Nigeria Content Online

Veteran filmmaker, Tunde Kelani, has
defended the governor of Lagos State, Babatunde Raji Fashola, against
criticism over his suggestion that filmmakers should befriend pirates.

Mr Fashola had, while declaring open the
2010 Association of Movie Producers (AMP) Eko International Film
Festival at the National Theatre, Iganmu, Lagos, on Monday referred to
pirates as “our brothers and sisters”. He also told filmmakers to
constructively engage pirates in order to have a win-win situation in
the fight against the menace.

“Let us understand that, they do not
dislike you. It’s not that they have a personal quarrel with you but
there is an economic opportunity there and that is the best way they
have responded to it,” Fashola had said.

However,speaking during a courtesy visit
to NEXT on Thursday, Mr Kelani, who has lost substantial revenue on
‘Arugba’, his latest film, due to piracy, said Mr Fashola meant well.Mr
Kelani, who described the Lagos State governor as the number one fan of
the entertainment industry, said people have misunderstood the man as
he would never succumb to illegality.

“I know Babatunde Raji Fashola very well
and I’m privileged to know that he has great plans for the reformation
of the entertainment industry in Lagos. Personally, he has identified
with artists and he is the number one fan of the entertainment
industry,” he said.

Reforming the industry

The award-winning filmmaker, member of a
panel Mr Fashola set up to reform the entertainment industry in the
state,disclosed that the committee had submitted its report.

“He has great plans for the
entertainment industry in Lagos State. He is passionate about that
industry. The governor knows the importance of ‘Eko’, the city of Lagos
as a major entertainment hub in the whole of Africa and [his] government
is ready to claim the number position in the entertainment
destination,” Kelani said.

Kelani, who also spoke in support of a
number of film events and festivals across the country, said it is an
indication of growth that will also boost tourism in the country.

“It’s an aspect of packaged culture which leads to tourism. This is
going to drive tourism because everybody knows that at this particular
time of the year, it is Akure, this particular time, it is Ibadan, Port
Harcourt or Yenagoa.”

Strolling while the
Nigeria’s National Anthem is being recited may soon be punishable by
law, as the Senate on Thursday passed its bill through second reading.

The advancement of
the bill is a significant step in standardising its rendition as well as
protecting the National Anthem, which most of the senators agree is
currently exposed to risk of annihilation.

The bill is
sponsored by Osita Izunaso PDP from Imo state who also sponsored the
bill to mandate doctors to treat accident victims without police
reports.

“Our National Anthem
if not backed by law, might be rightly jettisoned into the historical
dustbin if any President feels he does not like it,’’ Mr. Izunaso said.

The bill seeks,
among other things, to give a legal framework to the National Anthem and
gives protection to it against unwarranted tampering and abuse.The bill
is to make the playing of the Nigerian Anthem a revered, respectful and
solemn occasion and prescribes penalties for anyone who deliberately
brings contempt and ridicule to the act.He lamented that the national
anthem which “encapsulates our collective pride and patriotism, is not
backed up with any legal instrument.”

Significant bill

Currently,there is no legislature on the use of the National Anthem.

Ayogu Eze, the
senate spokesman, said the bill is very significant as it will save the
current national anthem from the fate of the initial one.

“If we have had the
bill like the one on the floor now years ago , the old anthem will
still be in existence, because if you ask me, the old one is better than
this new one.” Mr. Eze said.

Mr.Izunaso said it
is regrettable that successive past governments “either out of oversight
or lack of political will did not care about this thereby exposing our
national anthem to the vagaries or vicissitude of tomorrow.” Every
senator who spoke supported the bill. They said if passed, the bill
would help to strengthen the sense of our national identity within and
outside of Nigeria.

The bill was
referred to the senate committee on interior matters , which would hold
public hearing on it and report back to the senate, possibly before
their tenure expires in May 2011.

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 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.

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.

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.

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

Although
government is constitutionally empowered to hold land in trust for the
people, it also has to allocate them to buyers, Anambra State
commissioner for lands, survey and urban planning, Peter Afuba, said on
Wednesday.

Mr. Afuba who was
reacting to allegations of indiscriminate sale of lands in parts of the
state, by a civil society group, Intersociety, said in a statement made
through the director, ministry of lands, Chris Arukwe, that government
allocated the lands to deserving organisations and people who met its
requirements.

According to him,
there were two categories of land; state land and non-state land. In
state land, he said, government has direct control while it exercised
minimal control on non-state land. “We merely have a supervisory role
in non-state land over the type of development that takes place there,”
he said.

Intersociety had
petitioned the lands ministry over what it termed indiscriminate sale
of lands particularly in the Onitsha area where it alleged that land
was sold to churches and individuals in a manner that ‘rubbished’ the
hard earned reputation of the state governor.

“Today, it may be
correct to say that the feat recorded or achieved by Peter Obi’s
administration in the area of land management and town planning is
being lost,” it alleged, stating that “the indiscriminate sale and
conversion of the government lands in the state especially in Onitsha
zone appear to be on the increase.”

Buying cemeteries

According to Emeka
Umeagbalasi, chairman of the group, “One of such criminal sales is the
Awada Cemetery, which used to have over 30 plots of land. It is
situated on Oraifite Street. Presently, there are over 25 residential
buildings, in addition to Catholic, Anglican and Pentecostal Churches
as well as other structures meant for commercial purposes.

There are less than
two plots of land now left as public cemetery, and some land
speculators are still fighting tooth and nail to “buy” same. There is
no public or government cemetery in Onitsha zone presently.”

He said their
recent finding showed that between 2008 and 2010, over sixty plots of
land belonging to government, hitherto occupied by debris and those he
called tenant-artisans, had been sold dubiously to certain wealthy
individuals and churches leading to the current absence of any
government designated refuse dumping site at the heart of Onitsha.

The group is thus
demanding that all public land illegally sold or converted should be
recovered and government officials responsible for such criminal
conducts investigated and prosecuted.

Responding the
allegations, Mr. Arukwe maintained that most of the references made in
the petition by Inetrsociety were on issues that happened many years
ago and that those places were not government lands.

“They’re not government lands and government is not involved in what’s happening there.”

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.

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.