Yakowa, Azazi's last moments

Yakowa, Azazi'slast moments

...towards a better life for the people

N150VOL. 25: NO. 61776

ONLINE | www.vanguardngr.com

MONDAY, DECEMBER 17, 2012**

CRASHED: Scene of the crashed helicopter in Bayelsa State (INSET): The ill-fated copter. Photos: Samuel Oyadongha.

Continues on page 5

Chief Judge of Kaduna State, Justice Rahila Cudjo (right)swearing in Mukhtar Ramalan Yero as the new governor ofKaduna State at Government House, Kaduna, yesterday:Photo:Olu Ajayi.

Ooni lacksknowledge ofhis ancestralorigin—Alaafin

We were the first search party. Less than a minute ahead, smokeplumed from the thick swampy forest. It was a clear sign of danger.We did about four low fly passes to capture the coordinates of incidentsite. Our helicopter had ingested the smoke and smell of burningmetals, wires and flesh —Alabo-George

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ECOWAScourt blamesoil spillage inN-Delta on FG

•P.48Village head, 2 policemen, one civilian slaughtered in Maiduguri

BY EMMANUELAZIKEN, POLITICAL

EDITOR

LAGOS—FORMERGovernor of Kaduna

State, Mr. Patrick Yakowaand erstwhile NationalSecurity Adviser, GenAndrew Azazi (rtd.),were solemn but smilinglast Saturday afterlistening to a messageon the brevity of life andthe vanity of richespreached minutes beforethey boarded a Navyhelicopter that crashedwithin 10 minutes of takeoff.

An eyewitness account oftheir last moments revealedthe last conversation of the

•New Kaduna gov sworn in as govs, NASS, others mourn

LES LEBA

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A fool and hismoney

OCHEREOMENNANNA

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Mr & Mrs

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2 — Vanguard, MONDAY, DECEMBER 17, 2012

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Vanguard, MONDAY, DECEMBER 17, 2012 — 3

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POCKET CARTOON

TAKE HEARTBY ELLA RANDLE

Vanguard, MONDAY, DECEMBER 17, 2012—5

LIFEWORDSBY PASTOR ITUAH

Your ability to help others achieve their purposeenables them follow you as their leader. Lead tofulfil.

IN Power vs. Force, Dr. David Hawkins writes:“In this interconnected universe, every

improvement we make in our private worldimproves the world at large for everyone. We allfloat on the collective level of consciousness ofmankind, so that any increment we add comesback to us. We all add to our common buoyancyby our efforts to benefit life. It is a scientific factthat what is good for you is good for me.”

Dr. Hawkins has backed up his remarks andconclusions with 29 years of hard research. Inessence, every single person as well as largegroups of people can be calibrated for their energylevels.

Generally speaking, low-energy people cannotdistinguish truth from falsehood. They can be toldhow to think, whom to hate, whom to kill; and theycan be herded into a group-think mentality basedon such trivial details as what side of the river theywere born on, what their parents and theirgrandparents believed, the shape of their eyes,and hundreds of other factors having to do withappearance and total identification with theirmaterial world.

Hawkins tells us that approximately 87 per centof humanity calibrates at a collective energy levelthat weakens them. The higher up the ladder offrequency vibration, the fewer people there are inthose high levels. The highest levels arerepresented by the truly great persons whooriginated spiritual patterns that multitudes havefollowed throughout the ages. They’re associatedwith divinity, and they set in motion attractorenergy fields that influence all of humankind.

The mortuary where the bodies of late Gov Patrick Yakowa of Kaduna State, Gen. Andrew OwoyeAzazi and four others were deposited, in Bayelsa State, yesterday.

late duo and the firstsearch party immediatelytheir chopper went down.

Those who saw thembefore the doomed flightcould not decipher whythey were solemn.Whether it was themessage preached byPastor Ayo Oritsejafor orthe premonition of death atthe burial ceremony of PaObebara Douglas, father ofOronto Douglas, theSpecial Adviser to thePresident on Research andDocumentation.

“Governor Yakowa spokesoftly, greeted warmly andsmiled like he knew it wasa final moment to beenjoyed,” an oil industryexpert and friend of the lateAzazi, Ross Alabo-George,who saw off the duo ofYakowa and Azazi to theirill-fated chopper, said.

Alabo-George haddeclined an invitation fromthe late Azazi to occupy twoempty seats in the ill-fatedhelicopter because his ownchartered Cavertonchopper was already onthe way. However, as theNavy helicopter ferryingYakowa and Azazi took off,a former pilot immediatelynoticed trouble with one ofthe rotors of the navychopper.

The former pilotaccompanying Alabo-

George noticed theunusual take-off of thehelicopter and the unusualeffects on the rotor blades.

Their fears wereunfortunately confirmedwithin minutes.

“Less than 10 minuteslater, we were ready to go.The captain welcomed uson board and soon after wewere in the air. We had justdone about 10 nauticalmiles when the pilotsuddenly did a 180 degreeturn. Mr. Darego Williamswas curious and called onthe captain. The captainapologised to all on boardand announced to us thata helicopter had just ‘gonedown’. He actually meant‘crashed’. We were the firstsearch party,” Alabo-George, who also writes forVanguard said in an eyewitness account.

“Less than a minuteahead, smoke plumedfrom the thick swampyforest. It was a clear signof danger. We did aboutfour low fly passes tocapture the coordinates ofincident site. Our helicopterhad ingested the smokeand smell of burningmetals, wires and flesh. Wecould see the helicopterand the appendagebearing the ‘NAVY’inscription had severedfrom the main body. Themoment was intense, wedoubted the very facts we

knew. We all believed somemiracle could havehappened; the worst casewas not an option. It justcould not be true.”

Azazi's final hourIn his final hour, Azazi

had lost no love for thepresident despite hissummary dismissalmonths ago as NationalSecurity Adviser, confidentthat the president would

Yakowa, Azazi's last momentsContinues from Page 1 suppress the rebellion by

the Boko Haram Islamicinsurgency, affirming thatthe President is smarterthan many people take himfor.

“Ross, the president isvery intelligent andsmarter than most peopleknow,” he said just beforeboarding the ill-fated navyhelicopter.

The full account of thelast moments are revealedon page 49.

Navy begins probe; victims' bodiesdeposited at FMC Yenagoa

BY KINGSLEYOMONOBI & LUKA

BINNIYAT

ABUJA — THENigerian Navy

disclosed, yesterday, thatit had commencedinvestigation into thecause of the crash evenas bodies of the victimshave been deposited atthe Federal MedicalCentre, Yenagoa, BayelsaState.

A statement signed bythe Director of NavalInformation, CommodoreKabiru Aliyu reads: “TheNigerian Navy wishes toconfirm that search andrescue effort has led to therecovery of all the fourpassengers and the twopilots on board itshelicopter, NN 07 whichcrashed on December 15,2012.

“The bodies of thevictims have beenrecovered from the sceneof the incident and thecrash site has been dulysecured to allow fordetailed investigation. Itshould be noted that thereport of the investigationwould be made availableas soon as possible.”

The names of the

victims, according to thestatement are, Mr PatrickI. Yakowa, Governor ofKaduna State; GeneralAndrew Owoye Azazi,former National SecurityAdviser; Mr DaudaTsoho, aide to GovernorYakowa; Warrant OfficerMohammed Kamal, aideto General Azazi;Commander MurtalaMuhammed Daba andLieutenant OlukayodeSowola.

Gov declares 3-daymourning

Also yesterday, GovernorSeriake Dickson of BeyelsaState declared a three-daymourning in the state anddirected that flags shouldfly at half mast in honourof the crashed victims. Healso cancelled all the stategovernment engagements.

Dickson, yesterday,accompanied by formergovernor of Bayelsa State,Chief DiepreyeAlamieyeseigha; Chief ofNaval Staff, Dele Ozeoba;top military chiefs andsenior Bayelsagovernment officials visitedthe morgue of the FederalMedical Centre, Yenagoawhere the remains of the

victims of the ill-fatedhelicopter were deposited.

Speaking with newsmen,the governor whostruggled to control hisemotion said: “This is avery sad day for our dearstate and great country.This day we are remindedonce again of our mortality.It is tragic and irreparableloss for this state, thegovernment and thepeople of Kaduna State. Letme first of all express ourcondolences on behalf ofthe good people of BayelsaState and express ourcondolences to the peopleof Kaduna State whoseGovernor came visiting tostrengthen and deepenbonds of brotherhood.

“Let me also express ourcondolences to thePresident and Commanderin Chief of the ArmedForces and Chief of NavalStaff for the loss of thosegallant officers.

“The right steps anddecisions will be taken. Asa government, tounderscore our profoundstrength of bereavement Ihereby direct three days ofmourning in memory andin honor of thecontributions and servicesand sacrifices of our

departed heroes. Withinthis period, all flags inBayelsa State shall fly athalf mast.”

Bodies of victimsmoved to FMCYenagoa

It was reliably gatheredthat the remains of thecrashed victims weredeposited at the morgue ofthe Federal MedicalCentre, Yenagoa between2.30 and 3am, yesterday, bymilitary personneldeployed to the mangroveswamp, the scene of thetragic crash which threwthe riverside settlement ofOkoroba into mourning.

According to sources, thebodies were conveyed tothe Ogbia waterfront inOgbia Local GovernmentArea in a convoy of boatsaccompanied by militarygunboats where they werereceived by a waiting teamof military personnel andtop Bayelsa governmentofficials before the remainswere moved to the medicalfacility.

The Ogbia jetty wasreportedly cordoned off bymilitary operatives

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6—Vanguard, MONDAY, DECEMBER 17, 2012

COMMISSIONING: From right— Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed of Kwara State; Vice Pres-ident Namadi Sambo and Mr. Jimoh Faworaja, Project Consultant, during the commission-ing of Ilorin Central Mosque, Friday.

GOVERNORS and princi-pal officers of the National

Assembly were among prominentNigerians who, yesterday, re-acted with shock to the death onSaturday of Governor PatrickYakowa of Kaduna State, Gen.Andrew Azazi, erstwhile NationalSecurity Adviser, and four othersin a helicopter crash in Bayelsa.

The six died while returningfrom the burial of Pa ObebaraDouglas, father of Mr. OrontoDouglas, Special Adviser to thePresident on Research and Docu-mentation.

Governor Chibuike Amaechi ofRivers State, while lamenting thedeaths, said he was cancelling allofficial engagements until furthernotice on account of the develop-ment.

A statement issued in PortHarcourt by the Chief Press Sec-retary to the Governor, Mr. DavidIyofor, said Governor Amaechihad cancelled all official engage-ments in honour of the departed.

Governor Theodore Orji of AbiaState described the death of thetwo men as “very painful andshocking.”

In a statement by his ChiefPress Secretary, UgochukwuEmezue, Governor Orji said hewas “yet to come to terms withthis sad development” which hesaid had thrown the nation intomourning.

Orji described late Yakowa as“humble, hardworking, andabove all a man that fears God,”even as he prayed God to com-fort the families of the deceasedat this trying moment.

According to him, the nationhas no doubt lost great menwho have distinguished them-selves in their chosen profes-sions.

He noted that late former NSAto the President, Azazi was oneof Nigeria’s finest military of-ficers.

South-West govs mournGovernor Kayode Fayemi of

Ekiti State on his part describedthe death of Yakowa and Azazias a “big tragedy of monumentalproportion which hit the nationwhen least expected.”

According to a statement by hisChief Press Secretary, Mr.Olayinka Oyebode, in Ado Ekitiyesterday, Fayemi noted that thetragedy became more painfulgiven the fact that the victims werereturning from a burial.

While noting that Yakowa’sdeath happened when the nationwas yet to recover from the Octo-ber 25 plane crash involving Gov-ernor Danbaba Suntai of TarabaState, Fayemi said it was moreregrettable that the crash hap-pened when much was beingdone to restore sanity to the na-tion’s aviation sector.

Governor Fayemi was joined bythe Chairman, Peoples Demo-cratic Party, PDP, in Ekiti State, Mr.Makanjuola Ogundipe, whocommiserated with members ofthe party, family and the peopleof Kaduna State over the death ofYakowa.

He said: “Ekiti PDP sympa-thises with the people of KadunaState and the families of those thatlost their lives and the nationalbody of our party.”

Governor Rauf Aregbesola ofOsun State on his part lamentedthat the death of Yakowa andAzazi was “unexpected, shockingand painful.”

Aregbesola, in a statement byhis Director, Bureau of Commu-nications and Strategy, Mr. SemiuOkanlawon, said the tragic de-velopment left a sour taste in themouth of every patriotic Nigerian.

Aregbesola said: “Such tragedyfills every mind with grief but alsocalls everyone, particularly theleaders, to duty on the need toensure the safety of all Nigeri-ans.”

Governor Olusegun Mimiko onhis part also described the deathof Governor Yakowa as shockingand embarrassing.

He said: “At times like this, onedoes not have a choice than tocry unto God for grace to managethe effect of the irreparable dam-age the deaths of these illustri-ous sons of the nation may haveon every one of us either as fam-ily members, friends and nation.”

Deaths too many— UduaghanShocking— Oshiomhole

Speaking in the same vein,Governor Emmanuel Uduaghanof Delta State described the deathof the two men as shocking anddevastating.

A statement by his Chief PressSecretary, Mr. Sunny Ogefere, inAsaba, yesterday, said: “They aredeaths too many for Nigeria andNigerians to bear. This sadden-ing development call for prayers.

“This is so sad and painful. It isdevastating not just to me as anindividual, but to our collectivebeing as a nation.”

While condoling with the gov-ernments and people of Kadunaand Bayelsa states, families of thedeceased and Nigerians over thefatalities, Uduaghan prayed GodAlmighty “to grant the souls of thedeparted eternal rest.”

In his reaction to the deaths,Governor Isa Yuguda of BauchiState summed the developmentsas a “black Saturday.”

Governor Adams Oshiomholewho also described the death ofthe two men as shocking to himsaid: “I received with great shock,news of the death of my brotherGovernor, Mr. Patrick Yakowa andGeneral Owoye Azazi in a heli-copter crash in Bayelsa State.

“I wish to convey the deepestcondolence of the people andGovernment of Edo State and mypersonal commiseration to the

families of the victims.“Yakowa’s passion and pride

with which he embarked on theKaduna renewal project has beenmost endearing.”

On General Owoye Azazi,Oshiomhole said: “I had a verycordial and fruitful relationshipwith General Azazi. In all mydealings with him, he came acrossas a detribalised Nigerian whohad a burning passion for thecountry.

“Azazi was an epitome of thesaying ‘an officer and a gentle-man’ because despite his verysenior rank in the Army and hisposition as NSA, he was veryhumble and unassuming.”

Chime consoles familiesGovernor Sullivan Chime of

Enugu State, while condolingwith the governments of Kadunaand Bayelsa states, said he wasshocked by the news of the deathof the governor and the formerNSA.

In a statement by ChuksUgwoke, Commissioner for Infor-mation, Governor Chime de-scribed their untimely death asnot only shocking and tragic, buta monumental loss to the entirecountry.

He also mourned the death ofothers who perished in the crash.

In the statement, the EnuguState Governor, who is still onvacation, said: “As a peace agent,who ensured peaceful co-exist-ence among adherents of differ-ent faiths, Governor Yakowaserved his people with commit-ment and was an embodiment ofhumility and selfless service,which brought about huge devel-opment in Kaduna State.

“Azazi (rtd) was a dutiful andgentleman officer and a states-man who served his people andnation with diligence and integ-rity.”

ACN calls forconclusive probe

Action Congress of Nigeria,ACN, on its part called for a thor-ough investigation of Saturday’smilitary helicopter crash, sayingunraveling the cause of the crashwith a view to preventing a re-currence will mean the victims didnot die in vain.

The party said in a statementissued in Lagos, Sunday, by itsNational Publicity Secretary,Alhaji Lai Mohammed: “It is saidthat every plane crash makes fly-ing safer.

“That assumes that every suchcrash is properly investigated andthe cause or causes found, dis-closed and fed into efforts aimedat averting a recurrence. Satur-day’s crash should not be an ex-ception.”

ACN said till date, the March2012 crash of a police helicopterin Jos, in which a Deputy Inspec-tor-General of Police was killed,was yet to be unraveled, neitherhas the nation been told conclu-sively what caused the June 2012crash of a Dana Air MD-83 planethat killed over 159 people, oreven the series of deadly planecrashes that occurred prior tothose ones.

It said: “The crash of anothermilitary aircraft, the NigerianNavy Agusta helicopter, on Sat-urday must not be allowed to fol-low this pattern.”

Buhari suspendsbirthday events

On his part, erstwhile Head ofState and national leader of Con-gress for Progressive Change,CPC, General MuhammaduBuhari (rtd) has put forward to-day’s scheduled events to markhis 70th birthday.

While condoling with the fami-lies of Governor Patrick Yakowaof Kaduna State, the immediatepast National Security Adviser,Azazi and others affected by Sat-urday’s helicopter crash, Buharidescribed the development as a“monumental national tragedy.”

“For this reason and as a markof honour to the dead, GMB hasdirected that the ceremony mark-ing his 70th birthday scheduledfor today at the International Con-ference Centre, ICC, in Abuja, bepostponed indefinitely,” CPC’sNational Publicity Secretary, Mr.Rotimi Fashikin, said in a state-ment, yesterday.

The CPC spokesman said: “In-deed, this is another difficult timefor the nation and calls for soberreflection. GMB commiserateswith the immediate families of thedeceased, especially the govern-ment and people of Kaduna Statefor the great loss.”

Ekweremadu,Ihedioha shocked

Deputy President of the Senate,Senator Ike Ekweremadu, de-scribed the death of the two menas monumental losses to the na-tion.

He said: “It is indeed anothersad and shocking event in the an-nals of our nation and I pray thatnever again should such disas-ter befall our land.”

He prayed for the peaceful re-pose of the souls of the deadand inner strength for the liv-ing to bear the grievous loss.

Deputy Speaker, House ofRepresentatives, EmekaIhedioha, also expressed shockover the helicopter crash, say-ing it had broughtunquantifiable pain and distressto the nation.

Ihedioha noted that bothYakowa and Azazi served thecountry in various capacities tilldeath and praised their contri-butions to national development,observing particularly thatYakowa will be remembered as agovernor who promoted peaceand inter-religious co-existence inKaduna State.

