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NEXT Newspaper was, on Sunday, awarded Nigeria’s Best Designed Newspaper, at the Diamond Awards for Media Excellence (DAME).

Held in Lagos to review media performance for 2009,
the 19th edition of the awards saw 24 prizes going to individuals and
organisations in print journalism, broadcasting, and advertising.
According to the organisers, the annual event is aimed at recognising
excellence and encouraging professionalism in the media industry. DAME
is organised by Diamond Publications, publishers of Media Review. Lanre
Idowu, the Chief Executive Officer, Diamond Publications, said the
awards will be helpful in a world where role models are increasingly
difficult to come by. “Even though there is a rot around us, when we
set our minds to it, we will pick different gems,” he said.

NEXT was nominated for two awards: the ‘Best Designed
Newspaper’ and ‘Child Friendly Newspaper’. The Punch was awarded the
Newspaper of the year; Newsmagazine of the Year went to Tell; Editorial
Writing went to The Nation for its piece, Yar Adua: The constitution is
supreme, while Editorial integrity award went to Olusola Fabiyi of
Punch, for his report on Ekiti rerun: Police quiz INEC staff over
bribery row.

Other categories

Press reporter of the year was awarded to Sesan
Olufowobi, also of Punch, for his report on Abu, a three-year-old
Nigerian, who was rescued from human traffickers and was later reunited
with his family after six months. Radio reporter of the year went to
Funke Oluremi for her report on malpractice in primary school education
in Oyo State, Nigeria. ‘A vote for corruption’ won 25-year-old Nurudeen
Oyewole of National Standard the award for Political reporting, where
he reported a move by the National Assembly to pass a bill that will
provide for the police to seek legislative approval before the arrest
or prosecution of any legislator.

Health Reporting Award went to Juliana Ezeoke, of Tell, for ‘Another
neglected goose’, her report on alternative herbal medicine in the
country and difficulties experienced in its exportation, which affects
the competitiveness of the industry with an established one like the
Chinese industry. The TV Documentary Award went to Emmanuel Ubaka for
his report on Arochukwu in Abia State; he reported its history and how
its past events have helped shape the kingdom’s history. Other awardees
included Sina Fadare, Adenike Ppoola, and Bayoor Ewuoso, who got prizes
for Agriculture Reporting, Insurance Reporting and Action Photography
respectively.

The Minister of State for Commerce and
Industry, Josephine Tapgun, on Monday described the performance of the
industrial sector as “dismal”, saying the federal government was
committed to reversing the situation.

Tapgun was speaking at the
commemoration of the 2010 Africa Industrialisation Day (AID), jointly
organised by the ministry and UNIDO, with the theme: Competitive
Industries for Development of Africa.

She said this year’s index of global
competitiveness, as released by the World Economic Forum, authors of
Global Competitiveness Survey, which ranked Nigeria 127 out of 133
countries in national competitiveness, was unfortunate.

“This dismal perception could be
readily ascribed to the harsh operating environment, due mainly to lack
of constant power supply and other infrastructural deficits.

She reiterated the resolve of the government to addressing the
challenges militating against the industrial development of the
country, saying that the present administration was tackling them
“head-on”. She said that, as Nigeria continued to feel the
“excruciating” effect of the global economic crisis, it was imperative
to focus on industrialisation as a critical engine of economic growth
and development.

The Nigerian Union of Journalist (NUJ)
and Radio and Television Theatre and Arts Workers Union of Nigeria, on
Monday, in Abuja, urged the Federal Government to put in place concrete
agreements for the implementation of the new Media Salary Structure.
The President of the NUJ, Mohammed Garba, made the appeal while
monitoring Federal Government media houses in Abuja, to ensure the
enforcement of the unions’ three-day warning strike. Members of the
union on Monday embarked on the exercise, to compel the Federal
Government to enforce a new Media Salary Structure. Garba, however,
said there had not been any agreement reached with the government on
the implementation of the salary. He said the unions met with the
Minister of Information and Communications, Dora Akunyili, during which
a committee of all heads of the agencies signed the salary structure.

