Nigeria Content Online

Somali Islamists
said on Monday they had carried out two bomb attacks in Uganda that
killed 74 soccer fans watching the World Cup final on television,

Al Jazeera television reported.

The explosions in
the closing moments of Sunday’s match ripped through two crowded venues
in the capital Kampala – an Ethiopian-themed restaurant and a rugby
club.

Al Shabaab
militants in Somalia have threatened to attack Uganda for sending
peacekeeping troops to the anarchic country to prop up the
Western-backed government.

Police said they
suspected al Shabaab, a group which claims links with al Qaeda and
which is fighting the fragile government in Somalia, was behind the
attacks.

“At one of the
scenes, investigators identified a severed head of a Somali national,
which we suspect could have been a suicide bomber,” said army spokesman
Felix Kulayigye.

“We suspect it’s al Shabaab because they’ve been promising this for long,” he said on Monday.

An al Shabaab commander in Mogadishu praised the attacks but admitted he did not know whether his group was behind them.

“Uganda is a major
infidel country supporting the so-called government of Somalia,” said
Sheikh Yusuf Isse, an al Shabaab commander in the Somali capital.

“We know Uganda is
against Islam and so we are very happy at what has happened in Kampala.
That is the best news we ever heard,” he said.

Burundi, which also
contributes troops to the Somalia peacekeeping mission, has stepped up
security, an army spokesman said in the capital, Bujumbura.

One American was
among those killed and President Barack Obama, condemning what he
called deplorable and cowardly attacks, said Washington was ready to
help Uganda in hunting down those responsible. Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton also condemned the attacks on “innocent spectators”.

One bombing
targeted the Ethiopian Village restaurant, a popular night-spot which
was heaving with soccer fans and is frequented by foreign visitors. The
second attack struck the Lugogo Rugby Club also showing the match.

Twin coordinated attacks have been a hallmark of al Qaeda and groups linked to Osama bin Laden’s militant network.

“Right now the
official figure is 74 dead,” government spokesman Fred Opolot said.
“There is a white woman, one person of Indian descent,

10 Eritreans or
Ethiopians.” The U.S. State Department confirmed that one American
citizen was killed and five injured. The U.S. charity Invisible
Children said one of its members, Nate Henn from Wilmington, Delaware,
had been killed in the rugby club blast.

‘Cowardly act’

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni visited the rugby club.

“This shows you the
criminality and terrorism that I have been talking about,” he said. “If
you want to fight, go and look for soldiers,

don’t bomb people
watching football.” “This is a cowardly act by al Shabaab terrorists,”
Bereket Simon, the Ethiopian government’s head of information, told
Reuters in Addis Ababa.

Ethiopian troops
invaded Somalia in 2006 to oust an Islamist movement from Mogadishu.
That sparked the Islamist insurgency which still rages.

The blasts come in
the closing moments of the final between Spain and the Netherlands and
left shocked survivors reeling among corpses and scattered chairs.

“We were watching
soccer here and then when there were three minutes to the end of the
match an explosion came … and it was so loud,” witness Juma Seiko
said at the rugby club.

Heavily armed
police cordoned off both blast sites and searched the areas with
sniffer dogs while dazed survivors helped pull the wounded from the
wreckage.

Uganda, east
Africa’s third largest economy, is attracting billions of dollars of
foreign investment, especially in its oil sector and government debt
markets.

But investors in
Uganda and neighbouring Kenya, which shares a largely porous border
with Somalia, often cite the threat from Islamic militants as a serious
concern.

“I certainly think
the blasts will make risk appraisals tighter on Uganda. If it does
transpire to be al Shabaab that will certainly raise the concerns of
Western investors and also Chinese investors in Uganda,” said Alex
Vines, Head of Africa Programmes at London’s Chatham House think-tank.

The Ugandan shilling fell slightly against the dollar on Monday after the blasts.

Ugandan tourism authorities said visitors need not worry about “a one-off incident that comes once in a blue moon”.

In Kampala, Somali residents voiced fears of a backlash.

“We are in fear and
locked in our homes today for fear of Ugandans’ possible retaliation,”
Bisharo Abdi, a Somali refugee, told Reuters.

