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Growing up with Gani

The memories of
Gani will forever linger in my mind because we were too close. We were
like twins. Since he was 14-years-old, he had been fighting for the
oppressed in the society. He hated people cheating others. So, since he
was young, he had always stood up for the truth and nothing more. Gani
will never allow people to cheat you; he prefers to fight injustice
with anything he has than to allow you to suffer. In fact, there was a
time that somebody was trying to cheat me. He had to follow me to the
place to warn the person to stop disturbing his sister. In short, Gani
was fearless while growing up. He will not allow anybody to cheat.

Living without Gani

The entire Gani
family is missing his kindheartedness, which totally distinguished him
from other family members. Gani is being missed by the entire members
of the family owing to his nondiscriminatory nature. Life has been
difficult without Gani because when he was alive, we were so close; he
used to refer to me as his only sister. It is very difficult for me
because, since he died, there had been nobody to share my problems
with. Since he died, I have not gone to Lagos because he was the person
I always travelled to Lagos to see. I used to stay with him there for
some days but since his death, I have not gone to Lagos.

The relationship among family members after his death

The relationship
between the family members has been very cordial. We have not allowed
the death of Gani to separate us. We still communicate with one
another; we are united and will not allow anything to separate us. I
have to commend the Ondo State governor, Olusegun Mimiko, for giving
Gani a befitting burial. The state government stood by the family in
death and after the demise of Gani. The support received from the
government during the burial was exceptional. I will forever be
grateful to Olusegun Mimiko because he gave my brother a befitting
burial. He is a man of honour. The entire family will forever remain
grateful to him.

Advice for Gani’s children

My advice for
Gani’s children is that they should follow the footsteps of their
father, who was so good to the entire family. His children should
emulate him in everything because their father was so nice to every
member of the family. Their father was very close to everybody; he sees
everybody’s problem as his own. They should also make sure that they
stand up for the truth at all times. When Gani was alive, he stood for
the truth; he fought against injustice. The same is what I want his
children to do.

They should all be united. Where there is unity, there will be
peace. I want to urge all his children to make sure that peace reigns
supreme in the family.

One of Nigeria’s main opposition
parties, Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) has declared that the party
is not obsessed with taking power from the People’s Democratic Party
(PDP) in the next general elections but, rather, it is concerned about
getting people’s votes to count.

Lai Mohammed, the party’s national
publicity secretary, said this while on an official visit to NEXT
Newspaper’s office at the weekend to discuss a number of issues. “We
are not obsessed about taking power from the PDP. We are more concerned
and, therefore insisting that votes must count. Nigerians must be
allowed to choose who they want to rule them. They are the ones
responsible to choose who rules them,” Mr Mohammed said.

Opposition party in Nigeria

On the dwindling
strength of opposition parties in Nigeria, despite being over 50
parties, Mr Mohammed stated that the only opposition parties in Nigeria
are the ACN, Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), All People’s Grand
Alliance (APGA) and Labour party. “All the other parties are just PDP
in different names. Or how will you explain 46 political parties
supporting a candidate of the ruling party” he noted, following the
announcement on Friday that 46 parties under a nebulous grand coalition
of political parties declared their support for the candidacy of the
incumbent president, Goodluck Jonathan, ahead of the 2011 polls. “Those
parties only exist to sell their votes to the PDP on the day of the
election.” He also affirmed that talks are ongoing with some of the
parties. “We were recently in talks with the CPC before it collapsed
but consultations have resumed and we are also in talks with Labour
Party and we will be very willing to talk with the APGA,” he said.

Internal democracy within ACN

Mr Mohammed noted
that internal democracy is a strong virtue of the party and this will
be very evident in the forthcoming party convention. He explained that
there will be no consensus candidate on the party’s platform, as every
candidate will be subjected to a very “transparent and due process.”
“People need to understand our history, that AC did not become a
political party until July 2006 and we were expected to submit
candidates within only three months for the 2007 election, hence the
consensus candidate. But this time around, a thorough due process is
what we are using,” he said.

He described the
party (ACN) as a “new factory” that will churn-out “great product.” “We
are working towards building ACN into a great party with strong
foundations, as we now send some of our staffers to South Africa for
exchange courses with the African National Congress to learn and,
therefore, deepen our democratic structures.

