JONATHAN'S PERFORMANCE: Our verdict, by industrialists, others

...towards a better life for the people

N150VOL. 25: NO. 61894

ONLINE | www.vanguardngr.com

FRIDAY, MAY 31, 2013**

Mr & Mrs

DONUKOGBARA

COLUMNISTS:

ADISAADELEYE

•P.28

Continues on page 5

•P.17

Our verdict, byindustrialists, others

Political andeconomicstability: So far

BY OUR REPORTERS

LAGOS—MIXEDreactions have

trailed PresidentGoodluck Jonathan's as-sessment of his adminis-tration in which he saidhe has done well. Manyoperators in the privatesector dismissed the passmark which the Presi-dent awarded to himself,saying that available

DISCOVERED—A cache of weapons on display, yesterday, at a house in the Bompai area of Kano after its discovery inan underground bunker. Security agents alleged the weapons were supplied by the Lebanese shiite militant group Hezbollah toattack Israeli and western interests in Nigeria. More pictures and story on Pages 6&7.

HEZBOLLAH ARMOURY IN KANO

•Say Nigerians yet to feel impact of growing economy•Power situation impacts negatively on investments — LCCI

JONATHAN'S PERFORMANCE:•I have no hand in his travails — First Lady

SAME SEX MARRIAGE: Reps approve 14 yrs jail term

We 'll swim or sink with Amaechi— 27 Rivers lawmakers

•Pgs.A6&A7

•Pgs.9&14

MammanKontagoradies@ 70•P.38

—P.8

CMYK

2 — Vanguard, FRIDAY, MAY 31, 2013

Vanguard, FRIDAY, MAY 31, 2013 — 3


POCKET CARTOON

TAKE HEARTBY ELLA RANDLE

Vanguard, FRIDAY,MAY 31, 2013—5

LIFEWORDSBY PASTOR ITUAH

Continues from page 1

You may not control all the events that happen toyou, but you can decide not to be reduced by them- Maya Angelou. How you react to something de-termines what the thing becomes.

Every single thing that has ever happened in yourlife is preparing you for a moment that is yet tocome — Mack And Angel Hack

IN your quiet moments, what do you think about?How far you’ve come, or how far you have to

go? Your strengths or your weaknesses? In your quietmoments, pay attention to your thoughts. Becausemaybe, just maybe, the only thing that needs to shiftin order for you to experience more happiness, morelove, and more vitality, is your way of thinking. Hereare some thought-provoking quotes from Mack andAngel Hack about life lessons that may help youadjust your way of thinking.

You cannot change what you refuse to confront.Sometimes good things fall apart, so better thingscan fall together. Don’t think of cost. Think of value.Sometimes you need to distance yourself to seethings clearly. Too many people buy things theydon’t need with money they don’t have to impresspeople they don’t know. No matter how many mis-takes you make or how slow you progress, you arestill way ahead of everyone who isn’t trying. If peo-ple want to be part of your life, they will make obvi-ous effort to do so. Think twice before reserving aspace in your heart for people who do not make aneffort to stay. Saying someone is ugly doesn’t makeyou any prettier. The only normal people you knoware the ones you don’t know very well. Life is 10%of what happens to you and 90% of how you react toit.

field experiences anddata do not bear him outcompletely. Othersagreed, however, thatthere are some levels of

improvement. But allhave agreed that the wel-fare of Nigerians has notimproved as unemploy-ment is rising by the day.

Director-General, La-gos Chamber of Com-

merce and Industry,Muda Yussuf said: “Eco-nomic growth trend,measured by the per-formance of the GrossDomestic Product (GDP),has been generally posi-tive over the last twoyears, averaging about6.5 per cent. This is goodcompared to growth con-ditions in most econo-mies around the world.However, there remainsa major concern aboutthe weak impact of thegrowth performance onprivate sector and thewelfare of the Nigerianpeople.

“Virtually all businesssegments lamented theharsh operating environ-ment in recent years.The power situation de-teriorated as we nowhave a relapse into achronic power failure.The refineries are stillunderperforming; unem-ployment level is stillhigh and cost of fund ishigh.

“Sectors that postedgood growth perform-ances as at December2012 were telecommuni-cations, 31.8 per cent;Hotel and Restaurants,12.2 per cent; Solid Min-erals, 12.5 per cent;Building and Construc-tion, 12.6 per cent; RealEstate 12.4 per cent; andWholesale and RetailTrade, 9.6 per cent. How-ever, the contributions of

most of the sectors toGDP are not significant.Respective contributionsare as follows: telecom-munications, 7 per cent;Solid Minerals, 0.4 percent; Hotel and Tourism,0.6 per cent; Buildingand Construction, 2.2per cent; Real Estate, 1.9per cent. The character ofgrowth explains the lim-ited impact of growthperformance on welfareof citizens. Local valueaddition and indigenousparticipation in many ofthe sectors is still verylow”. He agreed that“Nigeria had become amajor portfolio invest-ment destination in Af-rica because investorsare more comfortable ina democratic environ-ment,”.

He, however, said thatthere was huge disparitybetween the nation’s eco-nomic growth and theliving standard of Nige-rians. “InternationalMonetary Fund rankedNigeria number 36 in theworld on account of GDPestimated at 273 billiondollars in 2012. UnitedNations DevelopmentProgramme, ranked thenation number 157 onaccount of human devel-opment index in thesame year,” he said.Yusuf said that the divi-dends of democracycould be evident in thebusiness sector if govern-

ment had intervened inthe challenges confront-ing the sector. Manysmall and medium-scaleenterprises still have se-rious challenge in ac-cessing credit even athigh rates. The powersituation, which im-proved slightly towardsthe end of 2012, hassince deteriorated. Thisdevelopment led to in-crease in expenditure ondiesel and petrol and aresulting decline in pro-ductivity and competi-tiveness,” he said. Yussufappealed to governmentto bring a lasting solutionto security issues in or-der to boost the confi-dence of investors.

Capital marketoperators slamcorruption

Capital market opera-tors agreed that theGoodluck Jonathan’s ad-ministration has indeedenacted some policiesthat have favourably im-pacted not just the capi-tal market, but the entirefinancial system. Theyhowever, said that morestill needed to be doneon the area of corruption,which they said is sys-temic.

Reacting to the Presi-dent’s mid-term assess-ment, Mr. EmekaMadubuike, Chairman,Association ofStockbroking Houses ofNigeria, ASHON, andthe Managing Director,Compass InvestmentLimited, said: “Thoughthere are still some un-resolved issues, like theissue of corruption, butlooking at the numberscoming out of the finan-cial system, one cannotbut say that the Jonathanadministration has donequite a lot in stabilisingthe system. The financialsystem I know about isthe capital market and itis doing well. You canonly attribute this to thefact that some people aredoing well. There musthave been some policies

put in place by this gov-ernment to warrant thekind of stability we arewitnessing in the finan-cial circle. We cannot runaway from that.”

According to him, theconstitution of the AssetManagement Corpora-tion of Nigeria,AMCON, and its variousroles in ridding the bank-ing sector and capitalmarket of toxic assetscannot be wished away.He affirmed that thisalong with the reforms inthe banking system ini-tiated by the governor ofCentral Bank, MallamSanusi Lamido, was anattestation of the goodwork Jonathan has donein economic circles.

“Look at the formationof AMCON, the cleans-ing in the banking sec-tor and even the GDP. Allthese show that some-body somewhere is do-ing a good work,” headed.

Speaking in the samevein, Alhaji RasheedYussuff, Managing Di-rector, Trust Yield Secu-rities Limited, said thatthe resolution of the mar-gin loan facility debacle,and conclusion of re-forms in the banking sec-tor have helped in stabil-ising the entire financialsystem, adding, “to thatextent, he has helpedthe capital market tocome out of doldrums.

“Talking about themacro-economic envi-ronment, some Ministersappointed by Jonathanare really doing well.Talk of the Minister ofFinance, Minister of Ag-riculture, Minister of In-dustry, Trade & Invest-ment, and the CentralBank Governor. Thesefour people are manag-ing the macro-economywell. Kudos should begiven to them,” headded. Nonetheless, hestated that some of theachievements by theseministers were yet to befelt by the common man,saying that more shouldbe done in this regard.

Continues on page 53

JONATHAN'S PERFORMANCE:Our verdict — Industrialists, others

PDP DINNER—President Goodluck Jonathan (l) and the Speaker House of Representatives,Hon. Aminu Tambuwal exchanging banters during the People's Democratic Party's Family Dinner or-ganised at the Banquet Hall, Presidential Villa, Abuja, yesterday. Photo: Abayomi Adeshida.

6—Vanguard, FRIDAY, MAY 31, 2013 Vanguard, FRIDAY, MAY 31, 2013—7

Kano arms cache belongs to Hezbollah— DSS

BY EMMA AMAIZE

Justice Rhodes-Vivour’s wife,others released after N3m ransom

BY ABDULSALAMMUHAMMAD

Rev Okotie'sex-pianistdocked forcontempt ofcourt

BY ONONZUREDANIA

Arms, ammunition and the underground bunker in Kano.

Baker jailedover bromate

Man nabbed for impersonating, defrauding Tapgun

Flood: Commuters stranded on Keffi-AbujaExpressway

LAGOS—AN ex-pianistof Household of God

Church, Okiofor Dafiaghor,40, was yesterday arraignedbefore a Lagos MagistrateCourt, over contempt of court.

Dafiaghor, who is facing acount charge before Magis-trate Akinde, was said to begoing through a trial beforea Senior Magistrate Court 27,presided over by MagistrateOshodi Makanju.

The defendant was said tobe facing a criminal chargeof an alleged offence beforeCourt 27, when he went toask for the money his formeremployer, Rev. Chris Okotie,owed him and was arrestedand charged to court.

The police prosecutor,Chinalu Uwadione, said thatthe defendant committed thealleged offence on May 10,at about 3pm.

He said that the defendantdid committed misdemeanorto wit contempt of court bypublishing or caused to bepublished in social mediaMagistrate Makanju’s pho-tograph and defamatorycomments, over a ruling de-livered in a criminal casewith charge No Mik/L /95/2012, over the matter that issubjudicated before Magis-trate Makanju.

Ruling onattemptedjudge's murderfor June 5

KANO—DIRECTOR of Department of State Serv-

ices, DSS, in Kano, Mr.Bassey Etang, has said theweapons of mass destructiondiscovered in a bunker at aLebanese residence in Kano,Tuesday, belong to interna-tional terrorist organisation,Hezbollah.

Etang spoke to newsmen inKano, during a joint confer-ence with the Commandant ofthe 3 Motorised Division inKano, Brigadier-GeneralIliyasu Abba, at the scene ofthe discovery in Bompai areaof the Kano metropolis.

He said: “The weapons werebrought in by an internationalterrorist organisation,Hezbollah, to attack Israeliand Western interest in Ni-geria.

“On May 28, a combinedteam of the JTF involving thearmy of the 3 Brigade in Kanoand the Kano state DSS con-ducted a thorough search onthis house located at No 3

Gaya Road, off Bompai Road,Kano, belonging to one AbdulHassan Taher Fadlalla, aLebanese, who is currently outof the country.

“After painstakingly search-ing the premises, the searchteam uncovered an under-ground bunker in the masterbed room, where a large

quantity of assorted weaponsof different types and caliberwere recovered. The bunkerwas specially constructed forthis purpose.”

Taking stockOn his part, the Comman-

dant, Brigadier Abba, said theweapons of mass destructioninclude 11, 50mm anti-tankweapons, two 122mm artillerygun ammunition, four anti-tank landmines, 21 rocket-pro-pelled grenades, RPG, 16rocket-propelled grenadescharger, one rocket-propelledgrenade tube and 76 militarygrenade.

Others are one SMG rifle,nine pistols, 17 AK-47 rifles,44 magazines, 11,433 roundsof 7.62mm special ammunitionand 103 packet of slap TNT.

Brigadier Abba further re-vealed that “investigation alsoconfirms the existence of aHezbollah Foreign TerroristCell in Nigeria.

ArrestOn May 16, DSS arrested

one Mustapha Fawaz the co-owner of the popular AmigoSupermarket and WonderlandAmusement Park, all in Abuja.

His arrest and confessionunveiled other members of theforeign terrorists network,which led to the interceptionof one member of the syndi-cate named Abdullah Tahini,a Lebanese, at the MallamAminu Kano International Air-port with undeclared 60,000United States Dollars on him

en-route Beirut.Thereafter, on May 26 one

Talal Roda, also a Lebanesewith Nigerian passport, wasarrested in this same house.

According to the BrigadeCommander, all the arrestedsuspects have confessed to

have undergone Hezbollahterrorist training and furtherimplicated one Fauzi Fawad,also a co-owner of Amigo Su-permarket and WonderlandAmusement Park.

He said: “The fellow is nowat large. The arms and ammu-

nition were targeted at facilitiesof Israel and Western interest inNigeria.

“However, the security agen-cies are making efforts to un-veil the true situation. At the endof investigation, all those in-volved will be prosecuted.”

WARRI—KIDNAPPERS ofMrs. Adedoyin Rhodes-

Vivour, wife of a SupremeCourt Justice, her daughterand driver, allegedly collectedN3 million ransom before re-leasing them on Tuesday.

A reliable source told Van-guard: “The ransom was paidmore than a week before theywere released, but the kidnap-pers still held them captive be-cause the other victims heldwith them in their camp wereyet to pay their own ransom.

“It was only when all paidup that they released all ofthem. One of the victims isMr. Frank Elumeze, a top of-

ficial of the Delta State WaterBoard, who was also kid-napped, some weeks ago

“He was released alongwith the Rhodes-Vivours onTuesday after the ransom forhim was paid.

“The camp where they heldis in Delta State. It is not secu-rity agents that freed them.Nobody knew where werekept.

“They contacted the familiesand the judge’s family paid N2million, while somebody elsepaid N1 million to bring thetotal ransom for the three ofthem to N3 million.

“The victims were blind-folded by the kidnappers andtaken to somewhere near the

Church of God Mission Inter-national in Benin, before theyopened their eyes and askedthem to find their way.”

As at yesterday, securityagents were yet to locate thecamp used by kidnappers. Thetrio were abducted on May 10on their way to Benin, EdoState, for a wedding.

The kidnappers had initiallyasked for N200 million ransom.

According to the source, “thereleased official of the DeltaWater Board is in a hotel some-where, resting, but has prom-ised to resume work by Mon-day.”

11 arrested overlecturer’s kidnap

Meanwhile, 11 persons havebeen arrested by the police inconnection with the kidnap ofa lecturer in science education,Delta State University, DELSU,Abraka, Dr. (Mrs) MercyMokobia on April 9, at 1a.m.in her bedroom.

Dr. Mokobi has not beenfound, but the police had de-stroyed a house in Ozoro,where the kidnappers, includ-ing three females, were tracedafter collecting N1.2 millionransom.

BY EGUFE YAFUGBORHI

3 docked over N21m robbery

MARARABA—COM-MUTERS on Keffi-

Abuja Expressway atMararaba, which bordersAbuja, got stranded followinga downpour, yesterday, thatcaused flooding which cut offaccess to the road.

Some of the commuters at-tributed the flooding toblocked drains. They com-plained that most of the trad-ers at the Mararaba Marketdump refuse in the drains,thereby obstructing the flow ofwater whenever it rained.

Mr. Ola Johnson, a com-muter, said the traffic jamcaused by the flood would havebeen avoided, if the traderswere environment-friendly.

He said: “The way traders inthis area dispose of theirrefuse is not proper. Often yousee them sweep their sur-rounding only to dump the

filth in the gutter.“Now see how we are

stranded because of the actionof a few people. Now they willblame it all on government.But in our own little corner,what are we doing to help the

government?”Usen also noted that if ad-

equate sanitation facilities,such as refuse bins were pro-vided, it would help the resi-dents to dispose their refuseproperly.

Royal Dream Bus-Stop on Keffi-Abuja Expressway, Mararaba, Nasarawa State,after a downpour, yesterday.

LAGOS—THREE serialarmed robbers were, yester-

day, arraigned before an IkejaMagistrate Court for allegedlyrobbing one Alexander Onabuleand one Funke Oguntoyinbo ofN21.6 million.

The suspects, whose nameswere given as Emmanuel Stanley24, Godwin Abanum 26 andWasiu Odeyinka 23, were dockedbefore Magistrate Akinde.

The defendants and others atlarge are facing a three-countcharge of conspiracy, felony

and armed robbery.Police prosecutor Chinalu

Uwadione, told the court thatthe defendants committed thecrime on February 13 at11:15am at Jakande Gate, Isoloarea of Lagos.

He said that the suspects,while armed with a gun, charmand other dangerous weapons,robbed the victims of two HPlaptops, worth N320,000; oneToshiba Satellite laptop worthN140,000; one i-Pad valuedN120,000 and cash amount-ing to $7,500 dollars, amongothers.

BY ONONZURE DANIA

PORT HARCOURT—HOSTAGE-takers have asked

Dr. Godstime Ogbeoleka, Sen-ior Lecturer with Ignatius AjuruUniversity of Education, IAUE,Rivers State, to cough out N15million to buy freedom for hisson, Thomas Ogbeoleka, whothey kidnapped Wednesday af-ternoon.

Thomas, 30, was in his fa-ther ’s residence at Ihuapa,Ahoada West Local GovernmentArea, when the armed menstruck and whisked him awayon one of the motor bikes theyrode on.

A relative said: “Four maskedmen stormed the compoundwith Okada in the afternoon.

“They walked straight to thefather’s house asking for one ofthe victim’s elder brother inpolite tones.

“When they could not find theprime target, they broke in and

Abductors demand N15m for lecturer’s songrabbed Thomas after robbingthe house. They started shoot-ing when they were leaving thescene and that was when neigh-bours got to know they werekidnappers.”

Another family source said:“The kidnappers have contactedus with hidden phone numbers

demanding N15 million. Therehas been appeal for N1 million.They we were joking.”

Rivers State Police Public Re-lation officer, Ms. AngelaAgabe, when contacted on thematter said she was in a brief-ing and needed time to estab-lish a police position.

... as don faces trial over$48,000 fraud charge

ABUJA—ECONOMIC andFinancial Crimes Commis-

sion, EFCC, yesterday, ar-raigned a senior lecturer atAmbrose Ali University,Ekpoma, Edo State, Dr.Stephen Abah, before an AbujaHigh Court.

Abah was docked on a two-count charge bordering on

criminal breach of trust, con-spiracy and obtaining money byfalse pretence.

He was said to have, betweenAugust 2008 and March 2009,obtained $48,500 from one UdehGodwin under the guise of set-ting up a joint company but di-verted the funds to personal use.

The offence, according toEFCC, is contrary to Section 311of the Penal Code and punish-able under Section 312 of thesame code.

However, the accused person,yesterday, pleaded not guilty tothe charge.

The defence counsel, AbelOzioko told the court that EFCChad previously granted admin-istrative bail to the accused per-son on self recognition.

Stressing that it was his cli-ent that voluntarily submittedhimself for trial, Ozioko, yester-day, urged the court to granthim bail on liberal terms.

However, the prosecution coun-sel, Mr. Sukuji Bandawa opposedthe bail application on thegrounds that he was just servedwith the bail application andwould need time to respond.

Justice Olasumbo Goodluckadjourned ruling on the bail ap-plication to June 4 and fixedJuly 11 and 16 for trial.

BY IKECHUKWUNNOCHIRI

A man, Vincent Venman, described as a fraudster by

Economic and FinancialCrimes Commission, EFCC,has been arrested for allegedlyimpersonating former PlateauState Governor, FidelisTapgun, and defrauding himof N5 million.

Venman a.k.a. FidelisTapgun, was apprehended ata first generation bank branchin Jos, Plateau State, while at-tempting to withdraw N2 mil-lion sent to him as a bait bythe serving Senator, whom hehad earlier defrauded of N5million by claiming to be Am-bassador Fidelis Tapgun.

Bulus’ undoing was his in-sistence to further milk theSenator after collecting N5

million sent to him in twoinstallments through the ac-count name, Venman VincentBulus with number account30775681.

His demanded for anotherN2 million, which infuriatedthe lawmaker, who reportedthe scam to EFCC.

In return, the commissionswiftly initiated investigationand advised the Senator to playalong. The suspect was subse-quently nabbed as he was try-ing to withdraw the money.

Items recovered from him in-cluded N2.5 million, a ToyotaPrado SUV 2012 model and asavings account withdrawalbooklet.

BY SONI DANIEL

BY CHIOMA OBINNA

THE Federal High Courtin Osogbo, Osun State,

has convicted an Osogbobread baker, Mr. AfolabiNurudeen, for obstructingofficials of National Agencyfor Food and Drugs Admin-istration and Control,NAFDAC, in the course ofperforming their duties.

Meanwhile, NAFDAC hasimpounded counterfeit medi-cines valued atN59,300,000.00 in Lagos.

Director-General of theagency, Dr. Paul Orhii, whocommended the judiciary,disclosed that the agency hadrecorded about seven convic-tions since 2009.

Afolabi was said to havebeen arranged before thecourt on May 12, 2011 underSection 25(1) of the NAFDACAct, Cap 1, Law of the Fed-eration of Nigeria 2004 andpunishable under section 25(1) of same Act.

He explained that onMarch 15, 2010, at IsaleAgbara Street, Osogbo, theconvict was said to have at-tacked NAFDAC AssistantDirector, Mrs. YedunniAdenuga and other officialsof the agency, when theyfound prohibited potassiumbromate in his bakery.

Delivering his judgment,Justice Babs Kuewumi pro-nounced that Afolabi wasguilty of the offence leveledagainst him and sentencedhim to one year imprison-ment with option of four thou-sand naira.

7-yr-marriagedissolved overmother-in-lawpalaver

LAGOS—A cosmetologist,who said her mother-in-

law interfered in her mar-riage, yesterday, secured di-vorce in Lagos.

Mrs Kikelomo Olomogua,23, had her seven-year-oldmarriage to Kayode, 38,ended, following a divorcesuit she filed on March 4,before an Agege CustomaryCourt.

She had told the court thather mother-in-law controlledher home, and that Kayodesupported her.

She said: “My husbandbeats me anytime I have a mis-understanding with hismother.

“My mother-in-law alwayscomplains of my dressing,she told my husband that Iwas prostituting.

“I can’t continue living withmother and son; I know mymother-in-law is my hus-band’s first wife.”

RULING on the bail application of a commer-

cial bus driver, Mr. KasaliQuadri, who was arraignedfor allegedly attempting tokill a Lagos High Courtjudge, Justice EbenezerAdebajo, was yesterday ad-journed till June 5.

The presiding judge, Jus-tice Christopher Balogun ofa Lagos High Court sittingin Igbosere, and someother selected judges, weresaid to be having an ADRjudges meeting inIgbosere, yesterday, whichstalled ruling of the de-fendant’s bail application.

Quadri, who has been inprison custody since March2012, was arraigned beforeJustice Balogun on a one-count charge of attemptedmurder proffered againsthim by the state.

BY BARTHOLOMEWMADUKWE

8—Vanguard, FRIDAY, MAY 31, 2013

Same sex marriage: Reps approve14 years imprisonment

BY OKEY NDIRIBE &EMMAN OVUAKPORIE

ABUJA—THE House of Representatives, yesterday, en-

dorsed a 14 years jail sentencewith no option of fine for samesex couples. The House alsooutlawed gay clubs and societiesin the country.

The lawmakers took these de-cisions while considering the re-port on a “Bill for an Act to pro-hibit marriage or civil union en-tered between persons of samesex, solemnization of same andother matters related".

The House also placed a 10years jail term for members ofgay associations or those en-gaged in gay processions. Thelawmakers resolved that anymarriage or civil union enteredinto by persons of same genderis prohibited.

The bill on same sex was intro-duced on the floor of the Houselast year. A public hearing on thematter was held in October, 2012.

The senate had also passed abill prohibiting same sex unionwith similar jail terms for offend-ers.

With the consideration of thereport, the bill will now wait forharmonisation with the senate’sversion.

Yesterday’s consideration of thereport was presided over by theDeputy Speaker, Emeka Iheio-ha. The House resolved that“marriage contract or civil unionentered between persons of samegender by virtue of a certificateissued by a foreign country shallbe void in Nigeria, and any ben-efits accruing therefrom by vir-tue of the certificate shall not beenforced by any court of law inNigeria”.

It outrightly banned solemni-zation of same sex marriage inplace of worship like church,mosque, traditional places .

The Bill provides that: “Mar-riage or civil union entered be-tween persons of same gendershall not be solemnised in anyplace of worship either in achurch or Mosque or in any oth-er place in Nigeria”.

The House insisted that “Onlymarriage contract between a manand a woman either under Is-lamic law, Customary law andMarriage Act is recoganised asvalid in Nigeria.

Same sex marriage, anabsurdity

The bill described same sex mar-riage as an absurdity that shouldnot be allowed in the country.The House ruled that no personshould be allowed to operate agay club.

The bill further stated that “any

person who registers, operatesor participates in gay clubs, so-cieties and organisations or di-rectly or indirectly makes a pub-lic show of same sex amorousrelationship commits an offenceand shall each be liable on con-victions to a term of 10 yearsimprisonment .

“Any persons or group of per-sons that witnesses, screens,

shields and aids the solemniza-tion of a same sex marriage con-tract or civil union or supportsthe registration of gay clubs, so-cieties and organisations, pro-cessions or meetings in Nigeriacommits an offence and is liableon conviction to a term of 10 yearsimprisonment”.

On the courts that will have thejurisdiction to entertain same sex

marriage litigations, the bill pro-vides that both the state and Fed-eral Capital Territory, FCT, courtsare empowered to hear cases ofbreach of any provision of the bill.

The bill further provides that“the High Court of a State or ofthe Federal Capital Territory shallhave jurisdiction to entertain mat-ters arising from the breach of theprovisions of the bill.”

FG vs Al-Mustapha: Judge declines tohear appeal over death sentence

BY INNOCENT ANABA

LAGOS—JUSTICE IbrahimSaulawa of the Court of Ap-

peal, Lagos, yesterday, de-clined hearing in the appeal byMajor Hamza Al-Mustaphaand Lateef Shofolahan, chal-lenging the death sentencehanded them by a Lagos StateHigh Court.

Al-Mustapha, former ChiefSecurity Officer to late GeneralSanni Abacha, and Shofolahan,former Personal Assistant to Al-haja Kudirat Abiola, were chal-lenging the death sentencepassed on them by the lowercourt on January 30, 2012, byJustice Mojisola Dada, for con-spiracy in masterminding themurder of late Kudirat Abiola,wife of late Chief MKO Abiola.

When the matter came up yes-terday, for argument, the pre-siding Justice, Justice Saulawa

declined hearing for personalreasons.

He told counsel to the convictsthat he could only assist them inrecording a further date for ar-guments, but will not participatein hearing the main appeal forreasons which he described aspersonal.

He consequently adjournedthe case till June 10 for hearing.

Meantime, the court grantedthe application by the respond-ent, seeking to amend its re-spondent’s brief by substitutingit with the correct version, anddeeming same as being proper-ly filed and served, while an ap-plication by Shofolahan’s coun-sel, for an order, deeming hisreply to the amended respond-ent’s brief, as properly filed andserved, was also granted.

The convicts were arraigned inOctober 1999 on a four-countcharge bordering on conspiracyand their involvement in the 1996murder of the deceased on the

Lagos/Ibadan expressway.The lower court found them

guilty of the offence, and accord-ingly convicted and sentencedthem to death by hanging.

In their appeals, the appellantswere contending that the deathsentence passed on them by thelower court was unwarranted, un-reasonable and a manifest mis-carriage of justice, arguing thatthe trial judge erred in law by ar-riving at the conclusion that theyconspired to kill Alhaja Kudiraton June 4, 1996.

The appellants faulted thejudge’s treatment of the contra-dictory statements of BarnabasJabila (aka Sgt. Rogers) andMohmamed Abdul, as well as thereliance on the testimony of Dr.Ore Falomo on the bullet extract-ed from Late Kudirat.

They also faulted the court’srejection of portions of Jabila’stestimony which they felt favouredthem and applying only areaswhich did not favour them.

Reps toprobe alleged$40minternetspyingcontract

BY OKEY NDIRIBE &EMMAN OVUAKPORIE

ABUJA—THE House ofRepresentatives, yester-

day, passed a resolution toprobe the alleged award of a$40 million internet spying con-tact to a foreign company tomonitor the Internet activitiesof Nigerians.

The House also directed itscommittees on ICT, humanrights, Justice and anti-corrup-tion to conduct the investiga-tion and report back to theHouse in three weeks.

The resolution was unani-mously passed by the House.The lawmakers also directedthe Federal Government to sus-pend all action with regard tothe contract pending the out-come of the investigation.

The resolution was passedbased on a motion under mat-ters of urgent public impor-tance presented by IbrahimShehu Gusau (ANPP Zam-fara).

He noted that the contractwas reported to have beenawarded secretly and in wan-ton disregard of due process,Fiscal Responsibility Act andBureau of Public ProcurementAct 2007.

He revealed that the awardof the contract violated the ba-sic privacy provision in chap-ter four section 37 of the 1999constitution as amended.

According to him: “The con-tract was awarded under theguise of gathering informationto enhance national security;but this may not be the answerto the glaring security challeng-es of today’s Nigeria. The rightto private and family life hasbeen violated”.

He further revealed that theclandestine contract wasawarded by President Jonath-an’s administration to Elbit Sys-tems, an Israeli Informationtechnology firm to spy on mil-lions of Nigerian internet us-ers.

It would be recalled that op-position parties in the countryand several media organisa-tions expressed outrage overthe development when it wasreported by the media severalweeks ago.

Meanwhile, the spokesmanof the House, Zakari Moham-med, yesterday, told newsmenthat the lawmakers did not con-sider President GoodluckJonathan’s request for theamendment of the 2013 Budg-et Act as urgent, adding thatthe document would be consid-ered at the appropriate time.

BUSINESS SUMMIT—From left: National President of Nigerian Association of Cham-bers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture, NACCIMA, Alhaji Muhammad Abu-bakar; Commercial Counsellor in the Embassy of Austria in Nigeria, Nella Hengstler;Commercial Attache', Andrea Kubista and NACCIMA second Deputy National President,Chief Alaba Lawson, during the visit of the Commercial Counsellor to NACCIMA on theirplanned Business Summit.


BY JIMITOTA ONOYUME& HENRY UMORU We 'll swim or sink with Amaechi

— Rivers lawmakers

BOOK LAUNCH—From left: Justice George Adesola Oguntade (Rtd); Author, Mr. AdekunleOsibogun; Legal Luminary, Chief (Mrs) Folake Solanke and Chairman of the Occasion, Mr.Ademola Adeyinka, at the presentation of the book, “The Citizen’s Book on Governance” inLagos, yesterday. Photo: Kehinde Gbadamosi.

PORT HARCOURT—27members of the Rivers

State House of Assembly, yes-terday, vowed to swim or sinkwith Governor Rotimi Amaechias they dismissed insinuationsthat some of them had suc-cumbed to inducements to im-peach the governor.

The assertion by the lawmak-ers came as the faction of theNigerian Governors Forum,NGF, opposed to GovernorAmaechi’s leadership, openeda new secretariat in Abuja witha promise not to antagonizePresident Goodluck Jonathan.

The opening of the GovernorJonah Jang-led factional NGFsecretariat, however, exposeda setback for the faction as Vice-President Namadi Sambo andthree governors that earlieridentified with the factionstayed away.

The 27 members of the Riv-ers State House of Assembly in-cluding the speaker, DanielAmachaere, in a joint state-ment, rebuffed insinuationsthat some of them had cavedin to entreaties to join a plot toimpeach the governor.

While pledging to swim andsink with the governor, the law-makers were, however, muteon whether approaches hadbeen made towards enlistingthem into such a plot.

Five of the 32 members of theHouse who have in the pastbeen associated with the anti-Amaechi tendency did not signthe statement.

The five lawmakers who didnot sign the release were EvansBipi, Kelechi Nwogu, MichaelChinda, Martin Amaewhuleand Victor Ihunwo.

In a statement made availa-ble to Vanguard, the lawmak-ers who also declared loyaltyto President Jonathan said:“We have observed with con-sternation rumours making therounds, even appearing on thepages of National Dailies thatwe, the 27 members of the Riv-ers State House of Assemblyhave been financially inducedto impeach Chibuike RotimiAmaechi, Governor of RiversState, and Chairman, Nigeri-an Governors Forum.

"For the avoidance of doubt,we make bold to categoricallystate as follows: that we havenot and will not receive anypecuniary gratification or mar-ginal oil fields.

"That we are united in our re-solve to commit our unalloyedloyalty to His Excellency, Rt.Hon. Chibuike R. AmaechiGovernor and the people ofRivers State; that we the un-dersigned do not contemplatethe impeachment of His Excel-lency, Rt. Hon. Chibuike R.Amaechi as an option.

"We reiterate our loyalty to thePresident and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, Dr.Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, theleader of our Great Party, the

People’s Democratic Party,PDP.”

Jang opens alternateNGF office in Abuja

In the absence of Vice Presi-dent Sambo, the secretariat ofthe faction of the NGF was for-mally unveiled by GovernorJang himself at 5.45 pm.

Besides Sambo, three othergovernors who had last week-end aligned with Jang alsofailed to turn up or send rep-resentatives to the openingceremony.

