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The Chief Judge of
the Federal Capital Territory, Lawal H. Gummi, has announced that he
will deliver his judgment on a suit challenging the party on the issue
of zoning on November 24.

Mr. Gummi fixed the
date after listening to arguments by the parties in the suit filed by
Sani Aminu Dutsinma, a presidential aspirant of the Peoples Democratic
Party (PDP), yesterday.

Mr. Dutsinma had
sued both the party and its national chairman, Okweselize Nwodo,
contending that the party had deliberately ignored its constitutional
zoning arrangement to make room for Goodluck Jonathan to contest in
2011.

In an originating
summons deposed, Mr. Dutsinma had asked the court to force the party to
adhere to the provisions of its constitution and zone the presidency to
the Northern zone of the country.

The PDP’s defence

The PDP refuted the
allegations that it had previously zoned the presidency to the north,
and maintained that it would be discriminatory to exclude anyone from
contesting election in a democratic setting on the basis of religion or
place of birth.

“It is our
submission that nomination of candidate of a political party has always
been regarded as a domestic affair,” said Olusola Oke, the party’s legal
adviser.

“If internal
democracy must be deepened, no individual aspirant should be given
advantage over the other by reason of his place of origin,” Mr. Oke
said.

He asked the court
to strike out the matter for lack of jurisdiction, saying that Mr.
Dutsinma was not a bona-fide member of the party, having failed to pay
his dues for the past 3 years.

Furthermore, the
party said that its constitution never specified that any zone will
serve for two consecutive terms as president.

He, therefore, asked the court to discountenance Mr. Dutsinma’s claim that a zone is entitled to two terms.

The deputy chairman
of the Board of Trustees of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC),
Sule Hamma, on Tuesday, said the party sympatises with the northern
elements within the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) who felt
betrayed by the alleged zoning arrangement agreed upon some years ago.

Speaking with
journalists in Abuja, Mr. Hamma, who was also the director general of
The Buhari Organisation (TBO), however, ruled out the involvement of the
CPC and its leader, Muhammadu Buhari, in the search for a consensus
candidate among the presidential aspirants on PDP platform from the
north.

“We see (Adamu)
Ciroma as a friend and as an honourable person, as a very conscientious
senior Nigerian citizen that is committed to ensuring justice within his
own party,” he said.

“So far as that is
concerned, we sympathise with anybody that has been betrayed by a
political partner or associate, no matter which party he is in, because
we stand for principle and we insist that people must be responsible and
must also discharge obligations freely entered, irrespective of what
are the circumstances,” he said.

Mr. Hamma dismissed
reports that Mr. Buhari distanced himself from the search for a
consensus candidate because he would rather prefer to face Goodluck
Jonathan in the election to a candidate from the north. According to
him, the retired military general is not afraid of contesting against
any candidate.

The CPC chief urged Nigerians to ignore the PDP, which he said, does not respect agreements freely entered into.

“There is no doubt
about the fact that the issue that has created this wave within the PDP
is one of treachery and betrayal by the PDP dominant group that is in
power today, that is unwilling to recognise and accept the provisions of
the constitution of the party, and the agreement that was entered into
between the northern elements within the PDP and their southern
brothers,” he added.

He admitted that
there is a group of people in the country who are determined to deny Mr.
Buhari the opportunity of returning to power.

“First, the issue of
a cabal; no matter how enlightened they may be, is completely
objectionable to us. We insist that Nigerians are capable of electing
their leaders.

“We insist that in
the twenty first century, Nigeria will be defined in terms of the
strength and stability of its democracy, its openness, and its
transparency, and its participation and responsiveness to the need of
its own people.

“Nigerians will not be accepted or judged as a civilised democratic country if it is controlled by a cabal,” he said.

The rains which
started at about 5.30 a.m., lasted for three hours, flooding many parts
of the town except Summit and Nnebisi Roads, as well as the Asaba-Benin
highway.

The flood also
affected the Government House and Okpanam Roads where the House of
Assembly, Police headquarters, Legislators Quarters Federal and State
Secretariats are located. Vehicular movement was disrupted on many roads
while residents were seen wading through their flooded homes and
streets.

When contacted on
telephone to comment on the development, the state Commissioner for
Environment, Bello Orubebe, declined comments, saying he was busy with
political matters.

The National
Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) has confirmed that, as of October,
about 500,000 were displaced due to the devastating floods in many parts
of the country.

Mohammed Sani-Sidi,
the director general of the agency, disclosed this today during a Rapid
Assessment tour of flooded communities in Bayelsa State.

“The country has witnessed the debilitating effects of flooding in states like Sokoto,

Jigawa, Kebbi,
Nassarawa, Lagos, Ogun, Cross River and Akwa Ibom,” Mr Sani-Sidi said.
“We are now victims of this fate wherever you go: North, South, East or
West.”

He blamed the floods
on weather patterns in the country, and all over the world, which have
resulted in adverse ecological imbalances.

“Although flooding
in communities along the Niger trough and coastal communities is not new
to us, what is worrisome is the severity of these cases as we have
witnessed, and the extreme weather conditions experienced globally due
to climate change.”

