Nigeria Content Online

Foremost democracy
monitoring group, the Transition Monitoring Group (TMG) has asked the
new chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC),
Attahiru Jega, to flush out all officers of the commission who worked
with his predecessor, Maurice Iwu in order to ensure credible elections
are held next year.

The group also
asked Mr Jega to commence the review of the voters’ register,
especially with a view to removing names of none existent people from
the from the document. TMG, which hailed the appointment of the new
chairman and the subsequent confirmation, said in a statement signed by
its national coordinator, Mashood Erubami, and publicity secretary,
Auwal Rasfanjani, on Monday, that the country is dangerously transiting
towards the 2011 elections, adding that it is appropriate for him to
take definite steps so that future elections will not fail.

The group said the
removal of those that worked with Mr Iwu and the review of the voters’
register have become necessary if the nation is to hold a credible
election. “In the first instance, most of the people that worked with
Prof. Maurice Iwu are by the current imperatives for fair elections
unnecessary land mines that must be removed from the path of
progressive advancement of the election administration umpire,” stated
the group. “Secondly, the fundamental review of the current fraudulent
and non- transparent and verifiable collated Voters Register is a
desirable step that must be swiftly taken as a good measure to divest
the register of its content of Ghosts and foreign names which have
undermined the register from being an essential ingredient for
conducting free and fair elections.”

Meeting the expectations of the electorate

TMG also advised Mr
Jega to ensure that the foundation of the country’s electoral system is
rooted in the constitution and related electoral laws. This way,
according to the group, the expectations of Nigeria electorate in 2011
will not be doomed. The group also urged the new INEC boss to make
inclusiveness, transparency and accountability, the prerequisites for
peaceful, participative and credible elections in Nigeria. “To this
extent, INEC must be seen to be properly constituted by non partisan
elements from the society and must not be seen to be demonstrating
allegiance to head of state, the ruling party, or show it has political
allies, so as to build confidence in the electorate and build
confidence of the people in the elections it will conduct.

The attitude
of winners take all by any political party, using extraneous means that
are foreign to the electoral laws must not be permitted at anytime, so
as not to worsen the current ethnic tensions and religious bigotry in
the country,” the TMG said.
Reactions to Mr. Jega‘s selection as the umpire for the 2011 general
elections has been mostly positive, but fears have been expressed about
his ability to do the job if systemic problems are not addressed.

The Speaker of the
House of Representatives, Dimeji Bankole, on Monday, disclosed that the
country’s lower chambers of the National Assembly will today (Tuesday)
pass the 2010 supplementary budget.

Mr. Bankole, while
fielding questions from aviation correspondents at the presidential
wing of the Murtala Mohammed Airport (MMA), Lagos, disclosed that the
House is operating with the executive arm of government to ensure that
the budget is passed in order to move the country forward.

“As far as the 2010
budget is concerned, we are working with the executive arm of
government to make sure that tomorrow, in the House of Representatives,
we pass it (the supplementary budget),” he said.

It would be
recalled that early this month, President Goodluck Jonathan, while
presenting a supplementary budget of N638.8 billion to the National
Assembly, asked the legislators to re-examine the economic structure of
the 2010 budget, and to revise downwards the budget from N4.48 trillion.

According to Mr.
Jonathan, the development is not unconnected with the drop in crude oil
revenue, as he noted that the implications may have adverse connotation
on the country’s financial level.

“I wish to bring to
your attention, certain challenges posed by the serious shortfall in
the projected revenue and the adverse implications it poses for
financing the level of aggregate expenditure appropriated,” he said.

“Specifically,
recent revenue developments indicate significant shortfalls in both oil
and non-oil revenue, which may well continue for the rest of the fiscal
year, with adverse implications for the financing of the budget,” he
said.

Effect of oil revenue drop

Admitting that
there is significant drop in the country’s oil revenue, Mr. Bankole
disclosed that the designated team in the National Assembly, together
with the Ministry of Finance, will see to the effect of the shortfall.

“I’m sure there is
a reduction, but those things would be worked out between the
appropriation committee of the National Assembly and the Finance
Ministry,” he said.

