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Seven years of
battle, that started with the invasion of Iraq, the successful removal
of a dictator and the descent of the country into insurgency and
sectarian warfare, came to a virtual inconclusive end yesterday after
the US formally announced an end to its campaign in Iraq – leaving
behind 50,000 ‘non combatant’ troops to be attached to the Iraqi army.

Iraqi Prime
Minister, Nouri Maliki in a television broadcast yesterday declared
that his country is now “sovereign and independent.” But how long this
sovereignty will last is something only time will tell. The country is
basically without a functioning government owing to the ruling class’s
failure to form a coalition-government after the last general election
and this paints a grim picture of how Iraqis could work together to
solve their nation’s political conundrum.

Sectarian violence
amongst the ethnic and religious groups (Sunni, Shiite, Kurds and
others) lingers on and is responsible for the political impasse which
portrays a very delicate future for the country.

The war leaves history with indelible marks in view of its cost and casualties.

According to the US
Department of Defence, the Iraq war recorded more than 4,000 US troops
killed and about 32,000 wounded in the operation. It is estimated that
the war has also cost the US tax-payers over $750 billion. The number
of Iraqi casualties is disputed, as tens of thousands of civilian lives
and Iraqi combatants lost are unaccounted for, owing to a lack of
reliable figures.

US president,
Barack Obama, who has always considered the war a ‘dumb war’, with this
withdrawal has made true his campaign promises of winding down the war.
The remaining troops are to help train Iraqi military and security
operatives and are also strategically stationed to protect the US
dealings in the nation’s vast oil reserve.

Some argue that
this desire to safeguard Iraqi oil – beyond the peevish statement of
the US president that launched the war, that Saddam Hussein tried to
kill his father, was the main reason behind the US-led invasion of
Iraq. The official reason was the (now generally acknowledged as false)
claim of acquisition of so-called weapons of mass destruction by the
Iraqi government.

Now that the
intruder has somehow withdrawn from the country, fears of an outbreak
of sectarian violence and communal rifts remain the major
preoccupations of Iraqi leaders.

Only last week, a
series of bomb blasts across the country killed over 50 Iraqis, just as
the main batch of US soldiers started leaving. How many of such will
this new sovereign Iraq face? Again, only time will tell.

The federal government’s target to increase power
generation in Nigeria to between 8,000 and 9,000 megawatts, as
contained in the new electrical reform blue print, would still not meet
the power demands of Nigerians, chairman of the House committee on
power, Patrick Ikhariale, said yesterday in Benin.

Mr Ikhariale, who spoke when he led other members of
the committee on inspection of facilities of the Power Holding Company
of Nigeria (PHCN), Benin distribution zone, said that this was owing to
the expectations that cottage industries which have packed up because
of low power generation may spring up again to take advantage of
improved power supply.

He said the federal government was exploring
collaboration with the government of Brazil to start the Manbila power
plant in Taraba State which, if fully operational, he said could
generate over 2,000 megawatt; about 35 per cent of our nation’s power
needs.

“The federal government is trying to indeed enhance
the power situation in Nigeria but, for some reasons at different
points in time, we’ve really not got the mark. As we speak today, it is
obvious that we operate below 4,000 megawatts in terms of energy
generation transmission and distribution,” Mr Ikhariale said.

“The requirement of Nigeria conservatively today
can’t be less than 8,000 to 9,000. But I need not educate anybody that
if indeed we get to that, because of the cottage industries, most of
them that have shut down a couple of years ago, coming on board,
springing back to business, it will certainly reduce the potency of
that 8,000 megawatts to meeting the demands of Nigerians as of today.
Therefore, it is to be expected from such reasonable projection that
indeed Nigeria as a country needs a lot more than 8,000 megawatts of
electricity.”

Improved funding

The lawmaker said that to boost government’s
determination of making power available to the people, the National
Assembly allocated over N500 billion for the power sector even when, on
request, the 2010 budget was slashed by 40 per cent.

“It is because of the belief and the focus that the
federal government has in the energy sector that we had so much
allocated to the power sector so to achieve this, all hands must be on
deck and if you choose to develop the generating aspect and overlook
transmission and distribution, it is not going to achieve any
meaningful result.” He commended the federal government for unbundling
the PHCN and exploring other sources of power generation such as wood
and solar energy.

