Nigeria Content Online

Alex Adebayo
Jegede, an aide to the Chairman of Ikole Local Government in Ekiti
State, is now in police custody for allegedly looting the property of
the council in the wake of last week’s change of government in the
state.

The Director
General of the Broadcasting Service of Ekiti State (BSES), Segun
Aderiye, was also on Tuesday harassed by staff of the corporation who
forcefully retrieved his official car from him.

Mr Jegede was
arrested by the police on Monday in line with the order of the state
governor, Kayode Fayemi, that political appointees holding government
property must surrender them with immediate effect. The order became
necessary after reports that some officials of the sacked government
and those in the local councils are helping themselves with funds and
property, following the sack of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)
government led by Segun Oni.

The council
official was arrested at Odo-Ayedun during a community meeting held at
the palace and he is currently in detention at the Police Divisional
Headquarters in Ikole town. Some of the council property recovered from
Mr Jegede include: rugs, window blinds, six cartons of plates, among
other items.

The council
chairman, Wole Ayeni, who was contacted via phone, claimed to be in
Abuja at the time the alleged offence was committed.

The BSES staff on
Tuesday stripped Mr Aderiye of his official car to enforce the order of
the new government, and walked him out of the corporation’s premises.

Forced to leave

The staff, most of
whom had been posted to various ministries and departments following
the problem with the station’s broadcast equipment, returned to the
corporation following the change of government in the state at the
weekend.

Mr Aderiye’s
appearance at the corporation’s premises at about noon enraged the
staff, who queried his presence at the office after the sack of the Oni
government.

The enraged staff
said Mr Aderiye must release his official car, a grey Toyota Corolla
car marked EK 11 A-42, and prevented him from leaving the premises with
the car.

The BSES workers,
who were shouting at the top of their voices, called Mr Aderiye
unprintable names and accused him of running the corporation aground
through alleged intimidation and maladministration. The new state
government has not made any pronouncement on the fate of technocrats
appointed by the last administration to run some of the parastatals.

Mr Aderiye did not answer calls placed to his mobile phone for his reaction to the incident.

The Senate Committee on Aviation has
directed the Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB) to make public its
findings of aircraft accidents that occurred in the country between
2005 and 2006 which led to the untimely demise of hundreds of air
travellers.

Explaining that the move will assist in
the prevention of any future occurrence, the committee stated that
should the reports be published on national dailies, investors in the
aviation industry and the general public will be enlightened.
“Investigations are meant to provide insight into the cause or causes
of such accidents, and possibly proffer solution to future
occurrences,” said Anyim Ude, the Committee Chairman, on Tuesday, at an
Aviation Safety Conference organized by the AIB in Lagos. “Reports of
such investigations ought to be published for public consumption so
that people can know and learn from the findings and recommendations of
such investigations.”

Mr Ude noted that the findings of the
agency as regards the accidents involving Bellview and Sosoliso
airlines in 2005 are still unpublished by the bureau, adding that it is
part of the statutory responsibility of the agency to investigate,
prevent, and assist in the revealing of air accidents and effective
management in air safety. “This is the major way the Accident and
Investigation Bureau can impact positively on aviation safety,” he
said. “For now there is absence of published reports of previous air
crashes in Nigeria. Where are the Bellview and Sosoliso crashes? Where
is the report of the ADC 2008 plane crash?.”

An under utilized agency

Mr Ude, however, admitted that the only
agency in the aviation industry that is under regulated is the bureau,
stressing that out of the 40 sections of the Civil Aviation Act 2006,
only 29 deals with accident investigation. “As part of our over sight
responsibility, the senate committee on aviation has been concerned
about issues that will promote safety, security of our airspace and
airport,” he said. “Presently, the committee has in collaboration with
an international agency embark on the Act that establish our aviation
parastatals in order to solve the problems of overlapping, assignments
of responsibilities and inconsistencies inherent in these Acts. At the
appropriate time the committee will involve and request these
parastatals for their input. In the cause of this amendment, the
committee discovered that of all the aviation parastatals, only the AIB
is under regulated because only section 29 of the Civil Aviation Act of
2006 mentioned accident out of more than 40 sections of that Act, this
is inadequate.”

Sam Oduselu, the Commissioner of the AIB, said that the agency had
concluded investigations it carried out on the accidents and that there
are constitutional recommendations before these findings will be
published, adding that the report will be published on the agency’s
website once it goes through the statutory requirements. “To the glory
of God we have been able to do a research on these accidents and we
have actually finished our report but there are statutory requirements
for it to go over and that is just what we are waiting for,” he said.
“If you noticed when he was saying that I was just laughing because I
know I have done my job. Bear with us, very soon you will see it on our
website.”

