Nigeria Content Online

The emergence of
former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar,as consensus candidate for the
Northern Political Leaders Forum does not reflect the interest of the
entire northern states,governors of Benue and Kaduna states, Gabriel
Suswan and Patrick Yakowa, have said.

The governors, who
were in Benin to condole with Edo State governor, Adams Oshiomhole over
the death of his wife, Clara ,described the decision of the nine-man
committee headed by Adamu Ciroma as that of a minute clique who were on
a mission to impose on the Peoples Democratic Party [PDP] and the
entire North.

The governors
expressed their support for President Goodluck Jonathan in the
forthcoming elections, saying the NPLF’s choice should be seen as a
self seeking exercise that “does not reflect the entire will of the
Northern states.”

Messrs Suswam and
Yakowa also said the decision of the Adamu Ciroma committee was a total
infringement of their rights and that of their states to freely
associate.

“I don’t know
anything about consensus candidate,” Mr. Yakowa said. “We already know
our candidate and President Goodluck Jonathan is our only candidate for
the presidency.”

Circle of conspiracies

Mr Suswan also
said that in a democratic setting, opinions of certain persons should
not be forced on others who might not share in such an agenda.

“The issue of
consensus candidate is not known to me,” he said “I define politics as
a circle of conspiracies, so if nine people agree among themselves that
they want to select among themselves somebody who will contest an
election, I don’t think that is binding on me.

“I was not
consulted and the people of Benue State were not consulted. So, to make
a generalization that that is a Northern position, I don’t think that
is fair. I, as the governor of Benue state, a decision is taken and am
not aware and someone says the decision is binding ,I don’t think that
makes sense to anybody and it does not make sense to me anyway.”

Reacting to media
reports of the plan by his party (PDP) to give automatic ticket to its
members who are already at the National Assembly, Mr.Suswan said such
thinking does not exist in the party, an attempt to do that will negate
the principles of democratic norms and values.

“The chairman of
the party himself denied that news report,” he said. “I don’t think any
democratic party, not to talk about the PDP, even small parties that
are undemocratic, will engage in such things. What I learnt is that
,National chairman talked in respect to women, not members of the
National Assembly. So, I think he was misquoted out of context.”

He described late
Clara Oshiomhole as a woman of substance and a “firebrand” who stood by
her husband in spite of situations that came their way.

“We as colleagues
of Adams Oshiomhole, knows that behind that firebrand governor, there
must have been a very gentle woman who has stood by him, unfortunately
today the woman is no more and so I am here,” he said.

A
new episode in the saga of underhand dealings between senior Nigerian
officials and Pfizer over the battle to get justice for children in
Kano who suffered physical and mental impairment when the
pharmaceutical company administered a trial drug on them continues with
the release of some US diplomatic cables related to the incident by
Wikileaks.

NEXT had published
several reports on the challenges facing the Trovan victims and their
families in their quest to receive compensation from the multinational
drugs company, as well as the involvement of senior members of
government and others determined to deny them their due.

A cable posted by
Wikileaks has detailed how Pfizer officials sought to blackmail former
Attorney General of the Federation, Mike Aondoakaa, into dropping the
Federal Government’s lawsuit against the company over the 1996 Trovan
clinical trial in Kano.

Mr Aondoakaa faces
several allegations of corruption. A team of government lawyers, Pfizer, and the Ministry of Justice has so far refused to
disclose the terms of the secret agreement finalised in October 2009,
saying the settlement was covered by a confidentiality clause.

In an April 20,
2009 cable, then U.S. Ambassador to Nigeria, Robin Sanders, informed
Washington that Pfizer hired investigators to uncover Mr Aondoakaa’s
corruption and then discreetly passed the results of the investigations
to the local media for publication.

She said the former
minister buckled and agreed to withdraw the case after the unceasing
damaging reports on him became too much for him to bear.

The cable said, in
parts: “In follow up to the April 2 meeting, EconDep (Department of
Economic Affairs at the US embassy) met with Pfizer Country Manager
Enrico Liggeri in Lagos on April 9. (Note: Liggeri has years of
experience in Nigeria because his family operated a business in Lagos
from the early 1960s to the late 1980s. He spent most of his childhood
in Lagos. End Note.) “Liggeri said Pfizer was not happy settling the
case, but had come to the conclusion that the $75 million figure was
reasonable because the suits had been ongoing for many years costing
Pfizer more than $15 million a year in legal and investigative fees.

