Archive for nigeriang

Nigerian naira eases after Central Bank forex auction

Nigerian
naira eases after Central Bank forex
auction

The Nigerian naira
eased against the U.S dollar on the interbank market on Monday after
the Central Bank sold dollars at a higher rate than last week at its
foreign exchange auction.

The naira closed at
155.85 to the dollar on the interbank market compared to 155.15 at
Friday’s close, although the sale of $400 million by state-owned energy
company NNPC helped prevent it from slipping further.

“We have NNPC funds
in the market, about $400 million, but those who received the dollars
are not selling, possibly covering their short positions with the
funds,” one dealer said.

Traders said some
of the banks were holding onto the funds in view of the closing gap
between the central bank’s official rate and the interbank rate.

The central bank
sold $300 million at 153.18 to the dollar at its latest bi-weekly forex
auction on Monday, short of the $352.54 million demanded and compared
to $350 million sold at 153.02 a dollar at the previous auction last
Wednesday.

A one percent
commission charged at the forex auction meant dollars effectively cost
154.71, narrowing the gap with the interbank rate.

NNPC is the largest
supplier of foreign exchange to the interbank market with its large
monthly dollar sales usually providing support for the local currency.

Some analysts said
continued weakness in foreign reserves compared to year-ago levels were
continuing to put pressure on the naira.

Nigeria’s foreign
exchange reserves fell to $32.66 billion by May 5 from $34.55 billion a
month earlier and remain significantly lower than a year ago. They
stood at $40.12 billion by May 5, 2010.

Dealers said the
naira could weaken further in the coming days unless the central bank
moves to reassure the market that it will continue to support the naira
at current levels.

REUTERS

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Starcomms’ shares boost at trading session

Starcomms’ shares boost at trading session

Trading activities
in Starcomms’ shares yesterday boosted market volume as the quantity of
shares transacted during the day rose by 26.11 percent as against a
marginal increase of 6.59 percent recorded last trading day. A total of
371.664 million shares were traded compared to 294.696 million at the
previous trading session last Friday.

Investors traded
69.569 million units of Starcomms’ shares worth N50.674 million on
Monday while the company’s share price, listed under the Nigerian Stock
Exchange’s Information & Communication Technology subsector, rose
by 2.74 percent to close at 75 kobo per share. The large traded volume
was followed by Zenith Bank, United Bank for Africa and FinBank.

Olugbenga Emmanuel,
a finance analyst at WealthZone Company, a portfolio management
company, said the investors’ confidence may not have been restored at
the nation’s bourse, “but some institutional investors are currently
buying some stocks at low prices; taking advantage of sellers’
enthusiasm despite the continuous decline in the entire market
performance.”

Decline continues

Meanwhile, the
market capitalisation of equities at the stock exchange depreciated by
0.16 percent at the close of trading session on Monday. The NSE market
capitalisation of the 194 First-Tier equities closed yesterday at
N8.071 trillion after opening the day at N8.084 trillion, reflecting
N13 billion losses.

The NSE All-Share
Index yesterday shed 0.15 percent or 37.96 units to close at 25,262.50
basis points from the 25,300.46 recorded at the beginning of the day’s
trading.

The number of
gainers on Monday closed lower at 33 stocks compared to the 35 stocks
recorded last Friday. UAC Properties topped the gainers chart for the
day with five percent appreciations or 80 kobo to close at N16.81 per
share. On the losers’ side, a total of 21 stocks recorded price decline
compared to the 19 stocks that declined in the previous trading day.
Diamond Bank topped the losers chart with 4.97 percent depreciation or
37 kobo to close at N7.08 per share.

At the close of
trading yesterday, the banking subsector led the most active
subsector’s chart with 195.526 million quantities of shares, valued at
N1.609 billion. Volume in the subsector was largely driven by Zenith
Bank, followed by United Bank for Africa and FinBank.

The Information
& Communication Technology subsector was second in the most active
subsectors’ chart with 69.599 million volumes of shares, valued at over
N50.689 million. Starcomms, the most traded stock for the day, largely
boosted volume in the subsector, followed by Chams Plc.

Trading activities
in the Insurance subsector was third in the chart. Investors in the
sector exchanged 33.653 million volumes of shares, valued at N19.661
million.

