₦airaland Forum

Police investigate assault on Nollywood actress by Lagos speaker’s aides

By Sesan Olufowobi
Friday, 12 Nov 2010

Fourteen days after Nollywood actress, Ufuoma Ejenabor, was allegedly assaulted by aides of the Lagos State House of Assembly Speaker, Mr. Adeyemi Ikuforiji, the police on Thursday said the matter was still being investigated.


However, sources within the state police command hinted PUNCH METRO that there was a subtle decision by the state’s police hierarchy to sweep the matter under the carpet.


But the deputy spokesman of the state police command, Mr. Samuel Jinadu, said there was no such plan, insisting that the matter was being investigated.


Jinadu said, “The truth is that on the day (October 29), she went to Victoria Island police division and reported the matter. She made her statement and thereafter left.


“The police at the station told her to report back to the station, but since she reported the case, she has not reported back. This is a major reason why the case is being delayed. But make no mistake, there is nothing like pressure on us; we are investigating the case.”


The actress, however, told PUNCH METRO that she was prepared to take her case to court. “We are gathering evidences for court. And I am aware that some of my colleagues are planning for a series of protest,” she said.


Ejenabor, who showed our correspondent two of her broken nails said to have been caused by Ikuforiji’s men, also alleged that her attackers took away her gold necklace, Guicci wrist watch, Ipod, Blackberry Bold and Channels sunglasses and case.


She also alleged that her vehicle, a Nissan Xterra Jeep with registration number UC 189 KJA, was damaged by the speaker’s security aides, adding that it would require about N595, 000 to repair the vehicle.


“My Apple Macbook Laptop fell during the ransacking of my car and the screen and the disc compartment were destroyed. My Louis Vuitton bag was also


damaged, while my wedding band was broken,” Ejenabor said.


The actress said she left her residence in Lekki and was on her way to Gbagada for a discussion on a film she was about to shoot when she met a traffic snarl on Ozumba Mbadiwe Avenue, Victoria Island.


She said,“I think it was about 3pm and I was listening to Banky W on the car stereo. Suddenly, I noticed that a black Toyota Hilux truck, which has ESCORT as its registration number squeezed its way on my right side. Suddenly my Jeep was hit violently, damaging the right fender. To my utter shock, the driver did not stop.


“I drove after him and when eventually I caught up with him, I told him that he had hit my Jeep. He insulted me, calling me Ashawo (love-peddler), witch and other unprintable names. He even asked me who gave me the car. I got angry and decided to follow him to wherever he was going. I later discovered that there were other vehicles.


“I followed them all the same and used my camera phone to record their movement. Immediately they realised that I was recording them, they stopped and alighted from their vehicles. They moved to my car and banged on it, ordering me to open the door. I was afraid that they might shoot me with the guns they were brandishing, so, I unlocked the door.


“When I opened the door, the men dragged me out of the car and held my blouse. The way they held the blouse, I was almost unclothed and I protested because as far as I was concerned, they were the ones who hit my car.


“Suddenly one slim officer came and gave me a big punch on my hand. It was so painful that I had to release the phone. I later noticed that in the struggle, two of my nail extensions were forced out. It caused a slit in the mid section of the nails, it was painful.”


Ejenabor said the convoy stopped in front of Zone 2 Police Command, Onikan, adding that Ikuforiji ‘s aides wanted to drag her to the command.


She said in the midst of the confusion, a senior police officer came out of the command to find out what the problem was.


Ejenabor said,“It was DCP Lateed Junaid. He told me to open my car door and that nothing evil would happen to me. I obliged and while he was trying to get the fact of what happened, one of the men in the convoy told him, ‘If she wants to sleep here she can, but the Lagos House of Assembly Speaker has an important event to attend. We are his security details.’”


The numbers of vehicles that were in the convoy, according to Ejenabor are, BK 902 EPE; LAHA 100; LAHA 103; DH 519 JJJ, ESCORT; PILOT 1, ES651 KRD, TB 123 AAA; TU 08 KJA, and EM 953 SMK.


“I am still on medication. My lawyer had written the speaker but we are yet to get his reply,” she said.


The Chief Press Secretary to the Speaker, Mr. Lare Odubote, had on Monday told our correspondent that Ejenabor constituted herself into a nuisance to the speaker’s convoy.


“But we are preparing a reply to her letter. It is not true that we ignored it,” he had said, adding that he would send a more detailed response to the actress’ allegations to our correspondent later.


But when reminded of his earlier promise to send a more detailed response on Thursday, Odubote did not respond to our correspondent’s text as at the time the paper went to bed.

http://www.punchng.com/Articl.aspx?theartic=Art20101112227178

Police investigate assault on Nollywood actress by Lagos speaker’s aides

By Sesan Olufowobi
Friday, 12 Nov 2010

Fourteen days after Nollywood actress, Ufuoma Ejenabor, was allegedly assaulted by aides of the Lagos State House of Assembly Speaker, Mr. Adeyemi Ikuforiji, the police on Thursday said the matter was still being investigated.


However, sources within the state police command hinted PUNCH METRO that there was a subtle decision by the state’s police hierarchy to sweep the matter under the carpet.


But the deputy spokesman of the state police command, Mr. Samuel Jinadu, said there was no such plan, insisting that the matter was being investigated.


Jinadu said, “The truth is that on the day (October 29), she went to Victoria Island police division and reported the matter. She made her statement and thereafter left.


“The police at the station told her to report back to the station, but since she reported the case, she has not reported back. This is a major reason why the case is being delayed. But make no mistake, there is nothing like pressure on us; we are investigating the case.”


The actress, however, told PUNCH METRO that she was prepared to take her case to court. “We are gathering evidences for court. And I am aware that some of my colleagues are planning for a series of protest,” she said.


Ejenabor, who showed our correspondent two of her broken nails said to have been caused by Ikuforiji’s men, also alleged that her attackers took away her gold necklace, Guicci wrist watch, Ipod, Blackberry Bold and Channels sunglasses and case.


She also alleged that her vehicle, a Nissan Xterra Jeep with registration number UC 189 KJA, was damaged by the speaker’s security aides, adding that it would require about N595, 000 to repair the vehicle.


“My Apple Macbook Laptop fell during the ransacking of my car and the screen and the disc compartment were destroyed. My Louis Vuitton bag was also


damaged, while my wedding band was broken,” Ejenabor said.


The actress said she left her residence in Lekki and was on her way to Gbagada for a discussion on a film she was about to shoot when she met a traffic snarl on Ozumba Mbadiwe Avenue, Victoria Island.


She said,“I think it was about 3pm and I was listening to Banky W on the car stereo. Suddenly, I noticed that a black Toyota Hilux truck, which has ESCORT as its registration number squeezed its way on my right side. Suddenly my Jeep was hit violently, damaging the right fender. To my utter shock, the driver did not stop.


“I drove after him and when eventually I caught up with him, I told him that he had hit my Jeep. He insulted me, calling me Ashawo (prostitute), witch and other unprintable names. He even asked me who gave me the car. I got angry and decided to follow him to wherever he was going. I later discovered that there were other vehicles.


“I followed them all the same and used my camera phone to record their movement. Immediately they realised that I was recording them, they stopped and alighted from their vehicles. They moved to my car and banged on it, ordering me to open the door. I was afraid that they might shoot me with the guns they were brandishing, so, I unlocked the door.


“When I opened the door, the men dragged me out of the car and held my blouse. The way they held the blouse, I was almost naked and I protested because as far as I was concerned, they were the ones who hit my car.


“Suddenly one slim officer came and gave me a big punch on my hand. It was so painful that I had to release the phone. I later noticed that in the struggle, two of my nail extensions were forced out. It caused a slit in the mid section of the nails, it was painful.”


Ejenabor said the convoy stopped in front of Zone 2 Police Command, Onikan, adding that Ikuforiji ‘s aides wanted to drag her to the command.


She said in the midst of the confusion, a senior police officer came out of the command to find out what the problem was.


Ejenabor said,“It was DCP Lateed Junaid. He told me to open my car door and that nothing evil would happen to me. I obliged and while he was trying to get the fact of what happened, one of the men in the convoy told him, ‘If she wants to sleep here she can, but the Lagos House of Assembly Speaker has an important event to attend. We are his security details.’”


The numbers of vehicles that were in the convoy, according to Ejenabor are, BK 902 EPE; LAHA 100; LAHA 103; DH 519 JJJ, ESCORT; PILOT 1, ES651 KRD, TB 123 AAA; TU 08 KJA, and EM 953 SMK.


“I am still on medication. My lawyer had written the speaker but we are yet to get his reply,” she said.


The Chief Press Secretary to the Speaker, Mr. Lare Odubote, had on Monday told our correspondent that Ejenabor constituted herself into a nuisance to the speaker’s convoy.


“But we are preparing a reply to her letter. It is not true that we ignored it,” he had said, adding that he would send a more detailed response to the actress’ allegations to our correspondent later.


But when reminded of his earlier promise to send a more detailed response on Thursday, Odubote did not respond to our correspondent’s text as at the time the paper went to bed.

http://www.punchng.com/Articl.aspx?theartic=Art20101112227178

As EFCC Seizes Orphanage Boss In Eket, 250 kids Stage Demonstration; “Get Away From Here!” Police Chief Tells Them

Posted: November 11, 2010 - 18:19

By SaharaReporters, New York

About 250 inmates of an abandoned children’s home in Eket today staged a demonstration to protest an attempt on Wednesday by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to arrest officials of the NGO.

Child Rights and Rehabilitation Network (CRARN), an NGO, runs the orphanage in Eket for the stigmatized and abandoned children who are accused of witchcraft. The children, who carried placards during today’s demonstration, visited the palace of the paramount ruler of Eket, as well as the Eket Police Division to register their plight.

Some of the placards read, “We do not want to return to the streets’, ‘EFCC leave us alone,’ ‘CRARN deserves commendation and not persecutions’.

At the Eket Police Division, the Divisional Police Officer shouted at the children and dispersed them, urging them to take their complaints to the Eket Local Government Chairman or better still, EFCC.

A team of six officials of EFCC yesterday raided the premises of CRARN and arrested the Centre’s administrator.

The EFCC operatives said that they received a petition against the centre and had requested the key officials of CRARN to appear in their Lagos Office to assist the commission in its investigations of the allegation.

The Akwa Ibom government had on Sept. 9 ordered the arrest of the officials of CRARN. The state Governor, Chief Godswill Akpabio gave the order in a radio phone-in programme in reaction to a news report by Cable News Network (CNN). He accused the NGO of exaggerating the child witch syndrome in the state for monetary gain.

http://www.saharareporters.com/news-page/efcc-seizes-orphanage-boss-eket-250-kids-stage-demonstration-%E2%80%9Cget-away-here%E2%80%9D-police-chief-

What I don't understand is why post all these hate topics in the politics section when there is a tribalism and racist section on nairaland where those that hate each other can spew their hate and propaganda?

An Open Letter To The Nigeria Labour Congress

Written by Leonard Karshima Shilgba
Monday, 08 November 2010 07:00

I read in the news that the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) planned to embark on a three-day warning strike from November 10, 2010. At the heart of this strike, I learnt, was the refusal or hesitance of the Nigerian government to implement forthwith the tripartite agreement for a minimum monthly salary of N18, 000 for the Nigerian worker. Compatriots, I believe the issue that has brought out this reaction from you is too small considering weightier issues that you have ignored for so long. This lethargy of yours made me to include you in the group of moribund social power zones—the Nigerian labour, the Nigerian student union, and the Nigerian press.

We have written and published in the newspapers (even advertorials) how less than 18,000 Nigerian public officials, elected or appointed, including court judges, earn more than 1.2 trillion naira annually in salaries and allowances. The reaction of the Nigerian labour has been deafening silence. We have published how national legislators in Nigeria, for instance, earn more than ten million naira (N10 million) monthly. Those legislators have also perfected the art of voting for themselves, without the permission of the Revenue Mobilization, Allocation, and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC), fat allowances under a nebulous heading of “Constituency projects allowances,” whose accounting is doubtful. Last year, for instance, sixty billion naira (ten billion for each geo-political zone) was voted for such by the Nigerian senate against just two percent of the federal budget for education (The lowest in history as a percentage of the budget, to the best of my knowledge)! We wrote about this, but as your custom has been, you kept quiet.

Few days ago, the Nigerian legislature passed a bill approving life allowances for Nigerian ex-rulers—past heads of state (including ex-military dictators) and their deputies; past senate presidents and their deputies; past speakers of the House of Representatives and their deputies; and past chief justices. The bill states that such allowances shall be paid to them until their last spouse dies. I suspect that soon state houses of assembly shall follow this un-protested example. I am yet to feel your fury against this aberration of governance that the Nigerian government typifies. All you are going on strike for is for a minimum wage of N 18,000. Considering that an average Nigerian politician has many wives, this new bill, if passed into law after presidential assent (I seriously request President Jonathan to withhold his assent even as I expect labour to lead the struggle against this), shall encourage politicians that are beneficiaries to marry many more wives so that long after they have died such allowances shall continue to be paid. What a bleeding on our economy this shall be!

Permit me to inform you of what you are ignoring.

With the huge salaries and allowances that less than 500 national legislators earn in Nigeria today, the Nigerian worker cannot be guaranteed the type of salary and working environment, and training on the job that he deserves. For example, out of last year’s federal budget of 3.1 trillion naira, which allocated about sixty billion naira only to education, if you take out what was paid to the 469 federal legislators in salaries, allowances, and the so-called constituency project allowances, how much do you have left? Do your mathematics. Excluding what the national assembly votes for overhead expenses for their committees and leadership, more than 110 billion naira is spent on those lawmakers annually. Of what remains of federal budgets, some pittance is spent on salaries of Nigerian federal civil servants, some on capital expenses, and the rest on the federal executive, which, like the legislature, is a high self-spending organ. Where does the NLC expect government to get the money from in order to pay the Nigerian worker living wages as required by the Nigerian constitution in section 16 (2) (d)? Do you see how you are not seeing things clearly? Last year, the RMAFC made attempts to slash the allowances of public officials (According to the constitution, the salaries of serving public officials cannot be reviewed to their disadvantage [See section 84 (3), 124(3)], but not so the allowances. So the RMAFC chose to slash the allowances rather than the salaries.) The senate protested against this last year; senate spokesman Ayogu Eze said at that time that the senate could only concede ten percent. I wrote copiously and informed the senate, using the constitution as the basis, that no public official had the right to determine how much they should be paid. According to the constitution, only the RMAFC determines such salaries. The matter is dead now. Neither the Nigerian press nor the Nigerian labour pushed the issue. Frankly, the leadership of the NLC inspires no confidence in Nigerians today.
The new approval for life allowances for ex-rulers of Nigeria shall inflict further damage on the fiscal health of the nation. This is a burden that I expect the leadership of the Nigerian labour movement to fight. The NLC leadership should understand that until it fights (shuts down the country if that is the only thing that will make the government to listen and the legislature to back-track on the life allowances and the horrendous salaries they get) the hope of the Nigerian worker is doomed. The NLC should not be going on strike for a mere N18,000 minimum wage. If your strike is worth anything at all, it should be to force the RMAFC to reduce significantly the salaries of Nigerian public officials (to a point where no senator, for example, earns more than ten times whatever minimum wage government is prepared to give the Nigerian worker). The NLC should go on strike to stop the executive passage and implementation of the life allowances to ex-rulers of Nigeria. Do our legislators have a conscience at all? Are they not looking for trouble by stretching the chords of their presumption too far? How I wish the Nigerian student union (NANS) was what is should be. The NANS is such a hopeless body today, so infiltrated by government that we university dons are in dismay. But what about the union of university teachers (ASUU)? What can I say? The leadership of the NLC must re-invent its usefulness and galvanize all progressives to redeem our nation.
In concluding, I call on the NLC to expand the scope of its grievances and make them a national struggle for the liberation of Nigeria, considering the issues I have raised above. NLC, I will never support your proposed strike action because the issue is too trivial. Even if government starts paying the minimum wage you ask for, it would not be long before workers start going on strike at least at the state and local government levels because “there is no money.” How can there be money when the Nigerian labour holds its peace as a few Nigerians cart away our commonwealth for themselves in the midst of so much poverty? The recent bill for life allowances for ex-rulers of Nigeria is an act of rascality and irresponsibility that must not be allowed to stand. But do we have any strong labour leadership that will not be compromised? It remains to be seen.

Leonard Karshima Shilgba is an Associate Professor of Mathematics with the American University of Nigeria and President of the Nigeria Rally Movement (www.nigeriarally.org ).

TEL: +234 (0) 8055024356

EMAIL: shilgba@yahoo.com

http://www.nigeriavillagesquare.com/articles/guest-articles/an-open-letter-to-the-nigeria-labour-congress.html

Kill That Obnoxious Bill, Now!

Tunde Fagbenle
November 07, 2010

Will someone please tell me it‘s not true — what I read in the newspapers (PUNCH) of Thursday November 4 that the Senate has passed a bill approving life allowances for all past presidents, military leaders, Senate presidents, Speakers of the House of Representatives, the deputies (vices) of all the above as well as past Chief Justices!

Are we crazy? In the space of two years alone in Obasanjo time, senate presidents were coming and going like yeye. With no minimum duration in the office prescribed in the bill, it would mean any one that served even for one day in those capacities in the Senate or House of Reps stayed entitled — for life. C‘mon!

More obnoxious is the inclusion of past military dictators. The bill reverses the earlier position of the Senate disqualifying former military leaders who shot their way to power: the Buharis, Babangidas, Abachas and what have you.

How can a set of so-called elected people (National Assembly) demonstrate so wantonly the capacity to denigrate itself? What could be more devaluing of democratic struggles and values? If you would reward so eternally those who shot their way to power, why declaim their act?

When, sometime ago, I read that the same National Assembly had excluded ex-military dictators from the list of those that qualify, my heart leapt in relief that perhaps, finally, some thinking is going on in that Assembly beyond the riotous tomfoolery of self-aggrandisement.

I rejoiced too soon.

