Nigeria Content Online

Last minute
intrigues and horse-trading are trailing tonight’s meeting of the
Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF) which is expected to lead to a change in
the leadership of the organisation.

Some of the
governors, who announced the choice of Gbenga Daniel of Ogun State as
the new chairman of the forum and those opposed to his emergence have
arrived the federal capital and have been engaged in series of meetings
ahead of tonight’s general meeting.

It was learnt last
night that the two groups are still holding on to their positions on Mr
Daniel’s reported emergence, despite the overtures being made by their
colleagues to back down on it. The NGF erupted in crisis last weekend
when Mr Daniel was announced as the replacement for Bukola Saraki, who
has since joined the presidential race. Benue State Governor, Gabriel
Suswan announced the election of his Ogun State counterpart.

But the director
general of the NGF Secretariat, Assisana B. Okauru, said the
announcement, made on the NTA 9pm network news, had “created some
confusion in the public on the distinction between the PDP Governors’
Forum and the Nigeria Governors’ Forum.”

He also said that a meeting of the forum had been scheduled in Abuja to pick a new chairman for the body.

Some of the
governors, including Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State, Ibrahim Shekarau of
Kano State and Babangida Aliyu, who chairs the Northern Governors Forum,
have also dissociated themselves from the purported election of Mr
Daniel.

It was gathered that
the governors who installed Mr Daniel last weekend are mostly those
supporting the ambition of Goodluck Jonathan to contest the presidency
while a few of them opposed to the president are insisting that the Ogun
State governor should not be accepted.

Besides, some of the
governors are also demanding that a proper election should take place
to pick the new chairman. This, they say, does not necessarily mean that
they are opposed to the emergence of the Ogun State governor. But that
they want things done right.

Ironing out disagreement

Mr Okauru confirmed
to NEXT in a telephone interview that an election will be conducted
during the forum’s meeting tonight. “Nothing has changed,” he said. “The
governors will meet to elect a chairman and I do hope you will be there
at the Kwara State Governors Lodge. It is holding 8pm. Yes, there is
disagreement and that it why a meeting is being convened.” Lagos State
Governor, Babatunde Raji Fashola yesterday flawed the announced election
of Mr Daniel as the new Chairman of NGF.

While speaking with
journalists at the 2010 Kuramo Conference on Law and Development in
Lagos, he said that “the process was undemocratic and indeed subversive
of the will of other governors, who are the members of the forum.” Mr
Fashola said that the decision of those behind the handpicking of the
Ogun state governor as the new chairman of the forum called for internal
vigilance as the country goes to poll next year.

“It is not a crisis per se, but it is really bothersome,” he said.
“It bothers me that this kind of thing can happen in a party that
professes to have a free and fair election.”

Regional integration of Africa and the meticulous implementation of policies are pivotal to the continent’s economic fortunes, said Paul Boateng, the former UK’s Chief Secretary to the Treasury.
Mr Boateng, while speaking on Tuesday at the maiden edition of the Kuramo Conference on ‘Developing Economies: Rethinking the Present, Shaping the Future’, said Africa is “destined to become the continent of the present century,” but warned the continent’s political elite to embrace transparent democracy and service delivery. “African governments will not be able to escape the need to make some significant policy choices,” he said, “What is vital is that these choices should reflect African priorities – determined by African people in democratic dialogue with those they have freely chosen to lead them based on information freely and regularly available, through open and transparent institutions of governance.”

Harnessing existing resources

Though he would not absolve the western countries of complicity in Africa’s dilemma, he said Africa, by harnessing its existing resources, is capable of solving its problems. “Africa is not just about charity and aids, it has capacity to solve global problems,” he said. He, however, blamed the continent’s retrogression on political leaders for not propounding and implementing “sound policies.” “If the ‘tiger economies’ had focused only on primary education they would not be where they are today,” he said. “Bad policy by donors and global multi-lateral institutions was made worse by Africa’s political elites who themselves failed to either challenge those actions or present viable alternatives. They lacked the vision of their predecessors, missing opportunities to advance the welfare of their peoples and focusing instead on their own self aggrandisement and enrichment.”

