Nigeria Content Online

The Anambra State
government has assured that the strike action embarked upon by the
state chapter of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), which
led to the closure of the state university’s campuses at Uli and
Igbariam, will soon be resolved.

The university
staff joined their counterparts in the four south-east states in a
strike to protest the non-implementation by the south east governors of
the new salary scheme for state universities.

But addressing the
press yesterday in Awka, the senior special assistant to the governor
on communication, John Ubabukoh, said that the governor, Peter Obi, was
worried over the continued closure of the Anambra State University and
was working hard to resolve the crisis. Mr Ubabukoh said several
meetings had been held towards this and there were indications that the
problem would soon be resolved.

The head of service
in the state, Ngozi Melifonwu, has also assured that the government is
working round the clock to resolve the problem. She said the government
indicated its seriousness in solving the problem by setting up a panel,
which she headed, to look into the matter. “We just rose from the
follow-up to our inaugural meeting,” she said. “I must tell you that
all the parties that attended the meeting share the same concern and
want the crisis to be settled so that our children will go back to
school.”

Lasting solution

Mrs Melifionwu said
the panel had listened to the problems in the school from relevant
stakeholders, including the government’s delegation. She said that the
panel will now go into other details necessary for a lasting solution.

“It was good to
observe that the meeting took place without antagonism. If we continue
in the same spirit, the crisis will surely be over soon,” she said.
Other members of the panel are the Pro-Chancellor of the University,
Elochukwu Amucheazi; Israel Okoye; A.F Uzoka; Chukwuemeka Ike, a
traditional ruler; the acting Vice Chancellor of the Anambra State
University, C.C. Anene and representatives of the Ministry of
Education, among others.

The south-east
governors had insisted that the resources available to states were not
equal and thus every state could not be expected to implement the new
salary scheme. But the chairman of the South East Governors’ Forum,
Peter Obi, recently said each state in the south-east zone was free to
handle the matter as it deemed fit.

The ASUU within the region also directed its affiliates in the states to parley with their governments over the matter.

The federal
government has charged the Honourary International Investor Council
(HIIC) to support Nigeria in building investor confidence in the
country. The call came against the backdrop of the treatment given to
companies doing business in Nigeria by some countries.

Vice President
Namadi Sambo said at yesterday’s meeting of the Council at the Banquet
Hall of the State House, Abuja that it is sad that European Union
countries do not guarantee companies that are doing business in
Nigeria. He cited the United Kingdom which gives guarantees to
companies in Ghana and other countries but not to those in Nigeria, as
an example.

He therefore urged
the members of the body “to support and partner with government to
build investor confidence on the country.” Mr. Sambo stressed that
there are still huge opportunities for investment in all sectors in
Nigeria, adding that the Central Bank of Nigeria has made available
N500 billion at one digit interest rate.

The Vice President
noted government’s commitment in ensuring an enabling environment for
businesses to thrive in Nigeria, saying “government has made deliberate
policies to ensure that these objectives are met”.

In this light, he
said government has put in place a new gas pricing policy to further
bolster investor interest in the oil and gas sector and that to ensure
adequate security, machinery had been put in place to reform the
Nigeria police.

“To meet the huge
financial requirements for infrastructural development, government is
looking at various ways to organise and stratify funding for projects
in its quest to achieve the laudable goals contained in the Vision
20:2020 programme,” he said.

He said such ways
include concessionary funds from the World Bank, the Islamic
Development Bank (IDB), the African Development Bank (ADB) and the Yen
Credit facility, among several others. Others include Public Private
Partnerships and bilateral funding.

The VP stated that
government needs “the cooperation and support of the private sector to
meet the developmental challenges of the country”.

According to him,
areas needing urgent intervention include, “power, such as the hydro
power projects in Zungeru and Mambilla, and development of Coal power
plants; transportation; housing and urban development, construction of
multipurpose dams, agriculture, port expansion, road and railways
construction, water ways and access to financing for the private
sector”.

Positive changes

The Chairperson of
the Investor Council, Lynda Chalker, said the Council has a good
opportunity to take a number of key issues forward. She further said
that the Council had noticed a very significant change in Nigeria which
is for the better, adding that they have seen a big leap forward. Mrs
Chalker used the occasion to assure Mr Sambo of their commitment to
improving investor confidence in Nigeria.

The meeting saw
presentations from the Minister of Agriculture, Ahmed Abdullahi on
driving investments into agriculture; the Chairman, Independent
National Electoral Commission (INEC), Attahiru Jega on the Challenges
and Prospects of Electoral Reform Process in Nigeria and; the
government of Borno State, on driving investment to Nigerian States.

