₦airaland Forum

Who should be the next president of Nigeria come 2011

1. Yar-adua
2. El-Rufai
3. Ibrahim Babangida
4. Babatunde Fashola
5. Abubakar Atiku
6. Donald Duke
7. Okonjo iweala
8. Oby Ezekwesili
9. Nuhu Ribadu
10. Emeka Anyaoku
11. Wole Soyinka
12. Peter Obi
13. Bola Tinubu
14. Mohamed Buhari

you can mention any other name.

I smell a rat, the amakaejike was registered today, and also registered with her fullname. this smells like a character assasination mission. the poster is not the real Amaka Ejike, he is probabaly out to get his pound of flesh from an ex.

I can see a lot of ignorance being displayed here. Spriritual exercises like this one will never make sense to those who dont understand them and have never put them to test. For those of us who happen to soon be members of the club 1000,and who have benefited from similar exercies in the past, the rewards are priceless God is ever faithful to his promises of rewarding cheerful and honest givers. By the way, I am not a politician or public servant and my incomes are genuine and divine. Have u tried to ask yourselves why nations that always gives (e.g. US) always stays on top, because its a spiritual law silly!.

http://www.ngrguardiannews.com/breaking_news/article01

Yar'Adua speaks on sectarian violence, Lagos councils

President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua on Tuesday said Nigeria's defence and security forces have been mandated to immediately launch a major operation in a section of the Borno State capital, Maiduguri to root-out the leader and remaining members of the religious militant group - Boko Haran -which translates as "Western education is prohibited." The President said Nigerians should be assured that the situation is "completely under control." He spoke just before he left for Brazil on a three-day State visit after a meeting with the nation's defence and security chiefs. The President, who said he is also in touch with the Governors of Borno, Bauchi, Kano and other Northern states on the containment of the militants, also spoke on the industrial action embarked upon by members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and the constitutionality of the Lagos State Area Development Councils.Yar'Adua said the issue between the Federal Government and the Lagos State has everything to do with adhering strictly to the Constitution, which must not be violated. But he said the difference could still be resolved through dialogue while adding that "if at the end of the day, dialogue fails to resolve the situation, then the Federal Government will be forced to take measures that will ensure that the Lagos State Government, State INEC and other agencies are compelled to abide by the Constitution. On the ASUU strike, President Yar'Adua said his government has "been doing everything possible to stop the crisis.''

Good riddance to bad rubbish

http://thepmnews.com/2009/07/22/indian-hemp-price-skyrockets-sack-now-sells-for-n100000

Indian Hemp Price Skyrockets; Sack Now Sells For N100,000
July 22, 2009 15:27 (1 hour ago), 21 views

By Damola Ogundimu

The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) seems to be having an upper hand in the battle against the cultivation, sale and smoking of Indian hemp, known as cannabis sativa or marijuana, also called stone, grass or fish in street parlance.

P.M.News investigation revealed that in the Lagos metropolis, Indian hemp used to be the cheapest and the most abused of all narcotics, but it is currently scarce while the price has skyrocketed following NDLEA’s raids and arrest of the sellers and farmers who cultivate the weed.

A cement sack of hemp, which was sold for about N15,000 two months ago, now sells for N100,000, while a wrap, which was sold for N20 in many parts of Lagos, now sells for between N100 and N150 and the content is less than the former N20 wrap.

P.M.News gathered that the reason for the scarcity is because the NDLEA had swooped on all the big marijuana farms in Edo, Ondo, Ekiti and Delta states notorious for the cultivation of Indian hemp and burnt them to ashes.

This has greatly reduced the influx of hemp to Lagos State which made the little quantity available scarce and sold at cut-throat price.

When our correspodent visited some of the major joints across Lagos, including Akala street, Idioro Mushin, Kalakuta Republic, Yaba, Oju-Ina on Lagos Island, Ricca, Lagos Island, Fire 2, Lawanson, Texas, Ojuelegba and Lemo, Surulere, it was observed that the drug is no longer abused like in the past, when most unemployed youths smoke it openly in the public.

