Nigeria Content Online

Decisions on the new timetable and
guidelines for the primaries of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) will
have to wait till next week as the party postpones its National
Executive Committee (NEC) meeting earlier scheduled for tomorrow.

The ruling party’s spokesman, Ahmed
Rufa’i Alkali said yesterday in Abuja that the NEC meeting will now
hold on Tuesday, December 14th, 2010. Mr Alkali, in a statement, said,
“The meeting will now hold by 12noon on Tuesday, December 14th 2010.
All NEC members are expected to note the new date. They are also
expected to attend and on time as crucial party matters shall be
discussed.The PDP regrets all inconveniences consequent upon the
postponement.”

The NEC meeting was scheduled to ratify
the recommendation of the National Working Committee on the proposed
primaries. The Committee, headed by the national chairman, Okwesilieze
Nwodo had met in Abuja last week where it reportedly amended the
previous timetable, which was jettisoned following the extension
granted the Independent National Electoral Commission by the National
Assembly.

The Committee has reportedly fixed
January 8, 2011 for the governorship primaries while those of the
houses of assembly may hold the following day.

Looking to January

The presidential primaries may be held
for three days beginning from January 11 to January 13. The special
convention in Abuja where the presidential candidate will be ratified
is expected to hold on January 15.

Those expected at the NEC meeting are
President Goodluck Jonathan; Vice President Namadi Sambo; chairman,
Board of Trustees, Olusegun Obasanjo; Senate President, David Mark and
his deputy, Ike Ekweremadu. Others are the Speaker of the House of
Representatives, Dimeji Bankole and his deputy, Usman Nafada.

Others include leaders of the National
Assembly, the chairmen of the party in the 36 states and all the state
governors elected on the party platform.

Former Senate Presidents and Speakers and their deputies and members
of the Board of Trustees also belong to the NEC of the party.

The Congress for
Progressive Change has described the intention of the federal
government to obtain a foreign loan as “part of election fraud.” The
party equally said the timing of the loan is suspicious especially
considering the fact that the general elections is just some months
ahead.

It said since the
tenure of a number of political appointees at all levels of governance
is almost coming to an end, the loans could be used to facilitate their
elections ‘rather than the purpose they are meant to serve.’

The party’s
National Publicity Secretary, Aghanya Dennis praised former President
Olusegun Obasanjo saying the former number one citizen delivered
Nigeria from the hands of the Paris Club by ensuring that all our
foreign debts were cancelled.

“But within a space
of time the current regime came into power, our foreign reserve which
had earlier gone up was not only depleted but our debt profile also
went up in a geometrical order,” Mr Dennis said. “As if this
development is not worrisome enough, there is another request before
the senate to give another approval for both the state and federal
government to borrow to the tune of about 20 billion US Dollars.”

Mortgaged future

The party said
although some of the states said they intend to use the loans for
capacity building and manpower development, while others said it is for
provision of infrastructures, this might change once the money gets to
them.

“During the debate
at the Senate, some of the Senators who were in support of the loan
canvassed for it on the bases that for the next 10 years the country
would have to pay nothing, but such argument does not put into
consideration what becomes the fate of our children who would inherit
the burden of such borrowing,” the CPC said. “Definitely, no loan is
interest free and as such must be paid some time. You don’t cross a
bridge and want it to collapse. What of those coming behind?” The
congress called on Nigerians, especially civil society organizations to
come out and resist the approval of such loan.

“Nobody should be
allowed to mortgage the future of our youth. We should be responsible
parents and consider the future of our children while making and
implementing any government policies. The CPC is against these loans
under any guise,” he said.

The recipients of
the Right Livelihood Awards, otherwise called the Alternative Nobel
Prize, were formally conferred with the honours in a ceremony in
Stockholm, on Monday.

The ceremony,
preceded by a press conference which held at the Swedish Parliament and
presided over by Jakob von Uexkull, Founder and Co-Chair of the Award,
was the climax of the announcement of the conferment of the awards to
the four laureates whose activities cover human rights in the Middle
East, environmental destruction through oil production, the survival of
the Amazon and its people, and an inspiring example for how to overcome
poverty. The recipients include a Nigerian, Nnimmo Bassey, the
Executive Director of Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth
International; Shrikrishna Upadhyay, of the organization SAPPROS;
Ruchama Marton, the Founder and President of Physicians for Human
Rights-Israel; and Erwin Kräutler.

