31 Bayelsa chiefs in Police net over clashes —Towards a better life for the people ! ! ! MONDAY, MARCH 19, 2007, VOL. 23: NO. 60285— N100.00 WEBSITE: www.vanguardngr.com " " "DETAILS ON PAGES 42-44 MR & MRS Continues on Page 15 I'm ready to resume now —DARIYE Continues on Page 15 —PAGE 17 LES LEBA O. NNANNA —PAGE 17 NAFDAC's hydra-headed enemies 26 Days to Elections: Be prepared to defend your vote! PDP RALL Y IN W ARRI: Governor Umaru Yar'Adua, PDP presidential candidate(left) and Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan, PDP gubernatorial candidate in Delta at the presidential rally in Warri, weekend. "Says he is no longer hiding Continues on Page 15 CONFERENCE HALL Nkrumah's vision or fantasy? EFCC and constitutional implication of indictment " " "Akande I believe in EFCC because it started right, it was compilling names, sending petitions and if they now find any evidence against anybody, I think they should take it to the appropriate quarters " " " Adegbulu Graft: FG to clampdown on banks T HE Managing Directors of twenty five banks in the country have signed an undertaking, pledging to curb corruption in the country. The Managing Directors pledge followed a memo sent By Omoh Gabriel, Business Editor out by the Cen- tral Bank of Ni- geria to all Managing Di- rectors asking ernment plans to clamp down on banks managing directors who indulge in unprofession- al habit of using their banks to propel corruption in the country. As a result, the 25 banks managing directors were made to sign undertaking in them to sign an undertaking that they would stem corrup- tion in their banks. A source in the presidency told me that the federal gov- How I spent PTDF money, by Obasanjo A BUJA—PRESIDENT Olusegun Obasanjo, Friday, replied the Senate over its committee report on the fi- nancial activities of the Petro- leum Technology Develop- ment Fund (PTDF), describ- ing part of the report as con- taining false allegations against him. The president’s reply was contained in a letter person- By Rotimi Ajayi " Defends N250m legal fee Continues on Page 15 Y ENAGOA— THIRTY- ONE traditional chiefs in Liama and Egweama com- munities of the Brass local government area of Bayelsa State were arrested on Friday for failing to resolve violent clashes between the people. The two communities had been fighting since February 23, following a violent clash that claimed 11 lives. The chiefs had promised to call the youths to order when the state deputy governor Peremobowei Ebebi visited the area after the initial clash. The police arrested the chiefs following their inability to call the J OS— RIDING on the crest of his recent victo- ry at the Court of Appeal which annulled his impeach- ment as governor of Plateau State, Chief Joshua Dariye said, weekend, that he was set to resume office. In a state- ment, weekend, he said he would resume as soon as nec- essary security arrangements were concluded. Dariye explained that his By Taye Obateru low profile posture which some had interpreted as hid- ing “was a deliberate posture to douse tension and encour- age peaceful resolution of the saga.” According to the statement signed by his Chief of Staff, Mr. Alexander Molwus, Dariye habours no malice against anyone over his tra- vails and has promised to car- ry everyone along towards a C MYB A-PDF Merger DEMO : Purchase from www.A-PDF.com to remove the watermark
Transcript
31 Bayelsa chiefs inPolice net over clashes
—Towards a better life for the people !!!!! MONDAY, MARCH 19, 2007, VOL. 23: NO. 60285— N100.00WEBSITE: www.vanguardngr.com
"""""DETAILS ONPAGES 42-44
MR & MRSContinues on Page 15
I'm ready to resumenow —DARIYE
Continues on Page 15
—PAGE 17
LES LEBA
O. NNANNA
—PAGE 17
NAFDAC'shydra-headed
enemies
26 Days to Elections: Be prepared to defend your vote!
PDP RALLY IN WARRI: Governor Umaru Yar'Adua, PDP presidential candidate(left) andDr. Emmanuel Uduaghan, PDP gubernatorial candidate in Delta at the presidential rally inWarri, weekend.
"Says he is no longer hiding
Continues on Page 15
CONFERENCEHALL
Nkrumah'svision or fantasy?
EFCC andconstitutionalimplication of
indictment
"""""Akande
I believe inEFCC because itstarted right, itwas compillingnames, sendingpetitions and if
they now find anyevidence againstanybody, I think
they should take itto the appropriate
quarters
"""""Adegbulu
Graft: FG to clampdown on banks
THE Managing Directorsof twenty five banks in
the country have signed anundertaking, pledging to curbcorruption in the country.
The Managing Directorspledge followed a memo sent
By Omoh Gabriel,Business Editor
out by the Cen-tral Bank of Ni-geria to allManaging Di-rectors asking
ernment plans to clamp downon banks managing directorswho indulge in unprofession-al habit of using their banksto propel corruption in thecountry.
As a result, the 25 banksmanaging directors weremade to sign undertaking in
them to sign an undertakingthat they would stem corrup-tion in their banks.
A source in the presidencytold me that the federal gov-
How I spentPTDF money,by Obasanjo
ABUJA—PRESIDENTOlusegun Obasanjo,
Friday, replied the Senate overits committee report on the fi-nancial activities of the Petro-leum Technology Develop-ment Fund (PTDF), describ-ing part of the report as con-taining false allegationsagainst him.
The president’s reply wascontained in a letter person-
By Rotimi Ajayi
"Defends N250m legal fee
Continues on Page 15
YENAGOA— THIRTY-ONE traditional chiefs
in Liama and Egweama com-munities of the Brass localgovernment area of BayelsaState were arrested on Friday
for failing to resolve violentclashes between the people.The two communities hadbeen fighting since February23, following a violent clashthat claimed 11 lives.
The chiefs had promised tocall the youths to order whenthe state deputy governorPeremobowei Ebebi visitedthe area after the initial clash.
The police arrested the chiefsfollowing their inability to call the
JOS— RIDING on thecrest of his recent victo-
ry at the Court of Appealwhich annulled his impeach-ment as governor of PlateauState, Chief Joshua Dariyesaid, weekend, that he was setto resume office. In a state-ment, weekend, he said hewould resume as soon as nec-essary security arrangementswere concluded.
Dariye explained that his
By Taye Obateru low profile posture whichsome had interpreted as hid-ing “was a deliberate postureto douse tension and encour-age peaceful resolution of thesaga.”
According to the statementsigned by his Chief of Staff,Mr. Alexander Molwus,Dariye habours no maliceagainst anyone over his tra-vails and has promised to car-ry everyone along towards a
C M
YB
A-PDF Merger DEMO : Purchase from www.A-PDF.com to remove the watermark
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NATIONAL NEWSREEL
VISIT—From left: Danjuma Ocholi, Executive Director, First Inland Bank Plc., withAkan Okon, Divisional Head, Investment Banking and Jean Louis Ekra, President, Afri-can Export-Import Bank during a courtesy visit by First Inland Bank Plc. to the Presidentof the Afri-Exim Bank in Abuja recently.
Ndoma-Egba speaks on PTDF,CRS politics
NCMM identifies 50 tourismsites, monuments in Bauchi
BAUCHI—THE NationalCommission for Muse-
ums and Monuments(NCMM), has identified 50tourism sites and historicalmonuments for re-develop-ment in Bauchi State.
The Bauchi State Commis-sioner for Tourism and Cul-ture, Alhaji Muhammad Ya-haya, said this in Bauchi onThursday, at the opening ofthe 27th meeting of chief ex-ecutives of culture organisa-tions in the federation.
Yahaya said that the siteswere identified through acombined inventory study ofimmovable cultural heritage,jointly carried out by expertsfrom within and outside thecountry.
He listed the sites to includethe Babangwoni of KafinMadawaki, the Shadawankaand Geji rock paintings whichhad also been declared na-tional monuments.
Other tourism sites identi-fied in the state included theYankari Game Reserve, Shirarock paintings, Lame/BurraGame Reserve, tomb of thefirst Nigerian prime minister,Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa,as well as the Bauchi muse-um.
He said that the sites alsoincluded first tin-mining bea-con at Tildun Fulani, Pansha-nu stone heaps, Maladumbaand Diya lakes for fishing fes-tival in the Misau and Dan-bam local government areas.
Yahaya said that apart fromthe transformation of the Yan-
kari Game Reserve, the stategovernment had created theSumo Wild Park as part of ef-forts to boost tourism in thestate.
He noted that the Sumo Parknow harboured over 300 spe-cies of wild life, donated tothe state government by theNamibian government.
He said that when the parkis fully developed, it would bea good substitute to the Yan-kari Game Reserve because ofits proximity to Bauchi, thestate capital.
In his remarks, the Directorof the National Council forArts and Culture, Mr. M.Maidugu, commended theFederal Government for its ef-forts aimed at transformingthe country’s tourism andculture sector.
Maidugu, however, chal-lenged stakeholders in thetourism and culture sector tobe more proactive by initiat-ing programmes that wouldenhance the actualisation ofthe goals of government'stourism reform agenda.
CALABAR — SENA-TOR Victor Ndoma-
Egba, in Calabar that the re-view of the report of the Sen-ate Ad-hoc Committee onPTDF would not discredit thesubstance of its findings.
Ndoma-Egba, who was inCalabar for the PDP presiden-tial campaigns told journaliststhat the review was aimed atestablishing how his commit-tee did its assignment and notto pick holes in the originalreport.
According to him, the spe-
cial committee on the PTDFreport became necessary toensure that the issues are nowlost in propaganda and poli-tics.
He explained that the com-mittee did not invite Vice Pres-ident Atiku Abubakar andPresident Olusegun Obasan-jo, because his committee didnot regard the two public of-ficials as mandatory witness-es.
He also pointed out thatthose, who enjoyed immuni-ty could only be punished byparliament.
Nigeria, Sao Tome and Principeagree on joint military body
LAGOS— NIGERIA andSao Tome and Principe
have agreed to establish ajoint military commission toprotect their common oil in-terests in the Gulf of Guinea.
“The body will help to po-lice the nation’s maritime
boundary with Sao Tome andPrincipe as well as stem theincident of crude oil thefts inthe Gulf of Guinea,” Nigeria’sJunior Defence Minister, MikeOziegbe was quoted as say-ing.
The minister said Nigeriawould provide the secretariatfor the body and that foursenior military officers fromboth countries would be nom-inated to serve on it.
He said Nigerian PresidentOlusegun Obasanjo andFradique De Menezes of SaoTome and Principe had giventheir approval for the commis-sion.
He said the commission wasnecessary because of theworld’s growing interests inthe oil-rich Gulf of Guineawhere Nigeria “has a lot ofinterests to protect.”
FORUM—The Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), recently organised political parties' interactive forum withpresidential candidate of PDP, Umar Musa Yar'Adua at the MAN House Ikeja, Lagos. From left: Chief Olabode George,Deputy National Chairman of PDP; Senator Ahmadu Ali, PDP Chairman; Alh. Bashir M. Borodo, MAN President and Dr.Goodluck Jonathan, PDP vice-presidential candidate at the event. Photo: Diran Oshe.
People's Party (DPP) in KwaraState, Mr Gbenga Olawepo,was, Friday, arrested by thepolice over political violence inthe state.
The state police Public Rela-tions Officer, DSP Markus Gide-on, who confirmed the arrestin an interview, said the policewere investigating the attack,weekend, on the liaison officerto Governor Bukola Saraki, El-der David Bamidele, in Oro bypeople suspected to be sup-porters of the governorshipcandidate.
Markus also said Olawepowas being investigated overalleged destruction of govern-ment property, campaign billboards and posters of Saraki.
The DPP governorship can-didate was billed to address a
rally at Ajase-Ipo before thepolice invited him for question-ing at the state police com-mand.
Informed sources claimedthat Olawepo was detained foralmost five hours before he wasreleased on bail.
But, addressing a press con-ference after his release, Olawe-po, who described the allega-tions levelled at him as false,claimed that, rather, it was hisposters that had been de-stroyed by people suspectedto be PDP supporters andwhich the DPP leadership com-plained to the police but thatthe police refused to take ac-tion.
“I am now wondering whatcould have necessitated thiskind of arrest by the policewhen I was the first person to
lodge a complaint. They havebeen destroying our postersand the police have been look-ing the other way. Now they
are looking for ways of disrupt-ing our campaign activities. Itis obvious that Governor Sara-ki is scared stiff of my candida-ture and the intimidating struc-tures of our party," he said.
Olurin threatens politiciansover violence
By Gbenga Ariyibi
ADO EKITI—FOLLOWING the reported cases
of violence and attacks onleaders of rival political par-ties in Ekiti State, Administra-tor of the state, Brig-Gen TunjiOlurin (rtd), has threatened toinvoke the power of emergen-cy by ordering security agen-cies to shoot on sight trou-ble-makers in the state.
The administrator gave thewarning during a meetingwith the gubernatorial candi-dates and some political lead-ers in the state,weekend, say-ing the order would be effec-tive without futher warning tothe politicians
Olurin said government wasnot unaware of clandestineplans by some people to makethe state ungovernable as therace to the April elections hotsup.
6—VANGUARD, MONDAY, MARCH 19, 2007
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THEYSAIDIT!
April polls: How will you defend your vote?P E O P L E S P E A K Compiled by Oboh Agbonkhese
“Look, I do not believe inthe votes. They have alreadydecided who will win. I willjust go there and do my partof the process. Every politi-cal party has its day. If myvote is manipulated, it is be-cause they have the power. Iwill just join them because Icannot beat them. But I willalways vote according to myconscience and based onwho I feel is the best.”
—Mr. Omo Ekpen, Trans-porter.
“Are we supposed to followup after voting? The govern-ment has put INEC there todo the job till the end. Theonly thing is for INEC to makesure the right persons are putin charge of their operations.Not those who will manipu-late my vote. My duty is togo there and cast my vote.Theirs is to protect it. I am notsupposed to do their job forthem. That is the truth.”
—Mr. Bassey Effiong, Busi-nessman.
“There is nothing I can dowhere the vote I cast is con-cerned. My own is to vote andtheirs is to take care of myvote. However, it is God thatwill decide who wins. In fact,He has already set aside thepersons to rule. I am preparedto go and cast my vote, but ifmy work carries me to some-where else, I will go after thework and forget voting.”
—Mr. Kassim Jimoh, Me-chanic.
“Anything can happen withour votes. It is not our votesthat will decide who leads us.Was it our votes that broughtin OBJ and his group? Theywere selected. I will cast myvote because as a Nigerian, Ishould be part of the process.But protect the vote? It willamount to a fruitless effort.Let us face reality: Our voteswill not count and they havenever counted.”
—Pastor Joshua Dodo,Clergy.
“It will have to begin withINEC. Even the registrationprocess was a flop. Till now, Ihave not collected voter's slipor card after stressing myselffor several days just to regis-ter. It is the leaders that willdecide whether or not to pro-tect my vote. Personally, thereis nothing I can do more thancasting my vote. All I know isthat Nigeria is bigger than anypolitical party or individual.”
—Miss Victoria Ukpang,Student.
“The problem is the leader-ship. There exists too muchof money politics. Let money,real money come in anywhereand you will see even thosewho claim to be born-againchanging colours. If we stopthinking as Ibo, Yoruba orHausa/Fulani and start think-ing as Nigerians, there will notbe need for us to fear for ourvotes. INEC has a duty to pro-tect our mandate.”
—Mr. Isaac Chikwe, Pen-sioner.
"We want to assure all Nigerians thatwe are ready to conduct peaceful polls,but what we know is that it is PDP ornothing"—President Olusegun Obasan-jo speaking at party's rally in Uyo,Akwa-Ibom State.
"This is the worst possible moment; no water, nogas!"—Special Adviser to the President on ElectricPower, Engr. Joseph Makoju alerts on very bad timesfor electricity consumers.
PDP RALLY—From left: Mrs. Rolli George, PDP Lagos Central Senatorial candidate;Mr. Demola Seriki; PDP Deputy National Chairman, Chief Olabode George, and PDPgubernatorial candidate for Lagos State, Senator Musiliu Obanikoro (right), during a rallyin Lagos Central district, Lagos Island Wednesday.
Monarch wants youngergeneration to take over
leadership
AKURE—THE Deji ofAkure, Oba Oluwadare
Adepoju says it is now timefor the younger generation totake over the leadership ofNigeria.
Adepoju said weekend inAkure when the DPP presi-dential candidate, AttahiruBafarawa visited him that“people like Bafarawa shouldbe trusted with leadership po-sitions, describing Bafarawaas an achiever.
Earlier, Bafarawa, who isalso the Sokoto State gover-nor, said that traditional rul-ers deserve constitutional
roles.He said: “They deserve
such a role and not only a firebrigade activity like whenthere is a crisis.”
According to the DPP Pres-idential candidate, Nigeriansshould be free to live in anypart of Nigeria irrespective oftheir religious, political or eth-nic differences.
“What are needed are polit-ical will and sincerity,” Bafara-wa maintained.
He promised to adequatelyfund and equip the Police ifelected come next month.
Ondo DPA guber candidatepledges to eradicate poverty
By Dayo Johnson
AKURE — THE gover-norship candidate of
the Democratic Peoples Alli-ance (DPA) in Ondo State,Chief Olusola Agbesua haspledged to eradicate povertyand also create employmentfor the teeming youths of thestate. Agbesua said this dur-ing rallies organised roundAkure, the state capital, bythe party led by its nationalchairman, Chief Olu Falae.
The rally disrupted bothcommercial and vehicularmovement in the Akure me-tropolis as party supportersdanced round with palm fruitseven as artisans joined them.
The governorship candi-date said he would implementprogrammes that would cre-ate job opportunities for thepeople of the state.
He said efforts would alsobe made to design a proac-tive poverty alleviation pro-gramme for the people of thestate. While criticising thepresent poverty alleviationprogramme packaged by thePDP-led government, Agbe-sua pointed out that “it wasnot in the interest of the vastmajority of the people of thestate.
Agbesua, however, told thecrowd that gathered for therallies that the focus of hisadministration would be theimprovement of the econom-ic base of the state. To thisend, he said his governmentwould ensure the construc-tion of a rail line to link allparts of the state.
Besides, the governorshipcandidate of the party alsosaid his government wouldadhere to the yearnings of thepeople of the Southern Sena-torial District of the state forthe establishment of a higherinstitution of learning in thearea. Specially, Agbesua saidhis government would set upa specialised university oftechnology within its twoyears of inauguration.
FederalPolytechnicAdo-Ekitisacks 300
ADO-EKITI — The Fed-eral Polytechnic, Ado-
Ekiti, has sacked 300 staff inline with Federal Govern-ment’s reforms.
The Rector of the Polytech-nic, Prof. Olawunmi Ajaja, saidin Ado-Ekiti that the “right-sizing” was a component ofthe on-going reform in thefederal civil service.
Mostly affected were driv-ers, cleaners, messengers,some domestic staff as wellas middle-level and manage-ment staff who were eitherconsidered too old or withcriminal records.
Ajaja explained that thosesacked fell within the catego-ry of workers the governmentwould no longer want in ser-vice.
“I did not do it because Ihate anybody as a Rector. Ido not know the faces of mostof the affected persons. Imerely carried out the presi-dential order,’’ he added.
The Rector promised that byMarch 31, the disengagedstaff would have collectedtheir entitlements.
Pensionersprotest in Oyo
By Ola Ajayi
IBADAN—HUNDREDSof pensioners in Oyo
State Thursday besieged theoffice of the Governor, Rash-idi Ladoja to protest the non-payment of 62 months arrearsof 142% increment and otheraccumulated allowances.
The retired workers underthe aegis of Pensioners Wel-fare Association of Oyo State,had thronged the Agodi of-fice of the governor as earlyas 9.00am and resolved not toleave the spot until the gov-ernor accedes to their de-mands.
DEBATE—A political debate organised by Nation Newspapers for gubernatorial candi-dates of political parties in Oyo State, took place at Premier Hotel, Ibadan weekend. Fromleft: Prof. Taoheed Adedoja, gubernatorial candidate of Action Congress (AC); Dr. TaiwoOtegbeye, gubernatorial candidate for Action Alliance (AA) and Chief Abiola Ajimobi,gubernatorial candidate of All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) at the debate.
VANGUARD, MONDAY, MARCH 19, 2007 — 7
Yar'Adua, Jonathan visit RedeemedCamp for spiritual assistance
Lagos workers to joinPension Scheme next month
What is your opinion concerning the new Lagos Mass Transit (BRT) buses?Pls send text to: 08082340885 or e-mail: [email protected] for publication.
Beggarsevacuated
from Lagosstreets
IKEJA— ABOUT 195 madpeople, street children
and beggars have beenevacuated from Lagos streets.The evacuation of thedestitute was jointly carriedout by the state’s Ministry ofYouth, Sports and SocialDevelopment and a non-governmental organisation,the Mentally IncapacitatedRight Initiative (MIRI).
The Commissioner incharge of the ministry, MrOpeyemi Bamidele, said inIkeja that the exercise was torid the metropolis of mentally-ill persons and others whoroamed the streets.
The exercise, coordinatedby three teams led by theDirector of RehabilitationServices, Mr SamuelApalowo, combed Ikeja,Maryland and Ojota, whileother teams were in charge ofKetu, Ikorodu and LagosIsland.
A breakdown of thestatistics on the evacuateddestitute revealed that 110 ofthem were beggars, 65,mentally-ill, while theremaining 12 were streetchildren. This figure furtherrevealed that out of the 110beggars, 87 were females, 23males.
LAGOS— LAGOS StateGovernment says it will
commence the implementa-tion of the new ContributoryPension Scheme for workersin the state from next month.
The State Commissionerfor Budget and EconomicPlanning, Mr Ben Akabueze,announcing this in Lagos atthe launch of a book “Pen-sion Law and Practice in Ni-geria.’’ written by MbanugoUdenze.
Akabueze, who commend-ed the Federal Governmentfor introducing the scheme,expressed the hope that itwould put an end to prob-lems associated with pay-ment of pensions in thecountry.
Under the scheme, both theemployee and the employerwill be expected to contrib-ute, to the pool, seven andhalf per cent each of the work-er’s monthly pay, totaling 15per cent.
Akabueze urged the Feder-al Government to make thescheme mandatory to alltiers of government.
The chairman of the occa-sion, AVM Abdullahi Bello(rtd.), commended the Fed-eral Government for the newPensions Reform Act 2004and urged it to enforce com-pliance and that operatorsfollowed the laid down rulesand regulations.
On the book, Bello de-scribed it as "timely" andcommended the author foradopting a simple language,adding that the issues raisedin the book cut across allstakeholders in the new pen-sion scheme.
The author said he decid-ed to write the book to assistevery stakeholder in the newpension scheme to under-stand the operations of thescheme.
He said that the act,though still in the early stage,was already yielding thedesired results, adding thatit had put Nigeria in theleague of those countrieswhere equitable contributo-ry pension scheme was be-ing practised.
George advises PDP members against violenceBy Dapo Akinrefon
LAGOS—NATIONALVice Chairman of the
People's Democratic Party(PDP), Chief Olabode George,has urged members of the PDPto eschew any act violence dur-ing political rallies. George who
spoke in Lagos during the flagoff campaign of PDP LagosCentral Senatorial candidate,Chief Demola Seriki, said “wehave just four weeks to thegeneral elections, we’ve start-ed witnessing different killings.I want to beg you not to fight.By God grace, anything the
masses lacks like employment,hospital, among other thingswill be made available byourgovernment.
“If any party members cometo you, saying they wanted tofight you, please don’t fightanybody, but if they insist onphysical combat, ignore them,report the person(s) to the near-est DPO in your area.
“I plead with you that youshould not fight anybody. Wedon’t want violence becauseroad to victory is already as-sured. We are to make use ofwhat God has given us. We’lldo it purely, honestly and becommitted to this party,” hesaid.
However, the host, Serikiwhile being presented to partymembers said “our youths mustbe well eductaed and we willdo this by getting the FederalGovernment's approval for spe-cial scheme for the upliftmentof our state in the area of edu-cation on the premise of edu-cation on the premise of beingthe most cosmopolitan.”
LAGOS — THE LagosState Police Command
says it will arraign more than100 pedestrians, who were ar-rested for obstructing trafficat the Orile bus-stop, to a Cus-tomary Court.
Mr Emmanuel Ighodalo, theOrile-Iganmu Divisional PoliceOfficer (DPO) said in Lagos thatthey could not be taken to mag-
RALLY—PDP presidential candidate, Alhaji Umaru Musa Yar'Adua, and Delta Stategovernorship candidate, Dr Emmanuel Uduaghan, during the presidential rally at theWarri Stadium,weekend.
istrates’ court because of thestrike by the judicial workers.
He said the arrests were madefollowing an order by the Com-missioner of Police, Mr Em-manuel Adebayo, that people,who obstruct traffic should bearrested.
Ighodalo explained that themeasure was in line with thepolice “Operation Keep theTraffic Flowing,” especially atbusy bus-stops. He said traf-fic jams in the area had beenlargely due to human problems,because pedestrians failed touse the over-head bridge,thereby obstructing traffic flow.
Ighodalo said since the po-lice started the arrest two daysago, many people had begunto use the bridge, stressing thatthey would continue to arrestand prosecute offenders untillthe traffic situation in the areaimproved.
He also announced that thepolice had equally warnedmembers of the transportunions, who were always at thebus-stop to collect union duesfrom commercial bus driversthere to desist.
Police to arraign 100 pedestriansfor traffic obstruction
By Kenneth Ehigiator
LAGOS—PRESIDENTIAL flag bearer of the
People's Democratic Party(PDP), Alhaji Umaru Musa
Yar’ Adua, and his runningmate, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan,Saturday, visited the Re-deemed Camp on the Lagos-Ibadan expressway to seekspiritual assistance in theirquest for the presidency.
Led by the Deputy Nation-al, South, of the party, ChiefOlabode George, the candi-dates, a source told Van-guard, were with the GeneralOverseer of the RedeemedChurch, Pastor Enoch Ade-boye, before embarking ontheir journey to Benin for theparty’s presidential cam-paign.
According to the source,the consultation with Ade-boye as well as the prayersthat followed were for themto be victorious in the elec-tions.
The trio had earlier arrivedthe presidential wing of theMurtala Muhammed Airportin Lagos in the party’s cam-paign Embraer 30 aircraft atabout noon, and took off im-mediately for the RedeemedCamp.
Vanguard learnt that theRedeemed General Overseerand other senior pastors ofthe church prayed ferventlyfor good health particularlyfor the PDP’s presidentialhopeful, and also for a vio-lence-free elections.
The PDP team returned tothe presidential wing around1:00p.m, rested in the loungefor sometime, before takingoff for the party’s presiden-tial campaign in Benin soonafterwards.
CAN, SCIAtasked onpeaceful
pollsLAGOS— THE Christian
Association of Nigeria(CAN) and the SupremeCouncil for Islamic Affairs(SCIA) have been urged toinitiate a joint action to ensurepeaceful, free and fair elec-tions next month.
The call was made at theweekend by Eclectic Network,a non-governmental organi-sation (NGO), in a statementsigned its chairman, Rev.Moses Illo and issued in La-gos.
The NGO also urged INECto ensure that the electionswere held as provided for bythe constitution. "Nigeriansexpect INEC to play the roleof a fair umpire. It is unfortu-nate that most Nigerians arebeginning to lose confidencein the impartiality of INEC,and wonder if there can befree, fair and transparent elec-tions," it said.
IIlo urged INEC to reassureNigerians by publishing a de-tailed list of all designatedpolling booths, their loca-tions and number of votersregistered in each location,ahead of the polls.
He called on Nigerians tocome out en-masse to exercisetheir civic responsibility byvoting at the elections. “INECis obligated to be sufficientlypatriotic in handling this elec-tion to ensure that it is held ina peaceful atmosphere," hesaid.
PUBLIC NOTICE
This is to inform the general public that the above named Ministry has applied to theCorporate Affair Commission, Abuja for Registration under Part C of the Companies andAllied Matter Act of 1990.
THE TRUSTEES ARE: 1. Pastor Vivian E. Omenya 2. Apostle James A. A. Etsenameh 3. Rev. (Dr.) Innocent U. Mathew 4. Evang. Roland I Benson 5. Rev. Daniel N. Kalu 6. Deaconess (Mrs.) Roseline Egbon 7. Evang Omenya LuckyAIMS AND OBJECTIVES:1. To preach and spread the glorious gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ that abided
forever all over the earth.2 .To use the abiding word of God to deliver people and to draw his people to know him.3 . To establish Ministry in all part of Nigeria and around the world at large to reach out
the unreach converts to enable them be rooted and grounded unto maturity in love, Eph.3 :17.
Any objection to the registration should be forwarded to the Registration General,Corporate Affair Commission, Plot 565, Ndola Square , Wuse Zone 5, within 28 days of thispublication.
Signed: PASTOR VIVIAN E. OMENYAGENERAL SUPERINTENDENT.
WORD ABIDING MINISTRY INT’L
What should be done to check the indecent dressing among our youths?Pls send text to: 08082340885 or e-mail: [email protected] for publication.
Owaza community accusessoldiers of brutalisation
8 — VANGUARD, MONDAY, MARCH 19, 2007
Yar' Adua assures onN-Delta dev
By George Onah
Panic in GloryFM over fire
scare
YENAGOA—PANIC Friday engulfed the
premises of the Bayelsa Stategovernment owned radio sta-tion “Glory FM” when thecorporation fuel dump wasgutted by fire.
No life and property werelost to the inferno which wassuccessfully put out by menof the state fire service pan-demonium however engulfedthe entire complex as theworkers rally round to containthe fire from spreading to thegiant generating plants sup-plying electricity to station.
Although the immediatecause of the fire could not beascertained it was howeverlearnt that it might have beenignited by electrical fault fromthe supply system poweringthe complex.
Immediately the fire wasnoticed, staffers of the corpo-ration who parked their vehi-cles within the precinct of thegenerator house were forcedto move them away from thearea for fear of being caughtby the inferno.
This reporter who visitedthe area along the Azikororoad on noticing the thicksmoke saw many of the staff-ers discussing the near tragicincident as men of the fireservice who stormed the cor-poration in two vehicles bat-tle to bring inferno under con-trol.
MEETING: Chief Great Ogboru (left) in a handshake with Chief Edwin Clark during avisit to the latter's house in Kiagbodo, Delta State. Photo by Barnabas Uzosike.
By Samuel Oyadongha
PORT HARCOURT—ABOUT 30 soldiers at-
tached to oil flow stations,gas field and gas compressorplant at Owaza Communityhave been accused of allegedundue brutalisation of preg-nant women, opinion leadersand some youth leaders ofthe community.
Consequently, the OwazaCentral Youth Association,Ukwa-West Council, AbiaState has petitioned Presi-dent Olusegun Obasanjo,Chief of Army Staff and In-spector General of Police towithdraw or call the soldiersto order, so as to “forestallany security breach in thearea”
Titled “invasion and brutal-ity of the Owaza Communityand Owaza Central Youth”and calling for the attentionof the Senior Special Adviserto the President, on NigerDelta Matters, the group saidthe military men had trauma-tized the community for toolong.
Tracing the origin of thetrouble, the petition, whichwas signed by Prince H.O.Egielemai for Egialemai LawAgency, Port Harcourt, stat-ed that oil exploration and ex-ploitation in the area datesback to 1957 but that “thesecompanies carrying out activ-ities have failed to contributeto the development of theirhost community”.
On account of this alleged
neglect, the communitythrough its youth association,“moved to correct this un-wholesome and deplorablesituation in 2005 when thepeople peacefully agitated fora representative of the area tobe appointed into the NigerDelta Development Commis-sion, NDDC.
Instead of granting thispeaceful request the authori-ties drafted heavily armedsoldiers to Owaza Communi-ties and the people have suf-fered untold brutality, dehu-manization and mayhem in thehands of the military men”.,since then.
At the 2 Brigade Head-quarters, Bori Camp, the PROMaj. Sagir Musa was notavailable for comment but avoice in his office said the wasaway for a special assignment“and will not be available thisweek”.
However, the petitiondrew attention to alleged“havoc and terror on youthsand have demolished proper-ty worth millions of naira with-out provocations” It said fur-ther that the pain on the peo-ple was “occurring on dailybasis and with fury”.
The statement also calledfor the attention of the Hu-man Rights Commission,member representing the areaat the House of Representa-tives as well as the commis-sioner of police, Abia State,explaining that past “Save ourSouls” to various authoritieshave not helped matters,hence the press option.
By George Onah
Police arrest 31 chiefs overcommunal clash in Bayelsa
Medical workers, NULGE toembark on warning strike
YENAGOA—THE policein Bayelsa State have
arrested 31 chiefs from thewarring Liama and Egweamacommunities in the Brass lo-cal government for their ina-bility to stem the orgy of vio-lence that engulfed both com-munities in which eleven per-sons were reportedly killed.
The escalating tension be-tween both sisters’ communi-ties reached a climax on Feb-ruary 23rd leading to the outbreak of hostilities when threeyouths from Liama were alleg-edly kidnapped and beaten topulp by suspected youthsfrom Egweama while accom-panying a tug boat carryingrig belonging to Emerald En-ergy Oil Services to a disput-ed oil rich land.
Angered by the develop-ment the youths from Liamawere said to have launched areprisal attack on the ancientsettlement of Egweamaknown as Egweama-Ogboleading to the death of ninepersons with houses de-stroyed prompting the statedeputy governor, Hon Pere-mobowei Ebebi led a highpowered government delega-tion including the state dep-uty commissioner of policeand Mopol commander on anthe spot visit to the troubledarea and pleaded with thechiefs to rein in their youthsfrom unleashing further may-hem.
Mr. Ebebi had during thevisit warned the chiefs thatgovernment would not hesi-tate in bringing the full wrathof the law to bear on any err-ing community having in-vested so much resource toenthrone peace.
Informed security sourceshowever told Vanguard thatthe chiefs failed to abide bytheir promise to rein in theirwarring youths as hostilities
again broke out between theircommunities less than eighthours after the departure ofthe deputy governor and hisentourage leading to thedeath of two persons, onefrom each of the warring com-munities.
