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Nigeria’s quest to
become an automobile manufacturing country may be realised in the next
28 months, the project manager of the Skill Acquisition Centre for
Internal Combustion Engine Parts Manufacture, Akaehomen Ibhadode, has
said.

Mr Ibhadode, a
world-renowned professor of manufacturing engineering, who spoke
yesterday at the launch of the centre at the University of Benin
(UNIBEN), said the World Bank-sponsored project, tagged Step-B, will be
equipped with state-of-the-art research and production facilities to
aid research and learning by staff and students of higher institutions
in Nigeria.

The centre will also engage in the production of all components of diesel and petrol automobile engines.

An initiative of
the federal government, Step-B is expected to support the development
and growth of the science and technology industry and contribute to
national development.

Mr Ibhadode, who is
the 2010 laureate of the Nigeria prize for science, said the essence of
the project is to empower local automobile manufacturers and to provide
industrial training for engineering students as well as to generate
funds. The centre, which is working in collaboration with National
Automotive Council, Star Automotive Industries, Lagos, and the
University of Greenwich, United Kingdom, will become fully operational
within the next 28 months.

Turning point

According to the
national project coordinator of Step-B, Michael Adikwu, the project is
aimed at producing better qualified students and researches, which he
said will impact positively on the economic growth of the nation as
defined by the millennium development goals.

Fidelis Achiv, who
represented the director-general of the National Automotive Council,
Aminu Jabal, said the project will ensure that students are trained in
the use of modern equipment and help to determine the engineering
competence of Nigerian students, as well as provide needed spare parts
for the automotive industry.

The vice-chancellor
of UNIBEN, Osayuki Oshodin, who was represented by the deputy vice-
chancellor (academics) of the university, Emmanuel Onibere, described
the occasion as a “milestone achievement by the university, considering
the numerous hiccups that threatened the initial take-off of the
project”.

He said the project
is devoted to skill acquisition in engine parts manufacture, which he
said is a vital component of the nation’s quest to address the problem
of transportation and power generation.

“This indeed will be a turning point in Nigeria’s march toward real industrialisation,” he said.

Oyo State
traditional rulers on Wednesday faulted the decision of the state
government to make the chairmanship seat of their monarchs council
rotational.

In what was
perceived as a vendetta against the Alaafin of Oyo, Lamidi Olayiwola
Adeyemi III who worked against his re-election, the state governor,
Adebayo Alao-Akala, on Tuesday, signed into law an amended bill
hurriedly passed by the state house of assembly which purported to
strip the Oyo king of the permanent leadership of the Obas’ council.

The frosty
relationship between the Alaafin and the governor was said to be
responsible for the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) woeful loss in
recent elections in all the three local governments under the domain of
the monarch.

The amended bill,
as passed by the legislators and assented to by the governor, stripped
the Alaafin of his status as the permanent chairman of the council. It
instead, made it rotational between the monarch, the Olubadan of Ibadan
land and the Soun of Ogbomoso.

It also provides
for a rotational status of vice chairmanship of the council among the
Olugbon of Orile-Igbon, the Eleruwa of Eruwa, the Okere of Shaki and
the Aseyin of Iseyin. Tenure in each of the categories lasts two years.

Rising from an
emergency meeting at the palace of the Alaafin yesterday, the monarchs
noted that the governor erred by the action, adding that the headship
of the council remained under litigation and the governor and the state
house of assembly are parties to the matter.

In a communiqué
issued at the end of their meeting yesterday and read by the Olugbon of
Ile-Igbon, Samuel Osungbade, the traditional rulers said they were
amazed by the news, adding that the “purported amendment cannot and
will not stand the test of time”.

The Olugbon said
the council had spotted more than 10 fundamental errors in the amended
law, saying the Alaafin would address them in due course.

Follow due process

Oba Osungbade
explained that since the issues relating to the council are still in
court, the government had only embarked on an exercise in futility.

According to him,
the law gave the governor and the legislators away as resorting to self
help when they are parties to the yet-unresolved suit.

“Since the state
government and the state house of assembly are parties to the court
case, they were not expected to resort to self-help as shown by the
step they took on Tuesday,” he said. “We advise all aggrieved
politicians in the state to always use legal means to seek redress
rather than self help.”

The monarchs
however congratulated the state governor-elect, Abiola Ajimobi and
other winners of the just concluded general elections and pledged their
support for them.

“In any contest,
there must be winners and losers. The electorate have given their
verdicts. We appeal to all to accept the verdicts as declared by the
INEC,” the king said. “Those who are aggrieved should seek legal
redress. There can only be progress and stability in an atmosphere
devoid of violence. We shall assist the new governor to achieve.”

