₦airaland Forum

Traditional Rulers in Oil Producing Areas have been urged to assist the state govt in checkmating the activities of emerging criminals in their areas. Abia state SEC have made this call

“The heights by great men reached and kept were not

Attained by sudden flight, but they, while their

Companions slept, were toiling upwards

In the night”

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow [1907 – 1882]

THIS quote is very apt and best described the Honourable Minister of Labour and Productivity, Chief Chukwuemeka Ngozicheneke Wogu, CON who has distinguished himself as a member of the Federal Executive Council of the Federal Republic of Nigeria for two consecutive terms.

His appointment as Honourable Minister of Labour and Productivity must have been a divine ordination to coincide with deepening global financial and economic crisis. He is indeed a gift to all Nigerian workers.

Chief Wogu was born on the 29th day of January 1965 in Umuahia Abia State South East of Nigeria. He enrolled and completed both Primary and Secondary Schools. Chief Wogu proceeded to the then Imo State University for his legal study, and finished in 1986 and proceeded to the Nigeria Law School in 1987.

In preparation for the onerous task he is now saddled with, Chief Emeka Wogu was appointed a two-term Commissioner, at the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission [RMAFC]. Where he served as one of the longest serving Commissioners, on the Board of the Commission. His assignments and responsibilities at the Commission honed his dispute resolution skills and sharpened his capacity to constructively engage on various national socio_economic issues.

The Administration of President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, GCFR must have seen these sterling qualities, experience and credentials before reappointing the Aba-born arbitrator to be in charge of the teaming workforce of the federation. No wonder he is at home with reconciling the various conflicting labour management interest, conciliating, mediating and resolving disputes at the workplace to guarantee the nation industrial peace and harmony for economic growth and prosperity.

As a fellow of the chartered Nigeria Institute of Management, Chief Wogu has mastered the fine principles of conflict management and succeeded in institutionalising the concept and practice of social dialogue and consultation among the three social partners. As an impartial arbiter and strong advocate of ‘decent work and social protection’, the Honourable Minister was a member of the committee that negotiated and processed for enactment a new National Minimum Wage Act after 10 years.

The debate, rugged negotiation and understanding that culminated in the new wage regime are glowing testimonies to Chief Wogu’s commitment to uplifting the general welfare of Nigerian workers.

In the task of nation building through appropriate policy formulation and implementation, Chief Emeka Wogu has made his mark as evidenced in his role in the recently initiated removal of subsidy in the Premium Motor Spirit [PMS] policy of the federal government. He reasoned, dialogued and engaged the organised labour on the expected benefits of the deregulation of the downstream sector of the petroleum industry. While sharing due understanding on the anticipated short-term pains of the policy implementation, the Minister repeatedly appealed to members of his immediate constituent to trust government and give the policy chance to yield the envisaged massive derivatives.

It is on record that during his tenure as the Honourable Minister of Labour and Productivity that pay relativity in salaries of the Federal Civil Servants have been restored.

This has put to rest the age-long struggles in the Service. Also to his credit is the enactment of the Employee’s Compensation Act 2010 which is an additional social protection floor for all workers who may sustain injury at the workplace. Under his leadership, a National Productivity Policy is at its final stage of approval and implementation.

National Policy on Productivity Measurement, legislative in the Oil and Gas industry with respect to casual and contract staffing, local content policy on employment among others.

At the international fora, Chief Emeka Wogu led Nigeria’s delegations to International Labour Organization Conferences [ILC] and other African Regional Labour Summits. His dream to create jobs and source for technical support in the area of job creation resulted in the visit of ILO Director of Employment Mr. Manuel Salazar to the country late last year. Chief Wogu did not forget the adage that “charity begins at home”.

Under his able leadership, the Headquarter of the Ministry is wearing a new look. He has provided basic working facilities, extra office accommodation for staff and a great deal of other incentives increase such as capacity building to improve staff productivity.

He was able to accomplish all these through the support and cooperation of the Permanent Secretary, Engr. Anthony Ozodinobi, Directors, Heads of Parastals and the entire staff members of the Ministry who stood by him during the trying days of national strikes and lockouts.

The entire staff of the Federal Ministry of Labour and Productivity as well as the workforce of Nigeria celebrate with our own high-flier on the occasion marking the celebration of your 47th Birthday

http://thejuristlaws..com/2012/02/celebrating-labour-icon.html

Indications have emerged that an ideological feud within the rank and file of the Boko Haram sect may have led to a breakaway faction. The new outfit calls itself ‘Ansaru.’
In a statement circulated in Kano, Ansaru gave its full name as “Ansarul Muslimina Fi Biladis Sudan,” meaning Vanguards for the Protection of Muslims in Black Africa.
Its motto is “Jihad Fi Sabilillah,” meaning it is fighting and sacrificing for Allah’s cause. The statement was signed by one Abu Usamata Al’Ansari, who claimed to be its leader.
Ansaru expressed displeasure with Boko Haram’s style of operations, which it described as inhuman to the Muslim Ummah. It vowed to restore dignity and sanity to “the lost dignity of Muslims in black Africa” and to bring back the dignity of Islam in Nigeria and the Sokoto Caliphate, founded by Othman Dan Fodio in 1804, which spread across Niger Republic, Cameroon and some other West African countries.
Ansaru’s logo shows the Qur’an, with a gun on both sides. Attached to the guns are black flags with the inscription, “There is no deity but Allah and Muhammad is His Messenger”.
The statement said: “For the first time, we are glad to announce to the public the formation of this group that has genuine basis. We will have dispassionate look into everything, to encourage what is good and see to its spread and to discourage evil and try to eliminate it.”

http://thejuristlaws..com/2012/01/boko-haram-splinter-group-ansaru.html

The Governor of Abia State was today ,commissioned 17 buses for Abia Line Network to improve on transportation system in the state. He also gave brand new vehicles to the LG chairmen and their deputies to enable them facilitate the run of official duties their various in the councils. In addtion to that, he made fund available for the 17 LG chairmen for the grading of roads and construction of culverts in the local communities to create access roads to the farmlands and streams in the communities.With utmost commitment ,he vouch to do more if all appointees put in their best in discharging off their duties.

By Emeka Umeagbalasi

“Boko-Haram” Terror: The Chilling Killing Of 510 Igbo Christians Out Of The 714 “Boko-Haram” Related Deaths In 12 Months (January 2011-January 2012) Amounts To Systematic Ethnic Cleansing & Crimes Against Humanity.

Sir: Above subject matter refers.

(Onitsha Nigeria, 18th day of January, 2012)-On Friday 9th day of December 2011, we in the International Society for Civil Liberties & the Rule of Law (Intersociety), Onitsha, Anambra State of Nigeria, sent to Your Excellency two copies of our reports titled: “How Over 54,000 Nigerians Died Outside The Law Since 1999” and “Police Corruption As Human Rights Abuse: How Corrupt Personnel Of The Nigeria Police Force Illegally Enriched The Force With N53.48Billion ($336.5Million) Arising From Roadblock Extortion In Three Years-2009-2011”. The two reports were attached with eleven pictures each and a covering letter. The “proof of delivery” returned to our Secretariat (41, Miss Elems Street, Fegge, Onitsha) indicated that Your Excellency’s office received the reports on Tuesday, 13th day of December 2011, two days after they were launched. We also posted the reports on Your Excellency’s “facebook wall-page”. Unfortunately and sadly too, Your Excellency neither commented on the serious complaints raised in them nor acted on any of their far-reaching recommendations. Innocent Nigerians particularly Igbo Christians have continued to be slaughtered like fowls in their fatherland on daily basis and the 371,000-person (Wikipedia Encyclopedia 2011) Nigeria Police Force that ought to protect them is busy molesting and extorting other living Nigerians on Nigerian roads especially the roads leading into and out of South-east geopolitical zone.

