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The issue of zoning
within the People Democratic Party (PDP), may not yet be over as an
Abuja High Court yesterday, fixed January 4, 2011 to hear the
preliminary objection in a fresh suit filed by some members of the
party.

The suit is seeking
an order of the court to stop the Independent National Electoral
Commission (INEC) from accepting President Goodluck Jonathan as PDP’s
presidential candidate for the 2011 presidential election.

Yahaya Kwande,
Dubem Onyia and Lawal Kaita, in an affidavit in support of their
motion, said they are card carrying and financial members of the party
and asked the court to restrain PDP and its national chairman,
Okwesileze Nwodo from presenting President Jonathan as their candidate
for the said election.

Defendants are PDP National Chairman, Okwesileze Nwodo, Mr. Jonathan and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

Specifically, they
said according to sections 13 and 15(a), (c) and (f) of the 3rd
schedule of the country’s constitution of 1999, section 86(1) and (2)
and 67(9) and (10) of the Electoral Act, 2010, INEC is bound to compel
PDP to comply with the provisions of Article 7.2(c) of its
constitution, 2009 as recently amended.

They also want the
court to declare that by virtue of the provisions of sections 14(3) and
223(2)(b) of the 1999 constitution, section 87(9) and (10) of the
Electoral Act 2010 and Articles 2and 7.2 (c) of PDP’s constitution and
the resolution of the National Caucus of the party reached on December
2, 2002, President Jonathan, not being a northerner cannot contest the
2011 presidential election on PDP’s platform.

No to Jonathan

Furthermore, they
are asking the court to declare that PDP is bound to allow a candidate
from the Northern geo-political zone to contest for presidency in 2011
presidential election so as to complete the Zone’s eight years slot in
producing candidate for the election into the office of the president,
adding that the National Working Committee of the party cannot by its
decision override the resolution of the National Caucus which is a
superior organ to it, in the party’s hierarchy.

“The resolution of
the National Caucus of the 1st Defendant of December 2, 2002, the 4th
Defendant is bound to reject any candidate presented by the 1st
Defendant including the 3rd Defendant in contravention of and total
disregard to the provision of Article 7.2(c) of the 1st Defendant’s
Constitution”, the plaintiffs want the court to declare.

In a 35-paragraph
affidavit in support of the plaintiff’s amended charge and deposed to
by one of the plaintiffs, Dubem Onyia, the plaintiffs averred that late
President Yar’adua, from the North West geopolitical zone became
president in May 2007 on the platform of the PDP,

pursuant to a
binding zoning arrangement of the PDP which is consistent with the
federal character policy entrenched in sections 14(3) and 223(2)(b) of
the constitution.

They added that any attempt by Mr Jonathan to contest the position
of the president under the platform of the PDP will make nonsense of
the federal character principle, noting also that the president is
using the power of incumbency to subdue and influence party leaders to
upturn the resolution reached by the party on December 2, 2002.

A healthy
environment will reduce the high mortality rate in Nigeria, says
Augustine Ebisike, Registrar, Environmental Health Officers
Registration Council of Nigeria.

Mr. Ebisike said in
Abuja on Monday that “ environmental health is paramount because if you
get your environmental health right, so many preventable deaths will be
cut short.

“Our mortality
rate; infant mortality rate are all related to environmental health; so
these are the broad issues that are posing health challenges in the
society,” he said.

According to him,
70 per cent of the diseases that cause hospitalisation in Nigeria are
not only preventable but they are environmentally related.

“If 70 per cent of the diseases that are preventable in this country
go away, what we will be left with will definitely be 30 per cent. None
of the 30 per cent of the diseases will cause an epidemic and none will
have children dying the way they are dying,” he said.

The Mashi Local Government Council in Katsina State has donated a cow to the Igbo community in the area as Christmas gift.

Speaking while
presenting the gift to the community in Mashi on Monday, the Chairman,
Sirajo Mohammed who was represented on the occasion, by the Head of
Personnel, Ma’aruf Abubakar, said that the gesture was part of the
Council’s contribution towards ensuring the welfare of the Igbos living
in the area.