A federal high court judge in Abuja,
Grace Olotu, yesterday disqualified herself from presiding over the
suit challenging the nomination of Enugu State governor Sullivan Chime
as the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for last month’s
governorship election. One of Mr Chime’s opponents at the primaries,
Alexander Chukwuemeka Obiechina, had approached the court wanting to
know which of the two parallel congresses of the Enugu PDP governorship
primaries is the authentic one.

But Mrs Olotu, who
started hearing on the case last week, yesterday transferred the suit
to another judge following allegations of bias against her by Mr
Chime’s counsel. When the matter was raised yesterday, Justina Ohafia,
counsel to Mr Chime, told the court that the governor petitioned the
chief judge and the National Judicial Council about what transpired at
the last hearing and urged the judge to disqualify herself from hearing
the case.

The last hearing
started at about 9.15am and lasted until 9.06pm before its conclusion
was adjourned until May 3 for judgement. The judgement was later
shifted to yesterday.

Counsel to the
plaintiff, Oba Maduabuchi, prayed the court to obey its earlier order
of April 21, which fixed the hearing for yesterday, and hear the matter
along with the application for disqualification.

In her ruling, Mrs
Olotu vacated her earlier order and transferred the matter to Court 3,
presided over by Adamu Bello. The court had, in last week’s marathon
session, consolidated the seven applications filed by Mrs Ohafia, all
of which were lost to the plaintiff’s counsel, Mr Maduabuchi.

Mr Chime’s counsel
told journalists after the session that the reasons for their petition
are clear and were not for public discussion. She said, however, that
from the proceedings of April 21, it was clear the court would be
biased on the matter. Mr Obiechina approached the court seeking
clarification about the two parallel congresses for the PDP
governorship primaries. He has said he wants to know which is the
authentic one.

Chime won first round

A different high
court, presided over by Abdu Kafarati, had ruled that Mr Chime was the
rightful candidate of the PDP in Enugu for the election in an earlier
suit brought by another set of complainants.

Another of Mr
Chime’s opponents in the primaries, Anayo Onwuegbu, and 38 others had
gone to court to stop the PDP national secretariat and the Independent
National Electoral Commission (INEC) from recognising the PDP candidate
list for Enugu, which contained the names of Mr Chime, the deputy
president of the Senate, Ike Ekweremadu, and other candidates elected
at the primaries conducted by the Vita Abba-led state executive of the
party.

Mr Onwuegbu and
others claimed they were the rightful candidates of the PDP in Enugu
State, having been elected during the primaries in accordance with the
directives of the party.

But Mr Kafarati vacated an earlier
order restraining INEC from giving recognition to Mr Chime as the
gubernatorial candidate of the PDP in Enugu State. He also upheld the
primary election that produced Chime, who has since won the state
governorship election and is set for another four years in office.</

The remains of
Obinna Micheal Okpokiri, one of the youth corps members who was
murdered in Bauchi State by rioters during the post elections protests
in the north was committed to mother earth in Umuahia, the state
capital on Wednesday.

Mr Okpokiri was
born on January 1, 1983 to the Okpokiri family of Emede Mkpuru in
Umuahia North Local Government. His corpse was received by Governor
Theodore Orji at the Michael Okpara Auditorium where a funeral service
attended by many people including the wife of the governor, Mercy Orji
and youth corps members serving in the state was held for him.

Mr Orji said the
deceased was a martyr and a hero having died in the service of his
fatherland, and that his death would cement the unity of the country
even as he called for restraint on those who might want to embark on
reprisal attack.

He said that time
has come for Nigerians to show maturity and use the judiciary to seek
redress when offended rather than resort to barbaric acts even as he
warned elites against using youth to settle political scores.

Tears of sorrow

At the grave side
at the Okpokiri’s compound, the deceased’s father who could not hold
back his tears said that when he was sending off his son to serve the
nation he did not expect him to be killed by those he had gone to serve.

He said the NYSC
should not be scrapped based on the actions of some misguided elements
in the country that are bent on destroying the unity of the nation,
however, called for proper investigation and trial of those who
perpetrated the dastardly act.

“We have no doubt
in our minds that those responsible for what happened to Obinna and his
colleagues will not go unpunished. As your mother and I mourn your
untimely death, we are not unmindful of the biblical injunction in 1
Thessalonians 4:13 in the Bible that, we should not sorrow much as
those who have no hope.” Kingsley Okpokiri, the deceased’s younger
brother said: “It is a pity that my brother who went to serve our
father land was murdered under such unfortunate circumstance.” Obinna
Okpokiri graduated from Abia State University Uturu in 2010 from the
department of Environmental Science before he was posted to serve in
Bauchi State in November last year where he was murdered on April 20.

The Arewa
Consultative Forum (ACF) has congratulated the President-elect,
Goodluck Jonathan over his victory in the just-concluded general
elections.

