Nigeria Content Online

The world’s
addiction to fossil fuels put the hangman’s noose around the neck of
Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other Ogoni leaders on 10 November, 1995. That
noose was tightened under the watch of Shell through a kangaroo
military tribunal rigged by the worst dictator Nigeria ever had. Today,
we can say that every oil rig that sucks oil in the Niger Delta is a
hangman’s noose around the necks of the suffering peoples and
communities.

Today, we all stand
before history. We stand in front of a backdrop of injustice,
oppression, and ecological genocide – not just historical, but current,
and it is the threat of its progressing into the future that we must
stand together to fight.

In his statement
after the verdict of guilt was passed on him, Ken Saro-Wiwa declared,
“We all stand before history… appalled by the denigrating poverty of
peoples who live in richly endowed lands.”

We stand distressed
by “their political marginalization and economic strangulation, angered
by the devastation of their land and their ultimate heritage.”

He went on to call
for “a fair and just democratic system which protects everyone and
every ethnic group, and gives us all a valid claim to human
validation.”

Ken Saro-Wiwa’s
words, though spoken fifteen years ago, still ring true in our ears
today. A man with a keen sense of history, he told the agents of the
military dictator that he and his colleagues were not the only ones on
trial. Hear him: “Shell is here on trial, and it is as well that it is
represented by counsel said to be holding a watching brief… The
company has, indeed, ducked this particular trial, but its day will
surely come, and the lessons learnt here may prove useful to it, for
there is no doubt in my mind that the ecological war that the company
has waged in the Delta will be called to question sooner than later and
the crimes of that war be duly punished. The crime of the company’s
dirty wars against the Ogoni people will also be punished.”

A man of history

Saro-Wiwa was
indeed a man of history. While shackled in one military jail or
another, the world recognised his worth and the validity of the Ogoni
struggles. In the last months of his life on earth, he won several
awards in recognition of his just struggles: the Fonlon-Nichols Award
for excellence in creative writing and the struggle for human rights;
the 1994 Right Livelihood Award or Alternative Nobel Prize for Peace;
the 1995 Goldman Environmental Prize, the most prestigious
environmental award in the world; the eight Bruno-Kreisky Foundation
Award for human rights; the 1995 British Environmental ad Media Special
Awareness Award; and the Hammett Award for Human Rights of Human Rights
Watch.

The Students Union
of the Ahmadu Bello University in Nigeria conferred on him the award of
Grand Commander of the Oppressed Masses. Surely, none of these could
have been given to a man of mean repute.

Standing on the
shoulders of history, we see clearly the beginnings of the trials that
were bound to expose those who have waged ecological wars against the
Ogoni people, the peoples of the Niger Delta and elsewhere in the
world. We continue to see a company like Shell bowing before courts and
before the Stock Exchanges in North America, accepting out of court
settlements, and paying fines to avoid prosecution on bribery and
corruption charges.

In 2005, they also
admitted to having falsified their crude oil reserve figures the
previous year, and paid some hefty fines to cover that up. Recent
reports have it that they are halting suits over bribery by paying some
fines. Last year, they agreed in a New York court to pay over $15
million to Ogoni litigants for human rights abuses.

In all these, we
are confident that the words of Ken Saro-Wiwa will come to pass. One
day, the eco devourers will have their day in the dock. And this is
already happening in The Hague, where three Niger Delta communities are
suing Shell for environmental degradation.

Perpetual death

The dominant
predatory production and consumption patterns in the world, and the
myth that crude oil is a cheap form of energy, has meant perpetual
death sentence on communities where there is crude oil and gas.

If good men like
Ken Saro-Wiwa had stayed silent and allowed the pattern of
environmental degradation by oil extractive activities to go on
unchallenged in Ogoni land, it is conceivable that things would have
been worse by now.

Today, on account
of the massive oil spills, gas flares, and careless handling of other
industry-related toxic pollutants, life expectancy in the Niger Delta
has plummeted to 41 years. If Ken Saro-Wiwa had not started the
struggle, perhaps life expectancy would have possibly nose-dived to 20
years.

We stand before
history and affirm that a sane future must be built on the platform of
solidarity, dignity, and respect for the rights of Mother Earth.

We demand an end to
fossil fuel addiction: be it crude oil, tar sands, or coal. We call for
a Sabbath of rest for Mother Earth. Over the years, she has been
abused, raped, and exploited and it is time to say enough is enough.