Makinde mournsPrelate of Methodist Church

Nigeria, His Eminence SundayOla Makinde, described thedeath of the two men as a rudeshock, a terrible nightmare and anational tragedy.

Speaking through the church’sMedia and Public Relations Of-ficer, Rev. Oladapo Daramola, theprelate noted that Saturday wouldgo down as a dark day in the his-tory of this country.

Govs, NASS principal officers,others mourn Yakowa, Azazi

Vanguard, MONDAYVanguard, MONDAYVanguard, MONDAYVanguard, MONDAYVanguard, MONDAY, DECEMBER 17, , DECEMBER 17, , DECEMBER 17, , DECEMBER 17, , DECEMBER 17, 2012—72012—72012—72012—72012—7

VP CONDOLENCE VISIT TO YAKOWA

From left: Vice President Namadi Sambo, Amina Yakowa and Amina NamadiSambo, former Deputy Governor of Plateau State, Pauline Tallen during acondolence visit to the wife of the Late Governor, Ibrahim Yakowa, yester-day. Photo: State House.

From left: Senator Ahmed Makarfi, newly sworn-in Governor of KadunaState, Alhaji Ramalan Yero, Senator Isaiah Balat and Revd. Matthew Kukah.

Kaduna State governor, Alhaji Ramalan Yero (left) and Vice President NamadiSambo (right).

From left: Wife of the late Governor, Amina Yakowa, wife of the Vice Presi-dent, Amina Namadi Sambo and former Deputy Governor of Plateau State,Pauline Tallen.

ECOWAS court blames FGfor oil spillage in N-Delta

BY OLA AJAYI

Says N-Delta Ministry only ‘exists on paper’

Amnesty International, SERAP hail judgment

IBADAN—THE ECOWAS Community Court of

Justice in Ibadan hasblamed the Federal Gov-ernment for the oil spillagewhich has polluted theNiger Delta.

In a two hour judgmentdelivered weekend by Jus-tice Benfeito Mosso Ram-os, the Vice President ofthe ECOWAS Communitycourt, said the lackadaisi-cal attitude of the FederalGovernment actually led tothe environmental pollu-tion of the region.

While delivering thejudgment weekend, thecourt said the degradationof the environment wasprimarily caused by the oilmulti-national corpora-tions.

Registered Trustees ofthe Socio-Economic Rightsand Accountability Project,SERAP, had filed a suitagainst the Federal Gov-ernment and six oil com-panies over alleged viola-tion of human rights andassociated oil pollution inthe Niger Delta.

The court noted furtherthat the defence by theFederal Government thatthe Niger Delta Ministry,offered 13 per cent deriva-tion to the area did not holdwater.

Instead, the court is of theview that the derivationcould not compensate theregion for what it had suf-fered.

According to the court, “itclearly shows that the saidagencies or ministry estab-lished by the Federal Gov-ernment exist on paper.’’The court therefore orderedthe Federal Government toobey all the relevant lawsunder the ECOWAS lawand Africa Treaty.”

On the $1billion USDdamages demanded bythe plaintiff, Justice Ram-os disagreed with them,saying the plaintiffs failedto identify who will collectthe money and share it.

Socio-Economic Rightsand Accountability Project,SERAP, had filed the suitagainst the Federal Gov-ernment and six oil com-panies over alleged viola-tion of human rights andassociated oil pollution inthe Niger Delta.

The plaintiff in the suitdated July 25, 2009, hadalleged violations of the

rights to an adequatestandard of living. Therights, according to thesuit, include right to food,work, health, water, lifeand human dignity.

Meanwhile, Amnesty In-ternational and SERAP,have hailed the verdict asa key moment in holdinggovernments and compa-nies to account for pollu-tion.”

In the case, SERAP v.Nigeria, the court unani-mously found the Nigeri-an government responsi-ble for abuses by oil com-panies and made it clearthat the government musthold the companies andother perpetrators to ac-count.

The court also found thatNigeria violated articles 21(on the right to naturalwealth and resources) and24 (on the right to a gener-al satisfactory environ-ment) of the African Char-ter on Human and Peoples’Rights by failing to protectthe Niger Delta and itspeople from the operationsof oil companies that havefor many years devastatedthe region.

According to the court,the right to food and sociallife of the people of NigerDelta was violated by de-stroying their environment,and thus destroying theiropportunity to earn a liv-ing and enjoy a healthyand adequate standard ofliving. The court also saidboth the government andthe oil companies violatethe human and culturalrights of the people in theregion.

The court ruled that thegovernment’s failure toenact effective laws andestablish effective institu-tions to regulate the activi-ties of the companies cou-pled with its failure to bringperpetrators of pollution “tobook” amount to a breachof Nigeria’s internationalhuman rights obligationsand commitments.

The court emphasizedthat “the quality of life ofpeople is determined bythe quality of the environ-ment. But the governmenthas failed in its duty tomaintain a general satisfac-tory environment condu-cive to the development ofthe Niger Delta region.

“This judgment confirmsthe persistent failure of theNigerian government to

properly and effectivelypunish oil companies thathave caused pollution andperpetrated serious humanrights abuses, and is animportant step towards ac-countability for govern-ment and oil companiesthat continue to prioritiseprofit-making over andabove the well-being of thepeople of the region,” saidFemi Falana SAN, andAdetokunbo Mumuni forSERAP.

“This is a crucial prece-dent that vindicates thehuman right to a healthyenvironment and affirmsthe human right of the Ni-gerian people to live a lifefree from pollution. It alsomakes it clear that the gov-ernment must hold the oilcompanies to account,”said Michael Bochenek,Director of Law and Policyat Amnesty International.

“The judgment makes itclear that the Nigerian gov-ernment has failed to pre-vent the oil companiescausing pollution. It is amajor step forward in hold-ing the government and oilcompanies accountable foryears of devastation anddeprivation.” said Bo-chenek.

The court affirmed thatthe government must nowmove swiftly to fully imple-ment the judgment and re-store the dignity and hu-manity of the people of theregion.

“The judgment has alsocome at a time when oil isbeing discovered in themajority of the memberstates of the ECOWAS.? Itis vital that other states takeheed of this judgement,which has laid down min-imum standards of opera-tions for government andoil companies involved inthe exploitation of oil andgas in the region,” Falanaand Mumuni also said.

“The time has come forthe Nigerian governmentto stand up to powerful oilcompanies that haveabused the human rightsof the people of the NigerDelta with impunity fordecades,” said Bochenek.

“We commend theECOWAS Court for stand-ing up for the rights anddignity of the people of theNiger Delta. We also ac-knowledge the contributionof Dr Kolawole Olaniyan ofAmnesty International,”said Falana and Mumuni.

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Man 42, stabbed to death for settling disputeBY DONALD ARJI

LAGOS —The police inLagos State have

arrested an Okada ridersimply identified as Igali forstabbing a father of two,Demola Talabi 42, to death.

The middle-aged Igaliallegedly used a screw-driverto stab Talabi on the neck andother parts of his body becausehe prevented him from

stabbing his passenger withwhom he had an argument.

The 42-year old Talabi fromOgun State married and hadtwo children, was said to betrying to mediate in theargument between Igali andhis passenger over destination.

Speaking with Vanguard, thelate Talabi’s younger brother,Ayo, said that the incidentoccurred at Osho Street, Opebiand they (members of hisfamily) were contacted. Before

he got to the scene, his brotherhad died due to excessivebleeding.

The body has been depositedat the Lagos State UniversityTeaching Hospital, LASUTH,mortuary for autopsy report.

A witness told vanguard thatthe late Talabi was on a visit tohis mother ’s house at 14,Irewole Street, Opebi, when hemet the Okada man and apassenger arguing.

He was said to have tried to

settle the matter when Igalibrought out a screw driver andstabbed him several times.

The suspect was arrested anddetained at the Ikeja PoliceStation.

Ogun PDP factions disagree over Tukur’s endorsement

BY DAUD OLATUNJI

ABEOKUTA —Oneperson was yesterday

reportedly killed while 20others were on danger list intwo separate accidents thatoccurred on the Shagamu –Lagos and Abeokuta Lagosexpress roads in Sagamu andEwekoro local governmentareas of Ogun State.

Vanguard gathered that,thefirst accident occurred somemetres away from Shagamuinter-change on Shagamu –Lagos expressway andclaimed one life leaving 16other passengers criticallyinjured.

According to an eye witness,a white Toyota Hiace withregistration number (Lagos)JJJ 319 XP was heading toLagos from Ijebu before one

of the rear tyres suddenlyburst.

The source further said thatthe driver of the bus, identifiedas Biodun Badmus suddenlyapplied the breaks which madehim to lose control, which ledto the death of a woman whilethe others were seriouslyinjured.

Confirming the accident, theShagamu Unit Commander ofthe Federal Road SafetyCommission, FRSC, Mr.Ogundele Lasisi, said that the17 passengers, who comprisedseven females, five males andfive children, have been rushedto the Olabisi OnabanjoTeaching Hospital, OOUTH,Shagamu where the womangave up the ghost.

Ogundele, however, hintedthat the 16 victims includingfive children were on criticalcondition at OOUTH.

Meantime, another loneaccident occured aroundObada – Oko on the Abeokuta– Lagos expressway in EwekoroLocal Government Area of thestate leaving five people criticalinjured.

The accident, according to aneye witness, involved a ToyotaCorolla car with registrationnumber (Lagos) RK 567 KJAconveying the five passengersdressed in Aso Ebi reportedlygoing for a wedding ceremonyin Lagos.

Confirming the accident,theItori Unit Commander of FRSC,Mr. Fatai Bakare whosupervised the evacuation ofthe injured victims, confirmedthe victims were two males, twofemales and a child.

Bakare said that they hadbeen taken to Ifo Generalhospital for medical attention.

One dies, 20 injured in Ogun auto crashes

BY DAUD OLATUNJI

ABEOKUTA—The AdebayoDayo-led State ExecutiveCommittee of the PeoplesDemocratic Party, PDP, inOgun State, has faulted claimsthat the National Chairman ofthe party, Alhaji BamangaTukur, affirmed the DipoOdujinrin-led group as theparty executive in the state.

A statement issued yesterdayby Dayo faction, said while itis true that Tukur visitedformer President OlusegunObasanjo at his hilltopresidence in Abeokuta, therewas nowhere he was quotedas affirming Odujinrin as theChairman of the party.

“Rather, what ourrespectable NationalChairman said was that‘whoever that the people haveelected, as far as I’mconcerned is the chairman ofour party in Ogun’,” he said.

Dayo added: “We are awarethat it was the sackedNational Auditor of the PDP,Bode Mustapha thatmanipulated the remarks ofthe National Chairman to suithis selfish interest.

"Our National Chairmanknows that our exco emergedfrom the congresses organized

by the Dayo Soremi-ledHarmonised Exco under thesupervision of theIndependent NationalElectoral Commission (INEC)and other relevant agencies,and the Odujinrin group’s hadno INEC representatives.

“Even the Congress

Monitoring Committees of theparty also declared thepurported congresses as nulland void. Again, the November16, 2012 judgment of theFederal High Court, Lagos,which sacked the Odujinringroup, confirmed the positionof the committees.

“What is more, INEC and theseveral court judgments havealso affirmed our Exco. So, if theNational Chairman sayswhoever is elected by thepeople is the Chairman, then,with all sense of modesty, hecould not be referring to anyother person but me.

Lagos fears influxfrom polio pronezones

BY CHIOMA OBINNA &GABRIEL OLAWALE

LAGOS — Lagos Stategovernment fears that the

continuous influx of people intothe state, especially from thenorthern states, where the poliocases are still recorded, maythreaten the polio-free record ofthe state.

Meanwhile, no fewer than 4.3million children are to beimmunized with the poliovaccine in the four-day Mop-Up Immunisation Campaignagainst poliomyelitis whichbegan yesterday in Lagos.

The state Commissioner forHealth, Dr. Jide Idris, at aconference, blamed theincreasing number of childrenunimmunised on influx ofpeople into state from flood orviolence prone states.

Idris, who acknowledged thatimmunisation remains the mostcost-effective and efficientstrategy to prevent the scourge,urged parents to ensure that theirchildren under the age of fiveget immunized.

FordFoundationappointsInnocentChukwumaWest Africarepresentative

FORD Foundation,has announced the

appointed of Mr.Innocent Chukwuma, asrepresentative for WestAfrica, serving Nigeria,Ghana, Senegal, TheGambia, Mali, Guineaand Sierra Leone.

Chukwuma will bebased in the FordFoundation’s office inLagos and will overseeall of the foundation’swork in the region.

Chukwuma is ag l o b a l l y - r e n o w n e dadvocate for humanrights and goodgovernance as well as aleading scholar on policeand criminal justicereform in West Africa.

TUC tasksFG overinsecurity

BY VICTOR AHIUMA-YOUNG

LAGOS — TradeCongress of

Nigeria, TUC, weekendin Lagos, expressedconcern over theincreasing rate ofinsecurity in the country,especially kidnapping,bombings and robberyattacks.

It also condemned thecolouration by somereligious leaders to theinvestigation beingcarried out by themilitary authority into therecent bombing of themilitary barracks in jajiby suspectedfundamentalists.

This came as TUCannounced theretirement of itsSecretary General, ChiefJohn Kolawole, afterattaining a mandatory 60years age.

Musa Lawal, a lawyer,has been named acting

Mr. Chukwuma

From left: Chief Edwin Clark, Chief Remi Adiukwu Bakare, former Lagos State Commissionerfor Commerce and Industry and Prof. Osariehmen Osunbor, former Edo State Governor,during presentation of honorary fellowship award of Auchi Polytechnic, Auchi, in Abuja.Photo: Gbemiga Olamikan.

10—Vanguard, MONDAY10—Vanguard, MONDAY10—Vanguard, MONDAY10—Vanguard, MONDAY10—Vanguard, MONDAY, DECEMBER 17, , DECEMBER 17, , DECEMBER 17, , DECEMBER 17, , DECEMBER 17, 20122012201220122012

Nkiru Sylvanus, Okorocha’s aide kidnappedUS-based firmof fers freemedicare to1,000patients

BY EGUFEYAFUGBORHI

Rivers ministry generatesN3.1bn revenue

PORT HARCOURT— Rivers

State Ministry of Landsand Survey, yesterday,posted N3.1 billion as rev-enue generated for thestate through the RiversState Geographical Infor-mation Systems, RIVGIS,its field agency.

Commissioner in chargeof the ministry, Mr. Ezek-iel Amadi, disclosed this tomembers of the stateHouse of Assembly Com-mittee of Lands, who vis-ited RIVGIS as part oftheir oversight responsibil-ities.

The commissioner notedthat the declared amountsaccrued from issuance ofCertificates of Occupancy(C of Os), Grant of Con-sent, mortgages and as-signments carried out bythe agency.

He said in the yearsahead, the projected in-come would increase sig-nificantly as the agencywas still grappling withfoundation challengeswhile there are huge ar-rears of ground rents tocollect from numerousholders of C of Os amongother land regulations

WARRI—NO fewer than 1,000 in-

digenes of Uvwie andWarri South Local Gov-ernment Areas, DeltaState, weekend,benefited from a one-dayfree medical servicesponsored by a US-based medical firm, BoroAudiology Clinic.

The programme, whichtook place in Uvwiecouncil, costs N3.9 mil-lion, according to thesponsor.

Addressing newsmenin Effurun, the pro-gramme sponsor andMedical Director of BoroAudiology Clinic, Dr.John Oyiborhoro, ex-plained that unlike in thepast, when only freehearing services wereoffered by his firm, ben-eficiaries of this year’sedition were offered freehearing aids and visionservices such as free eyeglasses and eye exami-nation.

BY DANIEL GUMM

E x - l a w m a k e rlauds Uduaghanover roads

FORMER councillor in Ukwuani Local

Government Area, DeltaState, Mr. Basil Ishiekwene,has commended the state gov-ernor, Dr. Emmanuel Udua-ghan, for declaring a state ofemergency on all roads in thestate.

Ishiekwene, who addressednewsmen in Amai during theconvocation ceremony of No-vena University, said he wasimpressed with the decision ofthe governor to rehabilitate allroads in urban areas.

BY FESTUS AHON

I didn’t order slaughtering of uncleananimals—Delta community leader

dealings under their control.On his part, Principal Con-

sultant to RIVGIS, Mr. Tamu-no Miebaka, who took thelawmakers on a tour of RIV-GIS, said the agency, goingdigital had made procure-ment of C of Os and otherland regulations documenta-tion faster. He advised mem-bers of the public to take ad-vantage of the enhanced ef-ficiency at the ministry.

U G H E L L I — C H A I RMAN of Forcados com-

munity in Burutu Local Govern-ment Area, Delta State, Mr.Morris Darofa, has described asmalicious, media report that hecaused uproar by ordering massslaughter of ‘unclean’ animalsin the community.

Reacting to the report, Darofasaid the issue of removal of cowsfrom the community and theirrestriction to a confined placewas initiated by past adminis-trations in the community as aresult ofthe dan-ger theywere pos-ing to thepeople ofthe area.He saidthe publi-c a t i o nw a saimed attarnishingthe imageof thecommuni-ty.

D a r o f asaid seriesof meet-ings wereheld withthe peopleon the sit-uation, al-l e g i n g

that a motion for the removalof the cows or keeping themin a restricted place wasmoved by one Mr. FootballZikoregha on June 14, 2012at the community’s town hall,alleging that several letters ofinvitation for dialogue werethereafter sent to the cowdealers but were never hon-oured. Noting that securityagencies in the areas were in-timated over the refusal of thecow dealers to meet with thepeople, he said that Zikoreghasurprisingly showed up on thelast day of one of the deadlinesgiven to the cow dealers.

CONDOLENCE: Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Dele Ezeoba, signing the condolenceregister of the Late Governor of Kaduna State, Mr. Patrick Yakowa and Late General OwoyeAzazi (rtd), at Government House, Yenagoa. Photo: Lucky Francis.