The three were GovernorsSullivan Chime of EnuguState, Abdulfatah Ahmed ofKwara and Saidu Dankigari ofKebbi.

Present at the Commission-ing of the Secretariat atNumber 2, Nana Close, offNile Street, Maitama, Abujawere governors of Taraba,Ondo, Kogi, Delta, Ebonyi,Kaduna, Cross River, Anam-bra, Abia, Akwa Ibom, Bauchi,Bayelsa, Katsina and Plateau.The governors of Gombe andBenue sent their deputies.

The invitation letter sent tothe governors for the commis-sioning, dated May 28, 2013,and signed by Governor Jangread in part, "It is my honourand pleasure to invite yourmost esteemed self to the abovemeeting which is scheduled asfollows. Date: Thursday, May30, 2013. Venue: 2 Nana Close,by Erie Crescent, off NileStreet, Maitama, Abuja.

"The meeting which shall bepreceded by the official com-missioning of our new Secre-tariat by the Vice President,

Namadi Sambo, shall amongothers, deliberate on ways andmeans of consolidating theForum.”

The NGF before its breakuplast weekend had maintaineda secretariat at No. 1 DengX-iaoping Street, Asokoro, Abu-ja.

14 of the 16 governors, whowere at the event were fromthe Peoples Democratic Party,PDP, while the other two,Olusegun Mimiko and PeterObi were from Labour Party,LP, and All Progressive GrandAlliance, APGA, respectively.

PDP governors who shunnedthe event were those of Kwara,Kebbi, Adamawa; Sokoto; Ji-gawa; Kano; Enugu; Riversand Niger states.

Absense of some govs'll not undermineJang's credibility— Dickson

Meanwhile, Governor Seri-kae Dickson of Bayelsa Stateyesterday insisted that the ab-sence of some governors wouldnot undermine the credibilityof Jang as chairman of theNGF.

“At the meeting in KwaraState where Governor RotimiAmaechi was elected, onlyseven governors and six dep-uties, and that made it a totalof 13 as we are going on morepeople will join.”

Affirming that the forum wasnot established to antagonizethe presidency, he said: “Thisforum does not exist on per-sonal aggrandizement; thisforum does not exist for antag-onizing the presidency and

other people in authority."This forum is not a platform

for opposition politics, the fo-rum is not to be used to pro-mote an agenda that will belike promoting an alternativegovernment, what we havedone is to insulate the forumfrom holding meetings ingovernors lodges and so on.

Also speaking at the occa-sion, the factional chairman,Governor Jang said the open-ing of a secretariat was to re-duce the cult of personalityin the NGF.

“It is not proper that gover-nors should meet at privateresidences, and this informedthe reason why we decidedto get a suitable place, wherewe will feel comfortable.Hence this will furtherstrengthen the forum and Ni-gerians will see unity amongus”.

Jang's secretariat tolaunch a website

In a related development,the secretariat has conclud-ed plans to launch a websitethat will among other thingsreflect “the new thinking,perception, goals and orien-tation of the NGF under apresidential system of gov-ernment.”

According to a statement is-sued by the factional NGF,"The website is equally ex-pected to project and propa-gate the vision and missionof the NGF under Dr. Jangas a non-confrontational,fence mending, bridge-build-ing and above all supportiveof Mr. President and all oth-

er leaders in their quest tobuild a new Nigeria of ourcollective dreams and aspira-tions.

"The NGF is out to strength-en the democracy we have allpainstakingly nurtured overtime, serve the collective in-terest of Nigerians devoid ofselfish tendencies, whichcould threaten the unity,peace, stability and progressof the Nation.

"The NGF under the guid-ance of Governor Jang will inno circumstance run a paral-lel government to that of thePresident, but will ratherwork hard to sustain all ex-isting democratic structuresas will clearly be captured inthe website.

"It is hoped that, when for-mally launched, it will affordNigerians the opportunity toregularly and objectively com-ment and make contributionson issues of common and na-tional interest, so that we cancollectively build our democ-racy to enviable heights.”

Rivers group wantsNGF to release videoof last election

Meanwhile, Pilot Grouphas called on the NGF to re-lease the full video coverageof the last NGF election and“other electoral process ob-served in the course of thesaid election”.

A statement made availableto newsmen, yesterday, inPort Harcourt and signed bythe Chairman, Publicity com-mittee of the group, Mr EgbeFestus, expressed hope thata release of the full video cov-erage of events during theNGF election would lay torest the controversies thathad dogged the outcome ofthe election.

While congratulating Gov-ernor Chibuike Amaechi forhis victory at the NGF elec-tion, the body urged the Na-tional Working Committee ofthe PDP to exercise cautionin the way it meddles into theinternal affairs of the statechapter of the party, addingthat the suspension of theelected officials of Obio Ak-por local government shouldbe thoroughly looked into todetermine the legality of theaction before applying sanc-tion on any member of theparty.

Continuing, the statementenjoined governors to conductthemselves in manner thatwould consolidate the na-tion’s democracy, stressingthat they should accept defeatwhere necessary and be mag-nanimous in victory.


Group seeksrevitalisationof PrimaryHealthcaresystem

BY OLASUNKANMIAKONI

Utomi, Sagay slam FG overnation's poor devt

PA Otoka EmmanuelEdjevberhe, aged 91,

will be buried today af-ter a requiem mass at St.Patrick's CatholicChurch, 107 YorubaRoad, Sapele, DeltaState. He is survived by chil-dren and other relations,including CharlesOtoka, Atlanta, Georgia,USA and QueenetteOtoka of VanguardNewspapers.

Late Emmanuel Otoka

Passage

LAGOS—A FederalHigh Court sitting in

Lagos, yesterday, was toldthat Economic and Finan-cial Crimes Commission,EFCC, did not investigatewhether former Director-General of Nigeria Mari-time Administration andSafety Agency, NIMASA,Raymond Omatseye, stolemoney from a contractawarded for the supply of100 Blackberry phones.

Testifying in the trial of theformer NIMASA boss, whoEFCC re-arraigned beforeJustice Rita Ofili-Ajumogobia on an

LAGOS—FORMERpresidential candi-

date Professor Pat Utomiand Professor Itse Sagay,have lampooned the Fed-eral Government for failingto make significant impactin the development of thecountry, saying “the Fed-eral Government shouldlearn Lagos state adminis-tration strategy.”

They spoke in Lagos, dur-ing the public presentationof a book, entitled:‘Fashola: The Historic Re-construction ofLagos authored by Mr.Emeka Odikpo, a legalpractitioner.

Sagay argued that it wasunfortunate that peoplecurrently holding politicalpower at the centre had

LAGOS—WORLD Organisation for Family

Doctor, WONCA, hascalled on government at alllevels to revitalise the coun-try’s Primary healthcaresystem with a view to en-suring functional healthcare delivery services thatmeet the health needs ofNigerians.

WONCA posited that afunctional primaryhealthcare system will saveNigeria billions of naira ina foreseeable future.

Making the call duringthe World Family DoctorDay in Lagos with thetheme: “Family medicine:Advocacy and strengthen-ing primary health care inAfrican region,” the Presi-dent, African Region, DrSylvester Osinowo, said thePHC system was cost effec-tive, preventive and peo-ple-oriented because it wasthe closest level of care tothe community.

EFCC didn't investigate ex-NIMASA DGover alleged contract scam —Witness

only succeeded in bringingthe country to shame beforethe comity of nation.

According to him, “It isthe type of the governmentthat will have. It is the PDPtype of mentality. When youhave a breakaway type ofPDP governor likeAmaechi, who is trying tomake an impact in the lifeof the people and establishsome legacies of good gov-ernance, it is not in the char-acter of the PDP. So, theyhave to destroy him”.

He urged GovernorBabatunde Fashola to lookbeyond Lagos politics andcontest for the presidentialelection in 2015, noting thatthe kind of transformationLagos witnessed under hisadministration and underhis predecessor, AsiwajuBola Ahmed could be rep-

licated at the centre. On his part,

Utomi blamed the cancella-tion of Metro Line projectduring the administration offormer Governor LateefJakande by the military forthe traffic congestion wit-nessed in the state today.

He said Lagos transforma-tion “is a mark of commit-ment and continuity. This isindeed a committed admin-istration. For long, everyonehas been talking about 2ndNiger Bridge. The countrywill definitely learn fromwhat is happening in La-gos.”

He commended Fasholafor sustaining the good workhis illustrious predecessorleft behind, saying forFashola “to have continuedto sustain the work left be-hind, he must have beendriven with passion”.

amended 27-count chargebordering on contract scam,an EFCC investigator,Ibrahim Ahmed, said hisenquiry indicated that thephones were actually deliv-ered. The contract was saidto be worth N22.05million.

“I did investigate whetherthe accused made any fi-nancial gain from the con-tract,” Ahmed said, notingthat he did not find outwhether the contractor, An-chor Offshore Services Lim-ited, was specially prom-ised the contract byOmatseye.

Omatseye pleaded notguilty to the charge. He wasre-arraigned because of thetransfer of the former judge,Justice Binta Murtala-Nyako.

He was charged with al-leged illegal transfer of theagency’s fund and contractsplitting estimated at overN1.5 billion.

During cross-examina-tion by defence counsel,Ahmed said the other con-tractors, who bidded for thesupply did not make anycomplaints about the An-chor enjoying any specialfavours.

Ahmed, who claimedNIMASA’s governingboard did not approve thesupply, added that he didnot have evidence of thenon-approval.

“I made a statement onDecember 3, 2010 when thematter was still fresh in mymind. I did not indicate thatI asked for minutes of themeeting where approvalwas given for the purchaseof the Blackberry phones.

The market survey we didshowed that Blackberry wasN120,000 as at 2010, but Ican’t remember the specifi-cation. I don’t know if thereare different kinds of Black-berry phones,” he told thecourt.

BY CHIOMA OBINNA


Ekiti guber: Tension mounts as S-Courtrules on Oni's petition today

BY GBENGA ARIYIBI

Ogun Policearrest 8robberysuspects

BY DAUD OLATUNJI

Ile-Oluji monarch would 've been killed —CP

ADO EKITI—TENSIONmounts in Ado Ekiti, Ekiti

State capital, as the people ofthe state await today’s judgmentof the Supreme Court over thesuit instituted by former gover-nor of the state, Mr. Segun Oni,urging the apex court to setaside the Court of Appeal'sjudgement of October 15, 2010,that removed him from office

The Court of Appeal, IlorinDivision, had in its decision onthe matter set aside the judge-ment of the lower tribunalwhich upheld Oni’s election asthe validly elected governor ofthe state in 2007.

The court in its decision or-dered a re-run election whichwas held in 2009

However, after living office,Oni, not satisfied with the de-cision of the court, approachedthe Ado Ekiti division of thecourt, alleging bias andfavoritism on the part of thesuspended president of thecourt, Justice Ayo Salami andthe members of the tribunal.

Specifically, Oni is seeking anorder setting aside the decisionof the Court of Appeal, AdoEkiti division delivered onMonday, February 27, 2012.

He,is equally seeking an or-der directing a fresh Panel ofthe Court of Appeal to hear anddetermine the aforesaid appealin (ii) above de novo.

An order directing theSpeaker of the Ekiti StateHouse of Assembly to take overthe governance of Ekiti State,pending the hearing and deter-mination of the appeal in (ii)above by the Court of Appeal.

Ekiti CP speaksOn his preparation for the

A K U R E — P O L I C ECommissioner in

Ondo State, Mr. PatrickDukumor, yesterday, said thattimely intervention by the po-lice saved the traditional rulerof the troubled Ile-Oluji, ObaSuulade Adedugbe, from be-ing killed by the youths whowere bent on sacking him fromthe palace.

Dukumor, who read riot actto those he called trouble mak-ers in the town said their in-tention was to kill the Oba andrazed down his palace.

He pointed out that the pro-testers vented their anger onpolicemen when they couldnot carry out the devilish mis-sion.

He noted that the protestersattacked his men with guns,cudgels, broken bottles, otherdangerous weapons, during

IBADAN—ACTIONCongress of Nigeria

in Oyo State, has saidsetting up a 10-mancommittee by formerGovernors of Oyo State,Senator Rashidi Ladojaand Otunba AdebayoAlao-Akala towards har-monizing their 2015 gov-ernorship ambition

ABEOKUTA—THEOgun State Police

Command, yesterday,said it arrested eightarmed robbery suspectsthat specialised in carsnatching and othercriminal acts in Ifo com-munities of Ifo Local Gov-ernment Area of thestate.

In a statement by thestate Police Public Rela-tions Officer, MuyiwaAdejobi, stated that thearrested suspects weremembers of the gangthat have in recent timeterrorized the Ifo commu-nity.

Adejobi said: “ BiodunOlugbodi, is the leaderof a secret cult group thathad threatened to carryout a reprisal attack onmembers of the unregis-tered Oodua People’sCongress, OPC, last May9.

“Other suspects are;Seun Sunday, DareBusari, Dayo SotadeAlaba Busari, SolaAkinfenwa, SeunEwejobi and TopeAdebisi."

judgement, Ekiti State Com-missioner of Police, Mr.Sotonye Wakama, said hehad a meeting with the lead-ers of the two parties wherethey promised to cautiontheir supporters against fo-menting trouble before, dur-ing and after the judgement.

The Command’s Public Re-lations Officer, Mr. VictorBabayemi, said: “We aremonitoring the situation veryclosely.

"We invited all the leaders ofthe political parties on Tuesday,and it was agreed that they willtalk to their supporters and partymembers in view of today’sjudgement to ensure that thereis peace in the state.

“Our intelligence unit had

been sent out to gather in-formation from the public. Wehave also deployed our mento all strategic positionsacross the state to forestallbreakdown of law and orderthat may arise as a result ofthe judgement. So, we don’tforesee crisis before, duringand after the judgement.”

Ekiti ACN chairhopeful

In his response to thepending court verdict, theChairman of Action Congressof Nigeria, ACN, Ekiti chap-ter, Chief Jide Awe, whoassured that his party mem-bers would not forment trou-ble, said his members were not

in the habit of formenting trou-ble, even at a time when situa-tions were more grievous thanthis.

He, however, expressedconfidence in the judiciary,saying his members wouldnot involved in any actionthat would desecrate the tem-ple of justice, just as he en-thused that the party wouldbe victorious in today ’sjudgement.

Oni and other PDP leadershad at various times clarifiedthat the suit was not intendedto ridicule the judiciary but toexpose alleged bias in thejudgement that ousted him fromoffice.

Oni believed that he would bevindicated in the end.

BY DAYO JOHNSON the three-day violence.According to him the

protesters provoked po-licemen deployed to re-store peace in the townbut they restrained them-selves.

He said that the DPOof Ile Oluji was notspared in the attack by

the protesters.He said that the protest-

ers ignored all entreatiesfrom him when he person-ally visited the town to ad-dress them and from nota-ble leaders of the town.

Dukumor pointed out thatthe police officer who wasoperated upon in Obafemi

Awolowo University Teach-ing Hospital, is now stableand responding to treat-ment.

The police Chief, how-ever, said that 17 suspectsalready in police custodywill be charged to court nextweek and vowed to bringthose behind the public dis-

Anniversary

LATE PaJoseph Adeyemi's

remembrance service willhold on Wednesday, June6, to mark the first anni-versary of his death.

Pa Adeywemi died onJune 6, 2012.

A statement by one ofhis sons, Wale Adeyemi,of Federal Radio Corpo-ration of Nigeria, FRCN,Lagos, said he was anoutstanding auto technicianand a community leader.

Adeyemi was born inDecember, 1924, inOndo Town, Ondo State.

turbances in the town tobook.

According to him thosethat have fled the townwould be arrested andmade to face the music.

Oyo ACN disregards Ladoja, Akala alliancetowards 2015

would not upstage its gov-ernment.

According to the party ina statement by its Publicitysecretary, Mr. DaudaKolawole, the coming to-gether of the duo could belikened to the gang-up of asparrow and crocodile.

The party was reactingto a newspaper publicationwhich claimed that the two

former governors had setup a 10-man committee to-wards harmonizing their2015 governorship ambi-tion.

The ACN said the ex-governors should be readyto clear the air on their or-deal with the Economicand Financial Crimes Com-mission over mismanage-ment of the state fundwhile in government.

BY OLA AJAYI

PRESENTATION: President Goodluck Jonathan (left), receiving the report of the Na-tional Broadband Plan for 2013-2018, from the Co-chairman, Presidential Committee onBroadband, Mr. Ernest Ndukwe (right), at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, yesterday. Withthem is Mr. Jim Ovia, Chairman, Visafone. State House Photo.

PUBLIC NOTICEMOTIVATIONAL AND CHRISTIAN BOOKS DEALERSASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA. (MACBDAN)

The General Public is hereby notified that the above named Association with itsheadquarters at 17 Bale Adeyemo Street, Ajegunle, Apapa, Lagos State has appliedto the Corporate Affairs Commission, Abuja for registration under Part ‘C of theCompanies and Allied Matters Act No. of 1990. THE TRUSTEES ARE:

The General Public is hereby notified that the above named Association with itsheadquarters at 17 Bale Adeyemo Street, Ajegunle, Apapa, Lagos State has appliedto the Corporate Affairs Commission, Abuja for registration under Part ‘C of theCompanies and Allied Matters Act No. of 1990. THE TRUSTEES ARE:

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES.(a)To promote Social interaction and understanding among members.(b)To protect the interest of all members in line with the Association’s Constitution

and Policy.(c)To exchange ideas and opinions on matters of importance.(d)To encourage the spirit of progress, unity and honesty among members.(e)To promote customer friendly relationship among members.

Any objection to this registration should be forwarded to the Registrar-General,Corporate Affairs Commission, Plot 420, Tigris Crescent, Off Aguiyi Ironsi Street,Maitama, Abuja within 28 days of this publication.

(1)Mr. Nicodemus Okwuchukwu Nnamezie.(2)Mrs. Edith Ngozi Nnaji.(3)Mr. Christian Uchechukwu Nwabueze.(4)Mr. Chidiebere Joachim Nnamezie.(5)Mr. Okochi Anthony Mmirikwe.

PETER O. DURU Esq. (Solicitor)08032762564

PETER O. DURU Esq. (Solicitor)08032762564

SIGNED:


Contractorsthreaten Shell

Amaechi assures on safetyBY JIMITOTAONOYUME

PORT HAR-COURT— RIVERS

State governor, Mr. Roti-mi Amaechi, has assuredthat his administrationwill continue to ensuresafety of lives and prop-erty in the state.

Amaechi, in his Democ-racy Day message to thestate, also appealed tosecurity operatives andthe people to cooperatewith the state govern-ment to ensure the secu-rity of lives and proper-ty.

He said: “As we enterinto the third year of ourfinal tenure, we want toreassure you of our com-mitment to our oath ofoffice to safeguard livesand property of every-one, who lives or doesbusiness in Rivers State.We shall leave no stoneunturned in our quest toensure that our peoplelive in a safe and securedenvironment. We call onour people and the secu-rity agencies to continueto cooperate with gov-ernment to help sustainthe peace that we nowenjoy.”

The governor recalledthe ugly security situa-tion he met on groundwhen he assumed officein 2007 and the effort ofhis administration to re-store peace in the state.

Amaechi spoke exten-sively on the success ofhis administration in theareas of education,health, agriculture andempowerment pro-grammes.

Governor Amaechi,who assured that his ad-ministration will contin-ue to deliver on its elec-tion promises, expressedgratitude to God for Hisblessings upon the state.

Labour in Rivers denies obtaining bribe to goon strike

WARRI—A GROUPof contractors of

Shell Development Com-pany, under the aegis ofRightway SurveillanceForum, has given the oilcompany a two-week ul-timatum to relocate fromPort Harcourt, RiversState, or lose its servic-es.

Rising from its meetingin Warri, Delta State, thegroup’s president, ChiefAlfred Biukeme, said theoil company had twoweeks also to increasethe salaries of surveil-lance guards fromN22,000 to N150,000,adding that the presentsalaries of N22,000 wasa slave wage.

Fuming that the guardswere treated as slaves intheir own country, Biuke-me also warned Daewooand Saipem Nigeria, tostop neglecting host in-digenous contractors inthe new gas project tocommence soon in thesouthern swamp, threat-ening repercussion ifschemed out.

BY JIMITOTAONOYUME

PORT HAR-COURT— TRADE Un-

ion congress, TUC, RiversState chapter, has described asuntrue, allegations in somequarters that labour unionswere offered N100 million bythe state government to go onstrike over the closure of Obio/Akpor Local Government Areasecretariat by the Police.

It will be recalled that TUCand the Nigeria Labour Con-gress, NLC, embarked on atwo-day warning strike earlyin the week, to press hometheir call for the Police to al-low work resume at Obio/Ak-por council secretariat.

The state Chairman of TUC,Mr. Chika Unuegbu, whospoke to journalists at theRivers State delegates' confer-ence of TUC Women Commis-sion election in Port Harcourt,said labour had a meetingwith the state Commissionerof Police, Mr. Joseph Mbu,after the warning strike,where they re-echoed theirdemand.

NECO seeks reform in educationsystem to check mass failure

According to him, they made itclear to the Police boss that theywere not an interested party inthe political crisis that had en-gulfed thecouncil, addingthat all theywanted was forPolice to alloww o r k e r sresume, so thattheir salaries forApril and Maycould be paid.

He said theytold the Com-missioner thatstaff of thecouncil werethe worst affect-ed by the actionof the Police.

U n u e g b usaid NLC hadalso written tothe state gov-ernment beforethe warningstrike to ap-point the Headof Local Gov-ernment Ad-ministration of

the council to run the placepending the determination ofthe suits filed by the Caretak-

er Committee and the sus-pended elected officials of thecouncil.

BY ALICE FESTUS

A BUJA—CHAIR-MAN, Governing

Board of National Exam-ination Council, NECO,Mr. Paddy Njoku, haswarned that the massfailure recorded in theconduct of national ex-aminations in the coun-try in recent years willcontinue, except a com-prehensive reform of theeducational system wascarried out.

Njoku, yesterday, atthe public presentation ofthe TransformationalTeacher and Taking Re-sponsibility for SchoolImprovement, by Rose-mary Nwangwu, in Abu-ja, expressed concernover the poor perform-ance of applicants inNECO, West African Ex-aminations Council,WAEC, and Joint Admis-sions and MatriculationBoard, JAMB examina-tions.

He said that the edu-

cational system keepsdeteriorating as a resultof what is being fed intoit and as such, the refor-mation has to begin fromthe basic levels which, hesaid, are the nursery andprimary levels.

He said: “In informa-tion communication tech-nology, you have gar-bage in and garbage outout which is calledGEGO. Once what youare feeding into the ex-amination system is rot-ten, it will bring out rot-ten result. So, the pointwe are making is that weshould reform our edu-cational system and re-jig it in such a way thatour children go into theexamination well pre-pared, otherwise,NECO, WAEC andJAMB will always beproducing bad results,which are true results ofthe bad situations, au-thentic results of the badeducational situationthat we have in thecountry today."

BRIEFING: From left: Mr. Bisi Osunneye (member board of trustees), Pas-tor Ituah Ighodalo (chairman, board of trustees) and Dr. Enyantu Ifenne,(member board of trustee) all of Foodbank Nigeria, during the board brief-ing on its activities.

Vanguard, FRIDAY, MAY 31, 2013—13

S-Court tohear GovOkorocha/PDP suit June4


Late Mrs. Etinagbedia

Etinagbediafor burial

MRS. Blacky Etin-agbedia, of

Urukpedi and Abowhequarters of Emevor, inIsoko North Local Gov-ernment Area of DeltaState, is dead, aged 70.

A statement by herdaughter, Mrs. Dora Ed-ijala, said Christian bur-ial rites will take placetomorrow at Adam Ig-budu Pastoral Centre, onEmevor Express Road,followed by interment.

Dispute over ballot boxes: Jega, INEC lose bidto stay judgment

BY CHARLYNE IKPEINDEPENDENT Na-

tional Electoral Com-mission, INEC, has lostin its bid to stay the judg-ment of a Federal HighCourt, Abuja, which re-strained it from furtherusing transparent ballotboxes for elections, with-out the consent of thepatent right owner.

Trial judge, Justice Ad-amu Bello, in his ruling,declined to stay the judg-ment.

INEC and its chair-man, Prof. Attahiru Jega,had asked the court tostay the execution pend-ing the determination oftheir appeal, challeng-ing the judgment.

It will be recalled thatthe court had, in its judg-ment of June 5, 2012,held, among others, thatthe plaintiff, BeddingHolding Limited, owns avalid and subsisting pat-ent rights over transpar-ent ballot boxes and elec-tronic collapsible trans-parent ballot boxes beingused for elections in thecountry.

The judge voided therights over similar inven-tions purportedly issuedsubsequently to threefirms, Emchai Limited,Tambco United NigeriaLtd and Anowat Projectand Resources Ltd, bythe Registrar of Patent,for being illegal.

Justice Bello, in thejudgment, also grantedan order of perpetual in-junction, restraining thedefendants and any oth-er person from utilisingor dealing with the pat-ented boxes of the plain-tiff, “except with the ex-press and prior consent,licence and authority ofthe plaintiff to that ef-fect.”

Refusing INEC’s appli-cation, the court heldthat the reliefs granted inthe judgment weremainly declarative and

were incapable of beingstayed.

Justice Bello, who be-rated INEC and Jega foracting in disregard ofthe court’s order,frowned at the decisionof the electoral body andits Chairman to deploythe same ballot boxes forthe governorship elec-tions held last year on

July 10 in Edo State andon October 20 in OndoState, without the con-sent of the plaintiff andin disregard of thecourt’s subsisting ordermade on June 5, 2012.

The court held that itwas an irony that INECand Jega would ap-proach his court for anindulgence, having will-

ingly disregarded andflouted its order.

“The use of the ballotboxes has soiled the ap-plicants’ hands. He whocomes to equity mustcome with clean hands.They cannot, therefore,seek the indulgence ofthe court having floutedits orders,” the courtsaid.

The court, meanwhile,stayed proceedings inthe contempt proceed-ings pending againstINEC and its principalofficers for using the bal-lot boxes without the pat-ent rights owner’s con-sent.

Impeaching Amaechi won't guaranteeJonathan’s re-election —Esogban of Benin

BY SIMONEBEGBULEM

BENIN—THE Esog-ban of Benin King-

dom and chairman of Be-nin Forum, Chief DavidEdebiri, yesterday, saidthat impeaching Gover-nor Rotimi Amaechi of Riv-ers State, will not guaran-tee a second term ticketfor President GoodluckJonathan.

He urged the President

to give the people the div-idends of democracy byensuring steady power,industrialisation andtackle security challeng-es, rather than fight po-litical battles with gover-nors over 2015 presiden-tial election.

Speaking to Vanguard,the elder statesman, whodisagreed with the asser-tion by President Jonath-an that his administration

had performed creditablywell, said: “I am not to-tally in agreement thatdemocracy is already herein Nigeria. We are work-ing towards achievingtrue democracy but it hasreally not come. A typicalexample of that is the cur-rent issue of the electionof Nigeria Governors Fo-rum, where 35 people metto elect one man and theaftermath now is a dispu-

tation as to what hap-pened and what did nothappen.

“I think if the Presidentwants to come back asPresident, he does notneed all the current rig-marole that is going on.Let him give the Nigeri-ans good governance. Lethim make Nigeria one ofthe countries of the worldwhere electricity is con-stant."

Broadcastjournalistsurged toembracesocial media

FGGCAbuloma OldGirls, FCTChapter electexco

FEDERAL Govern-ment Girls’ Col-

lege, Abuloma, Port Har-court, Rivers State, oneof Nigeria’s foremostUnity Schools estab-lished over 35 years ago,will soon begin to enjoysupport from her oldgirls.

This is because the oldgirls in some major cit-ies across the countryand overseas have de-cided to come together tonetwork, and bring tolimelight the ideals forwhich FGGC Asuloma isknown, shore up the im-age of the school, impartthe larger society andbring succour to theirAlma mater, amongstothers.

A FORMER Head ofDepartment of

Mass Communication,University of Lagos, Prof.Raph Akinfeleye, hascalled on broadcast jour-nalists to embrace the op-portunities offered by thesocial media to meet upwith the challenges of glo-balisation.

He also regretted thedisappearance of feed-back in traditional broad-cast journalism, notingthat it was a cardinal prin-ciple in good communica-tion.

Akinfeleye spoke in La-gos at a lecture titled:Social media and Broad-cast Journalism, con-vened by Nigeria Unionof Journalists,NUJ, LagosCouncil, Lagos Television,LTV.

He said: ’’Broadcast in-dustry in Nigeria is an in-teresting industry if its his-tory and operations areconsidered. The relation-ship between the broad-cast industry and socialmedia at the early periodswas not promising, but itseems the broadcast jour-nalists were skepticalabout their future.

He said: "The future ofbroadcast journalism andsocial media in Nigeria isbright," adding that manyapplications are beingdeveloped and the broad-cast industry can alwaysmake use of the opportu-nities given to them by thenew technologies.

A B U J A — S U -PREME Court

has slated June 4 to hearthe suit between Gover-nor Rochas Okorocha ofImo State and the Peo-ples Democratic Party,PDP, even as a group oflawyers loyal to formergovernor of the state,Mr. Ikedi Ohakim, yes-terday, served a petitionon the Chief Justice ofNigeria, CJN.

The petitioners, al-leged plot to disband thepanel handling a freshappeal by Governor Oko-rocha, challenging thejoining of his predeces-sor in an election petitionthat was filed againsthim by the governorshipcandidate of Action Con-gress of Nigeria, ACN, in the state, SenatorIfeanyi Ararume.


ABUJA — THE first lady,Dame Patience

Jonathan, yesterday, said shehad no hand in the suspen-sion of the governor of RiversState, Rotimi Amaechi fromthe Peoples Democratic Party,PDP.

In a statement, the SeniorSpecial Assistant to the FirstLady on Media and Publicity,Ayo Osinlu said the allegationwas “not only dubious, butalso diversionary, unfair, un-kind, and therefore totally un-acceptable”.

According to him, Mrs.Jonathan was not an officialof the PDP and as such couldnot have led ‘the elders of theparty by the nose’ to take sucha decision.

“It has again come to ournotice that a new twist hasbeen introduced to the care-fully orchestrated scheme toanchor the political fortunesor survival of certain embat-tled politicians on a deliber-ate demonisation of the First

newspaper’s “investigators”name at least a few of thosein attendance of this famousmeeting?

“We consider it a most un-becoming insolence, to saythe least DISRESPECTFUL,of any one to suggest that thewhole of PDP was led by thenose and influenced by a pri-vate interest, in a matter thatso evidently borders on partydiscipline and administration.

“Only recently, we were com-pelled to make a statement,warning those who have be-come specialists in loopingtheir self-induced political tra-vails around the First Lady, todevelop another strategy fortheir survival.

“This was when another vi-cious lie was circulated thatHer Excellency had, again,“summoned” service chiefs inRivers State, and instructedthem to be firmer in handlingthe Rivers matter.

“Let us state once again, thatthe First Lady is not anelected official of state, nei-ther is she a party function-ary. She therefore recognises

very clearly her place in thescheme of things and acts al-ways accordingly within con-text.

“In safe estimation, thewhole of this is a consciouscalculation to sustain the is-sue of Governor Amaechi infull public view, as well as toexplore the possibility ofkeeping public sympathy inhis favour.

“While we have no chal-lenges with the Amaechi campstruggling for political sur-vival and relevance, we wishto state categorically ourstrong objection to the wickeduse of the name and profileof the First Lady in the proc-ess.

“For us this is not only du-bious, but also diversionary,unfair, unkind, and thereforetotally unacceptable.

“We wish to warn that if thistrend continues in the nearand distant future, we may beconstrained to take actionwithin legally permissible lim-its to protect the integrity ofthe office and person of theFirst Lady.”

First lady denies involvement inAmaechi’s suspension

Lady, Dame (Dr.) PatienceGoodluck Jonathan.

“This new twist came by wayof a so-called “investigation”reported on the front page ofa national daily, yesterday.

“According to the report, theFirst Lady, as characteristicthese days, is being allegedto have influenced the sus-pension of Governor RotimiAmaechi from PDP by theNational Working Committee,NWC, of the party.

“We consider it laughablethat it can be assumed by anysane person that the FirstLady could possibly “sum-mon” the members of theNWC of the party for the pur-ported purpose of handingdown “stern directives” oncrucial party decisions.

“We ask, on what platform?Within what contexts? In whatcapacity? Is it not an unfor-tunate insult on all the eldersthat constitute the NWC to in-sinuate that they were assem-bled by the First Lady, or any-one else for that matter, andinstructed on positions of theparty? And why couldn’t

BY BEN AGANDE

Lagosacquires 8life raft boatsfor rescuingflood victims

BY MONSUR OLOW-OOPEJO

LAGOS — LAGOSState Government

has purchased eight liferaft boats and other res-cue equipment for res-cue operations duringflood disaster and boatmishap in the state.

General Manager ofthe Lagos State Emer-gency ManagementAgency, LASEMA, Dr.Femi Oke-Osanyintoluannounced this, yester-day, during astakeholders’ meetingwith the officers of theNigerian MerchantNavy in Alausa, Ikeja.

