Nigeria Content Online

Over the week,
federal lawmakers began the final stage of adjusting the constitution to
provide enough time for the Independent National Electoral Commission
(INEC) to prepare and deliver credible elections next year without
shifting the May 29 handover date.

Although the efforts
of the lawmakers have offset some of the huddles that might have
chocked INEC if they went ahead with the old timeline, the election
management body still faces obvious timeline challenges.

One of the major
amendments to the constitution is that of the timeline, which has been
widened. The new changes recommend that elections be held not earlier
than 150 days and not later than 30 days before the expiration of a
running term.

That gives INEC a
total of four months – between 29 December 2010 to 29 April 2011 –
within which to organise and hold elections. But the Electoral Act gives
INEC the power to fix election dates. But elections would preferably
hold in April 2011.

In a meeting with
the senators early this month, Atahiru Jega, the chairman of INEC, said
if the commission has till April 2011, it will organise a free, fair,
and credible election. Tentatively, elections would hold in April but
not in one day and the furthest the first elections can hold, in
accordance with the law, is on the first weekend of that month.

Section 25 of the
Electoral Act 2010 provides that elections be staggered, with the Senate
and House of Representatives elections coming first. Thereafter, the
Presidential elections and later the state Houses of Assembly and
Governorship elections will hold the same day.

Important dates

The basic for a
credible election is a reliable voters’ register. The Electoral Act
requires that the voters list of each local government, council area, or
ward be displayed for scrutiny not later than 30 days before a general
election.

With the furthest
date for the first election being on the first weekend of April 2011,
the voters’ list must be on display before the first week of March 2011
and that is away.

Currently, the
Bureau of Public Procurement and INEC are yet to finalise the terms on
which the Data Capturing Machines INEC intend to use to conduct a fresh
voters’ register will be purchased.

The purchase of the
Data Capturing Machines is a major step to kick start the process of the
forthcoming general elections and industry experts say the process of
purchasing the machines may take up to 8 weeks or more.

Going by that
estimate, if INEC finalises with BPP this week, voters’ registration may
commence early next year. But if INEC fails to commence the purchase
process early enough in November, voters’ registration may be rushed in
February of next year to beat deadlines, and errors and malpractices
will be inevitable.

Kayode Idowu, INEC’s
public relations officer, however, said his organisation is
“virtually” through with BPP on the process of purchasing the data
capturing machines.

Other important
dates INEC would have to meet with the new timeline include publishing
its election timetable before the end of January.

The 2010 Electoral
Act in section 30 provides that INEC shall publish the date of elections
“90 days before the date appointed for holding of an election.”

Political parties
are also expected to submit to the commission list of the candidates
they propose to sponsor in the election 60 days (2 months) before the
date of the elections.

Reaction chain

Also, with the
latest amendment, the settlement of election cases before swearing-in
dates is no longer practicable in the next general elections.

The new amendment
recommends that an election tribunal shall deliver its judgment on a
case within 180 days (6 months) from the date of the filing of the
petition. It also stipulates that the petitions be filled within 21 days
after the elections.

“An appeal from a
decision of an election tribunal or court shall be heard and disposed
of within 60 days (two months) from the date of the delivery of
judgment of the tribunal,” the new constitution also recommends.

In the case of
presidential and governorship elections – including deputy governors –
the appeals could also go further to the Supreme Court.

Allowing petitions
on governorship elections go up to the Supreme Court is an idea of the
Senate in the amended constitution, but if the House of Representatives
accepts it, it will further extend the time an illegal officer would
occupy political office beyond one year, completely defeating the
initial aim of the first amendment to the constriction.

Ike Ekweremadu, the
deputy Senate president who also heads the Senate ad hoc committee on
constitution review, said the idea of providing for extension of appeal
of governorship election petitions to the Supreme Court for final
determination is to curb the conflicting judgments which arise from
various Courts of Appeal.

The amendments are,
however, not finished yet. As a major part of the process, the Senate
set up a committee to harmonise the differences in the bill passed by
the Senate with that of the House of Representatives.

Thereafter, a clean copy of the bill will be sent down to the state
Houses of Assembly for the assent of at least 24 of the states before
the amendment will become a law.

