining access to the main building. But he detonated his bomb and killed himself and some other persons.

“The main building of the church is not affected and a few people have died but we cannot give the exact number of persons who have been killed”.

But the Director Army

LIFEWORDS

BY PASTOR ITUAH

A nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people – John F. Kennedy. By His grace and mercy we will build a nation where truth and justice shall reign.

TAKE HEART

BY ELLA RANDLE

What a wonderful life I’ve had! I only wish I’d realized it sooner –Colette “IT is a curious thing; it appears that happiness is easier to get used to than despair”, says Lemony Snicker, an author of many books. Maybe, it is because the second time you had your favourite drink, for instance, your happiness at sipping the delicious concoction may not be quite as enormous as when you had it the very first time, and the twelfth time your happiness may be still less enormous, until it begins to offer you very little happiness at all.

In this regard, happiness can be rightly, a state or situation in which opposing forces or factor balance each other out and stability is attained. The truth of the matter is that happiness comes from within and is really not affected by outer circumstances.

Menton sums it aptly: “We cannot be happy if we expect to live all the time at the highest peak of intensity. Happiness is not a matter of intensity but of balance and order and rhythm and harmony”.

Public Relations, Brig Gen Bola Koleoso who had earlier denied knowing the casualty figure later sent a text message to say that 11 were killed, and 30 injured.

Brig Gen Koleoso who confirmed the incident in a text message to Vanguard in Kaduna said: “There were twin suicide bombings today (Sunday) at the St. Andrew Military Protestant Church, Jaji Military Cantonment at 1205hrs and 1215hrs.

“A bus first ran into the church and exploded about five minutes after service had commenced while a Toyota Camry parked outside the church detonated ten minutes later. Figures of casualties are not yet clear but the injured are receiving treatment at military hospitals both in Jaji and Kaduna. Investigation into the bombings has commenced and the area already cordoned off.”

However after informing him that the casualty figure was put at 50, he responded saying: “11 dead, 30 injured. Do not be carried away by emotions please. The information you need have been given”.

Newsmen, NEMA, SEMA denied entry Officials of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Kaduna State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) and the Red Cross told Vanguard on phone that the Army refused them entry to offer assistance to the victims. Newsmen were also barred from getting to the bombed church.

But several sources at the scene of incident said that not less than 50 people were killed.

“I personally counted 50 dead bodies, about 20 were burnt beyond recognition. Some of the injured have severe cases”, said a source, who lives near the church.

“I saw a truck load of bodies arrive 44 Army Referral Hospital Kaduna. I can’t be sure if they were dead or living. Soldiers would not allow us take pictures or even go inside”, said a Photo Journalist

Another source said: “The first car was said to have exploded without any casualty and many people had gathered to see the wreckage of the car when the second suicide bomber arrived as he detonated the bomb.

Many people were killed, I am not in a position to say how many people are dead, but they are many, I saw many dead bodies. I think the people that died may be in the region of 40 or 50. I cannot say precisely.

“This is sheer wickedness of the highest order. How can any human being plan this kind of wickedness? We are now feeling very insecure in the barracks.

Our security system here has been very porous.

When people come and they stopped them from entering, they will call their relations and the people they know and they will be allowed inside. This is a very serious embarrassment to us” another source said.

Apparently angered by the temerity of the bomber, the military authorities there are said to have immediately sealed off the area and begun a serious security crackdown within the vicinity of the cantonment with a view to apprehending the masterminds of the dastardly act.

“For now, we are studying the situation very seriously and we hope to make progress in our search for the culprits,” a senior security officer, who is familiar with the Kaduna incident, stated.

It will be recalled that attacks by suicide bombers on places of worship in the northern parts of the country have become a recurring decimal, sending shock waves to

Christians in those places.

Only on October 28, 2012, suicide bombers drove into a Catholic church in Kaduna and murdered seven worshippers in the thick of their morning mass.

Last month, many Christians were killed in a church in Bauchi and 50 others were injured in a suicide bomb attack which took place during the early morning mass at the St. Johns Catholic Cathedral Church Bauchi.

Mark condemns act Senate President David Mark has condemned the twin bomb blasts at St. Andrew Military Protestant Church, Jaji, Kaduna State and urged security agencies to rise up to the challenge In a text message by his Chief Press Secretary, Paul Mumeh, Senator Mark also pleaded with the perpetrators of the evil acts to give peace a chance.

According to Senator Mark, what Nigeria was at the moment going through should be seen as a challenge to all Nigerians irrespective of tribe, religion, ethnic group or political affili-

ation.

The text read: “Again, Senate President, David Mark has asked any aggrieved group or persons to accept dialogue instead of resorting to violence. He pleads with perpetrators to give peace a chance.

“We have more to gain by being our brothers’ keeper. Security operatives should step up to the challenge".

Tambuwal condemns bomb blast Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, who condemned the bomb blast urged the security agencies not to despair over the attack on their facilities.

In a statement issued by his Special Adviser on Media and Public Affairs, Malam Imam Imam, Tambuwal said no religion condones attack on innocent worshippers, and urged all those behind the bombings to stop forthwith.

While grieving with the families of those who lost loved ones in the unfortunate attack in Jaji, Tambuwal prayed for the quick recovery of those injured in the bombings.

Gunmen kill family of three in Kano

BY ABDULSALAM MUHAMMAD

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ANO—A CHRIS TIAN family of three was killed by unknown gunmen, yesterday, at Konar Masalaci area of Naibawa, Kano.

The victims included a father, wife and a child.

They were said to be driving out of their house in a red-coloured Golf car when the gunmen on motorbike sud-

denly appeared and unleashed volleys of bullets on them.

The family of three believed to be from the South East , were heading to church around 8.30am when the incident occurred. The youngest member of the family, however. survived the attack.

An eyewitness told Vanguard that operatives of the Joint Military

Task Force(JTF) came too late after the gunmen had escaped in the ensuing pandemonium.

The Police spokesman in Kano, ASP Magaji Musa Majia, while confirming the incident, revealed that the head of the family gave up the ghost in the hospital where he was rushed for medical attention.

ASP Majia revealed that investigation has commenced.

6—Vanguard, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2012

BY TONY EDIKE

E

NUGU — THE silent war between Ambassador Bianca Ojukwu, widow of the late Ikemba Nnewi, Dim C h u k w u e m e k a Odumegwu Ojukwu, and Directors of Ojukwu Transport Limited, OTL, who are brothers of her late spouse, has blown open as both parties have dragged themselves before High Courts of Lagos state to determine who controls the landed property belonging to the company.

This came even as the family had concluded plans to mark the first anniversary of Ojukwu’s death at Nnewi today. The former Biafran warlord died on November 26, 2011 at a London hospital at the age of 78.

Crisis had been brewing between Mrs. Ojukwu and her late husband’s brothers over the control of some property which were left by their late father, Eze Odumegwu Ojukwu, under his company’s name, OTL, for decades.

The late Ikemba Nnewi was one of the directors of the company and apart from living in one of the property at Ikoyi which he vacated and relocated to Enugu over 10 years ago, Ojukwu was also involved in managing some of the property.

These property which were at a time compulsorily acquired by the Federal Government were later released to OTL and the late Dim Ojukwu continued to manage some of them until his demise last year.

The property in contention The property include those situated at 58, Ibadan Street, Ebute Metta, Yaba, Lagos; 29, Queens Drive, Ikoyi, Lagos where Ojukwu once resided, 41 Macpherson Avenue, Ikoyi, Lagos, 13 Hawksworth Road, Ikoyi, Lagos, 14 Probyn Road, Ikoyi, Lagos, 2A and 2B Park Close, Apapa, Lagos, 32A Commercial Avenue, Yaba, Lagos, Nnewi Building, 1/ 3 Creek Close, Apapa, Lagos, 120 Agege Motor Road, Mushin, Lagos, 4A and 4B Park Close, Apapa, Lagos, 196 Igbosere Road, Lagos, 15 Oshodi Street, Lagos and 15/16 Forces Avenue, Port Harcourt.

After the death of Ojukwu, the Ojukwu Transport Limited was left with six directors namely Professor Joseph Ojukwu, Engr. Emmanuel Ojukwu, Lotanna Putalora Ojukwu, Dr. Patrick Ojukwu, Arc. Edward Ojukwu and Lota

Akajiora Ojukwu while an Estate Management Consultant, Mr. Massey Udegbe of Massey Udegbe & Company was appointed by the directors to manage the property.

Bianca goes to court However, in a suit number LD/1539/12 filed at the Lagos High Court on October 9, 2012, Mrs. Bianca Ojukwu’s two sons, Afemefuna and Nwachukwu Ojukwu, claimed that they were entitled to the possession of the property known as 29, Oyinka Abayomi Street formerly 29, Queens Drive, Ikoyi, Lagos “until the harmonization of the management and administration of the assets of the 1st Defendant (OTL).”

They urged the court to declare that the forceful ejection of the claimants from the said property was illegal just as they also asked the court to declare that they were entitled to the possession of the property known as 13, Hawksworth Road, Ikoyi, Lagos; 32A, Commercial Avenue, Yaba, Lagos; 30, Gerard Road, Ikoyi, Lagos and 4, Macpherson Avenue, Ikoyi, Lagos, which they claimed, had been under the possession of their late father.

Mrs. Ojukwu, who sued on behalf her two sons, further sought an order of the court to restrain the defendants or their agents from interfering with the “Claimants’ possession and control of 29, Oyinka Abayomi Street (formerly Queens Drive) Ikoyi, Lagos” as well as the aforementioned four property also situated in Lagos.

From left: Former Military President, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida (rtd); former Head of State, Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar (rtd) and Vice President Namadi Sambo during the Ahmadu Bello University Golden Jubilee convocation in Zaria, weekend.

Crisis in Ojukwu’s family escalates zBianca, in-laws in legal tussle over property zAs family set to mark first anniversary of Ojukwu's death five per cent until the entire sum was fully liquidated.

In a 15-paragraph statement of claim brought by its counsel, Ifeanyi Okumah, OTL claimed ownership of the property at 29, Queens Drive, Ikoyi, Lagos, explaining that its agent appointed managing agent had asked Mrs. Ojukwu to handover physical possession of the property to him but she refused.

The company said despite disclaimers published in some national dailies warning the general public to deal with the managing agent appointed by it, Mr. Massey Udegbe and subsequent letters to the

occupiers of the property to vacate and hand over the keys to the owner (OTL) or its agent, the defendant (Bianca) refused to hand over the property, a development that has denied the company N40 million rent it would have collected on the said property.

Tenants in confusion Following the two legal actions, some tenants of the said property were thrown into confusion as to who to pay their rents and this prompted one of the occupants of 30, Gerrard Road, Ikoyi, Lagos, West

Africa Offshore Limited to drag Mr. Emmanuel Omuojine, the managing agent appointed by the late Ojukwu, Mr. Massey Udegbe, who was appointed managing agent

by OTL and the company (OTL) itself before the Lagos High court.

The company which claimed to have paid N40 million to Mr. Omuojine on behalf of OTL as five-year tenancy in 2007, sought an order of the court directing the payment of N24 million representing two years rent from March 16, 2012 to March 15, 2014 in respect of the said property and for same to be lodged into an interest yielding account in the name of the Chief

Registrar of the High Court pending the resolution of the disputes between the parties.

By the new development, both Mrs. Ojukwu and the directors of OTL, would have to wait for the determination of the various suits on the contentious property before they could further benefit from them.

Meanwhile, the first anniversary is expected to be observed at Ojukwu’s family compound at Nnewi today though the family members are at loggerheads over who controls the property left behind by their late multimillionaire father, Sir Louis Philip Odumegwu Ojukwu who died in 1966.

...OTL, too

AMCON, Capital Oil negotiation in jeopardy

But in a twist, the OTL filed a fresh suit number LD/1680/2012 on November 1, 2012 also before a Lagos High Court against Mrs. Ojukwu, claiming possession of the property known as 29, Queens Drive, Ikoyi, Lagos which comprised twostorey detached house in addition to the payment of N40 million being expected rentable value per annum of the said premises from September 27, 2012, until the defendant gives up possession of the property.

In addition, the OTL demanded the payment of N100 million as damages from Mrs. Ojukwu as well as 21 per cent interest on the accrued sum until judgment was given and

zCoscharis used my assets for loan collateral—Ubah zIt's normal transaction —Maduka

BY CLARA NWACHUKWU

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AGOS — N E G O T I AT I O N between the Asset Management Company of Nigeria, AMCON, and the Capital Oil and Gas Industries Ltd, over the latter’s indebtedness to banks is being frustrated by some powerful interests, who want to use the opportunity to get at the managing director of the oil marketing company, Ifeanyi Ubah.

The development comes, even as it was discovered that the Chairman and

CEO of the Coscharis Group, Mr . Cosmas Maduka, used the assets of Ubah as collateral in a tripartite mortgage for N20 billion with Access Bank Plc. Vanguard gathered, weekend, that AMCON, which was favourably disposed towards reopening the Capital Oil depot, after assessing the facility, weekend, is now soft-pedaling on reopening the facility, which it sealed on November 16, based on a Federal High Court order.

On its assessment of the Capital Oil facility,

AMCON had observed that the facility was more than enough to offset whatever indebtedness the company was exposed to.

Ubah confirms report

Confirming the development, Managing Director/CEO, Capital Oil, Mr. Ifeanyi Ubah, in a telephone conversation with Vanguard yesterday, said: “We are still negotiating with AMCON on the matter, to help us restructure our loans because we still want to run our company.”

He noted that his current anguish is as a result of the fact that the company has not been able to import any product since January this year, due to the crisis associated with the subsidy management between the Federal Government and the oil marketers.

With regard to his faceoff with Maduka and Access Bank, Ubah claimed that Maduka had restructured a N20 billion loan he obtained from Access Bank, using his assets as collateral without informing him, Continues on Page 9

Vanguard, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2012—7

its stranglehold on the plant, which has led to a massive depletion of the assets of the company from N127 billion in 2004 to a paltry N19 billion in 2009, according to figures at the Corporate Affairs Commission, CAC, which Vanguard sighted last night.

The financial figures for 2010 and 2011 are not yet ready and the assets of the company could be much less going by the declining trend in recent years.

ALSCON explains court's verdict to staff

From left: Chairman, Presidential Committee on Flood Relief, Alhaji Aliko Dangote and Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State at a flood relief camp in Rivers State when the committee visited there, weekend.

ALSCON sale: RUSAL ignores S-Court ruling, dares FG zSays court's verdict can’t stop it from running plant

BY SONI DANIEL, REGIONAL EDITOR, NORTH

A

BUJA — EFFORT by the Federal Government to comply with the Supreme Court ruling ceding the management of the Aluminium Smelter Company of Nigeria, ALSCON, in Ikot Abasi, Akwa Ibom State to its rightful buyers, BFIG Corporation, has been rebuffed by RUSAL, the Russian Aluminium Company, that was sacked by the apex court.

It would be recalled that the Supreme Court had on July 6, 2012, voided the sale of ALSCON by the Bureau of Public Enterprises, BPE, to RUSAL on the grounds that the BFIG Corporation offered a higher amount of $410 million as against RUSAL’s $250 million for the purchase of the plant.

The court also ordered BPE to collect the 10 per cent initial bid price within 15 days of signing a new Share Purchase Agreement with BFIG and restrained the agency from discussing or negotiating the sale of the plant to any other company apart from BFIG. In a preliminary move to ascertain the state of the plant with a view to handing over to BFIG, the BPE informed RUSAL of its intention to carry out an assessment

of the plant with a view to obtaining its status report.

The National Council on Privatisation, NCP, had ordered PBE to urgently carry out the assessment and turn in the status report on the company and to submit a roadmap for resolving all the issues relating to ALSCON sale in line with the Supreme Court ruling.

The BPE immediately raised a stakeholders committee headed by Mr. Emmanuel Ijewere to undertake the assessment, which was slated for November 23, 2012. Other members of the committee were Engr.

Patrick Ikediashi, representing NCP Chairman; a representatives of the Ministry of Mines, Justice, BPE and the Nigeria Police. The BFIG was to send an observer to join the team to Ikot Abasi for the assignment.

BPE also intimated BFIG of the planned inspection visit to ALSCON and asked it to send in its team, prompting the company to move in a 14man technical team drawn mostly from General Electric of the United States and some Nigerian experts in aluminium technology, led by its chairman Dr. Reuben Jaja and Jimmie Williams from the US.