Oke-Osanyintolu ex-plained that the govern-ment purchased the newequipment to improveresponse to emergencyissues, especially floodcases in the state.

It will be recalled that

Vanguard, FRIDAY, MAY 31, 2013 —15

Jonathan promises full implementation ofnational broadband roadmap

BY BEN AGANDE

FRSC lists Abuja-Lokoja, Lagos-Ibadan, Benin-Ore roads as mostaccident prone

would give his full support toensure that Nigeria is whollyintegrated into the global dig-ital communications network.

The president said “anycountry that lags behind inthe current age of ICT willmiss a lot. That is why we havecreated a separate Ministry ofCommunications Technologyto facilitate the establishmentof the best digital communi-cations infrastructure in Ni-geria and optimize our adop-tion of global best practices inthe use of information andcommunications technology.

“I thank you for your workand I assure you that the re-port will be adopted by gov-ernment and implementationwill begin immediately be-cause our people are hungryfor information and we are ina hurry to fully integrate ourcountry into the digital com-munications age,” the Presi-dent told members of the com-mittee.

The Committee, which wasestablished in September 2012to develop a broadband strat-egy and roadmap for Nigeria,said that the key objectives ofthe plan which it has evolvedare: to promote pervasivebroadband deployment in thecountry; increase broadbandadoption and usage and en-sure the availability of broad-band services at affordableprices to maximize its socio-economic and political bene-fits.

It is expected that in the2013-2018 implementation pe-riod a five-fold increase in in-

ternet and broadband penetra-tion will be achieved in thecountry.

It is also intended that all state

capitals and urban cities willhave metro-fibre infrastruc-ture installed within the peri-od.

ABUJA — THE FederalRoad Safety Commis-

sion, FRSC, yesterday, namedthe Abuja-Lokoja, Benin-Ore,Lagos-Ibadan and the Abuja-Kaduna roads as most volatileto road accidents in the coun-try.

Speaking at a capacity work-shop put together for regula-tory risk management practi-tioners in north-central statesby Shell petroleum in Abuja,

BY NOEL ONOJA the Corps Marshal, OsitaChidoka, represented by theDeputy Corps Marshal,Denis Garba Terrang said theroads have recorded thehighest number of road acci-dents, injuries and crash re-lated fatalities in Nigeria.

He said, “Of recent, everyTuesday we sit down andlook at the number of acci-dents that took place, thenumber of people that diedand those that got injuredand we discovered that thereis a pattern, there are spe-

cific roads where these acci-dents take place, for example,Abuja-Lokoja road, Abuja-Kaduna road, Benin-Ore andLagos-Ibadan road.”

He however, noted that dueto the concentration of more re-sources to “face those placessquarely; you look at the rate ofroad crash going down becauseof the concentration of safetyresources in those areas.”

Terrang said the FRSC’s tar-get is to reduce road traffic crashrate by 20 per cent and thenumber of fatality by 30 per cent

this year, adding that theweekly number of fatalities re-sulting from road crashes wasstaggering. While informingthat the World Bank donated12 ambulances fully equippedwith requirement for rescue tothe FRSC last month, he saidthe FRSC is partnering withdifferent organisations to haveroad side clinics equippedwith paramedic that assists inthe evacuation and rescue ofcrash victims.

The Country Chair of Shellcompany in Nigeria, Mutiu

Sumonu, who spoke throughthe Manager, Health, Safetyand Environment (HSE),Amadi Amadi, said statisticsworldwide has shown thatabout 1.2 million people diefrom road accidents yearlyand about 50 million injurieswith the highest number be-ing recorded in Africa.

“We think that somethingneeds to be done, hence weare putting this together toimprove the capacity of thosetasked with managing roadsafety in Nigeria,”

ABUJA — PRESIDENT Goodluck Jonathan has pledged thathis administration will take immediate steps to fully imple-ment the report of the Presidential Committee on a NationalBroadband Strategy and Roadmap which submitted its reportyesterday.Speaking after receiving the report yesterday, president Jonath-an said the successful implementation of the National Broad-band Strategy and Roadmap will help to positively revolu-tionize communications in Nigeria.

According to the President the committee’s view that broad-band is to the 21st century information age what electricitywas to the industrial age represents his conviction and he

State of emergency: More Nigeriens andChadians among arrested insurgents

BY KINGSLEY OMONOBI

ABUJA — THE Special Forcesfighting to dislodge the terror-ists from Adamawa, Borno and

Yobe states, yesterday, ar-rested five Nigeriens and twoChadians as they tried to fleethe military onslaught.

The Defence headquarters

also disclosedthat recentmessages fromthe terrorists,soliciting sup-port from Af-ghanistan andPakistan aswell as othercohorts of theinsurgents isclearly a con-firmation thatthe group wasbeing deci-mated.

A statementsigned byBrigadier Gen-eral ChrisO l u k o l a d e ,read: “FiveNigeriens andtwo Chadiansare among thefleeing insur-gents appre-hended by theSpecial Forcesas troops con-tinue their pur-suit of terror-ists dislodgedfrom theirbases”.

The sevenwere amongthe nine ar-rested atTumbu Gini, aborder townwith Chad asthey tried tocross the bor-ders intoChad.

Jang pledgessupport forNYSC

BY TAYE OBATERU &HOPE OFOBIKE

JOS — GOVERNORJonah Jang of Pla-

teau State has pledgedcontinuous support forNational Youth Corps,NYSC, scheme to ensurethat the welfare of Corpsmembers posted to thestate is well taken careof.

He said this, yester-day, at the commission-ing of the NYSC Foun-dation Corps MembersLodge in Jos andcommended the ex-Corps members for es-tablishing the founda-tion to support thescheme.

Represented by theCommissioner for Sportsand Youth Development,Mr. James Yakubu, hesaid his administrationwill continue to stand bythe NYSC State Secre-tariat.

He added: “Let me as-sure you that the PlateauState Government wouldcontinue to support theNYSC Scheme by ensur-ing that that we fullyparticipate in their ac-tivities, while joininghands with them to en-sure maintenance cul-ture for this building be-ing unveiled.”

The governor ap-plauded the foundationfor embarking on differ-ent projects such as thegiving of soft loans to ex-Corps members to en-able them establish theirown small scale busi-nesses, “so that they canbe relevant and avoidchasing employmentsthat iare not available.”

He said the new orien-tation camp built inMangu Local Govern-ment will soon be readyfor use.

CMYK

16 — Vanguard, THURSDAY, MAY 31, 2013

Use criticisms to effect changes, NOA boss, Omeri advises opposers

BY DOTU IBIWOYE

THE DIRECTOR Generalof the National Orienta-

tion Agency, NOA, Mr. MikeOmeri has challenged criticsof President GoodluckJonathan to offer constructiveideas that would help the ad-

ministration plan ahead forthe future.

Omeri, who commendedJonathan for his transforma-tional leadership in the lasttwo years, said it was the dutyof Nigerians to point out ar-eas of defect in developmentinstead of the current pulldown syndrome by the oppo-

sition and other critics of thegovernment.

This was contained in astatement signed by the ChiefPress Secretary to the NOA,Mr. Paul Odenyi, yesterday.

Omeri said that the FederalGovernment ‘’has made goodstrides in several sectors of theeconomy in the last two

Bauchi HighCourtreinstatessuspendedlegislator,Danna

BAUCHI — ABauchi High

Court, yesterday, or-dered the reinstatementof a female member ofthe state Assembly, Mrs.Rifkatu Danna (PDP-Bogoro), suspendedsince June 7, 2012.

The state Chief Judge,Justice Ibrahim Zango,who gave the order inBauchi while deliveringjudgement on the case,also directed the Houseto pay the lawmaker allher salaries and entitle-ments which accumu-lated during her sus-pension.

Zango ruled that theindefinite suspensionclamped by the Houseon Danna was unconsti-tutional, null and voidand of no legal effect.

He described the ac-tion of the Assembly asmere arbitrary show ofpower, which had in-fringed on the funda-mental human rights ofthe plaintiff.

BY BEN AGANDE&LAIDEAKINBOADE

President Jonathan mourns late GeneralKotangora

ABUJA — PRESIDENTGoodluck has ex-

pressed ‘shock and immensesadness’ on the death of theDeputy Chairman of the Sub-sidy Reinvestment and Em-powerment Programme(SURE-P), Major-GeneralMamman Kontagora (rtd.)who died yesterday morning,aged 69.

According to a statement bythe Special Adviser to thePresident on Media and Pub-licity, Dr. Reuben Abati:“President Jonathan joins thefamily of the late Kontagorain mourning the illustriousand indefatigable former Min-ister of Works and the FederalCapital Territory, FCT, who,

even in retirement, continuedto serve his fatherland withzeal, vigour and enthusiasmwhenever he was called uponto do so.

“President Jonathan be-lieves that the nation will al-ways honour the memory ofthe late Army Engineer forhaving served Nigeria withcommendable patriotism anddistinction during an excel-lent career in the ArmedForces and other capacities inthe public service includingFederal Minister, Sole Ad-ministrator of the AhmaduBello University, Zaria andChairman of the PresidentialCommittee on the Develop-ment of National Stadia forthe World Youth Soccer Cham-pionship in 1995.

“He prays that God Almighty

will grant GeneralKontagora’s soul eternal rest.”

Meanwhile, a delegationled by the Minister of the Fed-eral Capital Territory, SenatorBala Mohammed representedPresident Jonathan at GeneralKontagora’s interment.

The delegation also includedthe Minister of State forPower, Mrs. Zainab IbrahimKuchi and the Chairman ofSure-P, Dr. ChristopherKolade, the statement added..

In his own reaction, theMinister of FCT, Sen. BalaMohammed expressed shockat the death of Gen.Kontagora, who was until hisdeath, the Deputy Chairmanof the Subsidy Reinvestmentand Empowerment Pro-gramme, SURE-P.

years,’’ adding that ‘’thetransformation process envis-ages the participation of allin the task of developing thenation, a duty which, re-quires positive attitudinalchange and consistency at alltimes.

“I commend PresidentJonathan for the boldness inpresenting his score card inthe open for people to see. Itis quite heartwarming that hehas also urged all Nigeriansto have a look at it and offerconstructive criticism, in fullrealisation that the workahead requires an evaluationlike this.

“It is therefore, a challengeI throw to those who havemade a business of criticisingthe government to come outand offer suggestions on howthe next two years should behandled for the greater goodof all our people.

“The transformation processstarts from the individual andit is a sacred duty of all Ni-gerians to contribute their ef-forts in realising the transfor-mation of our dear country,”he said.

Omeri then recommendedJonathan’s mid term reportfor wide circulation amongstthe citizens to ensure objec-tive analyses based on factsand figures.


WHAT is the big dealabout a bunch of

governors getting togetherfrom time to time to chat aboutissues that concern them…andthen disagreeing with thePresident whenever they thinkthat he is being unfair orunwise?

To be honest, until those whoclaim to have Dr GoodluckJonathan’s welfare at heartstarted to carry on, somewhathysterically and paranoidly, asif the Nigerian Governors’Forum, NGF, was adangerous, evil revolutionaryoutfit, the NGF barelyregistered on my radarscreen…which is why I haveprobably only mentioned itonce or twice since I launchedthis column six years ago!

As far as I’m concerned, theNGF – which is not recognisedin the Constitution - isnothing more than a club forguys who occupy variousgovernment houses. And it’snot as if they are all admirable.Frankly, some of them areobnoxious jokes.

Achievementof governors

However, the characters andachievements of governors arenot my main focus today. Isimply want to make the pointthat, like many organisationsthat have been formed bynaturally assertive individualswho belong to the sameprofession and have commoninterests – the National Unionof Journalists and NigerianBar Association, for example– the NGF can sometimes betroublesome.

But this is supposed to be ademocracy, for crying outloud! And governors are asentitled to express their viewsand choose their leaders asanyone else.

Ditto the President and hisfans - who have every right toregard the governors asunreasonable and dislike anyChairman the governors elect.

But there are smart andmature ways of dealing withsuch differences of opinion

A totally unnecessary dramaand personality clashes. Andit is not terribly smart ormature to crudely and cruellyvictimise Rotimi ChibuikeAmaechi, the NGF Chairman,to the point where he isattracting widespreadsympathy and has become a

What a factional farce!

backing if he wants a second term…andto summon Amaechi like a juniorbrother and make peace with him…asin GENUINELY (as opposed to justpretending!). In a nutshell, the Amaechiand Jonathan wings of the PDP shouldplease, for their sakes and all of oursakes, bury the hatchet…but not in eachothers’ backs!

Responses to: [email protected] or to 0802 7476458 (texts only). PLEASE KINDLY NOTE THAT UNLESSYOU REQUEST ANONYMITY, YOUR COMMENTS MAYBE PUBLISHED, WITH YOUR NAMES AND CONTACTDETAILS ATTACHED.

national hero!Amaechi – a performing

governor - has been treatedappallingly and suspendedfrom the PDP. Meanwhile, asecretly-shot videoconclusively proves that hewon last Friday ’s NGF

election, fair and square, bythree votes (if you haven’talready seen the video, youcan access it on http://www.saharareporters.com/).

But The Powers That Behave persuaded some ofAmaechi’s colleagues to turn

I’ve spoken to recently arerooting for Amaechi becausethey see him as a plucky littleDavid who is struggling tosurvive unjust assaults froma mighty, vindictive Goliath.

One would have thoughtthat Jang – whose state hasbeen a hugely violent andhugely embarrassing mess forfar too long - would be toobusy with his coregubernatorial duties to botherabout relatively trivial NGFissues.

But this is Nigeria! – aprofoundly dysfunctionalcountry in which VIPs arepermitted to get away withmisplaced priorities. Andwe’re hearing that Jang –whom some journalists aresarcastically describing as“the factional Chairman ofNGF” is currentlypreoccupied with establishing“a new factional NGF office”.

dis-empower the NGF succeed?At the end of the day, this terrifyingly

toxic and totally unnecessary drama boilsdown to tragic pettiness, suicidal lack ofjudgement (making mountains out ofmolehills!) and the pathetic politicalineptitude of a handful of bad advisors.

The last thing that Niger Deltans andNigerians need at this critical juncture issquabbling or aloof leaders who aren’twilling or able to save us from shame and

BY the way, I feel obliged to -reluctantly - say that I am very

disappointed in Godswill Akpabio, theAwka Ibom Governor. I don’t know himwell but have met him a couple of timesand have visited Uyo to check out hisprojects.And he struck me as a decent, seriousgent who was doing lots of good workfor the citizens who kindly voted for him.And I don’t understand why he hasallowed himself to become the unpopularface of anti-Amaechi hostility andskullduggery.

Does Akpabio not realise that there issafety in numbers?...and that he himselfmay eventually suffer if his attempts to

on himand insulto u rcollectiveintelligence.And weare nowb e i n ga s s u r e dthat the“ R E A L”Chairmanof theNGF isJ o n a hJang, theGovernorof PlateauState…whoallegedlyenjoys thesupport ofhalf of theN G Fmembers.

P e o p l ewho haven o r m a lh u m a ninst inctsdo notapprove ofbullying,especiallywhen theb u l l i e sdon’t havegreat trackr e c o r d sa n dp o s s e s sm o r eweaponsthan theb u l l i e d ;and almostall of theNigeriansa n dforeigners

President Goodluck Jonathan

Gov. Chibuike Amaechi

Gov. Godswill Akpabio

failure. And Iurge MrPresident toremember that hewill needm a x i m u m

OPINION

18 — Vanguard, FRIDAY,MAY 31, 2013

BY C.DON ADINUBA

*Mr. Adinuba, a commentator onnational issues, wrote from Lagos.

Achebe: A personal testimony (2)Achebe: A personal testimony (2)Achebe: A personal testimony (2)Achebe: A personal testimony (2)Achebe: A personal testimony (2)BUT when he was told we were around,

he quickly got up and joined us in theliving room; for the next two hours we werediscussing all kinds of issues under the sun—and even above the sun! All of a sudden, hiswife appeared from the lecture room andwas surprised to see the husband discussingheartily with us. She screamed: ‘Chinua,what are you doing outside the bedroom?The doctor ordered you to have completebed rest, not even to take calls. I am nothappy at all!’ Prof responded: “ I came lessthan two minutes ago to dismiss my friendswho came all the way from Lagos andEnugu’”. It was laughter galore.

I continued, this time with mischievouscomments: “The world has, indeed, cometo an end. Things have fallen apart. Howcan a woman be calling her husband by thefirst name, especially in public? How can awoman order her husband back into thebedroom in broad daylight? Okonkwo ofThings Fall Apart must be turning in hisgrave. Who knows whether highly educatedwomen are not on top of their husbandswhen they want to produce babies?”

The commotion of laughter in this hugeliving room was still on when Okeyrhetorically asked: “C. Don, are you sureyou are not already engaged in thissacrilegious practice, even though you arenot yet married, let alone to a very educatedwoman?” I remarked to the audience aboutOkey who was, as usual, in jeans: “Don’tmind him. Okey is the boy in jeans; the boywiser than his father”. Ejike, a professor of

fisheries, was visibly confused. Okey spoketo him and his wife in particular: “The Boyin Jeans—Or The Boy Wiser Than His Fatheris the title of one of Achebe’s poems in thepoetry collection Beware, Soul Brother. Youknow C. Don is a Nigerian journalist, so hedoesn’t give credit to authors!” Thedominant issue in the Nigerian print mediathen was the charge of plagiarism against aforemost journalist and columnist, accusedby Kunle Ajibade and Dele Momodu, thentwo graduate students of literature at theUniversity of Ife, of lifting withoutacknowledgement whole passages fromThomas Paine’s classic, The Rights of Man.I responded to Okey: “You are a Nigerianjournalist, so can you cast the first stone?”

As Achebe and Ejike were seeing us off,the latter said: “You guys have succeeded inmaking my place so warm this evening. Ihave never seen Prof so relaxed, socomfortable with people. You areexceptional. By the way, I have noticed yourhigh intelligence, eloquence and confidence.Feel free to come to my house anytime ofthe day.” Immediately we got to a poorly litspot on the way back to the hotel, Okey andI began to hum, sing and dance: “This ViceChancellor who has at least two beautiful,tall, fair skinned and elegant daughters hasgiven us a rain cheque. Providence hasbuttered our bread!” A fierce argument soonerupted between Okey and myself over whowould first approach which girl; we had justcaught a glimpse of these girls for the firsttime and didn’t know anything about the

damsels except that they should be thedaughters of our host!

Achebe saw beyond our exuberancewhich he said reminded him of the

rambunctious Christopher Okigbo whomMichael J.C. Echeruo described in theforward to Pol Ndu’s Songs of A Seer as “themost verbally exciting African poet writingin English”. Through the Achebeinstrumentality, I was offered editorialcommittee membership of Okike. And whenAchebe decided to retire from the journal,he sought my opinion on the choice of theeditor. I wasted no time in suggestingEmmanuel Obiechina, the biggest name inthe English Department at the UNN, but heexplained that he wanted “a creative mind,a writer, and not necessarily a scholar”. Hewent on: “I have Chinweizu in mind, but heloves peripatetic activity; he is itinerant.Okike will remain within the Institute ofAfrican Studies at the UNN. I am alsoconsidering Ossie Enekwe , head of theDrama Department who is a very good poet,novelist and scholar. But Ossie doesn’t seemto have much confidence in his tremendousabilities”. Ossie, a good and quite friend ofmine who obtained three graduate degreesfrom Columbia University in New York, didsuffer diffidence, a result of his combatexperience in Biafra which changed himcompletely. When I sent him a questionnaireon his writing and on Okike which heanswered satisfactorily, he still submitted theanswers to Achebe for vetting before sending

the material to me for publication. I will ever relish the courtesies Achebe

extended to me. At the celebration of his 60thbirthday at the UNN in March, 1990, hewas walking down the hall to perform acertain ceremony when he saw me with AndyEzeani of Champion Newspapers in anobscure corner and immediately camestraight to me, together with his charmingwife, and thanked me generously for findingthe time to honour him! With the paparazziswooping on us, he invited Nureeden Farah,Chinweizu and Ngugu Wa Thiong’o to joinin the photos we were taking. Sensing I wasclose to the great writer, Weekend Concorddeputy editor Dimgba Igwe, a fantasticprofessional, sought my assistance for amajor interview with the Achebes.

No one could come into contact withChinua Achebe without fond memories andwithout learning a few lessons. He wasexceedingly infectious in innumerable ways.Among other things, he taught me humilityand the need to be embedded in one’scommunity. He was a global citizen whowas treated like a head of state in someAfrican countries he visited, yet he acceptedto be the president of the Ogidi Town Unionwhere he was handling such local issues asthe location of a primary health centre,renovation of a dilapidated primary school,modernizing of village open markets,settlement of disputes between kindredgroups and sometimes between peasantfarmers and their wives and children! Achebewas a great man, indeed.

Continued from yesterday's pg 18

Concluded

THE most important issue in Nigeria nowis leadership of the Nigerian GovernorsForum, NGF. It has eclipsed securitychallenges the country faces. Anger, danger,hunger that Nigerians suffer fromgovernments’ ineptitude are unimportant.Everything is about 36 men and someoutsiders who have created anotherdistraction to keep our eyes off them as theysteer the Nigerian ship recklessly.What is the NGF? Why is it suddenly so

important? Why if the Presidency is notinterested in the crisis, one of the factionsfeels obliged to report to the Vice President(the President was at the African Union 50thanniversary celebrations in Addis Ababa)?Would the faction have reported to thePresident if he was around? Why thepresidential support for a factional NGFsecretariat?Sentiments and issues have tangled; it is

difficult to separate them. Governors whoparticipated in the election, certain of theirgroup’s victory, are turning around to smearthe exercise as flawed. If they won wouldtheir position have been different?

What Governors,What Governors,What Governors,What Governors,What Governors,What FWhat FWhat FWhat FWhat Forum?orum?orum?orum?orum?

Thanks to technology even those who saidthey did not vote have been contradicted.Where was the rigging? The 35 votes cast

matched the number of governors inattendance. Nobody complained about thecounting until the loss. Politicalmiscalculation is at the root of what hasbeen promoted to a crisis. The complainingfaction believed it had the numbers to win.NGF is an association of governors.

Membership is not compulsory. Attendanceat its meetings used to be poor until the pasttwo years when NGF has rallied governors’positions on issues, mostly States’participating in decisions about dispersingNigeria’s resources.

Every governor wanted more money,presumably to develop his State. The forummet a need. Among its critics are those whowonder why states resources are spent onNGF, an exclusive club, whose membershipis only 0.0000225 per cent of Nigeria’spopulation. The undue importance placed on NGF is

an excellent example of how ourgovernments think only about themselves.They would stop at nothing to pleasethemselves, showcase their importance, anddisrupt things to get things done their way.Quests for power platforms are primed at

annexation of any association that couldraise a contrary voice. NGF was a primetarget. Opposition would not be brooked.The point is made emphatically enough tostrike fear in dissenters. Politicians have again placed their greed

above everything.We hope parties to the conflict realise

Nigerians elected them to serve the people.Nothing is more important than the welfareand security of the people, the NGF crisiscannot enhance them.

Vanguard, FRIDAY, MAY 31, 2013—————1919191919

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Something must be wrongwith the May 29 date

BY UCHE NWADIALOR

*Mr. Nwadialor, a commentator onnational issues, wrote from Lagos.

NIGERIA’S path to democracyis chequered. Once we lost it

to the 1966 coupists, severalmilitary leaders thereafter, madeunsuccessful attempts to return thecountry to democracy. From thelate General MurtalaMohammed, who was cut down byhis colleagues, through Generals[all retired]Muhammadu Buhari,Ibrahim Babangida to SaniAbacha, transfer of power at thecentre was a very difficultchallenge, except for GeneralOlusegun Obasanjo as he then was,who voluntarily handed overpower in 1979, only to regain ityears after, but not withoutsacrifices.

Handover of power could bedifficult, especially if one shot hisway into it from what we saw inthe behaviours of these Generals.Power handover was made moredifficult for them by the players inthe system who would alwaysgravitate around every leader.These men, as powerful as theywere, believed in power politicswithout principles. They musteredethnic, military, tribal forces to seeto it that any Head of State sat tighttill he was pushed out by hisimpatient colleagues in a militaryputsch or so. Some of these coupswere bloody, while others lookedlike arrangee business among‘brothers’. Of all our past militaryleaders, it was the great duo ofGeneral Abdulsalami Abubakar(rtd) and Vice Admiral OkhaiAkhigbe(rtd) who resolutely gaveus democracy, which culminatedinto the swearing in of ChiefOlusegun Obasanjo as the firstdemocratically elected Presidentof Nigeria on May 29, 1999. So,our beloved former President , agreat man by any description,chose naturally to declare thatsame date as Nigeria’s Democracy

BY CLEMENT UDEGBE

Day. Democracy Day is worthy ofthe celebration in our nation. Theserious problem is with the dateMay 29 itself. Upon theannouncement of this very date asDemocracy Day, agitation filledthe air waves in Nigeria.

Many Nigerians argued thatJune 12 should be the DemocracyDay because it was on June 12,1993 that Prof.Humphrey Nwosu,as the head of the then INEC,announced the result of the fairest,most transparent and freestpresidential election ever held inNigeria in favour of Chief MKOAbiola of the Social DemocraticParty, SDP, who trounced AlhajiBashir Tofa of the NigerianNational Party, NPN.But to thesurprise of all, except perhaps themakers and shapers of Nigeria atthat time, General IbrahimBabangida(rtd), as the Head ofState, annulled the result of theelection. The agitations thatfollowed this annulment becameso intense that he stepped asidefrom Aso Rock and put in ChiefErnest Shonekan as the Head ofan Interim National Government,ING. As wicked, unfair, and unjustas that annulment was, powerplayers continued to jostle andpush for control. This left the INGunstable until General Abachapushed Chief Shonekan aside andout of Aso Rock on December 18,1993. After putting Chief MKOAbiola in jail, General Abacha wasfound himself contending with theforces of June 12 even as he triedto convince Nigerian that the capof a president fitted him better. Buthe bowed out of the scene whendeath unexpectedly struck, thuspaving way for General Abubakarand Admiral Akhigbe to assumecontrol of in Aso Rock. Chief MKOAbiola also died in the struggle toactualize June 12. But these twofine officers of the Nigerian

Military overlooked the powerplayers, the trappings ofgovernance at the peak andconducted elections that broughtObasanjo back to Aso Rock.Critics of Chief Obasanjo say thathe spurned the June 12 datebecause he despised Chief Abiolaand all he stood for. He, however,chose May 29, the date he wassworn in as President, as theDemocracy Day for this nation.

The key questions of whodecided on May 29 as the

date for the swearing in of PresidentObasanjo, what was playing intheir minds, and what was theirpurpose, are the concerns of thiswriter.This is because on the May29, 1966, the whole of NorthernNigeria declared what they called‘Araba’ against the Igbos in theNorth and started a genocideagainst the Igbos, a genocide thatled to a civil war that saw over 3.1million Igbos killed. ProfessorHerbert Ekwe-Ekwe, a visitingprofessor at the Universaidade deFortlaeza and a specialist on thestate and on the genocide wars inAfrica in the post-1966 epoch-beginning with the Igbo genocide,confirms that this genocideinaugurated Africa’s current ageof pestilence. He says that over 12million additional Africans havebeen murdered in further genocidein Rwanda (1994), Zaire/

DRCongo(since late 1990s) andDafur-West Sudan (since 2004),and in other wars in Africa. ProfEkwe-Ekwe gave reasons on hiswebsite, and whether we agreewith him or not, we are bound toaccept that May 29 is not a day forthis kind of merry making andcelebration for this counrty. It wasthe date evil started in Nigeriawhich touched Africa and is stillfestering.

May 29, 1996 is undoubtedly themost tragic day in Igbo history. Itis the date of Igbo genocide-themost gruesome, devastating andexpansive genocide in 20thCentury Africa.

This very date, May 29, brings tothe mind of any reasonable Igboman, the terrible memories of thegenocide and the unjust war thatfollowed. Yet this May 29 1966 isalso the Igbo day of affirmation,recovery and liberation. The Igbopeople resolved on this day thatmarked the beginning of genocide,to survive the catastrophe bycreating the State of Biafra. TheIgbo could not have survived thegenocide if they remained inNigeria at that time. Those whostarted the genocide, the North ofNigeria, had all it required to wipethem out from the face of Nigeria,because protection for them wouldhave come from nowhere. That theIgbos lost the war and the mentionof the word Biafra is now shouteddown at all levels in Nigeria, allexacerbated by the continued trialof Chief Uwazurike of MASSOB,makes this date a special day ofmeditation and rethinking to theIgbo man, and by extension to alllovers of peace and progress, ofNigeria. We saw the war in Igboland, we were ravaged, killed, ourwomen raped and dehumanized,properties carried away by theinvading army and it all startedon May 29, 1966.

It should be a day of soberreflection, dedicated by the Igboman, Nigeria and Africa againstgenocide. It should be a dayNigerians, especially in the North,should sit, think and resolve neverto attack an Igbo man or anyvisitor to their land again.Celebrating democracy on thesame date is a cover-up of facts

and the truth, and at best isdeceitful and mischievous. Thatthe late Generals I.D. Bisala andMamman Vatsa were killed fororganising unsuccessful coups isa fact. We cannot cover up or denythat they were Generals of theNigerian Army. The youngerofficers need to know this truth soas to guide them in their career.

In the same vein, that IGP TafaBalogun was tried and convictedof a crime in this country does notremove the fact that he was anInspector General of our belovedPolice Force. We must alwaysaccept it and then address it forthe help of future leaders. ThatMay 29, 1966 was the date theNorth started genocide againstIgbos is a fact, and we as a nationshould respect that fact, and usethe occasion to address the issuesthat cause genocide with a view tostopping it in our country. The tell-tales of the lack of remorse by theNorth in this action abound.TheNorth must stop killing Igbos!

How do Nigerians, especially thetrue democrats like ChiefObasanjo want the Igbos to feelthat it is on such a date thatNigerians chose to celebratedemocracy? If indeed the State ofNigeria has any respect for theIgbo man and believes in fairnessand justice, the NigerianPresidency and Senate should lookinto these facts and change thisdate. If we in Nigeria really meanto build a nation whereinequalities and mischief of thepast will be done away with, wemust jointly reject celebrations onthis date.

May 29, should be a daydedicated by Nigeria againstgenocide in Nigeria. If all thosewho have benefited economicallyor in one way or the other from thedefeat of Biafra, the silencing andconquering of the Igbo man rejoiceover it, wine and dine on that day,for the other lovers of this nationin truth, it will remain a day ofprayers, solemn meditation andsupplications to God, asking theLord, what shall we do so as neverto tread this path again in Nigeria.

SINCE May 29, 1999 when Nigeria’songoing nascent democracy

commenced, the giant of Africa has set thisdate for an annual ritual of celebrating acontinuous and unabated democratic ruleaimed at consolidating this globalpolitical value as well as creatingawareness on the need for our democraticoperators to improve on its dividends.

Two days before this date, precisely May27, our students all over the countrycelebrate the Children’s Day inpreparation for the national democracyday.

The zeal and funfair whichcharacterised these momentous andhistoric days have waned with everysuccessive year; this is not becauseNigerians do not appreciate theimportance of these occasions.

During our colonial days, the EmpireDay was a sacrosanct day set asideannually to honour the government andher colonial administration, includingtheir men of glory who lost their livesduring the World War.

All school children in the country,whether in urban or rural areas, were

subjected to a march past to salute theUnion Jack, chanting the British Anthemwith precision and joy rather thanmelancholy. But today how many Nigerianchildren can recite the Nigeria NationalAnthem or literally appreciate every lineof this document.

It is said that that the worst type ofdemocracy is better than the best type ofmilitary rule. No one can clam thatNigeria’s democracy since the past 14years can be rightly described insuperlative degree and not even incomparative terms. How could that be ifthe dividends of democracy such asmotorable roads, potable drinking water,electricity supply, good heath facility andgainful employment, among others, haveeluded most Nigerian communities,especially at the grassroots. Even theprivileged class of the urban milieu haveabandoned their specialist hospitals forforeign medical care. How manyNigerians can afford this? Even ourtertiary institution with all thetechnologists that abound, suffer epilepticelectricity supply, lack of potable water,stinking toilet, empty libraries or librariesstock with obsolescent journals and textbooks .

The April 2011 general elections in

How democratic is Africa'sdemocracy?

Nigeria were acclaimed as beingsuperlative compared to all the previouselections since 1999.

Yet, the degree of fairness, freedom andparticipants turnout was a far cry from

those recorded in the United States ofAmerica when President Barack Obamawas re-elected for his second tenure in thatthere were no violence, ballot boxsnatching and stuffing, impersonation,death through post-election violence aswas the case in Ivory Coast, NorthernNigeria and the Democratic Republic ofCongo, DRC. This is as a result of theerosion of the democratic values of 33years of military interregnum which has

impacted negatively on the psyche ofAfrican political leaders to date. Thisfactor also explains the unfortunateincidence of June 12 and the eventualchoice of ex-president Olusegun AremuObasanjo.However, it is interesting toobserve that the influence of militarism isdeclining fast with two presidentsemerging successively from the ivorytower.

