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The All Nigeria
Peoples Party (ANPP) is to form alliance with other parties against the
ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the forthcoming general
elections.

The ANPP chairman,
Ogbonnaya Onu, disclosed this yesterday when the national chairmen of
16 opposition parties visited the party’s national secretariat in Abuja.

Mr. Onu, who
criticised the PDP for giving Nigerians poor leadership in the last 12
years, said if the ANPP collaborate with the other parties, Nigerians
will have the desired change they are yearning for.

“By the time they
see us, they will know that something is happening in Nigeria and that
people are ready for change. Let us never doubt what we can achieve if
we work together. The time has come for change in Nigeria, and we are
the apostles of that change,” Mr. Onu said.

The ANPP national
chairman said that most of the problems confronting the country are
self-inflicted and can be solved, saying “we are asking Nigerians to
give us the opportunity to lead the country. If one party (PDP) has
failed the nation, there are 62 other parties.”

He told the
delegation not to look at the party’s past, and stated that its new
national executive, headed by himself, is poised to provide the
required leadership , not only in providing Nigerians with an
alternative government, but also to ensure that the general elections
are transparent.

Earlier, the leader
of the delegation, Maxi Okwu, had challenged the ANPP to provide
quality leadership for the opposition groups to ensure that Nigeria
does not become a one-party state, which he said could truncate the
nation’s democracy.

“I believe that
ANPP should go back. When you have one way rule, democracy will die.
Try to energise your party, we urge you to do more,” he said.

“The next contest
must be a clear contest. If PDP is on one goal post, please come and
help us to man the other goal post. Democracy must grow, and we must
make it grow,” Mr. Okwu said.

Mr. Okwu, who is
also the national chairman of the tCitizens Peoples Party (CPP), said
the chairmen of the political parties have a common platform on which
they interact and ensure that the country’s democracy does not suffter.
According to him, the former caretaker chairman of the ANPP, Governor
Ali Modu Sherriff of Borno State had accepted to lead the forum, but
left the office before he could do so.

Among the parties
whose chairman were at the event were Liberal Democratic Party;United
Nigeria Peoples Party ; Alliance for Democracy; Mass Movement
Progressive Party ; Change Advocay Party; Nigerian Masses Progressive
Party; Action Alliance; and Peoples Progressive Party. The others were
Movement for Democracy and Justice ; Action Party of Nigeria; Nigerian
Peoples Congress ; Republican Party of Nigeria; United National Party
for Development; Masses Movement of Nigeria; and Citizens Peoples Party
.

A U.S. aircraft
carrier group set off for Korean waters on Wednesday, a day after North
Korea rained artillery shells on a South Korean island, in a move
likely to enrage Pyongyang and unsettle its ally, China.

South Korea said
the bodies of two civilians were found on the island after Tuesday’s
attack, which is likely to stir up more resentment in the country
against its prickly neighbour.

The nuclear-powered
USS George Washington, which carries 75 warplanes and has a crew of
over 6,000, left a naval base south of Tokyo and would join exercises
with South Korea from Sunday to the following Wednesday, U.S. officials
in Seoul said.

U.S. Forces Korea said the exercise was defensive, and had been planned well before Tuesday’s attack.

“An aircraft
carrier is the most visible sign of power projection there is … you
could see this as a form of pre-emptive deterrence,” said Lee Chung-min
of Yonsei University in Seoul.

A foreign ministry
spokesman in Pyongyang said in a statement it had responded in
“self-defence”, and accused the South of firing shells into its waters
near the disputed maritime border.

“The DPRK that sets
store by the peace and stability of the Korean peninsula is now
exercising superhuman self-control, but the artillery pieces of the
army of the DPRK, the defender of justice, remain ready to fire,” said
the North’s KCNA news agency, referring to North Korea by its official
name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

It said the South
was driving the peninsula to the “brink of war” with “reckless military
provocation” and by postponing humanitarian aid.

The government in
Seoul came under pressure for the military’s slow response to the
provocation, echoing similar complaints made when a warship was sunk in
March in the same area, killing 46 sailors.

Defence minister,
Kim Tae-young, was grilled by lawmakers who said the government should
have taken quicker and stronger retaliatory measures against the
North’s provocation.

“I am sorry that
the government has not carried out ruthless bombing through jet
fighters during the North’s second round of shelling,” said Kim
Jang-soo, a lawmaker of ruling Grand National Party and a former
defence minister.