RUSAL aborts inspection visit to

ALSCON

However, when RUSAL got the BPE letter asking it to prepare for the visit, which was scheduled for last Wednesday, it quickly moved to rubbish the trip by querying the Federal Government agency on the motive of the visit and why a member of BFIG, the Nigeria Police should be included in the team.

A letter dated November 19, 2012 and personally signed by the Managing Director of RUSAL, Mr. Anthony A. Polovov, also politely informed PBE that the company does not have the facilities to accommodate highranking governmental delegation and would therefore not be able to entertain them.

The company’s letter addressed to Ms. Bolande Onaguruwa, Director General of BPE, said: “We acknowledge the receipt of your letter dated November 15, 2012, which contains a list of 12 persons who are to visit the ALSCON next week.

“To enable us to prepare for the visit, please be kind as to communicate to us beforehand, the following: the purpose of your delegation’s visit to ALSCON plant, the agenda of the visit, and in particular, the specific items you will like to discuss with us, and whether there are persons in your

delegations who are not officials of BPE. “If any non-BPE persons will be attending, what are their names and what is the purpose of their participation? Why will a representative of the Nigeria Police be attending the visit to the plant?

“Please note also that, unfortunately, the ALSCON Smelter does not have the facilities necessary to accommodate the highranking governmental delegation at an appropriate level of comfort and convenience.

We, therefore, kindly suggest that the delegation stay in one of the hotels in Uyo, such as Le Meridien.”

Vanguard learnt that the NCP and the BPE were upset with the response from RUSAL and could not proceed with the planned visit to the plant, while the expatriates flown in by BFIG, were left in a state of confusion and shock.

It was learnt last night that the expatriates were still in Nigeria hoping to see an end to the ALSCON sale debacle.

S-Court ruling has nothing to do with us —RUSAL

However, RUSAL has remained defiant, saying that the Supreme Court ruling does not have anything to do with it or

In a memo released to the staff of the company following the Supreme Court ruling, the managing Director of ALSCON, wrote to them clarifying the meaning of the court action, saying: “Dear employees of ALSCON, the management wishes to give further clarifications with regards to the ruling of the Supreme Court of Nigeria of July 6, 2012.

“Neither RUSAL nor

ALSCON is a party to the lawsuit. The ruling of Nigeria’s Supreme Court neither changes nor can change the ownership of ALSCON. "ALSCON remains part of RUSAL and RUSAL’s plans to develop and transform the plant into a cutting-edge and highly technological enterprises are in progress. RUSAL as a good faith purchaser of ALSCON is ready to protect its ownership even through litigation in the International Arbitration Court in London.

"The situation around our plant has attracted attention at the highest governmental level. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has approached the Nigerian Government with a request to undertake actions to prevent a potential damage to the existing fruitful and mutually advantageous relations between Russia and Nigeria, which might be caused by the current situation.”

‘Why FG cancelled agreement with Lufthansa’

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BY EMMANUEL AZIKEN

AGOS — REASONS emerged, weekend, why the Federal Government cancelled its agreement with the German airline, Lufthansa, under which the airline enjoyed free royalty payments for flights into the country.

Sources in the Ministry of Aviation disclosed that the Minister of Aviation, Princess Stella Oduah, instigated the cancellation of the four-year agreement upon revelations that the German airline failed to fulfill its side of the agreement signed in November 2008.

Oduah, it was learnt, moved to cancel the agreement following the advice from the Attorney General of the Federation that the country had sufficient reasons to cancel the agreement upon the confirmation that the airline had not fulfilled its pledges.

Under the terms of the Memorandum of Understanding between the government and Deutsche Lufthansa Aktiengesellschaft (LH) Germany, the German airline was expected to provide technical assistance to the country besides creating a hub in Abuja in partnership with other international airlines.

The German airline was on its part expected to benefit through additional traffic rights on concessionary basis.

Though the airline got its additional flight rights into the country it, however, was unable to actualise its own part of the agreement.

Remarkably, the Senate Committee on Aviation had recently ordered the Ministry of Aviation to recover N2.198bn ($14.8 million) from Lufthansa being amount not paid by the airline since 2009 when the agreement came into being.

What finally moved the Ministry of Aviation to terminate the agreement, it was learnt, was a memo from the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority to the minister which detailed the failures of Lufthansa.

The memo read in part: “Having carefully analysed the submission, it was clear that Lufthansa appeared to be the only beneficiary of the MoU as the implementation of the agreement which was planned in phases was yet to progress beyond the traffic rights granted to Lufthansa to operate daily flights from Frankfurt to Abuja.There is no evidence to show any serious commitment on the part of Lufthansa airlines to the realization of the agreement.”

8—Vanguard, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2012

Police arrest man for pouring acid on fiancée

BY IFEANYI OKOLIE

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AGOS — A middleaged man David Suleiman has been arrested by the police in Lagos State for allegedly pouring acid on his fiancée, Chika Egbo and a yet to be identified Okada rider at Ikotun area of Lagos State.

Suleiman who is currently being detained at the State Criminal I n v e s t i g a t i o n Department, Panti,Yaba, Lagos, was said to have attacked his girl friend, a 300 level student at Enugu State College of Education, with acid for refusing him access to their only child.

Police sources at the state SCID, intimated Vanguard that trouble began for the couple when Egbo became pregnant for Suleiman, and he abandoned her claiming that he travelled out of the country, and leaving her with the burden of fending for herself and the baby.

But few months after giving birth, he came back requesting to see the baby and he was refused..

A source, who craved anonymity, said he tricked the 25-year-old students who resides in Enugu State to Lagos State and he took her to an hidden spot in Ikotun where he poured the acid on her.

“An Okada rider who witnessed as the incident unfold went after Suleiman, but while he chased him, Suleiman emptied the can of acid on the Okada rider, who held him strongly waiting for the help.

Other Okada riders who drove by saw what was happening and the came to his rescue and they took Suleiman to Ikotun police station while the Okada rider and Egbo were rushed to

a hospital.”

Meanwhile, Egbo, who is laying critically ill at the emergency unit of the Lagos State Teaching Hospital, LASUTH, had her face, chest and some other parts of body destroyed by the acid bath.

2 suspected air passengers arrested with US$2,073,160 at Lagos

BY DANIEL ETEGHE

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AGOS— The Airport Committee Special Task Force at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, MMIA, Lagos at the

weekend arrested two suspected passengers with three bags of money containing $2,073,160 and 20,300 Saudi Arabian Riyal (SAR) at the “E” wing departure area of the airport.

From left: Prof. Henry Cohen, World Gastro-enterology President; Dr. Thomas U Agan, Chief Medical Director, University of Calabar Teaching Hospital; Mr. Efiok Cobham, Cross River State Deputy Governor and Prof. Hussein Abdel-Hamid, President of the Africa-Middle East Association of Gastroenterology Association (AMAGE) Congress, at the opening of AMAGE congress in Calabar yesterday.

Ogun police recover N6m stolen from ATM, arrest 5

BY DAUD OLATUNJI

A

B E O K U TA — Ogun State Police Command said it had arrested five suspects and recovered a sum of N6 million from a gang of armed robbers that attacked a new generation bank in

Sagamu town of Ogun State.

The police Public Relations Officer in the state, Muyiwa Adejobi in a statement yesterday in Abeokuta, said the suspects were arrested for their alleged conspiracy in the incident.

Vanguard gathered

that, the dare-devil robbers stormed the bank at about 2.30a.m. on Sunday and allegedly broke the Automated Teller Machines before the information got to the policemen around the area who then chased them away.

It was further gathered that the gang acted on a

AGOS— Lagos League of Political Parties, LLPP, yesterday hailed some of the decisions taken by the Lagos State Local Government Election Petitions Tribunal.

The tribunal led by Justice Ade Owobiyi on Friday declared the PDP candidate as the validly elected Chairman of Agbado Oke Odo Local

tip-off few hours after the machines were reloaded with millions of naira.

Adejobi disclosed that policemen on patrol raced to the scene in Armoured Personnel Carrier, APC, which made the robbers to flee through the jungle behind the bank and left the N6million loot.

card number 25009 and the three bags of money, were handed over to the Nigeria Customs Service, NCS, by the Airport Committee Special Task Force for not declaring the currencies to officers on duty at the airport.

Speaking on the arrest, the Nigeria Customs Service Area Controller at the Murtala M u h a m m e d International Airport Command Lagos, Mr. Eporwei Edike Charles said, the suspects and the three bags of money have been handed over to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, for further investigation and necessary action against the suspects.

According to Charles, the suspects violated regulations of government by attempting to smuggle such amount of money out of the country without declaring the currencies to Nigeria Custom’s currency desk officers on duty.

He, however, explained that the Airport Committee Special Task Force operating at the airport, comprises of all security agencies including, the EFCC, the State Security Service, SSS; the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA; the Nigeria Immigration Services, NIS, and other security agencies working at the airport.

Rep proffers solution to corruption, insecurity

BY OLASUNKANMI AKONI

LAGOS —A member, House of Representatives, Otunba Michael Ogunnusi,

representing IfakoIjaiye, Federal Constituency, has decried the prevalence of terrorism and corruption in the country.

He said: There is an urgent need to strengthen anti graft and security agencies to tackle the problems."

Ogunnusi who stated

LLPP commends Lagos LG Tribunal decisions

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The suspects who were identified as Mr. Talal Hammoud with passport number A03599105 and Mr. Hassan Rmaiti, a Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, FAAN worker with duty

Council Development Area.

The tribunal also ordered a re-run election in Yaba Local Council Development Area.

In a statement signed

by LLPP’s Lagos State Chairman, Mr. Udoka Udeogaranya, the League said that the tribunal was living up to expectation.

He said that tribunal’s courage was what was needed to give the 2011 Lagos State council polls its expected credibility.

“It is a quintessential verdict to order the Lagos State Independent Electoral Commission (LASIEC) to immediately issue a Certificate of Return to the PDP candidate.

“It is, however, our

view that this merited order to conducted a rerun in Yaba LCDA must not be delayed by LASIEC,“ the statement read.

The League said: “LLPP counsels that the judiciary has an expedient role to play in creating a harmonious political environment that often eludes African societies after elections."

this at the weekend in Lagos during a grand reception in his honour organised by Omole Estate Landlords Association, lamented that innocent people were being slaughtered in the country daily because the right step had not been taken to protect the people.

He posited that one of the ways to really expose those perpetrating the act of terror in different parts of the country is to embrace community and state policing systems, even as he advocated for immediate change of name from Nigeria Police Force to Nigeria Police Service.

Ogunnusi said that establishing effective institutionalized state and community policing, would drastically reduce the problem of unemployment in the country.

According to him, “Most of those youths fronting for Boko Haram, can be employed as community police officers.

"Nobody will be available on the streets again to be wrongfully employed to cause havoc, so we could have solved the problem of unemployment and additionally, we could have solved the problem of insecurity."

Vanguard, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2012—9

First Bank Holdings Plc lists 32.6bn shares on NSE

BY BABAJIDE KOMOLAFE

F

BN HOLDING plc, the holding company of First Bank Nigeria Limited will today lists its 32.6 billion shares on the Nigeria Stock Exchange (NSE) This follows the delisting of the shares of First Bank from the Exchange on Friday.

Chief Executive Officer, FBN Holdings Plc, Alhaji Bello Macido announced this development via an email message to customers of the bank.

He said: “In keeping with our commitment to consistently create value and enhance customer experience, I am pleased to announce the delisting of First Bank of Nigeria Plc on November 23, 2012 and the subsequent listing of FBN Holdings Plc (FBN

Holdings) on November 26 in its place.

The Bank adopted the holding company structure in line with the Central Bank of Nigeria regulation requiring the separation of commercial banking business from other financial services businesses.

An Extra-ordinary general meeting of FirstBank held on 24 September 2012 and ratified the process after relevant approvals were obtained from the regulatory authorities.

Consequently, there have been an alignment and clustering of similar overlapping businesses under four broad business groups,namely: commercial banking, investment banking & Asset management, insurance and other financial services.

Mimiko apologises for visiting Ladoja’s family late

BY OLA AJAYI & DAYO JOHNSON

I

BADAN — ONDO State Governor, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko, weekend, apologised for paying condolence visit to the family of the former Governor of Oyo State, late Lamidi Adesina two weeks after the politician’s death.

Mimiko, who was accompanied by his Oyo state counterpart, Senator Abiola Ajimobi, described Adesina as an irrepressible democrat who consis-

tently spoke out his mind on issues without minding whose horse was gored.

Adesina, according to him, was a man with an open heart who never discriminated against anybody on any account.

He recalled that the late Adesina always spoke out against whatever he perceived was an injustice during the meeting of the Afenifere/ Alliance of the Democracy in the Ijebu Igbo residence of the late Chief Abraham Adesanya.

S. O. Ogundele is dead

A

MB. S. O. Ogun dele is dead; he passed away on November 21, 2012 at the age of 72.

Ogundele, who retired in 2001 as director-general in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, was born on February 14, 1940.

After graduating from the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, in 1965, he

Late Amb. Ogundele

joined the then Ministry of External Affairs and served for 35 years at various Nigerian diplomatic posts and in Nigeria.

Ogundele, the one time Nigerian ambassador to Mozambique, a devout Christian, was recently conferred with the Otun-Ijo of St. Marks Anglican Cathedral, Offa, Kwara State.

He is survived by children, grandchildren, brother and sisters.

Burial arrangements will be announced later by the family.

L-R: Hon. Ademola Seriki, former Minister of Interior; Hon. Adeyemi Ikuforiji, Lagos State Assembly Speaker and Senator 'Gbenga B. Ashafa, at the 8th day Fidau prayer for Hon. Toyin Hamzat, at Ayepe, Ogun State yesterday.

S-West PDP accuses Fayemi of profligacy A

DO-EKITI —The S o u t h -We s t Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has accused the Ekiti State Governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi of spending over N250 million belonging to the state on legal fees, protests and media campaign on the pending Supreme Court case challenging the Appeal Court judgment that made him governor.

The party, which

backed up its claim with documents with which the governor approved N133 million on a flimsy agric project, said Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, should beam its searchlights on the state.

PDP Zonal Publicity Secretary, Hon. Kayode Babade, who made the allegation in a release issued yesterday, disclosed that Governor Fayemi approved the

N133 million requested through the Commissioner for Agriculture and Natural Resources, Babajide Arowosafe on October 5, 2012, the same day the request was made.

“We are aware that N250 million was budgeted for the Supreme Court case. The fund is to be spent on legal fees, organising protests and rallies as well as media campaign.

Ogun ACN, PDP trade words over budget performance formance of 51 per cent.

Akintan had described it as too unacceptably BEOKUTA — The low in the light of Action Congress of N42billion Nigeria and the Peoples alleged proposed loan of the Democratic Party, PDP, in government in the year’s Ogun State have budget. disagreed over the 51 per Reacting to the cent 2012 budget condemnation, the ACN performance.

The PDP fired first salvo in a statement signed by through the minority its publicity secretary in leader of the state House the state, Mr. Sola Lawof Assembly, Job Akintan al, said PDP was diswho condemned the playing ignorance on state’s 2012 budget per- budgeting.

BY DAUD OLATUNJI

A

He pointed out that the Governor Ibikunle A m o s u n - l e d administration actually proposed to borrow 55billion naira in two parts of N42billion internal loans and N13billion external loan.

According to the party, Amosun’s administration ended up obtaining only N23billion loan out of which it promptly paid back N4billion leaving a balance of N19billion.

“Already, we have evidence of how N133 million out of the N250 million was sourced from the State Treasury and we challenge Fayemi and his men to deny that the N133 million was actually meant for the purported agricultural project for which it was approved.

“In a letter from the Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources dated October 12, 2012, the Ministry’s Permanent Secretary said the N133 million should be sourced from Head 46001 Sub-head 30 of the 2012 Revised Budget with a provision of N800 million. The letter was signed by one Anjorin A.J on behalf of the Permanent Secretary.

“We therefore wish to alert Ekiti people and the anti-corruption agencies to this brazen looting of Ekiti State treasury to prosecute a case that is personal to Governor Fayemi and his party, the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN),” Babade said.

Intimidation frustrates AMCON, Capital Oil negotiation Continues from page 6

which he said was all part of the grand plan to ruin his operations.

He said: “Coscharis is making money using my security. He restructured the loan he took from Access Bank without recourse to Capital Oil, and the bank is charging me illegal interests.”

Maduka reacts Clarifying on the loan, Maduka, who also spoke with Vanguard on telephone yesterday, admitted he took the loan from Access Bank, but on behalf of Capital Oil. When it was noted that the Access Bank document, exclusively obtained by Vanguard, on the transaction

indicated Coscharis Motors Limited as “The Borrower,” said he borrowed the money on behalf of Capital Oil for petroleum product importation.

