48 HOURS AS NEW KANO EMIR: Sanusi operates from Govt House

...towards a better life for the people

N150VOL. 25: NO. 62163

ONLINE | www.vanguardngr.com

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 11, 2014**

Mr & Mrs

Continues on page 5

Sanusi operatesfrom Govt House

COLUMNISTS:

He looks tootolerant for me

•P.37

Jonathan's"most wanted"list of enemies

•Normalcy returns to Kano, schools, businesses re-open

•P.19

48 HOURS AS NEW KANO EMIR: BY ABDULSALAMMUHAMMAD

KANO —FORTY-eight hours after

his appointment as newEmir of Kano, AlhajiSanusi Lamido Sanusi isyet to resume duties atthe Emir ’s palace, lo-cated in Nassarawa in ac-cordance with tradition.

Alhaji Sanusi wasnamed new Emir byKano Kingmakers follow-ing the death of AlhajiAdo Abdullahi Bayerolast Friday.

The appointment of thenew Emir was an-nounced by the Secre-tary to the Kano StateGovernment, Rabiu

Police take overEdo House ofAssembly

EDO ASSEMBLY CRISIS—Police at the Edo State House of Assembly as the crisis in the House continued, yester-day. Photo: Barnabas Uzosike.

>13

Nigeriapushes tolead OPEC

>8

>64

YOBO ROARS!...We areready for Iran

VANGUARD IN BRAZIL

2—Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 11, 2014

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 11, 2014—3


POCKET CARTOONVanguard, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 11, 2014—5

TAKE HEARTBY ELLA RANDLE

Continues from page 1

48 HOURS AFTER: Sanusi operatesfrom Kano Govt House

LIFEWORDSBY PASTOR ITUAH

‘....The Lord searches every heart and understandsevery motive...’ 1 Chronicles 28:9. What’s in yourheart? What are your real motives?

HOMAGE—International business magnate and Africa's richest man, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, pay-ing homage to the new Emir of Kano, Alhaji Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, yesterday.With them are Makama,Alhaji Abdullahi Sarki Ibrahim; Wali, Mahe Bashir Wali; Jarma, Professor Isa Hashim; Dallatu, AlhajiMuhammad Aliyu and the Deputy Secretary of the Emirate Council, Alhaji Sarki Waziri. Photo: Govt.House, Kano.

Suleiman Bichi lastSunday and was subse-quently issued appoint-ment letter and staff ofoffice by Governor RabiuMusa Kwankwaso thefollowing day.

Alhaji Sanusi, the 14thFulani emir, and the 57thEmir of Kano, resumedtraditional functions at

the Government House,holding court and receiv-ing guests and wellwishers in the fortifiedseat of Government.

Vanguard learnt thattraditionally, the newemir resumes duties atthe Nasarawa palace re-sort as part of the ritualof ascendancy, beforeproceeding to the officialpalace of the Emir tucked

inside the old city.Earlier, yesterday, the

emir ’s Chief Protocolotherwise known asShamaki handed over tothe new emir traditionalinsignia that includedTagwayen Masu (Royalspear); Bakan Dabo(Dabo bowl), and theRoyal swords.

Vanguard learnt thatthe traditional insigniawere those used by the2nd Fulani Emir of Kano,Ibrahim Dabo, who wasan associate and brotherto the founder of Sokotocaliphate, Alhaji UsmanDan Fodio in 1804.

Vanguard also learntthat yesterday's historichand over of symbol ofauthority to the newemir, signified a new be-ginning in the emirate'shistory as plans are afootto relocate him to theEmir Guest Palace lo-cated not far from theGovernment House.

Meanwhile, the Policestill kept vigil at the cen-turies-old Palace in thecity, and it was not cer-tain when they wouldvacate the palace.

Speculations are how-ever rife in the city thatPresident GoodluckEbele Jonathan is due inKano to condole with thefamilies of the late emir,Alhaji Ado Bayero.

Air Force helicopterswere seen hovering theskyline of Kano metropo-lis, while Armoured Per-

sonnel Carriers were sta-tioned in strategic loca-tions.

Normalcy returnsto Kano

Meanwhile, normalcy

has returned to thestreets of Kano after twodays of violent protestsgreeted the announce-ment of Alhaji SanusiLamido Sanusi as emir.

The city came aliveshortly after an earlymorning rain that lastedtwo hours.

Schools were re-opened to students; busi-ness activities com-menced in all the majormarkets in the city, asmotorists and commutersmoved freely in the citywithout molestation.

Police had on Mondaysuccessfully dislodgedprotesters in front of theEmir ’s palace locatedalong Emir Palace Road.

Residents that spoke toVanguard on the devel-opment argued that “thecity deserves peace, es-pecially now that it wasclear that Sanusi’s ap-

pointment cannot be re-versed”.

A kolanut hawker in thecity, Malam Naroun toldVanguard that “peoplehave expressed their an-ger, and those in positionof authority have hadtheir way, so life must goon.”

He added that “fromwhat I know of Kano, thecity cannot sustain anenduring protest becausemost of us live from handto mouth and govern-ment knows this weak-ness too well”.

However, Police imagemaker in Kano, ASPMagaji Musa Majia ap-pealed to parents andguardians to cautiontheir wards over illegalassembly, adding that“the city is calm andquiet as we have norecord of security breachtoday”.

AMCON set to pay off N800b bonds•No longer buying non-performing loans•Shareholders cannot challenge AMCON

BY BABAJIDEKOMOLAFE & PETER

EGWUATU

L AGOS—ASSETManagement Cor-

poration of Nigeria,AMCON will soon repaydebts to holders of itsbonds this year as N800billion has so far been ac-cumulated.

The corporation has re-vealed that it would nolonger buy a Non-Per-forming Loan (NPL) fromany bank, stressing thatshareholders of bankscannot challenge it overthe recent increase of thecontribution of banks to itssinking fund.

The corporation furtherstated that it would divestfrom Mainstreet BankLimited and EnterpriseBank Limited by Septem-ber.

Speaking to newsmenduring an interactive ses-sion in Lagos, yesterday,Managing Director/CEOof AMCON, Mr. MustafaChike-Obi said: “We have

redeemed N1 trillionbonds to the first four bondholders that are held bycore institutions outsidethe Central Bank of Ni-geria, CBN, in 2013. Forthis year so far we haveN800 billion accumulatedloans to be settled soon,even as we had a targetof N1trillion to write off forthe Series 5 bond holders,which are banks and otherinstitutions.

“When that is done, theonly creditor to AMCONwill be the CBN, no onewill hold AMCON bondsunless they come to buyfrom the CBN.

“This will now beAMCON owing the CBNand the CBN collecting itsmoney from AMCON re-coveries and the sinkingfunds of the banks thatCBN regulate.”

While commenting onthe controversial increaseof the contribution ofbanks to AMCON sinkingfund, which stood atN118.9 billion in 2013,which the shareholders of

those institutions havevehemently criticized,Chike-Obi said: “Share-holders cannot challengeAMCON, rather theBoard of Directors of thosebanks. AMCON neitherkeeps nor administers thesinking fund.

"Even, AMCON doesnot have a representationon the fund. It is the CBNand the banks that hadagreed for the fee to beincreased from 0.3 percent to 0.5 per cent. Even,the shareholders shouldbe very happy that theCBN came to their rescue;otherwise some of thosebanks that are now declar-ing profit and dividendwould have gone under.

“Before now, what wasin place was a Memoran-dum of Understanding(MoU) where banks ontheir own agreed to con-tribute 0.3 per cent of theirtotal asset to the clean-upof the banking system fol-lowing the crisis that en-gulfed the sector someyears ago."

It is important to remember that you cannot trulyoffer to another what you cannot or will not offerto yourself – Take Heart Quotes

You express the very best part and highest part ofyour being when you love your own beingness.Humans oftentimes have great difficulty in lovingthemselves. Some believe that loving themselves issomehow wrong and lacks humility. Following aresix simple exercises to help you begin to shed thebarriers that stand between you and this specialpart of yourself so that you can begin to releaseand realize its extraordinary power in your life.

1. Stop looking for other people’s approval to de-termine your own self worth. 2. Stop feeling respon-sible for the happiness or unhappiness of others. 3.Stop thinking you can change what happened yes-terday by reliving it today. 4. Stop spending timewith people who have agreed to live with negativestates.5. Stop believing you can only be as success-ful as you are willing to push yourself through life.6. Stop explaining or justifying your actions to your-self or others.


Gang war sparks crisis in Ajegunle

BY EVELYN USMAN

The late Yusuf Ademola.

The vandalised vehicles

LAGOS — RESIDENTS andtraders of Nosamu Street and

Boundary Market, Ajegunle, La-gos, yesterday, took to the streets,protesting the killing of a fatherof three by some hoodlums knownas 'One Million Boys', weekend.

The protesters, who raised alarmon activities of the thugs andcalled on the state governmentand security agents to come totheir aid, also expressed fears thattheir lives were in danger .

Vanguard gathered that thedeceased, identified as YusufAdemola, was stabbed to deathby the rampaging thugs, who at-tempted to unseat the chairmanof Nosamu tricycle union.

How he was killedExplaining how life was snuffed

out of Ademola, 28, who was anight guard at Boundary Market,one of the protesters who identi-fied himself as NurudeenShoyega said: "The incident hap-pened in broad daylight, when the'One Million Boys' armed withdangerous weapons, includingguns, stormed Nosamu Street andstarted shooting indiscriminately,in their bid to take over KekeNAPEP park.

"We all ran away and when wereturned, we saw Yusuf in thepool of his blood. He had beenstabbed severally.

“Our lives are no longer safebecause they threatened to comeback. Our pain is that not eventhe Ajeromi Ifelodun local coun-cil, which is aware of this feud, istaking any action to solve it."

The deceased's elder brother,Sakiru Ademola, claimed hisbrother was killed because heknew the invaders.

According to him, "I believe theykilled my brother because heknew most of them. He was aguard at Boundary Market. Theyeliminated him in order to gainaccess into the area and also to

prevent him from revealing their identitiesto the Police.

"I urge the Police to provide us adequatesecurity in Ajegunle, because those 'OneMillion Boys' were arrested and paradedby the Lagos State Police Command, yetwe don't know how they got back to thestreets."

All I want is justice —WidowThe deceased's widow, Kemi, told Van-

guard that she was with her husband intheir one-room apartment when the thugsinvaded the area.

According to her, "he left the room whenhe heard gunshots, saying he was goingto see what was happening. I tried to stophim but he refused. Barely had the dustsettled than I saw my husband walkingslowly towards our apartment, in pain.

"I rushed to him only to discover that hewas soaked in blood. He held on to his chestwhere blood was gushing out from. I triedto ask him what the matter was but he couldnot say a word. Rather, he collapsed in thearms of his elder brother's wife who wasalso with us.

“I immediately raised alarm which at-

tracted other neighbours who rushed him to Island Gen-eral Hospital. Unfortunately, he died on the way to thehospital, thereby saddling me with the responsibility ofcaring for our three children alone.

"All I want is justice. I want his killers to be brought tobook."

The deceased's father, Pa Soliu Ademola, who is yet tocome to terms with the reality of his son's demise, de-scribed the tragedy as a serious blow. He said he saw thethugs descending on someone he later discovered to behis son.

He said: "I thought the fight was between factions ofarea boys, not knowing it was my son that was beingattacked.”

Police sources, however, said the incident was beinginvestigated.

Fake, counterfeit, substandard and unwholesome products worth millions of Naira being destroyedby National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, NAFDAC, at the Sagamu dumpsitein Ogun State. Photo: Biodun Ogunleye.

Dredger incourt fordefraudingwoman ofN20,000

BY ONOZURE DANIA

LAGOS — THE Policeyesterday arraigned a

dredger, Charles Okolie,who slapped a woman andobtained N22,000 fraudu-lently from her before aTinubu magistrate’s court.

Okolie, 51, of 2/8, CalcuttaCrescent, Apapa is standingtrial before MagistrateOlaitan Ajayi.

The defendant is facing afour-count charge of obtain-ing money fraudulently,stealing, assault and con-duct likely to cause breachof peace.

Police prosecutor, Ser-geant Daniel Ighodalo, in-formed the court that thedefendant committed theoffences on June 8 at CMS,Marina in Lagos Island.

He said the defendantfraudulently obtainedN22,000 from one VictoriaOdiaka with a promise tosecure a job for her youngerbrother.

He further told the courtthat he also assaulted thecomplainant by slappingher when she discoveredthat she has been dupedand demanded refund ofher money.

Ighodalo said the offencesare contrary to Sections166(d) and170 and punish-able under Sections 285 and312 of the Criminal Law ofLagos State, 2011.

However, the defendantpleaded not guilty to theoffences.

Magistrate Ajayi grantedhim bail in the sum ofN100,000 with two suretiesin like sum and adjournedthe case till July 1.

Siblings nabbed for manufacturing gunsBY GBENGA OLARINOYE facturing guns in Osogbo, the Osun State capital.

The two suspects, who are currently detained at theZone 11 Police Headquarters in Osogbo, were said to bespecialists in gun manufacturing and have sold guns todifferent categories of people before they were caught.

Assistant Inspector General of Police, AIG, in charge ofZone 11, comprising Osun, Oyo and Ondo states, MrDavid Omojola, said in a statement issued by the ZonalPolice Public Relations Officer, Mr Sola Babalola, that thesuspects were arrested along Osogbo/Ilesa road.

He said the suspects were arrested by men of the ZonalAnti-Robbery squad led by one Bolaji Alao Mutiu, anAssistant Superintendent of Police, ASP.

Also, the AIG informed that one Adeyemi Wasiu, whowas allegedly in possession of a locally-made gun, wasarrested at Oloke Estate, Osogbo.

He noted that information at Police disposal indicatesthat the suspect was a security guard fond of shootinginto the air every night at his residence.

Some of the items recovered from the suspects, accord-ing to the AIG, were nine newly manufactured singlebarrel guns; two locally-made single barrel guns; six dam-aged single-barrel guns; 10 live cartridges and 82 ex-pended cartridges.

However, the two brothers, according to the statement,claimed to be blacksmiths working in Osogbo after beingtrained by their late father who died 15 years ago.

The AIG maintained that the suspects would be pros-ecuted as soon as investigations into the matter is com-pleted.

OSOGBO — Police detectives havearrested two brothers, Musbau

and Kamal Raji, for allegedly manu-

•Father of three killed, vehicles smashed

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 11, 2014 — 7

EFCC arrests court registrar over missingcasefile

BY ABDULWAHABABDULAH &

BARTHOLOMEWMADUKWE

LAGOS — THE Economic &Financial Crimes Commis-

sion, EFCC, yesterday whiskedaway a registrar in JusticeOluwatoyin Ipaye's court, simplyknown as Kenny, to an undis-closed location, shortly before thejudge announced that her regis-trar informed her that a case filewas missing.

Kenny was taken away in thecommission’s white bus after men

of the EFCC stormed the regis-trar’s office, although no reasonwas given at press time.

Obviously shocked that a casefile in a criminal trial before her,involving a property developercould not be found, Justice Ipayegave the registrar 12 hours ulti-matum to produce the said casefile.

The criminal case (Charge ID/1C/14) involves a property de-veloper, Mrs Funmi Joseph, whois standing trial for allegedly de-frauding a Redeemed ChristianChurch of God, RCCG, memberDr. Dennis Oyakhire, of N4.8million.

According to the charge, the

defendant allegedly collectedthe money from the victim onthe pretext of selling a prop-erty located at the RedeemedCamp to him.

Arraigned alongside the de-fendant is her company,Rockdays Synergy Limited,through which the claimantmade payment for the prop-erty.

The matter was adjourned tillyesterday for further trial afterthe victim had given evidenceof how he was duped by theproperty developer.

However, when the matterwas called up at about 1:30 pmthe court registrar informed the

judge that the case file was nowhere to be found.

Cautioning the registrar thatsuch scenario should not hap-pen in her court again, JusticeIpaye said: “As registrars, it isyour duty to keep the file prop-erly and safely as custodians.”

Meanwhile, the defendant andthe registrar who spoke with Van-guard on the alleged missingcase file, said the file has beenfound.

Funmi (defendant) explainedthat the registrar misplaced thecase file in the course of takingit to the computer section.

Further hearing in the mattercontinues today.

Scene of a fire incident involving two companies, Karina International Ltd and StarPaints Ltd, along Oshodi-Apapa Expressway, Isolo, Lagos, yesterday. Photo: Diran Oshe.

Defilement of9-yr-old:Septuagenariangets N1m bail

LAGOS — A YABA chiefmagistrate's court in La-

gos, yesterday, slammed a N1million bail on a septuagenar-ian, Abel Akindana, for alleg-edly defiling a nine-year-oldgirl.

Akindana, 75,who resides atMafowoku Street, Fadeyi, La-gos is standing trial on acharge of defilement.

The Chief Magistrate, MrsYewande Aje-Afunwa, saidthe bail condition for the ac-cused would be stringent be-cause the offence stipulates lifeimprisonment.

She said: “The offence is aserious one and attracts lifeimprisonment. It is bailable,but the bail condition will bestringent.

“The defendant is herebyadmitted to a bail of N1millionwith two sureties in like sum.The sureties must own housesin Lagos State."

In addition, she said one ofthe sureties must be a recog-nised community or religiousleader, while the other shouldbe a blood relation of the ac-cused.

“The sureties must showevidence of tax payment andgainful employment," sheadded.

Earlier, the prosecutor, ASPGodwin Anyanwu, had toldthe court that Akindana com-mitted the offence sometime inMarch.

He said the accused tookadvantage of thenine-year-old girl, who is adaughter of his co-tenant.

“He had sexual intercoursewith the girl in his room sixtimes in March when her par-ents were not at home. He tookadvantage of her innocenceand defiled her,” the prosecu-tor alleged.

Anyanwu said the case wasreported to the Police after thechild had revealed the “amo-rous relationship" to hermother.

Employment scam: NSCDC readsriot act to fraudsters, officers

BY MICHAEL EBOH

LAGOS — FOLLOWINGhigh incidence of employ-

ment scams associated with it,the Nigeria Security and CivilDefence Corps, NSCDC, yester-day, said it had set machinery inmotion to track down anyone, in-cluding its officers, found culpa-ble of using the corps premisesto defraud job seekers.

Commandant-General of theNSCDC, Dr. Ade Abolurin, whostated this in a statement, alsowarned that henceforth, any per-son going to the headquarterson the premise of documenta-tion for employment will be ar-rested and their accomplicesfound and prosecuted.

According to him, even offic-ers of the corps are not exemptedfrom the wrath of the law if foundto be connected with the mischiefmakers and fraudsters robbingdesperate and job-seeking Ni-gerians of their money.

He expressed concern over theway scammers are offering fakeemployment letter to unsuspect-ing applicants and directing them

to the NSCDC headquartersfor documentation.

He said: "The corps wishesto state emphatically that it isnot recruiting and has issuedno employment letter to any-body."

He maintained that the corpsrecruitment process is not aclandestine affair conducted onstreet corners, noting thatwhen the corps is to recruit,advertisement will be placedin Nigerian daily newspapersfor the general public to seethe processes involved.

He said: "The corps haswarned applicants to be care-ful and not to be unnecessar-ily agitated by rumours of em-ployment making rounds asthey are untrue.

"The general public shouldbe skeptical of messages theyreceive ordering them to paymonies to bank accounts andstating that they can printtheir appointment letters onthe internet because theirnames have been shortlisted

for an appointment into the Ni-geria Security and Civil DefenceCorps."

"Nonetheless, modalities havebeen put in place to track downall those behind the fraudulentmessages aimed at defraudingNigerian citizens.

Court remands 35-yr-old manover rape of teenager

BY DAUD OLATUNJI

ABEOKUTA— AN OgunState High Court sitting in

Isabo, Abeokuta, yesterday, re-manded a 35-year-old man,James Babarinde, for allegedlyraping a15-year-old girl in themiddle of the night atOlorunsogo, Abeokuta.

The accused, who resides atPrison Quarters in Abeokuta, isfacing charges of conspiracy andrape.

The Police prosecutor, JudeMichael, told the court that theacussed forced his manhood intothe private part of the victim

which made her bleed profuselyand caused some damage in herbody.

He said: “The offence is con-trary to Section 32 (2) of the ChildRights Act 2006.

In his ruling, the judge,Olanrewaju Majekodunmi, whowent through the first informationreport against the accused, ruledthat the accused should be re-manded in prison pending legaladvice.

Majekodunmi, however, ad-journed the case till July 11, 2014for hearing due to absence of wit-nesses.

ECOWAS courtquashes deathsentencepassed onminor

BY INNOCENTANABA

ABUJA — THE ECOWASCourt of Justice sitting in

Abuja, upturned the deathsentence passed on a minor,Maimuna Abdulmumini, by aKatsina State High Court in2012 for allegedly killing herhusband, when she was just13 years old.

The court also awarded herN5 million in damages for vio-lation of her fundamentalrights by the state.

In its judgment, the trialjudge, Justice Hansine Donli,held that pronouncing thedeath sentence on the plain-tiff, when she was still a mi-nor, was a breach of her fun-damental human rights andviolates international law asprovided in Article 6, Sub-sec-tion 4 of the International Cov-enant on Civil and PoliticalRights.

The court also awardedN500,000 in favour ofMaimuna as the cost of thetrial.

Avocats Sans FrontieresFrance, ASF (Lawyers With-out Borders) had filed a peti-tion for interim measures andaccelerated hearing onMaimuna’s behalf before theECOWAS court earlier in theyear.

The court ruled in her favourthen and granted the interimmeasures application by ASF,pending hearing in the sub-stantive matter.

Commenting on the judg-ment, Angela Uwandu, Headof Office, ASF, expressed sat-isfaction with same.

She said: “The acknowl-edgement of the fact that de-tainees have rights that mustbe respected in the process oflegal recourse is crucial to theestablishment and advance-ment of fundamental humanrights in our country.”

8 — Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 11, 2014

D O N AT I O N :From left— Wife of theSenate President, Mrs.Helen Mark; ChineseAmbassador to Nigeria,Mr. Gu Xiaojie, and FirstLady, Dame PatienceJonathan, during thepresentation ofcomputers donated bywife of the ChinesePremier, Mrs ChengHong to the office of theFirst Lady in Abuja,yesterday. NANPHOTO.

Nigeria pushes to lead OPEC

Biometricregistrationof bankcustomersbegins

THE biometricregistration of bank

customers and issuanceof Bank VerificationNum-bers, BVN, willcommence next week.This was disclosed by theNigeria Inter-BankSettlement System,NIBSS, Plc in a statementissued yesterday.

It will utilise thebiometric technologysystem for verificationand secure authenticationof the identity of bankcustomers and ultimatelyas a means ofa u t h e n t i c a t i n gcustomer ’s identity atpoint of bankingtransactions.

It gives customers auniform and single identitycalled the BVN that will beacceptable across theNigerian financial systemas all other bank accountsoperated by this individualwill be tied to that BVN.

The NIBSS said: “Rollout of the BVN registrationof customers by depositmoney banks willcommence next week. Itsignifies end of the pilotphase of the project duringwhich over 7,000 BVNwere issued by 21 depositmoney banks and NIBSSto existing internal bankcustomers.

“The enrolments andBVN issuance wereachieved across 44 banksites that include 21 bankheadquarters.”

Mr. Ade Shonubi,Managing Director ofNIBSS, who doubles as theHead of the BVN ProjectManagement team, said:“The pilot phase of theBVN registration of bankcustomers served as amodel and basis for rollout of the solution toexisting bank customers.

“All Nigerian bankshave their headquarterservers configured,deployed and tested, andhad their staff trainedbefore engaging inenrolment andverification of end userswho are mainly internalcustomers.

“Feedback fromapplication usage andexperience were collated,analysed and shared withsolution provider toensure seamless servicedelivery during eventualroll out.”

BY BABAJIDEKOMOLAFE

THE police in Abuja,y e s t e r d a y ,

commenced intensivesecurity checks at themain markets within themetropolis.

In a move which policesaid was a proactivemeasure to forestallsecurity breaches in themarkets, police officersand other securityoperatives frisked bordertraders and theircustomers enteringWuse, Utako and Garkimarkets.

Eyewitnesses saidsecurity operativeslocked up all gates intothe markets in themorning and thoroughlysearched the traders withbomb detectors beforeletting them in.

The exercise causedanxiety as somemembers of the publicinterpreted it to meanthat bomb had beenplanted.

Police Public RelationsOfficer, DSP AltineDaniel, explained thatthe police were takingmeasures that wouldkeep the markets safe.

Policetightensecurity atAbujamarkets

ECOWAS court awards N11mto Rivers waterfront evictees

BY INNOCENT ANABA

VIENNA—NIGERIA ispushing for the

Organisation of the PetroleumExporting Countries, OPEC, toname the Petroleum Minister,Mrs Diezani Alison-Maduekeas its Secretary General,people familiar with the mattersaid yesterday, a move thatcould end a long runningleadership standoff at thecartel.

According to a report by WallStreet Journal, Nigeria’sdelegation at OPEC has putAlison Madueke forward as acontender for the group’s topjob, OPEC delegates said. Ifapproved by the organisation’sother members, she would bethe first woman to lead thegroup.

If Alison Madueke isappointed Secretary Generalof OPEC, it implies she will exither current position asNigeria’s Minister of

Petroleum, because the OPECposition is a full time job withits office in Vienna, Austria.

Nigeria is proposing to puther nomination as SecretaryGeneral on the agenda ofOPEC’s semi-annual meetingslated for today.

In recent days, Mrs. AlisonMadueke has met oilministers from Iraq, Libyaand the United ArabEmirates, according todelegates. Her delegation hasalso approached Iran andSaudi Arabia, these delegatessaid.

Asked by a reporter ifNigeria had put her nameforward as a candidate tohead OPEC, Mrs. AlisonMadueke said: “That wouldbe wonderful. I do not knowanything about that.”

But Iraqi Oil Minister, AbdulKareem Luaiby, said she hadraised the issue of her

candidacy during a meetingearlier Tuesday. “We weresurprised by this subject,” hesaid.

OPEC’s current SecretaryGeneral, Libyan AbdallaSalem el Badri, was due toretire at the end of 2012. ButOPEC delegates have not sofar agreed on a replacement,and he continues to serve inthe post.

While the job is largelyceremonial, it is highlycoveted as it provides aplatform on the globaleconomic stage for thecountry that holds it.

Inside the organisation,jockeying for the top job isoften more heated than thedebate over OPEC’s biggermission— setting the group’squota for oil output.

OPEC members produceone out of every three barrelsof oil consumed in the world

and tailor output to keep pricesrobust, but not so high that theyencourage a shift amongconsumers to alternativesources of energy.

The Secretary General doesnot have an official vote inthose decisions, but can act tobroker compromise amongmembers.

THE CommunityCourt of Justice of the

Economic Community of WestAfrican States, ECOWAS,sitting in Abuja, has awardedN11 million against the Federaland Rivers State governmentsover the shooting of residentsevicted from BunduWaterfront and its surroundingcommunities in Port Harcourt,Rivers State.

It will be recalled that onOctober 12, 2009, armedsecurity forces opened fire onunarmed protesters in BunduAma, an informal settlement inPort Harcourt, leaving at leastone person dead and 12seriously injured.

The total number of deadremains unknown because thegovernment not only refused

to undertake an inquiry intothe incident, but denied anysuch incident happened.

The inhabitantsconsequently approached theECOWAS court through acivil rights group, SocioEconomic Rights andAccountability Project, SERAP.

The court in its judgment,yesterday, held that there wasno justification for theshootings by the police duringthe protests.

It also held that theNigerian government hadbreached its obligation toprotect and respect the rightto peaceful association andassembly.

Reacting to the judgment,Amnesty International andCollaborative MediaAdvocacy Platform, CMAP,said: “This remarkable

victory brings to a close along battle for justice bymembers of the communityof Bundu Ama, who wereunlawfully killed and injuredat the hands of Nigeriansecurity forces.”

Joy Williams, one of theapplicants, who was 17 yearsold when she was shot on theleg during the incident, said:“We have come a long wayand achieved a great goal.

“Our community refused tolie down and become victims,but instead took action andhave now beaten thegovernment in court.”

Netsanet Belay, AmnestyInternational’s AfricaDirector, said: “It sends aclear message to governmentsthat they cannot violatepeople’s rights withimpunity.”


Nigeria, Pakistan sign MoUs ondefence, counter-terrorism, others

BokoHaramraidBornovillages,cart awayfoodstuffs

FG expresses concern overharassment of Nigerians abroad

VISIT: President Goodluck Jonathan (right), Vice President Namadi Sambo (left) andPresident Mamnoon Hussain of Pakistan (2nd right), during the Pakistani President's visitto Nigeria, yesterday. NAN PHOTO.

ABUJA— NIGERIA and theIslamic Republic of

Pakistan have entered into anagreement to boost cooperationbetween them, especially in theareas of defence and counterterrorism strategies to combatterrorism bedeviling the twocountries.

At the end of bilateral talksbetween Presidents GoodluckJonathan and visitingMamnoon Hussain of Pakistan,the two leaders resolved thatsuch cooperation was necessaryto combat the terrorism threat.

President Hussain, whospoke with newsmen after aclosed-door meeting withJonathan, said they discussedissues bordering on trade,energy, education, agriculture,oil and gas, defence andcounter terrorism.

According to the Pakistanileader, the two countriesagreed on the need tostrengthen existing cooperationbetween the two countries inthat regard.

He disclosed that his countryhad extended an invitation toJonathan to pay a state visit toPakistan to concretise theagreements reached betweenthe two countries.

President Jonathan describedHussain’s visit as significantbecause of the commonproblem of terrorism,especially for Nigeria which isbattling to rescue the over 200schoolgirls abducted in Chibok,Borno State.

The President said: “This is the

first ever state visit by anyPakistani president and thatis why we consider this visitextremely important.

“We have just had bilateraldiscussions in the course ofwhich we examined issues ofcommon interest. This isquite significant becauseNigeria and Pakistan areexperiencing terror attacks.”

President Jonathanregretted that despite longstanding relations between

the two countries, trade hasbeen extremely low.

He said: “Our target in thenext five years or so, is to movefrom under $100 million to atleast $1 billion. We are now outto encourage more robusttrade relations.”

Minister of State, ForeignAffairs, Dr. NurudeenMuhammed, had earlier reada press statement on themeeting between the twoleaders in which he disclosed

that some Memoranda ofUnderstanding, MoU, weresigned during the parley.

The bilateral agreementsand MoUs, according to theminister, included those onagricultural development,industrial cooperation,cultural exchanges and trade/chambers of commerce,narcotics, anti terrorism/security, poverty reductionand human capacitydevelopment among others.

BY BEN AGANDE

GENEVA— THE challenges of discrimination,

harassment and other formsof intimidation experiencedby Nigerians, especiallyyouths working abroad, wasthe focus of Nigeria’spresentation at the ongoing103rd session of the Interna-tional Labour Conference inGeneva, Switzerland.

Minister of Labour andProductivity, Chief EmekaWogu, while addressing theplenary, asked theInternational LabourOrganisation, ILO, to“galvanise its pace settingpotentials for the building ofnational capacities,partnerships and promotionof collaboration in re-integration programmes and

other forms ofinterventions for theeffective mitigation of thechallenges of migration ina largely prismatic world.”

Wogu said Nigeria’sinterest in migration “isinformed by the largenumber of Nigerian youthsthat are globally mobile,”adding that the presentadministration “adopted aparadigm shift within theframework of theTransformation Agendawith strong emphasis andcommitment to managingthe challenges of migrationas a sending, transit anddestination country.

“We have benefitted fromthis phenomenon,especially in diasporaremittances. We have alsoexperienced the challenges

of discrimination,harassment and other formsof social exclusions in theworld of jobs.

“Migration is a problemwhen it is irregular and weare bothered about irregularmigration.”

The Minister said althoughmigration within theEconomic Community ofWest African States,ECOWAS, is legal, “it can stillpose a big problem.”

The minister, whose speechcoincided with ILO’s WorldDay Against Child Labourdescribed child labour as “anunfair labour practice,” adding“Nigeria does not supportchild labour in any form.”

He said inspections arebeing carried out in factoriesto ensure that they do notengage in the child labour.

Wogu said: “Nigeria has thelowest incidence of childlabour,” and that severalgovernment agencies arecollaborating to it.

On the Memorandum ofUnderstanding, MoU, signedby Michael Imoudu NationalInstitute for Labour Studies,MINILS, and theInternational Training Centre,the Minister said it was theclimax of discussions whichbegan last year.

The minister, whileexpressing optimistism aboutthe MoU, said: “It has myblessings, including that ofMr. President.”

He said MINILS hadstarted receiving requestsfrom participants from thesub-region, who wanted tobenefit from the jointprogrammes.

BY FUNMI KOMOLAFE

M A I D U G U R I —S U S P E C T E D

Boko Haram sectmembers have invadedtwo villages in Borno,killing at least fivepeople and carting awayfood items andlivestock.

Residents said somearmed men believed tobe Boko Harammembers, stormedTohya and Wurojenevillages which are about14 kilometres away fromChibok, where over 200schoolgirls wereabducted almost twomonths ago.

Chibokresident's story

The attackersreportedly opened fireon the villagers at about7p.m., Monday, killingat least five people, aresident of Chibok, whodid not want his namementioned, toldVanguard on phone.

According to him,“the attackers fired atthe people and manyresidents fled into thebush. There wasconfusion everywhereas the attackers set fireon houses.

“They continued theattack for about twohours. They carted awaybags of grains andchicken belonging toour poor people.

“Most of them slept inthe bush throughout thenight until theinsurgents left after thekilling and destructionwithout any resistancefrom the militaryaround,” anotherresident, Mr. JamesPona, claimed.

A security source saidbased on reports fromthe residents of the twocommunities, theinsurgents were “verywell armed though theywere not as many as theyusually were in previousattacks.”

The source added thatthe troops around thearea did not get an alerton time.

BY NDAHI MARAMA

LASU students' protest: Attempt topicket Fashola’s office turns bloody...3 students injured; 2 others, BRT bus driver arrested


LAGOS—AT least three stu dents were yesterday injured

when heavily-armed policemenled by Commander of the LagosState Rapid Response Squad,RRS, Mr. Hakeem Odumosu, dis-persed hundreds of students ofLagos State University, LASU,who stormed Alausa, the seat ofgovernment for another round ofprotests.

The policemen dispersed the stu-dents with gunshots and teargas,injuring three students in the proc-ess.

The students had stormed thearea with three BRT buses and oc-cupied the entrance leading toGovernor Babatunde Fashola’soffice, even as it was barricadedby policemen attached to RRS.

The students sang and chantedanti-Fashola songs for severalminutes when the police swoopedon them on the order of the RRSCommander.

The policemen shot sporadical-ly into the air and released tear-gas right in front of the Governor’soffice, an action that led the stu-dents to take their heels.

The policemen chased the stu-dents to the Lagos-Ibadan Ex-pressway. They later regrouped

at the Magodo Estate gate.Two students and the driver of

one of the BRT buses were ar-rested and the bus impoundedby the police.

Police officers with guns wereseen searching for the students.The road leading to the gover-nor’s office from the Lagos StateHouse of Assembly was barricad-ed by police vans.

President, LASU Students Un-ion, Yusuf Nurudeen told report-

ers that they had visited to regis-ter their displeasure over delayin announcing new fees for stu-dents of the institution.

“We also learnt that the gov-ernment will be meeting withthe Governing Council of theschool today and that is whywe came. We beat the barricadeset up by the police and wewere singing peacefully at theentrance of the governor’s of-fice when we saw policemen.

“They shot at us, teargassed us,shot live bullets at us right in frontof the governor’s office. It is sadthat they shot at us. We came tohear the announcement of the re-duction in school fees,” he said.

However, Lagos Commission-er for Information and Strate-gy, Aderemi Ibirogba said theState Executive Council was yetto conclude on the school feesissue, saying it would be con-cluded hopefully today.

MEETING: Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State (middle); Attorney-General andCommissioner for Justice, Mr. Ade Ipaye (2nd right), his Transportation counterpart, Mr.Kayode Opeifa (right), Deputy Commissioner of Police, Mr. Tunde Sobulo (2nd left) andthe Assistant Director, Operations, Directorate of State Service, DSS, Mr. Yinka Salami (left)during Fashola’s meeting with leaders of the National Union of Road Transport Workers,NURTW, in Lagos State at the Banquet Hall, Lagos House, Ikeja, on Monday.

BY OUR REPORTERS

URHOBO Leaders in Badagry, have peti-

tioned Governor Baba-tunde Fashola of LagosState, accusing the Oba ofIbereko, his chiefs and someindividuals in Oke-Okocommunity of persecutingthe Urhobos in the area.

The Urhobo leaders saidthey have also drawn theattention of the Akran ofBadadry, De Whenu Aho-lu Menu Toyi 1, to the mat-ter.

According them, the Oba,is allegedly supporting hischiefs and a handful of in-dividuals who dug guttersacross some streets in thecommunity, arguing that in-stead of channeling guttersto a river or swamp throughexisting streets in the com-munity, the Oba and someof his chiefs insisted thatthe leader of the Urhobos,who is also a media practi-tioner should allow waterpass through his com-pound.

The leaders, who threat-ened street protests to drawthe attention of people allover Nigeria and in Di-aspora to the plan to assaulttheir leader and trespass onhis land, stated that the Obaand his chiefs said “theUrhobaman’s compound isthe shortest route to divertthe flow of water instead ofspending money to digmore gutters for this reasonhe should open up hisfence and the fence of an-other landlord from KogiState.”

They accused one Mr Al-imi, alas Baba Luku, of con-structing a shop where gut-ter ought to be cited andinstead of drawing the at-tention of officials of thephysical planning to theerror, the chiefs and Baale,turned blind eyes to it.

Leader of the Urhobo Un-ion, Deacon Edomi, ad-vised the Oba not to takethe law into his hands, say-ing, “law is not a respecterof persons and no individ-ual is above the law.”

Urhobo leadersaccuse LagosOba of bias

LAGOS—STRIKING Lagos Univeristy Teaching

Hospital, LUTH, workers, un-der the eagis of Joint House Un-ions, JHU, yesterday said theyopted for industrial action be-cause ‘the hospital environmentis far from being patient orworkers-friendly.’

Speaking, heads of the vari-ous unions; National Associa-tion of Nigerian Nurses andMidwives; the Senior Staff As-sociation of Teaching Hospitals,Research Institutes and Asso-ciatied InstituitionsSSAUTHRIAI, the Non Aca-

demic Staff Union Educationaland Associated Institutions,NASU, and Medical and HealthWorkers Union of Nigeria,claimed the working enviroment

BY CHIOMA OBINNA &GABRIEL OLAWALE

Why we are on strike, by LUTH workerswas deplorable.