“Some Ugandans are
saying ‘kill Somalis’.” In Washington, U.S. National Security Council
spokesman Mike Hammer said Obama was “deeply saddened by the loss of
life resulting from these deplorable and cowardly attacks”.

“The United States is ready to provide any assistance requested by the Ugandan government,” said Hammer.

On Saturday, Somali President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed told Reuters the
growing number of foreign jihadists joining the Islamic insurgents
posed a threat to regional security.

For the second time
in the year, Judicial Staff Union of Nigeria (JUSUN), Oyo State, began
a fresh strike action, locking out lawyers, litigants, and other
members of the public who have businesses in the court premises
yesterday.

Jelili Obisesan,
state chairman of the union, said they were withdrawing their servicers
due to the insincerity of the state government on the agreement reached
with them late last year on the controversial Consolidated Judicial
Salary Structure (CONJUSS).

Like the equally
controversial Teachers’ Salary Structure for the state’s public primary
and secondary school, most states have started implementing the
CONJUSS, which the Oyo State government is yet to implement, even after
reaching agreement with the aggrieved judicial staff.

Before it called
off its two-month strike early this year, the state government signed a
memorandum of understanding with JUSUN leadership, promising to start
paying the special salaries by March.

It, however, defaulted, forcing the judicial workers to embark on a brief strike shortly after the appointed time expired.

Mr. Obisesan
informed that the strike then was suspended on May 4, following
intervention from some concerned members of the public, who vouched for
the government that it would honour the earlier agreement.

Another disappointment

“Lawyers and
leaders of thought in the state negotiated with the state government on
our behalf in order to see a lasting solution to the problem, but the
negotiation has produced no genuine results,” he said, adding that
Governor Adebayo Alao-Akala must listen to the union now and act before
the strike will be called off.

He added that they
were disappointed that the state government has failed once again to
fulfil its promise, making resumption of the suspended strike
inevitable.

The strike was
fully visibly effective at the premises of the state High Court and the
Magistrate’s Court, both in Ibadan, where placards with many
anti-government inscriptions were placed on the gate and sides of the
wall. Some of the inscriptions read, ‘Stop subjugating the third arm of
government, Oyo State Government’, ‘let us enjoy what other states are
enjoying’, ‘fulfill your word, Mr. Governor’, and ‘enough of deceits’.

One of the striking workers, said, “Since the state government had
declined to let the negotiation work, we have no option but to resume
our strike. This time around, the strike will be indefinite until the
state government sees reason. This time around, nobody is left to
negotiate with the state government again on our behalf.”

The Nigeria Civil
Aviation Authority (NCAA), on Tuesday, issued the first Air Operator
Certificate (AOC) under the new federal government mandatory
recertification order, to Arik Air.

Harold Demuren, the
director general, during a conference at the regulatory agency’s
headquarters annex in Lagos, disclosed that the federal government,
after the 2005 and 2006 air crashes in the country, directed the
authority to undertake a complete recertification of domestic airlines,
which is aimed at ensuring safety in the industry.

“Several years ago,
we had terrible accidents in Nigeria, and the federal government gave
out safety reform agenda to enforce international safety standards. As
a result of this, our airlines had to go through ICAO (International
Civil Aviation Organisation), USFAA (United States Federal Aviation
Authority) safety certification, among others,” Mr. Demuren said.

The authority’s
boss disclosed that the airline is to obtain the certificate after
having successfully completed the licensing and recertification
process, adding that the carrier has been working towards achieving the
feat for a long time with the US FAA.

“Today, we will be
issuing for the first time in Nigeria, after the recertification
exercise order, an Air Operator Certificate to a Nigerian carrier,
which is Arik Air. It should be noted that we have been working closely
with the FAA for the certification so as to be able to have this
airline commence direct flights to America,” he said.

“Once we complete
this exercise, other airlines in the country will pass through the same
baptism. They must demonstrate compliance by flying their planes for
about 50 hours without any passenger onboard, just like Arik did,” he
said.

Long, tedious, expensive process

Accepting the
certificate, Arumemi Johnson, chairman, Arik Air, said that the journey
to attaining the requirements for the certificate was very difficult.