Using his own childhood experience as “the grandson of a cocoa farmer” in Ghana, Mr Boateng recommended effective transport system and adequate funding of researches and the proactive application of research results. “My grandfather’s cocoa was the highest grade because he was the beneficiary of the best scientific research then available from the West African Cocoa Research Institute,” he said. “The cocoa was then transported by direct rail link and commanded the highest price and low transport cost. Unfortunately, Africa’s transport costs are the highest in the world. World Class Scientific Research Centres and Railway system no longer exist and this will surely hamper Africa’s future progress.”

Building a great city

Jesse Jackson, a former US Special Envoy for Africa, emphasised that Africa’s leaders “must have a passion for transparency and integrity,” while speaking on ‘Urban Citizenship – Rights and Obligation.’ Mr Jackson said great cities are built, not by the wealth and privileges of a few, but by the workers and fair wages. “We live in a world of globalized capital,” he said. “Now we must globalize human rights, workers rights, women’s rights, children rights and environmental security. Our tilted tax structure expands privileges for the top two per cent [of the population], thus [creating] a turbulent imbalance between the very rich and the very poor, imbalance in trade, major bank collapse without oversight and bailout without link to investment and lending. This calamity of errors and greed is bankrupting cities and states. Lagos, this is not the way to do it.”

Governor Fashola, the conference’s host, said he conceived Kuramo conference to be Africa’s voice on global issues. “The idea behind Kuramo is a response to my belief that at the turn of a new century and with globalization, a new legal order is imperative in order to make our world more inclusive and to secure it for the next generation,” he said, vowing that the conference will not end as a talk show. “The recommendations that will come out of this conference will be documented as the Kuramo Declaration and we shall immediately setup a committee which will work out the advocacy and implementation strategies.”

The Federal Government is poised to
address the menace of oil bunkering and security at the ports, vice
president, Namadi Sambo, said on Monday, in Abuja.

Speaking while representing President
Goodluck Jonathan at the Inter-Ministerial/Inter-Agency meeting on
human capital development master plan for the amnesty programme at the
State House, he said “the meeting was to articulate ways to
rehabilitate ex-militants and other Niger Delta youths in the Nigerian
Seafarers Development training programme.”

He also said that at the end of the training, there would be more personnel to take care of the nation’s coasts.

Mr. Sambo noted that “the incessant
insecurity at our coasts is as a result of inadequate coast guards who
may give information and perfectly protect the coasts,” and added that
“there is need to train more people as coast guards.”

He further disclosed that the Federal
Government is determined to acquire more helicopters and sub-marines to
fight illegal bunkering and other insecurity problems on the country’s
waterways.

The vice president said sustainable
peace in the Niger Delta can only be achieved if there is enough
surveillance by the security agencies.

A technical committee was set up to
work on modalities for the training. The committee was mandated to
discuss insecurity at the ports and creeks; address the immediate,
medium, and long term issues of illegal-bunkering and internal
collaborators; co-opt other security agencies like the Navy, Air-force,
Police, and Maritime Security Agency (MSA) for effective report.

The committee, which comprises the
director general of Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency
(NIMASA); minister of transport; the group managing director of NNPC;
and the managing directors of Nigerian Ports Authority and Petroleum
Technology Development Fund, who were also at the meeting, has nine (9)
days to complete its report.

Speaking at the meeting, the director
general of the Nigerian Maritime Administration, Mr. Temisan Omatseye,
said the present state of affairs in seafarer training in Nigeria can
be traced to the demise of the state owned Nigeria National Shipping
Line (NNSL).

