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The Federal Road
Safety Commission (FRSC) recorded low accident rate during the yuletide
period, an official of the commission, Mr Kayode Olagunju, who is the
Commander in charge of Okene-Lokoja-Abaji and Abuja for the Christmas
and New Year period, said this on Monday in an interview with the News
Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja, but did not give any figures to
buttress his claim.

He added that the
commission has recorded some crashes on the road, “but, as said earlier
by the Corp Marshal few days ago, we are not where we wanted to be but
the rate is lower than what it was last year.

“Today, the road is
better than it was three days ago, and yesterday, traffic was very
heavy because a lot of people delayed their movement till Christmas
Day,” he said.

He also said that
the major problem the commission had on the road was that of some
senior government officials “who have the privilege of using siren,”
disrupted the traffic arrangement on ground.

“They put on their
siren and their convoy disorganise the traffic control arrangement and
when they move many other road users followed them.

“However, we were
able to get some of them to comply by force, while the number plates of
those who proved aggressive were captured in our video coverage of the
operations,” he said, but that “we shall definitely release their names
which we compiled, under what is known as the roll of shame.”
Meanwhile, NAN correspondents who visited some parks in Abuja report
that some people were seen relaxing with their family members.

At the Millennium
Park in Maitama, Chinonso Uka told NAN that she came to relax with her
kids as part of the Christmas celebration.

On his part, Ikechukwu Ole expressed regret that there was no money for “the masses to celebrate the Christmas.”

“We are hoping that
by the grace of God when our man, President Goodluck Jonathan is there
he will provide for us to celebrate next year’s Christmas in style,” he
said.

Also speaking to
NAN, Abdulahi Kaku, the General Manager of Maitama Amusement Park, said
about 2,478 people visited the Park in the past three days.

“We brought traditional dance troupe to entertain people; there was
also dancing competition and many people won various prizes,” he said.

The national
leadership of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday ordered the
transfer of the screening of aspirants in the 2011 general elections in
Enugu State to Abuja due to poor security situation in the state.

This is just as the party deferred the appeal by some gubernatorial aspirants earlier scheduled for yesterday.

The national
organising secretary of party, Uche Secondus said in a statement in
Abuja that the security situation arose as a result of the inability to
hold the exercise few days ago.

Mr Secondus said
though the screening of some of the aspirants to the state House of
Assembly and the appeal have taken place, those who missed the exercise
should report at the national secretariat of the party in Abuja for the
exercise.

Mr Secondus also
said the screening of the National Assembly aspirants will take place
between December 29 and 30, 2010 at the national secretariat.

“We hereby enjoin
all State Assembly aspirants who are yet to present themselves before
their committee to do so immediately,” he said. “These arrangements are
done in view of the security situation in Enugu State arising from the
botched screening exercise.” It will be recalled that the Enugu State
chapter of the party was one of the eight state chapters which the
Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) said the elections of
the state executive committees were inconclusive.

As a result, the
party’s National Chairman, Okwesilieze Nwodo, who incidentally is a
former governor of Enugu State, ordered the dissolution of the state
executive committee led by Vitalis Abba, last October.

The chairman’s
action, however, pitted him against the state governor, Sullivan Chime
and the dissolved executive members, who not only accused him of acting
unilaterally, but also challenged the dissolution in court.

There have been
attempts to reconcile Messrs Nwodo and Chime. Last Friday, the governor
visited the national chairman in his office in Abuja during which they
held discussions for hours.

The transfer of the screening to Abuja, it was learnt, was not unconnected with the discussion both men had.

Meanwhile, the hearing of the appeal filed by some aspirants in others states were also held as scheduled yesterday.

Out of all the
governorship aspirants that appeal the decision of the committees that
went round the zones to screen the aspirants before the Tunde Ogbeha
led committee; those that were cleared include Obiora Ene of Enugu
state, Anayo Onwuegbu of Abia, Ben

Fiabema of Rivers, Moore Chinedu of Rivers, Imoh Udo of Akwa Ibom and Peremobowei Ebebi.

Those that were not
cleared are Ike Ibe of Enugu, A. Atuloma of Abia, Suleiman Hunkoyi of
Kaduna, Adamiu Suleiman of Kano, and Frank Daniel of Akwa Ibom. They
were claimed not to be cleared because of not meeting up with tax
requirement and not paying tax at when due or incomplete tax payment.

Also on Monday, Mr Nwodo reportedly met with the two factions of the PDP in Oyo State as part of the effort to reconcile them.

