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A lot of people may not realise it, but this story is effing huge. It changes EVERYTHING in our democracy.

Nigerians finally allowed to protest at National Assembly

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The management of the National Assembly last week granted permission to organised labour and other civil society groups to use the ground to protest against the proposed deregulation of the downstream sector of the petroleum industry.

This is the first time, in over 10 years, since the return of democracy that the ground will be used for its original purpose.

The groups which staged the protest included the Nigeria Labour Congress, the Trade Union Congress, and the Labour and Civil Society Coalition.

They were addressed at the park by the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Labour, Wilson Ake, and his Federal Character counterpart, Smart Adeyemi.

It was the first time that the arcade would be used by Nigerians to protest against any government policy since 1999 when the National Assembly Complex was commissioned by the former head of state, Abdulsalami Abubakar.

On that day, October 29, the management of the National Assembly engaged the services of the Federal Road Safety Commission and other relevant organisations to clear a large portion of the arcade to allow for easy use.

They directed vehicle owners to park in other parts of the park leaving a wide space on the ground for protests, in line with the original concept of the arcade.

NEXT had in April this year reported that federal lawmakers and staff of the National Assembly had turned the space into a car park, thereby denying Nigerians use of it.

The Sergeant-at-Arms of the National Assembly, Emma Okere, a retired colonel, said then that members of the public were not allowed to use the expansive arcade because of noticeable breaches by demonstrators. . .

After representing their country at the 2006 World Cup in Germany, Trinidad and Tobago players are yet to paid allowances
[url=http://234NEXT.com/csp/cms/sites/Next/Sport/Football/5478135-147/Three_years_after_Germany_2006,_Warner.csp]Source[/url]

Efcc's Skimming 10%!

The EFCC, which energetically jumped into the banking crisis and whose chairman moved over 100 agents to Lagos at the height of the financial sector meltdown,is collecting 10 percent of all the monies recovered from debtors on behalf of banks, according to industry and EFCC sources.

This legally dubious and ethically questionable practice means that the EFCC has now profited to the tune of N17 billion from the total of N171 billion it says it has helped collect from some of the biggest debtors in the land, a list that is a who is who of Nigeria's business and political elite.

EFCC's 10% game

The hunter becomes hunted in the new allegation that the EFCC collects ten per cent for its debt recovery

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[url=http://234next.com/csp/cms/sites/Next/Home/5476906-146/EFCC_recovers_%E2%82%A6171_billion_from_bank.csp]EFCC recovers N171 billion from bank debtors[/url]
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Video here

A round up of the week's news in the pidgin English language. Under discussion are the shoddy organisation of the under 17 World Cup and the recurring debate of whether Nigeria presents over-aged players; the apparent death of the Freedom of Information Bill, the pathetic case of Aunty Ayo School and the release of Chukwuma Soludo's father.

Video here

A round up of the week's news in the pidgin English language. Under discussion are the shoddy organisation of the under 17 World Cup and the recurring debate of whether Nigeria presents over-aged players; the apparent death of the Freedom of Information Bill, the pathetic case of Aunty Ayo School and the release of Chukwuma Soludo's father.

More at source

The president of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Cooperative Society, Abdullahi Isiyaku, says he has a reputation worth defending, and is threatening to sue us because he says we called him a crook. But NEXT never called Mr. Isiyaku a crook; we merely reported that his own organisation indicted him for various financial shenanigans in both an audit report and an investigative report written by a committee set up by the management of the NNPC.

A letter sent to NEXT by Mr. Isiyaku’s lawyer, Sulaiman O. Zubair and Co, read “Be informed that unless, within 14 days from the date of receipt of this letter, you send a draft apology to our client through this office for our client’s consideration and a further directives on retraction of the publication, our instruction is to proceed to court for redress against all the parties involved with claim for substantial damages,” the lawyer’s letter warned.

Mr. Isiyaku’s grouse stems from a story titled: “N4 billion fraud tears NNPC Cooperative apart”, published on Monday, August 17, 2009. The story reported issues arising from the internal wrangling of the cooperative society. The story fairly presented the facts as they were but Mr. Isiyaku feels otherwise,

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President Umaru Musa Yar’adua’s three year national fiscal plan has come under heavy criticism by members of the House of Representatives.

The document which many members described as ‘ancient’ was submitted to the House in line with the Fiscal Responsibility Act which makes it mandatory for the president to submit at the appropriate time, a three-year financial projections and strategy, upon which the following year’s budget will be built.

This year’s proposal which was submitted by Mr. Yar’Adua, was called the Medium Term Expenditure Framework and the Strategy Paper.

It’s high sounding title, however, did not appear to have impressed the legislators who faulted most of the government indicators in the document for the years 2010 to 2012, saying the nation cannot attain the touted dream of becoming one of the largest economies if it relies on such indices.

The key issues which drew the ire of the legislators include the expected benchmark cost of crude in the document which was fixed for three years at $50 dollars per barrel.

The lawmakers were also miffed by Mr. Yar’adua’s rather modest targeted Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth of 2.61 per cent and 4.89 per cent for the years 2010 and 2011.

A member, West Idahosa (Edo State) called the document “ancient and analogue” saying it will not propel Nigeria’s growth to the same level as that of other nations.

Mr. Idahosa also said the time had come for the legislators to do their job, “when are we going to rise up to our responsibilities of standing up against the executive?” Mr. Idahosa asked. “I think now is such a time because this document is analogous for this age and should be digitalised.”

