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President Goodluck
Jonathan’s administration came under severe fire yesterday after two
groups accused his government of bullying and victimisation in an
effort to destabilise his political opponents.

The Ibrahim
Babangida campaign organisation said they will remain resolute and firm
in the face of what they described as “executive brutality and
intimidation” from the presidency.

The Northern
Political Leaders Forum, known as the G-15, yesterday, asked President
Jonathan to resign, in the wake of the October 1st bombings.

Following the
arrest of its coordinator on Monday, the Ibrahim Babangida campaign
organisation also said they remain resolute and firm in the face of
“executive brutality and intimidation” from the presidency.

The group called a
press conference in Abuja, yesterday, to address the allegations
leveled against Raymond Dokpesi, who was briefly arrested by the SSS on
allegations of complicity in the twin bombings.

The deputy
coordinator of the team, Kanti Bello, said the only reason why Mr.
Dokpesi is being hunted is because he rejected the appointment as
director general of the President Goodluck Jonathan campaign
organisation.

“In rejecting the
appointment, Dokpesi informed the world of his belief in the zoning
arrangement of the PDP, where the presidency stays in the north,” Mr.
Bello said.

Resign now

The northern
group, in a statement signed by Adamu Ciroma, also called Mr. Dokpesi’s
arrest a “desperate attempt to validate President Jonathan’s hasty
investigations and prove his predetermined theory right.”

The lengthy
statement rounded off by denouncing Mr. Jonathan’s administration,
saying he was “incapable of leading the nation fairly and that he is
desperate enough to want to hang mass murder around the neck of unnamed
Northerners to achieve his second term.”

The group said Mr. Jonathan should, therefore, resign or face possible impeachment proceedings in the National Assembly.

Last week’s bomb
blast in Abuja has taught residents of the Federal Capital Territory
(FCT) to learn to take extra security measures by sleeping with one eye
wide open, such that they would not hesitate to push the panic button
at the slight suspicion of any threat to their safety.

Yesterday, there
was massive panic around the vicinity of the NNPC Towers, the
headquarters of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, following
rumours of a bomb scare within the imposing edifice, located along the
ever-busy Herbert Macaulay Way, in the Central Business District of the
city.

Most commercial
vehicle operators and other motorists who saw a huge build-up of
vehicles and human traffic around the NNPC building went to town with
the information that the masterminds of last Friday’s bomb blast had,
perhaps, relocated their trade to the building.

According to the
rumour, work had been forced to hastily close for the day, while staff
were being hurriedly evacuated as a result of the “incident.”

Majority of the
people around the vicinity of the building did not wait to confirm the
veracity of the speculation, as they made frantic turns in the opposite
direction in the bid to escape.

Security drill it was

Words spread fast,
as the whole town was engulfed in palpable panic, with some people who
may not have gone near the area telling others they met heading in the
direction of the NNPC building to make a detour to other places.

But NNPC’s
spokesperson, Levi Ajuonuma, in a terse response to NEXT inquiries,
asked members of the public to disregard the rumour for what it is.

“Please, disregard
such rumour. We did a simple routine security drill and people see it
as a bomb threat,” Mr. Ajuonuma said in a text message.

NEXT gathered that,
as part of the need to prevent a repeat of last week’s ugly incident,
most key government establishments and organisations have taken extra
precaution by carrying out various measures to update their security
systems, to prepare them for any posssibility, including a bomb
incident.

It was learnt that
as part of its security precaution, the security department of the
corporation had organised a programme to reinforce its security system
to ascertain safety of staff and members of the public.

Part of the measures, NEXT learnt, was to ensure that all vehicles
attempting to enter the premises were subjected to a thorough extra
security checks, an exercise that caused a long traffic snarl around
the entrance of the headquarters building.

The Action Congress
of Nigeria (ACN) has advised President Goodluck Jonathan not to jump to
conclusions over Friday’s bomb attacks in Abuja, demanding that
investigators must be allowed to do a thorough job so they can fish out
the culprits.