This is coming a
few days after President Goodluck Jonathan and his deputy, Namadi Sambo
visited the South West geo-political zone.

In attendance were some members of the National Assembly from the state, state lawmakers and other stakeholders.

But the Governor, Adebayo Alao-Akala was not present at the meeting.

Dotun Oyelade, the
governor’s senior adviser on public communications, explained that Mr
Alao-Akala did not attend because it would be demeaning for him to do
so.

“We understand that
some disgruntled so-called members of PDP from Oyo State came to Abuja
for a meeting to resolves issues. We insist that as far as Oyo is
concerned we are poised for the April election.

“In any case, the
cat is already let out of the bag when the so called leaders said it is
a taboo for any governor to aspire to rule Oyo State twice as if a
myopic norm is a product of the constitution. To grace such meetings
with our presence is demeaning and an insult to the founding fathers of
our great party.

Let them fight the popularity battle here not in Abuja,” the statement said.

When contacted on the matter, a member of the House of Representative, Depo Oyedokun refused to comment.

A Kano-based
Islamic Scholar, Muhammad Dauda, has decried the growing rate of
divorce in the state, describing the situation as “worrisome.” “The
rate at which marriages are crashing in Kano these days is alarming,”
Mr Dauda told the News Agency of Nigeria in Kano on Sunday.

He said it is more disturbing that the practice is common among young couples who divorce few months after their marriage.

Mr Dauda, who is the Imam of FRCN FM Pyramid Radio, Kano, identified
poverty as the major cause of the development. He said that some young
men were finding it difficult to feed their wives shortly after
marriage, and described the situation as “unfortunate.” “I have
witnessed times without number the collapse of new marriages in Kano
due to the inability of the husbands to feed their wives,” the Imam
said. He said the situation was now discouraging both bachelors and
spinsters from marriage.

The Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related offences
Commission (ICPC), is currently investigating the suspended managing director
of the Federal Housing Authority (FHA), Terver Gemade over allegation of
diverting N400 million belonging to authority.

The investigations are sequel to a petition written by a
non-profit group, Transparency and Anti-Corruption Vanguard and signed by its
Executive Director, Obioma Ugochukwu.

The petition alleged that the group’s investigations have
uncovered a massive fraud at the housing authority allegedly perpetuated by Mr
Gemade who is currently on suspension as an internal investigation to ascertain
his culpability begins.

“We have no faith in the so-called internal investigation. Our
investigations have revealed all manner of cover-ups are being done by his cronies
at the FHA and that is why we implore you to act expeditiously,” the petition
said, in parts. One of the allegations was the diversion of N400 million
belonging to the FHA into an escrow account without first obtaining approval of
the authority’s Executive Management Committee (EMC) or the FHA Board of
Directors as required by law.

Escrow account

“We have it on good authority that he pocketed the tidy sum of
N25 million as kickback for allowing the contractor to have access to the
N400million. Even though a query was issued to him by the Board of the FHA over
this transaction, he ignored the query,” the group alleged in the petition.

They also said Mr Gemade went further to transfer N140 million
from FHA escrow account to the Tangent Nigeria Limited project account, without
board approval and was allegedly rewarded with N10 million for his efforts.

“His bank details would reveal the staggered payments into the
account. He did not pay in the lump sum of the kick back, but paid in small
instalments. We urge you to obtain his bank statement from March 2010 in proof
of this allegation and you would see how he hides his proceeds of corruption,”
the petition said.

Mr Ugochukwu said the group is demanding a thorough investigation
into the allegations, alleging that since assuming office, Mr Gemade has
acquired a fleet of expensive cars and converted many buildings belonging to
the FHA to himself.

To the court

“While we have absolute faith in your organization to carry out a
thorough investigation, we shall be compelledto approach the law courts for an
order of mandamus to compel you to prosecute Gemade if no action is taken
within seven days,” the petition to the ICPC said.

All attempts to get Mr Gemade to react to the allegations, proved
abortive. One of his aides said he was away from the city, but did not reveal
where he travelled to.

The Federal Government recently suspended Mr Gemade for alleged
gross misconduct.

Minister of Lands, Housing and Urban Development, Nduese Essien
confirmed the suspension. The Special Assistant, (Media) to the minister,
Ibanga Isine, said government wielded the big stick based on allegations of
gross misconduct levelled against him by members of the board.