Speaking in the same vein, Davis Sekonte, from Rivers State , said Mr. Yar’Adua’s document, “is very poor in strategy”. “This document is rich in negative projections and becomes very poor in strategy. It does not say what will be done in the event of the projected pitfalls,”

Deep analysis

In what was a rare and detailed analysis of an executive submission, many of the lawmakers questioned why at a moment of deepening economic uncertainties, the president should make projections which disregard growth in the non-oil sector and also fail to address the issue of human capital development.

During deliberations on the budget earlier in the year, Mr. Yar’Adua had told the House that the current economic uncertainties, referred to by the legislators during their debate, informed his cautious budget predictions.

It is not clear if the legislators remember this earlier presentation, but clearly they didn’t take this explanation into account because according to them, the price of oil, was not so bad, even when the nation faced the security issues in the Niger Delta region.

“Now that has improved, but the president fixed the benchmark at $50, when in reality it hovers around $70,” Ita Enang, who heads the House Committee on Rules said. “There is no economy in the world that operates like Nigeria,” Mr. Enang added.

“All our tax are oil-related, the little employment for the teeming youth, that goes away from oil is in services such as Customs, Civil Defence,” he said. “There is no plan for industrial development to provide employment even in the next three years.

Implement budgets

In the course of their discussions, the members threw up, again, the concerns they have over the non-implementation of the budget in an economy that is stagnating.

“I do not know why the executive should shy away from capital budgets that truly bring developments,” another member, Ralph Okeke, said. “When everyone is trying to grow economically, we have here a document projecting a downward in capital projects.”

Dino Melaye (PDP, Kogi) said the nation had already been deceived by the releases from the Ministry of Finance, which says the current budget had been implemented to 45 per cent. “Mere release of funds cannot automatically translate to implementation,” he said. “And the indicators stipulated here cannot take us to the promised land.”

After a rigorous debate that lasted for hours, the members agreed to hold further debates on the document, with some grudgingly conceding that this is after all only a proposal.

[url=http://234NEXT.com/csp/cms/sites/Next/Home/5477465-146/House_of_Reps_condemns_Yar%27Adua%27s_economic.csp]Source[/url]

The Senate says former Works ministers in the past decade soiled their hands running the ministry.
[url=http://234NEXT.com/csp/cms/sites/Next/Home/5477540-146/Senate_report_indicts_Anenih,_others_for.csp]Source[/url]

Revising history

Chxta offer his two pence of how and why Africa's history has been written over again.

Revising history

"What is history but a fable agreed upon?"

---Napoleon Bonaparte.

Has any one of you wondered why the Sphinx by the Great Pyramid of Giza has no nose? According to the legend, when the great French general later to be emperor, Napoleon invaded Egypt, he was shocked to find that the Sphinx's nose had the distinct broad features of a Negro. This was in direct contradiction to the prevailing thinking at the time that Negro peoples had absolutely no history and that the ancient empire of Egypt for example had a Caucasian upper class who lorded it over subject peoples.

The Negro nose possessed by the Sphinx challenged that school of thought, so to remove any doubts in his mind, Napoleon had his soldiers break the nose off. As time has gone on since that incident in 1798, it has become accepted thinking that Rameses II was Caucasian. Recent archaeological evidence challenges that perception, but whole generations have come and gone in the 211 years since, who have believed with their entire souls that the Egyptian Empire was ruled by a Caucasian upper class. In that regard, Napoleon has successfully revised history. Of course that story is not exactly true as a Danish explorer, Frederic Norden made sketches of the Sphinx in 1737 and it was without a nose then. Napoleon was born in 1769. However, there are so many cases of history being rewritten to suit the whims of a conquering peoples.

Fast-forward the clock some 211 years, and there is a genuine attempt to rewrite the history books.

A World Cup without the National Stadium

The National Stadium in Lagos was one of the major centres used for the U-20 World Cup, tagged "Nigeria ‘99", and even hosted the final match between Spain and Japan. Ten years later, however, the focus of attention seems to have shifted to the other side of the road, wherein is situated another stadium - the Teslim Balogun Stadium,

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The shame of the 2009 U-17 World Cup

One week into the tournament, the incompetence of the organisers has come to the fore.

Video here

A wrap of the week's most read news items in the Pidgin language. Issues discussed include the Bode George conviction, the kidnapping of Soludo's dad, the end (is it?) of the ASUU strike and that woman who denied her husband sex for four years,

[url=http://234next.com/csp/cms/sites/Next/News/Metro/5475649-146/%27We_write_on_the_floor%27_.csp]'We write on the floor'[/url]

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Nigeria’s main militant group the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta has declared an indefinite ceasefire after negotiations with the presidency.

In a press release signed by MEND spokesperson Jomo Gbomo, the group said that their leader Henry Okah conveyed a ‘welcome shift’ from the federal government after he met with President Yar’Adua on Tuesday.

According to the group, “government has expressed the readiness to engage in serious and meaningful dialogue with every group or individual towards achieving a lasting peace in the Niger Delta”

The group therefore declared an indefinite ceasefire from the 25th of January to enhance the dialogue between the government and the Aaron team which the group has selected to negotiate on behalf of MEND for peace in the oil rich region.

Quoting the bible verse of Ecclesiastes 3: 1-8, the group said that “there is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven, a time to tear and a time to mend “ The group also announced the withdrawal of Annkio Briggs, the liason officer of the Aaron team from the team.

The exit of Ms Briggs was by mutual consent according to the release. She has been replaced by Amagbe Denzel Kentebe.

MEND had threatened to resumes its hostilities against the Nigerian oil industry and the Nigerian armed forces on October 16, 2009 after the expiration of a 60-day ceasefire declared on the 15th of July 2009.


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