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Nigeria’s
Ambassador to the U.S, Adebowale Adefuye, has defended the sustenance
of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) even after the
creation of the Niger Delta Ministry.

The late President
Umaru Yar’Adua announced the creation of the Niger Delta Ministry on
September 10, 2008 to deal with the problems of the oil-rich region.

Mr Adefuye was
responding to accusations at the 2010 Achebe Colloquium on Africa over
the weekend in Providence, Rhode Island, U.S., that the government was
duplicating efforts with the continued existence of the Commission.

Supporting the
diplomat, Isidore Udoh, an official of the Niger Delta World Congress,
argued on the relevance of the Commission during a panel discussion on
the Niger Delta crisis at the Colloquium.

“The government
doesn’t need to fold up the NDDC. Just like every other ministry, the
Niger Delta Ministry has extra-ministerial agencies attached to it.

“Yes, NDDC might need to be reformed but it is still serving some useful purposes,’’ he said.

Mr. Adefuye said
many countries, including the U.S had expressed interest to partner
with Nigeria in the development of the region, which accounts for the
country’s huge crude oil reserves.

He said Nigeria is
willing to enter into bilateral treaties with other nations on the
Niger Delta, in addition to strengthening the existing U.S.-Nigeria
Bi-National Commission, “which has the region as one of its mutual
area of cooperation.’’

Meanwhile, the
governor of Rivers State, Rotimi Amaechi, who was also at the
Colloquium, said there is no truth in the allegation that NDDC Managing
Director Chibuzor Ugwuoha transferred $30 million dollars in the
Commission’s offshore account to his private account in the U.K.

Mr. Amaechi was responding to a question from a participant who
alleged that Mr. Ugwuoha, who was the governor’s nominee to the
position, was involved in the illegal transfer of fund.

The decision of an
Abuja court to strike out a suit on the legality of the executive of
the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Oyo State was to prevent the
abuse of court processes since the same matter is before an Ibadan High
Court, counsel to a faction of the party, Adeniyi Akintola, has said.

Mr Akintola
described as ‘erroneous’ the interpretation given to the verdict by a
local media that the court had validated the party’s executive council
in the state.

He said the
opposition leader, Lekan Balogun, was not aware of the existence of the
Ibadan suit earlier instituted by the other party, saying the Abuja
court had to strike out the case because the one filed in Ibadan
preceded it.

The state’s media
regaled its audience with news of the Abuja court decision last week,
but with the impression that the court had cleared the executive of the
allegation of illegality hanging on its neck since its inception.

Mr Akintola noted
that the news misled the public, saying the Independent National
Electoral Commission (INEC) had also maintained that the state
executives of eight states, including Oyo, were mere sham as their
emergence did not comply with the provision of law.

“The present INEC
cannot be intimidated by any party and any party that feels otherwise
is doing so at its own peril and my candid advise for the ruling party
in Oyo State is to tread the path of honour by doing that which is
right, so that other parties will have not have undue advantage over
it,” he said.

A three-day workshop organized by the Small And
Medium Enterprise Development Agency of Nigeria, in Abeokuta, Ogun
State, was disrupted at the weekend as participants engaged each other
in a brawl over the alleged smuggling of ghost participants’ names into
the payment list by the organizers.

Trouble broke out at the end of the workshop, held at the Iwe-Iroyin
Press Centre, when the participants, drawn from all local government
areas in the state, were collecting their transport fare back to their
various destinations. While the disbursement of the money was being
carried out, some participants from the Ijebu axis of the state said
they observed that some names on the participants list include those
who failed to attend the workshop.

They, therefore, accused the
organizers of plotting to pocket the extra money. The participants
stated that there was no basis for the organizers to budget fares for
those not present at the programme, and demanded that the excess funds
be shared evenly among the remaining people. Similarly, they also
protested what they alleged were discrepancies in the disbursement of
the fare. The protest and name-callings lasted for about one hour
before it was brought under control. The organizers refused to comment
on the protest.

The Nigerian
Airspace Management Agency has condemned criticisms faulting the
nationwide functionality of the Total Radar Coverage of Nigeria
(TRACON) project.

Describing critics
of the radar system as “detractors”, the agency, over the weekend,
stated that the country’s airspace is completely under surveillance,
adding that President Goodluck Jonathan, during the commissioning of
the project, was given the opportunity to speak with various pilots on
transit directly from the Kano Airport control tower. “The president
communicated with pilots in Nigeria’s airspace and with some other
pilots across the airspace of Niger Republic,” said Abubakar Baraje,
the board Chairman of the agency, during a briefing with journalists at
the organisation’s headquarters in Lagos.