He was, however, optimistic that the
agency has taken practical steps within the existing Nigerian Seafarer
Development Programme training framework with foreign countries
including Vietnam, South Africa, India, Philippines, and Egypt, to
train space commitment of 2,150 Ratings in the next six (6) to seven
(7) months.

In his observation, the special adviser
to the president on Niger Delta, Mr. Timi Alaibe, lamented that the
Niger Delta states are not taking advantage of the programme by sending
more contingents for the training, adding that only 6,500 people, which
represent fifteen percent of the number of people for the training,
showed interest.

He urged the Nigerian Maritime
Administration to speed up with the programme, which according to him,
“will reduce the crime rate in the area.”

He also told journalists that the
blowing up of the AGIP oil pipeline in Bayelsa State on the 29th of
0ctober, was an isolated criminal incident, adding that this did not
mean there was a resurgence in the activities of militants in the
region.

He emphasised that judging from where
they were coming from, the security situation in the Niger Delta has
improved because of the amnesty programme, noting that from below
700,000 barrels per day, Nigeria is now producing over 2 million
barrels per day.

The special adviser, who attended the meeting to streamline the
processes of integration and training of the over 7,000 ex-militants,
both in the country and abroad, insisted that despite the hiccups being
experienced, the amnesty programme was on course.

The Court of Appeal
has deferred judgment on an appeal filed by Rauf Aregbesola, the
governorship aspirant of the Action Congress (AC) in the 2007 elections
in Osun State.

The five-member
panel, led by Justice Clara Ogunbiyi, said this after listening to the
arguments of counsel to the parties in the suit.

Mr. Aregbesola is
contending the judgment of the Governorship and House of Assembly
Elections Petitions Tribunal of Osun State of May 28, 2010. The
tribunal upheld the declaration of Olagunsoye Oyinlola of the Peoples
Democratic Party (PDP) by the Independent National Electoral Commission
(INEC) as the winner of the said election.

Arguing on behalf
of the petitioner, Akin Olujimi, a Senior Advocate, said his client is
faulting the lower tribunal judgment because it has failed to consider
the weight of evidence put before it before making its conclusions.

Mr. Olujimi made
specific reference to Boripe local government, where the number of
votes allotted to the PDP candidate were far much more than the total
number of names available in the voters’ register there.

He said whereas the
total number of the eligible voters, according to INEC’s voters’
register, is 12,631, the commission recorded 14, 497 for the PDP
candidate.

He also pointed out
that besides many discrepancies in the number of eligible voters in the
register and the number of votes recorded during the election, the
commission could only produce register for four wards, out of the 11
wards in the local government, “meaning that there are no register for
the remaining 7 wards in the council,” the counsel said.

Fairy tale

The petitioner
alleged that one F.O. Nafiu, a PDP agent, who signed exhibit 196 before
the court, signed nine out of the 11 documents containing the results
of the election in Boripe local government.

This, he argued, could not be possible under election pressure, given the distance between the wards.

He then submitted
that the tribunal had failed to consider all the irregularities, which,
according to him, were enough to make it void all votes from the
affected area and declare the candidate that pools the majority votes
in the remaining vote cast as the winner of the election.

Having argued his
point before the appeal panel, Mr. Olujimi urged it to set aside the
judgment of the lower tribunal, cancel the votes of areas in
contention, and declare his client winner of the election because with
the remaining votes, he scored the highest.

But, Yusuf Ali,
lead counsel to Governor Oyinlola, said the tribunal could not have
judged otherwise because the appellant failed to prove his allegations
of fraud beyond reasonable doubt.

He said most of the
issues which the case rested upon are criminal, and needed concrete
evidence to prove, which the appellant has failed to avail the court.

He said the appeal does not deserve any other action from the panel than a dismissal, urging the panel to do same.

After listening to the two and the counsel representing INEC, its
officials, as well as others representing other parties to the suit,
the appeal panel said it would communicate the judgement date to all
the parties in due course.

