Okonjo-Iweala to spend N1.1bn on confabs, food

...towards a better life for the people

N150VOL. 25: NO. 61731

ONLINE | www.vanguardngr.com

MONDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2012**

Mr & MrsContinues on Page 5

Okonjo-Iweala to spendN1.1bn on confabs, food

BUDGET 2013:

BY SONI DANIEL,REGIONAL EDITOR,

NORTH & HENRYUMORU

ABUJA— THEC o o r d i n a t i n g

Minister of the Economyand Minister of Finance,Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, plans to spendN1,098,296,979 onsitting allowances andhonorarium and anotherN43,515,655 onrefreshment and mealsnext year.

The Office of the

FLOOD: Flood victims in Okwagbe, Delta State being evacuated from their community, yesterday. (INSET): Prof. J. P.Clark assessing his late great grand-father, Bekederemo's compound, in Kiagbodo, Delta State, submerged by flood.

FLOOD: Four farmerscommit suicide in Kogi

•Pgs. 8&9

...kills fisherman, sacks 200 orphansin Delta

Gunmen kill20 in Kadunavillage

•P. 6

FINANCIAL VANGUARD

•P

gs 1

7-4

0Concerns overmonetary policyimplications ofBudget 2013

CMYK

CMYK

2 — Vanguard, MONDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2012

CMYK

Vanguard, MONDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2012 — 3

CMYK


POCKET CARTOON

TAKE HEARTBY ELLA RANDLE

Vanguard, MONDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2012—5

LIFEWORDSBY PASTOR ITUAH

THE only limit to our realisation of tomorrowwill be our doubts of today. Let us move forward

with strong and active faith. Limit your doubts anddevelop your future.

Continues from page 1

When the world says, “give up”, hope whispers,try it one more time —African proverb

IN June 1985, two British mountaineers JoeSimpson and Simon Yates made the first-ever

climb of the West Face of the 21,000 foot snow-cov-ered Siula Grande mountain in Peru. It was anexceptionally tough assault - but nothing comparedto what was to come. Early in the descent, Simpsonfell and smashed his right knee. Yates could haveabandoned him but managed to find a way of low-ering him down the mountain in a series of diffi-cult drops blinded by snow and cold. Then Simpsonfell into a crevasse and Yates eventually had nochoice but to cut the rope, utterly convinced thathis friend was now dead.

The survival of Yates himself was extraordinary.That Simpson somehow found a way of climbingout of the crevasse after 12 hours and then literallycrawled and dragged himself six miles back tocamp, going three days and nights without food ordrink, and losing three stone would be the stuff ofheroic fiction if it was not so true. Indeed, six op-erations and two years later, he was even backclimbing. All because, against all the odds, he tried.

Minister also estimatesthat it would expendN43,381,673 million oncleaning andfumigation, just as itplanned that securityservices would gulp atotal of N36,829,446million.

These figures arecontained in details ofthe 2013 budget, whichPresident GoodluckJonathan presented tothe National Assemblylast Thursday.

The Ministry ofFinance, which has atotal allocation ofN14,759,952, 110, willalso spendN6,056,366,976 onp e r s o n n e l ,N5,429,969,154 asoverhead cost;N11,486,336,130 as totalrecurrent andN3,273,615,980 forcapital.

According to thebudget breakdown, theMinistry of Financeplans to spend N153,922, 307 on local travels,N170, 922, 307 oninternational travelswhile N68,613,133 willbe for local training andN68,883,133 oninternational training.

N64,768,973 tofuel generators

In the same vein, theministry is to spendN64,768,973 on thefuelling of its generatorsthough it has set asideanother sum ofN38,205,019 for the

payment of electricitybills.

Over one billion nairahas also been set asideby the same ministry forthe procurement ofsecurity equipment andN400 million for therepairs andrehabilitation of officebuildings, which werenot specified in thebudget.

The ministry alsointends to spend N462more than million onresearch anddevelopment andanother N111 million onthe acquisition ofcomputer softwarewithin the financial year.

NSA will utiliseN25.4bn

A further breakdown ofthe appropriationdocument indicates thatthe office of the NationalSecurity Adviser, NSAwill utilise N25.4billion, while N40 billionis appropriated to theNational IntelligenceAgency, NIA. Similarly,the Directorate of StateSecurity Service, SSS,will expend N43. 2billion while thePresidential Air Fleetwill make use of N7.5billion within the fiscalyear.

In the same breadth,the governmentproposes to spendN520,540,876 for theimplementation of thecontroversial PetroleumIndustry Bill, PIB, whichis still pending in theNational Assembly. It

was reworked and sentback to the lawmakers bythe Minister ofPetroleum Resources,Mrs Diezani AlisonMadueke, early this yearafter the previousversion was notassented to by theExecutive. Within theyear, the Ministry ofPetroleum Resourcesplans to hire a seven-seater helicopter for thesum of N200 million toinspect and monitoroffshore terminals in thecountry.

It also plans to useanother N200 million,within the period, toacquire gas flaredownmonitoring and pipelinesurveillance facilities tobe used in the NigerDelta, where oilexploration takes placedaily.

SGF to spendN17,256,704 onrefreshment

The office of theSecretary to the FederalGovernment will alsospend N17,256,704 forrefreshments and meals

within the year.In the budget

breakdown, office of theHead of Service of thefederation will next yearspend N30,000,000 topurchase fire fightingequipment whileteaching and learningequipment will gulpN13,000,000.

The office has a totalallocation of N7,713,308,382, withN2,509,000,000 voted forcapital expenditure,while recurrent hasN5,204,308,603 and totaloverhead is put atN1,529,324,603.

Ministry of ForeignAffairs also plans tospend N70,201,724,387with N22,978,212,832going for personnel,N23,516,908, 685 foroverhead, recurrentN46,495,121,517 andcapital N23,706,602,870.

Also, the country ’sembassy in London willspend N1,282,632,245;Ottawa N4,379, 185,951;W a s h i n g t o n ,N91,138,564; Madrib,N490,765,796; TehranN243,348,683; and Tel-Aviv(CP) N21,343,418.

Okonjo-Iweala to spend N1.1bn on confabs, food

Excess Crude Account to bebuilt to $10bn — Okonjo-Iweala

ABUJA —COORDINATING

Minister for theEconomy and Ministerfor Finance, Dr NgoziOkonjo-Iweala, said inTokyo, yesterday, thatNigeria’s Excess CrudeAccount would be builtup to $10 billion byearly 2013.

Okonjo-Iweala madethis known whilebriefing newsmen on theNigerian economy at theAnnual Meeting of theWorld Bank and the IMF.

She said: “I stronglyfeel and I have sharedwith the governors, withMr. President and vice-president who fullysupport that the ExcessCrude Account must bebuilt up to $10 billion.We should strive to dothat in the next fewmonths and we keep thatas buffer.”

According to her, if theaccount is built up to$10 billion and it is nottouched for a while, itwill serve as buffer,noting that there wasthe need to increase thenation’s externalreserve, considering thepopulation of thecountry.

The minister noted:“Our reserves are not

huge, we are justbuilding backup; it’s notmy place, it is themonetary policy thatmanages it, but I havediscussed with the CBNgovernor that we needto build up our reserveto $50 billion, if we can.That will be the desiresof the fiscal authorities.So I don’t consider uswith the size of theeconomy andpopulation we have.Look at Algeria, theirreserve is nearly $200billion, for a countrymuch smaller thanNigeria.”

On infrastructure, shenoted that the countryneeded about $10 billionyearly to tackle itsi n f r a s t r u c t u r a lchallenges adding thatNigeria would draw fromthe World Bank’s loanoffer with a go-aheadfrom the NationalAssembly.

She noted that Nigeriawould not draw from theinternational monetaryresources at the momentto tackle thei n f r a s t r u c t u r echallenges. “We aretrying to put ourborrowing to reallydirect it to infrastructure,

as you know we havegone to other sources,the Word Bank is helpingus with power, so is theAfrican DevelopmentBank.

“Those are veryconcessional resources.The problem we haveright now is that themeetings from the WorldBank; they areindicating that if we donot pass throughexternal borrowing plan,where we have 1.2billion dollars, that hasbeen approved.They arevery sympathetic to us,they will like Nigeria touse that money but if themoney stays there andit’s not approved for use,they will have to moveit and give it to othercountries.”

Okonjo-Iweala notedthat the loan to be takenwould be given at zerointerest rate, a 40-yearrepayment period and10 years of moratoriumand only 0.7 per centcommitment charge.

She said that themoney would be used forpower, water and healthcare among others,adding that Nigeriacould only benefit fromthe loan, if the NationalAssembly approved.

Killings of worshippersin Kaduna, reprisal attack—Defence Hqtrs

BY KINGSLEYOMONOBI

ABUJA— AGAINSTthe backdrop of

weekend’s killing of about20 Muslim worshippers byunknown gunmen inDogo Dawa area ofKaduna State and claimsby the CNN and Aljazeeranetwork’s report allegingthat the killings were thehandiwork of the military,the Defence Headquarters,

last night, clarified that thekillings emanated fromreprisal attacks.

A statement signed byDirector of DefenceInformation, Col.Mohammed Yerima, reads:“The attention of theDefence Headquarters hasbeen drawn to theunsubstantiated claims byCNN and Aljazeeraalleging that the Nigerianmilitary carried out an earlymorning attack on Muslimworshippers in a mosqueat Dogo Dawa, a villagenear Birnin Gwari inKaduna State, where 20people were allegedlykilled by unknowngunmen.

“This is contrary toreports by other local andinternational mediaorganisations, whoreported that the attack wascarried out by unknowngunmen.

“Investigation revealedthat the killing was areprisal attack by a gangof armed robbers who lostsome of their members aftera recent raid of theirhideout through thecombined effort of thevillagers and the vigilantegroup in that community.

“The DefenceHeadquarters wishes tostate categorically in theinterest of the larger societythat no member of theNigerian Armed Forceswas involved in the saidattack which occurred inthe early hours of Sunday,October 14, 2012.

“We wish to reassure thegeneral public of ourreadiness to offerassistance to the NigeriaPolice Force and othersecurity agencies whoseprimary responsibility isthe maintenance of law andorder in the society.

“We are committed to thedefence and protection ofour country’s hard earneddemocracy and moreimportantly, the NigerianArmed Forces belong tothe Nigerian people."

6—Vanguard, MONDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2012

Oil price benchmark: Okonjo-Iwealabegs N-Assembly to approve $75

BY OMOH GABRIEL& EMMA UJAH,

REPORTING FROMJAPAN

VISIT—From left: Minister of State for Education, Mr Ezenwo Nyesom Wike, Imo State governor,Owelle Rochas Okorocha and Imo State Education Commissioner, Prof. Adaobi Obasi during theminister's visit to the state to start the Federal Government's programme for out of school children inthe South-East.

...asks Nigerians to trust her team; says it's not a popularity contest

TOKYO, JAPAN—THECoordinating Minister

for the Economy and Min-ister of Finance, Dr. NgoziOkonjo-Iweala has urgedthe National Assembly tosee reason with the execu-tive and allow the $75 perbarrel of crude oil bench-mark stand rather than in-creasing it to $80 as sug-gested by some legislators.

Fielding questions fromnewsmen at the just con-cluded World Bank/Inter-national Monetary Fundmeetings in Tokyo, Japan,she stated that oil pricebenchmark is not a popu-larity contest and that thelegislature and Nigeriansshould trust her team inmanaging the nation’seconomy.

She disclosed that theoriginal proposal of the ex-ecutive was $72 per barrelbut that it had to be in-creased to accommodatethe two concerns of the leg-islators, cutting deficit andincreasing spending.

Her words: "We have beenmeeting with the Chairmenof the Finance and Appro-priations Committees of theSenate and the House andour job is to present all thelogical reasons why this isthe right thing to do for theeconomy. This is not a sen-timent.

Logical reasoning

“Benchmark pricing is nota thing you just sit downand concoct. They arebased on some fundamen-tal economic analysis. Andwe actually have a modelwhich we use in trying toproject Nigeria’s bench-mark price, over the pastthree years. It is not that wesit in one room, close thedoor and then say this is thebenchmark. We have an ap-proach because if you do itin an arbitrary fashion, thatmeans at any point in time,you don’t have a basis todefend why it is this numberas opposed to the othernumber.

“We understand the is-sues that they want to re-duce the deficit. They wantto spend more. Actually thefigure should have been $72per barrel and to give thecountry to spend more, wehad to adjust the model alittle bit and came to $75 per

barrel and accommodatetheir concern.

“I think there are two is-sues here. First, we have tolisten to those who will beimpacted and you also haveto listen to the basic profes-sional reasons why thisshould not be done. Man-aging the economy is not apopularity contest. There isa bit of reason to it. That iswhy we went to school tostudy it.

“Some people think thatyou can just wake up fromsleep and say this is how tomanage the economy. Thatis why the economy is go-ing in the wrong direction.The only reason why manyAfrican economies aregrowing today is becausethose African countries didthe right thing, in terms ofeconomic policies in the last10 years and now they arereaping the reward.

“I hope the business com-munity that has been call-ing me, saying no, we mustnot go to $80 per barrel. Itis not me. The CBN gover-nor is managing the ex-change rate. I know thatone thing Nigerians care somuch about is the value ofthe Naira and the governorof the CBN who managesthe exchange rate has in-dicated what will happento the economy if we are togo that way".

Excess crude account

The minister said she hasa presidential mandate tobuild the Excess CrudeAccount to $10 billion in the

next few months to give areasonable buffer for thenation.

Dr, Okonjo-Iweala saidthe lesson to take away fromthis year‘s IMF/World Bank

meeting, where Nigeria‘seconomic policies whichyielded the high growthrate was commended, isthat the nation must contin-ue its prudent resources

management policy andbuild buffer since the un-certainty in the global econ-omy has persisted.

She said that a situationwhere even developed

economies are passingthrough a lot of difficultiesis enough to make Nigeriato be more careful with herresources, and even bemore prudent.

