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The national chairman of All Progressive Grand Alliance, Victor
Umeh, yesterday told the former minister of information and communication, Dora
Akunyili, to be prepared to compete with other party aspirants who have
indicated their intention to contest the senatorial election in the Anambra
Central Senatorial District. Mr. Umeh stated this at the party national
secretariat in Abuja where Mrs. Akunyili went to purchase the nomination forms.
A form costs N3.5 million.

The national chairman noted that although the entry of the
former minister into the APGA would attracted attention and popularity to the
party, the practice of internal democracy by the party would not guarantee her
an automatic ticket.

“Your joining us today will add to our party,” he said. “All
that you have been doing about rebranding, you will bring it to our party. We
know that where you are leaving, they will not be happy but APGA is in your
constituency.

This is a wise decision you have taken and we wish you well. Any
party would love to have you. APGA is happy to have her seek the nomination of our
party to serve. It is a great thing that this great woman that has served in
various capacities quit her party to join us. You are welcome to our party. If
not for internal democracy that is required, we would have been talking about
other things. But we are going to give all of you an even playing ground. You
have to compete with others who have declared their interest to contest the
same position.”

The APGA boss described the party as a “mustard seed” which
holds the core values of democracy in great respect, adding that its leadership
has rebranded it.

Mrs. Akunyili said that she was happy that the party would not
give her an automatic ticket to contest the election because, according to her,
it would create anger and rancor. She, however, expressed hope that she would
emerge the nominee during the primaries to contest the main election.

“I pray that by the grace of God, I will be the nominee to the
senate,” she said. “If I don’t get it, I will support whoever gets it. Politics
should not be a do-or-die affair. When people talk about winning, winning,
winning all the time, it creates problems.”

Woman of the people

The former minister who was accompanied by a group of women
dressed in the same attire as well as aides said if elected a senator, she would
give the Anambra Central Senatorial District effective representation.

“They will be happy that their daughter is in the senate and
they will get their dues from the federal government,” she said.

Mrs. Akunyili also assured listeners that she would help the
party deepen internal democracy in Nigeria and in the West Africa sub-region.
She said that she joined APGA because of the performance of Governor Peter Obi
of Anambra State. But a possible opponent of Mrs. Akunyili for the senatorial
ticket of the APGA, George Ibezimako Ozodinobi, has described her decision to
run for senate on the APGA platform as nothing short of political prostitution
and a betrayal of President Goodluck Jonathan’s trust.

Mr. Ozodinobi, who represented the Anaocha, Njikoka and Dunukofia federal
constituency under APGA from 2003 to 2007, said in Awka that Mrs. Akunyili’s
move portrayed her as politically unstable. He also said the former minister’s
decision to leave Mr. Jonathan’s camp now could be viewed as an indication that
the Igbo were not supporting him.

This HR issue is a serious problem. It has got so bad that it is
no longer a laughing matter. Employers and friends would sit around a table
entertaining each other with tales of the incomprehensible or ludicrous antics
of their staff or subordinates and everyone would laugh. These days, the tales
no longer elicit laugher; they have the sobering effect of deepening the shared
realisation that we are in real trouble!

People will always have complaints about their staff. It is as
natural as parents complaining about their teenagers. What comforts parents is
the knowledge that those rebellious teens are just a phase their children are
going through on their way to adulthood and responsibility. What frightens
employers is that this HR issue does not seem like a phase. It has taken on the
appearance of an end, or a trend that is gathering momentum. What do we do? And
what are we talking about anyway when we refer to ‘this HR issue’?

The principal role of HRM – Human Resource Management – is to
have the right people, with the right skills, doing the right jobs, at the
right times, to the right standards. It is about finding and deploying the
person who best fits the task required. Sometimes, finding people would include
identifying potential staff, people with the right attitude and capability, and
developing them through training to fit the task.

Deploying people would include inducting them to the workplace;
preparing their workspace; sharing the policies, procedures, rules &
regulations with them; planning for how much manpower is needed where and when;
managing staff performance by rewarding hard work and keeping discipline; and
caring for staff welfare.

Once upon a time, it was a simple matter to find the right
person – simply invite people who had been specifically trained for the task
through apprenticeship or formal education. Interview them to make sure they
had the right attitude towards service and hard work. Check their references to
make sure they had good backgrounds and then put them to work and address their
grievances when they came up.

Their sole expectation was regular payment of their wages; many
did not even expect that they would be treated as human beings, just as hands
to do the required work. As work progressed from manual to skilled labour, the
formula more or less remained the same.

Today, ask around. Ask anyone, be they in business, government
or petty trading if they can find the staff they need. Most will answer with a
resounding NO!