“We sent it to the Federal Government
since April and nothing has happened. If there is no concrete agreement
reached between the unions and the Federal Government, I want to assure
you that by tomorrow the strike will be total. We will close down NTA
and FRCN that are offering skeletal services’.

The wife of the
former Governor of Delta State, Theresa Ibori, has been sentenced to
jail for five years by a London jury after she was found guilty on a
two count-charge of money laundering.

Found guilty with
Mr Ibori’s attorney, Bhadresh Gohil, who was on trial with Theresa. Mr
Gohil was found guilty on a similar charge and was remanded in police
custody.

He will be
sentenced after the conclusion of another trial involving the
laundering of proceeds of V-Mobile shares by James Ibori, Henry
Imashekka, David Edevbie and former Akwa Ibom governor, Victor Attah.
The trial will commence next Monday.

The recent
anti-corruption campaign on the Ibori’s has also seen the conviction of
the former governor’s sister Christine Ibori-Ibie; and mistress,
Udoamaka Okoronkwo-Onuigbo in a previous trial for helping him move an
estimated £70 million worth of looted funds through several London
banks. The two women are currently serving five-year jail terms each in
a London prison.

Mr Ibori is
currently detained in the United Arab Emirates where the Dubai court of
First Instance ruled in October that he should be extradited to the
United Kingdom to face charges on corruption, official theft and money
laundering saying he has “a case to answer in the UK.” But he is
appealing the judgement at the Emirate’s Supreme Court where he is
reported to have sought political asylum.

Mr Ibori was arrested in the Emirate by the International Police
(INTERPOL) in May after he was declared wanted by the Economic and
Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for allegedly mismanaging N528
million shares of Delta State in Oceanic Bank a month before his arrest
in the UAE after evading arrest in Nigeria. A warrant of arrest was
also issued on him by the UK Metropolitan Police for money laundering.

President Goodluck
Jonathan yesterday said the Federal Executive Council will soon stop
considering the award of contracts under the 2010 budget to exclusively
focus on fresh policies that will positively reposition the country for
faster economic growth and development in its remaining sessions for
the year.

Speaking after
receiving a presentation by participants in the National Institute of
Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS) Senior Executive Course 32 on ‘The
Imperatives of Policy Sustainability for National Security and
Democratic Stability’, Mr. Jonathan said the council will discuss and
take decisions on some key issues of policy raised in the presentation.

The issues include
free, fair, and credible elections, the high cost of governance, the
revitalization of strategic industries, the streamlining of policy
implementing agencies of government, poverty, and unemployment as
threats to national security, disparity of wages in the public sector,
and a strategic review of Nigeria’s foreign policy.

The president, who
described the presentation as very well researched and relevant to
Nigeria’s current realities, directed that copies be forwarded to the
president of the Senate, the Speaker of the House of Representatives,
and all state governors.

In consultation
with vice president, Namadi Sambo, who oversees NIPSS, Mr. Jonathan
also directed that participants in its Senior Executive Course 33
should carry the work of Course 32 participants forward by focusing on
the theme: ‘Managing Nigeria’s Pluralism for Peace and National
Development.’

“I commend NIPSS
and Course 32 participants for the comprehensive work they have done. I
thank you for the very important issues you have raised, and I assure
you that government will give serious consideration to your
recommendations,” the president told the participants, amongst who were
senior military officers, senior civil servants, and representatives of
the private sector.

In his remarks, the
acting director general of NIPSS, Tijjani Muhammed Bande, appealed to
the president “for more robust funding for the institute,” disclosing
that “the institute already has an existing debt of N590million.”

Mr. Bande told
NEXT, after the closed door session with Mr. President, that the debt
was not the making of a particular person or administration, but had
been accumulated overtime.

The United Sates of America says it will assist Nigeria to inculcate entrepreneurship skills in undergraduates.