And as if that inclusion of the undeserving were not enough, also to benefit for life are their wives and children. Specifically, it states: ”The allowances specified in this section shall be applied for the upkeep of the spouse and education of the children…up to the university level…For the avoidance of doubt, the allowance…shall cease upon the death of the last spouse of the office holder.”

Now, this in a country where polygamy and its lascivious serial monogamy variant is the order, can anyone imagine what mess we are being led to clean?

Pensioners are dying in long queues to get the pittance in recompense for their life-long labour; education is in a shambles and the poor cannot get educated; people are hungry, and angry — and now we are asked to look after Abacha, Babangida, et al‘s wives, concubines and children for life, as if what they‘ve stolen is not enough to last them ten lifetimes!

Well, the bill still has to go to Mr President for his assent before becoming law. Jonathan hasn‘t done much more than bowler-hat around wanting to run in 2011. This silly bill gives him one chance to redeem himself.

Please, Mr. President, when, and if, that bill gets to you there‘s just one thing to do - Kill it! Kill it, otherwise it takes but just one silly bill for peoples‘ patience to snap — and then this country would truly die!

Shi kenan!

http://www.nigeriavillagesquare.com/articles/tunde-fagbenle/kill-that-obnoxious-bill-now.html

Mixed Metaphors: Killer Governments
Sonala Olumhense
November 07, 2010


LAST March, in Ondo State, Governor Olusegun Mimiko declared that the state government would spend N300 million to establish an emergency medical service and trauma centre.

The announcement followed a horrendous road accident in Ore where 40 pupils of Arisent Nursery and Primary School were killed as they tried to cross the highway.

The 40 kids and their families did not deserve their fate; they were the victims—and further proof—of the government irresponsibility that defines our nation. In 1990, during a stop in the same area in Ore, I had wondered how on earth those kids could be made to cross that road twice each day, and for how long they would be successful.

In 2010, the horror that had long been placed on the calendar by the state and federal government, as well as the Federal Road Safety authorities, destroying 40 families and an entire community in one afternoon.

As I observed here last March, an emergency medical service such as Governor Mimiko's is always welcome, but it is no substitute for good roads or a responsible medical care scheme. And there is always room for a people-sensitive government.

In any event, was Governor Mimiko even serious? If so, the public would like to hear his progress report. Speak up, Mr. Governor!

Eight months after that nightmare, five pupils of the so-called Model Primary School of the College of Education in Agbor, Delta State, were murdered last week when an overhead water tank collapsed on them. Many others children were injured.

I hope this incident has taught Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan the spelling of shame. In my book, no government is better than half.

Meanwhile, I congratulate Farida Waziri, the chairperson of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), for standing up to the People's Democratic Party and the government over the EFCC's electoral No-Go list.

I criticize Mrs. Waziri in this column for the haphazard and half-hearted approach of the Commission to fighting corruption, and for failing to publish the annual report of its activities that is required by law. That has not changed, but she deserves commendation for standing up to the powers-that-be, insisting that Nigerians with corruption questions hanging over their heads should not be permitted to contest the 2011 elections.

Sadly, Jonathan's government has criticized the publication of the list. The Minister of "Justice," Mr. Mohammed Adoke, described the gesture as "capable of embarrassing the government" and "heating up the polity."

That is absolute nonsense, Mr. Minister, and you can take a running jump. Didn't *President Jonathan himself say that if nothing changes, this nation will collapse?

Unless, of course, that was the other side of Mr. Jonathan's mouth. That may explain why you have not been fired.

Senate President David Mark last week called on the international community to support Nigeria's efforts to solidify its democratic institutions. He was speaking during visits to his office by Vice-President Stephen Kalonzo Musyoka of Kenya, and members of the British parliament.

It is perhaps not funny that Mr. Mark would ask aliens to help Nigeria, when people like Mr. Mark himself refuse to support their country. Only last year, remember, Mr. Mark asked the PDP for automatic tickets for all of their 80 Senators for the 2011 elections. They were to be returned unopposed.

The Senators, who said they were making the case as a favour to Nigeria, not themselves, asked Mr. Mark to speak for them to their party. With no trace of irony, the Senate President said, "After every four years, after an election, people begin to clamour for their own local government to produce the next Senator, It should be the turn of the local governments [which] are represented here now to produce the same people in 2011."

And Mr. Mark now wants foreigners to be responsible for institutionalizing democracy in Nigeria! In Nairobi, they must be laughing into their ugali.

By the way, exactly what does *President Jonathan's "Presidential Project Monitoring Committee (PPAC) do, where does it do it, and how can it possibly avoid harming us?

Set up last March, the PPAC's three-month assignment was to examine all ongoing federal projects and provide necessary information on their implementation status.

Among the projects of great interest: billion-Naira dams in Katsina and Ekiti State, as well as agricultural projects in parts of the country. Also: the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), where the government wanted to determine what had happened to as much as N600 billion Naira in subsidies on petroleum products, and the Office of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), where the government wanted to know what had happened to billions of dollars, with Nigeria failing lamentably with the MDGs.

Last May, when the full report of the committee was due, *President Jonathan simply extended its assignment for a political lifetime. He told members they could stay on the job until May 2011, when the life of his administration itself expires. That basically means no accountability, either for the committee or for a government which had thought the PPAC's work was not just important, but urgent. As a result, there has been no report of any kind and no activity, except in connection with the troubled new runway of the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, an intervention anybody could have undertaken during the lunch hour.

*President Jonathan had a wonderful idea at the beginning—in effect to bring down the cost of doing business in Nigeria and make an input into the quality of public projects— but he blew it when he gave the committee a blank cheque, saying that its final report would "be part of the handover note to the new administration (in 2011.)"

That converted the committee into another layer of bureaucracy, with no value-added. Gone now is the gbim-gbim in the heart that procurement personnel and who categories of looters felt when they had first heard about the coming of the committee. In the federal cabinet, the Ministries, Departments and Agencies, Jonathan was declaring Happy Hour with round after round of free drinks. Everyone knows that by May 2011, all the traces and tracks would have been papered and painted over.

And the PPAC's report, if any, would just be another end-of-year report. Think about it: some of the people it might have helped put in jail, starting last May, may by next May have helped to put Jonathan and themselves in power, and beyond reach. We have seen it all before.

Speaking of traces and tracks, it is also many, many months since Mr. Ojo Maduekwe bowed out of office as Foreign Minister. In his final address, he identified an alarming level of financial recklessness and lack of transparency in the Ministry.

Mr. Maduekwe specifically drew attention to five of Nigeria's foreign missions which, he said, had been so badly mismanaged he wanted them investigated by the EFCC.

But the EFCC has no such enquiry in place, eight months on, and our current Foreign Minister, Mr. Odein Ajumogbia, seems to be looking the other way. What is going on?

And will Umaru Yar'Adua get a Presidential Library? We all know he was never exactly voted into office by the people of Nigeria. But then, neither was Olusegun Obasanjo, exactly.

Of greater importance is that a library is an investment that, no matter its origin, is capable of benefitting students, researchers and the country forever. Even African art looted from this continent through the ages continues to benefit many people wherever they are.

Neither the rigged election that gave Yar'Adua the keys to Abuja nor his abominable performance in office ought, therefore, to be the issue. There should be a presidential library in his name, and hopefully, the government of Mr. Jonathan, in collaboration with Yar'Adua's family and friends, will cooperate in setting up one in Katsina.

It takes deep courage to remember a man when he is dead.

Finally, what about Rebrand Nigeria? Did we start? If so, did we finish? Are we going to have to rebrand the Rebrand Nigeria policy? If we neither started nor finished, where is the money branded for Rebrand Nigeria?

http://www.nigeriavillagesquare.com/articles/sonala-olumhense/mixed-metaphors-killer-governments.html

By Tolu Ogunlesi
November 10, 2010 03:48AMT


“Contradictions rest easy on the Nigerian psyche. The most striking of these contradictions is the coexistence of histrionic self-condemnation and chest-thumping nationalistic pride,” American journalist Blaine Harden writes in his book, Africa, Dispatches from a Fragile Continent, first published in 1990. He was the Washington Post’s Bureau Chief for sub-Saharan Africa between 1985 and 1989. “Nigerians are not at all shy about announcing how thunderously important they are. When they can, they like to tell all of Africa what to do.”

I am awed by Harden’s gift for putting an illuminated finger on the contradictions and paradox that define contemporary Nigeria. (Wipe out these contradictions, and what you are left with, will not qualify to be called ‘Nigeria’). At independence we were crowned - or perhaps we did the crowning ourselves - the Giant of Africa. Fifty years later, despite all evidence that has amassed against our idea of ‘giant-ness’, we have refused to let go of the moniker. And why should we? “[L]ast October, when Nigeria’s 40 million people got their independence, the free population of Black Africa jumped 50%,” Time Magazine noted, in December 1960. Whatever else we’ve lost, we’re still holding on to that intimidating numerical advantage.

The many incongruities that are at the heart of the Nigerian state, which has fascinated foreigners for a long time, now fascinates me as well. A rather obvious one is the fact that we are at the same time one of the world’s richest and poorest countries. We are Africa’s largest oil producer, yet we import all the petroleum products we consume. And then there’s this very fascinating fact: that ‘God’ is everywhere in this country and nowhere all at once. The same country that gave the world its largest (in seating capacity) church building (see ‘Winners Chapel’) has also given it its greatest international fraudsters (see ‘Anajemba’). Harden sums up the Nigerian media as “at once, the best and most irresponsible, most boorish and brilliant in Africa.”

It is for these reasons - these paradoxes - that I pity those who attempt to simplify Nigeria; to place her into a neatly labelled box. The earlier people realise that every attempt to divide Nigeria on a uni-dimensional basis - North versus South, Rich versus Poor, Christian versus Muslim - will almost always end up a farce, the better for them and their sanity. Nigeria is too much of a conundrum to be resolved into simplistic categories. Under whose government did “Northern Muslim” Aliko Dangote acquire several of the lucrative business concessions that would pave the way for his entry into the Forbes List? Wasn’t it “Southern Christian” Obasanjo’s? Who hounded and harassed “Southern Christian” billionaire Mike Adenuga into exile?

The man who spear-headed the youth mobilisation drive of Sani Abacha’s self-succession campaign went by the name “Daniel Kanu”. Abacha’s inner caucus included people with names like “Arisekola Alao”. The person who was arguably Yar’Adua’s biggest financial backer was not from Katsina, he was a man called James Ibori, from the Niger delta. One of the people who helped Ibrahim Babangida to scuttle June 12 was called Arthur Nzeribe. Again let’s turn to our American friend to try to make some sense of these interesting phenomena. Greed, Harden argues, “broke down tribal and sectional difference. Ambitious men could not afford traditional hatreds.”

It all makes sense. In the high-stakes world that is Nigeria, there are no permanent friends or foes. No one can possibly afford to genuinely or permanently hate people of another ethnic group or religion. Nigeria is so unstable in terms of its ‘generosity’ and the access it offers to the ‘National Cake’ that it’d be suicidal to attempt to permanently alienate anyone. Who knew, two years ago, that Goodluck Jonathan, from a minority ethnic group, would in 2010 call the shots from Aso Rock? While thinking about and working on how to make Nigeria a better country, perhaps we should not forget to revel in its contradictions. Let’s celebrate the fact that we cannot be flippantly dismissed as one thing or another; that our nation possesses a knack for pulling out the most startling surprises; that in place of Atria and Ventricles, what you will see were you to cut Nigeria’s heart open would be the most spellbinding paradoxes and contradictions. Just when the world thinks Nigeria’s going to fall apart, the country demonstrates a jaw-dropping capacity to pull itself back from the brink. Ours is a country that makes fools of Prophets and Philosophers alike. The CIA says Nigeria might fall apart by 2015. I won’t be surprised if it’s the CIA that is no longer in existence then. Let’s wait and see.

http://234next.com/csp/cms/sites/Next/Opinion/Columns/5640596-182/story.csp

Capital market: Okereke-Onyiuke, four others shared N1.13bn – Report
By Yemi Kolapo and Gbenga Agbana
Tuesday, 9 Nov 2010

Five top officials of the Nigerian Stock Exchange allegedly shared N1.13bn productivity allowance between 2006 and 2008, findings by forensic auditors appointed by the Securities and Exchange Commission to audit the accounts of the Exchange have revealed.

A copy of the auditors’ report, obtained by our correspondents on Monday, alleged that the immediate past Director-General, NSE, Prof. Ndi Okereke-Onyiuke, was paid N592.55m in the three years, representing 52 per cent of the total amount shared.

The former DG was alleged to have collected N58.10m, N334.45m and N200m in 2006, 2007 and 2008, respectively, the report, prepared by KPMG and Aluko Oyebode and Co, said.

It added that a former Assistant Director-General of the Exchange, Alhaji Musa Elakama, was given N309m in the three-year period, amounting to 27 per cent of the total surplus shared.

According to the auditors, a former General Manager, NSE, Mrs. Yinka Idowu, allegedly got a total of N103.22m under the payment, categorised as ”Total Productivity/Surplus Sharing Paid to Management,” between 2006 and 2008.

Another former General Manager of the Exchange, Mr. Henry Onyekuru, was said to have been paid N108.6m, while the Secretary to the Council, Mrs. Josephine Igbinosun, allegedly got N21m in the review period. Staff members were also paid N1.2bn and N720m in 2007 and 2009, respectively, the report said.

The auditors also found out that, in 2008 alone, N1.9bn was spent on ”business travel overseas,” prior to reclassification, saying that after reclassification, N953m was classified as ”software upgrade” and ”immediately expensed as opposed to being capitalised.”

They added that the Exchange spent N450m in 2007 on BTO, as against the annual N60m budget, while N297m was spent for the same purpose in 2009.

The report disclosed that the NSE transferred money to the NSE Consult (a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Exchange) for the purpose of trading and investing in the stock exchange on its behalf.

It added, however, that investigation ”is ongoing as to whether the NSE Consult was used as a tool for insider trading in contravention of Section 112 of the Investments and Securities Act.”

The forensic auditors also alleged that Candy Floss Limited, owned by Mrs. Yinka Idowu and Mr. Emmanuel Idowu, received the sum of N342.4m in respect of the Long Service Award, organised in 2008 by the Corporate Affairs Department of the Exchange, headed by Idowu.

They added that Kingdom Securities Limited and KSL Consultants Limited, owned by Onyekuru, allegedly received N125.8m for the reactivation of the Second-Tier Market and the creation of the Third-Tier Market between 2006 and 2007. Onyekuru was a general manager of the Exchange during this period.

The report said, Igbinosun, in an interview with the auditors, claimed that the amount paid to council members was not productivity surplus, adding that ”although, the minutes of March 2009 referred to productivity bonus, she had simply recorded the deliberations wrongly, while the term, ‘productivity bonus,’ was only in relation to staff members.”

The report quoted the company secretary as saying that she had never advised the Council that the distribution of surplus was a contravention of the provisions of the Companies and Allied Matters Act because she was never consulted, adding that even if she had been consulted, it would not have changed their decision to make the distribution.

The auditors‘ findings, according to the report, revealed that there ”were questionable contracts awarded to companies owned by members of staff (or companies in which members of staff owned shares); and purchase of assets by the NSE, which either disappeared from the books of the company or were subsequently written off the books under questionable circumstances.”

It was also found that funds belonging to the Exchange were used for personal businesses ”and the maintenance of staff members and their residences.”

Meanwhile, the Interim Administrator, NSE, Mr. Emmanuel Ikazoboh, told one of our correspondents on Monday that the full report of the forensic audit would be submitted to SEC on Friday.


http://www.punchng.com/Articl.aspx?theartic=Art201011093202939

Date Published: 11/07/10

THE GOV GODSWILL AKPABIO INTERVIEW

Kidnappings In Akwa Ibom, handiwork of politicians without relevance -Akpabio

Says…

Second Term, A reward for my good work
Child-Witch Videos was for Monetary Gains
Akwa Ibom, Safest in Niger Delta
No ACN in Akwa Ibom
Why We Need State Police


Lately, Akwa Ibom State has being in the news for various reasons. In this interview, governor of the state, Godswill Akpabio opens up on security issues bedevilling the state, and the nation at large. He also harps on the need for state police to help curb the spate of kidnappings in the Niger Delta. Excerpts:


Q: Why have you been silent on the issue of Kidnapping in your state?

Yes, you must be wondering why I don't normally make statements, but I must tell you that I realised that there is no permanent governor in office. You only have permanent secretary, so I'm not going to be a permanent fixture in government house so I must focus on the available tenure. I always tell my commissioners that I will not be judged by how much I answer critics, but by the legacies I leave on ground. Most of the time, even when I present a statement on what my administration has done for the people; I always forget even the more than 3,000 projects we have done in the rural areas. We've given light to more than 862 communities since I came in a s governor and more. I don't want to talk because the work of government is to work. 7-year-olds say, "God bless Gov Akpabio, God bless you", and that is my joy, my happiness, what I was elected to do, not to answer to people who have lost political relevance in their communities and are now trying to sponsor kidnapping just to have an edge. You must all join me to condemn such acts in their totality, and pray that security agencies be up and doing to stamp out this from the society. Since 2011 is on the horizon, things will not be easy, but we pray that God will keep the country and grant us peace in Jesus name, Amen.

Q: The last time you talked about completion of the state power project,

(Cuts in) , no, that was the first phase and it happens if you still have investors coming in. The first phase is completed but the second phase will take it to five hundred or thereabouts.

Q: With that phase completed, why does electricity problem persist in the state?
The first thing you need to know is that the 191mw goes to the national grid and it is what the PHCN returns that we are using. The problem is that there are three aspects in electricity supply: generation (which we have license to do), transmission (which consists of high tension wires), and distribution which is the third. Distribution is still in the hands of PHCN, but we've applied to the federal government to give us license to also distribute. The license we have is only for generation. The PHCN distributes it by its own discretion. So, it is possible that you produce 200mw and what is returned to you is 10mw, even if you need 70, and you will still have power outage. But when you're given license to distribute, only then can you be accountable for the problems.