Vanguard gathered that thearrest of the chiefs might notbe unconnected with the ina-bility of the chiefs to rein intheir youths after promisingthe state deputy governorduring his visit to the trou-bled island on the fringe ofthe Atlantic Ocean to call theirboys to order.
The embattled chiefs whoare currently detained at theState Criminal Investigation
department it was gatheredwere lured to Yenagoa, thestate capital by the police atthe instance of the deputygovernor under the guise ofholding a peace meeting withthem to resolve the lingeringdispute between their com-munities.
But unknown to the chiefsthe officials of the state gov-ernment including the depu-ty governor and the securityagencies were angered by therenewed hostilities betweenthe two sister’s communitiessaid to have claimed anothertwo lives from both sides lessthan eight hours after the de-parture of the delegation fromthe troubled area.
By Samuel Oyadongha
YENAGOA—THE jointcouncils of Medical
and Health Workers’ Union ofNigeria (MHWUN) and Ni-geria Union of Local Govern-ment Employees (NULGE) hascalled on its members to em-bark on a two days sit-at-home warning strike as a prel-ude to its planned indefinitestrike action following the re-fusal of the state/local gov-ernment councils to meet itsdemands on payment of med-ical allowances and other ar-rears.
It was reliably gathered thatthe planned strike action ear-lier slated for last Mondaywas postponed because ofthe intervention of the statedeputy governor, Mr. Pere-mobowei Ebebi whose officeoversees the activities in thethird-tier of government.
But the joint councils ofMedical and Health Workers’Union of Nigeria (MHWUN)and Nigeria Union of LocalGovernment Employees(NULGE) in a statement enti-tled, “Notice of Two dayswarning strike action 16th &19th March 2007,” signed byComrades Patrick Singabele,State President NULGE, AndyOkoro, State SecretaryNULGE, Bio Josiah StateChairman MHWUN and Let-am Mwibani State Secretary
MHWUN, said it was com-pelled to direct its membersto embark on the strike actionbecause of the failure of thestate government and theoriginal eight local govern-ment councils to implementwhat it described as “its le-gitimate demands” as pre-sented to the governmentduring their peace parley onJanuary 22. It stated that inview of the unfortunate de-velopment, all its members inthe state were directed to em-bark on two working days sitat home warning strike actionwith effect from Friday March16th and Monday 19th.
“All the branch chairmen/sec-retaries of Medical and HealthWorkers’ Union (MHWUN) andNigeria Union of Local Govern-ment Employees (NULGE) aredirected to ensure that they va-cate their local government coun-cil secretariats during these twodays of warning strike action.
“Any disobedience or non com-pliance of the above directiveshall be treated as anti-union ac-tivities,” it warned.
The two unions had sometimein January handed a fourteen dayultimatum to both the state andlocal governments to effect thepayments of the N90, 000 med-ical allowance and salary arrearsowed its members which waslater extended by seven dayswith a view to exploring alloptions open to it before em-barking on an indefinite strike.
By Samuel Oyadongha
Bayelsa Govtinaugurates
committee onfuel distribution
PORT HARCOURT—THE Presidential flag
bearer of the Peoples Demo-cratic Party, Alhaji MusaYar’Adua has said that hepossesses a marshal plan,similar to what obtained afterthe Second World War, forthe Niger Delta and would belaid out as soon as he as-sumes office as President lat-er in the year.
He said the Niger Delta mat-ter was so close to his chestthat he would tackle it “with asensitive approach and I amvery sure it would work”,pointing out that all those in-volved in sourcing for thesolution would be embraced,
Yar’Adua who spoke to thepress at the NAF Base, air-field, Port Harcourt, last week,after the party’s rally, Thurs-day, said the plan would be a“holistic development of theregion that would address allagitation and all the problems
of the region. “I have what Iwould call a sensitive ap-proach And I am sure it wouldwork. You see we intend tohave a dialogue with all stake-holders with a view to work-ing out a kind of marshal plan,you know marshal plan, forthe entire Niger Delta region.
The Niger Delta is strategicto the nation and the nationmust move to secure the re-gion. When we have such aholistic plan and it is proper-ly phased out programme,with time limit, then properlyfunded, then you are goingto solve the problems of theregion. Of course you are talk-ing of an entire aspects ofdevelopment along the line forwhat happened in Europe af-ter World War 11”.
The presidential hopefulwho said only honest leadersand followers were goodenough for the nation wasasked how he hoped to re-ward Nigerians who are hon-est and live within their meansor income.
Y E N A G O A — D I STURBED by the lin-
gering scarcity and high costof petroleum products, Bayel-sa State government has in-augurated a nine membertaskforce on the distributionof the products in the pre-dominantly riverine state.
Speaking at the inaugura-tion ceremony in Yenagoa,the state deputy governor,Mr. Peremobowei Ebebicharged the members to seetheir task as a great challenge.
The deputy governor, whonoted that the state is groan-ing under high cost of petro-leum products, which is hav-ing an adverse effect on theeconomy and the people add-ed that it was the duty of thetaskforce to make sure Bayel-sa gets its due allocations ofpetroleum products and en-sure proper distribution andsale to all parts of the state.
He said the doors of gov-ernment are always open tomake their job easier and en-joined them not to hesitate inmaking demands of items thatwould make their job easieradding that they should notsee their appointment as ameans to enrich themselvesbut a way of contributingtheir quota to making life bet-ter for Bayelsans.
By Samuel Oyadongha
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relations of a detained mur-der suspect broke down andwept over the ongoing strikeby judiciary workers.
The court had earlier fixedthe day for its ruling on a bailapplication by the suspect.
However, the suspect’s re-lations, who came to the courtwith the high hope of gettinga fair consideration, brokedown into tears when theyfound the gates to the courtpremises locked.
The relations sobbed overthe fate of their relation whowas being detained at theAuchi prison.
One of the slated cases forthe day was a suit filed by the
former Registrar of the AuchiPolytechnic, Dr. Steve Iyayi,over his alleged premature re-tirement by the institution’smanagement.
However, the institution’smanagement had filed a coun-ter motion to challenge thecompetence of the court tohear the matter.
Justice Felix Erhonsele, hadfixed the day for a ruling onwhether or not the court couldadjudicate in the matter.
About 100 civil and criminalcases have suffered similarsetbacks at the various highcourts and magistrate’scourts in the area because ofthe workers’ strike.
BIRTHDAY: Senator David .O. Dafinone (right) embracing Chief Benjamin Okumagba,President, Urhobo Progressive Union during the thanksgiving to mark Chief Dafinone's80th birthday celebration, recently at Sapele.
PDP confirms Albert as UyoSenatorial candidate
UYO—THE PDP hasconfirmed Mr. Ime
Albert, as its candidate for theUyo senatorial district ofAkwa Ibom State, thusending the confusion createdby the appearance of SenatorEffiong Bob on the recentINEC list.
The PDP chairman, Dr. Ah-madu Ali, told newsmen inUyo that the decision washinged on the outcome of theparty primaries which gaveAlbert the mandate.
“People should not bring
Rights group commends NMA oversuspension of strike action
WARRI—THE Commit-tee for the Defence of
Human Rights (CDHR) inDelta State, weekend, com-mended the Nigeria MedicalAssociation (NMA) for sus-pending the work-to-rule ac-tion embarked upon by doc-tors in the interest of suffer-ing patients .
Delta CDHR in a statement,signed by its chairman andassistant state secretary,Messrs. Oghenjabor Ikimiand Benefit Orugbo respec-tively said the rights groupwere happy that the NMAheeded its earlier call to sus-pend the strike, saying thatthe bold step by the doctorsto pursue their grievanceswith government throughdialogue rather than thestrike option has endearedthem to Nigerians.
The group nevertheless,called on the Federal Gov-ernment to take advantageof the gesture to improveon the welfare of medical
doctors in the public healthsector nation-wide and mas-sively develop the entirehealth sector in the interestof the down-trodden mass-es of Nigeria .
It also commended thebold decision of the Courtof Appeal, Jos, whichquashed the entire impeach-ment process that led to theremoval from office of ChiefJoshua Dariye as Governorof Plateau State and the or-der of the said Court of Ap-peal, directing his immedi-ate reinstatement as the gov-ernor of Plateau State.
“We state that the aboveverdict is a welcome devel-opment as same is good forour nascent democracy andwe hope that the SupremeCourt of Nigeria would up-hold the above decision ofthe Court of Appeal in theinterest of the rule of Law”,they stated.
On the other hand, theCDHR condemned the re-cent politically motivated vi-olence in Abeokuta , theOgun state capital and calledon all political leaders and
their parties nation-wide toeschew violence and thug-gery for the general elec-tions were barely a monthaway and the country wasnot ready for such violence.
Furthermore, the rightsgroup urged all poli t icalleaders and their parties oncampaign activities to re-frain from making unholy anduncivil statement againstpolitical opponents as same“is capable of heating ourpolity unnecessarily, butrather use the opportunityoffered in the process toeducate the electorates in apeaceful and orderly mannerof their Party manifesto andblue print for making oursociety a better place for usall”.
The CDHR enjoined theIndependent National Elec-toral Commission (INEC) inthe statement “to ensure thesuccess of the entire elector-al process as a failure, Godforbid, could lead to vio-lence and chaos in our poli-ty, a price we cannot affordto pay at this critical stageof our nascent democracy”.
confusion into this, it’s ImeAlbert that we know and heremains our senatorial candidatefor the Uyo district,’’ he said.
Ali urged all defeated aspir-ants in the party to accepttheir defeat in good faith andwork towards the success ofthe party in the April elec-tions. He stressed that thePDP would always promotedemocratic values by abidingby the result of primary elec-tions and urged party mem-bers to take a cue from theparty’s principles.
Shell restates commitment oncommunity development
PORT HARCOURT—THE Shell Petroleum
Development Company ofNigeria (SPDC) has restatedits commitment to ensuringsustainable development ofall its host communities in theNiger-Delta region.
Shell’s Manager on SustainableCommunity DevelopmentDelivery, Mr Emmanuel Etomi,gave the assurance in PortHarcourt while handing overseven buses to some communities.
He said that the donation
was part of the fulfillment ofShell’s commitment on aMemorandum of Understand-ing entered into with the com-munities affected by its East-ern Gas Gathering SystemProject in Rivers.
Etomi said that the buseswere intended to facilitate thetransportation needs of thebeneficiary communities.
“It is our hope to see thesebuses serving the needs forwhich they have been givenand nothing else,” he said.
By Emma Amaize
PORT HARCOURT —MEN of the Joint Task
Force in Rivers StateSaturday attacked Ogbakiricommunity, for militants.Community sources told theVanguard that the operationwhich lasted several hourssaw soldiers breaking intohouses in search forweapons and to make arrest.
The Army PRO in the state,Major Sagir Musa confirmedon phone to Vanguard thattroops were actuallydeployed to the community.He said arrests were madebut did not disclose thenumber and the itemsrecovered during the raid.
It could not be confirmedif the security operatives metany resistance, but sourcessaid a house in thecommunity was torchedduring the operation. Therewere also fears at press timethat some neighbouringcommunities aroundOgbakiri may have alsosuffered some losses.
It would be recalled thatlast week alone the JTFrescued a French hostagefrom the custody of militantsin the community. This wasafter three other Croatianshostages were also releasedfrom militants in thecommunity.
10—VANGUARD, MONDAY, MARCH 19, 2007
PHCN apologises to customers in Edo
What is your view on blacklisted schools?Pls send text to: 08082340885 or e-mail: [email protected] for publication.
Nigeria has highest number of sickler—COMMISSIONER
By Gabriel Enogholase
NEED-Second draft out in April says Wali
Militant group tasksintervention agencies
"NDDC to complete project atCOEW soon"
By EMMA ARUBI
AUCHI — THE manage-ment of PHCN in Afe-
mesan Business District ofAuchi, Edo State, has apolo-gised to electricity consumersin the area over poor powersupply in recent times.
The PHCN tendered theapology in a statement signedby its Public Affairs Officer,Mr Oghale Eduziare, in Auchion last week.
“The PHCN in Auchi apolo-gises to electricity customersin the district and urges themto remain calm over the ongo-ing outages beingexperienced,’’the statementsaid.
It said that the power ration-ing was occasioned by thevandalism of major pipelinesthat led to a shortfall in gassupply to the company’s ther-
By Jimitota Onoyume
mal power stations.The statement noted that
the vandalised pipelines wereresponsible for gas transpor-tation from NNPC/Shell pipe-line in the Niger Delta region“to our thermal stations at Eg-
bin in Ughelli’’.It, however, gave the assur-
ance that with the ongoingconstructions and the inaugu-ration of a new power supplyplant in the area, the poweroutages would stop.
PORT HARCOURT—FOR enduring peace to
be achieved in the Niger Del-ta, intervention agencies likethe NDDC have been calledupon to be alive to their re-sponsibilities in the region.
In an online statement to theVanguard weekend militantswho spoke under the aegis ofJoint Revolutionary Councillisted projects that should beurgently tackled by the inter-ventionist agency in some oilproducing communities in theregion.
Addressing the issues theyargued would go a long to re-solving the seeming endlesscrisis in the region even asthey echoed the need for therelease of detained AsariDokubo.
The statement reads in part,“In line with the wishes of thefollowing Niger Delta commu-nities, Council herein de-mands that the followingprojects be commenced inthese communities as soon aspossible. We believe thatthese requests falls within themandate of the Niger DeltaDevelopment Commission(NDDC). Rivers State - Ando-ni Canalization Project in Riv-ers State - Abissa CanalizationProject in Rivers State DeltaState - Okerenkoko canaliza-tion project in Delta - Ojobo
canalization project in DeltaState - Koko Shore protectionProject Bayelsa State - Nem-be Shore protection project -Oporoaza Shore protectionproject Rivers State - KulaShore protection project -Ayamina Shore protectionproject - Okochiri Shore pro-tection Ondo State - AyetoroShore Protection Project.These projects are listed in thebudget and master plan of theNiger Delta DevelopmentCommission (NDDC), andmust therefore be delivered tothese communities in goodtime.
Council recognizes thatthese communities have beenpatient for a very long time.Council recognizes the needfor the NDDC and other inter-vention agencies to promptlyrespond to the needs and de-sires of these communitieswithout further delay.
The Joint RevolutionaryCouncil recognizes the highnuisance value that thesecommunities can bring to bear.Council recognizes and con-demns the increasing insecu-rity and loss of lives in Kulacommunity. We believe thatthe Kula situation could bereplicated in other coastalcommunities if mandatedagencies such as the NDDCdo not begin suggested pro-jected to the listed communi-ties as soon as possible.”
ELECTRICITY CONFERENCE: Special Adviser to Mr President on Electricity PowerEngr. Joseph Makanju (r ) discussing with Chairman and CEO of NERC. Dr. RansomeOwan (l) during 1st Conference on Electricity Consumers theme: “The Place of the Consumerin the New Nigerian Electricity Market” held in Abuja. Photo by Gbemiga Olamikan
WARRI — PROVOST ofthe College of Educa-
tion, Warri, (C.O.E.W.), DeltaState, Professor Andrew Joehas expressed optimism thatNDDC sponsored road con-struction projects in theschool would be completednext month.
He also disclosed that theinstitution has started encour-aging e-learning in the col-lege, stressing that each stu-dent would have to pay for thefacility.
Addressing the 28th matric-
BENIN — EDO StateCommissioner for
Health, Mr. Godwin Ovbiagelesaid that Nigeria has the un-viable record of having thehighest number of sicklers inthe world just as it accountsfor 10 percent of the world’smaternal death.
The Commissioner who dis-closed this in Benin on Tues-day, explained that it was forthis reason that the State gov-ernment decided to build aspecialized Hospital of Inter-national Standard to take careof the problems of woman andchildren. While conductingnewsmen on a guided tour ofthe N1.9 billion 250 bed hos-
pital expected to be commis-sioned on Saturday by presi-dent Olusegun Obasanjo, Mr.Ovbiagele announced theythe state government has ap-proved a core managementteam to run the hospital. EdoState government, he added,has also signed a memoran-dum of understanding (MOU)with the University of BeninTeaching Hospital (UBTH) tocollaborate in the running ofthe hospital.
The commissioner ex-plained that at any given time,a minimum of 200 medical doc-tors would be on duty at thehospital, adding that strikeaction by medical personnelwould be forbidden at thehospital. Mr. Ovbiagele said
the poor would have accessto medical attention at thehospital under the NationalHealth Insurance Scheme(NHIS), even as he disclosedthat the State government hasapproved the employment of70 core staff, consisting of 25nurses to work at the hospi-tal. He said medical consult-ants from outside would be
allowed to bring in the pa-tients for treatment for a fee.The hospital has eight stateof the art operating theatres,four intensive care units, acomputerized laboratory, la-bour room and theatre, wardsfor patients, a laundry, can-teen and kitchen as well as a100 bodies motorized morgue,among other facilities.
ulation ceremony of the regu-lar NCE students of theschool, yesterday, ProfessorJoe warned them against hoo-liganism, rioting, examinationmalpractices and cultism, stat-ing that ““these are not toler-ated in this college as partici-pating in them can earn youimmediate expulsion.”” Headmonished the students tobe patient with the school au-thority in the area of accom-modation in both hostel andlecture theatres, nothing thatwith the completion of theschool of Arts and Social Sci-ences building the problemwould ease out.
Igbinedion scoresgovt high
BENIN —GOVERNORLucky Igbinedion of
Edo state, weekend rated hisadministration high in the areaof women empowerment andyouth development and show-ered praises on his wife, MrsEki Igbinedion for assistinghim in achieving the feat in thepast eight years of his admin-istration.
The governor who spoke atthe opening ceremony of thefourth Edo Women NationalConference, with the theme “Women: A Tool For Sustain-ing Democracy”, in Benin City,agreed that the idea of wom-en participation in politics wasnecessary for the sustenanceof democracy, and having rec-ognized that, he said his ad-ministration have appointedmore women as commission-ers and judges more than anyother administration in thecountry.
According to him “Any so-ciety that does not accept therelevance and importance ofthe contribution of women toits growth and developmentis a backward society. Inclu-
sion of women in the devel-opment process is a key com-ponent of policy documentslike the New Partnership forAfrican Development (NE-PAD).
“We must liberate the ener-gies of women as develop-ment partners if we are to makethat desired leap into the 21stcentury. My administrationhas shown high conscious-ness to the need for gendersensitivity and balancing” hestated.
The governor outlined thegender friendly initiatives tak-en by his administration in thepast eight years: “We passeda law outlawing the harmfulpractices against widows.Passed a law abolishing fe-male genital mutilation. Wesent a bill against stigmatiza-tion on HIV/AIDS,as far as itaffects women and othergroups.
“We set up the women andchildren hospital to focus onthis category of people andtheir special problems, wherethey are to receive treatmentat subsidized cost. We cur-rently has four female Com-missioners’’
By Simon Ebegbulem
CALABAR—THE Com-mandant General, Nige-
ria Security and Civil DefenceCorps (NSCDC), Dr Ade
Abolurin, has threatened todismiss operatives who com-promise corps integrity duringthe forthcoming general elec-tions.
Abolurin handed down thethreat on last week in Calabarat the opening of a three-dayworkshop with the theme
“Strategic policies and pro-grammes toward crime and vi-olent-free elections.’’
Represented by NSCDCCommandant in Cross River,Mr Nathaniel Ubong,Abolurin said “NSCDC staffshould not allow environmentand circumstances to affecttheir integrity and confidenceduring the polls’’.
He appealed to governmentat all levels to assist NSCDCin training its operatives onelectoral processes.
He appealed for the cooper-ation of other security agen-cies during the election andenjoined his men to “monitorthe elections with utmost ob-jectivity and never see it to bebusiness as usual.’’
NSCDC boss warns staffon April polls
CALABAR—THE sec-ond National Econom-
ic Empowerment and Devel-opment Strategy (NEEDS-2)draft document will be re-leased in April.
The Minister of NationalPlanning, Alhaji AbdallahWali, announced this in Cala-bar last week, at the three-daymeeting of the Joint PlanningBoard and National Councilon Development Planning.
Wali said the document, afollow-up to the first NEEDSdocument (2004-2007), wouldbe ready for President Oluse-gun Obasanjo’s consider-
ation by April.It was expected to cover the
period 2008 to 2011, he ex-plained.
The Minister said theNEEDS-2 document wouldform part of the hand-overnotes to the incoming admin-istration before its subse-quent launch in due course.
Wali noted that Thursday’sceremony was part of a con-sultative process aimed atbuilding consensus on keyissues ‘’for the developmentof a sound and reliable
The NEEDS is the country’s
reform-based medium-termplan for economic recoveryand growth, with the maingoals of poverty reduction,employment generation,wealth creation and value ori-entation.
Wali said the federal govern-ment had saved N200 billionsince the introduction of thedue process policy.
Through due process, thecost of project execution,which was one of the highestin the world, had gone downconsiderably, he noted.
VANGUARD, MONDAY, MARCH 19, 2007—11
DPP pledges good governance in Imo
NPC to prosecute indicted officials, policemen
BRIEFING: From left; Mr. Peter Nwodebelu; Mr. Timothy Ogbu; Mr. PatrickOkwunwannem, Zonal Chairman and Mr. Pius Ikechi during a press briefing by theNational Union of Petroleum and National Gas Workers, Enugu State Chapter. Photo:Hill Ezeugwu.
Kalu pledges to raisepolice salary
By Chidi Nkwopara
By Vincent Ujumadu By Ise-Oluwa Ige
INEC: Court rules on request to clearUkachukwu for guber election
O W E R R I — T H Eleadership of the
Democratic Peoples Party(DPP) has promised toenthrone peace, order, goodgovernment and create jobsfor the teeming job seekersin Imo State, if the partywins the governorshipelection in April.
The party’s gubernatorialcandidate, Dr. FabianIhekweme, made theundertaking while flaggingoff his gubernatorialcampaign train in Owerri,Imo State capital.
“If given the peoples’mandate in the April 2007general polls, I will createjobs for the state’s teemingjob seekers by encouragingboth local and foreign
investors to establishbusiness in Imo State”,Ihekweme said.
Addressing the issue offall ing standard ofeducation in the state, hewarned that any state orcountry that neglects theeducation sector does so atits own peril.
“I am worried that ourschools have beenneglected for too long. I amworried that all the basicinfrastructures in our stateschools are in varyinggrades of dilapidation.Permit me to also warn thatany state or country thatneglects i ts educationsector does so to its ownperil”, the DPPgovernorship candidatereasoned.
Ihekweme appealed to thecit izenry to resist the
temptation of mortgagingtheir conscience during thepolls, pointing out thatsome candidates havestarted borrowing hugesums of money to get intopublic office.
Speaking also, theDirector General of theAttahiru Bafarawa/EbereUdeagu presidentialcampaign organisation inImo State, Chief EthelbertOkwaronyia reminded Imopeople that the country isnow facing a new direction.
“Nigeria is now facing anew direction. It is very sadthat after eight years of ourdemocratic engineering, weare yet to get to thePromised Land. It is sad thatwe are still grappling withthe rudiments of democraticprinciples”, Okwaraonyialamented.
A B A K A L I K I —OFFICIALS of the
National PopulationCommission (NPC) andpolicemen indicted in themurder of a third-year medicalstudent of the Ebonyi StateUniversity are to beprosecuted.
The Ebonyi Commissionerfor Information,Mr AbiaOnyike, announced this inAbakaliki while briefingnewsmen on the outcome ofthe State Executive Councilmeeting.
The student, ThankGodOnwe, was shot during theNational Population andHousing Census in OhaukwuLocal Government Area ofEbonyi on March 18, 2006.
Onyike said theprosecution followed theadoption of the draft whitepaper on the report of thejudicial panel of inquiry whichlooked into thecircumstances that led to the
ABUJA—A Federal Highcourt sitting in Abuja
will decide, today, on whetheror not it should compel INECto include the name of thegubernatorial candidate ofthe All Nigeria Peoples Party(ANPP), Mr NicholasUkachukwu on the list ofcandidates already okayedfor the April governorshipelection.
Ukachukwu plans tocontest for the exalted officeof the governor of Anambrastate.
The High Court presidedover by Justice AbimbolaOgie fixed judgment in thematter weekend after partiesconcluded arguments in thecase.
Vanguard recalls thatUkachukwu had, February12, this year, procured a High
U M U A H I A — A B I AState governor and
presidential candidate of theProgressive Peoples Alliance(PPA), Orji Kalu has said thatthe least paid policepersonnel in Nigeria wouldbe paid N60,000 monthlysalary to motivate them tocarry out their dutieseffectively.
Addressing his supportersat Ohafia during a campaigntour of the area, Kaludescribed as ridiculous asituation whereby somepolicemen receive as low asN7000 and wondered howsuch a person would bededicated to his duties in themidst of economic hardshipin the country.
In addition, he said, policemen and women would be
entitled to five pairs ofuniform annually, adding thathe would build a police forcethat would be the pride ofAfrica unlike what is thesituation at present.
He also said that he wouldmake the Nigerian military thebest in Africa by making allthe arms combatant ready tobe able to defend thecountry’s territorial integrity,while the prisons wouldbecome places for reformingthe inmates unlike thepresent situation wherebythe environment hardensthem the more after leavingthe prison.
He likened himself to thelate Chief M.K.O.,Abiola whowon election but did not liveto govern the countryadding, “the differencebetween two of us is that Iwill win and rule.”
Court order directing INECnot to disqualify him fromcontesting the gubernatorialpoll in Anambra state.
The order was issued bythe court before INECpublished the list of qualifiednominated governorshipcandidates for Anambrastate.
The order though was dulyserved on the electoral body,INEC still went ahead todisqualify him.
The development madeUkachukwu to re-approachthe Federal High Court,Abuja with a mandamusapplication seeking tocompel INEC to obey thesubsisting court order.
Specifically formulated forcourt to determine are threefundamental questionsincluding:
· Whether in view of thesubsisting order of theFederal high court in suit NoFHC\ABJ\CS\3\2007 in
ANPP, Prince NicholasUkachukwu Vs INEC madeon February 12, 2007, it isproper and lawful for INECto publish a list of nominatedgovernorship candidates inAnambra state excluding hisname as a validly nominatedcandidate?
· Whether in view of thedecided case in suit NoFHC\ABJ\CS\3|2007, ActionCongress Vs INEC made onMarch 7, 2007 by the Federalhigh court, Abuja and theclear provision of section 32(3, 4) of the Electoral Act,2006, INEC has the right andpower to disqualify him ,being a person validlynominated by ANPP (aregistered political party)?
· Whether INEC by thepower conferred on it by itsenabling Act is exemptedfrom obeying subsistingorders of court of competentjurisdiction to wit order of theFederal High Court, Abuja in
suit No FHC\ABJ\M\3|2007between the ANPP and oneother versus INEC?
Should any or all of thequestions above be resolvedin his favour, he wants thecourt to issue, in his favour,an order of mandamuscompelling INEC to clear himfor the gubernatorial poll andinclude his name on the listof candidates already okayedfor the Anambragubernatorial election.
Meanwhile, the same highcourt judge, Justice AbimbolaOgie will on Monday decidewhether or not to withold herjudgment on similarapplication by a faction ofAPGA seeking to compelINEC to publish the list of itsnominated candidates.
The judgment was billed tobe delivered in the caseweekend but for theapplication seeking to arrestthe judgment.
killing.The commissioner said
other top officials of the NPCindicted by the governmentwhite paper would bereported to their employers
for appropriate sanctions inline with civil service rules.
The white paper condemnedthe incompetence, lukewarmattitude, greed and ulteriormotives displayed by the
NPC officials.The Ebonyi government
had, on March 30, 2006,inaugurated the panel to lookinto the causes of theshooting.
Oloko decries dearth of primaryschool teachers
O W E R R I —E D U C A T I O N
Secretary for Ohaji/Egbemalocal government area of ImoState, Chief Romanus Oloko,has decried what he termed“the inadequate number ofprimary school teachersserving in the local councilarea”.
Chief Oloko, who statedthis while, speaking tojournalists on the teaching/learning situation in the
By Chidi Nkwopara council area, was also of theview that unless thesituation changed for thebetter, the primary level of theeducation sector wouldsuffer irredeemably.
"For teaching and learningto be efficient and effective,there is an acceptableteacher/pupil ratio. This is farfrom what is obtainable inO h a j i / E g b e m a l o c a lgovernment area. We haveinadequate number ofteachers serving in thiscouncil area”, Oloko said.
The Education Secretary
who is currently on tour of allthe primary schools in thelocal government area,announced that the LocalGovernment EducationAuthority (LGED) need nofewer that 80 extra teachers tominimally cope with thegrowing number of pupilpopulation in the schools.”
The Education Authorityneeds about 80 new teachersto tentatively cope with theincreasing number of pupilsin the schools. The fewteachers in service do notneed to be over worked.
12—VANGUARD, MONDAY, MARCH 19, 2007
Igbo leaders commend ChukwumerijeBy Vincent Ujumadu
Nwajiuba tasks electorates on candidates
Base campaign on issues, groupadvises parties
By Chidi Nkwopara
Ebonyiapprovescolour fortaxis,buses
PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN: Vice President Atiku Abubakar and his running mateSenator Ben Obi during the flag-off of the Action Congress' presidential campaign inEnugu.Photo: Hill Ezeugwu.
U M U A H I A —PROMINENT Igbo
leaders have commended thecontributions of SenatorUche Chukwumerijerepresenting Abia North inthe country’s upperlegislative house, saying thatwithout somebody like himand a few others from thesouth east zone, Igbos wouldhave been completely soldout in the murky waters ofNigerian politics.
The Igbo leaders who aremainly in their 70s and 80s,stormed the Ohafia campaignground where Chukwumerijeflagged off his campaign toreturn to the senate on theplatform of the ProgressivePeoples Alliance (PPA) saidit was because ofChukwumerije’s successduring his first tenure thatinformed their decision to“come to Ohafia to thank him
for what he did and assurehim of the support of theentire Igbos as he preparesto return to the Senate.”
Among the leaders whospoke at the rally includeProfessor ElochukwuAmaucheazi from AnambraState and former Director-General of the defunctMAMSER, Chief S.O. Achafrom Imo State who waselected member of theEastern Nigerian legislaturein 1953, Chief OnyesoNwachukwu also from ImoState and a member of theEastern Nigeria House ofAssembly, Chief Nduka Eyafrom Enugu State who was acommissioner in the oldAnambra State, Chief NdemKalu Abia State.
One after another, theyeulogized Chukwumerije andrecalled that his style ofpolitics is similar to theirs inthe hey days of the firstrepublic when what matteredmost to politicians was how
to better the condition oftheir people.
According to Amaucheazi,Chukwumerije did well as aSenator and Ohaneze Ndigbohas decided that he shouldbe supported to go back andcontinue his goodrepresentation andcommended his party, thePPA for giving him the ticketto enable him actualize hisprogrammes for the Igbos.
“Chukwumerije is our greatson. We know that Godcreated him to do great thingsfor humanity. We are awarethat he was offered money likeothers to sell out but herejected it. We want ouryouths to learn a lot fromChukwumerije. He has shownthat one can shun the thingsof life in the interest of hispeople. He rejected GhanaMust Go and that is why weare proud of him today.
In his speech,Chukwumerije observed thathe is the luckiest senator inNigeria because he is carryingthe legacy of a great peoplewith great history and assuredthe Igbos that he wouldnever disappoint them.
He said that although thewar ended 40 years ago inNigeria, Igbos were still beingmaltreated, and commendedthe courage of Governor OrjiUzor Kalu in standing firm indefense of the Igbo cause.
His words: “In 1970, I wrotethe letter of surrender ofBiafra and handed it toObasanjo and so he stillbelieves that we are adefeated people. We musttherefore liberate ourselvesand we will start with thepresidential election comingup in April. SinceIndependence, no Igbo manhas been elected presidentand this is the time to changeit. We thank God for givingus Kalu who is a jinx breakerand through your votes, hewill be the first Igbo to becomean elected president.”
VISIT: Governor Peter Obi of Anambra State and Tochukwu Udeoji during a courtesyvisit on the governor by members of the Nigeria Union of Journalist, Anambra StateCouncil in Awka. Photo: Hill Ezeugwu.
A B A K A L I K I —EBONYI government
is set to regulate the activitiesof township taxis and busesas a uniform colour has beenapproved for them.
White and light bluecolour was approvedfollowing the adoption of aproposal forwarded by thestate Ministry of Works andTransport.
In a statement in Abakaliki,the Commissioner forInformation, Mr Abia Onyike,directed taxi operators tocomply promptly.
He gave June 30 as thedeadline for theimplementation of the policy.Onyike directed taxi and busdrivers to go to the Ministryof Works and Transport toget the actual colour samplefor effective compliance.
OWERRI—IMO Stateg u b e r n a t o r i a l
candidate of Labour Party(LP), Chief ChukwuemekaNwajiuba, has appealed tothe citizenry to criticallyinvestigate the antecedentsof all persons seekingelective positions in the statewith a view to enthroningonly the credible ones.
Chief Nwajiuba, who madethe appeal at a pressconference in Owerri, alsoopined that it wasunchristian, uncharitable andanachronistic for anypolitical party to hoist anyperson or group of personswho were accomplices in theliquidation of banks in thepast.
“I urge the electorate tocritically look at thecontestants, see their trackrecord and decide if they aregood enough to be given ourvotes, as well as entrustedwith our collective welfare forthe next four years”, the LPgubernatorial candidate said.
Answering a question,Nwajiuba said that LP ispresenting a clear case ofgenerational change in theaffairs of the state, adding
that the cumulative age ofthe gubernatorial candidateand his running mate is lessthan 75 years.
“We have candidateswhose combined age is over145 years. There are those
who have borrowed frombanks, refused to pay backand in the end declared suchbanks bankrupt. Today, theyare seeking the mandate of thepeople”, Nwajiuba said.
