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Two kids<br />
found dead<br />
in Ibadan<br />
NEWS – Page 8<br />
•Nigeria’s widest circulating newspaper<br />
Newspaper of the Year<br />
•Gunmen in military fatigue abduct Jonathan’s cousins<br />
•AND MORE ON<br />
•U.S varsity names Olatunji Dare emeritus prof PAGES 4,5,6&58<br />
•Lawyers fault Fed Govt’s plan on Wike’s inauguration<br />
•Court stops IG from arresting Saraki over disputed loan<br />
•www.thenationonlineng.net<br />
VOL. 10, NO. 3221 THURSDAY, MAY 21, 2015<br />
TRUTH IN DEFENCE OF FREEDOM N150.00<br />
•INSIDE:<br />
GOVT UPGRADES ADEYEMI COLLEGE, FOUR OTHERS TO VARSITY P5<br />
Jonathan leaves $60b debt<br />
for Buhari, says Osinbajo<br />
Blair recommends<br />
drastic decisions<br />
in first 100 days<br />
From Tony Akowe, Abuja<br />
THE grim picture of the economy was yesterday<br />
laid bare in Abuja by Vice-President-elect<br />
Yemi Osinbajo.<br />
He said:<br />
•110million Nigerians are feeling the pangs of<br />
poverty;<br />
•a $60b debt is to be inherited by the<br />
Muhammadu Buhari administration;<br />
•21% of this year’s budget will be spent on servicing<br />
debts; and<br />
•two-third of the 36 states cannot pay workers’<br />
salaries.<br />
It was all at the opening of a two-day policy<br />
dialogue on the implementation of the agenda<br />
for change.<br />
Prof. Osinbajo said: “We are concerned that<br />
our economy is currently in perhaps its worst<br />
moment in history. Local and international debt<br />
stands at US$60 billion. Our Debt servicing bill<br />
for 2015 is N953.6 billion, 21% of our budget.<br />
On account of severely dwindled resources, over<br />
two-thirds of the states in Nigeria owe salaries.<br />
Federal institutions are not in much better shape.<br />
Today, the nation borrows to fund recurrent<br />
expenditure.<br />
“The figure of extreme poverty in our society-<br />
110 million by current estimates- makes it clear<br />
that our biggest national problem is the extreme<br />
poverty of the majority. Thus, no analysis is required<br />
to conclude that dealing with poverty and<br />
its implications is a priority.”<br />
He went on: “In the course of the election campaign,<br />
we ran an issues-based campaign that<br />
identified certain areas of public policy as high<br />
?<br />
WILL THE CHIBOK<br />
GIRLS KIDNAPPED<br />
ON APRIL 15,<br />
LAST YEAR<br />
EVER RETURN?<br />
•A man soaked in blood (right) being taken away<br />
by a policeman after the violence ... yesterday<br />
Three feared<br />
dead in<br />
priorities for propelling<br />
Nigeria forward.<br />
We addressed the<br />
challenges of the<br />
economy, insecurity,<br />
corruption and jobs Ado-Ekiti<br />
creation.<br />
NEWS<br />
“We spoke to the<br />
challenge of provid- violence<br />
PAGE 7<br />
•One of the scenes of the violence ... yesterday<br />
Continued on page 4<br />
PDP Chairman Mu’azu resigns as<br />
Jonathan, NWC withdraw support<br />
NEWS<br />
PAGES 4&58<br />
•BoT chair Anenih quits •Party to discipline Fani-Kayode<br />
•EDUCATION P25 •SPORTS P23 •POLITICS P43 •NATURAL HEALTH P45 •FOREIGN P60
2<br />
NEWS<br />
THE NATION THURSDAY, MAY 21, 2015<br />
•Osun State Governor<br />
Rauf Aregbesola (right),<br />
his Oyo State counterpart,<br />
Governor Abiola<br />
Ajimobi (left) and<br />
Lagos State Governorelect,<br />
Mr. Akin Ambode<br />
at the Progressive<br />
Governors' Forum retreat<br />
at the Yar'Adua Center,<br />
Abuja...yesterday.<br />
How history<br />
will remember<br />
Okonjo-Iweala<br />
•Prof. Uchenna Udeani of the Department of Science & Technology Education, University of Lagos (left), Corporate<br />
Affairs Adviser, Nigerian Breweries Plc., Mr. Kufre Ekanem (middle) and Human Resources Director, Nigerian Breweries<br />
Plc., Mr. Victor Famuyibo at a news conference to kick-off the Maltina Teacher of the Year initiative of Nigerian Breweries<br />
- Felix Ohiwerei Education Trust Fund in Lagos...yesterday.<br />
•From left: Wife of Lagos State Governor, Dame AbimbolaFashola (left); Group Chief Executive Officer, Dufil Prima<br />
Foods Plc, Deepak Singhal; Coordinator,Indomie Fans Club, Mrs. Faith Joshua and Brand Manager, Dufil Primal Foods<br />
Plc.,Amber Yadav at the kick-off of Indomie Fans Club Children Day in Lagos...yesterday. PHOTO: BOLA OMILABU.<br />
•From left: Chief Marketing Officer, MTN, Mr Bayo Adekanbi; winners of MTN TRU TALK,Valentine Peterson and<br />
Kareem Waheed; General Manager, Consumer Marketing, Mr Richard Iweanoge and Head Regulation & Monitoring,<br />
National Lottery Regulatory Commission, Lagos Zonal Office, Mr Jude Ogaga at the MTN Best 11 Promo in<br />
Lagos...yesterday.<br />
PHOTO: MUYIWA HASSAN.<br />
She was invited to put the country on a<br />
sound economic footing as Minister of Finance<br />
and Coordinating Minister for the<br />
Economy. But, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala’s<br />
cure has been worse than the malady. In<br />
this analysis, Assistant Editor NDUKA<br />
CHIEJINA describes the ex-World Bank<br />
Managing Director as a heroine abroad<br />
and a villain at home.<br />
UNDER Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-<br />
Iweala’s two terms as Finance<br />
Minister, the economy witnessed<br />
boom and burst. As a member<br />
of the Federal Executive Council, she<br />
has been applauded and vilified, both<br />
locally and internationally.<br />
In April 2014, Fitch Ratings affirmed<br />
its robust ‘BB’ sovereign rating of Nigeria<br />
with a stable outlook to demonstrate<br />
that the country was on the right<br />
economic trajectory.<br />
It cited some positive features of the<br />
economy to support its position. These<br />
included: improving stability in the<br />
economy after the suspension of<br />
Sanusi Lamido Sanusi as Central Bank<br />
of Nigeria Governor (CBN), the perceived<br />
boost of the Excess Crude Account<br />
(ECA); rising oil production and<br />
improved efforts to tackle pipeline<br />
vandalism.<br />
However, by March 2015, the same<br />
Fitch Ratings reversed the country’s<br />
outlook from stable to negative over<br />
what it described as political uncertainty<br />
in keenly contested elections<br />
and other issues expected to follow the<br />
polls, including falling oil prices at the<br />
international market.<br />
Fitch cautioned that the economic<br />
performance could be weakened<br />
partly due to the erosion of fiscal and<br />
external buffers and over-dependence<br />
on oil revenue.<br />
Nigeria’s ratings, Fitch said, “are<br />
constrained by weak governance, as<br />
measured by the World Bank, low per<br />
capita income, even after the 89 per<br />
cent uplift to 2013 GDP due to rebasing<br />
and vulnerability of public finances<br />
and reserves to oil price volatility.”<br />
A step forward, two backward<br />
Under the administration of former<br />
President Olusegun Obasanjo, she successfully<br />
used her connection with the<br />
World Bank and International Monetary<br />
Fund (IMF) to secure debt relief<br />
for the country. But, it was like pulling<br />
down the house she built because<br />
in her second coming, Nigeria is being<br />
weighed down by the N12 trillion<br />
owed local and foreign creditors.<br />
Each time that Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala<br />
and her team get foreign loan, they tell<br />
Nigerians the facility is secured under<br />
concessionary terms with long<br />
moratorium. The team is always quick<br />
to add that the repayment period is<br />
convenient and at single-digit interest<br />
rate.<br />
That is where it all ends. The finance<br />
minister and her team have never for<br />
once advertised the details for public<br />
debate to ascertain if the terms are actually<br />
favourable.<br />
Perceived outside the country as a<br />
reform-minded economist, back at<br />
home, her reforms and policies have<br />
left much to be desired.<br />
ANALYSIS<br />
One of such reforms was the attempt<br />
to rid the civil service of ghost workers.<br />
Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala promoted<br />
treasury reforms to improve efficiency<br />
in public sector accounting and finance.<br />
Reforms without result<br />
Some of these included: the Treasury<br />
Single Accounts (TSA); the Integrated<br />
Personnel and Payroll Information<br />
System (IPPIS); the Government<br />
Integrated and Financial Management<br />
Information System (GIFMIS) and the<br />
adoption of the International Public<br />
Sector Accounting System (IPSAS).<br />
The measures were said to have<br />
blocked the leakage of over N60 billion<br />
from the treasury that would have<br />
been paid to ghost workers. Nobody<br />
was fingered and sanctioned as culprit.<br />
So, the reform was at best, sweeping<br />
the dust under the rug.<br />
At the height of the crude oil price<br />
slump, the minister listed the areas<br />
where fresh revenue would be generated<br />
to include taxes on luxury items;<br />
stoppage of abuses of investments incentives<br />
such as exemptions and waivers<br />
and diversification of the economy.<br />
The stoppage of waivers, which she<br />
defended at the TEDxEuston as a government<br />
policy “where we give incentives<br />
to industries or business people<br />
to spur them to invest in the economy”<br />
was described as “a bunch of corruption”<br />
because they only favoured individuals,<br />
rather than a sector.<br />
It is certain that President Goodluck<br />
Jonathan will bequeath the controversial<br />
waiver granted to Indian traders<br />
on rice importation to the incoming<br />
Muhammadu Buhari administration.<br />
The Indians hide under the duty<br />
relief to import above the approved<br />
quantity and bring in other goods not<br />
covered by the waiver.<br />
The waiver scandal has pitted the<br />
Nigerian Customs Service against the<br />
finance minister following claims that<br />
the nation is being robbed of the<br />
much-needed revenue through these<br />
waivers.<br />
Going by the claims of the Agriculture<br />
Minister, Dr. Akinwunmi<br />
Adesina, those who imported rice<br />
above their approved quotas are owing<br />
the Federal Government N36 billion.<br />
But, Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala was always<br />
quick to say that the economy<br />
was in good shape whenever critics<br />
warned that the economy was nosediving.<br />
Subsidy controversy<br />
In 2012, an attempt by the Federal<br />
Government to remove petrol subsidy<br />
was resisted by Nigerians.<br />
Today, the Federal Government and
THE NATION THURSDAY, MAY 21, 2015 3<br />
Soon, you will<br />
start asking the<br />
citizens to pay<br />
this or that tax,<br />
while some faceless<br />
‘thieves’<br />
were pocketing<br />
over $40 million<br />
per day from oil<br />
alone<br />
••Dr. Okonjo-Iweala flanked by Board Chairman, United States (U.S.) Federal Reserve, Janet Yellen (left) and Prof Salovey in New Haven, Connecticut...on Monday. ‘<br />
Yale honours Okonjo-Iweala with doctorate degree<br />
MINISTER of Finance and<br />
Coordinating Minister for<br />
the Economy Dr. Ngozi<br />
Okonjo-Iweala has been honoured<br />
with a doctorate degree by Yale University,<br />
one of United States (U.S.)<br />
prestigious institutions.<br />
A statement from the her spokesperson<br />
Paul Nwabuikwu said Mrs.<br />
Okonjo-Iweala was awarded a Doctor<br />
of Humane Letters at Yale’s 2015<br />
Commencement Ceremony in New<br />
Haven, Connecticut on Monday.<br />
The statement reads: “She will be<br />
the second Nigerian in the university’s<br />
314-year history to receive its<br />
highest honour after Nobel laureate<br />
From Nduka Chiejina<br />
(Assistant Editor)<br />
Wole Soyinka, who received an honorary<br />
Doctor of Letters in 1980.”<br />
Nwabuikwu said the President of<br />
the University, Prof. Peter Salovey<br />
described Okonjo-Iweala as “a brilliant<br />
reformer and dedicated public<br />
servant”.<br />
He went on to state that “the minister<br />
has spearheaded efforts to stabilise<br />
and grow Nigeria’s economy,<br />
battling widespread government corruption<br />
and creating greater fiscal<br />
transparency and discipline”.<br />
The varsity’s honorary doctorate<br />
degree is seen globally as a very im-<br />
portant honour.<br />
According to the institution “those<br />
who have received honorary degree<br />
are scholars, public servants, Nobel<br />
Prize winners and heads of states.<br />
“Collectively, they represent the<br />
aspirations of this institution. Yale<br />
honorary degree recipients serve as<br />
models of excellence and service to<br />
our students, to our graduates, to our<br />
community and to the world,”<br />
Nwabiukwu quoted the institution as<br />
saying.<br />
He said the economic team she led<br />
as finance minister helped Nigeria to<br />
obtain debt relief in 2004, wiping out<br />
$30 billion of Paris Club debt, a development<br />
that led to a tripling of<br />
the growth rates.<br />
During her second coming in 2011<br />
as the Minister of Finance/Coordinating<br />
Minister for the Economy, Mrs.<br />
Okonjo-Iweala, according to<br />
Nwabiukwu, has focused on building<br />
solid foundations and institutions<br />
critical for the survival and sustenance<br />
of the economy.<br />
“She bravely fought corruption in<br />
governance with fierce dedication<br />
and unflagging energy” Nwabuikwu<br />
said.<br />
The minister was honoured alongside<br />
the Chair of the Board of Governors<br />
of U.S. Federal Reserve System,<br />
Janet Yellen, popular Beninoise<br />
Singer and songwriter Angelique<br />
Kidjo, university professor and<br />
founding member of the Institute for<br />
Comparative Literature & Society at<br />
Columbia University, Gayatari<br />
Chakravorty Spivak, professor and<br />
director of the Starr Center for Human<br />
Genetics at Rockefeller University,<br />
Jeffrey Michael Friedman, inventors<br />
and entrepreneurs Elon Musk and<br />
Dean Kamen among others.<br />
Yale had in the past honored a<br />
handful of other Africans such as Liberian<br />
President Ellen Johnson-<br />
Sirleaf and South African notable<br />
cleric, Archbishop Desmond Tutu.<br />
‘<br />
Major Oil Marketers Association of<br />
Nigeria (MOMAN) are locked in a<br />
subsidy controversy that has disrupted<br />
the fuel supply chain for more<br />
than a month. The parties cannot<br />
agree on the actual outstanding figures.<br />
The minister says it is N130 billion,<br />
but MOMAN insists it is N200<br />
billion.<br />
Nigerians may live with the lingering<br />
fuel shortage beyond the May 29<br />
handover date as stakeholders in the<br />
distribution network have predicted<br />
that the scarcity will not end in two<br />
weeks.<br />
Lack of faith<br />
What the current fuel scarcity has<br />
exposed is that MOMAN has little or<br />
no faith in the Sovereign Debt Note<br />
(SDN) that the minister purportedly<br />
directed the Debt Management Office<br />
(DMO) to issue to them as against the<br />
hard cash they have been used to.<br />
After a four-hour talk penultimate<br />
Monday, a meeting between the minister<br />
and MOMAN ended in a deadlock.<br />
The implication of MONAN’s lack<br />
of faith in the SDN is that other holders<br />
of government bonds and notes<br />
may have second thoughts on these<br />
instruments, further denting the fragile<br />
credibility of the notes.<br />
For four years, the President<br />
Jonathan administration paid lip service<br />
to the provision of affordable housing.<br />
After saying that the Federal<br />
Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN) as<br />
having failed in its mandate to deliver<br />
on mass housing through mortgage financing,<br />
with a national housing deficit<br />
of 17 million, Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala<br />
engineered the creation of the Nigerian<br />
Mortgage Refinancing Company<br />
(NMRC) to provide affordable housing<br />
for Nigerians.<br />
After the first 10,000 selected for the<br />
scheme, the minister said about 2,000<br />
have been able to secure mortgages to<br />
own their houses, the dream of owning<br />
a house through affordable mortgage<br />
financing is now fast disappearing.<br />
The reason for this is that the government<br />
fixed the interest rates for<br />
mortgage. It believed that the Primary<br />
Mortgage Institutions (PMIs) will tag<br />
along without due consideration to<br />
market variables. It also tried to play<br />
on the fact that business owners are<br />
short-term investors, who are eager<br />
to recoup their investments at the<br />
shortest time. Most of the 10,000<br />
NMRC potential house owners are<br />
still searching for PMIs to fund their<br />
house ownership dreams.<br />
Failing to plan<br />
One legacy that haunts Mrs.<br />
Okonjo-Iweala as the Minister of Finance<br />
and Coordinating Minister for<br />
the Economy is the fall of the naira.<br />
For two years, the world new that the<br />
United States (U.S.) was going to unleash<br />
its shale oil into the market, a<br />
development that would compel<br />
America to shelve further purchase<br />
of crude from its less strategic crude<br />
oil sellers in favour of its oil.<br />
Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala has never<br />
shied away from hitting governors for<br />
mounting pressure on the Federal<br />
Government to share the Excess<br />
Crude Account (ECA). In her argument,<br />
the monies should be left for the<br />
rainy day.<br />
The rainy day is here but the Federal<br />
Government which got the lion’s<br />
share of the ECA has nothing to fall<br />
back on. Many thought a wise manager<br />
of the economy would have kept<br />
the federal share of the funds to justify<br />
her position.<br />
Other components of the foreign<br />
reserve were squandered and when<br />
the inevitable happened, the CBN was<br />
left to scramble to save the naira by<br />
using the foreign reserve. Nigerians<br />
from all walks of life lost humongous<br />
amounts of money to this recklessness.<br />
At the January 2015 Federation Account<br />
Allocation Committee (FAAC)<br />
meeting, it was disclosed that a paltry<br />
$2 billion was left in the ECA and<br />
since then, the government has been<br />
silent on the exact amount in the ECA.<br />
The foreign reserve is in the neighbourhood<br />
of $30 billion which might finance<br />
six months of imports.<br />
Scathing remarks<br />
Recently, former CBN Governor<br />
Prof. Charles Chukwuma Soludo took<br />
Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala to the cleaners,<br />
with his analysis of the economy under<br />
her stewardship.<br />
Soludo said: “Under you as Minister<br />
of Finance and Coordinator for the<br />
Economy, the basket of our national<br />
treasury is leaking profusely from all<br />
sides. Just a few illustrations! First, you<br />
admit that ‘oil theft’ has reduced oil<br />
output from the average 2.3 – 2.4 million<br />
barrels per day (mpd) to 1.95mpd<br />
(meaning that at least 350,000 to<br />
450,000 barrels per day are being ‘stolen’.<br />
“On the average of 400,000 per day<br />
and the oil prices over the past four<br />
years, it comes to about $60 billion ‘stolen’<br />
in just four years. In today’s exchange<br />
rate, that is about N12.6 trillion.<br />
This is at a time of cessation of crisis in<br />
the Niger Delta and amnesty programme.<br />
“Can you tell Nigerians how much<br />
the amnesty programme costs and also<br />
the annual cost for ‘protecting’ the<br />
pipelines and security of oil wells? And<br />
the ‘thieves’ are spirits?”<br />
The former CBN chief added that the<br />
minimum foreign exchange reserves<br />
should have been at least $90 billion<br />
by now and you did not challenge it.<br />
Rather it is about $30 billion, meaning<br />
that gross mismanagement has denied<br />
the country some $60 billion or another<br />
N12.6 trillion.<br />
He said: “Now add the ‘missing’ $20<br />
billion from the NNPC... how many<br />
trillions of naira were paid for oil subsidy<br />
(unappropriated?). How many<br />
trillions (in actual fact) have been ‘lost’<br />
through customs duty waivers over the<br />
last four years? As coordinator of the<br />
economy, can you tell Nigerians why<br />
the price of automotive gas oil (AGO),<br />
popularly called diesel, has still not<br />
come down despite the crash in global<br />
crude oil prices, and how much is being<br />
appropriated by friends in the<br />
process?<br />
“Do you really know (as coordinator<br />
and minister of finance) how many<br />
trillions of naira, self- financing government<br />
agencies earn and spend? I<br />
have a long list but let me wait for now.<br />
I do not want to talk about other ‘black<br />
pots’ that impinge on national security.<br />
“My estimate, Madam, is that probably<br />
more than N30 trillion has either<br />
been stolen or lost or unaccounted for<br />
or simply mismanaged under your<br />
watchful eyes in the past four years.<br />
Soon, you will start asking the citizens<br />
to pay this or that tax, while some faceless<br />
‘thieves’ were pocketing over $40<br />
million per day from oil alone.”<br />
Record of failed policies<br />
Despite the launch of the employment<br />
creation initiatives like YouWin<br />
and Graduate Internship Scheme (GIS)<br />
to depopulate the unemployment<br />
market, the National Bureau of Statistics<br />
(NBS) recently released a data that<br />
Nigeria has 6.8 per cent unemployment<br />
rate.<br />
Despite the falling prices of oil at the<br />
international market, the minister<br />
used $65 per barrel to prepare the 2015<br />
Appropriation Bill at a time a barrel<br />
of crude was below $40 at the international<br />
market.<br />
Nigerians lost all hope in the<br />
economy and its managers when the<br />
minister announced during her 2015<br />
Budget analysis that the government<br />
had borrowed N473 billion to pay<br />
workers salaries in the first quarter of<br />
this year.<br />
In her characteristic manner, she<br />
quipped that Nigeria was still not<br />
broke.<br />
Overwhelmed by allegations of<br />
missing funds by the Emir of Kano,<br />
Alhaji Sanusi Lamido and the enlarged<br />
Nigeria Governors’ Forum<br />
(NGF), the minister, through her<br />
spokesman Paul Nwabuikwu said it<br />
was strange for the NGF to allege that<br />
$20 billion was missing from the ECA.<br />
In a chat with The Financial Times,<br />
Sanusi insisted that more than $18 billion<br />
remained unaccounted for.<br />
The Yale varsity award<br />
But in the wake of these controversies<br />
at home, Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala was<br />
on Monday honoured by Yale University,<br />
one of America’s most prestigious<br />
institutions, with a Doctor of Humane<br />
Letters at its Commencement Ceremony<br />
in New Haven, Connecticut.<br />
Giving her the award, university’s<br />
President Prof Peter Salovey described<br />
Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala as “a briiliant reformer<br />
and dedicated public servant<br />
who has spearheaded efforts to stabilise<br />
and grow Nigeria’s economy, battling<br />
widespread government corruption<br />
and creating greater fiscal transparency<br />
and discipline.”<br />
It is on record that lack of the political<br />
will to tackle corruption and provide<br />
security accounted for fall the<br />
Jonathan administration.<br />
Yesterday, President-elect Prof<br />
Yemi Osinbajo said the outgoing administration<br />
will leave behind a $60<br />
billion debt, the worst-ever debt portfolio<br />
to be inherited in the country’s<br />
history.<br />
Osinbajo spoke in Abuja at the opening<br />
of a two-day policy dialogue on<br />
the implementation of the agenda for<br />
change.<br />
His words: "We are concerned that<br />
our economy is currently in perhaps<br />
its worst moment in history. Local and<br />
international debt stands at $60 billion.<br />
Our debt servicing bill for 2015 is<br />
N953.6 billion, 21 per cent of our<br />
budget. On account of severely dwindled<br />
resources, over two-thirds of the<br />
states in Nigeria owe salaries. Federal<br />
institutions are not in much better<br />
shape. Today, the nation borrows to<br />
fund recurrent expenditure.<br />
"The figures of extreme poverty in<br />
our society - 110 million by current<br />
estimates - makes it clear that our biggest<br />
national problem is the extreme<br />
poverty of the majority. “<br />
Was Yale University right in its rating<br />
of the former World Bank Managing<br />
Director? Time will tell.
4 THE NATION THURSDAY, MAY 21, 2015<br />
NEWS<br />
U.S. varsity names<br />
Dare emeritus prof<br />
PROFESSOR Olatunji Dare, a communication<br />
scholar, author, satirist, famous<br />
columnist, and former Chair of<br />
The Guardian Editorial Board, has been named<br />
Professor of Communication, Emeritus, by<br />
Bradley University, Peoria, Illinois, USA.<br />
Bradley University President Joanne K.<br />
Glasser said the appointment was in recognition<br />
of Dare’s many years of outstanding<br />
service.<br />
“This institution is better for what you have<br />
contributed through your talents, energy and<br />
dedication” Glasser said.<br />
Dare, the author of Matters Arising and Diary<br />
of a Debacle: Tracking Nigeria’s Failed Democratic<br />
Transition (1988-1994), formally retired<br />
from Bradley University recently. He was<br />
honored last July at his 70th in Lagos by colleagues,<br />
former students and admirers with<br />
a festschrift entitled, Public Intellectuals, the<br />
Public Sphere and the Public Spirit: Essays in<br />
Honour of Olatunji Dare, edited by Wale<br />
Adebanwi of the University of California-<br />
Davis, USA.<br />
In her letter informing him of the honour,<br />
Bradley University President Glasser said she<br />
hoped in retirement Dare would remain in<br />
close contact with the university and participate<br />
in its affairs wherever and whenever<br />
possible.<br />
Professor Dare, an editorial adviser of The<br />
NATION since its inception, taught journalism<br />
and international communication at Bradley<br />
for 19 years until his retirement last<br />
week. before then, he taught at the University<br />
of Lagos.<br />
At Bradley, he won awards for excellence<br />
in teaching and research, and was a recipient<br />
of the President’s Award for meritorious<br />
service.<br />
Before he was forced to flee to United States<br />
in 1996 under General Sani Abacha, Dare<br />
served as Chair of the Editorial Board and<br />
Editorial Page Editor for The Guardian, in addition<br />
to writing a weekly column widely<br />
appreciated for its wit, depth, and felicity of<br />
language.<br />
Dare, who is one of Nigeria’s most accomplished<br />
editorialists, was awarded<br />
Jonathan leaves $60b debt for Buhari, says Osinbajo<br />
Continued from page 1<br />
ing opportunities for selfactualisation<br />
to millions of<br />
our young people who face<br />
an uncertain future with understandable<br />
anxiety. We<br />
also addressed the challenge<br />
of providing for the most vulnerable<br />
segments of our<br />
population by equipping<br />
them with the tools to emerge<br />
from the crippling limitations<br />
of poverty to achieve dignified<br />
and productive citizenship.<br />
“This is also against the<br />
backdrop of a highly unequal<br />
society in which, by some<br />
reckoning, the largest chunk<br />
of the benefits of our national<br />
wealth accrues to a small percentage<br />
of our population.<br />
Our manifesto offered a vision<br />
of shared prosperity and<br />
socio-economic inclusion for<br />
all Nigerians, that leaves no<br />
one behind in the pursuit of<br />
a prosperous and fulfilling<br />
life.”<br />
Osinbajo spoke of the reason<br />
for the dialogue - “to interrogate<br />
these positions and<br />
propositions before a wider<br />
audience and to launch a robust<br />
public conversation on<br />
policy directions and priorities<br />
that will help inform our<br />
ASUDDEN “palace<br />
coup” by members of<br />
the National Working<br />
Committee(NWC) forced<br />
yesterday’s resignation of<br />
Peoples Democratic Party<br />
(PDP) chairman Alhaji<br />
Adams Mu’azu.<br />
It was apparent that he had<br />
lost the confidence of President<br />
Goodluck Jonathan,<br />
administration’s approach in<br />
the next four years<br />
The sessions, he said, will<br />
explore a wide range of<br />
policy priorities including the<br />
diversification of the<br />
economy in the wake of declining<br />
oil revenues by engendering<br />
job-led growth,<br />
the revitalization of agriculture<br />
in pursuit of job creation<br />
and food security, improving<br />
the regulatory frameworks in<br />
our most strategic sphere of<br />
economic activity - the oil and<br />
gas sector, improving access<br />
to qualitative and affordable<br />
healthcare, reducing inequality,<br />
reforming our education<br />
system to close the gender<br />
gap in access to education<br />
and to enable our children<br />
become effective contestants<br />
in the global economy, expand<br />
participatory diversity<br />
and inclusion in public life<br />
and tackle inefficiency and<br />
graft in public service.<br />
“But the Vice-Presidentelect<br />
warned that the forum<br />
is not intended to produce a<br />
comprehensive agenda.<br />
“Rather, it is designed to inaugurate<br />
a robust conversation<br />
that will continue long<br />
after we have left these precincts.<br />
Our immediate duty<br />
the Louis Lyons Prize for Conscience<br />
and Integrity in Journalism<br />
by the Harvard University-based<br />
Nieman Foundation, and the<br />
Hellmann-Hammett Grant for<br />
courage in the face of political persecution,<br />
presented by Human<br />
Rights Watch.<br />
Dare holds a BSc (First Class<br />
Honours) from the University of<br />
today is to set the tone for<br />
what we desire to be a serious<br />
and intelligent dialogue<br />
about the future of our nation.”<br />
“Consequently, this forum<br />
cannot and will not be another<br />
talk shop. Our deliberations<br />
must be informed and<br />
pointed submissions that lay<br />
adequate emphasis on the<br />
‘how’ of implementation.”<br />
“We have a few days to goto<br />
enter into a new bold Nigerian<br />
enterprise. There are<br />
many hurdles to scale but we<br />
are confident that by God’s<br />
grace our Nation will serve<br />
its people well,” Osinbajo<br />
said.<br />
The Director, Directorate of<br />
Policy, Research and Strategy<br />
of the Presidential Campaign<br />
Council and former Ekiti<br />
State Governor Kayode<br />
Fayemi, said the event<br />
marked the rounding off of<br />
the work of the directorate<br />
which worked behind the<br />
scene throughout the campaign.<br />
Fayemi said: “This event is<br />
the gratifying culmination of<br />
an assignment that commenced<br />
several months ago.<br />
The Directorate of Policy, Research<br />
and Strategy has been<br />
Lagos, the MSJ from Columbia University,<br />
New York, where he won the<br />
Robert Curry Prize in editorial writing,<br />
and a Ph.D. in communication<br />
research from Indiana University,<br />
specializing in International Communication<br />
and in Public Policy.<br />
His highly regarded column, “At<br />
Home Abroad” appears in The Nation<br />
on Tuesdays.<br />
behind the scenes contributing<br />
our modest quota to the<br />
presidential campaign of our<br />
then candidate in the March<br />
28, 2015 general election, and<br />
now president-elect,<br />
Muhammadu Buhari.<br />
“Indeed, prior to this, some<br />
of us in the directorate had<br />
worked with other patriotic<br />
party members to develop a<br />
most compelling manifesto.<br />
We subsequently ensured the<br />
harmonisation of the manifesto<br />
with the personal ideals<br />
of our president-elect,<br />
thus creating a necessary coherence<br />
of all aspects of our<br />
party’s expressions, that lent<br />
a powerful clarity and focus<br />
to our message of change.”<br />
Fayemi spoke of the<br />
directorate’s behind-thescene<br />
work, adding that “this<br />
momentary exposure is,<br />
infact, our final curtain call”.<br />
He attested to the<br />
directorate’s effectiveness, saying:<br />
“The outcome of the historic<br />
polls attests to the fact that<br />
not only did the right candidate<br />
and party triumph, the<br />
right ideas and the right approach<br />
also prevailed. The<br />
majority of Nigerians demonstrated<br />
their readiness to be<br />
taken seriously as voters, and<br />
Take drastic decisions in first<br />
100 days, Blair advises Buhari<br />
FORMER British Prime<br />
Minister Tony Blair said<br />
yesterday that the incoming<br />
Muhammadu Buhari<br />
administration must capitalise<br />
on the goodwill of his<br />
election in his first 100 days<br />
in office to take drastic decisions<br />
that will impact positively<br />
on the economy in the<br />
long run.<br />
Represented by Lord<br />
Mandelson at a two-day<br />
policy dialogue on the implementation<br />
of the agenda for<br />
change organised by the<br />
Policy Research and Strategy<br />
Directorate of the All<br />
Progressives Congress (APC)<br />
Presidential Campaign<br />
Council, Blair said one of<br />
such decisions will be to drastically<br />
overhaul the oil sector,<br />
reposition the Nigeria National<br />
Petroleum Corporation<br />
(NNPC) and eliminate the<br />
corruption in the sector.<br />
He said: “Let me give you<br />
an example of another emerging<br />
economy that I have<br />
spent time more recently.<br />
President of Indonesia was<br />
elected last year with huge<br />
public support. As a foremost<br />
businessman without link to<br />
the political elite, he was<br />
hailed as a leader who could<br />
transform Indonesia.<br />
“One of the things he did<br />
after being inaugurated last<br />
October was to slash<br />
Indonesia’s hugely expensive<br />
and inefficient, but yet popular<br />
fuel subsidy, a policy decision<br />
which had toppled<br />
previous administrations<br />
and consistently brought<br />
people out into the streets. He<br />
decided to do it straight<br />
away.<br />
duly rewarded the party that<br />
sincerely addressed their<br />
pressing issues. This commitment<br />
to seriously tackling the<br />
themes that affect the lives of<br />
our people remains a cardinal<br />
principle of our pact with Nigerians<br />
and informs the convening<br />
of this policy dialogue.”<br />
Accordng to him, “a majority<br />
of the lead presenters in<br />
this dialogue are members of<br />
the directorate and have all<br />
been instrumental in crafting<br />
the policy priorities and<br />
propositions that helped decisively<br />
swing the fate of<br />
Africa’s largest democracy in<br />
favour of progressive forces.”<br />
“In a sense, the phase of<br />
policy conception is over and<br />
we are entering the phase of<br />
execution, governance, of<br />
providing tangible developmental<br />
deliverables.”<br />
Fayemi said, adding: “The<br />
challenge of translating ideas<br />
into policy and praxis now<br />
looms large. Given the degree<br />
of work that has been put in<br />
by the Directorate and our<br />
well documented national<br />
problems of policy implementation,<br />
the focus should<br />
now be on evolving an institutional<br />
framework to deliver<br />
the agenda for change.”<br />
Mu’azu quits as PDP chair after losing Jonathan’s support<br />
From Yusuf Alli,<br />
Augustine Ehikioya and<br />
Gbade Ogunwale, Abuja<br />
governors and top leaders of<br />
the party.<br />
The National Working Committee<br />
(NWC) members came<br />
together and placed a conference<br />
phone call to Mu’azu,<br />
who is abroad for medical reasons,<br />
to step down.<br />
•Prof. Dare displaying Award for Meritorious Service presented by Glasser (right)<br />
A source said: “When the<br />
NWC members placed a call<br />
to Mu’azu, they threatened to<br />
pass a vote of no confidence<br />
on him by Wednesday if he<br />
did not resign.<br />
“To avoid being disgraced<br />
through a palace coup by NWC<br />
members, Mu’azu quickly offered<br />
to resign to avoid being<br />
humiliated out of power.<br />
“The forces behind the<br />
ouster of Mu’azu used a divide<br />
and rule method. They<br />
set NWC members against<br />
him to achieve their aim. At<br />
the end of the day, Mu’azu<br />
was left in the lurch and he<br />
had to throw in the towel.”<br />
Investigation by our correspondent<br />
revealed that a recuperating<br />
Mu’azu was dis-<br />
turbed that the doors of the<br />
Presidential Villa were shut<br />
against him following his refusal<br />
to leave office.<br />
It was gathered that in the last<br />
two weeks, Mu’azu had limited<br />
access to the Villa signposting<br />
that the game was up.<br />
A top source, who spoke at<br />
about 6pm yesterday, said:<br />
Continued on page 58<br />
From Tony Akowe, Abuja<br />
“He had that goodwill and<br />
had that authority and that<br />
was the time to move. Obviously,<br />
when there was a low<br />
price of oil, it made it less<br />
painful, but it was welltimed.<br />
“On one part, the new<br />
President has demonstrated<br />
to his people and the international<br />
market that he was serious<br />
about economic reform<br />
and that he was no longer to<br />
be underestimated and the<br />
protests on the streets ended<br />
up being minimal compared<br />
to previous times.<br />
“As you know, addiction to<br />
fuel subsidy is not limited to<br />
Indonesia. I am saying take<br />
advantage of that goodwill of<br />
being elected to take difficult<br />
decisions that may inflict immediate<br />
pains, but are in the<br />
long terms of interest to the<br />
country and the government.<br />
“What you do in the first<br />
100 days is important and<br />
symbolic and can also have<br />
tremendously positive repercussion<br />
for the government<br />
and throughout country. You<br />
have a limited window of<br />
opportunity to make an impact<br />
as a government. Looking<br />
at Nigeria, I would say<br />
your vulnerability is corruption<br />
and that is not new to<br />
you, particularly around the<br />
oil sector.<br />
“People in this country<br />
seem to be able to do things<br />
with impunity and beyond<br />
the reach of the rule of law or<br />
proper accountability and the<br />
judicial system. You can<br />
crack the NNPC nut or you<br />
can make a start on it in the<br />
first 100 days and if you do<br />
so, you would have built a<br />
very strong foundation for<br />
what you have to do in the<br />
next four years and beyond.<br />
“I think that ensuring that<br />
all government revenue goes<br />
into a single government account<br />
will be a good start.<br />
Those revenue from your<br />
natural resource are so vital<br />
for the country and for your<br />
future. I think that will send<br />
a very strong message. We<br />
did the same thing when we<br />
came in in 1997 when we<br />
gave the Bank of England its<br />
independence and that gave<br />
us an instant reputation for<br />
fiscal prudence.<br />
“It is quite courageous for<br />
a government to give power<br />
away to another entity. There<br />
were people who voted for<br />
the others, mostly in the<br />
south and the east of the<br />
country. You need to show<br />
the people who didn’t vote<br />
Continued on page 61<br />
•Blair<br />
ADVERT HOTLINES<br />
08023006969,<br />
08052592524
THE NATION THURSDAY, MAY 21, 2015 5<br />
NEWS<br />
•President Goodluck Jonathan (middle); Vice President Namadi Sambo (fifth left); Minister of State 2 for Foreign Affairs, Senator Musliu Obanikoro (fourth right) and a delegation of ambassadors<br />
of African countries to Nigeria, after their meeting with President Jonathan at the Presidential Villa in Abuja...yesterday.<br />
PHOTO: NAN<br />
APC, lawyers fault Fed Govt on<br />
Wike’s swearing-in<br />
THE Rivers State All<br />
Progressives Congress<br />
(APC) and three senior<br />
lawyers have faulted the Attorney<br />
General of the Federation<br />
(AGF), Mohammed<br />
Adoke (SAN), on the directive<br />
to the Chief Judge of<br />
Bayelsa State, Justice Kate<br />
Abiri, to swear in Rivers<br />
State’s governor-elect<br />
Nyesom Wike on May 29.<br />
Adoke had, while issuing<br />
the directive to the Bayelsa’s<br />
Chief Judge on Tuesday, argued<br />
that where there is a vacuum in<br />
the offices of the Chief Judge of<br />
Rivers State and the state’s<br />
President of the Customary<br />
Court of Appeal, the constitution<br />
empowers any person to<br />
administer the oath of office on<br />
the governor-elect.<br />
He hinged his decision on the<br />
provision of Section 185(1)(2) of<br />
the Constitution and the need<br />
to avert constitutional crisis in<br />
the state.<br />
Rivers State has been without<br />
a Chief Judge and President<br />
of the Customary Court of Appeal<br />
since last year following<br />
the disagreement between the<br />
state governor, Rotimi<br />
Amaechi, and the National Judicial<br />
Council (NJC) over<br />
Amaechi’s choice of Justice Peter<br />
Agumagu as the chief judge.<br />
The NJC faulted the choice of<br />
Akumagu, who was the President<br />
of the state’s Customary<br />
Court of Appeal and suspended<br />
him from acting in that capacity<br />
and as a judicial officer for<br />
allegedly breaching his oath of<br />
office. He is currently in court.<br />
But, the Rivers State APC,<br />
through its Publicity Secretary,<br />
Chris Finebone, yesterday in<br />
Port Harcourt, asked Adoke not<br />
to mislead Nigerians.<br />
The party noted that Adoke<br />
was being coerced by the powers-that-be<br />
on his position on<br />
the inauguration of Wike, a<br />
By Adebisi Onanuga and<br />
Eric Ikhilae, Abuja, Bisi<br />
Olaniyi, Port Harcourt<br />
former Minister of State for<br />
Education.<br />
It said: “The AGF has spoken.<br />
We are sure that his directive is<br />
as unconvincing as can be, with<br />
regard to the section of the constitution<br />
cited to justify his action.<br />
Definitely, Mr.<br />
Mohammed Adoke knows he<br />
has been goaded into an action<br />
that he neither believes in nor<br />
convinced is right. We knew all<br />
along that this day will come.<br />
Perhaps, the game has just begun,<br />
because Section 185 (2) of<br />
the Constitution of the Federal<br />
Republic of Nigeria he cited in<br />
no way suggests or implies that<br />
it is the AGF that should make<br />
such appointment or issue such<br />
directive. Therefore, the APC<br />
rejects the directive in its entirety.<br />
“Nothing in any part of the<br />
constitution suggests that the<br />
AGF can direct or order any<br />
judge of any state in Nigeria<br />
in any direction whatsoever.<br />
“Therefore, the order or directive<br />
by Mr. Adoke to the<br />
Chief Judge of Bayelsa State to<br />
swear in Nyesom Wike as the<br />
Governor of Rivers State on<br />
May 29 is illegal, null and<br />
void.”<br />
The party warned Adoke<br />
not to create crisis or cause<br />
confusion in the crude oil and<br />
gas-rich state.<br />
Three lawyers - former Edo<br />
State Attorney-General Chief<br />
Charles Uwensuyi-<br />
Edosomwan (SAN), former<br />
Chairman of the Nigerian Bar<br />
Association (NBA) Ikeja Branch<br />
Adebamigbe Omole and<br />
Lagos lawyer and rights activist,<br />
Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa -<br />
said the decision of Adoke was<br />
Union alleges plot by Chidoka to<br />
recruit aides into agencies<br />
By Kelvin Osa Okunbor<br />
THE Air Transport Services Senior Staff Association<br />
of Nigeria (ATSSSAN) has alleged plan by<br />
the out-going Minister of Aviation, Chief Osita<br />
Chidoka, to place his personal aides into aviation<br />
parastatals in a last-minute recruitment move.<br />
ATSSSAN, after its meeting in Lagos, said it resolved<br />
to use available and legitimate means at its disposal to<br />
ensure that the plan “does not see the light of day”.<br />
The aides, the union claimed, were being recruited<br />
into the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria ( FAAN)<br />
, the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA),<br />
the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) and the<br />
Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NIMET).<br />
It said such plan was detrimental to the career of<br />
civil servants in the agencies.<br />
A statement by Comrade Captain Terling, for General<br />
Secretary of ATSSSAN, warned chief executives to<br />
resist all antics of the minister or face the wrath of the<br />
union as none of such persons will ever be allowed to<br />
resume in any of the parastatals.<br />
All efforts to reach the minister were futile yesterday.<br />
unconstitutional.<br />
Uwensuyi-Edosomwan believed<br />
that any competent<br />
judge or the most senior judge<br />
in Rivers State could have been<br />
drafted to swear in the governor<br />
elect.<br />
“This issue of cross border,<br />
going to get a Chief Judge in<br />
Bayelsa State is absurd and I<br />
do not think that it is constitutionally<br />
sound for him to do<br />
that. I can imagine the Chief<br />
Judge of Rivers State coming<br />
to swear in the governor-elect,<br />
but I cannot imagine the chief<br />
judge of another state coming<br />
to swear-in the governorelect”,<br />
he said.<br />
Uwensuyi-Edosomwan admitted<br />
that the constitution<br />
never anticipated a situation<br />
where there would be no chief<br />
judge to swear in an in-coming<br />
governor in any state and<br />
that a situation that could lead<br />
to confusion would arise in the<br />
state.<br />
He maintained that the country<br />
could not afford a breach of<br />
the constitution by going to<br />
shop for a chief judge of another<br />
state to swear in the governor<br />
elect.<br />
The former Edo State Attorney-General<br />
noted that the development<br />
is another test case<br />
for the courts.<br />
He said: “Let us see what the<br />
courts would say whether it is<br />
right for the Chief Judge of a<br />
state to swear-in the governor<br />
of another state”.<br />
Omole described the decision<br />
of the Attorney-General as part<br />
of the culture of impunity that<br />
has been bringing the country<br />
to ridicule and negating the rule<br />
of law.<br />
He added that what Adoke<br />
had done was to apply political<br />
solution to the constitutional<br />
problem in Rivers State in an<br />
PRESIDENT Goodluck<br />
Jonathan yesterday<br />
called on the global community<br />
and Nigerians to support<br />
the incoming government<br />
of President-elect Muhammadu<br />
Buhari.<br />
He spoke while receiving<br />
members of the African Ambassadors<br />
Group, who were on a<br />
farewell and solidarity visit to<br />
the State House, Abuja.<br />
The President, according to a<br />
statement by his Special Adviser<br />
on Media and Publicity, Dr.<br />
Reuben Abati, said that the incoming<br />
government will need<br />
the cooperation and commitment<br />
of the global community<br />
and Nigerians to effectively deliver<br />
on its promises to the<br />
people.<br />
He said: “The President-elect<br />
is not new to governance in Af-<br />
attempt to avert crisis since<br />
there must be no vacuum in<br />
government.<br />
The former NBA chairman,<br />
however, blamed the situation<br />
on the National Judicial Council<br />
(NJC), which, he said, did not<br />
handle the judicial crisis in the<br />
state very well.<br />
“That is why a political situation<br />
is now being applied to a<br />
constitutional matter,” he said.<br />
Adegboruwa argued that in a<br />
federal system of government<br />
like Nigeria, it did not lie with<br />
the Adoke to issue such directive<br />
to a state’s Chief Judge,<br />
when such Chief Judge was not<br />
answerable or subservient to<br />
him.<br />
He contended that the responsibility<br />
for requesting the service<br />
of another state’s Chief<br />
Judge, where a state lacked a<br />
chief judge, rests solely with the<br />
state without a chief judge.<br />
In this case, he said it lies with<br />
only the Governor of Rivers<br />
State to make such request.<br />
Adegboruwa, who described<br />
Adoke’s directive as “a continuation<br />
of the impunity that has<br />
characterised the outgoing administration<br />
of President<br />
Goodluck Jonathan,” urged the<br />
Bayelsa Chief Judge to ignore<br />
the directive.<br />
He appealed to Amaechi to<br />
put the interest of the state<br />
above political considerations<br />
and request the assistance of the<br />
Bayelsa Chief Judge, because he<br />
alone possesses the legal authority.<br />
“It is unconstitutional for the<br />
Hon AGF to be issuing directives<br />
to a sitting Chief Judge of a<br />
state, in a federation. The swearing<br />
in of a governor of a state is<br />
a matter for the internal affairs<br />
of that state and this cannot be<br />
usurped or taken over by the<br />
Hon AGF,” he said<br />
Jonathan seeks global<br />
support for Buhari<br />
From Augustine Ehikioya,<br />
Abuja<br />
rica. So, I want you to show the<br />
same commitment to him as<br />
you have to me. The Presidentelect<br />
knows that our commitment<br />
is always to project Africa.<br />
I am urging you to extend the<br />
same warmth and solidarity you<br />
have shown to me to him.”<br />
He enjoined African leaders<br />
to encourage trade within the<br />
continent by building infrastructures<br />
and institutions that promote<br />
trade and relationships.<br />
The President recalled working<br />
extensively for more than<br />
five years with other African<br />
Presidents to forestall crisis in<br />
some African countries, especially<br />
in the West African subregion,<br />
and also leading peace<br />
efforts in Cote ‘d’Ivoire, Mali and<br />
Guinea Bissau.<br />
Acceptance ‘ll determine House<br />
of Reps’ Speaker, says Jibrin<br />
AN aspirant for House of Representatives’ Speaker,<br />
Abdulmumin Jibrin, has said acceptance by members<br />
rather than zonal endorsements will determine who wins.<br />
Jibrin, chairman of the House Committee on Finance, spoke in<br />
Abuja against the background of endorsements being claimed by<br />
some of the aspirants.<br />
Apart from Jibrin, other aspirants are: Minority Leader Femi<br />
Gbajabiamila, Mohammed Tahir Mongonu and Yakubu Dogara.<br />
Jibrin said: “As evident with the outgoing seventh Assembly,<br />
members of the House of Representatives chose their leaders based<br />
on acceptance, not purported endorsement being bandied in the<br />
media. I am confident that the eighth Assembly will continue this<br />
laudable democratic trend.”<br />
He challenged other speakership aspirants to clearly articulate<br />
their legislative agenda instead of bandying “fake” endorsement<br />
claims.<br />
“All the endorsement claims and counter-claims have ended<br />
up as fake and lies. However, the focus should be acceptability not<br />
fake endorsements. Secondly, I have concentrated clearly in what<br />
I will do if elected. But, other aspirants are simply struggling to be<br />
Speaker in a do-or-die manner. I challenge them (aspirants) to<br />
come out with their agenda, if they are sure it will be in the new<br />
spirit of change!” Jibrin added.<br />
The Kano lawmaker hailed the president-elect, Muhammadu<br />
Buhari, on his promise not to interfere in the selection of leaders<br />
of the National Assembly and allow for “due process”.<br />
He added: “With the recent powerful and patriotic statement<br />
from the president-elect, the coast has been cleared for competence<br />
and merit to determine who becomes Speaker of the 8th<br />
Assembly.”<br />
Varsity honours Agric<br />
Minister Adesina<br />
THE Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr.<br />
Akinwumi Adesina, has received honorary Doctor of Agriculture<br />
degree from the Purdue University, West<br />
Lafayette, Indiana, in the United States (U.S.). The award was conferred<br />
on him last Friday during spring commencement ceremonies<br />
in the West Lafayette campus' Elliott Hall of Music.<br />
Dr. Adesina was one of the two awardees for Honorary Doctorate<br />
degree awards during the ceremony, the second being William<br />
"Bill" Dudley Jr., president and CEO of the Bechtel Group, who got<br />
Doctor of Engineering degree. Both Adesina and Dudley are<br />
Purdue alumni.<br />
While conferring the award on Adesina, the President of Purdue<br />
University, Mitchell E. Daniels, Jr. paid glowing tributes to the<br />
minister for his exemplary performance, which earned him recognition<br />
as one of the honorees.<br />
Earlier on Friday, Dr. Adesina was honoured in the College of<br />
Agriculture, where he gave a lecture on lessons to learn from<br />
Nigerian agricultural transformation.<br />
Dean of the college, Dr. Jay T. Akridge, hailed the minister for<br />
deploying his intellect into transforming agriculture under his<br />
watch as a minister and was glad that an alumnus of Purdue lived<br />
up to their expectation. Dr. Adesina, in his presentation to the<br />
college, underscored the importance of inclusive growth in agriculture,<br />
which has taken a turn for the better under his watch as a<br />
minister.<br />
On his bid for AfDB presidency, Dr. Adesina outlined his cardinal<br />
programme on assumption of office.<br />
FEC upgrades five institutions<br />
to varsity status<br />
From Augustine Ehikioya, Abuja<br />
THE Federal Executive Council (FEC) presided by President<br />
Goodluck Jonathan yesterday approved conversion of five<br />
tertiary institutions to universities status.<br />
The Minister of Education, Ibrahim Shekarau, who briefed State<br />
House correspondents at the end of the meeting, said that the<br />
approval included upgrading of four old Federal Colleges of Education<br />
to new Universities of Education.<br />
According to him, Adeyemi College of Education, Ondo State<br />
now to be known as Adeyemi University of Education, Ondo,<br />
Federal College of Education, Zaria changed to Federal University<br />
of Education, Zaria, Federal College of Education, Kano now<br />
to be called Federal University of Education, Kano while Alvan<br />
Ikoku College of Education, Owerri is now approved as Alvan<br />
Ikoku University of Education, Owerri.<br />
He said the fifth institution is the Medical Health Sciences College<br />
in Otukpo now changed to the Federal University of Health<br />
Sciences, Otukpo.
6<br />
NEWS<br />
THE Governing Board of the National<br />
Theatre has rejected the<br />
concession of the edifice and<br />
ordered the General Manager of the<br />
complex, Mallam Kabir Yusuf, to stay<br />
action.<br />
The board directed that the<br />
groundbreaking handover of the complex<br />
to a Dubai firm today should be<br />
stopped.<br />
It advised the management of the<br />
theatre to allow the incoming administration<br />
of President-elect<br />
Muhammadu Buhari to determine the<br />
fate of the theatre.<br />
The board made its position known<br />
in a May 18 memo signed by its chairman,<br />
Chief M.W. Ishaya, to the theatre’s<br />
general manager.<br />
The same memo was sent to the<br />
Minister of Tourism and Culture,<br />
Edem Duke.<br />
The memo said: “My attention and<br />
other members of the board have been<br />
drawn on recent reports regarding the<br />
National Theatre of which I am forced<br />
to make the following observations:<br />
“If you recall in our last meeting of<br />
April 23rd 2015, I requested that you<br />
explain to the board members the true<br />
position of the transaction entered in<br />
between a Dubai based company and<br />
the National Theatre, which you<br />
faulted all the claims in the social media<br />
and newspaper publications.<br />
“Though you casually informed the<br />
board that a ground breaking ceremony<br />
was coming up either on May<br />
20, 2015 of which even as of today no<br />
memo on the event has been presented<br />
to me or the board for approval.<br />
“Consequently, no mention has<br />
ever been made in any of our meeting<br />
that the National Assembly had once<br />
directed that we stay action on the concession<br />
and likewise the BPE’s advice<br />
on the issue.<br />
“In light of the above, and considering<br />
that a new government is soon to<br />
take over, I am hereby on behalf of<br />
majority of board members advising<br />
you to stay action on the issue and all<br />
arrangements for the groundbreaking<br />
and any other commitments on the<br />
subject matter until further notice.”<br />
Following a row over plans by the<br />
Ministry of Culture, Tourism and National<br />
Orientation to turn the complex<br />
into a hotel, the House of Representatives<br />
had on April 8, 2013, directed<br />
Duke to stay further action on the concession.<br />
The ministry, however, defied the<br />
National Assembly last week by resuscitating<br />
the bid for the National<br />
Theatre.<br />
This prompted a petition to the minister<br />
by the Amalgamated Union of<br />
Public Corporations Civil Service<br />
Technical and Recreational Services<br />
Employees (AUPCTRE).<br />
AUPCTRE in the petition said it<br />
would not accept any underhand bidding<br />
process.<br />
Besides the concession of the theatre,<br />
the board chairman also raised other<br />
issues with the theatre’s management.<br />
He advised the theatre management<br />
to stay action on appeal against a judgment<br />
in favour of trade unions in the<br />
organisation.<br />
The memo added: “Information has<br />
also reached me that in the case with<br />
the unions, the court last week ruled<br />
in their favour.<br />
“To give peace a chance in the<br />
organisation, I am stressing here that<br />
no appeal should be made on the ruling<br />
until the board sits and determines<br />
what action is to be taken. Meanwhile,<br />
all that is in the court ruling be adhered<br />
to accordingly please.”<br />
The board chairman also queried<br />
alleged spending of N40 million on<br />
road shows to South Africa, London<br />
and Dubai.<br />
He said: “There are speculations also<br />
in the media that N40 million was<br />
spent for the road show to South Africa,<br />
London and Dubai.<br />
THE NATION THURSDAY, MAY 21, 2015<br />
National Theatre’s board rejects concession<br />
FORMER Vice President Atiku<br />
Abubakar has asked All<br />
Progressives Congress (APC’s)<br />
governors-elect to “be governors of<br />
example” as their action or inaction<br />
will determine the direction of the<br />
party’s change agenda.<br />
Atiku, who spoke in Abuja at a<br />
meeting of the Progressives Governors<br />
Forum, said being example of<br />
change will change Nigerian for<br />
•Dubai firm may take over facility today<br />
From Yusuf Alli, Managing<br />
Editor, Northern Operation<br />
Court stops IGP, others from arresting<br />
Saraki over disputed bank loan<br />
•Atiku<br />
From Eric Ikhilae, Abuja<br />
A<br />
FEDERAL High Court in<br />
Abuja yesterday stopped the<br />
Inspector General of Police<br />
(IGP) from inviting or arresting the<br />
former Kwara State Governor, Bukola<br />
Saraki, over alleged bank loan being<br />
investigated by the Police Special<br />
Fraud Unit since 2012.<br />
Justice Ahmed Mohammed, in a<br />
judgment yesterday, also barred the<br />
IGP and his agents, especially the operatives<br />
in the Special Fraud Unit<br />
(SFU), from harassing, intimidating<br />
and breaching the fundamental rights<br />
of the former governor and his aides.<br />
The judgment was on a fundamental<br />
human rights enforcement suit<br />
filed against the IGP and others by the<br />
former governor.<br />
Justice Mohammed held that any<br />
attempt to commence any further interrogation<br />
of Saraki, which actually<br />
started since 2012 and over an issue<br />
already declared closed by the Minister<br />
of Justice, will amount to a breach<br />
of fundamental rights of the senator.<br />
The judge noted that it would be<br />
unfair for the senator to be subjected<br />
to further interrogation by Police having<br />
been cleared of any wrongdoing<br />
by the AGF in the report police willingly<br />
submitted to the minister.<br />
Justice Mohammed’s decision was<br />
particularly informed by a legal opinion<br />
by the Attorney General of the<br />
Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice,<br />
Mohammed Adoke (SAN), that<br />
the allegations of wrongdoing against<br />
Saraki were baseless and unfounded.<br />
The legal opinion of the minister,<br />
which was tendered in court, was a<br />
response to the report submitted to<br />
him by the Inspector General of Police<br />
on police findings in a complaint<br />
of Joy Petroleum Limited.<br />
The judge said the court had no<br />
choice than to give effect to the legal<br />
opinion of the Minister of Justice that<br />
the complaints against Saraki were<br />
baseless, unfounded and not supported<br />
with any documentary evidence<br />
since he has no link with Joy<br />
Petroleum Limited, the complainant.<br />
The court also held that police ought<br />
to have stopped any further harassment<br />
of the senator since the AGF had<br />
officially written to the Inspector General<br />
of Police to discontinue the matter.<br />
Justice Mohammed refused to rely<br />
on the depositions of Police that they<br />
were acting on further evidence, adding<br />
that the failure by Police to attach<br />
even a single document to support the<br />
bogus claim was fatal to their depositions.<br />
“In law, the court cannot rely on any<br />
averment that is not supported with<br />
even a faint documentary evidence”.<br />
“The failure of Police to produce in<br />
court the provisional findings submitted<br />
to the Minister of Justice and the<br />
letter of the Minister to the Police indicate<br />
that the case was not favourable<br />
to the Police”.<br />
The judge also quashed and set aside<br />
the three letters of invitation sent by<br />
Police to Saraki for further interrogation<br />
in relation to the loan, for having<br />
no effects whatsoever.<br />
Saraki had sued the IGP over series<br />
of letters of invitation extended to him<br />
by the police to appear before the Special<br />
Fraud Unit for further investigation<br />
over the bank loan.<br />
“The board is however surprised to<br />
hear that the amount was spent knowing<br />
well that not all members and<br />
those listed in the proposal were able<br />
to make it to all the places mentioned.<br />
“It is, therefore, important that all<br />
beneficiaries with the amount paid to<br />
them be accounted for and the balance<br />
which would have been returned to<br />
the treasury receipted and made available<br />
to the board in its next meeting<br />
please.”<br />
It faulted the alleged maltreatment<br />
of the board members by the theatre<br />
management.<br />
“It is over a year since the board was<br />
inaugurated and to this day, no appointment<br />
letter has been issued to<br />
any member. You severally promised<br />
to get this done but to no avail.<br />
“Now that the board may be winding<br />
up soon, it is important to know<br />
its entitlements as board members<br />
even if it is for record purposes.<br />
“Your prompt action and inaction<br />
on the issues raised above will be appreciated<br />
please,” it said.<br />
Be governors of example, Atiku tells APC governors-elect<br />
•Progressive governors to implement common programmes<br />
•Two of the contestants for the office of Senate President, Senate Minority Leader Senator George Akume (left) and<br />
Senator Ahmed Lawan, after the valedictory sevice for late Senator Uche Chukwumerije at the National Assembly<br />
Abuja...yesterday<br />
Senate eulogises Chukwumerije, Zannah<br />
THE Senate conducted a solemn<br />
session yesterday to<br />
mark the demise of Senators<br />
Uche Chukwumerije and Ahmed<br />
Zannah.<br />
The upper chamber devoted the<br />
day to eulogise the late lawmakers<br />
as senators took turns to extol them.<br />
Chukwumerije died on Sunday<br />
April 19. Zannah died on May 16.<br />
Senate Leader Victor Ndoma-<br />
Egba led the tribute with a motion<br />
entitled: “Demise of Senator Uche<br />
From Tony Akowe, Abuja<br />
good, adding that they must be<br />
humble in the dealing with Nigerians<br />
and “not like the Peoples Democratic<br />
Party (PDP)”.<br />
The former vice president paid tributes<br />
to five former governors of the<br />
party, who have completed their tenure<br />
of office, stressing that their doggedness<br />
and leadership style have<br />
showed what an APC government<br />
will do in the country.<br />
According to him, “I enjoin all our<br />
incoming governors to be governors<br />
of example. If they do so, Nigeria will<br />
be changed for good. We must be<br />
humble in all our dealings with Nigerians;<br />
not like PDP. We must have<br />
candour; lead them by example and<br />
plea for their patience when necessary.<br />
If we are transparent and honest with<br />
them, they will give us their support.<br />
“As we ponder what the agenda of<br />
the incoming government will be<br />
within the context of the party’s manifesto,<br />
we need not go too far from<br />
where to begin. We only need to look<br />
at what the governors of examples<br />
have done and seek to improve on<br />
them and avoid some of the challenges<br />
they face.<br />
“We must avoid becoming the PDP<br />
of our recent history; we must avoid<br />
the very things that brought the PDP<br />
to its knees, such as winner takes all,<br />
greed, arrogance, impunity, corruption,<br />
treachery and so on. We must try<br />
to be a better party and better managers<br />
of our beloved country.”<br />
On the outgoing governors, Atiku<br />
said: “I am extremely pleased to congratulate<br />
my friends, Governor Rotimi<br />
Ameachi, Babatunde Fashola, Rabiu<br />
Kwankwaso, and Aliyu Wamako of<br />
Sokoto for successfully completing<br />
their tenures as governors of Rivers,<br />
Lagos, Kano and Sokoto states.<br />
“Governor Fashola and his predecessor,<br />
Governor Tinubu helped to<br />
legitimise the progressive governors<br />
From Onyedi Ojiabor, Assistant<br />
Editor and Sanni Onogu, Abuja<br />
Chukwumerije and Senator Ahmed<br />
Zannah.”<br />
Senate President David Mark lamented<br />
that ‘this is not the best of<br />
time for us” with the death of two<br />
senators in quick succession.<br />
Ndoma-Egba paid glowing tribute<br />
to the two senators in his motion,<br />
which was also endorsed by<br />
106 other senators.<br />
in the Southwest and by extension<br />
Nigeria since we return to civil rule in<br />
1999.<br />
“Nobody would again wonder what<br />
an APC government could do in office.<br />
In the Southsouth, Governor<br />
Ameachi and later Oshiomhole<br />
showed what an APC government<br />
will look like and so also is the sitting<br />
governor in the Southeast in the person<br />
of Governor of Imo State and<br />
Chairman of Progressives Governors<br />
Forum, Anayo Rochas Okorocha.<br />
“Up North, Governors Kwankwaso<br />
and Wamako have been shining examples<br />
of what Progressives Governors<br />
could do as well as what Ameachi<br />
did there in Rivers under the platform<br />
of PDP before the environment in that<br />
party (PDP) made it difficult for them<br />
to continue to bring positive change<br />
to their people and Nigeria.”<br />
He lauded the Progressives Governors<br />
Forum for organising the retreat.<br />
Governors of APC have agreed to<br />
Other senators, who paid tribute<br />
to the late colleagues included, Senators<br />
Ike Ekweremadu, Ganiyu Solomon,<br />
Olusola Adeyeye, Ali<br />
Ndume, Abdul Ningi, Bello Tukur,<br />
Gbenga Kaka and George Thompson<br />
Sekibo.<br />
Senator Tukur specifically called<br />
on the Senate that the Abuja Cancer<br />
Diagnosis Centre is fully<br />
equipped to carry out its functions.<br />
implement uniform programmes as<br />
contained in the party's manifestoes.<br />
A communiqué released after<br />
their retreat said the governors<br />
agreed:<br />
"That all those who hold leadership<br />
positions in the party are ready<br />
to instigate the right followership<br />
that will produce results. That the<br />
Nigerian economy needs to be diversified,<br />
especially towards agriculture.<br />
"That the country cannot decide<br />
to entirely ban importations of foreign<br />
products, but look for ways to<br />
create a competitive market with<br />
those products that are being imported."<br />
The APC governors also agreed<br />
that from the day of inauguration,<br />
the activities of the progressives<br />
will determine the stature of the<br />
party for the future; “hence the need<br />
for all to begin works that will<br />
speak, rather than a replication of<br />
promises.”