Council members present include Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, Sam Jonah,
Emmanuel Ijewere, Umaru Mutalab, Neil Harvey, Guillaume Roux, Ronnie
Ntuli, Simon Harford and Pietro Franco Tali. Others at the occasion are
the Minister of National Planning, Shamsudeen Usman; Special Assistant
to the President on MDGs, Amina Al-Zubair, and the Executive Secretary,
Nigeria Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC) Mustapha Bello among
others.

About 120 prisoners who were recently freed when
members suspected to be of the Boko Haram sect attacked the Bauchi
Prison, have willingly returned to the prison.

The Minister of Interior, Emmanuel Ihenacho,
disclosed this in Abuja while explaining what the federal government
was doing to forestall the threat of further attacks from the religious
sect that has held the northern part of the country by the jugular
since last year.

Although details of the returnee prisoners could not
be ascertained as to whether they were awaiting trial prisoners (ATPs)
or those serving various sentences, a prison source who asked not to be
named said that they are prisoners serving light sentences.

Mr Ihenacho said the suspected Boko Haram members
actually launched the attack with the sole aim of freeing over 100 of
their members detained in the prison in relation to last year’s
disturbances that accounted for the death of about 1000 persons and
destruction of several property.

Safe and secure

The minister disagreed with those who have accused
the federal government of being helpless, saying it was committed to
the security of lives and property at the prison.

He added that there were a total of 759 inmates under
the prison’s guard, out of which 721 were freed during the jail break,
leaving a balance of just 28 inmates.

Mr Ihenacho did not explain what will happen to the
120 prisoners that returned on their volition, whether they will be
considered for future government pardon or not, but he did add that the
nationwide prison security system and related security agencies will
mount a concerted search to track down the fleeing inmates.

He promised that the government will reinforce the
monitoring of security situations in the contingent states of the
sect’s spread, especially those of the north-east geopolitical region,
to forestall a possible spill-over.

Clarifying on the casualty figure from the jailbreak, the minister
said only two un-identified persons were confirmed dead, along with a
mobile policeman, while three other prison officials who sustained
severe injuries are currently receiving treatments.

A senator in the
third republic, Remi Okunriboye, has described as “pathetic” the
current situation where politicians incur huge debt in their bid to
acutalise their political ambition.

Mr. Okunriboye, who spoke in Owo, said the huge amount committed to campaigns will continue to rob the nation of credible polls.

“What do you expect
from politicians who borrow from banks and people? They will never
serve the interest of the masses,” he said.

“Their main target,
when they get to position, is to first recoup the money they spend
during campaign. This is highly detrimental to the advancement of the
nation call Nigeria. They invest heavily to make Nigerians pay for it
later.”

The politician, who
is a senatorial candidate of the Peoples’ Democratic Party, also
charged anti-corruption agencies to probe the spending of aspirants
during electioneering campaign. He said it was time Nigerians rise up
against extravagant spending by politicians during elections.

Fulfil promises

He also urged
politicians across the country to always fulfill their electioneering
promises whenever they get to positions, saying the only way
politicians could assist the electorate was to give them dividends of
democracy.

“It is highly disturbing that the moment politicians get to the corridor of power they forget the electorates,” he said.

“This is not good for our democracy; we must allow our people to get to the mainstream.”

Mr. Okunriboye also
criticised the total number of political parties registered in the
country, saying, “the more you have various political parties, the more
you create problems for the country.”

He, however,
charged political leaders in the country to look inward to tackle the
problems of the masses through massive creation of jobs.

The Edo State command of the Nigeria Police on
Tuesday attributed the recent spate of kidnappings and other violent
crimes in the state to the delay in reporting criminal cases to enable
the police authorities embark on prompt action.

Residents of the ancient city were just recovering
from the shock of the brutal assassination of 86-year-old female
politician, Grace Osakwe, when the news of the abduction of Olabisi
Ihenyen, the Chief Medical Director of the Federal Psychiatric
Hospital, Uselu, Benin, and her husband, Lionel, broke.

To compound the apparent embarrassment of the
security agencies and their failure to check the spate of kidnappings,
Lucy Omagbon, a former commissioner of Lands, Survey and Housing in the
state, was also reported kidnapped last Sunday.

Delay by relatives

Reacting to the security situation in the state, the
command’s acting public relations officer, Ejiroro Ahwara, decried the
delay in reporting such cases to the command by relatives of victims.

