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Conscience, Nurtured by TruthThursday, May 2, 2013 N150Vol. 29, No. 12,544

Pope, global workers, othersdecry austerity, slave labourBy Bola Olajuwon (Lagos) and Collins Olayinka (Abuja) (with agency report)

ACROSS the globe, fromNigeria to Greece, down to

Turkey, Spain, Indonesia,among others, workers andunions yesterday used theMay Day to express their angeragainst austerity measures,unemployment and poorlabour conditions. According to agency reports,Pope Francis was at the fore-front of the condemnation of“slave labour” and the condi-tions of hundreds of workerskilled in a factory collapse inBangladesh.The pontiff urged political

leaders to fight unemploy-

Rivers PDP denies plot to impeach Amaechi• Lawyers oppose removal bid

CONTRARY to the positionof the Speaker of the Rivers

State House of Assembly,Otelemaba Amachree, thePeople’s Democratic Party(PDP) in the state has no planto impeach GovernorChibuike Amaechi. The state party chairman, Fe-lix Obuah, who declared thisyesterday, said the claim byAmachree that a fake macehad been smuggled into thestate to enable five membersof the House hold an emer-gency session was aimed atmisleading the public.Already, some lawyers havecondemned the alleged moveto remove Amaechi.While addressing membersof the Ogba/Egbema/NdoniPeoples Forum led by Ibe Ere-sia-Eke, Oduah observed thatsome party members in thestate were aggrieved and thathis primary mission was to

ment in a sweeping critiqueof “selfish profit.”The Pope said he had beenparticularly struck by a head-line saying workers at the fac-tory near Dhaka were beingpaid just 38 euros ($50) amonth.“This is called slave labour!”the Pope was quoted by Vati-can radio as saying in his

homily at a private mass in hisresidence to mark May Day.More than 400 workers havebeen confirmed dead andscores are missing in the col-lapse, which occurred in asuburb of the capital, Dhaka,last week in the country’sworst-ever industrial disaster.“Today, in the world this slav-ery is being committed

against something beautifulthat God has given us – the ca-pacity to create, to work, tohave dignity,” Agence FrancePresse (AFP) cited the pope assaying at the mass.“How many brothers and sis-ters find themselves in this sit-uation!”, he said.Bangladeshi protesters en-

raged by the deadly factory

collapse led rallies across Asiaagainst low wages and poorworking conditions, as moredemonstrations were rolledout across austerity-hit Eu-rope.In Nigeria, President Good-luck Jonathan yesterday in-dicted labour leaders forcontributing to massive di-version of pensions funds inthe country.The President spoke duringthe celebration of this year’sMay Day at the Eagle’s Squarein Abuja. Jonathan decried economicgrowth without an attendantjob creation. He said: “We are

not unmindful of the fact thatthe ultimate benefit of someof economic growth must re-flect on the lives of the citi-zens. I agree totally that untilwe create jobs; until Nigeri-ans can wake up and find foodto eat; until Nigerians who aresick can walk to hospitals andget treatment, the economicindices are meaningless tothem.” Indeed, Labour had threat-ened to embark on a one-dayprotest to demand a speedyaction on the probe and pros-ecution of the perpetrators.But the President quicklycalled on both leaderships ofNigeria Labour Congress(NLC) and its Trade Union

• Jonathan indicts union leaders for pensions fraud • President decries economic growth without jobs• NLC supports amnesty for Boko Haram

CONTINUED ON PAGE 6

CONTINUED ON PAGE 6Minister of Labour, Emeka Wogu (second left); Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) President, Abdulwaheed Omar; President Goodluck Jonathan; Trade Union Congress (TUC) President, Peter Esele and others, during the 2013 Workers’ Day celebration in Abuja… yesterday. PHOTO: PHILIP OJISUA

From Ibe Uwaleke, Bertram Nwannekanma(Lagos) and Kelvin Ebiri (Port Harcourt)

10,000 megawatts not realisable by December, says NeboFrom Emeka Anuforo, Abuja

GOING by existing realities,the country’s goal of at-

taining 10,000 megawatts(mw) of electricity by Decem-ber is not realisable, accordingto the Minister of Power, Prof.

Chinedu Nebo.The minister spoke to re-

porters in Abuja on the goal setby his predecessors and someother government officials. But he said that something

close to the figure would be re-alised in December, stressingthat 10,000mw would beachieved by first quarter of2014 based on a professionaland realistic analysis of the

sector.“As an engineer and knowingthe realities on ground, wewill achieve this by first quar-ter of 2014. We need time toachieve part of the target. We

will get close to it, but the truthis that we cannot get10,000mw by December,” hesaid. Meanwhile, the controversytrailing the Bureau of PublicEnterprises’ (BPE) decision tosell the Enugu Distribution

Company despite the exis-tence of a 20-year pact withAba Power Limited that ring-fenced the Aba Business Zoneto the firm seems to have end-ed. This is because Nebo prom-

CONTINUED ON PAGE 6

Blueprint for private sector’s investment in transmission underway

Buhari gives terms to drop presidential bid — Page 7

THE GUARDIAN, Thursday, May 2, 20132

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THE GUARDIAN, Thursday, May 2, 2013 News 5

NEWS

AS Nigerian workers yester-day joined their counter-parts world wide to celebrateMay Day, a common threadran through the goodwillmessages by governors andother top public officers: Bet-ter welfare for workers andthe need for greater commit-ment in the quest for nationbuilding.In his goodwill massage,

Senate President, David Mark,enjoined the workers tomake productivity the cor-nerstone of their engage-ment in order to boost theeconomy and bring prosperi-ty to the nation.He noted that only a produc-tive nation was capable offeeding her citizens, raisingper capital income and main-taining acceptable standardof living for the people.He also frowned at the pen-chant of always resorting tostrike at every disagreementwith authorities, saying thatresort to strike is alwayscounterproductive “becauseat the end of the day we stillreturn to the table for dia-logue.”In Osun Sate, Governor RaufAregbesola urged workers toincrease productivity in

order to enhance the econo-my of the state.Aregbesola, who led mem-

bers of his cabinet to the play-ing ground of Technical Col-lege, Osogbo, the venue of theMay Day rally said his admin-istration had spent aboutN59.8 billion so far to settleworkers salaries sinceNovember 2010 when hecame on board.Governor Olusegun Mimikoof Ondo State, expressed hisresolve to sanitise the stateworkforce and sharpen it foreffectiveness.Specifically, the governor

who spoke at the WorkersDay celebration in Akure, thestate capital, said his govern-ment would not spare anyworker indicted in the on-going verification exercise.Plateau State Governor, Jon-ah Jang, who was represent-ed by the Head of Service, Mr.Ezekiel Dalyop, acknowl-edged the immense contri-butions of the workers in thestate, saying that they havedone a lot and are still doingmore.Jang, who was booed and

heckled while speaking,pleaded with the workers toallow him to at least have thepatience to listen to the “lies”he was going to tell them. Butthe undaunted and unwaver-ing governor said the presentgovernment had the interestof the workers at heart,believing strongly that thegovernment meant well for

Delta okays jobs for1,072 casual workers

TO commemorate the 2013May Day, the Organisation ofAfrican Trade Union Unity(OATUU) has advised workersto fight against poverty, massunemployment, and allscourges that still plague thecontinent.In a message to mark the

event, OATUU said the tragicevents in Chicago, UnitedStates (U.S.) in May 1886 inwhich workers were killed, oth-ers injured and some labourleaders hanged, was meant todiscourage trade unionismand destroy the Labour move-ment.Urging workers not to lose

hope, Secretary General of thegroup, Owei Lakemfa in a state-ment said: “Rather, it furtherunified workers, strengthenedour unity and has become asymbol for workers’ solidarityand struggle to improve theirconditions of work and life”.

IT was a memorable May Dayfor the 1,072 casual workersof Ministries, Departmentsand Agencies (MDAs) of theDelta State Government yes-terday as their appointmentwas regularised by GovernorEmmanuel Uduaghan.Represented by the Secretaryto the State Government (SSG),Ovuozerie Macaulay, Udu-aghan, deplored casualisation,a policy which he insisted wasneither his nor that of his pred-ecessor, saying that it was per-petrated through indiscrimi-nate engagement of staff andin violation of due process.

From Isa Abdulsalami-Ahov (Jos)Iyabo Lawal (Ibadan) Niyi Bello(Akure) Bridget Chiedu Onochie,Azimazi Momoh Jimoh (Abuja)Tunji Omofoye (Osogbo) TundeAkinola (Lagos), Eric Meya(Sokoto)

Employees seek improved deal, end to graft, insecurity, others

WORKERS across the coun-try yesterday marked

May Day with a call on govern-ment to check graft, particu-larly among public officers;improve their welfare andthose of retirees; halt movesto raise fuel price; providejobs for the teeming unem-ployed youths and ensurepeace and security in thecountry. In Kaduna Sate, the workersprotested massive corruptionby public officers in the coun-try as they urged PresidentGoodluck Jonathan to imme-diately sanction those indict-ed to prevent the collapse ofthe nation’s economy. In Abia State , the state Chair-man of Trade Union Congress(TUC), Christopher Okpara inhis address queried the Feder-al Government’s moves toderegulate the downstreamsector.He also added that although

labour appreciated govern-ment’s approval of payment ofterminal benefits to PowerHolding Company ofNigeria(PHCN’s) workers, hehowever, urged the FederalGovernment to involve labourunions’ leaders in the sector onthe issue. In Jigawa State, workers calledon the state government toemploy more teachers andmedical personnel in the state. Speaking at the occasion of

the Workers Day, held at theKaduna Township Stadium,the state chapter chairman ofthe Trade Union Congress ofNigeria (TUC), ShehuMohammed, said that “themonster that is assailing thisnation presently at an alarm-ing rate, is the unbridled cor-ruption”, pointing out that“the number and volume ofcorrupt practices in the coun-try have gone up astronomical-ly in recent time such thatTransparency Internationalhas branded Nigeria as the35th most corrupt country inthe world”.In Ogun Sate, workers whospoke through the TUC statechairman, Mr. Seyi Adebanjo,called for a pension ministry,adding that the call hadbecome imperative in view of

the fact that “all other organsof government charged withthe issue of pensions havefailed”.He also called on the NationalAssembly to legislate that anygovernment, be it at the feder-al, state or local level, thatowed pensioners for three con-secutive months should haveits share of the Federal Govern-ment allocation withdrawnuntil such arrears were paid.In Benue State, workers urgedGovernor Gabriel Suswam toimplement the 18 per centminimum wage to primaryschool teachers as well asupdate payment of workers’leave grants, promotions anddeath benefits.The state chairman of the

Nigeria Labour Congress(NLC), Simon Anchaver, whomade the call at the IBB PublicSquare in Makurdi, the statecapital, also appealed to thestate government to liftembargo on employment.For workers in Rivers State,

they expressed worries overthe political rift in the state,warning that they would notfold their hands and watchpoliticians distort the peacefulatmosphere in the state.The state chairman of NLC,

Chris Oruge, stated this while

delivering his speech at theIsaac Boro Park, venue of thisyear’s May Day celebration.According to Oruge, “thelabour union would not besilent and watch a group ofindividuals destroy the peace-ful atmosphere in the state”.In Kwara State, the workers

urged the Federal Govern-ment to tackle unemploy-ment in the country whichhad led to insecurity andsocial vices.The state NLC chairman, BoseDaramola urged the state gov-ernment to provide jobs forthe state teeming graduateswho were recently screenedfor employment. In Enugu State, the labour

unions restated their demandfor living wage, calling on thestate government to work outbetter ways of attending totheir welfare packages so as topromote friendly relationshipin the state.Addressing a workers’ day ral-ly in Enugu, state chairman ofthe Nigeria Labour Congress(NLC) Nze Chukwumaifelamented the attitude of gov-ernment to issues and entitle-ments due to the workers ofthe state, stressing that alabourer deserved a livingwage.

Low key celebrationin Ekiti over deputygov’s death

IN honour of the late EkitiSate Deputy Governor,Mrs. Funmilayo Olayinka,who died of cancer on April6, this year, workers in thestate yesterday held a lowkey May Day celebration.The workers, who con-

verged at the Oluyemi Kay-ode Stadium, Ado Ekitiwhere Governor KayodeFayemi was present,described the late deputygovernor as a pride to thestate and a vanguard ofgender equality during herlifetime.In separate addresses

delivered by the Chairmanof Trade Union Congress(TUC), Kolawole Olaiya andother allied unions, theyagreed that nothing wastoo much to honour thelate deputy governor con-sidering her immense con-tribution to the develop-ment of the state.Addressing the workers,

Governor Fayemi warnedthem against engaging inpartisan politics.

From Muyiwa Adeyemi, Ado Ekiti

From Saxone Akhaine (Kaduna) Dele Fanimo (Lagos), Gordi Udeajah(Umuahia), Lawrence Njoku(Kaduna), Charles Ogugbuaja(Owerri), Charles Coffie Gyamfi(Abeokuta) Ann Godwin (Port Har-court), Joseph Wantu (Makurdi),Isah Ibrahim (Gusau) and JohnAkubo (Dutse)

Chukwumaife said that theissue of teachers’ enhance-ment allowance of 27.5 percent of basic salary which wasagreed by the governors’forum to be paid to teacherssince 2008, while only 10 percent had been paid, urged thegovernment to pay the bal-ance of 17.5 per cent.But emotion heightened

when the state indigenes dis-engaged from Abia State civilservice appeared during themarch past.Clad in black attire and carry-ing a black banner with whiteinscription, the workersmarched with great dedica-tion before the crowd.As soon as they got to the spotof taking salute, they kneltbefore Governor SullivanChime, a development inter-preted by many to mean thatthey were in dire need ofemployment in their ownstate, having been sent pack-ing from Abia.Oil workers under the aegis ofPetroleum and Natural GasSenior Staff Association ofNigeria(PENGASSAN), haveraised alarm over the currentunderhand dealings ofemployers in the oil and gassector to short circuit workers’career.

the workers.Governor Abiola Ajimobi

promised to remove the bar-riers hindering the promo-tion of graduate teachers inGL 14 in the civil service toenable them exceed their

present level starting fromfirst week in May.The state wing of the NigeriaUnion of Teachers (NUT) hadat a recent meeting with thegovernment appealed for theraising of bar for teachers

who were university gradu-ates from Grade Level 14.Ajimobi while addressing

the workers said the bar hadbeen removed and that itwould take effect from May 1,2013.

Mark, govs pledgebetter welfare, urgemore commitment

From Hendrix Oliomogbe, Asaba

May Day Rallies

OATUU tasks workers onpoverty, unemploymentBy Yetunde Ebosele

A worker in Lagos...yesterday PHOTO: GABRIEL IKHAHON

6 NEWS THE GUARDIAN, Thursday, May 2, 2013

Lawyers oppose alleged plot to remove AmaechiCONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

unify all contending groups.Obuah was declared the

chairman of the party lastmonth by an Abuja HighCourt which sacked the God-spower Ake-led state execu-tive of the party said to bepro-Amaechi.The chairman’s suspension of

27 out of the 32 members ofthe State House of Assemblyfrom the PDP and declarationof their seats vacant as well asthe issuance of a 48-hour ulti-matum to Amaechi to explainthe status of the state’s Bom-bardier BD 700 Global Expressjet, had generated anxiety of apossible ploy to impeach thegovernor.He explained that his mission

as chairman of the party wasnot to create problems for theadministration of Amaechiwhom he declared he wasready to work with to ensure

that the state’s resources wereevenly distributed among allthe local councils.

The chairman explained thathe did not at any time plan touse the five members of thestate legislature not suspend-ed to impeach Amaechi whomhe described as the politicalleader of Rivers State. He, how-ever, warned that the partywould no longer condone anyelected official who fails to de-liver on his mandate.

“None of my executive hasthought to impeach the gover-nor. It is not my duty to im-peach the governor. I know thelimit of my office as partychairman…we want prudentmanagement of our re-sources. The party will supportthe government to use our re-sources judiciously. I have nothatched a plan to impeach thegovernor of Rivers State,Chibuike Amaechi”, he said.

On the 48-hour ultimatumgiven to the governor to ex-

plain the ownership of thestate jet, Obuah said the partyin its magnanimity wouldmeet to consider the exten-sion of time to be briefed onthe status of the contentiousjet.

Obuah charged Amaechi tobe transparent in his leader-ship of the state as the partywas not antagonistic to his ad-ministration. He stressedthat the primary focus of hisadministration was to ensurethat the party emerged victo-rious in the 2015 general elec-tions and other subsequentones.

He berated the Leader of theState House of Assembly, Chi-di Lloyd, for referring to himas a factional leader of PDP. Hesaid that there was only onePDP family in Rivers State forwhich he was the authenticchairman.The youth leader of the party,

Major Jack, has urged youthsin the state not to allow them-selves to be used by politi-cians who might want tocapitalise on the prevailingsituation to cause chaos.

Condemning the purportedmove to impeach Amaechi, aSenior Advocate of Nigeria(SAN) and the Nigerian Bar As-sociation (NBA) chieftain,Chief Emeka Ngige, said: “It is

not a new phenomenon inour national politics. It hasbeen done before in Anam-bra, Oyo, Bayelsa, Plateau andAbia states during the inglori-ous regime of OlusegunObasanjo. To the credit of theJudiciary, those illegal im-peachments were nullified.”

He continued: “So, history isrepeating itself and sadly, thepoliticians have learnt noth-ing from history. I think witha no-nonsense National Judi-cial Council (NJC) now watch-ing, let us see whether akangaroo impeachment willbe allowed to play out inRivers State.”

Also reacting, a former NBAfirst vice president, Mr. Ikea-zor Akaraiwe, said in Enugu:“President Jonathan wants tosow the wind. He may reap thewhirlwind. The world hasmoved on since Obasanjo. He(Jonathan) may not get awaywith what Obasanjo got awaywith.”

In his own reaction, a Lagos-based Senior Advocate ofNigeria, Adekunle Ogunba,said: “That is a classical exam-ple of tyranny of the minoritypatently backed by federalmight. It is a template of ourvariant of democracy, whichis ordinarily the manifesta-tion of the will of the majority.

We practise democracy in thereverse order”. The Chairman of the NBA, Ike-

ja Branch, Mr. Monday Ubani,described the planned re-moval as a pure absurdity.

Ubani said it was a sign thatNigeria was gradually de-scending into dictatorshipand a state of anomie becauseof the ambition of few peoplewho want to remain in powerat all cost.

He said: “We have passedthrough this road before andwe knew where  it took us to.“Again, we are witnessing a re-

peat and we shall see the endof this absurdity.

“The Nigeria Judiciary willagain be called to examine theabsurdity of their action ifthey dare carry out their ille-gality and I am hopeful thatthey will declare their stupidaction null and void at the ap-propriate time. Let us watchand see.”

His Lagos branch counter-part, Taiwo Taiwo, howeverwants  President GoodluckJonathan to act like a states-man and a true democrat bycalling on the troublemakersto sheathe the sword.

And Lagos-based constitu-tional lawyer, Fred Agbaje,said the development wouldonly heat up the polity.

He asked: “Why is the Feder-al Government so jitteryabout the rising political in-fluence of Amaechi? IsAmaechi not a Nigerian citi-zen who can aspire to any po-litical office in Nigeria? “Political sovereignty consti-

tutionally lies with the peo-ple of Nigeria not ourpolitical rulers. Therefore,they should allow the peopleof Nigeria to decide who willgovern them instead of thepresent approach aimed at si-lencing opposition.”

For the Lagos-based humanrights lawyer, Bamidele Atu-ru, whatever that is donewithout compliance with theconstitution’s prescription isinvalid and would be nulli-fied by the court.The constitution is clear that

only two-thirds of the mem-bers of a state House of As-sembly can impeach agovernor.

He, however, said that thelesson for the likes ofAmaechi who supported theremoval of fuel subsidy wasthat supporting or being partof dictatorship was a double-edged sword.

Another human rightslawyer, Malachy Ugwum-madu, said it was still withinthe realm of speculation.

Jonathan indicts labour leaders for pensions fraudCONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

Congress (NLC) to hastilyadopt peer review mecha-nisms to put the issue in per-spective.

The President said: “Labourhas been at the fore-front ofthe demand for good gover-nance and greater actionagainst corruption, and theseissues are being vigorouslytackled on various fronts. Pros-ecutions are being pursued onmatters arising from well-pub-lished fraud, embezzlement ofpensions funds and other mal-practices demystified by thisadministration. Given thatsome of these perpetrators arehigh-ranking and also juniormembers of labour unions,greater attention to peer re-view action on the part oflabour would be appreciated.”

Jonathan also called onlabour to maintain its princi-

pled stand on national issues,which has insulated the move-ment from the grasp of politi-cians who have the penchantfor deploying all opportuni-ties within their reach for po-litical gains.The President described most

of the perceived dissentingvoices from labour as born outof nationalism and patriotismand not out of hatred for gov-ernment.

“Their (labour) voices are verystrong and because they donot have private agenda is thereason those of us who arepoliticians have not been ableto use them for our own selfishinterests,” he submitted.

The President went ahead tolabel the 2013 May Day as, “cen-tenary labour May Day as it co-incides with theamalgamation of Southernand Northern protectorates,which has become the mod-ern day Nigeria. This year’s

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

ised yesterday that govern-ment would respect theagreement.The Guardian had reported re-

cently that efforts by the BPE toprivatise the entire EnuguElectricity Distribution Com-pany (EEDC) despite the exis-tence of a 20-year leaseagreement which the FederalGovernment entered intowith a private concern for themanagement of the Aba me-tropolis was creating a freshconcern over the privatisationprogramme of government.The Federal Government, the

National Electric Power Au-thority (NEPA, as it was thenknown) and Aba Power Limit-ed entered into a lease agree-ment on April 28, 2005 for thedistribution of power to thering-fenced residential andcommercial consumers atAba, Abia State. The contractcovered Aba Business Unit andAriaria Business Unit, both ofwhich form part of Enugu Dis-tribution Company (EnuguDisco).Following the agreement, the

Nigeria Electricity RegulatoryCommission (NERC) in 2006granted a licence to Aba PowerLimited to distribute powerwithin the ring-fence.

On December 12, 2012, agroup of chieftains under theumbrella of Ndigbo Lagos, ledby Prof. Anya O. Anya, wrote toPresident Goodluck Jonathanasking him to respect theterms of the agreement withAba Power Limited.

The Federal Governmentwent ahead on February 20,2013 and signed an agreementwith bid winners of the EnuguDistribution Company, Inter-state Consortium.

But in a swift reaction, WoleOlanipekun & Co on February21, 2013 advised the generalpublic to desist from any act,purchase or negotiation in re-spect of any offer to sell, lease,transfer any right in theEnugu Disco, which does notexpressly exclude Aba and Ari-aria Business Units.

But responding to questionson what government was do-ing to resolve the impasse,Nebo told reporters: “Govern-ment intends to honour theagreement with Aba PowerLimited for the ring-fencedAba and Ariaria BusinessUnits.”

Reviewing the state of the

power sector, the minister alsocalled on Nigerians to exercisea little more patience with gov-ernment as the power reformagenda would be executed.On the generation capability,

he stressed: “Currently, in-stalled available generationcapacity has risen to6,000mw. Peak generation isslightly above 4,500mw. Weintend to add additional gen-eration capacity of about2,200mw from the NIPP proj-ects (1,896mw), IPPs (292mw)and FGN legacy assets (514mw)before the end of 2013.

“The Federal Government isalso investing heavily to boostgeneration through large,medium and small hydroswith a total capacity of over4,234mw.”

He said a $3.4 billion invest-ment would be required to ex-pand the transmission grid tobe able to evacuate all the gen-erated power.

He said the ministry was col-laborating with the FinanceMinistry to work out a blue-print for private sector’s in-vestment in transmission,stressing once again that theTransmission Company ofNigeria would not be sold to aprivate concern, but would re-main a government-ownedentity.

commemoration specially af-fords special recognition tothe historical and contempo-rary importance of the labourmovement in the nationalproject.”

He said that since inception,this administration had al-ways seen labour movementas not just part of history butpart of Nigeria’s past, presentand its collective future.He went ahead to enumerate

the factors that had influ-enced the choice of the ad-ministration’s policies thus:“Since the advent of this ad-ministration, we have createdatmosphere where everyonecan achieve his or her dreams,which is the thrust of ourtransformation agenda. Thetransformation agenda isabout taking and implement-ing measure today in order togive our people a brighter to-morrow. It is about creatingjobs, wealth and ensuring a

better deal for Nigerians. Cen-tral to this transformation isthe creation of stable politicalenvironment where econom-ic development activitieswould flourish.”

During the event, the Presi-dent of the NLC, AbdulwaheedOmar, expressed support foramnesty for Boko Harammembers, and urged them toaccept dialogue and save thenation the agony of unneces-sary loss of lives.

The NLC considered the re-cent pardon for a former gov-ernor as a veiled endorsementof corruption, saying, “… wefind the pardon granted a for-mer governor who was con-victed of corruptly enrichinghimself as unfortunate and amajor dent on the govern-ment’s commitment to fight-ing corruption. To reclaim lostground, government needs toreassure Nigerians that it isstill committed to fighting

corruption by conclusivelydealing with all pending casesof corruption.”

On his part, the President ofTUC, Peter Esele, said the de-ployment of a database thatwould form the core of a newsecurity landscape would re-duce the propensity to com-mit crimes.

“We implore all members ofthe sect to embrace the optionso that the country will makegreater and faster progress.We also charge the FederalGovernment to view the entireincident as a clarion call andopportunity to develop a newsecurity architecture. Thiswould entail the following: es-tablishment of a data bankthat would contain details onevery person and group of per-sons within our borders; lay-ing special emphasis ontop-class intelligence gather-ing; improving the justice sys-tem,” he

Former Taraba State governor, Rev. Jolly Nyame (left); Senator Aisha Al-Hassan and Senator Nenadi Usman, during the inauguration of a computer training centredonated by Al-Hassan for youths in Jalingo… yesterday.

Blueprint for private sector’s investment in transmission underway

THE GUARDIAN, Thursday, May 2, 2013 7News

NERC denies owingworkers’ salaries Buhari gives

terms to droppresidential bidFORMER Military Head of

State and presidential can-didate of the Congress for Pro-gressive Change (CPC) in 2011general elections, GeneralMuhammadu Buhari, has sig-nified intention to drop hispresidential ambition for 2015election under the newlyformed All Progressives Con-gress (APC) if a better and for-midable candidate emerges asthe party’s standard bearer.The former Head of State, whospoke with journalists in Min-na on Wednesday at the maid-en edition of the publisher ofLeadership Newspaper, SamNda-Isaiah Annual Lecture Se-ries, pointed out that his in-tention to take a shot at thePresidency in 2015 was to an-swer calls by well-meaningNigerians who are yearningfor a genuine and transparentleadership. But he, however,said he was ready to rest hisambition under the yet-to-be-registered APC.According to him: “I will be

ready to step down if there is aformidable and better candi-date. It is not about me but forthe survival of the party andthe country. APC is about en-suring internal democracyand transparency. So, whoeveremerges is the person I willsupport and I will be ready tostep down”.General Buhari insisted that

Nigerians must be rescuedfrom the hands of PeoplesDemocratic Party (PDP) andthis can only be achieved if aformidable candidateemerges as the standard bear-er of the newly formed but yet-to-be registered APC in 2015general elections.

Also speaking, the formerpresidential candidate of AllNigeria Peoples Party (ANPP)in 2011 general elections and aleader of APC, Mallam ShehuShekarau, who was at the lec-ture, said that APC will be dem-ocratic in electing its standardbearer for the forthcomingelection despite the array of

formidable presidential materi-als in the yet-to-be registeredparty.According to the former Kano

State governor, “it is too early totalk about who will be the par-ty’s candidate or to have a presi-dential candidate. In APC, wewill have to embrace democra-cy that will guide the party. Letus have the party on groundfirst and congresses will be heldat various levels that will pro-duce our candidates. At thatpoint, anybody can contest andthe party will support the bestcandidate that emerges”.Shekarau, therefore, said that

as soon as all the merging par-ties are through with their na-tional conventions, a formalrequest will be made to Inde-pendent National ElectoralCommission (INEC) for APC reg-istration to give room for otheractivities that will climax in theemergence of the party’s candi-dates.Assuring that a government byAPC will bring holistic changein government and in the na-tion, the APC chieftain said: “Weare not talking of just disman-tling the PDP, we want change.We are not just talking aboutchange in democracy butchange in attitude, change inapproach, change in character,change in conducting the busi-ness of government. That’s whyour slogan is change. We are de-termined to change Nigeria forbetter”.Earlier at the lecture, which wasorganised by Integrity Icons In-ternational, titled: “The role ofyouth in sustaining democraticvalues in Nigeria”, Buhari saidthe media should be coura-geous and not shy away fromkeeping leaders and those ingovernment on their toes.He also called on leaders and

those in position of authority toensure a viable environment forpeople to thrive, adding that themedia should constantly de-mand and put leaders in check.“The moment there is nobodyin the country to make our lead-ers create a viable environment,then the nation is in trouble,”

THE long-awaited appeal bythe former governor of

Delta State, James Ibori,against his 13-year sentence af-ter plea bargain comes up atthe Royal Courts of Justice to-day.A court’s spokesman con-

firmed that it is actually listedfor this morning. However,another source said the con-vict-applicant would not bepresent at the hearing.Ibori, who is serving a 13-yearjail term (to just four yearsand some months, because ofdiscounts for pleading guiltybefore jury trial started) forfraud and money launderingto the tune of £50 million dur-ing his term as governor, isappealing the sentence, and ifsuccessful, may be out of jailmuch earlier.Having been jailed at the

Southwark Crown Court inApril last year, he successfullylaunched an appeal to havehis term slashed a couple ofmonths after his conviction.And having spent a year of hisfour and some months’ term,he is praying the court to re-duce the number of years leftfor his crime.Ibori was convicted by Justice

Anthony Pitts and is currentlyserving at Her Majesty’sPrison in Long Lartin, SouthLittleton, Worchestershire.He also has a three-week as-sets’ confiscation hearing list-

NIGERIAN Electricity Regu-latory Commission

(NERC) has refuted a report bya national daily of Wednes-day, May 1, 2013, whichclaimed that the Commissioncould not pay salaries.Officials said yesterday that

NERC does not owe its work-ers any salary arrears.An official said the referenceto a disgruntled contractor,who took the Commission tocourt, was actually an at-tempt to force it to make pay-ments for a disputedtransaction that predates thecurrent leadership of thecommission.“The case is still in court andthe transaction was not aboutthe purchase of vehicles andhas nothing to do with Presi-dent Goodluck Jonathan,”NERC noted.