This is coming just
as the Lagos State House of Assembly passed a resolution on Monday
demanding the apprehension of the perpetrators of the bomb explosion in
Abuja that almost marred the nation’s 50th Independence celebrations and
claimed about 10 lives.

The resolution,
passed by the lawmakers after deliberating on the event under matters of
urgent public importance, argued that many criminal acts have been
perpetrated in Nigeria with impunity and it is becoming a norm.

ACN’s national
publicity secretary, Lai Mohammed, in a statement, warned that “hasty
conclusions, like the one in which the President said the attacks were
not perpetrated by MEND but by a small group of terrorists outside
Nigeria, is capable of hindering investigations.

“This reminds us of
what the then President Olusegun Obasanjo said when Alfred Dikibo was
murdered on February 6th, 2004, that armed robbers killed the PDP
stalwart, even when no investigation had yet been conducted into the
murder! Such statements from highly-placed personalities as the
president are diversionary and have a way of prejudicing
investigations.”

The party also
expressed the hope that the federal government would not capitalise on
the bomb attacks to target the opposition, especially in view of the
kind of the strong rhetoric emanating from the presidency.

It said there is no
doubt that Nigerians were unanimous in condemning the killing of
innocent people for whatever reason, “and we join them in condemning in
the strongest possible terms the senseless killings in Abuja on October
1st. Nothing in the world can justify the mindless shedding of innocent
blood,” the ACN statement read.

The party, however,
expressed concern at the complacency of the country’s security agencies
which, despite admitting being alerted by foreign intelligence agencies
and with a prior warning from MEND, still failed to prevent the
explosions that spoilt the country’s 50th independence anniversary
celebrations.

Expressing worry
over the nation’s poor security, the party wondered that “if they
(security agencies) cannot ensure the protection of lives and property
now, what assurance is there that they can do so during the 2011 general
elections and help provide a conducive atmosphere for the conduct of a
free, fair, and credible elections?

“While it is
reassuring that the president has promised to overhaul the security
system, we must warn that overhauling the system does not necessarily
mean engaging in cosmetic changes like the recent change of guards in
the military, the police, and the SSS. It must involve issues of
training, equipment, and conducive work environment, among others,” it
said.

The lawmakers advised the federal government to enhance its security
systems and also called on Nigerians to condemn the incident and demand
nothing short of a thorough investigation that will yield a logical
conclusion.

President Goodluck Jonathan yesterday
asked Babatunde Fafunwa, former minister of education, to apologise to
Nigerians over the failure of the 6-3-3-4 system of education.

Speaking during an interactive session
at the opening of the Presidential Stakeholder’s Summit, at the
Transcorp Hilton, Abuja, he said the system has failed to provide the
solutions to the Nigerian educational system.

From Mr. Jonathan’s position, there are
strong indications that the Presidential Summit may recommend reverting
the educational system in the country to what it used to be.

Self reliant youth

The 6-3-3-4 system of education came
into being in 1983 with the primary focus of meeting the educational
needs of its citizenry and equipping the youth with skills that will
make them self reliant.

Twenty-five years after, a new
educational system called the Universal Basic Education (UBE), otherwise
known as the 9-3-4, has been re-introduced, whose curriculum is
expected to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2020.

Florence Fabian, a participant at the
event, said the problems associated with education are not only peculiar
to education alone, but a general problem that affects the Nigerian
society, which can only be solved with good leadership.

She rhetorically asked if the president
was prepared to provide the required leadership that will transform the
system, since this was the solution the educational system needed.

Contributing to the debate, Ovie
Emmanuel Sideso Abe, corroborated Ms. Fabian’s view and urged President
Jonathan to do something different in moving education out of the
doldrums.

A traditional ruler, who spoke on the
need to “de-politicise education so that proper quality education is
handed down to Nigerians,” also dwelt on the need for comprehensive data
collection and quality access and equity in education, saying that this
may go a long way in improving Nigeria’s education system.

He called for a joint funding of
education and streamlined quality of education, suggesting that this was
one of the ways of repositioning education in Nigeria.