The blood of Ken
Saro-Wiwa and all those massacred in the ecological wars for crude oil
cry out today in demand for remaining oil to be left in the soil. With
less than 40 percent of crude oil still left in the soil, it is
foolishness to insist that we can go on driving on this dreg through
eternity.

Nigerian automobile
imports fell by more than a quarter in the first ten months of 2010,
compared to the same period last year, as cash-strapped consumers shied
away from big-ticket purchases, industry officials said.

Vehicle sales in
Africa’s most populous nation are a proxy measure for private
purchasing power, a leading economic indicator which is not formally
available in Nigeria.

Nigerian port figures showed new vehicle imports in the first ten
months tumbled 26 percent to 29,372 units, according to Mohan Sethi,
general manager at Nigeria’s Dana Motors, which imports Kia cars and
vans.

AngloGold Ashanti,
the world’s third largest gold miner, beat its guidance for
third-quarter output and costs on Thursday, sending its shares up more
than 4 percent.

Investors
overlooked the company’s adjusted headline loss for the July-September
quarter, which was largely due to the previously announced closure of
its hedge book.

AngloGold has
closed out instruments it used to hedge against the price of gold,
allowing it to sell at market prices, boost its cash flow and profit
margins, and to push ahead on some of its growth projects.

“I’m quite happy with the results. They are managing their costs and
the whole sector is also helped by very strong fundamentals,” said Abri
du Plessis, an analyst at Gryphon Asset Management.

Investors at the
Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) recorded additional gains on the value of
their equities on Wednesday, in spite of the nationwide strike that
affected many investments.

The Exchange market
capitalisation closed yesterday at N8.116 trillion, after opening the
day at N8.105 trillion, reflecting 0.13 percent upturn or N11 billion
gains. Meanwhile, about N209 billion had been gained on Tuesday,
following investors’ interest in some blue chip stocks.

The NSE All-Share
Index also appreciated on Wednesday by 0.13 percent or a gain of 32.84
points on the previous day’s figures of 25,383.37 basis units, to close
at 25,416.21 units.

Transaction volume
on the Exchange yesterday grew by 6.18 percent to close at 557.25
million units exchanged in 5,986 deals, as against a growth of 26.59
percent recorded the previous trading, to close at 524.83 million units
exchanged in 7,340 deals.

‘No selling pressure’

Olugbenga Emmanuel,
a finance analyst at WealthZone Company, a portfolio management firm,
said the market closed on a positive note because “there was no selling
pressure by investors,” a sign he called “‘the gradual return of
investors’ confidence in bourse.”

Meanwhile, a
stockbroker, who would not like to be mentioned, said the labour strike
would have stopped trading activities and subsequently affected stock
performance if some traders did not summon their staff to ignore the
industrial action.

“Initially, we
thought there won’t be trading because some staff refused to show up
early at work. But things got back to normal before the actual trading
period started,” he said.

More gainers

The number of
gainers at the close of trading session on Wednesday closed higher at
48 stocks, as against the 43 gainers recorded the previous day, while
losers closed at 21, compared with the 20 losers recorded on Tuesday.

Nigerian Breweries
and Lafarge Wapco topped the price gainers’ table with an increase of
N1.97 and N1.49 on their initial prices of N77.00 and N40.51 per share,
respectively. Cadbury and Oando followed in the chart with an increase
of N1.00 each, to close at N28.00 and N65.50 per share.

On the losers’
side, Dangote Cement and Conoil led the price losers’ chart with a loss
of N6.72 and N2.04, from their opening prices of N134.66 and N40.98 per
share. Flour Mills Nigeria and African Petroleum followed with 98 kobo
and 94 kobo losses respectively, to close at N70.02 and N24.00 per
share.

Active subsector

The banking
subsector led the most active subsectors’ chart with 300.927 million
volumes of shares, valued at over N2.395 billion.

The volume recorded
in the subsector was driven by transaction in the shares of Union Bank,
Zenith Bank, First Bank, United Bank for Africa, and Oceanic Bank.

The total volume of
224.79 million units, valued at N1.96 billion, traded in the shares of
the five stocks accounted for 33.03 percent of the entire market volume.