The killing Of 510 Igbo Christians:
Other than the two reports particularly the chilling death of over 54,000 Nigerians outside the law since 1999, our further investigations show that up to 510 Igbo Christians may have been slaughtered by politically and ethnically backed “Boko-Haram” Terror Sect in different parts of the Northern Nigeria, from January 2011 to January 2012. This did not include the Jos killings of 2011, where it is believed that up to 400 Igbo Christian traders alone including 48 of them (killed on 8th day of January 2011 at Dilimi and Bauchi Road Markets in Jos) died, out of over 1000 people killed. According to the Associated Press account, at least, 510 people (most of them Igbo Christians) were killed by Boko-Haram Terror Sect in 2011. In the past three weeks that is to say between 22nd day of December 2011 and 13th day of January 2012, at least 300 innocent Nigerians have been killed. This includes about 60 people including Christmas returnees trapped and slaughtered on Enugu-Abakiliki Road on 31st day of December 2011 as well as 35 Nigerians (rights groups’ account) killed countrywide by over-zealous security forces during the national protests and strikes over “petroleum subsidy removal”. The Inspector General of Police claims that eleven people including two security operatives were killed during the protests.

Strictly speaking Your Excellency, in the past three weeks (22-12-2011-13-01-2012), according to respected local and international media, up to 204 innocent Nigerian Christians including, at least, 150 Igbo Christians have been murdered by “Boko-Haram” Islamist Sect. And out of at least 510 people murdered by the violent Islamist Sect in 2011 (Associated Press), at least 350 of them are Igbo Christians. The targeted and systematic killing of Igbo Christians stems from age-long ethnic hatred, disproportionate police protection, and gross insecurity in the Igbo residential and trading areas of the North as well as Igbo pastoralism (migration). Available statistics from the media concerning the 204 “Boko-Haram” Sect’s killings in the past three weeks show that on 22nd day of December 2011, at least six people (Igbo Christians) were slaughtered in Damaturu, Yobe State, Northeast Nigeria; on 23rd day of December 2011, at least 68 people including (many) Igbo Christians, police personnel and soldiers were killed in bomb blasts believed to have been detonated by violent “Boko-Haram” Sect in Damaturu, Yobe State; on 25th day of December 2011, at least 35 parishioners including over 25 Igbo Christians and two passers-by (Muslims) were massacred at St Theresa’s Catholic Church, Madalla in Suleja, Niger State, North-central Nigeria. The chilling deaths resulted from bombs detonated by the violent “Boko-Haram” Islamist Sect. At least ten more people mainly Igbo Christians were killed in bomb blasts that hit churches in Jos, Plateau State, North-central Nigeria and Gadaka, in Yobe State, Northeast Nigeria.

Furthermore, on Thursday, 5th day of January 2012, at least eight members of the Deeper Life Bible Church many of them Igbo Christians were shot dead by “Boko-Haram” Islamist Sect during their church service in Gombe, Gombe State, Northeast Nigeria; on Friday, 6th day of January 2012, at least 20 Igbo Christian traders were massacred by “Boko-Haram” Islamist Sect in Mubi, Adamawa State, North-west Nigeria. Eighteen of the slain traders are from Adazi-nnukwu Community in Anaocha LGA, Anambra State, Southeast Nigeria. They had gathered in a meeting to plan for the funerals of their fellow Igbo Christian traders, who were killed by the violent Islamist Sect the previous day, when armed “Boko-Haram” elements emerged again at the scene of the meeting and opened fire killing fifteen of them. In the Madalla massacre of 31st day of December 2011, the Awka-etiti Community in Idemili South LGA of Anambra State lost four families. On the same date (6-01-2012) at least, eight members of the Christian Apostolic Church were killed in Yola, Adamawa State by “Boko-Haram” Islamist Sect during their church service. Many of them are Igbo Christians; and on Saturday, 7th day of January 2012, at least, three people were killed in Lamurde area of Adamawa State when “Boko-Haram” related violence broke out.

On Sunday, 8th day of January 2012, “Boko-Haram” Islamist Sect in Borno State, Northeast Nigeria, killed six civilians. According to police and military sources, three civilians died in Maiduguri during an attack launched by the Sect on a military vehicle and three others were shot dead in Biu LGA of the State. At least, three of them are Igbo Christians. On Monday, 9th day of January 2012, twelve members of the Christ Apostolic Church, many of them Igbo Christians were attacked and killed by the “Boko-Haram” Islamist Sect during their church service in Yola, Adamawa State. Eleven of them were killed on the spot, while one of the five of them who were critically injured died later in the Yola Specialist Hospital according to the local media reports.

On Tuesday, 10th day of January 2012, the Associated Press reported that two Igbo Christians were killed in Maiduguri, Borno State. One Col. Victor Ebhalame of the Nigerian Army was quoted as saying that “Boko-Haram” Islamist Sect attacked two Christian homes there killing two. One SSS operative was also reported killed same date in Biu LGA, Borno State. On same date, 10th day of January, 2012, the police sources in Yobe State confirmed that eight Igbo Christians were shot dead by “Boko- Haram” Islamist Sect in a popular beer joint located in Doruwa, Potiskum and another Igbo Christian was killed in his shop in Damaturu all in Yobe State, Northeast Nigeria. On Wednesday, 11th day of January 2012, four Igbo Christians including a woman boarding a 14-seater yellow Mitsubishi bus with a registration number Anambra XE241 NSE were shot dead at MRS Filling Station in Texaco area of Potiskum in Yobe State when they stopped to refuel. They were returning to the Southeast Nigeria when suspected “Boko Haram” Islamist elements alighted from two motorbikes and opened fire killing them instantly at about 11:30am. Three people were reported killed in Pyakiman in Tafawa Balewa LGA in Bauchi State on 11th day of January 2012. On Friday 13th day of January 2012, two Igbo Christians were shot dead in a beer parlour in Yola, Adamawa State and on same date, two more people (Igbo Christians) were shot dead in a food joint located in the Gombe metropolis on Friday night. According to the owner of the food joint, Mrs. Evelyn Sunday, the suspected “Boko-Haram” gunmen arrived the joint, stood at the door and opened fire killing two people on the spot.

From the foregoing Your Excellency, 300 innocent Nigerians have been killed in the past three weeks, that is to say between 22nd day of December 2011 and 13th day of January 2012 and out of this chilling figure, 204 people were killed by “Boko-Haram” Islamist Sect, out of which over 150 are Igbo Christians. This figure represents the recorded incidents alone. Some Igbo residents in the affected areas told Intersociety that a number of “Boko-Haram” related killings go unreported. The remaining 96 killings arose from the massacre of 60 innocent people including Christmas returnees in Ebonyi State, Southeast Nigeria, which took place on 31st day of December 2011, under the pretext of “ prosecuting Ezza-Ezilo inter-communal conflict”. The said conflict, which also led to the death of some innocent road users, has resulted in the loss of over 300 lives since 2008. The 36 other unlawful killings arose from the one-week countrywide strikes and protests over the removal of the Premium Motor Spirit’s subsidy. The 36 deaths, as documented by some rights groups, were as a result of over-zealousness and high-handedness on the part of the Nigeria’s security forces particularly the Nigeria Police Force. Added to 350 Igbo Christians killed by “Boko-Haram” Sect out of 510 people it killed in 2011, it is correct to say that 570 Igbo Christians have been killed in recent months with “Boko-Haram” violent group responsible for 510 in one year, while the Ebonyi State massacre accounted for the remaining 60.

Chillingly Your Excellency, out of the 300 unlawful killings in the past three weeks, 220 are Igbo Christians. Undoubtedly, the killing of Igbo Christians at no provocation in Nigeria particularly in her northern part has become a norm and re-occurring decimal in the country. It is recalled Your Excellency that out of over 16,000 unlawful deaths arising from sectarian violence in Nigeria since 1999, about 50% or 8,000 of them are Igbo Christians, mostly family breadwinners and active population. Further to this is the fact that out of over 5,000 deaths arising from the Jos killings since 2001, at least, 2,000 are Igbo Christians and out of over 2,000 deaths arising from election violence in the country since 1999, about 1000 of them are Igbo Christians. Also, out of over 17,000 police extra-judicial executions in Nigeria since 1999, 40% of them or 7,000, if not more, are Igbo Nigerians. In the plain languages of the Nigeria’s body of laws including the Constitution of Nigeria 1999 as amended, which Your Excellency swore to protect at all times, as well as various international rights treaties, these unprovoked and unwarranted killings amount to “systematic ethnic cleansing, pogrom and crimes against humanity”. While the Igbo race is innocently and patriotically participating in the “Nigerian Project”, there seems to be consolidated efforts by some of her fellow “partners in the Nigerian Project” to wipe her people off the Nigeria Map. Unfortunately and sadly too, these “wipers” seem to enjoy the tacit backing of the government machinery. The Rwandan history and her 1994 genocide tell us that the worst undoing of any government is failure on its part, to protect citizens against the hatred and attacks from other citizens.

