Yero sworn in as gov, declares 7-day mourning; burial ThursdayOur last moments together –Yakowa’s widow

Bayelsa crash:

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P.4

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Alaafi n accuses Ooni of distorting history

OLUSEGUN KOIKI, TORDUE SALEM, EMMANUEL ONANI AND OLUFEMI ADEOSUN

President Goodluck Jonathan yesterday ordered audit of

fixed and rotary wing air-craft flying in the country to determine their airwor-thiness.

This follows the spate of air crashes involving com-mercial, private and mili-tary jets in recent times.

The audit, our corre-spondents gathered, would also include the major avia-tion training school in the country, the Nigerian Col-lege of Aviation Technol-ogy, NCAT, Zaria.

A source close to the Presidency told our cor-respondent yesterday that President Jonathan was not

Vol. 2 N0. 514 Monday, December 17, 2012 N150

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INEC funds diverted to secret account –Reps

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Presidency orders audit of civil, military aircraft

Nigeria’s active phone lines hit 109.4m

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P.10One dead, 20 injured in multiple crashes…lawmakers back de-registration of 28 political parties

Former Kaduna State Deputy Governor, Alhaji Mukhtar Yero (left), being sworn in by the state Chief Judge, Justice Rehila Cudjo, as the new governor in Kaduna, yesterday. More pictures on pages 4,5,6. PHOTO: NAN

FRONT PAGE COMMENT

To live for three scores and ten (70) years in a country (like Nigeria)

where the Average Life Ex-pectancy for 2012 is said to be 52 years, (it was 47.56 years in 2011) is, indeed, fortuitous. We,

therefore, consider it worth-while celebrating with General Muhammadu Yassim Yinusa Buhari (rtd), the country’s for-mer military head of state, who turns 70 today. Buhari, a cult figure of sorts, is venerated

or feared for different reasons across the length and breadth of Nigeria. His simplicity, patriotism and iron-cast focus as well as integrity are so infec-tious that they endear him to

At two, National Mirror celebrates Buhari @ 70

SEC calls for government’sintervention onunclaimed dividend

FG to restructureMinistry of Powerin 2013

BUSINESSTHE SECTION

P.A8 Free inside

Johnson

Gunmen abduct actress, Nkiru Sylvanus, demand N100m ransom

P.11

The Publisher, Dr. Jimoh Ibrahim, OFR and the Management of Global Media Mirror Limited

(Publishers of National Mirror Newspapers)

Guest Speaker:Hon. Justice Dahiru Musdapher, GCON,Immediate past Chief Justice of Nigeria

Host Governor & Chairman:Mr. Babatunde Fashola, SAN

Lagos State GovernorChief Presenter:

Dr. Wale Babalakin, SAN Chairman, Bi-Courtney

cordially invite the Public to its

Special Guest of HonourHis Excellency, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, GCFR

President & Commander-in-Chief, Federal Republic of Nigeria

STEVE AYORINDE MD/CEO, National Mirror08054500808, 08094000019

R S V P:

Date: Thursday, 20th December, 2012 Venue: Muson Centre, Lagos Time: 10 am

For Law,

For Country

A NATIONAL MIRROR Publication

Conversations

with the

Bar and the Bench

edited by

Steve Ayorinde & Taiwo Obe

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stands , 2011,

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National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net2 Monday, December 17, 2012

National Mirrorwww.nationalmirroronline.net 3Monday, December 17, 2012

L-R: Senator Ahmed Makarfi; newly sworn-in Kaduna State Governor, Ramalan Yero; Senator Isaiah Balat and Bishop of Sokoto Catholic Diocese, Mathew Kukah, while paying condolence on the death of Yakowa at Sir Kashim Ibrahim Government House, Kaduna, yesterday. PHOTOS: STATE HOUSE

Bayelsa State Governor, Seriake Dickson (left) and Chief of Naval Staff, Vice-Admiral Dele Ezeoba, after a visit to the anatomical pathology department, FMC, Yenagoa, to see the remains of the late Kaduna State Governor Patrick Yakowa and late General Owoye Azazi (rtd), who died in Saturday’s ill-fated helicopter crash, in Bayelsa State, yesterday.

Lagos State Governor, Babatunde Fashola (right) and Special Adviser on Media to the Governor, Mr. Hakeem Bello, at a press briefing on the news of the helicopter crash that killed Kaduna State Governor, Mr. Patrick Ibrahim Yakowa, the former National Security Adviser (NSA), General Owoye Azazi and four others in Bayelsa State at the State House, Marina, Lagos, yesterday.

L-R: Vice-President Namadi Sambo; wife of former Governor of Kaduna State, Mrs. Amina Yakowa and wife of the Vice-President, Hajia Amina Namadi Sambo and former Deputy Governor of Plateau State, Pauline Tallen, during the condolence visit to the wife of the late Governor Ibrahim Yakowa, yesterday.

istration in Sambo’s company, a position he held till when Sambo became the governor of Kaduna State and Yero was appointed commissioner for fi-nance in 2007.

When Sambo was picked by President Goodluck Jona-than as his vice president, the late Yakowa was elevated the governor and he picked Yero as his deputy.

In his inaugural speech, Al-haji Yero said he would build on the foundation laid by his late predecessor.

Yero while condoling late

The wife of late Gov. Patrick Yakowa of Kaduna State,

Amina has described the last moment spent with her husband as a “blessed one.’’

She stated this yester-day in Kaduna, during the Eucharistic Mass at St. Patrick’s Chaplaincy, Gov-ernment House.

Amina said the usual routine for them was to offer private prayer ev-ery morning, before join-

Yakowa’s wife, family and the state, he described the late Yakowa as humane, peaceful, fair and a detribalised person.

His words: “It is with heavi-ness of heart that I make this speech having just fulfilled a constitutional requirement of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The sad even that be-fell Kaduna State on Saturday is already public knowledge. Our amiable Governor, Sir Patrick Ibrahim

Yakowa (CON), Dan Ma-sanin Gwong, has suddenly left us by answering the call

ing the daily celebration of mass at 6.00am at the chaplaincy.

She said that on Satur-day, she was unable to say the usual prayers with her husband because she was down with catarrh, which made her very weak.

The bereaved widow said the late Yakowa then woke her up, urged her to get well soon so that she can join him in the thanksgiving service of the President’s wife, Dame

of his creator. Indeed, from Him we all came and to Him we would all, one day return.”

Yero added; “We are living testimonies to the fact that our amiable governor, Sir Patrick Ibrahim Yakowa, who came, did serve humanity, in various and diverse capaci-ties and has suddenly without notice returned to our creator. The vision of Sir Patrick Ibra-him Yakowa was to secure, unite and develop Kaduna State,” he said.

Immediately after the swearing in ceremony, Gov-ernor Yero in a broadcast to the people of the state de-

clared today a work free day in honour of late Yakowa, in addition to seven days mourning just as he urged the people of the state to ac-cept the death of his former boss as the will of God.

Yero said the remains of late Yakowa and his aide, Dauda Tsoho, would arrive Kaduna today, adding that during the one week mourn-ing period, the national flag would be flown at half mast.

In his interview with the Hausa media crew shortly after the broadcast, Yero said the late governor would be buried on Thursday.

Patience Jonathan sched-uled to hold on Sunday, December 16.

She described her mar-riage to the late governor as a happy one.

In his homily, the Arch-bishop of Kaduna, Rev. Matthew Ndagoso, de-scribed the late governor as a dedicated man who used his position to pro-mote peace, unity and de-velopment in the state.

Ndagoso advised the family and people in the

state not to despair, but rather be positive as the late governor had lived a good life worthy of emu-lation.

The archbishop tasked Yakowa’s successor to con-tinue with the projects ini-tiated by his predecessor.

On his part, Mr Joseph Hayab, the Special Ad-viser, Christian Affairs, to Yakowa, described the late governor as an incor-ruptible, hardworking and dedicated person.

Our last moments together –Yakowa’s widow

Declares 7-day mourning Yakowa for burial on ThursdayYero sworn-in as Kaduna State governorAZA MSUEKADUNA

Former Deputy Governor of Kaduna State, Alhaji Mukhtar Ramalan Yero,

one of Vice-President Namadi Sambo’s close allies was yes-terday sworn in as the eighth civilian governor of the state amidst mixed feelings.

The swearing in followed the death of Governor Patrick Yakowa, who died along with the immediate past National Security Adviser to President Goodluck Jonathan, General Andrew Azazi, in a helicopter crash in Nembe area of Bayel-sa State while returning from a funeral.

They were returning from the burial of the father of a Special Adviser to President Goodluck Jonathan, Oronto Douglas, when the incident occurred.

Ramalan Yero, who is Vice-President Namadi Sambo’s ally was sworn in by Kaduna State Chief judge, Justice Rahila Cudjoe at 1.10pm at Sir Kashim Ibrahim Govern-ment House under the watch-ful eyes of traditional rulers, politicians, mourners, among others, in attendance.

Born on May 1, 1968 in Zaria, Alhaji Mukhtar Yero had his primary education at LEA, Kaura in Zaria between 1974 and 1980 and went to Gov-ernment Secondary School, Ikara from 1980 to 1985.

He completed his second-ary education at Government Day Secondary School, Zaria in 1986. In his pursuit of higher education, Yero went to the Institute of Administra-tion, Ahmadu Bello Univer-sity (ABU), Zaria from 1986 to 1991, from where he bagged his Bachelor of Science de-gree (B.Sc.) in Accountancy.He had his MBA in 2003 also from ABU.

Yero had his mandatory one year National Youth Ser-vice Corps at the Bulk Pur-chasing Corporation, Ibara, Abeokuta, Ogun State in 1991. He started his working career at the Bursary Department of ABU, Zaria in 1992.

In 1993, he joined the de-funct Nigeria Universal Bank Limited and left in 1997 to pick up appointment at Nalado Ni-geria Limited, a company ran then by Vice-President Nama-di Sambo as chief accountant.

He rose to become the Di-rector of Finance and Admin-

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.netMonday, December 17, 20124

National News

Photos of Bayelsa Crash

INEC funds diverted to secret account –Reps

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

Presidency orders audit of civil, military aircraftcomfortable with the high number of casualties re-corded in several air crash-es that had occurred recent-ly and was determined to end the calamities.

This is just as the Min-istry of Aviation; the Acci-dent Investigation Bureau, AIB; the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency, NAMA; and the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, NCAA, kept mute over the crash.

The Special Assistant, Media, to the Minister of Aviation, Mr. Joe Obi, de-clined to comment on the accident involving the Ka-duna State Governor, Mr. Patrick Yakowa; former National Security Adviser, NSA, Gen. Andrew Azazi and four others when con-tacted yesterday.

Obi told one of our cor-respondents on the phone that the ministry could not comment on it and referred

our correspondent to the military authorities for comment.

Also, the spokesman for AIB, Mr. Tunji Oketunbi, in a text message to our aviation correspondent: “Please be informed that the crashed helicopter is a naval aircraft. AIB inves-tigates only civil aircraft accidents. You may want to contact military authori-ties for further enquiries.”

NCAA and NAMA could not be reached for com-ments as our correspon-dent gathered that the Di-rector-General, NCAA, Dr. Harold Demuren, was on an official assignment out-side the country.

President Jonathan, it was gathered, was peeved by the naval helicopter crash and wondered if such crash involving military choppers could occur at a time of peace, he wondered what would happen to mili-tary helicopters in war

zones.The source said: “The

Federal Government is not happy with the high num-ber of crashes in recent times involving aircraft and helicopters in our air-space and so, has ordered a full scale audit of commer-cial, private, chartered and military aircraft and heli-copters in the country.

“The government feels these crashes will send wrong signals to the entire world that our airspace is not safe for flying. It is very pertinent for us to do this for the integrity of the country. You will recall that a governor recently had an accident in the country in his private jet and even senior police officers were involved in a helicopter crash just few months ago. Things cannot continue this way. We must look for a way to put an end to it.”

It will be recalled that immediately after the Dana

crash of June 3, 2012, the Federal Government inau-gurated a nine-man tech-nical and administrative review panel on domestic airlines headed by Group Capt. John Obakpolor (rtd) to review all the commer-cial airlines in the country.

However, the commit-tee’s report was widely condemned by stakehold-ers and professionals in the sector.

One of those who con-demned the report was the President, Aviation Round-table, Capt. Dele Ore, who said that the report sub-mitted to the government completely showed lack of depth of aviation prac-tices by the Obakpolor-led committee, insisting that its report revealed that the panel lacked capability for their assignment based on the skill, knowledge, expe-rience and qualification of its individual member and panel collectively.

However, with this ex-pected audit, private jets owned by individuals in the country would be audited while those used for char-ter operations by different companies would not be left out.

On the rotary wing air-craft in the country, Aero, AOS and Bristow Helicop-ters are the market leaders. Just recently, the manage-ment of Aero revealed that it has 10 helicopters in its fleet, while AOS and Bris-tow have at least 12 helicop-ters each in their fleet.

In March this year, a po-lice helicopter crashed in Jos, Plateau State involving four senior police officers.

The victims were the Deputy Inspector-General of Police in-charge of Op-erations, Mr. John Haruna, his orderly, pilot and co-pilot.

The helicopter, which was said to have just been delivered last December

crashed into buildings in Kabong area of Jos, min-utes after take-off.

Barely two months ago, Taraba State governor, Danbaba Suntai and five other occupants of a Cess-na 208 with the registration number 5N-BJM aircraft were involved in a plane crash few metres from the Yola Airport.

In July 2011, an AOS Eu-rocopter Helicopter crashed in Ife-Odan, Osun State and claimed no fewer than four lives including that of a fe-male chief executive officer of Bacita sugar company in Kwara State.

Saturday’s helicopter crash brought to five the number of crashes involv-ing helicopters in the coun-try in recent times.

In February this year, NCAA had turned down the request by helicopter operators in the country to commence night opera-

The new Kaduna State Government House built by the late Yakowa. PHOTO: AZA MSUE

TORDUE SALEMABUJA

The House of Rep-resentatives’ Com-mittee on Electoral

Matters has disclosed that the Budget Office divert-ed an undisclosed funds meant for Independent National Electoral Com-mission, INEC, in the 2012 budget to a secret account before the money was quickly recovered and re-turned to the commission upon the intervention of the lawmakers.

Also the House has thrown its weight behind

the decision of the INEC to de-register 28 political par-ties.

The Chairman of the House Committee on Electoral Matters, Hon. Jerimon Sunday Manwe, disclosed that the Budget Office at the Federal Min-istry of Finance diverted a huge, but undisclosed sum of money allocated to INEC in the 2012 budget to a secret account, despite an earlier amendment to the constitution to allow for fi-nancial autonomy for the commission.

“We also discovered that the Budget Office di-

verted INEC funds to one funny account, even when other agencies that are on the first-line charge (have financial autonomy) like INEC got their money di-rectly from the Federation Account.

“So we decided to sum-mon the Director-General of the Budget Office, Dr. Bright Okogwu, and be-fore he appeared, he im-mediately released their (INEC) money to them, so we decided that there was no more need for them to appear,” he said.

Manwe, who gave his committee’s nod to the

action of INEC, said the committee had no qualms with INEC Chairman Prof. Attahiru Jega’s de-cision to axe the affected parties.

The electoral body is empowered by the Elec-toral Act 2010 as amended and the 1999 Constitution to de-register political parties that would have defaulted on certain provi-sions.

He said his committee had decided not to invite the INEC boss over the de-velopment because he was convinced by the provi-sions of both the constitu-

tion and the Electoral Act that the commission acted right.

“I, as a lawmaker made the (electoral) law, and INEC is supposed to imple-ment the law and they are doing it, so why should I summon them for car-rying out their duties as they have been asked to do, based on the constitution?

“We are not saying there is no provision in the law to allow for freedom of associ-ation, but those associating must be guided by law, that is why laws are made. Laws are made to be obeyed.

“Of course, you are qualified to be President of this country, are you not? You are also qualified to be a member of the House of Representatives, but there are guidelines that you need to follow right from the constitution and INEC has done what they did right from the constitution, so INEC has done nothing wrong,” Manwe said.

He dismissed suspicions that INEC might have played the script of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, agenda to foist a single-party system on the country, explaining that both the constitution and the electoral law were made by all parties in the country, including those af-fected.

He said: “Was it the PDP that wrote the constitution or the electoral act? The Electoral Act was the prod-uct of all political parties; we had APGA, PRP, ACN, ANPP, and several other parties who sat and made these laws.”

The chairman, who ex-pressed optimism that the 2015 elections will be better than the previous ones, dis-closed that INEC and other stakeholders would hold talks on the loopholes in the previous elections, with the hope of addressing them in subsequent polls.

“INEC has been proac-tive since the 2011 elections on the issue of prepara-tions for 2015. As I am talking to you now, INEC is planning to meet stake-holders on future elections. There will be a stakehold-ers’ meeting on the Decem-ber 17 to address all the loopholes in 2011 elections and they will be blocked in the 2015 elections.”

He called on Nigerians in the Diaspora to show their patriotism by travel-ling to Nigeria to vote, add-ing that by the provisions of the constitution and the electoral act, Diaspo-rans could not vote in any elections electronically or outside the country until amendments were made to both laws in that regard.

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National Mirrorwww.nationalmirroronline.net 5Monday, December 17, 2012 News

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net6 Monday, December 17, 2012News

Presidency orders audit of civil, military aircraft CONTINUED FROM PAGE 5

Nigeria’s active phone lines hit 109.4mKUNLE AZEEZ

The number of active telephone lines in use in Nigeria has

hit 109.4 million, accord-ing to the latest subscriber data released by the Ni-gerian Communications Commission.

The data obtained by National Mirror yesterday, showed that active tele-phone subscriptions in-creased from 107.3 million active lines in September to reach 109.4 million at the end of October.

This means the telecoms operators added over 2.1 mil-lion new telephone lines on their networks in October.

Analysis of the data showed that the Global Sys-tem for Mobile Communica-tions operators were the sole

contributors to the current increase in active subscrib-er base.

According to the statis-tics, the GSM operators, including MTN, Globa-com, Airtel and Etisalat in-creased their combined sub-scriptions from 103.6 million in September to 105.9 mil-lion in October.

The Code Division Mul-tiple Access (CDMA) op-erators such as Visafone, Starcomms, Multi-Links and Zoom Mobile further ex-perienced a fall in their sub-scriber base from 3.2 million to 3.1 million in September and October respectively.

Following the trend on the CDMA networks, fixed wired and wireless network operators also record a de-cline in their meagre active subscriptions from 474,345 telephone lines to 454,644

lines during the same pe-riod.

From beginning of 2012, GSM operators have contin-ued to record rapid increase on their networks while the CDMA and fixed networks have consistently wit-nessed a decline month-on-month.

According to the NCC data, while active mobile subscriptions on GSM networks increased from 91 million in January to 101.4 million at the end of August; that of the CDMA operators declined from 4.4 million to 3.3 million during the eight month period.

It was learnt that the GSM active subscriptions standing at 91 million in January, increased to 92 million in February and 94.5 million at the end of

March. The GSM subscriptions

continued upward growth reaching 96.6 million in April and in May, the fig-ure grew to 97.5 million ac-tive subscriptions.

In June, July and Au-gust, the combined active GSM subscriber base in-creased to 98.3 million; 99.4 million and 101.4 million respectively.

However, active sub-scriber base on CDMA networks was hovering around slightly over four million between Febru-ary and March but further declined to 3.9 million in April.

The figure further plunged to 3.7 million in May; 3.5 million in June and in July, it fell to 3.4 mil-lion and finally to 3.3 mil-lion at the end of August.

On the fixed lines net-works, the subscriber fig-ure which stood at 688,333 lines at the beginning of the year had, by the end of August, reduced to 488,088 lines and now standing at 454,644 lines.

According to the NCC statistics uploaded on the regulator’s official website, though the active telecoms subscriptions now stand at 109.4 million, the actual connected telephone lines in the country stands at 188 million.

Over the years, only the GSM segment of Nigeria’s telecoms companies have continued to witness im-pressive performance with CDMA and fixed line net-works facing perpetual de-cline in subscriber base.

However, analysts have expressed mixed reactions

over the viability and suc-cess of a merger arrange-ment being put together among the CDMA operators - Starcomms, Multi-Links and MTS Wireless.

The merger of the three CDMA is expected to raise the performance bar of the CDMA industry where GSM players have also kicked them out of the busi-ness, due to the limitations of the CDMA’s technology.

At present, the CDMA operator that has the high-est subscriber base in the country is Visafone with about two million lines, whereas the GSM network with the lowest subscriber base in the country, Etisalat, which came into the coun-try barely three years ago, has around 14 million active telephone lines on its net-work.

tions on safety grounds.Demuren made the dec-

laration during a meeting with major oil prospecting companies and operators of helicopters in his office recently.

He had explained that the request would only be considered after a proper identification of the loca-tion of various masts, high rise objects and buildings, which he said are scattered all over the country.

He had maintained that as part of the conditions, a proper surveillance and charting of the airspace would also have to be in place.

He had said: “Once these

are in place, the next stage will be for us to work out the requirements for the night operations”.

Meanwhile, Vice-Pres-ident Namadi Sambo has described the late Kaduna State governor, Ibrahim Ya-kowa as a brother, a friend and a mentor whose loss would be felt by all.

Sambo spoke yesterday at Sir Kashim Ibrahim House, Kaduna while pay-ing a condolence visit to the family, the government and the people of the state.

He described the late Ya-kowa as friend and brother whose relationship dates back over two decades when as Kaduna State Com-missioner of Works in 1987,

the late Yakowa was posted to the Ministry as Perma-nent Secretary. Since then, they had been closely work-ing together up to the time they were elected Governor and Deputy Governor of the state.

“We have lost a brother, a friend, a mentor and a patriotic Nigerian who had served Nigeria throughout his life… May the Almighty give him peace and the fam-ily and us the fortitude to bear the loss,” he said.

In his remarks, the new-ly sworn-in executive gov-ernor of the state Ramalan Yero promised to consoli-date and continue with the good works Yakowa has started as a mark of respect

for him. “We shall continue with what he has started and to consolidate on his good works.”

In the same vein, Sen-ate President, David Mark and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Aminu Waziri Tam-buwal, have described as “devastating” the death of Kaduna State Governor, Patrick Yakowa and former National Security Adviser, NSA, Gen. Andrew Owoye Azazi (rtd), in the ill-fated Nigerian Navy helicopter, which went down in flames at Okoroba forest, Nembe Local Government Area of Bayelsa State.

In a statement signed by his Special Adviser on

Media, Kola Ologbondi-yan, Mark noted that the crash, which also claimed the lives of the deceased’s’ aides – Dauda Tsoho and Warrant Officer Moham-med Kama – as well as Commander Muritala Mohammed Daba and Lt. Adeyemi Sowole, pilot and co-pilot, respectively, “was a national tragedy”.

Lamenting what he con-sidered “the frequency of air mishaps in the recent times”, Mark called on the Ministry of Aviation and other relevant stakehold-ers to deploy appropriate mechanisms to prevent any future occurrence.

Tambuwal also lament-ed the deaths, which he said has sent him into “deep mourning.”

The Speaker said the House would launch an inquest into the cause of the duo’s deaths and look into the state of aircraft in the country, with a view to determining their air-wor-thiness.

A press statement signed by the Speaker’s Special Adviser on Media and Pub-lic Affairs, Mallam Imam Imam described the devel-opment “as tragic and sor-rowful.”

Tambuwal said he “feels so sad and heartbroken hearing the news of the ugly incident.”

“It is quite unfortunate and disheartening that Ni-gerians are waking up to the

reality of another air disas-ter which has claimed lives in the country yet again. I mourn the loss of the fine gentlemen aboard the Navy helicopter and pray to God to give our nation the forti-tude to bear the loss.”

The Speaker added that “in Yakowa, the country has lost one of its best tech-nocrats and administra-tors”.

Meanwhile, the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, has urged the Federal Government to institute a high powered probe into the cause of the helicopter crash.

While condoling with the families of the two notable Nigerians and other occupants of the ill-fated helicopter, the NLC in a statement signed by its President, Comrade Abdulwahed Omar, also called for a serious and deep review of the coun-try’s search and rescue system, noting that the na-tion seemed not to have the right equipment for quick response to emergencies of such magnitude.

Omar, who stated that perhaps some lives would have been saved if the crash location had been detected on time, also re-stated the call for the total overhaul of the country’s aviation sector, including conducting check safety checks on all aircraft flying in the country’s airspace.

Part of the helicopter’s fuselage after the crash.

Rivers State Gover-nor Chibuike Roti-mi Amaechi and

his Bauchi State counter-part, Mllam Isa Yuguda, have described the death of Kaduna State Gover-nor Patrick Yakowa and former National Security Adviser (NSA), Gen. Owo-eye Azazi, as shocking and devastating.

Amaechi, in a statement yesterday, described the death as a national trag-edy that threw the nation into mourning at a time when Nigerians are pre-paring for Christmas and New Year celebrations.

He said: “For me, it is even more devastating because I have very close personal relationship with both Governor Ya-kowa and Gen. Azazi.”

The statement stated that Amaechi, who is the Chairman of Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF), on behalf of the people of Rivers State, sent condo-lence to the bereaved fami-lies and the government and people of both Bayelsa and Kaduna states.

Governor Amaechi had cancelled all official engage-ments in honour of the de-ceased Kaduna State Gover-nor and others in a helicopter crash at the weekend.

Amaechi, Yuguda, Suswam grieve BAYELSA CRASH

Bauchi State Gover-nor Isa Yuguda expressed shock over the death, de-scribing it as a great lost to the country.

Yuguda , in a statement issued by his Chief Press Secretary, Ishola Michael Adeyemi, said: “Last Satur-day was indeed a black Sat-urday when we lost a rare gem who did everything possible to see that his state was peaceful in spite of the security challenges facing this part of the country, he

will be greatly missed by his people.”

The governor further described the late Yakowa as a man of the people who ensured that justice was done to all men not considering race, tribe and religion.

Yuguda said: “He was one Nigerian who is wor-thy of emulation, he died for peace and unity of not only Kaduna State but the country at large, his wealth of experience will

be missed by all.” While condoling with

the immediate family, President Goodluck Jona-than, Vice-President Na-madi Sambo as well as the government and people of Kaduna State over the lost, Yuguda urged them to take it as an act of God because according to him, “every mortal must taste death but the misery is where, when and how, nobody knows.”

Governor Gabriel Sus-wam of Benue State said

it was sad that Governor Yakowa and General Azazi would perish in a helicopter crash, adding that the death of the two leaders created a big vacuum in the leadership strata of the country which would be difficult to fill.

Suswam called for prayers from all Nigerians to avert such disasters in the Nigerian airspace in the days ahead. “We need the face of God in times like this” he said.

shocked when the news of a crash first broke, but was devastated when the identity of those in-volved in the crash was announced.

He said it was devastat-ing to hear that Nigeria lost one of its finest breed of politicians in the per-son of Governor Patrick Yakowa to the crash.

He noted that both Gov-ernor Yakowa and Gen. Azazi were two gentlemen who served the country with their hearts and the finest of their skills and capabilities.

Buhari

AZA MSUEKADUNA

The apex Northern socio-political or-ganisation, Arewa

Consultative Forum (ACF) and Jama’atu Nasril Islam (JNI) yesterday described the death of Kaduna State Governor, Mr. Patrick Ya-kowa, as shocking.

Yakowa, former National Security Adviser (NSA) Gen. Owoye Azazi and others died at the weekend in a helicop-ter crash in Bayelsa State.

In a statement yesterday, JNI Secretary General, Dr. Khalid Abubakar Aliyu, urged residents of Kaduna State to be law-abiding.

The statement reads: “JNI received with shock the death of the Governor of Kaduna State, Sir Pat-rick Ibrahim Yakowa, in helicopter crash.

“JNI uses this medium to condole with his immedi-ate family, friends, relatives and above all the good peo-ple of Kaduna State.

“In the same vein, we im-plore all to be law abiding and do all activities with restrain and caution”

In a statement issued by ACF National Public-ity Secretary, Mr. Anthony Sani, the Forum described Yakowa’ death as shocking.

The statement reads: “ACF has received with shock the news of the sudden deaths of Governor Yakowa of Kaduna State and former NSA, Gen. Andrew Azazi, and four oth-ers in a helicopter crash in Bayelsa State.”

ACF, JNI shocked

Kaita, Dan-Musa pay tribute

L-R: Coordinator, Research and Programmes, Women Arise, Mr. Gbenga Ganzallo; President, Dr. Joe Okei-Odumakin and member, Lagos State House of Assembly, Hon. Funmi Tejuosho, during the civic education on Improving Legislature Constituency Relations through Theatre, organised by Women Arise at Mushin 1 Constituency, Lagos State, at the weekend.

Buhari cancels birthday celebrationIncident devastating –Atiku

“It is said that every plane crash makes flying safer. That assumes that every such crash is properly in-vestigated and the cause or causes found, disclosed and fed into efforts aimed at averting a recurrence. Saturday’s crash should not be an exception.

‘’The safety of the fly-ing public as well as our men and women in uni-form must be of para-mount importance to those saddled with the re-sponsibility of ensuring safe air travels, and no stone should be left un-turned in ensuring this.’’

The party, however, ex-pressed its condolences to the Federal Government, the government and peo-ple of Kaduna and Bayelsa states as well as the fami-lies of all those who died in the crash.

It prayed that God will give the families the ability to find under-standing and strengthen them to bear their in-comparable loss.

Matthew Hazzan Kukah, for the inconveniences caused by the cancella-tion.

“In the same vein, all other invited guests that have cancelled scheduled engagements to be able to attend the ceremony are equally deserving of General Muhammadu Bu-hari’s apology. However, a new date shall be an-nounced later.

“Indeed, this is another difficult time for the Na-tion. General Muhammadu Buhari commiserates with the immediate families of the deceased, especially the government and people of Kaduna State for the great loss,” the statement said.

Also, former Vice-Pres-ident Atiku Abubakar described the death of Yakowa and Azazi as a na-tional tragedy.

In a statement yester-day by his media office in Abuja, Atiku said he was

The Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) pres-

idential candidate, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, has expressed grief over the death of Kaduna State Governor Patrick Yakowa, former National Security Adviser (NSA), Gen. An-drew Owoye Azazi, and others in a helicopter crash in Bayelsa State.

Buhari, who described the incident as a monu-mental national tragedy, directed that the cere-mony marking his 70th birthday scheduled for today be postponed indef-initely as a mark of hon-our to the dead.

The former Head of State, according to a state-ment by the CPC National Publicity Secretary, Roti-mi Fashakin, sent letters of apology to the Chair-man of the Occasion, Gen. T.Y. Danjuma and the Guest Speaker, Bishop

AUGUSTINE MADU-WESTKANO

Former Governor of old Kaduna State, Alhaji Isa Kaita and

former Deputy Senate President, Alhaji Abuba-kar Dan-Musa, have de-scribed the late Kaduna State Governor, Mr. Patrick Yakowa, as a true leader who worked hard to unite Muslims and Christians.

They said that Ya-kowa’s death devastated the peace-loving people of Kaduna State.

“The death is a huge loss to the state and na-tion,” Kaita said.

Dan-Musa described the death as a tragedy for Kadu-na State, adding that he tried his best to restore peace in the state, especially after the 2011 post-election violence.

MURITALA AYINLA

The Action Con-gress of Nigeria (ACN) yesterday

demanded a thorough in-vestigation into the cir-cumstances surrounding the helicopter crash that killed Kaduna Governor Patrick Yakowa, former NSA Owoye Azazi and four others, describing the incident as an unspeak-able national tragedy.

The party said the only way to ensure that the vic-tims did not die in vain was to unravel the cause of the crash with a view to preventing a recurrence, saying it received the news of Saturday’s fatal crash with rude shock and deep sadness.

In a statement signed by its National Public-ity Secretary, Alahjai Lai Mohammed, ACN said the latest crash must not be al-lowed to go the way of the previous ones.

The statement reads:

ACN mourns, demands investigation

National Mirrorwww.nationalmirroronline.net Monday, December 17, 2012 News 7

BAYELSA CRASH

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net8 Monday, December 17, 2012News

Their deaths shocking –Nasarawa Ag Gov IGBAWASE UKUMBA LAFIA

Acting Governor of Nasarawa State, Dameshi Barau

Luka, has expressed shock over the death of Governor Patrick Ibra-him Yakowa of Kaduna State and the former Na-tional Security Adviser, Gen. Andrew Owoye Aza-zi.

He said: “We in Na-sarawa State received the news of the death of

Yakowa and Azazi with utmost shock and disbe-lief, but we are consoled by the fact that God gives and takes life and He knows why it happened at this challenging time that their services are needed most.”

In a statement issued by his Chief Press Sec-retary, Danjuma Joseph, the acting governor con-veyed the heartfelt sym-pathy of the government and people of Nasarawa State on behalf of Gov-

ernor Umaru Tanko Al-Makura to President Goodluck Johnathan, the government and people of Kaduna State on the untimely death of the two men.

Luka described the two great Nigerians as rare gems whose footprints and legacies in their fields of assignments would remain indelible and would continue to serve as reference points in the history of the country.

Fayemi, Ajimobi, Aregbesola, Amosun mourn

It is devastating, says UduaghanA big blow to Nigeria, says NSGF PRISCILLA DENNIS

MINNA

The Northern States Governors Forum, NSGF,

said the death of the Governor of Kaduna State, Patrick Ibrahim Yakowa, and former Na-tional Security Adviser, General Andrew Owoye Azazi, was a big blow to the people of Nigeria.

It added that their lives were dedicated to public service.

The forum also said that the death of the duo was a great loss not only to the people of Ka-duna and Bayelsa states, where they hailed from, but Nigeria as a whole.

The NSGF said in a statement that it was particularly pained by the demise of Yakowa who consistently hosted the meetings of the fo-rum since he became

Kaduna State governor.The forum, however,

said it took solace in the fact that the late gover-nor lived exemplary and purposeful life with re-markable achievements as a public servant, ad-ministrator, community leader and a dedicated family man.

The statement added that Yakowa and Azazi were rare gems who would be missed for their immeasurable contributions to the de-velopment of the coun-try.

It said the two men were thorough bred professionals whose footprints and legacies in the nation’s civil ser-vice and the military would continue to serve as reference points.

“They were uncom-

EZEKIEL TITUSBAUCHI

The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, North-East Zone, which comprises Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Yobe, Taraba and Adamwa states has con-doled with the bereaved fam-ilies of Governor Patrick Ya-kowa of Kaduna State and Gen. Andrew Azazi.

It also condoled with Pres-ident Goodluck Jonathan on the death of the two men.

In a statement issued in Bauchi by the PDP Public-ity Secretary in the zone, Al-amin Sani Muhammad, the party said it received the news of the untimely death of Yakowa and Azazi with shock.

The statement added that

the death came at a time when the services of the de-ceased were highly needed for solid political foundation.

Sani said the exit of the men was a great loss not only to their immediate families but the country as a whole.

He said the vacuum creat-ed with Yakowa’s exit would be difficult to fill because his good leadership style.

The PDP publicity sec-retary added that the sad incident would be difficult to erase because of their contributions to the develop-ment of the country.

Sani charged the people of Kaduna State to bear the loss, while hoping that the incident would pave way for peace, unity and develop-ment.

Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan of Delta State has described

the death of Kaduna State Governor Patrick Yakowa, former National Security Adviser, NSA, Gen. Andrew

PDP condoles with Jonathan, Nigerians

Governors Kayode Fay-emi of Ekiti State, Abiola Ajimobi (Oyo),

Rauf Aregbesola (Osun), Ibi-kunle Amosun (Ogun) and former Governor Gbenga Daniel yesterday described the death of Kaduna State Governor, Patrick Yakowa and former National Se-curity Adviser, NSA, Gen. Andrew Owoye Azazi in a helicopter crash in Okoroba community in Bayelsa State on Saturday afternoon as a tragedy.

They spoke in separate statements on the tragic inci-

dent yesterday.Fayemi said in a statement

signed by his Chief Press Secretary, Mr. Olayinka Oye-bode, that he was “extremely shocked” by Yakowa and Azazi’s death.

The governor described their death as a “big tragedy of monumental proportion which hit the nation when least expected.”

He regretted that the crash happened when the country was yet to recover from the one involving Governor Dan-baba Suntai of Taraba State, which took place on October

25.On his part, Amosun ex-

pressed shock and disbelief on the death.

The governor condoled with the entire country, government and people of Kaduna State and the Gover-nors’ Forum on the loss of the two eminent Nigerians in the helicopter crash that claimed the lives of other passengers on board.

Amosun said in a state-ment signed by his Senior Special Assistant on Media, Mrs. Funmi Wakama, that their death was lamentable

and a great loss to Nigeria.Aregbesola in his own

message described their death as unexpected, shock-ing and painful.

The governor said in a statement signed by his Di-rector, Bureau of Commu-nications and Strategy, Mr. Semiu Okanlawon, that the tragic development had left a sour taste in the mouth of every patriotic Nigerian.

He noted that sudden pas-sage of Yakowa, Azazi and their aides was a national disaster that would remain etched in the nation’s con-

sciousness. According to the gover-

nor, such tragedy fills every mind with grief but also calls everyone, particularly the leaders, to duty on the need to ensure the safety of all Nige-rians.

On his part, Ajimobi said the country had lost its brightest stars.

Ajimobi said in a state-ment signed by his Special Adviser on Media, Dr. Fes-tus Adedayo, that the loss was particularly significant because the two men were senior citizens who were

important in the effort to overcome the country’s chal-lenges.

In his own condolence, Daniel described the death of the two men and their aides as a sad development.

He said: “This is a very sad development. I am shocked and saddened by this trag-edy. I had interacted with the two men in the course of dif-ferent national assignments and engagements and I found them to be personable, deeply patriotic and men who were constantly working for the greater good of the nation.”

Site of the crashed helicopter.