“The board had accused the former managing director of gross misconduct and
called on the government to constitute a panel to investigate him (Gemade),” Mr
Isine said. “After careful consideration of the matter and in view of Mr
President’s commitment to transparency, due process and the rule of law, the
former MD has been suspended for an initial period of three weeks to pave way
for his investigation.”

With the redeployment of the permanent secretary in the ministry
of education, Oladapo Afolabi as the Head of Service of the federation, staff
of the ministry have been apprehensive over who takes over his job.

Their concern took on a new dimension when they recently met for
prayers to seek divine help for a competent hand to be deployed to the
ministry.

One of the participants at the prayer meeting, who did not want
to be named, said they gathered to pray as soon as the government announced the
appointment of Tunji Olaopa, former coordinator of the Education Sector
Analysis of the ministry as a permanent secretary. Before his appointment, he
was the Director of Programmes at the Bureau for Public Sector Reform, BPSR.

Some staff of the ministry express confidence in the ability of
Mr Olaopa to drive the ongoing reforms in the sector. “He has been there all
along and I was working in the publication unit of the ministry at that time,”
one of the praying staff said.

“He was driving the Education Sector Analysis process and he
drove it well, nurtured the project to a stable level before he left. Some of
the outcome of the project is what you see all over. Talking about quality
assurance, it was an offshoot of ESA, institutionalization of school based
management in all the schools was part of, it even UBE as it is being operated
now is a spin off. Before they started talking about reform, he had started
it.”

The prayer group said it was of the opinion that Nigerian
education sector needs to be pioneered by reformers who will ensure the
implementation of quality initiative. Not long after the Jomtien Conference,
Nigeria took specific measures aimed at translating the declaration on
Education For All into reality.

The activities embarked upon included a sensitization drive
mounted through the agency of the two national advisory bodies on education
policy, namely, the Joint Consultative Council on Education which brings
together various officials in Federal and State Ministries of Education, and
the National Council of Education which is composed of State Commissioners of
Education and the Minister.

The education subsector had glorious time between the fifties
and early seventies. However, by the nineties, twenty years after the national
policy on education, the sector has receded into a dark age characterized by
brain drain, campus cultism and examination malpractice.

One of the founding members of the Peoples Democratic Party
(PDP) in Oyo state,Yekini Adeojo, at the weekend, gave Oyo State governor, Adebayo
Alao-Akala a condition he should meet before he gets needed support for his
second term ambition.

Speaking with journalists at his Iyaganku Quarters residence in
Ibadan, Mr Adeojo said if the governor could survive a fraud-free primaries and
emerge the flagbearer of the party for the 2011 governorship election in the
state, he will wholeheartedly support his ambition.

He, however, described the feat as gargantua, saying it has
almost become a taboo going by the history of successive governors in the state
from its inception.

“It is a taboo for Akala to say he wants to do it twice.
Alao-Akala cannot do it twice. Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Chief Samuel Akintola and
Chief Bola Ige who actually performed well did not succeed.Somehow, they all
fell,” he said.

A former governorship aspirant in the state, Mr Adeojo condemned
Mr Alao-Akala for allegedly disrespecting the national leadership of the party
by not personally attending a meeting called to harmonise all factions of the
PDP within the party in the state last week.

Act unbecoming

The governor was said to have sent Olayiwola Olakojo, secretary
to the state government and one other person, to represent him at a meeting
organised by Okwesilieze Nwodo, PDP national chairman,to iron out issues on the
crisis rocking the party in the state.

“If Akala emerges after the party leadership at the national has
intervened and successfully harmonised all the groups, I will campaign for him.
But, we are not going to primaries with those old Oyo state executives because
they have been declared illegal by the INEC. The governor is not bigger than
the party because it is the party that made him. If a party called him and he
did not honour it, it shows he doesn’t have respect for the party,” Mr Adeojo
said.

The politician said the governor’s attitude is unbecoming of a
man who rose to the top through the help of the party.

Though he said he would not want to say unpleasant things about
the governor,whom he referred to as a brother, Mr Adeojo averred that it is a
bad showing for the governor to want to place himself above the party after
coming to the limelight through it.

While boasting that he was instrumental to the emergence of Mr
Alao Akala as the governor, Mr Adeojo, one of the notable members of the
coalition against the second term of the governor, said he will like to witness
a renewed harmony among the factions within the party.

To strengthen cooperation between Nigeria and Serbia, there is a
need for the establishment of the Nigeria-Serbia chamber of commerce, the
minister of commerce and industry, Jubril Martins-Kuye, has said.

