Nigeria Content Online

Ben Obi had barely been formally named the
campaign chief for former Vice President Atiku Abubakar before he aimed
a few salvos in the direction of the man everyone loves to hate, Mr.
Abubakar’s estranged former boss, Olusegun Obasanjo.
Mr. Obasanjo, who
was president when Mr. Abubakar served unhappily as his deputy, is
little more than a jester, Mr. Obi said Monday at a news conference in
Abuja, in response to Mr. Obasanjo’s stated reaction to news that his
former deputy had emerged as the “consensus” candidate for the North.

Mr Obasanjo had
last Thursday laughed off the selection of Mr. Abubakar while talking
to reporters in Abuja. Asked to respond to the news, the former
president had simply said, in pidgin, “I dey laugh.” “We look at him
and said the man is always comical with his comments,” Mr Obi said. “We
don’t need to engage him, we don’t intend to engage him in matters of
that nature.” Mr Obi, a former senator, also dismissed suggestions that
the former vice president will face challenges to his membership in the
PDP, as indicated at the weekend by the governor of Akwa Ibom State,
Godswill Akpabio.
He described Mr
Akpabio as a busybody who should not be taken seriously since he is
neither the chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) nor its
spokesman.
“I am happy you
refer to him (Akpabio) as Akwa Ibom State governor and not the chairman
of the PDP. He does not double as the spokesman of the PDP. That is a
busybody,” Mr Obi said.
Mr Obi will run an
Atiku campaign that has just absorbed the campaign organisations of his
three other rivals, all from the political North, who have agreed to
step down for him.

These were former military strongman Ibrahim
Babangida, the former national security adviser Aliyu Mohammed Gusau,
and the governor of Kwara State, Bukola Saraki.
Mr. Obi said the
Atiku campaign also has appointed several officials from the erswhile
rival campaigns. These include Chris Mammah, who will serve as
principal spokesman for the campaignand Bashir Yusuf Ibrahim, who will
run campaign operations.

Police, civil
defence agents yesterday watched helplessly as irate mobs protested the
federal government purported confirmation of the acting Chief Medical
Director (CMD), Giyan Joshua Ndom, a medical doctor, as the head of the
Federal Medical Centre (FMC) in Keffi, Nasarawa State.

The protests, which
was the second in a month, consisting of various interest groups among
who were Islamic religious groups, invaded the streets of Keffi to
stage a protest against the consideration of Mr. Ndom as CMD.

Although during the
first protest on October 27, a truck loaded with armed policemen
cordoned off the premises against the protesters, yesterday’s peaceful
demonstration could not be prevented by the armed policemen who were
stationed there.

The groups
protesting the purported confirmation of Mr. Ndom are: Keffi Concerned
Group (KCG), Keffi Development Foundation (KDF), Jama’atul Izalatul
Bid’awa Ikamatul Sunnah (JIBWIS), which respective leaderships led the
peaceful demonstration that lasted from 9am to about 12noon. Leading
other interested groups including artisans and commercial motorcycles
who bore leaves and placards carrying anti-Ndom inscriptions, the
leaders, Abdullahi Modibbo and Aliyu Bawa, led the protesters through
the major streets of Keffi,

to the premises of the FMC, where some management staff met them to listen to their demands.

Indigenous claim

The protesters said
they do not want an indigene of Plateau State as CMD, alleging that
Governor Jonah Jang has forced many non-indigenes in his state out of
federal appointments.

But they said the
federal government could appoint any person from any state, including
Christians, but not a Plateau man.They also accused Mr. Ndom of
corruption.

But Mr. Ndom said
he was not corrupt, just as he said it was not his fault that he
emerged the best in the screening exercise for the job.

The board has been having difficulties confirming his appointment,
however, for months now because of widespread protests which his likely
emergence is generating in Keffi. Police spokesman in the state,
Richard Jinadu, did not pick his calls for comment, neither did he
respond to a text message sent to his phone.