It was not business
as usual yesterday as some banks denied customers entry to their
premises, in accordance with the call to join the three-day warning
strike declared by the Nigerian Labour Congress and the Trade Union
Congress.

However, some banks still managed to render some ‘backdoor’ banking services to some customers.

Finbank
headquarters on Ahmadu Bello Way, Victoria Island, Lagos, was a beehive
of activities, with lots of cars belonging to both customers and bank
officials, parked within and outside its premises. The attendants at
the bank said only streamlined services were offered.

“If you go inside,
depending on what transaction you want to do, if it is among the
services they can offer today, then they will attend to you,” a
security official said.

The bank’s
receptionist, however, directed customers to the banking hall, without
streamlining details on what transactions to be carried out.

Bank PHB and Unity
Bank branches on the same street did not allow customers into the
premises, while Spring Bank only allowed those on appointment or what
they called “special cases.”

“Even ATMs are not
easily accessible in some banks. Only some banks allow customers to use
the ATMs inside the banking premises. Some did not even want to know
what services you came for. No access was allowed by some, but some
banks allowed customers to use their ATM services,” said Teniola
Olushola, a customer trying to access ATM services at Bank PHB.

A source at Spring Bank said most banks kept to the demands of the union.

“If not for
anything, for the fear of being attacked. You would hardly find any
bank that opened its doors for free entry of customers. Apart from a
few that offered fragile services, you know, backdoor services, most
banks were officially closed to customers. A lot of things still have
to be done. Work must go on; just that we won’t attend to customers,”
he said.

Sunday Salako,
acting national president, Association of Senior Staff of Banks,
Insurance, and Financial Institutions, said the union has been
monitoring the event and the level of compliance of its members.

The world’s
addiction to fossil fuels put the hangman’s noose around the neck of
Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other Ogoni leaders on 10 November, 1995. That
noose was tightened under the watch of Shell through a kangaroo
military tribunal rigged by the worst dictator Nigeria ever had. Today,
we can say that every oil rig that sucks oil in the Niger Delta is a
hangman’s noose around the necks of the suffering peoples and
communities.

Today, we all stand
before history. We stand in front of a backdrop of injustice,
oppression, and ecological genocide – not just historical, but current,
and it is the threat of its progressing into the future that we must
stand together to fight.

In his statement
after the verdict of guilt was passed on him, Ken Saro-Wiwa declared,
“We all stand before history… appalled by the denigrating poverty of
peoples who live in richly endowed lands.”

We stand distressed
by “their political marginalization and economic strangulation, angered
by the devastation of their land and their ultimate heritage.”

He went on to call
for “a fair and just democratic system which protects everyone and
every ethnic group, and gives us all a valid claim to human
validation.”

Ken Saro-Wiwa’s
words, though spoken fifteen years ago, still ring true in our ears
today. A man with a keen sense of history, he told the agents of the
military dictator that he and his colleagues were not the only ones on
trial. Hear him: “Shell is here on trial, and it is as well that it is
represented by counsel said to be holding a watching brief… The
company has, indeed, ducked this particular trial, but its day will
surely come, and the lessons learnt here may prove useful to it, for
there is no doubt in my mind that the ecological war that the company
has waged in the Delta will be called to question sooner than later and
the crimes of that war be duly punished. The crime of the company’s
dirty wars against the Ogoni people will also be punished.”

A man of history

Saro-Wiwa was
indeed a man of history. While shackled in one military jail or
another, the world recognised his worth and the validity of the Ogoni
struggles. In the last months of his life on earth, he won several
awards in recognition of his just struggles: the Fonlon-Nichols Award
for excellence in creative writing and the struggle for human rights;
the 1994 Right Livelihood Award or Alternative Nobel Prize for Peace;
the 1995 Goldman Environmental Prize, the most prestigious
environmental award in the world; the eight Bruno-Kreisky Foundation
Award for human rights; the 1995 British Environmental ad Media Special
Awareness Award; and the Hammett Award for Human Rights of Human Rights
Watch.

The Students Union
of the Ahmadu Bello University in Nigeria conferred on him the award of
Grand Commander of the Oppressed Masses. Surely, none of these could
have been given to a man of mean repute.