Disaster prevention

Mr Sani-Sidi said
there was a critical need to make communities more resilient by funding
disaster and risk-reduction activities, safer building methods and
protecting critical infrastructure. He said disasters do not occur in a
vacuum and advocated more communal action to prevent them.

“There is also a
need to imbibe the culture of disaster prevention,” he said. “This can
only be done if we all know that it is wrong to build on water channels,
blocking drainages with refuse, felling trees indiscriminately without
even planting new ones. We all must come together to right the wrongs we
have all individually and collectively brought on our environment.”

Mr Sani-Sidi said
while his agency will do all in its capacity bring relief to the victims
whose livelihoods were washed off by the flood, there is a need for the
establishment of well structured and properly funded state emergency
management agencies to manage disasters in their localities.

“The environment remains our most valued possession and legacy which
we must all strive to protect. Let us all join hands in protecting our
common interest,” he said.

The State Security
Service (SSS), yesterday, defended its questioning of Raymond Dokpesi,
the Director General of Ibrahim Babangida’s presidential campaign
organisation, shortly after the Abuja bomb blasts on October 1.

The service had
accused Mr. Dokpesi of exchanging texts messages with some of the
persons suspected of complicity in the twin blasts. Counsel to the SSS,
Alex Izinyon, said the service was statutorily empowered to invite any
person for questioning on matters bordering on national security. “The
issue in this case which led to the invitation of the applicant by the
first respondent relates to bomb blast where several innocent Nigerians
lost their lives,” he said. “It has to do with state security which the
[service] is legally empowered to investigate.”

According to the
service, Mr. Dokpesi had been invited to clarify a statement made by
Edmond Ebiware, a suspect arrested in connection with the attack, who
said he had met Mr Dokpesi some days before the bomb blast and claimed
he received N4 million from him. “In the process of his investigation,
Mr Dokpesi was granted bail and requested to show up for further
investigation,” said Mr Izinyon.

Mr. Dokpesi is suing the service over the interrogation, which lasted
several hours. He is seeking a declaration that his arrest and
detention were unlawful and a violation of his rights. Mr. Izinyon
warned that if the court intervened in the matter, it would tie up the
hands of the service and impede its efforts to promote national
security. He urged the court to dismiss the suit for as “vexatious,
frivolous and constituting gross abuse of judicial process.”

A witness, Sunday
Medugu, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that the accident occurred
at 12.30am stating that the car, was coming from Dutse town through the
Gaya-Kano road before colliding with the bus at Fanisau junction.

The witness said the
loaded fuel tanker was coming from Kano when it ran unto the accident
scene, “It swerved off the road into the bush and caught fire
immediately,” he said.

The FRSC Commandant in Jigawa, Malam Mohammed Hussaini, told NAN that
officials of the road safety commission got to the scene after he was
informed. He said they evacuated seven victims to Rasheed Shekoni
Specialist Hospital and the General Hospital, Dutse.

One out of every six persons will suffer stroke across the world, a U.S-based Nigerian neurologist, Olajide Williams, has said.

Speaking at the
first Nigeria-Florida Neuroscience Partnership Conference on Tuesday in
Lagos, the neurologist noted that there was low public awareness on how
to recognise the symptoms of stroke.

He said that the
symptoms of stroke included sudden weakness, weak eyes, sudden
imbalance, and catastrophic headache, adding that the utmost time to
treat stroke is the first 90 minutes of attack.

Mr. Williams, an
associate professor at Columbia University, said that there were two
types of stroke – hemorrhage, which is too much blood in the brain, and
ischemic, which is low blood in the brain.

According to him,
Nigeria has only 50 neurologists to manage its 150 million
population,while Florida has 800 neurologists to take care of 16 million
people.

He urged the Federal Government to invest in telemedicine in order to link up with foreign-based neurologists.

“Health workers need
to involve people from other sectors, including school children,
musicians, and artistes on how to recognise symptoms of stroke,” he
said.

Michael Finkel, a
professor and president, World Neurology Foundation, said that the
partnership would provide opportunity to create a model for neurological
services and that the foundation’s objective was to serve as a
catalyst for thepromotion of neurological care and education in
countries in need.

The four-day
conference was organised by the Nigeria Stroke Society (NSS), World
Neurology Foundation, Florida Society of Neurology, and Nigeria Society
for Neurological Sciences (NSNS). It would focus on stroke, movement
disorder, headache, epilepsy, and clinical neurology, said the
organisers.

Last minute
intrigues and horse-trading are trailing tonight’s meeting of the
Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF) which is expected to lead to a change in
the leadership of the organisation.

Some of the
governors, who announced the choice of Gbenga Daniel of Ogun State as
the new chairman of the forum and those opposed to his emergence have
arrived the federal capital and have been engaged in series of meetings
ahead of tonight’s general meeting.

It was learnt last
night that the two groups are still holding on to their positions on Mr
Daniel’s reported emergence, despite the overtures being made by their
colleagues to back down on it. The NGF erupted in crisis last weekend
when Mr Daniel was announced as the replacement for Bukola Saraki, who
has since joined the presidential race. Benue State Governor, Gabriel
Suswan announced the election of his Ogun State counterpart.