Nigerian scientists and researchers and
their United States of America counterparts are exploring key issues in
the development of sustainable buildings and information technology
systems in buildings design.

At a four-day international workshop on
innovative design approaches to sustainable buildings, which opened
yesterday at the National Universities Commission in Abuja, Julius
Okojie, the executive secretary of the NUC, stated that there is need
to address the challenges of collapsed buildings in order to place the
country in a good stead to achieve Vision 20-2020.

“This workshop is aimed at providing a
platform for interaction with the view to explore the extent to which
industry approaches to sustainability in the area of focus differ
between Nigeria and the USA,” he said.

“We will develop agenda for future
joint research initiatives that will facilitate knowledge exchange
between the US and Nigeria,” he added.

Mr. Okojie was hopeful that the
gathering would at the end come up with informed decision on innovative
design approaches to sustainable buildings, improve capacity of
Nigerians involved in buildings, and develop agenda for future research
collaborations between both countries. He said the target is to promote
research and development efforts which are of mutual benefits to
Nigeria and the United States.

He further disclosed that Nigeria had
already signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with George Mason
Universities, USA, which is a leading institution in the field of
innovation and entrepreneurial education.

“The MoU specifically focused on the
development of entrepreneurial education, information technology driven
students, resource centre, institutional management, as well as sharing
experiences on university-industry collaboration,” Mr. Okojie said.

The workshop was organised at the instance of the National Science Foundation of the United States of America.

Bala Mohammed, minister, Federal
Capital Territory, who also spoke at the event, explained that when the
issue of buildings in Nigeria is raised today, the first thoughts that
come to one’s mind are the qualification and technical competence of
the experts involved in the entire process, as the decline in quality
of the final output as led to the rampant cases of collapsed buildings
in recent times.

“The challenges of developing
innovative design approaches to sustainable buildings can only be
handled by science and technology experts. As a developing nation with
the task of providing the desired dividends of democratic governance,
which include housing, to about 150 million Nigerians, we are not
unaware of the fact that we can only get there through collaborations,”

Mr. Mohammed said.

President Goodluck Jonathan has approved the appointment of Munzali Jibril as the Coordinator for the take-off of the Police Academy, Wudil as a degree-awarding institution.

The appointment is coming on the heels of the approval given on May 5 this year by the President, in Council, for the up-grading of the Police Academy.

The M.D. Yusuf Committee on the reform of the Nigeria Police Force had recommended that the federal government upgrade the institution to a degree awarding status. In line with this recommendation, the government in 2009 commenced plans to transform the Police Academy which is situated in Kano State to the recommended status.

A statement by the Presidential spokesman Ima Niboro, stated that Mr. Jibril who was a member of the committee put together by the president to advise the federal government on the upgrade “is expected to coordinate all necessary activities to ensure that the academy begins to function in its new capacity as soon as the bill to provide for its establishment and incorporation as a degree-awarding institution is passed into law by the National Assembly and assented to by the President”.

The 59 year-old university administrator is a former deputy vice-chancellor (academic) of the Bayero University, Kano, former provost of the Nigerian Defence Academy and former executive secretary of the Nigerian Universities Commission (NUC).

The Libyan President, Muammar Gaddafi
yesterday demanded 5 billion Euros from the European Union to aid the
control of illegal migration into Europe.

Stressing the need to stop the influx
of illegal immigrants from Africa into Europe, Mr Gaddafi also called
on Europe to reconsider giving asylum to politicians.

He was speaking at the opening of the
3rd AU-EU Summit under the theme: “Investment, economic growth and job
creation” holding in Tripoli.

Vice President Namadi Sambo represented President Goodluck Jonathan at the event.

In addition to the theme of the Summit,
participants also brainstormed on issues related to regional
integration, infrastructure, ICT, science, and private sector
development. Views were also exchanged on energy, climate change,
space, the MDGs, agriculture and food security, amongst others.