The president is
not a police officer, but he should be able to give the police free
hand and be able to supervise them, Goodluck Jonathan said yesterday in
Abuja.

Speaking at the
16th National Economic Summit at the Transcorp Hilton, he also stated
that corruption is birthed out of greed, which is innate in every human
being.

“My vision is to
build a Nigeria that all Nigerians would be proud of, because people
are losing confidence in the nation. To develop a nation built on
unity, where we will all believe in ourselves that we are one person; a
unity that can encourage sound economy, based on solid education, so
that we can move further; where there the basic infrastructures, like
power, roads and others are available; where the private sector is
viable, and security would encourage investments locally and foreign
direct investments,” he said.

Speaking on the
current state of security in the country, which has become tense
following the October 1 twin bomb blasts in Abuja and the continuous
scare of a repeat attack, President Jonathan said security issues are a
challenge to any government and Nigeria is not an exemption. He also
promised to fight kidnapping and militancy.

“What is happening
now is commercial and anyone doing something to make money will not
stop,” he said. “However, we are getting a special fund to fund the
police in order to curb all these excesses. What we have now is no
longer agitation but criminality. Amnesty has ensured that militancy
ends. Yes, we have some challenges we are addressing, but we must
separate criminality from militancy.”

A former Chief
Justice of Nigeria, Alfa Belgore, who spoke on the issue of why
corruption has thrived in Nigeria, said “most of our laws are
antiquated and the procedures in which cases are tried should be looked
into.” He said Nigeria needs “a simple and cheap” procedure which will
speed up cases.

Generate jobs

Mr Jonathan also
identified lack of consistency in planning as one of the major
challenges the country is facing in its effort to achieve national
development goals and objectives.

According to him,
the longest period the country experienced stability in the development
of the country was during the Yakubu Gowon administration, about nine
years.

“The Ministry of
National Planning would be made to play a key role in the capital
budget process next year to ensure that the budgeting procedures
tallied with the national planning objectives,” he said. “If government
must follow the Vision 20-2020 document, which has been carefully
articulated, government must allow its plans to follow the vision to
the letter,” he said.

The president, who
noted that the growth of the nation is hinged on investment in the
power sector, said if his administration is able to stabilize power
supply in the country, small and medium scale enterprises (SMEs) would
flourish and create jobs for the people.

Minister of
Finance, Segun Aganga, attributed the high level of poverty and
unemployment underlining the country’s economic situation to the boom
and bust experience in the international oil market. He said the
National Economic Management Team has been mandated to focus on job
creation through wide consultations with various stakeholders to build
a strong partnership between the private and public sectors to move the
economy forward.

Participants in the
programme included: Mr Belgore; Chairman of the Board of the NESG, Sam
Ohuabunwa; Managing Director, Legacy Pensions Nigeria Limited, Bello
Machido and Minister of National Planning, Shamusudeen Usman.

A motion to approve
the $4.427 billion loan requested by Goodluck Jonathan was dramatically
suspended yesterday in the House of Representatives after lawmakers
made clear moves to vote it down.

In a letter last
week, President Jonathan had urged the the National Assembly to approve
the amount, being the balance of the total $5.242 billion loan earlier
approved by the lawmakers. The legislators had earlier approved $915
million in April, 2010, leaving out the balance to roll up total
federal loan plan for 2010.

The amount, the
president said, will be channelled to “negotiated, appraised and
pipeline projects.” But after a prolonged debate on the motion Tuesday,
the House put the request aside for future consideration, after many
members spoke against it and voted to block the loan during preliminary
voice count.

The Speaker, Dimeji
Bankole, said the motion would be considered later because it was
“obvious that we need to do more work on this motion.” The request,
like others, has shored up concerns about reverting the nation to huge
external and internal debt profile, after struggling to ease off the
burden under the administration of former president, Olusegun Obasanjo.

Increasing debt profile

Nigeria’s local
debt profile has shot to $16 billion while foreign debt stands at about
$4 billion dollars, according to John Enoh, the Chairman of the House
Committee on Finance. The nation’s foreign reserves stands at $35
billion, an about 50 per cent drop in the last two years.

Lawmakers
questioned the relevance of the relief and the projects for which they
are earmarked for, according to the president’s proposals.

Part of the plan
includes $20 million for the development of national response to
HIV/AIDS pandemic. Another clause proposes $12 million for “state
governance capacity building project II” in 14 states of the federation
and another $15 million dollars for “national urban water sector reform
project II” in five states.