According to
Liggeri, Pfizer had hired investigators to uncover corruption links to
Federal Attorney General Michael Aondoakaa to expose him and put
pressure on him to drop the federal cases.

“He said Pfizer’s
investigators were passing this information to local media. A series of
damaging articles detailing Aondoakaa’s “alleged” corruption ties were
published in February and March.

“Liggeri contended
that Pfizer had much more damaging information on Aondoakaa and that
Aondoakaa’s cronies were pressuring him to drop the suit for fear of
further negative articles.”

Dealing of heavyweights

The pharmaceutical
giant in its reaction to the leaked diplomatic cable dismissed the
claim that it hired investigators to uncover evidence of corruption
against Mr Aondoakaa, saying it is ‘preposterous.’ The company claimed
“it negotiated the settlement last year with the federal government of
Nigeria in good faith and its conduct in reaching the agreement was
proper.”

However, contrary
to Ms Sanders account, NEXT has learnt that the decision to drop the
charges was based more on greed and insensitivity to the plight of the
victims by all the parties involved in the negotiation, than on any
fear that Mr. Aondoakaa’s dirty deals would be exposed.

Sources also
explained how some eminent Nigerians participated in the sharing of
what was described as “blood money” by late president Umaru Yar’Adua,
in the name of collecting legal fees.

Watch out for a detailed report on this.

Editor’s Note: Earlier today, we incorrectly identified Maryam Uwais as the lawyer that led the government team in the Pfizer negotiations. The error is regretted.

When my friend Aniedi fell out of a danfo the other week, two
things troubled him. One was how he came to be under the same bus that threw
him out earlier, with the first violent swing of the steering wheel. The bus
then hit a curb, smashed the wire meshing for flowers, and came to rest in the
middle of the road. And yet Aniedi is discovered under the fender, when he
should have been lying way back, a signpost for where the accident began.

“When we get to heaven,” said Ani who likes to keep his hopes
high, “I will ask to see a playback of that scene, in slow motion.” He thinks
God is a movie director who keeps reels of tape of the pivotal moments of our
lives; evidence that will save or condemn us on Judgment Day.

When he was able to focus again, Ani heard voices screaming,
“There is someone under the bus, person dey under moto!” and thought, “Oh dear,
they should do something about the poor fellow, under the bus.” But of course,
it was Aniedi they were talking about, the poor fellow.

The second mystery concerned the conductor. Ani could not
understand how he came to be standing there without a scratch when just before
the accident, he was the one at the door, hanging there by the tips of his
fingers, pushing his face through the front window to talk to the driver.
Shouldn’t he have been the first casualty in any accident?

Yet there he was helping Ani up with that look of disdain that
conductors show their passengers, an arrogance that is beginning to make sense
to my friend. Because surely, anyone who could survive a crash while hanging
from a bus, when people sitting inside were being picked from under, deserves
to feel superior.

The whole thing bugged Aniedi. “Do you think he saw the accident
coming and jumped?” he asked. I said, “Well, for all we know he didn’t even
jump; he probably kept hanging on to the bus like a trapeze monkey, swinging
this way and that as the bus careened off the road, air-floating with the
flow.”

At that point, someone asked the 24.41 percent question, “Are
these conductors human?”

There is some evidence of that, of course, but probably not
enough to convince a jury. The things that conductors do, normal people can
only contemplate. I have seen one face up to a police officer who refused to
pay his fare and ‘abuse’ him well. “You are talking to Mopol like that?”
demanded the officer, raising his gun. And the conductor sneered, “Do your
worse.”

I was in a bus when another conductor took on three friends, men
bigger than him, holding two by their collar while the third pummelled him
until they all fell off the vehicle. But he returned with a new N20 in place of
the torn note they had used to pay him. I have seen them shoo old women who
didn’t have the exact fare out of their vehicles, and made pregnant women run
to catch the bus. On many occasions, acting as the driver’s rear mirror, they
would look behind and seeing an oncoming trailer, nevertheless growl to the
driver, “Enter, no fear.”

This morning, acting on the advice of his conductor who appeared
to have impeccable sources, our driver decided to dump us well short of the bus
stop. There was a mighty row: everyone approached the conductor, demanding
money back. The lad walked a few paces, turned his back on us and proceeded to
pee right there, threatening to turn his hose on anyone who came too close.