Oilwatch Africa, an
environmental group, has described ExxonMobil’s poor reaction to calls
on it to mend its ruptured oil pipeline in some communities in Akwa
Ibom State, as worrisome. The group asked the Nigerian government to
immediately impose appropriate sanctions on the oil multinational.

Multiple spills
from a ruptured pipeline laid by Exxon Mobil in 1968 had gone unchecked
for over three weeks, impacting several communities in Ibeno local
government area, spreading to 15 other communities in Esit Eket and
Eket LGAs of Akwa Ibom State.

The current spill
is coming barely two weeks after over 100,000 barrels of crude oil was
spewed into the ecosystem from the same facility.

Like ExxonMobil, like BP

Oilwatch Africa, in
a statement issued in Port Harcourt, said that ExxonMobil’s action is a
clear indication of their disdain not only for the ecosystem, but also
for the livelihoods of communities that have been impacted by the
spills.

The group lamented
that Nigeria leaks as much oil as the current spill in the Gulf of
Mexico every year, and that in over five decades of oil exploitation
over 7000 separate oil spill events have occurred in the country.

It urged the
Nigerian government to immediately set in motion open and transparent
process to compel Exxon Mobil to take immediate action to contain and
curtail the spread of the spill, restore the ecosystem, and compensate
communities whose livelihoods have been impacted upon.

Government’s romance with oil companies

“It is still a
puzzle that the Nigerian government is still entangled in an unholy
wedlock with the oil industry. By now, we expect the Nigerian
government to take a cue from the US government’s response to the Gulf
of Mexico incident by instituting criminal charges against individuals
and businesses that have destroyed local livelihoods and compel them to
pay for what it would cost to restore the ecosystem,” said Nnimmo
Bassey, International Steering Committee member of Oilwatch
International.

Mr. Bassey
described as “disturbing” the fact that it took vigorous protests of
communities for the oil company to grudgingly accept responsibility for
the spill, make a pledge to clamp the leaking oil pipeline, and to make
available relief materials to affected communities.

“It is even more
disheartening that in addressing this ecological disaster, our own
government decided to hide behind closed doors and allowed itself to
take the unprecedented step of barring the press from being part of the
resolution of an issue which affects us all.” Mr. Bassey said that it
is appropriate to remind the Nigerian government about the steps taken
by the U.S government as the spill in the Gulf of Mexico evolved,
especially the mobilisation of over 20,000 people and 1,300 vessels to
join in the efforts to stop the oil from reaching ecologically
sensitive wetlands and to participate in the immediate process of
remediation of the ecosystem.

“Will the mouthpieces of the oil industry in our government claim
ignorance of US government insistence that BP sucks its spill and
pledge $20 billion as an initial step to deal with the immediate,
medium term, and long term impact of the spill? For true and lasting
peace in the Niger Delta, the Nigerian government must actively pursue
an economic diversification agenda that reduces dependence on oil as a
single major revenue earner, because present global realities is a
world moving towards non-fossil based development,” Mr. Bassey said.

The Nigeria Labour
Congress yesterday added to the criticism against the Federal
Government’s proposed golden jubilee conference in the United Kingdom,
describing it as a“ national disgrace.”

The NLC president,
Abdulwahed Omar, said, in a press statement yesterday, the move
represents a higher degree of “irrationality” than the N10 billion
allegedly set aside for the Independence celebrations.

“While we had
earlier condemned the over N10 billion budget for the celebration, we
are convinced that the London Summit planned by the federal government
is more irrational and totally unnecessary given the huge state
resources that would be used to host it,” the statement said.

“Perhaps other than
to display our linkage to our colonial heritage, we believe that it is
highly illogical for our leaders to take a ceremony of our golden
jubilee independence anniversary to the capital of the country that
forcefully imposed itself on us for well over a century of exploitation
and oppression.”

The two-day
conference, said to be part of Nigeria’s 50th anniversary celebration,
is to be held in London on June 28 and June 29, 2010.