Continuing, he appealed to
the citizenry to wage arelentless war against riggingand violence during generalelections, adding that “wemust do everything possibleto stop those that breedviolence and steal votes”.
Imo CJ eulogisesUdom-Azogu
By Anayo Okoli
AWKA—EASTERNStates Youth
Association (ESYA), asocio-cultural non-politicalorganisation, Anambra Statechapter, has called on all thepolitical parties and theircandidates to base theircampaign on issues ratherthan attacking persons,saying this is the only wayto show maturity in politics.
Anambra State co-ordinator of theOrganization, ComradeVictor Okoye advisedpoliticians who feelmarginalized in the on-goingpolitical experiment tochallenge INEC in the courtof law rather than tradingblames and pointing accusingfingers on opponents therebyheating up the polity.
OWERRI—The deathof Justice Gertrude
Ifunanya Udom-Azogu, ofthe Court of Appeal, hasbeen described as“devastating not only to themembers of the Udom andAzogu families and theOguta community but also tothe entire legal profession.
The Imo State Chief Judge,Justice Paul C. Onumajulu,stated this in a speech hedelivered in Owerri at thespecial High Court session inhonour of the late judge.
“Obviously, the passionwhich the sudden demise ofa lady of such stature,position, and dispositionevokes, the emotions itenkindles and the grief itstrikes are capable of weighingdown even the heart of alion”, Onumajulu said.
He described the late juristas “a female lawyer of greatstature and composure who,in spite of the rigours, strainsand vicissitudes of privatelegal practice, remained inactive private legal practicefrom her year of call to the barin 1963 to her year of elevationto the higher bench in 1990, aperiod of 27 years”.
Continuing, the State ChiefJudge said: “As aprofessional colleague, bothat the bar and on the bench,she impressed me as asimple, humble, unassuming,hardworking and diligentlawyer who carried herselfwith commendable candourand applied herselfassiduously to her job”.
Speaking also, theAttorney General andCommissioner for Justice,Chief Jude T.U. Nnodum(SAN), said she was the firstfemale legal practitioner to beelevated to the bench in ImoState and on the eve of herretirement from the court, shewas elevated to the Court ofAppeal bench in April 2005,again scoring another first.
“It is unfortunate that lessthan two years in her tenurein the Court of Appeal, deathstruck and brought hercarreer to a sudden end. Butdeath cannot erase hercontributions to the Nigerianlegal system, especiallythrough her judgments”,Nnodum reasoned.
In his address on behalf ofthe Body of SeniorAdvocates of Nigeria, ChiefLivy Uzoukwu (SAN) saidthat the late Judge exhibiteduncommon profundity andscholarship in herjudgments, adding that shegave tough and decentdecisions with great ease.
Okoye noted that hisassociation has investigatedthe allegation that PeoplesDemocratic Party's Candidate,Chief Andy Uba was behind thedisqualification of somecontestants in the state by INECand “found it to be ridiculous”as Uba has no such powers. Henoted that INEC acted inaccordance to the ElectoralLaws of the land which anyaggrieved person canchallenge before any court ofLaw.
“The association furtherfound out that those who arepropagating the mischievousinformation that Andy Uba wasresponsible for the INEC’sdisqualification of the otherthree governorship candidatesactually know the truth of whathappened but deliberatelyresorted to shifting the blame
to Andy Uba so as to whip uppublic sentiment against histowering popularity and gaincheap sympathy from thegullible members of thepublic”, Okoye said.
He noted that the currentallegation by some politiciansin the state that the PDPgubernatorial candidate wasbehind the disqualification ofsome governorship candidatesof some political parties inparticularly Dr. Chris Ngige ofthe Action Congress, ChiefC.N Ukachukwu of the AllNigerian Peoples Party andincumbent state GovernorPeter Obi of the AllProgressive Grand Allianceare not only false but adeliberate campaign ofcalumny orchestrated totarnish the image of the PDPcandidate.
By Chidi Nkwopara
VANGUARD, MONDAY, MARCH 19, 2007 — 13
Makarfi tasks North on Yar'AduaBy Tordue Salem
ABUJA — GOVERNORAhmad Makarfi of Ka-
duna State, weekend asked theleadership of the Peoples Dem-ocratic Party(PDP) in theNorth-West zone to intensifycampaign for the Presidentialcandidate of the Party, MallamMusa Yar’Adua.
Makarfi who is the coordi-nator of the PDP PresidentialCampaign Steering Committeein the zone stated through thespokesman of the steeringcommittee, Mallam DanladiBako that “members of thecommittee should give theirmaximum support for the suc-cess of the campaign in thezone”
The Governor, observed the“need to ensure that the NorthWest zone of the PDP produc-es the largest number of votesfor the PDP presidential can-didate considering that thezone has the singular privilegeof producing the PDP candi-date for the 2007 election”
According to the statement,Makarfi ‘also charged thecommittee to mobilize women,youth, and all the citizens andeligible voters in the zone”
Makarfi according a state-ment signed by Bako, “remind-ed them that the North Westhas the largest number of vot-ers, therefore, it is duty boundto come in quantity of votescast for Yar’adua and Good-luck”.
The itinerary of the NorthWest Campaign according to
Mr. Adaba Peki, Senior Marketing Manager, Sweet Sensation; Mrs. Folusho BabasolaNutrition/Head Manager, Unilever and Kofo Savege Mohammed Co-ordinator UnileverDental, during a press conference on oral healthcare in Lagos. Photo: Joe Akintola
the statement shows that it willkick off in Sokoto state onMarch 20. It will move to Keb-bi State on March 21, ZamfaraState on March 22, and thenKaduna and Kano on March23 and 24 respectively. The
team will be in Jigawa onMarch 25 and the zonal tourwill end in Katsina on Mon-day, March 26.
Senator Isiah Balat, the Ka-duna State coordinator of thecampaign thanked the coordi-
nator on behalf of other mem-bers and promised to “live upto expectation and producemaximum results to make PDPretain the Country’s presiden-cy,” according to the state-ment.
By Ise-Oluwa Ige
Gold mines to bounce back,as two firms set to invest
Court strikes out AC suit challenging formationof Ayua-panel
By Luka Binniyat
ABUJA — THE Minis-ter of Mines and Steel
Development, Professor Les-ley Obiorah, has declearedthat Nigeria’s under exploredgold fields are about to bounceto life as two world rated goldmining firms have indicated in-terest to invest in Nigeria inthe next two weeks.
One of the companies isMoydow and Diamond Fieldswith head office in Dublin, Ire-land, and offices in Torontoand Accra, Ghana.
Moydow has a deep profileportfolio of exploration assetswith primary interests in pre-cious and industrial mineralsand diamonds and is well athome with the African terrain
The other is the Mano RiverResources Inc. an explorationand development companyfocused on the discovery ofgold, diamond and iron oredeposits in the West African,Mano River Union countriesof Sierra Leone, Liberia, andGuinea.
ABUJA — THE Ministerof Education, Mrs
Obiageli Ezekwesili, has an-nounced an indefinite suspen-sion of 232 persons from con-ducting public examinations inthe country.
Announcing the namesweekend in Abuja, the Minis-ter said the ban on the formerexaminers, supervisors and in-vigilators was with effect fromJanuary this year.
Ezekwesili said the personswere blacklisted for allegedlyaiding and abetting examina-tion malpractice.
A breakdown of the listshowed that 46 employees ofthe Federal Ministry of Edu-cation and its agencies toppedthe list of the persons.
The breakdown alsoshowed that Anambra statehad 31 Official; Imo, 15; Ondo,14, while Abia and Cross Riv-er states had 11 each.
Oyo State had nine; Ebonyiand Benue states had seveneach; Plateau, Enugu and Del-ta states recorded six officialseach, while Edo had five.
According to the list, Ekiti,Kebbi, Kogi, Rivers and theFCT had four each, while La-gos, Nasarawa and Kwarastates had three each.
Sokoto State had only oneofficial banned from conduct-ing examinations approved bythe Federal Ministry of Edu-cation.
Ezekwesili said the list wasnot exhaustive, and did notcapture all the perpetrators,adding that the process wason-going while the long arm
232 persons blacklistedfrom conducting exams
of justice would eventuallycatch up with all perpetratorsof examination malpractice.
“These individuals can nolonger serve as personnel ofthe Federal Ministry of Edu-cation associated examina-tions, including those of Na-tional Examinations Council(NECO), West African Exami-nations Council (WAEC),Joint Admission and Matricu-lations Board (JAMB), Na-tional Business and Techni-cal Education Board(NABTEB) and the NationalTeachers Institute (NTI).
“The suspension as exami-nation personnel is a FederalMinistry of Education admin-istrative action. It is withoutprejudice to other disciplinaryactions or measures pre-scribed by law,‘’ she said
A statement from the Officeof the Minister signed by theChief Press Secretary of theMinistry, Mr. Clinton Oni inAbuja weekend, said the Min-ister, who had earlier led Ni-geria’s delegation to the 75thInternational Mining Conven-tion Trade Show and Inves-tors Exchange in Toronto Can-ada, said the companies wouldbe coming to Nigeria withinnext two weeks.
“Mano River Resources In-corporated, Moydow and Di-amond Fields have indicatedinterest to invest in Gold min-ing, which is about to resumeafter over 60 years of dorman-cy and decline”, said the state-ment
ABUJA — FCT Commandof the National Drug
Law Enforcement Agency(NDLEA) has embarked onmassive arrest of drug ped-dlers and consumers in thearea.
The command arrested 12persons and seized more than50kg of cannabis with othersubstances in the operationthat commenced on Thursday.
Areas covered include Dag-ba in Garki Area 1, Mabushiand Garki modern marketwhile illegal structures weredestroyed in those areas.
NDLEA FCT commandantVictoria Egbase said at Gwag-walada that the operation waspart of the command’s effortto clean the FCT of illegal drugpeddlers and consumers.
Egbase noted that someparts of the FCT had been in-vaded by drug peddlers, say-ing that efforts were beingmade to check the trend. Ac-cording to her, five persons arecurrently undergoing rehabil-itation in the command’s mini-rehabilitation centre, includ-ing an 18-year-old student.
She said that the student
had been on drug for the pastten years. She said that par-ents needed to give more at-tention to their children whileall tiers of government shouldpartner with the agency in thestruggle to have a drug-freesociety.
The commandant urgedgovernment to provide morefunds and equipment to theagency so as to sustain theoperation considering the in-crease in the peddling andconsumption of drugs in thearea.
NDLEA clamps down on drug peddlers
ABUJA—A Federal Highcourt sitting in Abuja
last week struck out a suit in-
stituted by the Action Con-gress (AC) challenging thepowers of President Oluseg-un Obasanjo in setting up theProfessor Ayua-led Adminis-trative Panel of Enquiry whichindicted and barred Vice Pres-ident Atiku Abubakar andscores of political office seek-ers from contesting the Aprilpoll on account of corruption.
The trial judge in the case,Justice Binta Murtala Nyarkothrew out the suit following a
request by the AC to withdrawthe case on its own volition.
The political party said thatthe reason for the suit hasbeen overtaken by events.
Specifically, counsel to theparty (AC), Mr S T Mandeun,cited the judgment deliveredby Justice Babs Kuewumi ofthe same high court on March8, this year which stated cate-gorically that INEC lacked thepowers to disqualify any can-didate including Vice Presi-
dent Atiku Abubakar from con-testing election notwithstand-ing any indictment againstsuch office seeker.
But all the nine defendantssued by AC in the case includ-ing President OlusegunObasanjo were in unison todemand for cost for wastingtheir precious time.
The judge consequentlyenriched President Obasanjoand eight others by N2,000each as it awarded a totalN18,000 in their favour.
ABUJA—THE Nigerianfilm industry loses
about N120 billion annually inspite of its ranking as the thirdlargest movie industry in theworld.
Ms. Nadine Stanford, a rep-resentative of a UK-based lawfirm, Agape Solicitors, madethe disclosure last week inAbuja, at a workshop organ-ised by the Nigerian Film andVideo Censors Board(NFVCB).
The workshop was organ-ised under the auspices of theBest of the Best TV (BobTV)theatre and film annual festi-
val at the Sheraton Hotel andTowers.
In a presentation entitled:“Redefining the Business Sideof the Nigerian Movies’’, Stan-ford said the Nigerian film in-dustry had no clearly devel-oped distribution networksboth locally and internation-ally.
She said that figures ob-tained from research by PriceWater House Cooper and Al-der Consulting, on the indus-try showed that the industrywas already worth about N500billion.
“With little or no structures
internationally, and non-exis-tent or informal structures lo-cally, the Nigerian film indus-try sees little or no foreignmoney in spite of its populari-ty abroad,’’ she said.
Stanford said the lack of aclear distribution network, frag-mentation in the industry andpoor cinema content had de-prived screenwriters, produc-ers, actors and marketers of thebenefits of their works.
She said the current trend ofreleasing over 2,000 movies ina year would continue to af-fect the quality of the moviesas most of the producers seem
to be in a haste in packagingtheir movies.
Stanford said the industrymust learn to harmonise itsdifferences and speak with onevoice on issues regarding its fu-ture growth, especially in gettingits returns on investments.
On statistics and buying pow-er in foreign countries, she saidfive per cent of Britain’s 62 mil-lion population were blacks, add-ing that more than 78 per cent ofthose population live in London.
Standford said most of theblack population had taken inter-est in Nigerian movies, but regret-ted that they depended on pirates
Nollywood loses N120b annually—SURVEY
THE new Managing Di-rector of the Nigeria So-
cial Insurance Trust Fund,Chief Enukora Joe Okoli haspromised to ensure the actu-alisation of the EmployeesCompensation Fund.
Speaking during his visit tothe president of the NigeriaLabour Congress, ComradeAbdulwaheed Omar, ChiefOkoli also spoke of his plansto build a modern ICT-drivenorganization in line with mod-ern trend of e-governance,enhance capacity for all staffto deliver efficient servicesthrough professional trainingand collaborate with existingagencies like NAPEP, NHF,NDE and NHIS currently deal-ing with Social security mat-ters for a unity of purpose of thevarious schemes for efficiency andcost effectiveness”.
NLC president, Comrade Omarpromised that the NLC as a ma-jor stakeholder in NSTIF wouldcontinue to “support and collab-orate with the Fund in its statu-tory mandate of providing SocialSecurity Services to Nigerians asenshrined in the Pension ReformAct, 2004".
Meanwhile the Head of Ser-vice, Alhaji Yayale has also re-ceived the NSITF chief executivein audience and promised to sup-port Okoli’s vision for the Fund.
for their copies.She said that morethan 10 million blacks live Europeand 26 million in the U. S.
Stanford urged the NigerianFilm and Video Censors Board(NFVCB) to work hand in handwith marketers to evolve distri-bution structures and standardsin the industry that would attractforeign investment.
Speaking earlier, NFVCB Ex-ecutive Director, Mr EmekaMba, said all reforms in the in-dustry would be targeted at im-proving the lot of investors andensuring that all stakeholdershad their returns in the indus-try.
erment and EnvironmentManagement Project (LEEMP)in Katsina State has executedmore than 122 micro projectsworth N230 million.
The project Coordinator, Al-haji Salisu Yar’Adua made thisknown in Matazu in Katsinawhile distributing N40 millionto some communities for mi-cro projects in six council ar-eas.
He explained that 122projects had been completed,covering education, health,water supply, roads, socio-economic activities, environ-ment and natural resources.
He said some 120 communi-ties in 12 local governmentareas had benefitted from LE-EMP projects.
Yar’adua explained that theN40 million being disbursed
DAMATURU - GOVERNOR Bukar Ibrahim of
Yobe has directed the officeof the Head of Service to de-termine the cost implication ofimplementing a 15 per cent payhike for workers.
He gave the directive inDamaturu on Thursday whilepresenting the 2007 budgetproposal to the state Houseof Assembly.
The State government has
JOS—THE ADC presidential candidate,
Pofessor Pat Utomi, hasurged the NLC to play a vi-tal role in protecting votesduring the general elections.
Utomi made the call in Joswhile addressing membersof the Plateau chapter of theNLC in Jos
He stressed that protect-ing the votes was importantif Nigeria was to witness achange from its history onelectoral processes manipu-lation.
“We all are together in the
was meant for six council ar-eas including Matazu.
He announced that 23 com-munities were scheduled tobenefit from the project underphase two.
He said the projects fundedby LEEMP were communitydriven development projectsaimed at improving the well-being of the rural dwellers.
It was also to ensure sus-tainability of the social assetscreated by the people them-selves, he said.
He therefore, urged the ben-efitting communities to adherestrictly to the implementationguidelines and involve allcommunity members.
The Chairman of MatazuLocal Government, Alhaji Dan-shehu, thanked LEEMP forfunding the communityprojects.
pledged to raise workers’ sal-aries by 15 per cent but hasnot implemented it becausethe House of Assembly hasnot passed the proposal. Thegovernor announced a dona-tion of N1 million to enable thestate NLC to start construc-tion of a secretariat.
He approved another N1million as compensation tooccupants of the land usedfor the secretariat.
pursuit of the liberation ofour country from the stran-glehold of contractor politi-cians.
“The forth-coming elec-tions present the opportuni-ty for us to start this revolu-tion,” he said.
The Presidential candidateobserved that the majorproblem of Nigeria was theabsence of accountability
within the ranks of those,who held leadership posi-tions.
He pointed out that Nige-ria had more than adequateresources to better the lotsof its people, but that theleaders did not put such re-sources into proper use.
Utomi said the situationwould, however, would beredressed under his admin-
istration and also promisednot to fail NLC if elected intopower.
Speaking on behalf of theNLC members, Mr Baba-tunde Liedi, commendedProf. Utomi for his courageto run in the forth-comingelection, saying if elected,Nigeria would experiencelots of changes.
DINNER:From left: Mr. Berti Vogts recieves a Globacom phone from Mr. Okon Iyanam, Executive Director, MarketingCommunication, Globacom, Mr. Bala Ka'oje, Chairman National Sports Commission and Chief Alex Akinyele duringGlobacom's dinner and reception in honour of Berti Vogts, the new National team coach at the Oceanview Restaurant,Lagos.
MINNA — PEOPLE’SDemocratic Party
(PDP), governorship candi-date, Dr. Mauzu BabangidaAliyu has promised to intro-duce free education at all lev-els for all females resident inthe state if he is elected as thenext governor of the state.
The governorship candi-date who made this promisewhen a group of non indi-genes in Minna paid him asolidarity visit said his aim isintended at encouraging morefemales in going to schoolthereby, “closing the widegap” between the males andfemales educations.
Dr. Babangida said he is ofthe opinion and strong be-lieve that women being themajority in the state should be
been overtaken by events say-ing, “we have to move withthe time in order to move for-ward”.
He called on all to live as oneirrespective of their tribe, reli-gion and political affiliationadding that the economy ofthe state rest on everybody.
Spokesmen of the forumwhich comprises many tribes,Chief Emmanuel Udoh saidthey are solidly behind thecandidacy of Dr. BabangidaAliyu because of his trackrecords and prayed for hissuccess at the polls.
Meanwhile, old students ofcollege of Arts and ArabicStudies (CAAS) Sokoto oth-erwise known as AL-HUDAhas thrown its weight behindthe candidature of Niger StatePDP Gubernatorial CandidateDr. Muazu Babangida Aliyu.
Addressing journalists inMinna Friday, Chairman Cen-tral Working Committee of theAssociation, Dr. MustaphaIbrahim Lemu enumerated 10points why they are totally insupport of the candidate whois also an alumni of the school.
He said right from their sec-ondary school day, “we sawin practical terms the manifes-tation of the intelligence, de-termination and smartnessthat constitute the quintessen-tial Dr. Muazu BabangidaAliyu today”, and them calledon the people to vote mas-sively for him.
By Wole Mosadomi
Pls send text to: 08082340885 or e-mail: [email protected] for publication.How has the GSM service providers fared so far?
assisted to pursue their aca-demics to whatever level inorder to move the family, thestate and the nation forward.
The governorship candi-date also promised to cancelthe differential schools feesbetween indigenes and nonindigenes adding that every-body resident in the state will“As far as I am concerned, weare all one; infact we are allnon indigenes and accordingto him, the state cannot dowithout visitors; we have toaccommodate visitors if wewant development and wantto remain as one and this iswhy we will give everybodyequal treatment if we are giv-en the mandate to rule thisstate.”
Dr. Babangida said eventhough there could be rea-sons for the disparity in theschool fees, the events thatled to such a decision have
President Olusegun Obasanjo (right) being received by the Chairman National HumanRights Commission, Justice Anthony Ighu while the Justice Minister, Mr. Bayo Ojo (2ndleft); the Executive Secretary of the Commission, Mrs. Kehinde Ajoni (3rd left) and othersat the Commissioning of the Headquarters Complex of the NHRC, Maitama, Abuja. Photoby Abayomi Adeshida
ABUJA—THE FederalGovernment has urged
stakeholders in the Agricultur-al sector to come up with pol-icies that would push it to playits statutory role in the econ-omy that is geared towardsachieving the NEEDS and theMillennium DevelopmentGoals (MDGS), set target ofabout 60% in less than a de-cade from now.
Declaring open the 36th Reg-
ular Technical Session of theNational Council of Agricul-ture and Rural Development{NCARD} in Abuja last week,the Permanent Secretary, Fed-eral Ministry of Agricultureand Water Resources, Ms.Ama Pepple noted that gov-ernment’s new policy thrusthas been repositioned to an-chor on the achievement of
the NEEDS and MDG’’s tar-get of hunger and poverty al-leviation by 2015.
“I call on this gathering oftechnocrats to brace up forthe challenges and provide,through our deliberations, vi-able choices for Councils, col-lectively and individually”,she said.
According to her, this would
assist the Federal, State andLocal Governments on the bestway to improve on the policythrust at these levels, addingthat the session affords theparticipants the opportunityto consider the memorandabefore they are presented tothe government.
The permanent Secretarywho said the sector had at-
tained a growth rate about 7%catalyst in the ‘‘A’’ targetgrowth rate of 10% has beenset for the sector in 2007 andthe 2007-2009 rolling plan alsoenvisage the agricultural sec-tor to grow at 12%., stressedthat these targets obviouslypose serious challenges toexperts in the sector.
FG tasks stakeholders on fight against hungerBy Umoru Henry
V ANGUARD, MONDAY, MARCH 19, 2007 — 15
NEWS POCKET CARTOON
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ally signed by him to the chair-man of the Senate review com-mittee.
In the letter, with referencenumber Pres/134, and datedMarch 16, 2007, Obasanjo stat-ed that he did not at any timespend money on projects thatcould not be justified.
Obasanjo said he acted withinhis limits in spending the PTDFmonies on information and com-munication technologies, ICT,projects including the AfricanInstitute of Science and Technol-ogy, AIST, Abuja, Computer forAll Nigerians Initiative, CANI,and the Galaxy Backbone Plc.
He also defended why N250million of the PTDF money wasspent as legal fee on the registra-tion of Galaxy Backbone Plc.
The president equally offeredexplanation on why the Fund’sN1 billion was committed to thedevelopment of the indigenousassault rifle code named OBJ-006which had been criticised as his‘vanity project’.
Obasanjo told the Senate reviewcommittee that all he did withthe PTDF money was open toverification.
The letter reads: “I write toacknowledge your letter of invi-tation on the above named sub-ject availing me of the opportu-nity to respond and clarify someof the issues therein, and I thankyour committee for such an op-portunity.
“Let me hasten to express myunderstanding, as I had operatedthe law in the 70s and today, thatthe three key words to guide theoperation of the law are found inthe title of the legislation: Petro-leum, Technology and Develop-ment.
“In today’s situation, I will putthis understanding to capacitybuilding and local content devel-opment – two great issues onwhich the administration hasendeavoured to make significantchange and impact.
Technology Capacity Build-ing and the PTDF Act
In the wake of the Arab oilembargo and subsequent quadru-pling of oil prices by OPEC, thePetroleum Technology Develop-ment Fund (PTDF) Act was pro-mulgated by the Yakubu GowonAdministration in 1973 with thepurpose of building the capaci-ty of Nigerians to be active par-ticipants in the then emerging oiland gas (petroleum) industry.
The objects of the Act wereclearly to take whatever actionsnecessary to ensure that Nigeri-ans are educated, trained, and de-veloped to be experts and keyplayers in petroleum technolo-gy. But what constitutes ‘petro-leum technology’ in 1973, andwhat is it today? These are keyissues for reflection as we at-tempt to derive the intentions ofthe government that enacted thePTDF law for general applica-tion and utility not only for1973, but for the 21st century. Iwas privileged to have servedthat government as a minister.
Petroleum Technology in1973, Today and Tomorrow
Up until the 1990s when a fewuniversities outside Nigeria be-gan offering degrees in petroleumengineering, petroleum technol-ogy as a field of academic, pro-fessional or vocational study didnot exist. The roadmap to a ca-reer in petroleum technology isto acquire degrees or diplomasin any of the following fields ofstudy:
*Chemical engineering andindustrial chemistry
*Geology and geophysics*Basic engineering – civil,
electrical, mechanical, elec-tronic, etc.
*Computer science and elec-tronics,
*Physics and engineeringphysics, and
*Surveying and remote sens-ing
How I spent PTDF money, by ObasanjoIn those days, computer sci-
ence and electronics were at theirinfancy. Indeed, then ‘comput-ers’ were huge mainframes thatfilled up constantly air-condi-tioned rooms that were not ac-cessible to anyone but ‘opera-tors’ to feed punch cards andmagnetic tapes. Telephones wereanalogue devices that were fixedin one place, and often requiredmanual operators to connectcalls over copper wires and hugemicrowave towers, from town-to-town, and country-to-coun-try. The word “internet” did notexist, optical fibre had not beeninvented.
Those who enacted the PTDFAct could not have foreseen atip of what was to happen in thepetroleum technology field sincethe information revolution thatbegan in the mid-1980s. The in-vention of IBM personal com-puter, the development of opti-cal fibre, digital microwave andcellular technologies, deploy-ment of low earth orbit satellitetechnology and the internet – allin quick succession, -have had aprofound impact on not only oiland gas education, training andcapacity building, but on theway governments and business-es conduct their affairs.
Today, a lot of changes in thescope and content of the fieldsof study leading to a career inpetroleum technology have oc-curred with the rapid develop-ment of miniaturization and dig-ital technologies that havebrought down the cost of thesetelecommunication, computerand television technologies.
Role of ICT in CapacityBuilding, Education and Gov-ernment
Information and communica-tions technologies (ICT) can con-tribute to economic and humandevelopment. Nations aroundthe world are eager to take ad-vantage of this potential. A na-tion without these basic ICT fa-cilities cannot develop or com-pete or compare to one withproper ICT facilities in the 21stcentury. Hence, the PTDF fund-ing of ICT generally can be justi-fied to enhance development ofthe petroleum industry in Nige-ria as well as other industries.
The convergence of voice, vid-eo and data – the telephone (nowmobile or fixed), the televisionand digital information – carriedover the same line – whetherwireless or via optical fibre hasled to the emergence of ICT asthe real foundation of all knowl-edge, all business, all competi-tive advantage, whether in refer-ence to education, healthcare,industries and nations. No busi-ness, industry or government cancompete in the increasingly in-tegrating global economy with-out a robust, ubiquitous and ac-cessible ICT infrastructure, toolsand continuous training for itspeople.
Today, ICT has become so per-vasive in every sector, every in-dustry and economy that toimagine that it is possible to ed-ucate, train and build capacity inpetroleum technology or indeedany other field of the sciencesand the humanities without in-vesting in its infrastructure andtools would be foolhardy, evenabsurd. ICT investment today isakin to the investments in elec-tric power, roads, railways, air-ports, and seaports which facil-itated domestic and internation-al trade, industrialization andgrowth of market economies inthe 19th and 20th centuries. ICTis today very much the pencil,pen and paper around which theanalogue workplace was builtupon. It is impossible in theworld of today to realise the ob-jects of the PTDF Act withoutsubstantial investment in infor-mation and communications tech-nologies, infrastructure, andtools.
African Institute of Scienceand Technology (AIST), Abu-ja
The Nelson Mandela Institu-tion (NMI) is a not-for-profitfoundation established by Afri-can academics teaching in Eu-rope, America and Asia with thesole objective of establishing fourworld-class universities of tech-nology like the famed MIT andthe Indian Institute of Technol-ogy. Three prominent Nigerianprofessors – Wole Soboyejo(Princeton), Tayo Akinwande(MIT) and Barth Nnaji (Cornell)worked with the likes of theformer president of Mozam-bique, Joachim Chissano, CyrilRamaphosa and Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala to promote the noble ob-jective and secure the backing ofthe World Bank, the Africa De-velopment Bank, the EuropeanUnion and Blair Commission forAfrica for the project.
The goal of the group of pro-fessors, technocrats and politi-cians is to establish a technolog-ical university in each of East,West, South and North Africa,in that order and each will becalled the African Institute ofScience and Technology (AIST),but incorporated in each coun-try of location as a stand-alone,national and sub-regional, pri-vate university. The firstAIST was to be established inTanzania, but with my interven-tion and involvement of Dr.Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, NMI waspersuaded to agree to locate thefirst AIST in the Abuja Technol-ogy Village.
The Federal Government ofNigeria through the FCT admin-istration committed to provid-ing 240 hectares of land, infra-structure and financial supportto enable the early take off ofthe university by 2008. TheAIST is to be co-financed byWorld Bank grants and credits,grants from the EU and the Brit-ish government, and the AfricanDevelopment Bank. This pro-vides Nigeria a unique opportu-nity to have a world class tech-nological university started on aclean slate largely with subsi-dized funding from bilateral andmultilateral development part-ners. The FCT administrationrequested and the NMI agreedto relocate its head office fromWashington, DC to Abuja in2005.
Within the AIST is the Gulf ofGuinea Institute – G2i. This isintended to be the premier facul-ty of oil and gas technology toserve as center for excellence foreducation, training and capacitybuilding in petroleum technolo-gy for the Gulf of Guinea regionand indeed the African Conti-nent. The Business and Imple-mentation Plan for the G2i areprovided herewith as Annex I. Itis on the basis of the foregoingthat PTDF was approached tointervene in the development ofthe G2i of the AIST. The inter-vention of USD 25 million wasapproved out of the USD 40million requested.
The AIST is not a government-owned university and thereforedoes not require an Act of theNational Assembly to exist. Itneeds only to be incorporated inNigeria, and be licensed by theNUC to commence operation asa university. AIST has alreadybeen incorporated as AfricanUniversity of Science and Tech-nology – Limited by Guaranteeand its application to the NUCin process. See Annex II for CACCertificate of Incorporation. TheCertificate of Occupancy forAIST’s land has been issued, andarchitectural and engineering de-signs completed. On 27th ofFebruary, 2007 I performed thegroundbreaking ceremony for theconstruction of the Gulf of Guin-ea Institute of AIST Abuja. Con-tracts for the infrastructure areabout to be awarded by the FCT
Administration. In July 2007, thefirst set of participants in Exec-utive Programmes in Oil and Gaswill be admitted to the AIST anddegree programs are scheduled tostart in 2008.
The Abuja Institute of Science& Technology (AIST) with itsaffiliate center, the Gulf of Guin-ea Institute, will offer academicprogrammes and services in fivedifferent areas;
i)Didactic and Training Servic-es – which will offer postgradu-ate programmes in academic dis-ciplines that apply to the oil andgas sector,
ii)Economic Services – whichwould focus on the design, de-velopment and publication oftechno-economic indices on thecosts of Oil and Gas resource de-velopment in the Gulf of Guinearegion,
iii)Engineering Research –which will offer research pro-grammes specifically on the con-struction and exploration prob-lems on offshore drilling, pro-duction and storage in the Gulfof Guinea,
iv)Socio-Ethical studies –which will concentrate on re-search on the impact of oil andgas industry in the Gulf of Guin-ea region and other communities,and
v)Technical Publication topublish journals of internationalscholarly interest in the oil andgas sector.
Being one of the largest oil pro-ducing countries in the world,this would create a world classoil and gas industry training in-stitution in Nigeria. Also it willprovide an alternative to train-ing institutions outside Nigeriawhich currently trains most ofthe public and private sector in-dustry workers.
The interpretation and appli-cation of any law related to anyfield of science or technology,passed in 1973, without takingcognizance of developments inICT and impact on the educa-tion, training and capacity build-ing will lead to absurd results. Ininterpreting this law, looking atthe narrow meaning of the literalwords of the Act are unhelpful.Interpretation must begin withderiving the intention of the leg-islature.
The Federal Executive Coun-cil debated this extensively andconcluded that, and we accord-ingly submit here that the mis-chief the PTDF Act sought tocure is the very low level of par-ticipation of Nigerians in the pe-troleum industry in 1973. It isimpossible today for Nigeriansin the Petroleum Industry in par-ticular and the Public Service ingeneral to even communicatewith the multinational oil com-panies without ICT infrastruc-ture, tools and training. TheCANI was introduced by theFGN to accelerate the bridgingof the digital divide between thepublic and private sectors."
youths to order, as well as dueto the latest spate of similar clash-es. It was learnt that the clasheswere due to an alleged beating andkidnapping of three youths fromLiama by their Egweama coun-terparts. The Liama youths weresaid to have accompanied a boatcarrying items belonging to oilservice company, Emerald Ener-gy Oil Services, when they wereattacked.
Angered by the development,youths from Liama launched anattack on their Egweama neigh-bours which led to the death of11 persons and the destructionof houses. The deputy governorwho conducted an on-the-spotassessment visit to the troubled
31 Bayelsa chiefs in Police netover clashes
communities after the incident,pleaded with the chiefs to ensurethat peace returned to the area.
Ebebi had warned that govern-ment would not hesitate to bringthe full weight of the law to bearon any erring community. He re-minded the chiefs that governmenthad invested so much resourcesto ensure that peace reigned inthe state. Meanwhile, the arrest-ed chiefs are being detained at theState Criminal Investigation De-partment (SCID) in Yenegoa. Thestate police Public relations Of-ficer, Mr Iniobong Ibokette, con-firmed the arrests, saying thechiefs were helping in police in-vestigations into the violent clash-es.
successful hand over to the nextelected government in the state.