In Akwa Ibom, we have a two- prong approach: the four states that make up the PH distribution centre; Bayelsa, Rivers, Cross river and Akwa Ibom came together to form the Q4 Power Limited, and we have applied under that to take over the PH distribution centre, so the four states can distribute the power that we produce in the region and it will be enough to produce power within the region if that is granted. Secondly, as a state, we have also applied to the federal government that we have the capability of taking over distribution from PHCN. Another aspect is that the current equipment on distribution across the state are moribund; some of the wires are such that if you load them, they get burnt and affect lots of people because they are old. There is need for detailed planning and massive rehabilitation, and decampment of the current equipment in the state.

Q: You said 50 years after; the Nigerian press is still fighting the government. What would you expect; a day with or without the press?

I didn't say 'fighting', I said after 50 years; the perception has got to change,

Q: Possibly, it will change if we have leaders who change and live up to their responsibilities, so which do you prefer?

I prefer a day with the press, otherwise people wouldn't know what I'm doing; they'll mistake it as business as usual.

Q: On the 20th anniversary hospital you are constructing, did you say it is to be designed by Germans? I know you have fantastic architects; why did you have to go outside?

We had to go to Germany because we are building an international hospital. What's better than to let those who have the expertise do it? Sometimes, you could have a fantastic structure but the BQ would be in front. Have you been to some hospitals before where after the theatre, before the recovery room, the next thing that follows is the morgue? How do you expect a person coming out of the theatre to recover after seeing the mortuary on the way out? You see, the doctor's mistake is buried forever while that of the architect lies forever. I strongly believe that if you want to build a five-star infrastructure, your best bet is a five-star construction firm. No, I'm not saying indigenous contractors are not good, but there are certain jobs you don't give to them. We want to build a hospital with the mortuary in the right place (laughter). It is no civil service hospital, it is a five star, one which we will bring in expatriates to run. The other four hospitals were designed by indigenous architects and they are very good, but this is different.

Q:You have said nothing about the child witchcraft issue, of which you set up a committee,

On the child-witchcraft thing, I have said it on CNN, that the young man, Foxtrot Gary first met me in 2008. Some people came and said, "there are some children waiting for you outside," I asked why they were looking for me, and they said, "they have a petition they want to give to you, but they are too many to come in. Can we send a representative?" I said, "no, if the children came to my office, they came to see the governor. If they are too many, I would rather come outside and see them, or else when they leave, they will go and tell their parents that the governor was too busy to see them". Having a representative is no good because I know that it you see the face of God, your life will never be the same.

When I got there, I saw this young man who identified himself as Gary foxtrot. I didn't know what it was all about but they gave me a petition, demanding a law that would protect the rights of children. If you go watch that video - it's on you tube - I turned to my women commissioner thrice and demanded, "where are they from?" They said, "they are all Akwa Ibom children". I turned again and asked, "What is this all about?" she replied, "they have a petition". I turned again, "what about their parents?" she said, "they are orphans, destitute or something and that some people have accused them of being witches and wizards. I turned to the children and said: "you are not witches or wizards, so if anyone accuses you of such, tell them your governor said you're not. " I want you to go from here to Mr. Biggs, since I don't have a kitchen that can take care of you, so I'm giving you N1 million, and I'll come see you at the centre to see how to improve it for you. I also want you to know that you'll go to school because I'll declare free and compulsory education. Understand that you must go to school and whatever assistance I have to give to you is only for your uniform, okay? They said, "Yes".

I went to the centre to the centre thereafter and donated N10 million only to find something else being reported. They don't come here to take good stories out, all the videos you saw were done for financial reasons, and they have by that, violated international laws; using children who are victims to fleece members of the public. The first day they showed it on Channel 4 in the UK, they made over two million pounds. We'd bring them to account; it is the same children that were used in 2007, 2008 in my office, that are still used in 2010 in every corner of the country.

You should be wondering: why the same set of kids despite the passing of that child rights law? Why do we still have kids on the roads after it has become punishable by about 10 years in jail to call a child a witch or wizard in Akwa Ibom? I also made education compulsory so that even when a child who's not yours is living with you, it'll be a criminal offence to prevent that child from going to school. True, we have different talents, but the opportunity must be equal. I appointed education monitors to go round the streets during school hours to see if any child is hawking while others are in school; that child will be apprehended and the parents will have to answer or spend six months in jail.

When the CNN came to Akwa Ibom state, they missed a lot of points. I've invited them to come and continue from where they left off. I can tell you that heads will roll, they'll account for all the money; they've shown it in Australia, Holland, other places and donations are coming in. They'll account for ever single cash they made. I'm setting up a judicial panel of enquiry to look into how the children came into that centre. It is my job as governor to take care of the children. This is a warning to them; they should keep every kobo they've made using the helpless children because they'll account for every dime.

Q: Few weeks ago, it was in the news that one of those who would be contesting against you in 2011 defected to the ACN and went with about 4,00 people from the PDP,

, (laughs) and you believe him? His children must be part of that crowd! Let me tell you the truth; propaganda does not win a war, wars are won by men and machinery. When I saw that, it wasn't worth the paper it was written in. Whoever ran to the ACN must have known why he ran; he felt intimidated by performance. If a man runs from the PDP, he knows his fears - the primaries, not the election. I welcome to contest against me under any party. What's the party's name again, ?

ACN

(Laughter), That's only relevant in Lagos but he's contesting in Akwa Ibom (laughs). There is no ACN in Akwa Ibom, unless he's coming to establish one there. Government is a process, not an even, take note. I have no reason to be shaken, i beat 57 people, i can beat a lesser number. The only thing is, my elders in the state are not even happy with anyone coming out to contest, because they think a second term should be my reward for the good works of the last three-and-a-half years. They were looking forward to having the first unopposed governor in the country, (laughter).

Q: With the arms build up in the country, how safe is Akwa Ibom?
Even with the few reported cases of kidnapping, Akwa Ibom is still the safest in the Niger Delta. It is the only state where politicians try to use people's misfortunes as a point of campaign - this is because we don't have politicians who can campaign on issues. We have mischief makers gunning for offices and all they do there is blackmail. We cannot allow the state to be a safe haven for kidnappers. We've been apprehending them, from next week we'll be charging them to court.

Q: How many of them?

I can't recall but they will be charged to court. We'll respect no one's status so long as he is connected to insecurity. My people know i am acquiring some technological know-how to fight kidnapping and bring it to a standstill and I'm sure between now and December, the Egyptians you see today, you shall see no more. I can assure you of that.

If you want the right thing to be done you can push for a state Police. A governor is called the Chief Security Officer of a state but that is just in name. In the true sense, you are just a general without troops. As it stands now we can do the very little because as a governor you have no say in the promotion of security agents, and they work at their own pace. I'm not saying they are not working; a lot of them paid the supreme price but the reality is that we need state police. The governor has two tenures; he can't stay forever but during that time, let him be responsible for his security and that of his state, so as to deepen democracy in Nigeria.

Consider the American system. You have the state police, paratroopers, municipal police and most of these places are safe; you don't see people carrying AK-47-rifles up and down on the street. There is security. This is because if you bring in Mohammed from Sokoto to come police my hometown, he can't even pronounce the name, talk more of knowing the nooks and crannies of the area. There is a limit to what security agents can do when you don't allow state police to be established.

We must take all proactive steps so that our children can walk, play more around wherever they are, in safety, without fear. My state is the only one that has signed a bill into law, making kidnapping punishable by death sentence. I don't pay lip service to security. When I did so, people said, "ah, it's against UN convention agreement" and I said, "there is death sentence in Texas and many countries. Why are we opting for international convention agreements that have no bearing on prevailing circumstances?" We are not like the developed world. If some of these countries still have death sentence, let's ensure that it's right here too.

Even when someone attacks another on the basis of religion or ethnicity, like what happened in Jos, we should promulgate a law that makes it a treasonable offence, so that Nigerians can feel safe anywhere he or she is. If someone attacks you on basis of ethnicity or religion - whether Boko Haram or anything - then it should be punishable as treason felony. Life sentence should be enshrined in our law so that Nigerians can be safe to live anywhere.

http://www.pointblanknews.com/Interviews/os4149.html

Alleged Abia number one kidnapper, Osisikankwu, breaks silence, speaks to Vanguard

Nov 7, 2010
By Chidi Nkwopara

The origin of this piece will certainly read like a fairy tale. A young man walked into the Vanguard Office, Owerri, to discuss placement of 15 full pages of colour advertisement. After discussing with our Correspondent, Chidi Nkwopara, the potential client left but promised that he would call to confirm the next line of action.
About four days after the visit, a call came through an MTN number. The message was simple: “We have accepted to place the advert in Vanguard. You have to come to Aba and pick the money”.
For the reporter, Aba was a no-go area and   the caller was told so. A deal was struck that the reporter should come to a place close to Osisioma.  He thereafter left Owerri for the designated place on the appointed day.
Locating the “advertiser” was not difficult but the only shock was that they were a group of youngsters! Our reporter’s expectation that he would just collect the manuscripts and cash and return safely to Owerri, was not to be. He instead got the shock of his life as it turned out that he had been  talking to the dreaded and wanted militant leader and alleged kidnapper, Osisi Ka Nkwu!
During the encounter, the militant leader decided to break his long-drawn silence on the unrest in Aba, Abia State. And in a discussion which lasted for about 20 minutes, he gave account of why he took up arms and vowed to continue with the struggle until Ngwaland is liberated.

Why did you take up arms?
We became militants because of the failure of government to live up to its responsibilities towards us. Many of us are graduates. Some are university drop-outs,who could not continue for want of fund or sponsors. There are secondary school leavers without a future in school or jobs. Many are skilled workers from all walks of life, who are partially on the job or were forced out by lack of fund to buy tools and start their business. Others are apprentices and persons wrongfully and unlawfully put out of job without means to litigate on the injustices meted against them, and a lot more who suffered sub-human treatment, degradation, torture, victimization and unjust imprisonment in the hands of Abia State Government, and its agencies from the traditional village setting up to Government House, Umuahia.

Are there other reasons?
Yes. There are some of us who chose militancy because of the despoil of their wives and sisters, ritual killing of innocent persons in the guise of security by mainly the Bakassi Boys, used by the state administration as a security outfit. I must also talk about the corrupt segment of the Nigeria Police unleashed on Abia people. They extort money at check points, police stations and even in people’s homes, thus impoverishing the citizens.
All these pains and suffering are inflicted on the poor masses while the few privileged and untouchable rich move freely to continue their looting. These human beings have relations and friends who make much money from Ngwa land without ploughing back their profit to develop the area and her people.

Are you sincere that Aba is neglected?
Honestly, successive governments in Umuahia have refused, failed and neglected to provide for the many that are poor. We took up arms to expel the few that are rich, who today, have no protection in Aba.
The neglect of Ngwaland by government is borne out of lack of patriotism by stranger elements in and around the corridors of power. How else can one explain the utter neglect of Ngwaland to its present lowest degree of absurdity?

Any proof?
Yes. Since the creation of Abia State in 1991, no Ngwa man has been governor of the state and all main markets in Aba, including Ariaria Market in Osisioma Ngwa, Cemetery Market, Ngwa Road Market and Shopping Centre, are all controlled by stranger elements, who have no interest of Ngwaland at heart.
Aba remains the commercial nerve centre of Abia State. Internally generated revenue of the state comes from this town, but there are no good road network in this town and the adjoining Osisioma area. Articulated vehicles fall or get stuck at the Osisioma Ngwa-Ekeakpara Market road. The story is worse in the hinterland. It makes us wonder if we are in modern day Nigeria or pre-historic Nigeria. This has been the state of affairs in this area for years and government pretends it does not know about it and have not heard the cry of the common man.

How can you say there are no jobs in Aba when there are factories in the town?
In all honesty, there are no job opportunities in Aba and I can tell you that there are no functional factories in the town. We have been lacking jobs even before the much orchestrated kidnap began. Government policies and programmes do not favour job creation. It does not favour industrial growth and expansion where our teeming unemployed but employable hands could have been engaged. So, why would these set of citizens not employ themselves?

Like commercial motorcycling?
There you come again. Okada riders were used for election purposes and sadly dumped after the polls. Their only reward was the blanket banning and burning of their motorcycles by the police and Bakassi Boys, at the instance of the state government. Nothing was put in place to take care of those who lost their means of livelihood and this helped in increasing the ranks of the militants in the area. Those who managed to purchase tricycles were subjected to paying N100 tax daily to the state government as rehabilitation fee.

What is the position of the petroleum depot in Aba?
You are living behind time. The depot stopped functioning long ago and no government is interested in looking into the matter. The result is that those who earned the livelihood from the depot have since lost the opportunity. They can no longer support themselves and their dependants. Again, this has rightly increased the number of angry people in the area and the option naturally is militancy.

Ngwaland is an oil producing area. Has it not impacted positively on the lives of the people?
Ngwaland is in the Niger Delta region. The truth is that no town or village is presently enjoying the dividends of oil exploration and exploitation. Owaza is a typical example of gross neglect by government. There are no roads, good and functional schools, electricity, potable water, modern markets and health centres. The sad thing is that some of our sons have allowed themselves to be bought over by government to the detriment of the hapless and helpless citizens.

Are you indicting your prominent sons and daughters?
Good question! A lot of them live outside the impoverished area. They should start preparing their burial places in Abuja and other lands because they have willingly sabotaged their native land. Their children are schooling or working abroad. They hardly touch base and cannot tell the real feeling of their kith and kin.
We are told that education is still regarded as a top priority in Abia State
I don’t know who told you that. High cost of education has sadly put the facility out of the reach of the common man. It has become very elusive for children from poor homes. Our girls, who are desirous to get education but are from poor background, get messed up in the process. Some even died of deadly sexually transmitted diseases. Public schools in Abia State is a mockery of education. This is why the rich and wealthy have transferred their children to private schools, which charge exorbitant fees.

What is your take on the controversial kidnap of school children?
Nigeria shook and quaked because children from a private school were kidnapped. They were children of the rich, wealthy and powerful. If children from public schools were picked up, nobody would have even heard about it because they are children from poor homes. Nobody speaks for them and this is the irony of the ugly situation we have found ourselves in Ngwaland. I must say that the children were released unconditionally by my men.

Did your group kidnap the school children?
One of the camps seized the bus conveying the children to their school. It was a private school. It attracted worldwide reaction and to this extent, it served its purpose. l personally found out the camp that carried out the operation and moved the kids for immediate release.
Government House, Umuahia, was impatient, despite my firm promise that the children would be released unharmed. Similarly, my lawyer mounted pressure on me. He threatened to abandon my brief if the school children were not released September 29, 2010.
Despite heavy military presence, I brought out the school children from the camp of the group that held them hostage and directly called the office of Abia State Deputy Governor and also through my lawyer, asked government to send people to Ngwa Iyiekwe Junction, along Aba_Port Harcourt express way to pick the children. That was how the children regained their freedom.

We were told that the soldiers rescued the children. Is your account not strange?
I was surprised to hear that the soldiers claimed credit for the release of the school children. I would have roundly dealt with the soldiers if that was the mission of my teeming followers. People should learn to tell Nigerians the truth at all times.

What truth are you now telling?
Apart from the total neglect of Ngwaland, there are other issues to recall. Aba has been an important city in the political, economic and social life of Nigeria. Major reforms in Nigeria started in Aba and spread to other parts of Nigeria. All Nigerians are today reaping from the effects of the Aba Women Riot of 1929. All sorts of bad names were given to the protagonist of that necessary riot.
Today, the White colonialists are gone and Black colonialists have since taken over. The state is set again at Ngwaland for a fight to either make government provide for the teeming poor masses and also protect the rich few. Government should make the area a free zone for the poor and a war zone for the rich criminals. Ours is a struggle, a commitment borne out of patriotism. The side effect is what people call kidnapping and armed robbery.

How many militant groups were actually operating in Ngwaland?
There were more than nine militant groups in various camps and locations scattered in the area. I can honestly tell you that the smallest militant group had not less than 250 persons at the time Governor Theodore Orji announced his amnesty programme. I led the largest group, which had over 3,000 men. Although these militant groups were autonomous, they were however very loyal to me.
After due consultation with the various groups, I was given the mandate to negotiate with government on the amnesty details and how to surrender our arms and ammunition. I also sought services of a lawyer in this regard, especially as I was skeptical about government’s sincerity

Why did the amnesty promised by Governor Theodore Orji fail?
I hate to recall this aspect. Government House Umuahia was still discussing with my lawyer on ways to put a permanent end to the problem before September 30, 2010. The amnesty was planned to lapse October 7, 2010.
To assure government of our sincerity, journalists were scheduled to visit the militant camps and take photographs of the armoury, so that government can match what we will eventually surrender with the items in the photograph. The press was to visit September 30, 2010, while we were to surrender our arms on October 4, 2010. Although the school children were seized within this time frame, I still assured government of the safety and subsequent release of the children.

So, what happened?
In the early hours of September 30, the Abia State Government in conjunction with the Federal Government, declared military action in Ngwaland. Tension was high. Buildings were destroyed. Properties were damaged and lost. Women and girls despoiled. Livestock were stolen and eaten by the invading soldiers, who came in trucks and tanks of war.
With heavy military presence, the visit of the press failed and consequently, the amnesty programme collapsed. The military struck eight clear days ahead of the expiration of the amnesty deadline.
With the military in combat readiness and with the actual bombardment of Ugwuati and some other parts of Ngwaland, the various militant groups and camps dispersed without surrendering.

How many of your men have been arrested?
The soldiers are jokers. The killing, arrest, detention and trial of innocent citizens, who were branded kidnappers, have not and would not help matters. Of over 3,000 men in my camp, who were ready to surrender their arms before the military arrived, none has been identified or touched by any soldier or police man. The figure of arrests announced by the security agencies is a figment of their imagination and a cheap propaganda to score cheap political marks. The military presence has not solved the inherent issues that ignited the problem.

How do you escape from these security men?
It is very simple. We know them but they do not know us. Recently, a photograph of my father was published as my own. I had a good laugh. We pass through their supposed check points daily. They ask us to place our hands on our head as we pass through their check points. We even passed through their barricades as we came to see you here today. The soldiers just don’t know who they are looking for and that makes their task crazy.