But the director
general of the NGF Secretariat, Assisana B. Okauru, said the
announcement, made on the NTA 9pm network news, had “created some
confusion in the public on the distinction between the PDP Governors’
Forum and the Nigeria Governors’ Forum.”

He also said that a meeting of the forum had been scheduled in Abuja to pick a new chairman for the body.

Some of the
governors, including Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State, Ibrahim Shekarau of
Kano State and Babangida Aliyu, who chairs the Northern Governors Forum,
have also dissociated themselves from the purported election of Mr
Daniel.

It was gathered that
the governors who installed Mr Daniel last weekend are mostly those
supporting the ambition of Goodluck Jonathan to contest the presidency
while a few of them opposed to the president are insisting that the Ogun
State governor should not be accepted.

Besides, some of the
governors are also demanding that a proper election should take place
to pick the new chairman. This, they say, does not necessarily mean that
they are opposed to the emergence of the Ogun State governor. But that
they want things done right.

Ironing out disagreement

Mr Okauru confirmed
to NEXT in a telephone interview that an election will be conducted
during the forum’s meeting tonight. “Nothing has changed,” he said. “The
governors will meet to elect a chairman and I do hope you will be there
at the Kwara State Governors Lodge. It is holding 8pm. Yes, there is
disagreement and that it why a meeting is being convened.” Lagos State
Governor, Babatunde Raji Fashola yesterday flawed the announced election
of Mr Daniel as the new Chairman of NGF.

While speaking with
journalists at the 2010 Kuramo Conference on Law and Development in
Lagos, he said that “the process was undemocratic and indeed subversive
of the will of other governors, who are the members of the forum.” Mr
Fashola said that the decision of those behind the handpicking of the
Ogun state governor as the new chairman of the forum called for internal
vigilance as the country goes to poll next year.

“It is not a crisis per se, but it is really bothersome,” he said.
“It bothers me that this kind of thing can happen in a party that
professes to have a free and fair election.”

Regional integration of Africa and the meticulous implementation of policies are pivotal to the continent’s economic fortunes, said Paul Boateng, the former UK’s Chief Secretary to the Treasury.
Mr Boateng, while speaking on Tuesday at the maiden edition of the Kuramo Conference on ‘Developing Economies: Rethinking the Present, Shaping the Future’, said Africa is “destined to become the continent of the present century,” but warned the continent’s political elite to embrace transparent democracy and service delivery. “African governments will not be able to escape the need to make some significant policy choices,” he said, “What is vital is that these choices should reflect African priorities – determined by African people in democratic dialogue with those they have freely chosen to lead them based on information freely and regularly available, through open and transparent institutions of governance.”

Harnessing existing resources

Though he would not absolve the western countries of complicity in Africa’s dilemma, he said Africa, by harnessing its existing resources, is capable of solving its problems. “Africa is not just about charity and aids, it has capacity to solve global problems,” he said. He, however, blamed the continent’s retrogression on political leaders for not propounding and implementing “sound policies.” “If the ‘tiger economies’ had focused only on primary education they would not be where they are today,” he said. “Bad policy by donors and global multi-lateral institutions was made worse by Africa’s political elites who themselves failed to either challenge those actions or present viable alternatives. They lacked the vision of their predecessors, missing opportunities to advance the welfare of their peoples and focusing instead on their own self aggrandisement and enrichment.”

Using his own childhood experience as “the grandson of a cocoa farmer” in Ghana, Mr Boateng recommended effective transport system and adequate funding of researches and the proactive application of research results. “My grandfather’s cocoa was the highest grade because he was the beneficiary of the best scientific research then available from the West African Cocoa Research Institute,” he said. “The cocoa was then transported by direct rail link and commanded the highest price and low transport cost. Unfortunately, Africa’s transport costs are the highest in the world. World Class Scientific Research Centres and Railway system no longer exist and this will surely hamper Africa’s future progress.”

Building a great city

Jesse Jackson, a former US Special Envoy for Africa, emphasised that Africa’s leaders “must have a passion for transparency and integrity,” while speaking on ‘Urban Citizenship – Rights and Obligation.’ Mr Jackson said great cities are built, not by the wealth and privileges of a few, but by the workers and fair wages. “We live in a world of globalized capital,” he said. “Now we must globalize human rights, workers rights, women’s rights, children rights and environmental security. Our tilted tax structure expands privileges for the top two per cent [of the population], thus [creating] a turbulent imbalance between the very rich and the very poor, imbalance in trade, major bank collapse without oversight and bailout without link to investment and lending. This calamity of errors and greed is bankrupting cities and states. Lagos, this is not the way to do it.”

Governor Fashola, the conference’s host, said he conceived Kuramo conference to be Africa’s voice on global issues. “The idea behind Kuramo is a response to my belief that at the turn of a new century and with globalization, a new legal order is imperative in order to make our world more inclusive and to secure it for the next generation,” he said, vowing that the conference will not end as a talk show. “The recommendations that will come out of this conference will be documented as the Kuramo Declaration and we shall immediately setup a committee which will work out the advocacy and implementation strategies.”