Mr Baraje said that
the system, which is one of the best in the region, has the ability to
cut across borders. “The TRACON can capture across our borders to
countries like Niger Republic, Sudan and Cameroun,” he said. “What else
are detractors seeking? For we are aware of controversies generated
over the TRACON that it wasn’t the total radar that was commissioned,
which of course is completely far from the truth. It is not responsible
for NAMA to commission a half baked equipment or bring the president to
commission something that is not complete. The installation and
operation of the equipment comes in phases and all the phases are
completed and are superbly functioning.”

The critics’ view

Some experts in the
industry have criticised the completion and commissioning of the
project on the grounds that the system does not operate in some
locations in the country; a situation which prompted members of the
House of Representatives Committee on Aviation, headed by Bethel Amadi,
to embark on a fact finding mission to the Kano radar site two weeks
ago. “This project should not be used for political games,” said Mr
Amadi. “Those who are busy spreading this falsehood should rethink
about the implications for our national image and external investors in
the aviation sector of the economy.”

Late October, Mr Jonathan commissioned the complete and operational
Total Radar Coverage of Nigeria project in Abuja. “I hope these
detractors will have a change of heart; and if they don’t, the agency
will move ahead without them,” said Mr Baraje.

The vice president,
Namadi Sambo, has refuted claims that he is plotting to take over
President Goodluck Jonathan’s job, saying the allegation is false.

“The entire story
as reported is premised on hearsay and falsehood and smacks of
sponsorship” a statement signed by the special assistant to the Vice
President on media and publicity, Umar Sani said.

He added that the
whole episode “is clearly intended to spread mischief and cause
disaffection in the formidable Goodluck/Sambo camp.

“At no time has
Sambo ever contemplated being the vice president of the federation but
for President Jonathan who nurtured and ensured its maturity.” He said
it was therefore preposterous for anyone to even speculate that Mr
Sambo will “stab the President in the back going by the synergy they
have developed which has always been a source of nightmare to their
political opponents”.

Mr Sani also said
the Mr Sambo has never minced words in condemning the consensus
arrangement by the Adamu Ciroma led Northern Leaders Political Forum.

“He has maintained
that he is the political leader of the North going by the precedence
already established in governance by his position as the vice president
and that no such group should go on a journey of usurpation. He
believed conscientiously that such an effort was an exercise in
futility,” Mr Sani said, adding that the Vice President “holds
tenaciously and cherishes his fraternal relationship with President
Goodluck Jonathan and could not have condescended so low as to embark
on a rat race with his boss”.

Mr Sani further
noted that political battles are better fought on the political as well
as electoral turf based on issues and “not through outright falsehood
sponsored on the pages of newspapers”.

“Political opponents should be prepared to confront the formidable
team of Goodluck/Sambo train which is unstoppable rather than promote
and propagate falsehood,” he said.

As the nation
approaches another election year, former Head of State, Yakubu Gowon
said yesterday that Nigeria’s leaders need prayers for God to direct
them on the right path.

Speaking in Benin
City during a visit to state governor, Adams Oshiomhole, Mr Gowon,who
is also the converner of ‘Nigeria Prays’ said his group is in the
ancient town to pray for Nigeria and to pray particularly for its
leadership at the federal, state and local government,including
religious leaders.

“We will also pray
for the country and the well-being of the people. We will pray for the
leadership that God will guide them right to do the right things for
the people,” he said. “We are going round to sensitise the people and
ask them to join us. I assure you that the body of conveners of
‘Nigeria Prays’ appreciate what you have been doing and hope that God
will answer our prayers and wish you well in everything you do.” Mr
Oshiomhole said it is true that Nigeria needs a lot of prayers to
confront the myriad of challenges facing it.“I believe in what you are
doing sir. First is the fact that being out of office does not mean you
cannot find an enviable role to play.

Outside governance,
you have continued to impact very positively on the lives of the people
and you have continued to inspire us to recognise that we can all carve
a role for ourselves,” he said. “Secondly, there is no question in my
mind that Nigeria needs a lot of prayers for God to redirect the
thoughts of Nigerian leaders and give them courage and wisdom.”

People’s leaders

The governor
stated further that power belongs to God and the power ,leaders
exercise is on behalf of the people and can only be justified when it
is used to touch the lives of the people positively.

“At this time in
Edo State, we are facing a lot of challenges including some of our
people who have resorted to criminal activities including kidnapping.
We must continue to enforce the law and pray that the good Lord touches
their hearts to recognise that whatever challenges they face cannot be
resolved through criminal acts,” he said.

Mr Oshiomhole acknowledged that there is need for citizens to rise and challenge leaders to keep their promises.

While identifying with ‘Nigeria Prays’, Mr Oshiomhole thanked Mr
Gowon for the programme and expressed the hope that the nation would
benefit immensely from it.