Faruk Lawan, chairman, house committee
on education, also supported joint funding, and went ahead to advocate
parental contributions, lamenting that the value of education and the
curriculum that is taught in higher institutions have become irrelevant
to the overall needs of the country.

The lawmaker discussed the issue of corruption in the education sector and called for accountability in the system.

Julius Okojie, the executive secretary,
National Universities Commission (NUC), spoke on the low quality of
entrance into universities, and the need for strict regulations.

Mr. Okojie said morality on the part of
higher education administrators is very important, stating that without
“morality there can’t be standard in the system.”

He further spoke on the quality of
lectures in the different institutions, and noted that “no system in the
world can develop when those doing the teaching are not qualified.”

Pitfalls of education

Dibu Ojerinde, JAMB executive secretary,
spoke on the factors militating against education in Nigeria,
especially the issue of space availability, discrimination in course
choices, and the quality of teachers, stating that “if these issues
aren’t resolved, education cannot move forward.”

He also spoke on the inconsistent
academic calendars and the years of graduation, and said “government
must do something to regularise it.”

Mr. Ojerinde further lamented the level
of examination malpractices in the education system and noted that
adequate punishment must be meted to culprits. He further attributed the
mass failure in the school system to lack of adequate teaching and
teaching infrastructure, adding that most teachers do not cover the
syllabus.

“It is difficult to curtail exam
malpractices when they can giraffe in open halls. If exams are well
conducted, we will get the best results,” he said.

He added that public exams bodies, like
WASEC and NECO, which are the gate keepers, would have the best results
if the right things are done.

Addison Wokocha, registrar, Teachers
Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN), blamed teachers at all the tiers
of education, as been responsible for the poor education foundation in
the country.

He lamented that state governments do
not employ qualified teachers to teach in the respective state schools
and noted that in most cases, the state governments resort to deploying
members of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) to teach in state
schools, even when they are not qualified to teach.

The TRCN scribe further said they have
taken the decision to stop the deployment of unqualified teachers to
teach in any Nigerian school.

Tobacco industry watchdog, Corporate Accountability
International, and its allies, on Monday, released a report documenting
widespread tobacco industry interference in the implementation of the
global tobacco treaty (formally known as the World Health Organisation
Framework Convention on Tobacco Control).

The report’s release kicks off a string of grassroots
actions in dozens of countries leading up to November’s treaty meeting
in Punta del Este, Uruguay. At stake are nearly 200 million lives – the
number of lives the World Health Organisation projects would be spared
by 2050 if the treaty takes full effect – and the tobacco industry
interference remains the single greatest obstacle to this objective.
During this year’s 10th International Week of Resistance to Tobacco
Transnationals, which began on Monday, the anti-tobacco groups say that
their actions will expose industry obstructionism in countries around
the globe which they hope would build momentum going into the November
meeting.

Showing solidarity

The Week is also an opportunity for the global
community to speak out in solidarity with Uruguay; Philip Morris
International is suing Uruguay for implementing a treaty provision
requiring stronger cigarette pack health warning labels. “Big Tobacco
first tried to bully the global community out of advancing this treaty.
Now it’s attempting to bully countries out of enforcing it,” said Gigi
Kellett, the Director of Corporate Accountability International’s
campaign Challenging Big Tobacco. “Still, our findings indicate that the
industry’s resolve to defy the law is matched only by civil society’s
resolve to end industry intimidation,” he said.

The report cited some of the tactics used by the
tobacco industry to undermine treaty implementation to include the
donation of $200 million to the Columbian government by Philip Morris
International following the adoption of treaty implementation
legislation to “address areas of mutual interest;” the appointment of a
former British American Tobacco executive, Kenneth Clarke, as Justice
Minister – he would oversee a recent lawsuit by BAT and its competitors
against a new law cracking down on tobacco product displays; and
engaging in a string of lawsuits regarding tobacco product displays,
packaging, and health warning labels from Australia and the Philippines
to Norway. All of these tactics, the groups say, are in direct defiance
of the treaty, specifically its Article 5.3, which deems such industry
interference to be in fundamental conflict with the treaty’s public
health aims.

