₦airaland Forum

Oil minister, her jeweller and their sweetheart deal
By Musikilu Mojeed

June 26, 2011 01:26PM


On April 7, 2010, a day after her appointment as minister for petroleum resources, Diezani Allison-Madueke flew to Beverley Hills in Los Angeles to revel in a lavish party and fashion show put together by Christopher Aire, a United States-based Nigerian celebrity jewellry designer and merchant, whom she met during her 15-month tenure as minister for solid minerals and steel development.

By the time the bejewelled Mrs Alison-Madueke returned home a few days later to assume duties as Nigeria's first female oil minister, she had achieved three clear objectives from the trip - she had unlimited fun, acquired some of Aire's exotic gold and gemstones, and handed Mr Aire an invitation to become one of Nigeria's biggest crude oil lifters.

It was the beginning of a beautiful friendship.


At the time, the 47-year-old Mr Aire had nothing whatever to do with the oil business. His company, Solid 21 Incorporated, dealt strictly in jewellery and timepieces. Those close to him said Mr Aire was content with his jewellery business and had no plan to venture into Nigeria's murky oil waters. But all that changed after his meeting with Mrs Alison-Madueke that fateful April 7.

As the minister was flying home, Mr Aire also kick-started the process of registering brand new companies with which he planned to lift Nigerian crude. On July 9, 2010, the jeweller incorporated Siseno Oil Nigeria Limited, with him and one Patience Iluobe (believed to be his relative) as directors, to carry out the business of petroleum products sales and distribution.

Twelve days later (July 21, 2010), Mr Aire, through his agents, headed again to the Corporate Affairs Commission, where he incorporated another firm, Caligeria Oil Limited, also for the purpose of conducting petroleum products sales and distribution.

This time, one of his US-based companies, Osiri Holdings, Ms Iluobe, and one Otaigbe Onyekwere Agba, were named as directors. Mr Aire also proceeded to incorporate a US version of Caligeria with himself, his bodyguard, Joseph Agbi, and Jivani Davoodian, a Californian lawyer, as directors.

Favourite crude oil lifter

Mr Aire passed the papers of his newly minted companies, which have neither fixed addresses nor personnel, to the Crude Oil Marketing Division of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation. Shortly afterwards - a month after the companies were born - Mrs Alison-Madueke discretionally approved the award of crude oil lifting contracts to the two firms, in violation of NNPC guidelines for lifting of Nigerian crude.

She also disregarded the fact that the "briefcase company" had no track record and lacked the ability to perform. According to a stringent guideline released by the NNPC in early 2010, companies which wish to lift Nigerian crude must prove that they are bona fide end users and that they are established and globally recognised large volume traders with evidence of their global network, their activities, and volumes of crude oil handled in the last three years.

Such companies must also provide evidence that they are registered Nigerian companies with operations in Nigeria's oil and gas industry, and must have a minimum annual turnover of at least $100 million and net worth of not less than $40 million.

Applicants are also required to show commitment to the development of the Nigerian economy by investing in any number of opportunities that abound either in the oil industry or gas sector. Besides, successful companies are expected to post a $1 million performance bond through a first class Nigerian bank in addition to the regular crude oil contract provisions.

In the same guideline, the corporation promises transparency, fairness and equity in the contract award processes. "The NNPC further wishes to emphasise that there is absolutely nothing like ‘Presidential', ‘Task Force', ‘Ministerial', ‘Diplomatic' or any other form of special or privileged allocation, which can be peddled by hawkers or anyone," the guideline states.

Mrs Alison-Maduekwe approved this guideline, which was posted on the NNPC's website on June 24, 2010, over a month after she became minister. But by allocating crude oil to Mr Aire's companies without regard for these rules, the then minister, insiders say, demonstrated a penchant for violating laws, including regulations she helped put in place.

Those who should know at the NNPC say Siseno and Caligeria did not meet any of these requirements. In fact, NEXT was able to determine that the companies do not have fixed addresses or personnel in Nigeria. Caligeria has Plot G19, House 34, Dan Alhaji Road, Barnawa, Kaduna, as its registered address. Siseno, on the other hand, listed Dollar Shop at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel in Abuja as its operational address.

But visits to those addresses showed that these companies never operated out of those locations. Plot G19, House 34, in Kaduna is an unpainted residential bungalow, and residents and neighbours said no company known as Caligeria has ever operated in the building. "Just because their owner knows the minister and hosted her well at his glamorous event in California, the companies are today two of the biggest lifters of Nigeria's crude oil," said a source at the petroleum ministry.

We have learnt that, between them, Mr Aire's two companies lift 60,000 barrels of crude per day, the highest for any established industry player and twice as much as well-known companies such as Addax, Vermont, Oando, Unicorp and others who are allocated 30,000 barrels per day. The government, through the NNPC, subcontracts crude marketing by allocating crude lifting contracts of 30,000 barrel per day; but some traders like Glencore, Travigura, Vitol and Sahara get as much as 60,000 barrels per day.

Nobody got more than the minister's jeweller friend

As usual, Mrs Alison-Madueke declined to state her own side of the story to our reporters. She called off an interview appointment scheduled with our editors for June 13. She also did not return calls and text messages seeking her comments for this story.

Mr Aire did not respond to our enquiries either. When our reporter called his California office, a spokesperson who identified herself as Adriana, requested that questions should be e-mailed directly to her. She did not respond to the email as at the time this newspaper went to print. But the spokesperson of the NNPC, Levi Ajuonoma, rose in stout defence of his organisation, saying the organisation did nothing wrong. "The process for crude oil lifting license is so cumbersome. If you don't meet the requirements, you cannot be approved to lift crude," Mr Ajuonoma said. He confirmed that Caligeria, which he claimed had been around for a long time, got a one-year lifting contract that had since expired. He denied that Siseno was awarded contract to lift crude, saying "there is no such company on my list." But information at our disposal shows otherwise.

Caligeria's registration documents, obtained officially from the Corporate Affairs Commission, indicate that the company was incorporated less than a year ago and has a subsisting contract with the NNPC. High level sources also confirmed to us that Siseno, also less than a year old, is on the list of our country's crude oil traders. With the arbitrary allocations to his no-address companies, Mr Aire and his associates earn about $11 million a year in profit for doing virtually nothing. Crude lifters make about 50 cents a barrel per day, which cumulatively comes to about $30,000 per day in profit for the jeweller-turned-oil magnate.

Typically, what these ‘briefcase companies' do is team up with influential officials such as Mrs Alison-Madueke, lobby for contracts independently, and then sell their allocations to more established traders. Mr Aire's companies also benefitted from Mrs Alison-Madueke's discretional award of contracts for the lifting of products from the Oso condensate (an extra light Nigerian hydrocarbon) and the Escravos liquefied petroleum gas terminal. Our sources said Caligeria lifts 45,000 metric tonnes of condensate, while Siseno gets 30,000 metric tonnes of LPG from Escravos. Industry insiders said profit from this also runs into several millions of dollars.

Some industry operators described the obvious in calling Mr Aire's a "sweetheart deal". "We just can't understand why briefcase companies without any track record became Diezani's most favourite companies to lift crude oil," said one highly placed source in the petroleum ministry, who did not want to be named for fear of reprisal. "This is the highest level of arbitrariness and corruption I have ever seen, and this woman must be made to answer questions," the source said.

Allison-Madueke's bazaar

Arbitrary awards of crude lifting contracts to obscure companies is indicative of the corruption in the oil industry, which allegedly skyrocketed during the tenure of Mrs Allison-Madueke to a degree last seen during the Sani Abacha administration. Insiders said that during her tenure, awards of contracts were characterised by bribery of top politicians, cronyism in allocation and indirect ownership in some of the lifters, and payment of huge bribes to high level facilitators within the petroleum ministry and the NNPC.

But this has not stopped Mrs Allison-Madueke, who has alienated the entire industry as well as her cabinet colleagues and senior aides to the president, from lobbying furiously for reappointment. Sources say Mrs Allison-Madueke, who is close to the president, is also opposed by Patience Jonathan, the president's wife.

Despite what appears to be overwhelming opposition, however, insiders still rate Mrs Allison-Madueke's chances high, as the president finalises his list of cabinet ministers for transmission to the Senate this week. Our investigation revealed that apart from Caligeria and Siseno, the former minister also trampled on due process in awarding crude lifting contracts to other companies such as Sullom Voe, Spog, Tempo and Tacomo. Insiders also accuse her of discretionary awards of Escravos liquefied petroleum gas contracts to Addax Energy, Avidor Oil and Gas Limited (believed to have connection to Vitol), Taleveras Business, Accoldis Limited (with connection to Spog), Elan Oil (believed to be another version of Traffigura) Tempo Energy Limited, and Blissfield Enterprises. Yet, the bazaar did not end there.

Mrs Alison-Madueke, our sources further revealed, proceeded to discretionally approve the awards of Oso condensate contracts to Algasco (also linked to Vitol), Optima Energy Services, Theydon Petro SA, Ocean Bed (with connection to Sahara Energy), Mangrove Energy, Havistar Petroleum (linked to Taleveras), Hyson, Ascon limited, Nipco Plc, Vitacan Services Limited, AMG Petro Energy, Energy Resources Management, Ultimate Gas Limited, Tempo Energy, Caligeria Oil Limited, Mez Technical Limited, Messrs Affiliate Global Exchange Limited, and Mezcor SA. Most of these companies have little or no investment in Nigeria, as required by the NNPC guideline for crude oil lifting.

A stench of corruption

The former powerful minister worked through a group of very small, even shadowy, companies that always seem to get the best contracts from the NNPC in the upstream and downstream sectors and on occasion in the services industry.

The tangled web of questionable deals includes last-minute assignment of production rights in five large oil blocks to Septa Energy and the obscure Atlantic Drilling Concept Limited without a public tender. The practices also include the secretive award of kerosene allocations, crude oil allocations, fuel oil allocations, LPG and condensate exports, automotive gas oil and naphtha. Oil traders, according to insiders, regularly pay substantial kickbacks into the offshore accounts of top oil sector executives. Insiders say the Isle of Man has been a favourite jurisdiction for such offshore accounts.

The funds are paid directly into the accounts from outside Nigeria and thus the funds never enter Nigeria and cannot be tracked internally. The funds are often then laundered through real estate purchases. A source familiar with the arrangement said London remains the dominant location where funds are laundered in this fashion.

It is said that since Farida Waziri became the chairperson of the EFCC, the Metropolitan Police had enjoyed zero local co-operation in pursuing such matters. In fact, the source added, when the Met briefs the EFCC on such cases with a view to getting its assistance, elements in the commission promptly informs the target - for a fee of course. Under Mrs Allison-Madueke, all sorts of gaps have been exploited. As at April this year, 600,000 metric tonnes of diesel had been imported, with importers shaken down at a rate of N10 per litre.

We have no evidence that these bribes directly involved the former minister. NEXT had also uncovered an elaborate bribery scam at the Petroleum Product Pricing and Regulatory Agency (PPPRA), where oil marketers were compelled to pay bribes in US dollars in exchange for obtaining authorisation to import gasoline.

Our investigation at the time showed that oil marketers were instructed by PPPRA to call a mobile telephone number and pay a bribe of $8 per metric tonne of petroleum allocated to them, such that a firm with a 100,000 metric tonnes allocation would be required to pay a bribe of $800,000 in cash. We were also able to establish in subsequent investigations that Mrs Alison-Maduekwe appeared to have violated Nigeria's procurement law by quietly signing away operatorship rights in five lucrative oil blocks to two barely established companies.

http://234next.com/csp/cms/sites/Next/Home/5721486-146/story.csp

Aregbesola names schools after election victims
Written by Tunde Odesola, Osogbo

Osun State Governor, Mr Rauf Aregbesola, has said 170 millennium schools being constructed by his administration will be named after people that died during the struggle to reclaim his mandate.

Aregbesola also said people, who were victimised and brutalised during his struggle to reclaim his mandate would also have some of the schools named after them.

Speaking at a ceremony organised to honour those that died and those that were victimised, Aregbesola, on Tuesday, in Osogbo, the governor said the honour for the victims was well deserved.

Lagos State Governor, Mr Babtunde Fashola, who was present at the ceremony held at Centre for Black Culture and International Understanding, Osogbo, said the “sacrifice of those that lost their lives or were incarcerated will not be in vain.”

Many of the families and relatives of the victims wept openly when the governor announced that the schools would be named after those killed and those that were brutalised.

Aregebsola alleged that the administration of former Governor Olagunsoye Oyinlola unleashed terror on members of the Action Congress of Nigeria and non members of the party in the bid to remain in office.

He said, “The most hideous brutality was visited on our people by that regime. In this instance, there was no discrimination. From the day of election, mobile policemen, the army and sundry political thugs invaded our cities of Igbajo, Osogbo, Ilesa, Ile-Ife, Iragbiji, Ikirun, Iwo, Ede, Ijebu-Jesa, Ejigbo, and other places.

“They shot, raped, arrested, harassed and flogged our people and looted their property. Gbenga Kayode, Abraham Jato, Sogo Adekoya, Chief Lawal Adesina, Mr. Samson Olarewaju, Saheed Adebiyi and Alhaja Taibat Orija Jeunkogbadun were all brutally killed by the PDP in the futile bid to silence our people, trample on their democratic rights and forcibly take away their mandate.

“Others were Lamidi Eesade, Pastor Gbenga Obalola, Ayo Oni, Saheed Adeniyi, and Taju Nasiru. Some of these people were not even politicians. Pastor Obalola, for instance, was going to his church when he was accosted by soldiers and shot in the face.

“Chief Ade Komolafe, a frontline industrialist, was beaten to death in a filling station in Ilesa, by Ibukun Fadipe, a former Chairman of Ilesa-West Local Government.”

http://punchng.com/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=6214:aregbesola-names-schools-after-election-victims&Itemid=542

Govs ‘re no thieves, Lamido replies Sani
on NOVEMBER 30, 2011 · in NEWS

By ALIYU DANGIDA
DUTSE—Jigawa State Governor, Alhaji Sule Lamido, has bemoaned what he described as blanket condemnation of all the 36 governors as corrupt, saying that there were several state chief executives who are clean.

According to him, it was unconscionable to parade as thieves, leaders elected by their people through democratic process, without adequate proof.

Lamido, who reacted to allegation reportedly made by President of Civil Rights Congress, CRC, Comrade Shehu Sani, in a radio programme that most governors were ‘’thieves,’’ said some governors, especially those on the platform of the ruling People’s Democratic Party, PDP, were clean.

Sani was quoted in the programme as saying the governors supported the removal of fuel subsidy so that they would have enough money to steal.

However, Lamido said: ”PDP governors are not thieves,” pointing out that Sani’s condemnation was not only unjust and unfair but unguarded.

The governor, who spoke to journalists in Dutse, explained that even if all governors were thieves as claimed by Sani, he (Lamido) and others PDP governors were clean, hence there was no basis to dub them as criminals.

He however, said that what mattered most was that the people that voted for the governors or their leaders still ‘’have confidence in them and as such there is no false accusation such as the one from Sani’’ that would undermine their credibility.

“Governors have enough resources in their accounts that will be used to execute meaningful developmental projects in line with the yearnings and aspirations of their electorates who voted them into power, as such governors have nothing to do with the money derived from fuel subsidy,” he added, asking commentators on issues to always educate the citizens wisely and avoid such unjustifiable claims against politicians and other individuals.

According to Governor Lamido the reknowed activists should bear in mind that those whom he was parading or calling as thieves were people’s leaders who were elected through a democratic process as such his statement is considered as unguided and unruly act.

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2011/11/govs-re-no-thieves-lamido-replies-sani/

MURDER OF A GOVERNORSHIP CANDIDATE IN DELTA STATE: CALL FOR INVESTIGATION

28/11/2011 12:05:00

Monday, November 28, 2011.

The Inspector-General of Police,
Force Headquarters,
Louis Edet House,
Abuja.

Dear Sir,

IN THE MATTER OF THE EXTRA-JUDICIAL KILLING OF CHIEF OGBE ONOKPITE (WHO WAS A GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE OF THE CITIZENS POPULAR PARTY IN APRIL 26TH GENERAL ELECTIONS HELD IN DELTA STATE)

We act on behalf of the members of the ONOKPITE and IGHOMRORE families of Okpe and Uvwie Local Governments in Delta State respectively represented by Chief V. E. Onokpite who is the elder brother to Chief Ogbe Onokpite.

It is our brief that Chief Ogbe Onokpite (born 38 years ago) WHO WAS A GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE OF THE CITIZENS POPULAR PARTY IN APRIL 26TH GENERAL ELECTIONS HELD IN DELTA STATE was lodging at a hotel called Beeland Hotel situated at Orhuwhorun in Udu Local Government Area, Delta State when men of the Nigeria Police attached to the Police Area Command, Warri (in the company of other plain cloth unidentified persons) stormed the hotel to arrest Chief Ogbe Onokpite.

On arrival at the said Hotel, the police ordered the receptionist on duty at the hotel to show them the room where Chief Ogbe Onokpite was lodging. Out of extreme fear, the receptionist obeyed and took the policemen to Ogbe’s room and he was immediately arrested and brought out (to the open still within the hotel premises) and shot in the leg.

Chief Ogbe was then carried out of the Hotel premises (still alive) in a vehicle bearing the inscription of the Nigeria Police, Area Command Warri to the Police Station at Warri where he was again shot in other more delicate parts of his body and left thereat to bleed to death.
The attached photographs speak volume as to the barbaric and dastard murder without trial of Chief Ogbe Onokpite in the hands of men of the Nigeria Police under the watchful eyes of the Area Commander in Charge of the Policemen serving the Delta Central District of Delta State.

Need we say that Chief Ogbe Onokpite has a right to life guaranteed by the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 and nothing in this Constitution justifies extra-judicial killing of any person no matter the offence he may have committed.

It is in the light of the foregoing, we are calling on you to employ your good offices to unravel and bring to book the officers and men of the Nigeria Police Force involved in this illegal killing of Chief Ogbe Onokpite who, like any other citizen of Nigeria is presumed innocent until proved guilty.

The Onokpite family is prepared and are urgently requesting for a Coroners’ Inquest to be made in order to obtain the autopsy report and a full Criminal Investigation Report of the murder of an innocent citizen. The lifeless body of Ogbe Onokpite has been dumped at the morgue in the Central Hospital Warri, Delta State.

We look forward to an expeditious treatment of this petition in the interest of justice and for the benefit of the bereaved family members.



Yours sincerely,



FESTUS KEYAMO, ESQ.
HEAD OF CHAMBERS

CC:

1. Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan (GCFR)
President and Commander-In-Chief,
Armed Forces of the
Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Aso Villa, Abuja.