Tuesday’s attack
was the heaviest in the region since the Korean War ended in 1953, and
marked the first civilian deaths in an assault since the bombing of a
South Korean airliner in 1987.

The United States
and Japan urged China to do more to rein in North Korea after the
reclusive nation fired scores of artillery shells on Tuesday at a South
Korean island near their sea border.

China’s foreign
ministry urged the two Koreas to show “calm and restraint” and engage
in talks as quickly as possible, to avoid an escalation of tensions.

Joint exercise

The joint
U.S.-South Korea drill in the waters between the Korean peninsula and
China will likely enrage Beijing, which has said such previous
exercises are a threat to its security and to regional peace and
stability.

“China will not
welcome the U.S. aircraft carrier joining the exercises, because that
kind of move can escalate tensions, and not relieve them,” said Xu
Guangyu, a retired major-general in the People’s Liberation Army, who
now works for a government-run arms control organisation.

The joint exercise
was reminiscent of a crisis in 1996 when the then President Bill
Clinton sent an aircraft carrier group through the Taiwan Strait, after
Beijing test-fired missiles into the channel between the mainland and
Taiwan.

Seoul calm

Seoul, a city of
over 10 million, was bustling as normal on Wednesday, a sunny autumn
day, although developments were being closely watched by office workers
on TV and in newspapers.

“My house was burnt to the ground,” said Cho Soon-ae, 47, who was among 170 or so evacuated from Yeonpyeong on Wednesday.

“We’ve lost
everything. I don’t even have extra underwear,” she said weeping,
holding on to her sixth-grade daughter, as she landed at Incheon.

Despite the rhetoric, regional powers made clear they were looking for a diplomatic way to calm things down.

U.S. President
Barack Obama, woken up in the early hours to be told of the artillery
strike, said he was outraged and pressed the North to stop its
provocative actions.

South Korea’s armed
forces, technically superior, though about half the size of the North’s
one-million-plus army, warned of “massive retaliation” if its neighbour
attacked again.

Reuters

Activities of the
Ogun State government were yesterday paralysed, following the
commencement of a three-day warning strike embarked upon by the civil
servants across the state. The first phase of the strike will last till
tomorrow, before further action by the workers.

The workers, under
the aegis of Joint Public Service Negotiating Council had, on Monday,
expressed its intention to embark on the strike, following allegation
against the state government over non-remittance of pension funds
totaling N3.8billion, as well as other unpaid allowances meant for them.

The state chairman
of the Joint Public Service Negotiating Council, Emmanuel Sunday
Adeegbe, had, at the press conference, accused the state government of
additional non-payment of leave bonus from 2009 to date.

The allegation also
includes non-payment of gratuity to senior citizens {retired civil
servants} since September 2008, and non-release of running cost to
ministries and parastatals since January 2010.

Investigations
revealed that the strike took place as scheduled, as many of the
offices were under lock and key. The governor’s office, located at
Oke-Mosan, which accommodates secretariat of the civil servants, was
deserted. In fact, the giant gate leading to the governor’s
office/secretariat, which is located along the Golf Course way, was not
opened for any passage, just as the vicinity was like a ghost town.

Insistent on strike

Similarly, public
schools were shut. Students who were not aware of the strike had to
return home, because of the absence of both the academic and
non-academic staff in their various schools.

The workers’
leaders said their colleagues should stay at home for the three days of
the warning strike, as all avenues to ensure the payment of items have
failed.

“Workers should
discountenance the government appeals, threat, and coercive tendencies
and await further directive from labour,” he said.

At 5pm, when NEXT visited the Nigeria Labour Congress {NLC}
secretariat, located within the Government Reservation Area, Abeokuta,
top officials and principal officers of the union were still holding
meetings, apparently for the next line of action.

Shocked by the
state of the equipment used by the Nigerian soldiers on peacekeeping
operations in Liberia, the House of Representatives committee on
defence, yesterday, stated its determination to continue with its
investigation into how N23 billion was spent by the ministry of defence
on equipment for the operation.

The renewed plan to
launch the investigation is coming after a tour of the committee to
Liberia. The committee was accompanied on the tour by the Speaker,
Dimeji Bankole.

Consequently, the
defence minister, Adetokunbo Kayode, is billed to appear before the
committee to explain how the money was expended.

A source in the
committee said that during the visit, the lawmakers discovered to their
chagrin that in spite of the huge sum expended on peacekeeping
operations in Liberia since the minister assumed duties, the Nigerian
contingent is the least equipped among the nations that contribute to
the United Nations peacekeeping operations in that West African country.