Slow progress

The report also finds that Article 5.3 is being used
to great effect globally to insulate the treaty’s implementation against
the tobacco industry. Action ranges from Mauritius becoming the first
country to ban all tobacco industry “corporate social responsibility”
schemes to Panama’s prohibiting government agencies and officials from
accepting tobacco industry contributions. “Those countries, large and
small, that refuse to be intimidated, are emboldening others to follow
their lead,” said Philip Jakpor, spokesperson for Environmental Rights
Action in Nigeria and the Network for Accountability of Tobacco
Transnationals (NATT).

“The success of the November treaty meeting will be
measured by the number of Parties that return to their countries with a
plan to root out industry interference. Millions of lives are on the
line,” Mr Jakpor said. In Nigeria, the Senate Committee on Health held a
Public Hearing on the Tobacco Control Bill in July last year and the
bill is still awaiting passage into law at senate’s plenary. Each year,
tobacco kills more than five million people and 80 percent of those
deaths are in low-income countries, where treaty implementation
represents some of the first efforts at tobacco control.

One hundred and seventy-one countries have ratified the global
tobacco treaty since its entry into force in 2005. Today, the treaty
protects more than 87 percent of the world’s population.

A former chief of defence staff and retired general, Andrew Azazi, has been appointed as the new National Security Adviser.

Mr. Azazi replaces
Mohammed Aliyu Gusau who resigned his position last month to contest the
2011 presidential elections. He takes over from Kayode Are, a retired
colonel who had held the post in acting capacity after Mr. Gusau’s exit.

In a statement
yesterday, the spokesperson to President Goodluck Jonathan, Ima Niboro,
said the appointment is with immediate effect.

Rich military career

The spokesperson said Mr. Azazi joins the present “administration from a rich and illustrious career in the military”.

Mr. Azazi was the
chief of army staff and later chief of defence staff under the late
President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua’s administration.

The new presidential
aide, who hails from Bayelsa State as the President, was commissioned
into the Nigeria Army as an intelligence officer and rose to the
position of Director of military intelligence, DMI, from where he was
appointed General Officer Commanding, GOC 1 Infantry Division before
becoming chief of army staff. He retired from service on August 28,
2008.

According to the
spokesperson, Mr. Jonathan thanked the outgoing acting NSA, Mr. Are, a
former director-general of the State Security Services, SSS under the
Olusegun Obasanjo administration for his services.

The appointment of
Mr. Azazi as new chief security adviser is coming a few days after a
twin bomb exploded in Abuja during activities marking the country’s 50th
anniversary celebrations. The Movement for the Emancipation of the
Niger Delta (MEND) had claimed responsibility for the bombings. However,
Mr. Jonathan blamed the attacks on a foreign terror group with local
backings.

Justice Okon Abang
of the Federal High Court Ikoyi, Lagos, yesterday discharged and
acquitted Amos Adamu, FIFA and CAF executive committee member alongside
ousted President of the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF), Aminu
Maigari and twenty seven officials of the NFF alleged to have defied an
order of the court restraining them from conducting elections into the
board of the federation.

The judge discharged the accused on the grounds that they were not properly served the orders of the court.

Mr. Abang explained
that though the court recognized that the NFF officials and members of
the Electoral Commission disobeyed the court, the conditions before
committal proceedings can be filed were not met by counsel to the
National Association of Nigerian Footballers (NANF), Aideloje Bello.

Meanwhile, the court
has fixed October 25, 2010 for hearing of the notice of preliminary
objection in the main suit which was pending before it.

NANF’s grudge

The association had
filed the suit against the football governing body and others, alleging
that the process of the election was perfected without recourse to its
members contrary to the clear wordings of FIFA statute and other extant
laws relating to football administration in Nigeria.

Joined as
co-defendants in the suit are NFF’s sacked president, Aminu Maigari;
President of the Nigerian Premier League (NPL) Board, Davidson Owumi;
the Minister of Sports, Ibrahim Isa Bio; Director General of Sports in
the Federal Sports Ministry; Patrick Ekeji and NFF’s electoral committee
chairman, Uthman Mustapha.