LG polls:Youths urgeOshiomholeto ensure dueprocess

BY SIMONEBEGBULEM

BENIN—AHEAD thelocal government

area elections next yearin Edo State, youths fromOvia North-East LocalGovernment Area of thestate have appealed toGovernor Adams Oshi-omhole to ensure thatdue process was fol-lowed in choosing per-sons to run for office ofchairmen and councilorsin the 18 councils of thestate.

The youths, under theaegis of Movement forProgressive Change,MPC, who noted that thegovernor won in the 18councils in the state be-cause of his perform-ance in his first term,urged him and his party,Action Congress of Ni-geria, ACN, to ensurethat credible personswere elected to lead thepeople at the grassroots.They argued that it wasthe only way the on-go-ing developmentalprojects in the statecould be replicated in thelocal government areas.

SPECIAL Assistant toGovernor Rochas

Okorocha on Public Af-fairs, Nkiru Sylvanus,was, yesterday, kidnappedin Owerri, the Imo Statecapital.

The Nollywood actress,who was kidnapped at2.30pm, was only recentlyre-deloyed from the stateLiaison Office in Lagos.

She was reportedly ab-ducted close to the famousConcord Hotel, Owerri, inthe company of some ofher friends.

Though details of the in-cident were still sketchy atpress time, yesterday, it

was learnt that the abductorshave established contactwith her family and have de-manded a ransom of N100million.

...abductors demand N100m

The incident could not beconfirmed last night as repeat-ed calls made to the mobilephone of State Commisioner ofInformation, Chinedu Offor,

proved futile.State Police Public Rela-

tions Officer, Mr. VitalisOnugu, could also not bereached for comments as hismobile phone could not bereached.

Nkiru Sylvanus


Kidnap: Tight security still maintained at Ogwashi-Uku palace

Health workers demand minister’s sackBY VICTORIA OJEME

Lawyerarraigned overallegedbribery

Agba losesmum

BY AUSTIN OGWUDA

ASABA—DESPITE thesuccessful rescue of Mrs.

Kamene Okonjo, mother of Fi-nance Minister, Dr. NgoziOkonjo-Iweala, from kidnap-pers, tight security was still be-ing maintained at the palace.

The palace, which, before thekidnap, was very porous secu-rity-wise, now has Nigeria Civ-il Defence Corps, NCDS, per-

sonnel, manning the gatewhile armed soldiers andpolicemen are at strategicpositions.

Delta State police com-mand’s spokesman, Mr.Charles Muka, told our re-

porter yesterday: “Yes, thepalace is under tight securi-ty”. Asked when the securi-ty would be relaxed, he said,“I don’t know.”

Investigation showed that

residents in the communityare wary of their commentsover the kidnap as detectivesare still roaming around bothin drinking joints, markets,and motor parks in search ofclues.

MAMA FatimaAgba, of Un-

eme-Uzanu communityin Etsakoland, EdoState, is dead, aged 68.A philanthropist andcommunity leader, shewas a devout Christianand active member ofEternal Sacred Order ofChurubim and Sera-phim.

She is survived bythree children, brothers,sister and nine grand-children. Among herchildren is Prince ClemAgba, the immediatepast Commissioner forEnvironment and Pub-lic Utilities in Edo Stateand currently a seniorManager with ChevronNigeria Limited.

Late Mrs. Fatima Agba

THANKSGIVING MASS: Deputy Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Lady Valerie Ebe (left),and Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Ating, during a thanksgiving mass in honour of the Deputy Gov-ernor at St. Anthony’s Catholic Church, Ewet Housing Estate, Uyo, on yesterday.

WARRI—A LAWYER, alleged to

have offered N.7 mil-lion to the police to fa-cilitate the release of analleged kidnap kingpinin Warri, Mr. C. Omo-Irabor, was, weekend,arraigned before a Cus-tomary Court sitting inWarri, Delta State.

The accused, facing athree-count charge ofbribery and conspiracyto pervert the course ofjustice, was, however,admitted to bail by thecourt.

Delta police Commis-sioner, had, weekend,while briefing news-men, alleged that thelawyer attempted to se-cure the release of anotorious kidnap king-pin by offering the in-vestigating police offic-er, IPO, the said sum,following which he wasarrested

BY EMMA ARUBI

A i g b o k h a nemerges VCof SamuelAdegboyegaVarsity

BY EMEKA MAMAH

THE ApostolicChurch has ap-

pointed Professor Ber-nard Aigbokhan, 61, asthe new Vice Chancellorof Samuel AdegboyegaUniversity, SAU, Ogwa,Edo State.

The university, whichwas founded by the Ap-ostolic Church in 2011,had late Prof. SamsonAdedoyin as the found-ing Vice Chancellor. ProfAdedoyin died in Augustthis year.

Meanwhile, the Na-tional Universities Com-mission, NUC, hasthrown its weight behindthe Centre for Researchand Development of Es-anland, CERDEL,launched by the univer-sity, recently.

Aigbokhan, an overse-er of The ApostolicChurch was born inEwu, Esan Central LocalGovernment Area of EdoState. He was a lecturerat Imo State University,Okigwe in 1986 beforejoining Ambrose AlliUniversity, AAU, Ekpo-ma in 1987.

ABUJA—THE Joint HealthSector Union, JOHESU,

with membership drawn fromprofessional associations in thehealth sector, weekend, calledfor the sack of Health Minister,Professor Onyebuchi Chukwu.

In a statement in Abuja, JO-HESU said members of theMedical and Health WorkersUnion of Nigeria, MHWUN,National Association of Nigeri-an Nurses and Midwives,NANNM, National Union ofPharmacists, Medical Technol-ogist and Professional Allied toMedicine, NUPMTPAM, Sen-ior Staff Association of Nigeri-an Universities, Teaching Hos-pitals, Research Institutes andAssociate Institutions,SSAUTHRIA, and Non-Aca-demic Staff Union of NigerianUniversities, NASU, were in-volved in the demand for theminister’s sack.

The statement by JOHESUChairman, Comrade AyubaWabba, and Secretary, ComradeYusuf Badmus, accused theminister of undue support formembers of Nigeria MedicalAssociation, adding that only

medical doctors were ap-pointed as Medical Direc-tors of Federal Government-owned hospitals.

They said: “The protest be-came necessary and inevi-

table to press home the de-mand for the removal of theMinister of Health, ProfessorOnyebuchi Chukwu, whoseprimary consideration hasremained to protect the inter-

est of NMA, just for the med-ical doctors to continue tomaintain the headship of alldirectorates in health facili-ties of the country.”


BY PETER OKUTU

OWERRI—PROPERTY worth mil-

lions of Naira was, yes-terday, consumed by araging inferno that en-gulfed the palace of thetraditional ruler of Ower-ri, Eze EmmanuelEmenyonu Njemanze.

Information has it thatthe fire was caused bypower surge from publicpower supply, while an-other linked it to an inter-nal accident.

Although no member ofthe immediate familycould affirm or deny anyof the opinions beforepress time, scores of sym-pathizers and fire servicepersonnel battled relent-lessly to put out the fire.

Vanguard gathered thatapart from the two-storeybuilding that was razed,

ENUGU—THE Nigeria Union of Jour-

nalists, NUJ, South EastZone, yesterday, ex-pressed concern over thealleged assault, harass-ment, curtailment of fun-damental human rightand hostage taking ofPUNCH Newspapers cor-respondent in EnuguState, Mr. Ozioma Ubabu-

LAGOS—AS Nigeriajoined the rest of the

world to celebrate the 64thanniversary of UniversalDeclaration of Human andPeoples Rights, UDHR, In-ternational Society for Civ-il Liberties and the Rule ofLaw, Intersociety, hascalled on Attorney Gener-al of the Federation andMinister of Justice, Mr.Mohammed Adoke, to en-sure that perpetrators oftorture and extra-judicialkilling were prosecuted.

Presbyterian church crisis:

A BAKALIKI — I Twas indeed a show

of shame, weekend, asmembers and ministersof Ebonyi State chapterof Reformed Presbyteri-an Church and Presby-terian Church of Niger-ia, PCN, clashed atAmagbo Eziedda inAfikpo South local gov-ernment area over is-sues relating to the useof a church compound.

The incident, whichled to the arrest of twoMinsters, ReverendAse. A. Ase and Chime,and injuring of severalmembers of ReformedPresbyterian Church,Edda, saw the policeshooting teargas canis-ters into the church todisperse those it regard-

ed as intruders in thehouse of God.

Vanguard gatheredthat immediately theReformed PresbyterianChurch members com-menced their churchactivities in a compoundbelonging to late Rever-end Aso-Orji, the mem-bers and Ministers ofPresbyterian Church ofNigeria, PCN, cameinto the premises withfour buses to disrupt theservice and takeoverthe church site.

Narrating the ordealof members and minis-ters of Reformed Presby-terian Church, EzieddaParish, Chairman ofBoard of the Church,Elder Nnachi Chukwu,alleged that the princi-pal clerk of Presbyteri-an Church of Nigeria,

Reverend Ekueme, con-nived with AfikpoSouth Divisional Police,Owutu headquarters, tounleash mayhem onmembers of the Re-formed PresbyterianChurch who were wor-shipping on the day.He alleged that the po-lice in a bid to drivemembers of the Re-formed PresbyterianChurch out of the dis-puted church com-pound, shot teargasinto the venue.

Consequently, he saidmembers of RPCN sus-tained various degreesof injuries, thereby en-abling Ministers of thePresbyterian Church togain access into thechurch hall and takeo-ver the place.

2 ministers arrested, manyinjured in Ebonyi

Owerri monarch’s palace razedthe royal father also lostpersonal effects, historicalartifacts, precious docu-ments and antiquities, aswell as electrical and elec-tronic gadgets.

It was not clear if the roy-al father and his wife wereat home when the firestarted but a sympathizerwho simply identified her-

BY CHIDI NKWOPARA self as Mama Ejima saidthe loss was colossal.

“We thank God that nolife was lost but the manand his family lost pre-cious materials. It is mostunlikely that the tradition-al will ever boast of replac-ing many of the things lostin the inferno,” the wom-an said.

Extra-judicial killings: Groupwants perpetrators prosecuted

BY INNOCENT ANABA

NUJ flays assault on journalistby security operatives in Enugu

BY TONY EDIKE ko, at about 11pm Satur-day night by men whoclaimed to be security op-eratives. According to Mr.Ubabuko, the SSS menblocked him at the en-trance of his residence lo-cated around Trans-Eku-lu area of Enugu metrop-olis, got into his car andasked him to surrender hisphones and laptop, warn-ing him not to dare writeany story for his media or-ganization that night. Ubabuko said they wentwith him into his apart-ment and confiscated hislaptop and held him hos-tage till the early hours ofSunday morning beforethey left, when it becameobvious they had accom-plished their mission. In a statement signed bythe National Vice-Presi-dent, South East zone, Mr.Christopher Isiguzo, theunion noted that the ac-tion of the men was notonly barbaric but repug-nant and a clampdown onthe fourth estate of therealm.

Chairman on of thegroup, Mr Emeka Umeag-balasi, in a petition in An-ambra State, to the AGF onproper criminalisation oftorture and extra-judicialkillings, said: “Atpresent,the Nigeria’s crim-inal laws, including theCC, CPA, PC, CPC, PoliceAct and the Evidence Act,are porous and weak withrespect to the foregoing.Relevant provisions inthem should be revisitedand reworked, bearing inmind the internationalrights-backed defenses.”

CMYK

Vanguard, MONDAY, DECEMBER 17, 2012 —13


Reps back INEC on delisted partiesBY EMMAN OVUAKPORIE

ABUJA—HOUSE of Repre-sentatives Committee on

Electoral Matters, weekend,threw its weight behind thedecision of Independent Na-tional Electoral Commission,INEC, to de-list 28 politicalparties.

The committee also disclosedthat the Budget Office diverteda huge but undisclosed summeant for INEC in the 2012budget to a secret account, be-fore the money was quickly re-turned to the commissionwhen the legislators inter-vened.

The apex electoral body isempowered by Electoral Act2010 as amended, and the1999 Constitution to de-regis-ter political parties that wouldhave defaulted on certain pro-visions relating to their exist-ence in Nigeria.

Chairman of the Committee,Jerimon Manwe, PDP-Taraba,who gave his committee’s nodto the action of INEC, said thecommittee had no problemswith INEC Chairman, Prof.Attahiru Jega’s decision to de-list the affected parties.

He said: “I, as a lawmaker,made the law, and INEC issupposed to implement thelaw and they are doing it.

“Why should I summon themfor carrying out their duties asthey have been asked to do,

NBA faults NASS onJustice Jombo-Ofo

AWARD: From left— Mr. Deji Elumoye, Chairman, Ni-geria Union of Journalists, NUJ, Lagos State Chapter; Mr.Eze Anaba, Deputy Editor, and Mr. Mideno Bayagbon, Edi-tor, both of Vanguard Newspapers, receving an award onbehalf of Mr. Sam Amuka, Publisher, Vanguard Newspapers,during NUJ's 2012 Press Week Media Legends Awards inLagos, Friday. PHOTOS: Kehinde Gbadamosi.

LEFT: From left— Alhaji Lateef Jakande, former Gover-nor of Lagos State; Aremo Olusegun Osoba, former Gover-nor of Ogun State; Mr. Deji Elumoye; Mr. Dele Odebiyi,former Chairman, Lagos State NUJ, and Mrs Agbeke Ogun-sanwo, former Permanent Secretary, Lagos State Civil Serv-ice, at the event.

F r o mr i g h t —A r e m oO s o b a ,Mr. Elu-moye andAlhaji Ja-kande re-ceiving anaward.

based on the Constitution?“We are not saying there is

no provision in the law to al-low for freedom of association,but those associating must beguided by law. That is whylaws are made.

“Laws are made to beobeyed. You are qualified to bePresident of this country. Youare also qualified to be a mem-ber of the House of Repre-sentatives.

“However, there are guide-lines that you need to followright from the constitution.And so far INEC has donenothing wrong.”

He, however, dismissed sus-picions that INEC might haveplayed the script of a PeoplesDemocratic Party, PDP, agendato foist a single-party systemon the country.

He explained that both theconstitution and electoral lawswere made by all parties inthe country, including the af-fected ones.

On 2015 election, he dis-closed that INEC and otherstakeholders would hold talkson the loopholes in the previ-ous elections, with the hopeof addressing them in subse-quent polls.

Manwe said: “Was it PDPthat wrote the constitution orthe electoral act? The electoralact was the product of all po-litical parties; we had APGA,PRP, ACN, ANPP, and several

other parties who sat and made these laws.”

BY INNOCENT ANABA

NIGERIAN Bar As-sociation, NBA, yester-

day, called on the NationalAssembly to amend the Fed-eral Character Act, which al-lows a married woman to con-tinue to lay claim to her stateof origin in national appoint-ments.

NBA also faulted NASS ask-ing the Chief Justice of Ni-geria, CJN, Justice MaryamMukhtar, to swear in JusticeIfeoma Jombo-Ofo, notingthat she was not sworn in be-cause her place of origin(Anambra) was different fromher husband’s state (Abia),where she served as a highcourt judge.

by the Supreme Court inhonour of the late KayodeEso, said: “We call on theNational Assembly to as amatter of urgent nationalimportance, effect amend-ment of Paragraph 2 of PartII of the Federal CharacterCommission (Establish-ment, etc.) Act SubsidiaryLegislation.”

The paragraph states: “Amarried woman shall con-tinue to lay claim to herstate of origin for the pur-pose of implementation ofthe Federal Character For-mula at the national level.”

Wali said the provisionwas against equity, goodconscience and natural jus-tice.

N B AP r e s i -d e n t ,M r .O k e yW a l i ,w h om a d ethe callat aspecialc o u r tsession

FAO recordsincreasein local riceproduction

ABUJA—EFFORTSby the Federal Gov-

ernment to achieve self-sufficiency in rice produc-tion by 2015, have re-ceived the recognition ofFood and Agriculture Or-ganisation, FAO.

FAO had projected thatincreased rice output inNigeria and Ghana for2012 will outpace con-sumption in 2012/13, re-sulting in an upward re-vision of five milliontonnes in 2013 closing in-ventories.

It said: “Compared tolast year, world ricecarryover stocks are ex-pected to rise by sevenper cent, or 10 milliontonnes, to a new high ofalmost 170 tonnes, mark-ing the 8th consecutiveyear of stock accumula-tion.

“As a result, the worldrice stock-to-use ratio isforecast to rise from 33.6percent in 2012 to 35.5percent in 2013.”

Meanwhile, Nigeria’sMinister of Agricultureand Rural Development,Dr. Akinwumi Adesina,has assured that Nigeriawill achieve self-suffi-ciency in rice production.

CMYK


ASSET Management Cor-poration of Nigeria,

AMCON, weekend, reporteda N2.37 trillion naira ($15 bil-lion) loss after tax, three yearsafter it was set up to absorbthe bad debts of banks in theaftermath of a financial crisis.

AMCON also said it expectsto conclude the privatisationof the three banks national-ised by mid-2014.

It added that Nigerian bankshad agreed to increase theircollective contributions to apost-crisis “sinking fund”used to refinance the bank’s

AMCON reports $15bn post-tax lossbad debts to 100 billion naira,up from the 60 billion nairathey had already put in.

The surprisingly large lossalso raised questions abouthow AMCON will refinance a1.7 trillion naira zero-couponbond at the end of 2013, andmay have implications for Ni-geria’s national budget.

The after-tax loss, whichAMCON officials revealed ata news conference, comes inthe first accounts to be pub-lished by the bad bank sinceit was set up in 2010 to absorbthe debts of banks hamstrungin a crisis caused by over-ex-posure to a weak oil and local

stock market in 2008/2009.The crisis nearly sank nine

lenders until the Central Bankof Nigeria intervened with afour billion dollars bail-outfund to keep them afloat.

The loss was a “wake-upcall” that the banking sector’sproblems will not be easilyresolved and that banks mayend up paying a higher con-tribution towards its resolu-tion, said Razia Khan, Headof Africa Research at StandardChartered Bank.

Speaking on the report,AMCON Executive Directorof Finance Mofoluke Dosumu,said: “The non-performing

loans that we bought were fourtimes larger.

“This shows that what wasdisclosed as NPLs (non-per-forming loans) on the books ofthe banks were below what wefound when they started sell-ing to us. We bought four timeswhat we initially envisaged.”