The Commission’s Chair-man, Sam Amadi, said in Abu-ja that NERC is financiallystrong and has duly auditedaccounts.The Commission, therefore,

dismissed the report and theattempt to malign the Presi-dent as deliberate acts of po-litical mischief.

ANAN establishes accounting labs in seven varsities

Ibori’s appeal comes up today

IMMEDIATE past presidentof the Association of Na-

tional Accountants of Nigeria(ANAN), Hajia Maryam LadiIbrahim, said the associationhas established seven ac-counting laboratories inNigerian universities.Ibrahim made this declara-

tion in her valedictoryspeech on Tuesday in Abujaduring the inauguration of anew ANAN President, AlhajiSakirudeen Labode.The universities are: Univer-sity of Jos, Bayero University,University of Abuja, AhmaduBello University, Usman DanFodio University, NnamdiAzikiwe University, and theUniversity of Uyo.

She said the laboratorieswere in addition to that of theNigerian College of Account-ancy (NCA), Jos, a post-gradu-ate training arm of theassociation.Listing her achievements,

Ibrahim said the associationalso improved in collabora-tive efforts with universitiesand polytechnics where thecollege took its students.The former ANAN presidentnoted that the association al-so donated books to 15 uni-versities and polytechnics,saying that besides takingawareness campaign tomany universities and poly-technics, the association hastaken the campaign outsideNigeria.According to her, “the asso-

ciation gained itself the fol-lowing recognitions:International Federation ofAccountants (IFAC); PanAfrican Federation of Ac-countants (PAFA); and the As-sociation of AccountingBodies of West Africa (ABWA).She also said the associationhas gained regional and in-ternational integration withthe Financial ReportingCouncil (FRC) of Nigeria; As-sociation of Professional Bod-ies of Nigeria (APBN), IFAC,PAFA, ABWA, InternationalAssociation for AccountingEducation and Research(IAAER) and Extensible Busi-ness Reporting Language(XBRL) Nigerian project.

From Emeka Anuforo, Abuja

By Chijioke Nelson

From Tunde Oyedoyin, London

Tambuwal warns Constitution Review panel against personal bias

AS the ad-hoc committee onconstitution review began

work on the draft bills arisingfrom the review exercise yes-terday, Speaker of the Houseof Representatives, AminuWaziri Tambuwal, hascharged the members not toallow the personal bias of theHouse to influence their judg-ment.The panel began a three-day

retreat yesterday preparatoryto the next stage of the on-go-ing constitution amendmentprocess, following the presen-tation to the House of the col-lated opinions from publicsessions.Tambuwal, who declared theretreat open at Protea Hotel,Abuja, specifically tasked the51-member committee to en-sure that the draft bills werefree from personal prejudices,rather, “these bills must re-flect craftsmanship, detailand lucidity.”He said: “I must again em-

phasise the need for yourwork to be free of all personal

bias. You must work only ondata provided by the nation-wide public hearing and yourconclusion should reflect theaggregate opinion of fellowNigerians.“As you well know, our coun-try today faces many chal-lenges and some of ourpeople have been askingquestions about the very na-ture of our union. We hopeeventually to provide Nigeri-ans with a constitution thatwill answer some of thesequestions and further ce-ment our hard-fought unity.”The Speaker noted, however,that the exercise might notsatisfy the yearnings of allNigerians, but charged thecommittee to ensure trans-parency in the process. Headded: “We cannot promisethat after this exercise, allNigerians would be fully sat-isfied with the result or thatall agitations would stop. “However, we can promise

that it will be transparent, fairand reflect the true desires ofour people. We can alsopromise that the constitution

we will finally present to Nige-rians will be better than whatwe have presently.” Earlier in his welcome ad-

dress, the Deputy Speaker andChairman of the Ad-hoc Com-mittee on Constitution Re-view, Emeka Ihedioha,disclosed that membership ofthe panel was deliberately se-lected to represent all rele-vant interests because of thesensitive nature of the consti-tution review process.“It is based on state represen-tation, so that each state andthe Federal Capital Territoryhas a member chosen by thestate caucus in the House. Fivemembers represent interestsof women and special inter-ests”, he explained.Meanwhile, Ihedioha point-

ed out that for the process towork, the House and SenateConstitution Review Com-mittees must work togetherto propose the same bills andvote on the same issues. Theymust as well reach agreementbefore any section of the con-stitution is amended, he said.

From John Ogiji, Minna

From Terhemba Daka, Abuja

Legal Adviser, Real Estate Lawyers’ Association of Nigeria (RELAN), Adekunle Oyesanya (SAN) (left); Vice President (Academics), Prof.Imran Oluwole Smith (SAN); Executive President, Prof. Charles Ilegbuna (SAN) and Vice President (Operations), Adekunle Omotola, at abriefing on the forthcoming National Conference on “Forclosure Law and Processes in relation to Mortgage Security in Nigeria” at Uni-versity of Lagos, Akoka…yesterday PHOTO: FEMI ADEBESIN-KUTI

ed for Southwark CrownCourt from September 16, andsources have confirmed thathe would attend the South-wark Crown Court duringthat period.

THE GUARDIAN, Thursday, May 2, 20138 | NEWS

NAFDAC refutes report of attack on Orhii

Senate alleges bias in NIMASA recruitment

THE National Agency forFood, Drug Administration

and Control (NAFDAC) has re-futed a media report, (not TheGuardian), that the Director-General, Dr. Paul Orhii, was at-tacked in Benue by irateyouths who were allegedlyprotesting the citing of de-struction site for fake and sub-standard drugs and foodproducts within their locality.According to the report, the

Director General’s car wassmashed by the irate youthswho were protesting over thepotential deleterious effect onhealth of the fumes from thedestruction on the health ofthe inhabitants.

It would be recalled thatOrhii was in September 2010attacked by unknown gun-men, along the Makurdi-Abuja road. He was on his wayto Abuja from Ge-Mbagwa Les-sel in Ushongo local council ofBenue State after the success-ful commissioning of an am-bulance he donated to theLessel General Hospital andthe rehabilitated LGEA Pri-mary School.Acting Director (Special Du-

ties) of NAFDAC, AbubakarJimoh, told The Guardian yes-terday that the report, whichwas a front-page story in thedaily, was politically moti-vated. He said Orhii was notattacked because the convoywas alerted about the irateyouths who had put on burn-fire on the road waiting forthe DG and members of theNAFDAC Governing Boardthat were riding with him.

Abubakar said: “The atten-tion of NAFDAC has beendrawn to a political motivatedstory on the front page of a na-tional daily (name withheld)that the NAFDAC DG was at-tacked in Benue State overprotests on the destruction ofcounterfeit drugs in theirarea. I want to state categori-cally that the story is not true.“The story was politically pre-meditated with some facelesspolitical elements in the statewho may have planned to at-tack the DG to attract negativepublicity. The story on the at-tack on the DG can be de-scribed as a Freudian slip onthe part of the reporter whomight have preview to aplanned arrangement to at-tack Orhii.

Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno (left) with Governor Musa Kwankwaso of Kano, during the later’s sympathy visit to Borno Government House over the Baga carnage in Maiduguri… yesterday PHOTO: NAN

From Bridget Chiedu Onochie,Abuja

THE Senate has criticisedthe Director-General, Nige-

ria Maritime Security Agency(NIMASA), Mr. Patrick ZiakedeAkpobolokemi for floutingthe Federal Character princi-ple in the recent recruitmentexercise undertaken by theagency.

The Upper Chamber,through its committee onFederal Character, also ex-pressed dissatisfaction withthe NIMASA boss over allegedforced retirement under theguise of golden handshake,where younger and inexperi-enced personnel were used toreplace superior ones on theground of ethnicity.A member of the commit-

tee, Senator Ali Ndume, saidthe so-called golden hand-shake to four of the staff ofthe agency who were said tohave been retired four yearsbefore their due date, was in-deed “an arm-twisting exer-cise aimed at creating spacefor some younger elements

from a particular zone of thecountry.”Chairman of the committee,Senator Dahiru Awaisu Kuta,described the last recruit-ment exercise conducted bythe agency as unhealthy. Ac-cording to him, Bayelsa Statehad 25 people employedwhile its neighbouring RiversState had only three peoplerecruited.He therefore called on the

chairman of the Federal Char-acter Commission, Prof. Ab-dulraham Oba, to furnish thecommittee with the names ofthe right and genuine candi-dates that would fill the postsbeing vacated by the affectedpeople in the golden hand-shake.This list, he said, would helpto ascertain whether theagency has totally violatedthe federal character princi-ple.In his response, the Director

General of NIMASA deniedthe allegation favouring cer-tain states or geo-politicalzones of the country in retir-ing people from the service.

Akpobolokemi, who ap-peared before the SenateCommittee investigating thealleged job racketeering inthe government agencies,also admitted that his agencyis not up to 80 per cent com-pliant to the federal characterprinciple but it is doing every-thing possible to ensure thatit complies in its recruit-ments.On the compulsory retire-

ment, he explained that therehas never been a time thatthe agency forced anybody

out of service, adding thatthose who left the agency didso voluntarily.He added that there was no

mistake in the area of thegolden handshake, as thefour staff who were leavingwould also be sent to the

United Kingdom for pre-re-tirement training at the ex-pense of the agency. Hemaintained that many othermembers of staff have beenexpressing their willingnessto leave service before theirdue date of retirement.

Yoruba group flays six-year single term for president, othersBy Abiodun Fanoro

APAN-YORUBA socio-politi-cal organisation, Afenifere

Renewal Group (ARG), hascriticised alleged plan by theSenate to approve a six-yearsingle term for the office ofthe president, vice-president,governors and their deputies.In a statement by its Public-

ity Secretary, Kunle Famoriyo,the ARG described the deci-sion as diversionary and thatit portrayed the Upper Cham-ber as trivialising serious mat-ters such as insecurity in thecountry and the increasinglyuncertain future of the na-

tion.“Whilst Nigeria is being con-fronted daily by the hazards ofthe Boko Haram’s insurgencyand the inability of the gov-ernment to tackle the issuecorrectly, and as there areother sundry matters beggingto be resolved by our govern-ment, our legislators have tospin a yarn, ‘The Six-YearTenure Card’ to divert our at-tention from the national mis-eries of our time. Going bymedia reports, the SenateCommittee on ConstitutionReview has recommended asingle, six-year tenure for the

offices of president, vice-pres-ident, governors and theirdeputies,” the statementreads in part.Examining the recommenda-tions, ARG faulted the provi-sion preventing both thevice-president and deputygovernors from having theopportunity to contest for theoffices of their bosses at the ex-piration of their tenures. “If we understand the rec-

ommendation as it was re-ported, the vice presidentsand deputy governors wouldnot be able to present them-selves for election into the of-

fice of their bosses, should theyever occupied that office, evenif for one day and by whatevermeans (illness or impeach-ment of their bosses),” thegroup noted. It kicked againstthe six years recommendedand suggested a five-year sin-gle term. ARG, however, lauded the rec-ommendation seeking to limitthe tenure to one term. In itsview, a single term could com-pel the occupier of any of theoffices to work hard and seekto leave some legacies havingrealised that he or she has onlyone term.

NBA ex-scribe faults judge’s suspensionFrom Saxone Akhaine, NorthernBureau Chief

FORMER Secretary of theMakurdi branch of the

Nigeria Bar Association (NBA),Jubrin Okutekpa (SAN), yes-terday, faulted the one-yearsuspension of JusticeAbubakar Talba of the AbujaHigh Court over his role in thepolice pension scam case in-volving one John YakubuYusuf.The National Judicial Councilhad placed a one-year ban onthe judge due to public outcryfor sentencing Yusuf whopleaded guilty to a threecount charge, to two years inprison with an option ofN750,000 fine which the ac-cused immediately paid.But Okutekpa told Journal-

ists in Kaduna shortly afterpresenting a paper entitled“Bail: scope, purpose and lim-its “ at the 2013 Kaduna NBALaw Week that the NJC playedto the public gallery by sus-pending the judge, while ex-pressing fears that such anaction may encourage cor-ruption in the judiciary.According to him, “the sus-

pension of Justice Talba is un-called for, it’s unjust and therewas no basis for it. There is noevidence as far as I am con-

cerned that the judge tookbribe neither is there any evi-dence that he was influencedoutside the law.“The NJC cannot punish a

judge for exercising the dis-cretion vested on him by law.Section 309 of the Penal Codeprovided for a maximum oftwo years. It provided for anoption of fine without speci-fying any amount, which healso gave. The convict for-feited the sum of N327 millionand 32 landed property inAbuja. Those were what thejudge took into account inawarding the fine. “Under ourcriminal jurisprudence, thelaw says that once a personpleads guilty to a crime, yougive him the least punish-ment, yet, he gave the maxi-mum which is two years anda fine of N250,000 for eachcount charge and for the

three counts, that amounts toN750,000.He argued: “My contention isthat if there are eight accusedpersons and you recover N327and 32 landed property fromone, there are still other ac-cused persons. In any case, theman was not accused of eatingthe money, but accused of aid-ing and abating the disap-pearance of the money. Myfear is that if care is not taken,we will soon produce what Icall judicial zombies and thatwill be bad for all Nigeriansand us. If a judge cannot exer-cise his discretion, then we arefinish. Secondly, it is my viewthat what they have done willencourage corruption be-cause all a judge needs to do toexercise his discretion is to saygive me money so that if I ampunished, I will still havesomething to fall back to.”

By Chukwuma Muanya

FG appeals verdictagainst deregulation

THE Federal Governmentthrough the Attorney Gen-

eral of the Federation, Minis-ter of Petroleum Resourcesand the Minister of Com-merce and Industry have ap-pealed against the decision ofa Federal High Court, Abujawhich nullified the deregula-tion of the downstream sec-tor of the oil industry.The court presided over by

Justice Adamu Bello had, inhis verdict delivered onMarch 19, 2013 on a suit filedby a Lagos rights activist,Bamidele Aturu against theMinister of Petroleum Re-sources, granted all theclaims of the plaintiff andnullified the deregulation ofoil industry.But in a nine-page Notice ofAppeal dated April 10, 2013and filed by Dr FabianAjogwu, the Federal Govern-ment is praying the Court ofAppeal for an order settingaside the judgment of thelower court and dismissingthe respondent’s matter in itsentirety or striking it out onthe ground that the respon-dent lacks locus standi.The Appellants also filed a

motion before the trial courtpraying for an order stayingthe execution of the judg-ment of the court pendingthe determination of the ap-peal against the judgment.

By Bertram Nwannekanma

• It is not true, says DG

The NJC cannot punish a judge for exercising thediscretion vested on him by law. Section 309 of thePenal Code provided for a maximum of two years. Itprovided for an option of fine without specifyingany amount, which he also gave. The convict for-feited the sum of N327 million and 32 landed prop-erty in Abuja. Those were what the judge took intoaccount in awarding the fine.

THE GUARDIAN, Thursday, May 2, 2013 9NEWS

Oyo to float N30bbond

OYO State government is tofloat a N30 billion bond

for the implementation of the2013 budget, the Commis-sioner for Budget and Plan-ning, Dr. Olaniyi Olarinde,has said.Olarinde gave the informa-

tion during a breakdown ofthe budget in Ibadan.According to him, the 2012

budget could not achievemore than 70 per cent per-formance because the gov-ernment could not obtain aN50 billion bond expected toform part of the estimate.

According to the NewsAgency of Nigeria (NAN),Olarinde also said the stategovernment would requireadditional N2.9 billion exter-nal loan and N4 billion inter-nal loan to finance the budg-et.The House of Assembly had

on March 19 approved thebudget with more than N5billion addition to the N152.15billion presented to it by Gov-ernor Abiola Ajimobi in Janu-ary.

Bayelsa plans 100mwspower plant

THE Bayelsa State govern-ment yesterday signed a

memorandum of under-standing (MOU) with IPPEnergy Limited and GMBLeasing Partners for the devel-opment of a 100 megawatts(MW) power station.Speaking at the ceremony inYenagoa, Governor SeriakeDickson described the eventas a proof of government’scommitment to boostingelectricity supply and makingBayelsa an investment haven.According to the governor,

the project is aimed at deliv-ering uninterrupted powersupply to residents of Bayelsaand setting the pace forindustrialisation.

“The gas powered plant,which will be located atImiringi in Ogbia Local Coun-cil Area, has the capacity toachieve the feat when com-pleted. I am delighted to be awitness to the consumma-tion of this partnership today.We are a state that is in a hur-ry for development and so, weare everywhere talking topeople to come and invest inthe new Bayelsa.

Govt okays military base for Ekiti, leaders meet over security

AS part of measures toensure security of life and

property of its citizens, EkitiState Government has dis-closed plan to install surveil-lance cameras in strategicparts of the state to make it ano-go area for men of theunderworld.

Governor Kayode Fayemimade this known in Ado-Ekitiduring a meeting with tradi-tional rulers, security agenciesand representatives of differ-ent sub-ethnic groups as wellas transport unions in thestate.Fayemi, who also announcedthat he just got a messagefrom the Chief of Army Staff,Lt. Gen. Azubuike Ihejirika,informing him of the presi-dent’s approval of the estab-lishment of a military base in

Ekiti State, said the operationof the proposed cameras,which would first begin inAdo-Ekiti, will help securityagencies in tracking and curb-ing crime.He stressed the need to beef

up security in Ekiti in order tocurb spill-over of crimes fromneighbouring states, especial-ly as the Ekiti is the gatewaybetween the South-West andthe northern part of the coun-try.Fayemi announced that the

men of the Nigerian Army willnow have patrol points in allthe boundary towns in thestate to prevent criminalsfrom creeping in from neigh-bouring states.The meeting which lasted forabout six hours, according toGovernor Fayemi, wasinformed by the need for col-laboration among the differ-ent stakeholders and securityagencies in the state. He said asimilar meeting will also beheld with political parties inorder to douse the tensionthat may arise over the 2014governorship election in thestate.According to him, the state

government is in talks withthe Nigerian Communica-tions Commission (NCC) toobtain emergency lines for cit-izens to communicate withsecurity agencies as well asmen of the newly revitalisedState Fire Service and para-medics.

On citizens’ complaintsabout the way some securityagents allegedly expose iden-tities of informants, the gover-nor said the state governmentwould soon send a bill to theHouse of Assembly for protec-tion of witness as many of thestakeholders asserted thatpeople were no longer readyto give information to securi-ty agencies.In his remarks, the Commis-

sioner of Police, Mr. SotonyeWakama, urged residents notto leave the security of life andproperty to security agenciesalone but collaborate withthem, especially in giving outinformation to the agencies.

North will overcome Boko Haraminsurgency, says KwankwasoGOVERNOR Rabiu Musa

Kwankwaso of Kano Statehas donated N20 million tothe Borno State governmentto cushion the devastatingeffects of the Boko Haraminsurgency, particularly theBaga crisis.Speaking yesterday in Maid-uguri at the GovernmentHouse to “commiserate andcondole” with the peopleand the Borno State govern-ment over the Baga carnage,Kwankwaso said the peopleof Borno and Kano stateshave been facing the chal-lenge of insecurity to livesand property for manydecades, until the four-yearBoko Haram insurgency inthe North.His words: “In Kano State,

we are facing the same inse-

curity challenge caused bythe Boko Haram insurgentsand we are working roundthe clock to overcome it inthe North. I, therefore, onbehalf of the Kano State gov-ernment and its citizens,present a token of N20 mil-lion to cushion the devastat-ing effects of the Baga andBama crises that claimedmany lives and property.”

Kwankwaso noted that

“with the good leadership ofthe affected states in theNorth, we will be able toweather the storm of BokoHaram insurgency. The lead-ership of Shettima has gonea long way in restoringpeace and unity in the stateand the entire North.” He added that even before

the Boko Haram insurgencyof July 2009, there had beenethnic, religious and Sharia

legal system crises in theregion for many decades, inwhich many lives and prop-erty were lost.Governor Shettima, in his

brief remarks, said: “I amfilled with tears of joy andbrotherhood, because sincethe Boko Haram insurgen-cies at the border towns ofBaga and Bama in BornoState, we have not got adime from any government,be it federal, state or anyindividual, except from Gov-ernor Kwankwaso of KanoState and the people.”

According to Shettima,“Kwankwaso was the firstgovernor to visit Borno overthe recent attacks andkillings at Baga and Bama,where many people, includ-ing security personnel, werekilled and many houses,shops and market stallstorched.”

Group seeks FG’s intervention in Ebonyi, Ibeto face-off over NIGERCEM

AGROUP, League of SouthEast Professionals, has

petitioned President Good-luck Jonathan and the lead-ership of the NationalAssembly over the allegedstand-off between EbonyiState government and IbetoGroup of Industries, sayingif left unchecked, the fightcould compromise nationalsecurity.In the petition dated April

17, 2013, a copy of which wasmade available to TheGuardian, the group notedthat “a threat to nationalsecurity is rapidly crystallis-ing in Ebonyi State over thedisagreement between thegovernment and IbetoGroup over the ownershipand management structureof NIGERCEM”.The state government has,

however, denied any pres-ent or imminent threat topeace and security in thestate or in the NIGERCEMhost communities.Titled, “Threat to National

Security in Ebonyi State: Re-

Stand-off between EbonyiState Government and IbetoGroup over NIGERCEM,Nkalagu” and signed by Lar-ry Onah and Dr. ChijiokeNwandikom, President andSecretary of the group inthat order, the petitionersinvited Jonathan, SenatePresident, David Mark andSpeaker of the House of Rep-resentatives, Aminu WaziriTambuwal, to urgentlyintervene to arrest the uglydevelopment.

The group revealed thatafter carefully investigatingall the contending issuesregarding the battle for pos-session and ownership ofthe foremost cement facto-ry, NIGERCEM, it came to theinevitable conclusion thatyouths from the host com-munities of NIGERCEM “maydisplay their discontent in asocially disruptive manner”. It added that nerves have

been frayed in the area,stressing that matters took aturn for the worse after thestate government allegedlywithdrew the certificate ofoccupancy for the

NIGERCEM land anddethroned four traditionalrulers for welcoming Ibeto’splans to resuscitate thecomatose cement firm.

“The youths believe thatEbonyi State government isunmindful of their econom-ic plight. They accused thegovernment of being influ-enced by Ibeto’s competitorto thwart the investor’splans of reactivatingNIGERCEM. And under thisclimate of suspicion, it isonly a question of timebefore a major uprising ofcataclysmic proportion

erupts in the place,” the Pro-fessionals warned.Part of the petition read:

“Historically, the communi-ties where NIGERCEM islocated have been known toengage in frequent inter-communal skirmishes andhave recently come out of abloody war that claimed sev-eral lives.“The youth of the area are

very restive and volatile andare gearing up for a majorshowdown with the stategovernment over thedethronement of four tradi-tional rulers in the affected

communities. The action ofthe government is a threatto national security as it canignite war in that area. Thegovernment should becalled to order to reversetheir position and embraceconstructive engagementwith all parties involved.“The country cannot affordto manage another crisis inthe South East as there is aclear and present danger ifthe Federal Governmentdoes not immediately inter-vene to restore peace in thearea and also restore theaffected traditional rulersto their positions knowingfully well the role of tradi-tional rulers in the promo-tion of peace and resolutionof conflicts in the country.”

The Commissioner forInformation and Orienta-tion, Mr. Chike Onwe, saidthe government was notaware of any plans by theyouths to resort to self-helpor protest, adding that thegovernment has not takenany other action on thedethroned traditionalrulers.

From Leo Sobechi, Abakaliki

• Kano donates N20m to BornoFrom Njadvara Musa, Maiduguri

The country cannot afford to manage another crisis in the South East as there is a clearand present danger if the Federal Governmentdoes not immediately intervene to restore peacein the area and also restore the affected tradi-tional rulers to their positions knowing fully wellthe role of traditional rulers in the promotion of

peace and resolution of conflictsin the country.

• To introduce surveillance camerasFrom Muyiwa Adeyemi, Ado Ekiti

With the good leadership of the affected states in the North, we will be able to weatherthe storm of Boko Haram insurgency. The lead-

ership of Shettima has gone a long way inrestoring peace and unity in the state and the

entire North.

Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola of Lagos State (second left) cutting Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) cake with the NLC officials during the 2013 Work-ers’ Day in Lagos…yesterday PHOTO: GABRIEL IKHAHON

THE GUARDIAN, Thursday, May 2, 201310

WorldReport

Cuba urges Washington to close Guantanamo, hand back base

FOLLOWING a vow again byUnited States (U.S.)President Barack Obama toshut the military prison inGuantanamo Bay, BrunoRodriguez Parrilla – Cuba’s for-eign minister – yesterdayasked Washington to closedown the controversial jailand return the long-held mili-tary base to authorities inHavana.Parrilla made this known at

the UN Human Rights Councilin Geneva, a day after Obamapledged again to shut the mil-itary prison, saying it wasdamaging U.S. interests.

“We are deeply concernedabout the legal limbo thatsupports the permanent andatrocious violation of humanrights at the illegal naval basein Guantanamo, a Cuba terri-tory that was usurped by theUnited States, a centre of tor-ture and deaths of prisonerswho are under custody,”Parrilla said during a review ofCuba’s own rights record.He said 160 people had been

detained in Guantanamo for

10 years , “without any guaran-tees, without being tried by acourt or the right to legaldefence”.“That prison and military

base should be shut down andthat territory should bereturned to Cuba,” he said.The hunger strike by the

inmates, now into its 12thweek, has heightened the pres-sure on Washington to shutwhat Obama has called a legal“no man’s land”.

Following the persistenthunger strike, Obama saidAmerica could close the prisonthat has been a theatre of tor-ture in recent years, sendingripples of recriminationsacross the world. The Bay cur-rently holds no fewer than 166inmates, most are being heldwithout charge.Citing recent convictions of

terror suspects to argue thecivilian justice system was ade-quate for such trials, the USpresident said the detentioncentre was “contrary to whowe are” and harmful to U.S.interests.

A United Nations (UN)spokesman said late Tuesdaythat the force-feeding of pris-oners was also a probable

human rights violation.Although the U.S. Congress

has blocked efforts to close theprison, Obama said he wouldrenew discussions with law-makers. He told reporters hehad asked a team of officials toreview operations atGuantanamo Bay and said hewas not surprised there wereproblems there.“It is inefficient, it hurts us interms of our internationalstanding, it lessens co-opera-tion with our allies on count-er-terrorism efforts, it is arecruitment tool for extrem-ists, it needs to be closed,”quoted by various global newsorgans, president ObamaaddedEstablished in January 2002

by the George W. Bush admin-istration, the GuantanamoBay detention camp is adetainment and interroga-tion facility located withinGuantanamo Bay Naval Base. It is meant to hold detainees

whom the American govern-ment deems to be connectedwith opponents in the GlobalWar on Terror includingAfghanistan and later Iraq, theHorn of Africa and SoutheastAsia. It is operated by the Joint

AS the United States (U.S.)reforms its immigrationlaws and eliminates the greencard lottery, Africans could bethe big losers owing to thefact that they are the mainbeneficiaries of the visa pro-gramme, agency report indi-cated yesterday.But around 100,000 peoplewere yesterday picked fromseveral million hopefuls whoapplied to get the Green Card,in what could be the lastbatch of the yearly lottery slat-ed to vanish under the pro-posed reforms.The system that will replace

it in 2017, Agence France Presse(AFP) reported yesterday, ismerit-based and will also giveAfricans a chance. On average,they are more educated thanpeople from other continents.And English-speakingAfricans would get a boostbecause of that language skill,the report claimed.

However, the NationalAssociation for theAdvancement of ColouredPeople said the number ofAfrican immigrants would godown even with the merit-based system. “In essence,we’re concerned,” said HilaryShelton, the NAACPWashington bureau director.Dame Babou, who hosts a

radio show that caters toSenegalese people in NewYork, said the scrapping of thelottery is disheartening forAfricans.

“Every year, many peoplethought this was going to betheir year,” Babou said.“Again, what is being elimi-nated is hope,” she said.Half of the 50,000 residencepermits handed out at ran-dom each year are earmarkedfor Africans. It is a hugely pop-ular programme that hasallowed hundreds of thou-sands of Africans to settle in

America since the mid 1990s.But the ambitious reform

project under debate now inWashington, which wouldprovide papers for millionundocumented immigrants,contains a clause that woulddo away with the lottery.In its place, would be a more

selective immigration systembased on skills, career andfamily ties.

Each year, 50,000 perma-nent residency permits areallocated to people fromcountries that see relativelyfew emigrants depart for theU.S.The lottery system, which

was created in 1995, aims todiversify the range of placesfrom which people migrate tothe United States.Because of the wildly popularprogramme, millions of appli-cants have joined the train – afigure that has only grown inrecent years.But it has long been in the

crosshairs of U.S. Republicanlawmakers, who control theHouse of Representatives andsaid it adds no value to theeconomy.“It’s clear that there are betterways to allocate visas than torandomly give them outthrough a lottery system,” saidBob Goodlatte, theRepublican who leads theHouse Judiciary Committee.“Our immigration lawsshouldn’t be based on the luckof the draw; rather, theyshould be designed strategi-cally to benefit our country.”

Now, they have included aplan to scrap it in the compre-hensive immigration reformplan currently being debatedin Congress.A final vote on the reforms is

not expected before this sum-mer, but if it passes, the diver-sity visas would vanish fromnext year.