Democratic awareness should start fromthe home, the Church and the school.Primary and secondary school curriculashould embrace the elements ofdemocracy in all the classes, whileGovernment, as a course, must becompulsory for the social sciencedepartment in tertiary institutions. It hasalso become necessary for the various tiersof government in conjunction with theelectoral commissions and the NationalOrientation Agency, NOA, to embark onan intensive sensitization campaign on theneed for the youth to shun violence andfor Nigerians to turn out enmass duringthe 2015 elections.

In a true democracy, power belongs tothe people. The African Union, AU, shouldendeavour to intervene and arrest threatsto the growth of democracy in thecontinent, especially in Congo, Guinea,Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Libya, Egypt andothers. That is the only way elections inAfrica, between now and 2015, willenhance democracy in the continent.

*Mr. Udegbe, a lawyer, wrotefrom Lagos.

It should be aday of soberreflection; itshould be a dayNigerians,especially in theNorth, shouldresolve never toattack an Igboman or anyvisitor to theirland again

In a truedemocracy, powerbelongs to thepeople; the AfricanUnion, AU, shouldendeavour tointervene and arrestthreats to the growthof democracy in thecontinent

20—Vanguard,FRIDAY, MAY 31, 2013

1.You have to know when to stop and letgo of somethings for they say "A stubborn fly

follows the corpse to the grave"

Simon Adewale08056180103,Lagos State .

SAYINGS OF OUR ELDERS

Media Ltd., PMB 1007, Apapa,

Send us your Sayings of Our Elders. They must be African sayingsor proverbs. Biblical or English proverbs are unacceptable. Youwill be paid N100.00 for every saying published. Address yoursayings to: The Co-ordinator, Sayings of Our Elders,Vanguard

,

,,

,GOVERNOR Rotimi

Amaechi has not shown anyinterest or declared hisintention to contest the 2015election, so I don’t see anyreason why PresidentJonathan should beapprehensive. The President’sconstant snapping at the heelsof Governor Amaechi throughhis aides and lackeys is basedon the fear that Amaechi willcontest against him.

Joy 080205822339

President Jonathan vsGov. Amaechi

The spat between presidentJonathan and GovernorAmaechi is unhealthy for ourdemocracy. Both have shownthat they have no space fordissenting voices. This oughtnot to be so in a democraticsetting. Both men shouldchannel their efforts towardsproviding quality service tothe people who elected theminto office for the sake of ourpolitical progress and unity.This country is in dire need ofgood leadership, not quarrel-some leaders.

Gbenga 080308924497

Kidnapping andMonguno’s stand onBoko Haram

Judging from reports onMunguno’s stand on BokoHaram, his kidnap looks stagemanaged. President Jonathan

should not be cowed intosetting a precedent by bowingto murderer’s demand . BokoHaram is north’s instrument tomake Nigeria ungovernablefor President Jonathan as someof their leaders threatened .Only God knows why thesepersons still walk free. Thenorth contributed nothing toNigeria gaining of freedombut have enjoyed 39 years outof 50years so far.

Dr. O.B. Mbamarah07059395566

Distraction ingovernment

There are too manydistrations on the governmentwhich most times are notconstructive enough to get thekind of publicity they get butborne out of the quest to getpower. In most democracies ofthe world, opposition criticiseconstructively in order to solvecritical problems confrontingthem as a nation, but here in

Nigeria opposition onlycriticise to pull down thegovernment in power. Whengovernment is over distractedlike it is now, by oppositionparties, paid media houses,Nigerian Governors Forum,Northern Governors Forum,Northern Elders Forum, BokoHaram among others, it cre-ates lack of concentration onthe part of the government,

and the people suffer for it.Those in power have the man-date to govern and should beallowed to do so with less dis-tractions.

Clara 08078210057

Kudos to Gov.Amosun’s urban renewalprojects

Nigerian urban centrescurrently experiencing adisconnection between urbaninfrastructure and thepopulace. The majority ofurban infrastructure were de-veloped during the militaryregimes as far back as theearly 70s. Depsite the succes-sion of democratic governancein the 21st century, there hadbeen an inadequate mainte-nance of infrastructure in mosturban centres across Nigeria.

It is gratifying to note thatthe Ogun state governmenthas put everything in place tomake the state a mega city inthe country, with the provi-

sion of social amenities , interms of road networks, trans-portation systems, provision ofeducational materials and re-cently the signing of a Memo-randum of Understanding(MOU) on light rail project inthe state. No wonder, whenGovernor EmmanuelUduaghan and ChiefGodswill Akpobio visited thestate, they commended thestate governor.

F . H . E . O l o m o r e08057700199

First Bank and ATMcharges

The Central Bank has askedbanks not to charge for use ofATM but First Bank nowcharges N100 per month forservices. First Bank shouldreduces most of their unnec-essary charges.

Emma 08078921191

When government is over distractedlike it is now, by opposition parties,paid media houses, NigerianGovernors Forum, NorthernGovernors Forum, Northern EldersForum, Boko Haram among others,it creates lack of concentration onthe part of the government, and thepeople suffer for it

Afenifere’s strangebedfellows

Dear Sir,

I was alarmed but laterbemused when I read about

Afenifere’s press conference inthe media recently. Seated withAfenifere’s chieftains wereSenator Iyiola Omisore and MrYinka Odumakin. Mr Odumakinwas the vocal spokesperson of thegroup that broke away fromAfenifere.

Afenifere was established in1951 by the late sage, ChiefObafemi Awolowo, and his

governance.It was during this process that

Senator Omisore came to the fold,especially when the Alliance forDemocracy, AD was being formedand he became the DeputyGovernor of Osun State.

Due to obvious differences anddiscordant tune of the politicalmusic at that time, it was clear toall that Omisore did not belongto the fold. Things began to fallapart in the party and in theleadership of the Osun StateGovernment leading to hisimpeachment as the Deputy

Governor. Since then, SenatorOmisore has left the AD to pitchhis tent with the PDP. His partydeployed all resources at itsdisposal to fight Awo’s onceunited political family with intentof total annihilation. Thisallegedly culminated in thegruesome murder of Chief BolaIge and the annihilation of theAD in the South West with Bola

Tinubu of Lagos State the onlyman standing.

Afenifere has since unravelledand the various leaders havejoined different political parties.While some are still in the ACN,some have joined PDP whilemany of them are with LabourParty. It is curious therefore to seeOmisore nesting comfortablywith Afenifere. Has Afeniferebecome Afenifere-PDP? Let themtell us so that we can know wherethey stand. What they are up toand what scheme they may beplotting is yet to be known butOmisore has his eyes on OsunState Governorship election nextyear. Are they Omisore’s friendsand part of his campaign group?Time will tell.

Omisore had surreptitiouslycrept into the rank of the Afeniferegroup again the way he did in1999. One wanders why the

group allowed its ranks to bebroken and became sovulnerable to open its doors toanother era of alleged politicalterrorism that characterizedOmisore‘s earlier romance withthe group in 1999. We knowthat the group has suffered veryserious infiltration from theopposition which has led to itsbeing factionalised.

It is nevertheless a suicidemission for these factions to allowfurther division by allowingOmisore into its fold. Thisromance obviously is like apolitical cancer that should notbe allowed to fester. Anything tothe contrary can only constitutea death sentence to the peace andtranquility being enjoyed in theregion.

Kunle Omideyi,Surulere, Lagos

Honour the slain policemenDear Sir,

I would be delighted if youallow me to use your widely

read newspapers to call on theFederal Government tohonour the policemen whopaid the supreme price in

Nasarawa State when theywent to arrest cultists that wereterrorizing the inhabitants ofthe state.

If the Federal Governmentcannot declare nationalmourning for the deceasedpolicemen, it is advisable weput our national flag at halfmast in their honour.

Already, there is animpression that human life isnow cheap in the country. It isunfortunate that the killing ofthe people hardly makes newsas it occurs almost on dailybasis in Nigeria. Manypolicemen have been killedbut the killings of up to 60policemen at a time isunprecedented in the historyof this country.

We should not leave onlytheir widows, orphans andtheir loved ones to bear thepains of their loss; we shouldby our actions demonstratethat they are not alone in theirgriefs.

Honouring them will not onlyencourage our policemen towork harder it will show thatif they die in the active service,they did not die in vain. Thiswill go a long way in easingthe pains and anguish of theirimmediate families and theirloved ones.

James O. AdeyemiIle-Epo, Abule-Egba,Lagos.08026106556

Afenifere has since unravelled and thevarious leaders have joined different politi-cal parties; while some are still in the ACN,some have joined PDP while many of themare with Labour Party; it is curious thereforeto see Omisore nesting comfortably withAfenifere

President Jonathanvs Gov. Amaechi

associates. Since then, itremained the rallying point forthe progressives in the SouthWest geopolitical zone inNigeria. Since 1999 when thecurrent democratic dispensationtook its root, things took a newdimension with real disciples ofAwolowo trying to alignthemselves together to pursuethe authentic Awo’s vision in


Nigeria yNigeria yNigeria yNigeria yNigeria yeeeeet tt tt tt tt to pro pro pro pro properly implementoperly implementoperly implementoperly implementoperly implementISPS code ISPS code ISPS code ISPS code ISPS code - NIMASA

BY GODWIN ORITSE

THE Nigerian MaritimeAdministration and Safety

Agency (NIMASA) said thatNigeria as a maritime nationhas not satisfactorilyimplemented theInternational Ship and PortSecurity (ISPS) code of theInternational MaritimeOrganisation (IMO).

NIMASA’s ExecutiveDirector Captain Bala Agaba,disclosed this at a meeting ofmaritime stakeholderscomprising jetty owners,shipping firms, on-shore - off-shore companies, stevedoresand the leadership of theMaritime Workers Union ofNigeria (MWUN).

He however said the agencyis ready to commence properimplementation of the ISPScode in Nigeria.

Agaba said NIMASA couldnot do much in implementingthe code because of theproblem it had with thePresidential ImplementationCommittee on MaritimeSecurity and Safety(PICOMSS). According tohim, for eight yearsPICOMSS pretended toimplement the ISPS codewhen in actual fact it was not.

He said the agency hasconcluded plans to convene astakeholders meeting with aview to resolving the issues‘PICOMSS left after it waswound down’.

“We are not doing very wellwith regards to the ISPS codebut we are going to take upseriously from now. Allstakeholders will be invited toa meeting with a view toensuring that the ISPS codeis properly implemented,” headded.

It will be recalled that aboutfive months ago, the Federal

Government scrapped thePresidential Implementationon Maritime Security andSafety (PICOMSS), followingits refusal to merge with theNigerian MaritimeAdministration and SafetyAgency (NIMASA).

The development accordingto an official of Port FacilitySecurity Officer (PFSO)

forum, who spoke toVanguard under condition ofanonymity, will definitelyimpact negatively on the portsecurity system.

Sources close to thedissolved PICOMSS saidthat it had to opt for theCommittee to be scrappedbecause NIMASA’s definitionof security is a far cry from

what it should be. The sourcealso stated that the lateFormer Security Adviser,General Patrick Azazi, wasmade to convince thePresident on the need toeither merge PICOMMS withNIMASA or have it scrapped.

Both the NIMASA andPICOMSS have been atlogger heads over whoshould be in control of thesecurity in nation’s waterways. At a point, internationalOil Companies operating inNigeria, were paying dues toPICOMSS for providingsecurity services for theiroperations. This movehowever, did not go downwell with NIMASA whoconsequently launched anonslaught on the Committeeand ensured that it was finallyscrapped.

It would also be recalled thatat a time both the Presidencyand the Senate Committee onMarine Transport were atloggerheads over twoseparate maritime securitybills that underwent somelegislative processes. Whilethe then Senator GbemiSaraki-led Senate MarineCommittee was pushing forthe passage of the CoastGuard Bill, the Presidencypromoted the passage of aMaritime Security Agency, adepartment that would have duplicated the function of theNigerian MaritimeAdministration and SafetyAgency.

Sources close to the MarineTransport Committee said thatthe President requested thatthe National Assemblyapprove the setting up of amaritime security agency thatwill protect ships, oil facilitiesand ports in the Niger-Deltaregion.

From Left: Manager, Government Affairs and Policy, General Electric Africa, NilsTcheyan, receiving an award for Public Private Partnerships in recognition for GE’s workin Nigeria on Energy from the CEO /Vice Chairman, Africa investor, Hubert Danso, at theAfrican Infrastructure Investment Summit.

Equal trading opportunities will addressterrorism in Africa – GIABA

BY JONAH NWOKPOKU

The Director General of Inter-governmental Action Group

against Money Laundering inWest Africa, GIABA, Dr. AbdullahiShehu has said that provision ofequal trading opportunities fordeveloping countries like Africawould help to address the problemof terrorism in the continent.Shehu stated this in an address atthe United Nations SecurityCouncil meeting on combatingterrorism in Africa held in NewYork.

Shehu who was profferingsolutions to the menace of terrorismin Africa, said there is need forstrategic partnerships amongnational, regional and

international actors, while advocatingfor a stronger political commitment andleadership, establishment of aneffective early warning mechanism forthe prevention of conflict andterrorism.

He identified other solutions toinclude capacity building and supportto States to promote rule of law,democracy and good governance forthe prevention of conflict, and themaintenance of international peaceand security, provision of technicalassistance, the need to improve andsustain cooperation and coordinationat the national, regional andinternational levels, including theinvolvement of civil societyorganizations and the private sector.

He therefore called on national,regional and international actors to

close ranks in order to effectively fightthe menace of terrorism in Africa.

He however noted that most Africancountries are incapable of dealing withthe problems in isolation due to manychallenges confronting them, arguingthat the impact of terrorist acts whichare manifested in various dimensionsis widespread, and that the patternsand locations of these terrorist actsdepend on the ideology, intents andcapability of the perpetrators.

In his words, “While most terroristactivities have been driven byextremist and political motivations, weare yet to see perhaps a devastatingpattern if terrorist groups are drivenby a feeling of deprivation, hunger,poverty and unemployment, and thatmay be even more difficult to controlin a country” he said.

CURRENCY BUYING CENTRAL SELLING

CBN Exchange rate as at 30/05/2013

103.90 -0.33

94.56 -0.45

126.8 0.35

2,209.00 +4.00

16.63 -0.09

DOLLAR 154.74 155.24 155.74POUNDS 233.9824 234.7384 235.4945EURO 200.2026 200.8495 201.4964FRANC 159.7069 160.2229 160.739YEN 1.5162 1.5211 1.526CFA 0.285 0.295 0.305WAUA 230.0661 230.8095 231.5529RENMINBI 25.2764 25.3585 25.4406RIYA 41.2607 41.394 41.5273KRONA 26.8557 26.9425 27.0293SDR 231.0732 231.8199 232.5665

22 — Vanguard, FRIDAY, MAY 31, 201 3

From left: General Manager, Facilities, 1004 Estates Limited, Mr. Oni Olushola; Institutionalisation and Advisory Service, NextzonBusiness Services, Mr. Wale Ogunsola ; Head, Main Board, Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), Mrs. Cynthia Akpomudiare and ExecutiveDirector, Contemporary Group Limited, Arc. M. O. Ibitoye, at the NSE Institutional Services Workshop in Lagos.

We are committed to ensuring robustperformance — Livestock boss

By WILLIAM JIMOH

LIVESTOCK Feeds Plc hasvowed that it will

maximize every availableopportunity in its operation aspart of efforts to ensure theachievement of a robustperformance in the currentfinancial year.

Chairman Board of Directorsof the Company, Mr. LarryEttah, who disclosed thiswhile addressingshareholders of the companyat the Annual GeneralMeeting, AGM in Lagos, saidthat that they would strive toconsolidate on 2012performance worknotwithstanding thechallenges especially of highcost and shortage of some ofthe major input materialcurrently facing the industry.

According to him, “Despitethe various challenges thatare facing the industry, whichwas compounded by theflooding of the growing belt ofthe nation, your board andmanagement team is workinghard to overcome theseemergent challenges.”

“We will also optimise thesynergy with our sistercompany in the UAC Group,Grand Cereals Limited,

especially in technical andraw material procurement torealise this objective,” Ettahsaid.

Additionally, he asserted thatthe poultry industry growththat was estimated at about 20

percent in 2012 over 2011 waslargely propelled by thegrowing expansion of manymedium to large scale farm-ers, who were beneficiaries ofthe Central Bank’s Commer-cial Agricultural Scheme.

Fidelity, GTB, 4 others queuefor awards in Morocco

SEVEN Nigerian banks,namely Fidelity Bank Plc,

GTBank, Access Bank, SkyeBank, First Bank, are amongthe cream of banks on thecontinent, which have beenpenciled down for recognitionat the African Bankers Awardsholding in the Moroccan cityof Marrakech. The Awards,being organised by the UK-based African Bankermagazine, are part of thehighlights of the AnnualGeneral Meeting of the AfricanDevelopment Bank (AfDB),which is currently holding inthe North African country.

The Nigerian banks areamong about 42 of theircounterparts on the continentnominated in variouscategories for awards. SouthAfrican banks also made astrong showing with as many

nominations as their Nigeriancounterparts.

Fidelity Bank is Nigeria’s onlybank that made the shortlist offive in the category of MostSocially Responsible Bank, outof about 56 entries, accordingto information from the organ-isers. According to them, thejudges were said to be im-pressed with Fidelity’s Help-ing Hands Programme whichis the bank’s platform for CSRin their various branches.

GTBank, which CEO, Mr.Segun Agbaje is nominated asAfrican Banker of the Year isalso shortlisted as Bank of theYear on the continent.

While no Nigerian bank wasshortlisted for FinancialInclusion Award, three of them:Access Bank, Citi (Nigeria)and Skye Bank, were nominat-ed for Deal of the Year.

BRIEFS

AS part of its move toensure sustainable value

creation for businesses acrossNigeria, Stransact Partners, aprofessional services firm, saidit plans to commence trainingof chief executives of companiesin select programmes. The firmplans to launch this in July witha two-day class on EssentialBusiness Secrets in Dubai.

In a statement, signed by itsCorporate CommunicationManager, Damilola Daniel, thecompany said it has discoveredthat businesses die in Nigeriabecause they lack the ability tocreate values. “And since weknow the secrets to valuecreation because we havehelped many strugglingbusinesses regain stability, it istherefore necessary for us tocoach desiring executives onhow to create values for businessgrowth.

“This is our way of deliveringon our commitment to createwealth for Nigeria. We do thisby birthing businesses and byproviding strategic advice thatguarantees sustainablegrowth,” Daniel said.

According to him, StransactPartners has helped establisheda company from zero capital toN250 million turnover in justthree years.

Firm plans capacitybuilding for topcompanyexecutives

By NKIRUKA NNOROM

Tantalizers set toimprove services

A leading indigenous fastfood company, Tantalizers

plc, has said it was set toactualise outlet renovation,business expansion strategyand completion of its ITplatform.

Company ’s ManagingDirector/CEO, Mrs. Bose Ayeni,told newsmen in Lagos that themoney from IFC, which hadearlier taken an eight percentequity stake in the company,would be used to renovateTantalizers’ outlets in a bid toincrease the excitement aroundthe strong Tantalizers brand.

Mrs. Ayeni, explainedfurther that Tantalizers’customers have a lot to lookforward to, adding that thefirm has studied thedevelopments in the Nigerianenvironment and thedynamics of the fast foodindustry and was now poisedto address the changing tasteof its customers.

May & Baker to raise new capital tosupport growth plan

By BABAJIDE KOMOLAFE

MAY & Baker NigeriaPlc would consider

raising additional capital tosupport its business expan-sion and steady the healthcarecompany against competition,the board of the company hassaid.

At the annual general meet-ing of the company in Lagosyesterday, chairman, May &Baker Nigeria Plc, Lt. GenTheophilus Danjuma (rtd),said the company has startedconsidering various ways ofraising new capital and wouldsoon choose the most appro-priate means to bolster thecapital base of the company.According to him, it has be-come expedient for the com-pany to recapitalise to musterenough liquidity to face thechallenges of the businessenvironment.

He outlined that the hugeinvestments in the world-classpharmaceutical manufactur-ing centre in Ota, Ogun State,the company’s vaccine man-ufacturing joint venture withthe Federal Government, newproducts and other initiativeswill provide a stable base forthe company’s growth in theyears ahead.He said the company hasrolled out a new five-yearstrategic plan that would seekto harness all opportunities toincrease the group’s earningsand returns to shareholders.He noted that the companyhas projected turnover of N9.6billion for 2013 based on theoptimism on expected in-creased output from its new manufacturing plant, busi-ness restructuring efforts andexpected reduction in financ-ing costs following the softloan received from T.Y Hold-ings during the last quarterof 2012.

He added that profit is also

expected to increase in 2013as the company continues tooptimize production and costefficiencies.

“Our company is well-posi-tioned for the future with a lotof potentials from the strate-gic investment we have madein Ota and other attractivebusiness prospects in oursight. As we vigourously pur-

sue our new five-year strate-gic plan with all the opportu-nities it presents, we can onlyhope for better performanceand stronger earnings capac-ity going forward,” Danjumasaid.

He said the company hasreached advanced stage inperfecting the renewal of thejoint venture agreement with

the Federal Government onthe local manufacturing ofvaccines noting that the com-pany will shortly after theagreement commence localproduction of vaccines.Danjuma called for a deliber-ate policy by the various armsof government in Nigeria tobuy locally produced productsand services.



FOR tourists, the mentionof Osun State conjuresthe image of Osun shrine, riverand the festival, but there isanother hidden treasure in thestate of the Living Spring called‘Olumirin’It was named “Olumirin.” bythe people of the town as it wastheir thought that it was anothergod whose power over the wholearea was only similar to Akinla,the founder of Erin Ijesha town.

The waterfalls, also known asthe Erin Ijesha Waterfalls, is twokilometres off Erin Ijesha town,which lies 20km east of Ilesha onthe Ilesha-Akure Road in OsunState.

Conspicuouseye catcher

The gigantic Ridge constitutesa conspicuous eye-catcher forevery traveler along the Ilesa-Akure expressway, as it towersinto the distant skyline, forminga spectacular backrest for thesleepy towns of Erin-Oke, Erin-Ijesha and Erinmo.

The awe-inspiring falls is anassemblage of seven distinctcascades believe by the peopleto exude from a big pot locatedat the top of the ridge. Oftentimes, first time tourist at thewaterfalls unconsciously starts tonumber the waterfalls from thelast drop (the base of the ridge)as it is the first of all the falls tobe encountered when visiting;whereas the numbering issupposed to be from the top.Nevertheless, going by layman’sstandard, the seventh drop of thewaterfalls is the first waterfall.

The first cascade plummetsthrough a narrow opening in acluster of luxuriant tree trunks

blanketed in dark green leafage,down a steeply folded rock faceof about ten meters in height.Like a rain of a million limpidpins, the showers descend andinundate s huge boulder reposedat its plunge pool below. Fallen

logs of wood laid dank in thepool and out-flowing streamchannel.

The air hung muggy with aheavy smoke of splashed waterdroplets. The sight sparks the firstfire of excitement that pervade the

Olumirin fOlumirin fOlumirin fOlumirin fOlumirin falls: alls: alls: alls: alls: God’s gift to Ijesha

veins of any visitor at the falls.The refreshing ambience isfurther thickened when oneascends the steep rocks to explorethe other stages of the waterfalls.

The second cascade is the mostgigantic of all, with the watersdiving down a 40m-high cliff. Thecopious plunge is mostspectacular in the rainy seasonwhen the stream channel is at itsflooding levels. Its plunge poolforms a shallow swimming poolfor visitors at the site who are

lucky and brave enough to getto the second fall.

The climb up the waterfalls isquite intimidating and arduous,as there are no steps constructedor clear paths made up the ridgeslopes, except depressions andprojections on the surface, as wellas roots and branches of hugetrees, forest climbers and shrubsalong the paths, which serves ashand and foot holds for theadventurous tourist.

Nevertheless,the ascent of theenormous ridge is mostrewarding, as one is treated todazzling and panoramic vistasof the surrounding landscape,depicting the true natural beautyof the Nigerian landmass.

Another great attraction at thewaterfalls, is the Abake village,a rustic enclave located at the topof the colossal ridge. The name“Abake”, is a Yoruba word whichis a combination of two otherYoruba words:

“Aba” “Oke”, meaning “thevillage on the top”, suggestingthe location , of the small village.

Exciting activities at Erin-Ijesha waterfalls tourist resortincludes: Swimming, basejumping (new potentials), rockclimbing; bird and gamewatching among others.

The newly appointed DirectorGeneral of the Nigeria Tourism

Development Corporation (NTDC),Mrs. Sally Mbanefo, has promisedthat transformation of domestictourism would receive high priority .

Outlining her focus for the promotionof country’s tourist attractions beforethe staff of the agency, Mrs. Mbanefosaid she will work to develop localcontent as she believes that before wecan successfully sell Nigerian tourismbrand to the outside world we mustaddress the domestic marketpotentials, secure the buy-in andconfidence of Nigerians in the sectoras well as Nigerians to be proud oftheir tourism heritage.

She told staff that the developmentof the domestic tourism would alsoentail other core mandates whichincludes job creation, povertyalleviation and revenue generation.

In her address to the managementand staff of the NTDC, Mrs Mbanefonoted that the vision of the NTDC shallbe interpreted in line with that of theministry which is to reposition Nigeriaas the preferred tourism destination inSub-Saharan Africa offering diverseworld class tourism products gearedtowards contributing 10% of the GDPthrough a transformation driven policy.

She expressed utmost confidence in

the programmes and plans of theminister for Nigeria’s tourism sectorand said that NTDC would becommitted to achieving the set goalswhile adding that the minister hasproperly interpreted and adapted theoverall transformation agenda of thegovernment of President GoodluckJonathan as it relates to tourism sectorof the economy.

Mbanefo also revealed that the newNTDC shall be active in promotingadvocacy and public enlightenment forthe tourism industry to get Nigeriansto appreciate and patronize thebeautiful natural endowments God hasgiven the country.

Her messages also dwelt heavily onthe need for accountability, disciplineand integrity as the watchword of thenew NTDC adding that she operatesan open door management style thatseeks to ensure free flow ofcommunication that would enable ateam spirit.

The critical focus of the meetings ,according to a source, were ondevelopment of the Tourism ValueChain across the country to realise theobjectives for which the Corporationwas set up as well as meeting the coremandate of the supervising ministryof tourism.

In this connection the new DG wassaid to have indicated that NTDC,working in close partnership with otherparastatals shall be implementing theTourism Master Plan geared towardsthe promotion of Nigeria’s rich tourismpotentials through identification,development and marketing of thediverse tourism opportunities.

In addition and in line with the core-mandate of the supervising Ministry,the new NTDC shall be active inpromoting tourism as a foreignexchange earner, income re-distributor, major revenue earner to thefederal government, major employerof labour as well as a catalyst for ruraldevelopment and poverty reduction.

NTDC to give attention to domestic tourism … as new DG resumes … as new DG resumes … as new DG resumes … as new DG resumes … as new DG resumes

Mrs. SallyMbanefo


THERE is no doubt that the two years between

2011 and 2013 are the goldenyears of Dr. EmmanuelUduaghan’s six yearstewardship of Delta State.

In the first term oppositionelements had matter of factattacked the governmentwithout batting an eyelid, butnowadays, it is withmoderation. Chairman ofLabour Party, LP, in the state,Comrade Emeka Nkwoala,captured it thus, “We believethere has been somedevelopmental efforts, butthere is still room forimprovement.”

The Delta State House ofAssembly under theleadership Rt. Hon. VictorOchei as speaker has alsoconstructively engaged thegovernor in the last two years.

Many, however, thoughtthat with up to six legislatorsin the 29-member legislature,the Democratic People’s Party,DPP lawmakers would turn tostormy petrels in thechambers, but so far, it hasbeen a robust relationshipbetween the executive andlegislature.

Attempts by some DPPleaders to influence theirrepresentatives in the Houseto challenge their PDPcounterparts were greetedwith a quiet retort that thelawmakers were all workingtogether for the growth of thestate.

The only area of differenceof note was the refusalGovernor Uduaghan to signthe Anti-Kidnapping andTerrorism Bill that was passedby the House of Assembly

Delta: Fresh start

BY EMMA AMAZIE,SOUTH-SOUTH REGIONAL

EDITOR

was paid early and goingforward, workers’ salaries willbe paid before the 20th day ofevery month.”

The governor has alsoupped the ante in therenovation of decrepit publicprimary and secondaryschools in the state in the lasttwo years, and this has set hisgovernment apart from hispredecessors.

In the health sector, he hasretooled the public healthsystem in the state with the

,

,

upon his opposition to thedeath clause contained in thebill. The lawmakersnevertheless overrode thegovernor’s veto.

Workers in the state wereshocked when thegovernment, for the first time,paid their May salaries withinthe first two weeks of themonth.

It is a new policy theCommissioner for Finance,Mr. Bernard Okumagba saidwould be sustainedhenceforth.

“The state governmentresolved to be paying workersearly. Accordingly, the salariesfor the month of May, 2013

Delta State Teaching Hospital,Oghara and Eku BaptistHospital, Eku, nowgovernment-owned, fittedwith up-to-date facilities. TheCentral Hospital, Warri is notleft out, while pregnantwomen are praying for himday after day because of hisfree maternity programme.

The governor’s weakest linkused to be road construction,but the governor has movedto address that in 2013 withan aggressive focus on roadsin Warri, Effurun, Asaba,Ughelli and some other partsof the state.

Uduaghan is on course-

those inherited from hispredecessor are yet to becompleted such as the Airportproject, the Agbor erosionmenace, the Asaba-Ogwashi-Uku- Ughelli dual carriageway, the Inter-Bau roundabout- Okpanam road project".

Defective implementation –ACN

The chairman of the ActionCongress of Nigeria, ACN, inthe state, Chief Adolo Okotie-Eboh in his comments said:

“Let me say that theeconomic development of therural populace has notchanged much. It is also ofnote that the urban renewalprogramme of the governorhas not yielded much result asthe planning andimplementation are defectiveand lack speed.”

I score him average – IkimiCoordinator of the Forum for

Human Rights Defence andJustice, Delta state, BarristerOghenenabor Ikimi, said, “Iwill score Dr EmmanuelUduaghan’s administrationsince May, 2011 on theaverage based on a holisticexamination of hisadministration’s three pointagenda, as it would be totallyunfair for me to write off hisadministration,” even as henoted the continuing menaceof youth unemployment.

Tackling ofunemployment

“Hence, I want to suggestthat for the remaining lifespan of Dr EmmanuelUduaghan’s administration,he should concentrate onagriculture to tackle poverty,hunger and youthunemployment in the state. Ibelieve that once youthunemployment is tackled,insecurity would graduallydisappear,” he asserted.

Ex-militant leader, “Gen”Augustine U. Ogedegbepoured commendation on thegovernor while the Committeefor the Defence of HumanRights, CDHR flayed theadministration at mid-term.

Uduaghan initiated bigprojects – Odili

Governor Uduaghan’sManager, Communications,Mr. Paul Odili, who respondedto the tirades of the oppositionparties, said, beyond AsabaTextile Mill that theadministration is creatingopportunities for industries tooperate in the state.

He also described asridiculous assertions thatroads being constructed wereof poor standard asserting that“Uduaghan’s government isnot about first and secondterm.

It is a continuum ofprogrammes and policies ofthe administration.

•Governor Uduaghan inspecting a road project

He has retooled the public healthsystem in the state with the DeltaState Teaching Hospital, Oghara andEku Baptist Hospital, Eku, nowgovernment-owned, fitted with up-to-date facilities

Labour PartyThe Labour Party chairman,

Nkwoala in his mid-termassessment of Uduaghan said,“Critical analysis of thesethree- point agenda showsclearly that the governor isactually on duty, despite somefew ugly incidents, here andthere.”

“However, central to thedevelopment of any state isthe issue of job creationthrough massiveindustrialization.

Nothing to cheer – DPPDemocratic People’s Party,

DPP chairman in the state,Chief Tony Ezeagwu, was,however, emphatic thatUduaghan’s “second term isnot better than his first term –development wise”, eventhough he agreed thatconstruction works were on-going on the roads and newschools built.

His words, “There is nothingto show. The construction ofroads and drainages startedlast year and at a time, it wassaid that the 2012 rains sloweddown the pace of work. Allthrough the dry season, theseworks were not completed.The rains have come again.“The tunnels calleddrainages, being constructedhaphazardly all over Asabaare something else. These donot meet the standards ofdrainages being constructedin states like Edo, Akwa Ibom,Cross River to mention but afew.

"'Certain projects awarded bythe present government and

Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan in his second term is running an aggressivecampaign on the ground to erect a legacy that would endear the governorin the hearts of the populace. It is a race against time.


SUCCESS has many friends and with it, many secret

hostile enemies. That indeed isthe unfolding development inRivers State where the ChibukeAmaechi administration has toa large extent won plaudits forits remarkable achievements ineducation, health, agriculture,sports and indeedinfrastructure. Not surprising,many governors from far andnear have had cause to visit thestate to see the wonders thatwere credited to the Amaechiadministration in the recentpast.

With the success also camepolitical capital whichcatapulted the governor to thechairmanship of the NigerianGovernors Forum, NGF andthe consequential exposurethat has now put him in harmsway.