Election tribunal

Asked whether the
party will again resort to the court rooms to solve electoral matters
post-2011 elections, he said the party will not go to court at all this
time around. “We have told our members across the nation that the true
results must be determined at the polls. We will sit on the fields by
the ballot boxes and ensure that nobody tampers with the voting this
time,” he said.

“You will agree
with me that in the interest of democracy, it is not proper for five to
six judges to determine the results of elections.” He claimed the party
recorded success in its suits against the 2007 election malpractices as
seen in Bayelsa, Cross River and Ekiti States, where re-run elections
were ordered, but they again lost owing to what he described as
“symptomatic of the same problem everywhere the election was
re-ordered.”

Atiku Abubakar

Responding to
whether the party will again welcome its presidential candidate in the
last election, as he is struggling to get a place in the PDP. Mr
Mohammed said that “he is welcome back as a member of the party, but
definitely not for an elective office.”

“We feel very disappointed for him (Atiku) because his move is
tantamount to a political suicide for him. He would have been a
president in waiting, if he had stayed with AC.”

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad urged Palestinians to
keep up their armed struggle against Israel a day after Israeli and Palestinian
leaders agreed to continue talks on a U.S.-backed peace deal.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who hosted in
Washington the first session of talks between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, voiced confidence that this
latest attempt to bring peace to the region could succeed where so many others
have failed.

Ahmadinejad said that the talks, seeking to end a conflict that
has boiled for six decades, would once again fail. He criticised some Muslim
leaders for not providing all-out support to the Palestinians in their revolt
against Israel.

“The Palestine’s issue cannot be resolved through talks with
the enemies of the Palestinian nation. Resisting is the only way to rescue the
Palestinians,” Ahmadinejad told worshippers at Tehran University in a live
broadcast to mark the annual Al-Quds (Jerusalem) Day in the Islamic Republic.

“How can these talks succeed when them mediators were those who
created this conflict,” he added.

Netanyahu and Abbas agreed to meet again on September 14-15
with Clinton also present.

Ahmadinejad called on regional leaders in the Middle East to
unite against Israel.

The Al-Quds day was launched by Iran’s 1979 Islamic revolution
founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. It is held on the last Friday of the
Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan.

Opposition leader banned

State television said millions marched in a nationwide rally to
mark the day, including soldiers, students and clerics.

Black-clad women with small children clutching balloons
emblazoned “Death to Israel” were among those flocking the streets of central
Tehran.

“Death to America, Death to Israel,” chanted the marchers, many
carrying portraits of Khomeini and his successor Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali
Khamenei.

Iran does not recognise Israel and has repeatedly called for
the destruction of the Jewish state as the only solution to the conflict in the
Middle East. It backs Lebanon’s Hezbollah, Palestinian Hamas and Islamic Jihad
militant groups in their fight against Israel.

“The nations of the region are able to eliminate the Zionist
regime from the face of the earth,” said Ahmadinejad, adding that the Israeli
“regime has no future. Its life has come to an end.” The United States accuses
Iran of sponsoring terrorism by arming and financing those organisations. Iran
says it provides moral support to the Islamist militant groups.

Pro-government hardliners surrounded the house of Iranian
opposition leader Mehdi Karoubi to prevent him from attending the rally,
fearing his presence could revive anti-government protests that jolted Iran
after last year’s presidential vote, his website Saham news said.

Mirhossein Mousavi, who along with Karoubi lost to Ahmadinejad
in the vote, said he was willing to march towards Karoubi’s house, a move that
could revive unrest in Iran.

Authorities deny any vote-rigging and there have been no major
rallies since December when eight protesters were killed.

Babatunde Gbadamosi is the Director of Amen Estates and a PDP
gubernatorial aspirant in Lagos State. He speaks on governance and politics in
the state. Excerpt:

What is your political background?

I lived mostly with
my grandfather, who was one of Action Group’s financiers. He taught me
that service to the people is more than any amount of money one could
ever make in the world. As I grew up, I began to see what he meant as I
observed different governments fail their people repeatedly.

