Nigeria Content Online

Operatives of the Economic and
Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) yesterday arrested the former
minister of works and housing, Hassan Lawal, in his home in Asokoro,
Abuja, in connection with fraudulent activities currently pegged at
over N50 billion.

An operative of the anti-graft agency
told NEXT that the commission is currently carrying out the second
phase of investigation into the fraudulent activities of the former
minister who served in two different offices between 2004 and 2010.

“There are currently two different
phases of investigations against this man. One has been on-going for
some time now, the second one has just begun. Most of the
investigations border on fraudulent award of contracts to unregistered
companies. Most of the contracts had to do with road contracts and the
sale of federal government houses,” a source in the EFCC, who pleaded
anonymity said in Abuja.

The spokesman of the anti-graft agency , Femi Babafemi, says that
Mr.Lawal is currently in the custody of the commission, however he
declined to speak on what possible date the accused will be arraigned.
Our source however revealed that the commission is currently working to
uncover and arrest other persons who might have collaborated with the
former minister. The charges against the former minister are high
degree of massive fraud, abuse of office, abuse of government laid down
policy on due process and award of contracts to unregistered
companies’.Mr. Lawal served as the Minister of Labour and Productivity
from 2004 to 2007. He then served as the Minister for Works and Housing
from 2008 to 2010.

The governor of the
Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, yesterday
underscored the importance of political will by leaders of member
countries of the West African Monetary Zone (WAMZ), to realise the
objectives of the regional economic integration.

The governor, who
was speaking at the opening of the 24th meeting of the WAMZ committee
of Central Bank governors in Abuja, said the delays in the take off of
a new commencement date for the monetary union is attributed to the
lack of political will to push the process of integration to a logical
conclusion.

The objectives for
the WAMZ initiative include an attempt by member nations towards
maintenance of stable prices of goods and services; establishment of
sound public finances and monetary conditions; as well as maintenance
of stable balance of payments for member states, with the ultimate goal
of creating a monetary union.

Mr. Sanusi said the
commencement of the monetary union, which was initially set for 2003,
had to be extended thrice as a result of the inability of member
countries to attain the convergence level required for the introduction
of the common currency.

Though a new
commencement date for the monetary union of on or before January 1,
2015 was adopted by the heads of states and governments of the WAMZ at
its summit in Abuja, on June 22, 2009, the CBN boss said no significant
progress has been made towards realising it, as most member countries
have not been able to meet stipulated criteria.

He pointed out that
the meeting would provide the opportunity to review the progress on the
WAMZ programmes and chart the way forward.

The meeting is
expected to consider the recommendations of the 30th meeting of the
technical committee of the WAMZ last Tuesday, which reviewed the
developments and policy responses required to satisfy the stipulated
convergence criteria.

A review of the
impact of the global economic recovery indicated that the impressive
growth in emerging Asian economies, particularly China, was stalled in
the wake of the Euro zone debt crisis as well as the waning impact of
the huge monetary and fiscal stimulus packages implemented by many
countries.

He said the
resultant effect on the economic performance in WAMZ was that overall
compliance with the macro-economic convergence criteria deteriorated,
with most member countries missing the criteria on single-digit
inflation rate and fiscal deficit, excluding grants.

“Only Liberia met
all four primary criteria, while The Gambia, Ghana, and Nigeria met
three primary criteria each. Sierra Leone met one criterion during the
period,” Mr. Sanusi said.

The four primary
criteria include achieving economic performance in WAMZ, with real
Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth at an average of 7.2 per cent;
easing inflationary pressures through maintenance of stability in
commodity prices; improvement in domestic food production; and building
a strong gross external reserve.

Noting some limited progress recorded through the ongoing upgrading
of the payments systems and progress in the integration of financial
markets, Mr. Sanusi said some challenges remain to be resolved with
public finances, trade and financial sector development, to prepare
towards the launch of the single currency.

Automobile spare parts dealers at the Dilimi market in Jos have announced their relocation to Jos-North shopping complex in the wake of the recurrent crisis in the state.

Mr Anselem Ebosie, Chairman, Jos-North Automobile Spare Parts Association (JASPA), told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Thursday in Jos that the relocation was necessitated by incessant attacks at their former base.

He said, ‘‘the crisis at Dilimi has led to the loss of so many lives. The market is on the street, and we are always victims of the riots. That made it difficult for us to operate, the recent killing of many of our members around the market was the last straw.”

Mr Ebosie said the traders will not return to Delimi, he however listed challenges facing them at the new market, including the absence of toilet facilities and the lack of adequate security. He appealed to Jos North local government authority and managers of the market to provide the facilities to ensure a more conducive atmosphere for business.

He also emphasised the need for a police post in the market to avoid any breakdown of law, and secure the lives and property of traders. He advised the traders to be peaceful and law abiding, and commended the Plateau and Federal governments for their efforts toward the restoration of peace in the state.