“Today is a
historic day, and we are very proud to receive this certificate. It’s
been a very long, tedious and expensive process, but be that as it may,
the truth is that we will not play with lives by compromising safety,”
he said.

Mr. Johnson,
however, called on the US FAA team at the conference to fast track the
process of granting the country the highly coveted Category One
certification, which guarantees the carrier the privilege to fly
directly from Nigeria to America.

“For any Nigerian
carrier to be fully viable, it has to get that category one, so we need
that certification, as we promise to continue doing our best,” he said.

“We wish to assure you that we will maintain this standard and we
hope to get the Category One Certificate as soon as possible,” he said.

The Fisheries Society of Nigeria (FISON), on
Monday, has called on the Lagos State government to establish a common
fishing harbour in the state.

Foluke Areola, national president of
the society, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos that a
common harbour would help to reduce the prices of fish.

“This is because trawler owners can
freeze, bulk buy, and do things together to make the prices of fish
cheaper. Besides, the government will also be able to regulate the
supply of diesel to the terminal. Trawler owners have had problems with
the supply of diesel because it is difficult to get diesel at the right
time,” she said.

Mrs. Areola also urged the federal
government to beef up security on the nation’s territorial waters, to
avoid indiscriminate fishing by foreign vessels. According to her,
piracy at sea has resulted in loss of humans, products, and
navigational equipment.

She said that the National Institute
for Fresh Water Research in New Bussa had begun research on ways to
breed tilapia through bio-technology.

“We are trying to shift a bit from
catfish because there has been a lot of improvement with that. Nigerian
catfish is now in high demand at the international market,” she said.

According to her, tilapia can be developed because it is also acceptable to many Nigerians. (NAN)

The National
Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) on Monday urged UNICEF to always
support state governments that have implementable emergency management
laws in place.

NEMA’s South-West
Zone Coordinator, Iyiola Akande, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN)
in Lagos that some state governments were yet to pass emergency laws.
“It is not enough to come up with ad-hoc emergency management policies
without the necessary legislative backup,” he said. “UNICEF should
reach out to governments where the emergency agencies are inactive, to
keep pace with development in other states. For partnership between
government and UNICEF to be result-oriented, it is imperative for state
government to have laws guiding emergency management.”

The NEMA official lamented that the lack of a regulatory document
had made emergency management effort ineffective in some states. He
also suggested the need for UNICEF to come up with a measure that would
ensure that they only deal with governments committed to their
counterpart funding. Mr. Akande noted that some states were already
lagging behind in UNICEF-assisted development projects in the zone. He
urged chief executives of the State Emergency Management Agencies to
ensure that Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with UNICEF was executed.
Mr. Akande restated the agency’s commitment to mitigation of
emergencies through awareness creation and capacity building of
stakeholders. He said the agency had in the last one year trained 1,600
grassroots emergency management volunteers across the zone.

A sculptor with Universal Studio of Arts,
Iganmu, Lagos, Patrick Agose, on Monday urged government to establish
more galleries in the country.

Mr. Agose told the News Agency of
Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos that such institutions would promote and
encourage visual artists to take their works to the grassroots.

He urged policy makers to encourage
visual art by ensuring that every state government build galleries for
the collection and preservation of visual art works.

“We seem to pay so much attention to
other sectors of the economy to the detriment of areas such as visual
arts, which could generate revenue if given equal opportunity,” he said.

Mr. Agose, who is in charge of training
students on industrial attachment in the studio, said it would be a
disservice to an artist if he had no gallery to showcase his work.

“A gallery is a place where visual art
works, which are self-expression and intellectual properties, are
displayed and appreciated. It is at the galleries that such works
attract patronage and promote cultural exchange”, he said.

According to him, the few available
galleries are owned by private individuals who make a fortune from the
sale of visual art works.

“There is an urgent need for the
government to revisit the art sector because this is one avenue of
promoting our culture as well as a source of revenue for national
development.

“In other countries, the economy is
driven by arts, especially visual arts, as super models of automobiles
being produced and driven around the world are all products of the
visual artists,” Agose said.

He argued that visual arts appreciate
faster than shares, as an art work acquired currently at N70, 000 could
sell for as much as N500, 000 a few years later.