I was a member of
NADECO (National Democratic Coalition) in the UK and we
internationalised the fight against Abacha’s dictatorial rule. I want
to believe that my activities then contributed in some small way to the
advent of democracy in Nigeria.

Your grandfather was a member of Awolowo’s party, why did you join the PDP?

Many people from
Awolowo’s political heritage moved into PDP by 2003. So, those claiming
to be Awoist now are the furthest from Awoism. If Awolowo is to rule
Lagos for 12 years, it won’t be like it is now.

I have been a
sympathiser of PDP since 2002 because of things I heard President
Olusegun Obasanjo say then and started supporting the party actively
since 2006 prior to the general elections. I admired Obasanjo for being
a quiet achiever. He never makes noise about his achievement. If you
are a businessman before Obasanjo’s regime, you will appreciate how he
stimulated the economy within a few years.

He sorted our poor
international image almost totally. Nigeria’s debt was a millstone
around our neck and we could have drowned because of it. We had our
first reconnaissance equipment, an imaging satellite, also. What about
the Universal Basic Education, anticorruption campaign, the national
economic empowerment strategy, revamping of NIPOST, increase in
agro-allied and nonoil exports.

If AC builds a
drain, they will construct a billboard that is costlier than the drain
itself but Obasanjo just got on with his work, refusing to buy into
media hoopla. And that is what I will do when I get into office.

The PDP is the only
party with a national outlook. The interest of Lagosians will be better
protected in PDP because government at the centre does not interfere
with those at the state level.

I simply want to
key Lagos into all the exciting things that are happening at the
federal level. We are missing out on a lot. Whatever is being done at
the federal level will be replicated and improved upon.

What are your plans for Lagos?

I believe I can make a difference in issues that matter to Lagosians. Power generation and road infrastructure are important.

We did a study and
discovered that an estimate of N30 billion is expended on power
generation daily in Lagos. So, power generation will be a major problem
I will solve. Again, we are hearing of fantastic figures being spent on
infrastructure by the current government. The figures and the projects
do not match at all. We have not seen the money they say they are
spending in action.

Can you imagine
that LASU-Iba road costs N500 million per kilometre? Adeniran Ogunsanya
is just about 3km and there is allegation it was awarded for N11.6
billion. The backstreets of Lagos is in complete mess because the local
governments are not allowed to function. The only impact local councils
have is in revenue collection. After 11 years, Lagosians still spend
about 20 percent of their time in traffic.

I am not saying
they didn’t spend the money; all I’m saying is that I will spend a lot
less for the same quality of roads. What I want to do is to make our
taxes go further than they presently do. Roads construction won’t cost
as much as they do now because corruption will be fought to the
minimal. Of course we know that will be difficult but it can be done.

Public education,
water supply and hygienic environment will closely follow. Healthcare
is almost beyond manageability in Lagos now because hygiene is low.

What are your chances in the PDP, knowing that some have been in the race for years now?

PDP in Lagos still
has the best internal democracy and our people are sophisticated
electorate who know the quality of leaders that can match any
competition. The party elders and executives are very wise people who
know the terrain and I believe in their ability to lead the party
aright. I believe the best aspirant will emerge the party candidate and
any such aspirant will surely win Lagos’s gubernatorial election in
2011.

Do you foresee a credible general election in 2011?

A credible election
is the job of every Nigerian, especially the youth. I want to tell the
youth that it’s not cool not to vote. You have no swagger if you don’t
vote. So, get your swagger on, register, vote, and defend your vote
because you are taking control of your future by doing that.

Also, the media,
especially electronic, has a major role to play and we must harness it.
We can use our mobile phones to record election proceedings, take
pictures and upload such content unto the Internet.

What’s your assessment of Fashola’s administration?

Of course you can
see what he has done but I want people, when assessing the governor to
do so in the knowledge of the amount of money at his disposal, not only
the internally generated revenue but also the international grants.

Harassed and
cornered by public outrage over their jumbo pay, members of the
National Assembly are desperately weaving a scheme to protect other
allowances, an investigation has shown.

Under the new
dispensation, legislators have agreed to halt the collection of the
ex-legal payments, hitherto hidden under a sardonic pay head called
“office running cost”, according to sources familiar with the new
arrangement.