“We know the importance of power that is why whenever
the issue of power is raised in the Assembly, it is followed with so
much enthusiasm and nationalistic interest,” he said.

George Chiatula, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of
the Benin distribution zone of PHCN which oversees activities in Edo,
Delta, Ekiti and Ondo states, said the zone was expected to generate
513 megawatt and distribute same to customers in the area.

“But we would only meet that target by the time the 2009 Capital Intervention Projects are fully operational,” he said.

He added that some of the operational challenges
facing the zone were the inability of the NIPP (Nigeria Independent
Power Projects) to complete the transmission projects at Asaba and
Agbor in Delta State; and Okada and Eyaen in Edo State, and others.

The Nigeria Police yesterday arrested a former official of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE).

Farooq Oreagba,
former general manager of Strategy/New Products, who was sacked along
with 94 others, last Thursday, by Emmanuel Ikazoboh, the interim
director general of NSE, was arrested over his alleged refusal to
surrender some Exchange property in his possession.

Sola Oni, the NSE’s
spokesperson, who confirmed the arrest, said, “What actually happened
was that because he (Mr. Oreagba) has been disengaged and the Exchange
could not get some company’s properties with him, that was what led to
the involvement of the police.”

Mr. Oni, however, declined claims that Mr. Oreagba was arrested while he was handing over to the new head of the department.

“Some people called
me to ask if he was arrested while he was trying to hand over. All
these information is not true. For us to have involved the police, it
shows there was no voluntary submission of the NSE properties with him.

“We have said that
those who were disengaged will be given whatever they are entitled to,”
he said, adding that there is no basis for Mr. Oreagba to hold on to
the said property.

Legal action

Calls and text
messages to Mr. Oreagba’s mobile phone went unanswered. He, however,
called back late yesterday that he has been released. A market operator
and a close associate of his, who would not like to be named, said Mr.
Oreagba would soon consider legal action against his arrest.

“The police are
currently in the process of securing a warrant to undertake a search of
his house and personal effects, since they have not been able to find
any incriminating thing on him so far,” he said.

Meanwhile, some
operators said Mr. Oreagba was also caught attempting to tamper with or
delete information from some of the Exchange’s computer systems.

Market dealers at
Proshare Nigeria Limited, an investment advisory firm, said, “An alert
was raised this (Tuesday’s) morning at and around 10am when it was
reported that he (Mr. Oreagba) came to the office yesterday (Monday) to
take his things but locked the office on his way out. When he came in
today (Tuesday), the officers on duty noticed some anomalies that led
to the invitation of the police force.”

Our meteorologists
and climatologists must be busy revising school geography textbooks.
Based on present weather evidence, an ‘August break’, a mini-dry season
in the midst of the wet period, no longer exists. It’s currently
raining cats and dogs, with local flights regularly skidding off
runways when not cancelled. Passengers now carry prayer books in their
hand luggage. The alternative? Travel by road and risk death at a
police checkpoint. This August has also produced three curious tabloid
reports. A man was allegedly shot by security guards in Abuja for
stealing firewood. Ordinary firewood? But did ecologists not predict
conflicts around dwindling resources, such as water and forests?

I was not surprised
at the second story. A boy lost his life in Lagos after being mauled by
a dog. The poor kid died, not from his wounds, but as a result of
rabies. In the colonial days, Town Council trucks periodically went
round to pick up and kill stray dogs. Mad dogs roam our cities, and
have enjoyed undisturbed independence since 1960. The health
authorities appear to be ignorant of dangers posed by rabies. For
lessons to be learnt in Nigeria, lives must be lost.

The final story is
of the Sisyphean task embarked upon by the idle authorities in Abuja –
the war against prostitution. No nation has yet won that titanic
battle. If the law of the land forbids a profession, then the law must
be enforced. However, legislation impinging on moral, ethical and
religious issues is difficult to enforce.