He noted that with the economic meltdown, many investors were currently investing in visual arts, rather than buying shares.

The National
Orientation Agency (NOA), Monday, said it would need the support of
international donor agencies in the efficient discharge of its
assignment.

NOA’s Lagos State
director, Nasir Kaka, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos
that there was the need for international donor organisations to
support the agency in the area of logistics.

Mr. Kaka urged
other agencies and development partners to emulate UNICEF’s effort and
direct resources to promote enlightenment programmes in communities.

“For some time now, UNICEF and NOA have been working harmoniously in ensuring development of children and women.

“The agency
presently does not only need the support of UNICEF, but also other
international organisations within and outside this country to achieve
its objectives.

“We need their
assistance in the production of posters, handbills, and jingles to
enhance community enlightenment and sensitization programmes across the
country,” he said.

Mr. Kaka said the
agency needed such support to be enable it get closer to as many people
and communities as possible. He expressed optimism that the support
would enhance enlightenment information dissemination in market places,
churches/mosques, motor parks, schools, and other places.

Kaka, however,
reiterated the agency’s commitment to ensuring the smooth flow of
information on development programmes in the communities.

“Especially with
the forthcoming elections in the country, a lot of support would be
needed from local and international organisations to scale up
enlightenment,” he said.

The NOA official commended UNICEF’s continued support to children and women development programmes in Nigeria. (NAN)

Political
office holders and civil servants who acted as guarantors of loans for
beneficiaries of the Ekiti State Micro Credit Scheme will be held
responsible in cases of default by beneficiaries, the State
Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Taiwo Olatunbosun, has
said.

Mr. Olatunbosun
said the guarantors were liable to pay back the loans in accordance
with the agreement they signed with government. He urged political
office holders and civil servants who have their family members in this
category to appeal to them to repay their outstanding loans, stressing
that government was determined to ensure total recovery of all
outstanding loans in order to enable others to benefit from the scheme.
The Information Commissioner said the state government established the
Micro-Credit Agency as part of efforts at alleviating poverty through
disbursement of loans to artisans. He said these loans were guaranteed
by reputable people in the society, including political office holders
and government functionaries.

Fighting drugs

The commissioner
also warned Forest Guards manning the state forest reserves on the need
to rid the state of the cultivation and trafficking of Indian Hemp.
“Government will henceforth regard all Forest Guards of the areas where
marijuana farms were discovered as part of the ignoble act,” he said.
“We are determined to wage war against planting of cannabis government
reserves. Forest guards that voluntarily gives information that may
lead to discovery of such criminal plantation would be properly
rewarded as motivation for them to be alert to the responsibility of
checkmating the activities of the cultivators of the illicit weed.” He
also called on people in the state to report any suspicious farm to
relevant law enforcement agencies.

Meanwhile, the State Executive Council has also ratified the
transfer of the Schools of Nursing and midwifery, Ado Ekiti, which had
hitherto been under the supervision of the State Ministry of Health, to
the University of Ado Ekiti Teaching Hospital. Mr Olatubosun said the
gesture would facilitate improved management and enhance training of
the Nurses and Midwives in the schools, in conformity with the new
status of the University Teaching Hospital. He reiterated the
commitment of the state administration to the development of all
sectors, stressing that no stone would be left unturned in the efforts
at ensuring rapid development in the state.

The
Oyo State governor, Adebayo Alao-Akala, at the weekend, faulted media
reports alleging that he walked out on the national chairman of the
Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP), Okwesileze Nwodo, at a meeting he held
with the latter in his Abuja office last Thursday.

The governor, in a
telephone chat in Ibadan on Sunday, described the story as untruthful
and calculated to bring him to disrepute.

He said he did not
leave the chairman’s office until he completed his mission there,
adding that Mr. Nwodo was well aware of his exit.

Mr. Alao-Akala also
explained that his visit to Abuja was not prompted by any
reconciliation move on the crisis in the party, as reported in the
media, but done to congratulate the chairman on his appointment as
number one member of the party.

“It was unfortunate
the way the media portrayed my visit to Wadata Plaza. First, I was
never summoned. Second was the fact that the visit was at our instance,
and third, we were warmly received by the national chairman who, in the
cause of the visit, had to invite other members of the national working
committee of the party,” he said.