2. The Chairman,
National Human Rights Commission,
Abuja.


3. Chairman,
Committee on Public Petitions
(SENATE),
National Assembly, Abuja.

4. Chairman,
Committee on Public Petitions
(House of Representatives),
National Assembly, Abuja.

http://pointblanknews.com/new/pressreleases/3116-murder-of-a-governorship-candidate-in-delta-state-call-for-investigation.html

ACN carpets FG for denying Aregbesola air time on FRCN
on NOVEMBER 28, 2011 · in NEWS

LAGOS – The Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, has accused the federal government of sliding towards despotism for ordering the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria, FRCN, to cancel a two-hour ‘Radio Link’ programme with Osun State Governor, Rauf Aregbesola on Saturday.

In a statement issued in Lagos, yesterday, by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party demanded a public apology from Minister of Information Labaran Maku, who reportedly issued the instructions cancelling the programme, which was long scheduled and paid for.

It also asked the Nigerian Broadcasting Commission, NBC, to immediately launch a probe into how a federally-funded media organisation can so wilfully deny access to any Nigerian, just because he is not a member of the ruling party.

ACN also said it would encourage the Osun State Government to head to court to challenge what is clearly an illegal act by the federal authorities, in addition to demanding huge damages for FRCN’s failure to honour a contractual agreement.

‘’The last time we checked, the opposition is still a part of Nigeria and the Action Congress of Nigeria is a Nigerian party. We are therefore concerned that a top member of the party and a state Governor for that matter can be denied access to a media organisation funded by tax payers. This is not just about FRCN but all federal government-owned media organisations and institutions.

‘’It is clear to us that the Minister of Information, who should understand and defend the basic tenets of federalism, has allowed crass partisanship to becloud his sense of propriety. It is even worse that the Minister worked for many years as a journalist before finding himself in government, which should make him to act always from an informed position.

‘’We are therefore demanding answers and seeking remedial actions for this shameful act on the part of the federal authorities,’’ ACN said.

The party said it would in particular like to know whether Mr. Maku’s actions are in anyway connected to the disagreement between Osun State and the federal authorities over the recent arrest of some ACN supporters from Osun by the police in Kogi State while on their way to Abuja.

‘’It is important to know whether the Minister’s action was informed by what he perceived as an unfriendly state, which must be punished for daring to challenge the mighty federal authorities in Abuja,’’ it said.

ACN wondered how the government of President Goodluck Jonathan can honestly seek a consensus on burning national issues, as he is reported to be planning to, when he is denying Nigerians access to federally-funded media to air their views simply because they are in opposition.

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2011/11/acn-carpets-fg-for-denying-aregbesola-air-time-on-frcn/

Countdown Calendar: 1278 Jonathan Days Left
Posted: November 27, 2011 - 05:45

Columnist: Sonala Olumhense
It is now six months since Mr. Goodluck Jonathan assumed office as President on his own terms, and 18 since Umaru Yar’Adua’s death first dropped the job into his laps.

He has announced he will transform Nigeria, and at a press conference in Abuja one month ago, on October 25, the Minister of National Planning, Mr. Shamsudeen Usman, said the Transformation Agenda, when published, would address all the critical concerns.

Sadly, with six of his 48 months gone, Mr. Jonathan seems unable to define his own road map, setting up a topsy-turvy journey on a bad road in an unmaintained mammy-wagon driven by an inexperienced driver.

On May 22, one week before Mr. Jonathan took his oath of office, I first published the article below: a limited summary of his promises to Nigerians on the campaign trail, in the hope of providing him with an unsolicited mirror with which to look at himself.
I will periodically provide the same mirror to Nigerians as a measuring rod of their time. Today, Mr. Jonathan has 1278 days left in charge. He can perform, or postpone.
A Mountain of Promises

Starting next Sunday, you could call Nigeria’s Goodluck Jonathan the Busiest Man in the World, or BMW. That is the day the clock will start ticking for him until May 2015 when his successor is expected to be sworn in.

As everyone now knows, as the presidential elections approached, Jonathan was overflowing with promises. The first category of promises applied to the general issues. He promised such things as electricity, security, jobs, and education, as well as to transform the economy and combat corruption.

The second concerned specific strategic “plans”:
• A five-year plan to revolutionize agriculture and establish industries in the country (Oturkpo, Benue State February 17);
• A four-year development plan that would open up the South-South geo-political zone (Calabar, Cross River State, March 7); it includes a blueprint for coastal roads and railways;
• A five-year development plan to accelerate development in the country (Asaba, 25 February);
• Roads and other basic infrastructure to be developed in four years (Akure, March 2).
• Road construction to take new five-year structure, ending yearly budgetary allocations (Ibadan, February 9);
• Five-year strategic plan for road projects (Bida, February 22).
• A holistic review of the nation’s our education policy (Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, March 12)

Dispensing the third category of promisory notes, Jonathan seemed determined to give unto each Nigerian in the next four years and sometimes right away, a remarkable slice of fulfillment, with promises that teased and tantalized. Here, in state by state order, are a few:

In Aba on February 12, he promised to stamp out kidnapping; provide facilities that would boost the enterprising spirit of the Igbo; upgrade the Enugu airport to international level; dredge the River Niger; build a dry port in Aba for Igbo businessmen; complete the Second Niger Bridge; rehabilitate all the main roads into Abia; tackle the erosion crisis; and make Aba the Ground Zero of eventual aircraft production in Nigeria.

In Uyo on March 7, he promised to build coastal roads and rail from Lagos to Calabar.

In Awka on Feb 26, he said he would construct all the major roads which link Anambra with its neighbors; complete the ongoing aero-dynamic survey of gas in the Anambra River basin, ‘which [leading to] power supply, then Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) industry”; complete the second Niger Bridge; and complete the Onitsha Inland Port. Nigerians would not be talking about generators after his four years in office, he vowed.

In Bauchi on February 9, he promised to intensify oil and gas exploration in the North-East Zone; boost agriculture, power and water supply; provide dams and power projects; establish two universities in the region; construct schools with modern facilities for 9.5 million Almajiris; and combat rising terrorism in the area.

In Asaba on February 26, he announced that the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation would create jobs for over 5,000 youths in the region; promised to transform the Nigerian oil and gas industry and make it the destination of choice for investors in Africa; convene a stakeholders meeting across the country where communities will be able to determine their priority programmes.

In Dutse, on March 17: Jonathan promised to establish airports in all the states without airports, with Jigawa as his starting point.

In Abakaliki on Feb 25, he promised the South East geo-political zone priority attention, especially in fixing its dilapidated road network and in healthcare delivery; dualize the Enugu-Abakaliki Express Road within one year; convert the Federal Medical Centre in Abakaliki to a teaching hospital.




In Enugu on February 12, he promised to stamp out kidnapping, ensure facilities that would enhance the enterprising spirit of the Igbo; upgrade the Enugu airport to international level; dredge the River Niger; build a dry port in Aba for easy access to Igbo traders; and complete the Second Niger Bridge.

In Birni Kebbi on March 20, he promised to establish schools for Almajiris, boost agricultural produce, ensure the take-off of the Federal University in Kebbi next year.
In Lokoja on February 21, he promised to revive the Ajaokuta Steel Complex and the Itakpe Iron Ore Company; explore the agricultural potential of the state to boost food security; establish a new federal university; ensure the speedy completion of the Lokoja-Abuja road project, and dredge the lower and upper River Niger.

In Ilorin also on Feb 21, Jonathan promised to end discrimination along ethnic and religious lines; tackle poverty; agricultural transformation of Kwara State; rehabilitation of the nation’s railway system; rehabilitation of the Ilorin-Mokwa road. He would also revitalize ailing industries and grant loans to farmers (objectives for which, he said, funds had already been earmarked).

In Lafia on February 7 at the North Central Zone launching of his campaign, Jonathan promised to end chronic power shortages; improve health and education; ensure food self-sufficiency; manage oil revenues better; create a Sovereign Wealth Fund. He would also clampdown on kidnappers and criminals; pursue law breakers to the ends of the Earth, and ensure there would be no sacred cows. He guaranteed a university in every state; proper care for communities along the water ways; and construction of a refinery.
In Lagos on February 28, Jonathan promised to partner with Lagos State in the interest of its continuous growth and the nation’s economic buoyancy. “We have taken this period to study what we are going to do and by your mandate in May 29, we will hit the ground running,” he said.

In Jos on February 17, he promised “a straight fight” against poverty; to create wealth by improving power and water supply; to build more dams and complete ongoing ones in order to boost irrigation farming in Plateau; to complete the Vom-Manchok-Jos road to boost economic links between Plateau and Kaduna states; to encourage more agricultural research institutes; refocus on solid mineral development.

In Minna on Feb 15, he promised to establish three power projects in the state at a cost of $2.1bn (about N315bn).

In Port Harcourt on February 12, at the launching of his South-South Campaign, he promised to commence “transformational changes” in the South-South; said the NNPC had begun investing in the petrochemical industry in the region; that the people in the region would be given a voice in the oil and gas sector. He promised to make the Niger Delta region the hub of the petrochemical industry in Africa.

In Abeokuta, on March 12, he promised to revive the railway system; revive ailing refineries; build new refineries.

In Akure on March 2, Jonathan promised that the bitumen deposits in the state would be exploited for economic development and employment generation; to provide funds for small and medium scale enterprises, mechanised farming and agro-based industries; partner with all relevant agencies to harness the agrarian nature of the State “to open up the flank of semi and mechanized farming in the State to engender a paradigm shift from subsistence farming to reliable modern agricultural practices.”

In Osogbo on March 2, he promised to complete the Lagos-Jebba rail project right away; complete the Ife-Ijesa dam; enhance agricultural irrigation; provide farmers with adequate information; invest in petrochemicals, mining, research and development.
In Ibadan on February 9, at the SouthWest launch of the campaign, he promised to: run a transparent government; treat all citizens equally; respect law and order; turn around the nation's bad road network.

In Gusau on March 15, he promised to establish a federal university of technology within one year.

Jonathan’s fourth and final confetti case of promises seemed designed to overwhelm anyone who had not yet folded under the avalanche:
• N50 billion had been set aside in the 2011 Budget to facilitate employments for the youths (Ondo, March 2);
• build car manufacturing or assembly plants (meeting with leaders of the National Union of Road Transport Workers, Abuja, March 21);
• Revive ailing oil refineries and build new ones (Abeokuta, March 12)
• Collaborate with state governments to explore the solid minerals sector (Gusau, March 15);
• Spend N350 billion in building small dams across the North in the next four years with the view of stimulating massive irrigational farms (Northern Economic Summit, Kaduna, March 19);
• Expand and develop the downstream sector of the oil and gas industry to provide about one million jobs (one-man presidential “debate,” March 31, Abuja);
• Make Nigeria an exporter of rice (Presidential Summit on Job Creation, Abuja, April 12);
• Crackdown on piracy in the entertainment industry (Presidential Summit on Job Creation, Abuja, April 12)
This is an abbreviated description of Jonathan’s election campaign which seemed designed to tell the immediate listener whatever he wanted to hear, and to ensure he receives the keys to the presidential palace and the Central Bank next Sunday.

I have saved his most memorable and breast-beating promise, made in Onitsha on February 27, for last: "I do not make empty promises in my campaign because whatever I promise to do, I had already carried out adequate study to make sure I can accomplish it in the next four years."
National anthem, please.
• sonala.olumhense@gmail.com

http://saharareporters.com/column/countdown-calendar-1278-jonathan-days-left

FCT Minister made N1.3 Billion from a single street contract!
Font size: 23/11/2011 21:33:00
SENATOR BALA MOHAMMED
Federal capital Territory minister, Senator Bala Mohammed is allegedly defrauding his Ministry of Billions of Naira,

Federal capital Territory minister, Senator Bala Mohammed is allegedly defrauding his Ministry of Billions of Naira, making a profit of about N1.3 Billion from phony road contracts he awards to his front companies, whistleblowers told Pointblanknews.com

Pointblanknews.com gathered that Senator Mohammed, a boastful crony of President Goodluck Jonathan had in the last few months in office, perfected means of lining his pocket through contract inflation and had started with contract of the Kubwa Abuja Road.
Sources hinted that his Ministry’s activities became suspicious and the Senate Committee Chairman on FCT, Senator Smart Adeyemi immediately went into action to investigate.

According to our sources “recently, the Senate Committee on Federal Capital Territory (FCT) led by Senator Smart Adeyemi found massive fraud and duplication in the contract for expansion of Kubwa-Abuja Road in Abuja to the tune of N16 billion Naira. Although the matter has now been “settled” and the money shared with those “concerned parties”
The source added “despite the multitude of solid allegations of fraudulent activities, Federal Capital Territory Minister, Senator Bala Mohammed continues to enjoy his office due to his strong connections to President Goodluck Jonathan.’

Pointblanknews.com sources revealed that after reeling from the heat that came with recent big road contracts fraud, the FCT minister has now settled for making money from smaller street construction contracts that are awarded to his cronies and the money shared without drawing much attention.
According to our sources “the minister who was rattled has decided to make money from other sources that will not draw such attention. As such smaller street projects within the Abuja residential areas where there is very little awareness from relevant oversight committee is now the minister cash cow.”
The FCT’s new strategy according to sources, is to identify small streets or roads in obscure residential areas and then structure the award of contracts in part payments (contract splitting) that can be signed off by his office to trusted cronies who front for the him.

Our sources revealed that this is the case with Hamza Abdullahi Street, which was awarded to S & M Limited, a contractor that front for the FCT minister. The residential street that is less than a one sixth of a kilometer was awarded to the tuned of N1.3 billion Naira and the money quickly released to the contractor, one Ademola Solomon, who in turn allegedly shared the monies with the minister and abandoned the project.

Sources told Pointblanknews.com that the contractor who is notorious for many abandoned projects is boastful of his connections to those in power and dares anyone to question his connections. Sources closes to the minister office say the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) is powerless in fraud matters concerning the FCT minister due to the strong connection that he has with the President.

http://pointblanknews.com/new/news/3080-fct-minister-made-n1-3-billion-from-a-single-street-contract.html

The Death Of A Nigerian Icon – The Ikemba Chukwuemeka Odimegwu-ojukwu

Akintokunbo A Adejumo

November 26, 2011


Prior to the 1966 coup which ushered in General JTU Aguiyi-Ironsi, very few people in Nigeria had ever seen soldiers before. They were mostly confined to the barracks. Most of us in those days did not even know that Nigerians soldiers were sent to the Congo. Even now, most history books never recorded the exploits and bravery of Nigerian soldiers in the West African Auxiliary Force who distinguished themselves in the First and Second World Wars on the side of the British colonial masters in Burma and East Africa. That is another story.

Then came the first time I saw soldiers in 1966 on TV, and one of them was the face of a young Colonel called Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, who at the time was named the Governor of the Eastern Region. The name, Ojukwu, itself connotes some kind of force, some authority, some discipline and romanticism to me, at least. To make it more intriguing to me, I had never before seen a soldier who has a full beard as this man. The perception then, to us civilians, was that soldiers are not allowed to grow beards as part of their service; and that Ojukwu was given special dispensation by the Nigerian Army to do so because the beard just wouldn’t go. This further reinforced my belief that this was a hard, stern, disciplined man, and to me as a Yoruba man, further confirmed to me that the Igbo were a tough and hardy people.

Throughout his tenure, and before and during the civil war, I never saw Ojukwu smile. He was always taciturn, serious, stern, and hard-faced, another feature that convinced me of his being a man of sterner stuff; a man not given to trivialities or nonsense. It was therefore no surprise to me, even at that very young age of mine, after the large scale massacre of his people and his disaffection with the Military Government of General Yakubu Gowon, who was his (Ojukwu’s) junior in the Army, that he felt he had to secede from the Nigerian nation to save and protect his people.

With the benefit of hindsight, and considering the current and increasingly violent fractious situation of Nigeria, who can blame him? I feel in fact that the Ikemba, as Ojukwu’s title is called, is now wholly vindicated.

I do not need here to recite a long biography; his birth, school; army career and his infamous war with Nigeria are well documented. Suffice it to say he was born into a rich family, well educated both in Nigeria and in the UK and in 1957, within months of working with the colonial civil service, he left and joined the military as one of the first and few university graduates to join the army: O. Olutoye (1956); C. Odumegwu-Ojukwu (1957), E. A. Ifeajuna and C. O. Rotimi (1960), and A. Ademoyega (1962). (Wikipedia)

His popular background and sound education guaranteed his promotion to higher ranks. Besides, as at 1956, the Nigerian Military Forces had 250 officers and only 15 were Nigerians. There were 6,400 other ranks, of which 336 were British. It is not surprising that he is N/29 (W.U. Bassey was N/1, while JTU Aguiyi-Ironsi was N/2; the first Nigerian to be commissioned as an officer, Lieutenant L. V. Ugboma, left in 1948) Odumegwu-Ojukwu has an understandably fast rise in the military, eventually becoming the Quartermaster General. (Wikipedia)

Ojukwu served in the United Nations’ peacekeeping force in the Congo, under the legendary Major General Johnson Thomas Umunnakwe Aguiyi-Ironsi, and was promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel in 1964 and posted to Kano, where he was in charge of the 5th Battalion of the Nigerian Army. He was in Kano, northern Nigeria, when Major Patrick Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu on January 15, 1966 executed and announced the bloody military coup in Kaduna, also in northern Nigeria. It is to his credit that the coup lost much steam in the north, where it had succeeded. Lt. Col. Odumegwu-Ojukwu supported the forces loyal to the Supreme Commander of the Nigerian Armed Forces, Major-General Aguiyi-Ironisi. Major Nzeogwu was in control of Kaduna, but the coup had flopped in other parts of the country. He surrendered. (Wikipaedia)

General Aguiyi-Ironsi took over the leadership of the country and thus became the first military head of state. On Monday, January 17, 1966, he appointed military governors for the four regions. Lt. Col. Odumegwu-Ojukwu was appointed Military Governor of Eastern Region. Others were: Lt.-Cols Hassan Usman Katsina (North), Francis Adekunle Fajuyi (West), and David Akpode Ejoor (Mid West). These men formed the Supreme Military Council with Brigadier B.A.O Ogundipe, Chief of Staff, Supreme Headquarters, Lt. Col. Yakubu Gowon, Chief of Staff Army HQ, Commodore J. E. A. Wey, Head of Nigerian Navy, Lt. Col. George T. Kurubo, Head of Air Force. (Wikipedia)

By May 29, 1966, things quickly fell apart: There was a planned pogrom in Northern Nigeria during which Nigerians of South-Eastern Nigeria origin were targeted and killed. This presented problems for the young military governor, Colonel Odumegwu-Ojukwu. He did everything in his power to prevent reprisals and even encouraged people to return, as assurances for their safety had been given by his supposed colleagues up north and out west.