Legislators arrived
at this mind shift, according to the sources, at a meeting of some
members of the House of Representative, in Abuja on Saturday, June 19.

NEXT found out that
in order to ensure they retain their pay haul, the lawmakers have
decided to “re-channel their money into committees, which is then
distributed to members on committee basis in a way that each member
will still get the amount that is due to him.” One of the attendees at
the meeting, who spoke off record, said the legislators were already
getting wary about the noise their allowances are generating and have
decided to ‘re-strategize.’ “They (the legislators) are worried about
the public outcry, especially over the extra budgetary allowance each
honourable gets. You know the senators also get their own. So, since
all legislators belong to at least one committee, the idea now is to
re-channel the money into committees and ensure that each person still
gets his money,” he said. “You know that committee budget, expenses and
allowances are approved by the legislators themselves.”

“Office running cost” and committee allowances

Each member of the
House of Representatives already gets an RMAFC unapproved N35 million
naira each as “office running cost.” “The money is broken down. I can’t
recollect all now, but I remember that when I checked in 2007, each of
us was getting about 500, 000 naira per quarter as stationery
allowance,” the source said.

The source also
confirmed that before the decision to divert the office running cost to
committees, the various committees were already a way for them to make
money.

“There is already
enough money to be made from the committees. Do you know that we get
our “overseas trip allowances” up front? So, if there is a budget of N5
million for each member of a committee to travel overseas for a
quarter, you get the money up front. So whether you eventually go with
other members for the tour or not, you already have your money, even if
all the trips eventually get sponsored,” the source said.

Secrecy required

Unlike in the
United Kingdom, where all the entitled salaries and allowances of the
parliamentarians are made public and even put on the parliament’s
website, that of the Nigerian National Assembly is not made public.

The annual basic
salary of members of the House of Commons for example is 65, 738 pounds
(1.6 million naira), though chairmen of select committees and ministers
in the government earn more.

Also unlike in
Nigeria where each representative earns N500,000 a quarter, totalling
N2 million a year for stationery (it is higher for senators), whether
he/she buys the stationery or not; in the UK, the stationery is bought
centrally, with each parliamentarian entitled to receive from the
common pool to the tune of 7,000 pounds (1.75 million).

Efforts to speak
with House spokesperson, Eseme Eyiboh, were unsuccessful. But the
Senate spokesperson, Ayogu Eze, refused to be drawn into the matter.

“What do you want
to know about the issue of the office running cost. Your newspaper has
been publishing fiction about the matter,” he said.

When NEXT explained
that this was the opportunity for him to clear the air over it,
particularly as we understand that the money has been diverted into
committees, he said, “I’m not inclined to speak on this matter. Your
newspaper published that the matter is in court. Let us wait for the
outcome of the court process.” He then politely said farewell.

It is really a sad
thing to say, but when somebody said we need to wipe out at least two
generations of people for us to ‘get it right’ I could not help but
agree with him. But when another person in an entirely different forum
now said we need to annihilate everybody in Nigeria and leave only
those from 10 years and below, I felt uneasy this time because dry
bones have been mentioned and the old woman cannot be comfortable.

It means if we agree to the second or even the first option, yours sincerely may not survive the pogrom.

It is this core
eruption of our moral fibre by the word ‘corruption’. Is there any
government office that does not practice corruption? Even the EFCC and
the judiciary that are the hope of the common man have often been
accused of corrupt practices.

Our case has become
like that of Lot in Sodom and Gomorrah, where Abraham was trying to
plead for the Lord to spare the people. God said if he could find 10
righteous persons in the land, he would not destroy it.

Here in the FCT, a
particular church leader, with over 10,000 members, was said to have
entered the church one Sunday morning, crying and rolling on the floor.
When he finally spoke, he said God told him the previous night that if
the trumpet should sound, right now, they do not have 10 people that
can make heaven. If this is so, what do we expect from those who do not
know or fear God? So it is possible for one bad apple to spoil the
entire apples in the basket; with the hundreds of thousands of church
and mosque goers?