Mr. Abang had
earlier on held that it would be improper to allow the elections to take
place when there was a pending motion before them court. Specifically,
the court ordered parties to maintain status quo (ante bellum) pending
the determination of NANF’s motion.

The court had been
petitioned by NANF to restrain the newly elected body of the NFF from
assuming office because there had been a pending motion before a court
seeking to restrain the conduct of the elections that brought them into
office. All the parties were ordered to maintain the status quo until
the determination of the suit.

Global funding for
malaria is less than half the $4.9 billion needed in 2010 to prevent
and treat the disease that kills around 850,000 people a year, a study
showed on Saturday.

Researchers writing
in The Lancet medical journal said that 21 countries — including 12 in
Africa — now get enough or nearly enough donor help to control disease.

However, 50 countries where most people at risk of the disease live do not get enough funding to fight malaria.

“Our analysis
identified 10 African countries and five in Asia that are short of
necessary funds and have low domestic income,” said Bob Snow of the
geographic medicine centre at the Kenya Medical Research Institute in
Nairobi, who led the study.

The researchers
assessed the level of malaria risk for 93 countries, where the disease
is endemic and calculated the financial requirements to control it.

They found that international financing for malaria control has risen to $1.94 billion this year from $0.73 billion in 2007.

The Roll Back Malaria advocacy group estimates $4.9 billion is needed in 2010 to adequately control malaria.

According to the World Health Organisation, about 3.3 billion people
— half of the world’s population — are at risk of malaria, which is
spread by mosquitoes.

The 19th
Commonwealth Games were declared open on Sunday in a spectacular
ceremony that should help repair the damage to India’s image caused by
a calamitous build-up to the sporting festival.

The preparations
for the $6 billion (3 billion pounds) “friendly games” have been marred
by a series of setbacks to India’s ambition of showing off its soft
power by hosting its biggest sporting event for nearly three decades.

Organisers are
hoping to put all that behind them over the next 11 days of sporting
competition between mostly former British colonies but there were still
boos on Sunday from the crowd for chief Games organiser Suresh Kalmadi.

Britain’s Prince
Charles, who was greeted with chants of “India! India!,” read out a
message from his mother Queen Elizabeth, the head of the Commonwealth,
and India’s President Pratibha Patil was also given a prominent role.

“I am delighted to
declare the Games open,” said the Prince after delivering the message
which had travelled in the Queen’s Baton relay from London on a 190,000
kms journey through the 71 nations and territories of the Commonwealth.

President Patil
then gave her own address, concluding to huge cheers from the 60,000
crowd in the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium by saying: “The Commonwealth
Games now really are open, let the Games begin!” Cheers replace jeers
Those cheers were a stark contrast to the jeers that greeted Kalmadi
when he gave his speech but in keeping with a festive and friendly
atmosphere in the stadium, illustrated when the Pakistan team were
given a rousing reception despite the tense relations between the
neighbours.

The huge security operation around the stadium and city involving
some 100,000 police and military personnel was a reminder of the safety
concerns that kept some athletes away from the Games.

As part of activities to commemorate one year of the
proclamation of Amnesty for Niger Delta militants by the Federal Government,
the former armed militant group leaders would today visit victims of last
Friday’s Independence Day’s bomb blast by yet to identified persons.

The former militia leaders are expected to first converge
on the site of the dastardly bombings, where they would publicly condemn the
action, proceeding to visit the wounded
victims of the bomb blasts currently recuperating in different hospitals in
Abuja.

Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta and Chief
Executive Officer of the Amnesty Programme, Timi Alaibe, who gave this
indication yesterday in Abuja, declared
that so far the programme has been a resounding success given the return of
peace and security in the once volatile Niger Delta region.

Mr. Alaibe, who spoke last night through his Media
Assistant, Henry Ugbolue, named erstwhile militia leaders expected at join in
the condolence visit to include
Government Ekpemupolo, also known as ‘Tompolo’; Victor Ben (Boyloaf), Ateke
Tom, Fara Dagogo, John Togo, ‘General’ Shoot Asight, Pastor Reuben, ‘General’
Eziekel, ‘General’ Joshua Miccaival, Bonney Gawei, ‘General’ Aboy, ‘General’
Ogunbos, and ‘General’ Africa.

