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Lawmakers of the
Action Congress of Nigeria, in line with their party’s leadership, on
Thursday broke ranks with their colleagues over the ongoing amendment of
a section of the 2010 Electoral act to enable lawmakers become part of
the executive council of their parties.

The ACN lawmakers,
who said the amendment was self-serving, announced their position on
Thursday after a meeting with the party leadership in the National
Assembly complex, Abuja.

They said the
current amendment of the electoral act, which seeks to order all
political parties to have a National Executive Committee comprising all
the federal lawmakers, offends the Constitution and stifles the ability
of the parties to make their own constitutions and decide who attends
their executive committee meetings.

“Instead of the
feeble defence offered by its authors, that it will strengthen internal
democracy in the political parties; we say unequivocally that it can
only succeed in turning the parties to political zombies,” Usman Bugaje,
the party’s national secretary who represented the party chairman said.
“How can a zombie party thrive on internal democracy? This is a paradox
that is glaring to all except those behind the obnoxious misadventure.”
Mr Bugaje argued that prescribing uniform constitution for the parties,
with regards to the constitution of the party’s NEC, the conduct of
primaries and the other party guiding principles in the 2010 electoral
act, would limit the choice of which party Nigerians could opt for.

“This to us is like
prescribing one medicine for all ailments. This is wrong. It is not for
the National Assembly or INEC to tell all parties how to conduct their
primaries. Democracy cannot grow through such regimentation. We reject
it in its entirety,” Mr. Bugaje said.

Internal democracy

The PDP-led national
assembly, however, had argued that the various amendments in the 2010
electoral act will ensure internal democracy in the political parties.

“The talk about
internal democracy, as a reason for regulating party primaries, by the
PDP-led National Assembly, is a smokescreen, self-serving move. While
the PDP may have a reason for doing that – to satisfy a faction, we at
the ACN do not have such problems and should not be railroaded into one a
one-size-fits-all kind of arrangement. It is up to parties to determine
how their candidates will emerge,” Mr. Bugaje said.

The party criticised
almost every amendment in the electoral act, ranging from the
sequencing of elections to the proposed amendment which will make most
of the legislators member of their party’s NEC.

“We believe that the
ongoing attempt by federal lawmakers to gate crash into NECs of various
political parties is anti-democratic, self-serving and downright
unconstitutional. The national assembly as a whole whether senators or
House of Representatives fully associate ourselves with the position of
the party on this issue,” Mamora Olorunmibe, leader of ACN caucus in the
national assembly said.

Femi Gbajabiamila,
leader of ACN in the House of Representatives corroborated Mr. Mamora’s
stance. He also said some members are being victimized for opposing
contents of the proposed 2010 Electoral act amendment bill.

The world’s poorest
countries are trapped in boom-bust cycles and their medium-term
prospects are a cause for concern, the United Nations Conference on
Trade and Development (UNCTAD) said in a report issued on Thursday in
Addis Ababa.

The 49 states,
categorised as Least Developed Countries (LDCs), weathered the global
downturn better than expected, but they now need a new systematic
international approach to development, rather than ad hoc emergency
measures, to reduce their economies’ reliance on raw materials, UNCTAD
said.

“They have not been
able to benefit from any global trends to wean themselves away from
increasing dependence on commodities,” UNCTAD secretary general,
Supachai Panitchpakdi, told a briefing.

The 258 report,
which was titled ‘Towards a New International Development Architecture
for LDCs,’ said though these countries were coping with recession, they
remain stuck in ‘boom-and-boost cycle’, which have long plagued their
economies, and that their medium-term prospects posed a cause for
concern.

The report said the
49 poorest countries need better-designed financing – rising from an
estimated $4 billion to $17 billion per annum by 2030 – to cope with the
difficulties posed by climate change.

“They will have
difficulty escaping poverty and ending the chronic vulnerabilities, and
even boom periods have done little to improve living standards in those
countries,” it stated.

Optimistic on growth

It said that
aggregate growth indicators showed that average GDP growth in LDCs was
4.3 percent in 2009, higher than in other developed countries.

It also stated that
donors appear reluctant to scale up their external assistance, but that
the new multilateral lending may have partly cushioned the downturn, but
it certainly contributed to the build-up of external debt.

“While debt owed to
official creditors remains far below its level of year 2000, in the
median African LDCs it increased by 1.5 percent of GDP,” the report
stated.

“By April 2010, a
total of 10 LDCs were in a situation of debt distress and another 10
were at high risk of debt distress,” it said.