Unconfirmed reports
say Mr. Jonathan is to attend the event with 18 governors and 12
ministers. The ruling People’s Democratic Party new chairman,
Okweselize Nwodo, is also expected to be at the event.

Opposition parties reacted angrily to the news on Sunday, saying it is another waste of public funds.

A senior official
in Mr. Jonathan’s government had denied media reports that the
administration is providing the N10 billion budget for the events
expected to climax on October 1, 2010.

The Minister of
Information, Dora Akunyili, denied that Mr. Jonathan raised the budget
of the celebration from N62 million earmarked by the late President
Umaru Yar’Adua, to N10 billion. She explained that the amount
originated from a committee set up by Mr. Yar’Adua himself.

Cyber crime and scam mails have done a
lot of damage to Nigeria’s image. Therefore, the Nigeria Communications
Commission, NCC, is partnering with the government of the United States
to take steps towards improving Nigeria’s monitoring and investigations
skills, so as to minimise the impact of such cyber misuse. The
partnership is also expected to address network and data insecurity.

Bashir Gwandu, the acting executive
vice chairman of the NCC, said this after a meeting held last week with
Perry Ball, the Counsellor for Economic Affairs of the United State
Embassy.

Mr. Gwandu said that many fraud cases
have been committed using scam mails, which emanate from unknown
persons and disguised sources claiming to be from Nigerian institutions
such as Central Bank of Nigeria, Nigerian National Petroleum
Corporation (NNPC), and some other top commercial banks.

“This has significantly damaged
Nigeria’s image abroad and we can’t allow it to continue,” Mr. Gwandu
said, adding that the FBI and other US top security agencies have
leading expertise in tracing the origins of computer viruses, scam
mails, and in identifying the physical locations of servers used to
host terrorists’ web sites.

“This wealth of experience, if acquired
by Nigerians, will go a long way in reducing the impact of cyber crime
committed in the name of Nigerians.”

Not made in Nigeria

According to Mr. Gwandu, “many of the
scam mails purporting to be from Nigerians originate from sources
outside Nigeria, and are often hatched thousands of miles away but the
scammers usually claim to be Nigerians.”

One of the key challenges associated
with this type of crime is the fact that Internet Service Providers
(ISPs) obtain their Internet Protocol Number blocks from outside
Africa, and in most cases, from Europe and North America, which makes
it cumbersome to use basic techniques of tracing the origin of the
mails and the viruses due to the fact that the ISPs are located outside
Nigeria’s jurisdiction, Mr. Gwandu explained.

There might, therefore, be a need to
mandate Nigerian Internet Service Providers to acquire IP Numbers from
Afrinic – an organisation that assigns IP Blocks in Africa, he said.

The partnership with the Americans, Mr.
Gwandu said, is an attempt to deal with the problems and combat the
challenges these crimes pose.

America’s offer

In his remarks, the head of the US
delegation, Mr. Ball, offered to give assistance to the Nigerian
government in the form of training and capacity building so that the
country becomes equipped to tackle the challenge.

He said the meeting with the NCC has been exceptionally productive
and they will do everything possible to assist Nigeria very soon.

In an effort to
ensure that Nigerian telecommunications consumers get value for the
money spent for services, the federal government has directed the
Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC to develop an action plan for
improving quality of service before July 9, 2010.

Dora Akunyili,
Minister of Information and Communications, gave this directive last
week in Abuja during an interactive session with investors in the
communications sector.

This, according to
her, is essential considering that most Nigerians have been asking
questions and expressing displeasure over the services provided by
mobile telecommunications industry.

“We all know there
is a problem,” she said. “Poor quality of service has become a
recurring decimal and the government is deeply concerned about this
seemingly intractable problem. We shall tackle this head-on and hereby
direct the management of NCC to submit to my office within two weeks a
comprehensive plan of action on how to improve quality of service.”