In history, there
have been hundreds of years of self-deceit and hypocrisy over
prostitution. Kings and presidents are still occasionally caught with
their pants down. So, who exactly is a whore? Take the case of rampant
corporate prostitution in Nigerian banks. These organizations offer
attractive career prospects, and then pressurize female marketing staff
into “meeting targets.” In the process, the blackmailed young women end
up meeting lots of randy men, to the delight of the bank bosses. Why
men are never hired in these departments is anybody’s guess. “Sex
sells,” said the world’s No.1 female tennis player, Serena Williams,
when asked about fashion and sports.

Lawmakers in our
country are the guiltiest in encouraging what they legislate against.
Ask any university graduate where she’d like to serve as a Youth Corp
member, and the answer is Abuja. And where in Abuja? The National
Assembly. There’s money there.

Gender discrimination

A state governor
banquets by sending a fleet of buses to female hostels in the nearby
university and to the NYSC camp. Objective? To gather up girls, never
the boys! Just to eat, drink and dance? They are, of course, not
prostitutes; but no law stops them from collecting money in the morning
if amorous services are rendered.

If the FCT minister
sends out task forces to round-up mad dogs and sex workers, we will
have less incidence of rabies, no doubt; but prostitution will remain.
That age-old profession is driven by rich men. The Abuja authorities
must be very sure that the rights of citizens to movement and lawful
assembly are not abused during their raids. Besides, there is stark
gender discrimination in restricting the movement of women where men
can go anywhere and anytime.

Prostitution thrives in the richest nations as well, and is
therefore not just a symptom of poverty, as many believe. Jobs and
quality education will only ameliorate the situation. Countries like
Nigeria with a high percentage of unstable and large families; decayed
institutions and a copycat culture, easily destroy those pillars of
morality that discourage women from selling their bodies for sex.

A group of young men in Lafia, Nasarawa State,
launched a violent protest on Tuesday over the sudden removal of street
lamps in their neighbourhood.

On Monday night, men claiming to be under the
direction of Mustapha Agwai, the Emir of Lafia, removed the street
lamps in the Tudun Amba area of the city. The move roused the anger of
the local youth, who barricaded the road leading to the governor’s
house.

Manyi Adamu, who was among the protesters, said that
the road will remain closed until those who removed the lights replaced
them.

“The light has been helping the community, preventing
the prevalence of accidents at this junction,” he said. “Only for these
men to come and begin to remove them.”

The managing director of the Nasarawa Urban Development Board
(NUBD), Jafaru Ango, arrived on the scene to calm the young men. He
explained that the lamp posts were removed in preparation for the
expansion of the Lafia-Doma road. He pledged that as soon as the work
was completed, the street lamps would be replaced.

The Lagos State
government, last week, warned officers against dereliction in the
treatment of official correspondence and files, just as it advised
ministries and agencies to reduce their line of reporting for effective
service delivery.

This was contained in a circular issued on August 25 by the head of service, Adesegun Ogunlewe.

In a bid to make
the civil service more efficient, the state government issued a
directive early this year giving officers in the state public service
48 hours within which to treat and complete assignments on
correspondence and files.

The HOS, however,
observed that the long line of reporting system adopted in most
ministries and agencies of government where supervising officer minutes
assignment to subordinate officers, who in turn minute the same
assignment to two or more low ranking officers, was not only causing
undue delay in the treatment of correspondence but also made it
difficult to track officers responsible for any delay.

This long chain of
command, according to Mr Ogunlewe, “is rendering the 48 hours deadline
on completion of assignments ineffective and of little or no
significance.”

He, therefore,
advised supervising officers to reduce the line of reporting in their
respective MDAs and take steps to put appropriate tracking mechanism in
place.

According to him,
“supervising officers are enjoined to cultivate the habit of minuting
mails and files to a particular officer in charge of a given
responsibility for effective action, rather than passing it down a
chain of command.”

In order not to
leave room for any lapse, he further added that in the absence of the
head of the MDAs, mails and files should be handled by the next most
senior officer, in accordance with the laid down regulations.

Mr. Ogunlewe warned
that any form of ineptitude or outright dereliction of duty on the part
of supervising and subordinate officers in the treatment of official
correspondence and files would attract appropriate sanctions.

Ado Bayero, the
Emir of Kano, is among several individuals and corporate organizations
nominated for this year’s Green Award, Chairman of the Green Award
organizing committee, Ayegbeni Omonhimi, said yesterday in Benin.