Rude and reckless, harassment seems to be their chief goal.
Yesterday, when the conductor refused an old woman her small change, she lost
control and began to curse. She told him that his life would be a misery and
his children vagabonds; that he would die in an accident and rot while vultures
picked at his bones. It was all quite eerie.

When she left, I asked if he was not afraid. He looked almost bored. “You
don see vulture for Lagos before?” he asked.

In October, flooding originating from the Oyan dam displaced
whole communities in the Ikosi-Isheri and Agboyi-Ketu local council areas of Lagos
State and other communities in neighbouring Ogun State. Days later, the Lagos
State government relocated over 1,000 of the victims to the Resettlement Centre
and Relief Camp located in Agbowa Ikosi at the outskirts of the state.

It is over two months now; the water is gone, and normalcy is
returning to the affected communities, but the people are still waiting for
government’s promise of financial assistance. While some of them still reside
at the relief camp, others say staying put in the camp would amount to self
destruction, especially when one has a family to cater for.

ThankGod Erebi, a traditional bone setter at Kio-Kio, one of the
communities that were severely impacted by the flood, has returned to his work,
even though he still maintains his room at the relief camp where he visits
occasionally.

“There are many people in the camp who go to work and return.
Some people like us don’t go there every day. I have slept there for like six
days at different times, but my family is there. There are some people who do
not go to work. There are other people like that. I can tell you that anybody
who stays there permanently does not have anything to do; that person is not
working, and the person does not have a business that he is running, because nobody
can say that there is still water in his house,” he said.

Grappling with the
disaster

The flooding had occurred largely because of the release of
water from the Oyan dam into the Ogun River which flooded its bank, and that of
other channels. Experts say it is natural for rivers to overflow their flood
plains occasionally. In this case, the houses that were affected were built on
the flood plains.

According to Mr. Erebi, water was over one foot high in most
houses during the flood and different people employed different adaptation
techniques, while some relocated to lodge with friends and family in other
parts of the state.

“When the flood happened, some people ran away to their friends’
places. Some people lost their properties, water spoilt everything for them,
especially the people that were not around when the thing happened. Me, if I
tell that I lost my property, that will be a lie. I didn’t lose my property but
I spent money to secure them. In my house, I made something like a stage,
placed my property on top. I bought nine inches blocks, 60 of them and I bought
12 planks, N1,200. So, I was laying blocks round then, I will put the planks on
top. If the water increased I will lay another line of blocks on top to raise
my properties. That’s how I managed,” Mr. Erebi said.

When the state government opened the camp and provided buses to
move the victims there, some people did not go to the camp to register,
especially those who had left the area. Some of them are now seeking to
register but to no avail. Simon Anyadike, who lives in Kio-Kio, had just put up
his furniture shop by Ikorodu Road, when the flood came. Then he travelled with
his wife and kids after enduring the flood for a few days. By the time he
returned, the camp had closed registration and he desperately wants to register
because of the money government had promised to give to registered victims of
the flood.

“My own is that I want to register my name on that list. All of
us suffered this water together, how would they now write other people’s names
and they will not write my own. Water entered my house, and many living inside
came to stay in my shop then because the place high small. So, some people were
sleeping here. I was not doing anything here, so I travelled. The first time
TVC (television channel) people came here, I was the person they interviewed.
There was water everywhere. Please tell them, they should write my name in the
list of people that will get the compensation money,” said Mr. Anyadike who had
since returned to his business.

Problems with the camp

Mr. Erebi said though food is served three times daily and
medical care services are impressive at the camp, there are still many
challenges that the people are faced with.

“The camp; they are trying in some areas, like food,” he said.
“They serve us food morning, afternoon, and night, although me, I don’t eat it,
I buy food outside, but some other people like it. All the days that I stayed
there, one mosquito did not bite me, because they [spray] the whole place and
the surrounding is neat.

“And the medical care there is very good. But the problem there
is that if you stay there, you want to buy pure water, you cannot afford it
because you don’t have money. And the children, they put them in a school where
they are doing just revision; it’s like extra moral lessons.”

No water in camp

Sinclair Olorogun, who is a member of the committee set up by
the flood victims to represent their interest at the camp, corroborated Mr.
Erebi’s point. He resides in the camp but still attends to his business as an
electrician.

“The major problem in the camp is water. When we came, Ikosi
Ejinrin Local Council Developmental Area, were bringing bags of pure water
(sachet water) for us every day. In the morning, they will bring 50, afternoon
50, evening 50; 150 bags every day. After some time the management started
selling this pure water to us. When those people discovered they were selling
it, they stopped bringing it.

