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The
Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) at the weekend joined a growing chorus
of politicians and civil society activists calling for the sack of
Maurice Iwu as chairman of the Independent National Electoral
Commission (INEC).

The NLC said on
Sunday that it will collaborate with the Alliance for Credible
Elections (ACE) to reinforce its demand by staging a protest against
Iwu’s continuous stay and retention as the chairman of INEC at the
National Assembly on Wednesday.

‘Iwu must go’

Both bodies say
they are mobilising hundreds of Nigerians to join the protest march,
which will also seek the total implementation of the recommendations
contained in the report of the Mohammed Uwais-led Electoral Reform
Committee.

“Labour is saying
that Iwu lacks the integrity to remain in office as INEC chairman.”
Abdulahi Danja Yahaya, the vice chairman of the NLC’s Abuja chapter,
said.

He said Mr. Iwu
could not produce a credible voters register in 2007 neither could he
serially number the ballot papers used in the presidential election.

“We have had WAEC
(West African Examination Council), and NECO (National Examination
Council) registrations in Nigeria and we have not seen any case where a
candidate who registered in Yobe have his name appear in Anambra State.
So why should it be during electoral process we will be moving voters’
register from one state to another?” Mr. Yahaya asked. “It is because
the chairman lacks that integrity… let the head do the proper thing
first and let the politicians hijack the boxes.”

‘Stop the lobby’

The group also
alleged that the INEC chairperson is lobbying high profile government
officials to help retain him in office beyond July. The group also
alleged that Mr. Iwu has been renting crowds to sing his praise.

“It is wrong for
Iwu who is supposed to be an umpire is lobbying top government
officials to retain his job in INEC,” Emma Ezeazu, the general
secretary of the ACE, said. “His tenure should not be renewed.”

The second demand of the coalition, as they protest on Wednesday, will be for full implementation of the ‘Uwais report’.

According to the
Mr. Ezeazu, both labour and the larger society are not satisfied with
the partial implementation of the report so far by both the senate and
the House of Representatives.

“Financial autonomy without political independence is not good enough,” he said.

Mr. Ezeazu argued that except the Uwais report is fully implemented, Nigerians cannot be guaranteed free and fair election.

“The issue is the
strategic recommendation of the Uwais report that for the independence
of INEC, the power of the president to unilaterally appoint the INEC
chairman and commissioners should be whittled down by introducing an
element of quality control through the NJC (National Judicial
Council),” Mr. Ezeazu said. This recommendation was rejected by the
Senate.

“We think that electoral reform has been shot in the leg. We hope that the House or Reps will reverse this,” he added.

Members
of the Ekiti State House of Assembly at the weekend rejected the
reduction of the constituencies in the state from 26 to 24 by the
Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

The lawmakers also
resolved to send a delegation to the National Assembly to protest what
they described as a slap on the people of the state.

A unilateral reduction?

The chairman of the
House Committee on Information, Adebayo Morakinyo, said it is wrong by
any standard for any commission or government agency to unilaterally
reduce the number of constituencies in Ekiti State without consulting
the people of the state.

The two constituencies removed from the present 26 are Ekiti East and Oye constituencies.

“The assembly
received a letter from the Independent National Electoral Commission
over the matter, stating that the result of the 2006 National
Population and Housing Census was used to arrive at the decision to
increase the number of constituencies in some other states,” Mr.
Morakinyo, a Peoples Democratic Party legislator, said. “The action is
not only an injustice of the highest order, but also a slap on the
entire people of Ekiti State. I don’t know the business of INEC in
reducing the constituencies of Ekiti State. This matter does not
concern local governments; constituencies don’t receive allocations
from the Federal Government allocations are given to states and local
governments.”

He said the state
assembly would not accept the reduction carried out by INEC, and urged
the National Assembly to throw INEC’s recommendations into the dustbin.

‘Battle ready’

Mr. Morakinyo added
that the electoral body has nothing to gain by promoting a reduction
when the people of the state are clamouring for an increase from 26 to
32 constituencies.

The deputy speaker,
Saliu Adeoti, criticised the merging of Ekiti East and Oye
Constituencies, saying Ekiti people would not accept the reduction.

“We have 26
constituencies and we were expecting six more to be created; but they
are saying that they have reduced by two. We say no to constituency
reduction in Ekiti State, we will not accept anything less than 26. We
want six more to be created and that is our position,” Mr. Adeoti, who
is an Action Congress member, said.

Mr. Adeoti said the
lawmakers will summon a meeting with traditional rulers, leaders of
various political parties and the National Assembly’s leadership to
find a lasting solution to the INEC decision.