THE NATION THURSDAY, MAY 21, 2015<br />
NEWS<br />
Three feared dead in Ado-Ekiti<br />
THREE persons were<br />
reportedly killed yesterday<br />
in Ado-Ekiti,<br />
the Ekiti State capital, in a<br />
clash between drivers and<br />
Hausa traders.<br />
The clash paralysed traffic,<br />
commercial and social<br />
activities in the town for<br />
about eight hours.<br />
Fifteen shops were set<br />
ablaze and many vehicles<br />
damaged.<br />
The property destroyed<br />
belonged mainly to butchers<br />
and Hausa traders, who<br />
launched counter-attacks<br />
against the drivers.<br />
The number of victims<br />
could not be ascertained as<br />
they were rushed to various<br />
hospitals by policemen and<br />
sympathisers.<br />
Sources claimed that three<br />
persons died and an unspecified<br />
number injured but police<br />
spokesman Alberto<br />
Adeyemi said only four persons<br />
were injured.<br />
The police spokesperson<br />
Osun to ex-HoS: you’re ignorant of public finance<br />
OSUN State Governor<br />
Rauf Aregbesola yesterday<br />
took a swipe<br />
at the former Head of Service,<br />
Elder Segun Akinwusi,<br />
who said unpaid salaries<br />
were caused by financial<br />
recklessness.<br />
Akinwusi, in a report<br />
published in yesterday’s<br />
Punch, said the Aregbesola<br />
administration had borrowed<br />
more than its capacity.<br />
He said this was why the<br />
state cannot pay its workers.<br />
But the government, in a<br />
statement by the Director,<br />
Bureau of Communication<br />
and Strategy, Semiu Okanlawon,<br />
said Akinwusi has<br />
demonstrated that “he lacks<br />
basic knowledge of public<br />
finance”.<br />
The statement said: “It is<br />
not unexpected for the likes<br />
of Akinwusi to want to<br />
score cheap popularity and<br />
political points with issues<br />
of delayed salaries.<br />
“But his reasons for the<br />
delay are wide off the mark<br />
for any intelligent rationalisation.<br />
“The Director-General of<br />
the Debt Management Office,<br />
Dr. Abraham Nwakwo,<br />
told the world last year that<br />
From Odunayo Ogunmola,<br />
Ado Ekiti<br />
said two units of Police Mobile<br />
Force (PMF) were deployed<br />
in the trouble spots.<br />
The clash was fierce in areas,<br />
such as Atikankan<br />
(which has the highest concentration<br />
of Hausa in Ado-<br />
Ekiti), Old Garage, Ijigbo,<br />
Isato, Igbehin and Erekesan<br />
Market.<br />
Businesses were paralysed<br />
in places, such as Irona, Okesa,<br />
Okeyinmi and Ajilosun.<br />
Two of the victims reportedly<br />
died at Atikankan,<br />
where the violence spread<br />
to later in the day.<br />
A cameraman working for<br />
a Lagos television station,<br />
CORE TV, Sunday Adigun,<br />
was injured by hoodlums,<br />
who smashed his camera.<br />
Hoodlums had a field day<br />
as they looted shops, carting<br />
away money and goods.<br />
The hoodlums were<br />
armed with guns, bottles,<br />
charms, machetes, cudgels,<br />
knives, petrol and matches.<br />
Smoke from burning<br />
shops billowed into the sky.<br />
Banks, shops, motor<br />
parks, markets and other<br />
commercial outlets were<br />
shut.<br />
Sources said the mayhem<br />
followed the alleged robbing<br />
of a commercial driver’s<br />
wife.<br />
It was gathered that<br />
N36,000 was snatched from<br />
the woman on Sunday<br />
night.<br />
The culprit allegedly escaped<br />
through Sabo, which<br />
has a high concentration of<br />
Hausa.<br />
Cases of bag snatching<br />
and robbery are commonplace<br />
in the Old Garage-Ijigbo<br />
axis.<br />
Unconfirmed reports also<br />
claimed that the driver’s<br />
wife was raped.<br />
It was learnt that the drivers<br />
launched a manhunt for<br />
the culprit.<br />
The drivers stormed the<br />
houses of the Hausa, who<br />
also launched counter-attacks.<br />
Ijigbo, Mugbagba, Oja<br />
Oba, New Garage and Old<br />
Garage were turned to a<br />
war zone.<br />
The bureaux de change<br />
operated by the Hausa were<br />
attacked with cash both in<br />
local and foreign currencies<br />
stolen by hoodlums.<br />
Heaps of destroyed items,<br />
such as onions, pepper, tomatoes,<br />
dried fish were<br />
burnt with their relics littering<br />
the ground.<br />
The Commissioner of Police,<br />
Etop John James, led a<br />
team of policemen in 15 patrol<br />
vehicles to bring the<br />
situation under control.<br />
James’ presence brought<br />
normalcy to the scene<br />
where he was present but<br />
clashes continued in other<br />
areas.<br />
Armed policemen stood<br />
guard at various flashpoints.<br />
•Chairman, Lagos State Local Government Service Commission, Moshood Oluwole Ojikutu (third right); Permanent Secretary,<br />
Sewanu Fadipe (left) with commissioners of the local government commission: Dr. Waheed Ipaye (second left); Otunba Olugbenga<br />
Osibodu (third left); Alani Sunmonu (second right) and Prince Adebusayo Adebayo at the commission’s retreat on road-map<br />
to 2015 in Amuwo Odofin, Lagos...yesterday.<br />
Teachers, council workers<br />
to be paid Feb salaries<br />
From Adesoji Adeniyi, Osogbo<br />
OSUN State Governor Rauf Aregbesola has approved<br />
the payment of February salaries of staff of local<br />
governments and primary school teachers.<br />
A statement by the Head of Service, Sunday Owoeye, said<br />
retirees are also to be paid their pensions allowances up to<br />
February.<br />
But he said retired primary school teachers would receive<br />
their own pension allowances up to January.<br />
He thanked local government workers, teachers and<br />
retirees for their patience, cooperation and understanding.<br />
Owoeye assured that the government will clear all salary<br />
arrears and pensions owed all workers and retirees within<br />
the shortest possible time.<br />
no one can fault Osun’s debt<br />
portfolio as the state did not<br />
borrow beyond its capacity.<br />
What has changed after<br />
that?<br />
“For Akinwusi to attribute<br />
unpaid salaries to<br />
what he thinks are excessive<br />
borrowings merely confirms<br />
mischief, ignorance<br />
and calculated moves to<br />
misinform the public.<br />
“Just yesterday, the papers<br />
were awash with queries<br />
to the Finance Minister,<br />
Mrs. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala,<br />
to explain the whereabouts<br />
of the $20 billion Excess<br />
Crude Account funds.<br />
“If the issue of delayed<br />
salaries cuts across the entire<br />
country and even the<br />
Federal Government, can<br />
we then say that all the states<br />
have borrowed beyond their<br />
capacities?<br />
“Has the Federal Government<br />
too borrowed beyond<br />
its capacities? As at last<br />
week, some workers under<br />
the employment of the Federal<br />
Government countered<br />
the Finance Minister over<br />
her claim that the Federal<br />
Government is not owing<br />
any of its workers.<br />
“In all honesty, can Akinwusi<br />
come up with evidence<br />
to defend his claim that the<br />
Aregbesola administration<br />
borrowed ‘twice the value<br />
of road projects it is executing’<br />
according to him?<br />
“Nigerians should be reminded<br />
that this was the<br />
same Akinwusi, who ignorantly<br />
told the world last<br />
year that Osun had borrowed<br />
more than N300 billion<br />
to the consternation of<br />
knowledgeable people.<br />
“If a state like Osun had<br />
borrowed N300 billion, Mr.<br />
Akinwusi forgot to explain<br />
how much would be required<br />
to pay interest on the<br />
loan let alone the capital.<br />
“Would the state have survived<br />
till 2014 if it had been<br />
under such heavy burden?”<br />
Aregbesola, the statement<br />
added, has run a very prudent<br />
administration.<br />
“That the national revenue<br />
crisis has forced Osun to<br />
join states with delayed salaries<br />
does not obliterate the<br />
facts of his achievements,”<br />
Okanlawon stated<br />
The statement urged the<br />
people to dismiss Akinwusi’s<br />
claims.<br />
UI donates equipment to police<br />
THE Vice-Chancellor,<br />
University of Ibadan,<br />
(UI), Prof Isaac Adewole,<br />
has lauded the police<br />
for their role during the general<br />
elections.<br />
Adewole spoke when he<br />
donated some hospital items<br />
to the Nigeria Police Medical<br />
Services (NPMS) in<br />
Ibadan.<br />
The items donated include<br />
a 7.5 KVA inverter, 10<br />
inverter batteries, 10<br />
computer sets and one<br />
650KVA UPS.<br />
Adewole said the election<br />
would go down in history as<br />
the most peaceful due to the<br />
role of the police.<br />
He said: “We know that<br />
during the strikes in either<br />
Ogun gets mini lab<br />
From Oseheye Okwuofu,<br />
Ibadan<br />
AMINI laboratory has been opened in Abeokuta, the<br />
Ogun State capital, to meet the health demands of the<br />
people.<br />
Inaugurating the laboratory, the Commissioner for<br />
Health,Dr. Olaokun Soyinka, said it will check all drugs<br />
coming into the Central Medical Store to detect fake and<br />
adulterated drugs.<br />
He said: “We are living in the shadow of danger by taking<br />
sub-standard drugs. So with the mini lab we can be rest assured<br />
of better drugs across the state.’’<br />
Soyinka said the government would work directly with<br />
manufacturers to guarantee quality products.<br />
The Permanent Secretary, Mrs. Modupe Olurin, said the<br />
mini lab would also serve as a source of revenue for the<br />
government.<br />
AN Akure activist-lawyer,<br />
Morakinyo<br />
Ogele, has decried the<br />
spate of kidnappings in Ekiti<br />
State.<br />
In a statement yesterday in<br />
Akure, the Ondo State<br />
capital,Ogele accused the police<br />
of failing to stem the tide<br />
of crimes in the state.<br />
The lawyer issued a sevenday<br />
ultimatum to the police<br />
AMEMBER of the Oyo<br />
State House of Assembly,<br />
Michael<br />
Adeyemo, has said he is not<br />
struggling to lead the Eighth<br />
Assembly.<br />
Adeyemo, a member of the<br />
All Progressives Congress<br />
(APC), is representing Ibarapa<br />
East State Constituency.<br />
The lawmaker said he has<br />
not approached or lobbied<br />
anyone since the April 11 election.<br />
According to him, the position<br />
is to be determined by<br />
7<br />
UCH or UI, we can send our<br />
patients to your hospital<br />
knowing that the police don’t<br />
go on strike, that’s why we<br />
are investing in you,” Adewole<br />
said.<br />
Deputy Commissioner of<br />
Police (NPMS) Mrs Efunsola<br />
Sowemimo said to ensure the<br />
provision of optimal care, the<br />
NPMS has commenced the<br />
upgrading of facilities in<br />
Agodi, Challenge, Oyo and<br />
Ogbomoso.<br />
“The vision of the AIG Medical,<br />
Dr Grace Okudo, is to<br />
strengthen the primary health<br />
care delivery in NPMS,” she<br />
said.<br />
Activist seeks end to kidnapping<br />
From Damisi Ojo, Akure<br />
to arrest the kidnappers and<br />
their sponsors.<br />
Ogele said: ”Why are the<br />
police keeping quiet? The<br />
police are not doing enough<br />
to protect the people.<br />
”The Ekiti State Police<br />
Command should tell the<br />
world why it has not arrested<br />
any kidnappers or prevented<br />
their operations.”<br />
‘I’m not struggling to be speaker’<br />
From Bisi Oladele, Ibadan<br />
elected members and party<br />
leaders across the state.<br />
Besides, the lawmaker said<br />
positions are in the hands of<br />
God, adding that He gives<br />
them to whoever He wishes.<br />
“I have not discussed with<br />
anybody that I want to be<br />
Speaker. I have not contended<br />
with anybody or struggled<br />
with anybody over the position.<br />
All I know is that I have<br />
been re-elected to serve my<br />
people for another four<br />
years.”<br />
Skye Bank trains 22 journalists<br />
Ernest Nwokolo, Abeokuta<br />
TWENTY-two journalists in Ogun State were yesterday<br />
trained in “digital reporting” to widen their horizon<br />
and efficiency in today’s digitalised world.<br />
The beneficiaries, drawn from the print and electronic media,<br />
were exposed to how i-phones, android and smartphones can<br />
be used to break news speedily .<br />
The one day workshop in Abeokuta, the state capital, was<br />
facilitated by Skye Bank Plc.<br />
The resource person, Mr Taiwo Obe, a Common Wealth<br />
fellow, in his lecture titled: “ Disruption of things”, said<br />
technology has blurred and erased the line of divide between<br />
those in the print and electronic media.<br />
Obe who is a member of the Nigerian Guild of Editors<br />
(NGE), said journalists are now story tellers, telling stories<br />
in a digital age.<br />
‘Put aside personal ambition’<br />
THE Action Group of<br />
the All Progressives<br />
Congress (APC) in<br />
Ekiti State has said party<br />
members must set aside<br />
muscle-flexing and self-seeking<br />
plots within the party.<br />
It said “this is the time to<br />
come together to fight a common<br />
enemy”.<br />
The group vowed to resist<br />
anyone promoting personal<br />
ambition at a period that calls<br />
for collective struggle.<br />
A statement by its spokesperson,<br />
Segun Dipe, said<br />
while it is the right of anyone<br />
to aspire to any position,<br />
it is selfish and an act of irresponsibility<br />
on the part of<br />
any party faithful to ignore<br />
the challenges at hand.<br />
“Everyone should key into<br />
confronting the monster terrorising<br />
our landscape and<br />
dehumanising our people. It<br />
must be a collective struggle<br />
to fight the common enemy<br />
and bring peace and sanity<br />
back to our state.”
8 THE NATION THURSDAY, MAY 21, 2015<br />
NEWS<br />
IoD to host Uduaghan at<br />
Govt Meets Business forum<br />
ELTA State Governor<br />
Emmanuel<br />
DUduaghan will be the<br />
guest speaker at the<br />
Institute of Directors’<br />
(IoD’s) Government<br />
Meets Business forum<br />
tomorrow.<br />
The event will begin<br />
at 11am at the Iris Hall<br />
of Eko Hotel and<br />
Suites, Victoria Island,<br />
Lagos. Governor Uduaghan<br />
is expected to<br />
give account of how the<br />
Delta beyond Oil initiative<br />
of his administration<br />
has laid a good<br />
foundation for sustainable<br />
development of<br />
Delta State.<br />
IoD’s Director-General<br />
Victor Banjo announced<br />
in Lagos yesterday<br />
that the forum<br />
was designed to promote<br />
accountability and<br />
Two found dead in Ibadan<br />
TWO bodies have<br />
been discovered at a<br />
bungalow, 13, Cele<br />
Close, Agbowo, Ibadan.<br />
The bodies of Amarachi<br />
Ukoha (16) and Munachi<br />
Madagu ( three) were<br />
found inside one of the<br />
eight rooms in the house.<br />
Their mother, Chinoye<br />
Ukoha, said her son, Monachi<br />
and her sister, Amarachi,<br />
lived with her and<br />
reassure investors<br />
about the sustainability<br />
of policies introduced<br />
by government<br />
at various levels.<br />
The event will also<br />
feature the public presentation<br />
of a book, titled:<br />
Sustainable Development,<br />
edited by the<br />
Chairman of the Editorial<br />
Board of The Nation,<br />
Mr Sam Omatseye,<br />
and a former Delta<br />
State Commissioner<br />
of Information, Mr<br />
Oma Djebah.<br />
IoD Nigeria, founded<br />
in 1983, is a prime leadership<br />
organisation<br />
that champions good<br />
governance and promotes<br />
business ethics<br />
in Nigeria.<br />
It is an affiliate of the<br />
Institute of Directors<br />
in the United Kingdom<br />
(UK).<br />
From Bisi Oladele, Ibadan<br />
complained of stomach<br />
ache on Tuesday night.<br />
She said she gave them<br />
some drugs and only<br />
discovered their<br />
bodies yesterday morning.<br />
The case has been reported<br />
at Kajorepo Police<br />
Station and the bodies<br />
taken to Adeoyo<br />
mortuary.<br />
•Members of staff of the National Hospital Abuja, protesting the non-implementation of the Consolidated Health Salary<br />
Structure in Abuja…yesterday.<br />
PHOTO:NAN<br />
Ekiti health workers protest<br />
HEALTH workers in<br />
Ekiti State yesterday<br />
protested the<br />
kidnapping of some of their<br />
colleagues.<br />
Acting under the aegis of<br />
the Joint Health Sector<br />
Unions (JOHESU) and<br />
Medical and Health Workers<br />
Union ( MHWU), they<br />
marched on the Governor’s<br />
Office, demanding the<br />
release of their colleagues.<br />
The State Chairman of<br />
MHWU, Raymond Ade-<br />
Adesanmi, said members of<br />
the union could not perform<br />
their duties for fear of being<br />
•Threaten indefinite strike<br />
From Odunayo Ogunmola,<br />
Ado-Ekiti<br />
kidnapped.<br />
Ade-Adesanmi, who is also<br />
the state Chairman of the<br />
Nigeria Labour Congress<br />
(NLC), said if the trend<br />
continued, the health<br />
workers would be forced to<br />
embark on an industrial<br />
action.<br />
The protesters carried placards<br />
with various<br />
inscriptions, such as<br />
“Kidnapping is alien to Ekiti<br />
people” and “Ekiti health<br />
workers say no to Kidnapping”,<br />
among others.<br />
The Head of Service (HoS),<br />
Dr. Gbenga Faseluka, who<br />
APC UK expands<br />
THE Elders’ Forum of<br />
the All Progressives<br />
Congress (APC) in<br />
Ekiti State has expressed satisfaction<br />
with the return of<br />
the House of Representatives<br />
member, Opeyemi Bamidele,<br />
to the progressives<br />
fold.<br />
The body also advised the<br />
Commissioner of Police,<br />
Etop John James, to be fair<br />
to all parties and not to be<br />
fooled by the antics of the<br />
Peoples Democratic Party<br />
(PDP).<br />
The group’s Publicity Sec-<br />
THE United Kingdom (UK) chapter of<br />
the All Progressives Congress (APC)<br />
has expanded with the inauguration<br />
of the Bedfordshire chapter .<br />
Speaking at the event held at the University<br />
of Bedfordshire, Luton, the country’s<br />
APC Chairman , Dr Phillip Ideawor, praised<br />
members for their commitment to the values<br />
of the party.<br />
Ideawor also praised Nigerians for choosing<br />
the party in the last general election.<br />
He added that the APC UK supported<br />
Buhari because it recognised that the country<br />
needs reformation.<br />
The Chairman said the UK chapter has a<br />
pool of competent talents and professionals,<br />
who can be of service to the incoming<br />
APC government.<br />
He urged the Bedfordshire chapter to set<br />
standards for other branches.<br />
The Chairman of Bedfordshire APC,<br />
Patrick Obuseh, said the chapter came into<br />
being as a result of the members’ passion<br />
for progress.<br />
Other members of the Executive are Yemi<br />
Kolawole (Secretary); Tunde Ajisola<br />
(Organising Secretary); Christian Uchenna<br />
(Treasurer) and Muyiwa Odufowokan<br />
(Publicity Secretary),<br />
received the protesters,<br />
pleaded with them not to<br />
embark on any strike.<br />
Faseluka described the<br />
strike threat as panicky, unprofessional,<br />
and counterproductive.<br />
He regretted that most of<br />
the victims were public servants<br />
from the academia and<br />
health sectors.<br />
The HoS said the government<br />
was working to ensuring<br />
the safe release of the<br />
victims.<br />
Faseluka said since preliminary<br />
investigations revealed<br />
that none of the abductees<br />
was kidnapped from<br />
the workplace, it may be<br />
hasty to conclude that particular<br />
professions were being<br />
targeted.<br />
Faseluka added: “ Governor<br />
Ayodele Fayose has<br />
been working hard to ensure<br />
adequate security in the<br />
state, especially by instituting<br />
a Security Trust Fund.<br />
“Logistics had been provided<br />
for joint security for<br />
the military, police and other<br />
security agencies.”<br />
He said the governor was<br />
out of the state to secure<br />
more commitments from the<br />
Federal Government.<br />
The HoS said a special security<br />
squad deployed to the<br />
state has arrived.<br />
“I urge public servants to<br />
go about their duties without<br />
fear.”<br />
Bamidele gets rousing welcome to APC<br />
From Odunayo Ogunmola,<br />
Ado-Ekiti<br />
retary, Dr. Bayo Orire, said<br />
Bamidele’s return portends<br />
a good development for the<br />
party and a boost to its fortunes.<br />
Bamidele had on Tuesday<br />
defected from the Labour<br />
Party (LP) to the APC alongside<br />
his supporters and<br />
members of his political platform,<br />
Bibiire Coalition.<br />
Orire noted that Bamidele<br />
would add value to the APC<br />
and contribute to efforts to<br />
reposition the party for future<br />
challenges.<br />
He described the lawmaker<br />
as a great asset needed by<br />
the party in its bid to bounce<br />
back into reckoning.<br />
The party elder, however,<br />
warned some leaders and<br />
members of the party<br />
against working against<br />
those willing to join the party.<br />
He said what the APC<br />
needs is unity of purpose to<br />
tackle the alleged misrule of<br />
the PDP and not politics of<br />
exclusion and brooding over<br />
past differences.<br />
‘Investigate mutiny charge’<br />
From Tayo Johnson, Ibadan<br />
AMILITARY officer, Sgt Felix Elegbe,<br />
has urged the President-elect,<br />
Muhammadu Buhari, to investigate<br />
alleged mutiny charges against his friend,<br />
Military Warrant Officer, Stephen Aigbe, by<br />
the Army in 1996.<br />
Aigbe was charged with mutiny in 1996; he<br />
was released 10 years later without his<br />
emoluments and severance pay.<br />
Elegbe, in a statement yesterday in Ibadan,<br />
described Aigbe as a diligent, and loyal<br />
person, who has served the military<br />
meritoriously for 36 years without blemish.<br />
According to him, the mutiny allegation<br />
was a ruse.<br />
“The most disturbing is that the officers<br />
who planned and perpetuated this crime<br />
knew the consequences of their actions, hence<br />
they allowed the matter to be in abeyance for<br />
years.<br />
“The Chief of Defence Staff, the Chief of<br />
Army Staff and the Director of Defence<br />
Information should investigate the degrading<br />
treatment meted out to Aigbe. I beg you all<br />
not to ignore this issue, for he is a veteran<br />
without any emoluments or severance pay,”<br />
he said
THE NATION THURSDAY, MAY 21, 2015<br />
9
10 THE NATION THURSDAY, MAY 21, 2015
THE NATION THURSDAY, MAY 21, 2015<br />
CITYBEATS<br />
L<br />
AGOS commercial vehicle<br />
drivers yesterday attributed<br />
the hike in fares to<br />
high petrol price and long queues<br />
at filling stations.<br />
Some of them urged the Department<br />
of Petroleum Resources (DPR)<br />
to regulate petrol price and ensure<br />
its availability.<br />
Mr Salaudeen Ajibola, who plies<br />
Idumota-Oshodi route, said that he<br />
buys petrol at the black market at<br />
high cost.<br />
“Since the commencement of<br />
petrol scarcity, I spend up to N10,<br />
000 in buying the product every<br />
day as against N5, 000 before the<br />
scarcity. How do I make up for the<br />
extra money if transport fares are<br />
not increased?’’ he asked.<br />
Mr Paul Onu, who plies Orile –<br />
Oyingbo route, said the business<br />
was no longer lucrative.<br />
Onu said: “Transport business is<br />
no longer lucrative because of the<br />
long hours wasted in queuing for<br />
petrol at filling stations; most stations<br />
are no longer selling at the<br />
regulated price of N87 per litre.<br />
“The time we could have spent<br />
on the road carrying passengers are<br />
used at filling stations; sometimes<br />
we make only one or two trips in a<br />
day. At the filling station that I just<br />
bought fuel now; the pump price<br />
is N130 while some sell for N150.<br />
“If I buy at filling stations sell-<br />
Drug trafficker jailed nine months<br />
AFEDERAL High Court<br />
in Lagos yesterday<br />
sentenced Emeka<br />
Otah to nine months imprisonment<br />
for Indian hemp trafficking.<br />
Justice James Tsoho sentenced<br />
Otah to prison after<br />
he pleaded guilty to the offence.<br />
The judge sentenced Otah<br />
after reviewing the facts of<br />
the case provided by Mr<br />
Idris Danjuma, an exhibit<br />
keeper at the National Drug<br />
Law Enforcement Agency<br />
(NDLEA).<br />
Tsoho said the prosecution<br />
L<br />
AFIAJI Development<br />
Association President<br />
Babatunde Abozo,<br />
has assured Lagosians that<br />
Governor-elect Akinwunmi<br />
Ambode will ensure more<br />
development at the<br />
grassroots.<br />
Abozo, who described<br />
Ambode as a grassroots man,<br />
said he would follow the footsteps<br />
of Governor Babatunde<br />
Fashola and former Governor<br />
Bola Tinubu.<br />
"He would continue from<br />
there and develop more. He<br />
even has more experience<br />
when it comes to administrative<br />
issues because he has<br />
been a council treasurer. I<br />
knew him when he was the<br />
council treasurer of Mushin<br />
Local Government under<br />
Willy Akinlude's administration.<br />
From there, he went<br />
to Ajeromi-Ifelodun before<br />
becoming the Accountant-<br />
General of the state and that<br />
is the heart of the work. So,<br />
the experience is there, he<br />
knows all the nooks and<br />
crannies of the state. With his<br />
experience and even as a<br />
young chap, he is younger,<br />
more dynamic, more vast in<br />
his grassroots affairs, I am<br />
sure Lagos State would have<br />
more transformation during<br />
his tenure," he said.<br />
Ambode, he said, is well<br />
known in Lafiaji on Lagos<br />
Island, adding that is his<br />
base.<br />
CITYBEATS LINE: 09091178827<br />
Why we hiked fares, by bus drivers<br />
ing at the approved prize of N87<br />
per litre, l will have to remain there<br />
for hours. I cannot afford to buy at<br />
the black market because fares cannot<br />
be increased outrageously on<br />
the route I ply as there are other<br />
had proved its case beyond<br />
reasonable doubt, adding<br />
that the sentence would take<br />
effect from February 25, the<br />
day the convict was arrested.<br />
The judge also ordered<br />
that all exhibits should be<br />
returned to the NDLEA for<br />
destruction within 90 days if<br />
there is no appeal against the<br />
verdict.<br />
The Prosecutor, Mr Aliyu<br />
Abubakar, said forensic<br />
analysis proved that the substance<br />
found on Otah tested<br />
positive to cannabis sativa,<br />
a drug similar to cocaine.<br />
He said the convict committed<br />
the offence on February<br />
25, at Gbaji Check Point<br />
at Seme Border on Badagry,<br />
Lagos.<br />
The offence, he said, contravened<br />
Section 11 (c) of the<br />
NDLEA Act, Cap N30, Laws<br />
of the Federation 2004.<br />
Before the sentencing, the<br />
convict’s counsel, Mr G. U.<br />
Okaka, prayed the court to<br />
be lenient on his client.<br />
“He has learnt his lessons<br />
in a hard way. My client is<br />
remorseful and has promised<br />
never to involve himself<br />
in such an illicit business,’’<br />
the counsel said.<br />
Ambode ‘ll ensure grassroots ‘growth’<br />
•Ambode<br />
•Stranded commuters trekking in Lagos...yesterday<br />
By Tajudeen Adebanjo<br />
"The place is called<br />
Talonyoju Junction. He is<br />
one of the forces in that junction.<br />
So, Lafiaji as a whole<br />
was for Ambode. We supported<br />
him for continuity<br />
and more development.<br />
Moreso, Lagos State Government<br />
has been supporting<br />
Lafiaji Development Association<br />
with our<br />
programmes because this is<br />
our state and we want more<br />
development in it."<br />
He urged Lagosians to be<br />
patient with the incoming<br />
administration, saying:<br />
"They should be a little bit<br />
patient. He would come in<br />
•Abozo<br />
gradually. Ambode is a more<br />
managerial and social; he<br />
will definitely improve on<br />
what this outgoing administration<br />
has done."<br />
A39-YEAR-OLD driver, Azeez<br />
Kolawole, was yesterday arraigned<br />
before an Apapa Senior Magistrate’s<br />
Court in Lagos, for allegedly stabbing his<br />
neighbour on the neck with a broken<br />
bottle.<br />
Kolawole, who lives on Ibadan Street,<br />
Benna Bus Stop in Ajegunle, Lagos, denied<br />
committing the offence.<br />
Prosecuting Police Corporal John<br />
Iberedem, said the accused assaulted<br />
Jamiu Isiaka by stabbing him on May 15<br />
AMIDDLE-age man,<br />
Mr Samson Musa,<br />
yesterday asked an<br />
Ojo Customary Court in<br />
Lagos to dissolve his marriage<br />
because his wife is carrying<br />
another man's pregnancy.<br />
Musa said his wife,<br />
Tunrayo, of three years, was<br />
sleeping with other men.<br />
He said Tunrayo's sixmonth<br />
pregnancy was not<br />
his.<br />
"I can't live with a woman<br />
that is promiscuous, sleeping<br />
around, troublesome<br />
and does not have any regard<br />
for me," he said.<br />
Musa also asked the court<br />
to grant him custody of their<br />
two-year-old son "so that the<br />
boy will not grow up to be<br />
like his mother".<br />
competitors who will prefer to go<br />
for less.”<br />
A commuter, Mr Taiwo<br />
Bamgbade, who lives at Ojota and<br />
works on the Island, said the fare<br />
hike was taking its toll on commuters.<br />
“You can imagine me spending<br />
up to N1, 000 or more to the office<br />
instead of N500 before now and<br />
there is no increase in salary; how<br />
do I cope with other responsibilities,”<br />
he asked.<br />
Transport fare from Oshodi to<br />
the Island which hitherto cost<br />
N200, has gone up to N300; Ojota<br />
to the Island jumped to between<br />
N400 and N500 from N300.<br />
'My wife is carrying another<br />
man's pregnancy'<br />
A3 6-YEAR-OLD<br />
barber, Azeez<br />
Adewale, was<br />
arraigned yesterday before<br />
an Oshodi Magistrate’s Court<br />
in Lagos for peeping at a<br />
female neighbour in the<br />
bathroom.<br />
Adewale, who resides at<br />
Arowojobe Street, Oshodi,<br />
Lagos, is being tried for<br />
breach of peace and assault.<br />
Prosecuting Police<br />
Corporal Kehinde Olatunde<br />
said the accused committed<br />
the offence on May 17.<br />
He said the accused peeped<br />
at his neighbour, Miss<br />
Victoria Emmanuel, in the<br />
bathroom while she was<br />
taking her bath.<br />
"Tunrayo cannot take good<br />
care of our albino son,'' he<br />
said.<br />
He said because to his<br />
wife's ''promiscuity", their<br />
son, Faruk, has been given<br />
many names at the motor<br />
park where she trades.<br />
"I can't take it any longer,"<br />
he said.<br />
Tunrayo, 38, urged the<br />
court to disregard Musa's<br />
allegations, saying he abandoned<br />
her.<br />
She said Musa is not providing<br />
well enough for her.<br />
"My husband does not take<br />
care of me and that is why I<br />
find myself roaming the<br />
streets because of no accommodation.<br />
"I was even raped twice in<br />
a container while hawking<br />
water in sachet popularly<br />
known as `pure water.' Yes,<br />
I cannot say who owns this<br />
pregnancy, but as for my son,<br />
I will not release him. After<br />
all, Musa did not pay any<br />
bride price on me," she said.<br />
The court's President, Chief<br />
Joseph Ogunmola, advised<br />
the petitioner to retrace his<br />
steps and act as a responsible<br />
father and husband.<br />
He ordered that a test be<br />
done to ascertain the paternity<br />
of the disputed pregnancy.<br />
``I will advise the petitioner<br />
to also try to<br />
formalise his marriage,''<br />
Ogunmola said.<br />
``I also advise the respondent<br />
to stop having multiple<br />
sexual mates,'' he added.<br />
He adjourned the case to<br />
June 22.<br />
Barber ‘peeps’ at woman in bathroom<br />
“The accused was secretly<br />
looking at the complainant<br />
when she was bathing,” he<br />
said.<br />
Olatunde said the accused<br />
was sitting at the passage<br />
when the complainant left for<br />
the bathroom with a bucket<br />
of water.<br />
“The accused sneaked and<br />
followed her behind, he went<br />
to the back of the bathroom<br />
where there is a small hole,<br />
stood there and was peeping<br />
at her while she bathed,” he<br />
said.<br />
The prosecutor said when<br />
the complainant noticed that<br />
someone was watching her,<br />
she poured the person soap<br />
water.<br />
Driver accused of stabbing neighbour<br />
at their residence.<br />
“The complainant said he was in his room<br />
when he heard Kolawole beating his wife.<br />
“Isiaka left his room to settle the fight<br />
between the couple when the accused stabbed<br />
him with a broken bottle on the neck,” he said.<br />
The prosecutor said Kolawole contravened<br />
Section 171 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State,<br />
2011.<br />
Senior Magistrate G.L. Otepo granted the<br />
accused N50,000 bail with one surety in the<br />
like sum, and adjourned the case till July 7.<br />
11<br />
“While she was bathing,<br />
she sighted an eye looking<br />
at her through a small hole<br />
in the bathroom and she<br />
poured the person soap water<br />
on the eye.<br />
“The accused forcefully<br />
opened the bathroom door,<br />
descended on the<br />
complainant by punching<br />
her severally on her face, and<br />
she quickly shouted for help<br />
and neighbours came to her<br />
rescue,” Olatunde said.<br />
He said before then, the<br />
accused had on two different<br />
occasions knocked on the<br />
complainant’s door at<br />
midnight, saying he wanted<br />
to give her a message.<br />
“The accused knocked the<br />
complainant’s door at<br />
midnight begging her to<br />
allow him enter that her<br />
friend sent him to her, the<br />
complainant always ignored<br />
him, telling him to wait for<br />
day to break,” he said.<br />
The offence, Olatunde said,<br />
contravened Sections 166 and<br />
171 of the Criminal Law of<br />
Lagos State.<br />
The accused pleaded not<br />
guilty and was granted N50,<br />
000 bail with one surety in<br />
the like sum.<br />
Magistrate Akeem Fashola<br />
adjourned the case to June 8.
12 THE NATION THURSDAY, MAY 21, 2015<br />
CITYBEATS<br />
Tanker drivers insist on strike<br />
TRIKING Petroleum<br />
Tanker Drivers (PTD)<br />
said yesterday they Swould not call off the action<br />
until oil marketers are paid<br />
their subsidy claims.<br />
Sahara Oil and Gas Unit of<br />
PTD, Auditor-General Isiaka<br />
Aremu said the strike would<br />
end once the marketers are<br />
paid.<br />
Petroleum products became<br />
scarce in Lagos about<br />
four weeks ago, following a<br />
disagreement between the<br />
Federal Government and the<br />
oil marketers over N200 billion<br />
subsidy claim.<br />
TRADITIONAL ruler<br />
of Onigbongbo in<br />
Ikeja, Lagos<br />
Munirudin Yusuf, has denied<br />
confronting the government<br />
with his directive on<br />
water bills.<br />
On Monday, Yusuf in an<br />
interview with the News<br />
Agency of Nigeria (NAN),<br />
directed every household in<br />
his community to disregard<br />
water bills from the Lagos<br />
State Water Corporation.<br />
The traditional told NAN<br />
yesterday that after the publication,<br />
some members of<br />
his community, including<br />
some of his chiefs, accused<br />
him of confronting government<br />
with the directive.<br />
Yusuf said: “I’m not in any<br />
way trying to revolt against<br />
the government. I gave the<br />
directive based on several<br />
complaints from my subjects<br />
THE NATION<br />
BUSINESS<br />
E-mail:- bussiness@thenationonlineng.net<br />
THE Nigeria Copyrights Com<br />
mission (NCC) yesterday<br />
blamed poor funding from<br />
thr Federal Government for its inability<br />
to effectively discharge its<br />
respponsibilities, especially its<br />
fight against piracy.<br />
It said fighting piracy has been<br />
difficult without proper funding.<br />
Its Director of Enforcement, Augustine<br />
Amodu, who spoke while<br />
inaugurating anti-piracy units for<br />
book sellers and disc/cassette sellers<br />
in the state, said the Commission<br />
has secured 58 convictions<br />
across the country for pirated works<br />
on broadcast, optical disk, book and<br />
software piracy.<br />
The marketers are claiming<br />
that they are being owed<br />
N200 billion, but the government<br />
is contending that it is<br />
N131 billion.<br />
The disagreement degenerated<br />
into non-importation<br />
of petroleum products and<br />
the consequent scarcity.<br />
A NAN correspondent,<br />
who monitored depots in<br />
Apapa, Lagos, reported that<br />
no petroleum tanker was allowed<br />
to load there.<br />
The tank farms visited<br />
were ASCON Oil and Gas;<br />
Ibeto Oil and Gas; Capital<br />
Oil and Gas; Total Oil and<br />
From Victor Oluwasegun<br />
and Dele Anofi, Abuja<br />
DIVISION among<br />
members of the<br />
House of Representatives<br />
over the provison of<br />
Clause 209 of the Petroleum<br />
Industry Bill (PIB) has led to<br />
the suspension of the consideration<br />
of the report of the<br />
Ad-hoc Committee on PIB.<br />
The lawmakers were at<br />
variance over how much<br />
should accrue to the country<br />
from exploratory licences issued<br />
to prospective companies<br />
in the petroleum industry.<br />
The arguement degenerated<br />
into a North - South issue<br />
after the contentious<br />
clause was found missing in<br />
the report.<br />
This led to the suspension<br />
of the consideration of the<br />
report till a Committee saddled<br />
with the responsibility<br />
of examining the grey areas<br />
reports back to the House<br />
next week.<br />
The observation of Kyari<br />
Gujbahu of the All<br />
Progressives Congress<br />
(APC), Borno, centered on<br />
the clause that deals with<br />
holders of exploratory licence<br />
to prospective operators<br />
in the industry and the<br />
monetary benefit therein.<br />
According to him, as contained<br />
in the draft report,<br />
revenue from activities of oil<br />
companies to be used for the<br />
take off of River Basins exploratory<br />
activities was<br />
pegged at $4 per barrel of<br />
gas and 20 cents for a barrel<br />
of crude.<br />
He said: “In the draft report<br />
which was referred for final<br />
compilation by committee,<br />
the sharing formula between<br />
government and oil compa-<br />
Commercial banks are not manufacturing-friendly<br />
as their interest<br />
rates are usually very high; therefore,<br />
commercial banks remain a<br />
major challenge to the sector. Even<br />
the Bank of Industry’s (BoI) framework,<br />
which pegs interest rate at<br />
nine per cent, only finances machinery<br />
acquisition; it does not cater for<br />
working capital.<br />
-MAN President, Dr Frank Jacobs<br />
Reps suspend PIB report over contentious clause<br />
Why we can’t fight piracy, by NCC<br />
From Osagie Otabor, Benin<br />
He said the commission recently<br />
seized 20 containers of pirated<br />
books worth over N6.6billion.<br />
“Paucity of fund is affecting our<br />
operations. In law enforcement,<br />
without funding, it will be difficult<br />
to fight the crime you are fighting.<br />
It is so difficult. We have tried our<br />
best to do what we are doing. We<br />
are doing the impossible for the ungrateful.<br />
“We have done much to ensure<br />
convictions. We will keep on prosecuting<br />
those arrested. We have<br />
seized books and pirated works.”<br />
Explaining why the anti-piracy<br />
Gas; NIPCO Oil and Gas, and<br />
Folawiyo Oil and Gas, Sahara<br />
Oil and Gas; Integrated<br />
Oil and Gas; MRS Oil and<br />
Gas and Mobil Oil and Gas.<br />
When Mr Tokunbo<br />
Korodo, National Union of<br />
Petroleum and Natural Gas<br />
Workers (NUPENG) Southwest<br />
Chairman, was contacted,<br />
he said: “Sorry, I can’t<br />
talk right now.”<br />
Also Mr Adewole Olufemi,<br />
Secretary-General of the Depot<br />
and Petroleum Products<br />
Marketers Association<br />
(DAPPMA), did not respond<br />
to phone calls.<br />
Monarch denies confronting govt on water bills<br />
on the water bills and for<br />
government to take action.<br />
“I’ve been receiving calls<br />
from my subjects who accused<br />
me of declaring war<br />
against the state government.<br />
I have never declared war<br />
against the government and<br />
have no intention to do such<br />
because the government has<br />
been co-operating with me<br />
since my reign. I stand to be<br />
SIX brilliant but<br />
i n d i g e n t<br />
undergraduates have<br />
been endowed with a yearly<br />
scholarship of N100, 000,<br />
courtesy of the Rotary<br />
District 9110 Educational<br />
and Welfare Endowment<br />
Fund (DEWEF).<br />
Since inception in 1991,<br />
DEWEF has churned out 42<br />
graduates.<br />
Cheques were presented<br />
exonerated from such false allegation.’<br />
According to him, his subjects<br />
will only be cheated to<br />
pay bills for water which was<br />
not supplied.<br />
“This is because the corporation<br />
has not relented in<br />
bringing outrageous bills to<br />
a community which has not<br />
benefited from its services,”<br />
he said.<br />
L<br />
AGOS State Governor<br />
Babatunde<br />
Fashola yesterday<br />
urged Ikorodu residents to<br />
use the new Ikorodu expressway<br />
well to preserve<br />
the facility.<br />
Describing the road as the<br />
first of its kind in the state,<br />
with BRT lanes and bus<br />
stops on its median, Fashola<br />
said there was need to prepare<br />
users for what its expected<br />
of them.<br />
Fashola said the people<br />
must treasure the facility<br />
because the engineering<br />
drawings that eventually<br />
produced it were rejected<br />
thrice at the States Executive<br />
Council before they were<br />
accepted for implementation.<br />
Fashola who was represented<br />
by his Special Adviser<br />
on Education, Otunba<br />
Fatai Olukoga, at a stakeholders’<br />
meeting at the<br />
Lagos Metropolitan Area<br />
Transortation Authority<br />
(LAMATA) workyard in<br />
Majidun, said the road,<br />
which is built with tax pay-<br />
task force was inaugurated, Amodu<br />
said the Commission wanted to<br />
replicate the success recorded with<br />
the establishment of anti-piracy<br />
task force at Ajegunle, Lagos State.<br />
He urged the task force members<br />
not to intimidate their members<br />
but to educate them to avoid patronising<br />
pirated works.<br />
He said: “If we fight piracy with<br />
force and we are not moving foward,<br />
we will use the people to fight piracy.<br />
We will prosecute any association<br />
found wanting if we found pirated<br />
copies in their shops. We will<br />
prosecute them. We are using them<br />
to fight them. It worked perfectly in<br />
Ajegunle.<br />
nies for the development of<br />
River Basins across the country<br />
was $4 per barrel.<br />
“I now wonder why that has<br />
disappeared from this clause<br />
as contained in this report.”<br />
Abdurahman Terab (APC,<br />
Borno) supported him, saying,<br />
“This suggestion is not a<br />
new thing in play in countries<br />
where there is oil. It’s been in<br />
use in Chad, Niger and even<br />
Ghana.<br />
“This fund is not meant to<br />
develop the areas where the<br />
Basins are located but meant<br />
for the development of the<br />
Basins for the purpose of exploration<br />
of resources therein<br />
in furtherance of the nation’s<br />
economic growth”.<br />
On the other hand, Sokonte<br />
Davies (APC, Rivers) disagreed<br />
noting that it is impossible<br />
to peg it at $4 per barrel<br />
as it would have been too<br />
much to be used as a take off<br />
fund.<br />
“Even the 20 cent per barrel<br />
is a lot of money that can<br />
be used to kick start any exploration<br />
activity anywhere.<br />
“If we must do it, let’s leave<br />
it at 20 cents per barrel of gas<br />
and 2 cents per barrel of<br />
crude”.<br />
NNPC workers join NPDC strike<br />
AS the strike by the Nigerian<br />
Petroleum Development<br />
Company (NPDC) workers<br />
enters its fourth day, the entire labour<br />
unions of the Nigerian National<br />
Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) -<br />
Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior<br />
Staff Association of Nigeria<br />
(PENGASSAN) and the National Union<br />
of Petroleum and Natural Gas<br />
Workers (NUPENG)–have joined<br />
their subsidiary NDPC unions to<br />
fight the transfer of operatorship of<br />
Shell divested oil blocks.<br />
The striking NNPC workers yesterday<br />
switched off power and threw<br />
the NNPC towers into darkness.<br />
A source at the NNPC said she<br />
CITYBEATS LINE: 09091178827<br />
Use Ikorodu road well, says Fashola<br />
By Adeyinka Aderibigbe<br />
ers’ money, must be protected.<br />
He said government<br />
would frown at driving<br />
against<br />
traffic,<br />
overspeeding and the conversion<br />
of walkways and<br />
lay-bys into trading posts or<br />
turning them into a mechanic<br />
yard.”<br />
The road, he said, must be<br />
cleared of all obstructions to<br />
allow free flow of traffic and<br />
enable the masses to enjoy<br />
its benefit.<br />
LAMATA’s Managing Director<br />
Dr Dayo Mobereola<br />
urged those who turned the<br />
BRT median into parking<br />
lot, especially at Owode<br />
Onirin, to desist from such<br />
practice, as the BRT buses<br />
would soon be deployed on<br />
the road.<br />
He said LAMATA would<br />
be deploying about 400<br />
buses between next month<br />
and July to boost public<br />
transportation within and<br />
outside Ikorodu.<br />
Mobereola represented<br />
by Mr Gbenga Dairo, a director<br />
in the agency, listed<br />
a number of don’ts for motorists,<br />
adding that there<br />
would also be “strict compliance<br />
with the state’s traffic<br />
law”.<br />
He said: “Motorists<br />
should also obey all traffic<br />
signs, while hawking are<br />
prohibited in and around<br />
bus shelters and the BRT terminals,<br />
even as shelters, terminals<br />
and laybys have been<br />
designated as no sleeping<br />
areas for commuters.<br />
“Okada operators are restricted<br />
on the expressway<br />
and should not be found on<br />
the BRT lanes, while cutting<br />
of the road for any purpose<br />
whatsoever has been outlawed<br />
as enough ducts have<br />
been put at strategic places<br />
along the corridor.”<br />
Mobereola said though<br />
work was not completed on<br />
the road, the agency<br />
thought it should bring the<br />
stakeholders together to<br />
enlighten them on how they<br />
could help the government<br />
preserve it.<br />
Rotary endows six undergraduates<br />
By Nneka Nwaneri<br />
yesterday at the District<br />
office in Ikeja, Lagos.<br />
“Part of the criteria for<br />
selection includes the fact<br />
that the students must be<br />
brilliant and be in their 200<br />
level in the university. Upon<br />
application, a careful<br />
rigorous selection process<br />
and assessment of their 100<br />
level performances and<br />
family background<br />
constitute some of the<br />
criteria for selection,” said<br />
a past district Governor Mr<br />
Adeniji Raji.<br />
Raji said the gesture is to<br />
address the humanitarian<br />
needs of the society by<br />
assisting students in<br />
government institutions<br />
situated in Lagos and Ogun.<br />
The District Incoming<br />
Governor Otunba Bola<br />
Onabadejo said the gesture<br />
is a way of investing in the<br />
future of the youth and<br />
putting smiles on their faces<br />
through contributions of its<br />
members.<br />
One of the beneficiaries of<br />
the scholarship six years<br />
ago, Dr Adeyinka Abdul-<br />
Hakeem, who was at the<br />
event, hopes to pursue<br />
residency training in<br />
International Medicine in<br />
the United States.<br />
• House Speaker Aminu<br />
Tambuwal<br />
By Emeka Ugwuanyi<br />
couldn’t fathom the reason behind<br />
the strike.<br />
She said: “My candid response<br />
is that NPDC lacks the capacity to<br />
operate these assets. In fact, NPDC<br />
was operating only two small<br />
blocks and suddenly another eight<br />
blocks from Shell’s divestments<br />
were transferred to it by the<br />
NNPC. “We don’t have the financial<br />
and requisite personnel to<br />
manage these blocks and this is the<br />
reason for the transfer of the<br />
operatorship to the indigenous<br />
firms in joint venture partnership<br />
with them (NPDC).”
THE NATION THURSDAY, MAY 21, 2015<br />
13
14 THE NATION THURSDAY, MAY 21, 2015
THE NATION THURSDAY, MAY 21, 2015<br />
15
16 THE NATION THURSDAY, MAY 21, 2015<br />
INDUSTRY<br />
‘Why infrastructural projects<br />
are delayed in Nigeria’<br />
NIGERIA recorded over $93 bil<br />
lion in infrastructure deficit<br />
over the years, and for government<br />
to attract additional infrastructure<br />
financing for increased delivery<br />
of projects, it needs to renew<br />
its focus on delivering financial instruments,<br />
Managing Director of<br />
Hortigraph Nigeria Limited, Murtala<br />
Abubakar, has said.<br />
Speaking at the unveiling of the<br />
Standards Organisation of Nigeria<br />
(SON) Metrology Institute in Enugu,<br />
Abubakar said infrastructural<br />
projects in the country are often not<br />
delivered within the agreed timeline<br />
due to financing gap that often keeps<br />
contractors at sites beyond agreed<br />
period, while widening the budget<br />
of the project.<br />
Indeed, a recent report by<br />
PricewaterhouseCoopers Limited<br />
showed that Nigeria’s infrastructure<br />
projects are most times behind the<br />
scheduled date of delivery by at least<br />
two years, while budget estimates<br />
are double the original estimates.<br />
Abubakar noted that in addressing<br />
By Chikodi Okereocha<br />
this key challenge of financing, cost<br />
of funds should be addressed, adding<br />
that financial instruments required<br />
to attract additional infrastructure<br />
financing to the country<br />
like, bridge equity, secured loans, refinancing/secondary<br />
transactions, as<br />
well as credit enhancement and other<br />
risk mitigation measures geared at<br />
attracting non-traditional funders<br />
such as institutional investors and<br />
international investment banks<br />
should be created.<br />
He explained that his company,<br />
with many years of experience in key<br />
mass housing and infrastructural<br />
projects, hopes to complete the metrology<br />
institute within the timeline<br />
of three years considering other major<br />
variables. “As a civil engineering<br />
firm with at least 15 years experience<br />
in housing and government<br />
projects, the Nigerian Metrology Institute<br />
(NMI) is the first project that<br />
the firm would be executing for SON<br />
and we have commenced work to<br />
ensure that the timeline of three years<br />
is met while ensuring that the quality<br />
and standards of the project are<br />
not undermined.<br />
”We are also working to ensure<br />
the sustainability and environmental<br />
friendliness of the project<br />
by ensuring that it complies with<br />
the Environmental Impact Assessment<br />
(EIA) requirements,” he<br />
added.<br />
Already, PwC in its report had<br />
stated that, “infrastructure plays a<br />
key role in economic growth and<br />
reducing poverty having a 5-25 per<br />
cent yearly return on investment<br />
as an economic multiplier.<br />
“Those countries that have been<br />
most successful in developing and<br />
maintaining infrastructure have<br />
established programmes of<br />
prioritised investment opportunities<br />
with a number of features, including<br />
clear political support,<br />
proper legal and regulatory structure,<br />
a procurement framework<br />
that can be understood by both<br />
procurers and bidders, and credible<br />
project timetables,” he said.<br />
•President, Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Alhaji Remi Bello discussing with the Ambassador<br />
Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Democratic Republic of Ethiopia to Nigeria, Her Excellency, Mrs. Samia<br />
Zekaria Gutu, during her courtesy visit to the Chamber.<br />
BoI urges investment in solid<br />
minerals<br />
THE Bank of Industry (BoI) has<br />
called on the Federal Govern<br />
ment to pay attention to funding<br />
investments in the solid minerals<br />
sector, noting that the industry has<br />
the potential to attract huge foreign<br />
exchange if developed.<br />
Its Managing Director, Mr. Rasheed<br />
Olaoluwa, explained that most countries<br />
in the continent have been able<br />
to achieve economic growth because<br />
they have invested a lot of resources<br />
into developing their natural resources.<br />
Olaoluwa, in a chat with The Nation,<br />
pointed out that Nigeria has<br />
not been able to develop its solid<br />
mineral space, calling on the government<br />
to fund a geological data<br />
in the country and conduct an international<br />
bid to develop the industry.<br />
“Botswana has been able to make<br />
millions of dollars from gold mining.<br />
Nigeria should look towards<br />
this direction by investing in solid<br />
minerals where the country has a<br />
comparative advantage to diversify<br />
the economy,” he added.<br />
The BOI boss, however, stated<br />
that the development finance institution<br />
has an authorised capital of<br />
about N250 billion, with N146 billion<br />
as paid up. “We want to take<br />
steps to look at an alternative way<br />
of funding the financial institution<br />
because our capital has always<br />
come from the government. We are<br />
looking at other sources already,”<br />
By Okwy Iroegbu-Chikezie<br />
he said.<br />
He said in terms of Non Performing<br />
Loans (NPLs), the bank recorded<br />
a relative high NPL in the<br />
past, but stressed that the bank had<br />
embarked on a number of initiatives<br />
to review the NPL downward,<br />
including recovery of loans that<br />
were not properly monitored.<br />
“In a nutshell, today, at the BOI,<br />
our NPL is less than five per cent.<br />
The development bank in Brazil,<br />
their NPL is 2.2 per cent. The development<br />
bank in South Africa, the<br />
NPL is 16.8 per cent. With less than<br />
five per cent as NPL, BOI’s ratio is<br />
not bad,” he said.<br />
Olaoluwa, however, said the bank<br />
has done a lot to support Small and<br />
Medium Enterprises (SMEs), but<br />
stressed that what the sector needs<br />
goes beyond finance.<br />
He added that the bank is giving<br />
the loans and also looking at making<br />
the lending process more efficient<br />
to assist the SMEs.<br />
“This is why we appointed over<br />
100 Business Development Service<br />
Providers (BDSPs) to help the SMEs<br />
prepare lendable business plans to<br />
access BOI’s business loans,” he<br />
added.<br />
He said the bank is automating its<br />
processes to give SMEs the opportunity<br />
to enjoy the benefit of automation.<br />
“A lot of SMEs are unable<br />
to keep records because they do not<br />
have an accountant, who understands<br />
the technical details of debit<br />
and credit. We are looking at a<br />
model to empower SMEs to transact<br />
businesses with their mobile<br />
phones on their own without the<br />
help of any accountant,” he said.<br />
The BOI boss decried the lack of<br />
patronage of locally produced<br />
goods, saying that Nigerians must<br />
patronise Made-in-Nigeria goods<br />
for the country to achieve economic<br />
growth. “It is in our national interest.<br />
We are all complaining about<br />
lack of jobs, we are complaining<br />
about economic issues, if we do not<br />
patronise our local producers, we<br />
will not make any progress,” he<br />
noted.<br />
According to him, there are<br />
people, who have invested in<br />
facilities to produce locally, but<br />
they cannot sell and they go bankrupt<br />
and lay off staff. But if they<br />
produce and are able to sell, they<br />
are able to grow and hire more<br />
people, translating to economic<br />
growth.<br />
“I am not saying that we should<br />
support any producer because there<br />
are people who are local producers<br />
and they produce trash, but there<br />
are few companies producing to<br />
meet international standards and<br />
such companies should be<br />
patronised,” he added.<br />
•Dangote<br />
INDIGENES of communities<br />
hosting Dangote Cement Plc, in<br />
Ibese, Yewa and Ewekoro in<br />
Ogun State are in for better times,<br />
as the cement company announced<br />
the inauguration of 19 various Corporate<br />
Social Service (CSR) projects<br />
for them.<br />
In what is regarded as a major<br />
boost to its CSR profile, projects<br />
by the cement company would<br />
cover various social sectors, including<br />
water, education, electricity,<br />
roads, IT etc.<br />
It would be recalled that the company<br />
had some years ago instituted<br />
scholarships for indigenes of any<br />
of its host communities in any<br />
higher institution and secondary<br />
schools. Over 90 of them have since<br />
benefited from the scholarships.<br />
The management said it was<br />
poised to making life more meaningful<br />
to all members of the over<br />
16 communities bordering the cement<br />
plant and that it would ensure<br />
that all projects meet the specific<br />
needs of each community.<br />
Executive Director, Stakeholder<br />
Management and Corporate Communication,<br />
Mr. Mansur Ahmed,<br />
an engineer, explained that the<br />
projects were agreed upon after a<br />
careful deliberation and discussion<br />
with the Obas, Chiefs and the youth<br />
leaders of the communities so that<br />
the project could be relevant to<br />
their needs.<br />
He thanked the traditional rulers<br />
and other community leaders<br />
for their cooperation with the<br />
Dangote Cement management,<br />
noting that it was as a result of the<br />
collaboration that made possible<br />
the peace and tranquillity enjoyed<br />
THE second quarter issue of Af<br />
rican Banker Magazine has<br />
profiled Nigeria’s Minister of<br />
Agriculture and Rural Development,<br />
Akinwumi Adesina and seven other<br />
candidates vying for the African Development<br />
Bank (AFDB) Presidency.<br />
In the magazine’s one-to-one sessions,<br />
Adesina and other candidates,<br />
for the continent’s premier multilateral<br />
financial institution, shared their<br />
strategic visions, priorities and agendas<br />
for the bank.<br />
In the extensive dossier, the eight<br />
candidates indicated their suitability<br />
for this momentous job and the<br />
credentials required to lead Africa’s<br />
most prominent development institution.<br />
The eight candidates spoke candidly<br />
and openly about their ambitions<br />
for the bank. Among the eight<br />
contenders vying for the Presidency,<br />
five currently serve as ministers, one<br />
former minister and a Development<br />
Banking specialist.<br />
Adesina feels that his experience<br />
in transforming the agricultural sector<br />
in Nigeria, and his first experience<br />
working and operating in various<br />
African countries will keep him<br />
Dangote<br />
inaugurates<br />
projects<br />
for<br />
communities<br />
By Okwy Iroegbu-Chikezie<br />
in the host communities.<br />
Ahmed promised the community<br />
leaders that Dangote Cement<br />
would continue to be alive to its<br />
responsibilities and urged them to<br />
come forward to offer useful ideas<br />
and advice that could propel the<br />
company to do more for the development<br />
of the communities.<br />
He highlighted some of the<br />
projects to include: three domestic<br />
boreholes for Elere, Babalawo and<br />
Kajola Communities; 10 domestic<br />
boreholes for Afami, Ajibawo,<br />
Aga-Akinronbi, Aga-Owoyele,<br />
Aga-Ashade, Abule Oke, Abule<br />
Maria, Ijako-Orile, Wasimi-Imasayi<br />
and Balogun; four industrial boreholes<br />
for Ibese (2) and Imasayi (2);<br />
Construction of 10 classrooms for<br />
Ibese and construction of another<br />
five classrooms for Balogun communities.<br />
He listed others as the award of<br />
scholarship to 77 indigenes between<br />
2013 and 2014 sessions for<br />
secondary pupils, Polytechnic and<br />
University students, who are native<br />
of the host communities.<br />
The company is also providing<br />
Community Information Technology<br />
Training at Ibese, Aga-Olowo,<br />
and Ijako-Orile, where two batches<br />
have already finished training,<br />
while the construction of Ibese/<br />
Ilaro road, and that of Ibese/Itori<br />
road for all the communities are ongoing.<br />
He said these were aside the fact<br />
that the grading of community internal<br />
road network along Wasimi-<br />
Imasayi is under construction and<br />
the drain work at Olu of Ilaro/Paramount<br />
Ruler’s road, Ilaro, is nearing<br />
completion.<br />
The Dangote Group boss also informed<br />
that the electrification and<br />
transformer replacement at Afami<br />
and Ibese has been awarded while<br />
the construction of 10 bathrooms<br />
and toilets with overhead tanks is<br />
ongoing for Balogun community.<br />
He explained that the drilling of<br />
boreholes and the overhead tanks<br />
is completed, while standby 7.5 KV<br />
generators to complement the infrastructure<br />
are awaiting installation.<br />
African Banker Magazine<br />
profiles Adesina, others<br />
for AfDB presidency<br />
in good stead. “My vision is based<br />
on continuing decentralisation and<br />
increasing support for private initiatives,”<br />
he said.<br />
Having overseen Ethiopia’s strong<br />
growth into one of Africa’s leading<br />
economies, the country’s Finance<br />
Minister, Sufian Ahmed, believes<br />
the AfDB will be safe in his experienced<br />
hands.<br />
The former Minister Finance of Tunisia,<br />
Jaloul Ayed, asserts that his<br />
banking experience has allowed him<br />
to gain a clear understanding of<br />
Africa’s full potential. He calls for<br />
an AfDB that is closer to its markets.<br />
Chad’s Minister of Finance and<br />
Budget, Kordjé Bedoumra, states that<br />
following his previous tenure at the<br />
AfDB, he has the experience and expertise<br />
to improve operational efficiency<br />
of the bank as well as shape<br />
its short and long term policies.<br />
The only female candidate in the<br />
race is Cape Verde Minister of Finance<br />
and Planning, Cristina<br />
Duarte, who says whatever improvements<br />
need to be made, the<br />
AfDB can never forget its mission,<br />
which is to serve Africa and its<br />
people.