The report, which was jointly presented by Jean-Noel Francois of the
Trade and Investment Department of the AU Commission, and Maryam
Dessables of the UN Economic Commission for Africa, said in spite of the
challenges, most of the LDCs would achieve the MDGs by 2015.

The Anglican
Communion plans to open a university in Jos, Plateau State to enhance
educational development. Nicholas Okoh, the Primate of All Nigeria
,Church of Nigeria, Anglican Communion, has said.

Mr. Okoh disclosed
this on Thursday in Abuja during the Anglican Educational Stakeholders’
Forum, stating that although the communion already has two universities
located in Oyo and Anambra states, it has seen the need to open another
one in Jos.

He said the
communion plans to build the new university so that those who want to go
there for ease of proximity can access to education there, instead of
travelling to far away Oyo, and Awka in Anambra States

Ihiala local
government council of Anambra State has received more than N9 million
from the Federal Government/World Bank for the Fadama III programme.

Augustine Egolum,
the director of agricultural services in the council, said on Thursday
in Ihiala that “our Fadama User Groups (FUGs) have received close to N10
million from the Federal Government for the various Fadama III projects
in the council, and the projects so far are sailing smoothly.

“We commend the
Federal Government/World Bank for the initiative, which has come to
change the fortune of farmers and other farming related productive
enterprises in the council area. It has also created jobs for school
leavers in our communities, especially in oil palm processing, animal
husbandry, and fishery projects,” she said.

She added that the money was disbursed in tranches to the various FUGs in the area.

Ebonyi rice farmers
may record low production due to the re-emergence of pest known as
‘rice gall-midge’, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports.

The largest rice
producing Izzi and Ikwo Local government councils are worst hit by the
pest attack.Emmanuel Echiegu, the state commissioner for Agriculture and
Natural Resources, told NAN on Thursday in Abakaliki, that the
re-emergence of the pest came to the ministry as a surprise.

‘‘We thought it had
been completely eradicated. The effect of the pest in Izzi and Ikwo from
what I saw when I visited the areas is devastating and would definitely
result in poor harvest this year’’.

“Unfortunately,we
did not distribute the tolerant varieties to farmers on time to ward off
the pests from their rice farms as we did not anticipate the
re-emergence of the pest,” Mr. Echiegu said.

The Nigeria
Association of Road Transport Owners (NARTO) on Thursday in Abuja
threatened to withdraw its services nationwide if the Federal Government
fails to tackle the challenges in the oil sector.

Lawal Isah, the
National Operations Coordinator of the association, issued the threat at
a news conference on Thursday in Abuja.He said the association would
only rescind the threat if government granted an immediate bail-out of
the oil industry,by injecting physical funds to assist stakeholders who
are directly involved in the sector.

Mr. Isah said
government must also intervene in the ongoing impasse between some major
indigenous oil marketers and some financial institutions.

He added that,
government should also wade into what he described as a “frivolous
court order’’ obtained through an ‘exparte motion’ which led to the
closure of MRS group’s accounts with all banks in the country.

Abia state
government is worried over the establishment of poultry farms very close
to residential areas, Felix Erondu, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry
of Information and Strategy, has said.

Mr. Erondu said this
on Thursday in Umuahia at a sensitsation workshop on ‘Avian Influenza’,
organised for teachers and students. He said the trend had become
worrisome considering the fact that the deadly Avian flu has not been
totally eradicated worldwide.

According to him,
health experts are also worried about the development, “that our state
has been lucky to escape the scourge is no reason for us to rest on our
oars. Let me stress that we must be vigilant at all times’’.

“The need has become compelling with the recent report on Nov. 17, of
a 59-year-old woman diagnosed with the first human case of bird flu in
Hong Kong,” he said.

The National
Assembly staff on Wednesday barricaded the main entrance to the
chambers for hours, following protest over their unpaid salaries and
allowances.

The staff, who
serve the lawmakers directly as aides and in other service departments,
alleged that the National Assembly management has refused to pay them a
100% increase in their salaries, which was due since July.

The protesting
workers, under the aegis of Parliamentary Staff Association of Nigeria,
and numbering about 400 – including the security men – flooded the
entrance to the chambers chanting solidarity songs and booing at their
director of finance, Abdulazeez Bukoye. They alleged that even though
the Senate president has approved the funds since July, their
management fixed their salary in a bank account where it will yield
interest for some months out of selfish interests.