The Rwandan genocide of 1994 and the killing in a suspicious plane crash, of the then presidents of Rwanda and Burundi was mainly as a result of the failure of the then Rwandan government to quench the systematic ethnic cleansing directed against each other by the Tutsi (14% of the Rwandan population) and the Hutus (84%). For records Your Excellency, the Twa ethnic group makes up the remaining 1% of the Rwandan population. It was the failure of the then Rwandan government to protect her citizens and her lending supports to the Hutu militia against the Tutsi that forced the Tutsi refugees in Uganda, who helped to bring President Yoweri Museveni to power in 1986, to regroup under the Rwandan Patriotic Front, from where it launched attacks at Kigali in December 1989, which snowballed into a genocide and ousting of the then central government in July 1994. In Israel, any failure on the part of the Government of Israel to protect her citizens at all times will lead to the Israelis being wiped off the world map. The recent assassination of a Tehran professor and director at the Iranian nuclear facility is, perhaps, part of the “security of the State of Israel”. The security of the citizens by government, no matter their tribe or religion, is the “first among equal” as per government’s fundamental responsibilities.

Disproportionate Policing Of The Citizens:
The indiscriminate and ceaseless killing of Igbo Christians, fundamentally, is as a result of lopsidedness or disproportionate policing of Nigerian citizens by Nigerian security forces particularly the Nigeria Police Force. It is correct to say that there exists “hausanization” security policy in the Nigeria Security System. While it is entirely correct to say that most residences of people from the northern Nigeria residing in the southern Nigeria particularly Muslims including their mosques are properly policed and protected by Nigerian security forces, the Igbo Christian residences including their churches are grossly left porous and unprotected by the same security forces. The recent massacre of, at least, 20 Igbo Christians in Mubi, Adamawa State, North-west Nigeria, where a meeting called to plan for the funeral of those killed the previous day, led to the massacre of fifteen more people by the same Islamist armed group that struck and killed some of them the previous day, is a case in point. It is clear to every Tom, Dick and Harry that other than planting and detonating bombs, the armed “Boko-Haram” Islamist Sect makes use of motorbikes in most, if not all of its homicidal operations, yet various police, military and the host State governments’ authorities sit idly and allow tens of Igbo Christians mowed down or slaughtered like cows in their fatherland on daily basis, owing to age-long hate of the race and gross incompetence.

Corruption & Gross Incompetence Not Under-Policing Is The Bane Of The NPF:
We wish to disagree with Your Excellency over Your Excellency’s recent statement to the effect that part of the inability of the Nigeria security forces particularly the Nigeria Police Force to tame the menace of “Boko-Haram” Islamist Sect is because Nigeria has a police ratio of one for 500 Nigerians or that the country is under-policed. Permit us Your Excellency, to say that it is corruption and gross incompetence and not personnel that is the problem of the Nigeria Police Force. Even the United Nations’ basic requirement of one police officer for 400 citizens is becoming out-fashioned owing to the arrival of electronic policing or technological policing and intelligence. Out of over 600,000 legally armed public security personnel in Nigeria, 371,000(Wikipedia Encyclopedia 2011) or about 62.3% of them are from the Nigeria Police Force, yet the Force is disfigured and defaced by corruption and gross incompetence.

As we write Your Excellency, there are varying figures emanating from the offices of the IGP, the Police Affairs Minister and the Chairman, Police Service Commission with respect to the number of police personnel in the Nigeria Police Force. It is recalled that a ministerial audit (Police Affairs) has two years ago (2010) revealed that there existed, and perhaps, still exists about 100,000 ghost police officers in the Force. Perhaps, these discrepancies are deliberate plans by the Force top commanders and its over-sight managements to continue to siphon billions of naira from “personnel and over-heads” of tens of thousands of ghost police officers.

Our recent report (Police Corruption As Human Rights Abuse: How Corrupt Personnel Of The Nigeria Police Force Illegally Enriched The Force With N53.48Billion Arising From Roadblock Extortion In Three Years-2009-2011) released on 11th day of December 2011, depicts the chronic corruption in the Force, which hinders its competence and professionalism. Other than corruption, the “old-school” mentality of the Force’s senior commanders, particularly its CPs, AIGs, DIGs and IGP, who are 50 years and above, is a major hindrance that immunes them from embracing modern policing and intelligence. In the Ivory Tower, for instance, many of the professors of 80s and 90s have either become “old age” computer learners/IT students or have hired “new breed” computer wizards so as to cope with “IT revolution” or evolution in education. In some polytechniques, disciplines such as “Secretarial Studies” with “manual typewriting methods” now bear a new name called “Office Technology Management” in recognition of technological evolution. But in the Nigeria Police Force, it is “old-school till thy kingdom come”. Accurate or sound database for its members is totally absent, not to talk of having a computerized central control system and overall electronic policing. As we write, most of its 371,000(Wikipedia Encyclopedia 2011) personnel are on Nigerian roads particularly in the Southeast, molesting, brutalizing and extorting innocent road users at the instance of the Force top commanders. It is rather saddened that the NPF’s 6,651 field formations countrywide are not digitally connected.

Your Excellency’s several promises of “fighting corruption” are seen by most Nigerians and international watchers of Nigerian events as a ruse because of the corruptive activities of Your Excellency’s police personnel on Nigerian roads. Despite several representations made to Your Excellency by concerned corporate and private citizens including Intersociety, it has continued to appear as if Your Excellency approves of the glaringly graft activities of the Force personnel. If it is true that the police personnel in the country are made to buy their service uniforms and boots as well as fueling and maintaining their operational vehicles, which they claimed made them to extort, then what happens to tens of billions of naira budgeted yearly for such statutory over-head expenditures? Why did the IGP not made to offer explanations to his Commander-in-Chief, if it is true? Why did Your Excellency decide to keep quiet over such gross graft practices particularly roadblock extortion? That is not to say that the forgoing excuses are legally excusable to infract the law and morality. Another bane of the Nigeria Police Force that militates against its preemptive, protective, detective and combative security capacities is the geopolitical lopsidedness in its top command structure. Among the Force’s 37 CPs with State command positions about 24 of them are northern Muslims and among over 60 CPs without State command positions, many, if not most of them are northern Muslims. Among its over 20 AIGs, over 70% or 14 are northern Muslims, and among its seven DIGS four out of the five Muslim DIGs are northern Muslims.

This is a clear violation of Section 14(3) of the Constitution of Nigeria 1999 as amended. From the foregoing, Your Excellency’s recent statement to the effect that “Boko-Haram” Islamist Sect’s elements are in the security forces, executive, legislative and the judicial arms of the Nigeria’s Federal Government may not be far from the truth. Similar imbalances may also abound in other security establishments. In a country like Nigeria that is better referred to as “a consociation democratic society”, or a society where ethnic and religious hatred is age-long, the security sector should not be sectionalized. The “hausanization” of the Nigerian Security System has so degenerated to the extent that today, “Hausa Language” is the second official and compulsory language in all the security establishments after English Language, which is Nigeria’s official language.

In all, Your Excellency, it is deeply sad that these Igbo Christian killings have been treated with kid gloves and along sectional lines by both government and organized labour, possibly on the grounds that “ so far it is Igbo Christians that are being slaughtered, so be it”. We know as a fact that if it were to be Yoruba or Hausa people that are slaughtered, the killings would have become a major national issue and the Federal Government would have arrested it long ago. Unfortunately, though, as expected, consistent priority is given to “fuel subsidy removal” more than the daily slaughtering of innocent Nigerians mostly Igbo Christians. We totally agree with the President of the Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor that the Southern governors particularly the South-east Governors’ Forum failed woefully in their constitutional duties to ensure the safety of their brothers and sisters residing in the northern parts of Nigeria. Their failure as well as the failure of the leaderships of the National Assembly and the South-east Houses of Assembly to rise in strong condemnation of the killings is totally condemned. Individualistic or skeletal condemnations in this respect are immaterial.