Deals in shares of Equity Assurance, NEM Insurance, Universal Insurance Company,

and Goldlink Insurance boosted volume in the subsector.

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Nigerian investors point way to Africa’s inclusive economic growth

Nigerian investors point way to Africa’s inclusive economic growth

Some Nigerian
businesses that took part in the just concluded World Economic Forum
(WEF) in Cape Town, South Africa, have proffered suggestions they hope
would help facilitate inclusive economic growth, not only in Nigeria,
but throughout Africa.

Group chief
executive, Oando Group, Wale Tinubu, who featured as one of the
co-chairs at the three-day forum, called for the removal of all
artificial trade barriers in the way of businesses in Africa, while the
group deputy managing director, BGL Plc, Chibundu Edozie, sees the
expansion of the scope of businesses beyond the Nigerian market as the
way to build inclusive economic growth in the continent.

Strong African strategy

Mr Edozie said
Nigerians should abandon the fixation with the size of the Nigerian
market and focus attention on the entire continent, in view of the
increasing global interest in Africa’s potentials.

“As against the
Nigerian market of about 150 million people, the African market is a
billion people, with an already existing catchment of trades and
products. Though Nigeria should remain the core focus of their business
operations, Nigerians should start looking at very strong African
strategy, considering that the market is largely African, with the
world beginning to wake up to the reality of the need for Africa’s
economic integration,” he said.

Mr Tinubu, who was
invited to by the organizers to showcase the potentials of homegrown
companies that do business to world class standards and are identified
as emerging regional champions, said removal of all artificial
bottlenecks by governments to trade facilitation in the continent is
the fastest way to achieve economic integration in the continent.

He listed those
bottlenecks to include imposition of visa restrictions to citizens of
Africa; closure of national borders between countries in Africa, and
dearth of infrastructure, like roads and rail lines for easy movement
of persons and goods as well as protectionist policies by governments
barring African companies from doing businesses in other African states.

Inclusive economic growth

“The issue of
inclusive economic growth is all about regional integration. But, there
is the urgent need to open up the borders between countries in Africa
to facilitate movement of goods and services. If Africa is to create
one big market for goods and services, people have got to be able to
move around,” he said.

“There is also the
need for the rehabilitation of the infrastructure, like roads and
railway systems, to link the countries of Africa, to ensure easy
movement of persons and goods for business. One cannot create a global
market by erecting artificial barriers.”

While commending
the common passport by the Economic Community of West African States as
a big step in the right direction to achieve regional economic
integration, Mr Tinubu said governments in the region should move
quickly to consolidate on the gains of that policy by establishing a
common currency regime.

On the home front,
the Oando boss urged government to create a path for the growth of the
downstream sector of the country’s petroleum industry, by allowing full
deregulation policy, pointing out the plan to spend about $6 billion
this year on petroleum products subsidies will continue to hurt the
economy, as it will amount to merely managing the symptoms of the decay
in the economy, rather proffer concrete solutions.

Subsidy removal

“If $6 billion to
be used in petroleum subsidy is saved for one year, the country can
build a mass transit railway system that would help solve the
transportation problem of the country, which will serve the people for
a lifetime,” he noted.

Though he
acknowledged that the decision to quickly remove the subsidy would
create shock among consumers, Mr Tinubu suggested a two to three-year
plan by government, that can outline the achievement of demonstrable
capital-intensive infrastructure that Nigerians can identify with,
using the savings from the withdrawal of petroleum subsidy.

He identified Oando as a growth business that is continually
exploring new ways to satisfy the need of the economy, adding that the
company’s growth is driven by the demand for its services and products
in the different sectors of the economy, which is not going to be
satisfied by multinationals.

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FINANCIAL MATTERS: The choices before our new democracy

FINANCIAL MATTERS: The choices before our new democracy

I readily confess
to a fascination with the “theory of unintended consequences”. But, a
small clarification before anything further is written. My interest is
not in the certainty that everything that may go wrong about a policy
choice/decision is bound to. Confronted by almost six decades of inept
and often cynical management of this economy, it is to be expected that
we have come to associate “unintended consequences” with “negative
outcomes”.

In truth, put this
way, my central narrative is but a variant of Murphy’s Law. Instead, my
enthralment is with the benefits, losses, or wrong signals arising from
a particular action, but which were not conceived of in or intended as
part of the original action plan.