“It (is) sad that the constituencies which were overpopulated were
not split; rather INEC decided to reduce the number of constituencies
in the state from 26 to 24.The whole of Ekiti Stat is battle ready to
correct the injustice meted on the people of the state by INEC,” he
said.

The chairperson of
the All Nigeria Peoples Party Caretaker Committee in Zamfara State,
Abdulazeez Yari, has accused the state government of fuelling the
crisis within the party.

Mr. Yari, who led
the party’s rally to sensitise supporters on the 2011 elections, said,
the PDP is afraid of the ANPP’s support in the state despite the
defection of some political office holders from its fold.

“PDP, in its own
style, is striving hard to create factions within the ranks of the ANPP
so as to justify the recent defection of some national and state
legislators.

In spite of the misunderstanding emanating from leadership, the ANPP in Zamfara State remains intact and is waxing stronger.

“ The party is sure of winning the state in the 2011 elections,’’ he said.

Mr. Yari, who represents Mafara/Anka constituency in the House of
Representatives, is also the 2011 ANPP governorship aspirant in the
state.

It took Alao Ayorinde close to two days to come to Ikeja from his home at Dopemu, a Lagos suburb.

On a normal day, the transport fare from his house at Shitta Street to Oduduwa at Ikeja is less than N200.

However, raising
that amount was a task for the 30-year-old panel beater and auto
mechanic; a father of five children: four boys and a girl.

The first boy came
barely two years after Mr. Ayorinde got married to Adijat, a
seamstress, in 2002. Six years later when its seemed as if Mrs.
Ayorinde can no longer bear a child, Nature more than smiled on them,
giving them quadruplets.

The children, a
girl and three boys, delivered at the Sacred Heart Hospital Lantoro,
Abeokuta, on July 18, 2009, will be nine months old in April.

Mr. Ayorinde, who
has taken to begging on the streets of Lagos in order to feed and
clothe the children, said he can do with some help from the public.

“My sister, I am
sorry for coming late for this meeting with you. I was looking for
money to take transport and come here at Ikeja. It was one of my
friends that even borrowed me N300 to come here. This is how my life
has been since God blessed me with these four kids at the same time.
There is no money on me anymore because all the money I get goes to
feeding, clothing and medicals for these children. Life has not been
easy at all.”

Financial assistance not coming.

NEXT exclusively
reported the delivery of the babies through a caesarean section, and
the hardship the family was going through to cater for the children’s
need. “With NEXT’s assistance, we opened an Access Bank account for the
Ayorinde quadruplets but it is sad that we have no money in that
account. It was the Alake of Egbaland, who gave us, N20, 000 and two
bags of rice. The Oshile of Egbaland gave us N10, 000, also the
Olugbara of Igbaraland supported us with N5000. One Alhaji gave us
N10,000, others like Mrs. Yemisi gave N2000. I have been to several
ministries. Like the ministry of women affairs in Lagos State, but they
keep telling me to come back. I have written several letters, to no
avail. The money which we got last year is finished. I used to make
close to N3000-5000 in a day but since these children came, there is no
money again. I am appealing to people to come to our aid and provide
job for me. If I have a good job, I can take care of my family too.”

Surviving on semovita

Despite the hardship, Mr. Ayorinde is facing with catering for his kids, he said he will not give out any of them.

“Sometime last
year, I ran away when the burden became too much, but the love for my
wife and children brought me back. I said, whatever it is, we should
suffer together, no matter the hardship. I will never give out any of
the children. Right now, we are so broke that the children are eating
semovita and milk. In a week, they can eat food up to N15,000. My rent
in our one-room apartment will soon be due. Even with this condition,
thieves came to our house last month and stole our money and handsets.

“The thieves acted
on the rumour that I have made N4million from people, which is not
true. The assistance is not coming and that is why we are begging
people again to come to our aid. With what I have seen with these
children, I have asked God to bless other people with children. These
ones are okay for me. God should just give me money to feed them.”

Eleven years after the Senate’s
electronic voting system was abandoned for inaccuracy, the Senate has
reactivated the voting machines in preparation for the vote on the
amendment of the 1999 Constitution.

Few minutes before the Tuesday plenary,
the Senators were informed that they could not use their desk
microphones like they did last week. David Mark, the Senate President
informed them that before they could use their microphones, they would
need an electronic swipe card to get it functional.

Shortly after, the senators were given
some customised electronic swipe cards and taught how to operate the
new voting system. The senators were visibly excited as they tested the
viability of the cards with each senator having two spare cards.