According to the Chairman ofSSAUTHRIAI, Kehinde Ade-goke, one of the core demandswas for improved patient care,

lamenting that the poor pa-tient care had contributed tothe bad publicity LUTH hadbeen getting from patientsand the general public.

LAGOS—LAGOS State House of Assembly, yes-

terday condemned the ongo-ing seizures of Newspapers,intimidation and harassmentof vendors by armed soldiersin parts of the country.

Raising the issue under amatter of urgent public impor-

tance atthe ple-n a r y ,H o n .M o -s h o o dOshun,r e p r e -sentingL a g o sM a i n -l a n dConstit-uency 2,s a i d ,the sei-zure ofn e w s -papersw a s

meant to silence the press, la-menting that why it was com-mon under military regime,but was wrong under a democ-racy.

According to him, “If theFederal Government felt badabout any report, it should goto court of law rather than har-assing, beating and detainingnewspaper vendors, who don’t

even know how the reports inthe newspapers were written.It is wrong for the governmentto seize newspaper copies atthis material time in the coun-try.”

While condemning the act,the speaker, Hon. AdeyemiIkuforiji said, it was not possi-ble to silent the press, not eventhe military could kill the press.

LAGOS—A lawyer, Chuk wunonso Ogbe, has

asked a Federal High Courtsitting in Lagos to compel theNational Assembly to domes-ticate the provisions of theAfrican Youth Charter.He is also praying the courtto declare that the constitu-tional provisions, whichbarred Nigerian youths with-in the age bracket of 18 and29 years from contesting elec-tions in the country, as be-

‘Court should compel NASS to domesticate Youth Charter'

Lagos Assembly condemns military clampdown on media

BY EBUN SESSOU

BY INNOCENT ANABA ing in conflict with Section42(1) of the Constitution.The lawyer is specificallychallenging the combinedprovision of Sections65(1)(a)&(b), 106(b), 131(b),177(b) and 117(2) of the Con-stitution, which disqualifyNigerian youths within thesaid age bracket from contest-ing elections into State Houseof Assembly, House of Rep-resentatives, the Senate, Gov-ernorship seat and Presiden-tial seat.The suit was brought pursu-

ant to the provisions of Fun-damental Rights EnforcementProcedure Rules, 2009; Sec-tions 12(1) and 42(1)(a)(b) ofthe Constitution and Article1(2) of the African Youth Char-ter, 2006.Defendants in the suit are At-torney General of the Federa-tion, Mr Mohammed Adoke;National Assembly comprisingHouse of Representatives andthe Senate; Independent Na-tional Electoral Commission,INEC and its chairman, Pro-fessor Attahiru Jega.

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY JUNE 11, 2014—11

BY OLA AJAYI

Oyo guber:SenatorBalogun vowsto backAlao-AkalaagainstAjimobi

I wasn’t induced with money to join APC— ADELEKE

Customs steps up surveillance at S-West borderBY UDEME CLEMENT

INAUGURATION: Governor Ibikunle Amosun of Ogun State (middle), New Chairman,All Progressives Congress, APC, Ogun State, Alhaji Roqeeb Adeniji (left) and Speaker,Ogun State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Suraj Adekunbi during the inauguration of the StateExecutive members of the APC at the June 12 Cultural Centre, Kuto, Abeokuta.

OSOGBO—FORMERGovernor of Osun State,

Alhaji Isiaka Adeleke, who re-cently defected from the Peo-ples’ Democratic Party, PDP, tothe All Progressives Congress,APC, swore with the Quran thathe did not receive money fromGovernor Rauf Aregbesola tojoin the APC as alleged by HonAdejare Bello, the formerspeaker of the state House ofssembly and running mate tothe PDP governorship candi-date, Senator Iyiola Omisore.

Also, Adeleke said the formerspeaker has sunk himself po-litically.

Adeleke, speaking through oneof his aides in Oluponna in Aye-dire Local Government Area, saidfor Adejare to allege that he tookmoney from the APC to destabi-lise the PDP was a most fraudu-lent political claim.

Adeleke's aide, Alhaji DeboBadru, had led other loyalistsof the former governor to crossover to the APC in Iwo FederalConstituency area of the state.

The erstwhile PDP chieftaintold the gathering in Iwo thathe and his party members de-cided to leave PDP for a betterparty that had people at thecentre of governance.

Alhaji Badru compared PDPwith darkness, which could notstand the test of APC light.

Meanwhile, Governor RaufAregbesola yesterday warnedmembers of the ruling All Pro-gressives Congress in the stateagainst carrying arms and am-munition to the polling centres

during the August 9 Governor-ship election.

He however, encouraged hisloyalists and supporters to armthemselves with charms, Bibleand Quran to the polling centres,insisting that there was need forall voters to be strongly empow-ered spiritually before and aftercasting their votes.

Aregbesola, who spoke dur-ing a campaign in Ila-Orangunclaimed the PDP symbolisedevil and should be confrontedwith spiritual items for the bestto emerge after the election.

This came as three suspect-ed political thugs were arrest-ed at the venue of the rally bythe Police armed with danger-ous weapons such as guns,axes and cutlasses and hand-ed over to the police.

...Aregbesola retainsLaoye-Tomori

Also, Governor Rauf Areg-besola, yesterday laid to restinsinuations making therounds that his Deputy, Mrs.Grace Titilayo Laoye-Tomori,

would be dropped in his secondterm bid in office ahead of theAugust 9 gubernatorial electionin the state.

Speaking in Osogbo at a pro-gramme organized by the peo-ple to show their appreciationto the governor and to endorsehim for re-election for a newterm of four years, Governor Ar-egbesola said he had since lastweek submitted the name ofMrs. Laoye-Tomori to the Inde-pendent National ElectoralCommission INEC, as his run-ning mate in the election.

BY GBENGA OLARINOYE

•Laoye-Tomori remains Aregbesola's running mate

THE Nigeria Customs Service, NCS, Oyo/Osun Com-

mand has stepped up security sur-veillance at all the borders sur-rounding the region, leading tothe arrest of a white Ford Chev-rolet bus, with registration num-ber, XW 193 GGE, loaded with107 sacks of hard drugs (Can-nabis Sativa), along Igbora road.

The Command also destroyed10.000 cartons of frozen products,intercepted along, Agbegi-Olodoaxis of Osun State.

The seizure of cannabis sativa,which attracted the attention oftop officials of Nigeria Drug LawEnforcement Agency, NDLEA,officials of Oyo State Ministry ofEnvironment and police officersin the State, was made by theCommand’s Crack Team, led byDSC Alajogun, J. A. during pa-trol.

Vanguard learnt that the Com-mand recently intercepted over30,000 rounds of live ammuni-tion, concealed with yam tubersin a Toyota hiace bus and a largequantity of hard drugs among nu-

merous contraband items, smug-gled into the state.

The Customs Area Comptrol-ler, CAC, of the Command, Mr.Oteri Richard, in a chat with Van-guard, disclosed that the in-creased security network in Oyo/Osun, became necessary to curb

the menace of smuggling arms,Indian hemp and other danger-ous items into the country, es-pecially with the security chal-lenge facing Nigeria.

“This year alone, we have cas-es of incessant seizures of harddrugs, live ammunition, frozen

poultry products, tokunbo vehi-cles and other prohibited goodbeing smuggled into the Com-mand, mostly through Saki axis,which is the border linking Ni-geria with other neighbouringcountries”, he said.

ABEOKUTA—ACTIVITIES at the Olabisi Ona-

banjo University Teaching Hos-pital, Sagamu, Ogun State, wereparalysed yesterday, as the work-ers began an indefinite strike.

According to the workers un-der the aegis of Joint Health Sec-tor Unions, OOUTH, Sagamu,the industrial action was de-clared due to neglect by the stategovernment, unpaid allowances,delayed promotion and un-favourable working environment,among others.

The JOHESU consists of Na-tional Association of NigerianNurses and Midwives, Medical

Health Workers Union of Nige-ria, Non Academic Staff Unionof Educational and AssociatedInstitutions, and the Senior StaffAssociation of Teaching Hospi-tals, Research Institutes and As-sociatied Instituitions, SSAU-THRIAI at OOUTH.

Addressing newsmen at thehospital, the chairman, JOHE-SU, OOUTH, Sagamu, Kikelo-mo Enaholo accused GovernorIbikunle Amosun, who sheclaimed visited the hospital dur-ing his campaign three yearsago and promised to improve thefacilities and the welfare pack-age of workers, of failing to keephis promises.

She claimed that apart from an

outstanding March 2011 salary,the state government owedmembers 17 months Consolidat-ed Tertiary Institutions SalaryStructure arrears while other 13months arrears were outstand-ing on their Consolidated HealthWorkers Salary Structure.

She alleged that the govern-ment had not been remitting itscounterpart pension fund, say-ing “Before the congress took thedecision to embark on this sit-at-home protest, we have exploredall avenues to avoid it but all didnot yield any result. We havewritten to the governor, commis-sioner, the board and other rele-vant committees but there was noresponse." For everything we do

IBADAN—SENATOR Lekan Balogun who

allegedlly worked againstformer Governor AdebayoAlao-Akala in 2011 yester-day said if the ex-gover-nor could win the prima-ries, he would supporthim against the incum-bent governor, Abiola Aji-mobi, an Ibadan indigene.

He said he now be-lieved Alao-Akala hadlearnt his lesson and isnow well-behaved.

The Peoples Democrat-ic Party, PDP, chieftainwho received scores ofdefectors from Accord andAll Progressives Con-gress, APC, to the PDPboasted that he wouldsend back the APC toclasses in the 2015 elec-tions.

Balogun described thepolicies of the ruling gov-ernment as anti people.

Strike paralyses health services in SagamuBY DAUD OLATUNJI

RENOWNED management guru and

first black managing di-rector of Guinness Niger-ia Plc, Dr. Abel K.Ubeku, who died onMarch 9, 2014 in theUnited Arab Emirates af-ter a protracted illness,is to be buried in hishometown, Araya in Iso-ko South Local Govern-ment, Delta State on Sat-urday, June 14.

Ubeku, who was con-ferred with the nationalhonours of the officer ofthe Order of the FederalRepublic (OFR) in 1982by the Federal Govern-ment for his contributionto management develop-ment, joined politics af-ter his retirement fromGuinness in 1989.

Born in 1935 in Araya,Isoko South Local Gov-ernment Area of DeltaState, Ubeku attainedthe pinnacle of his careerthrough an uncommondetermination to suc-ceed.

Ubeku was married toChief Mrs. Beatrice Obi-ageli Ubeku and they wereblessed with children.

Ubeku, formerGuinness MDfor burialSaturday


Ijaw to seek redress at ICJ over oilproceeds —Alamieyeseigha

BY SAMUELOYADONGHA

Amioku lauds Uduaghan's achievements in education

Rivers Judicial workers commence strike

YENAGOA—A FORMERgovernor of Bayelsa State

and member of the nationalconference, Chief DiepreyeAlamieyeseigha, has called onthe leadership of the Ijaw na-tion to take their prolonged dis-enchantment with the FederalGovernment over proceedsfrom oil and gas exploration tothe International Court of Jus-tice, ICJ, in The Hague.

Alamieyeseigha, who paidglowing tributes to late Ijawhero, Major Isaac Adaka Boro,who was reburied last weekendin Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, in-sisted that the recourse to theICJ at The Hague was not be-yond the Ijaw nation.

He recalled how in 2006, dur-ing the Isaac Boro memorial cel-ebrations under the auspices ofthe Ijaw Peoples Association ofGreat Britain and Ireland,Chief Melford Okilo of bless-ed memory, mooted the idea ofIjaw nation seeking restitutionat The Hague over issues of oilexploration and despoliation.

He said: “An abiding memo-ry I still hold of that occasionwas the seminar session dur-ing which Okilo, our late polit-ical mentor, called on the lead-ership of the Ijaw people to taketheir prolonged disenchant-ment with the Federal Govern-ment over proceeds from oil

and gas exploration to the ICJ atthe Hague. He was speakingwith regard to the legacy of IsaacAdaka Boro.

“He enjoined our youths to for-sake violence and hostage-tak-ing, to learn the rudiments ofdialogue and negotiation, and topress home their grievanceswithout shedding blood. As heput it ‘We live in a civilized worldwhere order, stability and justicemust be sacrosanct, and the ICJwas set up precisely to settlelong-standing disputes of greatmagnitude between nations andwithin nations. Ijaw leaders will

do well to seek justice beforethat world body.’

“Eight years after that pro-nouncement, Okilo’s sugges-tion remains an option that Istill find fascinating. Yet noattempt had been made topursue the possibilities for re-dress that it offers. On the con-trary, the access to a violentresolution of the crisis becameeven wider over the years, re-sulting in greater insecurityand lawlessness, until the of-fer of amnesty brought somelevel of respite to the restivemilitancy in the Niger Delta

which the Federal Govern-ment is still trying to exploreunder the presidency of ourdear brother, Dr. GoodluckJonathan.

“I tend to think that the re-course to justice at the Hagueis still not beyond us. It is oneoption that we ought to pur-sue, even if at the end theamnesty programme yieldsits best for our disgruntled ag-itators. Let it be that futuregenerations do not find rea-son to blame us for failing toregister our grievances in theannals of the ICJ."

BY JIMITOTA ONOYUME

PORT HARCOURT—THE crisis rocking the

Rivers State Judiciary over theappointment of Justice DaisyOkocha as an administrativeChief Judge by the NationalJudicial Council, NJC, took atwist, yesterday, with the staffof the state judiciary commenc-ing an indefinite strike action.

Doors to offices and courtrooms were locked at the court

premises. Chairman of theRivers State Judiciary StaffUnion of Nigeria, JUSUN,Mr. George Sokari, said theyhad to embark on the strikeaction because of Monday’sattack on the High Court inAhoada East Local Govern-ment Area.

Unknown assailants hadhurled explosives into thecourt premises which de-stroyed valuables.

Mr Sokari, said as judicial

UGHELLI—THE Com-missioner representing

Delta State on the Board ofNiger Delta DevelopmentCommission, NDDC, Chief

Tom Amioku, has commendedGovernor Emmanuel Uduaghanfor his outstanding develop-ment in the education sector.

Speaking during the confer-ment of award of fellowship ofthe Delta State Polytechnic,Ogwashi-Uku at the institution'sfirst combined convocation and12th anniversary ceremony onprominent Nigerians, which hewas one, Amioku said the ren-ovation of public primary andsecondary schools was gearedtowards uplifting the standardof education in the state.

Conferring the honorary fel-

lowship on Amioku, theChairman of the institution'sGoverning Council andCommissioner for HigherEducation, Prof. Hope Egh-agha, said Amioku was be-ing recognised for his out-standing leadership quali-ties in the state and congrat-ulated him for the feat. Egh-agha added that the institu-tion selected Amioku basedon his achievements in thepublic and private sectors.

Responding on behalf ofother recipients, includingthe Obi of Ogwashi-Uku,

PA Channi Dudu,theOlaraja of Obon-

teghareda (Dudu Town),is dead, aged 96. He wasa community leader.

He is survived by manychildren, grandchildrenand great grandchildren.

Burial arrangementswill be announced later.

Pa Dudupasses on

OrubebecommendsDelta FirstLady on soulwinning

BY EGUFEYAFUGBORHI

WARRI—FORMERNiger Delta Af-

fairs Minister and 2015governorship hopeful inDelta State, Elder Gods-day Orubebe, has com-mended the wife of DeltaState governor, Deacon-ess Roli Uduaghan, forher “extraordinary com-mitment to winning soulsfor God.”

Orubebe lauded Mrs.Uduaghan at the Nigeri-an Prisons formations inOgwashi-Uku, Sapeleand Warri, Delta State,where he learnt that Ud-uaghan’s wife built churchauditoriums aimed atdrawing both inmatesand staff of the prisonscloser to God.

The former minister,who had declared his in-tention to contest the 2015governorship poll in thestate was at the prisons aspart of activities to markhis 55th birthday celebra-tion. He donated bed-dings, sports kits, toilet-ries, Bibles and confec-tioneries to the staffs andinmates.

He said: “I have hearda lot of good things theDelta State First Lady isdoing to uplift the com-mon man. Today, I haveseen with my eyes thatshe is building to winsouls for God. Anyone in-vesting in winning soulsfor God is dear to myheart. God will continueto oil the wheels of Del-ta’s First Lady anywhereshe finds herself.”

The former minister en-couraged the prisons in-mates that being in pris-on was not the end of lifefor them, adding that theystand significant chancesof coming out to be greatNigerians in the future ifonly they would makepeace with God.

“God told me that someof you are being held herenot for any crime you com-mitted, but because anenemy wrongly labelledyou bad before the law.Even the prison officialsattest to such situations.But God never createdany man bad. So, the onlyway you can recover yourGod-intended rightful la-belling is to acceptChrist.”

In all three prison for-mations visited, the offi-cials thanked the formerminister, and prayed Godto grant his aspirations.Late Pa Channi Dudu

Prof. Chukwuma Okonjo,Chief Ighoyota Amori, Sen-ior Political Adviser to DeltaState Governor among oth-ers, Chief Amioku thankedthe school’s GoverningCouncil for recognisingthem with the conferments.He said the Niger DeltaDevelopment Commissionwas partnering the state gov-ernment and other states inthe Niger Delta in provid-ing infrastructure and edu-cational materials that wouldboost quality education inthe region.

workers, they were no long-er sure of their security withthe incessant attacks oncourts in the state. He saidthat Monday’s incident wasthe third time the courtwould be attacked.

Meantime, litigants andlawyers were stranded yes-terday at the court premisesin Port Harcourt because ofthe strike action. Some ofthem called for an early res-olution of the problem.

NGF RETREAT: Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State (right), his Imo State counter-part, Rochas Okorocha (left) and Senator Magnus Abe, during the 4th Nigerian GovernorsForum retreat in Port Harcourt.

BY FESTUS AHON


Police take over Edo Assembly

BY SIMON EBEGBULEM& GABRIEL ENOGHOLASE

BENIN—HELL was letloose at the Edo State

House of Assembly, yesterday,following a counter move tosuspend the Speaker, Mr. UyiIgbe, Majority Leader and sixothers by the Deputy Speaker,Mr. Festus Ebea and three oth-er lawmakers who were earliersuspended on Monday bytheir colleagues.

The police had to take overthe premises of the Assemblyafter youths loyal to the PeoplesDemocratic Party, PDP, andthose of All Progressives Con-gress, APC, engaged them-selves in a free for all.

The nine PDP lawmakerssaid that they had suspendedthe Speaker of the House, Mr.Igbe and the Majority Leader,Mr. Philip Shaibu. Accordingto the suspended DeputySpeaker, Mr. Ebea, “I am thenew Speaker.”

The suspended members,alongside other PDP lawmak-ers, who had earlier sat in the

Chambers without the mace,elected the Deputy Speaker, MrEbea, as the new Speaker, say-ing that their action was becauseof “the Speaker and MajorityLeader's unbecoming behaviour,which had brought the integrityof the House into serious disre-pute.

“In the last four weeks, thepremises of Edo State House ofAssembly had been taken overby miscreants, whose presencehad become an embarrassmentto the law-abiding citizens of EdoState, the House members andthe workers at large.

“The House hardly sat at theadjourned time of 10a.m. Thiswas occasioned by the fact thatthe former Majority Leader hadtaken upon himself to alwaysdecide when and where theHouse would sit.

“The House always adjournedwhen the former Majority Lead-er was not around. This, we feel,was inconsistent with the fact thatthe Edo tax payers’ money, usedto pay us, is supposed to ensurethat we must at all times be atour duty posts. Sitting time of

10a.m., is sacrosanct and webelieve that every member ofthe House of Assembly mustkeep to that time,” he said.

It was however, observedthat the nine lawmakers werenot with the mace within thethree minutes they spent onthe floor of Assembly cham-bers.

Suspension is laugha-ble—APC members

But the 14 APC lawmakersloyal to Governor Adams Os-hiomhole, described the al-leged suspension as laugh-able, accusing the police ofaiding the four suspendedlawmakers to break into thechambers. Kabiru Adjoto,who addressed newsmen atthe office of the Speaker with13 other members, said:“That they suspended theSpeaker somewhere in Ug-bor village is laughable. Youcan see the Speaker and theMajority Leader seated herecomfortably, so that rumouris arrant nonsense.”

The Clerk of the House, Mr.

Robert Ogini, told newsmenthat “I have the mace and Iwas with the Speaker whenthey broke the doors of thechambers with thugs. So, Idon’t know how they couldhave suspended the Speakerand the Majority Leaderwhen the mace was not withthem.”

The House had, Monday,suspended the DeputySpeaker, Mr. Ebea, Mr. Fri-day Ogieriakhi (OrhionmwonSouth constituency), Mr.Jude Ise-Idehen (IkpobaOkhai) and Mr. Patrick Osay-inmen, (Oredo East).

Tension started brewing,yesterday, at 9.45a.m., whena white bus carrying the sus-pended members drove intothe House of Assembly com-plex with some mobile police-men.

On sighting the lawmakers,the Sergeant at Arms took tohis heels.

Barely three minutes afterthe suspended lawmakersand four other PDP lawmak-ers sat, Speaker Igbe and 14other lawmakers stormed the

As nine PDP members suspend Speaker, Majority LeaderIt's laughable—APC lawmakers

chambers at exactly 10a.m.The Majority Leader of the

House, Shaibu, who spoke tonewsmen after the fracas, said:“We came to sit this morningand we sat as usual. But be-fore we came in, the police es-corted the suspended membersand the PDP members to thechambers. On our arrival at10a.m., we saw them hurried-ly rushing out of the chambers.The police had aided them toforcefully open the chambers.

“We took the order of the day,after that we adjourned sittingtill tomorrow. So the issue ofsuspending us, I don’t knowhow they came about that. Theparaphernalia of office is in thehands of the Speaker, the Ser-geant at Arms was with theSpeaker. We were surprisedwhen the police shot tear gas."

Meanwhile, the DeputySpeaker and his group, laterin the day, described as falla-cious, the allegation made byGovernor Adams Oshiomhole,that they got N50 million eachto dump the APC, for the PDP.

It will be recalled that thegovernor, had while address-ing some aggrieved APCyouths at the GovernmentHouse on Monday, said thatthe four lawmakers, who recent-ly decamped the PDP, hadbeen given N50 million eachto decamp.”

14 — Vanguard, WEDESDAY, JUNE 11, 2014

Reps move toenforce wasterecycling byindustries

BY CHIDI NKWOPARA

Imo indigenes worry over ‘huge' paymentsfor abandoned projects

OKOROCHA TO POLITICAL PARTIES: Feelfree to use govt facilities for rallies

BY CHIDI NKWOPARA

MR. NWASINOKEAnselm Chukwuemeka,

alias Ashanti, who died onFriday, April 25, after a briefillness, will be buried onThursday, June 12, in hiscompound, at Isiekwuluvillage, Ukpo, DunukofiaLGA, Anambra State. He is survived by a widow,Mrs. Nwasinoke Ebele andfour children; Uche, Chigozie,Chidiebele and ChikweluNwasinoke.

AnselmNwasinoke forburial

Late Anselm Nwasinoke

ABUJA—THE wastegenerated by

industries must be recycledto protect the environment,the House ofR e p r e s e n t a t i v e sdeclared yesterday.

Speaker of the House,Aminu Tambuwal, in anaddress at a one-daystakeholders’ meeting onthe Implementation ofExtended ProducerR e s p o n s i b i l i t yProgramme, called fors t a k e h o l d e r s ’collaboration to tackle themenace of industrialwaste littering thecountry.

He remindedstakeholders ofprovisions in the lawcompelling industries toadhere to the rules ofrecycling industrialwaste.

He said: “Specifically,section 8 of the NationalEnvironmental(Food,Beverages , Tobaccosector) Regulations,2009, states that allmanufacturers of variousbrands of products shallestablish a buy-backprogramme for bottlesand other packaging forproducts, and subscribeto an extended productss t e w a r d s h i pprogramme.”

Chairman of theCommittee, UcheEkwunife, APGAAnambra, in her openingaddress, stressed theneed for manufacturersto observe strictadherence to recyclingrules.

OWERRI—IMO Stategovernor, Chief Rochas

Okorocha, has asked allregistered political parties inthe state to feel free to use allgovernment facilities for theirrallies and campaigns.

He, however, banned thelittering of the state capitalwith posters during politicalcampaigns.

Okorocha disclosed thisyesterday while fielding

OWERRI—THE billions ofnaira allegedly paid to some

contracting firms by GovernorRochas Okorocha’sadministration for abandonedprojects in the state is nowcausing serious concern amongthe citizenry.

All the respondents who spoketo Vanguard on the issue,accused the presentadministration of being largelyresponsible for what theydescribed as “the huge fraudrocking the state.”

Speaking to Vanguard, theformer Attorney General andCommissioner for Justice, PrinceKen Njemanze, SAN, wonderedwhy the state government shouldpay huge sums of money tocontractors as mobilisation fees,even when they had not movedto their respective sites.

He said: “If due process arefollowed when giving out thesejobs, we would not have beenrunning after the runawaycontractors.”

Speaking also, a chieftain ofProgressive Peoples Alliance, Dr.Vitalis Ajumbe, reasoned that ifthe contracting firms were forcedto produce bank guarantees, thehuge sums of money said to havebeen stolen by the runawaycontractors would have beenrecovered from the respectivebanks.

He said: “It is not enough forthe governor to tell Imo peoplethat contractors ran away withour money. He should tell thepeople who these contractors are,give us their addresses and tellus who found them capable ofdoing the jobs and who orderedthe payments.”

He recalled that during arecent tour of the local councilareas, the governor reportedlyordered the arrest of somecontractors and their associatesbut expressed regret that no onehad so far been arraigned in court

after the tour.“We were told that Mr. Joseph

Dina of JPROS was paid astaggering N1.2 or N1.5 billion fora job he never did. The StateHouse of Assembly, rather accusedan innocent man of havingreceived a bribe of N458 million

and impeached him! This is Imofor you,” Ajumbe said.

When contacted, the Chief ofStaff to Okorocha, who doublesas the Chairman, Task Force onRecovering of Funds fromfleeing contractors, Sir JudeEjiogu, said some of them had

been declared wanted.At the time of going to press,

neither the governor nor theChief of Staff or other governmentofficials could say if any moneyhad been recovered from anycontractor and how much wasrecovered.

questions from newsmen inOwerri, on a number ofnational and state issues.

The governor said: “In abid to promote peace andunity in the state, allregistered political partiesoperating in Imo State, arefree to use all governmentfacilities for their rallies andcampaigns.”

He disclosed that the daysof political bickering andbitterness were over in the

BYEMMANOVUAKPORIE

state, pointing outthat things thatpromoted progressin the state shouldbe promoted by allfor the state to moveforward.

The governormaintained that hisa d m i n i s t r a t i o nwould provide alevel playingground for alla s p i r a n t s ,irrespective ofpolitical affiliations.

“Honestly, nobodywill be stopped forwhatever reason, fromcarrying out hisconstitutional rightduring campaign,”Okorocha said.

The governor,however, banned thelittering of the state

capital with posters as heenjoined politicians to make useof bill boards positioned atapproved places and play politicsby the rules.

VISIT: From left: Ms Josephine Amuwa, Director, Legal Services, Nigerian CommunicationsCommission, NCC, Mr. Ima Niboro, MD, News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, Dr. Eugene Juwah,Executive Vice Chairman, NCC, Mr. Okechukwu Itanyi, Executive Commissioner, StakeholderManagement, NCC, and Mr. Tony Ojobo, Director, Public Affairs, during a visit by themanagement team of NAN to the Commission in Abuja, yesterday.

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY,JUNE 11, 2014 — 15

Newspapers return to newsstands as militaryends clampdown

PSC promotes2 AIGs, 7 CPs,dismisses4 officers

BY JOHNBOSCOAGBAKWURU

DEFECTION: Withdraw suit againstTambuwal, Senator tells AG

BY WOLE MOSADOMI &VICTOR AHIUMA-YOUNG

ABUJA—SENATORKabiru Marafa,

representing ZamfaraCentral senatorialdistrict, has advised theAttorney General of theFederation and Ministerof Justice, Mr.Mohammed Adoke,SAN, to withdraw thesuit he instituted againstthe Speaker of the Houseof Representatives,Alhaji Aminu Tambuwal,and the Houseleadership on thedefection of somePeoples DemocraticParty, PDP, members tothe All ProgressivesCongress, APC.

Senator Marafa alsotold the AG to act like astatesman and be neutralin the House politicsand not to create the

NLC urges media owners, vendors to demand for compensation

ABUJA—THE PoliceService Commission,

PSC, yesterday, approvedthe promotion of twoAssistant InspectorsGeneral of Police.

They are CP ChrisOlakpe, immediate pastCommissioner of Police,Plateau State and CPGrace Ekudo, as sevennew Commissioners ofPolice were alsoelevated.

The elevation of the twoAIGs, which took effectfrom June 4, 2014 andJune 9, 2014respectively, is comingjust as the PSCconfirmed 32disciplinary casesinvolving Senior PoliceOfficers, SPOs, resultingin the dismissal of fourofficers.

A statement signed byFerdinand Ekpe, ChiefInformation Officer, said:“Two Superintendents ofPolice, namely: NyongEnefiok, Offu Ukereke,Deputy SuperintendentEteng Bassey andA s s i s t a n tS u p e r i n t e n d e n tMohammed UsmanKashim were dismissed,while an ASP wascompulsorily retired foroffences against policediscipline."

impression that he wasAttorney General for thePDP and not the country,adding that if he (theAG) should go aheadwith the suit, he shouldalso include the list of allthe lawmakers who hadalso defected to the PDP.

He said: “Within thenext two weeks, I urgethe Attorney General ofthe Federation towithdraw this suit againstthe speaker or join theother colleagues in theHouse of Representativesthat also defected fromother political parties toPDP.

“It is when he does sothat we will call him theAttorney General of theFederation and not theAttorney General of thePDP. He shouldwithdraw this suit withinthese two weeks.

“If he fails to do so, Iurge my brother andCommander in Chief toshow the Attorney-General, the way out (ofthe cabinet) and toassure the members ofthe House ofRepresentatives thatthey can investigateministers, or anygovernment functionaryas part of their oversightresponsibility asenshrined in theconstitution.”

Adoke had on April 22,sued the Speaker of theHouse ofRepresentatives, AminuTambuwal, to give effectto the judgment of anAbuja Federal HighCourt, which declaredvacant, seats of somelawmakers who defectedfrom the PDP to the AllProgressives Congress.

PROTEST: Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State, addressing youths protesting againstsome lawmakers who defected from the All Progressives Congress, APC, to the PeoplesDemocratic Party, PDP, in Benin, yesterday.

MINNA—AT last, theMilitary has ceased the

war it declared on sales ofnational newspapers across thecountry last weekend.

Consequently, newspapersrestricted from circulation in thepast five days have returned tothe newsstand.

This development came asNigeria Labour Congress, NLC,urged media owners andvendors to demandcompensation for losses sufferedas a result of the action by themilitary.

The vans of the dailies affectedwere not intercepted at the usualMilitary check point alongAbuja-Suleja-Minna road wherethey were usually intercepted,neither were soldiers seen at thedistribution centre nearObasanjo Complex where theyofficially searched parcels ofdifferent titles before beingcirculated.

Yesterday morning, all therestricted dailies, including TheNation, Daily Trust andLeadership, were seen on thestands, with the vendors freelydisplaying them for people topick.

The three dailies were worst hitby the military action.

Niger State chairman ofVendors Association, Mr. FestusElijah, thanked the authorities

for intervening and assured thatthey would continue tocooperate with all concerned toavoid crisis in the country.

Meanwhile, Nigeria LagourCongress, in a statement issuedyesterday, called on owners ofaffected media houses andvendors to seek payment ofcompensation from the militaryfor losses incurred from theclampdown.

The NLC in the statement bythe President, Mr. AbdulwaheedOmar, also called for arrest and

punishment of soldiers involvedin the show of shame

The statement, entitled “StopDisrupting NewspapersCirculation Now!” read: “Theongoing harassment ofnewspaper vendors, whichincludes seizure ofnewspapers, arrest of circulationdrivers of several newspaperpublishing companies as well asdepriving the reading publicaccess to information byoperatives of the Nigerian militaryand other security agencies is

absolutely unacceptable andclearly out of place in anydemocratic society.

“The military and all thesecurity agencies ought to knowthat all fundamental rights aregermane to democracy andtherefore, lack constitutional andlegal rights to unilaterally orderthe circumscription of freedom ofpress or any freedom in any formas we cannot find the linkbetween insecurity and a freepress in democratic governance."


BYJOHN MKOM

Taraba NLC chair alleges discrimination against Christians

Passage

NZE DAMIONChilaka Amaechi,

58, of Obokwu Obizi,Mbaise LocalGovernment, Imo State isdead.

He was until his deatha Senior Staff of SedecoOil Company NigeriaLtd, and a communityleader.

He is survived by awidow and five children.

He will be buried onJune 20, in his hometown, Obokwu Obizi,Mbaise LocalGovernment,Imo State.

JALINGO—THE Chairman ofthe Nigerian Labour

Congress, NLC, in Taraba State,Comrade Mark Ishaaku,yesterday, accused the stateteachers’ service board ofdiscriminating against Christainsduring its last recruitment drivein the state.

Ishaaku spoke while deliveringhis goodwill message at thecommissioning ceremony of theUltra-Modern Taraba StateNurses House in Jalingo,yesterday.

He told the acting governor,Garba Umar that 80 per cent ofthe newly recruited teachers wereMuslims, pointing out that the

ABUJA—PRESIDENTGoodluck Jonathan has

said that the Federal Governmentwould strengthen the ability oflocal governments in the countryto play their roles of ruraldevelopment through theMillennium Development Goals,MDGs, the post-MDGs as wellas other items on the

THE NEWLY selectedtraditional ruler of Alor

in Idemili LocalGovernment Area ofAnambra State, IgweChinedu Okonkwo,Ezedioranma III, hasvowed to make peace,reconciliation anddevelopment the centre-piece of his administration.

The monarch who madethis declaration at Ojoto,the headquarters of thecouncil during his formalpresentation to the councilchairman, Prince PeterEzenwa Jnr., alsocommended othercompatriots who contestedfor the throne with him.

He expressedwillingness toaccommodate all of them inthe new cabinet, so as toharness all their potentialsand zeal for the collectivedevelopment of thecommunity.

The monarch had earlierbeen presented andpurified at the ObiAgbudugbu grove, theaccepted first home/residence of thecommunity’s progenitorand ancestors.

consideration for the employmentwas based on religion and notcompetence.

Ishaaku further said that apartfrom this, over 50 per cent of thenew teachers were non-indigenes while graduates from

FG plans to strenthen LGs through MDGs

the state were jobless, and lookingfor what to do.

Taraba State Governmentrecently lifted its embargo on newteachers at the state teachingservice board to fill the largevacuum created by the number of

deaths and retired teachers inthe state.

However, the NLC chairmansaid he brought the matter to thepublic so the issue could beproperly investigated by the stategovernment.

According to him, he had takenhis time to investigate what waslike a rumour before arriving athis conclusions and asked Umarto order his own investigations inother to avoid crisis.

transformation agenda of hisadministration.

According to the SpecialAdviser on Media to the VicePresident, Umar Sani, Jonathanspoke through his boss, NamadiSambo yesterday, when hereceived a delegation of the boardmembers of the CommonwealthLocal Government Forum, CLGF,

at State House, Abuja.While commending Nigeria’s

membership of the CLGF for notonly entrenching the values thatenhance decentralisation at thelocal level of government butconsolidating democracy and therule of law, Jonathan stressed that thegovernment was promoting democracyand improving governance at all levels.

New monarchassures ondevt

Late Damian Amaechi


OPINION

18— Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 11, 2014

BY DONALD UMAHI

*Mr. Umahi, a commercial farmer,wrote from Abam, Arochukwu, AbiaState.

Orji and his agriculture awardOrji and his agriculture awardOrji and his agriculture awardOrji and his agriculture awardOrji and his agriculture award

RECENTLY in the news wasUnited States discovery of shale

and gas in commercial quantity whichhas made them to stop buying Nigeriacrude oil in commercial quantity.Invariably the recent development willsurely affect Nigeria’s revenueconsidering that crude oil is the majorsource of the country’s revenue andthe US was the highest buyer of ourcrude before now. It was as a resultof this development that people havebeen agitating and calling on ourleaders before now to diversify thecountry’s economy to make it lessdependent on oil.

Economic experts have argued andadvised before now that theagricultural sector should be exploredand developed as alternative to thecurrent oil-based economy. Some ofour leaders paid deaf ear to thewarning and failed to do the needfulsimply because the monthlyFederation Allocation must come. Now that America has stopped buyingNigeria's crude in commercialquantity, the monthly federationallocation must definitely reduce.

It is only states that exploredalternative source of income bydeveloping their agricultural sector

that will survive the effects in thenearest future. One of such states isAbia whose governor, Chief TheodoreOrji anticipated this situation andstarted aggressive and sustainedagricultural revolution in the statefrom the inception of his government.

His government was the first in thecountry to introduce Youth-In-Agriculture Initiative which was aimedat encouraging and supporting youthsin practising commercial farming.Since then, many unemployed youthsin the state have been trained andsupported by government to practiseagriculture in the state. Some of themare today employers of labour.

The government has establishedliberation farms across the 17 councilareas in the state where the youths arebeing trained in different agriculturalpractices. At Bende, two rice millswere established to enable rice farmerswithin and outside the environs toprocess their rice. Also constructedand stocked in the area were fish pondsof various sizes.

At Akpaa Mbato in Obingwa, thestate government purchased 24 plotsof land now being used foragricultural practice. Abia Palm Estatein Ohambele in Ukwa East council

area which was comatose before nowhas been revitalised. The sametreatment has been extended to AbiaRubber Company and CashewPlantation.

For years, Chief DavidOnyenweaku, a prominent son of thestate has remained the number cocoafarmer in the country. The stategovernment has provided more thana million cocoa seedlings free to cocoafarmers in the state since 2007.Also,the government has been makingprovision for a capacity buildingprogramme called farmer field schoolin collaboration with STCP/IITA. It hasdone this through the establishmentof 15 schools located in cocoaproducing communities of the state.