My thrust this week
is our youth that are supposed to take over from our present crop of
leaders. In Abuja, it is common to see near illiterates become rich
overnight. Some of them are the heads of mobilization for political
groupings and they come with different titles in different political
parties: youth leader, mama grass-root, youth mobiliser, head of
mobilization, women leader, market women leader, youth president and so
on.

Some of them have
been given permanent suits in highbrow hotels and to say they are
enjoying will be an understatement; what with the beehive of okpekes at
the snap of their fingers and the luxurious cars they now drive. A lot
of them now masquerade their activities with well registered NGOs and
business is booming as the election approaches.

The most painful
thing is that the same youth leader in party A, for instance, is the
Secretary for party B and the Treasurer for party C. All they need is a
‘face-cap’, dark sunglasses and an agbada to complete the
transformation, and they mobilize essentially the same crowd for the
different political parties. Some of them are honest enough not to
pledge their allegiance to any party. They have become professional
mobilisers. That is why it is easy to see the same set of women or
young men in not less than three different rallies by different
political parties.

Maybe we should advocate for simultaneous holding of rallies to discourage these ‘man must survive’ groups.

Ready for any rally

A friend of mine
said one young man’s speciality is to be ‘anti-anything’. That this
same young man was ‘anti-abacha’ ‘anti-atiku’ during Obasanjo’s time,
later he became ‘anti-third term’, he was ‘anti-cabal’ and now he is
‘anti-zoning’; that it is like the man has an octopus that tells him
which way the pendulum will swing because it always swings in his
favour.

He will mobilize
men and women for an ‘anti-anything’ campaign as long as he is paid. It
doesn’t matter if it is ‘anti-good’. Believe it or not, they are
beginning to have assistant professional mobilisers who can pull out
men and women who would easily leave their work places – okada riders,
farmers, mechanics, bricklayers, motor park touts, market women,
jobless people and even students.

The mobiliser takes the job, for N2,000 to N3,000 per person to
provide 2000 people during their rally, and goes to offer N1,000 to the
individuals per day. They provide maybe 1,500 people and then fill in
fictitious names to make up the number. In the heat of the moment, you
really cannot count to confirm if you have 2000 people. How do we
reverse this kind of thinking, knowing that their patrons are those in
the National Assembly or government houses. INEC and the rest of our
nation will have to reach deep into the solution box for a way out.

Pakistan’s Taliban threatened on Friday to launch attacks in the
United States and Europe “very soon.” The warning came after a renewal of
militant violence in Pakistan this week that is piling pressure on a
U.S.-backed government overwhelmed by the flood crisis.

“We will launch attacks in America and Europe very soon,” Qari
Hussain Mehsud, a senior Pakistani Taliban leader and mentor of suicide
bombers, told Reuters by telephone from an undisclosed location.

A suicide bomber struck at a rally in the Pakistani city of
Quetta on Friday, killing at least 54 people in the second major attack this
week.

The attack on the Shi’ite rally expressing solidarity with the
Palestinian people came as the United States said the devastating floods are
likely to hold up army offensives against Taliban insurgents.

“Unfortunately the flooding in Pakistan is probably going to
delay any operations by the Pakistani army in North Waziristan for some period
of time,” U.S. Defence Secretary Robert Gates said in Afghanistan where he is
visiting U.S. troops.

Senior police official Hamid Shakeel told Reuters that at least
54 people were killed and about 160 wounded in Quetta.

Dozens of dead and wounded lay in pools of blood after the blast
that also engulfed vehicles in flames.

Hours later, the al Qaeda-linked Taliban took responsibility for
the attack, saying it was revenge for killings of radical Sunni clerics by
Shi’ites, further challenging the unpopular civilian government. “We take pride
in taking responsibility for the Quetta attack,” Mehsud told Reuters.

Earlier in the day, the Taliban also claimed responsibility for
bombings on Wednesday at a Shi’ite procession in the eastern city of Lahore in
which at least 33 people died. These blasts were the first major attack since
flood waters tore through the country. The Taliban and their allies often
target religious minorities in a campaign to destabilize the government.

The Taliban said the U.S. decision to put it on its list of
terrorist organizations was a sign of being scared.