Analysts questioned howAMCON’s losses would im-pact its ability to repay a totalof 4.5 trillion naira govern-ment-backed bonds used toclean up the banking sector ifthe value of the assets it holdscontinued to erode andwhether the sinking fund willbe sufficient in the short-term.

Meanwhile, AMCONsaid it had recovered 85billion naira worth of badloans and it expected tomake more recoveries.

Chief Executive,Mustapha Chike-Obi, saidhe was confident the “badbank” will be able to refi-nance its bonds at maturitynext year and it could alsochoose to retire them usingthe proceeds of its sinkingfund.

Chike-Obi said Nigerianbanks had agreed to in-crease their collective con-tributions to a post-crisis“sinking fund” used to re-finance the bank’s baddebts to 100 billion naira,up from the 60 billion nairathey had already put in.

It also expects to con-

BY PETER EGWUATU

WARRI—GENERALManager, Policy,

Government and PublicAffairs, Chevron NigeriaLimited, Mr. DejiHaastrup, has stressedthe need for sustainedmutual relationship be-tween communitieswithin its area of opera-tion and his company toguarantee continuoussocial investment in theNiger Delta.

He made the assertionin Warri during the com-missioning of a civic cen-tre and other projects do-nated to Nigeria PortsAuthority, NPA, and Ijawcommunities by EGTLProject and SouthernGas Construction, SGC.

Haastrup, who was rep-resented by Mr. TrustInimgba, thanked DeltaState Government for itssupport towards the suc-cessful completion of theprojects.

In a message, EGTLProject Manager, MickKrally noted that as aresult of the location ofthe fabrication works andsupport services forEGTL Project in WarriPort, business activitiesin the area has been suc-cessfully turned around,while hundreds of jobswere created.

He said when com-pleted, EGTL plant willbe the second biggest inthe world.

clude the privatisation ofthree banks it national-ised after the crisis, bymid-2014, which wouldbring in some money,Chike-Obi said.

Chevronseekscooperationof hostcommunity

OPINION


*Mr. Nwosu, a public affairs analyst, wrotefrom Enugu-Ukwu, Anambra State.

BY FRANCIS NWOSU Obi's welfarist approach to governanceSOME small things are overlooked

by many people but they are the thingsthat really matter; the kernel of things. GovPeter Obi’s recent visit to secondary schoolsacross Anambra State where he donated apart payment of N10m to each of thedesignated 200 schools may seem part ofhis job but to those who have been around inAnambra State since the present civiliansetting, what Obi did is simply amazing.

After the civil war, government took overmission schools and the result was amonumental decay of morals, leading to theheinous crimes we see today. There is no gain-saying that today’s armed robbers andkidnappers are offshoots of that takeover. Ifthe missions were allowed to keep theirschools, for sure the circumstance would bedifferent today.

Obi, saw this and made history as the firstgovernor in Nigeria to fully return schoolsto the missionary owners. He didn’t stopthere. He also dedicated millions yearly fortheir upkeep. Before then, he had lavishedthe schools with facilities and amenities suchas buses, boreholes, computers, generatingsets, etc.

In addition to these, he has now given themN10m each to prosecute priority projects.This is only half of the total of the N20m hepromised. The striking thing here is that themoney he is lavishing on schools is moneyhe could have used in servicing the thievingpolitical class who do not care if Anambraburns as long as their nests are feathered.Obi has largely ignored them and has hadto endure their fight back which they have

been doing by giving him a bad name.Thankfully however the masses know thetruth.

When he was handing over schools to themissions, he announced the setting aside ofa whopping N6b for the schools’ upkeep andsignificantly noted that only he knew howthe money was saved and thus could havedecided to ‘eat’ it alone or to service thepoliticians. Indeed, if Obi had given half thatsum to politicians, he would have been themost popular governor in Anambra’s history.This would habe been at the expense of thelong suffering masses. Politicians will rollout the drums for him whenever they seehim. But he chose to toe the ‘unpopular’ lineof ignoring politicians to favour the public.This is why Obi has gained a legendary statusas the governor who uses public money forpublic good. This is why the masses of thestate returned him for a second term; thefirst in the state’s history. This is why he is thedarling of the Church and the children’sfavourite.

Thus, the joblessness of the political classhas created room for the public to gain. Obi’sgestures to schools are indeed investmentsfor tomorrow because the students aretomorrow’s leaders.

Obi has also brought the fear of God intogovernance. He is one of the few governorswho do not flirt; that goes to churchregularly, including the challenge ofattending morning masses. By his style, Obiis making the Church a partner ingovernance. He is a governor who truly loves

his state and is making plans that wouldoutlive his regime; an unusual phenomenonin these parts where serving leaders doeverything to make life difficult for theirsuccessors.

Despite bringing government's presenceto every town,he still gives them palliativemoney every December so they can tacklepriority projects and boost security.

But beyond all these, Obi has facilitatedthe re-engineering of every sector inAnambra State. Moribund sectors likehealth, sports, commerce and industry,institutions of government, among othershave all witnessed serious intervention.

Under his administration, workers forthe first time had secretariats which

have enabled them to be in one place andwork in comfort. Before now, to visit thevarious ministries was always a frustratingexperience as they were scattered acrossmany towns in the capital territory. It wasonly Obi that saw the need to gather them inone place, thus the construction of commonsecretariats which are work friendly.

Ever intent on improving workers’ welfare,he increased their salaries four times andlifted the embargo on promotion. Comingafter his predecessor had told workers thatpromotion was not a right, one can onlyimagine how excited the workers were.

Under Obi retirees now get theiremoluments in time unlike years beforewhen many died waiting to get theirgratuities and pensions. It was also Obi who

offset all the pension arrears of pensionerswhich had accumulated before he took overthe reins of office.

Under his regime too, permanentsecretaries began to have official cars forthe first time in the state’s history.

The state’s tertiary institutions under Obihave not had it so good as all of them wereaccreditated, a status some of them lost inthe pre-Obi era. Thus, the Onitsha Generalhospital which lost its accreditation by theNigerian Medical and Dental Councilregained it and in addition witnessed amassive refurbishment which included itshaving a kidney and dialysis centre.

The schools of midwifery and nursing atObosi and Nkpor equally had a piece ofObi’s cake as the schools witnessed a greatinfrastructural transformation as well asaccreditations.

The College of Agriculture at Mgbakwuwhich was abandoned for dead by previousregimes without an iota of infrastructurewas revived by Obi and today it looks like ahigher institution with state-of-the-artadministrative, classroom and hostel blocksand the students are happy.

A magnificent stadium will soon come upin Awka which will compare with NnamdiAzikiwe Stadium in Enugu. This stadiumwhich will be sited at the Old Awka TownshipStadium will complement the alreadyexisting mini stadia at Onitsha North andSouth.

WORDS are cheap. No wonder people usethem without considering their impact orconsequences of not keeping them, whenthey are promises. Goodluck Jonathan hasadded a more general promise “things willbe better in 2013” to the 91 promises hemade running for office in 2011. While theunfulfilled promises of 2011 were specific,Nigerians cannot be sure what a better 2013means.Surely, 2013 would be more challenging

than 2012, which by every index is a toughyear. Here are some challenges that awaitNigerians in 2013:· Every Nigerian who wants to travel

abroad would take mandatory oral poliovaccine from May 2013, whether a child oradult. The World Health Organisation,WHO, said the measure was necessary “toreduce the substantial risk of the virusspreading to polio-free countries.” Two othercountries, Afghanistan and Pakistan are inthe same league with Nigeria.· Rural poverty (which would also affect

urban dwellers) would rise. The impacts ofthe devastation from the floods would reflect

Promises Of BrightPromises Of BrightPromises Of BrightPromises Of BrightPromises Of Bright20132013201320132013

more in 2013 when the assistance to victimsdry up and they face the realities of lossesof their businesses and means of livelihood.· The infrastructure deficit would increase.

The uncurbed decay of infrastructure hasresulted in the stretching of the few thatwork. Without meaningful plans, thingswould get worse.· Security is a revolving concern. The

bombings and killings in the North arematched with kidnaps and armed robberiesin the South. There are no signs that thecriminals are letting go of their prizedportion of Nigeria.· Unemployment has been addressed with

words for long. We now have people wholeave school uneducated, unemployable,

and remain so more than five years aftergraduation. When organisations wantcandidates with relevant experience, it isdifficult to find them. The coming year bearsno indications of tackling massunemployment, particularly among theyouth.Words on their own are empty. It is action

behind them that makes the difference. Toomany promises have been made to Nigerians- it no longer makes sense to continue makingmore empty promises.Nobody expects the President to work

miracles, considering the enormity of thechallenges he inherited. However, if hedecides to compound the situation throughpromises he would not keep, then he has noright to expect the understanding of thepublic, which has been at the receiving endof dashed expectations.Economic indicators coupled with

unabated corruption in the country do notflash signs of a healthy environment with theresources to fulfil the President’s promises.The most reasonable thing now is to keepNigerians abreast of the challenges andtackle them. Anything else is deceit.

CMYK

Vanguard, MONDAY, DECEMBER 17, 2012 — A1

A2 — Vanguard, MONDAY, DECEMBER 17, 2012


,

,

OPINION

*Mr. Teniola, former editor of the Evening Punch,wrote from Lagos.

“

Continues on the Viewpoints page 50

BY ERIC TENIOLA

BEFORE the January 15, 1966 Military Coup, therewere five constitutions operating in this country.

There was the Constitution of the Federal Republicof 1963. Then we had the Constitution of NorthernNigerian Law of 1963, the Constitution of the EasternNigerian Law of 1963, the Constitution of WesternNigerian Law of 1963 and the Constitution of Mid-Western Nigerian Act of 1964.

The four Regions were administered in a way, as ifthey were Sovereign states.

Sub-section 2D of Section 63 of the Constitution ofthe Western Nigerian Law of 1963, subsection 1 ofsection 64 of the constitution of the Mid-WesternNigerian Act of 1964, sub-section 1 of section 66 ofEastern Nigeria constitution Law and sub-section 1 ofsection 68 of the constitution of Northern Nigeria Lawof 1963, all made provisions for the appointments ofagent Generals for the four regions in the UnitedKingdom.

The Agent Generals were like modern daysambassadors. For example, the Western Regionappointed Chief Emmanuel Akintoye AkinbowaleOlasunmbo Coker (1924-2000), as Agent General tothe United Kingdom and he served in that officebetween 1960-1963. His scheduled was not in conflict

with that of the Nigerian Ambassador to the UnitedKingdom at that time, Alhaji Abdul-Maliki (1914-1969),the son of the late Attah of Igbirra land- a true diplomatand bureaucrat.

And the age-long dream among students of the thenWestern Region,at that time was to clinch WesternRegion Scholarship instead of The Federal GovernmentScholarship. Those were the booming days of the cocoaera.

Each of the Regions had their own Chief Justices,Police Commissioners, Legislative Houses and manyother bodies. We remember in particular Sir LouisOdumegwu Ojukwu (1909-1966), Father of the late,Ikemba of Nnewi, Chief Emeka Odumegwu Ojukwu,who held the powerful posts of Chairman of EasternRegion Development Corporation and Eastern NigeriaMarketing Board.

Each of the Regions differed on some key issues.Section 23 of the Constitution Northern Nigeria Lawof 1963 ruled that” the business of the LegislativeHouses shall be conducted in English and in Hausa”.Other Regions upheld only English in their Legislativehouses.

The journey thatleads nowhere

The Western Region even had a Court of Appealwhich served as an Intermediate Court between itshigh Court and the Supreme Court. The onlyuniformity was in the procedure for the establishmentof key office holders. They all had premiers andGovernors.

The Governors, according to the four RegionalConstitutions shall be appointed” by the Presidentacting in accordance with the advice of the Premier”.

The post of Governors was more ceremonial for theExecutive power resided in the hands of Premiers,who had a majority in the legislative houses.

Interestingly, except the Mid-Western NigeriaConstitution, Act of 1964, the three other regionalconstitutions, named all the Governors.

As for the Premiers, we had Sir Ahmadu Bello (1909-1966) in the North, Chief Samuel Ladoke Akintola(1910-1966), who succeeded Chief Obafemi Awolowo(1909-1987), in the Western Region, Dr.MicahelIheonukara Okpara (1920-1984), who succededDr.Nnamdi Azikiwe (1909-1996) as Premier in theEastern Region and Chief Dennis Chukadebe Osadebe(1911-1994) as premier of the Mid- Western Region.

THE high and mighty are under siege in Nigeria. Under siege too

are those who are not so high andmighty. The mere fact that you own adecent-looking air-conditioned car couldput you in danger of being attacked byhighway Area Boys in Lagos. Roads towatch out for these tattered-lookingyouth moving in groups like packs ofAfrican wild dogs are: Ikorodu Road,Apapa Express, Badagry Express andLagos – Abeokuta Express, especiallyat night.

It is easy to distinguish them from themass of other hard-working youthselling all sorts of merchandise on thebusy roads. The criminals usually areempty-handed and move in groups.They assault your car and threaten tobreak your glasses unless you part withsomething. But usually if you give themsomething they consider “reasonable”,they will demand for more but you canfreely ignore them and they will leaveyou alone and look for other victims.People driving rickety vehicles, glassesdown and casually dressed are oftentaken for “poor” people and left alone.I’ve been hit several times, so I knowhow to spot them and I’ve come tounderstand their psychology. I’ve evenhad a gun shoved in my face alongIkorodu Road at night!

I often ask myself: what could promptthe mass of innocent, hardworkingtraders along the highways to drop theirmerchandises and resort to maraudingArea Boys? And what else could nudgethe Area Boys to taken up weapons, sniffdrugs and go on the hunt for the “rich”?More importantly, what will makeyoung people to take up arms againstthe “rich” through violent robberies andkidnapping? What does it take for ayoung person to become a militant orterrorist?

Quite obviously, the group of thugsthat planned and executed the kidnapof Professor Kanene (not Kamene)Okonjo, the Queen Mother ofOgwashiuku and mother of one of themost influential women in the world, Dr.Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, had graduated todaredevil levels of criminality. Also, it isobvious they were only looking at the“profits” of this venture and not thelosses. The greed of our corrupt elite hasalso contaminated the criminals layingin wait. People are no longer stealing

Challenges of Okonjo’skidnap

government money, bank deposits,shareholders and pensioners’ funds inmillions. They now steal in billions andtrillions of naira.

Blind greed: When the Okonjokidnappers initially named one billionUS Dollars as their ransom I knew theyhad been afflicted by the same blindnessthat greed inflicts on politicians,bankers, public office holders and civilservants. It causes them to steal likepeople possessed. Little did they knowthat if that money was given to them itwould be their greatest give-away. Littledid they also realise that snatching themother of, perhaps the most powerful

Iweala has; those for whom thePresident will not intervene; those whomgovernors will not feel are importantenough to compel them to react.

Now that Professor Okonjo has beenfreed, what will Ngozi Okonjo-Iwealado? What should she do? Typically, some

will advise her to dump her job asMinister of Finance and CoordinatingMinister for the Economy and return tothe international arena, being thatNigerians have decided to pay back herdecision to serve in bad coin. That wouldbe foolish. In the first place, the kidnapwas neither prompted by Nigerians norcelebrated by them. If anything, theOkonjo family had the sympathy ofvirtually all.

Make contributions count: In thesecond place, Ngozi walkingaway from the job will make her acoward and opportunist. She would bebooed off the stage. All her contributionswill not longer count for much. Rather,she should be challenged to help tacklethe problem of mass unemployment andpoverty at the root. As the Minister forthe Economy she is already bestpositioned to do it.

Shortly after she was sworn-in on hersecond coming to the job she promisedto (a) diversify the economy and (b)create jobs. Some say one year is tooshort for results to show. The Presidenthas promised that 2013 will see thematuration of efforts of his governmentto transform the economy. 2013 is onlytwo weeks away. Okonjo-Iweala shouldshake off the general perception that sheis a major reason for sluggish release offunds for capital projects and generalpoor budget implementation. Youthunemployment and lack of opportunitiesfor legitimate realisation of youngpeople’s dreams and aspirations arechiefly responsible for massive youthpoverty, terrorism and violent crimes inthe North and kidnapping and otherviolent crimes in the South.

The economy needs a radical re-jigging and if Okonjo-Iweala cannot doit (and in good time too) I wonder who

STARTING from this week, I will embark on my annual leave. But I will resumethis column in mid-January, recharged and ready to offer new exciting

possibilities. For instance my blog will make its debut in the New Year. I wish youall Merry Christmas and a Happy, Prosperous New Year 2013. Travel safely andtake a rest. God bless you and God Bless Nigeria.

Off for a month

minister, is likeputting yourhead in themouth of a lion.We all saw howthe entire armedforces werebrought out tocarry out ap r e s i d e n t i a lorder to find thewoman and herc a p t o r s .Governor EmmaU d u a g h a nrelocated theG o v e r n m e n tHouse to thepalace of the Obiof Ogwashiuku.

As I write,there is breaking

news that Queen Kanene Okonjo hasbeen released, safe and sound. This isa victorious end to the saga, though we

Queen (Professor) Kanene Okonjo and her daughter Ngozi,the Finance Minister

Ngozi walking away from the job willmake her a coward and opportunist. Shewould be booed off the stage; all hercontributions will not longer count formuch. Rather, she should be challenged tohelp tackle the problem of massunemployment and poverty at the root; asthe Minister for the Economy she isalready best positioned to do it

can. If she succeeds Nigerians haveways of rewarding those who serve themwell and exhibit iron-clad determinationin facing up to the devils that impedeour development.

Welcome back home, Queen(Professor) Kanene Okonjo!

may never knowthe true insides t o r y ,p a r t i c u l a r l ywhether monieswere paid out.The question,however, is:Who is next?Particularly atrisk are thosewho may nothave thec o n n e c t i o n sNgozi Okonjo-

CMYK

CMYK



Alaafin vs Ooni:Alaafin says Ooni lacks knowledge of his ancestral origin

BY OLA AJAYI

IBADAN—The perennialrivalry between the Alaafin

of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemiand Ooni of Ife, Oba OkunadeSijuade resurfaced weekend asthe former described Oba Sijuadeas someone who is not knowl-edgeable about his ancestralorigin.