The Federal High
Court, Ibadan, has fixed Monday, February 14, for hearing on an
application for sanction against Governor Adebayo Alao-Akala of Oyo
State, for alleged contempt of court. It has also fixed the same day
for the hearing on his prayer to vacate the court order that stopped
the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) from recognising
him as the governorship candidate of the People’s Democratic Party
(PDP) for the 2011 election.

Represented by
Richard Akinjide, former Attorney-General and Minister of justice, the
governor requested the court to reverse its earlier order which had
resulted to the removal of his name from the list of contenders for the
April poll.

However, proceeding
at the court could not effectively progress on Thursday when an
application seeking court’s punitive measure against the governor was
to be heard.

Oluwarotimi
Akeredolu, former president of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) and
lead counsel to the aggrieved members of the PDP, who got injunction
against the candidacy of the governor, wanted the court to commit Mr
Alao-Akala to prison for describing the order as ‘an height of
frivolity’.

For hours, lawyers
only argued forth and back without progress. The crisis was spurred by
Mr Akinjide’s inability to file a counter-application to the prayer
against his client. He told the court that he was only served with
copies of Mr Akeredolu’s application late Wednesday, but also prayed
the court to hear the two matters together for speedy delivery.

Lateef Fagbemi,
counsel to Dejo Afolabi, state chairman of the PDP, who was also joined
in the suits, equally told the court that he got the application late
Wednesday.

Despite their
claims of late service, Justice Johnson Shakarho, said that the counsel
should have asked the court for time to study and react to the content
of the application.

He expressed
disappointment with Mr Akinjide, Mr Fagbemi, and PDP counsel for
allowing Mr Akeredolu to move his motion for committal to prison
against Mr Akala when they knew he could rule against them.

Effort by Mr
Fagbemi to make the judge see the matter as special fell on deaf hear
as Mr Shakarho insisted that he would work at his own pace, saying no
case is more important than others.

After much argument
and counter argument, the court adjourned till Monday for the hearing
on the contempt and vacation of order, but told counsel that the case
is not likely to be completed e next week.

Panic in the state

Schools closed
abruptly in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, on Thursday, when parents
and guardians rushed to pick their wards over rumour of Mr Alao-Akala’s
attempt to use children for sacrifice to achieve his second term
ambition as the state governor.

Another version of
the story alleges that the governor was distributing indomie noodles to
school children. A third version of the story said some people died
after eating from bean cakes distributed by the governor’s men.
Perpetrators of the rumour say the governor needed a certain number of
people to use for rituals for his mission, and that anyone who eats the
distributed items will end up on the ritual list. The rumour which was
all over Ibadan had created panic among the people, this made the
government to issue a statement to calm the situation.

In a statement to
douse the rumour, Dotun Oyelade, special adviser to the governor on
public communications, described the rumour as shocking. “Government is
shocked that people can go to any length to blackmail and cause
confusion in order to gain political advantage. Our people just want to
fend for their daily bread without such deliberate harassment.

“Such lies are
wicked because Oyo State is peaceful and our poor parents and their
wards and children are being unnecessarily traumatised by those few who
have volunteered to work for reckless and desperate politicians.

We strongly advise
our people to go about their normal duties and discountenance these
latest antics by political desperados and their hirelings. It is the
handiwork of politicians who have failed in their bids for political
relevance,” he said.

The governor’s
campaign team, in a press briefing, also challenged the peddlers of the
rumour to come out and show them where the bean cake was served or any
household where an individual died on account of the rumour.

Governor Rauf Aregbesola of Osun State has set up a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to investigate human rights abuses and public discontent in the state from June 1, 2003 till date.

A statement signed by Semiu Okanlawon, the state’s Director of Bureau of Communications and Strategy, explained that the Commission was set up under Section 2(1) of the Commission of Inquiry Law, Cap 29, Laws of Osun State 2002.

The Commission has one month to complete its assignment with Samson Uwaifo, a retired Supreme Court justice as chairman. Other members are Yunus Ustaz-Usman Ayo Atsenuwa, Funmi Falana, Hakeem Yusuff,

Bamidele Aturu, and Waheed Lawal. Nurudeen Ogbara will serve as the secretary of the Commission.

Mr. Okanlawon said that the inquiry was to facilitate redress, promote reconciliation, and prevent possible future re-occurrence of such human rights abuses. He said the term of reference of the commission include identifying the nature of the discontent in the state, and causes of human right violation.

Other terms of reference include identification of person or persons, authorities, institutions or organisations which may be held accountable for such acts and determine the motives for the violations or abuses, the victims and circumstances thereof and the effect on such victims and the society generally of the atrocities.

The commission, Mr Okanlawon said, would also examine and advise on the ways and means of bringing peace, amity and concord among all concerned. The Commission which will hold its public hearings at the State High Court in Osogbo, the state capital, or such other places as it may determine will commence its inquiry on February 15 and submit its report on or before March 30.