The deputy clerk of
the National Assembly, Muyiwa Adejokun, who spoke to the protesting
workers on behalf of the management, denied the allegations, saying the
finance ministry was yet to release funds for the implementation of the
salary increase.

For the sake of a
‘distinctive identity’ and a desire to attract and retain high calibre
workforce, the National Assembly had in July approved a 100% increase
in the salaries of the National Assembly workforce. The increase was a
result of an agreement reached by the National Assembly Service
Commission and the Parliamentary Staff Association of Nigeria.

The increment is
said to have taken effect from January this year, but would be deployed
in batches: 50% to be paid immediately, while the balance will be
spread over the next eight years. The 50% balance will be added up
incrementally by 20%, 15%, and 15% after the second, sixth, and eight
year respectively.

According to George
Sekibo, the chairman, Senate committee on labour, who spoke on behalf
of the Senate, confirmed that the Senate president has approved the
payments, and asked the workers to give them within a fortnight to
verify from the finance ministry why the money has not been released.
He also requested that the workers nominate five of its members to be
part of the delegation to the finance ministry.

The workers,
however, reluctantly accepted his offer to intervene, but said they
will down tools if the delegation fails to get the money out in the
specified date.

The protesting workers spoke individually; they had no leader as their president, Rawlings Agada, absconded from the protest.

Attahiru Jega, the chairman of the
Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), yesterday, solicited
the cooperation of the National Population Commission (NPC) in the
effective discharge of the 2011 general elections.

Mr. Jega, who made the appeal when he
led a team of INEC commissioners to the premises of the NPC, stated
that it had become necessary for INEC to seek a partnership with the
NPC because of the huge scale of organisation required.

The chairman explained that some
members of the NPC were already workers in the ongoing voters’
registration exercise. He also said the commission had requested the
use of the NPC’s storage facilities to keep its materials during the
elections.

“INEC is out to partner with several bodies, because everybody is interested in seeing that every vote counts,” Mr. Jega said.

“The fact that the commission has
announced a timetable for elections shows our level of readiness and
commitment to the exercise,” he added.

Aid to INEC

The chairman of the NPC, Ismail Danko
Makama, said INEC can use the NPC’s council offices in 36 states and
the FCT, as ancillary operational bases. He told Mr. Jega and his team
that the NPC has the demographic profiles of everyone in the country
from the 2006 census and sample surveys conducted, which could be
useful to INEC. He also promised that INEC can use the commission’s
vehicles for the movement of the materials during the elections.

“The scanning technology of the NPC,
which they use to detect fake documents and identify multiple data
entry, could be useful by INEC in detecting electoral fraud and other
malpractices,” Mr. Makama said.

“[The] commission has well-equipped data processing centres across
the country that can assist INEC during the elections, and we will not
hesitate to come to their aid in whatever form they deem necessary,” he
said.

The former Governor
of Ekiti State, Segun Oni has denied the claim by the state government
that he left a debt profile of over N40 billion.

Mr. Oni, in a
statement signed by his media aide, Wale Ojo-Lanre, said there are
inconsistencies in the allegation saying two weeks ago the current
governor, Kayode Fayemi, claimed the debt stood at N30billion, “only
for him to wake up yesterday to declare that the debt has risen to over
N40 billion.”

“This is the second
time we are reacting to the lies and dishonest statements of the Action
Congress of Nigeria (ACN) governor of Ekiti State, Kayode Fayemi
concerning the debt profile left behind by the former governor of the
State, Olusegun Oni,” Mr Ojo -Lanre said.

“The imaginary debt
he inherited is just to prepare the ground for his impending
non-performance, looting of the state treasury and the N40 bond
agreement of which is already being drafted by a Lagos- based lawyer.”

State allegation

Mr. Oni, however,
claimed that the true account it left behind, as at on October 15,
2010, shows that “the bank loan and borrowings then was about N7
billion and this included the outstanding loans of N3.4 billion
obtained by civil servants in the state on which deductions are being
made from their salaries.

“On the
contractors, it is clear that Fayemi was only playing to the gallery
when he said that the total debt owed contractors amounted to N27
billion,” Mr. Oni said, declaring that it is a general knowledge that a
contract does not become a debt until it is certified completed and
contractor moves out of site.

Revealing the alleged debt profile on Tuesday, the state
Accountant-General, David Ibikunle and its Auditor-General, Adebayo
Ajayi, said the state owed contractors handling various projects in the
state about N27 billion, while the various loans obtained by the
deposed administration were said to amount toN7.5 billion.