When they applied, thisyear’s crop of hopefuls did notknow that this might be theirlast chance.Those who enter the draw

for 2014, filed a free onlineapplication in October 2012.And from 1600 GMT yester-

day, the candidates will finallybe able to check their status

on the government websitewww.dvlottery.state.gov,using their personal confirma-tion number.Some 100,000 names were

selected in a first round,because not everyone willcomplete the process for avisa, and a maximum of50,000 green cards will ulti-mately be given out.In the 2013 lottery, 7.9 millionpeople, with 4.6 million spous-es and children, submittedapplications.More than 18,000 Africans –

more than from any othercontinent – got Green Cardsthrough the lottery in 2012.Half of the lottery is reservedfor applicants from the conti-nent, which could now loseout.Countries that sent more

than 50,000 immigrants tothe U.S. in the past five yearsare excluded from the lottery.So, Mexicans, Chinese andFilipinos, for instance, are noteligible. This year, a range ofcountries, includingBangladesh, Brazil, Canada,mainland-born China, Mexico,Pakistan, South Korea, andBritain (except NorthernIreland), will be affected.The 2014 winners will be

given interviews fromOctober, where they will haveto show proof of a high schooldiploma or at least two yearsof work experience, asrequired under the pro-gramme.All applicants need is a high

school diploma or two years ofwork experience.Between 2010 and 2012, one

in five Africans who came tothe United States to stay did sothrough the lottery. Thatmade it the third most com-mon method, at 21 per cent ofthe total, after family reunifi-cation (43 per cent) andrefugee status or asylum seek-

Obama

Task Force Guantanamo (JTF-GTMO) of the U.S. govern-ment.Indicating that the days of

the Bay are numbered, presi-dent Obama on Tuesdaydescribed the detention facili-ty as a “lingering problem”that would worsen if itremained open. “I think it iscritical for us to understandthat Guantanamo is not neces-sary to keep America safe,” Hefurther told reporters.Even before the creation of

the jail, the US Navy base was asource of dispute betweenHavana’s communist rulersand bitter rival Washington.The United States signed a

long-term lease forGuantanamo Bay after help-ing Cuba throw off Spanishcolonial rule at the end of the19th century.

Already strategic forWashington’s Caribbeanregional policy because of itslocation in southeasternCuba, it acquired additionalimportance during the ColdWar after the 1959 Cuban revo-lution.Since then, Cuba repeatedly

has pressed for its return andhas refused to cash in the rent,which Washington pays intoan escrow account.According to him, with the

war in Iraq over and detentionauthority in Afghanistantransferred to Afghan forces,the facility in Cuba was nolonger necessary. But the pres-ident said he would need thehelp of Congress to devise along-term legal solution to theprosecution of yesterdaydetainees.The hunger strike in the Bay

Half of the 50,000 residence permits handed outat random each year are earmarked for Africans. Itis a hugely popular programme that has allowedhundreds of thousands of Africans to settle inAmerica since the mid 1990s.

2014 applicants asked to check website

From Oghogho Obayuwana,Foreign Affairs Editor (withagency report)

Africans stand to lose as U.S. moves to cancel visa lottery ers (23 per cent).By comparison and in the

same period, only 10 per centof Europeans who becamepermanent residents andthree per cent of Asians did sothrough the lottery.“It has proven to be a way ofhelping those who come fromthe continent of Africa, thosewho come from a number ofother areas where it is very dif-ficult to get a visa,” said SheilaJackson Lee, a member of theCongressional Black Caucus,whose members are allDemocrats.But in an effort to preserve

the comprehensive reformbeing negotiated for monthsby the two parties, theDemocrats and PresidentBarack Obama agreed to ditchthe lottery.

Representative CharlesSchumer, who authored theprogramme in 1990, said itwas impossible to keep it.

Schumer said the systemthat will replace it in 2017 ismerit-based and will also giveAfricans a chance. On average,they are more educated thanpeople from other continents.And English-speaking Africanswould get a boost because ofthat language skill.

But Michael Fix of theMigration Policy Institutesaid: “It really probably won’tadmit enough people to offsetthe effects of the loss of thediversity visa for some yearsafter that. It’s a long timeaway. It won’t be immediatelyoffset by any means.”The diversity visas would van-ish starting next year underthe reform being negotiated.Only four per cent of Africanimmigrants – compared to 21per cent of Asians and 22 percent of Europeans – received agreen card for employmentreasons in 2012.

had spread in recent weeks toinclude more than 100 of the166 inmates at the facility. Theyhave been protesting againsttheir indefinite detention.Most are being held withoutcharge.Already, UN Human Rights

Commissioner Navi Pillay hassaid that Guantanamo Bayshould be shut immediately.The UN has also called the

continued detention of somany people without trial a“clear violation of internation-al law”, though it understandsthe Congress blockade.Aid agencies are reportedly

convinced the situation therecannot go on. TheInternational Committee ofthe Red Cross, the only agencywith access to individualdetainees, says there is now anunprecedented level of des-peration at Guantanamo.

We are deeply concerned about the legal limbo that supports the permanentand atrocious violation of human rights at the illegal naval base inGuantanamo, a Cuba territory that was usurped by the United States, a centreof torture and deaths of prisoners who are under custody

THE GUARDIAN, Thursday, May 2, 2013

PoliticsPOLITICS | 11

2015:Reading thePresident’s lipsWHEN the issue of President Jonathan’s sec-

ond term ambition was first mooted in 2012,barely a few months in office as an elected nation-al leader, his crowd of aides was quick to label thediscourse as premature, and at best speculative. However, consistent public querying of the

‘rumour’ that won’t go away forced the presidentto issue a rebuttal. Yet, he was to modify that posi-tion, pleading that he be given up to the end of2013 — perhaps, after a mid-term report of hisstewardship —before he would answer the fester-ing agitation.Well, it is still seven months+ to the closing of

2013, and Jonathan has finally come out cleanwith his second term aspiration, declaringrecently that the ruling Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) would win 32 of the 36 States in Nigeria inthe 2015 election. Although the president was euphemistic in hisassertion, his message was unambiguous: Myparty and I would win in 32 states.No person begrudges Jonathan wanting to elon-gate his tenure beyond four years. It’s his right, asguaranteed by the Constitution, to seek to rulefor eight years. But the manner of announcinghis intention to grab the inalienable statutoryoffer has reawakened an ugly past: the ‘do-or-die’electoral conquest, as propounded by formerPresident Olusegun Obasanjo.And come to think of it: The president deliveredthis rankling message through no other personthan the National Chairman of the PDP, AlhajiBamanga Tukur.Receiving members of the party from the

Southwest in his home in Abuja, Tukur, whileappealing to them to close ranks for the oneroustask in 2015, spilled the beans.“We need to work hard now because we have apresidential mandate to move beyond 23 statesin our control and win at least 32 (states),” Tukursaid. “We have to show electoral strength thistime. In doing it, we will work hard and workwell. We will move with the speed of (a) jet and wewill deliver without any foul antics.”A presidential mandate to move from 23 states

currently controlled by the PDP to 32 means “win-ning” additional nine states in 2015. This is a legitimate wish of any political party,

especially a ruling party for that matter! But in anenvironment where political contest is viewed,and indeed, regarded as a war, heavy weather willbe — and is already being made of the presiden-tial declaration through Tukur, who, himself,recently likened the 2015 elections to a “battle.” Interestingly, the pledge by the PDP to win 30+states in 2015 appears being synchronized, withtopnotch of the party making similar proclama-tions at different avenues.For instance, as Tukur was addressing party

faithful in Abuja, the Chair of the PDP Board ofTrustees, Chief Tony Anenih, was at the head of areconciliation delegation to the Abeokuta HilltopMansion of former President Obasanjo.Anenih, who had a closed door meeting with

Obasanjo, did not give anything away that theyhad discussed. But asked by journalists about the fate of the PDPin the 2015 polls, considering the coming togeth-er of some opposition parties to form a formida-ble body, “to chase out PDP from power,” Anenihwas characteristically boastful. He said: “When the time comes, we will know.

PDP is the party to beat. When the time comes, Iassure we will do what we know how to do best.”Obasanjo did not also divulge anything they dis-cussed or agreed on but simply re-joined: “Didyou hear what our chairman said?”To people who know — and most Nigerians of

voting age know — the electoral antecedents ofObasanjo and Anenih, PDP’s intention to win atleast 32 states might not be wishful thinking. For one, Obasanjo (or his political aides) it was

that introduced (and/or reinforced the use of)three frightening phrases into the nation’s politi-cal lexicon. These are: ‘Do-or-die,’ ‘GarrisonCommander,’ and ‘Capture’ of the opposition’sstrongholds. And these slogans were deployed bythe PDP, for maximum effect, to prosecute the2003 and 2007 general elections.

The results: The PDP snatched five of the sixstates of the Southwest controlled by theAlliance for Democracy (AD) and four of AllNigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) in the 2003 elec-tions.The ‘capture’ of the five Southwest states was

really stunning as it was intriguing. Obasanjo, aformer Head of State and retired General, hadno political base. He was forced into partisanpolitics on account of the circumstances of theannulled June 12, 1993 presidential electionwon by his fellow Ogun citizen, the late ChiefMKO Abiola. Even though he won the 1999 presidential elec-tion, Obasanjo lost virtually all votes in theSouthwest, including those of his ward, that itbecame a matter for concern for his party in therun-up to the 2003 elections. Added to Obasanjo’s headache was the opposi-tion within the PDP to his candidature, espe-cially that of his deputy, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar,prompting him to devise strategies to at leastsecure the full backing of his people.Eventually surviving the party primary, the

wily General pulled out the last card for thegeneral election. He rallied the Southwest gov-ernors and spoke to their emotion, askingthem to “rub my back, and I will rub yourbacks.” This, in political parlance, means thegovernors should support him to retain thepresidency while he (Obasanjo) would recipro-cate at the governorship poll.In what has been described as political naiveté,five but one of the AD governor fell for this gam-bit, and paid dearly, politically, for it at thepolls. Having rallied their people to vote forhim, Obasanjo turned his back against the gov-ernors, and the PDP swept into power effortless-ly in the geopolitical zone. Only then Governor Bola Ahmed Tinubu of

Lagos State survived the political tsunamibecause he saw through the General’s antics,and thus became known as “the last man stand-ing.”Although Obasanjo failed in his bid to elon-

gate his two-term tenure by the famed ‘ThirdTerm,’ he prospered in handpicking his succes-sor, Alhaji Umaru Musa Yar’Adua and the lat-ter’s beneficiary and incumbent PresidentJonathan.

WORTHY of note are the promi-nent and pivotal roles that

Chief Anenih played in theObasanjo electoralacquisitions. Flatteredas ‘Leader’ and ‘Mr. Fix It’,only few elections hadescaped his fixing sinceearly 1980s when he came intopolitical reckoning as the Bendel Statechairman of the defunct National Party ofNigeria (NPN).Suffice it to say that what the NPN lost to the

rival Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) in the 1979governorship in Bendel State, it gained in the1983 poll, thanks to the “moonslide” winningformula of the NPN at the centre, which wasexecuted to the letter by the Anenih-led partyofficials in the state.The electoral malpractice was more than day-light robbery; what with teachers and othercapable young men kitted in mobile police uni-forms, armed with assault weapons andunleashed on polling booths across the entirestate.

These political thugs went to theremotest hamlet and snatched ballotpapers and boxes from the UPNstrongholds, mutilated resultssheets that were mutilat-able, cancelled thosethat were cancellableand burned othersthat were burnable.In the end, the

Federal ElectoralCommission(FEDECO), head-ed by now lateJustice OvieWhiskey,declared for-

mer military governor of the state, Brigadier-General Samuel Osaigbovo Ogbemudia (Rtd) aselected on the platform of the NPN.However, the bubble sooner than later burst onthe underhand dealings that characterised thatelection. As the allegation went, Anenih demand-ed recompense for the requisite electoral servic-es he rendered to install Ogbemudia as gover-nor. But Ogbemudia, whose record of achievementsstill stands today in both Edo and Delta thatmutated from Bendel State, reportedly told the‘Leader’ that he bought his victory at the polls,and thus, nothing to pay back.In the interim, the defeated UPN and its gover-

nor, the late Prof. Ambrose Folorunso Alli, were atthe verge of retrieving that “stolen mandate” atthe election tribunal when the iron men, Major-General Muhammadu Buhari and BrigadierTunde Idiagbon dethroned the infamous ShehuShagari government on December 31, 1983. Therest, as they say, is history.It is sufficient to report that when democratic

governance was about to be restored pre-1990,Anenih had graduated from the state to nationalpolitical level; and he was in the thick of themelee when self-styled military president,General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, began anendless experiment with a transition to full civilrule.Anenih worked hard to make his friend and

business partner, the late Major-General ShehuMusa Yar’Adua (Rtd), the front-runner from thecrowd of politicians eying the presidency. Thenagain, Babangida banned all the mushroomingpolitical associations and their promoters hehad encouraged to enter the fray, and estab-lished a two-party system for the country.

While many of his colleagues, includingYar’Adua, were bruised and left to leak theirwounds, Anenih emerged the national chair-man of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) thatfaced the rival National Republican Party (NRC)at the preceding state elections and the June 12,1993 presidential contest.It would be an understatement to say that

Anenih workedassiduouslyfor thevicto-riesthe

SDPgar-neredfromthe

state Assembly and governorship elections andthe National Assembly and presidential polls.A case in point was the campaign of the SDP pres-idential candidate, Chief MKO Abiola, in EdoState. Anenih, who accompanied Abiola on thehustling, received the campaign train at about2am at the Eguare Primary School, Uromi, hishometown. What’s more, he was able to rallythousands of enthusiastic and energized partyfaithful and well-wishers to listen to Abiola’s mes-sage of ‘Bye, Bye To Poverty.’In the end, the SDP and Abiola won the presiden-tial election, which, nonetheless, was annulledby the Babangida regime on the alleged con-nivance of many political and pro-democracyactivists, including Anenih, who should ordinari-ly claim credit for that electoral feat describedeven till date as the freest and fairest in Nigeriaand, indeed, Africa. The former policeman-turned politician has denied the alleged “sell-out’for the umpteenth time; and from revelationsever since, he could be absolved.But these insinuations notwithstanding, Anenihwas to emerge the strongest, most revered andfeared personality in the political calculus andscheming in the Fourth Republic beginningfrom 1999. Even in the camp of the opposition,the fear of Anenih was the beginning of wisdom.You underrate and/or undermine him at yourpolitical peril.Little wonder he raked in victory after victory forthe disparate but largely well-organised andwidespread PDP from the local governmentcouncil, national and state assemblies, governor-ship and presidential elections in 12 years — 1999-2011.Like a diviner, Anenih’s lot it was to foretell

which political office was vacant and which wasnot vacant for the opposition — within and with-out the PDP — to contest. His uncanny refrain, ‘Novacancy in Aso Rock’, came handy for PresidentObasanjo’s second term bid in 2003 andPresident Jonathan’s first election in 2011. Some wisecrackers continue to postulate that

had Obasanjo fully enrolled and mobilisedAnenih for project ‘Third Term’, Baba could stillbe in Abuja today!Any way, Jonathan is in charge of the seat of

power today, and from his recent actions andbody language towards 2015, he seems to havefully enrolled and mobilised Anenih towardsthat goal. Besides being reappointed as chairman of theNigerian Ports Authority (NPA), the Esan HighChief has also regained the chair of the Boardof Trustees (BoT) of the PDP, and he’s touringthe country in the behest of the president toattempt reconciling the multifarious fac-tions in the ruling party. And Anenih

appears to be suc-ceedingwhere theNationalChairman of

the party, Dr.Bamanga

Tukur, had literal-ly failed.

As a respondent opinedrecently, “with Anenih occupy-ing such powerful and sensitivepositions in government and inthe party, President Jonathan isactually planning for 2015. Andvery soon, you will hear, ‘There’s

no vacancy in Aso Rock.’”Case closed!

By Ehichioya Ezomon (Group Political Editor)

Jonathan

TheMetroSectionTHE GUARDIAN, Thursday, May 2, 201312

THE downpour started during the weehours of the morning, but it did not

deter or dampen the spirit of workers inLagos, who turned out en masse at the pa-rade ground at Onikan Stadium, to partic-ipate in the 2013 May Day parade.This year’s rally had its theme as “100

years of Nationhood: Challenges of Na-tional Development.”Speaking at the rally where he inspectedmarch pasts from various unions, LagosState Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola(SAN), spoke extensively on the adverse ef-fects of strike actions, saying that the atti-tude of unions to call for strike actions atthe slightest disagreement to issues ofwages and workers welfare, not only un-dermines productivity but also impactsnegatively on development.“Strikes for me, should only be a weaponof last resort for employees. It is perhapsthe vehicle that is used only when otheroptions have failed not when the man-agement of a union is angry with an em-ployer. In essence, strikes don’t do

anybody any good, it decreases produc-tivity and affect progress and develop-ment of any society.”He congratulated workers on the MayDay celebration, urging them to partici-pate more in nation building by helpingto proffer solutions to developmentalchallenges.In his message at the occasion, Ministerof Labour and Productivity, Mr EmekaWorgu, commended Nigerian workersfor their great contributions to the devel-opment of the country.Worgu, who was represented by the StateController of the ministry Alhaja NafisatuAgunbiade, said the present administra-tion owed workers a lot of gratitude forhelping to implement its TransformationAgenda.The Minister said government was tack-ling the issue of anti-labour practices,such as improper casualisation, urgingworkers to report erring organizations forpunitive actions.Lagos Chairman of the Nigeria Labour

Congress (NLC), Comrade Idowu Ade-lakun said the significance of this year’srally coinciding with the nation’s 100years of existence was a period that callsfor sober reflection on how far the nationhas fared and the way forward as it affectsworkers in the country.According to him issues of corruption, in-security and unemployment have re-mained insurmountable challenges forsuccessive governments saying “govern-ment has acceded their rights to providethe traditional needs of its citizens to pri-vate enterprise and concerns whose pri-mary goal is to increase profit andpauperize the workforce”.He also lamented government’s failure

and lack of political will to address thedecay in most of the sectors of the nation’seconomy, submitting that the nation canhardly make meaningful developmentwith moribund institutions.The Catholic Archbishop of Lagos, Most.Rev. Alfred Adewale Martins urged the

Briefs

Federal Government to be more sensi-tive to the plight of workers and shouldcreate an enabling environment thatwould adequately reward productivityand at the same time uphold the dignityof all workers.In a release signed by the Director of So-cial Communications, Msgr. GabrielOsu, Martins called on the governmentto be more proactive in providing ade-quate job for the teeming Nigerians,adding that government should also en-sure that they are well provided forthrough prompt payment of their pen-sions and gratuities after their eventu-ally retirement.Frowning at the recent monumental

fraud uncovered in the management ofthe nation’s pension scheme, theCatholic Archbishop wondered why thegovernment, through the law enforce-ment agencies and the judiciary, havebeen foot-dragging for long in bringingto justice those implicated in the pen-sion scam.

Revival at GAC, Ejigbo

Faith Family beginsyearly convention

Akata Fishing Festivalholds June 4

HR practitioners meetin Lagos June 3

GOSPEL Apostolic Church(GAC) will hold a revival

tagged: My Year of Laughter,on Saturday, May 4, from3.00p.m. -6.00p.m. at No. 4,Asimi Asiwaju Street, offGoloba Street, Ebenezer BusStop, Orilowo Ejigbo, Lagos.Host is Pastor S. A. Gbadebo.

FAITH Family Bible Churchwill hold its yearly five-day

convention tagged Passion2013, with the theme: “Free-dom from Limitation & Stag-nation” from Wednesday. May8 to Sunday, May 12, 2013 at6.00p.m. daily.Ministers/workers’ seminarholds on Thursday, May 9 andFriday, May 10 at 10.00a.m.daily. A night of praise holdssame day at 4.00p.m. sameday. It will end on Sunday, May 12,with a thanksgiving service at9.00a.m. at 17, Alhaji KosokoStreet, off Berger Bus Stop,Ojodu, Lagos Hosts are Rev. & Pastor (Mrs.)David K. Aboderin.Pastor Alex Omokudu, Apos-tle Abraham Aboderin, Dr.Emiko Amorsuka among oth-

Workers defied the rains to mark Workers’ Day...yesterday

National Association of Nigerian Students ...yesterday ...Lagos State Internal Revenue Service also celebrated...

Workers decry high rate of corruption in the country

HUMAN Resources (HR)Leaders in Africa 2013, a

major HR conference, willhold at the Four Points, bySheraton in Lagos from June 3-June 6, 2013 Nigeria. HR pro-fessionals will gather to shareideas and discuss policies atthe forum, which is themedBringing World Class Innova-tion in Human Resources. HR Specialist at EconomicCommunity of West AfricanStates, Tobi Odunowo, said:“It’s vital that we alter the per-ception of HR within the busi-ness. HR’s role is changing inresponse to the dynamic busi-ness environment, thus we'regetting much more involvedin setting strategic directionsfor the business. It is, there-fore, important that HR De-partments strive to be trulyperceived as being more rele-vant to the business now thanin known history.” The conference speakers aredrawn from leading local andmultinational organisationsas the conference will focus onthe potential strategic advan-tage that organisations cangain through best practiceand high performance HR.

Workers defy the rains to mark May Day in Lagos

WITH too many allegations ofcorrupt practices and bru-

tality, which have made mil-lions of Nigerians to lose faith inthe Nigeria Police, it is a thing ofjoy that some people still see thepolice as friends. The hard truthis that only a few die-hard opti-mists still believe that police-men are truly friends in need.But for the people of Igbodo, IkaNorth East Local Council ofDelta State, their faith in the po-lice seems to be sincerely stead-fast and was the reason whythey recently spent millions ofNaira to build a police station inthe agrarian community. Last February, members of theIgbodo Development Unionbegan to build a befitting PoliceStation in the small town. So, it was with a deep sense ofsatisfaction that the Commis-sioner of Police, Mr. IkechukwuAyo Aduba, commissioned themodern police station, which

was built through communaleffort in less than two monthsby well-meaning sons anddaughters of the town. The po-lice station is located on thebusy Benin-Agbor-Onitsha Ex-pressway.The commissioning provided aplatform for some of the town’sfamous people to exchange ban-ters. The traditional ruler, ObiObi Ikechukwu Osadume was

THE 2013 Akata Fishingand Cultural Festival will

begin on Tuesday, June 4,2013 in Katsina-Ala, BenueState. It will continue onWednesday, June 5 withMade in Benue Expo, cul-tural and entertainmentnight, will end on Thurs-day, June 6 with a Gala/Awards NightPrincipal Consultant,Green Business Dimen-sions, Mrs. Rosemary Du-amlong in a statementissued in Lagos on Tuesdaysaid the festival would helpindividuals and organiza-tions to expand the scopeof their businesses and alsotap into the opportunitiesin Benue State.

there. So also was Mr. VictorNwokolo, the member repre-senting Ika Federal Con-stituency, Chief Sunday Uzuh,the Isicht Umungo 1 of Igbodoand a host of others.The Police Commissioner re-called that when Mr. ChrisUbani, one of the facilitators ofthe project, came up with theidea earlier this year, he was veryexcited about it considering the

Igbodo Union builds befitting police station for communityFrom Hendrix Oliomogbe, Asaba alarming cases of armed rob-

bery, kidnapping and banditryin the state. The new edifice, therefore, has

excised Igbodo from the nearbyUmunede Division and make ita full-fledged division as morepolicemen would be drafted tothe town to beef up security incollaboration with the local vigi-lance group in the on-going cru-sade against banditry.The President General of IgbodoDevelopment Union, World-wide, Chief Peter Ozili, gave hisown reasons for embarking onthe project: “We embarked onthe project because security is acollective responsibility. Havingrealized that policing is every-body’s business, we decided tocontribute our little quota to thesecurity of our community andenvirons by embarking on theIgbodo Divisional Police Head-quarters building project sometwo months ago. This is also inresponse the Inspector-General

of Police’s patriotic call to all cit-izens of this country to assistpolice formations to performtheir duties effectively and effi-ciently. We collectively agreedto embark on the project onthe premise that when there issecurity, development willspring up; and the well-beingof the people would be im-proved.”Ubani said that no matter the

number of policeman postedto the station, they would be of-fered free accommodation forone year, adding that the localshave zero tolerance for crimeand that security of lives andproperties in the communitywas the major motivating fac-tor for the benevolence.He said that it did not makesense for communities to per-petually wait for the govern-ment to do things for them,but they should be in the leadthrough self-help.

PHOTOS: GABRIEL IKHAHON

The police station

THE GUARDIAN, Thursday, May 2, 2013 13

TheGuardian

Editorial

14 | THE GUARDIAN, Thursday, May 2, 2013

LETTERS

LETTER

Conscience is an open wound; only truth can heal it. Uthman dan Fodio 1754-1816

Conscience Nurtured by Truth

The concept of feeding-bottle federalism“The Federal Government is not asuper government. The FederalGovernment is not our supervisor.This kind of feeding-bottle federal-ism does not exist anywhere Iknow.” These were the words ofthe Executive Governor of EkitiState, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, in arecent interview published byTell Magazine.

SIR: Federalism is a system ofgovernment, consisting of a

central government and inde-pendent component unitsreferred to as regions, states orprovinces. Countries that arefederations include UnitedStates of America (USA), Canada,India, Ghana and so on. In prac-tice, aspects of federalism inIndia could differ from federal-ism in the USA, but the singlecommon trend is that federatingunits are not subordinate units.

The fact that the 1999Constitution of the FederalRepublic of Nigeria provides forover 60 items in the ExclusiveLegislative List alone is an error.Over the years, the practice offederalism in Nigeria has playedout a very high disregard for theindependence of state govern-ments in making critical localdecisions.

The arguments that project thesovereign wealth fund idea tendto create the notion that it is onlythe Federal Government thatknows how to save, while thestate governments cannot han-dle savings. This is whatGovernor Fayemi means whenhe says the central governmentis overbearing. Instead of thetouted federal system of govern-ment, Nigeria has over the years,practiced a unitary system ofgovernment under which the

central government enjoysabsolute control of the compo-nent units under it, and dic-tates what they do and howthey do them.

My interpretation ofGovernor Fayemi’s concept offeeding-bottle federalism is asituation whereby state gov-ernments always go cap-in-hand to receive allocationsfrom the Federal Government,which determines when torelease the allocation and howmuch is to be released to whichstate.

Under feeding-bottle federal-ism, a Federal Ministry ofAgriculture in Abuja is expect-ed to supervise agriculturalactivities in a locality under astate government. A FederalMinistry of Rural Developmenteven exists. One wonders howrural areas in the 774 localcouncils across Nigeria can bepractically developed from,and by an Abuja office. Besides,what constitutes the primaryduties of state and local coun-cils?

FOUNDER: ALEX U. IBRU (1945 – 2011)

Feeding-bottle federalism hasled to a situation whereby stategovernors constitute themselvesinto unionists, forming a sort oftrade union known as Governor’sForum as a means of holding theFederal Government to accounton issues, and attracting the cen-tral government’s attention tothemselves; nay, their states.

I have never heard that thePresident of the United Statessummoned all the StateGovernors for a meeting inWashington or any city in thatcountry. This is a frequent oddfeature in Nigeria’s version of fed-eralism. The Federal Governmentis playing the role of a supervisorto the state governments even inmost of their internal affairs. TheSenate Committee on the Reviewof the 1999 Constitution mustensure that the exercise pro-duces a constitution that enablesthe practice of true federalism inNigeria, while eliminating theexisting feeding-bottle federal-ism. • Albinus Chiedu, Lagos.

Looming breakdown in the health sector SIR: The neglect of the rule of

law is causing ripples in ourhealth sector. This will reach acrescendo by May 3, if they arenot attended to by relevantauthorities as the NationalUnion of Pharmacists, MedicalTechnologists, and healthworkers allied to Medicine(NUPMTAM) declares a nation-wide strike. What are theseanomalies?

The denial of the rights ofother health workers to headthe hospital. Decree 10 of 1985,which established teachinghospitals stipulate that thepost of the Chief MedicalDirector (CMD) be occupied bya qualified person in the healthsector? These are physiothera-pists, pharmacists, clinicians,medical laboratory scientists,radiographers and others whohad undergone medical cours-es in undergraduate studies.So, the unilateral decision of agroup of health workers to

monopolise the post is aconstitutional misnomer.

The illegal creation of theoffice of the DeputyChairman, Medical AdvisoryCommittee (DCMAC)against the provision of thelaw that approved theappointment of the CMDhim/herself is another blun-der. It is like a man whocrossed the bridge and blewup the same after reachingthe other side. Besides, it is awaste of taxpayers’ moneyon an illegal office and theoffice holder.

The appointment of labo-ratory physicians (patholo-gists) as director of medicallaboratory services contraryto the federal scheme ofservice and Act 11 2003 of theMedical Laboratory ScienceCouncil of Nigeria (MLSCN),statutory regulatory agencyfor medical laboratories,which stipulates that no

person who is not a fully regis-tered Medical LaboratoryScientist under the Act shall beentitled to hold any appoint-ment in the public service ofthe Federation or State or anyprivate establishment or insti-tution is wrong.

The denial of other medicalworkers of the right to reachthe peak of their career(Directorate) against the rec-ommendations of theAbdullahi Bello presidentialcommittee’s report on harmo-nious relationship amonghealth workers in October, 2011is unacceptable.

In conclusion, these evidenceshave been provided to the pub-lic and the verdict is clear:change. The laws were made toensure peace and harmony.May God bless Nigeria!• Abiola Fashina,Member, Association of MedicalLaboratory Science of Nigeria, Ibadan, Oyo State.

Family values and corruptionSIR: The concluding para-

graph of The Guardian edito-rial of April 29, is non-sequitor.Which family values shouldserve as template for the coun-try? The corrupt Nigeriansand thieves of public wealthalso have family values. Theheroic portrait of the UnitedStates as global police overcorruption is unjustified.Most of the oil companies thatpillage, plunder and polluteNiger Delta communities andwaterways are American.President Clinton and other

self-appointed moral janitorshave never sponsored privatebills in Congress to convictthese oil vampires.

The U.S. and her capitalist alliespromote state terrorism andcorruption in the Middle East.These imperialist nations arenot models of anti-corruptioncampaign. If The Guardian hasissues with the FederalGovernment it should deal withthem without taking umbrageunder hypocritical America. • G.G. Darah, Abraka.

WHEN Chairman of the National Population Commission (NPC), FestusOdimegwu, asserted recently that “we do not really know our

population…because the entire census ever conducted in this country ended in con-troversy”, he merely stated a well-known fact. The story, or  more  appropriately,  thepolitics of  census in Nigeria is one of  manipulation of  facts and figures by virtuallyevery  ethnic  and other interest groups with a view to  claiming population-derivedadvantages  such as political representation, voting power and  allocation of eco-nomic  resources. “We do our work, but politicians interfere and at the end you donot really know what population or census figures are”, lamented Odimegwu.