Bruce Wharton,
Deputy Assistant Secretary for Public Diplomacy gave this indication on
Monday in Abuja when he visited Julius Okojie, the Executive Secretary
of the National Universities Commission.

Although Mr Wharton
did not give details of this collaboration especially when and how the
assistance will be administered, he said this will form a major part of
bi-national talks between the two countries.

“It is hard to
imagine the part of our society that is more important to development
than higher education,” he said. “We need to look at making higher
education have economic value in Nigeria. The graduates of Nigerian
universities need to be assured of the highest quality in global market
place. It is healthy on the long run to make Nigerian institutions
stronger. We will help make Nigerian institutions stronger as well.”

He added that the
United States’ Fulbright programme and the educational exchange
programmes are clear testimonies to the commitment of the United States
to working with Nigeria to produce the best university graduates.

Degrees and entrepreneurship

Mr Wharton noted
that “getting a fine education is not the whole story. After you get an
education you need to get a job. United States of America has to work
with Nigeria to find ways to help create employment opportunities for
graduates. One of the things I will be interested in hearing from you
about is whether the Nigerian universities respond to the needs of the
industries in terms of degrees. Do you have a job placement programme?
Do Nigerian universities work with industries and students?”

Nigeria, he said,
has an extra ordinary well educated population with Masters and
Doctorate degrees who are not able to find jobs.

“That is something
that Nigeria and the United States may have to consider in our
bi-national framework. That will be something that will benefit
everyone.”

Akinbode Agbaoye,
the Director of Management Support Services of the NUC, who represented
the Executive Secretary acknowledged that Nigeria has not done all it
could offer in terms of making the graduates very relevant to the
industries but disclosed that efforts to improve entrepreneurship
education is being intensified by the NUC.

“We have not done enough. We have done a survey of the labour market
expectation of Nigerian Universities and we came out with a document to
make sure that entrepreneurial education is embedded in the curriculum.
It is observed that Nigerian graduates are good in theories but are not
as good in practice. The National Universities Commission has taken
measures in establishing these centres with a view to addressing issues
of job creation, poverty reduction and provision of sustainable
employment which should engender an increase in the average income
level per household in Nigeria and as well improve the international
image of Nigeria through enhancing the competitiveness of the economy.”

How is the British Council different from the British High Commission?

The British Council
is the United Kingdom’s international organisation for education and
cultural relations. We focus on projects that enable social and
educational development, particularly in three areas: Art; English;
Education and Society. We are a nonpolitical organisation and while
some of our funding comes from a grant from the United Kingdom, we also
source for funding, such as from the contract work that we do, our
exams and teaching (teaching not in Nigeria but we have teaching
centres in some countries across the world).

We are not the
British High Commission and I know that a number of people confuse us.
Our work involves people and sometimes to get to people, we also use
institutions like what we are doing under our English area of work.

For example, we are
training teachers in the country and to do that, we are working with
institutions, through the government organisations in various states.
For instance, working through them to sponsor the training of teachers
in their states. We are working with the Universal Basic Education
Commission and the states’ Universal Basic Education Board to train
even more teachers across the country. We are working with universities
in Nigeria to link them with the universities in the UK. We are working
with secondary schools, linking them with secondary schools in the UK,
and that is about building skills and exchange of ideas so that both
parties can learn from each other – which is a major part of our work:
building understanding between different cultures, between people in
the UK and people in Nigeria.

In the area of Art,
we are doing the same thing: connecting creative people with skill to
schools, to mentors, to develop their skills as they move from one life
stage to the other. Under our educational society work, we are doing
various programmes involving youth groups, involving NGOs, a big
portion of our work involves the exam services that we deliver.

Last year, we
delivered over 60,000 exams to over 20,000 candidates. We are also
running some state contracts on behalf of organisations such as the
Department for International Development where we are working in areas
of security in justice.

There is a project
we are doing called Africa Knowledge Transfer Partnership (AKTP); what
we doing in that project is connecting academia to business so we are
drawing from science departments in universities connecting them to
industries in Nigeria such that what goes on at universities can ease
into business.