So, where do we go from here?
Dialogue is the thing and not brute force. There has to be serious arrangements to change the ugly face of Ngwaland. My promise is that this struggle and war of good over evil will continue in many ways until the day our problems are addressed by government.

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2010/11/alleged-abia-number-one-kidnapper-osisikankwu-breaks-silence-speaks-to-vanguard/

Posted: November 6, 2010 - 18:57


By Lanre Babalola & Kazeem Ugbodaga of PM News, Lagos

Constitutional lawyer, Prof. Itse Sagay has revealed that a legislator in the National Assembly, Abuja, Nigeria, earns far more than the United States President, Barack Obama.

This revelation was made by Sagay yesterday when he delivered a lecture to mark the 47th birthday celebration of the Lagos State Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mr. Opeyemi Bamidele held at the Eko FM Multi-Purpose Hall, Ikeja, Lagos.

In the lecture, Sagay lamented that a Nigerian Senator, in 2009 earned N240 million in salaries and allowances annually while his House of Representatives counterpart earned N203.8 million annually.

“In other words, a senator earned about $1.7 million and a member of the House of Representatives earned $1.45 million per annum,” he said.

He said this shows that a legislator in Nigeria earns more than the US President, Obama, who earns $400, 000 per annum and British Prime Minister, 190, 000 pounds, while a senator in Nigeria, one of the poorest countries in the world, earns $1.7 million.

Sagay added that a legislator in Nigeria also earns more than his counterpart in the US and the United Kingdom.

“By contrast, an American senator earns $174,000 and a U.K. Parliamentarian earns about $64, 000 per annum,” he said.

“In spite of the dismal standard of living, poverty in the country and low per capita income  of Nigeria, Nigerian legislators in Abuja have awarded themselves the highest salaries and allowances in the world. In other words, the Nigerian lawmakers in Abuja are the highest paid in the world,” lamented Sagay.

According to Sagay, “in 2009, the Federal legislators received a total of N102.8 billion comprising N11.8 billion as salaries and N90.96 billion as allowances.   Is the tax payer getting value for this colossal sum in the current democratic dispensation?  Should five percent of Nigeria’s annual budget be spent on 109 senators and 360 House of Representatives members?    “In other words, should 469 Nigerians gulp five percent of our budget, leaving the remaining 150 million of us to receive about N1, 000 each?”

“The Senate President is reported to be earning N250 million quarterly or N83.33 million per month, while his deputy earns N50 million per month.  The Senate has allocated N1.02 billion as quarterly allowance to its 10 principal officers, known collectively as Senate leadership.

“Each of the other principal officers earns N78 million every three months or N26 million per month.   This tragic state of affairs is clearly unsustainable.   Those engaged in this feeding frenzy are endangering our democracy,” he lamented.

The constitutional lawyer also faulted the proposed constitutional amendment by the National Assembly, saying that the body was not yet ready to truly amend the constitution.

He said that a proposed amendment of section 65 seeking to raise the minimum qualification for membership of the legislatures from school certificate to a diploma level was rejected by the State House of Assembly.

Also, Sagay said that section 66 (1) which disqualified persons with a history of crime, bankruptcy, among others from contesting elections was deleted, thus paving way in the future for people with criminal records to be elected into public office.

After pointing out the anomalies in the proposed amendment, he stated that “the real work on the amendment or alteration of the constitution is yet to be commenced.   From all indications, such work will not be undertaken by the present National Assembly; it will be the task of a future one.”

Sagay, however, contended that the greatest authority, which a legislature wielded in a democratic society, is not its legal powers as contained in the constitution, but its moral authority, as the conscience of the nation and protector of the sovereignty of the people.

“Thus, members of the legislature must be men and women of high moral authority and integrity.  The legislatures must suspend from their membership, anyone who by his conduct, past or present, tarnishes the image of that Assembly or puts its credibility in doubt.

“If the legislature is to hold the executive to a minimum standard of accountability, transparency and honesty, it must itself purify its own systems, processes and membership; otherwise, no one will take it seriously,” he said.
Also speaking, Oba of Lagos, Rilwan Akiolu warned President Goodluck Jonathan not to declare his intention to contest the 2011 poll yet, saying that he may live to regret it if he rushed into the race.

The oba, known for his frank talk, warned Jonathan that a hasty decision to vie for the presidency next year might ruin his career and that he should beware of the myriads of sycophants who surround  him.

He described people around him as greedy and self centred leaders who were only interested in what they could gain and not the welfare of the citizens.
—Lanre Babalola, Kazeem Ugbodaga



http://www.saharareporters.com/news-page/nigeria%E2%80%99s-federal-legislator-earns-more-obama-prof-itse-sagay

By Chioma Gabriel, Deputy Editor

Rickey Tarfa became a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN, at the age of 38. He is the first SAN from Adamawa State and has risen to become one of Nigeria’s respected and regarded legal practitioners and notary’s public.
Currently, Rickey Tarfa is a member of  the 17-man Northern Committee searching for a consensus presidential candidate from the North. In this interview, he expresses optimism that the committee has done a credible job.

It’s being speculated that consensus candidacy will not work. What is the truth?
Consensus is working. Definitely, it’s working. Those making speculations are not part of it. It is to be expected because there is minority in every majority.
Are you confident the North will buy the idea in totality because not all Northerners are in PDP.
Consensus candidacy has gone beyond the PDP. It is no more a PDP thing. It is a general thing. It is difficult though to have one voice but you can have majority and once majority has agreed, it will go a long way. That is the principle of democracy.
So, what do you think of PDP presidential aspirants like Sarah Jubril who is not part of the consensus and other aspirants in other parties?
They are entitled to their political views but they are in minority. Or would we go by the opinion of a minority in a democracy?
Consensus is not democratic. It is not open and it is not a level playing field.
Democracy is a question of number. It is a question for debate. You can never have a 100% consistency in democracy. It is regulated. There are rules for any game. There are rules in consensus and those in it will abide by these rules.

Are you now saying that after the winner emerges, others cannot go on another platform and contest?
You have a choice. If you don’t want to be part of the consensus, it’s your own choice but if you are in it, you are bound by its rules and regulations.
It is not democratic.
It is your own opinion which is common with people  who have not bought the idea of consensus. It is either you are in it or you are not. If you are, you are bound by the rules. If you are not, you are entitled to your  opinion.
So, these aspirants seeking consensus cannot contest on other party platforms if they have the opportunity.
If they want to express their own opinion, nothing is stopping them from doing so but they have to go by the rules.
It’s being speculated that your committee has finished its work.
I cannot say that. I can only say the committee has gone very far and should be rounding up. I think what remains is for us to make our views known.

So, it’s not that the committee has concluded work but is withholding the result   because it is scared of what would be  the outcome if the result is announced?
There are many speculations surrounding the committee but the important thing is to hear from the chairman of the committee, Adamu Ciroma himself. Anything he says on this issue is authoritative.

Are you aware that Ciroma who is championing the consensus did not subscribe to it in the second and third republics when he was a presidential aspirant of NPN and NRC respectively?
That depends on the circumstances at the time. We are talking about the present situation. I don’t know what was the situation at that time.
The circumstances at that time might not be the same with the circumstances now. Situations change. Circumstances change. Tactics also change.
The biggest fear about this issue is that it could divide the North if it fails.
When you go by the principles of the majority, it doesn’t mean that you are divided. All you need to do is abide by the majority decision. If I’m in it and I don’t believe in it, I will abide by the majority decision. That is the principle of democracy.

Is it fair for only 17 people to decide the fate of the entire North in a presidential election?
We go by guidelines. There is no way the whole population of the North will come and sit down to agree on a consensus. It is not possible but the rules apply.

How does the committee of 17 people intend to convince millions of Northerners that it’s Atiku, or IBB, or Saraki or Gusau. What yardstick would they say is used and who decided on who? How would Nigerians and especially Northerners buy that in a democratic system?
When you go to polls, does everybody vote for the same candidate? You should know from that.
An election is transparent. You can see the voters and say, okay, about 100 voted but in  consensus , it’s only the committee.
You can never get everybody to agree. There can never be a 100% consensus on any issue, whether social, political or economy. There must be dissenting voices.
But it’s very simple, all that needs to be done is to condone the majority. There must be a certain percentage  spread to be followed and the majority wins.

You are a lawyer, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, not a politician. So, what is your role in this committee?
I am not a politician. That is why I’m saying it has gone beyond a PDP affair. Quite a number of people in that committee are not card-carrying members of a political party.

That means they are not experienced to be doing the job they are doing?
They are drawn up from their different backgrounds and are not political and can do their job without bias.

So, you are confident with the output of  the committee?
Those who believe in it are confident that it wold work, including myself. I believe in democracy and rule of law.
Democracy gives room for everybody to contest on a level-playing field, not on consensus.
Democracy has restrictions. The constitution directs democracy to be orgnaised along he line of liberal camps, liberal folds. So, there are rules. Nobody can just walk up and change the rules of the game. Doing that will amount to not abiding by the rules of democracy.
Rules of the game is subjective in democracy especially in PDP. Before consensus, it was zoning, whether Jonathan should contest or not.
You cannot shy away from an agreement. When we have an agreement in principle, it is expected that every one adheres to it. You don’t even need to put it to paper. It is mistrust that brings about the signing of an agreement in writing and even then, why would one not abide by what you have agreed in writing.

So, you are supporting consensus?
If I am a man of honour and I agree with you, I don’t need to put anything in writing. If I am a man of honour, I will go and do everything that I have agreed to do. I don’t need to back out on it.

When will your committee announce the consensus candidate?
I don’t have to announce that. The chairman of the committee is the only one that can do that.
It’s been speculated that you are a pro-Atiku committee member just as other members have aspirants they are  working in their  favour.
There is nothing that people will not say. I believe in what I am doing and I will do it to the best of my ability.
Thank God I’m not the only member of the committee. Otherwise if Atiku emerges, they would have said I made him a favourite candidate. It doesn’t work like that. All these talks about committee members having favourite aspirants are part of the bring-down syndrome.
But we have a set-down criteria. Whatever happens has a criteria through which it is done.

Is it not strange that the entire North would bestow its destiny on a 17-member committee?
It doesn’t matter, even if it is a five-member committee. The most important thing is that the five were given that responsibility to do the job.

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2010/11/we-have-done-a-good-job-in-the-committee-rickey-tarfa/

FATAL VOYAGE! 18 cultists sailed into troubled waters
Nov 6, 201


By Albert AKPOR
STRATEGICALLY located at the nation’s territorial water way, the Atlas Cove oil facility, a major distributive channel of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), has for sometime now, elicited security alerts, following the July 12, 2009 attack, allegedly by a group operating under the aegis of the Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta (MEND).
After the attack, which led to the death of about four persons, including a senior navy personnel, it became clear to the relevant authorities that there was dire need to provide maximum security in and around the oil installation.
Consequently, a combined team of armed soldiers and policemen were drafted to the area to beef up an already existing security arrangement; especially when the group which claimed responsibility for the attack threatened to launch a repeated one. It was on this premise that movement around the oil facility was restricted and a dusk to dawn patrol intensified.
Perhaps, these arrangements may not be known to 18 persons who were rounded up in a boat near the facility by naval personnel. They were said to be members of a militant group on a vision to vandalize oil installations. But the suspects flatly denied the allegation, insisting that they belong to a dreaded campus cult known as the Supreme Vikings, saying that they were innocently sailing when security agents swooped on them.
Reports say the suspects, who were spotted on a speed boat with red band tide around their heads, were surreptitiously moving towards the oil facility, chanting war songs when they were rounded up. They were promptly taken into custody.
Earlier, the porosity of the Atlas Cove and the need to beef up security has been raised by the manager of the depot, Engineer Anthony Onwuka. Engineer Onwuka had amongst other things raised security alarm on the urgent need to erect perimeter fencing and emergency take off and landing jetty when both the Chief of Defence and Naval Staff, Air Chief Marshal O. O. Petririn and Vice Admiral O. S. Ibrahim visited the oil facility on October 11, 2010.
He had said, “There is urgent need to construct additional observation post both within depot premises and along some strategically identified spots, along the sea side to check vandals’ activities through sea shore lines and creeks. As a matter of security, the Atlas Cove depot has no take-off and landing jetty. We presently operate at the absolute mercy and kindness of the army officers’ jetty opposite Onikan stadium.
But when the 18 suspected militants were paraded before pressmen by the Flag Officer Commanding (FOC) Western Navy Command, Apapa Lagos, Rear Admiral E.O Ogbor, some of them who volunteered information claimed that they were neither members of MEND nor Niger Delta militants, stressing, however, that they belong to a dreaded university cult known as the ‘Supreme Vikings.’
They claimed that they were ‘sailing’ as is the custom after the initiation of new members into the confraternity. Said one them who gave his name as David and who also claimed that he was newly initiated into the confraternity, “I do not even know why we were in the sea because I was only initiated into the group just last week somewhere in Mushin area of Lagos. However, I paid N5,000 for this trip. Please do not reveal my identity because if they get to know, they will kill me and members of my family.
The only thing I was told was that we, the newly initiated members, were going on a trip on the sea to get acclimatized, learn signs and songs of the confraternity and become ‘hard men.’ It was in the process that we were arrested by the navy.”

But the Rear Admiral Ogbor who insisted that the suspects have a case to answer maintained that, “A patrol team of the Nigeria Navy drew from NNS Beecroft Naval base spotted and arrested some militants and pipeline vandals at Takwa Bay near the NNPC Atlas Cove facility. They were in a speed boat, tied their trade mark red headbands and were chanting war songs.

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2010/11/fatal-voyage-how-18-cultists-sailed-into-troubled-waters/

Nov 6, 2010

Senator Uba Ahmed was the National Secretary of the defunct National Party of Nigeria, NPN, in the Second Republic.
He also served as a senator in the ill-fated transition to democracy  of the military regime of Ibrahim Babangida in the Third Republic and served  as Minister of Labour and Productivity under General Sani Abacha. In this encounter, he takes a swipe at the Adamu Ciroma Consensus Committee alleging that Ciroma himself rejected consensus in the Second and Third republics.

The North is set to release the name of the consensus candidate that will defeat Jonathan at the PDP primary, what’s your take on the issue?
Let me tell you something, the issue of presidential aspiration is a function of ambition. It is almost impossible to ask someone to forget his ambition simply because somebody somewhere says you are not their choice.
When you come down to simple analogy, if for example, there is only one space at the University and two people are contesting for that space, would anybody convince you to forget your ambition because the other person is interested?
This kind of compromised approach to politics is  an  outcome  of limited political exposure and experience. No experienced politician will consider compromise. So, to me, I’m surprised that someone like Adamu Ciroma would be championing compromise in the politics of this country. I don’t support compromise but if there are other alternatives and all of them have equivalent value, then, you can talk of concession of one office to the other. But here, there is no concessional alternative. The only position is the Presidency. Compromise doesn’t happen in a position that has no alternative.

So, you don’t believe in it?
You cannot tell somebody to forgo his ambition in a democracy. You contest and the best emerges. Consenus  is odd.
The Ciroma Committee thinks that consensus candidacy is one factor that will unite the North in defeating Jonathan.
Before I come to that, I want to take you back in history. Adamu Ciroma Adamu ought to remember, in 1978 when NPN went to converge in Lagos, 8th and 9th of December. Zik wanted us to renegotiate so that NPP and NPN could merge and work together. We had six other members wanting the position of presidency in NPN.
Adamu Ciroma was one of them. Shagari was one of them. Abubakar Saraki was one of them. Professor Iya Abubakar was one of them and Maitama Sule was also there. None of them could concede to Zik. And neither would Zik concede to serve under any of them. That was why the then merger of NPN/NPP in December 1978 didn’t work and both parties went their separate ways, even though subsequently, destiny brought them back together in Lagos.
How can Ciroma want others to do what he couldn’t do back them. And who are these members of the Ciroma Committee seeking consensus?
There is Ciroma. And there are Sule Lamido, Babangida Aliyu, Audu Ogbeh, Iyorchia Ayu, M.D. Yusuf and others.
Except for Adamu Ciroma, most of them are not that kind of people one would really call politicians.The only person that surprised me is Ciroma.
Now, what really baffles me is when they said they are looking for a consensus candidate from the North because since the first republic, the North has never had one single candidate contesting presidential elections in this country.
The North has never gotten involved in consensus candidacy. In the Second Republic, there were three contenders for the office of the President. There was Shehu Shagari, Aminu Kano and there was Waziri Ibrahim.
There were others, but these were the three strong contenders. And at the  end of  it, Shagari won the election amongst  these three  strong contenders.
Even in the aborted third republic, Adamu Ciroma himself was in the National Republican Convention and contested for the Presidency against Umaru Shinkafi and others. And I remember I was a party to the meeting when they wanted a consensus candidate. All the aspirants saw themselves as consensus candidates.
None of them conceded to the other. Then Ciroma as an aspirant did not concede to anybody. So, why would anybody concede to his quest now?

Besides PDP, Nuhu Ribadu and General Buhari  are also Northern Presidential aspirants who  belong to other parties?
That is the issue. Will the North now give up on Buhari and Ribadu? I’m sure nobody is talking to these ones who are also Northern Presidential aspirants. So, which North will pick a consensus candidate? Is PDP the only party that Northerners belong to? I think that is the issue.

From the analysis you made, are you saying consensus will not achieve the desired objective?
It cannot because whatever they are trying to do in the name of consensus is surrender of ambition. It is against the spirit of democracy and political fairplay. It is not for a serious politician. No serious politician would consider consensus.

What do you think of the problems of  PDP?
I don’t belong to PDP or  any political party. But there is always political wranglings in the major parties especially during elections. Don’t forget history so soon. What caused the collapse of the first republic was internal wranglings within the Action Group in 1962.
What caused the collapse of the second republic was the internal wrangling of the Political Parties Alliance. The alliance of political parties that came together for the purpose of fighting NPN backfired.
Nigerian politicians should learn from history because of the way this current democracy was achieved.
They should avoid treading the path of destruction so that what happened in the first and second republics doesn’t happen again. It is not only PDP but other political parties should be careful this time around because it would be very disastrous for another collapse to come.

