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The Bayelsa State
government at the weekend faulted media reports that the Economic and
Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is on the trail of the state
governor, Timipre Sylva, over alleged fraudulent practices to the tune
of N100 billion.

The chief press
secretary to the governor, Doifie Ola, who advised the EFCC to go to
court if it has a case against Mr. Sylva, said media reports of alleged
massive fraud in the accounts of the state government are part of a
campaign to tarnish the image of Mr. Sylva and ruin his political
relevance.

This is “a well
structured campaign to undermine the Bayelsa State Government, truncate
Governor Sylva’s political career by preparing the ground for his
illegal removal from office, and maybe send him to jail after his
governorship,” Mr. Ola said.

The N100 billion question

NEXT reported on
Sunday that the EFCC would soon slam Mr. Sylva with a multiple-count
charge of money laundering and diversion of public funds to the tune of
about N100billion.

Three top officials of the Bayelsa State cabinet were, last week, detained by the EFCC in relation to similar crimes.

But officials of
the anti-corruption agency said that this was just a tip of the
iceberg. “The whole thing is about the governor. All the other
officials are just collaborators. The governor is the ultimate
beneficiary of the corruption,” an EFCC official declared in an
interview.

Incidentally, other
newspapers at the weekend also reported on the political disagreement
between the acting President Goodluck Jonathan and Mr. Sylva.

An ongoing campaign?

The governor’s spokesperson said these show that a campaign against the governor is ongoing.

“We do not see it
as a coincidence that on the same day, two other newspapers carried
another story about the Bayelsa State governor, saying he was
contesting “power” with the Acting President,” he said. “This story
about grand larceny in Bayelsa State is bogus, and carefully planned to
achieve political ends, namely tarnish the image of Mr. Sylva, the
easier to remove him from Government House. This story is also meant to
arouse people’s emotions, and incite them against the Sylva
administration. If the EFCC has established a prima facie case against
senior officials of the Government of Bayelsa State as it is claimed,
the road to travel is the law courts, not the pages of newspapers.”

Mr. Ola said the
issues in the N101billion fraud case, especially over the Wilbros
fraud, predates Mr. Sylva’s days as governor of the state.

“Is the said EFCC
report an investigation of corruption in Bayelsa State or an
investigation into the Wilbros scandal? At best, this is confusion at
work!” He said.

The state’s
accountant general, Francis Okukoro; the director of treasury, Abbot
Clinton; and the director of finance, Ikobho Anthony Howells, have been
remanded in an Abuja prison.

A University of
Birmingham student’s inspirational story of student life in the UK has
won her a position as runner-up in the regional finals of the United
Kingdom’s biggest international students competition.

Linda Ilonze, a
Nigerian studying Electronic and Computer Engineering at the University
of Birmingham, was one of more than 1,300 students, from 118 countries
to enter the eighth annual International Student Awards. The programme
is an initiative of the British Council that promotes the contributions
of international students to life in the UK.

“I am really excited to be selected as a runner-up in my region,” Ms Ilonze said.

“Studying at
Birmingham has opened a new chapter in my life and no matter what
chapters come next, this one began an inquisitive and adventurous stage
and gave me a platform to learn and develop life skills.”

To enter the
competition, international students were encouraged to write a personal
‘letter home’ in English, detailing the out-of-class achievements that
help make their time in the UK rewarding.

Students studying
at universities, colleges of further and higher education, schools and
English language institutions across England, Northern Ireland,
Scotland and Wales shared stories about the extra-curricular
achievements that illustrate how they are making the most of their time
in the UK.

A judging panel met
last month to discuss the merits of short-listed entries from the
region. Ms Ilonze’s letter was judged to be one of West Midland’s best
and she will receive a £100 prize. Entrants are grouped into regions –
North West, Yorkshire, North East,

West Midlands, East Midlands, East of England, South West, London, South East, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

Raising money

Last year, she had an opportunity to undertake a year placement at the investment bank, Goldman Sachs.

While there, she took part in a 5km race to raise money for Cancer Research UK.

“I raised £200. The race was great fun; it was inspirational hearing stories from fellow runners.

“I am planning to run again this year, this time the target is £500!” she said.

Martin Davidson,
Chief Executive of the British Council, said, “Studying overseas can be
an incredibly exciting and rewarding experience and our academic
institutions offer some of the best opportunities in the world.

“International students make a huge contribution and commitment to
life in the UK and Shine provides a unique platform for the students to
gain public recognition for their achievements.”

Legal practitioners in Ondo State have
thrown their weight behind the re-nomination as minister of Adetokunbo
Kayode by Acting President Goodluck Jonathan, although his nomination
has caused division in the ranks of the state leadership of the Peoples
Democratic Party in the last few weeks.