Prudentmanagement policy

Her words: “What we sawhere from these meetings,the analysis of both the In-ternational Monetary Fundand the World Bank, as wellas the assessment of theFinance Ministers andCentral Bank Governors isthat the global economy isstill faced with a lot of un-certainties.

“You (journalists) heard ityourselves. There is a lot ofuncertainties globally andthat is the reality. We are notthe ones saying to make itlook gloomy. There is stilluncertainty, there is still fra-gility. Even in the USwhere there appears to bea little hope because em-ployment figures have goneup a little bit, there is still afragility because of the slowrecovery.

The Governor of the Cen-tral Bank of Nigeria, Mal-lam Sanusi Lamido Sanu-si, said there is no guaran-tee that oil price will remainhigh throughout the year.

“Oil price was at $141 perbarrel and it came down tounder $40 per barrel. Any-body that says it cannothappen is just talking rub-bish".

Bandits kill 20 in Kaduna village

BY LUKA BINNIYAT

No one killed in mosque, say Kaduna govt, police

KADUNA—NO fewerthan 20 people were

yesterday killed by suspect-ed bandits at Dogon Dawavillage, Birnin Gwari LocalGovernment area of Kadu-na State. At least, 18 others weresaid to have escaped withvarious degrees of injuries.

A source said those killedwere cornered in a mosquebut Kaduna State govern-ment and the state policecommand said in a swift re-action that nobody waskilled in a mosque.

The police, however, said12 persons were killed inthe attack but gave no de-tails.

Among those killed werea man and his two children,while his wife’s hand wascrudely amputated by thebandits. The incident wassaid to have occurred whenthe gunmen, said to havebeen responsible for seriesof robbery operations in thearea in the past, struck.

The bandits were said to

have visited their anger onthe community for alleged-ly killing some of theirmembers.

A source told Vanguardthat the bandits had formeda camp near Dogon Dawa,about 90 minutes drive fromKaduna town.

Said the source: “Theywere chased out by theZamfara State governmentthree months ago and cameto settle in a bush near ourvillage. They have been in-volved in many robbery in-cidents here.

“About two months ago,two of the bandits werecaught and beaten to deathand their camp was sacked.We rejoiced that they haveleft, only for them to returnaround 5am yesterday.”

He said on their arrival atthe village, the bandits wentto a house whose ownerthey suspected to be re-sponsible for identifyingtheir members and killedhim and two of his children,while one of the wife’s handwas chopped off.

According to him, 17 peo-ple who were just coming

from early morning prayerswere killed by the gang.

Another source told Van-guard that in the wake ofthe insecurity faced by thevillagers, a committee wasformed to find ways of solv-ing it.

“The criminals must havefled the village when theydiscovered that they nolonger had a base there.But this morning, theycame back and went to thehouse of the man they sus-pected to be responsible foridentifying them, killed himand two of his children andcut the hand of his wife.

“They also killed 17 oth-er people in the village.Those people they killedwere just coming from theearly morning prayers.

“I can confirm to you thatit was not a robbery opera-tion, but it was the criminalsthemselves that came for areprisal attack because thepeople have been identify-ing them.

“The criminals had earli-er sent messages that theywere coming to attack thevillage, but their threat was

not taken seriously.”However, when contact-

ed on telephone, KadunaState Commissioner of Po-lice, Olufemi Adenaike, saidhe would address the presson the matter, but could notdo so at the time of this re-port.

He, however, said: “Iheard some villagers arrest-ed armed robbers, thensome robbers came backtoday (Sunday) and killed12 people in a reprisal at-tack, while the villagerskilled two of them.

“The rumour going onthat 20 people were killedwhile coming from mosqueis not true, but I will getback to you when I get fulldetails.”

Also, Kaduna State gov-ernor, Mr Patrick Yakowa,speaking through his me-dia aide, Mr. Reuben Bu-hari, said: the reported in-cident at Dogon Dawa didnot take place in a mosqueas reported by some newschannels.

“That is far from the truth.The police would soon givea correct detail of what hap-pened.”


CMYK


Four farmers commit suicide overflood disaster in Kogi

ANOTHER CLIMATOLOGIST has gone fur-

ther by stating that climatechange and the advent of per-ennial floods are already reshap-ing civilization as we know it andvery few countries will emergeintact from the impact of climatechange. Nigeria is no exception.Countries with long coastal re-gions and many rivers, whichhitherto had benefitted from wa-ter provided by rivers, seas andoceans will be the hardest hit.

It was in the 1980s thatglobalisation of markets becamethe mantra of the leading think-ers in management studies. “Intoday’s market you don’t have togo abroad to experience interna-tional competition. Sooner orlater, the world comes to you”.“Harvard Business Review,March-April, 2002”. (VAN-GUARD BOOK OF QUOTA-TIONS p75). That explains whyno sooner than a new product isreleased in America, Japan,China, etc, and it is available inNigerian markets. Unfortu-nately, it is not products, servicesand ideas that are beingglobalised; the miseries of cli-mate change brought aboutmainly by the economic and so-cial activities in the leadingeconomies, USA, China, Japan,Europe, Russia, Brazil, andAsian Tigers are being visited onrich and poor countries alike. Ni-gerians and other African coun-tries, which account for less thanthree per cent of global output ofgoods will pay a disproportion-ate share of the penalties of glo-balization of floods.

The devastating floods Ni-geria is experiencing in 2012 isnot a one-off event; neither did itstart a few years ago. The eventsleading to this year’s catastrophybegan hundreds of years agoand will probably escalate in in-

BY DELE SOBOWALE

“Climate change is morethreatening than people real-ize”- Dr Kim, CNN, October 12,2012.

Globalisation of floods: Thestart of hundred years ofchange in Nigeria

tensity for several decades be-yond this year. Without realizingit, 2012 marks the end of eco-nomic, social and perhaps politi-cal life as we know it in Nigeria.

President Jonathan’s provi-sion of N17.2 billion to the statesmost directly involved, as well asthe administrators of the nationalresponse, is a step in the rightdirection. But, in reality, itamounts to pissing in the desertin order to provide water for irri-gation systems. It does not evenpay for the enormous challengesfacing researchers who mustvery rapidly provide the masterplan for our future survival as anation under siege of water. Theannouncement by Alhaji AlikoDangote, the co-chairman of theFund Raising Committee, thatthe committee will aim for NI00billion is a step in the right di-rection – as long as it is realizedby all the governments of Ni-geria that this is only a small stepin a journey of one hundredyears or more.

One hundred billion naira doesnot even begin to address the fun-damental problems which per-petual flooding might throw atthis nation. To make mattersworse, we are not even in totalcontrol of our fate. Many parts ofNigeria would have been floodedeven without the release of wa-ter from two dams. The first wasthe Cameroonian dam whichdevasted further states alongRiver Benue; the second was thedam in Guinea which added tothe waters of the Niger andswelled its banks beyond areashitherto reached by that river. Thetwo dams are still there and theyhave been constructed for maxi-mum levels of rainfall far lessthan what we now experience inthe region. So next year, if therainfall is as heavy as what wenow experience, the dams wa-ters will be released again andour territory will be inundatedonce more. It is difficult to imag-ine how N17.2 billion or evenN100 billion will solve the enor-mous problems we will have toface henceforth.

BY LAIDE AKINBOADE

For once, President Jonathanenjoys my sympathies becausehe is confronted with this mon-ster problem, relentless and ru-inous floods, which no otherleader had ever had to manageand which no leader worldwidewas prepared to face so suddenly.At the same time, he can takecomfort in the fact that the Chi-nese had long defined a “crisis”as a mixture of problems andopportunities. The problems arehere quite alright, in gargantuan

dimensions; but, there is also aglimmer of hope that GoodluckJonathan might have been pro-vided with the opportunity to re-shape Nigeria in a way no otherleader has ever had to do. IfJonathan rises to the occasion,posterity will write his name ingold – irrespective of what thepresent generation of Nigerianssay about his performance. If hefails; our civilsation, as we knowit, might never recover from thecalamity that will follow.

P.S. Welcome to a new series ofarticles, starting soon, which willbe titled FLOODWATCH. It willbe based on real site visits toflooded areas in many states ofNigeria. The government has ajob to do; so do the media. To-gether the first and fourth estatesof the realm must educate Nige-rians about the novel challengeto our national survival. For once,we cannot start by blaming Presi-dent Jonathan; even his peopleat Otuoke are victims.

ENUGU—FIFTY-THREEnew babies have been de-

livered by flood victims in thevarious refugee camps in Idahand Uzo-Uwani local govern-ment area of Kogi and EnuguStates respectively within thelast three weeks, Chairman ofIbaji local government area ofKogi State, Mr. Dave Ogwu,disclosed this yesterday.

Ogwu, whose riverine coun-cil had been completely sub-merged by the flood which hadforced the inhabitants intorefugee camps, expressed re-grets that 20 persons have sofar died in the refugee campsdue to illness caused by poorhygiene and old age, saying

ABUJA—FOUR farmers inKogi State have commit-

ted suicide as a result of lossesthey incurred due to flood justas thousands of others havebeen displaced. PresidentGoodluck Jonathan who dis-closed this yesterday inYenagoa, Bayelsa State capi-tal while undertaking a tourof the areas affected by floodencouraged the InternallyDisplaced People, IDPs, inBayelsa State not to give uphope, assuring that the Fed-eral Government was commit-ted to rehabilitating them.

He stated this in one of IDPs

camps at Samson Siasia sta-dium, Yenagoa, Bayelsa State.

Speaking in Yenagoa, Presi-dent Jonathan said, “In KogiState, four farmers committedsuicide because they bor-rowed money from the bankto buy seeds and flood cameand destroyed it. So becausethey were scared they commit-ted suicide. I was also in aplace in Kogi, where a storeybuilding was under water.

“People that are not in IDP

are the people always strug-gling for relief materials. Thisflood is all over the world,Asia, Europe, I know that Ni-geria flooding is bad. Andwhen we have such disasterfood is not the problem, donot make food your priority.

“If you eat once, thank God,I know that none of you woulddie of hunger here. Before themiddle of November, the wa-ter would have receded."

53 babies born in Kogi, EnuguIDPs camps

BY TONY EDIKE unless the condition of thecamps were urgently im-proved upon the mortality ratecould increase.

The council chairman toldVanguard on telephone thatthe camps where the flood vic-tims from his council are re-siding were not conducive forhuman habitation but sincethey had no alternative theyhave remained there, addingthat apart from food shortage,drugs were not readily avail-able for the sick ones.

He said that his council haddeployed a lot of resources totake care of majority of thevictims in Idah and its envi-rons just as those in EnuguState had received a little as-sistance from the council.

Kiagbodo: Burial site of Bekederemo, Fuludu and Clark, Prof. JP Clark's ancestors under water.

Bekederemo Hall: The historic hall where Bekederemo met with officials of the Royal Niger Com-pany in the 19th century.

THE RAGE OF FLOOD

CMYK


WARRI—THE ravaging flood sweeping

through Delta State, yesterday,killed a 53-year-old fisherman,Mr. Adepere Wilfred inBobougbene community,Burutu Local Government Areaof the state and sacked 200 in-mates from their orphanagehome at Irri in Isoko South Lo-cal Government Area of thestate.

Twelve pregnant women and10 children, however, escapeddeath when the boat they wereescaping from the surgingocean in Ayakaromo communitycapsized. They were rescued byfishermen.

In Adepere’s case, he wassaid to have run into a violentflood, which overturned hisboat and he died before helpcould come to him.

A youth leader, Mr M.

Flood kills fisherman, sacks200 orphans in Delta

UN 'll assist Delta, Anambraflood victms, says Oma Djebah

...Delta deputy speaker donates to flood victims

A S A B A — S P E C I A LAdviser to Delta State

Governor, Foreign Affairs, Mr.Oma Djeba, weekend, said, thatthe United Nations would assistflood victims in Delta andAnambra states.

Djeba at Okwagbe in a chatwith newsmen moments after he

BY EMMA AMAIZE, AUSTINOGWUDA & FESTUS AHON

Enaibo, lamented that floodhad destroyed the entire com-munity and pleaded with thestate government to come to therescue of the victims.

It was learnt, however, thatthe affected orphans had beentransferred to a relief camp atOleh and a politician in thearea, who facilitated the evacu-ation of the orphans, bought agenerating set to provide powerin the town hall where they arequartered.

Reacting to complaints that

internally displaced personswere abandoned and not prop-erly catered for, state Commis-sioner for Special Duties, Mrs.Erezi Eseivo, said that livingcondition of IDPs in variouscamps in the state had im-proved.

Meanwhile, deputy speakerof the state House of Assembly,Mr Basil Ganagana, yesterday,donated relief materials to floodvictims from Patani Local Gov-ernment Area.

to address the challenges posedby the flood disaster in the statein line with the three approachesrecommended by the state gov-ernor, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan.

He said: “The governor hadwritten to United Nations andUN has replied, and only twostates, Delta and Anambra Stateswere listed to benefit from theUN’s assistance.”

BY JIMITOTA ONOYUME

100,000displaced inRivers

Mr. Oma Djebah, Senior Adviser to Delta State Governor onForeign Relations and Acting Chairman, Ughelli South LocalGovernment Area, Mr A. Agbeyeke, at Okwagbe, home-townof Mr Djebah during an inspection of communities submergedby flood in Delta State.

PORT HARCOURT—NOfewer than 100,000 per-

sons have so far been dis-placed by flood in EkpeyeKingdom, Rivers State.

Lamenting the situation,weekend, in Ahoada East Lo-cal Government Area, the tra-ditional ruler of the kingdom,Eze Robinson Robinson, saidmore than half of the land inthe kingdom had been sub-merged by the flood. Themonarch, who spoke whenTotal E & P presented reliefmaterials to his palace for dis-tributions to victims of the dis-aster, expressed gratitude tothe oil company.