Long after
diseases such as polio, guinea worm, tetanus, leprosy, and measles,
among others, have been eliminated in many countries of the world,
Nigeria is still contending with these problems. Even today, the hope
of eradicating some of them in the nearest future remains dim.

The diseases have
been targeted for eradication and elimination by the World Health
Organisation (WHO) which hopes in the short run to lower their
prevalence so that they can more easily be managed.

According to the
Organisation, “Throughout history, only one infectious disease –
smallpox – has ever been eradicated. Today, polio and guinea worm
diseases are on the verge of eradication.” However, experts are worried
that the Nigerian government has at best shown a dubious attitude
towards their eradication.

Dearth of amenities

Some of these
diseases have been eradicated in most parts of the world, and their
continued presence in the country has been attributed to poor hygiene
and government’s inability to provide basic amenities that would help
keep them in check.

“Many of these
diseases have to do with good hygiene, good water supply for the
people,” said Edamisan Temiye, the chairman of the Lagos chapter of the
Nigeria Medical Association.

“For example,
guinea worm. You can contact it if you step into the water containing
the guinea worm larva; it will penetrate the skin and the person will
be infected,” said Dr Temiye.

“If somebody has
polio virus and his stool is not properly disposed of and it
contaminates water that is going to be drunk or food that is going to
be eaten, then the person is going to be infected. They have to do with
water so they are water-borne diseases.

“So, if the
country has been able to supply potable water for her citizens, we
would have eradicated these things; they will not be a big problem,” he
said.

Despite the
success recorded through mass immunisation campaigns, which officials
say had reached hundreds of millions of children, experts say some of
the diseases, like polio, are still widespread in some heavily
populated areas due to ignorance and poor reporting systems.

Ignorance and political interference

During the second
round of immunisation in Lagos State last year, some teams of
vaccinators met with stiff resistance in some areas of the state.

Tunde Oni, the
proprietor of Sam Debo Nursery and Primary School, Gowon Estate, in
Alimosho local government area of the state, resisted attempts to
immunise pupils in his school.

“It is not for the progress of this nation as the government has proposed, so I don’t want it done in my school,” he said.

Mr Oni believed
that the exercise had ulterior motives: “The government knows why it is
carrying this out. Maybe they don’t want it exposed to the people, but
I know the reason,” he said.

Afghanistan,
India, Nigeria, and Pakistan are the only four countries yet to
eradicate polio, according to a United Nations report.

Adebayo Onajole, a
medical professional, blamed the country’s inability to effectively
eradicate the disease on the irresponsible attitude of officials who
see the health institution as an avenue to engage in political
showmanship.

“The issue of
poliomyelitis is more of a political problem than us not doing some of
those things right,” said Dr. Onajole, an associate professor of
Medicine at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH).

“And the political
problem came as a result of the religious strife from misinformation
about the vaccination against polio,” he added.

A few years ago,
some states in the northern part of the country rejected the polio
vaccines for the immunisation of children after rumours claimed there
was a chemical embedded in the vaccine which would sterilise male
children and destroy the womb of female children.

“That was one of the things that drew us back in terms of the polio eradication programme in Nigeria,” said Dr. Onajole.

“Because
immediately after that, paralysis as a result of polio that was noticed
in far away countries like Saudi Arabia was said to have originated
from Nigeria.

“A lot of people
were sponsored to go out of the country, even to purely Islamic
countries to be able to ascertain that the same vaccines that were
being used in Nigeria are the same that are used in those countries and
it was not deleterious to their health,” he said.

Immunisation is key but…

Various state
governments have embarked on immunisation campaigns to ensure that
these diseases are eradicated but, so far, polio seems to get all the
attention.

“Immunisation is
yielding some results, but they are concentrating only on polio. There
are so many diseases that are vaccine-preventable that are ravaging the
people of this country,” said Dr. Temiye.

“The focus is on
polio. There is no talk about measles, tetanus, and the rest, and some
of these vaccines are quite cheap; the system can afford them. We are
only concentrating on polio because we have funds from international
agencies to eradicate polio and governments have not put their money
down to eradicate other diseases, which are also there and there are
vaccines for them,” he said.

Dr. Temiye said
that a lot of children and adults are dying in large numbers as a
result of tetanus, measles, and meningitis, which are making a comeback
in epidemic proportion.