A group of lawyers,
known as Lawyers of Conscience, have accused President Goodluck
Jonathan of allowing corrupt Nigerians to become the major operators in
his government.

In a statement
signed by its national coordinator, Benedict Ezeogwu, and public
relations officer, Sadiq Mohammed, the group alleged that many of those
indicted in corruption and fraud scandals in the country are still
free, with no serious effort to bring them to justice.

“Several cases of
graft and abuse of offices, particularly in the areas of budgetary
irregularities, inflation of cost in contract awards, unauthorized
expenditures, award of contracts, allocation of oil blocks to
questionable companies of cronies, have continued unchecked,” read the
statement.

The group accused
the government of shielding those involved in high-level corruption
such as legislators and those in the Haliburton, Siemens, and Chevron
cases. It said the government had gutted anti-corruption agencies such
as the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) by ignoring its
demands and denying its staff protection.

“Individuals and
companies implicated/involved in corrupt practices and fraudulent
activities are now given recognitions and honours by the present
government.

“Over N500 billion
is alleged to have been stolen by the current legislators in the
country, and [the EFCC’s] demands that those involved should be brought
to book have been rebuffed by the Jonathan-led government,” the
statement read.

Major examples

The group singled
out the Halliburton corruption case and the case of Julius Berger as
particularly egregious examples. It accused Mr. Jonathan of working to
cover up and protect major culprits in the scandals because they are
godfathers of his government.

“The clear
unconstitutional and suspicious efforts of the Attorney General of the
Federation to shield Julius Berger from criminal prosecution, even when
the company accepted guilt, is a typical example of what we are
saying,” it said.

It pointed to
several reports that the presidency had amassed over N20 billion for
the funding of Mr. Jonathan’s 2011 presidential campaign through the
misuse of money from the Ministry of Environment’s Ecological Fund, the
Ministry of Works; and the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation
(NNPC).

It noted that
governors who have been implicated in the looting of their states’
treasuries have become major campaigners for the president, in exchange
for a second term ticket or protection from anti-graft agencies.

“No government in
the country has condoned corruption or destroyed the anti-corruption
war like the Goodluck Jonathan-led government,” said the statement.

President Goodluck Jonathan has said that kidnapping in Nigeria has reduced significantly and would shortly be wiped out from the country.

At an interactive session on Sunday with Nigerians resident in Chad Republic, the president described kidnapping as a receding nightmare, in response to a question on how kidnapping had prevented some Igbos from visiting home in Nigeria, assuring them that government has put in place elaborate measures to counter the menace and restore the peace.

Mr. Jonathan told Nigerians in Chad Republic that their “complaints of constant harassment of Nigerian fishermen and others on legitimate businesses by Chadian security agencies would be addressed with the host authorities.”

On the absence of good English-speaking schools in Chad Republic, the president underscored the importance of quality education for the future development of any child, while suggesting the “establishment of private schools in partnership with government, like other country-specific run educational institutions elsewhere, as private ventures but under controlled fees.”

He promised to look into the issue of building a permanent office and residence for the Nigerian ambassador, to secure the country’s pride of place in Chad.

He thanked all the speakers at the event who wished him success at next year’s polls, stressing that himself and the vice president, Namadi Sambo, “are totally committed and will do our best.”

Those who spoke during the meeting included representatives of various Nigerian ethnic groups resident in Chad Republic, as well as the chairman of the Nigeria-Chad Association, Stephen Osagie.

The Nigerian ambassador to Chad, Abdullahi Omaki, who disclosed that Nigeria established diplomatic relations with Chad in 1963 and the latter reciprocated in 1965, described the northern neighbouring country as strategic to Nigeria’s security.

Governor Ali Modu Sheriff of Borno State; the minister of water resources, Obadiah Ando; and the minister of state, foreign affairs, Salamatu Suleiman, were among top Nigerian government officials at the interactive gathering.