Newspaper headlines
on workers’ day, May 1, were all of one flavour. In their addresses to
the different labour rallies, state governors all pledged to implement
the new minimum wage. Not too long ago, the same persons had argued
that their state government budgets could not bear the extra financial
burden from paying the new minimum wage. What had changed since then? I
could think of only one proximate explanation: the events of late
April, this year.

On balance, the
last polls in the country appear to have moved the social engagement
envelope several notches up. The “voice” of the people was heard loud
and clear, amidst the din of many a strong man’s battered ego. That was
the intended consequence of the clamour over the years for a democracy
in which every vote is counted, and every vote counts.

To the extent that
it acts as counter-weight to the dominant culture of impunity that has
come to define our polity, a representative democracy ought to improve
both the collective capacity to choose, and the different cabinet’s
will to execute.

Perverse results

However, to the
extent that politicians interpret “re-election” as the main challenge
of a democracy, then even the best voting process could have perverse
results. One such result is the rise of populist politics. Because the
masses may now have the power of the vote, what is to stop unscrupulous
politicians from pandering to its basest instincts? To take but a few
examples, a thin line separates the need for higher taxes on the
affluent in aid of society’s redistribution responsibilities from a
restraint on commerce as part of an ill-advised process of
democratising poverty; a no less blurred space sits between the need to
protect employment for locals and xenophobia.

A less than honest
treatment of the policy choices at the heart of these two examples
could lead politicians in a race to the bottom of the dump yard; more
so in a democracy where people have only just begun to savour the power
that rightfully belongs to them. Our best bet is a lot more conviction
at the top. For leadership is not solely about bending resources and
capacity to the discharge of the popular will. It is more about shaping
the choice space. Agreeing a desired destination, and selling this to
the electorate. It is, in this very narrow sense, a question ultimately
of shaping the popular will. Of leading it down paths where only
visionaries have travelled previously.

Again as between a
visionary leader and a demagogue, the thinnest of lines demarcate. So
we arrive at the point where we must agree that even under the best of
representative democracies, the threat of continued misrule in this
country does not evaporate overnight. This danger is heightened by the
prevalent low levels of education in the country, both of the classroom
variety, and of the civic one, which can only come from a long thriving
civil society.

In the absence of such a society, then, our hopes for a better
tomorrow, in the short-term, at least still depend on the quality of
leadership we get. In the absence of a functioning democracy, a
benevolent caudillo almost became a popular fancy. One, who,
understanding the need for progress along modern lines, a la Singapore
and Malaysia, rammed that vision through society. Once we change the
rules of the game through trying to run elections properly, we deny
this possibility. Instead, the new need is for conviction politicians,
prepared to argue their corner as strenuously as the most modern
constitution permits, while eschewing popular lines.

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We’re ready for CPC, says PDP

We’re ready for CPC, says PDP

The Peoples
Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday dismissed the court action instituted
by the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) challenging the electoral
victory of its presidential candidate, President Goodluck Jonathan,
saying it is not afraid of the suit.

The national
publicity secretary of the PDP, Ahmed Alkali said this while speaking
to journalists after the party’s national working committee (NWC)
meeting in Abuja.

The CPC, had
earlier, filed a petition at the Court of Appeal challenging the
victory of Mr Jonathan in the April 16 presidential election. The party
asked the court to nullify elections in about 24 states.

The PDP spokesman,
who expressed surprise that the CPC flag bearer, Muhammadu Buhari
changed his mind after pledging not to go to court to challenge the
outcome of the presidential polls, said the party is not bothered about
the court action. While acknowledging that Mr Buhari had the right to
contest the result of the elections, Mr Alkali, said that Nigerians had
thought that after the polls the system would be allowed to stabilize,
and those who lost would accept defeat to enable the winners settle
down to work.

“In some states we
lost the governorship, senatorial and house of representatives election
and we have come out to accept defeat and therefore others sould have
shown magnanimity,” he said.

Constitutional rights

“It is the right of
anybody whose loses election. If you stop him, what will be the basis
for that?” Alkali said. “The only unfortunate thing is that the CPC
candidate promised initially that he won’t go to court. We don’t know
why he changed his mind. The party will prepare to meet him in court.
PDP has no reason to be afraid. Everybody is commending the elections
and the chairman of INEC for conducting transparent polls.”