“If we have had a
system that ensures that every child born in this country is immunised
with all the available vaccines, then our health indices will increase.
We will also be able to eliminate diseases such as measles, tetanus
that are vaccine-preventable,” he further said.

In the case of
measles, however, the WHO states that global efforts to control the
disease have been hampered by low immunisation of coverage areas in
some countries.

“One of the
challenges facing measles eradication is that you can only administer
the vaccine via injection and it is only trained personnel that can do
that,” said Dr. Onajole.

“And you also know
the problems with injections today. A lot of us in the health sector
are trying to limit people getting injections because of diseases that
are spread via blood, especially HIV. Therefore, you will not want just
anybody to start administering injection because there is no advantage
in saving a child from measles, only for the child to have HIV,” he
added.

Ensuring that the
routine immunisation programmes are sustained and that people are able
to access immunisation at locations close to them would give the
necessary fillip to the fight against these diseases, according to Dr.
Onajole.

“Also, the
practice whereby local governments, primary healthcare centres, and
every other places are closed up because government wants to do her
so-called ‘special immunisation’ programme to immunise against one
disease, polio, is a major drawback.

“But, part of the
process of how the polio was eradicated in the Americas is that if a
case of acute flaccid paralysis is noticed as a result of
poliomyelitis, you do what we call a mop-up immunisation campaign
around five kilometre radius of that vicinity,” he said.

The migration of
people from disease endemic regions also weakens the fight against
eradication. Last year, more than 10 cases of paralysis as a result of
polio were reported in Lagos, where the disease was thought to have
been eliminated.

“The Lagos cases have been taken care of and the mop-up has been done,” said Dr. Onajole.

“Polio is easier
to eradicate because there is no reasonable extra human reservoir for
the virus and that means that somebody who has and is incubating the
virus must have been transmitting it to somebody else. So, if you can
eradicate it in the human population, then you are surely going to
eradicate polio virus,” he said.

Uniting to eradicate

Tremendous
achievement has also been made in the area of guinea worm disease, with
Nigeria recording her last case of transmission in 2008.

The WHO attributed
the success to the effective public/private sector partnerships towards
its eradication and elimination programmes.

Last week, some
African leaders demonstrated an unprecedented co-operation and
commitment to drive out polio when they launched a synchronised mass
immunisation campaign to reach 72 million children, capitalising on
gains made this year.

A report released
by the WHO stated that the “synchronised mass immunisation” became
imperative following the spread of the disease from Nigeria to 24
countries across West and Central Africa.

“As a direct
result of these immunisation campaigns, the polio outbreaks have slowed
to a trickle. Across West Africa, only Liberia and Mali have recorded
any case in the past five months, while Nigeria – the only country in
Africa never to have stopped polio transmission – has slashed polio by
98 percent in the past year,” the WHO report stated.

Also last week,
the World Health Assembly expressed worries over the $1.3 billion
funding shortfall, a 50 percent drop in the overall funding for the
polio eradication programme over the next three years.

Dr. Temiye
maintained that Nigeria should be looking inwards for finance, rather
than waiting for handouts from foreign agencies.

“Why should we
depend on donors? We have enough money to take care of ourselves. Why
should we depend on people dictating to us what to do when we know our
own problems?

“Nobody can solve our problems for us from outside. We must solve it
within. We should use our money to develop ourselves. Until we do that,
I’m sorry we’ll still have a lot of problems,” he said.

For those still
trying to conjecture why the Special Adviser to the President on Power,
Barth Nnaji, is fast developing gray hairs, two reasons came from the
horse’s mouth at the weekend in Abuja: ‘suffering’ and his presidential
assignment.

Though Mr Nnaji,
who was responding to a toast to his achievements at a special dinner
organised in his honour by ‘Friends of Barth Nnaji’, did not expatiate
on what he meant, he, however, assured them of the present
administration’s commitment to deliver on its promise to give Nigerians
reliable electricity supply before long.

President of the
South-east and South-south Professionals, Emeka Ugbuoju, who said Mr
Nnaji was his former classmate back in St Patrick’s Secondary School,
Emene, Enugu State, had eulogised him for remaining a worthy ambassador
of his generation.