Appealing for drugs andfoams from the firm for victimsof the disaster, the traditionalruler assured that the peoplewould continue to reciprocatethe gesture by ensuring thatthey sustain the conduciveenvironment for the firm tooperate.

Meantime, governors ofstates ravaged by flood disas-ter, have been urged to ap-point credible persons intocommittees they set up to dis-tribute relief materials to vic-tims of the disaster.

He said he was not surprisedat the kind gesture of the oilcompany because the firm hadcontinued to implement itsown part of the Memorandumof Understanding, MoU, itentered into with the king-dom.

WARRI—RENOWNEDPoet, Prof JP Clark has

asked government at all levelsto ensure that relief materials getto victims of the raging flood dis-aster in the country, lamentingthat so far, the response was slow.Clark, who just returned from hisflooded home town of Kiagbodo,Delta State, yesterday, cried thatso far no help had come to vic-tims of the area and surroundingcommunities ravaged by theflood. The only government offi-cial, whom he said visited the areawas the secretary to the localcouncil, who came on the direc-tives of Governor EmmanuelUduaghan.

Consequently, he urged thatthe N17.6 billion the Federal Gov-ernment released last week forvictims should get to those it wasmeant for. Lamenting that thisyear’s flood was unusual, hefeared that an epochal event,which might alter permanentlythe landscape of Niger Delta wasin the offing. Picking holes inclaims that disaster arose fromclimate change, Prof Clark urgedthe government to take the issue

JP Clark tasks govt on flood victims' rehabilitationBY CLIFFORD NDUJIHE up with Cameroon following re-

ports that the release of waterfrom Lagdo Dam, in Camerooncontributed immensely to flood.His reason: ‘’There has neverbeen flood of this magnitude inthe history of the people. Therhythm has never been seen orhad from oral and recorded his-tory of our people.’’He also la-mented that the bulk of Ijawlandin Delta State including Kiagbodoand his ancestral land especillaythose of his Great-great-greatgrand-father, Ogein; great-great-grand father Bekederemo; Great-grand father, Fuludu and father,Clark had been flooded, notingthat a multi-million naira libraryproject being built in his honourat the University of Lagos – JPClark centre was under threat.How? His library containing over5000 books, which he plans todonate to the centre is about to beswept away.

His words: ‘’It is devastating. Ican now understand what theNoah story is about. My place iscompletely taken over by flood.The river has risen. Last night(Saturday) it was 11 feet, fiveinches. This morning (Sunday) itwas 12 feet 1 inch. It rises by 8

inches’ overnight. If it goes onlike like that, in one week, myplace, my house and library willtotally be submerged. Across theriver to my town Kiagbodo, fromthe waterside beginning with mygreat-great grand father greathall where he received RoyalNiger Company in those days inthe early 19th century is com-pletely flooded.

ApproachingKiagbodo

"I went by boat into the halland from there moved across tothe great compound of theBekederemo, which the Britishcompared with that of the Oba ofBenin in those days. Now all theroads in Kiagbodo are cut off, youcan only approach Kiagbodothrough the water. My fear is thatthere is an epochal event takingplace right now which we mightnot be aware of. It is comparableto a tsunami. But Tsunami is a oneto three day occurrence. The floodcomes, washes off the shore andthen goes back but this one, itseems is going to be a permanentphenomenon in our lives. Iwanted to ask the President, what

donated food items to victims atOkwagbe camp, Ughelli Southcouncil, described the flood situ-ation in the area as very alarm-ing.

He assured that the state gov-ernment was making efforts to col-laborate with international andnon-governmental organisations

is the cause of this phenomenalrise of the Niger River and BenueRiver? Last year, the press re-ported there is a dam calledLagdo, either it has broken or theydeliberately released water fromCameroon. I ask, we have giventhis people part of our body, be-cause we have given themBakassi, are now allowing themto come and drown us?

"People are left helpless. As Ileft today (Sunday), no electedmember of Delta State Govern-ment, the state House of Assem-bly, House of Reps and Senatehas come to Kiagbodo. The onlyperson, who came last Thursdaywas the secretary to the localcouncil. He said GovernorUduaghan asked them to go in-spect their various local councilareas and he happens to comefrom my place. That was lastThursday. By the time I left today(Sunday) there was no govern-ment presence in Kiagbodo. Youcan multiply that for all the vari-ous communities on River Niger basin,who have been bearing this for years. Itis just the degree and because it hashappened in some other places that iswhy it became a national problem."

Kiagbodo: Compound and burial site of Ogein, Prof. JP Clark'sGreat-great-grandfather.

Side view of Bekederemo hall, Kiagbodo.

THE RAGE OF FLOOD

CMYK


Bad portion of the Berger Under Bridge, Bus-stop, on the Oshodi-ApapaExpresswayWednesday before the intervention of Vanguard Media Ltd.Photo: Kehinde Gbadamosi

Vanguard Newspapers staff fixing another bad portion of the Oshodi-ApapaExpressway, at Berger Under Bridge, Bus-stop, weekend. Photo: BiodunOgunleye

Vanguard Newspapers staff fixing a bad portion of Oshodi-Apapa Expressway,at Berger Under Bridge, Bus-stop, weekend. Photo: Biodun Ogunleye

Another bad portion at Berger Under Bridge Bus-stop, Oshodi-ApapaExpressway before the intervention of Vanguard Media Ltd. Photo: KehindeGbadamosi

Amosun warns suspended Obas againstinsubordination

BY DAUD OLATUNJI

Appeal tribunal dismisses Oyo ACN candidate’s petition

BY OLA AJAYI

IBADAN — THENational and State

Houses of AssemblyElection Petitions AppealTribunal in Ibadan hasdismissed the appealfiled by the ActionCongress of Nigeria,ACN, candidate, LanreAgoro against hisopponent, Mr. JimohAfees of the PeoplesDemocratic Party, PDP.

The ACN candidatehad challenged the

judgment of a lowertribunal which confirmedthe election of JimohAfees as the memberrepresenting Irepo/Olorunsogo/OrelopeFederal Constituency.

While upholding theresult of the election ina unanimous judgmenton Friday, HonourableJustice Chidi Uwa,dismissed the appeal ofthe ACN candidate forlack of merit andawarded N30,000 costagainst him.

The lower tribunal had

A B E O K U T A —OGUN State

governor, SenatorIbikunle Amosunweekend read a riot actto the two warring Obaswho threw caution intothe wind recently, sayingthey remain suspended.

Amosun’s statementcame on the heels of

alleged manner the twoObas who were said tobe still parading them-selves as Obas.

Speaking on the fate ofthe warring Obas duringa media parley held overthe weekend, Amosunsaid the two Obas"remain suspended".

It would be recalledthat, the Olu of Itori,Oba Fatai Akamo and

Baale Lapenleke, ObaAdisa Akinremi werereported to have engagedeach other in fisticuffsover traditional mattersat Itori Divisional Officeof Nigeria Police inEwekoro Local Govern-ment penultimateTuesday which promptedtheir interrogation by thepolice.

The governor who did

not disclose therecommendation of thesole panelist, however,said that he has got thereport from the panel setup to try the two warringmonarchs.

According to Amosunthe two Obas remainsuspended because ithas been established thatthey fought.

Also, speaking on thealleged deduction oflocal government fundsby his administration,Amosun challengedanybody who has thefacts about the claim tocome out.

He explained that, theissue was one of theissues that he does notwant to be discussingbecause it angers himand as well makes himgo emotional.

However, he said, hedoes not only stay awayfrom the localgovernments' funds, healso adds a sum of N400million every month totheir allocation.

on April 16, 2011nullified the electionthat first elected theACN candidate into thelegislative arm andordered a re-runelection which also hadto be conducted twice inFebruary and the PDPcandidate wasconfirmed as the winner.

Dissatisfied with theresult, the ACNcandidate challengedthe result at the lowertribunal but lost.

Reacting to thejudgement, Afees said

the judgment was theend of the road for theACN.

He said, “Our peoplespoke two times throughthe polls but theopposition chose not toheed the voices of reason.Now, the Judiciary,which is the bastion ofhope for the commonman, has spokenresoundingly in ourfavour.

"The game is up forthose trying to snatch amandate that does notbelong to them.”

Vanguard Newspapers comes to motorists' rescue, fixes terrible portions of Oshodi-ApapaExpressway

ECOWAS Court, NHRC meetto tackle rights violations inNigeria

By Soni Daniel

AS RIGHTS abusescontinue across the

country, the NationalHuman RightsCommission, NHRC,has approached theECOWAS Court ofJustice for partnership tobe able to protect therights of Nigerians.

The NHRC is said tohave expressed seriousconcern over risingcases of the violation ofthe rights of the citizensby individuals andorganisations despite theavalanche of lawsprotecting Nigeriansfrom such breaches.

The ExecutiveSecretary of the NHRC,Prof. Bem Angwe, is saidto have led a strongdelegation of the FederalGovernment agency tomeet with the Presidentof the ECOWAS Court ofJustice in Abuja, Hon.Justice Awa NanaDaboya, during whichthe issue of rightsviolation was examined

and measures to containit, proffered.

At the meeting inAbuja, Justice Awa NanaDaboya, stated that thepromotion with protec-tion of human rightsremains a serious issuein the West African sub-region, which the courtwas addressing andpromised to work withthe NHRC to check thesituation.

CMYK


UNIPORT Four: VC confirms Tekenaas student

BY JIMITOTAONOYUME

Rep on rescue mission in Delta

Group faults claim ofmarginalisation in Delta

PEOPLES Move-ment, a socio-cul-

tural group in Delta State,has dismissed claims ofmarginalisation by someethnic leaders in the state.

A statement by thegroup's Director of Com-munication, Mrs. IbituroTatua, faulted some poli-ticians and communityleaders whom she ac-

cused of promoting self-ish agenda.

On the raging flood dis-aster in the state, Mrs.Tatua lauded the stategovernor, Dr. EmmanuelUduaghan, for his quicki n t e r v e n t i o nby providing relief mate-rials to affected communi-ties and setting up tem-porary camps in the are-as.

....As NANS blames killings oninadequate hostels

BY GABRIELENOGHOLASE

PORT HAR-COURT—VICE

Chancellor of Universityof Port Harcourt, RiversState, Prof. JosephAjienka, has confirmedthat Tekena Erikena, whowas killed alongsidethree others at Omuoki-ri-Aluu community, pe-nultimate Friday, was astudent of the universi-ty.

He said, weekend, thatthe university later foundout that he registered fora certificate programme.

The Vice Chancellorsaid initially, the univer-sity could only confirmthree of the four killed asstudents of the universi-ty, adding that effort waslater made to ascertain ifthe late Tekena, who did

a basic programme withthe university, was lateradmitted to any formalprogramme.

The others killed wereUgona Obuzor, year IIGeology student; Birin-ga Lordson, year II The-atre Arts student andMike Toku, year II CivilEngineering student.

Vanguard gatheredthat Dr. Andrew Efemi-ni, Head of Departmentof Philosophy in the Uni-versity, has been re-moved from office. Sourc-es at the university saidDr. Efemini was removedfor allegedly identifyingwith the students in lastTuesday’s protest overthe killing of their col-leagues.

Centre for Environ-ment Human Rights andDevelopment, CEHRD,has condemned his re-

moval and called on theuniversity to immediate-ly reinstate the lectureras Head of Department.

CEHRD, in a statementby Stephen Obodoekwe,called on government tobring killers of the fourstudents to book.

He said: “We considerthe arbitrary removal ofthe respected social jus-tice crusader as unjustand condemnable as it isa direct attack on freedomof association and ex-pression, as well as anattack on academic free-dom. We condemn theremoval without reserva-tions. It is unimaginablethat anybody could bevictimized, punished orreprimanded for protest-ing the callous and bar-baric killing of four stu-dents of the university, abarbaric act, which had

been and is still beinggreeted by public con-demnations and out-cries.”

BENIN—NATION-AL Association of

Nigerian Students,NANS, weekend, attrib-uted the killing of fourstudents of University ofPort Harcourt, RiversState, to inadequate hos-tel facilities on the cam-pus, insisting that thishad been responsible forviolence on campuses ofNigerian Universities.

NANS, in a statement

by the Zone B Coordina-tor, Mr. Obasi Chinonso,said over 75 per cent ofuniversity students inthe country were livingoff campus.

He denied allegationthat students burnt fourhouses at Aluu in RiversState, during a protestagainst the killing of thestudents last week.

He said: “During theprotest which lasted 12hours, the leadership ofNANS in the zone en-sured that it was not hi-jacked by hoodlums.

None of our studentswas involved in theburning of houses. Thearson was committed bythe indigenes of Aluu togain sympathy from thepublic.”

The students called onthe Federal Governmentand management of theUniversity of Port Har-court to provide morehostel facilities on cam-pus to avoid a reoccur-rence and put a stop to asituation where majorityof its students reside offcampus.

A member of Houseof Representa-

tives, Mr. NicholasMutu, weekend, em-barked on a rescue mis-sion in coastal communi-ties in Bomadi/Patanifederal constituency ofDelta State, which arefacing untold hardshipoccasioned by flood. Healso donated relief mate-rials worth N10 million.

Mutu said he em-barked on the rescue mis-sion to identify with hispeople residing in theirancestral homes, addingthat he had to educatethe people to take pre-cautionary steps to stayalive in their abodes.

Mutu, represented by

Mr. Kelly Penawou, aformer Bomadi LocalGovernment Area boss,who spoke at Bomadi,headquarters of thecouncil, donated reliefmaterials to amelioratethe suffering of the peo-ple.

The flood ravaged ben-efiting communities fromBomadi council includeBomadi, Kpakiama, Es-anma, Ogboinama,Akugbene, Okoloba,Ogo-Eze, Ogriagbeneand Kalafiogbene. Thosein Patani Loca Govern-ment Area were Patani,Aven, Koloware, Agolo-ma, Angiama, Adobu,Odorubu,Uduophori,Bulu-Apelebiri andAbari.