At Lodu Ndume in Umuahia Northis a massive cassava plantation with alarge number of farmers employedthere. Government has beensubsidizing agro-inputs such asfertilizers, seeds, seedlings, agro-chemical to more than 214, 000 farmersin the state since 2007. Alsosubsidized by the state government were 55 tractors for farming across the17 council areas in the state. In thearea of payment of counterpart fund,the state government has paid

counterpart fund for FADAMA project111 and the FGN-NDDC communitybased Natural Resources ManagementProjects. A total of 25,262 farmershave benefitted from the projects,while 21, 216 farmers have alsoreceived trainings on best agriculturalpractices with government support inthe state.

To ensure that the agriculturalproduce reach the city for use, thegovernment since coming into officehas engaged in massive roadconstruction and rehabilitation in therural areas where these farms andfarmers are residing. Obviously, thegovernment’s massive intervention inthe sector is paying off today as thestate is gradually becoming the foodbasket of the nation.

It was as result of this giant stridethat Governor Orji was recentlyhonoured with the award ofAgriculture Governor of The Year inLagos at the AGRIKEXPO third PANWest Africa Internal Agric Exhibition.His government’s efforts in agricsector if sustained by successivegovernments in the state will be amajor source of revenue for the statein the face of dwindling oil revenuein the country.

Diminishing Our Constitution

THE thought that some operatorsof the Constitution and theircohorts think they are moreimportant than the Constitution isdisconcerting – it is actuallyillegal. Times over, politicians -especially those who are holdingelected positions - believe thattheir agreement is needed for theConstitution to be law.

It is time this illegal practicestopped. The most prominentexample of a constitutionalaberration is the attachment of theabsurdity EXECUTIVE to the titleof governors. There are about 108references to “the Governor of aState” in the Constitution. Notonce is “Executive Governor ”used. Some governors are said tobe so enamoured of the title“Executive Governor” that anyletter to them without the“appropriate” title cannot bepresented to "His Excellency, theExecutive Governor”.

Pictures of our governors, officialcorrespondences to them, and

official publications from theiroffices bear this illegal title.Remarkably, some of the governorsare lawyers! If there is an“Executive Governor” who is the“Non Executive Governor”? Theonly reference to “executive” indescribing a governor is in Section176 (2) which states, “TheGovernor of a State shall be theChief Executive of that State.

Perhaps more insulting to theConstitution is the approval thatthe President gives for theimplementation of constitutionalprovisions. This practice beganduring the presidency of OlusegunObasanjo. It continues today as a

public relations gimmick thatdents the Constitution.

When a court gave a ruling then,former President Obasanjo wouldobtain the advice of his Attorney-General before a public statementwould be issued that the Presidenthad agreed or disagreed with thecourt ruling.

His position decided whathappened. The flagrantannexation of the powers of thecourt was a regular circusespecially in court decision thatfavoured former Anambra Stategovernor Dr. Chris Ngige.Obasanjo refused to obey thoseorders, except the one that

nullified Ngige’s governorship.It was probably in line with this

tradition then, President UmaruMusa Yar’Adua approved the Courtof Appeal judgment in 2008 thatAdams Oshiomhole was governorof Edo State. Did the Presidenthave to approve?

A year after, then Vice PresidentJonathan Goodluck ordered thatIbrahim Geidam, DeputyGovernor of Yobe State be swornin as governor, after the death ofGovernor Mamman Ali. Section181 of the Constitution clearlystates that the Deputy Governorsucceeds a governor who dies orleaves office before the expirationof his tenure. President Jonathanwas a beneficiary of this provisionwhen he became a governor inBayelsa State .

We should stop diminishing theConstitution by acting as if itneeds approval for its provisions tobe law, or by adding extraneousprovisions to the ones, it awards.

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 11, 2014—————1919191919

,

,

,

,

PRESIDENT GoodluckJonathan has many political

enemies. The irony of the President'ssituation is that many of his veryvocal supporters are among his mostardent enemies. They are in the classof Nigerians I have in the last oneweek here referred to as the enemieswithin the President's government. Byself-perception the President himselfbelieves the Nigerian press hateshim. He has bought into the logic ofthe many enemies he once claimedhave infiltrated his government andfirmly believes he is the victim of acompromised press. Whereas hisproblem emanates from the legionof fair weather friends and do-gooders out to fish in the troubledwaters they have created for thePresident. There is no doubt there aremany Nigerians out there who aregenuinely troubled by what theyperceive as an overly critical press;one they believe is a problemrather than a genuine watchdogand partner of the Jonathanadministration. For the sakes ofthese Nigerians it is necessary toshoot straight by coming downhard on some of these wolvesmasquerading in sheep clothingaround the President. Last week Iidentified Alex Badeh, the Chief of

Jonathan's 'most wanted'Jonathan's 'most wanted'Jonathan's 'most wanted'Jonathan's 'most wanted'Jonathan's 'most wanted'list of enemieslist of enemieslist of enemieslist of enemieslist of enemies

Defence Staff as one of those stokingthe fire in Jonathan's bush oftrouble.

Another culprit that doesn't needany special effort to unmask is MbuJoseph Mbu- yes the sameinfamous Mbu that was, even aspolice officer, the de facto governorof Rivers State. While Badeh couldbe seen and excused as a recentrecruit into the cadre of Jonathan'sinternal enemies; while it is evenpossible to see him as a misguidedrecruit, Mbu has a relatively longcareer of deliberate mischief. He isa power-monging anarchist in policeuniform. Nigerians couldn't haveforgotten too quickly that Mbu it wasthat all but ran Rotimi Amaechi outof Rivers as the elected governor ofthat state? In the many controversiesthat pitched Amaechi against thePresident, his wife and their politicalsupporters in Rivers State, Mbu wasthe unhidden hand that led thecharge against an elected governor.As a public officer, the Commissionerof Police of Rivers State, that oughtto be seen far more than he was heard,Mbu made an art of disrespect to asuperior to whom he should beanswerable.

He openly took side in a matterthat was no concern of his even

when he could have successfullyserved as a peace-maker betweentwo estranged political associatesthat were his superiors. CertainlyMbu tried to pose as a loyalsubordinate and friend of thePresident. But the true motive ofhis soapy support and unbridled,even reckless support of thePresident's wife was for the purposeof his pocket and position. He wassimply out to make an impressionhowever ignoble as a supporter ofPresident Jonathan, especially hiswife and her local supporters inRivers. Mbu was a major actor inthe drama that made lifeunbearable for Amaechi, makingthe difference between him and thePresident irreconcilable. Mburemained a thorn in the softunderbelly of Amaechi until hisshenanigans attracted enoughattention as to make his continuedstay in Rivers State untenable.

Now as Commissioner of Policein the Federal Capital

Territory, Mbu is once more at thegame he knows best- courting at

once avoidable and unnecessarycontroversy all for the sake ofpower and influence. This man isno doubt a politician in policeuniform and until the policeauthorities do something aboutputting him where he trulybelongs he would continue to bringthem unfavourable attention. Heis simply bad news as his latestmisadventure in trying to banrallies in aid of the release of theabducted school girls of Chibokdemonstrates. Mbu last weekissued an order he obviouslyconsulted nobody, not even hissuperiors at Louise Edet House.

By this order, the police manbanned any procession aimed atcampaigning and drummingsupport for the return of the Chibokgirls. In his warped reading of thematter, Mbu made the astoundingclaim that the campaignconstituted a threat to security asit could be used as a cover todetonate explosives and thusembarrass government. It was aunilateral decision that could onlyhave come from someone full of hisown sense of importance, a deludedpublic officer unconcerned aboutthe limits of his authority. By thisorder Mbu sought to returnNigeria to the era of the militaryor the colonial authorities withwhom Nigeria's founding parentsfought the struggle ofindependence. And a note ofwarning here: Should any thinguntoward, including detonation ofexplosives, occur during the #BringBack Our Girls# campaign Mbushould be held accountable.

It is strange what type of troublesome people simply create forothers in the name of supportingthem. Although IG MohammedAbubakar has reversed Mbu'sthoughtless order but the damagehas already been done. The Policehas been in the unenviable position

of splitting hair on the actual textand meaning of something asunambiguous as Mbu'sirresponsible order. The man,forgetting that Abuja is not PortHarcourt where he could run amok,has succeeded in portraying thepolice and the Jonathan governmentas both paranoid and afraid ofcriticism however well-meaning.Mbu has succeeded in bringing aN200 million law suit on the NigeriaPolice. He has further helped inpublicising what he claims to beagainst a campaign he believes hasbeen politicised. Which is notimpossible really. But who isresponsible for that if not thegovernment?

Even from a distance one couldsee that President Jonathan is aquiet human being. But this veryfact is what many jobbersmasquerading as friends aroundhim have exploited quiteunconscionably for their ownpurposes. But neither the Presidentnor his minders are any wiser for it.They would need to wake up fromtheir slumber and begin torecognise the likes of Mbu for whoand what they are: commonbusybodies in need of relevance.These enemies posing as friendsof the President are many andcome in different guises. Manyare members of his party. Othersare in his cabinet. And yet othersare in the security agencies. Buttoo often the usual suspects forJonathan and his supporters aremembers of the opposition manyof whom only see an opening ofcriticism they could exploit.They are less dangerous incertain circumstances thanthose in and around thePresident. He would be doinghimself a world of favour to bealert and alive to the tricks ofthese enemies lurking like snakesat his door.

THESE are not the best of times for theAll Progressives Congress, APC, and this

should concern all progressives in the country,from the real to the latter day ones likeGovernors who have come into the APC andbequeath the party with nothing but crises.From Lagos to Edo, from Kogi to Katsina, thereare crises everywhere; the generality of theyouth in the party from the Northern part ofthe country are no longer sure that the belovedGeneral Muhammadu Buhari will get thepresidential ticket following a selfishmachination put together by the so-calledYoruba leader who misfired by hurlinginvectives at all but three of the traditionalrulers of his tribe.

It is not clear yet what he hoped to achieve,but he has caused mileages to be lost in anarea he is supposed to deliver. Theprogressives, or this 21st Century version,now have to contend with a house dividedagainst itself. Femi Fani-Kayode left, butnot quietly because Nigeria's version ofGoebbels in the APC, could not rein in histongue and his pen, against a man morearticulate than himself. And that articulateparty hopper has spilled some poisonousbeans into the public space.

And what about Edo State where theComrade Governor is no longer beloved andcannot keep together his game. First, ChiefTom Ikimi was treacherously dealt with atthe centre and he wrote some satanic verses,but now that he is prevaricating about leaving,those verses are there for all to recall.

Couched in diplomatese, the architect drewthe image of a collapsing party structureeverywhere, noting that he was writing fromBenin City where all was not well with the party.He said: "The latest problems arise from thecongresses where in the South-South region.

BY ABUBAKAR GALADIMA

With Oshiomhole and others losingWith Oshiomhole and others losingWith Oshiomhole and others losingWith Oshiomhole and others losingWith Oshiomhole and others losinggrips, whither APC?grips, whither APC?grips, whither APC?grips, whither APC?grips, whither APC?

There are fundamental problems in Delta,Rivers, Bayelsa, Akwa-Ibom, Cross Rivers andEdo. I have been informed of similar problemsin most other states across the country. ParallelExcos have emerged in Ogun State!

"Here in the South-South, I could personallydo nothing as a leader or the South-South ViceChairman since the arrangements on groundgive me no powers to operate. Partyheadquarters has established very strangechannels of communication with my regionand State.... The mass failure of theseprocesses (the congresses) is not a surprise tome at all. How the personnel for thesecongresses have been generated is shroudedin utmost secrecy. A failed ward congress canonly give birth to a failed LGA congress, adisaster at state level and mayhem at NationalConvention."

Before Ikimi's verses, some foundingleaders of APC had taken a walk from theparty to the PDP. Among them were ChiefSolomon Edebiri (2012 ANPP governorshipcandidate) and many leaders from the stateand local government areas who were receivedinto PDP. Like the loquacious Governor of theState, Edebiri described the government ofAdams Oshiomhole as one of the most corruptever, adding that the APC government was runon pages of newspapers. He mocked the wardand local government congresses of APC,describing them as a sham.

If Edebiri was not a big fry, Pastor OsagieIze-Iyamu could not be described as such. Heleft in a huff and dragged his supporters withhim. He was also not quiet in leaving andreiterated what Ikimi hinted; only this time hesaid the APC was an "Animal Farm."Oshiomhole did not take kindly to Ize-Iyamu'struthful barbs and hit back. Ize-Iyamu saidhe joined the PDP because he believed thatthe party was the best vehicle for democraticgovernance. He said there was a desperatemove by the governor to dismantle his

structures and that his problem with thegovernor was because he dared to speak thetruth.

His words: “The governor publicly andprivately has come to me to say

Pastor, I appreciate the support you havegiven to me. I know how competent youare. When the time comes, I will supportyou to become the governor. If he denies it,it will completely show he is not a man of hiswords. The issue is somebody hasconsistently promised me this but with theway the comrade has been going, by 2016,I don’t think there will be any APC again.

“APC today has become an animal farm.Everything we condemned is still in place.The governor wanted to conduct thecongress in an undemocratic way by askingme to take five wards and the deputy fivewards. He was so petrified about Ize-Iyamubeing in control that he wanted me to becomea minority.”

At the APC state congress, Oshiomhole hadhis day when he said: “Those who insist wemust do politics as usual where positions areappointed by one person, those who insistthat I should unilaterally decree them asthe next governor cannot fit in."

Fearful of the hurricane that is headinghis way, the self-acclaimed strongman of Edo

politics has started whining about a plot toimpeach him. As usual, PDP chieftains inAbuja are the whipping dogs for Oshiomholewho is daily getting his politics and his ownagenda wrong. Read Oshiomhole: "Theybrought a lot of money from Abuja, payingassembly members whom we campaignedfor. We marketed some of these people whoare not known in their neighbourhood.They rode on my back to get to the House ofAssembly.

"Some of them cannot walk on their streets.They collected, as I read in the papers, hugesums of money for them to decamp, tomortgage, to put on sale the mandate thatyou all, in your respective areas, gave themon the basis of their promise that they willwork with me to deliver the state."

Two things quickly came to my mindwhen I read these lines by Oshiomhole. First,I remember how Oshiomhole in his first termas governor deployed the instrumentalityof the state and its resources to depopulatethe PDP-controlled House of Assembly suchthat the ACN ended up having the majorityin the state legislature. Persons elected onthe PDP platform defected to the ACN to theadmiration of Oshiomhole. Today,Oshiomhole is crying, talking about hugemoney being used to woo his partylegislators over to the PDP and for hisimpeachment. If his claim is true, then Ithink it rings true that what goes roundcomes round. He now knows how it feels tobe at the receiving end.

Then second, Oshiomhole said that thesepeople were not known in theirneighbourhoods, that they rode on his backto get elected into the House of Assembly;and, I ask, how come these purportedlyunknown individuals are the ones givinghim sleepless nights? If they wereunknown, he should not bother with themor their antics. But the fact is that theyare now known, reputed representativesof their people; and the governor cannotdeny this.

*Mr. Galadima, a political analyst, wrotefrom Abuja.

The Presidentwould be doinghimself a worldof favour to bealert and aliveto the tricks ofthese enemieslurking likesnakes at hisdoor

There are fundamentalproblems in Delta,Rivers, Bayelsa, Akwa-Ibom, Cross Rivers andEdo; I have beeninformed of similarproblems in most otherstates across thecountry


BY EBELE ORAKPO

,

,

Ejigbo intersection: Still crying for helpBY OBOHAGBONKHESE

IT is a majorintersection for the

usually heavy trafficflowing from Igando-Ikotun-Egbe andenvirons to Oshodi/Isolo/Cele Express(along theO s h o d i - A p a p aExpressway) and viceversa. But Iyana Ejigbodoes not seem to enjoythe recognition which itsimportance in this regardshould ordinarilyengender.Neglected for severalyears, it has become a by-word for traffic chaos, anightmare for motorists,indeed all commuters,plying that route. This isin spite of the trafficcontrol post there alwaysmanned by personnelfrom, at least, three dif-ferent offices— the Policeinclusive.

Ejigbo falls under theold Alimosho LocalGovernment Area said tobe peopled by about2,047,026 (or less)Lagosians, dependingon who one believes be-tween the Lagos Stategovernment and the Fed-eral Government. Datafrom whoever you be-lieve agree that it has thehighest populationdensity in Lagos andgeographically biggerthan some states. Whichis why, according to oneof the state’s commis-sioners, infrastructuredevelopment in the localgovernment appears in-

visible. What is striking,however, is not the elo-quence of the administra-tion, but that betweenCele and Ikotun, thereseem to be a pothole forevery household.

So, between commercialbus or Danfo driverstrying out Hollywoodstunts and private motor-ists (suit, tie and all) thatflout traffic rules, theymanage to turn a 40-minute journey to fivehours of hell. That is, ifan Ikotun resident leavesMile 2 with somebody

going to Benin, he wouldstill be sweating on theroad while his Beninfriend would have hadhis dinner of poundedyam and Ogbono soup.As one motorist said: “Ifyou are on Ejigbo roadand there is no traffic,“park somewhere and askaround if everything isokay.”

A sigh that shouldsound like a rumblewould be expected fromthis densely populatedarea, that also boast of allkinds of businesses, whenroad construction workstarted. Not so. A resi-dent, who gave his nameas Emmanuel, said: “Canyou honestly compare thepace and quality of workhere with what you get inSurulere and Victoria Is-land? Even the fixing ofthe area around NNPC

Bust Stop became an is-sue between the state andFederal Government.Who is deceiving who?”

Cynicism aside, theconstruction activitiesseem to have gatheredmomentum. The force isso much that drainagethat look like gullies ap-peared everywhere.When rain fell, the gullieswere flooded and busi-nesses shut down. Abanker said customerssimply abandoned theirbranch. A fuel station

manager said his pre-mises had become a parkfor caterpillars and twoentrances to the stationhad been excavated outof existence. Only a fewcustomers know that aside entrance exists.

However, some wisemen still know how to dobusiness. Chief Ezenwa,“an importer, exporterand dealer in generalmerchandise,” got someother traders togetherand “encouraged” thecontractors to build thema bridge to their plaza.Mrs Olayera, a food sell-er, can easily move hertable around as the flooddictates. But Kemi’s pick-up load of tomatoes andpepper cannot get to herstore. So she pays boys tomove the baskets andpasses the extra cost onto customers.

It is a different story fora book seller, who refus-es to disclose her name.“Anytime rain falls,” shefumes, “my books arecondemned. They areconstructing gutter onone side of a road that re-ceives flood from all overEjigbo. Take note thattheir equipment are whatyou see in building sites:pans, shovels, manualcement mixer handled bycarpenters and bricklay-ers. No wonder the gut-ter looks twisted like asnake.”

Her outburst was inter-rupted by screeching ty-res and crunching met-als. A red SUV probablythought that the best wayto ride a rough road wasto jump lanes. The breaksgave way and it rammedinto a Volkswagen LTcommercial bus. The rat-

tled passengers werescreaming. Happily therewas no collision and theSUV ploughed into thebusy Ejigbo market.

Although the book sell-er had sobered up, shestill had enough pres-ence of mind to say thatwork looked serious onthe road because 2015was near. “As soon as elec-tions are over,” she saidauthoritatively, “workwill stop.” Elections ornot, the traffic officersappear very busy. Espe-cially when a wealthy-looking driver is behindthe wheel of an exotic car.

The hot spots are Pakoroundabout, Jakande,almighty Iyana-Ejigbo, infront of SynagogueChurch and Ikotunroundabout. At this pointone would have countedabout 15 traffic officers.This is beside the policepatrol vehicles lurkingaround and waiting topounce on any traffic of-fender on a road thatlooks like it does not ex-ist on any map, but wasactually, like many otherenduring Nigerian roads,constructed by themilitary. When the stategovernment took time outto announced plans tocommence repair workson Oke-Afa/Egbe Bridgefrom April 17 to April 28,people expected so much.But only the annoyinglyprotruding metals havebeen covered.

Residents, traders andmotorists do not look im-pressed by the caterpil-lars and constructionmachines parked all overEjigbo road and someadjoining link roads.

Rainfall palaver

"Driver, please stop and give me back my money;let me take another bus. How can I pay you only tobe drenched in your bus,” complained a commuterby name, Kate in the Iju-Ishaga bus as the skieslet loose. Two more commuters joined Kate in de-manding for a refund or for the driver to do some-thing about the situation as water came pouringinto the bus from up, down and sides. "Imagine! Something from which you earn yourlivelihood, you cannot spend a little time andmoney to put it in order,” said Jide, adding: “Be-fore you know it, he will tell us that the roof juststarted leaking." "What are you saying?" asked the driver feigningignorance of what was going on behind him."How will you know what is going on when youare comfortably seated? My friend, give us ourmoney so we can find our way,” retorted Iyke."Just manage it please. We will soon get to ourdifferent destinations," said Tunde.Replied Kate: "In this hold-up wey wear suit andtie? My brother, this hold-up no get part two so ifwe spend less than four hours in this bus, it will bea miracle.”The vehicles were indeed moving bumper tobumper and the driver said: “Sorry, if traffic startsflowing the water will stop entering the vehicle soplease be patient.”"Driver if you have an umbrella, bring it so theycan use it till the rain subsides," suggested Tunde,whereupon the driver handed him a big umbrella,the one popularly known as Insurance Cover.Tunde then tried to pass it on to Kate who askedhim to first put up the umbrella before giving it toher. "I was just trying to help. If you don’t want it, Iwill give it back to the driver after all, I am not theone being drenched by the rain," said Tunde."But Bros, how on earth do you think you can con-veniently put up that mighty umbrella in this busand even if you do, what about other passengersbecause as the rain falls on the umbrella, it tricklesdown and of course, it will drench those sittingaround the person holding the umbrella. So yoursolution is not feasible at all. It will rather createmore problems," said Jide."Ok oo, I was only trying to help. Why should I bethe one to put up the umbrella, don’t you haverespect?" asked Tunde to which Kate replied thus:“Shut up and face your front. Who asked for yourhelp in the first place?”“I don’t blame you. You can insult me because I hap-pen to be on the same bus with you. If I was in myown vehicle, what would have brought us together?”lamented Tunde. “I can employ you and pay yoursalary. In fact, I will give you back your fare so youcan get off this bus. You are a nuisance.”“We are eight in number so give us N1,600 and wewill go. Hmmm, I dey laugh oo. We all know wherethe rich guys are. You will never see them in a publicbus like this, so just keep quiet,” replied Kate.“Oga, you were wrong. How on earth did you thinkyou could use that umbrella in this bus? Even afoolish person knows it’s not going to work,” saidJide. Replied Tunde: “Since you have decided tobuy this case, get ready because I’ll beat you blackand blue when we get to the bus-stop.”“Abeg keep quiet. Real men don’t talk much, theyact. It’s only a sissy that will talk the way you aretalking without an ounce of strength,” taunted Kate.This went on, and then as if in answer to prayers,the rain subsided and the traffic jam eased as vehi-cles began to move, albeit slowly. As the bus got toa point, Iyke said: “Driver, please take right andjoin the major road, it’s easier,” but the driver con-tinued on his way until he met another hold-up.Trust the Lagos commuters, they let loose theirtongues on the driver."You are as stubborn as a he-goat," said Jide.“See im ugly face. No woman will marry this one ifhe doesn’t have money. Why do some people likesuffering? You see better road but you prefer to comeand suffer on this one,” said Jane."No wonder God calls us sheep and not goats be-cause a goat will never obey any command withouta fight," noted Iyke. At the bus-stop, Tunde alightedquietly without a word about his threat to beat upJide.

Between Danfo drivers tryingout Hollywood stunts and pri-vate motorists that flout trafficrules, they manage to turn a40-minute journey to fivehours of hell

*Motorists caught in traffic snarl at Iyana Ejigbo

Vanguard, WDNESDAY , JUNE 11, 2014 — 21

SOME Small and MediumEnterprises (SMEs) have

appealed to the new governor ofthe Central Bank, Mr GodwinEmefiele, to promptly disbursethe N220 billion intervention fundfor operators.

In interviews with the NewsAgency of Nigeria (NAN) onMonday in Lagos, some SMEsassociations have urgedEmefiele to release the fund toenable them utilise it in the sec-ond half of the year. Mrs LolaOkanlawon, President, NECA’sNetwork of EntrepreneurialWomen (NNEW), said the estab-lishment of the fund in August2013 raised the hope of many en-trepreneurs who had been ob-taining loans at high interestrates.

“However, the delay in the dis-bursement of the fund has goteveryone disappointed. We hopethat all the barriers againstprompt disbursement of the fundwould be removed soon. We laudPresident Jonathan for his effortsto boost small and medium en-terprises; some of our membersbenefited from the YOUWINproject, but more needs to bedone.” she said. Mr Segun Kuti-George, the Chairman, Lagoschapter, Nigerian Association ofSmall Scale Industrialists(NASSI), also appealed to theCBN governor to give priority to

AGOA not beneficial to Nigeria — NACCIMA

DIRECTOR-General,Nigerian Association of

Chambers of Commerce, In-dustries, Mines and Agricul-ture (NACCIMA Dr JohnOsemede, said Nigeria wasyet to maximise opportunitiesin the African Growth Oppor-tunity Act (AGOA).

Osemede, who said this inLagos, added that Nigeriahad not benefitted from exist-ing trade agreements withother countries due to itsinfrastructural deficit and lackof protection for local indus-tries.

According to him, majorityof Nigerian non-oil exportshave been rejected becausethey have failed to meet re-quired standards. “What is theagreement on the WTO agree-ment? What is the agreementon ECOWAS? Why are coun-tries using VAT - 5 per cent,10 per cent, 20 per cent - toprotect their infant industries?Who is protecting the infantindustries? That was when theproblem started. So people

can now take our produce,they determine what to take,the quantity to take, the price

to pay, but in the first republicit was not like that because wehad laboratories.

“Cocoa laboratory was inLagos, cocoa laboratory was inAkure, but today those things

are not there, even the labsand all that we have here areonly certified for import; thatis why we are now working forother people.“

Osemede urged the FederalGovernment to establish labo-ratories that would ensure thatexportable goods met the re-quired international stan-dards. He also called for theestablishment of a functionalcommodity board and com-modity exchanges, to moder-ate the demand and supply ofcommodities.

“One, is to have a samplinglaboratory that if there is anyissue, even if you have to goto the International Court ofJustice or anywhere, that labwill be the first port of call.Two, we need a commodityboard, which will now regu-late supply and demand,price, quantity and quality;there’s what we call compli-ance; there’s what we callstandardisation.

Then we have commodityexchanges, so that the de-mand and supply, and we nowknow where to maintain theequilibrium. Failure to do that,whether AGOA is extendedfor 20 years, we will continueto work for other people.

“ We are the number oneproducer of cassava in theworld, why are we importingstarch? We were producing 27per cent of the world’s totalpalm oil requirement in thefirst republic, today we pro-duce 1 per cent of the worldrequirement.“

Osemede said that Nigeriawould benefit more fromAGOA if the programme wasexpanded to include more ag-ricultural products for whichNigeria had comparative ad-vantage.

Prioritise disbursement of N220bn interventionfund, SMEs urge CBN

the disbursement of the fund.“We want the governor to

priotise the disbursement of thefund to enhance efforts to Mostbanks have been paying lip ser-vice to the assistance they claimto grant to SMEs because theyhave stringent conditions that ourmembers cannot meet. We laudPresident Goodluck Jonathan forthe initiative and believe that thedisbursement of the fund wouldassist so many ailing businessesto bounce back, while creatingmore jobs”, he said.

Mr Eze Ubiji, the Executive

Secretary, Nigerian Associationof Small and Medium Enter-prises (NASME), expressed op-timism that the new governor ofCBN would disburse the inter-vention fund soon.

According to him, there aresome conditions that have to bemet to ensure smooth disburse-ment of the fund in line with thecountry’s revised MicrofinancePolicy Regulatory and Supervi-sory framework. “One of the ma-jor reasons I think the disburse-ment of the fund has been de-layed is because of the collateralissues that is prominent in ac-

cessing loans in Nigerian banks.The new governor of CBN men-tioned that Collateral RegistriesCommittee was being set up sothat it would make it easier formore SMEs to access loans un-der a secured collateral system,but so many business owners arenot aware.

“What I mean is that somewomen may have gold jewelleryworth millions at home, but willbe running here and there insearch of collateral in form ofproperty or land which they don’thave.”

INTERNATIONAL FinancialCorporation (IFC) on

Monday in Lagos signed anadvisory services agreementwith FirstBank on mobile moneyworth N90.75 million. In a state-ment, the IFC said that the agree-ment with FirstBank Plc forFirstmonie, a subsidiary ofbank, was to advance mobile fi-nancial services and agent bank-ing.

It said that the agreement,funded by Bill & Melinda &Gates Foundation, was tostrengthen the supply of afford-able financial services to low-in-come earners and small-scale en-

IFC signs advisory services agreement with FirstBank onmobile money

trepreneurs in Nigeria.Firstmonie Mobile Money Ser-

vice is an innovative product thatenables customers to access fi-nancial and other value addedservices through mobile phones.According to IFC, the agreementwill also allow it to provideFirstmonie technical assistancein financial modeling, agentmanagement and customer acti-vation,

Mr Mike Ogbalu, the Manag-ing Director of Pridar Systems,owned by FirstBank and the own-ers of Firstmonie, said the agree-ment would boost financial in-clusion and mobile banking

From left: Non-Executive Director, Propertygate Development and Investment Plc, Mr.Jonathan Oluwole Ogungbola; Managing Director/CEO, Mr. Adetokunbo Ajayi and CompanySecretary, Mrs. Olutosin Aarinola, during the company’s 5th Annual General meeting in Lagos.

across the nation. Ogbalu said,“At Firstmonie, we are commit-ted to expanding mobile finan-cial services to the under bankedand low income communities.

“With the advisory support fromIFC, we hope to achieve our goalof boosting financial inclusionthrough our product offeringsand decrease the population ofthe unbanked and under-bankedin Nigeria

“Nigeria has a low rate of fi-nancial inclusion with only 43per cent of the adult populationhaving access to formal financialservices.”


INSURAN

,

,

BY WILLIAM BERNSTEIN

WILLIAM Bernstein, cofounderof investment management

firm, Efficient Frontier Advisors, writesin his recently published e-book “If YouCan: How Millennials Can Get RichSlowly” on the importance of having abasic understanding of finance in orderto successfully save for retirement. Herecommends reading the followingbooks on investing.

I suggest you log off, power downyour computer, and read some books.Take your time. The months you spendperusing this list will be well spent.

I’d recommend reading at least thefirst four books listed before eventhinking of getting your hands dirtywith real investing.

“A Random Walk Down Wall Street”by Burton Malkiel

An excellent investment primer. Itexplains the basics of stocks, bonds,and mutual funds, and will reinforcethe efficient market concept.

“Common Sense on Mutual Funds”by John Bogle

It provides as much detail as youcould ever want about this importantinvestment vehicle. Mr. Bogle is thefounder and retired chairman of TheVanguard Group, and has been animportant voice in the industry fordecades. Beautifully written,opinionated, and highlyrecommended.

The book also demonstrates thedemocratisation that has swept theinvestment industry in recent years.Until a decade ago the sort ofsophisticated mutual fund analysisdescribed in his book was the brief ofjust a handful of professionals withaccess to expensive proprietarydatabases and mainframe computers.Almost all of Bogle’s work was donewith a subscription to Morningstar anda statistically competent assistant, andcould have been performed by anysmall investor with similar softwareand ability.

. “Global Investing” by RogerIbbotson and Gary Brinson

This is a beautifully written volumeon the history of investible assets. Aninformed investor cannot know enoughabout market history, and this is thebest single source in this area. Want toknow what the returns for U.S. stockshave been in each of the past 200years? The price of gold for the past500 years? Interest rates and inflationfor the past 800 years? It’s all here.

As implied by the title, the authorsalso provide an excellent perspectiveon the place of foreign assets in adiversified portfolio, and provide someworthwhile insights on portfolio theoryand the efficiency of the marketplace.

“What Has Worked in Investing” is

111111 financial books1 financial books1 financial books1 financial books1 financial bookseeeeevvvvvererererery inty inty inty inty intendingendingendingendingendinginininininvvvvvesesesesestttttor should reador should reador should reador should reador should read

a free pamphlet from Tweedy,Browne

A low-key sales pitch for theirfunds, it is also the best compilationI’ve seen of the data supporting thevalue method.

“The New Finance, the CaseAgainst Efficient Markets” byRobert Haugen

If you’re intrigued by the Tweedypamphlet and wonder why valueinvesting still works after all theseyears, this is your book. The proseis breezy, even quirky Ben Grahammeets Hunter Thompson on badacid.

. “Value Averaging” by MichaelEdleson

An extremely useful how-to guideon deploying a lump sum of moneyamong multiple assets. Finally backin print as a Wiley Classic Edition.

. “The Intelligent Investor” by BenGraham

A popularised and more readableversion of his earlier classic,“Security Analysis,” written withDavid Dodd. Although it has greatrelevance to the markets in generaland should be read by any seriousinvestor, it is particularly pertinentto those who feel compelled to buyindividual stocks.

Many of today’s most successfulmoney managers obtained theiroriginal financial inspiration fromthese two books. It is always fun tolook at excesses in the marketplaceand ask, “What would Ben say aboutthis?” This 2003 edition benefits fromannotation by one of finance’s mostbrilliant observers, Jason Zweig. Bythe way, if you get bitten by theGraham bug and decide to do“Security Analysis,” make sure youread the original 1934 edition,recently reprinted by McGraw-Hill.)

. “Devil Take the Hindmost” byEdward Chancellor

You simply can’t learn enoughabout market history, andChancellor’s story of boom and bustin the capital markets, beginning inthe 17th century, is pure mindcandy. Supersedes Mackay ’s“Extraordinary Popular Delusionsand the Madness of Crowds.”

“The Millionaire Next Door” byThomas Stanley and WilliamDanko

If you can’t save, it doesn’t matterif your name is Warren Buffett. Ifyou think the road to happiness runspast a Beemer and a McMansion,this book will scare you straight.

.“Asset Allocation” by Roger

Gibson cullied from BussinessInsider.

By Favour Nnabugwu

The promotion of newbusiness growthspurred the need to

build indigenous companies on theone hand and retaining andexpanding firms on the other ascornerstones of a competitivestrategy for economic developmentin insurance markets across Africaand beyond.

These and more other issuessparked off the gathering of over700 insurance operators from Africafor three days on the impacts oftechnology, research anddevelopment on the insurancesector at the 41st Conference andGeneral Assembly of the AfricanInsurance Organisation, AIOconcluded in Kigali, Rwanda lastweek Wednesday.

The problem of insurance industrygrowing at slow pace wascompounded by the fact that $1.4trillion being currently spent onresearch across the global economyby countries competing in agrowing number of markets,resulted in highly differentiateddemand and supply within marketcategories.

Secretary-General of AIO, MsPrisca Soares said the non-governmental organisation reallytook time to decide on the theme ofthis year’s conference, “Insurancein Africa: The Importance ofTechnology, Research andDevelopment” which had a largeturnout of delegates from Africa,Asia, United Kingdom and UnitedStates of America because of itssignificance to African insuranceindustry.

Soares observed that the adventof technology, research anddevelopment is a major tradeableasset that has radically changed thedynamics of trade among nations ofthe world hence Africa insurancemarket cannot afford to be leftbehind.

According to her, “What thecenturies’ old law of comparativeadvantage does not take intoaccount is the fact that the basis fortrade, that is, a set of comparative

Africaninsuranceindustry seesprospect intechnology,R & Dadvantages, can no longer be expected toremain fixed for very long”.

“The development and utilisation oftechnologies on a scale large enough toattain significant global market shares fordomestic industries require investment in anumber of other categories of assetsincluding research and technology”

The AIO scribe reiterated that technologicalchange increasingly alters relative pricesand hence the absolute advantages ordisadvantages across technologies.According to her, “they include humancapital, better channels for technical and

From right: Alhaji Bala Zakariya’u, Chairman, Niger Insurance; Commissionerfor Insurance, Mr. Fola Daniel; Ms Prisca Soares, African Insurance Organisation,AIO, Secretary-General and Mr. Olusola Ladipo-Ajayi, MD, Lasaco Assurance atthe just concluded African Insurers Association, AIO, general assembly in Kigali,Rwanda.

The advent of technology,research and development is amajor tradeable asset that hasradically changed the dynamicsof trade among nations of theworld, hence Africa insurancemarket cannot afford to be leftbehind


CE & YOU

,

,

business knowledge diffusion to firms of all sizes,incentives for capital formation, intellectual propertyprotection, and modern industry structure”.

She strongly believed that a strategy is essentialbecause the business climate is hyper-competitiveboth domestically and internationally, added that thecompetition is between countries, states andcommunities, as well as between large and smallfirms and among industries”.

She believed that to deliver insurance products andservices effectively on the ground, insurers andmanaging agents need a strong core insurancesystem and ICT infrastructure in place. Africainsurers and managing agents need to consider andembrace research and technology and use the manyadvantages both offer to enhance their offering, orstand the risk of being left behind.

Immediate past President of AIO, Mr.Raouf Kotbsaid despite high achievement recorded in the areaof technology globally, Africa is unfortunately beingleft behind in the technological world.

Kotb observed that lack of strong core insurancesystems and information and communicationtechnology infrastructure has hampered delivery ofinsurance products and services effectively in Africa.According to him, african countries spends about 0.7per cent of its GDP on research and developmentcompared to 2 per cent in EU, 2.8 per cent in USAand 3 per cent in Japan.

He further said that the number of researchers andengineers per 1000 of the working population is 0.7in Africa when compared to 4.84 per cent in Australiaand 0.3 per cent in Malaysia. Kotb who handed overthe mantle to Mr. Jean Baptiste Ntukamazina ofRwanda, affirmed that in developed world there arefour out of every 1000 of the working population inthe EU; eight in US and nine in Japan. He wasoptimistic that the trend can be reserved in Africa ifthe continent invests in focused research andtechnology developmental strategies, stressing thatsolution to this problem lies in technology saying,“we have to map out strategies aimed at improvingthose figures by making use of technology andresearch.”

“We have to put on capacity building, research andinnovation in order to better serve the population ofour continent and make insurance available to allclasses,” he admonished.

He noted that with over 600 insurance companiesoperating in 52 markets. Africa counts for about 40reinsurance companies made up of private stateowned, sub- regional, regional and foreigncompanies.