The sole purpose of this fraud is maximum extraction from the common-wealth asopposed to maximum contribution to it. Needless to say, this is a manifestation ofthe corruption that has increasingly taken   the country over in every area of life.And, this especial act of dishonesty is conceived and executed by the elite in leader-ship positions – the politicians and the civil servants who guide, direct, and super-vise how a head count must be skewed in favour of their respective narrow interests.This is a heinous disservice to the nation because a credible, reliable populationcount is a sine qua non for economic, social, and just about every type of planning fora country and its people. Pray, in the absence of accurate  population enumeration,how  can the Ministry of National  Planning  carry out its mandates  to, among oth-ers, “undertake periodic review and appraisal of the human and material resourcescapabilities of Nigeria with a view to advancing their development, efficiency andeffective utilization”, and “to formulate and prepare long-term, medium-term andshort-term national development plans and to co-ordinate such plans at the federal,State and local government levels”? How can people in business plan their productdesigns and marketing strategies? How can even Nigeria’s development partnersplan their areas of intervention, in say, public health and education?

The tragedy of a flawed head-count is rooted in the flawed structure of the nation,of course. There  is good reason therefore to fear that, given the extractive mentalitythat  drives the politics of  census,  Nigeria may never  have an accurate, truthful  cen-sus  unless   true federalism  is  enthroned and practiced. The nation cannot wait tohave an acceptable census and the NPC must not fail to deliver one.

The NPC is empowered by the 1999 Constitution as amended, to “undertake period-ical enumeration of population through sample surveys, censuses or otherwise”, to“establish and maintain machinery for continuous and universal registration ofbirths and deaths throughout the federation”. So, even now,  it is quite possible forthe  commission to work with the several  sources of population data available –birth and death records,  school enrolments,  registration for elections,  telephoneregistration – to, with the professional  help of demographers and data processingspecialists firstly, update  the  information at its disposal and arrive at some extrapo-lated  figures and secondly, disaggregated data on sex, ethnicity, religion, education,age groups, and more. To get an accurate, trustworthy   population figure necessarilyrequires doing the right things – using tested, transparent and internationallyaccepted procedures and methodologies. And also an honest, patriotic politicalclass.

The NPC chairman may have correctly identified interference as a major obstacle toan accurate population enumeration in the country, it is appropriate to add that anincompetent or unwilling and often far-from-credible NPC leadership is one obstacletoo. Odimegwu’s challenge now is to do everything to prove cynics wrong, and givethis nation credible population facts and figures.

To get the headcount right

15THE GUARDIAN, Thursday, May 2, 2013

Business

AfDB approves new strategy forAfrica’s economic transformationTHE African DevelopmentBank (AfDB) has initiated a

10-year strategy for the eco-nomic transformation of thecontinent.

A statement by AfDB’sPresident, Donald Kaberuka inAbidjan, Cote d'Ivoire said thenew plan spanning 2013-2022would dwell more on thequality and sustainability ofeconomic growth of theAfrican people.He said the approval of the

strategy was done out of a``very careful and deep con-sultation within and outsidethe bank’’.According to him, the plan

reflects Africa’s vision for itself,a vision of transformationthat is achievable. ``It is a 10-year vision, whichcan make this continent the

pole of global growth. A placefit for our aspirations andthose of our children,’’ theAfDB president said.He said the plan re-affirms

the bank’s strategic choicesaround infrastructure, eco-nomic integration and the pri-vate sector.Besides, the strategy would

also focus on buildingresilience to climate changeand sustainable managementof natural resources.According to him, the strate-gy has identified five mainchannels of focus to ensurethe improvement of quality ofgrowth in Africa.``The key areas include infra-structure development,regional economic integra-tion, private sector develop-ment, governance and

accountability, skills and tech-nology,’’ he said.The AfDB boss said the plan

would seek new and creativeways of mobilising resourcesto support Africa’s transfor-mation, especially by leverag-ing its own resources.He expressed optimism thatwider use of public-privatepartnerships, co-financingarrangements and risk-miti-gation instruments woulddraw in new investors.He said: ``In a decade of seis-mic shifts in the global econo-my, Africa has defied the pes-simists and experienced sig-nificant growth. This econom-ic growth must now translateinto real economic transfor-mation which will bring jobsand opportunities to its citi-zens.''

Appointments P23Govt targets 185,000 new jobs through community service scheme

TO address compensationscheme challenges in the

country, the Nigeria SocialInsurance Trust Fund (NSITF)has expressed its readiness towork for the success of theEmployees’ CompensationScheme (ECS).NSITF Managing Director,Umar Abubakar, made thisknown at a meeting in Abujarecently with the Petroleumand Natural Gas Senior StaffAssociation of Nigeria (PEN-GASSAN).According to a statement byNSITF's Acting GeneralManager, Corporate Affairs,

Aliu Zubairu, the NSITF bosssaid the Fund was ready topartner with PENGASSAN inthis line, saying the partner-ship would ensure the suc-cess of the compensationscheme being run by theFund.He stated that the Fund

would ensure that thescheme achieved the purposefor which it was enacted, espe-cially in tackling injuries bothin and out of work places.Besides, he said, ``NSITF hasconcluded plans to visitemployers and industrialunions across the country to

discuss benefits of thescheme. The visit will enableNSITF to learn about chal-lenges being faced by employ-ers and employees in the dif-ferent sectors of the econo-my.”

He urged PENGASSAN towork with the Fund to ensurethat employees in the oil andgas sector were carried alongin the scheme.Highlighting the benefits of

the compensation scheme,the NSITF chief executive saidthe law guiding ECS had notput a ceiling on how muchcould be spent on a benefici-

ary adding that it can gradu-ate to something that lookslike a pension.Abubakar further stated thatthe NSITF was working withstakeholders to find a way tosimplify the process andmake it dynamic to theadvantage of workers.In his remarks, President of

PENGASSAN, BabatundeOgun, lauded the law estab-lishing the scheme.He said it was noteworthy

that the scheme covers work-related diseases many yearsafter the employee wouldhave retired.

Chief Executive Officer, Stanbic IBTC Pension Managers Limited, Dr. Demola Sogunle (left); Permanent Secretary Ministry of Transport, Akwa Ibom State, Offiong Udoffe, Head, Benefits Administration, Stanbic IBTC PensionManagers Limited, Bunmi Dayo-Olagunju and Head, Business Development, Stanbic IBTC Pension Managers Limited, Nike Bajomo, at the official opening of Stanbic IBTC Pension Managers Limited’s office in Uyo, Akwa Ibom Stateon Tuesday.

NSITF partners PENGASSAN to promote Employees’Compensation Scheme

Bayelsa signsMOU for 100MW powerplantTHE Bayelsa Government onWednesday signed a

Memorandum ofUnderstanding (MOU) withIPP Energy Limited and GMBLeasing Partners for the devel-opment of a 100 megawatts(MW) power station.Gov. Seriake Dickson, while

speaking at the ceremony inYenagoa, described the eventas a proof of government’scommitment to boosting elec-tricity supply and makingBayelsa an investment haven.

He said the project wasaimed at delivering uninter-rupted power supply to resi-dents of Bayelsa and settingthe pace for industrialisation.``The gas powered plant,

which will be located atImiringi in Ogbia LocalGovernment Area of the state,has the capacity to achieve thefeat when completed.``I am delighted to be a wit-

ness to the consummation ofthis partnership today. We area state that is in a hurry fordevelopment and so we areeverywhere talking to peopleto come and invest in the newBayelsa. This partnership is aconfirmation of all our effortsgeared towards making ourstate an attractive investmentdestination.According to him, this is a

vote of confidence thatBayelsa is ready for businessand that state is a good placeto invest in,” he said.Dickson said it was in realisa-

tion of government’s drive forinvestment that it establishedthe Bayelsa Development andInvestment Corporation, toattract investment to thestate. He expressed optimism thatthe energy company wouldlive up to its contractual obli-gation and deliver the projectin record time.The Vice President of the IPP

Energy Limited, AugustineAkwesehor, said the companywould commence work onthe power project withoutdelay to meet the power needs

THE GUARDIAN, Thursday, May 2, 201316 BUSINESS

Immediate Past President of Association of National Accountants of Nigeria (ANAN), Hajia Maryam Ladi Ibrahim (left); new President, Sakirudeen Labode; and Second Vice-President,Shehu Ladan, during the decoration of Labode with the chain of office, in Abuja, on Tuesday.

ANAN tasks govt on multiple tax regimeTHE Association of National

Accountants of Nigeria(ANAN), wants the country’stax authorities to take a holis-tic look at the multiple taxesin the system.The President of the associa-

tion, Alhaji SakirudeenLabode, who said this at hisinauguration, noted that theFederal Government andother tiers of governmentshould do away with multipletaxes, as it has become a clogin the wheels of progress ofthe economy.He said the withdrawal of

multiple tax system hasbecome necessary in view ofthe introduction of a new tax

regime in the country, addingthat multiple taxes usually dis-tract businessmen and would-be investors.According to him, by doing

away with multiple taxes,more corporate organisationsand individuals would bebrought into the tax net.“Let me emphasise that apartfrom Pay As You Earn, any taxassessment not based on veri-fiable financial statement ispunitive, unfair and unjust,”he said.Labode, a former Director of

Finance and Supplies of theDefunct Unity Party of Nigeria(UPN), urged government toensure strict adherence tonecessary financial regula-

tions and standards in boththe public and private sectors.He pointed out that the focusof his administration shall beon technical capacity buildingfor members and the develop-ment of the Nigeria College ofAccountancy (NCA), Jos, thepost-graduate training arm ofthe association.Labode expressed gratitude

to the Institute of CharteredAccountants of Nigeria for therole it played in the attain-ment of the new status ofANAN, urged more coopera-tion to jointly move the pro-fession forward in the jurisdic-tion, region and continent.Besides, he said his adminis-tration would also focus on

corporate governance andglobal best practices, as well asinfrastructural development.He said that attention wouldalso be given to the fulfillmentof international obligations,improved corporate socialresponsibility, assistance totertiary institutions and pub-lic policy advocacy, addingthat NCA would be reposi-tioned as the most preferredcentre for training of profes-sional accountants on the con-tinent.

By Chijioke Nelson

Katsina establishes fertilizer plants

THE Katsina state govern-ment has established four

fertilizer blending plants, 52cottage industries worthN117million across the state.Besides, it has concluded

plans to commence the distri-bution of 40,000 metrictonnes of fertilizer to farmersfor this year's planting seasonat a subsidised rate of N1,500.The state Commissioner for

Agriculture, Musa AdamuFuntua, disclosed this whenthe National GoodGovernance Team visited oneof the fertilizer depot locatedin Daura.Heobserved that the state

spends N 500million on theprocurement of assortedgrains for distribution tofarmers every year.The Minister of Information,

Labaran Maku, noted that fer-tilizer is very crucial for thedevelopment of agriculture inthe country and urged thestates to partner with the fed-eral government to ensure theavailability of fertilizer tofarmers at all seasons.Maku who stressed the need

for more investment in agri-culture observed that thenorthern region has thecapacity to feed Africa withgrains, especially rice.He observed that the federal

government has completedthe 25,000 metric tonnesStrategic Grains Reserve inDutsinma, Katsina state.Speaking at the Youth Craft

Village in Katsina, the stategovernor, Shehu Shema, saidabout N2billion has beenspent by the state governmentin human capital develop-ment, adding that about 555youths have been trained andN106million spent on youthentrepreneurship.

From Nkechi Onyedika, Katsina

THE GUARDIAN, Thursday, May 2, 2013 17

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THE GUARDIAN, Thursday, May 2, 2013BUSINESS 20

‘Nigeria requires international shipping code for efficient maritime trade’THEMinister of Transport, Sen.Idris Umar, has said that safenavigation is required in linewith International Shipping andPorts Security Code (ISPS) for effi-cient maritime trade in thecountry.Umar made this known recent-ly in Abuja at the inaugurationof the newly reconstitutedpilotage boards within the fourcompulsory pilotage districts of

the Nigerian Ports Authority(NPA).The ISPS is an amendment to

the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS)Convention (1974/1988) on min-imum security arrangementsfor ships, ports and govern-ment agencies.

Having come into force in2004, it prescribes responsibili-ties to governments, shippingcompanies and port/facility per-

sonnel to "detect security threatsand take preventive measuresagainst security incidents affect-ing ships or port facilities used ininternational trade.Umar explained that safe navi-

gation was required in line withthe ISPS because a greater vol-ume of imports and exports wasconveyed through the ports.He said due to the importance

of the ports to the development

of the Nigerian economy, inter-national maritime trade couldnot be over-emphasised.He recalled that the tenure of

the former pilotage board of thepilotage districts appointed in2006 by his predecessor hadlapsed and there was a need toreconstitute another one.

The four pilotage districtsinclude Lagos, Warri, Bonny/PortHarcourt and Calabar. Their

duties as spelt out in Section 45of the Ports Act of 1999 are tohold inquiries concerning theconduct of pilots and to licensepilots for the pilotage district onbehalf of the authority.The minister tasked the boardsto ensure that pilots were appro-priately appointed, monitoredand sanctioned where necessaryfor safe navigation of the water-ways.

Responding on behalf of theboard members, Capt. AlimiAbdul, Harbour Master, LagosPilotage District, said the mem-bers would work tirelessly totransform the country's mar-itime industry."We will put our experience to

bear on the pilotage activities toensure compliance with rele-vant laws as provided for in thePorts Act," he said.

Reps call for efficient publicprocurement policy in Nigeria

THE Chairman, House ofRepresentatives Committee

on Public Petitions, UzorAzubuike, has stated that anefficient public procurementpolicy is vital to the develop-ment of Nigeria.Speaking at the opening of aretreat for Chief ExecutiveOfficers in federal governmentministries, departments andagencies at the AdministrativeStaff College of Nigeria(ASCON), recently in Lagos,Azubike said that the 2012budget implementation wasbelow 30 per cent, because of

the late presentation and sign-ing of the budget, which hesaid delayed the commence-ment time for implementa-tion.According to him, “Contractsshould not be awarded atinflated prices. We should stopgiving specific contractorsmore contracts than they canhandle. Contractors that haverecords of abandoning con-tracts should be blacklisted.The BPP should not stop at pro-curement, but go ahead tomonitor contracts awarded toensure Nigerians get value formoney."

By Chika Goodluck-Ogazi

THE GUARDIAN, Thursday, May 2, 2013 21

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AppointmentsGovt targets 185,000 new jobsthrough community service scheme

THE Federal Government isto create185,000 new jobsthrough its CommunityService Scheme (CSS), theMinister of Labour andProductivity, ChukwuemekaWogu, has said.Speaking at a meeting with

the chairmen of the StateCoordinator andImplementation Committeeof the scheme in Abuja, theminister explained that while3,000 unemployed personsfrom the 36 states of the feder-ation including Abuja hadbenefitted from the scheme,another 2,000 per state areexpected to benefit soon.He added: “3,000 hitherto

unemployed persons that cutacross the 36 states of the fed-eration, including Abuja,have benefited from theCommunity Service Schemesince inception. We will beginthe next round very soon and2,000 persons are expected tobenefit.”Wogu, who lauded state gov-ernments that have replicat-ed the scheme, said theFederal Government is fund-ing the scheme through itsshare of the partial removal ofpetroleum subsidy.

“The FederationGovernment is funding thisinitiative from its own shareof the partial withdrawal ofsubsidy on petroleum prod-ucts that was done last yearJanuary. While we deploy ourown to areas that can gener-ate employment, the 36 statesalso have their own portionand they have been receivingit. Therefore, the states arealso expected to deploy theirshare of the fund to better theliving standard of their peo-ple. It is heartwarming thatsome states have replicatedwhat we are doing at the fed-eral level in their states,” heexplained.

The minister also deniedinsinuations that the schemefavours unemployed personsfrom the ruling politicalparty.

He stated: “I must state herethat the CSS is for allNigerians. There are no dis-criminations and participa-tion is not influenced byparty affiliation. Our beinghere today is to brainstormon some teething problems

TO further equip informa-tion systems auditors and

reassurance officers withthe requisite managerialskills, Information SystemsAudit and ControlAssociation (ISACA), Lagoschapter, has trained mem-bers on the essentials ofchecking revenue leakages.

Some of the strategiesaccording to the groupinclude the use of proactive,reactive and activeapproaches, which should

be applied throughout thelifetime of project or opera-tion of a firm.President of the Chapter,

Mrs. Tokunbo Martins, whilespeaking at the association’syearly general meeting andContinuing ProfessionalEducation programme,explained that the associa-tion took time to get the bestfacilitator to properly dissectthe topic.She highlighted that some

of the association’s achieve-ments included making theboby more vibrant and get-ting people to offer support

on voluntary basis.According to her: “ISACA

has a more critical role insupporting members asthey embrace change andview new horizons. In addi-tion to creating new practi-cal educational and trainingopportunities and increasedattention was placed onaddressing business risks.At the meeting, a new boardwas elected with Peter Inehemerging as the new head.He promised to build on

the success of the immedi-ate past president with greatemphasis on bridging

ISACA trains members on strategies to curb income leakages

that may have been noticedand how we can collectivelycorrect them and move thescheme forward.”He also hinted that govern-

ment is planning an exit strat-egy that would ensure thatthe beneficiaries are fully

Governor Olusegun Mimiko of Ondo State (right); Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development, Abiodun Alabi, andSenior Special Assistant to the Governor on Direct Labour, Mobolaji Tunde-Suara, inspecting facilities at the inauguration of the ultra-modern mechanicvillage and spare parts market in Akure...recently.

By Tosin Fodeke

From Collins Olayinka, Abujaengaged after their participa-tion in the scheme.Providing the background tothe meeting, the ProjectDirector of CSS, Dr. M.ENwordu, said the aims of theparley included a review of theimplementation status, a

THE Cross River StateCommissioner of Police

(CP), Kola Sodipo, has decriedthe lack of adequate manpow-er in the Nigerian Police Force,saying this is not good for effec-tive policing.The CP, who was speaking dur-ing a press briefing at thepolice headquarters in Calabarsaid: “We can’t have 4,000policemen in the country topolice a population of over 154million.He pointed out that by United

Nations standards, it should beone policeman to 250 persons,but bemoaned the reality ongrand.With the ever increasing secu-rity challenges in the country,he said it would be an uphilltask for the small number ofpolice personnel in the coun-try to effectively tackle crimeand cover all areas.“It would be a difficult task toeffectively contain the securitychallenges owing to the short-age of manpower in the PoliceForce”, he lamented.He however appealed for the

recruitment of more police-men as well as the provision ofmore operational vehicles,which according to him willserve as a recipe for crimereduction in the country.The CP pointed out that the

act of policing is a collectiveresponsibility and thereforetasked members of the publicto support the police by givingout useful information, whichwill enable the police servethem better.Sodipo, who was recently

posted to the state, assuredthat there will be no hiding

place for criminals as his com-mand has put in place water-tight security strategies aimedat enhancing successful clampdown on criminals.He solicited for cooperation

from members of the public toassist the police succeed, bygiving out information as“policing strategy all over theworld today is communitybased”.The CP disclosed that recently20 suspects were arrested forarmed robbery and 12 firearmsand five stolen vehicles recov-ered in the state.

brainstorm session on practi-cal modalities to tackle chal-lenges and to strategise on theway forward towards a moresuccessful, impactful, result-oriented and sustainableimplementation of the CSSnationwide..

THE Federal CapitalTerritory Administration

(FCTA) yesterday orderedthe suspension of theappointment of 15 districtheads by the Abaji AreaCouncil.The Minister of State forFCT, Olajumoke Akinjide, ina letter to the ExecutiveChairman of Abaji AreaCouncil, Hon. YahayaMohammed, statedunequivocally that the 15district heads were createdwithout recourse for theapproval of the FCTA.

A statement made avail-able to The Guardian inAbuja yesterday said theminister directed the AbajiArea Council chairman tosuspend forthwith theappointment of the districtheads until further notice.“The FCT Administrationhas equally recognised theseparation of functionsbetween the Area Councilsand the State (in thisinstance the FCTAdministration) on the cre-ation of District Heads andCommunity Leaders vestingsuch appointments withinthe jurisdiction of the AreaCouncil as enshrined intheir bye laws’’, Akinjidestated.“However, in all matters ofappointment ofDistrict/Community Heads,the FCT Administration’sapproval must be soughtbefore such appointmentsare made by any AreaCouncil.“Consequently, based on

this breach of procedure onthe appointment of DistrictHeads by the Abaji AreaCouncil, the appointmentof the 15 District Heads ishereby suspended hence-forth until proper proce-dure and methods ofappointment of the DistrictHeads are thoroughly scru-tinized in compliance withthe laid down procedures,rules and administrativeprocesses. She advised the AbajiCommunity and leaders toremain law-abiding andpeaceful until the appropri-ate procedure was adoptedon the matter.

knowledge gaps amongmembers.Earlier, First Bank Nigeria

Plc’s Senior Manager,Information Systems Audit,Robert Omogbeminiyi, whotook participants throughthe rudiments tagged“Revenue Assurance:Detecting and BlockingIncome Leakages”, empha-sized that revenue reassur-ance is a function that cutsacross various departmentand as such every officer hasto be carried along in theexecution of the process.

Omogbeminiyi said:

“Revenue assurance is doneby blocking income leak-ages and reducing costs. It isimportant for profit max-imisation and it also helps inregulatory compliance andmoving ahead of competi-tion. One quality that is para-mount for every reassuranceofficer is the ability to carryeverybody along in the exe-cution of duty. ”He added that the processesshould be applied through-out the entire lifetime of aproject even as it shouldinvolve continuous moni-toring for improvement.

Omogbeminiyi stated fur-ther that leakages couldcome when there is no clearrevenue assurance frame-work in an organisation,absence of tax managementframework, excess charges,ineffective credit verifica-tion, rate discount andwaivers.Other sources he listed

included error in rate andcharges, incomplete trans-action records, penaltiesand fines and account dupli-cation or proliferation (inthe case of malfunctioningsoftware).

FCTA suspends 15 district heads’appointments

From Terhemba Daka, Abuja

Commissioner decries inadequate manpower in police forceFrom Anietie Akpan, Calabar

THE GUARDIAN, Thursday, May 2, 2013APPOINTMENTS24

‘We have pensions scheme, minimum wage for maids’

HOUSEMAIDS are on theverge of enjoying pension

scheme with minimumwages. This was revealed in aninteractive session with jour-nalists by Ifeyinwa Onu,Business Owner, WhitebellMaids, Limited, with offices inUSA and Nigeria.

Onu said: “After a thoroughresearch on home keepers as acareer, we decided to make it arespectable profession, withsomething to look up to onretirement. That way, wewould be providing employ-ment and encourage them tooffer their services better in amore professional manner.”She further said that her moti-

vating factor stems from theimportant role home keepers(not housemaids, she insists)

play in most households, espe-cially as it affects career moth-ers in Nigeria.

Her words: “Only a femaleHercules can attend to her chil-dren, husband and housechores without the services ofa maid. Your home is a sanctu-ary, a place of refuge or safetyand in maintaining the stan-dards you already set that willeventually transform thehouse into a home, you need ahelping hand and this bringsthe domestic helper into thepicture. We also train and pro-vide cooks, chef, drivers, stew-ards and nannies.”

She stressed that, “most peo-ple experience challenges intheir homes due to the factsthey hired the wrong peopleor signed contracts withincompetent agencies andeventually do not get the

required services paid for.”Onu who insists that the dif-ference between a maid andthe helper is on their jobdescriptions, elaborated onthe needs of the employer.

“Firstly, choosing a helper ormaid the employer needs toidentify areas of need, to helpease the stress of the womanin the house, because makingdinner after a stressful day canbe really challenging, so acook is needed. For a workingclass mother of two or morekids, keeping the house neat isa herculean task, so a maid inthat house is not a luxury but anecessity.”She averred: “For a family that

resides in a private compound(not block of flats) a house-help is needed to attend to theflowers, wash the cars andgenerally keep the compound

clean. In applying above listedexamples, an employer has aclearer picture of the servicesrequired in his or her homeand what to expect in signingcontracts with any agency. It isimportant to note that havinga maid means living with themin same residence, and so thatcomfort you enjoy should alsobe extended to them to get thebest services needed.”She said a few tip to live happi-

ly with your new family mem-bers (the maid and helper) isamong others. “When hiring amaid, consult with the bestmaid agency that engagesexperts in routine medicalchecks on their registeredmaids/helpers; basic trainingsin housekeeping and guestservices, such as table settingbefore and after meals, bedmaking and personal hygiene

generally; and ensure that themaid’s agency adheres to strictrules governing such businesslike inspection of your homebefore dispatch of maids orhelpers to ensure proper

advice from experts on thenumber of maids required inthe house and avoid the temp-tation of over stretching   yourmaid/helper with loads ofwork.”

THE International CriminalPolice Organisation

(Interpol) is seeking collabora-tion with the Economic andFinancial Crimes Commission(EFCC) in training graft fightersin West and Central Africa.An officer of INTERPOL from its

Lyon, France headquarters,Hapaz bin Nazar, approachedEFCC for the partnership dur-ing a courtesy visit recently inAbuja.

EFCC’s spokesman, WilsonUwujaren, explained that therequest was made to theCommandant of the EFCCAcademy, Karu, Ayo Olowoniyi.

“The Interpol officer said theywere at the Academy to seekthe assistance of the EFCC tohost and train participants in atraining programme on Anti-Corruption in West andCentral Africa”, Uwujaren said.

Olowoniyi, who received thedelegates, expressed his appre-ciation that such event wascoming to Nigeria. He saidthough the Academy is seen asa baby of the EFCC, it has beenorganising training pro-grammes for workers and oth-er stakeholders, includingmembers of the civil society.

He bemoaned the situationwhere Nigerians are held liablefor economic and financial

crimes committed abroad evenwhen such culprits are notNigerians.

In his remarks, Nazar said theproposed training programmewas a response to the demandand requests from across theglobe for Interpol to play a moreactive role in the fight againstcorruption

Meanwhile, the Special ControlUnit Against Money Laundering(SCUML) has arrested an officialof real estate firm, First Groupand those of two hotels in Abujafor non-compliance with extantregulations mandatingDesignated Non- FinancialInstitutions (DNFIs) to registerwith the unit in line with theanti-money laundering laws.

General Manager/Accountantof First Group, Isemede Mac-Henry, was arrested as well asManaging Director of AlexisHotel, Fadipe EmmanuelAbiodun, and ManagingDirector of Rittman Suites,Ekanem Ibok Essien in a specialoperation conducted in con-junction with the EFCC.

Aside from enforcing compli-ance with regulations, Head ofSCUML, Angela Nworgu, said theintelligence-driven raid wasaimed at uncovering the benefi-cial ownership of entities thatcould be used to launder moneywithin and outside Nigeria.

Newly elected President of Chartered Institute of Personnel Management, Victor Famuyibo,(left), the out-going President, Abiola Popoola, and Chairman, CIPMElectoral Committee, Oladimeji Alo, shortly after the Presidential election of the Institute at the 44th AGM held in Lagos

By Sony Neme

Interpol seeks collaboration withEFCC on fight against graft From Abosede Musari, Abuja

THE GUARDIAN, Thursday, May 2, 2013 APPOINTMENT 25

Occupational diseases kill 2m workers yearly, says ILO

AREVELATION has comefrom the International

Labour Organisation (ILO)that about 2.02 million work-ers lose their lives to occupa-tional diseases worldwide.The report, entitled, “The pre-vention of occupational dis-eases”, was issued to com-memorate the World Day forSafety and Health at Work. Reacting to the findings of

the report, the ILO noted that

despite killing more than sixtimes more than accidents,occupational hazards receivesless attention globally. It further noted that occupa-

tional deaths take 2.02 out ofthe estimated 2.34 millionyearly work-related casualties A breakdown of the deathsshows a daily average of 5,500deaths.The report also estimates thatabout 160 million cases of non-fatal work-related diseasesoccur yearly.

The international labour

watch body therefore calledfor an “urgent and vigorous”global campaign to tackle thegrowing number of work-related diseases.In his comments on the

report, the Director General ofILO, Guy Ryder, said: “The ulti-mate cost of occupational dis-ease is human life. It impover-ishes workers and their fami-lies and may underminewhole communities whenthey lose their most produc-tive workers. Meanwhile, theproductivity of enterprises is

‘Nigeria needs research-based experts to attain Vision 2020’

NIGERIA can become one ofthe world’s leading

research-based country if onlythere are well-trained person-nel to carry out up-to-date ana-lytical research with modernequipment in order to attainthe Vision 2020 economic blueprint.The Director General of the

Federal Institute of IndustrialResearch Oshodi (FIIRO), Dr.Gloria Elemo, explained thatNigeria needs to brace up tomodern ways of analytical

researching in all ramifica-tions.Elemo disclosed this during

the official opening ceremonyof Shimadzu Training Centrefor analytical instrument, adivision of Labstock NigeriaLimited, at the Nigeria StoredProduct Research Centre, Yaba,Lagos, recently.According to her, technology

is here in Nigeria, adding thatwhat needs to be done is to getwell trained analyticalresearchers who knows thenitty-gritty of each of theseequipment to enable us moni-

tor what is being produced inthe food production sector.“For us at FIIRO, we have beenactively involved in R&D(Research & Development) intofood and agro-processing, pulpand paper as well as prototypeequipment design and fabrica-tion for over 50 years now. Thatis why we need to transcendthis and encourage individualsto be researched based orient-ed, hence the launching ofthese equipment”, she said. The equipment, which com-

prises of analyti cal instru-ments including, GC and LC

NISCN tasks employees on workplace ailments

WORKERS in both publicand private sector in the

country have been advised tobe careful and do everythingpossible to prevent attractingdiseases that are associatedwith their respective nature ofjobs.The National Industrial SafetyCouncil of Nigeria (NISCN) gavethis advice on Monday at a sem-inar to mark the 2013 edition ofWorld Day for Safety andHealth at Work, held at LagosState University TeachingHospital (LASUTH), Lagos. Thetheme was “Prevention of occu-pational diseases”.Speaking at the seminar, the

Chairman of NISCN, Mr. TunjiSekoni, said the organisationstrongly believes that the pre-vention of occupational dis-eases is best done when a sys-tem that is consistent in com-mitting both employer andemployee to health and safetyin the workplace is created.