The Amaechi administration

Rivers: Continuing harvestGovernor Chibuke Amaechi of Rivers State proved beyond doubt that governmentcould be made to work for the ordinary citizen in his first term with his unparalleledprojects in education, health and agriculture. Given the overdrive in the first term it isnot surprising that critics say that he has slowed down this time around. Has he?

BY JIMITOTA ONOYUME

•One of the 525 model schools built by Amaechi •Amaechi

,,

need in the state.Among the projects started in

the first term of the governmentthat have recently beencompleted or commissioned isthe ultra modern KelseyHarrison hospital in PortHarcourt managed byInternational Trauma CriticalCare Limited, ITCC, aninternational hospitalmanagement organisation.The administration is alsomaking effort to guarantee thestate uninterrupted powersupply as it intensifies effort tocomplete work on its powerproject.

by a far degree laid solidlandmarks in the diversesectors in its first term and inthe first half of the second termthe governor has largelyconcentrated on harvesting theprojects, commissioning andbuilding upon what he did inthe first term.

Given the relatively slowertempo in the second term, it isnot surprising that manydwellers accustomed to theaggressive drive of the firstterm say the governor is nolonger working.

Others mischievously say thatthe NGF is taking his time.

One of the 23 modelsecondary schools in the statesituated at Eleme took off thissession under the managementof Educomp Solutions Group,an India based educationconsultancy. The tuition freeinstitution with structures thatcould make many universitiesgreen with envy is conceivedto rank among the bestsecondary schools in the worldand hence the importation ofthe Indian educationconsultancy as managers of theschool.

To further drive home hiscommitment to deliveringquality education, the governorrecently flagged off distributionof free laptops to secondaryschools in the state.

The governor explained thatthe exercise was part of hisresolve to ensure secondaryschool students in the state

were ICT compliant.The governor has also been

making frantic efforts tocomplete, and where not, addto the primary health centresand roads started in his firstterm.

The monorail is among the

projects the governor has beenstriving to complete. It is aproject the administrationclaims would ease traffic flowin Port Harcourt, but criticsnow allege it is an albatross onthe government given whatthey allege is theadministration’s difficulty incompleting it.

The Action Congress ofNigeria, ACN state publicitysecretary, Mr Jerry Needamwhile flaying the project as awaste of funds alleged that themoney so far invested in theproject could have beenchanneled to areas of urgent

The relationshipbetween theexecutive and thelegislative arm of thegovernment at a timewas so cordial that theACN described thelatter as a rubberstamp House ofAssembly. But theSpeaker of the Houseof Assembly, HonOtelemaba Amachreewas quick to dismissthe allegation by theACN party as lackingin substance.

A m a e c h i ’ sconcentration on governancedespite pretension to thecontrary would have beenaffected by the recent eruptionsin the ruling PeoplesDemocratic Party, PDP.

The governor is faced with therebellion of renegade partysupporters who in cahoots withauthorities in Abuja areallegedly aiming to undermineAmaechi’s political profileahead of the 2015 generalelections. Few indeed wouldclaim Amaechi to have failedat mid-term having, the disputeis only on how he hasmanaged the success!

THE opposition at time eventhreatened to evoke

appropriate provisions of the1999 Constitution to force himto assemble his Cabinet. Amidsevere criticisms, he admittedthat he was a green horn inpolitics. That was IbrahimDankwambo, the presentGovernor of Gombe State who

resigned from being theAccountant-General of theFederation in December 2010 to

Gombe: On steady course

BY LEVINUS NWABUGHI-OGU

contest 2011 gubernatorialelection. He won and wassworn in as Governor on May29, 2011.

But unknown to many,Dankwambo was learning theropes. In those first days inoffice in 2011, he convened ameeting of stakeholders andGombe indigenes andconstituted about 14 differentCommittees. The mandate ofthe Committees was to dothorough and analyticalinvestigation of all the criticalsectors of the state economy

which included Education,Agriculture, Health,Commerce and Industry, etc,and make far-reachingrecommendations that wouldform the nucleus of hisadministration. Of course,many people saw that as awaste of time.

That singular move may,however, have paid off asvirtually all the government hasachieved so far are hinged onrecommendations of the


Not surprising, many governorsfrom far and near have had cause tovisit the state to see the wondersthat were credited to the Amaechiadministration

HIS early days in office were very annoying. He was so slow and elicited animpression in some quarters that he had no agenda for the state. Monthspassed, he did not appoint commissioners


Gombe: On steady courseContinues from page 26

various Committees. It wasonly later in December 2011,that the Governor appointedhis Commissioners to help himrealize the set objectives.

Education:After two years Dakwambo

has left an imprint in theeducation sector. When he tookoffice, he visited many primaryand secondary schools in thestate and was greeted withmany dilapidated structures.Prompted by that, he vowed tomodernize some schoolsespecially those in the urbanareas.

To this end, he pulled downwhat used to be the old HassanMemorial Central Schoollocated at the heart of the cityand got Vice President NamadiSambo to perform thefoundation laying ceremony.Today, there are not onlyedifices standing there butbeautiful serenity which haveall the trappings that makelearning an attraction. Again,Dankwambo saw the need toestablish a state ownedPolytechnic and College ofEducation. According tosources, the bill to secure thePolytechnic, at Bajoga,Funakaye local GovernmentArea, Gombe North and theCollege at Biliri LocalGovernment Area, GombeSouth respectively had beenpassed by the State House of

Assembly. The sites have beensecured and work will soon bein full swing. At the GombeState University, the Governoris doing some strides. So far,he has commenced thebuilding of College of MedicalSciences and over N200 worthof medical equipment has beenpurchased.

The administration has alsodone much in uplifting theroad network and establishedan International ConferenceCentre in the state capital.

The idea is to keep floatingthe State as the economicepicenter of the Northeastern

geo-politicalzone of thecountry.

Peace andPeace

Gombe underDankwambohas beens e r i o u s l ychallenged bythe spate ofi n s e c u r i t yarising fromthe activities ofthe BokoHaram Islamicinsurgen t s .However, theadministrationhas through itscooperationwith thes e c u r i t yagencies been

able to check the insurgents.Knocks for Dankwambo

Delayed conduct of LocalGovernment of LocalGovernment Election andDankwambo’s influence hasmade progress in the politicalarena too. He is almost his ownman today having totally leftthe shadows of his mentor andbenefactor, SenatorMohammed Goje, hispredecessor.

He has taken time to build hisown structures and thisaccounted for the delay in theconduct of local governmentelections as he allowed his own

men to mature.To many people, that was a

big minus of his government ashe was not seen as a democrat.

But the elections finally heldin February this year and theopposition was generally seento have been muzzled out ofthe race while the ruling PDPswept the entire polls.

No opposition in Gombe.Officially opposition is

virtually dead in Gombe. Thosewho would have kicked againstunfriendly actions and policiesof the government have alsorelocated to the ruling PDP andso, joined the bandwagon. Afew persons left are caged fromtalking.

Former Secretary of ActionCongress of Nigeria, ACN, inthe state, Barrister LukaHaruna who assessedGovernor Dankwambo’sperformance in the last twoyears while describing them ascommendable, however, calledon him to channel hisenergiestowards building bridges to thepeople.

BottomlineGiven the level of work in

Gombe in the last two years,many are optimistic that beforethe next round of elections in2015, the Governor would have

changed the status of the stateto earn himself a politicalplatform to stand as his ownman.

HAVE you been able toidentify the major

failings of the commission in2011?

We have done that. In ourcase we identified theproblem of logistics forexample, late arrival ofmaterials at the polling units,uncooperative attitude ofsome of the ad-hoc staff. Wehave also identified the issueof the difficulty in getting toriverine areas.

The commission in itswisdom engaged someconsultants to carry out astudy on the past exerciseand come up with identifiedlapses and ways of ensuringthat those lapses are removed

We have blocked the 89 ways politiciansrig elections – Ogunmola, Lagos RECACADEMICIAN turned election regulator, Dr. Adekunle Ogunmola wasformerly provost of the Oyo State College of Education before his appointmentas a Resident Electoral Commission, REC in 2011.Dr. Ogunmola in this interview reviews the 2011 general election and effortsby the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC to build upon thesuccess achieved. Experts:

BY EMMANUEL AZIKEN,POLITICAL EDITOR

in subsequent elections.Following that we had astrategic plans retreat andthere we tried to envision afuture and have developedstrategies to ensure that thatfuture is achievable.

We have redrafted thevision of the commission andalso the core values. We havealso identified thestakeholders in the electoralprocess with a view toensuring that we get the bestfrom them.

There is a perception thatthe present INEC knows howto lay out good plans, butfinds it difficult implementingthem. For example after morethan two years the permanentvoter’s card is not yet out?

I disagree with the commentthat we don’t match our

speech with action. INEC isvery cautious that if it wantsto secure the trust andconfidence of the people thatit must match its words withaction.

For the voter ’s card, I amhappy that the story so far isin the public domain andpeople are not kept in thedark as to what we are doing.Sometime last year it wasreported widely that a contractfor the printing of 40 millionpermanent voter’s card wasawarded and we areexpecting that in the space ofabout six months that thepermanent voters’ cardswould be ready.

In printing the permanentvoters cards we have toensure that the errorsdetected in the original

register are not printed alongwith the permanent voter ’scard. For example, in the caseof double registration wehave to make sure thatpermanent voter’s cards arethe authentic and error freevoter’s cards and that is whyit is taking us long becausewe are trying to perfect theregister.

AFIS has been carried outand it will surprise you toknow that the number ofregistered voters will be farlower than what wasoriginally indicated becauseof detection through AFIS. Infact, in some places you findup to 15% reduction.

So, you mean that thevoter ’s register was overbloated?

Not over bloatedIt was bloated?Ehmmnmn! If you say

bloated, indirectly you aresaying it was a deliberate…

Not deliberate. Or do we sayit was exaggerated?

Not exaggerated.So, what word do we use

now?You can use the word that

the number that was releasedinitially has reduced as aresult of this AFIS.


•Dakwambo

IN management parlance, a periodicappraisal is necessary to consider and

compare the present position with thelast one as a means of planning for thefuture. Therefore, it may be rewardingto assess the progress of the presentadministration from the time of itsinception in 2011 to the present time.Some analysts might question thejustification for judging a Presidenthalf-way to the end of his term.

In fairness, a just appraisal should beon the ruling party in terms of its policyin respect of promises of politicalstability and economic prosperity. It isalso true that President Jonathan is notthe architect of the present state ofpolitical instability and that he could notbe absolutely held responsible for large-scale unemployment and abject povertyin the country. This appear likeinherited maladies.

Many apologists of the currentPresident have stated clearly manytimes that the opposition and the cynicshave been criticizing the man ratherthan the system. If the structure isdeficient, the actor is just trying, in hisown best way, to redeem what looks like‘irredeemable situation’.

Politicalstability

It is true that the political stability ofthe country at present has beendisturbed by the Boko Haramdestructive insurgency which is nowbeing firmly addressed by the military,as ordered by its Commander-in-Chief.Under the late President Yar’ardua,there was the Niger Delta Militants’insurgency which was successfullyended, leading to amnesty beinggranted to the insurgents. Rebels underPresident Obasanjo in Odi(Bayelsa) andZaki Biam(Benue) were not so lucky asthey incurred the wrath of the militarygeneral, and not, peaceful, but a ‘bloodycivilian’.

Within the last 14 years of civilian rule,(former President Obasanjo is treatedas a civilian), Plateau and Ekiti statescame under strict State ofEmergency,with military administratorsappointed. There is hope that the latestdeclaration of state of emergency in

could turn himself into a dictator, if heso wishes.

The country is lucky that PresidentJonathan is not a ‘bully’ at present, evenif it appears that he does not brook anyopposition among his supporters.However, what Nigeria needs is a returnto true federalism and not the ‘doingsand misdoings’ of the President in thedischarge of his duties. The countrywould expect exceptional leadershipwith an extensive administrativecapacity and imaginative grasp toprovide political stability.

On the economic plane, it isconvenient to argue that according toofficial sources, there has been a greatsuccess in achieving macro-economicstability. According to the Central BankGovernor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, afterthe last NPC Meeting, ‘in the finalanalysis, the Committee was convincedthat in view of the successes achievedon all fronts-banking stability, lowinflation, exchange rate stability, strongreserve buffers and the recovery in theequity market, there is no reason at thispoint to change a policy that has workedso well’.

What are the elegant statistical facts?Foreign exchange reserves at$49.13billion (14 months imports);Inflation rate of 9.1%; exchange rate ofN159.50 to 1 US dollar; MonetaryPolicy Rate of 12% and GDP rate of

6.72%. Certainly, these figures arebetter than those woeful figures - theInflation rate of 20% and GDP growthrate of 2.8% in 1999, of fourteen yearsago. However, in 1999 foreign exchangereserves, totalled $5.4billion;averageexchange rate was N92.3 to 1US dollarwhile inflation rate stood at 6.6%.

Also, there has been no observablechange in increase in employment overthe same period. From observation, itlooks as if the Central Bank Governor,by his action and words will not shiftground on his tight monetary policy.

Even if the consequence of such apolicy is notable decline in employment.Recently, at the risk ManagementConference in Lagos, Mallam SanusiLamido Sanusi was quoted as saying,“the threat of inflation was still high inthe economy, especially whengovernment spending expected toincrease in 2014 to 2015 due toelections”.

He added “so people should not lookforward to low interest rate at a time ofincrease government spending”. TheCentral Bank Governor is so obsessedwith the problem of inflation (risingprices) that he often forgets the damageof continuous “tight monetary policy”on the economy, especially massunemployment.

The consequence of growingunemployment in a nation is far greaterthan that of slight increases in prices asProf. Lipse once noted, “when resourceslie idle, their potential output is lostforever. Unemployment for a longperiod can be a very degrading thing,indeed when an able bodied head ofthe household finds himself withoutwork for a period of years the experiencecan be soul destroying”.

It stands to reason that there is nosuper magic by which an ailing economycan be rightly guided or suitablydirected by the “classical economists”in the Central Bank and its MonetaryPolicy Committee.

Therefore, the less faith placed ontight monetary policy, the better it wouldbe for advocates of full employment. Tosome observers, Mallam Sanusi LamidoSanusi looks like a weird economist withjaded ideas on modern economicdevelopment.

Borno, Yobe and AdamawaStates(without military administrators)would be successful in bringing to anend Boko Haram insurgency and restorepeace and prosperity to the affectedareas and other parts of the country.

In the analysis of the past events,questions are being asked as to thesuitability of the policies (or none) ofthe ruling party on political stability ofthe country and its security situation.In the unfortunate situation of no reliableor concrete policy, each leader is left onhis own to adopt whatever action isdeemed to be necessary and suitable forthe occasion. Many precious lives havebeen lost through tough action, belatednegotiation and slow reaction todangerous events in the country.

It is widely recognized that Nigeria isa curious federation, and a complex oneat that. “All federations are theconsequences of the agreement amonghitherto separate and independentstates to form a national state under onecentral parliament and government,with individual states maintaining theirsovereignty on a number of subjectsagreed to be left to the states. Such wasthe position in the case of United States,Switzerland, Australia and Germany”,observed a political analyst. The militaryadventurers seemed to have turnedNigeria’s federation into a centraladministration, ruled by a Leader who

Political and economicstability: So far

07059197616


So, the number on theregister was more than thereal number of voters?

Yes.So, in effect, it was

exaggerated?You see…You don’t want to use the

word exaggerated?Yes, I am being careful

because I don’t want you togo and write register overbloated!

You see, that is one aspectof the new INEC that we arenot shy to disclose thatsomething was wrong.

Look at what happenedduring the last election. Thechairman came out and saidthat this thing has to bepostponed. We don’t want todeceive Nigerians.

AFIS was carried out and we

We have blocked the 89 ways politicians rig elections– Ogunmola, Lagos REC

know that part of the reasonwas that for the first two daysof the registration there werehiccups here and there,,

,fingerprints were not beingcaptured properly and wedirected that people should goback and some people wentback without completing theprocess meaning that themachine would capture themtwice and when you subjectthem to AFIS the machine willdetect them and put them out.Not that those people were notauthentic voters and that iswhy it would not be correct to

say that the register was overbloated.

I can assure you that thenext election would be far

better than the last electionand that is sure.

What contributed to therelative success of the lastelection was because we triedto block some of the holes inthe previous electionsbecause immediately thecommission came into being,they went for a retreat and thatstudy identified 89 differentways of rigging elections andthe commission tried to block

issue of accreditation by 12O’clock in all polling units.

Once people know thenumber of people accreditedthere is no way one vote canbe added to the number ofvotes in that location.

We had issues ofmalpractices during the last

What contributed to the relativesuccess of the last election wasbecause we tried to block some of theholes in the previous elections


•Ogunmola

as many of themas possible.

So, how manyhave you blockednow?

I think close toall of them. Butyou see, thehuman factor isthere.

When you talk ofsomebody movingfrom one pollingunit to the otherand that is why weintroduced the

election. How many have youbeen able to prosecute?

I know of the case of a personwho brought a card that doesnot belong to him to a pollingunit and he was accosted bya policeman and the case isstill in court.








CMYK


CMYK


Boko Haram: Dialogue mustcome first before amnesty

THERE seems to be amuddle about the

way we are handling thisissue of Boko Haram. It ismy view that we arealready jumping the gunand pushing the cartbefore the horse. While onone hand we haveembarked on the issue ofstate of emergency inBorno, Yobe andAdamawa, on the otherhand the FederalGovernment had alreadyset up a committee onAmnesty. It is difficult tobe friends of those one is

doubt that the government must findout the immediate and remote causesof the grievance being nursed by theBoko Haram.

The idea of stating that Westerneducation is wrong is a misnomer andcannot be part of the serious issue inthis matter. In the first case, it isunislamic since the Sunnah andHadith of Islam says, “Knowledge is asine qua non”. The Holy Qur’an is fullof this issue of knowledge in its

THEY also attacked a militarybarracks killing two sol-

diers. They went to the Bamaprison, killed 14 warders andfreed 105 prisoners to swell theirranks. Four innocent civiliansand 13 of the Boko Haram mem-bers lost their lives in the daredevil attack, thus totaling 55dead. For some Nigerians theseare mere statistics. For some ofus who have battered our hu-manity and conscience for a messof pottage, these are mere fig-ures.

Humanity andconscience

But I am concerned by themindless carnage perpetrated byBoko Haram on a daily basis. Iam involved as part of my hu-manity is daily diminished. I amdeeply concerned with such aneerie and Mephistophelean sit-uation that has no end in sight. Iam deeply worried. I am deeplytraumatized.

These same Boko Haram infi-dels contrived to shoot down thePresident’s jet on his last visit toBorno State. This is because interms of ground artillery, theyhave the same types of arsenalas the Nigerian Army. And theymove in a convoy, yet we deludeourselves by saying that they arefaceless, they are spirits. For in-stance in the Bama attack of May7, they came in a convoy of bus-es. They came, they conquered

Jonathan's cross (3)and they escaped in the openglare of the whole world and yetsome one is telling me BokoHaram is a faceless organization.I am convinced that some one,some where is being economi-cal with the truth.

The amnesty issue for BokoHaram is a non-starter but be-cause some of these same spon-sors of the evil sect will makeenormous profit, they have de-cided to egg the president on.The amnesty package we aretold is about N20million for theleaders and N5m for every BokoHaram fighter.

If this tentative mouth water-ing largesse is confirmed, howwill the money be doled out, whowill dole out these billions ofdollars to these faceless BokoHaram cultists. Will they thennow wear human faces. In actu-al fact, the amnesty advocatesare more interested in what theywill get from the amnesty lar-gesse

Most of these amnesty fundswill go to these foreign almajirisfrom Chad, Niger and Beninwho have truly been doing thekilling because I shudder tothink that my own fellow Nige-rians will slit a human throat orplunge a long knife into a preg-nant woman’s stomach and dis-lodge the unborn child.

Nigeria, how deep have thousunk into the quagmire of satan-ic iniquity. All Nigerians mustjoin hands to fight this great evilbefore it consumes us all, beforeit puts a wedge on this nationand splits us asunder.*Mr. Nanagan, a commentator onnational issues, wrote from Lagos.

BY BOLA AJIBOLA

In this concluding instalment, Nan-aghan argues that the issue of am-nesty for Boko Haram is a non start-er

After the Nigerian civil war, Why is theState allergic to the name Biafra? (2)

RWANDA is today a model ofpeace and prosperity. They

obeyed God's word. Othercountries of America notablyCanada, are seeking to redress theinjustices previous generationsinflicted on their native peoples.There must be restitution for peaceto reign. Pax opus justitiae (peaceis the work of justice), not only inNigeria, but all over the globe.People yearn for justice and peace.Nigeria must make the omelet.Then it shall live, though eggs arebroken and heavens fall.

Socialjustice

A society must be rooted andgrounded in justice, at least threequarter way if it must survive,since society was made for man,and not the reverse. This isbecause man is the only animalthat is born undeveloped. Thismakes him bound to his fellowcountry men seeking a perfectorder. Where he perceives notthese social justices, he seeks toreturn to his natural society, thefamily or tribe (same kind) whoshare common destiny with him.

This may be the road we aretravelling.

This was, and still is thecondition Easterners foundthemselves in 1966, whensuddenly, the society turnedagainst them, like the Germansturned against the Jews.

The Germans and other bloodthirsty societies have shownremorse and good justice towardsthe offended but the Nigerianshave not.

Now if the Holy Scriptures istaken as the inspired words ofGod, then it must lay claim to bethe objective measure of truth,since God is the transcendent endto all things. If there's no good andno evil, then the Christianity of theBible is a fairy tale. The scriptureshave condemned murder andinjustice, naked or clothed,political or social, and whoeverdoes it and repents will not standcondemned.

Igbo have shown promise in thecontinuity, development andprogress of this country more thanthe rest, by being present and onthe ground everywhere makingimportant inputs.

Any further attempt to ostracisethem will amount to a very deepcut on ourselves, believe it or not.

there should be move by both partiesto present their terms of settlementupon which both parties could come toby reconciliation and by way of giveand take. It is after this that amnestycould come in. Talking about amnestybefore dialogue is like jumping the gunwhich is not advisable in this regard.It is like telling an accused person thathe is found guilty even before he isasked to state his case. There is no

BOLA AJIBOLABOLA AJIBOLABOLA AJIBOLABOLA AJIBOLABOLA AJIBOLA

facing on the battle field, involvingdeath and destruction of lives andproperties. In view of the currentsituation, there is urgent need forNigeria to take a positive line of action.This positive line of action must be byway of dialogue. Some years backwhen the League of Nations had itsconvention, they established this ideawhich used to be called “fact finding”.

Whenever there is dispute betweentwo entities, in order to find a lasting

religion, ethnicity and politics.

In addition to all these, there is needfor the government to address the issueof insecurity and corruption. Thenation is disintegrating because of thesocial menace that at the momentplaguing our nation to the extent thatwe have now become a pariah amongthe comity of nations. Talking aboutcorruption, someone like me will findit difficult to understand that this is thesame nation that I served as AttorneyGeneral and Minister of Justice for sixyears in the 1980s and I took no moneyhome.

Then I directed that 35 percent of themoney should be paid back to thegovernment for good governance, 25percent to Nigeria Bar Association asthe root where I developed from and40 percent to the needy and disablepeople of Nigeria (to about eightorganisations including Red Cross andRed Crescent). Now in retrospect, it isdifficult for me to imagine that I wasthe one paying the salaries of the twostaff that I personally engaged to workfor the government in the Ministry ofJustice throughout that period.

With insecurity, corruption and allother vices facing us in Nigeria at themoment, development will continue tobe mere illusion.

solution by way of peaceful settlementthere is absolutely the need fordialogue. Such dialogue must involvethe two parties to the dispute statingtheir causes of grievance. Thereafter,

*Mr. Hanum, a commentator onnational issues, wrote from Lagos.

c o n t e n t .Secondly, it isunconstitutionalto attempt suchan idea. Thereis need for bothsides tot h o r o u g h l yaddress theissue of

Hanum in this concludingpiece argues that any furtherattempt to ostracise the Igbowill be disastrous

,

,

Map of Nigeria

Talking about amnesty before dialogue islike jumping the gun which is notadvisable in this regard. It is like telling anaccused person that he is found guiltyeven before he is asked to state his case


Kontangora, 70, passes on

Bauchi NAWOJcounselswomen onleadership

2015:Ex-BenueSpeaker gunsfor guberticket

ASSESSMENT—Governor Aliyu Wamakko of Sokoto State (2nd left) conducting the Speak-er House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal (left) and other dignitaries round the ViceChancellor's Lodge during the on-the-spot assessment tour of the on-going constructionworks at the Sokoto State University Complex, Airport Road, Sokoto, yesterday. Photo:Abayomi Adeshida.

BY WOLE MOSADONI,WITH AGENCY REPORT

Shettima urges unity amongstpolitical leaders

2007 but was defeated at the pri-maries. Until his death, he wasthe Deputy Chairman of theSubsidy Re-Investment andEmpowerment Programme,SURE-P.

He held the national honourof Commander of the Order ofthe Niger, CON. Left to mournhim are his wife, Hajiya Ladi,and 13 children.

Northern Govs react

Meanwhile, the NorthernStates Governors' Forum,NSGF, has expressed shockand sadness overKontagora’s demise, de-scribing it as a monumentalloss to Niger State in par-ticular and the nation ingeneral.

Chairman of the forum andGovernor of Niger State, DrBabangida Aliyu in his con-dolence message signed by

his Chief Press Secretary,Danladi Ndayebo describedlate Kontagora as a patriotwho died in the service of hisfatherland.

The Governors said theywere pained by the demise ofGen. Kontagora, but took sol-ace in the fact that he livedan exemplary and purpose-ful life with remarkableachievements as a militaryofficer, administrator, commu-nity leader and a dedicatedfamily man.

Aliyu further said the lateformer Minister was a raregem who would be missedfor his immeasurable contri-butions towards the develop-ment of the country as a sol-dier and leader.

“He was an uncommonstatesman, a dependable ally,a devout Muslim, a great mili-tary officer, a highly disci-plined gentleman and a re-spected mentor of his subor-dinate officers,” he added.

BY NDAHI MARAMA

NGF: Jang’semergence 'llstrengthenNigeria’sdemocracy— AkpabioCentre boss

L A G O S — C H A NCELLOR of

Akpabio Centre for Lead-ership, Pastor BasseyJames has commendedthe emergence of Gover-nor Jonah Jang as thechairman of Nigeria Gov-ernors’ Forum, NGF, de-scribing it as a goodomen for the nation.

Bassey in a statementin Lagos, yesterday, de-scribed Jang as, “a manwith experience,” add-ing that, “this will go fur-ther in strengtheningthe nation’s nascent de-mocracy because he is abridge-builder and a na-tional icon.

"He will definitely movethe nation forward andwe are proud of hisemergence.”

On the crisis in PlateauState, James argued thatsuch problems were notpeculiar to Plateau State.

“I totally disagree withthose who argued thatthere is violence in Pla-teau State and so Jangcan not rule effectively.

"There is violence eve-rywhere in the world andif really there is unbear-able violence in PlateauState, I am sure Presi-dent Jonathan wouldhave declared a state ofemergency there justlike he did in somestates recently,“ headded.

BY PETER DURU

M A K U R D I —F O R M E R

Speaker of the Benue StateHouse of Assembly andPeoples Democratic Party,PDP, stalwart Mr. TerhemenTarzoo has indicated hisinterest to contest the 2015governorship election inthe state.

Tarzoo, however, said thathis interest in the exaltedposition would not pushhim to engage "in do or diepolitics" or acts that couldjeopardize Nigeria’s nas-cent democracy.

Tarzoo also warned thatpoliticians must not allowtheir quest for politicalpower to push them intoheating up the polity need-lessly, since “it is only Godwho can bestow power onwhom he so desires.”

The former Speaker spokein Katsina-Ala Local Gov-ernment Area of the statewhile consulting with theleadership of the SankeraDevelopment Association,SADA, over his gubernato-rial ambition.

He pleaded with all thoseangling to succeed the out-going governor in the stateto desist from making in-flammatory statements thatcould set the people againstone another.

leader, condone or promote disu-nity amongst his followers and assuch, he would not encourage an-ybody to do so.

Shettima described the last twoyears of his administration as“eventful and interesting.”

He said that Borno State wouldreach greater heights, as “toughtimes never last forever.”

Shettima also said he was seri-ously indebted to journalists andmedia houses, within and outsideNigeria for what he described astheir dogged and brotherly sup-port in highlighting activities ofhis government.

MINNA—A FORMERMinister of Works and

Housing in the Babangida ad-ministration, retired Maj-GenMamman Tsoho Kontangora, 70,is dead.

Family sources said he diedyesterday, at the National Hos-pital, Abuja, and had been bur-ied in his home town Kotango-ra, in accordance with Islamicrites.

He was born on April 20, 1944in Kontagora, Niger State.

He attended Central PrimarySchool, Kontagora, from 1952 to1958 and Nigerian DefenceAcademy, Kaduna, from 1964 to1967.

He bagged a Bachelor of En-gineering in Electrical Engineer-ing from the Ahmadu Bello Uni-versity, Zaria in 1972.

He also attended the NavalPostgraduate School, Monterrey,California, U.S. and the U.S.Army War College, Carlisle,Pennsylvania.

Kontagora served as Ministerof Works and Housing from 1988to 1993, as well as the Sole Ad-ministrator of Ahmadu Bello Uni-versity, ABU, Zaria, during thelate General Sani Abacha re-gime.

He was also the Minister of theFederal Capital Territory, FCT,from 1998 to 1999. Kontagoraheld various command posts, in-cluding Commanding Officer, 11Field Engineers Regiment, Ka-duna; Commander, NigerianArmy Engineers Brigade,Ibadan; Commander, NigerianArmy Engineers Brigade, Jos;Commander, Nigerian ArmySchool of Military Engineering,New Bussa, and Director ofQuartering and EngineeringServices, Army.

He contested for the presiden-cy on the platform of the PDP in

MAIDUGURI—GOVERNOR Kashim Shettima of

Borno State has asked Nigeri-an leaders and their supportersto unite as one to enable themfocus on issues that affect themasses.

Shettima lamented that therewere so many developmentalchallenges begging for attentionthat should keep leaders busyinstead of pursuing some mun-dane issues that now engagetheir attention.

He spoke in Maiduguri, the

Borno State capital, on Wednes-day while addressing leadersand other stakeholders to markthis year’s Democracy Day.

According to him, Nigerianscannot afford to wait while theirleaders fought themselves overselfish interests.

Speaking against the backdropof pervading insecurity in someparts of the north, he asked po-litical gladiators within and out-side Borno State to come togetheras one to enable them resolve theproblems facing the states in par-ticular and Nigeria as a country.

He said he will never, as a

BAUCHI—THE BauchiState chapter of the

Nigerian Association ofWomen Journalists,NAWOJ, has appealed towomen in the state to acceptleadership responsibilitiesso as to give them somesense of belonging in theaffairs of the state.

Chairperson of the asso-ciation, Hajiya KaltumeShall, made the appealyesterday during an inter-active forum for womenjournalists organised by thewife of the state governor,Hajiya Aisha Yuguda incommemoration of thisyear’s Democracy Day atthe Iya Abubakar state Li-brary.

Shall lamented thatwomen were relegated tothe background in leader-ship positions and called onthe state government to in-volve more women in ad-ministrative and executivefunctions.

LATELATELATELATELATETIPSTIPSTIPSTIPSTIPS

TREBLE CHANCE

PAIR29X49

AVOID41

RISKY33


CREDIT EXCELLENTToronto 2 USA 7Sporting KC 2 Celta Vigo 7Chicago Fire 2 Granada 7Brno 3 Mallorca 5SP Gijon 3 Sevilla 5Real Madrid B 3 Zaragoza 5Huesca 3 Sion 5Cardoba 3 Barcelona B. 5

SOCCER TIPSSOCCER TIPSSOCCER TIPSSOCCER TIPSSOCCER TIPS

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1 X 2 X 4 3X 8FOUR AWAYS

6X 30X 36X 44

PERMUTATION3 X 5X 9 X

10X 17 X 20TIPS

27 X 34 X 35

3 x 5, 9 x 1017 x 20, 29 x 49

1 v England 12 Rep Of Ireland v Georgia 13 USA v Germany XX

4 Barcelona v Malaga 15 Celta Vigo v Espanyol XX6 Deportivo LC v Sociedad 27 Granada v Getafe XX8 Levante v R Betis 19 Mallorca v Valladolid XX10 R. Vallecano v Ath Bilbao XX11Real Madrid v Osasuna 112 Sevilla v Valencia XX13 Zaragoza v Ath Madrid XX

14 Basel v St Gal;len 115 Grasshoppers v Lausanne 116 Servette v Lucerne X17 Sion v FC Zurich X118 Thun v Young BoysXX

19 Almeria v Girona 120 Barcelona B v Villarreal XX21Cardoba v Mirandes XX22 Guadalajara v Lugo 123 Hercules v Murcia 124 Huesca v Xerez XX25 Las Palmas v Numancia 126 Ponferradina v Santander 127Real Madrd v Alcorcon XX28 Sabadell v Elche XX29 SP Gijon v Huelva XX

30 Brom'jikarna v Malmo 231 Hacken v Elfsburg X32 Helsing v Atvidaberg 133 M Jallby v Halmstad 1

34 Banikostrava v Jablonec XX35 Brno v Slovacco XX36 Hradeckralove v Plzen 237 Jihlava v SlaviaPrague XX38 Liberec v Pribram 139 Mlada Boleslav v Teplice XX40 Sigma Olom v Budejovice XX41 Sparta Prague v Dupla Prague 1

42Chicago Fire v DC United XX43 Chivas USA v Seattle XX44 Colorado Rapids v FC Dallas 245 Columbus Crew v H Dynamo XX46 NY Red Bulls v Vancouver W 147 Real Salt Lake v Sjeathouakes 148 Sporting KC v Montreal Imp XX49 Toronto v Philadelphia U XX

X-RAY OF THE DRAWS

FOUR HOMES

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Bastia v Sochaux

Young Boys v FC Zurich Lausanne v Lucerne

BrazilGrasshoppers v Basil

Brest v Nancy

LokomotivM v MordovyaRubin KJazanvFC Krosnodor Alcorcon v Almeria

Toulouse v Montpellier

WEEK 46WEEK 46WEEK 46WEEK 46WEEK 46IntIntIntIntInternational Fernational Fernational Fernational Fernational Friendlierriendlierriendlierriendlierriendliersssss

Spanish Segunda DivisionSpanish Segunda DivisionSpanish Segunda DivisionSpanish Segunda DivisionSpanish Segunda Division

Kabankrasn v AnzhiSpanish BBSpanish BBSpanish BBSpanish BBSpanish BBVVVVVA La LigaA La LigaA La LigaA La LigaA La Liga

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Czech RepublicCzech RepublicCzech RepublicCzech RepublicCzech RepublicGambrinusGambrinusGambrinusGambrinusGambrinus

USA Major League SoccerUSA Major League SoccerUSA Major League SoccerUSA Major League SoccerUSA Major League Soccer

THE Portugal superstar, 28, has been linked witha return to Manchester United while Paris Saint-Germain are also interested.