SUMMIT: From right: Mr. Malik Fal, Managing Director, Omidyar Network Africa; Mr. HakeemBelo-Osagie, Chairman, EMTS and Mr. Paul Harris, Director, FirstRand, South Africa, at the Entrepre-neurship in Africa Summit, held in Accra, Ghana.


ASUU blames FG for low rating ofNigerian varsities

BY JOHNBOSCOAGBAKWURU

CALABAR—ACA-DEMIC Staff Un-

ion of Universities,ASUU, has blamed thedecay in the universityeducation system in thecountry on Federal Gov-ernment's alleged insen-sitivity, saying that it wasresponsible for the non-inclusion of any of thecountry ’s universitiesamong the best 400 uni-versities in the world.

President of ASUU, Dr.Nasir Isa, made the as-sertion after the Nation-al Executive Councilmeeting of the union at

Cross River University ofTechnology, Calabar.

Isa said that lack of ac-ademic freedom was oneof the factors responsiblefor the country’s poor ac-ademic rating as it con-cerned universities.

He said that the majorreason for the situationwas inadequate funding,as the country’s univer-sities, over the years,had suffered poor fund-ing, adding that budget-ary allocations to educa-tion sector in the coun-try was poor compared tocountries such as Ghanaand South Africa, thatgive priority to the sec-tor with good funding.

Besides, he said thatconditions of service andremuneration for staff ofuniversities was a con-tributing factor to the lowstandard of education,which, he noted, had ledto brain drain as Nigeri-an lecturers moved outin droves to other coun-tries for better conditionsof service.

On the crisis at RiversState University of Sci-ence and Technology, theunion berated GovernorRotimi Amaechi over al-leged imposition of aVice Chancellor on theuniversity, saying that itviolated the union’sagreement with govern-ment on appointments.

BY SIMONEBEGBULEM

Oshiomhole vows to restoreintegrity in public schools

BENIN—GOVER-NOR Adams Oshi-

omhole of Edo State, hasvowed to restore the in-tegrity of public schools,saying teachers mustshow commitment tobuilding the future of chil-dren.

The governor, weekend,at Payne Primary School,Benin City, during thecontinuation of his on-the-spot assessment ofteachers’ attendance inpublic schools, said:“Government will sackand replace teachers whodo not show good attitudeto work. We should seethe children not just aspupils but as our ownchildren.

“We have to make surethat people earn their

pay. No politics in school.If people do not submit toyour authority, when youpunish the person, findout if the governor willintervene. If you excusethe person, then I willpunish you.”

He directed the school'sheadmistress to query ateacher who was absent ata meeting called by thegovernor with teachers ofthe school on the excusethat she was in her class-room, insisting that teach-ers must maintain strictdiscipline otherwise theywould not be able to teachtheir pupils how to be dis-ciplined.

The governor promisedthat ceiling fans would beinstalled in the school’sclassrooms and ensurethat water flows in theschool, saying, “that ispart of our total renewalprogramme.”

BY GODWIN ORITSE

Ex-Minister’s arrest: Cargoowner nabbed

THE suspected own-er of the allegedly

stolen petroleum cargothat was traced to thestorage facilities of In-tegrated Oil and GasCompany, owned byformer Minister of Inte-rior, Captain EmmanuelIhenacho, has been ar-rested.

Speaking with Van-guard on the develop-ment, Commander ofMaritime Guard Com-mand of Nigerian Mari-time Administration andSafety Agency, NIMA-SA, Captain PromiseDappa, said the suspect,Mr. Gbenga Olagoke,

surrendered himselfwhen he got wind ofmoves to declare himwanted.

Dappa added that thesuspect was undergoinginterrogation at State Se-curity Service, SSS, of-fice in Lagos.

He said that the Com-pany and office of thesuspect, PDR Ventures,in Lagos, had been vis-ited in the course of in-vestigation.

Dappa explained thatthe transaction was ar-ranged with all the par-ties involved in August,adding that the agencyhad kept a tab on themfrom the time the vesselsailed from Europe.

WALK FOR NATURE: From right: Chief Phillip Asiodu, President, Nigerian Conservation Founda-tion, NCF; Dr. Taofeek Folami, Special Adviser to Lagos State Governor on Environment; Mrs. Adebo-la Afun, Acting Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Environment, and Prince Adegoke Ademiluyi, Coun-cil member, NCF, during the 2012 Walk for Nature, organised by Lagos State Ministry of Environmentand NCF, in Lagos, weekend. Photo: Kehinde Gbadamosi.


PRESENTATION:From right—Governor RotimiAmaechi of RiversState; Mr. WaleTinubu, GroupChief Executive,Oando Plc; Dr.Olusegun Aganga,Minister of Tradeand Investment,and Senator IdrisUmar, theMinister forTransport, at thepresentation ofOando O-Gascooking cylinderduring the NigeriaOil and Gas Tradeand InvestmentForum at Onne,River States.

UMUAHIA—THETransition Committee

Councillors Forum, AbiaState, has honoured eightof the 17 Transition Com-mittee Chairmen in thestate.

According to the forum,the council committeechairman performed well inthe areas of providing serv-ices and infrastructures inthe rural areas, adding that

it selected eight chairmenthat utilised their alloca-tions to the benefit of therural people and in linewith the agenda of Gover-nor Theodore Orji.

It, however, noted thatother chairmen did wellduring the period of as-sessment, but that the eighthonoured were outstand-ing.

Those honoured werePrince Dan Okoli ofUmunneochi council; Dr.

Onyekachi Nwulu ofObingwa council; OkaforAffia, Arochukwu LocalGovernment Area and Mrs.Nnenna Onwuka of OhafiaCouncil.

Others were ChiefArmstrong Okoronkwo ofIsiala Ngwa North;Michael Ekpe of Ikwuano;Goodluck Amaefula, AbaNorth Council and Apos-tle Ikokwu Nwankwo,Chairman of Ukwa WestCouncil.

Abia transition c'ttee honours 8BY ANAYO OKOLI

‘No compromising on budgetimplementation, $80pb benchmark'

OSOGBO—WIFE ofthe Osun State gov-

ernor, Alhaja SherifatAregbesola, and theAragbiji of Iragbiji, ObaAbdulrasheed Olabomi,were among indegenes ofthe state that thronged theAbere, Osogbo residenceof the Speaker of the stateHouse of Assembly, Mr.Najeem Salam, yesterday,to congratulate him onthe rescue of his wife,Alhaja Muibat Salam,from the hands of kidnap-pers.

It will be recalled thatAlhaja Salam was kid-napped last week Tues-day at Bamagay Squarearea in Ejigbo, while onher way home after clos-ing from her shop. Shewas, however, rescued inOgunmakin village,Ogun State, along theLagos-Ibadan express-way by a combined teamof security men and vigi-

lante group on Saturday.The Speaker had ex-

pressed gratitude to menof Ogun State vigilantegroup, who engaged thekidnappers in a gun bat-tle, and other security op-eratives that secured herrelease.

Salam, in a statement byhis media assistant, Mr.Goke Butika, stated thathe was impressed withthe support given to hisfamily during the tryingperiod by the state Gov-ernor Rauf Aregbesola,traditional rulers, reli-gious leaders, his col-leagues at the state As-sembly, the media, andthe public.

He said: “I am gratefulto the whistle-blower, theOgun State vigilantegroup that engaged thecriminals in a gun duel intheir hide-out inOgunmakin village, La-gos-Ibadan expressway,before my wife was res-cued after four days intheir hide out.”

Osun First Lady, others visitSpeaker over wife's rescue

BY GBENGAOLARINOYE

AKURE—SPEAKER ofthe House of Repre-

sentatives, AminuTambuwal, has said theHouse will neither treat theissue of the implementationthe budget with the Presi-dent as a “family issue” norrescind the decision to use$80 per barrel as the bench-mark for the 2013 appro-priation.

He spoke with newsmenin Irun-Akoko, AkokoNorth-West Local Govern-ment Area of Ondo State,during a condolence visitto a member of the House,Gani Dauda over the deathof his wife, Sadiat.

He said: “The leadershipand members of the Housewere not ready to compro-mise the interest of the na-tion because of party poli-tics.”

Tambuwal insisted thatthe interest of the countryshould be paramount in allthe decision made by theNational Assembly.

Tambuwal said: “There isnothing like family affairsin governance. We are nothere on our own. We arethere to represent our peo-ple and discharge our con-stitutional responsibility.”

Tambuwal said the Housewas only helping the Presi-dent by insisting on imple-mentation of the budget.

According to him, thelawmakers were not inter-ested in the failure of the

President, hence the standof the House on thebudget.

He said: “We don’t wantthe President to fail. Whenwe say implement budget,we are doing so to enablehim succeed. We are not

against the President.“We are only demanding

from Mr. President what isright. If he gets it right it isfor his own benefit becausethe credit will go to him.

“We are all in governmentto achieve the same goal.”

BY DAYO JOHNSON

CMYK



MEETING: From left— Mr. Pierre-Alain Pacaud, Regional Manager, North & South-East Asia; Sophie Le Roy, Deputy Head, Banking & Capital Markets; Marie-HeleneLoison, Deputy Chief Executive Officer and Chief Investment Officer, all of Proparco;Mr. Phillips Oduoza, GMD/CEO, UBA Plc; Claude Periou, Director-General, Proparco;and Sola Yomi-Ajayi, Division Head, International Banking, UBA Plc, during a meetingbetween UBA and Proparco in Tokyo, Japan, weekend.

Ex Yobe gov to Jonathan: ReviewN-East budget or face insurgency

AMCON denies secrecy in N140.9bnOtedola deal

ABUJA—FORMERgovernor of Yobe

State, Senator BukaIbrahim, has warned theFederal Government toexpect insurgency worsethan that of the BokoHaram in the comingmonths, if it failed to re-dress the paltry funds ap-

propriated to the North-East in the 2013 budget.

The Senator spoke inthe wake of the 2013budget presentation byPresident GoodluckJonathan at the NationalAssembly last Wednesday.

He said Federal Gov-ernment’s allocation to theregion was alarming,arguing that it was an-other form of injustice.

He said: “Boko Haramis a product of poverty. Itis a product of unhappi-ness. We are unhappywith Nigeria. Unlesssomething is done to ad-

dress it, Nigeria shouldexpect bigger BokoHaram insurgency, InshaAllah.

“Other geo-politicalzones got N79 billion orN80 billion. But theNorth-East has only N50billion; a difference of N30billion. Go and check thebudget figures or ask theDirector-General BudgetOffice.”

Asked what the FederalGovernment should do toavert such a develop-ment, he said continuousinjustice could only breedcontinuous insecurity.

“Look, injustice is thebasis of all crises in theworld. All insecuritycomes from injustice. Ifinjustice continues, therewill never be peace.

“The panacea is for thegovernment to be consciousof the fact that this part ofthe country that is totallybeing neglected; thisarea called an area with-out security, is also anarea to which injusticehas been meted out fordecades.”

“Unless concerted ef-fort is made to balance itup, there is no hope.”

BY EMMANOVUAKPORIE

Gunmen attack Ghanaian inMaiduguri

ASSET ManagementCorporation of Nigeria,

AMCON, yesterday, de-scribed as false claims bythe House of Representa-tives that the settlement ofabout N140.91 billion debtowed the Corporation by oilmagnate, Mr. FemiOtedola, was shrouded insecrecy.

Mr. Mustapha Chike-Obi, Managing Director/CEO, AMCON, told Van-

guard that the corporationhad restructured and recov-ered loans worth about N1trillion since 2010, when itwas inaugurated.

Though the AMCON Actpermits it to carry outtransactions without re-course to anyone, exceptthe Central Bank of Ni-geria, CBN, which regu-lates its activities, theAMCON chief executivesaid he was ready to laybare the details of theirtransactions with Otedola ifasked.

He said the House of

Representatives never con-sulted him before arrivingat its conclusion, adding, “Ireject it. I reject that termsecret. AMCON had aproper and clear processfor restructuring loans.

“It is not secret. All thepolicies were approvedby the board and FemiOtedola’s transactionwent through a very rig-orous and transparentprocess that we are veryproud of and we can de-fend anywhere.

“I reject the expressionof secret.”

BY NKIRUKA NNOROM

FERMA gets marchingorders on road rehabilitation

M A I D U G U R I —BARELY 24 hours

after the Shehu of Borno,Alhaji Abubakar El-Kanemi, and members ofthe Borno Elders Forum,BOEF, urged Boko Haramsect to cease fire, gunmensuspected to be members ofthe Islamist sect have shota Ghanaian (names with-held).

This came as a bomb, yes-

terday, exploded alongBama road in Maidugurimetropolis. There was nocasualty.

It was gathered that thevictim was shot on Satur-day at the Dandal Way-Babanlayi junction ofMaiduguri metropolis at2.45pm.

The Ghanaian , accordingto an eyewitness, was shotin the arm and then rushedto the University ofMaiduguri TeachingHospital, UMTH, byrelations and two otherpersons.

The eyewitness said:“The gunmen came on footwith a gun, and one ofthem fired at the Ghanaianat his shop, where he re-pairs fridge on DandalWay, then fled intoHausari Ward, before menof the Joint Task Force,JTF, rushed to the scene,yesterday (Saturday).”

The Ghanaian, accord-ing to him, had lived inMaiduguri for over 30years and had been re-pairing fridges at theShehu’s palace for over20 years.

BY NDAHI MARAMA

BY GABRIELENOGHOLASE

BENIN—FOLLOWINGthe directive by the

Presidency that all criticalFederal Government high-ways across the country beput in shape by December2012, the South-South Zone11 of the Federal RoadsMaintenance Agency,FERMA, has awarded over10 road contracts in thezone comprising Edo, Deltaand Ondo states.

Zonal Coordinator, South-South Zone 11 (SS 11) ofFERMA, Mr. JimohKajogbola, disclosed thiswhile flagging off newly-awarded contracts for roadmaintenance in the Zone atIllah, Delta State, along theBenin-Asaba-Onitsha dualcarriage way.