From left: Mr. Eddie Efekoha, CEO of Consolidated Hallmark Insurance;Prince Feyisayo Soyewo, Chairman of Prestige Insurance Brokers; Mr.Corneille Karekezi GMD of Africa Reinsurance Corporation and aparticipant at the 41st AIO conference in Rwanda.

LAW Union & Rock Insurance Plc saidthat it partnered with Inspiration FMto create a bonding session for

children and avail them with accidentinsurance covers.

In a statement, the firm said that itinteracted with the children during an eventorganised to celebrate children’ day in Lagosrecently. The firm said that it used theopportunity to create more brand awarenessfor insurance and sell its personal accidentfor children between the ages of two and 25years. Law Union said that it has innovativeproducts for diverse people in the societyincluding children.

To motivate the children, the firm also gaveout gifts for outright purchases of insurance.

TPA is a personal accident insurance witha premium of N500 per annum and coversmedical expenses up to N25,000 and bodilyinjury up to N250,000,” it stated.

Law Union said that the product is affordable

Law Union bonds with childrenand different from HMOswhere you are limited basedon your HMO medical plan.

Law Union providesprofessional services in allclasses of insurance businessnamely: general insuranceand risk managementsolutions.

The company has in placecorporate governancestructure to achievesustainable shareholder valueenhancement, and alsodeliver efficient and effectiveservices to customers andother stakeholders generally.

SOVEREIGN TrustInsurance Plc, STI,

has been appointed into thenine-member committee tosteer the affairs of the Oil &Energy Pool in Africa.

The company was appointed

STI enters committee onoil & energy pool in Africa

at the just concluded AfricanInsurance Organisation’s,AIO, conference, held inKigali, Rwanda and wasannounced at the 51stManagement Board and 27thAnnual General Assembly ofAfrican underwriters in oil &energy insurance at theconference.

With this recentdevelopment, Sovereign TrustInsurance Plc alongside twoother insurance companies inthe country and some AfricanInsurance Companies,namely, Misr InsuranceCompany from Egypt, ChanasAssurances S.A, Cameroun,Compagnie Centrale DeReassurance, Algeria, Zeb Re,Kenya, Tunis Re, Tunisia andCica Re, Togo will administerthe Oil and Energy Pool from2014-2016.

Managing Director/CEO, ofSTI, Mr. Wale Onaolapo saidthat this appointment is inrecognition of the company’sexpertise over the years inunderwriting of Oil & Gasrisks which further reaffirmsthe company’s overwhelmingcapacity in this very criticalsector of the country ’seconomy and the Africancontinent at large.

He further said that theunderwriting firm will notrelent in providing world-classinsurance services in the oiland energy sector and otherallied areas to furtherconsolidate its leadershipposition in that regard. Inthe same vein, GeneralManager and Head,Technical Division, Mr.Olaotan Soyinka stated thatSovereign Trust over the yearshas created an enviable nichefor the company in the oil &energy sector and theinsurance market as a wholeby continuously buildingcapacity and expertise on acontinuous basis in that sector.

In his words, “It is a familiarterrain to us and we are set tomaximise our potentials andassert our leadershipposition.”

The Chartered InsuranceInstitute of Nigeria

(CIIN), 2014 InternationalEducation Conference, describedas the flagship of the CIINeducational programmes, willfocus on the theme: “Re-dimensioning the InsuranceIndustry Contributions to theNational Economy.”

CIIN President, Mr. Fatai Lawalsaid that the conference themecould not be more apt, stating thatthe conference seeks to provokethe thoughts of participants whoare key practitioners in theinsurance sector to the buoyingeffects of the rebasing of theeconomy which would, amongothers, show the real contributionof the insurance sector to thenation’s GDP that currently standsat about 1%.

“This low contribution tonational productivity has alwaysbeen in tandem with the lowinsurance penetration index in the

CIIN conference to focus on insurancecontribution to economy

country which operators now haveample opportunities of reversing,”Lawal said.

Dr. Ayo Teriba, Chief ExecutiveOfficer, Economics AssociatesNigeria and Prof. Sola Fajana willlead other eminent speakers at theconference. CIIN’S Director-General,Mr. Kola Ahmed also said that theconference will provide otheropportunities by virtue of its sub-theme titled: “Paradigm Shifts inInsurance Education for GreaterRelevance” which will be addressedby Prof Fajana, Vice Chancellor,Joseph Ayo Babalola University,Osun State. The papers willthereafter be discussed by a panel ofspeakers in a roundtable sessionwhich will be moderated by Sir OgalaOsoka, Chairman, Enterprise BankLtd.

Meanwhile, the Annual GeneralMeeting and Council Elections willhold during the period at the samevenue and climax with theinvestiture of Mr. Bola Temowo as the46th President of the Institute.

To deliver insurance productsand services effectively on theground, insurers and managingagents need a strong coreinsurance system and ICTinfrastructure in place


,

,

SEVERAL companies have, inthe last few months, had

their Annual General Meetings,AGMs. Shareholders of eachcompany have considered theannual report and accounts oftheir company for the year 2013and have also declared at theAGM a dividend to be paid toshareholders from the profits ofthe company. We still expectresults from some companieswhose financial year does not endon 31st December. Suchcompanies include GuinnessNigeria Plc, PZ Cussons NigeriaPlc and University Press Plc.However, PZ Cussons NigeriaPlc has during 2014 paid aninterim dividend of 19.91 koboper share as well as a specialdividend of N1.30 per share. Westill expect a final dividend fromPZ Cussons Nigeria Plc.

From the results submitted tothe Nigerian Stock Exchange,NSE, during 2014, ABCTransport and Julius BergerNigeria have each proposed abonus share issue of 1 new sharefor every 10 existing shares.Following on its AGM, NigerianBreweries Plc, NBPlc, hasannounced proposals for amerger with ConsolidatedBreweries and its share price onthe NSE has risen from aboutN150 per share to about N178 pershare at the close of business onFriday 6 June 2014. Forte Oil Plcwas one of the first companies tohold its AGM this year. Thecompany has experiencedresurgence in its share pricewhich also closed at about N250per share on Friday, 6 June 2014.This is the same price as at theshare offer in 2008.

Following on its AGM, FBNHoldings Plc, FBNH, has paid adividend of N1.10 per sharewhich is 10kobo less than wouldbe expected if the company hadkept to an apparent policy ofincreasing dividend by 20k pershare from one year to the nextyear. The indication is that FBNis still underperforming and thisis due to the fact that there areno positive results from some ofthe company ’s majorinvestments.

For example, the RainbowTown project in Port Harcourt,Rivers State, remainssubstantially uncompleted as atSaturday, 7 June 2014. Theproject promoters should at thisjuncture concentrate resources onone of the high-rise buildingssuch that one building would becompleted before theadministration of GovernorAmaechi leaves office in May2015. If there is a completedbuilding by this time, the in-coming administration wouldreadily find it attractive tocomplete the project as a priority.Otherwise, the project would besubject to further delays whilstvarious probes, studies etc are

The 2013 Company resultsand shareholder concerns

carried out by the newadministration.

Union Bank of Nigeria Plc,UBN, expects to write off itsaccumulated losses once theresolutions to that effect areapproved at its AGM. Thisshould pave the way for UBN todeclare a dividend at the nextavailable opportunity. Thecurrent directors of UBN shouldnot ignore the circumstances inwhich some of these accumulatedlosses were inflicted on thecompany by the previousdirectors of the company. Thereis available evidence before thecourts to the effect that fundsbelonging to UBN weremisapplied by previous directorsin the purchase of UBN shares.However, the courts have onlygiven a decision on whetherthere was manipulation of UBN’sshare prices on the NSE over aperiod of time. UBN and theprevious directors have enteredappeals against the decision onshare price manipulation. Onehopes that UBN would noteventually have to paysubstantial sums as

There is availa-ble evidence be-fore the courts to

the effect thatfunds belonging

to UBN weremisapplied byprevious direc-tors in the pur-chase of UBN

shares

From left: Manager, Brand Activation, Honeywell Flour Mils Plc, Mrs. EbeleOluwalana; Executive Director, Marketing, Mr. Benson Evbuomwan; Founder, LittleSaints Orphanage, Rev. Dele George and Senior Brand Manager, HFMP, Mr. LanreDa-Silva; during products and cheque presentation to the orphanage, in Lagos.

BY MICHAEL EBOH

POOR organisational structure of majority of the Small and Medium Scale

Enterprises, SMEs, has been identifiedas one of the major factors hinderingthe SMEs from accessing funding frombanks in the country.

Speaking at a forum for SMEs in La-gos, Mr. Oyediji Atoyebi, Head, Smalland Medium Enterprise Desk, AccessBank, noted that SMEs are crucial to thedevelopment of any economy with greatpotential for employment generation, im-provement of local technology, output di-versification and development of indige-nous entrepreneurship.

He said, “The recapitalization of thebanking sector has enabled the growthof the sector with more banks offeringcredit facilities to eligible businesses.

“Owing to the organizational structuresof majority of SME businesses and otherorganizational challenges, many banks

find it challenging to accurately profileSME businesses and analyze their finan-cial standing.”To this end, he said the bank is providingeasy access to finance, especially provid-ing working capital to finance operationalexpenses.

He said the bank intends to carry thisout through a secured and reliable Inter-net banking solutions; swift and efficientcross border banking including multi-cur-rency options and through the deploymentof corporate Internet solution for collec-tion and cash management.

He added that the bank intend to bringdown the cost of banking for the SMEsand providing financing at all levels ofthe value chain of the SMEs.

He identified key issues in the sectorto include poor funding, low manageri-al expertise, poor project feasibilitystudy/business case, lack of proper book-keeping and absence of corporate gov-ernance.

MARKET rally witnessed in the firsthalf of the year will continue into

the third quarter, says Mr. Bismarck Re-wane, Managing Director of FinancialDerivatives Company, FDC.

He stated this in his June edition ofMonthly Economic News and Views ti-tled, ‘Moomoo-nomiks vs Economics:Disinformation of the Uninformed’.

He noted that already, the NigerianStock Exchange’s All Share Index, hasgone up marginally by 0.35 percent year-to-date and 7.76 percent in the month ofMay, while average turnover was up toN5.03 billion in May, as high as N12.26billion on a trading day.

He observed that market price earningsration (P.E ratio) was up to 13.44x, whilemarket capitalisation to cash flow wasdown to 25.47x.

He, however, explained that this willbe followed by possible correction in sub-sequent quarters.

He added that most sectors on the NSEare still undergoing recovery process withthe consumer goods sector leading un-derperformance in the second quarter ofthe year.

Listing possible challenges the equities

market may face the remaining part of theyear, Rewane said that allocation of pen-sion assets, which now stands at 4.3 tril-lion, to equities may inflate the NigerianBourse.

He further pointed out that possiblechange in Monetary Policy direction mayalso pose risk to the shares of the bankingsector.

Drawing comparison between the NSEand other markets, he said that at 0.35percent growth in the first half of the year,the NSE still underperformed other mar-kets.

He explained that corporate earningsreleased in May were up 8.19 percent,MSCI World, a stock market index of 1,612world’ stocks is maintained by MSCI Inc.,formerly Morgan Stanley Capital Interna-tional, was up 3.26 percent within thesame period, S&P 500 and FTSE 100 wereup 4.07 percent and 1.72 percent respec-tively.

Europe and other frontier markets, hesaid, were up 17.12 percent and 3.76 per-cent respectively.

Euro-dollar bond issues by both largeand small economies are becoming thenorm with companies in Nigeria, Ghana,Kenya, Rwanda and Zambia joining theleague.

NSE: Expert predictscontinuous stocks rally in Q3

‘Poor organisational structurefrustrating SME financing’

By NKIRUKA NNOROM

compensation when the appealsprocesses are completed whilstthe previous directors walk awayfree from the issue ofmisapplication of UBN funds.

Shareholders are still notreceiving annual reports,whether in paper format or CD-format. We have received reportsfrom NBPlc, Mobil Oil and listsof unclaimed dividends No 10 –No 14 for Access Bank Plc inpaper format whilst DangoteFlour Plc sent its report and listsof unclaimed dividends in CD-format. We have not receivedreports from Access Bank Plc andFBN Holdings in any format. Theissue of non-delivery of reportsleads to the issue of unclaimeddividends.

DR. AKINTOLA [email protected]


INSIDE

DIARY

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shaping life and living

Critical Com-munications

World27-29 May 2014

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South AfricaNov. 2 - 4, 2014

what Rufai advocated then is stillwhat is going to happen if Niger-ia is to avert the loss of anothersatellite.

This is following a warningfrom another satellite expert andDirector of Centre for AtmosphericResearch, Kogi State, Prof Ba-batunde Rabiu, that Nigeriastands a risk of losing anothersatellite if more back ups are notbuilt immediately.

Rabiu did not stop at that. Healso revealed that even the satel-lite we have now can neither traceBoko Haram nor solve the insur-gency in Nigeria.

Interestingly, Rabiu disclosedthis at Abuja, the seat of power,during the satellite TechnologyDevelopment week, held at Oba-sanjo Space centre, last week.

Our satellite can’t see BokoOur satellite can’t see BokoOur satellite can’t see BokoOur satellite can’t see BokoOur satellite can’t see BokoHaramHaramHaramHaramHaram

According to him, “the earth ob-servation satellite Nigeria cur-rently has cannot pick activities

By EMMANUEL ELEBEKE

NNNNNIGERIANS IGERIANS IGERIANS IGERIANS IGERIANS woke up onNovember 12, 2008 to

the sad news that thecountry’s communications sat-ellite, was missing. Although thesatellite has long been replacedby the original builders, ChinaGreat Wall Inc, the mass outragethat followed the mishap, wasunbelievable.

That satellite cost the country,about N40 billion and that is notchild’s play.

However, the then ManagingDirector of Nigerian Communi-cations Satellite, NIGCOMSATlimited, Engr Ahmed Rufai cameout to explain that the satellitewas de-orbited following a faultin the solar panel. It was not pe-culiar to Nigeria alone, manycountries of the world had losttheir satellites in such a man-ner.

As a matter of fact, Rufai said

that either technical faults or nat-ural causes could de-orbit a func-tional satellite and have it packedin a place called 'graveyard in thespace.'

But he nearly drew the ire of thepeople when he demanded theNational Assembly to immediate-ly approve the building of twomore satellites.

However, it now seems that

on ground in real timebecause of its passagetime. It will be unthink-able for anyone to beginto expect the satellite tobe a potent weapon forcounter insurgency in thecountry, pending whenmore satellites are built”

“Besides, when the sat-ellite passes through apoint, it takes anotherfour days before it pass-es that point again. Butif we have three, four,five satellites moving inconstellation, you canhave the areas covered fortwenty-four hoursstraught and movementcan then be spotted andmonitored,” he said.

He however, called fordevelopment of homegrown small satellitesacross the country,which he said could sup-port government to solvethe varying insurgencychallenges facing thecountry.

The Indian exampleThe Indian exampleThe Indian exampleThe Indian exampleThe Indian exampleor another satelliteor another satelliteor another satelliteor another satelliteor another satellitemay gomay gomay gomay gomay go

The Don however,warned that Nigeriastands to lose anothersatellite if nothing isdone to build back up

If we have three,four, five satellitesmoving in constella-tion, you can havethe areas coveredthroughout 24 hoursand movement couldthen be spotted andmonitored

Technologybehind newtop-loadingwashing ma-chine

Data centre, live wire of 21stcentury companies

‘Onlineeducationbridging gapsin 21stcenturylearning’

Gear4’s new alarmclock monitors yoursleep patternsthroughout the nightand knowing whetheryou’re in a light ordeep snooze, can cal-culate when the besttime is to wake you upso you feel more alertin the morning.

Doubling up as acharge dock for theIphone, Ipad or Ipod,the Renew Sleep-Clock’s dashboard ismanaged through anapp built especially forApple’s IOS. It tracksyour sleep history andallows you to calculateand compare how goodor bad your slumbershave been over a peri-od of time.

Gear4’s newalarm clockmonitors yoursleep patterns ‘Nigeria may lose another

satellite'

SATELLITE IN LIMBO:

•Needs more to fight insurgence•Our satellite can't trace Boko Haram

Continues on page 28


BY PRINCE OSUAGWU

AFTER claiming inheritanceof about forty five percent of

subscribers in Nigeria who lefttheir respective networks foranother, Etisalat vows not to letthose subscribers go back to theirparent networks again.

The strategy to retain thesepeople according to Etisalat wasto ensure their maximumcomfort on the Etisalat platform.

To maintain that promise, thenetwork tuned its managementstyle up a bit and in so doingattracted the StandardOrganisation of Nigeria, SON’s

Etisalat vows to retain in-portedsubscribers, gets ISO 9001 Cert

coveted ISO 9001 certificationaward recently.This certification validates thatEtisalat’s quality processes andsystems meet specific criteria andrecognizes the company fordetermining customerrequirements, making informeddecisions, and consistentlyproviding its products and servicesto enhance customer satisfaction.

ISO 9001:2008 is acceptedworldwide as the standard thatdefines quality, sets the criteria fora quality management system andprovides the necessary frameworkto improve company efficiency,minimize risk and maximize

BROADBASED Communications Ltd, recently introduced its Open Access Metro Fibre

Network to Banks and other financial institu-tions to aid their business in the Lagos metrop-olis. The company is providing a high capacitydata network, a voice network as well as a se-curity network for Banks and e-Payment Switch-ing and Processing Companies.

In a presentation to the Chief Information Of-ficers (CIOs) and Heads of IT Networks of Banksand e-Payment Switching and Processing Com-panies in Lagos, Mr Chidi Ibisi, the Chief Mar-keting Officer of Broadbased CommunicationsLtd, noted that no bank can succeed withoutembracing modern technology. To this end how-ever, he said the company is offering the finan-cial services sector the best connectivity solu-tions that can enhance their services. On con-nectivity for banks, he said though, some bankshave been doing their business with one mega-byte (1Mbps) connection to each branch; thatcan no longer help them to meet the demandsof today’s modern banking. “Yes, 1Mbps hasdone the job, but in this era of modern banking,1Mbps cannot do it. You need a larger pipe of aminimum of 5Mbps,” Ibisi said, adding that thecompany was glad to provide 10Mbps and more.“We can provide any capacity to your branch toenable you provide the kind of services that yourcustomers expect,” he said.

He added that now that everything is movingtowards e-banking, Broadbased provides thebanks with a link on which they can have a sin-gle integrated data, and voice network cover-ing all their branches and also linking them upto others within the ecosystem: to other banksor to other financial institutions.

BroadbasedCommunicationsshowcases fibreoptic network

MTN Nigeria has commenced its annual staffvolunteerism programme, tagged 21 Days

of Y’ello Care, which is a varitable educationplatform for the poor in digital world.The theme of this year’s programme is “Educa-tion in the Digital World.”

The event featured activities aimed at promot-ing a conducive learning environment as wellas drawing attention to the fundamental role ofeducation in the development of the nation. Re-iterating MTN Nigeria’s commitment to givingback to communities in which it operates atthe flag-off of the programme in Lagos, Corpo-rate Services Executive, Mr. Akinwale Goodluck,described education as a vital tool for socialand economic development.

“The weeks ahead are filled with various ini-tiatives that will enable MTN, through the 21Days of Yello Care programme, continue to con-tribute its quota towards improving educationalstandards in Nigeria. Under the Digitech Class-room Project, digitally equipped classrooms willbe established across the country to drive ac-cess to digital learning. Access to the Internetand education will position a great number ofpupils on the same platform as their counter-parts in other developed countries, helping toensure that they do not suffer learning disad-vantages even though they live in a developingcountry,” he said.

Initiated by the MTN Group in 2007, the an-nual programme encourages MTN staff acrossits 21 operations in Africa, Asia and the MiddleEast to volunteer their resources, time and skillsto help others and the communities where theylive and work.

Also featuring among projects lined up for im-plementation is the company’s Adopt a Girls’School Project, which will see each unit withinMTN adopt an all-girls school towards empow-ering the girl child and promoting gender equal-ity in education.

Y’ello Care : MTNpreaches education ina digital world

BY RICHARD UDOFIA

Do you know that yourclothes might look clean

on the surface, but can stillhost an assortment ofgerms and other micro-or-ganisms? So when LGElectronics announced therelease of its latest big ca-pacity top-loading washingmachines, equipped withpowerful heaters that ena-ble warm washing for hygi-enic cleaning results, it wasvery well received by critics.

The technology and hy-giene-enhancing capabili-ties of the new product arelargely seen in the high per-formance heater. Equippedinside the full stainless steeltub, the heater increases thewater temperature up to 60degrees Celsius, creating awarm wash for more effectivecleaning.

With the stain care course,the internal temperature ofthe washer is raised to 40 de-grees Celsius for effectivestain removal. Meanwhile,the allergy care course em-ploys 60-degree heat to elim-

inate allergy-causing g e r m sand bacteria from clothing.

“We designed these new top-load-ers with the consumers’ needs inmind, making sure they providedgreater hygiene and a bigger capac-ity,” said Mr. Hyunwoo Jung, Gen-eral Manager, Home Appliance Di-vision, LG Electronics West Africa

Operations.Also equipped is an innovative

steam function, which rapidly in-creases and maintains the temper-ature of the internal tub.

LG said that the new product isalso the only top-loading washingmachine to use the heater to hy-gienically clean the washing tub.LG’s Tub Clean+ course makes it99.99 percent effective at steriliz-ing the washer tub.

Yet, the full stainless steel tub re-sults in up to 90 percent less bac-teria growth than a conventionalplastic washer tub. It has alsobeen tested by Intertek for its abil-ity to limit bacteria growth. Inter-tek is the leading provider of qual-ity, safety, testing, inspection andcertification.

LG’s Inverter Direct Drive mo-tor uses a precise control systemto enable its proprietary 6 Motiontechnology to work efficiently.

The machine also include the JetSpray, which reduces water usagethroughout the course of the rinsecycle. Unlike LG’s conventionalrinsing where the entire tub isfilled with water first, the productsprays clean water from a valve atthe top of the machine while thetub spins, extracting the dirty wa-ter.

Technology behind new top-loadingwashing machine

•LG top loadwasher

opportunities.Director General of the Standard

Organisation of Nigeria, (SON),Dr Joseph Odumodu, representedby the Director, Administrative andHuman Capital Development, MrSamson Adegun, described thecertification as a giant stride forEtisalat in its pursuit of excellenceto provide world class productsand services to its customers.

On this, the Acting CEO at Etis-alat Nigeria, Matthew Willsher,noted that “achieving ISO9001:2008 certification is a testa-ment to the hard work and dedica-tion of our team members,”

BY RICHARD UDOFIA

Director,Administrativeand HumanCapital Develop-ment, StandardsOrganisation ofNigeria (SON),Mr. SamsonAdegun; Director,PMO and Opera-tional Strategy,Etisalat Nigeria,Ms. Ndidi Okpalu-ba; and ActingChief ExecutiveOfficer, EtisalatNigeria, Mr.Matthew Willsherat the Etisalat ISO9001:2008Certificationceremony, inLagos

By PRINCE OSUAGWU

Global infoswift and itspartners, TechXact last

week described the data cen-tre industry as one of the big-gest industries in the worldgenerating multi trillion dol-lars in revenue.

The companies whichteamed up to bring data cen-tre training/seminar to Niger-ia, noted that if the countrydesires to move up its level ofICT adoption, there is needto pay a lot of attention to datacentre because everythingICT today, is dependent on it.

In his opening remarks atthe event, MD Global In-foSwift, Mr Solomon Edunsaid that data centre is the livewire of every progressive 21st

century organization and crit-ical attention should be giv-en to it. According to him,even in the Cloud, all opera-tions need to run optimally isa good data centre.

However, President, DCA,TechXact, Mr Mehdi Paryaviobserved that a lot of business-es make mistakes in choosingdata centre applications or in-frastructure, leading to datafailure in most instances.

He advised MDs of compa-nies to ensure they get prop-er education before going fordata centre because operatinga data centre must follow setstandards and comply withcurrent trends to get adequatebenefits.

According to him, “today,cost of downtime is far morethan the cost of hospitals. Toreduce the costs, data centresmust be built. However, when

Data centre, live wire of 21stcentury companiesdoing this, businesses mustget expert advice.

“The growth of data centreis guided by the infinity par-adigm, where everything issupported by IT infrastructurefor the ecosystem.But themain challenge in data cen-tres today is that issues arehandled by vendors who ob-viously are not the right peo-

ple to handle the issues. Ven-dors design according to theirtargets. And when people buyboxes from them, you strug-gle to fit your business intotheir solutions."

He said that what his or-ganization does is study anorganization, know its busi-ness, develop a strategy andallow it to go to the vendors

based on that business strat-egy and not based on solu-tions already created withoutthe business in mind. “Somuch education needs to getinto data centre before buyingthe equipment.

He advised companies to gofor new generation data cen-tres which he described asopen source and not one

brand specific, industry spe-cific, cloud based and notphysically specific.

He noted that new genera-tion data centres are not justabout cooling and storage butinfrastructure and solutionbased, carrying all of these inthe package. It must reducehazards and life threateningprocesses which are seen intoday’s data centres.

BY PRINCE OSUAGWU

Rising from a digital Africaconference last week,

technology professionals whoform bulk of the participantsat the event advocated forstructured global partner-ships, favourable regulatoryenvironment, constant en-gagement with policy makersand increased investment intechnology training if Africa’seconomic growth prospectsmust be met.

For them, these activitieswould ensure that Africa at-tains technological compe-tence, and becomes more de-veloped and economicallycompetitive.

They will also help the coun-try close the huge gap be-tween it and the developedmarkets of Europe and NorthAmerica in the next 20 years.

For instance, Dr. EvansWoherem, Chairman, DigitalAfrica Global Consults Limit-ed, organisers of the Confer-

Africa’s growth depends on techentrepreneurship, innovation levels

ence & Exhibition, said thatconstant engagement betweentechnology industry playersand policymakers, favourableregulatory environment andincreased investment in ca-pacity building must be madepriorities if Africa must closethe huge gap between it anddeveloped markets in 20years.

Africa, according to availa-ble data, is a passive consum-er of technology products thatmust be galvanized into be-coming a dominant innovatorand producer.

It is now commonly knownthat countries that have tech-nological competence aremore developed and econom-ically competitive.

But Woherem noted that Af-rica lags behind other conti-nents of the world in technol-ogy acquisition. “Other con-tinents, especially the Ameri-cas, Europe and Asia seem tobe on steroids in acquiringand adopting new technolo-

gies. But in Africa, there is nosense of urgency in this re-gard at all”, he said.

Advocating technology en-trepreneurship and innova-tion as the way forward, hedistinguished between pas-sive consumption and beinga producer of technologyproducts.

“Of course, there is a differ-ence between using technol-ogies invented and innovat-ed by another country andactually being the inventingcountry. It is more rewardingto be one of the key inventingand innovating countries ofthe world in technology. Thisis what I mean as technologi-cal competence.

In other words, it is not themere purchase and use oftechnologies invented fromabroad or technological diffu-sion. To get to the level of tech-nological competence of therest of the world, Africancountries need to run fasterthan they are doing so far.

This requires our leaders tocomprehend that reality anddevelop a sense of urgency forthe development of technolo-gy and the economy”,

On her part, Ms. NneomaOfodile, Chief Executive Of-ficer, Digital Africa GlobalConsults Limited said, “It isfor this reason that DigitalAfrica Global Consult Limitedwas incorporated in Nigeria

to provide ICT Services andengage in organizing eventsthat bring ICT manufacturers,customers and policy makerstogether. We also promote ac-tivities that lead to increasedlevel of innovation in Africaand provide a gateway for in-ternational companies inter-ested in setting up presenceand growing their business-es in Africa."

Modern data centre

INNOVATION: Urine powered generator


‘Online education bridging gapsin 21st century learning’

BY EMEKA AGINAM

THERE was excitement last week inthe Nigerian ICT market when Mi-

crosoft Devices released Nokia XL, itsflagship large screen offering under theNokia X family for sale.

The Nokia XL device is the next offer-ing in the Nokia X family which includesNokia X, launched earlier this year inNigeria.

A close monitoring of market activitiesin the Nigerian Computer Village onMonday showed that the new afforda-ble smartphones that run Android appsis already tickling customers as a resultsits innovative features.

With a 5" In-Plane Switching capaci-tive colour touch screen, the Nokia XLbrings the large screen experience at anunbelievably affordable price point.

However, the device further augmentsthe imaging experience with a 2-meg-apixel front-facing camera for video callson Skype and a 5-megapixel rear cam-era with autofocus and flash.

With a powerful 2000 mAh battery, andrated for 16 hours of talk time and up to

Nokia begins sale of XL dualSIM in Nigeria

41 days ofs t a n d b y,the de-vice is

armedw i t h t h eFast lane experi-ence which has beencompletely re- i m a g i n e dfor the Nokia X family.

Fast lane is now more customiz-able and social. Users can select what ap-pears on their Fast lane feed, read notifica-tions from their social networks and updatetheir status from within Fast lane, makingthe experience even more productive.

“With the Nokia X family, we want to offer avariety of choices to our consumers at differ-ent price points. After receiving a great re-sponse with the Nokia X, which introducedthe category to this market, we are now bring-ing the much awaited Nokia XL and offeringconsumers an opportunity to go large withamazing X family experience on more screenreal estate. Nokia XL, our flagship offeringwithin the Nokia X family, comes packed witha 5'’ IPS capacitive touch large screen experi-ence, a superlative front camera and a widearray of apps, offering a great Smartphoneexperience at an affordable price point.


satellites and learning therope of developing local ca-pacity, the Indian way.

“NigComSat1 may not bethe only Satellite Nigeria willlose because space environ-ment is a very dynamic place.With the interruption of space-based facilities, poor perform-ance of satellite, interruptionof space satellite drag, satel-lite loss, instability in spaceenvironment, navigation er-rors, failed signals, any sat-ellite could get lost,” he said.For him, the country has to getit right from the beginning asthe instability and inconsist-ency in space environmentcould be disastrous.

Prof. Rabiu said space tech-nology has justified its rele-vance in driving major devel-opmental strides in the areaof agriculture, weather moni-toring, air navigation, landsurvey, supply of satellite im-agery, good governance, pro-moting quality of living, con-trol of immigration, tourism,public safety and mobile tech-nology among others, addingthat space technology has alot of benefits if Nigeria ac-cord it more priority.

Plugging capital flight insatellite sector

He stressed the need fordomestication of satellite tech-nology with small satellitedevelopment in Nigeria,which he said is capable ofsaving the country of capitalflight it has recorded since itsfirst move into the space.

According to him, the onlyway Nigeria can achieve thisis by building a space envi-ronment, which will providethe local engineers the oppor-tunity to compete with the restof the world.

He assured that the spaceagency would continue to bepart of national development.

Earlier in his speech, theDirector and Chief Executivefor Satellite Technology Devel-opment, CSTD, Dr. SpencerOnuh said the week wasaimed at merging the bene-fits and untapped potentialsfrom the previous CSTD weekconferences. He said thisyears’ approach would helpthe Centre create awarenessto the public on the sustaina-ble socio-economic benefits ofSpace technology.

Dr. Onuh who lamented thelow awareness of space tech-nology sector in Nigeria urged Nigerians to accordsimilar priority attached toother sectors to it.“Unfortunately, we are in anenvironment where peoplesee less relevance on spacetechnology and feel moreprominence should be placedon other sectors such as agri-culture, security, education,military and so on.

‘Nigeria maylose anothersatellite'


People may haved i f f e r e n tinterpretations of what

online learning means. Canyou give us a brief overviewof the University ofRoehampton, London Online?

In 2012, the University ofRoehampton, Londonpartnered with online learningexperts Laureate OnlineEducation, part of the LaureateInternational Universitiesnetwork – a leading globalnetwork of accredited high-quality, innovative institutionsof higher education reachingmore than 800,000 studentsworldwide. Through thispartnership, we are able tocontinue the University ’slegacy of increasing access tolearning and providingaffordable online mastersdegree programmes to menand women all over the world.

This partnership allows theUniversity to continue itsreputation as an accessible,multicultural institutionproviding quality onlineeducation that maintains thestandards set by the UK QualityAssurance Agency for HigherEducation (QAA) and by theUniversity’s own regulations.

Over the past decade,online education has recordedphenomenal growth all overthe world. What has yourorganisation’s experiencebeen like in Africa, especiallyNigeria?

Online education has becomewidely accepted over the last 10years and the rate of growth ofonline students has greatlyoutpaced that of students intertiary education overall.Increased Internet access hasallowed for more people toaccess online programmeseasier than ever before,opening up new opportunitiesfor students to pursue tertiaryeducation while overcomingchallenges such as physicallocation as well as work andfamily commitments.

Flexibility and conveniencestill remain priorities forstudents, but the ability toaccommodate multiple styles oflearning and the opportunity toconnect with peers and facultyaround the world are addedbenefits of online learning.

Roehampton Onlineprogrammes have proved very

With the shift from traditional to virtualclassroom, convenience is the driving force

behind online education and the reason it is steadilygaining grounds as a veritable means of learning.

In this interview with EMEKA AGINAM, CraigMarsh, Chief Academic Officer, University ofRoehampton Online spoke on a number of thingsregarding online learning, the use of technology toincrease access to information and the role onlineeducation plays in bridging learning gaps towardsfast-tracking economic development.

Excerpts

popular in Nigeria,with Nigeriansrepresenting morethan 35% of ourstudent body. We areable to meet thedemand of Nigerianstudents who want topursue tertiary education butmay not have the opportunityto do so at a local campus.For those students who wantto earn a degree, especiallyfrom a UK-based institution,without leaving their home,family or job, our all-inclusivemasters programmes aredesigned to enrich students’knowledge, help themdevelop practical skills thatcan be applied in their workimmediately and promotecareer advancement.

What are the benefits ofonline education

compared to traditionallearning models?

Online programmes cancombine individualinstruction with video, audioand written content toprovide high-quality courses

to the relevant topic andbenefiting from the insights oftheir peers.

Thanks to a 24-hourclassroom, one of the thingsour students tell us they likemost about studying withRoehampton Online is thefreedom to choose when theystudy. They also say theironline programme allowsthem to build their schedulesin a way that fits their dailylife without affecting theirwork or personal lives.

Online students at theUniversity of Roehamptongain critical-thinking skills andknowledge needed to make animpact in their professions byaddressing contemporary

relevant to workingprofessionals. A single coursecan accommodate manydifferent learning styles bypresenting content in diverseways such as with streamingvideo, online discussionforums, reading and evendownloads to your mobiledevice. Our classroomincorporates all of thesemultimedia elements, and ourclassroom navigator makes iteasy for students to access allof their resources and keeptrack of their progressthroughout the course. Ourlearning model also facilitatesactive student engagementand participation throughshared activities – wherestudents can discuss anddebate what they are learningvia an online discussionboard, contributing their ownexperience, values and ideas

trends and issues that relate totheir field or industry andhelping equip them with theresearch skills to address thoseissues and opportunities, bothnow and in the future. Unliketraditional learning models,they are able to apply theknowledge and skills theylearn in class in their jobsalmost immediately, meaningthat students don’t need to waituntil graduation to start seeingthe benefits of their education.

,

,

Onlineprogrammes cancombine individualinstruction withvideo, audio andwritten content toprovide high-quality coursesrelevant to workingprofessionals

*Craig Marsh



Former Governor of Oyo State,Otunba Adebayo Alao-Akala (left) andformer Governor of Bayelsa State, Chief Diepreye Alamieyeseigha duringthe flag-off campaign of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, gubernatorialcandidate for Ekiti State, Dr Ayo Fayose, at Oluyemi Kayode Stadium, AdoEkiti.

OAPs,comediansraise malariaawareness

FOLLOWING the needto address the Millen-

nium Development Goals,MDGs, in Africa, 3ra’fiqueCommunications held its2nd edition of its malarianovelty football match,which pitched comediansagainst on-air personali-ties.

Tagged Join the Cast, thematch which held at theCampos Mini Stadium La-gos Island, saw entertain-ers such as Bovi, Shakara,MC Bishop, MC Prince,Princess, Ogbolor, O’tega,Oluwa Bimz and manymore play against SteveOnu (Yaw), Frank Edoho,Colin Udoh, Femi and theGang, D.O.2D.T.U.N,Sensei Uche, Jimmie,Nedu, Niran among oth-ers.

Speaking at the event,which was supported by AliBaba and Good Knight In-secticides, the Chief Execu-tive Officer of 3ra’fiqueCommunications, Mr.Irabor Okosun, said: “This2nd edition of Join the Castis one of many inventivecommunication tools tohelp address and achievethe Millennium Develop-ment Goals, MDGs, in Af-rica.”

The event also witnessedfree rapid diagnostic test-ing for malaria by the Soci-ety for Family Health, freeArtemi-silin combinationtherapy drugs, free mos-quito nets, insecticides andcounseling.

National standard manual for ITeducation curriculum coming soon

BY EMEKA AGINAM

LAGOS — THE Computer Professionals Regis-

tration Council of Nigeria(CPN), Monday, in Lagosdisclosed that nationalstandard manual for IT edu-cation curriculum at all lev-els will be unveiled nextweek in Abuja during the2014 IT Professional As-sembly.

Chairman of the council,Alhaja Sekinat Yusuf, whostated this in a press con-ference to unfold details of

2014 CPN IT Assembly saidthe document was devel-oped by CPN in partner-ship with the Ministry ofEducation and the NationalInformation TechnologyDevelopment Agency,NITDA.

According to her, thedocument contains Minis-try of Education standardthat every education cur-riculum designed in pri-mary, secondary and terti-ary education should meet.

“It is a standard from

which every curriculumshould be drawn from,starting from early educa-tion to tertiary education. Itis a national compulsorystandard.

"The National UniversityCommission, NUC, andother bodies regulatingeducation in Nigeria mustuse the standard to developtheir curriculum. It is aminimum any educationcurriculum must meet,”sheexplained.

Also speaking, the CPNRegistrar, Mr. Sikiru Shehuexplained further that itwas a standard from earlyeducation to tertiary educa-tion, adding that it is a na-tional document that mustbe used in all levels of edu-cation in Nigeria.

According to him, thedocument will address allchallenges faced in Nige-rian IT education in the21st century knowledgeeconomy.



What is yourfeeling about theNigerian team to

Brazil 2014 World Cup?I am happy that Nigeria

qualified for the World Cup inBrazil and I am also happythat we have a good teamthat can represent us. Thefeeling is very high that mycountry’s flag will be amongthe 32 nations’ flags that willbe hoisted in Brazil.