$105.5 million dollar of the sum would be applied to “economic and power sector reform,” and several other projects.

“At this age, how can we borrow money for AIDS control?” asked Ita Enang, the chairman House committee on Business and Rules.

The loan is to be
sourced from the International Development Association [IDA], African
Development Bank (ADB), Islamic Development Bank, International Fund
for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and Export Import Bank of China,
according to the president’s letter.

Lawmakers warned against hidden terms attached to the loans, urging
the House committees to give close attention to every term stated and
their desirability, before pushing for final approval.

The nation spends
N4.2 trillion every year to import food despite its rich agricultural
potential, said Gbenga Makanjuola, Chairman House of Representatives
Committee on Agriculture.

Mr. Makanjuole said
yesterday in Abuja at a workshop on agricultural biotechnology
organized by the African Agricultural Technology Foundation that prior
to the emergence of oil in the 1970s, Nigeria had been a major exporter
of agricultural commodities.

“With a Gross
Domestic Product (GDP) of about $40 billion, Nigeria is Africa’s second
largest economy, yet over two thirds of the population lives below the
poverty line of $1 per day,” he said.

He said a concerted
effort should be made to improve the performance of agriculture,
agro-processing, and trade as well as the nation’s infrastructure to
enable Nigeria take fuller advantage of emerging opportunities in the
domestic and international markets.

Technology to the rescue

Mr. Makanjuola
advocated the application of agricultural biotechnology for improved
food production, sustainable socio-economic development, food security
as well job creation in the country.

“The technology has
numerous potentials which include the ability to increase food
production, limit the use of pesticides, reduce the amount of land
required for farming and improve nutritional value of food varieties
for Nigerians,” he said.

Mr Makanjuola
allayed fears about the potentially harmful effect of genetically
modified products. He said that a biosafety bill which is currently
before the Senate will act as a national biotechnology policy. He said
it will define the modules of practice of the technology and the
handling of the products to ensure safety for human health.

“South Africa and
Burkina Faso are examples of two countries in Africa that have embraced
[genetically modified] foods with the passage of biosafety bills,” he
said.

The Nigeria Bar
Association (NBA) yesterday asked the National Assembly not to
introduce the controversial Right of First Refusal clause into the 2010
Electoral Act. The NBA said the clause would pave way for automatic
nomination tickets for federal lawmakers who wish to contest in the
2011 general elections.

Chairman of the Bar
in Abuja, Abdulrahman Atadoga Ibrahim, on Tuesday warned that any
attempt to smuggle the notion of automatic nomination tickets into the
Electoral Act would be treated as an insult to the nation and the
people. Mr Atadoga issued the warning during the commencement of the
2010/2011 FCT Judiciary legal year.

“The proposed
clause is undemocratic, in bad taste and will not augur well for the
nation if allowed to see the light of the day,” he said. “Such a clause
is another form of election rigging which the country cannot afford at
the moment.”

Jail the riggers

The NBA also called
on the federal government to immediately set up an Election Offences
Tribunal that would bring to book any person or group involved in
election rigging.

The NBA said that
it was not enough for a rigged election to be nullified and insisted
that those involved in the rigging should end up in jail to serve as a
major deterrent to other evil-minded ones.

“Election riggers are being allowed to move freely on the streets
because of absence of punitive measures,” said Mr Atadoga. “The country
cannot afford unnecessary and expensive court actions that may arise
from unfair methods of conducting elections.”

The federal
government has assured investors that the forthcoming general elections
in 2011 will not affect the nation’s investment climate, as it is
making all efforts to ensure policy continuity in the country.

The Vice President,
Namadi Sambo, gave this assurance on Tuesday, when he received energy
delegations from Nordic countries at the State House, Abuja. He said
the federal government is providing the enabling environment for
businesses to thrive, in areas such as the legal framework and the
provision of adequate security to ensure that the safety of lives and
property of Nigerians and that of investors, are protected to
international standards.

Mr Sambo restated
the administration’s commitment to ensuring free and fair elections in
the 2011 elections, by providing a level playing ground for all
aspirants, noting that with the experiences garnered by the president
and himself, “our programmes are very clear. Nigerians believe in our
programmes, and we are confident that we are very popular and there
will be continuity,” he said.

The Vice President
urged the delegation to partner with government to meet the aspirations
of the Vision 20: 2020 blueprint. He highlighted viable areas of
investment to include, the power sector, where he cited the Zungeru and
Mambilla Hydro Power projects, coal fired and thermal power plants and
their management. He also called for investments in the renewable
energy sector, the oil and gas sector and the transportation sector,
which he enumerated as roads, bridges, railways and waterways. He said
the government is facing the funding challenges for these
infrastructures through Public Private Partnership (PPP), concessional
funding, as well as bilateral funding.