He added that social dialogue isanother system that compli-ments the EmployeeCompensation Act by placingthe responsibilities of inspec-tion on the workers and employ-ers themselves in cordial andharmonious manner. According to him, Nigeria is get-ting it right with EmployeeCompensation Act, which is saidto be a no-fault-scheme and hasthe potency of forcing employ-ers to be more efficient in man-aging safety in the workplace.Lecturing on the Employee

Compensation Act (ECA), theDirector of National SocialInsurance Trust Fund, Mr.Davidson Enwere, said the mainfeature of the law is to minimisefinancial losses, reduce person-al, physical and emotional suf-fering likewise encourage andpromote safety in the work-place.He said an employee is coveredon death, injuries, mental stress,occupational diseases andhealthcare in as much as these

happen to him on the way toand from workplace and in thefield of duty. And that suchemployee could only claimcompensation if he notifies theemployer of the related injuryor illness within 14 days.

reduced and the financial bur-den on the state increases asthe cost of health care rises.Where social protection isweak or absent, many workersas well as their families lackthe care and support theyneed.”Ryder posited that preventionis the key to tackling the bur-den of occupational diseases,and is more effective and lesscostly than treatment andrehabilitation.He said the ILO was calling fora “paradigm of preventionwith comprehensive andcoherent action targetingoccupational diseases, notonly injuries. A fundamentalstep is to recognise the frame-work provided by the ILO’sinternational labour stan-dards for effective preventa-tive action and promotingtheir ratification and imple-mentation.”The head of the International

Organisation of Employers(IOE), Brent Wilton, said: “TheILO is well placed to lead a con-certed and holistic effort toaddress OSH challenges byproviding integrated web-based information that ispractical and easily accessibleto workplace actors, preven-tion and treatment centres,employers and workers’organisations, enforcingauthorities and labour inspec-torates. We have an opportu-nity to ensure that countriesare better equipped to avertthe risk of facing the sameOSH challenges by learningfrom shared experiences.”For her part, the General

Secretary of the InternationalTrade Union Confederation(ITUC), Sharan Burrow said:“Our societies must notaccept that workers can losetheir health to make a living.And we must not forget thatoccupational diseases put a

huge burden on families andthe public purse – a burdenthat is preventable.Harnessing the knowledge ofworkers, backed by theirunions, is crucial for prevent-ing death and illness.Protection, including truerespect for workers’ rights totrade union representation,and government legislationand enforcement followingILO standards and guidanceshould be expanded.”

Technological and socialchanges, along with globaleconomic conditions, areaggravating existing healthhazards and creating newrisks. Well-known occupation-al diseases, such as pneumoco-nioses and asbestos-relateddiseases, remain widespread,while relatively new occupa-tional diseases, such as mentaland MusculoskeletalDisorders (MSDs), are on therise.

Chromatographs, GC-MS andLC-MS Spectrometers, UV-VIS,FTIR and Atomic AbsorptionSpectrophotometers. ICPS andOES Spectrometers, XRF, XRDand EDX Analysers and TotalOrganic Carbon Analysers, aremodern researched basedequipment.The FIIRO boss noted that a lotof R&D outputs have beendeveloped and are yet toimpact on our people due to alimited capacity to produce theequipment in large quantitiesand translate these technolo-gies for the benefit of the gener-al public.

From Collins Olayinka, Abuja

By Adebisi Olonadeand Adeniyi Adunola

By Tony Nwanne

THE GUARDIAN, Thursday, May 2, 201326

ScienceGuardianTHE GUARDIAN, Thursday, May 2, 2013 27

WITH regards to eclipses, 2013 is, from the vantagepoint of Nigerians, an interesting – if not altogeth-

er enthralling – year. Out of a combined total of fivepredicted obscurations (lunar and solar), three wereprojected to be visible, from our location.The first of these occurred last Thursday. It was a par-tial lunar eclipse, which reportedly lasted for justunder 30 minutes. I say “reportedly,” because all I haveto go by is the published time schedule and a series ofphone calls from two of my readers, in Abuja andLagos.According to the United States (U.S.) Space Agency,NASA, the partial phase began at 19:54:08 and ended at20:21:02. Nigeria is on West African Time (WAT), whichis an hour ahead of Universal Time (UT –formerlyGreenwich Mean). So the obscuration started a littlebefore 8:00 p.m. here.Prior to the eclipse, a phalanx of recalcitrant cloudsclosed ranks over Port Harcourt. It was impossible,even to imagine where the Moon might be – much lessget a glimpse of what was going on beyond the bedim-ming masses of water vapor. But by all accounts, it wasn’t a lot. In one of his phonecalls, Col. Ayo Olaniyan (rtd) reported from Lagos thata “thin crescent of darkness” had touched the left sideof the lunar disc. Kufre F. Akpan, a young physicist atthe Nigerian Atomic Energy Commission, in Abuja,made a similar observation.This, of course, is just what astronomers had predict-ed: A “shallow” eclipse, in which Earth’s shadow wouldcover only one percent of the Moon’s disc. “A partiallunar eclipse this shallow hasn’t occurred since May3rd, 1958 (0.9 per cent),” noted Emily Sutherlin, onexaminer.com, “and won’t be topped until September28th, 2034 (1.4 per cent)”. The orbit of the Moon is tilted 5 degrees to the imagi-nary sheet of glass that extends from Earth to the Sun-called the “ecliptic,” because when the Moon passesthrough this plane, an eclipse is possible. The Moon’sorbital tilt though, means Earth’s satellite passes overor above this plane most of the time.The exceptions are 34 day intervals called “eclipse sea-sons,” during which, says Wikipedia, “the inclinationof the Moon is low, hence the Sun, Moon and Earthbecome close enough in alignment (syzygy) for aneclipse to occur”.This will happen from May 10th to 15 days (a half lunarcycle) after last month’s partial eclipse – giving rise tothe first solar obscuration of 2013. The Moon will swinghalfway around the Earth, with its sunlight side facingaway from us and its phase switching from “full” to“new”.Passing between Earth and Sun, it will block out lightand cast its shadow over a 171 to 225 km wide swath ofEarth’s surface. Our planet spins at about 1700 km perhour. So the dark tract will, as NASA puts it, traverse“Australia, eastern Papua New Guinea, the SolomonIslands, and the Gilbert Islands”.Unless you’re somewhere in the South pacific on the10th, this annular obscuration is mainly of academicinterest. The lunar shadow won’t come anywhere nearWest Africa. It’ll dangle over these islands, regalingobservers with a magnificent spectacle - a darkeneddisc, ringed in brilliant light. A cycle of phases ends on May25th, with another fullMoon: Thirty days after April’s partial obscuration andstill within the eclipse season. But this time, the Moonmisses the dark core of Earth’s shadow, the umbra,entirely and passes through the light-infused outerregion, termed the penumbra.Although the Moon will be visible in North and SouthAmerica and in western Africa, you’d be better off play-ing a game of scrabble or warri, than trying to see theobscuration—which is too short and too shallow forthe naked eye to detect. Fortunately, NASA’s Fred Espenak thinks sky-watchersin Europe, eastern Canada and Africa might fare betterin October, even though the last lunar eclipse of theyear is also penumbral.He predicts that, on the 18th, the lunar disc will plowdeep into Earth’s shadow and pass close to the darkumbra. The eclipse “should be easily visible to thenaked eye,” he advises, “as a dusky shading in thesouthern half of the Moon”.As if to atone for earlier slights, nature has scheduleda grand finale for November 3rd—and reserved celebri-ty seats for equatorial Africa. Magnanimously, she isfeting observers in the two Congos, Gabon, Nigeria,Uganda, Kenya and Ethiopia with a total solar eclipse!

Eclipses are whereyou find them!

MIXED results have contin-ued to trail the develop-

ment of a vaccine for HumanImmuno-deficiency Virus(HIV)/Acquired ImmuneDeficiency Syndrome (AIDS).While the quest sufferedanother setback with a reportby the United States NationalInstitutes of Health (NIH), overthe weekend, that it hadstopped immunizing volun-teers with the experimentalvaccine known as HVTN 505because it had become clearthat the vaccine does not pre-vent HIV infection. However, Danish scientists inanother study said they areexpecting results that willshow that “finding a mass-dis-tributable and affordable cureto HIV is possible”.They are conducting clinicaltrials to test a “novel strategy”in which the HIV virus isstripped from human Deoxyribo-Nucleic Acid(DNA)/genetic material anddestroyed permanently by theimmune system.The move would represent adramatic step forward in theattempt to find a cure for thevirus, which causes AIDS.The scientists are currently

conducting human trials ontheir treatment, in the hope ofproving that it is effective. Ithas already been found towork in laboratory tests.The technique involves releas-ing the HIV virus from “reser-

voirs” it forms in DNA cells,bringing it to the surface of thecells. Once it comes to the sur-face, the body’s naturalimmune system can kill thevirus through being boostedby a “vaccine”.Meanwhile, since the NIH trialbegan in 2009, 1,250 volun-teers had received the vaccineand 1,244 others had gotten aplacebo- both as a series ofshots over 24 weeks. Most par-ticipants were men who havesex with men. Among volun-teers who had been in thestudy for at least 28 weeks, 27infections occurred in thosegetting the vaccine and 21 inplacebo recipients. Of all studyparticipants, regardless of howlong they were in the study, 41HIV infections showed up invaccinated volunteers and 30in those who got the placebo.The vaccine used a double-hitstrategy designed to rev upimmune protection. Threeearly shots were intended toprime the immune system.Then, 16 weeks later, partici-pants received a booster shot

that delivered genetic materi-al that made molecules pro-duced by HIV, with the goal ofeliciting an immune responseagainst the virus. The vaccinecould not itself cause HIVinfection.An independent data and

safety monitoring boardassessed the results collectedas of April 22 and recommend-ed stopping the trial. TheNational Institute of Allergyand Infectious Diseases, whichsponsored the trial, agreed.NIAID and the study investiga-tors will continue to monitorvolunteers for five years andanalyse the data.Meanwhile, in vitro studies-those that use human cells in alaboratory- of the new tech-nique proved so successfulthat in January, the DanishResearch Council awarded theteam 12 million Danish kroner(£1.5 million) to pursue theirfindings in clinical trials withhuman subjects. These are now under way, andaccording to Dr. Søgaard, theearly signs are “promising”.

Dr. Ole Søgaard, a seniorresearcher at the AarhusUniversity Hospital inDenmark who is part of theresearch team, said: “I amalmost certain that we will besuccessful in releasing thereservoirs of HIV.“The challenge will be gettingthe patients’ immune systemto recognise the virus anddestroy it. This depends on thestrength and sensitivity ofindividual immune systems.”Fifteen patients are currentlytaking part in the trials, and ifthey are found to have success-fully been cured of HIV, the“cure” will be tested on a widerscale.Sogaard stressed that a cure isnot the same as a preventativevaccine, and that raisingawareness of unsafe behav-iour, including unprotectedsex and sharing needles,remains of paramount impor-tance in combating HIV.With modern HIV treatment,a patient can live an almostnormal life, even into old age,with limited side effects.However, if medication is

stopped, HIV reservoirsbecome active and start to pro-duce more of the virus, mean-ing that symptoms can reap-pear within two weeks.Finding a cure would free apatient from the need to takecontinuous HIV medication,and save health services bil-lions of pounds.The technique is being

researched in Britain, but stud-ies have not yet moved on tothe clinical trial stage. Five uni-versities - Oxford, Cambridge,Imperial College, London,University College, Londonand King’s College, London-have jointly formed theCollaborative HIV Eradicationof Reservoirs UK BiomedicalResearch Centre group(CHERUB), which is dedicatedto finding an HIV cure.They have applied to the

Medical Research Council forfunding to conduct clinical tri-als, which will seek to combinetechniques to release the reser-voirs of HIV with immunother-apy to destroy the virus.

With J.K. Obatala

AIDS vaccine... the United States National Institutes of Health (NIH)reported over the weekend that it had stopped immunizing volunteers with the experimental vaccine known asHVTN 505 because it had become clear that the vaccine does not prevent HIV infection.

Mixed resultstrail AIDS vaccinedevelopment

ASTRONOMY

By Chukwuma Muanya, with agency reports

The technique involves releasing the HIV virus from “reservoirs” itforms in DNA cells, bringing it to the surfaceof the cells. Once it comes to the surface,the body’s natural immune system can

kill the virus through being boosted by a “vaccine”

THE GUARDIAN, Thursday, May 2, 201328

NaturalHealthTHE GUARDIAN, Thursday, May 2, 2013 29

Researchersendorse moreherbs for prostatecancer treatmentRESEARCHERS have endorsed extracts from plants, such asSerenoa repens, Urtica dioica, Pygeum africanum, Secalecereale, Curcubita pepo, Hypoxis rooperi, Piper cubeba, Bixaorellana, coconut (Cocos nucifera), and fluted pumpkin(Telfairia occidentalis), as potent botanicals in the managementof prostatic diseases. CHUKWUMA MUANYA writes.

BENIGN prostatic hyperplasia (BPH)is the most common benign

tumour of the adult male and menwith Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms(LUTS) from clinical BPH constitute agreat percentage of patients seen inurology clinics. Its treatment does con-stitute a significant economic burden. There are various options of treatmentdepending on the stage of the diseasewith many urologists preferring med-ications in the early stages and surgeryfor the more advanced stages or com-plicated cases. Different medications ofproven efficacy over the years include �-adrenergic blockers like prazocin, dox-azocin, tamsulocin, alfuzocin and 5alpha reductase inhibitors like finas-teride and dutasteride.The use of locally available materials,

mostly of plant origin, has recentlygained recognition as alternatives toorthodox medicine. In fact, almost 90per cent of all medicines prescribed forBPH in Germany and Austria are phyto-therapeutic agents. The biodiversity ofplants found in Africa, which isarguably the richest in the world, cou-pled with the low purchasing power of

Africans, especially with respect toorthodox drugs, make this type ofresearch even more important. According to a recent study publishedin Malaysian Journal of Medical Science,titled “Towards the Prevention andManagement of Prostatic Diseases inNigeria: A Framework” currently,extracts from plants, such as Serenoarepens, Urtica dioica, Pygeum africanum,Secale cereale, Curcubita pepo, Hypoxisrooperi, Piper cubeba, Bixa orellana,Cocos nucifera, and Telfairia occidental-is, are known to be potent botanicalsin the management of prostatic dis-eases. It is reasonable to expect thatmany other locally available plantsharbour phytochemicals that can beused to manage prostatic diseases. Also, another study published in the

International Research Journal ofBiochemistry and Bioinformaticsreviewed the anti-cancer properties ofsome plants used in traditional medi-cine in Nigeria.

A team of researchers from theDepartment of Chemical Sciences,Federal University Otuoke, BayelsaState, led by Taye T. Alawode, identified

onion, shallot, pineapple, garlic,Resurrection plant, lime, wormwood,Sodom apple, red palm oil, sausage tree,mango tree, sour-sop, bitter leaf,among others as potent against can-cers.It has also been shown that pumpkin

seed oil and phytosterol-F can blocktestosterone/prazosin-inducedprostate growth in rats.Researchers from the Institute of

Clinical Medicine, Department ofUrology, College of Medicine, NationalCheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwanin a study published in UrologyInternational investigated the effects ofpumpkin seed oil alone or combinedwith Phytosterol-F on testosterone/pra-zosin-induced (T-P) prostate growth inrats.Forty adult Wistar rats were divided

into five groups, including: one controlgroup, rats treated with vehicle only,one group treated with T-P, and twogroups of T-P-treated rats, one receivingorally pumpkin seed oil alone and onegroup receiving orally pumpkin seedoil combined with Phytosterol-F. Two weeks later, the prostatic weight-

to-body weight ratio was determinedafter sacrifice. The total protein concen-tration was measured by using a pro-tein assay. Some ventral prostatic tis-sues were histologically examined afterhematoxylin-eosin staining.Histological sections of the ventral

prostate showed that the architectureof the prostate glands became hyper-plastic in the T-P rats, but not in the con-trol or vehicle-treated animals. As com-pared with the control or vehicle group,T-P rats had a significantly higher pro-static weight-to-body weight ratio forthe ventral prostate, but not for the dor-solateral prostate. The T-P rats had significantly higher

protein levels within both lobes. Ascompared with the T-P-alone rats, the TPrats treated with pumpkin seed oilalone or pumpkin seed oil combinedwith Phytosterol-F had a significantlylower weight ratio for the ventralprostate and significantly lower proteinlevels within both lobes. In addition,Phytosterol-F had some additive effecton the total protein synthesis withinthe ventral prostate.“Pumpkin seed oil alone or combinedwith Phytosterol-F can block the T-P-induced increases in prostatic weight-to-body weight ratio and protein syn-thesis,” they concluded.Researchers from the Centre of NaturalProducts, National Centre for ScientificResearch, Havana City, Cuba, in anotherstudy published in Journal Pharmacyand Pharmacology studied the effectsof coconut oil on testosterone-inducedprostatic hyperplasia in Sprague-Dawley rats.The researchers wrote: “Saw palmetto

lipid extracts (SPLE), used to treat BPH,

have been shown to inhibit prostate5a-reductase, and some major compo-nents, such as lauric, myristic and oleicacids also inhibit this enzyme. “Coconut oil (CO) is also rich in fatty

acids, mainly lauric and myristic acids.We investigated whether CO preventstestosterone-induced prostate hyper-plasia (PH) in Sprague-Dawley rats.Animals were distributed into sevengroups (10 rats each). A negative con-trol group were injected with soya oil;six groups were injected with testos-terone (3 mg kg(-1)) to induce PH: a pos-itive control group, and five groupstreated orally with SPLE (400 mg kg(-1)), CO or sunflower oil (SO) (400 and800 mg kg(-1)). “Treatments were given for 14 days.

Rats were weighed before treatmentand weekly thereafter. Rats were thenkilled and the prostates were removedand weighed. CO (400 and 800 mg kg(-1)), SPLE (400 mg kg (-1)) and SO at 800mg kg (-1), but not at 400 mg kg(-1), sig-nificantly reduced the increase inprostate weight (PW) and PW: bodyweight (BW) ratio induced by testos-terone (percentage inhibition 61.5 percent, 82.0 per cent, 43.8 per cent and28.2 per cent, respectively). “Since CO and SPLE, but not SO, con-

tain appreciable concentrations of lau-ric and myristic acids, these resultscould be attributed to this fact. In con-clusion, this study shows that COreduced the increase of both PW andPW:BW ratio, markers of testosterone-induced PH in rats.”

The Malaysian Journal of MedicalScience study led by ChukwunonsoEjike concluded: “The development ofa Central Prostatic Diseases Unit(CPDU) in the Federal Ministry ofHealth is advocated. The CPDU wouldbe responsible for planning researchand information dissemination pro-grammes. Emphasis should be placedon targeting modifiable risk factors atthe population level, proper surveil-lance to identify emerging trends, andresearch on both the operationaldynamics and the efficacy of locallyavailable herbs that could be useful inthe management of prostatic dis-eases.”Another study on “Effect Of The PlantExtracts Pygeum africanum And Urticadioica On Lower Urinary TractSymptoms Due To Benign ProstaticHyperplasia In Nigerian Men” byresearchers from Lagos StateUniversity College of Medicine pub-lished in The Internet Journal of Urologyevaluated the effect of a combinedextract of Urtica dioica and Pygeumafricanumon LUTS in Nigerian men. The researchers reviewed the clinical

records of patients with LUTS fromBPH who had used the combinedextract of Urtica dioica and Pygeumafricanum.

ANEW study adds to evi-dence that obese men may

have an increased risk forfuture prostate cancer.Researchers studied biopsiesof 6,692 cancer-free men, 11per cent of whom had precan-cerous lesions. They selected494 who went on to developcancer and matched themwith 494 who did not. Theirresults were published onlinein Cancer Epidemiology,Biomarkers & Prevention.After 14 years of follow-up,

and after adjusting for otherrisk factors, they found thatbeing overweight or obeseincreased the risk of prostatecancer by 57 percent. The asso-ciation held for all cases- low-grade and high-grade, earlystage and late, nonaggressiveand aggressive disease.Some of the difference may

reflect the challenges of exam-ining the prostate in obesemen, making it more difficultto discover early malignan-cies, but the study’s prospec-tive design and availability ofdetailed records add to itsstrength.The lead author, Andrew

Rundle, an associate professorof epidemiology at Columbia,said the study might help indeciding what kind of clinicalfollow-up is required withobese men. “The data here arenot at a point where youwould say to follow obesemen only,” he said. “But thismay help discriminate whichmen really need intense cov-erage and which do not.”

SLEEP problems can drasti-cally lower the fertility of

young men, warns a study.Those struggling to make it

through the night have moreproblems than those enjoyinga sound rest. Their spermcounts were cut by a quarterand they also had smaller tes-ticles.The latest research is the firstto look specifically at whetherbroken rest affects male fertil-ity although links betweensleep and health have beenwell-studied.Sperm counts have been

tumbling in recent yearsamid fears that male fertilityis being harmed by poor dietand lifestyle or even ‘gender-bending’ chemicals in theenvironment.But work at the University ofSouthern Denmark suggeststhat modern sleep patternsmay also be a factor.The scientists examined near-ly 1,000 men in their late teensor early 20s about to do mili-tary service. They gave spermsamples and answered ques-tions about how well theyslept.

Questions included howoften they slept badly andhow often they found it diffi-cult to nod off. The men werealso asked if they regularlywoke up during the night andfound it difficult to go back tosleep.Those who frequently retiredlate, woke many times in thenight or struggled to nod offin the first place, had a spermcount 25 per cent lower thanthose who had no trouble.

Fluted pumpkin

Coconut

Poor sleep reducessperm count by 33%

Again obesity tied toprostate cancer risk

THE GUARDIAN, Thursday, May 2, 201330

Read

Always

THE GUARDIAN, Thursday, May 2, 2013 31

THE GUARDIAN, Thursday, May 2, 201332

THE GUARDIAN, Thursday, May 2, 2013 33

THE GUARDIAN, Thursday, May 2, 201334 SCIENCE & HEALTH

By Kemi Ajani

THE Lagos State governmenthas said that it is committed

to reducing maternal andchild mortality rate by 30 percent by the year 2015.

Briefing journalist at theweekend on Maternal andChild Reduction in Lagos, theCommissioner for Health Dr.Jide Idris, said that differenthealth facilities have beenmade available in all primary,secondary and tertiary healthcentre’s for health careproviders to improve the quali-ty of pediatric and maternalcare offer in the hospital.Idris noted that lack of health

education and poverty is themajor cause of maternal andchild mortality in the ruralareas. He said: “If a pregnant womanundergoes proper ante-natalprogramme, health workerswould have identified if herbaby will develop complica-tions at birth and the can referher to the appropriate quarter.

We must ensure the safety ofthe mother and that of thechild”.The commissioner said that

several strategies and initiativehave been demonstrated bythe state government towardsensuring the process of procre-

Lagos pledges to reduce child mortality rate by 30%

LUTH graduates 316 studentsBy Paul Adunwoke

LAGOS State UniversityTeaching Hospital (LUTH)

graduated 316 students of 2012academic sessions. The eventserved as a forum to fosterunity among the graduatingstudents, lecturers, parents andguidance.

There were presentations ofcertificates to the graduatingStudents indicating that theyhad successfully completedtheir programmes. Awards were also given to the

best graduating students whoperform excellently to emergebest candidates among otherstudents in their variousDepartments.The LUTH year 2012 joint grad-

uation ceremony, organized bythe management held at NewGreat Hall, LUTH Mushin Lagos.

Chief medical Director of theSchool professor AkinOsibogun said the programmewas joint graduation ceremonybecause the school runs ninedifferent prorammes anddecided to graduate all the stu-dents at the same time. “It isjoints because we have nine dif-ferent schools programme,school of health information

management, nursing,Medical laboratory Sciences,medical social psychiatrictraining programmes, amongothers and we organized it insuch a way we would have onegraduation ceremony”, he said.Osibongun disclosed that all

the programmes the Schoolruns are accredited, addingthat they had challenges ofaccreditation in the past. “There are challenges, but wehave various regulatory bodies,which regulate training ofthese professionals, so theywould come here on ouraccreditation. And once theycome for accreditation, theywant to look at our facilitiesand the number of the stu-dents we are admitting, theywant to look at our trainersqualifications and prepara-tions of our trainers. And oncethey are satisfied, they go aheadand give us permission to goahead and train these profes-sionals. we have done very wellwith the regard of this regulato-ry body and they have given usapproval; that is why we aregraduating these students,almost all our programmes areaccredited”, he said.

government area. The commissioner stated thatwhen the Maternal ChildMortality Reduction pro-gramme was launched lastyear they get involved thestakeholders in the communi-ty to mobilise people on theneed to patronise primaryhealth-care within their area. He noted that the percentageof the disease burden in chil-dren under the age of fiveyears is poor maternal health.The commissioner advised

mothers to adopt family plan-ning and child spacing as thiswill reduce maternal andchild mortality rate. “If nurs-ing mothers can space thenumber of children theywould have they would beable to give adequate care oftheir children at all cost. He said that it is very neces-

sary for nursing mothers toknow the essence of familyplanning and child spacing, “Ifa woman give birth it is verynecessary to let the body restfor two years before a womanget pregnant again. The commissioner said that

the state government cannotreduce maternal mortality byhundred per cent consideringthe limited resources and thepoor transportation system instate.He noted that malaria is one

of the causes of maternal andchild mortality rate and thestate government is makingprogress in reducing the infantand under-five mortality rateby giving all the pregnantwomen malaria drugs duringthe pregnancy. He advised thepregnant women to stoppatronising quacks doctorduring the child delivering. On why pregnant women stilldying in Lagos despite the gov-ernment intervention, thecommissioner said govern-ment can only reduce thematernal death by hundredper cent but it can only bereduce base on the limitedresources at the governmentdisposal.Speaking on the recent statis-tics on maternal deaths in thestate, Idris noted that the newreport on Maternal MortalityRatio (MMR) conducted in the20 local Government Area ofthe state has indicated that therate of maternal death in thestate remains unacceptablewith 555 per 100,000 livebirths.Speaking on the challenges

towards providing optimalhealth care the citizenry, thecommissioner said thatLagosians needs to pay theirtax regularly so that the stategovernment can provide ade-quate facilities and invest inagriculture.

Jide Idrisation that no woman shoulddie while giving birth. He said that health educationand public enlightenment pro-grammes is the major strate-gies developed to tackle mater-nal mortality rate among thepregnant woman,

“We have trained our healthworkers on the use of equip-ment and drugs in both pri-mary and tertiary health caresystem. We provide educationmaterials on the need for ante-natal care and the kind food toeat during the pregnancy peri-od.”Idris opined that maternalmortality reduction is a multi-sectoral approach that mustinvolve not only the state gov-ernment alone but also allother stakeholders in the com-munity if success must berecorded. Idris noted that some of the

strategies put in place to takematernal and child health carecloser to the people by reduc-ing the travel time motherstakes to hospital as well asimproving the quality of suchcare to the highest possiblestandard gave birth to thebuilding of primary healthcare centre’s and organisingthe town hall meetings instrategic location in each local

US, Nigeria partner on NavalHospital staff’s trainingBy Paul Adunwoke

UNITED State of America(USA) in partnership with

Nigeria has started the train-ing of the staff of NavalHospital Ojo, Lagos. The train-ing focused on how preparemedical providers to effective-ly treat trauma injuriesthrough review of currenttrauma literature, scenariotraining, hands-on tourniquetand ultrasound training,triage event training withmass causalities and lecturescovering trauma assessmentand interventions. The goal ofthe training was to solidify theconnection between fieldtreatments of military causali-ties and treatment optionsonce transferred to the hospi-tal settings.

The 40 beneficiaries of thefour days training programmeincluded medical assistants,

students, nurses, and physi-cians.The training programme for

the staff of the Nigeria Navalhospital, sponsored by US heldat Naval Town Ojo Lagos.Dr. Michael Owens from US

said the training focused ontrauma and to provide basicskills for healthcare providersin Nigeria. “We are doing train-ing programme for healthcareproviders, want to providebasic skills, trauma, Physicalexamination and medicaltraining skills that can provideimmediate saving lives inter-ventions. And also to takesome of the medical staff to thenext level, to empower them toperform better than they aredoing. I believe that anybodywho participated in this train-ing programme would savelive at least 25 percent liveswhen it comes to trauma. Some victims that have very

THE GUARDIAN, Thursday, May 2, 2013 35

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SCIENCE HEALTH 37THE GUARDIAN, Thursday,May 2, 2013

THE Nigerian MedicalAssociation (NMA) has

commended PresidentGoodluck Jonathan and theFederal Executive Council(FEC) for rejecting the reportof the Retired Justice BelloGusau-led presidential com-mittee on a harmonious workrelationship amongst healthworkers and professionalgroups in the health sector onthe ground that the reportwas bound to trigger moredisharmony, ill-will and con-flagrations in the health sec-tor rather than resolve thedisharmony.

The Federal ExecutiveCouncil (FEC) on Wednesday,April 24, 2013, in a resolutiondiscarded the report. President NMA, Dr. Osahaon

Enabulele in a statement yes-terday also commended thedecision of PresidentGoodluck Ebele Jonathan,GCFR, and the FederalExecutive Council to consti-tute an independent commit-tee to physically visit some for-eign countries to see how thehealth system is managed inthose countries, particularlyin terms of the roles and rela-tionships of professionals inthe health sector.

The NMA also directed alldoctors nation-wide toremain at their duty posts andto work relentlessly to renderuninterrupted services, par-ticularly emergency cases, inall hospitals during theplanned strike action by JointHealth Sector Unions (JOHE-SU) and the ‘Association ofAllied Health Professionals’. The association advised all

Chief MedicalDirectors/Medical Directors toprovide undiluted support todoctors to enable them effec-

tively provide quality uninter-rupted healthcare services toNigerians, by providing secu-rity, and ensuring access tohospital materials, equip-ments and other healthcarefacilities in the hospitals.“We assure all Nigerians that

NMA shall continue to pro-mote professionalism,patient-centred care and inter-national best practices,”Enabulele said.Enabulele said: “This highly

commendable decision ofPresident Goodluck EbeleJonathan, GCFR, and the dis-tinguished members of theFederal Executive Council con-firms the unequivocal posi-tion of the Nigerian MedicalAssociation that the reportwas evidently premeditated,biased, unjust and extremelyjaundiced with the unholyintent to serve some predeter-mined ends, particularly as it

threw caution to the windand stood logic and interna-tional best practices in thehealth sector on their heads.