My impression of the gamesis that the Eagles arepractically slow in theirapproach and I think it’s oneof the areas Coach StephenKeshi should addressespecially with our starting 11(Eleven). What I saw of thefriendly matches was not ourbest in the match againstScotland and partly againstGreece, Keshi was stillexperimenting looking atsome players. I know that hehas a reason for doing that,but if I were him I will fieldmy best players especially myfirst team players to reallydetect the final flaws andfixing them before the WorldCup proper.

Do you belong to the groupthat says Nigeria can go asfar as the semi finals in

Brazil?Why semi final? Nigeria

can win the World Cuptrophy. One thing with theWorld Cup is that it’s a gameof surprises, The countriesthat you least expect to dowell may be the ones winning the games whilethose everybody focuses on turn out as big flops. We havesome players who are plyingtheir trade outside thecountry with some big clubs..

You are sounding a bitoptimistic here?

Yes, you have to beoptimistic and positivebecause if you are pessimisticthere’s nothing you canachieve. I am happy with thecrop of players Keshi hasassembled for the World Cup.We need to support them.

Who do you think canmake the difference

in the Nigerian World Cupsquad?

We have a few playersthere that can make thedifference. Mikel Obi is there, we have EmmanuelEmenike, OsazeOdemwingie is there andunfortunately, Ike Uche andSunday Mba are not in thesquad. We have a couple ofthem there in the team.

Do you feel comfortablewith the inclusion of the

team Captain Joseph Yobo andgoalkeeper, Chigozie Agbim in the23 man list?

I’m comfortable with whoever Coach Keshi chooses and whateverdecision he makes. I am okay withthat because he’s the coach, the buckstops on his table and his decisionshould be respected.

Which of our opponents do youthink will give us headache?

We have Argentina, Iran and Bosniaand Herzegovina?

Iran, I know play very well.Argentina, I know also play very well,but Bosnia and Herzegovina are a bitobscured, though any team or countrythat made it to the World Cup final isas good as winning it. I think Bosniawill be a bit difficult, but nonetheless,Eagles can handle them well if theyput their acts together. But Iran andArgentina are stronger teams, I mustsay. Iran is too good technically. Iran Iknow them from my playing days inAsia, at that time, Iran and Iraq usedto be Asia’s best. I know how theyplay. They have the speed and timelywith the ball while Argentina areworld beaters any day, very skilful andhave most of their players playing inthe first team of their various clubs.So, I think Argentina and Iran are theteams to be wary of. We should expecttough games from these countries.

You were a member of the NigeriaUSA’94 World Cup team, now as aformer player of the national team,this is another World Cup periodwhat kind of feelings are you having?

FORMER Nigeria international and former Abia Warriors coach, EmekaEzeugo believes the Super Eagles need to up their game in order to face theBrazil 2014 FIFA World Cup the challenge.

The USA ’94 Nigerian World Cup defender was not pleased with the slowpace of the Eagles in the three friendly matches played against Scotland,Greece and USA and has urged the team to raise their game

Ezeugo who in his active days played professional football in five conti-nents; most famously for Connecticut Wolves (an A-League club in UnitedStates), East Bengal, Kolkata, India, Peru and Dhaka Mohammedan during asuccessful 15-year playing career. warns in this interview, that the CoachStephen Keshi tutored Eagles should be wary of Argentina and Iran. Excerpts:

By SOLOMONNWOKE

Bosnia coach Safet Susic has said that he didn’t plan toman-mark Argentine superstar Lionel Messi for his

side’s first ever World Cup showdownon Sunday in the Maracana.

“We never put a player on another ...We have (Muhamed) Besic but puttinghim only on Messi wouldn’t be verygood,” said Susic after a 5-1 warm-upwin over a youth select from Brazilianoutfit Santos.

Susic told reporters he preferred azonal system and that whose job itwould be to close Messi down woulddepend on where the Barcelona strikerhappened to be at any given time.

He did not give any hints as to hisline-up, saying only that “everyone isready to face Argentina.”

Bosnia ‘won’t manmark Messi’

Eagles give Irancause for concernAssistant coach of Iran’s national team, Oceano Cruz has

predicted defeat for African champions, Nigeria whenboth nations square up in the second Group F game at the2014 FIFA World Cup finals in Brazil.

The Super Eagles and Team Melli will go head-to-head atthe Arena da Baixada, Curitiba on 16 June and Oceano, anextremely important member of Iran’s coaching staff, has voicedhis sentiments about the potentially decisive fixture.

Team Melli have been in fine fettle as their preparations forthe 2014 World Cup finals continued with an impressive 2-0win over Trinidad and Tobago in their last tune-up game.

Brazil gears up for WorldCup as strike threat loomsGlobal football leaders descend on Sao Paulo yesterday

amid tensions over subway workers’ new threat to spoilBrazil’s World Cup party by going on strike the day of theopening match.

FIFA opens its 64th Congress under the cloud of a corrup-tion scandal surrounding the awarding of the 2022 World Cupto Qatar, which has drawn rebukes from some of the worldfootball body’s biggest sponsors.

Sao Paulo is meanwhile facing headaches of its own aftersubway workers threatened to resume a damaging strike onThursday, the day the world’s eyes turn to the Brazilian mega-city for the start of a World Cup whose build-up has beenplagued by delays, overspending and protests.

• Brazilian fans

•Messi


Nostalgia, at the same time full ofexpectation for my countrymen to dowell and make our fatherland proudat the World Cup .

So what is your advice to CoachKeshi?

I don’t have any advice for himbecause I am sure he knows whathe’s doing, he is up to hisresponsibility. He knows what to doand he does not need my advice orthat of other football pundits fromNigeria. I tried not to give him(Keshi) a call at this time unlessthere’s something I feel that is amajor issue that I need to alert himof, then I give him a call. Otherwise,I don’t see any reason calling him.

So how’s your relationship withCoach Keshi?

Ideal relationship! (he retorted) Wehave been together for seven goodyears even in the national team, so Ihave great relationship with him.

Coach Stephen Keshi once saidthat he has seen some flashes

of the 1994 team spirit in thispresent squad, do you think thissquad will perform better than the‘revered’ USA ’94 World Cup team?

There is nothing wrong with themperforming better than our USA ’94team, but definitely, there is no basisfor comparing the two squads. USA’94 team were grossly determined toexcel, they were arguably the bestcrop of players that Nigeria ever had.In every department of the team, wehad naturally talented players whocould fit in perfectly. If you look at

the number of first teamplayers in their various clubsin Europe who could notmake the team, that will tellyou the calibre players wehad at that time. So, there isno basis for comparison.

Are you not bothered thatmost of Keshi’s first teamplayers are bench warmersin their clubs?

Like I said earlier, the buckstops with Keshi. He isresponsible for the team andeven if those he selected arebench warmers in theirvarious clubs, he knows thereason why he selected them.And we should also knowthat club forms may not oreven be translated intonational team form. I knowplayers who had matchesgoing for them in theirvarious clubs and when theycome to the national team,they never perform and thosewho don’t do well in theirrespective clubs performcreditably for their nationalteams. So club form is not

everything.For instance, some of the club

players in Europe play in front of20,000 capacity stadium and areshining there and when they cometo the National Stadium in SurulereLagos and you are playing in frontof 90- 100,000 spectators and youhave another 200,000 watching ontelevision outside the stadiumwanting to see you play is differentfrom what you experience in yourclub. Obviously, you wouldn’t evenknow when the 90 minutes is upand you wouldn’t even touch theball. So club form is quite differentfrom National team form.

So there’s a great differencebetween a club form and nationalteam form?

Great difference!On a final note, what are you

telling the team?Like I said earlier, I wish the

national team good luck and if theyget to the final and win the Cup, Iwill be the happiest African on thisplanet.

But can they get to the final?Why not! We need to get there, if

we are there, why not.

•Ezeugo•Keshi

Brazil star Dani Alves has expressed hope that thethreat of violent protests does not overshadow the

World Cup as he sets his sights on a final showdownwith South American rivals Argentina.

The 31-year-old Barcelona right-back backed the pro-tests that marred last year’s Confederations Cup in thecountry. But he sent a truce appeal to his compatriotsduring a press conference at Brazil’s training camp inTeresopolis.

“I know that sometimes it is difficult to put the situa-tion in our country to one side, but the whole world willbe here and everyone deserves to be welcomed in theway the Brazilian people know how,” he said.

“It gives us great joy to see the supporters starting toget excited about the World Cup and it is going to be amarvellous moment for everyone.”

With the tournament’s opening game between Braziland Croatia in Sao Paulo in Group A taking place onThursday, Alves allowed himself to get carried awaywhen asked about who he would love to face in thefinal at the Maracana in Rio de Janeiro on July 13.

“If you want me to choose a final I would like to seeBrazil against Argentina, because it is a ‘clasico’, a gamewith so much history. It would be great to win a WorldCup by beating such a team,” he said.

As if the prospect of winning a sixth World Cup, and afirst on home soil, were not enough, Alves would loveto do it by beating a side they have not met in the finalssince 1990.

Brazil’s Alves callsfor World Cup truce

Emzor hooks Super Eagles

Emzor Pharmaceutical Industries has just signed anendorsement deal with the Nigerian Football

Federation. This definitive step between the companyand Nigeria’s football governing body, has, consequently,brought about the choice of Emzor Paracetamol as the“Official Paracetamol of the Super Eagles”.

On why her company decided on partnering with theNFF, at this time, Dr. Stella Okoli, OON, the GMD/CEO,Emzor said ‘the game of football is loved by all Nigeriansand it emphasises wellness. Just like Emzor Paracetamol,our household brand, which is loved by the young andold’.

According to her: ‘The vision driving Emzor is to seea world where unlimited wellness is made available toall and is affordable by all. For this reason, the companyhas consistently provided high quality healthcareproducts made available at prices which create value forall stakeholders.’


*Chibuzor

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 11, 2014— 35

Genesis?I started my career with

Julius Berger as publicrelations personnel andbecame departmental headbefore I resigned to estab-lished my own company. Ithink I have the entireprofessional requirement ittakes to run a public relationscompany anywhere in theworld.

What inspired you intoestablishing a PR company?As a person, I love challeng-es. Heading the publicrelations department of alarge organisation comes withits own challenges. But overtime, once you have masteredthe act of tackling challenges,they are no longer achallenge. At that point,challenges become normal,like a comfort zone. And if youbelong to the class of peoplethat love adventure andconquering challenges andsetting higher standard, thereis always the hunger to domore. That was the pointwhere I found myself. So, thedesire to accomplish more wasthe driving force that led meinto setting up my companyin 2010.

How has it been sincei n c e p t i o n ?Since we started, we havedone several jobs for differentblue chip companies andthese years have been verysuccessful. As anentrepreneur, determinationand being focused have beenvery key to our achievements.

Business growth curveSince 2010 when we started

our growthcurve hast r e m e n -dous. Weh a v eg r o w ngradual-ly, butsteadilyat a pro-gressive rate.

C h a l l e n g e sThe challengesare there on thestreets and theyare enormous.The funds arenot readily thereand most times, you hardlyfind people who believe inyou. Because I started out asa corporate person, I didn’thave issues with fundsstarting up my company.Being focused and deter-mined has helped meovercome the regularchallenges. Before I started,I did a swat analysis todetermine my strengths andweaknesses, and my strengthhas become opportunities.The moment I made up mymind to start up my business,I knew it wasn’t going to be abed of roses. The challengesthat will close down buddingcompanies like mine didn’taffect us, because from thevery beginning, I knew theywill be there. And from theonset, I have made proper as-sessment, I have been focused

and determined to succeed.

Staff strength?

Because of the nature ofmy company, we have

more of marketers and few of-fice staff. I have this philoso-phy that everyone who worksfrom Monday to Friday de-serves their wages and if youtell a story at the end of themonth it means you are wick-ed. If you can’t afford to pay50 staffs at the end of themonth, have 20 that you cancomfortably pay. That way, itis a win-win situation.

How has the industry faredover the years?With all sense of humility andwithout pointing fingers, theevent management and PR in-dustry in Nigeria has gone so

bad that no matter how bril-liant you are, no matter hownovel your proposal, it allballs down to who you know.People are not given equalplatform to thrive based onmerit. We have qualifiedprofessionals with genu-ine proposals and ideaswho do not get con-tracts in the industry,not because they arenot qualified but be-cause of the systemwe operate in. Inother climes, peo-ple get jobs from

recommendations.People call you not

knowing who you are. Butin Nigeria, it is the other

way round. And we do thesefor self fish reasons; we placeunqualified persons in keypositions to watch our back.Why can’t we do things right,

,so that we won’t need anyoneto watch our back? If you arenot committing crime youdon’t need anyone to watchyour back.

Is your company involved inany CSR?

Yes, we have a youthempowerment initiative

which seeks to instill disci-pline and knowledge, as away of giving back to society.The reading culture of theaverage Nigerian youth is

I think likI think likI think likI think likI think like a mane a mane a mane a mane a manand act likand act likand act likand act likand act like a ladye a ladye a ladye a ladye a lady — Chibuzor, Meljenstin boss

Chibuzor Patrick is Chief Executive Officer,Meljenstin Nigeria limited, a public relations andevent management company with a niche for

capacity building, branding and perception management.She is a consummate public relations practitioner with apolyvalent university training and experience in businesscommunication, human resource development, genderand lifestyle, with over ten years of postgraduateexperience. She is a registered member of the NigeriaInstitute of Public Relations as well as the Institute ofGovernance and Management in Nigeria. She has wonmore than 15 awards from institutions and prestigiousgroups. The author of the motivational book “Treasuresmoney cannot buy” is also the MD of Calben FilmsEntertainment. In this interview, she talks about hercareer, aspirations, challenges and the future of hercompany.

very low. There are so manythings like social media thathave taken over our youthsand this is an ugly trend. Webelieve that children are theyouth that eventually becomeleaders. However, for them torise up to this fact, they mustbe prepared physically, intel-lectually, emotionally, moral-ly, psychologically and con-structively. If we want a bet-ter Nigeria, we must empow-er our youths.

We organize essay competi-tion for public and private sec-ondary school students. We dothis to encourage inherentabilities deposited in eachchild because when they haveplatforms like these, their tal-ents find expression.

Combing business and fam-ily life as a wife and moth-e r . . .

...the event management andPR industry in Nigeria hasgone so bad that no matterhow brilliant you are or hownovel your proposal, it allballs down to who you know

Honestly, God’s grace hasbeen sufficient. We are all cre-ated differently. I think like aman and act like a lady. Mybrains are over activated 24-hours of the day. And becauseI love challenges, I am notcomfortable with comfortzones. For me, whatever I doeffortlessly is not worth it.Honestly, when you are pas-sionate about what you do, thestress involved in doing it dis-appears because joy comesfrom within.


VVVVVANGUANGUANGUANGUANGUARD, WEDNESDARD, WEDNESDARD, WEDNESDARD, WEDNESDARD, WEDNESDAAAAAYYYYY, JUNE 11, 2014, JUNE 11, 2014, JUNE 11, 2014, JUNE 11, 2014, JUNE 11, 2014—37—37—37—37—37

Share your problems and releaseyour burden. Write now to Dear

Bunmi,Vanguard Newspapers, P.M.B

1007, Apapa, Lagos. [email protected]

Dear Bunmi,I met my current boyfriend

towards the end of last yearand we’ve never had a fight.This may sound crazy but I’vetried to get him mad by beingbitchy for no reason.

I have also deliberatelystood him up but he nevertakes the bait. Is he for real?

Does it mean that he’s notpassionate about me?

Dupe,By e-mail.

Dear Dupe,I know my job is to help solve

problems, but I want to offeryou this possibility— couldyou still be in the honeymoon

phase of a great relationshipand there isn’t any problem?It is one of life’s great ironiesthat the gender responsiblefor hunting, war, and profes-sional wrestling will do any-thing to avoid fights with theopposite sex.

Why do most men hate fight-ing with women so much? Itis possible to have a wrestlingmatch with you because he’snot into you, but I doubt thatis the case. More likely, heavoids fights because hethinks they’re an admissionof failure, both in your rela-tionship and in himself.

So, short of pouring his coldglass of beer over his head inorder to make him mad, allyou can do is make sure heknows that fighting is ahealthy part of a relationship.

Has he ever done anythingthat bothered you? If not, holdon to that guy— he is a vari-ety! If he has, then you needto bring it up, discuss it, andresolve it to show him thatproblems should be addressedand then solved, leaving yourrelationship better off than itis now.

He looks too tolerant for me

How do I get out of this mess?

Dear Bunmi,I’ve been secretly dating my

current boyfriend who used tobe my brother’s new wife’s ex.It’s not a serious relationshipas he has other girlfriends.

This has never bothered meuntil now that I’ve discoveredI’m pregnant. I’m scared totell anyone as this man is thefather of two of my sister-in-law’s children.

What on earth should I do?Ego,By e-mail.

Dear Ego,

You’ve not really done any-thing wrong, as this man ofyours is not a blood relation.But since you both agreedyour affair was a fling, doyou know how he feels aboutthis pregnancy?

Morally, it could be a bitembarrassing and you haveto have the possibility of hav-ing a child by someone whois almost certainly not goingto stand by you.

So you may need to thinkcarefully about what you donext. Whatever decision youarrive at, you have the mostto lose.

Hubby doesn’t know I was a good-time girl

Dear Bunmi,I count myself lucky. I am

married to a wonderful manand have an adorable son, butI’m really unhappy. When Iwas younger, I had a very ac-tive social life. I met men,went on dates and to parties,and along the way, I had somegood relationships and flings.

Then I met my husband andfell madly in love with him.Now I feel so guilty about allthose men I’d slept with be-fore I meet him.

What if he found out? I can’tchange the past but how canI cope with the humiliation ofbeing found out I was such anawful person?

Shafi,By e-mail.

Dear Shafi,Don’t be so hard on your-

self. You’re not an awful per-son. The fact that you wereintimate with other men be-fore your husband is irrele-vant. When you slept withthose men, you did it for thebest reasons: you wanted togive and get affection and

support.Plus, you didn’t even know

your husband then. In fact,your husband has most prob-ably slept with as many peo-ple as you have— if not more!He knows he’s not the firstman you’ve been with.

I advice you stop frettingabout the past and enjoy thehappiness that you’ve nowfound. To be a good wife andmother, you need to put thepast behind you. The happieryou are, the happier your hus-band and son will be.

Dear Bunmi,I am thirty something and

haven’t had a boyfriend forfour years. The ones thatshowed interest are men Iwouldn’t be seen dead with.I’d really love to meet a de-cent man and fall head overheels in love, but I haven’t hadeven one good relationship. Ifeel as if I’m already on theshelf!

Friends have assured meI’m quite nice-looking andI’ve had men smile at me asif they are interested when Igo to parties. So why haven’tI landed a good catch up tillnow? I have a good job butI’m convinced I’m doomed tobe single forever.

Francisca,By e-mail.

Dear Francisca,I’m sure you’ll find a man

Will I ever find a good man?to love, but not if you carryon as you are now. You’rebeing pessimistic and as aresult you’re unhappy anddesperate. Unfortunately,these feelings are probablycoming across to the men youmeet and it is spelling deathto any chance of romance.The bottom line is, no onewants to have a relationshipwith someone who is sodownbeat.

You really must change yourviews of your life and your-self. Start believing in your-self. Go out and have real funwithout looking over yourshoulders for a potential lov-er. You need to enjoy life forits own sake, rather than look-ing for a life partner.

If you do find him all youradmirers will carry on smil-ing as you walk up the aisletogether. Good luck!

Dear Bunmi,I have suddenly discovered

I don’t want to make love everagain. This started towardsthe end of last year. I live withmy boyfriend and we used tohave a fairly active love life,but I’ve now lost all interest.

I can no longer bear the ideaof anyone touching me, andit is making me feel like afrigid freak.

My partner is really gettingfed up with the lack of inti-macy in our relationship be-cause he knows I didn’t evenenjoy it the few times wetried. How can I get my libi-do back?

Ibidun,By e-mail.

Dear Ibidun,Lots of women go off love

making at some point in theirlives, so you’re not alone. Butit usually does mean thatthere’s something wrong. So,what could it be? If you wentoff it suddenly, there’s likelyto be a physical cause— ahormone imbalance, illness orstress. If your interest fadesslowly, it’s more likely to beemotional— a lack of self-es-teem or relationship prob-lems.

Whatever the reason foryour current distress, youhave to break your silence.Talk it over with your partnerthen see your doctor.

Go now. The sooner youseek professional help, thesooner you’ll get sorted.

Why have I gone off lovemaking?

So, short of pouring hiscold glass of beer overhis head in order to make him mad, all you can do is make sure he knows thatfighting is a healthy partof a relationship

,

,

You really must changeyour views of your life andyourself. Start believing inyourself; go out and have realfun without looking overyour shoulders for a potentiallover; you need to enjoy lifefor its own sake, rather thanlooking for a life partner

,

,


Continues on page 39

APC: Push comes to shoveTHE first national convention of the recently evolved All Progressives Congress,APC is bound to elicit a lot of interests as politicians who pushed for the merger forthe first time contend with one another for political power at the national stage.Theparty arose from the vestiges of three parties, the defunct Action Congress ofNigeria, ACN, Congress for Progressive Change, CPC and the All Nigeria PeoplesParty, ANPP. The first two of the lot, ACN and CPC were remarkable by theirdeficiencies in democratic deeds. But given the framework of the 2010 Electoral Actand agitations for internal democracy, the leaders of the new party have for longpromised to espouse internal democracy in the choice of their executives and flagbearers for elective office.The exercise to choose officers at state and local government levels were visited with

•Oyegun

Chief John Odigie-Oyegunis thecandidate being backed by Asiwaju

Tinubu and those loyal to him. The word ofsupport from the national leader of the partyshould have ordinarily given him the jobwere it in the defunct ACN. However, giventhe desperation of several party chieftainsincluding some governors from theSouthwest to surreptitiously checkmateTinubu, Odigie-Oyegun is in for a contest.

He is praised for his ideologicalconsistency being the only one of thecandidates never to have associated with thePDP. He is also praised for his parsimoniouslifestyle, a factor the outgoing nationalchairman, Chief Bisi Akande, is reported tohave used in advancing his name for thejob in the Tinubu camp. Critics, however,point out that as national chairman he couldbecome a proxy for Tinubu. Some are alsopointing out that at 75, that Odigie-Oyegunmay not have the energy to drive a new partyto confront the PDP.

•Sylva

CHIEF Tom Ikimi, was the national chairman of the defunctNational Republican Convention, former minister of foreign

affairs and now, interim national vice chairman, South-South, ofthe APC.

Ikimi according to sources is being backed by some governorsand chairman of the board of trustees of the defunct All NigerianPeoples Party, ANPP, Senator Ali Modu Sheriff. Ikimi is beingsupported by those the Anti-Tinubu forces who believe that he isthe only one with political fibre to withstand Asiwaju and carvesome independence for the mainstream of the party outside thedesires of the former governor of Lagos State.

Besides his seeming independence, his supporters also back hisexperience as the founding national chairman of the NRC.

His antagonists, however, point at his services for Gen. SanniAbacha and President Olusegun Obasanjo. As returning officerfor 2003 presidential primaries of the Peoples Democratic Party,PDP he is famously etched in history for his Eagles Square yeomanproclamation of Obasanjo, Obasanjo, Obasanjo and Obasanjo.

Should Timipire Sylva be screened out as is being alleged insome quarters, the job would be a straight fight between Ikimi andOdigie-Oyegun. Ahead o f the convention, Ikimi received a moralebooster when the state chapter of the party in his native Edo Stategave him a full endorsement ahead of Odigie-Oyegun, a formergovernor of the state being pushed by Asiwaju.

THE major attraction for the Sylvacandidacy was his youth and dynamism.

At 49 he is the only one of the four aspirantsless than 50. Another strong argument in hisfavour is the fact that he is from Bayelsa State,the home base of President Jonathan.

However, given the size of the state and itselectoral value, critics say that that could countlittle for the party.

He is being backed by some governors andSylva according to party sources has reachedout to General Muhammadu Buhari forsupport. A major drawback for the Sylvacandidacy is the court case against him bythe Economic and Financial CrimesCommission, EFCC on allegations ofcorruption while in office as governor. Basedon the corruption case, a move has beeninitiated by some party chieftains to screenhim out from the contest.

Those against him say that they cannot affordto give President Jonathan the luxury ofhounding the chairman of the APC to trial onallegations of corruption.

BESIDES the contention forthe offices at the national level, party

elders are expected to also resolve a lotof simmering disputes in some of thestates.

The most contentious states that havetasked the energies of the partyleadership were in Ogun, Delta,Anambra, Adamawa, Imo and lately,Rivers States.

In Ogun State the battle is pitchedbetween a national leader of the party,

Matters pending

BY EMMANUEL AZIKEN,POLITICAL EDITOR

•Tom Ikimi

Aremo Segun Osoba and thegovernor, Senator IbikunleAmosun. The battle between bothfactions has been allegedlyfuelled by associates of both menwho apparently are using thenames of their principals forbattle.

Amosun is seriously opposedby most members of the NationalAssembly from the stateespecially given his owninclination and apparent support

•Jaja

SAM Sam Jaja, the erstwhilenational deputy chairman of the PDP and

subsequently of the nPDP was initially the secretweapon of the Tinubu camp. Factors that hadprompted the camp to push for Sam Jaja were thathe could be used to divide the camp of thegovernors aligned against Tinubu.

The thinking then was that fielding Sam Jaja andwith the backing of Governor Rotimi Amaechi anumber of the governors would swing to endorsehim and as such sustain the mystique of Tinubu inthe party.

However, that argument was deflated few weeksago when some ideological purists in Camp Tinubuled by outgoing national chairman, Chief Akandereportedly countered that it would be abominationto have a former top official of the PDP presideover the APC. That was how the consistency ofOdigie-Oyegun became an attraction for the Tinubucrowd.

limited success because even on convention eve, the party was yet to sort outissues arising from many states. (see accompanying story). However, despitethe profession of internal democracy, the culture of secrecy that was thehallmark of the defunct ACN and CPC has continued to trail the new party. Atpress time yesterday, the guidelines for the contest for the available nationaloffices remained a mystery to many party officials and followers.Even the contestants for the several offices were largely unknown. Theexception were the four names that have been in the public realm allegedlyinterested in the office of national chairman. The four are Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, a former governor of Edo State.



HOW do you react tocomments that the

government’s handling of theChibok school girls’ abductionis slow, chaotic anduncoordinated?

I don’t see the government asbeing too slow. In this country,there is an underlying politics ineverything we do. If PresidentJonathan moves too strongly ashe should, tribal and religioussentiments will come into it andyet, he should do what he oughtto do. May be he is moreconsiderate in the approach. Youhave to understand the enormityof the weight of the decision hehas to make.

You see it is a Nigerianaggression. It is treason againstthe state. If he should crush itthe way he should, then,religious and tribal connotationswill come into it immediately.And if people are shouting andconceited people, for their ownselfish reasons, are creatingmore problems, I feel the weightof decision must be with caution.In the light of our peculiarcircumstances, I believe he isdoing the best he can. This is a

Jonathan didn't cause ourproblems — Wachuku•Says insurgency is politically-driven

FORMER Director-General of the National Directorateof Employment (NDE), a delegate to the NationalConference from Abia State and National President ofNigerian Association of Small Scale Industrialists(NASSI), Dr Chuku Wachuku, in this interview profferssuggestion on how Nigeria can wriggle out of theBoko Haram insurgency, become a great. He alsoshared his thoughts on Democracy at 15 and howGovernor Theodore Orji is silently transforming AbiaState. Excerpts:

BY CLIFFORD NDUJIHE president who is a true Nigerian.When people are talking about

marginalization, all his keycommanders are from the North.National Security Adviser, NSA,is from the North; Minister ofDefence is from the North and ahost of others. What else do youwant this man to do? He hasarmed the military, so if there isfailure I think we should probablydo more of intelligencegathering. But the point is whodoes the President really trust?

Does he have saboteurs in hisgovernment? I don’t know. Thereare obvious questions thatNigerians must begin to ask. Thisis not a Jonathan problem, it is aNigerian problem.

Nigerianproblem

Jonathan did not cause it. Buteverybody points at the poor man.The people are not allowing himto do his job.

How do you think the BokoHaram issue can be resolved?

It can only be resolved whenall Nigerians put away their tribalsentiments, religious bigotry andcome together as Nigerians tocondemn what is bad and evil.

What is evil is evil whether it’sfrom this religion or the other,from this section of the countryor the other. All Nigerians mustcome together to say this is evil.People are dying, children arebeing kidnapped and harassed,they are being traumatized. Weshould be talking about livesbeing wasted.

What is your take on theassistance of the internationalcommunity in the anti-insurgency crusade?

We will welcome any help atall. It’s up to our own military andvarious communities to guardwhat they don’t want the outsideworld to know. Intelligencegathering is a common thing allover the world. So, I don’t seeanything wrong. I think weshould do whatever we can to

solve the problem.Still on democracy, you have

examined the presidency. Whatabout the states?

It depends on the state. You

found absolutely nothing. He meta state of chaos; the leadershipwas divided with the peoplehating one another. People dyingover issues they shouldn’t die of.

The governor came on boardwith tremendous pressure. In thefirst three years, he was accusedof laxity and ineptitude, but againhe has to go to the fabrics, thefundamentals. Did he havefreedom? No, he didn’t havefreedom. So, when he rose up tofree himself, the state took aquantum leap.

Governor Theodore Orji isexperienced, very calm andgiven to laying claims to thingshe didn’t do. He is transformingthe state in a quiet way. All theaccolades he is winning aredeserved. When he decided tocome up with the legacy pact, hewas laying the fundamentals ofstrict administration. Since thecreation of Abia State, thefundamentals of governancehave not been put in place. Youmay not understand it, but thenext governor will inherit theinstruments of modern statehoodin Abia State. For so many years,governance was been operatedfrom rented accommodation.Why didn’t the previousgovernors undertake theconstruction of the GovernmentHouse? Secondly, if you enteredUmuahia before now, you will seeramshackle accommodation forcivil servants.

Why didn’t the previous

APC: Matters pendingfor those who came with him fromthe defunct All Nigeria PeoplesParty, ANPP to combat theincumbent legislators for the 2015tickets.

Associates of both men heldparallel congresses that threw updifferent executives from theward to the state level.

The party is apparently in acorner on how to reconcile thetwo factions given the level ofrancour to which thedisagreement has degeneratedto. In Delta the party is dividedinto at least three factions. Whilethe mainstream of the partyremains behind the originalfounders of the APC led by elder-statesman, Senator FrancisOkpozo, younger elements whohave been throwing up a lot ofmoney to win influence.

The younger group who havea rich billionaire from DeltaCentral as their leader was ableto push through a new executivewith Prophet Jones Erue fromDelta North as chairman.Original members of the defunctAction Congress of Nigeria, ACNin the state miff that the congresswhich produced Erue was miredin controversy especially giventhe fact that it was allegedlyconducted in the prophet’schurch premises.

Prophet Erue and his backersare alleged to have the supportof loyalists of Chief James Ibori,an issue that has unnervedOkpozo and other elements inhis group who for years have notpartnered with the Iboriestablishment in the state.

Party sources disclosed thatErue has been asked by partyleaders in Lagos and Abuja toseek habitation with the originalfounders of the party in the state.

In Edo State another man ofGod in the person of PastorOsagie Ize-Iyamu helped todiminish the status of the partyafter he led his associates in theGrace Group to walk out of theparty.

With his exit the party is nowfully united around theleadership of Governor AdamsOshiomhole but noticeablyreduced in capacity.

In Anambra State the state ispolarised into two factionsrespectively led by SenatorAnnie Okonkwo and SenatorChris Ngige.

Both men it would be recalledfell apart in the midst of the lastgubernatorial election campaignwhen Okonkwo walked out asNgige’s campaign manageralleging the later betrayedagreements reached with him onissues.

Senator Okonkwo’s factionproduced Barrister Emeka Ibehas its factional chairman whileSenator Ngige’s factionproduced Barrister ChidiIgwedibia as chairman.

The party had at the lastNational Executive Committee,NEC meeting penultimate weekestablished a committee of eldersto look into the issues, but as atpress time there were littleindications to show that thecommittee made much success.

•Wachuku

,,Jonathan did not cause it. But

everybody points at the poor man, thepeople are not allowing him to do hisjob

governors construct a modernsecretariat for civil servants? T.AOrji has constructed a modernsecretariat, really ultra modern.He has embarked on theconstruction of the GovernmentHouse. He is constructing anInternational Conference Centre.Why didn’t they think of re-branding, rebuilding theinfrastructures in Abia State? Lookat the market that was inUmuahia for years, it took gutsto move it to a permanent site.Umuahia is now looking like anemerging state capital. Before,Umuahia was looking like avillage.

He may not complete them, hehas to start somewhere. He hascompleted the InternationalConference Centre. He hascompleted the secretariat. If yougo to the High Court, it isfantastic. I went to theBroadcasting Corporation ofAbia State and I can’t believe it.

These are legacies. And he isgoing to leave the legacy of apeaceful and a united Abia thatanybody can talk about. There areno warring factions in Abiaanymore.

All for the first time, Abians areunited under one leadership,facing a common goal and acommon enemy.

know sometimes, somegovernors claim on the pages ofnewspapers what they havedone, but it is up to the people todetermine whether those thingsare true or false.

For instance, in Abia, where Ihail from, it is a total departurefrom what it used to be. Whenthe present governor, ChiefTheodore Orji came on board, he

40—Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 11, 2014, 2014

The Books: Bible & Qur'an

COMMON THEMES FOR PEACEFUL CO-EXISTENCE

THE QUR’AN

THE Qur’an is the holy ofIslam. The scripture is

believed by the Muslims to bethe final revelation from God toMankind (Al-Mallah, 2008:96).It is believed to contain wordsof God and consequently, itserves as an expression ofdivine will. According to CharisWaddy (1982:14), if the Qur’anhas to be compared withanything in Christianity, it mustbe compared with ChristHimself.

This is because Christ,according to christian belief, isthe expression of the divineamong men, the revelation ofthe divine will and this is whatthe Qur’an is for Muslims. Hecompares the role ofMuhammad with that of Marybecause Muhammad was thevehicle of the divine words asMary was the vehicle of Jesusbirth. The Muslims regard theQur’an as the greatest of allmiracles, hence, muchreverence is given to it. Thecollection of divine revelationsin the Qur’an serves Muslimsas the primary source ofguidance. It is also a source fortheir religious doctrines.

The Qur’an was revealed inthe Arabic language. KennethCragg(1971: 40) rightly remarksthat Qur ’an is the glory ofArabic while Arabic is the prideof the Qur’an. The scripture isdivided into one hundred andfourteen (114) chapters ofunequal length known as suwar(plural of Surah). The particulartitles are sometimes taken froma particular matter treated or aperson mentioned therein.

Spirit.The Qur ’an was revealed

piecemeal within a periodspanning almost twenty-threeyears (610-632 C.E.). In otherwords, the Qur’anic revelationwas progressive, a factconfirmed by Surah 17:107which claims that the scripturewas revealed in stages. The firstrevelation of the Qur ’anoccurred at the Cave of Hirahin the month of Ramadan on anight later known as LailatulQadri (Surah 2: 185, and Surah97:1). This was sequel to AngelGabriel’s visit to the cave at thetime Muhammad was on

Qur’an by Al Khoee, A.A (nd:240) alone, twenty-two of suchtraditions are listed. The mostwidely accepted tradition,however, is the one attributedto Zaid b. Thabit which isquoted below as contained inal-Jamic Li ahkam al-Qur’anvol. 1 of al Qurtubi (nd : 50)Zaidreports as follows:

Abu Bakr sent for me on theoccasion of the deaths ofthose killed in Yamamahwars. I found Umar b. al-Khattab with him, Abu Bakrsaid, ‘Umar has just come tome and said: ‘In theYamamah fighting death hasdealt most severely with theQurra and I fear it will dealwith equal severity with themin other theatres of war, and,as a result, much of theQur’an will perish. I am,therefore, of the opinion thatyou should command that theQur’an be collected.’ AbuBakr added, “I said to Umar,‘How can we do what theprophet never did?’ Umarreplied ‘that it is nonethelessa good act. He did not ceasereplying to my scruples untilGod reconciled me to theundertaking/Abu Bakrcontinued, “Zaid, you areyoung and intelligent and weknow nothing to yourdiscredit. You used to recordthe revelations for theprophet. So pursue the Qur’anand collect it all together.” ByGod! had they asked me toremove a mountain it couldnot have been more weightythan what they would haveme do in ordering me tocollect the Qur’an. I,therefore, asked them howthey could do what the

prophet had not done, butAbu Bakr insisted that it waspermissible. He did not ceasereplying to my scruples untilGod reconciled me to theundertaking as He hadalready reconciled Abu Bakrand Umar. I thereuponpursued the Qur’an collectingit all together from palm-branches, flat stones and thememories of men ...

From this report, we candeduce the following facts: thatMuhammad did not collect acomplete written text of theQur’an before his death; thatnothing of the Qur’an was lost;that it was preserved primarilyin oral form and that whenrecorded the recording wasdone on primitive materials;that the first official retentionauthorised by the first caliphwas also the first completecollection. Most Muslims notonly recognise these points asfacts but regard the narration asthe authentic historical accountof the collection of the Qur’an.

THE BIBLEAccording to Arndt and

Gingrich (1979: 141) the wordBible is derived from the Greekword biblion which means book.The plural form is biblia. TheBible contains sixty-six books;thirty-nine form the OldTestament (OT) while twenty-seven form the New Testament(NT). The OT books areclassified into three, namely:The Pentateuch (Genesis toDeuteronomy), The Prophets(former prophets - Joshua toKings; later prophets - Isaiahto Malachi) and The Writings(Cook Stanley 1958: 35). TheNT, on the other hand,

comprises the Gospels, the Acts,the Letters and the Apocalypse.We would discuss these booksin greater details in ChapterThree. Even though the Bibleconsists of two testaments, theyare not independent of eachother; as a matter of fact, the NTcomplements the OT. It hasbeen argued that Christianityoriginated from the OT becausethe ethical monotheism” whichwas perfected in Jesus,originated and developed inIsrael. According to Baker(1976: 159), the cultic andnationalistic elements of the OTwere eventually subordinated tothis spiritual faith in thepreaching of the prophets, andJesus simply continued theirmessage.Central themesof the Bible

The central themes of theBible, reveal continuity in thetwo testaments. The themes arecreation, sin, fall, redemptionand salvation. In the beginning,God created man and he wasin the state of well-being untilhe was tempted to sin andconsequently fell.