“The tap water there is not good for drinking. But people are
drinking it now. The water looks clean but if you fetch and allow it for some
time it will settle and you will see what you are drinking. I’m having fever
now, look at all the drugs they gave me at the clinic, and it’s because of lack
of potable water,” Mr. Olorogun said.

But the camp commandant, Wewe Adeboye, said it is not true that
people are leaving the camp, contrary to media reports.

“Who is saying that? They are still here. We have placed their
wards in schools. They are going to school. This is what we call emergency education.
Anytime you come to the camp you will see people. We are on the last stage now,
we have gone through preparation, mitigation, response and we are now on
recovery. What we are doing now is to help them recover to the state they were
before the flooding occurred,” he said.

Mr. Adeboye said water cannot be a problem because they pump 35
litres of water from the two boreholes in the camp to serve the 1009 flood
victims and that the water was certified drinkable by the Lagos State Water
Corporation. He said the pure water supply was stopped because the sachet
constituted environmental nuisance in the camp.

While the victims await their promised financial assistance,
which will mark the end of the camping for them and possible eviction from
their communities, to forestall future disasters, Mr. Adeboye said, “the camp
was opened by the governor and will be closed by the governor”.

Nigeria’s National Assembly has no
functional budget office that provides the liaison between the
legislature and the executive on budget matters. This was revealed to
participants at a policy meeting at the weekend.

Chairman, House of Representatives
Committee on Finance, John Enoh, said though work had actually
commenced on the building project a few years ago, it was abandoned
shortly after following disagreements between the Presidency and
National Assembly management over issues he did not elaborate.

“There is no Budget office in the
National Assembly at present, like the Congressional Budget office.
But, a lot of work has actually gone on in the National Assembly. For
some years now, we have been working on the National Assembly Budget
office. At some point, it had actually gone for Presidential assent,
but there were some little bit of disagreements here and there with the
National Assembly management,” Mr Enoh said in an answer to a question
at the seminar.

Though the House of
Representatives has a Committee on Legislative Budget, the lawmaker
assured that the office would be fully functional during the next
National Assembly, considering its usefulness to the lawmakers in their
legislative functions.

“Unless that is done, we will keep depending almost entirely on what is given by the executive,” he said.

The office is the equivalent of
the United States Congressional Budget office established in the
Congress to engage with the budget office to provide independent
information for the legislature on the budget, before annual estimates
are presented.

Mr Enoh who was speaking on some
of the challenges that create distortion in the country’s budget
process noted that despite the existence of Fiscal Responsibility Act
(FRA) since 2007, the implementation of most of its provisions has
always been in the breach.

“The budget process is a challenge
that everybody must appreciate. For instance, there are listed agencies
and corporations of government, like the NNPC (Nigerian National
Petroleum Corporation), NPA (Nigerian Ports Authority), CBN (Central
Bank of Nigeria), and so on, that the law says that when the estimates
for next year’s budget are to be led before the National Assembly, they
must accompany, so that they will be able to capture in totality what
the real figures are and not just Federal Government expenditure. I do
not think this is the case in practice,” he pointed out.

Besides, he said the country’s
budget has continued to be a problem in almost 12 years of our
democracy, either in terms of controversy about who owns the budget
process between the Executive and the legislature, or in the timing of
presentation, stressing the importance of engagement of the National
Assembly by the Executive in the process of preparing the budget to
avoid discrepancies.

Time constraint

According to him, the timing of
the budget presentation must be reviewed to give the lawmakers
sufficient time to look at the estimates presented by the executive
before passing it into law.

“The Fiscal Responsibility Act
requires that the Medium term expenditure framework (MTEF) must be
submitted to the National Assembly not later than three months to the
end of a particular year. That has not been achieved yet. The House of
Representatives passed it (the MTEF) only yesterday (Wednesday). If
that is to be led before the House by next week Tuesday, how much of
that is going to benefit from the MTEF?” He wondered.

“We must get these things right.
The National Assembly needs to have as much time as it can to work on
the budget. If in a particular year, the budget is before the NASS in
September as required by law, members would have enough time to look at
all issues before passing the appropriation law.

“The Budget office, Ministry of
Finance and all those involved in the budget process need a lot more
engagement to get the National Assembly to appreciate what damage they
could be causing the budget if the rules are not followed,” he
explained.