He implored citizens to desistfrom acts or utterances capableof aggravating the tension in thestate or lead to violence, addingthat his intention to resume of-fice “stems from his respect forthe sacred mandate given to himby the people of Plateau Statewhich he sees as a God-given re-sponsibility which he will neverabdicate.”
The statement also quotedChief Dariye as having expressedhis willingness to continue towork with his former deputy,Chief Michael Bot-Mang for theremaining part of their tenure.“The executive governor thanksthe Almighty God for yet anoth-er divine intervention in the af-fairs of Plateau State and urgessupporters and detractors aliketo draw lessons from such inter-ventions.”
In another development, the
'I'm ready to resume now'Continues from Page 1 Action Congress (AC) in Plateau
State has said that the judgmentof the Court of Appeal which re-instated Dariye was subsistingsince the state of execution ap-plied for by the appellants wasyet to be granted.
The party’s state Chairman,Chief Maichibi Vwarji, in a state-ment took a swipe at critics ofthe judgment, noting that theydemonstrated ignorance of theelementary principles of the ruleof law.
It agreed with comments cred-ited to Chief Solomon Lar on thecourt judgment, arguing that theissue was about constitutionali-ty and respect for the rule of lawand not emotions.
It commended the judiciary forstrengthening the faith of Nigeri-ans in the justice administrationsystem of this country, adding“this judgment would go a longway in establishing a culture ofrule of law as against anarchywhich the ruling party is tryingto impose on Nigerians.”
December that they wouldstop corrupting governmentofficials through inducementof negotiated above normalup-front interest payment ongovernment funds placed intheir banks.
Presidency sources told Van-guard that a memo was sent outby the Central Bank (CBN) toall managing directors ofbanks in which they wereasked to sign an undertakingthat they would stem corrup-tion in their banks. The moveis said to have been promptedby the flagrant manner banksviolated the ethics of bankingin their quest for cheap gov-ernment funds. It was gath-ered that all investigationsinto corrupt activities of gov-ernors, government officialswere traceable to the doorsteps of Nigerian banks.
According to the presidencysource, four banks are in theforefront of corruption in Ni-geria. The four banks are be-
FG to clampdown on banksing accused of doing incalcu-lable damage to the bankingculture in Nigeria. One of themanaging directors who con-firmed signing the documentsaid in the drive for funds,many banks had thrown cau-tion to the wind as they useevery unethical means to at-tract funds from governmentinstitutions and agencies. Hesaid now, government agen-cies and parastatals demand-ed about four per cent abovenormal up-front interest pay-ment for funds placed inbanks. Many banks whichwant to stick to the ethics ofbanking are losing fundsplaced with them in the past.He said a particular bank lostN5billion deposit recentlywhen it refused to pay the up-front fee demanded by the of-ficials.
He said a particular stategovernor collected five percent on the funds placed withthe bank which the bank inquestion styled COT charges.
NEWS EXTRA
How does government budget affect the lives of Nigerians?Pls send text to: 08082340885 or e-mail: [email protected] for publication.
4
16 — VANGUARD, MONDAY, MARCH 19, 2007
Two friends stab eachother to death over girl
India fans seek World Cupresults on astrology site
'How I planned 9/11 bombings'
By Austin Ogwuda
ASABA—TWO friends locked in a scuffle over
a girlfriend have killed eachother through stabbing. Theugly incident, according tothe police, occurred on the10th of this month while theywere drinking at a beer par-lour at Isiokolo. State policecommand’s spokeperson,Miss Olabisi Okuwobi, in con-firming the incident said that“while drinking in companyof an unknown boy, they hadmisunderstanding and fight
W A S H I N G T O N —KHALID Sheikh
Mohammed portrayed himselfto a U.S. military tribunal asal-Qaida’s most ambitiousoperational planner, takingresponsibility for planningand supporting 31 terroristattacks, topped by 9/11,according to an account ofhis confession.
The gruesome attacksrange from the suicidehijackings of Sept. 11, 2001 -which killed nearly 3,000 - to a2002 shooting on an island offKuwait that killed a U.S. Ma-rine, according to an accountreleased by the Pentagon.
Many plots, including a pre-viously undisclosed plan tokill several former U.S. presi-dents, were never carried outor were foiled by internation-al counterterror authorities.
“I was responsible for the9/11 operation from A to Z,”Mohammed said in astatement read Saturdayduring a Combatant StatusReview Tribunal at the U.S.detention facility atGuantanamo Bay, Cuba.Mohammed’s confession wasread by a member of the U.S.military who is serving as hispersonal representative.
The Pentagon released a26-page transcript of theclosed-door proceedings onWednesday night. Somematerial was omitted, and itwasn’t possible toimmediately confirm details.The document refers tolocations for which theUnited States and othernations have issued terrorismwarnings based on what theydeemed credible threats from1993 to the present.
Mohammed, known asKSM among governmentofficials, was last seenhaggard after his capture inMarch 2003, when he wasphotographed in a dingywhite T-shirt with an over-stretched neck. Hedisappeared for more thanthree years into a secretdetention system run by theCIA.
In his first public statementssince his capture, his radicalideology and self-confidencecame through. He expressedregret for taking the lives ofchildren and said Islamdoesn’t give a “green light”to killing.
Yet he finds room forexceptions. “The language ofthe war is victims,” he said.
He also said some people“consider GeorgeWashington as hero. Muslimsmany of them are consideringOsama bin Laden.
He is doing same thing. Heis just fighting. He needs hisindependence.”
In laying out his role in 31attacks, his words drew al-Qaida closer to plots of theearly 1990s than the grouphas previously been linked,including the 1993 WorldTrade Centre truck bombingin which six people died.
Six people with links toglobal terror networks wereconvicted in federal court andsentenced to life in prison forthat attack.
Mohammed made clear that
MUMBAI—CRICKET-CRAZY India is
looking skywards to discoverif their players are shaping upto bring home the World Cupafter the April 28 final.
A popular Indian astrologyWeb site,www.ganeshaspeaks.com, isoffering in-depth details onplanetary positions on matchdays and the changingbiorhythm circles of eachplayer.
The Web site is namedafter the elephant-headedHindu God, Lord Ganesha.
The cricket-frenzy in thecountry, home to around 1.1billion people, has beenfuelled by a multitude oftelevision channels andmedia houses who aretracking the action minute byminute.
India, 1983 winners, begintheir campaign on Saturdaywith a Group B match againstBangladesh.
NEW CHAMPIONAstrologers, numerologists
and tarot card readers arebeing asked to predict thewinner of the World Cup thatopened this week, while thisWeb site attempts the samethrough a multi-dimensionalanalysis.
broke during which theystabbed each other both onthe chest and stomach re-spectively”, adding that “bothof them were rushed to EkuBaptist Hospital for treatmentwhere they later died”. Shegave the names of the two ofthem as Akpoke Yabin andOmuvwie Akpod. Meanwhile,a commercial motorcycle op-erator, popularly known asokadaman has committed su-icide by hanging on a tree. Theincident according to Okuwo-bi took place in a bush nearOginibo town in the state.
“Ganesha feels that we willhave a new world championthis time,” was the Web site’sforecast.
“If Australia reaches thesemi-final as a second or thirdteam they may have betterchances to make it to the final,”it said of the world champions,who are aiming to become thefirst team to win a hat-trick ofWorld Cup titles.
“(But) if Australia reachesthe final they might not be ableto win.”
It said astrological aspectsfavour South Africa, NewZealand and West Indies totake three of the semi-finalslots.
Analysing the astrologyprofile, biorhythm report andelement chart of each memberof the 16 participating teams,the Web site predicted thatIndia had an equal chance ofqualifying for the fourth semi-final spot along with Australiaand Sri Lanka.
“India’s fate will heavilydepend on the fourth game ofthe Super Eight matches. Tosswill become very importantand to chose batting/bowlingwill have strong impact overthe game’s outcome,” said theWeb site which also predictsoutcomes of the EnglishPremier League football.
al-Qaida wanted to down asecond trans-Atlantic aircraftduring would-be shoe bomberRichard Reid’s operation.
And he confessed to thebeheading of Wall StreetJournal reporter Daniel Pearlin a section of the statementthat was excised from thepublic document, TheAssociated Press has learned.Pearl was abducted inJanuary 2002 in Pakistan whileresearching a story on Islamicmilitancy. Mohammed haslong been a suspect in theslaying, which was capturedon video.
President Bush announcedthat Mohammed and 13 otheralleged terror operatives hadbeen moved from secret CIAprisons to the U.S. Naval Baseat Guantanamo Bay last year.They are considered the 14most significant capturessince 9/11.
The military began thehearings last Friday todetermine whether the 14should be declared “enemycombatants” who can be heldindefinitely and prosecutedby military tribunals.
If the 14 are declared enemycombatants, as expected, themilitary would then draft andfile charges against them. Thedetainees would be triedunder the new militarycommissions law signed byBush in October.
The military barredreporters or otherindependent observers fromthe sessions for the 14operatives and is limiting theinformation it provides aboutthem, arguing that it wants toprevent the disclosure ofsensitive information.
Legal experts have criticizedthe U.S. decision, and TheAssociated Press filed a letterof protest, arguing that itwould be “anunconstitutional mistake toclose the proceedings in theirentirety.”
The transcripts refer to aclaim by Mohammed that hewas tortured by the CIA,
although he said he was notunder duress at Guantanamowhen he confessed to his rolein the attacks. The CIA hassaid its interrogation practicesare legal, and it does not usetorture.
Kenneth Roth, executivedirector of Human RightsWatch, questioned thelegality of the closed-doorsessions and whether theconfession was actually theresult of torture.
“We won’t know thatunless there is anindependent hearing,” hesaid. “We need to know if thispurported confession wouldbe enough to convict him at afair trial or would it have to besuppressed as the fruit oftorture?”
In listing the 28 attacks heplanned and another three hesupported, Mohammed saidhe tried to kill internationalleaders including Pope JohnPaul11, President Clinton andPakistani President PervezMusharraf.
He said he planned the 2002bombing of a Kenya beachresort frequented by Israelisand the failed missile attackon an Israeli passenger jetafter it took off fromMombasa, Kenya.
He also said he wasresponsible for the bombingof a nightclub in Bali,Indonesia. In 2002, 202 werekilled when two nightclubsthere were bombed.
Other plots he said he wasresponsible for includedplanned attacks against theSears Tower in Chicago, theEmpire State Building andNew York Exchange in NewYork City, the Panama Canal,and Big Ben and HeathrowAirport in London — none ofwhich happened.
The Pentagon also releasedtranscripts of the hearings ofAbu Faraj al-Libi and RamziBinalshibh. Both refused toattend the hearings, althoughal-Libi submitted a statementclaiming that the hearings areunfair and that he will not at-
tend unless it is corrected.“The detainee is in a lose-
lose situation,” he said.Al-Libi, whose name means
he is a Libyan, reportedlymasterminded two bombings11 days apart in Pakistan inDecember 2003 that targetedMusharraf for his support ofthe U.S.-led war on terror.
Binalshibh, a Yemeni, issuspected of helpingMohammed with the 9/11attack plan on New York Cityand Washington and is alsolinked to a foiled plot to crashaircraft into London’sHeathrow Airport. His hearingwas conducted in hisabsence.
By Evelyn Usman & FemiAdisa
Gubernatorial candidate for Action Congress
(AC) in Lagos, Mr. BabatundeFashola, Thursday, donatedthe sum of N9.35 million, to auniversity student who is suf-fering from a disease at herresidence in Akoka area ofLagos.
Presenting the cheque, Mr.Fashola said he felt unhappywhen he read about her ordealin one of the dailies hence,he decided to help her.
Said he, "When I saw yourstory in one of the dailies, Ifelt unhappy and decided tohelp you. I wrote theGovernor and he approvedthis sum for your medicaltreatment abroad”.
The student, Miss PatriciaUdoka, a 400 level student ofBusiness Education, Univer-
Fashola donatesN9.35m for UNILAG
girl's treatmentsity of Lagos, who had beensuffering from the FibrensDisplacia ailment that had ren-dered her left leg indolentsince her adolescent age,thanked Mr. Fashola for hisphilanthropic gesture whichwas very timely for her to gofor the required surgery on theaffected leg in London.
The AC gubernatorialcandidate later moved hiscampaign train to Ibeju-Lekkilocal government where hepromised to build a waterworks that will be producing70 million gallons of water dai-ly. Highlighting some of hisprogrammes for the people ofLagos, Fashola pointed outthat top on his programmeswould be creation of job forthe unemployed.
Said he, “the Lekki free tradezone is a reality. This free tradezone will create over 10,000jobs."
Imposter sitsin on
Australiandefence meetings
CANBERRA—A lorrydriver who was once
jailed for armed robbery posedas an army officer, mixed withthe top brass and talked hisway into high-level securitymeetings, an Australian courthas been told.
Peter Bennett, 54, started his10-month fantasy militarycareer in September 2005when he wore formal militarydress to gain entry to an airforce base dinner, where hechatted to Australia’s air forcechief, Air Vice-MarshalGeoffrey Shepherd.
Melbourne’s Agenewspaper said over thefollowing months, Bennettjoined meetings of OperationAcolyte, the defence force’ssecurity operation for lastyear’s Commonwealth Gamesin Melbourne, and was issuedwith a defence force identitycard.
“To his boot straps, he wassimply a cheeky civilian witha good tailor and a foot lockerbrimming with confidence thatenabled him to parachutebehind friendly lines,” theAge said on Thursday.
A court official said Bennetthad pleaded guilty in a localmagistrate’s court toimpersonating a public officialand making a falsedeclaration.
The hijacked passengerplane making for the towers.
The twin towers on 9/11.
VANGUARD, MONDAY, MARCH 19, 2007 — 17
08055068954
SOMETIME in the middleof 2005, one of those
typical events that have put Ni-gerians in this backward era tookplace in an Abuja High Court. InDecember 2004, the nation wasjolted when suspected assassinswaylaid and shot at ProfessorDora Akunyili, the DirectorGeneral of the National Agencyfor Food and DrugAdministration and Control(NAFDAC) in Anambra State.She escaped death by the skin ofa tooth. Days later, the securityagencies nabbed a number ofpeople, including one Mr. MarcelNnakwe and his son, along withothers said to have participatedin plotting the heinous anddastardly act. They were laterarraigned before an Abuja HighCourt presided over by JusticeIshaq Bello.
Due to the great sensation thismatter caused, and the fact thatNAFDAC under Mrs. Akunyilihad been waging an uncommontype of war to rid this countryof killer fake drugs, I wasparticularly attracted to theproceedings in the Abuja court.The prosecution had argued thatBello did not have thejurisdiction to try this case, butJustice Bello awardedjurisdiction to himself. Afterabout one year of handling thismatter, Bello finally decided thathe lacked the jurisdiction to trythe case and referred it back toAnambra State where the eventtook place! He thereby grantedbail to the accused persons.
The accused persons walkedaway from court jubilating, andthe NAFDAC camp feltcompletely crestfallen. AnambraState was the home soil of theaccused persons, and the fearthat led to the case being takento Abuja stared Akunyili and herstaff in the face. NAFDAC hadgone very far in ridding Onitshamarket of the fake drugs menace.But with the “triumphant”return of the accused barons, itwas only a matter of time beforewe heard again from them. Wedid not have to wait too long,because, according to the news,the barons grew bigger horns andintimidated NAFDAC staff outof the dreaded Onitsha DrugMarket. Many of them starteddemanding to be transferred fromOnitsha! In other words,government was losing ground todaredevil criminals. It was thisunacceptable situation that ledNAFDAC to close the drugmarket and begin mop-upoperations in it. It has since beenrevealed that dozens ofcontainers of fake and expireddrugs and illegal abortion clinicswere discovered by NAFDACunder the cover of security
NAFDAC’s hydra-headed enemies
agents.It has become clear that the war
on fake drugs is unwinable underthe present conditions. Theenemy that Professor Akunyiliand her team have beenconfronting – the fake drugmerchants – are the surface ofthe matter. They are akin to thesymptoms of a disease, or theopportunistic infections thatpounce upon a compromisedsystem. It is like prescribingPanadol to douse the feverishsymptoms of malaria or typhoidfever, when in fact, Panadol isonly a palliative that does notattack the root of the problem. Agood doctor would investigateand discover the infections thatare causing the feverishconditions. This is what we havenot done in the fight to eradicatefake and adulterated drugs inNigeria.
The drug merchants and theirinternational collaborators arejust like opportunistic infectionspreying on a system that ispermissively rotten. WhenNAFDAC says it discoveredcontainerloads of fake drugs inOnitsha market, it sets youwondering how those containersmanaged to slip through thesecurity-infested seaports orairports and even the borders andtraveled hundreds of kilometresof police-infested federalhighways to Onitsha! In theports at any time, there are somany security outfits, includingthe Customs, the Police, the SSSand what have you. These aregovernment agents that do notanswer to NAFDAC. But theyanswer to higher authorities.How come these authoritieshave not summoned the Customsto find out how these containerswere able to escape detection atthe ports?
Government departments andagencies have proved to be asformidable enemies as the drugbarons. The less-than-noblehandling of the court case byJustice Bello is just one otherway a government branch can bea barrier to any genuine effortsto solve the evils of our society.It will also be recalled that justafter the assassination attempt,the Police, under the thenInspector General, TafaBalogun, started acting funny inthe ways it went about its in-vestigations. There were police
MAIL: Re – new currency without Arabic
reports that the NAFDAC bosswas never shot by anybody. Sheonly heard fireworks and pan-icked! Another police story hadit that the shot was released ac-cidentally by one of the securitypersonnel attached to the DG.Even the Presidency became sus-picious and decided to hand overthe investigations to the SSS.
Sometime ago, a dispute arosebetween NAFDAC and theStandards Organisation ofNigeria (SON) because SONsuddenly decided to startinspecting imported food items,which falls under NAFDAC dutyarea. The Director-General ofSON, Dr. John Akanya’sargument was that the job ofridding the country of fakeproducts cannot be done by onegovernment agency. True as thismay sound on the surface, it isalso clear that two governmentagencies on one job would createleakages that will be exploited bythese hardened criminals whohave the resources to bribe theirways through. If one agencyproves too stubborn they wouldsimply turn to its rival. It doesnot seem as if SON has coveredits own ground adequately, whatwith the preponderance of fakeimported and locally-manufactured goods in themarkets all over Nigeria.
THE frustration thatNAFDAC is experiencing
will always be there to confrontanyone trying to serve the nationwith all his strength unless criticalreforms are done to remove thecauses that encourage evil tradersto take advantage of our systemicweaknesses. What do you say,for instance, of our legal systemthat slaps fake drug offenders onthe wrist with a few years jailterm or a maximum fine ofN500,000? Where is the deter-rence factor in this law?
The war on fake drugs will endup as a temporary quixoticmission by Professor Akunyili,if she eventually leaves the Agen-cy without the proper re-forms being carried out in theentire machine of governmenttowards the establishment ofzero-tolerance for the menace.These enemies of NAFDACare in fact the enemies of theNigerians.
GREETINGS. This is inresponse to Bashir H.
Adamu’s 26th February reply toyour own article of the 22ndFebruary on the deletion ofArabic symbols from naira notes.I share Adamu’s view that theCentral Bank’s reason for thedeletion was somehowpatronising. Surely, literacyusing Latin script cannot be theonly measure of literacy on thisplanet. What of Chinese orHindu script? The matter onceagain brings to the fore thedilemma of black Africans whoseem to be forever under theinfluence of things foreign incritical areas of life to the pointof coming to blows, or worse,over them! We do not appear to
be discerning or discriminatingin making choices about foreigninfluences. In the course ofthe centuries-long occupation ofSpain by Arabs, Europeans camein close contact with Arabicscript and numerals. They ofcourse already had their Latinscript and numerals. But theyadopted the Arabic numerologywhich I think they considered tobe more versatile with itsconcept of zero or cipher thanthe Latin numerals which did notquite include that concept andmoreover, Latin numerals are notthat distinct from Latin script.
I shall certainly miss the Arabicscript which, by the way, datesfrom colonial times! Even though
I am illiterate in Arabic or Ajami,I always viewed the script aslovely calligraphy. By the way,‘Arabic symbols’ remain on thecurrency notes in the form of thenow internationalized numeralsor digits indicating the value ofthe currency! Kai! Can’t seem toescape things Arabic, abi? Maya progressive discernment guideus in our adoption of things for-eig.
Michael E. Aken’Ova
Department of AgronomyUniversity of Ibadan,Ibadan.
After about one and halfyears, Justice Bello finallydecided that he lacked thejurisdiction to try the case
THE feedback on our article“GHANA: NOT YET
UHURU 50 YEARS AFTER”indicates that most Nigerians,indeed, Africans below the age offorty may know Nkrumah asGhana’s first Head of State, but itappears that not many may beacquainted with the intensepassion of this great son of Africafor the upliftment of the continentand its people. In this event, wereproduce below excerpts fromthree speeches delivered byOsagyego Kwame Nkrumah!Note that these speeches werecrafted well in advance of theestablishment of the EuropeanEconomic Community and laterthe European Union and othersuch regional political andeconomic groupings. Please readon.
(Excerpt of speech given at theCongress of Africanists) (Accra,Ghana-December 1962)
“If we have lost touch with whatour forefathers discovered andknew, this has been due to thesystem of education to which wewere introduced. This system ofeducation prepared us for asubservient role to Europe andthings European. It was directedat estranging us from our owncultures in order to be moreeffective to serve a new and alieninterest…
The central myth in themythology surrounding Africa isthat of the denial that we are ahistorical people. It is said thatwhereas other continents haveshaped history and determined itscourse, Africa has stood still, helddown by inertia. Africa , it is said,entered history only as a result ofEuropean contact. Its history,therefore, is widely felt to be anextension of European history…
It is therefore proper and fittingthat a Congress of Africanistsshould take place in Africa and thatthe concept of Africanism shoulddevolve from and be animated bythat Congress.”
(From Kwame Nkrumah, ISpeak of Freedom: A Statement ofAfrican Ideology ( London ).
“For centuries, Europeansdominated the African continent.The white man arrogated tohimself the right to rule and to beobeyed by the non-white; hismission, he claimed, was to"civilize" Africa. Under thiscloak, the Europeans robbed thecontinent of vast riches andinflicted unimaginable sufferingon the African people.
It is clear that we must find anAfrican solution to ourproblems, and that this can onlybe found in African unity.Divided we are weak; united,Africa could become one of thegreatest forces for good in theworld.
…Individually, theindependent states of Africa,some of them potentially rich,others poor, can do little for theirpeople. Together, by mutualhelp, they can achieve much. Butthe economic development of thecontinent must be planned andpursued as a whole. A looseconfederation designed only foreconomic co-operation wouldnot provide the necessary unityof purpose. Only a strongpolitical union can bring aboutfull and effective development ofour natural resources for thebenefit of our people.
Nkrumah's vision orfantasy?
Critics of African unity oftenrefer to the wide differences inculture, language and ideas invarious parts of Africa. Thedifficulties presented by questionsof language, culture and differentpolitical systems are notinsuperable.
The greatest contribution thatAfrica can make to the peace ofthe world is to avoid all the dangersinherent in disunity, by creating apolitical union which will also byits success, stand as an exampleto a divided world. A Union ofAfrican states will project moreeffectively the Africanpersonality. It will commandrespect from a world that hasregard only for size and influence.
We have to prove thatgreatness is not to be measuredin stockpiles of atom bombs. Ibelieve strongly and sincerelythat with the deep-rootedwisdom and dignity, the innaterespect for human lives, theintense humanity that is ourheritage, the African race, unitedunder one Federal Government,will emerge not as just anotherworld bloc to flaunt its wealthand strength, but as a great powerwhose greatness is indestructiblebecause it is built not on fear,envy and suspicion, nor won atthe expense of others, butfounded on hope, trust,friendship and directed to thegood of all mankind.
The emergence of such amighty stabilizing force in thisstrife-worn world should beregarded not as the shadowydream of a visionary, but as apractical proposition, which thepeoples of Africa can, and shouldtranslate into reality.”
“…The natural wealth ofAfrica is estimated to be greaterthan that of almost any othercontinent in the world. To drawthe most from our existing andpotential means for theachievement of abundance and afine social order, we need tounify our efforts, our resources,our skills and intentions.
…We therefore need a commonpolitical basis for the integrationof our policies in economicplanning, defense, foreign anddiplomatic relations. That basis forpolitical action need not infringethe essential sovereignty of theseparate African states. Thesestates would continue to exerciseindependent authority, except inthe fields defined and reserved forcommon action in the interests ofthe security and orderlydevelopment of the wholecontinent.
In my view, therefore, a unitedAfrica – that is, the political andeconomic unification of theAfrican Continent – should seekthree objectives:
Firstly, we should have an over-all economic planning on acontinental basis. This wouldincrease the industrial andeconomic power of Africa. So longas we remain balkanized, regionallyor territorially, we shall be at themercy of colonialism andimperialism...
Secondly, we should aim at theestablishment of a unified militaryand defense strategy. I do not seemuch virtue or wisdom in ourseparate efforts to build up ormaintain vast military forces forself-defense which, in any case,would be ineffective in any majorattack upon our separate states.If we examine this problemrealistically, we should be able toask ourselves this pertinentquestion: which single state inAfrica today can protect itssovereignty against an imperialistaggressor?
… The third objective … (is) aunified foreign policy anddiplomacy to give politicaldirection to our joint efforts forthe protection and economicdevelopment of our continent …The desirability of a commonforeign policy which will enableus to speak with one voice in thecouncils of the world, is soobvious, vital and imperativethat comment is hardlynecessary.
It may be that concreteexpression can be given to ourpresent ideas within acontinental parliament thatwould provide a lower and anupper house, the one to permitthe discussion of the manyproblems facing Africa by arepresentation based onpopulation; the other, ensuring theequality of the associated states,regardless of size and population,by a similar, limited representationfrom each of them, to formulate acommon policy in all mattersaffecting the security, defense anddevelopment of Africa.
Under a major political union ofAfrica there could emerge a UnitedAfrica, great and powerful, inwhich the territorial borders whichare the relics of colonialism willbecome obsolete andsuperfluous…. The forces thatunite us are far greater than thedifficulties that divide us at present,and our goal must be theestablishment of Africa 's dignity,progress and prosperity.”
Dear readers, is this visionaryrhetoric or plain fantasy?
an ambition and pursuing same.There is also nothing wrong withaspiring to a higher position in life.Life itself is all about breaking newgrounds, reaching for the heightsand the continuous raising of thebar of excellence. Yet there iseverything wrong when anambition or aspiration becomesinordinate and uncontrollable. Anambition becomes inordinate andselfish when it clashes with thegeneral will and the overall interestof the public. At this very point,whether in politics, business orother social endeavours, theindividual is expected to reassesshis interest against the overallpublic goal.
It is in this light I choose to seeSenator Ifeanyi Araraume’sinsistence to govern the people ofImo State. To be sure, the youngman has the right to aspire to bethe governor of his state. What ismore, he has been a two-termsenator representing the state andit is very logical for him to want tomove up (depending on theperception of which position ishigher). He has committed time,resources and energy to see hisambition come to fruition. But inspite of the huge resources he hasinvested (?) in the party, themedia and the entire politicalprocess, it seems like he is runningagainst the wind. Although he ledin the gubernatorial primary of thePeoples Democratic Party, whichwas not only inconclusive, butalso generally known to be marredby fraud, the party through aconsensual process passed overhim and chose Charles Ugwuh asits candidate.
Aggrieved and wounded,Araraume headed for the court tochallenge the decision to substitutehis name with that of Ugwuh. TheAbuja High Court on February 16,
2007, however, refused to granthis prayers when the presidingjudge, Justice Binta MurtalaNyako ruled brilliantly “that thepolitical party (PDP) is withinits power to so change itscandidate and have so done as faras the parties on record areconcerned”. Technically speakingthe court therefore confirmedUgwuh as the bona fide PDPgovernorship candidate in ImoState. But before this time,several dirty tactics were at playranging from rumours,misinformation and outright namecalling to discredit Ugwuh andthe process that produced him asa consensus candidate.
Yet after the Abuja High Courtjudgement, all right thinkingpeople of the state believed thatit was time for Araraume to laydown his gauntlet and latch on tothe hand of fellowship extendedto him by Ugwuh who hadconsistently insisted that he didnot defeat anybody in the racebut was selected as a consensuscandidate in the overall interest ofthe state. We hear SenatorAraraume has gone to courtagain! Herein lies the problem.
Since the issue of who is therightful PDP candidate is beforethe court, it is now sub-judice tocomment on the matter. Yet it isimportant to observe that thepeople of the state are gettingincreasingly worried by whatseems to be an alarming act ofdesperation on the part ofSenator Araraume. A lot ofquestions are beginning to be
raised on his leitmotif: Why is itso difficult for the senator to seethat public opinion is against himin the state? Why has he notbothered to find out whyeverybody including his co-aspirants are so comfortable withUgwuh’s candidature? If indeedhe means well, must he push hisambition to govern the state as ifthere is no tomorrow? If the eldersand stakeholders in the party havedecided on a choice, is it not anti-party for him to continue to insiston putting himself forward? Doesit not matter to Araraume that theinterest of the state is far moreimportant than that of a singleindividual? Hasn’t the state beentoo nice to Araraume by givinghim the chance to be senatortwice? How has he justified thatchance by his performance in thelegislative activities of thathallowed chamber? Can hereasonably point to one singlegood that has come to Imo State asa result of his performance in theSenate for eight solid years? IfImo people are saying that this isthe direction they want to go,why is it so difficult for Araraumeto chart that political trajectory?
The truth of the matter is thatthe desperation of SenatorAraraume is getting the peoplevery apprehensive. They areworried by the huge financialcommitment he has made in hisambition to govern the state andthey fear that his motives are farfrom being altruistic. His sheerbravado is another source ofworry. A man who really is
interested to serve his people willfirst and foremost listen to them.Araraume’s countenance does notpoint to that direction. Instead, itpoints to the path of despotismand political mercantilism.
Yet Araraume and his gang arenot in any way enriching thecontent and quality of debate inthe state. They have not been ableto raise their arguments beyondthe pedestrian claim of ”winning”an inconclusive primary. It wouldbe every encouraging to seeAraraume and his followers arguethat he is more educated, moreexperienced and more equippedto grasp the major issues ofdevelopment of the state. Instead,they have been pre-occupied withthe trite argument based on whatone writer has aptly labelled“democratic legalism”, thuslowering debate to sheer vulgarism.This will not help a state in direneed of industrial rejuvenationand honest leadership.
I have always seen SenatorAraraume as a wise
politician. I have followed hispolitics for the past eight years hehas represented Okigwe zone inthe Senate but I honestly find it sodifficult to understand his currentmisadventure. If he had engagedthe service of intelligent andunbiased researchers, he wouldhave been told that Imo is not ripefor his governorship. The evidenceis written in the very streets of thestate as expressed freely in theopinions and sentiments of thepeople including those workingfor him! I honestly do not knowthe reason why the peopleperceive the senator as one whocould not be trusted with the fateof their state. Yet searching forthat reason will be an exercise infutility seeing that perception inbehavioural politics is asimportant as reality itself.
It is important to observe that thepeople of the state are getting
increasingly worried by what seems tobe an alarming act of desperation on
the part of Senator Araraume
LETTERLETTERLETTERLETTERLETTER TTTTTOOOOO
THE EDITTHE EDITTHE EDITTHE EDITTHE EDITORORORORORPPPPP.M.B. 1007, Apapa, Lagos
THE 2007 national polls is around the corner and to manyanxious Deltans their choice is best known to them. Deltanswho walloped and staggered through thick and thin of PeoplesDemocratic Party (PDP) regime in the state and at the nationallevels still regret associating with the party, the woes of the2003 polls with its anguish tendencies still fresh in their minds.
Who dies for who again when 2007 polls begins the positiveanswer can best be imagined for at the national level PresidentOlusegun Obasanjo was too kind by appointing both Messrs.Bozimo and Oritsejiafor as ministers both of whom are fromDelta South Senatorial district.
But Prof. Sam Oyovwaire one time Vice-Chancellor ofUniversity of Benin appointed as Special Assistant to Vice-President Atiku Abubakar was booted out after few weeks inoffice of which no reason was given by Federal Governmentand this remains sour in the minds of Urhobos who formsDelta Central Senatorial district of the State.
To compound the harsh shock the people have been passingthrough, Chief James Onanefe lbori has no option ingovernance of the state come May; 2007 but switched overmandate to his cousin Emmanuel Uduaghan and by thisunpopular act (PDP) as a party is in trouble. To this writer, thealternative option for PDP now is Democratic Peoples Party(DPP) come 2007 polls and I urge true Deltans and indeed theUrhobos to vote massively for DPP in all the polls.
No amount of political thuggery, intimidation, victimisation,harassment, deprivation and all forms of malpractices will betolerated during the 2007 polls for the masses are prepared toshoulder force to force. The entire Urhobo elite, elders andyouths should prevail on outgoing Governor lbori to state hisdevelopmental impact in Sapele, Ughelli, Orerokpe,Otujeremi, Effurun and other major towns in Urhobo land ascan be compared to his development trails in Oghara his nativeplace.
What has he done with the N3.2 billion monthly oil derivationallocation from federal government for his period of eightyears in Office, which shows that his tenure has no regardsfor the Urhobos. The national leadership of the PeoplesDemocratic Party must bring justice to bear on the body politicof the PDP in Delta State by outright cancellation of the allegedprimaries so that PDP could make or mar its chances in 2007.