A group loyal to former commissioner
for finance and governorship aspirant Tayo Alasoadura had rejected the
nomination of Mr. Kayode, while a group loyal to immediate past
governor Olusegun Agagu was solidly behind him.

There were also speculations that
senators from the state had decided to work against the former justice
minister’s clearance at the Senate when nominees appear for screening.

Resolving the issue

However, NEXT gathered that the crisis might be over because the leadership of the party had agreed to support the nomination.

A reliable source
in the party said the leadership of the party has agreed to give Mr.
Kayode their support in order to stop the division in the party The
source also hinted that the three senators from the state have resolved
to back his nomination.

“The allegiance of
Kayode to the PDP has never been in doubt, just as he has not joined
any of the factions jostling for the soul of the party in the state,”
the source said.

Speaking at the
weekend, the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA) in the state has praised the
nomination of Mr Kayode, saying “the appointment of Kayode will help
develop the cause of justice.”

The outgoing publicity secretary of the association’s Akure chapter,
Rotimi Olorunfemi, who spoke on behalf of his colleagues, said Mr.
Kayode, who has served as the first vice president of the NBA and has
held several positions within the group, will be of good service not
only to the federal government but also the law profession.

Claims that the
Senate removed section 137 (7i) of the 1999 constitution to allow
corrupt officials contest elections are a disservice to senators, the
senate minority leader, Olorunimbe Mamora, said at the weekend in Lagos.

Mr. Mamora said
Nigerians misunderstood the senates’ decision which, he said, was
actually meant to differentiate between indicted officials and
convicted ones.

The section, which
was removed by the senate last week, had stated that a person could not
contest for office if “he has been indicted for embezzlement or fraud
by a Judicial Commission of Inquiry or an Administrative Panel of
Inquiry or a Tribunal set up under the Tribunals of Inquiry Act, a
Tribunals of Inquiry Law or any other law by the Federal or State
Government which indictment has been accepted by the Federal or State
Government, respectively.”

Mr Mamora also blamed the media for not doing enough to educate Nigerians on the issue.

“You people are getting it wrong,” he said.

“What we are saying
is that indictment is not the same thing as conviction. We are just
looking at the experience of 2007; you know, we have what we called
indictment list that was used to exclude some members.

“We have not got it right, but gradually we are going to get it right, as time goes on we will.”

The senate leader
also said the possibility of having a free elections after the
constitution amendment is concluded depends on the players.

“Well. There are so
many parts to having free, fair and credible election, especially in
the governorship and presidential election,” he said. “But as it is
now, with the proposed amendment before the senate, we are not doing
anything along that line. Like asking the NJC, as par the Justice Uwais
report, asking the NJC to screen and make recommendation, we are not
looking in that direction now. That affects section 164 of the code of
conduct … we don’t have that now.”

Get the right workers

Mr. Mamora also
said that whatever the decision of the National Assembly, having a
successful elections involves getting the right individuals to oversee
the process.

“If we are serious,
we should be able to identify individuals, men and women of integrity,
of good records, who can do the job, as oppose to those who are already
compromised,” he said.

“The attitude of
all of us, the politicians, is something else. So, we are also part of
the problem in terms of the capacity not to do the right thing.

“We need to play by the rules, every game have its rules and if we
play by the rules, we will all get there. So that at the end of the day
we can have the right calibre of people at the election management
board.”

The Ekiti State House of Assembly will be going to Abuja to protest the reduction of the state’s constituencies.

The Independent
National Electoral Commision plans to reduce the number of Ekiti
constituencies from 26 to 24, a development which the state Assembly
committee chairman on information, Morakinyo Adebayo called “an act of
injustice’’ to the state.

Mr. Adebayo
disclosed that the 26 members of the House would stage a peaceful
demonstration to the National Assembly and INEC office to register
their displeasure.

He said that the
responsibility of the state’s constituency rests with the state
Assembly, noting that, “INEC does not have any business in either
reducing or increasing constituencies. If INEC is increasing the
constituency of other states, why then is it reducing our own?.

The Assembly bears the cost of maintaining the constituencies and not INEC.

INEC has nothing to gain in the reduction and we will not rest until the decision is reversed,” he said.

The National Youth Service Corps members has urged corps members to make their personal security a priority.

Director General Maharazu Tsiga gave the charge on
Sunday at the NYSC permanent orientation camp in Issele-Uku, Delta,
when he visited the camp as part of his on-going sensitisation tour.

“The NYSC management has put in place some
measures toward your safety, but your personal efforts are very
essential,’’ he said.

He advised them to be mindful of their friends and
the association they keep “so as to avoid been misguided.” He said
that the on-going sensitisation tour was to see how the corps members
were faring in the various camps with respect to their welfare and
security.

“Do not use your energy and brain wrongly. Do not
waste your time because your parents are not around; work hard and
re-direct your energy positively,’’ 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.

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.

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.

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.”