Budget indiscipline

Executive Director, Centre for the
Study of the Economies of Africa (CSEA), Menachem Katz, said though the
Federal Government made progress in strengthening public financial
management since 2003, there has been limited improvement in service
delivery, resulting in increased budget indiscipline.

According to Mr. Katz, the
country’s budgets in recent years have become increasingly
expansionary, accounting for deficits of about 10 percent of the gross
domestic product (GDP) as well as increased spending and depletion of
the excess crude account.

On the timing of the budget
process, he said major delays have been experienced in the approval,
pointing out that there is need for the current budget calendar to be
replaced with an alternative cycle that would provide sufficient time
for in-depth discussion of government fiscal strategy and policy
priorities.

“Poverty was handed over to me. I inherited poverty from my dad.
Nobody gave me weekly allowance or pocket money. But there is something that
hardship does to your brain. Poverty makes you desperate to make it by all
means.”

These words were spoken by Paschal Okwundu, a Stanbic IBTC
banker, as he addressed 100 young people who attended The Ajegunle Project, a
youth enlightenment initiative organised by the Tulip Foundation, a social and
moral values non-governmental organisation on December 4, 2010 at Bequest
College, Ajegunle.

Mr. Okwundu described growing up as a 19-year-old in Ajegunle,
Lagos’s most popular slum, who wanted to go to university but whose parents had
no money to send him there. It cost N1,650 to purchase the Joint Admissions and
Matriculation Board form at the time, but neither Mr. Okwundu nor his parents
could afford it.

Determined to succeed

Mr. Okwundu began to organise after-school lessons in maths and
physics for students at Hope Tutorial Centre in Ajegunle. Five days a week, he
worked two hours daily. He earned N45 an hour, making N450 weekly and N1,800
monthly. By 2001, he had saved up enough money to buy a JAMB form and he got
admission in 2002 into the University of Lagos to study chemical engineering.

“I had saved N2,500 in two years when I got my admission,” he
told the students. “But this money finished in two weeks. So I began doing home
coaching and working night jobs again. And by the time I was in year three, I
was running two businesses and making N34,000 monthly.”

Education and
transformation

Richard Yabrifa, who also grew up in Ajegunle and now works with
First Bank, also spoke to the youth on the importance of personal development.
He said the purpose of education goes beyond getting a good job, paying one’s
bills, and catering for one’s family, but becoming an agent of change in one’s
environment.

“Many people go to school but their education has not brought
much transformation to their lives because they have not realised the value of
their education, which is personal development,” he said. “Ask yourself, has
education really changed my ideas, my level of reasoning? You should see
education as your own responsibility to make an impact on the society.”

He further encouraged the youth to align their dreams of what
they wanted to achieve and become in future with their purpose for going to
school, which should not be dependent on the state, the educational system nor
their teachers.

“Purpose is that thing which motivates you to move forward.
Attach a high value to it. Without purpose, you’ll just go to school and just
make up the number, graduate, and at the end of the day become among the number
of unemployed graduates. Don’t see it as your teacher’s responsibility to give
you an education but as your personal responsibility,” continued Mr. Yabrifa.

From zero to hero

Johnson Abbaly, the president of Achievers Consortium
International, a non-profit youth empowerment organisation, compared the resilience
of Ajegunle youth to the 2005 Champions League winners, Liverpool FC, who in
the finals of the football competition came from a 3-0 deficit to win the
tournament against AC Milan.

“Nigerians have a spirit that never says die, and in Ajegunle,
that spirit is very evident in our daily survival,” he said. “Don’t allow your
background keep your back on the ground. You can come from zero and become a
hero. Stop looking down on yourself and instead start celebrating yourself as a
success.”

The coordinator of TAP and Tulip Foundation founder, Bolatito
Coker, further said the answer to rebranding Nigeria lay in changing the
mentality of the younger generation by instilling the right values in them.

“The rebranding of Ajegunle is the major focus of this project,”
she said. “With this project, we want to encourage the youth that there is more
to life, more to achieve, more to hope for, more to dream about, more to live
for, and so many more. They can be the best at what they do.”

Show some love

A motivational speaker and pastor with the Church of God
Mission, Ifeanyichukwu Harrison, who for 10 years had lived in Ajegunle, said
from his 18 years experience working with the youth, the absence of love is the
main reason children grow up to become the miscreants the society now
castigates them for.