(WAGP) has been completedand may be commissioned this
West African gas pipeline ready for commissioning —Kupolokunmonth, according to the group
managing director of the NigerianNational Petroleum Corporation(NNPC), Funsho Kupolokun.The commissioning ceremonywill be performed by PresidentObasanjo.The pipeline traverse 1,000kmonshore and offshore fromNigeria’s Niger Delta region toits planned terminus in Ghana.Four nations, Nigeria, Ghana,Togo and Benin signed a 20-year agreement on theimplementation of the pipelinewhich provides for acomprehensive legal, fiscal andregulatory framework, as well asa single authority for theimplementation of the project.The project begun in 1982, whenthe Economic Community ofWest African States (ECOWAS)proposed the development of anatural gas pipeline throughoutWest Africa. In the early 1990’s,a feasibility report deemed that aproject was commercially viable.In September 1995, thegovernments of four Africancountries signed a Heads ofAgreement (HOA). Thefeasibility study was carried outin 1999. On 11 August 1999, aMemorandum of Understandingwas signed by participatingcountries in Cotonou. InFebruary 2000, an Inter-Governmental Agreement wassigned. The WAGPimplementation agreement wassigned in 2003. The constructionstarted in 2005. The first gasdelivery is scheduled for March2007. The main user will beTakoradi power plant in Ghana.The pipeline is owned andoperated by the consortium ofChevron (38 per cent), NigerianNational Petroleum Corporation(25 per cent), Royal Dutch Shell(17 per cent), Takoradi PowerCompany Limited (16 per cent),Sociéétéé Togolaise de Gaz(SoToGaz - 2 per cent) andSociéétéé Beninoise de GazS.A. (SoBeGaz - 2 per cent).The project is an InternationalGas Transmission System thatwill transport clean, reliable andcompetitively priced natural gas
Lagos state government inthe last six weeks generated
on the average a total ofN180million from vehicle licencingand renewals. This is about 212.5per cent leap in revenue generatedfrom this source previously. Theimprovement in the last six weeksin licensing revenue is as a resultof the outsourcing of vehiclelicencing and renewal toCourteville Investment Limitedwhich has developed theautomatic registration calledAutoreg.
Disclosing the remarkableimprovement in the pilot schemewhich Lagos state is championingThursday in Lagos, the ChiefExecutive of Courteville Mr. BolaAkindele said that his company
developed the Autoreg systemand approached Lagos stategovernment who bought into it.He said that six Nigerian banksand one insurance companyhave become partners in theproject through which vehicles’licenses are renewed daily as longas the offices of the partneringbanks are opened.
The partnering banks areOceanic International Bank,Sterling Bank, Wema Bank,Intercontinental Bank, FCMB,First Bank and GTAssuranceoffices in all GTBank Branches.
Mr Akindele said that with theinvolvement of these banks, thelicensing offices which werebefore now 38 in the state havebeen expanded to 350 where theindividual spend just about threeminutes to have his vehiclelicense renewed. The old systemhe said was fraught with toutsand forgery of documents butthat the present system which isbased on an electronic systemdeveloped by Resourcery wasfoolproof.
According to him Lagos statewas only getting about 25 percent of what was due to it from this
revenue source as a result ofsome of its tax revenue officerswho collected these licencing feeand divert them to their personaluses. Also a number of touts whoprinted their own papers wereoperating in the system and thuscounterfeiting licensingdocuments. All these he saidhave been eliminated by thesimple introduction of autoreg, anautomatic registration system.Autoreg is the new automatedvehicle licensing and renewalsystem that took effect in Lagosstate from 1st February 2007. It isdesigned to improve on thepresent cumbersome manualmethod of vehicle licensing in thestate.
All automobile owners whowant to register or renew theirvehicle license with Lagos stategovernment are expected to gothrough the system. This includescar owners, commercial vehicles,trucks, buses, motor cycles and allother heavy duty vehicles.
Akindele said that before theintroduction of Autoreg in Lagosthe state was collecting aboutN9.6million a week from licensingfees but that with autoreg the
Autoreg leapfrogs Lagos state licensingBy Omoh Gabriel,Business Editor
weekly revenue accruing to thestate has leaped from N9.6millionto N30million within the six weeksit has operated. He said that withautoreg the state will generatebetween N1.5billion and N2billionin a year. According to Akindeleregistration of new vehicles,transfer of ownership and vehiclelicence renewals are done at theLagos state vehicle license offices.
This is so because the police,custom papers, plate numbersand other needed legal markingand colour of vehicle has to beregistered. The second modulewhich is for renewal of vehicleslicence only is done through thepartnering bank in any of theiroffices across Lagos state. Inrenewing vehicle particular in anyof the partnering banks offices theindividual simply presents hisdocument, give the officer detailsof his name, vehicle, address andcollect a license payment cardcontaining a personal identificationnumber and a vehicle registrationsticker. The license payment cardis expected to be kept while thepersonal identification is evidenceof genuine registration.
from Nigeria to customers inGhana, Togo and Benin. Bothpublic and private sectorcompanies from these fourcountries are collaborating in aJoint Venture company knownas the West African GasPipeline Company (WAPCO) toconstruct and operate thePipeline. The 678km, US$635million Pipeline extends from theexisting Escravos-Lagospipeline at the Alagbado “Tee”in Nigeria and proceed to abeachhead in Lagos and fromthere offshore to Takoradi, inGhana, with gas delivery lateralsfrom the main line extending toCotonou (Benin), Lome (Togo)and Tema (Ghana).The Escravos-Lagos pipelinesystem has a capacity of 800MMscfd, and the WAPCOsystem will initially carry avolume of 170 MMscfd andpeak over time at a capacity of470 MMscfd.As a source of lower-costsustainable fuel for powergeneration and direct use for
industrial and commercialcustomers, the Pipeline fosters
— Page 21
— Page 22
By Franklin Alli withAgency Report
an enabling environment foreconomic development and job
creation in the sub-region.
revenue by 212.5%
L-R Dr (Mrs) Ndi Okereke-Onyiuke, DG NSE, Musa Al-Faki, DG SEC, and Rev. Olu Odejimi, CEOclearviews securities at the NSE organised reception for CEO's of quoted companied last week.
Who needs a consumer credit in NigeriaBy Omoh Gabriel, Business
Editor
THE office of the secretaryto the government of the
federation will soon introduce abill to the National Assembly tocreate a consumer credit regulatorybody. The intention ofgovernment is to make room forNigerians to buy and enjoy goodsand services on credit. Globally,businesses are transacted oncredit. International trade ispremised on 60-90 days creditwhile in most countries, goods andservices are purchased on longterm payment arrangement basis.
Workers and those who havetrack record of regular streams ofincome do not buy goods on cashand carry basis as is the case inNigeria. They buy and pay instalmentally. That culture is lackingin Nigeria. Goods are paid for incash. But in countries where con-sumer credit work well, the con-sumer goods are available or atleast produced locally. Will a con-sumer credit benefit an importdependent economy like Nigeria?Will it not create more jobs forforeign economies at the expenseof Nigeria economy, going by thepenchant of Nigerians’ taste forforeign goods?
Government’s argument is thatits primary objective sinceinception in 1999 has been torestructure and revitalise theNigerian economy through a widerange coordinated sector reformstargeted at a private sector driveneconomic growth and social de-velopment.
Government, the committee setup to develop the NationalConsumer Credit Policy and
Regulatory Framework for Nigeriaargues and recognises that the es-tablishment of a sustainable con-sumer credit system is a strategicimperative for economic develop-ment. “It is indeed one of the im-portant tools for actualising gov-ernment’s initiative for sustain-able development and the fight toalleviate poverty.
“The Consumer Credit Sector”it is believed “has significanteconomic benefits which if wellexploited and developed, wouldlead to new economicopportunities that would helpcreate jobs and thereforecontribute towards wealthcreation and poverty alleviation”.
The questions being asked iscan a consumer credit marketthrive in a country like Nigeriawhich has identity crisis? Howdo you ensure that people pay asat when due in a lawless countrywhere courts can hardly enforceproperty rights. There are cer-tainly impediments to the devel-opment of the system. In Nigeria,there are weak institutional ca-pacities for dealing with access tocredits by the citizenry especiallythe low income group. Where in-stitutions exist for this in the fi-nancial sector, they are too weak(capital base) to service the mar-ket adequately. The consumercredit market in Nigeria is veryhuge and largely untapped givenNigeria’s current estimated popu-lation of l40 million. The Case for Develop-ing a Consumer Credit
System in NigeriaThere exist the need for
consumer credit in Nigeriaconsidering that the role of creditin an economy cannot be
overemphasised. Credittransactions come into play whena person wishes to obtain a serviceor product for which he choosesnot to pay in cash or by way ofexchange in kind or he simply can-not pay for it immediately.
‘Credit’ affords an individualthe use of a service or product,which ordinarily by circumstanceof his salary (say monthly), he isunable to pay for it at once but isnow able to do so over a period oftime. Indeed, there are so manyitems that the ordinary Nigerianwould normally wish to purchasebut for reason of cash flow con-straints, he is unable to do so.With credits, he is able to do soand spread payments for suchservices or items over a period oftime. This if available, will reducethe propensity of the averageNigeria to acquire money at allcost since with little in his hand,he can get the services of theproduct he would not have beenable to pay for were he to payoutrightly.
Thus a virile consumer creditsystem can enhance thepurchasing or spending power ofthe average Nigerian and thiswould assist in alleviating povertyby enabling ordinary people andthe poor to live on credit subjectto the limits of their individualcircumstances and the impositions
•President OlusegunObasanjo.
•Professor Charles Soludo,CBN Governor.
C O R P O R AT E R E P O R T
of the credit system itself.An economy that imbibes a
consumer credit culture willtherefore raise national produc-tivity, increase employment, pro-vide art added dimension to edu-cation ethos as well as improveinfrastructure, alleviate povertyand create wealth and prosperity.
A consumer credit system willalso stimulate economic growthas there is a direct relationshipbetween consumer credit andGDP growth. Consumer Creditis therefore critical in fuellinggrowth in aggregate demand.
A strong consumer credit cultureand banking system willstrengthen financialintermediation as this enhancesthe capacity to mobilise anddeploy savings to critical (creditseeking) sectors of the Nigerianeconomy. Also, a consumer creditsystem, if properly established,operated, managed and sustainedwill contribute immensely to theproduction dynamics and theGDP growth of Nigeria.
Credits thus help unlock adiverse range of opportunitieswhich would impact positivelyon economic activities as well asthe standard of living of thecitizenry.
Government argues that theabove benefits are not only at theheart of Nigeria’s people empow-erment strategy as embodied inthe NEEDS programme butwould go a long way towards en-suring that Nigeria meets the Mil-lennium Development Goals(MDGs) by the target date of2015.
Nigerians must know now thatthe credit market is not a risk-freeone and where access is unregu-lated, it can lead to high levels ofdebt and indebtedness. It is there-fore necessary to have a consid-erable level of balance between theproviders and consumers of creditwithin the economy. Consumercredit gives the individual enor-mous freedom to buy on creditwhat ever he desires.
But being out on your own canbe fun and exciting, it also meanstaking on new financialresponsibilities. The decisionsyou make now about how youmanage your finances and borrowmoney will affect you in thefuture—for better or worse.
A workable credit system willensure that there are companiesthat keep track of whether youpay your debts and if you makepayments on time? Then, these
companies make this informationavailable in the form of a creditreport and score.
A bad credit history can hauntyou for a long time—seven yearsor more. That’s why in a countrywhere a credible consumer creditexists, the best thing to do is learnhow to maintain good creditbefore there’s a problem. Whilethis might seem complicated atfirst, it gets easier once youunderstand the basics of credit andhow it works.
Credit is more than just a plasticcard you use to buy things—it isyour financial trustworthiness.Good credit means that yourhistory of payments,employment and salary make youa good candidate for a loan, andcreditors—those who lend moneyor services—will be more willingto work with you. Having goodcredit usually translates into lowerpayments and more ease in bor-rowing money. Bad credit, how-ever, can be a big problem. It usu-ally results from making paymentslate or borrowing too much money,and it means that you might havetrouble getting a car loan, a creditcard, a place to live and, some-times, a job.
Most creditors use credit scor-ing to evaluate your credit record.This involves using your creditapplication and report to get in-formation about you, such asyour annual income, outstandingdebt, bill-paying history, and thenumber and types of accountsyou have and how long you havehad them. Potential lenders useyour credit score to help predictwhether you are a good risk torepay a loan and make paymentson time.
Many Nigerians who may justbe starting out when the consumercredit policy come in place willhave no credit history and mayfind it tough to get a loan or creditcard, but establishing a good credithistory is not as difficult as itseems.
* You might apply for a creditcard issued by a local store,because local businesses are morewilling to extend credit to someonewith no credit history. Once youestablish a pattern of making yourpayments on time, major creditcard issuers might be more willingto extend credit to you.
* You might apply for a securedcredit card. Basically, this cardrequires you to put up the moneyfirst and then lets you borrow 50to 100 per cent of your accountbalance.
* You might ask other peoplewho have an established credithistory to co-sign on an account.By co-signing, the person isagreeing to pay back the loan ifyou don’t.
Here, Nigerians must knowwhat a credit card is—You canuse a credit card to buy thingsand pay for them over time. Butremember, buying with credit is aloan—you have to pay the moneyback. What’s more, if the creditcard company sends you a check,it’s not a gift. It’s a loan you haveto pay back. In addition, to thecost of what you bought, you willowe a percentage of what youspent (interest) and sometimes anannual fee. On the other hand, inthe case of charge card—If youuse a charge card, you must payyour balance in full when you getyour regular statement.
In the case of debit cards whichare the ones available in the coun-try at the moment allows you toaccess the money in your check-ing or savings account electroni-cally to make purchases.
As a result of the above, thereis need for a regulatory frame workwhich seeks to strike a balancebetween consumer protectionmeasures with the regulatory
burden imposed on creditproviders. The government ispoised to do just that.
For as part of the strategy totransform the economy, theNEEDS document highlights theimportance of a well developedand stable financial sector inNigeria. The recapitalisationprogramme which started in July2004 has recorded a huge successwith 25 banks meeting the N25billion minimum capitalrequirements. The progress inrecapitalisation has however, notcompletely mitigated the shallow-ness) of the nation’s financial sys-tem, especially with respect toproviding (access to) consumercredit.
As a result, the policy frame-work for the development of aNational Consumer Credit Sys-tem in Nigeria will complementexisting policy initiatives in thefinancial sector and in particular,the micro-finance policy regula-tory and supervisory frameworktowards a further broadening ofthe scope of the sector reformprogramme to improve the over-all consumer and micro-lendingenvironment, increase the capac-ity of the financial system to meetthe unfulfilled financial serviceneeds of the people, and achievegovernment’s commitment topolicy coherence.
Regulatory andsupervisory framework
According to the documentseeking to establish a regulatoryframework for consumer credit inNigeria, the primary objective ofregulation is to promote thegrowth of the sector in such amanner as would facilitate theoverall objective of policy, in thiscase, to improve access to con-sumer credit at affordable and rea-sonable terms.
The document states “In bothdeveloped and undevelopedeconomies, the need for some sortof regulation is imperative.However, the regulatory strategyadopted (whether self or non-selfregulatory mechanism) is afunction of the stage ofdevelopment of the system inparticular and the economy ingeneral. In any case, regulationshould be minimal in order not tostifle consumer lending. This isthe goal of regulation intended inthis policy.
The overall aim of theConsumer Credit System inNigeria (CCSN) is to promotesustainable growth of the con-sumer and micro-lending indus-try to serve the yeaning creditneeds, while ensuring that bothlenders and consumer rights areprotected.
“Given the right policyframework, a consumer creditsystem thrives on an appropriategrowth-enabling regulatory frame-work that promotes the develop-ment of standards, regulations,rules, laws, sanctions, incentivesand the adoption of global bestpractices to strengthen and sus-tain the system. Generally speak-ing, there are two broad ap-proaches to regulating the indus-try: The principles and strategiesespoused in the national policyframework could include certainprovisions in the country’s finan-cial sector laws that are specifi-cally focused and related to theconsumer credit system, and abody charged with the enforce-ment of the provisions;“Theremay be no legislated rules andregulations but the industry de-velops mechanisms to regulate it-self in order to survive. Althoughself-regulation appears to be thepractice in several developedcountries, the lack of strong re-wards/incentives for conformersand penalties for infringers in un-derdeveloped credit systems im-mediately suggests that Nigeriafalls into the former category”
lion to failed land acquisitiondeals in 2005 even as its op-erating surplus fell sharplyby 97 per cent during theyear.
THE long awaited annu-al report of the Corpo-
ration for the year ended De-
cember 31st 2005, revealedthat N354.428 million repre-senting cost of land andproperty revoked by the La-gos State government andN64.863 million representingcost of land and property re-voked by the Federal CapitalDevelopment Authority, werecharged as expenses to theIncome and Expenditure forthe year. The report howev-er, was silent on the detailsof the acquisition of the landand properties involved.
Usually, land and propertiesrevoked by the governmentare those that were not prop-erly acquired. It would be re-called that in recent times theMinistry of the Federal Capi-tal Territory (FCT) revokedsome land and properties that
were not properly acquired.Meanwhile, the Corpora-
tion suffered a sharp declinein some of its key perfor-mance indices during theyear. Operating surplus felldrastically by 97 per cent toN181.4 million from N5.771billion while total income alsofell by 26 per cent to N8.4 bil-lion from N11.6 billion in 2005.Administrative expensesrose sharply by 41 per centto N8.2 billion from N5.8 bil-lion while the Deposit Insur-ance Fund (from which theCorporation pays depositorsof liquidated banks) fell byfive per cent to N54.726 bil-lion from N57.595 billion.
The fall in the Corpora-tion’s income during the yearmight not be unconnected to
interest rate developmentduring the year. This is re-flected by the 33.3 per centdecrease in its interest onDeposit Insurance Fund in-vestment which fell from N9.0billion in 2004 to N6.1 billion.Similarly, the Corporation’scurrent account investmentfell by 24 per cent to N1.6 bil-lion from N2.1 billion. Rentalincome and profit on sale offixed assets also dropped by49 per cent and 75 per cent re-spectively to N29.9 billion andN5.9 billion from N59 billionand 24 billion respectively.
The Corporation, however,recorded 22 per cent increasein its balance sheet size withtotal assets and liabilities ris-ing to N116.4 billion fromN94.7 billion in 2004.
N183bn excess crude and cash callfunds aggravate excess liquidity...as CBN debit banks N3.9bn for cash reserve
THE extreme excess li-quidity (funds) in the
inter-bank money market per-sisted last week followingthe influx of N183 billionexcess crude and cash callfunds that hit the market.
Meanwhile, the CentralBank of Nigeria (CBN) with-drew N3.9 billion from thesystem as net debit for cashreserve ratio (CRR) for thesecond period of March. TheCRR is the portion of totaldeposit banks are expectedto keep as cash balance. Thisis to ensure that banks haveenough cash at any time tomeet obligations to custom-ers. Similarly, the NigeriaNational Petroleum Corpora-tion (NNPC) withdrew N44.2billion from the system repre-senting the monthly creditsupply lines to the major oilmarketing companies.
The combined effect of theinflow of funds and with-drawals prompted a liquidityswings during the week aswell as spasm of fluctuationin cost of funds. For exampleinterest rate on Overnightlending and OBB (open buy
back) or treasury bill backedlending, which opened at7.05 per cent rose sharply to7.5 per cent in response tothe withdrawals before fall-ing back to 7.05 per cent inresponse to the inflow offunds.
Meanwhile, reflecting theexcess liquidity in the mar-ket, demand for governmentsecurities rose by 24 percent to N57.16 billion upfrom N46 billion in theprevious week. Total amountsold however, remained atN20 billion.
Result of the conduct ofauctions in government se-curities show that there wasno trading in the secondarymarket, where existing trea-sury bills are resold. At theprimary market where freshbills are sold, demand for the182 days bills was oversub-scribed as total public sub-scription rose by six per centto N36.202 billion, up fromN34.155 billion in the previ-ous week. The stop ratedropped to 7.24 per centfrom 7.50 in the previousweek. Also demand for the
91 days bills shot up by 91per cent to N20.95 billionfrom N11.508 billion. Thestop rate etched down to 6.9per cent from 7.0 per cent.
Meanwhile, the apex bankrepaid N38.55 billion worthof mature bills during theweek. This comprise N18.55billion worth of maturedOMO bills and N10 billioneach of matured 91 days and182 days bills.
The Nigeria DepositInsurance Corporation(NDIC) said that the board ofdirectors of many banksabandon their oversightfunctions in 2005 during theconsolidation exercise.
The Corporation in its 2005annual report stated that thereport of examinationconducted on 58 banksduring the year revealed,“Serious weaknesses incorporate governance. Oneof such weakness was lack oftransparency in financialreporting, especially in thecontinued wrongful use ofBankers Acceptances andCommercial Papers tounderstate loans andadvances as well as deposits.Some banks also engaged inspurious paper transactions
By Babajide Komolafe among themselves to coverup for serious violation ofthe law.
“Also, poor execution ofboard oversight functions,as discovered in many bankswere manifested in the failureof committees of the variousboards to meet regularly andthe failure of such boards tocompel their committees toperform as required. Otherproblems noted were failureto institute and executeappropriate framework forstrategic planning and riskmanagement, as well as thefailure of the boards toenforce compliance with thevarious policies, rules andregulations guiding thebusinesses of their respectivebanks. In many instances,some managementcommittees also failed tomeet regularly. The exhibitionof such apathy by the
various boards and manage-ments provided ample op-portunities for self-servingand less-than-transparent fi-nancial transactions that hadfai-reaching consequencesfor the respective banks.
“A fall-out of the weak-nesses in the board’s over-sight role was the weaksupervision of the creditfunction and the resultantprevalence of large volumeof poor quality risk assets inthe books of the banks.Apart from the numerousbad loans generated from thegenerality of bank borrow-
ers, some insiders-relatedcredit facilities remained non-performing. Taken together,they all contributed to theproblems of poor liquidity,poor assets quality, hugeprovisioning requirementsand, consequently, poor earn-ings, weak capitalization and,insolvency of some of thebanks. Besides, with largenon-performing loans stand-ing against them, such insid-er-debtors lacked the moralcourage to pursue otherdebtor-customers to pay up.Thus, efforts at debt recov-ery had been poor.
“The effectiveness of theInternal Audit function was,perhaps, the greatestweakness of corporategovernance in nearly all thebanks examined during theyear. That situation wasaccentuated by lack ofcommitment by the respectivebank’s Audit Committee,which culminated in auditfindings of one year beingrepeated in the followingyears. There had been noeffort on the parts of theboards and managements toenforce compliance withauditors’ recommendations
in some banks. It was appar-ent that the audit committeeseither never reviewed auditreports or were simply notbothered by the findingseven when they involvedreckless spending, unautho-rized transactions and orbrazen violations of policiesall of which translated tohuge losses for the banks.Besides, in many instances,such banks often failed toimplement Examiners’recommendations even whenfaced with the threat ofregulatory sanctions.”
DIAMOND Bank Plc hasrecorded gross
earnings of N28.3 billion forits third quarter results in the2006/07 financial year whichhave just been released. Thisindicates a 78 percentincrease over the N15.9 billiondeclared in the correspondingperiod of 2006.
With this results, the bankis expected to exceed itsperformance forecasts forthe year. According to the 9months results, profit beforetaxation for the period stoodat N6.015 billion, an increaseof 79 percent over N3.36billion achieved in thecorresponding period of theprevious year. The bank’sBoard of Directors affirmedthat this trend in performanceshould continue in the lastquarter of the financial year,barring any unforeseencircumstances.
With the improved earningand profit position,shareholders are assured ofhandsome dividends at theend of the financial yearfollowing the CBN’s approvalin December 2006 for thebank to write-off the goodwillin its books to enable her paydividend to shareholders.Diamond Bank did not paydividend the last year due tothe existence of goodwill inits books.
A statement from the bankaffirms that the remarkableperformance was as a resultof the growth in businessactivities following thesuccessful implementation ofthe bank’s business strategypost-consolidation. In recentyears, the bank hasintroduced some innovativeproducts and significantlyenhanced its business model,giving it substantial mileagein the commercial and retailsegments of the market inwhich it has traditionallydone very well.
The bank has broughtinnovation into retail bankingwith the establishment ofDiamond Minis (more ofcustomer service outlets) tosupport its main branches inbringing excellent servicescloser to the customer. TheBank has also introducednew savings and creditproducts, includingDiamondXpress Account,Diamond Mobile, DiamondAdvantage and a host ofothers to complement its
Diamond Bank grosses N28.3bn in 9 monthsBy Yinka Kolawole bouquet of products directed
at meeting personal bankingneeds of its customers.
Recently, Diamond Banktook very bold steps toensure that the growth trendin earnings and profitabilitycontinues. Notably, the bankhas established or acquiredcomplementary financial
institutions that will enable itexploit the emergingopportunities opened up bythe implementation of theeconomic reform agenda ofthe present government.These steps include theestablishment of DiamondPension Fund CustodianLimited (Diamond PFC); and
the acquisition of both aprimary mortgage institutionre-branded DiamondMortgages and an insurancecompany –– ADIC Insurance.These subsidiaries will enablethe bank grow and diversifyits income base in this era ofshrinking margin on fund-based banking activities.
Iyabi highlights importance of investingin Oceanic Bank share offering
INVESTING in the on-going share offering
of Oceanic Bank InternationalPlc could be one of the mostimportant decisions in thelife of contemporaryNigerians.
Executive Director of thebank, Mr. Duate Iyabi, statedthis in Port Harcourt at aninvestment forum organizedto sensitize Nigerians on thebenefits of the offer.
This also was the messagehe delivered at a similarinvestment forum this time inYenagoa, the Bayelsa Statecapital during the week.
He stated that discerninginvestors should not missthe opportunity to buy intoor increase their equityholding in the country’s fifthlargest and the fourth mostprofitable bank.
The offer for subscription,which opened on March 5,2007 comprises 3,357,993,375ordinary shares of 50 koboeach at N16.50 per sharepayable in full on application.Subscribers would beenjoying a discount aboveN3 on the current stockmarket price of N19.53 pershare, one of the mostappreciative discounts in apublic offering in the annalsof the Nigerian capital market.
Investors have up to April13 2007 to subscribe and canobtain application forms fromall banks and stockbrokersnationwide or download theforms from the bank’swebsite.
Iyabi stated that the latentvalue in Oceanic Bank wasamong the greatest amongbanks in the country,stressing that investorsshould therefore not miss theopportunity to positionthemselves for the realizationof this latent value in future.
Corroborating him, Mr.Francis Okumagba, also an
executive director of thebank, advised andencouraged all to investwisely, stressing that it was“good business” to invest inOceanic Bank InternationalPlc, because of its potentialto yield multiple returns.
The Bayelsa Statecommissioner for financeChief M. C. Igbodo,impressed with theperformance of the bank overthe years and its potentials,recommended the offer to allBayelsans to invest, addingthat Bayelsans will patronizethe offer especially as thestate government holds someequity in the bank.
Oceanic Bank’s excellent
performance has seen itattracting rave ratings, awardsand commendations fromboth local and foreignobservers.
Agusto & Co., Nigeria’spre-eminent rating agency,rated Oceanic Bank ‘A’ in2006, describing it as “… afinancial institution of goodfinancial condition andstrong capacity to meet itsobligations as and whenthey fall due.”
Similarly, Global CreditRating of South Africaassigned Oceanic Bank ‘A1+’short term rating and ‘AA’long term in 2006.
FIRSTBank of NigeriaPlc has clinched
the African Industrial Dealof the Year 2006 Awardinstituted by a London-based “Project FinanceMagazine”, a publication ofEuromoney.
A statment by the bank inLagos on Friday said thatFirstBank was honouredalongside four otherNigerian banks for theirparticipation in thesyndicated loan of $205million to United CementCompany Ltd. (UNICEM),Calabar, Cross River State.
The other banks areAfribank, Guaranty TrustBank, Nigeria InternationalBank and Zenith Bank.
The statement describedthe loan facility as theboldest initiative to revivethe production of cement inNigeria, adding that it wouldgo a long way in developing
FirstBank bags ProjectFinance Deal award
the real sector of the Nigeri-an economy.
The statement quotedMrs. Bola Adesola,Executive Director,Corporate Banking, whoreceived the award on behalfof FirstBank as expressingappreciation for the award,saying that FirstBank waswidely known as a leadingbank in the area of financinglarge ticket transactions inthe real sector.
“In championing theseproject syndications,FirstBank is convinced thatthese are viable projectsthat will contribute signifi-cantly to national develop-ment,” Adesola said.
It could be recalled thatFirstBank recently receivedthree awards in the year2006 Bankers’ CommitteeMerit Award.
VANGUARD, MONDAY, MARCH 19, 2007—25
26 — VANGUARD, MONDAY, MARCH 19, 2007
C M
YB
VANGUARD, MONDAY, MARCH 19, 2007—27
LAGOS-based specialistmedia agency,
Initiative Media has emergedwinner of the multi-million nairaworth media advertising accountbelonging to Friesland FoodsWAMCO, the foremost dairymanufacturer and owners ofPeak Milk brand.
The media accounts contractwhich received formalendorsement recently is witheffect from 1st of March, 2007 andin line with its details, InitiativeLagos will be responsible for allthe Media Planning and Buyingrequirements for two of Nigeria’sleading milk brands, Peak andThree Crowns.
The contract signing brings toend the pitch process for theaccount which began last year
Initiative Lagos wins WAMCO media accountduring which the Lagos-basedagency was first invited forstrategic presentations alongsidethe incumbent agency.
Announcing the agency’sappointment, the CommercialDirector, Friesland Foods
WAMPO, Mr. Gerjo Scheringa,said the company was veryexcited about the developmentand looked forward to the inputsexpected from Initiative and amutually beneficial partnershipbetween both organisations.
Allan McClarty, ManagingDirector, Initiative Lagos saysthe agency is more than readyto handle the new assignmentsand contribute to the furthergrowth and entrenchment ofPeak and Three Crowns Milk in
the Nigerian market.Executive Director, Valentine
Nwandu and OperationsDirector at the agency,Robertson Odii said of theappointment, “This appoint-ment confirms our commitment
to more quality service delivery,more consumer, category andcompetitor insights, more re-search-based planning, moreefficient buying and morefinancial management andreporting than clients expect.And this has been madepossible by our investment inpeople, process, systems andtools over the last two years.”
TURA InternationalLimited, foremost
Nigerian personal caremanufacturing company andsubsidiary of the LornameadGroup, UK has won theStandard Organisation ofNigeria (SON) award onQuality ManagementSystems.
The award categorised asISO 9000/2000 is an acclaimed
Tura bags SON International Quality Awardworldwide standard which isapplicable to all organisations,industries, and companies inthe service delivery categoryand requires companies tosubmit to SON’s rigorousaudit process.
Speaking at the publicunveiling ceremony of theaward in Lagos, TuraManaging Director, Mr Piy-ush Nair said the award is a
vindication of the company’searlier promise to deliverquality and affordable prod-ucts and remain committed tostandards in all areas of herservice to the Nigerian con-sumers.
He described the award asspectacular in that Turaachieved the feat in barelytwo years of commencingoperations in Nigeria and is
indeed the first company inthe personal care productscategory to win the award.
“For us it is a big vindica-tion of our earlier promise toserve you with world-classstandard in all areas of ouroperations,” he said.
Nair further described theaward as a huge success forSON over its orchestrateddrives and national campaign
for companies to embracestandardisation and qualityassurance and culture, addingthat it is also a credit to theFederal Government’s eco-nomic liberalisation policywhich allowed for DirectForeign Investment, FDI in tothe country, the plank uponwhich Lornamead came intothe country.
Recalling the merits of FDI,he said it has made productsthat were originally expensiveto become cheaper andaffordable, saved foreignexchange reserve for thecountry, boosted the nation’seconomy and acted inintroducing internationalstandards in many aspects ofNigeria’s life.
Nair used the ocassion ofthe unveiling of the award toreaffirm his company’scommitment to quality andexcellence in its servicedelivery to consumers.
The unveiling ceremonywas witnessed by manydignitaries, including the Di-rector-General of StandardOrganisation of Nigeria, MrJohn Akanya.
Earlier in his remark, Headof Public Relationsdepartment SON, Mr BolaFashina commended Tura forwinning the award within ashort period, noting that it isonly companies that areprepared that gets the awards.
YET basking in the eupho-ria of recent awards,
Consumer Protection Council(CPC), a consumer watchdoghas commended Celtel NigeriaLimited for the transparentconduct of it’s win your dreampromotion.
In a letter to the managementof Celtel, signed by Dr. O. J.Oluwatola on behalf of theDirector-General, CPC ex-pressed satisfaction with theconduct of the consumers aswell as the promo and thetransparency with which it wascarried out.
According to CPC, someorganizations exploit consum-ers lack of knowledge orexperience to rip them off withfraudulent promotions.
The major objective of CPC,he said, is to monitor thegenuineness of all sales promo-tions by corporate organiza-tions and ensure their legalityand efficiency amongst others.
The Director-General, Mrs.Ify Umenyi, who was thespecial guest during the prizepresentation to winners of thepromo in Lagos recently alsocommended Celtel Nigeria forthe excellent management of thepromotion.
or July last year and that is when everythingcan begin to fall in place because when youstarted fighting for money to start the regis-tration, it now took place in December/Janu-ary, that is still within the frame of the Elector-al Act anyway, but if the Act is passed July,you have to take into your account what peri-od is available. The voters register shouldhave been done a year earlier, but we alwayswait till the last minute to prepare for anythingand that is a general problem in this country,whether politics, sports or other things, it’slike that, it is a problem.
The issue of who can disqualify, DrSobowale has said the court, but I think Elec-toral Act recognises two bodies, the court andthe political parties. The parties have their lim-ited time for substitutions within the periodwhen that window is open, you can substituteor change anybody and within this period, ifthe party gets advice from the EFCC and theydon’t want to take chances, the substitutioncan be done. It’s not been convicted, but it iswithin the powers of the party to decide whothey want as candidate.