Their work

Mr Bassey was
honoured “for revealing the full ecological and human horrors of oil
production and for his inspired work to strengthen the environmental
movement in Nigeria and globally.” Erwin Krautler, from Brazil, was
honoured “for a lifetime of work for the human and environmental rights
of indigenous peoples and for his tireless efforts to save the Amazon
forest from destruction.” Shrikrishna Upadhyay, and the organisation
SAPPROS in Nepal, were recognised “for demonstrating over many years
the power of community mobilisation to address the multiple causes of
poverty even when threatened by political violence and instability.”
Due to the loss of a family member, Mr Upadhyay was represented by
Jyoti Bhattarai, his daughter, and Narendra Bahadur, the Executive
Director of SAPPROS. The organisation, Physicians for Human
Rights-Israel, was awarded “for their indomitable spirit in working for
the right to health for all people in Israel and Palestine,” and
represented in Stockholm by its president and founder, Ruchama Marton.

Uniting against environmental degradation

Mr Bassey, in his
statement at the press conference, urged people around the world to
join hands and stand against rampaging corporate interests to defend
our planet and build a sane future.” “With about 60 percent of the
world’s crude oil reserves already exhausted, it is stunning to see
policy makers believing they can run into eternity on less than half a
tank,” he said. “As the world seeks cheap energy, someone has to pay
for it. With regard to the fossil fuel sector, those paying the price
for others to enjoy are the communities on whose territories oil is
found, the degraded environments and of course the global atmosphere.”

While describing
the extent of poverty in Asia, Mr. Bahadur insisted that ‘the poor must
become subjects of development rather than objects’. “Nepal has the
highest level of poverty in South Asia,” he said. “Two-thirds of our
population are poor, which contributes to the persistence of conflict.
Yet, Nepalese experience has shown that we can make poverty history if
we trust the ingenuity of the poor. To help the poor overcome poverty,
we need to adopt a holistic model of social mobilisation, which
includes technology, institutional development, infrastructure, market
access, and above all capacity-building to manage local resources. The
poor are not the problem but part of the solution. Thus, we need to
trust them.”

In a congratulatory
letter by the United Nations Environment Programme, signed by its
Executive Director, Achim Steiner, the agency said Mr Bassey’s “work in
bringing serious environmental and human rights issues to the
forefront, in particular campaign on the impacts of the oil industry in
Nigeria is admirable,” adding, that, the UN agency would welcome advice
from ERA on its work in Ogoniland.

The Right Livelihood Award was founded in 1980 and presented
annually in the Swedish Parliament to honour and support those offering
practical and exemplary answers to the most urgent challenges facing
the world. It is often referred to as the ‘Alternative Nobel Prize.’

President Goodluck
Jonathan has advised naturalised Nigerians to discharge their
fundamental obligations and responsibilities faithfully, loyally and
honestly, to enable them serve their new country better.

He said this in
Abuja yesterday at the presentation of Citizenship Certificates of
Naturalisation and Registration to 82 foreign nationals and expressed
the hope that the beneficiaries will justify the confidence reposed in
them by the government and people of Nigeria.

The president spoke
through the Minister of Interior, who was represented by the Minister
of State for Interior, Humprey Abbah urged them to exhibit exemplary
behaviour in their conduct as Nigerian citizens.

“The president has
given you visa to be full citizens of Nigeria and it is now up to you
to discharge your conduct and loyalty to your new country( Nigeria )”,
the Minister said.

He further said the
exercise has also affirmed the status of Nigeria as a respected member
of the international community, committed to international laws.

The president said
in spite of differences in race, creed and colour, humanity is one and
the difference between nations should be attributed more to the
pursuits of national interests as against the exploitations of
primordial sentiments.

He said the process of naturalisation helps in bringing countries closer and thereby reducing conflicts.

“We must therefore take advantage of occasions of this nature to contribute our quota to the achievement of world peace.”