One unidentified youngman, openly confessed: “Baba, smoke (Indian hemp) has become gold now o! I don’t have a job and normally I used to smoke about five wraps a day for N100, but now where do I get N500 for five wraps, when I have no food to eat,” he lamented.

Another smoker, who spoke with P.M.News and indentified himself simply as Abiodun, said: “The high price of hemp has forced me to stop smoking because it is sheer madness spending so much on Indian hemp when it is not cocaine,” adding “since the sellers have decided to sell Indian hemp as Pinch (a word used for a little quantity of cocaine sold at a very high price), then, there is no reason for me to smoke hemp again.”

Another smoker, who identified himself as Emeka, lamented about the high cost of Indian hemp, but he confessed that it was a good ridiance to bad rubbish for the people of Lagos.

Many people may stop smoking hemp because of this new development, which he admitted does a lot of damage to the smoker’s health.

Have you heard of the DESERTEC project being embarked upon by Europe. The idea is to harness the solar energy of North Africa to provide 15% of the electricty needs of the whole of Europe. Nigeria needs a duplication of this project using the expansive and unutilised arid regions of the North where we can get a guaranteed high temperature to provide all the power we need year round. The advantage of this source of energy is that you require lower operationsl costs. The immediate benefit of this will be to create a political balance, we will no longer have to rely on the Niger-Delta fossil energy. The more reason why we need to be careful about how we address the Niger-Delta issue because as it appears ,in the near future, the fossil fuel(crude oil) will run out and we will be left with the greener sources of energy. someday the North will hold the ace.

http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=130732

Europe looks to Africa for solar power
Source: Copyright 2009, New York Times
Date: June 22, 2009
Byline: Tom Zeller Jr.
Original URL




The European project known as Desertec is nothing if not ambitious.

It aims to harvest the sun’s energy — using a method known as concentrating solar power, or C.S.P. — from the vast North African desert and deliver it as electricity, via high-voltage transmission lines, to markets in Europe. Eventually, its backers say, it could satisfy as much as 15 percent of the European Union’s power needs.

The idea, which has been bouncing around for years, arises out of an alphabet soup of organizations, formal multinational partnerships and regional acronyms like TREC, for Trans-Mediterranean Renewable Energy Cooperation; Eumena, or European Union, the Mediterranean and North Africa; the Union of the Mediterranean; and the Club of Rome.

As James Kanter reported in our Green Inc. blog, the project took a step forward last week when a consortium of German businesses announced plans to pursue financing and otherwise hammer out details for Desertec, which is expected to cost about €400 billion, or $555 billion.

Munich Re, the large German insurance company, is leading the charge to bring the concept to fruition, and a meeting is scheduled for mid-July to formalize the coalition, which includes companies like Siemens, Deutsche Bank and the energy giant E.On.

“The time now is perfect to start this initiative,” Alexander Mohanty, a Munich Re spokesman, said in an e-mail message Friday, “as climate protection has become an urgent issue and our economies need new impulses.”

Large-scale C.S.P. projects — essentially expansive fields of solar collectors, or mirrors, that concentrate rays from the intense desert sun to heat water, generate steam, drive turbines and produce electricity — are not revolutionary. Such projects have been undertaken in the U.S. Southwest, Spain and elsewhere.

This would take things to a whole new level, however, and as conceived, Desertec would be the largest centralized solar power production project on earth.

That such an ambitious, clean-energy megaproject should be taking a step forward, however incremental, might suggest that deep-pocketed investors have truly seen the writing on the wall with regard to legislated carbon abatement and the slow phase-out of fossil fuels.

In a collection of reactions gathered by Spiegel Online, several observers seemed to welcome the development.

“The project is sending a strong signal that investments in renewable energies don’t just make ecological sense,” wrote The Financial Times Deutschland, “they make economic sense as well.”

A reader at Green Inc. simply said: “Europeans need energy and have cash. Africans have sun and territory. It is quite logical to combine all this.”

But not everyone was convinced.

Some scratched their heads at the idea of spending billions of dollars to harvest sunlight and transmit electricity thousands of kilometers, when it can be produced increasingly efficiently in European backyards.