“NMA salutes the stoiccourage of PresidentGoodluck Ebele Jonathan,GCFR, and members of theFederal Executive Council forrefusing to be intimidated bythe outright blackmail, false-hood, gangsterism and street-like agitations of some sup-port staff in the hospital whorather than face the reality oftheir roles in the health sectorhave decided to abandontheir job descriptions andqualifications for an unneces-sary equality beauty contestwith medical doctors.”The association commend-

ed and saluted Mr. Presidentand the Federal ExecutiveCouncil for this courageousresolution, which will helpenthrone sanity and interna-tional best practices inNigeria’s health sector. “Werepeat that Nigeria cannotoperate her health system inisolation from what is inter-nationally accepted. ForNigeria’s health system tomake progress all the stake-holders and health workersmust accept to imbibe inter-national best practices,” hesaid.Enabulele, however, said as

the Independent Committeeis constituted the NMA callsfor the selection of individu-als with the required experi-ence, knowledge, unquestion-able character and integrity,and unbiased disposition.“Now that the report of the

Presidential HarmonyCommittee has been rejected,we advise all players in thehealth sector to give peace achance and focus more onpatient-centred care rather

NMA commends Jonathan, FEC for rejecting report onharmonious work relationship among health workers

than fissiparous tendenciesand recurrent threats ofstrike action,” he said.The NMA President said the

decision of PresidentGoodluck Jonathan,GCFR andthe Federal Executive Council,has made it crystal clear to all

that no amount of blackmail,intimidation, falsehood andstreet-like agitation can swayMr President, theHonourable Minister ofHealth, Prof. OnyebuchiChukwu, and members ofthe Federal Executive Council

from doing what is interna-tionally acceptable inNigeria’s health sector, espe-cially being widely travelledintellectuals with innate abili-ties and ideological clarity toappreciate reality.

‘Prepares’ members for possible strike by JOHESUBy Chukwuma Muanya

Enabulele

38 SCIENCE HEALTH THE GUARDIAN, Thursday, May 2, 2013

Nutrition can tackle lead poisoning, says donBy Yemi Ogunsola

THE simple ingestion of calci-um supplements directly orthrough the diet may drastical-ly check lead poisoning rav-aging some states in Nigeria,especially Zamfara.This was the submission of aProfessor of Environmentaland Health Physics from theObafemi Awolowo University(OAU), Prof. Joshua Ojo, at the255th inaugural lecture of theinstitution recently. According to Ojo, while soil

remediation and chelationtherapy (removal of lead frombloodstream) currently in useadequately tackles exogenous(from outside) lead poisoning,they fail to address the endoge-nous (from inside) exposuresto lead. A better and far lesscostly method, he said, is to ren-der lead in the human body.This can be done, he said, bypreventing the natural process,which releases lead stored inthe bones into the blood-stream, as well as fortify thebody against the toxic effects oflead by improving the nutri-tional status of people. This canbe done, he said, with theintake of calcium pills or calci-um-rich diet.Prof. Ojo explained: “It is wellknown that the main storagesites for lead in the humanbody are in the bones, wherelead can remain (safely) storedup for over 20 years. Suchstored-up lead is released intothe blood of women at certaincritical periods, particularlyduring pregnancy and duringbreastfeeding. This happensbecause at these critical times,there is greater need for calci-um in the woman’s body tomeet the need of her rapidlygrowing baby. “However, as this needed calci-um is released from its storagesites in the bones, lead, which isalso stored in these samesites… is also released into the

blood stream…” This process, he noted, rub-

bishes all the efforts to clean upthe external environment ofthe woman via the very expen-sive soil remediation pro-gramme (costing, according tothe Daily Trust of June 19, 2012,about N1 million per com-pound of mud houses). Even chelation therapy for

adult patients, he said,becomes questionable sincemore lead would simplybe released from the bones toreplace the lead removed fromthe blood via this medical pro-cedure. Since such releases arepronounced only duringpregnancy and lactation, Ojoargued, they have devastatingimpact on the babies who areeither aborted at the foetalstage or are born withimpaired mental faculties.

Doctors take free medical servicesto Makoko, Lagos suburbIN a continued effort to bringgood healthcare services tothe door steps of Nigerian, theNigeria Medical Association,(NMA) through her yearly med-ical mission, provided a two-day free medical screening forthe residence of Makoko sub-urb in Lagos.The two days screening, whichtook place at the AiyetoroHealthcare Centre, on Mondayand Tuesday, in Makoko, Yaba,Lagos, is a kickoff event aheadof NMA national conferencewhich is coming up at a timewhen the association is under-going a critical re-evaluation ofits activities and embarking onreforms to place her in thepride of place to which she tra-ditionally belongs in our coun-try. NMA, under the leadership ofDr. Osahon Enabulele and hisNational Officers Council hasraised the flag in this direction,to making sure that Nigeriansdo feel the vacuum which thegovernments has left openedfor its people.While declaring the screeningopen on Monday, Enabulelenoted that Nigeria is still lag-ging behind in, and indeedover 70 per cent of all the totalhealthcare expenditure in thiscountry is borne by poorNigerians, this is because theycannot trust governments any-more to give them the total

good healthcare services that isexpected to be made available. “Nigeria cannot even boast of30 per cent of total health cov-erage from the government.South Africa has at least 60 percent of health coverage,Rwanda has 50 per cent, butour own government pays lessattention to the people.That is a serious indictment onour government, its shows thata lot still needs to be donebecause they need to empowerthe national insurance man-agers to make sure that theytake good medical services topeople in the rural areas in thecountry where people resides,to enable them drive forwardgood medical service in thecountry, which prompted thismedical mission”, he said.As an association, Enabulele

noted that, this is the associa-tion’s own way of bridging thegap to make sure that peoplebenefits from the society thathas given a lot to the associa-tion. According to him, “we will begiving them standard healthcare services that the govern-ment seldom provides to thegeneral masses. And that iswhat we have planed to do asour own mission, even asNigeria will be celebrating thecentenary anniversary, insteadof being flamboyant, we havedecided to put together differ-ent efforts to eradicate somebasic health challenges our

people are going through atthe moment, with the supportsfrom necessary sundries.In the last eight months,

through the health missions,NMA has covered more than6,000 Nigerians, due to thepoor state of health coverage ofNigeria, and the need toindulge Nigeria by preventingthem from catastrophic healthcare expenditure, has been theaim of NMA since its inception,and focuses has been on thenon-communicable diseasessuch as diabetes, hypertension,and general good healthy liv-ing. “Today, each spending madeby Nigerians leaves a big holein their pockets, and that iswhat I mean by catastrophichealth expenditure.We want a situation whereNigerians can get any healthcare services they want at anypoint in time”, he said.The patients, ranging from

infants, teenagers and adultswere screened with diabetes,breast examination, hyperten-sion, eye surgery and dentition.Meanwhile, the Lagos chair-

man of NMA, Francis Faduyile,who play host to the missioncommended the efforts of theassociation for deeming it fit tocome to the aid of the people ofMakoko, adding that this iswhat the government is sup-posed to be doing, but the asso-ciation has taken it upon them-selves to step into the govern-

ment shoe by providing goodhealthcare services for its peo-ple, not only in Lagos, butbeyond the shores of the coun-try at large. According to Faduyile, “the

medical mission is part of NMACorporate Social Responsibilityto making sure that peoplefrom the rural areas in differ-ent communities are givenbest of medical care mostlybecause of the concentration ofpeople in the communities.Overtime, the association hasbeen to different communitiesoutside Lagos to give out freemedical services, which we arehappy to embark on this kindof mission of giving back to thesociety”.Faduyile further stated that forany emergency situation thaterupts as a result of the screen-ing, the association has alreadylinked up with some hospitalsaround that will continue themedical works free of charge.Applauding the initiative, theYaba Local CommunityDevelopment Chairman, JideJimoh, commended the effortsof the association for comingout en masse to support theMakoko community by givingthem good quality health careservices. He noted that this willindeed go a long way in mak-ing sure that people living indensely populated communi-ties across the nation are appre-ciative of their efforts.

How wheatgrass can help cancerand other terminally ill patients

WHAT is Wheatgrass? Simplyput wheatgrass is the slen-

der leaf of the wheat plant. Theyoung sprouts are cultivated fornutritive and health purposesand for these the wheatgrass ispresented either as wheatgrassjuice, tablets or chewed freshand raw. Like any other plant thefull benefits of wheatgrass arederivable from the raw plant.Wheatgrass is said to contain 13vitamins and all the 20 aminoacids that the body needs,including the nine that arereferred to as essential aminoacids that cannot be produce inthe body. Wheatgrass is therefore a veryimportant source of the essentialamino acids. Also, as a green leaf,wheatgrass contains a lot ofenergy-rich chlorophyll and inparticular, this is an easilydigestible and usable chloro-phyll. Also, wheatgrass that isplanted in an organic soil is ableto absorb 92 of the 102 mineralsfound in the soil. All these prop-erties and contents of wheat-grass make it an important anti-cancer agent and a plant mostsuited for our wellbeing. Regularuse of wheatgrass as a juice by apatient undergoing chemother-apy will help the patient to copebetter with myelotoxicity. Myelotoxicity is the destructionof the bone marrow bychemotherapy drugs with theresult that the immunitybecomes compromised. Thecapacity of the blood for oxygencarrying becomes reduced andthe white blood cells decreaseaffecting the immune systemseverely. In research findings involving60 breast cancer patients under-going chemotherapy treatmentin 2007 and published in theNutrition and Cancer Journal, itwas discovered that patientsreceiving daily serving of wheat-grass juice during the first threecycles of chemotherapy experi-enced a significantly low level ofmyelotoxicity. Their require-ment for drugs to help increasewhite blood cell production wasvery low. Also, researchers work-ing in India found that there issignificant improvement in thelevel of protein and albuminamong those that consumewheatgrass juice and there was

an overall improvement inpatients’ wellbeing.Because of the chlorophyll inwheatgrass the oxygen capacityis highly increased. This meansthat a lot more oxygen andnutrients get to reach the cellsand tissues; a condition that ismost unfavorable to cancercells. Other benefits of wheatgrass

are:• wheatgrass has antibacterialproperties making it both aninternal and external cleanser;• it is a liver cleanser;• it cleanses the colon when it isheld in the colon as an implantfor about 20 minutes;• wheat grass rebuilds and bal-ances the blood stream correct-ing anaemia in the process;• it stabilises the pH of the bodythrough the alkaline mineralsdissolved in the blood;• it improves and restores fertil-ity in animals and humans;• wheatgrass improves generalwellbeing of patients withchronic conditions; and,• it is a better detoxifier than car-rots. It is said that 15 pounds ofwheatgrass is equivalent to 350pounds of carrots, lettuce andcelery.A summary of the antiseptic

properties of wheatgrassinclude the following; clearingup the foul smelling odour fromthe mouth, neutralising strepto-coccus infection, clears up innerear infection and cures chronicsinusitis. Wheatgrass also healswounds, clears scars and acne,reduce varicose veins, curestyphoid fever.Furthermore, wheatgrass caus-es vasodilatation and bloodpressure reduction. It is alsoeffective for correcting blooddisorders.Wheatgrass neutralises toxinsin the body and chelates heavymetals.From the foregoing we can seethat chlorophyll (wheatgrass) isone of those natural substancesalong with all the minerals andvitamins (antioxidants) that canbe used to combat the harmfuleffects of chemotherapy andradiotherapy. In actual factthere are centers in Germany,Spain and America where suchnatural products are being usedto compliment these orthodoxpractices and a lot of peopleincluding Nigerians are the bet-ter for it. Treatment of cancer has

reached a stage where deathmay no longer be an option. It istherefore most dishearteningthat we are still losing our moth-ers, sisters, daughters etc tobreast cancer and our men toother cancers. The way I see it,whatever will be beneficial tothe patient, he or she shouldhave. If the patient will defeatcancer with both chemothera-py, radiotherapy and alternativemedicine, so be it. The truth is that in combiningthese two forms of treatmentthe patient will do well, having alower dose of chemotherapywith little or no side effect. Thisis the practice in certain clinicsin those countries abroad and Ithink our people must begin toexperience this breakthroughalso. Next week we shall look atWater Cress - a powerful anti-cancer and antihypertensiveplant, a weed, that may havebeen growing wild all theseyears in your back yard.

He therefore advocated thatwhile soil remediation andchelation therapy might beapplied in very bad cases, moreefforts and resources should bedirected towards preventingthe release of bone lead into theblood via “nutrition therapy”,i.e. intake of calcium. In a telephone chat with The

Guardian, Ojo stressed that thecalcium therapy holds greatpromise for children andwomen because children aremore susceptible to lead poi-soning due to their lower toler-ance for the heavy metal.According to the professor, leadstored in the bones of womenwill remain harmless there, butthey become susceptible to poi-soning when they becomepregnant or lactate since bothlead and calcium are nowextracted from their bones.

Citing a study in Mexico City,Ojo said it was demonstratedthat if adequate calcium is pro-vided topregnant and lactating womenthrough their diets, the bodywill have no need to extractmore calcium – and the associat-ed lead – from the bones. In the Mexico study, he said, thedaily oral administration of cal-cium supplements to pregnantwomen resulted in up to a 31 percent reduction in blood leadlevel. He showed further thatpreliminary results from hisown studies suggest that com-bining selenium supplementswith calcium might yield evenbetter results. He therefore urged govern-

ment to facilitate local researchinto this alternative approachto tackling lead poisoning, notonly in Zamfara but other partsof the country.

Executive Director/Chief Executive Officer (CEO), National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), Dr. Ado Gana Muhammad; Minister of State forHealth and Chairman Presidential Taskforce on Polio Eradication, Prof. Muhammad Ali Pate; Director General World Health Organization (WHO), Margret Chan; andTechnical Assistant to Minister of State for Health, Dr. Faisal Shuaibu, at the International Vaccine Summit held last week in Abu- Dhabi, United Arab Emirate (UAE).

By Tony Nwanne

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43THE GUARDIAN, Thursday, May 2, 2013

Education

NOUN will have 1.5 million students infive years, says Tenebe

Tenebe

NIGERIA is hosting this year’s PanCommonwealth Forum on Open Learning

(PCF7), being organized by the Commonwealthof Learning. How far has the National OpenUniversity, which has the responsibility of put-ting the structures in place, gone with the prepa-rations?The seventh Pan Commonwealth Forum (PCF7)is being hosted by Nigeria. The National OpenUniversity of Nigeria (NOUN) is just the leadinstitution co-hosting, but the major host is theFederal Ministry of Education. Being the leadinstitution, the Local Organizing Committee(LOC) is based here and is being chaired by theDeputy Vice Chancellor, Academics. We havemembers from all other sister institutions, espe-cially tertiary institutions that have anything todo with Distance and Open Learning.Already, abstracts are being harvested online.

In terms of preparation for accommodation, theconference would be taking place in Abuja andwe have already gone round to identify thehotels that are appropriate to accommodate ourinternational partners as well as other peoplewho are coming from all parts of the world. Ofcourse, you know that in Abuja, being the fastestgrowing city in Africa and a model one for thatmatter, we have all sorts of hotels that wouldmeet the requirements of our international part-ners and friends from all over the world.The story of NOUN is a sweet/bitter one. You havebeen on the hot seat and you have also witnessedso many phases. How far has the institutiongone?Yes, the story of NOUN is a bitter/sweet one, butit has also been very interesting. It’s been chal-lenging because Open and Distance Learning(ODL) is relatively new in this part of the world. Itis interesting because it gives us the opportunityto enlighten people who, hitherto, did not know

anything about open and distance learning.The most interesting part is that by the time youexpose people to ODL, they would discover thepleasure in it. They would discover the advantagein it. They would discover that it has a lot of char-acteristics that differentiate it from the conven-tional system. They would then find that the ODLis a system that makes education absorbable andeasy within the system because it gives you all theliberty. It democratizes education, without put-ting you through stress while, at the same time, itis not undermining quality. How has NOUN coped with the challenge of pro-viding instructional materials and other onlineresources?

I always say that nothing good comes easy.Instructional materials in ODL are an importantarea that you do not joke with and also an areathat you cannot approach with haste. Theinstructional materials are not just study materi-als. They also represent the teacher or lecturer,who is not standing in front of the students, soyou have to go through all the steps and proce-dures required to make sure you bring out thebest of materials that would meet the needs ofthe students in the absence of the lecturer.So, it is not a one man’s job. There is a team. Everysingle material that is written goes through ateam. The writer is different from the subject edi-tor and the subject editor is different from theprint editor. After going through all these, some-times, after the writer had finished and the pro-fessional who is the subject editor goes throughthe work, he could conclude that the material istoo watery. In that case, we have to step the mate-rial down and start all over again.Sometimes, the minimum time you spend to

develop a course material, even for a one creditunit course, may be about three months, that is,all the processes of writing, giving all the exam-ples, instructional designers and so forth. With allthese requirements, I will always let Nigerians

know that, when this university started, we didnot have a single course material. But we wereunder the presidential direction to start and wecouldn’t have refused. It was when we started that we commenced the

development of course materials and that is whywe have always been accused. We didn’t want togo into the world and copy other people’s materi-als or plagiarise. So we had to assemble a teamand gradually, to the glory of God, we have gottenmost of the materials written. I can assure youthat more than 95 per cent of the courses that areoffered in this university, the materials have beendeveloped.The only challenge we have right now is that weare yet to print some of them. And the reason whywe have not printed some of them is because wehave not finished with the final editorial require-ments of dotting the Is and crossing the Ts, toensure that we remove all the typographicalerrors and other minor grammatical errors. But because our students cannot wait and we

also cannot wait, we had to put everything on theweb and that is why students can downloadcourse materials online. And because of that, ourmaterials have become open to the whole world.Everybody now downloads our materials, includ-ing the conventional universities. They don’t pay,they just access the Internet and they are able todownload the materials free of charge.Due to the complaints of most of our students,

that since they have already paid for the coursematerials, why did they now have to downloadfrom the internet; we have come up with anothersolution, by not only putting the materials on theweb, we have also downloaded the materials our-selves and put them on Compact Disks.So, when our students register and they indicatethe subjects they are taking in a particular semes-ter, for example, if a student has about eightcourses to offer in a semester and he has aboutthree or four of those courses available in print

materials, we still give a CD that contains all thecourses as written in the electronic form.

You might have some courses in print form,while those you don’t have, you can slot in yourCD into your system and you can read or print.That is an intervention that we have now done. Itwould reduce the problem that students gothrough when they need to download from theInternet because sometimes, the system could beslow and sometimes there could be no network. Itwould also help our students who are in the ruralareas, who might not have access to the Internet.What is the cost of taking a course at NOUN to anaverage student? For instance, how much will itcost a student to study Accounting?Since we are flexible, it depends on the number

of courses that the student might eventually take.There is a minimum requirement, but there is norestriction to the other courses that you can takeor borrow as your wish.As a federal university, we do not charge tuition

fee here. All the charges we give the students arewhat they have to pay for the course materials,which are also highly subsidized. But they alsopay minimally for examination, identity cardsand so on.For an average student, the requirement for a

semester would be about N35, 000 for coursematerials, with other things inclusive. But thereare some students who pay up to N50, 000 toN52,000, depending on the courses they are tak-ing or the requirements. If they have deficienciesin some areas, the department may recommendsome extra courses and you have to pay for thosematerials.Has NOUN fulfilled its promise of opening upaccess? What is the population of your studentsnow? What does the future hold?The future is very bright. We have come out of

the blues. The only challenge we have is to ensurethat we get the facilities to meet up with theupsurge in the number of students. When I tookover this office, the student population of about32,000 dropped to about 16,000, which is 50 percent, because of the problems we were having.Sixteen thousand students in this whole country?And this was partly due to some people, who weresaying NOUN is not a recognized university; thatits courses were not accredited and that somethings were illegal, including a whole range ofissues. And again, our inability to produce coursematerials, because we didn’t even have theresources and enough time to do it, contributed,so the number of our students dropped.However, when we faced these problems with-

out hiding any facts from anybody and the gener-al public now realized that we were working pos-itively, we had a rise again.Last semester, 76,000 students wrote examina-

tions across the country. And one thing peopledon’t realize is that the Open University is so flexi-ble and accessible that we are running two semes-ters at any time. Nigerians are yet to get used tothis. Every semester that commences is the firstand second semesters. We have fresh studentsnow, who are being admitted for the pro-grammes and there are also students who just fin-ished their first semester of that same course, andare registering for their second semester now. Nouniversity does that.We just closed registration for both new and

returning students and students are still askingfor extension. We have 36,000 new students whohave registered and paid. By the time you add the36,000 to the 76,000 who wrote examinationslast semester, you will have over 100,000 andthese are just the active students.If I give you the total roll call of both active and

inactive students, then we are already clockingabout 180,000 mark. But I am not satisfiedbecause I promised that before the end of mytenure, in another two and half years, this univer-sity should be talking of a student population ofover 500,000 students. My dream is that, in thenext five years, whether I am here or not, this uni-versity should be talking about 1.5 million stu-dents. That is how it should be. If India could have3.8 million students, then we want OpenUniversity in Nigeria to have at least 1.5 millionstudents.The other thing we need to explain to Nigerians

is that this university, unlike the conventionaluniversities, is not just meant to admit studentsfor first degrees or PhDs. We also have the Centrefor Lifelong Learning, where we give out skillacquisition. In fact, that is where we should havemore students, to enable people set out on theirown and it is an indirect way of creating jobs.

That is why I am calling out to our goodPresident, Dr Goodluck Jonathan, to look towardsus more if he wants to actualize his promise of cre-ating more jobs for Nigerians. He should focusmore on Open University, because this is the onlyuniversity that can be utilized to create jobs forour restless youths. This is the only university thatis available in all the 36 states.

When the National Open University ofNigeria (NOUN) took off for the secondtime in 2001, many people did not give ita chance. But it forged ahead with deter-mination, nevertheless. Its pioneer ViceChancellor, Prof. Olugbemiro Jegede hadto contend with many challenges and thecurrent Vice Chancellor, Prof. VincentTenebe, who took over from him, hastaken the institution to a higher ground.Tenebe told ROTIMI LAWRENCEOYEKANMI that NOUN’s path to great-ness is assured. Excerpts:

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THE GUARDIAN, Thursday, May 2, 2012Education46

Lagos Assembly seeks education sector review

SMARTING from the falloutof the last Saturday’s

Unified TertiaryMatriculation Examination(UTME), the Lagos State Houseof Assembly yesterday adopt-ed a motion for the review ofthe educational sector inNigeria.

The lawmakers, in themotion, called on the FederalGovernment, Federal andStates’ Ministries of educa-tion and other stakeholdersto critically appraise the edu-cation system, with a view toimproving it to accommo-date vocational and skillsacquisition.Moving the motion on the

floor of the Assembly yester-day, Chief Whip of the House,Rasak Balogun called atten-tion of the House to a reportin the media that about500,000 candidates of 1.7 mil-lion that sat for the UTMEcould only be admitted intotertiary institutions.

Balogun, representingSurulere II, said it was regret-table that the Nigerian educa-tion system had startedexploiting the young onesand its examination, a lottery.Balogun informed the law-

makers that none of the appli-cants had enrolled for theexamination free of charge,coupled with enormousstress candidates went

through to register and sit forthe examination. “So, why didthe Ministry of Educationallowed Joint Admission andMatriculation Board (JAMB) totake so many applicants whenit is clear that vacancies are solimited?Continuing he said: “It is in

this same country that is sup-posed to be making progressthat the Federal Governmentannounced the creation ofmore Universities when exist-

ing ones have not been wellfunded to near internationalstandard. We have graduatesthat cannot compete withtheir mates around the world.We must really begin to deemphasize prominenceplaced on university certifi-cate in this country. I think it istime members of this Houserise up and speak againstthese unfortunate trends,” hesaid.Balogun added that the issue

Ogun takes malaria campaign to schools

CAMPAIGN effort towardsmapping out malaria in

Ogun state has been taken tothe public and private schoolsin Abeokuta, the State capital,as part of activities markingthis year World Malaria Day.

Speaking at the pro-gramme organised by theState Ministry of Health in col-laboration with a pharmaceu-tical company, Sanufi,Commissioner for Health, Dr.Olaokun Soyinka, said effi-cient healthcare delivery ispart of the five points cardinalprogramme of the state gov-ernment, pointing out thatthe focus was especially formothers and children.

“Mothers and Children arethe agent for health transfor-mation and we are using chil-dren as our change agent forbetter health”, he stated.

Represented by his SpecialAssistant, Dr. Sade Adebanjo,the Commissioner said it wasimportant for parents to

ensure strict adherence tomaintaining clean environ-ment urging them to keeptheir wards away from unhy-gienic and unhealthy habi-tat.

Also speaking, the SeniorSpecial Assistant to theGovernor on Health, Dr.Olaoluwa Lawson, advisedthe public to always take cog-nizance of clearing their sur-rounding, avoid stagnantwater and use insecticidetreated mosquito net.

In his remark, the ProjectManager of Sanufi, Mrs.Taiwo Aderinsola describedmalaria as a disease that needthe attention of governmentand relevant stakeholderssaying that, “We believe chil-dren are the future, by thetime we inculcate this atti-tude in them and they growup with it, I believe they willbe able to communicate withtheir parent on how malariacan be prevented.”

By Wole Oyebade must be taken seriously bythe Federal and State govern-ments because most of thevices in the society today wereas a result of youths thatcould not get into school tolearn or could not getemployment after gradua-tion.

Supporting the motion,Omowunmi Olatunji-Edetsaid the Ministry of Educationowe the country an apologyfor “deceiving Nigerians.”

In similar vein, RotimiOlowo, Shomolu I representa-tive added his voice as hecalled for the declaration of astate of emergency in the edu-cation sector.

According to Olowo: “Theeducation sector is distressedand that is why we have ourpeople going to Universitiesto read courses likePhilosophy, Political Science,Yoruba, Igbo language andothers that have no relevance

to social, political and eco-nomic life! We need more ofvocational and technical edu-cations,” he said.Deputy Majority Leader, Lola

Akande, though disagreedthat some courses are useless,she called for a review ofschool curriculum and betterfunding for education sector.The plenary, presided over byDeputy Speaker, TaiwoKolawole, put voice to vote toadopt the motion.

By Wole Oyebade

AWOMEN group in thecountry, WOW DIVAS, has

advocated for special educa-tion and supportive policiesto improve the plight ofabout a million children liv-ing with Autism SpectrumDisorders (ASD) in Nigeria.The group, at their third

Autism Seminar held in Lagosrecently, said special educa-tion system was important todevelop the “exceptionallearners” into normal adults.WOW DIVAS was worried thatwhile very few primaryschools in the country accom-modate children with ASDs,there are no secondaryschools or University that is

equipped to cater for specialneeds. According to them: “WOW

DIVAS believe that personswith ASDs are in the same cat-egory with genius. In fact, aperson with ASD is on the flipside of genius, which meansthey have their own uniqueabilities that must be nur-tured in order for them to bethe best they can be. There aremultiple abilities in ASD,”they said.Among those that made thiscall at the interactive forumare Paediatrician, Dr AbiodunEke-Aluko; Director AutismAssociates, Okey Nwokolo;Special EducationPractitioner, Lola Aneke; ChiefExecutive Officer, WOW

DIVAS, Udo MaryanneOkonjo; Advocates ofChildren with Autism, KerryBrooks, Ifeyinwa Osime,Ifueko Karibi-Whyte amongothers.Autism is a disorder of neu-

ral development character-ized by impaired social inter-action and communication,and by restricted and repeti-tive behavior. The UnitedStates (U.S.) embassy inNigeria estimates that one inevery 50 young person inNigeria has some form ofASD.Speaking on ‘Effective edu-

cational services for childrenwith special needs (ASD),’Aneke noted that contempo-rary research and technology

has led to great achievementsin the delivery of effectiveeducation to children withautism.She, however, added that in

Nigeria, among other devel-oping countries, childrenwith special needs still havelittle or no access to specialeducation and related servic-es.Meanwhile, in countries like

the United States, where edu-cational system is properlydesigned to cater for personswith special needs, the meth-ods of instruction are special-ized to include special materi-als, teaching techniques,equipment and facilities.

Aneke noted that relatedservices are essential to thisprocess, and these servicesinclude special transporta-tion, speech-language pathol-ogy; audiological services;interpreting services; psycho-logical services; physical andoccupational therapy amongothers.“Indeed, for a child with spe-

cial needs such as ASD, specialeducators are trained to offernot just effective instruction,but instruction that is highlyindividualized, intensive,relentless, urgent and goaldirected.“The special educator would

have to work as part of a teamconsisting of the individual,the parents and other sup-port staff. Thus, the goal ofeducating a child with specialneeds can only be reachedthrough the application ofthese special education andrelated services usingresearch-based practices,” shesaid.

Another speaker, Nwokolo,added that special educationand services for children withautism was one of the objec-tives in the Autism bill cur-rently before the FederalHouse of Representatives. Thebill is seeking to establish anational centre for diagnosis,management and welfare ofpeople with autism.Nwokolo added that it was

important for the executivearm of the government toinaugurate committee thatwill design policies in keyareas and to standardize thecare and management of ASD.

Co-coordinator of WOWDIVAS Autism Initiative,Karibi-Whyte, said furtherthat the lawmakers in Nigeriashould be aware that parentsof special needs children,unlike the norm in manyparts of the world, still get nosubsidies or pay outs fromgovernment.

Continuing, she said:“Caring for a child with ASD isextremely expensive and canbe a life time of continuousexpenses for medicals andeducation. If the Nigerian gov-ernment cannot subsidisethese costs today; we humblyrequest that our lawmakerssponsor a bill that will exemptparents of special needs chil-dren from paying taxes. Thesavings from taxes will go along way in accommodatingthe expenses of a child withASD,” she said.WOW DIVAS is a network of

purposeful, professional andbusinesswomen whose visionis to encourage, inspire andactively promote strongwomen, through finding theirplace and purpose in life.