Harnessing the relationships

Speaking earlier,
the Norwegian Ambassador to Nigeria, Kjell Lillerud, said that the
delegation was in the country to further advance cooperation between
the Nordic countries and Nigeria especially on the energy sector.

Expressing that the
countries have had friendly relations, Mr Lillerud stated that “they
are yet to explore the full potentials of their economic relations.” He
said the Nordic countries could impact positively on the energy sector
of Nigeria, with experiences in biological research, renewable energy
and environmental friendly technology, adding that he hoped concrete
agreements will come out from the visit, within the context of a
Memorandum of Understanding (MOU).

On his part, the
leader of the business delegation, Matti Pekkanen, Nigeria’s country
manager for the ABB (Asea Brown Boveri, a Swiss-Swedish multinational
corporation operating mainly in the power and automation technology
areas), said Nigeria is a country where the business opportunities and
the opportunities for improving the people’s lives are so vast and
concrete. He explained that they have the firm intention to enhance
more cooperation, knowledge transfer and investments into Nigeria.

Other members of
the delegation were the Ambassador of Finland, Anneli Vuorinen, and
that of Sweden, Per Lindegaarde. Others present at the meeting were the
Minister of State Power, Nuhu Wya, and several government officials.
The Nordic countries are Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden.

The Nigerian Union
of Pensioners (NUP), Ondo State chapter, yesterday faulted the recent
biometric enrollment for pensioners across the country, saying it is a
pointer to the fact that “Nigeria is a failed state”.

The pensioners’
outburst is coming on the heels of the directive given by the Permanent
Secretary from the office of the Head of Service of the federation,
that all pensioners who were not available during the biometric
exercise should report to Abuja for further enrollment. The pensioners,
however, blamed the office of the Head of Service for the shortcomings
experienced during the biometric registration, stressing that the
office lacked the technical skill to carry out such a programme.

The State Chairman
of the NUP, Eni Olotu, told his colleagues yesterday in Akure that the
action of the Head of Service was totally unfair to the pensioners. Mr
Olotu, who doubles as the Chairman of the south-west Zone of the union,
lamented that 2,000 out of the 6,000 pensioners in the state were not
registered during the biometric exercise. He noted that the inability
of the pensioners to be registered was as a result of the lack of
enough manpower and equipment brought to the state during the exercise.

“During the
registration exercise, the people who carried out the assignment came
with just two computers, which was not enough for the pensioners in the
state,” he said.

“Despite that many
of our pensioners came from a long distance for the exercise, those
posted to the state still messed up. One of the laptops being used for
the exercise was stolen. So, do you now blame our members for the head
of service’s ineptitude? It is not true that our members were not
available for the exercise. Some whose data were captured during the
exercise also have one problem on the other.”

Pondering options

The Chairman said
the directive that pensioners who were not registered go to Abuja for
another round of registration was not acceptable to the union.

“We vehemently
reject the directive that our members who were not registered should
come to Abuja. We are totally against it,” he said.

“Why should aged
people between the ages of 67 and 75 be asked to come to Abuja for
registration exercise? It is totally unfair on our members. How do you
expect people who will not collect more than N1,000 every month to now
go to Abuja?”

Mr Olotu also
pointed out that the union might be forced to protest if the issue was
not urgently resolved. “It has again been proven that Nigeria is a
failed state. There is nothing which government can do well. We have
served the country meritoriously and deserve to be treated well. The
government is only giving us our right and nothing more; it is not a
favour or privilege,” Mr Olotu said.

He hinted that the south-west zone of the union would deliberate on
the issue later in Ibadan to decide the next line of action.

The Federal
Government says it is committed to the development of more gold mines,
as part of efforts to broaden the country’s economic base and diversify
revenue sources away from oil.

Mohammed Sada, the
minister of mines and steel development, who disclosed this yesterday
in Abuja at the 2010 ministerial briefing, said a lot of progress has
been recorded with the ongoing reforms aimed at creating the desired
economic impact and contribution to the country’s gross dometic product
(GDP).

The minister, who
spoke on the theme, ‘Revitalising the Nigerian minerals and metal
sectors’, said government is working seriously towards establishing
more mines in the country.

The mines are
expected to help the country produce about 650,000 ounces of gold per
annum, considering the ongoing high level of exploration for the
mineral at various locations in the country.

“In the next two or
three years, the country is going to have more gold mines. Currently,
government is assisting in the establishment of the first major gold
mine in the country in Osun State.