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2010/11/adamu-ciroma-never-accepted-consensus-in-his-time-uba-ahmed/

Nov 6, 2010


By Simon Ebegbulem, Benin City

The Edo State government reacted angrily, yesterday, to the House of Representatives motion asking the Federal authorities to withhold forthwith the monthly Federal allocations to local governments in Edo and Ekiti states saying the reps, by the action had shown that they are “jobless.”
The Reps’ action followed the recent dissolution of the councils in both states by the state governments.
The executive arms of the two states are controlled by the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, and the dissolved councils mainly by the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.
But addressing newsmen in Benin yesterday, the Special Adviser on Publicity Matters to the Edo State Governor, Mr. Charles Idahosa said the action of the Reps showed that “they have nothing doing.”
“These people are just there “jobless. They have nothing doing,”Mr. Idahosa said.
In fact, I am one of those that have been saying that the National Assembly should be a part time thing. There are pressing issues in Nigeria that they are supposed to talk about; they are talking about local government that is purely an affair of the state.
“The local government can only function with laws made by the state House of Assembly, how the House of Representatives is concerned, nobody knows.
“Nigerians are languishing in prisons all over the world, Nigerians are being treated as terrorists; the National Assembly has not been able to focus its attention on these areas. There is no electricity in this country, we have bad roads, there is kidnapping, there is insecurity, mass killings here and there, children being kidnapped.
Instead of facing what we voted them for they are busy playing politics because they are in government at the national level.
“We all know that the 10 years have been wasted at the national level because the PDP has not done anything. Few days ago I was reading in the papers the kind of emoluments they approved for themselves and we are very aware that for the first time in this state we have seen governance touching the lives of the people in every nook and cranny of the state.”
“Governor Oshiomhole, Mr. Idahosa claimed, has operated under the ambit of the law, he has not done anything illegal and the threat by the National Assembly that funds to these councils should be seized shows that the PDP members in the National Assembly don’t even have an idea of what is happening in this country.
There was a Supreme Court judgment in favour of Lagos state government during the Obasanjo government that nobody has any right to stop any allocation to any tier of government, even the President cannot do that.
“I am not surprised by the attitude of the PDP that has been crying because the Comrade Governor in his magnanimity left them there for too long. We are all aware that there was no local government election in this state in 2007 that brought them to power.
In-fact I am aware that some of the council chairmen were already packing their things out of office immediately Comrade Adams Oshiomhole was announced winner of the election by the Appeal Court but to the surprise of everybody, he left them so long, instead of showing appreciation, they have gone to start shouting illegality” he stated.

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2010/11/%E2%80%9Cyou-are-jobless%E2%80%9D-edo-govt-tells-reps/

In Closing Statement, UK Prosecutors Make Case Against Theresa Ibori, Husband, Gohil, And Governor Uduaghan


Posted: November 6, 2010 - 06:23

By SaharaReporters, New York
UK prosecutors trying former Delta State First Lady Theresa Nkoyo Ibori today painted a detailed portrait of Mrs. Ibori’s extensive role in her husband’s looting of public funds. The prosecutors also implicated current Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan in the multiple fraudulent deals through which Mr. Ibori looted the treasury.

Mr. Uduaghan is Ibori’s cousin and handpicked successor.

Today’s closing statement was also a preview of the case that UK prosecutors are likely to make if they succeed in getting Mr. Ibori extradited to the UK from Dubai. Ibori recently appealed a ruling by a judge in Dubai that he should be sent to the UK to face money-laundering charges.

Lead prosecutor Sasha Wass, QC told the jury that Mrs. Ibori paid £2.2 million pounds in cash for a swanky home in Hampstead less than two years after her husband’s inauguration as governor. Ms. Wass, QC told the jury that not only did former Governor James Ibori obtain the house by fraudulent means but also that Mrs. Ibori was aware of it since her husband put her in charge of the transaction.

The Crown prosecutors described the fraudulent acquisition of the Hampstead property as the beginning of Mrs. Ibori’s rise to extreme wealth.

Ms. Wass asked the jury to consider the Iboris’ criminal record, including their conviction in the UK for petty theft a few years before Mr. Ibori maneuvered his way into the governor’s mansion in Asaba. Prosecutors also laid out how US authorities investigated Ibori’s million-dollar deposit in a US bank in 1994. She told the jury that US law enforcement agents concluded that Ibori lied when he claimed to have received the funds for consultancy work. As Saharareporters detailed earlier, Mr. Ibori forfeited $400,000 out of the $1 million to the US government.

A legal analyst in court told Saharareporters that the prosecution “did a superb job of portraying Mr. and Mrs. Ibori as a tag-team criminal partnership.” He added, “Money is seized in the US only when there’s probable cause –or what UK law calls reasonable suspicion.”

UK prosecutors told the jury today that Ibori only had to provide evidence of the legitimacy of the funds, but he opted to part with a huge chunk of it in order to settle the case. Ms. Wass stated that the transaction marked Ibori’s entrance into the criminal big leagues. She also observed that, contrary to Mrs. Ibori’s attempt to deny knowledge of Ibori’s criminal activity, the former First Lady was fully aware of her husband’s illicit financial deals in the US as well as the UK.

Ms. Wass reminded the jury that Mrs. Ibori went along with her husband’s decision to falsify his date of birth in order to conceal his criminal past and convictions in the UK. Under cross-examination, Theresa Ibori had acknowledged that she found her husband’s action to be wrong, but said it was against the tradition in her adopted culture to challenge him. However, Ms. Wass reminded the jury that Mrs. Ibori had indeed challenged her husband on other issues.

Prosecutors revealed how Mr. Ibori made misleading declarations of his assets. He did not declare his foreign bank accounts. In 1999 he only declared his homes in Nigeria as well as a flat in Abbey Road, St Johns Wood area in London. For cash in bank, he declared a debt of more than N1 million while cash in hand was about N400, 000 thousand. In 2007, Mr. Ibori declared another house in London, but fraudulently understated its value. Even though the house was worth £3 million, Ibori declared it as worth £300,000.

Prosecutors accused the former governor, with his wife’s knowledge, of systematically misstating the value of his property. They also told the jury that, by 2007, Mr. Ibori had added three more properties in the UK as well as homes in Texas and South Africa. He also had established a series of off shores trust funds in safe haven islands for himself, his wife and children. Yet, in his assets declaration form in Nigeria, when he was asked to indicate cash abroad, he entered “non-applicable.”

Ms. Wass revealed how Mr. Ibori established several companies, including MER Engineering, and used them as fronts to award contracts to himself. Ibori’s companies also received contracts and revenues from the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation.

By 2007, Ibori’s wealth had become astonishing, said UK prosecutors. They pointed to the testimony of the EFCC’s 

Yahaya Bello that Ibori’s mistress, Udoamaka Okoronkwo (nee Onuigbo), set up three front companies that tendered for and received numerous contracts during Ibori’s tenure as governor. Ms. Wass stated that the three companies belonging to the same person tendered for and competed for the same contract. The arrangement ensured that Ibori’s concubine – who was fronting for him – got the contract.

Investigators accused Emmanuel Uduaghan, who prior to 2007 served as secretary to the state government (SSG), of facilitating the illicit deals. Most of the contracts that went to one of Ibori’s front companies –Sagicom, Rivbed or Sigares – were heavily over-inflated. Prosecutors revealed that most of the contracts were for N1.8 billion or above, including for the supply of fine wine and beverages.

Ms. Wass disclosed that Ms. Okoronkwo was responsible for transferring the proceeds out of Nigeria where the funds were invested for Ibori. Ms. Okoronkwo was also often used as a conduit to pay for Ibori’s properties in the UK. It was revealed that, by the end of 2003, Okoronkwo had deposited more than £3 million   in the trust fund that was meant to benefit Theresa, her children and Mr. Ibori. Sagicom was the corporate vehicle Okoronkwo used to channel the funds.

Prosecutors showed that Ms. Okoronkwo engaged in forgery of documents on her computer that Mr. Ibori then signed. The forged documents were meant to deceive bankers in the UK as well as safe havens around the world. Ms. Wass said that Okoronkwo worked for both James and Theresa Ibori, dismissing Mrs. Ibori’s suggestion that she and Udoamaka were fighting over Mr. Ibori. Instead, according to Ms. Wass, the two women helped the same man to siphon money that belonged to the people of Delta State and Nigeria.

On a day filled with legal drama, including defense protests that the prosecution had unfairly tarred Mrs. Ibori by tying her to the convicted Udoamaka Okoronkwo, prosecutors also pressed their case against Ibori’s attorney, Bhadresh Gohil. Mr. Gohil, who decided not to testify after observing the methodical way the prosecution dismantled Mrs. Ibori during cross-examination, was described as Mr. Ibori’s launderer-in-chief.

Our legal analyst said that prosecutors had done “a forensic job on Mr. Gohil, showing him as a man who hid evidence in chimneys.” He added that Mr. Gohil, described as “smooth talking and highly educated,” “betrayed the depth of his fear when he refused to take the stand.” The Crown prosecutors went to town, depicting him as a coward who could not face up to his deeds.

Mr. Gohil maintained a posh office in the West end area of London. Even though Mrs. Theresa Ibori had alleged that the documents found with Gohil were forged, Mr. Gohil seemed scared to take the stand and contradict her. “I don’t believe Mr. Gohil has any answers to the charges,” said a lawyer familiar with the case. “None of his defense would have withstood the blistering attack of the well-prepared prosecutors,” he added.

Prosecutors portrayed Gohil as one who had betrayed his oath to protect the law. They accused him of maintaining a manual on how to launder money without being detected, adding that he used the “money launderers’ spread sheet” to help unconscionable looters like Ibori – in direct contraventions of rule 15 of the UK solicitors procedure. Mr. Gohil is accused of lying to banks, police, and courts. He reportedly created secret safes to hide funds and documents, making him the perfect partner-in-crime for the Iboris.

The prosecution is likely to conclude its closing remarks next week Tuesday. Afterwards, Mrs. Ibori’s court-appointed legal aid lawyer as well as Mr. Gohil’s lawyer, Ian Winters, QC, will give their own closing statements. Judge Hardy is expected to sum up the case next week and the jury might begin deliberations on the case on Monday November 15th.


http://www.saharareporters.com/news-page/closing-statement-uk-prosecutors-make-case-against-theresa-ibori-husband-gohil-and-governo

You Knew Your Husband Was Dishonest, Court Tells Ibori’s Wife
Posted: November 5, 2010 - 18:10



By SaharaReporters, New York
Contrary to her claims that she knew nothing about her husband’s massive theft of Delta State’s resources, the prosecution in the ongoing money laundering trial of Mrs. Theresa Ibori has established that the former Delta first lady knew clearly that the funds with which she enjoyed a life of opulence came from dubious sources.

Mrs. Ibori had portrayed herself before the court as a submissive Nigerian housewife who knew nothing and never questioned her husband’s financial dealings and other secrets.

She had also claimed that she never knew, met or spoken to Ms Okoronkwo, believed to be her husband’s mistress, until the commencement of her trial.

But at Wednesday’s proceeding, the prosecution grilled Mrs. Ibori and indeed established that the account from which the former first lady drew huge funds for her lavish lifestyle was actually serviced by Ibori, through his mistress, Ms. Okoronkwo.

During cross examination, Ms Sassa Wass, the prosecution counsel put it to Mrs Ibori about Ms. Okoronkwo being her husband’s banker in the sense that Ms Okoronkwo had three companies which handled contracts at inflated sums in Delta State. The proceeds of the contracts were then funneled into Ibori’s overseas accounts.

The funds, the prosecution insisted, bankrolled Mrs Ibori’s extravagant lifestyle of chauffeurs, mansions, trips and holidays and also serviced a trust set up for her and her children – the Ganzi Trust.

It also pointed out to Mrs Ibori that the relationship between her and mistress Okoronkwo was not that of rivalry but that of “an accomplice or a partner in laundering Delta State funds.”

A form and a letter were shown to the court where Mrs. Ibori described Ms Okoronkwo as her personal assistance. But Mrs. Ibori denied ever writing, signing or dating any such documents. She suggested that either Mr. Ibori or Ms Okoronkwo forged her signature.

Mrs. Ibori and her husband had walked into a London Branch of Barclays Bank on February 2, 2004, to open a joint account so that Mrs. Ibori could go on to pay the family’s bills as the former governor cut down his visits to London.

Husband and wife lied in the forms they filled to open the account, the prosecution proved in court. Ibori gave an incorrect date of birth, claimed he had been working as governor since 1994 (instead of 1999) and cited his annual salary to be between 198,000 pounds and 360,000 pounds. Mrs. Ibori, on the other hand, claimed she was a Nigerian public officer at the time, which she was not.

The prosecution argued that Ibori had an account with Barclays Bank for a very long time but never credited it with funds embezzled from Delta nor was because he knew doing so would raise suspicion since the money he was stealing was far higher than the income he declared with the bank.

To conceal his theft, Mr Ibori used his lawyer to service his bills and other purchases of assets because funds coming from a solicitor are believed to come from legitimate sources.

There were a series of objections by the defence when the prosecutor asked Mrs Ibori if she knew why the former governor instructed a lawyer to handle and manage his even when he had an account.

Mrs. Ibori responded by saying she never questioned her husband on his affairs. The defence council objected to the questions, saying it was unfair for the prosecution to get Mrs Ibori to answer, speculate, account or explain her husband’s conducts.

Judge Hardy ruled against the defence, saying it was not out of place for Mrs. Ibori to explain her husband’s conduct since they ran a joint account and shared the same interest such as paying their children’s fees.

Ms Wass of the prosecution team then argued that in 2003 it was widely known in Delta State and throughout Nigeria that her husband was a “dishonest man”. She asked Mrs Ibori whether her informants who in 2003 fed her with information about her husband’s impregnated mistress, Uju, never told her that her husband was mismanaging funds and stealing from the people of Delta State.

In her response, Mrs. Ibori sided her husband by saying there was no evidence to that effect and that she did not believe that her husband was dishonest, claiming that in 2006 and 2007, it was a common rumour in Nigeria that every governor mismanaged funds.

The prosecution counsel also asked her whether, knowing Ibori’s reputation as a thief and a dishonest man, she questioned him with regards to the rumours. She said she did but that Mr Ibori stated that the Secretary to the State Government Emmanuel Uduaghan (Ibori’s cousin who is now governor) was the person in charge of funds approval and other state matters and that the people were merely peddling falsehood about him.

Evidence was brought to court of an account Mrs Ibori operated since January 2007 with AIDT in Colorado, United States. The prosecution believed that the account, which had $500,000, was also used to launder Ibori’s stolen funds. But she denied knowledge of the account, saying her signature was forged to open the account. She was also confronted with a letter of authority authorising payment into the account. She also denied knowledge of the letter.

The prosecutor counsel noted that Mrs Ibori had since the beginning of this trial painted herself as a victim of circumstance. She however argued that Mrs Ibori could not extricate herself from the allegations against her husband because she and her children benefited from whatever Ibori stole.

“How can she claim to be a victim when in fact she turned from an ordinary woman who was sharing a council apartment with James Ibori in London to a millionaire who lives in a multimillion pounds mansion, bank accounts filled with money, offshore accounts, multiple properties, and trust funds which contained millions of pounds,” Ms Wass asked.

But Mrs. Ibori claimed she never benefitted from dirty money, as it is her husband’s responsibility to cater for the family.

Since the beginning of the trial involving the Ibori clan, three different lawyers have defended Mrs. Ibori. The lawyers left because she could not pay her legal bills. A legal aid lawyer is now representing her.


http://www.saharareporters.com/news-page/you-knew-your-husband-was-dishonest-court-tells-ibori%E2%80%99s-wife

http://www.nigeriavillagesquare.com/articles/levi-obijiofor/it-must-be-a-northerner-or-no-nigeria.html

‘It must be a northerner or no Nigeria’

By Levi Obijiofor

Friday, 5 November 2010

Junaid Mohammed, one of the distinguished members of the Northern Political Leaders Forum (NPLF), cuts the image of an urbane, polished politician. He speaks with the fluency of a cultivated municipal orator. But he holds very strong and uncompromising views about the geographic region of Nigeria that is entitled to produce the next president in 2011. He speaks disdainfully about President Goodluck Jonathan whom he regards as an opportunist, and a man clinging desperately to office in order to subvert what he (Junaid) perceives as the birthright of the north to nominate the next presidential candidate in the People’s Democratic Party (PDP).

This is where the irony kicks in because Junaid Mohammed, a dedicated defender of the north, is not even a member of the PDP. Yet, when you hear him speak, you will think he is the chairperson of the PDP on a mission to enforce the zoning arrangement within the party. Nevertheless, Junaid Mohammed is an interviewer’s delight. He knows how to blow hot at the right moment although sometimes he fails to recognise when it is fitting to tone down his rhetoric.

In an interview with The Guardian (2 November 2010), Junaid – a member of the People’s Salvation Party (PSP) -- was asked what he expected would happen if Goodluck Jonathan won the PDP’s endorsement to contest the 2011 presidential election. He said: “There would be violence. First, the PDP would never be the same again. People would desert the PDP in droves; secondly, the north is not going to take it hands down. I want to assure that I want you to hold me to this after seeing the way the events shape.”

This kind of incendiary comment and unbending attitude will offend many politicians from other parts of the country. I have no problem with the PDP disintegrating. Indeed, many people would be delighted to see the PDP crumble. Some others would be happy to administer the last rites to a dying PDP. But I have a problem with politicians who insist that things must be done their own way or there will be no progress. It’s like someone or region is holding an entire nation hostage. Junaid Mohammed’s views constitute an apocalyptic prediction. In a democracy, it is not everyone who would be satisfied with every decision taken by a political party.