We are not talking about a lack of applicants for work – they
abound in almost unmanageable numbers. Recruiting companies can tell you a tale
or two about thousands of applicants appearing for a handful of jobs. You can
find staff easily, simply not the staff you need. Employers spend inordinate
amount of time interviewing candidates for vacant positions. These days,
employers find themselves spending a remarkable amount of time convincing their
unreliable but good staff to stay in their employ, because it is becoming
increasingly difficult to find capable staff, reliable or not. They are also
confronted with the unbelievable scenario of having a member of staff who,
although desperate to find a job after months and sometimes years of being
unemployed, becomes nonchalant about their duties after just a couple of weeks
on the job.

Limited by lack

It is nothing new. It is all about education – academic and
non-academic learning – and about wisdom.

What employers are discovering is that their staff are people
who care only about themselves and not about where they work; who come in
without skills and move on the minute they are trained. They have people who
have not factored work as an enabler to help them buy houses or cars, or to pay
for the care and education of their children. They expect it to all happen
somehow. They have employees who see no harm in letting their employer down,
abandoning work abruptly or not handing their responsibilities over to someone
else who is capable of doing the work.

Why is it an issue that employers cannot find the right staff?
How will enterprises and businesses grow if there are no people they can trust
to do their work well? We will be constrained to keep our dreams small, and our
workload manageable; limited to what we can supervise ourselves.

A good friend has branches of his business selling products all
over the country. He only makes money in the units either managed by himself,
his family members, or family friends. In the rest of the branches, if he is
not losing money to fraud, he is losing it to lack of customer service by his
staff.

Recently, more and more clients are calling me to diagnose what
they need to do to motivate their professional staff to perform their roles and
deliver business results. The staff earn good salaries and are paid regularly.
They have all the benefits due to them by law and more besides. They also have
supportive and approachable managers and leaders to go to for help and
guidance. What are they lacking that has not been provided?

This is a serious problem! The challenge before us is how we can
initially overcome this HR issue, and eventually solve it before it permanently
stunts our growth as a people and as a nation.

The Abia State governor, Theodore Orji yesterday announced that
he inherited a debt of N29billion from his predecessor on assumption of office
in 2007, a burden he said had weighed his administration down until recently.
He said it was unfortunate that those who were responsible for the debt that
slowed down the pace of development projects in the state have turned round to
accuse him of non-performance.

Making the disclosure when he received the Uzuakoli Development
Association at his office, Mr. Orji said that the crushing debt burden was part
of the problem of political bondage which he had to liberate himself and Abia
people from.

“I was not given the free chance as a governor,” he said. “I was
not allowed to take major decisions because of the people who say they are
godfathers.”

He said that in spite of silently bearing the burden of the
crushing debt, he was still branded a non-performer by those who were
benefiting from it. Mr. Orji said the development made it difficult for him to
accomplish most of the projects he was supposed to achieve for the state and
assured his visitors that in his second term, the people of Abia would see
wonders now that the state is liberated. Apart from the debt burden, he also
said the protracted court cases challenging his election, which lasted for
three years, was a major setback to the plans of his administration.

“I have set in motion a machinery to give the commercial city of
Aba a facelift infrastructurally,” he said, blaming the collapse of most roads
in the city on poor quality of work by the contractors that built them during
the administration that preceded his.

On crime

On crime that escalated in the state before it was brought down
recently, the governor said though poverty and unemployment were at the root of
the kidnapping and armed robbery in the state, it is also on record that the
kidnappers had sponsors who had vowed to make the state ungovernable. He said
the death of a leader of the kidnapping gangs, Osisikankwu, was a major
breakthrough in the fight against kidnapping and crime.

Mr Orji, who claimed to be the best governorship candidate for the state in
the 2011 election, urged the people of the state to register en masse during
the forthcoming voters registration exercise and vote for him for the second
term.

Nigeria’s minister of aviation, Fidelia Njeze, and delegates
from United Airlines, an international carrier from the United States of
America, have officially announced the commencement of flight operations by an
additional airline on the Nigeria-USA route.

Describing the development as an “accomplished mission” for the
federal government of Nigeria, Ms. Njeze disclosed that the entry of the new
United States carrier into the Nigeria aviation industry depicts mutual
understanding between both countries after the signing of the open skies
treaty.

“This is mission accomplished for us in the ministry and for
Nigerians,” she said during a briefing at the Murtala Muhammed International
Airport (MMIA), Lagos on Wednesday.

“What we are witnessing started some years ago, which led to the
coming in of Delta Airlines; and this marks the Nigeria-United States agreement
of open skies signed in 2001.”

The aviation minister disclosed that Nigeria will continue to
work with the United States government to enhance development in the sector,
adding that the arrival of United Airlines will boost services on the route.

“Nigeria will always be a strategic and economic partner of the
USA, and for this reason I hereby formally announce on behalf of the federal government,
the arrival of United Airlines to Nigeria,” she said.

Making Lagos a hub

Speaking on the development, Richard Aisuebeogun, managing
director of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, said that the federal
government is making efforts to ensure that the Lagos international airport
becomes a hub in Africa, adding that the airline is welcomed to Nigeria.