Moderator: Mr Sappor said substitution andacceptance to change names by parties isacceptance of guilty?
Sango: It might be possible that they may
be aware of the offences leveled against themand it is the Nigerian syndrome of trying totake advantage of any given situationregardless of what it entails. It used to be thatyou are presumed innocent until the contraryis proved, but it just appear to me now thatyou will be presumed first until you make ef-fort to establish your innocence, this is verywrong. The EFCC has admitted that the listhave been doctored, they have apologized tosome people, it is shambolic and that is why Iagree with Professor Akande that what theyneed to do is to investigate them, charge themto court and wash their hands off. Sometimeswe work according to presumed conclusionwhich does not help us. Now, as far as Atikuand other indicted people are concerned, theyare not even disqualified because they are notcandidates, which means they have acceptedthe imputation of some people they areindicted, regardless of whether they arechallenging this report. If somebody isindicted now and later they found out there isno substance in the allegation, how do youindemnify such person, do you reverse thecalendar to actualize his human and legal as-pirations. I am a socialist and I believe corrup-tion is one of the major reason we are notmoving forward in this country. The EFCC hastold us about 7 months ago that they haverecovered over 400 hundred million dollarsfrom fraudulent elements, that is a good job,but where is the money or what has it beenused for and I am asking this question wholeheartedly. We are using cosmetic approach tofight corruption and why is it that every facetof our life has gone back. Talk about roads,electricity, education and other core sectors,we are worse now than 1999, we have to takethis holistically. For political parties, how manyof them are parties and we have seen it beforewhen Babangida disqualified a set of people,the next set didn’t even bother to ask why,they just fold their arms, these are things thatare happening, there is no democracy even inthe parties. If I am indicted and my party wantsto disqualify me on that basis, I will challengethem. And what the Attorney General has said,
how the chief custodian of the lawdescending, the constitution is very emphatic,there is no controversy on tenure on whenelection and handover has to be done and forvery dubious tendencies, you are indirectlytrying to give a legal cover up for an ulterioragenda. Let me tell you one of the de-stabilizing factors in our electoral system, it iscompilation of voters register. Do you knowthat under the requisite law, INEC is supposedto be registering everyday, so all these chasingabout is hot lies. We should begin to see thatthings must be done in the right way, if that isdone, then the best in western democracy willflourish but it will not flourish as long as wehave this system we have, there is acontradiction between the western value andthe system. All we need now is a revolution.
Oyatomi: You see, the EFCC we are talkingabout, seems to be overzealous about whatthey are doing, you will remember the otherday, they went to the National Assembly, theywere invited to come and give account of whatthey have been doing. The chairman of EFCC,Ribadu, went there with list of some governorswho are not fit to even be called governor andeven the Vice-Presidential candidate who wascontesting. It was, either they are talking aboutsome local governments being investigatedin their state, every governor was on that listexcluding about four governors whose nameswere not mentioned.
What I have to say is that the EFCC hasbeen doing some fantastic job, but to a verylarge extent, politics has crept into what theyare doing, they are looking at it from the pointof view as to who is the enemy of the FederalGovernment or otherwise because their actionsspeaks louder than the voice. If what you‘redoing is contrary to what you are saying, then,there is a problem somewhere; an ordinary
petition written by somebody somewhere whowants his enemy killed and sent to Ribadu;adequate investigation may not have beendone, but they will say, we are investigatingthese people; mere mentioning that they areinvestigating indicates that such a fellow hasno right again as far as the election isconcerned, this is wrong. As some speakershave rightly said, this thing has to be curbedif we do not want a monster in our midst evenafter Obasanjo; as things are being done now,even Obasanjo is not save after May 29th.EFCC is getting the applause of the Nigerianpeople that ‘yes we are catching them’,accepted that they arrested some governorsbut what is the process within which thisthings are being done. Nobody will saycorruption should be allowed, we are allagainst it, we don‘t want somebody who willgo to government house, and steal all themoney and now ask the people to vote for himto return to such office, it is bad, but what weare saying is that if the EFCC has seensomeone who is corrupt, and has foundsomething against him, the right thing to doas other speakers have said is to go to court.They can come out and say ‘we have foundsome things against some people, but we arein court over the matter, that is a better way tosay than to say these people are thieveswithout following the due process'.
If you say someone has stolen, prove it, thisthing is being moved from this place to anotherplace and the intention of moving it, is to stealit, that is all the law requires and not justpronouncing, for the sake of being applauded.In Nigeria, if we are to go by Mr Clean, therewill be nobody to contest; somebodysomewhere must have offended somebodysomewhere, that is corruption. The only thingin this country is that corruption has to bedefined and again, as to what level would yousay such person can not contest because ofcorruption or is not qualified to be a candidateof a party. The political parties that are alreadywithdrawing and substituting their candidatesare convinced that what the EFCC has done iscorrect; this is Nigeria and if they say this is
not going to be, don‘t let us take chances, wemay not get it through, everybody cannot belike an Atiku who would say ‘say what youlike, I am forging ahead’. We have to be carefulin dealing with these politicaliy corrupt people,so that we don‘t just get good heads into badwaters.
Moderator: Should we leave the issue ofcorrupt politicians to political parties alone,isn‘t there a role for an anti-graft body likethe EFCC?
Okey: If I have heard you correctly, I thinkyou are trying to talk about the length of timeit takes for some of these cases to get throughat the law court. What I would suggest to bethe way round it could be that if EFCC kind ofinvestigate and have evidence that thesepersons have a question mark around them,what they could do is to kind of advice politicalparties and tell them that ‘these people areunder investigation by us and these are whatwe have found against them, though, notproved at the law court. We are in the processof going to actually get the court to pronounceon our findings but you could as well doyourself a favour by substituting these peopleamongst your political plans. That only is anadvice, backed upon by a prove of evidence,so it is only on that basis that the politicalparties can now say the report of the EFCCagainst our candidate and these reports areeven tenable at the law court based on factsand what the outcome of the investigation is,it saves us this stress by substituting names,that only is an advice. The ultimate pro-nouncement as regards who is guilty and is tobe disqualified from contesting elections liesin the court. Even the political parties chang-ing candidates is an in-house arrangement ora family affair. They could say ‘since we havethe power to field new candidates, that will
ultimately win elections on our behalf, let usface the Nigerian people’ because ultimately,the Nigerian people, on the day of the elec-tion will have to vote for who will lead themand Nigerians would not vote for corrupt peo-ple and people who have corrupt tendenciesto lead them; so if the political parties fails todo their job, the Nigerian people on the day ofthe election, will do their jobs for them. An-other way of doing it is that the EFCC could
advise the parties not to field people that havecorrupt tendencies that will ultimately fail, ifthese charges are proved at the law courtagainst them, that is another way of doingthat.
*Sango
I think we need to tellthe politicians that we
are dealing strictly withlegal matter, the EFCC
itself is self serving
For me, INEC musthave missed the point
You see, the EFCC we are talking about, seems to beoverzealous about what they are doing, you will
remember the other day, they went to the NationalAssembly, they were invited to come and give account of
what they have been doing
Basically, it is an admission ofguilt because if you are certain
that those who you fielded are notguilty of any form of corruption,
you wouldn’t substitute theirnames
The issue of who candisqualify, Dr Sobowale hassaid the court, but I think
Electoral Act recognises twobodies, the court and the
political parties
VIEWPOINTSVANGUARD, MONDAY, MARCH 19, 2007— 39
How do we solve the present power crisis?Pls send text to: 08082340885 or e-mail: [email protected] for publication
CATI andeducation
reforms (2)
Dr. Ikechukwu is an aide to the Minister ofEducation.
Promoting democracy: Defending the vote during elections (3)
Being a paper delivered by Mr. Nwankwoat the LAP organised democracy conferencein Port-Harcourt, Rivers State.
By Uchenna Nwankwo
Dame Etiaba and I(2)
ByChinedu Nkwonta
By Okey IkechukwuDID she award any of the contractsto herself? I am sure someone has
the answer to these and more questions.For the people that have any evidence
against Dame Etiaba, there is a guy inNigeria called Ribadu. He is probably themost feared man in the country at themoment. He has offices all over Nigeriaand can also be reached via the internet(just make sure it is not the 419 internetsite). Ribadu is the head of EFCC(Economic and F inanc ia l Cr imesCommission). Just write to Ribadu andwatch what happens to Dame Etiaba. Nolong story. I am sure no one will accuseEtiaba of being a member of the rulingparty or OBJ’s person.
She may have awarded record contractsbut would she have rather left the moneyfor whoever comes after who then maytransfer the money into a personalaccount as usual. Was there a guaranteethat Peter was coming back? What reallyis the problem? We have to know that lifeis wicked sometimes; some people maywork really hard for something and thenfind that it benefits others more. DameEtiaba was a part of the Peter Obi’s battlebut she has proven that she knows moreabout politics than her boss. I have notheard of any part of the constitution thatlimits the volume of contracts agovernment can award within dueprocess .
A beautiful part of this is that bothfactions of the State House of Assemblynever p ro tes ted . Of course , theconclusion will be that she bought themover. That will be really undermining thehonorable members and I refusevehemently to see my fellow brothersand sisters in the house from that light.As much as they have been vilified, theyare the same honorable members thatsupported Dr. Chris Ngige during all hisproblems. How soon can we forget?
For the interest of people that say that Ihave been paid loads of money toexpress my feelings, I want to tell themthat they do not know me. I neversupported the Etiaba when Peter was not
doing well and I made my position veryclear then. Was Etiaba not the deputygovernor then?
Peter Obi should after thanking God,thank Dame Virgy Etiaba for holding theposition for him because he knows that ifshe did not hold fort, he will not besinging the same song now. Power wouldhave crossed over from APGA (which heseems not to believe in anyway) to PDP.And believe me, if he had gone to theSupreme Court, no one could have savedhim. It is called politics and in this caseNigerian politics. Someone else may callit Anambra politics.
The most important thing in my liferemains my honour and I shall rather bepoor than say or do anything I do notmean or I do not believe in. I am not apoor man and will never be. The Lord ismy strength.
Let us not becloud Peter with whatDame Etiaba achieved. He has many
more problems to sort out. For the peoplewho have any evidence against DameEtiaba, please run to Ribadu of the EFCCand for those that are just envious ofeither her children or her position, sorry, Icannot help. Please do not write to abuseme or threaten me, I am neither Etiaba norObi; my name remains Chinedu Nkwonta,Idengeli na Nawfia, Kpom Nigeria. I amvery happy being myself thank you.
Continued from Friday
IN 1958, Willard Mathias in the US Office ofNational Estimates had predicted that Soviet
resistance to sharing power with the growing middleclass of Soviet professionals and technocrats wouldultimately destroy the party’s power. It is indeedcogent to state that what destroyed the USSR wasnot socialism per se, but the one-party system, theabiding monopoly of power by its one and onlyCommunist Party. This created a merry gang ofSoviet rulers that eventually lost touch with thepeople, misread or ignored their needs, desires andaspirations and was abstracted from the society,leading as it were to total fiasco and much gnashing ofthe teeth. We could make a similar case about thecollapse of the bloody Pol Pot regime, which createda one-party state in Cambodia after the Camerougechased President Lon Nol out of Phnom-Penh in1975. But why go on?
Of course, that the Chinese system, with its one-party state, still thrives is really no departure fromthe above maxim. A number of factors have favouredthe survival to date of the one-party state in China.One, unlike the USSR that was a conglomeration ofdifferent peoples and republics, China is a very oldcohesive nation. Two, Chinese leaders have had theopportunity to glean from the mistakes of Sovietleaders and have continually adapted to the changingface of China. The bloody purges and culturalrevolutions of Chinese communism are cases in pointEven so, it should be noted that the Soviet system
lasted some 70 years before finally going under.China’s one-party system is only about half acentury old. It is obvious from developments insideChina that the system has but a fraction of a decade tosurvive; that political pluralism is only inches away.This is also true of Fidel Castro’s Cuba, where theone-party state is already on its death bed. In Africa,there are countless ruptures that point to theinstability of the one-party state and its pollutingtendencies. The sad story of Siad Barre’sauthoritarian one-party regime that has turnedSomalia into a stateless society remains topical evento this day.
Lessons from Nigeria’s Contemporary PoliticsIt is axiomatic but lamentable that the unprecedent-
ed decline and bastardization of our political ethossince 1999 are largely rooted in Nigeria’s regressiontowards a one-party state. Measured on thespectrum of the classical one-party state/multi-
partyism continuum, one can without equivocationsay that structurally and realistically, Nigeria’spolitical system tends towards the one-party state.Oh yes, there are as many as 45 registered politicalparties in the land. But in terms of leverage andstrength, going by the result of the 2003 elections,the PDP is dominant, controlling some 70-75 per-cent of the states and representation in the NationalAssembly. If the party’s hold on the nation isfrightening, its presence and dominance in the SouthEast/South-South axis where Anambra State issituated is downright intimidating. In these twozones, the part has a virtual hundred per centstranglehold. The dominance is absolute, at leastbefore the coming of an APGA-controlledExecutive in Anambra State. Little wonder then theheightened degree of political corruption anddecadence in the two zones. There is simply noparty with the strength to provide the much neededcountervailing force in the regions, hence thefestering pollution and ferment.
In 2003, APGA tried to break the jinx in the SouthEast. The party had the support of the masses, butlacked the endorsement of the elite, for obvious andunderstandable reasons. It therefore could notmuster the funds to hire polling agents, sustain theloyalty of its political activists and do the otherpractical things that go with successful electioneeringand the achievement of ultimate electoral victory.The party got the votes alright but lost the electionbecause it did not have the muscle to protect itsvotes. The PDP, which had the support of themoneyed Igbo political elite and substantial extra-zonal sponsorship, therefore claimed a victory it did
not win. The consequence was that many rejectedand discredited political actors gained access intopolitical offices across the zone, or generally retainedpower in the South East. They have since continuedto consolidate that power and to engineer widerefforts to fetter liberty. This daunting and regrettablescenario and apparent disenfranchisement of thepeople have thus brought so much cynicism anddistrust of the electoral system that a very strongelixir is now required to dislodge the imposters,reverse the trend and redeem the zone. As for manyof the present crop of political office holders in thezone, they have largely developed total contempt forthe people and have been emboldened by theaforementioned disempowerment of the people totreat them as outcasts, desecrate public office andloot the public treasury with impunity, to thechagrin of the people.
But paradox has always been Nigeria’s staplepolitical diet. James Hadley Chase it was who wrotethe famous novel: "The Way the Cookie Crumbles".This dictum has since played itself out in AnambraState where a mild disagreement led to a strongcleavage within the ruling PDP to produce a people’sgovernor in Chris Ngige. It was a classical case of avillain mutating into a hero. The scenario painted avivid picture of how the system could influence theconduct of a political officeholder.
Continues tomorrow
BUT all these came after the ed-TAP initiative,which was designed and executed in such
a way that it took inventory of unemployedproducts of our school system, to create a data base,enable a re-evaluation of the curriculum and worktowards new skills that would make thememployable. The first 100 beneficiaries just couldnot believe it when they walked straight intoemployment. Ed-TAP is still on-going and so is theInnovation Enterprise Institution, VocationalEnterprise Institutions and the developing partner-ship with CISCO Academy; to present our teemingyouth alternatives to academic education.
In another two weeks, the Operation Reach AllPrimary Schools (ORAPS), which is designed tocarry out a comprehensive inspection of all primaryschools in Nigeria, will kick off. It took the ORASSfor us to discover that there are 14,543 secondaryschools in Nigeria and not11, 000 as indicated in theMinistry records. The ORASS also showed that thelast school inspections took place in 2003 and thatthe Ministry had been remiss in carrying out theinspectorate function for over 15 years. Worse still,there was no single year that up to 500 schools wereinspected. Well, ORASS came along and surprisedeveryone, by showing that the Federal Republic ofNigeria did not even have the correct record of howmany secondary schools there were in the country.That is not all. It was discovered that the physicallychallenged and special needs education were not onthe radar. Guidance and Counselling in schools waslargely non-existent. Where it was found to exist, ithad little counsel to offer and appeared badly inneed of guidance itself.
What many people did not realize until recently isthat the comprehensive root and branch reform of
the education sector is not about inspections, UnitySchools, or tertiary education. It is, first andforemost, about giving effective policy leadership inthat sphere of our national life that determines thecapacity, skills level and quality of our humanresources; as well as the character of our nation-state.The Ministry’s new leadership had incontrovertiblefacts on its side, but was initially confronted by astartled nation that found the revelations toobenumbing to accept. When finally the informationbegan to sink in, the issue then became: “Where is theMinister getting her facts from? How come no onebefore her talked about the failure rates of ourchildren in school?” The reason is quite simple,though: no one checked. That is all. It was as simpleas that. The immediate former Minister of Educationeven added her voice to the chorus of incoherentbabble, by boldly declaring on the pages ofnewspapers that any talk about poor academicachievement of Unity college students must berubbish, since her children who attended UnitySchools were doing well in their present endeavours.How this exceptionally absurd conclusion could bemarshalled as sufficient argument to contest thefacts-based conclusions of the Ministry ofEducation remains a total mystery to manyintelligent observers. Well, the latest WAEC resultshave shown a national success rate of 11%! Thelatest NECO results showed a remarkable improve-ment over WAEC in the overall performance, with asuccess rate of 17%! May the nation be speedilyrescued from this brand of ‘excellence’!
At the risk of belabouring a point that camedangerously close to being mistaken for the solepurpose of the education sector reforms, let it be saidthat our Unity Schools had indeed fallen intodisrepute and had wallowed in this reprehensiblestate for decades now. An evaluation of the socialclass and economic background of students of ourUnity Schools will reveal a preponderance ofchildren whose parents, or relations, have access topeople in power, or connections in the Ministry, orwho could be leveraged through some servingprincipals. It is fairly obvious that the very purposefor which these schools came into being has sufferedshipwreck, through the combined subversive actionsof a parasitic elite and a corrupt bureaucracy. Thepoor had lost out to the rich. National character andexcellence had lost out to hegemony building.Excellence had been clobbered, displaced and heldhostage by a bureaucracy that had elevatedthoughtless misuse of patronage into a guidingprinciple and philosophy of leadership. But let usget back to CATI.
As observed earlier, the Community Accountabil-ity and Transparency Initiative is designed toprovide information to the public about the fundingavailable for education and schooling in theircommunities and encourage civil society groups andindividuals to take more active part in monitoringvalue for money.
Continued from Friday
Continues tomorrow
Continued from Friday
Concluded
Dame Etiaba was a partof the Peter Obi’s battlebut she has proven thatshe knows more aboutpolitics than her boss
In another two weeks, theORAPS which is designed tocarry out a comprehensiveinspection of all primary
schools in Nigeria, will kickoff
It is axiomatic butlamentable that the
unprecedented decline andbastardization of our politicalethos since 1999 are largely
rooted in Nigeria’s regressiontowards a one-party state
40— VANGUARD, MONDAY, MARCH 19, 2007
Pls send text to: 08082340885 or e-mail: [email protected] for publication
LETTERSLETTERSLETTERSLETTERSLETTERS TTTTTOOOOO
THE EDITTHE EDITTHE EDITTHE EDITTHE EDITORORORORORPPPPP.M.B. 1007, Apapa, Lagos
What is your view on INEC's disqualification barring Atiku from contesting?
Dear Editor,
Dear Editor,
I need explanation
EVERY time I open thedailies and see re-
ports of how well the econo-my is picking up, I feel lost.Not claiming to know muchof economic theory, I thoughtindicators of such growthwill be in basics like infra-structure, health, educationand the like. Can Nigeriaclaim any improvement inthese areas in the last eightyears?
Only last week, the paperswere awash with reports ofthe presidential candidatesof the two leading partiesjetting out of the country forone health problem or theother. Lucky them, what ofthe million others who can-
not afford overseas treat-ment? The time has come forthis country to face its realityand stop pandering to for-eign models. Why Americaand their allies can worryabout global warming andsuch high sounding ideals, Iinsist our goliath here re-mains water, food, housing,road and school. The lateAfro-beat icon Fela Anikula-po-Kuti put it very well in hissong decades ago. Whatother prophet are we waitingfor!
Ajiboye Kuforiji,Allen Avenue,Lagos.
PLEASE permit me to use your widely read newspaper toappeal to the management of West African
Examination Council (WAEC) to print my May/June 1993SSCE Certificate. I sat for the said examination usingcandidate no. 13176/239 and the result had since beenreleased but my certificate is yet to be issued. I was informedby a staff of WAEC at Benin Zonal office that my certificatewas not printed. I have written twice to WAEC Benin City onthis regard but I am yet to receive to a response.
Utah, Maurice.
Dear Editor,
WAEC, print resultplease!
THE pronouncement bythe Independent
National Electoral Commis-sion (INEC) that the VicePresident of the FederalRepublic of Nigeria and thepresidential flag bearer ofthe Action Congress (AC),Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, can-not contest the April presi-dential election is most un-
The lawlessness ofINEC
fortunate. It shows that notonly has INEC compromisedits independence by dancingto the dictates of the piper insome high places, it hasequally shown its flagrantdisregard and penchant forwantonly flouting court or-ders with impunity.
A court of competent juris-diction has granted the re-quest of Alhaji AtikuAbubakar by not only set-
ting aside the so-called in-dictment but also labeled nulland void the process adopt-ed by EFCC in carrying outits functions as well asgovernment in setting up theadministrative panel. Fur-thermore, a Federal HighCourt, in Abuja had resolvedall the issues on the powersof INEC to disqualify candi-dates for election.
The court’s judgment isunequivocal about the pow-ers to disqualify candidatesin the election. Justice B.O.Kuewumi when he said inclear terms that, “section 137(for President) and 182 (forgovernor) of the constitutionalso contains provisions thatab-initio disqualifies an in-tending candidate aspiringto the office of president andgovernor respectively. How-ever, more of these provi-sions in my view empowersthe defendant (INEC), toissue an order disqualifyinga candidate”. He went on tostate very explicitly that, “thepower to disqualify anycandidate sponsored by anypolitical party including the1st plaintiff (AC), from con-testing any election is vestedin the courts as provided bysection 32 (5) of the ElectoralAct 2006 and in any otherlegislation that is validlyenacted in that behalf”.
It is very appalling thatINEC, which ought to be aneutral arbiter in electoralcum political process, hasunfortunately become a par-tisan party. This unfortu-nately is very dangerous fordemocracy, rule of law, dueprocess, equity, justice andfairplay in the country. INECshould therefore retrace itssteps, and do the right thingin the overall interest of thecountry.
Jide ayobolu,No 19 Gongola Street,Garki 2,Abuja.
MOST men would havesucceeded in small
things if they are not trou-bled by great ambitions. —
Sir Henry WardsworthLongfellow (1807-1882)
It is no longer news thatthe unknown andunambitious governor ofKatsina state but who as aresult of OBJ’s magicalpolitics is now a presidentialcandidate holds the key toour immediate politicalfuture. This is because ofhis fragile health which isnow a public issue. If he haddied as rumoured last week(God forbid!), we would notonly be mourning anothernational figure but alsoforget the election for nowas that funny electoral lawmandates the INEC topostpone electionsindefinitely in suchcircumstance. Sometimes,one wonders howreasonable the legislature is.They seemed to be obliviousof the fact that a desperatepolitician can take advantageof that situation to workagainst national interest.
The issue now however isthat the president and hisPDP co-travellers havedemonstrated once againthat they do not care for thefeelings of Nigerians or forthe progress of the nationby forcing the man on us tosatisfy their own hiddenagenda. This is becausewhether Yaradua dies ornot, we seem to be sitting ona keg of gunpowderpolitically because the manis obviously not physicallyfit for the task ahead and thePresident knows it.
It is a pity that whenPresident OlusegunObasanjo listed the qualityof the man that must takeover after him, the onlything he considered wasblind loyalty; the kind ofperson that will be a pet andthat will allow him to run thecountry indirectly whileshielding him from theechoes of his past. Astatesman that he issupposed to be, he did notconsider whether the personcan do the job or not.
Mr. President has shown
disdain and an uncaringattitude for the future of thiscountry by attempting toforce a medically unfitcandidate on us. We admitno stain has been found onthe blanket of Yar ‘Adua andthat he appears to be calmand gentle but can he standthe heat of the electioneeringcampaigns plus the rigoursof ruling a nation as diverse,as controversial and asproblematic as Nigeria?
Rahman Raheem, Kogi State University,Anyigba.08036063308
OBJ and the Yar'Aduacandidacy
On N-Delta crisis
THE Federal Governmentshould create the Niger-DeltaMinistry, while the states, LGCouncils and host Oil produc-ing communities commissionshould embrace good govern-ance, honesty, good leader-ship, employment for the peo-ple and judicious use of allo-cation from these resource willstop hostage taking in the Ni-ger Delta.
Rev. Dan EgereI think hostage taking has
come to stay, more so as noneof the aspirants has been ableto address the burning issuesof resource control in theirmanifestoes.
Anonymous, 08054192566On Delta politics
The noise about Dr. Udua-ghan as Delta State Guberna-torial candidate is unneces-sary, why not vote en-massfor Chief Ogboru?
A k p o j e h e r h e08034524675
On INECThe decision INEC took on
VP is in order and proper. Or-ganisation without examiner isuseless, INEC is the examiner,they can qualify and disqual-ify any candidate. Let us besincere, all political schemersshould stop foul cry, to buildis hard, OBJ and team, carryon.
H.A Yakubu, 08029061099
It is obvious now that Rib-adu and Iwu are just mere ro-bots to OBJ and the PDP. TellEFCC to stay off INEC. Theyare two different bodies.
Edwin,Isoko, Delta State,08035068440
Maurice Iwu and INEC mustnot allow themselves to berailroaded as pawns into thewar of attrition going in thepresidency, only the court candisqualify Atiku and others.
INEC’s decision on VP: It’stotally shameless for acountry like Nigeria to findherself in such a political war.I believe Iwu is playing out ascript from Aso Rock andEFCC, otherwise, how canINEC boss have the guts todeclare a candidatedisqualified when we have acompetent court of law, but Istill believe Iwu will surelyregret his actions at lastbecause OBJ is not trustworthy.
Anonymous, 08034247825
INEC’s decision on VP: Ni-gerians are sick and tired ofthis double standard of Prof.Iwu, at first, he said his com-mission, lacks power to dis-qualify any candidate dulysubmitted by their party. Whythis treat again? Prof. Iwushould have told Nigeriansthat he and his commission areunder obligations with Presi-dent Obasanjo and his toolsEFCC. I shall advise Iwu tofollow the part of truth. Andnot to make himself buzayiabefore VP like PDP led FG aredoing now, but it will assureNigerians that Atiku will re-main Isaiah of this nation. Nomatter the amount of humilia-tion.
Oshevwiho Patrick, DeltaState, 08033954907
Cry for Maurice Iwu and
The President ofGambia should becautioned by theA.U. Africa is theworst hit by theAIDS epidemic
and for a person inhis position to
come out to givefalse hope, only forvictims to go aboutassuming they are
cured, wouldmerely lead to
further infection
family, as nemesis catches OBJto pick Umaru who will jail himlater. Same-thing will happento Iwu, after rigging electionwith electronic voting machinefor Umaru, the unpredictablecandidate will jail him likeBalogun, and be dumped likeAtiku, Audu Ogbe, Lar, Rimi,Kaita and co. Anenih watchout August 2007.
Kwalli, 08051377701
On INEC: Maurice Iwushould please give Anambrar-ians chance to choose theirgovernor. Remember that it isa crime against humanity toimpose leaders on people. Isthis the type of democracythey practice in America?
Ogbe Peters, Onitsha, An-ambra State, 08037447048
On PTDF reportThe senate report on PTDF
and its indictments on VP islaughable, the Chairman ofPTDF has been Bayo Ojo’sclosest friend. Therefore, thereport cannot be objective.
Oge, 08053638576On PHCNTell PHCN to give Aniocha
North Local Area of DeltaState electricity, for the pastmonths, we have been in totalblackout.
Fidelia, 08026501924When NEPA became PHCN,
I thought there was going tobe massive changes in stabil-ity of electricity supply, in-stead, the worse was what wegot, please for once, be acti-vate.
Cathy, Benin, Edo State,08027652345
On Lagos masstransit bus
Lagos BRT is long over due,the government should havestarted with 5000 buses whilethe company handling it pri-vatized to core investor or buyIPO of major shares at NSE.
Anonymous, 08034105047On AC campaignOn AC campaign: I want Vice
President Atiku to address theissue of refinery and fuel price.
Austin, Warri,Delta State,08052100262.
On Gambia Presi-dent
The President of Gambiashould be cautioned by theA.U. Africa is the worst hit bythe AIDS epidemic and for aperson in his position to comeout to give false hope, onlyfor victims to go about assum-ing they are cured, wouldmerely lead to further infec-tion.
Anonymous, 08052644549
On EFCCRibadu on the fence: I want
the chairman of EFCC to an-swer on whether Obasanjo iscorrupt or not, why answer-ing the press that I don’tKnow?
Monsuru, 08023880515I urge EFCC to open branch-
es and train more personnel atthe state and LG levels. Evenin these periods of bumper al-location to the councils, noth-ing much could be seen of thedevelopment funds. A coun-cil chaired for two tenure bysame guy, could not boast ofa single road or water project.LG’s don’t pay primary or sec-ondary teachers, it only paysLG’s staff. Yet N88m allocationfizles off in the name of pettyprojects, certainly, there’s aproblem some where.
Mezu, Owerri, Imo State,08035424897
On EFCC: He who pays thepiper dictates the tune. Ribaduwas engaged by Obasanjo.There is no way he will probeBABA even if BABA is openlyseen to be collecting meat fromthe pot.
Anonymous, 08035082317On GlobacomI sent series of SMS during
Xmas period, only few weredelivered but I was debitedfor all. I complained severally(Dec - Jan) and I was toldthat my N84 credit will besent back to me. The credit isnot what annoyed me most,but when I called for the 14th
time, I was told that all mySMS have been deliveredand I should rest my case,which is a pure lie because Ihave seen all those I sent theSMS to. One of them is myfiance.
Ohen Kingsley08077779932
On S-West PDPgovernors
PDP Governors in SouthWest and South East per-formed badly, people shouldnot vote for them again.
Anonymous, 08055317386On ObasanjoObasanjo’s visit to Anambra
is a disaster, we don’t want himin Anambra again, his formalvisit disorganized our dearState, we have not gained an-ything from his visit.
M.C., 08039495555On BabangidaPermit me to express my
great happiness in seeing Gen.Babangida’s picture takenalong with that of out-goingGuinean PM on the frontpage of Vanguard of 24th
February. My happiness wasas a result of seeing thegeneral gradually beingtransformed into astatesman. By representinghis country at such interna-tional events, he is provingto all skeptics that he has in-deed abandoned activepoliticking for the noble roleof statesmanship. We need tosee more of such outings forthe good of our economy. Forthis attitude, I am beginningto soften my hitherto antag-onistic stand against him.
Yunusa Karofi,08082373095
On CBN'sre-introductionof coinsRe- introduction of coins
by CBN is a very good devel-opment for our economy.
David, 08026346459
VANGUARD, MONDAY, MARCH 19, 2006 — 41
Short TakesRevisedNational
Health policyout April
— FG
TO address the issue ofunsafe sexual and other
health practices amongyoung people in Nigeria, theFederal Government hasproposed the revised NationalPolicy on health anddevelopment of adolescentand young people in Nigeria.
The Policy which will takecare of adolescentreproductive health and otherhealth issues as stipulated inthe policy is to be made publicin April 2007.
Disclosing this in Abuja atthe Internews round tablediscussion on “Adolescentsand Young Peoplereproductive health issues”,the Director of ReproductiveHealth in the Federal Ministryof Health Dr. Moji Odeku saidthat the new policy onadolescent health wasadopted from the 1995 policy,but with the changing trendsin health issues, it becomesnecessary to revise it to suitthe situation at hand.
“The 1995 policy identifiedmajor areas of adolescenthealth care needs anddescribed broad strategies forintervention in the followingareas: sexual behaviour;reproductive health, nutrition,accidents, drug abuse, careerand employment; parentalresponsibilities and socialadjustment; and education.
“Between 1995 and 2006,several important changeshave occurred in the area ofadolescent health anddevelopment nationality andinternationally, which hasnecessitated a revision of thepolicy to reflect the newrealities”.
She said lack of information,life skills and friendliness ofgovernment on adolescentissues were not in the 1995policy. “In 1999, Nigeria helda National Adolescent HealthConference, reflecting theincreased focus onadolescent reproductivehealth (ARH) based onprogramme of Action (PoA) ofthe International Conferenceon Population andDevelopment of a NationalAdolescent (ICPD).
An outcome of the nationalconference was thedevelopment of nationaladolescent reproductivehealth strategic framework.The desire to have similarframework for other areas offocus identified in the 1995adolescent health policy ledto efforts to develop nationalstrategic framework onadolescent health deve-lopment in 2005/2006, with theaim of providing effective andcoherent programme imple-mentation platform foradolescent health”, sheexplained.
Specific objectives of theimplementation of the policyinclude to stimulate advocacyefforts for increased politicalwill and resources allocationfor young people’s health anddevelopment programmes andinterventions; enhancetechnical capacity,interventions, collaborationsand coordination for thepromotion of the health anddevelopment of young peopleamong others.
Management of hypertension is a lifestyle issue
‘’
Research has demonstrated repeat-edly that lifestyle modification can reverseheart and circulatory diseases in majorityof cases
How nutrition affects BP • Certain foods can increase blood pressure; gaining weightcan increase blood pressure while losing weight can reduceblood pressure.
•Too much salt contains sodium and the body holds extrawater to “wash” the salt. In some people, this may causeblood pressure to rise. The added water puts stress on theheart and blood vessels.
TO CONTROL HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE • Eat foods lower in fat, salt, and calories; use spices and
herbs instead of salt to flavor foods; use less oil, butter,margarine, shortening, and salad dressings.