“The Igbos have co-existed peacefully with the people of the area
and do contribute to the socio-economic development of the area hence,
the need for the local government to appreciate their contributions.”
He said. He gave an assurance of the Council’s continued support to the
Igbo community, urging them to continue to live in peace in the area.

General data collection processes of the Nigeria
Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) are to go live on
an automated platform in the new year, the executive secretary of the
agency, Zainab Ahmed, said in Abuja at the weekend. Mrs Ahmed, who was
reviewing the challenges and progress of the agency in the outgoing
year, said though it is gradually overcoming its challenges, NEITI is
looking forward to the best of times in 2011 as it remains positive
that enough has been achieved for Nigeria to be granted full Extractive
Industry Transparency Initiative (EITI) Compliant status.

“This is part of the processes to ensure accurate
data collection and timely auditing as well as reporting of revenue
receipts and payments of the extractive industries,” she said, pointing
out that “this will aid the speed of dissemination of quality
information about the revenues in the extractive industry to the
Nigeria public.”

While acknowledging the support of various
stakeholders, including government agencies, civil society
organizations (CSOs) and international development partners, she
assured that NEITI is now on course to fully deliver on its assignment.

“NEITI has acquired a new suitable office complex it
plans to move in next year. We have already commenced comprehensive
plans on public communication, technical services and management
programmes to meet national and international expectations in the New
year and beyond,” the NEITI boss said.

Fighting resource-curse

NEITI chairman, Assisi Asobie, who noted measures by
the National Stakeholders Working Group (NSWG) to strengthen the NEITI
secretariat, said the Board has responded positively towards meeting
the conditions set by the EITI Board for validation as full compliant
member-country.

Mr Asobie traced the high level of poverty associated
with natural resources-endowed countries to the common syndrome of
resource-curse, saying at the heart of the problem are issues of good
governance, transparency and accountability. He said because of the
nature of natural resources such as crude oil, the tendency for corrupt
practices and mis-governance is always high among countries endowed
with them, resulting in the paradox of poverty in the midst of plenty.

“The management of revenue accruing from the extractive sector in a
transparent, prudent and accountable manner is the panacea for resource
curse. But this has proved such a huge challenge in countries such as
Nigeria, though association with EITI has helped to provide the
technical know-how and the strategic direction to confront it,” he
said. Announcing that the 2006-2008 oil and gas industry audit report
is to be published early next year, Mr Asobie said the process to
commission the 2009 audit has already commenced, while that of 2010
would be commissioned in 2011 as NEITI moves into the solid minerals
sector.

About five months
to the end of his tenure as Ogun State governor, Gbenga Daniel at the
weekend challenged his predecessor, Olusegun Osoba to a public debate
on which of them performed better as governor of the state. Mr Daniel
threw the challenge at a public debate organized by the ruling People’s
Democratic Party {PDP} for all its aspirants ahead of 2011 polls held
at the June 12 Cultural Centre, Abeokuta.

“I am ready to
engage Osoba in a public debate, whether partisan or not. I am ready
for the open debate to be conducted anywhere. We should put on the
scale our account of stewardship. Let’s appear and present ourselves to
public domain to weigh our performances,’ he said.

Mr Daniel defeated
Mr Osoba, then of the Alliance for Democracy {AD} now Action Congress
of Nigeria {ACN} in the 2003 governorship election. But there has been
increasing condemnation of the performance of his government by Mr
Osoba and the leadership of the Action Congress of Nigeria {ACN}. The
governor also defended himself against accusations of promoting
violence, accusing the opposition Action Congress of Nigeria {ACN} of
masterminding violence in the state.

He also said
allegations of corruption leveled against his government by the
opposition was unfair, saying, “In Nigeria, how many governors openly
declare their assets as I did on assumption of office? It shows we are
transparent and I challenge anybody to fault this claim.”

The Chinese
government may have unwittingly given the world a new symbol of
opposition to oppression, an empty chair. But there’s another piece of
furniture that’s suddenly empty too and it delivers a different message.

The chair belonged
to Chinese author and activist Liu Xiabo, the laureate of the Nobel
Peace Prize for 2010, imprisoned for his writings and prevented from
travelling to Oslo to receive his award. It was placed instead on the
chair he would have occupied to mark his absence.