The Summit is a concretization of the
Joint Africa-EU strategic partnership adopted in December 2007 in
Lisbon with the aim of enhancing the socio-economic and political
development of both the European Union and the African Union for the
interest of both populations.

This year’s summit is expected to last from November 29 to 30, 2010.

On the issue of Somalia pirates and the
challenge of identifying their sponsors, Mr. Gaddafi asked rhetorically
if the “United States or Somalia is the sponsor”.

Bringing up his clamour for a United
States of Africa, he expressed the need to separate cooperation with
Africa based on the regions; West Africa, South Africa, East Africa or
Central Africa, to a unified collaboration with the continent for
meaningful bargain with Europe.

He also called for the reform of the UN
that will centralize its operations to make all countries equal rather
than a few nations on the Security Council.

Mr. Gaddafi also said he would like to
see the benefits of the Mediterranean Sea impacting on the development
of Africa as well as meeting the energy needs of Africa and Europe,
making a reference to Zimbabwe having the capacity to meet the energy
need of Africa if fully utilized.

He further stated that Africa has
advantage over other continents to utilize solar and renewable energy
sources if properly harnessed.

The Libyan president also called for the shifting of the AU-EU
Summit to four years instead of the existing arrangement of three years.

The challenges of
multiple taxation and the need to improve the revenue of states to
enable them cope with the new minimum wage takes centre stage at the
123rd Joint Tax Board meeting holding in Yola.

The chairman of the
board, Ifueko Omogui Okauro, called for renewed efforts on the part of
tax administrators in the implementation of decisions made at the
meeting. She said the administrators failed to implement the policies
in the past, stressing that the development was responsible for
multiple taxation due to the different approaches to the same kind of
tax matters among member states.

Mrs Omogui-Okauro
said the phenomenon of multiple taxation is not only an “issue of major
concern” but that the “phenomenon has caused a lot of embarrassment to
our country as international communities, agencies and investors have
continued to draw our attention to the harmful effect and impact of
multiple taxation”.

Mrs Omogui-Okauro
who said the meeting with the theme “Imperative of Automation in tax
administration” has become necessary in view of the need to direct the
country’s tax system towards achieving tax payments and collections
that would be real time based.

She, however, said
reduction of multiple taxation would not be possible “without
modernizing the tax operations and infrastructural components which
hugely is obtainable through automation.”

It is expected that
the contract agreement between the joint tax board with the Telnet
consortium the service providers for the unique taxpayer identification
number (UTIN) project which is seen by the tax administrators as a
necessary step towards providing a comprehensive taxpayer database for
all the tax authorities in the country under the joint tax board would
be signed during the session.

The UTIN whose
major objectives among others includes providing comprehensive taxpayer
database has a tremendous role to play in the modernization process of
Nigerian Tax system, Mrs Omogui-okauro said.

At the meeting, the
Adamawa State government said it has recorded tremendous improvement in
the state internally generated revenue.

The state’s
governor, Murtala Nyako said the meeting of the joint, tax board was at
an auspicious time when all the various states of the federation are
doing everything possible to reform the country’s tax system with a
view to increasing internally generated revenue and thus reduce the
burden of taxation on individual citizens.

The governor
represented by his deputy Bala James Ngillari said “the government in
order to ensure prompts returns and accountability of revenue
collection from government agencies has approved the centralization of
revenue collectors.

Similarly, approval has been given for the merger of vehicle
Inspection officers (VIO) to the board of internal revenue for harmony
in road taxes administration.

The Speaker of the House of
Representatives, Dimeji Bankole, yesterday, at a public lecture at the
University of Lagos, urged students of Nigerian universities to get
involved in governance.

