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The United States government yesterday removed Nigeria from the major drug list.

According to a statement released by
the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), the US President,
Barack Obama, said that this was the first time that Nigeria would be
delisted from the drug majors list since 1991. The anti-narcotics
agency stated that Mr Obama said that Nigeria was a onetime drug
trafficking focal point but that the country had taken a lot of drastic
steps to make counter narcotics a top national security for the
country. He said that international data showed that there was a
strengthening of illegal drug trafficking between Latin America and
West Africa, especially via Brazil and Venezuela, with a considerable
portion of illegal product destined for Europe.

According to the report, Nigeria,
Brazil, and Paraguay were recently removed this year from the list
because they no longer meet the criteria for the list according to US
law. Reacting, Ahmadu Giade, the Chief Executive of the NDLEA, said
that Nigeria had gotten a well deserved honour. He noted that the
removal of Nigeria from the majors drug list was an endorsement of the
collective efforts of the agency to combat drug traffickers with the
aim of having a drug free society. According to him, the honour given
to Nigeria by removing her from the drug list was as a product of
dedication, transparency, hard work, and cordial working relationship
between Nigeria and United States in controlling drug trafficking in
the country.

The NDLEA is happy

“I appreciate President Barack Obama
and Americans for this candid and credible assessment,” he said. “The
removal speaks volumes concerning our impressive scorecard and
determination to address the drug problem. Illicit trade in narcotics
transcends national boundaries. Our foreign collaborators also have a
way of monitoring most assiduous efforts. All exit entry points will
remain invincible to drug criminals through effective drug
interdiction.” The NDLEA boss also thanked President Goodluck Jonathan
for his anti-drug policies, and other stakeholders for their
unrelenting efforts. He promised that no drug baron or major drug
trafficker would go unpunished in the country, adding that NDLEA was
one of the best anti-drugs agencies in Africa and that the agency
is prepared to make sacrifices to sustain and improve on its drug
control performance “Our level of professionalism shall be further
consolidated on the tripod of transparency, anti-corruption and respect
for the rule of law,” he said. “It is a call to duty that demands
higher commitment on our part. We shall continue to partner with the
United States and other stakeholders. No stone will be left unturned in
our quest for a drug free society.”

According to the agency, the 20 countries on the list this year are
Afghanistan, The Bahamas, Bolivia, Burma, Colombia, Costa Rica,
Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, India,
Jamaica, Laos, Mexico, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Panama, Peru and Venezuela.
A major drug-transit country is defined as a significant direct source
of illicit narcotic or psychotropic drugs or other controlled
substances significantly affecting the United States; or a country
through which such drugs or substances are transported.

There’s a trillion-dollar time-bomb in Washington that’s been ticking for nearly ten years and it’s about to explode.

“We don’t have more time for any more games,” President Barack Obama said this week.

The countdown started with a sweeping set of tax cuts championed a decade ago by then-president George Bush.

The cuts saved
millions of American taxpayers a lot of money. Rich Americans, who pay
the most taxes, got the biggest savings but over the long term, all
Americans will get the bill: 1.7 trillion dollars in revenue that the
government didn’t collect, had to borrow and will ultimately have to
pay back.

To keep the
official cost down, the cuts were only enacted for ten years. Unless
President Obama and Congress can agree on a long-term plan, the cuts
expire at the end of the year and Americans will see their taxes
suddenly snap back up again.

Many economists say that would be a big blow to the U.S. economy, still inching away from recession.

Adding to the
pressure, this is campaign season in the United States, with voters
going to the polls in November to elect a new set of lawmakers for
Congress. It’s a bad time to talk about higher taxes.

Republicans are
campaigning to extend the Bush tax cuts, arguing that they will both
help America’s families make it through tough times and spur the
recovery by the entire U.S. economy.

President Obama
says rich Americans don’t need money that could be better spent
elsewhere and plans to extend the the tax cuts only to families making
less than $250,000.

Obama’s Democrats – down dramatically in the polls and facing a tough re-election campaign – are split.

In the weeks ahead, the Democrats and some Republicans have to agree on a plan the president will support.

If they can’t
agree, almost every American who sends tax money to Washington will
have to send more.The tax cuts they’ve grown accustomed to over the
last decade will simply expire. Or to put it another way, they’ll
explode.

The education minister, Ruqayyatu Ahmed-Rufai, has
urged fresh graduates not to depend on white collar jobs after leaving
school, saying government alone could not meet the challenges of
unemployment in the country.