The two foremost Yorubamonarchs have been embroiledin crisis over the control ofYorubaland.

The disagreement which hadabated after the creation of OsunState, reared its head againrecently when Ooni said theAlaafin did not have the rights tocelebrate Oranyan, one of thesons of Oduduwa because thedeity was not known in Oyo townas claimed by the Alaafin.

Despite many attempts made tomake Oba Adeyemi respond tothe accusation then he keptsealed lips.

Ooni had alleged that Alaafinwas reigning over a dead em-pire.

But, while responding in hispalace at a special birthday lec-

ture organized in his honour bythe City People magazine,entitled: ‘Reviving Old OyoCustoms and Tradition’, hehinted that he did not respondbecause of the intervention ofthe former President, ChiefOlusegun Obasanjo at a meet-ing where Oba Sijuade, theAwujale of Ijebu, Oba OyebadeLipede were in attendance.

Alaafin recalled that ObaSijuade had said, “he (Alaafin)is not Oranyan”, but he turneddeaf ears because he wantedabsolute concentration duringthe celebration of Oranyan.

Explaining why he broke thesilence, he said Ooni did notrefrain from condemning himand his traditional activities.Alaafin claimed Oyo is supe-rior to Ife in many ramifications.

“Where did this Yoruba lan-guage that we are speakingevolve from? Which languagewas used in writing the Bible?It is Oyo language. Why not Ifelanguage? Where else are theyspeaking Ife language apartfrom Lagere Quarters? Why arethe Modakeke people, who areliving behind Ife not speakingIfe language?” Alaafin asked.

Alaafin further clarified that hehad posed so many questions toOoni which, he alleged, “instead,he came with books that could fillthree baskets”.

“In 2009, Ooni had rubbishedthe institution of Alaafin, but a yearafter when he was celebrating hisbirthday, he said Oranyan was hisfather’s ancestor. How could youhave denigrated your ancestorsand later claimed that you are ason of the Alaafin.

“Anybody who does not knowhis ancestral roots, who did notstrive to learn about it, and doesnot learn from those who know,

Fayemi assures of road rehabilitationBY GBENGA ARIYIBI

ADO EKITI — EkitiState governor, Dr. Kayode

Fayemi has vowed that his admin-istration is committed to aggres-sive rehabilitation of road networkin different parts of the state

While reinstating the commit-ment of his administration increating jobs for the youths whoare looking for employment,Fayemi charged them to shun os-

will continue to make mistakes andflounder in ignorance. That is partof Ooni’s inadequacies”, he said.

“When we wanted to celebrateSango, they said Sango is notYoruba. Sango studied Quoran.He was the one that was first con-ferred with the title of ‘Akeugberu’.He was the first in the art of adju-dicating justly. When he was born,the umbilical chord that joined himwith his mother could not be sev-ered. Because they pulled it andit would not cut, it became thename ‘Afonja’. The glory, successand tradition of Yoruba started fromOyo”, he stated.

Alaafin alluded to a period dur-ing the tenure of late Chief BolaIge (SAN) when a “stamped pa-per recognising Oranyan as theHead of the Princes and Prin-cesses in Yorubaland, and thatOyo dominated all other nations,namely: Ife, Ijebu, Egba, Ijesa,Sabe, Owu and so on”.

He warned that Ooni should notdistort historical facts further.

The Director, Institute of AfricanStudies, University of Ibadan, Pro-fessor Isaac Albert, commendedAlaafin for epitomizing the richAfrican cultural heritage.

tentatious lifestyle.He also called on the people of

the state to eschew bitterness andpolitical acrimony, urging them tosee Ekiti project and other devel-opmental plans of hisadministration as their utmostpriority. The governor who wasspeaking during the 20th IsanEkiti Day on Saturday, pledgedthat his administration would re-habilitate the roads linking IsanEkiti with other towns to engen-

der development in the commu-nity and to check mate age-longpractice of rural-urban drift

The governor equally promisedto put to shape all the roadsconnecting Ekiti to theneighbouring states, particularlyin the northern axis of the stateand the border towns, so that thestate could boast of good road net-works that could fast-trackdevelopment in remote towns.

CMYK


NIIA DGadvocatesskills trainingfor pensioners

BY LAJU ARENYEKA

DIRECTOR Generalof Nigerian Insti-

tute of International Af-fairs, NIIA, Prof. Bola Ak-interinwa, weekend,urged pensioners to com-plement theoretical edu-cation with entrepreneur-ial skills. Akinterimwawho made the call at the51st founders’ day cele-bration of the institute inLagos in response to aworkshop on soap makingand cassava productionorganized for pensionersof the institute said pen-sioners should acquirenecessary skills that willenable them keep up theirstandard of living afterretirement.

The workshop was facil-itated by Dr. Dele Oleku,a representative of the Di-rector General of the Fed-eral Institute of Industri-al Research, Oshodi, FI-IRO, Dr.Gloria Elemogave practical insights onsoap making and produc-tion, as well as cassavaand fruit juice processing.

Akinterinwa said: "Wewill bring them to yourplace for practical educa-tion.”

CMYK


,

,

AFTER the death ofGovernor Patrick Yakowa

last Saturday, another mytharound Kaduna has emerged.No pair of governor and deputythat entered office ever endedin office together.

The first civilian governor ofthe old Kaduna State, was theredoubtable Balarabe Musawho was forced out of office inJune 1981 upon hisimpeachment by the NationalParty of Nigeria, NPNdominated House of Assembly.His deputy, Alhaji Abba MusaRimi eventually finished histerm in office. Alhaji LawalKaita of the NPN who won the1983 gubernatorial election onthe ticket of the NPN did notfinish his term as he was bootedout of office by the militaryputsch of December 31, 1983.Alhaji Dabo Lere who waselected governor of the newKaduna State with James BawaMagaji as his deputy in 1991also did not finish his term ashe was also booted out of officeby the Sani Abacha led coup ofNovember 17, 1993.

Beginniing ofadministration

At the advent of the fourthrepublic, Alhaji AhmedMakarfi, a formercommissioner of Financeduring the military regime waselected as governor with therotund Mr. Stephen Shekari ashis deputy. There weresuggestions at the beginningof their administration thatMakarfi who was reportedlyhospitalised for a long periodat the beginning of the firstterm would not last in office. Itwas then suggested that for thefirst time, a Christian wouldgovern the state. But thethinking of man was upturnedwhen Shekari died in officeleaving Makarfi to build whathas been described as one ofthe best legacies of governanceby a civilian in Kaduna State .

After Shekari’s death,Makarfi picked Mr. PatrickYakowa a former career civilservant turned politician as hisdeputy. Yakowa finished withMakarfi in 2007 but his bid tosucceed Makarfi as governorran into stormy waters and heended up continuing as deputygovernor of the state underMakarfi’s handpickedsuccessor, Arc. Namadi Sambo.

Makarfi it was generallybelieved helped to ensure thathis own loyal deputy, was put

Kaduna: New calculations after Yakowa's deathIT was the web of conspiracy tales on how the country’s power equations were determined in the town thatgave rise to the myth of the Kaduna Mafia. The flux in the tenure of its governors is, however, no myth!

BY EMMANUEL AZIKEN,POLITICAL EDITOR

on the ticket as Sambo’srunning mate.

Sambo’s stewardship ofKaduna was in good progressuntil the death of PresidentUmaru Yar‘adua in May 2010when he, Sambo was picked tobecome vice-president toPresident Goodluck Jonathanwho succeeded the lateYar‘adua.

Muslim and Christianpopulations in the state,Yakowa as governor wasalways quick to calm tensionthat repeatedly broke outduring his short reign. He wasparticularly passionate inwooing the Islamic population.

Though he had a difficulttime winning election in 2011,he was by some account

brother, Isaiah Balat in the 2007gubernatorial primary.

He, however, over time wonall but extremists to his side.Even though he remainedcourteous and reverentialtowards Sambo, there wereoften repeated allegations ofdifferences between both men.

Indeed, it was believed insome circles that Sambo wasalready lining up at least threepowerful contenders tochallenge Yakowa for thegubernatorial ticket of the PDPin 2015. Among those so namedare Yero and the directorgeneral of a prominent FederalGovernment parastatal from thestate. Besides the duo, theSecretary to the Stategovernment, Alhaji LawalSamaila Yakawada, had been

alleged to be also oiling themachinery to contest the 2015election. Just last week theAction Congress of Nigeria,ACN in the state had called onYakowa to sack Yakawada forwhat it described as the SSG’seffrontery in planning tocontest the 2015 election.

The inauguration of Yero asgovernor yesterday has,inevitably changed all thepermutations for 2015. WhatYero could have fought for, henow has firmly in his kitty. AndSambo, whose legacy inKaduna was almost being putto question through electionlosses at home, is now fullyback in the saddle. After all, hispersonal accountant is incharge.

Sambo’s elevation led to theinevitable ascension of hisformer deputy, Yakowa to theGovernment House. It was aphenomenal development forthe Christian dominatedsouthern population who forthe first time had someone oftheir faith in control of the state.The appointment of Yakowa’sdeputy was reportedly dictatedby Sambo. The choice wasRamallah Yero, who was beforehis elevation, the commissionerfor finance in the Samboadministration and before then,accountant and financialdirector in Samba’s privatecompany.

As governor Yakowa,undoubtedly had his job wellcut out. Given the history ofdelicate relations between the

already worming his way intothe heart of the muslimpopulation through hisgovernment’s charm offensiveto Muslims through suchprogrammes as Ramadanfeeding and hajj sponsorships.When Muslim pilgrims fromthe state went for the hajj lastyear, a national newspaperreported that the pilgrims whohad by that time been taken inby Yakowa’s charm towardsthem prayed passionately forhis conversion to Islam!

Yakowa was, off course notuniversally popular amongChristians at the time of hisselection as Sambo’s deputy in2007. He was regarded in badlight for having helped whatsome regarded as theconspiracy to frustrate their

*Sambo: Now back in full control *Yakowa: Death alters 2015 permutations

*Yero: Will Sambo's man turn into his own man?

Muslim pilgrims ... whohad by that time beentaken in by Yakowa’scharm towards themprayed passionately forhis conversion to Islam

More on page 51


From left: GM, Corporate Social Responsibility, Total Exploration and DrillingNigeria Limited, Dr. Justus Pearse; Country Director, Family Care Association,Mr. Joshua Kempeneer, and Manager, CSR, Total Exploration and ProductionNigeria Limited, Mr Emmanuel Ikomi, at the Eduvision Primary School, Gwarko,Abuja, during the Total Exploration’s sponsored roll back malaria interventionprogramme in communities and schools in Gwagwalada Area Council, Abuja.

BY CLIFFORDNDUJIHE

52 years after, Ekwuemedecries Nigeria’s rot,unrealised dreams

LAGOS—SECONDREPUBLIC Vice-

President, Dr. Alex Ek-wueme, yesterday, took adispassionate look at thestate of affairs in Nigeriaand returned a grim ver-dict: we have not realisedour pre-independencedreams and aspirations.

Urging leaders at all lev-els to accelerate efforts tocheck the rot and beginthe onerous task of devel-

oping the country, he said:“No one present when theUnion Jack was loweredin 1960 would be happywith the present level ofdevelopment in Nigeria.”

The elder statesmanspoke with journalists dur-ing his 80th birthday re-ception organised in hishonour by his Orumbakinsmen in Ikoyi, Lagos,under the auspices ofOrumba Forum.

Asked where and whenNigerians started missingthe mark, he said: “I don’twant to apportion blamesbut no one who saw theUnion Jack lowered inNigeria would be happyabout the present state ofthings”.

Among the British colo-nies, one of the foundingfathers of the ruling Peo-ples Democratic Party,PDP, said on the eve of in-dependence on Septem-

ber 30, 1960, “expectationwas high that Nigeriawould be one of the great-est countries in Africa andthe world, but the dreamsand expectation have notbeen realised.”

Ekwueme prescribed“determination and com-mitment to serve” on thepart of leaders as a majorstep to reverse the down-ward slide in Nigeria’squest for sustainable de-velopment.

The President of the fo-rum, Dr. Raymond Obieriand other members drawnfrom all works of life show-ered encomiums on thepolitician and enjoinedthose in the corridors ofpower to emulate his goodvirtues.

Notable personalities atthe event included ProfLaz Ekwueme, Sir JohnEzeh, Sir Emma Udoye,Chief Ben Ohakwe, ProfTitus Okeke, Obi Okaforand Dr Emma Nwankwo.

mourning the tragicincident.

We heard a phoneringing at crash site—Rescue operative

Some members of therescue team involved inthe emergency operationsthat located the crash siteof the doomed helicopteralleged that the mobilephone of the late governorwas rigging when hisbody was recovered fromthe wreckage at aboutmidnight.

A joint search party ofthe Joint Task Forceknown as OperationRestore Hope, the youthsof the OkorobaCommunity, members ofthe Civil Defence Corpsand the NationalEmergency ManagementAuthority (NEMA)recovered the remains ofthe crash victims.

A security operative,who pleaded anonymity,said with the assistance ofthe youths of thecommunity, the crash sitewas discovered leading tothe evacuation of thecharred corpses.

The source whoconfirmed that the victimswere burnt beyondrecognition, however, saida corpse, which burnt fromhead to mid-section, withthe lower parts coveredwith blue colour nativeattire, was identified as theKaduna Governor.

According to him,

“when we brought thebody out, we startedhearing sounds of phoneringing from the left sideof the pocket. We laterdiscovered that calls werecoming to the phone andit could be from concernedpersons but no oneanswered.”

Yero sworn in asnew gov

Meanwhile, less than 24hours after the death of SirIbrahim Patrick Yakowa,Governor of KadunaState, his deputy, AlhajiMuktar Ramallan Yerowas sworn in by ChiefJudge of Kaduna State,Justice Rahila Cudjoe.

Yero was sworn inaround 1:10pm at theCouncil Chambers ofGovernment HouseKaduna, with hissupporters in boisterousjubilation in the midst ofthe tragedy.

In his acceptancespeech, Yero said: “It iswith heavy heart that Imake this speech havingjust fulfilled ac o n s t i t u t i o n a lrequirement of the FederalRepublic of Nigeria. Thesad event that befellKaduna State, yesterday(Saturday), is alreadypublic knowledge.

“Our amiable Govenor,Sir Ibrahim Yakowa hassuddenly left us byanswering the call of ourcreator. Indeed, from Himwe all came and to Himwe would all, one day,return.”

Navy begins probeContinues from Page 5


Long queues at Egyptian polling stations

Egypt constitution: First round of referendumendsVOTING has closed

in Egypt in the firstleg of a referendum on acontroversial newconstitution, after a highturnout.

President MohammedMorsi and his MuslimBrotherhood haveendorsed the document,but critics have said thatit was poorly draftedand overly favoursIslamists.

The oppositionNational Salvation Frontcoalition has accused theMuslim Brotherhood oftrying to rig the vote.

The headquarters ofthe opposition al-Wafdparty has been attacked,reportedly by extremistIslamists.

Two people are said tohave been hurt duringthe attack in Cairo.

In other violence, aman was shot andinjured in a clash

between rival groupsoutside a polling stationin the city of Dakahliawhile, across Egypt, 18people were treated forexhaustion.

However, the ballot,which is staggered overSaturday and a secondday of voting in a week’stime, appears to havegone smoothly overall.

Japan’s LDP bounces back to powerJAPAN’s conservative

Liberal DemocraticParty (LDP) surged backto power in an electionyesterday just threeyears after a devastatingdefeat, giving ex-PrimeMinister Shinzo Abe achance to push hishawkish security agendaand radical economicrecipe.

An LDP win will usherin a government

committed to a toughstance in a territorial rowwith China, a pro-nuclearenergy policy despite lastyear ’s Fukushimadisaster and a potentiallyrisky prescription forhyper-easy monetarypolicy and big fiscalspending to beat deflationand tame a strong yen.

A TV Asahi projection

based on counted votesgave the LDP at least 291seats in parliament’s 480-member lower house,and together with itssmall ally, the NewKomeito party, a two-thirds majority needed tooverride, on mostmatters, the upper house,where no party hasmajority.

Merkel rips German opposition for blocking tax cuts

C H A N C E L L O RAngela Merkel

criticized the centre-leftopposition for blockingher government’s effortsto cut income taxes by 6billion euros, telling aGerman newspaperthose parties will haveto explain that to votersin next year’s election.

Merkel, seeking athird term in September,also found fault withSocial Democrats (SPD)and Greens in anewspaper interview forthwarting a deal withSwitzerland to tax assetsstashed by Germans inSwiss banks althoughwithout revealing their

names.Taking a rare swipe at

the opposition whosesupport she has neededto get parliamentary

Ex-Prime MinisterShinzo Abe

approval for a number ofeuro zone rescuemeasures, Merkel toldthe BraunschweigerZeitung it was hard to

fathom that the SPD andGreens had rejected taxcuts that would havebenefited middle- andlower-income wageearners.

Syria crisis: Damascus al-Yarmouk campattacked

A Palestinian refugeecamp in the Syrian

capital Damascus hasbeen attacked, reportedlyby war planes, activistshave said.

Although the number ofpeople killed or injuredwas unclear, but theSyrian Observatory forHuman Rights, a UK-based activist group, reported at least eight

Newtown shootings: Democrats Malloy,Feinstein seek gun laws

TWO senior USDemocrats have

called for stricter guncontrol legislationfollowing the elementaryschool shootings inNewtown, Connecticut.

Twenty children and sixwomen died in Friday’sassault on Sandy Hook

school by a lone gunmanwho then turned hisweapon on himself.

Connecticut GovernorDan Malloy urgedstronger nationallegislation.

And Senator DianneFeinstein said she would

introduce a bill banningassault weapons as soonas Congress convened.

President BarackObama , who shortly afterthe school attack urged“meaningful action”against gun crime in theUS - is to visit Newtownyesterday.

deaths. The al-Yarmoukcamp houses Palestiniansand also Syrians displacedby fighting.

Opposition activists saidthose killed had beensheltering in a mosque asfighting raged in thesurrounding area.

A video posted online,which cannot be verified,showed several deadbodies apparentlysprawled in the street andon the steps of themosque.

