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Ondo State Governor, Olusegun Mimiko, yesterday
constituted the governing council of the Ondo State University of
Science and Technology (OSUTECH) with a promise to start operation at a
temporary site.

The Governor also said he would ensure that the institution becomes one of the best in science and technology in the country.

He noted that his administration would not allow its
commitment to the new university to affect the spate of development in
other institutions in the country.

While calling for cooperation among host communities
of the university, Mr. Mimiko said there could be no progress in an
environment of rancour .

He pointed out that with the caliber of people that
made up the governing council, the institution would be transformed
into a world class in a matter of time.

“If we cannot start the institution at the permanent
site, I can assure you that the institution will kick- off at the
temporary site. Our administration is committed to the development of
education”.

The National Universities Commission (NUC), had
withdrawn the operational license of the institution because of
concerns about the school’s academic performance and admissions
policies.

The Institution had not commenced academic activities
since it was formally recognised in 2008 and all application forms of
the school’s candidates had been sent to be absorbed by the nearby
Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba-Akoko.

The school was set up by the Agagu-led government to
pacify the people from his area who were clamouring for the
establishment of a tertiary institution in their constituency.

Mr. Mimiko, however, said that his administration
would not go into negotiations with the striking unions in the state
owned Polytechnic, known as Rufus Giwa polytechnics Owo.

According to him, government will not enter into
negotiations with the unions because their demands were unnecessary at
this period.

He noted that despites assurances given to the unions in the institution, they have failed to reason with government.

“We will not enter into any negotiations with the
striking workers. If they like they should resume. They are demanding
for a new pay rise which has not been effected by any state,” Mr.
Mimiko added.

Academic Staff Union of Polytechnic [ASUP] and the
Non-Academic Staff Union [NASU] of the institution had few months ago
embarked on an indefinite strike over the failure of the state
government to effect the payment of their monetization arrears by the
college’s management.

At a round table discussion organized by the state
government, The polytechnic workers rejected the government offer on
the basis that their counterparts at the sister Adekunle Ajasin
University [AAU] Akungba-Akoko are enjoying the full payment of the
monetization since April.

The workers had insisted on full payment of 53.7
percent monetization, but the state government resolved on 35 percent.
In his speech, the chancellor of the institution, the Olugbo of Ugbo
kingdom, Federick Eniti Akinrutan urged indigenes of the university
community to contribute their quota to the development of the
institution.

Mr. Akinrutan said the state government that the
governing council of the institution would work assiduously towards the
development of the institution.

Atiku Abubakar, a
presidential aspirant of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has said
that Goodluck Jonathan’s claim that zoning does not exist is ludicrous.

The former Vice
President said the principle of zoning and rotation of power is the
very foundation upon which the PDP was built as a party.

“It is either
President Jonathan is not a member of the PDP or is living in denial of
the same principle of zoning which saw his emergence as Vice President
in 2007,” he said.

He said for
avoidance of doubt, the PDP Constitution is borrowed from the federal
character provision of the 1999 Constitution as amended.

He referred
President Jonathan to Section 7.2.C of the PDP Constitution, which
states “in pursuance of the principle of equity, justice and fairness,
the party shall adhere to the policy of rotation and zoning of party
and public elective offices, and it shall be enforced by the
appropriate executive committee at all levels.” He promised to mail a
copy of the PDP Constitution to the president.

Former governor of Oyo State, Rasidi
Ladoja, has described the current leadership of the state as
illiterates, saying his desire to dislodge the illiterates from the
state’s Government House informs his decision to contest in the next
governorship election.

Mr Ladoja, who was speaking at a
special lecture organized to mark his 66th birthday in Ibadan at the
weekend, said he was going to run for the office of state governor even
if the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), his current party, refuses him
the ticket.

“As I said, I have no choice nowadays, because of my children, to fight and get the glory of Oyo State back.

“If it is the quest of the people, at
the appropriate time, we will tell you the direction we are going. I
will contest. I will not loot the treasury. I will not betray your
trust. I will work assiduously for you all. I have said it; I will
contest with or without PDP,” he said.

He expressed worries that thugs have
taken over the running of the state, having successfully eased out the
best brains, urging the people to rise up to the task of taking the
power back from them.

“How did we get to this stage today?
The ball is in the court of all of us today. We must get them out of
that place. I told people that I am not afraid of death. The average
life-span in Nigeria is between 54 and 66. I am a father, I am a
grandfather. So I have decided that whatever is left for me will be
used on this struggle because I don’t want my grandchildren to be led
by thugs.