Owoye Azazi and others as devastating.

“I am still in shock,” he said.

Uduaghan said it was a big blow to the country particu-larly given the calibre of all people involved.

The governor said these were deaths too many for Ni-geria and Nigerians to bear, adding that this saddening de-velopment called for prayers.

He said: “This is so sad and painful. It is devastating not just to me as an individual, but to our collective being as a nation.”

Uduaghan condoled with the government and people of Kaduna State, the govern-ment and people of Bayelsa State, the families of the de-ceased and Nigerians over the incident.

He prayed God to grant the souls of the departed eternal rest.

mon statesmen, de-pendable team players, highly disciplined gen-tlemen and respected mentors of their sub-ordinate officers,” the statement added.

The forum then prayed God to grant the souls of the deceased eternal rest and their immediate families the fortitude to bear the ir-reparable loss.

National Mirrorwww.nationalmirroronline.net 9Monday, December 17, 2012 National News

MESHACK IDEHEN

The Chairman of Food and Bever-ages and Tobacco

Senior Staff Association, Mr. Tunde Abdulrahman, has said that smugglers posed a serious danger to the country’s economy.

Abdulrahman also said that organised labour would soon stage a protest against the activities of smugglers.

He said that massive job losses in the sector, among other challenges, particu-

larly the death of prom-ising companies such as those in the textile industry, battery and tyre production and manufacturing formed the decision to protest the activities of smugglers.

Speaking in Lagos over the weekend, Abdulrah-man decried the illegal im-portation of wines and spir-its into the country from all parts of the world.

He said stakeholders in the food and beverage indus-try would no longer fold their arms, but would take a deci-sive step against the threat

of smuggling to the economy. Abdulrahman also said

the union would seek the support of the Federal Gov-ernment and its regulatory and enforcement agencies, including the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, NAFDAC, Standards Organ-isation of Nigeria, SON, the Nigerian Customs Service, supervising ministries and the police in the fight against importation of products that had resulted in job losses for thousands of workers.

He also called on the

Federal Government to immediately abrogate the legislation that allowed un-restricted importation of alcoholic beverages, wines and spirits into the country.

Abdulrahman called on interested investors to come and set up manufac-turing facilities in Nigeria to create more employ-ment instead of engaging in activities inimical to the country’s development.

Smuggling killing food, beverage industry –Union leader

L-R: Provost, Nigeria Computer Society, College of Fellows, Alhaji Ladi Ogunneye; President, Sir Demola Aladekomo and Osun State Governor Rauf Aregbesola, at the 2012 National Information Technology Merit Award of the institute in Lagos State, at the weekend.

OLUSEGUN KOIKI

There were indica-tions yesterday that Dana Airlines,

which was recently re-issued Air Operators Cer-tificate, AOC, may recom-mence flight operations in the next 48 hours.

A source close to the airline confided in our cor-respondent that the man-agement of the airline had

been meeting on the appro-priate day to return to flight operations after the crash at the Iju-Ishaga area of Lagos, which killed about 163 people on board and on ground.

It was gathered that the management staff would hold the last meeting to-morrow and discuss the re-turn of the airline, which may be Wednesday.

The only proviso which the Nigerian Civil Aviation

Authority, NCAA, gave the airline when re-issuing the AOC last week was to first commence the last pay-ment of $70,000 compensa-tions to the victims’ fami-lies, which the airline met last week.

The airline had last Thursday paid some be-reaved families the final compensation of $70,000 after the submission of letter of administration, which was authenticated

by the probate registry.The Head, Corporate

Communications of the airline, Mr. Tony Usidam-en, had said that to verify full compensation due and payable, it was necessary for claimants to produce the required grants of pro-bate or letters of adminis-tration, which would then have to be authenticated by the probate registry.

He said this was nec-essary to ensure that the

compensation was paid to the right next-of-kin.

When our correspon-dent contacted Usidamen on the resumption of flight operations, he re-fused to make a categori-cal statement.

He, however, said the airline would commence operations very soon, add-ing that the resumption date could only be con-firmed at the management level.

Dana may resume fl ight operations Wednesday

OMEIZA AJAYIABUJA

Disturbed by the increasing work-place accidents

and the non-payment of adequate compensation to private and public sec-tor workers, the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund, NSITF, yesterday said it had concluded plans to implement the Employee Compensation Scheme, ECS.

The Chairperson of the

board of NSITF, Dr. Ngozi Olejeme, disclosed this in Abuja when she received a membership award from the London-based Royal Commonwealth Society.

She said the Federal Gov-ernment was determined to halt the disturbing trend of non-payment of compensa-tion to employees involved in work-place accidents, adding that such laws would also enhance staff produc-tivity as well as protect the interest of workers especial-ly those working in foreign-

owned business concerns.Olejeme said through the

ECS, NSITF’s involvement in compensation management would better the lot of workers.

She said: “The scheme is so dear to President Goodluck Jonathan. We’re doing every-thing possible to guarantee a workable social insurance programme for all categories of Nigerian workers.”

The chairperson dis-closed that some Occupa-tional Safety and Health, OSH, experts believed that about 50 million Nigerians

were at risk in their work places.

She said: “The Interna-tional Institute of Risk and Safety Management (Nige-rian chapter), for instance, also says 200 workplace fatalities occur daily in Ni-geria.

“Scores of others are in-jured or permanently dis-abled. What used to get the government worry, if the incidents ever filtered out to the media, was the poor compensation plan or lack of one by the employers.”

NSITF will soon implement employee compensation scheme –Chair

KAYODE KETEFE

The transfer of Jus-tice Joseph Ol-ubunmi Oyewole

from Lagos State judicia-ry to Osun State has been put on hold till the Nation-al Judicial Council, NJC, takes a decision on it.

It was gathered that the is-sue of the transfer of the judge would top the agenda of NJC meeting scheduled to hold on December 19. The meeting would be presided over by Chief Justice of Nigeria, Jus-tice Aloma Mukhtar.

It was also learnt that the Osun State Government has demanded that the judge be transferred from Lagos to the state.

In a letter to the Lagos State Chief Judge, Justice Ayotunde Philips, the Osun State Government requested for Oyewole’s transfer to the state. Oyewole was to report for duty in Osun State judi-ciary on December 4. Phillips commented on the letter and forwarded it to the NJC.

It was gathered that the NJC Chairman, Mukhtar returned the letter with an explanation that the transfer should wait until it was decid-ed by the NJC at its meeting of December 19 when it would take a decision on the matter.

The administration of Governor Rauf Aregbesola had originally planned to make Oyewole the Osun State CJ but the move was op-posed by some vested interest while the NJC eventually re-jected his nomination on the grounds that he is not from Osun State judiciary and that he was not the most senior judge for the appointment.

NJC decides Oyewole’s transfer from Lagos judiciary Dec 19

The Lagos State Uni-versity Alumni Association has in-

augurated its Executive Committee after the expi-ration of the tenure of the former executive led by Mr. Lekan Ogunbanwo.

Speaking at the event, the Vice-Chancellor of Lagos State University, LASU, Prof. John Oladapo Obafunwa, en-joined the association to con-solidate on the achievements of the former executive.

Obafunwa thanked Ogunbanwo for his support and contributions to the de-velopment of the university.

In his inaugural speech at the event, the new President, Major General Cecil Esekhaig-be (rtd), expressed gratitude for the confidence reposed in him to lead the association.

Promising to do his best to ensure the development of LASU, Esekhaigbe em-phasised the need to repo-sition the association in a manner that would stimu-late interest of graduates of the university.

In his own speech, the Vice-President, Mr. Nor-rison Quakers (SAN), ex-pressed optimism about the capacity of the association to take the university to greater heights.

LASU alumni association inaugurates new executive

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net

MOJEED ALABI

The Lagos State Government has deployed about

195 traditional birth at-tendants to its 25 general hospitals to acquire more knowledge.

The attendants, who were recently sent to hos-pitals close to their homes, were, according to the gov-ernment, to acquire the knowledge that would en-able them tackle birth-re-lated complications.

The Chairman of the state’s Traditional Medicine Board, Dr. Bunmi Omosey-indemi, who spoke recently during his tours of Badagry and Onikan General Hospi-tals, advised the attendants against flouting the laws of the hospitals.

10 South West Monday, December 17, 2012

KEMI OLAITAN IBADAN

The Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeye-mi, has accused the

Ooni of Ife, Oba Okunade Sijuade, of distorting his-tory and ignorant of the details of his ancestral roots.

He spoke at the week-end in Oyo town during a special birthday lecture organised in his honour by the City People Magazine entitled: “Reviving Old Oyo Customs and Tradition” and delivered by a Portu-

Alaafi n accuses Ooni of distorting Yoruba history

FEMI OYEWESOABEOKUTA

One person has been confirmed dead, while 20 others

were critically injured in two separate accidents that occurred on the Shagamu-Lagos and Abeokuta-Lagos Expressway in Ogun State yesterday.

While one woman was confirmed dead, 16 others were on danger list in the accident that occurred about 800 meters away from the Shagamu inter-change along Shagamu – Lagos Expressway.

A white Toyota Hi-ace marked (Lagos) JJJ 319 XP was on its way to Lagos from Ijebu-Isomo when one of its rear tires

suddenly burst.Eye witness told Na-

tional Mirror that the driver of the bus, identi-fied as Biodun Badmus, suddenly applied break which made the vehicle to lose control, swerved of the road and ran into the bush.

The Shagamu Unit Commander of the Fed-eral Road Safety Commis-sion (FRSC), Ogundele Lasisi, who confirmed the accident, said that 17 pas-sengers, who comprised of seven females, five males and children, were rushed to the Olabisi Onabanjo Teaching Hos-pital (OOUTH), Shagamu, where the woman eventu-ally died.

Ogundele added that all the 16 victims, includ-

ing the five children, were in critical condition at OOUTH.

The second accident, which involved a Toyota Corola marked (Lagos) RK 567 KJA, occurred few meters away from Obada-Oko along the Abeokuta – Lagos Expressway.

The occupants, who dressed in Aso Ebi, were said to be employees of an Ibadan-based Insur-ance Company, Divine In-surance and were said to be going for a wedding in Lagos before the accident occurred.

The Itori Unit Com-mander of FRSC, Mr. Fatai Bakare, who supervised the evacuation of the in-jured victims, confirmed that they had been taken to Ifo General Hospital.

One dead, 20 others injured in Ogun multiple crashes

MURITALA AYINLA

A new generation church, The Bride Assembly, has pe-

titioned Lagos State Gov-ernor Babatunde Fashola for demolishing its prop-erty worth over N3billion.

The church alleged that the property was demol-ished by the Lagos State Tasks Force on Environ-ment and Special Offence.

It also alleged that over N16.4million realised from offerings and tithes in two days was also carted away by hoodlums, a few days after the state government agent demolished its buildings.

The church said it had paid over N60 million to Onitire family from whom

it bought the land it built the church in 2005.

Addressing journalists at the church’s premises, its counsel, Mr. Emeka Ozo-ani, accused the tasks force chairman of unlawful de-molition.

Ozoani also accused one Kamorudeen Bolarinwa of conniving with the task force chairman to carry out the demolition, adding that there was no way the gover-nor would have ordered the illegality.

He said: “The psycholog-ical shock on worshippers, particularly those who have camped in the church premises for an annual an-niversary and the physical injuries is not only unjust and primitive, but unfortu-nately runs riots with man-

Ogun State Governor Ibikunle Amosun (right), congratulating the parents of the bridegroom, Amb. and Mrs. Olugbenga Ashiru, during the wedding of their son, Olufemi Abiodun and Adetanwa Adeyanju, held in Lagos, at the weekend.

Lagos trains 195 traditional birth attendants

guese national, Ms Paula Gomes (Alaafin’s Cultural Ambassador).

It will be recalled that Oba Sijuade, during the centenary anniversary of the late sage, Chief Oba-femi Awolowo, held at the MUSON Centre in Lagos, said the Alaafin was not connected to Oranyan, one of the sons of Oduduwa, and was not qualified to cel-ebrate him, adding that he (Alaafin) was reigning over a dead empire.

But the Alaafin said Ooni had described him as a ras-cally person and that “Alaaf-in is not Oranyan,” but that he had kept his cool and went ahead with the Oranyan cel-ebration, “which attracted many dignitaries from Nige-

ria and in the Diaspora”.He said he had decided

not to engage in alterca-tions with Oba Sijuade any longer since the time the former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, sum-moned him, the Ooni and other royal fathers in Yo-rubaland, including the Awujale of Ijebuland to a meeting and everybody had agreed to cease fire.

He, however, said that be-cause the Ooni continued to castigate him and his tradi-tional activities, he deemed it apposite “to recall history, educate the Ooni and let the world know the truth”.

The monarch, while making reference to series of documentary evidence, recalled that Oyo is supe-

rior to Ife in many rami-fications, asking, “where did this Yoruba language that we are speaking evolve from? Which language was used in writing the Bible? It is Oyo language. Why not Ife language? Where else are they speaking Ife lan-guage apart from Lagere Quarters? Why are the Mo-dakeke people, who are liv-ing behind Ife, not speaking Ife language?”.

He said that he had con-fronted the Ooni with the various questions in the past, even before Chief Obasanjo’s meeting, but he could not answer them, “in-stead, he came with books that could fill three baskets”.

Alaafin said: “In 2009, Ooni had rubbished the in-

stitution of Alaafin, but a year after when he was cele-brating his birthday; he said Oranyan was his father’s ancestor. How could you have denigrated your ances-tors and later claim that you are a son of the Alaafin.

“Anybody who does not know his ancestral roots, who did not strive to learn about it, and does not learn from those who know, will continue to make mistakes and flounder in ignorance, that is part of Ooni’s inadequacies.

“When we wanted to celebrate Sango, they said Sango is not Yoruba. Sango studied Quoran. He was the one that was first conferred with the title of “Akeug-beru”. He was the first in the art of adjudicating just-

Church petitions Fashola over demolition of N3b property•Says N16.4m looted by hoodlums

tra of excellence and pur-suit of rule of law which the Fashola administration is working to sustain.”

The worshippers, how-ever, flayed the manner in which the task force officials carried out the demolition, saying that they were not allowed to remove their plas-ma TV hung in the expan-sive hall of the church.

They claimed that they had been undergoing psy-chological trauma because of the demolition, which they said hindered their six-day programme.

ly. When he was born, the umbilical cord that joined him with his mother could not be severed. Because they pulled it and it would not cut, it became the name “Afonja.” The glory, success and tradition of Yoruba started from Oyo”.

He added that the old Oyo State during the ad-ministration of late Chief Bola Ige (SAN) came up with a stamped paper recognising Oranyan as the Head of the Princes and Princesses in Yoruba-land, “and that Oyo domi-nated all other nations, namely Ife, Ijebu, Egba, Ije-sa, Sabe, Owu and so on”.

Oba Adeyemi said when Messrs Richard Lander and McPherson visited Oyo Ile in 1827, they com-pared what they saw in Oyo Ile in terms of histori-cal structures and rich cul-tural heritage with what obtained in the old Euro-pean world, cautioning the Ooni against further dis-torting historical facts.

He said the Ooni’s pre-decessor, the late Oba Ad-esoji Aderemi, did not dis-tort historical facts.

The Director, Institute of African Studies, University of Ibadan, Prof. Isaac Al-bert, said the university was ever proud to associate with the Alaafin, who turned 74 on October 15, “being our able and reputable patron that epitomizes the rich Af-rican cultural heritage and an inspiration to all of us”.

Fashola

CHRIS NJOKUOWERRI

The Secretary, As-sociation of Lo-cal Governments

of Nigeria, ALGON, Imo State chapter, Mr. Enyin-naya Onuegbu, yesterday raised the alarm over al-leged attempt by an armed gang to abduct him.

He said in a statement that armed men suspected

to be members of the Imo State Government Secu-rity Network stormed his residence at Mbano Street, Aladinma in Owerri Mu-nicipal Council about 6am yesterday with two pick-up vans and a Sport Util-ity Vehicle, SUV, to abduct him, but they did not suc-ceed as he was away on an official assignment when the armed gang arrived.

But his gateman was

not that lucky as he was beaten and manhandled until a neighbour’s guard came to rescue him.

“I was lucky to be away from that place but they harassed my gateman un-til a neighbour’s guard came to his rescue.

“They threatened my life. They told my gate-man that I was lucky yet again and that I must die because of my recent in-

terview...” The ALGON secretary,

who is the chairman of Ngor- Okpalla Local Gov-ernment Area, reiterated that he was ready to ap-pear before any constitu-tional authority to answer any allegation.

He called for the inter-vention of the security agencies, journalists and members of the public “in this threat to kill me extra-

CHARLES OKEKEAWKA

Anambra State Commissioner for Youth and Sports,

Dr. Edozie Aroh, has cried out over alleged acts of fraud that characterised the recent congresses of the National Youth Council of Nigeria held in the state.

Consequently, Aroh an-nounced the cancellation of all the local government congresses of the state chapter of the National Youth Council of Nigeria.

The commissioner said in a statement that the cancellation was made in the exercise of the Youth Ministry’s supervisory role and related functions.

The cancellation came at a time the state chap-ter of the National Youth Council, in preparation for its state congress, has started conducting elec-tions at the local govern-ment areas to select of-ficers that would be state congress delegates.

Justifying the cancel-

CHRIS NJOKUOWERRI

Fire yesterday razed the second floor of the palace of the par-

amount ruler of Owerri, Eze Emmanuel Njemanze, destroying property worth several millions of naira.

The fire, which started in the early hours of the day, was attributed to an electri-

cal spark. A witness said that before

the arrival of the fire fight-ers, the youth in the area tried spiritedly to save some personal belongings of the royal father, but their efforts yielded little success.

Imo State Governor Rochas Okorocha and his team later visited the scene of the incident to commen-surate with the royal family.

NGOZI EMEDOLIBE

‘A Cry For Help’ ac-tress, Nkiru Syl-vanus, who is also

the Senior Special Adviser to the Imo State Governor Rochas Okorocha on Public Affairs, was on Saturday night abducted by gunmen.

The Nollywood actress was kidnapped by armed men numbering about eight at a location in Owerri, Imo State capital.

It was gathered that the kidnappers were already asking for N100 million as ransom for the actress to regain her freedom.

According to a source, Nkiru has been in Ow-erri for the past five weeks where she was working on two projects - a documen-tary on Okorocha, to high-light his achievements in the last one year and a mov-ie on reincarnation being shot by actor cum producer, Obi Okoli.

“This incident took place in Owerri on Saturday. In the past couple of weeks, Nkiru has been a regular face on the streets of the state capital which may have

prompted the plot to abduct her. She is in fact working on two projects at the moment. One is a documentary while the other is a movie she is playing a sub-lead role in. Because of these jobs, she has been around, working. Of course, she is a popular person, which is why her presence on these locations would not go unnoticed,” a source told our correspon-dent.

The story of the kidnap of the actress, which jolted Owerri residents, is also making the government of Imo State restless, consider-ing the efforts the governor has made in the recent past to stem cases of kidnapping in his domain.

lation, Aroh said the con-gresses from inception were marred by malpractices, fraud and general inconsis-tencies, to the extent that the development led to the emergence of candidates who were leaders of politi-cal parties’ youth wings.

He said: “This ministry

observes with shock, the numerous cases of disaf-fection and disqualification of prospective candidates and voters orchestrated by the screening committees which led to a series of pe-titions and calls for the can-cellation of elections.”

The commissioner added

that petitions from conclud-ed local congresses in Awka North, Onitsha South and the disruption of planned congresses in Ekwusigo, Ihiala alluded to height of thuggery.

Meanwhile, Aroh did not fix any date for resumption of the exercise.

The Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Nsukka, Dr Francis

Okobo, has called on the newly ordained deacons of the church to practice what they preached to the people.

He gave the advice in Nsukka at the weekend at the ordination of 16 deacons at the St. Theresa’s Catholic Cathedral, Nsukka.

Okobo said it was by read-ing and preaching the word of God that they would win more souls for Christ.

He said: “Ensure that you practise what you teach the people so as to show good ex-ample to them.

“Remember that God is always watching what you

do both in secret and in pub-lic.”

The bishop also urged the deacons to submit them-selves to the authority of the church while discharging their duties.

He said: “Always preach the word of God as well as respect the authority of the church.

“The church will not tol-erate any form of indisci-pline and disobedience.”

Okobo urged Catholic faithful as well as rela-tions of the new deacons to always pray for them so that the Holy Spirit would strengthen them in their spiritual life.

The Vicar-General of

the diocese, Monsignor Taddus Onoyima, urged the new deacons to refrain from anything that would tarnish the image of the church.

He said: “If you submit yourself completely to God, He will guide you while working in His vineyard.”

Some of those ordained deacons are Chinadum Asogwa, Collins Eze, Vic-tor Mama, Daniel Akubue, Donatus Onah and Stephen Ugwuja.

Speaking in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, Asogwa ex-pressed appreciation to God for finding him worthy to work in his vineyard.

Anambra annuls national youth council congresses over alleged fraud

Do what you preach, bishop tells new deacons

Fire guts traditional ruler’s palace in Owerri

Gunmen abduct Nkiru Sylvanus, demand N100m ransom

Imo ALGON secretary alleges abduction attempt

Director-General, Science Equipment and Development Institute, Enugu, Prof. Christian Nwajiagu (left) and Deputy Director, Mr. Sylvanus Chiedu, at an end of the year interactive session with members of staff in Enugu, yesterday.

Sylvanus

judicially.” When our correspon-

dent contacted the Imo State Security Network, the Commander of Unit 3 who did not disclose his name denied any knowl-edge of the incident.

He said: “I did not post anybody there. Tell the man to name the unit that came for that operation.”

Also contacted, the state Security Network Chief, Mr. Angus Oguike, said it was not within his juris-diction.

He said: “That falls

within State CID, I am in-charge of operations and I am not in Owerri to con-firm the case.”

Also, the state Police Public Relations Officer, Mr. Vitalis Onugu, said he was not aware of the inci-dent.

He said: “I believe that Onuegbu is a lawyer and knows the necessary steps to take.”

However, Onuegbu said: “I sent SMS message to the Commissioner of Police on the attempted abduc-tion.”

11National Mirrorwww.nationalmirroronline.net Monday, December 17, 2012 South East

SERAP in the suit urged the court to decide whether the Federal Gov-ernment is responsible for the pollution and devasta-tion primarily caused by the operations of the mul-tinational corporations in the Niger Delta and whether the government has breached its due dili-gence obligation.

It also alleged oil spills and waste materials pollut-ing water used for drinking and other domestic purpos-es; failure to secure the un-derlying determinants of

health, including a healthy environment and failure to enforce laws, including regulations to protect the environment and prevent pollution.

But while the court ini-tially held that the Nige-rian government and its body, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) “can be held ac-countable for human rights violations in the Niger Del-ta,” it declined jurisdiction against Chevron Oil Ni-geria Plc; Shell Petroleum Development Company

option to avoid future flood disaster.

He appealed to the state and Federal Governments to assist the community by providing infrastruc-ture in the new location.

Ifechukude said the community had never wit-nessed the magnitude of flood experienced during the recent flooding.

He said though no life was lost, but the entire com-munity was submerged.

“We are farmers, fish-ermen and hunters and ever since the days of our

fore-fathers, we have never seen nor experienced such magnitude of flood wreck.

“As I speak, though the flood has subsided, noth-ing is left for my people to salvage.

“My people reasoned out that the possibility of the flood coming back soon was most likely and they decided that they will not return to our ances-tral settlement and they have my consent.

“As I am talking to you, my palace was destroyed too and currently I have

Azazi and Yakowa was a great loss to the nation.

“I hereby direct a three-day mourning period in memory and honour of our departed heroes, who left us so sudden. During the three days, all flags will fly at half mast in honour and remem-brance of the dead,” he said.

The governor, who con-doled with President Good-luck Jonathan as the nation mourns the victims of the crash, prayed to God to give the families of the deceased persons the fortitude to

KEMI OLAITANIBADAN

The Federal Gov-ernment has been found guilty over

alleged human rights violation and associated oil pollution in the Niger Delta area.

ECOWAS Community Court of Justice gave the ruling in a sitting in Ibadan at the weekend. The court said the Federal Government’s nonchallant attitude towards human rights’ violation and pol-lution in the Niger Delta area was responsible for the environmental degra-dation primarily caused by the oil multi-national cor-porations leading to food scarcity, poverty, sickness among the people of the Ni-ger Delta region.

The Vice-President of the court, Justice Benfeito Mos-so Ramos, in the two-hour judgement, in the litiga-tion filed by the Registered

Trustees of the Socio-Eco-nomic Rights and Account-ability Project (SERAP) against the Federal Govern-ment and six oil companies over alleged violation of human rights and associ-ated oil pollution in the Ni-ger Delta, declared that the Federal Government had emphasised in her defence that she had set up the Niger Delta Ministry, given 13 per cent derivation to the area, among other things, but maintained that; “It clearly shows that the said agencies or ministry established by the FG just exist on paper.”

He urged the FG to be alive to her responsibility as stated under the ECOW-AS law and Africa Treaty.”

She dismissed the $1bil-lion compensation de-manded by the plaintiffs in the case, declaring that the plaintiffs failed to identify who will collect the money, those that will share it and the yard stick for sharing it among others.

Akwa Ibom State Commissioner for Health, Dr Bassey

Antai, has warned medical and health officers in gov-ernment hospitals to desist from charging illegal fees.

Antai gave the warning yesterday in Uyo while field-ing questions from journal-ists at a news briefing.

He said medical per-sonnel who collect money from patients were not rep-resenting the interest of government and warned that the state government would not take kindly to such action.

The commissioner said his ministry had set up a monitoring team to rou-tinely visit government hospitals to ensure that

government free health care programmes were working.

Antai warned that the government would deal with patients who engaged in falsifying their ages

“The free health pro-gramme is for people of 65 years and above, pregnant women and those whose ages are five years and be-low; but, sometimes, we see people who are 35- 40 years coming to claim that they are 65 years.”

The commissioner maintained that the free health programme in the state had been successful and called for increased budgetary allocation to the ministry to cover various parts of the state.

FG found guilty of human rights’ violation (SPDC); Elf Petroleum Ni-geria Ltd; Exxon Mobil Cor-poration, Agip Nigeria Plc and Total Nigeria Plc.

The court in ruling number ECW/CCJ/APP/07/10 delivered on the UN Human Rights Day, 10 December 2010, held that, “The Federal Govern-ment of Nigeria signed the ECOWAS Treaty as well as other community instru-ments like the Protocols on Democracy and Good Gov-ernance and on the Com-petence of the Community Court of Justice.

Other judges that sat with Justice Ramos include Justice Hansine Donli, Jus-tice Alfred Benin, Justice Clotilde Medegan and Jus-tice Eliam Potey, who all agreed with the judgement.

It will be recalled that the Registered Trustees of SERAP had instituted the litigation with registra-tion number ECW/CCJ/APP/07/10 d against the Federal Government and six oil companies over al-leged violation of human rights and associated oil pollution in the Niger Delta.

no place to operate from as a palace.”

The monarch said the new settlement had been mapped out, while fami-lies had started erecting make-shift houses.

bear the irreparable loss. “This is indeed a very

sad day in the history of our state and nation. Today, we mourn the death of our great leaders who have lost their lives in the unfortu-nate crash.

“The deaths of Azazi and Yakowa are irreparable loss to the nation.

“On behalf of the gov-ernment and good people of Bayelsa, I wish to ex-press our profound condo-lences to the government and people of Kaduna State and the nation at large,” Dickson said.

Dickson expressed re-grets that Azazi’s death came at a time his service to the state and humanity was most needed, noting that the death “is indeed a monumental loss to the people of Bayelsa.

“For Azazi, I have no word to express the pro-found sense of loss that has befallen our state, Bayelsa, on the loss of our great son and leader.

“This is a man that was only recently made the chairman of the state post-flood management commit-

tee to help in the process of rehabilitation of thousand of our people who were dis-placed by the recent flood in the state,” Dickson said.

The governor, who could not hold back his tears, also described the late Ya-kowa as a great Nigerian, who had come to Bayelsa to identify with the people of the state at the funeral of the late Pa Douglas, father, of a Presidential aide, Mr. Oronto Douglas.

“For the people of Ka-duna State, we feel a deep sense of loss for their gov-ernor who came visiting and never returned home,” Dickson said.

The News Agency of Ni-geria (NAN) recalls that late Azazi and Yakowa, along with their personal aides and pilots, died in a naval helicopter crash, off the mangrove swamp of Okoroba community.

The aircraft, NN-07, carrying the victims was reported to be heading for Port Harcourt after leav-ing Okoroba community, in Nembe Local Government Area, where the victims at-tended the burial.

L-R: Founder, Millennium Excellence Foundation, Ambassador Ashim Morton; Akwa Ibom State Governor, Godswill Akpabio and Vice-President Stephen Kolonzo Musyoka of Kenya, during the presentation of Lifetime Africa Achievement Prize 2012 for Sustainable Development in Africa Award to Akpabio in Nairobi, Kenya, at the weekend.

Flood: Olodu community relocates, seeks government’s assistance

Air crash: Dickson declares three-day mourning period

Healthcare: A’Ibom commissioner warns against illegal charges

Uduaghan

Olodu community in Delta State, one of the towns ravaged

by the recent flood disaster has relocated three kilome-tres away from their ances-tral home, traditional ruler of the area has said.

The traditional ruler, Obi Alexander Ifechuku-de, stated this yesterday in Asaba, in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).

The traditional ruler, who described the deci-sion as collective, said relocation was the only

Bayelsa State Gov-ernor, Seriake Dickson, yester-

day declared a three-day mourning period in hon-our of late General Owoye Azazi and Governor Pat-rick Yakowa of Kaduna State, who died in a heli-copter crash on Saturday in the state.

Dickson, who gave the order shortly after inspect-ing the bodies of the crash victims at the mortuary of the Federal Medical Centre, Yenagoa, said the death of

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.netMonday, December 17, 2012South South12

Former Head of State, Gen. Muham-madu Buhari, needs little or no in-troduction. Undeniably, his name

rings a deafening bell across the land and is admired by many for his uprightness and stand against corruption.

This may not be unconnected to the fact that the moral revolution and war against indiscipline introduced by his regime (1983–85) had remained a national phenom-enon and reference point, even years after he left office.

Though military governments were ab-erration at the time, he and the late Gen. Tunde Idiagbon sacked the then govern-ment of President Shehu Shagari; history would be fair to him for the high level of discipline and patriotism, which he exhib-ited in leading the nation.

His government is revered for its abil-ity to keep the country afloat by making progress through sheer economic ingenu-ity even when it rejected the Internation-al Monetray Fund (IMF) loan; refusal to devalue the nation’s currency, the Naira; curbing imports of needless goods; cur-tailing oil theft and using a counter trade policy to fight illegal oil bunkering.

An unrepentant apostle of anti-corrup-tion, as he has severally been described, Buhari is yet to allow that passion to die. This explains his resolve not to quit poli-tics, even when some of his contempo-raries have taken the back stage.

To him, the struggle continues and he predictes his interest on two compelling ob-jectives: The need to sanitise the Nigerian polity and to ensure that Nigerians enjoy the dividends of democracy at all levels of government.

The 2015 general elections will therefore be the fourth time he would be seeking to return to the seat he vacated almost three decades ago.

His first shot was in 2003, on the platform of the All Nigeria People’s Party (ANPP) but was defeated by former President Olusegun Obasanjo of the Peoples Demo-cratic Party (PDP). He was back in 2007, also on the platform of the ANPP, but was defeated by Umaru Yar’Adua (now late), who hailed from the same state with him.

In March 2010, he left the ANPP to found the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC). It was under this platform that he contested

the 2011 presidency against the incumbent, Goodluck Jonathan (PDP), scoring 12.2 mil-lion votes against Jonathan’s 22.4 million.

The intrigues and power play which characterised the elections, especially the collapse of an alliance between the CPC and the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), forced him to declare at the eve of the presi-dential poll that he will not seek any elec-tive office again.

“This campaign is the third and last one for me since after it I will not present my-self again for election into the office of the president,” he then said, but that is now history.

Speaking recently at the Kano State Gov-ernment House during a courtesy call on Governor Rabiu Kwankwaso, he said: “I am in Kano to open our party office follow-ing the intra and inter party squabbles that

lege, Kaduna for Platoon Commanders’ Course and later attended the Mechanical Transport Officer’s Course at the Army Mechanical Transport School in Borden (United Kingdom) in 1965. He also studied at the Defence Services’ Staff College, Wel-lington (India), 1973 and the United States Army War College, June 1979 to June 1980.

General Buhari’s rise was not without hard work. He first came to limelight fol-lowing his appointment as governor of the then newly created North Eastern State of Nigeria during General Muritala Moham-med’s regime and later to national focus in 1975 when he was appointed by General Obasanjo as Minister (then Federal Com-missioner) for Petroleum and Natural Resources and in 1977 at the creation of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), he became the first chairman.

At the time Buhari and his colleagues took over power from the Shagari-led ad-ministration in 1983, the country was neck deep in serious austerity and political in-stability. But it is on record that his admin-istration reduced the inflation rate in the economy from 23 per cent to four per cent within two years, by fiscal discipline and a home-grown economic team and also intro-duced the latter well accepted and lauded “War Against Indiscipline” (WAI) to check most of the anomalies in the public life of Nigerians.

As the Federal Commissioner of Petro-leum Resources and Chairman of NNPC, he supervised and oversaw the birth of all the existing refineries in the country. In 1983, when Chadians soldiers invaded and took 19 Islands in Lake Chad within Nige-rian territory, Buhari, as the General Offi-cer Commanding the Armoured Division, successfully cordoned off the territory and pursued the Chadian Army as far as 50 ki-lometres back into Chadian territory.

Those who are close to him say his words are his bond. Little wonder his regime was overthrown in a palace coup on August 27, 1985 because of his insistence on carrying out investigation on allegations of fraudu-lent award of contracts in the then Min-istry of Defence. Reports had it that, had the investigation been carried out, many senior military officers including mem-bers of the Supreme Military Council, the highest ruling body then, would have been implicated and subsequently indicted.

His administrative style and transpar-ency was also lauded by many Nigerians when he headed the PTF. The agency (though scrapped) is still being credited for impacting on the lives of Nigerians through implementation of several developmental projects.

Buhari has received several awards and medals including, Grand Commander of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (GCFR); Defence Service Medal (DSM) and National Service Medal (NSM); among others.

cost us the election. But I want to tell you that we are already settling down and are ready to face you guys (PDP) squarely.”

He blamed the rot in the country’s elec-toral system on the PDP, noting that the constitution has been consciously raped and sidelined by the party. His words: “Under normal circumstances we are sup-posed to work strictly within the perimeter guaranteed by the constitution, but this is Nigeria and nothing is perfect and the only thing they have not tampered with between 1999 to date in Nigeria is the Holy Quran.”

He was put on the edge recently with the Boko Haram Islamic sect naming him as the chief mediator in its proposed dialogue with the Federal Government. But the man with steel determination, as some of his followers will say of him, declined, saying his nomination without his consent was a ploy by the PDP-led government to indict and nail him.

“Firstly, I do not know any member of the Boko Haram sect. I do not believe in and I do not know of any religion that will tell people to kill others and burn schools,” he said while declining the role.

Born in Daura, Katsina State, on Decem-ber 17, 1942, Buhari had his primary educa-tion in Daura and Mai’adua, 1948-1952 and later proceeded to Katsina Model School in 1953 and Katsina Provincial Secondary School (now Government College Katsina) from 1956-1961.

He joined the then Nigerian Military Training School, Kaduna in 1963 and also attended Officer’s Cadet School in Alder-shot (United Kingdom), in October 1963. In 1964, he was at the Nigerian Military Col-

Buhari: An unrepentant disciplinarian at 70Former Head of State and leader of the Congress for Pro-gressive Change (CPC), Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, turns 70 today. FELIX NWANERI, in this report takes a look at the man many have come to know as an unrepentant apostle of anti-corruption.

HE PREDICTES HIS INTEREST ON

TWO COMPELLING OBJECTIVES: “THE NEED TO SANITISE

THE NIGERIAN POLITY AND TO ENSURE THAT

NIGERIANS ENJOY THE DIVIDENDS OF

DEMOCRACY

Buhari

PoliticsNational Mirror

www.nationalmirroronline.net 13Monday, December 17, 2012

“All my political enemies cannot get anything against me to the eff ect that I have compromised my personal integrity or I abused trust. This is my asset and when I ask people to help, they help.”

14&43

This is your third attempt at the Presiden-cy in eight years. Is it that your mission for the country has not been realised or that those who are coming behind are not doing the job as you would like?

Well, that will have to be looked into in the context of our constitution. As far as participation is concerned in our politi-cal dispensation, anybody who is above 18 years can participate. So, it remains for the political parties which are the stepping stones to whatever you aspire politically to make their own choice depending on the constituencies since they remain the only legal platform. You cannot be anything po-litically without a political party and with-out that party nominating you and you winning a free and fair election. The two previous times when I was a presidential candidate in 2003 and 2007, I vied under the platform of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP). And of course, I am sure you have it in your archives somewhere why I have to leave the ANPP which gave me those tickets in 2003 and 2007.

In all, we have to float the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) and it took us 11 months and 17 days to get it registered. Having done that, we approached a number of parties, the most serious of them being the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), to choose and they assured me of the ticket. But I told them having gone this way to pursue the registration of a new party for 11 months and 17 days, the least I could do is to make sure that the structures are on ground as par Electoral Act, and from there I can talk to them from wherever they are. This is to be fair to the people whom we use to register this party. I am contesting for the third time not because I don’t feel that there is nobody qualified to do it. The issue

is not why after a military career in which I was a governor, a minister and a Head of State, I still insist to go through a different system again for the highest office. If you come from a more or less rural area like me and having gone through all those political offices and you went back home and you saw the condition of the people I believe with whatever you can see, how can you im-prove the physical and material life of our people. And if you know, having occupied those offices, having known how much this country is earning and how much ought to go to social services, education, healthcare, even drinking water, infrastructure, start-ing from power, which is the most serious and clothing, I don’t think you still will just sit and enjoy your retirement benefits. I be-lieve you will ask the question and say how can I make impact? Even if I don’t win an election, when I speak, some people some-where in a place of responsibility will lis-ten to you, and therefore try to improve the condition of our people. This is the sum to-tal of my hope and aspirations of why I am trying to get back to the office.