The forum has also condemned the call for the abolition of the National Youth Service Corps scheme (NYSC).

The ACF had
earlier opposed the candidacy of Mr Jonathan and the jettisoning of the
zoning arrangement of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), insisting
that the North should be allowed to complete its second term based on
the zoning arrangement.

In a communiqué
issued at the end of the meeting of the National Working Committee
(NWC) chaired by the chairman, Aliko Mohammed yesterday in Kaduna, the
body congratulated all the state governors, members of the National
Assembly as well as State Assembly members for their successes at the
polls.

The communiqué
signed by the National Publicity Secretary Anthony Sani, also commended
the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC),
Attahiru Jega for conducting what the forum described as “elections
that have been generally adjudged by both the local and international
observers to be better than previous elections.” “As to the losers, the
forum congratulated them for their spirited efforts in providing the
electorate with alternative platforms needed in a democracy, since
democracy without opposition is a sham.

“Losers should,
therefore, be magnanimous in defeat and seek redress through due
process of law where it is absolutely necessary. Victors on the other
hand should recognise the fact that governance is an art of balancing
competing demands among constituent parts of the united whole.” The
group continued, “While condemning the killings of some NYSC members
who were victims of the violence in some parts of the country, it is
the considered opinion of ACF that the NYSC scheme should not be
abolished. This is precisely because the ideas of fostering national
unity which informed the establishment of NYSC are still relevant.

“What is more,
scrapping NYSC is as good as saying people should not settle outside
their states of origin. Therefore, NYSC scheme should be retained and
spirited efforts be made to ensure the security of members.”

“The forum also
called on victors from the just concluded elections to have a realistic
appreciation of the circumstances of their emergence and make
consciously direct efforts by bringing Nigerians together and enable
them to unleash their synergy by way of living up their collective
challenges.

“This is very necessary because no nation thrives on the victory of
its factions but through their ultimate reconciliations. And in order
to make the desired results come to pass, governments must be peopled
by those with vision, conviction, public intelligence and with
patriotic courage needed to tell power not just what it wants to hear
but also what it needs no hear.” ACF emphasised.

The Anambra State
Governor, Peter Obi has said that but for lean resources, every
governor in the country would be willing to implement the new minimum
wage structure approved by the National Assembly. Mr Obi, who is deputy
chairman of Nigeria’s Governor’s Forum, said yesterday in Awka that
though it is good for Nigerian workers to have a good wage structure,
the resources available to state governments might not be enough to pay
the approved packaged. He said a meeting of the Governors’ Forum had
unanimously agreed that the federal government takes too much of what
accrues to the nation and there is need to re-adjust, because what is
left to the states is not enough to enable them to pay.

“For instance,
where federal facilities located in some states are either privatised
or commercialised, the states lose those sources of revenue and get
poorer,” Mr Obi said. He said the sooner this was redressed, the better
for all Nigerians.

APGA did well

Asked if he was
satisfied with the performance of APGA in the state in the last general
election, where the party failed to win any of the three senatorial
seats, Mr Obi said: “The last general election was fairly a
representative of the wishes of the people,” he said. “The way you know
which party is more acceptable is result of election in strategic areas
of Onitsha, Nnewi and Awka. That is Awka North, Awka South, Onitsha
North, Onitsha South, Nnewi North, Nnewi South and that is how to
determine whether we do well or not.”

As Cote d’Ivoire
becomes the latest African country to subject itself to a truth and
reconciliation commission, the lesson it can learn from past efforts is
two-fold: it is going to hurt, and it could take years.

Experience from
post-apartheid South Africa to post-war Sierra Leone shows such
exercises can help a country draw a line under the past, even when many
victims are left dissatisfied.

But Ivorien
President Alassane Ouattara must ensure all sides are heard and must
avoid rushing the pace for the sake of political expediency if he is to
heal wounds ripped open for the second time in a decade.

“Although the truth
side of it is very important, very often what actually happened is
known by many people,” said Yasmin Jusu-Sheriff, first executive
secretary of Sierra Leone’s 2002-2004 Truth and Reconciliation
Commission (TRC).

“It’s how you deal
with it, and how you live with it after it happens … While it can’t
go on for ever, it shouldn’t be too much of a time-bound process,” she
told Reuters.

Yet Ouattara seems
to be in a hurry to get things going after the April 11 ousting from
power of rival Laurent Gbagbo, whose refusal to accept defeat in a
November election triggered a fourth-month power struggle in which
thousands died.

He has pledged to set up a South African-style TRC within two weeks and has already filled the key post of chairman.

“It is positive
that the President has announced plans for a commission, but we urge
him not to rush,” Desmond Tutu, who chaired South Africa’s TRC in the
1990s, warned after talks with Ouattara in Cote d’Ivoire this week.