THE NATION THURSDAY, MAY 21, 2015<br />
17<br />
COMMENTARY<br />
S the Jonathan regime winds<br />
down, a post-mortem beckons.<br />
What were its strengths or its fail-<br />
ings, and how much of a legacy will resonate<br />
a generation from now when historians<br />
ponder its era?<br />
Whatever we say today may be revised<br />
by a generation or two from now for ill or<br />
for good. But the moment compels us to<br />
look back at a regime that is incapable of<br />
sliding into the oblivion of memory.<br />
It was a period of intense activities, but<br />
it was marked by epic failures. Its greatest<br />
undoing however was its failure, some<br />
will say unwillingness, to tackle the fundamental<br />
flaw of the Nigerian nation: a<br />
value system. The consequence of this<br />
was a reign of impunity, the subversion<br />
of the rule of law and the inability of institutions<br />
to rise to their promise.<br />
No doubt, President Goodluck Ebele<br />
Jonathan ascended the throne in historic<br />
circumstances. His predecessor, Umar<br />
Yar’Adua, died in office, and that un-<br />
EDITORIALS<br />
The Jonathan years (1)<br />
• With institutions in disarray and corruption in full sway, the Jonathan legacy is a<br />
poor instance of how to shepherd a nation<br />
A<br />
leashed a constitutional<br />
crisis that<br />
some thought threatened<br />
our frail democracy.<br />
A cabal loyal to the<br />
dying leader jousted<br />
with him, ethnic moguls<br />
whipped up<br />
atavistic sentiments,<br />
lawmakers clutched<br />
at straws for a way<br />
out, the leadership of<br />
the judiciary was<br />
hazy, ambitious politicians<br />
schemed<br />
with subversive opportunism,<br />
and furtive<br />
speculations of<br />
military intervention<br />
stirred conversations<br />
about the longevity<br />
of our political<br />
experiment.<br />
Eventually, the nation<br />
settled for a<br />
workable oddity<br />
known as the doctrine<br />
of necessity,<br />
and Jonathan<br />
segued from acting<br />
president to full<br />
president. Months<br />
later he staked himself<br />
as presidential<br />
candidate for his<br />
• Jonathan<br />
party, the People’s Democratic Party<br />
(PDP). It was from that time that questions<br />
arose about his sense of values as some<br />
Nigerians wondered if it was right as a<br />
signatory to a zoning arrangement that<br />
Jonathan decided to run.<br />
But the resistance was feeble and he<br />
rode to power on two sentiments that<br />
would later dog his era: religion and tribe.<br />
Once he won the 2011 polls, he rode the<br />
wave of these two sentiments, and occluded<br />
the north and Muslims in what his<br />
followers described invidiously as a pan-<br />
Nigerian mandate.<br />
The first value that suffered was a sense<br />
of fairness and inclusiveness. He never<br />
built a bridge across to his northern subjects,<br />
even if in an act of ill grace his runner-up,<br />
Muhammadu Buhari, did not<br />
come out in strong and clear terms to condemn<br />
and dissociate himself from the turbulence<br />
that racked parts of the north in<br />
the aftermath of his historic victory.<br />
Rather President Jonathan consciously<br />
played a politics of divide and rule, and<br />
showed ethnic partiality in his association,<br />
appointments and preference of visits in<br />
the course of his reign.<br />
That was the beginning and it turned<br />
out he was not willing either by words,<br />
deeds or symbolism to shed that image.<br />
When the Boko Haram insurgency tore<br />
the north apart, he and his men began to<br />
see it in terms of a conspiracy theory<br />
rather than a task to cement a fractured<br />
nation and emphasise the sameness of a<br />
heterogeneous people. The result was a<br />
neglect of the war whose narrative culminated<br />
in the abduction of about 276<br />
girls from a school in the rustic town<br />
known as Chibok.<br />
His handling of it started with rage<br />
against the news breakers and then denial.<br />
His wife, Patience, made a mournfully<br />
comic drama out of it by subverting<br />
the culture of mourning when she – and<br />
later the president -invited the mourners<br />
to Abuja rather than visit them in their<br />
downcast homes. She also turned the visit<br />
into a platform to castigate the<br />
government’s perceived enemies.<br />
With the ethnic tension, add the reli-<br />
gious. We do not begrudge the president<br />
his right to confess a faith. But he turned<br />
it into a balkanizing treasure. He started<br />
to play up the pious card, and became a<br />
president as pilgrim not only in his sojourns<br />
to churches and sermons on pulpits<br />
but also his act in Jerusalem.<br />
As the election cycle came to an end,<br />
his visits to Lagos became emblematic of<br />
his manipulation of ethnic and religious<br />
cards. A few years earlier, he said that<br />
the non-indigenes outnumbered the indigenes<br />
in Lagos. He exploited that in the<br />
firestorm of election campaigns.<br />
President Jonathan also surrounded<br />
himself with persons who had cases to<br />
answer on corruption. Significant was a<br />
former governor who received presidential<br />
pardon and became a mainstay of his<br />
regime. He also had ministers tarred<br />
with either corruption or appearance of<br />
it, but the president looked the other way<br />
and in other instances sullied the dignity<br />
of his office by lining up behind<br />
them.<br />
One instance concerned the aviation<br />
minister, Stella Oduah, who was accused<br />
of corruption and double standards,<br />
and the matter lingered with the<br />
media and civil society bodies pelting<br />
the president with various epithets. The<br />
president never issued a statement to<br />
dissociate his government from her activities.<br />
He hid under a reshuffle to step<br />
her down, while she still played a role, if<br />
informal, in the running of government.<br />
Before that Abdulrasheed Maina was<br />
involved in a pension fraud case, and<br />
the matter that involved the fortunes and<br />
welfare of millions of our senior citizens<br />
ended shamefully. Maina was a close<br />
confidant of the president and he was<br />
never brought to book in spite of an official<br />
indictment.<br />
The most contentious<br />
was the accusation<br />
that came from<br />
the former governor<br />
of the Central Bank of<br />
Nigeria to the effect<br />
that about $50 billion<br />
of our oil money<br />
could not be accounted<br />
for. Although<br />
it was later<br />
denied and pruned to<br />
$12 billion by the<br />
government under finance<br />
minister Ngozi<br />
Okonjo-Iweala, the<br />
Jonathan Presidency<br />
never did any clear<br />
accountability of the<br />
money. The newly<br />
unified Governors<br />
Forum that included<br />
mainstays of those<br />
who defended the<br />
J o n a t h a n<br />
administration’s footloose<br />
regime, agreed<br />
it was $20 billion.<br />
When the Jonathan<br />
administration asked<br />
a<br />
firm,<br />
PriceWaterhouse<br />
Cooper Nigeria, to<br />
look at the books of<br />
the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation<br />
(NNPC), it turned out to be an<br />
elaborate charade. The NNPC and the<br />
Central Bank did not cooperate with the<br />
audit team.<br />
Even when his oil minister, Diezani<br />
Alison-Madueke, was accused of spending<br />
a superlative sum of N10 billion on<br />
air travels, she shunned the flurry of<br />
media inquiries and snubbed the National<br />
Assembly.<br />
The lesson is that the Jonathan administration<br />
ruined institutions, allowed corruption<br />
to fester and the nation reeled<br />
morally.The Buhari administration that<br />
will succeed it will do well to watch out<br />
for any moral traps and lead this country<br />
on the path of a values rebirth. If the<br />
Jonathan era failed, his should act as a<br />
bail-out era.<br />
‘The lesson is that the Jonathan administration ruined institutions,<br />
allowed corruption to fester and the nation reeled<br />
morally.The Buhari administration that will succeed it will<br />
do well to watch out for any moral traps and lead this country<br />
on the path of a values rebirth. If the Jonathan era failed,<br />
his should act as a bail-out era’<br />
LETTER<br />
God loves Nigeria<br />
IR: If there is any nation on this planet earth<br />
so favoured of God, Nigeria if not the first<br />
Scannot be third because of a truth, God cares<br />
for Nigeria. There are series of events and indices<br />
that point to this assertion. In the early stage<br />
of our nationhood, we survived a brutal civil<br />
war, which was enough to see to the end of this<br />
nation. We survived Maitasine’s war, religious<br />
riots, many military coups, youth restiveness,<br />
terrorism attacks and Islamic insurgency; that we<br />
still remain a strong nation is very amazing.<br />
Despite all the satanic prognostications and<br />
doomsday prophecies that Nigeria will break<br />
up in 2015, God has proved Himself faithful on<br />
our behalf. We have demonstrated to the whole<br />
world that we are mature and able as a nation to<br />
find solutions to our squabbles and solve any<br />
problem without recourse to any foreign country.<br />
We stood united against Ebola virus and won;<br />
some even made the supreme sacrifices to save<br />
the rest of us, which has made our nation a cynosure<br />
of all eyes in the international community.<br />
So for this year’s election to have come and gone<br />
without the nation’s disintegration, we all share<br />
in the credit.<br />
Kudos should be given to President Jonathan<br />
for making history as the first sitting president<br />
to conced defeat to the opposition in a keenly<br />
contested elections.<br />
That is why to whom much is given, much is<br />
expected; the in- coming government of General<br />
Muhammadu Buhari should brace up to the challenges<br />
ahead, because the masses of this country<br />
are banking on him to liberate them from the<br />
shackles of poverty and unemployment ravaging<br />
the nation. He should get his acts right by<br />
hitting the ground running to defeat the monster<br />
of corruption as he stated during the election<br />
period. He should be magnanimous in victory<br />
by treating every Nigerian equally.<br />
A situation in which some few people sit down<br />
to share our collective patrimony should be<br />
quickly addressed. It is unfortunate that many<br />
past leaders shared our oil blocks among themselves.<br />
He should be ready to step on toes and<br />
cancel all these oil licences.<br />
The issue of jumbo pay for the legislators<br />
should be looked into; the situation in which a<br />
Nigerian senator earns about $181,000 per month,<br />
and their counterparts in the US earns about $174,<br />
000 annually is incongruous and ludicrous.<br />
He will definitely get the backing of the majority<br />
of Nigerians in his bid to recover stolen<br />
funds from corrupt officials without minding<br />
whose horse is gored.<br />
The fuel subsidy is another debacle that needs<br />
urgent attention. He should make use of people<br />
with impeccable character to man the oil sector.<br />
Our refineries should be put to maximum use to<br />
reduce the price and hardship being experienced<br />
by Nigerians in getting fuel.<br />
Stable electricity is very essential to the growth<br />
of our national economy; infrastructural development<br />
will facilitate industrial growth and job<br />
creation. He should focus on these. With God on<br />
our side, Nigeria is on the path of greatness, and<br />
I wish the incoming administration the best of<br />
luck and God’s guidance<br />
• Pastor Mark Debo Taiwo,<br />
Takie/Ikoyi Road, Ogbomoso.<br />
TRUTH IN DEFENCE OF FREEDOM<br />
Managing Director/Editor-in-Chief<br />
Victor Ifijeh<br />
• Editor<br />
Gbenga Omotoso<br />
•Chairman, Editorial<br />
Board<br />
Sam Omatseye<br />
•General Editor<br />
Adekunle Ade-Adeleye<br />
•Editor, Online<br />
Lekan Otufodunrin<br />
•Managing Editor<br />
Northern Operation<br />
Yusuf Alli<br />
•Managing Editor<br />
Waheed Odusile<br />
•Deputy Editor<br />
Lawal Ogienagbon<br />
•Deputy Editor (News)<br />
Adeniyi Adesina<br />
•Deputy Editor (Nation’s Capital)<br />
Yomi Odunuga<br />
•Group Political Editor<br />
Emmanuel Oladesu<br />
•Group Business Editor<br />
Simeon Ebulu<br />
•Group Sports Editor<br />
Ade Ojeikere<br />
•Editorial Page Editor<br />
Sanya Oni<br />
•Executive Director<br />
(Finance & Administration)<br />
Ade Odunewu<br />
• Gen. Manager<br />
(Training and Development)<br />
Soji Omotunde<br />
•General Manager (Abuja Press)<br />
Kehinde Olowu<br />
•AGM (PH Press)<br />
Tunde Olasogba<br />
•Advert Manager<br />
Robinson Osirike<br />
•IT Manager<br />
Bolarinwa Meekness<br />
•Press Manager<br />
Udensi Chikaodi<br />
•Legal Counsel<br />
John Unachukwu<br />
• Manager (Admin)<br />
Folake Adeoye<br />
•Acting Manager (sales)<br />
Olaribigbe Bello
18<br />
CARTOON & LETTERS<br />
THE NATION THURSDAY, MAY 21, 2015<br />
IR: The governorship<br />
election in Oyo might have<br />
come and gone. However, Smatters arising from that election<br />
will take some time to fade away.<br />
The result might have shocked<br />
some people especially one of the<br />
contestants to the point of being<br />
sedated. Some have attributed the<br />
victory of Governor Abiola<br />
Ajimobi to the Buhari<br />
phenomenon. Whereas, the factor<br />
may not be dismissed outright, the<br />
fact remains that it is being<br />
exaggerated or over emphasized.<br />
The truth however is that it is the<br />
chief and sole mourner of the<br />
election result that was the architect<br />
of his own doom. This can be traced<br />
to the hate campaign against<br />
Ajimobi. A campaign not about<br />
issues but total falsehood aimed at<br />
denigrating and impugning the<br />
integrity of the governor. Part of<br />
the anti-Ajimobi propaganda was<br />
to send some social miscreants to<br />
the streets, motor parks and<br />
markets abusing and maligning<br />
the person of the governor, that he<br />
was set to demolish houses and<br />
markets once he was re-elected.<br />
On the part of the governor, he<br />
remained well composed and civil,<br />
quoting facts and figures to debunk<br />
wild and false allegations against<br />
him. However, even at the risk of<br />
losing the election, Ajimobi<br />
remained unfazed and fully<br />
consistent about his policy of<br />
discouraging roadside trading in<br />
the state.<br />
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Ajimobi: An election’s aftermath<br />
As part of strategy to deny<br />
Ajimobi the honour of peace and<br />
serenity which his administration<br />
had guaranteed in the last four<br />
years, sporadic violence and<br />
unprovoked attacks were<br />
organized across the city of Ibadan,<br />
one of which led to the shooting of<br />
a police officer to death.<br />
In his bid to spread<br />
infrastructural development across<br />
the State, Ajimobi dualized the<br />
road in Iseyin. The opposition was<br />
quick to fault it as a white elephant<br />
project claiming that there are not<br />
enough vehicles to ply such roads.<br />
That particular statement no doubt<br />
ignited the anger of Oke-Ogun<br />
indigene to the extent of<br />
mobilizing massive support for<br />
Ajimobi.<br />
The nefarious role of some civil<br />
servants and teachers in the state<br />
who turned themselves to<br />
infamous agents of an opposition<br />
party with all kinds of<br />
unintelligible and unsustainable<br />
blackmail of falsehood against the<br />
administration and person of<br />
Ajimobi was enough to provoke<br />
the elite class of the state into<br />
action. This was a class of people<br />
who hitherto was not interested in<br />
who ruled them and never cared<br />
to exercise their franchise. This<br />
time around however, they felt<br />
insulted by the ‘one eyed king’<br />
syndrome of the supposedly<br />
educated civil servants. Their<br />
determination was further<br />
reinforced by the awful nostalgia<br />
of the previous administration<br />
when one could hardly sleep with<br />
two eyes closed. They were quick<br />
to realize that the kind of hate<br />
campaign being orchestrated by<br />
the opposition was a mere<br />
Lamido, Aliyu, not Muazu deserve the boot<br />
SIR: I wish to comment on the<br />
recent call by Governor<br />
Babangida Aliyu of Niger<br />
State and Sule Lamido of Jigawa<br />
State for Adamu Muazu to resign as<br />
PDP Chairman and for pre-empting<br />
a government that has not taken off.<br />
These men played prominent<br />
roles in the 16 years failure of the<br />
PDP and they never advised the government<br />
on what to do because they<br />
were part of the looting machine.<br />
These men were behind PDP’s failure.<br />
They led some northern PDP<br />
governors to vote against Jonathan’s<br />
candidate in the governors’ forum<br />
election. They were the one that led<br />
the G-7 governors round the country<br />
campaigning for a northern<br />
president. Lamido did not defect<br />
because of the money laundering<br />
case against his children. Babangida<br />
rehearsal or a warm up of what to<br />
witness should they win the<br />
election.<br />
For the first time in recent<br />
history of the state, only one person<br />
would preside over the House of<br />
Assembly for four years. There<br />
were instances in the past where<br />
legislators were thrown down<br />
through the window by sponsored<br />
party thugs. Some of the legislators<br />
affected remain maimed to date.<br />
That Ajimobi could sustain that<br />
kind of harmonious relationship<br />
only confirmed him as an adept in<br />
the doctrine of separation of<br />
We need to revisit the past<br />
Aliyu said he wanted to consult the<br />
elders of the party in his state. When<br />
did Muazu the game-changer become<br />
the brain behind PDP failure?<br />
If there is anybody worth expelling<br />
from the PDP, it is Babangida<br />
and Lamido.<br />
•Okorie Emmanuel,<br />
Makurdi<br />
SIR: Nigerians were caught<br />
aback when during the heat<br />
of the last general elections,<br />
the president-elect, General<br />
Muhammadu Buhari made an<br />
unpopular promise that his government<br />
was not going to probe<br />
the past governments after initially<br />
promising to make all who<br />
have stolen the commonwealth<br />
to return their loots. The declaration,<br />
although unpopular and<br />
against the public expectation,<br />
was forgivable because it was<br />
considered a political calculation.<br />
But it would be however unforgivable<br />
if in practice the president-elect<br />
still uphold that promise.<br />
It was an unholy promise, in<br />
the first place, because by that<br />
singular act, the General had indirectly<br />
told the Nigerian populace<br />
that the most politically relevant,<br />
and powerful set of people<br />
in the nation were corrupt, and<br />
that any attempt to seek a probe<br />
of their stewardship could spell<br />
doom for the his administration.<br />
Like I said, it is forgivable if it was<br />
a political ploy. But now that the<br />
election is won, a visit to the past<br />
is inevitable.<br />
Someone may argue that visiting<br />
the past would erase the said<br />
honesty claim of the Presidentelect,<br />
but I think otherwise be-<br />
powers.<br />
In the past, if the governor was<br />
not battling the legislators, it<br />
would be that he was involved in<br />
dividing the rank of the traditional<br />
rulers in the state. Whereas<br />
previous governors enjoyed a<br />
phoney play of supremacy among<br />
traditional rulers, whereas, but for<br />
undue interference from the<br />
executive, the order of hierarchy<br />
among Obas was never in dispute.<br />
Especially in the case of the Alaafin,<br />
that the governor could maintain<br />
a cordial relationship with the<br />
foremost Yoruba traditional ruler<br />
for four years scored him another<br />
first in the game of peace. While<br />
that revealed Ajimobi as a humble<br />
administrator, it also showed that<br />
the Alaafin was not as fastidious as<br />
some think but rather a man of high<br />
taste in service and delivery<br />
standard.<br />
• Agboola Sanni,<br />
Ibadan, Oyo State.<br />
cause now that it is very glaring<br />
that the incoming government is<br />
inheriting an empty treasury, and<br />
a huge national debt, the need for<br />
developmental funds could warrant<br />
a renege on the said promise.<br />
Besides, the president-elect<br />
would not be seen as a trucebreaker<br />
if he only makes the<br />
thieves refund what they have<br />
stolen without having to send<br />
anybody to jail.<br />
No Nigerian is willing to be told<br />
stories after two years of the incoming<br />
government. We do not<br />
want to hear why the APC government<br />
could not perform. We<br />
do not what to be told to pay more<br />
tax in other for the government to<br />
give us the dividends of democracy;<br />
so let them go for the stolen<br />
money. It is necessary, and crucial<br />
in such a time as this.<br />
• Ohimai Daniel,<br />
Lagos.
THE NATION THURSDAY, MAY 21, 2015 19<br />
COMMENTS<br />
W<br />
HAT a time to come to<br />
power! Some will say that<br />
it is a wrong time; others<br />
will contend otherwise and argue<br />
that you knew what was at stake<br />
before you sought the highest office<br />
in the land. No matter which side of<br />
the divide one is, the truth is that<br />
not many will pray to be in your<br />
shoes, at least under the present circumstance.<br />
I do not envy you for the<br />
cross you will carry from May 29<br />
when you formally take office. I call<br />
it a cross because you are coming to<br />
power at a time that nothing works<br />
in our country.<br />
Things are so bad that many are<br />
wondering where you will start<br />
from. There is a lot to be done and<br />
considering the legendary impatience<br />
of your compatriots, you will<br />
have your hands full from day one.<br />
Permit me to say that a nation as<br />
blessed as ours should not be where<br />
it is today. Our country should be at<br />
the top, considering our natural endowments,<br />
but painfully the reverse<br />
is the case. We are on the lowest rung<br />
of the Human Development Index<br />
(HDI).<br />
The question is: how well have we<br />
managed our God given wealth?<br />
Rather than use these resources for<br />
the development of our common<br />
patrimony, our leaders have been<br />
diverting them to personal use.<br />
I will be putting it mildly to say<br />
that you will be inheriting a mess.<br />
Our people know that you are one<br />
402 DAYS AFTER<br />
WHERE ARE THE<br />
ABDUCTED CHIBOK<br />
GIRLS?<br />
Lame duck activism<br />
president that will be coming to<br />
power with the odds so stacked<br />
against you. No president in our history<br />
ever came to power with things<br />
so bad like this. Even in 1983 when<br />
you took over power from President<br />
Shehu Shagari, things were not as<br />
bad as they are now. Compared to<br />
what we are seeing now, things were<br />
far, far better then, even with the<br />
profligacy of the Shagari administration.<br />
We said the Shagari administration<br />
was corrupt. Ha-ha! Nigerians<br />
will eat their word with what<br />
is happening right before their eyes<br />
now.<br />
Everything points to a hard time<br />
for you in office; not the kind of hard<br />
time outgoing President Goodluck<br />
Jonathan predicted for himself and<br />
his aides after their exit. Yours will<br />
be the hard time of meeting the expectations<br />
of our long suffering<br />
people, who through thick and thin,<br />
absorbed all that was thrown at them<br />
by the government. They were<br />
asked to tighten their belts; they did.<br />
But those in government slackened<br />
theirs to have more room to stash<br />
away their loot. This is why today<br />
nothing is working. Security has collapsed.<br />
The economy is in tatters;<br />
electricity has gone kaput; fuel, especially<br />
petrol and kerosine, is scarce<br />
despite the billions of naira spent<br />
on subsidy; education is in a<br />
shambles. The real sector, the economic<br />
live wire of a nation, is comatose;<br />
agriculture is ensnared in the<br />
politics of waivers.<br />
These, indeed, are not the best of<br />
times for anybody, not even a lion<br />
heart like you, to take power. The<br />
picture of the economy painted by<br />
All Progressives Congress (APC)<br />
governors when they met with you<br />
last May 5 is scary. We knew all along<br />
that things were bad; we didn’t know<br />
HAVE been bewildered by the sudden excitement<br />
and activities of the outgoing<br />
administration in the last two or so weeks. Let-<br />
Iters of sacking of people and appointment of their<br />
replacement have been coming out of the presidency<br />
with amazing rapidity and frequency as if this was<br />
the beginning of the Jonathan administration. I can<br />
understand the president saying he remains in<br />
charge of the country until the night of May 28.<br />
Nobody can dispute this. What is disputable is the<br />
sense in giving out appointment letters of four years<br />
on the eve of the end of the president’s term. This<br />
appears to me as a sick joke.<br />
What is surprising is that people are turning out in<br />
their Sunday dresses to be sworn into jobs which all<br />
sensible people know will be cancelled by a single<br />
statement by the new administration saying all councils<br />
and boards of parastatals are dissolved with<br />
immediate effect. When I asked a friend why apparently<br />
sensible people are travelling long distances<br />
to assemble in Abuja to be sworn into councils and<br />
boards at this late hour in the life of the current<br />
administration, his answer was that the appointments<br />
would boost their curriculum vitae no matter<br />
if the appointments last only a week.<br />
The question really is that should state affairs be<br />
dealt with so cavalierly? I read the letter of General<br />
Adeyinka Adebayo to the president complaining<br />
about the rude way he was removed as Pro-chancellor<br />
and chairman of the Governing Council of the<br />
University of Ibadan. I felt very bad and sad for<br />
two reasons. I did not think my beloved General<br />
should have accepted the job in the first place. But<br />
having accepted it, he should have been treated with<br />
the dignity that a man of his status and previous<br />
exalted positions he held in this country when many<br />
of the current players on Nigerian stage were in diapers.<br />
Placing an advertorial in newspapers to remove<br />
a man like General Adebayo was rude, indecorous<br />
and unflattering especially without giving<br />
reasons and allowing the imagination to wander<br />
away conjecturing all kinds of scenarios.<br />
The directive to a foreign company setting up<br />
manufacturing business in Lagos to move to Bayelsa<br />
State by somebody who has been in the presidency,<br />
first as vice president and later as president for eight<br />
years and then waiting for the last weeks in office<br />
before realizing that charity begins at home and then<br />
depriving one of his constituencies manufacturing<br />
jobs is what can be described as double jeopardy<br />
against the person of the president because he ends<br />
looking bad in Lagos and Bayelsa. The people in<br />
Bayelsa will say so he just remembered us while<br />
those in Lagos will say look at the man who was<br />
running around here some weeks ago telling us we<br />
are all brothers! No matter the economic rationale,<br />
the timing is bad. President Jonathan should be concerned<br />
about his legacy and what his place will be<br />
in the history of the country and he must not let last<br />
minute poor judgement ruin his legacy.<br />
Right now problems are piling up towards the end<br />
of his tenure. An oil-producing country is lying prostrate<br />
because there is no fuel at the pumps for people<br />
to buy. This in a country that has four refineries<br />
which for lack of vision are not working. Dangote<br />
in 2011 offered to buy, I believe the refineries in<br />
Port Harcourt and Kaduna but this government refused<br />
and kept paying trillions to party men as fuel<br />
subsidies. Now, the chicken has come home to roost.<br />
The country is broke. The president is therefore<br />
handing over to his successor a bankrupt country.<br />
Not only that, the insurgency in the North-east is<br />
still active. This is in spite of hiring Boer mercenaries<br />
from South Africa to fight along Nigerian troops,<br />
the very type of people who used to shoot Africans<br />
as wild game during the days of the obnoxious apart-<br />
‘This president can go down into history as one that helped the country<br />
to overcome its wasting its oil revenue on consumption by the elite. Let<br />
this president carry the burden of cancelling the so-called subsidies on<br />
petroleum products’<br />
Letter to Buhari<br />
that they were that bad until the<br />
governors spoke. Outgoing Minister<br />
of Finance/Coordinating Minister<br />
of the Economy Dr Ngozi<br />
Okonjo-Iweala, who had all along<br />
rated the economy high, also finally<br />
came clean with us by stating the<br />
obvious : the economy is in doldrums.<br />
Why did it take her this long<br />
to confirm that ‘’Nigeria is facing a<br />
serious cash crunch’’.<br />
Because of the severity of the problem,<br />
she said, the country was forced<br />
to borrow N473 billion to finance<br />
recurrent expenditure. Such borrowings,<br />
as even a lay man would<br />
know, is not expected to yield any<br />
returns. Rather, the government<br />
will offset the debts at a very high<br />
interest rate. It is simple economics<br />
that you do not borrow to pay salaries.<br />
But that is what the federal and<br />
state governments have been doing,<br />
to prevent a collapse of the public/<br />
civil service because of the non-payment<br />
of salaries. Despite these huge<br />
borrowings, the Federal Government<br />
and many of the states are still<br />
owing workers’ salaries.<br />
So, you can understand where the<br />
governors were coming from when<br />
they appealed to you to come to<br />
their aid when you resume duty next<br />
week. ‘’One of the issues of concern<br />
to all of us’’, said APC Governorship<br />
Forum Chairman and Imo State<br />
Governor Rochas Okorocha, ‘’is the<br />
state of the economy, which is already<br />
in a bad shape and we have<br />
come to notify the incoming president<br />
of the challenges ahead of him.<br />
As it stands today, most states of the<br />
federation have not been able to pay<br />
salaries and even the Federal Government<br />
has not paid April salaries”.<br />
To Okonjo-Iweala, Nigeria got<br />
into this financial mess because of<br />
the falling oil price. She forgot to<br />
heid racist regime.<br />
One of them was<br />
interviewed<br />
recently in England<br />
about the<br />
mercenaries’ treatment<br />
of Africans<br />
in Nigeria’s<br />
North-east, he<br />
merely demurred<br />
and said they<br />
treated them well!<br />
Coming from a<br />
people who recently<br />
felt Africans<br />
w e r e<br />
untermenschen or sub humans, one can imagine how<br />
we who fought against the racist South Africans<br />
played into their hands while also paying them<br />
handsomely for our humiliation<br />
This president can go down into history as one<br />
that helped the country to overcome its wasting its<br />
oil revenue on consumption by the elite. Let this<br />
president carry the burden of cancelling the socalled<br />
subsidies on petroleum products. We are already<br />
buying the stuff at 120 or 130 Naira a litre. If<br />
this is what the price should be, let the president<br />
tell us and remove the burden from Buhari. I mean<br />
the president is not running for office again, he can<br />
afford to help us bite the bullet of deregulated petrol<br />
price. He will be remembered for his sacrificially<br />
bearing the burden of a policy that may not be palatable<br />
to most Nigerians but has become necessary<br />
in the peculiar circumstance we find ourselves.<br />
The president’s activism should not be confined<br />
and restricted to personnel changes in the dying<br />
hours of his administration; it should extend to a<br />
policy he genuinely believes in but was afraid to<br />
implement because of politics. He tried this earlier<br />
in his administration. We should not mind his sudden<br />
reduction of the price of petrol as part of his<br />
electoral politics. The time has now come when the<br />
statesman of a president comes forward with the<br />
right policy on deregulated price of petrol before<br />
the curtains come down.<br />
add that government’s inefficiency<br />
is also a contributory factor. The solution,<br />
Okonjo-Iweala claims, is for<br />
Nigeria to sell off some of its assets<br />
or use them to borrow money to<br />
manage the economy. Knowing how<br />
Nigerians will react to such a move,<br />
Okonjo-Iweala said the decision has<br />
been left to you to take. So, if you<br />
decide to take her advice, you may<br />
take off on the note of borrowing to<br />
sustain the government and then run<br />
into trouble with Nigerians, who<br />
will not applaud such move at all.<br />
If the economy is bad, as you<br />
well know, everything is bad<br />
about a country. A country is<br />
as good as its economy. For rebasing<br />
our gross domestic product (GDP),<br />
which merely enhanced the basket<br />
of goods and services in the<br />
economy without any attendant<br />
benefit to the people, Okonjo-Iweala<br />
attempted to pass it off as an economic<br />
masterstroke when she knew<br />
it was not. If the rebasing actually<br />
amounted to anything, we will not<br />
be complaining that we are broke<br />
today, while a whole Federal Government<br />
cannot pay salaries. So,<br />
where is the gain of their much<br />
vaunted rebasing?<br />
It is clear that what you are going<br />
to inherit is a debased and not a<br />
rebased economy. The importance<br />
of the economy to any nation cannot<br />
be overemphasised. But it is sad<br />
that you are being handed a weak<br />
economy. Even though Nigerians<br />
know that, what they are interested<br />
in is how you will grow it and make<br />
life better for them after all these<br />
years of waste. They are not ready<br />
for excuses on why things cannot be<br />
made better within a short time of<br />
your assuming office.<br />
It is just unfortunate that you are<br />
coming to power when the people’s<br />
Jide<br />
Osuntokun<br />
Lawal<br />
Ogienagbon<br />
lawal.ogienagbon@thenationonlineng.net<br />
SMS ONLY: 08099400204, 08112661612<br />
patience has been so taxed by those<br />
who did not mean well for our country.<br />
Please, do not see their impatience<br />
(which should be expected<br />
though) as antagonism; it is not. It is<br />
an expression of their frustrations<br />
with the system over the years.<br />
You do not have anything to fear<br />
because once you start well, you can<br />
be sure of winning over the people,<br />
who have for long being taken for<br />
granted. We look up to you to make<br />
the difference in our lives and bring<br />
the much desired change to our<br />
country. May God help you.<br />
‘It is clear that what<br />
you are going to inherit<br />
is a debased and not a<br />
rebased economy.<br />
Even though Nigerians<br />
know that, what they<br />
are interested in is how<br />
you will grow it and<br />
make life better for<br />
them within a short<br />
time’
20<br />
COMMENTS<br />
F what federalism sets out to achieve is ‘individual<br />
and group rights defined in form<br />
of language, culture, and religion or socio- Ieconomic status’, the Yoruba by their history<br />
and temperament are federalists. Unfortunately,<br />
out of sheer mischief, the Hausa Fulani, who<br />
according to Richard Sklar settled for confederacy<br />
in 1953, (ostensibly because their region<br />
was 70 years behind the south in educational<br />
development and because of the south’s disrespect<br />
for their culture), and the Igbo and NCNC<br />
that opted for unitary system in 1959 (because<br />
of their mobility and educational advancement<br />
since they stand to gain more from a unitary<br />
system) have often turned around to accuse<br />
Awo and the Yoruba of tribalism for insisting<br />
on a workable federal arrangement.<br />
A workable federal arrangement that will<br />
guarantee freedom, liberty and equality for<br />
every linguistic group from the unfriendly inhabitants<br />
of the Mama Hills and the unsocial<br />
Mumuye of Muri Province became a lifelong<br />
pursuit for Awo who once accused his political<br />
opponents of carousing around while he burnt<br />
the midnight oil proffering solution to Nigeria<br />
problems. He started his crusade with the publication<br />
of “Nigeria: Path to Freedom” as a student<br />
at the age of 36 in 1945.<br />
As a 39-year old Yoruba representative at the<br />
1948 Ibadan General Conference on the Review<br />
of the 1946 Richard’s Constitution, he canvassed<br />
vigorously for a federal structure based on ethnic<br />
nationalities as against the northern delegates’<br />
insistence on a loose federation, with<br />
the centre controlling only Defence, External<br />
Affairs, Customs and the eastern delegates’ advocacy<br />
of a unitary system. Awo, accompanied<br />
by the late Alfred Rewane, his dependable ally<br />
and a pillar of Action Group took the crusade to<br />
Ahmadu Bello’s house in Kaduna. The meetings<br />
yielded no fruit because the Sardauna, according<br />
to Rewane reminded Awo that those<br />
whose freedom he sought were once his ancestors’<br />
properties. Awo remained undaunted. Two<br />
other meetings were held at different times at<br />
the Ikorodu house of Alhaji Gbadamosi and in<br />
Awo’s Ibadan residence. Awo’s pursuit of freedom<br />
for the people of the Calabar, Ogoja and<br />
Rivers (COR Province), the Middle Belt and the<br />
North Eastern Nigeria, attracted little or no support<br />
from his Yoruba party members like S. L.<br />
Akintola, Bode Thomas and Rotimi Williams<br />
who did not mind confederation as canvassed<br />
by the north or any system for that matter as<br />
long as it guaranteed that the West was not ‘ruled<br />
by a one- eyed man king’.<br />
At the 1958 Lancaster House constitutional<br />
conference where October 1, 1960 was announced<br />
as the date for Nigerian independence<br />
LL my life, I have always been attracted to public<br />
office. When I decided to run for public office, I<br />
was concerned about the poverty level in the land,<br />
Aand the inability of the federal, state and local<br />
governments to function at the level they ought to. In<br />
seeking public office, I looked at the national, state and<br />
local governments’ budgets. I tried to understand why<br />
Nigeria was not as developed as it ought to be. And<br />
what I saw was shocking and very alarming. Those of<br />
us in the private sector understand how we should run<br />
a company, and things we should do and the ones we<br />
shouldn’t do.<br />
At the federal budget, a couple of things shook me. For<br />
instance, one percent of the federal budget is spent on<br />
pilgrims for both Muslims and Christians; three percent<br />
is spent for the National Assembly for 469 people; 30<br />
percent is spent on 1.2 million civil servants; 88 percent<br />
is spent on recurrent expenditure while only 12 percent<br />
is spent on capital expenditure.<br />
State governments have no money. Most states in this<br />
country today, if they were to be companies, they would<br />
have closed shop. And no company will lend them<br />
money. The federal government inclusive. To say that<br />
we are broke is an understatement. A few things must<br />
happen to enable us grow the economy, and we must<br />
shrink the way we spend money in this country.<br />
The problem facing this country is not about the North<br />
versus the South, neither is it about Christianity versus<br />
Islam or APC versus PDP. Rather,the problem is ‘Right<br />
versus Wrong”. I was interviewed by a magazine<br />
recently, and they asked me about the problem of the<br />
North-east and South-south. I replied that the issue with<br />
the North-east is not about religion and that of the Southsouth<br />
is underdevelopment. It’s very simple, we are a<br />
small minority of people, the leadership of Nigeria,<br />
consuming all the resources of my people and leaving<br />
the rest of us in abject poverty.<br />
That will not work. We must learn to be humble, learn<br />
to preserve what we have and learn also to be kind for<br />
the rest of us to have what to eat, and our children to go<br />
to school; providing health care facilities for everyone;<br />
education for the children, job creation and infrastructure<br />
development for our people. You don’t understand why<br />
young men of today have access to an AK-47 to kill us<br />
because we do not provide for them. We pay no attention<br />
to the least of us.<br />
In our responses, we want to be living large; have more<br />
Osinbajo and Awo’s<br />
inherited burden<br />
by the British Secretary for the colonies, Chief<br />
Awolowo was the only delegate that stood up<br />
to insist that independence for Nigeria as a corporate<br />
entity was not enough. “People of Nigeria”,<br />
he had argued, “must as individual citizens<br />
enjoy liberty, prosperity and equality under<br />
the law and Nigeria constitution”.<br />
Probably as a result of the rivalry between<br />
Zik and Awo or out of envy for his unrivalled<br />
achievement in the West between 1952 and 1959,<br />
the Igbo ‘unitarists’ found a willing partner in<br />
the ‘confederal’ Hausa Fulani feudal lords desirous<br />
of protecting their fiefdom from contamination<br />
by Awo’s endless talk of freedom and<br />
liberty which partly precipitated the Tiv insurrection<br />
in early days of independence, to throw<br />
the advocate of freedom and justice into prison<br />
barely two years after independence. They labelled<br />
Awo a tribalist and coup plotter on the<br />
strength of an entry in his diary where he stated<br />
he had a dream that he became the Prime Minister<br />
of Nigeria. He was jailed for 10 years by<br />
political opponents who swore he would be too<br />
old if he ever survived his prison years to question<br />
how they govern Nigeria. Unfortunately,<br />
having removed one leg of the tripod, (AG in<br />
the West) the dispute over the 1963 census crisis<br />
between the east and the north which was settled<br />
in favour of the latter by the courts was all that<br />
was needed for the collapse of Nigeria’s edifice<br />
consuming in the process, most of those who<br />
had betrayed the spirit of the Nigerian constitution<br />
in 1962.<br />
The coming of the military in 1966 was a continuation<br />
of the bitter war between the Igbo<br />
and Hausa Fulani political elite. Both President<br />
Azikiwe and Prime Minister Tafawa Balewa had<br />
made overtures to the military over the dis-<br />
puted 1964 elections. A segment of the military<br />
that was sympathetic to Zik and NCNC used<br />
the 1966 coup as a cover to clear out those who<br />
opted to support Balewa in deference to the constitution.<br />
The July counter coup and reprisal<br />
mindless killing of Igbos by northern soldiers<br />
was an answer to the January selective killing<br />
of non-Igbo political and military leaders. An<br />
ill-equipped and ill-educated military and their<br />
selfish Igbo and Hausa Fulani politicians later<br />
plunged the nation into an avoidable 30 months<br />
civil war (1967-1970), replaced a workable structure<br />
with an unwieldy 36 states and 776 LGAs.<br />
Igbo and Hausa political elite are the beneficiaries<br />
of the current anarchy which allows the<br />
almighty powerful federal government to undermine<br />
the authority of weak states through<br />
local governments. This and other calamities<br />
that befell our nation in the last 50 years could<br />
have been averted if we had not rejected Awo’s<br />
‘Nigeria: Path to Freedom.”<br />
Now for the first time in our nation’s history,<br />
the mainstream Yoruba political tendency<br />
embraced by Awo and his supporters is<br />
partnering with the Hausa-Fulani north to provide<br />
an alternative developmental paradigm<br />
to that which the coalition of Igbo and Hausa<br />
Fulani political elite had adopted since independence<br />
in 1960 to pilot the affairs of the country<br />
which has only left a legacy of thousands of<br />
underprivileged illiterate Igbo youths who<br />
roam the streets of our urban centres hawking<br />
substandard imported goods and their northern<br />
counterparts who according to Alhaji<br />
Kashim Shettima, became ‘victims of mass<br />
hunger and anger, mass unemployment, bad<br />
infrastructure, mass illiteracy and ignorance and<br />
general hopelessness’. Today, Osibanjo has an<br />
advisers, buy bullet-proof cars and have more<br />
bodyguards. That will not work. We must come together<br />
and understand that we must all grow and develop<br />
together as a people. Anyone you leave behind, you have<br />
created a problem for the rest of us. It’s not enough to<br />
send your children to study in Switzerland, and buy<br />
your houses in Dubai, live a life of extreme wealth and<br />
you expect those you left behind to clap for you.<br />
They don’t do what I call the NTV generation. The past<br />
presidents could not shut down Fela Anikulapo Kuti,<br />
and you said they can shut down a hundred million<br />
people? You think, you are smart and your lifestyle is<br />
not being watched by those you govern? When you seek<br />
public office, you seek it to lead by example.<br />
You don’t seek public office to play lord over the people<br />
who voted you into office. The world has changed, and<br />
we must change too. It is not just talking about change,<br />
we must have real change. And for us to change, we<br />
must understand what drives our people. There is too<br />
much hunger in the land.<br />
So, let’s make a deal. Let’s say for instance , to reduce<br />
expenditure, only the President and the Vice President<br />
will fly First Class, while governors and ministers fly<br />
Business Class. When you travel abroad you don’t need<br />
to lodge in a $4000 hotel paid with the taxpayers money.<br />
I have never stayed in a hotel that is more than $300 in<br />
my life, not because I cannot afford it but when I think, at<br />
the end of the month, I must pay my workers, pay taxes,<br />
how do I justify staying in a $4000 hotel room? It doesn’t<br />
make any sense to me.<br />
I have never flown First Class in my life. As a young<br />
man I flew Business Class and I do so, on purpose. I<br />
have a choice but I choose to fly Business Class which is<br />
the right thing to do. You sit here and talk about<br />
nationalism and patriotism, and the lights are turned<br />
off, you spend over N1.5 million traveling to London.<br />
That amount of money will feed a whole family for a<br />
whole year. It makes no sense. The problem in Nigeria is<br />
the rich versus the poor. The crisis we have in this<br />
country is “a class warfare.”<br />
THE NATION THURSDAY, MAY 21, 2015<br />
Challenges before the 8 th Senate<br />
By Ben Murray-Bruce<br />
unenviable burden of working closely with<br />
Muhammadu Buhari who incidentally had restructuring<br />
in his manifesto in 2011 and 2015 to<br />
take us out of the woods after 50 years of rejecting<br />
the boundless possibilities contained in<br />
Awo’s “Path to Nigeria’s freedom’.<br />
Osinbajo is starting where Awo stopped in<br />
1962. Yoruba want for others what they want<br />
for themselves. His mandate from the Yoruba<br />
is therefore very clear and unambiguous. It is<br />
not about sharing offices. The Yoruba was after<br />
all, the worse for Obasanjo’s presidency. The<br />
Yoruba lost nothing conceding PDP Speakership<br />
of the current Lower House to the northwest.<br />
The Yoruba want a restructured Nigeria with<br />
constituents power over law and order, education<br />
and public information; a restructured Nigeria<br />
where there is freedom and justice for all;<br />
a restructured Nigeria that protects the right of<br />
indigenes as enshrined in the UN charter; a restructured<br />
Nigeria where it will be impossible<br />
to climb the palm tree from the top by becoming<br />
a President without representing anyone or<br />
making billions from allocation of oil block<br />
just because you claim to be a Nigerian.<br />
It is restructuring that can end the orgy of<br />
killing of hundreds of helpless women and children<br />
at night in the Middle Belt region by unidentified<br />
‘Fulani herdsmen’. Categorizing all<br />
forms of fraudulent activities ranging from the<br />
peddling of fake drugs to hawking of smuggled<br />
substandard goods as ‘business’ can only be<br />
stopped by restructuring. It is also the answer<br />
to corruption as<br />
there<br />
will be less to steal in Abuja while the government<br />
of South-south states especially Bayelsa<br />
where most of the state past chief executives<br />
have been accused by EFCC of converting over<br />
70% of state allocations to personal use will be<br />
forced to face its own demon within a Southsouth<br />
zone or region or let off if the zone accepts<br />
President Jonathan’s thesis that ‘stealing<br />
government funds is not corruption’. Finally, it<br />
is the answer to Boko Haram who will be free<br />
to close down all schools and hospitals and revert<br />
to the cave age where services of doctors<br />
and engineers would not be needed.<br />
I am sure Prof Osinbajo and Buhari, the president-elect<br />
have no illusion that their mandate<br />
or their capacity to confront the social problems<br />
facing the country is the answer to the<br />
structural problems that have bedevilled Nigeria<br />
since 1962. Their mandate and ultimate success<br />
in tackling social issues only provide a historic<br />
opportunity to study development in other<br />
societies such as India, Canada, Russia and even<br />
Europe and develop the political will to put an<br />
to the man-made structural problems bedevilling<br />
our nation since 1962.<br />
In the next 35 years, if we do not control our<br />
consumption behavour, the emerging generation will rise<br />
against us. The world has changed but we have not<br />
changed. When we go abroad to look for aids, in Britain,<br />
the man we speak to, my counterparts in the British<br />
parliament go to work by train and taxi.<br />
Nigeria is too poor for our leaders to act like multibillionaires,<br />
and Nigeria is too rich for the people to be<br />
so poor. I don’t like what is happening in the power<br />
sector as well as the energy sector. I do not wish to buy<br />
petrol and I do not wish to go to any gas station ever<br />
again. I want to drive a car powered by the sun. I asked<br />
Kia Motors to bring electrically powered car into this<br />
country. The reason I asked them to bring in the electrical<br />
car is because we need to be free.<br />
In the Senate, I’m going to sponsor a bill that will help<br />
every poor home in this country so that they can survive.<br />
I need your support, if my colleagues say no, you say<br />
yes. I want you people to tell my colleagues to create a<br />
billion dollar fund to have solar power invented in every<br />
home in Nigeria, so that every child can watch television<br />
and listen to the radio. Every Nigerian has a choice as a<br />
Nigerian and as a politician. You are either a producer<br />
or you are a consumer.<br />
l0000•Bruce is Senator-elect representing Bayelsa East<br />
Senatorial District and Chairman of the Silverbird Group<br />
‘You don’t seek public office to play<br />
lord over the people who voted you<br />
into office. The world has changed,<br />
and we must change too. It is not just<br />
talking about change, we must have<br />
real change. And for us to change,<br />
we must understand what drives our<br />
people. There is too much hunger<br />
in the land’
THE NATION THURSDAY, MAY 21, 2015<br />
COMMENTS<br />
ONESTLY, as a proud Ekiti man, I had<br />
watched with embarrassment what,<br />
for want of better expression, can be<br />
Hsummarized as hustling for photo-ops by Dr.<br />
Kayode Fayemi whenever and wherever General<br />
Muhammadu Buhari appeared since<br />
emerging President-elect on March 28.<br />
Whether receiving visitors or seeing them off,<br />
the immediate past Ekiti governor would always<br />
be seen sticking behind the General as<br />
if he were the ADC.<br />
I always thought this was a bit self-demeaning<br />
for a man who, until recently, was a<br />
governor and, what’s more, a custodian of a<br />
doctorate degree. Here was a man who spent<br />
the better part of his four-year tenure in Ekiti<br />
sloganeering that Ekiti, the acclaimed “fountain<br />
of knowledge”, is a land of “Uyi”<br />
(honour). But what could be more<br />
dishonourable than this open grovelling before<br />
the new man of power in full native regalia:<br />
over-starched clothes and Awo cap.<br />
Certainly, this conduct does not speak well<br />
of our great state, the land of great men like<br />
Aare Afe Babalola, Prince Julius Adelusi-<br />
Adeluyi, Prof Niyi Osundare, Prof Akin<br />
Oyebode, and Femi Falana, SAN.<br />
I am sure General Buhari himself would<br />
be embarrassed by the fawning, the kind exhibited<br />
by Area Boys (Almajiris) at the sight<br />
of a VIP at a public gathering in anticipation<br />
of some form of “stomach infrastructure” (edible<br />
or monetary gift). While it is true that it<br />
is season of scrambling for the spoils of the<br />
electoral victory of March 28, but Fayemi honestly<br />
didn’t have to do this to be noticed by<br />
GMB as nothing can change whatever appointment<br />
God has destined him to get in the<br />
new dispensation.<br />
I thought I was alone in this observation<br />
until I read a brilliant article widely published<br />
in the Nigerian media and online written by<br />
one Hakeem Adisa where the writer made<br />
some startling revelations which appear to<br />
confirm that there is more to Dr. Fayemi’s<br />
theatrics lately in Abuja. Adisa’s piece was<br />
entitled, “What does Kayode Fayemi want?”<br />
Predictably, the former governor’s media<br />
bodyguard named Olayinka Oyebode rose<br />
stoutly to the occasion by defending his principal<br />
in a rejoinder published in Daily Sun of<br />
May 12 as a man of sterling academic credentials<br />
who, according to him, left indelible footprints<br />
in Ekiti. More illuminations were<br />
WITH a few days to May 29 handover<br />
date, two major talking points have<br />
gained prominence and remained in<br />
the front burner of public discourse as Nigeria<br />
marches to a new start at the presidency.<br />
Surreptitiously though, there is a third.<br />
One, the possible composition of General<br />
Muhammadu Buhari’s new cabinet. and, who<br />
is qualified in character, experience, exposure<br />
and acceptability, to lead the Senate, as well<br />
as the Lower House, and other leaders of the<br />
National Assembly.<br />
Understandably, these deserve the scrutiny<br />
and attention they are getting seeing that any<br />
mistake by whatever means and proportion,<br />
would spell doom and largely put a clog on<br />
the wheel of the incoming administration.<br />
Equally, such mistakes will equally hamper<br />
the delivery of the much elusive dividends<br />
of democracy and put the nation at grave risk<br />
having walked this far in search of peoplecentred<br />
leadership.<br />
This is why it has become expedient that<br />
one gives the President-elect, General Buhari,<br />
a helping hand, and make him aware of some<br />
dangerous political bumps likely to pose a<br />
threat to his government; if for nothing, to<br />
assist him steady himself in this crucial time<br />
when decisions that will make or mar his<br />
administration are taken.<br />
The covert talking point among most discerning<br />
Nigerians is the possibility of our<br />
man of the moment, GMB to rebound. Those<br />
who expressed this concern are probably<br />
phobic of the military background of the incoming<br />
president, forgetting that for the General<br />
to submit himself to the democratic process<br />
of selection of candidates of his party<br />
depicted readiness to abide by democratic<br />
norms. Though only time and happenstance<br />
will vindicate him, it is critical that GMB be<br />
cautitious and govern by the law of the land.<br />
While everyone who contributed to the<br />
success of the All Progressives Congress party<br />
(APC) at the election deserves a pat on the<br />
back, a moment comes and that moment is<br />
here, when national interest is allowed to<br />
stand taller than parochial or party interest<br />
anyone might have as the nation considers<br />
who will lead it at all the strategic positions<br />
in the new administration.<br />
There is no doubt that this season calls for<br />
Fayemi and ghost of Judas<br />
By Segun Adedeji<br />
brought to the debate by yet another article<br />
written by The Nation’s engaging columnist,<br />
Segun Ayobolu, in a back-page article on Saturday<br />
May 16, with the provocative title,<br />
“Ekiti: Who is to blame?”<br />
In his own submission, Oyebode would<br />
have us believe that Adisa’s article is a hatchet<br />
job sponsored by those uncomfortable with<br />
Fayemi’s rising profile. Hear him: “Needless<br />
to say that Fayemi’s achievements in the four<br />
years he served as governor of Ekiti State are<br />
well documented in the hearts of the people<br />
and have become a standard through which<br />
the incumbent administration and future administrations<br />
would be measured.”<br />
Really? I thought that was very, very cheap.<br />
That is the hallmark of intellectual featherweights<br />
who will not address issues raised<br />
but quickly resort to name-calling to divert<br />
attention. When Oyebode boasted that<br />
Fayemi’s legacy in Ekiti is imperishable, one<br />
is left wondering if he was referring to the<br />
N60m-worth “water bed” his principal procured<br />
for the new N3.5b Government House<br />
which he rushed to build towards the end of<br />
his first term in the delusion that he would<br />
get a second term to luxuriate in. What a classic<br />
case of misplaced priority in a largely<br />
agrarian state where poverty stares you on<br />
the street. Thank God, Ekiti people denied him<br />
that carnal desire by voting him out in the<br />
governorship polls last year. Let Fayemi be<br />
content with sleeping in the “water bed” in<br />
his personal house in Isan.<br />
Again, it is also intellectually fraudulent<br />
for Oyebode to suggest that Fayemi’s trouncing<br />
by “Oshoko” (Governor Ayo Fayose) was<br />
a fluke or something aided by the use of the<br />
military by PDP last year in the June 2014<br />
governorship election. If that was the real reason,<br />
how come Fayemi also could not deliver<br />
Ekiti for APC in the March 28 and April 11<br />
elections? The truth of the matter is that he is<br />
a political disaster with no electoral value<br />
whatsoever.<br />
I had expected Oyebode to knock off the<br />
By Victor Peter<br />
a deeper reflection before deciding who becomes<br />
which minister or not. While GMB<br />
seems transparently concerned about the future<br />
and progress of Nigeria, it is not impossible<br />
that certain personalities who see the<br />
emergence of the APC as an opportunity to<br />
either accumulate more wealth or seek to<br />
control Nigeria, might work at cross lines.<br />
These are speedbrakers Buhari must be weary<br />
of.<br />
In all democracies, beyond the passion to<br />
serve fatherland, the equitable distribution<br />
of political offices plays critical role in determining<br />
the speed, shape and manner of<br />
progress by any administration. However,<br />
this must not be above competence, dignity<br />
and resourcefulness. It is on this backdrop<br />
that care must be taken by the new APC government<br />
and President-elect to ensure no individual<br />
or group lords it on the party and<br />
nation as intense lobbying continues over<br />
political offices and appointments at the presidency<br />
and the National Assembly leadership.<br />
As a highly principled and incorruptible<br />
man, character traits that endeared him to<br />
Nigerians, it is important that General Buhari<br />
watches out for booby traps that some greedy<br />
and selfish politicians might put on his path<br />
to undermine him. Not just that, it is also<br />
important to avoid walking the same path<br />
that burnt President Jonathan’s fingers and<br />
gave PDP the bloody nose it deserved. Today,<br />
everyone can see that those who misled<br />
President Jonathan are, without qualms, already<br />
jumping ship and directly and indirectly<br />
fraternizing with the incoming government,<br />
abandoning the man they once<br />
praised to high heavens. This is a big lesson<br />
for the President-elect.<br />
And, one quick lesson to take away here is<br />
that if he bends too low to feather the interest<br />
of any politician at the expense of national<br />
interest, such a politician like those who advised<br />
President Jonathan, will not be there<br />
when Nigerians begin to throw stones at his<br />
bottom of the charge of treacherous hypocrisy<br />
against his boss by categorically denying<br />
the talk-of-the-town today that Fayemi<br />
actually worked against the emergence of<br />
Chief Odigie-Oyegun as APC national chair<br />
at the Abuja convention last year. Just as I<br />
expected him to also deny the strong rumour<br />
that the bulk of Ekiti delegates loyal to<br />
Fayemi voted for another candidate (from the<br />
North-east) in the presidential primaries of<br />
last November in the laughable expectation<br />
that he would be made the running-mate. I,<br />
therefore, consider Oyebode’s recourse to<br />
sophistry instead of answering these weighty<br />
allegations directly as most ungodly and totally<br />
bereft of Fayemi’s much-trumpeted<br />
“Uyi” (honour). You don’t work clandestinely<br />
against a man yesterday and today pretend<br />
to be his fiercest advocate. That exactly is what<br />
Judas did to Jesus Christ in the biblical times.<br />
So, GMB should beware.<br />
Another point I consider distasteful in<br />
Oyebode’s article is his attempt to present his<br />
principal in shoes that were clearly bigger<br />
than him. While not denying Fayemi was<br />
engaged with the African Leadership Forum<br />
owned by Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, this<br />
amateur media spin-doctor spoilt matters by<br />
saying the relationship flowed from a partnership<br />
between his boss and the then sitting<br />
president. With regards to the Oputa Panel,<br />
Fayemi was falsely presented as the “technical<br />
consultant” to the commission. This is<br />
quite belittling of far more accomplished intellectuals<br />
and moral titans like now late Justice<br />
Chukwudifu Oputa and Bishop Mathew<br />
Hassan Kukah (MHK) who most Nigerians<br />
saw as the heart and soul of the commission.<br />
I guess Oyebode had to inflate the profile of<br />
his boss to make him look like a big player<br />
even before becoming governor. Haba! Could<br />
this also be part of “Uyi” his boss spent all his<br />
tenure romanticizing?<br />
It is for this reason I totally align myself<br />
with the submission of Segun Ayobolu that<br />
Fayemi’s political incompetence and lust for<br />
luxurious lifestyle in office ought to be isolated<br />
from the deeply progressive philosophy<br />
APC professes.<br />
Bumps GMB must avoid<br />
government when it falters. Invariably, such<br />
a politician will not stop the PVCs when they<br />
make a return to the polling booths after four<br />
years.<br />
There is no doubt that critical to establishing<br />
himself as a leader who means well, the<br />
President-elect must fight some urgent<br />
battles, especially the battle against graft.<br />
Good as this is, given that corruption has been<br />
the bane of Nigeria’s development, care must<br />
also be taken to ensure that it is not turned<br />
into a political witch-hunt. Records are well<br />
too clear on how the President Jonathan’s<br />
anti-graft battles and those of previous governments<br />
ended and the costs to Nigerians. It<br />
is also well, too clear, the costs, politically, to<br />
those who oiled the battle wheels rather deceptively.<br />
President Jonathan, for instance, where he<br />
ever showed the will to fight graft, was deceived<br />
into fixing his guess on the wrong<br />
people, while those who walked his corridors<br />
and dined with him, daily, had their 10<br />
fingers on the national till. It cost him reelection.<br />
Therefore, when the President-elect<br />
is sworn in on May 29, he must avoid these<br />
pitfalls like a plague. There should not be<br />
any form of persecution of perceived political<br />
opponents or supposedly corrupt, except<br />
those already indicted.<br />
One recalls how strangely, President<br />
Jonathan ran unjustifiably after perceived<br />
political adversaries with the EFCC, while<br />
in a typical case of double standards, his government<br />
openly fraternized with those who<br />
were arraigned, tried and convicted of financial<br />
crimes!<br />
In Jonathan’s government, we had the allegation<br />
of missing $20 billion from the Nigeria<br />
National Petroleum Corporation<br />
(NNPC) account by former governor of Central<br />
Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Sanusi Lamido<br />
Sanusi ignored, while the banking czar was<br />
forced on compulsory leave for blowing the<br />
alarm. Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the political<br />
strategist was also invited, four years<br />
after leaving office, by the EFCC on phantom<br />
charges, but only because he remained<br />
21<br />
As far as proud Ekiti sons like me are concerned,<br />
the Ekiti vote of June 21, March 28 and<br />
April 11 was not necessarily an endorsement<br />
of the “Jankara” politics of Fayose or thumbup<br />
for the so-called “stomach infrastructure”.<br />
Rather, it was an emphatic denunciation of<br />
Fayemi’s politics of “N60m water bed”, elitism,<br />
treachery, betrayal, empty arrogance and<br />
over-ambition. If APC would recover the lost<br />
“fountain of knowledge”, it is high time its<br />
leadership learnt to relegate characters like<br />
Fayemi to the back seat and shop for new faces<br />
to play up. That is the bitter truth.<br />
Talking about betrayal, I think Hakeem<br />
Adisa was too charitable by only saying<br />
Fayemi betrayed Asiwaju Bola Ahmed<br />
Tinubu who brought him from nowhere,<br />
empowered him and smoothed his way to<br />
Ekiti Government House in 2014. We were<br />