On July 29, 1966, a group of officers of Northern origin, notably Majors Murtala Ramat Rufai Muhammed, Theophilus Yakubu Danjuma, and Martin Adamu, led the majority Northern soldiers in a mutiny that was later tagged “counter-coup.” The Supreme Commander General Aguiyi-Ironsi and his host Colonel Fajuyi were abducted and killed in Ibadan.



First, Ojukwu, to his credit, insisted that the military hierarchy must be preserved; in which case, Brigadier Ogundipe should take over leadership, not Colonel Gowon. But Ogundipe no longer had the stomach to deal with the army; he was easily convinced to step aside and was posted to the Nigerian High Commission in London.

They ended up in Aburi, Ghana in January 1967 for a peace conference hosted by General Joseph Ankrah. Three days later on May 30, 1967, Colonel Odumegwu-Ojukwu declared Eastern Nigeria a sovereign state to be known as BIAFRA:

"Having mandated me to proclaim on your behalf, and in your name, that Eastern Nigeria be a sovereign independent Republic, now, therefore I, Lieutenant Colonel Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, Military Governor of Eastern Nigeria, by virtue of the authority, and pursuant to the principles recited above, do hereby solemnly proclaim that the territory and region known as and called Eastern Nigeria together with her continental shelf and territorial waters, shall, henceforth, be an independent sovereign state of the name and title of The Republic of Biafra." (Wikipedia)

The rest is history. Of course, as we know, Ojukwu was officially pardoned by President Shehu Shagari and after 13 years in exile, returned in triumph to Nigeria. At the time, it was felt that Ojukwu was used as a political pawn used by the ruling NPN of Shagari, to get the Igbo vote and was then dumped unceremoniously. A political naivety for the Ikemba, I’d say.

I have always felt that this hard, intelligent and well-educated Nigerian eventually succumbed to the Nigerian disease called sycophancy and flattery. He was severally mis-advised and fed wrong information as to the real vagaries of politics in Nigeria. Of course, being a military man, he would always be found wanting when it comes to immersing himself in that deadly unique Nigerian partisan politics, and it was no wonder his name was smeared several times, not only by the rest of Nigeria but significantly by his own people, the Igbos.

To me, Ikemba (Dim) Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu remains a Nigerian icon. He might not necessarily be seen as hero to many Nigerians, but he was one of those leaders, worthy, who shaped Nigeria. Methinks it was unfortunate he was born in this era, and probably a younger Ojukwu today, or in the last decade would have made very significantly positive contributions to the progress of this country.

To me, I will never lose respect for him. It is often the case that when people like Ojukwu die, all kinds of encomiums and eulogies will be written. Nobody will ever see him in a bad light.

To me he was a Liberator of his people; to me, he was the “Rebel Leader of Biafra”, as we used to hear in those days of the Civil War; but he was not a tribal leader, never a tribal leader. The man was too liberated, too intelligent and too educated to descend that low. This I hope we will all agree on. He did all he could to keep Nigeria one but under a very different and difficult circumstance when he could no longer see any alternative.

A privileged upbringing and best education with one of the then richest men in Nigeria as a father, Odumegwu, rather than rely on the wealth of his father, chose to enter the common workforce by joining the Civil Service and was then inclined to join the Army, all against the wishes of his father. This, even at the early beginnings, show

Mind you, Ojukwu was not a Hero, but an Icon; the reason being that it is difficult and not appropriate to label him such because, ultimately, he should take and share the blame for the millions of Igbos and other Nigerians who lost their lives as a result of the Biafra War. This is purely my opinion, and I am sure others will not agree with my use of those nouns, but one thing is that I have never perceived him as a villain of the piece. He will always be my hard-faced, bearded, strong and intelligent leader. He did what he felt he had to do then.

I have no doubt that in a different age; Ojukwu could have been the type of leader we yearn for in this confounded country of ours. Not only to the Igbos but to all who call themselves Nigerians.

When we look back and forward to the present day Nigeria and how it is being run to the ground by the corrupt, hypocritical, religious and tribal fanatics, then perhaps it is time we started looking at Dim Ojukwu in a new light.

I am never one to heap praises and eulogies on our leaders, but this is a time I have to change my stance.

A true Nigerian Icon has gone.

May his soul rest in perfect peace.

http://www.nigeriavillagesquare.com/akintokunbo-a-adejumo/the-death-of-a-nigerian-icon-the-ikemba-chukwuemeka-odimegwu-ojukwu.html

Jonathan, ACF hail Atiku at 65
on NOVEMBER 24, 2011 · in NEWS

By Henry Umoru
ABUJA — President Goodluck Jonathan, Thursday, hailed former Vice President Atiku Abubakar on his 65th birthday today just as the Arewa Consultative Forum, ACF has also congratulated him

In a congratulatory letter to Atiku Abubakar and personally signed by the President, he prayed divine blessings to the former Vice President and wished him many more years of fulfilment.

The President also wished Atiku God’s guidance and prosperity as he celebrates his 65th birthday on Friday.
The ACF in a statement signed by the Secretary, Anthony Sani in Kaduna while wishing him a happy 65th birthday, however acknowledged that the day was worth celebrating considering the worthy contributions the former Vice President had made to socio-economic and political development of Nigeria.

“The Turaki Adamawa is a jaunty face of democratic values of rule of law as the only instrument that can sustain democratic practices. That may explain why he used the law courts to seek redress, which went a long way towards enriching substantially our democratic practices,” ACF said.

According to the ACF, the former Vice President’s commitment to self reliance accounts for why he has over time used his vast experiences both in public and private practices to help build peoples’ capacity to support themselves and in the process make some difference in the lives of others.

“The Turaki Adamawa is a man of God who panders to Sarduana’s philosophy that success comes from capacity to make compromises and make friends of former foes. We see this trait in his daily life to date,” it added.

The ACF prayed to God to preserve the former Vice President to celebrate many more years of life for the common good.

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2011/11/jonathan-acf-hail-atiku-at-65/

Money, Money Everywhere
Posted: November 25, 2011 - 12:57
By Nasir Ahmad El-Rufai
Mr. X worked for a Nigerian bank for nearly 20 years, rising to a senior management level. Last year during his annual leave, he received a message telling him not to bother returning to the bank; he had been sacked. Ms. Y came to office one early morning as she usually did, sat down on her desk and powered her computer, only to find out that the password had been changed. She had also lost her job.

Despite the marble buildings, glass cladding, sleek cars, glib adverts and billions of assets on paper, it may come as a surprise to many that Nigeria's banking sector which employs only about 500,000 people – despite the nearly 1 trillion naira of public funds used to stabilize several ailing banks last year, is still shedding jobs. When a sector cannot hold on to its own jobs, how can it possibly act as the catalyst for development, growth and job creation?

The financial services sector of a country is comprised of the banks, insurance companies, pension funds and the capital market that are mostly privately-owned but closely regulated by several government agencies. The sector primarily acts as financial intermediary - mobilizing savings from those with surplus cash, and lending it to those that need more cash to grow their businesses, satisfy consumption and acquire durable assets. It is therefore supposed to drive economic development, provide credit for the economy and enable job creation that bring both long and short-term benefit to the people of the country through stimulation of real sector activities.

Cultivating a banking culture within a given society is usually encouraged, induced and sustained by specific policy, socio-economic conditions and political realities. It is usually brought into existence by specific government legislation. It does not come as an expression of mere wishful thinking. Rather, a virile, sustainable, economy-boosting financial services sector capable of generating appropriate employment opportunities has to be properly designed, legislated and regulated.

Before Independence the banks in Nigeria were virtually all branches of foreign banks. Standard Bank came in 1892 predating the amalgamation of 1914. In 1958, the first CBN Act was legislated and the apex bank began operations in Lagos in 1959. Then the Banking Decree 1969 was enacted by the Gowon administration which stipulated that no shareholder can own more than 5 percent of any commercial or merchant bank. This socialistic law imposed on an essentially capitalist endeavor led to many unintended consequences, and was repealed by the Banks and Other Financial Institutions Decree in 1991 by the Babangida administration. The CBN Decree 1991 was also enacted granting that the apex instrument autonomy from political interference. But the much-desired central bank independence was not achieved until 2007 when the Obasanjo administration pushed the current enabling law through the national assembly.

The 1970s witnessed the indigenization of our first generation banks – Standard became First Bank, United Bank of Africa (UBA), Barclays became Union Bank, and IBWA (Afribank) and majority equity compulsorily acquired by the Federal Government of Nigeria. During this era, in the global banking rankings, a couple of Nigerian banks featured within the top 100 in the world, and all our banks were all considered to be dependable. Today, Nigerian banks can only look up to being among the bottom of the top 1000 banks in the world. Most of them are not perceived to be strong, sound and capable of discharging their primary functions.

As at end of 2010, the Nigerian financial system consists of 24 deposit money banks, 1 Non-Interest (Islamic) bank, 5 discount houses, 866 micro-finance banks, 106 finance companies, 101 mortgage banks, 5 development finance institutions, 1,959 bureaux de change, 690 stockbroking firms, 13 pension fund administrators, 5 pension fund custodians, an asset management company, a stock exchange, a commodities and securities exchange and 73 insurance companies. These are all licensed and regulated by the CBN, National Pensions Commission, Securities and Exchange Commission, and the National Insurance Commission as appropriate - as independent regulators ideally free from undue influence and political interference.

One of the most important ways of measuring the health of an economy is by gauging the strength of its banks. Just a few years ago, former Central Bank Governor Charles Soludo embarked on banking reforms including the consolidation of our banks to the 25 that managed to put up the minimal capital of N25 billion. The stock market bubbled to the stratosphere. Unfortunately most of the banks recapitalized by borrowing from each other, or lending to customers to buy their share - and little new money was mobilized from within or outside Nigeria to finance the industry consolidation and the stock market growth resulting therefrom.

Barely two years after the supposed miracle, the much touted consolidation came crashing down. In the end, only about 10 banks got a clean bill of health. The new management at the CBN under Sanusi L. Sanusi is still battling to restore sanity and confidence in the financial system - a war with an exposure of nearly 1 trillion Naira so far, and counting.

Today, only one out of five Nigerian adults has a bank account. Only 15 percent of women have bank accounts. The North-West and North-East zones are the least banked, and not surprisingly the poorest in the country. Nearly 70 percent of currency in circulation is outside the banking system. Banks lend more to the government than the small, medium and large business that truly create jobs. Nigeria is an intensely cash-upfront economy, with virtually no loans available to buy homes, cars and other durables. Bank branches are concentrated in Abuja and Lagos and the urban areas where less than 40 per cent of the population make a living. Our rural areas have been ignored and unbanked. Even the micro finance banks that are supposed to fill that gap are all located in the urban areas. All is not well with the financial services sector particularly with our banking industry.

What went wrong? Why are our banks neither aggressively mobilizing savings nor lending for real sector growth? Why do we seem to go through cycles of banking distress and failures every ten years or so? Why are interest rates being raised unreasonably high mainly to protect the exchange rate? Why do we seem to rely on the CBN intervention to fund sectors at affordable interest rates, while the deposit money banks are doing little or nothing? How can banks declare all those billions in profits yet are not able to provide affordable long term credits?

The Nigeria financial sector must expand and evolve to a modern one to facilitate desperately needed economic growth. Today, the Nigerian financial sector falls far below that of the performance of a country that has ambitions of becoming one of the world biggest economies by 2020. Given its current structure, the sector cannot be relied upon to finance the activities that translate to abundant employment opportunities.

The sector serves mainly larger, well-connected entities and individuals. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), though generally have access to bank loans, try as hard as they can to avoid them, because they cannot afford the high level of interest rates compared to their mostly tight profit margins and other poor operating condition – electricity, regulation etc. The loans that Nigeria banks offer have high interest rates – double digits, which may not be bearable and repayable by the borrowers. A very reliable way of checking that loans of double digits interest rates are not favorable to the borrowers is rule 72 - using this rule you will need to divide 72 by the applicable interest rate to get the number of years it will take for the principal to double; thereby creating a vicious cycle of debt trap.

Indonesia was in very similar position to Nigeria fifty years ago, and started out with about the same level of GDP and broadly similar population sizes. Over the past five decades, we have earned about equal revenues from oil exports, but the ratio of bank deposits to GDP for Nigeria is only one-fifth that of Indonesia. But besides the ratio of deposits, over sixty percent of funds in the banking system belong to the government against thirty percent in Indonesia and about ten percent in South Africa. From these numbers, it can be seen that the contribution of the financial sector to the GDP without government deposits is below fifteen percent – far below what is obtainable in Indonesia and other countries of similar standing with Nigeria.

The unavoidable conclusion from these facts is that the Nigerian financial sector functions first and foremost as a channel for capturing government deposits and recycling them to buy government debt. It is only a marginal, complementary source of finance to the private sector. This is of course in contrast to what is necessary for vibrant economic growth.

An economy driven by self-financing widens stagnation and poverty, because new investors can only come up when they are able to save capital. Today, because of lack of access to affordable credit, many potential entrepreneurs are forced into low-capital activities like petty trading to earn a living. This has caused excessive competition in such activities, and profit margins that are so low and unstable that it is impossible for most petty traders to earn much more than they need simply to feed themselves and their families – much less to borrow money at high interest rates.

The failure to develop a vibrant credit system has not only limited growth; it actually widens the incidence of poverty, aggravates the inequality of income distribution, and creates constant political pressure on government as the employer, provider and financier of last resort.

The foregoing clearly reveals the issues that need to be addressed to make our banking industry deliver on the expectations of Nigerians. The first is to attract genuine new capital into the banks, not the phantom injections we have seen in the past. Second, the industry needs to attract long-term deposits from untapped savings waiting to be mobilized from our rural areas and bedrooms. Finally, the CBN must fix affordable rates of borrowing that not only enable sustainable growth but also reduce the incidence of non-performing loans. Applying the rule of 72, it is clear why banks do not lend. They know that no one can pay those usurious interest levels. Perhaps the only non-interest bank we now have will show the way. The world over, interest rates are in the single digits and near-zero, except in Nigeria and other developing countries.

To conclude another tale of wasted opportunities, one cannot but paraphrase the popular maxim ‘water, water everywhere, but not a drop to drink’. In this case, it is money, money everywhere, but no lending to real sector, and therefore no jobs at all’.

http://saharareporters.com/article/money-money-everywhere

Revealed: How Jonathan And His Men Plotted Sylva’s Fall
Posted: November 17, 2011 - 19:32

Photo Credit, Google
By Sahara Reporters, New York
Facts have emerged on how President Goodluck Jonathan and his loyalists plotted the fall of the embattled Governor of Bayelsa State, Chief Timipre Sylva.

Minutes of a "strategy meeting" obtained by Sahara Reporters shows that it had the support of security agencies in its actions.

At one of the meetings, the group gave inkling into the allegation that Sylva was planning to kill the President.

According to the group it was in touch with the security agencies, with support from Jonathan, on how to neutralise the governor.

Amongst many other things, the group said it had the “assurance by Mr President, the NSA and the Chief of Army Staff that the State Director of SSS and the Brigade Commander of the Yenagoa Military garrison who are suspected to be sympathetic to Governor Sylva are deployed out of the state.”

Sahara Reporters discovered a full text of how this "strategy meeting" transpired.




Below is a full report of the minutes.

Strategy Session No. 9

T.S: The Final Political Solution

This is a report of the 9th meeting of the Strategy Committee of the Anti-Gov Sylva Movement held at the residence of King A.J Turner in Maitama District of Abuja, on Thursday 3rd November, 2011.

In attendance were King A.J Turner, Hon Henry Seriake Dickson, H.E Peremobowei Ebebi, Hon Fyneman Wilson, Chief Fred Gbedi, Gen Enai (rtd), Hon Salo Adekuno, Solomon Imananagha, AVM Larry Koinyan, Prof Isoung and Hon Rufus Ababi.

I. Opening

The meeting commenced at 7.45pm with opening prayers said by Hon Fyneman Wilson. The meeting was subsequently declared open by King A. J. Turner, the host and the chairman of the committee. The agenda of the meeting was read by the secretary of the committee, Hon Ababi and unanimously adopted. The agenda was as follows:

i. Briefings on the State of the Struggle.

ii. Ensuring the Continued Support of Mr President: Key Steps to Take

iii. Mounting Further Pressure on the Party Leadership

iv. The Political Situation in Bayelsa state

v. Preparing For the Primary Election: Delegates Mobilisation

vi. A.O.B

vii. Chairman’s closing Remarks

viii. Closing prayers



2. Briefings

The principal briefing was made by king A.J Turner and Hon Henry Seriake Dickson. The briefing covered the following issues:

I Extending thanks to Mr. President, the NSA and the IGP for disbanding Famou Tamgbe which has become Gov. Sylva’s political outfit and redeploying the commissioner of police who has been compromised by Gov. Sylva out of Bayelsa State on the recommendation of the group.

ii. Assurance by Mr. President, the NSA and the Chief of Army Staff that the State Director of SSS and the Brigade Commander of the Yenagoa Military garrison who are suspected to be sympathetic to Governor Sylva are deployed out of the state. On the issue of timeline raised by Gen Enai (rtd) and Hon Wilson, the group was informed that these two last acts will be done, at least, a week to the primary election.

iii. The group was also informed that Mr. President was personally responsible for the Appeals panel withholding Gov. Sylva’s clearance on the basis of the petitions which groups affiliated to the strategy committee wrote.

On the question raised by AVM Koinyan and Hon Adekumo whether the groups could be reached and compromised by Gov. Sylva to recant and withdraw their petition, HE Ebebi who organised them, was firm in his assurance that they are incorruptible and beyond the reach of the Governor.

iv. The group was also informed that direct contact has been made with Mrs. Farida Waziri, Chairman of the EFCC since groups working for the committee wrote their petitions against the governor, and were assured that not only will ranking officials of the State government be arrested and arraigned before the primary election, but also that the state will be rendered prostrate, and its activities disrupted by heightened EFCC operations starting from the end of the Sallah celebrations.

A member reminded the group of the need to physically move a crack team of EFCC operatives to the State to commence work without delay. He was informed that Mrs. Waziri’s personal assurance and commitment has been secured in this regard.

V. The house was also briefed on the need for co-ordinated action on these fronts; re-landscaping the state security outlook, ensuring that Gov. Sylva is denied clearance and also ensuring that the impact of EFCC’s operations is clearly felt.