Mr Martins-Kuye, who met with the Serbian Ambassador to Nigeria,
Rifat Rondic noted that Nigeria was desirous of strengthening trade and
investment relation with the Republic of Serbia and that the ministry was
willing to give everything to facilitate Serbian investment in the economy of
Nigeria.

“The proposed Nigeria – Serbia chamber of Commerce should be
proactive and be able to liaise with all departments of government in order to
ensure that Serbians desire to invest in Nigeria becomes a reality,” he said.
“My Ministry will support Serbian businessmen who want to invest in Nigeria and
will cooperate with Chamber of commerce of both countries.”

The Minister reiterated that the agreement on trade and
investment promotions, as well as ‘Avoidance of Double Taxation Agreement’ must
be signed and put into practice. “Since we have such plan, what is important is
to give nod to it and take it from the level of near agreement signed on paper
to something we can actually put on ground and precise,” he said.

Working agreement

Francis Akiniyi of the National Association of Chamber of
Commerce and Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA) said Nigeria has a lot
to gain from Serbia in terms of investment in agriculture, construction,
Textile, Power generation and Technology. He said that they were at the final
stage of registering the Nigeria- Serbia chamber of commerce with relevant
government departments.

Mr Rondic pointed out that Nigeria is a leading country in
Africa and there was need for Serbia and its people to cooperate with the
country.

He also said that the Nigeria Investment Promotion Council
(NIPC) had concluded a memorandum with the Serbia Chamber of commerce and
stressed the need for both countries to finalise the bilateral agreement which
had been concluded in January 2002. The ambassador urged the minister to
facilitate the ratification of the agreement by the National Assembly.

U.S. President
Barack Obama’s most ambitious undertaking is facing two kinds of
trouble, with both the Congress and now the courts threatening his
overhaul of the American health system.

This week a judge
in Virginia state ruled that the Obama plan, which would force
Americans to buy health insurance, is unconstitutional. Other judges
have upheld its constitutionality, so the issue probably won’t be
settled until it reaches the Supreme Court.

That could take up to two years, but the president’s plan will face a different attack almost immediately.

Congressional elections last month changed the balance of power in Washington.

The Republicans who officially take office in January say they’ll try to repeal the plan.

They could also
simply vote to withhold funding. Under U.S. law, if the Congress won’t
pay for the plan, the president can’t implement it.

Right now, only
early elements of the enormous reform have begun to take effect. There
are years left before it’s scheduled to be fully implemented.

Between the courts and the Congress, that leaves a lot of time for things to go wrong for the president.

Zimbabwe’s attorney
general plans to set up a commission to investigate possible treason
charges against locals over briefings with U.S. diplomats that are part
of confidential State Department cables released by WikiLeaks.

The investigation
appears to be targeting Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and follows
state media reports that hawks in President Robert Mugabe’s ZANU-PF
party wanted an official probe against Tsvangirai over his briefings
with the U.S. ambassador in Harare.

In comments that
appear in one U.S. state department cable obtained by WikiLeaks,
Tsvangirai appears to suggest that his Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC) was not genuine in calling for the lifting of Western sanctions
against ZANU-PF.

Attorney General
Johannes Tomana said on Saturday he would appoint a team of five lawyers
to establish whether reports in the WikiLeaks amounted to any breach of
the constitution.

“The WikiLeaks
appear to show a treasonous collusion between local Zimbabweans and the
aggressive international world, particularly the United States,” Tomana
said in a statement.

“With immediate
effect, I am going to instruct a team of practising lawyers to look into
the issues that arise from the WikiLeaks.”

The U.S. Treasury
Department on Tuesday imposed sanctions on Tomana, saying his actions
undermined the country’s democratic institutions.

Tomana said the sanctions were an attack on the office of the Attorney General and the constitution of Zimbabwe.

Tsvangirai has
refused to be drawn into the WikiLeaks spat. His aides say he is not
guilty and describe the controversy as personal attacks on the prime
minister.

Mugabe’s ZANU-PF last week said the government should craft a law that makes it a treason offence to call for sanctions.

Tsvangirai’s MDC has
said the government should investigate charges arising from WikiLeaks
documents that senior officials close to Mugabe, including his wife
Grace, have benefited from illicit diamond trading from the Chiadzwa
mine in the eastern part of the country.

The WikiLeaks
reports have added to tensions in Zimbabwe’s inclusive goverment formed
last year by Mugabe and Tsvangirai, with ZANU-PF charging that the U.S.
cables have vindicated its claim that the MDC is working with the West
to oust Mugabe.