told of how a “powerful commissioner in<br />
Lagos” mobilized the seed money with which<br />
Fayemi began his journey to power in 2005.<br />
We have been told how he double-crossed<br />
Fayose who had joined forces with him to<br />
rout PDP in the titanic battle of Ido-Osi in<br />
2009 under the gentleman’s agreement that<br />
“Oshoko” would be given the senatorial ticket<br />
in 2011. But, as the story goes, once a wily<br />
Fayemi was ensconced in Ekiti Government<br />
House, he stopped picking phone calls from<br />
Fayose.<br />
What had not been fully told is the story of<br />
how Honorable Opeyemi Bamidele was similarly<br />
stabbed in the back by the relatively<br />
younger Fayemi. His sophistry notwithstanding,<br />
Oyebode could not deny that it was Hon<br />
Bamidele who introduced his principal to<br />
Asiwaju in 2005. Then, the incumbent Reps<br />
member was a commissioner in Lagos. With<br />
his fake smile and contrived diffident airs,<br />
Fayemi not only got all he wanted from the<br />
Jagaban but also had Bamidele at his corner<br />
throughout the dirty battle to oust PDP from<br />
Ekiti between 2006 and 2010. But once Fayemi<br />
became governor, one of the earliest decisions<br />
he took was to remove Bamidele’s father<br />
as unit leader of ACN! So much for the<br />
treachery and perfidy of a “technocratic politician”.<br />
I only hope Buhari or anyone who truly<br />
loves him and APC would read this article<br />
and learn one or two lessons.<br />
•Architect Adedeji wrote from Ikole-Ekiti.<br />
an unapologetic democrat with an aversion<br />
to the impunities perpetrated by the outgoing<br />
administration.<br />
In his case, Jonathan unleashed the EFCC<br />
on Senator Bukola Saraki of Kwara State, two<br />
years after he left office. Curiously, even<br />
when the same Saraki had got a clean bill<br />
from the Economic and Financial Crimes<br />
Commission (EFCC) in 2006, Jonathan’s<br />
government made him their prime target<br />
after the former governor activated the<br />
alarm over the fuel subsidy scam. Today,<br />
the same alarm has yet to stop sounding over<br />
the fuel subsidy scam!<br />
While these cases and many more present<br />
a picture of a government that was irredeemably<br />
on auto self-destruct, perhaps, the case<br />
of Chief James Onanefe Ibori, a former governor<br />
of Delta State, typifies another wrong<br />
move in the name of anti-graft battle by<br />
President Jonathan. When Ibori still enjoyed<br />
a rosy relationship with President Jonathan,<br />
he was treated as a saint to a point that his<br />
case files were missing in government<br />
records! But when their paths crossed, President<br />
Jonathan pretended that he did not<br />
know what to do to save him, but backed<br />
people like Chief DSP Alamieseghia and<br />
Chief Bode George. Ibori, today, is still serving<br />
a jail term in the United Kingdom after<br />
a ridiculous and curious trial process in Nigeria.<br />
Having overcome a government defined<br />
by years of needless manipulation and witchhunt,<br />
there is no better way to start afresh<br />
than building structures that engender respect<br />
for due diligence and due process, devoid<br />
of any form of the impunity that eventually<br />
destroyed the PDP.<br />
This is why the President-elect and by<br />
extension, those who mean well for Nigeria,<br />
must do well by ensuring that the selection<br />
of ministers, advisers, National Assembly<br />
leaders enjoy popular participation<br />
rather than manipulation and<br />
parochial primordial sentiments.<br />
• Victor, a public commentator, writes in from<br />
Lagos
22 THE NATION THURSDAY, MAY 21, 2015
25<br />
THE NATION<br />
EDUCATION<br />
THURSDAY, MAY 21, 2015<br />
The Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council<br />
(NERDC) has curriculums for primary and secondary schools. But<br />
not all schools are using these curriculums, report KOFOWOROLA<br />
BELO-OSAGIE, ADEGUNLE OLUGBAMILA, OLUWATOYIN<br />
ADELEYE, and JANE CHIJIOKE.<br />
• Pupils learning in a private school.<br />
•<br />
Much ado about<br />
schools’ curriculums<br />
•Prof Osarenren<br />
•Mrs Atilola<br />
THE jury is still out on the<br />
matter. Even though, there<br />
are curriculums for<br />
primary and secondary<br />
schools developed by the<br />
Nigerian Educational Research and<br />
Development Council (NERDC).<br />
Private schools do not see anything<br />
good in them. Is that right? To<br />
stakeholders, this is an issue that must<br />
be thrashed out to save education.<br />
While all public primary and<br />
secondary schools (including Federal<br />
Government Colleges, and militaryrun<br />
schools) and many private<br />
schools implement these<br />
curriculums, other private schools,<br />
particularly those that serve the elite,<br />
run foreign curriculums to appeal to<br />
their market segment. It has become<br />
fashionable for private schools to<br />
‘Spirit of Lagos’ contest<br />
saves<br />
school’s<br />
furniture<br />
-Page 28<br />
mix the Nigerian curriculums with<br />
whatever foreign curriculums they<br />
find attractive.<br />
Many experts see this as a shaddy<br />
committment and are seeking a law<br />
to make the Nigerian curriculum<br />
compulsory.<br />
The Nigerian curriculums<br />
One of the services provided by<br />
NERDC is curriculum development.<br />
INSIDE<br />
Ex-RSUST<br />
student<br />
stranded in<br />
Ugandan<br />
varsity<br />
-Page 37<br />
Established in 1998, NERDC designs<br />
curriculums for all levels of<br />
education. It draws from the<br />
National Policy on Education (NPE)<br />
of 1977 (last reviewed in 2004), which<br />
stipulates that Nigerians must be<br />
educated for self reliance, individual<br />
and national development.<br />
With the passing of the Universal<br />
Basic Education (UBE) Law in 2004,<br />
NERDC developed the Basic<br />
IT was to enjoy a stable<br />
academic calendar that<br />
Mouhammed Ahmed<br />
Zein transferred his<br />
studentship from Rivers<br />
State University of<br />
Science and Technology<br />
(RSUST), Port Harcourt,<br />
to Kampala<br />
International<br />
University, Uganda.<br />
Education Curriculum (BEC) in 2008<br />
in tandem with the UBE goals, which<br />
seek to provide a minimum of nine<br />
years of quality education (primary<br />
and junior secondary) for all schoolage<br />
children.<br />
Dr Moses Salau, Head, NERDC<br />
Southwest Zone, said at a workshop<br />
in Lagos last Monday that the<br />
expectation for any child that passes<br />
through the BEC is to have acquired<br />
‘<br />
My school is an international school and those are the international<br />
programmes we run. We do not write the Senior School Certificate<br />
Examination (SSCE), but if our students are interested in that, they<br />
can register for that on their own outside the school<br />
CAMPUS<br />
LIFE<br />
Long way to<br />
a dream<br />
-Page 29<br />
appropriate levels of literacy,<br />
numeracy, manipulative,<br />
communication and life skills, as well<br />
as ethical, moral and civic values<br />
needed for laying a solid foundation<br />
for life-long learning.<br />
The BEC, which was revised and<br />
deployed in schools from the start of<br />
the 2014/2015 academic calendar last<br />
September, reduced subjects taken at<br />
primary and junior secondary level<br />
to a maximum of 10 (from 17).<br />
Primary i.e 1-3 pupils take English,<br />
Mathematics, Basic Science and<br />
Technology, Nigerian Language,<br />
Religious and National Values<br />
(RNV), Cultural and Creative Arts<br />
(CCA) and Pre-Vocational Studies<br />
(PVS)as core subjects, and Arabic<br />
’ •A 10-page section<br />
on campus news, people etc<br />
•Continued on page 26
26 THE NATION THURSDAY, MAY 21, 2015<br />
EDUCATION<br />
Edo lawmakers adopt<br />
five-year term for AAU VC<br />
Much ado about schools’ curriculums<br />
•Continued from page 25<br />
Language as elective. From Primary<br />
Four, they begin to study French.<br />
RNV encompasses subjects, such as,<br />
Christian Religious Studies (CRS),<br />
Islamic Religious Studies(IRS), Social<br />
Studies, Civic Education and Security<br />
Education as themes. PVS is an<br />
umbrella subject for Home<br />
Economics, Agriculture and<br />
Entrepreneurship; Basic Science and<br />
Technology (BST) covers Basic<br />
Science, Basic Technology, Physical<br />
Health Education (PHE) and<br />
Information Technology (IT).<br />
Salau said globally-relevant issues<br />
such as security, disaster and risk<br />
reduction, climate change, and peace<br />
and conflict resolution have been<br />
infused into the new curriculum to<br />
ensure that the present-day learners<br />
are educated in line with current<br />
realities.<br />
The NERDC followed up the BEC<br />
curriculum with the launch of the<br />
Senior Secondary School (SSS)<br />
curriculum which was first deployed<br />
in schools in 2011.<br />
Under the curriculum, SS1-3 pupils<br />
take English Language, General<br />
mathematics, one Trade/<br />
Entrepreneurship subject, and Civic<br />
Education as core subjects. The<br />
electives are selected from four fields<br />
of study namely: Science and<br />
mathematics, Technology,<br />
Humanities, and Business Studies.<br />
Regarding the Trade/<br />
Entrepreneurship subject, pupils are<br />
expected to choose from 36 subjects<br />
such as: Auto Body Repair and Spray<br />
Painting, Auto Mechanical Work,<br />
Welding and Fabrication<br />
Engineering Craft Practice, Painting<br />
and Decorating, Plumbing and<br />
Pipefitting, Carpentry and Joinery,<br />
Catering Craft Practice,<br />
Cosmetology, and Photography,<br />
among others.<br />
However, despite these laudable<br />
changes, there are two main issues<br />
that affect the new curriculums -<br />
acceptability and problems of<br />
implementation.<br />
Why schools use foreign<br />
curriculums<br />
While the issue of implementation<br />
can be addressed with increased<br />
awareness, development of<br />
instructional materials and<br />
textbooks to cover all thematic areas<br />
of the curriculum, and training of<br />
teachers to handle the new subject<br />
areas, the issue of acceptability is<br />
more difficult.<br />
Many school owners and<br />
administrators feel that using the<br />
Nigerian curriculum alone is<br />
inadequate preparation for pupils<br />
that may seek to school outside<br />
Nigeria later in life.<br />
The Lagos State government has<br />
made it compulsory for all schools<br />
to follow the Nigerian curriculum.<br />
However, Director of Curriculum<br />
From Osemwengie Ben<br />
Ogbemudia, Benin<br />
ABILL to amend the Law establishing<br />
Ambrose Alli<br />
University (AAU),<br />
Ekpoma on the tenure of the Vice-<br />
Chancellor has passed second<br />
reading on the floor of the Edo<br />
State House of Assembly.<br />
Leading debate to amend the<br />
bill, the Majority Leader, Philip<br />
Shaibu, said the principal Law<br />
provided for a two term of four<br />
years.<br />
Shaibu said the amendment<br />
seeks to correct the principal Law<br />
by stipulating a five-year single<br />
tenure for the Vice-Chancellor of<br />
the Institution.<br />
“Mr. Speaker, the school is currently<br />
operating a five year single<br />
term against the two terms of four<br />
years provided for by the Law.<br />
This amendment seeks to give a<br />
definite number of years as the<br />
tenure of the Vice Chancellor,”<br />
Shaibu said.<br />
Other Lawmakers supported<br />
the amendment, adding that, the<br />
amendment would correct the<br />
tension that arises in the contest<br />
for the position.<br />
The House therefore suspended<br />
Rules 20. 21, 42 and 48<br />
to begin debate for the amendment<br />
of the bill.<br />
Services, Mrs Joy Ojei, said at a<br />
workshop when the question came<br />
up, that some schools that prepare<br />
their pupils for foreign examinations<br />
are given concession, but with the<br />
provision that they must use the<br />
Nigerian curriculum.<br />
However, implementation of this<br />
policy is yet to be seen because some<br />
schools insist on following the<br />
curriculum that suits their students.<br />
Mr Abraham Ogunkanmbi,<br />
Montessori Director/pre-school<br />
principal, Greensprings Schools,<br />
Lekki campus, said the pre-school<br />
section of the school runs the<br />
Montessori curriculum; the primary<br />
school runs the British National<br />
Curriculum, while the secondary<br />
school works with the Cambridge<br />
International General Certificate of<br />
Secondary Education. It also runs the<br />
International Baccalaureate<br />
curriculum after secondary school.<br />
He believes that schools should be<br />
free to run whatever curriculum they<br />
like.<br />
He said: "My school is an<br />
international school and those are the<br />
international programmes we run.<br />
We do not write the Senior School<br />
Certificate Examination (SSCE), but<br />
if our students are interested in that,<br />
they can register for that on their own<br />
outside the school. The individual<br />
school should determine the kind of<br />
curriculum they would like to run,<br />
based on their discretion, because<br />
you cannot tell me what you want<br />
me to run in my school, being an<br />
international school. But we do a lot<br />
of cultural events and quite a lot of<br />
things that have to do with Nigeria<br />
are explored in my school."<br />
For many other schools, mixing the<br />
local and foreign curriculum is the<br />
best way to make children more<br />
rounded for the international<br />
market.<br />
Ifunanya Ezenba, supervisor of<br />
Chrisland Schools, Victoria Garden<br />
City, Lagos, said her school runs both<br />
Nigerian and British curricula to<br />
prepare them for foreign education.<br />
"We are raising international<br />
children who have the tendency to<br />
travel out of the country. So this<br />
would broaden their scope; and with<br />
the British curriculum, those who<br />
spend their holidays abroad can go<br />
for summer lessons and the methods<br />
of teaching would not be too strange<br />
to them. Limiting them to only<br />
Nigerian curriculum would not do<br />
them any good. The most important<br />
thing is to have a child-centered<br />
education that can prepare them for<br />
the outside world, not just to pass<br />
•ICAN President, Mr Chidi Ajaegbu (right), shaking hands with Balogun Bisi Omidiora, a past president, while<br />
another past president, High Chief Olusola Oguntimehin, Lisa of Ondo Kingdom looks on at the inauguration of<br />
the ICAN lecture theatre donated to Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife.<br />
exam. So that anywhere they find<br />
themselves in the world, they would<br />
have the confidence to compete<br />
favourably with any child,” she said.<br />
Proprietress of Diamonds Mine<br />
School, Ogba, Lagos, Mrs Romoke<br />
Aderibigbe, shares a similar view,<br />
but added that her school uses the<br />
British curriculum to support the<br />
Nigerian version, which is important<br />
because of the cultural values.<br />
"It is very important that all<br />
Nigerian schools embrace a uniform<br />
curriculum, and naturally, that<br />
would be the Nigerian curriculum.<br />
The British, American and other<br />
curricula are good also, but just as a<br />
supportive means of exposing the<br />
children to practical methods of<br />
education being used by their mates<br />
in other parts of the world, so that if<br />
they travel for further studies abroad,<br />
the methods would not appear too<br />
strange to them. But the emphasis<br />
remains on the fact that we are on<br />
Nigerian soil, Nigerian curriculum<br />
is the best for us," she said.<br />
Plans are underway for Hallmark<br />
Secondary School, Ondo, Ondo State,<br />
to begin offering the British<br />
curriculum.<br />
Its Head of Academics, Pastor<br />
Abimbola Teibo said it has become<br />
necessary to flow with the current<br />
trend - though he admitted that<br />
Nigerians excel abroad even after<br />
being trained up to secondary level<br />
with the local curriculum.<br />
"We run the Nigerian curriculum<br />
presently, but plans are underway to<br />
delve into the Cambridge IGCSE<br />
from next year. We also prepare our<br />
students for SAT, TOEFL. Though we<br />
are Nigerians, but some of our<br />
students also travel abroad for<br />
further studies and they cope very<br />
well, despite the fact that we have<br />
been using the Nigerian curriculum.<br />
However, I think the hybrid is better<br />
for now, because there are lots of<br />
opportunities available for our<br />
students to study abroad. With an<br />
exposure to these international<br />
curricula, they would have an added<br />
advantage to win scholarships to<br />
study abroad," he said.<br />
Criticisms of Nigerian<br />
curriculums<br />
A Principal in a public school in<br />
Agboju area of Lagos State (names<br />
withheld), said given the<br />
opportunity, he would like the<br />
Nigerian curriculum to<br />
accommodate components of both<br />
British and American curriculums for<br />
improved functionality.<br />
"Our curriculum here is too<br />
theoretical and regimented; and this<br />
is why we have too much scramble<br />
for university education. Students<br />
are only interested in certificates but<br />
not what they can do with their<br />
hands. Our curriculum needs to move<br />
from a class-based to field-based<br />
teaching which will widen students<br />
horizon and further expose them to<br />
technology," he said.<br />
Dr Lanre Aiyejuye of Sports<br />
Education, Adeniran Ogunsanya<br />
College of Education, AOCOED,<br />
Ijaniki, suggested the redesigning of<br />
the Nigerian curriculum in a way<br />
that links it with others.<br />
Principal of an international school<br />
in Egbeda area of Lagos who also<br />
pleaded anonymity said the school<br />
operates both Nigerian and British<br />
curriculums because Nigerian<br />
curriculum encourages cramming.<br />
"Here, we prefer the British<br />
curriculum because it encourages the<br />
understanding of concepts than the<br />
Nigerian version which is mostly<br />
based on cramming," he said.<br />
He said the British curriculum is<br />
favoured by the parents and the<br />
school because it is elitist and<br />
synonymous with the 'international'<br />
learning which the school claims.<br />
"If you claim your school is<br />
international in nature and there is<br />
no element of any international<br />
curriculum, how then can you justify<br />
such claim?" he wondered.<br />
Experts disagree<br />
Contrary to the thoughts of<br />
educationists, researchers disagree<br />
with the practice of mixing the<br />
curriculum in the name of<br />
internationalisation.<br />
Many base their argument on the<br />
need for learners to be able to<br />
function within the Nigerian society,<br />
which they believe is impossible to<br />
achieve with a foreign curriculum.<br />
Dr Salau describes it as a disservice<br />
to the learners, who would become<br />
misfit in the Nigerian society.<br />
"We are in Nigeria. Are you<br />
training those students for export or<br />
development of Nigeria? When you<br />
start training them with foreign<br />
curriculum, they would not be able<br />
to fit into the Nigerian society and<br />
would become misfits in the long<br />
run.<br />
"National curriculum is developed<br />
taking into consideration the overall<br />
development of a child, and taking<br />
into cognizance international best<br />
practices," he said.<br />
Associate professor of Curriculum,<br />
University of Lagos, Dr Rosita Igwe,<br />
‘We are in Nigeria. Are you training those students for export<br />
or development of Nigeria? When you start training them<br />
with foreign curriculum, they would not be able to fit into the<br />
Nigerian society and would become misfits in the long run’<br />
‘<br />
also faults the practice. She said<br />
curriculum is of a necessity<br />
developed around a culture, which<br />
the learners must imbibe.<br />
She said: "That is part of the<br />
problem Nigeria is having. We do<br />
not have confidence; we are just<br />
semi-literates. We do not know what<br />
education is all about. They think<br />
education is all about doing English.<br />
Education builds confidence in you,<br />
makes you self reliant, you<br />
appreciate your culture and your<br />
person and not you want to be like<br />
an American. How can you be that<br />
when you are in Nigeria, how are<br />
you going to function? Remember<br />
you talk about functionality in the<br />
curriculum and you cannot function<br />
outside somebody's culture.<br />
American culture, British culture<br />
design their curriculum why can't<br />
Nigeria culture design our<br />
curriculum?"<br />
Dr Igwe also urged government to<br />
end the practice, which she said was<br />
impossible in other countries.<br />
"Government should legislate<br />
against that. Do they run Nigerian<br />
curriculum in America or in Britain<br />
or even in Ghana that is close to us?<br />
Let us sit up and do it right," she said.<br />
Lending her voice to the argument,<br />
Lead consultant of Covenant<br />
Educational Consultancy, Mrs Foluso<br />
Atilola, said every Nigerian school<br />
should run the Nigerian curriculum,<br />
whether they are affiliated with any<br />
other country or not.<br />
"They are in our land, so no matter<br />
what, we must teach them our own<br />
value systems, even if it is a British<br />
school. Otherwise, they may never<br />
be able to adapt to the Nigerian<br />
system of education and career path,"<br />
she said.<br />
Prof Ngozi Osarenren, head of<br />
Educational Foundation department,<br />
UNILAG, said at a summit, convened<br />
by Covenant Educational<br />
Consultancy during the Nigerian<br />
International Book Fair (NIBF) last<br />
week, that mixing curricula could<br />
lead to confusion for the learners.<br />
"Curb confusion in schools<br />
curriculums. Some schools have<br />
adopted the British curriculum,<br />
others the American curriculum.<br />
Some even claim theirs is a hybrid<br />
curriculum. Then we have the<br />
Nigerian curriculum. Which society<br />
are you preparing the children for?<br />
When you run a British curriculum<br />
in the Nigerian society, what is your<br />
assurance that every child that<br />
attends your school will go for higher<br />
education in Britain?"<br />
Mr Mark Okoh, whose school, Caro<br />
Favoured Schools, Apapa, Lagos,<br />
runs only the Nigerian curriculum<br />
with successes, said educationists<br />
should be proud to be associated<br />
with the Nigerian curriculum.<br />
"When you run a foreign<br />
curriculum in your school, you are<br />
telling the children and the society<br />
that the Nigerian mode of education<br />
is inferior to that of the outside world<br />
and you are not promoting our own<br />
value system. So here we run the<br />
Nigerian curriculum because we are<br />
Nigerians," she said.
THE NATION THURSDAY, MAY 21, 2015<br />
EDUCATION<br />
•The pupils writing poems.<br />
THE World Poetry Day took<br />
on a special meaning for pupils<br />
of Bwari Government<br />
Day Secondary School, Abuja, last<br />
Thursday as they spent the day reviewing<br />
and writing poems.<br />
The programme, organised by<br />
members of the Julius Berger Corporate<br />
Social Responsibility (CSR)<br />
team as part of the company's Literacy<br />
Campaign, was facilitated by<br />
renowned Nigerian poet, Dike<br />
Chukwumerije.<br />
Chukwumerije, an author of<br />
eight books and the winner of several<br />
Performance Poetry Competitions<br />
in Nigeria, made the pupils<br />
to read works of several Nigerian<br />
Scandinavian countries okay<br />
Yoruba language in schools<br />
THE countries that make up the<br />
Scandinavian have approved<br />
the teaching of Yoruba language<br />
in their schools.<br />
The Scandinavia, made up of Norway,<br />
Sweden, Denmark, Finland and<br />
Iceland, gave the approval late in 2014.<br />
This revelation was made on Saturday<br />
by the Sweden Coordinator<br />
of the Oodua Progressive Union, Victor<br />
Mobolaji Adewale, during the<br />
Europe meeting of the Union held in<br />
Istanbul, Turkey.<br />
Adewale, who also emerged as the<br />
Deputy Coordinator of the body in<br />
Europe, said the approval followed<br />
the well attended launch of the Union<br />
in Sweden on November 29, 2014.<br />
He said it was attended by government<br />
officials from the Scandinavian<br />
countries who thereafter okayed the<br />
teaching of Yoruba language in their<br />
schools.<br />
He said the Union also has the OPU<br />
radio functioning in the Scandinavian<br />
countries, using it as a medium of<br />
popularising the Yoruba language<br />
and reaching out to people of like<br />
minds.<br />
"We are happy to report that the<br />
Yoruba language has got the approval<br />
of the authorities for it to be<br />
taught in schools in the Scandinavian<br />
countries. It is a major breakthrough<br />
for us in popularising our mother<br />
tongue," he said.<br />
The Convener of the OPU and National<br />
Coordinator of the Oodua<br />
People's Congress, Otunba Gani<br />
Adams, who expressed happiness at<br />
the development, said one of the reasons<br />
for the summit was capacity<br />
building.<br />
He advised the Europe chapters of<br />
the OPU to be aggressive in expanding<br />
their coasts by building more<br />
chapters - and should aim towards<br />
covering 25 countries out of the 28 in<br />
Europe. Adams added that OPU was<br />
now present in 56 countries and<br />
urged the group to collaborate with<br />
the Nigerian embassies in the various<br />
countries.<br />
"Protecting the image of Nigeria is<br />
important. Liaise with the embassies,<br />
the Missions of Nigeria in all the<br />
countries where you are based. They<br />
are the representatives of Nigeria<br />
out here," he said.<br />
The Publisher of Freedom Online,<br />
Julius Berger<br />
teaches<br />
pupils to write<br />
poets, and learn to write their own<br />
poems using poetic literary devices.<br />
The workshop was the firm's<br />
way of teaching the pupils new literacy<br />
skills, public speaking and<br />
self-confidence.<br />
The CSR team also donated 600<br />
books of mixed genre to the<br />
school's library. •Mrs Salu-Hundeyin<br />
By Segun Adebowale<br />
Gabriel Akinadewo, delivered a lecture<br />
on: "Leadership and the Nigerian<br />
challenge."<br />
Akinadewo admonished members<br />
of the OPU to develop leadership<br />
capacity in order to run a truly strong<br />
organisation.<br />
Among those who attended the<br />
meeting was the paramount ruler of<br />
Arigidi Akoko in Ondo State, Oba<br />
Yisa Olanipekun.<br />
One of the major highlights of the<br />
meeting was the emergence of the<br />
executive members of the Europe<br />
chapter. The Coordinator of the<br />
chapter is Akogun Banjo Ojo.<br />
Culled from theeagleonline.com.ng<br />
WITH pomp and excitement,<br />
Ridos House Montessori<br />
School, held her maiden<br />
Inter House Sports competition<br />
penultimate Friday at the Lagos State<br />
University Museum Centre, Agege,<br />
Lagos.<br />
The competition was keenly contested<br />
by the four houses of the<br />
school, named Emerald (Green), Topaz<br />
(Yellow), Coral (Red) and Sapphire<br />
(Blue).<br />
THE next eighty-three days will<br />
be busy for field workers of<br />
the National Population<br />
Commission (NPC) as they move<br />
around over 30,000 households, pan-<br />
Nigeria, to conduct the National<br />
Education Data Survey (NEDS).<br />
The survey is a follow up to the<br />
Nigeria Demographic and Health<br />
Survey (NDHS) carried out in 2013,<br />
which involved women aged 15-59,<br />
and men aged 15-69.<br />
NPC Federal Commissioner for<br />
Lagos State, Mrs Abimbola Salu-<br />
Hundeyin, said at a briefing held at<br />
the commission's conference room<br />
in Lagos on Tuesday that the survey,<br />
which took off on May 4, would<br />
examine the educational status of<br />
children aged four to 16 in those<br />
households visited in 2013.<br />
Reading a speech on behalf of the<br />
NPC Chairman, Chief Eze<br />
Duruiheoma, Mrs Salu-Hundeyin,<br />
Akwa Ibom indigene shines<br />
at Imperial College<br />
•Gets Ph.D scholarship<br />
THE Imperial College London<br />
has awarded a Ph.D scholarship<br />
programme to an Akwa<br />
Ibom indigene, Miss Christiana<br />
Udoh, who emerged the best graduating<br />
student in her M.Sc programme<br />
in advanced Chemical Engineering.<br />
Miss Christiana is the daughter of<br />
Dr. Esio Udoh, the erstwhile House<br />
of Representatives member, who represented<br />
Oron Federal Constituency<br />
in the National Assembly.<br />
Udoh, who attended her convocation,<br />
told journalists that Christian<br />
had also graduated as the best Chemical<br />
Engineering student at the<br />
Kwame Nkrumah University of Science<br />
and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana<br />
in 2012 setting the record of the best<br />
NPC to interview 30,000<br />
for education survey<br />
By Kofoworola Belo-Osagie and<br />
Odunayo Ogunmola, Ado Ekiti<br />
said the commission hopes to record<br />
the education data of 45,000 during<br />
the survey.<br />
"The survey expects to interview a<br />
total of at least 30,000 parents/guardians<br />
aged 4-16. The interview will<br />
focus on reasons for not attending<br />
school and for dropping out of school,<br />
frequency of absenteeism, and reasons<br />
for missing school, cost of<br />
schooling, and other issues," she said.<br />
She said 850 households in Lagos<br />
would be visited and urged the respondents<br />
to cooperate with the<br />
NPC field workers.<br />
Highlighting the benefits of the<br />
survey, Mrs Salu-Hundeyin said it<br />
would provide political leaders with<br />
veritable data to plan and address<br />
problems in the education sector.<br />
"This survey will help us to know<br />
the educational status - whether truly<br />
we are improving educationally. It<br />
is going to increase awareness. It is<br />
going to help the government. Don't<br />
Ridos school holds 1st Sports contest<br />
However, it was Topaz House that<br />
carried the day with 12 gold, four silver<br />
and five bronze medals. Emerald<br />
followed in second position with<br />
nine gold, 13 silver and six bronze;<br />
while Coral House emerged third<br />
position with six Gold, 11 Silver and<br />
seven bronze medals.<br />
Sports events contested included:<br />
15m, 50m, 75m, 100m 200m, and relay<br />
races, picking the balls, invited<br />
school race, filling the bottle, and sack<br />
races; as well as parents and staff races.<br />
In her welcome address, Managing<br />
Director, Ridos House Montessori<br />
School, Mrs. Toritseju Akharume,<br />
encouraged the pupils to engage in<br />
sporting activities to complement<br />
their academic endeavours to achieve<br />
holistic development.<br />
"Academic learning and sports education<br />
complement each other. Physi-<br />
27<br />
From Kazeem Ibrahym, Uyo<br />
result by a female student since the<br />
university was established in 1959.<br />
The lawmaker thanked the Niger<br />
Delta Development Commission<br />
(NDDC) for giving her a partial scholarship<br />
for the Master's programme.<br />
He urged the commission to give<br />
full scholarship to gifted scholars<br />
from the Niger Delta region studying<br />
anywhere in the world.<br />
"She is like her other siblings. In<br />
2006 she picked 15 out of 21 prizes<br />
given out at the graduation in Air<br />
Force Secondary, Uyo, Akwa Ibom<br />
State. Same year, she led Akwa Ibom<br />
State team for the NNPC Science quiz<br />
contest in Abuja and the state took<br />
first position out of 27 states that<br />
participated," he said.<br />
forget that population commission<br />
is the best authority on demographic<br />
data. So this data will help the government<br />
of Lagos State in particular<br />
and Nigeria as a whole to plan<br />
in the area of education," she said in<br />
an interview.<br />
At a similar briefing in Ekiti, the<br />
Federal Commissioner for the state,<br />
Adeniyi Fadairo, also urged the respondents<br />
to supply truthful answers<br />
to the officials.<br />
He further explained that the purpose<br />
of the survey is to seek out reasons<br />
for low enrolment, attendance,<br />
and poor learning outcomes, among<br />
others.<br />
"The outcome of the 2015 NEDS<br />
will inform programming that<br />
would improve levels of student enrollment<br />
and attendance, as well as<br />
facilitate equitable access to quality<br />
schooling for all children in Nigeria,"<br />
he said.<br />
The survey, which is conducted<br />
once in five years, would come up<br />
next in 2020.<br />
By Oluwatoyin Adeleye<br />
‘This survey will help us to know the<br />
educational status - whether truly we<br />
are improving educationally’<br />
•From left: Mr. Osuya, Mrs Akharume, Mr. Bode Bernard, a Guest; Mr Orits Ojeikhoai, MD, Brand Optimal, and Mr. Dave Akharume, Chairman of the<br />
school at the event.<br />
cal activity is vital to the holistic development<br />
of young people, fostering<br />
the physical, social and emotional<br />
health," she said.<br />
The Ridos boss also said physical<br />
education is an essential component<br />
of quality education in schools.<br />
"Not only do physical education<br />
programmes promote physical activity,<br />
such programmes also correlate<br />
to improved academic performance<br />
under certain conditions, while sports<br />
can also, under the right conditions,<br />
provide health alternatives to defiant<br />
behaviours such as drug abuse,<br />
violence and crime," she said.
28<br />
EDUCATION<br />
THE NATION THURSDAY, MAY 21, 2015<br />
‘Spirit of Lagos’ contest<br />
saves school’s furniture<br />
FOR its ingenuity, resourcefulness<br />
and creativity in solving<br />
problems of damaged school<br />
furniture, a team from the Government<br />
College, Ketu, Epe won the<br />
Spirit of Lagos School Challenge last<br />
Thursday.<br />
Members of the team wowed the<br />
Deputy Governor, Mrs Adejoke<br />
Orelope-Adefulire and the panel of<br />
judges, not only because of their<br />
well-implemented project, but because<br />
of their lucid presentation –<br />
beating five other teams at the event<br />
held at the Governor’s hall, Lagos<br />
State Secretariat, Alausa.<br />
In response to the challenge to<br />
solve a problem in their environment,<br />
they came up with a plan to<br />
repair broken down school furniture<br />
by themselves. They built a<br />
workshop, sewed overalls, raised<br />
funds, created awareness and bought<br />
tools used to do the work. At the<br />
end of the 26-day project, they repaired<br />
over 251 pieces of classroom<br />
and teacher furniture, saved the<br />
school over N360,000.00 for repairs<br />
(at N700 per piece), and the Lagos<br />
State government over N1,805,000<br />
that it would have cost to construct<br />
new ones (at N5,000 per pair).<br />
In the course of the project, they<br />
faced many challenges including<br />
having to rebuild their workshop<br />
after it was destroyed by a rainstorm,<br />
and injury to one of the team<br />
By Kofoworola Belo-Osagie<br />
members while doing repairs. They<br />
were also mocked by fellow pupils<br />
and teachers who derogatorily<br />
called them “Anjonu Eko”, which<br />
when translated means Lagos demons.<br />
However, they came out strong,<br />
resourcefully finding ways to combat<br />
their challenges. To address the<br />
mockery, they conducted an awareness<br />
campaign to get the support of<br />
the school community and change<br />
their attitude to how they handle<br />
school property. The campaign was<br />
anchored on such slogans as Save<br />
our Treasure (SOT) and Do it Yourself<br />
(DIY). They also succeeded in<br />
getting the school principal to purchase<br />
cooking gas for use in the<br />
kitchen to end the practice of using<br />
broken down furniture as firewood.<br />
The team from Community Senior<br />
Grammar School, Gberigbe,<br />
representing Education District<br />
Three, came second in the challenge<br />
for its Wipe out Dirt campaign in<br />
their school. They did a good job of<br />
building a colourful dump site and<br />
baskets that separates dirt into categories<br />
(biodegradable, nylon, paper<br />
and plastic) and carrying out an<br />
awareness campaign.<br />
Representatives of Education District<br />
I, Ifesowapo/Aboru Senior Secondary<br />
School, Agege, emerged the<br />
• Mrs Orelope-Adefulire (middle) with pupils of Government College Ketu, Epe.<br />
third place winner with their waste<br />
to wealth project. They devised<br />
means to convert waste plastic<br />
bottles and sachets to various useful<br />
products such as tiles, asphalt for<br />
road construction, and the like.<br />
In her address, the Deputy Governor<br />
praised the pupils for “demonstrating<br />
capacity and responsibility.<br />
She urged them to cultivate a love<br />
for Lagos State and contribute to its<br />
growth as the most important city<br />
in Nigeria.<br />
“I want you to leave this hall with<br />
• From left: Prof Darah, Prof Junaidu, Chairman of the occasion, Mr Ayo Ojeniyi, Chairman, Nigerian Book<br />
Fair Trust, Alhaji Rilwanu Abdulsalami and Managing Director, Africa, Repro India Limited, Mukesh Dhruve.<br />
THE poor state of Nigerian education<br />
sector dominated discussions<br />
at the 2015 Nigerian<br />
International Book Fair (NIBF) held<br />
last week.<br />
The week-long book fair had about<br />
100 exhibitors displaying books, and<br />
other participants engaging in dialogues<br />
with major stakeholders in the<br />
book industry at the multipurpose<br />
hall of the University of Lagos<br />
(UNILAG).<br />
In conferences, children's<br />
programmes and cultural displays,<br />
they uncovered what they referred<br />
to as how the education and book<br />
culture should be portrayed in Nigeria.<br />
In his speech at the international<br />
conference of the fair with the theme:<br />
"African youth empowerment<br />
through book for sustainable national<br />
development", the keynote<br />
speaker, Prof Godini Darah, urged<br />
Nigerians to clamour for a change in<br />
how education-related issues are<br />
handled.<br />
The professor of Oral Literature<br />
and Cultural Studies from the Delta<br />
State University (DELSU), Abraka,<br />
condemned the way government<br />
and Nigerians manage matters relating<br />
to education and decried the<br />
low budget attributed to the sector<br />
every year, in comparison with other<br />
countries.<br />
Darah said: "The government must<br />
take the initiative. How much do we<br />
spend in Nigeria on education? The<br />
amount we spend on education is too<br />
low. I have looked at figures from<br />
other countries and they spend a lot.<br />
South Africa spends about 21 per cent<br />
of their budget on education, in<br />
Egypt they spend about 18 per cent,<br />
Ghana spends about 25 per cent consistently.<br />
We spend only about eight<br />
per cent in our budget on education."<br />
He lamented that government and<br />
Nigerians have focused more on<br />
such areas as dance, music, sports<br />
among others, rather than important<br />
sector like education.<br />
The professor urged all governments<br />
to practise free education<br />
policy, as he was a product of the<br />
Obafemi Awolowo free education<br />
scheme of 1965.<br />
"The first empowerment we should<br />
do is to give free education to everybody.<br />
We have done it before. How<br />
would I be here now, if not for that<br />
scheme? You would not know those<br />
who are intelligent in your country<br />
until you give everybody equal opportunity,"<br />
he said.<br />
Prof Darah encouraged government<br />
to invest in gathering, recycling<br />
and translation of knowledge<br />
through books, to boost the publishing<br />
industry and increase the<br />
nation's per capita income.<br />
He also recommended that a Bank<br />
of Books be created to fund book<br />
publishing.<br />
"It is those you train that will invent.<br />
Government must put a certain<br />
amount aside for authors, publishers<br />
and researchers so that they do<br />
not have to scratch their heads for<br />
funds to publish knowledge. There<br />
should be a Bank of Books," he said.<br />
Also speaking, chairman of the occasion<br />
and Acting Executive Secretary<br />
of the Nigerian Educational Research<br />
and Development Council<br />
(NERDC), Prof Ismail Junaidu, decried<br />
Nigerians' bad attitude to reading.<br />
"It is not only illiterates that do not<br />
care about books; even professors<br />
make the same mistake. You see a<br />
Nigerian asking the wrong questions,<br />
because he is too lazy to read<br />
the signs," he said:<br />
Junaidu attributed this habit to<br />
most Nigerians not having been<br />
brought up to read books.<br />
To address this problem, he said<br />
a love for Lagos. Change must start<br />
now. When you are at the bus stop<br />
you have to queue. You should not<br />
be late to school – that is the Spirit<br />
of Lagos,” she said.<br />
Counsel to the Lagos State governor,<br />
Mrs Oyikan Badejo-<br />
Ogunsanya, praised the pupils for<br />
their efforts, which she said was<br />
impressive.<br />
“I want to thank you for lifting<br />
the Spirit of Lagos high; coming up<br />
with innovations that would better<br />
your lives as students,” she said.<br />
Tship board has approved the<br />
payment of bursary to its indigenes<br />
studying in Nigerian Law School<br />
and Maritime Academy, Oron,<br />
Akwa Ibom State.<br />
A statement signed by the Director,<br />
Lagos State Scholarship Board,<br />
Mrs Omauton Yetunde Jegede, di-<br />
the NERDC has infused: "conspicuous<br />
issues on various reading skills<br />
into the schools' curriculum, so that<br />
we can catch our children young to<br />
develop the culture of reading, because<br />
if you do not have that culture,<br />
books would be irrelevant."<br />
Condemning strikes by educational<br />
institutions, Junaidu said the<br />
effect on the society is usually felt by<br />
the future generation.<br />
"We should all be concerned when<br />
we see teachers, lecturers and academics<br />
on strike. The effect would<br />
reflect on the society as late as 20 or<br />
30 years and it is our children that<br />
would be affected by our mistakes<br />
of today," he said.<br />
Managing Director of Books and<br />
Prints Limited, Yaba, Lagos State,<br />
Mrs Oluronke Orimalade encouraged<br />
government to include<br />
bookshops and book sellers in the<br />
making of education and book-related<br />
policies to help the industry<br />
grow.<br />
She said: "When you kill<br />
bookshops, you are killing the reading<br />
culture. You must encourage<br />
bookshops to grow and include them<br />
in education policy-making processes."<br />
The Spirit of Lagos Project Director,<br />
Olaniyi Omotoso, also praised<br />
the various schools for their excellent<br />
performance and described<br />
them all as winners for proposing<br />
laudable projects.<br />
Other schools in the finale were:<br />
Agidingbi Grammar School,<br />
Agidingbi (District VI), Ajara Senior<br />
and Junior Secondary in Badagry<br />
(District V), and Ideal Girls’ Junior<br />
& Senior High School/Obele Community<br />
Junior & Senior High<br />
School, Surulere (District IV).<br />
Lagos okays N39.6m bursary<br />
for law, maritime students<br />
HE Lagos State Government<br />
through the state's scholar-<br />
Don faults poor funding at book fair<br />
By Oluwatoyin Adeleye<br />
VICE Chancellor of the University<br />
of Ilorin (UNILORIN), Prof<br />
Abdulganiyu Ambali has<br />
urged academics to key into the expanding<br />
need for poultry products to<br />
research on how to improve output.<br />
Speaking at the opening ceremony<br />
of the fifth World Poultry Science Association<br />
(WPSA), Nigeria branch<br />
conference, held in Ilorin, Ambali<br />
rected all concerned beneficiaries<br />
to visit the board's office for documentation<br />
in order to collect their<br />
bursary.<br />
A total of 192 indigenes of the state<br />
studying in Nigerian Law School<br />
and six in Maritime Academy,<br />
Oron, Akwa Ibom State will be<br />
given N200,000 each, which comes<br />
to about N39,600,000.<br />
UNILORIN VC woos<br />
academics on poultry research<br />
From Adekunle Jimoh, Ilorin<br />
said poultry production contributed<br />
107 million tonnes to world meat<br />
production in 2013, which is set to<br />
improve in coming years.<br />
Quoting the Organisation of Economic<br />
Cooperation and Development<br />
(OECD) and Food and Agricultural<br />
Organisation (FAO), the professor<br />
of veterinary medicine added<br />
that poultry meat products would expand<br />
by 2.3 per cent every year, attaining<br />
annual output of 134.5 tonnes<br />
worldwide by 2023.<br />
To this end, Ambali said Nigerian<br />
academics must act fast so the country<br />
can be self-sufficient in the provision<br />
of poultry products.<br />
He said: "In order to advance poultry<br />
production both now and later, experts<br />
like you will have to devote more academic<br />
attention to the dynamics of, and<br />
challenges posed by biosecurity and<br />
molecular biology, organic products,<br />
advancing early growth and profitability,<br />
gut microbiome and health as well<br />
as locally adapted highly productive<br />
breeds.<br />
"At UNILORIN, we shall continue to<br />
build capacity in these areas and others<br />
as evident in our recent establishment<br />
of the Institute of Molecular Science<br />
and Biotechnology. We strongly<br />
believe that Nigeria has no business<br />
importing basic agricultural products,<br />
poultry inclusive, if we were to get<br />
our bearing right and this is why we<br />
take research in these areas seriously.<br />
"Food is a critical component of a<br />
happy life and this is why the Yoruba<br />
say that when hunger is out of poverty,<br />
poverty becomes nil. We can<br />
then appreciate a situation where one<br />
does not just but eats highly nutritious<br />
food as those obtained poultry<br />
and poultry products."
Face to<br />
face with<br />
a rapist<br />
Page 31<br />
THE NATION<br />
Saving<br />
the<br />
creative<br />
industry<br />
Page 36<br />
*CAMPUSES<br />
*NEWS<br />
*PEOPLE<br />
*KUDOS&<br />
KNOCKS<br />
*GRANTS<br />
CAMPUS LIFE<br />
THURSDAY, MAY 21, 2015<br />
Website:- http://www.thenationonlineng.net<br />
0805-450-3104 email: campusbeat@yahoo.com<br />
email:- campuslife@thenationonlineng.net<br />
•OSUSTECH students protesting on the Igbokoda Highway. Inset: An abandoned building on the campus.<br />
Eight years after it was founded, the Ondo State University of Science and Technology (OSUSTECH) in Okitipupa is still<br />
struggling to make its mark. There are no academic facilities, good hostels and other requirements for conducive learning.<br />
The institution has hiked its fee – an action, which drew the ire of students. TAIWO ADEBULU reports.<br />
IT was meant to boost the learning<br />
of science and technology<br />
in the Sunshine State of Ondo.<br />
But, eight years after its opening,<br />
the Ondo State University of Science<br />
and Technolgy (OSUTECH)<br />
has failed to live up to its core mandate.<br />
For its serenity and Spartan nature,<br />
Igodan-Lisa, a rural settlement<br />
in Okitipupa in Ondo South<br />
Senatorial District, was chosen as<br />
the best location for the institution.<br />
Apart from the structures that<br />
welcome visitors to the campus,<br />
the institution appears to be at its<br />
foundation years.<br />
The stretch of the road that extends<br />
to the academic area from the<br />
main entrance is still under construction<br />
and has no gate, except<br />
the structure, which bears the<br />
name of the institution. The pathway<br />
from the entrance is covered<br />
in thick bushes; the untarred road<br />
leads to the heart of the campus,<br />
where uncompleted buildings<br />
stand. The buildings are classrooms<br />
and offices being constructed<br />
by the government but<br />
Long way to a dream<br />
•How varsity is coping with lack of facilities<br />
they seem to have been abandoned.<br />
For lacking necessary structures<br />
to aid its programmes’ accreditation,<br />
the university could not take<br />
off as its licence was revoked by<br />
the National Universities Commission<br />
(NUC) in 2010.<br />
The institution started academic<br />
programmes in January 2011 and<br />
matriculated its first set of students<br />
on March 3, 2011. The university,<br />
which initially occupied<br />
the facilities of the Government<br />
Technical College in Idepe, moved<br />
to its permanent site in 2012.<br />
Two years ago, the NUC approved<br />
the 10 programmes being<br />
run by the institution. But, the<br />
school’s facilities remain in a bad<br />
shape.<br />
To draw the attention of the public<br />
to the state of the infrastructure,<br />
OSUSTECH students, penultimate<br />
Monday, took to the highway to<br />
protest what they called “total neglect”<br />
of the institution by the state<br />
government. They disrupted traffic<br />
when they held a sit-out on the<br />
Igbokoda highway, singing antigovernment<br />
songs.<br />
Although the protest was<br />
sparked by fee hike, but the students<br />
used it to express their displeasure<br />
over the state of the<br />
school’s facilities.<br />
The protesters condemned the<br />
management’s action to convert<br />
the Students’ Union Building to the<br />
Centre for Entrepreneurship Training<br />
(CELT) for lack of space to accommodate<br />
the Centre.<br />
CAMPUSLIFE gathered that the<br />
management took over the building<br />
because, in its view, the institution<br />
is not ripe for students’<br />
unionism.<br />
Before the demonstration, the<br />
students had a peace meeting with<br />
the representatives of the management<br />
at the school auditorium.<br />
The Vice-Chancellor (VC), Prof<br />
Tolu Odugbemi, was absent at the<br />
meeting, but the school was represented<br />
by the Director of Academic<br />
Planning Prof Akintunde<br />
Akinwande, Dean of Faculty of<br />
Science, Prof. David Teniola, Registrar,<br />
Mr Wonuola Ekundayo and<br />
Head of Department of Mathematical<br />
Science, Dr Gabriel<br />
Ekundayo.<br />
The meeting, CAMPUSLIFE<br />
gathered, ended abruptly when a<br />
student, Henry Okunomo, was allegedly<br />
threatened with expulsion<br />
by Prof Akinwande. To forestall<br />
breakdown of order, the<br />
management ordered that the<br />
school be closed.<br />
This was said to have enraged<br />
the students as they moved towards<br />
the school entrance to barricade<br />
all exits. Afterwards, they<br />
marched on the mini campus, to<br />
galvanise their colleagues for action.<br />
The protest was guarded by<br />
riot policemen.<br />
A student, Oyewole Oyetakin,<br />
100-Level Geophysics, said: “How<br />
do you expect us not to protest?<br />
Where else should we go when we<br />
don’t have hostels and our tuition<br />
fee increased with nothing to<br />
show for it? This rain cannot stop<br />
us. We want improvement in<br />
OSUSTECH.”<br />
Our correspondent gathered that<br />
the tuition fee was increased from<br />
N100,000 to N125,000 for Ondo indigenes,<br />
while fee for non-indigenes<br />
was jerked from N150,000 to<br />
N175,000.<br />
•Continued on page 30<br />
•Final year student dies in road accident•13 bag First Class at DELSU convocation-P32
30<br />
CAMPUS LIFE<br />
Cheery news from<br />
the Diaspora<br />
Tday, when he finished the book he was<br />
HE inventor and physicist, Joe<br />
Jacobson was lounging on a beach one<br />
reading and realised he hadn’t brought another.<br />
Plenty of sun left in the day, but no<br />
book to fill the afternoon. At that moment,<br />
he envisioned an electronic book with light,<br />
thin, pages that - at the touch of a button -<br />
could receive the words of an entire book<br />
or newspaper through the airwaves.<br />
And, at the touch of a button, a different<br />
book or newspaper would appear. Using no<br />
back lighting, readable in direct sun and at<br />
any angle, the image would draw no power<br />
once it had appeared — enabling the device<br />
to avoid heavy batteries. It was through his<br />
imagination that the e-ink came into being.<br />
Even now, years after that idea became a<br />
real product, it almost sounds like magic.<br />
That is what innovation does.<br />
E-ink is hardly an isolated example. Two<br />
of the wealthiest tech companies on the<br />
planet right now, Apple and Google, continue<br />
to introduce stunning products. They<br />
were recently ranked as among the five<br />
most innovative companies in the world by<br />
both Business Week and Fast Company.<br />
Modern China also appears to be hitting its<br />
innovation stride, fueled by its unprecedented<br />
economic boom backed by government<br />
support.<br />
Talking about Apple; it recently purchased<br />
HopStop.com, Inc. (HopStop), an online city<br />
transit guide offering door-to-door subway<br />
and bus directions and maps for over 140<br />
cities around the world using its website, or<br />
apps for iPhone, iPad and formerly Android.<br />
Interestingly, the company was founded in<br />
2005 by a Nigerian; Mr. Chinedu Echeruo,<br />
who was named one of the top 100 fastest<br />
growing software companies in the United<br />
States in 2011. It was reported that Apple<br />
bought the app for $1 billion.<br />
Since the release of iOS 6 in September<br />
2012, in which Apple replaced support for<br />
Google Maps with their own mapping,<br />
HopStop has been named as one of the top<br />
transit apps for Apple products by multiple<br />
publishers including Business Insider, Fast<br />
Company and Wired.<br />
Through it, users can get step-by-step pub-<br />
Long way to a dream<br />
•Continued from page 29<br />
To douse tension in Okitipupa,<br />
Governor Olusegun Mimiko invited<br />
the students to Akure, the<br />
state capital, for dialogue. Mimiko<br />
agreed to reduce the fees in two<br />
weeks and eliminate all the services<br />
for which students pay,<br />
CAMPUSLIFE gathered.<br />
The governor, it was gathered,<br />
also promised to construct a new<br />
main gate and sports complex for<br />
the school.<br />
A lecturer, who pleaded anonymity,<br />
said the protesters had<br />
genuine reasons to show their<br />
grievances. He said: “It is good the<br />
students met with the governor,<br />
because there is a strong indication<br />
that the governor may abandon<br />
the school to fund the proposed<br />
Ondo State University of<br />
Medical Sciences in Ondo. Where<br />
would he get money to fund<br />
OSUSTECH and the new one in his<br />
home town? What happened in<br />
Ogun State may also happen in<br />
Ondo. We will end up thinking of<br />
merging the three universities to<br />
sustain their funding.”<br />
Gbenga Akinsuyi, a Computer<br />
Science student, said the campus<br />
lacks basic facilities. He said there<br />
was no reason for fee hike when<br />
the university was faced with poor<br />
facilities.<br />
He said: “The governor promised<br />
that no students of higher institution<br />
in the state would pay<br />
more than N25,000 as tuition fee.<br />
But, we pay N125,000 and<br />
N175,000. Our internet fee is<br />
N20,000 and we don’t have access<br />
to it. The establishment of<br />
OSUSTECH has brought nothing<br />
lic transit, walking, taxi, biking, and<br />
hourly car rental directions based on<br />
the travel options selected (departure<br />
time, transportation mode, more<br />
walking vs. more transfers, etc.).<br />
Other major functions include<br />
nearby stations, which allows users<br />
to find subway or bus stops near an address,<br />
as well as providing transit maps and schedules.<br />
HopStop also calculates calories burned<br />
and per passenger carbon emissions savings<br />
for each transit route.<br />
The City Guide also assist users find attractions,<br />
bars, restaurants, hotels, shopping areas,<br />
and other businesses. The Community<br />
tab offers users the ability to plan a trip with<br />
multiple destinations, including City Guide<br />
listings and custom locations.<br />
So what propelled him to come out with the<br />
innovation? His own difficulties traversing<br />
through New York City while working on<br />
Wall Street inspired him to create the technological<br />
solution. Nearly 10 years later, the free<br />
mobile application and website HopStop.com<br />
assists travelers by guiding them to subway<br />
stations and bus stops in more than 300 cities<br />
worldwide, including London, San Francisco,<br />
Paris and Toronto.<br />
“Every entrepreneur starts off thinking<br />
‘What’s a problem I can fix?’ he told The New<br />
York Times. “The problem for me was how to<br />
get from Point A to Point B in New York.”<br />
Hailed as Black Enterprise’s 2007 Small Business<br />
Innovator of the Year and listed in the<br />
magazine’s ‘Top 40 under 40’ list, the serial<br />
entrepreneur also founded Tripology.com, a<br />
U.S.-based Internet company, in 2010. Echeruo,<br />
39 is now a partner in a private equity firm in<br />
Accra, Ghana. He grew up in Eastern Nigeria<br />
and attended Kings College, Lagos. He later<br />
attended Syracuse University and the Harvard<br />
Business School in the United States where he<br />
founded Hopstop.com after working for several<br />
years in the mergers and acquisitions and<br />
leveraged finance groups of J.P Morgan Chase<br />
where he was involved in a broad range of<br />
M&A, financing and private equity transactions.<br />
He also worked at AM Investment Partners,<br />
a $500 million volatility-driven convertible<br />
in the last eight years. The campus<br />
is bushy and we kill snakes<br />
every day. The road from the university<br />
entrance is filled with<br />
granites and nothing has changed.<br />
There is no even a health centre.”<br />
Yemi Fafoluyi, president of Save<br />
Ikale Youth Vanguard, an Akurebased<br />
pressure group, said the<br />
group supported the students’<br />
protest.<br />
Pastor Babatope Ayesanmi, an<br />
elder in the host community, decried<br />
what he called the slow pace<br />
of development in the institution.<br />
He said: “The institution is becoming<br />
a white elephant project.<br />
A faculty has been there for five<br />
years without facilities. The university<br />
is becoming a caricature of<br />
higher institution. The campus has<br />
been carefully abandoned.”<br />
The Chief Press Secretary to the<br />
Ondo State Governor, Mr Eni<br />
Akinsola, said there was nothing<br />
wrong in students expressing their<br />
grievances to the governor. He said<br />
the campus had been re-opened after<br />
the students met with Mimiko,<br />
adding that the governor is attending<br />
to the needs of the school.<br />
“OSUSTECH is still a young university<br />
and we must appreciate that<br />
all its courses have been approved.<br />
Obafemi Awolowo University in<br />
Ile-Ife was founded a long time ago<br />
and it is still undergoing<br />
infrastructural development. The<br />
Ondo State government will resolve<br />
everything and the students’ grievances.”<br />
Although activities have returned<br />
to the campus, students said they<br />
would not relent to call for improvement<br />
in facilities until the<br />
governor fulfil his promise.<br />
Pushing<br />
Out<br />
with<br />
Agbo Agbo<br />
08116759750<br />
(SMS only)<br />
•aagboa@gmail.com<br />
bond arbitrage hedge fund. Tripology.com,<br />
an interactive travel referral service focused<br />
on connecting travelers with travel specialists<br />
which was later acquired by American<br />
travel and navigation information company,<br />
Rand McNally is another of his innovation.<br />
Not resting on his oars, this proud Nigerian<br />
is working on yet another venture, but this<br />
time focused on small businesses in Africa.<br />
According to him, “There is no reason why<br />
every entrepreneur should have to reinvent<br />
the wheel every single time in all the countries<br />
in Africa. My idea is to essentially have<br />
one place where a budding entrepreneur can<br />
access a template for starting a business, and<br />
then customise it to suit their own situation;<br />
essentially, a business-in-a-box.”<br />
Another Nigerian, Ufot Ekong, who studied<br />
Robotics and Electrical Engineering at<br />
Tokai University, Tokyo, Japan emerged the<br />
best all round graduating student of the institution<br />
this session. He graduated with First<br />
Class Honours.<br />
The last time anyone graduated with a similar<br />
Grade Points Average (GPA) was 50 years<br />
ago which makes his feat unique. Ufot, a<br />
multi-talented youth, has artistry in music,<br />
specialising in Saxophone. He distinguished<br />
himself from the outset in the school when he<br />
won the Japanese language best student<br />
award.<br />
To think that he combined two jobs with<br />
studies, won six other awards in the University,<br />
makes his story more compelling. Ufot,<br />
who lived in Lagos while in Nigeria, is the<br />
director of Strictly African Japan, an African<br />
retail wears and accessories shop.<br />
Aside from paying himself through school,<br />
Ufot who has already started his PhD<br />
programme works with auto giant Nissan<br />
where he has already patented two products.<br />
For his project, he made an electric car that<br />
goes as fast as 128 kilometres per hour. The<br />
THE NATION THURSDAY, MAY 21, 2015<br />
ESSAY CONTEST FOR UNDERGRADUATES<br />
The Nation, Nigeria, in collaboration with African Liberty Organisation for Development (ALOD)<br />
and Network for a Free Society (NFS), is calling for entries into the 2015 essay competition.<br />
Details are as follows:<br />
Topic: Government regulations and controls are the biggest threat to jobs in Africa today. Discuss using<br />
practical examples<br />
Participants must discuss the topic using contemporary examples.<br />
Qualification: Participant must be a student in any tertiary institutions (university, polytechnic,<br />
college of education and technical schools) in all African countries. The format of the text should be<br />
in Microsoft Word and not more than 1,500 words.<br />
Interested student can visit: www.networkforafreesociety.org for useful background materials<br />
on the theme of this contest. Be informed that no participant is allowed to lift materials directly<br />
from works of any author and claim to be his/her own. Plagiarism automatically disqualifies any<br />
entry, which contains work of another author.<br />
If any text or sentence is copied from another author’s work, it must be shown in quotation marks<br />
and writer must credit the original author at the bottom of the paper.<br />
On the first page of the completed essay, participant must write his/her full names, department,<br />
and year of study and name of institution. Also include your email address and functional mobile<br />
phone number.<br />
All entries should be sent to: adedayo.thomas@gmail.com<br />
Entries will be received between March 26 and June 26, 2015. Late entries will not be accepted.<br />
Winners will be announced on July 29, 2015.<br />
PRIZES<br />
1st-George Ayittey (Platinum Prize): $1,000 and scholarship to the 2015 Liberty Camp in Kenya<br />
from August 5 to 9, 2015 OR Students and Young Professional African Liberty Academy (SYPALA)<br />
in Ghana from August 19 to 23, 2015<br />
2nd-Anthony Fisher (Gold Prize): $700 and scholarship to the 2015 Liberty Camp in Kenya<br />
from August 5 to 9, 2015 OR Students and Young Professional African Liberty Academy (SYPALA)<br />
in Ghana from August 19 to 23, 2015<br />
3rd-Franklin Cudjoe (Silver Prize): $500 and scholarship to the 2015 Liberty Camp in Kenya<br />
from August 5 to 9, 2015 OR Students and Young Professional African Liberty Academy (SYPALA)<br />
in Ghana from August 19 to23, 2015<br />
4th- The Nation CAMPUSLIFE (Media Bronze Prize): $300 and scholarship to the 2015 Liberty<br />
Camp in Kenya from August 5 to 9, 2015 OR Students and Young Professional African Liberty<br />
Academy (SYPALA) in Ghana from August 19 to 23, 2015<br />
We also have eight consolation prize of $50 each.<br />
car drives on charged batteries. He plans to<br />
drive it May 29, in Abuja, Nigeria to celebrate<br />
Buhari’s inauguration.<br />
This cheering news couldn’t have come at<br />
a better time. Nigeria is on the verge of having<br />
a new government and as expected, expectations<br />
are at an all-time high. Majority<br />
of Nigerians want a country that can produce<br />
the likes of Ufot and Chinedu on its<br />
soil.<br />
In their book “Why Nations fail,” Massachusetts<br />
Institute of Technology (MIT) economist<br />
Daron Acemoglu and the Harvard University<br />
political scientist James A. Robinson<br />
argue that for any economic success political<br />
institutions must be sufficiently<br />
centralised to provide basic public services<br />
including justice, the enforcement of contracts,<br />
and education. Given that these functions<br />
are carried out, “inclusive” institutions<br />
enable innovative energies to emerge and<br />
lead to continuing growth as exemplified<br />
by the Industrial Revolution.<br />
“Extractive” institutions can also deliver<br />
growth but only when the economy is<br />
distant from the technological frontier.<br />
These extractive institutions will ultimately<br />
fail, however, when innovations and “creative<br />
destruction” are needed to push the<br />
frontier. Hence, while success may be possible<br />
for a while under extractive institutions<br />
continuing success is possible only<br />
under inclusive institutions.<br />
What we need going forward is a creative<br />
economy which enables people use their<br />
creative imagination to create an ideas. This<br />
will revolve around an economic system<br />
where value is based on novel imaginative<br />
qualities rather than the traditional resources<br />
of land, labour and capital.<br />
In the second half of the 20th century these<br />
ideas were expressed as the Post-Industrial<br />
Society, Information Society, Knowledge<br />
Society and Network Society. These concepts<br />
prioritised data and knowledge as the new<br />
sources of growth. The growth of China’s<br />
economy since 1980 has been stimulated by<br />
market-based creativity and innovation.<br />
Europe, America, Japan, China and other<br />
countries see creativity as the dominant economic<br />
force affecting jobs, economic growth<br />
and social welfare. The 2014 OECD Forum<br />
declared: “Creativity and innovation are<br />
now driving the economy, reshaping entire<br />
industries and stimulating inclusive<br />
growth.”<br />
We cannot afford to be left behind as these<br />
two Nigerians have shown that it is possible<br />
to excel if given the right environment.