To achieve this, an Action committee headed by Hon Ebebi and made up of Prof. Isoung, Chief Gbedi and AVM Koinyan was set up to over-see the day to day implementation of this directive.

3. Mr. President’s Support

The meeting noted that Mr President’s continued support is crucial at this stage given his penchant for equivocation, hesitation and indecisiveness. Some members were even appalled that Gov. Sylva is still standing tall and fighting with all the personal and direct-assurances of Mr. President to the contrary and eve wondered about the role of Bruce Murrary, and Tlmi Alaibe, when it is an open secret that the latter is being fronted by former President Obasanjo and the First Lady after a purported exchange of heavy fund.

The chairman reassured the group that Mr. President’s support is intact; that the other aspirants are mere decoy to create the illusion of a complicated political fight as it is ill-advised for Mr. President to function effectively in a two-way fight without being overly exposed; and that the best form of pressure on him is further blackmail through more media disclosures and petitions on Gov. Sylva’s hatred of him and boast that he will derail his 2015 re-election project if he Sylva gets re-elected in 2012. The point was also made to widen the contact on Mr President and ensure that he gets timely explosive briefings on Gov Sylva’s antics from the group and the NSA.

4. Pressure on the Party Leadership

The group commended the Leadership of the PDP for upturning the clearance given to governor Sylva by the screening committee, and singled out the Acting National Secretary, Dr. Babayo, the Legal Adviser, Wole Oke and the National publicity Secretary, Prof. Alkali, for special thanks. Members expressed reservations about the apparent pro-Sylva statements credited to the Acting National Chairman, Alhaji Baraje Kawu, may be made under pressure on from his benefactor Former Gov. Saraki, who is very close to Gov. Sylva. The meeting also resolved to apply further pressure on Alhaji Barje through Mr. President, and also to ensure that he is weaned of Saraki’s overbearing influence over him. It was further resolved that Mr President should be reached to speak to Saraki on this matter, as any further dragging of foot by the party in disqualifying Gov. Sylva will not only send the wrong kind of signal back home, but would give the governor more time to recover and mount counter measures. The chairman, King Turner and Hon Dickson, were mandated to act on this and report back to the house at its next meeting on Wednesday, 9th Nov, 2011 at same venue.

5. The group reviewed the political situation in Bayelsa and noted the momentum their campaign has generated. Some of the welcome developments analysed include

i. The penetration by the group of some member of the Council of Local government chairmen and the petition the latter wrote on their behalf

ii. Sowing seeds of discord in Gov. Sylva’s camp as demonstrated by the petition “Concerned government officials” wrote on their behalf

iii. The group also noted the high profile already attained by its striking arm – Niger Delta integrity Group – which wrote the petition that has thus far denied Gov. Sylva clearance because of the weighty nature of the allegation – threat to Mr. President and his wife’s life by Gov. Sylva, and further resolved to make more money available to the group. The salutary effect of the dissolution of the infamous “Famou Tamgbei” was appreciated, as well as mapping out new strategies to criminalise such pro-Sylva groups as “ Young Bayelsa Professionals” led by one Moses Siasia and “Operation Fatangbe” in order to effect the arrest of their leadership, at least, a week to the primary election

6. Preparing For the Primary Election

Three issues came up for discussion on this issue. What strategy to adopt if Gov. Sylva is screened out but Timi Alaibe is screened in, what to do if Gov. Sylva is screened in and Alaibe is screened out, and finally how to handle the situation if Gov. Sylva and Alaibe are both screened in. No time was spent on the scenario of if both Sylva and Alaibe are screened out as this will be plain sailing for the group. Because of time constraint a committee headed by H.E. Ebebi was set up to brief the group on these scenarios during the next meeting, but most importantly to avail Mr. President of the implication of each scenario as urgently as possible.

7. A.O.B Security Situation in Nigeria and Bayelsa in Particular

The group expressed concern about the security situation in Nigeria , and Bayelsa state in particular and resolved to task Mr President, NSA, D.G S.S.S and IGP about increasing the presence of security personnel in Bayelsa state, placing Gov. Sylva under security watch and restricting his movement from now till after the primary election.

8. The chairman thanked the members for their diligent commitment to the struggle and urged members to always dispose of the report of their meetings once they go through it and have internalized its content to avoid leakage. The closing prayers were said by Hon Salo Adekumo. The motion for adjournment was moved by Chief Fred Gbedi and was seconded by AVM Larry Koinyan. The next meeting was adjourned to 7pm, Wednesday, 9th November, 2011 at the same venue.


King A. J. Turner Hon Rufus Ababi
Chairman Secretary

http://saharareporters.com/news-page/revealed-how-jonathan-and-his-men-plotted-sylva%E2%80%99s-fall

War of words in Senate over confirmation of Bode George’s wife as NPC board member

Written by Ayodele Adesanmi, Abuja
Thursday, 17 November 2011

It was a robust debate at the  Senate, on Wednesday,  before  the confirmation of Mrs Roli Bode-George as a member of the National Population Commission (NPC) following her nomination by President Goodluck Jonathan.
Her confirmation also led to war of words between members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) as they engaged in  survival arguments.
The arguments started immediately after Senator Maina Lawan, chairman of the Committee on National Identity Card and National Population  announced  that  the committee received a petition from  three senators from Lagos State kicking against her nomination.
All the three senators representing Lagos State rejected her nomination on the grounds of incompetence and that she is not an indigene of the state.
Lawan said that in the petition, the senators said the nominee was not from Lagos State and attached a letter written by the governor of Lagos State to President Goodluck Jonathan  asking him to nominate someone else.
But the committee, while presenting its report, disclosed that after a careful consideration, it concluded that the nominee was from Lagos State based on her marriage to someone from Lagos State.

http://www.tribune.com.ng/index.php/news/31397--war-of-words-in-senate-over-confirmation-of-bode-georges-wife-as-npc-board-member

How Jonathan Got His GCFR-Reuben Abati
Posted: November 16, 2011 - 15:47

Reuben Abati
By Rueben Abati
Whoever came up with that explanation about how President Goodluck Jonathan got his GCFR – the highest national honour in the land a few days ago must be thoroughly disingenuous. It is as follows. The setting was the last meeting of the Council of State. Someone had proposed that the President should take the GCFR title. He already has the GCON.

He reportedly demurred citing an extant law (possibly the National Honours Act No. 5 of 1964) which says only a sitting President can confer the title of Grand Commander of the Federal Republic or Grand Commander of the Order of the Niger on another. A former Chief Justice of the Federation, Alfa Belgore then advised that his was a special case in the sense that he, Jonathan, took over from a dead President. But so did Obasanjo in 1976.

In 1983, Buhari deposed a sitting President. And so did Babangida in 1985. Abdulsalami Abubakar also succeeded a dead President. But everyone at the meeting, particularly the state Governors felt persuaded that Jonathan should take the GCFR. They then started begging the man. “Please Your Excellency”; “Please Sir, GCON is too small for you.” They begged. Oh, how they begged! Imagine all those big men begging one man to become a GCFR; and so, Dr. Jonathan, ever-so-humble, capitulated.
How could the President taking a GCFR title have created so much drama at a meeting of the Council of State? Why couldn’t such trifle wait?  All of a sudden, President Jonathan who in 30 days had clearly demonstrated that he is in charge and in power was no longer in charge. His award of a GCFR was signed by all former Heads of State, with General Gowon saying: “we signed it”. Under what authority was he and his colleagues acting? They have no such powers. And how many more actions would the President be persuaded to take due to overwhelming pressure, or expediency, but more because of his failure to obey his own moral intuition? The President is the highest authority in the Council of state and so, all that contrived histrionics notwithstanding, the truth is that President Jonathan after only 30 days in office has conferred upon himself the highest honour in the land.
The Council of State is, in a strict sense, an advisory body. It is a creation of the Third Schedule Part 1, Sections 5 and 6 of the 1999 Constitution. Section 6(a)(iii) defines the role of that Council in relation to the “award of national honour,” and nowhere is it stated that former Heads of state can constitute themselves into a superior authority conferring National Honours on a sitting President. Whatever General Gowon and co may have signed is therefore inappropriate, if not illegal. Arthur Schopenhauer is right: “Honour is on its objective side, other people’s opinion of what we are worth; on its subjective side, it is the respect we pay to this opinion.” (Position, 1851).This raises an inevitable moral question: should President Jonatahn award himself the highest honour in the land? The honour that he should seek is not an additional suffixation to his name but such general opinion which by the end of his tenure would advertise his deeds and achievements in office as truly deserving of honour and celebration and a place in the people’s hearts and memory. General Sani Abacha also had a GCFR. Does anyone today think that he truly deserved it? Every Inspector General of Police in recent times has had a National Honour while in office. If anyone is looking for a list of those who have damaged Nigeria in the last 50 years, the place to begin the search is the National Honours List.
This is perhaps why most Nigerians are indifferent about the National Honours system. It does not change anyone’s opinion about the character of the title-holder. It does not attract a salary or a lifetime pension. It probably allows access to the VIP lounge at the country’s airports. But anyone with a couple of thousand Nairas can also use the VIP lounge. And what manner of man or woman is that who rather than pay a token sum for an hour of comfort, waiting to catch a flight, would insist on waving a medal? Still, we should not make light of it. The concept of honour is at the heart of society. Men from time immemorial have craved it. They would kill for it, if possible, go to war, and risk all. Honour is an intangible asset; it is about prestige and self-worth. But that prestige must be seen to have been earned, to have been worked for, such that it inspires the admiration of the community. Like Akintola Williams, CBE; I.K. Dairo, MBE. Each year when the Queen’s Honours’ List is announced in Great Britain, the award is taken seriously; it is an advertisement of the British value system: merit, achievement, international diplomacy. It is not every British Prime Minister that is on the Queen’s Honours list. It is not an entitlement list reserved for anyone and everyone in public position.
Here lies an instructive difference: the Nigerian National Honours list is driven by an entitlement mentality. The day Namadi Sambo became Vice President, he was automatically decorated with a GCON, the second highest honour. As soon as Senator David Mark became Senate President, he also got one of the country’s high honours. Every year, state Governors nominate their friends, family, contractors who donated money to their political campaigns, and traditional rulers who helped to deliver the votes. A few persons of substance show up on the list, but you really have to scratch your head to figure out why certain names have been considered worthy. Because of the emphasis on entitlement and patronage, the award ceremony is ever so bland; the citations say nothing significant.
A review of the National Honours Act and system is overdue. Nigeria must be probably the only country where people are given national honours for work not done, or in anticipation of what they would achieve. National honours should be reserved for those who through hardwork and extraordinary achievement have helped to raise the Nigerian profile and its place in the world. If this be the case, the highest honours in the land should be reserved for the Wole Soyinkas, the Kayode Esos, the Chinua Achebes, the Chukwudifu Oputas, the Joystick Tigers, the Fela Kutis, the Margaret Ekpos, inventors, entrepreneurs, great promoters of the Nigerian dream, including the honest average Nigerian, but not politicians and their sponsors, not every civil servant who manages to get to a certain position, not coup plotters, not traditional rulers, not government contractors and certainly not similar rent collectors.




President Jonathan missed a good opportunity to raise the standard on the award of national honours by quickly promoting himself to the GCFR rank. This is reminiscent of the military era and the vaingloriousness of the political elite. When the late President Umaru Yar’Adua was decorated with the same GCFR on the day he assumed office, by the then outgoing President Olusegun Obasanjo,  he had remarked that he would have preferred getting such high honour after his tour of duty as President. It was a useful point. Once more, President Jonathan has failed to eschew the business-as-usual syndrome. I should not be surprised if in due course, the Council of Traditional Rulers unleash all kinds of chieftaincy title offers on him, including that notorious, eponymous one in Yorubaland: OTUNBA. He would of course, demur. But the Council of chiefs from this or that community will beg him. And beg him. And of course, he will accept. The moment may also soon arrive when some Nigerians will beg the President to run for office in 2011. And they will beg and beg. And of course, he will accept. That after all, is the story of how Jonathan got his GCFR.

Reuben Abati was the Guardian newspaper editorial board chair when he wrote this last year

http://saharareporters.com/article/how-jonathan-got-his-gcfr-reuben-abati

National Awards c’ttee incompetent- Recipient
on NOVEMBER 16, 2011 · in NEWS
     
BY CALEB AYANSINA

ABUJA – MIXED reactions, Tuesday, trailed the national awards to 365 Nigerians as some of the recipients said the entire process was a clear manifestation of incompetence on the part of the committee saddled with that responsibility.

Deputy Inspector- General of Police (rtd), Udom U. Ekpoudom, who received the award of Order of the Niger, OON, in an interview with Vanguard in Abuja, noted that the committee did not only make the government a laughing stock but painted a show of ineffectiveness.

He said: “National award is very important and it was televised live, but the arrangement was very poor and I asked myself, if those that were in charge of the programme are for the government or not for the government.

“When I was in the Police Force and I give you a job to do, if you don’t do it well, I will ask you if you want me to succeed or fail.

“To start with, do you believe it that some of us did not get the programme? Do you believe that we are asked to bring two guests and our guests did not have programme?

“Can you believe that some of us could neither get the medal nor certificate? In fact, they make the government a laughing stock and it is not the government to blame, it is the person who was in charge.

“There was a very serious problem, this year. In future, I will advise the government to put it in the hands of those that are very meticulous, to those who are committed, to those who love this country.”

Udom acknowledged that some recipients were not supposed to attend the programme, let alone receive a gold medal, while urging the government to make the names of nominees public for screening, aside from checks by security agents.

He said: “I am in support of the review of the process as said by the Mr. President, before they will give anybody award they should publish it apart from the security agents for people to comment.”

you will see that like somebody say that they give national honour to some people that have not done anything for this country, it is a fact!

“Some do not even know where their villages are not even talk of affecting people’s life, they based in Abuja.

“For me, I will say the political appointees should be given award after they might have served and left, you appoint a minister or somebody and you are giving such person an award, what are you giving?

“Do the job, when you finished and retired, they put your performance on the table and assess it, if you do well, then you are qualified and if you do otherwise, then they drop you.”

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2011/11/national-awards-cttee-incompetent-recipient/

NIMASA Stakeholders Writes On The Crooks, Criminals And Fiction Behind Oil Subsidy Tales In Nigeria
Posted: November 15, 2011 - 23:25

By SaharaReporters, New York
As the federal government prepares to impose further hardship on the nation by “withdrawing” oil subsidies, the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) stakeholders have provided a cautionary tale that the so-called deregulation is a hoax.

The bizarre tale, below, was written by the President of the Maritime Stakeholders Consultative Forum, Mallam Suleuman Aliyu, and the agency’s Secretary, Mr. Adefila Aderogba, and it shows how officials of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) are conniving with foreign interests to sell locally-refined products to Nigerians as imported products:

At the moment, the debate on every lip in Nigeria is whether petroleum products subsidy should be removed by the government or not – the move is according to forces in Government to deregulate the downstream sector thereby opening the market for private participation and competition. Social critics, activists and progressives have consistently accused oil capitalists (petroleum products importers) as those behind the move to deregulate the petroleum downstream sector to enable them make big profits through increase in prices of petroleum products meant for local consumption. Critics of the price increase policy are of the view that such will have multiplying effects on other sectors of life – particularly social and economic.

A discovery by a team of Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) on 1st November, 2011 shows that deregulation is a hoax.

On 1st November, 2011 a vessel SEA PHANTOM, with Captain Allan T. Arcilla and flying a Hong Kong flag was accosted by NIMASA team on random check while discharging its content – about (ten thousand) 10,000 tons of Kerosene (being DPK – Dual Purpose Kerosene) into a mother vessel (bigger vessel) MT TORM ESBJERG offshore well within Lagos waters. Paper checks revealed that SEA PHANTOM loaded its about (ten thousand) 10,000 tons of Dual Purpose Kerosene (DPK) from Okirika in Rivers state with Port Harcourt port (Abonnema) as finally point of discharge for local consumption. However, the vessel was diverted to Lagos offshore. Further checks uncovered that the receiving vessel MT TORM ESBJERG with a capacity of 29,733 tons was already in possession of more than 20,000 metric tons (mts) of Dual Purpose Kerosene (DPK). The SEA PHANTOM content was added making it a total content of about 37,500 metric tons of Dual Purpose Kerosene (DPK).




A chagrin discovery from further paper investigation shows that the content (DUAL Purpose Kerosene – more than 37,500 tons) of MT TORM ESBJERG was to be returned to Port Harcourt port in Rivers state as imported DPK for local consumption by the same cabals. On interrogation by the NIMASA team the Captain and Agent (Valeska Tankers Nigeria Ltd) of MT TORM ESBJERG corroborated the finding that the Dual Purpose Kerosene discovered in their vessel is meant to be discharged at Port Harcourt port in Rivers state.

To the utter amazement of the NIMASA team both ships (SEA PHANTOM & MT TORM ESBJERG) do not have naval clearance and are not in compliance with IMO Resolution MEPC 186 (59), which came into force (domesticated) in January 2011. Thus, these ships were operating in the territorial waters of Nigeria without formally notifying the appropriate authorities (Nigerian Navy and NIMASA).

Further investigations also revealed that both vessel were crewed by foreigners while carrying cargo from a Nigerian port to another Nigerian port. An operation classed as cabotage, of which one of the requirements is to have an all-Nigerian crew onboard except the operating company or vessel has obtained a waiver from the Federal Ministry of Transport. This basic requirement was completely disregarded in this case by both the MT SEA PHANTOM and MT TORM ESBERG.
The Master of the MT SEA PHANTOM on the Agent’s instruction, refused to produce the Certificate of Origin of the cargo amongst other statutory documents required for this type of operation, making it crucial for the Inspection Team to conclude that they have no documents for the product they lifted for onward transshipment. Subsequent negotiations with the Agent to release documents of the Cargo proved abortive as even the crew of the MT SEA PHANTOM claimed not to have them. The Agent (Valeska Tankers Nigeria Ltd) furthermore, refused to take calls immediately after, until 48 hours later, when he agreed to meet with the inspection team of NIMASA. In the said meeting, Valeska Tankers Nigeria Ltd was still yet to provide the required and statutory documents, thereby putting the Captain, the vessel, its crew and indeed his company, in breach of international norms.