Place in the world

Mr Abbah in his
contribution said the federal government has continued to give Nigeria
a new image through the execution of many projects that are intended to
leave a legacy for many generations..

He said one of the objectives of the federal government is to lay a

solid foundation
that will turn Nigeria into one of the 20 great economies of the world
by the year 2020. “To achieve this global vision, the government is
determined to encourage and attract foreign investments into the
country,” he added.

Out of the 82
persons that were given certificates of citizenship, 38 are by
naturalisation, 44 by Registration while 15 are past approvals
communicated after last year’s ceremony .

A chartered accountant, Abayomi Sofolayan, has been
sentenced to 18 months in jail for conniving with three staff of
Oceanic Bank Nigeria Plc, to defraud the Federal Inland Revenue Service
(FIRS) of N7.3 million.

The judge, Abimbola Obaseki, handed down the 18-month
jail verdict at a Markurdi Federal High Court yesterday after Mr
Sofolayan pleaded guilty to a 12-count charge of forgery, fraudulent
diversion of cheques, conspiracy and nine other related charges. The
Prosecuting Counsel, James Binang, said the accused persons, Jacob
Dzurgba, Abayomi Sofolahan, James Uwalaha, Deji Sanni, Afolabi Suleiman
(now at large) and Etuk Umo fraudulently paid the sum of N5million,
being tax payment made by Guardian Newspapers Limited, into a
fictitious FIRS Account, No. 3111750000240 with Skye Bank at Old Otukpo
Road, Makurdi, Benue State. He said they committed an offence
punishable under Section 516 of the Criminal Code Act Cap C28 Laws of
the Federation of Nigeria 2004.

According to him, the accused persons followed this
up with another attempt to steal the sum of N7.3million, being tax
payments made by Guardian Newspapers Limited into a fictitious FIRS
Account, No. 3111750000240 with Skye Bank in Makurdi, Benue State. Mr
Sofolayan already refunded the sum of N2.5 million. But for one of the
10-count charges, Mr Sofolayan was fined the sum of N100. Ms Obaseki,
however, gave him no option of fine for counts three, ten and eleven.

How it worked

Mr Binang told the court that the suspects forged a
letter, captioned ‘Application for Current Account Opening’ dated 22nd
March 2010, purportedly written and signed by Ifueko Omoigui Okauru the
Executive Chairman, Federal Inland Revenue Service, addressed to the
Business Development Manager, Skye Bank Nigeria, 88 Old Otukpo Road,
Makurdi, Benue State, without lawful authority. He said the accused
persons used the letter to fraudulent open an account of the Federal
Inland Revenue Service Account No. 3111750000240 with the bank.

Emmanuel Igbokwe, the Branch Manager of Skye Bank, who represented
the bank, was asked to deposit the sum of N5 million as deposit before
he could earn his freedom. He was still being detained as at about 6 pm
yesterday. The accused staff were handed stringent bail terms. One was
that they must bring a surety who must be a civil servant of the rank
of Level 12 and above, or a businessman with property in Makurdi.

A federal high
court in Abuja yesterday ordered Charles Okah and three others accused
of terrorism and treasonable felony to be remanded in the custody of
the State Security Service (SSS) till December 15, 2010 when hearing of
their bail application will be taken.

The prosecution
filed two separate charges against the men: an eight count charge
concerning the October 1st bomb blast near Eagle Square, Abuja and a
one-count charge of 22 paragraphs bordering on explosion at a
post-amnesty seminar organized by Vanguard Newspapers in Delta state
where governors of Delta, Edo and Imo were in attendance.

The presiding
judge, Gabriel Kolawole, ordered the SSS to ensure that the accused
person are given access to their counsel and members of their family in
order for them to have adequate time and facilities to prepare their
defence.

He also ordered the
prosecutor to, within a period of 30 days from yesterday, provide the
proof of evidence to the defence counsel in order for them to prepare
for their case.