Mrs. Ahmed-Rufai, who gave the advice at the weekend
at the 31st convocation ceremony of the Adeyemi College of Education,
Ondo, said few vacancies that existed in the civil service could not
meet the demands of thousands of fresh graduates searching for gainful
employment.

She, therefore, charged them to embrace
entrepreneurial skills and develop initiatives for self-employment
generation, noting that no nation can develop without adequately
investing in human capital development.

Represented by the permanent secretary in the federal
ministry of education, Oladapo Afolabi, the minister said the education
sector was presently being repositioned to enable it play the very
important role of providing the much-needed human capital to transform
the country to a better place to live.

“The Federal Ministry of Education has taken various
steps to transform the sector. One of such steps is the unveiling of
the Road Map for the sector in March, 2009,” he said.

“The aim of the Road Map is to provide the much
needed qualitative education and to address the four cardinal points of
Access and Equity; Standards and Quality; Standards and Quality
Assurance; Technical and Vocational Education; Training, as well as
Funding and Resource Utilization.”

Upgrade the school

The chairman, governing council of the institution,
Grace Ekong, lauded the ministry for its recent move to upgrade the
college to a university status. She urged the Federal Executive Council
to approve the proposal to elevate some federal colleges of education
in the country to degree awarding universities, stressing that efforts
had been made in the past towards upgrading the college to an
autonomous degree awarding university of education.

“We will still work towards attaining the status.
Adeyemi College of Education, no doubt, has on ground, facilities
suitable for a university of education and it is already producing
degree graduates,” she said.

About 6, 669 students of the institution will be presented with
degree certificates, while 4, 068 will have their Nigeria Certificate
of Education.

Following alleged plots by some of its
old members to hijack the ward and local government congresses, the
national leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday
threw the congress open to both the new and returnee members.

A statement by the party’s
spokesperson, Ahmed Rufai Alkali, in Abuja on Sunday, said it received
complaints by some new members that they were being prevented from
either contesting or voting during the congresses.

The party warned that nobody should be
excluded from the exercise, since both old and returnee members have
the constitutional right to participate in the exercise.

At its 53rd National Executive
Committee meeting last Wednesday, the PDP approved the guidelines for
the congresses where candidates for various elective offices will be
picked. It also fixed for October 23 its national convention, where the
presidential candidate will be ratified.

“The attention of the Peoples
Democratic Party ( PDP) has been drawn to several complaints by party
members nationwide on the eligibility of members to participate in the
election of party delegates in the forthcoming ward and local
government congresses,” it said.

“We have received reports that some
members of the PDP are likely to be prevented from either contesting to
be delegates or voting for candidates of their choice by some party
officials. We wish to state categorically that all PDP members are
constitutionally entitled to participate in the ward congresses. For
the avoidance of doubt, both the old and new membership cards remain
valid for the exercise,” it added.

Party for all

The party also warned its officials at
all levels to avoid creating scenarios where any member will be
disenfranchised under whatever guise.

Mr. Alkali added that the national chairman, Okwesilieze Nwodo,
wants all party faithful to conduct themselves in a peaceful and
orderly manner in order to ensure a free and fair process of electing
candidates for the polls.

The National
Security Adviser to the President, Aliyu Gusau, has resigned his
appointment. The retired army general is expected to apply to the
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) today in order to run as a presidential
candidate in the October primaries.

Although President
Goodluck Jonathan accepted his resignation over the weekend, sources
revealed yesterday that Mr. Gusau’s resignation letter was originally
submitted in July. According to a security source, Mr. Jonathan did not
ratify the resignation until after his declaration on Saturday, two
months after he received it.

Campaigns start

The source added
that both men met on Friday after it became clear that Mr. Gusau was
preparing to declare his intent to run for the presidency.

“Gusau’s
resignation letter has been sitting on the president’s desk since
July,” the source said. “In that time, he has carried on with his
duties normally until last week when PDP released the timetable.
Obviously, this has not given him much time to prepare his campaign but
he still had to act,” the source said.

Mr. Gusau’s deputy, Kayode Are, is expected to be named as the interim security adviser this week.

“The de-briefing was already done on Friday and handover notes will be sent to Col. Are by next week.” the source added.

The former army
general confirmed his exit in a brief telephone conversation yesterday.
He was, however, reticent about his future plans.

“It was the right
thing to do for my family,” he said. “As for the future we leave
everything to the will of Almighty God,” he said.

Mr. Gusau’s
resignation and its acceptance by Mr. Jonathan has put paid to all the
speculations that have been in the air about a month ago over his plans.