• Avoid foods like butter and margarine, regular saladdressings, fatty meats, whole milk dairy products, friedfoods, salted snacks, fast foods, etc.
By Sola Ogundipe
HYPERTENSION is oneof the most important
established risk factors forcardiovascular diseases. As aresult, blood pressure deter-mination continues to be oneof the most important mea-surements in all of clinicalmedicine probably becausehypertension is a major riskfactor for coronary heart dis-ease, stroke, and renal failure.
Recent recommendations bythe American-based Joint Na-tional Committee on Preven-tion, Detection, Evaluation,and Treatment of High Blood
• There are still many Nigerians who reach for the salt shaker before they've even tasted their food . . . yet their form of mainexercise is a brisk walk to the car . . . and their idea of "health food" is suya and beer. While these may seem like mild andunimportant, their effects add up, especially in people with hypertension. Yet there are several changes in lifestyle cansignificantly improve blood pressure, in many cases to the point that use of medications can be avoided.
ity in blood pressure, as con-tributed to by factors of ageand sex. It also differentiateshypertension from the tempo-rary elevation of blood pres-sure that may follow sympa-thetic stimulation in thecourse of the individual’sday."
It is said that blood pres-sure varies according to a di-urnal pattern, such that dur-ing sleep or at night, BP dropsby about 20 per cent, or 20mm Hg. This is termed “dip-ping”. The absence of dippinghas also been recognized as acontributor of poor outcome.It is common in patients withdiabetes mellitus.
Ajuluchukwu adds that hy-pertension is the most fre-quent reason for visits tophysician’s office as well asthe leading indication for pre-scription drugs.
• At any given BP level, in-cidence of more severe vas-cular damage in Blacks
• By 2020, a two-fold in-crease is expected.
• The National Non Com-municable Diseases Commit-tee of the FMOH, reportedthat SBP and DBP increasewith age; DBP may drop af-ter age 60 years.• Makingmajor lifestyle changes canbe a daunting task. Individu-als benefit enormously whenthey receive support inchanging life-long habitsand adopting new ones.
•The goal of relaxationtraining is to minimize theharmful response to stressfultriggers.
•The practice of meditationor yoga on a regular basisproduces neuron pathwaysfor relaxation rather thanexcitation.
•If you were asked to loweryour blood pressure, youmight try a variety of strate-gies such as deep breathing,thinking pleasant thoughts,or “telling” your arteries torelax.
•Stress causes us to do allsorts of things that have beenproven unhealthful such asadopting poor eating habits,smoking, drinking alcohol,and driving unsafely. There-fore, stress reduction canlead to better over-all health.
Issues in blood pressure measurement
Pressure (JNC) draw attentionto the condition of“prehypertension,” that is,people with blood pressuresat the high end of the normalrange.
In addition, the target bloodpressure for patients usingantihypertensive treatmenthas recently been lowered forthose with diabetes or renaldisease. Thus, it is becomingincreasingly important to beable to detect small differencesin blood pressure.
The forces of the heartpumping blood through thearteries create blood pressure,bringing oxygenated blood tothe cells, tissues and organsof the body. Blood pressuremeasurement is expressed asa fraction whose numerator,the systolic pressure,measures the force of theblood as it is actively pumpedby the heart. The denominatoris the diastolic pressure (ameasure of the force of theblood flowing through thearteries when the heart relaxesbetween beats).
Together, these numbers tella lot about the health of thecirculatory system. Blood
pressure varies within anindividual based on activitylevels and circumstances. Forsome people, simply havingtheir blood pressure measuredcan cause an elevatedreading. Therefore, to becertain about blood pressure,readings are best taken atvarious times of the day.
In the view of Dr. JayneAjuluchukwu, SeniorLecturer/Cardiologist at theCollege of Medicine,University of Lagos, bloodpressure is the force impartedby the heart to the arteries dueto flowing blood.
Speaking recently at the 4thquarterly Emzor Heart series,she noted that hypertensionalso termed “high blood pres-sure” has several definitions.and that the existence of vari-able definitions for any clini-cal issue or parameter alreadyhints at possible controversyor that the problem is multi-faceted.
In her words: "Hypertensionis a sustained elevation ofblood pressure, higher thanthat expected for theindividual’s age or sex”. Thisdefinition hints at the variabil-
• Measures of blood pressure that could contribute to theadverse effects of hypertension are the average level, thediurnal variation, and the short-term variability.
•Presently, the measure of blood pressure most clearlyrelated to morbid events is the average level, although thereis also evidence accumulating that suggests thathypertensive patients whose pressure remains high at night(nondippers) are at greater risk for cardiovascular morbiditythan dippers. Less information is available for defining theclinical significance of blood pressure variability, althoughit has been suggested that it is a risk factor for cardiovascularmorbidity.
•Recognition of limitations of traditional clinic readingshas led to increasing use of measurements made out of theclinic, which avoids the unrepresentative nature of the clinicsetting and also allows for increased numbers of readings tobe taken and increased use of automated devices.
•Decreased reliance on traditional readings has beenaccelerated by the fact that mercury is being banned in manycountries, although there is still uncertainty regarding whatwill replace it. The leading contenders are aneroid andoscillometric devices, both of which are being used withincreasing frequency but have not been accepted as beingas accurate as mercury.
WHAT IT IS• High blood pressure, also
called hypertension, meansthe pressure in your arteriesis above the normal range.In most cases, no one knowswhat causes high bloodpressure. What you eat canaffect your blood pressure
Anyone whose bloodpressure is greater than 140/90 for sustained periods hashigh blood pressure, orhypertension, and shouldtake steps to lower it.Untreated, hypertensioncauses the heart to work veryhard and ultimately damagesit.
A mild case of untreatedhypertension can double thechance of a heart attack, anda moderate case triples it.Strokes are caused whenhardened material from thewall of a blood vessel blockan artery, diminishing orcutting off the blood supplyto the brain. Increased riskof stroke is also related tohypertension.
DO YOU KNOW?
Most experts agree that alifestyle approach to thetreatment of hypertension isbest. It begins by looking atthe root cause.
Research has demonstratedrepeatedly that lifestylemodification can reverse heartand circulatory diseases inmajority of cases. This sug-gests that a combination ofweight reduction, low fat diet,reduced sodium, andmoderate, regular exercise canreturn the blood vessels to ahealthy condition andeliminate hypertension.Individuals can take control oftheir health and their lives atvirtually any stage; no one is“too far gone.”
Persons with no disease canmaintain their health througha preventive program, whilethose who are ill can takesteps to reverse their disease.
By Chinyere Amalu
44 —VANGUARD, MONDAY, MARCH 20, 2007
Should the Land Use Act be expunged from the constitution?Pls send text to: 08082340885 or e-mail: [email protected] for publication
Why buildings collapse will continue to occurBy Jude Njoku
Barely one year ago, precisely on March 22, 2006, the high rise building housing the Bank of Industry (BOI) head officealong the ever busy Broad Street in the Lagos Island Business District, suffered a partial collapse. The collapse was allegedly
due to a fire incident on the eighth floor of the edifice two days earlier. Fortunately, only one person was confirmed dead,thanks to a public holiday and restriction announced by the Lagos State government which limited the human traffic in the
area. Ironically, the debris of the collapse is still hanging because the government is still scouting for those who possess thewherewithal to clean up the mess. Year 2006 was not a particularly good one for Lagos State as the state alone witnessed atleast four major collapsed building incidents. The worst of these incidents was the collapse of “Titanic” at Ebute Metta on
July 18. This particular collapse claimed no fewer than 30 lives. The construction of the building which sat on a land area ofless than 1200 square metres and had in all 36 flats as well as 36 shops on the ground floor was allegedly supervised by a topNigerian Engineer. All hopes are that the approval and launching of a new Building Code to guide activities in the construc-
tion industry will check the rampant occurrence of building failures. But many built environment experts have a contrary view.They posit that buildings will continue to collapse in the country as long as Nigerians delight in cutting corners.
Use of quacks and sub-standard materials goes on
unabated
PRESIDENT of the NigerianSociety of Engineers (NSE), Engr.
Eze stated that collapsed building willcontinue to be a recurring decimal in thecountry and he gave reasons for thisrather pessimistic view. His words:"Collapsed buildings will never stop; itwill continue to happen so long asNigerians continue to do what they do.And what do Nigerians do? They usequacks because they think that usingprofessionals is expensive. If you paypeanuts, you get monkeys. If you thinkthat when you are sick, you go and get anurse to mix medicine for you, not even anurse because a nurse is a professional,you go to people who sell drugs by theroadside or who hawk drugs in buses andexpect to be cured, when you die, youdon’t blame the doctor or the facility inthe hospital. The same thing is what ishappening in engineering. When Nigeri-ans want to build their house, they saythat because somebody has built abungalow in his village, they bring him tobuild a house for him in Lagos with all thesoil problems and peculiar circumstances.The building collapses and you say whereare Nigerian engineers. But when thebuilding was under construction, theynever asked who is the Nigerian engineerbuilding this house.
Continuing, Engr. Eze urged the pressto assist the Nigerian Society of Engineersin the fight against the use of unqualifiedpersons in buildings constructions in thecountry.
“Go to any project site and ask who isthe engineer here. You will be surprisedthat you won’t see any engineer. You willprobably see a bricklayer who will claimto be an engineer. If you ask the ownerwhy are you not using an engineer, he willsay, I don’t have the money to pay them.But then, until the building collapses, forperhaps N1 million, he will lose N30million and then people will lose theirlives because somebody does not want touse professionals. So, it is almostimpossible for the NSE to policeNigerians. We cannot. The much we cando is to get people educated and this iswhere journalists come in. That it isimportant for people to use professionalsto do any thing they want to do. Theymay think it is expensive but it is not inthe long run; it will be cheaper. You don’thave to maintain the house alwaysbecause it (house) will be built well. Themaintenance costs of those poorly builthouses are enormous. You see somethinghopping up from the decks or slabs of thehouse. Some of them when they arecasting the decks, use water from thegutter that has a lot of concrete attackingelements. And when you ask them to buyclean water, they will ask you, Ah! Ah!you want to give concrete water thatpeople drink”.
THE NSE President recalled anexperience he had at a constructionsite some years back.
“That was in 1987. I had to leavethe site for the man because Iinsisted that I must use water that isgood for human consumption. He(the client) told his people that hadbuilt houses in that neighbourhoodthat the Engineer who want to build“Julius Berger” for him is insistingon water that human beings drinkto be given to cement. By then, Ihad finished the foundations andput up the skeleton and when herefused to do the right thing, Idischarged myself. He was stillowing me N50 ,000 but he refusedto pay because he felt that I hadwasted materials for him because Iinsisted that I would not use
Disagreement over use of materials stalls workwashed gravel; that I would onlyuse granite and not just any type ofgranite, that I would not make useof any granite that is not graded. Iinsisted on a number of things butwhen you look at the cost, itappeared to be expensive. That wasin 1987. But in 1997, ten years after,I was in my office in Surulere whensomebody walked in. His facelooked familiar but I could not placeit. He called me and told me that Ibuilt a house for him somewhere inOnikere Street. As a matter of fact,we were on that site when theyannounced the death of ChiefObafemi Awolowo. That’s whatmakes the thing very much alive inmy mind. He said that he has cometo apologise; that of all thebuildings in the neighbourhood, it
is only his own that does not have'arthritis'. I asked him what hemeant by arthritis and he explainedthat all the buildings around himare all bent except his own and thathe now appreciates what I did forhim. In appreciation, he broughtout N250,000 and explained thatthe N50,000 he was owing me wasnow worth about N250,000. Healso recommended other peoplewho wanted to build houses in theneighbourhood to me. He toldthem to go to the man 'who builtthis my own house. I quarreledwith him but he will do a good jobfor you. It is expensive, but youwill enjoy it'. That is to tell youabout people’s attitude towardsdoing the right thing,” the nation’snumber one engineer explained.
Although the immediatepast Chairman of the
Lagos State branch of theNigerian Institute of QuantitySurveyors (NIQS), Mr. ObafemiOnashile agreed with the NSEPresident that collapsed build-ings will continue to occur ifprofessionals are not used, hetraced the collapse of buildingsbeyond the activities of quacks.
Said he: “That (non utilizationof professionals in buildingsconstruction leading to thefailure of such structures) is atrue fact that cannot be disputed.Apart from having profession-als, there must be amplesupervision. My main point onthis issue is even beyondprofessionals; it is the govern-ment. The government has aresponsibility to secure everycitizen. So, the government mustnot allow any structure to comeup without adequate supervi-sion because they are thecustodians of lives and propertyin the state.
"They cannot abdicate thatrole to external or individualprofessionals. Even if there areprofessionals, they (govern-ment) must still come tobuildings under constructionand inspect. They must inspectthe foundation, the decking, theroof that is being constructedand the walls being put up. Theymust come to a building underconstruction a minimum ofthree times. They must sendtheir representatives who willhave records and certify itbefore such buildings arecompleted. Another thing is thatthere must be a certificate beforethe building can be occupied. Ifthe government does not certifya building, it should not beoccupied".
THE day may have come sooner thanEngr. Ezeh envisaged as the NSE recentlycondemned and suspended two of itsmembers for the roles they played in thecollapse of a building at Ebute Metta,Lagos last year. Acting on the outcome ofinvestigations by a disciplinary panel onengineers' involvement in the collapsedbuilding, the body has taken the positionthat the two members indicted in thereport, Saidi Edidi and MatthewOlowokere, be barred from practising asengineers for periods ranging from two tofive years. This decision, according toFyne Ogolo, the Executive Secretary ofthe NSE, would soon be communicatedto the Council of RegisteredEngineers(COREN).
The Lagos State chapter of the NigerianInstitute of Architects (NIA) took stepsto educate its members on the provisionsof the recently launched Building Codewhich implementation is expected tocurb the rising occurrence of collapsedbuildings in the country. Chairman of thechapter, Arc. Enyi Ben Eboh lamentedthat Nigeria had for years operated withany document to regulate standards in thedesign and construction of buildingswithin the country. He noted that “theresult is the chaos we now find ourselves
Fight against quackeryEngr. Ezeh disclosed that the relentless
fight waged by the Society of Engineersis coming to a point when members ofthe public will be informed. “We areinvestigating some people. Incidentally,I was the chairman of the COREN(Council for the Regulation of Engineer-ing in Nigeria) panel or tribunal on suchacts. We invited some people to appearbefore us. They have appeared. We had aJudge advocate sitting beside us. Oncewe are through with our preliminaryinvestigation, the day we shall appear incourt, it will be celebrated. I know thatyou will be there to see the people we aretrying for professional quackery andmisconduct” he said.
Lagos, architects joincrusade to fightbuildings collapse
Mr. Obafemi Onashile formerNIQS Lagos Chairman.Arc. Enyi Ben Eboh, NIA chair-
man, Lagos chapter.
in”.Said he: “Our buildings are often not
designed to strict safety standards and assuch, standards do not exist and aretherefore not enforceable. On the flipside, we also had situations where theroles of the various professionals in theindustry were not defined within thephysical development framework. Arc.
Ben Eboh recalled that in all the buildingsthat collapsed in Lagos last year,professionals were involved either at thedesign stage or at both the design andconstruction stages. "In all the occur-rences, we often fail to learn from them,especially after the dust of the mediafrenzy has settled,” he lamented.
Collapse beyondnon-utilization of
professionals
Remains of Bank of Industry building which collapsed March 22,2006
Our buildings are often not designed tostrict safety standards and as such, stan-dards do not exist and are, therefore, not
enforceable
L E I S U R ETHOUGHT FOR TODAY
YOUR LUCK TODAYBy Joshua Adeyemo
ASTROLOGICAL COUNSELLINGSend your date and place of birth to the Astrological
AQUARIUS: Today’s full-Moon in Cancer warnsyou to take your health more seriously. Yet, here is aday remarkable success can be your lot.
PISCES: Whatever happens, you will have cause to smile.Yet, you must not take your friends for granted, especiallyfrom 3pm. Take love more seriously.
ARIES: Unless you exercise great control, domestic watercan become heated with reaction from people within yourbase of operation. Protect your career.
TAURUS: Full-Moon’s influence can induce others tooppose some of your moves within your social circle.Respect important views of your good friends.
GEMINI: Full-Moon across Cancer/Capricorn axis iscapable of bringing avoidable personality clashes throughfinancial transactions. If you rely too heavily on promisesmade by others from 3pm, you can be painfully disappointed.
CANCER: Full-Moon in your Star sign’ll boost yourconfidence and can prompt you to become unnecessarilyaggressive to the resentment of others. Take it easy please.
LEO: With the full-Moon across Cancer/Capricorn axis,you are meant to do away with whatever cannot be placedabove board, especially if working today.
VIRGO: Today’s full-Moon in Cancer warns you not tonurse false hope and do away with self deceit so that you’llnot run into avoidable trouble. This is the wrong time to takeyour influential friends for granted, especially any time from3pm today.
LIBRA: Full-Moon across Cancer/Capricorn axis can bringyou under the fire of enthusiasm but if care is not taken,others may take undue advantage of your mind. Do awaywith whatever can heat your domestic water. Protect yourimage.
SCORPIO: Better than yesterday but because it’s a full-Moon day, you are advised to take legal related issues moreseriously. Minor misunderstanding possible from 3pm.
SAGITTARIUS: Full-Moon in Cancer warns you to bevery careful with both your personal and/or other people'smoney and joint ventures too. Be more family minded.
CAPRICORN: Full-Moon in Cancer can bring youavoidable confrontation either from new contacts or oldallies; try your best to avoid partnership crisis. Exhibitmaturity.
Dear Joshua,Please keep my birth data and identity secret, but I want
you to analyse my horoscope bluntly so that I can know whoI am; talking about my personality.
Anonymous. Osogbo
Dear Anonymous,What you will find hereunder will prove useful if you take
them seriously and utilise themANALYSIS OF YOUR HOROSCOPE DATA/
PLANETARY PLACEMENTAries that hosted the most important heavenly body (the
Sun) together with indicator of mental focus lens - Mercury,is known for special leadership quality and higher degreeof positive aggressiveness. Yes, you were endowed withleadership talents which can manifest either in the businessworld or POLITICS and probably both.
It is true that Aries can be very aggressive, but with manyplanets placed in more mild Star signs, with less than 50%of pushfull influence, loving Venus as most influentialplanet when you were born, certainly aggression of Aries isgreatly watered down to the minimum . That is not to sayyou are the timid type but yours is a balanced personality.You are a gentle, honest and straight forward person.Preponderance of fixed and earth in your chart are pointersto the fact that you are the careful type who will not changehis mind just for the fun of it. Then as peace-loving Venuswas the most influential planet when you were born, peaceand harmony will always come first whenever you want totake any (important and/or) decisive action.
Placement of mighty Sun (indicator of basic selfhood) theMoon (indicator of sub-conscious self/emotion) and theStellium (that is more than two planets in one Star sign} inAries, Pisces and Taurus respectively , meant that basiccharacteristics of the three Star signs stated in thisparagraph are highly pronounced in your inner-self.
What’s myastro-personality ?
Family traditionEVERY family has a
tradition. Everyfamily also has individualand peculiar value system.Whether it is positive ornegative depends on whateach family believes and pro-fesses.
There are materialistic fami-lies, members of such fami-lies always anchor their ac-tions on what they stand togain materially. Some fami-lies have criminal tendencies.
Remember the family ofarmed robbers where five ofthem were executed duringAnini saga? There is also theintellectual family e.g. a fam-ily of professors. You also
have a family of profession-als e.g. the Dafinones, thathave gone into the GuinnessBook of Records, as havingproduced a record five Char-tered Accountants.
Every tree gives birth to itskind. We are essentially whatour family values are.
Think about it.!
Welcome Relief!
VANGUARD, MONDAY, MARCH 19, 2007 — 49
Treena Kwenta
LIFE WITH TREENA KWENTALIFE WITH TREENA KWENTALIFE WITH TREENA KWENTALIFE WITH TREENA KWENTALIFE WITH TREENA KWENTA- the funloving, but hardworking single parent
HI Readers! We held a family meeting at my parents’place in Bodija, Ibadan, to discuss the meeting Sally hadbeen summoned to by her in-laws. First of all, we had to
decide who should be at the meeting with her.“The team from Onitsha shouldn’t be there at all,” said Benny.“Sally needs all the peace she can get, and these are herhusband’s people. She shouldn’t make it seem as if she hasassembled her people to confront them. The Gen was a man ofpeace, even though a career soldier. We mustn’t soil the memo-ry of him with a confrontation.”“You’re right, coz,” said Sally, “but I think it’swrong of them to want to force me to recognizethe so called love child of my husband whohe consistently denied was his throughouthis life.”“Oh, so you had heard of her.” I asked, gladof the opportunity to satisfy my curiosity onthe matter. “I understand she’s about yourown age.”“Yes, my husband told me she’s two yearsolder than I am. He explained that while in hisfinal year in a secondary school here in Ibadan,the child’s mother, who they now call ‘Alhaja’was in her third year.They weren’t boyfriend/girlfriend as such, butshe was part of the circle in which he movedthen. In those days, every holiday, they heldwhat they called students’ party whichenabled holidaying pupils in secondaryschools to come together and get to knowone another. One of the pranks the organizersplayed was to put out the lights when theparty was well under way and most of themwere tipsy, and boys would then go for thegirl of their choice. Some couples decidedahead what to do, but sometimes, innocentgirls were victims.”“Gosh! That would be rape!”“Hard to think that our gentle Gen who was aman of good morals would be part of such athing in his growing years,” observed Joe.“I know, but then it was the norm in thosedays,” defended Sally. “Maybe even now,some young people do it.”“Those parties then were an avenue for ‘boymeets girl’ said dad. “but it was all aboveboard. We didn’t put out the lights, nor retireto the grounds for whatever purpose. It was amajor social gathering for many boardingschool pupils, which didn’t extend beyond 6p.m.”“Still, dad, I wonder why the Gen allowed asituation which could lead to him beingaccused of causing a pregnancy.” said Joe.“Coz, I suppose it was peer pressure,”defended Sally. “But he maintained that hehad merely exchanged greetings with the girlwhen he got to the venue and had not satnear her let alone single her out for lovemakingin the dark. He said he had his eyes on thisgirl from Lagos and had chatted and dancedwith her all evening.So, he was surprised when, out of the blue,the other girl sought him out about five weekslater to tell him that he had made love to herthe other night and that she was expectinghis baby. He denied vehemently but she saidshe recognized him by his smell, and that hewas responsible for her pregnancy. Hermother went to make trouble with his parents,so, to avert trouble, his mum went to givepresents and money when the baby girl wasborn.”“Hm, how interesting!” said Joe. “This is agood subject for a sermon. How parties andalcohol can cause young people to derail.How can a boy make love to a girl against herwish, and she didn’t shout for help, norconfront him afterwards, only coming aftersix weeks to say that he was responsible forher pregnancy? And then say that it was byhis smell that she knew who it was who hadmade love to her. Sounds incredibly crazy!”“My husband said he had the feeling thatseveral boys had made love to the girl withher consent and she didn’t think she couldget pregnant. She chose to pin it on him be-cause he was the most mild mannered of allthe boys in their group. He never acceptedthe pregnancy, but that gesture of his mother,said the opposite. She doesn’t look like thegeneral at all, but then, only God can tell.”“Then why are they clamouring that the wom-an should be recognized now?”“I think it’s because the general had money,”said mum. “If he were a poor man, the womanin question wouldn’t as a middle-aged womanbegin to crave for recognition when thesupposed father never recognized her as hischild while he was alive.”“We must be careful,” cautioned dad. “Sally,mum and I shall be there with you, since we’reexpecting elders from their side. Old headsstill make wiser and more peace-seekingpeople.”“Can’t a younger member, be in on thismeeting, dad?” I asked, not wanting to missit.“I suppose that’s okay. So long as you don’tsay anything.”“That makes two of us,” said Joe. “I’ll want tobe there too.”
“Me too,” said Benny.The meeting was fixed for 2 pm on a Saturdayin Sally’s house. By 12 noon, we had all gath-ered there: Joe and Ify; Benny and Funke;Tayo, I, and of course mum and dad and Sally.The team from Onitsha was asked to stayquietly in an adjacent room. If we needed them,they would be invited to join us. Nanny andSally’s housekeeper were asked to preparesome food.They were ten in number and they arrived onthe dot of 2 pm. Luckily, Sally’s sitting room isquite spacious, so, it could accommodate usall.The hostile elderly man who had come to tellus about the meeting wasn’t among them. Theleader was a quiet-looking gentleman who saidhe was the head of the family on the Gen’sfather’s side.We greeted them amiably, with Sally kneelingdown to welcome them. There were only twoelderly women among them. Funke brought abowl of Kolanuts for prayers. Their leaderprayed and the kolanuts were split and passedround.Nanny and her mate brought in coolers of foodand placed them in full view of the elders. Ifyand Funke asked the guests what they wouldlike to eat, and they began to serve them.I wasn’t hungry, so, I sipped an iced drinkwhile I tried to figure out the guests. Theywore happy expression on their faces.I had been against food being prepared forthem because of the hostile attitude of theother elderly man the previous week, but mumand dad had insisted. They reasoned thatwhen people have eaten your food, any evilthey plot against you will fall back on theirown heads. Besides, in-laws have to be fedwhen they visit, as a sign or respect andfriendliness.I came out of my reverie when the leader ofthe team cleared his throat, indicating that hewas ready to speak. We all listened respect-fully.“My in-laws,” he began, “it’s a pleasure forus to be here to pay condolence visit to ourwife and her children. It’s a pity that the marriedkids have returned abroad, and those doingtheir NYSC have returned to their stations.That’s modern life. In times past, everyonewould be here for at least four weeks after the40th day. Isn’t that so, my in-law?” he askeddad. Dad nodded and added that these days, peo-ple continue to grieve quietly on their ownafter the burial, and no-one seems to have thetime to sit at home and grieve.“You’re right, otherwise, people would lose
their jobs. Hm! Yes, apart from this being acondolence visit, we’ve come to clarify some
burning issues, so that the memory of ourdeparted brother would remain ever sweetwith his family here.There’s the issue of his other marriages beforehe met Sally. He married four times before hemet her, and the reason for the terminationeach time was that there was no issue in theunion. He wasn’t a polygamist like some of usin the family. Er, in his secondary school days,a schoolmate who was a casual friend saidshe was pregnant for him, and had a baby girl. Today, that baby girl is a grandmother her-self. Our brother never accepted that babythroughout his life, but his mother, our auntie,made sure the child was well provided for,sponsoring her education until she droppedout of school. Our brother didn’t object tothat, but he didn’t give her out in marriageand had no contact with her at all. After hissad death, that his school mate came toimplore us to recognize her daughter as beinga member of the family.There was a division in our family about this;some were for, and others against. However,those of us present here are the major decisionmakers in the family. I’m Alhaji Moshood ...This is our senior sister Alhaja Riskat, andthis is Alhaji ...”Thus he introduced his team. Dad then intro-duced members of our family, including Tayoand Isaac.“Isiaka has become one of us,” observedAlhaja Riskat. “He was like a son to our broth-er, and has been of great help to us over theyears. Just like our wife here has been. Sheand our late brother trained over 20 youngmembers of the family who are now standingon their own feet today.The entire family through us here sends yougreetings.We are to inform you that the six children hehad from his last wife Sally, are the onlychildren we recognize as his own. His mothertrained the other lady and set her up in busi-ness. That was her inheritance.Nothing links her with our brother’s kids orhis property. All his ex-wives have no portionhere either. That’s all.”With that, they all got up, went to shake handswith mum and dad, hugged Sally and thendeparted. End of story! What a great relief forus all. Joe broke into songs of thanksgivingand we joined in.Tara
He was surprised when, out of the blue,the other girl sought him out about fiveweeks later to tell him that he had madelove to her the other night and that she
was expecting his baby
50 — VANGUARD, MONDAY, MARCH 19, 2007
Ronaldo lures Ronaldinho to MilanRONALDO has urged
Brazilian internationalteammate Ronaldinho to joinhim at Milan next season.
The Barcelona star is aknown Rossoneri transfer ob-jective and reports are gath-ering pace that ‘Dinho is onthe verge of what would be asensational switch.
“Ronaldinho is a friend ofmine and I would be happy tohave him here,” said Ronaldoin an interview to AS.
“I am sure he would like itat Milan and he would adaptwell to the club’s way of work-ing,” added the former RealMadrid man.
“I haven’t spoken to himpersonally, but I know thatboth [President] Silvio Ber-lusconi and [Vice_President]Adriano Galliani have statedthat Milan would be in poleposition if Ronaldinho wereto leave Barcelona.”
Ronaldinho’s brother andagent Roberto Assis was inMilan on Tuesday and metRossoneri officials, fuellingspeculation that the playermight be close to moving toItaly.
“Nothing has changed be-tween us and Barcelona, therelationship remains excel-lent,” noted Assis. “Every-one knows that I was in Italy,but only to talk about Ricar-do Oliveira.”
Meanwhile, Ronaldo hasdismissed speculation thatKaka could consider a moveat the end of the season toReal Madrid.
“I think that transfer wouldbe impossible,” noted theformer Barcelona star.
We let our fans down again — DyerA DEVASTATED Kieron
Dyer admitted Newcas-tle had let themselves andtheir fans down as they plum-
meted out of the UEFA Cup inHolland.
The Magpies headed forAlkmaar with high hopes ofreaching the quarter_finals forthe third time in four seasonsafter taking a 4_2 first leg lead.
But a toothless display atthe DSB Stadium saw Louisvan Gaal’s AZ side run out 2_0winners on the night to leavethe England midfielder and histeam_mates without a majortrophy in 38 years.
An emotional Dyer said:“There are no excuses. We letourselves and everyone asso-ciated with the club down. Wetwice had a three_goal lead inthis tie and we have blown itagain.
“It is like Groundhog Day. Italways seems to happen to usand now it is another seasonwith nothing to play for.
“We have got to get tough-er mentally or we are going toget punished the way we al-ways seem to do.
“It is another disappointingend to what should have beena promising night.”
Dyer is a veteran of theclub’s last UEFA Cupquarter_final appearance,which ended in agony _ liter-ally for him as his hamstringinjury saw him depart prema-turely and he had to watch asSporting Lisbon turned a 2_0
aggregate deficit into a 4_2victory.
It might have been so dif-ferent had his 54th_minuteeffort gone in rather than justwide of the post, whileObafemi Martins wasted agood chance and Scott Park-er had an 87th_minute strikechalked off.
Dyer said: “We huffed andpuffed a bit at the end and maybe I should have scored and
so should Oba Martins.“My first touch was good
and I thought I had scored. Icould only watch as it wentagonisingly wide.
“But I suppose that summedup our night. We were secondbest on the night. There wasnot a lot of quality out thereand we were made to pay.
“While we still have to tryto win as many points as wecan and climb up the League
table, this will take a long timeto get out of our system.”
The defeat was hard to taketoo for keeper Shay Given,who was given little chanceby either Shota Arveladze orDanny Koevermans as AZcompleted a fightback theyhad started with a controver-sial second_half penalty at StJames’ Park seven days earli-er.
Given said: “We probablydid not deserve anything onour performance.
“What can we say? Wehave let the fans down again.The whole team did not playwell and we are out of Europe,so it is the end of the season.
“What can you say apartfrom roll on next season?”
For all that Dyer and Mar-tins went close, it was defen-sive fragility which onceagain cost the Magpies dear.
Teenager Paul Huntington,playing out of position atleft_back, was cruelly ex-posed by winger Julian Jen-ner and Arveladze and Koev-ermans were given far toomuch space and time by thevisitors’ back four.
Central defender StevenTaylor said: “We are all abso-lutely devastated. I do notthink I have ever felt this lowin my career.
“It is frustration more thananything. We came here witha two_goal lead and losingthat was a massive disap-
Kalou set for first 'real' debut for ElephantsCHELSEA striker
Salomon Kalou is setto play his first competitiveinternational after beingnamed in an 18_man squad forIvory Coast’s African Nations
Cup qualifier against Mada-gascar in Antananarivo onMarch 25.
Kalou, who last year failedin a legal bid to win Dutchnationality to play for Neth-
erlands at the World Cup inGermany, joins team mate Di-dier Drogba in the squadnamed by coach Uli Stielike onFriday, the Ivorian FootballFederation said.
Kalou made his debut forthe Ivorians last month in a1_0 friendly win over Guineain France, finally agreeing toplay for Ivory Coast aftermore than a year spurningtheir advances while concen-trating on his bid to becomea Dutch citizen.
When his bid to have citi-zenship fast tracked was re-jected by the Dutch govern-ment, Kalou changed tackand agreed to play for IvoryCoast, where he was born.His brother BonaventureKalou of Paris St Germain hasbeen dropped.
The Ivorians, who beat Ga-bon 5_0 in their only previ-ous Group One match in Oc-tober, are without the injuredArouna Kone of PSV Eind-hoven and Arsenal defenderEmmanuel Eboue.
SquadGoalkeepers: Boubacar
Barry (Beveren, Belgium),Gerard Gnanhouan (Creteil,France)
Defenders: Arthur Boka(VfB Stuttgart, Germany),Mamadou Doumbia (Istres,France), Steve Gohouri(Borussia Moenchenglad-bach, Germany), AbdoulayeMeite (Bolton Wanderers,England), Kolo Toure (Arse-nal, England)
fans on Friday againstthrowing celery during match-es, saying it was a criminal of-fence and that anyone caughtlobbing the popular saladvegetable could be banned.
The unlikely warning fol-lows referee reports whichmention celery_throwing attwo recent Chelsea matchesand which are being investi-gated by the Football Associ-ation, the club said on its Website (www.chelseafc.com).
The FA’s investigationcould result in sanctions be-ing taken against the club,who said “the throwing ofanything at a football match,including celery, is a criminaloffence for which you can be
arrested and end up with acriminal record.
“In future, if anyone is foundattempting to bring celery intoStamford Bridge they could berefused entry and anyonecaught throwing celery willface a ban.”