“This shows progression and it drives at making Nigeria,
especially Lagos airport, a hub in Africa,” he said. “We have the market, the
number and the business, so we welcome United Airlines and we want to assure
you that soon your frequency will be increased.”

Expressing thanks to the federal government through the ministry
of aviation, Charles Duncan, president of the carrier, reiterated that the
addition in the number of carriers on the route will promote trade, improve
cultural ties and development passenger services.

“I am grateful to the aviation minister and all of our partners
here who made launching the new service to Washington possible,” he said. “This
service will facilitate stronger commercial and cultural ties between the
United States and Nigeria, while making travel more convenient and more
accessible to our customers in Africa and the Americas.”

United Airlines brings the number of carriers flying to the United States
from Nigeria to three after the country attained the much coveted Category One
Status in August this year from The United States Federal Aviation
Administration (US FAA). The other airlines on the Nigeria-US route are Delta
Airlines and Arik Air, an indigenous carrier.

A British judge
granted bail of 200,000 pounds ($317,400) on Tuesday for the release of
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, wanted in Sweden for alleged sex
crimes and the target of U.S. fury over the release of secret
diplomatic cables. Prosecutors, representing Swedish authorities,
quickly said they would appeal against the bail decision and Judge
Howard Riddle said Assange must remain in custody until a new hearing
is held within 48 hours. Riddle had earlier ruled that, pending a
hearing on January 11, Assange could be freed under strict conditions
including electronic tagging and a curfew. He would have had to report
to police daily and post a 200,000 pound bond, to be put up by wealthy
backers. The 39-year-old Australian, who has spent a week in London’s
Wandsworth prison, is fighting attempts to extradite him to Sweden for
questioning over allegations of sexual misconduct made by two female
WikiLeaks volunteers, accusations he denies. Mark Stephens, a lawyer
for Assange, said Swedish authorities would clearly not spare any
expense to keep Assange in jail.

“This is really turning into a show trial and we will be in court again within the next 48 hours,” he told reporters.

He called Assange
“an innocent man sitting in Dickensian conditions, Victorian conditions
in Wandsworth jail.” Assange and his lawyers have voiced fears that
U.S. prosecutors may be preparing to indict him for espionage over
WikiLeaks’ publication of the documents. Riddle denied Assange bail a
week ago on grounds he might abscond but said he had changed his mind
because Assange had provided a British address and because
discrepancies over his passport and right to stay in Britain had now
been resolved. Prosecution lawyer Gemma Lindfield, acting for the
Swedish authorities, said nothing had changed.

“He remains a significant flight risk and no conditions that court can impose could prevent his flight,” she told the court.

Impassive Assange

Assange, wearing a
navy suit and open-necked white shirt, spoke only to confirm his name,
age and address. He sat impassively behind tall panels of thickened
glass during the hearing, which lasted a little over an hour. His
supporters in the court included Bianca Jagger, the former wife of
Rolling Stones singer Mick Jagger. One of the main conditions of his
bail is that he lives at Ellingham Hall, a country mansion in Suffolk,
eastern England that is the home of a former army officer and Assange
supporter, Vaughan Smith. Assange has long been a thorn in the side of
Washington. U.S. anger reached new heights after WikiLeaks began
publishing part of a trove of 250,000 secret diplomatic papers. Two of
Assange’s supporters took the witness stand to offer 20,000 pounds each
to act as a surety. Restaurant designer and catering company boss Sarah
Saunders told the court: “I believe he would not let me down.” Smith
called him as a “very honourable person, hugely courageous,
self-deprecatory and warm.” Assange, who handed himself in to British
police last week after Sweden issued a European arrest warrant,
remained defiant.

In a statement
released by his mother on Tuesday, he denounced the firms that
suspended payments to his website as instruments of U.S. foreign policy
and calling for help in protecting his work from their “illegal and
immoral attacks. My convictions are unfaltering. I remain true to the
ideals I have expressed. This circumstance shall not shake them,”
Assange said, according to a written statement of his comments supplied
to Australia’s Network Seven by his mother Christine.

“We now know that Visa, Mastercard, Paypal and others are instruments of U.S. foreign policy,” he said.

“I am calling for
the world to protect my work and my people from these illegal and
immoral attacks.” Internet activists launched “Operation Payback” last
week to avenge WikiLeaks against those perceived to have obstructed its
operations, temporarily bringing down the websites of credit card firms
Visa and MasterCard, as well as that of the Swedish government.

An ABC
News/Washington Post poll released on Tuesday showed that a majority of
Americans — 59 percent — believed the United States should try to
arrest Assange and charge him with a crime related to the disclosure of
the cables.

Sixty-eight percent
of the 1,001 U.S. adults polled said WikiLeaks’ actions harmed the
public interest, while 20 percent said the disclosures served the
public interest.