As an elder statesman, a retired gen-eral and former Head of State, certainly nobody can ignore whatever you have got to say, but it will take much more than wanting to be heard to be the president of the country and therefore there must be much more than what you have said in wanting to give it a go for the third time.

No, I don’t think I have insisted that I could only be heard when I am the presi-dent. I have just said that having occupied those offices, I said again that I believe some people somewhere in places of au-thority will take it into account. For ex-ample, I mentioned the fact that during the eight years of General Olusegun Obasanjo, this country earned more money from ex-ternal sources, from the sale of petroleum products during the time, between 1914 and then in terms of hard currency coming into this country. But look at the state of our infrastructure. We used to have the Nige-rian Airways, Nigerian Railways, Nigerian Shipping Lines, even NEPA was relatively coping with the industries we have. And look at the roads we have in this country. Ev-erybody in Nigeria from Lagos to my town

which is the North of Nigeria now buys wa-ter to drink otherwise he stands the risk of contracting either cholera or typhoid fever. And with such an amount of money that was coming into the country, why is it we cannot even maintain these infrastructure? We have four refineries with a capacity of 400,000 litres per day. We have more than 35,000 pipelines. We have 25 depots, all these were planned deliberately to save lives so that we don’t have to use articulated tank-ers burning and killing people through-out this country and for the roads to last much longer. And we don’t have to import finished products. But look at subsequent governments, I don’t know how much, how many litres our refineries are producing now. May be not up to half of our require-ments? And not all the governments, with all these monies we are getting, could main-tain, not even to talk of adding to the petro-leum industry. Look at the textile industries in Kaduna, Kano, Ikeja, Aba. Try and find out how many people were being employed and find out where are they now?

So, really, it is not a question that I am in-sisting to participate and become president because I can only have my way when I be-come the president. No. I am appealing to the conscience of the Nigerian elites. There is no way we will have physical security without reasonable employment. There are so many things wrong and one can only appeal to the elites to give next year a chance, educate their constituencies, don’t enforce any party on them, let the parties themselves go and sort out themselves with their candidates, let people choose the zone that they want to represent them and rule them. So, next year is extremely serious for this country.

If things continue the way they are going now, what is likely to happen to Nigeria in the next five years or a decade? Second-ly, if and when you become president, what are those things you will like to quickly do to arrest the trend regarding the way things are going now?

Well, I think it is very clear to all Nige-rians that the most important thing now is security itself because there is no use if people cannot work in shifts in their work places. Our textile companies used to have

three shifts, other factories whether they are making CocaCola or whatever; they are used to three shifts. Look at the number of people that are being employed. So, the first is security of the country really and then, of course, the material security. We believe that when the security is improved, may be tfactories may open. I said maybe because I am hoping that the amount of money spent on PHCN, we will start realising the ben-efits so that factories can open, they can op-erate and probably break even, so that will mean more employment. So, with physi-cal and material security, people will start bringing their money either improving the factories or bringing in new ones. And if the roads are better, if the refineries are working, pipelines are working free from sabotage, then there will be less tankers on the road, there will be less accidents and the country will save more money. What we are doing now, people are buying products from Europe and the world market while we are supposed to be an oil-producing country, with infrastructure to refine petro-leum products and sell them if necessary at subsidised prices. For instance we can at-tract industries and make them profitable

Why I still want to beToday, Gen. Muhammadu Bu-hari clocks 70 years. The former military Head of State has some-thing in common with National Mirror: his birthday is December 17, the same date the new Na-tional Mirror debuted.On his 68th birthday on Decem-ber 17, 2010, Buhari was the choice for the main interview of the debut edition of National Mirror.In the process of getting a scheduled interview appoint-ment with the former Head of State to mark his 70th birthday, he lost his first daughter. Hence we could not get an interview with him for the purpose.As a result, we bring the ex-tracts of the interview he grant-ed National Mirror two years ago. His views as reflected in the interview are still germane today.He spoke on his quest for a bet-ter Nigeria, the state of the na-tion, the fight against corruption, and his principles. It is vintage Buhari.

Buhari

General Buhari as Military Head of StateBuhari in tears while presenting his speech, marking the enpresidential campaign in Abuja

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.netMonday, December 17, 2012 14 Politics Buhari @ 70

National Mirrorwww.nationalmirroronline.net 15ViewMonday, December 17, 2012

SONI EHIASUELIMEN

soniasuelimen@yahoo.com, 08023459055 (SMS ONLY)

Roadmap

As you read this piece today, many things would have been happening across the country to mark the 70th

birthday anniversary of General Muham-madu Buhari, Nigeria’s one time military ruler. Very important among these things would be the outpouring of goodwill mes-sages. Some of the messages will be genu-ine, many others is half hearted. Falling under this latter category are messages from political opponents, who would have wished that this occasion is celebrated posthumously!

Why this cynicism? The simple truth is that Buhari alive is still a big threat to the establishmentarians. If you dismiss him as having no political value, at least he has a nuisance value, a fact underscored by the post 2011 presidential election violence across the northern part of the country. And particularly for the political threshold that is 2015, Buhari as a presidential can-didate will be a formidable opponent now that the nation is in need of a Messiah! Socioeconomically, Nigeria has entered a

very difficult period characterized by per-vasive unemployment, deficit social infra-structure provisioning and general insecu-rity. I have heard many said only a Buhari would fix the rot.

So bad is the lot of Nigerians that Gen-eral Olusegun Obasanjo, a three time leader of the nation, recently hinted of a likely revolution if the prevailing social conditions were not ameliorated. Many have sneered at such remarks, believing they were made in bad faith. Surprisingly, President Goodluck Jonathan has allowed himself to be misled into joining issues with his political godfather, an act I con-sider impolitic.

On a likely revolution in Nigeria, we only need to remember the Arab Spring, the wave of demonstrations that swept through the Arab world beginning from December 2010 and still raging ferociously in Syria. The mass unrest was largely the product of economic and political decline with its social consequences, including in-creasing alienation of the educated but dis-satisfied youths within the population.

Conditions in Nigeria are worse than obtained in some of the Arab countries be-fore the mass protests. In a country where social media is a pop culture and wide-spread acceptance of internet and other forms of communication is firmly rooted, demonizing a non-performing administra-tion becomes an easy task.

When this happens, Buhari might just be the odd favorite, at least in principle.

Thrice (2003, 2007 and 2011) he made a bid at the nation’s presidency and thrice he failed in his ambition. In all these attempts he never balked at the odds that faced him. He had dared the obstacles that stood on his away to political glory, when other less mortals retreated. For daring, he is now an issue and a factor in the nation’s political equation.

Buhari’s persona lends itself to different interpretation. He is seen as a cult hero, an aristocratic high horse, an enthusiastic so-cial engineer, a rabid nationalist and an au-tocrat. He could be all of these and none of these. The various mindsets on his person flowed from the numerous acts of omission and commission in the period December 31, 1983-August 27, 1985 when he was Nige-ria’s head of state and political power then, in the words of Mao Zedong, “grows out of the barrel of a gun”, and the current demo-cratic dispensation when he refused to be a bystander.

In his first phase of emergent key power player, Buhari combined untrammeled eco-nomic nationalism that saw him rebuffed

the IMF and the World Bank’s entreaties to devalue the naira, remove subsidies on services and increase pump head prices on petroleum products with iron fisted states-manship that caused political officehold-ers to be hounded into prisons in the most bizarre manner; used retroactive decrees to criminalize past misdeeds; and caged the press and voices of opposition through dra-conian decrees.

Putting that era in perspective, I would say the options available to him were few given the moral decadence of the time. More importantly, military government that he headed did not make pretence at consensus building, it ruled by fiat.

Now for Buhari the stark reality is that the ballot box rather than the barrel of the gun is the source of political legitimacy. Thrice since 2003 he has failed in convinc-ing Nigerians he could do business with them. Will he make another bid in 2015? His body language suggests the answer is yes.

Anyway, he needs a change of tactics. The starting point is building political bridges across the north-south geopolitical divides. How far he can go in this task is a function of how well he could live through Mao’s maxim of “pay attention to uniting and working with comrades who differ with you… We have come together from every corner of the country and should be good at uniting in our work not only with comrades who hold the same views as we but also with those who hold different views.”

Happy birthday, sir.

Refl ection on Buhari at 70

Send your views by mail or sms to PMB 10001, Ikoyi, or our Email: mail@nationalmirroronline.net mirrorlagos@yahoo.com or 08164966858 (SMS only). The Editor reserves the right to edit and reject views or photographs. Pseudonyms may be used but must be clearly marked as such.

WILL HE MAKE ANOTHER BID IN 2015? HIS BODY

LANGUAGE SUGGESTS THE ANSWER IS YES

Capital market: Bailing out shareholders, punishing regulators

ing regulatory officials that connived with thieves to foist a regime of impunity have remained untouched.

Though the Tribunal waited for five years to arrive at this verdict on Ebong and co., it is better late than never. The Union Bank management under Ebong was found guilty of fraudulently purchasing own shares, de-ceptively using innocent depositors’ funds, pocketing the proceeds and undermining the integrity of the market. By buying back its own shares, the management created a false impression of active trading, which misled shareholders to invest in the manipu-lated price of stock.

Pending expected criminal trial of the guilty former Union Bank’s top shots, the audit firm of KPMG has been appointed to determine the quantum of losses suffered by deceived shareholders with a view to as-certaining illicit gains received. Thereafter, the Tribunal directed SEC to deposit the retrieved funds (from recovered assets of the directors) into an escrow account to be refunded to the affected investors. In view of

the restructured collapsed banks and the dy-namism of in-out market trading, the chal-lenge of identifying shareholders for bailout is surmountable. In addition, shareholders desire speedy trial and verdict on pending cases with the Tribunal, as well as the con-ventional judicial system, whose largely incorrigible judges have stalled trial of capital market fraudsters, in collusion with shameless senior lawyers who prostitute the temple of justice with such abominations as imbecilic adjournments, double-faced ver-dicts and slap-on-wrist judgments. Erastus Akingbola has been convicted in the United Kingdom and ordered to refund hundreds of billions; yet his trial in Nigeria is stalled by a compromised judicial system.

Just a few days ago, the Finance Minister and Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, announced a fed-eral government’s bailout of N22.6 billion for distressed and collapsed stock firms that used uncollateralized bank loans to artifi-cially shore up share values of stocks in which they had interest. Though some see the bailout as unjust reward for integrity-deficient businesses, it is instructive that government had similarly spent trillions of naira to bail out the banks that okayed the reckless margin loans. The distressed aviation industry too has been bailed out, as well as agriculture. Depositors of failed banks are being compensated by Nigerian Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC). Capital market investors are waiting ear-nestly for their own compensation.

However, Mrs. Okonjo- Iweala has as-sured that government is mooting unspec-ified incentives to reward genuine stock-broking firms with sound business ethics that did not partake of the financial brig-

andage. Conspicuously left out of the bail-out bonanza are shareholders who risked their life savings investing in the capital market to provide cheaper funds for indus-tries and other productive sectors compared to the cutthroat interest rates of commer-cial banks. Contrary to Sanusi Lamido Sa-nusi’s unguarded statement that the capital market is irrelevant casino and deserves no bailout, Okonjo-Iweala has remarked that the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank consider the capital mar-ket and money market as major building blocks for economic growth and indicators of economic health of a nation.

Therefore, the Nnnena Orji’s verdict that retrieved illicit gains of former Union Bank chiefs would be refunded to affected investors is cheering. Mrs. Okonji-Iweala should consolidate on this to restore confi-dence in the market.

The Investment and Securities Tribu-nal’s conviction of the former man-aging director of Union Bank, Bar-

tholomew Ebong and four other directors for scandalous share manipulations that wrecked the bank brings to fore the urgent need to compensate innocent shareholders who lost money and in some extreme cases, their lives. The Dr Nnenna Orji-headed Tri-bunal ordered the investigation of Ebong and 19 other directors of the scam-wrecked bank to determine the degree of their in-volvement in the bank’s share crash be-tween 2006 and 2007.

The decimation of the nation’s vital eco-nomic backbone thrived under the admin-istration of regulators, some of whom are positioning for political appointments after having succeeded as undertakers of the economy. Musa al-Faki was the Director General of Security and Exchange Com-mission (SEC); Prof. Ndidi Onyiuke-Oker-eke headed the Nigeria Stock Exchange (NSE), while Prof. Charles Soludo, was the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

The CBN failed woefully to perform its supervisory roles of checking commercial banks from compromising their health and that of the economy through reckless grant-ing of margin loans to stock-broking firms. These heads of the regulatory agencies have not been apprehended, investigated and punished for their roles in the capital market crash, just as the regulatory agency officials at the NNPC, PPPRA, Presidency, PEF that supervised the multi trillion naira petroleum subsidy swindles remain untouched. As with the investigation and prosecution of subsidy thieves restricted to only marketers, capital market and bank-

THESE HEADS OF THE REGULATORY

AGENCIES HAVE NOT BEEN APPREHENDED,

INVESTIGATED AND PUNISHED FOR THEIR

ROLES IN THE CAPITAL MARKET CRASH

CALLISTUSOKE

Callistusoke@nationalmirroronline.net 08054103275 (SMS ONLY)

HeartBeat

16 National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.netEditorial Monday, December 17, 2012

All the Facts, All the SidesAll the Facts, All the SidesA PUBLICATION OF GLOBAL MEDIA MIRROR LTD

BARRISTER JIMOH IBRAHIM, OFR PUBLISHER

STEVE AYORINDE MD/EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

YELE AKINROLABU ED OPERATIONS

SEYI FASUGBA DAILY EDITOR

BOLAJI TUNJI SUNDAY EDITOR

GBEMI OLUJOBI SATURDAY EDITOR

LANRE OYETADE GENERAL EDITOR

DOZIE OKEBALAMA COORDINATOR, EDITORIAL BOARD

ADESOYE ADEKOYA CONTROLLER, PRODUCTION

CALLISTUS OKE EDITORIAL PAGE EDITOR

ISE-OLUWA IGE ABUJA BUREAU CHIEF

KAYODE BALOGUN JNR SM, STRATEGIC DEVELOPMENT

FRANK OBOH HEAD, GRAPHICS

All the Facts, All the SidesAll the Facts, All the SidesA PUBLICATION OF GLOBAL MEDIA MIRROR LTD

BARRISTER JIMOH IBRAHIM, OFR PUBLISHER

STEVE AYORINDE MD/EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

YELE AKINROLABU ED OPERATIONS

SEYI FASUGBA DAILY EDITOR

BOLAJI TUNJI SUNDAY EDITOR

GBEMI OLUJOBI SATURDAY EDITOR

LANRE OYETADE GENERAL EDITOR

DOZIE OKEBALAMA COORDINATOR, EDITORIAL BOARD

ADESOYE ADEKOYA CONTROLLER, PRODUCTION

CALLISTUS OKE EDITORIAL PAGE EDITOR

ISE-OLUWA IGE ABUJA BUREAU CHIEF

KAYODE BALOGUN JNR SM, STRATEGIC DEVELOPMENT

FRANK OBOH HEAD, GRAPHICS

MANY SOUTHERNERS WOULD HAVE LOVED

HIM TO BUILD AN EFFECTIVE BRIDGE

BETWEEN THE NORTH…, AND THE

SOUTH

All the Facts, All the SidesAll the Facts, All the SidesA PUBLICATION OF GLOBAL MEDIA MIRROR LTD

BARRISTER JIMOH IBRAHIM, OFR PUBLISHER

STEVE AYORINDE MD/EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

YELE AKINROLABU ED OPERATIONS

SEYI FASUGBA DAILY EDITOR

BOLAJI TUNJI SUNDAY EDITOR

GBEMI OLUJOBI SATURDAY EDITOR

DOZIE OKEBALAMA COORDINATOR, EDITORIAL BOARD

ADESOYE ADEKOYA CONTROLLER, PRODUCTION

CALLISTUS OKE EDITORIAL PAGE EDITOR

ISE-OLUWA IGE ABUJA BUREAU CHIEF

KAYODE BALOGUN JNR SM, STRATEGIC DEVELOPMENT

FRANK OBOH HEAD, GRAPHICS

many, young or old; Muslim or Christian. This newspaper cannot easily discountenance the puzzle that made the General’s 68th birthday on December 17, 2010, to coincide with the day we debuted with our maiden edition. Interestingly, too, he was the celebrated interview-personality in that edition.

Buhari cut his teeth as a public figure in August, 1975, when the slain military leader, General Murtala Muhammed, appointed him the military governor of the erstwhile North Eastern State. But he attained the peak of his career in December 1983, when he emerged as the military head of state. He has since then remained a recurring decimal in the country’s politics and the consciousness of Nigerians.

Under the present democratic dispensation (1999 to date), Buhari had on three different occasions made spirited attempts to become the country’s civilian president through the electoral process (2003, 2007 and 2011); and thrice he failed. Still, a lot of Nigerians do not view the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) leader as a man that can be dismissed with a casual wave of the left hand in Nigeria and its politics. Even at 70, Buhari fights on, perhaps not wanting history to record him as yet another best president the country never had. He is not only dead critical of the current administration, which he often lambasts as very corrupt and notorious for electoral malpractices, Buhari had in the past, sought justice against electoral frauds in the nation’s Supreme Court, though

without success. Presently, his party, the CPC; and other political parties are reportedly putting heads together to explore the possibility of wresting power from the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in 2015.

The General’s puritanical and moral pedigree notwithstanding, public suspicion, especially in the southern part of the country, suggests that he is a consummate Islamic fundamentalist, who seems not quite interested in changing the popular perception, whether rightly or wrongly, about him. Yet, many southerners would have loved him to build an effective bridge between the North, where he has a phenomenal followership, and the South. The volatile comments he allegedly made following the declaration of President Goodluck Jonathan as the winner of the 2011 presidential poll was believed to have ignited the violent disturbances recorded in parts of the North at the time. He is equally suspected to be one of the sympathizers of the Boko Haram Islamic sect. Buhari had, on certain occasions, denied some of these allegations; but has never wavered in predicting a likely violent revolution should the government fail to address the problem of

rapacious corruption, including massive electoral frauds and malpractices.

Despite all his perceived foibles, however, we consider the General as one of the few living Nigerians capable of turning around the fortunes of the country, if given the opportunity. His unpretentious and total surrender for the good of the nation during his days as a military head of state and now; and his unimpeachable character, all combined to earn him our respect. All through global history, only such passionately patriotic, selfless and strong personalities intervene positively and decisively in the lives of distressed nations like ours. Nigeria has not been fortunate to have such strong and selfless leaders, which is why the mindless pillage and plundering of the country’s resources have continued unabated.

Indeed, when he had the opportunity to lead the nation as a soldier (December 31, 1983-August 27, 1985), his administration, though so short, left no Nigerian in doubt as to what its mission for the country was. His government stood for economic nationalism with unrivalled probity and frugality. It rebuffed all the entreaties of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank to devalue the naira, remove subsidies on essential services and increase the pump prices of petroleum products, among others. Rightly believing that a nation is doomed, that tolerates pervasive indiscipline and corrupt practices, the Buhari regime launched the War Against Indiscipline (WAI) programme, through which it positively revolutionised the attitudes and values of

Nigerians for a very brief period. The regime’s low points, nevertheless, were its flagrant abuse of citizen’s fundamental rights and its utter disregard of democratic principles; as were reflected through draconian decrees, repression of the opposition and the media; and indiscriminate imprisonment of corrupt politicians, etc. But the moral poser remains whether Buhari had better options, given the huge moral crisis that confronted the country then.

Born on December 17, 1942 in Daura, in the present Katsina State, Buhari had his primary and secondary education in Nigeria between 1952 and 1961 and enlisted into the Nigeria Army in 1962. He proceeded to the Mons Officer Cadet School, Aldershot, United Kingdom (1962-63) and Defence Services Staff College, Wellington, India (1973). He stood out from the crowd and was accorded due recognition with such high profile appointments as the Commissioner for Petroleum Resources Ministry (1976-1978), during which era the Warri and Kaduna refineries were built; Chairman, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation(NNPC), 1978; and Chairman, Petroleum (Special) Trust Fund, (1995- 1998), among others. As the new National Mirror celebrates its second anniversary today as Nigeria’s fastest growing media group with remarkable achievements within a short time, we join General Buhari and all his well-wishers in celebrating his attainment of the setuagenarian age. We also offer our heart-felt condolences to him and his family over the demise of his eldest daughter, Zulaihatu, lately.

At two National Mirror celebrates Buhari @ 70 CONTINUED FROM PG 1

Cover

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.netMonday, December 17, 2012 A2 18 Business CourageCourage

A Publication of GLOBAL MEDIA MIRROR LTDBARRISTER JIMOH IBRAHIM, OFR PUBLISHER

SEMIU SALAMI EDITORBAMIDELE OBAFEMI ASSOCIATE EDITORADEJUWON OSUNNUYI STAFF WRITERFESTUS OKOROMADU STAFF WRITERTAYO ADELEKE SENIOR REPORTER

OLATOYE RAPHAEL HEAD, PRODUCTIONSEYI OKUMODI SENIOR GRAPHIC ARTIST

BusinessCourageThis is clearly not the

best of time for Nige-ria and its leadership. Barely one week after

Transparency International’s corruption perception index placed Nigeria 135th out of 176 corrupt countries, the country has again, placed seventh out of the 20 biggest exporters of illicit fi nancial fl ows over a decade, with cumulative fi gure of $129 billion and an average of $12.9 billion.

The new rating, according to a study by Global Financial

Yet, anotherdamning reportNigeria’s rating in the eyes of the global community pummelled again with last week’s rating of the country as the seventh out of 20 biggest exporters of illicit financial flows by Global Financial Integrity (GFI), a Washington-based research and advocacy organisation

By Salami Semiu Integrity (GFI), a Washington-based research and advocacy organisation, also revealed the 20 top exporters of illegal capital in 2010, with Nigeria occupying the same position with $19.66 billion. The report, covering 2001 to 2010 and co-authored by GFI Lead Economist Dev Kar and GFI Economist Sarah Frei-tas, is due to be submitted this week.

The report, the fi rst by GFI to incorporate a new, more conser-vative estimate of illicit fi nancial fl ows facilitating comparisons with previous estimates from GFI updates, identifi es crime, corruption and tax evasion at

near historic highs with near-ly $6 trillion stolen from poor countries within the decade and $859 billion in 2010.

China is leading the pack with $274 billion average ($2.74 trillion cumulative); followed by Mexico with $47.6 billion avg. ($476 billion cum.); Malaysia, $28.5 billion avg. ($285 billion cum.); Saudi Arabia, $21.0 bil-lion avg. ($210 billion cum.); Russia, $15.2 billion avg. ($152 billion cum.); and Philippines, $13.8 billion avg. ($138 billion cum.).

Raymond Baker, GFI direc-tor, said the development was capable of further impoverishing the developing countries, while observing that it was a call for leaders to halt the trend. “As-tronomical sums of dirty money continue to fl ow out of the de-veloping world and into offshore tax havens and developed coun-try banks. Regardless of the methodology, it’s clear: devel-oping economies are haemor-rhaging more and more money at a time when rich and poor nations alike are struggling to spur economic growth. This re-port should be a wake-up call to world leaders that more must be done to address these harmful outfl ows,” Baker said.

Giving insight into the report, Kar said, “The estimates pro-vided by either methodology are still likely to be extremely con-servative as they do not include trade mispricing in services, same-invoice trade mispricing, hawala transactions, and deal-ings conducted in bulk cash. This means that much of the proceeds of drug traffi cking, hu-man smuggling, and other crim-

inal activities, which are often settled in cash, are not included in these estimates.”

The report noted that crime, corruption, and tax evasion cost the developing world $858.8 bil-lion in 2010, just below the all-time high of $871.3 billion set in 2008 – the year preceding the global fi nancial crisis. “As devel-oping countries begin to loosen capital controls, the possibil-ity exists that the methodology utilised in previous GFI reports – known as the World Bank Residual Plus Trade Mispric-ing method – could increasingly pick up some licit capital fl ows. The methodology introduced in this report – the Hot Money Narrow Plus Trade Mispricing method – ensures that all fl ow estimates are strictly illicit mov-ing forward, but may omit some illicit fi nancial fl ows detected in the previous methodology,” said the report.

The $858.8 billion of illicit outfl ows lost in 2010, according to the report, is a signifi cant up-tick from 2009, which saw de-veloping countries lose $776.0

billion under the new method-ology. “This has very big conse-quences for developing econo-mies. Poor countries lost nearly a trillion dollars that could have been used to invest in health-care, education, and infrastruc-ture. It’s nearly a trillion dollars that could have been used to pull people out of poverty and save lives,” said Freitas.

The authors of the report ad-vocated that “world leaders in-crease the transparency in the international fi nancial system as a means to curtail the illicit fl ow of money.”

They also called for address-ing the problems posed by “anonymous shell companies, foundations, and trusts by re-quiring confi rmation of ben-efi cial ownership in all banking and securities accounts and demanding that information on the true, human owner of all corporations, trusts and foun-dations be disclosed upon for-mation and be available to law enforcement; reforming customs and trade protocols to detect and curtail trade mispricing and

Clifton Jonathan

Cover

National Mirrorwww.nationalmirroronline.net Monday, December 17, 2012 A3 19Business CourageCourage

BC

requiring the country-by-coun-try reporting of sales, profi ts and taxes paid by multinational cor-porations.”

Other solutions suggested include “requiring the auto-matic, cross-border exchange of tax information on personal and business accounts and har-monising predicate offences un-der anti-money laundering laws across all Financial Action Task Force cooperating countries, while ensuring that the existing anti-money laundering regula-tions are strongly enforced.

Curiously, just two weeks ago, Global corruption watch-dog, Transparency International ranked Nigeria the 35th most corrupt country in the world, thus rubbishing Federal Gov-ernment’s claim to waging war against corruption.

In its 2012 Corruption Per-ception Index (CPI), released in Berlin, Germany, TI said Nigeria scored 27 out of a maximum of 100 marks to clinch the bottom 139th position out of the 176 countries surveyed for the re-port. It shared that position with Azerbaijan, Kenya, Nepal and Pakistan.

This year’s index ranks 176 countries/territories by their perceived levels of public sector corruption, TI explained in the report. Nigeria has been drifting down in public and international perception of the commitment of the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan to the fi ght against corruption with several corruption cases unattended to and those instituted in courts in the years past stagnated for lack of political will. The coordinating agency for the nation’s anti-graft

war has been largely castrated and has in the last one year of a new leadership under Ibrahim Lamorde not achieved anything in terms of arresting high profi le suspects or securing conviction of any politically exposed person (PEP).

According to TI, “A grow-ing outcry over corrupt govern-ments forced several leaders from offi ce last year, but as the dust has cleared, it has become apparent that the levels of brib-ery, abuse of power and secret dealings are still very high in many countries. Transparency International’s Corruption Per-ceptions Index 2012 shows cor-ruption continues to ravage so-cieties around the world.

“Two thirds of the 176 coun-tries ranked in the 2012 index score below 50, on a scale from 0 (perceived to be highly cor-rupt) to 100 (perceived to be very clean), showing that pub-lic institutions need to be more transparent, and powerful offi -cials more accountable.

“Governments need to inte-grate anti-corruption actions into all public decision-making. Priorities include better rules on lobbying and political fi nancing, making public spending and contracting more transparent and making public bodies more accountable to people,” said Huguette Labelle, the Chair of Transparency International.

“After a year of focus on cor-ruption, we expect governments to take a tougher stance against the abuse of power. The Corrup-tion Perceptions Index 2012 re-sults demonstrate that societies continue to pay the high cost of corruption,” Labelle said.

Many of the countries where citizens challenged their lead-ers to stop corruption –from the Middle East to Asia to Europe – have seen their positions in the index stagnate or worsen.

In the Corruption Percep-tions Index 2012 Denmark, Finland and New Zealand tie for fi rst place with scores of 90, helped by strong access to infor-mation systems and rules gov-erning the behaviour of those in public positions.

Afghanistan, North Korea and Somalia once again cling to the bottom rung of the index. In these countries, the lack of ac-countable leadership and effec-tive public institutions under-score the need to take a much stronger stance against corrup-tion.

In May this year, Trans-parency International had ex-pressed worry over the scope and speed of corruption in Nige-ria, saying it is beyond what it has ever dealt with.

In an open letter to President Jonathan by Fitch and Associ-ates in The Hague, The Neth-erlands, on behalf of Transpar-ency International, TI said the scam in Nigeria at present is quite heartbreaking. “The prob-lem, Your Excellency, has to do with the rate and scale of scams and corruption probes coming out of Nigeria in 2012. The scope and speed of corruption in your country this year is beyond any-thing our client has ever dealt with. When the pension scam broke out, the three specialists working on Nigeria complained about overwork and threatened a law suit against Transparency International because they had

to work 23 hours a day from Monday to Sunday just to cope with the fi gures coming out of that scam,” it said.

The letter further stated that the Transparency International had to transfer country special-ists away from zero or low cor-ruption countries, such as New Zealand, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Singapore, Norway, The Netherlands, Australia, Switzerland and Canada to Ni-geria to ensure that the fi gures were well scrutinised.

Just before the TI’s report, another report by Gallup, a US-based research and consult-ing fi rm, in its fi rst-ever report on “Global States of Mind: New Metrics for World Leaders,” stat-ed that 94 per cent of Nigerians believe there is widespread cor-ruption in government.

The poll also showed that in the world, only Kenyans be-lieved their government was more corrupt. The poll also re-vealed that about 96 per cent of Kenyans had alleged that there were widespread corruption in their government, while only fi ve per cent of Singaporeans said their government was corrupt.

Singaporeans believe their country was the least corrupt in the world. Gallup said last year’s revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt where GDP was rising, shows that world leaders need more than just GDP and other tradi-tional economic metrics to run their countries.

Gallup Chairman and CEO, Jim Clifton, said: “Economic data are becoming less and less valuable because they tend to be outdated by the time they are made available. More signifi -cantly, GDP is less valuable be-cause leaders now need to know much more than what people are spending-they need to know what they are thinking; GDP isn’t enough if you are watching for instability.”

“All institutes worldwide knew GDP was rising in Tunisia and Egypt. They knew what 11 million Tunisians and 80 mil-lion Egyptians were buying and selling-but they didn’t know what they were thinking,” Clif-ton added.

Clifton said GDP wasn’t enough if leaders were trying to fi gure out the levels of hunger, hopelessness, or suffering, add-ing that the United Nations did not see those revolutions com-ing, neither did the World Eco-nomic Forum (WEF), nor the World Bank.

“The US spends tens of bil-lions on intelligence— and it missed those revolutions too,” Clifton said. Gallup’s World Poll spans about 150 countries, ter-ritories, and areas, annually cap-turing what more than 98 per cent of the world’s adult popula-tion is thinking on topics from ba-sic needs to job creation. Gallup’s World Poll data set now includes more than one million interviews conducted since the research ini-tiative started in 2005.

Respondents were asked questions on law and order, food and shelter, institutions and infrastructure, good jobs, wellbeing, brain drain and qual-ity GDP growth.

Frank Nweke Jnr, Direc-tor-General, Nigeria Economic Summit Group (NESG) had stated in Abuja during the last conference that the lat-est Transparency International index report on Nigeria was a wake-up call” to the fi ght against corruption. “This fi gure merely serves to remind us that we need to keep working on the issue of corruption in the public and private sector. Even if we are ranked 20th out of 176, I still feel that government must continue to redouble its efforts to really address these issues.”

The Central Bank Governor, Lamido Sanusi says no country was immune to corruption but stressed that “The greatest chal-lenge facing Nigeria is the chal-lenge of a people that have lost sight of the importance of merit and not corruption. If you go to China, they steal money, in Ma-laysia there is corruption and why don’t we hear about it? It is because every day, these coun-tries are developing. If you go to the hospitals, the doctors know their jobs, you go to the school, the teacher is qualifi ed. If you are running a bank, a regula-tory agency or a minister, there is merit,” he said.

No doubt, analysts say the spate of reviews and ratings which indicate that Nigeria re-mains one of the most corrupt in the world has continued to cast serious aspersion on the country and her people and has clearly shown that successive administrations in the country have not shown strong commit-ment to eradicate cankerworm.

Since assuming offi ce in 2010, President Jonathan has not shown suffi cient vigour in the fi ght against corruption – including corruption involving past and current actors in his administration.

The tipping point in the president’s profi le, regarding re-luctance in promoting transpar-ency, came when, in televised media chat in June, he scoffed at a question on why he had not publicly declared his asset. The President had snapped that “I don’t give a damn!”

Besides, Diezani Allison-Madueke, Petroleum Minister and a close ally of the president, is believed to have heaps of es-tablished corruption allegations against her, but none has been investigated by the government.

In August last year, Presi-dent Jonathan reportedly or-dered a secret payment of $155 million to Malabu oil, a fi rm owned by an ex-convict and for-mer petroleum minister, Dan Etete. Not only was the payment done without the knowledge of the Finance Minister, Malabu transferred the money into du-bious accounts.

Baker

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.netMonday, December 17 2012 A4 20 Business CourageCourage

Piracy, greatest obstacle to foreign investment inflow-NIMASAStories by Francis Ezem

The Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety

Agency has said that moves by the Federal Government to attract foreign investment into the country to grow the nation’s economy might not yield the needed results because of the increasing of piracy in Nigeria’s waters.Director-General of the agency, Mr. Patrick Akpobolokemi, Nigeria’s apex maritime regulatory body gave this view while speaking on the topic: ‘How to Check Piracy and Other Illegal Activities on Nigerian Waters’ at the sixth Ships & Ports annual national essay competition prize presentation ceremony, which held in Lagos.

According to him, piracy activities in African waters in the last decade have been concentrated in three regions comprising the Somali Coast/the Gulf of Aden along the East African Coast, Nigeria’s territorial waters in West Africa and the Mozambique channel/Cape sea route in Southern Africa.

“Piracy makes needed trade and investment in the region more risky and expensive. Given the risk involved in transporting goods through the region, insurance premiums have been escalating because shippers factor in higher risks into their operating costs.He said: “Piracy makes needed trade and investment in the region more risky and expensive. Given the risk involved in transporting goods through the region, insurance premiums have been escalating because shippers factor in higher risks into their operating costs”, he said.

He noted that this situation might worsen following the decision of the International Bargaining Forum to designate the territorial waters of Benin

and Nigeria as a high risk area with effect from April 2012.The Forum is a global labour federation for the transportation industry, which represents over 690 labour unions including 600,000 seafaring members.

The NIMASA boss said: “The implication of this is that these waters will be treated the same as the high -risk areas in the Gulf of Aden and near Somalia due to increased pirate attacks. It also entails that seafarers have the right to refuse to enter these waters and are entitled to double their daily basic wage and of death and disability compensation while within these areas of risk”.

He noted that this has negative impacts on the income of regional ports and the cost of goods destined for the region.

Akpobolokemi, who was represented by the head, search and rescue of the agency, Commander Ilyasu Bako (rtd) argued that the resurgence of pirate attacks in African waters is now a subject of serious concern to African states and indeed the international community.

According to him, since 2007 when African waters overtook waters off Southeast Asia – Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, and Philippines as the traditionally dangerous hotspots of global piracy, much of the international attention and efforts at countering piracy in Africa have been on Somali.He observed that this is understandably so because piracy off the Somali coast accounts for more than half of pirate attacks recorded annually in Africa, if not globally.

Records show that out 439 piracy attacks worldwide in 2011, more than half of them were attributed to Somali pirates operating in the Gulf of Aden, the Red Sea, the Arabian Sea, the Indian Ocean, and off the coast of Oman.

He however noted that though most of the attacks within Nigeria cannot qualify

to be called piracy going by their mode of operation, these armed robbers are however, increasingly modifying their tactics by hijacking fi shing vessels, particularly within Nigerian waters, and using same to attack other vessels operating off the coasts of neighbouring countries like Benin and Cameroun.

“It is in response to the increasing rate of piracy in the Gulf of Guinea that NIMASA has take steps to strengthen its existing Memorandum of Understanding on waterways security with the Nigerian Navy”, he noted.

“These efforts have begun to yield results. The numbers of reported piracy incidences in Nigerian waters has reduced substantially when compared with previous years. 56 piracy attacks were recorded in 2010, which increased to 119 in 2011, but since the current NIMASA initiative with the Nigerian Navy and Global West Vessel Specialist Ltd started early 2012, the number of recorded incidences till date has dropped to 69”, he said emphatically.

It was also gathered that both agencies have concluded plans to increase the range of regular sea patrol to cover most of the Niger Delta, which is expected to further reduce piracy and armed robbery attacks in the country.

‘Shallow seaports, low indigenous participation bane of maritime growth’

Ports Consultative Council has said that the absence

of deep seaports, weak national policy, especially in the areas of ports and transport master plans as well as low participation of indigenous operators in international, coastal and inland shipping have over the years hindered the growth of Nigeria’s shipping industry.

A former managing director of the Nigerian Ports Authority, Chief Adebayo Sarumi, who is reputed to have supervised the nation’s port privatisation

programme, had said recently that most of Nigeria’s seaports are obsolete and have overshot their capacity and therefore require expansion, especially through green fi eld development.

Chairman of the PCC, Otunba Kunle Folarin, who spoke at the 2012 maritime awards organised by Maritime Reporters Association of Nigeria in Lagos, said that the trend in global shipping arena is the development of modern and deep seaports that make for easier, faster and cheaper handling of goods at the seaports.

