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The chairman of the
Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Attahiru Jega, has
solicited the cooperation of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) in
the upcoming voters’ registration exercise and the 2011 elections.

Mr Jega made the request yesterday when he paid a courtesy visit to the director-general of the corps, Maharazu Tsiga.

The chairman said
that corps members were the leaders of tomorrow and so a very strong
partner in the “Nigerian project.” “We need patriotic, selfless and
energetic stakeholders for the voters’ registration and for proper
elections next year,” said Mr Jega.

Better treatment

Mr Jega assured the
NYSC management that, under the new commission, issues like the late
payment of corp members’ allowances and other logistical problems,
would be a thing of the past. He said the commission would be happy to
sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the corps, to serve as a
guideline for subsequent engagements between the two organisations.

Mr Tsiga assured
the commission that its request would be promptly approved, but
requested that additional resources be included for corps members’
safety and comfort.

He asked that
identity cards be prepared, to avoid impersonation by fake corps
members. He also appealed to the chairman to ensure that vehicles are
provided for the members so that they can easily locate their duty
posts.

The INEC chairman
also solicited the cooperation of the Radio, Television and Theatre
Arts Union (RATTAU) to assist the commission in mobilizing Nigerians to
come out and register. He said the commission needed the cooperation of
the media so that its activities are not jeopardized.

The Young African
Leadership Forum, initiated by US President, Barack Obama, is perhaps
one of the most endearing decisions taken by the U.S government to
support the talented African youth who are distinguished in various
fields. The forum recently brought together some 120 promising young
Africans from over 40 countries to the White House, to meet with the
U.S. president.

The four-day event
was organized by the U.S Department of State, in collaboration with the
White House. Discussions ranged from economic empowerment, HIV/AIDS and
governance. Key points made include: the fact that African youth have
the potential to facilitate social transformation in their individual
countries. Secondly, change must start from the mind set and it must
have a clear focus. Thirdly, change consists of small steps with
symbolic victories.

As an African, I am
glad that the American president has demonstrated genuine interest in
Africa and her emerging leaders. He also has deep knowledge of the
challenges in various problems within African countries. It is for this
reason he invited delegates from across Africa to share their vision
for Africa and explore the role the U.S can play in the actualization
of such. I see this as the beginning of a strategic partnership that
could bring about the change that we all hope for.

Nigeria should
consider the possibility of holding a similar forum, bringing together
youth and the leadership of the country to discuss issues that affect
the development of our country. Youth in Nigeria have been excluded
from governance and this is contributing to the dangerous political and
security situation in the country.

Furthermore, it is
imperative that Nigerian youth have good role models to inspire them
towards greatness. But, unfortunately this is not always the case
because most of our leaders are far from good role models. They lack
integrity and the capacity to mentor young people into selfless
leaders. Thus, while the youth constitute a significant part of the
country’s population, their influence in the polity is limited to
mediocre roles, not entirely by choice, but because this arrangement
serves the best interest of mostly first and second generation
politicians, who have maintained a solid grip on power for decades.

As part of my
contribution to youth in Nigeria, I intend to provide education that
will inspire young people to pursue their dreams and aspirations for
this great country. I witnessed the significant role youth in America
played in making history through the election of the first African
American president in America and I have no doubt that youth in Nigeria
have the potential to facilitate social transformation. But, they have
to believe.

Change is not easy

As Mr Obama has
reiterated on numerous occasions, change does not come easy. It entails
sacrifice, commitment, patience and more. As innovators for change, we
must first have a clear focus or vision. Subsequently, we should start
with small actions that translate to symbolic victories. Also, we
should always manifest change in our attitude. This may include: our
attitude towards other Nigerians, the environment, and governance.

Finally, no
external entity can give Nigerians the country of our5 dream. It is
only Nigerians that can bring about the change we want. I say to youth
in Nigeria: when are you going to be tired of being tired and do
something?

As one of the delegates to the Young African Leadership Forum, I am proud to be a Nigerian and I am also proud to be African.

Grace Folashade
Bent (PDP Adamawa State) has been honoured by former councillors from
her constituency with the Best Senator award.

She was honored by
the Old Councillors Forum, of Ganye Chiefdom. The forum comprises of
councillors from different political parties in Toungo, Jada and Ganye
council areas. The event took place at the Gangwari square, Ganye
council area, in Adamawa South senatorial zone.

Mrs Bent, a
Yoruba-born lawmaker, is married to a retired army officer from Numan,
in the zone. She has been representing the zone in the Senate since
2007, and wishes to continue.

Although she was
the only nominee for the award, Chairman of the occasion and former
Majority Leader of Adamawa State House of Assembly, Usman Bindau, said
the choice of Mrs Bent for the award was not misplaced, pointing out
that the senator excelled in many areas where past representatives of
the constituency failed.

