Nigeria Content Online

The uprisings in the Tunisia and Egypt ousting the sit tight presidents have sparked a revolution across the Middle East.

In Algeria

Protesters defied a
police ban and protested in Algiers, but thousands of riot police
blocked a planned march through the city. Opposition groups said on
Sunday they would follow up the protest they held this weekend by
calling a demonstration in the capital every Saturday until the
government is changed.

Foreign minister
Mourad Medelci said that the 19-year-old state of emergency in Algeria
will end within days, he brushed off concerns that the recent protests
in the country could escalate as it did in Tunisia and Egypt, suggesting
that though the government may be willing to make concessions, the
decision to change the government lies with the president who will
assess the possibility and make adjustments as he had done in the past.

In Palestine

The cabinet
resigned on Monday, in an apparent attempt by President Mahmoud Abbas to
demonstrate political reform in the wake of the popular uprising in
Egypt. The shake-up could bolster the standing of President Mahmoud
Abbas among Palestinians who are currently dissatisfied with the
workings of the cabinet as many regard them as dysfunctional. The
reshuffle had been demanded by Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, who has
spearheaded efforts to create institutions for a Palestinian state.

Fayyad will retain
his post and select new ministers, officials said. Although several
anti-Abbas protests erupted in the West Bank after the upheaval began in
Egypt on January 25, he has not faced large-scale demonstrations in the
territory, whose economy has strengthened in recent years.

In Bahrain

Protesters clashed
with police on Monday as the government tightened security in the Gulf
island state for an opposition “Day of Rage”. Helicopters circled over
the capital Manama, where protesters were due to gather later in the
day, and security forces tightened their grip on Shi’ite communities.

Police broke up one
protest with teargas and rubber bullets. Shi’te protesters revealed that
,they don’t want to overthrow the ruling family; they just want to have
their say.

Bahrain is a small
oil-producing country whose Shi’ite population has long complained of
discrimination by the ruling Sunni al-Khalifa family, well before
popular uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt emboldened activists throughout
the region.

Protest organisers
said they want the dissolution of Bahrain’s constitution, and replaced
with a new version penned by a committee that includes both Sunnis and
Shi’ites. They want the country’s prime minister to be directly elected
by the people, and demand the release of “all political prisoners,” and
an investigation of torture allegations.

In Iran

Security forces fired tear gas to scatter thousands of people marching on a Tehran square in a banned rally on Monday.

The march was a test
of strength for the reformist opposition, which had not taken to the
streets since December 2009,when eight people were killed. Iranian
security forces are still unlikely to hesitate to use any means to stop
protests.

Large numbers of
police and security forces wearing riot gear were stationed around the
main squares of the capital and travelling in pairs on motorbikes around
the city.

The opposition
nevertheless renewed the call for the rally. Iranian authorities have
warned the opposition to avoid creating a “security crisis” by reviving
protests that erupted after the last election, the biggest unrest in
Iran since the 1979 revolution. The opposition see the unrest as being
more similar to their own protests following the June 2009 election
which they say was rigged in favour of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Iranian authorities
deny doctoring the 2009 election results and accuse opposition leaders
of being part of a Western plot to overthrow the Islamic system.

“They are incapable
of doing a damn thing,” the hardline Kayhan newspaper quoted
Intelligence Minister Heidar Moslehi as saying. The opposition is
“guided by Iran’s enemies abroad,” Moslehi said.

In Yemen

Hundreds of
anti-government demonstrators clashed with supporters of Yemen’s
president on Monday. With both sides hurling rocks as protests escalated
in the impoverished Arabian Peninsula state.

Witnesses said police fired shots into the air but were unable to
control the crowd in the industrial town of Taiz, while in Sanaa,
protesters inspired by an uprising in Egypt vowed to march to police
intelligence headquarters. Analysts say Yemen is not yet at the point of
an Egypt-style revolt, and any upheaval would likely unfold more slowly
and perhaps with more bloodshed, in a heavily armed country where
tribal allegiances run strong.

Ekiti State
governor, Kayode Fayemi, has appealed to the youth in Ikole community
not to engage in violence over the relocation of a federal university
from the town. He urged them to allow the Regent of the town, Jumoke
Mshelbwala, who fled in the heat of last Thursday’s protest to return to
the palace.

The governor said he
will personally seek an audience with President Goodluck Jonathan in
Abuja over the relocation of the federal university from Ikole Ekiti to
Oye-Ekiti.

The governor who
spoke during his visit to the families of protesters who were shot dead
by the Police in the wake of the protests, affirmed that his
administration has not rescinded its decision to make Ikole the home of
the new university.

Mr. Fayemi said he intends to make that position clear to the president.

He added that he was
sure that the president whom he described as a “believer in fairness
and the rule of law” will resolve the crisis without being biased. The
announcement of Oye as the site of the new University on a Federal
Government-owned electronic media, three months after Ikole had been
pencilled down as the site sparked off a peaceful protest by youths in
Ikole local government area.

However, the
protest was disrupted when policemen shot and killed two of the
demonstrators leading the protesters to set the Idi-Ose police station
ablaze.