But Mr Nnaji told
his audience, including the Presidential Adviser on Petroleum, Emmanuel
Egbogah; former Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications
Commission (NCC), Ernest Ndukwe and Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN),
Paul Usoro, that he has been wondering why his former classmate (Mr
Ugbuojo) has managed to look fresh, while he is graying all over.

“Emeka Ugbuoju said
he used to sit next to me in school. But, look at my hair and look at
his,” he told guests, as he made gestures at the graying hairs on his
head.

“It is suffering
that brought these things. And then, the President decided to heap the
challenge of electricity industry on my head, and literarily said that
my neck is on the line here. So, he gave me more gray hairs.” Mr Nnaji,
who appeared overwhelmed by the gathering, thanked his friends for the
gesture. He described it as humbling, acknowledging that though he is a
people’s person, he always prefers celebrating others than being
celebrated.

The former
Chairman, Geometric Power, who was accompanied by his wife and son,
then declared to his audience: “What I can promise you is that the work
that the president is doing, we, the people in the trenches, who are
working with him, will do everything to deliver electricity for Nigeria
in a reliable way.”

Blazing trails

Don Adinuba of
Discovery International Communicators, who proposed the toast on behalf
of the group, described Mr Nnaji as one of the nicest human beings he
has ever come across.

“We are gathered to
celebrate a man who has risen to the top, but has not lost the common
touch; one who has broken all records and still remains very humble in
his modesty,” he declared, adding that Mr Nnaji has sponsored the
training of about 300 people from primary school to university level,
most of who are currently pursuing different professional careers both
within and outside the country.

Mr Adinuba
described Mr Nnaji’s academic accomplishments as exemplary, as he not
only became a professor before the age of 30, he also broke a 120 years
record in the history of St. John’s University, New York to emerge the
institution’s first black to be named its best graduating student in
1980.

Before presenting a
giant portrait of Mr Nnaji’s image, Barth Okonkwo recalled his tenure
as Chairman of the Nigerian Peoples Forum, an umbrella organisation of
Nigerians in the United States.

He said it was under his leadership that Nigerians, on behalf of the
whole Africa, made a bold statement in American politics, by donating
about $350,000 to Al Gore’s presidential campaign.

An emergency meeting
of the National Working Committee (NWC) of the Peoples Democratic Party
(PDP) was convened last Monday to attend to what the party called “some
burning issues”, especially the controversy that trailed the
dissolution of the executive committee of the Enugu State chapter of the
party.

Two days earlier,
the office of the national chairman, Okwesilieze Nwodo had, in a
statement dissolved the state executive committee and in its place
appointed an eight-member committee headed by Anthony Agbo, a senator,
to organise a fresh congress.

The state was among
the eight states whose congresses are being disputed by the Independent
National Electoral Commission (INEC). The other states are Adamawa, Imo,
Kogi, Delta, Oyo, Plateau, and Bayelsa.

INEC, in a letter
sent out by its director of political party monitoring, Regina Omo-Agege
last month, said it would not recognize the congresses conducted in the
states because they did not follow laid down procedure and were
therefore inconclusive. The electoral body advised the ruling party to
conduct fresh congress where authentic executive committees would
emerge.

Although, the NWC
met over the matter and resolved to direct the party’s national legal
adviser, Olusola Oke to inform INEC that it was an internal matter, the
commission was to fire another letter to the party, this time signed by
its secretary, Abdullahi Kaugama, insisting that the fresh congresses
must hold in the states.

With INEC’s fresh
letter and the controversy over dissolution of the Enugu State on its
agenda, the NWC went into the emergency meeting at the Legacy House,
Maitama, Abuja, formerly the campaign headquarters of the Obasanjo/Atiku
Campaign Organisation.

The meeting turned
out to be stormy. Chaired by the deputy national chairman, Haliru Bello
Mohammed, members of the committee were reportedly at dagger drawn over
the issue of congress. It was gathered that some of them expressed shock
at the dissolution of the party by Mr Nwodo, who was then holidaying in
the United States, through his media aide Ike Abonyi.

Party chiefs,
especially those sympathetic to the Enugu governor, Sullivan Chime,
viewed the development as an exhibition of personal interest by Mr
Nwodo, who himself hails from the state and was its governor. Some were
said to have argued that since the protest of the chairman of the
dissolved committee, Vitalis Abba had not come to it, there was no need
discussing it.