Fighting at the military installation north ofAleppo has been raging for days

VanguardVanguardVanguardVanguardVanguardCLASSIFIED

OKOROGBUDJE —I,formerly known andaddressed as MissOkorogbudje KevweVictoria, now wish tobe known and ad-dressed as Mrs.Ewutanure Kevwe Vic-toria. All former docu-ments remain valid.Delta State Ministry ofEducation Asaba,Ughelli North LGAand general publicplease take note.

A D E T U N J I — I ,formerly known andaddressed as MissYetunde YemisiAdetunji, now wish tobe known andaddressed as Mrs.Yetunde YemisiMonye. All formerdocuments remainvalid. NigeriaImmigration Serviceand general publicplease take note.

E M O S I V W E — I ,formerly known andaddressed as Miss IghoAgatha Emosivwe, nowwish to be known andaddressed as Mrs. IghoAgatha Erufiotovwe. Allformer documentsremain valid. AnambraState University,Igbariam Campus andgeneral public pleasetake note.

OPOBIO—I, formerlyknown and ad-dressed as MissDorine Opobio, nowwish to be knownand addressed asMrs. DorineBeketein. All formerdocuments remainvalid. Niger DeltaUniversity and gen-eral public pleasetake note.

OBI —I, formerlyknown andaddressed as MissObi Adline Oluchi,now wish to be knownand addressed asMrs. OnyenahataAdline Oluchi. Allformer documentsremain valid. NYSCand general publicplease take note.

ECHEMAZU— I ,formerly known andaddressed as MissNkechi FavourEchemazu, now wishto be known andaddressed as Mrs.Nkechi Favour Ajayi.All former documentsremain valid.General publicplease take note.

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Confirmation ofNamesKOKORI—I wish toinform the generalpublic that I, MissAlfred Rebecca Temisanis one and the sameperson as Miss KokoriRebecca Temisan. Allformer documentsremain valid. YabaCollege of Technologyand general publicplease take note.

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O K U G U N I — I ,formerly known andaddressed as MissJoy NwagalaakuOkuguni, now wishto be known andaddressed as Mrs.Maccarthy MaccjoyNwagalaaku. Allformer documentsremain valid. NSCDCand general publicplease take note.

A K I N Y E M I — I ,formerly known andaddressed as MissOluwafunmilola RuthAkinyemi, now wishto be known andaddressed as Mrs.Oluwafunmilola RuthFalujo. All formerdocuments remainvalid. General publicplease take note.

YOU CAN B O O K Y O U RA D V E RT S AT OU R

L A G O S I S L A N D O F FI C E— VA N G U A R D

M E D I A L I M I T E D(LAGOS OFFICE) K I O S K4 8 E A S T PAV I L I O N T B S ,

L A G O S .

VANGUARD'S LAGOS OFFICE


....Makindecondoles withfamilies of Azazi,Yakowa

BY BEN AGANDE

VP Sambomourns Yakowa

BY NDAHI MARAMA

Village head, 2 policemen, onecivilian slaughtered in Maiduguri

Justice Musdapher delivers National Mirroranniversary lecture Thursday

AS part of activities to commemorate its second year

anniversary, Global MediaMirror Ltd, publishers of theNational Mirror Newspaperstitles will on Thursday, Decem-ber 20, 2012 host a public lec-ture to be delivered by the im-mediate past Chief Justice ofNigeria, CJN, Justice DahiruMusdapher. The lecture willhold in Lagos.

The two-in-one event willalso see the public presenta-tion of a book titled: “For law,for country: Conversationswith the Bar and the Bench.”

The lecture, which will holdat the Muson Centre, will seethe former Nigeria’s chief jus-tice examine the relationshipbetween the law and e-mediapractice in Nigeria, and how abalance could be struck.

The book presents divergentviews of legal practitioners,especially Senior Advocates ofNigeria, SAN, both privateand public practice on onehand, and judges on the otherhand on various topical issuesin the judiciary including pol-icies, while at the same timeoffers lawyers belonging to dif-ferent generations, areas ofspecialisation and holding var-ious philosophies, to freely ex-

press their views on the cur-rent challenges bedevilling thejudiciary and the rule of law.The management said thebook is a humble contributionof the newspaper to safeguardthe integrity of the judiciaryand the rule of law in the coun-try.

According to Global MediaMirror,the annual lecture willalso present a rare opportuni-ty for very important person-alities, especially in the legalcommunity in Nigeria, to reu-nite and discuss the judiciaryand the all-important topic ofe-media practice in Nigeriaand the law. The event is ex-pected to be chaired by theLagos State Governor, Mr. Ba-batunde Fashola, who himselfis an accomplished legal prac-titioner and member of the in-ner bar holding the rank ofSenior Advocate of Nigeria.

Other notable personalitiesexpected at the lecture are theGovernors of Ekiti State, Mr.Kayode Fayemi and his OsunState counterpart, Mr. Rauf Ar-egbesola, while the Governorsof Akwa-Ibom State, Mr.Godswill Akpabio; BenueState, Dr. Gabriel Suswamand those of Kastina and Enu-gu states, Mr. Ibrahim Shema

and Mr. Sullivan Chime are alsoexpected at the event as specialexecutive guests.

The President and Command-er in Chief of the Armed Forcesof Nigeria, Dr. Goodluck Jonath-an, GCFR, is expected as thespecial guest of honour.

It would be recalled that themaiden lecture of Global MediaMirror, held in Abuja last yearwas delivered by legal luminaryand Chairman of Association ofSenior Advocates of Nigeria,Chief Richard Akinjide, SAN,where he spoke on Africa and theChallenges of 21st Century witheminent Nigerians in attend-ance, including Chief MikeOzekhome, SAN, Chief NiyiAkintola, SAN, Chief MikeAhamba, SAN, among others.

Held at NICON Luxury Hotelin Abuja, the maiden edition wasattended by President GoodluckJonathan, who was represent-ed by the Minister of Informa-tion, Mr. Labaran Maku.

Maku, the then servingCJN, Justice Musdapher, theAttorney-General of the Fed-eration and Minister of Jus-tice, Mr. Bello Adoke, SAN,among several other hadcommended the editorialquality of the newspaper.

MAIDUGURI—NO fewer than four people, in-

cluding a village head of Bur-bura ward in Pompomari gen-eral area of Konduga LocalGovernment Area of BornoState, Bulama Ibrahim Aisa-mi were slaughtered in theirhouses yesterday by yet to beidentified gunmen.

Vanguard gathered that thegunmen who invaded thearea on Saturday at about2am slaughtered three of theirvictims, Mallam ZakariyaGwoza a bricklayer, MallamMustapha a serving police-man, and Mallam Kolo a re-tired policeman. It was gath-ered that when effort toslaughter the village head,Bulama Aisami failed, theyshot him dead in the presenceof his family members.

A neighbour to the slainserving policeman, Mus-tapha, who spoke to Van-guard but chose not to dis-close his name said, he heardstrange voices in the com-pound, but because of the6am to 9pm curfew imposedon the city, there was nothingthey could do than to resortto prayer

He added that, as early as6am on Sunday, they weretrapped in their house forabout an hour when the menof the Joint Task Force, JTF,came and cordoned off thearea.

He said, after the JTF cor-doned off the area, they re-covered the remains of thefour victims and conveyed itto the University of Maidug-uri Teaching Hospital’s mor-tuary.

According to another eye-witness, the gunmen whocarried out the attack walkedon foot with rifles, knives andcutlasses

He said: “When I peepedthrough my window yester-day at that time of the night,five people with rifles and oth-er dangerous weaponswalked to the house of theward head (Bulama) andchanted, Allahu Akbar (Godis great) before I started hear-ing people wailing and cry-ing for help; two hours to thecalls for the dawn prayers inthe area.”

Another resident, also toldVanguard that the ward headwas said to have been at-tacked and killed by the BokoHaram gunmen, because hewas alleged to be an inform-ant to security agents on ac-tivities and hideouts of sectmembers in his Pompomariward of Maiduguri metropo-lis.

He, however, said he heard

several gunshots at the resi-dences of the two policemenkilled in the area, adding that;“the two policemen werefeared shot dead in their hous-es, while the ward head and abricklayer were slaughtered in

their respective residences”.Confirming the multiple at-

tacks and killings on Sunday,the Borno State Police Com-mand spokesman, Gideon Ji-brin said there were earlymorning attacks on the resi-

dences of a ward head and twopolicemen in Pompomari ward.

He said apart from the killingof the village head, one civilianand two police officers werefeared killed in the attacks by sus-pected hoodlums at 2.30am.

Describes him asfriend, mentor

ABUJA—THE vice president, Arc Mohammed

Namadi Sambo has de-scribed the late governor Ib-rahim Yakowa as a brother,a friend and a mentor whoseloss would be felt by all.

He spoke while paying hiscondolence to the family,the government and thepeople of the state over thedemise of the governor.

According to the VicePresident, the late IbrahimYakowa was a friend andbrother whose relationshipdates back to decades whenas Kaduna State Commis-sioner of Works in 1987, thelate Yakowa was posted tothe Ministry as permanentsecretary.

He noted that they hadbeen closely working to-gether up to the time theywere elected governor anddeputy governor of the state.

“We have lost a brother, afriend, a mentor and a pa-triotic Nigerian who hadserved Nigeria throughouthis life. May the Almightygive him peace and the fam-ily and us the fortitude tobear the loss, said the VicePresident.

BY SAM EYOBOKA

PRELATE of MethodistChurch Nigeria, His Emi-

nence Sunday Ola Makindehas described the death of thegovernor of Kaduna State, Mr.Patrick Yakowa and the formerNational Security Adviser,General Owoeye Azazi as arude shock and a terriblenightmare and a national trag-edy.

In his reaction made availa-ble through the church Mediaand Public Relations Officer,Revd Oladapo Daramola saidDecember 15, 2012 would godown as a dark day in the his-tory of this country.

“I wish to express my deep-est condolences to the Presi-dent of the Federal Republic ofNigeria, Dr Goodluck EbeleJonathan, the good people ofKaduna State, Mrs. Yakowaand the entire Yakowa family,the family of General OwoeyeAzazi and the families of thosewho were on board that chop-per. May God Almighty con-sole and bring comfort to themall.

“This is no doubt a nationaltragedy and the shock of theirdeath is such that will take awhile to overcome which iswhy it is important to stay to-gether in our prayers and med-itation in this trying and chal-lenging period,” he noted.

From left: Mr Olu Jacob, popular actor; Mr Mudiaga Enajemo, Mudi Africa; Mrs MaggyEnajemo, Mudi's mother; Senator Musiliu Obanikoro; Mr Bola Shodipo representing Gover-nor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State and HRM (Dr) Harisi the lll, Ovie of Ughelli Kingdomduring the opening of Mudi Africa complex in Anthony, Lagos, weekend. Photo: LamidiBamidele.


General Azazi'sfinal minutes

IT was just a few minutes to13.00hours and the service of

songs was in session when ourchartered Caverton helicopterlanded in ancient breezy coastalcommunity of Okoroba, home-town of Mr. Oronto Douglas, asenior aide to President GoodluckEbele Jonathan. I had flown withmy Uncle, Engr. Mayne David-West, Principal Consultant ofPearl Consultants, and GeorgeKerley, Coordinator of TheJonathan Project and an unre-pentant crusader of the president.

We proceeded directly to thevenue of the Service of Songs. Itwas a ten minutes walk from theschool field where the helicopterhad landed, and it offered an

ze et al, then the big masquer-ade - Kanu Nwankwo was rightthere. I said to myself, the chil-dren of Okoroba Town would beinspired by the time the body ofPa Douglas is finally laid to rest.

In this flourish and fanfare, hesat quiet, listening to the incisivemessage delivered by the Rever-end Ayo Oritsejafor. He seemedconsumed by the pastor’s deeprhetoric about how ephemeral lifewas, and how wealth and moneywere necessary vanity but how alife well spent is eternal in value.Still, I interrupted his intense en-grossment. He was excited to seeme. We exchanged pleasantriesand he asked that I stay aroundfor a chat after the pastor’s mes-sage. I did. The General was atowering man. Dressed in a grey

in Mr. Douglas’s home would bethis wrecked. I called a youngman, and in intense curiosity Ibegan to question him. My find-ings were that a new primaryschool was being developed andnew community library built andwell equipped. I was satisfied, Iwould have been disappointed.

Plentycaution

General Azazi watched thesehappen. Now it was time to takehim on. I had not seen him sincehis removal as NSA. He was adeep man, and I was eager to hearhim say something. I knew himto be blunt in a very smart way.He would not say a thing if hehad not thought it through in-tensely. I probed into his periodas NSA and asked what his takewas on the Jonathan presidency.He had lost no love for the Pres-ident. He said ...”Ross, the pres-ident is very intelligent and smart-er than most people know”. Hetalked about the Boko Haram is-sue with plenty caution, but wasoptimistic that the presidentwould check them.

Now, we were joined by the

West whom he hadn’t seen inmonths. They chatted warmlywhile they poured themselves alittle champagne. He was servedsoup and he ate light. In aboutforty-five minutes he was done.Just about then, he receives a sig-nal that the ill-fated helicopter wason its way.

He walked around to the othertables, shook hands and made hisway out. He was headed for thehelicopter, but he was obviouslynot in a hurry. He strolled withGovernor Patrick Yakowa, a gov-ernor whose humility endearedme to him. Governor Yakowaspoke softly, greeted warmly andsmiled like he knew it was a finalmoment to be enjoyed. Wewalked ahead of the Governorand the General, and in a fewminutes we were all at the Oko-roba Primary School field.

There were a few chartered he-licopters arriving and taking off.The choppy drone of rotor bladesslicing through the air ruffled usa bit. The primary school was suf-ficiently solicitous of intervention.The classroom had neither doorsnor windows, in fact it lookedabandoned. While we stood in-side I asked why a primary school

By ROSS ALABO-GEORGE

,

,We had just done about 10 nautical mileswhen the pilot suddenly did a 180 degreeturn. Mr. Darego Williams was curiousand called on the captain. The captainapologized to all on board and announcedto us that a helicopter had just ‘gone down’.He actually meant ‘crashed’. We were thefirst search party

IYC president, Mr. MiabiyeKuromiema, and I surprised theGeneral when I fired: “Sir, it isabout time the president threwMrs. Diezani Allison-Maduekeunder the bus”. I maintained thatthe Jonathan presidency washaemorrhaging severely becauseof her continued stay as minister.I expected him to say something,his face expressionless, he re-mained quiet. George Kerley, aknown defender of the honour-able minister, quipped with astraight face: “Ross, you are right.It is time the president is told thetruth... He is taking too muchbullets for some of these minis-ters”. The General shook his head,not in approval or disapproval; hewas just enjoying the chat. Hebrought up a few issues and weall talked with surplus warmth.We hadn’t pressed him enoughwhen the Navy helicopter ap-peared within sight in the sky.

He offered us the two spareseats in the helicopter, but we de-clined as our chopper was at thatmoment already landing. Hepulled George Kerley aside for atwo-aside. They talked for abouttwo minutes, and he joined Gov-ernor Yakowa again, as theystrolled on the rigid pavement intothe boisterous windy path of thechopper. The pilots dismountedthe chopper to greet their VIP pas-sengers; they looked smart in theirmilitary uniform. It was the gov-ernor’s and the general’s finalhandshake.

Seasonedpilot

Mr. Darego Williams, a sea-soned pilot turned business manwas joining our chopper back toPort Harcourt. He cringed at themanner the chopper had takenoff and didn’t stop starring at theeffects of the rotor blades. I no-ticed he was a little uncomfort-able, but then he had been off thecockpit for over two decades, sohe contained thoughts.

Less than ten minutes later, wewere ready to go. The captain wel-comed us on board and soon af-ter we were in the air. We hadjust done about 10 nautical mileswhen the pilot suddenly did a 180degree turn. Mr. Darego Williamswas curious and called on thecaptain. The captain apologizedto all on board and announced tous that a helicopter had just ‘gonedown’. He actually meant‘crashed’. We were the first searchparty.

Less than a minute ahead,smoke plumed from the thickswampy forest. It was a clear signof danger. We did about four lowfly passes to capture the coordi-nates of incident site. Our heli-copter had ingested the smokeand smell of burning metals, wiresand flesh. We could see the heli-copter and the appendage bear-ing the ‘NAVY’ inscription hadsevered from the main body. Themoment was intense, we doubt-ed the very facts we knew. We allbelieved some miracle could havehappened; the worst case was notan option. It just could not be true.

R George<[email protected]

striped French suite and blackshoes, I watched him walk in hisusual calculated steps as he leftthe tent to the other tent wherethe reception for visitors was tobe held.

He looked fresh, like he hadrested well after his surprisingremoval as National Security Ad-viser. His warmth was charmingand his humility ever evident. Hewas led to a roundtable on thefirst row and he took his seat byhis friend Engr. Mayne David-

opportunity to see the sprawlingancient community and the newdevelopments taking place. Thepeople were very happy. Theywere seeing new faces – minis-ters; governors; commissioners;corporate executives and citizensthey only read about and saw inthe news walk on the new rigidpavements of their community. Ithink above all, they wowed at theNollywood stars who dazzled thenatives to disbelief. RamseyNoah, Rita Dominic, Segun Arin-

Gen. Andrew Azazi

Site of the chopper crash

EYE EYE EYE EYE EYE WITNESS WITNESS WITNESS WITNESS WITNESS AAAAACCOUNTCCOUNTCCOUNTCCOUNTCCOUNT


,

,

BY EMENIKE NSU EMENIKE

*Mr. Teniola, former editor of the EveningPunch, wrote from Lagos.

,

,

Okorocha's diversionary probe

*Mr. Emenike, a bussinessmanwrote from Owerri, Imo State.

BY ERIC TENIOLA

EVERY citizen of Imo State isnow familiar with Governor

Rochas Okorocha’s governance bydistraction. Every time hisintrigues catch up with him, hereaches into his basket of tricksand fishes out ex-governor IkediOhakim’s name! It is clear to allobservers of the comicalgovernance in Imo state thatOkorocha has run out of fancifulideas, ridiculous boasts andoutlandish promises. The chickenshave come home to roost for him,and governance has screeched toa halt in Imo State. Those whowere misled in the past todemonise Ohakim, first startedexpressing their regrets inmurmurs — for they were tooembarrassed to admit theirmistakes — but now loudlyproclaim that Okorocha was adisastrous choice! Hence thepopular song in Imo now isikirikaonyeohimma (Ikiri-the bushboy-is better than a thief). I am sureGov. Okorocha has heard thischant!