It’s quickly become
an iconic image and empty chairs have begun appearing in Chinese
Internet traffic. Cyberspace is closely policed in the People’s
Republic by thousands of censors. Within hours even the use of the
phrase ‘empty chair’ was being wiped from the web.

There is also an
empty table though, and that’s getting a little less attention. Norway
is a tiny nation of fewer than five million people that had been
negotiating Europe’s first free- trade agreement with China, an
exploding economy of more than a billion.

When the Norwegian
Nobel Committee honoured Mr Liu, Beijing suspended the negotiations.
The deal is at least temporarily off the table, potentially an enormous
blow to a range of Norwegian businesses and jobs.

Norwegian Foreign
Minister Jonas Gahr Store told me that his government has no influence
on the Nobel Committee and values the committee’s tradition of
independence. He said that Norway’s government wouldn’t sacrifice its
principles to please Beijing.

Norway is an
affluent country, with enormous oil and gas reserves that China and
many other nations are eager to buy. With or without the free-trade
agreement, its economy is in an enviable position.

But for governments without those assets and the assurance they
bring, the empty chair isn’t the only piece of furniture to remind them
of China’s reaction to this year’s Nobel Prize. There is also that
empty table.

The Vice President,
Namadi Sambo, is expected to lead Peoples’ Democratic Party leaders to
Ekiti State, for the final rally before next week’s bye-election for
the state House of Assembly in the state.

The Constituency I,
Moba Local Government Area election will be conducted to get a
replacement for the former deputy speaker, Saliu Adeoti who died some
months ago.

According to the
State Chairman of the party, Bola Olu-Ojo, in a statement issued in
Ado-Ekiti on Sunday, the party will approach the bye-election with all
the weapons in its political arsenal.

“We are not leaving
anything to chance as far as the bye-election is concerned. That is why
the campaign is going to be led by no less a personality than the Vice
President himself.

“As at yesterday
(Saturday), we have been to all the towns in the Constituency, except
Otun-Ekiti where the grand finale, which is going to be the mother of
all rallies, will be held on Monday (Today),” he said.

Banking on the
peoples support, Mr. Olu-Ojo said, “in Osun-Ekiti in particular, we
could see revenge on the faces of the people. One of their own, Adeleye
Awolumate, who was also our chairman for Osun Ward, was murdered in
broad daylight by the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) thugs and they
are rearing to vote against the party that killed their son.”

The Vice President
is expected to be accompanied by the Minister of State for Federal
Capital Territory, Caleb Olubolade, former governor of Ekiti State,
Olusegun Oni; a serving senator, Ayo Arise; House of Representatives
Member representing Ekiti North Constituency II, Duro Faseyi; PDP Vice
Chairman (southwest) Tajudeen Oladipo; the state Chairman of the Party,
Bola Olu-Ojo; and three former deputy governors including, Sikiru Tae
Lawal, Abiodun Olujinmi and Paul Alabi among others.

The Lagos State governor, Babatunde Fashola, has
approved a total of N500 million micro finance fund for disbursement to
the first 100 graduates under the Agriculture Youth Empowerment Scheme.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the scheme, which is
being executed in collaboration with Dizzengof West Africa Ltd and the
Hebrew University of Jerusalem, was conceptualized to address the twin
problems of youth unemployment and food security. In an interview with
NAN on Saturday, Mr. Fashola said the loan was repayable in five years.

He said the scheme was one of several practical
solutions by his administration to tackle the challenges of youth
unemployment. The governor said the scheme was not limited to farming
alone as other components of the agricultural value chain such as
packaging and marketing were also incorporated.

“I am happy doing this because I see the birth of
a proper economy rooted in agriculture that supports
industrialization,” he said.

According to him, the scheme will be executed in
three phases spanning a period of five years with a target of producing
1,000 modern farmers. A cross section of the graduates described the
scheme as a practical solution to youth unemployment. They said they
were exposed to world class theoretical and practical training in
poultry, aquaculture, vegetable farming and business management as well
as the use of modern farm implements.

Salami Babajide, one of the graduates said the scheme had provided
him the opportunity for further training in Israel, adding that it
would guarantee him stable income. Another beneficiary, Blossom Onome,
said she left her teaching job to attend the training because of its
prospects.