A High Court in Ikeja, Lagos, on Monday gave an order
restraining the Lagos State House of Assembly from further probing the
state’s governor, Babatunde Fashola, over allegations of financial
misappropriation.

The presiding Judge, Opeyemi Oke, said that it is
unlawful for the legislators to continue with their investigation since
there is a substantive suit before the Court of Appeal. In addition,
the court gave an order of perpetual injunction restraining the
defendant and any of its agents, officers, servants, committees, in
particular the Ad Hoc Committee set up on April 15 from further
investigating the governor.

A group which calls itself the “True Face of Lagos’’
had levelled allegations of financial impropriety against the executive
arm of the government.

The judge said that the Originating Summons filed by
the claimant was different from the earlier issue dispensed by Justice
Habib Abiru of the Ikorodu Division of the Lagos judiciary. The
applicant, Richard Akinnola, had gone to the Appeal Court to contest
some gray areas in the judgment of the lower court.

Justice Oke, in her judgment, noted that it was the
duty of the counsel to educate their clients on the hierarchy of the
courts. “This court has an inherent duty to ensure that due regards,
due respect and due honour is given to the Court of Appeal which is a
superior court.

“Where a counsel fails to do this by not bringing
this to the knowledge of his client, it is the duty of the honourable
court to compel the party to do so through the order of the court by
granting the injunctive order,’’ she said.

Justice Abiru had on March 30 declared
unconstitutional, null and void, the probe instituted by the House
against the governor based on an advertorial placed in a national paper
by the New Face of Lagos.

Justice Abiru upheld the relief sought by the
petitioner, Richard Akinola, who had asked the court to stop a six-man
investigation panel set up by the legislature to investigate the
executive.

Mr. Akinnola in his Originating Summons dated May 4,
2010 prayed the court to stop the probe of Mr. Fashola, saying that the
action by the House was unlawful and constituted an affront on the rule
of law and administration of justice.

He also asked the court to determine whether the
House was right to set up an Ad hoc Committee to probe Mr. Fashola
despite a pending litigation seeking to stop it.

The Senate Committee on Education warned on Monday
that without adequate funding of the education sector, the improvement
of the Nigerian educational system will remain a mirage.

Chairman of the committee, Abubakar Bangudu, made the
observation yesterday in Abuja when the committee paid a working visit
to the National Universities Commission (NUC) and the Education Trust
Fund.

“The NUC as a central organ is not adequately
funded,” he said. “It has led to a number of problems: children cannot
find enough spaces for admission; there are complaints about low
teacher and graduate quality from those institutions. There is need for
a rethink about how to fund the institutions.”

New alternatives

Mr Bangudu said the government could not afford to
cover all the costs in the sector and suggested greater partnerships
with private organisations.

“It is almost impossible that the government alone
will ever come up with the funding requirement for the sector,
therefore we must be ready to find out alternative means of funding,”
he said. “Institutions should be given the freedom to find alternative
sources of funding.” He pledged the Senate’s commitment and said that
efforts were being made, so that the Education Trust Fund law is
amended to ensure that education quality improves.

Julius Okojie, executive secretary of the NUC, agreed
that the release of funds to the sector has not been inadequate and
that it had affected the execution of capital projects by the
commission. He cited poor access to education as well as inadequate
teaching and research facilities as some of the other challenges faced
by the sector.

“The situation has remained the same over time
because it is a tuition-free environment and we [can only] grow at the
rate at which we are receiving resources.”

The deplorable
state of power supply cannot be solved by privatisation but through
“determination, commitment, and eradication of corruption,” according
to a communiqué issued on Monday at the end the seventh All Yoruba
Youth Conference, which held in Lagos.

The conference,
organised by the Coalition of Oodua Self-Determination Groups (COSEG),
called “on the Jonathan-led federal government to stop forthwith the
planned privatisation of Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN).”