President Jonathan
had appointed Mr. Gusau as security adviser during the political crisis
that rocked the nation following the late President Yar’Adua’s ill
health and prolonged absence from office.

Mr. Gusau, who was
first named NSA in 1993 during the military rule of Ibrahim Babangida,
is resigning at a time wjhen the race for the presidency has kicked off
in full force. It is, however, unclear whether he is going to join
forces with Mr. Babangida, his former boss, or go it alone to seek the
nomination of the party.

PDP coalition

On Friday, Mr.
Gusau signed an agreement with three other PDP aspirants, Abubakar
Atiku, Mr. Babangida, and Bukola Saraki in which they vowed to present
a single presidential candidate from the north.

Mr. Gusau was
recalled as NSA during the Olusegun Obasanjo regime and in April, this
year, Mr. Jonathan appointed him for the fifth time to serve in the
same capacity, taking over from Sarki Mukhtar.

In 2007, he had planned to run in the PDP presidential primaries.

His resignation is one of many expected in the days ahead following Mr. Jonathan’s declaration of intent on Saturday.

Tayo Olarewaju, a Methodist Church
cleric yesterday, during the 3rd diocesan harvest thanksgiving
anniversary of Methodist Church Nigeria, Egba/Yewa Diocese, held at
Igbogila, Yewa north local government area of the state, asked God to
touch the hearts of the Ogun State governor, Gbenga Daniel, and the
state’s lawmakers over the incessant political crisis in the state
before it metamorphosed into bloodbath.

Mr. Olarewaju’s prayer, which lasted
for about 30 minutes, was centred on the political crisis which now
gives innocent residents and citizens of the state sleepless nights.

The hostility between the executive and
legislative arms of the state government reached its zenith two weeks
ago when a faction of the lawmakers staged an early morning meeting
during which they announced the removal of the principal officers of
the assembly and declared a new set of leaders. Although most people in
the state and beyond consider this a joke, the insurgent lawmakers have
received Mr. Daniel’s backing.

“God should touch the heart of Daniel.
He should touch the hearts of the lawmakers, all the aggrieved parties
should have their hearts touched, so that the state will not turn to
war,” the cleric said.

Change of heart

“I pray that God should soften the
hearts of the lawmakers and the governor. God should intervene for the
state to have peace. God should put love among them, mind of peace. If
Saul can change to Paul, God will change the hearts of all of them to
good,” he said.

Mr. Olarewaju also appealed to God to
choose responsible leaders for the country at all levels. He equally
advised the electorate not to sell their rights by collecting money to
vote, but should vote according to their conscience.

Notable politicians at the ceremony include Titi Ajanaku
(governorship aspirant); Albert Ashipa, chairman, Imeko-Afon local
government; Sunday Kojek, member, Ogun State House of Assembly; and
Oluwole Olumide, an Egba high chief.

Th e Labour Party
has not decided whether to field a presidential candidate during the
forthcoming general elections, the Deputy National Chairman of the
party, Joseph Iranola Akinalaja said at the weekend.

Mr. Akinalaja, who
was reacting to the recent declaration of interest of Dele Momodu, the
Publisher of Ovation Magazine, in the party’ presidential ticket, said
the party will decide the fate of Mr. Momodu at its National Executive
Council (NEC) meeting scheduled to hold tomorrow.

Mr. Momodu
presented his Letter of Intent to the National Chairman of the party,
Dan Uwanyanwu on Wednesday, September 15, at the party’s headquarters
in Abuja .

He was accompanied
by his Campaign Manager, Ohimai Godwin Amaize and other members of his
staff. They were received at the party headquarters by Mr Uwanyanwu;
Deputy National Chairman, Ali Abacha and National Secretary, Abdulsalam
Abdulkadir Salam. Mr. Akinalaja however said the party has not
finalized the condition for its presidential aspirants.

“Any Nigerian who
is a member of our party has the right to aspire for anything. We are
meeting on Tuesday at the NEC level to now finalise the condition and
there is no wrong in Dele Momodu’s interest,” he said.

“There is nothing
wrong in showing interest. We will now sit down. We will decide who
goes as our candidate. That is when we know the way forward as the
party has not decided on the presidential candidate. The decision to
field a presidential candidate will take place at our NEC meeting. It
is after the meeting that we will take a stand on the matter”.

He pointed out that expression of interest by Mr. Momodu was a clear
testimony that Labour Party is fast becoming a force to reckon with in
the nation’s polity.