Standing on the
shoulders of history, we see clearly the beginnings of the trials that
were bound to expose those who have waged ecological wars against the
Ogoni people, the peoples of the Niger Delta and elsewhere in the
world. We continue to see a company like Shell bowing before courts and
before the Stock Exchanges in North America, accepting out of court
settlements, and paying fines to avoid prosecution on bribery and
corruption charges.

In 2005, they also
admitted to having falsified their crude oil reserve figures the
previous year, and paid some hefty fines to cover that up. Recent
reports have it that they are halting suits over bribery by paying some
fines. Last year, they agreed in a New York court to pay over $15
million to Ogoni litigants for human rights abuses.

In all these, we
are confident that the words of Ken Saro-Wiwa will come to pass. One
day, the eco devourers will have their day in the dock. And this is
already happening in The Hague, where three Niger Delta communities are
suing Shell for environmental degradation.

Perpetual death

The dominant
predatory production and consumption patterns in the world, and the
myth that crude oil is a cheap form of energy, has meant perpetual
death sentence on communities where there is crude oil and gas.

If good men like
Ken Saro-Wiwa had stayed silent and allowed the pattern of
environmental degradation by oil extractive activities to go on
unchallenged in Ogoni land, it is conceivable that things would have
been worse by now.

Today, on account
of the massive oil spills, gas flares, and careless handling of other
industry-related toxic pollutants, life expectancy in the Niger Delta
has plummeted to 41 years. If Ken Saro-Wiwa had not started the
struggle, perhaps life expectancy would have possibly nose-dived to 20
years.

We stand before
history and affirm that a sane future must be built on the platform of
solidarity, dignity, and respect for the rights of Mother Earth.

We demand an end to
fossil fuel addiction: be it crude oil, tar sands, or coal. We call for
a Sabbath of rest for Mother Earth. Over the years, she has been
abused, raped, and exploited and it is time to say enough is enough.

The blood of Ken
Saro-Wiwa and all those massacred in the ecological wars for crude oil
cry out today in demand for remaining oil to be left in the soil. With
less than 40 percent of crude oil still left in the soil, it is
foolishness to insist that we can go on driving on this dreg through
eternity.

Nigeria
is ranked first among the top 10 remittance recipients in 2010 in sub
Saharan Africa, according to the World Bank’s latest Migration and
Remittances Factbook 2011 released on Tuesday.

Nigeria
received $10 billion (about N1.5 trillion) from remittances, followed a
distant second by Sudan, with $3.2 billion; Kenya, $1.8 billion;
Senegal, $1.2 billion; and South Africa, $1 billion. The report also
listed Nigeria among the top 10 emigration countries in the region
alongside Burkina Faso, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Côte d’Ivoire, Mali,
Sudan, Eritrea, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and South Africa.

The
report described remittances to developing countries as a resilient
source of external financing during the recent global financial crisis,
with recorded flows expected to reach $325 billion by the end of this
year, up from $307 billion in 2009. The report added that worldwide,
remittance flows are expected to reach $440 billion by the end of this
year.

The true size of remittances, including unrecorded flows through formal and informal channels, is believed to be larger.

Official
data for the months of January-August 2010 indicate that the Central
Bank supplied approximately 27.1 percent of the $52 billion of inflows
to Nigeria’s foreign exchange market, with “autonomous sources” oil
companies, international institutions, and remittances accounting for
the rest.

Source of financial support

“Remittances
are a vital source of financial support that directly increases the
income of migrants’ families,” said Hans Timmer, director of
development prospects at the World Bank.

“Remittances
lead to more investments in health, education, and small business. With
better tracking of migration and remittance trends, policy makers can
make informed decisions to protect and leverage this massive capital
inflow, which is triple the size of official aid flows,” Mr. Timmer
said.

Christian
Udechukwu, West Africa regional director, Money Transfer International
(MTI), a money transfer firm, said more remittances inflow into the
region can be achieved when regulators of countries, which have high
numbers of Diaspora population, lower barriers on remittances from
their countries.

“These
barriers are usually in terms of restrictions on minimum remittances,
stiff documentation requirements, and outright refusal of permission to
financial intermediaries to license companies who are keen to serve the
diaspora remittances market,” Mr. Udechukwu.

The
World Bank report stated that officially recorded remittance flows to
developing countries are estimated to increase by six percent to $325
billion in 2010. This marks a healthy recovery from a 5.5 percent
decline registered in 2009.