Aside from its battles against homegrown Taliban, Pakistan is
under intense American pressure to tackle Afghan Taliban fighters who cross the
border into Pakistan’s lawless tribal areas to attack U.S.-led NATO troops.

The United States has stepped up missile strikes by pilotless
drone aircraft against militant targets in Pakistan’s Pashtun tribal lands
since the start of 2010. On Friday, U.S. drones fired missiles at two targets
in North Waziristan tribal region, killing seven militants, including two
foreigners, intelligence officials said.

Pakistan has said the army would decide when to carry out a
full-fledged assault in North Waziristan, where Washington says anti-American
militants enjoy safe havens, at the time it considers appropriate.

In another attack in the northwest, a suicide bomber killed one
person outside a mosque of the Ahmadi sect, who consider themselves Muslims but
whom Pakistan declares non-Muslims.

Attention has focused on the Pakistani Taliban again after U.S.
prosecutors this week charged its leader, Hakimullah Mehsud, in a plot that
killed seven CIA employees at an American base in Afghanistan last December.

Islamist charities, some of them linked to militant groups, have
at the same time joined in the relief effort for the millions affected by the
worst floods in the nation’s history.

U.S. officials are concerned that the involvement of hardline
groups in flood relief will undermine the fight against militancy in Pakistan
as well Afghanistan.

Economic crisis

Anger is spreading over the government’s sluggish response to
the floods, raising the possibility of social unrest.

Pakistan is also facing economic catastrophe, with the floods
causing damage the government has estimated at $43 billion, almost a quarter of
the south Asian nation’s 2009 GDP.

Some relief has come from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
It will give Pakistan $450 million in emergency flood aid and disburse funds in
September to help the economy cope with the devastation.

Talks in Washington with a delegation led by Pakistan’s Finance
Minister Abdul Hafeez Shaikh on the terms of an $11 billion IMF loan program
left him satisfied with the country’s commitment to reforms, IMF chief
Dominique Strauss-Kahn said.

Under the 2008 IMF loan program, Islamabad promised to implement
tax and energy sector reforms and give full autonomy to the State Bank of
Pakistan.

The Abia State government says it has received the
approval of the federal government to set up a Special Amnesty
Committee to work out programmes on the rehabilitation of kidnappers.

The committee, headed by the Deputy Governor, Acho
Nwakanma, said it has noted the loopholes that led to the failure of
the first amnesty programme for kidnappers and other criminals, and was
working out modalities to ensure the success of the current programme.

Pardon for kidnappers

The committee said it would work with the DDR
technique which entails Disarming and Demobilizing Repentant kidnappers
and rehabilitating them.

It disclosed that arms collection centres would be
established close to areas where kidnapping was rampant, to encourage
the perpetrators to surrender their arms and embrace the programme,
adding that a camp would be established for the repentant kidnappers
where their demobilization would take place before they would be taken
to rehabilitation camp.

The committee said that as soon as it was through
with fine-tuning the modalities, the governor would make the
proclamation which would also determine the duration of the programme.

Mr Nwakanma said the committee was set up after
Theodore Orji, the state governor, consulted widely and received the
consent of the federal government, and expressed hope that the
programme would be the answer to the security situation in Abia which,
he said, has “weighed down the state and made it to look different from
what it is.” Mr Nwakanma said, “I want to use this opportunity to
appeal to our brothers to drop their arms and embrace the amnesty
programme. Kidnapping is affecting Abia and increasing the unemployment
problem. If they allow people to come and invest in Aba, there will be
employment.”

Second attempt

This is the second committee to be set up for the purpose of giving amnesty to repentant kidnappers and their sponsors in Abia.

The first was in May and was headed by the
Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Umeh Kalu. It ran into
controversy when a joint army patrol was said to have shot dead a
repentant kidnapper who was on his way to surrender his arms.

Membership of the committee includes: Azubuko Udah,
the Assistant Inspector-General of Police, Zone 2, Hafiz Ringim, his
counterpart in Zone 9; Jonathan Johnson, Abia State Commissioner of
Police; Vincent Okah, Commissioner of Police, Forensic Division, Abuja;
Nathaniel Obong, the Commandant, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence
Corps; and Transition Committee chairmen from kidnap-prone zones of the
state.