The investigation team of NIMASA believes sincerely that further prompting would provide the public with much sought answers to the heading of this investigation.

http://saharareporters.com/news-page/nimasa-stakeholders-writes-crooks-criminals-and-fiction-behind-oil-subsidy-tales-nigeria

An un-shockable society
on NOVEMBER 15, 2011 · in PINI JASON

By Pini Jason
DURING his time, the late Dele Giwa once wrote that we were fast becoming an un-shockable society. I am afraid that the doomsday of Dele Giwa’s prophecy is here. The first time the extremist group, Boko Haram, unleashed violence on the nation, we were all horrified.

The nation shuddered; there was consternation; citizens discussed the matter with exasperation. Every bomb, every shooting and every killing made our hearts skip. Every explosion elicited trepidation. But you may have noticed that since the UN building bombing, we seem to have become inured and immunized. We are still afraid, but we seem to have come to terms with it.

Something we live with: I guess people in the theatre of death now step over bodies dismembered by bombs and go about their daily business.

Yobe and Borno are fast fading into the farthest recesses of our national amnesia. Boko Haram has become a routine part of our life; it is now something we live with. Everyday, we read in the newspapers death tolls from terror attacks, road accidents, collapsed buildings and police extra-judicial murders and just flip over the pages. We are no longer shocked by the statistics.

The squabble now is whether it is 200 people dead or, as police would insist, 50 people. What does it matter? Not even the government is shocked anymore. Last week, the US warned that three international hotels in Abuja were possible targets of bomb attacks. That is not news, said one of the hotels and our top security agencies! Meaning that if it happens, it would be no big deal!

I remember in 2005 when the first eight foreign oil workers were kidnapped in the Niger Delta, the nation was horrified. But kidnap after kidnap, the ransom money became heftier and more prominent people in and out of government became negotiators and intercessors. A crime became normal business! Over time, kidnapping for ransom spread and became more lucrative than armed robbery. Today, the nation lives, somewhat comfortably, with kidnapping as some of the perpetrators have since become very important stakeholders in our nation’s affairs.

Monumental national scandal

Cast your mind back to the armed robbery that involved Oyenusi, Babatunde Folorunso, et al. The news of their dastardly act swept the nation off its feet. The novelty of the first public execution at the Bar Beach, (Bar Beach Show), at which Folorunso wore his treasured lace, the reigning fabric and symbol of the ostentation of the time, riveted the nation. That a Police commissioner, a Navy lieutenant and even a traditional ruler were linked with armed robbery in those years was a monumental national scandal! When Anini and Monday Osunbo, the Robin Hoods of Benin, shot their way into our national consciousness like folk heroes, armed robbery became part of us. Armed robbers began to walk in and out of our homes rather leisurely, raping, killing and maiming.

As the nation observed the public holiday last week Monday, armed robbers reportedly marched into a Super Market in Surulere, Lagos and robbed. What was remarkable, I was told, was how people walked past unperturbed while the robbery went on! The attitude was that of we-have-seen-it-all-before! You would think they were shooting a Nollywood movie! Not even a saloon next door bothered to close its doors! It seems that today armed robbery has become old fashioned and no longer commands national attention.

Let us go back to the sixties. The present National Stadium in Surulere, Lagos is actually the second structure on that spot. The first structure was a contraption of iron pipes and wood knocked together to host the Independence Anniversary. Years later, the structure was dismantled for the stadium standing there today. But the story is that the then Minister of Labour and Sports, Chief Johnson Modupe Johnson, JMJ, one of the most colourful politicians of the time was accused of making half a million pounds from the construction of the makeshift stadium. That was a national scandal that ended JMJ’s illustrious political career!

Recall also the infamous if-you-Daboh-me-I-Tarka-you saga of the seventies. Godwin Gregory Daboh, a retired Able Seaman in the Nigerian Navy shot into national notoriety for swearing to an affidavit accusing Joseph S. Tarkar, a Commissioner for Communication under Gen. Yakubu Gowon, of bribery and corruption. It was a national bombshell for which Tarkar fought gallantly to clear his name. When his action in court failed, he was forced to quit Gowon’s cabinet. Then Aper Aku, a former teacher, swore to affidavit accusing then Benue Plateau Governor, Joseph Gomwalk of corruption. Thereafter the use of affidavits lost its novelty.

Days of innocence: It is a long way from JMJ, Tarkar and Gomwalk. You may say those were the days of innocence when those accused of corruption as well as the nation were eternally embarrassed. Those were the days when people cared about their family names; when people said: “This is beneath me”. Today, such accusations are no longer big deal. If anything, a section of the media has reduced a serious national problem to a huge joke by propagating politically-motivated false accusations that induce fatigue in the readers. The arraignment of those accused today is a carnival with supporters attired in colourful uniforms, with drums and banners, and a retinue of Senior Advocates of Nigeria bringing up the rear!

In the years Dele Giwa wrote about, a dead body in the street attracted a show of national revulsion led by Tai Solarin. Today who cares about dead bodies in the streets? A few years ago, I was passing through Clifford Road, a major highway in Aba. One particular area of the street was suffused with a gut-wrenching stench. A bloated, almost dismembered dead body was lying nearby. What did the traders in nearby stores do? They simply tied handkerchiefs over the mouth and nose and carried on as if nothing was amiss! Are you then surprised that human life, and the dignity of it, means nothing to us? Are you surprised at the ease with which we set on one another and kill?

As I was writing this (Thursday 10, November), Sky News television showed a clip of a man caught on CCTV camera, holding a cat by its tail and twirling it like a rope as he ran across the street. This footage was repeated several times for a shocked and outraged nation to help identify the man. Of course, the authorities began to search for him for the heinous crime of cruelty to a cat! Almost on cue, the CNN showed a dog with its foot trapped in a plumbing hole in a house. Somebody called 911 and the fire department arrived with dispatch as if a human was trapped in a burning building!

How times have changed

Believe me, we used to have a National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, NSPCA, in this country. I don’t know if it has gone the way of many institutions in Nigeria. We used to teach our young men and women in Red Cross, Boys Scout and Girls Guide, about helping the vulnerable in our society. Blood used to shock us. Policemen did not shoot people at random. Among our soldiers were officers and gentlemen! Once, during an interview, I narrated to Gen. Gowon how a naval officer shot an Okada (commercial motorcycle) rider dead on a street in Ikeja for denting his car with his motorcycle. Gen. Gowon was so shocked that he nearly threw up! He was horrified and insisted that an officer of the Armed Forces could not do that! Gen. Gowon probably did not know how times have changed! I insisted to him that the man was in full Naval uniform! Obviously, Gowon and the naval officer are generations apart!

Shock reaction to an event is like taking your first glass of beer or your first stick of cigarette. The first time out you are so upset that you almost throw up. If you stop then, you may never drink or smoke again! But every subsequent glass of beer or stick of cigarette you take inures your body. Your intake is increased until drinking or smoking becomes a way of life, indeed a lifestyle! We have taken in so much shock to the point of addiction.

We can no longer be shocked! Our minds have become addicted with brutalisation and we no longer care. That is why I worry about our attitude to abnormalities in our society. Once we do not rise immediately to extirpate it, it becomes a way of life and no matter what it is, we simply stop being shocked. That is how we got where we are today!

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2011/11/an-un-shockable-society/

Benue Gov. Aide Attacked Over Alleged Adultery, Reports Being Shot Six Times In The Head
Posted: November 14, 2011 - 17:52

Photo Credit, Google
Dr. Cletus Akwaya, the Special Assistant for Media and Publicity to the Benue State Governor, was given the beating of his life in the early hours of yesterday by angry youths suspected to be loyal to the estranged husband of a woman he is allegedly having an affair with.

But contrary to the claims of the state Governor, Gabriel Suswam, the attack was neither political nor did Dr. Akwaya suffer any gunshots.

The man was treated at the hospital, and discharged by the Governor.

In the small hours of Sunday, the media aide was reported to have been accosted by about four youths at the beer business premises of the woman at the NNPC Mega station in Makurdi.

Sensing trouble, he reportedly tried to escape but was caught and beaten with firewood and bottles that littered the place. His attackers also dealt what appears to be machete blows to his head.



Upon his release by his assailants, the media aide checked into the Federal Medical Centre Makurdi and reported that he had been shot six times in the head by assassins. He did not explain how he was walking around with six bullets in his head.



Trouble started for Dr. Akwaya a few years ago when he allegedly started a romance with the lady, who operates a beer and food outlet. Despite repeated warnings from her husband, Mr. Kulas, the media aide refused to back off. Another dimension to the issue is that Mr. Kulas’ relatives accused Dr. Akwaya of instigating his sack from Governor Suswam's government a few years ago. His open romance with the woman was said to have enraged her husband, who promised to teach Akwaya a lesson.



Yesterday’s attack when the youths, who are sympathetic to the estranged husband, cornered Akwaya who apparently thought the coast was clear for another rendezvous in the wee hours of Sunday.



In an interesting development, the governor's aide, ashamed of the embarrassment his encounter would cause, lied that he'd been attacked by assassins. He gave a press conference at the Federal Medical Centre Makurdi and stated he was having a conversation with a relative's wife when six thugs attacked him brandishing guns. According to him, he threw the first one to the ground, but the others fired six shots at his head from very close range. He claimed he managed to break away from his assailants despite being shot but tripped over a piece of firewood, which made his attackers catch up with him and deal him more blows using the wood he had stumbled over. In his account, he managed to escape into the bush before a motorcycle taxi rider discovered him and rushed him to hospital.






Photos of Dr. Akwaya in bloodied bandages quickly circulated by supporters of Governor Suswam, around the state and on social networks.  The 'assassins story' was also sent to the National Accord and National Mirror newspapers. The Commissioner for Information, Mr Conrad Wergba, accused the ACN in the state of being behind the “assassination” attempt. He openly manipulated former governors George Akumeand Paul Unongu as being those who scripted the plot.



Visiting the media aide, Governor Gabriel, who was accompanied by the Minister of Interior, put the attack at the doorstep of the Action Congress of Nigeria in Benue. He also named his predecessor, Mr. Akume and the Second Republic Minister, Paul Unongo, as the brains behind the 'dastardly act'. The governor promised to use his powers to arrest them and have them prosecuted. He also threatened to have all the elders in the state who had written petitions against him to the president arrested.

In a bizzare twist in the matter, the governor ordered that Dr. Akwaya be taken home for treatment, citing “security” concerns.

But members of the public are shocked by what one of them tagged 'an open show of shame'.



One of them asked, "How can a man with six bullets in his head be discharged not by a doctor but a politician who's an outsider in the medical field?"

Yet another said, "Even a man with a head made of stone will be badly injured if he got shot in the head repeatedly from close range. The governor should stop lying to people over the activities of a philandering aide. The decision to take that man home is to hide the lies they've told around shooting."



A doctor who pleaded anonymity and was part of the team that treated Dr. Akwaya  expressed shock when he heard the bullet stories from officials of the state government.



"We treated the patient for bruises gotten from what appeared to be beatings and machete cuts on his head. There was nothing in his injuries to remotely suggest a gun had been used. We wanted to discharge him almost immediately yesterday (Sunday), but didn't due to his status to enable him get some rest."



Many people in Benue see Governor Suswam's desperate lies as the attempt of a drowning man to hold unto even non-existent things for survival.

The governor is facing stiff challenges over the April elections, which are widely thought to have been won by the ACN. He is also facing a certificate forgery case at the hands of his challenger at the PDP primaries, and the ANPP candidate in the April election, Prof. Daniel Saror. In the face of these troubles, Governor Suswam has deployed every strategy in his book to stay afloat.



Last month, he followed President Goodluck Jonathan to Australia and threw a lavish party for the First Lady, Patience Jonathan, in an effort to attract the support of the first family to the storm he faces. 

The outright lies told by the governor following the attacks on his media aide are seen as another sympathy tactic on his part.

Meanwhile Dr. Akwaya, the media aide who reported he was shot six times in the head is now in his home following the governor's directive. What manner of surgery will be performed in his bedroom to extract the 'bullets' remain to be seen.

http://saharareporters.com/news-page/benue-gov-aide-attacked-over-alleged-adultery-reports-being-shot-six-times-head

Boko Haram: Friends, bloggers mourn slain corps member Featured
Written by Eniola Akinkuotu


Remmy
Less than a week after the families of slain National Youth Service Corps members were compensated by the Federal Government for the death of their loved ones during the April elections, reports have it that more corps members may have been either killed or injured in the recent massacre in Damaturu, the Yobe State capital.

PUNCH METROlearnt that a corps member, Eucharia Remmy, was among those killed in one of the attacks, which reportedly claimed 150 lives.

It was learnt that Remmy, who graduated from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, in 2010, was also an actress as she starred in a recent movie titled, ‘Blackberry Babes,’ alongside Oge Okoye and Annie Macaulay in March.

According to reports, the Enugu State born lady was a member of Christ Embassy Church in Damaturu, and was distributing Rhapsodies of Reality, a devotional guide, on New Jerusalem Road when Boko Haram struck. She was reportedly shot in the head during the attack.

It was gathered that the deceased did not die immediately but was rushed to a hospital where she fell into a coma before she died at the Maiduguri University Teaching Hospital.

The Yobe State NYSC coordinator, Mrs. Victoria Ango, confirmed the incident to our correspondent on the telephone on Wednesday.

“It is true that she was killed. In fact, I am at the MUTH with her relatives to identify her corpse. She was killed near a police station,” she said.

Meanwhile, colleagues of the deceased have continued to express fears that Boko Haram could strike again. A corps member, who identified himself simply as Chuks, said the manner with which the bombing took place showed that non-indigenes, Christians and security agencies were the major target of the terrorists.

He said, “I was at the police station off New Jerusalem Road when I heard the explosions. I ran immediately into the boot of a car and hid there. It was when I came out, after the shootings that I learnt that Remmy was hit.

“She was just outside, near the corpers’ lodge, distributing tracts, evangelising. New Jerusalem Road is occupied mainly by corps members, churches and non-indigenes. The National Corpers’ Christian Fellowship lodge is also on that road. So, I think that is why the place was targeted by the Boko Haram.”

Another corps member, who spoke to our correspondent on the condition of anonymity, fearing for his life, said most of the corps members were still in shock and urged the government not to mobilise more corps members to the state.

“Despite the bombings, more corps members are due to be posted here from other states for the new Batch C next Tuesday. I think the Federal Government has to give it a rethink. Yes, I know there is now a 7am to 7pm curfew and more security officers have been deployed but I think no one should be posted here for now,” he said.

A friend of the deceased and classmate at UNN, who wished to be identified simply as Sarah, described Remmy as a very brilliant and promising person.

She said, “Remmy and I were classmates. She was very brilliant as she graduated with a Grade Point Average of 4.4 in Psychology, which was a second class upper. She had a bright future ahead of her and would have become something great if not for the tragic incident.

“I remember when she even got posted to Yobe State in July. I even congratulated her because most of us have not even gone for service. I did not know that was the last time I would see her.”

The death of the corps member has also sparked rage on the internet as well-wishers have created blogs and have begun posting condolence messages on Facebook and other social networks.

A friend of the victim, Philip, who commented on one of the blog, described her as a highly spirited young lady who was always willing to help others.

He said, “I confidently told her that killings in the North weren’t always the case when she was reluctant to go to Yobe. I assured her that Yobe was a nice place and that she would finish her service well.

“ Unfortunately, Boko Haram and the weakness of Federal Government proved me wrong. She was shot in the head on her way around New Jerusalem Road with her Rhapsodies. We lost this precious gift to the cold hands of death. Not sickness, she was shot. Period!”

A blogger, Angela Davis, wrote, “I think at this point, I want to say that since the government has refused to scrap the NYSC, they should stop sending corps members to the Northern states. Please, they should help save our youths. They are the leaders of tomorrow.”

http://punchng.com/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=4097:boko-haram-friends-bloggers-mourn-slain-corps-member&Itemid=570

Boko Haram: Nigeria’s wining the war – FG
on NOVEMBER 9, 2011 · in NEWS

By Danie Idonor & Victoria Ojeme

ABUJA—IN the wake of mounting threats of bomb attacks in the country by the Islamic sect, Boko Haram, the Federal Government Wednesday maintained that it is able to contain the threats because Nigeria’s security agencies are some of the best in the world.

Minister of Information, Labaran Maku, who was reacting to insinuations that government was losing the war against terror, told newsmen that several covert measures against the terrorists have been successful without making too much noise about them.

He said: “A lot is going on, deployments are being made, arrests are being made, and there is a man hunt for all those involved. So, if the President calls on Nigerians to pray, it is not because actions are not taking place but the truth of the matter is that we also need prayers. Everything is being done to bring this dispensation we have come into under control.”

Asked if the President was losing the fight against Boko Haram and how long Nigerians will continue in this condition, Maku said: “Let me say it very clearly here that sometimes, we pick comments out of context. The President is the Commander-in-Chief and President of Nigeria, the chief security officer of this federation.



All of us in this hall should be familiar with the fact that in the last couple of months since the president was sworn in, in May, nothing has taken the attention of government more than the issue of insecurity in the country. That is brought about mainly by anti-state groups that have continued to attack innocent citizens.”

Maku pointed out that “almost every week the President has held meetings with security chiefs. And let me also say here that the recent attack in Yobe and Borno, the NSA (National Security Adviser) addressed the press and as at yesterday, not only has there been counter offensive but that arrests have been made and those under arrest are in detention for proper investigation. This also has been made available by the security agencies to the media.”

He said: “There have been ongoing security operations in the North-East, particularly in Borno and surrounding states. Also in Yobe, there have been security deployments, this also has been done and the media is also aware of these developments.

“Talking about consistent fight against terror, all of us know that wherever terror raises its ugly head, it is not a conventional war, where the military will go to one side and the terrorists group to the other side for a confrontation. Terrorists use undercover attacks, what you call guerilla welfare. They do not operate under the light of self proclamation of who their identities are. There are several countries like Algeria and Pakistan and several others that have come under terrorist attacks for over a decade and in those countries, you still have isolated attacks in spite of all the deployments that have taken place.”

The Minister however assured that “what is going on is a new phase in this nation, which will not continue for long. Neither the public nor the government or security agencies is used to a situation where innocent citizens will be attacked for a cause that is clearly difficult to reason with or to explain.

“Let me say that since these terror attacks started, this administration has been working round the clock and sometimes there are achievements we cannot just go and proclaim on the pages of newspapers.”

Let me give an example, all those who carried out the terrorist attack of October 1, 2010 have been arrested, all the vehicles they used, all the channels they used, all the individuals associated with it are in the custody of security agencies and are being investigated”, he said.

Maku added that “you will also find out that in many places where similar attacks have taken place earlier, arrests have not been made even in countries that you can say have greater sophistication in terms of technical capacity. Our security agencies are working round the clock, yes there are issues and challenges but I want as a Nigerian not just as Minister of Information to appeal to our people through the media that what we are facing is a new phase of life”.