Ignored complaints

The minister also
said that in spite of the repeated calls by the government to operators
and regulators to address the problems related to service quality,
nothing tangible has been done. “Drop calls remain a problem despite
our constant appeals for you to improve on it. Poor voice signal
quality and reception is becoming peculiar to Nigeria. It is not only
wasting our money and wasting our time but also creating a very bad
image. It is creating a terrible culture of Nigerians shouting on the
phone instead of talking. The lack of inadequate inter connectivity
remains an area of concern,” Mrs. Akunyili added noting that it is
worrying that although these concerns are correctable, yet they persist.

According to the
Minister, the Nigerian telecoms market is experiencing a boom and
government intends to ensure that this growth profile is sustainable
through sound policies and a proper regulatory framework.

Huge success

The telecoms
industry has continued to deliver superior returns on investment
despite the global economic meltdown. This is evident in the huge
turnovers being made by the network operators as well as the market’s
ability to steadily attract international telecoms companies.

For Mrs Akunyili,
despite the perceived operational challenges that telecom operators
face, Nigeria’s subscriber base currently stands at about 78 million.
“We are not unmindful that the huge success recorded so far is not
without its fair share of responsibilities such as ensuring good
quality of service, affordable tariffs among other. The ministry is
interested in addressing the issues and finding lasting solutions.”

“I understand that
the big operators are making it big. If we sanitise the environment you
will grow faster. The small ones are not growing as they should because
the environment is not sanitised enough for them to grow.

“As long as the
regulation is not strong, the big will remain bigger while the small
will be so suppressed that eventually they will fizzle out and we do
not want it to happen because the more people we have as operators, the
more the operators and the better for the consumers,” she said.

Responding to the Minister, Bashir Gwandu, the Acting Executive Vice
Chairman of NCC there said that the commission will deliver on the
mandate within the time frame given. “The document will be ready in the
next few weeks. We will be consulting with the industry to see how we
can finalise the document in accordance with the law establishing the
NCC,” he said.

Bashiru Apapa, Oyo
state chairman of the Nigeria Labour Congress, has chided Governor
Adebayo Alao-Akala for reportedly saying that he would not break the
bank to pay the new teachers’ enhanced salary scale.

The labour boss
spoke with journalists in Ibadan, the state capital on Monday, in
reaction to the governor’s comment which he described as
“uncomplimentary.” Teachers in public primary and secondary schools in
the state have being at daggers drawn with the government over its
refusal to pay the new salary structure. For the last three weeks, no
effective work went on in the state’s public schools as teachers have
embarked on warning strike every Wednesday and also put on black attire
to register their displeasure over the government’s insensitivity to
their plight.

Blaming the hard
stand of the government on the poor performance of the state’s students
in graduating examinations, the teachers have threatened to embark on a
total strike if the government refuses to reconsider its stand by the
end of this week. The governor did not only deny recognising the NUT in
the state, he also said that the state’s finances would not enable
government pay the money, saying, he would not break the bank to
satisfy the teachers.

Unbecoming statement

Mr. Apapa, said the
statement was unbecoming of a state governor. “That a state governor
could make such a statement is uncalled for, unfortunate and
misguided,” he said. According to him, since the teachers are employees
of the state and are not begging for the money, they needed to be well
compensated for the services rendered to the state. “If the governor is
not breaking banks to construct road and to pay allowances, I think if
he decides to break bank to pay the salary of teachers, it is not too
much,” he said. “If he decides to do that on his own he can go ahead
and break the bank because that statement should not be attributed to a
state governor.”

He said the state government was not playing his role effectively,
adding that Oyo State is among the only four defaulting in the
implementation of the new wage structure in the country. “We are
surprise that the state government is now foot dragging. We are not
happy; we expected the state government to have complied before now,”
he said.

President Goodluck Jonathan yesterday
pledged that his administration will implement policies and programmes
that will make Nigeria an attractive destination for foreign investors.

Mr. Jonathan made the promise while speaking during separate meeting with the outgoing Ambassadors of China and the Netherlands.

He said that the federal government
will do all to attract greater foreign investment to Nigeria because it
was conscious of the fact that foreign investors will help to create
more employment opportunities for the country’s growing youth
population.