Demands:
In view of the pathological hatred, which the Igbo race have continued to receive from other dominant tribes in Nigeria, not minding the robust economic contributions of the race to their economies, the round-the-clock protection of the race that have become endangered species in their fatherland, expressly falls on Your Excellency in accordance with Section 14(2)(b) of the Constitution of Nigeria 1999 as amended as well as her Chapter Four. It is recalled Your Excellency that it was as a result of sustained fears expressed by the Minorities over their insecurity in the would-be independent Nigeria that led to the enshrinement of the “Fundamental Human Rights Clause” into the Independence Constitution of 1960, with the same Constitution commanding the Government to ensure their security at all times, which remained so till date. Therefore, we demand that Your Excellency should take concrete steps to end further slaughtering of Igbo Christians in any part of Nigeria as well as to pacify the souls of those slaughtered so that they can rest in peace and spare Nigeria of dooms of unquenchable proportions to come if their immortal souls are not made to rest eternally.

We wish to restate that contrary to Your Excellency’s recent statement, it is corruption and gross incompetence and not personnel or weapons that is responsible for the woeful failure of the Nigeria Police Force to live up to the country’s mountainous security challenges. To this effect, Your Excellency should take steps to tackle head-on, the rabid corruption in the Force particularly the roadblock extortion. For instance, in our recent report (Police Corruption As Human Rights Abuse) we recommended for the abolition of indiscriminate roadblocks countrywide and their replacement with fewer strategic security checkpoints to be compiled by the IGP and approved by the Federal Executive Council. A DSP or SP should head each of the would-be special security checkpoints with a mixture of secret operatives. We had also in the report advised against over-reliance on anti-riot police personnel as “operational crime fighters”. The need to make the NPF intelligence driven, etc was also emphasized. In view of the fact that the present command structure of the Nigeria Police Force is grossly lopsided geo-politically, we demand that Your Excellency should take immediate steps to remedy the anomaly in accordance with Section 14(3) of the Constitution of Nigeria 1999 as amended.

Also, in other to refocus the Nigeria Police Force and make it responsive to the “scientific policing”, all serving Commissioners of Police, Assistant Inspectors General, Deputy Inspectors General and the IGP, who are 50 years and above should be retired with statutory benefits and among the remaining CPs, DCPs and ACPs, a new IGP with expertise in modern policing should be appointed in accordance with Section 215(1)(a) of the Constitution of Nigeria 1999 as amended. The defence of “experience” is immaterial in a Nigerian sort of police force where “experience” is nothing short of mastery in crookedness, professional incompetence and analogous managerial leadership. As a matter of fact Your Excellency, some incompetent service chiefs should also be replaced. To effectively combat the menaces of “Boko-Haram” Islamist Sect and other security challenges, effective intelligence gathering and usage, and inter-security services coordination and collaborations are required. Solutions to these security challenges do not lie on the bloated security budget of N921Billion or procurement of Armoured Personnel Carriers, Helicopter Gun-ships and machine guns. Any enemy-armed group that is elusive and scientific requires likewise methods to tame it otherwise any contrary security approaches will end up causing more civilian causalities.

We demand that Your Excellency should urgently call a special meeting involving all the 36 States’ governors, the leadership of the National Assembly, the service chiefs and key members of Your Excellency’s federal cabinet so as to find an effective solution to the unprovoked and unwarranted killing of Nigerians particularly the Igbo Christians, just as Your Excellency did few days ago, which resulted in ending the week-long national strikes and protests over “fuel subsidy removal”. This is because information reaching us as at Tuesday 17th day of January 2012, indicated that house to house search of Igbo residents and killing of Igbo Christians are still going on in Maiduguri, Damaturu, Potiskum and other parts of the north that are worse hit by the systematic ethnic killings. The worst is that those of them who want to return to their communities in the Southeast are trapped. We fear that the killing patterns may have been changed to secret and unreported killings, with security forces suppressing the figures, when rarely reported.

We wish to use this opportunity to call on the Southeast Governors’ Forum and the transporters of Southeast extraction to send vehicles with security back-up to the affected areas so as to evacuate their entrapped brothers and sisters particularly those residing in Jigawa, Borno, Adamawa, Gombe and Yobe States pending when the porous security situations in the areas are nipped in the bud. These dire situations are as a result of the incompetence and seeming incapacity of the Federal and the host States’ Governments to guarantee and ensure their safety.

Lastly Your Excellency, as a party to the Statute for International Criminal Court, which Nigeria ratified in 2001, we demand that Your Excellency writes and invites the new Chief Prosecutor for International Criminal Court, Madam Fatou Bensaida and her team to Nigeria to commence investigations into these chilling killings, particularly the slaughtering of Igbo Christians in the North, as well as the Jos killings, so as to truly unmask those involved, whether they are in government, ethnic or religious enclaves. This is in line with the recent public statement issued by Madam Navanethen Pillay, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. It is also in accordance with relevant provisions of the ICC Statute and the Charter of the United Nations.

Signed:

Emeka Umeagbalasi
Chairman, Board of Trustees
For:
International Society for Civil Liberties & the Rule Of Law

The National Economic Council (NEC) Thursday reached an agreement with the Federal Government to refund about N350 billion owed states for the construction and maintenance of federal roads across the country.

To facilitate the exercise, the Council directed the Federal Ministry of Works to speed up the verification and harmonisation of the claims so that the Federal Government could raise the money for the payment.

Briefing journalists after its meeting, Governors Theodore Orji of Abia State, Olusegun Mimiko of Ondo State, Murtala Nyako of Adamawa State, and Shehu Shema of Katsina said the meeting agreed that the verification was to ensure that states were reimbursed their expenditure on federal roads.

“In the effort towards ensuring better maintenance of roads across the country, the Federal Government has mandated the Federal Ministry of Works to speed up work on the verification and harmonisation of claims on states spending on federal roads to ensure that the states are reimbursed their spending in this regard.

“A special provision is being made by the Federal Government to raise the money for the payment which stands at over N350 billion. To ensure proper maintenance of federal roads, states are encouraged to continue with routine maintenance of such roads provided they comply with new procedures for such intervention,” Orji who spoke on the issue said.

On the power sector reform, Shema said states had been given the nod to work with accredited distribution companies while National Independent Plants (NIPP) would be on completion, adding that privatised, states, Federal Government and the Nigerian Electricity Commission would hold 49 per cent equity after due evaluation of the companies had been carried out.

However, they are not expected to play any management role in the total equity of these companies which would retain the present 11-company structure, while the core investors would enter into a shareholders’ agreement with the federal and state governments.

"The state that desires to establish or build independent electricity distribution networks within the areas of its states not currently served or being served by the distribution companies, is free to do so by obtaining a franchise. This will be subjected to obtaining a licence from NERC without any delay," Shema said.

On agriculture, Nyako said they agreed to deepen cooperation between federal and state governments to boost agriculture which would also include completion of existing dam projects in their joint bid to ensure food security.

In addition, Ondo, Plateau and Adamawa States were asked to submit their agricultural and productivity enhancement plans in order to access funds from Commercial Agricultural Loans Scheme following their presentation.

"Following a comprehensive presentation on Agric Productivity Enhancement Practices jointly made by Adamawa, Ondo and Plateau States, each state has been asked to submit proposals on their comprehensive agric plans to be able to access funding from Commercial Agriculture Credit Scheme (CACS) administered by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). The ministries of Agriculture, Water Resources and CBN are collaborating towards funding the necessary agricultural developments in the states with available funds," Nyako said.

The plan to decentralise the Ministry of Agriculture, Nyako continued, would kick off with the creation of regional state offices in accordance with the promised agricultural reforms expected to engender effective monitoring of agricultural processes in the states.

"Those offices will be on ground to work directly with farmers in implementing agricultural value chains. Other areas of reforms being implemented include public, private sector collaboration in fertiliser procurement and distribution, setting up of marketing corporations, the establishment of agricultural investment framework and transmission of a bill on 40 per cent cassava flour content to ensure compliance," he said.

http://thejuristlaws..com/2012/01/states-to-get-n350bn-reimbursement-over.html

Lagos – Eighteen ships laden with petroleum products have arrived in Lagos ports, according to the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA).
The shipping position made available by NPA on Wednesday in Lagos indicated that the ships were among the 49 ships that arrived in the ports.
The shipping position showed that 14 of the ships arrived during the nationwide strike called by the organised labour to press the Federal Government to revert the pump price of petrol from N141 to N65.
Thirty-one out of the 49 ships are laden with bulk cargoes, including rice, general cargoes, vehicles, bulk wheat, bulk cement and fish.
The 61 other ships are also being expected in Lagos between now and end of the month. (NAN)

UMUAHIA. Protesters staged a peaceful protest in the capital city against the killing of Igbos in the northern part of the country. The governor in his address to the protesters assured all Igbos that their lives and properties will be safeguarded as the government has taken adequate stems to end the killings. He also reiterated the importance of living in peace and love among Abians and non-Abians. Prayers were offered for the soul of the reposed.