According to him, the Nigerian seaport industry has over the years been bedevilled by the weak national policy, especially in the areas of port and transport master plans that would provide the needed roadmap for growth.

Other challenges of the industry listed by the PCC-boss include the low participation of indigenous operators in international, coastal and inland shipping arena, all of which are currently dominated by foreign players.

Folarin regretted that nine years after the enactment of the Coastal and Inland Shipping (Cabotage) Act, 2003, which was designed to build capacity for the indigenous operators, not much has changed due to the poor enforcement of the legislation by relevant maritime agencies.

This development has also impacted negatively on the development of indigenous fl eet, since a few indigenous shipping fi rms, which have vessels are not given access to cargo by the International Oil Companies, who prefer foreign shipping companies.

Another challenge listed by Folarin, who doubles as president of Seafarers Welfare Board is the failure of successive governments in the country to provide structured human capital development programmes designed to develop indigenous capacity.He also frowned at what he described as truncated pattern in executive management administration and appointments under which government continue to appoint politicians, who know next to nothing about the industry instead of technocrats and professionals and other well experienced people.

On the way forward, he made a strong case for the enthronement of a new legal framework through the review of major legislations like the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Act, 2007, Nigerian Ports Authority Act and National Shipping Policy.

Other legislations that needed to be reviewed,

according to him include National Inland Waterways Authority Act, Nigerian Shippers’ Council Act and Cabotage Act, 2003, especially with a view to exploiting the benefi ts and maritime opportunities that abound in the eight coastal states in the country.

In order to enhance maritime security, he canvassed the increase in the surveillance of the nation’s territorial waters to ensure safety of the maritime traffi c and crew of ships trading in the nation’s environments.

Other measures canvassed by the PCC-boss to grow the maritime industry include building a strong cadre of maritime personnel,, draw up a master plan port development plan, which would provide the much needed roadmap and urgently develop three deep seaports in Lekki, Bonny and Olokola in Ondo State.

He also charged the government to create free zones and establish Nigerian-United Arab Emirates manufacturing and export markets, embark on massive fl eet development like the Malaysians, Koreans and Indians, embark on massive training of seafarers training like the Philippines to service global shipping, among several others.

Planning Commission, UNDP, CBN seek stakeholders collaboration on States’ GDP projectStories By Tola Akinmutimi (Abuja)

The National Planning Com-mission, United Nations

Development Programme and the Central Bank of Nigeria have vowed to commit them-selves to ongoing states’ Needs Assessment Survey and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) com-putation projects in order to ensure a qualitative, fully in-tegrated National Statistical

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Giving their assurances to support the projects at the Validation Workshop on Needs Assessment of the Pilot States’ Planning Commissions and Statistical Agencies in Abuja at the weekend, the institutions noted that developing a robust statistical system for the coun-try required all stakeholders’ collaboration.

In his opening remarks at the forum organised to consid-er and review the draft report on the Needs Assessment Sur-vey held in Abuja, Minister of National Planning, Dr. Sham-suddeen Usman, said the fact the States’ GDP computation has not been conducted before in the country made it impera-tive for collaborative approach by stakeholders in order to ensure the completion of the project.

The Minister, who was rep-resented by the Secretary of the Board of the Commission, described the workshop as sig-nifi cant to the initiative since it serves as a veritable platform upon which the States’ Statis-tical System will be proactively, collaboratively coordinated and sustainably managed for im-proved evidenced-based data management in the country.

He said: “In Nigeria, the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has been compiled by the Na-tional Bureau of Statistics, since the colonial period, on an aggregate basis. The fact that the States’ GDP computation has not been undertaken in Nigeria is one of the compelling reasons for the collaborative approach that we are adopting for the successful execution of the project.

“In this regard, the National Planning Commission is work-ing closely with the National Bureau of Statistics and the Governors’ Forum, as well as the development partners, to ensure that the process is successfully implemented and built on solid framework, so that the project and its ben-efi ts are sustained over time”, Usman added.

In his goodwill message de-livered by Mrs. Collen Zamba, the Resident Coordinator of United Nations System in Nigeria, Mr. Dauda Toure, described the Needs Assess-ment Survey as a major step towards positioning the SSAs for a more effi cient planning and statistical service delivery and expressed the hope that the recommendations that come up from the survey will be used to improve the capac-ity and performance of the sta-tistical system.

While assuring the Federal Government of the UNDP’s readiness to continually sup-port the projects, he urged the stakeholders to make neces-sary inputs and contributions to the draft Needs Assessment report with a view to using the

fi nal report in building an ef-fective, effi cient and sustain-able statistical system for the country.

The UN Systems Chief said: “As we progress in our path of development towards becoming one of the world’s 20 largest economies, and as we strive to integrate with the international economic order, the role of statistics will become progres-sively more important. In such a situation, the hallmark of a country’s reputation will be the credibility and transparency of its statistical system and the statistical data emanating from that system.

“Let me once again as-sure the Honourable Minister of the UNDP’s readiness and willingness to continue to support the state GDP proj-ect. As you are aware, the UN System is fully in support of government’s efforts to achieve sustainable economic trans-formation through the devel-opment of medium and long term strategic planning for which availability of data such as state-level GDP is critical”, Toure said.

The CBN Governor’s rep-resentative, Dr Sani Doguwa, said the banking sector regula-tory institution, was fully in support of the sundry initia-tives even as he asked the State Governments to provide adequate funds for establish-ing Statistical Agencies and fully keeping such agencies operationally effi cient.

The CBN boss, who listed some of the key challenges of the States Planning Comis-sions’ effective planning as lack of political will and the political hierarchy to enable the SPCs to function effi cient-ly, dearth of professionally qualifi ed planning offi cers with required skills and discipline and inadequate legal and in-stitutional framework for plan-ning and statistical develop-ment, advised the sub-national governments to avail the op-portunity of the State GDP computation project to build capacity of the States Statisti-cal Agencies.

NEXIM, Miners partner over investments in solid minerals sector

The Nigerian Export Import Bank and Miners’ Asso-

ciation of Nigeria have com-menced deliberations on a strategic framework the Bank and the Association are devel-oping to improve the structure of investments to the Solid Minerals sector on a sustain-able basis.

In a statement issued by the Corporate Communication Department of the Bank, the

meeting with the Miners’ As-sociation was essentially a ges-ture by its patrons to discuss issues of mutual cooperation with NEXIM as a follow-up to the interactive business dinner organized by the Association in conjunction with the Federal Ministry of Mines & Steel De-velopment.

Speaking on the NEXIM Bank’s strategic initiative and market focus to the As-sociation’s team in his offi ce, the Managing Director, Mr. Roberts Orya, was quoted as reiterating the strategic im-portance of the solid minerals sector to the Bank under its MASS Agenda and that about N2.5 billion, representing about 9 per cent of the total credit portfolio since 2009 had been committed to the sector.

According to him, the sup-port however remained totally low in terms of the sector’s funding requirement if Nigeria is to fully explore the potential benefi ts of her huge mineral deposits for national socio-economic benefi ts, adding that “solid minerals mining is a high capital intensive area and requires strong Government intervention to unlock its huge revenue and job creation ben-efi ts for the country”.

Using statistical factsheets from relevant industry agen-cies to drive home his point , Orya stated that, Nigeria is endowed with more than 33 commercially viable solid min-erals which could be exploited including gold, lead-zinc ore (Galena), iron ore, columbite, ilmenite, cassiterite, uranium, copper, molybdenite, manga-nese, wolframite, rutile and diorite, bauxite, gypsum, talc, bentonite and barite, rock salt, gem stones, kaolin and so on. When it is considered that some of these minerals are in very dense deposits, one be-gins to appreciate the picture better.

Despite the huge solid min-erals resource endowments, the NEXIM boss noted that solid minerals sector currently contributes less than one per cent to Nigeria’s Gross Domes-tic Product (GDP), down from the 10 per cent contribution prior to crude oil exploration, compared to 9 per cent contri-

bution to South Africa’s GDP last year.

In his response, the Presi-dent of the Miners’ Associa-tion, Mr. Sani Shehu, thanked the NEXIM Bank management for its commitment and sup-port to the members in the quest to open up the solid mineral sector, pointing out that “the Association is over-whelmed by the passion of the Bank for the growth of min-ing industry in Nigeria and for supporting the players in the industry to actualize their as-piration”

Shehu agreed with Mr. Orya that the slow development of the solid minerals sector is attributable to a number of man-made and natural factors.Mr. Shehu stressed that the Government needs to quickly harmonise its policies on mining to enable an investment-friendly environment.

He also identifi ed paucity of fund as a major impediment to the growth of the mining sector and requested NEXIM Bank, based on the committed support to the Association members thus far, to strengthen efforts to get the Federal Government to provide much needed funding to the industry.

FG tasks ACP-EU nations on poverty alleviation, sustainable devt

Nigeria has urged the Con-ference of the African,

Caribbean and Pacifi c Group of States (ACP), to urgently ad-dress the issue of the worsen-ing security situation in many member states as a means of creating conducive environ-ment for poverty alleviation and sustainable development.

The Minister of National Planning, Dr Shamsuddeen Usman,was quoted in a state-ment issued by the Head of Information Department of the Commission, Mallam Salihu Haiba, to have made the call at the just ended 7th Summit in Malabo, Equitorial Guinea.

Usman, who led Nigeria’s delegation to the Summit while delivering his speech at the forum charged the 80-member ACP-EU nations to work to-wards restoring peace in many crisis-ridden states including Sudan, South-Sudan, Mali, Somalia, Guinea-Bissau to avert the likely spill-over ef-fects within the West African Sub-region. He said: “As we are fully aware, the major challenge fac-ing the ACP-EU Partnership is poverty alleviation, and the achievement of sustainable development. These objectives as you will all agree cannot be achieved in the absence of peace and security in the ACP States.

“There is therefore the pressing need for us to in this Summit, attempt to compre-hensively address the security situation in our domains, par-ticularly in the Sudan, South-Sudan, Mali, Somalia, Guinea-Bissau, among others.”

Dr Usman expressed Ni-gerian Governemnt’s serious concern over the worrying de-velopments in Northern Mali, adding that Nigeria expected the Summit to join West Africa leaders in quickly coming to grips with the unfolding devel-opment in Mali and the obvi-ous linkages with the al Qaeda in the Maghreb (AQIM), which has been causing a lot of may-hem in Mali, Nigeria, and other countries in the West African sub-region on a daily basis.

He explained further: “The Nigerian delegation will as a result of the foregoing, like to call on the EU and the rest of the developing world, to do all that is humanly possible to bring this unhappy state of affairs to a decisive end in line with the ECOWAS and African Union stands on the subject.

“I would like to draw at-tention in conclusion, to the most recent development in Mali with the arrest and force-ful resignation of the Prime Minister, Mr. Cheik Modibo Diarra. The Chair of the UN Security Council has strongly condemned the happening in Mali and our delegation would highly appreciate it if the ACP Group could issue a similar statement”, Dr Usman said

Lagos to pay N3.58bn pension to 604 retirees

The Lagos State Government has said that it would

redeem retirement bond certifi cates worth N3.58 billion to 604 deserving workers who retired from its service.

A statement by the Director General, Lagos State Pension Commission, Rotimi Hussain, said that the retirees would be presented with their

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certifi cates on Dec. 18.It said that Gov. Babatunde

Fashola was expected to deliver a keynote address at the ceremony which would be the seventh edition of the presentation of retirement certifi cates under the Contributory Pension Scheme in the state.

The statement said that the certifi cates represented accrued pension rights made up of gratuity and pension entitlements of every worker before April 1, 2007, when the contributory pension scheme started in the state. ``The commission has in place a highly automated pension administration mechanism and staff that have been trained to attend to retirees diligently. This has had a great impact on the administration of the pension scheme in the state,’’ it said.

The statement commended Gov. Fashola for his support and commitment to the scheme, adding that the administration had always ensured that workers were comfortable at retirement through regular payment of the monthly contribution into their retirement savings accounts.

The statement congratulated the new retirees for serving the state diligently and advised them to invest their pension benefi ts wisely and live their retirement lives free of trouble.

It urged them to freely choose their exit option between the programmed withdrawal and annuity for life, noting that the commission had painstakingly screened and recommended reputable organisations to handle the two options.

Delta cottage industries to gulp N90m- Commissioner

Delta Government said at the weekend that it would

spend N90 million on the 150 cottage industries to be located in the three senatorial districts

of the state in 2013.Dr Antonia Ashiedu, the

Commissioner for Special Duties (Poverty Alleviation), said this while defending the ministry’s budget before the Delta House of Assembly Committee on Commerce and Industry, on Friday in Asaba.

According to her, each of the senatorial district will have 50 cottage industries.

The commissioner said that the industries were meant to rehabilitate the middle class and create jobs for the unemployed youth.

Ashiedu also said that apart from the cottage industries, the state government would also initiate other programmes aimed at eradicating poverty among the people of the state. ``Since 2007, the state government has initiated several poverty eradication programmes to the benefi t of quite a large number of people. Some of such programmes include the state micro credit scheme,’’ she said.

Responding, the Chairman of the Committee, John Nani, commended the ministry for its well designed programmes for the people of the state.

Nani appealed to the people of Delta to key into all the programmes geared toward

poverty alleviation

...proposes N501.6m for gas infrastructure development

The Delta Commissioner for Oil and Gas, Omamofe

Pirah, says the ministry is proposing to establish a N501.6 million gas infrastructure development and Oil and Gas Resources Centre next year.

The commissioner disclosed this on Friday in Asaba during the ministry’s budget defence before the state House of Assembly Committee on the Environment, Oil and Gas.

Pirah said that it was on record that the state needed huge investments in gas, adding that investment in the sector had great prospect for the future development of the state and Nigeria at large.

He said that to achieve this, the state needed to develop local gas infrastructure blueprint and commercial

strategies, and stressed the need for the state to partner with foreign investors to enable it develop its local capacity.

Pirah said that the ministry was also partnering with the Ministry of Petroleum Resources to reactive Equity Energy Resources (EER) with a view to securing marginal oil fi elds for the state.

``If the effort is successful, it will create wealth, jobs for the people of the state and generate revenue for the state,” he said.

Pirah said that apart from the gas project, the ministry also had other projects geared toward creating peaceful business environment for the oil and gas companies to thrive in the state.

He said that the ministry had recorded tremendous successes in the area of confl ict resolution between oil and gas companies and the host communities.

According to him, this is with a view to creating a hitch free business environment for investors.

Pirah, however, said that lack of adequate funding was a major challenge facing the ministry, and appealed to the committee for adequate budgetary provision.

SEC calls for FG intervention on unclaimed dividend

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on

Friday called on the Federal Government to inaugurate Unclaimed Dividend Trust Fund (UDTF) to deal with issues on unclaimed dividends.

Edosa Aigbekaen, Director, Legal Services and Secretary to the commission, made the call at SEC 2012 Journalists’

Academy in Abuja.Aigbekaen said that the

UDTF Bill, initially before the National Assembly, needed to be revisited to bring about sanity on the issue of unclaimed dividends in the nation’s bourse. “Nigeria needs a law guiding how the national burse treats matters of unclaimed dividends, `` he said.

Aigbekaen also called for the amendment of sections of the Companies and Allied Matters Act (CAMA) relating to the timeframe for unclaimed dividends to be reverted to originating companies.

He said that investors should be able to claim their dividends at any given time, stressing that once dividends were declared, they remained debts owed investors.

The secretary said that multiple applications for shares in the past, improper address of share holder and the ineffi cient postal system in Nigeria compounded the problem of unclaimed dividends.

He advised investors to embrace the e-dividend payment system to ensure payment of their dividends with 24 hours after they had been declared.

Ade Bajomo, Executive Director, Market Operations of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), said that NSE would soon issue a minimum registration requirement for all participants in the market.

Bajomo said that the Exchange was working with the Central Securities and Clearing System to establish what should be the minimum requirement.

He said: “the Exchange wants to move away from paper dividend”.

Sola Ephraim-Oluwanuga, a legal practitioner, also supported the call for the establishment of UDTF. Ephraim-Oluwanuga said that revenue from the UDTF could be ploughed into critical areas of the nation’s economy. ``The unclaimed dividends ought to serve our economic transformation agenda, `` he said.

It would be recalled that SEC had recommended the establishment of the UDTF in 2005. It has always proposed that the unclaimed dividends should be managed by an independent body.

NAGAFF calls on Customs to collaborate with stakeholders on Single Window

The National Association of Government Approved

Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF)

has advised the Nigeria Customs Service to collaborate with all stakeholders in the implementation of National Single Window (NSW) policy.

Increase Uche, the Secretary General of NAGAFF, told newsmen in Lagos that ``it is a must for all the stakeholders to key into the NSW ’’. Looking from the fi rst edition of the manual guide of the single window, it was discovered that it doesn’t seem to capture the entire stakeholders, particularly the freight forwarding industry,’’ he said.

He, however, described freight forwarders as one of the key players in the industry that should be carried along.

Uche said that the single window was all about logistics and supply chain, stressing that freight forwarders interfaced with all other agencies in the ports.

``If our council is not recognised and if it will not be one of those that will have access to the SW facilities, it is unacceptable, ‘’ he said.

FG to restructure Ministry of Power in 2013

Hajiya Zanaib Kuchi, the Minister of State

for Power, has said that the Federal Ministry of Power would be restructured in 2013 to deal with the inevitable challenges facing the sector

Kuchi, who made this known at the fourth Quarterly Power Summit in Lagos, said that the restructuring was to place the ministry in a more defi ned direction.

She said that the country’s power generation would improve signifi cantly as most of the independent power projects would be commissioned in 2013.

The minister said that the power sector would be more private-sector driven in 2013 ``In this regards, I will continue to seek the cooperation of our development partners, whether international or local, in

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BC

ensuring sustainability of supply along the electricity value chain. We should be seen as working together harmoniously in order to attain a common goal of making electricity available to consumers on sustainable basis. The summit has indeed been able to bring about appreciable improvement in the country’s power supply and l am happy to sincerely associate myself with the noble ideals of the summit,” she said.

Kuchi said that sustainable power supply was not only part of the President Goodluck Jonathans’ transformation agenda, but also central to the transformation process.

According to her, this can be achieved through hard-work, commitment, dedication and cooperation of all the key players within the value chain.

Kuchi said that the ministry had signed the contract for the Zungeru Power Project which would generate additional 700 mega watts on completion to the national grid.

Dere Awosika, the Permanent Secretary in the ministry, said that the summit was expected to draw the sector closer to its goals.

Awosika said that the ministry had successfully concluded the PHCN- labour debacle and that the country had attained a power generation of 550 mega watts.

Awosika said that the summit was to discuss issues, progress and challenges in the sector with a view to formulating strategies and designs to mitigate them.

She said that some of the notable challenges in the sector were human weaknesses and failure as well as poor planning and implementation.

The theme of the summit was “Strategies towards Consolidating Sustainable Power Supply in a Privatised Industry.

4.7m Nigerians benefit from NHI Scheme in six years

The National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS)

has said that more than 4.7 million Nigerians in the formal sector accessed healthcare services in its six years of existence.

The acting Executive Secretary of the scheme, Dr Abdulrahman Sambo, made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Dutsin-ma in Katsina State on Friday.

Sambo said that the benefi ciaries included 98 per cent of the government employees.

He said that government was doing all in its capacity to ensure that all Nigerians had easy access to healthcare.

The NHIS chief said that more than 1.6 million pregnant women and children under fi ve years were also covered in the Maternal and Child Health (MCH) project in some states.

The executive secretary said that the Tertiary Students Social Health Insurance Programme (TSHIP) had also provided fi nancial and health services cover for 300,000 students in tertiary institutions.

He said that the goal of the scheme was to ensure that every Nigerian had access to health insurance when in need of health services.

Sambo regretted that Nigerians still found it diffi cult to save against health challenges, adding that health insurance was one of the best ways of fi nancing healthcare in Nigeria.

The NHIS secretary said that the programme was a common knowledge in the developed nations to save citizens from unnecessary deaths.

He urged Nigerians to key into the health insurance scheme to avoid unnecessary morbidity and mortality that could arise from inability to pay for health services when the need arose.

Sambo said that the scheme, if properly executed, was the best way to fi nance the healthcare system that would benefi t all Nigerians.

He said that the scheme took cognisance of community ownership of healthcare services and social solidarity in choosing a desired town on the Community Based Social Health Insurance Programme. (CBSHIP).

According to him, the role of community in mobilising, allocating and pooling resources for health cannot be underestimated.

Sambo said that health insurance was a social security system that guaranteed the

provision of needed health services to people based on the payment of token contributions or premiums at regular intervals.

He said that the scheme would only worked when many people got involved and paid their premiums, adding that with the participation of few, it would be unable to make impact.

FCTA pledges improved infrastructure to communities

The Federal Capital Territory Administration says it is

committed to the provision of infrastructure for skills development and self reliance in communities within the city.

The Minister of State for FCT, Olajumoke Akinjide, gave the assurance on Friday at Orozo, a community in AMAC during the distribution of building materials for the completion of self-help projects across the six area councils.

``It is our intention to institutionalise a suitable people centred development and attaining effi cient and effective service delivery and reduction of poverty. Our traditional system is grounded on communal spirit

on which our communities have been sustained from time immemorial,’’ she said.

She commended the efforts of various communities in the FCT for their initiatives in embarking on Variety of laudable projects which had great impact on the lives of the people, adding that government alone could not provide all the community needs.

Akinjide stressed that the efforts of the communities in augmenting government’s effort through the provision of social amenities and skills acquisition would help eradicate poverty at the grassroots.

The minister also commended the National Service Youth Corps (NYSC) members for their initiative on community development within their short period of service.

Earlier, the Secretary Area Council Service Secretariat, Alhassan Gwagwa, said that there was need for citizens to organise themselves into various groups in order to meet some basic needs.

He said that the groups would provide a good platform for the sustenance of communal spirit, bond and effective dialogues to address some challenges in the various communities.

Ifeoma Ezendu, one of the corps members said that she embarked on the project of providing 10 toilets and 10 bathrooms for a community in Idu to improve the sanitary condition of the community.

She said that the idea of providing the facility was as a result of people in some part of the community defecating in bushes and rivers.

Ezendu said that the project was largely funded by organisations and kind-hearted Nigerians.

``Nigerians have been really supportive because most of us have asked for fund from different organisations and they have been responsive and some of them are offering to fund part of it, some are even funding all the projects. I will say that majority of the funds did not come from us,’’ she said.

Yuguda wants LGs to depend less on FG grants

Governor Isa Yuguda of Bauchi has called on

local government councils in the country to source for other means of generating internal revenues, rather than depending on federal grants.

Speaking in Bauchi at the closing ceremony of a workshop on enhancement of

internally generated revenue organised for local government caretaker committee chairmen, the governor said that the state’s revenue was dwindling.

Represented by the Commissioner for Lands and Housing, Aminu Hammayo, the governor urged the administrators to assist government in its economic transformation and development of the state. ``About 95 per cent of the state’s revenue comes from the federal government grants; therefore there is a need to explore more avenues to generate revenue from within,” he said.

He said that without sound revenue base, it might be diffi cult for things to evolve as expected in the economic development and transformation of the state.

Abubakar Faggo, the state Commissioner for Local Government Affairs, said that internal revenue generation and management at local government council level had been a knotty issue since the return to democracy.

He said that the councils were over dependent on federal statutory allocations for sustenance and advised participants to use the opportunity to work out measures to boost internal revenue.

He said that the objectives of the workshop included the enhancement of sources of internal revenue generation, removing impediments and leakages to revenue generation and wealth creation at the local levels.

Others goals, he said, were collaboration between the state and local governments in internally generated revenue and public–private partnerships as an alternative option in revenue generation.

Faggo called on participants to rededicate themselves to effi cient service delivery in revenue generation.

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This might not be good news to the Nigerian telecom-munications subscribers.

With the fast approaching yule-tide, there are indications that the telecommunications opera-tors might be walking a tightrope again with regards to providing seamless quality of service. The issue of high interconnection indebtedness among the tele-coms companies is fast becom-ing a major source of confl ict and challenge that stakeholders say has the potential of destabilis-ing the success recorded in the industry so far.

Business Courage gathered that with the high volume of the interconnection debts which many of the telecom operators have refused to pay, creditor op-erators might be forced to disal-low calls from such debtor net-works to be terminated on their networks.

In telecommunications, in-terconnection is critical. It is the physical linking of a carrier’s net-work with equipment or facilities not belonging to that network. Interconnection is the term for the process by which calls from one network are terminated on another network. It is the basis by which telecommunication subscribers are enabled to call other subscribers, regardless of the networks in which they are domiciled. Subscribers may also send SMS, MMS and other value added services seamlessly across different networks because of operator-operator interconnec-tivity. In other words, it enables subscribers communicate across and within networks thereby not necessarily meaning that a sub-

Disturbed by the current high incidences of interconnection indebtedness among telecoms companies, which stakeholders fear may destabilise the industry, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), takes steps to tackle it with new set of guidelines.

By Adejuwon Osunnuyi scriber must subscribe to all net-works before he/she can com-municate with family, friends and business associates.

Operators are required to ex-change invoices at certain peri-ods, usually at the end of every month, to work out how much they need to pay to each other. As an example, X Networks owes Y Networks N10 million at the end of January, while Y Network owes X Networks N5 million at the end of January, then X Net-works would be required to pay the balance of N5 million to Y Networks. The problem of in-debtedness comes about when X Networks is not able or willing to make such payment to Y Net-works.

Interconnection charges in-clude charges for collecting and delivering calls, for installing, maintaining and operating the points of interconnect, payment for supplementary services (such as directory assistance, fault re-porting, network maintenance, or inter-carrier billing), and for ancillary and other facilities (such as space in the equipment room)

Way back in 1995, Nigeria’s fi rst mobile cellular service pro-vider, Mobile Telecommunica-tions Service Limited (“MTS”) was said to have been forced to close its operations due to its failure to pay interconnection charges to NITEL.

Currently, the nations’ tele-coms industry is said to be em-broiled in over N20 billion unpaid interconnect charges among tele-coms operators, thereby consti-tuting a threat to healthy compe-tition in the nation’s bourgeoning telecoms sector.

Dr. Eugene Juwah, executive vice chairman, NCC, attributing

the high incidence of intercon-nection indebtedness in the tele-communications industry to in-ability of Interconnect exchanges to pay operators interconnect charges, as well as guidelines on disconnect of owing operators noted that “The issue of intercon-nection indebtedness is peculiar to Nigeria as it has been observed that this problem does not exist in other jurisdictions,”

Warning that if the continued high interconnection indebted-ness is left unchecked, it will im-pact negatively on the industry, Juwah, who spoke at the regula-tory forum on the high incidence on the issue organised by the commission in Lagos, last week, said that it had been observed that some operators have taken advantage of the provisions of the old guidelines to deliberate-ly refuse to promptly discharge their fi nancial obligations to their interconnect partners.

The NCC boss, noting that this was possible because of the processes that had to be followed before the Commission could au-thorise the disconnection of an operator, said the attention of the Commission had been drawn by several operators to the fact that Interconnect Exchanges had also become a major part of the prob-lem as they now owe other op-erators interconnection charges, thus compounding the problem they were meant to alleviate.

To this end, the commission said it has approved the new ``Guidelines on Procedure for Granting of Approval to Discon-nect Telecommunication Opera-tors’’ which it said was necessary because the current one ap-proved since 2004 has outlived

its usefulness.According to him, the provi-

sions of the new guidelines have taken into consideration the dis-connection of all operators, in-cluding interconnect exchanges, and shortened the process for granting approval for disconnec-tion. ‘’This is a measure to en-sure that interconnection indebt-edness is not detrimental to the effective administration of viable telecommunication businesses,’’ the EVC said.

Yetunde Akinloye, assistant director, Legal and Regulatory Services, NCC, said that the new guidelines would promote public confi dence and ensure stability, transparency, competition, in-novation and growth in the tele-coms industry.

Speaking on the proposed amendments to the guidelines, which comprises two Parts of 16 Paragraphs and a Schedule for 2 Disconnection Forms, Akinloye noted that Billing Systems must be consistent with standards and specifi cations of the Commission and must be type-approved - Paragraph 2(1)(b). Also, accord-ing to Paragraph 2(1)(c), parties must have fully exhausted all options contained in their in-terconnection agreement - Dis-connection forms introduced – Schedule to the Guidelines while timeliness have been amended in Paragraph 5(1)(2), (3) and Para-graph 6, applicant must have fully paid its regulatory fees to the Commission.

In his paper titled “The Im-pact of Interconnection Indebted-ness on the Telecommunications Industry in Nigeria,” the former Executive Commissioner, NCC and Principal Partner, Kayafas

Konsult, Stephen Bello, said in-terconnect indebtedness in gen-eral has the effect of introduc-ing ineffi ciency into the telecom industry and the entire national economy.

He said that it could also re-sult in unfair treatment of inter-connecting partners, thus pre-venting subscribers from having full value for their money. Bello said creditors, debtors, subscrib-ers as well as government are all to be affected negatively in the effects of interconnection debt, adding that creditor (operator) may reduce interconnecting fa-cilities leading to lower number of completed calls. Also, sub-scribers, he said, might experi-ence inability to make outgoing calls in cases where NCC grants permission for partial disconnec-tion of the debtor/ operator.

According to him, while such situation might erode the confi -dence of other stakeholders, it might also lead to loss of credit rating as such company would fi nd it diffi cult to obtain bank loans, raising funds from the capital market as well as loss of revenue as a result of poor qual-ity of service leading to loss of subscribers.

According to Bello, intercon-nection indebtedness may be construed wrongly or rightly as an indication of poor corporate management, an early warning sign of fi nancial distress or cor-porate failure.

On the creditor, he noted that such indebtedness might lead to lack of access to revenue that can be used for operations or network expansion, lowering of profi t margin and shareholders benefi ts and thus having nega-

Angst over telecoms interconnect debt

National Mirrorwww.nationalmirroronline.net 29Monday, December 17, 2012

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.netMonday, December 17, 2012 A14 30 Business CourageCourage

TechnotipsTechnotips

BC

BC

Microsoft Word: Love it or hate it, practically everyone uses it. I’ve been using it so long, I thought I knew everything about it. But I stumbled across some

super helpful shortcuts — hidden tricks and timesavers that make Microsoft Word easier and faster.

One caveat for these tips: different versions of Word may have different commands, so some of these may not work in your version. That said, here are my top eight shortcuts:

1. Double Click And DragIf you’re like most people, when you want to move a sec-

tion of text from one place to another, you use Control-C to copy and Control-V to paste. That’s fi ne. It works. But there’s a faster way: Double click or highlight what you want to move, then simply drag what you’ve highlighted to where you want it to land.

2. Double UnderlineYou know you can affect text by hitting Control-B to

make it bold or Control-U to underline. But if one line of underlining just isn’t emphatic enough, Control-Shift-D will double underline. (On a Mac, use Command-Shift-D.)

If that doesn’t make your point, you may have to go to ALL CAPS, and I’ve got a shortcut for that too…

3. Change CaseChange Case button Instead of retyping everything to change from lower case

to Title Case or to UPPERCASE, just highlight the text you want to change, click the case button, and then choose which case you want.

4. Adding Buttons to Your ToolbarSuppose you just tried using shortcut #3, but the case

button isn’t on your toolbar, no worries; you can add it (and almost any other command). Go to View, Toolbars, Custom-ize Toolbars, Commands, then scroll to fi nd the command you want — and drag it to where on the toolbar you want it.

5. Add the DateHow many times a day do you type the date? If you do it

even once, that’s too much. Next time, just hit Alt-Shift-D (or Control-Shift -D on a Mac) to add the date automatically.

6. Quick PartsThis next tip builds on what the Autotext function did in

older versions of Word: If you have a certain paragraph of text you regularly need to add to a document — like a boil-erplate disclaimer, or maybe directions to your offi ce — turn it into a Quick Part. Here’s how:

Quick PartsHighlight the text you regularly useClick the insert tabHit Quick Parts, and choose “Save Selection To The

Quick Part Gallery”Now any time you want to insert that chunk of text into

a document, either a new one or and old one you’re editing, just hit that Quick Parts button. Just one more click will select which saved Quick Part to insert. This trick will even work as a shortcut for adding a logo or letterhead.

7. Conform FontsThis one used to drive me crazy: I’d copy and paste

some bit of text from another document or from the Web, and then I’d have to click all over the place to get the font size and style to match the surrounding text of my existing document. No longer. Here’s all you need to do: Highlight the non-conforming text, then hit Control-Spacebar. Done.

8. Customize Quick Access ToolbarThere is one way to get your most commonly used com-

mands in the same place- that’s to customize the Quick Access Toolbar. It’s like the center drawer in your desk that has all the stuff you use most in one easy-to-access place. No organization, just (as the name implies) quick access. So take the things you like most and add them to the Quick Access toolbar. Click the little down arrow tab to get to the Customize Quick Access Toolbar drop down menu:

uyl_ep54_quick_access2 cropHit “more commands” and add whatever you use most.

8 Microsoft Word Shortcuts You Probably Don’t Know

tive effect on cash fl ow.The way out, he insisted, was

to introduce pre-paid billing for interconnection or a clearing house for the telecom industry similar to the banking indus-try’s clearing house among other measures.

Though it was learnt that some creditor operators may have decided to disconnect their debt-or counterparts on the account of huge indebtedness being owed them, legal experts at the forum agreed that mediation and arbi-tration should be explored before a network is disconnected as well as migration of traffi c and debt settlement through an intercon-nect clearing exchange.

Speaking at the forum, Part-ner, Banwo & Ighodalo, Abimbo-la Akeredolu, who spoke on the solution to interconnection in-debtedness in Nigeria, said while the interconnect indebtedness in the Nigerian telecommunications sector is currently put at about N20 billion, about 60 per cent of the debt was disputed as many operators alleged that the fi gures were infl ated while they ascribed to their competitors’ faulty billing systems.

According to Akeredolu, the large volume of the interconnect debt in the Nigerian telecommu-nications sector was often linked to sharp differences in revenue sharing ratios between mobile operators and other operators such as landline network owners and fi xed wireless operators. “The feeling in the industry is that if the situation persists whereby GSM companies are better fa-voured than the fi xed and wire-less operators, such a situation will continue to lead to intercon-nectivity debt, or breakage.

“In practice, the revenue sharing ratio between mobile and fi xed network is 14/6 and 12/8 depending on which network is termination or originating the

call. Fixed and landline opera-tors are asking that parity be in-troduced with growing argument that all network face equal chal-lenges,” she stated.

She observed that the deter-mination of the NCC to mitigate the crisis of interconnect debt now plaguing the telecom indus-try with the licensing of Intercon-nect Exchanges has suffered a setback as operators refused to sign up to them more than one year after the Exchanges were licensed. However, while the major operators have kept the Interconnect Exchanges at arm’s length, Akeredolu said that the small operators, especially PTOs have embraced the Exchanges and many of them have signed up. “The decision to sign on an Interconnect Clearing house has been very helpful to many opera-tors. The exchange helps opera-tors with their billings with their interconnect partners; it also helps to streamline and harmo-nise their relationship with their partners. It is clear that most of the disputes in interconnect debt could easily be resolved with the work of interconnect clearing houses.

According to the legal expert, observing that there are indica-tions that the mobile companies are reluctant to engage the ser-vices of Interconnect Exchanges because of the unresolved issue of interconnect rate for the mar-ket, she noted, “The mobile com-panies are asking for an average of N16.50 interconnect rate with PTOs while the PTOs are asking for parity. MTN for instance, is asking for N16.50 settlement for calls that come into their net-work from the PTOs while they say they are ready to pay PTOs N12.00 for calls that go from their networks into PTOs. Airtel on the other hand is asking for interconnect settlement rate of N18.12 while Glo puts its own

rate at 18.00.“The interconnect indebted-

ness in the industry has resulted in the urgent calls for a review of interconnect rates in the past one year. The debt is put at over N20 billion with the bulk of the debt owed GSM operators. As at June 2005, Vmobile said that between NITEL and other PTOs, it was owed more than N4.2 bil-lion. While NITEL says it is being owed more than N4.5 billion in interconnect debt as at June of the same year.

MTN, the network with the highest number of subscribers also claims it was owed close to N5 billion in interconnect debts. In almost all the cases, the stock of debt has further increased in the past six months. Most of the agreements brokered by the NCC for the debtor operators to pay up in instalments in the past have become meaningless as most of them have reneged on such arrangements. More worri-some is that in most cases, the capitalisation of some of the com-panies is not up to 10 per cent of their indebtedness making it a very bad case for the creditor net-works. Fortunately, the business plan of some of the Interconnect operators includes the settlement of Interconnect debt on behalf of subscribing networks through settlement arrangements with banks.”

True to the observations of Akeredolu, investigations re-vealed that telecommunications operators in the country might have reverted to the old system of passing traffi c directly without going through clearing houses, a development that has led to the current high incidences of inter-connection indebtedness. At the moment, over 90 per cent of traf-fi c exchanged by operators in the industry is routed among opera-tors directly without the use of any clearing house. A clearing-house is a company or associa-tion that transfers billing records and/or performs fi nancial clear-ing functions between carriers that allow their customers to use each other’s networks.

The clearinghouse receives, validates and accounts for tele-phone bills for several telephone service providers. Clearinghous-es are particularly important for international billing because they convert different data record formats that may be used by some service providers and con-vert for the currency exchange rate. Clearinghouses provide a variety of services, including pro-cessing proprietary records (e.g. switch records) into formats un-derstandable by the member car-riers’ billing systems, validating charges from carriers with inter-system agreements, and extract-ing unauthorized or un-billable billing records.