God started a plan ofredemption with Abraham andmade promises in Genesistwelve. Thus, Israel was to be aprototype to reach out to theentire world. Under theleadership of Moses, God madea covenant with the Israelites.They settled in Canaan andestablished a monarchy.Corruption reigned supreme,consequently prophetsappeared on the scene. Thekingdoms later fell: the Northwas captured by the Assyriansin 721 B.C. and the south(Judah) was captured byBabylonians in 586 B.C. Thisincident was followed by theexile of the Israelites. The firstof the exiles returned toJerusalem from Babylon in 538B.C. Return from the exile sawthe beginning of the inter-testamental period when themessianic expectation was rife.The NT era was ushered in byJohn the Baptist. With theadvent of Jesus (the expectedMessiah) the Gospel wasdeclared and after him theapostles propagated it withemphasis on the second comingof Jesus, while theeschatological events are beinganticipated as enunciated in theBook of Revelation. Thus God’ssingular programme developedprogressively from Genesis toRevelation.

The Biblical books were notContinues on page 41

,

,Muslims holy site of Makka in Saudi Arabia

The Qur’an gives us someinformation regarding itsrevelation. According to thescripture, it was revealed toprophet Muhammad throughangel Gabriel (Jibril) as evidentin Surah 26: 192-195 whichreads: “And surely this is arevelation from the Lord of theworlds, the faithful spirit hascome down with it upon thyheart, that thou may be of thewarners...” Surah 2:97 of thescripture, clarifies who thefaithful spirit is when it declares:“Whoever is the enemy ofGabriel, surely he revealed it(the Qur’an) to thy heart byAllah’s command”. From thesepassages it is understood thatthe Qur’an is a divine messagerevealed through Gabriel andnot a prophetic utterance madeunder the influence of the Holy

meditation there.1 The centralthemes of the Qur ’an arecreation and invitation of manto the right way in which theprophets from Adam toMuhammad were engaged.

The preservation of theQur’an

Each time Muhammadreceived a revelation, he recitedit to the companions, who, atonce, committed it to memoryand writing. Thus emerged twomodels of preserving thescripture.

Collection of the Qur’anThe historical account of how

the Qur’an was collected as acanonized scripture is morecomplex than it is sometimesthought. This is as a result ofthe diverse traditions on thesubject. In al-Bayan fi Tafsir al-

Each time Muhammad received arevelation, he recited it to the companions,who, at once, committed it to memory andwriting. Thus emerged two models ofpreserving the scripture

The Books: Bible & Qur'anthroughout the Roman Empirein the first and second centuriesC.E. (Hunter A.M 1972 : 9).

We can now turn our attentionto the preservation of the Bible.As mentioned above theBiblical books were preservedin writing on scrolls and codicesby original writers. The earlyChristians out of enthusiasm tohave copies of the scripture,copied either directly from theoriginal manuscripts or from thecopied materials.

A ComparativeAppraisal of Evolutionof the Qur’an and theBible

The Qur’an and the Bible arebelieved to be revealedscriptures and as such, they areseen as containing divinewords. Having been preservedfor some time, both becameauthoritative after they had beengiven official sanction by thescrutinising councils of theirrespective religions. Thus thetwo scriptures passed throughsimilar processes of evolution,i.e. revelation, preservation andcollection/canonisation; but notsimilar methods as ourdiscussion has revealed.

While the Qur ’an wasrevealed to Muhammadthrough angel Gabriel within aperiod of about twenty-threeyears, the Biblical books werewritten by about forty inspiredwriters in several centuries. Inview of the fact that the twoscriptures emanate from thesame source which is God, theircontents are believed to beinspired. However, theMuslims understand theQur ’anic inspiration in thesense of angel Gabriel dictatingthe words of God toMuhammad. This concept ofinspiration does not gaincurrency among the Biblicalscholars.

The Qur ’an was not onlyreduced to writing but was alsofully memorised by the huffaz.Great importance is attached tothe memorisation of the Qur’an

committed to writing very early.Perhaps this was due to theimportance attached tomemorisation or becausewriting was cumbersome inthose days. Much of the OT wasbased on oral tradition. ThePentateuch to Samuel was basedon many oral traditions whichcentered mainly around thepatriarchs, Moses, Joshua, theJudges, Samuel, David andlater in a section of Kings, Elijahand Elisha (Wilfred, J.H 1976:21).

This, however, does not ruleout the use of written sources.David and others, such asSolomon, Jeroboam I and IIprobably had secretaries in theircourts who could have recordedevents that happened duringtheir reigns. This is to say thatthe Israelites were not ignorantof the art of writing. They wereexposed, in some ways, towriting because of their contactwith Egypt. For instance, theTen Commandments wereimmediately written down.

Different reasons have beenadvanced for why the NT wasnot written very early: the activeparticipants (i.e., Jesus’disciples) were still alive; theirreliance on their retentivememory; emphasis on theKerygma (i.e., oral messagepreached); anticipation of theearly second coming of Jesus;persecution of the Jews by theRomans (which did not givethem rest of mind); and thelaborious nature of the art of

ascribed to well-known Biblicalpersonalities while controversysurrounds the authorship ofsome, e.g., Mosaic authorshipof Pentateuch in the OT and theBook of Hebrew in the NT.

ii. As regards the durationof writing the books, Huffmanis of the view that the thirty-nineOT books were written duringa period of one thousand yearsbeginning about 1100 B.C.while the twenty-seven books ofthe NT were written in less thanone hundred years between 50and 150 C.E.

iii. How was the Biblewritten? The OT books were,

,


hand-written in ink usuallywith a reed pen, on scrollsmade of leather or papyrus,while the NT books were writtenoriginally on scrolls but, lateron, the early Christians copiedthe scriptures on codices andparchments or valium (RyrieC.C. 1976: 45).

A scroll was made from anumber of papyri or preparedanimal skins. After the sheetswere sewn together to make astrip measuring ten to thirty feetlong, it was rolled around a sticklike a map. A codex (pl.codices), on the other hand,was made of several quires ofparchment of papyri sheetsfolded to make pages. Thequires were stitched togetherlike the modern book (MckenzieJ.L 1978: 102).

The OT was originally writtenin Hebrew except for fourchapters in Ezra, six chaptersin Dn. and Jr. 10:11 which werewritten in Aramaic. The NT, onthe other hand, was written inKoine Greek, the languagecommonly spoken and written

were still extant. It wascompiled by Abu Bakr andreviewed under twenty yearslater by Uthman. The absenceof any spurious portion of theHoly Book made its compilationand review straight forward forthose who carried out theexercises. Its authenticity asperceived by Muslims hasnever been in doubt. The maintask of the reviewers wasmerely to reconcile thedialectical differences detectedamong its readers duringUthman’s caliphate.

The wideness of the time lagbetween the period of writingthe Bible and its canonisationaccounts for the easy access ofaccretions and interpolationsinto the scripture which werebeing got rid of gradually byreviewing the scripture fromtime to time on discoveringvaluable manuscripts. On theother hand, the shortness of thetime lapse between thecomplete revelation of theQur ’an and its compilationmakes it exceedingly difficult forany accretion and interpolationto get into the scripture.

These are academic reasonsfor the preservation of the textof the Qur’an. To the orthodoxMuslims, however, thepreservation of the Qur’an isdivine and spiritual ascontained in Surah 15:9 of thescripture. The foregoingillustrations notwithstanding,Muslims have a way ofapplying Islamic concept ofrevealed books to the Judeo-Christian scriptures by makingProphet Musa’s Tauratequivalent to Moses’Pentateuch. Prophet Daud’sZaburah equivalent to David’sPsalm and Prophet Isa’s Injilequivalent to the NewTestament.

because firstly, the huffaz wereemployed to check thecorrectness of the writtenrecords and secondly, up tilltoday, Muslims commit severalchapters of the Qur’an (and insome cases the entire scripture)to memory for use in their dailyprayers and on specialoccasions. With regard to theBible, its books were written onscrolls or codices by inspiredwriters while their adherentsfaithfully copied the scriptureand translated it into differentlanguages. Apart from copying,many Jewish Rabbis andmembers of the early churchmemorised different passages ofthe scripture. In an attempt tocorrect errors in copying,different editions of the Bibleemerged. Memorisation of thetwo scriptures by the earlyMuslims and Christiansrespectively was due to theirveneration for the words of Godcontained in the Holy Books.

Canonisationof the Bible

As regards the canonisation ofthe Bible (in contrast tocollection with reference to theQur’an) the following pointsare worthy of note:

(i)Canonisation took placeseveral centuries aftercommitting the books to writing.

(ii)It was done in stages, i.e.,the books of law becamecanonical before the propheticbooks, while the propheticbooks became canonical beforethe writings and the NT wasnaturally canonised after theOT.

(iii)Canonisation involvedscrutinizing the authenticity ofthe original of each booksleading to its recognition orrejection.

Conversely, the Qur’an wascompiled only six months afterthe death of Muhammad whenmany of the memorisers werestill alive and the manuscripts

TOMORROW

The Qur’an and the Bible are believed tobe revealed scriptures and as such, they areseen as containing divine words. Havingbeen preserved for some time, both becameauthoritative after they had been givenofficial sanction by the scrutinisingcouncils of their respective religions


writing. Writing of the messagewas later encouraged becauseoriginal apostles and eyewitnesses were dying; thesecond advent did not quicklycome; there was need formissionary work and there wasalso need for scripture forworship and devotion (DuffieldG.P. et al 1983: 9).

In discussing the writing ofthe Bible, three aspects of thesubject should be considered:(i) the writers of the scripture;(ii) the period of writing and (iii)the method of writing.

i. It is not easy to determinewith precision the number of theinspired writers who wrote thebooks of the Bible. This isbecause some books werewritten by more than one authorwhile some writers wrote morethan one book. Huffman(1945:53) suggests that fortyinspired writers wrote thedifferent books of the scripture.Sometimes, the author of a bookdictated to a professional scribeas Jeremiah and Paul did. Someof the Biblical books are

While the Qur'an teach-es that God is one,indivisible and uniquewith none sharing fromHis divine essence astaught by Surah 112:1-4, the Nicene Creedasserts that there arethree persons in theGodhead, the Father,the Son and the HolySpirit, all of whom areco-eternal

The Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem

COMMON THEMES FOR PEACEFUL CO-EXISTENCE

L E I S U R ETHOUGHT FOR TODAYTHOUGHT FOR TODAYTHOUGHT FOR TODAYTHOUGHT FOR TODAYTHOUGHT FOR TODAY

42 — Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, 42 — Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, 42 — Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, 42 — Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, 42 — Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 11,JUNE 11,JUNE 11,JUNE 11,JUNE 11, 2014 2014 2014 2014 2014

VIRGINIA

KAPTAIN AFRIKA in “Pretty Lunatic’ By Andy Akman

[email protected]

TERROR MUDA in “Never say goodbye” By Lanre Kehinde

YOUR LUCK TODAYYOUR LUCK TODAYYOUR LUCK TODAYYOUR LUCK TODAYYOUR LUCK TODAY

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By Richard Eromosele

By Joshua Adeyemo Phone 08056180139

ASTROLOGICAL COUNSELLINGASTROLOGICAL COUNSELLINGASTROLOGICAL COUNSELLINGASTROLOGICAL COUNSELLINGASTROLOGICAL COUNSELLINGSend ySend ySend ySend ySend your datour datour datour datour date and place of bire and place of bire and place of bire and place of bire and place of bir th tth tth tth tth to the Aso the Aso the Aso the Aso the Astrtrtrtrtrologicalologicalologicalologicalological

Counselling, PCounselling, PCounselling, PCounselling, PCounselling, P.M.B 1.M.B 1.M.B 1.M.B 1.M.B 100000000007, Apapa, Lagos7, Apapa, Lagos7, Apapa, Lagos7, Apapa, Lagos7, Apapa, Lagos

SAGITTARIUS: Although erratic people from unexpectedquarters may oppose you openly, your being self assertivewill earn you both victory and financial success. Thentomorrow will prove more successful.

CAPRICORN: Yes! It’s your day again. The moreambitious you are the better for you. Then you will need toignore those with queer characteristics within your workingarena..

AQUARIUS: Mixed trends are indicated. If you take goodadvice from your cool headed friends, you will benefit morethan you imagine, but if you take to unpredictable attitude,you will today start fire that will burn with great intensitytomorrow.

PISCES: If you take the veterans within your base forgranted, they will fail you painfully. Yet here is a lucky dayfor you when your being secretive and self reliant will earnyou success. Be more ambitious.

ARIES: Some of the people around you may get on yournerve via careless remarks, you must not allow them todisorganise your plans. The closer you are to the influentialpeople the better for you.

TAURUS: “Money is the root of all evils” says an adage.And if care is not taken, money may set you and some otherpeople fiercely against each other to the detriment of yourcause. Be cautious.

GEMINI: Opposition between the Moon and Venus mayinduce personality clashes you don’t need at lest for now.What can help you now is love and your being persuasive.Think of the future.

CANCER: Positive events that started yesterday willcontinue today. Rely more on your ability to be as bold asnecessary so that you can get things done your own way atwork.

LEO: Romantic interlude that started late yesterday maybecome excitingly louder and melodious to the satisfactionof your soul.

VIRGO: If you allow domestic pressure to affect yourworking pattern, your senior colleagues may not understandand make things a bit more difficult. IF you’re stable, youwill have more to gain financially.

LIBRA: After snappy aggressive approach exhibited byyou yesterday ,you are back at your being pleasant self tothe admiration of others. This is the wrong time to take lawand it’s agents for granted. Young-at-heart are favoured soalso commercial activities.

SCORPIO: Some of you will wake up from slumber andrealise mistakes about your finances early enough andmake amendment but those who are reckless will commitmore blunder. Beware of joint venture.

Why constant frustration?Dear Joshua,Although I am a healthy person yet I want your Astrological

ex-ray about my star and tell me what to expect health-wiseand/or how to manage myself, career and financially. Rightnow I am in the Military as a Soldier.

Oshin, Lokoja.

Dear Oshin,Your parents must have gone through a few numbers of

troubled moment while trying to raise you as you have whatlooked like a dirty childhood from both health and otherareas of your life as indicated by opposition betweenconjoined planets across Pisces and Virgo when you wereborn

Luckily for you however, as your natal Moon strongly gotpositive aspect from Venus, Your survival is assured. Andthere are indications of better health for you as you out-growthe childhood problems.

Nonetheless what you will need to take seriously includeconstant worries, toothache, skin infection, headache(fever)lungs, stomach-ache, feet and sometimes the bones(dislocation). Nothing fatalistic about everything stated herebut mere warnings.

Yours is a rugged personality suitable for military career ofany type. And whenever you opt out of the military, it will bewise of you to give consideration to involvement with liquidrelated business especially the oil industry. The computerworld and essential needs of women. Actually dealing withwomen along your business line will prove most fortunatefor you.

Fish farming and other agro-allied can be favourable butbecause of your love of changes, you may not be able to seesuch through.

As your natal Moon got good aspects from comfortablyplaced Venus (another money related planet), financialsuccess is within your reach.

T-square aspects formed by your natal Sun/Saturn, Uranus/Pluto and Jupiter will bring delay related frustrations.Miscalculation and gambling like tendencies are otherthings capable of militating against your finance.

Financial success will eventually be earned by you but youwill need to embrace discipline nature in handling yourfinance.

Retrieve YourselfI guess you know

what the word‘Retrieve’ mean.This simply meansto get backsomething from theplace it is now,especially a place itought not to have

been.Many of us have

lost it all – ouridentity, our values,our self esteem, ourpersonality, ourvision, self worth

etc. If you have lostall of this what canyou do? Get backyour personality.Get back your self-esteem. Be the manor woman you aredestined to be. Be

the person you arecreated to be andunleash yourself onthe world.

Be the best Goddestined you to be.Retrieve yourselffrom whoever youhave subsumed itbefore.


UNILAGstudentsmake casefor Chibokgirls

ENUGU BUDGET: From left— Mr. Godson Nnadi, Commissioner for Finance and Economic Development; Mr.Kester Onyema Agbowo, Commissioner for Budget and Planning, and Mr. Louis Dilibe, Nigeria Union of Journalists, NUJ,Chairman (right), all of Enugu State, at a briefing on the state's 2014 budget break down.

BRIG-Gen BenAkpunonu, who died

on April 3, aged 63, will beburied on June 17 at his co-untry home in Ekwusigocouncil in Anambra State.

A wake-keep will hold inEnugu on June 17,followed by another one onJune 19 at the his home-town in Umuonwuka-Uruokpala, EgbemaOzubulu, in Ekwusigocouncil of the state.

Requiem mass is June 20at St. Joseph CatholicChurch in Ozubulu,followed by interment atAkpunonu’s. Next day isobsequies, while June 22is Outing Service at St.Joseph Catholic Church.

Burial

Alleged Akunyili would-beassassins mourn her death

LAGOS— A group,Campus Students

Community Project, hasappealed to BokoHaram insurgents torelease the over 200schoolgirls abducted inGovernment GirlsSecondary School,Chibok, Bornu State.

The group, made up oflaw students ofUniversity of Lagos,UNILAG, also feted nofewer than 500 less-privileged children atIlaje, in Bariga area ofLagos State as part ofevents to mark theChildren’s Daycelebration.

Speaking at the event,the General Coordinatorof the group, KodichiAnibogu, said theabduction of the Chibokgirls had put theirparents in very difficultsituations that mightaffect their health unlessthe girls wereimmediately released.

It called on theFederal Government toensure the release of thegirls as quickly aspossible to prevent themfrom beingindoctrinated by the sect.

BY ONOZURE DANIA

PROFESSOR Emeritus,Chukwuedo Nwokolo,

aged 93, is dead. He died onSunday, May 18, in New York,United States.

Born in 1921, ProfessorNwokolo was educated atGovernment’s College,Umuahia, between 1934 and1939 and proceeded to YabaHigher College, Lagos, wherehe studied between 1940 and1946.

After his high schooleducation in Nigeria,Nwokolo proceeded to theUnited Kingdom where heearned MRCP in Edinburgh,

Scotland, in 1953, the secondNigerian to achievedistinction in this area andbecame a fellow of RoyalCollege of Physicians,Edinburgh, in 1961.

The deceased has servedNigeria in many capacities,including chairmanship ofNational Institute of MedicalResearch (1971-1980); pro-chancellor and chair, AhmaduBello University, Zaria; andchair, University of CalabarTeaching Hospital, amongothers.

Burial arrangement is yet tobe announced by his family.

Professor Nwokolo dies at 93

ONITSHA— TWO suspects,Olisa Igbokwe and

Christopher Mba, awaiting trialin prison custody for allegedlyattempting to assassinate thelate former Director-General ofNational Agency for Food andDrug Administration andControl, NAFDAC, ProfessorDora Akunyili, in 2003, havejoined millions of Nigerians inmourning her death.

This came as Conference ofNigerian Political Parties, CNPP,Anambra State chapter,yesterday joined in mourninglate Akunyili.

The accused personsconveyed their condolences tothe Akunyili family from theirprison custody yesterday, whenMr. Okemonwu Akuma,Chairman of Anambra Statechapter of Nkporo YouthsAssociation, Ohafia, Abia State,of which one of the suspects,Igbokwe, is an indigene, visitedthem in the custody.

They noted that although theywere being falsely accused anddetained, they were stillexpressing dissatisfaction withher untimely exit, even as theyrecalled that the late Akunyilihad told them that she wasblaming the court for theirincarceration in jail, and thatjustice delayed was justicedenied.

Also contributing, theNational President of thegroup, Chief Arunsi I Uka, incorroborating what Akumasaid, recalled that when wivesof the accused once visitedAkunyili before her death andpleaded with her to allow thecourt release Igbokwe toenable him bury his latemother, Akunyili told themthat she was not in a positionto grant such a request.

It would be recalled thaton December 26, 2003,gunmen rained bullets onAkunyili in an attempt toassassinate her when shevisited her home town,Agulu, Anaocha LocalGovernment Area ofAnambra State.

She escaped death by thewhiskers as the bulletspierced through her headtie. She was then Director-General of NAFDAC.

Consequently, Mba andIgbokwe were arrested and

charged to court alongsidethree other suspects, but aftera year trial, the matter wasstruck out and all the suspectsdischarged. However,Akunyili appealed againsttheir discharge and Mba andIgbokwe were re-arrested.

CNPP mournsSimilarly, the CNPP in a

statement by its stateChairman and Secretary, ObyOkafor and Peter Okala,respectively, in Onitsha,yesterday, described her

sudden death as a great lossto all the political parties inthe country, Anambra Stateand Nigeria in general.

CNPP further stated thather resourcefulness waswhat the present daygovernment of AnambraState would have needed tofast-track development.

It extended its condolencesto the people and govern-ment of Anambra State, thebereaved Akunyili familyand the All ProgressivesGrand Alliance, APGA.

BY NWABUEZE OKONKWO

Physically-challenged in S'Eastdemand elective, appointive quota

UMUAHIA—PERSONSwith disability, PWDs, in

the South-East have calledon the governments in thezone to allocate elective andappointive quota to them asa way of integrating theminto the larger society.

They called on all PWDsand their wards to registerwith Independent NationalElectoral Commission,INEC, for the 2015 andsubsequent elections, sayingtheir number could make abig difference.

They said that participatingactively in the electionprocess would help to bettertheir lots.

Speaking under the aegisof Ohanaeze DisabilityForum, ODF, the South-Eastdisabled also condemned theBoko Haram insurgence inparts of the country andabduction of the over 200Chibok schoolgirls.

In a statement issued after

the inauguration of the forum,the group called on South-Eaststates to “facilitate the passageof the disability bill thatprotects the rights of PWDs ashas been done in some states.”

The group also urgedgovernments “to discouragestreet begging and other vices

amongst PWDs througheffective employment andempowerment schemes.”

It also implored thegovernments to put in placea comprehensive scholarshipscheme and accessible schoolenvironment for disabledstudents at all levels.

BY ANAYO OKOLI


08102479985 By Bartholomew Madukwe([email protected])PEOPLE SPEAK

Professor Dora Akunyili

A'Ibom council pensioners protestnon-payment of entitlements

‘Nigerialoses$2.5bn togas flaringannually’

GOD’S ways are notour ways; neither

are His thoughts likeours. That is the onlyway I can understand theexit of Professor DoraAkinyuli. May her soul,through the Mercy ofGod, rest in perfectpeace. Amen.— Ms.Awodi Deborah,Broadcaster.

WHO am I toquestion the Lord?

If I had the power, hertypes would haveforever received myvotes for any office.With her type around,one is sure that thesuffering of my peoplewould have drasticallyreduced.— Mr. Musta-pha Alero, Carpenter.

THIS great icon meritsa state burial. She

loved Nigeria till the endand spent her life for thecountry. Nigerians willnever forget you. MayGod reward you witheternal life for the manylives you saved fightingthe fake drug dealers.—Ms Vivian Pretty,Worker.

THERE are very fewpeople in the world

with the juice to make apositive change in anygiven dimension withany given opportunity.Professor Dora NkemAkunyili was one ofsuch extraordinarypeople in Nigeria.— Mr.Dozie Adichie,Entertainer.

Dora is the reason wehave over 150 millionNigerians alive today.Imagine the millions ofpeople that might havedied from using or beingadministered fakedrugs. These fake drugskill instantly and ininstallment.— Mr.Darlington Okie,Student.

A great woman ofsubstance has

passed on. It is such apity; the people of worthare passing while theworthless ones aregaining ground. Anyway,we love and appreciateyou, and your legacy willlive forever in ourhearts.— Ms. AniChioma, Model.

PORT HARCOURT—F E D E R A L

Government has beenurged to enforceexisting laws in thecountry to save thenation the loss it suffersfrom gas flaring,estimated at $2.5 billionannually.

National Coordinator,National Coalition onGas Flaring and OilSpills in the Niger Delta,NACGOND, Rev FatherEdward Obi, who spokein Port Harcourt, RiversState, at the end of aprogramme to mark theWorld EnvironmentProtection and ControlDay, said that thecountry loses about $2.5billion in potentialrevenue annually fromgas flaring.

He said: “168 billioncubic metres of naturalgas is flared worldwidewith 13 percent of thisfigure in Nigeria.”

In a related event,Managing Director,Niger DeltaD e v e l o p m e n tCommission, NDDC,Mr. Bassey Dan-Abia,has described the UnitedNations EnvironmentProgramme’s slogan forthis year ’s WorldEnvironment Day, Raiseyour voice not the sealevel, as apt, adding thatit would stimulatepositive responsetowards addressingissues of pollution andclimate change.

BY JIMITOTAONOYUME

UYO— LOCALg o v e r n m e n t

pensioners in Akwa IbomState, yesterday, protested atthe state Government House,Uyo, the non-payment oftheir entitlements, includingpensions and gratuities.

The council retirees, underthe aegis of Nigerian Unionof Pensioners, NUP,lamented that many of theirmembers had died ofstarvation and otherailments occasioned by thenon-payment of theirterminal benefits many yearsafter their retirement fromservice.

They said those thatsurvived the hardship couldhardly take care of theirdomestic responsibilities.

NUP branch Chairman,Mr. Effanga Ettah, whospoke during the protest,said: “Gratuity has not beenpaid to us, but it has beenpaid to state workers.

Alleged discrimination“If anybody in the state civil

service retires by June, at theend of the month, he willreceive his gratuity on time,followed by pension arrears.But ours is different.

“There are pensioners whoat the end of the month arebeing paid N500. Some of uswho retired since 2009 havenot collected our gratuitiesand we are suffering.

“More than 80 percent ofour members have not beenpaid their entitlements since2010 and there are also manycases from 2005 to 2009. Itis also on record that somemoney approved for themonthly payment ofpensions have stagnated inthe past five years.”

Govt begs for timeSpeaking on behalf

Governor Akpabio, the Secre-tary to the State Government,Mr. Udom Emmanuel, said hewas aware of the plights of thelocal government pensionersand promised to work with thecommittee set up by the state

governor to harmonise thepensions and gratuities ofcivil servants who retiredfrom both the state andcouncils.

According to him, thegovernment needed to taketime to work with thecommittee to address the

issues and also guarantee thatthey were not underpaid inanyway.

He pleaded with them to bepatient with the process as itwas going to benefit everypensioner in the state, whetherfrom the state or localgovernment.

BY TOM MOSES

NISA tasks TransportMinister on national carrier

NIGERIAN Ship Owners’Association, NISA, has

urged the Minister ofTransport, Senator Idris Umarto pursue with vigour, a recentdirective from PresidentGoodluck Jonathan in respectof the nation’s urgent need fora national carrier.

NISA chairman, Chief IsaacJolapamo, in a chat at hisoffice, noted that PresidentJonathan’s directive, if strictlyadhered to, was capable ofcreating genuine employmentopportunities for Nigerians.

He said: “We have the size,maritime endowment andexpertise to run a thrivingshipping business. The issueof a national carrier issomething that allstakeholders should pursuewith vigor through a PublicPrivate Partnership, PPParrangement.”

Chief Jolapamo noted that ifit appeared as if the goalwould be achieved, theauthorities saddled with theresponsibility would introducea new hurdle, which wouldrequire that the entire processbe dismantled in a bid tosurmount the new hurdle.

President Jonathan,

according to NigerianMaritime Administration andSafety Agency, NIMASA,Director-General, PatrickAkpobolokemi, had taskedthe agency to mid-wife anational carrier as soon aspossible.

Akpobolokemi, whodisclosed this during aworkshop on PPP strategy

for infrastructuraldevelopment andmodernisation in theNigerian maritime sector,organised by NIMASA incollaboration with theInfrastructure ConcessionRegulation Commission,ICRC, in Lagos, said that thePresident was serious inrespect of the directive.

BY IFEYINWA OBI

RETIRED army generalsfrom the North have been

urged to join PresidentGoodluck Jonathan to endterrorism in the country.

The Niger Delta IndigenousMovement for RadicalChange, NDIMRC, whichmade the appeal, also saidthat a prominent northernmonarch, the northerngovernors and ex-militarygenerals cannot stop the re-election bid of PresidentJonathan in 2015.

A statement by its President,Nelly Emma, called on theNorth to forget the Presidencytill 2027 and vowed to cut oilsupply to the North shouldleaders from the region

‘North should join waragainst terrorism’

continue to oppose the re-election of Jonathan in 2015by using Boko Haram to causemayhem, especially in theNorthern part of the country.

The statement said: “We wantthe monarch to know that weare aware of his game planswith some governors and ex-military generals from theNorth to frustrate the re-election of Jonathan in 2015.

“We want him and his co-travellers to take this as awarning that we will resist anyattempt by them to stop thePresident in 2015.

“The issue of the re-electionbid of Jonathan in 2015 issealed, signed and deliveredby God.”


You can produce Edo's next gov,Ogbemudia tells Ijaw community

BY SIMON EBEGBULEM

Ijaw studentspledgesupport forMutu

Kidnap of 90-yr-old Bayelsa Speaker’smother-in-law barbaric —Zipamone

DESOPADECcommissionstwo blocks ofclassrooms inUkwani LG

Appeal Courtrules againstBenin-basedtransporter

BY GABRIELENOGHOLASE

BENIN—FORMER gover-nor of old Bendel State,

Dr. Samuel Ogbemudia, hassaid that the Ijaws in Edo Statestand the chance of producingthe governor of the state in2016, if they work in harmonywith other ethnic groups.

This came as some leadersfrom Edo North senatorial dis-trict, under the aegis of EdoMass Movement, expressedtheir support for the moves byDr. Ogbemudia to find a credi-ble successor to Governor Ad-ams Oshiomhole in 2016. Theydeclared their support in Afuze,

Owan East Local Govern-ment Area of the state.

Addressing Ijaw leadersand hundreds of youths inGelegele community, Dr.Ogbemudia said the Ijawsof Edo State have all ittakes to produce the nextgovernor of the state. He,therefor, urged them not todistance themselves fromother ethnic groups in thestate so that they can havepolitical allies from otherareas.

He said: “I want to tell youthat I see the Ijaw peopleas part and parcel of thestate and therefore, we can’t

do without them. I need totell you that I know, Godspearing my life, I will seea South senatorial man orwoman, an Ijaw extraction,being the governor of thisstate. So, the foundation thatI have come to lay is for usto work together so that thisdream can come true. TheIjaw, as they are in EdoState, can’t produce a gov-ernor in the state without thehelp of others. Benin peoplecan’t, Esan can’t, Etsakocan’t. Therefore, for them tobe able to push the cannonforward, the engine must beintact."

WARRI—THE kidnap ofMadam Ogboro Dark,

mother-in-law of the Speaker ofBayelsa State House of Assem-bly, Mr Kombowei Benson, hasbeen condemned by the Man-aging Director and Chief Exec-utive of a Yenagoa-based con-struction company, AndersonZipamone Construction Com-pany, AZCC, Mr. Anderson Zi-pamone.

Reacting to the abduction ofthe nonagenarian at her Seibiricompound, Korokorosei, inSouthern Ijaw Local Govern-ment Area of the state, he said:“Kidnapping a 90-year-oldwoman suggests that the crim-inals are sub-humans needingrehabilitation in a civilised so-ciety,” adding that it was bar-baric.

Zipamone added that “theaction clearly shows abso-lute disrespect for old age.It is unfortunate that oldage has become a target forkidnappers. It is regretta-ble.”

Describing same as a cov-ert attempt to distract thelawmaker, Zipamone saidthat the Speaker was a fo-cused leader, whose lead-ership in the House of As-sembly had been remarka-ble through quality laws toimprove the state and attaingreater heights. He advisedthe Speaker not to be de-terred by the incident andsteer the leadership of theHouse with firm convictionto the admiration of his de-tractors.

“The Speaker should re-main undaunted. He shouldconcentrate and commit hisunfading attention to thegood of the state,” he add-ed.

Zipamone who demandedthe unconditional release ofthe Speaker’s mother-in-law,tasked security agents in thestate to ensure the timely re-lease of the frail nonagenar-ian to reunite with her fam-ily, just as he enjoined eve-ry Bayelsan to pray for hersafe and early release.

He wondered why theSpeaker ’s family has be-come an easy target in thestate, recalling the abduc-tion of his 76-year-old bio-logical mother, Betinah Ben-son, on January 14, 2013 bya gang of armed bandits.

BENIN—THE Courtof Appeal sitting in

Benin, Edo State, has dis-missed the appeal by aBenin-based transporter,Chief Godwin Edosa,against the judgment of thelower court which had ear-lier entered judgmentagainst him over the own-ership of Plots 20B and 20CDawson Lane, Benin City.

Chief Edosa was allegedto have purchased theaforementioned property in2004 from one Mrs. Mar-garet Ehimwenma, themother of the 1st defend-ant, Eguagie Ehimwenma,who resides in America andwho, along with EnomaEhimwenma, 2nd respond-ent had inherited the sameproperty from their father inaccordance with Bini nativelaw and custom.

The lower court presidedover by Justice E. Ahamio-je, had entered judgmentin favour of the respond-ents and substantiallygranted their reliefs anddismissed the counter claimof the appellant.

However, the appellantlodged an appeal before theAppeal Court, urging it todetermine whether thelearned trial judge wasright in his judgment."

Presiding judge of theappellate court, JusticeHelen Ogunwumiju, in thelead judgment, resolvedthe issues raised by theappellant in favour of therespondents.

Uwangue ofWarri passeson at 103

THE Uwangue ofWarri Kingdom,

Chief Bernard Otuedon-Okome has joined his An-cestors, at the age of 103.

Second in the hierarchyof chiefs of the WarriKingdom, Chief Otuedon-Okome was conferredwith the Uwangue of War-ri title by the then Olu ofWarri, Ogiame, ErejuwaII in 1986, after his pred-ecessor, Chief OgbemiRewane.

Late Chief Otuedon-Okome

THE National Unionof Ijaw Students,

NUIS, has expressed itssupport for House of Rep-resentatives member rep-resenting Bomadi/Patanifederal constituency, Mr.Nicholas Mutu, urginghim to re-contest for theposition.

NUIS, in a statement byits ex-President , AwipiPeibulou, said that the fed-eral lawmaker has an en-viable track record in theprovision of scholarshipfor indigent students insecondary and higher in-stitutions as well as infra-structural developmentspread across Bomadi-Patani Local GovernmentAreas of Delta State.

Peibulou noted that asthe House CommitteeChairman on Niger Del-ta Development Commis-sion, NDDC, Mutu dem-onstrated zero tolerancefor abandoned projects, byprevailing on the commis-sion and contractors not toneglect any project in theNiger Delta region.

DELTA State Oil Producing Areas De-

velopment Commission,DESOPADEC, has com-missioned two blocks ofsix classrooms at Eziok-por Mixed SecondarySchool and Umuebu Sec-ondary School, both inUkwani Local Govern-ment Area of the state.

Speaking during thecommissioning, the com-missioner representingNdokwa nation on theboard of DESOPADEC,Sir Ken Okolugbo, saidthe projects were part ofthe commission’s effort toboost the standard of ed-ucation in oil producingcommunities of the state.

Charging the schools totake advantage of theconducive learning envi-ronment being put inplace by government toimpact positively of thestudents, he called onNdokwa people to con-tinue to support the stategovernment to enable itdo more for them.

AGM/BUSINESS FORUM: From left: Mr. Victor Okoronkwo, General Manager, UpstreamGas, Shell Petrolum Development Company of Nigeria Limited; Mr. Bolaji Osunsanya,1stVice President, Nigerian Gas Association/CEO Oando Gas and Power; Mr. Saidu Moham-med, President, Nigerian Gas Association/MD KRPC and Mr. Abdullahi Sule, Deputy GroupManaging Director, Dangote Suger Refinery Plc/guest speaker, at the 15th Annual GeneralMeeting and Business Forum of Nigerian Gas Association, in Lagos. Photo: Akeem Salau.


Agencyprocures3.2 millionnets inBauchi

Presidency convenes summiton June 12A summit of all the polit

ical parties registered inNigeria and other stakehold-ers tagged the “All Nigeria Po-litical Parties and PoliticalStakeholders Summit” will beheld on June 12, 2014 at theInternational conference Cen-tre, Abuja to commemorate theannulled June 12 1993 election

This year ’s anniversary,jointly convened by the Officeof the National Security Advis-er to Mr President and theOffice of the Special Adviserto Mr President on Inter-PartyAffairs, will be chaired by theformer Head of State, GeneralAbdulsalami Abubakar.

The Summit will attract lead-ing Nigerian political stake-holders, civil society organiza-tions and members of the dip-lomatic community, and will bedeclared open by PresidentGoodluck Ebele Jonathan.

Justifying the summit, ChiefBen Obi, Special Adviser to thePresident on Inter-Party Af-fairs, said at a press briefingin Abuja that “while Niger-ia’s Fourth Democratic Repub-lic has witnessed unbrokenpolitical transitions and powersuccessions from 1999, thereare still very powerful anti-dem-ocratic forces operating in thepolitical system that are everready to exploit lapses in themanagement of the politicaland electoral processes to wagea bitter struggle against thedemocratic state. The BokoHaram terrorist insurgency isone such detestable force.

He continued: “At the heartof inter-party conversation isthe building of inter-party con-sensus through institutionaland informal collaboration. Ifthe collaboration between ex-isting political parties is suffi-ciently reinforced, the nation-al political climate will wear apositive outlook, social stabili-ty will be guaranteed, nation-al security will be deepenedand democratic consolidationwill be effectuated”.

He decried the “current na-tional political outlook with itslow level of inter-party collab-oration, the unchecked con-duct, behaviour and utteranc-es of leading politicians, at

home and abroad, whichspread unnecessary tension inthe country, stoking the embersof discord, bitterness and ran-cour, and obviously playinginto the hands of extremist el-ements that are waging a vi-cious terror war against the Ni-gerian state. If these enemiesperceive the political class tobe in disarray it will furtherembolden them in the crimesthey are daily committingagainst the Nigerian people”.

The summit will help the politi-cal parties to close ranks to safe-guard the nation’s democratic in-frastructure even as they pursuetheir separate governance visionand compete for power in ahealthy, decent and civilized man-ner, chief Obi said. It will also en-hance collaboration among Nige-rian political parties and politi-cians, reinforce the key ingredi-ents in the code of conduct of po-litical behaviour and re-commitNigerian political parties to its sa-lient norms. In addition, it willhelp to emphasize the role of po-litical parties in enabling the con-dition for social stability, nationalsecurity and democratic consoli-dation while highlighting the neg-ative consequences of the politicsof bitterness, rancour, mud-sling-ing and unnecessary bellicosity tothe political, economic and socialwell-being of the nation, chief Ben-Obi said.