He said: “I asked him to guarantee the loan which I took on his behalf, and I made him to sign the guarantor’s form because the LC (Letter of Credit) was

opened on behalf of Capital Oil.” Asked if this was a normal transaction of accessing loans from the banks, Maduka said: “Yes, it is normal,” adding that this was why Ubah was made to sign an offshore agreement in London to forfeit the assets if he reneged on the payment of the loan.

10—Vanguard, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2012

Presidency wades into unpaid subsidy palaver zPay within one week or...

— Marketers zLegitimate claims' payment ongoing — Okonjo-Iweala z32 days' fuel product available — NNPC

BY YEMIE ADEOYE

T DONATION: Prince Igho Majemite, Secretary, Urhobo Leadership Forum, Abuja, representing Dr. Ramsey Mowoe, President of the Forum, (2nd right); Bishop James Ighokpebi (2nd left); Mrs. Edna Obanyedo, Oleh Camp Commandant (left), and Mrs. Betty A. Mukoro, during the donation of relief items by Urhobo Leadership Forum, Abuja, to internally displaced persons at Oleh and Otor-Udu, in Delta State.

Man kills self over N.8m indebtedness in C-River

BY JOHNBOSCO AGBAKWURU

C

ALABAR—IT was a tragic end for Mr. Gabriel Agochi of Ndok, Ishibori, in Ogoja Local Government Area of Cross River State who allegedly killed himself over his inability to repay an N800,000 loan he collected from a local thrift association.

Agochi, who was said to be in his mid 40s and a transport operator residing at Agiga in Ogoja Local Government Area until his death, had a transport company with three Golf cars in its fleet.

It was gathered that in a bid to make brisk money during the ember months, he allegedly approached the local thrift association, Agiga Ususu Association, to collect a loan to enable him buy an additional golf car to beef up his fleet.

A member of the association and close fried of the deceased who gave his name as Mike, said Gabriel “had one Golf car with which he was operating his business but early this year he came to us and got the sum of N600,000 (six

hundred thousand naira) to add with his own money and bought a golf car.”

He said instead of repaying the N600,000 loan he collected from the thrift association, he went ahead to buy another car in September to

Officials allegedly loot flood relief materials in Delta

BY EMMA AMAIZE

W

ARRI—SCAN DAL is trailing alleged embezzlement and sharing of foodstuff belonging to flood victims in Warri by some unscrupulous government officials and leaders of Ayakoromo community in Burutu Local Government Area of Delta State.

The state governor, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan, had, last month, removed a staff of the Bureau for Special Duties, Asaba,

from the disbanded Illah Camp for flood victims for allegedly siphoning funds and ordered him to refund the money immediately.

He said it was callous for anybody to rip-off internally displaced persons, IDPs, in their predicament and warned that government would deal decisively with any official involved in such embarrassing act.

However, officials of the State Emergency Relief Agency, SEMA, appear

Edo Guber Tribunal pandemonium: I'm alive —ACN member

BY SIMON EBEGBULEM

B

ENIN—THREE days after he was reported dead, Edo State Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, member, Minister Idaro, weekend, debunked the rumours, accusing those behind his alleged death as mischief makers.

He threatened to take legal action against Peoples Democratic Party’s

add to his fleet of cars in readiness for the December rush.

It was gathered that as a result of the rains that devastated Ogoja –Calabar highway, there was low returns from the cars which made it impossible to keep to the terms of paying back the loan as agreed.

candidate in the last governorship election, Gen Charles Airhiavbere, for the development.

It would be recalled that the Charles Airhiavbere Campaign Organization, CACO, in a statement by Osaze Jesurobo, identified Idaro as the man that slumped at Thursday's sitting of the Edo State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal Benin, alleging further that he was a native doctor brought to the court by the Deputy Gov-

ernor of Edo State, Dr. Pius Odubu, to engage in some diabolic acts in the court.

Idaro, who spoke from his village in Urhomehe in Orhiomnwon Local Government Council of Edo State, said he was nowhere near the Tribunal on Thursday nor had he been to the Tribunal before, let alone being sponsored to go and perform voodoo there by the Deputy Governor, Dr Pius Odubu.

not to have learnt any lesson, as they allegedly embarked on the same embarrassing act last Wednesday in collusion with a few leaders of Ayakoromo.

Vanguard gathered that while the flood camp at the Swamp Road residence of Ijaw national leader, Chief Edwin Clark, was winding up last Wednesday, members of the community flood management team drove in with several cars to cart away the remaining relief materials.

They ignored the protest of the appointed leader of the flood victims, Brakala Ebikeniye, who pleaded that government should convey the relief materials for the victims to Ayakoromo where it was obvious they were going to face starvation on return.

It was also learnt that the swindlers shortchanged government in the payment of “token pocket money” of N5,000 and N3,000 to each adult and child affected by the flood, as they reportedly inflated the list submitted to government.

HERE are indications that the Presidency may have decided to wade into the controversy surrounding the Petroleum Subsidy Fund, PSF, overseen by the Ministry of Finance in the wake of allegations of massive fraud which bedeviled the scheme.

The move is informed by the possibility of petroleum products scarcity of immense magnitude in the Yuletide, if monies owed Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, and private oil marketers are not paid.

NNPC, at the moment, has almost become the sole importer of products, against previous arrangements where private marketers were responsible for 90 percent of products distribution nationwide.

Jonathan's dilemma

Vanguard reliably gathered that the President was caught between ensuring that due process was followed, no matter how long it took, and seeing Nigerians suffer scarcity during the holidays or civil unrest as queues resurfaced in fuel stations across major cities in the country.

A presidency source, who spoke to Vanguard on condition of anonymity, explained that President Jonathan was also in support of a hard-line stance against marketers, who might have defrauded the system under the PSF scheme.

The source said the Ministry of Finance might be directed anytime soon to ensure a speedy payment process to all marketers, who still have legitimate subsidy claims and have not been indicted by the Aig Imokhuede Committee.

According to the source, “the seeming face-off between two ministries over unpaid claims is unnecessary as they are all working for the interest of the government.

“I think in the end what takes precedence to Mr. President is the comfort of all Nigerians, especially at this Yuletide period and going forward.”

Marketers speak

When contacted, Secretary-General of the Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria, MOMAN, Mr. Obafemi Olawore, said: “If the Ministry of Finance was waiting for the Imoukhuede Committee report and it has been submitted, then those not indicted should be paid immediately, and NNPC should also make it clear that they alone cannot service the entire country.

“If they pay NNPC and the remaining marketers are not paid, there would still be queues so the Presidency should simply ensure that the finance ministry pays everyone that has a legitimate claim to make.

“There have been no importation due to the huge debts owed oil marketers and the NNPC had been saddled with the task of over 85 percent of total importation, while 15 percent goes to marketers.

“It is, however, important to note that there has been instances where marketers have been responsible for 60 percent of imported products and the NNPC had 40 percent and now it is 85 to 15 percent.”

Mr. Olawore stated further that it was important for the debt of about N120 to N140 billion to be paid this week if the government was serious about ensuring a scarcity-free yuletide for all Nigerians.

According to him, it won’t take less than two weeks to land a vessel in the country, hence if payments were made to marketers this week, they could make their order and products will be arriving the country from the second week of December when the holi

Continues on Page 50

Vanguard, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2012—11

AWARD: From left,Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta Matters, Mr. Kingsley Kuku; wife of the awardee, Alice Onyema; the awardee, Mr. Allen Onyema, and Dr. Bernard Lafayette jnr., at the conferment of PanNigerian Nationalist award on Mr. Onyema by Eminent Friends Group International, in Lagos. Photos: Lamidi Bamidele.

From left: Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta Matters, Mr. Kingsley Kuku; Chairman of the occassion, Timi Alaibe; the awardee, Mr. Allen Onyema, and his wife Alice, on the occasion.

Dangote lauds Amaechi on flood c'ttee

Amnesty: I was almost charged with T coup plotting —Alaibe

BY LEKE ADESERI & CLIFFORD NDUJIHE

B

UT for the Non-vi olence training he got from Amnesty Facilitator, Mr. Allen Onyema, former Chairman of Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, and Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta Affairs, Mr. Timi Alaibe, said, weekend, that he would have been charged for coup plotting against the Federal Government when the amnesty programme started.

Recalling how, through non-violence education, they got militants to lay down their arms at the peak of the militancy in the Niger Delta, which reduced oil production to 30 per cent and almost castrated the economy of the country, Alaibe said top people in the government believed that the militants were being trained to overthrow the government. And so he was accused of plotting a coup and was summoned before the President and top security officers to defend himself.

He spoke, weekend, in Lagos at the conferment of the Pan-Nigerian Nationalist award on Allen Onyema, a lawyer and chairman of the Foundation for Ethnic Harmony in Nigeria, FEHN, by the Eminent Friends Group International, EFGI. At the colourful event attended by Mr. Kingsley Kuku, current special adviser to the president on

Niger Delta Affairs; Dr Bernard Lafayette (jnr); General Bob Adoba, former Chief of Army Logistics; Annkio Briggs, Ezeigbo Lagos, Eze Hycinth Ohazulike, and a host of former militants, Alaibe said he was summoned after the training of the first batch of 600 exmilitants started.

Conflict management

He said: “At some point I was a banker and had nothing to do with conflict management. The injustice in the Niger Delta threw me into it. The people were fighting for jus-

tice. That was how I met Onyema. In 2007, I was saddled with the responsibility of interfacing between the government and militants on the amnesty programme. Getting someone wielding an AK-47 to listen to you was not an easy job but God was on my side. So, 600 youths from various camps were in the first installment of those to be trained.

Summoned to Presidency

"Allen Onyema utilised the power of love to resolve conflict. I was accused of training the mili-

tants to overthrow the government. I was summoned by the president and before top security officers to defend myself.

I took them on a 10minute lecture on non-violence as an approach to resolve the conflict and they saw reasons with me.”

Speaking on how he got the militants to embrace non-violence, Onyema, who before the Amnesty programme had trained and transformed about 3000 Niger Delta youths through the FEHN, said initially the government and the militants did not believe that the approach would work.

The amnesty facilitator noted that leaders also needed training on nonviolence.

PDP: Gos move to frustrate Tukur’s reconciliation plan

BY HENRY UMORU

A

BUJA—STRONG indications have emerged that the reconciliation move of the National Chairman of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, may not achieve any purpose as governors elected on the platform of the party have concluded plans to frustrate it.

It was gathered that PDP governors in Plateau, Kano, Abia, Kaduna, Enugu, Taraba and leaders of the party in Ekiti State are not comfortable with Tukur ’s move and are not prepared to key into the agenda of allowing some

members who left the party to return.

Meanwhile, a member of the National Working Committee, NWC, has said that if the reconciliation process must achieve its set target, President Goodluck Jonathan must, as a matter of urgency, intervene by calling the PDP governors to order. ‘’The national reconciliation within the party will be dead on arrival because of the over-bearing influence of our governors who don’t want the political space opened in their states,” the NWC member said.

It will be recalled that soon after the Tukur-led NWC came on board he

had cried out that the party was losing members to opposition political parties and he insisted that he would pursue vigorously his Three R agenda of Reconciliation, Reformation and Rebirth.

He also said when he inaugurated the fourtime minister, Alabo Tonye Graham-Douglasled reconciliation committee for Kano State, that "our party is losing membership. When we started in 1998, up till date, we have seen many people go. We can’t allow it to continue like that. These people are still there, they are members of our party; they are still there, it means that they like the party.”

HE Presidential Committee on Flood Relief and Rehabilitation has commended Rivers State Governor, Mr. Chibuike Amaechi, for setting-up a flood committee in his state to reach out to all affected areas.

Chairman of the Committee, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, spoke, weekend, during a courtesy visit on Governor Amaechi at the V.I.P lounge of Port Harcourt International Airport, Omagwa.

He said: “The Committee, through its efforts, has saved lives and ensured distribution of necessary materials to the displaced persons in the various camps. We also have plans to procure seedlings to enable the

farmers among the displaced people have a new start in the coming planting season.

“I want to also thank you (Amaechi) for your assistance at the fundraising dinner in Abuja on November 8, 2012, where state governors joined you to raise about N1.8 billion support fund for the flood victims and the funds have been used to procure relief materials to the various states, including Rivers State. The Committee is very impressed with the development.”

Responding, Governor Amaechi thanked the committee for it’s contributions so far in the state and talked of plans by his administration to return the flood victims to their homes.

Alleged crude oil theft: Shell denies report of staff's arrest

S

HELL Petroleum Development Company, SPDC, has denied reports that two of its staff were arrested by government security forces for alleged involvement in crude oil theft.

A statement issued yesterday by Tony Okonedo, Manager, Media and Communication Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company Limited, Lagos, said the company was equally concerned about allegations credited to government security agencies that SPDC’s failure to repair identified bunkering points was frustrating their bid to combat oil theft.

The statement said: “Without prejudice to the ongoing investigation,

we can confirm that the arrested persons are not employees of SPDC. There are indications from the investigation that the arrested persons are employees of one of the several community-based contractors who undertake pipeline surveillance work on SPDC’s behalf in the Niger Delta.

"There are about 600 of such contracts which employ more than 9,000 community persons, and serve as an early warning mechanism during pipeline incidents.”

“The allegation of SPDC’s failure to repair identified bunkering points fails to recognise the complexities faced by operators in the Niger Delta today."

12—Vanguard, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2012

CBN grants FirstRand, First Discount merchant banking licence

BY BY PETER EGWUATU & MICHAEL EBOH

I

Gov. Theodore Orji of Abia State (left) with Speaker of Abia State House of Assembly, Mr. Ude Oko Chukwu (middle), during an inspection tour of the new office complex of the state house of assembly in Umuahia.

Ex-Azikiwe varsity V-C abducted

BY TONY EDIKE

E

NUGU—IMMEDI ATE past Vice Chancellor of Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Prof.

Ilochi Okafor, SAN, has been kidnapped.

Okafor was abducted at about 8am yesterday in his residence at Pioneer Street, Independence layout, Enugu, while he was preparing for the morning service.

Reports say the abduc-

tors, numbering about six, stormed the residence armed with rifles and ordered the Professor of law into a waiting van.

Not much information was given by the family

Aviation: AIB, Canadian firm sign pact to build FDR/CVR labolatory

BY KENNETH EHIGIATOR

L

AGOS—ACCIDENT Investigation Bureau, AIB, of the Aviation Ministry has signed a contract with a Canadian firm to set up FDR/CVR laboratory for purposes of analysing recorded tapes of crashed planes.

At present, the Flight Data Recorder, FDR, and Cockpit Voice Recorded, CVR (Black Boxes), of crashed aircraft were taken overseas for interpretation, to facilitate investigation and report of probable cause of air accidents.

Besides, air accident

reports in the country take years to release to the public because of the longer time it takes to decode contents of black boxes outside Nigeria.

Spokesman of the agency, Mr. Tunji Oketunbi, who disclosed this last weekend, said the Canadian firm, CAE/ Flight Scape would do the installation of the laboratory in Lagos.

According to him, installation of the laboratory will not only stop patronage of a similar facility abroad but also facilitate prompt accident investigation.

“The Bureau has also signed a contract for in-

stallation of FDR/CVR laboratory with CAE/ Flight Scape of Canada which will enable the Bureau to download both flight recorders promptly during accident investigation. Hitherto, these units were taken overseas for downloading."

butEnugu tate police command swung into action immediately they got report of his abduction.

He is whereabouts remained unknown at press time yesterday as his abductors were yet to establish contact with his family or relations.

The State police spokesman, Mr. Ebere Amaraizu, said when contacted that the antirobbery squad was on top of the situation.

He said the squad immediately intensified their trail and “very soon they would make a breakthrough and rescue the former vice chancellor.”

JEBODE—CEN TRAL Bank of Nigeria, CBN, has granted merchant banking license to South African FirstRand and First Discount House Limited, saying the nation’s external reserves has risen further to $46 billion.

Director of Corporate Affairs of CBN, Mr. Ugo Okoroafor, revealed this, weekend, at the annual conference of Finance Correspondents Association of Nigeria, FICAN, in Ijebu Ode, Ogun State.

He explained that the licencing is in line with CBN’s new banking model, saying, “the banks have met the minimum capital base for merchant banking which is N15 billion. He said FirstRand is partnering with a local firm and would commence operation early next year with a capital base of N16 billion while FSDH will cease operations as a discount house, and now function as merchant bank.”