Ronaldo last year claimed he was “sad” at theBernabeu, sparking speculation he wanted to quitthe club.

But Real president Florentino Perez hopes he willstay and believes he should be their main man foryears.

Perez said: “He told me in the summer he wassad and I told him we would do everything pos-sible for him to be content.

“I don’t know if he has an offer from PSG. I thinkCristiano is the best player in the world.

“We want to build the Madrid of the future aroundhim and I would like Cristiano to be the best paidplayer in the world.”

Real lost out to on the signing of Brazilian aceNeymar to Barcelona at the weekend.

And Perez added: “If we had been able to signNeymar without altering the eco-system of the clubwe would have but there were too many condi-tions attached.

“It would have cost us £130million. I don’t knowhow much it cost Barcelona.”

Perez wants Zinedine Zidane to lead the clubinto a new era when Jose Mourinho leaves at theend of the season.

The former France star played for Real between2001 and 2006 and was named World Player of

Cristiano Ronaldowill not be sold

this summer

the Year three times.His is currently Real’s director of

football but Perez believes one day hewill take over as manager.

Paris Saint-Germain boss CarloAncelotti is the favourite to replaceMourinho, who is returning toChelsea.

And Perez said: “We don’t know whowill be the new coach.

“But we want this new sportingproject to be lead by Zidane. I hopeone day he will be coach.

“When we choose the coach, the newperson and him will analyse the teamso we can take a qualitative step for-ward.”

Real have been linked with a £60mil-lion move for Tottenham forwardGareth Bale.

When asked about signings, Perezadded: “We have a magnificent team.All I can say is that we will improveby signing the best.

“I have thought about two playersand some more from the youth team.We will see what the coach andZidane say.”

—Real Madrid

3172029

YOUR LUCK TODAYYOUR LUCK TODAYYOUR LUCK TODAYYOUR LUCK TODAYYOUR LUCK TODAY

THOUGHT FOR TODAY

VIRGINIA

KAPTAIN AFRIKA in “Princess Shii’ By Andy Akman

[email protected]

TERROR MUDA in “Never say goodbye” By Lanre Kehinde

HOME & AWAY by Lawrence Akapa

By Joshua Adeyemo Phone 08056180139

40 — Vanguard40 — Vanguard40 — Vanguard40 — Vanguard40 — Vanguard,,,,, FRIDAY, FRIDAY, FRIDAY, FRIDAY, FRIDAY, MAY 31,MAY 31,MAY 31,MAY 31,MAY 31, 2013 2013 2013 2013 2013

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

LIBRA; If you back your financial plans with concreteand positive actions things’ll go according to your desire.If you fail to realise importance of your spouse you wouldwork your way into avoidable trouble; aren’t you tired ofcrisis?

SCORPIO; Your intelligence, competence and level ofconcentration may today bring you envy, which you don’tdeserve within your working arena in a negative formbut.

SAGITTARIUS;. The Moon highlights your Solar secondhouse of money which is good but, if you try to buy truelove with money, you’ll be disappointed

CAPRICORN; The. Moon in your Star sign’ll gives younew confidence and with new supports from the powers-that-be, it’s like you are now un-stop-able. But be cautious,especially with the veterans within your base of operation

AQUARIUS; Better days are ahead of you but, you willtoday need to do away with non-productive argumentand/or agreement. Try to be more diplomatic now.

PISCES; If what you’re doing today’ll depend ontomorrow’s event it’s better you’re more careful now. Eventhings may not go according to your personal plans today.Yet it’s important you plan both your immediate and farfuture carefully now

ARIES; If you take to aggression, your ego would bedeflated by your superior colleagues, but your being co-operative in a civilised way’ll prevent trouble

TAURUS; Those willing to put you to shame one way orthe other’ll be disappointed with the turn of things today.It’s good to secure support of your spouse.

GEMINI; You’ve had enough of fun in the recent timesand it’s now time you settle down for hard work in orderto prevent avoidable trouble. Be patient please.

CANCER; Your concentration level and determinationare the pillars of your success today. Yet you’ll need torespect your senior colleagues and protect your image

LEO; It’s true you’re willing to work harder but you justhave to drop both aggression and mental arrogance toallow things to roll accordingly. Then, you’re accidentprone within your working arena. Respect the law and itsagents today.

VIRGO; Serious thought may be giving to matters of theheart but it’s better you tarry a while. Joint ventures ofshort duration today may be an invitation to avoidabletrouble

Dear Joshua,

I am interested in your Astrological counselling. Kindlytell me everything about myself, especially my financeand career; would I be rich eventually, if yes what shouldI do to make it happen quickly.John, Ibadan.

Dear John,

There are indications of financial success for you but youcan not change what Almighty God Has designed for youtalking about the timing (the quickness you talked in yourletter) Certainly however no failure for you.Mercury –the planet of education and Accountancy,together with mighty Sun at positive angle to planets inVirgo (another Accounting Star sign) attracted you to bothAccountancy profession and the academic world. Trulyyou did not make wrong choice of career.Money will eventually come along this line but it’ll not beas faster as if you take to OIL RELATED BUSINESS.Because Neptune (the planet of OIL) was very comfortablewhen you were born. It will not be out of place if you havefilling stations as time goes by, because you are basicallya GAS PERSON. Another money spinning vocation foryou include writing either along your line or for film makingindustry; it is important you exhibit the higher quotient ofcreativity in your inner-self. Yes your dream of becoming AProfessor will come to reality. Politics is another area youare not looking at now but will surely come. Do you saywhy? Because Aquarius is equally political.Venus that was powerfully placed when you were born isall about MONEY. Thus you have special ability to makemoney. And as it was at positive angle to disciplinedSaturn, you are not giving to serious frivolity. One majorchallenge here is envy by others but you will eventuallyovercome. Another source of challenges is your love lifewhich looks not totally balanced.Basically you are a family minded person. You are equallyloving and caring. But sometimes your love of freedomget better off you to the resentment of your closerpartner(s).Then some other times it is other party’s faultmaking love-business very interesting. And unless you aremore careful and determined you may marry more thanonce.

Success for me?

Studying great menWHO is a great

man? Why studythe great man? What isthe benefit derivablefrom studying greatmen?

A great man simplyput is somebody thathas done somethingnotable and remarka-ble that is of benefit to

humanity. So, if youare a rich man wholives for himself alone,you can’t be said to bea great man.

Asking the question:Why study the greatman, is like asking thequestion why study his-

tory or any other sub-ject. It is important tostudy the great man inorder to understand theprinciples and philoso-phy of his greatness.Studying the greatman saves you lots oftime, money and effort,

it helps you not to com-mit the same mistakeof trial and error whichhe made before achiev-ing greatness.

Study great men.Their experience couldhelp you to minimise oreliminate pitfalls onyour road to success.

Think about it!


email: [email protected]: 08098097290

70 virgins in Heaven?Another misconception

IT was one Hamas activist,Muhammad Abu Wardeh,

who was reported to be re-cruiting terrorists for suicidebombings in Israel more thana decade ago that said: “Godwould compensate the martyrfor sacrificing his life for hisland. If you become a martyr,God will give you 70 virgins,70 wives and everlasting hap-piness.” All the informedMuslims knew certainly thatWardeh was only shortchang-ing his recruits.

This has become widespreadto the extent that non-Muslimand mischief makers who haveno modicum of knowledgeabout Islam use this false as-sertion to denigrate the reli-gion, especially when the daredevil bombers or blood thirstygroup struk. They say: Hey!they want to go to heaven andacquire 70 virgins and otherbla bla...

It is only a sick and despi-cable mind that feels that it hasa right to attack, steal, mur-der and cause harm to others.

One, suicide which is qatlunafsi-hi is strictly forbidden inIslam, and it is followed by thepunishment of Allah. The fleshand body are not our own pos-session but a trust granted tous in order to preserve ourspirit. So, we cannot attemptto blow up the divine work ofart entrusted on us. We can-not also destroy it by going onhunger strike; it is unaccept-able in Islam.

The Quran which guides theactions and activities of anyMuslims says: Suicide is for-bidden. “O ye who believe!...[do not] kill yourselves, for tru-ly Allah has been to you MostMerciful. If any do that in ran-cour and injustice, soon shallWe cast him into the Fire...”(Qur ’an 4:29-30). Then theProphet says “Indeed, whoev-er (intentionally) kills himself,then certainly he will be pun-ished in the Fire of Hell,wherein he shall dwell forev-er”, [Bukhari (5778) and Mus-lim (109 and 110)].

What the Hadith referred tois matayr which is (sahid) con-

trary to killing of oneself.Martyrdom is everywherepraised and encouraged.Again, the Prophet said: “Themost excellent jihad is that forthe conquest of self.” “Whoev-er suppresseth his anger,when he has it in his power to

show it, God will give him agreat reward.” “Do you loveyour Creator? Love your fellowbeings first."

"Wish not or supplicate fordeath before its taime cometh.”

Secondly, paradise is de-scribed in great sensual detailin Suratul Waqiah; Q56 verses12-40 and other chapters aswell as the hadiths. Also, Q55verses 54-56 ; Q 76 verses 12-22.

In one of the verses, Hurunmoqsuratun fil-khiyam.Meaning: Fair ones are re-served in the Garden. Yes!, theQuran talks about damsels, butin a context that most peopleespecially the non-Muslimshave misrepresented and al-

ways paint in a derogatorymanner to suit their interestsand purposes. There is nowhere in the Qur’an where 70virgins was mentioned as areward for killing people.

In paradise, there are manythings that you cannot de-

scribe or comprehend exceptwith spiritually assistance.Allah mentioned in Qur ’anmany things about Paradise.Comparing the earthily withthat in heaven is mismatch. Itis not about emotional and bi-ological relationships, it is notabout the way we relate hereon earth.

The Qur’an says: In Gardensof Bliss: A number of peoplefrom those of old, And a fewfrom those of later times,(Theywill be) on Thrones encrusted(with gold and preciousstones), Reclining on them,facing each other. Round aboutthem will (serve) youths ofperpetual (freshness), Withgoblets, (shining) beakers,

and cups (filled) out of clear-flowing fountains: No after-ache will they receive there-from, nor will they suffer in-toxication: And with fruits, anythat they may select: And theflesh of fowls, any that theymay desire. And (there willbe) Companions with beauti-ful, big, and lustrous eyes,-Like unto Pearls well-guard-ed. A reward for the deeds oftheir past (life). Not frivolitywill they hear therein, nor anytaint of ill, Only the saying,“Peace! Peace”. Q56 v 12-26

Jihad

Non-Muslims are quick torefer to Islamic term of

Jihad. Not many of them readthe Qur’an or the hadiths toknow exactly what the termmeans. Those of them whotake Comparative studies orthose who assume to knowusually have a warped knowl-edge of the term as a result ofsentiment of ‘mine is the onlyway’. They have refused tobe guided by the substance inwhat they read, rather theytwist it and allowed them-selves to be ruled by senti-ment. You will be surprised bythe idea of a Pastor on Jihad,or the meaning a student atthe seminary will give to Ji-had. Even when you explainto them, they still hold firmlyto what they think they knowbecause it serves them a pur-pose. I have had to explain

,

,

The Quran talks about damsels, but ina context that most people especially

the non-Muslims have misrepresentedand always paint in a derogatory man-ner to suit their interests and purpos-es. There is no where in the Qur’anwhere 70 virgins was mentioned as a

reward for killing people

THE Lagos State Government isseekz ing an out of court settle-

ment in the suit filed against it by theMuslim Students’ Society of Nigeria(MSSN) Lagos State Area Unit over thevictimization of Muslim girls wearingHijab in state public schools.

When the case came up for first hear-ing before Justice J.O.K Oyewole of theLagos High Court Ikeja today, counsel tothe state government, S.A Ajanaku, saidno defense had been filed in the case, butadded that steps had already been initiat-ed towards settlement of the matter.

He pleaded with the judge to allow thegovernment more time to consummate thesteps already initiated.

However, counsel to the MSSN LagosState Area Unit Barrister Hassan .A.Fajimite, who led other nine lawyers tothe court, expressed surprise at the re-quest of the state counsel, saying thatthey were not aware or informed of anymove by the state government to settlethe case. He nevertheless obliged to theoption.

Justice Oyewole thereafter asked theparties to meet and work out terms of thesettlement and report back to the court

‘Jihad and the virgins’ anumber of times to some of mynon-Muslim colleagues, yet,it has not changed anything;they still hold on to their idea.

Islam is all about mercy,about virtue, about sacrificeand about duty to humanity.It encourages moral perfectionand any activity that is far fromthese, no matter the coloura-tion, is not Islam. As Muslims,there is no room for fanaticism,for hatred, for racism, for ter-rorizing or killing innocentpeople in Islam, even in astate of war. Shedding inno-cents’ blood constitute a formof injustice that can not be tol-erated by Islam.

Combativedimension

The Qur’an states that to killone innocent person is likekilling all of humanity. Now,for the umpteenth time, Jihad,which literally means ‘strug-gle,’ has an internal, societaland combative dimension. Theinternal dimension of Jihadencompasses the struggleagainst the evil inclinations ofthe self, and the spiritualproject to adorn the self withvirtues such as justice, mercy,generosity and gentleness.Secondly, the societaldimension includes strugglingagainst social injustice andcreating a communal identitybased on charity, respect andequality; while the thirdaspect of jihad is only to beused as self-defense againstaggression or to fight oppres-sion, and, even at that, it isstrictly within the limit of goodconduct, justice and preserva-tion of life of the innocents andthe sanctity of theenvironment. For those whodon’t know, this latter type ofJihad can only be declared bya legitimate, recognized reli-gious authority, not any indi-vidual or a group of peoplewith no legal identity or ac-ceptability.

on July 10, 2013.Meanwhile, members of the MSSN

and other Islamic organizations, whothronged the court premises for the case,later embarked on a peaceful protest toIkeja under-bridge and back to the oldsecretariat mosque beside the high court.

They carried placards with inscriptionslike ‘Hijab is our right,’ ‘Why must La-gos State Government compete withGod?’ ‘Hijab our pride,’ ‘Nudity is notour way,’ and others.

Addressing the people, the Amir Mus-lim Students’ Society of Nigeria (MSSN)Lagos State Area Unit, Alhaji QasimBadrudeen, urged all Muslims in thestate to remain calm and peacefulthroughout the period the hearing of thecase would last.

He also thanked all Islamic organiza-tions that came to solidarise with theMSSN on the Hijab issue promising thatthe society would not relent until victoryis achieved.

It would be recalled that the MSSN La-gos State Area Unit had taken the state gov-ernment to court over persistent victimiza-tion of Muslim girls using Hijab by somesecondary school principals in the state.

•From left: Wife of Managing Director, Osun State Investment Company, Dr. (Mrs)Sekinah Bola-Oyebamiji;Chairman, Action Congress of Nigeria (A.C.N.),Irewole LocalGoverment, Alhaji Owoade Arimiyan; ManagingDirector, Osun State Investment Limited, Alhaji Bola Oyebamiji and Chief Imam Ansar-ud-deen Society of Nigeria, Ikire Branch, Alhaji Mosuru Badmus during the prayersession organised by Ansar-ud-deen Society of Nigeria, Ikire Branch in Commemora-tion of 56th birthday of Governor of the State, Ogbeni Rauf Adesoji Aregbesola at Ansar-ud-deen Centre Mosque, Ikire, recently

Hijab: Fashola seeks out of courtsettlement

42 —Vanguard, FRIDAY, MAY 31, 2013

Achebe's body arrives

31 days of ASUP strike: What is your view?

08102479985 By Bartholomew Madukwe([email protected])PEOPLE SPEAK

THE issue of strikein Nigeria is nota new thing. But

on the aspect of ASUPstrike, it is very shockingthat the Federal Govern-ment would allow it to lin-ger for long without re-solving it. — Miss AishaNana, Fashion Designer

I do not understandwhat is happeningin this country. When

ASUU goes on strike, all themedia will go agog reporting it.Now, ASUP has been on strikeyet it is not reported enough.What a flagrant display of in-justice and discrimination! —Mr. Jerome Samson,Businessperson

ASUP strike was alast effort at sav-ing the polytech-

nics from failure, as theunion is set to reshape thepolytechnic system. Letparents bear the situationand lend positive voice toASUP position. —Dr.Onyeka Uwakwe, Lec-turer

I think the problemstarted with thepolicy on education

in this country. I willurge the Federal Gov-ernment and ASUP toresolve the issue, so thatpolytechnic students canreturn to school. —Mr.Amusan Lawrence,Teacher

THE strike has itsgood and badsides. It is good

because the fight is for thebetterment of the polytech-nics. It is bad because stu-dents will have to spend alonger period in school. But I'dlike the fact that ASUP has stoodits ground. — Miss AdebolaAdesida, Student

W h a t e v e rcould havebeen the cause

of ASUP strike, let thembear in mind that it is notthe government that is suf-fering because their chil-dren are schooling outsidethe country. Let ASUP calloff the strike, for the sake ofthe students. —Mr. OlanrewajuBadmus, Student

MRS. MiriamIghorodje, is dead,

aged 78.Late Mrs. Ighorodje is sur-

vived by children, grand-chil-dren and great grand-chil-dren, among whoma Van-guard Newspapers.

Burial arrangements to beannounced later.

Mrs. MiriamIghorodje is dead

Delta has the highest number ofkidnappers already sentenced — Uduaghan….Says Kokori traditional ruler remains vacant until wanted Kelvin is fished out

BY AUSTIN OGWUDA

ASABA—GOVERNOREmmanuel Uduaghan

of Delta State, has said thatthe state will explore “everyavailable method to deal withkidnapping,” just as he saidthat he was withholding giv-ing staff of office to the tradi-tional ruler of Kokori commu-nity until the wanted kidnapkingpin, Kelvin was fishedout.

He said: “We have identi-fied some communities thathave high rate of kidnappers,especially communities thatencourage and protect kid-nappers.

"Kokori is an example ofsuch a community and in thatcommunity, I had said I will

not give staff of office to thetraditional ruler, until we areable to get the kidnap king-pin, especially the young mancalled Kelvin. A lot of personshave been arrested, propertyor places where they keep thekidnappers destroyed.

“Some native doctors thathelp kidnappers have alsobeen arrested. And I mustthank the judiciary becausethe judiciary has also goneahead to jail these kidnappersand I can tell you that DeltaState has the highest numberof kidnappers that have beenconvicted by the judiciary inthe whole of the country. Andthat requires a lot of boldnesson the part of the judges. Iwant to thank them.

“The House of Assembly isalso putting laws that will as-

sist us deal with kidnapping.So, we are using every avail-able method to deal with kid-napping and today, DeltaState is a safer place than

what it used to be a whileago.”

He spoke as part of the De-mocracy Day celebration inAsaba.

NDDC commended on road project

SENIOR SPECIAL Assistant to Delta State gover-

nor, Dr. Emmanuel Udaghanon Niger Delta DevelopmentCommission, NDDC, DeltaSouth, Mr. Vincent Uduaghan,has expressed satisfaction withthe appreciable progress madeon the Koko/Ogheye Roadproject being executed by theCommission.

Uduaghan, who was at thesite to inspect the project, alsocommended the contractorhandling the project for doinga good job.

He said “The Koko/OgheyeRoad project is the continua-tion of the East-West Roadfrom the Koko axis, and its eco-nomic significance to the de-velopment of the region isoverwhelming.”

He commended Uduaghanfor providing the enabling en-vironment for such project tothrive, and appealed to theNational Assembly to approvemore funds for the Koko/Ogheye Road project in thecommission’s budget to ensureit timely completion.

Tebite lauds Uduaghan for supporting Jonathan

Bishops want Christian wedding enshrined in theconstitution

BISHOPS FROM the oil pro-ducing states, includingAnambra State, have called onthe National Assembly to en-sure that the Christian way ofconducting marriage, other-wise known as church wed-ding was enschrined in theconstitution, when the legisla-tors are reviewing the consti-tution.

The clergies made the call

during a courtesy visit to Arch-bishop GoddowellAvwomakpa on his election asthe Chairman of Christian As-sociation of Nigeria, CAN,South-South Zone.

Avwomakpa, who doubles asthe chairman of the BishopsForum, while backing his col-leagues on the proposed in-clusion of Christian marriagein constitution amendment,

said: “When Muslims want toresolve issues relating to mar-riage, they approach ShariaCourt, but the constitution hasno provision for resolution ofmarriage for Christians,though we recognise the ex-istence of the CustomaryCourts.

"Christians have no specialcourt to resolve marital issuesexcept theconventional court."

UGHELLI — MEMBERrepresenting Ughelli

South constituency in theDelta State House of Assem-bly, Olorogun Taleb Tebite,yesterday, commended thestate governor, Dr. EmmanuelUduaghan over his support forPresident Goodluck Jonathan.

Tebite in a chat with news-men, stressed the need for the

people of the Niger Delta re-gion to be supportive of theJonathan’s administration,adding, “it is the first time oneof us is holding the exaltedoffice of the president of Ni-geria.”

Insisting that PresidentJonathan was doing well anddeserves the support of hispeople back at home, he toldthe people to support

Jonathan's second term ambi-tion.

He also commendedUduaghan for his landmarkprojects in the state, saying;“My governor commissionedso many people-orientedprojects in Asaba to mark the14th year of democracy in Ni-geria; he has a lot of projectsto showcase."

Residentsmove tocheckflooding inYenagoa

BY FESTUS AHON

YENAGOA—RESIDENTS of

Yenagoa, Bayelsa State,have stepped up effortsto check flooding in thestate capital by mobilis-ing to clear blockeddrainages in their neigh-bourhood.

This followed Sundayheavy downpour experi-enced across the state,which caused manyhomes in low zones to besubmerged.

Though Nigerian Met-rological Agency,NIMET, had predictedheavy rainfall in thecountry, not many tookthe warning serious un-til the Sunday deluge,which sacked severalhomes.

Residents have beentrooping out in their hun-dreds in the last threedays to clear the blockeddrainages in their neigh-bourhood.

They were also seenconstructing artificialchannels for water toflow to the natural canalsin Yenagoa.

It was also observedthat the constructionfirms handling roadprojects in Yenagoa,which were blamed forthe blocking of some ofthe existing drainageshad commenced theirclearing.

A resident of Biogbolo,a Yenagoa suburb, whogave his name as EladebiJones, said that the Sun-day downpour was aclear signal of more trou-bled days ahead.

BY SAMUEL OYADON-GHA


Rivers community vows to shut downChevron, Shell operations

Jonathan urgedto be moreproactive inN-Delta devt

BY VICTORAHIUMA-YOUNG

Okara urgessupport forAmaechi

....As Delta community begs govt toprevail on oil firm over MoU

BY FESTUS AHON

BY EGUFEYAFUGBORHI

Esan LeaguelaudsOshiomholeon devt

THE people of Esan,in Edo State, under

the aegis of Esan League,have commended thestate governor, Mr. Ad-ams Oshiomhole, fortransforming and em-powering the people ofthe state.

The League in a state-ment by its President,Mr. Henry Okpamen,commended GovernorOshimhole for the infra-structural development ofthe state, including Es-anland, with the provi-sion of roads, develop-ment of Ambrose Alli Uni-versity, Ekpoma, and thecompletion of the aban-doned administrativebuilding.

The group said that thepeople-oriented policy ofthe Oshiomhole adminis-tration had resulted in theeffective and efficient useof the tax payers money.

BY SIMON EBEGBULEM

BENIN—NO fewer than20 investors from the

state of Rio Grande Do Sal, inBrazil, yesterday, met with theEdo State Government and ex-pressed their interest to investin agriculture and other sec-tors of the state.

The leader of the delegation,Mr. Luiz Mainardi, who ex-pressed their satisfaction withthe conducive environmentcreated by the state govern-ment for investors, noted thatthey decided to come and in-vest in the state, “because EdoState has huge potentials forinvestment. We are happy tobe in Edo State and we intend

Brazilian investors storm Edo, meet with topgovt officials

to invest in agriculture,health, tourism and other ar-eas of interest.”

Edo State deputy governor,Dr. Pius Odubu, who repre-sented Governor Adams Os-hiomhole, said the state hadprovided the conducive en-vironment needed for invest-ment in the state, expressingthe readiness of the state gov-ernment to work with the Bra-zilian government in areas ofmutual interest.

He said: “We appreciate thistrade visit and hold it in highregard. We have assembledour highly placed govern-ment officials that will meetwith you later to identify are-as of mutual interest, which

we hope will blossom into arewarding mutual businesspartnership.

“The state government willprovide the necessary incen-tives and provide the enablingenvironment, which will bringto fruition, the interest that wehave identified. We look for-ward to a very fruitful deliber-ation and assure you that thispartnership will be of greatbenefit to both Nigeria andBrazil and the indigenes ofEdo State in particular.”

The delegation, which in-cluded the Nigerian Ambas-sador to Brazil, Amb. VincentOkoedion, also visited thepalace of the Oba of BeninKingdom before entering intolengthy deliberation with offi-cials of the state government.

BY JIMITOTA ONOYUME

PORT HARCOURT—THE people of Kula

community in Rivers State,have threatened to shut downShell Petroleum Develop-ment Company and ChevronNigeria Limited operationsin the area over allegedabandoned projects.

In a statement, yesterday,the traditional ruler of thecommunity, HRH King Kro-ma Eleki, Sara XIV and hischiefs, said Shell had notmet its financial obligation tothe community for sustaina-ble development since 2007,adding that the GeneralMemorandum of Under-standing, GMOU, theysigned with the oil companywas aborted with the deathof some of its chiefs, whowere signatories to the ac-count.

They said efforts to set upa new board to run theGMOU had been frustratedby some forces. The commu-nity said they had, however,forwarded a list to the Com-missioner for Chieftaincy andCommunity Affairs, notingthat if the renewed effort was

frustrated, they would haveno option than to shut downthe operations of Shell in thearea, adding that the samething applies to Chevron.

Continuing, the communi-ty also threatened to embarkon a protest to Niger DeltaDevelopment Commission,NDDC, over a land reclama-tion shore protection project

awarded by the intervention-ist agency since 2009 thathad been allegedly aban-doned.

“In a unanimous decision,the community, after consid-ering what we contribute tothe national economy withfour flow stations, two gasinjections and booster plants,agreed that a peaceful pro-

test should be undertaken bythe community to NDDC andRivers State Government andletters of representation to besent to the Presidency andother government agencies.If nothing positive comes outof that protest the communitywill shut down both Shell andChevron operations in ourarea,” the community said.

UGHELLI—THE peopleof Emu-Ebendo, in

Ndokwa West Local Govern-ment Area, Delta State, haveappealed to the state govern-ment and other relevant au-thorities to prevail on a drill-ing firm operating in the com-munity to urgently imple-ment the memorandum ofunderstanding signed be-tween the community and the

oil firm some years back.The community made the

appeal during a peacefulprotest staged at the premis-es of the firm to draw gov-ernment attention to theirplight.

Youth President of Emu-Ebendo, Mr. Uba Ijeomaand the Woman President ofthe community, Madam Al-ice Ezeugbor, urged the com-pany to pay all its outstand-ing debts and employ moreyouths according to the

Memorandum of Under-standing, MOU.

When contacted, the firm'sCommunity Relations Offic-er, Mr. Hakeem Akintoye,said some violent youthsfrom the community stormedthe company’s premises, shutdown their operations andbeat up several workers onsite.

He said the injured work-ers had been taken to hospi-tal and the matter reportedto law enforcement agents.

Passage

THE families of Os-akwe Imoniero of

Ekruezaha and ImonisumeUmuejele, both of Owh-elogbo town, in Isoko NorthLocal Government Area ofDelta State, have an-nounced the death of PaJoseph Osakwe, aged 93.

Service of songs holds onJune 7, while funeral serv-ice will followd on June 8,at Osakwe family com-pound, June 9.

Late Osakwe was the fa-ther-in-law of Mr. OmoloyeOluyemi, Vanguard’sNewspapers CirculationRepresentative, UghelliOutstation.

PORT HAR-C O U R T — R E -

NOWNED writer andpoet, Mr. Gabriel Okara,has called on Rivers Statepoliticians to settle theirdifferences and rallyround Governor ChibuikeAmaechi to overcome theforces currently confront-ing the governor.

Okara, in Port Harcourt,said: “Governor Amaechiis a right peg in a roundhole. His programmesand policies are peopleoriented. He thinks moreof the public than himself.The people may not un-derstand the kind of per-son they have until heleaves office.”

A COMMUNITY leaderin Delta State, Chief Ri-

chard Enaredei, has urgedPresident Goodluck Jonathanto be more proactive andpragmatic in the developmentof the Niger Delta region.

He said that the Niger Del-ta bears the brunt of environ-mental devastation arisingfrom oil exploration and ex-ploitation, suffered untoldhardship over decades amidstabundant natural endow-ments, but remains in squal-or and wallows in abject pov-erty.

Enaredei, who spoke at Es-anma, in Bomadi Local Gov-ernment Area of the state,during his swearing in asChairman of Esanma Stand-ard Elite Club, said: “The Ni-ger Delta region is the pro-verbial cash cow but virtuallyhas nothing to show for it.Niger Delta which accountsfor 90 per cent of Nigeria’srevenue has been underde-veloped and the means oflivelihood of its inhabitantshave been greatly hamperedby the exploration activitiesthat feed the rest of the na-tion."

TALENT QUEST COMPETITION: From left: Delta State Deputy Governor, Prof. AmosUtuama; former Commissioner for Women Affairs, Mrs. Adora Giwa-Amu and wife of theDeputy Governor, Dr. Nelly Utuama, during the final of Delta State Talent Quest Competi-tion, in Asaba.


DONATION: From left— Mr. Tajudeen Lawal, Director/CEO, Lagos State Library Board;Otunba Fatai Olukoga, Special Adviser on Education to Lagos State Governor; Mr. ClementIloba, Public Affairs Manager, and Suzan Obi, Lagos PRO, CSR team, both of Julius BergerNigeria Plc, dduring the donation of 1,000 books to Lagos State Government Library, Sabo,Yaba, yesterday. PHOTO: Joe Akintola, Photo Editor.

Abia 2015 guber: PDP chieftain,monarchs on collision course over zoning

BY DOTUN IBIWOYE

Imoinauguratesteam onhotelmonitoring

Apo 6: Court declinesapplication to recall witness

... as Chime backs Enugu North for guber slot

BY CHARLES KUMOLU

Group raisesalarm over‘endangered'Igbolanguage

Foundationmakes casefor indigentcitizens

A chieftain of Peoples Demo-cratic Party, PDP, in Abia

State, Chief Charles Nwangwa,has disputed claims by theChairman of Osisioma NgwaTraditional Rulers’ Council, Eze

Emmanuel Chiavoghilefu,that the 2015 governorship inthe state had been zoned toeither old Aba Province orUkwa Ngwa.

He argued that it was theturn of Abia South SenatorialDistrict to produce the next

governor of the state, in linewith the rotation arrange-ment of the party.

Nwangwa, who is also theleader of Ngwa RenaissanceGroup, told Vanguard in La-gos that since the creation ofAbia State, no Ukwa Ngwa

person had been governor.He said: “People who are

saying that it is not the turnof the Abia South Senatorialzone to govern the state in2015 are conscious collabo-rators against the Ngwa peo-ple, which has been the baneof the Ngwa man.

"Equity, justice and fairnessrequire that the next gover-norship seat goes to the AbiaSouth senatorial zone.