WikiLeaks has
released several U.S. cables on Zimbabwe, including one on a senior
Tsvangirai ally seeking Washington’s support to establish a fund to
buy-off the country’s security service chief who are loyal to Mugabe and
ZANU-PF.

Another cable showed former United Nations secretary general Kofi
Annan offered Mugabe a deal to step down and live in a safe haven, which
the the 86-year-old leader rejected.

A country bound to violence

Somalia’s chaos did not start
today. It started 20 years ago when the then military government of
Mohammed Barre, was over thrown by factions who are from different
regions and from different areas of Somalia – each one fighting to
liberate the part they were in. Unfortunately, they never united. So,
since 1991, we have a number of fighting groups, on clan basis, each
one trying to overcome the other clan. Then, there was a period of US
and UN intervention from ‘92 – ‘93.
Unfortunately, they didn’t stay
long enough to create peace and stability, so in a way, that made this
chaos to be protracted and to go further until today.
Then came the warlords’ era, which
ended in 2006 or 2005 when the Islamic courts took over Mogadishu. At
that time, of course, the transitional government, which was elected in
Nairobi in Kenya in 2005, was in a place called Johar, not far from
Mogadishu. The parliament was in Baydawa in another regional capital.
Apparently the Islamic courts tried to get rid of this transitional
federal government. Then of course, the fighting started again between
the forces of the TFG, supported by Ethiopian forces, and that’s when
eager countries and the AU created AMISOM. Since then, the government
took over Mogadishu, but it never had the possibility really and the
support from the International Community and the United Nations
Security Council who always dilly dallied in sending any troops there.
The only relief was 5000 African troops, African mission. It was
supposed to be 8000 or so, but that has never been completed. The
Somali government, as late as a few days ago, even Kenya and Uganda,
the East African group, are asking the Security Council to approve a
number of UN peacekeeping force to be added to the AMISOM to have a
hybrid force like in Darfur. We hope, if that succeeds, that
stabilisation can come in due course.

Brief stay of UN peacekeeping forces

The mandate of the UN peacekeeping
force is to bring peace and stability. In places like the DRC and the
Congo, they have been there for a long time, although they are talking
about reducing their number. In Somalia unfortunately, it took them
about three years, four years maximum. When the UN left, then the
vacuum was taken over by warlords. Mogadishu alone had about four
warlords. This created the disintegration. It was not created by the
UN, but the fact that they left before stabilisation brought
deterioration, far more deterioration than what was there before.

International concern over piracy

Piracy did not begin from the
start of the conflict. As the internal war for dominance continued and
the nation’s government disappeared, the coasts went undefended and
became fair game for big fishing companies, encroaching on the
livelihood of Somali fishermen. When they turned to piracy and that
proved successful, more young men out of work and armed with guns took
to the seas to find their loot.
Now in 2007 and 2008, the whole
world began to realise that this was a huge problem. They created a
coast guard system, but when these young men have tasted the profits of
ransoms, they started going farther – up to the Seychelles, up to
Kenya, Tanzania and the Comoros – as far as that, so that the whole
western part of the Indian Ocean has become infected or infested. The
courts can deal with those who have been captured, so it will see the
pirates at the final end, not at the beginning. The beginning happens
on land, so it doesn’t stop them. It will never stop them.

Thinking of a way out of the crisis

The way out is first of all to
give support. The government now has trained the forces, a number of
them, which combined with AMISOM. And, if fortunately the Security
Council approves the United Nations’ peacekeeping component, they can
cope, even this will take us to the piracy issue. They have trained
about 1,000 coast guards, but there is no equipment, there are no
supplies. They need all the supplies and equipment they can get.
Furthermore, even salaries, which were promised by the international
community to pay these forces, are not forthcoming, even for AMISOM
soldiers. It took them a long time before they were paid, and up till
now, there is no security of payment from month to month. So these are
bottlenecks that again create further deterioration of the situation.
When people have no salary to survive on, how can they go and fight
people who have all the political and religious motivations? They get
all the equipment, they get the supplies, they get all the money. So
how can you overcome this when you have only few – six thousand maximum
armed forces that are not even regularly paid?
As a way out, we need to build
really functional, well-equipped national forces, security forces. We
need to reform the judiciary and do something about the young people in
the country. These young people are now surviving by the gun, so you
have to give them jobs. You have to attract them (lure them away) from
the war and piracy.
The UN secretary general has
proposed three phases, but we are still in the first phase. The first
phase was to send in humanitarian forces.