The event, ‘A day with an icon’ drew a
lot of students from the institution and other schools, filling the
main auditorium of the university to the brim. Mr Bankole, who spoke on
the topic, ‘The challenges and prospects of transforming the Nigerian
democratic polity’, told the students to get involved in politics in
order to chart a better course for the country. “We need the youth
working hand in hand with only mature and responsible adults,” he said.
“Adults with vision, sense of purpose and maturity that could chart a
course for the future of Nigeria. You have to stand up, you have to
defend democracy. You have to become real actors and not just
spectators on a national and political level. A frightening high
percentage of Nigerian youth are totally disconnected from the society.
They are alienated, they are annoyed. It is this sense of alienation
that led to the growth of Niger Delta militants. It is this that has
led to armed robbery and much more.”

Youth as spectators

The speaker accused most of the youth
of being spectators in national affairs and refusing to get directly
involved in governance or speak out on any injustice done to them. To
buttress his point, he asked the students how many of them knew the
names of their local government councillors and House of Representative
members and less than 10 hands were raised among the hundreds of
students present. “We don’t even know who represents us at grassroots
level and we don’t even care,” he said. “In Nigeria this year, we spent
N2.3 trillion on local government level and councillors are going to be
in charge of this money. And you don’t care how this money is spent?
And you people just sit quietly in the university and take it, and you
accept it.”

Mr Bankole recounted the early years of
Nigeria’s independence under the leadership of people like Nnamdi
Azikiwe and Ahmadu Bello. He recalled how these leaders had formed
enduring educational institutions like University of Nigeria,
University of Ife and University of Lagos while lauding their
initiatives. But 50 years after, he said, Nigeria is faced with a
myriad of problems. “It is a problem that has taken 50 years to build,”
he said. “It is an inherited problem. Nigeria is the sixth highest OPEC
crude oil producer in the world, yet we import petrol and diesel. We
are now experts at exporting what we do not have and importing what we
have. We have doctors and nurses in government hospitals who fail to
attend to patients after receiving salaries. We have lecturers who fail
to teach students after receiving salaries. We have universities that
give degrees and certificates to people of questionable character.”

The way forward

He pleaded with the students to stop
being spectators but to turn their institutions into recruiting places
for future leaders. “I’m begging you, I’m pleading with you not to be
spectators anymore,” he said. “I am pleading with you to turn your
universities and those of your friends from other universities to a
recruiting ground for future leaders in this country. You have to form
a movement. It is important because you can’t have this kind of people
continue to run the affairs of this country directly or indirectly and
make decisions that would affect you. We should stop sending our worst
to represent this country. We must be vigilant, we must protect our
democracy. I charge the Nigerian youths to use your collective strength
of about 70 percent of the entire population to contribute towards the
transformation of our democratic polity.”

Some of the students also had an
opportunity to ask the Speaker some questions. Oluwaseun Clement asked
him how much senators of the Federal Republic of Nigeria earned. “The
only commission that can state the salaries and allocation of any
public office holder is the Revenue and Mobilisation, Allocation and
Fiscal Commission,” he said in response. “Go to the Revenue
Mobilization, they would give you the list of allowances. And do not
confuse allowances with mobilization and constituency allowances. Our
job is to make laws and follow the money not to spend it.”

Also in response to a question on the plea bargain undertaken by
corrupt officials when found to have embezzled government funds by the
Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Mr Bankole said the
suggestions of the students were welcome. “It is only the beginning and
we welcome any idea from this intellectual capacity,” he said. “You
have to intervene and the only way to intervene is to probe. I’d
welcome from the Law Faculty any idea that would enhance our
performance.”</

One person is
feared dead, following a clash between rival political camps in the
Keffi local government area of Nasarawa State on Sunday.

Supporters of state
lawmaker, Tahir Alayi, and senatorial aspirant, Mohammed Abdullahi,
clashed on the street outside the Nasarawa-West campaign office of
Governor Aliyu Akwe Doma while the governor was inside commissioning
the office.

According to an
eyewitness who was at the scene, the two groups of youth set fire to
campaign posters and an unidentified member of one of the groups was
stabbed in the clash. He was said to have been rushed to the hospital,
but he died on the way.

There was no official confirmation from the police in Nasarawa
State, as the command spokesman, Richard Akoji, refused to comment.