Curing Ivorien ills

The mandate,
structure and aims of Cote d’Ivoire’s TRC process will all help
determine whether it can succeed in rooting out an ill which may prove
harder to diagnose and cure than the trauma of apartheid inflicted on
millions of South Africans.

Although Ivoriens
rubbed along for years following independence from France in 1960, a
debate over nationality exploded in 1999, culminating in a 2002-2003
civil war marked by ethnic bloodshed and which split the country
between north and south.

The November 28
election was hoped to seal reunification but the southerner Gbagbo’s
refusal to accept the victory of Ouattara, a northerner, only made
matters worse.

When pro-Ouattara
troops headed south to Abidjan in late-March, hundreds died in an orgy
of ethnically-motivated violence still not fully explained.

Ouattara’s choice
for TRC chairman of ex-premier Charles Konan Banny appears designed to
show neutrality. Ex-banker Banny is an uncontroversial figure from the
central Baoule ethnicity and will be flanked by one Christian and one
Muslim deputy.

But the TRC’s mandate has not yet been publicly defined. It is not
clear whether Banny will have the right to subpoena alleged wrongdoers
to give testimony, nor what will happen to them afterwards —
forgiveness or criminal proceedings.

Osama bin Laden was
unarmed when US special forces shot and killed him, the White House
said, as it tried to establish whether its ally Pakistan had helped the
al Qaeda leader elude a worldwide manhunt.

Pakistan faced
national embarrassment, a leading Islamabad newspaper said, in how to
explain that the world’s most-wanted man was able to live for years in
the military garrison town of Abbottabad, just north of the capital.

Islamabad vehemently denies it gave shelter to bin Laden.

“There is an
intelligence failure of the whole world, not just Pakistan alone,”
Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani told reporters in Paris. “(If there
are) … lapses from the Pakistan side, that means there are lapses
from the whole world.” The revelation that bin Laden was unarmed
contradicted an earlier US account that he had participated in a
firefight with the helicopter-borne American commandos.

Al Arabiya television went further, suggesting the architect of the 9/11 attacks was first taken prisoner and then shot.

“A security source
in the Pakistani security quoted the daughter of Osama bin Laden that
the leader of al Qaeda was not killed inside his house, but had been
arrested and was killed later,” the Arabic television station said.

White House
spokesman Jay Carney on Tuesday cited the “fog of war” – a phrase
suggested by a reporter – as a reason for the initial misinformation.

Bin Laden’s killing
and the swift burial of his body at sea have produced some criticism in
the Muslim world and accusations Washington acted outside international
law.

“The Americans
behaved in the same way as bin Laden: with treachery and baseness,”
Husayn al-Sawaf, 25-year-old playwright said in Cairo. “They should’ve
tried him in a court. As for his burial, that’s not Islamic. He
should’ve been buried in soil.”

But there has been
no sign of mass protests or violent reaction on the streets in South
Asia or the Middle East, where Islamist militancy appears to have been
eclipsed by pro-democracy movements sweeping the region.

Washington will
weigh sensitivities in the Muslim world when it decides whether to
release photographs of bin Laden’s body which could provide proof for
skeptics of his death.

Bin Laden was shot
in the head. “It’s fair to say that it’s a gruesome photograph,” Carney
said. “I’ll be candid. There are sensitivities here in terms of the
appropriateness of releasing photographs.”

Pakistan has
welcomed bin Laden’s death, but its foreign ministry expressed deep
concerns about the raid, which it called an “unauthorized unilateral
action.”

The CIA said it
kept Pakistan out of the loop because it feared bin Laden would be
tipped off, highlighting the depth of mistrust between the two supposed
allies.

US helicopters
carrying the commandos used radar “blind spots” in the hilly terrain
along the Afghan border to enter Pakistani airspace undetected in the
early hours of Monday.

The Pakistani
newspaper Dawn compared the latest humiliation with the admission in
2004 that one of the country’s top scientists had sold its nuclear
secrets. “Not since Abdul Qadeer Khan confessed to transferring nuclear
technology to Iran and Libya has Pakistan suffered such an
embarrassment,” it said.

The streets around
bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad remained sealed off on Wednesday,
with police and soldiers allowing only residents to pass through.

“It’s a crime but
what choice are you left with if I’m not handing over your enemy who is
hiding in my house?” said Hussain Khan, a retired government official
living nearby, when asked about the apparent violation of Pakistan’s
sovereignty. “Obviously you will go and get him yourself.”

Unarmed resistance

Carney insisted bin Laden resisted when U.S. forces stormed his compound in the 40-minute operation. He would not say how.

“There was concern
that bin Laden would oppose the capture operation and, indeed, he
resisted,” Carney said. “A woman … bin Laden’s wife, rushed the US
assaulter and was shot in the leg but not killed. Bin Laden was then
shot and killed. He was not armed.”