According to Mr. Ugbolue, the former militant group
leaders would also use the occasion to publicly denounce the recent twin
bombings in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), in which at least seventeen
people lost their lives, with several others wounded.

“Having disarmed and embraced the offer of amnesty
from the federal government a year ago, the leaders of the former militant
groups in the Niger Delta have since registered their disgust at the Abuja
bombings and are poised to use the opportunity of the commemoration of one year
of amnesty proclamation to debunk insinuations that agitators in the Niger
Delta were involved”, Mr. Ugbolue said.

.

To buttress the fact about a new dawn in the Niger Delta
region following the success of the presidential amnesty programme, the Special
Adviser pointed out that Nigeria’s crude oil production has risen from an all
time low capacity of 700,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 2.3 million bpd, apart
from incidences of kidnapping in the core Niger Delta States stopped, while
illegal oil bunkering has drastically reduced and construction work on critical
infrastructures like the East-West road resumed and now being fast-tracked.

He said that 20,192 ex-militants have so far turned in
huge cache of arms and ammunitions and are now being rehabilitated and reintegrated
into the society.

“As at today, 5,533 ex-militants have received
non-violence transformational trainings and are now being posted to skill
acquisition centres and institutions across the country and abroad. The process
of rehabilitation and reintegration is continuing”, he said.

—-Forwarded Message—-

As part of activities to commemorate one year of the
proclamation of Amnesty for Niger Delta militants by the Federal Government,
the former armed militant group leaders would today visit victims of last
Friday’s Independence Day’s bomb blast by yet to identified persons.

The former militia leaders are expected to first converge
on the site of the dastardly bombings, where they would publicly condemn the
action, proceeding to visit the wounded
victims of the bomb blasts currently recuperating in different hospitals in
Abuja.

Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta and Chief
Executive Officer of the Amnesty Programme, Timi Alaibe, who gave this
indication yesterday in Abuja, declared
that so far the programme has been a resounding success given the return of
peace and security in the once volatile Niger Delta region.

Mr. Alaibe, who spoke last night through his Media
Assistant, Henry Ugbolue, named erstwhile militia leaders expected at join in
the condolence visit to include
Government Ekpemupolo, also known as ‘Tompolo’; Victor Ben (Boyloaf), Ateke
Tom, Fara Dagogo, John Togo, ‘General’ Shoot Asight, Pastor Reuben, ‘General’
Eziekel, ‘General’ Joshua Miccaival, Bonney Gawei, ‘General’ Aboy, ‘General’
Ogunbos, and ‘General’ Africa.

According to Mr. Ugbolue, the former militant group
leaders would also use the occasion to publicly denounce the recent twin
bombings in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), in which at least seventeen
people lost their lives, with several others wounded.

“Having disarmed and embraced the offer of amnesty
from the federal government a year ago, the leaders of the former militant
groups in the Niger Delta have since registered their disgust at the Abuja
bombings and are poised to use the opportunity of the commemoration of one year
of amnesty proclamation to debunk insinuations that agitators in the Niger
Delta were involved”, Mr. Ugbolue said.

.

To buttress the fact about a new dawn in the Niger Delta
region following the success of the presidential amnesty programme, the Special
Adviser pointed out that Nigeria’s crude oil production has risen from an all
time low capacity of 700,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 2.3 million bpd, apart
from incidences of kidnapping in the core Niger Delta States stopped, while
illegal oil bunkering has drastically reduced and construction work on critical
infrastructures like the East-West road resumed and now being fast-tracked.

He said that 20,192 ex-militants have so far turned in
huge cache of arms and ammunitions and are now being rehabilitated and reintegrated
into the society.

“As at today, 5,533 ex-militants have received
non-violence transformational trainings and are now being posted to skill
acquisition centres and institutions across the country and abroad. The process
of rehabilitation and reintegration is continuing”, he said.