“It must once again be pointed out that the most successful method of harvesting solar power is with rooftop panels,” wrote the German daily Die Tageszeitung. “In just three to five years, power from the roof will be cheaper than electricity from the wall plug. The economic bar for desert power is, in other words, high. Solar power produced in a decentralized manner will likely always be the cheaper variety.”

The German broadcaster Deutsche Welle, meanwhile, quoted Frank Asbeck, the chief executive of SolarWorld, the largest German solar company, as saying, “Building solar power plants in politically unstable countries opens you to the same kind of dependency as the situation with oil.”

Or in the somewhat more blunt vernacular of a Green Inc. reader: “If this project is built, Europe will shortly become dependent on it, and the Islamic world will have a second, and much tighter, noose to add to the oil one.”

That Mr. Asbeck’s interests lie with a competing solar technology — photovoltaics — is of no small consequence, but there were still other critics who complained that the project smacked of Euro-imperialism — particularly given the history of resource exploitation on the African continent.

“Haven’t we already been here before?” wrote Agatha Koprowski at Green Inc. last week. Ms. Koprowski is a graduate student of Arabic and Islamic Studies at the University of Pennsylvania and a resident, with her husband, of Morocco — one of the African countries likely to become a hub in the Desertec system.

“Europeans covet Africa’s wealth of natural resources,” she continued, “so they make economic investments for the benefit of Europeans and the detriment of Africans.”

Gerhard Knies, the coordinator of TREC and chairman of Desertec’s supervisory board, suggested by telephone Friday that all of these concerns were misplaced.

Ownership of the facilities, for example, would follow several different models, Mr. Knies said, but in every case, local needs would come first. The main obstacle, he said, is money, which is where European investors come in.

“They can go 100 percent on this source of electricity,” he said, referring to potential North African partners like Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria, Egypt and Libya, “and there is no coupling to what they might build for export.”

As for political stability, Mr. Knies was dubious.

“Well, when you look at the Mediterranean region, the most unstable country is Italy,” he said, adding that in any case, the investment in large-scale energy projects in these areas would provide income, jobs and the creation of a new industry — all of which, Mr. Knies said, were “a contribution to stability.”

He also suggested that the additional transmission costs of such a project would be smaller than the gains associated with improved solar radiation in the African desert. The additional power yield, Mr. Knies said, would more than compensate for the cost of transmission to European markets.

Whether or not those economics pan out, and however realistic Mr. Knies’s portrayal of the mutual benefits that might accrue to the project’s member countries, the sheer size and scope of the Desertec plan seemed to stir passions far and wide last week.

An American organization supporting the perennial fringe presidential candidate, Lyndon LaRouche, for example, called Desertec — rather inexplicably — a “genocidal, Malthusian, energy plan.”

Setting aside such unhinged broadsides, Mr. Knies was philosophical — and suggested that critics of the plan were simply missing the larger implications of an international cooperative like Desertec.

“I think they overlook the positive side of this interdependence, which creates win-win situations for the participating sides,” he said. “And that is how neighbors become friends.”

a pat on the back for being a criminal (obviously a bunch of them are common criminals,rapists etc. wearing the cloak of miltancy, and bad precedence indeed. whats the morals here. Massob will be strengthened now

our coordination has improved now

kanu to the resuce asap

this is turning out to be a poor start, our mid field is dead for now

we must break the jinx o

Believe it or not, there is a grand conspiracy against the eradication of Malaria in Nigeria and Africa as a whole. There are both local and international actors. Malaria is the greatest killer of children and adult in Africa. An african child dies every 30 seconds from malaria related illnesses, that is over 1 million deaths annually, putting that in a better perspective, that is like 7 fully loaded Boeing 747 plains crashing into the mountains everyday. The foremost reason why malaria have not been wiped out despite the fact that it was succesfully controlled in the 70s and 80s using DDT is because it is a tool used by the western world to control the population explosion in Africa. DDT was stopped because it was erroneously faulted to be toxic to the human body system. DDT fell into disrepute with the publication of Rachel Carson's Silent Spring just over 40 years ago. but subsequent researches have shown that several more lives are lost by not using DDT than would have been lost if DDT was used.

The Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis (Bti) and Bacillus sphaericus (Bs) larvicides have since been discovered to do exactly what DDT does, both are soil bacteria that kill mosquito larvae without being toxic to humans, but we are yet to see it put to maximum use in Nigeria.
The introduction of Mosquito nets are mere distrations and playing to the gallery, how many of us would want to stay under a mosquito net and sweat all night through in the absence of electricty to power our fans.  The use of Mosquito Nets costs $2 per head annually, while the use of these Lavicides costs $0.2 per head annually. The question is why is it not yet popularly used despite its affordability and effectiveness. The local collaborators in the conspiracy includes the pharmaceutical companies who makes 80% of their annual income from sales of malaria drugs, they know what to do to completely wipe malaria out, but they will rather not say, so that their income is not threatened.  the Insecticide manufacturers are in the list also. and the civil servants government who get grants from NGOs and donor organizations from around the world from propagating the gospel of Malaria in Africa. from estimates, Malaria costs Africa more than U.S. $12, most of this blood money are earned by the local collaborators here mentioned.

Let us all speak out against this grand conspiracy and save the lives of Nigerian children.

Believe it or not, there is a grand conspiracy against the eradication of Malaria in Nigeria and Africa as a whole. There are both local and international actors. Malaria is the greatest killer of children and adult in Africa. a child dies every 30 seconds from malaria related illnesses. The foremost reason why malaria have not been wiped out despite the fact that it was succesfully controlled in the 70s and 80s using DDT is because it is a tool being used by the western world to control the population explosion in Africa. DDT was stopped because it was found to be toxic to our body system, but research have shown that several more lives are lost by not using DDT than would have been lost if DDT was used. Lavicides have since been discovered to do exactly what DDT does and even better without any side effect, but we are yet to see it put to maximum use in Nigeria.

The introduction of Mosquito nets are mere distrations and playing to the gallery, how many of us would want to stay under a mosquito net and sweat all night through in the absence of electricty to power our fans. The use of DDT costs $2 per head annually, while the use of Lavicides costs $0.2 per head annually. The question is why is it not yet popularly used despite its affordability and effectiveness. The local collaborators in the conspiracy includes the pharmaceutical companies who makes 80% of their annual income from sales of malaria drugs, the Insecticide manufacturers are in the list also. and the civil servants government who get grants from NGOs around the world from propagating the gospel of Malaria in Africa.

let us all speak out against this grand conspiracy and save the lives of Nigerian children.

Yara in yoruba means to be fast, but Yaradua has given it a new meaning

their thinking is that they could be lucky to have at least one of their many children turning out rich and rescueing the rest of them from poverty

OneNaija:
slowpoke We are talking of Nigeria you are talking about Tanzania.Dumb Ass

So many sick people all over the places, here is one that needs quick attention, i will recommend yaba left.

On health, we need to eradicate malaria in Nigeria. See what is being done in Tanzania below.


http://allafrica.com/stories/200904230927.html

Tanzania: Larvicides 'Cut Urban Malaria'
Deodatus Balile
23 April 2009
Dar Es Salaam — Larvicides could be back on the malaria control agenda after researchers in Tanzania found that killing mosquitoes before adulthood could cut malaria infection rates in urban areas.
The use of larvicides died out in developing countries with the introduction of the pesticide DDT (Dichloro-Diphenyl-Trichloroethane) in the mid-twentieth century. Their use has since been controversial due to concerns that larviciding is expensive and unsustainable.
A team led by Gerry Killeen, from Tanzania's Ifakara Health Institute, worked with the Dar es Salaam City Council for three years to develop the best ways of applying Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis (Bti) and Bacillus sphaericus (Bs) larvicides. Both are soil bacteria that kill mosquito larvae without being toxic to humans.
Three wards - Buguruni, Kurasini and Mikocheni - with 128,000 inhabitants were chosen to trial the larvicides for one year. Bti was added to outdoor ponds and swamps, and Bs was used to treat pit latrines, septic tanks and domestic sewerage systems.
The larvicides cut both the number of mosquitoes and the prevalence of malaria. Malaria rates in children under five decreased by 72 per cent and the researchers say the effect was as good as sleeping under an insecticide-treated bednet (ITN).
The method has been extended to cover 600,000 residents in thirty wards.
"I can't tell the amount of mosquitoes we used to have here," says Salim Said, a resident of Buguruni. "They have helped us to do away with this nuisance."
Malaria control programmes usually focus on rural, high-risk areas but half of Africa's population is expected to live in towns or cities by 2030 and controlling or eradicating malaria in such areas could be fairly easy, said Killeen.
Khadija Kannady, project manager of the Urban Malaria Control Programme (UMCP) which carried out the work, says using larvicides is viable and cost-effective since it costs US$0.5 cents to protect a person per year compared with US$2 for ITNs - but the two approaches should be complementary.
Prosper Chaki from Ifakara Health Institute, who was also involved in the research, says that the cooperation of the local community is important, and larvicide application is sometimes missed because of lack of access to property