Mr Alkali said the
PDP was excited over its victory in most of the states as well as its
winning majority of the seats in the National Assembly.

He praised Mr
Jonathan for ensuring transparent elections were held in the country.
Mr Alkali stressed that for the first time the country had elections
that were judged as transparent and open by both domestic and
international observers.

The PDP spokesman,
who lamented the party’s loss of five states – Zamfara, Oyo, Imo, Ogun
and Nasarawa – in the governorship election, said, “This is a sacrifice
that is high for the party. We won some seats in the National Assembly
though. For us, it was a huge loss. We also gained Kano.”

“We as a party have
demonstrated a lot of maturity because we did not instigate violence
rather we became victims,” Mr Alkali said. “You will recall the action
of our opponents after the presidential election. We commiserate with
the family of those who lost their lives and property.”

Biometrics to the rescue

Meanwhile, the CPC
yesterday claimed that transiting from a government to another via the
ballot box has always been problematic in the country.

Abubakar Malami,
its national legal adviser added that, “With every election, including
the last presidential election, the electorates continue to lose
confidence in the ability of the ballot box to express their will. This
is a dangerous trend that must not be allowed to continue, lest we find
our country sleepwalking into a disaster that we may not come out of.”

Mr Malami spoke
yesterday in Abuja at a briefing on the party’s petition which was
filed at the Presidential Election Tribunal.

He added that based
on lessons learned from past election tribunal cases, the party will
use scientific means to prove its case at the tribunal. “This case will
therefore depend mainly on the authentication and verification of the
fingerprints on the disputed ballot papers cast.”

“To the CPC, this
use of the Forensic/Biometric system based on INEC’s capturing of all
the 10 fingers of every voter is a novel idea that can help solve
forever the challenges of multiple voting and outright concoction of
results; two critical issues in our electoral malpractices,” Mr Malami
said. “Our present case in the tribunal is thus aimed at establishing
the truth and preventing future elections malpractices in our country’s
democratic experiment”.

Mr Malami
commiserated with the families of those who died and lost properties in
the post election violence that erupted in some northern states after
the declaration of the presidential elections results.

On the subject of the zoning of the positions of the senate
president, and the speaker of the house of representatives, the PDP
spokesman, Mr Alkali, refused to disclose the decision of the committee
on the sharing of the offices. He however said that the party will make
its decision public at the appropriate time.

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Judiciary strike frustrates elections tribunal in Delta

Judiciary strike frustrates elections tribunal in Delta

The strike embarked
upon by judiciary workers in Delta State on Monday stalled the
proceedings at the Elections Petition Tribunal sitting in Asaba.

The News Agency of
Nigeria (NAN) reports that the tribunal failed to sit on arrival at the
venue designated for it, as the premises had been locked by the
workers, who were on strike.

The striking workers pasted notices around the courts stating that the action would last indefinitely in the state.

The Secretary of the tribunal, Deborah Musa, told NAN that the strike had paralysed activities in the tribunal.

“We arrived for
work this morning and found the whole place locked up and we saw the
notice that judiciary workers in the state are on an indefinite strike.

“I quickly rushed
to look for the leaders of the workers and for more than one hour I
begged them to come and open the premises so that we can evacuate our
files and other items,” she said.

Asked where she would put the files, Mrs Musa said, “I don’t really know where I am taking them to.

You know, we don’t know anywhere or anybody here. Maybe I will put them in my hotel room in the meantime.”

Harmonised salary

When contacted, the
Vice-Chairman of the Judiciary Workers Union of Nigeria (JUSUN), James
Onanowe, said, “the workers want to be included in the harmonised
public service salary.”

He said that the union resorted to strike when the state government failed to respond to its letter on the issue dated April 4.

He added that the
decision to embark on the strike was taken by the union’s leadership on
Friday, adding that “before we took that decision, we exhaustively
deliberated on the matter.”

Also in his own
comments, the Commissioner for Information, Oma Djebah, said he was not
aware of the workers’ strike and pleaded for time to “find out the real
issues”.

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‘Mother and Child Hospital Akure is the busiest in Ondo’

‘Mother and Child Hospital Akure is the busiest in Ondo’

About 14,216 babies have been delivered in the last 15 months at the Mother and Child Hospital in Akure.