Delivering ruling
on the application of the defence counsel that their clients be
remanded in prison custody and not SSS detention,

Mr Kolawole said
“It would be in the interest of justice to remand the accused in the
custody of SSS so as not to compromise their security,” adding that the
decision “shall be subject to review on the next hearing.” He further
ordered the accused persons to file and serve their bail application to
the prosecution within 48 hours, just as he asked the proecution to
file and serve his reply within 72 hours upon receipt of the service
from the defence lawyers.

The charges

The prosecutor,
Alex Izinyon in the one count charge said “That you Charles Okah, and
Obi Nwabueze between the months of September 2010 and October 2010 both
months inclusive, in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja within the
jurisdiction of the court deliberately and intentionally participated
in the commission of terrorists act, to wit, causing the explosion of
dynamite near the Eagle Square Abuja, venue of Nigeria’s 50th
Independence Anniversary celebration and thereby committed an offense
contrary to and punishable under Section 15 (2) of the Economic and
Financial Crimes Commission (establishment) Act 2004.

The second charge
of one count reads, “That you Charles Okah, Obi Nwabueze ,Tiemkemfa
Francis Osvwo (aka General Gbokos) between 13 day of March, 2010 and 14
October 2010 both days inclusive at the Federal Capital Territory,
Abuja and diverse places in Nigeria within the jurisdiction of the
court, did levy war against the state in order to intimidate or over
throw the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and you thereby
committed an offense contrary to and punishable under Section 37 (1) of
the Criminal Code, Cap 77 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria (LFN) 1990.

Specifically in the
17th paragraph of the one count charge, Federal the government said
that “Sometime in March, 2010, Obi Nwabueze took Bassey Umoren to
Emmanuel Allison’s house in Port Harcourt where the false compartment
were constructed into the booth of the two cars which concealed with
time regulated explosive devices that were detonated at Government
House Annex, Warri for the purpose of levying war against the state.”

Before their
arraignment yesterday, the accused persons had been brought before a
Chief Magistrate court in Abuja where their lawyers told the court that
it has no jurisdiction to hear the matter.

They also prayed
magistrate, Hafsat Soso to ensure that the matter is taken to the
appropriate high court. It was for this reason that the case was
transferred to the federal high court.

The Central Bank
governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, on Tuesday, stuck to his “unpleasant
truth” about the actual percentage of the national overhead cost
allocated to the National Assembly. Mr. Sanusi stood his ground when he
appeared before a selected committee of the House of Representatives,
led by the Minority Leader, Ali Ndume.

Although the
Tuesday session with the members was more civil, and devoid of the
altercations witnessed during the Senate’s session last week with the
CBN governor, both Mr. Sanusi and the House of Reps members bandied
three conflicting figures during session.

While the members
based their arguments on the figures in the 2010 budget to arrive at 9%
and 3%, the CBN governor insisted on the 25.4% based on figures from
the budget office, certified by the presidency.

“I remain convinced
that the figures I used based on the most authentic official source
that I have, are correct,” Mr. Sanusi who was armed with detailed
slides said.

Mr. Ndume, who led
the interrogating members, however, said they did not convene the
session to pass blame but to make clarifications.

Unpleasant truth

Mr. Sanusi insisted
that even though it is the unpleasant truth, the figures he used in his
computations were the actual, but not budgeted figures, and that he had
no reason to malign the lawmakers.

“The truth might be
unpleasant, but that should not be taken either as an insult or an
attack, and it should actually not lead to any kind of confrontation
between the CBN and any arm of government…

“But there are
times where we have to say things that people do not find pleasant,” he
said. He gave an instance a few months ago where the headline of a
story in a national newspaper quoted the CBN governor has saying
Nigeria is pursuing wrong economic policies.

“The president
called me. He said this is the headline in the papers, that you said
the federal government is pursuing the wrong economic policies and you
are the CBN governor. Were you misquoted or misrepresented?

“I said no, I said
it. I said that no matter what we do to our banking, if we do not fix
the power sector, Nigeria’s economic problems will still persist. And
the president said I agree with you.

“Anytime we talk
and people are not happy , they take it like an attempt to bring them
down, undermine them, or to attack democracy. What happens is that
other public officers who have this responsibility then decides that
for fear of being misrepresented or misinterpreted, he will not speak
up, and that is what will undermine the very structures we are putting
in place,” said Mr. Sanusi.