Presently, clearing houses in the country which were estab-lished in 2005 to address prob-lems of indebtedness arising from improper documentation of traffi c routed among operators include Integrated Wireless Technologies Nigeria Ltd, Medallion, Intercon-nect Clearinghouse.Juwah

National Mirrorwww.nationalmirroronline.net 31Monday, December 17, 2012

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.netMonday, December 17, 2012 A16 32 Business CourageCourage

Omatek speeds up e-learning schemeStories by Kunle Azeez

Nigeria’s desire to drive education with the Infor-

mation and Communication Technology tools and ap-plications is being increased hrough an innovative e-learn-ing scheme by one of Nigeria’s leading technology solutions company, Omatek Ventures.

Through the Omatek e-learning scheme, the IT com-pany is providing a platform to ensure that ICT tools are deployed to class rooms under a carefully-structured learning environment equipped with internet connectivity to create a virtual connection between students and teachers.

With this development, Omatek is ready to give ad-equate support to computer for students’ initiative of the federal government through the ministry of communication technology.

The initiative was launched recently by the minister to create a platform for Nigerian students to acquire laptops at reasonable prices and also create market opportunities for Omatek brands.

This e-leaning scheme involves the deployment of a robust content/curriculum as well as monitoring and evalua-tion modules to ensure seam-less implementation under which students can explore educational contents under guidance by tutors that makes the learning experience an ex-citing and cost effective one.

The Omatek e-Learning scheme is powered by the Omatek e-Xpress Initiative conceived in 2004 to ensure easy access to computer sys-tems without the challenges of affordability. The initiative is a fl exible computer acquisition and payment scheme which enables benefi ciaries to pay for any computer of their choice through a structured payment plan.

The Omatek eLearning scheme has been divided into modules called laptop for learning module (L4L); a ho-mogenous platform where the practice of teaching and learn-ing can enjoy intervention by the introduction of IT tools re-quired to create an e-learning

environment across schools. Components that make up the L4L module include but not limited to the hardware, software, content, training, monitoring & evaluation, con-nectivity and the establishment of resource centres/capacity building.

Chief Executive Offi cer of Omatek Ventures Plc., Mrs. Florence Seriki, said, “In order for the scheme to cater for all categories of individuals and sectoral groupings, the scheme was designed to be effective ir-respective of social status.

“The Omatek e-Xpress initiative comes with a huge funding support from our part-nering banks and consists of e- Consumer, e-mobile, e-tertiary, and e-youth.”

Seriki said to properly harness the requirements within the education space, the scheme was further restruc-tured to capture the educa-tion sector holistically with the other sectors falling within the e-mobile and e-consumer space.

“Therefore, the e-youth and e-tertiary were collapsed under the e-learning scheme, com-prising of the e-school, e-teach-er, e-home, e-lab, e-lecturer and e-student.”

Smartphones rival laptops usage among youth – Cisco

A new study conducted by Cisco, a global Information

and Communication Technol-ogy company has revealed that the use of smartphones as preferred than laptops as single most desired device by 18-30 year old globally.

According to the 2012 Cisco Connected World Technology Report (CCWTR), smartphones now rival laptops as the single most desired device by 18-30 year olds as they are seen as the most versatile and compact.

The report showed that if the youths they had to choose only one device, a third of re-spondents preferred a smart-phone, while slightly more than a third favoured laptops.

According to the report, smartphones have surpassed desktop computers as the preferred workplace device from a global perspective and were rated twice as popular as a desktop Personal Computer and three times as popular as a tablet.

The results are based on a survey commissioned by Cisco of 1800 university students and young professionals aged 18 to 30.

The report examines how this generation uses the In-ternet and mobile devices to connect with the world around them, and reveals their be-haviors, attitudes, issues, and concerns about the creation, access, management, and pri-

vacy of the enormous amounts of data being generated daily by smartphones, sensors, video cameras, monitors, and other connected devices.

In the study, 60 per cent of 18-30 year olds fi nd themselves sub-consciously or compulsive-ly checking their smartphones for emails, texts or social media updates.

Of those, women are more driven to connect: 85 per cent of women versus 63 per cent of men fi nd themselves often compulsively checking their smartphone for text, emails, social media updates.

Also, over 40 per cent of re-spondents would go through a “withdrawal” effect and “would feel anxious, like part of me was missing” if they couldn’t check their smartphones con-stantly. Of those compulsive smart phone users, 60 percent wish they didn’t feel so com-pelled.

Globally, Information Tech-nology professionals are even more connected, almost one third of IT professionals stated they check their smartphones ‘continuously’ while 40 per cent check at least every 10 minutes. Nearly 70 per cent of respondents believe that mobile applications are important to their daily lives.

The report later added: “More than half said they main-ly use mobile applications for games and entertainment while one in four (27 per cent) use mobile applications for work.

Multiple damage hits MTN’s fibre infrastructure

Nigeria’s leading Information and Communications Tech-

nology (ICT) company, MTN, has lamented criminal damage to its fi bre optic cable network in at least seven different loca-tions across the country.

The company, in a state-ment, lamented that all the fi bre cuts happened within fi ve minutes intervals, leading the company’s offi cials to suspect a coordinated attack.

MTN Corporate Services Ex-ecutive, Mr. Wale Goodluck, in a statement in Lagos, said the company’s engineers were cur-

rently battling to restore service quality to acceptable levels following the massive attack on the company’s extensive fi bre network.

According to him, the fi bre network was violated in seven locations namely, between Port Harcourt and Eket, Kano and Zaria, Abuja and Akwanga, Asaba and Owerri, Ahoada and Port Harcourt, Benin and Owo and fi nally, between Ikeji and Owo.

“To put matters in perspec-tive, MTN on average suffers more than 70 fi bre cuts in various locations across the country every month, but this is most unusual in terms of the spread and the coordination. It is almost as if it is a deliber-ate act targeted at disrupting service delivery” he said.

He said the company had already notifi ed security opera-tives of the development and would avail them of all neces-sary cooperation to track those responsible for the act.

Goodluck appealed to Nige-rians to protect telecommuni-cations installations in their lo-calities as they are responsible for bringing telecom services to them and to other members of the society.

“We have to again call on members of the public to assist by reporting any suspicious activity around telecommunica-tions installations, which are critical national infrastructure. By so doing, you will play your part in protecting your right to good services and the full benefi ts of the ICT revolution”, Goodluck said.

Samsung forecasts exciting 2013 for electronics consumers

Samsung Electronics, the world’s leading electronic

manufacturer has assured its consumers in Nigeria of an ex-citing 2013 with the introduc-tion of innovative products that will add value to their lives.

Among the products that the company’s top executives believe will shape the coming year are the newly introduced Samsung Galaxy S III Mini, which is a compact version of its rave-making fl agship phone, Galaxy S III, and the recently unveiled ‘connected camera’, Samsung Galaxy Camera.

Speaking at a breakfast meeting with newsmen at Westown Hotel, Ikeja in Lagos recently, Managing Director, Samsung Electronics West Africa (SEWA), Mr. Brovo Kim, said Samsung would consoli-date its leadership of the elec-tronics market in the coming year with the introduction of a rich bouquet of innovative and competitively priced products.

“Already, we have two bril-liant products that will posi-

tively impact the market in 2013: namely, our Galaxy Camera which combines high performance photography functionality with the lat-est Android 4.1 platform, as well as the Samsung Galaxy S III Mini, which promises unending thrill for tech-savvy fashion leaders who desire a mobile device with maxi-mum features in a compact, rounded package,” he said.

Shedding more light on some of the features of the new products, Business Head, Hand Held Products at Sam-sung Electronics West Africa, Mr. Emmanouil Revmatas, said the Samsung Galaxy Camera was designed to fi t perfectly for those who wish to shoot, edit and share high quality photographs and video easily and spontaneously from anywhere, at any time.

“Galaxy Camera directly connects to 3G and Wi-Fi networks, revolutionizing the way digital camera content is created and shared. It comes with Cloud support and group sharing apps, variable cam-era lenses and photo settings, editing tools and visual effects, full high defi nition video with slow-motion capability and a huge 4.8” high defi nition super clear touch display to view, edit and enjoy the images cap-tured or recorded,” he said.

He added that the Samsung camera AllShare, Share Shot application allows consumers to automatically save photos the instant they are taken and users can share at the same time as they shoot them. Users can also connect to a range of Galaxy devices including the Galaxy SIII and Galaxy Note II for effortless and automatic sharing of pictures across the Galaxy family.

Speaking on the Galaxy S III Mini, he said the device shares the GALAXY S III’s breakthrough design, but in addition, affords users a more comfortable grip and incred-ible user-friendliness.

According to him, the Gal-axy S III mini is powered by Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean), the latest version of the world’s most popular smartphone operating system.

“Jelly Bean has fast, fl uid and smooth graphics along with a new Google Search experience featuring Google Now, which brings you just the right information, before you even ask,” he said.

Also speaking at the break-fast meeting, Head, Corporate Marketing, Samsung Elec-tronics, Donald Etim said, “In this new era of visual commu-nication, the growth of social networks and the increasing dominance of smartphones and tablets, we are excited to introduce two innovative, cutting edge devices that will enable our consumers share their experiences through pic-tures and videos with much ease.”

Seriki

BCGoodluck

National Mirrorwww.nationalmirroronline.net Monday, December 17, 2012 33

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.netMonday, December 17, 2012 A18 34 Business CourageCourage

Global News

BC

Ivory Coast approves new tax on gold profits

Ivory Coast’s parliament has approved a new tax

on gold profi ts, a parliament offi cial said on Friday, despite industry objections that the levy could stifl e development of the country’s budding mining sector.

The law was passed on Thursday as part of a bill modifying the 2012 budget.

“The bill modifying the fi scal annex of the 2012 budget was voted on ... It was approved,” Marius Ndri, the director of legislative services for the National Assembly, said.

The law must now be signed by President Alassane Ouattara before it takes effect, a senior mines ministry offi cial said.

“We have not yet enacted it,” Noel Guetat, Mines Minister Adama Toungara’s chief of staff, told Reuters.

“We cannot say whether that will be done before the end of the year,” he added.

Ivory Coast, the world’s top cocoa producer, is a relatively small but growing gold producer and is pushing to expand its long-neglected mining sector to help fund post-war reconstruction after a brief armed confl ict last year ended a decade of political crisis.

The government proposed a new tax in September on what it termed “super profi ts”, saying it would be applied for 2012 and yields some 40 billion CFA francs ($79.8 million) in additional income to the state.

“Most of these mining companies pay almost no tax...Of total state revenues, the mining companies pay in just 6 billion (CFA francs). That’s the reality,” Guetat said.

Miners complained, however, that the government failed to take into consideration their concerns that the levy would hurt some companies already operating in the West African nation and discourage others from investing.

The new tax will be levied

on profi ts above a government-fi xed estimated production cost of $615 per ounce, with the rate dependent upon the world price of gold, according to the text of the law seen by Reuters.

Companies will pay from 17 to 20 per cent with gold prices between $1,600 and $1,800 per ounce. Above that range, the rate rises by 1 percent for each $50 increase in the gold price up to a maximum rate of 50 percent. Below $1,600, it falls by 1 percent per $50 decrease.

GE hikes dividend; boosts stock buyback plan

General Electric Co (GE.N) last Friday raised its

dividend by 12 per cent, with the higher payout starting in January, and it also authorized the buyback of another $10 billion in shares.

GE, the largest U.S. conglomerate, did not follow on the heels of other big companies including Caterpillar Inc (CAT.N) and Legg Mason Inc (LM.N) that have pushed up their dividend payments into December, with an eye toward avoiding a rise in the tax rate on dividends scheduled to take effect in January unless lawmakers in Washington reach a budget deal.

GE raised its quarterly payout to 19 cents per share. The board’s share repurchase authorization is in line with GE’s goal of buying back all the additional shares it issued in 2008 to raise cash in the face of the fi nancial crisis.

“Returning cash to our shareholders remains a top priority,” said Chief Executive Jeff Immelt.

GE shares were up fi ve cents at $21.67 near midday on the New York Stock Exchange.

From July 2010 through December 2011, GE hiked its dividend four times by a total of 70 per cent, in a move aimed at making up for a sharp cut during the fi nancial crisis, when the quarterly dividend was slashed to 10 cents per share from 31 cents.

Friday’s dividend hike

comes one year after the prior increase, marking a return to GE’s historic pattern on raising its payout.

“Investors need to realize the outsized dividend hikes that came following the cut during the crisis are over,” said Jeff Sprague, analyst at Vertical Research Partners. “The dividend should track earnings growth from here.”

S. Africa bond yields rise as Rand fluctuates

South African bond yields climbed the most in a

month before the start of the ruling African National Congress elective conference this week. The rand fl uctuated between gains and losses.

Yields on benchmark 10.5 per cent bonds due December 2026 rose fi ve basis points, or 0.05 percentage point, to 7.35 per cent in Johannesburg, the biggest one-day increase since Nov. 15 and erasing declines in the previous four days. The rand traded little changed at 8.6601 per dollar, after advancing as much as 0.3 per cent and slipping as much as 0.2 per cent. The currency slid less than 0.1 percent this week.

ANC members meeting in the central city of Bloemfontein from Dec. 16 to 20 will discuss proposals that could boost costs for operators in the world’s biggest producer of platinum and chrome, hampering efforts to cut a 25.5 per cent jobless rate and risking sovereign-rating downgrades toward junk levels. Moody’s Investors Service downgraded South African on Sept. 27, with Standard & Poor’s following two weeks later, while both kept the debt on negative outlook. Fitch Ratings said it’s reviewing the country early next year.

The downgrades refl ect investor concerns that “are still there and they’re probably valid,” Andre Roux, head of fi xed- income investments at Investec Asset Management Ltd. in Cape Town, said by telephone. “They’ll be in the market for a while.”

The rand erased gains as importers bought dollars, taking advantage of the currency’s advance to a month-high before the start of Christmas holidays, said Ion de Vleeschauwer, chief dealer at Bidvest Bank Ltd. in Johannesburg. Dec. 17 is a public holiday in South Africa.

The rand had been boosted by a report signalling that manufacturing may expand at a faster pace this month in China, the biggest buyer of South African raw materials.

A preliminary purchasing managers’ index for China by HSBC Holdings Plc and Markit Economics showed a reading of 50.9, higher than a median estimate of 50.8 in a Bloomberg News survey. A fi gure above 50 indicates an expansion. The U.S. Federal Reserve said yesterday it will expand its bond buying programme and keep interest rates low until unemployment falls, further boosting demand for commodities and riskier assets.

The S&P GSCI Index of raw materials advanced as prices of metals including copper and platinum gained. Metals and other commodities account for 45 per cent of South Africa’s exports, according to government data.

Euro factory output pain eases

The decline in the eurozone’s manufacturing sector

has eased, a closely watched survey indicates, in a rare spot of good news for the region.

Markit’s eurozone manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index rose to 46.3 in December from 46.2 in November.

The research fi rm said the rate of decline in manufacturing “showed signs of moderating”. But the service sector dropped to its weakest levels since July.

Including services and manufacturing, the eurozone PMI composite output index was at 47.3, up from 46.5 in November.

“The eurozone downturn showed further signs of easing in December, adding to hopes that the outlook for next year is brightening,” said Chris Williamson, chief economist at Markit.

“A return to growth is looking like an increasing possibility in the fi rst half of next year, barring any surprises, if the recent improvements in the survey data can be sustained. The turnaround is being led by Germany.”

Total output from Germany rose for the fi rst time in eight months “though the increase was only very modest as an

upturn in the service sector was offset by a faster decline in manufacturing production”, the survey said.

Output fell for the 10th month in a row in France. Earlier on Friday, Fitch kept the French government’s top AAA credit rating, making it the only major ratings agency left to say the country deserves to be among the world’s most creditworthy borrowers.

In the eurozone, only Germany still has an AAA rating from all three major ratings agencies.

Markit said that eurozone confi dence remained lower than at any time since before the 2008-09 fi nancial crisis.

India’s inflation rate slows further in November

India’s infl ation has further declined in November,

helped by an easing of fuel and manufacturing prices in Asia’s third-largest economy.

The wholesale price index, the country’s main gauge of infl ation, rose 7.24 per cent in November from a year earlier. That compares with a fi gure of 7.4 per cent in October and 7.8 per cent in September.

However, analysts say the decline may not be signifi cant enough to prompt the central bank to cut interest rates during a policy review next week.

The central bank has been under pressure to lower borrowing costs in order to help revive India’s slowing economy.

“I don’t think the Reserve Bank of India will be in a position to reduce policy rates during the review on 18 December,” Rupa Rege Nitsure of Bank of Baroda told Reuters news agency.

“But, the probability of a rate reduction in the month of January has now gone up.”

The central bank has not lowered interest rates since April because infl ation, fuelled by a weak rupee and more expensive oil imports, has remained above seven per cent.

Alassane_Ouattara

Sprague

Roux

Nitsure

National Mirrorwww.nationalmirroronline.net 35Monday, December 17, 2012

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.netMonday, December 17, 2012 A20 36 Business CourageCourage

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Making Public Private Partnerships work

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Things are not getting better at West African Glass Industries Plc as shown in its full year 2010 re-

sult released on the fl oor of the Nigeri-an Stock Exchange last Thursday. The company posted a loss after tax before extra-ordinary item of N551.194 million when compared with N579.882 million losses in 2009.

According to the result, the compa-ny’s earnings per share is in negative of 276k in 2010 as against -378k in the previous year while turnover dropped signifi cantly to N10.353 million in 2010 from N1.070 billion in 2009. It would be recalled that the company was recently included among x-compliance list of Nigerian Stock Exchange for non rendition of its audited fi -nancial year statement 2009 and 2010 respectively. The compa-ny’s share price currently stood at 63 kobo and the shares have not been traded upon since the beginning of this year.

Other highlights of the re-sult showed that cost of sales dropped to N16.443 million in 2010 from N964.578 million in 2009; gross loss stood at N6.090 million from N105.246 million. Other income was N25.638 mil-lion from N39.504 million; op-

Tough time persists as West African Glass records N551m loss

erating expenses stood at N175.426 million from N385.091 million while op-erating profi t before interest payable was a negative N155.878 million from a neg-ative N240.341 million. Interest payable and similar charges were also in nega-tive of N435.621 million from a negative of N393.478 million.

The fi nancial position of the com-pany also showed a depleted net asset of N1.985 billion in 2010 from N N1.434 billion in 2009 and negative working capital of negative N3.031 billion from a negative N2.53 billion in the previous year. The company’s audited statement for year 2011 is still not yet out.

Stanbic IBTC Bank, a subsidiary of Stanbic IBTC Holdings Plc, com-memorated the fi rst anniversary

of its *909# mobile money service last week, reiterating its commitment to con-tinuously deliver innovative products and solutions, part of which includes enhancing the robustness of its mobile banking and mobile payments systems.

The bank revealed that it has record-ed signifi cant milestones with mobile money as it currently has over 600,000 registered customers, over 790 agents nationwide, over 7.7million agent air-time transactions and a total monthly transaction value of N1.3 billion. It will be recalled that the bank was one of the fi rst organizations licensed by the Cen-tral Bank of Nigeria in October last year to operate mobile money services in Ni-geria in accordance with the Mobile Pay-ments Regulatory Framework.

Reacting to this development, the Chief Executive Offi cer of Stanbic IBTC Holdings Plc, Sola David-Borha, recalled that Stanbic IBTC Bank had since 2009 shown commitment to technology-driv-en branchless banking and enthusias-tically embraced the Central Bank of Nigeria’s drive towards an increasingly cashless economy.

David-Borha said the organization’s decision to launch the *909# Stanbic IBTC MobileMoney solution last year was underscored by the bank’s strate-gic focus of strengthening its universal banking franchise by integrating Nige-ria’s huge informal economy, which is characterized by unbanked small scale farmers, traders, craftsmen and other

types of small and medium sized busi-nesses, into the formal economy, and in the process enhance fi nancial inclusion in Nigeria.

She described mobile money as a game changer which apart from en-abling customers to conduct basic fi nan-cial transactions such as mobile money account opening, buying airtime, de-posit and receipt of cash, as well as pay-ment of utility bills through their mobile phones, also offers enormous benefi ts to the Nigerian economy by channeling the huge funds in the informal sector through the banking system to engender economic development. Stanbic IBTC re-cently won the Nigerian Financial Tech-nology Award for the best use of IT in mobile money services.

Stanbic IBTC Bank’s mobile money records N1.3 bn monthly transactions

David-Borha

Just the other day the former Head of the Interim National Govern-ment, Chief Ernest Shonekan

virtually scolded President Goodluck Jonathan for the rather slow pace of infrastructure development in Nigeria.

In his capacity as Chairman of the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission, Shonekan was at Aso Rock Villa to submit a report from the commission and the summation of his presentation to Jonathan was the obvi-ous fact that Nigeria will not make any progress if critical infrastructures were not developed. He also made the point that even advanced nations were con-tinually renewing and expanding infra-structure in all areas including power, transportation, air and seaports to cope with the demands of the day.

Let me quickly say that virtually all Nigerians share Sonekan’s concerns since we all know that the massive in-frastructure defi cit is the biggest drag on economic growth with acute pow-er shortages, impassable roads, fuel queues, clogged seaports, substandard healthcare and educational facilities all contributing to the untold misery most Nigerian citizens and businesses and have had to bear.

The easy excuse has always been that the resources of government are limited. True, but much more could have been done if there was enough in-genuity in the corridors of power and trillions of naira is not being stolen by politicians and civil servants in collab-oration with shady businessmen that are usually celebrated by the press.

Yet, there is a clear way out of this mess. Some 30 years ago, the now leg-endary former British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, confronted with the need to deliver more infrastructures amid rising public debt, decided to embark on a privatisation programme and public private partnerships that ceded government control of critical infrastructure into private hands and brought in more effi ciency and im-proved service delivery into that space. Despite all the protests and strikes by labour unions, Thatcher stood her grounds and that country is better off today with huge infrastructure such as Heathrow Airport, power, gas and wa-ter utilities, railways, bus services and others in private hands.

The general experience is the PPP arrangements have become about the most effective and effi cient way of improving public infrastructure and stimulating economic development in an increasingly interdependent global economy.

A typical PPP arrangement will see an investor or concessionaire design and build new public infrastructure or rehabilitate an existing one and recoup such investments over a period of time from payments made by users of such facilities. It is a complex and sometimes risky arrangement but such risks can be managed.

PPPs complement government ef-forts at infrastructure development with the added advantage of ensuring that users have access to and benefi t from the superior service delivery offer-ings that most government run estab-lishments are incapable of delivering. In short, it is a win-win situation.

Yet Nigeria appears to be reluctant to toe this line. While there have been some examples of PPPs projects such as the Murtala Mohammed Airport 2 terminal in Lagos and the Lekki – Epe Expressway, still under construction, not much has been seen in terms of new projects such as the railways for instance, despite that fact that there are so many investments opportunities.

The ICRC set up in 2008 under late President Umaru Yar’Adua to regulate the PPP space might have recorded modest achievements in terms of han-dling the concession of the ports, but its major headache is that the government itself is yet to come up with a defi nite, strategic and holistic infrastructure de-velopment plan to ensure a steady de-livery of PPP projects to bridge the na-tion’s infrastructure gap.

It would seen that in spite of all the talk about getting PPPs off the ground, the Federal Government in particular seems to prefer the ineffi cient, expen-sive and corruption-ridden public pro-curement system driven by contract awards otherwise we should be seeing concrete plans being emplaced for cer-tain specifi c projects.

If the government is serious about PPPs, why has the Railway Act not been amended to allow private operators to come in?

I will concede that the power sector privatisation is a step in the right di-rection but we need to see more PPPs in small hydro plants, waste manage-ment, education and health facilities, housing, urban transportation, water supply and the rest.

Lagos State appears to be getting a hang of what PPPs can do and in spite of the complaints about tolling and the rest, the Lekki expressway is a fi ne ex-ample of quality infrastructure. The proposed Lekki Free Trade Zone com-plete with air and seaport is being ex-ecuted under a PPP arrangement.

But the key challenge also remains the government’s willingness to go ahead full steam as well as the legal environment. In a country where con-tracts are not sacrosanct, the risk for PPPs will be high.

Yet it is about the most sensible way to go. The full scale adoption of the PPP model in infrastructure delivery will make more lasting and sustainable impact on the quality of lives of Nige-rians in terms of poverty reduction, job creation and reduction in cost for businesses than all the ad hoc arrange-ments we have had in recent years un-der different acronyms, in which money is simply shared to benefi ciaries.

It is time to wake up.

Stock Updates

GAINERS

COMPANY OPENING PRICE CLOSING PRICE CHANGE

OANDO 13.37 14.03 0.66

MAYBAKER 1.50 1.57 0.07

TRANSCORP 0.87 0.91 0.04

LEARNAFRCA 1.75 1.83 0.08

RTBRISCOE 1.40 1.45 0.05

LOSERS

COMPANY OPENING PRICE CLOSING PRICE CHANGE

PZ 29.00 27.05 1.95

UBA 4.86 4.55 0.31

CCNN 5.68 5.40 0.28

MANSARD 1.91 1.82 0.09

CUSTODYINS 1.32 1.26 0.06

Inter-Bank Rates

TENOR RATE%(PREV) 07-Dec-2012 RATE%(CURR) 14-Dec-2012

CALL 10.5000 – 12.7500 13.500 – 14.2500

OBB 10.2500 – 12.9300 11.3000 – 14.0000

Primary Market Auction

TENOR AMOUNT (N’mn) RATE (%) DATE

91-Days 32,057.31 12.75 21-Nov-12

182-Days 50,000 13.03 21-Nov-12

364-Days 47,786.39 13.05 21-Nov-12

Open Market Operation

TENOR AMOUNT (N’mn) RATE (%) DATE

113-Days 100,000 13.60 28-Nov-12

84-Days 80,000 13.50 22-Nov-12

98-Days 70,000 13.56 22-Nov-12

Wholesale Dutch Auction System AMOUNT OFFERED MARKET DEMAND AMOUNT SOLD DATE

$180m $180m $180m 12-Dec-12

$80m $66m $66m 12-Dec-12

Market Indicators for Week Ended 14-12-12All-Share Index 27,685.54pointsMarket Capitalisation N8,846,179,433,118.95

National Mirrorwww.nationalmirroronline.net Monday, December 17, 2012 A21 37Business CourageCourage

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Turnover of shares traded on the Nigerian Stock Ex-change dropped by 235.6

million shares on Friday as in-vestors exchanged 228.6 mil-lion shares worth N2.1 billion in 4,193 deals. This was against the 464.23 million shares val-ued at N3.7 billion traded in 4,879 deals on Thursday.

The All-Share Index, howev-er, appreciated by 22.03 points or 0.08 per cent to close at 27,685.54 from the 27,663.51

Shares turnover dips by 51%recorded on Thursday.

Similarly, the market capital-isation, which opened at N8.839 trillion, rose by N7 billion or 0.08 per cent to close at N8.846 trillion. Guinness topped the price gainers’ chart with a gain of N5 to close at N265 per share.

Nigerian Breweries trailed with N3 to close at N165 per share, while Oando gained 66k to close at N14.03 per share.

Zenith Bank appreciated by 41k to close at N17.97per

share, while Cadbury grew by 24k to close at N29 per share.

On the other hand, FG9B201752 led the losers’ chart with a loss of N24.45 to close at N84.25 per share.

Nestle followed with a loss of N5 to close at N710, while PZ Cussons shed N1.95 to close at N27.05 per share.

GTBank dipped by 40k to close at N21.50 per share, while UBA depreciated by 31k to close at N4.55 per share.

The Small and medium Scale enterprises contrib-ute nearly half of Nigerian

GDP and accounts for over 25 per cent of employment in the country.

This was the revelation of the Enterprise Baseline Survey 2012 presented in Abuja.

The 2012 Enterprise Base-line Survey revealed that there are 17 million Small and Me-dium Scale Enterprises in Ni-geria, employing 32.41 million persons and makes a contri-bution of about 46.54 per cent to the nation’s Gross Domestic Product in nominal terms.

The survey conducted by the Pro-Poor Growth and Promo-tion of Employment Programme in collaboration with Small and Medium Enterprises Develop-ment Agency of Nigeria, SMED-AN, with support from the Ger-man Development Agency was aimed at establishing a clear data-driven basis for policy to support the SMEs segment of the economy.

According to the report, SMEs make up the overwhelm-ing majority of private business concerns in Nigeria, which is in the excess of 17 million regis-tered enterprises.

SMEs contribute half of Nigeria’s GDPUnveiling the report, the

Head of Component Enabling Environment, Pro-Poor Growth and Promotion of Employment In Nigeria Programme, SEDIN, Dr. Manfred Matzdorf, said the importance of credible and reliable data are crucial in Ni-geria’s planning and policy formulation, describing it as key to nation’s socio-economic development. He said that the precondition for growth of any economy is competitiveness and investment, adding that there is a lot to be done by both government and private sector to improve investment.

According to Matzdors, the survey was designed to increase employment and productivity in line with SMEDAN’s goals and to encourage Nigerian integra-tion into ECOWAS chatter on SMEs development. Earlier, in his opening remarks, the Direc-tor General of SMEDAN, Alh. Muhammed Nadada Umar, said though, Nigeria may have existed as an independent na-tion politically for 52 years, it has not existed as an economic independent entity, saying that political independence cannot work in Nigeria unless it is col-laborated with the economy.

With the new EBS report, Nadada said Nigeria is better prepared for planning to make policies more responsive to the yearnings of the people. “Nige-ria is in the present predica-ment because this enterprise sector has not been given the right environment to grow, but this report is part of steps that must be taken to acceler-ate development of the sector and the economy because every sector in the economy depends on SMES to thrive.” According to the SMEDAN boss, Nigerian economy will not experience the best productivity unless 80 per-cent of people are engaged in small and Medium scale enter-prises.

“The report is expected to be useful to both government and private sector in planning of na-tional development and unless we have political and economic independence, our efforts will be in vain,” he said. The report also identifi ed constraints re-quiring urgent public sector ac-tion. They are: electricity sup-ply, road infrastructure, access to fi nance, tax administration, corruption, security, vocational education and business skills training.

Nigeria has lost over N4 billion to faulty royalty payments in the solid

minerals sector.This is part of the key fi nd-

ings in the just released solid minerals sector report for the period 2007-2010 by the Nige-ria Extractive Industries Trans-parency Initiative (NEITI).

In the report, NEITI said the benchmark used for the calcu-lation of royalty payments are not the current market value in the solid minerals sector.

According NEITI’s report, the amount used for the calcula-tions of royalty payment for all mineral deposits are long over-due for review.

The area of concern in the sector as highlighted in the

report is the monopoly of con-struction companies in quarry sites and cement manufactur-ing.

The report also blamed the

leakage of royalty payment on the lack of synergy among the federal and state mining de-partments allowing illegal min-ing to fl ourish.

A summation of NEITI’s three audit reports of the oil and gas sector from the period of 1999-2008 showed a total loss of $2.6 billion due to lapses in the system.

According to the Chairman of NEITI, Ledum Mitee, this fresh report on the solid miner-als sector is another call to ac-tion.

Experts worry that the bil-lions of naira leaking through the system due to mismanage-ment, is suffi cient to address some the people’s basic ame-nity needs.

Nigeria loses over N4bn in royalty payments – NEITI

Mitee

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.netMonday, December 17, 2012 A22 38 Business CourageCourage

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NASCON Financial Data Q3 2012 Q3 2011 Audited 2011 =N=(‘Nm) =N=(‘Nm) =N=(‘Nm)Gross Earnings 9,223 7,261 9,682

Cost of sales 5,435 4,495 5,636

Gross Profi t 3,798 2,766 4,046

Profi t Before Taxation 3,013 2,002 3,114

Profi t After Taxation 2,049 1,326 2,154

Retained Profi t 2,049 1,362 2,154

Admin Expenses 751 714 950

Distribution Expenses 181 121 131

Shareholders fund 5,859 5,664 5,664

Interest Expenses 8 11

Current Asset 6,307 6,715

Current Liabilities 3,578 4,024

Fixed Assets 3,463 3,308

Current Assets-stocks 5,251 5,870

Trade Debtors 1,482 1,460

Trade Creditors 1,829 2,269

Profi tability Ratios Return on Equity(%) 34.97 23.41 38.03

Gross profi t Margin (%) 41.18 38.09 41.79

Profi t Margin (%) 22.22 18.26 22.25

Pretax Profi t Margin (%) 32.67 27.57 32.16

Liquidity Ratios Current Ratio 1.76 1.67 N/A

Quick Ratio 1.47 1.46 N/A

Debtors(No of days) 58.65 73.39 N/A

Creditors(No of days) 122.83 184.25 N/

Investment Ratios

Earnings per Share(kobo) 103 69 81

Dividend Per Share(kobo) 70

National Salt Company of Nigeria Plc (NASCON) has recorded a modest

performance within the last nine months of the current fi nancial year. Majority of its measuring indices recorded appreciable growth compared with the previous. Top line revenue increased by 27 per cent to N9.2 billion within nine months of 2012. It would be recalled that the company has passed through diffi cult times in the past when its performance was impaired by huge debt. Earnings per share currently stood at 103 kobo, up from 69 kobo in 2011. In the past one year, the shares of company have traded in the range of N 3.65 - N 6.30 per share.

The principal activities of NASCON include processing of raw salt into edible salt as well as importation of Petti brand of tomato. The shareholding structure as at December 31, 2011 shows that Dangote Industries Limited held more than fi ve per cent of the issued share capital of the company with 62 per cent shareholding.

Performance

The fi nancial analysis carried out on the unaudited third quarters (Q3), 2012 result of National Salt Company of Nigeria Plc (NASCON) for the period ended September 30, 2012 shows that its turnover (TO) increased by 27 per cent to N9.22 billion, compared with N7.26 billion in the corresponding period of 2011. Gross profi t moved up in similar trend to

close at N3.8 billion from N2.77 billion in 2011. Profi t before Tax (PBT) increased signifi cantly by 51 per cent between 2011 and 2012 to N3.01 billion from N2.0 billion. The tax provision which increased signifi cantly by N324 million between 2011 and 2012 to N964.27 million from N641 million resulted in the Profi t After Tax (PAT) of N2.05 billion, up from N1.37 billion in 2011 representing a growth of 55 per cent. The result also indicated that the percentages of TO, PBT, and PAT in the third quarters 2012 to the full year audited TO, PBT and PAT for the period ended December, 2011 are: 95.25 per cent, 96.28 per cent and 95.35 per cent respectively. Given the current run rates, NASCON should surpass its previous year’s audited performance with wide margins.

Profi tabilityThe management’s ability

to rake in more income which consequently led to signifi cant increase in company’s turnover despite growing cost has had a great impact on its profi tability indices during the review period. Return on equity (ROE), which reveals how much profi t a company earned in comparison to the total amount of shareholders equity moved to best fi gure in three year during the unaudited period ended September 2012. ROE stood at 34.97 per cent against 23.41 per cent in 2011. Gross profi t margin grew by 3.09 basis points to 34.97 per cent in third quarters 2012.

Similarly, the profi t before tax (PBT) margin in the third quarter, 2012 increased over the third quarter of 2011 and the full year ended December 2011 fi gure. The PBT margin increased to 32.67 per cent in Q3, 2012 from 27.57 per cent as at Q3, 2011, and also up from 32.16 per cent as at the end of the fi nancial year in December, 2011. This implies that, the company spent 67.33 per cent of sales as operating expenses in the review period, down from 72.43 per cent in comparable period of 2011. PAT margin currently stands at 22.22 per cent up from 18.26 per cent in the corresponding period of 2011.

Reviewing the company’s performance, its chairman, Aliko Dangote said the challenges faced during the review period were the usual ones associated with operating environment of businesses in Nigeria citing energy, poor infrastructure, and un-coordinated tax administration amongst others as factors preventing the manufacturing sector in the country from reaching its full potential. “However, the board successfully overcame these diffi culties to be able to post the impressive performance declared” he noted.

Asset QualityA cursory look at the balance sheet position as at Q3, 2012 compared with the position as at December 2011, shows that its fi xed assets increased by N155 million to N3.46 billion from N3.31 billion in fi nancial year, 2011, while the net assets (shareholders’ funds) increased by 3.4 per cent to N5.86 billion from N5.66 billion as at fi nancial year ended December 2011. The growth in the fi xed assets refl ects the continued expansion drive of NASCON and a form of import substitution strategy of the management. Cash and bank balances decreased from N3.5 billion in third quarters 2011 to N3.13 billion in Q3, 2012. The decline in cash and bank balances may be associated with the company’s fi nancing of its business expansion projects. Stocks also increased by 22.19 per cent to N1.06 billion in 2012 from N845.3 million in third quarters, 2011. Total assets dropped to N9.8 billion in 2012 from N10.05 billion while total liabilities closed at N3.94 billion compared with N4.38 billion in 2011. The trade debtors remained unchanged at N1.5 billion from the corresponding period of 2011, while trade creditors decreased to N1.83 billion in Q3, 2012 from N2.27

billion in 2011.

LiquidityLiquidity ratio, which

expresses a company’s ability to repay short-term creditors out of its total cash, shows a moderate performance. Both current and quick ratios for the review period are closed to the universally acceptable standard of 2.0:1 and 1.5:1 respectively.

Current ratio stood at 1.76:1 against 1.67:1 in 2011 while company’s quick ratio for the period under review close at 1.47:1 from 1.46:1 in 2011. Short term loan dropped by 44 per cent to N684 million from N381 million in 2011. Further analysis shows that the company did not give more cushions to its debtors having reduced payment day (debtors’ number of days) to 59 days from 73 days in 2011 while it took the company 123 days to pay its creditors. This mean the cash could remain with company for longer and it consequently affected the availability of funds for the management to do their daily transaction. As a result, NASCON’s working capital position stood at N2.4 billion in 2012.