THE NATION THURSDAY, MAY 21, 2015<br />
CAMPUS LIFE<br />
Face to face with a rapist<br />
But for providence, a 400-Level female student of the Department<br />
of Political Science of the University of Ilorin<br />
(UNILORIN) in Kwara State would have been raped by a<br />
graduate, who had just finished his National Youth Service.<br />
The victim relives her experience to WALE AJETUNMOBI.<br />
TRUST can be likened to a tiny but<br />
strong chord that can endure; but, it<br />
takes a moment of disappointment<br />
to severe it forever. By now, Zulihat<br />
Adebimpe (not her real name) may have<br />
stopped to trust anybody again. The 400-<br />
Level Political Science student of University<br />
of Ilorin (UNILORIN) in Kwara State<br />
capital escaped being raped penultimate<br />
week by a male friend whom she trusted.<br />
She could only feel helpless after being<br />
overpowered by her male friend whose<br />
sense had been overwhelmed by a sharp<br />
moment of libido. But for a brief seizure,<br />
which threw the culprit, Qaseem (other<br />
names withheld), off-balance, perhaps the<br />
victim would still been writhing in psychological<br />
depression and trauma.<br />
Zulihat, who had just been inducted into<br />
a coven of hijab sisters as young female<br />
Muslims are called, said she excessively<br />
trusted the man who attempted to rape her.<br />
She described the moment of struggling<br />
against the assailant as terrible, because<br />
nobody came to her rescue when she<br />
screamed for help. Zulihat said she was<br />
more disappointed because the incident<br />
happened in an apartment which Qaseem<br />
claimed to be his family house.<br />
Qaseem, it was learnt, graduated from Department<br />
of Political Science of UNILORIN<br />
in 2013 and had just finished his National<br />
Youth Service. He became friend with<br />
Zulihat, while he was in school but lost<br />
contact with her when he went for Youth<br />
Service.<br />
But, Zulihat said the culprit got her phone<br />
number from Facebook, after which he<br />
called and sent her message on Whatsapp, a<br />
mobile instant messaging application.<br />
She said: “After his graduation, I heard<br />
from Qaseem last month. He called me at<br />
1:30am while I was observing a midnight<br />
prayer and we spoke for a while before I<br />
returned to the prayer. The following morning,<br />
his calls kept coming in and I was surprised<br />
he requested that I should visit him.<br />
I did not have inkling of what he was up to,<br />
because we had chatted many times in the<br />
past on my reluctance to visit people I hardly<br />
know.<br />
“But he kept pestering me to visit him. I<br />
told him I was being cautious against assault,<br />
because I hardly forgive myself for<br />
my mistakes. A week later, I decided to<br />
visit him after he pleaded. He agreed to<br />
pick me up at Post Office area with his<br />
motorcycle to his family house in Ilorin.”<br />
Zulihat said she did not expect harm from<br />
Qaseem, since they are both Muslims and<br />
they understand what the Holy Qur’an said<br />
about pre-marital mating.<br />
She added: “Both of us are Muslims and I<br />
expected fair treatment from him. He took<br />
me to an apartment, which I believe is not<br />
his family house. But given his harmless<br />
countenance and humility, I agreed to go<br />
into the building with him. He offered me<br />
water, which I delayed in drinking. He<br />
brought out his photo album and he used<br />
the opportunity to move closer to me. I<br />
sensed he was up to something untoward;<br />
then, I dropped the photo album and asked<br />
to take my leave.<br />
“He suddenly changed his attitude and<br />
looked at me seductively. I stood up to<br />
leave the apartment but he pulled me<br />
back. He pushed me on the bed and as I<br />
made effort to get up, he landed on me<br />
with force. I struggled with him for a moment<br />
but when my strength could not save<br />
31<br />
me, I screamed for help. His neighbours<br />
could not hear my cry.<br />
“I pleaded with him not to do it and told<br />
him I am a virgin. I told him that, even if<br />
I was ready for intercourse, it should not<br />
be by violation. I pleaded with him, using<br />
the religion we both share, but all to no<br />
avail. He continued making his effort pull<br />
off my hijab, which was too thick and covered<br />
all parts of my body.”<br />
After a while, Zulihat said she noticed<br />
her assailant began to shake feverishly<br />
and fell on the floor. She ran to the door<br />
to escape but it was locked.<br />
“Qaseem got up again and grabbed my<br />
hand. He knelt and begged that I should<br />
forgive is uncontrollable act. He said he<br />
was seduced by my presence. I told him to<br />
open the door for me to leave. He obliged<br />
and I ran out of the building. Everything<br />
happened within 10 minutes.<br />
“The following day, he came to check<br />
me in school but I ignored him. He sent<br />
messages on Whatsapp, pleading for his immoral<br />
act. I did not reply any of his messages<br />
because he betrayed my trust. I am<br />
being traumatised psychologically because<br />
I don’t forgive myself easily for my<br />
mistakes.”<br />
If Qassem had succeeded, Zulihat said he<br />
would have been thrown into an endless<br />
agony by a friend she trusted. She said she<br />
decided not to report the matter at the police<br />
station because of stigmatisation that<br />
may arise after the incident becomes<br />
open. Besides, she did not want her personal<br />
mistakes to expose her fellow Muslim<br />
sisters to public disgrace.<br />
She said: “If I had reported the matter to<br />
the police, the law may set him free or<br />
find him guilty but it would not stop me<br />
from regretting my decision to visit him at<br />
home. My religion will always find me<br />
guilty and punish me for visiting a man<br />
who is not a member of my family or husband.”<br />
Medical students of the Nnamdi Azikiwe University (UNIZIK) in Nnewi, Anambra State, held a memorial for nine of their<br />
colleagues who died in a fire on the campus 14 years ago. On the occasion, they drew attention to the state of facilities in<br />
the school. FRANKLIN ONWUBIKO (Mass Communication) reports.<br />
•Zulihat<br />
•The only ambulance in the college<br />
Forever in their hearts<br />
AT the College of Health Science of<br />
the Nnamdi Azikiwe University<br />
(UNIZIK) in Nnewi, Anambra State,<br />
May 9 is a special day. On May 9, 2001, nine<br />
medical students were burnt in a midnight<br />
fire, which razed the female hostel. Fourteen<br />
years after, the ugly incident is still<br />
fresh in the medical students’ memories. To<br />
them, the tragedy is a reminder of the neglect<br />
of the college by the government.<br />
The victims included Adaobi Amilo,<br />
Amara Ezeliora, Chinenye Nedolisa,<br />
Obiageli Muokwugwo, Ugoma Ositanwosu,<br />
Doris Ekpo and the courageous<br />
Chukwuneke Chinedu, who reportedly died<br />
as she made efforts to save her roommates<br />
from the inferno.<br />
“These victims could still be alive if the<br />
college had functional ambulance to properly<br />
convey them to the hospital,” president<br />
of Students’ Association Government<br />
in the college, Jennifer Ikediugwu, said. The<br />
only functional ambulance in the school, she<br />
said, broke down while conveying the victims<br />
to the university Teaching Hospital.<br />
To remember their fallen colleagues, students<br />
came out en masse on Friday to commemorate<br />
the incident and say prayers for<br />
the victims. In his comment, the chairman<br />
of the occasion and Dean, Faculty of Medicine,<br />
Dr Ebele Ugochukwu, described the<br />
incident as unfortunate, advising the students<br />
on the need to keep to regulation<br />
pasted in their hostels to avert reoccurrence<br />
of the sad incident.<br />
Mama Ozi, a trader on the campus, who<br />
witnessed the incident, gave a moving account<br />
of what transpired in the day. The audience<br />
moved into a moment of grief when<br />
she explained how the victims writhed in<br />
pain as they were being transported to the<br />
hospital in rickety ambulance. She described<br />
incident as tragic, expressing disappointment<br />
that school still does not have good<br />
ambulance fourteen years after.<br />
Delivering the memorial lecture, Reverend<br />
Father Maurice Izunwa spoke on selflessness<br />
as exhibited by the late<br />
Chukwuneke, who defied the fury of the<br />
fire in a bid to save her colleagues trapped<br />
•Jennifer laying a wreath as other students watch during the memorial<br />
in the hostel. The clergy urged students to<br />
emulate Chukwuneke’s heroic act and gallantry.<br />
The Dean of Students’ Affairs (DSA), Prof<br />
Ken Nworgu, said the management shared<br />
in the grief of the victims’ family, saying<br />
the school would always remember the deceased.<br />
He added that the victims’ death was<br />
regrettable, urging students to always ensure<br />
their safety and be steadfast in act of<br />
selflessness. He promised to take the request<br />
of more ambulance by the students to the<br />
management.<br />
Also addressing the students, the president<br />
of the Students’ Union Government (SUG),<br />
Noble Eyisi, gave the reason for participating<br />
in the memorial as a way of lending<br />
support to students on Nnewi campus. He<br />
said called for unity among students, noting:<br />
“In unity, we can properly channel our<br />
welfare.”<br />
Noble reiterated his commitment to carry<br />
all students along in the union’s activities, assuring<br />
that the request for a new ambulance<br />
would be pursued vigorously.<br />
While lamenting the poor learning environment<br />
in the college, Jennifer said: “The College<br />
has been in existence for so many years<br />
now and it has produced seasoned medical<br />
practitioners who are saving lives all over<br />
the world. But our own lives as students are<br />
endangered by the state of the facilities in the<br />
school. This campus has been terribly neglected<br />
for years. The entire students of the<br />
college cry out with one voice. We need help.”<br />
High points of the event were musical and<br />
drama renditions by the students. The students<br />
also led a procession to a memorial monument<br />
to pay respects to their fallen heroes.<br />
After the session, a student, Millicent Ekwudo,<br />
seized the opportunity to restate the abysmal<br />
state of the school’s facilities, appealing to the<br />
authorities to improve on the facilities to secure<br />
the life of students. After the presentation,<br />
the students shouted: “we need ambulance.”
32<br />
CAMPUS LIFE<br />
Final year<br />
student dies in<br />
road accident<br />
OLABISI Onabanjo University<br />
(OOU) in Ago Iwoye, Ogun<br />
State was thrown into<br />
mourning, following the death of a<br />
final year Banking and Finance student.<br />
Jenifer Chinonso Azuh died in<br />
an auto accident in Benin City, the<br />
Edo State capital.<br />
The news of Jenifer’s death hit the<br />
campus like a thunderbolt, leaving<br />
lecturers and students in grief. Her<br />
classmates wept and wailed endlessly.<br />
The late Jenifer was recently<br />
elected the president of Rotaract Club<br />
on the campus but she died before<br />
the swearing-in. She was also selected<br />
as the chairperson of the<br />
fundraising committee for the purchase<br />
of OOU Catholic Students’ bus.<br />
Last Thursday, her remains were<br />
buried in her hometown in Anambra<br />
•The procession of the principal officers to the event<br />
THIRTEEN graduates of the<br />
Delta State University (DELSU)<br />
in Abraka bagged a First Class<br />
during the institution’s Ninth convocation<br />
held last weekend. The valedictorians<br />
were among 9,648 graduating<br />
students conferred with first<br />
degrees and diplomas at the ceremony<br />
held at Convocation Arena in<br />
Site III of the institution.<br />
The ceremony also witnessed conferment<br />
of post-graduate degrees and<br />
honorary degrees to the deserving<br />
people.<br />
The Governor of Delta State, Dr<br />
Emmanuel Uduaghan, led the pack<br />
of dignitaries, including his deputy,<br />
Prof Amos Utuama (SAN), and tradi-<br />
From Ese Okoduwa and<br />
Daniel Akpotaire,<br />
DELSU<br />
tional rulers in the state.<br />
The Vice-Chancellor (VC), Prof Victor<br />
Peretomode, said the ceremony<br />
was to celebrate the efforts and time<br />
invested by the graduands during<br />
their days in school, urging the graduates<br />
to see the convocation as another<br />
beginning in their lives. He urged<br />
them to dream big and reflect on their<br />
aims in life.<br />
Governor Uduaghan urged the<br />
graduands not to give up hope on the<br />
future of the country, noting that the<br />
objective of Delta Beyond Oil was to<br />
13 bag First Class at DELSU convocation<br />
PROF Aloysius Okolie,<br />
former chairman of the University<br />
of Nigeria, Nsukka<br />
(UNN) chapter of the Academic<br />
Staff Union of Universities<br />
(ASUU), has delivered the 92nd inaugural<br />
lecture of the university<br />
titled: Global political economy and<br />
development of underdevelopment:<br />
Different people, same market and glorification<br />
of poverty.<br />
Okolie, a professor of Political<br />
Science, urged Federal Government<br />
to refocus the country’s academic<br />
curriculum to reflect domestic<br />
needs in order to make<br />
graduates employable. He said<br />
such move would bring out expertise<br />
and skills locally to move<br />
the nation’s education forward<br />
and fast-track economic development.<br />
He said: “There is need to reformulate<br />
and refocus the academic<br />
curriculum in the country to reflect<br />
needs, so as to get efficient<br />
manpower. Content used to address<br />
externalised needs and values<br />
are a disguised strategy for<br />
advancing academic imperialism<br />
and deepening the incidence of<br />
self-repudiation and self-delu-<br />
•Students joined Catholic priests in silent prayers after the interment<br />
open up the state’s economy and provide<br />
jobs for indigenes that are qualified.<br />
The convocation ceremony was also<br />
an opportunity for the governor to<br />
commission projects in the school.<br />
One of the projects is the newly-built<br />
Faculty of Education complex.<br />
Highlight if the ceremony included<br />
presentation of automatic employment<br />
to the overall best graduating<br />
student, Miss Anthonia Michael of the<br />
Department of Botany. She was also<br />
given scholarship up to doctoral level.<br />
In her speech, Anthonia expressed<br />
gratitude to God for making her feat<br />
possible and promised to always<br />
strive for excellence.<br />
Ex-ASUU chair delivers UNN’s 92nd lecture<br />
From Oladele Oge<br />
UNN<br />
sion.”<br />
To be separated from the umbilical<br />
cord of underdevelopment, he<br />
said developing countries must<br />
believe in themselves and<br />
prioritise development strategies<br />
based on traditional values.<br />
He added: “Developing countries<br />
should begin to address the<br />
issue of poverty which is assuming<br />
a dangerous dimension. They<br />
should provide funds and critical<br />
infrastructure needed to support<br />
development as well as revive<br />
abandoned cottage and small<br />
scaled industries. In as much as<br />
everybody must be equal, the gap<br />
between the poor and the rich<br />
should not be too wide.”<br />
The political scientist said basics<br />
of global political economy<br />
were challenges facing peripheral<br />
social formations in developing<br />
countries.<br />
Development, he said, is a product<br />
of sound, sustained and cogent<br />
planning and administrations of<br />
curative pills purchased at a genuine<br />
market and attuned to the<br />
needs of the target.<br />
He said: “Underdevelopment<br />
can be likened to the blind, chaotic<br />
and unregulated administration<br />
of curative pills purchased<br />
for cancer patient and wrongly administered<br />
to malaria patient.”<br />
The lecturer said power and<br />
sanctity of ballot box should be<br />
strengthened and preserved by<br />
allowing the electoral process to<br />
reflect the choices of the people.<br />
“The electoral process should reflect<br />
choices and ideal of the<br />
people and they must be allowed<br />
to vote and choose public office<br />
holders freely. The power and<br />
sanctity of ballot box should be<br />
strengthened and preserved,” he<br />
said.<br />
The Vice-Chancellor, Prof Benjamin<br />
Ozumba, represented by his<br />
deputy for Academics, Prof<br />
Polycarp Chigbu, said the university<br />
would continue to enrich the<br />
knowledge of its members and<br />
the public by giving them intellectual<br />
meals from erudite scholars,<br />
who have distinguished themselves<br />
in their fields.<br />
The lecture, held at Princesses<br />
Alexandra Hall, was well-attended<br />
by lecturers and students.<br />
From Sanya Boluwatife<br />
OOU<br />
State. Some students attended the funeral,<br />
while many stayed back on the<br />
campus to say prayers for her.<br />
The deceased brother, Arinze<br />
Azuh, a publisher of Yes! International<br />
Magazine on wrote her<br />
Facebook wall: “I am tempted to<br />
question God, but I won’t. Not today,<br />
not tomorrow and not even forever.<br />
Never ever will I do that. And<br />
in spite of how much death has dared<br />
me. My youngest sister, the baby of<br />
the house and our last born; the ever<br />
cheerful and gregarious Augusta<br />
Chinonso Azuh died in an auto crash.<br />
“I am crest-fallen and devastated<br />
beyond words. Yet, I won’t question<br />
my God. I won’t even ask anybody<br />
why a tragedy of this numbing proportion<br />
should visit my family again.<br />
And so soon after the demise of our<br />
patriarch, Ichie Azuh Chimezie.”<br />
In his tribute, Austine Falujo, a 500-<br />
Level Law student, who spoke on behalf<br />
of Nigeria Federation of Catholic<br />
Students (NFCS), said: “On that<br />
day, she left with the hope of returning<br />
to us, but sadly it was the last<br />
moment we saw and heard from her.<br />
Words cannot express how much we<br />
THE Students’ Union Government<br />
(SUG) of the University<br />
of Ilorin<br />
(UNILORIN) has held the third<br />
youth leadership summit in<br />
honour of Mr Afolabi Obembe,<br />
the Executive Director, World<br />
View International. The event,<br />
with the theme: Students unionism<br />
and activism, featured presentation<br />
of the union journal.<br />
In his address, the union president,<br />
Ahmed Ishawo, said the<br />
theme was to discuss whether students’<br />
Union activities should be<br />
about demonstration against the<br />
school authorities.<br />
The Deputy Vice-Chancellor for<br />
Research Technology and Innovation,<br />
Prof Gabriel Olatunji, said<br />
unionism would be a platform for<br />
academic excellence with good<br />
leadership and not by protest. He<br />
said there was need for higher institutions<br />
to train students in leadership<br />
values for the country to<br />
have responsible youths.<br />
Prof Olatunji, who represented<br />
Vice-Chancellor, Prof<br />
Abdulganiyu Ambali, said he was<br />
not surprised by the theme of the<br />
summit, given the decadence<br />
among students. He stressed that<br />
THE Department of<br />
Counselling of the Crawford<br />
University in Atan-Agbara,<br />
Ogun State has held a counselling<br />
session for its students with the<br />
theme: Counselling towards academic<br />
excellence. The event was held at<br />
the school Multipurpose Hall.<br />
The session was aimed at educating<br />
the students about the positive<br />
effects of seeking counseling while<br />
they stay on the campus.<br />
Speaking on Counselling services<br />
and the benefits to staff and students<br />
of tertiary institutions, the<br />
institution’s Guidance Counsellor,<br />
Mrs Olushola Coker, said good<br />
counselling would help students to<br />
reach upper most level in social,<br />
educational and economic development.<br />
Represented by Dr E.O. Aramide,<br />
a counsellor, Mrs Coker, however,<br />
said counselling cannot proffer solutions<br />
to all human problems but<br />
said good advice could assist in reducing<br />
social problem facing mankind.<br />
She advised higher institutions<br />
to integrate guiding and counselling<br />
into their curriculum irrespective<br />
of discipline to guide the<br />
youth aright and build a peaceful<br />
nation.<br />
THE NATION THURSDAY, MAY 21, 2015<br />
•The late Jenifer<br />
love you but God loves you more.”<br />
Speaking with CAMPUSLIFE, the<br />
NFCS President, Johnson Leonard,<br />
described the deceased as friendly,<br />
accommodating and hardworking. “I<br />
still can’t believe Jenifer is dead. She<br />
called me in April and told me she<br />
was working on how to get funds for<br />
the purchase of our bus. This is very<br />
painful. We will really miss her.”<br />
‘Unionism is not for destruction’<br />
From Kehinde Ogunlade<br />
UNILORIN<br />
the institution would continue<br />
train students in good leadership<br />
values and character.<br />
Obembe said any union that<br />
makes protest its potent tool is destructive,<br />
cautioning members of<br />
the audience against destroying<br />
school properties in the name of<br />
protest. He said: “Students’ unionism<br />
is about what the students’<br />
leader can achieve in the interest<br />
of students and how they can express<br />
their grievances without<br />
violence. Leaders are individuals<br />
who help create options and opportunities.<br />
They help identify<br />
choices and solve problems. Leaders<br />
build coalitions for progress<br />
and not destruction.”<br />
He said students’ union leadership<br />
should be dynamic in the 21st<br />
Century and be a partner in<br />
progress. He advised the SUG<br />
leaders to maintain good relationship<br />
with the school authorities.<br />
The highpoint of the event was<br />
the presentation of awards to the<br />
honouree and the unveiling of the<br />
SUG journal. Obembe thanked the<br />
students for the honour.<br />
Varsity counsels<br />
students against vices<br />
From Daniel Adeoye<br />
CRAWFORD<br />
Dr S.O. Awosoga, the<br />
institution’s Acting Director of<br />
Health Services, spoke on Health<br />
viewpoint for enhancing students’<br />
academic excellence during which he<br />
explained how good health could<br />
enhance academic excellence. He<br />
listed physical and emotional<br />
abuse, chronic illness, unwanted<br />
pregnancies and abortions as factors<br />
that could affect students’<br />
health status, thereby hindering<br />
their efforts to achieve excellence.<br />
Awosoga advised the students to<br />
take their careers services and shun<br />
vices which can truncate their academic<br />
pursuits. He said: “The university<br />
management has shown<br />
care to all students by guiding,<br />
monitoring and always advising<br />
them on how to achieve their<br />
dreams. Students must shun all<br />
vices and take your studies seriously.”<br />
The event was attended by the<br />
Vice-Chancellor, Prof Samson<br />
Ayanlaja; Chairman of Governing<br />
Council, Prof Peter Okebukola,<br />
Dean of Students’ Affairs, Dr B.A.<br />
Onyekwere, Parents’ Forum members<br />
and students.
33<br />
CAMPUS LIFE<br />
THE NATION THURSDAY, MAY 21, 2015<br />
‘KSU belongs<br />
to grade ‘A’<br />
varsity’<br />
•Prof Aina (right) discussing with Ajayi at the event<br />
How students can achieve their dreams, by Enactus chief<br />
FOR five days last week, over<br />
300 students from 34 higher<br />
institutions converged on the<br />
Ekiti State University (EKSU) for a<br />
leadership training organised by<br />
Enactus Nigeria, a youth non-profit<br />
organisation.<br />
The Acting Country Director for<br />
Enactus, Mr. Michael Ajayi, said the<br />
event was aimed at training students<br />
on how to implement and<br />
achieve their sustainable project<br />
plan.<br />
Each Enactus team in the participating<br />
school will present 10 com-<br />
•Some of the matriculating students with their lecturers<br />
NO fewer than 2,830 freshers<br />
took the oath of matriculation<br />
at Heritage Polytechnic<br />
in Eket, Akwa Ibom State last weekend.<br />
The new intakes were told to<br />
be of good behavior and shun vices<br />
that could dent the image of the institution.<br />
Any student found guilty<br />
of misconduct will be expelled, the<br />
school management said.<br />
The Registrar, Mrs Iniobong<br />
Ekott, administered the oath on the<br />
students, who were admitted into<br />
full and part time studies for National<br />
Diploma (ND) and Higher<br />
National Diploma (HND).<br />
The Rector, Elder Udoyiu<br />
UNIVERSITY (KSU) in<br />
Anyigba has held matriculation<br />
for its fresher charging<br />
them not to allow themselves<br />
to be carried away by the social<br />
life around the university environment.<br />
No few than 4, 396 students<br />
were admitted.<br />
The Vice-Chancellor, Prof<br />
Hassan Isah, assured the students<br />
of the management’s readiness to<br />
create platform for hard-working<br />
and serious-minded students to<br />
achieve their aims. He told the<br />
students to be worthy ambassadors<br />
of the university, advising<br />
them against engaging in vices,<br />
such as cultism, examination mal-<br />
From Olatunji Awe<br />
EKSU<br />
munity-based projects and select 10<br />
project leaders to present the plan<br />
on their behalf.<br />
The Vice-Chancellor, Prof Patrick<br />
Aina, reiterated the school’s readiness<br />
to partner with Enactus to engender<br />
intellectual development<br />
among its students. He said: “We<br />
want our students to mingle with<br />
their peers from other schools to<br />
share ideas and challenges and also<br />
look for possible solution to such<br />
challenge. This is the best way to<br />
develop their intellects.”<br />
After the training, the participants<br />
visited Ikogosi Waterfall in Ikogosi<br />
Ekiti to unwind. The excursion featured<br />
talent hunt show and platform<br />
where Enatcus members from<br />
other school interact with themselves.<br />
Participants also presented a<br />
dummy plan on how they would<br />
achieve their projects. Implementation<br />
plan of the EKSU team was<br />
adjudged as the best project and the<br />
team qualified to the final stage.<br />
Ajayi praised the university management<br />
for supporting the initiative,<br />
saying the event was the best<br />
since its inception in 2013.<br />
Olusegun Falana, a 300-Level student<br />
in Obafemi Awolowo University<br />
(OAU) in Ile-Ife, described the<br />
training as educative and fun. “I<br />
would love to come again if given<br />
the opportunity,” he said.<br />
Abdulgafar Onilearo, a student of<br />
Kwara State University, said: “I am<br />
refreshed and glad to be in Ikogosi<br />
warm spring. The organisers must<br />
be commended for this event.”<br />
Poly advises freshers on drug abuse<br />
From Sam Ibok<br />
UYO<br />
Udoyiu, urged the students to take<br />
their studies seriously and also be<br />
good ambassadors of their families<br />
and communities. He said of the<br />
over 5,000 candidates applied to<br />
the polytechnic, but only 2,830 met<br />
the admission requirements.<br />
Udoyiu advised the freshers to<br />
maximise the opportunity of their<br />
admission to add values to their<br />
lives, urging them to shun cultism,<br />
drug abuse, prostitution and others<br />
vices that could make them to<br />
lose focus of their academic pursuits.<br />
The occasion witnessed a large<br />
turnout of parents, guardians and<br />
relatives of the students. The<br />
freshers expressed joy, describing<br />
the ceremony as a milestone in<br />
their lives.<br />
Gideon Bassey, ND 1 Business<br />
Administration, said: “It is a wonderful<br />
and memorable day for me.<br />
I am glad to have my friends and<br />
Kogi varsity matriculates 4, 396<br />
From Mohammed Yabagi<br />
KSU<br />
practice, harassment and drug<br />
abuse. The VC said the school had<br />
zero tolerance for misconduct.<br />
Isah stressed the need for the students<br />
to obey the school rules,<br />
adding that the management<br />
would not hesitate wield a big<br />
stick on anyone found flouting the<br />
institution’s regulations. He prepared<br />
the minds of the students<br />
towards the challenges they may<br />
face during their stay on the campus,<br />
noting that accommodation<br />
remained the major problem.<br />
Isah said: “Our wish is to accommodate<br />
all students on campus,<br />
because this is most appropriate<br />
for learning, scholarship, research<br />
and discipline. However, we face<br />
challenges in accommodating all<br />
students and this is not peculiar<br />
to this university only.”<br />
The VC assured that efforts were<br />
being made to address the situation,<br />
citing the recent commissioning<br />
of two new hostel blocks<br />
family members celebrating this<br />
day with me today. I hope this matriculation<br />
would be the starting<br />
point of excellence in my life.”<br />
Emmanuel Ngonsor admitted<br />
into Business Administration Department,<br />
said: “I thank God for<br />
keeping me alive to witness this<br />
special day. I pray that God<br />
strengthen us through our periods<br />
of studies.”<br />
Nte John and Christianah<br />
Amanawaji promised to take their<br />
studies seriously.<br />
by Governor Idris Wada.<br />
He used the occasion to reiterate<br />
his call to well-meaning<br />
people in the state and publicspirited<br />
individuals to come to<br />
the aid of the institution, saying<br />
government alone cannot solve<br />
the problem.<br />
A breakdown shows that 394<br />
were admitted into the Faculty of<br />
Agriculture, 679 in Faculty of Arts<br />
and Humanities, 806 in Faculty of<br />
Education, 84 in Faculty of Law,<br />
779 in Management Sciences and<br />
42 in College of Medicine.<br />
The faculties of Natural Sciences<br />
and Social Sciences had 615 and<br />
997 freshers.<br />
From Mohammed Yabagi<br />
KSU<br />
CONTRARY to the purported 2015<br />
ranking of Nigerian universities published<br />
by a blog site, Vice-Chancellor<br />
(VC) of Kogi State University (KSU)<br />
in Anyigba, Prof Hassan Isah, has dismissed<br />
his school’s position on the<br />
list.<br />
Prof Isah said the university belongs<br />
to Category A in the comity of universities<br />
as confirmed by independent<br />
accreditation bodies and the National<br />
Universities Commission (NUC).<br />
He debunked the assertion that that<br />
ranking was released by the NUC,<br />
saying the commission does not carry<br />
out rankings. What NUC does time<br />
to time, the VC said, is accreditation<br />
of programmes of universities.<br />
He said after accreditation visit to<br />
schools, the NUC team would inform<br />
stakeholders on the outcome of the<br />
exercise through a letter to the Vice-<br />
Chancellor of such school. The reports,<br />
he said, are published weekly in the<br />
NUC bulletin and publication on its<br />
website.<br />
He said there were no programmes<br />
denied accreditation in the university<br />
and that, 75 per cent of the school<br />
programmes had full accreditation<br />
status. He said any university with 70<br />
per cent or more of its programmes<br />
on full accreditation belongs to category<br />
A.<br />
KSU, he added, scored 71.45 per cent<br />
in the first institutional accreditation<br />
conducted in 2011, which he said represented<br />
‘A’ status and valid for seven<br />
years. He said the university was<br />
among first-rated state universities<br />
and seventh among 26 major universities.<br />
Prof Isah said the Institute of Chartered<br />
Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN),<br />
last August, also conducted its own<br />
accreditation visitation to the university<br />
to assess its Accounting<br />
programme, at the end of which the<br />
university was scored 76 per cent.<br />
He assured parents and guardians<br />
that the school is in good hands and<br />
have a healthy academic status.<br />
Computer<br />
Science<br />
students elect<br />
leaders<br />
From Daniel Adeoye<br />
CRAWFORD<br />
MEMBERS of the National<br />
Association of Computer<br />
Science Students<br />
(NACOSS), Crawford University<br />
chapter, have elected their leaders.<br />
The elections, which held last<br />
Friday, started with the screening<br />
of candidates by the electoral<br />
committee; this was followed by<br />
a debate and manifesto during<br />
which the candidates explained<br />
their programmes for students.<br />
Voting started at 11am in the<br />
department’s Lecture Room and<br />
ended at 2pm. The position of the<br />
president was keenly contested.<br />
Samuel Jegede emerged the<br />
president-elect with 69.20 per cent<br />
of the total votes. His opponent,<br />
Chibuzor Umeilechukwu, had<br />
28.8 per cent. Godwin Umekwe<br />
garnered 89.40 per cent votes cast<br />
to become the vice president-elect<br />
but contested unopposed.<br />
Others elected include Samuel<br />
Salami, Software Director, Caleb<br />
Chibuike, Hardware Director,<br />
Henry Isaiah, Director of External<br />
Affairs, Precious Aderimiki,<br />
General Secretary and Tayo<br />
Fabiyi, Sport Director.
34<br />
CAMPUS LIFE<br />
THE NATION THURSDAY, MAY 21, 2015<br />
Members of BrandiQ<br />
Club in three higher<br />
institutions have<br />
visited Synthesis<br />
Communication to<br />
learn from the<br />
masters. GILBERT<br />
ALASA reports.<br />
Saving the<br />
creative<br />
industry<br />
TO hone their skills in marketing<br />
communication, executive<br />
members of BrandiQ Campus<br />
Club visited the corporate headquarters<br />
of Synthesis Communications<br />
last Thursday.<br />
The visit turned out to be an intellectual<br />
exercise. The representatives<br />
of the club in the University of Lagos<br />
(UNILAG) and the Lagos State University<br />
(LASU), Ojo joined their counterparts<br />
in Redeemers’ University<br />
(RUN) to chart a new course for<br />
marketing communications across<br />
campuses.<br />
The students were led by a lecturer,<br />
Dr Omowale Adelabu. The President<br />
of the club in RUN, Opeyemi<br />
Adebiyi, a 400-Level Mass Communication<br />
student, said the visit was a<br />
familiarisation tour.<br />
“We are here to learn about system<br />
of working of the Synthesis Communications<br />
as the franchise owner of<br />
BrandiQ magazine and also to<br />
familiarise ourselves with the man-<br />
•Ekeh (sitting second left) and Agbo (sitting right) and other staff with the students after the excursion<br />
agement of the firm. We will share<br />
our activities so far with the management<br />
and our future plans for the<br />
club especially for our forthcoming<br />
Mass Communication Week,”<br />
Opeyemi said.<br />
Receiving the students, the firm’s<br />
Managing Director and Editor-in-<br />
Chief of BrandiQ, Mr Desmond Ekeh,<br />
praised the students for the visit, hailing<br />
them for making good use of the<br />
opportunity provided by the platform<br />
to improve their studies and<br />
enhance their knowledge base.<br />
Ekeh said: “BrandiQ is committed<br />
to excellence and leadership through<br />
knowledge transfer. We are proud of<br />
what the club has achieved in<br />
Redeemer’s University with the support<br />
of the school lecturers and management.<br />
We respect the foresight<br />
and responsiveness of the university<br />
towards the platform, what is to<br />
build mind and soul. We trust they<br />
will record more progress to<br />
complement their achievements so<br />
far. We will encourage the other<br />
universities to emulate the club for<br />
the benefit of students and the society<br />
at large.”<br />
Ekeh informed the students how<br />
the company started, stressing that<br />
the firm’s management was committed<br />
to its vision and that of the<br />
magazine. He emphasised the need<br />
for training of quality graduates and<br />
skilled manpower for marketing<br />
communication, adding that it<br />
would serve as a basis for sustaining<br />
the creative industry.<br />
He said the firm would continue<br />
to train responsible and enterprising<br />
youths to contribute their quota to<br />
the nation building. This, he said, is<br />
the reason for regular workshops<br />
and seminars held by the magazine<br />
to support students in their academic<br />
pursuits and provide a platform<br />
to expand the national conversation<br />
and build a virile nation.<br />
In his remarks, Dr Adelabu commended<br />
the magazine in growing<br />
the knowledge base of students<br />
through its activities. He said: “Over<br />
the years, the Department of Mass<br />
Communication in Redeemer’s University<br />
has benefitted immensely<br />
from the club’s initiatives and the<br />
free copies of magazine. The<br />
Marcomm Academy segment of the<br />
magazine has become an official<br />
toolbox of the department. This explains<br />
why the department was able<br />
to convince the school management<br />
to promptly provide all the support<br />
that the BrandiQ Club needed take<br />
flourish.”<br />
He also revealed that the club executives<br />
had lined up programmes<br />
they would embark on in partnership<br />
with the firm’s management.<br />
Opeyemi presented the club’s<br />
SHE never dreamed to become<br />
an entrepreneur as a graduating<br />
student of the Federal Poly-<br />
technic, Offa (OFFA POLY) in Kwara<br />
State, but the 10-month strike by the<br />
Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics<br />
(ASUP) offered Nneamaka<br />
Ezeimo an opportunity to try her<br />
hands in bead making. Six months<br />
after the ASUP called off its,<br />
Nneamaka has acquired fame in the<br />
business and has floated her own<br />
company - Nicky Beads World.<br />
She could not stay at home while<br />
polytechnic teachers close campuses.<br />
She used the period to learn how to<br />
make beads and wire works. “I said<br />
to myself, let me do this. I don’t know<br />
where it will be useful,” she said.<br />
According to Nneamaka, who is<br />
now a Corps member, the decision<br />
paid up and after her Nation Youth<br />
Service, she does not have plan to<br />
search for white-collar job.<br />
Nneamaka, who studied Mass<br />
Communication, said she learned the<br />
vocation stage by stage. “I first learnt<br />
how to make local beads,” she said.<br />
“Then I followed this by learning<br />
how to make wire works, and then<br />
the combination of beads and wire<br />
works. I studied Mass Communication,<br />
but this does not correlate with<br />
what I love doing now. I have discovered<br />
bead making is what I like<br />
to do most.”<br />
Her first job, she said, is the turning<br />
point in her life. “I was very<br />
happy when I won my first contract<br />
in bead making. The first job I did<br />
was for a friend’s sister, who was<br />
getting married. My friend told me<br />
her sister would need bead works for<br />
the Asoebi (uniform) they picked.<br />
They asked me to make simple beads<br />
for the ladies. Because of the perfect<br />
work I did, they gave me the exact<br />
price I charged.<br />
I made the beads and packaged it.<br />
I told myself that, since I could<br />
agenda for the 2015 BrandiQ Week<br />
with the theme: Building a world class<br />
university: The role of brand management.<br />
She explained that the theme was<br />
chosen as a demonstration of the club’s<br />
commitment to the goal of the<br />
university.<br />
Opeyemi said the programme, which<br />
has been scheduled for next month,<br />
would feature a public lecture, award<br />
presentations, a get-together and handover<br />
ceremony to a new executive.<br />
The firm’s Deputy Managing Director<br />
and Deputy Editor-in-Chief of<br />
BrandiQ, Mr Agbo Agbo, hailed the<br />
initiative, pledging the firm<br />
management’s support to the event<br />
to be held at the Redeemer’s University.<br />
He also commended the plans<br />
initiated by the BrandiQ clubs in<br />
UNILAG and LASU to inaugurate<br />
their local chapters to enable them<br />
hold major events on their campuses.<br />
While many of her peers may have done nothing worthwhile during the 10-month strike by the Academic Staff Union of<br />
Polytechnics (ASUP) last year, Nneamaka Ezeimo, who graduated from the Federal Polytechnic, Offa (OFFA POLY), learnt a<br />
vocation that will make her self-reliant after her Youth Service. JENNIFER UMEH (ND II Mass Communication) writes.<br />
Gains of<br />
strike<br />
achieve this, then I could do more<br />
things and making improvement. I<br />
keep on learning and I have not<br />
stopped, because I desire to grow<br />
bigger.”<br />
Asked if starting was rosy,<br />
Nneamaka said she had doubts if her<br />
craftwork would go beyond her<br />
thought. “We live in a society where<br />
people believe they have to patronise<br />
people they know,” she said, adding:<br />
“They want to deal with name. When<br />
I started, it was difficult. Even when<br />
you show people pictures, they will<br />
tell you ‘no problem, we will get back<br />
to you. Some people will tell you they<br />
have regular clients they patronise.<br />
People thought I could not do it. But<br />
I told myself I would continue to do<br />
what I know how to do best.”<br />
How lucrative is the vocation?<br />
Nneamaka said bead making could<br />
be money-spinning if the makers develop<br />
their creativity and satisfy their<br />
clients’ taste. She said the biggest job<br />
she had done was given to her by an<br />
American-based client, who wanted<br />
a unique design.<br />
“It was not easy to get the client’s<br />
taste but I used my initiative to get<br />
the job done. I have built my own<br />
taste and know what people love. It<br />
could be stressful, but if one has to<br />
make efforts to deliever what is good<br />
to clients,” she said.<br />
If Nneamaka had not been a bead<br />
maker, what else would she do? “I<br />
would have been a caterer,” she said.<br />
“I like meeting people and attending<br />
to their needs. Although I am a shy<br />
person, I have been meeting clients<br />
and guests at social functions,” she<br />
added.<br />
•Nneamaka
THE NATION THURSDAY, MAY 21, 2015 35<br />
CAMPUS LIFE<br />
Should young Nigerians stop dreaming?<br />
THE good book says that our<br />
young men shall dream<br />
dreams and our old men<br />
shall see visions. Even though I<br />
believe in the infallible words of<br />
God, the plight of the Nigerian<br />
youth tempts me to reconsider the<br />
veracity or accuracy of my faith.<br />
Permit me to say that the dreaming<br />
atmosphere in Nigeria is fast<br />
diminishing. That should not come<br />
across as a scandal. Millions of<br />
Nigerian youths go to sleep – that<br />
is for those who can still sleep – sad,<br />
confused, frustrated, heartbroken et<br />
al. Under such conditions, the<br />
consequence of sleeping is the<br />
repetition of horror dreams. With<br />
every passing day, it becomes more<br />
and more agonisingly difficult to<br />
dream because obstacles abound to<br />
cut short the actualisation of such<br />
dreams. Even when the dreams are<br />
shared with friends, family<br />
members and pastors who<br />
ordinarily should be supportive,<br />
they almost always make it a point<br />
of responsibility to cast the doubtful<br />
look and give compelling reasons<br />
why such lofty dreams may never<br />
come true. At the end of the day,<br />
those with a weaker willpower are<br />
left with no option than to abandon<br />
their dreams to perish. Worse still,<br />
if one decides to press on with his<br />
dreams, the harsh masquerading<br />
realities in Nigeria attempt to drive<br />
every iota of motivation away.<br />
The rule of thumb is: study hard,<br />
make a first class, graduate and<br />
then get a good job. Such is the<br />
advice given by parents, religious<br />
fellowships, lecturers and friends.<br />
Why not? They argue. For even the<br />
JUST like Paul the octopus who<br />
shot to fame during the 2010<br />
FIFA World Cup in South<br />
Africa for correctly predicting the<br />
outcome of eight matches, there is<br />
a gentleman cum politician of our<br />
time who predicted that the<br />
incumbent president, Dr<br />
Goodluck Jonathan, will lose the<br />
just concluded 2015 general<br />
election earlier this year. His<br />
name is Dim James, who I prefer<br />
to address as Octopus Uche.His<br />
prediction was not accentuated<br />
because he is not one of these<br />
prophets who politicised the<br />
straw of their oracular utterances.<br />
As anarchetypal democrat, he<br />
believed that for democracy to<br />
survivethere is need for a potent<br />
opposition just like the case of All<br />
Progressives Congress (APC) in<br />
the build-up to the 2015 elections.<br />
His prediction started to manifest<br />
when PresidentJonathan took side<br />
publicly on the Governors’ Forum<br />
imbroglio. And many wondered<br />
NATURE, by all variables, is<br />
replete with all sort of good,<br />
bad and ugly expressions<br />
which represent the complexity<br />
higher animals are made of. Truly, it<br />
is not demeaning to describe men as<br />
political animals, but one<br />
distinguishing factor which<br />
differentiates men from other smaller<br />
animals is their application of logic,<br />
methodology and deep thinking in<br />
resolving life’s complex questions.<br />
Men are equally known to employ<br />
diplomacy at the sight of an untoward<br />
situation, to mitigate a looming<br />
disaster or douse possible tension.<br />
More so, the dynamic manipulation<br />
of people’s minds in the midst of<br />
conflicted interests, encapsulates the<br />
whole idea of bio-cultural diversity.<br />
Now check this. On a typical night,<br />
the well-tarred road leading to the<br />
“State of Harmony” hotel is a lovely<br />
sight to behold. Maidens, in their<br />
handful, would besiege the road<br />
forming a horizontal line whose<br />
margin would never break. Clad in<br />
scriptures implore us to “study to<br />
show thy self approved”. Maybe<br />
such advice helps, but does that<br />
really ease the gruesome realities<br />
that we have to face in Nigeria even<br />
with the first class certificates and<br />
knowledge?<br />
In recent times, more and more<br />
emphasis has been laid on<br />
entrepreneurship. But if you intend<br />
starting a business, don’t you<br />
require start-up capital? How do<br />
you go about raising such capital?<br />
Recently a friend and I approached<br />
some banks to solicit for<br />
sponsorship for an intended career<br />
summit. Now, as student leaders,<br />
we also brought our own bumper<br />
offer of benefits to them. But ask me<br />
what happened: They each said<br />
they will get back to us, but till now,<br />
many months after the scheduled<br />
date of the summit, we have gotten<br />
no response whatsoever. This left<br />
me thinking. Were all the friendly<br />
and supportive adverts placed by<br />
these banks in the media meant to<br />
inspire people or in reality to kill<br />
their dreams? Imagine the very<br />
familiar scenario where you pass<br />
through fire to pay your way<br />
through school. You cry now and<br />
again as a result of hunger. You<br />
suffer deprivations. You beg and<br />
borrow from classmates and you<br />
face the humiliation and all<br />
attendant consequences of being<br />
walked out of examination halls<br />
because you have not paid your<br />
school fees, just like my fourth year<br />
in school, and somehow you still<br />
manage to finish. Then you emerge<br />
with the much emphasised<br />
Nigerian certificate and join the<br />
labour market. One and two years<br />
pass but you have no job. You turn<br />
to business, come up with an idea<br />
and then approach the banks for<br />
loans and aid but they quietly<br />
show you the door. You try<br />
everything possible and yet<br />
nothing substantial comes from the<br />
government, friends or relations.<br />
This is the typical Nigerian story.<br />
In fact, I know a young chap who<br />
finished his first degree and<br />
frantically searched for a job for<br />
three years with no luck. He raised<br />
money from friends and relations<br />
to pursue a Masters Degree in<br />
order to improve his chances of<br />
getting a job. He went to a<br />
university located in the south<br />
west region and finally obtained a<br />
Masters degree. Yet, this chap<br />
hawked his resume for three<br />
additional years before becoming<br />
a bus driver in the commercial city<br />
of Lagos. Now tell me, how will<br />
our youths dream dreams under<br />
unfriendly atmospheres such as<br />
this?<br />
In any case, should Nigerian<br />
youths stop dreaming because<br />
dreams are difficult to realise<br />
around here? Should we keep<br />
mute in the place of prayers and<br />
allow the forces of darkness lay<br />
siege on the dreams of the Nigeria<br />
youths? Should we stop working<br />
hard because hope is farfetched?<br />
The answer is no. Nigerian youths<br />
can’t give up and must not give<br />
up. We must keep fighting until<br />
we prevail. We must keep<br />
pushing, hitting and knocking<br />
until the heavens quake for a<br />
positive answer.<br />
By Dumebi Chukwuemeka<br />
I am aware of the naked truth<br />
that opportunities are becoming<br />
scarce, education is dancing with<br />
the winds and suffering is ever<br />
increasing. Our airports are<br />
endowed with dead birds called<br />
airplanes and many of our roads<br />
are death traps. I know it seems<br />
like to work hard is to chase the<br />
wind, but what can we do? For as<br />
long as there is breathe in us, we<br />
must never stop dreaming, never<br />
stop hoping and never let go of<br />
the ultimate victory which we<br />
seek, for weeping may endure for<br />
the night but joy will definitely<br />
come in the morning. A wise man<br />
once said that success is<br />
Meet Uche, the octopus<br />
By Nzube Iheji<br />
who was cajoling the president to<br />
protect the interest of a dubious<br />
few rather than respect and<br />
protect the sanctity of the choice<br />
of the majority. For obvious<br />
reasons, it was hard to imagine<br />
how 16 has come to be greater<br />
than 19. My basic mathematical<br />
knowledge fails me here.<br />
The result was the defection of<br />
five powerful governors to APC<br />
just because President Jonathan<br />
decided to strike his own sheep at<br />
his own peril. Anyway, that is a<br />
lesson for democracy.<br />
And with the benefit of such<br />
insight, Uche the Octopus was<br />
quick to warn anyone that the<br />
battle has been lost by President<br />
Jonathan. Many dismissed the<br />
warning with a wave of the hand,<br />
their various kinds of stunning outfits,<br />
the beautiful ones amongst, mindful<br />
of the likely hiccups, love setting the<br />
niche on fire, beating every show<br />
hands down. They plaster their face<br />
with rounds of indian cosmetics like<br />
those placed on compulsive dose of<br />
narcotic drugs. Unlike the dark days<br />
of anarchy when the bevies of beauties<br />
refuse to vacate the centre stage, then<br />
it becomes a battle of survival between<br />
the beautiful and the ugly ones.<br />
Cashing in on their flamboyant<br />
carriage with sparks in their eyes, the<br />
night marauders command the<br />
servitude of the potential night<br />
bidders, by manoeuvring their way to<br />
the realm of the mighty. The train of<br />
posh rides parked by the lots remains<br />
a wonderful side attraction.<br />
They cling to their shadows like a<br />
basking in the understanding that<br />
no incumbent leader loses out in<br />
our brand of politics. The last<br />
straw that broke the camel’s back<br />
was Mr President‘s unresolved rift<br />
with Chief Olusegun Obasanjo<br />
and the latter’s insistence ona<br />
single tenure by President<br />
Jonathan.<br />
His last public action of tearing<br />
his membership card and his<br />
subsequent support to General<br />
Buhari did more harm than good<br />
to PDP as a party. Even though<br />
majority of the party stakeholders<br />
saw this move as nothing, the<br />
Octopus saw it as a great damage<br />
and an irreparable one with the<br />
2015 general election in sight.<br />
Even with the controversial<br />
postponement of the polls and<br />
GEJ’s last minute implosion in<br />
Lagos and the entire South west,<br />
new couple set to savour a scintillating<br />
honeymoon. Judging from the other<br />
side of attraction, the fame teasers are<br />
already there forming their own<br />
parallel government. They are set to<br />
unseat the incumbents, who denied<br />
their supposed birth rights.<br />
Against the background of this<br />
bleak socio-economic outlook of the<br />
society, the day-to-day exploits of<br />
these night explorers preaches the<br />
lessons in life’s existential realities.<br />
Rather than being subservient to the<br />
dictating tune of dare-devil, they play<br />
along the night marauding about the<br />
streets in sanctified nudity.<br />
It is highly pitiable that the society<br />
fails to uphold the supposed values<br />
naturally inherent in every being. The<br />
craze for materialismhas become the<br />
cardinal target of every young mind;<br />
average , old and so on. Regrettably,<br />
morality which was a dignifying<br />
the damage had long been done.<br />
The Octopus maintained his<br />
ground, predicating his argument<br />
on the fact that it is suicidal to<br />
negotiate at the war front with the<br />
enemy. In what seemed like<br />
flogging a dead horse, President<br />
Jonathan was unable to garner<br />
reasonable armoury to challenge<br />
the gospel of change championed<br />
by the Buhari camp. And even<br />
after the election, the party has<br />
been enmeshed in a flurry of<br />
scandals and internal elbowshoving,<br />
showing the many cracks<br />
on the PDP wall.<br />
To be candid, this prediction<br />
stoked deep-seated hatred<br />
between the Octopus and his<br />
associate who failed to appreciate<br />
reality as well as close relatives<br />
who saw General Buhari as a<br />
religious extremist.<br />
Understanding Western mentality<br />
By Toyin Ali<br />
emblem in the yester-year<br />
generation, became blended due to<br />
the overbearing influence of<br />
civilisation. This became outwardly<br />
manifested with thecurrent trends of<br />
insanity daily incorporated into our<br />
culture.<br />
Of course, the elderly ones out there<br />
have forgotten that where history<br />
fails to takes its didactic course, the<br />
younger generation shall drown in<br />
hollow abyss. Must African youths<br />
get thoroughly immersed in the socalled<br />
Caucasian civilisation? Of<br />
what logic is it when the society runs<br />
into complete jeopardy just because<br />
we cherish the seemingly decaying<br />
western values, alienable doctrines<br />
and racial-centric idealism?<br />
It is of sound belief that the<br />
monumental collapse of our<br />
respective traditional and cultural<br />
institutions, culminated in the<br />
opportunity that woos<br />
preparedness, so each one must be<br />
prepared whenever opportunity<br />
comescalling.<br />
If you don’t have almighty God,<br />
get hold of him for he is freely<br />
available. If you don’t have any<br />
education, it is never too late. Are<br />
you lacking in skills? Acquire<br />
some. They abound. The end is<br />
that when opportunity does come<br />
your way, you may not be the<br />
reason why you don’t shine.<br />
Ignore the loafers, discouragers,<br />
time wasters, never-do-wells and<br />
hope killers positioned<br />
everywhere along your journey.<br />
Their enterprise is contagious;<br />
remember evil communication<br />
corrupts good manners. Seek like<br />
minds, achievers, positive people<br />
and trail blazers whose thought<br />
processes are higher than yours.<br />
Finally, if you forget anything<br />
else don’t forget that all that<br />
matters in this life is God. Cling<br />
to him for he is the author and<br />
finisher of our faith. The<br />
scriptures say that the horses and<br />
chariots are ready for battle but<br />
victory belongs to God. The race<br />
is neither to the swift nor the battle<br />
to the strong but the conclusion of<br />
all matters lie with God who shows<br />
mercy upon whom he chooses to<br />
show compassion.<br />
To the Nigerian youths I say, keep<br />
holding on to your dreams, Let us<br />
keep dreaming, for our victory is<br />
sure.<br />
•Dumebi, just graduated from<br />
Metallurgical and Materials<br />
Engineering, UNN<br />
But Octopus saw the enviable<br />
consistency in the man and the<br />
party which laid the platform for<br />
his glory. Like water, he<br />
remained unmoved and<br />
continued to maintainhis ground.<br />
This gives credence to the saying<br />
that “truth is incontrovertible;<br />
malice may attack it, ignorance<br />
may dribble it, but in the end<br />
there it is.”<br />
Even though this gentleman<br />
was not celebrated like our<br />
prophets when he made this<br />
prediction, one cannot help but<br />
acknowledge the strength of his<br />
faith, his foresight and his<br />
consistency and accuracy. In<br />
Uche the Octopus, we see a<br />
politician driven by the plight of<br />
his people and one that is poised<br />
to serve his people in truth. Also<br />
in him,we see a quintessential<br />
apostle of democracy who sees the<br />
future of the Nigerian dream.<br />
•Nzube, 500-Level Law student,<br />
ABSU<br />
sudden demise of societal values. The<br />
cause for re-modelling the tainted<br />
image of our society have eventually<br />
vanquished into the thin air, for<br />
which revival of the present situation<br />
of things appears somewhat watery<br />
and unconquerable. As inspired by<br />
Price Pritchett, change always comes<br />
bearing gift. And if such dreamed<br />
change will gravitate into reality,<br />
everyone, including the young and<br />
old minds, must brace up to the<br />
challenges.<br />
Coming to terms with the<br />
hypocrisy of the old and present<br />
generations, society must have a<br />
rethink and reinvigorate the<br />
seemingly weak traditional structure<br />
as against its original strong<br />
background during pre-civilisation<br />
years. Perhaps, the course of history<br />
never eschews the heroic deeds of the<br />
past generations but it dawns on the<br />
new generation to reset a new tune of<br />
history.<br />
•Toyin, 300-Level Law, UNILORIN
36<br />
CAMPUS LIFE<br />
THE NATION THURSDAY, MAY 21, 2015<br />
•The inductees after the event<br />
NO fewer than 52 graduating<br />
students of the College of<br />
Health Sciences of the<br />
Usmanu Danfodiyo University,<br />
Sokoto (UDUS) took Hippocratic<br />
Oath at a ceremony held at the<br />
school auditorium on Tuesday last<br />
week.<br />
The Deputy Speaker of the Kwara<br />
State House of Assembly<br />
Muhammad Gana Yisa led the pack<br />
of dignitaries to the 26th induction<br />
of the university.<br />
The Vice-Chancellor (VC), Prof<br />
Abdullah Zuru, was represented by<br />
his deputy for Administration, Prof<br />
Malamin Mode.<br />
From Yasin Olawumi<br />
UDUS<br />
Provost of College of Health Sciences,<br />
Prof Mungadi, in his address,<br />
said the college had produced some<br />
of the best medical doctors in the<br />
country, saying there was no doubt<br />
the graduands would have courage<br />
to repeat the excellence for which the<br />
college is known.<br />
The VC congratulated the induct-<br />
On and Off Campus By Solomon Izekor 08061522600<br />
Varsity inducts 52 medical doctors<br />
ees on the successful completion of<br />
their programme, urging them to<br />
adhere to the ethics of the profession.<br />
He also advised them to be ambassadors<br />
of the university and use there<br />
knowledge for the benefit of humanity.<br />
Yisa said he was delighted to be at<br />
the ceremony and to witness induction<br />
of his first son into medical<br />
profession. He congratulated the<br />
graduands and advised them to uphold<br />
the ethics and use it to guide<br />
their conduct.<br />
Prof A.U. Sanga of the Economics Department<br />
said: “The management deserves<br />
our praise for providing conducive<br />
environment at the college for<br />
the graduands to achieve their aims.<br />
They are fortunate to pass through<br />
school. I will advise them to serve<br />
humanity with the oath they have<br />
taken.”<br />
Chief Medical Director of the<br />
school’s Teaching Hospital, Dr Yakubu<br />
Sheu, said the graduands worked for<br />
three years in the Teaching Hospital,<br />
praising the provost for creating a level<br />
playing field for all the graduates. He<br />
said the graduands were exposed to low<br />
and extreme cases while at the hospital,<br />
urging them to follow to the rule of the<br />
practice.<br />
The highpoint was the administration<br />
of the oath on the inductees and<br />
their introduction to the profession.<br />
•Members of the club releasing the balloon into the atmosphere<br />
FUTA students launch balloon in<br />
space contest<br />
MEMBERS of Space Club at<br />
the Federal University of<br />
Technology, Akure<br />
(FUTA), Ondo State have participated<br />
in the just-concluded Global Space<br />
Balloon Challenge (GSBC) held on<br />
Saturday. The contest was held simultaneously<br />
across the world, with participants<br />
launching their balloons and<br />
taking the video to send to the<br />
organisers.<br />
The students, who represented West<br />
Africa in the contest, launched a 600<br />
gram balloon, which flowed into the<br />
atmosphere at an ascent rate of 300<br />
metre per minute. They balloon travelled<br />
a distance of 32km into space.<br />
Besides, they also performed a pollution<br />
experiment, taking the vertical<br />
profile measurement of the concentration<br />
of carbon monoxide in the atmosphere.<br />
The experiment, the students<br />
said, is important to understand global<br />
warming and climate research.<br />
According to the FUTA team leader,<br />
Temidayo Oniosun, the feat was<br />
achieved after weeks of preparation.<br />
He said: “The club members were di-<br />
From Temidayo Oniosun<br />
FUTA<br />
vided into groups to work on different<br />
aspects of the project, which includes<br />
weather forecast, payload design<br />
and tracking system, which built<br />
a compartment in the balloon that has<br />
a camera taking video of the earth as<br />
the balloon ascends. We also have<br />
tracking device and sensor for measuring<br />
the concentration of carbon<br />
monoxide.”<br />
The aim of the project is to provide<br />
a platform on which students can expand<br />
their knowledge in space science<br />
and applications, which can prepare<br />
them to become leaders in space technology,<br />
said Prof J. Akinyede, FUTA’s<br />
Director of Centre for Space Research<br />
and Application.<br />
Over 200 local teams in the 42 countries<br />
participated in the contest. Winners<br />
will be announced in July by<br />
organisers of the contest.<br />
The club comprises 70 students of<br />
various departments, who operate<br />
under the Centre for Space Research<br />
and Application with a mission to<br />
produce next generation of space leaders.<br />
The club has project groups, including<br />
Astronomy, Cosmology, Global<br />
Navigation Satellite System, Robotics<br />
and Space Engineering, among<br />
others.<br />
‘The club members were divided into groups to work<br />
on different aspects of the project, which includes<br />
weather forecast, payload design and tracking system,<br />
which built a compartment in the balloon that has a<br />
camera taking video of the earth as the balloon ascends’
THE NATION THURSDAY, MAY 21, 2015<br />
EDUCATION<br />
• Tobi (middle), with his parents Mrs. 'Shade Ashafa and Senator 'Gbenga Ashafa during his graduation from the<br />
George Washington University, Washington, DC, USA, where he bagged a Master of Law in National Security and<br />
U.S. Foreign Relations Law.<br />
• Prof Ralph Akinfeleye (left) Dr Abigail Ogwezzy-Ndisika, Ag. Head, Mass Communication Department, University<br />
of Lagos (UNILAG); Dr Sunday Oloruntola and Dr Ibrahim Ismail - all of Mass Communication Department, with<br />
Dr Fassy Yusuf and his wife, Iyabo, at a reception in honour of Yusuf who bagged Doctorate Degree at UNILAG.<br />
59 OAU students bag alumni scholarship<br />
THE joy of 59 outstanding undergraduates<br />
of Obafemi<br />
Awolowo University (OAU)<br />
knew no bounds when they won<br />
scholarships worth over N3 million<br />
during the OAU Muslim Graduates'<br />
Association's annual reunion convention<br />
held at the institution's<br />
campus in Ile-Ife, Osun State.<br />
On hand to present the scholarship<br />
to the lucky students were erudite<br />
lawyer and business tycoon,<br />
Dr. Wale Babalakin, who was also<br />
the guest speaker at the event;<br />
chairman board of trustees of the<br />
association, Alhaji Rafiu Ebiti; National<br />
President, Prof. Abdulwahab<br />
Egbewole; chairman of the occasion,<br />
and Secretary General, Nigeria<br />
Supreme Council for Islamic<br />
Affairs, Prof. Is-haq Oloyede.<br />
One of the recipients from the<br />
Faculty of Arts (who does not wish<br />
to be named) thanked the<br />
organisers of the scholarship for<br />
making their dreams come true.<br />
"As you can see some of us are<br />
from the less privileged homes but<br />
endowed with extra-ordinary intellect<br />
by Almighty Allah. Through<br />
THE Vice Chancellor, Federal<br />
University of Technology<br />
Minna (FUTMinna), Prof.<br />
Musbau Akanji, has said research and<br />
infrastructural development in the<br />
country's higher institutions will continue<br />
to be hampered if the problem<br />
of funding is not properly addressed.<br />
The vice chancellor said this when<br />
he received members of the Senior<br />
Executive Course 37, of the Nigeria<br />
Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies<br />
(NIPSS), Kuru, Jos, Plateau State<br />
at Gidan Kwano campus of the uni-<br />
From Jide Orintunsin, Minna<br />
versity.<br />
Represented by the Deputy Vice<br />
Chancellor, (Academic), Prof<br />
Abdullahi Bala, the don lamented<br />
that funding had been the bane of<br />
universities in the country.<br />
Akanji said the challenge of funding<br />
has affected most universities in<br />
the areas of research output, infra-<br />
benevolence of these people, we<br />
have been able to achieve our<br />
dreams which would have been<br />
jeopardised due to financial constraints.<br />
I pray that God will continue<br />
to bless them and enlarge<br />
their coasts," she said.<br />
National President of the association,<br />
Prof Egbewole, said<br />
through the initiative, the group<br />
has been able to touch many lives.<br />
"Since the inception of the<br />
programme in 2009/2010 academic<br />
session, UNIFEMGA has<br />
awarded scholarship to students of<br />
OAU worth N17, 566,000.00. It is<br />
gratifying to note and put on<br />
record that 16 of our awardees<br />
bagged First Class degrees at the<br />
last convocation of the university,"<br />
he said.<br />
Egbewole implored the awardees<br />
to learn one lesson from the gesture:<br />
that giving back to the society<br />
is the only way it can be sustained.<br />
Also speaking, the OAU Vice-<br />
Chancellor, Prof Bamitale Omole,<br />
who was represented by the<br />
Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academics),<br />
Prof. Ayobami Salami, praised<br />
the association for its benevolence<br />
and support to the university.<br />
"For so many years, they have<br />
been consistent and exceptional in<br />
awarding scholarship to their students.<br />
If we can assist five or six of<br />
them, the story will not be the<br />
same. As an institution, we will<br />
continue to partner with you,"<br />
Salami said.<br />
Founded over two decades ago,<br />
apart from providing the scholarship<br />
to outstanding undergraduates<br />
and postgraduate students, the association<br />
seeks to educate, enlighten<br />
and address societal issues.<br />
The annual convention in its 11th<br />
year running provides opportunity<br />
to members and the academic community<br />
to celebrate, network and<br />
seek ways to improve their alma<br />
mater.<br />
Other dignitaries at the event included<br />
the Chief Imam of OAU<br />
Central Mosque, Prof. Abubakar<br />
Sanusi; Governor Rauf Aregebsola<br />
of Osun State, who was represented<br />
by Mr Basil Lawal; Alhaji Ahmed<br />
Popoola, and Alhaji Abdulwaheed<br />
Odeyimka.<br />
IT was to enjoy a stable academic<br />
calendar that Mouhammed<br />
Ahmed Zein transferred his<br />
studentship from Rivers State University<br />
of Science and Technology<br />
(RSUST), Port Harcourt, to Kampala<br />
International University, Uganda.<br />
However, his education has become<br />
threatened due to financial<br />
problems.<br />
Mouhammed, who was born to a<br />
Lebanese father and Nigerian<br />
mother, was advised by his father to<br />
change schools when RSUST suffered<br />
unsteady academic calendar as a result<br />
of perennial strikes. But then,<br />
things were good for his father, who<br />
worked in Port Harcourt.<br />
Sadly, since his dad lost his job,<br />
Mouhammed has been unable to pay<br />
fees at his new school where he is<br />
studying civil engineering. The university<br />
authorities have given him a<br />
three-week deadline to complete payment<br />
or risk not writing examinations.<br />
Out of desperation, Mouhammed's<br />
•Rafiu Ebiti (left) and Tunde Popoola at the event.<br />
37<br />
Ex-RSUST student<br />
stranded in Ugandan varsity<br />
•Begs for help<br />
College gets<br />
new provost<br />
GOVERNOR Gabriel Suswam<br />
has approved the appointment<br />
of Dr Orkpe Mathias<br />
Nder as the new provost of College<br />
of Education (COE), Katsina-<br />
Ala, Benue State.<br />
Nder takes over from Dr Hans<br />
Senwua, whose tenure expired recently.<br />
Nder is an associate Professor of<br />
Literature in English at the University<br />
of Agriculture Makurdi (UAM).<br />
Since his appointment was made<br />
public, students, parents, and lecturers<br />
have commended Suswam<br />
for Nder's appointment.<br />
They praised his sound academic<br />
background, administrative experience,<br />
and integrity while serving<br />
in various positions at AUN.<br />
Nder, who has since assumed<br />
From Precious Dikewoha, Port<br />
Harcourt<br />
worried father, Ahmed Zein, visited<br />
the Port Harcourt office of The Nation<br />
to appeal to the public for help.<br />
Mouhammed, who also spoke with<br />
this reporter on phone from Uganda,<br />
said he has also lost his accommodation<br />
because of his inability to pay.<br />
He appealed to Nigerians for help.<br />
He said: "I am calling on wellmeaning<br />
Nigerians, organisations<br />
and those who can offer help to me<br />
to assist me. I don't want to drop out<br />
of school because my father lost his<br />
job. As one whose mother is from<br />
Nigeria, I know I have a lot to offer<br />
this country. I want Nigerian government<br />
to assist me.<br />
"I am presently facing financial difficulties<br />
and I'm stranded here, I don't<br />
know what to do. My exams are<br />
coming up by next month. The university<br />
has said if I don't pay they<br />
will send me out of school. I have<br />
nothing to eat, and my accommodation<br />
has expired. I want Nigerians to<br />
assist, no matter how little it is."<br />
•Dr Nder<br />
From Uja Emmanuel, Makurdi<br />
duty, would be confronted with<br />
checking indiscipline among workers<br />
and students of the college who<br />
are notorious for taking to streets<br />
to protest the slightest policy of the<br />
school and events they quarrel with.<br />
Lack of funds hampers research, says FUTMinna VC<br />
structure and quality of their graduates<br />
and therefore called on private<br />
organisations and individuals to<br />
support the development of the education<br />
sector of the country.<br />
He praised the Tertiary Education<br />
Trust Fund (TETFUND) and Petroleum<br />
Technology Development<br />
Fund (PTDF) for funding research<br />
and infrastructural development in<br />
tertiary institutions.<br />
The vice chancellor also decried<br />
the management of basic education<br />
by local and state governments, saying<br />
it had affected the quality of the<br />
country's basic education sector.<br />
He appealed for adequate funding<br />
of the sector, stressing that education<br />
remains the bedrock of any development.<br />
Leader of the team, Air Cdr.<br />
Emmanuel Jekada (rtd) said the purpose<br />
of the visit was to interact with<br />
the university management to learn<br />
about the institution's problems and<br />
proffer solutions.<br />
Jekada said the country's educational<br />
system needed urgent attention<br />
to address the myriad of problems<br />
confronting the sector.