“In
line with the World Bank’s outlook for the global economy, remittance
flows to developing countries are expected to increase by 6.2 percent
in 2011 and 8.1 percent in 2012, to reach $374 billion by 2012,” the
report said.

The
top remittance sending countries in 2009 were the United States, Saudi
Arabia, Switzerland, Russia, and Germany. Worldwide, the top recipient
countries in 2010 are India, China, Mexico, the Philippines, and
France. As a share of GDP, however, remittances are more significant
for smaller countries – more than 25 percent in some countries.

The Board of the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON)
yesterday swung into business, swiftly rolling out three major policy
decisions.

In its first formal meeting concluded late last night in Abuja,
the board announced that AMCON will value non-performing loans (NPLs) backed by
shares of listed companies at an implied premium of approximately 60 percent on
the 60-day average of recent prices ending November 15th 2010, while those
backed by other perfected collateral would be accepted at the most current
estimate of the loan value supplied by the institution, but for this category,
AMCON put a caveat, “there must be a post-transaction adjustment agreement that
allows AMCON to independently value the loan as of the transaction date of
November 15th 2010.”

According to the corporation, all unsecured loans or loans with
ineligible collateral will be valued at 5 percent of the principal value.

Explaining the underlying assumptions for the valuation, which
it said is solely for the purpose of buying the NPLs and not for
recapitalisation of the banks, the Board said that it could be that “a fair
value ascribed for the purposes of buying the NPLs would be two times book value
and this premium approximates that value.”

Besides, it said the estimate for the valuation must be based on
current market analysis of the collateral and a written guarantee of good faith
by the institution. The valuation methodology, the Board said, has been
consented to by the Minister of Finance, Segun Aganga, the Central Bank of
Nigeria (CBN) governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, and the affected banks.

Reiterating its mission to acquire non-performing loans across
the banking industry, recapitalise the rescued banks, and manage the acquired
assets, the board also announced its approval of the purchase of all the margin
loans in the banking sector and all the non-performing loans of the rescued
banks, totaling in excess of N2.2trillion.

In addition, the board approved a funding model for AMCON, based
on conservative estimates of recovery rates and return on managed assets,
pointing out that with the agreement already reached with the banks to
contribute to a sinking fund, AMCON board is satisfied that the Federal
Government guarantee will not need to be invoked at the end of its expected ten
year life span.

While expressing optimism that AMCON would reach agreements with
the selling institutions regarding pricing of the NPLs by November 15th, 2010,
the Board said AMCON aims to settle these transactions on or before December
30th, 2010, to allow the institutions to obtain the necessary Board and
Shareholders approval, whilst also giving AMCON the time to establish the
necessary operational structures to settle these purchases.

Industry reacts

For Tope Fasua, a Dubai, UAE-based investment management
specialist, taking over bank assets that were secured with equities at 60
percent of original value will, in reality, be more than what those shares are
currently worth, considering that the value of most of the distressed loans
secured with shares declined by over 90 percent.

“Valuing such loans at 60 percent is, therefore, quite
magnanimous. The capital market is likely to receive that news most favourably,
because such shares would generally be growing to the value placed on them by
AMCON. People would naturally buy bank shares, insurance shares, since the
AMCON has put its money on those shares at much above their current values,” he
said.

On loans secured against landed property, Mr. Fasua said the
problem usually associated with it is that because of the nature of valuations
in Nigeria, they are often ‘fictitious’, adding that the value people usually
put on a property is at best mere conjecture.

According to him, a property is only worth N1billion when one is
able to sell such a property and realise the money, notwithstanding what the
estate valuers, rating agencies, bank managers, or even AMCON, says, predicting
that the new policy will create a new market for those who are ‘experts’ at
valuing properties.

“Some will dispute the values already placed on such properties,
while some will reach a ‘compromise’ at the end of the day. AMCON can only find
out if their ‘evaluation’ of a property is wrong and ‘adjust afterwards’, if
and only if, it sells such properties and compares the value received with the
value on paper,” he said, noting that in Nigeria, those scenarios are rackets.

While stock market operators may not directly be affected with
the proposed three-day warning strike by government workers, some finance
analysts said the performance of trading activities at the capital market may
further suffer decline during the industrial action.

Investors at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) already recorded
loses of over N116 billion in the past one week due to profit taking
activities.