What you find is
that you have universities doing their researches on their own,
businessmen running their businesses can benefit from real life
experience but there is nothing linking them together.

The African
Knowledge Transfer Partnership (AKTP) project bring them together so we
have for instance we have the Bayero University in link to the tannery
in Kano. So the tannery is the business but it is benefiting from the
research done by the chemistry department in the school and they the
university have somebody in the tannery learning to see how that
resource is actually transformed into improved finished product. So
that one way we are linking them together. And that is building
research from science.

Apart from your work in the arts what are you doing in the area of science?

More of what we do mainly is connecting for development. So even our
work we creative people, we realise it is not enough for them to have
talent alone, they need business skills and entrepreneurial skills that
will help them not only to develop their creativity but to build the
business around them.

Sponsors of the
controversial bill that canvassed for inclusion of lawmakers as members
of the executive councils of political party have said the move was to
save the parties from “dictatorial and tyrannical” management.

The lead sponsors
of the Electoral Act (amendment) Bill, Igo Aguma and Cyril Maduabum in
separate interviews in Abuja on Sunday explained why “the vexed clause
87 which sought to include federal lawmakers as members of the NEC of
their respective parties was inserted in the draft legislation”.

The lawmakers
argued that the draft legislation was not intended to serve their
personal interest but to attain a level-playing field for all political
actors.

Mr. Aguma (PDP –
Rivers) recalled that during the Second Republic, members of parliament
were also members of the NEC of their respective political parties.

He said the
arrangement enabled federal lawmakers articulate their party policies
and manifestoes in a near fanatical manner because they were involved
at the formulation stage.

Not presidential ploy

The lawmaker, who
equally advocated for the adoption of Option A4 voting formula, where
the electorate would queue directly behind the candidate of their
choice in any election, decried lack of internal democracy in the
parties.

Mr. Aguma said that in spite of its constitutional provisions, parties had shunned direct primaries in election of candidates.

He, however,
distanced President Goodluck Jonathan from the Bill, saying that the
relationship between the President and the National Assembly had been
frosty lately as reflected in the rejection of two executive bills on
the World Bank loan request and the Electoral Act amendment.

He also denied the
inclusion of what has been termed “right of first refusal” in the
amendment, saying it was the height of mischief for certain individuals
to label a noble legislation in a bad light just because their hold on
the parties would be adversely affected.

Already existing

He also said some
of the parties like ANPP already had such provision in its
constitution, wondering why ACN, which had about 40 representatives in
both chambers of the National Assembly should convince Nigerians how
the number could make its NEC “unwieldy”.

The legislator
however said only dictators had something to fear about the draft
legislation, assuring Nigerians on the genuine intentions of proponents
of the amendment.

In a statement
entitled: “The Reasons for seeking to amend the Electoral Act 2010′,
Mr. Maduabum, (PDP-Anambra) also decried the lack of internal democracy
in the parties which he said have been hijacked largely by some state
executives and political god-fathers.

He said that the
amendment would provide a level playing field for all aspirants to
elective offices and that a situation where a few individuals hijacked
political parties and dictated to the rest of the country `who gets
what and how’ was no longer acceptable to majority of the
progressive-minded members of the National Assembly.

“The dictatorial,
tyrannical, capricious, whimsical and discretionary manner in which
some political parties are run in the country today is cause for worry.

“There is absolute
lack of internal democracy in many political parties. A few people have
hijacked the political parties, they dictate to the rest of the country
who gets what and how. There is no form of democracy or representation
of the interests of the people,” he said. NAN

Nigerian pilgrims
for this year’s Hajj started returning to Nigeria at the weekend as 510
pilgrims from Sokoto State on Sunday departed the King Abdulaziz
International Airport back to Nigeria after successfully performing the
2010 hajj.

Sahabi Gada, the
Amirul Hajj for the state, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in
Makkah, Saudi Arabia, that four of the pilgrims, accompanied by a
doctor, were suffering from ill-health.