High recurrent expenditure

Although the two
parties disagreed on the overhead allocations to the National Assembly,
the members agreed with Mr. Sanusi that the nation might soon be
plunged into an overwhelming debt as it is spending much on recurrent
expenditure and giving less to capital expenditures that actually drive
the economy.

They agreed with the CBN governor that the nation has consistently spent less on capital projects, while borrowing more.

“We in the National Assembly, especially the House of
Representatives, have been saying the same thing you said since the
last two years,” Ayo Adeseun, chairman, house committee on
appropriation, said.

Despite
international calls for him to step down, Cote d’Ivoire’s controversial
President Laurent Gbagbo yesterday named a new cabinet, omitting from
the list his rival for the presidency, Alassane Ouattara.

Charles Koffi Diby,
who handled talks on $3 billion debt relief with the IMF and World
Bank, has been widely praised for managing the nation’s economy but he
is not in the cabinet either. There are speculations that Mr Ouattara,
who says he won a disputed November 28 poll, had persuaded one of the
few internationally known members of Mr Gbagbo’s team onto his side.

However, Mr Diby failed to turn up at the first meeting of the parallel cabinet on Monday.

Mr Ouattara has
been recognised as president by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, U.S.
President Barack Obama and others, while Mr Gbagbo retains control of
the army and has dismissed calls to stand down as outside interference.

Mr Gbagbo gave the
finance and economy portfolio to Desire Dallo, former managing director
of San Pedro port, according to a list handed out at the first meeting
of the new cabinet.

Mr Gbagbo’s former
prime minister Guillaume Soro has already switched sides to Ouattara,
replaced by Gilbert Aka, a university boss and longtime Gbagbo ally
unknown to many Ivorians.

Ble Goude, leader of pro-Gbagbo militia, the Young Patriots, was named his youth and employment minister.

Vice President
Namadi Sambo has observed that for Nigeria to achieve her developmental
objectives as contained in the Vision 20:2020 blue print, she must
build her local engineering capacity.

Mr Sambo who
described this an engineering challenge, noted this at the State House,
Abuja, when a delegation from the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE),
led by its President, Olumuyiwa Ajibola visited him.

“It is our belief
that for any country to develop, we must develop and use our
engineering capacities, therefore, it has been our policy to ensure
that we address the deficiencies in the field of engineering,” he said.

Mr. Sambo further
noted that the development level of a country is measured by the number
of engineers the country can boast of, so the administration had made
it a cardinal principal to engage local engineering firms in all areas
of infrastructural development.

“I am pleased to inform you that some of our major projects are being undertaken by some of your members,

like the East-West Coastal road and many similar projects spread across the country”, he said.

The vice president
used the occasion to further assure his visitors of government’s
willingness to always partner with the Society to achieve the
developmental goals of Nigeria.

He therefore
challenged them to be part of the decision making process, saying “we
must sacrifice for our country, and the more engineers we have
participating in politics and taking political decisions the better it
will be for this country.”

Earlier, the
leader of the delegation, Mr. Ajibola, while commending, the vice
president for his professionalism used the occasion to solicit
government’s support and encouragement to patronize Nigerian engineers
in its infrastructural development programmes, noting that Nigerian
engineers have the capacity to meet the challenge.

In her remark, the
President of the World Federation of Engineering Organizations (WFEO),
Maria Prieto Jesus Laffarguer, urged the government to promote the
engineering profession in order to help eradicate poverty, address
demographic imbalance and climate change situations.

In attendance were, Musa Sada, Minister of Mines and Steel
Development, Nuhu Somo Wya, Minister of State Power, Adel Al kharafi,
president elect WFEO and Barnabas Gemade. Others were Emeka Ezeh,
Director-General Bureau for public Procurement (BPP), M. B. Shehu,
Deputy President, NSE, Ife Akintunde, Jide Adeniji, Ibrahim Khaleel
Inuwa, Mustapha Bulam, Kashim Al, Felix Atume, Joana Olu Maduka,
Abdiodun Akinwande and Emmauel Awuapila.