Obi said that that all politicalparties should appreciate that theyare key national patriotic stake-holders, either in government orin opposition, and should be gen-uinely committed to the success ofthe Nigerian project, and so mustensure free, fair, transparent andviolence-free general elections in2015. He called on politicians toembrace Alh. Ibrahim Waziri, theleader of the Great Nigeria Peo-ples Party’s philosophy of “Poli-tics without bitterness.”

In conclusion, he said: “ThisSummit is a product of deep andintense consultation with Niger-ia’s leading political parties and Iam proud to state that it enjoys thesupport of the nation’s two lead-ing political parties, the People’sDemocratic Party (PDP) and theAll Progressives Congress (APC)as well as the endorsement of thenation’s political stakeholders”.

‘Ajaokuta, other steelfirms key to Nigeria'seconomy'

Civil society groups petition Jonathan over Boko Haram

Gov Yari's tenure, a disaster — APGASCRIBE

Vincentianshold reatreat

BAUCHI—THE Bauchi Agency for the Con-

trol of HIV/AIDs, Tubercu-losis, Leprosy and Malar-ia, BACATMA, says it hasconcluded arrangementsfor the distribution of 3.2million Long Lasting Mos-quito Nets, LLMN, in thestate. The Chairman of theagency, Dr AbdulazizManga, made the disclo-sure on Tuesday in an in-terview with the NewsAgency of Nigeria, NAN,in Bauchi. He said that a committeehad been set up to map outmodalities on the distribu-t i o n . According to him, 60 su-pervisors have been trainedfor the exercise. “The nets are already inBauchi and very soon, wewill start the distribution.

LOKOJA—THE Federal Government has said that the re-

vitalization of Ajaokuta SteelCompany, and other steel com-panies in the country was para-mount for the expected revolutionin the nation’s economy. The Minister of Power and SteelDevelopment, Alhaji Musa Mu-hammed and his counterpart inthe Ministry of Trade and Indus-try, Olusegun Agaga made thisknown yesterday during a facili-ty tour of the Ajaokuta Steel com-p l e x . Aganga said contrary to someinsinuations, the Ajaokuta Steelplant was not obsolete, adding thatit was an asset towards the indus-trial revolution of the country.

”Ajaokuta has become more im-portant today than before, be-cause it will now move the coun-try in a new direction. The Presi-dent launched industrial revolu-tion drive of the country in Feb-ruary and there is no way you canrevolutionize your industry with-out a wider steel industry andAjaokuta provides an answer tothat,” he said. He assured that the govern-ment would provide an enablingenvironment for the private sec-tors to drive the economy and alsomaximize the potential of Ajaoku-ta Steel for the benefit of the na-t i o n . On his own, the Minister of Pow-er and Steel, Musa Muhammedsaid it had become necessary torevive Ajaokuta Steel in view ofits strategic importance to the na-tion’s economy.

A civil society group, So ciety for Civil Liberties

and the Rule of Law, Intersoci-ety, said that 1,296 Nigerianswere killed by Boko Haram in-surgents in 66 days, betweenApril 1, and June 5, 2014. Intersociety in a petition byits chairman, Mr EmekaUmeagbalasi to PresidentGoodluck Jonathan, said “Be-tween April 1, and June 5, 2014,a period of 66 days, at least, 1,296 Nigerians including a firstclass Emir have been killed by

Boko Haram violent sect. “The recorded April 1, andJune 5, 2014 Boko Haramkillings are: April 10, 60killed in Kala Balge, sameday, eight killed in Dikwa,April 14, 71 killed in NyanyaPark bombing, Abuja, May 1,19 killed in second NyanyaPark bombing, May 5, over300 killed in Gamboru Ngalain Borno, May 8, 4 killed inKano, May 20, 118 killed inJos, May 21, 25 killed inC h i k o n g u d o . “Others are: May 25, 54killed in Yobe and Borno

States, May 26, 20 killed inKamuyya Village in Biu LGA,Borno State; May 26, 21 killedin Waga Village in MadagaliLGA, Adamawa State; May 27,14 soldiers, 11 policemen and10 civilians killed in Buni Yadiin Gujba LGA, Yobe State andChinene Village in GwozaLGA, Borno State. “The Boko Haram terror secthad in recent months gone bymassacred between 55 and 59boy-students of the Federal Gov-ernment College, Buni Yadi inGujba LGA of Yobe State, whowere asleep in their dormitories.

BY BOLUWAJI OBAHOPO

BY INNOCENT ANABA

BRIEFING: From right: Idowu Olusile, Head, Policy Research and Communication, PRC,Computer Professionals Registration Council of Nigeria, CPRCN; Alhaja Sekinat Yusuf, Chair-man of Council, CPRCN; Mr. Sikiru Shehu, CPRCN Registrar and Ibrahim A.I, Director, Tech-nical, CPRCN, in a press conference on Monday to announce details of 2014 IT Assembly.

GUSAU—FACTIONAL Na tional Secretary of the All

Progressives Grand Alliance,APGA, Alhaji Sani AbdullahiShinkafi has described the three-year administration of GovernorAbdulAziz Abubakar Yari in Zam-fara State as a disaster.

Shinkafi who spoke in interviewwith Vanguard at the party’s statesecretariat in Gusau, said that thishad always made him shed tearsfor the state. ’’Whe we voted for him in 2011the people were yearning for achange. They thought thechange will be for service to hu-manity but what they are gettingnow is great failure in the con-duct of the government business.He is a complete disaster. “When I look at the conduct ofgovernment business in ZamfaraState, I shed tears. Once you areelected into office and you havea principal officer or a pay mas-ter, somebody who will stand and

say he is a godfather, dictatingthe affairs of the government, thenI am sorry, such government isbound to fail. “It's unfortunate that the presentgovernment cannot account forall monies it has so far collectedfrom the federation accounts sinceinception in 2011,” he said.

BY SALISU MARADUN

VINCENTIAN Retreat Centre, 1, De

Paul Close, Yakoyo, Ojodu,Lagos will commence itsmonthly three-day retreattomorrow by 5.00pm.

The event with the theme,Come Let’s Praise the Lord,will feature P-Bright andother established gospelartists.

It will end on Friday,June 13, with a vigil start-ing by 10.00pm and willinclude stations of the cross,adoration and mass.

It will be hosted by RevFather Jude Dimonyek-were and Rev FatherSamuel Umanna.


Southern Kaduna indigenes accuseSenator of poor representation

BY LUKA BINNIYAT

KADUNA — CONCERNEDindigenes of Southern

Kaduna have accused SenatorNenadi Usman of poor represen-tation in the Senate.

They spoke against the back-ground of last week’s donation of325 motorcycles, 100 tricycles, 35cars and other gifts estimated atover N200 million to local support-ers of the Peoples Democratic Party,PDP, from the zone at Kafanchan,Jema’a Local Government Area ofKaduna State.

Speaking at a news conferencein Kaduna, yesterday, spokesmanfor the group, Dr. John Fulani,said: “In the face of the destruc-tion of lives and property by in-vaders in Southern Kaduna since2011, Senator Usman has not hadthe courage to stand up on the floorof the Senate to make a strong casefor her constituents. She has failedto call the attention of the federal

authorities to the plight of thewounded, the displaced and thetraumatised.

“We do not know her stand onthe bill on grazing reserves, whichSouthern Kaduna so vehementlyopposes because she does notwant to offend certain people.

“The Senator did not tell uswhere she stood on the girl-childmarriage controversy, and sheknows that Southern Kaduna willnever support the marriage ofminors.

“We want to add that it is not amatter of bringing Keke NAPEP(tricycles) to deceive delegates tothe forthcoming senatorial prima-ries in Southern Kaduna at thistime. She has been unable to at-tract any federal project to South-ern Kaduna or influence the main-tenance of, for example, the di-lapidated federal roads that passthrough Southern Kaduna.

“She has never held any townhall meeting in Southern Kaduna

since she became senator. Rep-resentation is not just to comearound few months to electionwith gifts. This is nothing but aGreek gift. It is an insult to thinkthat our delegate can be boughtso cheaply.

“We want to know the numberof bills she has sponsored thatdirectly affect Southern Kadunapeople and the area positively."

Attempts by Vanguard to getcomments from Senator Usmanyesterday proved abortive as sheneither picked her calls nor re-sponded to a text message sentto her on the issue, but one ofher aides who spoke on condi-tion of anonymity said thosecriticizsing the Senator werejealous of her track record onpoverty alleviation in SouthernKaduna.

“If you follow her performancewell, she has addressed whatthey are accusing her of not do-ing," she said.

LG boss denies Boko Haram attack in DikwaBY NDAHI MARAMA

MAIDUGURI — THE Caretaker Chairman of Dikwa

Local Government Area in BornoState, Alhaji Ali Modu Gana, hasexpressed disappointment overreports by a section of of the me-dia, yesterday that "some BokoHaram terrorists invaded the lo-cal government Monday and setablaze the council secretariat af-ter chasing away security opera-tives deployed to the area."

According to Gana, “there wasno Boko Haram attack in Dikwaas carelessly and unprofessionallyreported,’’ pointing out that "thereport are baseless, unfounded,untrue and aimed at misleadingthe public and giving terroristscheap publicity.”

He explained that what actually

happened in Dikwa on Mondaywas that there was an explosioncaused by faulty solar street lightbatteries that led to panic by someresidents and not an attack in anyway.

The chairman, who spoke tonewsmen in Maiduguri, said thereports were contained in theHausa Service of some broadcastorganisations.

Gana further said it was not truethat he spoke or confirmed the re-port to anybody or journalist inan interview as reported.

He said: "I did not say that themilitary and other security opera-tives ran away when the terror-ists invaded Dikwa before settingthe council secretariat ablaze, be-cause there was nowhere in thecouncil where the insurgents at-tacked as was widely reported.

"It is amazing that people could

concoct a story that did not ex-ist/happen. It shows how mem-bers of the public are being mis-led, misinformed and mis-guided.

”I was in Dikwa throughoutMonday. I even sworn in all theappointed ward councillorspeacefully, but all of a sudden,people started calling me on thetelephone yesterday morning tosympathize with me that BokoHaram attacked my town. It isunfortunate.

”In as much as the constitu-tion guarantees freedom ofspeech and expression, suchfreedom must not be misused togive Boko Haram cheap public-ity.”

He, therefore, urged the me-dia to always verify their infor-mation before going to press toavoid misleading their audi-ence.

MTNsponsored-pilgrimsreturn fromJerusalem

BY OLAYINKALATONA

LAGOS — THE over 20pilgrims sponsored by

the leading ICT and tel-ecommunications com-pany, MTN, have arrivedthe country, after a spir-itual uplifting and life en-riching experience in theholy land of Jerusalem.

The pilgrims, who camewith a high sense of spir-itual fulfillment, had theopportunity of visitingplaces they only read inthe Holy Bible prior to thisawesome experience.Some of the places visitedincluded the Mangerwhere Jesus was born,Nazareth, Mount of Ol-ives, Mount of Calvary,River Jordan, the Tomb ofJesus, the Wailing Wall,Garden of Gethsemane,St. Peter’s Church, MountTabor, Mount Nebo, Jeri-cho and the Sea ofGalilee.

The General Manager,Consumer Marketing,MTN Nigeria, KolaOyeyemi explained thatthe strategic focus for thisinitiative was to show sup-port to MTN Christian sub-scribers.

“We are committed to thetotal well-being of our cus-tomers as we drive to maketheir lives brighter throughour propositions, productsand value-added services.This is one of such initia-tives aimed at uplifting andencouraging our subscrib-ers to get closer to God

One of the beneficiaries,Tunde Akinnoye, a BibleStudy Teacher, told journal-ists that the journey wasuplifting and fulfilling, not-ing: “As a Sunday Schoolteacher, reading the Biblesometimes appears distantas one is not familiar withparticular scenarios in it.But now, I have directknowledge of these placesand this has really en-hanced my faith and mademe a better Christian. ThisI would surely share withmy family and friends.”

Another pilgrim, BlessingAmadi spoke on how thejourney will shape her spir-itual life. According to her,“it has started. There arecertain issues concerningmy spiritual life that I hadwanted to reconcile withGod. When we went to theWailing Wall, I cried andprayed there, I felt God re-storing me. Spiritually, it’sgoing to lift me up.”

Wamakkowantspartnershipwith Indian govton health

SOKOTO — GOVERNORAliyu Wamakko of Sokoto

State has called for partner-ship with the Indian govern-ment to establish Faculty ofHealth at the state-owneduniversity, to train manpowerin the health sector.

The governor made the callon Monday in Sokoto whenMr GhanashylAjjarnpurrangaiah, the IndianHigh Commissioner to Ni-geria, paid him a courtesy call.

He said that if established,the proposed faculty wouldtrain students in medicine andpharmacy to operate the vari-ous health institutions in thestate.

He said his governmenthad taken measures to estab-lish a science university totrain students in science sub-jects.

Earlier the High Commis-sioner had informed the gov-ernor that India had com-pleted arrangement to estab-lish hospitals in Sokoto Stateto address the healthcareneeds of the people.

“We will continue to assistthe government in its effortsto provide qualitative and ef-fective healthcare services tothe people by establishinghospitals in the state,” he said.

He said that the Indian gov-ernment had also completedarrangement to operate directflight from Nigeria to reducethe air fares being paid by Ni-gerians seeking medical at-tention in India.

DEFECTION: Ourdoors are openfor returnees—Plateau PDP

JOS — THE Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in Plateau,

yesterday, said that its doorswere wide open for those thatleft the party but interested inreturning to the party.

Mr Haruna Dabin, PlateauChairman of the party said thisin an interview with the NewsAgency of Nigeria, NAN, inPankshin.

According to him, the partyleadership in the state wasaware that so many card-car-rying members, who left theparty, were very much inter-ested in returning.

He expressed delight on thedevelopment saying: “We inPDP have decided to throw ourdoors open for those interestedin coming back to the largestparty in Africa.

"What we expect thereturnees to do is to first go totheir wards and register afreshso that they can be givenmembership cards."

VISIT: From left: President, Association of Advertising Agencies of Nigeria (AAAN), Mrs.Bunmi Oke; Prof. Attahiru Jega, Chairman, Independent national Electoral Commission,INEC and Registrar/CEO, Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria (APCON), Alhaji BelloKankarofi, during a visit of AAAN and APCON excutives to INEC office, in Abuja.


SESSION: Governor Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa State (middle), with beneficiariesof the state's scholarship scheme in UK Universities, after an interactive sessionwith them in London. Photo: Bayelsa Government

WORKSHOP: Mr. Austin Ntor-Ue, Director, MDAs/Tax Offices, River StateBoard of Internal Revenue, Prince Welekwe, Director, Other Taxes, RSBIR,Omoefe Siakpere, Chief Operating Officer, FLOBAL Trust Limited, Warri,Delta State, and Mr. Israel Egbunefu, Director, Corporate Taxes River StateBoard of Internal Revenue, during the workshop on Secure Future, organisedby FLOBAL Trust in collaboration with Klass and Korporate for RSBIR.

REOPENING: From left: Hon. Wasiu Odeyemi, representative of Oluof Epe, Otun Seriki of Epe Kingdom, Oloye Kadiri Odedeogboro, andthe sponsor, Senator 'Gbenga Ashafa, during the reopening of therenovated Bado-Isale laundry house, at Epe, Lagos.

CONFERENCE: Delegates at Lagos edition of Women in Government andPolitics conference in Lagos.

From left: Comrade Popoola Ajayi, Coordinatior, CivilSociety Coalition for Mandate Protection, ComradeKehinde Adegbuyi, Secretary and Comrade DeboAdeniran, Convener, Coalition Against CorruptLeaders, at the public presentation of the result of thesurvey on good governance in Ekiti State, in Lagos,yesterday.

From left: Mr. Joseph Okonmah,Chairman, NIPR, Lagos State chapter,Mr. Banji Adeleye,MD, Addefort Ltd, Mr. Akeem Bello, Senior SpecialAssistant, Media], to Governor of Lagos State, and Mr. Akin Akinniyi,Head,Press & PR, Lagos State Judiciary Sevice Commission, during the 8th dayFidau Prayer for the late DG of LASRAB, Alhaji Rafiu Uthman in Lagos.

HONOUR: Senator Ben Obi (left) and PrincessStella Oduah, OON, at the Ogbaru grand receptionand award in honour of Princess Oduah as a formerMinister of Avation.

COMMISSIONING: From left: General Overseer of Destiny ChapelInternational, Bishop Cletus Bassey, Chairman/CEO, Planet Radio 101.1 FM,Anthony Afia, Deputy Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Lady Valerie Ebe, MrsIdara Afia, Secretary to the Akwa Ibom State Government, SSG, Mr. UdomEmmanuel, and Director General, National Broadcasting Commission, NBC,Mr. Emeka Mba, during the official commissioning of the radio station atIbiaku Uruan, Akwa Ibom State.

AWARD: Dr. Any Binta Shumbushe, ProjectSmiles Initiator (3rd left) and some of thecontestants, at the award ceremony for the winnersof Free Smile Make Over contest in Lagos. PhotoLamidi Bamidele



2015: Gov Shettima denies BokoHaram was set up to stop Jonathan

Police barricade Lagos State House of Assembly road, to deny protesting Lagos StateUniversity LASU students access to Lagos House, yesterday. Photo: BunmiAzeez

BY LUKA BINNIYAT

KADUNA—BORNO State governor,Alhaji Kashim Shettima, yesterday,

denied allegations that the north set upBoko Haram to stop a southern presidentor President Goodluck Jonathan from con-testing the 2015 general elections.Shettima also said that the utterances ofthe Minister of Information, Labaran Makuon Boko Haram showed that he was "blind"to issues about the sect, wondering how aminister who does not ungerstand an is-sue could educate other Nigerians on howthe end the insurgency.

He spoke at a two day conference onsecurity and human rights organised bythe Centre for Historical Documentationand Research, Ahmadu Bello University,ABU, Zaria.

Shetima also said that the Borno Stategovernment has spent over N10 billion ascounterpart fund in managing the violencesince the insurgency began before his ad-ministration. His words, “No one mightever know the extent he might have in-flicted his understanding of the BokoHaram on Service Chiefs he has workedwith. If Boko Haram succeeds in overrun-ning the North East as they seek, they willsurely want to extend greater havoc to otherparts of the north and if they overrun thenorth, they would want to move to thesouth. Crisis of any type has got a life of itsown which depend on something for sur-vival.

“As humans, we depend on oxygen andcrisis depends on negligence and thisnegligence can be in different forms. Neg-ligence can be in form of parents or teach-ers failing to instil the right habits on chil-dren to keep them out of crime; it can be inform of government failing to create andprovide jobs for citizens in order to makecrime unattractive or government failingto work hard to get the right intelligenceat a good time or refusing to act appropri-ately with the right wares…

“Boko Haram insurgency has drenchedour society in blood and systematically, ithas been responsible for a creeping de-struction of the harmony of communitiesin huge swathes of Borno State especially,but also in other states of northern Nige-ria. The insurgency threatens the order ofhuman and civilised existence and theability of the state to provide security andwelfare which the Nigerian constitutionsays is the basis of existence of the state.“Boko Haram slaughters, shoots and crush-es innocent people; destroys communitiesand public establishments for the fact thatcitizens do not share their violent ideolo-gy of murder and destruction. To BokoHaram, the life of a Muslim who does not

share its ideology is as condemned as thatof a Christian or a traditionalist.“This group of misdirected few among ushas continued to unleash horror and ofcourse, do much harm to the integrity ofthe religion of Islam. They have killedthousands of innocent souls in Borno anddestroyed property worth tens of billionsof naira. There is one form of negligencethat I didn’t mention, which is one of themajor factors standing on our way of end-ing Boko Haram. There is a supreme neg-ligence of understanding the Boko Haramcrisis itself and this makes it stubbornlydifficult to make prescriptions.“Only days ago, the Minister of Informa-tion, and chief spokesman of the country,Labaran Maku, trivialised the Boko Haramcrisis by blaming it on Borno State gov-ernment. Maku is the one to educate, notjust Nigerians, but the entire world on whatconstitutes Boko Haram. However, thedriver happens to be blind.

Supervisingminister

“What would make one really disturbedis that Maku was the supervising Minis-ter of Defence for some time. No one mighteven know the extent he might have in-flicted his understanding of Boko Haramon security chiefs he had worked with.Boko Haram crisis is highly misunderstoodby many people, some of whom, unfortu-nately are in positions to form part of thosethat will make decisions to fight it. Let usnot forget that Maku is a member of theFederal Executive Council”Let me dismiss belief in some quartersthat the Boko Haram insurgency is aimedat stopping President Jonathan from suc-ceeding in his assignment. There is theunfortunate saying that Boko Haram is anagenda to stop a southern President fromdoing his job. Of all the attacks by BokoHaram from 2002, their major attacks werein 2009 when Mohammed Yusuf waskilled under a northern President, UmaruMusa Yar’Adua. The attacks snowballedin 2011 till date. So, what are we talkingabout?

“I am deeply worried about the under-standing of Boko Haram because the so-lution lies in all of us understanding it andfacing it with sincerity. The problem is thatthose who do not understand the crisis caninflict others that might include those inposition to directly deal with it. The mis-conception can trickle from the topmostlevel to the ground fighters and this is verydangerous. Then, they say that the BornoState government is not supportive on thefight against insurgency.


Northern leaders shoulddialogue with BokoHaram—Archbishop Okah

MOST Reverend Michael Edaduri Okah, founder and first rector of Christ the RockInterdenominational Bible College, is a man of deep and insightful thought whowas consecrated archbishop in March this year. In this interview, he appeals to thenorthern leaders to talk to the Boko Haram people just as he advises our law en-forcement agents to co-operate with the foreign experts, et al. Excerpts:

to arrest insurgency in Nigeria?Leaders in the North are not talking

about Boko Haram. These peopleshould be appealed to; the emirs, poli-ticians and governors in those placesshould initiate processes of negotiation.There is a precedence. When we had

DURING your investiture service,you launched a book titled, His-

tory of Pentecostal Movement inNigeria. What motivated you to writethe book?

In fact, I witnessed the whole move-ment in Nigeria, its coming, when Godactually visited Nigeria so to say. Notthat the orthodox churches were nottrying: they built schools, had follow-ers with effective church administration;but when Pentecostalism entered Ni-geria it changed the whole concept ofChristianity we used to know. But onething I noticed was that scholarship hasnot been so established in the Pente-costal churches. We only preach andshout; “Praise God, Halelluya.” I re-ceived the inspiration to chronicle howwe began because so many people pa-rade themselves as pastors and bish-ops. That was the motivation.

In the book you referred to a womanwho brought trouble to the world andanother, a source of liberation. Couldyou elaborate on this?

Some Pentecostal churches do notbelieve in the ministry of women. It istrue that the singular act of Eve broughtcurse to this world, but it is a womantoo who gave birth to Jesus Christ whocleansed the world. One woman did awrong and another repaired it. Why dowe say women should not preach or bein ministry?

Women inministry

It is to encourage people that theyshould not condemn women becausethey have a place in ministry.

On insecurity… Chibok girls,indiscriminate killings and serialbombings

Well, biblically we’re living in the lastdays and a lot of things are bound tohappen. What we are witnessing nowis just the beginning of sorrow. Manypeople accuse President GoodluckJonathan of not tackling insecirity. In-security had been with us before theemergence of Jonathan administration.As for what Boko Haram is doing todayI would say anti-Christ has visited Ni-geria. How else do you explain Nigeri-ans killing Nigerians needlessly? Wekeep praying over these things and theykeep happening. Look at the abductionof over 200 schoolgirls from Chibok,bombing churches and mosques, vil-lages, et al. These are all unimagina-ble things. In fact, in war situations,women, the aged or unarmed peopleare treated like sacred cows---protected.Anybody collaborating with BokoHaram is an enemy of this country.

What could be done beside prayers

start the orphanage wasmy wife’s, Dr. Rev. BeautyOchuko Okah; but it wasnot fully concretized untilI read a newspaper atEvangel ChristianUniversity, Monroe, Loui-siana USA about the deathof the parents of two littlekids in an automobile ac-cident and how an or-phanage quickly pickedthem up. I related it to Ni-geria, what would havehappened to those or-phans.

They were met at theirpoint of need. The orphan-age has in fact, exposed usto the kindness and con-cern of informed Nigeri-ans about the wellbeing ofthe less privileged in thesociety. The vision came tous because my motherdied when I was four yearsand I know what I wentthrough in the hands ofstep mothers. We havesome kids with us whosemothers died during birth.We try to make them com-fortable, happy and havea sense of belonging.

Churches everywhere,yet crime seems to be onthe rise. Are thesechurches really doinganything to contain theirmembers?

Churches arewonderful!!! Of coursecrime will be on theincrease. So it was in thedays of Noah. When hewas preaching, the peopledid not listen. So as it wasin the days of Noah soshall it be in the days ofSon of man. We are preach-ing and they continue intheir evil. I tell you, wereit not for the churches thiscountry would have beensomething else. Take forinstance, if all the youthswho assemble in ourchurches were to join Boko

Let us all go down on our knees...somecannot be praying and others are playing...Our politicians are playing with Nigeria

*Most Rev. Michael Okah

ARCHBISHOP of Lagos and bishop of the

Diocese of Lagos Mainland,(Anglican Communion), MostRev. Adebayo Akinde hascalled on the Federal Govern-ment to intensify efforts in curb-ing insecurity, corruption andother social vices in the coun-try, reports OLAYINKALATONA.

A communiqué released atthe end of the second sessionof the third Synod of the Dio-cese of Lagos Mainland at boththe St. Jude Anglican Church,Ebute Meta and All Saints’Church, Yaba between May 22and May 25 with the theme:"But as for me and my house,we will serve the Lord,” thebishop stressed the need totackle corruption.

Lamenting on the high rateof corruption in the country, Dr.Akinde said there is lack ofpolitical will to prosecute thosewho are evidently corrupt atboth federal and state levels.

This single attitude, accord-ing to him, makes a mockery ofthe nation's much vaunted fightagainst corruption, and sendsvery wrong signals to potentialinvestors.

His words: "Impunity onlybegets more crime. Thereforeall proved cases of official graftmust be prosecuted. That way,this socio-economic malaisecan be reduced to the barestminimum."

Activities ofinsurgents

The bishop also urged gov-ernment to make the countrysafe by curtailing the activitiesof insurgents, kidnappers andother criminal activities.

The cleric bemoaned the ab-duction of over 200 schoolgirlsin Chibok, Borno State, de-scribing the act as medieval,callous and criminal while urg-ing the Federal and BornoState governments to do eve-rything possible to ensure thestudents are brought back totheir families safe and alive.

According to him, this is notime for puerile politics, but atime to convey the message thatNigeria is not a failed or fail-ing state.

Praying for the success of theongoing National Conference,the cleric hoped that the out-come of the conference willbring healing to the country.He then advised the delegatesto be focused.

On next year's general elec-tions, Akinde advised govern-ment and the IndependentNational Electoral Commission(INEC) to ensure that the elec-tions were free, fair and cred-ible, to avoid further deteriora-tion in the country.

Akindeurges FGto tacklecorruption,insecurity

, ,

Haram, what do you think this countrywould have become?

Do you envisage the collapse of newgeneration churches one day?

No, because true churches will standthe test of time. Jesus Christ said: 'I willbuild my church and the gate of hell

cannot prevail against it.' The churcheswhich are the ark of Noah will stay foreternity. The ark saved the people atNoah’s time; so the Church is the saviorof the days of the Son of man.

In the midst of these turbulent days,what’s your prayer for the nation?

We will survive. In the midst of manytroubles come viable options. To Godwe are not in trouble. To the best of myknowledge, many churches in the coun-try have set up prayer groups to prayfor this nation. Let us all go down onour knees. Some cannot be praying andothers are playing. Our politicians areplaying with Nigeria. This is the prob-lem. We are praying, some are playingwith Nigeria. Praying in public places,politicians would advise “don’t praylong.” What kind of advice? Don’t praylong. Now we are suffering long. Howdo we do it? This is a problem. Butwhatever happens Nigeria will survive.

them and eventually they laid downtheir arms. Let them talk to their peo-ple and stop heaping the blame on theCentral Government. In spite of the as-sistance from the international commu-nity I will also appeal to our securityagents to be more alert because the fre-quency and magnitude of these opera-tions are embarrassing.

On the National ConferenceThe idea of the National Conference

is okay. The expectation is that some-thing useful will come out. We givethem the benefit of doubt that in thefinal analysis they may come up withsomething new instead of the usual re-curring decimal that has been the hall-mark of past conferences.

Does your ministry runs an orphan-age?

Yes. Christ the Rock Kingdom Churchis an entity under which is the Daugh-terson Orphanage. The original idea to

the problemof militantsin the Niger-Delta, we gottogether andtalked to


AHEAD of the governorshipelections in Ekiti and Osun

states, President GoodluckJonathan yesterday met behindclosed-doors with the PeoplesDemocratic Party candidates ofthe two states Ayodele Fayoseand Iyiola Omisorerespectively.

The meeting was held at thePresidential Villa, andallegedly centred on thepreparations of the twocandidates.

Though the two candidatesarrived separately for themeeting, they left together afterthe meeting.

Ayo Fayose who spoke withState House correspondentsafter the meeting said the

APC/PDP clash: Fayose briefs presidentBY BEN AGANDE

THE Chairman, Ekiti StateCouncil of Traditional Rulers,

Oba Idowu Adamo Babalola hasexpressed concern over therising spate of violence in thestate.

The monarch also cautioned thestate Police Commissioner, MrFelix Uyanna to desist fromgiving life ammunition, to policeofficers while checking peacefuldemonstrations.

While referring to Sunday’sincident where supporters of theAPC and PDP engaged in abloody clash which led to thedeath of one Taiwo Akinola, themonarch cautioned that the stateshould not be turned into atheatre of war.

THE APC has accused thePDP of planning to breach

telecommunication transmissionnetworks across Ekiti State.

The party said it uncovered theplan by the PDP to disruptcommunication flow among pollmonitors and INEC staff so as to“hamper communication amongAPC members to make itimpossible to respond toemergencies in hot spots wherePDP plans to rig elections.”

Also, it alleged that the PDPplans to “unleash mayhem in thestate, killing APC members to beclad in PDP colours and thenblame the act on APC.”

The party maintained that theplan is to allegedly “paint APCmembers black amongNigerians, thus necessitatingextraordinary security measuresby the Federal Government thatwill put fears in the minds of APCmembers after their leaderswould have been arrested formurder.”

A statement by APC’s interimState Chairman, Chief Jide Awe,said aside planning to disruptcommunication in the majortelecommunication networks,“two South West governorshipcandidates of PDP met in Akure,the Ondo State capital, wherethey perfected plans to start theorgy of violence leading to thekillings of APC members, don the

•President Jonathan •Fayose

confrontation between hissupporters and those of theAPC which led to the death of

one of his supporters wasdiscussed.

Giving his account of whathappened on Sunday, he said

APC supporters accosted hissupporters who were comingfrom a campaign outing andlater killed one of them.

He said, “What happened onSunday was that APCsupporters went aboutsweeping the feet of thePresident who on Saturday ledPDP bigwigs to a mega rally inAdo-Ekiti. I don’t even haveany objection to that becausethat is part of politics.

“There are some of mysupporters who always sleepover in my campaign office.These people wearing mybranded green T-shirts werereturning home and the APC

people accosted them.“They macheted some of my

supporters and even killed oneof them. They were at the pointof removing the deceased’sbranded T-shirt and replacingit with APC shirt when the OCMOPOL arrived the scene.

“As he was trying to stopthem, Fayemi drove in to blockhim. It was when they wantedto mob the police officer that heshot teargas into the air.”

He however claimed that hissupporters remained focuseddespite the attack and stillfully mobilised to vote for himin the forthcoming election.

••Monarch warns police

PDP plans telecoms cut,mass attack —APC cries out

A pan-Yoruba socio-politicalpressure organization,

Coalition of Oodua Self-Determination Groups (COSEG),has advised the PDP against anyattempt to rig the election,warning that the consequence ofsuch an attempt would not augurwell for his government and the

BY GBENGA ARIYIBI He said “we don’t want Ekitito be turned into a theatre ofwar as being preached in Abuja”.

He, therefore appealed to allpoliticians to embrace peace forthe coming election to bepeaceful and acceptable to allparties.”

The monarch also called on theInspector General of Police,Alhaji Mohammed Abubakar toeffect the immediate removal ofthe Commander of Mobile PoliceForce in Ekiti, Mr GabrielSerenkele.

“In all civilised nations, policeare meant to maintain, peace andprotect the citizens. The barbaricact exhibited on Sunday by amember of the Nigeria PoliceForce gunning down an innocent

COSEG warns against riggingBY DAPO AKINREFON

nation as a whole.COSEG also threw its weight

behind the governorshipcandidate of the All ProgressivesCongress (APC), Governor JohnKayode Fayemi for the June 21governorship election in EkitiState.

Addressing a press conferencein Lagos, the National Chairmanof the group, Dayo Ogunlanasaid “Any attempt at rigging EkitiGovernorship election will leadto serious uproar. The on-goinginsurgency in some northernparts of the country ought to havegiven concern to a responsive andresponsible government andwarn it against any other act thatwould be capable of putting thecountry in more trouble.”.

The group stated that theattempted assassination on Dr.Kayode Fayemi on Sunday wasan eye opener that haschallenged COSEG and thepeople of Ekiti State to beprepared for June 21 battle.

“This is a challenge we shallface and as usual the people willwin. We will not stay aloof andallow a thug or people with novalue, dignity and credibility befoisted on our people in Ekiti, no,not in our region.

“COSEG, having diagnosedand evaluated the potentials,attributes and characters andrecords of performance of thecandidates, found out that Dr.Kayode Fayemi is above all andthe only candidate who cangenuinely stand not only withEkiti people but also with Yorubasat this difficult time in the historyof Nigeria,” Ogunlana declared.

BY DAPO AKINREFON

LABOUR Party candidateOpeyemi Bamidele has

faulted the APC for seeminglymaking political gain from themurder of Taiwo Akinola lastSunday.

Bamidele said that the APC inEkiti state has been “acting in amanner as if the slain youth wasits card-carrying member until hemet his death, therebypretending to be on thedefensive.”

According to him, “the bodylanguage of APC leaders andthat of Governor Kayode Fayemiin the last seventy two hoursindicated that they were playingto the gallery, trying to lookinnocent where they are guilty.”

In a statement by his mediaaide, Ahmed Salami, thegovernorship candidatebemoaned the APC for turningthe unfortunate incident to

LP chides APC for re-branding corpse

A CHIEFTAIN of the PDP inEkiti State, Mr Lati Ajijola

has condemned GovernorKayode Fayemi’s call for the re-deployment of the Commissionerof Police in the state, Mr FelixUyanna, saying he, Fayemi andmembers of his party, the APCshould rather be held responsiblefor last Sunday’s violent incident.

The PDP chieftain ratheraccused the APC for beingbehind most of the recentviolence in the state.

Fayemi had called for the re-deployment of Mr. Uyanna andthe MOPOL commander, Mr.Gabriel Selenkere over theSunday clash betweensupporters of the PDP and APC.

“Calling the removal of thePolice chiefs for a crimecommitted by All ProgressivesCongress (APC) thugs is a deceitcarried too far by Fayemi and hisparty.”

BY GBENGA ARIYIBI

politics.“We are amused by the recent

horse trading trailing the deathof Taiwo Akinola who was killedin Ado Ekiti on Sunday morningby the ruling APC in Ekiti. Partof APC’s attempts to pull the woolover the eyes of Ekiti people inthis tragedy was the dramaticcovering of Akinola’s corpse withan APC-JKF branded vest at atime when a first aid supportshould have been offered him.”

corpse in PDP colours and blameit on APC leaders after whichAPC leaders would be arrestedfor murder.”

Ajijola faultsFayemi

•Fayemi

BY GBENGA ARIYIBI

•Bamidele

citizen is totally unwarranted andunacceptable to the Council ofObas in Ekiti State. It iscondemnable entirely.“

Call for redeployment of Compol





FOR residents of Onitsha,the commercial nerve cen-

tre of the South Eastern part ofthe country, these are not the bestof times. Reason: The rising oc-currence of collapsed buildingsin the city has unsettled manyresidents who are not sure ofwhich building will cave in thenext time.

To deepen their fear, the col-lapses are not restricted only twoold buildings. In fact, out of therecorded cases of buildingcollapse in the town, more areeither new buildings or thoseunder construction. Availablestatistics show that no fewer than10 buildings have collapsedbetween 2000 and 2014. Six ofthese were new buildings whilethe rest were old ones.The most recent ones were thecollapse of an old three-storeybuilding at the Fegge area ofOnitsha, early last year. This wasfollowed by the collapse ofanother five-storey building stillunder construction at ObanyeStreet. The most recent collapseoccurred penultimate Mondaywhen a four-storey buildingwhich had reached theplastering stage, fell like a packof cards.

The latest incident occurred atabout 1.00 p.m. when thebuilding suddenly came down,killing four persons, includingthree artisans doing the plaster-ing job. Also killed was a churchworker looking after the St.Christopher’s Anglican Churchpremises, Odoakpu, where thebuilding was situated.

Eyewitnesses told VanguardFeatures, VF that it was onlyGod’s intervention that preventedthe death of many pupils of theprimary school located within thecompound. The pupils whousually played in the collapsedbuilding, had just returned totheir classrooms after the break,when the building crumbled.

Late rescue operationVF further learnt that four hours

after the collapse of the building,

Cross. Similarly, Onitsha SouthLocal Government could not pro-vide excavators or cranes to assistin removing the debris from the

and the Liaison Officer, EmekaOkafor corroborated the Chair-man’s reason for the collapse ofthe property.

The Ogirishi Igbo (Igbo Spir-itual leader), Chief RommyEzeonwuka, also attributed thecollapse to poor quality materi-als. He called for the use of onlyhigh quality materials in erectingbuildings of such size.

Ezeonwuka also stressed theneed for builders to do soil teststo determine the suitability of thesoil where the building is beingerected.

Meanwhile, the church hasdebunked claims that about 15persons died in the incident. TheParish Mission Committee, PMCof the St. Christopher’s AnglicanChurch insisted that only fourpersons lost their lives in thedisaster.