He asked members of the public to forward their memoranda to the commission.

Following the controversies and doubts
that have trailed the operational profile of men of the Special Task
Force on peace keeping in Jos, the team is now to be changed every
three months, Plateau State governor, Jonah David Jang said on Thursday.

Speaking at the new
governor’s lodge and office, Jishe when he received the national
leadership of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) who paid a
commiserating visit on him. Mr Jang explained that the decision was
made during a special emergency meeting with Vice-President, Namadi
Sambo.

The emergency
meeting with Mr Sambo last week in Abuja, had the three governors of
Plateau, Bauchi, and Borno states receiving “marching orders” to halt
the security drift in their states and ensure a peaceful atmosphere as
the April elections approach.

According to Mr
Jang, his administration is determined to restore peace in the state.
Thus, he said, it is evolving a holistic programme to engage the
various demographic categories of the state’s rural and urban
population so as to divert their energies to creative and more
constructive engagements.

He said this
programme includes ventilating the employment atmosphere in the state
so as to keep the youth gainfully employed and make them contributors
to the national gross domestic product.

Mr Jang revealed
that already, the government has purchased tricycles to be given out to
youth on a hire purchase basis, an arrangement, which he said was
conceived to phase out motor cycle transportation in the state because
of the latter’s vulnerability to harbouring miscreants that have been
accused of being accomplices in the perpetration of sectarian crisis in
the state.

Jonathan’s effort

In his remarks to
the CAN leadership led by its national president, Ayo Oritsejafor, Mr
Jang said that President Goodluck Jonathan has already approved a
community policing proposal submitted to him by the Plateau State
government.

By that
arrangement, he said, apart from Operation Rainbow which is an ad hoc
rapid response arm of the STF, the police are to train a special group
of vigilante youth to be kitted by the state for effective
village-to-village and cross-border monitoring.

Responding, Mr
Oritsejafor, who also had the General overseer of the Redeemed Church
of God, Enoch Adeboye on his entourage, said what has been happening in
Plateau State of recent is most unfortunate, and that CAN had to put
its national conference in Abuja on hold to enable the leadership visit
Jos because of the impact of these negative developments on Plateau
State and the entire nation.

Mr Oritsejafor expressed hope that the visit will mark the end of
the recurrent crises in Jos, and also challenged the Federal Government
to muster the will to uncover and punish those behind the crisis and
bring to an end what is fast turning into a culture of madness and
cannibalism.

Except government provides adequate
infrastructural framework, the nation may not get the best out of the
educational system as even the private institutions may not operate
optimally.

This was the view of Margee Ensign,
president of American University of Nigeria, who briefed journalists
yesterday in Abuja before the commencement of the institutions board of
trustee meeting.

She said the key challenge facing the
educational institutions in Nigeria is lack of adequate infrastructure.
This contributes to not just the high cost of education in the country,
but also to the falling standard of education.

“Nigerian government should provide the
framework for operation of private schools in the country. Technology
is a challenge here and it affects the system, as what obtains around
the world is the use of latest technological concepts in disseminating
knowledge among students.

“This bears on the academic prospects in Nigeria,” she said.

She also said that the Nigerian system
of education often focuses more on the constraints rather than
proffering solutions to existing challenges.

The American University of Nigeria,
according to her, is bracing for the challenges, as the institution is
not only fully served but ready to release bandwidth to the community
in which it is located.

“These measures to boost the
technological capacity of the school would soon see the linking of
optic fibre cables to the Yola campus of the institution,” she
disclosed.

Ms. Ensign added that the school will
embark on research and development activities that will bring solution
to the myriad of problems in the Nigerian eceonomy, as part of the
institution’s corporate social responsibility.

The institution’s president also
disclosed that some new programmes have been introduced in the school
and that emphasis is being placed on entrepreneurship development. “We
started entrepreneurship studies since 2006 because we want to raise
graduates that create jobs,” she added.

She emphasised the need for
entrepreneurship education in the Nigerian university system, noting
that part of the success stories of foreign based universities is their
ability to incorporate entrepreneurship skills into their learning
system.

The American University of Nigeria is
said to be a non-profit making organisation, even as the fees it
charges run into millions. The school said it is so because the board
of directors is not making profit or enriching itself, as it hopes to
break even in the next five years.

The school is said not to have any
links with the American government in terms of ownership; it is a
privately owned university that has adopted the American style of
education.

Meanwhile, four personalities, William
Bertrand, Eamon Kelly, Laurence Day, and Earl Kellogg have joined the
board of trustees of the university, in a fresh move to shore up the
institution’s capacity internationally.

Beyond the fresh entrants, the board already parades an array of
prominent personalities like Mike Adenuga, Pat Utomi, Peter Okocha,
Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Bamanga Tukur, among others.