Junaid Mohammed’s deep-seated views on the right of the north to produce a presidential candidate cannot be regarded as trivial, even by those who don’t agree with him. First, his arguments about the determination of the north to produce a presidential candidate in the PDP signify a more serious danger lurking at the threshold of Nigeria’s unity. Second, as a privileged member of the Northern Political Leaders Forum (NPLF), Junaid Mohammed’s comments provide us with deep insights into the images of Nigeria that some regional leaders hold about the country. Third, dogmatism rather than esteemed argument seems to drive the idea that anyone who does not share the views of members of a geographical entity must be deemed an enemy. Things don’t just happen that way.

Junaid Mohammed speaks about the north as if it were a unit separated from the Nigerian state. When he said, for example, that Jonathan’s emergence as the presidential candidate of the PDP would not be accepted by the north, he seemed to be laying the foundation for a final assault on Nigeria as it is currently composed, an attack that would leave both sides of politics gasping for oxygen. The problem is that Junaid Mohammed’s conflict-ridden political sermon could in fact help to fan the hawkish views of all those disaffected citizens who have expressed interest in supervising a quick and neat dismemberment of Nigeria.

It’s been only four decades since Nigeria rose from the ashes of the pogrom that nearly wiped out an entire ethnic group. Does Junaid and those waving the northern flag want to ignite another regional conflagration, this time on the excuse that the PDP leaders could not resolve the dispute that has emerged over which region should nominate the presidential candidate? It is a dreadful proposition. No one can figure out precisely what the consequences might be.

Having heard Junaid Mohammed speak steadfastly about his opposition to the emergence of a southern presidential candidate in the PDP, The Guardian reporter asked him: “As a member of the People’s Salvation Party (PSP), how do you feel supporting zoning, which is an internal arrangement of the PDP?” Junaid Mohammed shot back angrily: “I am a northerner and if that is my identity, I am not prepared to throw it aside and allow myself to be insulted. What is happening now is an insult to the North.”

Junaid Mohammed’s logic defies understanding. It lacks a moral foundation. Loyal defenders of the south are also likely to argue that their region has been insulted for many years and that they deserve to produce the next president, in light of the long history of northern domination. But, really, all this talk about the PDP producing the next president is decorated with arrogance. It assumes that whosoever emerges as the presidential candidate of the PDP has been pre-ordained to win the election in 2011. It is a misleading assumption which mocks the ability of other political parties to win the presidential election.

Junaid Mohammed was asked about his preferred solution to the current controversy over the zoning arrangement in the PDP. He responded in an even more provocative fashion. His words: “This is the business of those who brought us to the place where we are today. Go and ask Goodluck, go and ask Obasanjo, E.K Clark, let them tell you which is the way out. They want power and they want to use power to abuse office and insult certain people. Northerners are saying it is their own turn whether they like it or not because there is an agreement on the table and this agreement cannot be wished away. It was an agreement brought at the instance of the people in the south. If they are saying they don’t know about it, let’s see who blinks first.”

When the reporter suggested that sheer insistence on a northern presidential candidate might lead to the neglect of a more qualified aspirant, Junaid Mohammed replied: “Are they saying that credible Nigerians cannot come from the North? Why must you exclude the North from the production of a credible Nigerian? Is it only the South that is capable of producing credible people?, If the former president Olusegun Obasanjo had given the country the kind of leadership it wanted, he would have been a leader that Nigerians would live to respect.”

The jibe at Obasanjo is probably true. For eight uninterrupted years, Obasanjo had all the opportunities to transform Nigeria and to engrave his name in history’s gold bars but he gambled those opportunities and opted instead to leave his name in a smoke-filled vent that contains the names of undistinguished Nigerians such as Sani Abacha.

Asked how he would evaluate Goodluck Jonathan’s performance, Junaid Mohammed said dismissively: “What is there to assess? What has he done? Since the time he became Acting President, he has been consumed and obsessed with the possibility of wanting to perpetuate himself in power… We have seen the divisive manner he went about making appointment in the federal cabinet; some of them were outrightly scandalous.”


To be fair, it is not only Junaid Mohammed who has been singing the grating music about the entitlement of the north to produce a common presidential candidate who would puncture Goodluck Jonathan’s ambition. Atiku Abubakar, former vice-president and now competitor in the PDP’s presidential race, echoed similar sentiments nearly six weeks ago. Speaking at the Ilorin airport in late September 2010, he said: “Whoever emerges as a consensus candidate from the North at the end of the day will be accepted by all of us. What we want is somebody that will represent the interest of the people of Nigeria and promote unity and understanding among the people irrespective of your religion, tribe and ideology.”

I don’t see how this could be in “the interest of the people of Nigeria” or for the unity of the country when a group of politicians insist their region must produce the next president or there would be no Nigeria. The political atmosphere is heating up fast. And there is no likelihood that the tension within and outside the PDP could ease even before the party primary commences.

http://234next.com/csp/cms/sites/Next/Home/5638109-146/military_leaders_benefit_from_pension_law.csp

By Emmanuel Ogala
November 4, 2010 02:24AM


The National Assembly yesterday brought an end to the controversy over whether past military heads of the federal government should be entitled to pension by approving what amounts to an enhanced pension package for the men through the joint passage of the ‘Remuneration for former presidents, Heads of State, Heads of federal legislative Houses and Chief Justice of the Federation Bill 2010 (SB 153)'.

Currently, the Constitution provides pension for only the president and the vice president, which, according to the 1999 Constitution, will be equivalent to the salary of the incumbent president. However, the new law introduces the Chief Justice of Nigeria, the Senate president and his deputy, and the Speaker and his deputy, into the league of past leaders to benefit from the pension.

Past leaders to benefit from the act include Yakubu Gowon, Muhammadu Buhari, Ibrahim Babangida, and Abdusalami Abubakar.

The law, however, restricts anybody who has held two offices that are eligible for the perk to only one - the highest of those offices which s/he has held in order of national precedence. Thus, Olusegun Obasanjo will have to choose whether he would want his pension to be paid as former military ruler or as a democratically elected president.

Initially excluded

Military heads of government were initially excluded when the Senate passed its own version of the bill, with the senators saying the enhanced pension scheme was meant to honour only democratic leaders. The thrust of the bill had been to ensure that only democratically elected former presidents are entitled to benefit from the pension package for former presidents.

"This is to discourage other unconstitutional means of getting into power. The only way recognised by the Constitution is through ballot, and not the barrel of a gun," David Mark, the Senate president, had said at the passage of the Senate version of the bill in March this year.

Members of the House of Representatives, however, were of the opinion that this group of past leaders should be included. The past leaders were grouped under the name of ‘Heads of the government of the Federation' in section 4 of the Act that was passed by the Reps.

The clean copy of the Harmonised Bill, approved yesterday and soon to be forwarded to the president for signing into law, supports the House version by listing the retired soldiers as qualified for the new package.

The Senate president, who was himself a retired soldier, and would benefit from the law as Senate president, expressed his gratitude to his current colleagues for passing the law.

Happy days for past leaders

Only past leaders who were impeached are excluded by the law from earning pensions.

"For the avoidance of doubt, the benefits stated in this bill shall not apply to persons removed from any of the offices referred to in this bill by the process of impeachment," the bill stated.

It further states that these past leaders shall be paid an amount recommended from time to time by the Revenue and Mobilisation, Allocation, and Fiscal Commission and approved by the National Assembly as upkeep allowance, in addition to the pension entitlement contained in the 1999 Constitution. This upkeep entitlement is expected to be reviewed (upwards) from time to time, but subject to the approval of the National Assembly.

There is also a provision in the bill which entitles the family of deceased ex-presidents and vice presidents to an annual payment for upkeep of his spouse(s) and education of his children up to university level. However, this spousal upkeep allowance will cease the moment the last spouse of the deceased passes on.

Re-presented

This legislation - excluding the past military leaders - had been passed by the last session of the National Assembly and presented to the then President Olusegun Obasanjo for assent. He, however, did not sign the act into law. The bill was, therefore, re-presented to the current session of the National Assembly for passage and representation to the president.

NEXT had, on January 4, reported the plan by the Senate to review the pay of all former leaders. In the initial plan, the former leaders' package would have been increased from N250 million proposed in the 2010 budget to about N2 billion.

Chairman of the House of Representatives committee on appropriation, Ayo Adeseun, said the money was meant to take care of the former leaders' pension, medicare, yearly vacation abroad, offices, and general maintenance. Allocations for former leaders' welfare began in 2005, when a total of N140 million was set aside for them in that year's budget. Subsequently, the following allocations were made - N105 million (2006), N24 million (2008), and N250 million (2009).

However, no allocation was made in the 2007 budget, although it might have been integrated into another item under the office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF). Until 2008, when the allocation was brought under the office of the SGF, it was treated under the Presidency or State House.

http://www.nigeriavillagesquare.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=17004&Itemid=46

Fredrick Chiagozie Nwonwu
November 03, 2010

Weeks ago, while seeking creative stimulus on television, I chanced upon an American programme, one of those life-of-a-very-rich-brat formats that are becoming very popular these days. This one centred on an eighteen year old girl who came home to receive what she termed the worst news of her life - a forced visit to Africa (it was actually Kenya) as a birthday present.

My grouse is not with the programme title (though ‘Exiled’, is a rather harsh name for a holiday to the Kenyan Savannah) but with the way, the producers conveniently skipped most of modern Kenya - minus a beat up Land Rover and a khaki wearing guide. The editor to cut off all references to modern Kenya, leaving just a sparsely populated Masai village, whose natives paint their round earthen huts with cow dung - a point the teenager made sure to stress when her rich dad called her via satellite phone.

Another sore point is with the subtitles. The native guide in the programme, a tall, beautiful Masai girl inappropriately named Josephine, who spoke clear, just slightly accented English, had her words subtitled, while the nasal sounding American teenager, whose words seem to drawl forever, made do without subtitles.

Anyway, I took solace in the thought that the use of subtitles probably meant Americans cannot understand clear, well-spoken English. Perhaps I am propagating a stereotype here but what else does the constant use of subtitles when African speakers are concerned denote?

However, as we all know, double standards are hallmarks of the great western experience.

One would have expected Josephine to be invited to partake, even if briefly, in the ‘good life’ when her American guest went back home, but, expectedly, nothing of such occurred. The American girl went back home to tell about the horrors she faced during her five-day stay, further subjecting an already badly informed society to more miss-education .

Time and time again, I have come across condescending stereotypical opinions about Africa and Africans in the western media. I used to excuse these statements, believing, erroneously, that the writers did not know enough about Africa to form an opinion about the topic they chose to spotlight, when in truth, these writers were following a cultural script that sends every negative image about Africa to the top of the list without recourse to factuality.

I was so set in my belief that human nature makes it imperative for people to seek knowledge about the unknown, that a thirst for knowledge inherent in man makes discovery possible.

Well, I believed wrong. For the West, knowledge about Africa, when not linked to profit making, is generally constrained to stories about despotic leaders, child soldiers, wars, epidemics and recently, mass rapes. Even knowledge about economic potential exploited from Africa is usually left to the annual reports of western multinationals involved in the exploitation.

Sometime ago a friend pondered on his Facebook status about the common perception by westerners that Africa is one country. The answer, which I am sure you would have grasped, points to an institutionalised apathy to knowledge outside the western sphere of influence.

Thankfully, I was not one of those that bought into the Obamamania that swept this planet a few years ago.

Africans, even more than the African Americans, saw in that man’s ascension a sign of the acceptance of the African into the scheme of things.

They forgot that Obama, raised within the safety of his white mother’s family, would naturally feel more affinity to that race, hence, the little impact of his government on the perception of Africa on the global stage.

The battle to get Africa more respect in the western media should be an all-inclusive one. Let us shout to the high heavens when we feel aggrieved, let the African American media spare Africa more coverage; let their celebrities visit more, and not just our game reserves, let their writers counter the negative images that the west seem to feed off. Only by doing such can they find relevance in a society that begrudges them their blackness. An African American posting a picture of starving children in Somalia beside that of poor welfare African American kids in a quest to explain why she is proud of her ‘good fortune’ for being born American smacks too much of self loathing and the culture of ignorance we are talking about.

We in Africa should also do more to sell ourselves. We have to start believing again, to look beyond the toga of bad leadership and embrace a more positive outlook to life, if for nothing,

then for the fact that the western world needs us more than we need them.

There is really nothing to be ashamed of in being an African, we may be poor by Dollar and Pound standards,

but as Eric Donaldson said, ‘‘the progress you make is not about how rich you are’’.

www.fredrnwonwu..com

http://www.saharareporters.com/news-page/london-money-laundering-trial-uk-prosecutors-portray-mrs-ibori-liar

Posted: November 3, 2010 - 10:37

By SaharaReporters, New York

Yesterday, the defense attorneys for former Delta State First Lady Theresa Nkoyo Ibori put her on the stand and asked questions that portrayed her as a mini-Mother Theresa, a woman cheated on, ignored and finally abandoned by her crooked husband, former Governor James Onanefe Ibori.

On her second day in the witness box, prosecution attorneys at the Southwark Crown Court had their opportunity to cross-examine Mrs. Ibori. At the end of their grueling questioning, they revealed Mrs. Ibori to be a criminally minded accomplice in an intricate web that involved extensive money laundering, a lifestyle of opulent luxury and comfort, and a corrupt rags-to-riches scheme.

Sasha Walsh, QC, led the team of prosecutors from the Crown Prosecution Service to cross-examine Theresa Nkoyo Ibori.

In what an attorney in court described as “a methodical and clinical job,” the prosecutors started grilling Mrs. Ibori by taking up her statement that she was from a very "humble background," born in Stoke Newington in London. She had earlier claimed that her family had to struggle for a living and that she had to take up a series of jobs in order to survive. She then spoke about how her study of management gave her a good understanding of accounting and figures.

Under questioning, she testified that when she met Ibori in London, "he was poor and had no money to his name," stating that they both got jobs at Wicks, a department store in London.

Even though the prosecutors were not allowed to introduce Theresa Nkoyo’s prior joint conviction with James Ibori for stealing building materials at Wicks, they successfully goaded Theresa to admit that the Ibori convicted was the same man she married.

“This was a major coup for the prosecution,” said a lawyer who observed today’s proceedings, stating that Mr. Ibori had denied that he was ever convicted in the UK for theft prior to becoming Delta governor.

Mrs. Ibori disclosed that her husband had always expressed an intention to go into politics in Nigeria. Once he became governor, the struggling girl from Stoke Newington suddenly found herself in the midst of legendary luxury. She told the Southwark Court judge and jury that she had more than 17 personal aides, including numerous security guards, when her husband ran one of Nigeria's richest states.

She also admitted in court that she and her husband owned a 3- bedroom flat in London that was recovered by credit agencies. But once James Ibori became governor, the couple’s fortunes changed and the Iboris, in the words of the prosecutor, became “multi-millionaires,” owning a home currently worth £5 million in the Dorset countryside of London. In addition, the former governor and his wife acquired several homes in the UK, including an electronically gated home in Westover Hill, North London.

Prosecutors also revealed that, despite Mrs. Ibori’s efforts to feign ignorance of Ibori's criminal activities and financial shenanigans, she became a beneficiary of a £3 million trust fund her husband set up for her. Prosecutors also compelled her to admit to ownership of a Mercedes Benz as well as other expensive cars including Chrysler Voyager (Peoples Carrier 2009 model), a customized Maybach car, Jaguar (2000). In addition, all her three children are in private schools and enjoy chauffer driven cars.

In a statement that made a Nigerian observer gasp in disgust, Mrs. Ibori claimed that they bought the £5 million Dorset home because one of their daughters could not travel for more than three hours at a time. To solve the problem, the Iboris decided it was proper to buy a house close to her super-expensive elite school.

Where Theresa had presented herself yesterday as a woman mistreated by her husband, the Crown prosecutors painted a different picture of her for the jury. They revealed Ibori’s plan to buy a house for one of his under-aged daughters and disclosed that he bought another property in highbrow 23 Abbey Road North London as a guesthouse to “host friends.” When prosecutors disclosed that Ibori purchased properties in Texas and South Africa, Mrs. Ibori claimed that she was not aware that her husband owned those properties. She said Ibori had always maintained that the house in South Africa belonged to a friend.

Mrs. Ibori admitted that, whilst she was First Lady of Delta State, she had recruited a “network of spies” to spy on her husband because of his reputation for extramarital affairs. She told the court that Mr. Ibori engaged in “a reckless acquisition of concubines.”

Her most revealing testimony was on the relationship between Nigeria's former dictator, General Sani Abacha, and her husband, who is in Dubai awaiting extradition to the UK to face money-laundering charges.

She told the court that her husband’s meeting with Abacha changed his life and fortune. Prosecutors established in court that Ibori was arrested with $1 million in the USA, as Saharareporters earlier reported. Unable to explain the source of the money, Ibori struck a bargain with US authorities in which he forfeited $400,000, returning to Nigeria with $600,000. In court today, Mrs. Ibori admitted that her husband discussed the details of the US experience with her.

The prosecutors seized on that admission to make their case that she testified dishonestly when she told the court she was unaware of her husband’s shady deals.

Theresa Ibori told the court that Mr. Ibori described himself as a political consultant for the Abacha regime, but prosecutors suggested that he was doing Abacha’s dirty work. Mrs. Ibori described Abacha as one of Mr. Ibori’s “godfathers amongst many,” but clarified that it was not the “mafia” type of godfather."

Numerous security sources had told Saharareporters that Mr. Ibori and Abacha's chief security officer, Al Mustapha, collaborated on assassinations of Abacha’s political opponents. Mr. Ibori has been accused of using his familiarity with Mr. Alfred Rewane to help Abacha’s killer squads to assassinate the Itsekiri businessman for bankrolling the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO).

Prosecutors also undermined Mrs. Ibori’s claim that her husband forged her signature on documents, especially those relating to the purchase of properties. Prosecutors took her to task by showing that she knew what she was doing as she lived in some of the properties where she claimed her signatures were forged.

Prosecutors also detailed Mrs. Ibori’s connivance with her husband who, in preparation for a political career in Nigeria, altered his date of birth in order to conceal his conviction for theft in London. They provided details of how Mr. Ibori changed his date of birth from the original 4/08/1962 to a date in 1958, all as part of a well-designed deceptive scheme to cover his conviction in the UK. Theresa Ibori claimed she was ignorant that his conviction in a UK criminal proceeding did matter in Nigeria. She told the court she thought “his conviction could not be used against him.”