The Coalition of Civil Society, Labour and the Nigerian Bar Association in Kaduna State on Tuesday suspended street protests against the removal of fuel subsidy by the federal government, asking residents of the state and protesters to remain at home and await further directives from labour.
This is coming on the second day of the nationwide strike and protests ordered by organised labour across the country, just as they accused the government of ordering security agents to shoot protesters.

The coalition said at a news conference at the Labour House, Kaduna that in view of the peculiar security situation in the state and the fact that they don’t want a repeat of what happened in Kano and Lagos to happen in the state, they decided to suspend street protests while asking residents to continue with the strike by remaining in their houses.

Chairman of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) in the state said that the coalition will from time to time update the populace on development about the strike, pointing out that labour wants the strike which began peacefully to end peacefully.
He said, “We don’t want a breakdown of law and order in the state and that is why we decided to suspend street protests for now. We have meet at the level of NLC and other civil society groups and the NBA and have agreed to suspend street protests.

“We want to plead with the people that are protesting on the streets to go back to their houses. It is only the people that are saddled with the responsibility of monitoring the strike that are expected in the NLC secretariat daily.
“The NLC, TUC, NBA and civil society groups will be addressing press conferences at every point in time when the need arises. We want to cease this opportunity to plead with our people who are supporting this strike not to take the laws into their hands.”

http://thejuristlaws..com/2012/01/streets-protests-suspended-in-kaduna.html

thejurist:
the government position is for the interest of the people, abia house endorsed fuel subsidy removal. igbos are killed no protest, let the yorubas and others lead the struggle after all the igbos started this in 1967 and the rest were against us. i beg igbos to be mindful before embarking on protest cos others might sell out as usual and leave us to suffer the implications

@thejurist, i agree with you, This strike action is not the best for us rit now. Southerners are being killed in the north for an unjust course, while others are on the streets agitating for the removal of oil subsidy, Abians are calm and now the governor has ordered that workers should return to work. This is really ok with me. Long live Abia state

Well, the Abia government has supported the federal government on subsidy and that is why the governor has ordered the return of civil servants back to work.
This is a welcome development. I wish all south-south and south-east governors will follow suite.

Gunmen opened fire on a church service in Nigeria on Thursday, killing six people and wounding 10, the church's pastor said, the latest in a string of attacks that has raised fears of sectarian conflict in the country.
"The attackers started shooting sporadically. They shot through the window of the church, and many people were killed including my wife," Pastor Johnson Jauro told Reuters by telephone from his Deeper Life church in Gombe State in northern Nigeria.

"Many of my members who attended the church service were also injured," he said.
The gun attack followed a warning from violent Islamist sect Boko Haram published in local newspapers on Tuesday that Christians had three days to leave majority Muslim northern Nigeria or they would be killed.
Analysts say it looks increasingly likely the group - or factions within it - wants to trigger reprisals from Christians against Muslims to bring on a full religious conflict.
Nigeria is evenly split between the two faiths.

The militant group also claimed responsibility for a series of bomb attacks across Nigeria on Christmas Day, including one at a church near the capital Abuja that killed at least 37 people and wounded 57.

http://thejuristlaws..com/2012/01/gunmen-kill-six-in-gombe-church-attack.html

UMUAHIA—THE effects of the removal of subsidy on petrol has continued to bite harder in Abia State as some people who returned for the Christmas and New Year celebrations and are now stranded in their villages have resorted to selling their belongings to raise transport fare back to their various stations.

Many people who had the celebration in their rural communities were surprised at the high cost of transportation when they came to Umuahia to board vehicles back to their places of abode.

At least three men were seen at one of the luxurious bus parks in Umuahia trying to trade off their Black Berry phones at give away prices to enable them raise money to transport themselves back.

“It is better I sell the phone and get back to resume my work than stay here and lose my job.

“When things settle down, I can buy another Black Berry. I will manage my small phones. This is life,” one of the passengers returning to Abuja said.

Vanguard learnt that many people who are still stranded on account of the hike in transport fares have sold some of their items, ranging from wrist watches to telephones and even clothes to enable them return to their bases.

Meanwhile, Governor Theodore Orji was said to have liaised with a transport company to ferry some Abians stranded back to their places.

Those to benefit are people residing in Abuja, Lagos, Kaduna, Kano, Sokoto and other destinations,

….As fares increase in Enugu
By TONY EDIKE
ENUGU— Commuters in Enugu State have continued to experience severe hardship on account of the removal of fuel subsidy as transport fares have skyrocketed.

There has been astronomical increase in intra and inter state transport fares making it impossible for those who tralleved for the Yuletide to get back to their places of residence.

Even civil servants who resumed work after the New Year holiday on Tuesday were finding it difficult to get to their offices owing to about 200 percent increase in transport fares.

There has, however, not been any noticeable increase in cost of foodstuffs in Enugu since the withdrawal of fuel subsidy.

Traders attributed the situation to the absence of buyers and low patronage.

Ironically, the worrisome hike in transport fares which has forced many who travelled to remain in their villages, has led to a brisk business by transporters.

Transport fare from Enugu to Nsukka which was N250 jumped to N900; a journey by luxury bus to Lagos jumped to N7, 000 from N3,000.

In the intra city fares, a drop by bus which usually attracts N30 is now N100. Taxi drops are as high as N1,000 and N3,000 while Okada charges cut-throat fares.

Enugu to Onitsha by bus which normally costs N350 now costs between N1,200 and N1,500.

In the same vein, mass transit buses from Enugu to Abuja which costs N2,800 before the subsidy removal, now costs N7,000 just as bus fare to Port Harcourt which was N800 now costs between N2,500 and N3,000.

But a renowned transporter, Chief Sam Maduka Onyishi condemned the fare increase by long distance luxury bus operators.

Onyishi who is the Managing Director of Peace Mass Transit said it was inhuman for them to increase their fares as the subsidy withdrawal did not affect gas which the luxury buses and other heavy duty vehicles use.

Onyishi who has over 2,000 Hiace combi buses on his fleet said he made only 30 percent increase, although the subsidy withdrawal was 120 percent.

http://thejuristlaws..com/2012/01/subsidy-removal-utomi-faults-fg.html


The Director of Lagos Business School, Prof Pat Utomi has denounced the Federal Government imposition of collective tax on Nigerians in the guise of deregulation of the prices of Premium Motor Spirit, PMS.

Prof Utomi, who was the presidential candidate of Social Democratic Mega Party, SDMP, said the Federal Government has sold a dummy to Nigerians that the increase in the pump price of fuel was a product of its policy on deregulation “when in actual fact the government is using it as a disguised taxation on petroleum, to raise revenue as it is still business as usual in the process of importation and distribution of fuel by cronies and lackeys of government.”
Prof Utomi said a genuine process of deregulation of the petroleum sector will entail transparent process of privatisation and divestment of government interest, encouragement of new players, especially those that want to set up private refineries, and restriction of governments role to regulation and collection of taxes.”

According to Prof Utomi, “what we have today is the Federal Government hiding behind PPPRA to use its cronies that import petroleum products from outside the country to bring in the product, and sell to Nigerians at a price that is collectively agreed between the importers and the PPPRA to the detriment of the already impoverished Nigerians”.

He said ‘’What the Federal Government is selling to Nigerians in the guise of deregulation is a tax on fuel because it wants to generate and put more revenue in the hands of government at the expense of the people”.
He said for us to experience economic progress in the country, they must be a balance between the critical sectors of the economy namely the public sector, the business sector, foreign investment and household or personal finance, non of these sectors must develop at the expense of the other” It must be recalled that the inability of household to spend in the United States led to the meltdown in 2008”

According to him, “there is a complete misunderstanding of the process of deregulation and what government intends to achieve from imposing a tax on price of petrol. In other countries where such policy is implemented, the idea is usually to encourage people to use public transport like the train system, and discourage them from using their SUVs that are known for their high consumption of petrol”.