Informed choice

He added that her
contributions to the Senate and her oversight functions as Committee
Chairperson on Environment are other attributes that informed their
choice to honour her.

Chairman of the Old
Councillors’ Forum, Usman Bobbo Koma, added that the choice of the
senator for the award was done to appreciate and acknowledge her
strides in the current democratic dispensation.

“As a member of the
National Assembly, Bent has continued to offer purposeful and effective
representation, as well as ensuring the zone enjoys dividends of
democracy accruing from the federal government,” Mr Koma said. “Since
we have been voting representatives into the National Assembly, the
southern senatorial district has never witnessed a senator who has
performed his/her function of representation diligently, as
demonstrated by Bent.”

In her acceptance
speech, Grace Bent, who began by singing a Hausa Christian chorus, said
the award was a further challenge to her abilities.

“I see this award being given to me today by the Forum of Old
Councillors as wake up call,” she said. “I thank you all and I shall
not let you down. I am elated and overwhelmed by the momentous
reception accorded me today by the people of Ganye Chiefdom.”

The U.S. military
is on track to cut numbers in Iraq to 50,000 by end August, when the
7-1/2-year combat mission launched by former President George W. Bush
ends and operations switch to assisting Iraq’s armed forces.

The 4th Stryker
Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, the last brigade mainly focussed on
combat, handed over to Iraqi forces on August 7 and pulls out this
week. Its 100-strong “trail party” will leave in three days after
turning over facilities.

Another 6,000 U.S.
soldiers still need to leave by transport aircraft or by road before
August 31 to reach the 50,000 figure President Barack Obama promised
U.S. voters would be left ahead of a total withdrawal by the end of
2011.

“My personal
experience is it was worth it. We paid a huge cost,” said Staff
Sergeant Christopher Hush from the First Battalion of the 116th
Infantry regiment which headed to Kuwait earlier this week.

There will be
little actual change on the ground come September 1 when all six
brigades left in Iraq officially become “Advise and Assist” units, said
Major General Stephen Lanza, the U.S. military spokesman in Iraq.

Most U.S. military
units began switching their focus to training and assisting Iraqi
troops and police over a year ago when they pulled out of Iraqi towns
and cities on June 30, 2009.

U.S. forces have
not been legally able to conduct unilateral operations in Iraq since a
bilateral security agreement came into force in January 2009, and the
U.S. military began a steady cut in troop numbers, from a peak of
176,000 soldiers.

“Every soldier is a
combat soldier. It’s about the change of mission. It doesn’t change who
we are or what we do,” Lanza said. “You won’t see this big change on 2
September.”

Milestone in war

The end of the U.S.
combat mission in Iraq will still be a milestone in the war that began
in 2003 with the invasion to topple Sunni dictator Saddam Hussein,
whose long rule was marked by an eight-year war with Iran, the invasion
of Kuwait and economic decline and diplomatic isolation.

More than 4,400
U.S. soldiers have been killed, while at least 100,000 Iraqi civilians
also died, according to various counts, in fierce warfare unleashed
between majority Shi’ites and minority Sunnis who dominated the country
under Saddam.

Overall violence
has fallen sharply since the height of sectarian slaughter in 2006/07.
But Sunni Islamist-led insurgents still carry out attacks and Iraq is a
fragile place.

Its leaders have
not resolved a number of politically explosive issues, such as tensions
between majority Arabs and minority Kurds, and reconciliation between
Sunnis and Shi’ites.

Nor have they been able to form a new government five months after a national election that produced no outright winner.

Tensions have been
stoked by a steady stream of suicide bombings and other attacks by
insurgents trying to exploit the political vacuum ahead of the end of
the U.S. combat mission.

Nevertheless,
Iraq’s tentative experiment with U.S.-imposed democracy holds the
potential to upset political power balances throughout a region
accustomed to autocratic governance.

Much of the U.S.
war materiel and many of the soldiers leaving Iraq are being redeployed
in Afghanistan, where NATO forces are fighting a resurgent Taliban. The
50,000-strong force left in Iraq will remain formidable — almost twice
the size of the U.S. deployment on the Korean peninsula.

Obama has said not
a single U.S. service member will remain in Iraq come January 1, 2012,
even though it will be impossible for Iraq to stand up its own air
force and be ready to protect its territorial integrity on its own by
then.

Yet the U.S. public is weary of war, and any decision to remain longer in Iraq would likely be highly controversial.

The war in Iraq has gone on longer than the U.S. Civil War, World War One and World War Two.