The club also urged fanswho spot anyone throwingcelery in the stadium to call atelephone number, adding that“all calls will be treated in con-fidence.”
Though apparently a grow-ing problem with it landing onthe pitch, Chelsea fans havebeen throwing celery amongthemselves, and singing anunprintable song about thevegetable, for more than twodecades.
JOYOUS — AC Milan's Ronaldo celebrates a goal during a recent league match against rivals, Inter at the San SiroStadium. Inter won 2-1. Photo: AFP
H E I G H T . . .Chinese bas-ketball playerSun MingMing standswith DavidFox, headcoach of theGrand RapidsFlight, at apress confer-ence to an-nounce hissigning withthe Interna-tional Basket-ball League’sGrand RapidsFlight basket-ball team. Pho-to: AFP
VANGUARD, MONDAY, M ARCH 19, 2007—51
•SERVE—Andy Roddick of USA serves against Ian Ljubicic of Croatia during their match at the Pacific Life Open in IndiaWells on March 15. Roddick won 7-6, 7-6. Photo: AFP
Bari fans look up toAbramovich to
save club
My players disppointed me — RoederGLENN Roeder has laid
into his under-perform-ing Newcastle United playersafter they threw away a placein Friday’s UEFA Cup quar-
ter-final draw.A 2-0 defeat by AZ Alkmaar
saw Roeder’s side eliminatedon the away goals rule after a4-2 first-leg victory at St
James’ Park had put them oncourse for a third last-eightappearance in four years.Goals from Alkmaar’s ShotaArveladze and Danny Koev-ermans put paid to their lastchance of silverware this sea-son and left the manager fum-ing.
“I’m hugely disappointed,”Roeder said. “Players I’dhave expected to perform wellperformed poorly. I had a lotof confidence we were ingood shape as a team and Idon’t want to tar everyonewith the same brush.
“But we needed everyoneto play well and that hasn’tbeen the case. Too many ex-
perienced players were offform. I expected to do better.”
Roeder added that injurieshad not helped his side’squest to end the Magpies’ 38-year stretch without a majortrophy since their 1969 FairsCup triumph.
“It is too easy to say it’sanother season of failure forNewcastle,” the manager said.“Everyone knows theproblems we have. We havehad nine operations thisseason. You can’t legislate forthat.
“We have to accept that theinjury crisis has cost us doingbetter.”
BARMAN Michele LoRusso had more on his
mind than the Italy-Russia busi-ness summit taking place in hisnative city this week.
He was just desperate for arich Russian visiting the city forthe summit to buy his ill-starredlocal football club and rescue itfrom a downward plunge in Ita-ly’s football league.
“Football makes us sick here.The team needs money,” saidthe 43-year-old, as he swept amarble counter at the Di Savoiacafe in Bari on a chilly morningin this southern Italian city.
The Bari team has failed towin a single one of its last 11games and sport columnistswarn that the club is now verg-ing on relegation to Italy’s thirddivision.
At its last 2-0 thrashing byCesena on Tuesday, the SanNicola stadium in Bari was vir-tually empty. Fans booed afterthe game, players argued and thecoach apologised for the team’sperformance.
“Bari Disaster,” ran a head-line on Wednesday in theGazzetta del Mezzogiorno, aregional daily newspaper forsouthern Italy. “Unwilling andempty, Bari melted at the firsthurdle,” Gazzetta said.
During the game, fans un-furled a banner in garbled Rus-sian that appealed to Russianbusinessmen visiting their cityfor the summit to buy the club.
Many here look to Russianbillionaire Roman Abramovich,owner of Chelsea football club,as a potential saviour.
“That guy, he really under-stands football. If he came, I’msure he would make a differencefor us,” Lo Russo said.
Italian newspapers reportedearlier in March that a repre-sentative for Abramovich met
with Bari boss Antonio Matar-rese several months ago to dis-cuss a potential purchase for“tens of millions of euros.”
Even the city’s mayor,Michele Emiliano, has got in-volved in the dispute in a citywhere many follow footballpassionately but cannot bear towatch their team lose again andagain.
“In the light of the economicvitality of Russian entrepre-neurs it could be interesting tocheck on their possible interestin buying Bari,” Emiliano wasquoted by Bari Live, a newswebsite, as saying ahead of thesummit.
In his comments, Emilianoeven appealed to Bari’s creden-tials as a city with Russian linksbecause it is believed to holdthe remains of Saint Nicholas,who is deeply revered by Cath-olics and Russian rthodox.
The purchase of the club by aRussian “would further rein-force relations with Bari, whichalready feels itself the mostRussian city in Italy,” Emilianowas quoted as saying.
Sergio Fanelli, a local coun-cillor in this port city of some300,000 people and a diehardBari fan, wrote an open letterto Emiliano last week to bringthe point home.
Fanelli said that the team’sperformance was becomingever more “indecorous” andcomplained that good games forBari were a thing of the past.“There haven’t been any inyears.”
Overcoming old Italian ste-reotypes about Russians is allpart of the deal for Fanelli, wholooks at the Moscow arrivalswith admiration. “They’re notcommunists, they don’t eat ba-bies any more and they havelots of rubles.”
Euro plans mobile TV for 2008 ChampionshipEUROPE is laying the
groundwork to roll outmobile TV services and hopes tohave a system up and running intime for the European footballchampionship in 2008, officialssaid Friday.
European telecom ministersmet here at the world’s biggesthigh-tech fair, the CeBIT, andsaid the bloc was striving to meetthe massive demand for broad-casts on handheld devices expect-ed among fans during Euro 2008,which will be hosted by Austriaand Switzerland.
“There is no more time to lose,”
EU Telecom and Media Commis-sioner Viviane Reding told report-ers.
Market studies indicate thatmobile television could win 100million subscribers throughoutEurope by 2010. The global mar-ket could be worth 11.4 billioneuros (15.2 billion dollars) by2009, according to the EU.
Britain, Finland and Italy havealready seen brisk growth in theirmobile TV markets and Germa-ny is running a pilot project inthe western city of Duesseldorfafter a test run during last sum-mer’s football World Cup.
EU telecommunications minis-ters compared notes on the bud-ding sector and quizzed industryexperts on competing technicalstandards.
Two technologies are current-ly competing on the market: T-DMB (Terrestrial Digital Multi-media Broadcasting) and DVB-H (Digital Video Broadcasting forHandhelds), each with differentbands and channelling.
Reding came out at the CeBITin favour of DVB-H, which hasalready been adopted by Italyand Finland and won the supportof the French government. She
told reporters it was essential toavert a costly rivalry between thetwo standards.
“I am disappointed by the lackof progress made so far,” shesaid.
“To fully reap the benefits ofthis market and to export a Euro-pean model for mobile TV as wedid with GSM for mobilephones, industry and memberstates must work more closelytogether to devise a common ap-proach.”
Noting that interoperabilityamong mobile TV platforms andenabled devices is essential for
large scale take-up by Europeanconsumers, Reding said the Eu-ropean Commission had alreadyinvested about 40 million eurosin research and backed the emer-gence of open DVB standards.
“European industry has al-ready developed successful stan-dards in the past and I am veryconfident that on the basis ofDVB-H, mobile TV services candevelop the economies of scalethey need for take-up across Eu-rope and around the world,” Red-ing said.
German Economy MinisterMichael Glos, whose country
holds the rotating six-month pres-idency of the EU, said mobile TVheld enormous potential for theEuropean economy.
“This dynamic trend offers aunique opportunity for the Eu-ropean ICT (information andcommunication technology) sec-tor,” Glos said.“Owing to its in-novative potential, it will make asustained contribution for moregrowth and employment. Redingnoted that competing regionswere seizing on the potential aswell, with China preparing amobile TV trial at the 2008 Olym-pic Games in Beijing.
52— VANGUARD, MONDAY, M ARCH 19, 2007
RALLY ... Carlos Moya of Spain makes a volley against David Ferrer at the Pacific Life Open. Ferrer won 1-6, 6-2, 6-3.Photo: AFP
Zidane,Ronaldo leadteams in fight
against povertyFORMER Real Madrid
teammates - ZinedineZidane and Ronaldo - will cap-tain teams against each otheron Monday in an exhibitionmatch aimed at mobilising thepublic in the fight againstpoverty.
Zidane, the former Francecaptain who was born in aMarseille district and retiredafter France’s defeat by Italyin last year’s World Cup final,and Brazil striker, Ronaldo,who now plays for AC Milan,will lead their selections in thefourth “Match againstPoverty,” organisers said.Zidane and Ronaldo, whoplayed alongside each otherfor Real Madrid for severalseasons, are both goodwillambassadors for the UnitedNations DevelopmentProgramme (UNDP), whichorganises the event atMarseille’s VelodromeStadium. Each have invited anumber of players for the
match, entitled Ronaldo andFriends versus Zidane andFriends.
Among Zidane’s guests arecompatriot, William Gallas andRobert Pires while Ronaldo’steam includes fellowBrazilians - Rivaldo andRobinho.
The match is the secondhigh profile friendly for goodcauses in a week followingManchester United’s matchagainst a European Select XIat Old Trafford last Tuesdaywhich raised money for chil-dren’s charities.
Brazilians don’t take kindly to over dribblingONE of the most abid-
ing moments of the2002 World Cup was Brazil-ian winger, Denilson, takingthe ball into the corner anddribbling around in a circlechased by half the Turkey
team.Brazil were leading 1-0 in
the semi-final with secondsleft and commentators andfans went wild with delight,hailing Denilson’s irrever-ence and cheeky skills as aclassic piece of Brazilianplay.
Yet, when Brazilian play-ers are on the wrong end ofsimilar trickery, they fail tosee the funny side.
Had Denilson tried a simi-lar trick in his homeland,there is a good chance hisantics would have provokeda brawl and it is even possi-ble the game would nothave finished.
Incredibly, for a countrythat produced players suchas Garrincha and Pele, drib-bling is often considered aprovocative humiliation ofan opponent, a breach of fairplay and even an insult tothe victim’s manhood.
Ten days ago, Corinthiansplayers bitterly criticisedPalmeiras midfielder, JorgeValdivia for dribbling toomuch during a derby againstthem.
Valdivia, a Chilean inter-national, inspired Palmeirasto a 3-0 win and afterwardsreceived a thinly-vei ledwarning from Corinthianscoach, Emerson Leao.
“I’m worried about whatmight happen to him in the
future because he has tech-nique but he exaggerates,”said Leao after his team hadtaken it in turns to kick theChilean.
“I worried that somethingmore serious might happento him in the future.”
Corinthians and Palmeirasshare a bitter rivalry — it canonly take a few “Oles” fromthe crowd to spark trouble— and have already pro-vided an extreme example ofwhat can happen.
Back in 1999, the sides metto decide the Paulista cham-pionship in a two-leg final.
With Corinthians enjoyinga three-goal aggregate leadand only a few minutes toplay, forward, Edilson, de-cided it was time for somefamed Brazilian trickery andnonchalantly began playingkeepy-uppy in midfield.
The gesture incensed thePalmeiras players , whochased him off the field. Avicious brawl ensued, withplayers exchangingpunches and karate kicks,and the referee abandonedthe match.
Edilson did nothing out-side the laws of the game,yet he was punished ratherthan the brawlers.
The fol lowing day,Vanderlei Luxemburgo, thenBrazil coach, dropped himfrom the squad for the Copa
America.Since then, the dividing
line between what is consid-ered a legitimate dribble andan attempt to belittle the op-position has become everthinner.
Another startling incidenthappened in 2002 whenCoritiba striker, Jaba, per-formed a couple of cheekystepovers against Santos —and in doing so gave awaya free kick.
“The rule says that aplayer cannot endanger anopponent or himself,” saidreferee Leonardo Gaciba.
“He wasn’t being objec-tive so I awarded a free kickto protect him. If somebodyhad broken his leg, they willsay that I was not clampingdown on violence.”
The same year, the seconddivis ion match betweenSport Recife and Botafogo-Ribeirao Preto was aban-doned in the last minutewhen a Sport player waschased off the pitch by op-ponents for more ball-jug-gling.
That was the year in whichRobinho, now with Real Ma-drid, burst on to the sceneand he also had to copewith threats and bullying.
“Players get angry whenthey get dribbled al l thet ime,” said Gremiogoalkeeper, Danrlei after his
side lost 3-0 to a Robinho-inspired performance. “Hecould end up having his legbroken.”
Former winger, Edu, whocould send the crowd intoraptures when he played forSantos in the 1970s, is baf-fled by current attitudes.
“The dr ibble is a toolwhich makes the team moreoffensive,” he told theEstado de Sao Paulo news-paper.
“The intel l igentdribble...is the essence offootbal l . And now, eventhis they want to takeaway,” he said.
“The problem is that inmodern football, there arefew players who can do it.When one appears, every-body jumps on top of him.During my career, I neverheard anyone complainingabout my dribbling.”
Sao Paulo were the latestvictims of the war on drib-bling when striker Leandrowas cr i t ic ised by r ivals ,Santos, following Sunday’s1-1 draw.
“That’s his way of play-ing,” said coach MuricyRamalho. “He likes to attackand in today’s football, withso little space, the dribbleis a way of taking someoneout of the game.”
“But it seems that today,you can’t do a nice dribbleany more.
UEFA Cup: Holders,Sevilla to face
TottenhamHOLDERS, Sevilla take on
Tottenham Hotspur in thequarter-finals of the UEFA Cup,the draw for which was madehere on Friday.
Sevilla remained on course tobecome the first side since RealMadrid in 1986 to successfullydefend their title with a dramaticcome-from-behind win againstShaktar Donetsk on Thursdaynight.
And Enzo Maresca, fresh fromscoring twice in Thursday’s de-feat of Shaktar, was on hand inGlasgow to return the trophyahead of the May 16 final atHampden Park.
The Sevilla star said: “We’rehappy to have got through lastnight and to have the chance todefend our trophy.
“To be honest, we were a bitlucky, but for us, winning thistrophy was a historic moment,our first European win and agreat achievement for the club.
“We’re here to leave the tro-phy for two months and thentake it back to Seville! We knowit will be difficult to win it again,but we will try and you neverknow what will happen.”
Aiming to stop their UEFA runare Spurs, winners of the firstedition of the UEFA Cup in 1972
and again in 1984, who bookedtheir place in the last eight bybeating Portuguese side, Braga inthe fourth round on Wednesday.
Martin Jol’s side are the onlyBritish club left in thecomeptition after Newcastlewere knocked out by AZ Akmaaron Thursday.
The Dutch outfit’s reward wasa quarter-final match-up againstWerder Bremen.
Werder’s Bundesliga rivals,Bayer Leverkusen, winners in1988, face Spanish side, Osasunawho enter uncharted territory asthis is the first time they’ve madeit this far in a European compe-tition.
The final last eight pairing pitsanother Spanish side, Espanyol,against Benfica of Portugal. Thefirst legs will be played on April5 with the return legs the follow-ing Thursday.
The winner of the headline tiebetween Sevilla and Spurs willface either Bayer Leverkusen orOsasuna in the first semi-finalwith the second semi contestedby Espanyol or Benfica againstAZ Akmaar or Werder Bremen.
The draw was made in Glas-gow where the final will be stagedat Hampden Park on May 16.
AZ Alkmaar (NED) v Werder Bremen (GER)Bayer Leverkusen (GER) v Osasuna (ESP)Sevilla (ESP) v Tottenham Hotspur (ENG)Espanyol (ESP) v Benfica (POR)
UEFA Cup quarter-final draw
Recoba set to quit InterINTER striker, Alvaro
Recoba has confirmedthat this will probably be hislast season with the San Sirooutfit.
El Chino, who joined theNerazzurri in 1997, has onlyappeared eight times so farthis season and is eager formore playing opportunitieselsewhere despite his statusas a Massimo Moratti favour-ite.
“Yes, I believe that this willbe my last campaign with In-
ter,” the Uruguayan interna-tional told Sky Italia on Fri-day.
“I am not happy about it, butI am not 50 yet and my careerhas not come to an end al-ready,” continued the 31-year-old.
“I have tried hard and Iwould have wanted to leavehere by playing regularly andhelping the team to win, but Ihaven’t been able to do thatbecause of my fitness issues.
“I cannot stay without play-
ing,” he continued. “Appear-ing in five or 10 matches a yearis not enough for me.
“I’m pleased that we are fi-nally at the top of the tableand that we can finally winsomething, but I am not happyfor myself because I’m notgetting a game.”
Recoba, once one of thehighest paid players in worldfootball, has been a massivedisappointment over theyears.
Despite working under a
host of different coaches at theclub, he’s never been able tolive up to his potential.
His best spell in the top flightarguably came during a six-month loan stint at Venezia in1999 when he scored 10 goalsin 19 games.
Walter Novellino, now atSampdoria, was boss of theLaguna outfit at the time andcould ask his club to make asummer bid for the SouthAmerican if the tactician re-mains in Genoa.
VANGUARD, MONDAY, MARCH 19, 2007 — 53
Lampard’s agent holds talk with JuventusTHE agent of Chelsea’s Eng-
land international, FrankLampard held talks with Juventusin London this week, accordingto a newspaper report here on Fri-day.
Steve Kutner appeared in a pho-tograph in La Gazzetta dello Sportin discussion with Juventus’sporting director, Alessio Seccoand Roberto Bettega, the club’stransfer consultant. The meetingreportedly took place on Wednes-day.
Kutner told the paper: “WhenLampard signed his last contractwith Chelsea, Juventus werepressing hard to buy him.
“But he held firm as he didn’tsucceed in getting the same treat-
ment as players of the calibre of(Juan Sebastian) Veron and(Hernan) Crespo.
“It’s good when a team succeedsin putting pressure on your em-ployers.”
He added: “Peter Kenyon(Chelsea’s chief executive) knowswhat we want and knows thatFrank has enormous potential.”
Lampard, 28, is currently innegotiations with Premiershipchampions, Chelsea, about ex-tending his existing contractbeyond 2008.
The England midfielder grabbedhis 20th goal of the season inWednesday’s 1-0 Premiership winat Manchester City, underscor-ing again how important he is tothe club.
2.5 million tickets ordered forEURO 2008
ABOUT 2.5 million ticketshave been ordered for Euro
2008, more than seven times thenumber initially available for the
Aragones drops Raul from Spain’s squadREAL Madrid captain,
Raul was the most no-ticeable absentee from coach
Luis Aragone’s Spain squadfor the Euro 2008 qualifiersagainst Denmark and Iceland
unveiled here on Friday. The striker has been over-
looked in favour of Valenciatrio - Fernando Morientes,David Villa and Miguel AngelAngulo and Atletico Madrid’sFernando Torres.
Spain, who face Denmark onMarch 24 and Iceland fourdays later, are in a precariousposition placed fifth in Group
F with three points from as many games.“We absolutely have to win,” Aragones said at
a Press conference to unveil his squad on Friday.
Spain squadGoalkeepers: Iker Casillas (Real Madrid), Jose
Manuel Reina (Liverpool/ENG)Defenders: Antonio Lopez (Atletico Madrid), Sergio
Ramos (Real Madrid), Joan Capdevila (Deportivo LaCoruna), Angel David Lopez (Celta Vigo), Javi Navarro(Sevilla), Carlos Marchena (Valencia), Carles Puyol (Bar-celona), Juanito (Real Betis).
Midfielders: Francesc Fabregas (Arsenal/ENG), XaviHernandez, Andrés Iniesta (Barcelona), Xabi Alonso(Liverpool/ENG), David Silva, David Albelda(Valencia).
Forwards: Fernando Morientes, David Villa, MiguelAngel Angulo (Valencia), Fernando Torres (AtleticoMadrid).
Korea begs FIFA onChu-Young’s suspension
THE Korea Football Association on Friday urgedworld football governing body, FIFA, to review
the suspension of star striker, Park Chu-Young, penal-ised for violent conduct last month.
Park was suspended for three matches by FIFA afterhe was red carded for retaliating against a Yemeni playerwho tackled him hard in an Olympic qualifying matchhere.
“The act by Park was not severe enough to deserve athree-match suspension,” said Kim Joo-Sung, Directorfor International Affairs at the Korean Football Asso-ciation. “We decided to ask FIFA to review the ruling.”
“Suspension of one or two matches would be enough.We want to know the exact reason why Park receivedso many suspensions,” Kim was quoted as saying byYonhap news agency.
ON A ROLL —Chelsea's Frank Lam-pard (r), celebrates agoal with AndriyShevchehko during FACup match againstTottenham. It ended 3-3.Photo: AFP
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European championship finals inAustria and Switzerland, the or-ganisers said Friday.
With another two weeks to gobefore orders are closed, requestfor tickets have flooded in from233,000 fans in 128 countries, asfar afield as Australia, China, In-dia, Africa and South America, theEuro 2008 SA organising compa-ny said.
“In the league table ofapplications from fans,Switzerland has opened up a clearlead, followed by Austria andGermany,” said ChristianMutschler, the tournamentdirector for Switzerland.
Blissful marriagePublic presentation of "I Serve: Danieland the Spirit of Excellence"
Recently, at Kuto,Abeokuta, OgunState, eminent sons
and daughters of Ogun Stateas well as royal fathers fromthe state came together at the
June 12 Cultural Centre, forthe public presentation of abook launch by GovernorOtunba Gbenga Daniel, theexecutive number one citizenof the state.
The book titled " I Serve:Daniel and the Spirit ofExcellence" encapsulatesthe ideals, values and themotive force behind the
drive of Otunba Gbenga Daniel.Here in the shots are some ofthe personalities at the event.Photos by Wumi Akinola.
L-r: Chief Ernest Shonekan, Gov. Gbenga Daniel and PrinceBola Ajibola.
Princess K.B. Ediosenri. Hon. Titi Oseni
Olori Yetunde Tejuosho. Olori Olabisi Tejuosho.L-r:Prince Bola Ajibola, Oba Adedotun Gbadebo, Alake ofEgba Land and Mr. Akin Adesokan, MD, Dangote Cement.
L-r:Oba Adeniyi Sonariwo, Akarigbo of Remo Land, AlhajaSalmat Badru, dep. gov, Ogun State and Chief Tunde Abudu.
L-r: Oba Dapo Tejuosho, Osile of Oke-Ona, Oba A. Akija,Alakija of Ikija and Oba M.A. Dosunmu, Onigua of Igua.
CBN roadshow in Akure and OwoTHE Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, recently embarked on a roadhow to introduce and create awareness for the new currency notes and coins in Akure and Owo, Ondo State. Here, in pictures
are stages in the roadshow. Photos by Diran Oshe.
Mike Odiachi, coordinator, CBN Roadshow, Chief OluwadareAina and Pastor Jacob Meshe. At the Oja-Oba Market in Akure.
Chief Oludare Aina and Mike Odiachi, presenting corporategifts at the Deji of Akure's Palace.
VINCENT Omovusu, the publisher of Isoko News and MD,RABACO Nig Limited, with his family, friends and associateson March 4, 2007 rolled out drums to celebrate his 50thbirthday in Ikorodu, Lagos. Like a great event, there was elec-trifying sense of jubilation in the air as invited guests werespoiled with different assortments of food and drinks. Thepictures show some moments from the celebration.
50 hip hip hurrays!for Vincent Omovusu
L-r: Mr Evaze, Mrs. Esan, Alhaji Mohammed, Mr. and Mrs.Vincent Omovusu, Mr. Esan and Mrs. Anyanwu.
Mr. and Mrs. Vincent Omovusu, children, (m), with someparishioners of St. Monica Catholic Church, Igbogbo, Iko-rodu.
L-r: Mr. Esan, Mr. Vincent Omovusu, Alhaji Mohammed anda friend.
54— VANGUARD, MONDAY, MARCH 19, 2007
VANGUARD, MONDAY, M ARCH 19, 2007 — 55
NIGERIA coach BertiVogts is looking for a
style and substance from histeam in next week’s 2008 Afri-can Nations Cup qualifieragainst Uganda.
“Obviously we need the max-imum three points from thisgame to help our qualificationfor the Nations Cup but I’m notonly interested in the result, Ialso expect a good performancefrom the team,” Vogts said at areception party in his honourhere late Thursday.
“German teams are known tobe only interested in results butwith the huge talent in Nigeria,it’s equally important for me thatthey also put up a good perfor-mance,” the former Scotlandmanager added.
Nigeria lead Group Three ofthe Nations Cup qualifying se-ries with six points from twogames while nearest rivals the
Vogts wants good result, performancefrom EaglesCranes of Uganda are two Ni-ger and Lesotho are the otherteams in the group with theoverall winner qualifying auto-matically for the Nations Cupin Ghana next year.
The last time Nigeria andUganda clashed at full interna-tional level was 14 years agowhen the Eagles were held to agoalless draw in Kampala.
Vogts, who arrived the coun-try Tuesday ahead of the March24 match against Uganda, alsosaid that he will lay emphasison respect, organisation anddiscipline to make a success ofhis job in Nigeria.
“With respect, good organi-sation and discipline both onand off the pitch, we can takeNigerian football to the next lev-el,” he said.
OWEN Hargreaves hasbeen restored to the En-
gland squad for this month’scrucial Euro 2008 qualifiers away
Hargreaves recalled to England for Israel
SIR Alex Ferguson hasinsisted that there is no
‘desperation’ on ManchesterUnited’s part over contracttalks with Cristiano Ronaldo,despite signs Real Madridhave embarked on a fullscaleoffensive aimed at luring thewinger to Spain.
Ronaldo confirmed earlierthis month that he is readyto thrash out a new deal atOld Trafford that could tiehim to the Premiership outfituntil 2012.
Spanish giants Real andBarcelona have both ex-pressed an intention to fightit out for the Portuguesewinger this summer andSpanish press reports havesuggested that the 22-year-old is ready for a move.
But United manager Fergu-son claims that club and play-er are both on course to set-tle negotiations over a dealwhich is likely to see Ronal-do join 100,000-pound-a-week star Rio Ferdinand asUnited’s top earner.
Ferguson said: “Negotia-tions are on-going with Cris-tiano and that’s the way it is.It is the same with all the topplayers.
“We have got our idea ofwhat we want, Ronaldo andhis agent have their idea, butwith negotiations youeventually come togetherwith something that satisfies
Man Utd not desperate onkeeping Ronaldo — Ferguson
The former Scotland coachannounced that he will spend alot more time in Europe than Ni-geria because most of the coun-try’s best players are basedthere.
“I will probably spend about10 days a month in Nigeria whileI will mostly be in Europe mon-itoring the performance of ourtop players and talking to themas well as to their club officials,”Vogts said.
“When I’m in Nigeria, I willalso look out for players in thedomestic league as well as workwith the other national teams.”
Vogts disclosed that he willaccompany the country’s teamto the FIFA World Youth Cham-pionship in Canada in June be-cause he believes that for Ni-geria to fulfil their potentials,football at that level has to beencouraged
to Israel and Andorra.The Bayern Munich midfield-
er, one of England’s few success-es at the World Cup in Germanylast year, returns after recover-ing from a broken leg and hisdynamic presence represents asignificant boost for head coachSteve McClaren as he preparesfor two qualifiers he can not af-ford to lose.
Defeat by Croatia in Zagreb inOctober has left England strug-gling in third place in their qual-ifying group and in serious dan-ger of failing to qualify for a ma-jor tournament for the first timesince the 1994 World Cup in theUnited States.
There is no place in Mc-Claren’s squad for eitherManchester City midfielder JoeyBarton or Aston Villa’s left-sid-ed midfielder/defender GarethBarry, both of whom were in-volved in last month’s friendlydefeat by Spain.
Barry’s omission is the great-er surprise as first choice left-back Ashley Cole is suspendedfor the Israel match and his usu-al back-up, Wayne Bridge, is in-jured.
McClaren has been forced todo without giant Liverpool strik-er Peter Crouch, who is injured,and has dropped Chelsea wing-er Shaun Wright_Phillips.
Watford goalkeeper Ben Fos-ter impressed against Spain butMcClaren has indicated thatTottenham’s Paul Robinson willbe handed the gloves for thecrucial match with Israel in TelAviv on March 24.
England squadGoalkeepers: Paul Robinson
(Tottenham), Ben Foster (ManUtd/Watford on loan), Scott Car-son (Liverpool/Charlton onloan)
Defenders: Gary Neville (ManUtd), Micah Richards (Man
City), Rio Ferdinand (Man Utd),John Terry (Chelsea, capt),Jonathan Woodgate (RealMadrid/Middlesbrough onloan), Jamie Carragher (Liver-pool), Ashley Cole (Chelsea)
Midfielders: Phil Neville(Everton), Steven Gerrard (Liv-erpool), Owen Hargreaves (Bay-ern Munich/GER), Frank Lam-pard (Chelsea), Aaron Lennon(Tottenham), Scott Parker (New-castle), Michael Carrick (ManUtd), Kieron Dyer (Newcastle),Stewart Downing (Middles-brough)
Forwards: Andrew Johnson(Everton), Wayne Rooney(Man Utd), Jermain Defoe (Tot-tenham), Darren Bent (Charlton).
both parties and a deal isconcluded and agreed.
“We have already got himcontracted until 2010anyway, so there is nodesperation on our part.Everything is amicable and Iam confident.
“Ronaldo knows that wewant him to sign and we havespoken to his people andthey say that he is happyhere, so we want to get himcontracted until 2012.
“He is at the right club. Heis 22, he has developed sincehe has been here and therehas never been a time whenhe hasn’t enjoyed it.”
Premiership leaders Unitedface local rivals BoltonWanderers at Old Traffordon Saturday with WayneRooney the only fully fit strik-er available to Ferguson.
Henrik Larsson has nowreturned to his Swedish clubHelsingborgs following theend of his two-month loanspell, while Louis Saha andOle-Gunnar Solskjaer are bothset to be sidelined until theend of month due to injury.
But despite the pressurebeing placed on Rooney’sshoulders, Ferguson insiststhat the England striker ismore than capable ofdelivering the goods.
He said: “Wayne has beenworking his socks off inrecent games.
NWANKWO Kanu’sadvisor has dismissed
talk that the striker is lookingto quit Portsmouth.
The 30-year-old Nigerian starhas been a huge success sincemoving to Fratton Park fromWest Brom in the summer, bag-ging 12 goals so far this term.
Reports have suggested,though, that the former Ajaxman was hankering after amove back to Holland _ hav-ing shunned Pompey’s offer ofa new deal.
However, Kanu’s advisorSamuel Okoronkwo insists thatKanu merely wants a two-yearcontract as he wants to sign along-term deal with the SouthCoast club. “Kanu wants torefute the story he is not keento commit his future to Ports-mouth,” said Okoronkwo. “Heis in fact very keen to commithis future to the club. He wantsto sign the contract —andwants to tell the fans this.
“Money is not an issue.Kanu has been offered a one-year contract but has asked for
Kanu set to commitfuture to Portsmouth
a two-year contract. He is driv-ing between four and five hourseach day in and out of Londonto train.
“He wants to relocate to thePortsmouth area. To movetakes between three and sixmonths, so to then have thepossibility of living there forsix months is not entirely sta-ble for a young family. Kanu’sonly 30. He has enough in thetank to hit 15-plus goals for anumber of seasons.”
Okoronkwo has now calledon Portsmouth to resolve thesituation. “He is happy to givehis future to Portsmouth, butwants that reciprocated,” hesaid. We feel uncomfortablenegotiating in the press rath-er than round the table, butKanu is keen the fans knowhe is willing to commit. Thequestion is: Do Portsmouthwant him?
“He has incredible admira-tion for Harry Redknapp andturned down more lucrativeoffers from abroad to sign forPortsmouth."
C M
YB
56 — VANGUARD, MONDAY, MARCH 19, 2007
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jo, Thursday, warned the newCoach of the Super Eagles,Berti Vogts, to expect lots ofnegative criticisms as hesettles down to his new job,but advised the German toremain focused on the job hewould be doing.
Receiving the new coach atthe State House in Abuja,President Obasanjo chargedthe new coach to ensure thathe takes Nigerian football to ahigher level because Nigeri-ans and the internationalcommunity would expect Ni-geria to show great perfor-mance.
The president challengedthe new coach to devisemeans of building a teamaround local players, point-ing out that talents abound inthe country for him to har-ness.
“Let me also beg of you onething that we should do. Weshould devise means of catch-ing them young because if we
will depend on only thosethat have become known bytheir performance, there won’tbe spread and opportunity toget others to show them-selves. If we look hard, thereis no reason why we cannothave a first class Nigerianteam at any time.
“I wish you every successwhile you are here. Let meadvise that you should con-centrate on what you will bedoing. Pay less attention todestructive criticisms but payattention to positive and con-structive criticisms. You willhave a lot of negative, unhelp-ful and destructive criticisms.This is the nature of things inthis part of the world. Remainfocused on the job you aredoing,” the president said.
Speaking with State Housecorrespondents after his meet-ing with the president, Vogtssaid he had already com-menced preparation for hisnext assignment for the SuperEagles.
He said: “I am happy for theinvitation of the president. Infootball you need discipline,
you need good organisation. Ihave sent my list to all theclubs in Europe and I have tostart planning for Uganda onthe 24th. I want good perfor-mance.
“Well, I watched the teamplay against Ghana and I wasnot happy. We have to tryand move forward. I had agood meeting Thursday withmy colleague, Austin Egua-voen, and we also spoke tothe captain, Joseph Yobo andKanu Nwankwo. I will give allmy international experienceand see what will happen.
"I want to build up a futureteam of local players andmaybe every two months orsix weeks, we hold a meetingand see if they can move tothe national team. I will invitefive local players for thenational team next week,” hesaid.
The coach was accompaniedto the presidential villa by thechairman of the National SportsCommission, Bala Kaoje; Sec-retary General of the NFA,Bolaji Ojo-Oba and AmosAdamu.
JUBILATION••••Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia celebrates a point against NicoleVaidisova of the Czech Republic during their Pacific Life Open match in Indian Wells,California. Kuznetsova won 4-6, 6-3, 6-4. PHOTO: AFP.