We have done a great deal of criticisms, its time to be constructive. If you have any idea of what can be done to make our lives better, suggest it here. The idea is to make it a forum where people in government and private sectors can pick up ideas for different sects of the economy.

Suggest creative Technologies and ideas that could solve our power problems, improve our transportation system, increase our revenue generation, secure our lives, makes us healthier, improve our agricultural practises, explore and add value to our natural resources, reduce costs of doing things. Yes I know corruption is one of our major issue, dont get lazy about this by looking for an eazy way of escape, do the real thing, research on new things going on around the world that we dont know about and bring it here. Be part of those that will shape our futre. Your fatherland becons

Make it comprehensive and easy to understand please.

copyright law on internet content in Nigeria ?. how are they going to enforce that when they dont know where I am operating from, whether within or outside Nigeria.

This will turn out to be a stupid decision taken by Punch. All i need to do to make them feel their stupidty is to subscribe to their page with the N1,500, copy their content and use it to create a masquerade of their page and offer it free. I will even make some money from google ads.

There is no basis upon which to compare Nigeria and Ghana, we are a long way ahead of them. Their GDP is a fraction of ours. Forget all the hype about their power generation. How much megawatts are they even generating sef. Ghanains have a lot to loose if they drive Nigerians out of their economy. We introduced them to Online-Realtime banking. infact Zenith just won an award as the best bank in Ghana. If we pool out, it will be hell for them.

@nateevs
You captured it all perfectly.

If a woman dont know how to cook, for God sake, let her learn it, perhaps she never had to be in the kitchen to learn from her mama. In marriage, it is one of her duties to keep her home together, unless otherwise it is a deliberate attemt at stamping equality right with her man. It is an african culture for a woman to cook for her man, and that is one of the secrets that has kept the divorce rate low compared with the western world. This equality advocacy has only resulted in more broken homes, unhappy single women, unhappy children who grow up becoming psycopaths.

If you know Gowdin Elumelu well enough, you should not be too surprised at this. I knew well ahead of time that he was using his Power probe chairmanship position to achieve his personal agendas. he wants to be the next governor of delta, he needs moey by whatever means and he needed cheap popularity. That is the kind of people our democracy will continue to produce. unfortunately he is a complete opposite of his senior brother, Tony Elumelu of UBA.

@Medrick

Go stick your empty head in the mud

http://thepmnews.com/2009/05/08/tuface-i-have-five-kids-from-five-ladies-says-%e2%80%98i-am-scared-of-marriage%e2%80%99

I Have Five Kids From Five Ladies. I Am Scared Of Marriage’—Tuface
May 08, 2009 15:43 (42 minutes ago), 253 views

By Olatunji Saliu
Award winning musician, Innocent ‘Tuface’ Idibia, has finally opened up that he is scared of settling down with any woman now, despite having five children from five women.
Speaking with P.M.NEWS, the African Queen hit maker said he believes marriage is a blessed union and a lifetime institution where one needs to give his best and do everything possible for the family to grow. But right now, he said he is not set to cope with all the challenges of marriage that could distract him from achieving his aspirations as a musician. Tuface said he is scared of marriage because he does not reckon with failure, claiming that the institution and his musical career are two different things and, right now, one (music) is calling for more attention than the other.