To vote on a matter which the senate
president wishes be done electronically, a senator will be required to
first slot in the card and just push a yes or no button in the audio
control panel on his front desk. The votes are then registered on two
display boards placed where every senator can see, and also on a
smaller panel on the senate president’s desk.

According to Mr. Mark, a hard copy of the votes indicating how the senators voted can also be printed out for authentication.

“The essence of reactivating the
electronic voting machine is to lessen the time that will be spent on
voting on each of the 39 constitutional amendment bills,” Mr. Mark said.

Late last month, when the senators
voted on amendment of sections 145 and 190 of the 1999 constitution,
the senate spent three hours voting on the bill because every senator
stood to say their names and how they vote on the bills. This latest
innovation is meant to minimize time spent on voting on crucial bills.

In less important bills or motions, the
Senate use other voting methods like voice vote in which the senate
president uses his judgement to decide which chorus was louder.
Sometimes it is difficult for him to deliver empirically sound judgment
based on the voices alone.

In some other cases, the senate divides
the house in such a way that those in favour of a particular issue sit
on one side of the aisle and then they are counted.

At
least 40 per cent of people in Sub-Saharan Africa do not have access to
safe drinking water, and 1.8 million children less than five years old
die every year from water-related disease around the world, which is
one child every 20 seconds, United Nations Environment Programmes
Report reveals on Monday.

The report also
shows that more people now die from contaminated and polluted water
than from all forms of violence including wars, as over half the
world’s hospitals beds are now occupied with people suffering from
illnesses linked with contaminated water.

The report was released to mark the World Water Day, on 22 March, with the theme, ‘Sick water.’

Almost 900 million
people currently lack access to safe drinking water, and an estimated
2.6 billion people lack access to basic sanitation. It however, reveals
that industrial pollution and other forms of pollution contribute to
the contamination of useable water.

South Asia and
sub-Saharan Africa, which have the highest proportion in the crisis,
lead with around 221 million and 330 million (respectively) living
without basic sanitation and access to good safe drinking water.

Despite the
increasing aids to the 830 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa,
wherein only six African countries do not belong geographically:
Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia, Western Sahara (claimed by
Morocco), the reports reveal that the economic losses due to the lack
of water and sanitation in Africa alone is estimated at $US28.4 billion
or about five per cent of GDP.

No recycling in Nigeria

Lyn Olisa, a
Nigerian environmentalist, however said that despite the improved
funding and the effect of the climate change, recent developments have
revealed that people’s attitude to the environment and water use is not
proper and should be changed.

“The current
climate is not helping issues and Africa being what it is, especially
Nigeria, we have not got a way to recycle our water,” Mrs. Olisa said.

“Water recycling is
very important not only in developing countries, but also the developed
countries. Because people here in Africa, especially in Nigeria, don’t
pay through their nose to get water, we just use our water anyhow.

“Even if we have more funding, without the right attitude, it will not really work.

Even the little one
we have is still wasted. You can imagine people defecating into the
river. It is bad, we just have to develop the right attitude,” she said.

Christian
Nellemann, a lead author of the report, said that “Some estimates
suggest that around two million tons of waste are spilled into sewage
systems every day: this may be producing well over two billion tons of
polluted water every single day, 365 days a year, right into our
freshwaters and oceans. Dirty water is also a key factor that the
report says is in the rise of de-oxygenated dead zones that have been
emerging in seas and oceans across the globe.

“It is a challenge
that will continue to intensify as the world undergoes rapid
urbanisation, industrialisation and increasing demand for meat and
other foods, unless decisive action is taken.

“Urban populations
are projected to nearly double in 40 years, from current 3.4 billion to
over six billion people – but already most cities lack adequate
wastewater management due to aging, absent or inadequate sewage
infrastructure,” it stated.

Get smarter

Achim Steiner, UN
Under-Secretary General and Executive Director of the UN Environment
Programme (UNEP), said: “If the world is to thrive, let alone to
survive on a planet of six billion people heading to over nine billion
by 2050, we need to get collectively smarter and more intelligent about
how we manage waste, including wastewaters.”

“The facts and
figures are stark – pollution from wastewater is quite literally
killing people, indeed at least 1.8 million children die annually as a
result of contaminated water. The impacts on the wider environment and
in particular the marine environment are also sobering,” he added.

“But the report
also points to the abundant Green Economy opportunities for turning a
mounting challenge into an opportunity with multiple benefits. These
include the savings from reduced fertilizer costs for farmers, and
incentives for conserving ecological infrastructure such as wetlands
alongside new business and employment opportunities in engineering and
natural resource management,” Mr. Steiner explained.