It reportedly
discovered that the paucity of the equipment was the main reason the
reimbursement from the UN to Nigeria has greatly reduced. The committee
also found out that Nigeria has so far lost about 1000 soldiers, and
spent over $40 billion on peacekeeping operation in Liberia since 1990.

The legislators
were also said to have demanded the total overhauling of the Memorandum
of Understanding (MoU) between Nigeria and the United Nations on her
involvement in peacekeeping operations.

Next stop, Sudan

The committee
chairman, Wole Oke, confirmed the visit of the committee to Liberia
during a telephone interview yesterday. He also said Mr. Kayode will
appear before the committee to discuss the issue with its members,
adding that they will visit Dafur, Sudan, soon to check on Nigerian
troops there.

Meanwhile, Mr. Oke
has urged the Liberian House of Representatives to legislate to ensure
permanent peace and unity in the country, even as he promised to convey
the country’s request for further assistance on its 2011 poll to
President Goodluck Jonathan.

He stated this when he paid a visit in company of defence committee members to the Speaker of the Liberian parliament.

The tactical
intervention of the Senate President, David mark, stopped the Senate
from throwing out the $3.702 billion outstanding external borrowing
plan of the federal government.

The intervention of
the Senate President came on Wednesday after a heated debate which saw
most Senators strongly opposing the plan of the federal and state
governments as requested by the president.

Mr Mark who noticed
that the debates might not favour the bill refused to call for votes on
it, and instead referred it to the Senate Committee on Finance and the
Committee on National Planning.

President Goodluck
Jonathan had for the second time since assuming office written the
National Assembly on 4th November demanding the approval of his
outstanding borrowing plan for 2010.

The National
assembly, in April, partially approved the plan which was forwarded to
them alongside the 2010 budget proposals. They approved $915 million
out of the $5.22 billion loan amount proposed under the 2010 borrowing
plan leaving out $4.31 billion.

However, having
gotten the $915 million already approved, the president is now asking
for the approval of the outstanding amount of $3.702 billion which
sixteen states, the Federal Capital Territory, and the federal
government are the beneficiaries.

The loans and
credits would be secured on concessionary terms with repayment periods
of 25 to 40 years and moratoriums of 7 to 10 years.

The amount is to be
implemented on projects like rail construction, building of markets,
urban water and sanitation projects, equipping of hospitals, and rural
access and mobility projects.

Most senators
argued that the loans – especially those requested by the states – has
vague intentions and were not necessary now that 2011 is just a month
away.

“This money, from all indications is money that will disappear into private pockets,” Lee Maeba (PDP River state) said.

He argued that with
the 2011 elections around the corner, the monies will be used by the
state governments to run campaigns and mortgage the state rather than
apply it for the reason they were borrowed.

Like Mr. Maeba,
Ahmed Lawan (ANPP Yobe) said he does not support the borrowing plan. He
added that they do not even have the report on the utilisation of the
initial $915 million that was approved and acquired in April.

Uche Chukwumerije (PDP Abia state) also argued that the timing of the borrowing – end of tenures; election season – was wrong.

However, a few
other senators, including the deputy senate president and the senate
president argued in favour of the borrowing plan saying that it is
practically impossible for any nation to develop its infrastructure on
it’s internally generated funds.

The Bayelsa State government is to
evolve a legislative framework to compel traditional rulers and
chairmen of councils to reside and discharge their functions in their
domains.

The State Governor, Timipre Sylva, on
Wednesday, in Yenagoa, at a Town Hall meeting with community leaders,
said that the practice where some traditional rulers and council
chairmen were residing in the state capital was counter-productive to
the development of the rural areas.

About 90 percent of council chairmen
and traditional rulers in the state reside and carry out their
functions from Yenagoa, abandoning their subjects in the rural
communities.

“If only the traditional rulers and
council chairmen would stay in their respective domains and carry out
their leadership functions, I believe we will have fewer problems in
the state,” Mr. Sylva said.

The governor’s decision to return them
to their areas of authority followed a complaint by a concerned
community leader, Dennis Atimi.

Mr. Atimi, who is from Ekeremor local
government area, had, at the meeting, complained to the governor that
the absence of the council chairmen in their areas had led to the
collapse of local government administration in the state.

“If the chairmen were compelled to stay in the council areas and
discharge their functions, there will be high sense of responsibility
and commitment to the growth and development of the councils,” he said.