“One thing that I am grateful for is
that I gave good governance to the people of Oyo State when I was in
government. I did not add one block to my house, I did not add one
extra car to my fleet of cars and I did not add a plot to my estate. I
swear, I did not. So our intention is to let people know today that it
is a fight that we must fight, if we must get the government back from
the illiterates for the enlightened. We must be ready.” Rescue team
Adeniyi Akintola, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), who gave the
birthday lecture, however, scored all those who have governed of the
state in the last 12 years low in terms of quality governance,
suggesting that the state needs a rescue team to get it out of the
current doldrums.

In a lecture, titled “50 Years of
Independence in Nigeria, Oyo State as a Pace Setter”, Mr Akintola
traced the problem of Oyo State to leadership, stating that “no pace
has been set and none is being contemplated” for her.

Specifically speaking on the last 12
years of our nation’s democracy, the senior lawyer said Oyo has been
bedevilled by rudderless leadership, who have failed to give it any
meaningful development.

“Virtually all the development projects
the state can boast of presently are the legacies of the late Chief
Obafemi Awolowo, General David Jemibewon and Chief Bola Ige, all of
whom worked tirelessly to champion the cause of the sustainable growth
and development of the state during their respective eras,” he said.

“Frankly speaking, the present day Oyo
State only sets the pace in culpable atrocities and evil deeds,
unbridled official corruption, inept leadership, massive election
rigging, institutional decay and gross underdevelopment.” He noted
further that the state has received several billions of naira in
statutory allocations since 1999, without anything tangible to show for
it, saying “under the present dispensation, selfless service and
commitment to the cause of the state on the part of the leaders are now
a thing of the past, with an attendant leadership failure now
militating against the sustainable growth and development of the state”.

The only way out, he explained, was for the political elite in the
south-west of the country to wake up from their slumber and wrestle
power from the current crop of leaders who have failed to give the
state, the political headquarters of the region, the required direction.

A presidential
aspirant on the platform of Social Democratic Mega Party (SDMP), Pat
Utomi has expressed strong commitment to the initiative of a group of
24 political leaders of thought who plan to present common candidates
at the next general elections.

He also said that
though he is currently the party’s chairman, his presidential
aspiration and the platform for its actualization is purely dependent
on the success of the new alliance of progressive politicians in the
country.

Addressing Mega
Summit Strategy Team in Lagos at the weekend, Mr Utomi said he will be
making a formal declaration of his intent to run for office of the
president immediately after the meeting of progressive leaders of
thought to be hosted by Anthony Enahoro in Benin, Edo State capital on
October 7th.

He added that his
desire to run for the presidency would be predicated on the plan by
some political groups to present a formidable front in the presidential
elections.

“My desire to run
for the office of the president is predicated on the momentum that will
be generated by leaders of conscience towards producing formidable
front,” Mr Utomi said. “I have a duty to my conscience and posterity
and shall seek to prosecute that obligation in the present circumstance
on the granite coalition of genuine patriots and parties committed to
redeeming Nigeria.” Too weak to matter The presidential aspirant said
though he has been under pressure from many quarters to contest the
elections, no single force can dislodge the PDP from power.

“Though I appear to be under serious pressure from many quarters to
run, as things stand today, no single patriotic force can by itself
neutralize the antics of the ruling cabal in the country. So, we are
committed to the Kenya model of patriotic alliance that can provide a
granite coalition and formidable front capable of ousting the power
mongers in Nigeria.” Mr Utomi also announced the recent reconciliation
between the leadership of his party, Social Democratic Mega Party and
Rasheed Shitta Bey led Mega Party Progressive Platform, adding that the
two groups are already “perfecting strategies with other progressive
platforms to face the 2011 elections as a block.” He, however, promised
a coalition government of national unity if the patriotic alliance wins
the forthcoming presidential election.

The Anambra State Election Tribunal,
sitting in Awka, the state capital, has once again upheld the
re-election of the state governor, Peter Obi, as declared by the
Independent National Electoral Commission on February 7 this year.

Victor Anigbata, the candidate of the
National Solidarity Democratic Party (NSDP) in the February 6, 2010,
gubernatorial election in the state, had filed a suit at the tribunal
against the election of Obi and urged it to nullify the outcome of that
election on the grounds that it was not in compliance with the
electoral Act and the constitution.