“People find it difficult to see things from my own point of view and that is because I am aware of failed marriages. I want to be successful in everything, including marriage and that is why I am taking my time to do it the right way. Music is calling for my attention right now. I don’t want to be a failure, and with the situation of things, I have to be very careful about choosing a life partner. That is why I am scared of getting married.”

Idibia, however, declined to talk about his dream woman, but was quick to add that he still considers getting married to the ‘love’ of his heart some day. “It may not be this year and not even now, but in the nearest future,” he enthused. On the DNA test on all of his five children, the 32-year-old singer said he has no intention of doing that. “I believe children are the heritage of God and I have no reason to conduct a DNA. They are my kids,” he stressed.


Bros! Notin do u, try more , e never reach football team

Syl Amlabu, get a life man. You are making us married men look bad

http://www.saharareporters.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2589:breaking-news-ac-leads-in-gbonyin-lga-in-ekiti-state&catid=1:latest-news&Itemid=18

BREAKING NEWS: AC leads in Gbonyin LGA in Ekiti State, PDP in Ekiti East

The first officials results shows that Action Congress leads in Gbonyin Local Government area of Ekiti State.

1. Gbonyin LGA:

AC- 1,693 votes

PDP-1245
2. Ise -Orun LGA

AC: 4,221

PDP:3,861

3: Ekiti -East LGA:

AC-3,800

PDP- 4,739

i just bought 10 litres of petrol at 2000 here in surulere. Black Market

I Need a full plot property at Surulere, Aguda, Gbagada, Yaba. preferably a virgin land or an old bungalow with good and verifiable titles. property price should not be more than 8m, dont bother responding if u do not meet my criteria.

see the bigger picture before you get carried away by the evil plots of a few monsters

http://www.vanguardngr.com/content/view/31666/41/

Group plots takeover of five top banks
Written by Omoh Gabriel & Emeka Mamah
Monday, 23 March 2009












LAGOS—ANTI-CONSOLIDATION forces have regrouped with the hope of dismantling the structures and forcing a takeover of the top five banks in the country, Vanguard can now reveal.
The grand plan by the group is to cause panic and uncertainty in the industry and make the target banks look unsafe for depositors.

Meantime, indications emerged yesterday that the Federal Government may announce the names of a new Governor of the Central Bank (CBN) and the Auditor-General of the Federation (AGF) in April just a few weeks before the tenure of the incumbents run out.

However, the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) has expressed concern over what it described as the rapidly deteriorating liquidity situation in the banking industry and tasked the Central Bank (CBN) to make public information on causes of the development as well as the scale of the crisis.

Vanguard investigations revealed that the aim of the anti-consolidation forces is to cause loss of public confidence in the banking industry and compel the Federal Government to move in by injecting funds. Further, they ultimately plan to instigate government to take equity holdings in the targeted banks.

Vanguard gathered that the group at work is made up of former bank owners who lost out during the consolidation exercise, a powerful clique in the present government, and some aggrieved persons in three of the six geopolitical zones in the country who felt left out in the consolidation exercise.

Presidency sources disclosed that those who felt left out in the consolidation exercise are up in arms to recoup what they felt they lost during Obasanjo years.

Part of the plans hatched by the group is to ensure that the incumbent Governor of the Central Bank, Professor Chukwuma Soludo, does not get a second term. The plan is also to ensure that whatever gains consolidation recorded are discredited. This, it was learnt, was meant to force the President to act quickly in the matter of appointment of a successor to Soludo as they anticipate that the president’s slow move may scuttle their dreams and cause the renewal of Soludo’s re-appointment for a second term.

The group’s second game plan is to make Nigerian banks look unsafe in the eye of the banking public. Part of the game is to spread rumours that some banks are unsound and are on the verge of collapse. They send out text messages to individuals and account holders passing wrong information on their target banks. At the moment, the group’s target is one of the high-flying new generation banks where they have sent out several messages.