“I remain a
committed party member, and that informed our visit to the national
chairman and second, I am a humble personality, which is the reason I
had to go for the visit, even in company of one of my predecessors in
office, Kolapo Ishola, who incidentally is a colleague of the national
chairman when he was the executive governor of Enugu State.” Mr. Akala.

He said he
suspected that the journalists covering the PDP national headquarters
might have taken an offence with his refusal to entertain question from
them, before going for the meeting, saying the act was not deliberate.
Advising journalists to always report issues accurately, the governor
said that is the only way to nurture the nation’s nascent democracy to
maturity.

“The media report was unfair to me, but I thank God that the national secretariat had come out to refute the story,” he said.

Meanwhile, a leader
of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) in Oyo State, Lekan Balogun, has
advised Mr. Alao Akala to be careful about the likelihood of pushing
the state towards a state of emergency by his actions.

The Ibadan high
chief, who spoke with journalists at his Alarere, Ibadan residence, at
the weekend, expressed worry about the many political and industrial
crises going on in the state, and warned that if proper care is not
taken, such situations could erupt into a crisis capable of breaching
the peace of the state.

Mr. Balogun said by
courting the ‘illegal’ Dejo Afolabi-led PDP executive and sidelining
some prominent members of his party, allowing his disagreement with the
teachers’ union to degenerate into a strike, as well as fighting with
the poultry farmers association, the governor has already made the
state ungovernable for himself.

State of crises

“If this state must
witness peace and harmony, Alao Akala needs to bring all the warring
camps together, reconcile all aggrieved members, and introduce sanity
into the political system,” he said.

“He must listen to the voice of reason from all quarters, and free himself from sycophants milling round him.

“If he fails to do this, then a state of emergency is inevitable,” he cautioned.

His views on the
governor’s relationship with some elders of the party was based on the
controversy trailing his meeting with Mr. Nwodo, in Abuja last
Wednesday, where Alao-Akala allegedly stormed out on the party boss who
reportedly told him that his state does not have a legally-constituted
executive committee.

“I believe the NWC
has no choice than to concede that Oyo State has no executive. We do
not have. The members parading themselves as executive members are
self-imposed and illegal, because they did not evolve out of any
congress. They were not properly and legally elected.

“There was even a
court injunction against them, and the INEC confirmed this in writing.
The NWC is in the know of this, hence the decision that a broad-based
party executive must be put in place”, said Mr. Balogun.

However, in his
reaction to Balogun’s note of caution, the governor, through Dotun
Oyelade, his special adviser on public communications, said the call
“smacks of debilitating idleness.”

“Apparently
dissatisfied that his earlier similar calls have been roundly ignored
by everyone whose attention he craves, the former senator has become a
butt of joke in political circles where he is referred to as ‘casino
politician’ for his wanton unpredictability.

“He is flawed on all grounds of his allegations, not only because
they lack merit, but for the kindergarten reasoning. Obviously calling
on the federal government to reek a state of emergency based on
frivolous premise is a disrepute to civilised opposition,” the terse
reaction concluded.

Lamido
Sanusi, governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has disclosed
that for rescued banks to get their operations right, they must improve
on their risk management, operational capacity, as well as corporate
governance.

Mr. Sanusi, who
spoke to aviation correspondents at the presidential wing of the
Murtala Mohammed Airport, Lagos, disclosed that the banks will only get
better international rating from the likes of Standard and Poor
(S&P) when they heed to the aforementioned advice. “What S&P
said about our banks is that there is need to improve on their risk
management,” he said. “The way to achieve this in Nigeria is for the
affected banks to improve their capacity, improve their assets
qualities, and improve on their risk management as well as their
management and corporate governance.”

According to Mr. Sanusi, the agency recently rated Nigerian banks as
high in risk management with poor regulatory oversight, adding that as
much as he is not worried over the category B rating, the CBN moved
into the rescued banks because it realized the need for them to improve
on their risk management. “How will you expect a high rating of our
rescued banks? What has happened is a confirmation that there is need
for the banks to improve their operations. We moved into the rescued
banks because we realized the need for the banks to improve their risk
management,” he said.