“We need to learn to accept these so-called area boys and give
them a sense of purpose,” he said. “Most of them have become what they are
because nobody loved them, because nobody wanted them. As a people, we need to
show some love.”

Youth speak

Many youth who attended the TAP event said they had come to see
themselves and their environment differently. Priscilla Arinze, a recent
secondary school leaver who for 15 years has being living in Ajegunle, said
that the messages had inspired her. Before then, she had questioned the
necessity of an education in Nigeria.

“The youth in Ajegunle need to change their mentality and know that
education is necessary,” said 17-year-old Miss Arinze. “I used to wonder what
is the need going to school but now I understand the usefulness of an education
is to learn more and develop myself. I have learnt to aspire for greater
heights.” Edidiong Solomon, a 12-year-old JS3 student of VKC Schools in
Ajegunle, said: “I learnt that my environment cannot stop me from becoming
something in future. I am going to make a difference in this country and
improve Ajegunle.”

The House of
Representatives’ Committee on Communications yesterday threatened to
issue a bench warrant on the Information and Communications Minister,
Dora Akunyili following her repeated failure to appear before it.

The chairman of the
committee, Dave Salako (PDP, Ogun), said it had to resort to it since
Mrs Akunyili refused to appear before it to explain the circumstance
surrounding the abandonment of the rural telephony projects across the
country.

Mr Salako noted
that in the last five months, the committee had invited the minister
eight times but she did not honour the invitations.

According to him, she was invited on August 17, September. 10, 12 and 17, October. 3, 20 and 28 and Dec. 2, 2010.

He stated that the
minister, on one occasion replied and said that the committee’s
invitation did not get to her yet it was acknowledged by her aide.

“Each time we write
to invite her; she will backdate the response and give all form of
excuses. We had exhausted all avenues but it seems, she was not ready
to yield” he said. “Here we are again, the Minister is not here neither
does she send any representatives to the committee to answer all
allegations and issues surrounding the abandoned rural telephony
projects” Mr Salako said.

Decision time Friday

Mr Salako, after a
unanimous resolution, to invoke section 89 (1) (d) of the 1999
constitution which gives the Parliament the power to issue a warrant to
compel the attendance of any person, said the committee will inform the
minister on Friday about its resolution.

The lawmaker also said that if after the letter the minister refuses
to appear on Tuesday Dec. 14, the Committee will seek the approval of
the Speaker, Dimeji Bankole to issue a warrant of arrest on her as
empowered by section 89 (2).

The House of Representatives on Thursday recalled two
apologetic members who were once members of the minority group known as
Progressives.

The House adopted the recommendation of its ethics
and privileges committee which advised that Austin Nwachukwu (PDP Imo
state) and Gbenga Oduwaye (PDP Ogun state) be recalled at the mercy of
the House. While Mr. Nwachukwu took a newspaper advert to apologise to
the House and its leadership for his involvement in the group, Mr.
Oduwaye petitioned the committee denying membership of the anti-speaker
group.

The deputy speaker, Usman Nafada, who presided the
plenary on Thursday, argued that Mr. Oduwaye acted like a gentleman on
June 9 when eleven of the lawmakers were forcefully evicted from the
chambers and subsequently suspended indefinitely. ‘‘He was here but he
was not forced out’’Mr.Nafada said.

On the other hand, Mr Nwachukwu was involved in a
fight in the chamber and was responsible for dislocating Ms Chinyere
Igwe’s shoulder. Both members were ordered to resume plenary Tuesday
next week. Their recall brings the number of recalled members in that
group four.

Notwithstanding a court judgement nullifying the
suspension of the lawmakers, the House leadership sustained a high
level of security surveillance aimed at preventing unyielding members
of the Progressives .

Eleven lawmakers who were believed to be members of
the Progressives group were forcefully evicted from the chamber and
their offices and subsequently suspended indefinitely, in June, after
they accused the Speaker of allegedly misappropriating N9 billion out
of the capital vote of the House. Five of them challenged their
suspension, as a group, in an Abuja High Court, while Doris Uboh
challenged her suspension alone. The court sitting on the
group-of-five’s case ruled last week that the suspension of the
lawmakers was null and void describing the process of their removal
“tyranny of the majority.”