In the end, the NWC
resolved to set up a three-member committee, comprising Messrs Mohammed,
Oke and Abubakar Baraje, the national secretary, not only to look into
the matter but also to make representation to President Goodluck
Jonathan over the manner Mr Nwodo runs the party.

Besides, the deputy
national chairman was mandated to write INEC explaining why fresh
congress should not hold in the affected states. In his letter the
following day, October 25, Mr Mohammed, said that the congresses had
become matters of litigation in the court of law, particularly in Delta
and Oyo States.

He reminded INEC
that its then Resident Electoral Commissioner in Delta State, Humphrey
Nwangeneh, monitored the congress in the state and subsequently sent a
report to the commission’s headquarters in Abuja.

“The documents
emanating from your commission do not support the claim of inconclusive
congress in Delta state. While the above suit pending, no fresh congress
can legally hold in Delta state. There appears to be good reason for
the commission to have a second look at the case of Delta State,” Mr
Mohammed said.

In the case of Oyo
State, although the PDP deputy national chairman confirmed that INEC did
not monitor the congress as required by law, he said there was already
an order of injunction issued by a court, hence it would be wrong to
interfere in the matter.

“Our understanding
of the ruling on jurisdiction is that the ex-parte order earlier issued
by the court was never made and that at all materials times, the Oyo
state congress was never legally encumbered by any valid court order,”
Mr Mohammed said.

Mr Mohammed,
however, informed the commission of the party’s desire to conduct
another congress in Imo State between October 29 and November 1.

Although it could
not be confirmed if INEC has replied the party, the controversy over the
conduct of fresh congress is still tearing the party apart.

It is still not
certain how Mr Nwodo, who is due back in the country this weekend, will
respond to the development, especially the reported resolution of his
colleagues in the NWC to report him to Mr Jonathan over his dictatorial
tendencies since assuming office last June.

EFCC gets in the way

As he returns, he
will be confronted with another matter, the list of the alleged corrupt
officials posted on the website of the Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission (EFCC) but which was unveiled by the media earlier in the
week.

The issue came up
for discussion at the Monday’s NWC meeting, apparently because of the
preponderance of members of the ruling party on the list.

Among the party
faithful listed on the advisory list were formers governors James Ibori
(Delta), Rashidi Ladoja (Oyo), Joshua Dariye (Plateau), Lucky Igbinedion
(Edo), Boni Haruna (Adamawa), Chimaroke Nnamani (Enugu), Michael
Botmang (Plateau), Jolly Nyame (Taraba), Saminu Turaki (Jigawa) and
Abdullahi Adamu (Nasarawa).

Iyabo
Obasanjo-Bello, a senator, two former aviation ministers, Babalola
Borishade and Femi Fani Kayode, former FCT Minister, Nasir el-Rufai and a
host of other members of the PDP also made the list. Interestingly,
some of them are aspiring to various elective offices in the forthcoming
polls.

A source revealed
that the NWC members were concerned because of the effect it would have
on its outing during the forthcoming general elections. Ahmed Rufa’I
Alkali, the party national publicity secretary was to publicly expressed
this concern.

“When the EFCC,
which is the professional organ responsible for this assignment, issues a
statement like this, many people will be concerned. We should be able
to calm them down to let them know that the party will not go after
their jugular just like that. So we want them to remain calm and
continue with their normal activities as party men and leaders,” Mr
Alkali said.

The PDP spokesman,
who said the party leadership had previously met with the EFCC
chairperson, Farida Waziri to discuss ways of ensuring rancor-free
elections, said it would not take any action based on the list because
the allegations against the politicians had not been established by any
court.

The north-south tango

Curiously, these
issues are trailing the controversial rotation of presidential power
between the north and the south, allegedly adopted some years ago. The
zoning issue had not only posed a serious threat to the unity in the
ruling party, but might mar its chances in the elections.

Already, a
significant number of its members in the north, are threatening protest
votes against the party if Mr Jonathan should insist on contesting the
presidential elections next year.