New CBN Gov, Auditor-General to emerge April

The tenure of the CBN Governor, Professor Chukwuma Soludo and Auditor-General of the Federation, Mr. O. R. Ejenavi from Delta State will lapse in May 2009.

Naming nominees for the top jobs, according to a presidency source, will afford the Senate ample opportunity to work on them before they assume office.

While Soludo will complete his first term in office as CBN governor by May 29, Ejenavi will be due for retirement on age grounds on May 18.

However, among those being considered for the position of CBN governor include the Minister of National Planning, Dr Shamsuddeen Usman from Kano, who was a former Finance minister and deputy governor at the apex bank; another former CBN deputy governor, Obadiah Mailafia from Nassarawa, Mallam Isa Hayatudeen from Borno, a former managing director of FSB International Bank, incumbent Managing Director of First Bank, Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, also from Kano, and Mallam Falalu Bello from Kaduna, Managing Director, Unity Bank.

But the most touted name so far is that of Mallam Isa Yuguda, the Bauchi State governor who won election on the platform of the All Nigeria peoples Party, ANPP, but defected to the ruling PDP last week. Yuguda is also an in-law of President Umaru Yar’Adua. Yuguda was also a former Managing Director of Inland Bank, a legacy bank in post-consolidation FinBank.

Past CBN governors include late Dr. Clement Isong (Akwa-Ibom), Alhaji Adamu Ciroma (Yobe); Mr. Ola Vincent (Lagos), late Alhaji Abdulkadir Ahmed (Bauchi); Mr. Paul Ogwuma (Abia), Dr. Joseph Sanusi (Ondo) and the current Professor Charles Soludo (Anambra).

It was also gathered that strict obedience to civil service rules will be observed in the appointment of a new Auditor General for the Federation going by the constitutional provision.

Section 86 Subsection 1 of the 1999 constitution states: “the Auditor-General for the Federation shall be appointed by the President on the recommendation of the Federal Civil Service Commission, subject to the confirmation of the Senate.” That of the CBN may be determined by other factors, mostly political considerations which are at the pleasure of the President without recourse to the commission.

The most senior director in the office of the Auditor-General currently is Mr. Ogunsina G.F from Ekiti State who may be appointed unless there is political maneuvering. Having been a director since 2004, it may not be smooth sailing for Ogunsina because, there is another senior civil servant Mr. Osonuga T. A. from Ogun State who was promoted a director in 2007 and is being propelled by other forces to occupy the office.

It’s unfortunate top 5 banks are targeted, says official

A CBN official who spoke on condition of anonymity said that it is unfortunate that top five banks are the target. The banks, he said, are sound. The CBN had mistaken in the past the ongoing move as de-marketing by competitors in the banking industry, saying it is unhealthy competition.

The group is using this means to make depositors panic and undertake massive withdrawal of funds from the targeted banks in an attempt to cause liquidity problem in the bank. In that state they hope to cause a take over by the government which may buy a stake in the bank and later sell to members of the privileged group who may be appointed in the interim into the board of the banks.

Arewa worries over liquidity problem

However, the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) expressed concern over what it described as the rapidly deteriorating liquidity situation in the banking industry and tasked the Central Bank (CBN) to inform the people the cause of the development as well as the scale of the crisis.

ACF said that the commercial banks must have obviously lent too much money to people who either invested them in buying stocks or in the importation of petroleum products in the country, but are unable to repay such loans.

A statement signed by the National Publicity Secretary of the Forum, Mr. Anthony Sani however blamed the CBN for enquiring “into the volume of the so-called toxic assets of the commercial banks while refusing to tell Nigerians how or why in the first place, the banks found themselves in trouble.
The statement reads “The Working Committee of the National Executive Council of the Arewa Consultative

Forum (ACF) held its meeting at its national headquarters in Kaduna on Tuesday, the 17th of March 2009. In attendance were all National officers of the ACF drawn from the 19 northern states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). General IBM Haruna, the Chairman presided.

“Among other things, the meeting reviewed and discussed a number of issues and other troubling developments in the country. At the end, it resolved to issue the following statement.