“Abia South is now com-pletely the Ukwa Ngwastock. The people who havebeen empowered all alongare the other half. We haveonly had a federal appoint-ment after 44 years.

"Ukwa Ngwa has 60 per-cent of the population of thewhole state. Also, about 90percent of the state resourcesare from Ukwa-Ngwa, whichhas nine local governmentareas out of 17 in the state.

"Ngwa is the largest subclan or sub ethnic group inNigeria. These nine councilsare seeking for Aba State.They have never held anypower both in the militaryand civilian."

AN Abuja High Court, yesterday, refused an appli-

cation to recall a prosecutionwitness, Mr. Ayuba Ede, an As-sistant Commissioner of Police,in the alleged Apo six killings.

Justice Ishaq Bello ordered forthe continuation of cross-exami-nation of the witness.

It would be recalled that Mr.

Rickey Tarfa, counsel toDanjuma Ibrahim, a DeputyCommissioner of Police, hadearlier filed an application chal-lenging the recall of Ede as awitness in the case.He said that on February 14,2012, Ede was cross examinedby the prosecuting counsel,Chief Chris Uche (SAN).

He said: “At that sitting, theprosecutor informed the courtthat he will not be re-examin-ing the witness and the witnesswas accordingly discharged.My lord, it is pertinent to statethat the prosecution, thereafter,sought for several adjournmentsto enable them to field other wit-nesses in support of their case,but they failed to do so.”

He said that when Ede wascalled, the prosecution led himin evidence and tendered twolarge brown parcels which wereadmitted in evidence andmarked as exhibits 12 and 12A.

He said on unveiling the par-cels, an AK-47 rifle and maga-zine were allegedly found.

He said: “Can a witness be re-called without proper applica-tion and without placing suffi-cient materials before the courtto consider in exercising itsdiscretion as to whether or notto allow the recall of such awitness?”

Enugu ACN predicts victoryfor APC in 2015 elections

A group, Pinnacle Or-ganisation, has de-

cried the disappearanceof Igbo language, espe-cially among the newgeneration.

To help restore interestin the language, it is or-ganising a two-day eventaimed at revitalisingIgbo culture.

Pinnacle’s Chief Ex-ecutive Officer, Mrs.Charity Okoli, said theevent, tagged IgboAsoka” (Igbo is sweet),will hold on September7 this year at EkwuemeSquare, Awka, AnambraState capital.

The organisers said itwas the first of its kindand will feature talkshops, traditionaldances, masquerade dis-plays, beauty pageants,and a gala nite, with par-ticipants turning out inIgbo traditional attires.

LAGOS—CHAIRMAN ofAction Congress of Ni-

geria, ACN, in Enugu State,Mr. Barth Ugwoke, has pre-dicted a resounding victory forAll Progress Congress, APC,in the 2015 general electionsin the South-East zone of thecountry.

Ugwoke said the merger bythree major opposition parties,including ACN; Congress forProgressive Change, CPC; AllNigeria People’s Party and afaction of All ProgressiveGrand Alliance, APGA, intoAPC would ensure defeat ofPeoples’ Democratic Party.

He said the Igbo were de-ceived into supporting Presi-dent Goodluck Jonathanblindly in the 2011, adding“after several years, our peo-

ple are now asking themselvescertain questions; questions ofwhat they had got in returnfor supporting the President.

“They are asking questionsabout how many roads thePresident has started in Igboland or elsewhere in the oldeastern region and questionsabout the first or SecondNiger Bridge, which theywere promised.”

GOVERNOR SullivanChime of Enugu State

has thrown his weight be-hind the people of EnuguNorth Senatorial zone for the2015 governorship slot inthe state.

Chime told a stakeholders’meeting as part of Democ-

racy Day celebrations inEnugu that his choice of thezone was based on an under-standing in Peoples’ Demo-cratic Party, PDP.

He said: "It is not in ourpower to create a state. But,of course, we are fully in sup-port of the creation of Adada

State and we are doing all wecan to make sure it is actual-ised.

"In the event it doesn’t hap-pen before 2015, I believe wehave an understandingwithin PDP that certainly ourcandidate will come fromNsukka zone."

IMO Government hasset up a team to moni-

tor and ensure that hotelsin the state meet stipu-lated standard for opera-tion.

Commissioner for Infor-mation, Culture and Tour-ism, Mr. Chinedu Offor,made this known when hetoured some hotels inOwerri, yesterday.

Represented by the Per-manent Secretary in theministry, Mr. Goddy Dike,the commissioner said thestate government was de-termined to ensure thatguests in hotels enjoyedcomfortable and peacefulatmosphere.

He stressed the need forhotel environment to beclean and described Imoas a hospitable state evenas he regretted that mosthoteliers did not performtheir civic responsibility.

He said: “We have de-cided to rate all hotels inthe state; and awards willbe given to the best hotelfound worthy in all rami-fications.”

He called on hotel pro-prietors to participate in aplanned enlightenmentseminar.

A non-govermental or-ganisation, Asabe

Shehu Yar’Adua Founda-tion, ASYF, has decriedwhat it called the uncar-ing attitude of many pub-lic officers, well-meaningindividuals and corporatebodies to the appallingpoverty which pervadesthe Nigerian society.

In a statement by thefounder, Amb. AsabeShehu Yar ’Adua, com-memorating 2013 Democ-racy Day, ASYF said: “Thecurrent trend portenddanger to nation-buildingunless we take pragmaticsteps to sincerely tacklethe rising poverty amongsuch people.

“Children are the futureof tomorrow. We can onlyprotect and guaranteetheir future if we do notneglect their mothers."


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COMMISSIONING: From left: Senator Gbenga Ashafa, Erelu Abiola Dosunmu,ACN National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed and Senator AnthonyAdefuye, during the commissioning of Lekki-Ikoyi link bridge in Lagos.

COMMISSIONING: First Lady of Ebonyi State, Mrs. Josephine Elechi (left),receiving a gift from Divisional Sales Manager, Guinness Nigeria Plc, Mrs.Faith Abod (right) and others, during the commissioning of the GuinnessDistribution Centre, at Ohaukwu Community in Abakaliki, Ebonyi State.

PRESENTATION: From left: Community Relations Manager, British AmericanTobacco Nigeria, Mr. Solomon Ogundele; Environmental & Health Safety Manager,British American Tobacco Nigeria, Mr. Jide King; Chairman, Oluyole Local Govern-ment, Oyo State, Prince Ayodeji Aleshinloye and Executive Director, British Ameri-can Tobacco Nigeria Foundation, Mr. Gbenga Ibikunle, during the BATFN's chequepresentation to Oluyole LGA for dredging of waterways, at the Oluyole Secretariat,Idi Ayunre, Oyo State .

INDUCTION: Mr. Adeyinka Adekoya, new inductee, Institute of Char-tered Accountants of Nigeria (middle), flanked by his parents, Mr.Adekunle Adekoya of Vanguard (right) and Mrs. Ayorinde Adekoya,during the induction of new members by ICAN in Lagos, yesterday.Photo: Shola Oyelese.

CONFERENCE: From left: CEO, Simon Page Business School, PrincewillOmorogiwa; Manager, Data Marketing, Etisalat Nigeria, Bankole Alao, andGeneral Manager, Simon Page Business School, Solomon Twum, at the Dig-ital Marketing conference and exhibition in Lagos.

AWARD: From left: Mrs. Felicia Agubata, Chairman, Association of Pro-fessional Women Engineers of Nigeria (APWEN), Lagos Chapter; Hon.Nkeiruka Onyejeocha, House Committee Chairman on Aviation, receivingan award from Mrs. Olayinka Abdul, President, APWEN, at the associa-tion's 2013 business luncheon and award presentation in Lagos. Photo: JoeAkintola, Photo Editor.

AWARD: Sir Kenny Okolugbo, Commissioner,Ndokwa nation, DESOPADEC (right) recievingaward as Community Developer of the Year fromKennedy Odubu of South South Nigeria Leader-ship in Asaba. While Mr. Mudiaga of Delta StateBroadcasting Corporation looks on.

CELEBRATION: From right: Mr. Sola Abati,Marketing Manager; Mr. Raymond Ofili, Promo-tion Executive, both of Honeywell Noodles andsome School children, during the HoneywellNooldes' train ride for school children to mark theChildren's Day in Lagos. Photo: Biodun Ogunleye.

BRIEFING: From right: National Coordinator,Democratic Alliance for Youths, DAY, Mr. KabiruAbdullahi; General Secretary, Mr. Efosa Ogedengbeand Deputy National Coordinator, Alhaji AdoDansudu, during the DAY's inaugural media brief-ing on its forthcoming national conference in La-gos. Photo: Kehinde Gbadamosi.

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Vanguard, FRIDAY, MAY 31, 2013 — A1

A2 — Vanguard, FRIDAY, MAY 31, 2013

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Being a review of Nigeria’s economy over thepast two years by the Lagos Chamber of Com-merce and Industry

ECONOMY over the pasttwo years: Economic

growth trend, measured by theperformance of the Gross Do-mestic Product, GDP, has beengenerally positive over the lasttwo years, averaging about 6.5per cent. This is good com-pared to growth conditions inmost economies around theworld. However, there re-mains a major concern aboutthe weak impact of the growthperformance on private sectorand the welfare of the Nige-rian people. Virtually all busi-ness segments lamented theharsh operating environmentin recent years. The powersituation deteriorated as wenow have a relapse into achronic power failure. The re-fineries are stillunderperforming; unemploy-ment level is still high and costof fund is still high.

Sectors that posted goodgrowth performances as atDecember 2012 were telecom-munications, 31.8 per cent;Hotel and Restaurants,12.2

per cent; Solid Minerals, 12.5per cent; Building and Con-struction, 12.6 per cent; RealEstate 12.4 per cent; andWholesale and Retail Trade,9.6 per cent. However, thecontributions of most of thesectors to GDP are not signifi-cant.

Indigenousparticipation

Respective contributions areas follows: telecommunica-tions, 7 per cent; Solid Min-erals, 0.4 per cent; Hotel andTourism, 0.6 per cent; Build-ing and Construction, 2.2 percent; Real Estate, 1.9 per cent.The character of growth ex-plains the limited impact ofgrowth performance on wel-fare of citizens. Local valueaddition and indigenous par-ticipation in many of the sec-tors is still very low.

Nigeria, according to the In-ternational Monetary Fund(IMF) was ranked number 36on account of the GDP, esti-

economy as it helps tostabilise the exchange rateand inspire the confidence ofinvestors. The improved accre-tion to reserves could be as-cribed to high crude oil pricesin the global market. The re-serve build up could havebeen better but for the resur-gence of vandalization ofpipelines and crude oil theft.

Challenges: It is one thingto have good Macro-Eco-nomic fundamentals; it is an-other matter for the businessenvironment to be conducivefor investors.

Credit Situation: The CreditSituation remains a majorproblem for investors in theeconomy. Many small and me-dium scale enterprises stillhave serious challenge in ac-cessing credit even at thishigh rate. The tight credit situ-ation is a major inhibiting fac-tor to the capacity of domesticenterprises to take advantageof the robust Nigerian market.This position was corroboratedby our Business ConfidenceSurvey for the second quarterof this year. The credit chal-lenge was identified as the

Worsening powersituation impactsnegatively onimvestments

2 YEARS OF JONATHAN’S PRESIDENCY

strategic planning for inves-tors and brings a lot value tothe economy generally.

It is remarkable that inflationrate is on downward trend; itwas 9 per cent in January andincreased slightly to 9.5 percent in February. This is apositive development for the

mated at $273 billion in 2012.But it ranked 153 in its Hu-man Development Index bythe UNDP; 127 in Global Com-petitiveness Ranking of theWorld Economic Forum; and131 in the Ease of Doing Busi-ness Ranking of the WorldBank. This underscores thedisconnect between economicgrowth, investment climateand the welfare of citizens inNigeria. This picture also un-derlines the challenges weface as a nation – making eco-nomic growth inclusive.

Macroeconomic Fundamen-tals: The Macroeconomic fun-damentals of the Nigerianeconomy over the past twoyears are good. The compo-nents of these fundamentalsinclude the naira exchangerate, inflation and foreign re-serves. Exchange rate wasgenerally stable during theperiod ranging from N155 toN160. For an import depen-dent economy, exchange ratestability is crucial for the sta-bility of prices and crucial for

Prof. Chinedu Nebo, Minister of Power

Power installation...any improvement in power supply in sight?

A6—Vanguard, FRIDAY, MAY 31, 2013

economy and private sector.Low inflation is good for theperseveration of real incomesin the economy and the wel-fare of citizens. At 49.7 billionUSD in March 2013, the for-eign reserve was relativelyrobust as it could cover 13months of imports. The growthin reserves represents 12.7per cent increase over the sta-tus at the end 2012. Robust re-serves are important for the

factor with the biggest nega-tive impact on business confi-dence.

Power Situation: The Powersituation improved slightly to-wards the close of last year2012. However, this situationhas since deteriorated. Thisdevelopment impacted nega-tively on investment duringthe quarter with increased ex-

The stagnation of the manufacturing sectoris one of the tragedies of the Nigerianeconomy. Yet production is critical to an en-during economic and social stability ,

,

Continues on Page A7

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Vanguard, FRIDAY, MAY 31, 2013—A7

penditure on diesel and petrolby enterprises. This also comeswith the consequences of de-clining productivity and com-petitiveness.

Security Situation: The Se-curity situation in the countrydeteriorated in the last twoyears. It impacted on invest-ment risk, worsened our per-ception and image at the glo-bal level. Access to markets inthe troubled parts of the coun-try has reduced for many en-terprises and this is already af-fecting sales and profitability.Also many enterprises have re-located with the inherent chal-lenges. Also related to this isthe escalating oil theft and thevandalisation of pipe lines. Bil-lions of dollars have been lostin revenue; many lives havebeen lost as well. The environ-ment of affected communitieshad suffered serious degrada-tion as a consequence of thisproblem. Indeed, the oil andgas sector suffered negativegrowth on the back of this chal-lenge.

Constraintsto real sector

The Nigeria business envi-ronment is generally not con-ducive for manufacturing en-terprise which is why the riskof industrial investment ishigh and continues to increase.The various policy interven-tions have not had the desiredimpact on the sector. Unlessthere is an effective and sus-tained protection and supportfor the sector, it is only a mat-ter of time for the sector to be-come extinct.

This scenario has played outin the tyre manufacturing, thetextile industries, the assem-

bly plants, the battery indus-try, the steel plants and manymore. Manufacturing businessis perhaps the most challeng-ing in the economy today. Thetrend has grave implicationsfor the economy. An economydominated by buying and sell-ing cannot boast of a brightfuture. Production is critical toeconomic progress, value ad-dition and job creation.

It is impossible to have a vi-brant manufacturing sector inthe face of rampant dumpingof cheap imports in the coun-try. Some of these imports arelanding at 50 per cent of thecost of products produced lo-cally. Besides, manufacturershave to worry about high en-ergy cost because the powerimprovement is yet to be sus-tained; they have to worryabout high interest rates - 20per cent and above; they haveto worry about a multitude ofregulatory agencies makingdifferent demands on them;they have to worry about mas-sive smuggling and under in-voicing of imports and many

more. The multinationals andother conglomerates in the sec-tor may have the resilience tocope. But for most manufactur-ing SMEs, it is a nightmare.

The stagnation of the manu-facturing sector is one of thetragedies of the Nigerianeconomy. Yet production iscritical to an enduring eco-nomic and social stability. Theway forward is to address thefundamental constraints tomanufacturing competitive-ness in the Nigerian economy.The manufacturing contribu-tion to GDP is still less than 5per cent and this had been thetrend for over a decade. Thisof course reflects in the capac-ity of the sector to retain exist-ing jobs and create new ones.The reality is that job losses inthe sector have been on theincrease over the years as pro-ductivity declined on the backof the harsh operating envi-ronment. However, the multi-nationals and conglomerateshave shown some positivetrend in performance and re-silience, especially in the foods

Worsening power situationimpacts negatively on imvestments

and beverage sector as well inthe cement industry. Eventhen, they would do much bet-ter if the operating environ-ment were better.

If the power sector reformdelivers the desired outcome,the fortunes of the sector woulddefinitely improve. The manu-facturing intervention fund ofN200 billion had a positive im-pact on the few firms that ben-efited. It was a restructuringand refinancing facility whichgave a significant relief to thefirms and enhanced their cashflow. The interest rate was 7 percent and the tenure was 15years. But the fund was evi-dently inadequate and hassince been exhausted.

The Bank of Industry alsoplayed a remarkable role infunding industries; but thebeneficiaries were few com-pared to the financing gap thatexists in the industrial sector.

Meanwhile, credit remains amajor challenge for manufac-turing enterprise. Access tocredit is difficult and cost ofcredit is outrageous. The prob-lem is particularly acute for thesmall and medium manufac-turing enterprises. Policy in-consistency is also a majorproblem for industries. This ismore pronounced in tradepolicy. Tariffs are adjusted inways that are inconsistent withthe nation’s aspiration of rapidindustrialization. For instance,the collapse of the tyre indus-tries in the country was the out-come of inconsistent tradepolicy. The patronage of madein Nigeria products is more atthe level of rhetoric than con-crete actions. Yet an effectivepatronage policy could makea whole lot of difference in thefortunes of the manufacturingsector.

Continues on Page A6

Dr. Okonjo-Iweala, Finance minister

President Goodluck Jonathan

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Vanguard, FRIDAY,MAY 31, 2013—53

JONATHAN'S PERFORMANCE:Our verdict — Industrialists, others


He also noted thatthree active ministersout of about 40 ministersdoes not tell well of theadministration, sayingthat they should be prod-ded to add their quota tothe economy.

On corruption, Yussufsaid that governmentshould as much as pos-sible allow private sectorto participate in somedevelopmental projects,stressing that concentra-tion of too much powerin individuals should bediscontinued in the in-terest of the nation.

“When a lot of power isvested in an individual,if he has an opportunityof doing anything, per-haps awarding contract,he will favour peoplethat are immediatelyclose to him,” he stated.Also speaking, Mr VictorOgiemwonyi, ManagingDirector, Partnership In-vestment Plc, said thatthe administration is oncourse in terms of policy,but still needs to do morein the area of ‘soft is-sues.’

Economy yet toimpact Nigerians— Stakeholders

An economist, MrRemi Alarape, ManagingDirector, Remmy Associ-ates Ltd, in his reaction

advised the Federal Gov-ernment to intensify ef-forts to make Nigeriansfeel the impact of govern-ment. Alarape said this inLagos in reaction toPresident GoodluckJonathan’s Mid-TermAssessment Report. Hesaid that the FederalGovernment had to in-crease its impact on thestandard of living of Ni-gerians. “Most Nige-rians do not have infor-mation on what the re-gime is doing to improvethe economy,“ he said.Alarape lamented thatthe productive sector hadbeen inactive due to theabsence of enabling en-vironment. “The lendingrate to real sector is stillhigh which had made itdifficult for governmentto meet its projectedgross domestic product.Our unemployment ratehas been on the increaseand the oil sector is notbeing expanded to em-

ploy more hands, “ hesaid. Alarape urged thegovernment to take moreproactive steps to diver-sify the economy, gener-ate employment opportu-nities and reduce thenation’s poverty rate.

Dr. Jona Ezikpe, formerManaging DirectorManny Bank, nowChairman Chief Execu-tive NEMACO farms be-lieves the government isin the process of trans-forming the agriculturalsector for good.

National Publicity Sec-retary, Nigeria Share-holders Solidarity Asso-ciation, Alhaji GbadeboOlatokunbo said: “To becandid, l have read andheard a lot on the poli-cies/achievements of theFederal Government onstable-macro economicindices, Agriculture etc.But frankly, they’ve notreflected on the citizen’swelfare and if they donot, then how do we

gauge governmentachievements? Meaningnothing has beenachieved. May be, weshould give them moretime, because many badthings are happeningaround us now; that aregiving both Corporateorganisations and thecitizenry sleeplessnights. We need to bevery-careful now."

Mr Oderinde Taiwo,National Coordinator,Proactive ShareholdersAssociation of Nigeria(PROSAN) said thePresident has done hisbest for the economy andthere are lots yet to bedone. On the Capitalmarket, he said, thepresidency needs to bro-ker peace between theNational Assembly andthe Security and Ex-change Commission toend the zero allocation tothe body which is notgood for the market.

NUJ PRESS WEEK—From left: LTV Director, Administration Morakinyo Akinrinade; DirectorNews, Ayo Agbesanwa; Guest Speaker and former HOD Mass Communications, Unilag, Prof. RalphAkinfeleye and Director Current Affairs, Funke Moore at the Nigerian Union of Journalists, NUJ,Lagos Television chapel press week conference in Lagos.

See more on Page 63

Boko Haram still killingChristians — CANBY CALEB AYANSI-

NA

ABUJA - The Christian Association

Nigeria (CAN), yester-day, raised alarm over

the continuous killing ofChristians and burningof churches by the deadlyIslamic sect, BokoHaram, in spite of the

reported military on-slaught against the in-surgents, following thedeclaration of state ofemergence in Adamawa,Borno and Yobe states.

The President of CAN,

Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, ina statement, in Abujasaid the military opera-tion was yet to effectivelysecure Christians andtheir churches, andurged the military to re-double their efforts to re-store normalcy in the af-fected states and otherparts of the north, wherefundamentalists havecontinued to kill Chris-tians.

The statement read inpart, “ while weappreciate the statementby the military highcommand that moretowns are being securedin the operations to ridthe nation of terrorist ac-tivities, we are sad by re-ports from Borno Statewhere the terror hasgone from the horren-dous to the tragic asmore Christians are stillbeing killed andChurches burnt as re-flected in many distresscalls from the state byCAN officials on ground.

“Last Friday, for in-stance, an executivemember of CAN inGwoza Local Council,Rev. Luka Bazigila anda member of the COCINChurch, Yohanna, both ofwho were in attendanceat a Christian fellowshipwere shot dead by gun-men who alighted from aTricycle. The gunmen,apparently angry thatthey missed their target,the Medical director ofBorno State Hospital,who was out when theyarrived his residence,shot and killed his stepmother.

“A Muslim guard, em-ployed by a ChristianArchitect in Abuja towatch over his house wasmistaken for a Christianand shot dead. OneCOCIN Church on theMandara Mountain wasburnt by members of theBoko Haram sect on Sun-day morning”.

Oritsejafor also calledon the Federal Govern-ment to make public, adocument containing thenames of Boko Haramsponsors reportedly se-cured by the military.

“In the light of a recentstatement that the mili-tary recovered a docu-ment containing thenames of Boko Haramsponsors, I call on theFederal Government toexpose the sponsors now.I believe that such expo-sition will go a long wayto enhance the fightagainst the Boko Haramsect and serve as a de-terrent to others whomight want to toe thesame line,” he insisted.

The CAN President

drew the attention ofthose citing reasonsother than religion as thecause of the insurgencyby Boko Haram to a re-cent statement by theleader of the sect, AlhajiAbubakar Shekau wherehe called on like-mindedIslamists in countries in-cluding Afghanistan, Pa-kistan and Iraq to join tocreate an Islamic state inNigeria, urging friendsof Nigeria, to join forceswith the Federal Govern-ment in this struggle tosave Christians from be-ing exterminated.

“We call on our friendsabroad to regard thestatement by the BokoHaram leader as a Save-Our-Soul message beforeChristians in Nigeria areconfined to only one partof the country. If this hap-pens, Nigeria is headingfor division. Therefore,Nigerians who believethat the reasons for theonslaught of BokoHaram on innocentChristians, theirChurches and other Ni-gerians are linked to in-justice, inequality andunemployment shouldremember that Nigeriabelong to us all.

“Boko Haram is a partof a global network of ter-ror. I call on the north-ern Muslim leaders tojettison regionalism,ethnicism and religionand to imbibe the cultureof unity in diversity asthe only true principlethat can save Nigeria.Resorting to arm-twist-ing tactics can onlyshield the Boko Harammembers and encouragethem in their killingspree. This is a Jihad notinspired by pecuniary orunequal motives but onethat is driven by fanati-cal and dogmatic reli-gious ideology of doingaway with Christianity inNigeria.

“I plead with PresidentGoodluck Jonathan not toallow the blood of ourReverend gentlemen andother Christians not to beallowed to atone for acause that does not onlymake a mockery of whatAmnesty stands for, butseems to suggest that theblood thirsty sect is on alegitimate and accept-able mission.

“I commiserate with thefamilies of the deceasedand pray to God to givethem the fortitude to bearthe losses. I call on allChristians in Nigeriaand in the Diaspora tojoin me in prayers forpeace, unity of Nigeriaand an end to the inse-curity in our land tomor-row, Friday, 31st of May,2013,” he called.

A MILD drama ensued at the Ori-ental Hotel, Lekki, Lagos, ven-

ue of the just concluded Song Award or-ganised by the Copyright Society of Ni-geria (COSON)last Saturday night whenNigeria’s reggae legend and guitarist,Majek Fashek stormed the place to thrillhis fans once again after years of beingmissing on stage.

Clad in rugged jersey and jacket with abrown cap, Majek who has been incapac-itated for a long time now arrived the ven-ue some minutes to the end of the eventand hell was let loose. Shouts of ‘the Rain-maker’ rented the air as he moved fromone end of the expansive hall to another,greeting and hugging some of his con-temporaries whom he has not seen foryears. Interestingly, Majek’s song, “SendDown the Rain” won the best song of the1980s at the event.

Even though, his sight evoked sympa-thy, some of the guests who were familiarwith Majek’s ordeal could not believe theireyes as the Rainmaker was virtually in highspirit. Still looking shabby and frail, Majekbubbled with life while the event lasted.

Upon spotting highlife maestro, VictorUwaifo who was one of the dignitaries thatgraced the awards night, Majek immedi-ately prostrated before him and later, re-quested to perform on stage. But the audi-ence would not allow him to do so as theywanted him to close the event.After Iyan-ya’s ‘erotic performance’, Majek mountedthe stage and took the audience in a musi-cal voyage. He reeled out some of hisevergreen songs to the delight of the au-dience. When he sang ‘ Send Down theRain’, everyone in the hall took to the flooras they sang along with him. His perfor-mance that night reaffirmed his place as areggae legend.

Despite missing the stage for a long time,Majek who waltzed his way into the heartsof music fans in the late 80s and early 90swith his debut album “Prisoner of Con-

...performs on stage

INSIDE

Drama,as MajekFashekstormsCOSONawards night

Majek Fashek

BBA 8:Evictionfever gripshousemates!

AppWar:WhatsApp,BBM,where doyou stand?

By BENJAMIN NJOKU science” containing the hit track ‘SendDown The Rain’ released in 1987, still re-tains his stagecraft, vocal dexterity andfollowership. Standing ovation howevergreeted his ‘unexpected’ performanceeven as he hinted that his latest album isdue to be released soon.

Meanwhile, the event was organised tohonour musicians, songwriters and com-posers who had written and sung greatsongs from 1960s till date. Victor Uwaifo’s“Joromi,” was chosen as the best song ofthe 1960s while Prince Nico Mbarga’s“Sweet Mother” won the 1970scategory.While Femi Kuti’s “Wonder Won-der” emerged the best song of the 1990s,for the new millennium (2000), KehindeAkinbode’s “Olorioko” was awarded the bestcontemporary Afro song. The contempo-rary pop song was awarded to Tu Face Id-ibia with “African Queen.”Sunny Nneji woncontemporary highlife category with “Oru-ka.” Idibia won contemporary afro with“Iheneme,” while Psquare were honouredfor their hit song “Chop My Money” andthe best song for contemporary highlife ofthe new era was awarded to Jude Okoyefor “Baby Oku.”The award ceremony waspart of activities marking the COSON week.


TOP MOVIES OF THE WEEK

Synopsis

Less than a week after they were ush-ered into the Big Brother Africa house,

eviction fever has already gripped thehousemates.

In fact, 5 out of the 28 housemates havebeen nominated for possible eviction in bothhouses, Diamond and Ruby this Sunday.Uganda’s representative, Denzel is one ofthe nominees.

Denzel, who is in the Diamond House,garnered 6 nominations from his fellowhousemates, who gave various reasons fornominating him, including finding him‘weird’. Another housemate said, he triestoo hard, while the South African Angelofor some reason said, Denzel disrespectswomen. But it was Kenya’s Huddah whogot the most, with 7 nominations. House-mates called her ‘fake’, while some didn’tlike the way she was behaving like a diva.Also, nominated was Elikem from Ghana.After Big Brother announced the nomina-tions last night, he called the Diamond’s

BBA 8: EvictionBBA 8: EvictionBBA 8: EvictionBBA 8: EvictionBBA 8: Evictionfever gripsfever gripsfever gripsfever gripsfever gripshousemates!housemates!housemates!housemates!housemates!

Head of House, Tanza-nia’s Feza, to the Dia-ry Room. She had tosave one and replacethem with another,and she did nothesitate but savedthe GhanaianElikem and re-placed him withBetty from Ethi-opia.

Incidentally,both Tanzanianh o u s e m a t e sn o m i n a t e dDenzel (Ugan-da), and Hud-dah (Kenya).

In the Rubieshouse, Ugandanhousemate Isaac didnot get a single nomi-nation. Those nominat-ed from Rubies wereSierra Leone’s Bassey(6) and Ghana’sSelly (5). Nigeria’srepresenta t ive ,Beverley in herrole as Ruby Head

of House, chose to save Bas-sey and put Natasha up foreviction in his place.

BBA- the Chase reality tele-vision show kicked off lastSunday night in Johannes-burg with South African su-per group Mafikizolo perform-ing ‘Khona’, backed by mag-nificent dancers from theMzansi Ballet Theatre. IKwho returned as the present-er rolled up in style on a mo-torcycle and promised viewers

an exciting three months of television,which would see the housemates play-ing the game with their eyes firmly onthe USD300 000 prize.

Speaking on this year’s show, M-NetAfrica Managing Director, Biola Alabisaid, “ AfricaMagic is excited that Af-rica’s biggest reality show is now un-derway. Audiences can expect the ad-dition of interesting and engaging newelements to the show. Big Brother hasdisplayed remarkable growth over theyears and we hope that this year willnot be different. The launch of HotRoom will certainly bring fun, laugh-ter and witty commentary in an amus-ing and comical way. Shock, drama,emotions and surprises have alwaysbeen synonymous with the show butaudience must keep watching becauseanything is possible over the next 91days.’

All is now set for the classy debut of Xovar Lounge Concert to be headlined by

the trio of Tuface Idibia, Burner Boy, DareyArt Alade.Scheduled to hold today, the night of high-end groove is being organised by BespokeEntertainment, owners of Bespoke Centrein Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt and Xo-var Lounge.Xovar Lounge is located at 1Parktonia Hotel Road, Elegushi, Lekki be-hind Bespoke Centre.According to Mr. Olumide Mabawonku,CEO, the high-octane event begins by 7pmtill the wee hours of the next day.”We are prepared not only to provide aworld-class entertainment but also topresent a classy show that will be remem-bered for a long time. What’s more, we putXovar Lounge in a scintillating shape forthe occasion,” gushed Mabawonku.

TTTTTufufufufuface Idibia, Burner Boace Idibia, Burner Boace Idibia, Burner Boace Idibia, Burner Boace Idibia, Burner Boyyyyy, Darey f, Darey f, Darey f, Darey f, Darey forororororXXXXXooooovvvvvar ar ar ar ar LLLLLounge ounge ounge ounge ounge CCCCConceronceronceronceroncerttttt

SILVERBIRD CINEMAS, VICTORIA ISLANDFast and Furious :11:00am,1:15pm,3:45pm, 6:15pm, 8:45pmTurning Point:1:40pm, 6:50pmTemptation: 1:40pm, 4:00pm, 6:10pm, 8:20pm.Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewaani: 4:40pm,7:40pmJourney to self :1:40pm SILVERBIRD CINEMAS, IKEJAFast and Furious : 3:55pm,6:30pm,9:00pmTurning Point: 6:00pmTemptation: 1:25pm, 5:50pm, 8:20pmThe Host:3:15pmJourney to self : 3:40pmOblivion: 3:45pm

SILVERBIRD CINEMAS, PORT HARCOURTTemptation :11:50am,1:55pm,4:00pm,6:15pm ,8:30pmTurning Point :2:10pm,6:35pm,8:40pmFast and Furious :12:40pm,3:00pm,5:30pm,8:00pmWeekend Getaway: 12:10pmJourney to self :2:10pm, 4:15pm,6:20pmOblivion: 2:05pm,8:30pmG.i Joe: 3:50pm, 8:20pm

SILVERBIRD CINEMAS CEDDI PLAZA , ABUJATemptation: 11:55am, 4:00pm, 6:10pm, 20:30pm.Journey to self:2;10pm,6:30pmTurning point: 12:00pm,4:30pm,8:50pm

SILVERBIRD CINEMAS ABUJAFast and Furious 6 :1:40pm,4:10pm,6:40pm,9:10pmTurning point :12:00pm,4:30pm,6:30pmThe Host :12:05pm,4:45pm,9:30pmIdentity Thief :2:30pm,7:20pmTemptation: 12:10pm, 2:20pm, 4:40pm, 7:00pm, 9:15pmJourney to Self :2:10pm, 8:30pm.Oblivion: 12;30pm 5:00pm, 9:25pmG. I JOE: 7:10pm, 9:20pm

OZONE CINEMAS LAGOSFast and Furious :1:05pm,3:40pm,6:15pm,8:45pmTurning point: 6:20pm, 8:20pmTemptation: 2:30pm, 7:00pm, 9:15pmG.I.JOE : 11:50amOblivion: 10:10am.