The governor of
Niger State, Aliyu Babangida, and deputy Senate president, Ike
Ekweremadu, were the latest in a long line of dignitaries to offer
their condolences for the fire that damaged part of the Peoples’
Democratic Party (PDP) secretariat in Abuja.

The two men visited
the secretariat in Abuja yesterday, and spoke on a number of issues,
including the state of the constitutional amendment and better building
codes.

Mr. Ekweremadu said the fire called to question some of the building’s disaster-preparedness measures.

“When people are
building houses, we should be able to put in place measures to address
all these unforeseen circumstances,” he said.

“Now that we are building the new party secretariat, we [should] ensure that these disasters are addressed at design stage.”

Talking politics

In response to a
question about the amended constitution, he said it was “operational.”
He challenged anyone who disagreed to take the matter to the courts.

“Our business is to
make laws and once those laws are made, it becomes what is called
‘funtus officio’. So the law is operational until it is set aside by
the court,” he said.

“We are not going to worry ourselves about that. As far as we are concerned, we have done our job.”

On the INEC request
for the voters register and 2011 elections, he said the commission
needed to use its initial N87 billion request before the National
Assembly could approve further funds.

“Even though I have reservations about the figure, we need to support them to do a good job,” he said.

“We hope they apply the money appropriately.”

The University of Ibadan, on Thursday,
announced the appointment of Isaac Folorunsho Adewole, a consultant
obstetrician and gynaecologist at the University College Hospital
(UCH), Ibadan, as the next Vice Chancellor of the institution.

The pro-chancellor and council chairman
of the premier university, Wole Olanipekun, announced the appointment
at a press briefing held at the council chambers of the institution
early yesterday.

According him, Mr Adewole, who is
expected to take over from the outgoing Vice-Chancellor, Olufemi
Bamiro, whose term expires on December 1, was rated best in all stages
of interviews conducted for the 12 candidates for the post. The
appointment concludes a process which began several months ago.

Describing the process that produced
the new Vice Chancellor as the best in the history of the university,
Mr Olanipekun noted that all the candidates for the post were subjected
to fair competition before Mr Adewole eventually emerged.

He maintained that, in the said
process, the management of the university fulfilled all portions of the
law governing the appointment of a Vice Chancellor.

According to him, despite the fact that
the Federal Executive Council (FEC) in Abuja was yet to come up with
the policy of 70 years retirement age for university professors, UI was
the first and the only institution in history that did not place an
form of embargo on candidates when it placed newspaper advertisements
to declare the seat of the Vice Chancellor of the institution vacant.

Besides, he said, at stages of the
interview, none of the candidates eligible to partake was shut out,
saying the process was the most transparent.

Transparent protest

The process, which started on February
25, when the council met and approved the placement of adverts in
newspapers to call for applications for the position, climaxed with the
final selection of the new VC by the selection committee on Wednesday,
September 1.

While reacting to a newspaper report
that there was some sort of crises in the process, Mr Olanipekun said
the speculation was not true, as the process has produced the best
performed among the candidates.

He informed that unlike in the past
when the selection committee would pick three names and forward them to
the university visitor, the president of the Federal Republic of
Nigeria, for appointment of one from amongst them, the new law has
bestowed the power to select just one among the contestants and send
same to the visitor for ratification.

Adewole’s name, he added, will soon be
sent to Goodluck Jonathan for ratification before Bamiro’s term
expires, in order not to have a vacuum in the administration of the
university.

Interaction with council

Before he was finally appointed, Mr
Adewole, together with the other 11, had an interaction with the
University Council at the council meeting held on August 20.

Six were then shortlisted for an
interview, from which the final thre names were presented for the
selection board were picked. The two other names besides Mr Adewole’s
were Francis Egbokhare of the Department of Linguistics, University of
Ibadan, and Friday Okonofua of the Department of Obstetrics and
Gynaecology, University of Benin.

Apart from being adjudged the best in the process, Mr Adewole, the
former provost of the College of Medicine, Ibadan, delivered, arguably,
the best presentation when all candidates for the post were gathered
for an interactive with members of the university community last month,
though Olanipekun noted that the programme was not part of the
selection process.