Value for InvestorsIt is obvious that the

company has been fair to its numerous investors in term of profi t sharing in recent time. The company paid out N1.855 billion as dividend for 2011 business year, a development which was applauded by the shareholders. The payment of N1.855 billion represents 70 kobo for every 50 kobo ordinary shares held and as well represent 86 per cent of profi t realized for the year. Meanwhile, based on current run rate as of nine months result, the company may pay more to shareholders at the end of current fi nancial year. Earnings per share currently stood at 103 kobo, up from 69 kobo and 81 kobo recorded for third quarter2011 and fi nancial year ended December 2011 respectively.

ProspectRefl ecting on the future plans,

Dangote stated that the company was committed to its upward swing and remain competitive so as to deliver increasing dividends to the shareholders. To this end, he disclosed that the Board and Management were working round the clock to diversify the company by establishing a seasoning business, vegetable oil refi nery and Tomato packing operations, assuring that limited production would commence before the end of ongoing fi nancial year as the salt company desires to be in frontline foods business.

National Salt Plc: Good result amid difficult times By Tayo Adeleke

Dangote

National Mirrorwww.nationalmirroronline.net Monday, December 17, 2012 A23 39

STOCKWATCH

AGRICULTURE/AGRO-ALLIED Crop Production FTN COCOA PROCESSORS PLC 0.50 200 0.64 0.50 2 200 000 000 0.00 N/A NTOKOMU OIL PALM PLC. 35.00 86 648 34.01 14.53 476 955 000 8.23 -98.55 34.50PRESCO PLC 15.51 167 159 16.15 6.40 1 000 000 000 1.69 10.79 14.00Fishing/Hunting/Trapping ELLAH LAKES PLC. NT NT 4.26 4.26 60 000 000 0.00 N/A NTLivestock/Animal Specialties LIVESTOCK FEEDS PLC. 1.33 56 682 1.70 0.48 1 199 549 736 0.04 -14.19 1.55CONGLOMERATES Diversifi ed Industries A.G. LEVENTIS NIGERIA PLC. 1.29 9 092 2.54 0.74 2 191 895 983 0.21 0.00 1.29CHELLARAMS PLC. NT NT 7.60 5.81 963 900 300 0.30 N/A NTJOHN HOLT PLC. 4.57 10 763 8.82 5.32 389 151 408 0.00 N/A NTS C O A NIG. PLC. NT NT 8.28 5.52 821 666 666 0.35 N/A NTU A C N PLC. 43.98 687 112 42.50 28.70 1 600 720 323 7.03 N/A 40.22CONSTRUCTION/REAL ESTATE Building Construction ARBICO PLC. NT NT 26.00 14.09 148 500 000 0.00 N/A NTCAPPA & D’ALBERTO PLC. NT NT 95.49 95.49 196 876 000 4.50 N/A NTBuilding Structure/Completion/Other COSTAIN (W A) PLC. NT NT 7.97 2.46 920 573 765 0.00 N/A NTG CAPPA PLC NT NT 14.46 14.46 125 000 000 0.00 N/A NTNon--Building/Heavy Construction JULIUS BERGER NIG. PLC. 33.00 24 906 62.26 21.55 1 200 000 000 4.11 7.81 30.61ROADS NIG PLC. NT NT 8.69 3.01 20 000 000 3.66 N/A NTReal Estate Development PINNACLE POINT GROUP PLC NT NT 7.28 7.28 0.00 N/A NTUACN PROPERTY DEV 10.99 199 408 20.15 8.82 1 375 000 000 1.66 -3.60 11.40Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) SKYE SHELTER FUND PLC NT NT 100.00 97.00 20 000 000 11.75 N/A 100.00UNION HOMES REAL ESTATE INV NT NT 50.00 50.00 250 019 781 0.75 N/A NTCONSUMER GOODS Automobiles/Auto Parts DN TYRE & RUBBER PLC 0.50 6 500 0.50 0.50 4 772 528 415 0.00 N/A 0.50Beverages--Brewers/Distillers CHAMPION BREW. PLC. NT NT 4.63 2.23 900 000 000 0.00 N/A NTGOLDEN GUINEA BREW. PLC. NT NT 0.68 0.68 272 160 000 0.03 N/A NTGUINNESS NIG PLC 265.00 367 805 265.00 186.00 1 474 925 519 12.04 0.00 265.00INTERNATIONAL BREWERIES PLC. 14.20 90 961 12.83 5.23 2 112 914 681 0.07 N/A 12.75JOS INT. BREWERIES PLC. NT NT 3.20 1.61 562 000 000 0.00 N/A NTNIGERIAN BREW. PLC. 165.00 2 747 884 138.85 72.50 7 562 562 340 5.21 22.86 134.30PREMIER BREWERIES PLC NT NT 0.97 0.93 126 000 000 0.00 N/A NTBeverages--Non-Alcoholic 7-UP BOTTLING COMP. PLC. 44.00 19 949 48.91 38.31 640 590 362 3.15 N/A 40.95Food Products BIG TREAT PLC NT NT 0.50 0.50 2 000 000 000 0.00 N/A NTDANGOTE FLOUR MILLS PLC 7.93 384 751 19.90 4.15 5 000 000 000 0.00 1.02 7.85DANGOTE SUGAR REFINERY PLC 5.81 1 733 611 16.20 3.64 12 000 000 000 0.59 6.61 5.45FLOUR MILLS NIG. PLC. 65.00 142 351 95.00 52.50 1 879 210 666 3.60 3.14 63.02HONEYWELL FLOUR MILL PLC 2.04 1 274 320 6.60 1.91 7 930 197 658 0.36 -9.73 2.26MULTI-TREX INTEGRATED FOODS PLC NT NT 2.70 1.00 3 722 493 620 0.00 N/A 1.00N NIG. FLOUR MILLS PLC. 18.38 38 395 43.96 21.48 178 200 000 1.20 N/A 20.41NATIONAL SALT CO. NIG. PLC 6.50 2 259 880 6.70 3.86 0.81 7.44 6.05P S MANDRIDES & CO PLC. NT NT 5.66 5.66 40 000 000 0.16 N/A NTU T C NIG. PLC. 0.59 56 818 0.88 0.50 1 233 375 004 1.13 -15.71 0.70UNION DICON SALT PLC. NT NT 4.22 4.22 360 000 000 0.00 N/A NTFood Products--Diversifi ed CADBURY NIGERIA PLC. 29.00 609 354 29.20 9.15 3 129 188 160 1.24 18.37 24.50NESTLE NIGERIA PLC. 710.00 241 510 684.00 367.83 792 656 250 21.21 12.28 632.33Household Durables BETA GLASS CO PLC. NT NT 15.58 10.03 3.90 N/A NTNIGERIAN ENAMELWARE PLC. NT NT 42.66 34.39 63 360 000 1.61 N/A NTVITAFOAM NIG PLC. 3.70 124 500 6.75 3.01 819 000 000 0.54 -5.13 3.90VONO PRODUCTS PLC. NT NT 3.67 2.66 300 000 001 0.00 N/A NTPersonal/Household Products P Z CUSSONS NIGERIA PLC. 27.05 219 286 43.50 22.07 3 176 381 636 0.51 -2.03 27.61UNILEVER NIGERIA PLC. 47.00 844 112 41.52 22.56 3 783 296 250 1.32 12.98 41.60Textiles/Apparel UNITED NIG. TEXTILES PLC. NT NT 0.97 0.57 843 284 027 0.00 N/A NTFINANCIAL SERVICES Banking ACCESS BANK PLC. 8.95 2 496 551 11.10 4.76 17 888 251 479 0.63 3.35 8.66DIAMOND BANK PLC 4.62 11 819 184 9.27 2.01 14 475 243 105 0.00 13.24 4.08ECOBANK TRANSNATIONAL INC. 10.90 2 026 821 17.05 9.97 9 873 614 567 2.61 -0.91 11.00FIDELITY BANK PLC 2.30 6 017 178 3.20 1.14 28 974 797 023 0.19 10.05 2.09FIRST CITY MONUMENT BANK PLC. 3.21 3 624 146 8.30 3.04 16 271 192 202 0.60 -0.31 3.22GUARANTY TRUST BANK PLC. 21.50 17 883 119 20.30 11.64 29 146 482 209 0.59 6.97 20.10SKYE BANK PLC 4.10 2 514 665 10.17 2.73 13 219 334 676 0.39 0.74 4.07STERLING BANK PLC. 1.68 5 297 600 2.91 0.97 12 563 091 545 0.43 7.69 1.56U B A PLC 4.55 12 666 309 5.21 1.64 32 334 693 693 0.01 -8.82 4.99UNION BANK NIG.PLC. 7.37 639 097 10.07 1.96 13 509 726 273 2.20 -7.88 8.00UNITY BANK PLC 0.50 40 000 1.92 0.50 33 675 576 085 0.00 0.00 0.53WEMA BANK PLC. 0.50 3 700 1.75 0.50 12 821 249 880 1.34 -7.41 0.54ZENITH BANK PLC 17.97 6 646 870 18.20 11.70 31 396 493 790 1.41 1.24 17.75Insurance Carriers, Brokers & Services AFRICAN ALLIANCE INS. COY. PLC NT NT 0.50 0.50 20 585 000 000 0.00 N/A 0.50AIICO INSURANCE PLC. 0.56 3 214 003 1.01 0.50 7 809 391 256 0.09 0.00 0.58CONFIDENCE INSURANCE PLC NT NT 0.64 0.61 211 626 000 0.00 N/A NTCONSOLIDATED HALLMARK INS. PLC NT NT 0.50 0.50 6 000 000 000 0.06 N/A NTCONTINENTAL REINSURANCE PLC 0-72 108 380 1.20 0.61 10 372 624 157 0.10 0.00 0.80CORNERSTONE INS. COY. PLC. NT NT 0.50 0.50 8 820 010 363 0.01 0.00 NTCUSTODIAN AND ALLIED INS. PLC 1.26 633 158 3.51 1.31 5 100 846 808 0.27 0.00 1.29EQUITY ASSURANCE PLC. NT NT 0.50 0.50 8 847 298 420 0.00 N/A NTGOLDLINK INSURANCE PLC NT NT 0.69 0.50 4 549 947 000 0.00 N/A NTGREAT NIGERIAN INSURANCE PLC NT NT 0.50 0.50 3 827 485 380 0.00 N/A NTGUINEA INSURANCE PLC. 0.50 200 0.50 0.50 720 000 000 0.00 N/A NTINTERCONTINENTAL WAPIC INS. PLC 0.58 95 604 0.80 0.50 5 061 804 000 0.06 N/A NTINTERNATIONAL ENERGY INS. PLC 0.50 116 666 0.50 0.50 6 420 427 449 0.00 0.00 NTINVESTMENT AND ALLIED ARN. NT NT 0.50 0.50 28 000 000 000 0.02 N/A NTLASACO ASSURANCE PLC. NT NT 0.50 0.50 7 323 313 227 0.02 N/A 0.50LAW UNION AND ROCK INS. PLC. NT NT 0.61 0.50 3 437 330 500 0.10 N/A NTLINKAGE ASSURANCE PLC 0.50 1 000 0.50 0.50 4 083 713 569 0.00 0.00 0.50MANSARD INSURANCE PLC 1.82 100 100 1.93 0.95 10 000 000 000 0.08 3.41 1.76MUTUAL BENEFITS ASSURANCE PLC. NT NT 0.50 0.50 7 998 705 336 0.10 N/A NTN.E.M INSURANCE CO (NIG) PLC. 0.55 9 672 100 0.66 0.50 5 332 830 881 0.25 1.85 0.54NIGER INSURANCE CO. PLC. 0.50 50 070 500 1.11 0.50 5 649 693 923 0.01 N/A 0.50OASIS INSURANCE PLC NT NT 0.50 0.50 5 003 506 791 0.02 N/A NTPRESTIGE ASSURANCE CO. PLC. 0.51 1 458 2.35 0.50 2 508 315 436 0.11 -1.92 0.52REGENCY ALLIANCE INS. COY PLC NT NT 0.50 0.50 6 668 750 000 0.03 N/A NTSOVEREIGN TRUST INSURANCE PLC 0.50 95 604 0.52 0.50 5 203 757 266 0.10 0.00 0.50STACO INSURANCE PLC NT NT 0.50 0.50 6 141 087 609 0.00 N/A 0.50STANDARD ALLIANCE INS. PLC. NT NT 0.50 0.50 8 493 173 450 0.00 N/A 0.50UNIC INSURANCE PLC. NT NT 0.50 0.50 2 581 733 505 0.00 N/A NTUNITY KAPITAL ASSURANCE PLC NT NT 0.50 0.50 13 000 000 000 0.01 N/A NTUNIVERSAL INS. COMPANY PLC NT NT 0.50 0.50 16 000 000 000 0.00 N/A NTMicro Finance Banks FORTIS MICROFINANCE BANK PLC 6.00 200 000 NTNPF MICROFINANCE BANK PLC 1.00 907 108 NTMortgage Carriers, Brokers &Services ABBEY BUILDING SOCIETY PLC NT NT 1.51 1.33 4 200 000 000 0.03 N/A 1.37ASO SAVINGS AND LOANS PLC 0.50 500 0.50 0.50 8 679 148 676 0.10 N/A 0.50RESORT SAVINGS & LOANS PLC 0.50 15 000 000 0.50 0.50 13 175 732 404 0.00 N/A 0.50UNION HOMES SAVINGS&LOANS PLC NT NT 0.99 0.50 7 812 500 000 0.00 N/A NTOther Financial Institutions CRUSADER ( NIG) PLC. 0.50 100 000 0.61 0.50 3 778 005 975 0.00 N/A 0.50DEAP CAPITAL MGT & TRUST PLC NT NT 2.02 2.02 1 333 333 333 0.00 N/A NTFBN HOLDINGS PLC 15.50 16 063 783 17.01 8.50 32 632 084 358 1.37 -2.76 15.94NIG SEW. MACH. MAN. CO. PLC. NT NT 0.15 0.15 5 880 000 0.00 N/A NTNIGERIA ENERYGY SECTOR FUND NT NT 552.20 555.20 2 500 000 12.68 N/A NTROYAL EXCHANGE PLC. 0.50 220 000 0.66 0.50 3 608 657 661 0.05 N/A 0.50STANBIC IBTC HOLDINGS PLC 10.92 611 967 11.38 6.40 18 750 000 000 0.54 #VALUE! NTHEALTHCARE Healthcare Providers EKOCORP PLC. 5.05 1 000 5.31 5.05 498 600 908 0.12 N/A NTMedical Equipment UNION DIAGNOSTIC &CLINICAL PLC 0.50 100 000 0.50 0.50 3 553 138 528 0.00 N/A 0.50Medical Supplies MORISON INDUSTRIES PLC. NT NT 10.54 7.39 152 178 750 0.00 N/A NTPharmaceuticals EVANS MEDICAL PLC. 0.95 38 000 1.45 0.50 486 473 856 0.19 -28.03 1.32FIDSON HEALTHCARE PLC 1.00 2 680 000 3.20 0.76 1 500 000 000 0.27 -4.76 1.05GLAXO SMITHKLINE CONSUMER PLC 45.00 390 915 39.00 19.30 956 701 192 2.41 7.42 41.89MAY & BAKER NIGERIA PLC. 1.57 130 380 5.61 1.62 980 000 000 0.21 -1.88 1.60

NOTE NT=Not Traded on 14-12-12 N/A=Not Avialable

NEIMETH INT PHARM PLC 0.87 25 640 1.96 0.76 1 925 717 268 0.09 -14.71 1.02NIGERIA-GERMAN CHEMICALS PLC. NT NT 12.91 8.59 153 786 012 0.00 N/A NTPHARMA-DEKO PLC. NT NT 4.28 3.50 100 000 000 0.00 N/A 2.73ICT Computer Based Systems COURTEVILLE BUSINESS SLN PLC 0.50 5 000 0.52 0.50 2 960 000 000 0.08 0.00 0.50Computers and Peripherals OMATEK VENTURES PLC 0.50 100 000 0.50 0.50 2 941 789 472 0.04 N/A NTElectronic Communications Services MTECH COMMUNICATIONS PLC NT NT 0.91 0.91 4 966 666 668 0.00 N/A NTIT Services NCR (NIGERIA) PLC. 14.40 109 105 18.28 13.12 108 000 000 1.82 N/A 13.09TRIPPLE GEE AND COMPANY PLC. NT NT 3.59 2.41 492 825 600 0.00 N/A NTProcessing Systems CHAMS PLC 0.50 3 000 0.50 0.50 4 620 600 000 0.00 N/A 0.50E-TRANZACT INTERNATIONAL PLC NT NT 4.97 4.04 4 200 000 000 0.00 N/A NTTelecommunications Carriers STARCOMMS PLC NT NT 1.47 0.50 6 878 478 096 0.00 N/A NTTelecommunications Services IHS NIGERIA PLC PREF SHARES NT NT 2.25 0.00 0.00 N/A NTIHS PLC NT NT 3.50 2.46 4 400 000 000 0.00 N/A 2.25MTI PLC NT NT 0.50 0.50 4 893 594 400 0.00 N/A NTINDUSTRIAL GOODS Building Materials AFRICAN PAINTS (NIGERIA) PLC. NT NT 3.32 2.86 260 000 000 0.00 N/A NTASHAKA CEM PLC 18.00 167 529 30.00 9.10 2 239 453 125 1.60 0.00 18.00BERGER PAINTS PLC 8.41 10 000 12.57 7.27 217 367 585 0.15 0.12 8.40CAP PLC 28.00 113 632 43.98 14.50 560 000 000 1.76 -6.17 29.84CEMENT CO. OF NORTH.NIG. PLC 5.40 865 560 15.49 4.20 1 241 548 285 1.83 -2.00 5.51DANGOTE CEMENT PLC 121.50 175 575 132.51 95.00 15 494 019 668 8.01 -0.82 122.50DN MEYER PLC. NT NT 3.51 0.93 242 908 200 0.00 N/A NTFIRST ALUMINIUM NIGERIA PLC NT NT 0.75 0.50 2 109 928 275 0.00 N/A NTIPWA PLC NT NT 0.99 0.91 513 696 000 0.00 N/A NTLAFARGE WAPCO PLC. 60.00 509 461 56.50 37.00 3 001 600 004 1.74 4.33 57.51PAINTS & COATINGS MANFACT.PLC NT NT 3.36 0.52 792 914 256 0.16 N/A 1.98PORTLAND PAINTS & PRDT NIG. PLC 4.17 203 920 5.28 2.27 400 000 000 0.39 N/A 3.71PREMIER PAINTS PLC. NT NT 13.40 10.93 75 000 000 0.00 N/A NTElectronic and Electrical Products AUSTIN LAZ & COMPANY PLC NT NT 2.00 2.00 0.03 N/A 2.00CUTIX PLC. 1.52 15 000 2.50 1.33 510 396 608 0.11 -1.30 1.54NIGERIAN WIRE AND CABLE PLC. NT NT 0.73 0.50 2 220 000 000 0.00 N/A NTNIGERIAN WIRE IND. PLC NT NT 2.58 2.58 15 000 000 0.00 N/A NTPackaging/Containers ABPLAST PRODUCTS PLC. NT NT 3.98 3.98 25 000 000 0.00 N/A NTAVON CROWNCAPS & CONTAINERS NT NT 6.91 2.19 683 974 528 0.15 N/A NTBETA GLASS CO PLC. NT NT 10.50GREIF NIGERIA PLC NT NT 15.03 13.28 42 640 000 0.90 N/A NTNIG. BAGS MANFACT. COY PLC 2.30 1 010 290 3.60 1.60 6 215 000 000 0.22 17.95 1.95POLY PRODUCTS (NIG) PLC. NT NT 1.86 1.05 240 000 000 0.30 N/A NTW A GLASS IND. PLC. NT NT 0.63 0.63 199 066 550 0.00 N/A NTTools and Machinery NIGERIAN ROPES PLC NT NT 8.69 8.26 265 409 280 0.00 N/A NTSTOKVIS NIG PLC. NT NT 0.14 0.14 2 918 000 0.00 N/A NTNATURAL RESOURCES Chemicals B.O.C. GASES PLC. 5.68 32 216 9.20 5.70 393 120 000 0.93 -0.18 5.69Metals ALUMACO PLC NT NT 7.75 7.75 75 600 000 0.00 N/A NTALUMINIUM EXTRUSION IND. PLC. NT NT 12.39 10.55 100 000 000 0.13 N/A 10.55Non-Metallic Mineral Mining MULTIVERSE PLC 0.50 8 001 000 0.50 0.50 4 058 989 226 0.00 N/A 0.50Paper/Forest Products HALLMARK PAPER PRODUCTS PLC. NT NT 3.22 3.22 50 000 000 0.04 N/A NTTHOMAS WYATT NIG. PLC. NT NT 1.38 1.38 220 000 000 0.00 N/A NTOIL AND GAS Energy Equipment and Services JAPAUL OIL & MARITIME SER. PLC 0.59 1 113 783 1.87 0.54 6 262 701 716 0.16 -1.67 0.60Integrated Oil and Gas Services OANDO PLC 14.03 5 617 088 78.97 13.95 2 262 711 568 7.47 15.00 12.20Petroleum &Petroleum Products Distributors AFROIL PLC NT NT 20.71 20.71 125 487 475 0.00 N/A NTBECO PETROLEUM PRODUCT PLC 0.50 1 000 0.70 0.50 3 716 976 579 0.00 N/A 0.50CONOIL PLC 20.05 90 145 41.89 19.61 693 952 117 5.98 12.32 17.85ETERNA PLC. 1.92 618 110 5.59 2.12 1 249 162 828 0.88 3.23 1.86FORTE OIL PLC. 8.00 170 389 28.69 9.12 1 080 280 628 0.00 -15.79 9.50MOBIL OIL NIG PLC. 109.25 22 711 163.50 111.51 300 496 051 13.06 -5.00 115.00MRS OIL NIGERIA PLC. 23.76 2 690 72.00 32.29 253 988 672 4.08 N/A 29.15TOTAL NIGERIA PLC. 121.68 85 191 240.00 125.00 339 521 837 11.22 -2.66 125.00SERVICES Advertising AFROMEDIA PLC 0.50 150 000 0.72 0.50 4 035 497 307 0.00 N/A 0.50Apparel Retailers LENNARDS (NIG) PLC. NT NT 3.48 3.48 0.19 N/A NTAutomobile/Auto Part Retailers R T BRISCOE PLC. 1.45 149 100 3.65 1.12 980 294 400 0.22 -11.04 1.63Courier/Freight/Delivery RED STAR EXPRESS PLC 2.99 256 815 3.67 2.11 589 496 310 0.63 -5.97 3.18TRANS-NATIONWIDE EXPRESS PLC. NT NT 6.40 3.28 198 819 763 0.26 N/A NTEmployment Solutions C & I LEASING PLC. 0.50 20 000 1.64 0.85 865 808 912 0.20 N/A 0.50Hospitality TANTALIZERS PLC 0.50 6 000 0.75 0.50 3 211 627 907 0.01 N/A NTHotels/Lodging CAPITAL HOTEL PLC NT NT 8.00 3.00 1 548 780 000 0.18 N/A NTIKEJA HOTEL PLC 0.88 1 536 240 2.59 1.16 2 078 796 396 0.92 -14.56 1.03TOURIST COMPANY OF NIGERIA PLC. NT NT 4.76 4.31 1 772 884 297 0.00 N/A NTTRANSNATIONAL CORP. OF NIG.PLC 0.91 21 843 712 1.82 0.50 25 813 998 283 0.22 -9.00 1.00Media/Entertainment DAAR COMMUNICATIONS PLC 0.50 37 000 0.50 0.50 8 000 000 000 0.00 N/A 0.50Printing/Publishing ACADEMY PRESS PLC. NT NT 3.68 1.64 403 200 000 0.14 N/A NTLEARN AFRICA PLC 1.83 75 996 8.00 1.94 771 450 000 0.29 N/A 2.00STUDIO PRESS (NIG) PLC. NT NT 2.92 2.78 0.01 N/A NTUNIVERSITY PRESS PLC. 4.70 50 000 6.82 3.09 425 641 111 0.50 2.84 4.57Road Transportation ABC TRANSPORT PLCPLC NT NT 0.80 0.50 1 507 000 000 0.00 N/A 0.50Specialty INTERLINKED TECHNOLOGIES PLC NT NT 5.15 4.90 236 699 511 0.00 N/A NTSECURE ELECTRONIC TECH.PLC NT NT 1.88 0.80 5 631 539 736 0.03 N/A NTTransport-Related Services AIRLINE SERVICES AND LOGISTICS PLC 3.59 83 654 2.78 1.54 634 000 000 0.38 N/A 2.50NIG. AVIATION HANDLING COY PLC 5.59 834 468 11.75 5.15 1 230 468 750 0.81 -2.10 5.71ASeM CONSTRUCTION/REAL ESTATE Property Management SMART PRODUCTS NIGERIA PLC NT NT 1.43 1.04 45 000 000 0.12 N/A NTCONSUMER GOODS Food Products MCNICHOLS PLC 0.97 11 000 1.02 1.02 201 885 335 0.00 N/A 0.97Personal/Household Products ROKANA INDUSTRIES PLC. 0.60 500 0.60 0.60 30 000 000 0.00 N/A 0.60HEALTHCARE Pharmaceuticals AFRIK PHARMACEUTICALS PLC. NT NT 0.50 0.50 24 898 850 0.00 N/A NTINDUSTRIAL GOODS Electronic and Electrical Products NT NT NTADSWITCH PLC. 1.63 500 1.88 1.63 125 005 250 0.00 N/A 1.63NATURAL RESOURCES Metals W.A. ALUM. PRODUCTS PLC. NT NT 0.50 0.50 6 650 000 0.00 N/A NTOIL AND GAS Petroleum & Petroleum Products Distributors ANINO INTERNATIONAL PLC. NT NT 0.21 0.21 24 200 000 0.00 N/A NTCAPITAL OIL PLC 0.50 20 000 0.50 0.50 5 857 500 000 0.00 N/A 0.50RAK UNITY PET. COMP. PLC. NT NT 0.31 0.31 15 000 000 0.00 N/A NTUNION VENTURES & PET. PLC NT NT 0.63 0.63 98 600 000 0.00 N/A NTSERVICES Apparel Retailers UDEOFSON GARMENT FACT. NIG PLC NT NT 0.50 0.50 20 000 000 0.00 N/A NTFood/Drug Retailers and Wholesalers NT NT NTJULI PLC. 2.76 16 000 3.05 2.76 194 700 000 0.00 N/A 2.76ETF’s Sector ETF NEWGOLD EXCHANGE TRADED FUND 2 638.00 100 2 706 2 422 0.00 2 638.00

PRICE 52 WK 52 WK SHARES MOV.SECURITY (=N=) QUANTITY HIGH LOW OUTSTANDING EPS (%) Previous

PRICE 52 WK 52 WK SHARES MOV.SECURITY (=N=) QUANTITY HIGH LOW OUTSTANDING EPS (%) Previous

Stock Exchange weekly equities summary as at Friday, Dec 14, 2012

Business CourageCourage

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net40 Monday, December 17, 2012

If there is one judge in Nigeria today whose name rings bell beyond the small, conservative legal circle of the Judi-

ciary and especially among the lay people who constitutes the larger society, he is no other person that Justice Joseph Olubunmi Kayode Oyewole.

What, if one may ask, fetched this relative fame for the Ila-Orangun-born young jurist? There are two reasons, one rests on sheer chance while the other is said to be an emanation of his personal attributes.

Firstly, he is widely known to have heard and determined a number of sensational cases which the public followed with keen interest. The second reason is that he was believed to have decided all the said sensational cases with uncanny courage, closing his eyes to all the pressures that could have fettered his discretion.

Some of these sensational cases included the notorious case of three swindlers, Emmanuel Nwude, Mrs. Amaka Anajemba and Nzeribe Okoli, who were convicted and sentenced to varying terms of imprisonment by Justice Oyewole of an Ikeja High Court, between April and November 2005 for defrauding a Brazilian banker, Mr. Nelson Sakaguchi, and his bank, Banquo Noreste, Sau Paulo, of the sum of $242 million. The case is famous for

being the biggest single fraud case in the world.

It was also Oyewole who heard and determined the case of the former Deputy Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and one- time Chairman of the Nigerian Port Authority (NPA), Chief Olabode George. George had been slammed with a 68-count charge by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). The charge comprised the alleged offences of contract splitting inducing misappropriation of billions of naira and disobedience to lawful order.

Justice Oyewole convicted and sentenced George to 30 months imprisonment on October 26, 2009. Interestingly, the judgement was affirmed by the Court of Appeal on January 21, 2011.

Another case handled by Oyewole was that of a controversial pastor, Emeka Ezeugo a.k.a Rev. King. He was arraigned on September 26, 2006 on a six-count charge of attempted murder and murder. He was specifically accused of having killed a member of his church, Miss Ann Uzoh. His defence team fought a gallant battle to save his neck from the hangman’s noose. Oyewole convicted him, nonetheless, and sentenced him to death by hanging on January 11, 2007.

Although George bagged a jail term, the former Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Gen. Ishaya Bamaiyi(rtd) was lucky. He was freed of the attempted murder on the Guardian publisher, Alex Ibru.

The judge has also handled the civil matter of the estate of the late legal luminary, Chief Rotimi Williams SAN, whose children are involved in dispute over the authenticity of the legend’s holographic will made and dated in 1954.

The pronouncements of the judge on many of the cases he had handled have been upheld at the upper courts. These included the case of Bode George which incidentally has been reported to have given the judge in most trying on accounts of pressure allegedly mounted on him from high quarters to fetter his discretion. The

said entreaties did not work as Oyewole jailed George on October 26, 2009.

Notwithstanding his well-known principled stance, the judge had braved a number of ordeals in his career. The first is his aborted elevation.

He was listed among the judges to be elevated to the Appeal Court Bench about two years ago but his name, which appeared on the Lagos State slot, was later removed from the list by the powers that be. It was obvious that some vested interests opposed his nomination on the grounds that he is not from Lagos State.

Also in 2010, when Oyewole was transferred from the criminal division of the Lagos State High Court, to the Family and Probate division, a lot of criticisms trailed the decision. It was loudly proclaimed that Oyewole’s popularity on the Bench was making some people uncomfortable. Hence, some analysts of judiciary issues insinuated that the transfer was a ploy to remove him from “mainstream of action’’ but the state judiciary stated it was a routine transfer which is the norm in the judiciary.

The Osun State Government, in apparent recognition of Oyewole’s qualities, intended to appoint him as the Chief Judge of the state. This measure was however met with stiff resistance both within the Judiciary circle in Osun State and by the rival political party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Certain groups of people even wrote petitions to the National Judicial Council (NJC) to protest Oyewole’s nomination on the grounds he is not the most senior judge and his elevation to the office of the CJ

Law & Justice“It is one thing to aim at but it is an entirely different

thing to succeed in hitting the target.”

National Mirrorwww.nationalmirroronline.net 41Monday, December 17, 2012

nationalmirrorlaw@yahoo.com

CONTINUED ON PAGE 45

46

Treason trial: How immigration officials barred Awo’s lawyer

42

Bar, Bench converge at Ayorinde’s book presentation

Justice Joseph Olubunmi Oye-wole was appointed a judge of the Lagos State Judiciary on May 24, 2001. Since his appointment, the 47-year old Ila-Orangun-born judge has exhibited high cerebral prowess in his pronouncements on the Bench. However, his judi-cial career has been dogged with controversies especially in the last two years. KAYODE KETEFE writes.

RETIRED JUSTICE OF SUPREME COURT, JUSTICE CHUKWUDIFU OPUTA

Oyewole

Travails of Oyewole, erudite judge

ANOTHER CASE HANDLED BY OYEWOLE WAS THAT

OF A CONTROVERSIAL PASTOR, EMEKA EZEUGO

A.K.A REV. KING

Justice Phillips

42 National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.netMonday, December 17, 2012Law & Justice

Event

AustriaForeign

L-R: Chief Bolaji Ayorinde (SAN); his wife, Adeola; Justice Funmilayo Atilade and retired Justice of the Supreme Court and Chairman of the occasion, Justice Adesola Oguntade (rtd), during the book presentation.

L-R: Justice Adesola Oguntade (rtd); Otunba Reuben Famuyibo and High Chief Tunde Durojaiye.

L-R: Managing Director, National Mirror Newspapers, Mr. Steve Ayorinde, representing Dr. Jimoh Ibrahim, the Group Managing Director of Global Fleet Group, Justice Lateef Lawal-Akapo and book presenter, Dr. Dapo Olanipekun.

L-R: Chief Adeniyi Akintola (SAN), Mr Tayo Oyetibo (SAN) and Mr. Dele Adesina (SAN).

Mr. Kemi Pinheiro (SAN) and Justice Toyin Oyekan-Abdullahi. Mr. Femi Ojumu (left) and Mr. Wale Irokosu.

Mr. Bisi Iyaniwura (left) and former Lagos State Commissioner for the Environment, Dr. Muiz Banire.

L-R: Prof Fabian Ajogwu (SAN); Mr. Tunde Busari and Justice Oluyinka Gbajabiamila.

Chief Ayorinde giving a speech. Photos: YINKA ADEPARUSI

The cream of the Bar and the Bench converged in Lagos, last Wednesday for a book presentation in honour of Chief Bolaji Ayorinde (SAN). Below are dignitaries at the event.

A taxi driver thought to have faked a mugging has been handed a prison sentence by a

judge in Graz, the capital of the Aus-trian province of Styria.

The 43-year-old taxi driver alleged he had been mugged and had has his takings stolen - but the court heard he

also had large debts.According to Austrian Times ‘’he

claimed a man jumped into his taxi at a crossing in the city saying he wanted to be taken to Riez.

The man claimed the passenger started asking strange questions about robberies and was acting strangely. So he made a secret call to a former girl-friend to let her know he was in danger.

This call leads to an alleged argu-ment between the driver and the pas-senger, who demanded he stop.

The 43-year-old taxi driver then told the court how the passenger then de-manded his takings before fastening

him to his seat with the seat belt. He then claimed the passenger fled from the taxi with a briefcase containing 1,000 Euros.

The driver’s ex-girlfriend confirmed that he had made the secret call for help, but she could not remember the exact time of the call.

The judge claimed there were many open questions in the case.

He questioned the fact the taxi driv-er could only give such a vague de-scription of the passenger even though

he was in the car with him for half an hour.

The judge also questioned his invoic-es with the taxi company. The judge asked him why he did not just stop to raise alarm. Why didn’t he use the emergency pepper spray, bat or electro shocker he had in the car.

“You are a certain calibre. You have high debts. You are very poor. You are very irregular with your invoicing. Is that enough reason to fake a robbery? You have previous convictions and have weapons in your taxi.”

The man was given a one year sen-tence but said he would appeal.

Robbed taxi driver bags one-year jail term

and get more employment for our people. So, the linkage from security is virtually endless. But if the country is insecure, no-body will bring in his money and you spend all the money either fighting the militants or arming the police more, arming the military more and the money goes there while education has collapsed, healthcare has collapsed, not even drinking water. So, you can’t eat your cake and have it. The only way for Nigeria is for the elite to wake up and make sure the system is stabilised. This I believe is the only option left for us.

You were very prudent while in office, but knowing that elections in this country involves a lot of spending, how do you intend to fund your election project?

I think you are not alone in that obser-vation. I wonder whether it was you who wrote that this man who said he had no money, how did he contest the 2003 and 2007 elections? The simple answer is that we say we want a multi-party democratic system. Based on the American and most of the Eu-ropean developed countries’ system, if any-body tries to tamper with this system, they show you the way out. Remember Nixon in

the USA, Watergate when he attempted to rig? Also, they showed him out. But in Nige-ria, we maim, we kill, commit arson. There is nothing we don’t do to get to political of-fice. Why? Because, from chairman of a local government to the presidency, people are fighting to put the treasury into their pockets. There are enough Nigerian elites that can stop this. This is why I am appeal-ing to them now whether they physically participate in partisan politics or not, to go and deliver their constituencies democrati-cally. This is what I am doing now. I was a young man when I was a governor, now 68. I was in the petroleum ministry for three and a quarter years and that was the most lucra-tive ministry and I was the Head of State for 20 months. I was in the Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF) for four years. There was a time in PTF we had more than N53 billion at that time before we started our projects. All my political enemies cannot get anything against me to the effect that I have compro-mised my personal integrity or I abused trust. This is my asset and when I ask peo-ple to help, they help. In 2003, I was the only presidential candidate that went round 34 out of the 36 states of the federation, some of them several times, I only went to three places by air – Maiduguri, Borno, and drove back to Yobe, Akwa Ibom State and I think from there I flew to Lagos, all the rest I went by road. So, really, this question of money, as far as I am concerned, yes you need logis-tics support. You cannot do it with goodwill alone. But people are prepared to finance my campaign virtually in individual chap-ters or states. They hired offices, they em-ployed people there, and some of them even put computers and operators. As for me, no-body will ask me to give him a million naira or two. They know I don’t have it.

How have you been able to address the perception by people from the South-East of the country of you being a reli-gious fundamentalist?

I am a Muslim even though most of you may be Christians but I have been going to the Church leadership and explaining my position. And what do they have against me? It was in December 2000, I was in Soko-to launching a book on Sharia. I was chair-man of the occasion and when the launch-ing finished, I was asked to comment as the chairman. I looked at the book, I had some ideas being a Muslim. I told them partisan politics was about to start. This is year 2000. Let’s wait for the year 2003. When it comes, please, you need to convince your people to choose respectful people, good people that can hold trust for you. Somebody from a national newspaper, he is a Muslim, he did not and does not speak Hausa. He could not write it. He was not in the place. Somebody just wrote him and alleged that Buhari said “Muslims should not vote for Christians.” Now, it is a very silly thing. If you want to be a councillor in a local government in So-koto, perhaps you can say that. But even if you want to be a governor, you cannot make such a statement because there are a lot of Christians and even people who do not have any religion at all that you need their votes. There was no truth in that. But as I said, perception, once it is formed, it becomes a culture and I am fighting very bravely and I told people from second lieutenant to gener-al, there is no command and staff appoint-ment I did not hold and most of the people are Christians up till today, three quarters of the Nigerian military are Christians, and there is no command I have not done and you cannot get a single person who can tell you I based any decision along the line

of tribe or religion.