38<br />
CAMPUS LIFE<br />
IBBUL FILE<br />
NIPSS praises<br />
IBBUL programmes<br />
THE management of Ibrahim<br />
Badamasi Babangida University,<br />
Lapai (IBBUL), has been commended<br />
for initiating developmental<br />
academic programmes<br />
that will accelerate the socioeconomic<br />
fortunes of Niger State<br />
and Nigeria at large. Air Commodore<br />
Emmanuel Jekada (rtd), gave<br />
the commendation while he led<br />
the Senior Executive Course 37 of<br />
2015 participants of the National<br />
Institute for Policy and Strategic<br />
Studies (NIPSS), Kuru, who were<br />
on a study tour to the university.<br />
He expressed satisfaction with<br />
IBBUL's infrastructural stride,<br />
applauding the Niger State government<br />
for establishing the<br />
institution. Jekada stressed that<br />
every effort should be made to<br />
ensure that the funding system is<br />
enduring for sustainability.<br />
Jekada said the visit was part of<br />
traditional mandates of participants<br />
to undertake a tour to<br />
research and educational institutions<br />
nationwide with a view to<br />
expanding their knowledge on<br />
critical issues affecting the sector<br />
and how to evolve policies that<br />
could help mitigate some challenges.<br />
In his response, IBBUL Vice-<br />
Chancellor, Prof Muhammad<br />
Nasir Maiturare told participants<br />
that the university, with her 10<br />
years of modest history has<br />
evolved through developmental<br />
stages and now ranks high among<br />
its equals.<br />
NUC pledges ties<br />
THE Executive Secretary, National<br />
Universities Commission (NUC),<br />
Prof Julius Okojie, has assured the<br />
management of IBBUL of a cordial<br />
working relationship in order<br />
to enable the institution compete<br />
favourably with her peers across<br />
the globe.<br />
Okojie gave the assurance when<br />
the university management led by<br />
its Vice-Chancellor, Prof<br />
Muhammad Nasir Maiturare,<br />
called on his office in Abuja.<br />
Okojie underscored the need for<br />
stronger collaboration and linkage<br />
among universities and NUC<br />
if the former are to catch up with<br />
best practices of the contemporary<br />
competitive world knowledge.<br />
He advised the university management<br />
to always ensure that the<br />
Basic Minimum Academic Standard<br />
(BMAS) for every programme<br />
is strictly adhered to and should<br />
also liaise with the commission<br />
while planning the introduction of<br />
any academic programme for<br />
assistance. Earlier, the Prof<br />
Maiturare, stated that the visit was<br />
intended to seek from NUC, areas<br />
that would put the IBBUL on a<br />
better standing and to acquaint the<br />
commission with the current<br />
leadership of the university.<br />
Monash International<br />
Merit Scholarships<br />
Bachelor/Masters Degree<br />
Study in: Australia<br />
Course starts Semester 2, 2015<br />
Brief description: Monash<br />
University is offering a number of<br />
scholarship programmes including<br />
the Monash University International<br />
Merit Scholarships for outstanding<br />
international students who wish to<br />
pursue an undergraduate or<br />
postgraduate degree at Monash<br />
SCHOLARSHIPS<br />
APPROACHING DEADLINE<br />
University.<br />
Host Institution(s): Monash<br />
University in Australia<br />
Field(s) of study: Any eligible fulltime<br />
undergraduate or postgraduate<br />
(coursework) programmes offered at<br />
the university<br />
Target group: International<br />
students from all countries. Countries<br />
with strategic priorities for Monash<br />
will be given preference.<br />
Number of Scholarships: 31<br />
scholarships will be available in 2015.<br />
Scholarship value/inclusions:<br />
$10,000 for a full time study load (48<br />
credit points) paid per year until the<br />
minimum number of points for your<br />
degree are completed.<br />
Eligibility: International student<br />
•Commencing students with a full<br />
Monash course offer or continuing<br />
students, and<br />
•Undertaking a full time<br />
undergraduate or postgraduate<br />
(coursework) degree at a Monash<br />
campus in Australia<br />
Application instructions: Before<br />
applying for this scholarship, you<br />
must have received a full Monash<br />
course offer with no conditions. You<br />
THE NATION THURSDAY, MAY 21, 2015<br />
must submit a separate application<br />
form for this scholarship by the<br />
deadline. The next deadlines are 15<br />
March/15 April/12 June 2015 for<br />
Semester 2, 2015.<br />
It is important to visit the official<br />
website (link found below) to access<br />
the application form and for detailed<br />
information on how to apply for<br />
this scholarship.<br />
Website: Official Scholarship<br />
Website:<br />
http://<br />
www.monash.edu.au/study/<br />
scholarships/international/<br />
international-merit.html<br />
‘Our approach to education is holistic’<br />
ITS approach to education is to<br />
engender spiritual, rational and<br />
emotional intelligence in its<br />
students; and this is why every<br />
programme of Regenesys Business<br />
School is weaved around its motto-<br />
‘awakening potential’. The philosophy<br />
is to have people discover their<br />
innate potentials and consolidate on<br />
same to build better leadership.<br />
“We believe that every human<br />
being has great potentials that are<br />
blocked by our fears. Our role is to<br />
block those fears so that people can<br />
now achieve their aspirations. Our<br />
mission is making the world a better<br />
place by developing and becoming<br />
better leaders. The problem the<br />
world is involved in today is lack<br />
of dedication and leadership in<br />
management skills; so by developing<br />
leaders, we are creating a ripple<br />
effect for families, organisations,”<br />
said Regenesys Business School<br />
Chairperson, Dr Marko Savania<br />
during a one day seminar on Effective<br />
Strategy; held at Eko Hotel and<br />
By Adegunle Olugbamila<br />
Suites on Friday last week.<br />
“It’s holistic education is one of<br />
the initiatives of Regenesys,”<br />
Savania continued. “We approach<br />
education holistically by developing<br />
rational, emotional and spiritual<br />
intelligence of our students”.<br />
Savania said the seminar would<br />
be a forerunner to several other similar<br />
programmes Regenesys would<br />
be rolling out especially in facets of<br />
business and human resources.<br />
The theme of the seminar, Savania<br />
explained, is not only tailored towards<br />
Nigeria’s needs alone but<br />
stretches globally since organisations<br />
now face stiff competitions.<br />
“The initiative is not tailored to<br />
Nigeria alone. Globally, competitive<br />
strategy is<br />
compelling.Companies are competing<br />
not only within their immediate<br />
locality but across the globe. So<br />
there is a clear need to develop a<br />
robust strategy that allows you<br />
compete and also think globally. It<br />
is to expose people to global best<br />
practices, to inspire participants to<br />
share experiences as well as to<br />
learn,“ he added.<br />
Regenesys Country Head, Supo<br />
Fawole, noted that the Regenesys,<br />
though started in South Africa yet<br />
birthed in Nigeria two years ago,<br />
aligning its strategy in two key areas<br />
of leadership and management.<br />
According to Fawole, Regenesys<br />
offers service in three key areas of<br />
academic qualification-post graduate<br />
diploma, executive education as<br />
well as short skills programme.<br />
The seminar was being replicated<br />
all through last week in Mumbai,<br />
Johannesburg in South Africa and<br />
Nigeria.<br />
“If you look at where Regenesys<br />
is located-India, South Africa and<br />
Nigeria are three key emerging<br />
markets each with a potential to<br />
make significant impact in the<br />
world. So taking this programme<br />
to a different location simply shows<br />
At 50, we are indebted to the founding<br />
fathers, says Auchi Poly Rector<br />
HOW would you describe<br />
Auchi Polytechnic at 50?<br />
It is a long and glorious<br />
history. If the institution were a human<br />
being, at 50 it would be time to<br />
sit back and do an appraisal. So, as a<br />
first generation technological institution,<br />
there is so much to which we<br />
can proudly lay claim. Our products<br />
are playing active roles in different<br />
critical sectors of the nation's<br />
economy. Our hands and brains are<br />
contributing immeasurably to national<br />
development.<br />
As an alumnus, what is your assessment<br />
first as a former student, lecturer<br />
and now a Rector?<br />
The institution undeniably has<br />
gone through transitions. We are indebted<br />
to the founding authorities<br />
that laboured to establish the<br />
institution's administrative, academic<br />
and social framework, and<br />
passed the torch down the line to us.<br />
Administrations come and go, but<br />
Auchi Polytechnic remains and there<br />
is always posterity to judge the net<br />
impact of our contributions.<br />
At 50, are you satisfied with the<br />
level of infrastructural development<br />
in the institution so far?<br />
Without doubt, we have made our<br />
modest contributions to the<br />
infrastructural transformation of<br />
Auchi Polytechnic. But our target is<br />
to create a learning environment in<br />
which students do not struggle for<br />
use of lecture rooms; where our laboratories<br />
have the right equipment and<br />
facilities such that on graduation, our<br />
products are left with the choice to<br />
either seek paid employment or be<br />
self employed; where the library system<br />
guarantees access to current reading<br />
and research materials, both in<br />
hard and electronic copies; where our<br />
teaching and non-teaching staff are<br />
properly motivated, comfortably accommodated<br />
and demonstrate the<br />
right quality of efficiency because<br />
they are exposed to quality capacity<br />
development programmes both locally<br />
and internationally.<br />
Have you been able to attract the<br />
attention of donor agencies for assistance<br />
in your drive to take the institution<br />
to greater heights?<br />
It is not easy to get the attention of<br />
these global agencies for now. But<br />
very soon, it will be the agencies seeking<br />
to partner with us when the inputs<br />
we are making now begin to<br />
mature. Meanwhile, we are making<br />
prudent use of our internally generated<br />
revenue, coupled with generous<br />
support from government agencies,<br />
to achieve our set developmental objectives.<br />
What are the major challenges you<br />
have faced in your first few years in<br />
office?<br />
I was brought up to see challenges<br />
as necessary ingredients for positive<br />
growth and development.<br />
I have held different posts in this<br />
institution, thus, my appointment as<br />
Rector only increased the scale of decisions<br />
and issues that require attention.<br />
My driving urge has been to justify<br />
the confidence reposed in me by<br />
the President, and to assure myself<br />
that I can do it. The teething challenges<br />
I faced only served as the tonic needed<br />
to stay focused on the tasks that faced<br />
us as a first generation polytechnic.<br />
there is a lot we can learn from each<br />
other. The market is so huge and<br />
the challenge of education is so big<br />
in Africa generally that the space is<br />
big enough for everybody to play,”<br />
Fawole said.<br />
At present, Fawole said<br />
Regenesys enjoys scholarships<br />
from Microsoft to run two of its<br />
programmes across 10 African nations.<br />
This is in addition to an agreement<br />
with global communication<br />
outfit MTN’s I-learning platform in<br />
which Regenesys provides exclusive<br />
and high quality educational<br />
content across 14 African countries,<br />
among others.<br />
“Participants will go away with<br />
impact that gives you confident<br />
about the future,” said Savanja on<br />
expectation of participants at the<br />
seminar. “You can achieve your<br />
dreams. Things that were being discussed<br />
are things that people have<br />
read about but to come together in<br />
learning environments like this has<br />
tremendous impact on you.”<br />
Dr. Philipa O. Idogho is the Rector of Auchi Polytechnic, an institution which recently clocked<br />
50. In this chat with OSEMWENGIE BEN OGBEMUDIA, Mrs Idogho speaks on the journey so<br />
far, stressing that challenges are meant to become instruments for positive growth.<br />
• From left: Dr. Olopade Williams, Vice-Dean, Faculty of Pharmacy, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife; Mrs<br />
Marquis, Dr. Lolu Ojo, Guest Speaker; and Prof Grace Onawunmi at the annual Prof. V. O. Marquis Memorial<br />
lecture organised by the faculty.<br />
•Dr Idogho<br />
How cordial is your relationship<br />
with your team of management and<br />
staff for the past years?<br />
I must give thanks to God who has<br />
given me an amazing management<br />
team to work with these past years.<br />
What else can one wish for when one's<br />
management team and staff evolve<br />
into a close family unit where the<br />
common objective is to ensure things<br />
work well? You cannot ask for more.<br />
There is this insinuation around that<br />
some of the lecturers are involved in<br />
blocking and sexual harassment, how<br />
true is this?<br />
Over the years, we have orientated<br />
our staff, both teaching and non-teaching,<br />
to set and observe respectable<br />
work ethics and personal moral standards,<br />
to take pride in the names they<br />
bear in and out of office. I am proud of<br />
my staff. Nevertheless, there are appropriate<br />
administrative instruments<br />
to deal with unethical conduct by staff,<br />
if and when they are reported.<br />
What is your assessment of the academic<br />
performance of students over<br />
the years?<br />
There are many factors. They include<br />
quality of learning environment,<br />
quality of print and non-print<br />
learning materials, quality, experience<br />
and motivation level of teaching<br />
staff, and the students themselves.
THE NATION THURSDAY, MAY 21, 2015<br />
EDUCATION<br />
NNPC quiz competition: Akwa Ibom dwarfs others<br />
•Organisers frown at poor performance in Physics<br />
PUPILS of Top Faith Secondary<br />
School, Akwa Ibom<br />
State, have emerged winner<br />
in the finals of the Southsouth<br />
zonal 2015 annual quiz competition<br />
organised by the Nigerian<br />
National Petroleum Corporation<br />
(NNPC).<br />
However, the organisers were<br />
unimpressed by the performance<br />
of the participating schools in<br />
Physics, which was one of the core<br />
subjects in the sciences and mathematics<br />
contest.<br />
But the Akwa Ibom team<br />
dazzled, topping the competition<br />
held at the West African Peoples’<br />
Institute, Calabar, with about 50<br />
points ahead of other contestants<br />
from Rivers, Edo, Delta, Bayelsa<br />
and Cross River states.<br />
The competition featured science<br />
subjects including Chemistry, Biology,<br />
English language, Physics<br />
and Mathematics.<br />
Speaking at the event, NNPC<br />
General Manager, (Corporate<br />
Affairs) Mr Ohi Alegbe, charged<br />
participants to take their studies<br />
more seriously and develop<br />
interest in science-related subjects.<br />
He applauded the winners for<br />
Senator Tinubu<br />
counsels pupils<br />
on leadership<br />
THE management of Dansol<br />
High School, Ikeja in Lagos<br />
has held its sixth annual leadership<br />
lecture of the school. The lecture<br />
with the theme: Becoming 21st<br />
Century leaders of value and integrity,<br />
gave tips on good leadership. The<br />
event was held last Saturday.<br />
The school hall venue of the event<br />
was filled to capacity. It also featured<br />
events such as cultural activities,<br />
beauty pageant and award presentation.<br />
The guest speaker,Senator<br />
Oluremi Tinubu, who spoke on:<br />
The need for Godly leadership in 21st<br />
century, admonished the pupils on<br />
the kind of lifestyle they must<br />
adopt to become leaders of value<br />
and integrity. According to Mrs<br />
Tinubu, sound leadership skills do<br />
not necessarily have to be innate,<br />
but can also be learned.<br />
"One of the myths surrounding<br />
leadership is that it is determined<br />
by distinctive dispositional characteristics.<br />
However, it is important<br />
to note that leadership also<br />
develops through hard work and<br />
careful observation”, she said.<br />
their astute performance in the<br />
various rounds of the competition.<br />
“For you to emerge winner in<br />
this stage shows that you are actually<br />
a star in your school,” he<br />
said.<br />
Earlier, coordinator of the competition<br />
for the NNPC, Mr.<br />
Olatayo Sani, frowned at the poor<br />
performance, saying that most of<br />
the contestants answered the<br />
questions based on trial and error<br />
instead of with confidence on<br />
their choice answers.<br />
“I am not impressed with what<br />
is happening here. Without options<br />
your students cannot answer<br />
a question, which is very bad. That<br />
shows that they are all answering<br />
based on guess work and<br />
their poor performance in Physics<br />
is of concern too which needs<br />
to be addressed,” he said<br />
The Cross River State Commissioner<br />
for Education Prof. Offiong<br />
Offiong, expressed gratitude to<br />
organisers for grooming participants<br />
in the field of science as the<br />
basis for development of any nation.<br />
One of the winners from Top<br />
Challenges of leadership is the<br />
perception of weakness among female<br />
folk, which to Tinubu, is not<br />
true because the feminine race is<br />
strong and capable of delivering.<br />
Faith Secondary School,<br />
Chidibem, attributed their success<br />
to hard work and efforts of the coordinating<br />
teachers whom he said,<br />
nurtured them to take part in the<br />
competition.<br />
• Senator Tinubu (middle) after receiving her award. With her are: Mr Oladapo (second right), Mrs Majolagbe<br />
(right), Mrs Atobalo Oluwole (second left) and Ifeatu.<br />
By Opeyemi Samuel<br />
‘Females are built so strong yet we<br />
think we are weak; we have to find<br />
that inbuilt energy. Stop pushing<br />
women backward, we can do more’<br />
She, therefore, urged the female<br />
folk to not limit their achievements<br />
as a result of gender reasons.<br />
"Females are built so strong yet<br />
we think we are weak; we have to<br />
find that inbuilt energy. Stop pushing<br />
women backward, we can do<br />
more,'' Senator Tinubu added.<br />
She also urged the students to<br />
start developing themselves from<br />
their present stage.<br />
"You cannot learn everything in<br />
the tertiary institution. For the fact<br />
that you are the architect of your<br />
39<br />
He expressed optimism that the<br />
school would emerge victorious at<br />
the forthcoming national competition.<br />
•From right: Lordson Daki, Head, Development at Zaccheus Onumba Dibiaezue Memorial Libraries (ZODML);<br />
Idowu Omona, Education District Official; Usman Imana,Communications Manager, Stanbic IBTC Bank; Uzoamaka<br />
Okoye, Executive Assistant, ZODML, and other dignitaries with the pupils of Lagos Progressive Secondary School,<br />
Lagos, when the bank donated books to the school.<br />
life and fortune, you must try to<br />
develop yourself. Develop yourself<br />
with things around you. The essence<br />
of this programme is to prepare<br />
you for leadership position in<br />
future and enable you to plan ahead<br />
of your ambition.''<br />
A cultural troupe thereafter<br />
mounted the podium and thrilled<br />
the audience to endless applause.<br />
Senator Tinubu was honoured with<br />
Dansol Leadership award while<br />
Miss Ifeatu Nwosu in Junior Secondary<br />
School (JSS) 3 was also<br />
given an award for being an<br />
epitome of wisdom for 2014/ 2015<br />
session.<br />
Also speaking, Special Adviser<br />
(media) to Senator Tinubu, Mr<br />
Maxwell Adegbenro said such forum<br />
would expose pupils to good<br />
leadership traits early in life, adding<br />
that this would ultimately benefit<br />
Nigeria in future.<br />
Principal of the school, Mr Esan<br />
Oladapo, told reporters the rationale<br />
behind the annual event. He<br />
said: "We see our students as future<br />
leaders and yearly we get people<br />
that are doing well in the society to<br />
come over and talk to them. We<br />
believe that they will be able to<br />
learn one or two things from their<br />
personal life. Mrs Tinubu's speech<br />
today has really inspired them.”<br />
Also present at the event were<br />
Hon Lola Akande, Barrister Taiwo<br />
Adeoluwa (Secretary to Ogun State<br />
Government), Mr Tunde Akinmiju<br />
and parents.<br />
Society holds anniversary<br />
THE Nigeria Society for the<br />
Blind (FNSB) Oshodi, will<br />
hold its 60TH anniversary on<br />
Saturday,May 23 at the Muson Centre,<br />
Onikan Lagos.<br />
Announcing the event in a briefing,<br />
FNBS Executive Chairman,<br />
Mrs. Biola Agbaje said the event<br />
will be used to feature FNSB's laudable<br />
achievements especially the<br />
Vocation Training Centre (VTC).<br />
The outgoing Lagos State Governor,<br />
Babatunde Raji Fashola and<br />
his wife Dame Abimbola would<br />
be the chief guests of honour including<br />
other notable personalities,<br />
Agbaje said.<br />
By Emmanuel Udodinma<br />
Going down memory lane,<br />
Agbaje recalled how the society<br />
was established in May 1955 with<br />
the aim of training and giving hope<br />
to visually handicapped adolescents<br />
and adults in Nigeria.<br />
The centre, she explained, has<br />
trained over 2000 blind men and<br />
women to acquire skills in Braille<br />
writing and reading, typewriting,<br />
handcrafts, telephone switchboard<br />
operation, computer operation, mobility<br />
skills, among others, which<br />
are necessary for job placement in<br />
the industry or self employment.<br />
•From left: Mrs Yinka Adedoyin, Council Member, Federal Nigeria Society for the Blind (FNSB); Mrs Agbaje and<br />
Chief Olu Falomo, Past Executive Council Chairman, (FNSB), at the briefing.
40<br />
EDUCATION<br />
Nigeria needs human skills<br />
for growth, says expert<br />
AN investment expert, Dr<br />
Mikeal Lucas, has identified<br />
youth empowerment as key<br />
to sustainable economy development<br />
in the country.<br />
He said providing quality youth<br />
programmes would create an environment<br />
to develop social and emotional<br />
skills.<br />
Lucas spoke at a lecture titled:<br />
"Global economy downturn with<br />
reference to oil price and implication<br />
for human capital/youth development''<br />
organised by the College<br />
of Management Services, Bells<br />
University of Technology, Ota in<br />
Ogun State.<br />
Also the Chief Executive Officer,<br />
Kapital Investment and Properties,<br />
said crude oil, which is the main stay<br />
of the country's economy, is not well<br />
utilised, as it needs machineries,<br />
technology and skills for its extraction<br />
and exploitation processes<br />
which the country lacks.<br />
"The question now is why a country<br />
richly blessed with oil and other<br />
natural resources remains in pov-<br />
• Category<br />
Manager, Fab<br />
Cleaning,<br />
Unilever,<br />
Ibironke<br />
Ugbaja (left),<br />
and Brand<br />
Ambassador<br />
Omo, Ali<br />
Nuhu (right)<br />
presenting a<br />
N500,000<br />
cheque to<br />
Clementina<br />
Emmanuel of<br />
Mafah<br />
Education<br />
Centre, Benin,<br />
second place<br />
winner of the<br />
Omo Imagine<br />
and Achieve<br />
Competition<br />
in Lagos.<br />
By Jane Chijioke<br />
erty? The simple answer among<br />
other reasons, would be that Nigeria<br />
lacks the capacity to add value to<br />
its crude oil," Lucas said.<br />
He further said as a result of lack<br />
of technical know-how when it was<br />
discovered, the exploitation has<br />
been dominated by foreign investors.<br />
As a result, huge earnings generated<br />
from the oil sector are repatriated<br />
by the foreigners to their<br />
countries, thus leaving Nigeria with<br />
meagre resources for development.<br />
The investment expert urged<br />
government to invest in the youth<br />
by making them feel physically and<br />
emotionally safe, a sense of belonging,<br />
helping them develop selfworth<br />
and ease their journey to self<br />
discovery.<br />
He also advocated for<br />
programmes that would help youth<br />
develop quality relationships as<br />
well as discuss conflicting values<br />
with their peers and adults.<br />
Lucas also counseled the govern-<br />
Workshop enlightens teachers about<br />
revised UBE curriculum<br />
HE Learn Africa mega workshop<br />
for primary school<br />
Mathematics and English Tteachers held in Maryland, Lagos,<br />
last Monday was an eye opener for<br />
participants who got opportunity to<br />
learn about the revised Universal<br />
Basic Education (UBE) curriculum.<br />
Southwest Zonal Director of the<br />
Nigerian Education Research and<br />
Development Council (NERDC), Dr<br />
Moses Salau, clarified misconceptions<br />
about the new curriculum to<br />
the teachers drawn from public and<br />
private primary schools.<br />
For instance, contrary to the practice<br />
by some schools in renaming<br />
the primary classes basic 1-6, Salau<br />
said the implementation of the nineyear<br />
universal basic education (UBE)<br />
scheme is a policy that pegs the minimum<br />
level of education in Nigeria<br />
at JSS3, and not a structure that alters<br />
the 6-3-3-4 system of education.<br />
"The nine-year of basic education<br />
is still divided into six years of primary<br />
and three years of junior secondary<br />
education. It is a policy, not<br />
an education structure. It is still<br />
called Primary 1-6, not Basic 1-6; and<br />
JSS1-3, not Basic 7-9," he said.<br />
Giving the features of the revised<br />
curriculum, Salau said Nigeria has<br />
followed best practices to reduce the<br />
number of subjects taken at primary<br />
and junior secondary school levels<br />
from between 12-16 to between six<br />
and 10.<br />
He said: "The feedback on the UBE<br />
By Kofoworola Belo-Osagie<br />
curriculum called for an urgent need<br />
to achieve the following:<br />
•Reduction in the number of subjects<br />
to meet global standard without<br />
compromising quality. In<br />
Kenya, primary schools do seven<br />
subjects; in U.S., six; in Malaysia;<br />
nine, while in Nigeria, we had 16-27<br />
subjects.<br />
•An elimination of repeated topics<br />
within various subjects<br />
•The inclusion/reflection of national/global<br />
issues such as: security<br />
education, disaster risk reduction<br />
education, climate change, and peace<br />
and conflict resolution.<br />
"The new revised curriculum has<br />
reduced subjects at the basic level<br />
into 10 teachable subjects. Every<br />
learner who successfully completes<br />
the nine-year UBE curriculum must<br />
have acquired appropriate levels of<br />
literacy, numeracy, mathematical<br />
manipulative skills, communication,<br />
as well as ethical, moral and<br />
civic values needed for laying a solid<br />
foundation for life-long learning."<br />
The reduction was achieved by<br />
combining subjects with similar<br />
themes together.<br />
While primary 1-3 do seven compulsory<br />
subjects (English, Mathematics,<br />
Nigerian Languages, Basic Science<br />
and Technology, Pre-Vocational Studies,<br />
Religious and Value Education,<br />
and Cultural/Creative Arts); primary<br />
four-six add French to the seven.<br />
• Dr Lucas<br />
ment to revive agriculture and solid<br />
minerals, which were sustainable<br />
sources of revenue for the country<br />
long before the discovery of crude<br />
oil, and encourage the development<br />
of the private sector.<br />
"The government needs to make<br />
the private sector the engine of<br />
growth in order to export goods and<br />
services as well as create the enabling<br />
environment for direct foreign investment.<br />
It should also strengthen<br />
the sectors that drive growth such as<br />
infrastructure, agriculture and housing<br />
while reducing waste with renewed<br />
focus on prudence among<br />
others," he said.<br />
To effectively implement the curriculum,<br />
which was put into use with<br />
primary one class from the start of<br />
the 2014/2015 academic session last<br />
September, Salau said the NERDC<br />
recommends progressive as against<br />
blanket implementation. He said<br />
that is why only primary one have<br />
started with it and would continue<br />
until they get to primary six (in 2019).<br />
He said other classes would not have<br />
the foundation to use the curriculum<br />
if implemented across board.<br />
In his speech, Managing Director,<br />
Learn Africa Plc, Mr Segun Oladipo,<br />
said the training was organised to<br />
help teachers to be better productive.<br />
"This is one of our regular initiatives<br />
to support teacher education so<br />
that they can sharpen their skills and<br />
acquire additional knowledge that<br />
could empower them to improve the<br />
effectiveness of teaching and make<br />
learning more interesting for the<br />
students," he said.<br />
He thanked the Lagos State Commissioner<br />
for Education, Mrs<br />
Olayinka Oladunjoye for how she<br />
carried stakeholders along.<br />
Mrs Oladunjoye, who was represented<br />
by Mrs Joy Ojei, Director,<br />
Curriculum Services, also praised the<br />
firm for its long-term partnership<br />
with the state in teacher training and<br />
providing instructional materials.<br />
Various resource persons who<br />
specialised in Mathematics and<br />
English, taught the teachers new<br />
teaching techniques.<br />
Edo's<br />
shining<br />
example<br />
THE NATION THURSDAY, MAY 21, 2015<br />
EDUTALK with<br />
Tfor reviewing the tenure of<br />
HE Edo State House of Assembly<br />
should be praised<br />
vice chancellors at the Ambrose Alli<br />
University (AAU), Ekpoma, from a<br />
renewable term of four years to a<br />
single term of five years.<br />
The review is enshrined in the law<br />
guiding the operations of federal<br />
universities, which was championed<br />
by the Academic Staff Union<br />
of Universities (ASUU).<br />
Kofoworola<br />
Belo-Osagie<br />
Kofosagie@yahoo.com<br />
08054503077 (SMS only)<br />
For a long time, the union has been urging state governments to approve<br />
similar laws for state-owned universities. But that has not been the<br />
case as governors have been known to extend the tenures of vice-chancellors<br />
they appoint beyond five years. This has almost always been met<br />
with resistance by the local chapter of the union and other workers. It<br />
usually snowballs into crisis that disrupts the academic calendars of such<br />
institutions. Examples abound all over Nigeria.<br />
Limiting the tenure to a single term would ease the transition process in<br />
universities and allow vice chancellors to focus their energies on doing a<br />
good job within the five years they have rather than seeking to renew<br />
their tenures, which may invariably take their eyes off the ball - running<br />
the university well - and make them begin lobbying various stakeholders<br />
and putting out fires caused by the opposition.<br />
Edo State has set an example that should be emulated by all other state<br />
governments. Generally, the governments need to give the university<br />
and other tertiary institutions greater autonomy to run their affairs. They<br />
should desist from imposing principal officers and let the laid down procedures<br />
for selecting such officials work meritoriously. It would only<br />
serve to improve the institutions - and that is the ultimate goal of setting<br />
them up - so they can work effectively.<br />
Workers' unions in our tertiary institutions also need to learn one or<br />
two lessons: that the transition process from one administration to another<br />
is usually too problematic for an academic environment. Though<br />
institutions should serve as shining examples for society, it is sadly not<br />
the case most of the time. In universities, polytechnics and colleges of<br />
education, which are supposed to be examples of civility and advancement,<br />
we find tribalism, nepotism, backbiting and the pull-them-down<br />
syndrome. I was shocked to learn from a former rector that a few months<br />
to the end of his tenure, a worker told him that he would be disgraced out<br />
of office "because no rector is allowed to leave in peace." I have also heard<br />
about workers of a particular university boasting that they remove vice<br />
chancellors. Such behaviour is unbecoming of academic institutions and<br />
should be eliminated from the system. The gown should set a good example<br />
for the town. We hope this will be the case in future.<br />
‘Though institutions should serve as shining<br />
examples for society, it is sadly not the<br />
case most of the time. In universities, polytechnics<br />
and colleges of education, which<br />
are supposed to be examples of civility and<br />
advancement, we find tribalism, nepotism,<br />
backbiting and the pull-them-down syndrome’<br />
From my Inbox<br />
Re: For passion or by compulsion (May 14, 2015)<br />
I just read your article. It was nice. Just yesterday, I was thinking how<br />
Nigerian schools could limit a student's choices. It seems you picked up<br />
some ideas in my head. I faced similar challenges when I was in JSS3. I did<br />
not really know what I wanted to do but I opted for science class. I avoided<br />
commercial class because of Accounting. I really wanted to do Literature<br />
in English and History but I couldn't because I was in science class.<br />
Sometimes I feel there should be no strict grouping of classes. I mean,<br />
one should be allowed to choose from the different options - do some<br />
exploring before settling. If SS1 can be structured in a way that all students<br />
can choose different subjects, it would be good.<br />
I am happy that Hephzber found her passion. You know switching courses<br />
in other institutions in the country is not an easy thing. From Chianu<br />
Akukwe.<br />
Worola, I do enjoy your write up. It is educative and commendable.<br />
Keep it up. From 0816937---.<br />
Re: The bad headmaster (April 23, 2015)<br />
It is necessary as a victim that I keep your column, "The Bad Headmaster",<br />
in my archive. In 1970 our Headmaster denied us our primary school<br />
certificates and secondary school admission letters for six of us. That<br />
action denied us going to secondary school until 1973 when he was transferred<br />
to another place.<br />
We will continue to be grateful to God as most of us were successful in<br />
life. The poor wretched headmaster died last year. He suffered in life. The<br />
evil men do lives after them. The good often interred with the bones. Bala<br />
Musa, Kano.<br />
I am very satisfied with your write ups in Edutalk. Keep it up. From<br />
08036054---. Air Force Military School, Jos.
42 THE NATION THURSDAY, MAY 21, 2015
THE NATION THURSDAY MAY 21, 2015<br />
POLITICS<br />
MEDIA scholars and practitioners<br />
gathered recently<br />
to give an appraisal on the<br />
performance of the media before,<br />
during and after the presidential<br />
election. It was at the two-day workshop<br />
organised by the Media Scholar<br />
Network (MSN) in collaboration<br />
with the Independent National Electoral<br />
Commission (INEC). It was<br />
held at the Conference Hall, University<br />
of Lagos, Akoka, Lagos, under<br />
the theme: “Fair Election Reporting:<br />
Sustaining Best Practices”.<br />
Convener, Professor Ayo<br />
Olukotun, set the ball rolling when<br />
he said the role of the media in election<br />
coverage is an issue that has<br />
generated debate and controversy at<br />
scholarly and polemical levels. It is<br />
not for nothing that observer groups<br />
monitoring elections in developing<br />
democracies have constantly fingered<br />
the lack of media level playing-field<br />
at election seasons as an<br />
obstacle to free and fair elections as<br />
to democratic consolidation.<br />
Olukotun, a lecturer at the Department<br />
of International Relations,<br />
Obafemi Awolowo University<br />
(OAU), Ile-Ife, noted that the international<br />
observer groups monitoring<br />
Nigerian elections such as the<br />
European Union (EU) have complained<br />
consistently of biased coverage<br />
of elections, as well as differential<br />
access of political parties to the<br />
media. Their complaint is corroborated<br />
by the Transition Monitoring<br />
Group (TMG), a coalition of domestic<br />
civil society groups which is engaged<br />
in election monitoring, he<br />
said.State-owned media are particularly<br />
guilty of this, according to the<br />
don. “They do not operate as public<br />
service media, but as more or less<br />
the mouthpieces of the political parties<br />
that control them. Also in the<br />
same category are privately-owned<br />
media where interests of the proprietor<br />
interfere with objective reporting,”<br />
he added.<br />
Professor Lai Oso of the Department<br />
of Mass Communication, Lagos<br />
State University (LASU), also<br />
lamented that a lot of media organisations<br />
took sides and were biased<br />
in their reportage and coverage of<br />
different political parties and their<br />
activities. He said rather than give<br />
fair hearing to all candidates and<br />
their political parties, some media<br />
organisations decided to show solidarity<br />
to some candidates and to<br />
vilify others. This, he said, was a total<br />
deviation from the code of ethics<br />
that guides the media profession.<br />
On ethical conduct, Oso said:<br />
“Good journalism requires decent<br />
conduct that conforms to acceptable<br />
social norms, values and ethical<br />
codes.” Oso was equally miffed by<br />
the role played by the management<br />
of some print and electronic media.<br />
He said they threw caution to the<br />
wind and behaved like politicians.<br />
He said: “Editors dished out opinions<br />
as news, projected hate<br />
speeches, hate documentaries for<br />
selfish interest. Some newspapers<br />
editors could not apply their sense<br />
of judgment to turn down adverts<br />
that was intended to incite the public<br />
against opposition candidates or<br />
leaders? Why should an editor accept<br />
a death wish advert to be published<br />
in his paper? Why should<br />
editors be consulting for political<br />
parties campaign organisations?<br />
These are sad developments that<br />
must be addressed by regulatory<br />
agencies for the sake of the future of<br />
journalism in this country.”<br />
According to him, “the media was<br />
expected to be the unifying factor for<br />
‘<br />
It is not for nothing that observer groups<br />
monitoring elections in developing democracies<br />
have constantly fingered the lack of<br />
media level playing-field at election seasons<br />
as an obstacle to free and fair elections<br />
as to democratic consolidation<br />
The role of the media throughout the electioneering period was under the spotlight recently at a two-day<br />
workshop organised by Media Scholars Network (MSN). At the event, the partisan role of the media was<br />
highlighted by scholars and professionals, Assistant Editor LEKE SALAUDEEN reports.<br />
Election reporting: Knocks for the watchdog<br />
•<br />
all interest groups, but unfortunately<br />
some media executives were brazenly<br />
partisan. If politicians come<br />
with raw and indecorous content, is<br />
it not the media’s responsibility as<br />
professionals to determine what will<br />
suit the sensitivities and sensibilities<br />
of Nigerian readers and viewers by<br />
toning down such adverts or asking<br />
the advertiser to go and refine his<br />
production?<br />
In his paper titled: “Objectivity in<br />
Journalism: An Elusive Ideal”, Oso<br />
explained that the way and manner<br />
political gladiators conducted themselves<br />
and their politics no doubt<br />
influenced the way journalists behaved<br />
as producers of news and the<br />
type of political news available to<br />
them. “In a society where almost<br />
everything is seen from the prisms<br />
of religion, ethnicity, region and<br />
other differences, it is very difficult<br />
for the journalist to adhere to any<br />
universal notion of objectivity or<br />
other ethical principle,” he said.<br />
In his own assessment, a South<br />
Africa-based communication specialist,<br />
Mr Bunmi Makinwa, opined<br />
that the media could have done<br />
much better than they did in the coverage<br />
of pre-voting phase of the<br />
presidential election. According to<br />
him: “The crucial communication<br />
exchange between candidates and<br />
electorate, facilitated by the media,<br />
hardly took place. The knowledge of<br />
candidates, understanding of issues,<br />
analysis of performance of candidates<br />
and political parties hardly featured<br />
in any serious way in many of<br />
the media.<br />
“The mass media failed unreservedly<br />
in its professional duty of being<br />
a source of information and education<br />
of the populace. In analyses<br />
of information, verification of facts<br />
by parties, ascertaining claims by<br />
candidates, there was too little of<br />
substance. And whatever little that<br />
was done was not prominent in<br />
‘<br />
They do not operate as public service<br />
media, but as more or less the mouthpieces<br />
of the political parties that control them.<br />
Also in the same category are privatelyowned<br />
media where interests of the proprietor<br />
interfere with objective reporting<br />
’<br />
‘<br />
In the aspect of<br />
conflict and sensitivity,<br />
the media<br />
failed to live up to<br />
expectations. There<br />
were sensational<br />
headlines There<br />
were significant areas<br />
of non compliance<br />
with the code<br />
of conduct while<br />
there were few areas<br />
of compliance<br />
‘<br />
43<br />
most of the media and even less so<br />
in newspapers that traditionally<br />
serve such important purposes.<br />
Many candidates are yet really unknown<br />
and surprises should be expected<br />
from people who will assume<br />
political offices.<br />
“Even in the use of adverts, positioning<br />
of candidates and political<br />
parties, the public media especially<br />
did very poorly. A major area of<br />
uneasiness was the easy acquiescence<br />
of the official media organisations<br />
to unbridled use (more of misuse)<br />
by their government owners,<br />
both federal and state. The situation<br />
went even further: public roads, offices,<br />
buildings and other infrastructure<br />
were “colonized” by the said<br />
governments and wantonly used for<br />
their messaging, adverts and promotion,<br />
including excluding opposition<br />
from their uses, even when they<br />
wanted to pay as required. Such<br />
abuse of official organs and structures<br />
should stop. There should be<br />
better regulation, monitoring and<br />
sanctions of uses of public facilities<br />
during electioneering. It is encouraging<br />
that some political parties<br />
sought court interventions and obtained<br />
judgment against the abuse.”<br />
In assessing the media coverage of<br />
the presidential election, former Editor<br />
of National Interest, Mr Tony<br />
Iyare, noted that the Nigerian Media<br />
Code of Election Coverage sets<br />
the guidelines of the conduct of journalists<br />
in reporting election issues in<br />
all spheres. Many of the guidelines,<br />
he observed, were observed in<br />
breach across board.<br />
For instance, Section 1.0 which<br />
deals with equitable access says:<br />
“The performance of campaign platform<br />
and public role of the Nigerian<br />
media during election requires deference<br />
to the right of parties and candidates<br />
in elections to equitable media<br />
access especially as envisaged by<br />
legislative and institutional frameworks<br />
and other relevant instruments<br />
including the Electoral Act (as<br />
amended), the Nigerian Broadcasting<br />
Code (as revised) and the Nigerian<br />
Press Organisation Code of Ethics<br />
for Nigerian journalists. It also requires<br />
giving opportunity to underrepresented<br />
groups to express their<br />
views.<br />
Section 1.1 states the responsibility<br />
of media organisations to include:<br />
A broadcast medium shall ensure<br />
equitable allocation of time at specific<br />
but similar periods for all parties<br />
contesting elections to state their<br />
programmes; a media organisation<br />
shall regularly apply the principle of<br />
equity in the coverage and reportage<br />
of campaigns and other activities<br />
of parties and candidates contesting<br />
elections; a media organisation<br />
shall at all times uphold the right<br />
of parties and candidates to reply to<br />
allegations made against them and<br />
that a broadcast medium shall strive<br />
to ensure the participation of all parties<br />
and candidates contesting elections<br />
in political debates.<br />
The code also says in Section 1.2 that<br />
a media organisation shall, as a matter<br />
of deliberate editorial policy, target<br />
under-represented groups, especially<br />
women, youths, persons living<br />
with disabilities and rural dwellers in<br />
the coverage of electoral processes.<br />
According to Iyare, the report of<br />
the monitoring project conducted<br />
jointly by the International Press<br />
Centre and Nigerian Press Council<br />
with the support of the United Nations<br />
Development Project (UNDP)<br />
which covered some national and<br />
regional newspapers in addition to<br />
online and social medium platforms,<br />
generally applauded the media for<br />
devoting the highest percentage of<br />
the reporting of issues to campaigns,<br />
which it argued clearly showed an<br />
attemptto bring the attention of voters<br />
to what the candidates and parties<br />
stand for.<br />
But the report noted “it was regrettable<br />
that political and electoral conflicts<br />
had the better part of media<br />
attention than voter education which<br />
really should have been at the core<br />
of reporting for the month given the<br />
contentious issues of PVCs TVCs<br />
and card readers”.<br />
Speaking on the performance of<br />
the media, former Editorial Board<br />
Chairperson of the Nigerian Compass,<br />
Mrs Tayo Agunbiade said<br />
some reports were obviously biased,<br />
while many adverts contained inflammatory<br />
comments. According<br />
to her, the media didn’t exhibit a<br />
high level of professionalism in handling<br />
the last election, particularly as<br />
it regards publication of hate<br />
speeches. There were clear violations<br />
of the ethics.<br />
“In the aspect of conflict and sensitivity,<br />
the media failed to live up<br />
to expectations. There were sensational<br />
headlines There were significant<br />
areas of non compliance with<br />
the code of conduct while there were<br />
few areas of compliance.<br />
“Procedures should be established<br />
that monitor and ensure that election<br />
reporting prior to, during and after<br />
is fair, unbiased, neutral, non-partisan<br />
and not sensational. We must<br />
ensure that space are allocated to all<br />
parties fairly and reports should be<br />
balanced and not in favour of any<br />
party or persons.”<br />
To guide against partisan role of<br />
the media in future election coverage,<br />
Makinwa suggested that all<br />
publicly-owned media, including<br />
public service broadcasters, should<br />
respect strict rules of impartiality<br />
and balance, particularly when reporting<br />
on the governing party/parties<br />
and on government decisions<br />
and actions during an election period.<br />
This implies that equal coverage<br />
should be given to arguments in<br />
favour of both sides in any referendum.<br />
The media should grant all parties<br />
and candidates equitable access to<br />
communicate their messages directly<br />
with the public, either for free<br />
or at subsidised rate. Equitable access<br />
means fair and non-discriminatory<br />
access allocated according to<br />
objective criteria for measuring overall<br />
levels of support, and includes<br />
factors such as timing of access and<br />
any fees.<br />
Olukotun stressed the need for<br />
continuous training and re-training<br />
programmes for journalists. He said:<br />
“It is important that journalists and<br />
stakeholders in the information enterprise<br />
from time to time to meet to<br />
review their craft with a view to determining<br />
whether they are maintaining<br />
or falling short of best practices.<br />
“Obviously the role of the media<br />
in providing accurate information<br />
and objective reporting as well as<br />
analysis in a season of election cannot<br />
be over-emphasised. The media<br />
are crucial to the dissemination of<br />
credible information as well as providing<br />
a communication level playing<br />
field to the principal competitors<br />
and even to the electoral umpire,<br />
namely the Independent National<br />
Electoral Commission (INEC).”<br />
‘
44<br />
POLITICS<br />
Nigeria: Political power imbalance:<br />
The bane and chain down of Nigeria’s<br />
progress and development<br />
•Excerpts from a 261-page book by Sir Olaniwun Ajayi<br />
...Continued from yesterday.<br />
T<br />
HE Yorubas have undoubtedly occupied this homeland<br />
for many centuries. When the Portuguese arrived<br />
on the coast in the 15th century, their political organisation<br />
into a number of major and minor states had already<br />
been evolved, and may well have been in existence for several<br />
hundred years, as an examination of their king-lists and other<br />
oral data suggest. Their language, despite its many dialects,<br />
provides the main evidence of a common origin and cultural<br />
heritage...<br />
In this connection, it is intriguing to observe the views of<br />
Lord Lugard in his early days as High Commissioner for Northern<br />
Nigeria. On page 25 paragraph 36, which formed part of<br />
his 1902 Annual Report on Northern Nigeria to both Houses<br />
of Parliament through the Colonial Office, in part wrote thus:<br />
“...The case of these alien conquerors (the Fulani) is wholly<br />
different from that of ancient chiefs ruling over people of their<br />
own race for long centuries past, as I believe in the case, for<br />
instance, with the Yoruba chiefs of Lagos, who are of the same<br />
race with their subjects, and have held their position for centuries<br />
with well - established system of communal land tenure...”<br />
Furthermore, Lord Lugard's biographer, Margery Perham<br />
said; “...The Yorubas, at least for centuries before British annexation,<br />
had taken to living in towns, and were indeed the<br />
most urban -minded of all African peoples, though it must be<br />
remembered that the people thus concentrated were still mainly<br />
farmers..." 55<br />
We may add yet another view regarding the state of development<br />
even before the advent of Europeans, particularly the<br />
British. That is the view of the great scholar and author, James<br />
S. Coleman, who stated that:<br />
"The Yoruba people may rightly claim to be the largest cultural<br />
aggregation in West Africa with a history of political unity<br />
and a common historical tradition... Additional distinguishing<br />
feature of the Yoruba are of significance. One is the comparative<br />
large-scale political organisation which existed before<br />
the British intrusion.... The whole Yoruba system was marked<br />
by check and counter-check:" and the superstructure was essentially<br />
that of a constitutional monarchy. 56<br />
Finally, the prudence or advisability of corralling the manifest<br />
and intellectual views of experts and eminent persons will<br />
be amply met by adding the considered statement of a former<br />
Governor-General, Sir Arthur Richards, (later Lord Milverton)<br />
as recorded in his memoir by his biographer, Richard Peel. He<br />
stated, among other things, of the Yoruba:<br />
"...The people of Western Province had, like the North, a more<br />
developed system of native administration and, in addition,<br />
an authoritarian, kingly rule handed down for centuries and<br />
therefore in many ways more bred in the bone."57<br />
Chapter 3<br />
The Igbo Nation<br />
The origin of Igbo people would appear to be a great conjecture<br />
as various writers hold different views with respect to<br />
where the Igbo originated. For example, M.D.W. Jeffreys held<br />
the view that the Igbo originated from Egypt. Whereas some<br />
Igbo writers, claimed that the lgbo were Hebrew or Egyptian,<br />
stating that the origin of Aro was the Nile Valley. 58<br />
Perhaps for the purpose of this book, it will be sufficient to<br />
limit our research into the origin of the Igbo people to the fact<br />
that the Igbo have been in their present settlement for very<br />
many centuries. This view is supported by the evidence produced<br />
by the research report of Professor D.D. Hartle's test<br />
excavation in the University of Nigeria Nsukka Agricultural<br />
farm, which produced evidence of human settlement, dating<br />
back to 2555 BC. The evidence went further to state that the<br />
materials recovered from the excavation, like 'unfired clay<br />
vessels' were like the unfired articles being used in Nsukka.<br />
We can then infer from the excavation evidence that the people<br />
of Nsukka are the descendant of the people occupying<br />
the area from time immemorial. The further inference from<br />
that hypothesis is that Nri-Awka-Orlu sector would appear<br />
to be the earliest centre from which Igbo waves of migration<br />
started. This view is confirmed by Talbot and Mulhall in their<br />
book - The Physical Anthropology of Southern Nigeria, Page<br />
4. They said:<br />
"The Ibo have no tradition from elsewhere and appear to<br />
have settled in the thickly populated parts of Nri-Awka and<br />
Isu-Ama areas for a very long period and to have spread from<br />
there."<br />
There is no record that the Igbo had a common ancestor.<br />
However, there were cases of various units of villages where<br />
people got together and made arrangement, whereby they<br />
looked upon themselves as brothers. Such villages or groups<br />
could unite for a purpose like forming themselves into constituency<br />
or community.<br />
Geographically, substantial part of south-eastern Nigeria,<br />
which is the geopolitical region of Igbo people, is covered by<br />
dense forest and challenged by erosion.<br />
Sir Alan Burns, the author of History of Nigeria (7th Revised<br />
Edition) wrote on Page 59 of his book:<br />
"...At the time that Lord Lugard wrote the most important<br />
•Sir Olaniwun<br />
‘<br />
‘<br />
The origin of Igbo people would<br />
appear to be a great conjecture as<br />
various writers hold different<br />
views with respect to where the<br />
Igbo originated. For example,<br />
M.D.W. Jeffreys held the view that<br />
the Igbo originated from Egypt<br />
’<br />
of these was the large lbo tribe. Among these people there<br />
was no highly recognised form of government and little tribal<br />
cohesion; practically every village was independent, and so<br />
great was the isolation of each small community that the inhabitants<br />
of neighbouring villages often speak in entirely different<br />
dialects...”<br />
Margery Perham, writing on Lord Lugard in 1960 said:<br />
Early in 1915, for example, he went on tour in the southeast,<br />
driving the first train along the sixteen miles of rail, between<br />
Port Harcourt and Imo River. From there he went north<br />
into the heart of the densely populated lbo country, visiting<br />
the coal field and calling at the headquarters of districts. He<br />
was greeted everywhere by the forest people, the women giving<br />
him the almost universal greeting of female Africa of shrill<br />
"lululuing" (many of the women of all ages were absolutely<br />
nude and Ah you, quite shocked, turned his back on them).<br />
Coal and railway-cutting focused his attention more upon<br />
geology than humanity. But he had an eye for the natural<br />
beauty of Enugu, the future Eastern capital, which was then<br />
almost virgin bush.<br />
Political organisation, a remarkable chieftaincy system and<br />
a well established urbanisation which were the hallmarks of<br />
Yoruba nation before the British came were non - existent in<br />
lgbo nation. That state of development in the south-east<br />
(Igboland) was a problem to Lugard with particular regard<br />
to indirect rule.<br />
In 1900, Lord Lugard, as he later became, inaugurated the<br />
Protectorate in northern Nigeria which was later divided into<br />
Provinces. In the capital of each province, was a senior British<br />
official, known as Resident. Government policy was to<br />
the effect that the African rulers, mostly Emirs and their council<br />
and courts, were running the administration. This was the<br />
system later known as Indirect Rule.<br />
In this regard, Lugard had a lot of problems in the South -<br />
east. There was no organisation nor chiefs as were in the northern<br />
protectorate. Indeed, Margery Perham made an indecent<br />
reference to the lgbo as:<br />
“Coastal group in the region and a people of beastly living,<br />
without a god, laws, religion or commonwealth... Lugard<br />
could appreciate the formidable fact of their social fragmentation<br />
but are we then to assume that the attempt to adapt the<br />
THE NATION THURSDAY MAY 21, 2015<br />
With the growing power of the Hausa, a peace immigration<br />
into the country of a people called Fulani took place. Where<br />
they came from, nobody knew. A school of thought said they<br />
came from India. Some others opined that they were Jews,<br />
others argued that they were Malayan or Phoenician<br />
fundamental principle of Indirect Rule to these intractable<br />
human conditions...”<br />
However, because there were no rulers and chiefs in<br />
Igboland, the British government had to appoint chiefs by<br />
warrant in order to operate the Indirect Rule.<br />
As to what remains of the history of Igbo people is not of<br />
any historical importance and relevance, it will be expedient<br />
to close up here and go to the history of Hausa/ Fulani.<br />
Chapter 4<br />
Hausa/ Fulani<br />
Unlike the case of the Yoruba and somewhat similar to the<br />
case of the Igbo, there is, hitherto, no known origin of the<br />
Hausa people. All we know is that the Hausa speaking people<br />
are, to a great extent, of Nigeria origin. It would appear<br />
however, that as there are not many who could be identified<br />
as Hausa, those who speak the language are very many<br />
throughout the northern half of Africa, including Mecca.<br />
Despite paucity of records, it is recognised that Kano, Zaria,<br />
Daura, Gobir, Katsina, Rano and Zamfara, were the original<br />
seven states of the Hausa in Nigeria.<br />
With respect to religion, the people called Hausa would<br />
probably be pagans before the advent of the Islamic religion<br />
which came into Hausa community about thirteenth century.<br />
Thus, Muhammadanism spread quickly, making rapid<br />
progress among the people. The new religion affected both<br />
the religious and social life of the Hausa people. With the<br />
passage of time, a form of government developed among<br />
them. Each state had its king and judicial system which administered<br />
the law. In other words, a structure of an organised<br />
community was already present among them.<br />
Since the Hausa could not claim a common origin or ancestor<br />
like Oduduwa for the Yoruba, each state was independent<br />
of the others. With time this state of separateness or individualism<br />
gave room for an engendered jealousy and disaffection<br />
which ultimately brought about internecine wars.<br />
Thus, for example, Zaria waged war against the Hausa and<br />
conquered the Hausa countries to the south and brought down<br />
Bauchi, just as Gobir fought all nomad tribes of the northern<br />
desert. Kano fought Borno without successes. But Bornu<br />
fought successfully Hausaland, while Askia, the King of<br />
Sonhay conquered Katsina and Kano and made them provinces<br />
of his empire.<br />
With the growing power of the Hausa, a peace immigration<br />
into the country of a people called Fulani took place.<br />
Where they came from, nobody knew. A school of thought<br />
said they came from India. Some others opined that they were<br />
Jews, others argued that they were Malayan or Phoenician.<br />
The generally accepted view however, was that they came<br />
from upper Egypt and moved westwards to the Atlantic Coast<br />
where most of them settled and some years later, some of<br />
them moved in the direction of Nigeria around the thirteenth<br />
century. They mingled with the Hausa and intermarried with<br />
them and adopted Muhammadan religion. In due course, their<br />
superior intelligence placed them in position of importance<br />
and power.<br />
For many years however, the Fulani remained a subject race<br />
in Hausaland. However, in 1804, Othman dan Fodio, a Fulani<br />
Sheikh, rose among the Fulani group. Othman dan Fodio ran<br />
into conflict with the King of Gobir whom, with his Fulani<br />
followers, he defeated in a decisive battle. Consequently, following<br />
the defeat of Gobir and his followers, Othman dan<br />
Fodio became and recognised as the Sarkin Musulmi. His<br />
followers, the Fulani, sought and obtained his approval to<br />
wage war and conquer the Hausa among whom they had<br />
been living on sufferance.<br />
The holy war began and Othman dan Fodio encouraged<br />
and boldened his followers to wage war in the name of Allah<br />
and His Prophet against pagans and unbelievers and those<br />
who appeared to them to be lukewarm. Not only were they<br />
conquered, their property was also taken as spoil.<br />
In 1808, Borno, a Mohammadan country, was attacked by<br />
Othman's fanatical followers, although not all the followers<br />
of Othman were Fulani. In truth, this was the Jihad which the<br />
natives in the country saw as preservation of their religion<br />
and so supported it. The Jihad was not a full success but it<br />
was at such a stage that Othman could hand over the country<br />
to his brother called Abdullahi and his son, Bello. Before he<br />
died in 1817, Othman had divided the country between his<br />
brother, Abdullahi, who made himself Gando, and Bello to<br />
be in charge of Sokoto, and recognised as Sarkin Musulumi.<br />
Bello had a turbulent reign as he had to contend with constant<br />
warfare against the tribes who would not embrace Fulani rule.<br />
A bit of peace came to Bello towards the closing years of his<br />
reign. The supporters and their descendants firmly owed allegiance<br />
to Sokoto, the seat of Bello. Sokoto became an empire<br />
which gradually included the emirates of Adamawa,<br />
Gombe, Hadeija, Kano, Katsina, Daura, Katagun, Bauchi, and<br />
Zaria. His troubled reign notwithstanding, Bello made for<br />
himself, time to study. He in time, became an author of several<br />
works on history, geography and theology.<br />
It is intriguing to observe Bello, who was a learned person<br />
ordered that all the Hausa records in his domain should be<br />
destroyed. They were in fact, destroyed. He died in 1837. His<br />
brother, Abubakar Atiku, succeeded him.<br />
Chapter 5<br />
Fate and future of Nigeria's minorities<br />
Towards the latter part of 1943, O.G.R. Williams, the head<br />
of the West African Department of Colonial Office, took the<br />
initiative of writing a memorandum on 'Constitutional development<br />
in West Africa.<br />
’<br />
• To be continued.