He also indicated that several other institutions have applied for merchant bank licence and the apex bank would like to see more regional

banks and community banks that will take care of the interest of small and medium businesses.

He said: “Foreign investors have a renewed confidence in Nigeria hence the investment by FirstRand. We need the growth in Foreign Direct Investment, FDI, rather than foreign portfolio investment. We need people to come and invest physically so that this country can grow and create employment.

“We need to continuously grow our excess crude account reserves since Nigeria is depending on oil as the only major source of revenue and the oil will soon dry. So we need to save for the rainy days.”

Okoroafor, expressed satisfaction with the level of cooperation between the monetary authority and fiscal authority in the country, saying, “The era of fiscal dominance is coming to an end. There is now collaboration between fiscal authority and monetary authority.”

FirstRand Bank is a subsidiary of the First Rand Group, which is a financial services provider in South Africa.

The group has its headquarters in Johannesburg, South Africa.

CBN commences automation of forex documentation

BY BABAJIDE KOMOLAFE

L

AGOS—CENTRAL Bank of Nigeria, CBN, has commenced the automation of foreign exchange documentation, with a three weeks pilot run.

The pilot scheme, which commenced last Friday, involves seven banks namely First Bank, Zenith Bank, Guaranty Trust Bank, Diamond Bank, Unity Bank, Wema Bank, and Standard Chartered Bank.The automation of foreign exchange documentation means that application for foreign exchange will be initiated electronically.

The apex bank announced this development in a circular signed

by Director, Trade and Exchange, Mr. W.D. Gotring. The circular

was titled, “Automation of forex forms on the trade monitoring system (single window system for trade).”

It stated, “This is to inform all authorized dealers, destination inspection service providers, Nigeria Customs Service and the general public that the pilot run of the Automation of Forex Forms on the Trade Monitoring System (Single Window System for Trade) is scheduled to run from November 22 to December 5, 2012, with the under listed banks: Diamond Bank, Zenith Bank, Unity Bank, Wema Bank, Guaranty Trust Bank, Standard Chartered Bank, and First Bank of Nigeria.

“Effective from the commencement of the pilot run on November 22, 2012, all Form ‘M’ applications must be initiated

electronically on the single window system, while non-pilot banks are to continue to process paper

Forms ‘M’ until December 6, 2012 when the system will go live for all banks.

Bomadi LG boss seeks royal support

W

ARRI—THE Chairman, Caretaker Committee of Bomadi Local Gorvernment Area, Mr. Collins Olorogun, has solicited the support of the Pere of Akugbene Mein Kingdom, His Royal Majesty, Pere Kalanama the VIII, to maintain the existing peace in the area.

Olorogun, who paid a courtesy call on the royal father, said he was at the palace of his royal majesty to receive royal blessings and identify with the traditional institution to run an inclusive

government.

The council boss, who was received on arrival at Akugbene by Prince Edon Americana and Roland Orie at the Akugbene waterside told the Pere that the mandate of his administration was to focus on peace and security, and environmental sanitation. He assured the people of the local government that his energies would be directed towards the maintenance of peace and security of lives and property of the people of the area, just as he said that environmental issues would have proper attention.

Vanguard,

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2012

—13

Women, moderates set to rule US Congress W

HEN the next Con gress cranks up in January, there will be more women, many new faces and 11 fewer tea partybacked House Republicans from the class of 2010 who sought a second term.

Overriding those changes, though, is a thinning of pragmatic, centrist veterans in both parties.

Among those leaving are some of the Senate’s most pragmatic lawmakers, nearly half the House’s centrist Blue Dog Democrats and several moderate House Republicans.

In the Senate, moderate Scott Brown, R-Mass., lost to Democrat Elizabeth Warren, who will be one of the most liberal members.

Another GOP moderate, Richard Lugar of Indiana, fell in the primary election.

Two others, Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas and Olympia Snowe of Maine, are retiring.

Moderate Democratic senators such as Kent Conrad of North Dakota, Herb Kohl of Wisconsin, Ben Nelson of Nebraska, James Webb of Virginia are leaving, as is Democraticleaning independent Joe Lieberman. While about half the incoming 12 Senate freshmen of both parties are moderates, new arrivals include tea party Republican Ted Cruz of Texas, conservative Deb Fischer of Nebraska, and liberals such as Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin and Hawaii’s Mazie Hirono.

There’s a similar pattern in the House, where 10 of the 24 Democratic Blue Dogs lost, are retiring or, in the case of Rep. Joe Donnelly, R-Ind., are moving to the Senate. That will further slash a centrist

group that just a few years ago had more than 50 members, though some new freshmen might join.

Among Republicans, moderates like Reps. Judy Biggert of Illinois and New Hampshire’s Charles Bass were defeated while others such as Reps. Jerry Lewis of California and Steven LaTourette of Ohio decided to retire. Seventyone of the 83 House GOP freshmen of 2010 were reelected Nov. 6, but 11 lost,

government ideologues, some of them are gone,” said House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, DCalif. “And that message has been rejected by the American people.”

Tammy Baldwin including one of the group’s highest profile members, conservative

Senators-elect Deb Fischer, Rep. Allen West, R-Fla. Another faces a runoff in

Elizabeth Warren December. “Some of the people who are the anti-

Egypt’s judiciary confronts Mursi E GYPT’s stock market plunged yesterday in its first day open since Islamist President Mohamed Mursi seizure of new powers set off street violence and a political crisis, unraveling efforts to restore stability after last year’s revolution.

More than 500 people have been injured in protests since Friday, when Egyptians awoke to news that Mursi had issued a decree widening his powers and shielding them from judicial review.

Mursi’s Muslim Brotherhood supporters were expected to turn out again on the streets in a show of support after prayers on Sunday afternoon. His supporters and opponents are both planning massive demonstrations on Tuesday that many fear will lead to more violence.

Sunday’s stock market fall of nearly 10 percent halted only by automatic curbs - was the worst since the uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak in Feb 2011. Images of

protesters clashing with riot police and tear gas wafting through Cairo’s Tahrir Square were an unsettling reminder of that revolution.

“We are back to square one, politically, socially,” said Mohamed Radwan of Pharos Securities, an Egyptian brokerage firm.

Judges announced on

Saturday they would go on strike. Liberal politician Mohammed ElBaradei called Mursi a “dictator”.

UK flood damages 800 homes

N

O fewer than 800 homes have been flooded after storms hit parts of England and Wales yesterday, the Environment Agency has

said.

According to the report, 816 houses have been affected after a band of heavy rain and strong winds swept across the country.

Palestinians open Arafat’s tomb tomorrow

T

HE body of former Palestine Liberation Organization leader Yasser Arafat will be exhumed tomorrows as samples will be taken to be tested for poisoning as part of an inquiry into his 2004 death, an official said at the weekend.

Similarly, forensic experts from France, Switzerland and Russia will each take their own samples for independent analysis, Tawfiq Tirawi,

head of the Palestinian investigation committee has said.

The tomb in the West Bank city of Ramallah will then be closed back up on the same day, Tirawi told a news conference in Ramallah.

Arafat will be reburied with a military ceremony, he said.

The occasion is likely to be an emotional one for many Palestinians who view Arafat as a symbol of resistance.

Devon and Cornwall, the report said , were badly hit, along with Malmesbury in Wiltshire and Kempsey in Worcestershire.

Already, two people including a woman killed by a falling tree in Exeter and a man whose car crashed into a swollen river in Cambridgeshire have died in the storm.

...As critics battle Rice over style

S

USAN Rice has had a series of diplomatic triumphs as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. President Barack Obama, an old friend, showed he has her back when last week he publicly challenged her Republican critics over the Benghazi controversy to “go after me” rather than her. She knew former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright from the age of 4.

And yet Rice is now fighting for her political future. Her chances of becoming the next secretary of state - replacing Hillary Clinton - have been significantly damaged.

Senior Republicans, such as Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham, have said they will oppose her getting the job, signaling a confirmation battle if Obama decides to nominate her.

14 — Vanguard, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2012

Vanguard, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2012 — 15

16 — Vanguard, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2012 THE information management system of the President Goodluck Jonathan administration is inchoate, inadequate and downright confusing. The Chief Executive of the Federation is hardly his own salesman. His officials appear to be competing in issuing conflicting information to the public. Is it deliberate?

In trying to paper over its communication challenges with the appointment of Dr Doyin Okupe as the Special Assistant to the President on Public Affairs, in addition to the existing post of Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity held by Dr Reuben Abati, matters are getting more chaotic. A presidential official would say one thing today and another official of the same government would emphatically contradict him, leaving Nigerians confused and wondering what is going on in the Presidency.

So many instances can be pointed at, but the most crucial ones include government statements on the report of the Mallam Nuhu Ribadu-led Petroleum Revenue Special Task Force, PRSTF, and the much touted “dialogue” with Islamic militants, Boko Haram. Okupe, described the Ribadu

Tell Nigerians Truth Report as “unimplementable”, giving the impression that the Presidency found it utterly useless.

Surprisingly, the same government set up a committee headed by the Minister of Labour and Productivity, Chief Emeka Nwogu, to look into the Report and issue a White Paper. Does the White Paper have a chance after Okupe had issued his own “white paper?

While the fuss was yet to settle, Dr Abati told media correspondents, “I can confirm to you that talks (between the Federal Government and Boko Haram) are going on in the background”. In his Presidential Media Chat on November 18, President Jonathan denied such talks, affirming that since the group had remained faceless the Federal Government would not discuss with

it.

Given the importance of these two particular issues to the economy and security of the nation, we see the issuing of conflicting information to the public as a great disservice. The strange thing about it is that no official is ever reprimanded for deliberate, mischievous misinformation of the public. The conclusion left to be drawn is that government sees nothing wrong in its serial duplicity in information management.

Nigerians have a constitutional right to be properly and truthfully informed about the ways they are being governed.

Communication from government to the public should leave no one in doubt about government’s policies, programmes and intentions. Only a government with hidden agenda sees profit in creating confusion among members of the public.

The Presidency must conduct a thorough self-examination and rectify any impediment to a free flow of truthful, credible, accurate and timely flow of information to Nigerians, unless double speak has become one of its tools for managing information.

OPINION

BY ANIETO UGOCHUKWU

T

IME and again we have witnessed unnecessary deaths as a result of insufficient and very poor medical services offered all over Nigeria. The most painful scenarios are when the victims of these poor healthcare systems in place and their families know they could have pulled through with better services. Sometime in September, it was rumoured that your wife, Mrs. Patience Jonathan, experienced a health scare that required her to seek medical attention in Germany. Rumours had it that it was food poisoning at first, and then it was a ruptured appendix and finally someone mentioned Parkinson’s disease. Whatever she may have suffered or still suffering is not the subject of this open letter but the special attention government officials and their families receive at the expense of Nigerians for all ailments, including common cold.

President Jonathan on healthcare Evidently, something must be very wrong with the medical training and facilities in Nigeria when the genuinely rich, government officials (past and present) and their families avoid our own healthcare system. This situation amounts to placing a premium on some lives above others even when all the people are supposed by fundamental human rights to receive equal care.

It beats my imagination that 21st century Nigeria, a country that is one of the largest producers of crude oil in the world, cannot offer free medical care to her citizens or even when not free, a quality and well subsidized medical care. There is nothing more shameful than this situation and one would have thought that it should be your first priority to increase the life span of the average Nigerian

through quality healthcare.

Every year we lose thousands of people from the increasing occurrences of kidney, heart and cancer ailments and yet we think it is normal.

Nigerians raise monies to take their own to India but a responsible government should have taken a bold step to intervene in these sufferings by inviting the Indians health professionals to perform the surgical operations in Nigeria at the expense of the government.

D

o you know one of the reasons why corruption is rampant even to the least level of the Nigerian society?

No one wants to be caught dead in this mess of lack of care because they know that in actuality we have a dysfunctional government. So many times, we have had hospitals go on strike because

the government would not implement the agreement it had with trade unions and when this happens, the ordinary Nigerian would die.

This is very wrong. Nigeria must adopt a system that resembles the NHS trust in the United Kingdom but without placing undue burden on the salaries of the working class people.

We must take care of our own by investing heavily in the health sector through providing up-to-date medical training and upgrading available facilities, using those hospitals which “ you” people visit in Europe and America as models. It is time to truly carry out turnaround maintenance of our health institutions. We need specialist doctors all over Nigeria. We need quality training of medical staff and we need a stable system that does not close because of

strikes. I was reliably informed in 2009, that the teaching hospital at Enugu did not have functional indoor plumbing.

Patients and their families had to rely on buying water in order to meet their needs.

Imagine a teaching hospital of that nature without water; what kind of medicine were people practising there in the first place? There should be a special task force on revamping these comatose institutions for better efficiency. Re-training of our healthcare workers to respond to emergencies is also imperative.

*Mr. Ugochukwu, a commentator on national issues, wrote from Lagos.

Vanguard, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2012 — 41

Y

Transitional politics At the ensuing 1983 general elections, the NPN not only won the election but also became even more mammoth, thus triggering fears of Nigeria becoming a oneparty state.

In the 1998/1999 transitional politics, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) had established an early dominance and national spread. It had already won some of the staggered provincial polls.

In order to attempt to head off its imminent emergence as the dominant national party, two regional rivals – the Alliance for

Why the alliance may not work

Gen. Buhari

Democracy (AD), which had swept the South West, created a strange contraption of a merger with the All People’s Party (APP).

The merger was only for the presidential election. Dr Ogbonnaya Onu, a surrogate of Alhaji Umaru Shinkafi, won the APP primaries in Kaduna, while Chief Olu Falae won the AD presidential ticket in Ibadan.

Onu was forced to step down for Shinkafi, who agreed to run as the Vice President to Falae, while the party platform adopted was the APP. Falae became the presidential candidate of a party he was neither a member nor contested for its presidential ticket! See what I mean by “strange”? Even stranger still, the regime of General Abdulsalami Abubakar accepted the arrangement in its resolve not to give the Yoruba reason to boycott the transition. PDP went ahead

to win by a landslide.

Plotting against the PDP: The proposed alliance or merger this time has the ACN and CPC plotting against an entrenched election winning machine and national party, the PDP. It will be another uphill task at the least.

For one, the calculations that started the two sides into this venture is, as far as I am concerned, fallacious. Based on the National Population Commission (NPC’s) figures awarding the North West 37 million and South West 27 million people, it was assumed that an alliance of parties in control of the two zones would upstage PDP and produce a president of Nigeria.

The assumption did not work out in the 2011 election. The number of actual voters in the two zones was far removed from the

number of registered voters credited to them. On the other hand, the number of actual voters in the South East, South-South and North Central were more than expected and went a long “ way in producing the president.

The difficult question will be: who produces the president? Will it be the bigger party, the ACN which controls six states in two geopolitical zones, or the CPC, a minority party with only one state in North Central? Will Buhari sink his presidential ambition for ACN’s choice, possibly Raji Fashola or Adams Oshiomhole?

Or will a man who has proved incapable of getting majority votes in the North insist on being the flag-bearer and lead the alliance to another defeat? If ACN

,

ET another attempt at w e l d i n g together an alliance to defeat a ruling dominant party is underway. This time, the chief protagonists are Chief Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and retired General Muhammadu Buhari’s Congress for Progressive Change (CPC). Since independence, it has become part of Nigeria’s political history that between general elections contending smaller political parties will try to gang-up against the usual dominant ruling party.

We saw it in the First Republic when the United Progressive Grand Alliance (UPGA) consisting mainly of the National Council for Nigerian Citizens (NCNC) and the Action Group, tried to upstage northern regional giant and ruling party at the Centre, the Northern People’s Congress (NPC). It collapsed because the UPGA leaders could not sink their ambitions and differences. In the Second Republic, the National Party of Nigeria (NPN) emerged as the dominant national ruling party, while four others – the Nigerian People’s Party (NPP), the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN), the People’s Redemption Party (PRP) and the Great Nigerian People’s Party (GNPP) formed a group called the People’s Progressive Alliance (PPA). The effort also failed.

controlled parties never share power. they simply take over. Is Tinubu willing to risk that?

Revolutionary behaviourial shift: The question of ideology will not be an impediment because Nigerian political parties are not interested in that. But the question of ethnic and sectional mindsets will. CPC is a northern Muslim radical party, with Buhari as its sole raison d’etre and inspiration. ACN is a modern political party for now based chiefly in the South West with a leg in Edo. It has done a lot to whittle down the regional appeal of the Awoist parties of old. If it fields an acceptable candidate such as Fashola, Oshiomhole or Senator Chris Ngige it will sell.