“But, we have to
focus attention on the reforms and ensure that operators avoid those
things that would drive away potential investors in the industry,” he
said.

Effective regulation

As a prelude to the
effective regulation of operations in the sector, the minister said
about 10,000 cumulative applications have been processed for various
mineral titles between 2008 and 2010, out of which 6,000 have already
been approved and granted, while the ministry has supervised the
successful reclamation of two abandoned mine sites in Badawa, Kano
State, and Nsukwe, Abia State.

Besides, he said a
comprehensive mining inspectorate template has been created for proper
supervision of mining activities in the country, while a fully
automated cadastral office has been established to ensure that adequate
information about the various mineral resources available in the
country are put online at the disposal of potential foreign and local
investors.

As part of effort
to help the government diversify solutions to the perennial power
supply problems, the minister said the ministry is working with the
presidential task force on power to ensure that coal is considered a
veritable alternative source to the existing sources of power
generation and supply.

Strategy for poverty reduction

Describing Nigeria
as a country known globally for tin, columbite, and tantalite
production and export, as well as coal exploited as local energy source
and for export, the minister said the development of the nation’s
minerals has been adopted as a strategy for poverty reduction and rural
wealth generation.

In line with this
strategy, he said government has disbursed and managed a World
Bank-assisted micro grant to 86 mining co-operatives and communities,
valued at about $3million (about N450million), saying government is
targeting about 250 beneficiaries before the end of the project.

He identified lack
of reliable geological infrastructure for data generation and
dissemination as one of the problems the industry is facing, assuring
that under the reform dispensation, government has divested interest in
mining business, and concentrate on being administrator/regulator, to
allow the private sector to drive mining operations in the country.

“In view of the critical importance of steel, the steel department
is currently undertaking a critical study on ways to revamp the steel
sector, so that it can play its role in the nation’s
industrialisation,” he said, adding that government should help
mobilise the necessary funding required for the acquisition of
geosciences data, sustained mineral exploration, and institutional and
human capital development.

Africa needs a coordinated multi-country response to
tackle the menace of cross border diseases, President Goodluck Jonathan
said yesterday in Abuja.

Presenting a keynote address to declare open the
Inter-Country meeting on Cross-Border Public Health Issues, at the
Transcorp Hilton, Abuja, Mr. Jonathan said, “Diseases that cross
borders need a coordinated multi-country response. You are therefore
challenged to deliberated and agree on best practices in addressing
cross-border public health issues.”

The president who was represented by the Vice
President, Namadi Sambo, also said he was delighted that “we sister
African countries are meeting together to solve our major health
problems,” adding that as a sub region, health issues in one country
are bound to affect the neighbouring countries unless guidelines on
prevention and control are developed and implemented.

“The world is only secure if all of us are safe,” he said.

The President commended the Ministers of Health from
the various countries “for conceiving this idea of cross-border
discussions.” He also stated that with the calibre of delegates at the
deliberations, he was sure that “the outcome of the meeting would
appreciate Africa’s health challenges with a view to building bridges,
including networking and creating workable partnerships to tackle
them.”

Mr. Jonathan further disclosed that Nigeria has
placed health as a cardinal objective, stressing that a healthy nation,
creates a healthy human capacity needed for national development.

“We as a country are committed to creating an
enabling environment to ensure smooth implementation of the
recommendations from this meeting in line with the dictates of our
National health policy.”

He, therefore, directed the Ministry of Health and
the Millennium Development Goals’ office to setup a Regional Centre for
Disease Control in Nigeria as soon as possible.

The President also used the opportunity to commend
the Ministry of Health, the World Health Organisation and other
development partners for the successes achieved in the eradication of
polio and guinea worm in the country, adding that such efforts should
also be geared towards controlling diseases such as cholera,
cerebro-spinal meningitis and malaria.

Speaking earlier, the Minister of Health, Onyebuchi
Chukwu, said cross-border public health issues have persisted despite
the existence of guiding resolutions, adding that to this end countries
represented at the meeting had decided to jointly consult and
deliberate on an effective way of implementing these resolutions.

In his remark, the WHO Regional Director for Africa,
Luis Sambo, commended Nigeria for hosting the meeting, which he said
gives the countries the opportunity to share experiences and strategies
to overcome their health challenges.

He used the occasion to commend Nigeria on her
efforts to eradicate polio in the country, disclosing that Nigeria had
achieved 98 per cent reduction in polio cases, with only eight cases
recorded as at June, 2010.

Countries at the meeting include; Benin Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Niger, Chad, Cameroon and Central African Republic.