THE NATION THURSDAY, MAY 21, 2015 45<br />
NATURAL HEALTH<br />
Anti-aging tips for Buhari in Change era (7)<br />
“E<br />
more than 360 million (faithful) heart beats.” Patricia Bragg<br />
in ‘The miracles of fasting’.<br />
VERY day, the average heart, your best friend, beats<br />
100,000 times and pumps 2,000 gallons of blood for<br />
nourishing your body. In 70 years, that adds up to<br />
QUOTATION<br />
“To understand high blood pressure, you need to know a<br />
few interesting facts about the heart. The human heart beats<br />
an average 70 times per minute, 100,000 times a day and 2.5<br />
billion times in a lifetime. With each heart beat, about 2.5 ounces of<br />
blood are pumped through the heart … that is 1,980 gallons every<br />
day..’, Judy Limberg Mcfarland in Aging without growing<br />
old.<br />
MAY 29 is only seven days away. That is the D-DAY on<br />
which outgoing president Ebele Azikiwe Jonathan will hand<br />
power over to president elect Gen. Mohammadu Buhari (rtd).<br />
Many hearts are pounding. Many people must feel their hearts<br />
agitating against their throats. The big thieves in public offices<br />
must be wishing the hands of the clock can still be turned<br />
backwards and events would come up that will save them<br />
the pains or trauma of Buhari succeeding Jonathan. Buhari<br />
said a few weeks ago, after defeating Jonathan in the presidential<br />
election, that a major change will occur in Nigeria in<br />
June. No one as yet knows what change will come from this<br />
seemingly incorruptible man who has promised to sweep<br />
the dirty, foul-smelling Aegean stables clean of dirt, grit and<br />
odour. In a country where many public officers are big-time<br />
thieves, as Senator–elect Ben Bruce said recently, an echo of<br />
the incumbent Emir of kano, Sanusi, when he was Governor<br />
of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Buhari’s testimonials make<br />
us believe he can tidy up the financial and economic mess<br />
into which the Jonathan Administration over six years has<br />
plunged Nigeria. Here are the records:<br />
•Buhari has only two houses and about N1million in his bank<br />
accounts<br />
•Buhari has been Governor of Borno State<br />
•Buhari has been Nigeria’s oil minister two times,one as chairman<br />
of the presidential task force on petroleum.<br />
•Buhari has been head of State (President)<br />
•Buhari has held many Seniour military commands, one of which<br />
is enough to make a multi-billionaire of a big- thief incumbent<br />
I cannot vouch for Nigerian figures. The word going round<br />
is that former Nigerian Presidents are on N24 million pension<br />
a year and that retired Nigerian generals earn a pension<br />
upkeep of about N2.4 million a year. The rhyme of these<br />
figures almost makes me wish to doubt their veracity. Nevertheless,<br />
as we know, there is no smoke without a fire behind<br />
it. The story is that some retired generals who were<br />
former heads of state draw both pensions, but buhari accepted<br />
to draw only his general’s pension.<br />
If we can trust these credentials to be true, we can expect<br />
major commotions in the polity and in the economy. That’s<br />
why I believe, from open talk and whispers throughout the<br />
country, some great events of our time are shaping up for<br />
manifestation. If you would recall one of the columns in the<br />
Jonathan, Buhari, the rich and the poor series, I almost gave the<br />
election to Jonathan after he postponed the polls for weeks<br />
and, in that period, literally hurled Nigeria’s treasury at the<br />
voters. I recalled then a spiritual code for understanding the<br />
time in which we stand, in this case…<br />
As we march towards the end of time, belief in the power of money<br />
would reach its zenith or climax and many people will replace the<br />
Truth, that is God, with money.<br />
IN retrospect, we can now see that many voters, even in<br />
Lagos, fell for the President’s money. But, at that,<br />
Jonathan Buhari column suggested, a Jonathan victory<br />
would guarantee no safety for the thieving Nigerian Establishment<br />
because, unknown to many people, we stand in the<br />
precints of a great purification of the earth from all Opposition<br />
to light and goodness. A great event occurred in Nigeria<br />
about 40 years ago to plug our country in the mainstream of<br />
the spiritual cleansing process. It was, therefore, a question of<br />
time before the leader would arrive whose aura would link<br />
up with the ethereal forces at play and anchor them in the<br />
Government and other social institutions. A Jonathan victory<br />
would not have hatched this march. The heat and the fire<br />
would merely have diverted their course to spring up elsewhere.<br />
Who can stop the flow of water? Even when you surround<br />
it with concrete, it would merely percolate into the<br />
soil to find a new level for its flow.<br />
Our hearts are pounding now because we do not know what<br />
Buhari would do? Would he cut his own pay to, say, N5 million<br />
a month and ask senators to downgrade theirs to, say, N3<br />
million. How would he tackle the mess in the oil and gas<br />
sector? Will he declare a State of Economy Emergency? How<br />
would he reform the Army and the Police? What about the<br />
Customs and Excise department and the immigration service?<br />
Will he wish to know how federal roads in a Southsouth<br />
state cost about N3 billion naira per kilometre in laterite<br />
terrain and less than half of that on the same terrain in a<br />
nearby state? Will he reverse all the appointments and other<br />
decisions of lame-duck President Jonathan intended to plant<br />
human land mines around him?<br />
What of the US 500 million Oil and gas project at the Lekki<br />
EPZ in Lagos lame-duck President Jonathan has unilaterally<br />
ordered be taken to Bayelsa, his home state? Even if Buhari<br />
would like to stick to agreement with international power<br />
brokers not to probe Jonathan, for which reason he has promised<br />
to treat the outgoing President with “respect and understanding,”<br />
what would happen if private citizens file allegations<br />
against the Jonathan administration and, in the process<br />
of tackling them, the president’s name and involvement keep<br />
popping up? Our hearts are pounding, I keep saying. I have<br />
refused to be connected to municipal electricity supply for<br />
about 12 years running because the bill is outraging. With<br />
my children now on their own, I live alone. I run no electrical<br />
appliance, not even television or fridge, I leave home about<br />
10 a.m and return about 11 p.m, have, my bath and go to<br />
sleep. Why should I pay N 40,000 a month for electricity I do<br />
not consume simply because, from its size, the electricity–<br />
man believes the house should gulp that much every month.<br />
You can be sure that if I am a thief and can steal money to pay<br />
the bill this month, the bill will go up next month, electricity<br />
would not be regular, the process will go on and the owners<br />
of electricity will be smiling to the bank, raking in money<br />
from millions of people they do not deserve to earn and poisoning<br />
the economy as the cost of electricity is plastered on<br />
goods and services. Jonathan promised to deliver us all from<br />
this mafia, but failed. Will Buhari be man enough to look<br />
them straight in the eye and tackle them? Will he take electricity<br />
back from the mafia? He owns them nothing, the contributed<br />
billions of Naira into Jonathan’s election campaign<br />
fund, not his, which was funded by poor people and some<br />
rich friends.<br />
Buhari’s heart<br />
Gen. Buhari’s heart, too, must be pounding. He would move<br />
the levers alright. And that will ignite a chain of events. But<br />
there is no man who moves a lever or who starts a process<br />
who can ever determine its dimensions or end. For these<br />
events soon don their own garbs modulated by other influences,<br />
and go their own way, far, far away from the originators<br />
imagination. Buhari must wonder if he can find the right<br />
people to do the job he wishes to accomplish. Was this why<br />
he suggested we should expect no miracles? Will there be<br />
moles in the house? What if Senators rebel and Governors<br />
hijack the government? If he cannot dislodge the mafias within<br />
three months will they not regroup and with new found confidence<br />
confront him? Does he recognise that when the lair of<br />
a poisonous snake is lifted, it will surely lift its head and<br />
attack the intruder unless it is killed outright. Buharis victory<br />
at the polls has exposed and lifted the lair of the poisonous<br />
snake which is now waiting for the opportune time to take its<br />
revenge.<br />
Pounding heart<br />
The heart does not pound on its own. It pounds when we<br />
are afraid. Fear may be conscious or unconscious. Whatever<br />
it is, fear keeps us on our toes to make us survive the event(s)<br />
we are afraid of. What keeps us on our toes to fight the fear<br />
causing event or to flee from it are stress hormones which are<br />
poured into the blood stream by adrenal glands, the antistress<br />
glands located on top of each Kidney. When we are<br />
afraid of anything or situation.<br />
These hormones are double-edged swords. They enhance<br />
our survival in dreadful situations. But they may also harm<br />
our organs and our health if they persistently flood the blood<br />
stream over a prolonged period of time, as happens to many<br />
people who live under stressful conditions as the next four<br />
years may bring upon some people Buhari will be de-establishing<br />
and upon himself who must be in stressful battle gear.<br />
Do not forget that we hardly forget the past. Buhari would<br />
surely remember that, as Head of State, a military coup which<br />
brought Ibrahim Babangida to power was staged against him<br />
when it was thought that he was going too far with social<br />
reforms!<br />
This column is incompetent to address major problems the<br />
heart may suffer from in this situation. That is the realm for<br />
cardiologists or heart doctors. But it can venture nevertheless<br />
on a limited scale into some of the common heart troubles in<br />
Nigeria from which senior citizens suffer, including:<br />
•Hypertension or elevated blood pressure<br />
•Congestive heart failure<br />
•Heart attack<br />
•Enlarged heart<br />
•Angina pectoris<br />
•Low blood pressure or hypotension and palpitation<br />
The list can be endless. So are the remedies to these conditions<br />
as stated, only a few of them will be addressed, and<br />
e-mail:johnolufemikusa@yahoo.com or johnolufemikusa@gmail.com Tel: 08116759749, 08034004247, 08116759749<br />
briefly.<br />
Hypertension<br />
To understand hypertension, we must understand that the<br />
blood or the river of life flows around the body to give each<br />
of the 100 trillion or so cells which compose it nutrients and<br />
oxygen, and to remove their waste products or poisons for<br />
evacuation from the body. The heart as a pumping machine<br />
pumps blood through many blood vessels of varying sizes<br />
and receives used or deoxygenated blood which it pumps<br />
back to the lungs for oxygenation. Oxygenated blood is<br />
pumped out again. Blood vessels are meant to be unblocked<br />
and supple, so they can dilate easily when blood flows through<br />
them. If they are blocked and hardened like stone they offer<br />
resistance to blood flow. Normal resistance of blood vessels<br />
to blood flow which does not permit through them is essential<br />
hypertension. This tension drives the blood along homewards<br />
to its target. If there is too little magnesium in the blood, an<br />
excess of calcium, its antagonist, may cause the extra or excess<br />
calcium to deposit in soft muscles of blood vessels. This causes<br />
hardening or tightening called arterosclerosis. It increases resistance<br />
to blood flow, and hypertension. Thus, a deficiency<br />
of magnesium can be a cause of hypertension. This deficiency<br />
is prevalent today because many people do not eat greens,<br />
especially deep, leafy vegetables, or take green food supplements<br />
such as liquid or capsulated chlorophyll, wheatgrass,<br />
spirulina, barley grass, spinach and kale powder drink or a<br />
mix grill of about 40 green plants in varying formulas. Many<br />
physicians believe the best blood pressure is 120/80. The top<br />
reading is called Systolic, the bottom one Diastolic. The diastolic<br />
reading is considered more relevant. For many years I<br />
ran a 110/70 blood pressure which nowadays sometimes<br />
drops to 100/sixty-something. In such situations fending towards<br />
low blood pressure or hypertension, I wish I had around<br />
me the herbal supplement BROOM TOPS, which is good for<br />
low blood pressure or CARROT JUICE, which elevates blood<br />
pressure whole carrot doesn’t. But I find a useful friend in L-<br />
Arginine or a product called STAMINEX which is on and off<br />
the Nigerian shelf.<br />
LOCKAGES of all sorts occur in the blood vessels. One<br />
of them is caused by HOMOCYSTEINE, a greasy by product<br />
of the break-down of a protein. This can be easily<br />
Bdissolved and thorough fare created for the blood by any<br />
good blood thinner. Vitamin B6, Vitamin B12 and folic acid<br />
in a good formula performs this trick. So does cayenne. I have<br />
found useful, also, Serrapeptese, which dissolves growth. This<br />
as well, Brome lain, which tackles pain, as well as Attokenese.<br />
Sometimes, the blockage is due to fatty cholesterol plaque or<br />
the failure of the anticlotting factor, which allows blood platelets<br />
to spike and dump. The aforementioned blood thinners<br />
“defrost” the platelet clumps. So does the fatty plaque. Additionally,<br />
fish oil and Lecithin help against cholesterol buildup<br />
known also as atheromas (atherosclerosis) Please note the<br />
difference between arterosclerosis and artherosclerosis.<br />
Heart attack<br />
In a heart attack, the vessel is taking blood to the heart (the<br />
carotic arteries) are blocked. A warning may have been coming<br />
from swellings in the legs which are due to blockages of<br />
blood circulation, or from chest pains called argina pectoris.<br />
chips of a blocking matter may escape from the foot to blood<br />
circulation to the heart. When the heart does not get enough<br />
blood for its sustenance and to pump, it packs up like a pumping<br />
machine without fuel or water to pump.<br />
Enlarged heart<br />
An enlarged heart is often due to secondary hypertension.<br />
Primary hypertension results more from dietary deficiencies<br />
such as potassium, magnesium, and Vitamin E deficiency. In<br />
secondary hypertension, many vital organs such as the liver<br />
and the kidneys are so congested, blood cannot easily flow<br />
through them. In this case, they resist blood flow, and the<br />
heart has to enlarge in order to pack more power to pump<br />
harder in order to overcome resistance to blood flow. But this<br />
over stretches its muscles and may damage or kill them. This<br />
condition often responds to Vitamin B1 and garlic therapy,<br />
according to Rex Adams in Miracle medicine foods. Hawthorn<br />
berries and Co-Enzyme Q10 or CoQ10 do it also.<br />
Angina pectoris<br />
The carotid artery is hardly harder than a soft drinks straw.<br />
When it is blocked, chest pains may arise in the left side of the<br />
chest and may, be followed by shooting pains in the left arm<br />
from the scapula (shoulder blade) to the fingers.<br />
Now, let’s hear from Judy Limberg Mcfarland and Jean<br />
Carper and, perhaps also, from Patricia Bragg. Judy Mcfarland,<br />
in Aging without growing old, one of the books this series<br />
recommends for your library, says:<br />
“In most nations, every other death is caused by cardio<br />
vascular disease, both in men and women… Co-Enzyme Q10,<br />
also called CoQ10, Ubiquinol 10 or Vitamin Q, is now being<br />
called a ‘miracle nutrient’ by many. It is an essential component<br />
of metabolic process involved in energy (ATP) production.<br />
Dr Karl Folkers, who was professor and director of the<br />
Institute for Biomedical Research at the University of Texas<br />
in Austin, has been recognised for years as the world’s leading<br />
researcher on CoQ10. I had the honor of hearing Dr.<br />
Folkers’ lecture at the America Academy of Antiaging Conference<br />
in 1996. He was over 90 years old and charming. During<br />
his lecture, Dr. Folkers said, ‘I don’t use the word cure<br />
lightly, but CoQ10 is the cure for heart disease’ he has concluded<br />
biochemical, biomedical and clinical research on<br />
CoQ10 for some 35 years and has succeeded in establishing<br />
its structure and in isolating CoQ10 in human heart. The highest<br />
concentration of the enzyme is in the heart’s muscle. His<br />
research shows a definite link in CoQ10 deficiency and human<br />
heart disease.
46 THE NATION THURSDAY, MAY 21, 2015
THE NATION THURSDAY, MAY 21, 2015<br />
THE NATION<br />
BUSINESS<br />
LABOUR<br />
Fuel crisis deepens as NUPENG, PENGASSAN strike continues<br />
THE crisis in the oil sector<br />
seems to be deepening as<br />
workers of the Nigeria Petro-<br />
leum Development Company<br />
(NPDC), under the aegis of the Petroleum<br />
and National Gas Senior<br />
Staff Association of Nigeria,<br />
PENGASSAN, and the National<br />
Union of Petroleum and Natural<br />
Gas Workers, NUPENG, early this<br />
week, shut down their operations.<br />
The unions directed NPDC employees,<br />
a subsidiary of the Nigerian<br />
National Petroleum Corporation<br />
(NNPC) to shutdown indefi-<br />
HE organised labour has<br />
urged the incoming admin-<br />
Tistration of President-Elect,<br />
nitely their locations and all oil<br />
production facilities nationwide in<br />
a bid to force the Minister of Petroleum<br />
Resources, Mrs. Diezani<br />
Alison-Madueke and the Federal<br />
Government to reverse the transfer<br />
of operatorship of OMLs 42, 40<br />
and 30.<br />
The assets were previously operated<br />
by Shell.<br />
The unions are aggrieved that the<br />
sale of the assets did not follow due<br />
process and would affect the fortunes<br />
of the NPDC and its workers.<br />
Labour to Buhari: Reduce<br />
cost of governance<br />
• Urges lawmakers to follow suit<br />
Muhammadu Buhari, to drastically<br />
reduce the high cost of governance<br />
by cutting irrelevant expenses. Labour<br />
particularly harped on the<br />
need to cut down on political appointments,<br />
adding that the current<br />
situation where lawmakers fix<br />
their salaries and allowances must<br />
be discouraged and discontinued.<br />
The workers, under the aegis of<br />
Chemical and Non-Metallic Senior<br />
Staff Association (CANMPSSA), at<br />
its First Quadrennial Delegate<br />
Conference in Sango Ota, Ogun<br />
State, warned Buhari against making<br />
the same mistake of the outgoing<br />
administration.<br />
CANMPSSA National President,<br />
Comrade Abdul Gafar Mohammed,<br />
who was re-elected for another<br />
four years at the conference,<br />
lamented that the high cost of governance<br />
has continued to weigh<br />
down the economy.<br />
“We call on Mr. President to take<br />
urgent steps to address the issue of<br />
the remuneration of political office<br />
holders,”he said, noting that the<br />
PSSDC harps on quality service delivery by<br />
State to realise its<br />
public workers<br />
FOR Lagos<br />
vision of becoming Africa’s<br />
model megacity, its workers<br />
must continually deliver quality<br />
service residents, who daily<br />
transact business in the state or<br />
require its services.<br />
The Director-General of the<br />
state’s Public Service Staff Development<br />
Centre (PSSDC), Mrs<br />
Olubunmi Fabamwo, said this at<br />
the celebration of the Service<br />
Charter Day, and the unveiling<br />
of the centre’s service charter<br />
document.<br />
At the event, which held at the<br />
centre’s library in Magodo, Mrs<br />
Fabamwo said as a capacity building<br />
institution and one of the 14<br />
pilot Ministries Departments and<br />
Agencies (MDAs), for the charter,<br />
PSSDC will continue to train<br />
manpower that would be change<br />
Stories by Toba Agboola<br />
president must use the opportunity<br />
to deal decisively with the matter<br />
that has put the nation in an unfavourable<br />
economic climate. “It is<br />
clear to us that the creation of a<br />
new Nigeria, which is equitable,<br />
just and development-oriented, is<br />
not possible if this issue is not addressed<br />
and resolved. Our legislator<br />
and indeed, our elected public<br />
officers’ pay must reflect the reality<br />
of the average earnings in the<br />
economy,” he added.<br />
Comrade Mohammed said a case<br />
where one of the serving governors<br />
was reported to have disengaged<br />
over 2,000 aides was appalling.<br />
He, however, called for salaries<br />
of political office holders to be<br />
moved to the National Salaries,<br />
Incomes and Wages Commission<br />
to ensure probity.<br />
“There is a need for the settling<br />
of the salaries of political office<br />
holders to be moved to the National<br />
Salaries, Incomes and Wages<br />
Commission so that the same underlying<br />
parameters can be used<br />
in establishing guidelines for all<br />
public sector employees and<br />
By Adeyinka Aderibigbe<br />
agents in running government<br />
business.<br />
Describing service as critical to<br />
government, Fabamwo said<br />
workers must key into delivering<br />
cutting edge services, and that<br />
was why PSSDC as the training<br />
arm of government keyed into<br />
the charter to build a sustainable<br />
platform for the state to continue<br />
getting things right.<br />
Noting that no leader can be effective<br />
if he cannot serve, Mrs<br />
Fabamwo said the best leaders<br />
are good servants. “Leadership is<br />
service and service is leadership,”<br />
Mrs Fabamwo noted.<br />
She added that PSSDC is committed<br />
to the vision of Governor<br />
• Kaigama receiving an award of excellence from Comrade Abdul Gafar Mohammed at the 1st Quadrennial<br />
Delegates Conference of CANMPSSA in Sango Ota, Ogun State.<br />
elected officers,” he maintained.<br />
The CANMPSSA boss said corruption<br />
is at the root of many of<br />
Nigeria’s problems. “Corruption<br />
takes many forms and infiltrates<br />
all political institutions and economic<br />
sectors. Corruption has not<br />
only impinged on the nation’s<br />
economy, but also battered our<br />
image among the comity of nations.<br />
Huge allocations running<br />
into billions and trillions of naira<br />
Babatunde Fashola who, while<br />
launching the charter in 2012,<br />
looked forward to building a state<br />
with a strong cultural identity<br />
that would not only drive the nation’s<br />
social and political trends,<br />
but become one of the top 10<br />
megacities of the world in terms<br />
of urban living indices.<br />
She said the service charter is<br />
meant to inculcate in all public<br />
workers the fact that they are employed<br />
to give quality, fast and<br />
reliable service to the over 20<br />
million residents of Lagos, who<br />
would need their services everyday.<br />
She said a well trained<br />
worker, who internalised this<br />
ethos would go ahead and with<br />
others to build strong and virile<br />
institutions that would sustain an<br />
enduring legacy for coming generations.<br />
NLC urged to shelve planned shutdown of NIPOST<br />
HE Nigeria Labour Congress<br />
(NLC) has been urged to stop<br />
the plan to shut down TNIPOST headquarters.<br />
President, Senior Staff Association<br />
of Communications, Transport and<br />
Corporations (SSACTAC),<br />
Nigeria Postal Service NIPOST,<br />
branch, Mr. Gabriel Imafidon, made<br />
the appeal in Abuja while responding<br />
to a letter sent by the NLC on<br />
its plans to picket the office.<br />
According to Imafidon, the<br />
planned shutdown is over allega-<br />
tions of diversion of check-off dues<br />
of staff of the Nigerian Union of<br />
Postal Telecommunication Employ<br />
(NUPTE), NIPOST branch,<br />
to SSACTAC coffers. He added that<br />
the union would prefer to dialogue<br />
with NUPTE and for NLC to seek<br />
clarification on labour laws establishing<br />
it before picketing its office.<br />
He said: “NLC has directed all<br />
its industrial unions to contribute<br />
50 persons each to join in<br />
the picketing. We don’t want to join<br />
issues with them on the pages of<br />
newspapers or the electronic media.<br />
The way they are going about it<br />
shows elements of highhandedness.<br />
We stand to be corrected.<br />
We urge the NLC to<br />
seek clarification within the ambit<br />
of the law.<br />
“We expected that the NLC, as a<br />
sister body, would work to ensure<br />
peace between SSACTAC and<br />
NUPTE through dialogue, or better<br />
still, advise NUPTE to go to court<br />
and challenge the management’s<br />
action.’’<br />
Mr. Emeka Offor’s Elcrest Exploration<br />
and Production Nigeria<br />
Limited, a joint venture company<br />
of Eland Oil & Gas Plc, was<br />
awarded the operatorship of OML<br />
40, while Mr. Ernest Ezedialu<br />
Obiejesi’s NECONDE is the operator<br />
of OML 42.<br />
A source from the union, who<br />
pleaded anonymity, said the strike<br />
is not national, adding that it is<br />
only an arm of the NNPC in Benin.<br />
He said the workers are agitated<br />
that they were kept in the dark by<br />
the management in the entire process,<br />
and are of the opinion that<br />
management’s decision would not<br />
only threaten their jobs, but will<br />
jeopardise the future of the industry.<br />
He said the strike had resulted<br />
from a breakdown in communication<br />
between the management of<br />
the company and the unions.<br />
Speaking on the development,<br />
the President, Trade Union Congress,<br />
TUC, Comrade Bobboi<br />
Kaigama, calls on the Federal Government<br />
to immediately halt and<br />
reverse the last minutes transfers<br />
are made to power development,<br />
roads, agriculture, and other sectors<br />
annually without measurable<br />
and meaningful corresponding<br />
achievement,” he said.<br />
On its part, the Trade Union Congress<br />
(TUC) has frowned at the way<br />
public office holders pay themselves<br />
severance benefits running<br />
into billions of naira without addressing<br />
the legitimate concerns of<br />
the workers on pension and gratuity.<br />
Speaking after the national executive<br />
council meeting of TUC, its<br />
president, Comrade Bobboi<br />
Kaigama said: “We want to call on<br />
the incoming government to drastically<br />
reduce the high cost of governance<br />
in the country.”<br />
He said there is also the need to<br />
47<br />
of the operatorship of OML 42,<br />
OML 40 and OML 30, which are<br />
being arbitrarily handed over to<br />
Neconde Energy Limited, Eland/<br />
Elcrest and Shore Line respectively.<br />
”We demand immediate reinstatement<br />
of the operatorship<br />
rights of the Nigeria Petroleum<br />
Development Company (NPDC),<br />
the NNPC subsidiary that has been<br />
successfully operating the assets to<br />
avert the brewing industrial crisis<br />
in NNPC in view of the impact it<br />
will have on the ongoing transition<br />
process,” Kaigama said.<br />
cut down on political appointments<br />
and that the situation<br />
whereby lawmakers fix their own<br />
salaries and allowances be discouraged<br />
and discontinued. “We encourage<br />
lawmakers to follow suit,”<br />
he said, calling for a review of the<br />
salaries and allowances of workers.<br />
“The council has noted with serious<br />
concern that the minimum<br />
wage of N18, 000.00, which is less<br />
than $90 has not been implemented<br />
in some states. In particular, the<br />
congress condemns all the state<br />
governments owing workers’ salaries,<br />
as it is unhealthy for the nation.<br />
The Congress-in-session calls<br />
on the incoming government to restore<br />
payment of gratuity along<br />
with pension,” Kaigama said.<br />
Fed Govt relocates Co-operative<br />
Dept to ministry<br />
HE Federal Government has<br />
approved the movement of<br />
the Federal Department of TCooperatives from the Federal<br />
Ministry of Agriculture and Rural<br />
Development to the Ministry of<br />
Labour and Productivity in accordance<br />
with the provisions of the<br />
Cooperatives Development Act<br />
CAP. 23 and Nigerian Cooperative<br />
Society Act CAP. N98.<br />
The office of the Head of the Civil<br />
Service of the Federation, in granting<br />
the approval, directed Labour<br />
Ministry to take necessary steps in<br />
relocating the department in accordance<br />
with its enabling laws,<br />
adding that its current location in<br />
the Department of Cooperatives,<br />
Ministry of Agriculture and Rural<br />
Development, is irregular and<br />
should therefore, be re-located accordingly.<br />
The Permanent Secretary, Ministry<br />
of Labour and Productivity, Dr.<br />
Clement Illoh, in line with the approval,<br />
has re-established the Cooperative<br />
Department in the Ministry,<br />
charged with the broad man-<br />
date of ensuring effective coverage,<br />
coordination and improved<br />
performance of Cooperative Departments<br />
of all sectors of the national<br />
economy.<br />
He assured of the Labour Ministry’s<br />
commitment to best practices,<br />
delivery of quality services and<br />
restoration of people’s confidence<br />
in cooperative administration in<br />
Nigeria.<br />
Dr. Illoh also announced the appointment<br />
of Mrs. Mojisola<br />
Sonubi, a Director in the ministry,<br />
to oversee the activities of the<br />
Department of Federal Cooperative<br />
in the Ministry.<br />
Relying, Mrs. Sonubi called on<br />
the states departments of Cooperatives,<br />
Federation of Cooperative<br />
Colleges, non-governmental<br />
organisations (NGOs) and other<br />
relevant national cooperative organisations<br />
and special agencies<br />
to cooperate with the Ministry’s<br />
federal department of Cooperative<br />
as the coordinating centre for<br />
cooperative activities in the country.
48<br />
THURSDAY, MAY 21, 2015<br />
THE NATION<br />
e-Business<br />
Website:- http://www.thenationonlineng.com e-mail: e-business@thenationonlineng.net<br />
lukajanaku02@gmail.com<br />
Anger over unsolicited text messages<br />
Unsolicited text messages have become one of the many challenges subscribers have to contend with. While the messages could so often be<br />
provocative, customers are forced to pay for them, largely because they are either ignorant of what to do is complacent. But the Nigerian<br />
Communications Commission (NCC) says aggrieved subscribers should stop suffering in silence, reports LUCAS AJANAKU.<br />
HE had left her business for<br />
the day to be part of one of the<br />
sessions of the monthly STelecoms Consumer Parliament<br />
(TCP) convened at the MUSON<br />
Centre, Onikan, Lagos, by the<br />
Nigerian Communications<br />
Commission (NCC). She had reasons<br />
to do so. For three years, she has been<br />
carrying the burden of receiving no<br />
fewer than 40 unsolicited text<br />
messages on her phone daily.<br />
She gave her name as Hajia Binta<br />
Maina, dealer in Dangote products.<br />
A woman in her late 50s, she sprang<br />
up from her seat, clutched her mobile<br />
phone and beckoned on officials of<br />
the NCC to come and see what she<br />
had been passing through with<br />
agonies all these years. According<br />
to her, the text messages were<br />
imposed on her by fraudulent value<br />
added service (VAS) providers<br />
riding on the infrastructure of<br />
Globacom, her mobile network<br />
operator (MNO). Bitter, she<br />
lamented that she had consistently<br />
loaded air time which so very often<br />
gradually gets depleted.<br />
She said: “I have been living with<br />
this problem over the past three<br />
years. I receive about 40 text<br />
messages daily from my service<br />
provider. If I were not advanced in<br />
age, some of the messages were<br />
capable of breaking my marriage.<br />
Imagine my husband opening my<br />
phone and reading a message such<br />
as; ‘I love you’. I have visited three<br />
offices of Glo and had even taken<br />
my case to the head office of the<br />
company in Victoria Island where<br />
an Indian man attended to me and<br />
assured me that the text messages<br />
and loss of money will stop. They<br />
said there is a code I could use to opt<br />
out. I used it but the more I used the<br />
code, the more the messages come<br />
in.<br />
“As I speak with you, it has not<br />
stopped. So when I heard that this<br />
meeting is taking place today, I<br />
decided to sacrifice everything I have<br />
to do today to bring my problem to<br />
the world.”<br />
Another subscriber, Madam Joy<br />
Adeniran, a window living in Itele,<br />
a suburb of Sango Ota, Ogun State,<br />
had been promised by one of her<br />
customers that she was going to<br />
make payment into her bank account<br />
so that she could go to the market<br />
the following day to stock her shop.<br />
She waited all day long to receive<br />
transaction alert from her bank but<br />
nothing came. Frustrated, she called<br />
the customer that promised to pay<br />
money into her bank account at<br />
about 10pm to find out what the<br />
problem was.<br />
She was assured of the payment<br />
and encouraged to wait for the<br />
transaction alert because that will<br />
form the basis of her going to<br />
Idumota, Lagos to buy goods for her<br />
shop.<br />
“It was like a vigil for me. I must<br />
get confirmation before setting out<br />
from Itele to Lagos latest by 5am the<br />
following morning. So, I kept<br />
waiting for the alert. When my text<br />
message alert tone rang at about<br />
12.30 midnight, I sprang up from my<br />
bed, reached for the phone. When I<br />
opened the message box, it was one<br />
useless message sent at that ungodly<br />
hour by my MNO. I was so pissed<br />
off and felt like smashing the device<br />
on the concrete wall,” she lamented.<br />
Hajia Maina and Mrs Adeniran are<br />
just a few of the over 140 million<br />
active subscribers that daily go<br />
through the pains of unsolicited text<br />
messages on their mobile phones.<br />
The messages come in torrents,<br />
sometimes blocking genuine<br />
messages from being received. “I<br />
have to delete these messages to<br />
allow important messages to be<br />
delivered because if I don’t do that,<br />
the icon showing that a message is<br />
waiting will keep popping up. It is<br />
very sad,” Alvin Afadama, an intern,<br />
lamented.<br />
NCC’s position<br />
Director, Public Affairs, NCC,<br />
Tony Ojobo, said the Commission<br />
has issued a lot of directives aimed<br />
at minimising as much as possible,<br />
the burden of unsolicited text<br />
messages to all the operators, adding<br />
that the regulator had even<br />
sanctioned the operators for not<br />
playing by the rules.<br />
He said the regulator has<br />
consistently urged the MNOs to<br />
install powerful firewalls to prevent<br />
unbridled influx of unsolicited text<br />
messages to their customers.<br />
He said: “We have made our<br />
position known on this matter. We<br />
have warned against sending<br />
messages to subscribers at night on<br />
their networks. The Commission is<br />
putting its foot down against the<br />
operators and monitoring their<br />
activities and giving them various<br />
regulations to ensure that this does<br />
not happen. We encourage<br />
subscribers to go to the operators,<br />
walk to their customer care centers;<br />
call customer call centers to lodge<br />
their complaints and give them<br />
detailed explanations about the<br />
content of the text message, the time<br />
you got them and from which<br />
number.<br />
“Agreed, most of these things<br />
come from VAS providers. They are<br />
not actually coming from the<br />
network service providers; some of<br />
them may come from them but most<br />
are from VAS providers with the<br />
knowledge of the service providers<br />
anyway. These things are like pipes<br />
for them to transmit their services<br />
and sometimes they get services<br />
through the system without them<br />
being able to detect it. It happens all<br />
over the world but we are insisting<br />
that they should be able to provide<br />
various types of systems that should<br />
be able to detect these unsolicited<br />
text messages especially those that<br />
are not wanted. The customers have<br />
a right to stop them. Send stop to the<br />
number that sent the message and it<br />
will stop and if it doesn’t stop; walk<br />
to our Lagos office at Bankole Oki<br />
Street, Ikoyi and complain. We take<br />
such complaints seriously because<br />
they infringe on the rights of the<br />
customers.<br />
“If you fail to get redress, you can<br />
also call us on our toll-free number<br />
on 622. Additionally I would like to<br />
say that this is a global problem it<br />
does not happen only in Nigeria<br />
alone.”<br />
Its Zonal Controller, Lagos,<br />
Okechukwu Aniweke, however said<br />
there are also positive sides to the<br />
unsolicited messages. According to<br />
him, unexpected bank alerts,<br />
warning about impending disasters,<br />
• Base transmission station (Insert: NCC EVC Eugene Juwah)<br />
outbreak of epidemic disease,<br />
outbreak of fatal disease such as the<br />
Ebola and warnings about how to<br />
avoid contacting them, alert about<br />
fire disasters and even armed<br />
robbery attack. He said some<br />
‘unsolicited’ text message have been<br />
so useful to the customers as they<br />
have helped to save lives, adding<br />
however that this is not to say the<br />
MNOs and VAS providers should<br />
not respect the right of their<br />
customers to have peaceful rest in<br />
their homes.<br />
Operators react<br />
Head, Network Operations,<br />
Globacom, Aremu Olajide, said<br />
most of the messages that customers<br />
complain about are not sent by the<br />
MNOs, arguing that VAS providers<br />
licensed by the NCC send the<br />
messages but using the MNOs.<br />
Customer Care Executive at MTN,<br />
Akinwale Goodluck agrees with<br />
Olajide. According to him, a huge<br />
percentage of the unsolicited<br />
messages on the network are<br />
actually generated on the internet.<br />
He said with the rise of the internet,<br />
it was possible for somebody to be<br />
in Asia and send mass messages to<br />
millions of subscribers in the<br />
country. He said though there are<br />
subsisting contractual agreements<br />
with bulk SMS providers, the telco<br />
is however strict with its terms of<br />
engagement.<br />
VAS providers speak<br />
The umbrella body of VAS<br />
providers in the country, the<br />
Wireless Application Service<br />
Providers Association of Nigeria<br />
(WASPAN), has absolved itself of<br />
any blame. The group blamed the<br />
raft of unsolicited messages on what<br />
it described as “rogue VAS<br />
providers.”<br />
Its National Coordinating<br />
Consultant, Simon Aderinlola, who<br />
described WASPAN as a selfregulatory<br />
body of firms licensed by<br />
the NCC that have at least<br />
connection with one MNO in<br />
Nigeria providing VAS.<br />
He said: “In answering that other<br />
aspect of your question about<br />
messages getting to people may be<br />
at night, they are rogue VAS<br />
services. By rogue VAS services, the<br />
Commission has tried immensely,<br />
to halt their operation. There is a<br />
framework for licensing but it is<br />
gathering momentum. There are<br />
some who actually open business to<br />
do wrong things.<br />
“The more the right regulation is<br />
put in place such that you are not<br />
killing innovation, but ensuring that<br />
the customer is protected and the<br />
rules are clear and transparent, the<br />
better for all of us.<br />
He commended the regulator for<br />
creating a forum for the MNOs, VAS<br />
providers and other stakeholders to<br />
come together to tackle the problem<br />
of unsolicited messages.<br />
“I must say this is the first of its<br />
kind forum of this nature where you<br />
have the operators, the VAS<br />
providers and the NCC all giving<br />
their own ideas on how things can<br />
work and I am sure the more we have<br />
session of this nature, the more we<br />
will be able to drive things forward,”<br />
he said.
THE NATION THURSDAY, MAY 21, 2015<br />
49
50 THE NATION THURSDAY, MAY 21, 2015
THE NATION THURSDAY, MAY 21, 2015<br />
51
52 THE NATION THURSDAY, MAY 21, 2015
THE NATION THURSDAY, MAY 21, 2015<br />
53
54<br />
EQUITIES<br />
NIGERIAN STOCK EXCHANGE<br />
DAILY SUMMARY AS AT 20-05-15<br />
THE NATION THURSDAY, MAY 21, 2015<br />
DAILY SUMMARY AS AT 20-05-15<br />
term financial forecasts indicating<br />
that the bank will grow<br />
its top-line and profitability<br />
consecutively over the next<br />
three years to about N110 billion<br />
and N30 billion respectively.<br />
Managing director, Unity<br />
Bank Plc, Mr Henry<br />
Semenitari, who addressed<br />
the investing public at the Nigerian<br />
Stock Exchange (NSE)<br />
yesterday, said the bank would<br />
achieve its financial targets as<br />
these are anchored on a viable<br />
growth strategy, which will<br />
ensure increasing operational<br />
efficiency over the years.<br />
He outlined that the bank<br />
plans to achieve profit before<br />
tax of N20.26 billion in 2015<br />
and subsequently scale up to<br />
N26.13 billion and N30.41 billion<br />
in 2016 and 2017 respectively.<br />
He added that the bank plans<br />
to grow top-line earnings consecutively<br />
to N76.26 billion in<br />
2015 and N88.52 billion and<br />
N109.49 billion in 2016 and<br />
2017 respectively.<br />
Semenitari assured that the<br />
bank has been well-positioned<br />
to achieve its financial targets<br />
noting that the rebound from<br />
By Taofik Salako<br />
Capital Market Editor<br />
Unity Bank eyes N30b profit,<br />
HE management of<br />
Unity Bank Plc yester-<br />
N110b earnings<br />
Tday rolled out its shorta<br />
loss position of N33.64 billion<br />
in December 2013 to a<br />
profit position of N13.6 billion<br />
before tax in 2014 financial<br />
year evidenced the remarkable<br />
turnaround the bank had<br />
witnessed.<br />
According to him, agriculture<br />
sector remains a major<br />
strategic focus of the bank<br />
based on its historical strength<br />
while it would also focus on<br />
emerging middle market entrepreneurs<br />
to remain retail<br />
bank of choice.<br />
He pointed out that the recent<br />
share reconstruction by<br />
the bank was done to ensure<br />
that the bank can begin dividend<br />
payment in the nearest<br />
future and create better value<br />
for all shareholders.<br />
Key extracts of the audited<br />
report and accounts of the bank<br />
for the year ended December<br />
31, 2014 showed that gross<br />
earnings rose from N62.83 billion<br />
in 2013 to N77.07 billion<br />
in 2014. Interest income had<br />
grown from N52.2 billion in<br />
2013 to N62.64 billion in 2014<br />
while net interest income rose<br />
DAILY SUMMARY AS AT 20-05-15<br />
from N30.14 billion to N45.45<br />
billion. Fee and commission<br />
income stood at N10.71 billion<br />
in 2014 as against N7.33 billion<br />
in 2013. Other incomes<br />
totaled N3.72 billion in 2014<br />
compared with N3.30 billion<br />
in 2013.<br />
After taxes, net profit stood<br />
at N10.69 billion in 2014 compared<br />
with net loss after tax of<br />
N22.58 billion in 2013. Earnings<br />
per share thus turned positive<br />
with a modest 17.45 kobo<br />
in 2014 in contrast with loss<br />
per share of 58.74 kobo recorded<br />
in previous year.<br />
The balance sheet of the bank<br />
also firmed up substantially.<br />
Total assets rose to N413.31<br />
billion in 2014 as against<br />
N403.63 billion in 2013. Total<br />
liabilities meanwhile<br />
dropped from N375.42 billion<br />
in 2013 to N337.04 billion in<br />
2014. Shareholders’ funds<br />
closed 2014 at N76.26 billion<br />
as against N28.21 billion in<br />
2013.<br />
Unity Bank had raised N39.22<br />
billion new equity funds in<br />
2014 through a combined<br />
rights issue of N19.22 billion<br />
and special placement of N20<br />
billion.
THE NATION THURSDAY, MAY 21, 2015<br />
55
56<br />
SHOWBIZ<br />
UNIPORT<br />
next on<br />
Fayrouz<br />
L’Original<br />
auditions<br />
NOWN for its history as a<br />
fashion centre in Nigeria, a<br />
gulf Port Harcourt, the Rivers State<br />
capital once again, as organisers of<br />
creative talent hunt show,<br />
Fayrouz L’Original, make their entry<br />
into the University of Port<br />
Harcourt this weekend.<br />
Still at the audition stage, the Port<br />
Harcourt edition is coming after<br />
last weekend’s highly patronised<br />
event at the University of<br />
Ibadan, Oyo State.<br />
Billed to hold this Saturday, at<br />
the International Student Centre<br />
Conference Hall, the audition will<br />
have talented students of UNIPORT<br />
and other cities within the South<br />
Region, showcasing their artistic<br />
talents in the areas of fashion de-<br />
• Nex2 performing Iyawo Mi<br />
Awhat looks like the possible<br />
winners is beginning to be evident,<br />
going by the performances of some<br />
of the contestants.<br />
After the most-aided contestant,<br />
Sther, was eventually evicted last<br />
week, the remaining five candidates<br />
on the show played a game of supremacy,<br />
each singing two Nigerian<br />
hits, to impress the audience and<br />
judges.<br />
But it appears K-Peace was the<br />
most favoured on the night, singing<br />
Shake body by Skales. That performance<br />
further stamped him as the<br />
people’s favourite. Having picked<br />
up the tempo from where Dolu left<br />
off, he put up an electrifying and sensational<br />
show that got him a standing<br />
ovation from Darey and others.<br />
“I can watch him all night. He<br />
looks like a true performer, let’s be<br />
honest. The song is not exactly vocally<br />
challenging, but he showed the<br />
ability to carry the audience along<br />
and get response from them because<br />
he is a performer,” said Mannie, a<br />
guest judge on the show.<br />
The night had started on a low key,<br />
as Classiq Tunez and Preye failed to<br />
deliver on their renditions of<br />
Wizkid’s Show me the money and<br />
Johnny by Yemi Alade respectively.<br />
Mannie, an on-air-personality with<br />
Cool FM, believed that Classiq Tunez<br />
struggled with his pitch while Preye,<br />
on the other hand, produced a somewhat<br />
interesting performance, but<br />
did not light up the stage with the<br />
appropriate energetic dance re-<br />
• Rhema, Kelechi Amadi Obi, Nnenna Ifebigh Hemeson, April By Kunbi and Mai Atafo (2)<br />
Ksense of belonging will ensigning,<br />
modelling, photography<br />
and make-up artistry.<br />
The event will be anchored by<br />
fashion experts such as ace photographer,<br />
Kelechi Amadi-Obi,<br />
National Retail Artiste House of<br />
Tara Rhema Akabuogu and renowned<br />
designers, Mai<br />
Atafo and Kunbi Oyelese of April<br />
by Kunbi who make up the jury.<br />
Organisers say the winning team<br />
will be chosen to represent the region<br />
and contest with four other<br />
teams at the semi-final stage of<br />
• K-Peace<br />
Nods for K-Peace, Nex2, Preye on Nigerian Idol 5<br />
S the ongoing Nigerian Idol<br />
5 inches towards climax,<br />
quired to match the theme of the<br />
song.<br />
Dolu showed a different stuff when<br />
she performed Tiwa Savage’s<br />
Wanted. “After all the struggles, it’s<br />
nice to see you come of age. You are<br />
beginning to own the stage, oozing<br />
confidence,” said Darey.<br />
Nex2’s performance of Davido’s<br />
Gobe was a reflection of the typical<br />
energetic performance he appears to<br />
have made his own on the show.<br />
In the second round of performance,<br />
Classiq Tunez, like his first<br />
show, failed to hit the form that has<br />
endeared him to his fans on the show.<br />
His delivery of Wizkid’s Back to the<br />
Matter was adjudged flat, as it did<br />
not resonate with the audience and<br />
judges who were unimpressed with<br />
a telling puckered brow. As a result<br />
of that, Mannie advised him to avoid<br />
songs by Wizkid while Dede, echoing<br />
same sentiments with Darey,<br />
noted it was worse than the previous<br />
one.<br />
“For today, I am sorry, my brother,<br />
your second outing was worse than<br />
your first,” he noted.<br />
The other four contestants gave<br />
good accounts of themselves, but the<br />
duo of Preye and Nex2 produced the<br />
two best performances of the second<br />
half.<br />
Preye’s rendition of Kcee’s Limpopo<br />
was enough to make up for the obvious<br />
gaps noticeable in her first half<br />
showing. She may not rank among<br />
the Show’s great dancers, but she did<br />
enough to provoke a standing ovation<br />
from the four judges.<br />
Nex2 posted his best performance<br />
ever on the show when he took to<br />
the stage to perform Timi Dakolo’s<br />
Iyawo Mi. It was one performance that<br />
etched itself in many minds with the<br />
accompaniment of theatrics.<br />
The show, which focuses on discovering<br />
Nigerian youths with talent<br />
in music and giving them a<br />
unique platform to take shots at stardom,<br />
is staking a whooping N7.5<br />
million cash reward for the wouldbe<br />
winner. The cash prize is complemented<br />
with a brand new SUV, a<br />
recording deal worth N7.5 million<br />
with South-Africa’s Universal Music<br />
label and some high-end devices.<br />
Nigerian Idol season 5 is sponsored<br />
by Etisalat Nigeria, Payporte,<br />
Cool Fm, Tantalizers, Cadbury Nigeria,<br />
Zaron, Dabur Toothpaste, So-<br />
Klin, ORS and Ellis Suites.<br />
F<br />
EMI Robinson, who first acted the<br />
role of Village Headmaster in the<br />
now rested soap opera, Village<br />
Headmaster is dead.<br />
The veteran actor who was also pioneer<br />
Director of Programmes, Ogun State<br />
Television (OGTV) died yesterday morning<br />
at Ayodele Hospital, Fagba, Ifako Ijaiye,<br />
Lagos. He was 74. He would have been 75<br />
in September.<br />
He acted alongside the likes of Justus Esiri<br />
and Chief Olusegun Olusola.<br />
‘He was a great man,’ his son, Wole<br />
Robinson said. ‘He tried as much he could<br />
to change the world.’<br />
In an interview he granted to Newswatch<br />
the competition, holding at the<br />
Obudu Cattle ranch, Calabar, in<br />
June.<br />
The Port Harcourt audition will<br />
be followed by another on May<br />
30, at the University of Nigeria,<br />
Enugu, before rounding off at the<br />
SEVEN key members of the Nigerian<br />
nightclub and entertainment<br />
industry have been<br />
selected by owners of Jack Daniel’s<br />
Single Barrel for a weeklong trip to<br />
their Distillery in Lynchburg, Tennessee.<br />
The trip will afford them the opportunity<br />
of having a customised<br />
barrel of the product for their hangouts,<br />
as they will personally handselect<br />
their choice of Jack Daniel’s<br />
Single Barrel with the Master Distiller<br />
and Master Taster of the product.<br />
The trip is anchored on the<br />
company’s ‘Buy The Barrel Program’,<br />
and those selected for the event are,<br />
Frank Okamigbo of The Place<br />
LoungeLekki by Papas; Charles<br />
Okpaleke, Partnering Owner, Play<br />
Abuja; Shina Peller, CEO of Quilox<br />
Night Club& Aquila Group; Ibukun<br />
Shoboyede and Niran Odulana, coowners<br />
of Road Runners Night Club;<br />
Abubakar Atodo Isah, co-owner of<br />
Caribbean Lounge Abuja and Chris<br />
Ubosi, MD, Megaletrics Limited,<br />
mother company to The Beat FM,<br />
Classic FM and Naija FM.<br />
With the barrels and bottles specially<br />
customised according to their<br />
specifications, there is no doubt they<br />
will be bringing class and uniqueness<br />
to their outfits, as the entertainment<br />
and nightlife industry is experiencing<br />
a boom.<br />
THE NATION THURSDAY, MAY 21, 2015<br />
University of Lagos on Friday,<br />
June 5 and Saturday, June 6.<br />
In its second season, the show,<br />
tagged the Fayrouz L’Original Expression<br />
is sponsored by Fayrouz,<br />
and aims to reward young creative<br />
talents.<br />
Peller, Obosi, others on Jack<br />
Daniel’s Lynchburg trip<br />
THE video of ‘Save The Last<br />
Dance’, the latest single from<br />
JJC, was on Tuesday, trending<br />
on Twitter. Save the last dance<br />
is a song which borrows a cover<br />
from a popular Hausa tune and focuses<br />
on trust. According to JJC’s<br />
Youtube page, ‘without TRUST, we<br />
have nothing.’<br />
As at Tuesday morning, the video<br />
had over 99, 000 views on Youtube.<br />
Produced by Puffy Tee and directed<br />
by Mr. Moe Musa under<br />
While away, they are expected to<br />
meet with Jack Daniel’s master distiller,<br />
Jeff Arnett, for a private tour of<br />
the grounds where they will learn<br />
about the history of the brand and<br />
will also experience a personal tasting<br />
session by the distillery’s master<br />
taster, Chris Fletcher.<br />
One barrel is specially selected out<br />
of every 100 barrels by the Master<br />
Distiller Jeff Arnett, and set aside to<br />
mature in the highest reaches of the<br />
Jack Daniel’s barrelhouse where dramatic<br />
temperature changes cause the<br />
colour and taste to deepen further creating<br />
a smooth, one-of-a-kind flavour<br />
and robust taste. Every barrel selected<br />
gives the whiskey a different flavour<br />
and that’s why it’s hard to find two<br />
bottles of Single Barrel the same.<br />
By Dupe Ayinla-Olasunkanmi<br />
• Shina Peller<br />
JJC’s video trend on Twitter<br />
By Joe Agbro Jr.<br />
Bigboyz Entertainment, the song<br />
came out after the release of his autobiographical<br />
hit song, My Life.<br />
Known for his classic singles, We<br />
are Africans, African Skank, Eru and<br />
My Life, among others, the singer/<br />
songwriter/musician is always<br />
praised for his live onstage performances.<br />
His album titled Skillz is scheduled<br />
to come out soon.<br />
Femi Robinson, Village Headmaster, is dead<br />
By Joe Agbro Jr.<br />
newspaper in January, Robinson who<br />
studied Botany at the University of Ile-Ife<br />
(Obafemi Awolowo University) said he<br />
was sad to be a Nigerian because the<br />
country did not focus on getting solutions<br />
to her problems.<br />
“When I say I regret living in this<br />
country, it’s because I have done a lot of<br />
things to help this country. When we were<br />
having problems with buying and selling,<br />
I started a television programme called:<br />
Shopper’s Guide; that was what later gave<br />
rise to the establishment of National<br />
Agency for Food Drugs and<br />
Administrative Control (NAFDAC).”
THE NATION THURSDAY, MAY 21, 2015 57<br />
NEWS<br />
•The queen, Brenda flanked by Bez (left) and Globacom’s Group Business Director, Kunle Akanmu (Right)<br />
21-year old crowned Miss Lagos NYSC<br />
WENTY-ONE-YEAR<br />
old Brenda Evbodaghe,<br />
a graduate of TMass Communication from<br />
Covenant University has been<br />
crowned queen of the Lagos<br />
NYSC Miss Bold and Beautiful<br />
pageant sponsored by Globacom.<br />
Evbodaghe, from Edo State<br />
beat other ladies to emerge the<br />
winner of the pageant which<br />
was anchored by the humour<br />
merchant, Gbenga Adeyinka.<br />
The pageant was part of the<br />
activities lined up for the night<br />
of fun and entertainment organised<br />
by Globacom to welcome<br />
the 2015 “Batch A” corps members<br />
to the NYSC Orientation<br />
Camp, Iyana Ipaja.<br />
The contestants appeared in<br />
three costumes: Full NYSC<br />
Corps regalia, evening gown<br />
and native wears.<br />
Brenda was declared winner<br />
by a unanimous decision from<br />
the judges comprising Glo ambassadors<br />
Bez, Ego Ogbaru<br />
and NYSC officials. She won<br />
an iPhone 6 with 4.5 Gb data<br />
and N5,000 worth Glo Airtime.<br />
Iwuese Oluchi Precious, a<br />
Business Administration graduate<br />
from Babcock University<br />
was first runner-up and won a<br />
Samsung Duos with 4.5 Gb data<br />
and 5,000 airtime, while Judith<br />
Nze, a Biomedical Science graduate<br />
from the University of<br />
Wolverhampton, England<br />
came third, winning a Samsung<br />
Duos.<br />
Reacting, Brenda said: “I feel<br />
happy; I never expected to win.<br />
It’s a very happy moment for<br />
me. This crown, I’m sure will<br />
spur me into giving my best<br />
during the service year. I will<br />
use it as a springboard to<br />
achieve my dream in the wider<br />
society”.<br />
Ezekwesili, BBOG to DHQ: where’re the girls<br />
HE BringBackOurGirls<br />
and its coordinator,<br />
Mrs. Oby Ezekwesili Tyesterday said it has not been<br />
engaging in hate campaign<br />
against the military.<br />
They also said it would not<br />
recant its observations on military<br />
operations in the North-<br />
East.<br />
They raised three posers for<br />
the military including a categorical<br />
statement on the<br />
whereabouts of the 219 Chibok<br />
girls.<br />
The posers are:<br />
* Where exactly are our 219<br />
#ChibokGirls?<br />
*Is there no military or human<br />
intelligence to enable us<br />
at least locate the whereabouts<br />
of all or some of them?<br />
* Is the raid on Sambisa now<br />
completed and if so, what news<br />
do we have on the whereabouts<br />
of our 219 girls who both the<br />
military, the National Security<br />
Advisor and the President had<br />
at various times promised<br />
would be rescued from captivity<br />
before May 29th?<br />
Ezekwesili and BBOG made<br />
their position known in a May<br />
19 letter to the Director of Defence<br />
Information, Maj-Gen<br />
Chris Olukolade.<br />
Olukolade stirred the hornet’s<br />
nest in a previous letter to<br />
Ezekwesili and the BBOG.<br />
The BBOG said it does not<br />
harbour any mole in its midst<br />
and asked military to respond<br />
to three posers.<br />
The letter, signed by Ezekwesili,<br />
said in part: “However,<br />
as you can see, we remain<br />
engaged and determined to receive<br />
progress reports from our<br />
military on their effort to bring<br />
back our girls. We were in fact<br />
hoping that part of your letter<br />
would have provided a<br />
progress update on the state of<br />
the military mission to rescue<br />
our girls.<br />
“Once again, we thank you<br />
for writing. We hope we have<br />
convincingly persuaded you<br />
that our Movement is strictly<br />
engaged in empathy centered<br />
advocacy for our 219 #Chibok-<br />
Girls who must be given the<br />
justice of successful rescue after<br />
400 days in terrorist captivity.<br />
From Yusuf Ali, Abuja<br />
“Their continued captivity<br />
traumatizes our Movement and<br />
every one in our nation and all<br />
over the world who share the<br />
bond of humanity with our 219<br />
#ChibokGirls.<br />
“Our ChibokGirls are victims<br />
of the failure of our government<br />
to rescue them and others we<br />
may still not know were abducted<br />
so far. That is why we as<br />
a Movement shall not stop advocating<br />
for them.<br />
“That is also why we are open<br />
to working with our Military<br />
and Government until our nation<br />
succeeds in this important<br />
endeavor of bringing back our<br />
ChibokGirls and all other abducted<br />
citizens of Nigeria.<br />
“So we use this opportunity<br />
of our reply to once more ask:<br />
“Where exactly are our 219 #ChibokGirls?”<br />
. “Is there no military<br />
or human intelligence to<br />
enable us at least locate the<br />
whereabout of all or some of<br />
them?”<br />
“Is the raid on Sambisa now<br />
completed and if so, what news<br />
do we have on the whereabout<br />
of our 219 girls who both the<br />
military, the National Security<br />
Advisor and the President had<br />
at various times promised<br />
would be rescued from captivity<br />
before May 29th?”.<br />
We demand that the Military<br />
urgently presents a mission update<br />
to the parents, our Movement<br />
and the wider public on<br />
the current plans for the rescue<br />
of our #ChibokGirls.”<br />
The BBOG also responded to<br />
all issues raised by Olukolade<br />
in his letter.<br />
The group added: We acknowledge<br />
receipt of your correspondence<br />
dated 14 May 2015<br />
and noted your concerns about<br />
our advocacy movement<br />
#BringBackOurGirls which has<br />
since April 30, 2014 been advocating<br />
for rescue of the 219 #ChibokGirls<br />
abducted 400 days ago<br />
at their school on April 14, 2014.<br />
“We especially noted the following<br />
four key messages in<br />
your letter to our Movement.<br />
“We wish to respond to the<br />
four key issues raised in your<br />
letter as follows:<br />
“Our #BringBackOurGirls<br />
movement is a Citizens- led<br />
movement with open membership<br />
of all citizens who choose<br />
to identify with the cause of our<br />
219 #ChibokGirls.<br />
“No one individual or group<br />
of persons within the Movement<br />
can determine the direction<br />
or position of our Movement<br />
on the issues we advocate.<br />
This is because, the basis of all<br />
our decisions is Collectivism.<br />
“Moreover, both our Movement<br />
and our members are guided<br />
by a set of Core Values of<br />
Hope, Unity, Motivation, Affability,<br />
Nationalism, Integrity,<br />
Transparency, Empathy, Equity,<br />
Discipline and Sacrifice (HU-<br />
MANITEEDS) in our advocacy.<br />
“In our public and private<br />
communication, we are also<br />
guided by our rule of highest<br />
respect for adherence to the sanctity<br />
of facts or empirical evidence<br />
rather than anecdotes.<br />
“Our communications- statements,<br />
briefs, member representations<br />
- all pass through one<br />
of the strongest internal quality<br />
control process to ensure accuracy<br />
in our messages.<br />
“Therefore, we wish to<br />
strongly assure you that #Bring-<br />
BackOurGirls has never and<br />
will never be susceptible to the<br />
kind of influence of any one or<br />
group of individual(s) engaging<br />
in a “hate campaign against<br />
you or our military”.<br />
“Such act would contradict<br />
our Core Values and our strictly<br />
empirical advocacy for the<br />
Government and military to<br />
deliver on their duty.<br />
“Thus, our singularity of purpose<br />
remains the rescue of our<br />
#ChibokGirls and all other abducted<br />
victims of the North East<br />
terrorist scourge. We shall continue<br />
to be civil and professional<br />
in our advocacy as we have<br />
widely been acclaimed to be<br />
since it commenced more than<br />
a year ago.<br />
“As a Citizens’ movement,<br />
#BringBackOurGirls is a demand<br />
for accountability from<br />
especially our Federal Government<br />
which has the constitutional<br />
duty for security of all citizens.<br />
In shaping our demand,<br />
we rely on publicly available<br />
news from your Directorate as<br />
well as all known credible media<br />
platforms.<br />
“In furtherance of our civic<br />
duty to be eternally vigilant we<br />
launched our Accountability<br />
Tools for rigorously monitoring,<br />
organizing and analyzing<br />
all news reports on the counter<br />
insurgency war in order to draw<br />
out key issues on which we<br />
could engage as citizens with<br />
our Government to help improve<br />
the prospects of success<br />
of the military efforts.<br />
“As earlier stated be reassured<br />
that all our statements<br />
and posts on social media conveying<br />
the results of our Monitoring/Accountability<br />
Initiatives<br />
have to undergo stringent<br />
quality control processes. It is<br />
after these that they are released<br />
with utmost sense of responsibility<br />
and a readiness to defend<br />
our position with evidence.<br />
“We therefore stand by all our<br />
analyses and assessments as<br />
conveyed in our statements.<br />
This explains why, so far, we<br />
have never had to recant, deny,<br />
or apologize for any statements<br />
we have made in the more than<br />
one year of our advocacy.<br />
“Nevertheless, we are open<br />
to receiving any specific instances<br />
or episodes of factual<br />
inaccuracy resulting from our<br />
monitoring, analysis, assessment,<br />
questions, scrutiny and<br />
statements.<br />
“We also recall our meeting<br />
of the 6th May 2014 with you<br />
and the Chief of Defense Staff<br />
team at the Defense Head Quarters.<br />
We had at that meeting<br />
agreed that the military will<br />
act in ways consistent with civil-military<br />
relations and democratic<br />
accountability by hosting<br />
us to a regular meetings to<br />
discuss the progress of your<br />
rescue mission for our girls and<br />
more broadly, the prosecution<br />
of the counter-insurgency war.<br />
“It is regrettable that subsequently<br />
following that agreement,<br />
none of such meetings<br />
ever happened again and that<br />
instead, our attempt to participate<br />
in your National Information<br />
Center briefings was frustrated<br />
and then prohibited.”<br />
Why Mu’azu quit as PDP chairman<br />
Continued from page 4<br />
“We were expecting him to<br />
follow international convention<br />
and decorum but he was<br />
behaving as if it was normal<br />
to lose a general election woefully.<br />
“The President, PDP governors<br />
and party leaders expected<br />
him to read their body<br />
language but he was blind. Instead<br />
of pressurising him to<br />
resign, all these leaders isolated<br />
him in the past few<br />
weeks.<br />
“The isolation informed his<br />
desperate tweets which did<br />
not help his case at all. It was<br />
really sad that a politician of<br />
his calibre does not know<br />
when to quit.”<br />
Responding to a question,<br />
the source added: “At a point,<br />
Villa’s doors were shut<br />
against him as he had limited<br />
or no access to the seat of<br />
power. It was at this point that<br />
he knew the game was up and<br />
he chose to quit yesterday.<br />
“The alternative would have<br />
been to call an emergency<br />
meeting of the National Executive<br />
Committee next week<br />
to force him to resign. They<br />
actually wanted to settle<br />
Mu’azu’s case before May 29.<br />
Some PDP governors and leaders<br />
did not believe that Muazu<br />
was truly ill and recuperating<br />
in Singapore.<br />
“Mu’azu realised that the<br />
forces were overwhelming<br />
and there was no way he<br />
could survive it.”<br />
Another highly-placed<br />
source added: “What hastened<br />
his resignation was the coming<br />
together of all NWC<br />
members who placed a call to<br />
the PDP chairman to leave.<br />
“It was a sudden palace<br />
coup by the NWC members<br />
who had risen in support of<br />
Mu’azu in the last three weeks.<br />
“Rather than sinking with<br />
Muazu, the NWC members<br />
were clever in staging a palace<br />
coup against him.<br />
“Mu’azu felt the NWC<br />
members, who were part of<br />
all he did in office, have<br />
stabbed him in the back. When<br />
your team members say they<br />
have lost confidence in you,<br />
certainly you will become<br />
helpless.”<br />
It was also gathered that relatives,<br />
friends and associates of<br />
Mu’azu were shocked by the<br />
insults being heaped on their<br />
man and decided to advise<br />
him to quit.<br />
“I think the relatives, friends<br />
and associates on Tuesday felt<br />
they have had enough of these<br />
insults and prevailed on<br />
Mu’azu to “leave their job”.<br />
A governor said: “Our position<br />
is that all the NWC members<br />
should go for a new set<br />
of leaders. Is there any difference<br />
between Mu’azu and his<br />
successor, Secondus if we want<br />
to reform the party?<br />
“The NWC messed up our<br />
primaries, some of them became<br />
traders and even when<br />
the President advised them not<br />
to touch the expression of interest<br />
and nomination fees paid<br />
by aspirants, they blew all.<br />
”Why do you expect us to<br />
retain such a reckless team.<br />
Mu’azu’s resignation is just<br />
the beginning of more cleansing<br />
in the party. To ask<br />
Secondus to be in charge is like<br />
seeking a difference between<br />
six and half a dozen.”<br />
A few hours after Mu’azu’s<br />
exit, Secondus met with President<br />
Goodluck Jonathan at the<br />
Presidential Villa, Abuja.<br />
Secondus arrived the Presidential<br />
Villa around 5.15 p.m<br />
with Bayelsa State Governor<br />
Seriake Dickson.<br />
He acknowledged greetings<br />
from those congratulating him.<br />
Secondus and Dickson<br />
walked out together from the<br />
President’s office around 6.17<br />
p.m.<br />
Mu’azu’s resignation letter<br />
was said to have been delivered<br />
to Secondus. He is to act<br />
as chairman pending the emergence<br />
of a substantive chair.<br />
National Secretary, Prof.<br />
Wale Oladipo, told reporters<br />
that the NWC had received<br />
and accepted the chairman’s<br />
resignation.<br />
He said the NWC would<br />
meet today, to decide on the<br />
correct position of the status<br />
of the Chairman, Board of<br />
Trustees of the PDP, Chief<br />
Tony Anenih. He did not<br />
elaborate. But Anenih later<br />
resigned.<br />
Oladipo, who declined to<br />
state whether other members<br />
of the NWC would also resign,<br />
expressed confidence in<br />
the ability of the remaining<br />
party officials to run its affairs.<br />
He announced the setting up<br />
of a seven-member disciplinary<br />
committee with yet to be<br />
stated terms of reference. According<br />
to him, the committee<br />
is headed by Chief<br />
Michael Addul.<br />
Other members of the committee<br />
are Chief Mike<br />
Ogiadohme, Senator Teslim<br />
Folarin, Dr. Akilu Indabawa,<br />
Dr. Hassan Kafayas, Barr<br />
Nonye Nwangwu while Barr.<br />
Tony Caesar Okeke will serve<br />
as Secretary.<br />
The committee, he said, will<br />
be inaugurated on Tuesday at<br />
the party’s secretariat.<br />
He pleaded for calm and the<br />
understanding of all members<br />
and other critical stakeholders,<br />
and urged any member<br />
with genuine grievances to<br />
channel such through the appropriate<br />
organs.<br />
The embattled party officials<br />
have written to Fani-<br />
Kayode querying the validity<br />
of his membership of the party.<br />
According to them, Fani-<br />
Kayode would face sanctions<br />
if his membership is found to<br />
be invalid.<br />
The party also queried the<br />
Deputy National Organising<br />
Secretary, Chief Okey<br />
Nnadozie, over non remittance<br />
of N2.5 million meant<br />
for the transportation of state<br />
chairmen during the last party<br />
convention.<br />
The letter, signed by<br />
Oladipo said “In view of the<br />
gravity of the allegation, the<br />
NWC invites you to its meeting<br />
holding onThursday, May<br />
21, 2015 by 10 am at the NWC<br />
Hall”.<br />
Mu’azu, who proceeded on<br />
medical trip abroad shortly after<br />
the election, is yet to return<br />
to the country.<br />
Freedom night at MABCI<br />
M<br />
IRACLE<br />
Assembly Bible Church Incorporated<br />
(MABCI) aka City of Joy will hold an all night<br />
programme tagged: ‘June Freedom Night (Vigil)’. The<br />
session, ‘God of Vengeance Fight My Case’, is scheduled for<br />
June 5 at 10pm at church auditorium, 80, Ajose Street, Mende,<br />
Maryland.<br />
According to the hosts, Bishop and Evang. (Mrs) Theophilus<br />
Ugo Chukwu, vengeance is of God and He will contend against<br />
those who contend against worshippers.