Prosecutors showed her a Nigerian newspaper report in 2003 in which Mr. Ibori “celebrated” his 45th instead of 41st birthday. They asked why Theresa celebrated her husband’s 45th birthday in 2003 when she knew he was really 41 years old. The prosecutor asked, “Was it because you were more interested in him becoming governor of Delta State and he needed to be 4 years older?”

Mrs. Ibori replied that African culture did not allow her to challenge her husband. But the prosecutors countered by bringing out another newspaper in which she was reported to have become angry at Mr. Ibori at a public function and had wanted to "slap him." She admitted to being angry about his cheating ways and that she confronted him about it in public. Prosecutors used her admission of public display of anger to underscore the point that she was independent enough to confront Ibori.

They further told the jury that Mrs. Ibori was more concerned about the spoils of office and thus returned to the "office of First Lady of Delta State in 2003 after she had walked out of her marriage."

A legal analyst in court told Saharareporters that the prosecution’s line of questioning was aimed at portraying Mrs. Ibori as a liar and a gold digger who partnered with a criminally minded character but decided to feign ignorance and disown him once the law caught up with the duo. The Crown’s cross-examination continues today.

http://www.nigeriavillagesquare.com/articles/farooq-a-kperogi/what-virtual-nigeria-says-about-real-nigeria.html

Farooq A. Kperogi
October 30, 2010

More than ever before, Nigerian discourses are rapidly migrating to what one might call the virtual public sphere. Spirited and occasionally transformative discourses about Nigerian politics, economics, and culture are now increasingly taking place on such Web sites as Facebook, Sahara Reporters, the Nigerian Village Square, and a whole host of other digital discursive arenas. It came as no surprise to me when I read sometime ago that almost 40 percent of Internet traffic from Africa’s over 50 countries now originates in Nigeria.

We have outrivaled South Africa and the North African nations of Egypt and Tunisia in Internet use. Until this year, these countries had dominated the African presence on the Web. This is a good sign. Discursive democracy, which has been sorely lacking in our political culture, is taking roots. This is especially helped by the impersonality and anonymity of the Internet, which conduce to the bracketing of social status differentials, so that people at the lower end of the social scale can converse on equal terms with people at the upper end of the scale.

This all bodes well for deliberative democracy, except that the nature, tenor, and compass of most of the discussions that take place in digital Nigeria give cause for a little worry. Go to the comments page of a typical article in, say Sahara Reporters or the Nigerian Village Square, on any issue. You will be petrified by the unnervingly savage profusion of unspeakably raw, undiluted ethnic and religious chauvinism that pass for comments. The display of baleful and willful ignorance is often so thick you can cut it with a knife.

If readers don’t agree with a writer’s point of view—or, in fact, if they merely don’t like his/her name! —they almost always ignore the substance of his argument and launch vicious attacks on his ethnicity, religion, and region. And, of course, they never forget to add that he or she is a paid hack of some politician. In the twisted opinion of much of the contemporary Nigerian Internet commentariat, no opinion is the product of any individual’s independent analytical or discursive choice; it’s always already inspired either by primordial loyalties or by pecuniary gratification—or both! The only “objective” and “balanced” opinions are those that reinforce and give comfort to the commenters’ prejudices and biases. Although there are the occasional sane, measured, and thoughtful comments on articles and news stories, they are often, for the most part, drowned out by the primitive cacophony of rank ignorance and bigotry that now pass for “comments” on Nigerian-based Web sites.

Every issue is gazed at from the crude prism of Nigeria’s primordial fault-lines, which have unfortunately been actively promoted and even sanctified by our backward ruling elites since Nigeria’s founding. Calls for the dissolution of the country or for the excision of certain parts of the country from the union, or the belittling of whole peoples and cultures almost always accompany ANY Nigerian online discussion. In short, the quality of discourse is often so terrifyingly crude, so rhetorically violent, so destitute in basic conversational decorum you would think you are in some godforsaken cyber-jungle where wild, blood-thirsty animals are tearing each other apart with maniacal glee.

A friend once mentioned to me that if the comments people make on popular Nigerian cyber forums is a genuine reflection of what we think about the fascinating ethnic and religious tapestry that is Nigeria, then we have no business remaining as one country. While I understand the sentiment behind this point of view, I think it misses three crucial points.

First, there is something about anonymity that just brings out the beasts in people. People write mean-spirited and unmentionable things about other people that they can’t say about them or to them if they were to meet physically. Anonymity frees people from the burden of responsibility, accountability, and restraint. This fact, to be fair, is true of most anonymous online discourses; it isn’t exclusive to Nigeria, although a certain class of Nigerians would seem to be patenting hate and irresponsibility in online comments.

Second, for most of our life as a nation, we have been under totalitarian military governments whose hallmark had been the cruel, iron-clad strangulation of dissent and honest national conversation. The brief periods of civilian administrations we’ve had have not been qualitatively different. Plus, our national media formation is, for the most part, corrupt, compromised, closed, and obsessed with the petty squabbles of the ruling elite. So people have not had avenues to vent the pent-up anger, angst, and anxieties that have built up in their systems over the years. The Internet is now providing the platform for them to ventilate their suppressed frustrations. Perhaps, after a while, the undisguised rawness and vulgarity that characterize online comments on popular Nigerian online discussion forums will wane and rational, reasoned conversations and logical disputations would take place. I hope I am right.

Third, it appears that the poor and lowly taste of the comments in these forums is a reflection of the low quality of mind and immaturity of the people who participate in them. If mastery of basic grammar can be a reliable measure of educational attainment ( I know it not always is), then most of the commenters really sound barely educated. They come across as angry, ignorant, ill-mannered little terrors. It appears that mature, well-educated Nigerians have withdrawn from participating in these forums and just watch in amusement from the sidelines. I can bear testimony that when I started to actively participate in Nigerian online conversations in the early times, the quality of discourse was far superior to what obtains now. The incredible ignorance and viciousness that now pass for discussion on Nigerian online discussion boards is truly staggering.

I’ve stopped participating in popular online Nigerian conversations in the last one year. I have even stopped reading comments on my articles, which is sad because there are the occasional insightful comments, contestations, additions, suggestions, etc from a few thoughtful readers. But I can't subject myself to the torment of reading scorn-worthy, malicious illiteracy that I have chosen not to respond to because I want to read the occasional intelligent comment. That's why I include my email address in every of my posts. If people have something important to say, they will probably send it to my email. And since the email will hopefully bear the real names of the senders, they are likely to be more civil and more measured than they would be under the cloak of anonymity that the message boards give them.

After all is said and done, I don't advocate that anybody be banned or censured for the egregiousness of their comments. I think the key is to introduce some mechanism for people to be accountable for the comments that they make—such as registering their IP addresses and making them trackable. But if “virtual” Nigeria is a true reflection of the “real” Nigeria, then ours is a country where frighteningly naked hate and mutual suspicion and distrust reign supreme. Wise leaders would take a cue from this.

Author can be reached at farooqkperogi@gmail.com. He blogs at www.farooqkperogi..com

Farida Waziri, product of Governors’ Forum, cannot prosecute corrupt governors – Fawehinmi

http://www.punchng.com/Articl.aspx?theartic=Art201010310481185

By AKINWALE ABORISADE
Sunday, 31 Oct 2010

Son of the late Lagos lawyer and human rights activist (Gani Fawehinmi), Mohammed, bares his mind on issues of national security, anti-graft campaign and the withdrawal of Senior Advocate of Nigeria award from former Attorney-General of the Fedration, Michael Aondoakaa, in an interview with AKINWALE ABORISADE What is your reaction to the Nigeria Bar Association position on withdrawal of the Senior Advocate of Nigeria title from former Attorney General of the Federation, Michael Aondoakaa?


I am in support of the Legal Practice Privileges Committee for suspending the title of SAN given to Aondoakaa. I think the NBA should look inwards and let us know what that NBA stands for. I was of the belief that the president of NBA, Mr. Joseph Daudu, was a revolutionary when he passed a comment about Ibrahim Babangida. But there should be no favouritism. Aondoakaa misguided Nigerians for more than seven months. As an Attorney-General, you are first among equals. You are meant to guide us as to the state of affairs within the framework of the law. Aondoakaa could have advised the Senate or the National Assembly on putting Goodluck Jonathan there to act in Yar‘Adua‘s stead. He made the most useless statement telling us that Yar‘Adua can rule from anywhere. Aondoakaa displayed his lack of intelligence and intellectual capacity as a lawyer. The LPPC looked upon it as an insult to Nigerians, not just as an insult to the NBA. I recommend that Aondoakaa should be prosecuted. The first indigenous lawyer in this country, Sapara Williams, said a lawyer lives for the direction of his people and the advancement of the cause of his country. How are we going to do that if we put someone like Aondoakaa there to start misleading the country?


Another man who should be standing trial now is Adetokunbo Kayode who is the Minister of Defence. He didn‘t have any intelligence report about the bomb blast. There was a naval exercise in Ondo State, he went there and put on khaki. That is not what we are talking about; we want to see his level of intelligence. Goodluck Jonathan made a mistake making him a Minister of Defence. He does not know the first or last thing about defence which is a crucial issue. A military man or someone who has vast experience in the act of military combat strategy policies and implementation should be there. Yar’Adua’s father was the first indigenous defence minister. He was a police officer and he did very well until they brought a fellow called Yayale Ahmed.


The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission once alleged that some past corrupt governors would be made to face the law but they have since kept mum on the issue. How do you see this?


My father instituted a case against Farida Waziri. She stood surety for George Akume. That case shows that she is clearly not competent to handle the situation. I have one test for the woman – If she believes that she wants to kill corruption let her start with the godfather of corruption, IBB, he is right there in Minna, and interrogate him on where our $12.4bn is because he is definitely spending it on something. But I believe that she got in there on the influence of the governors‘ forum and she would not be able to prosecute any of them because she came in through them. That is why she is facing the bank chiefs in conjunction with the Central Bank of Nigeria boss.

http://www.punchng.com/Articl.aspx?theartic=Art20101031583526

By EMMANUEL ADDEH
Sunday, 31 Oct 2010

The Chairman of the Action Alliance, Senator Suleiman Salawu, has advised a former Finance Minister and a leader of the Northern Political Leaders Forum, Alhaji Adamu Ciroma, to stop posing as the mouthpiece of the north.


Some northern politicians under the aegis of the NPLF comprising Adamu Ciroma, Iyorchia Ayu, Madakin Fika among others had criticised President Goodluck Jonathan following the Abuja bomb blasts, accusing him of using investigations into the disaster to witch-hunt political opponents.


But dismissing the Ciroma-led group, Salawu on Friday listed former President Shehu Shagari, Chief Isaac Shau, Bukar Mandara as some of the voices that could authoritatively claim to be leaders of the north.


He counselled Ciroma and the NPLF to stop parading themselves as northern elders, saying, “They do not have the authority to determine the future of the north.”


Salawu maintained that there should be no basis for calling for the president‘s resignation, adding that those who were doing so, were only interested in their selfish ambitions.


The senator also described the search for a consensus presidential candidate in the north as a gang-up, noting that it would be an attempt in futility.


Salawu, who claimed memberhip of the Northern Union and Arewa Consultative Forum by virtue of his place of origin, said, ”We insist that Ciroma and his likes should stop regarding themselves as northern leaders. They do not have the authority to determine our future.


”Some of the recognised northern leaders are former president Shehu Shagari, Chief Isaac Shau and Bukar Mandara. If these so-called leaders are attempting to come up with a consensus candidate, it will be an exercise in futility.


”These people have been accumulating wealth for themselves, their wives and children. They should tell us what they have done to develop the north. Ciroma is a minority voice in the north. Even the All Nigeria Peoples Party won his ward; so what is he talking about?”


He stated that there should be no discrimination as long as a candidate qualifies to rule, irrespective of the zone they come from.


Salawu added, ”If there is somebody from the remotest part of the country and he is good for this country, why not allow him? Why can‘t we forget this north/south dichotomy for once and think like true Nigerians?”

Harsh operating environment claims 834 Nigerian manufacturing companies

http://www.punchng.com/Articl.aspx?theartic=Art20101031539615

By Layi Adeloye
Sunday, 31 Oct 2010

A total of 834 manufacturing companies closed shop in 2009 as a result of their inability to continue to cope with the challenges posed by the harsh operating environment in Nigeria.


Besides, about half of the remaining operating firms have been classified as “ailing,” a situation that poses a great threat to the survival of manufacturing in the country in the next few years.


According to a survey carried out as part of its membership operational audit in January 2010 by the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, the 834 figure represents the cumulative aggregate of firms that shut down their operations in 2009 across the country.


An update on the trend has been scheduled to be carried out in November this year. Importantly, the aim of the fresh survey is to know how many companies have stopped operation between December 2009 and November 2010.


The MAN survey usually covers five manufacturing enclaves, into which the country is divided, in terms of manufacturing activities. These include the Lagos, Northern, South-East, South-South and South-West areas.


The report of the survey, exclusively obtained by our correspondent in Lagos, showed that in 2009, a total of 176 firms became terminally sick and collapsed in the Northern area, comprising the Kano and Kaduna states manufacturing axis.


In the South-East area, which comprises Anambra, Enugu, Imo and Abia states, a total of 178 companies closed shop during the period, while in the South-South area, which consists of Rivers, Cross River and Akwa Ibom states, 46 companies shut down operations before December 2009.


According to the survey, the South-West area, which comprises Oyo, Ogun, Osun, Ondo, Ekiti, Kogi and Kwara states, lost 225 member companies during the year.


It said the Lagos area, covering Ikeja, Apapa, Ikorodu and other industrial divisions in the state, followed closely with 214 manufacturing firms closing shop before the end of 2009.


The preponderance of the failed companies in the South West and Lagos industrial areas was, however, explained in terms of the two areas having the largest concentration of industries in the country and the introduction of some negative policies by some state governments in the areas. For instance, the survey revealed that the South-West manufacturing axis suffered the highest casualty in terms of operational stoppage, owing dominantly to the impacts of some negative policies of some state governments in the zone in recent times, especially policies bordering on multiple taxation and levies.


It was, however, silent on the number of firms that had relocated from Nigeria to neighbouring countries as a result of the hostile operating environment in the last few years. But investigations by our correspondent revealed that information on such firms had always been scanty and difficult to get as a result of the unwillingness of the managements of such firms to make it public.


MAN, however, declined to give specific names of companies that have closed down.


A source, who preferred not to be named, said some of the affected companies were still under receivership and would not want their names mentioned to avoid problems, especially with their bankers.


The huge number of closed manufacturing firms has worsened the country‘s growing unemployment rate and may hamper economic growth, according to experts.


An economic analyst and former United Nations Development Programme‘s top economist, Dr. Warea Thomas, said, ”The fact is that when a company stops operation, the workers there become the frontline victims. If 834 firms were officially given by MAN to have closed shop in 2009, it is easy to speculate that not less than 83,400 jobs were lost in that year alone, if we assume that they were all medium-size manufacturing firms, with each having 100 workers.


”Apart from job losses, the depletion to the national Gross Domestic Product and a scare syndrome it creates to the outside investment market are serious reasons why the government should consider tackling the problems associated with the declining trend headlong.”


A top industry player, who spoke in confidence to our correspondent, said, “Because divestment from Nigeria to other countries is a survival strategy, most of them (mainly multinationals and big companies), go into the neighbouring countries, and start operating under different names. The reason is that they are wary of what the Federal Government‘s move may be against them, if the move is made public.”


The President of MAN, Chief Kola Jamodu, had, at an interactive session with journalists in Lagos, penultimate Wednesday, identified the problems of the manufacturing sector as institutional and policy challenges, ”which rest mainly with the various tiers of government to tackle.”


According to him, the most debilitating among the challenges faced by manufacturers include poor power supply, dilapidated infrastructure, policy inconsistency, multiple taxation and lack of adequate take-off incentives for new businesses, among others.


”A situation, where the manufacturer is the government onto himself; providing power, water, roads and other infrastructure, and at the same time, paying a plethora of taxes and levies that are not coordinated, is enough to kill any business.


”The problem is often compounded by the government‘s penchant for reversing industrial policies haphazardly from time to time. These, coupled with the general poverty in the land, place serious strain on manufacturing firms,” he said.


The National President, Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture, Dr. Simon Okolo, said the current malaise in the Nigerian manufacturing sector was rooted in the Structural Adjustment Programme, introduced by former president Ibrahim Babangida‘s administration in 1986.


He said, ”The introduction of the obnoxious SAP and the devaluation of the Nigerian currency (naira) by the Babangida government (especially with some of the conditions of the International Monetary Fund loan) in 1986 posed a grave danger to manufacturers, as those of them that used imported raw materials could no longer conveniently do so due to the prohibitive cost of imported goods as a result of the naira devaluation.


”Another factor responsible for the collapse of Nigerian companies, especially in the manufacturing sector, has also remained policy inconsistencies on the part of the government. The crippling investment climate, worsened by infrastructure deficit, is a complementary factor that nails the coffin in the head.”


The immediate past President, Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Otunba Solomon Onafowokan, blamed the trend of collapsing industries on successive administrations‘ lack of political will to tackle the protracted power and infrastructure problems in the country, among others.


Jamodu said efforts to salvage the situation underscored MAN‘s incursion into floating an Independent Power Project that would take care of the power needs of its members.


On the implication of the collapsing industrial firms on the nation, the Director-General, MAN, Mr. Jide Mike, said the trend had worsened the unemployment situation in the country. The March 2006 edition of MAN Newsletter, the official mouthpiece of the association, had put job losses in the sector between 1983 and January 2006 as ”approximately 4.2 million”.


But MAN says between 2006 and 2010, despite inadequate official statistics, over one million additional jobs have been lost in view of the continually failing firms.


Amid the collapsing industries and businesses, the Federal Government recently said, however, that it was targeting a three per cent reduction in unemployment rate in one year. According to the Minister of Finance, Mr. Olusegun Aganga, who spoke with journalists on the sidelines of the last World Bank/International Monetary Fund meetings in Washington, DC, United States, the current unemployment rate of 19.7 per cent is high in a country of 150 million people.