“We having a growing population of
young people and as a government we have an enormous responsibility to
plan and prepare for their future,” Mr. Jonathan said. “Greater foreign
investment will clearly help us in creating more gainful employment for
our youth and we will do all we can to promote it.”

More bilateral trade

Welcoming the increased volume of
bilateral trade between Nigeria, China, and the Netherlands, the
President said that Nigeria is now opening its doors to foreign
investors more than ever before, adding that sectors of the economy
such as aviation, power supply, and the development of infrastructure,
previously run by the government alone, are now open to private
investors from within and outside the country.

He also told the outgoing Ambassadors
that his administration is doing everything possible to deal with all
outstanding domestic issues which can discourage foreign investors,
saying that significant progress was being made in areas such as peace
in the Niger Delta and power supply.

Improving the electoral system

President Jonathan reiterated his
commitment to good governance as well as free and fair elections in
Nigeria next year, adding that steps will be taken to plug gaps in the
electoral system which made it difficult to conduct credible elections
in the past.

He thanked Arie Van Der Wiel of the
Netherlands, and Xu Jiango of China, for their efforts in the past four
years to promote trade and cooperation between Nigeria and their
respective countries, and wished them well at their new posts.

In response, Mr. Van der Wiel told the President that the volume of
annual trade between Nigeria and the Netherlands had risen from about
$2 billion when he arrived in 2006 to $4 billion currently, while Mr.
Jiango reported that the volume of annual trade between Nigeria and
China now stood at about $7 billion per annum, up from $3 billion in
2006.

The Nigerian
Communications Commission (NCC) has denied that its accounts have been
frozen due to the change in leadership, it said in a statement
yesterday.

“While it is not
the intention of the Commission to join issues with the press, we have
the responsibility to inform the Nigerian public, that no account of
the Commission has been frozen for whatever reason.

“This embarrassing
report is a figment of the imagination of the author and should be
discountenanced by the reading public,” it said.

No crisis in NCC

Barely a week after
Bashir Gwandu was appointed as an acting executive vice-chairman for
the commission, the NCC was also forced to explain that there was no
crisis at the commission.

“We wish to also
inform the public that there is no crisis of succession in the
commission. For the avoidance of any doubt, Bashir Gwandu, the
Executive Commissioner in charge of Engineering and Standards, have
since 21 June been appointed the acting executive vice chairman of the
commission.

“This followed
government’s directive to the former acting executive vice chairman,
Stephen Bello, whose five-year tenure as an Executive Commissioner with
the Commission expires on July 5, 2010, to proceed on his formal
retirement.”

In a telephone interview, Deolu Ogunbanjo, the president of National
Association of Telecoms Subscribers (NATCOMS), said, “There is nothing
wrong with the appointment of Mr. Gwandu. I think he would be able to
perform better and he would definitely perform. I do not think that the
recent change in leadership in the commission would create a negative
reaction in the sector, as the NCC is a regulatory body and this is
only a temporary situation.”

The Borno State
Police Command said on Monday that it had uncovered a plot by the Boko
Haram Islamic sect to cause another round of mayhem in the state.

The state’s
Commissioner of Police, Ibrahim Abdu, who disclosed this to journalists
in Maiduguri, said the attack was to commemorate the one year
anniversary of the death of the sect’s leader, Sheikh Mohammed Yusuf.

Mr. Yusuf died under controversial circumstances after he was arrested and transferred from the military to the police.

Mr. Abdu said the
threat should be of concern to law-abiding citizens of the state, as
the safety of Borno should be of priority to everybody.

He called on
traditional and religious leaders, as well as members of the public, to
assist the police with useful information on the whereabouts of the
proscribed Boko Harm members.

“We have put in
place a surveillance team, ‘Stop and Search patrol’, as well as plain
clothes policemen. Police officers have been deployed to strategic
positions in the state as part of security arrangements,” he said.

The commissioner
advised the people to go about their normal businesses, assuring them
that the police and other security agencies are in position to
guarantee their safety.

In 2009, the group unleashed mayhem in some states in northern
Nigeria that led to the death of over 700 people in clashes between
them and security forces. The group seeks the imposition of sharia law
throughout Nigeria.