The governor also
disclosed that the council of traditional rulers in Oye Local Government
Area has thrown its weight behind the choice of Ikole as the site of
the university.

The Ekiti State governor asked the Federal Government to allow the
state decide the appropriate site for the institution, adding that
although both Oye and Ikole are parts of the state, the state government
considers the choice of Ikole as “more appropriate”.

The Airline
Operators of Nigeria, on Monday, instructed its members not to obey the
relocation directive issued to domestic carriers operating at the
General Aviation Terminal, Lagos, by the Federal Airports Authority of
Nigeria.

Explaining that the
notice of relocation given to airlines operating at the terminal is
illegal, the body said that the airports authority has no right to order
carriers to vacate the old local airport and start their services in
the new terminal which is owned by Bi-Courtney Aviation Services
Limited. “FAAN has no right, therefore, to relocate our members to any
terminal which presently does not belong to them,” said Steve Mahonwu,
the Chairman of the group, during a press briefing at the presidential
wing of the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos. “The action of FAAN is a
violation of contract agreement between FAAN and our members, which is
tantamount to victimisation and unnecessary use of force.”

Biased directive

Mr Mahonwu said that
the relocation order was given to other airlines operating in the old
terminal excluding Arik Air, and maintained that the development if
implemented will only cause chaos in the sector on the grounds that the
directive is biased. “The Airline Operators of Nigeria totally rejects
the illegal relocation of our members which immediately tends to create
monopoly by one of our members, Arik Air, against three others or more,”
he said. “We believe in equity and justice and are committed to protect
all our members from the cudgels of any aviation parastatal to enhance
harmony and judicious acts of governance.”

A copy of the
relocation directive did not stipulate reasons why the airlines are to
relocate. Efforts to get the aim for the decision were not successful as
the public affairs manager for the authority, Akin Olukunle, could not
be reached at his office and his mobile phones were all switched off.

Bi-Courtney should develop GAT

Mr Mahonwu said that
the concession agreement between the federal government, who is the
guarantor, and Bi-Courtney, the concessionaire, accorded the later the
right of refusal to develop the General Aviation Terminal, and explained
that the airport authority, being the representative of the government,
retains the portfolio of landlord and consolidator of all concessionary
deals at the airports. “You will recall that we forced all airlines to
relocate to MMA2 to allow Bi-Courtney to expand and modernise the
General Aviation Terminal as a befitting terminal just like London,
Paris and New York City in Ikeja land,” he said. “But Arik Airlines
refused sighting security concerns. The security questions were
inspected and cleared by IATA (International Air Transport Association)
as non-existent.”

The airline operators argued that the relocation directive is a
deliberate plan by FAAN to circumvent the concessionary agreement as a
privilege to Arik Air. “AON, therefore, believes that every airline has
the right to exist and make legitimate business without any favour
provided we pay all our rates and taxes as due,” he said. “We,
therefore, appeal to all our members to pay their Passenger Service
Charges to FAAN and others as due to enhance harmony.”

The National
Universities Commission recently introduced entrepreneurship studies as a
compulsory subject for all university undergraduates in Nigeria. So the
Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC) has also
included entrepreneurship studies in its newly-developed curriculum for
secondary schools. Godswill Obioma, executive secretary of the NERDC
told journalists at the weekend in Abuja that the effort is geared
towards inculcating requisites skills to empower young secondary school
graduates who do not have resources for acquiring higher education to
earn a living.

“When we came on
board in 2005, the first target was to see how we can link up with the
reform; NEEDS was adopted in 2004 and we have curriculum which we
revised for basic education captured the very essence of NEEDS: poverty
eradication and wealth creation,” he said. “We have revived the basic
education curriculum, taking into account HIV/AIDS education, basic
technology which creates basic element of national training. Another
major impact is the senior secondary school curriculum.”

Mr. Obioma said that
in the new curriculum, students are expected to take the normal
subjects and also, one technical and entrepreneurship.

“So when it comes on
board in 2011 and by 2014, graduates of senior secondary school would
have gotten at least one technical entrepreneurial skill. So if they
cannot go into the university, they could move on with their lives. We
have created that foundation to drive the acquisition of skills.”

He added that NERDC
has within the past four years produced nine-year Basic Education
Curriculum as well as the teachers guide for the curriculum; 34
entrepreneurship trades for senior secondary education due to commence
in September; over 3,000 indigenous sign languages for BEC;
entrepreneurial skill acquisition curriculum for out-of-school youth.

“The council is
currently working on teachers handbook for the implementation of the new
senior secondary curriculum and has also revised National Education
policy (2007 draft edition); produced national language policy as well
as language map for Nigeria; bilingual dictionaries in Hausa, Igbo and
Yoruba for basic education.

“NERDC has equally
produced orthographies/meta languages in over 34 Nigerian languages;
school curriculum for some of Nigerian languages like Efik, Izon,
Kanuri, Fulfulde, Tangale, Tiv, Edo for basic education and has,
conducted predictive research on the co-relationship between
achievement in public examination and university performance,” he said.