He had therefore said that the government was planning to create as many jobs as possible, but added that he could not give a figure of how many jobs would be created, until the employment creation committee, which was considering workable strategies, came out with its target.


He had noted that the majority of Nigeria‘s population, between the ages of 15 and 24 years, were jobless, adding that 49 per cent of unemployed Nigerians lived in the urban region.

http://234next.com/csp/cms/sites/Next/Home/5636477-146/family_accuses_nigerian_embassy_of_culpability.csp

By Hindi Livinus
October 31, 2010 01:53AM


Several officials have denounced the rate at which Nigerians meet their death while seeking better livelihoods abroad and now the case of a man who allegedly starved to death while officials of the Nigerian embassy in Egypt did nothing, have called to question the capacity of our missions to protect Nigerians abroad.

The family of Biodun Waheed Efuwape, a father of two, has petitioned the foreign affairs minister protesting the nonchalant attitude the Nigeria embassy in Egypt allegedly showed towards the plight of their son.

The family claimed that late Efuwape was subjected to inhuman treatment by the Egyptian authorities, chained and tied to the ground for three weeks without being given any food until he succumbed to death.

The family of the deceased has asked Nigeria’s Ambassador to Egypt, Baba Wakil Gana to furnish them with information on how their son died and where he was buried. The petition alleged that the ambassador was informed of Mr Efuwape’s ordeal and the Nigerian diplomat failed to use his position to intervene in the situation.

The deceased, 34, hailed from Sagamu in Ogun State and lost his job two years ago when Cadbury Nigeria downsized. After a fruitless search for another job, the father of two children, ages four and six, resolved to seek his livelihood outside the country. On June 10, 2010 he left for Egypt with the hope that things would get better for him there.

One of his brothers said the deceased informed him that his major concern in this world was to train his children because he lost both his own parents at a tender age.

The family’s petition titled, ‘Who killed Waheed Abiodun Efuwape’ and dated 28th August, 2010 was signed by Adeleke Efuwape, the elder brother of the deceased living in Chicago, the United States.

Petition of sorrow

The petition, which the family said no government official has responded to, states in part:

Sir,

I was informed on the 11th of July 2010 by his immediate senior brother who lives in Canada that he was MENTALLY SICK in Egypt and that someone by the name Mr. Yusuf [Leader of Yoruba] in Cairo is helping to take him to hospital or get repatriated to Nigeria. When I called this man Yusuf, he told me that my brother is in the custody of Egyptian immigration and that he was very sick.

Also he said he was chained and did not eat. I asked him why he has not been taken to the hospital and he said the Egyptian immigration wanted the Nigerian embassy to write a letter confirming his citizenship and then seek for his release and take him to the hospital. But he said the Nigeria Embassy is not taking the issue seriously and that they are always NON -CHALANT to important issues concerning Nigerians in Egypt. I then implored him to give me the name and phone number of the Nigeria Ambassador to Egypt. He gave me the name TIWA, with the phone number 20163594287 as the active Nigeria ambassador to Egypt.

Sir, on daily basis from 16th July, 2010 [sometime thrice or twice a day] I and my brother in Canada called the ambassador to help quicken the situation by taking my brother to the hospital. But he never did, only assuring that they would do sometimes. At a point when my pressure seems to be ‘too much’ on him, he said I should talk to our contact Mr. Yusuf about taking the boy to the hospital. But I told him that I do not know Mr. Yusuf from anywhere and cannot force him to take my brother to the hospital. I told him that the Nigeria Embassy is in a better position to take care of him in view of his being a Nigerian citizen.

Twice, the ambassador dropped the phone on me while forgetting that the man also left a beloved a wife and 2 kids [age 4 and 6] who in future may want to know how their dad died and where he was buried.

Right now, I do not know anybody who can help on this issue in Egypt except my country’s embassy. And I want you to know that if you can use your good office to answer the highlighted question, I and my family would be eternally grateful to you.

While expecting to hear from you soonest on this matter, I wish you GOD’S BLESSING AND GUIDANCE.”

The family said the office of Minister of External Affairs was yet to acknowledge the petition. Efforts made by NEXT to speak with the ambassador did not succeed.

http://www.nigeriavillagesquare.com/articles/olurotimi-adeola/stop-this-deception-igbos-will-not-gain-from-zoning.html

Olurotimi Adeola
October 30, 2010

It is ironic, that the enemies of a peaceful and resourceful people are their own selfish and unprincipled kinsmen who are political prostitutes and shameless bootlickers. These supposedly enlightened politicians from the Igbo stock have continued to ensure the endless political strangulation of their own people after the unfortunate civil war, for personal and primordial gains. Now they have started again, dangling a ‘greek’ gift before the Igbos with a promise of presidency in 2015 or any time soon.

Like every Nigerian, I believe the Igbos have a right to the presidency of this country. They are equal to every other Nigerian and have contributed like others in the development of Nigeria. They have made their sacrifices both human and material in seeing to the progressive movement of Nigeria. That’s why it is humiliating for anyone to say he will give them the presidency at a specific point in time. The question is, is this man more Nigerian than the Igbos? That the entire Igbo stock would have to wait for him before they are ever consider for the presidency.

Zoning was never a policy that could work with a polarised and suspicious political elites like ours. The present day Nigeria, is that of people craving for good leadership. Our people, who bear the daily humiliations of lack, are not bothered about the colour or background or region of their would be messiah, all they want is result. They are tired of endless promises and the flamboyant lifestyles of their rulers in the midst of their own extreme poverty. The rural man or woman in the interior of Igboland is more concern about provision of basic infrastructures and a prosperous environment where there will be boundless opportunities to achieve his/her ambitions and happiness. Whoever has the ideas that would actualised these lofty dreams is welcome.

The statements credited to a former senate president, Ken Nnamani, that the only way an Igbo can become president is through zoning, is rather unfortunate. Coming from a man who is expected to be wiser than an illiterate, shows that Igbos need to ostracise some of its political elites from their communities. Thankfully, Ken Nnamani is not qualify to speak for the Igbos. This is a man who was a mere opportunist in the corridor of power; who is a known betrayal of favour and who is quick at flaunting himself as a democrat when he is obviously one of those who ‘forced’ themselves on the people. He became a senator by the benevolence of the political ‘bulldozer’ of his then political mentor, Chimaroke Nnamani. As a senator and a ‘lucky’ senate president, he could not publicly challenge Obasanjo’s third term bid, until that ungodly scheme was scuttled by the people and majority of members of the national assembly. Late senator Idris Kuta once told the press, how he asked Nnanami: “My president, which side are you? Are you for third term or not?” Idris Kuta told the world, our so-called modern day democrat – Ken Nnamani, was numb. He was too afraid to stick his neck for democracy; but today he wants to claim credit for the ‘killing’ of third term, just because he was at the helm of affairs in the senate when the agitation was suppressed.

It is shameless men like Ken Nnamani that are drowning the political fates of the Igbo in present day Nigeria. If his support for zoning is because he wants an Igbo president in 2015, he should tell Igbos how comes his stewardship as the senate president and third in command in the hierarchy of national leadership in Nigeria did not affect even his immediate community in Enugu state, positively. What project did Ken Nnamani gave his community, to alleviate poverty and give Enugu people a sense of belonging in Nigeria during his reign as senate president? If the excuse is that he is a lawmaker, then which law did he proposed, that had positive bearing in the lives of the Igbos in particular and Nigerians in general? Or is he just realising he is Igbo after losing his privileged political power?

That Igbo president of Ken Nnamani’s dream in 2015 through zoning, is s/he going to be an Igbo president for the exclusive development of Igbo nation or a Nigerian president of Igbo extraction for the development of the entire country called Nigeria? People like Nnamani are not helping the Igbos. They are creating distrust between Igbos and other ethnic nationalities especially those from the south-south and minorities in the north.

If the Igbos buy the argument of Ken Nnamani, they can as well kiss goodbye to having any political goodwill and sympathy from majority of Yorubas, the south-south, non speaking Hausas of the north and even the enlighten Hausas/Fulani. Politics is about consistency and wise sacrifices. The dominancy of one tribe in the political arena in Nigeria is gone for good. Nigerian electorates are more wiser now and sophisticated than those of the 60’s and 80’s whose votes are centred on ethnicity and religion.

Those northern political elites clamouring for zoning are not speaking the minds of majority of northerners. The average northerners too are in dire need of positive changes in Nigeria. Just like their counterparts in the south, they are tired of the endless circle of mediocre leadership that have continue to stall the development of Nigeria. Believe me, what the average Hausa person is interested in, today is not the geo-political zone of our president in 2011, what he wants, is a president that can deliver. We should stop believing these political vampires who are using the platform of zoning to seek for the presidency of Nigeria. They are not speaking the minds of the north, they are only desperate to get power, so as to further impoverish us.

A Nigerian president of Igbo extraction is not a dream is a reality. We don’t need zoning to actualise that reality. If Igbos can win elections in Osun, Lagos, Kaduna, Kano, plateau etc to represent the people of these states as councillors, members of state houses of representatives and even local government chairmen, without zoning, then why are these dunces telling the Igbos only zoning can give them the presidency?


By Olurotimi Adeola

rowiade@yahoo.com

Copy of secret report - http://www.saharareporters.com/sites/default/files/uploads/Azazi.pdf

Secret Army Report Implicates NSA Azazi, Ibori, Alamieyeseigha, Henry And Sunny Okah In Sale Of Military Weapons To Niger Delta Militants

http://www.saharareporters.com/report/secret-army-report-implicates-nsa-azazi-ibori-alamieyeseigha-henry-and-sunny-okah-sale-milita

Posted: October 30, 2010 - 06:06

By SaharaReporters, New York
Saharareporters has obtained a secret report by the Nigerian Army implicating current National Security Adviser, Gen Andrew Azazi (rtd), former Governors James Ibori and DSP Alamieyeseigha, and former Director-General of the State Security Service, Lt. Col Kayode Are (rtd) in the massive diversion and sale of Nigerian army weaponry to Niger Delta militants.

SaharaReporters obtained the intelligence report one week after Sonny Bowie Okah denounced members of his family as “killers” and vowed to destroy them, and a few days after the State Security Services intercepted 13 container loads of arms being imported into Nigeria through the Lagos port.

Sonny Bowei Okah, a brother to Henry Okah, the leader of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta currently facing terrorism charges in South Africa, is portrayed in the report as a central character in the deals. Also mentioned in the document are Major Gen R.O. Adekhegba, a former Director of the Directorate of Military Intelligence, Henry Okah himself, Major S.A. Akubo, a serving army officer, and ten soldiers who worked with the Nigerian Army Ordinance Corps.

The 35-page report, which is dated November 2007, is the product of an intensive investigation by the headquarters of the Nigerian Army Intelligence Corps following a tip-off by a soldier and a red flag by the SSS that army weapons were flowing from an ordinance depots in Kaduna and Jaji to militants.

Azazi, who was chief of army staff at the time, Adekhegba, former army intelligence chief, and Are, the then SSS director, reportedly covered up the matter. Ibori and Alamieyeseigha were named as having financed the arms deals.

The report, suppressed for long by the military hierarchy and the Federal Government, details in shocking detail how Sunny Okah funneled over N100 million to Major Akubo and the soldiers in exchange for over 7,000 cache of assorted arms and ammunition.

The report reveals that, within a seven-year period, Sonny Okah colluded with Major Akubo to move the weaponry. “They would surreptitiously drive Isuzu pick-up vans and sewage disposal trucks into ordinance depots in Jaji and Kaduna and then ferry out high-caliber and light weapons, even ammunitions,” said a source within the intelligence community who also had access to the report.

The report describes Sunny Okah as the major middleman between the soldiers and the militants, including his brother Henry.

“The amount of weapons stolen are enough to hold not just Port Harcourt hostage but the whole of Nigeria,” the report notes. “Should criminals decide to spread out to major cities of Nigeria with just a few of these weapons and cause chaos simultaneously, it is doubtful if we will not have a national state of emergency situation in our hands.”

The weapons include rocket launchers, UMGs, GPMGs, G3 and Mark IV rifles, Barretta rifles, AK 47 and bagfuls of ammunitions.

The investigation was triggered when a certain Private Zamanu Adamu who, while on guard at the ordinance depot in Jaji, Kaduna, in September 2007, reported that the seal on the depot had been broken and that some items had been removed. 

In its investigation, the army intelligence corps interrogated Sunny Okah, Major Akubo and the soldiers who confessed to the crime. The investigators unearthed the fact that there was an earlier arms sale at 1 Ordinance Base in Kaduna. Major Akubo is named as the prime suspect in that deal.

Our investigation revealed that, rather than get to the bottom of the case and bring perpetrators to book, both the SSS and the Directorate of Military Intelligence engaged in official cover-ups. Azazi, Are and Adekhegba spearheaded the campaign to bury the report.

“It’s true that the SSS launched an investigation quite all right, and even got the army authorities to release the suspects – Major Akubo and the soldiers – to it for interrogation,” said an army source. He added that “the investigation was soon truncated and the suspects, including Sunny Okah, were released even after they confessed to the crime.”

Our sources disclosed that then Major Akubo was taken in by the Directorate of Military Intelligence (DMI), but was interrogated by a one-man panel appointed by Adekhegba. He was curiously released to return to his unit based on instructions from Azazi, even when his involvement in the scandalous deals had been firmly established.

At the time the arms thefts began, Azazi was General Officer Commanding the 1st Division in Kaduna. Investigators suggested that he handled the case shabbily in order to cover up his “command failure”.

“Is there a likelihood that this case was shabbily handled in order that Gen Azazi’s failures may remain undiscovered?” the report asked. “Did Gen Azazi use course mate influence on the then DG of DSS Lt Col LKK Are (rtd) to ensure that the case remain suppressed? Otherwise, why did it take until now when Are is no longer in office for the DSS to reopen the case and be willing to cooperate fully.” The report added, “Gen Azazi obviously has more questions to answer regarding his roles in this case.”

The report manipulated Ibori and Alamieyeseigha as financiers of the arms acquisition. Both men, who were state governors at the time, allegedly provided the funds with which Sunny Okah went on his arms shopping spree.

“These two politicians are mentioned as financiers of the arms acquisition project,” the report said. “Certainly, they would not have provided money without knowing the source of the weapons. Simply put, a breach of security of this magnitude was deliberately masterminded by state governors.”

Major Akubo is reported to have confessed to investigators that Sunny Okah approached him in 2004 stating that Ibori and Alamieyeseigha had given him a job to source for arms on their behalf. Okah asked for Akubo’s help to deliver on the job.

Ibori recently appealed the ruling by a court in Dubai that he should be extradited to the UK to face charges for money laundering. Meanwhile Alamieyeseigha, a convict who served a short jail term for corrupt enrichment, is championing the President Goodluck Jonathan’s presidential election bid.

The report recommended that Azazi and Adekhegba be sanctioned and that the indicted governors should be further investigated.

The recommendations were not implemented. In fact, shortly before the report was written, Azazi forwarded the name of the former DMI chief for a national award while Sunny Okah was set free. Sunny Okah has since been recruited by the Jonathan administration and is being used to press the case against his brothers, Charles and Henry, over the October 1 Abuja bomb blast.

A few weeks ago, Jonathan appointed Azazi as his new national security adviser. Despite his indictment in the report, Azazi enjoyed one of the fastest career elevations among Nigerian military officers. Between mid-2006 and mid-2007, he rose from Major General to Lieutenant General to General.

However, on August 20, 2008, months after the report was written, Umaru Yar’Adua fired Azazi as Chief of Defense Staff and retired him from the Army. Two sources have told Saharareporters that the arms deal report of 2007 influenced Yar’Adua’s decision to fire Azazi from his post. One of those sources revealed that then Vice President Jonathan was aware of the reason for Azazi’s firing. “By asking General Azazi to come out of retirement and become his NSA, is President Jonathan out to register his disagreement with the judgment of the late president?” asked the source.

However, Major Akubo and the soldiers have since been court-martialed, dismissed from the army and are serving jail terms.

The investigative report wondered how widespread the theft and sale of military arms thefts were, not just in the army but in the navy, the air force, the police, and other armed agencies. It also raised questions about the role of politicians as financiers of the deals, and wondered about how the arms shopping affected national security.

After an overview of the many issues raised by the arms deals and the highly placed individuals involved in them, the investigative report formulated a conspiracy theory. It suggested that there was a link between the aborted Orkar coup in 1989, the 2001 Ikeja Cantonment arms depot explosions, the arms theft at 1BODK, and the militancy in the Niger Delta.

“It is believed that there is an orchestrated plan by the Niger Deltans to secede from Nigeria which is being played out over the years with every opportunity they have,” the report concluded.

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http://uk.news.yahoo.com/5/20101023/tod-11-hurt-in-plunge-fleeing-from-devil-870a197.html

Sky News 2010
Saturday, October 23 05:03 pm

Eleven people have been injured jumping out of a second-floor flat window after apparently thinking they had seen the devil.

Police are investigating the incident which took place in the early hours in the small town of La Verriere, west of Paris.

Officers said some of the injured were children including a four-month-old baby, who is in a serious condition in a children's hospital in the French capital.

"Thirteen people were in an apartment on the second floor when, at around 3am, one of the occupants heard his child crying," said Odile Faivre, the deputy prosecutor in Versailles.

"The man in question, of African origin, who was completely unclothed, got up to feed his child, at which point the other occupants took him for the devil.

"He was seriously wounded in the hand after being stabbed with a knife before he was thrown out of the apartment, via the door."

The 30-year-old man then tried to force his way back into the room.

"That's when the other occupants tried to escape by jumping out of the window, panicked by a fear of the devil," said Ms Faivre.

Police are questioning the unclothed man as well as another man who jumped from the window with a two-year-old girl in his arms.

Seven of those injured - who were African, possibly from Angola - were taken to hospital for emergency treatment.

Detectives are trying to find out if the group jumped voluntarily or were forced to jump.