Disclosing this to
reporters at a news conference in the state capital yesterday, the
State Commissioner for Information, Ranti Akerele, explained that an
average of 20-25 deliveries are recorded daily, thereby making it the
busiest maternity hospital in Ondo State.

The 100-bed
facility is dedicated to the care of pregnant women and children less
than five years of age, offering tertiary level health services free of
charge. Mr Akerele explained that the management of the hospital is
currently working towards a partnership with the London School of
Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Modern equipment

“As at 2 May 2011
about 15 months of operations,10,315 pregnant women, and 14,216
children (2,754) as pediatric inpatients have been registered and
treated with about 20 percent of them being non-residents of Ondo
State.

“Today the facility
at the Mother and Child hospital is amongst other things, a unique and
cost effective digitalised drug procurement system that has practically
eradicated out of stock syndrome, the bane of many free health schemes
across the country.

“The mother and child hospital has at its procession, state of the
art training equipment including electronic force monitoring birthing
and airway management simulators for life like practical demonstrations
and applications on emergency care.”

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One discharged, others get bail in N12b pension scam

One discharged, others get bail in N12b pension scam

A Federal High
Court in Abuja yesterday discharged one out of the seven accused
persons standing trial for allegedly defrauding the pension office of
the Head of Service of the Federation of Nigeria of N12 billion.

Counsel to the
Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Godwin Obla, asked the
court to discharge the fifth accused person, Mohammed Katun Ahmed,
declaring that the commission was no longer interested in prosecuting
him. It was however gathered that the EFCC plans to use him as a
prosecution witness.

At yesterday’s
sitting, a 134-count charge against the persons for their alleged
involvement in the scam was read to them. They all pleaded not guilty
to all the charges.

The suspects are
Sani Teidi Shuaibu, former director, pension administration in the
Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation; Phina
Ukamaka Chidi, former deputy director (finance and accounts), and Aliyu
Bello, a personal assistant to Mr Shuaibu.

The other accused
persons are Garba Abdullahi Tahir, Mohammed Katun Ahmed, Emmanuel
Olanipekun, Abdullahi Omeiza, Computer Plaza, Essential Gadget
Ventures, Mobis Point Investment Ltd, Obista Enterprises, Shallow Well
Ventures, Mof Investment Ltd, Zumba Resources, Pam Investment and
Properties Ltd, Moshfad Enterprises, Newgate Projects Ltd, RedWings
Energy Ltd, RedWing Procurement Services Ltd, and Woodland Industries
Nigeria Ltd.

Others are Nwab
Tessy Enterprises Nig, Chris J. Junior Ventures, Uthaka Nigeria Ltd,
Bashinta Nigeria Ltd, Haleath Enterprises, Gozinda Enterprises, Omozua
Ventures, S.S. Badejo Entreprises, Lopee Ventures, Fafama Oil and Gas
Ltd, Fafama Estate Developer Ltd and Riba-Ile Petroleum Ltd.

Two of the
suspects, Mr Bello and Mr Omeiza, who were absent from court the last
time, on account of which the court ordered a bench warrant for their
arrest, were in court yesterday.

After their
arraignment, counsel to Sani Shuaibu, Sunday Ameh and Chris Uche, and
counsel to the other accused persons, both pleaded with the court to
grant their clients bail since the alleged offence was not a capital
offence, adding that they have been under administrative bail by the
court and have never jumped bail. The EFCC counsel did not oppose the
bail application.

The presiding
judge, Adamu Bello, granted bail to the accused persons in the sum of
N10 million and a surety in like sum. The surety must be resident in
Abuja and must possess landed property within the jurisdiction of the
court; the land title must be verified by the deputy chief registrar of
the court. Their international passports and that of the sureties are
also to be deposited in court and they are to report to the EFCC every
Monday of the week until investigation is over and that they should be
remanded in prison custody if they fail to meet the bail condition.

The accused are
under trail for using ghost pensioners to fraudulently pay N2 million
and N3 million into their accounts monthly, later diverting the sums by
awarding fictitious contracts to the above listed companies which they
managed. The agency found out that out of over 141,000 names on the
list of pensioners, only 90,000 were genuine, meaning that the 51,000
other names on the list were fake but were all receiving money from the
federal government, thus causing the bill to balloon to well over N3
billion.