Besides, he said “the government has been doing everything and if you go to Borno on a daily basis, you are hearing of even house to house search to recover weapons and this also clearly reported most of the times to the media”.

He disclosed that “of course certain aspect of undercover cannot be disclosed on the pages of newspapers, but one thing I do know is that our agencies are doing a lot of work to secure this country. There are of things that have been busted, stopped from taking place in this country”.

Speaking on the lingering activities of the Boko Haram, the Minister explained that “also part of the things we also face is that these people live amongst us and we have been campaigning and call on Nigerians to understand that the way to go about it today, is that we must all come together as a people to address this issue by way of cooperation by members of the public; and the media are very strategic in raising the awareness of Nigerians, that some of the information we require to nip these people’s action before they take place, is for citizens cooperation and sensitivity”.

He was however optimistic that “a lot of cooperation is coming, there are many Nigerians who are cooperating with security agencies to get to soul of their hide out and where they operate. But the truth of the matter is that the federal government, particularly the president is working round the clock on daily basis to tackle these problems.

But because there is also political opposition, people just take statements out of context to create and this is really not the time to politicize what is going on. It is the time for all of us to put heads together as a people to ensure that we overcome the threat of anti state terror”.?

UN moves office from Transcorp

Meanwhile, security concerns over the safety of its staff on the heels of reported threat by the Islamic sect, Boko Haram to bomb key hotel facilities in Abuja has prompted the United Nations office to relocate from the Transcorp Hilton hotel to a secured location in Asokoro.

Sources close to the world body confided in Vanguard in Abuja that the relocation from the Transcorp Hilton was prompted by the travel advice released by the US Embassy to its citizens urging them to stay away from the three five star hotels in the federal capital city due to what it described as credible security report of threat by Boko? Haram to bomb the hotels during the Sallah festivities.

The UN office had initially moved to the Sheraton Hotel shortly after the August 26 bomb attack that claimed 25 lives, but was soon forced to relocate to Transcorp Hilton over what sources described as the porous security in and around the hotel at the time.

Since the August 26 bomb attack on the UN office, some UN departments and agencies which could not be accommodated by the federal government at the Transcorp Hilton operated from smaller hotels and facilities within the capital city.

The choice of relocation, Vanguard learnt, was premised on the tight and round-the- clock security in and around the city’s most affluent area, where over 95% of the nation’s state governors have their lodges in Abuja.

The area is also home to official residences of foreign envoys, as well as majority of foreign missions and embassies, that are yet to relocate to Diplomatic drive, the officially designated area for offices of foreign missions in Nigeria.

No ?UN official was, however, available to respond to enquiries from Vanguard.

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2011/11/boko-haram-nigerias-wining-the-war-fg/

We The silly Southerners By Rudolf Ogoo Okonkwo
Posted: November 9, 2011 - 12:52


Columnist:  Correct Me If I Am Right By Rudolf Okonkwo
If you are a Southerner reading this, I want you to know that you’re silly.

If you are a Northern Muslim reading this, I want you to stop. Now!

I want you to stop because I am not feeling that brotherly love now. I will say some things you may not like. And I don’t give a hoot how they will make you feel. I am as mad as hell. I’ve had it up to my neck.


Nigeria is on a slow motion suicide mission. Sometimes it is horrifying. At other times, it is amusing.

This is not one of those amusing times.

In our eyes, the knife goes round the neck, maneuvers its way until it slices off an ear. At other times, it misses the wrist and slices off a finger. In one motion it goes for the testicles but ends up slicing off a chunk of the anus.

Nobody will admit it. But the wait is on for when Boko Haram will strike Lagos. Southerners who want to stay alive have left Maiduguri and many parts of the North. They have abandoned their sources of livelihood. They have also abandoned their homes. As the fear spreads, the number of internally displaced people increases. But who is counting? When Boko Haram finally strikes Lagos, the bottom will fall off.

It could be tomorrow. It could be the day after tomorrow. But it is coming. When it comes, there won’t be room for any more denials.

Nigerians are good at denying the reality in their face- even after it had slapped them. You hear it when Nigerians discuss the Nigeria-Biafra civil war.

Contrary to what revisionist historians are now claiming, the pogrom of 1966 was neither an isolated incident nor was it just a reaction to the coup of January1966. It was rather an escalation of what had been a continuous and systematic dislike, discrimination and massacre of the Eastern Nigerian people in Northern Nigeria. It happened in Jos in 1945. It happened in Kano in 1953.

In a report put together by a British Administrative officer after the 1953 massacre in Kano, the officer warned, “No amount of provocation, short-term or long-term, can in any way justify their behavior…the seeds of the trouble which broke out in Kano on May 16 (1953) have their counterparts still in the ground. It could happen again, and only a realization and acceptance of the underlying causes can remove the danger of recurrence.”

Of course, there was no realization by the Nigerian government. There was neither a search nor an acceptance of the underlying causes. Thirteen years after, when it reoccurred, it took the lives of millions.

Going through the history of Northern massacres of Southerners, the Maiduguri area had been one of the major centers of these atrocities. They only stepped it up when these seasoned killers transformed themselves into Boko Haram.

The Boko Haram killings have been going on for a while. No amount of provocation can justify the mayhem that has been happening. The underlying causes have been there for a long time. And these causes are very simple- from the very beginning, some people in Northern Nigeria have brandished a different agenda and they have gotten away, over the years, with using violence to exert their will on the rest of the country.

That is what it is all about. Because they have gotten away with it, they have continued to ratchet it up.




So if tomorrow, Boko Haram hits Aso Rock, nobody should pretend that it is a surprise. If they use shoulder-to-surface missiles (many of which are known to have been smuggled into Nigeria) to shoot down a plane, nobody should wonder how. If they hit Lagos and the resulting crisis gets out of control, nobody should forget when it really started or say that what might follow is avoidable. Those interested in avoiding the coming doom, should stop the provocateurs. Now.

There comes a point when the usual plea, “We’re all Nigerians. We have to find the solution together” makes no sense. If you line up the bodies of Southerners who have died in Northern Nigeria since 1945, they will go from Sokoto to Port Harcourt and then up to Maiduguri. The rate the killings have been going in the last ten years, the dead bodies will soon complete the triangle by going from Maiduguri to Sokoto. These Nigerians died for no other reason than their innocent belief that as Nigerians the territory called Nigeria belonged to us all.

Of course, it doesn’t. Because if it does, people in those lands where the blood of Southerners have been wasted for the past 70 years should be the ones providing human shield against elements in their midst who want to use violence to prove that some parts of Nigeria do not belong to us all.

I don’t know where you come from. But where I come from, every family has lost someone in the North. To them, the North is a graveyard of many of their children. To the victims, it is not comforting to say that these disgruntled elements in the North are beginning to kill Northerners too. One too many Southerners have died. And many more are still dying.

It is reprehensive that the citizens of Northern Nigeria have never staged a protest against the killings of Southerners in the North. Not in Jos in 1945. Not in Kano in 1953. Not in Kano in 1980. Not in Maiduguri in 1982. Not in Jimeta in 1984. Not in Gombe in 1985. Not in Kaduna & Kafanchan in 1991. Not in Bauchi, Kastina, & Kano in 1991. Not in Zango-Kataf in 1992. Not in Funtua in 1993. Not in Kano in 1994. Since 1999, no year passes without killings somewhere in Northern Nigeria. Even the January 10, 2001 riot in Maiduguri, which was inspired by Luna eclipse, did not necessitate a protest against such lunacy. But when America bombed Afghanistan on October 15, 2001, the North gathered enough crowds in Kano to protest, carrying the picture of Osama bin Laden. They also used that opportunity to kill more Southerners. That protest did not show how appalled they were of the annual killings.

I know the matter is more complicated than this. I know there are Christians in the North. I know it is not absolutely a matter of North and South. I know it has been said that there is a silent majority in the North that is welcoming and willing to live in peace with others.

But please spare me. Spare me of these excuses. Spare me of these alibis. They mean nothing to Gideon Akaluka killed in December of 1994. They mean nothing to the truck driver, Saint Moritz killed on December 12, 2001. They mean nothing to thousands of dead men who were burnt to death in their houses. They do nothing for the dead women who were hacked to death on the street. The dead children will not come back to life because there are some good people in the North silently observing the killings of their fellow human beings.

If the North wants a Mohammedan world where they will stone women to death for adultery, let them have it. If they want a world where thieves have their hands cut off, let us indulge them. If they want a world where women will not show their bodies in public, let it be for them. If they want a world where there will be no churches, for Christ sake, let’s give it to them. If the North wants a world where the Imam is the head of government, lets help them have it. If they want a world where the Koran is the constitution, by all means, let them own it. If the North wants a world where there are no Christians, let the Christians give way. If they want a world where there is no freedom of thought or freedom of expression, let them enjoy it.

Let us not continue to be silly, let the North have their world.

The South must stop this ritual of getting angry the first two weeks after every mayhem and start doing something about this madness. There are basically only two choices left for the South - to excise itself from Nigeria or to exert itself in Nigeria.

Until Southerners firmly state that they cannot allow these killings to continue, the North will do nothing to stop it. Until Southerners make it clear that they are out of Nigeria, the so-called silent majority in the North will continue to maintain their observer status while abominations are committed by their brothers.

The Southern intifada must begin now.

One more strike, the wrist of the nation called Nigeria may burst open. One more hit, the neck may fly off its shoulders. One more mayhem, the testicles may fall on the floor.

When that happens, don’t be surprised.

silly people!

Note - The word stup*id changed to silly when I posted the article, including the link below so either make change to the link or go to the columnist section on sahararepoters homepage to see original article
http://saharareporters.com/column/we-silly-southerners-rudolf-ogoo-okonkwo

http://www.nigeriavillagesquare.com/guest-articles/marked-for-death.html

Marked for Death?

Emma Adoghe
November 08, 2011

Abuja, Nigeria: On or about 0200 hrs of 5th of November 2011, I was rudely awakened to stare down the barrel of an AK47, menacingly pointed at my head by a gunman while others ransacked the room. The gunmen had disabled the house security systems, tied up the guard and stealthily gained entry into the building using a ladder to access a window, ceiling and roof since the security doors denied them access.

Assuming they were armed robbers, I directed them to a section of the wardrobes that held monies or valuables that might satisfy their evil lust for lucre. Moving quickly through luggage, boxes and safe, all manner of values were emptied with precision and the marauders proceeded to the other rooms in the house. However the gunman guarding me warned that if I thought such cooperative gesture would save my life, then I was sorely mistaken. As I tried to engage him as to what manner of offence I had committed to warrant such a death sentence, he cut me short with a rather curious question; “whetin you get with this government sef”? Before I could fathom an answer, the gunman took some steps back, took aim and pulled the trigger. But the gun appeared jammed (All praise to the Almighty).

As he tried to rooster the gun properly, acting almost out of impulse, I immediately jumped him and grabbed the gun in a bid to disarm him. As we struggled for possession of the weapon, his screams alerted the other gunmen who had left the room to ransack other sections of the house and two of them now join the fray to loosen my grip on their partner. Struggling on the floor, I used the jammed gun to complete a neck crank on their cohort and then used him as a shield against any shots from his partners. Screaming instructions in a dialect that I could not understand, the gunmen then used their gun butts to hit my arms and shoulders until I let go of their partner and they all fled the room and house. 

In retrospect, the attackers had abandoned their mission early because they were convinced that I was impermeable to bullets and more so, their lookout outside the compound had informed them of the arrival of the police, thus the expediency to escape quickly. Throughout the operation, they communicated through the speakerphone mode of their phones that was left on.

One of the gunmen was however shot dead while exiting the compound by the Asokoro police response team that arrived the scene while others escaped in the confusion of the melee. It must be noted here that the actions of the Asokoro police team has both gallant and commendable.



As I took stock of the incident and damage, some ominous questions lingered.

Was this a failed assassination attempt or robbery? Why was government even an issue in the heat of a supposed “robbery” operation? Was it possible that my criticism of government industrial policies had become an unbearable pain in some official quarters?

Without prejudice to the ongoing investigation by the relevant authorities, I call on President Goodluck Jonathan and the Police Inspector General of -AlhajI Hafiz Ringim, to ensure that the all culprits of this heinous attack are brought to justice.

The first and primary role of government remains the provision of ample security for its citizenry. Failure in this elemental responsibility, clearly indicts government and her agents in the accelerated descent into the anomie and senseless violence that is prevalent in Nigeria today.

Emma Adoghe.

These links contain graphic images. Viewer Discretion is Advised

http://www.nigeriavillagesquare.com/images/stories/SAM_0944_A.jpg
http://www.nigeriavillagesquare.com/images/stories/SAM_0955_A.jpg

Exposed: Oil Minister Allison Madueke Buys 20 Million Euro Mansion In Vienna, Austria-EFCC Take Note
Posted: November 8, 2011 - 12:18

The original text by "Heute" newspaper
[size=13pt]The real HEUTE article can be seen on page 11 of http://www.heute.at/epaper/epa7446,1036[/size]

By Uzoma Ahamefule
Mr. President Sir and Fellow Nigerians, it is yet another shame of insult in far away Vienna, Austria, Europe. According to a shocking bomb revelation by a free daily newspaper in Vienna, Austria called “Heute”, there is a secret mansion villa worth 20 million euro bought by the current oil minister Mrs Allison Madueke. The headline reads “ Ministerin aus Hungerland Kauft sich 20-Millonen-Villa in Wien” (Female Minister From Hungerland Buys Herself 20 Million Euro Villa In Vienna). As provoking and insulting as this headline yet I have been forced to swallow my pride to say that I am very grateful to “Heute” for the exposure of this unpatriotic display of the oil minister because her behavior is more provoking and insulting than the headline.

Here is the full translated version of the above text as reported by the newspaper:
"Big turbulence about the Nigerian Oil Minister Diezani Allison-Madueke (50)! According to Nigerian media the politician is said to have bought a villa in Vienna for just under 20 Million Euro – even though a major part of the population in her home country is living below the poverty line and children are dying daily of starvation. The exact location of her luxury lodging is secret, but Allison-Madueke is enthusiastic about the big garden and the estate referring to it in the internet as “architectonic masterpiece”. One of her neighbors is said to be former OPEC boss Rilwanu Lukman who is also from Nigeria."

The "Heute" newspaper said that their news was taken from Nigerian media and I have tried to google such news without success. However, I trust them because they are civilized and cannot publish such damaging news like this one without being sure. Consequently oil minister, we are expecting you to challenge the newspaper in court and restore your dignity if you say it is not true or bow out from that position peacefully.

Dear Nigerians, we all know how impossible it is for a civil servant to save 20 million euro cash in buying a house. In a developed country like Austria where I am living you cannot live above your income without being questioned by the authority. Therefore, how did the minister get this huge amount of money in buying such a mansion? When did she buy the “Villa”? Could it be before she became a minister or after? Could this be her only mansion outside Nigeria? Is she the only minister or government official involved in this wickedness? If this money should be in Nigeria it will definitely help our economy. With this money factories could be comfortably opened and jobless graduates rooming around the streets gainfully employed and crime reduced.  How did this get exposed you might ask? Nigerians are very curious and furious. Rumor moving round Vienna, Austria has it that the person that helped her in buying the house was not properly settled, therefore “Yawa must gas”.  Those that are praying for Nigeria should please never stop praying because God is in control. Remember our president appealed to us Nigerians to keep on praying for him because he is seeing terrible Goliaths all over Nigeria. Goliaths he said that are ready to kill their father and mother, even their children just to stop his government. Today we can shout hallalujah because one of those Goliaths has been miraculously exposed through our prayers.

Another interesting open secret was the saying that her luxury mansion was close to that of the former oil minister Rilwanu Lukman. What it could mean is that the former ex oil minister's house cannot be at anything less than Allison Madueke's mansion in terms of value and luxury if not more. If this should be a true statement, when did Rilwanu Lukman buy his own mansion? How did he get such money? As a former public office holder he must equally be investigated.

Will EFCC do their job very well? Or are we going to see another probe committee that will never see the light of the day as usual? I weep for my country!
On this note Mr. President Sir, I as a concerned angry Nigerian humbly request for the immediate suspension of this minister, because she will not honorably resign due to the uncivilized way of most Nigerian politicians with regard to past events. I also appeal to Nigerians in Austria through this medium to come together and support a planned peaceful protest by a group of concerned Nigerians. Furthermore, I equally appeal to other Nigerians all over the world to get in touch so that we may have a one day worldwide protest against this shame if possible, because we are all involved.
Mr. President Sir, Nigerians are watching.

Uzoma Ahamefule a concerned Nigerian
Klick here: http://globalreporters1..com
Uzomaah@yahoo.com

The real HEUTE article can be seen on page 11 of http://www.heute.at/epaper/epa7446,1036

http://saharareporters.com/article/exposed-oil-minister-allison-madueke-buys-20-million-euro-mansion-vienna-austria-efcc-take-n

A comment below to an unrelated article (UK-based Nigerian anti-man-lover pastor wins Britain’s poll) in Vanguard from a guy named Chris who apparently is based in Austria. Can any NLanders in Austria confirm if the HEUTE paper carried the Madueke story -

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chris
Mr. president, i want you to consitute a pannel to checkmate your petroleum minister, which bought a Vila in Wien, Austria for 20,000000€ twenty million (euro) that is on the front cover page of Austrian news paper called HEUTE, this is not rumeor but real, if anybody want to investigate, this not the way that a country that is aspiring to be on the 20 leading economic country in the year 2020 should achieve it, it is not by stealing. We should change our mind set and attitude because we the Nigeria in diapora are the people surfering for the ill behavour this misconduct by the people on the top our Government. Today in the supper market a follow Nigeria went to buy something so one of the sales girl brought out the magazine and said to him in German " schauest du diese ist von deine schwester, sie hast eine groß wohnnung gekauft wenn viele mädchen in Nigeria kann nicht gut essen in der tage gehaben" meaning that our sister is buy a vila when many people in Nigeria can not feed good in the day.
Like Reply

Mixed Metaphors: Missing Punchlines By Sonala Olumhense
Posted: November 6, 2011 - 22:41

Columnist: Sonala Olumhense
I write this is in honour of the Nigerian orator who said she would rather kill herself than commit suicide.

Nigeria was built on speed, and I have known a lot of quick Nigerians. From independence ceremonies in 1960 through a republican constitution to our first military coup was a mere six years, so it may be easy to understand why nothing which requires fleetness of feet surprises me within our boundaries.