He said the philosophy behind the setting up of the Kolade Committee “is to borrow on the moral authority of Dr. Christopher Kolade and the credibility of other Nigerians to pacify Nigerians to accept the new policy, if there is deregulation, we do not need the Kolade Committee to manage the proceeds of subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme”.
He said “there is no deregulation in what the government has done, rather, it is imposition of taxes on petroleum products because some faceless individuals rather than market forces, are the ones to determine the prices of petroleum products”.

He said government has not addressed the issue of improving the capacity of domestic refining of petroleum product which will create jobs and economy of scale. It has not addressed the issue of cutting down on the irresponsible spending of government, which includes keeping 11 air crafts in presidential fleet, when the entire country has no national carrier.

Prof. Utomi said if there is proper deregulation, corporate organisations and individuals will be encouraged to build refineries, ‘’but there are some vested interests that would not want to see the country refine petroleum locally.
According to him, if there is proper deregulation, prices will go up in the interim, but competition will drive the price down, but what is happening now is government trying to use power to force a fuel tax on Nigerians. I can assure you that in six months time we will come back to the issue of subsidy on fuel.

http://thejuristlaws..com/2012/01/subsidy-removal-utomi-faults-fg.html

http://pmnewsnigeria.com/2012/01/04/in-photos-lagosians-protest-federal-governments-removal-of-fuel-subsidy/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+PmNewsNigeria+%28PM+News+Nigeria%29

Pictures of protest in Lagos yesterday,

Click on link to view,

http://pmnewsnigeria.com/2012/01/04/in-photos-lagosians-protest-federal-governments-removal-of-fuel-subsidy/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+PmNewsNigeria+%28PM+News+Nigeria%29

Please, can someone explain to me what this biofuel thing is all about? And how can it be of benefits to us as an alternative source of energy?

PPA, forget it, APGA maybe, For APGA they stand a better chance to upstage PDP in the south-east but they have to come together and device a strategy of winning the people of south east to their side. Rochas needs to prove to the people that APGA is the answer for south eastherns. My fear is that he might go back to PDP, you know they have a way of lobbying people over to their party, APGA the ball is in your court, Let's see what you can do

AGAINST claims by the Federal Government that it was subsidizing fuel with over N1.3 trillion, it has been revealed  that Nigerians were already over-paying for fuel, as the actual cost of a litre of petrol ought to be N39.50k.
This was disclosed in Benin, Edo State, yesterday, in a communiqué at the end of a Town Hall Meeting organised by a Coalition to Save Nigeria, CSN, made up of Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC; Nigerian Bar Association, NBA; Nigerian Medical Association, NMA, civil society organisations, professional bodies, students, market women and artisans.
According to the communiqué, “Nigerians are prepared to resist the decimation of their lives by mobilising professional organisations, labour and the great people to resist fuel price increase that has been tagged subsidy removal.”
The communiqué further said if the government could not check corruption in various ministries, departments and agencies, it should admit it and quit for those who have the capacity to do so.
While saying the government could no longer be trusted, participants at the Town Hall meeting called for downward review of pump price of fuel to N39.50k per litre, just as it called on government to account for the excess money for fuel price increase since June 1999.
“Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, having demonstrated lack of adequate knowledge of the working of the Nigerian economy, and being the eye of the World Bank ‘policy trinity’ of the elimination of the public sphere, total liberation for corporations and skeletal social spending, therefore should be removed as minister,” the communiqué said.
Former Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, President, Prof. Festus Iyayi, in his speech on the occasion advanced reasons why Nigerians should not accept fuel price increase, insisting that the petroleum products market has since been fully deregulated.
http://www.vanguardngr.com/2011/12/actual-cost-of-petrol-is-n39-50-per-litre-coalition/
http://thejuristlaws..com/2011/12/actual-cost-of-petrol-is-n3950-per.html

I

SSaemoenl:
Abians have no option than to manage what they have with this clueless Governor

I hate sycophants like u, who will never see anything good in Abia state. What do u kw about governance. You have to be very careful when making senseless comments.

At the end of the just concluded Institute of Software Practitioners of Nigeria, (ISPON) national software conference and competition held in Tinapa, Calabar, Cross River State, participants rose up from the conference saying that there was need to retool the national workforce with ICT with particular reference to Civil Service operations by making all workers ICT literate and skilled.

The conference with the theme, “A Framework for Software as a National Imperative for a 21st Century Nigeria.” amongst others exploreed, assessed, evaluated and determined the software-readiness status of Nigeria and provided an all inclusive ‘Framework for software as a National Imperative for a 21st Century Nigeria.‘

The onference which attracted global IT professionals, business community, academia, NGOs, stakeholders and distinguished resource persons and facilitators who are world experts and champions in software engineering and classified as highly experienced, skilled and visionary afforded the participants the opportunity to unfold a roadmap for a 21st century Nigeria.

At the end of the conference however, the ISPON conference recommended the following

*There is a fundamental need for a strategic Framework for Software as a National Imperative for a 21st Century Nigeria, Federal Government should therefore accelerate the actualization and approval processes for the adoption of the National Software Strategy/Policy for Nigeria.

* Enhancing the Software-Readiness status for Nigeria requires a conscious political will anddemands that the President become the driving force behind ICT development – nationally and internationally.

*Establish a National Software Innovation Fund and encourage Software Competition at all levels of education and entrepreneurship.

*Increase ICT Investment and funding – ensuring that her national IT spend is scaled-up to between 10-12% of the National Budget.

*Policy makers should view National Software and related services issues as the key and strategic local content component for actualizing economic policy and national development, ensuring that the policies and programs they put in place spur digital transformation and benefit societies at large.

*Ensuring that consistent, energy supply and Broadband-centric ICT Infrastructure, Leadership and political will and that IT Skilled Capacity Building should become the strategic imperatives for National development *Adopt multi-stakeholder PPP approach to ICT policy re-engineering, that government and the private sector should work in concert to establish a national framework that offers the right incentives to encourage venture capital investment which includes the necessary structure to develop knowledge-based human capital.

* There is need to sponsor an executive Bill on National Information Technology Framework capable of promoting the following Acts: Indigenous Software Content Act, IT Law and Cyber Crime Act, e-Education Act. Digital Signature Act, National Information Infrastructure Protection Act and others.

*Develop ICT industry clusters of Knowledge Science and Innovation Parks such as the Tinapa Knowledge City that can drive the economy by contributing to the GPD, building sustainable businesses and creating knowledge intensive jobs.

* There is an urgent need to review the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) program and re-engineer its function to engage the opportunities in Business Process Offshoring/Outsourcing. (BPO)

* Institute a National Software Competition Initiative at all levels of Education in Federal, State and local Government Areas. Establish ICT Departments at all levels of Government operations at the Federal, State and Local Government.

*Retool the National Workforce with ICT with particular reference to Civil Service operations by making all workers ICT literate and skilled.

At this global conference, scientific and professional papers were presented on very important issues/topics with special focus on strategies for ‘‘Framework for Software as a National Imperative for a 21st Century Nigeria.‘‘ Special mention was made on how National Software Policy Engineering is important in achieving Vision 20-2020 and the mission of re-branding and transforming Nigeria.

It embraced the incubation and development of Software for enhancing productivity, creating new jobs, enabling more efficient businesses, producing higher quality of goods and services, and leading to greater innovation for the creation of wealth.

For one thing, the conference observed that the emerging technologies are speedily moving the world into a globalized Information Society (IS). It also recognized that unless Software is recognized and made the engine room of Nation-Building, many of the economic and social developments in our nation may become unattainable.

All the above critical issues make re-engineering the dynamics of National Software Policy and e- Government a strategic imperative for Nigeria. The conference evaluated and recognized with great concern that the current ICT e-readiness Framework in Nigeria is grossly inadequate – especially in the areas of National Power Generation and Supply.

Information Infrastructure, Automation of Government processes, Electronic Payment, e-Education, Capacity building with special emphasis on Software Engineering Skills and ICT Network and Internet Security.

In view of all the above, ICT leaders, Government policy makers, experts and stakeholders who were present at the Conference and witnessed the outcome and highlights of the National Software Competition between 20 teams from Nigeria Tertiary Institution have endorsed this communiqué with the following recommendation.

The conference was hosted by the ISPON and Government of Cross Rriver State of Nigeria in collaboration with the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) and Nigeria Computer Society (NCS) hosted an International Software Conference and Competition in Tinapa, Calabar, Cross River State, Nigeria.