Mr. Gada commended
Max Airline for making available its aircraft for the smooth
transportation of the pilgrims. He expressed delight at the exemplary
conduct exhibited by the pilgrims during the hajj and said the
delegation was working round the clock to ensure the smooth return of
the remaining pilgrims.

“We will do all
that we can to ensure we meet the deadline given to us for the
transportation of our pilgrims back home,” the head of the delegation
said.

Mr Gada called for
special prayers by the pilgrims and the citizens at home for God’s
guidance to enable the delegation to succeed in its work.

The Sultan of
Sokoto, Saad Abubakar III who is also the Head of the Federal
Government delegation to the hajj told newsmen that adequate
arrangements have been made to ensure the operation went on smoothly.
He said pilgrims would be brought to the airport only when the aircraft
to convey them was on the ground as part of measures aimed at ensuring
that pilgrims were not made to suffer while waiting for their departure.

The return comes
amidst an advice from Lanre Badmus, Leader of Kwara pilgrims to this
year’s hajj, that the official delegation’s tents be set up close to
those of other Nigerian pilgrims. He said the practice where such
tents, in Muna and Arafat, were cited far away from those of ordinary
pilgrims pose difficulty in monitoring of the pilgrims. He said the
tent to be used by the Amirul Hajj and his team must be placed in the
centre of the other pilgrims’ tents to enable the team to attend to the
problems being faced by the pilgrims.

“The present tent
is far away from the pilgrims and the Sultan of Sokoto, who is the
leader of the federal government delegation, is opposed to this
arrangement and wants it abolished, “he said.

Mr Abubakar, however, urged pilgrims to fully cooperate with
officials and conduct themselves in an orderly manner to ensure
hitch-free operation. The last flight of the operation is expected on
December 16

President Goodluck
Jonathan has directed all federal government parastatals and ministries
to initiate plans to be in their own buildings in the next four years,
saying it is a burden and an embarassment for (Ministry Departments
& Agencies)MDA’s to be housed in private buildings on which they
pay rent.

Speaking at the
commissioning of the office complex of the military pension board in
Abuja at the weekend, Mr. Jonathan urged other government agencies to
toe the line of the board. He said such a move would correct the
current trend of MDA’s being housed in places that are not in
conformity with their operations.

“We now want all
parastatals and ministries to live in their own buildings, I believe in
the next four years all government parastatals should plan their own
building and leave the private buildings,” he said.He directed the
minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Bala Mohammed to allocate
more lands to the Military Pension Board to develop a housing scheme
for its staff.The president also asked the Minister of State for the
FCT, Kayode Olubolade to meet with the FCT minister to include the road
projects to link the Military Pension Board and Cadastral lanes in the
FCT, in its 2011 budget.The military pensions board was relocated from
Lagos to Abuja in 2005.

Due to the hurried
relocation,the Ministry of Defence (MOD) rented a temporary
accommodation which was grossly inadequate as it was originally
designed as a residential accommodation.The new complex took 18 months
to get to completion.

Cutting edge

The complex, which
has a robust computer section, archive and residence for officers and
the inclusion of biometrics in the database is designed in such a way
that the pensioners will be attended to by at least one computer and
operator for each state.

Mr. Jonathan
commended the biometric payment system adopted by the board and urged
MDA’s to apply it in salaries and wages in other to save cost and
increase employment.

“I will urge all
government agencies to key in to this bio-metrix payment system, it
will save a lot of money and government will be able to employ more
people,” he said. He said such development could also ease out
corruption in the system.

He also noted that
the era of unpaid retirees roaming around the streets of the nation’s
capital is over, adding that it is now time for dependents of retirees
and fallen heroes to enjoy the labour of their heroes past.

The Minister of
Defence, Adetokunbo Kayode commended Mr. Jonathan in his swift clearing
of seven years arrears of military pensioners in the country. Mr Kayode
said the move showed the President’s commitment to welfare of the
retirees and men of the armed forces.