Mr Omonhimi, who
paid a visit to the Edo State Deputy Governor, Pius Odubu, said the
idea behind the award is to sensitize Nigerians to be environmentally
conscious and safeguard our natural heritage.

He said the awards
are given to individuals and organizations that were environment
friendly, and for their immense contributions to the conservation of
ecological resources.

Mr Odubu, who
described the proposed award as an essential motivation to the
awardees, however, advised against building the gesture around serving
politicians whose positions are transient.

The Deputy Governor
observed that identifying politicians with the Green Award could create
the impression that it is politically engineered, and may discourage
rival politicians from being part of the event.

The national award
will be given to Mr Bayero; while the International Award goes to the
president of Friends of the Earth Worldwide, Nimmo Bassey.

Other recipients are Olayinka Omoregbe, (International Award);
Awake! and Watchtower magazines, (published by Jehovah’s Witnesses),
nominated for the International Media Award, and Catherine Oronsaye for
the Inner City Award.

Nigeria will
continue to work with Mali and other member-countries of the Economic
Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to ensure the speedy
realization of the sub-regional organisation’s objectives, Goodluck
Jonathan said yesterday in Abuja.

Speaking during an
audience with Mali’s new Ambassador to Nigeria, Mahamane Amadou Maiga,
who was at the Presidential Villa to present his letters of credence,
Mr Jonathan said his administration will give “maximum cooperation” to
ambassadors of ECOWAS member-countries in the collective effort to
achieve greater economic integration and development in West Africa.

“Nigeria and Mali
have a lot in common,” he said. “We all have to work together to
strengthen our political and economic ties. We will give you maximum
cooperation to ensure that our sub-region moves forward,” the
president, who is the current Chairman of the ECOWAS Authority of Heads
of State and Government, told Mr Maiga.

At an earlier
audience with Nestor Padalhin, the new ambassador of the Philippines to
Nigeria, Mr Jonathan stated that the existing cordial relations between
Nigeria and the Philippines could be further strengthened with
increased bilateral trade.

The new ambassadors
thanked President Jonathan for receiving them soon after their arrival
in the country and assured him that they will do their best to enhance
existing relations between Nigeria and their countries.

They also used the opportunity to congratulate the president on Nigerian’s forthcoming 50th independence anniversary.

Scores of elderly
women from Biase Local Government Area of Cross River State have
relocated to Calabar, the state capital, protesting that last
Saturday’s council election conducted in the state did not hold at
Erei, their community , hence no result can be declared for the council
wards there.

Led by an
octogenarian, the women (some of whom were half nude) said the
landslide victory ascribed to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)
candidates was a fluke, as no voting took place at Erei. Some of the
women flaunted their breasts in anger, claiming “soldiers and mobile
policemen were used by card carrying members of the PDP to hijack
election materials”.

The protest took
the women to the headquarters of the Cross River State Independent
Electoral Commission (CROSIEC), who arrived just when the chairman of
the commission, Patrick Otu, was announcing the second set of results.
From the commission’s secretariat on Bishop Monagh Avenue, Calabar, the
women thereafter marched to the Governor’s Office on a similar mission.

The women were accompanied by Frank Owali, the APGA chairmanship candidate for the area.

With anger on their
faces, the elderly women, numbering over 50, chanted war songs
denouncing the council polls and called for fresh elections, especially
in Biase, as the people there did not exercise their franchise. No
official of the CROSIEC came out to address them.

The
placard-carrying women said since they were denied the opportunity to
vote, they could not vote for candidates of their choice. They called
on the state governor, Liyel Imoke, to prevail on the leadership of the
CROSIEC to reschedule the Biase Local Government council elections, as
voting materials, including result sheets for the area were allegedly
carted away by some influential PDP members in the area.

Arrested and detained

Leader of the Erei
women, Gloria Ekor Owali also stated that some of their children were
arrested and detained at the state police headquarters, Diamond Hill in
Calabar, over Saturday’s polls, for protesting the hijack of their
ballots. They accused Emil Inyang, the chairman of the Biase Local
Government who has been re-elected for a second term, and Alex Ukam,
the lawmaker representing the area in the House of Representatives, of
using armed soldiers and mobile policemen to prevent the electorate in
the area from choosing those they wanted as chairman and councillors
for the area.