Women group advocates special education for autistic children

THE GUARDIAN, Thursday, May 2, 2013Education47

LearnAfrica restates commitment to promote Nigerian books

LEARNAFRICA Nigeria Plc,formerly known asLongman Nigeria Plc, hasrestated its commitment tocontinue to celebrate indige-nous authors and theirworks at home and abroad.

At the just concludedLondon Book Fair, where thecompany was the onlyNigerian publishing outfitthat hoisted the country’sflag at the global event, thebooks exhibited include:Dayo Oladele-Ilori’s CruelPassion; Wale Okediran’s Afterthe Flood; VincentChukwuemeka Ike’sConspiracy of Silence; FemiOsofisan’s Twingle Twangle;Dibia Humphrey’s A Drop ofMercy; Uche Bialonwu’s TheLong Claws of Fate;Iheanyichukwu Duruoha’sEaters of Dust, Ifeoma Okoye’sChimere, Grace Akpan’s SpiderWeb, Bayo Williams’ The Yearof the Locusts and EmekaNwabueze’s Guardian of theCosmos, among others.

According to Mr. Allwell

Nwankwo, the Head ofMarketing of the company,the fair is a global market-place for rights negotiation,sale and distribution of con-tent across print, audio, TV,film and digital channels.According to him, the fair

attracted more than 1,500exhibitors from 113 countriesand over 25,000 participants,Nwankwo said: “We werethere to show the world, onceagain, the quality of contentfrom Nigeria, especially increative writing. That’sindeed the least we can do fora country that has producediconic writers that arerespected all over the world.We have a rich history of pro-ducing world class worksand we should continue tomake them available at glob-al publishing forums like theLondon Book Fair, in addi-tion to other channels wecurrently use. We appreciatethe great enthusiasm visitorsto our stand have shown.”

THE Vice-Chancellor,University of Lagos, Prof.

Rahamon Bello has encour-aged as many adults as wouldwant to benefit from adulteducation, to seize the oppor-tunity, adding that educationis a continuous thing and thatthere is no age limit to learn-ing.Presiding over the 5th inau-

gural lecture delivered at theUniversity’s hall by ProfessorOluwayemisi Ayedun Obashoro-John of the depart-ment of Adult Education onthe topic “ProgrammeEvaluation: Back to theFuture”, Bello who commend-ed the efforts of Obashoro-John on the lecture which hedescribed as a well-researchedwork, posited that the world isnow a global village and any-one who disdains educationor learning would not be ableto follow the trend of increas-ing technology.“Anyone without prejudice

to age who refuses to identify

with the present dispensationof daily innovation in technol-ogy through continuous learn-ing will apparently be living inthe past.“There is no age limit to learn-ing and reading and that iswhy I commend Prof. AyedunObashoro-John for her effort inthrowing light into what adulteducation means and ensur-ing every aspect of what isknown as adult education iscovered. The strength of anynation is education and anation that stops learningwould definitely stop grow-ing”

TRAGEDYstruck in Maiduguri,Bornu State at the weekend,when gunmen suspected ofmembers of Boko Haram sectambushed the official Hiluxpick up van conveying two offi-cials of the West AfricanExamination Council (WAEC) apoliceman and candidates’examination scripts from Biu tothe Maiduguri office of theexamination body and shotdead Mr Peter Boni and thepoliceman attached to the vehi-cle. According to an eyewitness,

the gunmen targeted the WAECofficials, before snatching thevehicle that contained all theexaminations scripts. He said: “Iwas overlooking how the gun-men stopped the driver of thevehicle and fired several gun-shots into the heads and chestsof the policeman, and two WAECofficials sitting in the front. Wehad to run into the bush whenthe gunmen started firing at theofficials, conveying examina-tion scripts of students in Biutown. The soldiers rushed toDalawa, the scene of the attackand killing, 30 minutes after thevictims were killed.”

The gunmen, according tohim, fled towards BulabulinNgaura on the Maiduguri-Biuroad with the snatched Hiluxvan, and dumped one of thebodies there, before the soldierspicked remains to the hospitalmortuary for deposition andidentification.

An anonymous official ofWAEC in Maiduguri told TheGuardian that the trio includingthe driver, departed Biu at 3pmlast Friday, “but tragedy struckour officials who were on activeduty, as they were assassinatedin cold blood along with a

policeman who was to give pro-tection to both the examinationscripts and lives in the vehicle.”It was also learnt that the bod-

ies of the two officials and apoliceman, were deposited atthe Specialist’s Hospital,Maiduguri for identification andcollection by family members ofthe deceased.

Speaking on the incidentSunday, the Borno State PoliceCommand spokesman, GideonJibrin said there was an attacknear Molai, where two officials ofWAEC and a policeman werefeared killed by suspectedarmed hoodlums.

Don stresses importance of adult education

THE gap that has persistedbetween those that formu-late education policies andthose that make budgetary pro-visions for the sector has beenidentified as the main problemconfronting education inrecent times not only in Nigeria,but in Africa as a whole.Speaking at the Seminar Seriesorganized by the Faculty ofEducation, Ahmadu BelloUniversity, Zaria on Tuesday, theGuest Lecturer , Professor K.Venkateswarlu who spoke on

the topic: Trends and Concerns ofPlanning for Affordable andSustainable Education, said themain purpose of the educationin the years past was primarilyto achieve broad but laudablegoals and that whatever thegoals there were , did dependon the means and that therewere plans to achieve them.He added that because of therising costs involved in the sec-tor, governments becameinvolved in planning, and sub-sequently took over the controlof education on the continent.

University teacher identifies weakest link in education

THE Osun state govern-ment will on May 9, for-

mally launch the distribu-tion of customized comput-er tablets tagged, “Opon-Imo” (Tablet of Knowledge)to students in the S.S.1 to S.S.3classes, in the state’s publicsecondary schools.Built to improve learning

and prepare students forexternal and internal exami-nations, each tablets isdesigned in the form of aniPad and would be distrib-uted free-of-charge.

The state’s DeputyGovernor, Mrs. Grace TitiLaoye-Tomori, who also over-sees the education portfolio,noted that the tablets “areinstalled with the software ofall the subjects being offeredin secondary schools; incor-porating different textbooks, lesson notes, pastquestions and answers onthe West African SeniorSchool CertificateExamination (WASSCE); theSenior School CertificateExamination (SSCE) beingconducted by the NationalExamination Council(NECO), as well as the UnifiedTertiary MatriculationExamination (UTME).”

Osun launches Opon Imocomputertablet May 9

Suspected Boko Haramgunmenkill WAEC officials, policemanFrom Njadvara Musa, Maiduguri

ABOUT 29 years after losingcontact, following comple-tion of their secondary schooleducation, old students ofIponri Grammar School, Lagosregrouped at the weekend tolaunch an alumni associationand hold their inaugural meet-ing with a view to taking theiralma mater to greater heights.It was an opportunity to re-enact the joy of old as the old stu-dents, some of whom camefrom outside the country toattend the event, hugged eachother, exchanged banters anddanced enthusiastically togeth-er.

In his address, theAdministrative Secretary of theIponri Grammar School OldStudents Association (IGSOSASS)Class of 1983/84, OladepoKehinde hailed all his col-leagues, home and abroad who

worked for the convening of themeeting and sympathized withthe families of those who hadlost their lives since they parted.He urged the old students tobrace for the task of assisting theschool to attain greater heights.The current Principal, Alhaji

Abdullahi Ibrahim, and his vice,Mr. Olayiwola Kamarudeen,who were full of joy, seized theopportunity to brief the old stu-dents on the major develop-ments in the school since theypassed out.Kehinde and Mr. Taiwo Olasupo,who came from the UnitedStates to attend the meeting,said the old students are set togive back to their alma mater.They spoke of equipping theschool’s new hall with chairs,decorate the stage, and possiblyprovide air conditioners tomake it attractive to event plan-ners who will higher it for use,towards generating funds for

the college.The first Senior Girl of the

school, Oshodi OlubunmiOmolara, and a member of theevent’s planning committee,Mr. Mobolaji ClaudiusOlumuyiwa urged their col-

leagues who are yet to team upwith the old students, for onereason or the other, to do so inthe interest of development oftheir alma mater and the gainswhich such association holdsfor the individuals.

Old students meet, pledge better deal for Lagos schoolBy Felix Kuye

By Isaac Taiwo

THE GUARDIAN, Thursday, May 2, 201348

THE GUARDIAN, Thursday, May 2, 2013 49

THE GUARDIAN, Thursday, May 2, 201350

about to ride off he said to the tortoise: “Thankyou again, Mr. Tortoise, thank you for teachingme how to ride a horse. But it is better to havethan to know”. This, as I said earlier, is a story Iuse in my ideological discussion with youngpeople here. I use the story in preference tohundred of “proletarian” stories within myeasy reach.

In a communication shortly after the deathof Chinua Achebe, a veteran socialist intellec-tual and activist regretted that Nigerian so-cialists have not been able to fully recognizeand utilize the works of progressive humanistwriters like Achebe. He confirmed thatAchebe was the post-war convener of theNsukka branch of the Movement for People’sDemocracy (MPD). He said of Achebe: “Achebeimpressed me as an urbane craftsman withquiet charms and full of courtesies. As generalsecretary of MPD I found Achebe a good lis-tener, full of commitment... displaying inpraxis his perception of reality..”

I said earlier that when reading ChinuaAchebe’s non-fictional works I sometimesfrown – mildly or deeply, briefly or for quitesome time, all depending on the seriousnessof my displeasure or disagreement. But, as Ialso added, I quickly recover and continuewith my reading. The areas of displeasure, as Ialso said are two: ideology as it relates to polit-ical economy, classes and class struggles andthe national question. These two areas are fullysupplied in two of his non-fictional books thatI have read and re-read very closely: The prob-lem with Nigeria (1983) and There was a country:A personal history of Biafra (2012).

What I have said about Achebe’s works in gen-eral can also be said about these two books inparticular: I enjoy reading them. Beyond thissubjective and unquantifiable statement andbeyond my strong displeasure with areas Ihave identified, the two books are sources ofknowledge for what I had not known or had notthought about; they offer a confirmation, justone, but important confirmation, for what Ihad known but needed confirmations andelaborations; and they provide counter-propo-sitions: powerful, articulate, lucid and enlight-ened counter –propositions, right or wrong.

The claim can be made that The problems withNigeria is popular in Nigeria; the central thesisthere, or one of the central theses, namely, that

51

OpinionTHE GUARDIAN, Thursday, May 2, 2013

Who guards the guardians?

TALKING about the attribute they call realismreminds me of one of the battles Leon Trot-

sky had to fight to save his revolutionary ca-reer, reputation, legacy and ultimately his lifeafter the Russian revolution. That Trotsky wasnot “proletarian” enough, in both his politicalwritings and his literary theory and criticismbecame one of the ancillary charges that wereheaped on him by forces and individuals thatare now correctly described as “barracks so-cialists”, those who see revolution, socialismand social transformation generally like theenforcement of decrees. If what I have said sofar does not refer to what is actually meant byrealism then forget the term and retain what Ihave said.

I used to be embarrassed whenever a work ofart was dismissed on the grounds, and only onthe grounds, that it was not “proletarian” ornot “proletarian” enough; and conversely. I donot intend to pursue this matter beyond thispoint – except to say this: Any Nigerian, or in-deed, African, revolutionary who intends touse literature in his or her campaign andcomes across Chinua Achebe’s fictions butcannot see them as powerful weapons needsa fundamental self-examination.

Let me illustrate: I have read the followingstory in at least one of Chinua Achebe’s collec-tions of essays: A snake, riding a horse along analmost deserted road, passed a tortoise whowas resting by the roadside. The tortoiselaughed so loudly that the snake stopped. Thetortoise went up to the snake and saluted. Thesnake asked why the tortoise was laughingand the tortoise replied: “Mr. Snake, that is nothow to ride a horse, rolling into where youshould put one of your feet! The snake quietlycrawled down the horse, on to the road. “Mr.Tortoise, please show me how to ride”, thesnake requested his tormentor. The tortoisequickly jumped on the horse, balanced him-self property – the “normal” way – and rodedown the road.

The tortoise soon returned. “Thank you verymuch, Mr. Tortoise. You may now comedown”, said the snake to the tortoise. The tor-toise jumped down from the horse and thesnake crawled up into the place he usually po-sitioned himself on the horse. As the snake was

By Anthony Okogie

Chinua Achebe: A personal tribute (2)the main problem with Nigeria is that of lead-ership, also enjoys wide acceptance among thepolitical class in particular. But I reject that the-sis. The problem with Nigeria, the Nigeria Ihave known since I became politically con-scious, is capitalism – capitalism in its varioushistorical phases and forms and through vari-ous maladies it develops as it continues on itsdehumanizing and destructive trajectory. Mythesis is this: Ultimately, for individual nationsand for humanity as a whole, the singularquestion of survival will be: How do we put anend to this mode of production and, with it,this social formation, that put the accumula-tion of profits into private pockets ahead, muchahead, of human life and the fate of humanity?

Chinua Achebe’s last book has so far been con-troversial and has therefore receivedmixed re-actions. That is inevitable. The subject-matterand the content, the title of the book and thestature of the author all combine to make thebook inevitably controversial. I frown fromtime to time when reading There was a countrynot because it contains falsehoods (I have so fardiscovered none) but because of its omissions,the failure of the dialectic “when one thingstands another thing stands beside it”; using Bi-afra and Igbo almost interchangeably as if theyare the same; inadequate treatment of Biafra’sethnic minorities; and, above all, almost total ab-sence of the class andmode of production per-spectives.

These four “weaknesses” are, for me, insepa-rable. For this reason, any critique of the bookthat separates them or omits any of them willsuffer more “weaknesses” than the originalbook. Conversely, a revision of this book thathonestly tries to correct these “weaknesses”would produce a wonder: the controversieswould no longer have any bases; but the maintheses and propositions would still stand. Concluding testimony before the court of history:

My love of history emanated, I believe, from mylove of stories generally. Later, my revolution-ary consciousness made it increasingly imper-ative for me to be a student of history. Thehistory of the Nigerian Civil War (1967-1970) hasbeen a particular subject of my studies sincethat war ended. In the course of these years, Ihave read many accounts, listened to many de-bates and disputations, visited many placesconnected with the more frightening reports

of atrocities, ferocious battles, heroism, mili-tary feats and sheer human tragedies. I haveconducted many interviews and cross-checked many charges. The least I can say inrelation to the frightening events reported byChinua Achebe in his There was a country isthat far from writing a fiction, Achebe was ac-tually restrained in the way he reported onthese events. My reservation is over what heomitted rather than what he included.

I wish to bring this personal tribute to a closeby offering two references for further reflec-tion. Both of them are from Professor BiodunJeyifo. First, check Jeyifo’s 2008 keynote ad-dress at an international conference markingthe 50th anniversary of the appearance ofThings fall apart. The conference was held atthe Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife. That address is one of the two essays thatmake up his book Things fall apart, Things falltogether (Bookcraft, Ibadan, 2010). For the sec-ond reference, see Biodun Jeyifo’s five-part re-view of There was a country in The Guardianunder the title First, there was a country; thenthere wasn’t: Reflections on Achebe’s new book(December 3 and 30; 2012; January 6, 13 and 20,2013).

Chinua Achebe was a prominent, respectedand famous Nigerian before the Civil War; hewas a prominent, respected and famous Bi-afran during the Civil War; and he became,once again, a prominent, respected and fa-mous Nigerian after the Civil War. Only fewpeople whose lives had traced this particulartrajectory had managed to live through itwith the degree of dignity and humility com-manded by, or associated with, Achebe.Chinua Achebe’s life has again demonstratedthe limitlessness of the human spirit: thewish, will and ability to continue to live in theface of serious personal adversities; not to liveand nurse one’s adversity, but to live to con-tinue to work for humanity with the skill andweapon that one still has. Thinking of this as-pect of Achebe who died on Thursday, March21, 2013 at the age of 82, conjures the image ofAntonio Gramsci, a genius of Marxistthought, one in the long list of martyrs of thesocialist struggle.• Concluded• This column is proceeding on break for the nexttwo Thursdays.

THROUGH the many, sometimes obfuscating argumentsfor the offer of amnesty to the Boko Haram sect, we wake

to learn that our security agencies are themselves under at-tack by this group and so far are unable to definitively stemthe tide in their favour. The killing of six police officers andthe abduction of the Divisional Police Officer in Borno andYobe states in broad daylight is a recent case in hand. Thiscurrent attack and abduction may pale when compared tothe attack of the same terrorist group on the police head-quarters itself in Abuja in June 2011 and the military base inKaduna. Still, it begs the question, that if our guardians can-not guard themselves, how can they guard us? If the mili-tary and police are so challenged thus far in the fight againstthis terrorist, it becomes less difficult to see what little hopethere is for the ordinary Nigerian in the crossfire? Is there

light at the end of this tunnel or are we facing a dark tunneland the end of the light?

It is most disturbing and indeed worrisome that such inci-dents as this, even and especially when there have been clearand embarrassing precedence, should be allowed to reoccur.Has nothing been learnt from our past alliances with thisgroup. Is nothing being learnt from the experiences of na-tions around us who face similar challenges? In the wake ofthe Boston Marathon bombing, was nothing learnt from theway the security agencies systematically locked down theState and hunted down the terrorist until found? Is Borno orYobe State bigger than the State of Boston? Are they more so-phisticated in infrastructure and town planning thanBoston? Or are our security agencies not sufficiently trainedto think out, strategize and implement effective responsesto this style of threat? If so, what are they being taught intheir respective colleges of training? How are all the moniesallocated yearly for security spent? Are our security agentsactually prepared for this fight or are they unwitting pawnsin the chess game of political gladiators? Are they being de-liberately deprived of funds, training and informationneeded to deal decisively with this issue? How sincere is theNigerian government in taking up this fight? Apart from thestatistics of deaths and damages caused by this group, whyare other newsreels of the culprits and others implicated tobe associated with them not kept on the front burner on adaily basis but hushed up after some initial sensationalism?Why are Nigerians not kept abreast of the fruits of the inter-rogation of suspects? Why is there silence over the big namesthat were mentioned with the capture of Sokoto Biu, mas-

termind of the Madalla Christmas bombings? Is this silencein hope of wishing the problem away or an attempted coverup for the creation of a Frankenstein that can no longer becontrolled? If after every attack, these terrorists melt backinto the community they continue to terrorise, how is it thatthe community members themselves do not turn them in(as was the case in the Boston bomber captured alive)? Is itthe case that the people themselves perceive that our secu-rity agencies have been subverted or compromised and sowould rather take their chances with fate? Does the killing of185 people, mostly women and children in Baga, Borno Stateby security forces, in retaliation for a Boko Haram strike, jus-tify security forces’ determination in the fight against BokoHaram? Does such an act not only further alienate the coop-eration of the people they should be protecting, but also cre-ates a sympathy base for a group whose sole aim appears tobe anarchy?

When would we learn? Are we ready to learn? Or could itjust be the case that we are all part of an elaborately orches-trated contrivance of statecraft, wherein this “Terrorist Act”is merely a sub-plot to ensure that resources are disbursedand disappear in what has been the most endemic problemof Nigeria; corruption? Small wonder an amnesty “package”was being considered for a faceless and numberless group.

In all of these ruminations, my heart goes out to all the se-curity agents whose lives have been forfeited in our ill-pros-ecuted fight against terrorism in Nigeria.  For it was mythought for them that birthed these other thoughts, henceI conclude as I started, “who guards the guardians?” • Cardinal Okogie is Archbishop Emeritus of Lagos.

By Edwin Madunagu

When would we learn? Are we ready to learn? Or couldit just be the case that we are all part of an elaboratelyorchestrated contrivance of statecraft, wherein this“Terrorist Act” is merely a sub-plot to ensure that re-sources are disbursed and disappear in what has beenthe most endemic problem of Nigeria; corruption?Small wonder an amnesty “package” was being con-sidered for a faceless and numberless group.

Opinionrecent repeal of the universal banking model.From 89 a few years ago, the number of Nige-ria’s banks was initially reduced to 25 and later20, creating institutions that were far betterprimed to funding major capital-intensiveprojects, especially in such areas as infrastruc-ture as well as oil and gas. According to the Cen-tral Bank of Nigeria (CBN), bank branches alsogrew from 3,247 in 2003 to over 5,837 in 2010 inaddition to considerable growth in virtualbanking outlets, including ATMs and Internetbanking, helping to gradually enhance finan-cial inclusion by expanding access to bankingfacilities across the country.To further drive financial inclusion, a mobilemoney regime has since commenced. By mak-ing banking less bureaucratic, yet more acces-sible and convenient, mobile money seeks tobring millions of previously unbanked Nigeri-ans under the formal banking umbrella. For in-stance, entry requirements are far less onerousthan for opening new accounts. Furthermore,the pervasiveness of the mobile money agentnetwork, that includes neighbourhood retail-ers among others, implies that millions of hith-erto unbanked are being systematically availeda compelling reason to join the formal finan-cial sector.Policy reforms in the banking and financialservices sector have entailed greater focus andattention to such vital areas as corporate gov-ernance, data quality and risk management. Asin many other emerging markets, these re-forms followed a period of distress in the do-mestic banking system following themargin-lending crisis in 2009 and the empiri-cal realization that financial supervision is keyto preventing systemic shocks. Rebuilding astrong financial system following the melt-down experienced four years ago was also sup-ported by the launch of the Asset ManagementCorporation of Nigeria (AMCON), in late 2010and its subsequent intervention to acquire thebanks’ non-performing loans and clean uptheir balance sheets. AMCON’s interventions through the acquisi-tion of N4.2 trillion worth of bad loans between31 December 2010 and 28 December 2011 haveimproved the sector’s asset quality materially.Furthermore, the steps taken by the CBN to em-phasize robust risk management now sees riskmanagement officers featuring prominentlyin banks’boards and credit decision processes.

52 THE GUARDIAN, Thursday, May 2, 2013

WHEN President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua on November 1, 2007laid the foundation stone for the construction of the 140

megawatts Aba power plant to be constructed by a privatepower company – Geometric Power Systems Limited (GPSL) atthe plant site in Osisioma-Ngwa, Abia State, not many Nigeriansbelieved that the project would materialize at all. This was due tothe persistent and perennial failure and crisis that had accom-panied power sector reforms in the country that had thrownvast part of the country into perpetual darkness for years now. Adevelopment, which had grounded many industries and dis-courage foreign investors from investing in the country.The project, according to its designs was expected to be com-missioned in April 2009, but will now be commissioned nextmonth, as deadlines were shifted to accommodate contingen-cies and tackle challenges.�GPSL company, which was owned byformer Minister of Power, Prof. Barth Nnaji initiated and com-menced the construction of the model power plant with an in-tention to serve the industrial hub within the Aba-Port Harcourtaxis.Most industries in the area have gone into extinction owing topoor power supply system of the Power Holding Company ofNigeria (PHCN) and so constructing of a model integrated powerplant like the Aba plant was not only a good business initiative,but also good move to save the economy of the southeast regionfrom total collapse.As the power plant is set to take off operation any moment fromnow, kudos and praises must go to the brain behind this nobleproject, an illustrious son of Igbo land, Prof. Barth Nnaji for be-lieving in the country called Nigeria, despite the disappoint-ment and humiliations he has suffered in it. Also to becommended for making the project a reality is the Abia StateGovernment under the leadership of Governor TheodoreAhamuefuna Orji whose government provided enabling and se-cured environment for the project to be executed.

The company encountered a lot of challenges in the area whileconstructing the project. Top among these challenges was theproblem of insecurity, which was occasioned by the kidnappingmenace that crept into the state then. A menace that compelledworkers of the company at the site to flee for fear of being kid-napped. This was at a time notorious and politically motivatedkidnappers took over the commercial city of Aba and its environsin a desperate bid to ground governance in the state for selfishreasons. Works were brought to a halt at the site, while com-mercial activities were grounded and residents fled for safety.There were calls for the state of emergency to be declared in thestate by some people, which include opposition politicians inthe state and the then President of Nigerian Bar Association(NBA), Mr. Joseph Daudu (SAN).Orji’s government was never deterred with the kidnapping

challenges then; rather it tackled the challenges headlong byproviding all the needed logistics for the security agencies in thestate to dislodge the rampaging kidnappers and restore nor-malcy in the area. This the security agents achieved when theygunned down the leader of the kidnapping gang in the area in agun battle and flushed out his co-kidnappers in the state. Thatwas how normalcy was restored to the area and the power com-pany continued their project: a feat the cynical political enemiesof the state did not believe government could overcome.Obviously, if normalcy and security were not restored in thearea by the state government then, there is no way the powerplant could be executed and the idea of Aba returning to its lostglory would be a thing of the past by now. Ahead of the com-missioning of the power plant, the state government has alreadycompleted the Osisioma Ngwa-Geometric road making accessto the project site easy for the company workers and other com-munities around the area.Fulfilling her promise during the rainy season last year, thestate government had since the ending of last year commencedthe massive rehabilitation and reconstruction of some federaland state roads in Aba.

THE Nigerian economy has continued to ex-pand rapidly over the past decade, outper-forming most sub-Saharan Africa peers, themajority of emerging markets and the devel-oped world. This positive performance, coupledwith the size of the Nigerian market, makes thecountry an investment destination that simplycannot be ignored internationally anymore.Even so, the full economic potential of Nigeriahas yet to be unlocked – a key challenge to be ad-dressed in the coming years. What remains crit-ical is our ability to transform elevated growthrates into sustainable economic developmentvia the implementation of core structural re-forms – particularly reforms that involve coor-dinated interventions in the real sector as wellas the nation’s financial system. In terms of real sector reforms, the StanbicIBTCGroup supports the Federal Government’s on-going privatization of the power sector, the in-troduction of a more comprehensive regulatoryframework for the petroleum industry, the em-phasis on recent reforms to rebuild and en-hance agriculture value chains, as well as thecreation of a framework for public-private-part-nerships to attract private capital into infra-structure development projects. Recent fiscal and financial sector interventionshave paved the way for such wide-ranging struc-tural reforms. A fundamental aspect of the re-cent fiscal reforms is the launch of the SovereignWealth Fund, which is designed to accumulatefiscal savings and smooth government spend-ing over long-term oil boom and bust cycles bydecoupling spending revenues from expendi-ture.In terms of financial sector reforms, buildinga modern and more forward-looking bankingsystem remains an important policy prioritygiven the large funding needs of the Nigerianeconomy, not only in the infrastructure space,but also at the SME and retail levels. There is astrong consensus on the vital role that banksand other financial institutions play in stimu-lating overall economic development, espe-cially given the critical financial intermediationresponsibility of this sector. The banking and financial services industry

has over the last decade been involved in itsown elaborate policy reforms process from theprevious banking consolidation initiative to the

Some of them, which include Azikiwe road, Geometric Poweraccess road, Constitution Crescent, Brass junction by FaulksRoad, Milverton Avenue, and Constitution Crescent were com-pleted and commissioned by Governor Orji recently amidstpraises and fanfare by the residents of the commercial city. Thedevelopment is already boosting commercial activities in thecity with the massive influx of business projections ahead of theGeometric Power Plant take off that will guarantee steady powersupply to the city.Besides, the state government had last year partnered with theFederal Government to evacuate power from the 132/33KV Trans-mission sub-station in Ohiya Umuahia. Since the commission-ing of the project, there has been steady power supply inUmuahia and its environs, a situation that has made the stategovernment’s rehabilitation of the Umuopara Regional WaterScheme a possibility, as the Water Scheme has since commencedoperation, providing clean water for the residents of the statecapital and its surrounding communities. Since then also, themedium and small-scale industries and several artisans in thestate capital who were before now off business due to epilepticpower supply have re-opened shops and business is booming.With the take off of Geometric power plant any moment fromnow and Integrated Power Project at Alaoji nearing completion,Aba will soon and surely become a haven of investment drive inthe country as the ailing industries in the commercial city willbe revived and employment opportunities would be created forteeming unemployed youths. It is a credit to the present gov-ernment in the state that these giant strides are being made pos-sible at this point the government is on a rescue mission in thestate taking it to the next level in the area of infrastructural de-velopments, security and peaceful co-existence. With the steadypower supply in Umuahia, Aba and its environs, Abia State maygo down in history as the first state in the country with steadypower supply since the return of democracy in the country in1999. • Dr. Uwa, a medical practitioner wrote from Aba, Abia State.�

Additionally, the Federal Government initiatedreforms in sectors such as the agriculture andpower sector in a bid to increase productivityand reduce dependence on imports. Conse-quently, the CBN has set a target for the bankingsector to increase loan book exposure to theagriculture sector to 10 percent by 2017 from thecurrent level of 3.5 per cent. In order to supportthis drive, the CBN set up a N200 billion agri-culture scheme and also developed the NigerianIncentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agri-cultural Lending (NIRSAL), to support creditgrowth to the agriculture sector.A crucial reform by the CBN is the repeal of theuniversal banking model leading to the emer-gence of international, national, regional andeven specialized banks in Nigeria. Banks arenow required to either divest from non-banksubsidiaries or adopt a holding company struc-ture, which in our view, further reduces risk inthe banking sector by separating commercialbanking business from investment bankingand capital market activities, which are per-ceived to be more risky. The UK’s IndependentBanking Commission’s recent proposal for theUK banking sector to follow a similar route tomanage financial sector risks underscores theCBN’s visionary approach to banking regulationin response to the global financial crisis. For a banking group with a 150-year heritageand an unwavering commitment to supporteconomic development in sub-Saharan Africa,we see the banking and financial sector reformsas a very welcome development. If Nigeria musttruly unlock its formidable potential for eco-nomic development, then coordinating strate-gic fiscal policies and financial sectorinterventions will remain an urgent imperative.In the case of our banking group, we have, incompliance with the CBN directive, trans-formed into a holding company structure.Leveraging on the combination of our domesticexpertise and our membership of StandardBank Group, StanbicIBTC Holdings sets a policyframework for all our subsidiaries, which oper-ate independently. The holding companymodel ensures that we can continue to provideexceptional end-to-end financial services to ourclients and customers, within enhanced riskmanagement parameters, which ring-fence theinterests of our retail depositors from the non-banking operations conducted elsewherewithin the Group. Furthermore, as part of the

larger Standard Bank Group, the new operatingmodel allows StanbicIBTC subsidiaries to drawdirectly upon the experience, expertise andother resources of dedicated product and busi-ness teams across 30 countries in which wehave a presence globally. The new structure, webelieve, repositions our banking group to bebetter focused at discharging our core financialresponsibilities to our various regulators, aswell as delivering better value across a widespectrum of key stakeholders – from clients andcustomers, shareholders and investors, to em-ployees and host communities. The process of transiting to a holding com-

pany structure within the timeframe stipulatedby the CBN was fraught with various regulatoryand fiscal challenges. Our banking group wasnot alone in embarking on this transformativejourney. Together with four other bankinggroups, we constituted an industry group of fi-nancial institutions committed to adopting theholding company route to compliance with theCBN’s reforms. This industry group had a fruit-ful engagement with numerous regulatory andfiscal authorities on the challenges, and I mustcommend the unwavering support and con-tinuous commitment of the regulatory agen-cies that were instrumental in facilitating oursuccessful transition. In particular, the industry group is indebted tothe Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Dr.Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, her team at the FederalMinistry of Finance, and the Federal Inland Rev-enue Service for the exceptional fiscal supportthey provided for the transition into the hold-ing company structure. Their colleagues at theSecurities and Exchange Commission, theNigerian Stock Exchange, the Pensions Com-mission of Nigeria and other members of the Fi-nancial Services Regulatory and CoordinatingCommittee were also very supportive of theCBN’s reforms in this regard, and deserve ourthanks.The recent financial sector reforms illustratehow a coordinated policy response of the gov-ernment created incentives and opportunitiesfor private sector led restructuring of Nigeria’sbanking and financial services, resulting in amore robust and resilient system that hasweathered the vicissitudes of the recent globaland domestic financial downturn. • David-Borha is Chief Executive, StanbicIBTC Hold-ings PLC.