Some of the roads coveredby the contracts are Benin-Shagamu (Ofusu-Ajabandele); Benin-Ekpoma-Auchi Road, andEwu-Uromi-Agbor Road.

IGP receives $620,000 subsidyscam video

ABUJA—INSPECTOR-General of Police, Mo-

hammed Abubakar, has re-ceived the video tape of thealleged bribery transactioninvolving Mr. FaroukLawal, former Chairman,House of RepresentativesProbe Panel, from the StateSecurity Service, SSS, andcommenced further investi-gation of the scandal.

This was sequel to the di-rective by the Attorney-General of the Federation,Mohammed Adoke, thatthe report submitted by thePolice Special Task Forceprobing the $620,000 sub-sidy bribe scandal, be re-investigated and grey areascleared.

It was gathered that sincethe receipt of the video andcommencement of investi-gation to clear grey areas,there had been immensepressure on the IGP bysome members of the House

of Representatives, promi-nent northern citizens andpoliticians.

Accusations that the brib-ery scam issue was alleg-edly a set up by the Presi-dency to rubbish the integ-rity of the House have alsoresurfaced.

Vanguard gathered thatLawal had continued to re-port to the police every twodays and signs attendanceregister, though the policeare in a fix as to whether tojoin Femi Otedola, the com-plainant as a suspect.

BY KINGSLEYOMONOBI

CMYK

OPINION

16— Vanguard, MONDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2012

NEW ancillary businesses mushroomed overnight tomeet the swelling needs of these expanding banks (in

the areas of networking, systems integration, media andbranding, security services, etc). Qualitative employmentnaturally exploded for Nigerian youths, as the expandingbanks and their ancillary-service providers snapped upyoung Nigerians in large numbers! The story was the samein our capital market, where the recapitalisation spurreda spate of public offers, private placements, and dailytransactions that drove the market to unprecedentedindices, boosting business, industry and employment; andcreating wealth for investors. All the earlier apprehensionsof labour unions about consolidation became unfounded!Instead, we saw the gradual re-emergence of Nigeria’smiddle class!

So optimistic did our national outlook become, thatGoldman Sachs’ research report for 2007 listed Nigeriaamong its ‘Next 11’ group of countries expected to catchup to the fastest developing BRIC economies! That reformmight also have been very providential, considering whatcould have become of the Nigerian economy, if the globalmeltdown that soon followed, had met us with a financialsector driven by fragile, undercapitalised banks!

The lessonsI am sure the people at CBN will say a lot more about thebenefits of that consolidation; but the point of highlightingthem is to help us see the kind of progress the nation isdenied each time our powerful vested interests hound andbring down any officeholder that dares to change things!Remarkably, the scenario is replaying itself with ourpresent officeholders that are trying to reform the system- Aruma Oteh, Bart Nnaji, Okonjo-Iweala, Alison-

Madueke, etc!For example, look at our oil sector, where some of the

most transformational clouds of President Goodluck EbeleJonathan are gathering: For the first time, an industrythat had operated in the darkness of powerfuluntouchables, is being fundamentally ripped apart! Whatmany Nigerians don’t realise is that all the unprecedentedrevelations and debates we are seeing today in thatindustry are coming because somebody, rather than simplytoeing the old line, is daring to change things! In Januarythis year, we almost dramatically deregulated thedownstream sector, in an initiative whose impact (had itsucceeded) might have liberated the industry from the gripof a few families, and dwarfed even our Soludo andtelecoms reforms! Although Nigeria temporarily lost thatbattle, it was still a very highly significant ministerialinitiative! Similarly, the all-important Petroleum IndustryBill, PIB, which had clearly forgotten the destination ofthe 12-year journey it started since 2000 (with PresidentObasanjo’s “Oil & Gas Reform ImplementationCommittee”, OGIC), is now suddenly contemplatingreality! This means that all those years of regulatoryuncertainty, blocking billions of dollars of oil-sectorinvestments, are coming to an end! Again, for the firsttime in our oil industry history, we now have a “NigerianContent Development Act”, which has created enormouscapacity for massive local participation in that sector.

All these are happening simultaneously with variousother reforms, including the construction of a

massive, unprecedented gas distribution infrastructure,which among other things, is bringing reality to the powerplants that previous governments had constructed acrossthe country without provision for gas supply (only Nigeria

can do that)! Because the budget for that infrastructureproject did not disappear into our private pockets, as withour past turn-around maintenance projects, Nigeria nowhas suddenly created a massive gas infrastructure -including one of the biggest pipeline projects ever in thiscountry, which now gives life to the stranded 700megawatts power plant at Olorunsogo, Ogun State!Clearly, our oil industry is seeing something more seriousthan the cosmetics it was used to! Perhaps, the next roundof public hearings will finally unearth (for public debate)the identities of the powerful Nigerians that appropriatedNigeria’s oil wells to themselves and their children!

I have never met our Petroleum Minister, Mrs DezianiAlison-Madueke, nor any of her assistants; and it is notfor me to make her case. But if transformation is whatNigeria desperately needs, Madam Minister has been farmore transformational than several of our past petroleumministers put together! Now, what is she getting in return?Praises? No! Instead, the vested interests are highlyalarmed, and fighting back desperately!

But Nigeria’s future is rooting for these reformers! Thatis why Mr. President must continue to boldly support thefew members of his cabinet that are daring to changethings! The transformation of our nation (and even thelegacies of his Presidency) will come from them! He hasbeen commendable on this, including his efforts for ArumaOteh, whose reforms at SEC, appear to have so much upsetthe establishment!

•Mr Zowam, a social critic, wrote from Lagos

Continued from FridayViewpoints

BY GABRIEL ZOWAM

Concluded

The desperation against Reform(2)

JUSTICE U. P. Kekemeke of an Abuja HighCourt last week delivered a judgment thatshould halt security agencies that makebrutalising people their duty. In awardingN100 million as special damages toDesmond Utonwen, a SeniorCorrespondent with TheNEWS Magazine,he made the point about the illegality ofbrutality, contrary to the perception thateven if there was such law, security agencieswere above it.On 11 December 2009, Utonwen was in

Garki, Area 3, Abuja to report a protest. Thepolice, presumably on a mission to quell theprotest, brutalised him.They beat him to unconsciousness,

bundled him into a police vehicle, wherehe was detained for many hours withoutaccess to medical treatment. He could havebled to death.According to the court, the police violated

Utonwen’s right as enshrined in Section 34(1) of the Constitution which states, “Everyindividual is entitled to respect for thedignity of his person, and accordingly - (a)no person shall be subject to torture or toinhuman or degrading treatment”. It ruledthat the treatment was inhuman and

No TNo TNo TNo TNo To Po Po Po Po Police Brutalityolice Brutalityolice Brutalityolice Brutalityolice Brutalitydegrading.Specific matters Utonwen raised against

the police were the forceful collection ofone digital camera, one digital recorder,TheNEWS magazine official identity card,cash of N2, 000 from him.Justice Kekemeke said the police’s action

amounted to forceful acquisition of theapplicant’s property and ran contrary toprovisions of the Constitution whichawarded the applicant rights to ownmoveable property.Sections 33 and 44 state, “Subject to the

provisions of this Constitution, everycitizen of Nigeria shall have the right toacquire and own immovable propertyanywhere in Nigeria.

No moveable property or any interest inan immovable property shall be takenpossession of compulsorily and no rightover or interest in any such property shallbe acquired compulsorily in any part ofNigeria except in the manner and for thepurposes prescribed by a law.”His rights under freedom of the press and

expression as captured in Section 39 of the1999 Constitution were other matters thejudgement treated. The judge additionallyruled that the police should immediatelyreturn all the items they seized from thejournalist.Brutalities are not limited to journalists.

During protests, the police attack thepeople under the guise of keeping thepeace. Victims of police brutality includesuspects who are beaten underinterrogation. They now know they haverecourse in these matters.The police have to take this judgement

serious, apart from the cost of damages, formore telling situations where people diefrom police brutality. What compensationscan pay for their lives? The police shouldpunish the officers who dehumanisedUtonwen as a lesson to others.


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BY CLEMENT OFUANI

*Mr Ofunai, a public affairs analyst, wrote from IAsaba,Delta State.

BY OLUREMI OMOWAIYE

*Mr .Omowaiye, an IT consultant, wrotefrom Osogbo, Osun State.

Aregbesola, Okojie, the PDPand UNIOSUN medical students

IT is sheer irresponsibility and grossrecklessness to seek to play politics with

the lives of our youth and children, for theyare the hope and the future of ourcommunity. They constitute the pivot for anysociety willing and aspiring to develop. Itwas revealed recently that the FederalGovernment has consistently been sendingbeneficiaries of federal scholarships to studyin Cuba, China, Japan, Morocco, Turkey,Ukraine, Serbia, Romania, Russia andAlgeria, among other places. It is then asurprise when the Executive Secretary ofNational Universities Commission,Professor Julius Amioba Okojie, attackedthe Osun State Government for sendingsome stranded medical students of the stateuniversity, UNIOSUN, to Ukraine tocomplete their studies. Okojie went as far asreferring to the host university in Ukraineas substandard.

The Government of the State of Osunrecently concluded arrangements for 98medical students of UNIOSUN, Osogbo,who were long overdue for their clinicalcourse to complete their study abroad onthe bill of the state government. This wasdue to the non-availability of a teachinghospital for the university, contrary to theinsinuation by apologists of the PeoplesDemocratic Party that Osun State UniversityTeaching Hospital was cancelled. In fact,UNIOSUN had no teaching hospital.

The state government had proposed toupgrade the State Hospital at Asubiaro,Osogbo, to a teaching hospital. If well overN1.5 billion was spent to ensure theaccreditation of LAUTECH TeachingHospital in 2000/2001, the Osun StateGovernment would have had to spend noless than N5 billion now to upgrade the StateHospital to a functional and standardteaching hospital for clinical purposes to

get the required accreditation. Personnelwill no doubt pose a great challenge as well.It took the pioneer medical students ofLAUTECH 10 years to graduate owning toaccreditation challenges.

It is therefore laughable for the PDPapologists to think that N850 million willput up a teaching hospital and secureaccreditation. It is so sad that the medicalstudents of UNIOSUN were stagnated forabout two years as a result of non-availability of a teaching hospital for theuniversity. All efforts made to get themadmitted to tertiary institutions likeObafemi Awolowo University, OAU, Ile-Ife;University of Ibadan, UI; University ofLagos, UNILAG; Ladoke AkintolaUniversity of Technology, LAUTECH, fortheir clinical courses failed.

However, to save the situation of themedical students, the Rauf Aregbesolaadministration in Osun State settled for theoverseas option. This was the mostreasonable option available. The noble-minded progressive government decided toplace all those due for clinical courses, thatis, all 300 to 500 level medical students, onscholarship to complete their medical studyin the prestigious V. N. Karazin KharkivNational University, Ukraine. This decisionwas reported many times in both theelectronic and print media. Everyone wastold that the scholarship will cost the stategovernment N146 million and not N600million as being falsely and viciouslypropagated by PDP.

The state government was verytransparent about this matter. A total of$7,000 is to be expended on each of theconcerned students. This would cover tuitionfees, return air tickets and other logistics.The parents of the students would only takecare of their wards’ upkeep while undergoingthe courses. Karazin Kharkiv NationalUniversity School of Medicine at the

moment has about 200 students on EnglishLanguage training.

The NUC Executive Secretary, ProfessorOkojie, misfired by referring to V.N.

Karazin Kharkiv National University as asubstandard university. For a man who is incharge of granting licenses regularly tomany substandard universities, this is a veryinteresting charge. If only it were true. It isworth noting that the university in questionis one of the oldest and most famousuniversities in the entire Central and EasternEurope. It was founded in November 1804and today remains one of the largestresearch centres in Ukraine. It coversvirtually all spheres of modern fundamentalresearch and incorporates the ResearchInstitutes of Chemistry, Biology, andAstronomy, the Institute of Physics andEngineering, and the Institute of HighTechnologies.

It is the only university in Ukraine thathas trained and employed three Nobellaureates. How many of the universities thatOkojie superintends have produced Nobellaureates? The university has producedNobel laureates in medical biology,economics and physics. No single Africancountry has produced a Nobel laureate inbiology, economics or physics. Nigeria, with160 million population, has only producedone Nobel laureate in Literature.

Okojie’s “substandard” university hasgraduated over 130, 000 students and hasseveral times been named the best universityamong the over 800 degree-awardinginstitutions in Ukraine. The latest webometicuniversity ranking placed Karazin KharkivNational University among the best 1, 500universities in the world. Not one of theuniversities under Okojie’s supervision is onthe list of the best 2, 000 universities in theworld. The University of Benin that led otherNigerian universities was ranked 2,485thin the world. Yet, Okojie says that Nigerianuniversities are better than the universitiesin Ukraine.

It is unfortunate that Okojie, a professorof forestry, who has been at the helm ofaffairs at the Nigerian universities apexbody, the NUC, for seven years has notachieved the feat of moving any Nigerianuniversity into the list of the best 2000 in theworld. Yet, he was comfortable to make suchderogatory remarks about the effort of theGovernment of Osun to secure the future ofthese innocent young ones, a gesture thathas attracted the commendations andexcitement of the residents of the State ofOsun, particularly the parents of the affectedstudents.

The President of the UNIOSUN MedicalStudents, Samuel Oluwatimileyin Owoeye,granted an interview in the Tribune recentlyexpressing profound gratitude to the stategovernment for the kind gesture. Samuel inhis word said: “We also thank GovernorRauf Aregbesola for making sure that ourfuture is still secured and our dream ofbecoming trained medical doctors isrealistic. None of us, (the 98 medicalstudents) will ever forget GovernorAregbesola”.