The Chairman of PMC, Evan-gelist Kingsley Agbadike toldnewsmen at the scene of the

incident that three of the victimswere artisans plastering thebuilding, while the other was achurch yardman who was justsweeping a corner of the roomswhen the incident occurred.Agbadike further confirmed thatconstruction work on the build-ing which was designed as Par-ish office, commenced in 2012.it was roofed in February this yearand was at the plastering stagewhen it caved in.

Government to set upmaterials testing lab

He said the caterpillars werestill evacuating the debris of thecollapsed building, after whichinvestigations would commenceon the actual cause of the build-ing collapse.

Governor Willie Obiano ofAnambra State who visited thesite of the collapsed buildingunveiled plans by his govern-

ment to commission a laboratory thatwould test and verify the quality ofall the materials used for thebuilding.

The Governor who was receivedat the site by the Anglican BishopOn The Niger, Rt. Rev. OwenNwokolo, emphasised that thelaboratory which would becommissioned by next week, wouldalso be used for testing all the ma-terials to be used for future buildingconstruction in the State. This is toensure that only quality standardmaterials were used and to forestallfurther building collapse in the state.The proposed laboratory, he said,would operate like the drug labora-tory to ensure maximum quality.The Governor directed the Commis-sioner for Works, Mr. CallistusIlozumba to carry out a technical sur-vey of another building within thepremises of the collapsed buildingin order to ensure that it met the re-quired structural standard. Hewarned builders in the state not tocut corners, stressing that hence-

Fear grips Onitsharesidents

BY NWABUEZEOKONKWO, ONITSHA

,

,Eye-witnesses told newsmen that fourhours after the collapse of the building, norescue team was on hand to clear thedebris and probably save the trappedvictims from the clutches of death

Frequent buildings collapse:

*One of the collapsed buildings in Onitsha...Yet another

no rescue team was on hand toclear the debris and probablysave the trapped victims from theclutches of death. Rescueoperation only commenced whenthe victims had already given upthe ghost. Rescue operationhowever started when membersof the Nigerian Red Cross Soci-ety, NRCS and other voluntaryagencies and individuals arrivedthe scene of the disaster.

Eyewitness accounts informedthat officials of the Church werenot on hand to to assist the Red

collapsed siteBut the Chairman of he

Onitsha South Council, Mrs AnnChukwuneke, attributed thecollapse to poor materials and su-pervision. She charged theAnambra State Urban Develop-ment Board, ASUDEB, to, as amatter of necessity, hand overapproved building plans to theCouncil engineer who wouldoversee the supervision of theconstruction of such projects.

Also reacting, the Councilengineer, Mr Oluchukwu John

CMYK


forth, the state government would prosecuteany contractor whose construction workcollapses.

Diocese sets up committee to investigatecollapse

As a fallout of the collapse, BishopNwokolo has set up a Diocesan Commit-tee of Inquiry to investigate the remote andimmediate causes of the collapse. A pressstatement issued by the Diocesan Directorof Communication, Sir Oseloka Offor saidthe standing committee of experts andprofessionals would determine the qualityof work going on in all the church projects in the diocese as a means of stemmingfuture occurrence.

The statement stated that in accordancewith the tradition, the building cannot beenlisted as one of the church projects untilit was certified by the diocesan consultants.The church noted that as soon as it got windof the collapse, it contacted Julius BergerConstruction Company, Consolidated Con-struction Company, CCC and other con-struction companies operating in thecommercial town, which joined in therescue efforts.

Director-General of Onitsha Chamber ofCommerce, Industry, Mines andAgriculture, ONICCIMA, Mr. DominicAjibo also aligned with those who attrib-uted the collapse of buildings to poor qualitymaterials.

Poor qualitymaterials

Speaking at the 7th edition of the Perspec-tive, the annual lecture series of thechamber, Ajibo regretted that low qualityimported and locally produced materialshave flooded the Nigerian markets andcreated serious obstacles to our nationaldevelopment. ”We should follow worldstandard and depart from low qualitystandard both on what we produce andthose we import, both consumables and nonconsumables,” he said. He regretted thenumber of lives and properties so far lost tobuildings collapse, saying it has impactednegatively on the organised private sector,OPS, which the Chamber represents.

In his own reaction, the Chairman of SouthEast Zone of the Campaign for Democracy,CD, Dede Uzor A. Uzor canvassed the set-ting up of a committee to monitor all build-ing projects in the state.

When set up, the committee, he said,should screen all those who claim to beengineers and building contractors, as wellas building materials being imported intothe country.

HUNDREDS of lives, includingthose of security men and

vandals, have been lost to pipelines explosions at Arepo, a community inObafemi-Owode Local Government Area of Ogun State. The community ishost to several oil pipelines belongingto the Nigerian National PetroleumCooperation, NNPC .

The vandals are fond of deliberately breaking or rupturing pipelines whichtransport refined petroleum products fromthe Atlas Cove Jetty in Lagos to theWestern states, including Kwara State.

The NNPC said it lost about N3.6billion to last year’s pipeline vandalism of its System 2B Pipeline atArepo, in Ogun State. Aside the financiallosses, Vanguard Features, VF, learnt thatno fewer than 20 suspected pipeline van-dals were burnt to death when aruptured NNPC pipeline exploded intoflames.

Petroleumproducts

The vandals were said to have gone tothe area to siphon petroleum products fromthe ruptured pipeline which caught fireand consumed them.

It was gathered that the explosion wassparked off by one of the vandals whoreleased a gunshot into the air to asserthis superiority over his colleagues. VFchecks revealed that these vandals havebecome kings, wielding enormous pow-ers which the security personnel attachedto the facilities, cannot match.

In fact, the gains from the illicit oil dealsin Arepo creeks appear to be too attractivefor the vandals and their accomplices,hence they are not willing to let go in ahurry. They usually defy the men of theNigeria Police Force, whose station is lo-cated about 500 metres away from thecreeks, to siphon fuel with ease. Thereare unsubstantiated claims by the residentsthat these vandals are aided by men inuniform. This allegation is premised on

the fact that apart from the police, othermilitary personnel occasionally patrol thearea but with little or no result to show fortheir ‘efforts’.

VF recalls that a few months ago, a tra-ditional ruler in the area, Oba Solomon Oyebi, gave the security outfit anotheroffice within the town distinct from theportion of land he had earlier given tothe security men to build their securitypost.

A recurring decimalPipelines vandalism has become a

recurring decimal since 2010. It, however,

by them indiscriminately.The latest incident which left in its trail

the disappearance of some policemenafter a gun duel with the hoodlums, hasunsettled the hitherto peaceful commu-nity. Spokesman of the NationalEmergency Management Agency,NEMA, Ibrahim Farinloye explained thatthe difficult terrain of the area ishampering access to the place, therebymaking it difficult to apprehend thenotorious vandals.

It would be recalled that at least ninepolicemen attached to the Inspector-General of Police Special Anti - Vandal-ism squad, were allegedly apprehendedby the oil thieves. VF learnt from asecurity source that Police authoritiesdid not want to disclose the actualnumber of missing policemen in ordernot to discourage their colleagues andaggravate the security situation in thecountry.

The Police Public Relations Officer inthe Ogun State, Muyiwa Adejobi, hadtold VF after the abduction that manypeople were trapped in the incident. Buthe refused to confirm the actual figureof missing policemen.

Residents’ plightMeanwhile, residents of the area have

cried out for help from the governmentto quickly arrest these incidents. Thosewho spoke to VF noted that peace haseluded the area. Many of them allegedthat the vandals are not living in theneighbourhood. Their fear is that anotherexplosion may soon erupt in thecommunity with its attendant devastation.

An unconfirmed report claimed thatsome security men in the area have apact with the vandals. The recent attacks,

Welcome to Arepo where vandalsare kings

BY DAUD OLATUNJI,ABEOKUTA

,,Apart from loss of lives,the NNPC said it lostabout N3.6 billion to the last year’s pipeline vandal-ism of its System 2B Pipeline at Arepo, in Ogun State

Another police patrol ...

Police patrol in search of pipeline vandals

according to the allegation, was sequelto a breach of that pact by the securitypersonnel who attacked the vandals. Itwas also gathered that the vandals re-sorted to the abduction of the policemen to punish them for reneging on theiragreement.

Despite these allegations, the tradi-tional ruler of the area, Oba Oyebi wantsurgent steps to be taken to stem therising occurrence of pipelines vandalismin the predominantly farmingcommunity. He regretted that theirfarmlands have been destroyed andrivers contaminated by the activities ofthese oil thieves.

assumed a deadly dimension between2013 and this year. Their renewedonslaught came on January 11, 2014 whenthey (vandals) destroyed some NNPC fa-cilities in the area. The incident led tomultiple deaths. Apparently not satisfiedwith this attack, the vandals two weekslater, struck again and were able toescape.

It was, however, learnt that some of theoil thieves and their lieutenants wereconsumed in the inferno caused by thevandalism. Two rival groups which wereinvolved in the illicit oil business, weresaid to have engaged in hot argumentswhich resulted into gunshots being fired

CMYK

58 — Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 11 , 2014

Iraq PM calls emergency astroops fleeTHE Iraqi prime

minister has called fora national state ofemergency after the city ofMosul and parts of thenorthern province ofNineveh fell to al-Qaeda-inspired fighters.

Nouri al-Maliki saidyesterday that he wouldask parliament to declarethe emergency after theovernight takeoverbygroups including theIslamic State in Iraq andthe Levant.

He said: “We will notallow Mosul to be underthe banner of terrorism, Wecall on all internationalorganisations to support

Iraq and its stance infighting terrorism. Theentire world will suffer ifterrorism spreads.”

He stated that thegovernment would armand equip civilians whovolunteered “to defend thehomeland and defeatterrorism”.

This came as Militantsseized control of theairport, TV stations and thegovernor’s offices in Iraq’ssecond-largest city aspolice and soldiers ranaway from their posts, astunning collapse of thesecurity forces that hasraised questions aboutPrime Minister Nuri al-

Maliki’s ability to hold thecountry together.

Thousands of people —some carrying plastic bags,others pushing carts —have fled the fighting inMosul, creating ahumanitarian crisis thathas caught thegovernment off guard.

The militants arebelieved to be members ofthe extremist group theIslamic State in Iraq andSyria, an al Qaeda splintergroup also known by itsacronym ISIS. Manyforeign fighters arebelieved to be among theirnumber, senior policeofficials said.

APOSTASY: Sudan judgesto rule on Christian woman

A three-judge panelin Sudan will

examine the appeal of aChristian womansentenced to hang forapostasy, in a case thathas drawn internationalcondemnation, herlawyer said Monday.

“The judiciaryappointed three judgeslast week to examine the

appeal filed in the caseof Meriam YahiaIbrahim Ishag,” lawyerMohanad Mustafa toldAFP, without specifyingwhen they will deliver aruling.

Ishag, who was born toa Muslim father, wassentenced to death onMay 15 under theIslamic sharia law thathas been in place since1983, and which outlawsconversions under painof death.

The 27-year-old wasraised an OrthodoxChristian, her mother’sreligion, married aChristian man originallyfrom South Sudan andalready had a 20-month-old son before she gavebirth on May 27.

German Minister visitsNigeria on business talks

BY EMEKA AGINAM

THE German FederalMinister for Economic

Cooperation andDevelopment, Dr. GerdMüller, arrived Lagosyesterday for a state visiton business potentials inNigeria.

The Minister which willbe in Abuja today willmeet with representativesof the German businesscommunity in Lagos todiscuss among otherthings, businessopportunities, the alreadyexisting cooperation in thefield of vocational trainingfor young Nigerians aswell as the Nigerian-German Energy

Partnership.Accordingly, the

delegation will also travelto Ogun State to visitseveral projects supportedby Germany in theframework of the German-Nigerian developmentcooperation.

"Friendly fire" kills five UStroops in Afghanistan

FIVE American troopswere killed in an

apparent coalition airstrikein southern Afghanistan,officials said yesterday, inone of the worst friendlyfire incidents involvingUnited States and coalitiontroops since the start of thenearly 14 year war.

The U.S.-led

international coalition saidthe service members werekilled in an apparentfriendly fire incident, whichan Afghan official said wasan airstrike in southernZabul province. Astatement said all fivesoldiers died on Mondaybut did not give furtherdetails.

Civilians flee Ukrainian city amid attacks

SOZENS of charredbicycles stand up-

right in the rubble of aburnt-out sports shop inSlaviansk, a strategicstronghold for pro-Rus-sian separatist rebels ineastern Ukraine.

After a week of intensi-fied shelling by govern-ment forces, windows ofbuildings on the outskirtsof the city have beenblown out, fires have gut-ted stores and the hulksof damaged Soviet-eracars lie abandoned in theroad.

A few stores were stilloperating in the leafytown center, where themuffled sound of mortarfire drifts in from areasaround the city edges,but life has been trans-formed even there.

A few days ago, resi-dents were showing de-

fiance by carrying on theirlives as best they could.Now only a handful ofpeople dare to walk in theopen near the city hall,barricaded by sandbagsand fenced off by therebels. Others have fled.

“Why do my children

and I have to know everyday what time the shell-ing will start?” askedNina Moiseyeva, tearsrolling down her face asshe walked with two bagsof groceries. “We knowwhen to expect it everymorning: eight or nineo’clock.”


Customer service in NigerianhealthcareAS I settle down in this

Intercity train fromManchester to London, theinitial subject of today's articlehas been substituted for anaccount of an incident thatoccurred this morning at ahospital just outsideManchester.

A visiting NigerianConsultant Surgeon stormedout of the Theatre Suite. "I wasadvised this morning to doelectronic rather than paperdischarge letters," he said.

"It has to be electronic for thehospital to get paid for thepatients you have operatedupon," I said.

"They are just telling me that,"the Surgeon threw his handsup. "I did paper dischargesyesterday. Operated on eightpatients. Earned nothing for thehospital."

"So do electronic today," I said."I cannot log into their

network. Their entire EHR isdifferent. I have stopped the listuntil they get IT to log me on.The theatre staff are insisting Ido paper discharges. They said,'after all, you will be paid. Why

worry about the hospital gettingpaid?'

"Why worry about the hospitalgetting paid?" I repeated.

In that statement lies thedeep roots of customer servicein healthcare delivery. Thewaiter has just set down a trayof gastronomic delicacies infront of me, with a glass ofcabernet sauvignon to top it all.

Am I truly on a train? Whencan we travel like this fromLagos to Abuja? Please permitme a respite in the delivery ofthis article. Hmmnnn...

Cost ofhealth services

Health services cost money.Even when "free", someone ispaying for it. It is a businessand, like all businesses, it mustsomehow be profitable.

The profits may notnecessarily be monetary.Improved health status andstatistics of the citizenrytranslates to better productivityand increased economicpotential. The patient, thecustomer, is the ONLY reasonthe service exists. Without the

patient, there is no clinic, facilityor hospital.

Staff attitudes to patients andemployers vary greatly acrosscountries, systems and cultures.

By "staff" I mean, doctors,nurses, cleaners, technicians,orderlies....everyone employedin a healthcare facility.

To many patients it is theinteractions with staff that aremost memorable. The way thenurses address them; thewarmth and bedside manner ofthe doctors; the tone of thereceptionist; the smiles, thetouch, the compassionshown....these are the, positiveor negative images andemotions that patients takehome.

Degrees of serviveMy surgical friend in

Manchester belonged to a rarebreed of Nigerian doctors. Heheld practicing medical licensesin the USA, UK and in Nigeria.He had experienced threedifferent degrees of customerservice in the three locations.

In Group 1, the staff will doenough to ensure job security.They treat patients like family.

[email protected]

•Some of the beneficiaries of the Medical Mission organised by the AriseWomen of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, Lagos Province 4, City ofDavid, for residents of Apapa in Lagos.

BY EVELYN USMAN

Nyanya blast victims obtainrelief materials

They follow hospital policies,protocols and guidelines. Anydeviation from standards ofpractice may lead to internalmemos, incident reports,disciplinary committees andpossible de-registration.However, to these staff, thefinancial success of the"organisation" is secondary.Cost saving or revenueenhancing practices areensured only as set in theorganisation's guidelines, andonly as far as their positions aresecured.

The organisation or businessenterprise is a mystic entity towhich they are unrelated ordistantly related.

In the second variant of staffattitudes, there is everythingfrom the first group..plus thebelief that the enterprise mustsucceed. There is a sense ofinvestiture in the facility and itssuccess. If the organisationmakes money, not only do they

have job security, but they arealso rewarded with financialbenefits, like bonuses, vacationtime, and CPD time. Thebusiness is, indirectly, theirbusiness.

Then there is Group 3. Staffhave little or no concern aboutjob insecurity. Their positionsare safe, no matter theircustomer service failings.Where there are organisationalprotocols and procedures thesestaff are inconsistent incompliance. To them the patientis a nuisance to be met withimpertinence and impatience.Attempts may even be made atself gratification to the detrimentof organisation and/or patient.

All three staff attitudes arefound in each of the threecountries stated. In whichcustomer service attitude groupwould you place staff in yourlocal clinic or hospital? My trainhas just rolled into IddoTerminus. Sorry, Euston.

A MULTINATIONAL medicalcompany, Johnson and Johnson,

has donated relief and medical devicesto three hospitals in Abuja for thetreatment of victims of Nyanya andZuba bomb blasts.The products are valued at N3 million, according to the company's MarketDevelopment Manager in charge ofAnglophone West Africa, Mr EyongEbai.

Hospitals reportedly sent some of thevictims of the May 1 bomb blast thatrocked Zuba Park in Nyanya homeowing to lack of space and facilities totreat them.

Eyong said it was against this backdrop that the company is supportingwith lifesaving efforts of surgeons totreat the victims.

“The donation is our little way ofshowing support and assistance to thevictims, with a view to allowing themhave access to medical products thatthey may not be able to provide forthemselves. It is also aimed at boostingefforts of management of the hospitalsgeared towards availability of neededfacilities to treat the victims.

"Rather than making cash donation,we felt it will have greater impact onthe casualties by providing thehospitals with products that canactually be used in the operations andtreatment of the patients.

"The donated products are acombination of sutures and

WHEN Musiliu Adetona, 63, wasdiagnosed with with a blood

sugar level of 576 during a MedicalMission recently, doctors described him“walking corpse.”

Musiliu is one of millions of Nigeriansignorantly walking around with life-threatening illnesses. But thanks to themedical outreach by the Arise Womenof the Redeemed Christian Church ofGod, Lagos Province 4, City of David,held for residents of Apapa Communityin Lagos, less privileged Nigerianshavebetter access to medical treatment.

Dr. Ademola Lafenwa who attended toMusiliu, said cases like his aboundduring each medical outreach.

Medical mission saves lives inApapa

sterilisation product to help withinfection control and other surgicalproduct that can be used by surgeonswhen victims are operated on.

“After ascertaining the kind ofwounds they sustained, doctors willuse the product for the immediatetreatment of patients in the hospital"he stated.

Lamenting the devastating effect ofthe incident on the victims, Eyongexpressed hope that other privatecompanies would also come to their aidby making donations that wouldexpedite action for their treatment.

“When we get to communities like this,I’m particularly shocked by people notknowing their health status. We seepeople that are diabetic or hypertensivewithout being aware.”

He said through such medicaloutreaches several Nigerians could besaved from incidences of irreversibleillnesses such as stroke, kidney failure,heart attack and sudden death.

Lafenwa also noted that manyNigerians were still unaware of the needfor regular health check-up.

No fewer than 600 residents of Apapaincluding men, women and childrenbenefited received medical services suchas free consultations, free drugs,screening for diabetes mellitus, cancer,hypertension, malaria, pneumonia andteeth care.

The Mission, which held at the UnitedChildren Primary School ground,Bombay, Apapa have on ground, twoambulances and a mobile clinic, ownedby Arise Women and dedicated to suchoutreaches.

Convener of Arise Women, and wifeof the Resident Pastor, Mrs. SijuIluyomade, said the medical wellbeingof women was one of their focalprogrammes, providing medicalintervention in every community theywere led by God.

“What we have decided to do is goround Lagos State as much as we can.We will be able to expand this to the restof the country.”

She noted that illiteracy has remaineda major problem and poverty is also aproblem because people feel that whenyou go to hospital you will pay “but youcannot compare life with any amount ofmoney.”

BY CHIOMA OBINNA

60— Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 11, 2014

Enyeama: Time for Africa to win World CupSUPER Eagles and

Lille goalkeeperVincent Enyeama,believes that an Africanteam can reach out forthe World Cup this year.

Among the teams thatare capable of doinggreat in the Braziliantournament Enyeamatipped Ghana, IvoryCoast and of course Ni-geria. Cameroon and Al-geria are the other two,unmentioned represen-tatives of the Africancontinent.

“It (an African sidewinning the World Cup)can happen. It can hap-pen. Nigeria has a goodteam; Ghana has a greatteam. Cote d’Ivoire has

a great, amazing team.”said Enyeama

“I believe an Africanteam can win the WorldCup. It can happen. Idon’t believe in negativ-ity. I am a very positive

person so, I believe itcan happen in Brazil.”

But historically thishappening would breakthe statistics as onlythree times Africanteams reached the quar-

ter-finals: 1990 Came-roon (lost to England 2-3 after extra time), 2002Senegal (lost to Turkey0-1) and Ghana in 2010(lost to Uruguay afterpenalties).

KeshiContinues from B/P We are ready

Stephen Keshi’s menwill be hoping to begintheir World Cup cam-paign on a winning notewhen they face CarlosQueiroz’s side at theArena da Baixaba inCurtiba on June 16.

The 33-year old de-fender said that despitenot winning any of theirpre-World Cup friend-lies, all is now set for theEagles to have a brilliantouting in Brazil startingwith the game againstIran before facing Bos-nia and Argentina.

“We believe in our-selves. We have played

some friendly games.Not the results we ex-pected but we havelearnt a lot from it,” Yobosaid.

“(The games were) alittle bit experimental aswell, but now were readyto go so come the firstgame against Iran, we’llmake sure we do verywell and get the threepoints.

“Yes, they’re right, butas I said these gamessometimes it’s experi-mental, to try differentthings. The World Cup isthe ultimate.

“We are also disap-

pointed that we didn’twin because we want towin and get the confi-dence.

“But the game is overnow. You take the posi-tives from it and lookforward to the biggertargets. We want them tostill believe in this team,we need their supportbecause without theirsupport we can’t go any-where,” he concluded.

Nigeria did not winany of their three pre-World Cup friendliesforcing Scotland andGreece to a draw andlosing 2-1 to the UnitedStates of America.

The doubt in Nigeri-ans trails a string of un-impressive results theSuper Eagles producedin the friendly matchesplayed in Londonagainst Scotland and inthe US against Greeceand USA respectively.Most Nigerians wrote offthe team, particularly af-ter their last matchagainst the US whichthe Eagles lost 1-2.

Worrisome was theunco-ordinated mid-field, a somewhat con-fusing defence formation

and a lack of rhythm inthe Eagles attack. Theteam was in shambles, asthe US players ran ringsaround them and Alti-dore, the two-goal heroon the night mesmer-ized. Nigerians watchedhelplessly.

Sports Vanguardsought the views of thehead coach on the stateof the team which takeson Iran on Monday.

Keshi was economicalin his expression as hesimply said, “no shak-ing,” meaning there is

no cause for alarm. Heinsisted that the resultsfrom the friendly match-es should not be used asyardsticks for measuringthe level of prepared-ness of his team.

“We are in Brazil forserious business.Friendlies are meant toserve as rehearsals.They are different fromcompetitive matches.This is not an excuse forour performance in thematches, but seriouslyspeaking, the results donot mean anything tome, Evaluate us in theWorld Cup.”

Continues from B/P

UzoenyiContinues from B/P

Nigeria’s 23-mansquad for the World Cup.

Uzoenyi had returnedto Enugu were he hadresumed training withhis Glo Premier Leagueclub side, Enugu Rang-ers.

He trained with Rang-ers Monday evening andyesterday morning.

The petite winger I histeam mates after yester-day’s training that hehad already booked amid-morning flight to La-gos, from where he willconnect with a 10:00pmflight to Brazil.”

The winger took part in

Tuesday morning’straining session with histeam-mates at EnuguRangers, to keep him ingood shape before he ar-rives at the team’s campat the Vitoria HotelConcept in Campinas.

Ejike’s place in thesquad was shrouded inconfusion as a section ofthe media reported yes-terday that Echejile hadbeen recalled. But FIFAhas since reflected thechange on it website,naming Uzoenyi withthe number 3 jersey,originally meant forinjured Echejile.

Uncertainty over Omeruo’sfitnessSUPER Eagles

defender, KennethOmeruo’s level of fitnesscould still not beascertained even as theteam jetted out of theUSA yesterday. TheChelsea defendermissed a number ofregular trainingsessions in America dueto an injury he cuppedafter he was tackled byVictor Moses and pickedup a minor knock.

The player was unableto cap against USAbecause of the knockThe 11-times Nigeriarepresentative had tomiss the training sessionafter. Instead histraining was light andindividual.

Defenders are avaluable resource for the

Super Eagles as earlieron Uwa EldersonEchiejile was supposedlyknocked out of the WorldCup and his place wastaken by Ejike Uzoenyi,who is a winger orforward. If the injuryrules Omeruo out of thesquad for the matchagainst Iran it would bevery bad news forNigeria as the variety ofdefending formationswill shrink to an evenpoorer level. TheNigeria national teamarrived in Soa Paulo lastnight. •Omeruo

Eagles happy with W/Cup bonus planSUPER Eagles

captain, Joseph Yobosays the players of thenational team aresatisfied with theproposal of the NigeriaFootball Federation(NFF) over bonuses forthe 2014 FIFA World Cupfinals in Brazil.

Yobo and Chelseamidfielder John ObiMikel had earlier met

with the top NFFmembers to demand anappearance fee for the2014 World Cup.

This is outside thematch bonus, whichstarts at $10,000-a-manfor a first round matchwin, announced for theplayers for Brazil 2014.

•Maigari

•Enyeama


Dutch fans pessimistic as Holland get setfor Spain

AS Holland begintheir World Cup

campaign against Spainon Friday, Coach LouisVan Gaal has targetedthe semi-finals but theview at home is morepessimistic. A largelyinexperienced squad,possessing a number oftalented individuals, isexpected to finish secondto Spain. That wouldprobably mean a last- 16tie against Brazil andDutch fans fear thatwould be the end of theirtournament.

Before taking over atManchester United, VanGaal is desperate toexorcise the ghost ofHolland’s 2002 WorldCup nightmare. VanGaal has had anillustrious managerialcareer with clubsincluding Ajax,Barcelona and BayernMunich but was in

charge when theDutchmissed out on thefinals 12 years ago, thefirst time they had notqualified since 1986 .

Holland will rely onRobin van Persie, ArjenRobben and WesleySneijder. Daley Blind,son of former Hollandlegend Danny, has hadan excellent season forAjax and the 24- year-old could follow VanGaal to Old Trafford.Blind is likely to start inmidfield but can alsoplay at left- back.

Do not expect TotalFootball from a team thatwill try to grind outresults. Van Gaal hasused his trusted 4-3-3formation duringqualification but he hasbeen forced to rethinkafter Roma’s KevinStrootman was ruled outthrough a knee injury.

Pele: Rooney will shine

World Cup: 24 hours to go

PELE has backedWayne Rooney to star

for England at the WorldCup.

“Wayne Rooney has notscored [in a World Cupfinals] but he was fantasticfor the team,” the three-time World Cup winnertold Sky Sports News.

“He was always theplayer who fought more

Messi nervous!SHORTLY after coming

on as a second-halfsub in Argentina’s lastWorld Cup warm-up,Lionel Messi doubledover and appeared tovomit on the pitch.

He’s done it at least ahalf-dozen times withArgentina and club teamBarcelona, mystifyingdoctors and fans alike.

“Nerves,” saysArgentina coachAlejandro Sabella, andthat’s a diagnosis as goodas any.

The Argentina captainand four-time worldplayer of the year is undertremendous pressure tolead the Albiceleste to its

first World Cup trophysince 1986.

“I reckon that in thesemoments there is anxietymore than anything,”Sabella said before theteam departed for Brazil,where it opens its WorldCup campaign againstBosnia-Herzegovina onSunday. “It’s difficult toremain calm.”

“I don’t know what it is.But I had a thousandexams,” Messi toldArgentine broadcasterTyC Sports earlier thisyear. “I start to feelnauseous to the pointwhere I almost vomit,and then it goes away.”

for the team - I wouldlike him in my team, youknow.

“England have adifficult group but I thinkthey could pass,” theBrazilian said.

“The World Cup is avery short tournamentand the experiencedplayers always do well.”

•Messi

•Rooney

Pjanic: We don’t fearArgentina, EaglesMIRALEM Pjanic

has outlined thatBosnia-Herzegovinahave no fear in facing‘one of the favourites’ forthe World Cup,Argentina.

“We do not fear anyone

because we believe in ourchances.We will againstone of the favourites inArgentina, but we havethe expertise to challengethem. Many of us haveplayed in big Europeantournaments and knowhow to deal with certainsituations.“Progressingfrom the group is ourgoal. Brazil is beautiful,it seldom happens thatyou can train on thebeach, and we arerealising how fascinatingthis country is.”

•Pjanic

•Diego Costa

•Van Persie

Calls for Blatter to resign

SENIOR officialsincluding England

FA chairman Greg Dykeare calling for FIFAPresident Sepp Blatter toresign.

“FIFA is a suspectorganisation where there

has been an awful lot ofcorruption,” Dyke said.“FIFA has an uglyreputation around theworld and Blatter asPresident is ultimatelyresponsible,” addedDutch Federation

President Michael VanPraag on SSN.

“People don’t reallytake him seriouslyanymore, because a fewmonths ago he all of asudden said the vote forQatar was a mistake. Thatmeans he blames all theothers. Yesterday helinked racism to Qatar.


Eagles must beat Iran — NFFGENERAL secretary

of the NigeriaFootball Federation,Barrister Musa Amaduhas said that the SuperEagles must doeverything to beat Iranin their first match of theWorld Cup to have anyhope of progressing inthe competition.

The scribe alsodescribed lastweekend’s defeat to theUnited States in afriendly as a blessing indisguise that will enablethe team prepare harderfor their first matchagainst the Asianrepresentatives.

“We must beat Iran inthe first match which tome is the importantmatch to play. A victoryagainst Iran will paveway for more successesin the subsequentgames. I am confidentthat the boys are capableof doing it,” Amadu said.

“I think [the 2-1 loss tothe USA] is better theway it happenedbecause if we had wonall our three friendlymatches we would havethought we havearrived.

“I am happy that ithappened like that. Wehad two draws and a lossin the three matches theteam has played.

“We are not botheredby Iran and our otheropponents. It is not thenumber of friendlymatches you win goingto the World Cup thatwill determine yourperformance in theWorld Cup.

“There are teams thatwon all their friendlymatches before going tothe World Cup and didnot last the first round ofthe competition.

“We will go to Brazilwith great spirit. Theloss against theAmericans will let usknow that the job is notyet done. There arelessons to be learnt inthe three matches mostespecially the matchagainst USA whichwould help the coach tocorrect these lapsesbefore we start playingthe World Cup.

“I remember Bulgariain 1994 World Cup inthe United States ofAmerica, prior to thecompetition they lost alltune up matches andlost their previous 13matches and even lost 3-0 to Nigeria but endedup being the fourth bestin the world. So the mostimportant thing ispreparations for thecompetition and whatyou have been able to doduring that period.”

•Mark Ellis (l) former Arsenal assistant coach exercising with coaches duringthe coaching clinic held at the Warri Township Stadium.

NOC unveils Rio 2016medals targetBY JOHNEGBOKHAN

THE Nigeria OlympicCommittee (NOC) is

set to partner withvarious arms of thearmed forces for thepurpose of ensuring thatTeam Nigeria winsmedals at the Rio 2016Olympics Games.

Team Nigeriarecorded a very poorperformance at the 2012Games in London,which led to PresidentGoodluck Jonathanorganising a sportsretreat in Aso Rock tofashion out modalitiesto return Nigeria towinning ways at thenext Olympics.

And with Rio 2016Olympics Games justtwo years away, the bodyresponsible forNigeria’s participationin international sporting

competitions is movingfast to stem the tide of arepeat poor showing atthe global stage.

Speaking yesterday inLagos, President of theNOC, Sani Ndanusasaid that in line withPresident Jonathan’sdirective that theOlympic body waspartnering variousmilitary and para-military bodies in thecountry to groomathletes that can winmedals in Brazil.

Ndanusa said theNOC hinged its decisionto reach out to thearmed forces because“we all know that theyhave the facilities andpeople who are trainedin the art of shooting,swimming, boxing andother combat sports,which are multi-medalsports in the Olympics.

All Africa Challenge: 3 ladygolfers represent Nigeria inKenya

NIGERIA is beingrepresented by

three lady golfers at theongoing 2014 All AfricaChallenge taking placein Kenya. The threegolfers include RachelDanjuma from the IBBGolf and Country Club,Abuja, Alaba Adetunji ofthe Ikeja Golf Club andFaith Gaya of Ibori Golfand Country Club,Asaba. The team is ledby the President of the

Lady Golfers Associationof Nigeria, MargaretActoh.

Speaking from Cairo,Actoh said that Nigeria’schances are bright as thegolfers were doing wellon the course.

“We have a very brightchance of winning thetournament. We are wellplaced to win the overalltitle as we arerepresented by the bestfrom our land.”

She lamented the lackof sponsorship forwomen golf as efforts tosolicit corporate supportfor her association fromcompanies in Nigeriahave been abortive.

“Most companies havenot shown interest inwhat we are doing. Butwe are hererepresenting thecountry,” she said.•A lady golfer in action

•Oboabona gets past Jozy Altidore of the USAduring their friendly. USA won 2-1.


WORLD CUP: 1 day to go WORLD CUP: 1 day to go

Brazil looking to startstrongly

BRAZIL are lookingto send a message

to supporters and rivalsin the World Cup’sopening match, rightback Dani Alves hassaid, raising the stakesfor the clash againstCroatia.

A lacklustre 1-0 winover Serbia in Friday’swarmup game broughtjeers from the homecrowd and raised doubts

about the heavilyfavoured Brazil team,which Alves was quick todismiss. He said the hostnation’s players wouldbe at their best when thetournament begins onThursday.

”The moment of truthis starting now,” he toldreporters, turning thefocus to the opener. “It’snot just about threepoints, it should alsosend a message to futurerivals."

Nishimura of Japan toreferee World Cup opener

JAPANESE refereeYuichi Nishimura

will handle the openinggame of the World Cupbetween Brazil andCroatia as FIFA pickedthe same official whooversaw the Brazilians’elimination in the lasttournament in South Af-rica.

FIFA also selectedNicola Rizzoli of Italy toofficiate the hotly-antic-ipated Group B gamebetween world champi-on Spain and the Neth-erlands, a rematch of theill-tempered final fouryears ago.

FIFA said Tuesday thatNishimura will be joinedby compatriots Toru Sa-gara and Toshiyuki Nagi,

who will be the assistantreferees for Thursday’sBrazil-Croatia tourna-ment and Group A open-er at the Itaquerao sta-dium in Sao Paulo. Iran’sAlireza Faghani is thefourth official.

The 42-year-old Nish-imura handled fourgames at the last WorldCup, including Brazil’sloss to the Netherlandsin the quarterfinals. Hesent off Brazil’s FelipeMelo in that game forstamping on ArjenRobben as the Brazilianssurrendered the lead tolose 2-1.

Of FIFA’s 25 refereesfor Brazil, Nishimura isone of five that havebeen retained from theWorld Cup in 2010.Brazil's Alves ready to go

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How to Play Sudoku

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

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

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

YESTERYESTERYESTERYESTERYESTERDAY'S ANSWERSDAY'S ANSWERSDAY'S ANSWERSDAY'S ANSWERSDAY'S ANSWERSTODAY'S PUZZLETODAY'S PUZZLETODAY'S PUZZLETODAY'S PUZZLETODAY'S PUZZLE

YESTERDAY'S SOLUTIONS

VANGUARD, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 11, 2014

QUICK CROSSWORDQUICK CROSSWORDQUICK CROSSWORDQUICK CROSSWORDQUICK CROSSWORD

ACROSS: 2, Abate 7, Lasso 8, Throw 10,Tired 12, Rip 13, Civil 15, Melodic 17,Roared 19, Sea 20, Deviate 23, Maid 25,Year 26, Debated 30, Say 31, Defile 34,Receded 37, Sleep 38, Tor 39, Drape 40,Halve 41, Osier 42, Smith.

DOWN: 1, Radio 2, Astir 3, Boiled 4, Teem5, Throaty 6, Topic 9, Rid 11, Desired 13,Crime 14, Valid 16, Lea 18, Delayed 21,Eerie 22, Creep 24, Deserve 27, Bad 28,Despot 29, Petal 32, Flesh 33, Lever 35, Col36, Dram.

ACROSS1 Staunch (4)4 Maul (3)6 Die (4)8 Coma (6)9 Ally (6)10 Wonder (3)12 Snake (5)14 Javelin (5)15 Avoid (5)18 Author (6)20 Scare (6)24 Engine (5)26 Enquired (5)28 Drunkard (5)30 Aye (3)32 God-like (6)33 Reviewer (6)34 Lake (4)35 Vessel (3)36 Entrance (4)

DOWN2 Trunk (5)3 Tower (7)4 Excuse (4)5 Spouse (4)6 Brittle (5)7 Under (7)11 Marry (3)12 Intimidate (3)13 Greeting (3)16 Limb (3)17 Newt (3)19 Rest (7)21 Decay (3)22 Pressing (7)23 Sailor (3)25 Mineral (3)27 Chosen (5)29 Order (5)30 Yap (4)31 Scrutinise (4)

Yobo roars...We are ready for Iran

SUPER Eaglescaptain, Joseph Yobo

has expressed the SuperEagles readiness totrample upon TeamMelli when both sidesface in Group F’sopening game at the2014 Fifa World CupBrazil.

Uzoenyi offto Brazil

EJIKE Uzoenyi departed for Brazil last

night to join the rest ofhis team-mates after hewas selected asreplacement for injuredElderson Echiejile in

Continues on pg 60

Continues on pg 60

Continues on pg 60

No shaking — KeshiSUPER Eagles head

coach StephemKeshi remains confidentin the face of fading op-timism amongNigerians over the his

team’s chances to pulloff good results in Brazil2014 World Cup.

•Yobo

•Keshi

PROTECTED: GrahamZusi of US sheilds the ballfrom Ogenyi Onazi duringtheir friendly. USA won 2-1

Documents

48 HOURS AS NEW KANO EMIR: Sanusi operates from Govt House