The bottom has
fallen out of Phillip Emeagwali’s basket of false claims. American oil
giant, ExxonMobil, has told NEXT exclusively that it has never dealt
with the American-based Nigerian scientist, contrary to Mr. Emeagwali’s
repeated claim that he wrote the equations that the company used to
simulate the flow of oil, water, and gas inside its reservoirs.

Authorities at the
Los Alamos National Laboratory, a United States Department of Energy
laboratory, where Mr. Emeagwali claimed he sourced the Connection
Machine for his award-winning experiment, also said they had never
related with the Nigerian scientist.

Even the Institute
of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, the world’s largest
organisation of computer experts, has reacted to the scandal
surrounding Mr Emeagwali by removing the scientist’s profile from its
website. Mr. Emeagwali’s bio on the site contained some contentious
claims, including one that he has a doctorate.

Mr. Emeagwali did not respond to email seeking his comment. He also did not return calls made to his Washington D.C. office.

In 1989, Emeagwali, 56, won the $1,000 prize for writing a programme for oil reservoir modeling. Afterwards,

he travelled around
the world for over two decades marketing himself as one of the
inventors of the Internet. A gullible Africa believed him, and his
native Nigeria lavishly celebrated him as the country’s most
influential scientist ever.

But in November,
leading American computer experts, including Gordon Bell, the man after
whom the prize he won in 1989 was named, exposed Mr. Emeagwali,
describing his 20-year claim that his invention gave birth to the
Internet as fraudulent.

However, Mr.
Emeagwali continued to make other claims which are now considered
largely untrue. For instance, in a series of weekly articles he wrote
for nigeriavillagesquare.com, Mr. Emeagwali said he “scribbled the
actual equations used by the oil company Exxon (now Exxon Mobil) to
simulate the flow of oil, water, and gas inside its petroleum
reservoirs.” He claimed that after learning about his discovery, Mobil
Research and Development invited him (in a letter dated March 19, 1990)
to help the company in “reservoir simulation.” Mr Emeagwali added that
he discovered that Mobil’s equations did not reflect reality and
corrected the company’s error.

But responding to a
NEXT inquiry, ExxonMobil simply disowned Mr. Emeagwali. “We are unaware
of Mr. Emeagwali’s claimed interaction 20 years ago with a prior
affiliate of ExxonMobil,” Patrick McGinn of the Upstream Media
Relations Unit of the company, said in an email from the Texas
headquarters of the oil firm, after a 10-day investigation within his
company.

Initially, Mr.
McGinn described Mr. Emeagwali’s claim as speculations to which
ExxonMobil Corporation won’t react. But when pressed, he came out to
say clearly that his company had no record of ever having dealt with
Mr. Emeagwali.

Before ExxonMobil
disowned Mr. Emeagwali, Angela Burgess, executive director of IEEE
computer society, had informed NEXT that the Nigerian scientist’s
profile on her organisation’s website had been removed following doubts
about some claims contained therein. Mr. Emeagwali provided the
information for the article, which falsely portrayed him as having
earned a first degree from the University of London and a doctorate
from the University of Michigan.

From the Los Alamos
National Laboratory also came another blow for the embattled scientist.
Mr. Emeagwali had claimed in a January 2007 TIME magazine article that,
through research, he found a “Connection Machine” at the laboratory
which had sat unused after scientists had given up on figuring out how
to make it simulate nuclear explosions.

Lost in Los Alamos

In 1987, Mr
Emeagwali told TIME, he applied for and was given permission to use the
machine. He said from his base in Ann Arbor, Michigan, he remotely
programmed the machine (in Northern New Mexico) and used it to compute
the amount of oil in a simulated reservoir, and perform 3.1 billion
calculations per second.

But authorities at the 67-year-old laboratory said the claims were “unsubstantiated – at best.”

“Several current
LANL scientists who worked directly on Thinking Machines CM-2 and CM-5
computing system development during that time frame have no
recollection of working with Philip Emeagwali,” said Kevin Roark of the
Communications Office of the laboratory.

“It is certainly
untrue that the computers “sat unused after scientists had given up” on
figuring out how to make them work. In fact, the laboratory
successfully developed codes for the CM-2 and CM-5 that were very
effective for conventional defense calculations and important aspects
of nuclear weapon assessments/design.” Meanwhile, a source in the
Federal Ministry of Information and Communication said the Minister,
Dora Akunyili, was in the process of raising a committee to investigate
allegations of fraudulent claims levelled against Mr. Emeagwali.

The source said the Permanent Secretary in the ministry, S.O. Willoughby, might head the committee.

Mrs. Akunyili had told NEXT on November 7 that government will
investigate the allegations to enable it to determine whether to remove
Mr. Emeagwali’s face from the Nigerian stamp. The minister did not
return calls made to her mobile telephone on Friday.