But the five-man tribunal panel headed
by Pius Damulak, last weekend, in a unanimous judgment read by one of
them, Michael Akoja, which lasted for about eight hours, held that the
petitioner woefully failed to prove his case and thus dismissed the
petition for lack of merit.

The tribunal also held that Mr Obi’s
election fully complied with the Electoral Law 2006, as well as with
the 1999 constitution of Nigeria.

According to the judges, Mr Obi’s
declaration and return by INEC as winner of the gubernatorial poll,
contrary to the petitioners’ claims, was in compliance with the
provisions of section 179 of the constitution, especially sub-sections
2 and 3.

The judges also held that the
petitioners failed to prove that the election was substantially marred
by irregularities as they claimed, as according to them, the
petitioners brought only two witnesses who testified in the court and
there was no eligible voter who came to court to say he went to vote on
the election day but was prevented from voting, nor did the petitioners
tender in the court any voters’ register to prove their claim that the
register used in the conduct of the election did not contain names of
the registered voters in the state.

Abuse of process

The judges declared
that they were bound by their earlier decision in a similar petition
brought by the Hope Democratic Party’s (HDP) deputy governorship
candidate, Mike Okoye, wherein the latter challenged the outcome of the
election.

Contrary to the
petitioners’ claims, the judges held that Mr Obi, who contested the
election under the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) platform,
secured a quarter of the total valid votes cast in 15 out of the 21
local government areas of the state, meaning that he met the spread as
required under the constitution.

Shortly before
announcing that the judgement would be read by Mr Akoja, chairman of
the tribunal, Pius Damulak, had dismissed a motion on notice brought by
the petitioner urging the tribunal to abandon the petition.

The tribunal held
that it was an abuse of court process for a party to apply that a judge
should discontinue in a matter which date had been fixed for judgment
as, according to them, the action amounted to an attempt to arrest the
judgment.

Counsel to the petitioner, Ejike Ekwunze, said he was satisfied with the judgement.

The Pharmaceutical
Society of Nigeria (PSN), Ondo State Chapter, at the weekend protested
what they called ‘unmitigated discrimination’ between pharmacists and
other medical personnel by the state government.

The union noted
that the inequitable policy of the government, which places pharmacists
in Category B in the employment of medical personnel, as against their
medical doctor colleagues, who are placed in Category A, is unnecessary.

The State Chairman
of the PSN, Samuel Oluwaoromipin Adekola, who spoke in Akure, Ondo
State, at the celebration of this year’s World Pharmacy Day, said the
categorization was unacceptable to pharmacists in the state.

He added that the action of the state government was capable of causing disaffection between the two professionals.

“The association
has sent a memo to Governor Olusegun Mimiko on the need to address the
anomaly that is capable of causing crisis in the medical sector in the
state,” he said. “We want to state that the training of pharmacists was
never inferior to that of doctors.

“The Pharmaceutical
Society of Nigeria will like to inform Mr Mimiko that the latest
Pharmacy academic qualification in Nigeria is the Doctor of Pharmacy
Degree (Pharm D), a six-year university academic programme like the
Doctor of Medicine (MBBS degree).

Correct anomaly

“We, therefore,
wish to call on the governor to correct this anomaly, bearing in mind
the negative impact this grievous mistake may have on the various good
programmes of his administration in the health sector of the state,
particularly at a time when the federal government is sparing no effort
at achieving harmony in the health sector of our nation to the benefit
of our patients.”

Mr Adekola advised
Mr Mimiko to follow the footstep of Goodluck Jonathan, whom he said
recently set up a multidisciplinary committee to address various
anomalies among practitioners in the medical sector.

“Here in Ondo
State, the latest categorization has not been fair to pharmacists and
pharmaceutical practices. There is no basis for the discrimination. It
is appalling and we have reported the matter to the government,” he
said.

The chairman said that though members of the society do not believe
in going on strike to resolve the matter, they may declare
pharmaceutical services closed if the government refuses to address the
issue.