The Petroleum
Tanker Drivers wing of the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas
Workers (NUPENG), yesterday, embarked on a nation-wide warning strike
to protest what they term the “indiscriminate victimisation” of their
workers by soldiers and the “mysterious” disappearance of petroleum
products.

NUPENG’s Lagos Zone
chairman, Tokunbo Korede, said the seven days warning strike is coming
after a 21-day ultimatum elapsed on November 26, 2010, following a
meeting with the Chief of Army Staff, the Director-General of the State
Security Service (SSS), the Minister of Labour, and the management of
the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC). Mr Korede said the
failure of the government officials at the meeting to apprehend and
prosecute the army officials behind the assassination of a tanker
driver in Jos and the disappearance of several tankers, along with
their petroleum products, within military installations has
necessitated them to push their case.

Litany of intimidation

“It is true,” he
said. “It started this morning (yesterday) after the 21-day ultimatum
we gave elapsed. It is a nationwide action with only PTD on strike now.
Our member died instantly at a joint check point of army and police
officers at Jos because he refused to be extorted. The culprits ran to
Bauchi Garrison Command, where our truck was taken. But up till now the
culprits have not being brought out and the tanker and the product are
no longer to be found.”

The union leader
mentioned other incidents, in the month of November, in which tankers
and products were seized by army personnel, only for them to vanish
“with no trace”. “In Ibadan, the army seized our truck,” he said.
“After a week our truck disappeared with no trace. Also, this November
in Port Harcourt, the army and police stopped a luxurious bus on the
road and that is how the tanker driver ran over some people. The army
immediately took our truck to the barracks. We even paid compensation
to the people that died. But after some time the truck and the product
were no more to be found.”

The NUPENG boss says if the federal government does not take the
warning strike serious, it could affect the 2011 general elections.
“For how long are they going to take to fish out those criminal
uniformed men who are behind all this?,” he said. “This is a seven-day
warning strike for those saying we are working on it to bring out a
solution. They need to take us serious because it will be too
disastrous for the coming elections.”

Reports that the
Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has launched an
investigation into the 2009 rerun election in Ekiti State has been
applauded by Nuhu Ribadu, an Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN)
presidential aspirant.

Mr. Ribadu said in Abuja yesterday that monitoring INEC officials will ensure free and fair elections in the country.

“It is the right
step in the right direction. The only way to ensure free and fair
election is when you have a system in place to check the excesses of
all officers,” he said.

Over the weekend,
a national daily reported that the Independent National Electoral
Commission (INEC) under the leadership of Attahiru Jega, has concluded
plans to begin probing the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in
charge of Ekiti state at the time of the elections, Ayoka Adebayo.
According to the report, INEC had set up a three man committee to begin
this probe as a first step to cleaning its house in preparation for the
upcoming 2011 Elections.

Protect your vote

The results of the
controversial April 2009 rerun elections in Ekiti State were widely
believed to be a result of coercion. Six months later, the results
which saw Segun Oni of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) returned as
Ekiti State governor were upturned and Kayode Fayemi of the Action
Congress of Nigeria (ACN) was sworn in as the new governor of the state.

Referring to the
upcoming 2011 elections, Mr. Ribadu, the former chairman of the
Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), urged Nigerians to
resist voters’ intimidation.

“Stand up against intimidation, protect your vote, and do what is right,” Mr. Ribadu said.

Meanwhile, the
presidential bid of the former anti-graft boss has been endorsed by the
youth wing of the Ohaneze Nd’Igbo, the World Igbo Youth Congress
(WIYC). The group, led by Ronald Okechukwu, paid a courtesy visit to
Mr. Ribadu in his campaign office in Abuja yesterday assuring him of
their support.

“There must be a 360-degree deviation from ‘Chop – I – Chop’ stance
by Nigerian political gladiators for Nigeria to really move forward.
Without fear of contradiction, I want to say that Nigeria is in dire
need of an emancipator that can save her from the current state of
abject penury,” Mr. Okechukwu said.