What will be your disposition to Sharia in some Northern states if you become the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria?

You look at the constitution. This is why we have 12 states practicing Sharia in this country out of the 36 states and Abuja. It is because their states of Assemblies said they want Sharia. When they started, I really find out they were not ready for it because they need to have trained a lot of judges, Muslim judges. They ought to have the infrastructure. They have to make an appreciation. How do they deal with the constitution when the Supreme Court is the apex court? What does the Supreme Court do with the Sharia case. A lot of them did not think very deeply about it. But the people feel that in their states, since they formed the majority, they wanted Sharia. But how many Sharia judgements are be-ing frustrated? So, really, these are issues people are making may be to express some fears, which, really, do not exist. People stop people like in Kano for taking alcohol but are they really successful? I am asking you? Are they successful in stopping people from taking alcohol?

How much are you worth? We know what generals are worth. They are chairmen of banks, industries and they have oil blocks. We may know the reasons why you have not chosen that path. But how much are you worth?

Well, at least, I thank God I am not in the red in my bank account. I think I have at least one million naira in my bank now, hav-ing paid N5.5 million to pick my form from my party. I have around 150 cattle, because I am never comfortable without cows. I don’t know how many hectares of land I have at my big farm at home, two or three big farms. I have a house in Kaduna, I have in Kano, I have a house in Daura, I have a house here in Abuja, which I borrowed money to build, which I cannot enter. I have to stay in the hotel. I never had a foreign account since I finished my courses in the USA, India and the UK. I never owned any property outside Nigeria. Never. I am comfortable.

How would you assess the fight against corruption?

It is a good initiative for the Obasanjo’s presidency to put those anti-graft institu-tions in place and how I wish people study the Acts and then make presentations ac-cordingly. If for instance, you want to re-port somebody to EFCC as being corrupt, you are supposed to articulate it or may be swear to an affidavit. But a lot of Nigeri-ans will rather talk than make research and make a credible presentation. I don’t know how many cases are before ICPC and how many are before EFCC, only God knows. But what I know is that they can-not cope with the weight of the work. They just cannot because a lot of them are not presented properly and they do not even have the time to find out which ones that are presented properly and which were not. For example, the case of Tinubu be-fore the ICPC that was mentioned recently. But this case has been there for about five years ago and suddenly somebody just dusted up the file and started bringing out what happened five years ago. Why didn’t he bring this case out all these last five years before now because he was no lon-ger enjoying any immunity?

IF THE COUNTRY IS INSECURE, NOBODY WILL BRING IN HIS MONEY AND YOU SPEND ALL THE

MONEY EITHER FIGHTING THE MILITANTS OR ARMING THE POLICE...WHILE EDUCATION HAS

COLLAPSED, HEALTHCARE HAS COLLAPSED, NOT EVEN DRINKING WATER. SO, YOU CAN’T EAT

YOUR CAKE AND HAVE IT

e president – Buhari

nd of his 2011 Buhari at one of his rallies

National Mirrorwww.nationalmirroronline.net Monday, December 17, 2012 43Politics Buhari @ 70

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net44 Monday, December 17, 2012

National Mirrorwww.nationalmirroronline.net 45Monday, December 17, 2012 Law & Justice

FRANCIS FAMOROTI

The Lagos State Road Traffic Law 2012 has been described as an en-actment that has no subsidiary

legislation. A university don, Dr. Abiola Sanni,

who made this observation at the first Alimosho Law Summit in Lagos, urged the state House of Assembly to make conscious efforts in ensuring that the law has subsidiary legislation.

Besides, he implored the state govern-ment and its legislative arm to be pro-active in reviewing the defective provi-sions in the law.

According to him, ‘’Once we make laws, we go to sleep. Most of our statutes do not have subsidiary legislations. The Road Traffic Law 2012 we have right now has no subsidiary legislation. ‘’

Delivering a lecture at the summit, Sanni, a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Law, University of Lagos (UNILAG), who x-rayed the practicability and en-forceability of the law, noted that prior to the enactment of the current law; the state had the Road Traffic Law 2003.

He said regrettably this law like most others were observed in breaches, add-ing that since the state government be-gan the enforcement of the law, ‘’it has been controversy galore in the state.’’

He said “I am here to speak the facts on the law; as we speak, I am aware that at least two cases are pending in court on the enforcement of the state road traffic law. ‘’

Sanni said under the old law, there were few reported cases on how traffic offenders were penalised, saying that the enforcement of the law was not like-ly to be different.

The university don said if the traffic law was being effectively enforced in this state, the convicted Nollywood ac-tress, Fiberesima Ibinabo, should have been sentenced to seven years jail term for her reckless driving that resulted in the death of a medical doctor in Ajah, some years ago.

The lecturer therefore observed that if the old traffic law had been enforced right from its inception, there would not have been any need for the enactment of this new law.

Sanni also faulted the punitive fines prescribed in the new law against err-

ing motorists and motorcycle operators, pointing out that ‘’we don’t need to im-pose N100, 000 fines against offenders, N5,000 fine, for instance, can serve as deterrent to an offender.’’

The lecturer said by making the pen-alties high, the state government had given the law enforcement agents the liberty to bargain or negotiate the fines.

In the process, he reasoned, most of the fines would end up in the pockets of the traffic officers and other law en-forcement agents.

Sanni, whose lecture was punctuated by intermittent applause, observed that the developed countries usually make use of advanced technologies to track down traffic offenders, urging the state to adopt this measure sooner.

The lecturer further listed the factors that may make the law unenforceable. These, he said, included, lack of consul-tation with all the relevant stakehold-ers, which could be booby trap, lack of institutional capacity and lack of ac-ceptability as evidenced by the recent protest against the law in Lagos.

Sanni also identified slow pace of ju-dicial process and possible constitution-al infraction and its attendant litigation

to test the power of the state. Notwithstanding the inherent defects

in the law, he advised the motorists, commercial motorcycle operators and other road users to cooperate with the law enforcement agencies in enforcing the law.

The state Commissioner of Police, represented by the state Traffic officer, Chief Superintendent of Police, (CSP) Mrs. Margaret Ekpe, in her speech, said prior to the enforcement of the law, there was extensive wide consultations with all the stakeholders in the state.

The Legal adviser, state Traffic Man-agement Agency (LASTMA), Mrs. Mar-garet Adewale, said the enforcement of the law had reduced the several hours being spent in traffic daily by commut-ers.

Earlier, the chairman of Alimosho Lawyers’ Forum, Mrs. ‘Derin Kappo, said the group decided to organise the lecture in a bid to facilitate an interface and meeting point among all stakehold-ers in the state.

The road traffic law was first enacted on January 1, 1949. Since its enactment, the law had been amended about seven times.

Justice Mukhtar Justice Adagun

above others without adherence to the hierarchy would constitute an aberration of the well-known “appointment by seniority” of the Judiciary.

The proponents of Oyewole’s elevation argued that there was nothing sacrosanct about the issue of seniority, stressing that there have been numerous instances in Nigeria and even in the Osun State Judiciary where seniority had been overlooked in judicial appointment.

Such examples, they claimed included Justice Adedotun Sijuwade who was appointed the Chief Judge of Osun State at a time when he was number four in the hierarchy of judges.

Furthermore, they claimed that Justice Ligali Ayorinde was likewise appointed Chief Judge of Lagos State when he was number two in the order of the seniority among the then judges of the state. In this case however, it was later clarified that Ayorinde was appointed above Justice Idowu Agoro, because the later was being tipped to go to the Appeal Court Bench.

Oyewole’s sympathisers also cited the case of Justice Shedrack Nwanosike; she was number three when she was elevated to the office of Chief Judge of Abia State.

On the issue of transfer of judicial officers from one state to another, those in favour of Oyewole’s transfer insisted that such measure is not new. They cited the case of former Chief Judge of Lagos State, Justice Sikiru Adagun who hailed from Lagos State, but was appointed a judge of High Court of Gongola State (now Adamawa and Gongola States) but still had to transfer his service to yet another state, Borno in 1981. Justice Adagun subsequently transferred his service from Borno State to Lagos State

judiciary in 1991. He later became the substantive state CJ on May 11, 1991 and retired on May 22 after 11 days in office.

Mention can also be made of Justice Akinola Fernandez, a Lagos indigene who was appointed a judge of Kano State judiciary in 1981. He later transferred his service to the state judiciary on July 2, 1985.

All these arguments apparently did not impress the NJC as the council

rejected Oyewole’s nomination on the grounds that he is not a serving judge from Osun State Judiciary and that he is not the most senior judge and could therefore not be the CJ.

After this, Osun State Governor, Mr. Rauf Aregbesola, bowed to the directive of the NJC and sworn-in the most senior judge, Justice Gloria Oladoke as the Acting Chief Judge.

National Mirror learnt that the denial of Oyewole’s bid to ascend to Appellate Court from the Lagos State Judiciary and the failed attempt to appoint him directly to the office of Osun CJ are clear indications that the judge may not rise beyond the high court Bench in Lagos State.

In a latest development, the Osun State Government wrote a letter to the Lagos CJ, Justice Ayotunde Phillips,

and requested for the transfer of Justice Oyewole to the state. Oyewole was to report to duty in Osun State Judiciary on December 4, 2012.

By transferring his judicial career to his home state, the judge stands better chances of rising beyond the high court Bench and he could even become the state CJ in the future.

National Mirror gathered that Lagos CJ has acted on the letter, and forwarded her comments to the NJC.

It was further learnt that that the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Aloma Mukhtar, has sent back the letter to the state CJ with the explanation that the transfer request should be kept on hold until the decision of the NJC at its meeting on December 19, 2012.

Speaking to National Mirror, a 77-year old former Chairman of Ikeja branch of the NBA, Chief Victor Odunaiya, described Oyewole as jurist of proven integrity. He said “Granted Oyewole is from Osun, but he has served in Lagos and they recognise his competence that is why they appointed him to serve in Lagos.

“If that is the case, why crucify him.We are looking for people of integrity who are dynamic and who can express their mind without fear or favour. Oyewole possessed all these virtues.” he added. In a similar vein, another lawyer, Mr. Yahaya Oladeji, said “One thing I know about Justice Oyewole is that, he has faced a lot of challenges with courage. They played politics with his one-time proposed elevation to the Court of Appeal. But as he is now about being relocated to Osun State, he should not have problem being nominated for the appellate court. Age is on his side, I won’t be surprised if he eventually makes it to the Supreme Court. He is hardworking, intelligent and fearless. These are some of the virtues of a good judge.” he added.

NJC decides transfer request to Osun December 19

Lagos Traffi c Law has no subsidiary legislation, says UNILAG don

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 41

THEY PLAYED POLITICS WITH OYEWOLE’S

ONE-TIME PROPOSED ELEVATION TO THE COURT OF APPEAL

Monday, December 17, 2012Law & Justice46 National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net

FAMOUS CASES

It is settled law that every person who is charged with a criminal offence shall be entitled to defend himself in person

or by a counsel of his own choice. This re-quirement is encapsulated in the twin Latin maxim “ Nemo Judex in Causa Sua” (No man should be a judge in his own cause) and “Audi Alteram Partem” (hear the other side).

Indeed, this constitutional prescription was provided in Section 21(5) (c) of the 1960 Independence Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and has always been embedded in the successive constitutions in the country from the independence era till date. Today, this provision otherwise known as the right to fair hearing is expressly pro-vided in Section 36 (6) (c) of the 1999 Consti-tution.

The constitutionality of this right was put to test in the famous case of Awolowo v. Minister of Internal Affairs.

This civil case had arisen following the criminal charges preferred against the leader of the defunct AG, Chief Obafemi Awolowo and some of his followers in the 1962.

There were altogether three separate suits in Awolowo v. Minister of Internal Affairs – LD/595/1962, LD/598/ 1962 and LD/599/1962. The suits were subsequently consolidated by the order of court and heard together.

Specifically, the suits were instituted in the High Court of the Federal Territory of Lagos by Awolowo and two of his 24 sup-porters jointly facing charges of treason-able felony contrary to Section 4(b) and conspiracy contrary to Section 51(6) of the Criminal Code. They had been arraigned before Justice George Sodeinde Sowemi-mo, as he then was.

Notable among those charged along with Awolowo are, Michael Omisade, Oladipo Maja, Samuel Onitiri, Samuel Taiwo Oredein, Lateef Jakande, Josiah Olawoyin, and Olabisi Onabanjo. Others were, Alfred Rewane, Chike Obi, Joseph Tarka, Anthony Enahoro, Sam Ikoku, Sam Otubanjo, and Ayo Adebanjo.

Shortly after their arraignment, the court ordered that Awolowo and others be remanded in custody pending their trial.

While in custody, Awolowo and two of his supporters who filed the consolidated suits procured the services of a British lawyer, who is also a Queen’s Counsel, E.F.N Gratiaen (QC) to come over to Nige-ria and defend them during the trial. The attorney was residing in the United King-dom (UK) at all material times prior to the period he was briefed. Interestingly, the counsel also had a right of audience in Ni-gerian courts having been enrolled in 1959 into the Nigerian Bar. Having accepted to defend Awolowo and others, Gratiaen left the shores of UK and eventually arrived Nigeria to lead a team of defence lawyers on behalf of his clients.

When he alighted from the plane at the then International airport, Ikeja, he was refused entry into Nigeria by an immigra-tion officer acting on the instruction of the Minister of Internal Affairs despite the fact that all his entry papers were val-id. Due to the refusal of the immigration authorities to grant Gratiaen entry into the country, Awolowo, in particular had to defend himself in person while the other two persons were defended by lawyers foisted on them at the trial.

Consequently, Awolowo and the two

others filed three suits; each of the suits sought essentially the same reliefs as fol-lows:

*That the plaintiff is entitled under the (Nigerian Constitution) order- in-council to be defended in the criminal charge in which he is an accused person by Mr. E.F.N Gratiaen (QC) or any other counsel of the plaintiff ’s choice whether British or indigenous.

*That the order of the defendants pro-hibiting the entry of the said Mr. E.F.N Gratiaen into Nigeria for the purpose of defending the plaintiff in the aforemen-tioned charge is ultra vires the said (Nige-rian Constitution) order-in-council and is therefore null and void.

*An injunction restraining the defen-dants from preventing the said Mr. E.F.N Gratiaen or any other British counsel who might be counsel of the plaintiff ’s choice from entering into Nigeria for the purpose of defending the plaintiff in the said charge.

During the hearing of the consolidated

suits, the plaintiffs contended that the re-fusal to allow Gratiaen to enter Nigeria for the purpose of leading their defence team was prejudicial to their best interest as their liberty would be jeopardised. Be-sides, they argued that the refusal of the British lawyer entry had deprived them of their fundamental rights to be defended by a counsel of their choice.

Awolowo and others contended that Section 21(5) (c ) of the constitution enti-tled as of right every person charged with a criminal offence to bring into Nigeria from the UK any non-Nigerian counsel for the purpose of defending him. It was their contention that this provision admitted of no limitation whatsoever.

But the Internal Affairs Minister and the then government disagreed with them. They stated that Gratiaen was re-fused entry into Nigeria because he was not a Nigerian citizen.

The defendants hinged their case on the ground among others, that the Minister of Internal Affairs was competent to invoke his power to refuse a non-Nigerian entry

into the country in the exercise of the ab-solute discretion vested in him under Sec-tion 13 of the Immigration Act.

Section 13 of the Act reads: “Notwith-standing anything in his ordinance con-tained, the Governor-General may, in his absolute discretion, prohibit the entry into Nigeria of any person, not being a na-tive of Nigeria.”

The defendants’ counsel argued that the legal representative chosen must be a qualified person entitled to a right of audience in Nigerian courts. Secondly, he must be available to take up the case, and therefore must be able to enter Nigeria as of right and must be a Nigerian.

The defendants contended that Section 13 of the Immigration Act was consistent with the rights guaranteed to Nigerian cit-izens by Section 26(1) of the constitution as the provisions of Section 13 of the Act only affected the rights of aliens or non-Nigerians.

In a swift reply, the plaintiffs’ counsel argued that the direction given by the Internal Affairs Minister refusing the British lawyer entry was ultra vires the provisions of Section 21 (5) (c) of the 1960 Constitution.

Delivering his verdict on the argu-ments, Justice Udo Udoma declared that by the interpretation of the provisions of Section 13 of the Immigration Act, the Minister of Internal Affairs had been em-powered by Parliament to prohibit the en-try into Nigeria of a non-Nigerian.

He said the provisions of the enabling Act, which was designed to control the im-migration into Nigeria of foreign nation-als, was not inconsistent with the provi-sions of Section 21(5)(c) of the Nigerian Constitution.

The judge also rejected the liberal in-terpretation of the provision of Section 21 (5) (c) as canvassed by Awolowo and his group.

The court observed that the framers of the constitution never envisaged any special reason to contemplate, at the time of the framing of the constitution that in the ordinary course of events Nigerians involved in criminal charges would nor-mally engage legal representatives out-side Nigeria.

Justice Udoma declared that in refus-ing Gratiaen entry into Nigeria, the min-ister acted within the ambit of the power conferred on him by Parliament since the British lawyer was a non-Nigerian.

The judge held that the Internal Affairs Minister had the competence lawfully in the exercise of his power under Section 13 of the Act to have refused Gratiaen entry into Nigeria. He therefore accordingly dis-missed the plaintiffs’ action.

Like any other epochal verdict, the de-cision in Awolowo v. Minister of Internal Affairs obviously elicited reactions from some learned writers and the academia. This pronouncement on the constitution-al right to fair hearing and some other subsequent similar ones have no doubt strengthened the fundamental rights ju-risprudence in the country.

Treason trial: How immigration offi cials barred Awo’s lawyer Late leader of the defunct Action Group (AG), Chief Obafemi Awolowo, was charged along with several others for treasonable felony and he was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment in 1962. During the trial, the lead defence British lawyer, Mr. E.F.N Gratiaen, QC, was denied access into the country by the immigration authorities. Fifty years after this memorable event, FRANCIS FAMOROTI, Ag. Head, Judiciary, highlights this celebrated part of the trial.

Late Saraki

THE MINISTER OF INTERNAL

AFFAIRS HAD BEEN EMPOWERED BY PARLIAMENT TO

PROHIBIT THE ENTRY INTO NIGERIA OF A

NON-NIGERIAN

Awolowo

World NewsJapan’s conservative party wins election in landslide

National Mirrorwww.nationalmirroronline.net 47Monday, December 17, 2012

48

US school massacre victims identifi ed

Ghana’s government said yesterday it will abide by the U.N. Tribunal’s order for the immediate release of an Argentine navy train-ing ship seized two months ago at the request of an American hedge fund.

In a statement signed by Deputy Foreign Minister Chris Kpodo, the government said, “We will carefully consider the Tribunal’s Order with a view to ensuring that it is given effect.”

The ARA Libertad training ship was impounded Oct. 2 in the port of Tema at the behest of private credi-tors as collateral for unpaid bonds dating from Argentina’s economic crisis a decade ago. Argentina appealed to the U.N.’s International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea for the ship’s release, arguing that as a warship the Libertad is immune from being seized.

An alleged Taliban group mem-ber was arrested by coalition forces Sunday on suspicion of being involved an attack on Jalalabad airfield, officials said.

“An Afghan and coalition security force arrested a Taliban facilitator during an operation in Jalalabad district, Nangarhar province Dec. 16,” said a statement from the NATO-led International Security As-sistance Force.

“The facilitator provided direct support to the insurgents who conducted the Dec. 2 attack on Ja-lalabad Airfield,” the statement said.

Key Egyptian rights groups called yesterday for a repeat of the first round of the constitutional referen-dum, alleging the vote was marred by widespread violations. Islamists who back the disputed charter claimed they were in the lead with a majority of “yes” votes.

Representatives of the seven groups charged that there was insufficient supervision by judges in Saturday’s vote in 10 of Egypt’s 27 provinces and independent moni-tors were prevented from witness-ing vote counts.

The representatives told a news conference that they had reports of individuals falsely identifying themselves as judges, of women prevented from voting and that members of Islamist President Mo-hammed Morsi’s Muslim Brother-hood were allowed inside polling stations. They also complained that some polling centers closed earlier than scheduled and that Christians were denied entry to polling sta-tions.

Ghana to abide by order to release ship

Alleged Taliban supplier arrested

Egypt rights groups say constitution vote marred

WORLD BULLETIN

South Africa is not falling apart –Zuma

PAUL ARHEWEWITH AGENCY REPORTS

The head teacher at Sandy Hook school in Newtown, Dawn Hochsprung, is listed among the dead, along with

adults Rachel DaVino, Anne Marie Murphy, Lauren Russo, Mary Sherlach and Victoria Soto.

Eight boys and 12 girls were killed - all but four of them were aged six.

The youngest, Noah Pozner, celebrated his birthday only last month.

A woman who worked at the school was the only person to be shot and survive.

President Barack Obama was expected to visit Newtown yesterday to meet families and speak at an interfaith vigil at the town’s high school.

After the attack, he urged “meaningful ac-tion” against gun crime in the US.

“As a country we have been through this too many times,” he said in an emotional White House address.

Lt Paul Vance of Connecticut state police said on Saturday that the gunman had forced his way into the school, contradicting earlier reports that he had been let in voluntarily.

Lt Vance said investigators had gathered “good evidence” in the search for a motive, without elaborating.

The gunman killed his mother at their home before driving to the school in her car and opening fire. Reports say the guns used in the attacks were registered to her.

There are conflicting reports about wheth-er she had worked at the school in the past.

The killings took place in two rooms within a single section of the school, police have said. The shooting lasted just a few minutes.

Meanwhile, Pope Benedict XVI told pil-grims and tourists in St. Peter’s Square yester-day that he is praying for the families of the 20

children and six adults who were killed during a shooting rampage at a U.S. school.

Speaking in English, Benedict said he was “deeply saddened by Friday’s senseless vio-lence in Newtown, Connecticut.”

“I assure the families of the victims, espe-cially those who lost a child, of my closeness in prayer,” the pope said in his first public comments on the massacre by a lone gunman. “May the God of consolation touch their hearts and ease their pain.”

On Saturday, the Vatican said that Benedict was promptly informed about the shootings and that he sent a condolence message to the diocese involved to convey “heartfelt grief” over “the shocking event.”

In that message, the pontiff prayed that God “sustain the entire community with spiritual strength which triumphs over violence by the

power of forgiveness, hope and reconciling love.”

As they heard the shots, teachers in other parts of the building tried to protect children by locking doors and ushering them into clos-ets.

Library clerk Maryann Jacob described telling 18 children to crawl into a storage room, before barricading the door with a fil-ing cabinet.

Connecticut Chief Medical Examiner H Wayne Carver said the gunman shot all the victims at the school with a semiautomatic rifle, at least some of them from close range.

Asked how many shots were fired, he replied: “I’m lucky if I can tell you how many I found.”

The suspected gunman’s father, Peter Lan-za, said his family was “struggling to make sense of what has transpired”.

President Jacob Zuma sought to dis-pel the concerns of rating agencies and investors about sluggish growth

in South Africa yesterday and insisted the country was not “falling apart”.

In his opening address to a conference of the ruling African National Congress (ANC) to choose its leadership for the next five years, Zuma said two downgrades by international ratings agencies this year did not mean South Africa was in trouble.

“We want to dismiss the perceptions that our country is falling apart because of the downgrades,” he said. “We continue to do our development work, we continue to plan for a recovery.”

At the conference held in the central city of Bloemfontein and running through Thurs-day, Zuma, 70, is expected to garner enough support to head off a challenge to his party

chief post from Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe.

Retaining the ANC leadership puts Zuma in pole position to secure a second five-year

term as South Africa’s president in the next national election in 2014.

Meanwhile, South Africa’s first black pres-ident, Nelson Mandela, has had an operation to remove gallstones, according to a govern-ment statement.

Zuma honoured the South African icon yesterday. He said Mandela “is receiving good care from a competent and caring medical team.” Zuma also led convention goers in a song about Mandela.

The operation was successful and Mr Man-dela is recovering.

Mandela, who is 94, was admitted to hospi-tal last Saturday after suffering a recurrence of a lung infection.

Tests revealed the presence of gallstones and doctors treating Mandela decided to re-move them once he had recovered from the infection.

Zuma

A vigil in Newtown on Friday night, after the massacre incident Photo: Getty Images

“Like President Obama and his fellow Americans, our hearts too are broken (on

the Connecticut school shootings)”- AUSTRALIAN PRIME MINISTER, JULIA GILLARD

• Pope saddened by ‘senseless’ attack

Abe Photo: AP

48 National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.netMonday, December 17, 2012 World News

Japan’s conservative Liberal Democratic Party returned to

power in a landslide elec-tion victory Sunday after three years in opposition, exit polls showed, signal-ling a rightward shift in the government that could further heighten tensions with rival China.

The victory means that the hawkish former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will get a second chance to lead the nation after a one-year stint in 2006-2007. He would be Ja-pan’s seventh prime min-ister in six-and-a-half years.

Public broadcaster NHK’s exit polls project-ed that the LDP, which ruled Japan for most of the post-World War II era until it was dumped in 2009, won between 275

and 300 seats in the 480-seat lower house of par-liament. Official results were not expected until Monday morning. Before the election, it had 118 seats.

The results were a sharp rebuke for Prime Minister Yoshihiko No-da’s ruling Democratic Party of Japan, reflect-

ing widespread unhap-piness for its failure to keep campaign prom-ises and get the stagnant economy going during its three years in power.

With Japan stuck in a two-decade slump and receding behind China as the region’s most im-portant economic player, voters appeared ready to

turn back to the LDP.A serious-looking Abe

characterized the win as more of a protest vote against the DPJ than a strong endorsement of his party.

“I think the results do not mean we have re-gained the public’s trust 100 percent. Rather, they reflect ‘no votes’ to the DPJ’s politics that stalled everything the past three years,” he told NHK. “Now we are facing the test of how we can live up to the public’s expecta-tions, and we have to an-swer that question.”

The ruling Democrats, which won in a landslide three years ago amid high hopes for change, cap-tured less than 100 seats, exit polls indicated, down sharply from its pre-elec-tion strength of 230.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sus-tained a concussion

last week after becoming extremely dehydrated and fainting while suffering from a stomach virus, the State Department said.

The 65-year-old Clinton is recovering at home and has been advised by her doctors to continue to rest

and avoid strenuous ac-tivity and cancel all work events for the next week. She had been scheduled to testify before a pair of congressional panels look-ing into the September 11 attack against a diplomat-ic outpost in Benghazi, Libya.

Dr. Lisa Bardack of the Mt. Kisco Medical Group and Dr. Gigi El-Bayoumi

of George Washington University said Saturday that Clinton was suffering from a stomach virus and fainted after becoming ex-tremely dehydrated.

Clinton was diagnosed with a concussion Thurs-day after fainting at home earlier this week, accord-ing to a State Department official who spoke on the condition of anonymity

because he was not autho-rized to discuss Clinton’s injury publicly. The doc-tors did not determine it to be a “severe” concus-sion, the official said.

Clinton, who is expect-ed to leave her job soon, skipped an overseas trip this past week because of the stomach virus, the State Department said Saturday.

Clinton recovering after fainting, sustaining concussion

Japan’s conservative party wins election in landslide

FRANCIS SUBERU

The police in Ogun State said they have arrested seven suspects in connection with the attempted

murder of three people, Saeed Owolabi Sosanya, Gbenga Soyemi Sosanya and Abiodun Soyemi Sosanya, who were kid-napped from Ayegbe and taken to an Oro shrine at Sonde Village, near Lisa Com-munity in Ifo Local Government Area.

A source at the police command, said an armed gang had last Wednesday, in-vaded Ayegbe and attacked workers at a building site, injuring many, and kid-napped three others, who were taken to the Oro Shrine. Meanwhile, the police at Sango Area Command, said they had been on the trail of the village head, identified as Ogunsola Wasiu and oth-ers, for allegedly masterminding the at-tack, which left more than seven people injured.

One of the victims, Abiodun Sosanya , said “we were at the site, when two Volk-swagen buses drove into the village, and 50 people, armed with cut-lasses , guns and other dangerous weap-ons started shooting indiscriminately. “

He said they all ran in different direc-tions. “I heard people shouting but in the end, three of us were kidnapped and beaten, before being taken to Oro Shrine at Sonde Village “

Abiodun further stated that the hood-lums, led by a certain Ade Ijaiya, were contemplating beheading them, when eventually the police from Agabdo sta-tion arrived and arrested the suspects.

On being informed, that hoodlums had invaded and were attacking residents of the village, the police immediately ar-

rived and arrested Awotunde Wasiu ,Ayo-mide Lambo , Oluwagbemile Odugbesan and Kolawole Oseni respectively.

Earlier, the police had arrested Ganiu Ogunsola and two others, even as the vic-tims were later rescued at Sonde Vilage

Sources said, the police recovered shells and expended cartridges from the scene, as the hoodlums reportedly shot all through the night to scare villagers from mobilizing against them.

The family head of the abducted vic-tims, Sunday Karounwi Sosanya , said the saga may not be unconnected with the dispute over the 287 hectares of land in the community ,

He said the problem started about three years ago, when the parties in-volved, signed a Memorandum of Un-derstanding, MoU, on how proceeds from the land sale would be shared. Following this, the parties revoked an earlier Power of Attorney, granted to Wasiu Ogunsola, by one of the parties in the dispute. But the revocation was ignored, as the estate agent insisted on abiding with the earlier agreement with one of the parties.

“The Akinbola family gave Wasiu Ogunsola the Power of Attorney, which was later revoked, after the three parties to the dispute agreed to work together,

“ the family head claimed, even as he al-leged that since the revocation, Ogunsola had continued to unleash mayhem in the village. The Baale of Olaoparuni village, Alao Soyem Sosanya, also condemned the attack on Ayegbe Village and called on the Inspector General of Police, Muhammed-Abubakar, to bring perpetrators of the crime to book, to serve as deterrent to oth-ers. Meanwhile, a 24 year old man, simply identified as Femi, has since been declared wanted by the police.

It was also gathered that armed men in police uniform allegedly invaded the village, and shot sporadically, creating further panic.

Community MirrorNational Mirror

www.nationalmirroronline.net 49Monday, December 17, 2012

JAMES DANJUMAKATSINA

Victims of last flooding in Katsina State are to receive the sum of N300 million from the Federal

Government, among other relief items.The Environment Commissioner,

Aminu Safana, who stated this, said a committee had been set up to ensure smooth and accountable disbursement of the money and relief materials to the flood victims.

Safana, however said that the amount to be given to each individual, would be worked out by the National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA, and not

from the victims. According to him, NEMA had com-

piled the names of the flood victims, as well as properties destroyed, which would go to make the committee’s work easier.

He said total of 18 local government councils were affected by the flood, while several lives and properties were destroyed.

Safana, said though measures were taken to ensure minimal destruction of lives and property, the last flood nonethe-less caused much havoc,even as he said the state would make every effort to pre-pare against next year’s rainy season to check unnecessary flooding.

“I will not keep quiet, even when I was in prison, I was not silent. My mouth will never be shut. Those who want me and the Chairman to quarrel; this visit will keep them quiet.”

FORMER PRESIDENT, OLUSEGUN OBASANJO

Police rescue kidnapped victims from shrine

The rescued Sosanya brothers

Katsina to disburse N300m to flood victims KENNY ODUNUKAN

A Magistrate Court in Ikeja has fixed February 28,2013 for fur-ther hearing on the suit filed

against a Director at TOS Funerals, La-gos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), Bayo Ogunsola, for alleged-ly assaulting and battering one Benedict Uwalaka, a photojournalist with Leader-ship Newspapers.

The Magistrate, Mr. E.O. Ogunkanmi, had asked other litigants to take new dates for the hearing of their suits.

Ogunsola and others were alleged to have assaulted Uwalaka on August 9, 2012, when he alongside his colleagues, were covering the release of remains of victims of Dana Air crash.

The defendants were slammed with a two-count charge bordering on assault and willful destruction of professional camera worth N715, 000.

Benedict Uwalaka and another jour-nalist, Kola Olasupo are the complain-ants in the suit

Ogunsola, had however pleaded not guilty to the charge levelled against him when he was arraigned on August 31, 2012.

The court subsequently granted him bail in the sum of N100, 000, with one surety with substantial evidence of tax payment.

Ogunkanmi, had also ordered that the surety must have property within the court jurisdiction and must produce evidence of means and residence which must be verified.

Court adjourns suit on assault

Oddities

‘Man tried to drown wife in bowl’

China arrests legislator with four wives, 10 children

A Florida man is facing an at-tempted murder

charge after allegedly trying to drown his wife in a dog bowl for under-cooking his pizza.

Debra Watson told Orange City police she and her husband, Richard, 47, sat in front of the TV to eat pizza Wednesday night when the man complained the crust was undercooked and slammed his plate against the front door,

WFTV.com reported Friday.

The woman said she slammed her own plate down and the couple began an argument that ended when her husband allegedly tackled her and forced her face into the dog’s water bowl.

Debra Watson told police her husband said he wanted to kill her and choked her when she was able to spill the water out of the bowl.

Police said Debra

Watson’s hair and clothes were wet when they arrived but she didn’t require hospitalization.

Richard Watson told police he and his wife had argued but said he only grabbed her to stop her from breaking dishes.

He was taken to the Volusia County Jail on charges of attempted murder, strangulation and battery with bond set at $22,000.

Chinese authorities have arrested a leg-islator found to have

four wives.A district official in

the northern province of Shanxi said Li Junwen also had 10 children, and had been detained on suspicion of document forgery. Bigamy is a criminal offense in China, while rules restrict most couples to just one child.

Another 14 people were sacked or given warnings or demotions for negligence or helping Li arrange

identity documents for his illegitimate children, said the official reached by phone at the Xiaodian district party committee in the provincial capital of

Taiyuan.The 43-year-old Li

had been an appointed representative from Xiaodian and the Communist Party head of

the village of Xiquan.The allegations against

Li have been featured prominently in state media as part of an anti-corruption drive.

WITH DR. DEJI FOLUTILE

Today's Tonic (64)“Before anything you want to happen can occur, you must de-

sire that it happen. You must believe that it can happen. And you must expect it to happen.”

–Burt Goldman* * *MAKERS OF DESTINYI am told repeatedly by my spiritual mentor that what you

don’t desire, you don’t deserve. He also drilled it into me that what you believe is what you will become. And that expectation is the mother of manifestation. I will be forever grateful for his lessons of power.

Desire, Belief and Expectation are the three fold cord that is not easily broken. I am committed to the daily practice of Positive desire, unrepentant belief in possibilities and earnest expectation that the future is bright!

Please join me in this potent daily practice!

TEL 08104942999E-MAIL deji.folutile@gmail.comFollow me @TwitterOWOTIDE

FOR YOUR SUCCESS

Man mimicking a face on a magazine. PHOTO: DEANHUNT.COM

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net50 Monday, December 17, 2012Cocktail

FIRS remits N183.9bn to TetFund

NPDC begins drilling on new wells, boosts oil production CHIDI UGWUABUJA

As part of its target to increase production to 250,000 barrels per

day by 2015, the Nigerian Pe-troleum Development Com-pany (NPDC) has begun ag-gressive drilling on some of its oil mining leases.

NPDC is the exploration and production subsidiary of the Nigerian National Pe-troleum Company (NNPC).

In a statement, the Act-ing Group General Man-ager, Group Public Affairs Division of NNPC, Mr. Fidel Pepple, said: “The latest of NPDC’s production strides is the successful drilling of Okono 6 and 7 oil wells in its OML 119 which are cur-rently yielding 12,000 barrels per day.”

Mr. Pepple quoted the Managing Director of NPDC, Mr. Victor Briggs, as saying that Okono 6 and 7 wells are significant not just because they represent the company’s independent ef-forts at growing production, but also because of the prolif-ic nature of the wells which are producing at an average of 6,000 barrels per day as against the older wells which are producing at an average of 3,000 barrels per day.

“From 2010 till date our production rose from 65,000 to 130,000 barrels per day, a bulk of the increase consists

of assets handed over to us upon divestment by some of our JV partners; but we re-alize that for us to meet the target of 250,000 barrels per day by 2015 we need to build on this by exploring further afield and drilling more wells. Okono 6 and 7 wells represent our success story in this direction,” Briggs was quoted to have said.

According to Briggs, NPDC plans to drill more wells as from next year and would deploy two more rigs in addition to the two it cur-rently has on site, adding that the target is to drill 40 wells in the next five years as part of its growth projection.

He said the company has also made tremendous prog-ress in the area of gas supply in keeping with the directive of the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, to step up gas production and supply to meet the national power generation aspiration.

“We have commenced gas production from our Oredo Gas Plant since No-vember and we currently produce 65mmscf per day. By the end of the first quarter of next year when we shall complete the sec-ond phase of this project, we will have additional 100mmscf per day and 4,000 metric tons of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG),” Mr. Briggs said.

TOLA AKINMUTIMI ABUJA

The Federal Inland Rev-enue Service (FIRS) has collected N183.9 bil-

lion Education Tax (EDT) and remitted same to the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (Tet-Fund).

The amount represents two per cent of accrual of EDT deductable from the profits of the companies op-erating in the country.

The collection showed an increase of N55.9 billion over the 2011 collection of N128 billion.

A statement issued yes-terday by the FIRS Director of Communications and Liaison Department, Mr. Emmanuel Obeta, indicated that the performance was a reflection of the Service gen-eral tax revenue collection profile which stood at N4.645 trillion.