The ACN will perform a lot better if it continues to improve on its national spread rather than dissipate efforts trying to ally with a CPC that is unlikely to even concede the presidency to it.

These two parties do not really share anything beyond the common desire to wrest power from the PDP. The PDP has become so entrenched that it is in a position, with its enormous powers of incumbency, to infiltrate the alliance and unsettle it from within.

PDP will still bank heavily on

These two parties do not really share anything beyond the common desire to wrest power from the PDP. The PDP has become so entrenched that it is in a position, with its enormous powers of incumbency, to infiltrate the alliance and unsettle it from within

,

produces the presidential candidate, will Buhari’s fanatical supporters in the Muslim North agree to vote for him?

If Buhari inherits the leadership of the Alliance and by a stroke of outside luck they win, Tinubu will have to bid his little political fiefdom goodbye. Experiences in the NPC, NPN and Shehu Yar ’Adua’s People Front of Nigeria (PFN) showed Fulani-

the political behaviour of Nigerians which tends to favour the ruling party at the polls, especially for the presidency. It will require a major revolutionary shift in this behaviour for the electorate to summon a collective national effort and vote out a sitting president.

However, let the two parties go on and try their luck. You never can tell. Miracles still do happen.

OPINION

BY PETER ULU

O

N August 5, 2012, thirty three miners got trapped in the bowels of the earth, some 700 meters (2,300ft) from the surface. This was the Copiapo mining incident at the San Jose coppergold mine in Chile. Sixty –nine days and $20 million later, all 33 miners were brought back to the surface alive and in relatively good health, in an epic and unprecedented demonstration of national will and international cooperation. That operation confirmed in a most explicit and eloquent way the importance and sanctity of human life.

It confirmed the well-known aphorism which says that when there is the will there will be a way and that no price is too high to save a human life.

Move over to Syria. In the past 19 months the people of Syria, some 22.5million of them, presumably in perfect health and living on the surface of the earth, breathing God’s own free oxygen like everyone else, are doing their best to slaughter one another in a land closely associated with the ancient

Syrian conundrum and the UN civilizations of Mesopotamia, Babylon and Phoenicia. The civil war in Syria has so far claimed over 30,000 lives, to which on the average another hundred is added each day that passes, displaced about 400,000 into neighbouring countries and 2.5 million internally, not to talk of the large scale, mindless distruction that is going on there also.

For the 22.5 million Syrians, the country is a trap in hell and so far there is no national will to save the country, rather there seems to be a will to do the exact opposite. Internationally, there has so far been no effective will to rescue Syria.

The mine rescue in Chile in 2010 and the current situation in Syria represent the contemporary world’s best example of the difference between two words: sanity and madness. The restraint, courage and fortitude that produced the startling mine rescue in Chile in 2010 has deserted humanity in Syria.

Although this article was inspired by a

humanitarian concern, another main motivation was a need to comment on the gaping hole between what the world expects of the United Nations and the organisation’s actual performance, as far as international peace and security is concerned. This deficit in effectiveness and responsibility, on the part of the United Nations, has implications, not only for Syria but also for everyone else,particularly for those of us in the Third World such as Nigeria, who are not permanent, veto wielding members of the UN Security Council, and who because of erratic leadership are the more likely to be victims in a conflict that may require effective supranational intervention.

At the 67th (2012) UN General Assembly last September a gallery of world leaders, including Barak O b a m a ( U S A ) , D a v i d Cameron(UK),Mohammed Morsi(Egypt), the leaders or

representatives of the leaders of Germany, France, Turkey, etc, all vociferously condemned the carnage now going on in Syria.

They were all long on words but short on action, before and after the speechfest. Only the USA, speaking through Hilary Clinton, the Secretary of State, committed her country to the tune of $42 million for what she called nonlethal aid to the Syrian opposition. She later expatiated that the aid would include training and communications.

The conflict in Syria has brought to the fore the fact that the United Nations Organisation, itself designed for and defined by the Second World War and the Cold war, has become anachronistic and will remain so until redesigned and redefined for the post-cold war era and the 21st century.

In all of human history before the Second World War, it seemed that the first or preferred choice of action in the pursuit of public policy or national interest was the use of force.

Continues on the viewpoint page *Lt.Col. Ulu, rtd, wrote from Lagos.

42—Vanguard, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2012

I

T is widely acknowledged that education remains the bedrock for the development of any nation.

Simply put, education is the driving force behind the socioeconomic advancement of any serious nation.

What this means is that a nation will continue to be pariah until education is made to take its pride of place in the scheme of things and so, no country can develop beyond the level of its education.

In Nigeria, one might not be wrong to submit that the policies of the successive governments in the country have added little value to educational advancement, which has been ravaged by a myriad of problems, which keep worsening by the day.

Perhaps, the most severe of the problems is poor funding – which directly or indirectly leads to other perennial setbacks - shortage of quality staff, dearth of infrastructure, inadequate classrooms and offices, proliferation, insufficient admission spaces, examination malpractice, cultism, brain drain, inadequate laboratories for teaching and research, shortage of books and journals, indiscipline, low remuneration, inconsistent and ill-conceived policies.

It is saddening that on the average, Nigeria spends less than nine per cent of its annual budget

on education when smaller African nations like Botswana spend 19.0%; Swaziland, 24.6%; Lesotho, 17.0%; South Africa, 25.8%; Cote d’Ivoire, 30.0%; Burkina Faso, 16.8%; Ghana, 31%; Kenya, 23.0%; Uganda, 27.0%; Tunisia, 17.0%; and Morocco, 17.7% .

An overview of this sector shows that the total federal allocation to education had been on the decline from 11.13 in 1999 to 7.0 per cent in 2001, meaning that the share of both the Gross Domestic Product and total government spending have fallen over time.

The allocation of a declining fraction of the GDP to education invariably poses a serious danger to the country’s long-term growth and development prospects.

This has raised the pertinent question of whether the decrease in these measures of educational expenditure is a result of toosmall-a-share of total public financial resources being allocated to those levels of government which have most responsibility for the sector.

Since the late 1970s, when the tuition and feeding fees were introduced and government got enmeshed in crippling effects of International Monetary Fund/ World Bank loans, the lots of education have actually gone from bad to worse.

In responding to the problem of chronic under-funding, Nigerian public universities had adopted an array of cost-sharing measures, to

With the prudent management of funds, the state of education is expected to be better; but this optimism may not be so unless necessary measures are put in place

,

survive. Even at take-off, many institutions were never paid their statutory subventions, grants and allocations.

For instance, students’ contributions were obtained through a multitude of fees imposition - tuition in state and private institutions, acceptance, registration and certification, caution, sports, identity cards, late registration, examination, laboratory, transcript, and medical centre registration fees, among others - as these fees vary in amount paid from one university to another.

T

he condition for teaching and learning in many institutions is grossly unacceptable. This largely accounted for why no Nigerian university has attained any remarkable position in the world global rankings.

On the other hand, contributions

Syrian conundrum and the UN (2)

BY PETER ULU

Continued from page 41

B

UT the scale of destruction in the Second World War was cathartic and the leaders of the so-called free world for the first time began to plan deliberately for some form of a world government that will at the very minimum offer a forum through which such destructive conflicts can be preempted or prevented. Of course, before the Second World War, there was the League of Nations, but the seriousness with which the matter of international peace and security was addressed was unprecedented following the Second World War. After that war, it was globally accepted, formerly and otherwise, that the use of force will no longer be such a ready option in the advancement of the national interest but rather a last resort, when and if all else fails. The United Nations Organisation was the tangible expression of this new mindset.

Looking back now, however, the UN as designed by its founding fathers has apparently outlived its usefulness. To start with, the UN was not designed, ab initio, as a democratic institution or rather the democracy in the UN started and ended with the permanent members of the Security Council.

At inception in 1945 much of the world outside Europe and America were colonies or territories controlled by the great victorious powers, namely the UK, France the Soviet Union and the USA. It is these same powers plus China that constituted themselves into the permanent, vetowielding members of the UN Security Council. It is these five powers that made the initial draft charter of the UN, which was then ratified by 46 other founding members. Today, 193 flags are hoisted at the UN headquarters, representing independent sovereign nations, a long way from the 51 of 1945. The charter of the UNO was a document which catered for international peace and security as seen

through the eyes of the victorious powers of World War II. In other words, out of the 193 member nations, the security of 188,more than 97 per cent, are subject to the whims and caprices of the remaining five, less than three per cent, the so-called Permanent Members of the Security Council. This inherent injustice and lack of equity has been loudly illustrated in Syria. The status quo to me is clearly untenable.

In recent decades, particularly since the end of the Cold War in 1989, a majority of international conflicts have been resolved either without UN intervention or without a decisive UN intervention. In the Balkans, in the nineties, the UN was weak and ineffective.

It was NATO, the European Union and American muscle that eventually turned the tables and ensured a decisive outcome in favour of international peace and security.

The International Security Assistance Force, ISAF, in Afghanistan is a NATO apparatus that is currently managing to destroy the Taliban and build a post –conflict environment in that country.

Although nominally the United Nations was present in Iraq in 2003, it was the preponderance of the American contingent that brought about a decisive outcome. In Ivory Coast and Sierra Leone, it was the French and the British who brought in the decisive element. The UN failed woefully to prevent or mitigate the Rwandan genocide in 1994.

Regional blocks, apparently aware of the UN’s increasing irrelevance, have begun to appreciate the situation and have therefore begun to take more responsibility for security within their territories. ECOWAS, for instance, was effective in seeing Charles Taylor off in Liberia in the nineties and early 2000s. Today ECOWAS is not waiting for the UN in Mali. In Mali, the ECOWAS, perhaps out of experience, is showing more sophistication and elan there and is headed in a direction that gives confidence in the regional body’s ability to resolve conflicts

,

BY ADEWALE KUPOLUYI

,

2013 budget: Rescuing education

from the private sector to education in Nigeria were limited to the endowment of prizes and professorial chairs, and other voluntary donations.

Campaigns to raise endowment funds in Nigerian universities dated as far back as the 1950s when the University College, Ibadan started an endowment drive. From 1988 to1994, the University of Ibadan generated approximately N22.02 million from endowments and grants.

It was widely believed that in the desperate bid to survive the financial crunch, many universities resorted to unconventional means of survival, including conferring honorary degrees to questionable people.

The government’s inability to adequately fund all tiers of education has created basis for the authorities of institutions to impose various obnoxious charges and fees of the students. This has made education the exclusive preserve of children of the few rich and the privileged. Often times, they are sent to school in first rate institutions abroad. This should not be.

The role played by intervention agencies such as the Tertiary Education Trust Fund is meaningful but is still a far cry from the needs of this critical sector of the nation.

It was, therefore, cheering news that the Jonathan administration has decided to toe the right track in the nation’s aspiration of attaining the actualisation of the 26 per cent minimum allocation to education, a benchmark recommended by the United Nations Education, Scientific and

Regional blocks, apparently aware of the UN’s increasing irrelevance, have begun to appreciate the situation and have therefore begun to take more responsibility for security within their territories

,

within its own bloc.

In Syria today, where the so-called Arab Spring came to a screeching halt in April 2011,after more or less successfully passing through Tunisia, Libya and Egypt, the UN has proved itself once more, unreliable . The vacuum thus created has, however, been taken up by Syria’s neighbours, notably Turkey, Jordan and members of the Arab League. They have run to the vanguard of efforts to not only mitigate the collateral damage, but also to bring about an equitable and sustainable outcome. For tens of thousands dead and hundreds of thousands more suffering directly from the war however, these efforts are coming too late.

T

he first attempt by the UN to intervene in the Syrian conflict fell flat on its face.

No less a person than the former Secretary General, Kofi Annan, was appointed by the organisation to lead the effort for the resolution of the conflict. After six months in the job, Mr. Annan resigned. His resignation says much, not only of his frustration with his failure to make headway, but also of his loss of faith in the organisation of which he recently was its chief protagonist. Today, we now have a renowned, retired Algerian diplomat, Lakhdar Brahimi, who is curiously described as a UN-Arab league envoy, as Mr. Kofi Annan’s replacement on the Syrian

Cultural Organisation.

The President had already submitted the 2013 budget christened “Fiscal Consolidation with Inclusive Growth” to the National Assembly for passage into law. The proposed budget allocates N426.53 billion to education out of the total national budget of N4.9 trillion.

All things being equal, it is expected that with the prudent management and release of funds, the state of our education is expected to be better. But previous experiences have shown that this optimism may not be so unless necessary measures are put in place to ensure that the proposed budget becomes real.

To begin with, a sizeable amount should be set-aside as capital expenditure. For instance, in the 2012 fiscal year, the sum of N400.15 billion, representing 8.43 per cent of the budget was allocated to education. Out of this, N345.091bn (82%) was allotted to recurrent expenditure, while a meagre N55.056bn (18%) was for capital expenditure and N317.896bn was proposed for personnel cost, while N27.192bn was for overheads.

The main ministry had a budget proposal of N5.491bn, allocated to MDGs - N2.173bn; parastatals - N5.196bn, universities N14.411bn, colleges of education - N4.555bn, while unity colleges got N7.663bn.

Continues tomorrow on pg. 18

*Mr. Kupoluyi wrote from Federal University of Agric., Abeokuta, Ogun State.

beat. Mr. Brahimi is now in his third month on the job. He apparently believes that in the circumstances he would consider his job done if he is able only to keep diplomatic channels open. Were he able to produce any tangible results, that would be a bonus. Mr. Brahimi’s constant motion reminds one of Dr. Henry Kissinger’s shuttle diplomacy during the Yum Kippur War between the State of Isreal and Arab armies in 1973.

Mr. Brahimi’s first attempt to move from constant motion to actual accomplishment, his attempt to broker a cease fire using the opportunity of the ID-el-Kabir last week was a spectacular failure. But Mr. Brahimi did not miss a beat. He simply gassed up and cruised to Beijing, from where he will be reportedly moving to Moscow, etc.

It is important to be fair to Mr, Brahimi.

The situation in Syria is a complex one. It sure needs Mr. Brahimi’s broadmindedness.

The conflict is currently raging in an intensive military phase. My take on the warring parties, Assad’s forces and the socalled opposition forces, is that neither side had any idea what they were getting into when they allowed each other to be drawn into a vicious military dueling ,although much of the responsibility for that belongs to Bashar Assad, who ,up till this day,remains the de jure head of the state of the Syrian Arab Republic and commander in chief of its armed forces, with a tested standing army of about 400,000 men. Mr Assad probably presumed that destroying the opposition would be a walkover.

Experienced, well trained, disciplined and professional military officers are always very reluctant to initiate and careful about initiating military hostilities of any kind for one simple reason. They are aware, more than most people about the consequences, not just for their troops, but more importantly for the innocent, vulnerable people who will get caught up in the fighting: noncombatants and civilians, including women, the young, the old, who will be killed ,maimed, displaced or otherwise made to suffer for years or generations.

Concluded

*Lt. Col. Ulu, rtd., wrote from Lagos.

Vanguard , MONDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2012—43

INSTALLATION OF ORODJE OF OKPE AS ANAMBRA VARSITY'S PRO-CHANCELLOR

HRM Orodje of Okpe, Orhue I was installed as the Pro-Chancellor of Anambra State University, Uli, weekend.

From left— Governor Peter Obi of Anambra State; HRM Orodje of Okpe, Orhue I , and his wife.

From left— Prof. Fidelis Okafor, Vice-Chancellor of Anambra State University; Governor Peter Obi; and HRM Orhue I.

Governor Peter Obi (left) and HRM Orhue I.

HRM Orhue I and his wife.

Governor Peter Obi.

Prof. Okafor, Governor Obi and HRM Orhue I.

HRM Orhue I.

HRM Orhue I and members of the university's Governing Council.

44 — Vanguard, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2012

How I led the Abia liberation struggle — Gov. Orji GOVERNOR Theodore Orji is in the second term of his stewardship of Abia State. In the second half of his stewardship, Orji has generally been acclaimed to be working hard to cover up for the lethargy and crises that characterised the governance of the state in the first term before he championed the liberation struggle that disentangled the governance of the state from the hands of the hitherto prevailing political cabal. In this interview in Umuahia he speaks of his aspirations, the challenges he has been faced with and the legacies he is expecting to bequeath to the state. Excerpts:

BY DAPO AKINREFON

L

,

OOKING back at what has transpired since you became governor, at what point did you decide it was time to part with your immediate predecessor?

There is only one thing that is permanent in life and that is change. When your interest goes contrary to the interest of the people, when what you want is not what the people are looking for, when you want to make the people to cry instead of making them to laugh, then there must be a time when the change will come.