Also, the Executive
Director of UN-Habitat, Anna Tibajuka said, “Many water and sanitation
utilities, especially in developing countries, are forced to spend more
financial resources in water treatment due to increased pollution.

“Excess nutrients
and wastewater can also lead to uncontrolled growth of algae and
aquatic plants such as water hyacinth, which cause practical problems
for marine transportation, fishing, intakes for water, hydro power, and
irrigation schemes,” she added.

The thought of
going to, and returning from work has become a nightmare to Ayodele
Oyeleke, a bank employee. He resides in Ajah and his office is at
Onikan, Lagos Island. He spends an average of six hours (one quarter a
day) on traffic any day he goes to work.

“I tell you, it is
terrible. If you don’t live in this area you will not understand. I
spend like three hours going to work and three hours coming back, due
to traffic. This is even because I always try to leave early. Around
4am every morning I’m already on my way. Even at that, some days I get
to work after 7am. I tell you, I’m fed up. I’m seriously looking for a
house on the Mainland, maybe around Surulere,” Mr. Oyeleke said.

The Lekki-Epe expressway, which links Mr. Oyeleke’s neighbourhood with Lagos Island, is notorious for traffic jams.

With the rapid
urbanisation of Lekki, Ajah and other towns in that region, the
expressway became the way home for many, resulting into too many
vehicles plying the relatively narrow road.

On April 2006, the
Lagos State government, through the Public Private Partnership, engaged
Lekki Concession Company (LCC) as the concessionaire for upgrading and
expansion of the 49.5 kilometre road in Build-Operate-Transfer model.
The contract stipulates that LCC will operate and maintain the road for
30 years and then transfer it to the state government.

Months after the
expiration of the 36 months scheduled for the first phase of the
project, it has just gone a distance of less than five kilometres.

As a result,
adjoining roads get blocked while traffic is deviated to alternative
routes. The movement of construction workers and vehicles create a
hectic traffic situation.

“It’s even worse
these days; they started this their construction since. I don’t know
why they are not fast. They should round it off on time so that our
suffering will stop. These days, if you don’t come out on time, let’s
say 4am or 5am, just know that you want to go late that day. I had
spent up to one hour on this road from Ajah to CMS (a journey of about
30 minutes on free-flowing traffic),” said Helen Ifejiofor, a
salesperson in a boutique in Victoria Island, who also resides in Ajah.

The complaints of
commuters on the Lekki-Epe expressway are numerous, ranging from those
who claim to have lost jobs because they were kept in traffic longer
than they planned, to those who said they have developed waist pain and
other health conditions as a result of sitting for long hours
(sometimes in uncomfortable commercial buses) in the midst of endless
fumes from vehicles.

“But the traffic
congestion is a smaller issue compared to these toll fee they said they
want to start collecting by May this year”, said Samson Ovie, an
interior decorator who resides in Lekki.

On the LCC website
(www.lcc.com.ng) there will be three Toll Plazas in all. The first will
be located near the Palms Shopping Complex (Km 3); the second near
Chevron (Km 13); and the third near Crown Estates (Km 23). The toll,
according to the company, is the only means through which the company
will recoup its investment.

The announcement of
the commencement of toll collection in May 2010, which was billed to
start in the last quarter of 2009, has caused ripples, especially among
residents of Lekki and Ajah.

In their
advertorial in a national daily titled, ‘The fraud called toll
collection on Lekki-Epe Expressway’, the residents condemned the
intention of LCC to collect toll before completion of the project.

“If we may ask,
what is the urgency about toll collection in a 44-kilometer road, out
of which only a 2-kilometer stretch has been completed? It is laughable
and inconsistent with global standard practice to hear that a road
concessioning assignment with a life span of 30 years is already
attracting toll collection when only 5% of work has been done. LCC
obviously knows that this is fraudulent because expectedly, the period
from commencement to completion, which in this case, would have been
from 2006 to 2009, should ordinarily be taken as gesticulation or
‘test-run’ period,” read the advertorial which is a sequel to an
earlier one titled: ‘Lekki-Epe Expressway Expansion, Right Now a Curse’.

Opposition to the toll collection is mounting. For Mr. Oyeleke, it is a ‘No’.

“There is no way
I’m going to pay toll on this road. Maybe when they finish it and I see
how nice it is I may be motivated to pay, but not now. I know that many
people won’t even pay. It will cause a very big problem if they want to
force us to pay,” he said.

Enquires made in order to get LCC’s reaction on this were not replied as at press time.