The same court, on Wednesday, while ruling on Doris
Uboh’s case ordered the speaker, Dimeji Bankole, to pay the suspended
lawmakers their emoluments and declared their suspension null and void.
The House leadership, however, appears resolute to keep the lawmakers
who challenged their suspension in court out of the House chambers
arguing that they have appealed the ruling and also filed a motion for
the stay of execution of the last week ruling.

Eseme Eyibo, the House spokesman argued that there is a ‘locus
clasicus’meaning that when a case is on appeal, nobody is supposed to
take further steps to actualize the contended ruling.

Forty two political
parties in the country yesterday expressed doubt about the capacity of
the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to conduct
successful polls next year.

The parties made
this known in a letter addressed to the chairman of INEC, Attahiru
Jega, after waiting in vain for officials of the commission to attend a
consultative forum it organised for them.

The letter, which
listed the aggrieved parties, was signed on their behalf by the
national chairman of the Nigerian Peoples Congress (NPC), Ngozi Emioma.

According to the
parties, which national chairmen and secretaries were invited, the
meeting was scheduled to hold within 48 hours of the receipt of the
INEC’s invitation, but that despite the short notice, they honoured the
invitation only to find out that the commission was not in attendance.

“This is
particularly unnerving when it is recognised that the main purpose of
the meeting was to consult with political parties on the issue of voter
education and voters registration, precedent to the 2011 general
elections,” the letter said.

They also noted
that by the timetable of the commission, voters registration will
commence next month, “which makes it wonder if INEC is serious in its
public statement to partner with political parties to reach voters of
all demographics across the country for registration exercise.”

The parties said
that by failing to attend the meeting, the commission has created a
crisis of confidence in the face of the timetable challenges
confronting them in next year’s elections.

“In fact, we get
the impression that the commission and its chairman, Attahiru Jega, are
planning to fail. We wonder at the motive of such callousness. The
commission may well find out that when it calls for similar meetings in
the future, the political parties may not take it seriously,” the
parties said.

“INEC must provide
a written apology to the political parties for the body to be taken
seriously going forward,” the statement said.

The parties also
objected to the manner they were invited to the meeting, saying that
the culture of issuing invitation via SMS or text messages is
belittling and insulting to the political parties. They demanded for
the courtesy of formal invitation.

In addition, they frowned at INEC’s culture of summoning meetings with them in hotels.

According to the parties, the main conference centre in the premises of INEC is large enough to accommodate such meetings.

“Concluding, we no
longer have the patience to continue to suffer the inhumanity and
disrespect that is ever so present in the dealings of INEC towards the
political parties.

“We expect simple
courtesy in our relationship with INEC, except of course, the
commission wishes to head into the 2011 elections entirely on its own
without the support of the political parties. A word is enough for the
wise,” the parties said.

No forwarding address

But responding to
the allegations in a telephone interview, Kayode Idowu, the media aide
to the INEC chairman, explained that the meeting was called off and
that the parties were notified via text messages by the director of
political parties, Regina Omo-Agege.

Mr. Idowu said that
the commission uses text messages because many of the parties have no
functional offices where letters of invitation could be sent to.

On the use of hotels to hold meetings with the parties, he explained
that INEC conference room is not big enough to accommodate all the
chairmen and secretaries.

The African Union
said on Thursday it had suspended Ivory Coast until presidential poll
challenger Alassane Ouattara takes over from Laurent Gbagbo.

“The council
decided to suspend Cote d’Ivoire until such time when Mr Ouattara, a
democratically elected president, takes over effectively,” peace and
security commissioner Ramtane Lamamra said.

This is coming just
as the United States is ready to impose sanctions on incumbent Laurent
Gbagbo and his family if he fails to accept defeat in Ivory Coast’s
presidential election, a senior U.S. official said on Thursday.

“The U.S. is
willing to take further steps and declare sanctions against President
Gbagbo, his family, his wife and those that are supporting his illegal
position,” Johnnie Carson, the State Department’s assistant secretary
for African Affairs, said in conference call with African journalists.
Carson did not give further details on the sanctions or whether the
United States would also impose travel ban. The U.N. Security Council
on Wednesday backed Ouattara as winner, following the lead of West
African regional bloc ECOWAS and also repeated a previous threat to
impose “targeted measures” — code for sanctions — against anyone
attempting to threaten the peace process or obstruct U.N. operations in
Ivory Coast.

U.S. President Barack Obama has backed Ouattara, leading calls from
the United Nations, France, the European Union, the African Union and
ECOWAS on Gbagbo to accept the election commission ruling.