He stated that rather than prompt reporting of
abduction cases to the police, relatives of the victims usually engage
in negotiation with the kidnappers.

“The police are compelled to work under critical
situations when the families of the victims are already negotiating
with the kidnappers,” he said.

Mr Awhara appealed to members of the public to always
be on the alert and also to report criminal activities and any
suspicious movements to the police on time. He also revealed that the
abductors of Mrs Omagbon had contacted her relatives.

Mrs Ihenyen and her husband regained their freedom
from their captors on Monday night, although this could not be
confirmed as at press time. It was also not clear how much their family
paid out in ransom. We, however, gathered that the family had offered
the sum of N5 million to the kidnappers, which was allegedly refused.

Medical workers in the state, especially in Benin, had embarked on
strikes to protest the kidnap of medical personnel and to pressurise
the government to crack down on kidnap gangs in the state.

A yet to be disclosed group has launched an SMS platform for Goodluck Jonathan’s campaign.

This platform may get wider coverage than the road campaign, as every network subscriber is said to be targeted by the texts.

In an SMS branded
“J.Goodluck”, which was sent to NEXT and a few others who confirmed
they too had received the text, Mr Jonathan solicits support from
Nigerians to join him in transforming our nation.

In the text, which
was obviously sent in bulk, Mr Jonathan said: “we are on the road to
rebuild our Nation. Stand with me, Stand for transformation”.

The SMS platform
may be the starting point of the president’s campaign which, NEXT
learnt, has its slogan as “Time for Transformation,” though it has not
yet been unveiled.

All-inclusive participation

Former Vice
President, Atiku Abubakar, has also launched a new campaign website as
a way of ensuring an all-inclusive participation in his campaign to
become Nigeria’s next president.

The website aims at
giving all Nigerians, including those living abroad, the opportunity to
make input in his campaign. “I want to run an inclusive campaign. I
want to hear from all Nigerians and respond to their questions and
concerns,” Mr Abubakar said yesterday, in a statement released by his
campaign office in Abuja.

The website, which was launched Monday, September 13, 2010, has already attracted over 2000 hits in less than 24 hours, he said.

He also launched his presence on the social media (Twitter and
Facebook) as a way of attracting younger Nigerians to support his
candidacy.

The Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission (EFCC) is mourning the loss of its key operative, Abdullahi
Muazu, who was killed yesterday in his home in Kaduna. Mr Muazu was,
until his death, the head of the Forensic Unit of the anti-graft agency.

The EFCC says that there is not enough
evidence to suspect any particular person, as Mr Muazu had been
involved in several EFCC cases. An operative of the agency, who asked
not to be named, told NEXT in Abuja that Mr Muazu was very involved in
the ongoing trials of the bank chiefs who were sacked by the Central
Bank of Nigeria (CBN) last year.

“Muazu was involved in virtually all
our cases because he was the head of the Forensic Unit, so it is
difficult to say that we suspect any particular person,” the EFCC
official said. “I know that he was very much involved in all the trials
of the Bank Chiefs, you know with checking finger prints and all that.”
The spokesman of the commission, Femi Babafemi, in a press statement
made available to NEXT, condemned the killing; adding that the
anti-graft agency is strengthening its resolve to go ahead with its
duties.

“Information reaching the Commission
today confirms that our head of forensic unit was killed in a cruel
manner in the early hours of today by unknown assailants. Those behind
this attack may have succeeded in killing a strategic hand and a key
witness in some of our on-going cases, but their act has failed to
dampen our spirit or deter us from continuing our investigation and
prosecution of all forms of economic crimes and corruption in the
country,” Mr Babafemi said.

Ominous killings

Mr Babafemi also said that the commission has launched an immediate investigation into the matter.

Mr Muazu’s death is coming just one day
after the gruesome murder of an agent of the State Security Service
(SSS), Garba Bello, who was killed alongside his children and wife in
Kano.

Bamidele Aturu, a Lagos Attorney,
described the murder of the SSS agent as “ominous”, while alluding that
the death is related to the coming 2011 elections. Mr Aturu also
expressed a lack of faith in the ability of law enforcement agencies in
the country to apprehend the killers.

“One must confess that it is futile to call on the security agencies
to fish out sponsors of gruesome and cold blooded murders such as the
one that happened in Kano on Monday,” he said. “They seem eternally
incapable of that. We can only hope that this latest killing might just
be an exception in the sea of murder riddles in a country that spends
billions of dollars on security at all levels of governance or
mis-governance.”