58<br />
NEWS<br />
•L-R: Deputy Vice-<br />
Chancellor, Academy,<br />
University of Ibadan,<br />
Prof. Gbemisola Oke,<br />
Vice-Chancellor University<br />
of Ibadan, Prof. Isaac<br />
Adewole receiving an<br />
award from Commissioner<br />
of Police Oyo<br />
State, Muhammed Katsina<br />
during the courtesy<br />
visit of Prof. Isaac Adewole<br />
to Oyo State Police<br />
Command Hospital at<br />
Police Headquarter<br />
Eleyele...<br />
Ibadan.<br />
PHOTO: FEMI<br />
ILESANMI<br />
EKITI State Governor Ayodele<br />
Fayose described<br />
the resignation as a<br />
good development for the turbulent<br />
party.<br />
Speaking through his<br />
Chief Press Secretary, Mr. Idowu<br />
Adelusi, Fayose, who has<br />
been calling for Mu’azu’s removal,<br />
said: “We see it as a<br />
welcome development. When<br />
a political party loses an election,<br />
the moral thing for the<br />
leadership of that party is to<br />
quit office.<br />
Muazu and others ought<br />
not to have waited for the call<br />
for their resignation before<br />
doing the right thing. We<br />
hope others would follow his<br />
step. This will allow re-engineering<br />
of the party to make<br />
it a virile opposition party.”<br />
Gunmen abduct Jonathan’s cousins in Bayelsa<br />
•Abductors wear military camouflage<br />
PATIENCE Egbeni and<br />
Kate Eni, two cousins<br />
of President Goodluck<br />
Jonathan, have been abducted<br />
by gunmen at Akimpelai,<br />
Ogbia Local Government<br />
Area of Bayelsa State.<br />
It was learnt that six gunmen<br />
stormed the riverbank<br />
in the community at 8.30am<br />
on Tuesday and abducted the<br />
women.<br />
The victims were said to<br />
have been snatched from<br />
their provision stores on the<br />
riverbank.<br />
A source, who spoke in<br />
confidence, said the hoodlums<br />
forced the women into<br />
a waiting speedboat and<br />
took them to an unknown<br />
Fayose, George: exit good for party<br />
Former Deputy National<br />
Chairman of the PDP Chief<br />
Olabode George described<br />
Muazu’s resignation as “the best<br />
thing to have happened to us”.<br />
George, a member of PDP’s<br />
National Caucus, said the resignation<br />
has proved that “PDP<br />
is made up of people with integrity”.<br />
He also described the setting<br />
aside of zoning by the All<br />
Progressives Congress (APC)<br />
for national offices such as<br />
Senate President and Speaker<br />
of the House of Representatives<br />
as “dangerous”.<br />
“It is in our party’s interest.<br />
It is the best thing to have<br />
happened to us. It shows that<br />
PDP has a strong norm and<br />
culture and it will allow us<br />
reposition our party.<br />
“We are happier than before<br />
because PDP will become<br />
stronger to face the challenges<br />
ahead. As from May 29, we<br />
will become the opposition<br />
party at the national level. We<br />
need to restrategise.<br />
“He (Mu’azu) has done the<br />
honourable thing to do and<br />
that is why PDP is different<br />
from other parties. Mu’azu is<br />
a foundation member of the<br />
party, a founding governor.<br />
He has followed the path of<br />
honour like President Goodluck<br />
Jonathan. I wish him the<br />
best of luck”.<br />
On zoning, he said: “APC<br />
is making a big mistake<br />
which is a very dangerous concept<br />
for the polity. That means<br />
we are back in 1960. How can<br />
you say you are setting aside<br />
Anenih resigns after NWC’s<br />
‘curious’ letter<br />
•’I quit for Jonathan to takeover<br />
From Mike Odiegwu,<br />
Yenagoa<br />
place.<br />
The incident, which occurred<br />
a few days to a grand<br />
reception being organised<br />
for Dr Jonathan on May 29,<br />
was said to have devastated<br />
the President’s kinsmen.<br />
The source said: “The victims<br />
are two maternal cousins<br />
of the President. We<br />
know that they have been<br />
preparing to welcome the<br />
President after the May 29<br />
handover. Unless they are<br />
rescued before then, their<br />
dream of spokesman Butswat<br />
Asinim, an Assistant Superintendent<br />
of Police (ASP),<br />
said the gunmen were<br />
dressed in military camouflage.<br />
Egbeni is 35 years old.<br />
He said: “The gunmen<br />
were dressed in military camouflage.<br />
They went to the<br />
provision stores of the victims<br />
at the riverside and abducted<br />
them into a waiting<br />
speedboat.”<br />
Asinim said the Marine<br />
and Anti-Kidnapping Squad<br />
of the police, including the<br />
Joint Task Force (JTF), Operation<br />
Pulo Shield, had been contacted.<br />
Following the incident,<br />
zoning? It is dangerous. I just<br />
pray that General Muhammadu<br />
Buhari will rise above<br />
tribal sentiment to manage<br />
everybody”<br />
Director of Media of the<br />
PDP Presidential Campaign<br />
Organisation, Chief Femi<br />
Fani-Kayode said Mu’azu did<br />
the honourable thing by turning<br />
in his resignation.<br />
He called on other members<br />
of the NWC to take a cue from<br />
the ex party chair by resigning<br />
their positions without delay.<br />
According to him, the party<br />
would not get out of its festering<br />
crisis with the remaining<br />
NWC members on board.<br />
“They should respect the wish<br />
of the majority of party members<br />
and resign because they<br />
have failed”, he stated.<br />
From: Yusuf Alli, Managing<br />
Editor, Northern Operation<br />
He considered the letter “offensive<br />
from small boys” who<br />
did not know how the party<br />
was formed. He also took exception<br />
to such insults from the<br />
small minds in the party, the<br />
source said, adding that:<br />
“I can tell you authoritatively<br />
that the letter from PDP secretariat<br />
informed his resignation<br />
as BOT chairman.”<br />
But Anenih made no reference<br />
to any correspondence between<br />
him and the party.<br />
He said he was stepping<br />
down to allow Jonathan to assume<br />
the office of the BOT chairman.<br />
He also cited the current state<br />
of affairs in the party as a major<br />
factor for his stepping down.<br />
Anenih, in a May 20 onepage<br />
letter to President Goodluck<br />
Jonathan<br />
Titled the”Notice of my decision<br />
to step down as Chairman,<br />
Board of Trustees of the<br />
Peoples Democratic Party”,<br />
Anenih said his decision would<br />
enable President Jonathan to<br />
effectively assume the chairmanship<br />
of the BoT.<br />
The letter reads: “Your Excellency<br />
will recall that in a conversation<br />
I had with you a few<br />
weeks ago, I had offered to step<br />
down from the office of the<br />
Chairman of our party’s Board<br />
of Trustees and proposed to<br />
hand over to you as its new<br />
Chairman in a ceremony that<br />
would have taken place on the<br />
23rd of May, 2015. I had also<br />
repeated this position in our<br />
subsequent meetings.<br />
“As a follow up to the above<br />
proposal and in view of the current<br />
state of affairs in our party,<br />
I have decided to formally put<br />
my offer in writing to enable<br />
you effectively assume the<br />
Chairmanship of Board of Trust-<br />
•Anenih<br />
ees or approve a process that<br />
will enable any other member<br />
of the BoT who is considered<br />
competent, to assume the position.<br />
“Kindly accept therefore,<br />
this letter as notice of my decision<br />
to step down from the position<br />
of Chairman of the BoT<br />
of our party with effect from<br />
today, the 20th of May, 2015.<br />
“I am happy to inform you<br />
that, I remain a loyal foundation<br />
member of our great party<br />
and will continue to pray for<br />
the prosperity of Nigeria, our<br />
party, and for you and your<br />
family.<br />
“Your Excellency, kindly<br />
accept the expression of my<br />
highest regards.”<br />
the Ogbia clan of the Ijaw<br />
Youth Council (IYC) Worldwide<br />
urged the kidnappers to<br />
release the women immediately.<br />
The clan’s Chairman Osaanya<br />
Osaanya said no ransom<br />
should be paid for the<br />
women’s freedom.<br />
He said: “We are calling<br />
on the kidnappers to, as a<br />
matter of urgency, return<br />
those innocent women. We<br />
will go after them, if they<br />
refuse to heed our call. We<br />
will assist security agencies<br />
to make sure that those poor<br />
women are released with<br />
immediate effect.”<br />
THE NATION THURSDAY, MAY 21, 2015<br />
No reconciliation with<br />
Amaechi’s NGF, says Jang faction<br />
From Gbade Ogunwale, Abuja<br />
THE Governor Jonah Jang led faction of the Nigeria Governors<br />
Forum (NGF) has denied reconciling with the Rotimi Amaechi<br />
led NGF.<br />
A statement yesterday by the Secretary and Administrator of<br />
the faction, Earl Osaro Onaiwu, quoted governors in the Jang<br />
faction as saying any such reconciliation attempt was futile.<br />
According to the statement, majority of the governors will be<br />
out of office in a matter of days and therefore should leave issues<br />
of reconciliation, reorganisation and a new chairman to the incoming<br />
governors.<br />
The statement further described the purported reconciliation<br />
as a selfish attempt by a group of governors to force new leadership<br />
of the forum on the in-coming governors.<br />
The faction noted that both the its chairman, Jonah Jang of<br />
Plateau State and his deputy, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko of Ondo<br />
State along with a majority of governors were visibly absent<br />
because they did not consider it a priority at this late hour to be<br />
part of “a selfish project”.<br />
Governors in the Jang faction, mainly of the Peoples Democratic<br />
Party (PDP) that attended Monday’s meeting of the governors,<br />
where the reconciliation was brokered were: Godswill<br />
Akpabio (Akwa Ibom); Babangida Aliyu (Niger); Ramalan Yero<br />
(Kaduna); and Saidu Dakingari (Kebbi).<br />
Others were Emmanuel Uduaghan (Delta); Deputy Governor<br />
of Kogi State, Yomi Awoniyi; and Isa Yuguda (Bauchi).<br />
Religious leaders<br />
urged to promote peace<br />
RELIGIOUS leaders have been urged to use their position<br />
to promote peace and unity in the country.<br />
Chief Executive Officer of the Strength in Diversity Development<br />
Centre, Lagos, Imam Shefiu Abdulkareem Majemu,<br />
gave the advice at a workshop on Religion, Conflict Prevention<br />
and Good Governance at the Religious Literacy Centre of the<br />
Harvard Divinity School, Harvard University, Boston, USA.<br />
Majemu said the workshop was organised to build capacity of<br />
the participants in the critical area of religious understanding<br />
and literacy. He said religion is a veritable tool that could be<br />
used to prevent ethnic violence and enhance good governance.<br />
Ondo varsity students protest<br />
From Damisi Ojo, Akure<br />
THE Chairman of the<br />
Board of Trustees (BoT)<br />
of the Peoples Democrat-<br />
ic Party (PDP), Chief Tony<br />
Anenih, yesterday resigned after<br />
receiving an alleged curious<br />
letter from the National<br />
Working Committee (NWC)<br />
on suspected anti-party’s activities<br />
in Imo State during the<br />
governorship poll.<br />
But Anenih said he stepped<br />
down from the position to allow<br />
President Goodluck<br />
Jonathan to assume the office.<br />
Investigation by our correspondent<br />
revealed that the<br />
NWC was unhappy that<br />
Anenih’s godson, Sen. Ifeanyi<br />
Ararume worked against PDP<br />
candidate Deputy House<br />
Speaker Emeka Ihedioha.<br />
A source said: “Anenih’s resignation<br />
was preemptive because<br />
the NWC had started investigating<br />
his alleged antiparty<br />
activities in Imo State. In<br />
fact, the NWC wrote him a letter<br />
to explain what went wrong<br />
in Imo State and why disciplinary<br />
action should not be taken<br />
against him.<br />
STUDENTS of the Ondo State University of Science and<br />
Technology (OSUSTECH) in Okitipupa Local Government<br />
yesterday resumed their protest against alleged poor<br />
working and learning conditions.<br />
The protesters locked the main gate of the institution at<br />
Igodan, thereby preventing workers from entering the institution.<br />
Their action caused gridlock on the Okitipupa/Igbokoda<br />
Road.<br />
A 200-Level student, Omotola Benson, hinged their grievances<br />
on exorbitant school fees, payment of ICT fees without<br />
the facilities, neglect of the university by the government and<br />
non-payment of the staff salaries.<br />
Benson said indigenous students pay N125,000 as school fees,<br />
while non-indigenes pay N175,000<br />
The students’ body urged the government to focus more on<br />
the institution by responding to the demands of the students.<br />
APC candidate, agent<br />
write IGP over threat to life<br />
From Yusuf Alli, Abuja<br />
THE All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate for<br />
Ukanafun/Oruk Anam Federal Constituency of Akwa<br />
Ibom State in the April election, Eshiet Offiong, has petitioned<br />
Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Solomon Arase over<br />
alleged threats to his and one of his agents, Namso Udorok’s<br />
Iwes.<br />
The petitoner accused a member of the House of Representatives<br />
of sending threat messages to him and his agent.<br />
The APC candidate, who alerted the police chief to the threat<br />
through his counsel, Felix Udoh, said other APC candidates in<br />
the constituency were being threatened by the lawmaker whose<br />
number and identity were attached to the petition.<br />
He urged the IGP to probe the threats and bring those behind<br />
them to justice.<br />
The May 8 petition reads: “At 9.45pm and 10.15pm on May 6,<br />
Namso R. Udorok received a call in his phone with the following<br />
number 08167638250 from a phone number wherein the<br />
suspect threatened to deal with our clients.<br />
“At 8am on May 7, the suspect, through the same number,<br />
also called Namso R. Udorok on phone number 08167638250,<br />
stressing and reaffirming his decision to deal with our clients<br />
and all those who were APC agents in Ukanafun/Oruk Anam<br />
Federal Constituency’s election on March 28.<br />
“The suspect is a member of the House of Representatives.<br />
He was also a candidate for the March 28 election.<br />
“The lives of our clients and the APC agents are in great<br />
danger. In view of the great danger and magnitude of the allegations,<br />
we apply to you and your good offices to investigate<br />
the allegations and bring to book the person involved in the<br />
crime, in accordance with the provisions of the laws of the land.<br />
“Take all necessary actions to protect our clients and APC<br />
agents in Ukanafun/Oruk Anam Federal Constituency of Akwa<br />
Ibom State.<br />
“We hereby place on records that should anything happen<br />
to our clients and/or any of the APC members in the Ukanafun/<br />
Oriuk Anam Federal Constituency, the member of the House<br />
should be held responsible.”
THE NATION THURSDAY, MAY 21, 2015<br />
NEWS<br />
N2.7b SURE-P<br />
funds row<br />
divides Kaduna<br />
Assembly<br />
•Hospitalised Clerk<br />
under pressure to sign<br />
From Abdulgafar<br />
Alabelewe, Kaduna<br />
HE Clerk of the Kaduna<br />
State House of<br />
Assembly, Umma TAliyu Hikima, is under pressure<br />
to sign and approve the<br />
spending of N2.744 billion<br />
local governments’ Subsidy<br />
Reinvestment Empowerment<br />
Programme (SURE-P)<br />
funds by Governor Mukhtar<br />
Ramalan Yero, it was learnt<br />
yesterday.<br />
The governor, last week,<br />
wrote to the lawmakers,<br />
asking for an approval to<br />
spend the 2014 SURE-P funds<br />
for the 23 local governments.<br />
But Yero’s letter, it was<br />
also learnt, has divided the<br />
lawmakers.<br />
While the governor got<br />
the approval of some key<br />
principal officers of the Assembly,<br />
14 members rejected<br />
the letter on the ground<br />
that the Executive could not<br />
give satisfactory reasons on<br />
how it would spend the<br />
funds, less than two weeks<br />
to the expiration to its tenure.<br />
The 14 lawmakers described<br />
the governor’s request<br />
as “gross financial<br />
recklessness and lastminute<br />
looting and squandering<br />
of public funds”.<br />
It was learnt that Hikima,<br />
who has been hospitalised,<br />
was being threatened to<br />
sign the approval or face<br />
suspension.<br />
The clerk’s inability to<br />
sign the approval, sources<br />
said, was premised on the<br />
fact that the 2014 SURE-P<br />
funds were not in this year’s<br />
budget.<br />
The reasoning is that it is<br />
improper for the outgoing<br />
government to spend 50 per<br />
cent of the money on a<br />
project captured in this<br />
year’s budget.<br />
A member of the Assembly,<br />
who spoke in confidence,<br />
told our correspondent<br />
that Hikima was threatened<br />
to sign the approval of<br />
face suspension.<br />
He said: “I can confirm to<br />
you that they want to force<br />
the Clerk to sign their approval.<br />
In the event that she<br />
refuses to sign, they will suspend<br />
her and appoint an Acting<br />
Clerk who will in turn<br />
sign the document for the<br />
Executive to spend the<br />
funds.”<br />
Governor-elect Nasir El-<br />
Rufai has vowed to investigate<br />
and punish anyone culpable<br />
in the SURE-P funds’<br />
diversion.<br />
Ministry drops death sentence<br />
against ‘killer bride’<br />
HE Kano State Ministry<br />
of Justice has<br />
requested a Kano THigh Court to free, Wosilat<br />
Tasiu, 14, who was arraigned<br />
over the alleged<br />
murder of her 35-year-old<br />
husband and three others,<br />
who ate the poisonous meal<br />
she gave them.<br />
The Attorney-General and<br />
Commissioner for Justice<br />
had filed a four-count<br />
charge bordering on culpable<br />
homicide against the<br />
teenage.<br />
•From left: Registrar, Landmark University, Dr Daniel Rotimi; guest lecturer, Prof. James Olukosi; Vice-Chancellor, Prof.<br />
Joseph Afolayan and the Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Enoch Oyawoye, at the fourth public lecture series of the institution in<br />
Omu-Aran, Kwara State...yesterday<br />
PHOTO: NAN<br />
Primary school pupil stabbed to<br />
death in Kano<br />
SCHOOLGIRL of<br />
Fagge Special Primary<br />
School in AKano, whose name could<br />
not be ascertained, was yesterday<br />
stabbed to death by<br />
unidentified assailants.<br />
The incident was said to<br />
have occurred at 1pm at the<br />
school’s pit toilet.<br />
It was learnt that the assailants<br />
scaled the fence and<br />
abducted a male and a female<br />
pupils when classes<br />
were in progress.<br />
The two pupils were reportedly<br />
dumped inside a<br />
pit toilet.<br />
The schoolgirl was<br />
stabbed on the head, which<br />
FEDERAL High<br />
Court in Abuja yesterday<br />
voided the ACertificate of Return issued<br />
by the Independent<br />
National Electoral Commission<br />
(INEC) to Christian<br />
Abah, the Peoples<br />
Democratic Party (PDP)<br />
candidate for the Ado/<br />
Okpokwu/Ogbadibo Federal<br />
Constituency in Benue<br />
State.<br />
The House of Representatives<br />
candidate was<br />
found guilty of forging the<br />
certificate he presented to<br />
INEC.<br />
In a judgment yesterday,<br />
Justice Adeniyi Ademola<br />
held that the allegation of<br />
certificate forgery levelled<br />
against Abah by the plaintiff,<br />
Hassan Saleh, was<br />
true.<br />
The commissioner was<br />
seeking a death penalty to<br />
be passed on the accused.<br />
But the government reversed<br />
its death sentence on<br />
the teenager.<br />
A lawyer, Lamido Soron<br />
Dinki, filed an application,<br />
on behalf of the Ministry of<br />
Justice, to save Tasiu from<br />
the hangman’s noose.<br />
From Kolade Adeyemi,<br />
Kano<br />
caused her death.<br />
It was also learnt that the<br />
male pupil survived the attack.<br />
When our reporter visited<br />
the school, the pit toilet,<br />
where the pupils were attacked,<br />
was locked.<br />
A security man on the<br />
school premises, Mallam<br />
Ibrahim Dan Sariki, told our<br />
reporter that at 1pm yesterday,<br />
some hoodlums scaled<br />
the school fence and at-<br />
The lawyer urged the<br />
court to squash the charges<br />
against Tasiu and set her free.<br />
But the court declined to<br />
grant the request.<br />
It adjourned the matter<br />
till June 9.<br />
The court held that the<br />
application was brought<br />
orally, adding that, its request<br />
for the dismissal of the<br />
charges against the accused<br />
ought to be in writing.<br />
tacked two pupils.<br />
He said the hoodlums<br />
dragged the pupils into the<br />
toilet and stabbed them repeatedly<br />
on the head.<br />
Dan Sariki said the schoolgirl<br />
died, following thr injured<br />
she sustained on the<br />
head while the boy survived.<br />
Police spokesman Musa<br />
Magaji Majiya, an Assistant<br />
Superintendent of Police<br />
(ASP), confirmed the incident.<br />
He said immediately the<br />
police were alerted by the<br />
letter by the Registrar of<br />
the polytechnic, Suleiman<br />
Buba, confirmed that the<br />
certificate presented by<br />
Abah to INEC was forged.<br />
The judge granted the 11<br />
prayers sought by the<br />
plaintiff and four other ancillary<br />
reliefs.<br />
The judge ordered that<br />
Abah be prosecuted for forgery,<br />
perjury and falsification<br />
of results.<br />
Abah had been declared<br />
unopposed and elected, being<br />
the only candidate presented<br />
for the March 28<br />
election.<br />
Justice Ademola declared<br />
Assistant Headmaster, they<br />
by drafted the crack squad<br />
to the scene.<br />
On arrival, Majiya said<br />
the police met the victims<br />
in a pool of blood.<br />
According to him, the police<br />
took photographs of the<br />
toilet, where their blood was<br />
splashed and rushed the pupils<br />
to a hospital, where the<br />
girl was confirmed dead.<br />
Majiya said the male pupil<br />
was responding well to<br />
treatment.<br />
The spokesman said investigation<br />
into the incident<br />
had begun, adding that<br />
the motive behind the attack<br />
had not been established.<br />
Court voids Benue Rep-elect’s victory for<br />
certificate forgery<br />
From Kolade Adeyemi, Kano<br />
•Lawmaker’ to be replaced, prosecuted<br />
From Eric Ikhilae, Abuja<br />
Saleh, who emerged second<br />
behind Abah in the<br />
PDP primaries, claimed<br />
that Abah forged an Ordinary<br />
National Diploma<br />
(OND) certificate in Accountancy<br />
he claimed to<br />
have obtained from the<br />
Federal Polytechnic, Mubi,<br />
in 1985.<br />
Justice Ademola said his<br />
findings revealed that an<br />
earlier judgment of the<br />
National/State Assembly<br />
Election Petition Tribunal<br />
sitting in Makurdi, the<br />
state capital, delivered on<br />
September 6, 2011, and a<br />
AGOS State Governor<br />
Babatunde<br />
Fashola will next LTuesday inaugurate Candel<br />
Company Limited’s<br />
integrated manufacturing<br />
facility for crop protection<br />
chemicals and fertilisers at<br />
the Lekki Free Zone, Lagos.<br />
The facility has five<br />
process plants for Soluble<br />
Liquids (SL), Emulsifiable<br />
Concentrates (EC) and Suspension<br />
Concentrates (SC)<br />
of products from diverse<br />
chemical families.<br />
all the votes that accrued<br />
to Abah in the PDP’s primaries<br />
on December 6,<br />
2014, as wasted.<br />
The judge also declared<br />
Saleh the winner of the<br />
primaries.<br />
He directed INEC to issue<br />
a fresh certificate of return<br />
to Saleh.<br />
The court also ordered<br />
the incoming Speaker of<br />
the Eighth National Assembly<br />
to swear in Saleh<br />
as the member representing<br />
Ado/Okpokwu/Ogbadibo<br />
Federal Constituency.<br />
Justice Ademola came<br />
down hard on the defence<br />
lawyer, Sunday Ameh<br />
(SAN), for the “frivolous<br />
applications and tactics” to<br />
delay to frustrate the hearing<br />
of the case.<br />
Fashola to inaugurate agric plant<br />
It has sufficient capacity<br />
to supply Candel’s own<br />
distribution network in<br />
Nigeria and Ghana with<br />
enough spare capacity for<br />
third parties in Nigeria<br />
and overseas.<br />
The company’s Chairman,<br />
Charles Anudu, said:<br />
“We are determined to restore<br />
the quality standard<br />
that has since declined in<br />
our industry by ensuring<br />
that every product that is<br />
made in our facility meets<br />
the highest international<br />
standard<br />
59<br />
Kwara transport<br />
workers protest<br />
plan to repeal<br />
law<br />
From Adekunle Jimoh,<br />
Ilorin<br />
SCORES of Kwara State<br />
Transport Corporation,<br />
also called Kwara Express,<br />
protested yesterday the<br />
alleged plan by the House<br />
of Assembly to repeal the<br />
edict establishing the<br />
corporation.<br />
The workers stormed the<br />
premises of Harmony<br />
Holdings Limited on the<br />
Ibrahim Taiwo Road,<br />
Ilorin, the state capital.<br />
Harmony Holdings<br />
Limited is the supervising<br />
company for the corporation.<br />
The protesters dressed in<br />
the company’s uniforms.<br />
They chanted solidarity<br />
songs, condemning the<br />
decision of the government<br />
to repeal the act establishing<br />
the corporation.<br />
Last September, Governor<br />
Abdulfatah Ahmed<br />
presented a Bill to the<br />
House of Assembly, seeking<br />
to repeal the edict.<br />
The chairman of the<br />
workers’ union, Alhaji Ajao<br />
Jaji, led the protest.<br />
He said the workers<br />
condemned the plan to<br />
repeal the act.<br />
Jaji said the workers<br />
were at Harmony Holdings<br />
to seek its intercession.<br />
The chairman recalled<br />
that the workers, last<br />
September, held a similar<br />
protest at the House of<br />
Assembly.<br />
He added that the corporation<br />
wished to remain in<br />
state public service and<br />
condemned a move to<br />
repeal the act establishing<br />
the corporation.<br />
Addressing reporters<br />
after holding a closed-door<br />
meeting with the protesters’<br />
leaders, the Group<br />
Managing Director of<br />
Harmony Holdings, Tope<br />
Daramola, said the company<br />
was not among the<br />
stakeholders calling for the<br />
repeal of the act.<br />
NB to reward<br />
teachers<br />
By Jane Chijioke<br />
NIGERIAN Breweries PLC<br />
(NB PLC) will celebrate<br />
and reward public<br />
secondary school teachers<br />
for their diligence.<br />
Its Corporate Affairs<br />
Adviser, Kufre Ekanem,<br />
said this at a briefing to<br />
unveil the maiden edition<br />
of the ‘Maltina Teacher of<br />
the Year’.<br />
A five- step evaluation<br />
process for entries will<br />
produce 37 ‘Best Teachers’<br />
from the 36 states and the<br />
Federal Capital<br />
Territory(FCT).<br />
The 37 teachers would<br />
compete at the national<br />
level where the best<br />
teacher will emerge with a<br />
grand prize of N1million<br />
for five years.<br />
His/her school will be<br />
given a classroom block.<br />
The first runner-up will<br />
receive N1million and<br />
second runner-up N750,<br />
000.<br />
All the 37 teachers would<br />
be celebrated on October 5<br />
to commemorate the<br />
World Teacher’s Day.<br />
The entry form will<br />
close on June 30.
60<br />
FOREIGN NEWS<br />
Indonesia, Malaysia agree to<br />
take in migrant ships<br />
THE fate of thousands of<br />
migrants believed to be<br />
stranded in the Andaman<br />
Sea may have taken a<br />
step toward resolution with<br />
the conclusion of talks between<br />
Indonesia, Malaysia<br />
and Thailand.<br />
At least two of the countries<br />
— Indonesia and Malaysia<br />
— have agreed to offer the<br />
migrants shelter provided<br />
they are resettled within one<br />
year, Malaysian state news<br />
agency Bernama reports.<br />
In recent weeks, hundreds<br />
of migrants crammed onto<br />
ships have been arriving in the<br />
waters of both countries.<br />
They’re believed to be Rohingya<br />
fleeing persecution in<br />
Myanmar, which is also<br />
known as Burma, and economic<br />
migrants from Bangladesh.<br />
The agreement was announced<br />
yesterday in a joint<br />
statement released shortly after<br />
initial talks concluded.<br />
•Netanyahu<br />
Athree-month experimental<br />
program of<br />
separation between<br />
Jews and Palestinians on<br />
bus routes running from<br />
Israel to the West Bank<br />
was suspended yesterday,<br />
only hours after it reportedly<br />
began.<br />
A senior official in the<br />
office of Israeli Prime Minister<br />
Benjamin Netanyahu<br />
told CNN that the Prime<br />
Minister had stepped in after<br />
deciding that the program<br />
— backed by Defence<br />
Minister Moshe Yaalon —<br />
NIGERIAN Diplomat,<br />
Mr. Noah Ichaba<br />
was last Saturday<br />
beaten up to stupor by the<br />
police on the street of Equatorial<br />
Guinea.<br />
The incident occurred at<br />
kilometer 6, Roundabout,<br />
Bata police checkpoint.<br />
It was also discovered<br />
that Nigerians have been<br />
facing unfair treatment<br />
from the police in that country.<br />
In its reaction, the Nigerian<br />
Consulate in Bata condemned<br />
the police action and<br />
also demanded for an unreserved<br />
apology from the<br />
government.<br />
According to a Note Verbale<br />
raised by the Nigerian<br />
Bin Laden raid: U.S. releases more documents<br />
U.S. officials have released<br />
documents<br />
that they say were<br />
found at Osama Bin Laden’s<br />
secret compound in Pakistan<br />
during a raid in 2011.<br />
Special operators killed<br />
the al-Qaeda chief during<br />
that operation and recovered<br />
the documents that officials<br />
have branded Bin<br />
Laden’s Bookshelf.<br />
As well as Arabic correspondence,<br />
there are English<br />
language books by Bob<br />
Woodward and Noam<br />
Chomsky, and others on<br />
economic and military theory.<br />
More documents may yet<br />
was not acceptable.<br />
“These proposals are<br />
unacceptable to the Prime<br />
Minister. He spoke this<br />
morning with the defense<br />
minister and it was decided<br />
to freeze the whole matter,”<br />
the official said.<br />
It is not clear what will<br />
happen with the experimental<br />
program now.<br />
Word of the suspension<br />
came within hours of Israel<br />
Radio reporting that the<br />
Israeli Ministry of Defence<br />
had started the trial separation<br />
of Jews and Palestinians<br />
on bus lines running<br />
in the occupied West Bank.<br />
Under the pilot plan,<br />
Palestinians who travel to<br />
work in Israel through the<br />
four main checkpoints<br />
could return to the West<br />
THE NATION THURSDAY, MAY 21, 2015<br />
Israel suspends trial Palestinian<br />
bus segregation programme<br />
From Vincent Ikuomola,<br />
Abuja<br />
Consulate-General in Bata,<br />
Ichaba who had with him his<br />
diplomatic Identity Card<br />
was dragged out of a taxi<br />
and physically assaulted and<br />
in the process had facial<br />
wounds.<br />
The Note Verbale reads<br />
in part:<br />
“Consequent to this unfortunate<br />
incident which<br />
demonstrated the unfair<br />
treatment which even our<br />
nationals often received<br />
from policemen during<br />
“control” is now extending<br />
to diplomats which is the violation<br />
of Diplomatic Immunity<br />
accorded diplomats<br />
Bank only through the<br />
same checkpoints they exited.<br />
This means they could<br />
not return on Israeli buses,<br />
as they have done until<br />
now, but would have to<br />
ride on Palestinian-only<br />
buses.<br />
According to Israeli<br />
news website Haaretz, this<br />
could lengthen some Palestinian<br />
workers’ journeys<br />
by as much as two hours a<br />
day.<br />
The Israeli security apparatus<br />
said the program<br />
was being put into place to<br />
boost security by improving<br />
the surveillance of Palestinians<br />
entering Israel. It<br />
was also aimed at reducing<br />
friction between Israelis<br />
and Palestinians.<br />
by Vienna Convention.<br />
“The Consulate-General<br />
of Nigeria wishes to express<br />
it’s outright dismay for the<br />
action of the policeman and<br />
demands for an unreserved<br />
apology and the host authorities<br />
guarantee of its<br />
Diplomats’ safety in the<br />
country.”<br />
Narrating his experience,<br />
Ichaba said he was on his<br />
way to Cinco market when<br />
the driver of the taxi-cab he<br />
boarded stopped at a traffic<br />
point and suddenly an Equatorial<br />
Guinean policeman<br />
emerged and asked for his<br />
papers in Spanish.<br />
The diplomat who does<br />
not understand Spanish said<br />
it was through the help of a<br />
be released.<br />
The Office of the Director<br />
of National Intelligence said<br />
a “rigorous” review had taken<br />
place before the documents<br />
were released.<br />
The documents were recovered<br />
at this house in Abottabad,<br />
Pakistan during a 2011<br />
raid in which Bin Laden was<br />
killed<br />
The documents include a<br />
number of translated letters,<br />
notes, and other material detailing<br />
al-Qaeda operations.<br />
Many of the documents also<br />
have a version available in<br />
Arabic.<br />
There is also section entitled<br />
Materials Regarding<br />
France, which includes a<br />
number of academic reports<br />
and articles about the<br />
France’s military, politics<br />
and economy.<br />
Also included is a document<br />
described as a “suicide<br />
prevention guide”, several<br />
English language books including<br />
Bob Woodward’s<br />
Obama’s Wars, several<br />
maps, and a few video game<br />
guides.<br />
Some of the material that<br />
has been included in the<br />
trove was previously declassified<br />
for use in federal<br />
prosecutions.<br />
Israel’s President Reuven<br />
Rivlin said he had spoken<br />
with Yaalon yesterday<br />
and “welcomed halting the<br />
process that that could<br />
have led to an unthinkable<br />
separation between bus<br />
lines for Jews and Arabs.”<br />
As one who loves Israel,<br />
he said, “I have nothing<br />
but regret for the discordant<br />
voices that we heard<br />
this morning, supporting<br />
the separation between<br />
Jews and Arabs on the basis<br />
of ideas that have no<br />
place being heard or said.<br />
Such statements go against<br />
the very foundations of the<br />
State of Israel, and impact<br />
upon our very ability to establish<br />
here a Jewish and<br />
democratic state.<br />
Equitoria Guinea police beat up Nigerian diplomat<br />
N.Korea claims nuclear breakthrough<br />
NORTH Korea said yesterday<br />
that it has the<br />
ability to miniaturize<br />
nuclear weapons, a key step<br />
toward building nuclear<br />
missiles.<br />
Analysts and U.S. officials<br />
have said previously that<br />
they suspected Kim Jong<br />
Un’s regime was working<br />
toward accomplishing the<br />
technical feat, which is needed<br />
to fit a nuclear device on<br />
the tip of a ballistic missile.<br />
But the official U.S. response<br />
was skepticism.<br />
“Our assessment of North<br />
Korea’s nuclear capabilities<br />
has not changed,” National<br />
Security Council spokesman<br />
Patrick Ventrell said in<br />
a statement. “We do not<br />
think that they have that capacity.”<br />
“However, they are<br />
working on developing a<br />
number of long range missiles,<br />
including intercontinental<br />
ballistic missiles,<br />
that could eventually threaten<br />
our allies and the homeland,”<br />
the U.S. spokesman<br />
added. “That is why the Administration<br />
is working to<br />
improve regional and<br />
homeland missile defenses<br />
and continuing to work<br />
with the other members of<br />
the six-party talks to bring<br />
North Korea back into compliance<br />
with its non-proliferation<br />
commitments.”<br />
The six-party talks refer<br />
to nuclear disarmament efforts<br />
by the United States,<br />
North Korea, South Korea,<br />
China, Japan and Russia.<br />
But the North Korean assertion<br />
was unequivocal.<br />
“We have had the capability<br />
of miniaturizing nuclear<br />
warheads, as well as<br />
producing multiform weapons,<br />
for some time,” the<br />
North Korean military said<br />
in a statement carried by the<br />
state-run Korean Central<br />
News Agency.<br />
“We can also guarantee<br />
the accuracy not only of<br />
short-to-mid-range but also<br />
long-range rocket launches,<br />
for which we have had the<br />
technology for a long<br />
time,” the statement said.<br />
Despite the U.S.’ official<br />
skepticism, Pyongyang’s<br />
announcement about miniaturization<br />
— the first time<br />
it has publicly made such a<br />
claim — tallies with some<br />
recent assessments from<br />
senior U.S. military officials.<br />
U.S. Army Gen. Curtis<br />
co-passenger he got to understand<br />
and immediately<br />
brought out his Diplomatic<br />
Identity Card which was issued<br />
by the Foreign Ministry<br />
of Republic of Equatorial<br />
Guinea.<br />
The policeman, according<br />
to Ichaba refused to take<br />
a look at the ID and instead<br />
was asked to alight from the<br />
cab.<br />
While he was asking to<br />
know why he was asked to<br />
alight from the cab, the policeman<br />
slapped him and<br />
also pulled him down from<br />
the cab and continued raining<br />
punches on him.<br />
All these the diplomat<br />
said happened in the glare of<br />
the multitude of onlookers.<br />
Scaparrotti, the commander<br />
of U.S. forces in Korea,<br />
said in October that he<br />
thought North Korea was<br />
capable of miniaturizing a<br />
nuclear device.<br />
And Adm. Bill Gortney,<br />
the commander of North<br />
American Aerospace Defence<br />
Command, told reporters<br />
last month that the<br />
U.S. military believed that<br />
Pyongyang could put a nuclear<br />
weapon on a road-mobile<br />
missile and “shoot it at<br />
the (U.S.) homeland.”<br />
Gortney added, though,<br />
that the United States<br />
doesn’t think that the missile<br />
in question, the KN-08,<br />
has been tested. And he<br />
said he was confident U.S.<br />
defenses would be able to<br />
intercept any potential<br />
North Korean attack.<br />
•Bin Laden<br />
In 2012, some documents<br />
recovered in the raid were<br />
released by the research<br />
wing of the US military<br />
academy, West Point.
THE NATION THURSDAY, MAY 21, 2015 61<br />
NEWS<br />
‘Take drastic decisions in first 100 days’<br />
Continued from page 4<br />
for you that you represent<br />
their interest as much as the<br />
people who voted for you.<br />
This was what we called big<br />
tent politics during Tony<br />
Blair era.”<br />
He went on: “I must say<br />
you have the expectations<br />
and the ambitions of 173 million<br />
Nigerians in your hands.<br />
You have the hopes of an entire<br />
continent as well as the<br />
eyes of the entire world focused<br />
on your efforts. But I<br />
tell you people are excited<br />
about what is about to happen<br />
in Nigeria. They really<br />
feel a sense of expectation of<br />
faith and hope.”<br />
Mandelson spoke of the<br />
Blair administration experience.<br />
He said: “I remember<br />
when we Tony and I and the<br />
rest of office in Britain in<br />
1997, the first time in time in<br />
18 long years in opposition<br />
and many of us Ministers,<br />
including the Prime minister<br />
himself, had never been in<br />
government before, not even<br />
a junior parliamentary or Secretary<br />
of State, the lowest for<br />
ministerial life. We were all<br />
new. I was the third man. I<br />
want to share with you the<br />
first rule of government because<br />
it is irrelevant to you.<br />
Be true to your word. Be true<br />
to your mandate.<br />
“We were elected new but<br />
as a result of keeping exactly<br />
to our word, mandate and<br />
manifestos, we kept the trust<br />
of the bristly people for the<br />
following 30 years and it was<br />
only when our offer became<br />
frankly vague that we lost<br />
lost direction as a government<br />
and ultimately lost the<br />
election in 2010.”<br />
“In effect, we gave it away<br />
that election by losing direction.<br />
So that is something for<br />
you to bear in mind as you<br />
start looking ahead to your<br />
next election and to the one<br />
after that.<br />
“At the beginning for us,<br />
there was nothing easy at all.<br />
We discovered some important<br />
things pretty quickly.<br />
The first thing is that the<br />
skills of leadership that take<br />
you to government are not<br />
the same skills you need to be<br />
successful in government.<br />
You have to switch from<br />
what you were campaigning<br />
when you are in office.<br />
“You have to switch from a<br />
persuader where the tools of<br />
your trade are your words to<br />
being a CEO where is the<br />
deeds and how you extract<br />
the best results from those<br />
that matter. That is the difference<br />
between being a persuader<br />
and and being a CEO.<br />
One is about words, the other<br />
is about deeds.”<br />
Mandelson explained what<br />
he meant, saying: “Now, I am<br />
not saying you should stop<br />
communicating the moment<br />
you reach office. You have to<br />
keep explaining , educating<br />
and agitating for change and<br />
reforms to keep people behind<br />
and following you. But<br />
to change from being chief<br />
wordsmith to chief<br />
implementer and the truth is<br />
that many governments actually<br />
fall on that first hurdle.”<br />
He went on: “And this<br />
leads to my second theme.<br />
Government, by definition, is<br />
a team effort. In this job,<br />
whatever you fit into the<br />
leadership of government is<br />
to inspire people and to make<br />
them believe in you and in<br />
what you are doing and you<br />
judge others by the same high<br />
standards of integrity and efficiency<br />
that you must apply<br />
each and every one of you to<br />
yourselves.<br />
“There is a new generation<br />
of people in politics, in business<br />
too and across the society<br />
who are not interested in<br />
ideology and all the the established<br />
ways of doing things<br />
but you want to deliver<br />
change in that country, in a<br />
pragmatic, inspired way and<br />
as far as possible in a consensual<br />
way. I suspect most of<br />
the people in this room falling<br />
into that category.”<br />
He advised the incoming<br />
administration to prioritise<br />
its actions.<br />
“A science of priorities, a<br />
science of proper planning of<br />
defining goals, creating date<br />
systems that crack progress<br />
and developing the routines<br />
that make sure you keep all<br />
these going even amid the<br />
crisis that blow up. And they<br />
will,” he said.<br />
Communication, he said, is<br />
key to a successful administration.<br />
Mandelson said: “Strategy<br />
without communications is<br />
like a car without headlamps.<br />
But what about the substance?<br />
The substance is what<br />
you have to do as a new reforming<br />
government. How<br />
do you actually start driving<br />
that car? I talked earlier about<br />
team method and getting everyone<br />
pointing in this same<br />
direction, identifying the<br />
goals and pointing people<br />
working towards those<br />
agreed goals.<br />
“But here is the road. If you<br />
are talking generally about<br />
change, about reforms, in<br />
principle, believe me, everyone<br />
will be in favour of it. It<br />
is when you start reforming<br />
individual departments<br />
within the government, when<br />
you start pushing to the spot-<br />
•Prof. Osinbajo flanked by Fayemi and Mandelson …yesterday.<br />
light on individual ministries<br />
and individual policies, certainly,<br />
there will be a thousand<br />
reasons why it<br />
shouldn’t be there or it<br />
shouldn’t be now.<br />
“The other thing I want to<br />
come back to is priority. You<br />
need priority in what you<br />
want to deliver to your country,<br />
but here is the challenge.<br />
Every day, there is one fresh<br />
crisis, some media events,<br />
some scandals or some personnel<br />
problem to contend
62 THE NATION THURSDAY, MAY 21, 2015
THE NATION THURSDAY, MAY 21, 2015<br />
63
THURSDAY, MAY 21, 2015 TRUTH IN DEFENCE OF FREEDOM VOL. 10, NO. 3221<br />
COMMENT<br />
& DEB<br />
EBATE<br />
WHEN President Jonathan formally<br />
hands over power to the Presidentelect,<br />
retired General Muhammadu<br />
Buhari on May 29, in Abuja, it will be the first<br />
time ever in Nigeria that such a peaceful handover<br />
of power has taken place at the centre between<br />
a defeated ruling party and the opposition<br />
party. At the states level such transitions<br />
have successfully taken place in Osun, and Ekiti<br />
states, among others, but not without some acrimony<br />
and rancor.<br />
In the case of the current transition from the<br />
PDP Federal Government to the incoming APC<br />
Federal Government , it has gone on better than<br />
most people would have imagined, or expected,<br />
but not without some strains. This should<br />
not be altogether surprising as the presidential<br />
election was bitterly fought and hateful. The<br />
stakes involved were very high. But once Jonathan<br />
conceded defeat to Buhari it reduced political<br />
tension in the country and mitigated any<br />
fears that Jonathan might find a way of not<br />
handing over to Buhari, even if the handing over<br />
is grudging and rancorous on the part of the<br />
outgoing PDP Federal Government . But, despite<br />
the current strains between the two parties<br />
over the transition, steady progress is being<br />
made towards the handing over. The PDP Federal<br />
Government should not be expected to hand<br />
over its ‘black box’ and financial secrets to the<br />
incoming APC Federal Government . These will<br />
be concealed as much as possible and Buhari<br />
will have to go looking for them by the necessary<br />
probes after he has been sworn in. But as<br />
far as President Jonathan is concerned there is<br />
really no evidence that he is reluctant to hand<br />
over to the President- elect, Buhari. As I write<br />
this piece, it has been reported that President<br />
Jonathan and his family have moved from Aso<br />
Rock, the president’s official residence, to the<br />
adjoining Glass House, to enable the necessary<br />
refurbishing of the residence to be done. So, the<br />
transition is on course.<br />
However, there have been some complaints<br />
from the APC, particularly by Lai Mohammed,<br />
its spokesman, that the PDP Federal Government<br />
has been dragging its feet on the transition<br />
and has not extended to the APC the cooperation<br />
needed and expected for a smooth handing<br />
over of power. Specifically, Lai Mohammed<br />
was reported last week as saying that only two<br />
meetings had been held between the two transition<br />
teams, and that the transition process was<br />
not as cordial as it should be. Basically, the<br />
transition process should involve the outgoing<br />
PDP Federal Government handing over to its<br />
APC successor the critical information required<br />
about national security and the state of the economy.<br />
The APC incoming Federal Government<br />
needs to know the true state of the national<br />
security and the economy to enable it fully comprehend<br />
the challenges ahead of it. If this vital<br />
information is being withheld from it barely<br />
weeks before it takes over, then the APC has<br />
every right to complain, particularly as the state<br />
of the economy now appears to be worse than<br />
was known before the March elections. Buhari<br />
will inherit a terrible economic legacy.<br />
President Jonathan has also been widely<br />
criticised for making some hasty and morally<br />
questionable appointments on the eve of his<br />
GOODLUCK Jonathan’s last defeat was<br />
on March 28 when he lost the<br />
presidential election, right? No. It<br />
was on May 19 when his electoral coup against<br />
the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF)<br />
unravelled. True, as the Yoruba say, truth<br />
overtakes falsehood’s millennial lead with<br />
but a burst in seconds!<br />
Just a brief recall. On 23 May 2013, NGF<br />
held its election for chairman. Against<br />
presidential will, Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi,<br />
Rivers governor and outgoing chairman, recontested.<br />
President Jonathan, who earlier<br />
had warned Governor Amaechi on the dire<br />
consequences of re-contesting without Aso<br />
Rock’s approval, sponsored Jonah Jang,<br />
Plateau governor. But at the end, the<br />
presidential candidate got trumped, 19-16.<br />
But instead of the democratic Jonathan to<br />
accept the result, not to talk of respecting the<br />
federal doctrine that governors are no<br />
presidential prefects but elected leaders of<br />
their own states, the all-mighty president<br />
www.thenationonlineng.net<br />
OMMENT & D<br />
DAPO FAFOWORA<br />
FROM THE<br />
SUMMIT<br />
dapo.fafowora@thenationonlineng.net<br />
The strains of transition<br />
•Jonathan<br />
•Buhari<br />
departure from office. Among these are the confirmation<br />
of the appointment of Mr. Solomon<br />
Arase as the new Inspector General of Police, in<br />
replacement of Mr. Suleiman Abba, and the new<br />
CEO of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA),<br />
Mr. Sanusi Lamido Ado Bayero, two powerful<br />
public institutions. Let me add that I have absolutely<br />
nothing personally against these two gentlemen<br />
whom I have never met. But I consider<br />
the timing of the appointments questionable. In<br />
addition, it was reported that President Jonathan<br />
had directed the relevant Federal Government<br />
agencies to relocate the $500m LADOL oil and<br />
gas project in the Lagos Export Free Zone to<br />
Agga in Bayelsa State, even though it is really a<br />
private sector project. A federal high court has<br />
ruled against this order; an embarrassment to<br />
the President which he brought on himself by the<br />
unjustified order.<br />
These hasty and spiteful decisions by President<br />
Jonathan and his inflammatory comments<br />
at a recent Church service in Abuja that he expected<br />
that he and his ministers would be persecuted<br />
by the new APC Federal Government on<br />
leaving office at the end of May are deeply regrettable<br />
as they send the wrong message and<br />
signals to his officials involved in the transition<br />
arrangements. The loss of power can be traumatic<br />
particularly where, as in this case, it was<br />
not really expected. In that situation his officials<br />
would be led by the President’s comments<br />
to withhold from the APC Transition team information<br />
vital to the success of the incoming<br />
APC Federal Government. They would try to<br />
cover up financial and other misdemeanours for<br />
which they could be punished or held responsible<br />
by the new government.<br />
As far as the recent critical public appointments<br />
by President Jonathan are concerned, the<br />
TODAY IN THE NATION<br />
‘This president can go down into history as one that<br />
helped the country to overcome its wasting its oil revenue<br />
on consumption by the elite. Let this president<br />
carry the burden of cancelling the so-called subsidies<br />
on petroleum products’<br />
JIDE OSUNTOKUN<br />
PDP has argued that, until May 29, when he<br />
officially hands over power to General Buhari,<br />
he is in charge of the Federal Government , and<br />
still enjoys the power and privilege of making<br />
such powerful appointments. That constitutional<br />
position is correct. It is within his purview<br />
and competence to make such appointments.<br />
But his critics will be right in arguing, as they<br />
have done, that making such critical appointments<br />
a few weeks before leaving office, is improper.<br />
If Buhari is so disposed such appointments<br />
by Jonathan can be easily reversed after<br />
he assumes office in two weeks time. It will<br />
equally be both legitimate and constitutional<br />
and it is only the officials concerned that will<br />
suffer the consequences involved.<br />
However, such blatant and politically motivated<br />
public appointments by Jonathan, and<br />
Buhari’s probable response by reversing them,<br />
tend to undermine the integrity of public institutions<br />
and the public’s confidence in such appointments.<br />
For instance, in justifying the removal<br />
of his former IGP, Suleiman Abba, Jonathan<br />
was reported as claiming that Abba could<br />
not maintain discipline in the Nigeria Police. But<br />
he only discovered this lapse in Abba after he<br />
lost the presidential election. When the PDP won<br />
the state elections in Ekiti and Ondo with the<br />
blatant help of the Nigeria Police Abba kept his<br />
job. Jonathan was highhanded in this particular<br />
case, as in several others, in removing senior<br />
public officials in such a cavalier manner. Public<br />
officials are there to serve the public interest,<br />
and not the personal or political interests of those<br />
who might be in power temporarily.<br />
Nigeria needs strong state institutions. Despite<br />
its enormous resources, Nigeria is still a<br />
weak state with weak public institutions. It is a<br />
weak state because of the fragility of its public<br />
institutions, the integrity of which is constantly<br />
being undermined by its leaders for reasons of<br />
political and personal expediency. A modern<br />
state has to be based on the rule of law which<br />
requires the stability of its public institutions<br />
and respect by the politicians for the professionalism<br />
and security of its officials. As shown<br />
by the recent regrettable actions of President<br />
Jonathan, this vital lesson has not been learnt<br />
by Nigeria’s leaders over the years as they continue<br />
to bend public institutions to their own<br />
political preferences and predilections. In this<br />
matter, I write with some experience and authority<br />
as I have watched sadly over the years<br />
how the Nigerian diplomatic service, in which I<br />
HARDBALL<br />
Jonathan’s last defeat<br />
decreed 16 greater than 19 — and pronto,<br />
declared Jang his NGF chairman.<br />
Old man Jang himself did the Yoruba<br />
equivalent of daring God but fleeing in panic<br />
before man. He went to church, doing<br />
thanksgiving in an election he lost in the eyes<br />
of God (for, in God’s name, how can 16 be<br />
greater than 19?) but won in the eyes of a man<br />
— a mere mortal though he was all-mighty<br />
but misguided president of the Federal<br />
Republic.<br />
But as it is often with those that play God,<br />
both Jonathan and Jang have ended in shame.<br />
Jonathan got clobbered at the March 28<br />
presidential election, the first Nigerian sitting<br />
president to suffer defeat. Perhaps it took that<br />
defeat for Jang to remember he had all along<br />
dressed himself up in borrowed (and<br />
fraudulent) robes? With no illicit cover from<br />
the exiting Nebuchadnezzar of Aso Rock, he<br />
suddenly remembered he was NGF chair only<br />
in his own imagination! Talk of futility of<br />
impunity!<br />
On May 19 — 10 long days from the end of<br />
Jonathan’s presidential reign — the NGF<br />
declared itself re-united; and elected<br />
AbdulAziz Yari, the Zamfara governor, as<br />
new chairman. Though old man Jang was<br />
still not man enough to be there to physically<br />
eat crow, he reportedly sent in a message<br />
renouncing his claim to NGF chair and<br />
confirming Amaechi as the real deal.<br />
Jonathan, more often than not playing the<br />
crude power bully when a suave projection<br />
of influence would do, learnt the hard way.<br />
He fell flat on his face — again, like the tortoise<br />
in Yoruba folklore, who swore never to<br />
return from his trip until he was disgraced.<br />
Jonathan spectacularly demystified the office<br />
of president of the Federal Republic. The<br />
spent a greater part of my public service, including<br />
serving as Ambassador at the UN, is<br />
being progressively weakened and destroyed<br />
by one Federal Government after the other, both<br />
civilian and military. A once proud and competent<br />
diplomatic service, the envy of many<br />
African states, has been brought to its knees by<br />
persistent political interference and humiliation<br />
of its key officials. The new APCFederal Government<br />
will have to start thinking of how these<br />
state institutions can be rebuilt in the coming<br />
years.<br />
But the strains observed in the current transition<br />
process are also due partly to the absence<br />
of an agreed standard procedure which<br />
the two parties are obliged to observe during<br />
the transition. Part of the difficulty here is that<br />
while Nigeria has adopted the US presidential<br />
system, its bureaucracy still runs largely on the<br />
lines of the British civil service that it inherited<br />
at independence. For instance, in Britain, unlike<br />
in the US, an outgoing government is not<br />
under any real obligation to prepare any handing<br />
over notes to its successor. British succession<br />
of political power is surgical and brutal,<br />
without any intervening period of handing over.<br />
Once a government is defeated, the prime minister<br />
immediately tenders his resignation to the<br />
Queen, who promptly invites the leader of the<br />
party that appears to her to have a majority in<br />
the House of Commons to form a new government.<br />
If he is able to do so, he moves immediately<br />
into 10, Downing Street, the official residence<br />
of British prime ministers. There is no<br />
formality about handing over by the outgoing<br />
or defeated prime minister who simply disappears<br />
through the back door of 10, Downing<br />
Street, while the new prime minister enters the<br />
residence through the front door.<br />
Moreover, before elections, the official<br />
records of the outgoing government and its<br />
ministers are kept sealed in the archives by the<br />
heads (permanent under secretaries) of the various<br />
ministries. The incoming government and<br />
ministers are actually denied access to them.<br />
They cannot be compelled, except by a court<br />
ruling, to release these records and documents<br />
to an incoming government. Instead, the new<br />
government is given briefs based on its party<br />
manifesto and programmes on which the heads<br />
of departments will have prepared a critique.<br />
The whole idea is to let the new government<br />
make its own decisions and mistakes as the old<br />
one and to protect the confidentiality of advice<br />
previously given by the top civil servants to the<br />
outgoing government. This is the source of the<br />
integrity and great powers enjoyed by top British<br />
civil servants who remain in office while the<br />
politicians come and go. This is what accounts<br />
for its famed stability.<br />
In the case of Nigeria, it is now necessary<br />
to review the transition process to determine<br />
the range of records and information that an<br />
outgoing government should make available to<br />
the incoming government. It is not necessary or<br />
desirable that this should be done by law or<br />
legislation. Instead, it should be done by convention<br />
developed over the years.<br />
• For comments, send SMS to 08054503031<br />
•Hardball is not the opinion<br />
of the columnist featured above<br />
incoming Muhammadu Buhari should please<br />
learn from his predecessor’s all-muscle-nobrain<br />
penchant.<br />
But more damaging, on the conceptual lane,<br />
Jonathan tried to destroy NGF, a gubernatorial<br />
pressure group and key democratic institution,<br />
to which he ironically earlier belonged. He<br />
failed — but only just; but not before the harm<br />
had been done.<br />
As for NGF itself, it was a tragic tale of the<br />
national body of governors sacrificing its<br />
essence to temporary, high-octane partisan<br />
gaming. They ended up the grand victims. It<br />
was during this period of sponsored disunity<br />
that Aso Rock grossly mismanaged the<br />
Federation Account, so much so that both itself<br />
and most states failed on their salary<br />
commitments.<br />
Hardball hopes NGF has learnt its lessons.<br />
Before Nigeria restructures to productive<br />
federalism, the NGF, whichever party holds<br />
court in Abuja, must band together to secure<br />
its full rights under the law.<br />
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