The communiqué also
asked Attahiru Jega, the chairman of the Independent Electoral
Commission, to “as a matter of urgency, remove Mrs. Adebayo Ayoka, the
present resident electoral commissioner posted to Ondo State, after her
shameful and disgraceful conduct of the elections in Ekiti State,
because her dignity and integrity have been ruined by the judgement of
the Appeal Court.”

The group described
President Jonathan’s “antagonism to the convocation of a Sovereign
National Conference” as anti-people, and warned that it will only
support a presidential candidate “that is ready to implement, to the
details, the Yoruba Charter.”

Where are the leaders?

The conference featured several lectures that highlighted national issues and agenda for 2011.

Wahab Shittu, a
lawyer, in his lecture titled ‘Misuse of Oversight Roles of
Legislatures in Modern Democracy’ asked lawmakers to focus only on the
business of lawmaking and desist from impeding governance under the
clout of oversight functions.

However, Dipo
Fanimokun, who represented Alani Akinrinade, a retired army general and
the occasion’s chairman, drew attention of the gathering to the dearth
of “worthy leaders” in the Yoruba nation.

“Almost every
occasion that has to do with Yoruba will have General Akinrinade as one
of the dignitaries, whether in Ondo, Ekiti, or Lagos. This is
worrisome, and we have started asking ourselves where the leaders are,”
he said.

Other lectures
included ‘The Contribution of Women in National Development” by Abiola
Akiode, a lawyer and the executive director of Women Advocates Research
and Documentation Centre; and ‘Youth Crises and Our Collective
Challenge’ by Kayode Olagunju.

Mrs. Akiode posited that there has been a “historical injustice” against the womenfolk, which must be corrected.

“Women have played
great roles in national development but their contribution is hardly
given appropriate prominence in history books,” she said, drawing
analogies from the example of late Kudirat Abiola.

“Until we begin to talk about women’s roles prominently, and men and
women begin to sit together to discuss national issues as ‘our issues’,
there cannot be appropriate progress in Nigeria,” she said.

The Goodluck/Sambo
Presidential Campaign Organisation yesterday debunked claims by the
Conference of Nigeria Political Parties (CNPP) that the forthcoming
general elections will be highly monetised because of funds it raised
last week to prosecute President Goodluck Jonathan’s election.

Spokesman of the
organisation, Sully Abu, said in a statement in Abuja, that the
fundraising dinner was organised with the entire campaign of the
president in view, and not only for the primary election.

“The Goodluck/Sambo
Campaign Organisation wishes to state in very clear terms that the
position of the Conference of Nigerian Political Parties(CNPP) that the
2011 general election will be highly monetised because of its unfounded
claim that Corporate Nigeria donated N500 million for President
Goodluck Jonathan’s primary election is patently mischievous.

“Our fundraising
dinner of Friday, October 29, 2010 was done with the entire
presidential campaign in view, and not solely for the prosecution of
the battle for the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) presidential ticket at
the primary election,” the organisation said.

Mr. Abu explained
that some prominent Nigerians such as Oba Otudeko, Aliko Dangote,
Abdulsamad Rabiu, Jimoh Ibrahim, and Femi Otedola, who the CNPP tagged
as “the motley crowd of Corporate Nigeria,” came to the fundraising
dinner in their individual capacity and made some donations.

He accused the CNPP
of deliberately misrepresenting the fact when it claimed that these
individuals raised N500 million; whereas, other persons, including a
number of governors, made donations at the event.

He added that the fact that those Nigerians came was indicative of the appeal of the Goodluck/Sambo ticket.

Mr. Abu added that
rather than bandying claims as well as figures that cannot be
substantiated and making innuendoes that tend to disparage innocent
entities, the CNPP should organise its fundraising dinner where it
could get similar support.

He noted that as a campaign organisation, “we are confident with our
programme to transform our country. The Goodluck/Sambo ticket is the
most attractive option for Nigerians.”