There are about 800,000 companies in Nigeria registered between June 2004 and 2010, the Corporate Affairs Commission says.
Garba Abubakar, the Special Adviser to the Registrar General of the commission, disclosed this at the weekend.
Mr. Abubakar attributed the growth in the registration of companies to the deployment of information and communications technologies registration.
“The total number of registered companies we have today is in the range of 800,000. There are 2.8million business names and about 38 000 cooperative groups,” he said. “Every month we register about 2000 companies, in a year we register between 25,000 to 30,000 companies. We have been doing that consistently since 2004.”
Mr. Abubakar further stated that the agency received an average of three thousand requests for name reservation per day, but some reserved names are often not registered.
“Before 2004 company registration was done manually,” he said. “Apart from checking for names, registration and generation of certificate was being done manually. Incorporation process was often duplicated, because of this and given the increasing number of companies being registered in the country from less a record of less than 200,000 when the company was created in 2001 to about 6 to 700,000 in 2004 when the online registration started, the Commission decided to deploy eRegistration.
“Management now adopted to design software for that purpose. From 2004 till date, registration of companies is done electronically through a workflow ranging from reservation of name up to generation of certificates.”
Moving into fibre optics
Mr Abubakar also noted that the commission had used Very Small Aperture Terminal, VSAT for its internet connection but that with the increased growth in business, the service is no longer adequate and that arrangements are in top gear to migrate to fibre optics platform.
“When we started, we were relying solely on VSAT to link all offices in the 36 states of the federation but it has its own challenges. Connectivity is a problem because unlike in advanced countries where ICT infrastructure is available, they have connected not to VSAT but fibre optics connection all over,” he said.
“So, because of the frequent occurrence of cyber downtime and the issues of connectivity, the commission decided that we should migrate from the VSAT platform to fibre optics. We have decided that five offices at the moment will be linked to the new service platform.” He said the contract has been awarded to Globacom to provide cyber optics to the company so that their offices in Lagos, Kaduna Port Harcourt, Enugu and Benin will soon be using fibre optics. It is expected the offices will be connected by December.
“We will discard VSAT because of inherent problems. That is the first stage and by next year all the other offices will be on fibre optics instead of VSAT,” he said.

Failure of the
federal government to pay the severance benefits of former staff of
Aluminum Smelter Company of Nigeria (ALSCON) Plc may trigger another
industrial crisis in the area, as the affected people at the weekend
threatened to use any means available to them to get their allowances.

Kelechi Otuh, Akwa
Ibom State council chairman, Metal Products Senior Staff Association of
Nigeria, said in Abuja at the weekend that prior to the privatization
of the company in 2007, the workers were owed over N6 billion, a
development he said led to the death of many of their members.

The chairman
refused to mention the other means they plan to use to recover their
money. He said the company commenced production of aluminium ingots in
1997, but stopped in 1999 owing to financial and technical problems. He
said this led to the downsizing of staff without due process of
disengagement.

“Only part payments of our benefits were paid,” he said.

Mr Otuh said long
before the BPE decided to privatize ALSCON, the workers went to court
to plead that the management of ALSCON be compelled to renegotiate
their collective agreements, which had expired in 2001. Both the
Industrial Arbitration Panel (IAP) and the National Industrial Court
(NIC) granted judgement in favour of ALSCON workers, by ordering that
ALSCON management should negotiate new conditions of service with the
workers. In their resolution of October 13, 2005, the National Assembly
upheld the IAP decision and ordered ALSCON management to comply without
further delay.

“We are calling on
the federal government and the Bureau of Public Enterprises, whose
responsibility it was to pay employees’ liabilities in privatized
enterprises, to urgently intervene in this protracted issue of unpaid
severance to former ALSCON employees so that the workers and the entire
community of Ikot Abasi will work and live in peace, especially now
that the amnesty programme is still on course,” he said.

Troubled privatisation

ALSCON began
operations in October 1997 and a few months later reached a production
capacity of 40 tonnes. The plant was designed to produce 193 000 tonnes
of aluminium annually. As at today, a tonne of aluminium costs about
3,000 USD. What this means is that at full capacity, ALSCON can
generate approximately $600 million every year.

The privatisation
of ALSCON was one of the most protracted in the annals of the Bureau of
Public Enterprises (BPE). The privatisation began in 2003 and lasted
till 2007, when ALSCON was handed over to DAYSEN Holdings, who invited
Russian Aluminium to manage the plant.

To date, some key
issues relating to the privatization have not been resolved, including
the unpaid severance benefits to former staff of ALSCON.

On June 3, 2007,
militants invaded ALSCON residential quarters and abducted six Russian
expatriates, including the Managing Director of the company. The
militants claimed that they had to strike in order to attract the
government’s attention to the plight of over 1800 former ALSCON staff,
whose severance benefits are being withheld by the BPE.

Most of these staff are still within Ikot Abasi, patiently waiting
for their entitlements, while over 20 of them have reportedly died.