“The ACF deliberated on the rapidly deteriorating liquidity situation in the banking industry and observed that Nigerians are feeling increasingly frustrated by the failure of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to disclose the true the true nature and the scale of the crisis.

“Even members of the National Assembly, despite their best efforts, have been unable to get to the truth of the matter.

According to Arewa consultative forum “All that seem obvious is that our commercial banks had lent out too much money to too many people who had invested them in stocks or petroleum importation but who are now unable to pay back. Beyond that, the public has no clear idea as how or why the loans were given and on what terms."

Kudos to the Kwara state governor, This goes to confirm my fear that all the noise from the house of assembly over the NIPP power investigation was all a ruse to confuse the pubic, they cried foul that the NIPP was a sham. Their real intent was to reaward the contracts to themselves.

Read the following piece from Thisday

http://www.thisdayonline.com/nview.php?id=137931

Obasanjo ‘Released Only $3.08bn for Power Project’
From Ike Abonyi in Abuja, 03.12.2009


As the House of Representatives continues to dilly-dally over its power probe report, fresh facts emerged in Abuja on Tuesday that contrary to claim that about $13 billion was squandered by the Obasanjo administration on the power sector, only about $3.08 billion was actually expended.
This indication was from a summary presentation on the National Integrated Power Project (NIPP) presented to the National Economic Council (NEC) by the Governor Gabriel Suswam of Benue State.
Suswam, on behalf of the Presidential Review Panel on the NIPP set up by the NEC, said the panel found that as at 2007, total project allocations/ estimates to NIPP was $10.231 billion inclusive of the $2 billion Federal Government counterpart funding for Mambilla Hydro Power project and $1.4 billion for additional nine turbines.
According to Suswam, out of these commitments, only $3.08 billion was funded and scrutinised with advance payment guarantees from “first class” Nigerian banks and Letters of Credits issued by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). He said over $1.5 billion of the sum is still in the custody of the banks.
The report also said there is an ongoing comprehensive review exercise taking place to determine the most up-to-date estimates of costs to complete the project. This is in view of the cost over runs arising from over 18 months of delay and stall in funding.
Suswam, in his report, also identified intermittency and stoppage of funds as among the factors that helped to frustrate the implementation.
Lack of thorough feasibility studies was also fingered as being responsible for the several challenges of the project in the area of transportation, water supply and transmission connections to the sites.
There was also what the report called “slow pace of surveys, enumeration work and payment to land owners has impacted on site development. The project also lacked clear and defined ownership structure/agreed responsibilities and it has resulted in a dis-jointed and uncoordinated project implementation”.
For a new approach in the project, Suswam advocated the need to undertake comprehensive studies of the project strengths and weaknesses as well as rekindle federal and state governments’ interests in the project as shareholders on the investment.
He underscored the importance of good funding to complete the projects in order to realise the full value.
The report also recommended that the project should be executed under a new management structure and pragmatic and dynamic implementation scheme and efforts should be made to eliminate project bottlenecks through stakeholders’ participation.
The report said after due deliberations, the committee agreed that completing the project as initiated is the right way to go as it would be the only sure way to improve Nigeria’s power supply logjam and free its citizenry and businesses from the shackles of darkness.
On the funding procedure henceforth, the committee recommended that $5.237 billion be provided through the interaction/cooperation of the federal and state governments.
The committee also suggested the legitimising of fund allocations from the Excess Crude Savings Account by securing appropriations by the National Assembly and state Houses of Assembly.
Among the terms of reference of the panel headed by Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan and governors drawn from the six geo-political zones as members included how to meet the 6000mw estimated by the government by 2009 and to recommend appropriate utilisation of government’s $5.3 billion.
Yar’Adua had last year ignited the debate when he disclosed that over $10 billion was spent on power by the previous administration with nothing to show for it.
The Speaker of the House Representatives, Dimeji Bankole, followed suit by saying the sum was over $16 billion, while the House power probe committee Chairman, Hon. Ndudi Elumelu, gave a figure of $13 billion.
Almost one year after the motion for the probe was moved by the House Minority Leader, Hon Ali Ndume, the report is yet to be debated many months after it was submitted by the committee