Owing to
indiscriminate dumping of refuse in the channelized Ogunpa River during
the night, the Oyo State Ministry of Environment and Water Resources is
proposing to raise a team to watch over the river at nights.

The state
commissioner for environment and water resources, Majekodunmi Aborode,
who disclosed this in Ibadan on Thursday, said he had discovered that
residents around the channel hide under the cover of the night to
litter the river with refuse. The river has occasionally wrecked havoc
in the town, when its clogged channels filled with rainfall.

According to the
commissioner, security men from the ministry currently parade the
stretch of the Ogunpa channel on two shifts, between 6.00am to noon,
and noon to 6.00pm, to prevent dumping of refuse into it.

“The indiscriminate
dumping of refuse in the Ogunpa channels is done after 6.00pm when
people are not supervising. I have realized that we need to operate 24
hours. But there must be adequate security for men who will do the
night job,” he said.

Abusing the environment

The commissioner
and his team were also out yesterday to compel traders who display
their wares on the newly expanded Dugbe-Queen Cinema Road to remove
them. Mr Aborode regretted that despite the huge amount the government
had spent on the project, the people still abuse it

“We have discovered
that the only language our people understand is that of legislation and
enforcement,” he said, as he promised to make the exercise a regular
occurrence.

The commissioner
also informed that the state was still searching for a balance in the
area of environmental protection and management, saying, “we are not
where we are supposed to be. We are still in search of balance”.

Former minister of
the Federal Capital Territory, Nasir el-Rufai, has said that Nuhu
Ribadu, former Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission, has all it takes to become the president of Nigeria.

Speaking at a
leadership forum for the youth yesterday in Abuja, Mr el-Rufai blamed
our nation’s economic failure on bad leadership. “Anyone that has been
in the corridors of power in those days should retire and allow people
like my brother, Nuhu Ribadu, to rule,” he said.

“I am not campaigning for anybody, but you know where my heart is.”

He lamented that
young people have not participated fully in the politics of the nation,
except in their use as thugs for political parties. He noted that since
2006, when the last voter registration exercise took place, about 16
million people have reached the voting age of 18.

“It was young
people that got Obama elected in America,” he said. “Young people
should do it in Nigeria and elect their own Obama.”

Pat Utomi, founder
of the Lagos Business School, agreed that a failure of leadership in
past administrations was the nation’s foremost problem.

“What this means is that our future does not lie in past leadership,
otherwise, we will have the same result in our future as we had in our
past.”

The federal
government is determined to fast-track the completion of the dredging
of the lower Niger River, the resuscitation of the Ajaokuta Steel
Company, as well as the resuscitation of the National Iron Ore Mining
Company, in Itakpe, Goodluck Jonathan said yesterday.

Speaking while
delivering an address at the official commissioning of some key
projects in Kogi State during a one-day working visit to the state
yesterday, Mr Jonathan also made a pledge to see to the completion of
the construction of ports in Baro, Lokoja, Idah, Onitsha and Sapele, to
boost our nation’s economy.

President Jonathan
said the completion of the projects “will be of immense benefit not
only to the people of Kogi State, but other Nigerians at large. I am,
therefore, committed to an early completion of these projects”.

While
congratulating the Kogi State governor, Ibrahim Idris, on the
inauguration of the international market and other projects, Mr
Jonathan said the completion of the projects will go a long way in
delivering the dividends of democracy to the electorate.

Mr Jonathan, who
arrived at the Lokoja old Stadium aboard a helicopter at 11.20am,
headed straight to the Lokoja Specialist Hospital, where he
commissioned the project. Thereafter, he proceeded to commission the
Ganaja-Ajaokuta Road, despite heavy rain fall, before inspecting the
stadium and the Lokoja water project which was constructed at a cost of
N9.9 billion and has a capacity to provide 10 million gallons of water
daily.

The president’s
final task was the commissioning of the Lokoja International Market,
which was constructed at a cost of N3.8 billion.

The governor later said that the two projects would be completed by the first quarter of 2011.

Completing the road

In an address at
the commissioning ceremony, Mr Idris urged the federal government to
revive “the Lokoja Port project, which has been abandoned, and
graciously ensure the construction of the Idah Port in order to ensure
their completion and to complement the commendable dredging project
which your administration has embarked upon”.

“I implore your
excellency to actualise Ajaokuta project to incorporate all the major
components and ensure the full realisation of this project. If you can
do this sir, your name will be in gold when the history of this nation
shall be written for posterity,” he said.

While also thanking the president for the ongoing dualisation of the
Abuja-Lokoja-Okene Road, Mr Idris said, “we, however, appeal to your
excellency to use your good offices to fast-track the completion of the
project, to reduce the high incidence of road accidents which has
consumed so many lives”.