Temptation:Confessions of aMarriage CounselorTemptation: Confessions of a mar-

riage Counselor is a drama-thrill-er film produced, written, and direct-ed by Tyler Perry. The film is adaptedfrom the play of the same name writ-ten by Perry, with several changes.This is the thirteenth film by Perry. Itwas released on March 29, 2013.Thefilm opens with a marriage counselorworking with a young couple havingproblems. The wife claims they are notthe same people anymore and mar-ried young which starts an argument.

FAST AND FURIOUS 6TEMPTATIONTURNING POINTTHE HOST

Exhibition Schedule for 31st May- 6 June 2013

Tuface

Melvin (left) Beverly (right) (Both Nigerians)


56— Vanguard, FRIDAY ,MAY 31, 2013

PROFILE

Ekiti welcomes new DeputyGovernorN igeria was

heartbroken whenthe news of the

demise of erstwhile Ekiti Statedeputy governor EuniceOluwafunmilayo AdunniOlayinka, also fondly referredto as Moremi. It sparked awhole new spate of awarenessabout breast cancer, themonster that claimed the lifeof the quiet beauty, and abouther successor, who would haveto comfort her electorate aswell as her teeming fans.

The unenviable lady that therole has been thrust upon isProf Modupe Adelabu, , butit would appear Ekiti’s KayodeFayemi is no stranger to titanicwomen, with First Lady BisiFayemi being one herself.

Prof Adelabu was born onMay 23, 1950 in Ado Ekiti toPrince and Mrs. SamuelAdepoju Adejugbe. Sheattended Christ’s School, Ado-Ekiti (1962 – 1967) and OlivetBaptist High School, Oyo(1968 -1970). She holds aB.A. (Ed) ; MPhil ; and PhD,all from theO b a f e m i A w o l o w oUniversity (OAU), Ile- Ife.She started her teachingcareer as a Graduate Assistantin 1976 in the Department ofEducational Administrationand Planning , OAU, whereshe rose to the post of Professorin 2008. It turns out being alocal princess is the least ofher qualifications.

She had been the Head ofthe Department of EducationalAdministration and Planningof the Obafemi Awolowo

University, Ile-Ife when thegovernor had first asked herto be his deputy , an offershe’d reportedly turned downdue to the ill health of herhusband.

She was later appointedchairman of the StateUniversal Basic EducationBoard, SUBEB. The newdeputy governor has alsoserved as a resource personfor the United NationsDevelopment Programme,UNDP; United NationsChildren’s Fund, UNICEF;and United NationsEducational, Scientific andCultural Organisation,UNESCO, on numerousissues bordering on education.She has also been involved inconsultancy work for theUniversal Basic EducationCommission in Nigeria as wellas being part of the 15-member

Education Reform Panel thatworked assiduously on EkitiState government’s reforms inthe education sector.

Adelabu, who has consultedfor the World Bank, the UnitedKingdom’s Department forInternational Development(DFID) and other internationalagencies, was also afoundation member of Boardof Ekiti State World BankAssisted Poverty ReductionAgency. She has also beeninvolved in consultancy workfor the Universal BasicEducation Commission inNigeria.

Her appointment has beendescribed by party (ACN)enthusiasts as “ a win-winstrategy designed to inflictmaximum punishment on therancorous opposition in thestate”.

Vineys Hosts Children

The Viney Cluborganizes a seminarfor teenagers. The

seminar will be led byprofessionals, highlymotivated facilitators,reputable and qualifiedspeakers. We have identifieda number of areas that are ofuniversal concern to parentsand the society, so wedeveloped this seminar toaddress few of these issues.Topics will includerelationships, teenagepregnancy, Health, selfmedication, eating habits,emotional health and BadBreath.

From the presentations andteam activities, teens willhave opportunity to discussthese areas and theirimportance as well as discoverthe tools they need to beproductive.

According to Founder andceo Mrs. Emem Adeyemi,Vineys organizers and

planners of teenagers/youths’events and programmes, “Our mission is to discover,develop, celebrate andempower the younger ones forfuture challenges andresponsibilities of leadershipwhich can provide them withthe support and opportunitiesthat can help them grow intoconfident leaders.We bring together all availableresources in collective effortsto affect a positive change intheir lives”.

“We are committed to givingEducational, inspirational andexciting teenagers’programmes.

So join us and empower ouryouths- the future generation,for a new Nigeria.

We are committed to givingEducational, inspirational andexciting teenagers’programmes.

So join us and empower ouryouths, the future generationfor a new Nigeria”.

Tips to dressing 10years younger

Unknown to manywomen, dressing

younger does not entaildressing like a teenager or ahooker. Wearing microminiskirts, ripped jeans andtight tees is not going to makeyou look younger. On thecontrary, it often shows theloopholes and dates you morethan you were dated before.Dressing younger is a fineart, and you might want totake a tip or three.

Watch your make upGo easy on your make up

once you hit the 30 mark. Theolder you are, the lighter yourmake up ought to be. Ignorethose artists who tell you youcan cover your flaws withconcealers. Go easy onconcealers and pancake andput more emphasis on yourcheekbones and eyelashes.Use cream blush rather thanpowder and splash out onmascara. The same goes forthe hair. Ditch the CindyCrawford mane and pay moreattention to your own hair.

Keep it smooth and sleek and colourit or get highlights for that shiny look.Another essential is to have youreyebrows always plucked toperfection for that groomed-within-

Snip off the Years

Eunice Oluwafunmilayo Adunni Olayinka, Ekiti State deputy governor

Kate Henshew


Oshotimeyin, Gates, Lead at ‘Women Deliver’

As Girls’ & Women’sHealth and Rightsare in Focus at

Women Deliver 2013 in KualaLumpur, while World Bankand Guttmacher Instituterelease new data on the valueof investing in girls andwomen

Tuesday more than 4,000global leaders and advocatesfrom nearly 150 countriesgathered in Kuala Lumpur,Malaysia, for Women Deliver2013, the largest conferenceof the decade focused on thehealth and wellbeing of girlsand women. The opening ses-sions of this three-day eventhighlighted the critical needto invest in girls and womento spur development world-wide.

The second day had globalleaders announcing progressand new commitments towardexpanding contraceptive ac-cess for women in developingcountries. They also outlinedplans for sustaining this mo-mentum in the years to come.

The day’s events built oncommitments and energy gen-erated at the landmark July2012 London Summit on Fam-ily Planning, where globalleaders pledged more thanUS $2.6 billion to provide 120million more women and girlsin the world’s poorest coun-tries with voluntary access tocontraceptive services, infor-mation and supplies by 2020.Speakers at Women Deliver2013 discussed strategies toreach women and girls in de-veloping countries who do notwant to become pregnant, butlack access to contraceptives.

“Putting women at the cent-er of development and deliv-ering solutions that meet theirneeds will result in huge im-provements in health, pros-perity and quality of life,” saidBill & Melinda Gates Foun-dation Co-Chair MelindaGates. “When women haveaccess to contraceptivesthey’re healthier, their chil-

dren are healthier, and theirfamilies thrive.

At the morning plenary ses-sion led by Melinda Gates andUnited Nations PopulationFund (UNFPA) Executive Di-

,

,rector and Family Planning2020 (FP2020) Co-Chair

Babatunde Osotimehin—government leaders from Af-rica and Asia highlighted con-crete examples of progress on

family planning and reaf-firmed commitments to furtherexpanding contraceptive ac-cess:

Senegal’s Minister of HealthDr. Awa Coll-Seck discussedthe country ’s dramaticprogress in eliminating con-traceptive stock-outs since thenational family planning pro-gram’s roll-out in November2012, doubling the budget toCFA 200 million with plans forfurther increases in 2013. TheFirst Lady of Zambia, Her Ex-cellency Dr. Christine Kase-ba-Sata, highlighted Zambia’sstalwart commitment to ex-panding family planning ac-cess in the country, whichlaunched its national familyplanning program lastmonth;?Indonesia’s Ministerof Health Dr. Nafsiah Mboi

announced the government’sincrease in funding for long-acting reversible contracep-tives, as part of its redoubledefforts to regain momentumon family planning access af-ter recent plateaus.

National Coordinator forMalawi’s Safe MotherhoodInitiative, Mrs. Dorothy Ngo-ma, discussed the govern-ment’s efforts to considerablystrengthen the family plan-ning component of safe moth-erhood efforts countrywide

“These countries show thatwe can make an impact onwomen’s access to reproduc-tive health if we rally the nec-essary political will and finan-cial commitments,” said Dr.Babatunde Osotimehin. “Ex-panding access to contracep-tives is one of the simplest andmost cost-effective ways tosave lives and ensure thehealth and wellbeing of futuregenerations.”

Women Deliver is a globaladvocacy organization thatbrings together voices fromaround the world to call forimproved health and wellbe-ing for girls and women.Launched in 2007, WomenDeliver works globally to gen-erate political commitmentand financial investment forfulfilling Millennium Devel-opment Goal #5—to reducematernal mortality andachieve universal access toreproductive health. Buildingfrom the groundbreaking con-ferences Women Deliver con-vened in 2007 and 2010, Wom-en Deliver harnesses commit-ments, partnerships and net-works to help prevent the ap-proximately 350,000 deaths ofgirls and women from preg-nancy- and childbirth-relatedcauses that occur every year.Women Deliver’s message isthat maternal health is both ahuman right and a practicalnecessity for sustainable de-velopment. Invest in wom-en—it pays.

an-inch… look.If you are in your late 20s and over,

you are pushing it on four inch highheels. Go rather for three inches, ifyou will, and block heels rather thanstilettos. Better still, play with theclassic look with kitten heels which,if well chosen and well worn, canbe very, very sexy on women of anyage.

ColoursOn the other hand women tend to

dump colours the older they get.There’s absolutely nothing wrongwith colours, bright colours. Simplyavoid over the top neons though.

Wearing bright colours canmean you can wear less makeup, so it’s a win-win situation.

ShapesClassics are good, but they

have no business being drab.A shapeless bell blousemight not be exactly what youneed, but for some reason, itseems more ‘age appropriate’.

Just wearing something thatreally nips you in at the waistcan give you curves in all theright places and a much moreyouthful silhouette. Conningthe observer by playing trickswith your tailoring might be

the most useful skill you mightever pick up.

Accessories are a Girl’sbest Friends

To put classy into the equa-tion, accessories are alwayson point . We don’t all havethe money to throw out our

clothes at the end of eachseason but everyone canupdate their accessories.Gold jewellery and patentleather were big last seasonbut now it’s all about wedg-es, big bags and big sun-glasses. Invest in any ofthese trends and you caninstantly update your jeansand shirts without breakingthe bank. Pick an accessorystyle you’re comfortablewith that works for you andrun with it. One key focalpiece is best, with a few oth-er accessories workedaround it.

Babatunde Osotimehin

Putting women at thecenter of development anddelivering solutions thatmeet their needs will re-sult in huge improvementsin health, prosperity andquality of life


With PRINCE OSUAGWUPRINCE OSUAGWUPRINCE OSUAGWUPRINCE OSUAGWUPRINCE [email protected]

There appears to be anongoing app war be-

tween RIM’s Blackberry Mes-senger, BBM and a buddingrival WatsApp Messenger.While BBM has remainedusers favourite app for ex-changing free instant mes-sages amongst a close usergroup on Blackberry device,WatsApp has come to slice thestrong hold, perhaps threat-ening to push BBM to a seem-ingly uncomfortable corner.

Unlike BBM which operatesin a closed user group,WhatsApp Messenger is across-platform mobile mes-saging app which also allowsyou to exchange messageswithout having to pay forSMS. It is available foriPhone, BlackBerry, Android,Windows Phone and Nokia.This range of phones can allmessage each other becauseWhatsApp uses the sameinternet data plan that youuse for email and web brows-ing. Another beauty of it isthat it seamlessly connects tousers who exchange contacts,automatically, without seek-ing PINs or authorizations.

Although this messagingplatform is gaining groundamong youths and schoolchildren, the grip BBM has onloyal users, seems to be evengetting tighter. So when wesampled opinion of a numberof users of both platforms andthe war was interesting towitness. Hear them out!

Mr.Olaniyi Dare

WhatsApp is sensa-

tional.I was introduced to it by a

friend and since then, I fell inlove with it. The platform hasmore smileys than BBM andit’s an app that can be used onany phone. You see, the catchis that whatsapp upgrades anew contact automatically andyou don’t need to request to addsomeone up. You can add any-body once the person is onwhatsapp. For me, BBM is tooserious.

Miss Sopulu Amaechina

I prefer BBM because mostpeople on the platform are

on twitter and news get to twit-ter faster and by so doing passon to BBM.

Mr. Awotoye Abayomi

WhatsApp is boring anddoes not express much

maturity on users. Most of thepeople on BBM are seriouspeople no matter their age andthere is this air of responsibil-

ity that revolves around theplatform. Most of my friendsare on BBM and for me, thatsays it all.

Miss Eva Aja

I prefer BBM to WhatsAppbecause it’s a nice way of

communicating when onedoesn’t have airtime on thephone. WhatsApp takes time insending messages. In fact,more people use BBM thanWhatsApp.

Miss Vaughan Kemi

I am not a gadget freakthough, but WhatsApp is

more like it to me. You know, itworks on any phone as long asone has access to the internet.WhatsApp gives everyone onyour contact extra means ofcommunicating with you be-cause not only can you chat,you can also call the personsince you have the person’snumber. BBM on the otherhand has restricted users, it isstrictly for people using Blackberry phones. WhatsApp is anapp you download but BBM is

BBM uses pin which cannot beused to call up somebody.

Mr. Jide Familugba

When something ismeant to look like

something, it can never be thesame. WhatsApp was modeledafter BBM and that tells youwhat an innovation BBM is.However I have also observedthat most Blackberry users doalso download WhatsApp ontheir phones. To me, that’s anextra to a user. Yet, BBM is stillan easier platform to send vid-eos, music, pictures even as itattributes smiley’s, status, per-sonal messages as well as itdisplays pictures.

Miss Aigbomian Obehi

For me WhatsApp is agood innovation but I

still prefer BBM because it’smore interesting. But the twoapps have disadvantages.While BBM could sometimes,be annoying by the way peopleannounce their every move-ment and anything in theirlives, it is also very interest-ing to have.

In the same vein, WhatsAppis innovative because it createsalternative for people who can-not afford a Blackberry or donot like the device. OnWhatsApp, even if you deletecontact, the person still hasyour number. But if you askme, BBM still has upper handon User Interface experience.

On his blog, one of theWhatsApp developers, JanKoum relived the decisionsand practical experiencethat discouraged him andhis partner, Brian Actonfrom selling adverts on theplatform. I am sure it willmake a good read for you!

Brian and I spent acombined 20 yearsat Yahoo!, working

hard to keep the site work-ing. And yes, working hardto sell ads, because that’swhat Yahoo! did. It gathereddata and it served pagesand it sold ads.

We watched Yahoo! geteclipsed in size and reachby Google… a more effi-cient and more profitable adseller. They knew what youwere searching for, so theycould gather your datamore efficiently and sellbetter ads.

These days companies

know literally everything aboutyou, your friends, your interests,and they use it all to sell ads.

When we sat down to start ourown thing together three yearsago we wanted to make some-thing that wasn’t just anotherad clearinghouse. Wewanted to spend our timebuilding a service peoplewanted to use because itworked and saved themmoney and made theirlives better in a smallway. We knew that wecould charge people di-rectly if we could do allthose things. We knew wecould do what mostpeople aim to do everyday: avoid ads.

No one wakes up ex-cited to see more adver-

tising, no one goes to sleepthinking about the ads they’llsee tomorrow. We know peoplego to sleep excited about whothey chatted with that day(and disappointed about whothey didn’t). We want

WhatsApp to be the productthat keeps you awake… andthat you reach for in the morn-ing. No one jumps up from anap and runs to see an adver-tisement.

Advertising isn’t just the dis-ruption of aesthet-ics, the insults toyour intelligenceand the interrup-tion of your train ofthought. At everycompany that sellsads, a significantportion of their en-gineering teamspends their daytuning data min-ing, writing bettercode to collect allyour personaldata, upgrading

the servers that hold all thedata and making sure it’s allbeing logged and collatedand sliced and packaged andshipped out… And at the endof the day the result of it all isa slightly different advertis-ing banner in your browser oron your mobile screen.

Remember, when advertisingis involved you the user arethe product. At WhatsApp, ourengineers spend all their timefixing bugs, adding new fea-tures and ironing out all thelittle intricacies in our task ofbringing rich, affordable, reli-able messaging to every phonein the world. That’s our prod-uct and that’s our passion. Yourdata isn’t even in the picture.We are simply not interestedin any of it.

When people ask us why wecharge for WhatsApp, we say“Have you considered the al-ternative?”

WhatsApp developers open up!

Why we don’t sell ads on WhatsApp

By WINIFREDIMONLUAMEN AppWar: WhatsApp, BBM, where do you stand?

Jan Koum Brain Acton

more like anadded technol-ogy to the phone.These apps bothperform thesame functionbut WhatsApphas an addedadvantage be-cause of the num-ber it shows orasks for beforeyou can add up acontact. But

•Awotoye Abayomi •Vaughan Kemi

•Olutuyi Bukola •Olaniyi Dare•Jide Familugba

•Eva Aja

•Aigbomian Obehi


New EU agreement to boostSchengen border accord

RUSSIA on yesterdaysaid the refusal of

the United States to ruleout the idea of a no-flyzone over Syria cast doubton its commitment toefforts to bring the warringsides together for a peaceconference.

A White Housestatement saying thepossibility of a no-fly zoneremained on the table,along with otherstatements and actions byWestern governments andthe Syrian opposition,“cast doubt on the sincerityof the desire of some of our... partners for a success ofinternational efforts” toend the 26-month-oldconflict, the RussianForeign Ministry said.Meanwhile,the Syrianarmy has scored “majorvictories” against rebels andnow holds “the balance ofpower” in the conflict,President Bashar al-Assadhas reportedly told aLebanese TV station.

Mr Assad was also

Syria: Russia slams U.S. overrefusal to rule out no-fly zone

quoted as saying Syria hasreceived the first shipmentof an advanced Russian airdefence system. Russiavowed to go ahead withsending S-300 missilesearlier this week.Meanwhile, the mainopposition outside Syriasaid it would not take partin peace talks whilemassacres continued.

AGREEMENT hasbeen reached in

Brussels on whentemporary border controlscan be introduced in theEuropean Union’s free-movement Schengen area.

The new accord laysdown common rules onreintroducing checks inexceptional circumstances.

It also allowsunannounced inspectionsto ensure controls are notbeing imposed illegally.

Schengen permits EUcitizens to move freelywithout passport checksbetween the 22 states thatsigned up.

The latest accord,negotiated between theEuropean Commission,the European Parliamentand governments, nowgoes to a full meeting ofthe parliament forconsideration in June orJuly.

Woolwich murder: Adebowale charged

NIGERIAN-BORN,Michael Adewale

was yesterday chargedwith the murder of soldierLee Rigby in Woolwich,south-east London, policehave said. MichaelAdebowale, 22, ofGreenwich, London, whowill appear later atWestminster Magistrates’Court, is also accused ofpossessing a firearm.

A second man, MichaelAdebolajo, 28, remainsunder arrest at a Londonhospital and is in a stablecondition.

A post-mortemexamination foundDrummer Rigby, 25, died

•Michael Adebowale

of “multiple incisedwounds” after the attackon 22 May. MrAdebowale, who wasdischarged from hospitalon Tuesday, and the othersuspect were shot bypolice at the time they werearrested.

Sue Hemming, head of

the Crown ProsecutionService (CPS) SpecialCrime and Counter-terrorism Division, said:“Crown Prosecutors havebeen working with theinvestigators of CounterTerrorism Command sincethe killing of Drummer LeeRigby on 22 May.

“Following the release ofMichael Adebowale fromhospital, we haveauthorised the police tocharge him with themurder of DrummerRigby. “We have alsoauthorised police tocharge him withpossession of a firearm,contrary to section 16A ofthe Firearms Act 1968.

Egyptians draft law, dashes hopes of freecivil society

Watch said oyesterda..President Mohamed

Mursi has said the billsubmitted to the MuslimB r o t h e r h o o d - l e dparliament on Wednesdaywould liberate a civilsociety that was stifled byMubarak, who was

toppled by an uprisingignited by democracyactivists.

Human Rights Watchsaid the new draft was“hostile to the very notionof independent civilsociety”.

US economy shows weak growth

A drop in governmentspending dragged

more on the U.S. economythan initially thought in thefirst three months of theyear, although consumerspending looked relativelyresilient to Washington’sausterity drive.

Other reports on

Thursday showed thenumber of new joblessclaims rose modestly lastweek while contracts onpreviously owned homesclimbed to a three-year highin April.

Together, the reportspointed to an economy that

has held up reasonably welldespite governmentconstraints, butnevertheless facedheadwinds severe enoughto dissuade the U.S. FederalReserve from trimming itsmonetary stimulus in theimmediate future.

“(The reports) paint thepicture of an economy withs t r e n g t h e n i n gfundamentals that is facingsignificant fiscal drag,” saidEllen Zentner, an economistat Nomura in New York.

Gross domestic product, ameasure of the country’stotal economic output,expanded at a 2.4 percentannual rate during the firstquarter, down a tenth of apoint from an initialestimate, the CommerceDepartment said. Analystshad forecast a 2.5 percentgain.

A law drafted by theEgyptian presidency

for regulating non-g o v e r n m e n t a lorganisations dasheshopes for a free civilsociety after the 2011uprising against HosniMubarak, Human Rights

A B U J A — S UPREME Court

has slated June 4 to hearthe suit between Gover-nor Rochas Okorocha ofImo State and the PeoplesDemocratic Party, PDP,even as a group of law-yers loyal to former gov-ernor of the state, IkediOhakim, yesterday,served a petition to theChief Justice of Nigeria,CJN.

The petitioners, allegedplot to disband the panelhandling a fresh appealby Governor Rochas chal-lenging the joining


AWKA— THE Anambra State chair-

man of All Nigeria Peo-ples Party, ANPP, ChiefPat Orjiako, has saidthere is no leadership tus-sle in the emerging po-litical party, noting thatthe concern of all themerger parties is to en-sure that All ProgressiveCongress, APC, wins theforthcoming governor-ship election.

He said: “As far as weare concerned, there is noleadership tussle. I amthe chairman of ANPPand other people arechairmen of their politicalparties and who willeventually become thechairman of APC in thisstate is not an issue. If Ibecome the chairman oranother person becomesthe chairman, the otherperson will go for anoth-er position. The major is-sue we are advocating

of his predecessor in anelection petition that wasfiled against him by thegovernorship candidateof the Action Congress ofNigeria, ACN, in thestate, Senator IfeanyiArarume.

Ararume is challengingthe outcome of the elec-tion that brought gover-nor Okorocha to power.In their letter to the CJN,by one Adebalogun Sai,the petitioners alleged aplot by a powerful groupin the judiciary workingfor one the litigants tosack the appeal panelhandling Ararume’s pe-tition.

S -Court hears PDP,Okorocha suit, June 4

from among the threemajor merging politicalparties that already havetheir executive in placebecause their tenure willbe terminated by the newmerger arrangement.

“Our assurance is thatwe are going to give An-ambra people leaderswho have vision and canassist the APC governor-ship candidate to win thenext election. Personally,I am interested in win-ning the governorship ofthe state and not who willbecome the party chair-man. But we must alsohave an independent-minded chairman thatwill be an asset and notsomebody who will not beable to articulate how theparty will move forward.We can get the chairmaneither by consensus, har-monization or by con-gress. So we are notquarrelling on who be-comes the chairman ofAPC.”

BY VINCENTUJUMADU

No leadership tussle inAnambra ANPP—Orjiako

I N D I C AT I O N Semerged, yesterday,

that the north might sanc-tion prominent politiciansfrom the region found to befraternising with PresidentGoodluck Jonathan with aview to scuttling its desireof occupying the Presiden-cy in 2015.

Vanguard learnt that thedecision to clip the wingsof northern politicians whowere yet to see the needfor the country’s top politi-cal office to revert to the re-gion, was taken at a meet-ing of the Northern Elders’Forum, NEF, during one ofits recent meetings in oneof the states, which is un-der the state of emergen-cy.

At the meeting, whichhad some governors andmany elite from the northin attendance, strategiesfor voting out PresidentJonathan was elaboratelydiscussed and agreedupon. It was learnt that oneof the weapons to be ap-plied in cajoling influentialnortherners particularlygovernors and lawmakers,in railroading into thenorthern agenda, is tobrand the unwilling onesas ‘enemies’ of the regionand expose them to pub-lic.

Fraternisingwith Jonathan

A member of the NEF,Prof Ango Abdullahi, con-firmed the position of thenorth in an exclusive inter-view with Vanguard butdeclined to say how suchaction would work againsttop politicians, who werenot voted into office by theforum. The former ABUvice chancellor, said thatalthough the NEF had nopower to remove such pol-iticians from office, they hadthe prerogative to exposethem as saboteurs of thenorth.

Abdullahi said: "It is truethat we are looking at thosefrom the north, who arefraternising with Jonathanto stop us from getting thePresidency in 2015. I cansay to you that appropriatesteps will be taken at theappropriate time to dealwith such moles known tobe working with Jonathanagainst northern interest asfar as the next election isconcerned.

“We are aware that someof our people, governors,lawmakers and ministersare working against the in-terest of the region because

2015 Presidency: North maysanction pro-Jonathan politicians

By SONI DANIEL,Regional Editor, North they don’t believe that we

should produce the nextpresident of Nigeria. If wecannot do anything to stopthem, we can mobilise thepeople to see them as theenemies of the north.”

Vanguard learnt that theNEF took the decision tosanction northern politi-cians working for Jonathanfollowing the alleged per-secution of Governor Roti-mi Amaechi of Rivers Stateby the Presidency for re-portedly having an ambi-tion of pairing with his Ji-gawa counterpart, Sule

Lamido, to run in 2015.Although the duo have

consistently denied the ru-mour, their posters, sus-pected to be planted byopponents, have contin-ued to flood major citiesand towns, thereby expos-ing them to more troublewith the Presidency. De-spite the fact that the Pres-ident has not declared hisintention to run, his sol-diers particularly formermilitants, have alreadythreatened to cause may-hem if Jonathan was notreturned in 2015.

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EaglesContinues from BPteam will not have any

reason to faulter againstthe Mexicans. “We willdo our best and ensurethat we come cleanagainst Mexico, as usualwe want Nigerians topray for us. On our partwe will defend thenational colours wellagainst any oppositionand Mexico is just oneof them”, he declared.Camp sources alsorevealed that Ukrainebased hitman BrownIdeye and Germanbased Joseph Akpala,may be the preferredstrike force to startagainst the Mexicans as

the duo have shownmaturity at trainingsessions.

Big midfielder JohnOgu is also said to bepulling his weight andit won’t be surprising ifhe starts the matchagainst the very trickyMexicans. “I don’t knowwho will start and whowill not but we have ateam that should do verywell against Mexico”,Keshi said on Thursdayevening. The match isscheduled for 8pmHouston time and 2amNigeria time onSaturday morning whichwill still be Fridayevening in Houston.

Continues from BP

MourinhoMourinhoMourinhoMourinhoMourinho

MutuContinues from BP

The infant wasmiraculously rescuedafter he was cut wasfrom the pipe by franticemergency in Jinhua, inChina’s easternprovince of Zhejiang.

The incredible story ofthe youngster – dubbedbaby 59 - quickly spreadworldwide after amazingfootage showed medicsand firefightersdesperately trying takeapart the 10cm diameterwith pliers and saws.

Now cheat Mutu, whojoined Chelsea for£15.8million in 2003before being kicked outof the club when he

failed a drugs test, hastold Romanian channelProTV: “I intend toadopt this baby.”

The dad-of-three saidhe had discussed theplan with his wifeConsuelo and plan tomake an approach to thebaby’s parents if a legalagreement could befound

However the striker,who now plays for ACAjaccio in Corsica, couldface difficulties asRomania is not currentlyon the list of 17countries whose citizenscan adopt from China.

Mexican populationContinues from BPthe players can adjust

to different tactics andtake on any nation. Ifthey qualify for the WorldCup, they will be playingcountries from differentcontinents. It even beginswith the ConfederationCup in Brazil.

They are Africanchampions and haveshown that they canadapt to the rugged playof African teams. Beforethe Nations Cup in SouthAfrica, they also showedguts against Catalonia inSpain. Tomorrow, in the early morning, theyplay a team that has ablend of South Americanfootball and a little ofEuropean touch.Mexicans pass the ballwell and they also havespeed especially on thecounter attack. Keshi,would, therefore, beexploring a way to curbtheir possession and usepower game to musclethem out of their stridewhile a blistering attackmay boost their goalchances.

Two top players whoadded weight to thestrength of the teamduring the Nations Cupin South Africa will notplay tomorrow. Mikel Obiand Victor Moses. Butothers have trained sowell that Keshi feels thatthey can hold their ownagainst Mexico, acountry that can boast ofgood youth developmentgoing by the feats of theiryouth teams recently. Buta third position in theongoing World Cupqualifying group games makes Keshi feel that

they are not on top of theirgame and not a team thatshould beat the Africanchampions.

“We have trained welland the boys are excitedabout this internationalfriendly match. I hopethat they show thatexcitement on the field,”Keshi said at the WestinGalleri Eagles Hotel onAlabama Road. The Hotelis located in one of thebiggest malls in Houston.

Keshi’s assistant ValereHoundonou said that thefighting spirit in theEagles camp is a thing ofjoy to the technical crew.

“Everybody wants toplay. And I think most ofthe players here will havea chance to play,” Valeresaid.

The performance of twohome-based Eagles hasimpressed him. Emeka Eze, an attacker withEnugu Rangers andEbenezer Ogulami, amidfielder from SunshineStars of Akure have donewell to earn their firstcaps. And so is Tony Ujahof Cologne FC, Germany.Valere said Ujah is aplayer Nigerians shouldwatch out for. John Ogwuwas invited for the gameagainst Kenya in Calabar.He was dressed up butdid not play. He may geta chance tomorrowmorning. Joseph Akpalaplayed few games underSamson Siasia but has notplayed under Keshi. Hemay also get a chance toplay.

“I think that we have agood team withEgwuekwe, Oboabona,Echiejele, Onazi, BrownIdeye, Vincent Enyeamaetc.”

again! Everyone isdelighted he’s comingback — the club, theplayers and the fans

“We are already lookingforward to next season —we are sure it’s going tobe very exciting.”

Mourinho finally putpen to paper during atwo-day trip to Londonthis week.

His cover story wasattending the CrystalPalace-Watford play-offfinal at Wembley onMonday and visitingfriends in the capital.

But the real purpose ofthe visit was to seal anemotional return to hisbeloved Blues along withright-hand man Rui Faria.

Now it is expected hewill be unveiled nextweek in a blaze ofpublicity by the EuropaLeague champions.

That is after he hastaken charge of Real’sfinal game at home toOsasuna on Saturday,which will bring to anend his controversialthree-year reign at theBernabeu.

Chicharito: Nigeria deservesrespect

Manchester Unitedand Mexico striker JavierHernandez says Nigeriadeserve respect ahead oftheir meeting tomorrow.

Both countries meet inan international friendlyin Houston, Texas, andthe Mexican forward iswary of the threat posedby the African champions

“The most importantthing is to have a gameto prepare for thequalifiers, which we’ll bedoing against Nigeria.

“They are Africanchampions and they havemany players abroad.The players are alwaysfull of running when theyplay but they have alsoimproved a lot in recentyears.

“The game againstNigeria will be veryimportant for us toprepare ourselves. Youhave to give them duerespect knowing well thatthey too will be using thegame to prepare for theWorld Cup qualificationtoo.”

Kick-off is at 2amNigeria time.

I will pocket Chicharito— Oboabona boasts

SUPER Eaglesdefender, Godfrey

Oboabona has said hewill stop ManchesterUnited striker JavierHernandez “Chicharito”in today’s internationalfriendly against Mexico.

The high-profile matchwill be played inHouston, Texas, in theUnited States of Americatonight, which will be2am Nigerian time onSaturday.

“If I could stop playersin the calibre of DidierDrogba, Yaya Youre,Gervinho at the NationsCup, I can’t be afraid toface any striker in theworld. I will do my bestto stop Chicharito andGiovanni dos Santos,”

Oboabona toldMTNFootball.com fromHouston.

“Both players areunarguably world-classstrikers and they arevery deadly but markingout Drogba has boostedmy confidence not tofear any striker.”

He added: “We arealso looking forward toan interesting matchthat will boost ourconfidence ahead of theWorld Cup qualifiersagainst Kenya andNamibia because that isthe main thing allNigerians are eagerlywaiting for, but we willalso give our best tomaintain our recordagainst the Mexicans.”

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Nigeria Oboabona contesting ball with DidierDrogba of Cote-di-voire at Nations Cup tournament

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Documents

JONATHAN'S PERFORMANCE: Our verdict, by industrialists, others