The Action Congress
of Nigeria (ACN) has picked another issue with the Amended Electoral
Act 2010 and urged the National Assembly to stop the plan to use the
Court of Appeal as the court of first instance in presidential and
gubernatorial election petitions.

In a statement by
the party’s National Publicity Secretary, Lai Mohammed, the party
reminded the National Assembly that the Court of Appeal is not a trial
court, and must not be saddled with such a responsibility in the case
of election petitions. It noted that even if all the positions in the
Court of Appeal are filled, the court cannot have more than 70 judges.

Section 133(2) then
goes further to define the “tribunal or court” as “in the case of
Presidential or Governorship election, the Court of Appeal; and in the
case of any other elections under this Bill, the election tribunal
established under the Constitution or by this Bill.” Explaining the
problem this will create; ACN stated that “assuming all 70 judges are
in place, (which is not the case at present), the number can only
constitute election petition tribunals for only 14 states, going by the
constitutional stipulation of five members per panel.”

“Even if the number
is reduced to three per panel, as has been suggested in some circles,
we still won’t have enough judges to go round more than 23 states,” the
party stated. This call is coming after the Nigerian Bar Association,
in reviewing the amended Electoral Act, also warned of an “inherent
danger and risk” which can occur after the election, with a potential
overwhelming of the Appeal Court judges by the election petition as
prescribed by the Act.

Urgent review

Arguing further the
need for this urgent review, the ACN noted that another problem
limiting the petition to Appeal Courts will cause, is the time
constraint in hearing the petitions as stipulated by the Electoral Act.
“There is also the problem of time limitation (180 days) regarding when
petitions must be heard and judgements delivered. If the deluge of
election petitions that greeted the 2007 general elections is anything
to go by, there could be over a hundred petitions after the 2011
gubernatorial polls alone, and the Court of Appeal cannot possible cope
with this huge number of cases.

“Needless to say
that while the election petitions last, the over-burdened Court of
Appeal will not be able to carry out its statutory function of hearing
appeals from High Courts, and this will have unimaginable implications
for the country and her citizens.” The ACN, therefore, called on the
National Assembly to, as a matter of urgency, use the opportunity
provided by the call for another amendment to the Electoral Act in the
wake of Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) demand for
an extension of time for the 2011 elections, to take another look at
the Act to prevent the Court of Appeal from becoming the court of first
instance for gubernatorial election petitions.

The party said the old system of using judges from the High Courts
to constitute the gubernatorial election panels must be retained.

American politics
has a photogenic new face with a troubled past of bad finances,
potential fraud and a flirtation with witchcraft.

A previously
unknown conservative activist named Christine O’Donnell is a sudden
political sensation and Washington is trying to figure out what to make
of her.

“Certainly she has some explaining to do,” Republican Congressman Mike Pence said this week.

O’Donnell is a new
Republican Party nominee for November’s Senate election. She defeated a
better-known career politician for the nomination with support from the
Tea Party movement.

The Tea Party,
which draws its name from an 18th-century uprising which helped set off
the American revolution, isn’t really a political party. It’s a fast
growing insurgency within the Republican Party, pushing some lawmakers
further right and driving others from office.

As people learn more about O’Donnell, they’re wondering if she is the best kind of candidate to replace them.

For years, she led
a Christian campaign against sexual promiscuity and decried a diverse
range of evils from masturbation to shared bathrooms for male and
female students. Before that, she says she once “dabbled into
witchcraft.” She also reportedly dabbled into paying her taxes and home
loan late enough to face legal proceedings. She has very little
declared income and is facing a new complaint that she illegally spent
more than $20,000 of campaign donations on her own living expenses.

O’Donnell denied the allegations and denounced them as the work of her opponents.

“Will they lie
about us? Harass our families? Name call and try to intimidate us? They
will.” Many Republicans are nervous about candidates like O’Donnell, as
undeserving of the party’s nomination and unlikely to win.

George Bush’s
former campaign manager, Karl Rove, questioned her honesty and called
some of her remarks ‘nutty.’ But after a barrage of criticism from
party ranks, he endorsed her anyway.

That signals just
how popular the anti-tax, anti-incumbent Tea Party has become with
American voters and how powerful at the polls.

Tea Party
personalities are taking a growing role inside the Republican Party
despite opposition from many established Republican leaders.

The leadership may yet fight for control of the party. Or despite
their reservations, they can support newcomers like O’Donnell. The Tea
Party is winning a lot lately and the Republicans like to win.