By Romanus Uwa

By Sola David-Borha

The hope from geometric power plant

Unlocking Nigeria’s economic potential

THE GUARDIAN, Thursday, May 2, 2013 53

NSE Daily Summary (Equities) as at TuesdayPRICE LIST OF SYMBOLS TRADED FOR 30/04/2013

54 THE GUARDIAN, Thursday, May 2, 2013

NigeriaCapitalMarket

55THE GUArDiAN, Thursday, May 2, 2013 CAPiTAL MArKET

NSE Daily Summary (Equities) as at 30/04/2013

PriCE GAiNErS LOSErS

FCMB posts N15.3bn profit in 2012, N4.2bn in Q1FirST City Monument Bank

Plc (FCMB) has recordedgross earnings of   N116.8 bil-lion against N75.70 billionposted in 2011  and  profit aftertax (PAT) of N15.3billion for thefinancial year endedDecember 31, 2012.

Besides, the bank’s unaudit-ed result for the first quarterended March 31, 2013 showeda PAT of N4.2billion, which

represents an increase of 3percent from the N4.1billion post-ed in the corresponding peri-od of 2012.

The bank also declared abonus of one additional sharefor every 25 unit of shares heldfor its shareholders.��

According to a statement bythe bank, the percentageincrease in gross earnings forthe full year stood at 54.3 percent while PAT rose by 256 percent.

�Also, the bank’s loans andadvances grew by 10.7per centto N357.798billion last yearcompared to N323.353billionthe previous year, while thebank’s total assets equallyrose to N909billion as at theend of 2012, as againstN602billion in 2011.

The statement added thatFCMB’s merger with thedefunct Fin Bank also impact-ed positively on the perform-ance of the bank as its operat-

ing income grew by 48percent.

Speaking on the bank’s per-formance, the GroupManaging Director of thebank, Ladi Balogun, said, “weare pleased to have returnedto profitability after the chal-lenges of 2011  doing so, whilstalso successfully executingthe recent merger makes theyear’s performance all themore remarkable”.He added, “the trend contin-

ued in the first quarter of 2013and we expect our perform-ance to gather momentum aswe begin to improve produc-tivity of the immenseresources and capacity wehave acquired”.

Balogun pointed out thatgoing forward, attentionwould be placed on improv-ing efficiency, customer expe-rience and employee moraleand productivity in the entity,to enable it achieve it achieve

its target of being   among thetop five banks in Nigeria by theyear 2015.� �

The FCMB boss expressed con-fidence that, “these will trans-late into greater profitabilityand sustainable market sharegrowth in 2013 and beyond”.� �

Financial analysts describedthe results as, “healthy and anindication that the bank is wellpositioned to compete at thehighest level in the Nigerianbanking sector”.

By Helen Oji

THE GUARDIAN, Thursday, May 2, 201356

THE GUARDIAN, Thursday, May 2, 2013 57

THE GUARDIAN, Thursday, May 2, 2013

Sports58

I don’t want to play for Super Eagles now,says Anichebe

LMC orders Pillars, Heartland to replay botched game in AbujaTHE League Management

Company (LMC) hasordered Kano Pillars andEnugu Rangers to replay theirabandoned Week Eight

match on May 29 in Abuja. The game was abandoned

after a policeman shot a faninside the Sani AbachaStadium in Kano.

LMC Chief Operating Officer,Salihu Abubakar toldMTNFootball.com that thebody arrived at the decisionafter listening to both clubspresentations on Monday andTuesday. 

“We have ordered a replay ofthe game on May 29 at theFIFA Goal Project Abuja,”Abubakar disclosed.

Pillars had hoped that thematch would be awarded to itbecause Heartland allegedlyrefused to continue the gameeven after normalcy wasrestored following fans’protest as a result of the policeshooting.

Heartland also demanded itbe given the three points and

three goals because the homefans encroached on the pitch.

In its protest letter sent tothe League ManagementCommittee (LMC), Heartlandclaimed that a fight broke outbetween the security menand a group of armed sup-porters belonging to thehome team, who tried toforce their way on to the pitch30 minutes after the gamehad been played without agoal from either side.

It added that the fightresulted in the firing of gun-shots, which killed a fan andleft about three Kano Pillarssupporters with bulletwounds while the policemanaccused of carrying out theshooting was stabbed todeath by the angry support-ers, who also sacked the play-ers and officials from thepitch.

AS workers all over theworld trooped out for the

Workers Day celebration yes-terday, one man, whorefused to be part of theactivity in Nigeria isrenowned Athletics Coach,Tobias Igwe.

Igwe’s contribution to thesuccess story of Nigeria’ssports, especially athletics,remains unbeaten, havingdiscovered the best crop ofathletes at different timesfor the land and led thenation to victories at variouscontinental championships,including the Olympic

Games, Commonwealth, AllAfrica Games and the Afro-AsiaGames.

But the coach is a sad manfollowing many frustrationshe had encountered in life,especially in the hands of hisemployers. Toblow, as he isknown in the sports circle,was sent away when Abia car-ried out a massive disengage-ment of non-indigenes fromthe state’s civil service.

His wife, who was workingat Ohafia Local Council of AbiaState, was equally swept awayduring the exercise and thefamily has been ‘living fromhand to mouth’ for about twoyears now.

His appeal to Imo State gov-ernment, his home state, toemploy him has not seen thelight of day. The sack by Abiawas the second time Igwewould suffer such calamity inthe hands of his employers, ashe was earlier disengaged bythe government of EnuguState about 15 years ago onthe same reason that he is notan indigene of the state.

In an emotional WorkersDays message to The Guardianyesterday, Coach Igwe wrote:“Good morning and happyWorkers Day. I am supposedto be part of this celebrationgoing by my contribution to

SUPER Eagles’ striker, VictorAnichebe says he is not

ready to play for Nigeria nowbecause he wants to “managehis body accordingly.”

Lagos-born Anichebe, 25,who was tipped to replace theinjured Emmanuel Emenikein Nigeria’s ConfederationsCup and World Cup quali-fiers’ squad, told BBC Sportyesterday that for the timebeing, he does not want to beconsidered for the SuperEagles.

“The best thing for me at themoment is to focus on clubfootball,” he said.

Anichebe has been plaguedby injuries over the past fewyears, including a groin prob-lem on his last appearance forNigeria in a 2-0 win overMadagascar in 2011.

He insists he is proud to playfor his country, but for themoment his Premier Leagueside Everton are his priority.

“Without club football thereis no international footballand everyone at Everton waswith me every step of the wayduring my injuries and reha-bilitation and so I owe it tothe club to manage myselfcorrectly,” he explained.

“I didn’t feel that theNigerian federation was therefor me then in the same man-ner, which was especially dis-appointing given that I gotthe injury representing mycountry.“But I don’t blame anyone for

this nor do I have any issueswith anybody from the NFF or

Stephen Keshi our coach. “He has done a fantastic job

and is building a team thatNigerians can be proud of.”

A former England youthinternational, Anichebeswitched allegiance andplayed his first game forNigeria in March 2008.

He scored on his debut in a2-0 win over South Africa tohelp them reach the 2008Olympics and was then partof the squad that went on towin silver in Beijing.

Despite the recent setbacksand decision to put club overcountry, Anichebe has noregret to have chosen Nigeriaover England.

“A lot of people ask me if Iwas sad that I wasn’t part ofthe Nations Cup winningteam but I couldn’t have beenhappier because it broughtso much happiness toNigerians, especially afterthere has been so muchtragedy,” he said.

“I know football cannot takeaway some of the pain it hascaused but it was good for thecountry. I am just like the 170million Nigerians out there, Iam a fan obviously, as well as,a player.

“If I had gone would I beplaying for my club at the lev-el I am now? Perhaps not, so itworked out well for bothsides.

“The time is just not right forme to resume my interna-tional career as of yet but Iwould certainly love to repre-sent my country in the none-too-distant future.”

Kano Pillars battling with El Kanemi in a recent game. The LMC has ordered a replay of the abandoned game between Pillars and Heartland of Owerri. PHOTO: FEMI ADEBESIN-KUTI.

PHOTO: AFP

Government frustrated my Workers Day celebration long ago, says coach Igwethis great nation, but here Iam gnashing my teeth inagony with members of myfamily.

“I did not expect that mypathetic condition will stretchclose to two years in this landof plenty. I did not also believethat people in high places atthe state and national levelwould keep quiet waiting formy demise before raisingtheir voices. Today is WorkersDay and it is so sad that my col-leagues all over the world arecelebrating and the man, wholed African athletes to twoWorld Cups is languishingsomewhere.

Minister/NFF may decide league dispute

FOLLOWING the inability ofthe League Management

Company (LMC) and the clubmanagers to resolve the lin-gering crisis in the NigerianLeague, the minister ofSports/chairman of theNational Sports Commission(NSC) and the managementof the Nigeria FootballFederation (NFF) would likely

rule on the issue ‘in the inter-est of Nigerian football.

The LMC and the club man-agers met in Abuja for oversix hours on Tuesday toresolve the dispute, but theclub managers walked out ofthe meeting ‘because theLMC was not ready to meetour demands.’

A member of the club man-agers group told TheGuardian after the stalemat-

ed meeting that they mayseek the intervention of theminister and the NFF for afinal resolution to the crisis,stressing that the club chair-men have become fed upwith the LMC.

The member, who pleadedanonymity, said the groupinsisted that the LMC mustbe registered, adding thatthe interim committee mustrevert to the Interim LeagueManagement Committee,which he said was the namegiven to body by the NFF.

Nigeria Professional Football League

By Gowon Akpodonor

Ideye may move toEnglish Premier League

SKY Sports understands anumber of Premier League

clubs are tracking DynamoKiev’s striker, Brown Ideye.

The 24-year-old Super Eaglesstar joined the Ukrainian clubin 2011 after spending time inSwitzerland with NeuchatalXamax and then a stint inFrance with Sochaux.He has impressed during his

time in Kiev and was linkedwith a move to Chelsea lastsummer as a potentialreplacement for DidierDrogba.

Reports have also previous-ly claimed that fellowPremier League clubs,Newcastle United andSwansea City, have beentracking Ideye’s progress.

Ideye’s agent, HootanAhmadi says there are clubsshowing an interest in theforward, but will not rushinto a decision over his nextmove.

From Ezeocha Nzeh, Abuja

Coach Igwe (right) with Bukola Abogunloko during one of the country’sinternational outings.

THE GUARDIAN, Thursday, May 2, 2013 SPORTS 59

Okpekpe Road Race will thrill foreignathletes, says Itemuagbor

AS foreign and local athletestrickle in for the maiden

Okpekpe Road Race thisweekend, promoter of therace, Mike Itemuagbor, haspledged that the Edo Stategovernment would makeevery aspect of the race a last-ing memory for both athletesand their officials.

The declaration byItemuagbor came yesterday,just as officials of the AthleticsFederation of Nigeria (AFN)and the various ClubOwners/Managers at stateslevel have reached an agree-ment on the way forward fol-lowing the protest by athleteslast weekend, which led to theboycott of the second leg ofthe Golden League at theUniversity of Benin SportsCenter. The protest resulted to three-

year ban each of three ath-letes.

At the end of the meetingbetween the AFN TechnicalCommittee headed by NavyCommodore OmatseyeNesiama and 12 club owners,the states’ AAAs/ClubOwners/Military andParamilitary club ownersbacked the action takenagainst the ‘rebelling’ ath-

letes, saying that every gen-uine reform process wouldnaturally come with resist-ance and so the action of theathletes could be a naturalphenomenon of resistance tochange.

The Club Owners noted thatthe AFN’s technical strategicplan was good for both theathletes and the nation, andagreed that AFN set standardsshould be upheld to encour-age improved performance ofthe athletes. They directed that all athletes

interested in competing inthe Golden League must reg-ister and compete under aState AAA/Club or ParaMilitary body, adding thatunattached athletes wouldno longer be entertained.

“The only exception is at theAll Nigeria Championshipswhere foreign-based athletescan participate on invitation,”they stated.

They also agreed that theFederation should hence-forth deal directly with StatesAAA/Clubs, military or paramilitary organisations. “Thisincludes payment of deserv-ing rewards and incentives.These bodies would hence-forth take responsibility fortheir athletes’ conduct.”

Speaking with The Guardian

WARRI Wolves FootballClub will clash with

Atete FC, Ovwian, on Sundayin the final of this year’s ECOBANK sponsored Delta FACup.

The match billed for WarriCity Stadium will com-mence at 3.00pm. Beforethen, Warri Wolves Feederteam will slug it out withInvincible Leopard FC ofWarri in the third placematch at 1pm.

Speaking on the final show-down with Atete FC, CoachSolomon Ogbeide of WarriWolves, whose team is grad-ually finding its bearing inthe League, advised the play-ers not to underrate theAtete boys, who are made upof former players of WarriWolves and the defunctDelta United.

Ogbeide said he was look-ing forward to lifting the FACup and would not wantanything that will stop this

dream. Speaking to the players

yesterday, Ogbeide said, “itis my dream to lift the FACup and my candid advise toyou is not to underrate theopponent. Majority of thosecurrently featuring for AteteFC have played for WarriWolves before and will wantto prove a point. We havestarted finding our bearingin the League and what weneed to do now is to consoli-date our position in thestate.”

Warri Wolves teamCaptain, AzubuikeEgwuekwe, promised to leadthe team to victory andurged the players to play outtheir hearts.

“I know the match will betough because we each othervery well, but we are equal tothe task. We just have to playwell and finish the workwithin ninety minutes and Iknow we can do it.”

By Gowon Akpodonor

Zenith Bank basketball league resumes today in Asaba

ORGANISERS of the 2013Neros Pharmaceuticals

Anambra State FA Cup havepromised a funfilled grandfinale of the competition onSaturday when the Onitsha-based Ikpeazu Redoubtablestake on Global FC at the NerosSports Stadium, Nanka.

At stake is a trophy worthN2 million and the braggingright as the best team inAnambra State.

Both teams by qualifyingfor the final have alreadypicked the tickets to repre-sent the state in the nationalversion of the competition.

To qualify for the final,Ikpeazu Redoutables provedbookmakers wrong by beat-ing Nigerian National League(NNL) side, Gabros, 1-0 in thesemifinal also played at theNanka Stadium.

Bobby Ikpeazu scored thesolitary goal of the match inthe 50th minute to send his

team and fans into frenzymood.

Global Academy FootballClub overcame the toughchallenge of Dynamic SportsFootball Club 3-2 at RojennyStadium, Oba, to book its tick-et for the final showdown,with Eric Okorie making thedifference with just nine min-utes to go when he scored thedecider after the game hadtied at 2-2 and was heading topenalty shoot out.

Global Football Club ofOnitsha came a distant fourthlast year, while IkpeazuRedoutables is making its firstdebut in the fiesta.

Before the final match, theAnambra Eleven, a team ofplayers selected from theclubs that participated in thisyear’s State FA Cup, will takeon the Flying Eagles in afriendly match.The friendly match comes up

by 2pm while the final takes

Ikpeazu Redoutables tackle Global FC, asAnambra XI meet Flying Eagles

• AFN, Club owners preach peace after athletes protestyesterday on the arrangementfor the Okpekpe Road Raceholding on Saturday,Itemuagbor said the AdamsOshiomhole-led governmentwould not disappoint the ath-letes, adding, “we have a gov-ernment that is very responsi-ble when it comes to organisa-tion of sporting events. Ourlocal and international road-runners will want to return toOkpekpe community afterSaturday’s event. They will tellthe good story at the end ofthe day.”

The Road Race in Okpekpe, asleepy town 25km from Auchi,in Etsako East LocalGovernment Area of Edo State,is the first of its kind in thecountry. Okpekpe town isfamous for its hilly sceneryand according to Itemuagbor,the 10km race course willwind  around the hills. Therace has mouth-watering cashprizes, starting from $25,000dollars for the first placed ath-lete to $3.000.00 for the ath-lete in the 8th position formales.

For the females, the prizesrange from $5,000 dollars to$1000, while the prize moneyfor Okpekpe community ath-letes ranges from N100, 000for first position to N5,000 forthe athlete in eighth position.

Neros Pharmaceuticals Anambra State FA Cup

• FA honours Super Eagles starsplace by 4pm.

At the end of the AnambraFA Cup final, the first, second,third and fourth placedteams will go home with N2million, N1 million, N500,000, and N100, 000 respec-tively.

Meanwhile, the AnambraState Football Association inpartnership with NEROSPharmaceuticals Limited willhonour some Anambra Stateindigenes in the Super Eaglesteam that won the 2013African Cup of Nations inSouth Africa early this year.The players include JohnMikel Obi, EmmanuelEmenike, Austin Ejide, ObioraNwankwo, AzubuikeEgwuekwe and assistantCoach, Sylvanus Okpala. Theevent takes place on the FACup final day.

THE second phase of theZenith Bank Basketball

League will resume in Asabawith the teams expected toarrive yesterday in readi-ness for the jump ball onFriday.

The technical meetinginvolving the teams and theleague board will holdtoday to iron out modalitiesfor staging the event.

First Deepwater and First

Bank basketball clubs areleading their respectivegroups after winning alltheir games in the firstphase in Abuja.

They are expected to con-tinue their dominance ofthe league, but will alsohave Sunshine of Akure andDolphins of Lagos to con-tend with. These teams canshock the two top teams ontheir good days havingproved to be forces to reck-on with in the past seasons.

Coach Adewunmi Aderemiof First Bank is already plan-ning to  wrestle the titlefrom First Deepwater, thereigning champions, whileLateef Erinfolami ofDeepwater is hoping histeam triumphs for  thefourth consecutive time.

The fans are expected tohave a swell time even as theorganiser, NigeriaBasketball Federation (NBF),expects a better turn out ofspectators in Asaba.

By Adeyinka Adedipe

…Warri Wolves, Atete FCclash in Delta FA Cup final

Heartland and Lobi Stars contesting the 2012 Nigeria FA Cup trophy at the Teslim Balogun Stadium, Lagos. The states’ finalshold this weekend in centres across the country. PHOTO: FEMI ADEBESIN-KUTI.

THE GUARDIAN, Thursday, May 2, 201360 | SPORTS

REAL Madrid Coach, JoseMourinho gave his

strongest hint yet that he isready to return to Chelseathis summer after watchinghis side exit the ChampionsLeague at the semi-final stage.

A 2-0 win at the Bernabeulast night was not enough toreverse the damage of thefirst leg in Germany asMadrid lost 4-3 on aggregateto Borussia Dortmund.After the match, Mourinho

turned his attention to afuture that appears certain tolie away from Madrid, andsaid he wanted to return towhere he was “loved.”He told ITV, “perhaps I won’tbe here next year, I want to bewhere I want to be.”He later told a press confer-

ence, “I haven’t made a deci-sion because I have a contract

here (with Madrid). In foot-ball people break contractswhen they want to but morethan the contract, its therespect I have for the club andfor the players.“I know that in England I amloved by the fans and themedia, who are fair with me.They criticise me when theyhave to but give me creditwhen I deserve it.“I know I am loved by some

clubs, especially one, but inSpain it’s a bit different, somepeople hate me, many ofthem are in this room(Spanish journalists), so itsdifficult for me because I likethe club.”

Mourinho stressed hewould not make anyannouncement until the endof the season, with Madridstill chasing silverware asthey prepare for the Copa delRey final against AtleticoMadrid.“I want to play the final, fin-

ish the season, win the finaland finish second, and then

sit down with FlorentinoPerez, my president and myfriend,” he said.Late goals by Karim Benzemaand Sergio Ramos were notenough for Madrid to elimi-nate Jurgen Klopp’s side, whomade it to Wembley thanks totheir 4-1 win in the first leg inDortmund.Mourinho admitted he was

disappointed to not make thefinal, but defended his tenureat the club.

“It’s not my culture to besatisified by not winning thecompetition but we knowthat its a difficult competi-tion, you don’t win it whenyou want to, you win whenthings go your way,” he said.“I don’t live for near achieve-ments, nor does this club. Butafter the club won the threeEuropean Cups (in 1998, 2000and 2002) Madrid entered aperiod of not even making itto the quarter finals.

“We weren’t even seededwhen I got here and my firstworry was qualifying fromthe group stages.

CRISTIANO Ronaldo wantsto put Tuesday night’s

Champions League semi-finalexit to Borussia Dortmund toone side and win the Copa delRey.

A 2-0 win at the Bernabeuwas not enough to mend thedamage of the first leg inGermany as Real Madrid lost4-3 on aggregate toDortmund.Karim Benzema and Sergio

Ramos both scored in the lasteight minutes to set up a pul-sating finish, but it was notenough for Jose Mourinho’sside, who have fallen at thefinal hurdle for the third yearin a row under his guidance.

It is now thought thePortuguese will not lead

them into next season’s cam-paign after he strongly hint-ed he wants to return toEngland, with Chelsea men-tioned as potential suitors.There is silverware on offer

before then, though, andRonaldo believes if they showthe same desire againstAtletico Madrid in the Copadel Rey final on May 17 theresult will be different.“We scored late. There were

five minutes of added timebut we couldn’t turn itaround,” he told real-madrid.com.“I think the first match was

key because four goals are alot in the Champions League,but the team were focused ontrying to reach the final.

Champions League Fallout

Ronaldo after the defeat on Tuesday

Mourinho hints at Real exit

Mourinho

Defeated Ronaldo up for the cup

How Dortmund bossexpressed relief inside toilet

“We scored two goals but wecould have had four or five,(Gonzalo) Higuain, (Mesut)Ozil and I had chances in thefirst half.“We showed that we are bet-ter than them. We’re a bit sadbecause we thought we couldhave been in the final. TheCopa del Rey is a differentcompetition. It will be a differ-ent match and if we go outwith the same desire I amsure that we will win.”

Ronaldo also played downtalk of him leaving thePrimera Division club, afterManager, Mourinho hintedhe could return to England.The Real striker said, “I have

two years of contract and I’mnot worried about my renew-al.”

BORUSSIA DortmundChairman, Hans-Joachim

Watzke locked himself in aBernabeu toilet as he couldnot bare to watch the finalminutes of Tuesday night’sChampions League clashwith Real Madrid.The German side conceded

two late goals before clingingon to secure a 4-3 aggregatewin and book their place inthe final at Wembley.“It seems like we only can doit with drama,” Watzke saidon the club’s official website.“For the first time in my life

I had to give up due to heartproblems. I went to the toilet

for the last minutes, lockedmyself in, covered my earsand looked at my watch. Ihad all kinds of thoughtsgoing through my head.”

Director of sport MichaelZorc also admitted he strug-gled to cope with the nailbit-ing finish, and five minutesof injury time, after goalsfrom Karim Benzema andSergio Ramos put the hostswithin sight of a remarkablefightback.“We have earned ourselves a

huge reputation in Europe.In the last minutes I was closeto a heart attack. But whenthere is a positive outcome,

it’s all good.“It was great. In the second

half we played a really goodgame. In the space of 10 min-utes we had four goldenchances.“When you don’t take them

then you are often punished.That’s why it was really tightagain. That was not in theplan. But, in retrospect, it wasonly a slight deviation fromthe plan.”Defender Neven Subotic was

one of Dortmund’s star per-formers on the night, alongwith central defensive part-ner, Mats Hummels and goal-keeper, Roman Weidenfeller.

THE GUARDIAN, Thursday, May 2, 2013 61

THE GUARDIAN, Thursday, May 2, 201362

THE GUARDIAN, Thursday, May 2, 2013 63

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THE Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB)which was conceived almost adecade ago by the former PresidentOlusegun Obasanjo when he set up anOil and Gas Reform ImplementationCommittee to assess modality for thereformation of the oil industry; wasmeant to carry out a comprehensivereform of the oil industry with a viewto bringing the Nigerian system underthe international best practices and toreplace the unfathomable secrecy ofour oil industry with transparency, isseeing as a mirage and has beenweighed down with a myriad of prob-lems.The bill which is currently before theNational Assembly (NASS) is meant tochange everything from fiscal terms tooverhauling the Nigerian NationalPetroleum Corporation (NNPC), pro-mote Nigeriancontent and significantly increasedomestic gas supplies, especially forpower generation and industrial devel-opment; with the ultimate aim ofrefining the Petroleum laws, aftermore than 50 years of oil andgas operations in Nigeria.In as much as issues are being raisedon the credibility of the certain parts ofthe bill, it is also important to notethat if the bill is passed, all facets of thepetroleum industry would be liberatedfrom all government constraints andhurdles which hitherto rock the indus-try making it unattractive to goodinvestors.The National Assembly should fornational interest, if nothing else, puttheir grievances aside, collaborate withthe NNPC and other stakeholders toleveled the perceived contours in thePIB that have been generating contro-versies. The leadership of the NationalAssembly in the persons of SenatorDavid Mark and Speaker AminuTambuwal are rare gems, patriotic citi-zens and men of credible characterswhose antecedents are unequalled andimmeasurable. With the committeesrecently setup by the leadership of theAssembly to look into the cause of thedelay in the passage of the PIB and fasttrack the process of passing it into law,it is believed that Nigerians wouldsoon have the bill they have long antic-ipated.No doubt, what appears to be hold-ing the density of the argument anddelay in the non-passage of the PIBshould be the purport 10 per centCommunity Equity which mandatesevery oil company to pay 10 per cent ofits holding in any PML to the fundestablished for host communitiesaddition to the 13 per cent currentlyenjoyed by the oil producing states.However, predictably this did not gowell with some people who already felt

ers in the industry through transpar-ent and fair rules of participation, goodcorporate governance and strong fiscalframework that will move Nigeriaclearly towards the international bestpractices in the sector.Of course, it is good to redress thedark sides but we should also under-stand that, the bill has far-reaching pro-visions on the issues of Nigerian con-tent, which should not be impeded. Forinstance, it provides that no projectcan be approved without a comprehen-sive “Nigerian Content Plan” whichmust include obligations on the part ofthe investor to purchase local goodsand services, increase employment, aswell as focus on training, educationresearch and development. It alsorequires the foreign investors to followguidelines in order to assist local com-panies. Adherence to the provisions ofthe bill will surely boost the purchaseof local goods and services leading tohigher employment opportunities forNigerians.It is worth noting that the bill has init, a series of landmark provisions tocorrect the anomalies of the currentpetroleum regime. For example, it is anindisputable fact that the Deep SeaWater Blockscontract that Nigeria entered into in1993 with foreign investors is one of theworst contracts any oil-exportingnation can enter into as it seems to fos-ter unilateral advantages only on theforeign partners with Nigeria havingvery little or no gains under the pro-duction sharing formula in the agree-ment. The royalties accruable to thecountry are zero per cent! The foreignpartners take I00 per cent of the prod-ucts. Even the taxes system under thesaid “bad deal” contract does not pro-vide much benefit for the country asthe tax regime included generous taxcredits to these foreign investors whichwiped out a great percentage of the col-lectible tax by the Federal Government.I think the National Assembly shouldnot only relent on redressing the 10 percent community equity but also look atthis issue very critically and possiblyinsert a clause that can bring aboutenforcing the redress of such dreadfulcontract for the good of our economy.It is our utmost belief that theNational Assembly will give the bill theneeded attention it deserves by passingit into a law considering the benefitsNigerians stand to derive from it.The general belief is that a regime ofopenness and transparency would beushered in. Neither the NNPC nor theNational Assembly is gaining from theprolonged delay in the passage of thisall-important bill linked to under-ground manipulation of vested inter-ests. Whatever maybe the situation,Nigerians are appealing to the lawmak-ers saddled with the responsibility ofpassing the bill into law to expediteaction and save Nigeria.• Dadiya wrote from Wuse 2, Abuja.

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E-mail letters@ngrguardiannews.com; www.ngrguardiannews.com(ISSN NO 0189-5125)Editor:MARTINS OLOJA . ABC

PIB: Why NASS, NNPCmust work together

marginalised in the revenue alloca-tion.The imperative of passing the bill

into law cannot be over emphasised,considering the fact that the PIB givesincentives to both small and big play-

Senate President, David Mark

Petroleum Minister, Diezani Alison-MaduekeThe imperative of passing thebill into law cannot be overemphasised, considering thefact that the PIB gives incen-tives to both small and bigplayers in the industry throughtransparent and fair rules ofparticipation, good corporategovernance and strong fiscalframeworkthat will move Nigeria clearlytowards the international bestpractices in the sector

In as much as issues are beingraised on the credibility of thecertain parts of the bill, it isalso important to note that ifthe bill is passed, all facets ofthe petroleum industry wouldbe liberated from all govern-ment constraints and hurdleswhich hitherto rock the indus-try making it unattractive togood investors

By Mathew Dadiya