Professor Okojie should not put politicsabove the interest of the nation and thefuture of our children. We should commendAregbesola for not allowing sentiments tocome to play in this great gesture by thestate. A unique factor of the scholarship forthese medical students was that it was notrestricted to indigenes of Osun alone.

HOW can I describe the unfoldingflood disaster in our country sothat people outside the impactedareas can comprehend it as acatastrophe that it is? As news ofthe devastation of the Benue Riverin Adamawa, Benue, Kogi andEdo states reached us in Abuja, Ibegan to dread what was going tohappen to our people furtherdownstream in the Delta. By thetime news came that the NigerianImmigration Office in Asabawhich was more than at least agood two kilometres from thebank of the Niger River had beensubmerged, I had to pay a visithome.As we flew over AnambraState inour approach to Asaba, I lookedout through the window and sawthat what used to be pleasantgreen farmlands of AnambraState had become an apparentmarshland of the delta. For milesand miles, we flew over distantsettlements below, where the onlythings peeping out of the waterwere the coloured roofing sheetsof what were previously dwellinghomes.

At Asaba, I got briefings that thecommunities of OkoAnala,OkoOgbele, OkoAmakom,Abalaand others in the south ofOshimili South Local GovernmentArea had been evacuated andwere being camped at displacedpersons’ camps in St. Patrick’sCollege Asaba and ICE, Asaba. InAniochaSouth Local GovernmentArea, where I come from, thepeople of Olodu, where I had goneto commission a primary healthcare centre built with support

This is catastrophefrom UNICEF some years back,had been evacuated and thehealth centre with all the otherdwellings in the settlement wascompletely submerged. Similarly,neighbouringEwulu communityhad been impacted but detailswere scanty. I planned, therefore,to visit the camp in St. Patrick’sand then swing to Olodu, Ewuluand then to Ashaka in Ndokwawhich was the camp for thedisplaced people of Ndokwa East.

On getting to St. Patrick’s Iwas advised to deliver

the relief materials I brought asthey had the logistics capability todistribute these to all the camps. Iwas further advised that theAsaba-Kwale road, which wouldhave been a 45-five minute drive,was impassable as the flood hadtaken over large sections of theroad. To get to Isokofrom Asaba,therefore, I had to make a longdetour to Agbor in the west, thenswing through Abraka towardsWarri before turning off throughIsiokolo in Ethiope East to Afieserein Ughelli North to take me backto Isoko. This took me more thanthree hours for what used to be alittle over an hour drive on thenow impassable Asaba-Kwale-Isoko route.

I managed to reach EwuluGrammar school where I met thedisplaced people from thatcommunity with their King whonarrated how the flood hadovertaken the town and destroyedall their fish farms and householdsand they managed to escape byriver craft over what waspreviously dry land. I saw aged

people looking dazed andabsolutely lacking incomprehension how their worldhad been turned upside down. Thewhole community was nowcramped into classrooms andstruggled to preserve their humandignity in the face of these odds. Icommiserated with them, listenedattentively to their pleas for watersupply, mosquito nets and speedboats to return and see if any moreproperty could still be salvagedfrom the community, afteracknowledging the quick responseof the State Government to theirappeal for evacuation. Indeed, theState Deputy Governor who is incharge of the emergency teamhad just left the community beforemy arrival.

At St. Patrick’s, I was takenround to see the displaced personsand shown the efforts of the inter-ministerial committee dealingwith the emergency. I was quiteimpressed by the coordination ofefforts of the State Governmentand the frontline emergencyorganisations such as NEMA, RedCross and so on. I could see thetiredness in the eyes of theseofficers who I commended and

encouraged as they were the firstline of hope for the displacedpeople. They cannot afford to betired or appear hopeless.

The same situation but worsewas unfolding at St. Michael’sGrammar School, Oleh in IsokoSouth where the mass of humanitywas trying to comprehend whatwas happening. As we wereapproaching Isoko, I called oneof my associates, anundergraduate student at DeltaState University, Oleh Campus togive me a situation report and tomeet me at a convenient locationso that we could go to the camptogether. As we approached thecamp, he received a phone calland I heard him tell his caller thathe was in my company and thatwe were going to the refugeecamp. I quickly corrected him,that it was displaced persons’camp and not refugee camp.However, semantics apart, itwould appear that his was a moreaccurate description as our peoplehave become refugees in theirland. I guess I was really morefrightened about that descriptionand was in a state of denial when Isought to correct his description.

By the time, we left St. Michael’s,it was already 5pm and there wasno way we could proceed anyfurther to Tuomo. Returning toAsaba through the route we camewas really out of the question, sowe decided to gamble on theIsoko-Kwale-Asaba road which isbeing dualised by the StateGovernment. A little after Kwale,we ran into the flood. Only onesection of the dualised road waspassable even though the waterwas hitting the bonnet of ourSUV. Further down at Ossissa, Itook the photograph of the oldman paddling his canoe on theother lane of the road with his

bicycle strapped to the canoe.This was for me, the ultimatemetaphor of what was happening.

Our road infrastructure in bothnorth and south of the countrythat we were previouslycomplaining about is beingwashed away, thus worsening thedevelopment challenges facingour nation. The national housingdeficit is being compounded bythe destruction of homes indifferent communities across theentire impacted States. Thefarmlands that used to providefood for our people from BenueState to the yam baskets of thelower Niger have been completelydestroyed. Rice farms and fishponds have been obliterated. Thechildren cannot go to school andthe schools that have been turnedinto camps for displaced personscannot offer normal instructionsunder the current circumstances.

More crucial is the questionwhether this is a blip which willdisappear to enable us beginpicking the pieces of our lives orwhether it is a new phenomenonarising from the much talkedabout global warming. Eitherway, what has happened and isstill unfolding is a disaster ofmonumental proportions. Indeed,this is a catastrophe. Both theFederal Government and the stategovernments are completelyoverwhelmed as meager resourcesare being stretched beyond limits.

We need more media attentionon this catastrophe to draw globalattention to it and hopefully,international assistance may comeas has happened to other nationsthat have faced similardevastations of nature.

What hashappened and isstill unfolding isa disaster ofmonumentalproportions;indeed, this is acatastrophe

Prof Okojie shouldnot put politics abovethe interest of thenation and the futureof our children; weshould commendAregbesola for notallowing sentimentsto come to play inthis great gesture bythe state



CMYK


CMYK



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THE night before hepresented the 2013budget proposals to the

National Assembly, PresidentGoodluck Jonathan visited thePresident of the Senate,Senator David Mark in his ApoMansion where he solicited thecooperation of the senateleadership for an expeditedpassage of the 2013 budget.

It was a remarkable journeyfor the president given thediscord that had developedbetween the legislature and thepresidency over the relatedissues on budgetimplementation and executionof the resolutions of theNational Assembly.

As part of the activities linedup to lighten the evening, thepresident was joined by thesenate president and othermembers of the senateleadership present such asSenators Ike Ekweremadu,Victor Ndoma-Egba amongothers, to cut the nation’sindependence anniversarycake.

However, the central thus ofthe president’s visit was for asmooth passage of the budget.

The president’s plea waspositively received despite theearlier faux pas committed byone of the very senior officialsin the presidential villa whohad at the end of last month onhis own caused theannouncement of an October 4date for the budgetpresentation withoutconsultation with the National

Assembly leadership. Whenthat official announced the date,the House leadership partly inanger moved the House toadjourn on break and as suchscuttling the date fixed by thepresidential top aide for thebudget presentation.

So, it was a welcome relief forall last Tuesday when thepresident drove to SenatorMark’s residence for aconfidence building session onthe eve of the budgetpresentation.

The visit was, however, notenough to stop what somepresidency officials describedas the irritating commentsnotably poured out by SenatorMark and Speaker of the Houseof Representatives, AlhajiAminu Waziri Tambuwal thatWednesday.

While Mark said the budgetremained mere estimates as itis truly, Speaker Tambuwal inthe traditional vote of thanksenumerated areas of misgivingin the relationship between theHouse and the presidency.

After citing concerns on theunimpressive performance ofthe 2012 budget, the failure toinaugurate a board for thePublic Procurement Counciland other fiscal failures of theadministration, SpeakerTambuwal centered in on the

president’s cavalier disregardof resolutions of the NationalAssembly.

“I am compelled however tostate that the NationalAssembly is becomingincreasingly concerned aboutthe disregard for its resolutionsand public comments by certainfunctionaries of the Executiveon same. I cite the SenateResolution on the Bureau ofPublic Enterprises (BPE), theHouse Resolution on the stateof insecurity of the nation,requesting Mr. President tovisit and brief the House, theHouse of RepresentativesResolution on the Security andExchange Commission (SEC),the concurrent Resolution of thetwo Chambers on Bakassiamong others. This does notpromote cordial relationshipbetween the Executive andLegislature and consequentlystability in the polity.”

Though the president’s body

movement did not show it,presidency officials reveal thathe was not particularly happyover the tone of the remarksparticularly given by SpeakerTambuwal.

But how that inspired hisSenior Special Assistant onPublic Affairs, Dr. Doyin Okupeto attack the two presidingofficers of the NationalAssembly is now a worry for toppresidency officials.

A day after the budgetpresentation, Dr. Okupe

summoned a press conferencewhere he launched against theduo in a point by pointdismissal and rebuke of the twopresiding officers of theNational Assembly.

“What was clearly a masterpresentation was nearly marredby some with the unnecessaryremarks by the leadership ofthe National Assembly,”Okupe, said as he accused theduo of unnecessarily

The president’s plea was positivelyreceived despite the earlier faux pascommitted by one of the very seniorofficials in the presidential villawho...caused the announcement of anOctober 4 date for the budgetpresentation without consultation withthe National Assembly leadership.

BY EMMANUEL AZIKEN,POLITICAL EDITOR

OKUPE'S ROAR: Whose war?

*Tambuwal: Miffed*Okupe: Mind my roar

WHEN he was called the President’s Attack Dog, Dr. Doyin Okupe, the SeniorSpecial Assistant on Public Affairs demurred, saying that he would rather becalled an Attack Lion. It was as such not surprising that like a lion which fearsno creature, that Dr. Okupe, last Thursday launched a vitriolic attack againstthe two presiding officers of the National Assembly. Can he be caged?

grandstanding.‘’That was neither the place

nor the occasion for such; afterall, Mr. President was thespecial guest of honour and adistinguished visitor to thehallow chambers of theNational Assembly. Normallegislative courtesy demandsthat such a visitor be allowedto perform his constitutionalfunction without any attempt torubbish the document that wasyet to be discussed even by themembers of the NationalAssembly.”

‘On domestic borrowing asraised by Speaker Tambuwal,the Presidency accused theNational Assembly of beingresponsible on account ofalleged hikes in past budgetsof the Federal Government.

‘’The truth of the matter is thatthe speaker may not be awareor he should be aware, he is athird time law maker. It is theactivities and actions ofprevious parliaments whocontinue to increase budgetsthat were sent to NationalAssembly without consideringrevenue that continuouslyexpanded yearly in deficit,leading to huge national debts.

‘’On the bench mark, that waspure drama. The Presidentsubmitted the budget. Thebudget is yet to be passed oryet to be looked into anddebated and all that, and here,another arm of government, ina dictatorial manner,authoritatively said that it hasdecided that the bench markshall be $80.”

On resolutions by theNational Assembly demandingthe sack of Ms. BolanleOnagoruwa and Ms ArumahOteh as Directors-General ofthe Bureau of

*Mark: says he is on same page with Jonathan


6 DAYSTO GO

*The Olugbo of Ugbo-Ilaje, Oba Frederick Akiruntan and Ondo State Governor, Dr OlusegunMimiko when the Governor paid a courtesy visit to the Olugbo during his re-election campaigntour of the Local Government at the weekend.

THE Mother and ChildHospital had until now

been prided as one of the bestcredentials for a second termfor Governor Segun Mimiko.But not so in the opinion ofMr. Rotimi Akeredolu (SAN),his ACN rival who yesterdaydescribed the Mother andChild Hospital as a glorified

STORIES BY DAYOJOHNSON

maternity.In a statement by Mr. Idowu

Ajanaku, Director of Media,Publicity and Strategy ofAkeredolu CampaignOrganisation (ACO),Akeredolu said that theMimiko administration hascompletely disorganized thehealth care sector by creatingdichotomy in staff welfarepackages, building a glorifiedmaternity in Akure called

Mother and Child whileneglecting other healthfacilities in the State.

He also faulted otherpossible credentials of thegovernor. He also accusedMimiko of abandoning all theSports projects in the State,like the Akure old and newstadium, Ile-oluji stadiumsuch that the SunshineFootball Club is now playingtheir matches at Ijebu Ode.

AKEREDOLU CampaignO r g a n i s a t i o n ( A C O )

yesterday claimed to haveuncovered a plot by theLabour Party (LP) to print thelogo of the Action Congressof Nigeria (ACN) on T-shirtsto be distributed to thugs tocause mayhem in differentparts of the State.

“This old trick, is part of theplot by LP to portray ACN asa violent party and to pave aleeway for the security agentsto unleash terror and arrestour members,” the ACOclaimed in a statement.

The campaign claimed tohave discovered that theshirts have already beenprinted awaiting distributionacross the state, mostespecially in areas likeOkitipupa, Ondo town,Idanre, Owo, Okeluse, Oka,Ikare amongst others.

“ACO is using thisopportunity to call on theInspector General of Policeand Ondo Commissioner ofPolice to note that ACN has

Akeredolu alleges dirtytrick by Mimiko

nothing to do with this and itis the antics by LP to giveACN a bad name to hang it.We hereby inform the generalpublic to report any act ofviolence to the police forimmediate action. ACN is apeaceful party; we won inOyo, Osun, Ekiti, Ogun,Lagos and Edo withoutengaging violence.”

BARELY a week to thegovernorship election in

Ondo state, one of the 13political parties contesting forthe election -the ActionAlliance (AA) and a politicalgroup, the Men and WomenForum yesterday fused intothe Peoples Democratic Party(PDP).