Besides, four of the
presidential aspirants from the north and their aides having been
meeting with some northern elders under the aegis of Northern Political
Leaders Forum headed by former finance minister, Adamu Ciroma with a
view to picking a consensus candidate amongst them. They are insisting
the north should be allowed to produce the nest president, at least till
2015, to serve out the tenure began by the late President Umaru
Yar’Adua, a northerner.

A 12-member committee appointed by the NPLF to pick the consensus candidate, is currently on tour of the 19 northern states.

But the deep seated
animosity in the 12 year old party has crept into the National Assembly,
where it holds the majority in both chambers. Only last Tuesday, the
Senate threw out a amendment sought by Mr Jonathan to the Electoral Act
2010.

The President had
sought an amendment to Sections 25 and 87, which would have altered the
sequence of the general elections and also allow presidential aides (in
the case of presidential primaries) to be delegates during the party
primaries. The approval of the amendment, many believe would give the
president victory over his challengers.

Interestingly, the
bill was opposed not only by those asking Mr Jonathan not to run but
also those supporting his ambition to succeed himself. Kanti Bello, the
deputy director general of the Ibrahim Babangida Campaign Organisation
led those who canvassed the defeat of the amendment.

Before the amendment
came to the floor, the issue was already mired in controversy following
alleged inducement of the senators and representatives by the
Presidency. The Presidency was alleged to have promised to give each
lawmaker $30,000 to allow the amendment scale through, but the senators
through their spokesman, Ayogu Eze denied it. The presidency also denied
this.

In any case, there
was also another allegation that the lawmakers were reluctant to pass
the amendment because their own interest was not factored into the
entire deal.

For a party going into election in a few months time against threatening opposition, the rising challenges are enormous.

While other
presidential candidates declined the demand by stakeholders in the
education sector to present their policies on education, three:
Muhammadu Buhari of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), Nuhu
Ribadu of the Action Congress of Nigeria, and Atiku Abubakar of the
Peoples Democratic Party, at the weekend, presented their programmes on
how to tackle the challenges facing the sector.

The presidential
hopefuls made their presentations at a meeting of the Joint Education
Stakeholders Action Coalition (JESAC) in Abuja.

The JESAC is a
voluntary association of eighteen (18) education unions, associations
and organizations that cut across the entire gamut of Nigeria’s
education sector.

Its membership cuts
across academic and non-academic staff in all our educational
institutions. These include the Academic Staff Union of Universities,
Nigeria Union of Teachers, Colleges of Education Academic Staff Union,
the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics, and the Association of Primary
School Head Teachers of Nigeria.

The group had
invited presidential candidates, including President Goodluck Jonathan
and former military ruler, Ibrahim Babangida, to make presentations at
the meeting . Only three did.

Ike Onyechere, the
national coordinator of JESAC, however, absolved the other aspirants
from any blame in not attending the conference.

“Yes, we sent
invitations to everybody (the presidential aspirants). But they don’t
all have equal time. When we are doing the third one (conference), we
are going to take it round the zones so those who did not present their
policies will have the opportunity to do so.” Mr. Onyechere told NEXT.

The three candidates
condemned the decay in infrastructure and promised to take Nigeria’s
educational institutions to a greater height if elected.

The areas where the
candidates stated as needing urgent attention include funding,
infrastructure development, staff training and welfare, research,
science and technology development, regulation and inspectorate
services, as well as education for the less privileged and physically
challenged.

Different ways of addressing challenges

The candidates,
however, differed on how to tackle the challenges facing the educational
sector. Some of the areas where they differed include university
funding and provision, funding of research, and the role of the federal
government in education.

While Mr. Buhari and
Mr. Ribadu in their policies stated that the FG would continue to fund
all its universities, Mr. Abubakar stated that if elected President, the
federal government would only finance and own one university in each of
the six geo-political zones.

While Mr. Buhari
stated that educational research funding will be carried out by the
private sector, former EFCC boss stated that he would establish a
National Research Fund with funding both from government and the private
sector.

Mr. Onyechere, the
JESAC boss, however states that his association is not limiting its
conferences to presidential hopefuls alone.

“It’s not only presidential aspirants that will address our
conferences. There are other conferences coming up around the zones in
Nigeria. Governorship aspirants and local government chairmen will all
be called upon to come and tell Nigerians what their plan is to revamp
our educational institutions,” he stated.