What triggered the recent anticsto probe Ohakim are the manyproblems he is confronted with inthe State. This probe comes afterOkorocha had told Nigeriansseveral times that he would neitherprobe nor witch-hunt Ohakim. Theprobe is meant to serve two majorpurposes. One is to divert theattention of Imo citizens andNigerians from the rot in ImoState. The second is to continue thesmearing of Ohakim’s name whichhas been an obsession for him. Not

long ago, he sponsored a movie todemonise Ohakim and the entireImo political leadership! Nobodyis against any probe. Imo citizensdeserve to know how they aregoverned, and even more so howOkorocha is governing them. Butthe truth is that since he assumedoffice, Okorocha has done nothingelse but to dig for evidence to nailOhakim but he has found none. Hehas written volumes of petitionsagainst Ohakim and his wife toEFCC and ICPC, but these haveturned out to be the same oldfiction. It seems his frustration hasgiven room for hallucination!

What the kangaroo probe isexpected to achieve is to smearOhakim because Okorocha isbanking on the fact that in Nigeriaof today, once an allegation hasbeen levelled against a publicofficer, he is assumed guilty, evenwithout trial. People don’t usuallywait to get the truth. The wonderabout Okorocha’s probe is that thereport is already written and themedia put on notice to expect anearth-shaking document thatwould finally rubbish Ohakim. Heis now shopping for a panel ofpeople to give their imprimatur tothe sensational fiction. Otherwise,how can he promise to release thereport to the public in two weeks,when he is yet to compose thepanel, the panel is yet to sit and noevidence has been taken? Why ishe already implying Ohakim’sguilt even before he is invited toappear before any probe panel?These questions become academiconce we remember that Okorochaacts with impunity and is hardly a

respecter of the rule of law. Thequestion is whether anyrespectable Imo person will lendhis name and dignity to this probeas a member of the panel!

The question Imo citizens wantanswers from Okorocha is

why his free education has run intoa hitch, while, unfortunately,gullible Nigerians continue to clapfor him? The Nation newspaper onNovember 27, 2012 reported thatImo indigenes in tertiaryinstitutions had besieged thepalaces of traditional rulers for thefree education cheques Okorochapromised them! Many monarchsin Imo State have now abandonedtheir palaces for fear of beinglynched by angry students. TheNational Association of Imo StateStudents (NAISS) have describedthe free education as “fraudulent

and ambiguous” and hasthreatened to go to court over thescam! Today, nobody knowswhether what Okorocha is offeringis bursary, scholarship or freeeducation! It is all confusion.

Two weeks ago, Okorochasacked the VC of Imo StateUniversity, Prof. B.E.B Nwoke, forrefusing to admit 4000 pupils ofRochas Foundation Schools, whoare non-indigenes of Imo, withoutJAMB and Post-JAMB screening.His game-plan was that these non-indigene students would pay thefees with which to fund his so-called free education. That is howdesperate he has become. Prof.Nwoke’s other sin was that hedemanded improved funding forthe university. Yet, Okorocha haspromised to build four newuniversities and Nigeriansclapped!

It is on record that throughouthis tenure, Ohakim enhanced thewelfare of the physicallychallenged in Imo State and paidtheir allowances every month. Heeven appointed one of them as hisSenior Special Assistant! ButOkorocha has stopped payingthem. On November 22, 2012, over5000 of them took to the streetsand grounded Owerri (Daily Sunof Friday, 23 November 2012).When the disabled protesters gotto Government House, they weredispersed with tear gas! Howinsensitive!

The day Okorocha wasinaugurating his private squadcalled Imo Security Network withwhich he terrorises the opposition,contractors he owed demonstratedat the Ahiajoku Convention Centreto disrupt the event. These arecontractors who fell forOkorocha’s caper and mobilised

to sites without contractdocuments and have now beendisowned by him as was predicted.Some of these contractors tookloans from banks which have nowforeclosed their properties.According to their spokesman,Chief Zack Awaraka, Okorochasimply used them to “claim undueglory” as a performing Governor .Okorocha claims to have paidthem N13.9 billion. But ChiefAwaraka has challenged him topublish the names because onlycompanies connected to theregime are paid in Imo!

Let us not even talk of the filthystate of Imo. The sanitarycondition of Owerri hasdeteriorated to pre-2007conditions. Insecurity has forcedmany citizens to relocate outsidethe state, further worsening theeconomic condition of the state.Okorocha himself does not sleepin Owerri! Once it is six o’clock, hejumps into his private jet and fliesto Abuja from where he jets intoOwerri the next morning!

Instead of hounding Ohakim, heshould explain to Imo peoplewhere he got the money to buy thejet. We all know how “rich” he wasbefore 2011. If it is on lease, who ispaying for it? Is it necessary tospend Imo’s lean resources onsuch luxury that smacks ofinsensitivity?

Secondly, this probe- apart fromits intent to smear Ohakim- is todivert the attention of Imo citizensand Nigerians from the moreimportant fact that the N13.5billion bond money Ohakimhanded over had beenmisappropriated.

CHIEF Osadebe had earlier resigned asPresident of the Senate to be elected as

Premier of the newly created Mid- WesternRegion following a plebiscite by the peopleof Edo and the Delta provinces to carve Mid-Western Region out of the Western Region.

In the Western Region, Sir GabrielOdeleye Fadahunsi (1901-1986), aneducationist and former chairman ofNigerian Airways Corporation succededSir Adesoji Aderemi (1889-1980), theformer executive of the Nigerian RailwayCorporation and a wealthy Cocoa magnate,who was on the Ile-Ife throne as Ooni formore than 50 years, as governor, while ChiefSamuel Jereton Mariere (1907-1971), theOlorogun of Evwreni, a former executive ofJohn Holts Company, was appointed the firstGovernor of Mid- West Region.

In the Eastern Region, a physician,Dr.Akanu Ibiam (1906-1995) married toYoruba woman, Eudora Olayinka Sasegbonwas appointed Governor while in NorthernNigeria, an educationist and former Waziriof Kanuri Kingdom, Sir Kashim ShettimaIbrahim (1910-1990) was appointedGovernor.

All these were in place until the Armystruck on the night of January 14, 1966.

In taking over power, General ThomasJohnson Umanakwe Aguiyi Ironsi(1924-1966) told the nation later on January 28,1966: ”All Nigerians want an end toRegionalism. Tribal loyalties and activitieswhich promote tribal consciousness andsectional interest must give way to urgenttask of National reconstruction”.

Also in a broadcast on February 21,1966,the same General Ironsi said: “It hasbecome apparent to all Nigerians that rigidadherence to regionalism was the bane ofthe last regime and one of the main factorswhich contributed to its downfall”. He wasreferring to the regime of then Prime

Minister, Sir AbubakarTafawaBalewa(1912-1966). He then went ahead toestablish a Unitary system of Government.He renamed the Federal MilitaryGovernment as National MilitaryGovernment, re-designated the regions asgroup of regions and incorporated all CivilServants, Federal and Regional into singleNational Public Service.

General Ironsi’s critics charged that theUnitary System of Government was a tribalagenda.

In spite of opposition by two of hisappointed Military Governors, Lt. Col.David Akpode Ejoor(80) of Mid-West andLt. Col. Hassan UsmanKatsina (1933-1995)son of Alhaji UsmanNagogo, the Emir ofKatsina (1905-1981)of North, GeneralIronsi went ahead to sign the Unificationdecree 34 on May 24, 1966.

At Ibadan, shortly after the Kadunameeting,where he tried to explain the beautyin his Unitary Government to the traditionalrulers, General Ironsi was toppled frompower and General YakubuCinwa Gowontook over power on July 29, 1966.

In the midst of the confusion followingthe downfall of his regime, General Ironsiwas killed along with his host, Lt. Col.Adekunle Fajuyi (1926-1966), the thenMilitary Governor of the Western Region.

On August 31, 1966, Gowon abolisheddecree 34 and restored the Federal System.On May 27, 1967, General Gowon createdthe twelve states, killed the four Regions andhanded Supreme authority on the CentralGovernment. It has been so since.

In his broadcast to the nation onNovember 30, 1966, he said: “Once weadopt the so called temporary Federation,it would be hard to come together again.This is not the future to which our childrenare entitled to; we have no moral right tocommit future generation of Nigerians tothis disastrous course”.

In creating the twelve states, GeneralGowon said: “The main obstacle to futurestability is the present structural imbalance

in the Nigerian Federation. Even Decree 8or confederation or loose association willnever survive if any section of the country isin a position to hold others into ransom”.

In a nationwide broadcast on October1,1970, marking the country’s tenthindependence anniversary, General Gowonannounced that the Armed Forces haddecided to hand over power to civilians inJanuary 1976.

Four years later on October 1,1974, thesame General Gowon announced in a

broadcast that the armed Forces hadconsidered the 1976 deadline for return tocivilian rule as “unrealistic “. The ArmedForces he said, would not honour that pledgewithout plunging the nation into chaos. “Itwould indeed amount to betrayal of trust toadhere rigidly to that target date”, he said.

General Gowon also failed to keep hispromise on the setting up of the ConstituentAssembly which he promised the nation onJanuary 30, 1966. He paid for it.

While in Kampala,capital of Uganda forthe summit of Organisation of African Unity(OAU),on July 29,1975, he was also toppledfrom power and General Murtala RamatMuhammed (1938-1976), former aide-de-camp of the 1962 administrator of OldWestern Region, Dr. Moses AdekoyejoMajekodunmi (1916-2012), took over.

The first act of General MurtalaMuhammmed was to set up aConstitutional drafting Committee and aconstituent assembly. He then did theunthinkable- he imposed thiswasteful,extravagant and prodigalPresidential System of Government on thenation, without a referendum.

In this part of the world, the governmentand the leaders, get way with everythingbecause of the docility of a conformistsociety.

By the time General Olusegun Obasanjoinaugurated the constituent assembly onOctober 6, 1977, following GeneralMurtala Muhammed brutal murder onFebruary 13, 1976, he warned the assemblyunder the leadership of Justice EgbertUdoUdoma (1917-1998), “that the taskbefore you is to deliberate on the draftconstitution and pass it to the SupremeMilitary Council for promulgation intolaw”.

Both Nduka Onum and I on that daycovered the event for THE PUNCH alongwith Mohammed Haruna of the NewNigeria, Tunde Thompson of the Sketch, andFemi Ogunsanwo of the Daily Times. Ourconclusion at the Press gallery on that daywas that, this is a command. An instruction.

And since then till now, four electedPresidents have operated the PresidentialSystem of Government,yet we are stilldebating a suitable system of Government,best for us.

Some want a total review of thePresidential System of Government,somewant us to go back to Regionalism, somewant a Sovereign National Conference todetermine a better system of government,and some want a return to the Parliamentarysystem of Government. As a people thisPresidential System of Government, willlead us to nowhere.

Continues from page 41

The journey that leads nowhere (2)

Concluded

In this part of theworld, thegovernment and theleaders, get waywith everythingbecause of thedocility of aconformist society

How can hepromise torelease the reportto the public intwo weeks, whenhe is yet tocompose thepanel, the panelis yet to sit andno evidence hasbeen taken?


HOW firm is the Yoruba Unity Forum’s poise

as a Pan-Yoruba platform?That is first the questionarising from the entreaty to itfrom some of the major ethniccum regional groupings inthe country. Few months theEdwin Clark led South-SouthPeoples Assembly knocked onthe door of the YUF forpolitical collaboration.

Last Thursday it was theturn of the ArewaConsultative Forum, ACF toengage the Chief (Mrs.)Hannah Awolowo led YUF.

But the YUF’s claim to apan-Yoruba mandate remainstenacious as ever.

For instance, the body is notrecognised as an acceptableplatform by most of thegovernors in the region.

The only exception could byGovernor Segun Mimiko ofOndo State who incidentallyis the only governor notbelonging to the dominantparty in the region, the ActionCongress of Nigeria, ACN.Mimiko belongs to the LabourParty and has sometimessought to forge alliance withelements in the YUF andrelated groups that areseemingly antagonistic to theACN.

Politicalwarhorses

It is as such not surprisingthat the Chief Mrs HIDAwolowo-led YUF mostlyseems to comprise the oldpolitical warhorses who do notmove along with the currentpolitical mainstream in theSouthwest as mostly dictatedby Asiwaju Bola AhmedTinubu.

Apart from the ACNpolitical stakeholders, anumber of prominenttraditional rulers have also,consistently boycotted themeetings of the forum.With the particular exceptionof the Ooni of Ife, ObaOkuande Sijuade whoattends the meetingsregularly, a number ofequally prominent Yorubatraditional rulers like theOlubadan of IbadanOlugbade Adelana, theAlaafin of Oyo, Oba LamidiAdeyemi, the Awujale ofIjebuland Oba Sikiru KayodeAdetona, Alake of EgbalandOba Aremu Gbadebo and ahost of others have kept theirbacks to the activities of theforum.

So, given the fact that theYUF is easily seen to be a bodylacking political control of theregion many have expressedsurprise at the approachtowards it by the ArewaConsultative Forum, ACF.

BY DAUD OLATUNJI

,

,

Sources within the YUFreveal that the group is poised

to foster good relationshipwith other ethnic groupings

in the country towardsachieving a high profile rolefor the group ahead of the2015 election.

How the ACF and the YUFcan mutually help themselveswas alleged to be the reasonfor last Thursday’s landmarkmeeting. The ACF, it isbelieved, is desperate to winthe support of the Southwestfor its agitation of power shiftto the north in 2015. The YUFwould not mind helping theACF, if only it could also boostits profile in the polity.

As part of their strategies,the two groups held a-twohour closed door meeting atthe Ikenne-Remo, Ogun Statehome of Awolowos.

Traditionalrulers

Present at the meeting werethe Yeye Oodua, Chief (Mrs.)HID Awolowo, representativeof the Ooni of Ife, ObaOkunade Sijuade, sometraditional rulers from theSouth West and delegatesrepresenting the ACF andYUF.The YUF delegation wasled by Rt. Rev. EmmanuelGbonigi while that of the ACFwas led by Alhaji AlikoMohammed, the nationalchairman of the ACF.

Before the meeting enteredinto closed door, Mrs.Awolowo in a welcomeaddress explained that thesole purpose of the meetingwas to proffer solutions to theproblems facing Nigeria.She expressed optimism thatthe outcome would bebeneficial to all Nigerians.Mrs. Awolowo noted that themeeting was first of its kindfeaturing the joint politicalleadership of the entire Northas embodied in the ACF andits counterpart in the SouthWest as embodied in the YUF.According to her, the meetingis timely and historical, themeeting will signal a newpage in the history of inter-

*Tinubu: ACN National Leader

*Gbonigi: Led the YUF delegation

*Awolowo: Received the Arewa delegation

Arewa, Yoruba romance: How long will it last?How durable would be the new found romance between the ArewaConsultative Forum, ACF and the Yoruba Unity Forum, YUF? Theirrelationship is one that has left many open-mouthed.

ethnic harmony andcooperation in Nigeria .Among the ACF delegateswere the former Inspector-General of Police, AlhajiIbrahim Coomassie, SenatorJoseph Waku, formerAmbassador to Morocco ,Ladan Shuni, former MilitaryGovernor of Katsina andPlateau States , Major-General Lawrence Onoja andformer ElectoralCommissioner, Bayelsa State, Alhaji Ibrahim Mohammed.Others included AmbassadorIbrahim Mai-Sule, Brigadier-General M.A. Umar, SenatorAbubakar Girei, BitrusGwadah, Mallam BukarZarma, Mr. Anthony Sani,Hon. Musa Tanko Abari,Alhaji Abubakar HusainiMoriki, Engr. AbubakarUmar, Col. M.A. Audu (rtd),Col. Musa Shehu (rtd) andFati Ibrahim.

Members of YUF presentwere Senator Anthony

Adefuye, Senator FemiOkurounmu, Chief (Mrs)Kofoworola Bucknor-Akerele,Chief Gani Oguntoyinbo, Dr.Kunle Olajide, PrincessFunmilayo Sangodoyin, ChiefTokunbo Ajasin, High ChiefAbiola Ogundokun, DrFredick Fasehun, Hon.Omosanya Solaja, Prof. OpeAdekunle, AmbassadorTokunbo Awolowo-Dosunmuand Dr. Abdul-LateefOmowunmi.

At the end of the meeting, itwas resolved that a nationaldialogue was desirable for thecountry to move forward.In a communiqué issued atthe end of the meeting, thetwo organisations lamentedthe pervasive corruption, badgovernance and insecurity,saying all the ills are traceableto bad leadership.They also urged Nigerians tode-emphasise ethnicity,religion and issues that dividethe country “ whileemphasising issues that bindus together as a nation.”

It is as such not surprising thatthe Chief Mrs HID Awolowo-led YUF mostly seems tocomprise the old politicalwarhorses who do not movealong with the current politicalmainstream in the Southwest asmostly dictated by Asiwaju BolaAhmed Tinubu

52—VANGUARD, MONDAY, DECEMBER 17, 2012

Why social media is on the upsurge — ExpertBY UDUMA KALU

THE rave of the moment is the social me-

dia. Since it made its de-but, the world has neverbeen the same. For goodor ill, it has come to stayand is already taking overthe way man behaves.

Only last October, a Cy-ber Cafe in Nigeria, Cham-sCity Digital Mall, a pop-ular internet cafe located inLagos and Abuja, becamethe current holder of Guin-ness records for the World’sLargest Cyber Cafe afterdue verification by therecord keeping body. Thecyber cafe is said to have atotal of 1027 computer ter-minals by Guinness BookOf World’s Records.

However, in a recentlecture by a social mediaexpert, Mr. Monday Ash-ibuogwu at the Associationof Nigerian Authors (ANA)conference, in Uyo, AkwaIbom state, themed ‘Liter-ature, National Securityand the Social Media’, thecommunication expert toldwriters about the place ofthe social media in Nige-ria today and why theyshould embrace it.