About 82 civil
servants evacuated from the quarters of Yola Motel, by a rent tribunal
sitting in Yola, the Adamawa State capital, fortnight ago have appealed
to the state government to come to their aid.

The displaced people
who, together with their dependants are close to 600, have up till the
end of the month to pack out of the government owned property, where
they have been taking temporary residency since 2001.

The affected civil
servants were dragged by the state justice ministry before the rent
tribunal after defying a government order to vacate the property. The
spokesman for the group, Garba Tarfa said they decided to take up
residency on the property because “they do not have the money to find
themselves another accommodation, we want the government to come to our
aid as we have nowhere to go,” he said.

Mr Tarfa noted that
there is no way the residents could find alternative accommodation
before the 21 days ultimatum given to them to vacate the premises of the
Motel grounds. “The time given us is around the corner and we have no
where to go, we want the government to come to our aid by fulfilling its
promise to help us with finance for relocation,” he pleaded.

The people had
appealed to the chairman of the rent tribunal that they were forced to
seek refuge at the Yola motel because of their poor economic condition
and that the majority of those staying at the premises could not keep
up with the high rent being charged by landlords in the state capital.
They also affirmed that they obtained tenancy approval from the state
ministry of information, culture and tourism, the government agency of
the motel, in 2001 as a way out of the housing challenge by most of
them.

The ordeal

Mr Tarfa said the
ordeal started last December when they received a letter from the
government asking them to quit the property. Confronted by the quit
notice, the tenants said they met and agreed to appeal to the
government, and therefore wrote a letter titled “appeal for respite”
dated the 11th of January, 2011.

“Not wanting to
leave anything to chance, we wrote an SOS-(Save Our Soul) to the Adamawa
state chapter of the Nigerian Labour Congress to intervene in the
matter. The labour body consequently conveyed our plight to the state
governor, Murtala Nyako,” Mr Tarfa said.

The state government subsequently promised to allocate land and some
token amount of money to enable all the civil servants relocate but
according to Mr Tarfa “the government is yet to fulfill that promise”
nd “we plead with the government to do so” he concluded.

The United Nations
agency, UNAIDS, has negotiated with European Commission for a three-year
grant of 2.4 million euros to strengthen the coordination of technical
support provision in six countries which include Benin, Ethiopia, Ghana,
Malawi, Nigeria and Swaziland. Out of this sum, Nigeria is benefitting
about 400,000 euros.

David MacRae,
ambassador of the European Union delegation to Nigeria, who disclosed
this at the weekend in Abuja at the signing of the memorandum of
understanding between the National Action Committee on Aids (NACA),
European Union and UNAIDS said the MOU provides the framework for an
EU-funded project designed to strengthen national capacity to scale up
towards universal access to HIV/AIDS prevention, care and treatment and
develop a national technical support plan on HIV/AIDS.

“The EU has worked
to develop a programme for action to confront HIV/AIDS, malaria and
tuberclosis through external assistance, mobilize funding and develop
effective ways to provide assistance to our partners to raise awareness
and deliver prevention, treatment, care and support to the population
affected by the pandemics,” he said. “Nigeria is one of six countries
benefitting from such grant and will receive 400,000 euros under this
grant.”

Mr. MacRae stated
that putting HIV/AIDS and other communicable diseases under control is a
challenge, adding that the EU is fully committed to making a major
contribution to the success of this undertaking and desires that with
this financial support, UNAIDS will support the NACA to develop its
technical support plans and coordinate its implementation in order to
save lives of millions of people.

Kwame Ampomah,
UNAIDS country coordinator, Nigeria said technical support is critical
to addressing gaps and bottlenecks in the implementation of the national
response, while observing that technical support provided to countries
before now have remained unplanned, ad-hoc, supply-driven and
uncoordinated.

“Recognizing these
technical support challenges, UNAIDS in December 2007 developed a
guidance note on technical support planning. The guidance note provides a
general framework to assist national aids coordination authorities to
effectively plan, coordinate and better manage the technical support to
scale up national HIV/AIDS responses,” he said. “It is for this reason
that MOU for the grant agreement is being signed today. The key
deliverables of the grant is the development and implementation of a
national technical support plan that will ensure better coordination of
quality technical assistance for national aids response.

Working together

Mr. Ampomah
canvassed the support of all stakeholders for the initiative through
active participation in development and implementation of the technical
support plan, in addition to making financial contributions that will
sustain the EU, NACA and UNAIDS collaborative effort saying that they
must act fast to accelerate progress at achieving universal access to
HIV/AIDS prevention in Nigeria. John Idoko, director-general of NACA
stated that national response to HIV/AIDS will not improve without
adequate human capital in place.

“In order for us to
do all we want to do, we need to build human resources capacity and it
can be built not just by us but also by technical assistance. There is a
hidden gap you cannot see. You can see a gap of infrastructure, but you
cannot see the gap of intellectual knowledge skill. That has to be in
place to make the response more effective so as to achieve the universal
access we have been talking about,” he said.

He said that local government, states and national aids control agencies will benefit from the funds over a three-year period.