The party said in Akure thatit took the decision” in orderto help the governorshipcandidate of the party, ChiefOlusola Oke realise hisambition.

The structure of the AAincluding the State Chairman,Chief Samuel Aladejebi andhis governorship candidate,Mr Joshua Adewole collapsedinto the PDP.

Addressing newsmen afterthe ceremony, thegovernorship candidate of the

Ondo PDP gets support fromAction Alliance

party Joshua Adewole said hehas taken due cognisance ofthe achievements of the PDP’sadministration in the past anddiscovered that the party hasgood programmes for thepeople of the state.

“We recall that at a time therewas serious planning fordevelopment in the state andcommensurate actions weredeployed to attain it. We alsorecall that at a time there wasclear transparency.”

“Our incomes were in thepublic domain as governmentwill tell citizens how muchwas accruable from the federalgovernment allocation andthey will also be told how itwould be spent all that is nowhistory as we don’t know howmuch money this state hasmade and how it had beenspent.

GOVERNOR Mimikofighting a two column

battle against two formidableopponents yesterday launchedblistering attacks against RotimiAkeredolu, the ACN candidateand Olusola Oke, the PDPcandidate.

Noting the actions andinactions of the duo during lastweek’s gubernatorial debate,the Mimiko campaignorganisation in a statementissued by its spokesman,

MCO berates ACN, PDP for lack of vision

Kolawole Olabisi said: “Isn’t italso sad that both Oke andAkeredolu who want to governthe State could say that theschool pupils in Ondo Statedon’t need the mega schoolswhich had been dubbed themost 21st Century compliantand first of its kind in Nigeriaby the Federal Ministry ofEducation? Isn’t it also adisservice that that they couldsay that the Abiye Mother andChild Hospitals are

unnecessary and should bemerged as an arm of aMaternity Centre? Surely theylack vision to understand thedeep philosophy behind mostof these projects which hadbrought succour to our peopleand earned accolades from farand wide and indeed, theydon’t deserve the votes of ourmothers. These are the shallowthoughts of those who want togovern us, “the statementnoted.

“At the debate Akeredolu waslike a fish out of water,struggling in bad language toattack the good works of DrOlusegun Mimiko who had inthe last three and a half yearsplaced Ondo State on the pathof sustainable development.He has shown that he isnothing but the agent of agodfather who knows nothingabout Ondo State but could reeloff hand information about hisreal hometown, Ibadan.

“Isn’t it a shame that a manwho wants to govern a statedoes not even know the basicinformation about the statewhich are in the publicdomain?", he wondered.

Akeredolu hits at Mimiko’s legacy•Says Mother and Child Hospital is a maternity

“It is not only depressingbut a disservice to the youthand the sport loving peopleof the State. This has not onlyalienated the SunshineFootball Club from theirnumerous supporter whocould have given them themuch desired support but hasalso led to loss of revenue thatcould have accrued tobusinesses in the state,” thestatement deposed.

“For us at ACO, we knowthat Akeredolu is a man ofproven integrity and pedigreewho can be trusted by thepeople of Ondo State. He isanother SAN with a SOUNDmind ready to replicate themassive sweepinginfrastructural developmentin Lagos which has become abenchmark in sustainabledevelopment in sub SaharaAfrica.”

LESS than a week to theOndo State governorship

election, the opposition PeoplesDemocratic Party, PDP isapparently engulfed in anothercrisis following the expulsionof members of a faction of theparty at the weekend.

The expulsion of the factionled by the former Ambassadorto Austria and former secretaryto the state government, ProfOlu Agbi it was learnt was topre-empt the decision of thefaction to adopt Dr. Mimiko for

Sabotage: Ondo PDP in mutual wara second term which was fixedfor today.

But the expelled factionalchairman Dr Akin Olowookerein his response described theparty action as joke of the yearand their expulsion a ruse.

Vanguard learnt that a planby the Agbi faction to publiclyadopt Mimiko following theiralleged marginalisation in thePDP was leaked to the HonEbenezer Alabi state Executive.

The Agbi faction had about amonth ago declared

unequivocally that they will notsupport the party ’sgovernorship candidate ChiefOlusola Oke because he wasimposed by a cabal.

In a statement weekend, theparty through its Director ofPublicity, Ayo Fadaka said:“This is to inform the generalpublic that the followingunderlisted people who untilnow were errant members ofthe Party are hereby expelledfrom the Peoples DemocraticParty with immediate effect.


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VanguardVanguardVanguardVanguardVanguardCLASSIFIED

O B I E S I E — I ,formerly known andaddressed as MissAzuka Obiesie Victoria,now wish to be knownand addressed as Mrs.Azuka VictoriaEjiugwo. All formerdocuments remainvalid. Imo StateUniversity (IMSU),NYSC and generalpublic please take note.

U C H E N M A — I ,formerly known andaddressed as MissVictoria Winifred O.Uchenma, now wish tobe known andaddressed as Mrs.Dirionyenma EbeleVictoria. All formerdocuments remainvalid. EquityAssurance Plc andgeneral public pleasetake note.

OKECHUKWU —I,formerly known andaddressed as MissOkechukwu, EdithErochukwu, nowwish to be known andaddressed as Mrs.Ani Ede, EdithErochukwu. Allformer documentsremain valid. Generalpublic please takenote.

OGBU —I, formerlyknown andaddressed as MissOgbu Jane Ebere,now wish to beknown andaddressed as Mrs.Agupugo ChijiokeEbere Jane. Allformer documentsremain valid.General publicplease take note.

A B U - O N U M — I ,formerly known andaddressed as Mrs.Elizabeth OnyebuchiAbu-Onum, now wishto be known andaddressed as MissElizabeth OnyebuchiOkoh. All formerdocuments remainvalid. Nigerian NavyHeadquarters andgeneral public pleasetake note.

O L E M B A — I ,formerly knownand addressed asMiss ChigozieOlemba, now wishto be known andaddressed as Mrs.C h i g o z i e Theresa Udoye.All formerdocuments remainvalid. Generalpublic please takenote.

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SURAJUDEEN—I,formerly knownand addressed asMr. KareemSurajudeen F., nowwish to be knownand addressed asMr. KareemSuraju. All formerdocuments remainvalid. Generalpublic please takenote.

OGUEJIOFOR—I,formerly known andaddressed as MissChinelo VeronicaOguejiofor, nowwish to be knownand addressed asMrs. ChineloVeronica Nzeka. Allformer documentsremain valid.General publicplease take note.

O B A S I — I ,formerly known addressed as MissObasi Anna Chika,now wish to beknown andaddressed as Mrs.Faka Anna Chika.All formerdocuments remainvalid. Generalpublic please taken o t e .

ESEGE—I, formerlyknown addressed asMiss ElizabethAsikong Esege, nowwish to be known andaddressed as Mrs.Elizabeth Eni Egbe.All former documentsremain valid. CrossRiver University ofT e c h n o l o g y(CRUTECH) andgeneral public pleasetake note.

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OLAGUNJU—I,formerly known andaddressed as MissAdepeju OmolayoOlagunju, now wishto be known andaddressed as Mrs.Adepeju OmolayoOyeyinka. Allformer documentsremain valid.General publicplease take note.

U Z O I G W E — I ,formerly known andaddressed as MissPatience OkwudiriUzoigwe, now wish tobe known andaddressed as Mrs.Patience OkwudiriChukwuemeka. Allformer documentsremain valid. CalabarPolytechnic Calabar,Cross River State,NYSC and generalpublic please take note.

M A D U F O R — I ,formerly known andaddressed as MissMadufor JulietEzinne, now wish tobe known andaddressed as Mrs.Agbanye JulietEzinne. All formerdocuments remainvalid. Abia StatePolytechnic Aba,NYSC and generalpublic please takenote.

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Cameroon, Senegal

garded as one of thebest teams in Africa.

Senegal, another Af-r ican power housewere also dumpedfrom the 2013 NationsCup. However, theysuffered in the handsof African number oneteam on the FIFA rank-ings, Cote’ d Ivoire.Senegal were beaten4-2 in the first leg by

Continues from BP the Elephants, but atthe Stade Leopold Sen-ghor in Dakar al lhopes of a revival weredashed after the Ivori-ans drew the first bloodand captain DidierDrogba scored from thespot to seal a 6-2 ag-gregate score for the2012 runners up. Thematch was not conclud-ed as Senegalese fansturned violent.

Eagles

months.Following a 2-2 draw

in the first leg in Mon-rovia last month, theLiberians could afford todream and set about thecountdown for thereturn leg with a touchof comedy.

Having informed theNigeria Football Feder-ation that they wouldarrive in a charteredflight on Thursdayevening, they accusedNigerian aviation au-thorities of denyingtheir aircraft landingright, when infact, they had not con-cluded arrangementwith the airline.

After they somehowmanaged to seal a dealwith another airline onFriday, the arrival timekept changing, andeventually the contin-gent landed in Calabarat midnight and want-ed no Nigerian nearthem.

They opted for a dif-ferent accommodationother than the ChannelView Hotel reserved forthem, shunned protocolassistance andtransportation and gen-erally kept to them-selves.

Before the match, su-perstition was in the airas all previous matchesinvolving Nigeria han-dled by South Africancentre referee Daniel

Continues from BP Bennett had ended indraws.

All that counted fornothing as Scotland-based defender Efe Am-brose scored in the firstminute, and thenAhmed Musa increasedthe tallyeight minutes beforehalf-time.

The match was, to allintents and purposesover after Victor Mosesswept in a great pass,and further goals byJohn Mikel Obi (penal-ty),

Ikechukwu Uche andMoses himself only un-derscored the gulf inclass and enriched theEagles further with Pa-modzi, official marketerof NFF, paying $1000for each goal.

An overjoyedMaigari, who was incompany with CrossRiver StateGovernor, Senator LiyelImoke, Minister ofSports/Chairman, Na-tional Sports Commis-sion, Mallam Bolaji Ab-dullahi, Chairman ofSenate SportsCommittee, Senator Ad-amu Gumba, Chairmanof House Sports Com-mittee,

Hon. Godfrey Gaiyaand members of his Ex-ecutive Committee andManagement, simplysaid: “Words are inade-quate to express my de-light.

We 'll be better in Conakry— Eaglets coach

TWO first half goalsfrom Success Isaac

and Ihenacho Kelechiand a 68th minute strikeby Alhassan Ibrahim gave Nigeria a 3-0 winover Guinea in the firstleg of the 2013 Africa U-17 championship quali-fier . The match whichwas played in Calabar,Sunday completed a per-fect weekend for Nige-rian football.

Coach Garba Manupraised his players forbeating the Guineans.He said that the Nigeri-an team will be better inthe second leg billed forConakry in a fortnight.

The coach said the Ea-glets did their best to getthe victory as four of hisregulars were not avail-able for the match. “Wehave four of our regularplayers who are downwith injuries and I amsure before the secondleg in Conakry they willbe fit.”

He said the Guineansgave his boys a goodmatch and promised towork on the strikers inorder that chances cre-ated could be convertedin subsequent matches,“We couldn’t score morethan one goal in the sec-ond half because of thisinjury problem.

“Twenty minutes to theend of the match our re-covery rate became veryslow. We intend to workon the fitness of theplayers and how to shooton target. You could see

we lost so many scoringchances in the first half.The second leg will be adifferent ball game,” thecoach postulated.

Eagles ‘ll be given adequate supportfor Afcon 2013 — Minister

BY JACOB AJOM,Calabar

BY JACOB AJOM,Calabar

THE minister ofSports and Chair-

man of the NationalSports Commission, Mal-lam Bolaji Abdullahi hassaid that his commissionwould give the NigeriaFootball Federation andin particular, the SuperEagles all they wouldrequire to excel in the2013 Africa Cup of Na-tions in South Africa.

Mallam Abdullahispoke with the sportingpress in Calabar, justbefore departing for Abu-ja Sunday.

Speaking on the team’squalification for the tour-nament, the ministersaid he was impressedby the team’s perfor-mance on Saturday.

“Congratulations toNigeria because we areall happy particularly forthe fact that we were not

in the last edition of theNations Cup. All handsare on deck to ensure weget a good team at theend of the day,”I have been in a meet-ing with the NFF sincemorning all to ensure weput our plans for theteam’s preparation. OnMonday we are meetingagain in Abuja to discussall the logistics andwhatever that is requiredfor the team to do wellwhen they get to SouthA f r i c a . ”The National SportsCommission boss saidthe team’s preparationswould not be hamperedby bureaucratic hiccupsas all arrangementswould be made to ensurethere was an uninter-

rupted supply of all thatwill be required for theteam’s preparation.The minister said al-though the qualificationcame handsomely, :wewould have wished wequalified earlier thanwhen it came. “But nowthat we have qualifiedand the tournamentproper is not a matter ofplaying Liberia or anysuch weaker teams, wewant to prepare welland win the tourna-ment.

“The boys played verywell and showed thekind of commitment wehave not seen in a verylong time. I think whatthey need to improveupon is the job of thetechnical crew.”

PADMOZI’S HOT SHOTS —— Super Eagles goalscorers(L -R), Ahmed Musa,Efe Ambrose, Victor Moses (two goals), Mikel Obi and Ike Uche pose aftercollecting $1,000 each from Padmozi Sports Marketing for every goal scoredagainst Liberia in their 6-1 triumph on Saturday. Photo: Sylva Eleanya

AMANZE Uchegbulam, a former Nige-

r i aFootball Association(NFA) Board member,has advised the Nation-al Sports Commission(NSC) against interfer-ing with the association’splan for the 2013 AfricanNations Cup.

He told the NewsAgency of Nigeria(NAN) the advice be-came necessaryfollowing what hap-pened when the federalgovernment set up aPresidential Task Force(PTF) in 2009.

NAN reports that thePTF was set up by thefederal government tooversee the Super Ea-gles’ qualification andparticipation at the 2010FIFA World Cup.