For me, I did not have any problem with my predecessor or with anybody in the state. I was elected to supervise the transformation of the state and not to serve any individual or group of individuals.

The electorate in Abia State are greater than individuals or group and I decided to take sides with the majority who elected me to serve them. You see, I never had any problem with him, the problem was what the stakeholders of Abia State who felt alienated from their state, who felt that they have been driven away from their state, and also the people who felt that their needs were not being attended to, who felt that nobody was listening to them.

So they began to call for a change, they came here and began to voice their displeasure at what had happened and the need to change the way things were being done.

The real owners of the state stood up and said enough was enough and I had to listen to them. It was not me that shouted for liberation. It was the real owners of the state that insisted that the only thing that would pacify them is to be liberated from those who have been denying them the dividends of democracy. They said they wanted to part ways with those who did not want them to have a say in the way their state was being

away, they abandoned their houses and ran to Abuja and Lagos . But we were resolute in our determination to end the reign of terror and that was what we did in conjunction with the federal government.

This is why the people are very much at home with me because they saw that I did not abandon them when it mattered most. I remained and together we fashioned the best solution to the problem and today there is peace in Abia.

There is not only social peace but there is also political peace.

You see that all the stakeholders are always around and have been giving their advice on how to make the state better. The state does not belong to one individual, it belongs to all of us and this is what they have been yearning for a long time and when they could not achieve it when they were not allowed to make their input in the governance of their state, they started talking of liberation, this is what happened here.

Yes, we have restored peace, it was a situation that made Abia a pariah state.

People were running away and leaving their houses and property, nobody wanted to have anything to do with the state and those that remained behind were always living in fear.

*Orji: We have restored peace

administered.

So I had to go with them, I never had any problem with anybody and up till today I still don’t have any problem with anybody. I challenge my predecessor to mention one single offence of mine to him when he decided to rubbish my image.

I am the governor of Abia State and the state has 17 Local Government Areas and my business is to make sure that everybody is happy and that is exactly what we are doing here.

After restoring peace in the state following the embarrassing period of kidnapping, would you describe that period as the darkest period of your political career?

No, I saw it as a challenge because the people were concerned. That is why when I go to Aba and I hear some of the talks going on there, I just say to myself, where was this ‘Enyimba, Enyi’ when kidnappers were ravaging the area. Most of those who are making noise now all ran

always on top of the situation.

We have purchased several vehicles for the security agencies and we are working with them to maintain peace.

That is why all the awards we have received have all been tied to what we have been able to achieve in the state. We are not making noise about all these things because they are the things we must do for our people.

Abia people are very loving and hospitable and hardworking, all they need is the opportunity to present them the conducive environment and also carry them along and that is the kind of leadership we have provided and they are happy.

What would you describe as your greatest achievement?

Returning peace to the entire Abia State , giving the people a say in the government that they elected me to be their servant, seeing that all the stakeholders in Abia State can now come together and speak with one voice on what concerns the state.

Monumental achievements These are monumental achievements that will remain indelible and which would constantly be referred to in a long time. As I told you before, the stakeholders were all scattered everywhere because they were alienated by the government in their state, they were never allowed to speak and the state was alienated from what was happening at the centre, the state was losing what others were gaining.

I am the governor of Abia State and the state has 17 Local Government Areas and my business is to make sure that everybody is happy and that is exactly what we are doing here

But today, it has become a thing of the past, businesses are springing up everywhere especially in Aba, don’t mind what you are hearing from some few people, the real people living in Aba are very happy because they know what happened and what we did and they know that life is better now than what it was before and this is what gives me joy.

We are still investing heavily in security because we understand the meaning of insecurity, we have been there before and we know what it did to us.

So we are not going to allow such a thing to happen here again, and that is why we are

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This situation gave rise for the liberation struggle, if you go and ask them, they will tell you. They are all there and still alive, go and ask them, they demanded for the liberation of the state and I was the arrowed head because I was the one they elected to champion the struggle.

Also everywhere you go in the state, there is peace, you can walk the streets at anytime of the day and night and feel secured. You can now sleep with your two eyes closed, your business can thrive because there is no longer molestation. So these are monumental achievements.

Continued on page 45

Vanguard, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2012 — 45

My plans for Aba — Orji You have also seen the legacy projects we are doing, the New Government House.

Where we are sitting now to hold this interview is the guest house of Emeka Omeruah, it was not built by the government. This has remained so since Abia was created in 1991.

If you go to other states, you see the Government Houses and the Governor ’s Lodges, but here almost 22 years after creation, we are still in a rented apartment. The stakeholders also lamented about this and we now agreed that it was time to take this reproach away.

If you go to other states, you see International Conference Centres, but here the Michael Okpara auditorium is the only place where all government functions are held and it is not enough to contain a good number of people, not to talk of the state of the infrastructure.

So the new conference centre which will have a capacity for 3000 persons will give the state a good standing to host conferences and other international events. These are legacy projects that touch my heart and which I intend to complete before my tenure ends. These are projects that I would like to be remembered for after I have left office.

Are you worried that these criticisms have continued to trail your administration in spite of all these efforts?

As I told you earlier, these criticisms do not bother me as

long as I am doing what my people want. They are the ones that elected me as their governor and they have continued to express their confidence in me.

So long as what I am doing is what the people want, I can not be distracted. I have a mission here and that mission is to transform the state. That is the uppermost thing on my mind, that is what I think about everyday. If the criticisms are right, I will look at it and see how I can reflect on it to better the lives of the people, but if it is a destructive one, I simply gloss over it and move on.

What we have achieved so far is in line with the desires of the people that gave me the mandate. That is why I always refer to the stakeholders because these are people who understand what is on the ground. They come to suggest this and that and I know that they are speaking for their people because every stakeholder must have people who also speak to them in their communities.

So when they suggest it, we try to see how we can do it because it is what my people want. So let them talk and let us continue to do what we have been elected to do and make the people happy, let all the stakeholders continue to work together and let Abia continue to experience peace.

That is all that matters.

Is your determination to transform Aba not one of those political speeches?

No, not at all. We have never

*Orji: Aba is very dear to my administration

*Orji: I have a mission here and that mission is to transform the state

,

Continued on page 44

It was not me that shouted for liberation, it was the real owners of the state that insisted that the only thing that would pacify them is to be liberated from those who have been denying them the dividends of democracy

,

joked with Aba . Everything we promised to do in Aba we have started some, completed some and will continue on the others. Aba is very important to the success of the state, just like other places here. We just commissioned the Okagwe/ Ohafia road. You need to visit that road to see what we have done and how happy the people are. The road had remained impassable for years, but today the people are happy that it has been completed. We have completed the Nunya/ Isuikwuato road, that is the road most commuters go through to Enugu .

So as we are working in Aba, we will also be working in other parts of the state. Since

you came into Umuahia, you may have noticed that there is a change in the area because the electricity supply is steady. What we are enjoying in this office now is electricity from the national grid not generator. We evacuated power from the Ohiya sub station and power is now steady in the state and artisans are now working everyday and making brisk business.

Aba cannot be left out.

Before Christmas you will see what we are going to do in Aba with the 16 roads that have already been awarded.

The contractors will soon move to site and the area will witness a change.

Aba is very dear to my administration because of the neglect the place has suffered in the hands of previous administrations, even though some of them You must have noticed that we have fought refuse to a stand still with the many compactors and roll-on rolloff trucks we purchased and sent to the area.

It is no longer the dirty commercial city it was known for before we came on board.

So we are working in Aba and by the time my administration will be signing off in 2015, Aba will have a lot to remember my government.

What will you want them to

remember you for?

They will remember me as one governor who did not play politics with their wellbeing. They will remember that I was one governor who promised to transform the infrastructure of the area and kept to my promise, that I was one governor who put a stop to the incessant flooding in the area by opening up the gutters so that water can flow freely into the Aba River, that I was the governor who ensured that refuse did not overtake the city again, but used everything at my disposal to keep the city clean, that I was the governor who ensured that insecurity which was the hallmark of the city was resisted and made the people to sleep with their two eyes closed.

So there will be a lot that Aba people will remember me for.

They will remember that I was the governor who never collected any shop from them to give to my family members and deprive the genuine traders from having their own and that I was the governor who never borrowed a dime from any stock market to put all these things on ground, but worked out the transformation by cutting my coat according to my cloth.

These are facts on the ground and they are incontrovertible, they are empirical.

46 — Vanguard, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2012

BOOK SERIAL

The Nigerian Defence Academy —A Pioneer Cadet's Memoir

BY PAUL OSAKPAMWAN OGBEBOR

TODAY....

"In my passion for enhanced military knowledge, I had in London in 1987 bought a book on the British Royal Military Academy at sandhurst: A Documentary by Michael Yardley, which I completed reading during my flight between London and Lagos. The knowledge about Sandhurst coupled with that gained during my 1971 study visit to the United States Military Academy at West Point gave me the incentive to write a book on the Nigerian Defence Academy at Kaduna." With these words, Paul Ogbebor opens his knowledge box on Nigeria's elite military academy and the Indian and British connections. The first in this two-part book serial.

any institution with no regard for proper records.

Despite the missing links, thanks to God that I, as a pioneer cadet who started and saw the Academy develop in the first four years, am alive to pass on my eye witness accounts which I documented in this book. I have en-

third year. Thus, the question whether or not the Academy could be sustained was apt. Gladly, the fear of the unknown never affected the cadets resolve to work very hard, to complete the course and be commissioned as Regular Combatant Officers.

Although, the 61-member cadets· of Course I came from all across local government areas, provinces and the then four regions of Nigeria, in spite of the

Passion for military

Col. Paul Osakpamwan Ogbebor (Rtd.), Author.

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In my passion for enhanced military knowledge, I had in London in 1987 bought a book on the British Royal Military Academy at sandhurst: A Documentary by Michael Yardley, which I completed reading during my flight between London and Lagos. The knowledge about Sandhurst coupled with that gained during my 1971 study visit to the United States Military Academy at West Point gave me the incentive to write a book on the Nigerian Defence Academy at Kaduna.

As a pioneer cadet, my aim of writing this book, therefore, is to present an eyewitness account of the birth and early development of the Academy…

In writing this book, I have depended mostly on remembered events and photographs, some of which I personally took by virtue of being chairman of the Defence Academy Photography Club for the duration of Course I. Even all efforts to get photographs from members of Regular Course II were in vain. The reasons for the hiccups included the Nigeria Civil War, which broke out a few weeks after the commissioning of Course I cadets as officers with most going straight from the Academy to their formations in preparation for the commencement of the civil war.

Unfortunately, many neither ever returned alive nor ever saw their belongings. In the same vein, members of Course II were trained, commissioned and deployed under war hysteria. In addition, many of the Nigerian pioneer staff were deployed to the war-front, most of whom are now dead, while the pioneer Indian officers returned to their country. And even their replacements, after many years were replaced

by Nigerian officers, who themselves trained in the Academy. No proper records were really passed along from generation to generation in the Academy. The same could be the bane of

cadets varied cultural, linguistic and religious backgrounds, we involuntarily and perfectly harmonized; resulting in the Academy’s production of world class regular combatant military officers as our only goal… We also performed creditably well in other aspects of our military studies, which earned us commission into the Army and Navy on 17th March 1967. Above all, we also achieved excellence in other endeavours, including sports. We never failed to carry on the military tradition of “ work hard and play hard.”

As a pioneer cadet, my aim of writing this book, therefore, is to present an eyewitness account of the birth and early development of the Academy… In writing this book, I have depended mostly on remembered events and The Great Quest photographs, some of which I personally MRS. ASEMOTA who was a coteacher at Our Lady of Lourdes Cathotook...

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deavoured to capture the uncertainty which characterized the commencement of the Academy as a project. This is evident in our reporting to commence training on 20th January 1964 while the institution was officially inaugurated in March 1964; neither having the requisite academic staff for as much as 40 per cent of the period nor having a full compliment of military staff. This being the reason no members· of Courses I and ·were commissioned into the Air Force. However, the requisite officers came on adhoc basis to teach the core subjects. The most, vivid evidence was that further intakes were not made until 1966 when only 22 members of Course II joined the Academy when Course I was already in their

lic Girls Secondary Modern School in Benin City met me in June 1964 and asked where I was that I did not resume with them at school. I told her that I was then a cadet at the Nigerian Defence Academy, Kaduna. Mrs. Asemota exclaimed and queried that she thought I had a secondary school education. And if so, what then was I doing in the Army.

My family also had the same disappointment at the time they realized that I was in the Nigerian Defence Academy and not in Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria to study any of those preferred disciplines like Medicine, Law, etc.

The much Nigerians and especially members of my ethnic group, the Binis knew about the Armed Forces, which were then the Army and the Navy just

coming up was from the legacy of the First and Second World Wars’ were the soldiers who were already demobilized and were roaming the streets clad in medals. The ex-soldiers had retired to the cities; spending the little fortunes they brought from the war fronts in drinking, telling war stories endlessly and being favoured with security jobs in the colonial masters’ offices.

Certainly, soldiering was regarded as a career for drop-outs, illiterates, criminals and the Godforsaken whose existence nobody cared about like the scum of the earth. With such public image of soldiering, who would blame either Mrs. Asemota or my family for being apprehensive of my choice to be a soldier after attaining a good secondary school education? The usual expectation then was for me to join the bandwagon of white-collar work force, which was in vogue.

My cousin Mr. Folorunsho David Ogbebor, now late, had served in the Burma Campaign during the Second World War. He was lucky to have been engaged as a warder in His Royal Majesty Prison Service after his demobilization.

He would come from his station, the city of Calabar, a town situated in eastern Nigeria, to Benin City to spend his annual leave with my father. He would wake up early in the morning with a cup of palm wine in one hand and a cane in the other hand; blasting out orders and drilling the children on the usual house keeping duties before going to school. He would clad himself in the olive green army uniform, which was made-up of rolled-up longsleeves shirt and khaki knickers. He would wear a pair of big black boots and tightly wound-round putties; a black belt over the severally rolled round waist cummerbund; a wide flap hat and then adorn his chest with medals. With a big stick in one hand, he would start parading the then narrow sandy streets of Benin City visiting friends.

Uncle Folorunsho, as he was usually called, was then my idol and first contact with soldiering. Although I was only six years old, I used to sneak into his room to wear his oversize boots, shirt, the big hat, and tried to march about in them. But I dared do that only when he was not in the house or when he was asleep.

Soldiers used to come to Benin City occasionally on flag marches. They would be clad in full battle order, and march around the streets singing “Leave your father, Leave your mother and join the Army, one more river to Continues on page 47

Vanguard, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2012 — 47

BOOK SERIAL

The Nigerian Defence Academy —A Pioneer Cadet's Memoir Continues from page 46

Major Sharashude (Indian Army) with his "C" Company athletic team in 1966 Academy inter-company sports competition. Author: Vest 45.

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cross, one more river, one more river, one more river to cross.”

The song with the marching was like opium to me. It used to excite me so much that I would slip away from my parents and go about with the soldiers all day. Then they would retire to their camp, which was situated at the present site of Edo State Ministry of Works and Transport Headquarters in the city of Benin. There they erected and lived in olive green tarpaulin tents. While at the camp, they would move about in green vests; playing various games of football and hockey.

They would sing and eat mostly canned foods including bread; appearing merry at all times. In order to become psychologically part of them, I would escape from the house and hide by the camp fence to watch, wishing I could be one of them.

Thus, my second contact with soldiering was impressive and excitingly captivating. The memory was long lasting; resulting in my practicing soldiering at home even after the soldiers had long moved out of Benin. I still remember how I would go to a nearby cocoa farm to pluck the fresh green leaves with which I made myself the green army dress and then march and sing “Leave your parents, join the Army, one more river to cross.”

I had a cousin Mr. S. I. Victor who noticed my profound interest in soldiering. He came home one day and said that if I would go on all errands he sent me, he would take me to watch a war movie at the cinema. From that minute on, I became entirely submissive to him. I washed his clothes, polished his shoes, served his meals and did whatever he wanted. Truly, he lived up to his promise when he took me to Olowu Cinema, which was the only movie theatre in Benin City, to watch a film called Battan.

Battan was a battle film of an operation in the Burma Campaign of the Second World War. In the film, the Japanese launched an attack and dislodged the allied forces from their defence positions. The Japanese were smallish and masquaradly camouflaged with tree branches and fresh green leaves. Their advances were as if the entire jungle was moving which frightened the allied forces into a disorganized withdrawal and defeat.