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2011/12/new-horizon-commissions-n150m-resource-centre-in-bowen-university/

THIS year, Nigerian youths have participated in quite a number of competitions aimed at bringing out the best in them, especially in the area of information and communications technology. One of such competitions, and perhaps the biggest and the most glamorous is the Imagine Cup competition, sponsored by software giant, Microsoft Corporation.

Also, search engine supremo, Google, has also sponsored contests aimed at unleashing the hidden potentials of Nigerians youths. At the local level, the Institute of Software Practitioners of Nigeria, ISPON, has also organized a software contest which was won by a team of developers from Abia State Polytechnic.

Very soon, by the grace of the Almighty, we will enter a new year, and the round of contests by various companies and organizations will begin again. Our youths will participate, the media will report their participation, and as seems to be the case, that will be all, until the next competition comes round.

Private sector apathy

While our governments have their problems, one is quite disturbed at the attitude of captains in the private sector. Here, nobody seems interested in commercializing any local invention, unlike in the western world. Can we count the number of people that made money from the inventions of Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla?

In an earlier instalment of this column, I wrote about a university don, Dr Ajibola Meshida who won the NLNG Prize for Science in 2008. Dr Meshida’s invention of lateralite, an earth substance, qualified him for the prize. Lateralite, which I saw at Dr Meshida’s laboratory at the University of Lagos, had been immersed in water under different conditions for months; Dr Meshida said that if used in road construction, our roads would not be failing every rainy season as they do now.

His expectation was that some investor would happen along and a lateralite works would be set up, which construction firms can buy and use to make our roads. Since we all profit more from roads that fail serially; nobody has deemed it wise to invest in Dr Meshida’s lateralite.

Local software solutions

In ICT, there are many software firms in this country with lots of reliable solutions for business. My own wonder is why all these software developers have not packed bag and baggage and left for Burkina Faso, since businesses here, especially banks obstinately prefer to use software developed in the US, Europe, India, or some other South-East Asian nation.

What they forget, and conveniently too, is that these nations got to where they are today by patronising local talent, which then grew in leaps and bounds to become global giants that we know them to be today.

Once upon a time electronics products from a particular South-East Asian nation was popular here and we called them sub-standard; but that is now in the past. Our repeated patronage of that country’s “fake”products enabled them to grow, and now are quite global in standard, commanding prices like “originals”from Japan or Europe.

This is an appeal to our private sector to have a rethink and patronise local software, it is the only real way to grow local expertise in ICT. Even if our governments set up countless technology incubation centres that churn out ICT products and patents by the thousands, if there is no market for them, the effort would have been wasted. Let’s think, talk, walk, and work Nigerian, all the time.

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2011/12/it-incubation-centres-expect-new-generation-of-software-entreprenuers-johnson-promises/

Abia State Governor Theodore Orji has unfolded plans to weed out ghost workers from the state’s public service by introducing biometric measures.

He solicited the understanding of labour unions to sanitise the state and local government services.
Orji said there are many ghost workers in the local governments drawing salaries without working every month. They are being shielded by certain vested interests, he said.

The governor assured the people of maximum security during the Christmas and new year festivities, urging indigenes of the state to return home for the celebrations.

He told a gathering of Abians in Lagos that his administration would combat kidnapping and other forms of violence during the period, announcing that additional 42 patrol vehicles would be distributed to security agencies to tackle crime during the Yuletide.

The governor also said that, in many towns and villages, there would be no power outage because the Independent Power Project (IPP) has filled the gap.

Orji was guest of the Abia Think Tank, a group of intellectuals, technocrats, politicians and businessmen in Lagos, which held an annual lecture delivered by the former university don and media guru, Dr Chidi Amuta. The lecture was entitled; “State of the state: Abia on my mind”.

Amuta decried the high cost of governance across the three tiers, advising those at the helm of affairs to cut the political bureaucracy at the state and federal levels.

He said: “The number of ministries and parastatals must be cut down to reduce redundancy. Job for the boys to compensate political followers must end”.

Governor Orji who tendered his stewardship said security, infrastructural development, social services and housing would remain the priorities of his administration.

He charged the elite in the state to participate in politics and governance, assuring that the state has been liberated from political, economic and social bondage of the past.

The governor enjoined indigenes wishing to celebrate Christmas at home never to hesitate to do so, adding that government would guarantee security of life and property during and after the period.

He regretted that the image of the state had been dented by kidnapping, stressing that the bad media report has continued, despite the improved security in the state.

Orji unfolded plans to build a new secretariat, Government House, more health centres, and houses for the poor. He said, following down-sizing, N20,100 is being paid monthly as the minimum wage for workers.

http://www.thenationonlineng.net/2011/index.php/politics/30290-abia-tackles-insecurity-ghost-workers.html

http://www.ghanamma.com/2011/12/abia-tackles-insecurity-ghost-workers/

Abia State Governor Theodore Orji has unfolded plans to weed out ghost workers from the state’s public service by introducing biometric measures.

He solicited the understanding of labour unions to sanitise the state and local government services.

Orji said there are many ghost workers in the local governments drawing salaries without working every month. They are being shielded by certain vested interests, he said.

The governor assured the people of maximum security during the Christmas and new year festivities, urging indigenes of the state to return home for the celebrations.

He told a gathering of Abians in Lagos that his administration would combat kidnapping and other forms of violence during the period, announcing that additional 42 patrol vehicles would be distributed to security agencies to tackle crime during the Yuletide.

The governor also said that, in many towns and villages, there would be no power outage because the Independent Power Project (IPP) has filled the gap.

Orji was guest of the Abia Think Tank, a group of intellectuals, technocrats, politicians and businessmen in Lagos, which held an annual lecture delivered by the former university don and media guru, Dr Chidi Amuta. The lecture was entitled; “State of the state: Abia on my mind”.

Amuta decried the high cost of governance across the three tiers, advising those at the helm of affairs to cut the political bureaucracy at the state and federal levels.

He said: “The number of ministries and parastatals must be cut down to reduce redundancy. Job for the boys to compensate political followers must end”.

Governor Orji who tendered his stewardship said security, infrastructural development, social services and housing would remain the priorities of his administration.

He charged the elite in the state to participate in politics and governance, assuring that the state has been liberated from political, economic and social bondage of the past.

The governor enjoined indigenes wishing to celebrate Christmas at home never to hesitate to do so, adding that government would guarantee security of life and property during and after the period.

He regretted that the image of the state had been dented by kidnapping, stressing that the bad media report has continued, despite the improved security in the state.

Orji unfolded plans to build a new secretariat, Government House, more health centres, and houses for the poor. He said, following down-sizing, N20,100 is being paid monthly as the minimum wage for workers.

http://www.ghanamma.com/2011/12/abia-tackles-insecurity-ghost-workers/

What is this HIV talk and stuff. Is it true?

Governor Babangida Aliyu of Niger State has called for discreet negotiations with the Islamic militant group, Boko Haram, who he claimed are inspired by misguided Islamic teachers.

Denying popular claims that Islamic suicide bombers would have a special place of pleasure and privilege in heaven, Aliyu in an interview in the January, 2012 edition of Africa Today, also lamented the dilapidated state of the nation’s refineries which he said generated the unnecessary controversy on the removal of fuel subsidy.

Aliyu, who is also Chairman of the Northern Governors’ Forum also bemoaned the north’s failure to develop the region despite providing leadership for the country for most of its first decade of independence.

While observing an international dimension to the Boko Haram crisis, he said:

“We must not also run away from the international dimension of this crisis. Borno is a border state to Chad. We know what is happening in Sudan. We know what has happened in Libya. We know when Qaddafi was alive the kind of relationship he was having with some of these neighbouring countries.”

In calling for discreet negotiations with the group, he said: “Negotiation with these people does not have to be a formal government negotiation.”

Using the example of Borno, where the Boko Haram’s violent campaign is fiercest, the governor said: “We have religious leaders in Borno, we have the traditional rulers. They could be empowered to go into negotiation with this people.”

Casting blame on those he described as misguided Islamic preachers for the crisis, he told Africa Today: “At times, if you go to hear the kind of sermon they make, you will be wondering whether it is an Islamic sermon or it’s just a sermon of somebody who is annoyed with the society.”

Faults promise of paradise

Faulting the promise of paradise given to lure potential suicide bombers, he said: “Any good Muslim will tell you that suicide is not part of Islam. In fact, we have it that if you commit suicide you will not go into paradise no matter your reason. So for anybody to say he is a suicide bomber because he is extending Islamic tenets is not true.