Social mediaplatforms

“The developed concept,Social media platforms,will provide integrated ad-vertising and partnershipopportunities to give theauthor the desired mile-age,” he said.

From statics, Ashibuog-wu said there are 7.9m in-ternet users daily, 65.5%of them active daily while66 million Nigerians haveaccess to the internet .

He noted that 70% of Ni-gerians access the internetthrough their phones , 90%of them do so through theirNokia phones, 7.9m Nige-rians have Facebook ac-counts , 144,983 companiesfrom Nigeria have Face-book pages. 70% of themare SMEs . The averageNigerian with a Twitter ac-count has at least 50 follow-ers and follows at least 100people. Some of the socialmedia he cited were Face-book, Youtube, Myspace ,Twitter, Badoo, Linkedin,Vimeo, Google +, Word-press etc.

He explained that 40 %

of accounts and 8% of mes-sages on social mediasites are spam . 91% ofonline adults use socialmedia regularly . YouTubeusers watch more than 3billion hours of video permonth . There are moredevices connected to theInternet than there arepeople on Earth . 24% ofpeople have missed wit-nessing important mo-ments because they aretoo busy trying to writeabout them on social net-works . 83% of people be-lieve platforms like Twit-ter and Facebook helpthem make new friends.25% of people believe so-cial networks have boost-ed their confidence . 24%of Americans and 28% ofBrits have admitted to ly-ing or exaggerating on asocial network about what

they have done and/orwho they have met . 40%of people spend moretime socializing onlinethan they do face-to-face.

He said every minute ofthe day: 100,000 tweets aresent , 684,478 pieces ofcontent are shared on Fa-cebook . 2 million search

queries are made on goo-gle . 48 hours of video areuploaded to YouTube .47,000 apps are down-

loaded from the App Store. 3,600 photos are sharedon Instagram . 571 web-sites are created .$272,000 is spent by con-sumers online.

General social mediaand Internet stats : Ash-ibuogwu said internet us-ers spend 22.5% of theironline time social network-ing . And that the web con-tains over 8 billion pages ,and over 2.27 billion peo-ple online (doubled since2007) . 70% of adult socialnetworkers shop online .53% of active adult socialnetworkers follow a brand. 80% of active internet us-ers visit social networks andblogs .Almost 8 new peo-ple come onto the internetevery second . 79% of on-line shoppers spend 50% oftheir online shopping timeresearching products .

Nigeria, prepare to go digital, says renowedmedia scholar, Mosco

BY EBERE AHANIHU IN CANADA

RECENTLY the management ofNewsweek said the magazine will

go digital from next year. Do you thinkthat is the right way to go?

It is not good for its readers. I under-stand why they are eliminating the printedition. They are losing money. The majorproblem is that there is a decline in thereadership of all newsweekly magazines.People now have access to news as soonas it happens. With the availability of on-

line information, people have less need toread a summary of the news once a week.What is the implication for the future ofprint publications, especially to those in Ni-geria?

I do not believe that the loss of a news weeklymagazine is significant. The point is that peo-ple are reading news magazines less. Thegeneral decline of print publications will be aserious issue in the developing world becausepeople have less access to on-line forms ofinformation. Fewer people have access to in-formation on the internet and because people

sition?That is a big question. It will require a long

discussion. The companies that dominated theprint world are actually the same companiesthat are dominating the digital world. Therewill be changes. There will be opportunities forpeople who have access to digital resources tocreate their own website, make use of YouTubeand thereby create alternatives to major newsproducers.

The hardware, software and network infra-structure of these technologies are mainly pro-duced in West. Do people have any reason tofear that the situation may lead to a new formof dependency?

It will create new forms of dependency. But itis possible to overcome, particularly if ThirdWorld countries can come together to form theirown news organisations. What is required isagreement among Third World news organi-sations to produce relevant news and informa-tion in digital form. Al Jazeera is a good exam-ple. It produces news for Third World countriesin multiple forms, including digital and televi-sion.

People living on the equivalent of a dollar aday have a lot of other needs to be met firstbefore internet access. For these people, ac-cess to digital news will be a tall order. What isthe implication for the growth of democracy?

The elite will have access to the internet –that is the rich and the powerful. Therefore, theshift to dependency on digital resources meansa potential for decline in democracy. People needinformation in order to build democracy. If theycannot afford access to the information, it will bemuch more difficult to create democracy.In other words, going digital may work againstthe growth of democracy in developing coun-tries?

*Ahanihu is a PhD student at Carleton Uni-versity’s School of Journalism and Communi-cation. His area of interest is ICT4D.•Media scholar, Ahanihu and Mosco

•Nigerians in a cyber cafe

TINA Brown, editor-in-chief of Newsweek raised quite some dust when sheannounced that the iconic magazine, first published in 1933, was going all-digitalbeginning from January next year. A Pew Research Centre study released inSeptember found that 39 percent of Americans now get their news from onlinesources. This change in readership is reflecting in the sales of Newsweek. In 2007the magazine sold over 3 million copies, but statistics for 2011 show that this figurefell by half to 1.5 million copies. “In our judgment,” Brown said, “we have reacheda tipping point at which we can most efficiently and effectively reach our readers inall-digital format.” Whether this is the shape of things to come in the industryremains to be seen. How will this development play out in Nigeria and other ThirdWorld countries? International media scholar, Dr. Vincent Mosco, ProfessorEmeritus of Queen’s University, Canada, and the author of ‘The Digital Sublime’and ‘The Political Economy of Communication’ explains.

in the developing world rely on print, theywill now have less access to news andinformation.

If it is true that the medium is the mes-sage, what will change with the transi-tion from print to digital?

I do not believe that the medium is themessage. The most important point is thatas news moves to the digital world, peo-ple in the developing world need to havethe tools to access information. In the ab-sence of tools, there will be a growing gapbetween the rich and the poor in knowl-edge about the world.

What kind of actors will be thrown upin Third World countries with this tran-

CMYK


CMYK


Continues from BP

league.“The way they run our

league is not helpingus”, Keshi lamented fewdays ago.

“The Nations Cup is inJanuary and our leagueis off. Our players in thelocal league need to beplaying but they are not.Making the nationalteam strong concernsmany departments – theplayers, the coaches, theFA, the League etc. It isnot just about thecoaches. Let it be onrecord that our leaguehas not helped us but wewill do our job to thebest of our ability. Wewill do a good job for theNations Cup and I’mhopeful that we willhave good results.”

Local Eagles will starttraining today in Abuja.Norway-based FegorOgude will join them. Infew days time Keshi willrelease the list of theforeign-based playersfor the camping inPortugal from where theywill fly to South Africa.

“The condition of thelocal players will makeus concentrate onfitness training now,”one of the coaches saidyesterday adding “theleague is not on and weknow that their physical

Eagles coaches

AYC

points to the fact thatNigeria will have awonderful outing due tohis side’s quality.

“All the teams that willbe coming for thetournament are goodbecause all of us have toscale past some countriesbefore reaching thisstage.

“Every country haveequal opportunity to winthe competition but wehave a quality team thatshould be able to holdtheir own against allother teams. Some of myplayers are familiar withthe tournament and Iknow this will give ussome edge.

The competition holdsfrom March 16-30 inRabat and Casablanca.

condition will be suspectnow.”

The Baribote LeagueBoard was sacked lastweek and it is hoped thatincoming board willconsider internationalfootball calendar beforescheduling the Nigerianleague.

Continues from BP

Paulo Guerrero scoredthe only goal of the gamewith a header in the 69thminute and theEuropean championsfinished the game with10 men after Gary Cahillwas sent off for a kick onEmerson.

Fernando Torres had aheader ruled out foroffside in stoppage timeand the Brazilianscelebrated in style infront of the thousands offans who travelled tosupport them in Japan.

Chelsea’s SouthAmericans took the defeathard. Ramires and DavidLuiz were in tears andhad to be consoled byinterim manager RafaBenitez at the finalwhistle.

For the Blues, this is afourth possible trophywhich has alreadyescaped them this

End of the world

Marc Ingla.That contract is heavily

incentivised with his pay,after bonuses, in anygiven seasonautomatically becominghis basic pay for thefollowing season.

President Sandro Rosellis keen to extend thatdeal by two years toensure he stays atBarcelona beforefulfilling his ambition ofa swansong in Argentinabefore he retires.

The player’s net take-home pay before bonusesis estimated at £9m year,behind Paris Saint-Germain striker ZlatanIbrahimovic’s £12m andSamuel Eto’o, who earns£16m at Anzhi

Messi hits jackpot!season, after the FACommunity Shield, theUEFA Super Cup and theChampions League.

For Benitez it was asecond defeat in his thirdClub World Cup final butfew can begrudgeCorinthians their title ortheir extravagantcelebrations.

They performed withpower and passion, theirsupport was incredibleand goalkeeper Cassiomade a series ofimportant saves, startingin the 38th minute, whenFrank Lampard’s visionand long-range passingability unlocked theBrazilian defence.

Lampard’s long, earlypass was well taken bythe Spaniard. His shotwas tame and easilysmothered byCorinthians goalkeeperbut the flash gave theLondoners somemomentum.

Makhachkala.Although his bonuses,

as well as sponsorship,invariably take Messipast those players, thenew deal could see hisbasic pay leave him clearof the field.

It would also see himpull away from CristianoRonaldo’s estimated £9mannual earnings beforebonuses. That will annoyRonaldo’s camp, whohave been frustrated byReal Madrid’s failure tostart talks over a new dealfor the Portugal forward.

The Chelsea owner willoffer the Colombia strikera five-year, £200,000-a-week contract but hisdream of landing theworld’s most wanted No9 could be thwarted byReal Madrid.

Continues from BP

Continues from BP

THE Confederationof African Athletics

(CAA) yesterdaydescribed the WarriStadium as a first classsporting facility goodenough to host of the 1st

Africa YouthChampionships slated fornext year.

The six-man delegationfrom the CAA whichinspected the WarriStadium yesterdayexpressed theirsatisfaction with what theDelta State Governmentwas offering to hostAfrican youths in the city.

Secretary General ofCAA, Lamine Faty, wholed the team thatincluded; CAA’s TechnicalDirector, MohamedAziz DAOUDA ofM o r o c c o ,

The service of Songs and Wake-Keep for Late Sylva Eleanya, Vanguard SeniorPhoto Journalist took place at his Ejigbo residence in Lagos weekend. Pictureshows 3rd left Mrs Chinyere Eleanya, Widow and her Children during theservice. Photo: Biodun Ogunleye

CAA approves Warri Stadiumfor African Athletics

Vivian GUNGARAM( M a u r i t i u s ) ,Théophile MONTCHO(Benin) andMrs Fatou SISSOKO(Senegal), said that theywere certain that the firstedition would holdwithout any hitches.

Before going to pay acourtesy visit to GovernorEmmanuel Uduaghanyesterday, the CAAdelegation also inspected

four designated hotels tobe used during thecompetition proper inApril next year.

“They also checkedmedical facilities in Shelland Chevron that thestate government havealso slated to use nextyear. They were satisfiedwith what they saw,”observed a top AFNofficial last night.

AMIR Khan returnedto winning ways

after two tough defeatswith a comprehensive10th round stoppage ofpreviously unbeatenAmerican Carlos Molinain a light-welterweightcontest on Saturday.

Khan (27-3, 19 KOs)dominated every roundand after telling Molinahe was close to stoppingthe bout after the ninth,referee Jack Reiss wavedoff the fight at the end ofthe 10th following anotherone-sided round.

Before the bout, theBolton fighter suggestedhe may adopt a moreconservative style undernew trainer Virgil Hunterafter an overly aggressiveapproach led to astunning knockout at the

Khan stops Molinahands of AmericanDanny Garcia in July.

However, it wasbusiness as usual at theMemorial Sports Arenafor the Olympic silvermedallist and formerworld champion from theopening bell, as Khanpeppered Molina (17-1-1, 7 KOs) with histrademark blisteringcombinations.

Occasionally, Khanlingered too long afterlanding a flurry ofpunches and Molina wasable to land a hardcounter punch but theBriton shook offeverything his opponentthrew at him and wentstraight back to work.

MARIO Balotellihas edged

himself closer to theManchester City exitdoor after deciding totake the club to a tribunalin a bid to overturn a£340,000 fine.

The controversialItalian striker was dockedtwo weeks wages after astring of breaches ofdiscipline. And Balotelliwill appear before anindependent two-manpanel in London onWednesday.

The 22-year-old insists

Balotelli takes City to tribunalthe fine was undeservedand is prepared to riskpaying the five-figurecost of the hearing shouldhe lose.

Having alreadyappealed unsuccessfullyto the club, Balotelli felt

he had no option but totake further action.

But his latest move islikely to alienate himeven further at the EtihadStadium with even long-time supporter RobertoMancini beginning tohave doubts.

•Malboum, CAApresident

Printed and Published by VANGUARD MEDIA LIMITED, Vanguard Avenue, Kirikiri Canal, P.M.B.1007, Apapa. Phone: Newsroom: 018773962. Deputy Editor: 01-8944295. Advert Dept: 01-7924470;Hotline: 01-8737028; Abuja: 09-2341102, 09-2342704. E-mail: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]. Advert:[email protected]

Website: www.vanguardngr.com (ISSN 0794-652X) Editor: MIDENO BAYAGBON. Phone: 01-7742861, All correspondence to P.M.B. 1007, Apapa Lagos.

e-mail: [email protected]

How to Play Sudoku THE VIGILANTE

Place a number (1-9) in each blank cell. (No line canhave two of the same number).

Each row (nine lines from left to right), column, (alsonine lines from top to bottom) and 3 X 3 block within abold block (nine blocks) contains number from 1through 9. This means that no number can appear twicein any block, column or row.

No mathematics is involved – no adding, subtraction, divisionor multiplication, just plain logic and your imagination.

YESTERDAY'S ANSWERSYESTERDAY'S ANSWERSYESTERDAY'S ANSWERSYESTERDAY'S ANSWERSYESTERDAY'S ANSWERS

Vanguard, MONDAY, DECEMBER 17, 2012

TODAY'S PUZZLETODAY'S PUZZLETODAY'S PUZZLETODAY'S PUZZLETODAY'S PUZZLE

YESTERDAY'S SOLUTIONS

Across3 Shaft (5)9 Fame (6)10 Sooner (6)11 Composition (5)12 Land measure (4)15 Decorate (4)17 Careful (7)20 Enemy (3)21 Keen (5)23 Diplomacy (4)25 Profound (4)26 Hard (5)28 Weep (3)30 Unlucky (7)33 Soon (4)35 Jot (4)36 Wanderer (5)38 Iniquitous (6)39 Ran (6)40 Oar (5)

Down1 Best part (5)2 Scorn (5)3 Consumed (3)4 Save (6)5 Spoken (4)6 Route (3)7 Main (5)8 Snapped (5)13 Tank (7)14 Decree (5)16 Fertiliser (7)18 Guffaw (5)19 Marry (3)22 Kingdom (5)24 Plaything (3)27 Chance (6)28 Reason (5)29 Youthful (5)31 Rowing crew (5)32 Shabby (5)34 Lounge (4)36 Gist (3)37 Owing (3)

Across: 1, Absorb 5, Hassle 9, Altar 10, Sortie11, Smooth 12, Nasty 14, Slum 17, Key 18,Kill 20, Satin 22, Endue 23, Genuine 24,Sight 26, Davit 29, Knit 30, Pad 32, Dado 33,Hared 35, Tablet 36, Moving 37, Rebut 38,Hatter 39, Recede

Down: 1, Assess 2, Sprout 3, Rain 4, Bleak 5,Hasty 6, Army 7, Stolid 8, Exhale 13, Secular15, Latin 16, Might 18, Knead 19, Lucid 21,Net 22, End 24, Sketch 25, Gibbet 27, Valise28, Tongue 30, Pater 31, Demur 33, Here 34,Dote

Continues on Page 55 Continues on Page 55

Eagles coaches frownat Nigerian League

Messi hits jackpot!•Now world’s highest paid player

1 Lionel Messi(Barcelona) £27.5m2 David Beckham (Freeagent) £26.2m3 Cristiano Ronaldo (RealMadrid) £24.3m4 S amuel Eto’o (AnzhiMakhachkala) £19.4m5 Wayne Rooney(Manchester United)£17.2m6 Zlatan Ibrahimovic(Paris St Germain) £16m7 S ergio Aguero(Manchester City)£15.7m8 Yaya Toure(Manchester City)£14.7m9 Fernando Torres(Chelsea) £13.9m10 Kaka (Real Madrid)£12.9m

The top 10richest players

LIONEL Messi isready to sign for life

at Barcelona with a dealthat would give him thehighest club wages of anyfootballer in Europe’s topleagues.

The player ’s father,Jorge, has already openednegotiations with theCatalan club overextending his currentcontract, meaning he willstay at Barcelona until heis at least 31.

The deal is expected tobe structured so that itincreases yearly, rising to£12.5million a year netbefore bonuses. Messi,

RICHEST 'N' BEST: Messi

25, signed his last bigcontract in the 2009-10season with then sportingdirector Txiki Begiristainand his vice-president

SUPER Eaglesplayers started

arriving at their Abujacamp yesterday for theNations Cup preparationin South Africa nextmonth.

But the coaches havefrowned at the country’sfootball calendar whichrested the league at thetime it should have beenon to put the local playersin good shape for theNations Cup. This is alsoin contrast with theleagues in othercountries. It is of seriousconcern to Stephen Keshiand his crew becausesome key players in theteam that they arebuilding play in the local

•Players hitcamp forNations CupBY ONOCHIEANIBEZE

CHELSEA’S bid toconquer the world

failed at the final hurdlein Yokohama andCorinthians became thefirst South Americanworld champions for sixyears.


NIGERIA’S coachJohn Obuh is

confident of qualifying forthe World Cup by scalingthe group stage of the

AYC: Nigeria has edge over others – Obuh2013 African YouthChampionship inAlgeria.

The Flying Eagles willbattle Mali, Gabon and

DR Congo in thetournament and Obuhbelieves that thecomposition of his team


TAKE IT: Molina lands a sucker punch on 'Khans face before his defeat. Khanwon despite the devastating blow.

CMYK

Yakowa, Azazi's last moments

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Transcript of Yakowa, Azazi's last moments