The task force washeaded then by Gov.Rotimi Amaechi of Riv-ers, withother eminent Nigeriansas members.

Uchegbulam whospoke with NAN in Abu-ja over the telephone onSunday said the TaskForce then, instead ofbeing a guide, becamemore of a distraction.

“It was a distraction tothe Eagles and the Nige-ria Football Association(NFA).

“The Task Forcedumped most of theplans developed by thetechnical crew and theNFA board towards theWorld Cup in South Af-rica.

Uchegbulam wants NSC tosteer clear of Super Eagles

“So, this time around,agencies such as the Na-tional SportsCommission (NSC)should give the NFA allthey need to perform andn o tinterfere.

“Past experience hasshown that the next thingthe NSC will do now willbe to set up a committeefor the Eagles’ participa-tion at theNations Cup.

“But during our owntime at the NFA, the Pres-idential Task Force that wasset up interfered with theplans of the FA and thatwas theconfusion that createdproblems,” Uchegbulamsaid.

The former NFA boardmember, who is the currentChairman of the ImoState Football Association,warned that any attempt toput pressure on the Eaglesto win the trophy could bedisastrous.

He said personal inter-ests and interference, if notavoided now, could jeop-ardise Nigeria’s chances ofsurpassing its past recordsat the competition.

•Maigari

•Uchegbulam

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Experts unite against MSA, a neurological disorder

MANAGEMENT andmassive awareness

campaign on Multiple SystemAtrophy, MSA, took the centrestage in Lagos last week duringa Media Sensitisation/Walkaimed at educating Nigerians aswell as raising awareness on thedisease in the country.

Multiple System Atrophy,MSA, is a progressiveneurological disorder that affectsadult men and women.According to experts, it is causedby degeneration or atrophy ofnerve cells in several (ormultiple) areas of the brain whichcan result in problems withmovement, balance andautomatic functions of the bodysuch as bladder and bloodpressure control.

Unfortunately, MSA is not alifestyle disease and there is littleanybody can do to prevent it.Until recently MSA was thoughtto be a very rare disorder. Recentresearch suggests it affects about5 people per 100,000. MSAusually starts between the agesof 50-60 years, but it can affectpeople younger and older. Thediagnosis of MSA is still aclinical one and depends on aneurologist recognising acombination of symptoms andsigns.

Sadly, Nigeria has only onecentre where MSA can bediagnosed and treated. To saythat MSA management isdemanding on the parents andthe society at large is anunderstatement as peopleaffected by this disorder areusually misunderstood by thesociety and coping with routinesocial and environmentaldemands can be challenging.

Today, it is estimated that about5,000 Nigerians are living withthe disorder but what matters areefforts at checking the trend.

At the event , which wasorganised by FUNMIFASHINA, FF, Foundation, anon-governmental organisationto raise awareness on the diseasein Lagos, aConsultantNeurologist, Collegeof Medicine, University of Lagos,CMUL, Dr. Njideka Okubodejo,said about 4.6 per 100,000 issuffering from the diseaseworldwide.

Okubodejo noted that majorityof people living with MSA mayexperience physical slownesslike those patients living withParkinson disease.

Okubodejo said peoplediagnosed of the disease for fiveyears may live for another eightyears.

According to her; “MSA doesnot appear to be hereditaryalthough current research isexamining whether or not thereis a genetic predisposition todevelop the disease. Theimportance of environmentalfactors is not clear and there isstill much to understand aboutthe condition. But the good newsis that it is not infectious orcontagious and has no

connection with the muchcommoner neurological disease,multiple sclerosis (MS).”

Stating that support services

BY CHIOMA OBINNA

Livewell Initiative, Stanbic IBTC launch EasyHealth

we are telling the people whoneed eye glasses that we are notdistributing eye glasses."Adding that if they are able togive a restored sight, for prevent-able blindness in any patient,then they have given the patient,second leas of life and that is veryimportant. “Fora second, if you close your eyesyou will find out that the wholeworld is not there, but if you openyour eyes you will see the wholeworld, you will see the differencebetween having a sight and nothaving sight.”He said that apart from Lagos,they have done operations inAbeokuta, Kano, Kaduna, Yolaand Abakaliki and they are alsodoing it in Accra.Funding comes from philanthro-pists and the Indian communityin Nigeria.

“The main challenges we arefacing, is that people are not al-ways aware that such facility isavailable, so we request the pressto create awareness so that those

THE Rotary Club of Lagos, Palmgrove Estate, is con-

ducting free eye screening andsurgeries for about 500 personsin Lagos on October 3, 2012 andin Abeokuta on October 16,2012. The beneficiaries are to bechecked for cataract, pterygiumand glaucoma.Immediate past president of theClub, Mr Mukesh Bhatt, saidthe eye operations are being tar-geted for indigent persons.He noted thare were so manypeople, who requires eye glass-es or other minor things but theClub was concentrating on thosewho require surgery which ismore expensive, costing N100,000 -N200,000.

"The main idea is toconcentrate on serious matters,So we want to help people, whoreally can not affordsurgery and we want toconcentrate on bigger things andnot smaller things that is why

• From left: Olumide Olayinka; Njide Okubadejo; Ajibade Fashina and Olukemi Onabanjo, Trustees of the of FUNMI FASHINA, FF,Foundation engaged the creation of awareness, research and supporting victims of Multiple system Atrophy , MSA, recently in Lagos

BY ONOZURE DANIA

Rotary conducts free eye screening

LIVEWELL Initiative, anon-profit, community-

based Non-GovernmentalOrganization has launchedEasyHealth, a mobile healthservice powered by Stanbic IBTCBank.

The launch which was part ofactivities to commemorate the 5thanniversary of Livewell Initiative,was performed by the PermanentSecretary, Lagos State Ministryof Health, Dr Femi Olugbile.

Chief Executive Officer ofLivewell Initiative, Mrs. BisiBright, said EasyHealth wasconceived as a home deliveryservice designed to makehealthcare available to moreNigerians using Stanbic IBTCMobileMoney, which ensuresconvenient and seamlesspayment without having to visita branch of the bank or thecompany. The platform evenguarantees easy transfer of fundsfor third party payment for health

services in any part of the country.EasyHealth has various

payment plans includingmonthly, quarterly and yearly,while the packages includepersonal and family.

“Stanbic IBTC Bank hasconsistently shown itscommitment to raising publicawareness on health issues inNigeria through its support ofsimilar initiatives in the past. Weare proud to be associated withthe bank and we look forward to

By SOLA OGUNDIPE

and care are important to themanagement of the disease, sheregretted that Nigeria has onlyone centre where the disorder

could be managed. “It is bettermanaged when there is bettersupport facility. Nigeria has onlyone centre at the Lagos University

working with them on moreprojects of this kind in the future”,she said. Home servicesavailable through EasyHealth,Bright said, include tests andevaluations, such as checks todetermine body mass index,blood pressure, blood and sugarlevels, fitness, weighting, stresstests and free counseling.

Head of Mobile Banking atStanbic IBTC Bank, Mr. YinkaShorungbe, noted thatEasyHealth will be available toeveryone as the bank’s mobilemoney solution is accessible bydialing *909# on all the GSMnetworks in Nigeriaguaranteeing access to over 90million mobile phone usersacross the country, includingrural areas where financialservices barely exist.

Teaching Hospital, LUTH thatcares for people with the disease.Managing the disease, she said,is more than having drugs alone

A USA-based company,Hallelujah Acres, will next

month boost nutritionalsupplements in the Nigeriamarket with the launch of itsHalleluja Diet.

The public presentation of theproduct will be done by adelegation led by company'sPresident, Dr. Paul Malkmus ina four-week-long programme.

Hallelujah Diet is a food- basedsupplement brand which hasproven effective in reversingchronic health conditions whereorthodox therapies have failed.The diet which according to thecompany, is based on thephysical nourishment asintended by God in Gen.1:29

,emphasizes eating more of fruits,vegetables and fibres, less ofsaturated fats and hydrogenatedoils, drinking a lot of water,eating, getting more exercise andisolating stress.

The product presentation/launch billed to hold November15, will take place in the strategiccities of Abuja, Port Harcourt, andLagos will feature a three-daytraining programme forprospective health ministers. Health minister areinternationally certifiedpractitioners in the HallelujahAcres Food Ministry trained toconsult with clients andrecommend recovery diet forvarious health conditions.

Halleluya diet debuts in Nigeria

who have not heard of it, willseize the opportunity to come, sothat more people will benefit fromt h e e x e r c i s e . ” Bhatt noted plans for building an

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Website: www.vanguardngr.com (ISSN 0794-652X) Editor: MIDENO BAYAGBON. Phone: 01-7742861, All correspondence to P.M.B. 1007, Apapa Lagos.

e-mail: [email protected] to Play Sudoku THE VIGILANTEPlace a number (1-9) in each blank cell. (No line can

have two of the same number).Each row (nine lines from left to right), column, (also

nine lines from top to bottom) and 3 X 3 block within abold block (nine blocks) contains number from 1through 9. This means that no number can appeartwice in any block, column or row.

No mathematics is involved – no adding, subtraction,division or multiplication, just plain logic and yourimagination.

FRIDAY'S SOLUTIONS

FRIDAY'S ANSWERSFRIDAY'S ANSWERSFRIDAY'S ANSWERSFRIDAY'S ANSWERSFRIDAY'S ANSWERS

VANGUARD, MONDAY, OCT0BER 15, 2012

TODAY'S PUZZLETODAY'S PUZZLETODAY'S PUZZLETODAY'S PUZZLETODAY'S PUZZLEACROSS3 Abreast (5)9 Busy (6)10 Attacker (6)11 Senior (5)12 Wicked (4)15 Monster (4)17 Mild (7)20 Consume (3)21 Avarice (5)23 Hut (4)25 Sand (4)26 Dismal (5)28 Drunkard (3)30 Pamphlet (7)33 Door-handle (4)35 Season (4)36 Tooth (5)38 Rue (6)39 Aptitude (6)40 Seized (5)

DOWN1 Tag (5)2 Soil (5)3 Hail (3)4 Appertain (6)5 District (4)6 Spoil (3)7 Proverb (5)8 Welcome (5)13 Rendition (7)14 Dwelt (5)16 Flustered (7)18 Test (5)19 Limb (3)22 Tendency (5)24 Arid (3)27 Discount (6)28 Border (5)29 Durable (5)31 Compare (5)32 Cogs (5)34 Roster (4)36 Encountered (3)37 Managed (3)

ACROSS: 1, Abrupt 5, Phrase 9, Aisle 10, Re-sist 11, Adour 12, Slate 14, Soup 17, Ere 18,Snag 20, Spear 22, Ladle 23, Parapet 24, In-set 26, Tenet 29, Near 30, Age 32, Dire 33,Dream 35, Impair 36, Sobbed 37, Eager 38,Treaty 39, Demean.

DOWN: 1, Across 2, Rescue 3, Pass 4, Title5, Plate 6, Here 7, Abound 6, Enrage 13,Arrange 15, Opine 16, Paper 18, Sated 19,Alter 21, Rat 22, Let 24, Insist 25, Sample27, Nimble 28, Tendon 30, Array 31, Eased33, Diet 34, More.

Cameroon, Senegal crash out

Malawi 0 Ghana 1 (Ghana 3-0 agg)Botswana 1 Mali 4 (Mali 7-1 agg)Nigeria 6 Liberia 1 (Nigeria 8-2 agg)Uganda 8 Zambia 9 (P/S) (Zambia 1-1 agg)Senegal 0 Cote d’Ivoire 2 (Cote d’Ivoire (6-2 agg)Tunisia 0 Sierra Leone 0 (Tunisia 2-2 agg)Morocco 4 Mozambique 0 (Morocco 4-2 agg)Ethiopia 2 Sudan 0 (Ethiopia 5-5 agg)Cameroon 2 Cape Verde 1 (Cape Verde 3-2 agg)Angola 2 Zimbabwe 0 (Angola 3-3 agg)Togo 2 Gabon 0 (Togo 3-2 agg)Niger 2 Guinea 0 (Niger 2-1 agg)

Results

AFCON Qualifiers

Nations Cup:

CERTAINLY, these are hard daysfor the Indomitable Lions of Cam-

eroon, as the former African champi-ons were knocked of the African Cupof Nations by Cape Verde Islands, acountry of 523,000 people and not upto the population of Oshodi LocalGovernment in Nigeria.

Cape Verde stopped Cameroonfrom staging a come back to the tour-nament they missed in 2012.

Despite having captain SamuelEto’o back in the squad, Cameroonfailed to cancel a 2-0 win over thefeared five-time champions in thefirst leg. The Second leg encounter

ended inYaounde2-1 thusleav ingthe Cam-e r o o n -i a n sstrandedwith a 3-2 aggre-g a t escore.

Came-roon fansw e r e

shocked to their mar-rows when Cape Verdeopened scoring in the 12minute. And midwayinto the half, the Indom-itable Lions respondedthrough Emana, whileIdrissou scored the win-ner for Cameroon on thedot of 90 minute. Cam-erounians trooped outof the stadium before thefinal whistle and per-haps it was an end of anera for Cameroon reContinues on Page 53

We’ll be better in Conakry— Eaglets coach — P.53

NFF: Eagles‘ll targetCup ofNations’triumph

NIGERIA returnedto the African

Cup of Nations in em-phatic fashion when theSuper Eagles poundedthe visiting Lone Star 6-1 at the U. J. Esuene Sta-dium, Calabar on Satur-day.

And at the final whis-tle, NFF PresidentAminu Maigari pledgedthat the Federation willdeploy all resources toensure the team is wellprepared to lift the Cupof Nations trophy inSouth Africa in fourContinues on Page 53

BACK RIDE— Super EaglesVictor Moses enjoys back ridefrom a Liberian defender intheir 6-1 demolition of theLiberians at the weekend.Photo: Sylver Eleanya.

Documents

Okonjo-Iweala to spend N1.1bn on confabs, food