From the 1970s to the 1990s, Nigerians produced fast boxers and faster sprinters, as a quick review of our Commonwealth and Olympic Track and Field delegations would demonstrate. Any sport that needed to be completed within 10 or 20 seconds seemed manufacturer-made for Nigerians, and there was a period in which we nearly always put at least one man in the finals of a World sprints event.

That was before Nigerian rulers and sports associations began the voodoo of counting gold medals before we had even assembled teams for competitions. They neglected the saying that you eat your chickens when they mature, not when the old chick is still sitting on the eggs.

Actually, that is not completely true, as Bayelsa State proved last week.

Bayelsa is ruled by one Timipre Sylva of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). A PDP-ruled state nearly always remains a PDP State unless in situations where an electoral tribunal looks into a scandal that was previously called an election, and re-examines the evidence.

Similarly, a PDP governor who wishes to enjoy a second term gets a second nomination by the party, which almost always becomes generates that second term, unless in instances where things get a little mucky and the governor becomes a former governor who is forced to return from Britain dressed as a woman, or where he is invited to Abuja and told he will be the country’s next vice-president.

Anyhow, all that was until last week, when the PDP told the serving Bayelsa governor—who was previously the governor before he was sacked by a court only to be elected again—would not become the next governor. Mr. Sylva, who had for quite some time not been in the same library with President Jonathan, let alone the same page, had heard of a political tsunami heading in his direction, but still could not believe it when his name failed to appear on the approved list of candidates.

But there was hope, of course. In politics, there is always hope, unless you find out you are dead. That is why, when some top party personnel told him there was something that could be done to ensure he did not lose what belongs to him, Governor Sylva asked only one question: How Much?

Then they put heads together, scratched what appeared to be names and phone numbers on a notepad, wrote some information that appeared to be names into Google, drew some images into Microsoft Publisher, and punched numbers into a calculator. 400, Governor, they said.

Governor Sylva arched an eyebrow in surprise. 400? he asked.

Some people who appeared to be the leaders of the group took their caps off, rubbed their heads and whispered spiritedly among themselves.

You did not hear us well, governor, one of them said. The number is 500. For 500, you will remain governor of this state for another four years. In fact, your second term of office will not end until Jonathan has left Abuja.

Sylva broke into a smile. “Why didn’t you say so before?” he asked them. And then he asked: “What bank?”

They did not even look at each other. “GMG Bank” they laughed, “5-EQ.”

An hour later, as the group and their key handlers attacked bottles of ogogoro and schnapps over unlimited supplies of fish peppersoup, it was done. The 500 million, evenly split into five parts and disbursed into the trunks of five mint-new SUVs, drove through the gates of Government House and vanished into the Bayelsa night.




An hour later, Governor Sylva learnt that under no circumstances would he be allowed to run for governor under the PDP.

While that was going on, Samson Siasia, the Coach of the Super Eagles, was being sacked by the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF). Under his watch, the Super Eagles had failed to qualify for the 2013 African Nations Cup.

The NFF, in effect, was asserting the principle of merit, which was both fascinating and funny, because Nigeria did not fail to qualify because of Siasia’s discipline issues with the team; it lost despite them. It is eminently better to lose within the context of a disciplined team than to win without outside it, because sooner or later, indiscipline guarantees the most painful defeat. The issue is that Nigeria sees the trees, never the forest or the farmland. As a result, we would rather have defeat in the short sprints than prepare for victory in the long-distance race. And so, last week, Nigeria enthroned another soccer magician.

But speaking of merit, last week in Johannesburg, the 2011 Forum for African Investigative Reporters (FAIR) rewarded three Nigerian journalists for excellence.

Honoured as African Investigative Reporters of the Year were Peter Nkanga and Idris Akinbajo of NEXT newspapers, for their June 2011 story, “Last Minutes Oil Deal that Cost Nigeria Dear,” which detailed clandestine practices in Nigeria’s oil industry involving petroleum minister Diezani Alison-Madueke and other senior government officials.

FAIR celebrated the work as “an exceptional piece of journalism,” and also awarded another prize to NEXT’s Investigative desk editor, Musikilu Mojeed, for courage under intimidation and fire in supervising the story. FAIR lamented that despite the incriminating evidence in the story, President Jonathan had gone ahead to return Mrs. Alison-Madueke to the same position in his new cabinet as petroleum minister. “In most countries, this article would cost the minister her job, if not her freedom,” it said.

FAIR does not understand: Alison-Madueke is not just one of Mr. Jonathan’s ministers; she appears to be one of his favourite people, judging by how often she is on his transformational travels. A beautiful woman to have on long luxury flights, Jonathan must be asking her, “How can they say you are corrupt?”

Still, Mr. Jonathan has made a couple of respectable calls recently. He says he will create special courts to focus on corruption cases, and also stop government officials from trooping abroad to seek medical care. I commend him.

The question is whether he will ensure remarkable improvement in the health sector. If he is not going to do that, his solution is worse than the problem.

Meanwhile, there are other forces thinking of abandoning their contributions to improving the quality of our health that the government ought to be worrying about. One of them is the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, which found in a recent audit that several Nigerian organizations that received hundreds of millions of dollars in grants were using the money to play kalokalo.

Groups such as the Melinda Gates Foundation, which is a key supporter of the Global Fund, are pouring a lot of money into helping us respond to disease, ignorance, inequality and poverty. In six years, the Global Fund has signed grants of $682,149,515 with Nigeria, with nearly half a billion dollars already disbursed. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has itself already given over $25 billion in many countries. Nigeria’s inaction could result in all of them and their friends folding their mats and taking their resources to other countries.

I have suggested in this column that if Mr. Jonathan truly wants to accomplish anything, he must find the courage to tackle his own party. As last week’s developments in Bayelsa prove, the party is the biggest 419 of all, even unto itself. We can move money, or move mountains.

But what do I know? Like that orator, I would rather lose my sight than go blind.



sonala.olumhense@gmail.com

http://saharareporters.com/column/mixed-metaphors-missing-punchlines-sonala-olumhense

Waterloo for alleged Calabar ritualist
FRIDAY, 04 NOVEMBER 2011 00:00 FROM ANIETIE AKPAN, CALABAR NEWS - METRO
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A brother’s tears attracts sympathisers who save banana hawker from a suspected ritual killer

DUSK was setting in and the boy and his 10-year-old sister who hawked bananas around Ibok Street near Marian Market in Calabar, Cross River State, were on their way home.

They had hoped to sell all the bananas in their trays but that had not happened.

Tomorrow, they would continue, they told themselves and that was when man stepped out of the high-walled compound and invited his sister to come in and sell him some bananas.

The boy had stayed outside the gate and waited but his sister did not come out.

Confused and frightened, he did not know whether to knock at the gate and go in search of her or just continue to wait.

Of course, he could not go home without her: what would he tell his parents?

He decided to wait a little more.

Yet, she did not come out and overwhelmed by emotions, he began to cry.

It was those tears that started a chain of events, which saved his sister and led to the nabbing of an alleged ritualist on Tuesday, November 1.

The man, Kenneth Uba, a rice dealer at the Marian Market allegedly lured the banana hawker into his building site at 2, Obot Close, State Housing Calabar probably for ritual purposes.

However, luck ran out on him and he is now cooling his heels at a Zone 6 Police cell following his arrest.

An eyewitness said: “Uba, who along with others, were working on his storey-building, invited the girl into the premises on the pretext that he wanted to buy banana.

“When the girl entered the premises he quickly locked the gate and grabbed the girl and bundled her into a disused fridge.

“ When the girl did not come out of the premises after a long period, the little boy with whom she was hawking bananas began to cry.

“When a passer-by asked him why he was crying, the boy told the man that his sister with whom they were hawking went inside the building to sell bananas and had since not come out”.

The eyewitness said she and others knocked on the gate several times but Uba refused to open.

“That was when we forced the gate open”, she told The Guardian.

“When the gate was forced open, Uba was standing beside the fridge barking like a dog while the girl’s banana tray was lying a few metres away.

“Asked about the girl, he replied he did not know.

“Asked what was inside the fridge, he said it was his dog and when they asked him to open the fridge, he threatened that if the dog escaped, he would hold them responsible and they agreed.

”When the fridge was eventually opened, they saw the girl inside”.

The crowd brought out the girl, held the man and called the police.

After he was taken away, the mob set ablaze the bus that was parked inside the building and the Toyota Corolla parked outside.

Another eyewitness said following the boy’s complaint, passersby alerted the police who came to the building demanding that the gate be opened.

The eye witness further said: “I was standing here and the other boy now pushed the gate open and the policemen called us and we went inside the compound and saw Kenneth standing on top of an unused refrigerator”.

“He told us there were dogs in the refrigerator but the policemen instructed him to open it so they could see what was inside.

“He refused, saying we would pay if his dogs escaped.

“At this, the policemen wanted to leave but I insisted that the refrigerator be opened for us to see what was inside,

“One of the policeman cocked his gun and the other man took the key and opened the refrigerator and we saw a little girl inside it.”

Their fears confirmed the mob fell on Uba and beat him to an inch of his life before the police saved him.

The mob also set ablaze a bus, a Toyota Corolla while the windshield of his Sport Utility Vehicle was smashed.

Items found at Uba’s building site included children’s shoes and clothes suspected to have belonged to children he might have allegedly killed.

The Station Officer at State Housing Police Station, said he was not aware of the incident while the Acting Police Public Relations Officer for the Cross River State Police Command, ASP Hogan Bassey said men from the Zone Six Police Command arrested the suspected ritualist.

Next >
Author of this article: From Anietie Akpan, Calabar
Show Other Articles Of This Author

http://www.ngrguardiannews.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=66408:waterloo-for-alleged-calabar-ritualist-&catid=3:metro&Itemid=558

Social Media Stirs Ghanaians To Action Over Discrimination
Posted: November 2, 2011 - 18:39

Karen Attiah
By Karen Attiah
African governments are not the only ones to fear the combination of disgruntled masses and social media. Businesses too are at the mercy of Africans wielding mobile phones, Facebook and Twitter.

In the west African nation of Ghana, where five mobile networks have generated a cell phone penetration rate of 80.5 percent, hand-held devices are all the rage. And many people in this country of almost 25 million people have social media access on their mobile devices.

Take Elizabeth Okoro. She took to Facebook to recount being discriminated against at a restaurant named Atlantic Lobster and Dolphin Ltd. in the Osu part of the bustling capital, Accra.

In a Facebook post dated Saturday, Okoro recalled asking the Italian owner of the restaurant if she, along with her Spanish and Japanese dining companions, could become members of the restaurant’s “Seafood Lovers” Club.
According to Okoro, restaurant management responded with a laugh, saying the club was for white people only. “I was completely taken aback and rendered speechless,” Okoro says in her Facebook post.

Okoro was not speechless for long.

The Facebook group that she created on Saturday - “White’s Only Club in Gh, Pls Boycott Atlantic Lobster and Dolphin Ltd” - has ballooned to over 1,420 members. Even a local radio station, X-FM, invited Okoro on the air to speak about her experiences.

The Ghanaian government has taken notice. On Tuesday, Joy FM reported that Ghana’s tourism ministry has shut down Atlantic Lobster, as a result of a lack of compliance with operation codes.
Elizabeth’s plight seems to have resonated with many Ghanaians on social media.




On both Twitter and Facebook, they are now speaking out about their experiences of discrimination at the hands of foreign-owned businesses, particularly in Accra.

And, as more and more expatriates are moving to Accra to take advantage of investment opportunities, political stability and easy proximity to palm-fringed beaches, many Ghanaians are sharing experiences of being refused service in favor of expats at clubs, bars, restaurants, and bakeries. “Ghana should not accept this from any foreign investor”- said one Facebook commenter named Yehowa Ji Mi Kwelor.

“That’s Ghana for you” is a popular expression of defeated resignation, and is used to explain everything from corruption to power rationing to discrimination.

But now with virtually unlimited access to social media platforms, young Ghanaians are pledging to no longer keep quiet about injustices Perhaps older generations of Ghanaians would have kept silent about such treatment.
But as Okoro posted on her Facebook wall on Tuesday, “Today marks the birth of a new generation. A new generation of Ghanaians who will not only be heard but will scream out against discrimination. A new generation who will not turn a blind eye against injustice. We have shed the cloak of inaction and out on a super hero cloak of determination. I am proud to be member of this generation."

It may come as no surprise that the government acted so promptly. According to the World Bank, the tourism industry is now the third highest foreign exchange earner in Ghana, with average earnings of over $400 million per year.

From the looks of things, Okoro’s call for action on Facebook has sent echoes far and wide.

Attiah is a Ghanaian-American master's student at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs. She holds research interests in broadcast media and citizen participation in Africa.

http://saharareporters.com/article/social-media-stirs-ghanaians-action-over-discrimination

I concur eGuerrilla - I recall below Rollingstone article about Goldman Sach - it's long but worth the read.

The Great American Bubble Machine
From tech stocks to high gas prices, Goldman Sachs has engineered every major market manipulation since the Great Depression -- and they're about to do it again


Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-great-american-bubble-machine-20100405

Nigeria’s Biafran Burden By Okey Ndibe
Posted: October 31, 2011 - 23:18

Okey Ndibe
Columnist:  Okey Ndibe
Biafra is back in the news in a big way, thanks, in large measure, to the recent death of Steve Jobs, co-   founder of Apple. In a bestselling authorized biography written by Walter Isaacson, we learn that Biafra had something to do with Mr. Jobs’ renunciation of Christianity. To paraphrase the story: as a 13-year-old, the late inventor extraordinaire had confronted his Lutheran Church pastor with a photograph of two starving Biafran children on the cover of Life magazine. The young Steve asked his teacher whether God was aware of the plight of the children. Once he was assured that divine omniscience implied that God had such knowledge, Steve Jobs, there and then, announced his divorce from Christianity.

I have seen that picture that drove an impressionable teenager to sever ties with his Christian faith. It is near-impossible to look at it and remain composed or untouched. The eyes of the famished Biafran babies are particularly disconcerting. In fact, there is a certain desolate impression etched on the subjects’ faces. To view that picture – which has been widely shown on TV and circulated on the Internet in the brouhaha generated by Jobs’ death – is to gain a glimpse into the ways in which the violence of war ravages the innocence of children, terrorizes the most vulnerable, and upends humane values.

There is, I think, a paradox in the way that Steve Jobs’ death has resurrected Biafra in the imagination of the global community. That paradox lies in the fact that, as the world was once again tuning in to the bloodiest tragedy in Nigeria’s history, Nigeria seemed determined to persist with its willed amnesia. That amnesia has a long history.

At the end of the war, with the federal side’s superior firepower triumphing, then Head of State Yakubu Gowon declared that there was no victor, no vanquished. That announcement, seen by some as an uncommon act of magnanimity, earned great adulation for Mr. Gowon. He also impressed the world by proclaiming that the war-scarred country would embark on rehabilitation, reconciliation and reconstruction. Few of Gowon’s admirers were detained by the fact that his (victorious) government’s actions were often at odds with its avowed policy of nurturing healing. Two examples of this gap between precept and practice should suffice to underscore the point.

One was a policy that enabled the government to strip the erstwhile Biafrans of their wealth. At the end of the war, the Nigerian government implemented a policy that gave each Biafran adult twenty pounds as so-called ex-gratia payment. This would have been a commendable policy had the payment been designed to assist cash-strapped Biafrans to re-enter the Nigerian economy. Instead, the government decided that the paltry sum served as full redemption for any financial assets owned by individual Biafrans prior to the war. It was a self-evidently unjust policy of expropriation, and it dealt a crippling economic blow to the guts of a people who had paid a devastating price, with their blood and limbs, and who needed to be bolstered in their desperate effort to re-start their lives.

There was also the issue of abandoned property, a notion that matched – if not surpassed – the ex-gratia policy in odiousness, illogicality and patent injustice. In a move that exposed the hypocrisy of its avowed policy of reconciliation, the Nigerian government declared that Biafran citizens who owned property in parts of the country outside the formerly secessionist territory had effectively “abandoned” those assets.

What emerges, then, is a portrait of a nation caught pants down at critical moment indulged in dishonorable acts. In one breath, it was proposed that the preservation of Nigeria’s corporate unity was an idea worth spilling more than a million lives for, and the maiming of even more. Yet, in another breath, the same Nigeria demonstrated unwillingness to extend economic justice to those who had sought to leave the union. We were told that “to keep Nigeria one was a task that must be done.” But – that task accomplished – we were told that the erstwhile Biafrans, now forcibly re-“Nigerianized,” were not entitled to the ownership and enjoyment of their property and income. 

A central tragedy of Nigeria is that it has continued to carry on as if it never fought a war – as if its very viability as a proposition had never been contested in a war that cost more than a million lives, limbs, and extensive wreckage of its physical space. As Dr. Louis Okonkwo stated during the session earlier in the day, Nigeria’s history is donut-shaped – with a huge hole in its middle. This hole represents all the tragedies that we repress, attempt to erase, or refuse to acknowledge. Besides, owing to the existence of this donut history, Nigeria constantly slips and falls through the gaping hole.

There is no question that federal troops massacred hundreds of innocent, unarmed civilians in Asaba in the heady early days of the Biafran War in October, 1967. Many other nations have witnessed similar callous, shocking events in their history – and often on a larger scale. We have Pol Pot’s murderous reign in Cambodia, a pogrom in which approximately twenty percent of the Cambodian population perished; Hitler’s campaign to exterminate the Jews; the My Lai massacre of some 500 Vietnamese perpetrated by American soldiers, and less than a year after the Asaba massacres; the hundreds of thousands who perished in Joseph Stalin’s Great Purge in the late 1930s; and the huge socio-economic disruptions as well as human rights abuses that accompanied – or marked – China’s cultural revolution in the 1960s.




Africa has been both stage and victim of great acts of genocide. For more some three centuries, a consortium of European nations laid siege on Africa and carried out the capture, sale and enslavement of Africans, as well as the appropriation of Africans’ land and other resources. Adam Hochschild, in his book titled King Leopold’s Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa, offers us a grimly fascinating exploration of the savage violence that accompanied and was authorized by imperialist incursions into the Congo.

In the 1980s and 1990s, Africans and the world were horrified by the use – in, among other places, the Congo, Liberia, Sierra Leone, the Sudan, and Rwanda – of violation, enslavement, and the amputation of limbs as modes of war.