However, Detola Olukorede, head, equity research team at
Investment Option, a fund management firm, said the value of equities at the
NSE “may further depreciate this week due to the high selling pressure the
market will witness.” Mr. Olukorede said, “When workers are embarking on a
nationwide strike of this magnitude, it is expected that investors, especially
retail investors will start ordering for the sales of some of their stocks to
enable them have cash at hand during the strike.”

Johnson Chukwu, chief executive officer of Cowry Asset
Management, a stock broking firm, said institutional investors may also want to
see the outcome of the industrial action before taking position in the market.

Analysts said all these “cautious reactions” by investors are indicative
of a market that will further plunge in worth due to the warning strike.

The Nigeria Labour Congress and the Trade Union Congress are to
embark on a three-day warning strike from Wednesday over the proposed N18, 000
minimum wage.

Market indices down

Meanwhile, the decline witnessed at the NSE last Friday
continued at the close of trading session on Monday. The Exchange’s market
capitalisation lost N23 billion on Friday’s figure of N7.919 trillion, to close
at N7.896 trillion, a 0.29 per cent decrease.

The All-Share Index was also down by 0.29 per cent, shedding
72.39 units from the 24,800.47 basis points recorded on Friday, to close
yesterday at 24,728.08 basis points.

A total of 20 stocks appreciated in price on Monday while 36
stocks depreciated. Oando and United Bank for Africa topped the price gainers’
table with an increase of N1.95 and 35 kobo on their initial prices of N64.05
and N8.60 per share, respectively.

On the flip side, Cadbury Nigeria and PZ Cussons led the price
losers’ chart with a loss of 67 kobo and 50 kobo respectively, from their
opening prices of N29.56 and N33.00 per share.

Most active

Five banks -FinBank, Oceanic, Bank PHB, Zenith, and United Bank
for Africa -were the most traded stocks yesterday.

The Banking subsector led the most active subsectors’ chart with
352.013 million volumes of shares, valued at over N1.684 billion. Volume in the
subsector was driven by banks that led the most traded stocks’ chart.

Trading activities in the Insurance subsector followed, with
24.230 million shares valued at N16.640 million. Deals in shares of Lasaco
Assurance largely boosted volume in this subsector, followed by Aiico Insurance
and NEM Insurance.

The Food/Beverages subsector was third in the chart. Investors
in this sector exchanged 11.231 million shares, worth N191.795 million. Volume
in the subsector was driven by deals in the shares of Dangote Flour Mills and
Dangote Sugar.

E-commerce, if given the right framework and infrastructure, has
the potential of aiding African countries and expanding the horizons of their
trading to a competitive level in the global village.

This was the consensus on Tuesday at the Kuramo Conference, an
international colloquium on trade, law, and economic development held in Lagos.

The conference participants agreed that with the right framework
and strategy, Africa can make a difference in her economic and trade climate if
she fully explored the benefits of e-commerce.

E-commerce is the buying and selling of products or services
over the Internet and other modes of computer networks.

Enver Daniels, the chief state legal adviser, South Africa, said
e-commerce has the potential to expand horizons of the African market.

Tackle infrastructural
challenge

However, for e-commerce to be successful, African countries must
address the attendant infrastructural challenges. Mr. Daniels said countries
must take up the responsibility of developing infrastructure locally, for trade
between countries to be successful.

“For instance, if you order for an item or items online from
Ghana, Ghana must have the right infrastructure in place that would aid the
movement of such orders to their destination, within the shortest time, and
Nigeria must in turn have the appropriate infrastructure to receive such
goods,” he said.

He added that countries must also develop their human capital,
adding that one of the major reasons militating against e-commerce success is
the lack of understanding of its attendant benefits.

Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State said legislation must
also remove barriers to trade.

“A new legal order is now needed. There is the need to examine
the existing legal order for trade and commerce among nations,” Mr. Fashola
said.

He also challenged participants to set the agenda “here and now,
as regards the mechanism for a fair global regime.”

Emmanuel Ayoola, a retired Supreme Court justice and the
conference chairman, said it was a platform for the restoration of a nation,
and not another talk shop.

“It is a forum to define the path of a new national vision,
deploying application of knowledge and experience drawn from multifarious
disciplines as tools.

“It is the platform to launch the new order that is shaped by
right thinking, right values, right ideas and palpable commitment,” Mr. Ayoola
said.