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Ogun governor-elect sets up prep team

Ogun governor-elect sets up prep team

The Ogun State governor-elect, Ibikunle Amosun,
yesterday inaugurated a policy working group, comprising five
committees with a mandate to work out modalities for the efficient
performance of his administration when he assumes office May 29.

At the ceremony which took place at the spacious
Hubert Ogunde Hall of the June 12 Cultural Centre in Kuto, Abeokuta, Mr
Amosun explained that he had developed a five-point agenda derived from
the progressive programmes and manifestos of his party, the Action
Congress of Nigeria (ACN).

According to him, the group has been divided into six
sub-committees, namely: health, education, agriculture, rural
development and rural industrialisation, lands, housing and urban
renewal committee, budget and economic planning and security.

Mr Amosun added that the main committees would
coordinate the various work groups relevant to their respective focal
areas, stressing that the terms of reference include: assessment of the
current state of affairs, identifying the challenges and opportunities
that could be leveraged, identifying the required transitional
initiatives and roadmap to attain the goals.

He said the reports are expected in two weeks’ time,
adding, “We recognise that this is a rather short duration.
Nonetheless, we trust that these eminent personalities are capable of
working around every constraint there may be, including time, to
deliver the objectives of this assignment.

“The other area I will request committees and the
work group to devote attention to is the funding of programmes and
projects. The precarious state of the finances of Ogun State is well
known to merit any rehash here. It is therefore imperative that some
thought be devoted to identifying creative sources of funding for the
implementation of the policies and programmes,” Mr Amosun appealed.

“It is my hope and prayer that the policy document and more
importantly its implementation will become a reference point in
responsive governance in the country. It is indeed one key element of
the process designed to meet the yearnings and expectations of the good
people of Ogun State,” he said.

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Expert suggests way to decongest courts

Expert suggests way to decongest courts

One way of
achieving quick administration of justice and decongestion of cases in
the courts is by amending the 2010 Constitution to give power to
traditional rulers to resolve minor disputes, the administrator of the
National Judicial Institute (NJI), Umaru Eri, has said.

Mr Eri said this on
Monday in Abuja at the opening of a workshop on arbitration and
alternative dispute resolution for judges and khadis with the theme:
“Effective use of Arbitration and ADR for Better Justice Delivery.”

According to Mr
Eri, “Traditional rulers of today can be effectively engaged to assist
in sanitising delay in the administration of justice by amending the
Constitution to give them powers to resolve minor disputes. Rightly or
wrongly, that is my personal view and no more. I hope the National
Assembly will give our traditional rulers this role in our
Constitution.” Furthermore, he said before the introduction of the
present court system in the country, disputes were traditionally
resolved by village elders by way of mediation aimed at amicable
settlement of such disputes. This system was quick, cheap and did not
breed bad blood.”

Mr Eri said he
grew up to see elders and traditional rulers settle disputes in their
various communities in the country. “The colonial masters came and
tampered with this tradition. Courts were established in northern
Nigeria and the native ones graded ‘A’, ‘B’ and ‘C’. So it was in other
parts of the country. But the colonial masters still retained elders,
district Heads and traditional rulers of all grades as operators of
these courts. Performance was undoubtedly appreciative.

“I, therefore,
urge this workshop to have a rethink and come out with a judicial
policy for consideration by the authorities. To me, and like minds, the
Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) mechanism is better called African
Dispute Resolution mechanism. The present inherited procedure is the
alternative.”

He added that the
nation’s present court system of dispute resolution “has substantially
remained the relic of the British colonial rule in Nigeria as in some
other Commonwealth countries.”

According to him,
“Bad blood is injected to the extent that bad relationship becomes
inevitable. No one would forgive another easily for the fact of
dragging another to court. Many of us believe that some of our
inherited procedural ways of settling disputes must be revisited if we
desire quick and affordable administration of justice.

“It is interesting
that even today stakeholders in justice administration in more advanced
countries are having a rethink on the continued utilisation of
litigation as a method of resolving all manner of disputes”.

Stressing the
importance of traditional rulers in the present search for ADR, he
said, “They adjudicated effectively before and during the colonial
administration. Why should they not now be involved?

“Today, we have eminent jurists who are traditional rulers and title
holders like Mammam Nasir, Sulu Gambari, Oba John Ajakaiye, Oba
Olateru-Olagbegi, Oba Rilwan Akiolu, Umaru Abdullahi, S.M.A. Belgore.”

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