I was so thrilled that I escaped to watch the film a second time. But since I had no money, I pleaded with the proprietor’s wife Mrs. Olowu to allow me join her children in hawking refreshments or condiments of sweets, kola nuts and cigarettes to the customers and she obliged. By that, I was able to gain free entry to watch the film.

Unfortunately for me that night, the generator supplying electricity broke down and disrupted the movie show.

Thus, the fans went on rampage and I was injured in the resultant stampede.

Coincidentally, my absence from the house was noticed. On my return home, my father gave me very severe thrashing. In spite of these tragedies, the adventure has remained indelible, and in fact, a pleasant experience in

I was so over-whelmed at seeing military manoeuvres live which were similar to the ones I had watched in that war film called ‘Battan’ that I unconsciously went on my stomach and crawled into the arena to share the action with the soldiers.

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my memory to date. This is mostly because the movie offered me the first opportunity of seeing soldiers in combat in a battlefield, which further triggered my interest in soldiering.

In 1960, I had gone with a classmate, Eugene Egbuniwe to spend and celebrate Nigeria’s Independence at Enugu, another city situated in the eastern part of Nigeria. At 4 p.m. of the first day of October 1960, there was a military display: including a tattoo in which soldiers dressed in full battle order staged a mock battle of an attack operation during which they crawled on their stomachs and fired guns. I was so over-whelmed at seeing military manoeuvres live which were similar to the ones I had watched in that war film called ‘Battan’ that I unconsciously went on my stomach and crawled into the arena to share the action with the soldiers.

Unfortunately, one fierce-looking soldier picked me up. He was about to throw me over the fence when another soldier saved the situation. The Good Samaritan soldier identified with my fervent interest and asked if I would want to be a soldier, my answer was affirmative. He scribbled on a paper and told me to write an application and

forward it to the address if I wanted to become a soldier.

The Enugu contact with soldiering became a turning point in my life. I could no longer contain my interest.

So on returning to school at Saint Patrick’s College in Asaba town, I immediately applied for enlistment into the then Royal Nigerian Army. I however got a disappointing reply when they advised that since I was already in class three, I should wait until I finished my secondary school education and obtain the West African Examination School Certificate. It was only then I could qualify to apply for consideration to become an officer in the Army.

I considered the letter a disappointment because I did not understand why I should not be enlisted into the Army there and then even with my partial secondary school education. In fact, my disappointment was compounded by my ignorance of what entering the army as an officer meant.

But my interest in soldiering was again rekindled when in my final year in secondary school, the Army had in reaction to my earlier application remembered to send me the form for the entrance examination into the Army.

The Examination I studied hard and sat for the examination, which held in Ibadan township.

The fun of the examination was in the general paper in which we were asked to arrange in ascending order of seniority a mixed grill of badges of ranks of the Army. I can still remember my answers on that fateful day. My arrangement in ascending order of seniority began with the rank of a majorgeneral; followed by a major, sergeantmajor, colonel, lieutenant-colonel and capping the order with the rank of a captain which I surely knew was the nomenclature for leaders and heads of any sports or outfits in a secondary school. I am sure I only passed that examination because of my very strong background in mathematics and other sciences on which we were also tested.

The military added to their feather when I was lodged and fed at the ex-

amination centre in Ibadan free of charge and then given the sum of fifteen shillings (which was then the equivalent of two United States dollars) for my transportation. However, destiny has a way of turning a disappointment into a blessing if only one is patient. This was also the case with the Nigeria Police that picked me up right from school and camped me at Ikeja Police College Lagos for sports.

Consequently, by the time the Army entrance examination result in which I was successful was redirected to me from Saint Patrick’s College in Asaba to Southern Police College in Ikeja, Lagos, the interview and final selection into the Army had been concluded.

As providence would have it, the then Colonel (Dr.) Austin Peters noticed me during the sports meet at the Surulere sports ground where at my tender age and size, I excelled in the 880 yards (800m) and one-mile races when I competed for the Nigeria Police Force. The Colonel invited me and queried what I was doing in the Police instead of the Army that would offer me better career prospects. When I told him how I got my result late, he immediately gave me a note to one Captain Ebo at the Army Headquarters along Marina, Lagos that was then the Capital city of Nigeria. Thus, Captain Ebo took my particulars during my visit.

With the intervention of Colonel Austin Peters who was the Director of Nigeria Army Medical Services, I got to know later, I was invited for the next Army Selection Board for Course No. 8 of the Nigeria Military Training College (NMTC) in the city of Kaduna.

The interview and selection took place at Kaduna in August 1963 and lasted for one week. To the glory of God, my dream came true as I was finally selected.

The Nigeria Military Training College (NMTC), Kaduna No. 8 Course was to have started in September 1963.

The initial training was to have been for four months in NMTC Kaduna after which the successful cadets were to proceed to various foreign military institutions for the detailed officers’ course and commissioning. For instance, I could have been admitted into Course No. 7 if my result in the 1962 entrance examination had not come to me after the interview had ended.

TOMORROW....

OGBEBOR writes on his admission into NDA, The Nigerian Armed Forces, Repositioning For A New Status, Nigerian Adoption of the Indian Experiment among other must-read revelations.

48 — Vanguard, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2012

Vanguard, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2012 — 49

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Reconciliation of Name

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This is to certify that the name(s) Ogechukwu Ndidi Madubuike, Linda Ogechukwu M a d u b u i k e , Ogechukwu Gift Madubuike, Sylvia O g e c h u k w u Madubuike refer to one and the same person, that I now wish to be known and addressed as Mrs. Ihemegbulam Sylvia Ogechukwu. All former documents remain valid. General public please take note.

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Confirmation of Name My Wife’s former name is Matilda Adepeju Ajayi and the new name is Matilda Adepeju Alagbada, while my colleague’s former name is Yewande Oyinkansola Okunfulure and her new name is Yewande Oyinkansola Ajilore.

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2015: Obielum seeks guber concession to Delta North

P

EOPLES Democratic Party, PDP chieftain from Delta State, Chief Godswil Obielum has urged the Delta South and Central Senatorial districts in the state to concede the 2015 governorship slot to Delta North without any strings attached.

Speaking while receiving a delegation of Anioma Agenda during a courtesy call, the PDP chieftain said if left alone, the top contenders for the PDP ticket would decide on the ticket without rancour. The Anioma Agenda delegation led by its chairman, Barrister Alex Onwuaduamu, said the group was committed towards the emergence of an indigene of Delta North as the next governor of the state based on equity, fairness and justice on the fact that the zone is the only one of the three senatorial zones in the state yet to produce a governor for the state.

While commending Anioma Agenda for its efforts in mobilizing the people, Obielum urged the group to concentrate its efforts in the Delta Central and South senatorial districts saying that he would on his part sustain the cordiality with the other leading gubernatorial aspirants from the zone.

Group seeks shadow govt in Nigeria

A

NEW pressure group, Movement for Fundamental Change (MFC) has emerged to checkmate poor governance in the country. The movement, being proposed to operate like a UK-model shadow government will develop and promote patriotic policy positions on major public issues, cutting across all sectors, and use all democratic means to compel government to comply with its positions.

In a keynote address delivered at the inaugural meeting of the group held in Lagos, one of the conveners, Engr. Martin Onovo, noted that the situation in Nigeria called for serious concern of all compatriots as the country was on the brink of dysfunctionality.

Onovo listed dysfunctionalities in the governance to include the rating of the country as the second most corrupt in the whole world, having the lowest 'public power capacity per capita’ worldwide, the only OPEC member importing refined petroleum products, has the highest infant and maternal mortality’ rate worldwide.

50—Vanguard , MONDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2012

Presidency wades into unpaid subsidy palaver

BY YEMIE ADEOYE

T

HERE are indications that the Presidency may have decided to wade into the controversy surrounding the Petroleum Subsidy Fund, PSF, overseen by the Ministry of Finance in the wake of allegations of massive fraud which bedeviled the scheme.

The move is informed by the possibility of petroleum products scarcity of immense magnitude in the Yuletide, if monies owed Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, and private oil marketers are not paid.

NNPC, at the moment, has almost become the sole importer of products, against previous arrangements where private marketers were responsible for 90 percent of products distribution nationwide.

Jonathan's dilemma Vanguard

reliably

gathered that the President was caught between ensuring that due process was followed, no matter how long it took, and seeing Nigerians suffer scarcity during the holidays or civil unrest as queues resurfaced in fuel stations across major cities in the country.

A presidency source, who spoke to Vanguard on condition of anonymity, explained that President Jonathan was also in support of a hard-line stance against marketers, who might have defrauded the system under the PSF scheme.

The source said the Ministry of Finance might be directed anytime soon to ensure a speedy payment process to all marketers, who still have legitimate subsidy claims and have not been indicted by the Aig Imokhuede Committee.

According to the source, “the seeming face-off between two ministries over unpaid claims is unnecessary as

zPay within one week or...— Marketers zLegitimate claims' payment ongoing— Okonjo-Iweala z32 days' fuel product available— NNPC they are all working for the interest of the government.

“I think in the end what takes precedence to Mr. President is the comfort of all Nigerians, especially at this Yuletide period and going forward.”

Marketers speak

When contacted, Secretary-General of the Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria, MOMAN, Mr. Obafemi Olawore, said: “If the Ministry of Finance was waiting for the Imoukhuede Committee report and it has been submitted, then those not indicted should be paid immediately, and NNPC should also make it clear that they alone cannot service the entire

country.

“If they pay NNPC and the remaining marketers are not paid, there would still be queues so the Presidency should simply ensure that the finance ministry pays everyone that has a legitimate claim to make.

“There have been no importation due to the huge debts owed oil marketers and the NNPC had been saddled with the task of over 85 percent of total importation, while 15 percent goes to marketers.

“It is, however, important to note that there has been instances where marketers have been responsible for 60 percent of imported products and the NNPC had 40 percent and now it is 85 to 15 percent.”

Mr. Olawore stated further that it was important for the debt of about N120 to N140 billion to be paid this week if the government was serious about ensuring a scarcity-free yuletide for all Nigerians.

According to him, it won’t take less than two weeks to land a vessel in the country, hence if payments were made to marketers this week, they could make their order and products will be arriving the country from the second week of December when the holiday season would be at its peak.

He noted further that the problems of the marketers had been the interest rates from the banks, which he puts at

22 percent and which according to him, is “killing the marketers” as the banks were no longer lending, in view of the huge debt which government was not settling.

Okonjo-Iweala

In a swift response, however, the Co-coordinating Minister for the Economy and Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo Iweala, stated that payments of all marketers legitimately owed was currently ongoing.

She added that the Ministry was not unaware that the Yuletide season needed to be taken care of and would do all it could to ensure that Nigerians didn’t face any hardship as a result

Continues on Page 10

Vanguard, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2012 —

This is the concluding part of the contribution of Dr. Olusegun Agagu, former governor of Ondo State to the National Assembly committee on Review of the 1999 Constitution. The first part was published last Friday.

EBULOUS yardsticks such as school enrolment, terrain, number of hospital beds and developmental efforts should be jettisoned as they constitute avenues for fraud and corruption. Having received its fair share, every state will then be able to conduct its own affairs the way her people want. They can create as many Local Government Council Areas as they like and recommend remunerations for their staff as they deem fit. We will then be able to redress situations such as where Lagos State with a population of about 15million people and contributing substantially to the Federation Account will have 20 local government areas while states like Osun with a population of 2.6 million people have 30 local government areas orKatsina with a population of 4.4 million people having 34 local government areas.

Funding of local governments: The funding of the 774 local governments in the country has generated considerable acrimony especially since the onset of the present democratic dispensation.

Accusations, denials and investigations on the diversion of local government funds by state governors have been rife in the polity. A clear provision should, therefore, be made in the ongoing constitutional review to clearly redress the matter.

Our recommendation is that the constitution should clearly state that a specific percentage of the

51

N

total of a state allocation from the federation account, to include statutory derivation, VAT, etc. should be allocated to local governments in the state by a State/Local Government Accounts Committee. To ensure that grassroot development is well funded nationwide, we recommend a 60/40 sharing ratio between the state government and the local government administration. Only clear indices such as landmass, population and derivation should be used here.

Political reforms for good governance, justice and peace (2) Derivation and fiscal federalism: The debate on the quantum of revenue from natural resources that should be retained by states in which they occur (derivation) has perhaps occupied more space in our political discourse than any other issue.

Control of natural resources Arguments have raged from those that advocate that states should totally control revenue that is derived from natural resources in their territory and pay only a small percentage to the Federal Government to those who want substantial federal control and relatively even sharing.

As has been the situation in other constitutional review exercises, the issue of derivation is expected to generate a lot of heat during the current exercise. One expects, however, that good counsel will prevail and a give and take attitude will be adopted by decision takers to ensure equity, unity, peace and reasonable consensus in the nation. It is our view that a number of issues should be highlighted in our search for consensus on this sensitive matter. These include: (a) Percentage for derivation: The high percentage (50 per cent and more) allocated to derivation under the regional constitutions were workable then as the relatively large sizes of the regions evened out the distribution of valuable resources such that no region was grossly disadvantaged. To insist on such high percentages now that we have 36 states will clearly create a “few oasis within a large body

of deserts�. This certainly will not engender a harmonious relationship among the states nor a peaceful co-existence among our people. A contrary view that preaches a low percentage for derivation will also encourage violent agitation and the accompanying disruption in production and revenue loss.

Between these two extremes, a reasonable balance can be negotiated. (b) Consideration for oil producing local governments: The progressive increase in the percentages allocated for derivation (from 1 per cent to 13 per cent) that we have seen over the last three decades can be justified, on the basis of equity and the need to remediate the degradation that mining and other production activities impact on the environment and social life of the production areas.

Development of actual producing areas It is, however, unfortunate that many states that earn huge sums from derivation direct very little of the derivation funds towards the development of the actual producing areas. Such lack of sensitivity must be addressed in the constitution to ensure that a substantial part of the derivation funds are utilised to develop the actual natural resource producing areas. (c) Community profit sharing with operators: The proposition in the Draft Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) that makes for the contribution of five per cent of the profit made by operators from the exploration and production of oil and gas into a Community Development Fund for the development of the host communities is a welcome development. This is clearly different from derivation funds

which are managed by the state Governments. It must be made clear to all that oil producing communities are the actual localities where production takes place. The people there will naturally have ownership sentiments and a sense of deprivation if such provisions are not made. The principle of community profit sharing with operators in our production areas should be extended to other sectors as it will go a long way in promoting peace, community collaboration, enhanced production and revenue inflow for the nation. (d) Onshore/offshore dichotomy: Based on pronouncements being made from the two sides of the divide on this issue, it appears that the

,

DR. OLUSEGUN AGAGU

Contending with oil and gas pollution in the Niger Delta region...derivation should be properly entrenched in the constitution

metre isobath is a reasonable limit beyond which offshore exploration and production activities will not impact negatively on coastal communities. We cannot, in right conscience, expect our coastal communities to continue to watch the degradation of their immediate environment and annihilation of coastal fishing by oil pollution without asking for compensation. For the sake of equity, justice and peace, the principle of extending the limit for derivation for littoral states to the 200 metre isobath should this time be properly entrenched in the constitution once and for all.

Conclusion: It is our prayer that the present effort by the National Assembly at amending our constitution succeeds in

For the sake of equity, justice and peace, the principle of extending the limit for derivation for littoral states to the 200 metre isobath should this time be properly entrenched in the constitution once and for all

controversy on the onshore/ offshore dichotomy in oil revenue sharing has not been laid to rest.

Indeed, the on-going debate on the impending constitutional review appears to have further fuelled the controversy. As the littoral, oil producing states are drumming up their clamour for higher percentages for derivation; the non-oil producing states appear to have found new vigour in insisting that the provision in the 1999 constitution on onshore/offshore dichotomy be implemented to the letter.

Our plea is that the controversy should be modulated since the political solution of 2004 was endorsed by all the states and the Federal Government. The consensus reached on the 200

,

making our polity more harmonious and efficiently run.

We urge our Senate and our House of Representative leaders to consider the exercise as fundamental and sine qua non for the return of our nation to the path of peace and progress. We plead that our State Governors and State Assemblies should work closely with the National Assembly in making the exercise incisive, thorough, rancour free and conclusive within the life of the present National Assembly.

What the rest of us should do is contribute ideas that can enrich the present exercise and allow our legislators, who have the constitutional duty of amending our constitution, to do their job without let or hindrance.