It is not widely recognized that those shocking acts were virtually lifted from the bloody manual of King Leopold 11’s gruesome and sickening pillaging of the Congo’s human and natural resources. If this fact is not general knowledge, it is in part because, both among Africans as well as Europeans, some of the horrendous depredatory practices fomented and fertilized by Euro-imperialism remain unknown or unspoken. In an effort to maximize the harvesting of wild rubber that fed King Leopold’s depraved appetite for profit, the Belgian potentate’s operatives were authorized to kidnap children and women, who were then ransomed back to their disconsolate fathers and husbands in exchange for ever increasing amounts of rubber. Hochschild writes that, “Like the hostage-taking, the severing of hands was deliberate policy…If a village refused to submit to the rubber regime, state or company troops or their allies sometimes shot everyone in sight, so that nearby villages would get the message.” Hochschild then makes the point that “As the rubber terror spread throughout the rain forest, it branded people with memories that remained raw for the rest of their lives.”

It is important to underline, then, that the massacre in Asaba was far from exceptional. The critical difference between Asaba and, say, My Lai, is that there was some gesture to investigate what happened in Vietnam. Ultimately, the outcome of the My Lai investigations fell terribly short of expectations. Still bogged down in a war that baffled the best of its military tacticians, the United States’ was far from prepared to fully expose its unattractive underbelly. There was no doubt that the American public was horrified by the mowing down of defenseless Vietnamese men, women and children, even if the soldiers who wielded the guns were spared any sanctions. 

In the case of the massacre in Asaba, the Nigerian state’s recourse to silence is indefensible. At minimum, the government should admit that its soldiers committed a gruesome act. And there may be a glimmer of hope. A few days ago, Champion newspaper quoted Emma Okocha, whose book, Blood on the Niger, offers the fullest chronicle of the massacre in Asaba and elsewhere, as disclosing that the federal government had actually approved (but never effected) financial compensation for the families of victims of the massacre. If that is true, then President Goodluck Jonathan would do well to order that such compensation be paid immediately.

Even so, we must state that no amount of cash can redeem a life, or fully atone for the torment faced by survivors of casualties – those whose lives were unjustly taken. A deeper act of restitution is called for. And that is why the project to erect a permanent monument to the victims of the massacre is of utmost importance. Until and unless we provide a space to honor the memory of the innocents executed in cold blood, for no just cause, we condemn ourselves to the fury and bitterness of the unappeased.

(This column is the first part of Ndibe’s keynote at the Asaba Memorial Park Symposium in Tampa, Florida last Saturday. The second will be published next week)

(okeyndibe@gmail.com)


http://saharareporters.com/column/nigeria%E2%80%99s-biafran-burden-okey-ndibe

Sanusi: Why Nigeria may remain underdeveloped
on OCTOBER 30, 2011 · in NEWS

If the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, has his way, the nation would jettison the states, local governments and ministries which, according to him, are not viable.

To him, it has come to a time in the life of Nigeria that it must overhaul the structures that make the states spend about 96 per cent of their resources paying salaries and allowances as against making capital investments.

He also did not see the wisdom in the establishment of nine new federal universities when existing ones are crying for funds.

The CBN governor spoke yesterday during a book presentation in Kaduna, saying to retain the status quo is for Nigeria to remain underdeveloped.


Sanusi Lamido Sanusi
“Ultimately, we will have to be confronted with the task of taking the difficult step of overhauling the political structures that we have”, Sanusi said while delivering a paper entitled, “Reinvigorating education in Nigeria: An essay in honour of Professor Adamu Baike.”

He added: “Do we need 36 states? Do we need the number of ministries that we have? Is an economy where states spends 96 percent of their revenue paying civil servant an economy that is likely to grow in the long run? These are difficult questions that we need to ask.

“We have created states and local governments and ministries as structures that are economically unviable and the result is that we do not have funding for infrastructure, we do not have funding for education; we do not have funding for health”.

Speaking on the government’s expenditure portfolio, Sanusi said: “I don’t know how many people know that 70 percent of the revenue of the federal government is spent paying salaries and overhead; leaving the rest 30 percent for 150 million Nigerians”.

What this means, according to him, is that there is no money for the provision infrastructural facilities by the various tiers of government, pointing out that in an emerging economy like Nigeria, a well designed educational policy should be an integral part of its development strategy.

According to him, the present development strategies should include measures to invest in human capital that facilitates the upgrading of industries and engender the economy to attain optimal resource utilization.

Noting the growth in the number of federal, state and private universities in the country in recent times, Sanusi said that “the recent decision of the federal government to establish nine additional universities will further increase the number of federal universities by 2011.

“It is not the place of the Central Bank governor to comment on education policy. But one wonders the wisdom behind creating new universities when the ones we have built are still suffering from underfunding”.

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2011/10/sanusi-why-nigeria-may-remain-underdeveloped/

A President Under Pressure: Crises engulf subsidy removal plans
on OCTOBER 30, 2011 · in SPECIAL REPORT

*Why NLC, Govs distrust FG

By Jide Ajani

Yet to convince Nigerians of his sincerity on how the funds generated from the removal of the subsidy on petrol would be deployed, President Goodluck Jonathan is being buffeted by a confetti of opposition.

Just last week, the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, NGF, took a swipe at the federal government for deductions from the federation accounts which it considered illegal – it also threatened disobedience, The Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, is up in arms – and, might it be added, rightly so – on the issue of removal of the subsidy on petrol.

There is the controversy on the Sovereign Wealth Fund, SWF. Still, President Jonathan, in far away Australia, was able to fete some Nigerians during the birthday celebrations of his wife. Yet, the pressure continues to mount that he should deliver on election promises. Amazingly, Petroleum Resources Minister, Daziani Alisson-Madueke, told the world in far away Australia that the government has not fixed a date for the removal of subsidy.

Whatever it is that the Goodluck Jonathan administration runs on, sensitivity may not be one.

After last week’s meeting of the Executive Council of the Federation, EXCOF, Nigerians were told that a $370m contract for upgrading the Onne Port was in the offing. Explaining to State House Correspondents, Information Minister, Labaran Maku, said one of the reasons why the port needed to be fixed was because operators in the oil sector needed assistance.

Ostensibly to also free and decongest the Lagos Port, the needed help for operators in the oil sector would be with a view to ensuring the prompt clearing of petroleum products at the ports.

Between the $370m contract for the Onne Port and the on-going campaign to remove the subsidy on petrol there is a massive disconnect! Whereas the refineries in Nigeria are not working optimally, the $370m, which translates to over N55b, could build a cottage refinery.


President Jonathan
According to Isa Aremu, Vice President, Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, this is a further testament to the growing insensitivity of the Jonathan administration.

“It confirms labour’s worry all along that all the frenzy and desperation on the part of this administration that the so called subsidy removal is nothing more than a ploy to leave us with an import parity price for petrol and other products that are imported. What this means and what the government is trying to do is a clear departure from what our founding fathers did and it is also a clear departure from the position of majority of Nigerians, that we should build refineries for export.

“Unfortunately, since Obasanjo became president in 1999, Nigeria has been running a cargo economy, a container economy, an economy that is wholly import dependent. Why should a country producing crude oil, where you can get 114 additives, refuse to build refineries but rather continues to invest in the consolidation of import dependency on the eve of our 51st independence anniversary? We are being returned to a colonial economy by these people. It is sad!”

The NLC says it is waiting for the day President Jonathan would announce the removal of subsidy.

As if the agitation of the NLC is not enough, Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State who doubles as the Chairman, Nigeria Governors’ Forum, NGF, announced last week that state commissioners of finance should reject any allocation from the Federation Accounts and Allocation Committee, FAAC, that does not enjoy the benefit of the 2011 Appropriation Act. Amaechi said deductions by the federal government were illegal and left the state with less resources. Already the deductions are in the neighbourhood of N1.079 trillion for a period of nine months.

The governors also directed all the State Commissioners of Finance to reject any allocation that is not in consonance with the Appropriation Act of 2011.

He noted that the said amount was in excess of the budgeted sum of N240 Billion for oil subsidy for the year, adding that the act was in clear violation of the provisions of the Appropriation Act of 2011 and the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Amaechi who disclosed that the governors will meet with President Goodluck Jonathan soon to brainstorm on the issue, said, “We the Governors of the 36 States of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, at an emergency meeting held on Monday, 24th October commended the decision of the States’ Commissioners for Finance and Accountants General for rejecting the illegal deduction of N231.6 Billion at the October 2011 FAAC meeting, noting that the lawful deductions for the year have been fully made.

”The forum unanimously rejected all illegal deductions that amounted to N1.079 Trillion for nine months in excess of the budgeted sum of N240 Billion for oil subsidy for the year in clear violation of the provisions of the Appropriation Act, 2011 and the Nigerian Constitution. Members noted that the total deductions for last year was N500.6 Billion which has more than doubled to N1.264 Trillion in the first nine months of this year suggesting erroneously that consumption has increased.’’

Even before the state governors made that declaration in the early hours of last Tuesday, they had gone to the Supreme Court to press that the Sovereign Wealth Fund, SWF, that was recently created by the Jonathan administration be declared null and void and unconstitutional. The fund already has $1b. The thinking of the Jonathan administration is that Nigeria should begin to save for the future. But the contention of the governors is that such a move was not captured by the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Yet, the problem confronting President Jonathan does not start and end with the agitation coming from the NLC and the governors.

Even within the administration, there appear to be an urge to muddle things up and embarrass President Jonathan.

Last Thursday, photographs of President Jonathan feeding the love of his life, Dame Patience Jonathan graced the front page of newspapers in the country. The president’s mood was one of excitement and joy. But pray, what manner of excitement and joy in an atmosphere sufficiently poisoned by the mobilization for and against the removal of subsidy, the decaying state of infrastructure in the country and an endless list of discounts occasioned by inept leadership.

And because insincerity is almost becoming a virtue, Petroleum Resources Minister, Deziani Allison-Madueke, threw another spanner in in far away Australia when she denied that a take-off time had not been set for the removal of the subsidy.

On the statement by Allison-Madueke, that the government was yet to take decision on the subsidy removal, President of NLC, Comrade Abdulwaheed Omar, in a statement, advised Nigerians not to be hoodwinked by the government antics. Comrade Omar said the government antics and statements were calculated to mislead the international community and to lure Nigerians away from the on-going mobilization against this anti-people policy.

According to him, “The truth is that President Goodluck Jonathan in his letter to the National Assembly on the Medium Term Expenditure Framework of his administration stated categorically that the government has decided to remove fuel subsidy and that the take off date is January 2012. Also the President on his way to the Commonwealth Summit in Perth, Australia, to which the Petroleum Minister accompanied him, had told the country that fuel subsidy must be removed as the alternative is the collapse of the economy.

So Mrs. Allison-Madueke is not forthright on this matter and the NLC urges Nigerians not to relent in their patriotic mobilization to resist this policy that will further impoverish the citizenry.”

Even if President Jonathan successfully removes the subsidy and settles with the NLC, implementation of what the funds are needed for may become a major problem.

A national newspaper recently published the results of an opinion poll on the popularity of President Jonathan.

The result of the poll leaves a very damning question: How did things take a downward plunge so fast for Mr. President?

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2011/10/a-president-under-pressure-crises-engulf-subsidy-removal-plans/

Fuel subsidy: The true story
By Adebiyi Olusolape
October 27, 2011 02:39PMT
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Chioma earns N18, 000:00k in a month at the factory where she works.

They pay only N17,100:00k into her account after tax.

She spends N11, 000:00k every month buying Gari, Rice, Beans and other food stuff.

She buys a lot of Gari because she takes some to work to soak in the afternoons.

Getting to work and coming back home every day, in addition to going to church on Sunday (N1,800:00k tithe) costs her about N1, 440:00k i.e. N60:00k to and fro.

This leaves her N 2,860:00k which she uses to pay back some of the money she borrowed from her sister to make the down payment of her 2-year rent. She also contributes N1000:00k to the staff cooperative.

On the last Saturday in January 2012 she spends N12, 600:00k on food and by the end of February she has had to spend N2,880:00k on transport. She is left with N1, 620:00k.

She opts out of the cooperative. She does not pay her tithe. She does not pick her sister's phone calls,

Crude Oil and Petrol are two different products. Prof. Aluko seems to conveniently overlook this fact.

Nigeria exports Crude Oil and imports Petrol.

Of course, some Crude Oil is refined in Nigeria to produce Petrol.

Therefore, we can say that the Petrol used by Nigerians comes from two sources:

Locally refined
Imports
An important question to ask is how much Petrol do Nigerians consume daily?

On the average 294,000 barrels.

The four local refineries are operating at, again on the average, 21% of their capacities.

This means they provide, at most, only 93,450 barrels every day.

If they run at only 66% of full capacity, they would meet the need of all Nigerians and the pump price of fuel would be about N30:00 only.

What has the Government done to ensure that the four refineries run at full capacity?

What about the private operators who were given licenses to run refineries?

Anyway, since the locally refined Petrol does not meet the need of Nigerians, at least 200,550 barrels need to be imported.

What then is the cost of imported Petrol per litre?

It costs N115:74k to get to the Nigerian ports.

Because the Nigerian ports are not as efficient as the ports of, say, Ghana or even Togo an additional cost of N6:25k per litre is incurred at the Nigerian ports.

What has the Government done to increase the capacity of our ports and improve their efficiencies?

So, the cost of Petrol per litre increases to N121:99k

The Petrol is not transferred directly from the ships to trucks.

The Petrol is usually first stored in depots, which charge N3:00k

Then there is an Administrative cost of 15kobo

There is a Bridging Fund of N3.95k

Then the dealers add their margin of N1.75k

The transporters add their own margin of N2.75k

Finally, the Petrol stations generally add their margin of N4.60k

So, the cost of Petrol at the station ought to be N138:19k per litre, approximately N140:00k.

Why then is Petrol sold for N65:00k (when there's no Fuel Scarcity, Black market)?

Because the Government pays the remaining N75:00k, more or less, on every litre that is bought.

This N75:00k is the subsidy which the government wishes to stop paying because:

They say they cannot continue to give Nigerians money forever; Government says it would become broke.
They say they need the money to build roads, fund health services and education etc.

Therefore, as from next year Nigerians would have to start paying about N140:00k per litre of Petrol.

What would be the effects of this?

N140:00k is about 215% of N65:00k therefore the cost of Petrol will more than double.

What does this mean?

Generally, Nigerians spend about 63.8% of their monthly income on food and about 4.2% of that income on transportation.

Therefore when all transport fares double, at the very least, and assuming a 10% increase in percentage of income spent on food due to increasing food prices, Nigerians would then spend 73.8% on food and about 8.4% of their incomes on transport.

This leaves only 17.8% of incomes to spend on Housing, Water, Electricity, School fees, and Hospital Bills.

But because the Landlords have to increase rents in order to be able to feed their families, and PHCN, Schools and Hospitals are going to have to increase their bills in order to be able to pay their staffs that also have families to feed, 17.8% won't only be too small, it would be grossly inadequate:

more families will receive quit notices by the end of 2012
more people will die in the hospitals for lack of treatment in 2012
more children will have to stop going to school, 2012
People have to eat first and that would leave almost nothing left over.

The Government says it would offset some of this burden by increasing the minimum wage.

An increase in minimum wage is also an increase in the salaries of Senators, Special Advisers, Political Aides and so on.

The rise in prices is also called Inflation.

One of the major aims of the Central Bank is to combat inflation, but all efforts to achieve that end would be undermined by the subsidy removal. The Central Bank is going to fail in one of its major functions.

Usually, a reduction in Inflation is opposed by an increase in Unemployment: if Inflation goes down Unemployment increases and if Inflation goes up Unemployment reduces. In many situations and in advanced economies, the people usually get compensated with the creation of new jobs for more people as a direct consequence of inflationary policies, but this does not apply to all inflationary policies.

The removal of the fuel subsidy in and of itself is not tied to job creation in any way therefore there would be no compensation for Nigerians in terms of Unemployment reduction.

Calculations based on numbers sourced from:

BudgIT; http://www.flickr.com/photos/68891946@N06/6263971530/sizes/l/in/photostream/

Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA); http://pppra-nigeria.org/pricingtemplate.asp

National Bureau of Statistics; http://www.nigerianstat.gov.ng</

http://234next.com/csp/cms/sites/Next/Home/5746467-182/fuel_subsidy_the_true_story.csp

Judiciary reform: NBA faults Katsina Alu’s inclusion in panel
on OCTOBER 27, 2011 · in LAW & HUMAN RIGHTS

By Oamen Areguamen

The Nigerian Bar Association Ikeja Branch, has condemned the inclusion of the former Chief Justice of Nigeria Justice Aloysius Kastina Alu in a panel set up by the Honourable Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Dahiru Musdapha to look into the problem of the Judiciary and make recommendations towards improving the system.

The Legal body said Justice Kastina has been part of the problem that necessitated the setting up of the said panel by the new CJN in the first case .

The Ikeja NBA while opposing his inclusion said that a “problem” cannot be made to be part of the solution and urged the Hon. Chief Judge Dahiru Musdapha, to remove him from the panel if Nigerians will take the CJN’s recommendation seriously.

The Ikeja Bar also condemned the Federal Government’s decision to remove fuel subsidy.

The president of the Branch Mr. Adebamigbe Omole, in a press briefing told Journalists that “This Government has claimed that close to N l.2 trillion will be committed this year to the payment of subsidy on fuel.

We are tempted to ask whether there is any subsidy in the first instance? If there is subsidy is it up to the amount quoted considering the high level of corruption that goes on in the various government departments? Why do we have fuel subsidy? Is it not due to the failure of government and inability of successive government to be proactive in projecting into the future by building and maintaining refineries?

“If successive governments have failed in their duties to provide the good life for Nigerians, it will be morally unjustifiable for any government to want to inflict more pains on Nigerians.

“Government needs to be responsible and responsive to the yearnings of its citizenry. Power belongs to the people, sovereignty lies with the people and any government that believes it derives it’s powers from the people must be prepared at all times to respect the wishes of the people Nigerians at this time say no to removal of fuel subsidy.

Democracy is all about the majority having its way while the minority will have its say. The aggregate consensus of opinion of majority of Nigerians today is that they say no to removal of fuel subsidy. It is thus insensitive and overbearing of the government to insist on the removal of the so called subsidy as no responsive and responsible government will impose its will on the people especially where majority of the people have seen such as a way of inflicting further pains on them.” He stressed.

The legal practitioners also condemned the arrest and detention of the nation’s newspapers editors and staff describing it as “barbaric without due respect for the rule of law”.While demanding the Inspector General of Police to tender an unreserved public apology to these journalists who were traumatized and incarcerated, adding that failure to comply, it would commence an action against the police to seek an appropriate redress at the law court”.

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2011/10/judiciary-reform-nba-faults-katsina-alu%E2%80%99s-inclusion-in-panel/