Of the N4.645 trillion col-lection for the period under consideration, Oil tax rev-

enue accounted for N2.978 trillion, while non-oil realisa-tion stood at N1.669 trillion.

The statement reads: “With this amount, the FIRS did not only surpass the N3.6 trillion provisional annual budget estimates for the year, but the total annual collec-tion of N4.628 trillion for the year ended 2011.

“The collection represents an increase revenue collec-tion performance of about N17, 070 billion when com-pared to the total collection for 2011.

“It also represents an in-crease in the Service tax rev-enue collection performance of about N485.43 billion when compared with the total re-alisation of N4.160 trillion for the same period in 2011.

“Equally, the N183.9 bil-lion so far remitted to the TetFund represents a con-siderable increase in the Ser-vice tax revenue collection and remittance when viewed against the N128 billion total remittance in 2011.”

L-R: Chaplain to the President, Ven. Obioma Onwuzurumba; Mrs. Folu Adeboye; President Goodluck Jonathan and General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, Pastor Enoch Adeboye, during the 2012 Holy Ghost Congress held at the Redemption Camp, Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, at the weekend. PHOTO: STATE HOUSE

FG asked to recover unremitted N1.3trn from NNPC

Committee recommends FCT indigenes relocationOMEIZA AJAYIABUJA

A Ministerial Commit-tee on Facts Finding and the Way For-

ward on Apo Resettlement Scheme has recommended the relocation of indigenes of the Federal Capital Ter-ritory (FCT) to the New Apo Resettlement Town.

Minister of State for the FCT, Olajumoke Akinjide, had on August 2, 2012 in-

augurated the ministerial committee to resolve the lin-gering Apo Resettlement Di-lemma.

The committee’s vice-chairman, Mr. Joshua Kaura, who presented the report of the committee to the minister, explained that the resettlement and com-pensation of indigenes could not satisfactorily be funded under the FCT Administra-tion’s Statutory Budget.

Kaura said: “The commit-

tee found out that the issue of resettlement and com-pensation is the business of the Federal Government. It involves huge capital re-sources and also constituting security problems within the territory.

“The committee recom-mended that the FCT Ad-ministration liaise with the Federal Government to in-clude the resettlement and compensation of original inhabitants of the FCT in its

national priority budget.” He said that the commit-

tee, in arriving at its recom-mendations, consulted with the councils of elders and chiefs in the various com-munities, youth leaders and members and other stake-holders.

Kaura added that the committee recommended a review of the FCT Resettle-ment Policy in accordance with the best global prac-tices.

task team to ensure speedy recovery of the fund.

A member of the National Stakeholders Working Group (NSWG) of NEITI, Faith Os-sai Nwadishi, said such com-mittee should be made of gov-ernment agencies, including Department of Petroleum Re-sources (DPR), Nigerian Na-tional Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Federal Inland Reve-nue Services (FIRS), Ministry of Finance, Budget Office, Accountant-General of the Federation, and the Central Bank Nigeria (CBN).

Nwadishi said: “The President made a commit-ment that he is going to re-

inaugurate that IMTT with senior management of those organisations as members, if those senior management officers come to meetings and decisions are taken, re-sponsibilities are given and they carry them out, things will work fine,

“When those people now compromise themselves and fail to act, it is now left for us Nigerians to begin to shout, there is a lot of information that Nigerians can work with, but when it comes to action a lot of people will chicken out.”

Nwadishsi urged con-cerned Nigerians to be pro-

active and ready to work with information obtained by relevant agency as NEI-TI, stressing that there was the need for people to com-mit their resources and time to ensure that things were done right.

Also speaking on the is-sue, civil rights campaign-er and member of Revenue Watch Institute, Mr Dauda Garba, said that the Federal Government had the power to recover the money if it wanted, but expressed res-ervations over the govern-ment’s seeming reluctance to mobilise for the recovery of the fund.

A breakdown of the col-lection shows that N3.473 billion was realised in Janu-ary, N1.751 billion in Febru-ary, N2.638 billion in March, N7.817 billion in April and N2.325 billion in May.

The Service recorded the highest collection of N57.196 billion in August, N42.481 bil-lion in September, N23.973 billion in July, N22.717 billion in October, N18.180 billion in June and the month of No-

vember accounted for the low-est figure of N1.353 billion.

FIRS, which has a statu-tory responsibilities to as-sess, collect and account for revenue had since 1994, when TetFund was established, re-mitted more than N591 billion to the Fund.

This effort and contribu-tion to reposition the edu-cational sector explain the reason behind the TetFund award of excellent and due

diligent to the Service recent-ly in Lagos.

At the occasion, the Act-ing Executive Chairman of FIRS, Alhaji Kabir Mashi, as-sured of the Service determi-nation to ensure improved collection of Education Tax (EDT) in the years ahead.

Mashi put the collection and remittance to the Fund at intervals in 1995, 2005, and 2011 at N1.96 billion, N21.8 billion, N128 billion respectively, with the expec-tation that the 2012 collection would be far higher than the

2011.He said the Service would

continued to ensure effective and efficient, assessment, collection, accounting and transferring of revenue gen-erated through EDT to the Fund as and when due.

The EDT money is expect-ed to be expended on general improvement of education in federal and state tertiary in-stitutions specifically for the provisions of essential physi-cal infrastructure for teaching and learning, instructional material and equipment.

CHIDI UGWU ABUJA

The Federal Govern-ment has been urged to recover the N1.3

trillion unremitted funds by the Nigerian National Petro-leum Corporation (NNPC) and multi-national companies as revealed by the Nigerian Extractive Industries Trans-parency Initiative (NEITI) au-dit report.

Some stakeholders, who spoke to National Mirror, urged President Goodluck Jonathan to live up to his promise and immediately re-inaugurate inter-ministerial

National Mirrorwww.nationalmirroronline.net 51Monday, December 17, 2012 News

AUGUSTINE MADU-WESTKANO

The Kano State govern-ment has engaged the services of the police

and other security agencies in the state in enforcing the compliance of parents in the ongoing polio immuni-sation exercise, state Gov-ernor Rabi’u Musa Kwank-waso, has stated.

In Kano, one of the few states in which isolated cases of polio were recorded recently in Nigeria; apathy to immunisation is still com-mon, owing largely to illiter-acy and misconceptions.

Speaking during the re-launch of the immunisation programme at the Govern-ment House in Kano, Gov-ernor Kwankwaso warned that the government will not hesitate to take punitive measures against any par-ent who disallows his child from being vaccinated.

He said such disciplinary measure may be adopted in areas where incentives have failed. The governor appealed to stakeholders in the state to join hands with the government toward the success of the anti-polio campaign.

The governor, who noted that polio occurs due to poor hygienic conditions, lamented that Nigeria is still among the three polio endemic countries in the world.

He was, however, optimis-tic that with the cooperation of parents and sustained support from community and civic leaders, the dis-ease will be eliminated in the state by 2015.

He thanked Dangote and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundations for their support to the state government and for their financial support toward eradicating the disease, urging other well-meaning individuals and organisa-tions to emulate their good example.

In his speech, Minis-ter of State for Health, Dr. Muhammad Ali Pate, said the Federal Government is pleased that tremendous success has been achieved in the war against polio

in Kano so far, assuring that the government will continue to deploy technical and financial support to the state to achieve the set goal.

INUSA NDAHIMAIDUGURI

No fewer than four people including the village head of Bur-

bura Ward in Pompomari general area of Konduga Local Government Area of Borno State, Bulama Ibra-him Aisami, were slaugh-tered in their separate houses yesterday by yet to be identified gunmen.

Burbura ward is about a kilometre away from the Mairamri 777 Housing Es-tate built during the former Governor Ali Modu Sher-iff’s administration in Mai-duguri metropolis and a ki-lometre away east of the Air force base.

Our Correspondent gath-ered that the gunmen, who invaded the area on Satur-day at about 2.00am slaugh-tered three of their victims, Mallam Zakariya Gwoza, a bricklayer and a serving policeman with another re-tired police officers, Mallam Mustapha and Mallam Kolo, but when effort to slaughter

AUGUSTINE MADU-WESTKANO

Two suspects are as-sisting the Kano State Police Com-

mand in their investiga-tion into Friday’s killing of a Kano lawmaker, Danladi Isa Kademi, who was shot dead by gunmen, suspected to be members of the Boko Haram sect.

The victim, a member of the Kano State House of Assembly, represent-ing Gaya Constituency was gunned down at about 7.00 pm; the sad incident occurred at the Hotoro-Mariri area of

the state. He was a chief-tain of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP).

Police said he was with friends when the attackers opened fire on him from an uniden-tified vehicle, killing him on the spot.

State Commission-er of Police, Ibrahim Idris, confirmed the aresst of two persons he said are principal suspects, just as the Joint Task Force has intensified their house-to-house search for ter-rorists in the city. Areas raided yesterday were Zango and Sauna in the state capital.

Village head, two policemen, civilian killed in Maiduguri

Northern governors salute Buhari at 70

Police arrest two suspects over killing of lawmaker

Man arrested for trying to export drugs to Turkey

Kano engages security agents in immunisation exercise

AUGUSTINE MADU-WESTKANO

The Mallam Aminu Kano Airport Com-mand of the Nation-

al Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), said it has aborted an attempt by one Nriagu Augustine If-eanyi, to export dangerous drugs to Turkey.

A statement from the command made available to National Mirror said the suspect was arrested by of-ficials of the NDLEA while attempting to traffic 1.5 kg of substance suspected to be Methamphetamine through Malam Aminu Kano International Air-port (MAKIA).

The agency’s Airport Commander, Mr. Ambrose Umoru, said the suspect was arrested by NDLEA agents at the departure hall of the airport while try-ing to board an Egypt Air Flight No. MS 880, enroute Cairo to Istanbul in Turkey.

The 33-year-old Ifeanyi confessed to the NDLEA that he was promised $5, 000 to deliver the illicit drugs valued at $54, 000, according to the NDLEA boss.

He was, however, nabbed when an NDLEA official insisted to see the content of an Ecolac box which he was dragging to the waiting airplane, “but it was discovered that he

concealed the drugs in-side the bag; and he was immediately arrested,” Ambrose said, adding that arrangements have been concluded to charge the suspect to court.

According to him, “Methamphetamine is largely consumed in Asia. We are trying to ensure that the traffickers in these illicit drugs do not create a local market here in Kano.”

MAKIA commander of the narcotic agency warned drug barons and traffickers to stay clear of the airport or be ready to face prosecution, “because in this command, we do not compromise.”

PRISCILLA DENNISMINNA

The Northern States Governors Forum (NSGF)

yesterday saluted for-mer Head of State, General Muhammadu Buhari, as he turned 70 today, describing him as a thorough bred pro-fessional and an astute

administrator, whose regime set the country on the path of growth and development.

Eulogising the for-mer head of state, the Chairman of the forum and Governor of Niger State, Dr. Mu’azu Ba-bangida Aliyu, said the former leader has lived a disciplined and pur-poseful life.

In a statement signed by Governor Aliyu’s Chief Press Secretary, Danladi Ndayebo, the forum said as a head of state, Gen. Buhari demonstrated uncom-mon courage, vision and exemplary leader-ship, resulting in the development of critical sectors of the nation’s economy.

the village head, Bulama Aisami failed, they shot him dead in the presence of his family members.

A nieghbour to the slain serving policeman, Musta-pha, who spoke with our cor-respondent but who would not want to be named, said he heard strange voices in

the compound, but because of the 6.00am to 9.00pm curfew imposed on the city, there was nothing he could do than to resort to prayer for safety.

He added that as early as 6.00am yesterday, they were trapped in their house for about an hour when men

The release reads in part; “There is no gain-saying the fact that Gen-eral Buhari left legacies in all the sectors of the economy with marked transparency and ac-countability in the man-agement of resources.

“The former military leader reinforced this commitment when he did excellently well as

the Chairman of the Pe-troleum (Special) Trust Fund.”

The governors also said that they are proud to be associated with the achievements of the former military leader.

The forum then prayed God to grant General Buhari excel-lent health, courage and many more years of selfless service to Nige-ria and humanity.

of the Joint Task Force came and cordoned off the area.

He said after the JTF cor-doned off the area, they recov-ered the remains of the four victims, after which they con-veyed the corpses to the Uni-versity of Maiduguri Teach-ing Hospital’s mortuary.

According to another eye-witness, the gunmen walked on foot with rifles, knives and cutlasses in attacking the vil-lage head and two other po-

licemen at about 2.35am.His words: “When I

peeped through my window, I saw five people with rifles and other dangerous weap-ons walked to the house of the ward head (Bulama) and chanted, Allahu Ak-bar (God is great) before I started hearing people wail-ing and crying for help; two hours to the calls for the dawn prayers in the area.”

Another resident, also told our correspondent that the ward head was said to have been attacked and killed by Boko Haram gun-men, because he was alleged to be an informant to secu-rity agents on activities and hideouts of sect members in his Pompomari ward of Maiduguri metropolis.

He, however, said that he heard several gunshots at the residences of the two policemen killed in the area, adding that; “The two policemen were feared shot dead in their houses, while the ward head and a brick-layer were killed at their respective residences by gunshot and the slitting of the throat of the bricklayer, Zakariya, by suspected gun-men.”

Benue State Governor, Gabriel Suswam (left) and Lt. Governor Casey Cagle of Georgia, USA, during Suswam’s visit to Atlanta to inspect medical equipment being donated to hospitals in Benue State by an Atlanta-based NGO, Medshare International, at the weekend.

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net52 North Monday, December 17, 2012

SportNational Mirror

www.nationalmirroronline.net 53Monday, December 17, 2012

54

We certainly cannot afford to gloss over the crisis rocking our football as if the crisis doesn’t exist

–Former Nigeria international, Mutiu Adepoju

Ezekiel nets 10th goal of the season in Belgium

As the Super Eagles begin their Nations Cup 2013 fi-nal preparation in Abuja

today, Portugal-based defender, Elderson Echiejile, has said that Nigeria could be African champi-on again if the country makes the most of a training camp in Faro, Portugal.

The Eagles will open a training camp in Portugal on December 27 after the coaches have determined the most suitable to join the camp among the home-based players that would commence training today.

“I believe if we give everything in the training camp, we will have a very great Nations Cup,” Echiejile told MTNFootball.com.

“This means that most of us have to cut short deserved holidays after a hectic season in Europe and also hope our clubs release us in good time so that we have enough time to work as a team.”

The Sporting Braga player said the Eagles had struggled to play as a team because they have often not had enough time to train together

Chipolopolo midfielder, Rainford Kalaba, trained lightly at the weekend as

Zambia entered camp ahead of a December 22 friendly against Taifa Stars in Tanzania.

Kalaba trained separately from the rest of the team during the training session in Lusaka on the first day of camp.

According to MTNFootball.com, the Zambian playmaker is recovering from a groin injury that has seen him sidelined since October 10.

“We are still monitoring Rain-

ford. As you know he has just come and we are keeping an eye on him,” team doctor Joseph Ka-bungo said yesterday.

“We will observe him and see so basically that is the situation. Oth-erwise everything else is okay and no worries so far,” Kabungo added.

Kalaba sustained the inju-ry during TP Mazembe’s 2012 CAF Champions League semi-final clash against Esperance in Lubumbashi and missed Zam-bia’s final leg of the AFCON 2013 qualifier away to Uganda on Octo-ber 13 in Kampala.

Barnes, Erskine to compere Glo-Caf Awards

…Zambia sweats on Kalaba

How Eagles can win AFCON trophy –Echiejile

Elderson Echiejile hopes that his Sporting Braga’s form will be translated to his performance in South Africa

Mike Adenuga

for longer than four days. “We will now have at least two

full weeks before our first game in South Africa and that is a lot because we hardly get that before many of our matches,” he said.

“This will be enough time to really work as a team and the re-sult of this we will see by our first game against Burkina Faso on

January 21.” Defending champion Zambia

and Ethiopia are the Eagles’ other first round opponents in Group C to be based in Nelspruit.

The former junior internation-al is set for his second Nations Cup after he featured at the 2010 tournament in Angola, where Ni-geria finished third.

Ndlovu loses brother in car crashAFOLABI GAMBARIWITH AGENCY REPORT

Zimbabwean football was yesterday thrown into mourning when a former

international, Adam Ndlovu, died in a car accident as his brother and former Warriors captain, Pe-ter, who drove the car, is reported to be alive but in critical state.

Reports said that the Ndlovus were travelling from the capital Harare onward their birthplace Bulawayo to honour a friendly game arranged for the Highland-ers Legends and were in com-pany of an unidentified lady who also died in the incident after the BMW X5 veered off the road and hit a tree.

Secretary of Chicken Inn FC where Adam Ndlovu was coach, Tawengwa Hara, said manage-ment and staff of the club were “devastated”.

“The whole of Bulawayo and everyone in Zimbabwe waking up to this news know we have lost a

legend, a good man, a hard worker and a professional. I’m saddened,” Hara said yesterday.

Zimbabwe radio legend, Ezra Sibanda, who is a friend of Peter Ndlovu, told journalists that the former player was confirmed to be alive but battling for his life af-ter suffering injuries that include a broken leg.

“Peter managed to utter some words and confessed that he slept off the wheels,” Sibanda said, adding, “It’s a miracle that he emerged from the crash alive.”

The late Adam was one third of the famous Ndlovu Brothers–Madinda, Adam and Peter– who all played for the Zimbabwe na-tional team and all retired into coaching. Peter, who is adjudged as Zimbabwe’s best player of all time, is currently the national Un-der-23 coach, as well as the assis-tant coach to the senior national team.

Former England Interna-tional, John Barnes, and a Ghana-based live show

hostess, Anita Erskine, have been confirmed as the official masters of ceremony for the 2012 Glo-CAF Awards.

Barnes, who currently works as a commentator and pundit for ESPN and SuperSport, had successful playing periods at Watford and Liverpool in the 1980s and 1990s, winning the First Division twice, the FA Cup twice, and playing for England 79 times (at the time, a record for a black player).

He won the last of his 79 caps on September 6, 1995 in the 0–0

friendly draw with Colombia at the old Wembley.

Erskine, who has established herself as a powerful personal-ity whose energy and passion for life’s adventures is unmis-takable, has worked prolifically in the media industry.

It is believed that both com-peres will add more colour to the awards night scheduled for December 20 in Accra.

CAF released the final list of three African players last week for the awards.

They are the Ivorian duo of Didier Drogba and Yaya Toure and Camerounian Alexander Song.

…in critical condition

54 National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.netSport Monday, December 17, 2012

Imoh Ezekiel (middle) with team mates

Onyekachi Apam

Ezekiel nets 10th goal of the season in Belgium

IKENWA NNABUOGOR

New Super Eagles’ striker Shola Ame-obi played from the bench in New-castle’s humiliating 3-1 home loss

against defending champions Manchester City on Saturday in the English Premier League. The misfiring former England school boy international replaced Papiss Cisse in the 79th minute and failed to hit the target as his first goal this season con-tinued to elude him. He’s yet to get in score sheet in the last nine games before the Man-chester City that pulled the Magpies further down the log to 15th spot. His only goal for the Toon Army this season was in August against Club Brugge in the UEFA Europa group tie that ended in a 2-2 draw.

In the lower leagues in England, forgot-ten Eagles defender Danny Shittu stood like a rock in the rear for Millwall as they beat Leicester City 1-0 at home on Saturday. Shittu was on for 90 minutes but went into the referee’s book seven minutes before time. He was playing his 17th game of the season to underline his resurgence for the London club still in hunt for a Premiership ticket. Shittu was recently nominated for the nPower Championships Player of the Month of November.

In France, John Utaka was on from start for Montpellier but did not see the end of their impressive 4-0 bashing of Bastia on Saturday. The former Portsmouth star was pulled out in the 52nd minute just two minutes after he was cautioned. But he did enough to provide the assist for his side’s second goal scored by Argentine striker Em-manuel Herrera in the 48th minute. Utaka failed to make it three goals in three con-secutive games in the Bastia clash that also saw the defending champions maintain 100 percent record that helped catapult them to ninth place. His goal last Wednesday in their 2-1 away victory Brest upped to tally to three goals in 12 appearances so far this season. He has also been cautioned three times this season.

Earlier on Friday, Super Eagles returnee defender Onyekachi Apam was in com-manding form for Rennes in the defence as they defeated Valenciennes 2-0. Apam, who had been on the bench in a number of games since coming back from injury, was on for 90 minutes. He had earlier on Tues-day, claimed 90 minute action for his side and he will be ready to fight for his shirt in the Eagles’ South Africa-bound team for the AFCON next month. He was only playing his fifth game of the season. He’s yet to get on referees’ books and given marching or-ders so far this season.

In Belgium, big Nigerian striker Michael Uchebo was for the first time in as many games named in the starting line up for struggling Cercle Brugge, who could only manage 1-1 road draw at Lierse on Saturday. He was on for 90 minutes in the ill-tempered game that saw a team mate red-carded. He has now appeared 18 times for his team and only scored once. He’s still yet card-free.

Still in Belgium, young Nigerian strik-er Imoh Ezekiel was the hero of his side Standard Liege, netting once and assisting in their 2-0 win at Mechelen on Saturday. The former 36 Lion striker put his side in the lead in the 36th before laying a pass for young Congolese-born Belgian youth inter-national Michy Batshuayi who scored the second goal to seal victory for the visitors. He has so far played 16 games in the Jupiler

League. He has also been yellow-carded and red-carded once apiece.

In Spain, Odion Ighalo was on for 90 minutes for Granada who failed to beat Real Sociedad in the tie that ended goalless at home on Saturday. Ighalo, who picked up a 78th minute yellow card, missed a chance to seal victory for the hosts in the second half. The former Lyn Oslo star is yet to reg-ister his name on the scoresheet for Grana-da this season, having played seven times so far. He has also been cautioned once.

Still in Spain, Obafemi Martins failed to hit the target for Levante who beat hosts Real Zaragoza 1-0 yesterday. Martins was as

usual, on for 90 minutes. He would get cau-tioned in the 50th minute in the explosive tie that ensured Levante maintain fifth spot on the log. He has netted six times in 11 ap-pearances this season so far.

In the Netherlands, former youth inter-national Femi Ajilore continued his superb come back with yet another 90 minute showing for Groningen in their 0-0 draw against VVV Venlo on Saturday. Ajilore had been managing as a late minute sub-stitute but has played full time in the last three games for the 11th-placed team. He has so far played eight games this season.

Uche Nwofor was in the VVV Venlo team

in the same encounter but unlike his com-patriot in the opposing team, he played as a sub. He was introduced in the 76th minute., The former Flying Eagles striker who has seen red once this season, has netted three times in 13 outings for 14th-placed side. He has also been cautioned once.

Still in the Netherlands, Super Eagles newest call up Kenneth Omeruo was on for 90 minutes for ADO Den Haag, who fell 3-2 at Feyenoord on Sunday. Omerou, who is expected to be named in the Eagles provi-sional list for AFCON 2013, has maintained a steady career lift at Den Haag since arriv-ing on loan from Chelsea. He has played 14 games so far this season and gone into ref-erees’ books five times.

In Turkey, Michael Eneramo could not save his side Sivaspor from 1-0 defeat at Karabükspor on Sunday. The former Espe-rance striker was on for 90 minutes as he continued his search for his sixth goal of the season. He has played 15 games so far this season. He has also seen yellow three times.

Forgotten Eagles striker Ekigho Ehio-sun managed just four minutes of action for Genclerbiligi in their 1-1 draw against visiting Besiktas on Sunday. The former Warri Wolves hit man has found games hard to come by but has had to manage cameo roles for his new team. He has only made three league outings this season, spending most of his time on the bench as an unused sub. He netted nine goals in 23 appearances in his first season in Turkey last term for relegated Samsunspor.

Still in Turkey, former school boy inter-national Promise Isaac was in action for 90 minutes for Antayalspor as they returned to base with a point after a 1-1 draw on the road at Orduspor on Sunday. He has scored netted four times in 14 appearances so far for his side. He has also been red carded once and yet to be flashed a yellow.

Euro Leagues, Results

England

Newcastle Utd 1–3 Manchester City

Liverpool 1 – 3 Aston Villa

Manchester Utd 3 –1 Sunderland

Norwich City 2 – 1 Wigan

QPR 2 – 1 Fulham

Stoke City 1 – 1 Everton

Tottenham 1-0 Swansea

West Brom 0-0 West Ham

Germany

Bayern Munich 1–1 B. Monchengladbach

Bayer Leverkusen 3 –0 Hamburg

Wolfsburg 0 – 2 Eintranct Frankfurt

Mainz 3 – 1 Stuttgart

Greuther Furth 1 – 1 Augsburg

Fortuna Dusseldorf 2 – 1 Hannover

Spain

Getafe 1–1 Osasuna

Real Mallorca 0 –1 Athletico Bilbao

Granada 0 – 0 Real Sociedad

Seville 0 – 2 Malaga

Real Zaragoza 0 – 1 Levante

National Mirrorwww.nationalmirroronline.net 55Monday, December 17, 2012 News

Obi, MASSOB lament death of Yakowa, Azazi, othersBAYELSA CRASH:

It’s horrifi c, shocking –Fashola

Emirs, chiefs extol virtues of late gov Speakers’ forum postpones meeting

A national calamity –Babangida

Bala, Moro mourn

Yakowa Azazi

CHARLES OKEKEAWKA

Anambra State Gov-ernor, Mr. Peter Obi and the Move-

ment for the Actualisation of Sovereign State of Bi-afra, MASSOB, yesterday

described the death of for-mer Kaduna State Gover-nor, Patrick Yakowa, and former National Security Adviser, Gen. Owoye Azazi as a national tragedy.

Obi, in a statement is-sued by his Senior Spe-cial Adviser on Media

and Publicity, Valentine Obienyem, described the incident as shocking and unbelievable.

The governor also de-scribed the tragedy as a big blow to the families of the deceased and the peo-ple of Kaduna and Bayelsa

states as well as all Nigeri-ans.

He prayed to God to grant Nigerians, espe-cially President Goodluck Jonathan the fortitude to bear the loss, adding that God knows better why such tragedy should visit

Nigeria at this time.Similarly, MASSOB

said the sudden death of the two principal leaders at this time call for sober reflection and self-exam-ination of Nigerian lead-ers.

Speaking to National

Mirror on the tragedy, spokesman of MASSOB, Comrade Uchenna Madu, while commiserating with President Jonathan, stated that the movement viewed the accident as a divine anger of God on Nigeria.

PRISCILLA DENNISMINNA

Former President, Gen. Ibrahim Ba-bangida, has ex-

pressed sadness over the helicopter crash that killed Governor Ibrahim Yakowa and Gen. Patrick Owoye Azazi.

Babangida said he felt a deep sense of personal loss over the incident, saying the ‘death is one too many and bleeds the heart’.

He said: “At first, I was still contemplating perhaps this is just one of those expensive jokes around town, but the news kept coming with greater emphasis and I felt terri-bly undone.

“This is because, when death comes as a function of old age, one could sim-ply understand and there-fore offer thanks to the Almighty Allah for a life well spent, but when death strikes so shockingly such as the one under refer-ence, it bleeds the heart.”

In a statement in Minna yesterday, the former mili-tary president described the tragedy as a huge na-tional loss particularly to President Jonathan who

had just buried his young-er brother.

According to him, the deceased were distin-guished in their different undertakings and helped to consolidate the gains of democracy, noting that Patrick Yakowa was a com-plete gentleman, who was not only down to earth but also preached good neigh-bourliness as one of the fundamental principles of uniting a pluralist coun-try like Nigeria .

IBB also described Gen. Azazi as a gentleman of-ficer, who put his all in helping to stabilize the polity through patriotic interventions, undertak-ings and was brutally frank and blunt.

“He was one of the fin-est products of a military profession that has helped to sustain the gains of democracy. Azazi was a younger colleague, a friend, a compatriot and fine military officer. This is a big blow to all of us. These deaths are hurting and touching; conveying a nostalgic feeling each time my mind confirms the story as true,” the former military president stated,” he said.

MURTITALA AYINLA

Lagos State Gover-nor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, yesterday

described as shocking and horrific, the death of Gov-ernor Patrick Yakowa and Gen. Andrew Azazi.

The governor, who can-celled his engagements be-cause of the tragedy, said such losses are avoidable, adding that the time has come for all Nigerians at all levels to come back to the basics and do things properly, to behave prop-

erly and to act with every sense of sobriety in order to curb such avoidable losses.

He said: “It is really horrific and I am simply horrified not only because of the lives lost or the per-sonalities involved. This is one of the losses we don’t really need; in my view, this kind of tragedy is avoidable”.

He recalled his last en-counter with Yakowa and General Azazi saying:

“I just begin to reflect on the things Governor Yakowa and I promised

to do together; I was sup-posed to visit him in Ka-duna. There were places he wanted us to cooper-ate. I saw General Azazi just last weekend when we launched the Monopo-ly Board and he said; look Tunde we have to see over Christmas and I said I would see to it, and now to think that all those things are not going to happen be-cause they have lost their lives in very avoidable ac-cident, it is simply horrify-ing”.

Fashola expressed con-cern over the rate of avoid-

able deaths in the country. He said: “People are

not dying out of disease or failure of healthcare. We are losing people in air traffic accidents, in road traffic accidents which we can control.

“I don’t see really what the excitement is all about; I don’t see what all of this is about. I am short of words. The only reason we exist as a government is to protect life and property and those losses are un-dermining whatever suc-cesses we are making as a nation.”

OMEIZA AJAYI

Federal Capital Terri-tory Minister, Sena-tor Bala Mohammed

and his counterpart at the Ministry of Interior, Comrade Abba Moro, have described the death of Ya-kowa and Azazi as “tragic, shocking and a monumen-tal loss to the country.”

The two ministers in their different statements yesterday urged Nigerians to continue to pray for the stability and progress of the nation.

Chief Press Secretary

to the FCT Minister, Mu-hammad Hazat Sule, said Mohammed had also ex-pressed his condolence to the people and govern-ments of Kaduna and Bay-elsa states as well as the immediate families of the deceased.

“The minister reiterated that the nation would miss the qualitative but selfless services of these states-men,” the statement added.

The Special Assistant on Media to the Interior Minister, George Udoh, de-scribed the sudden loss of the duo and their aides as painful.

The Kaduna State Council of Emirs and Chiefs has ex-

tolled the good virtues of late Gov. Patrick Yakowa who died in a helicopter crash in Bayelsa State on Saturday.

“We as traditional rulers in the state have received with great shock the sud-den pass away of our dear governor,’’ Dr Shehu Idris, the Chairman, Council of Emirs and Chiefs in the state and Emir of Zazzau, said in a statement.

He stated this while con-doling with the family of the late governor and the entire people of the state.

“His demise will remain fresh in our memories due to his determination and zeal to transform Kaduna State,” he added.

The emir described the late governor as a symbol of peace, unity and hard work.

Idris said Yakowa’s death was a loss not only to Kaduna State but to the entire nation.

The Northern Speak-ers’ Forum has an-nounced the post-

ponement of its meeting in Kaduna in honour of former governor Patrick Yakowa, who died in a helicopter crash on Satur-day.

Alhaji Aminu Jega, the acting Chairman of the forum and Speaker, Kebbi State House of Assem-bly, said in a statement on Sunday in Kaduna that the death of the former gover-nor was a loss to the region.

He said: “The Speakers’ Forum meeting was sup-posed to hold in Kaduna on Saturday but was post-poned because of the sud-den death of the governor.``

He said the forum was shocked by the sudden death of the governor and urged Nigerians to pray for the repose of his soul.

Jega condoled with the deceased’s family and the entire people of the state over the loss and prayed God to give them the forti-tude to bear the loss.

Vol. 02 No. 514 Monday, December 17, 2012 N150

WORLD RECORD

First robot wedding

Printed and Published by Global Media Mirror Ltd: Head Offi ce: Mirror House, 155/161 Broad Street, Lagos Tel: 07027107407, Abuja Offi ce: NICON Insurance House, Second Floor, Central Business District Area, Abuja Tel: 08070428249, Advert hotline: 01-8446073, Email: mail@nationalmirroronline.net. Editor: SEYI FASUGBA. All correspondence to PMB 10001, Marina, Lagos.

Printed simultaneously in Lagos, Abuja and Ondo State. ISSN 0794-232X.

NFF President, Aminu Maigari

England is on the brink of securing a famous Test series victory on Indian

soil after reaching stumps well-placed on 161-3 on day four in Nagpur-an overall lead of 165 at the weekend.

Warwickshire duo Jonathan Trott and Ian Bell kept India at bay throughout the majority of

the evening session and time is quickly running out for the hosts to force the victory they need to square the four-match series.

England added to its ad-vantage slowly, with openers Alastair Cook and Nick Comp-

ton sharing a 48-run partner-ship before both fell in contro-versial circumstances in the afternoon session.

Cook was left perplexed when umpire Kumar Dhar-masena gave him out with evi-dence suggesting he should not

have been.Not a single boundary was

scored by India, while England was content to let the hosts take time out of the game.

England only needs to draw the game to achieve a first series win in India in 27 years.

Sport Extra

Hannatu Musawa

Guest Columnist

Cricket: Trott inspires England’s run in India

Printed and Published by Global Media Mirror Ltd: Head Offi ce: Mirror House, 155/161 Broad Street, Lagos Tel: 07027107407, Abuja Offi ce: NICON Insurance House, Second Floor, Central Business District Area, Abuja Tel: 08070428249, Advert hotline: 01-8446073, Email: mail@nationalmirroronline.net. Editor: SEYI FASUGBA. All correspondence to PMB 10001, Marina, Lagos.

Printed simultaneously in Lagos, Abuja and Ondo State. ISSN 0794-232X.

A walk well walkedA humanoid robot named ‘I-Fairy’ conducted the wedding ceremony be-

tween Tomohiro Shibata and Satoko Inoue in Tokyo, Japan, on 16 May 2010.

Mandela’s childhood and up-bringing could not have been more apt for the life-role he

was to play. He was born in the South African town of Qunu, Transkei in 1918. His father, Henry Mandela, was chief councillor to the acting para-mount chief in his town. When his fa-ther died, Mandela became the chief ’s ward and was groomed for the chief-tainship. From a young age he and his lifelong friend and fellow freedom fighter, Oliver Tambo, were driven to participate in the fight to free their people. As a student he was said to both be extremely studious and ambitious and eventually ended up starting a BA degree at Fort Hare University, Alice, Eastern Cape, South Africa.

However in 1940, he was expelled from the university for participating in a student’s strike. But in prison, Mandela enrolled for a Law degree of the University of London External Programme. After joining the ANC, he

helped found the youth league of the organization in 1944. He put in many years of dedication to its cause, espe-cially the organization of resistance to discriminatory legislation campaign.

During this period he was arrested and confined a couple of times, but that did not stop him from forming individual underground cells of the ANC upon his release. In addition, he and Oliver Tambo proceeded to open the first black legal firm in the coun-try, and even though the Law Society was petitioned to strike Mandela off the roll of barristers, his law firm and career survived.

In 1960, after the Sharpeville Massa-cre and upon his release from yet an-other detention, Mandela went under-ground to lead a campaign for a new national convention. By 1962 he went to Algeria for military training, but upon his return he was arrested. On a charge of leaving the country illegal-ly and incitement to strike, Mandela unsuccessfully conducted his own de-fence; he got five years imprisonment in November 1962. It was during the service of that sentence he and seven others, Walter Sisulu, Dennis Gold-berg, Govan Mbeki, Raymond Mhlaba, Elias Mosoaledi, Andrew Mlangeni and Ahmed Kathrada, were charged with sabotage and sentenced to life imprisonment.

During this trial, Mandela’s resolve never faltered and he continuously told the court; “I do not deny that I

planned sabotage. I did not plan it in a spirit of recklessness nor for the love of violence but as a result of a sober assessment of the political situation that had arisen after many years of tyranny, exploitation and oppression of my people by the whites.”

The trial judge remained convinced that their behaviour was borne out of a warped desire for revolution and personal ambition. Luckily for them, however, he gave them life imprison-ment. While in prison, Mandela never compromised his political principles and was always a source of strength for the other prisoners. The apartheid government numerously offered Man-dela the reduction of his sentence as long as he abided by certain condi-tions, but he would refuse on the no-tion that “prisoners were not able to enter into contracts, only free men could negotiate”.

After decades of imprisonment, freedom came for him and his col-leagues on the February 11, 1990. With his tenacity unblemished, Mandela went back to his life’s work, deter-mined to end the struggle he and oth-ers had set out for almost four decades

earlier. In 1991 at the first national conference of the ANC held inside South Africa, Nelson Mandela was elected president of the ANC. On 10th May 1994, he became the first demo-cratically elected president of South Africa. And unlike most other African leaders, he retired in June 1999 and relinquished power with no fuss after only one term in office.

His life has been an inspiration to all who are oppressed and deprived and to all who are opposed to oppres-sion and deprivation. Nelson Mandela has never wavered in his devotion to democracy, equality and justice. He reminds me of a late woman named Hajia Wowo that I loved so much but more than that when I consider him, I do not see a person, I see an insti-tution of goodness and a beacon of strength…I see my conscience!

In his autobiography; ‘Long Walk to Freedom’ Mandela describes his struggle as a journey and of that jour-ney he says, “I have walked that long road to freedom. I have tried not to falter; I have made missteps along the way. But I have discovered the secret that after climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb. I have taken a moment here to rest, to steal a view of the glo-rious vista that surrounds me, to look back on the distance I have come. But I can rest only for a moment, for with freedom comes responsibilities, and I dare not linger, for my long walk is not yet ended.”

And indeed as we pray for his fast recovery, for the great Madiba it has been, for the last nine decades, a walk well walked!

Concluded

Musawa, a lawyer, lecturer, col-umnist and human and women’s rights activist, lives in London.

HIS LIFE HAS BEEN AN INSPIRATION TO ALL WHO ARE OPPRESSED

AND DEPRIVED

Trott