52 — Vanguard, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2012

Team Rivers targets 160 gold medals at Eko festival

D

EFENDING champions of the National Sports Festival, Team Rivers have been charged to further raise the bar in terms of the most gold medals won in the history of the Games.

Team Rivers set a record at the 17th National Sports Festival hosted by Rivers state with a total haul of 135 gold medals.

However, the chairman of Team Rivers Participation Committee at the 18th National Sports Festival, tagged Eko 2012, Engr Tele Ikuru has charged the state’s contingent to win a minimum of 160 gold medals and further cement her place in the history of the games.

Tele Ikuru, who is also the Deputy Governor of

Rivers, gave the charge while addressing the athletes that will represent the state at their University of Port Harcourt camp on the eve of their departure for Lagos.

He said his optimism of targeting a record 160 gold medals is hinged on how the state has prepared well for the games and the quality of talents available in the team.

THE BIG RELAY: A Lagos State athlete with the Torch of Eko 2012 sports festival in Lagos, Saturday. Chairman of the LOC and Deputy Gov Adejoke Orelope-Adefulire(3rd from left), Lagos State Commissioner for Sports Enitan Oshodi and Secretary of the LOC, Kweku Tandoh(ist from left) were part of the relay.

C-River eyes 14 gold medals at Eko 2012

By JOHNBOSCO

AGBAKWURU, Calabar

CROSS River State Government has predicted that the state athletes to the National Sports Festival that begins in Lagos tomorrow will win at least 14 gold medals.

The Commissioner for Sports and Youths Development, Mr. Patrick Ugbe expressed optimism at the weekend while briefing journalists in Calabar. He said that the state expects the athletes to double the state’s

achievements from their last outing in Rivers State.

Ugbe said, “We believe that we can improve on our performance in the last sport festival that was held in Port Harcourt, Rivers State. Then, we had seven gold medals and this year we believe we would do much better than that.

“We expect a hundred per cent improvement in our performances at the games which means a minimum of 14 gold medals, but I think we can do better than 14 gold medals.

Danny Jordan commends Lagos

BY MMACHU ILECHUKWU

T

HE chief executive officer of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, Dr Danny Jordaan, has commended Lagos State over preparations put in place for the 18thNational Sports Festival, Eko 2012. festival.

Speaking at the Eko 2012 international sports seminar with the theme,

“National sports festival: A driver for social, economic and national development” last week he said; “the seminar is wonderfulbut Nigeria should start preparing for the big events”.

Jordan who flew into Nigeria on the morning of the seminar told his audience that Nigeria was ripe for big time events as the country boasts a vibrant economy second to none on the continent.

Odeyemi clinches NNPC Junior title

A

YOBAMI Odeyemi from Abeokuta Sports Club yesterday upset the No.1 seed, M o h a m m e d Mohammed, from Abuja to win the boys 16 singles title of the NNPC Junior Circuit Championships which ended yesterday in Lagos.

Odeyemi, the third seed, saved a total of 11

break points on his serves in the pro set match which ended 9-7.

Mohammed who was tipped to win the tournament kost his serve to trail 2-4 but turned on the heat down 4-8, saving two match pointsin the final game but the Abeokuta boy managed to hang on to win.

Vanguard, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2012—53

I

N the next two weeks Lagos, host of the first and second National Sports Festivals in 1973 and 1975, will be the focus of Nigeria’s sports attention as all the states of the federation and Abuja run, jump, kick lift, swim and throw all in search of glory for their states. The founding fathers of the National Sports Festival will also tell you that the festival was meant to engender unity among the youths of the country and in the true spirit of the Olympics with “…glory in participation” as the driving principle.

Immediately after the second All Africa Games, the National Sports Commission sent a three man committee to West Germany to study their principle of mass participation in sports and they came back to recommend a biennial sports festival in Nigeria founded on the German model.

The festival was to be amateur in nature, mass participation in concept and discovery of talents as the ultimate.

They also recommended the promotion of unity and friendship among the youths throughout the country.

A million Naira for festival gold

Intermediate and senior categories It will be recalled that when the festival kicked off in 1973, competitions were held in the junior, intermediate and senior categories. There was no problem with this until Kwara 1985 when the craze for gold and ephemeral glory eroded the original aims of the festival leading to mass cheatings and falsification of age and medical documents.

Then came an era of poaching of athletes, where potential gold medalists sold their skills and prowess to the highest bidder. It was therefore common to see states without rivers and pools winning swimming medals! Till date, the National Sports Festival has not recovered from the canker worm of “superiority” where emphasis is placed on the medals table rather than on the discovery of talent. The craze and fight for positions which leads to accusations and acrimony has also led to the relegation of friendship and unity that is meant to rule the games.

Perhaps the only legacy that the festival is still propagating is the provision of infrastructure, one that host states benefit from. More recently, Kaduna, and Port Harcourt can boast the best sports infrastructure, one that may not have been possible without them hosting the festival. Ordinarily this development is also expected to extend to the provision of roads, upgrading of hotels, communication facilities, beefing up of security and other social amenities.

This is where Governor Godswill Akpa-

bio of Akwa ibom State took off from, when he sent off the state athletes to Lagos, Friday night at the ultra modern banquet hall in Uyo. The apostle of “Uncommon Transformation” said he was not going to wait till he hosts the festival to provide the state with the state of the art sports facilities.

He pointed at the President Goodluck Jonathan foundation laid Olympic size stadium under construction in Uyo and went ahead to invite the country to its opening in 2013.

Most importantly the governor told the state contingent that gold in Lagos should be a means to an end, “….try me and see.

Win gold in Lagos and benefit from sponsorship to the best sporting programmes and training facilities anywhere in the world. You and this state will be the ones to bail this country out from the present sports doldrums.”

The governor spoke about the billions of dollars that can be gotten from the sports industry and wished he was a successful sportsman rather than a governor ( those present were willing to switch positions with him ….) On a serious note he told them to go to Lagos and win medals and then come back and tell him what they want to become. “ …Let your success in Lagos be a passport to future greatness.

Remember that you come from a state that has been acknowledged for its uncommon transformation and sports cannot be different. “ You must remember that he who wakes up in the morning to find himself a success was not sleeping. It is only in the dictionary that “work” comes before “success”. You must go to Lagos and be true ambassadors of your state by imbibing the culture of discipline and dedication. You must stay focused and concentrated, knowing quite well that victory comes in a split second. “ Don’t dope. If by chance you find yourself lying second, forge on, you may get to your hotel room to discover that the athlete ahead of you was on dope and you have been elevated to a gold medal position….” He rewarded the gold medalists in the 2011 festival in Port Harcourt with a million naira each and said though he congratulated them for coming out 8th overall, he was expecting something better from Lagos.

Chioma Ajunwa Junior dedicated for gold

F

RIENDS, well wishers, colleagues, kith and kin were all praise to God as Olympic Gold medalist Chioma Ajunwa dedicated her set of triplets yesterday at the Four Square Gospel Church, Mende Maryland.

The highlight of the service was of course the dedication of the kids especially when it came to the girl, Ruth, Chioma Junior.

The officiating minister saw another Olympic gold in the making, 15 0r fewer years from now.

For Joshua, Caleb and Ruth he prophe-

sied divine protection and guidance, now that they have been handed over to God. Chioma Ajunwa in her testimony gave glory to God for visiting her when she had lost hope. That after eight years of marriage, she was at the point of resigning to fate when God appeared and gave her cause for everlasting joy.

After much dancing and songs of praise, the Police band took the stage and entertained guests present with sweet melodies of praise.

See you during the festival C M Y K

54 — Vanguard, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2012

55 — Vanguard, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2012

We’ll blow your mind Continues from B/P for the world to view the tourism potentials of Lagos.

Aside the calisthenics

Chelsea Continues from B/P The mediocre affair did little to lift spirits, with City marginally the better side but unable to fashion the victory that would have taken them back above Manchester United at the top of the table.

Benitez was left with plenty to ponder after the frosty response from his own fans, who directed abusive chants at him during the game and also delivered a minute’s applause for Di Matteo after 16 minutes, in honour of the Italian who wore the number 16 shirt as a player.

And there was no instant revival for Fernando Torres as he struggled once more - although Benitez will be pleased with a clean sheet.

display, the opening ceremony will witness the carnival like nature of the state.

Foremost musicians will also be part of the ceremony, which will commence at 5pm on Tuesday.

According to the LOC Secretary General, Kweku Tandoh, Nigerians should not miss the ceremony, as the best of the state will be on display with the gate opening at 3pm with preopening ceremony activities.

Tandoh, however, urged motorists to park their vehicles at the National Stadium without any fee.

“I think the opening ceremony is what we want Nigerians not to miss because it is only when they witness it that they can assess it. The pre-activities before the proper opening ceremony will start at 3pm when the gate will be opened, while the main event will commence few minutes after 5pm. So nobody should miss it,” the LOC scribe said.

BY MMACHI ILECHUKWU

T

HE United States Mission has urged Nigerian girls to embrace sports which they said was a great unifying factor that could expose them to other skills that could be beneficial to them.

The public diplomacy officer for the United States Consulate Gener-

Continues from B/P Mrs Roli Udughan, hit the mega city in a convoy of buses and headed straight for the Headquarters of TREM in Gbadaga, to receive special prayers from Dr. Mike Okonkwo.

Looking splendid in their uniform ankara native wear, the team exuded confidence of a great hunting ground for gold medals when push comes to shove at the festival.

Parading a rich array of talented athletes, who have received the highest level of coaching and exposure, the athletes looked relaxed ahead of the start of hostilities.

They seemed confident of emerging top of the

Sports teaches you to be a winner – Watson al Lagos, Rhonda Watson threw this challenge to Nigerian kids at a football project tagged “Kick like a Girl” at Saint Gregory’s college Obalende Tuesday.

She said the mission was interested in empow-

ering girls to take to sports. “The US mission wants to use this as a global initiative to empower young girls knowing that sports is a unifying factor. It will help discipline the girls and open their eyes to skills they never

Team Delta arrives medals table come the day of the closing ceremony on December 10 at the Teslim Balagun Stadium. Also on hand to receive the team was the Managing Director of Zenith Bank, Mr. Godwin Emefiele.

Chairman of the Delta State Sports Commission, Pinnick Amaju, who traveled with the athletes in their Toyota Hiace buses from Delta State, said that they were in Lagos to reclaim their birthright at the National Sports Festival.

Amaju said that having exposed the athletes to top-notch training, that he was confident that Team Delta was going to beat all others to the top of the medals state.

“We are in Lagos to reclaim our first position on the medals table of the National Sports Festival.

We want to win the trophy, we have worked hard, trained hard and been able to imbibe the set principles of discipline, hard work and being very prayerful and if we have to stay with the abiding principles, I believe that we can win the festival”, said Amaju.

On what informed the visit to TREM, Amaju said that “we cannot do anything without God and I feel that what God has a hand in what you doing that you would always come out victorious. I believe that if you put everything before God, you always come out clean”.

knew they had” Watson told reporters.

In her own words; “sports will make you challenge yourselves and teach you how to be a winner” According to the organizers, the “Kick like a Girl” project is an attempt at breaking stereotypes that girls are bad at sports, it seeks to create an awareness that girls are as good as boys when it comes to sports.

Guardiola Continues from B/P and the way the club is run appeals to Pep. “Right now I’d be astonished if he went to Chelsea. He really wants to wait for the United job even if it means extending his time out of the game.”

Guardiola wants to be able to concentrate on all aspects of the football club without interference from above.

Red Rom’s constant hiring and firing of managers — interim chief Rafa Benitez is his ninth boss in a decade — does not appeal.

VANGUARD, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2012

Guardiola snubs Chelsea, prefers Man Utd

P

Eko Sports Festival:

EP GUARDIOLA is ready to snub Chelsea because he wants to boss Manchester United.

Blues owner Roman Abramovich is hoping the former Barcelona chief will take over at Stamford Bridge next summer.

But Guardiola, who is on a year’s sabbatical in

•Guardiola

We’ll blow your mind — Organisers boast

Chelsea fans jeer Benitez •Chelsea 0 Man City 0

T

HE Local Organising Committee (LOC) of the 18 th National Sports Festival tagged Eko 2012 is planning a colourful and memorable opening ceremony tomorrow at the Teslim Balogun Stadium.

The ceremony will also be a replica of what happened at the London 2012 and it is a celebration showcasing the best of the Lagos.

It also features a parade of all competing states and the highly anticipated entrance of the unity torch.

The eyes of the world will be on Lagos for the opening ceremony of the Eko 2012.

The ceremony will provide an opportunity

Continues on Page 55

TODAY'S

New York, fancies moving in at Old Trafford when Alex Ferguson retires.

That could be at the end of this season.

If not, Guardiola would be prepared to hold out for another year.

Fergie and Guardiola are close friends and have met privately in New York.

A source close to Guardiola said: “The whole history of Manchester United, his relationship with Sir Alex Continues on Page 55

R

DELTA FOR SHOW.......First Lady of Delta State, Mrs Roli Uduaghan (4th from left), flanked by Managing Director , Zenith Bank, Mr. Godwin Emefiele and Amaju Pinnick, Chairman, DeltaState Sports Commission, with some Team Delta athletes, yesterday on arrival at the TREM headquarters in Gbagada. Photo By Diran Oshe

AFAEL Benitez suffered a fiercely hostile reception from Chelsea’s supporters as his managerial reign opened with a goalless draw against Premier League champions Manchester City at Stamford Bridge.

Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich appointed the former Liverpool manager on an interim basis after sacking Roberto Di Matteo only six months after winning the Champions League

Team Delta arrives, vows to reclaim top spot

BY JOHN EGBOKHAN

T

HE most decorated team in the last two decades of the National

PUZZLE

Sports Festival, Team Delta, yesterday arrived Lagos in style for the 18th National Sports Festival, with a vow to reclaim the YESTERDAY'S

ANSWERS

title they lost to Team Rivers at the last edition of the nation’s foremost multi-sports competition.

With the festival

ACROSS 1 Fragrance (5) 5 Tumult (6) 8 Solitary (5) 10 Joker (6) 11 Existence (4) 14 Verified (6) 15 Always (7) 18 Before (3) 19 Edge (3) 21 Covet (4) 23 Prise (5) 24 Plot (4) 27 Barrier (3) 31 Readable (7) 32 Bomb-hole (4) 35 Pilfer (6) 38 Faint (5) 39 Seemly (6) 40 Trivial (5)

effectively getting into full swing tomorrow, Team Delta, led by the First Lady of the State, Continues on Page 55

and FA Cup. Benitez’s arrival has met with an angry response Chelsea fans in the wake of his old rivalry with them during his time at Anfield - and they made their strength of feeling abundantly clear.

The Spaniard was met with deafening jeers when he arrived in the technical area before kick-off, with the stadium announcer struggling to make himself heard ahead of a minute’s applause for former Chelsea manager Dave Sexton, who has passed away.

Continues on Page 55

•Team Rivers targets 160 gold •C/River eyes 14 gold — Pg 52

DOWN 2 Cereal (3) 3 Entangled (6) 4 Beer (3) 5 Aid (4) 6 Earlier (6) 7 Valiantly (6) 9 Commanded (7) 12 Anger (3) 13 Level (4) 16 Gem (4) 17 Emulate (5) 20 Souvenir (7) 22 Mask (4) 24 Selected (6) 25 Distant (4) 26 Observe (6) 28 Predict (6) 30 Favourite (3) 33 Remainder (4) 36 Skip (3) 37 Tank (3)

YESTERDAY'S SOLUTIONS ACROSS: 1, Number 5, Boat 8, Lower 9, Art 10, Tool 11, Late 12, Pupil 13, Lulled 16, Melt 18, Void 19, Ate 22, Pie 23, Ebb 24, Apex 25, Reel 28, Rudder 30, First 32, Grab 33, Song 34, Era 35, Miser 36, Diet 37, Edited.

How to Play Sudoku

THE VIGILANTE

DOWN: 1, Nearly 2, Mutilate 3, Esteem 4, Volunteer 5, Believe 6, Oral 7, Tier 8, Lop 14, Depressed 15, Nib 17, Lie 19, Obedient 20, Ape 21, Exhibit 26, Lunged 27, Errand 29, Aged 30, Fame 31, Tor.

e-mail: rowolove@yahoo.co.uk

Place a number (1-9) in each blank cell. (No line can have two of the same number).

Each row (nine lines from left to right), column, (also nine lines from top to bottom) and 3 X 3 block within a bold block (nine blocks) contains number from 1 through 9. This means that no number can appear twice in any block, column or row.

No mathematics is involved – no adding, subtraction, division or multiplication, just plain logic and your imagination.

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