“Nothing happens in the village or community without the knowledge of the traditional rulers. So any movement of foreign people in a village they will detect. But maybe because we are now in a modern age of the SSS (State Security Service) nobody places attention to them.”


*Gov Aliyu Babangida

Blasts northerners

Aliyu also lamented that the North failed to take advantage of its dominance of political power in the country to develop itself, saying: “Of the over 50 years independence, in terms of leadership, how many years have northerners provided leadership for this country? So in terms of commensurate reward what should have happened?”

Noting that the North has all it takes to develop the region but cannot do so unless it goes in search of new answers because “when you have a certain section of the society that is already becoming violent, it means that the old answers are no longer viable; you need to look for new answers. And I hope we are honest with one another, otherwise we will continue to be backward.”

…urges FG to repair refineries

Aliyu also urged a reorientation of ideological perspectives in the North, saying: “You need to conserve what is conservative and you need to progress where you need to. You can’t continue to be conservative when the people need education, you need infrastructure to be able to take care of the people. Now if you cannot do that, then definitely there is nothing to conserve.”

Lamenting what he saw as the systematic destruction of the country’s refineries, he said the argument on fuel subsidy removal would have been unnecessary if the nation’s refineries were functional.

He said: “If the refineries are working or there are refineries in the country, the talk of subsidy won’t be there,” and insisted that Nigeria has found it impossible to make its refineries work “because those who are getting free money would not want it to work.”

Facility will redistribute traffic away from Lekki- Fashola

Competition in the shopping mall business is set to be ignited, with the opening Wednesday, of the new Ikeja Shopping Mall, twenty- one months after construction work started, a project that underscores the Lagos State Government’s drive for even development across the state and job creation opportunities.

The new mall, situated on Awolowo Way, Alausa, Lagos, is poised to strengthen Ikeja’s credentials as a key shopping district, and is seen as a major development for the area and one with great potential to give the existing big malls in the Victoria Island axis of Lagos, a big challenge for customer attraction.

The Victoria Island area of Lagos State has been the major shopping hub of the state, with shopping malls like Shop rite, Mega Plaza , Spar and The Galleria, dominating the skyline. The concentration of these malls in Victoria Island had also been viewed as one of the reasons for the heavy flow of traffic into the area, particularly at weekends.

Analysts say they envisage healthy competition now, as quite a sizable number of shoppers will be directed away from the big malls on the Island to the Ikaja, particularly those who previously shopped on the Island and those that reside on the mainland but were compelled to shop on the Island.

Built at a cost of nearly $100 million, of which $48.6 million was sourced as loan from Stanbic IBTC Bank, the world class retail and leisure mall is an initiative of Actis, a world leading private equity investor with interest in emerging markets, which holds majority shareholding of 60 percent. Other stakeholders in the mall are Paragon Holdings and RMBIA, with 20 percent shareholdings each.

The mall, second of such facility in Lagos after the Palms Mall on the Island , comprises 27, 000 square metres of gross built area and 23,000 square metres of lettable area.

The entire complex accommodates about 100 shops operated by some known names such as Shoprite and KFC. Other players within the mall are Mr Price, Twice as Nice, Nike and Aldo, Silverbird Cinema, incorporating informal meeting places, food hall and relaxation.

Governor Babatunde Fashola, speaking at the opening of the facility, said the coming of many more new small businesses in Lagos is an attestation to the fact that the economy of the state is growing.

“Everywhere you see a small opening; it is a positive sign for that economy, the governor said, adding that this also exposes the fallacy in the argument that the Lagos economy is losing business.”

http://www.businessdayonline.com/NG/index.php/news/76-hot-topic/30902-100m-mall-ignites-ikeja-vi-retail-shopping-competition

About eight children recently stolen from some communities in Imo State have been recovered by the State Police Command.

The current development, according to a police source, may have finally burst the child stealing syndicate that has troubled residents of the state for sometime.

Vanguard investigations revealed that the lucky children were recovered in Enugu and Anambra states, by a team of crack detectives, following credible information made available to them.

The success story started last Sunday, when a middle-aged woman was apprehended by the vigilante group of Nekede community and quickly handed over to the police for investigation.

It was also gathered that as soon as the kidnap suspect was thoroughly grilled by the police, she released the name of her sponsor, resident in Enugu.

“The police quickly moved to Enugu, arrested the person, released three children in her custody and moved them to Owerri,” the police officer recounted.

Some of the children, who are now reunited with their parents, include those kidnapped after attending children’s mass at Saint Mulumba’s Catholic Parish, Owerri.

All those who spoke to Vanguard on the issue, commended the police for breaking the dreaded criminal gang that has kept parents sleepless in Imo.

They appealed to security agencies to ensure that all the persons connected to the criminal act were promptly made to face the full weight of the law.

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2011/12/police-burst-kidnapping-syndicaterescue-eight-children/

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2011/12/ekiti-bomb-blast-opc-rules-out-boko-haram-2/

ADO-EKITI—The Oodua Peoples Congress, OPC, yesterday, ruled out the possibility of the Boko Haram sect being involved in Monday’s bomb blast at the INEC office in Ekiti.

Founder of the OPC, Dr. Frederick Fasheun, told the News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, on telephone in Lagos that “Nigeria should not put every episode of violence on the laps of the Boko Haram.

“I won’t subscribe to Boko Haram being responsible for the Ekiti bombing.”

He said that security operatives must find and fish out those responsible, otherwise, the nation would continue to look at Boko Haram, while other people take advantage to commit crimes.

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2011/12/ekiti-bomb-blast-opc-rules-out-boko-haram-2/

INEC office in Ikole Ekiti was on Monday bombed by unidentified persons.

In the past few weeks 9jaconnect has been releasing some facts on the activities of Mr. Jackson Ude of Pointblank news. In our first story which was exclusive, we revealed how Jackson Ude reached an agreement to work for Eunice Orji Kalu, mother of former Abia State Governor, having failed to refund the money he was given to publicize Orji Uzor kalu failed presidential ambition.

we also revealed exclusively how Jackson Ude was caught with 3.6 million dollars and is being detained. Our last shot on Jackson was on his HIV /AIDS status and the fact that he is gay.
Today 9jaconnect has been vindicated following a story he ran on his chop chop website being ran by one Churchill Umuren, since Jackson is a stark illiterate.

Reading the story on pointblank on Abia, a discerning mi will see how Jackson exposed his relationship with Eunice Orji Uzor Kalu, as he went all out to defend her in what he termed as story.

We have been vindicated at last. Jackson who is from Ohafia Abia State has shown that all the story h is doing on the State is biased and sponsored. So you can see the connection between him and the Orji Uzor Kalu's family.

Jackson never reported the case a lady who died in OUK’s house in the U.S.A, unlike other credible new sites like Sahara reporters, Elendu reports etc.

For avoidance of doubt, 9jaconnect is an independent media organ established to correct the ills of the society and to revealed the hypocrisy of some fake internet writers like Jackson who we insist is a drop out .

Have you wondered why Jackson has not presented his certificate on his site to justify his academic background?
Have you also wondered why at 48, Jackson is yet to marry because he is HIV/positive and gay.
This publication has it on good authority that the refusal of Abia government to accept his proposal for retainer-ship has led him to try blackmail, which we gather, Abia government will not succumb to.

http://thejuristlaws..com/2011/12/explosive-9jaconet-vindicated-on.html

As it is Jackson Ude, who is being detained, is on the retainership of some States in the South South, that is why you see his slant of stories on those States. Advertising dinner parties e.t.c
We make bold to say that Jackson who is gay cannot talk marriage. Checks revealed that he is a strong member of a several gay clubs in Nigeria and abroad. It’s not unlikely that Jackson may be jailed when the bill against same sex in Nigeria is passed into law .Very soon we will release the names of those in the gay club.

9jaconnect is determined to prove to journalists in Nigeria that Jackson Ude who is associated with the publisher of the SUN NEWSPAPERS is worthless and a cash and carry go fake journalist. Visit other websites like Sahara reporters and Elendu Reporters, you will know that Jackson website is for blackmail.

This publication has more on Jackson Ude, when these facts are released you will confirm that this self-acclaimd Internet fraudster is fast running out of ideas.

http://thejuristlaws..com/2011/12/explosive-9jaconet-vindicated-on.html