“We came out to
vote, but we did not see materials, yet they have written results,
declaring Emil Inyang winner,” the protesting women said. “If this is
what electoral reforms is all about, it then means Nigeria is not yet
ready for true democracy.” They said about 67 armed soldiers,
accompanied by 12 mobile policemen in two trucks, allegedly invaded
their communities, led by some stalwarts of the PDP, to arrest people
who were perceived to be working against the PDP.

The women,
therefore, appealed to the state Commissioner of Police to release
their children whom they said were wrongly arrested.

The Erei women,
during their protest to the governor’s office, urged Mr Imoke to
prevail on the authorities of the 13 Amphibious Brigade, Nigerian Armed
Forces Calabar and the state Commissioner of Police to release their
children from detention, as “they are not criminals”.

There was mild
drama at the federal secretariat, Abuja, yesterday, when the Minister
of Labour and Productivity, Emeka Wogu, arrived at the premises to see
a number of workers locked outside the gates for coming late to work.
The head of service, Stephen Oronsaye, had directed that the doors be
shut against civil servants who come to work after 8.30am.

The lockout was
part of efforts to enforce the strict attendance regime Mr Oronsaye
began a few weeks ago. The gates remained shut for almost three hours
and senior civil servants, including a permanent secretary, were denied
entry until the minister’s arrival led to the opening of the gates. Mr
Wogu, however, denied ordering the gates open, saying the gatemen on
hearing his siren must have flung them open, thus allowing all the
civil servants who had been locked out to rush in.

Fence mending

A spokesman for the
head of the civil service, Tope Ajakaiye, however, tried to diffuse the
tension, saying that Mr Oronsaye had not explicitly directed that the
gates be locked.

“The Head of
Service is merely trying to eradicate late-coming in the service.
Permanent secretaries were told to ensure that their wards came on
time, not that they should lock the gate,” he said.

Mr. Wogu also
claimed that he did not intend to overturn Mr. Oronsaye’s directive,
stating that he was merely trying to get into his office.

“How can I go above what the Head of Service has directed?” he asked.

“The situation is embarrassing. I honestly did not mean for the gates to be opened for everyone,” he said.

The majority of
government ministries and agencies are situated in the wings of the
Federal Secretariat, including the ministries of Power, Niger Delta,
Labour and Productivity, Science and Technology, Aviation and the
office of the Minister of State for Information and Communication.

A pound of flesh

Prior to the labour
minister’s arrival, civil servants loitered around the premises in
groups, discussing their ordeal. Others sat in their cars, reading.

At the Phase II
building of the secretariat, a group of them forced their way in when
it was opened for a high-profile visitor, but those at the Head of
Service side of the secretariat were locked out up till 11am.

One of the workers,
who asked to remain anonymous, said he was not told about the lockout
beforehand. He accused the federal government of being callous, saying
that instead of punishing civil servants, the government should look
for ways of improving workers’ welfare by providing good roads, an
effective transport system and low cost housing estates not far from
the city centre.

“Asking us to come
to work early without considering the reality of the situation on
ground amounts to demanding for a pound of flesh,” he said.

Many civil servants
said their meagre resources and high cost of rent in Abuja, forced them
to make do with accommodation in surrounding towns such as Suleja,
Madalla, Masaka, Kuje, Gwagwalda, and Mararaba. However, the increasing
numbers of people coming from these locations has led to heavy traffic
on the roads.

A female civil
servant, who also declined to be named, said she left her home in
Gwagwalada at 6.30am. “It is accommodation problem,” she said. “We
cannot fly to work; there is hold-up on the road.”

Not just civil servants

Along with civil servants, visitors who came to conduct business at the government offices were also locked out.

Chukwuemeka Onodi,
a pensioner from Enugu State, said he came to register his biometric
information at the Head of Service’s office at the secretariat.

“It is a terrible situation; I never saw this kind of thing while in
service,” he said. “There are other methods of dealing with
latecomers.” Wale Samuel, of the Civil Society Action Coalition on
Education for All (CSACEFA), also condemned the action, calling it
“insensitive.” A visibly furious Mr Samuel said, “Let them go and live
in Nyanya, face AYA holdup then come back and give us the directive.”