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Some senators-elect
from the north central region of the country converged Friday on the
senate press centre to address journalists on their preferred choice of
senate president for the next senate session.

It turned out that
they want David Mark, the incumbent senate president representing Benue
South senatorial district, to lead the seventh senate. This declaration
of support is coming after the ceding of the post to the zone by the
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

According to the
senators-elect, Mr Mark has led the national assembly successfully. “He
was able to introduce the ‘doctrine of necessity’ to resolve a near
political crisis that almost tore Nigeria (apart) last year through his
doggedness and commitment to ensuring that Nigeria moves forward,” said
one of them, Zainab Kure (PDP – Niger South).

The endorsement of
the incumbent senate president to lead the next senate by
senators-elect from his region was the climax of a series of public
endorsements and antics by the incumbent senate president to ensure his
re-election into office, which would be a record.

Mr Mark has had his
sight set on leading the next senate from way back as the last quarter
of 2010; he has carefully orchestrated his manoeuvres ever since.

His first
endorsement came late last year when he supposedly entered into an
agreement with the president for mutual support to reclaim their
respective offices. The frequency of endorsements has surged since he
secured re-election to be a member of the next senate.

Mr Mark is also
said to have won the favour of his party for the job following a recent
power-sharing deal which doled out the senate presidency to the north
central region of the country.

Open campaign

On June 6, when the
seventh session will convene for the first time to elect its leaders,
only the 109 senators-elect will be voting to decide who leads the
seventh senate. But the heated campaign for who holds the prestigious
office in the senate has gone beyond the senators-elect themselves to
the general public. Mr Mark is clearly ahead of other contenders in
popularity rating as well as a recently popularised merit-based
requirement for the next senate president. He is also the favourite
amongst his peers, the returning 39 senators to the next senate. He is
however not relenting on his campaign and acquiring endorsements from
all over.

Groups ranging from
Idoma professors from his district, to former colleagues at the senate,
have all supported his bid at various points. They have avoided public
support for his rivals, Bukola Saraki and Danjuma Goje, outgoing
governors of Kwara and Gombe State, respectively, both of whom have had
to carry out their campaigns through lobbyists.

National Assembly
workers were stunned at the close of work on Thursday to find pamphlets
stuck to their cars titled, “Eight Basic Reasons Why Sen. David Mark
Should Return as President of the Seventh Senate.” Most workers were
agreed it was a new twist in the campaign for the position of senate
president.

Mr Mark is being
praised especially for the stability of the senate under his reign.
Suleiman Adokwe, a re-elected senator (PDP – Nasarawa South), said on
Friday that “since we no longer experience frequent changes in the
leadership of the senate, it means we have found the formula.”

Unnecessary rule-tweaking

The efforts of the
senate president to make his way back to the most prestigious office
will come to a head on Tuesday this week when the senate intends to
adopt an amendment to the standing rules in a way that will place other
rivals at a disadvantage.

The proposed rule
will replace Rule 97[1][f] of the current standing order of the senate.
The new rule introduces a ranking system through which senators can
aspire for prestigious offices in the senate. It ranks experienced
lawmakers before first-timers without legislative experience, placing
the latter as last and least eligible to aspire to high offices in the
senate.

At the top of the
rank are senators returning, and based on the number of times
re-elected; this is where the sitting senate president belongs. They
are followed by senators who had been members of the House of
Representatives.

Third on the
ranking are senators who have been members of a State House of assembly
or any legislative house. The least in the ranking system are senators
getting elected for the first time – where Messrs Goje and Saraki both
belong.

Analysts are of the
opinion that tweaking the rules to favour the incumbent is unnecessary
at this point, considering the senate president’s virtues.

However, the senate
president is not leaving anything to chance. He has also reached out to
opposition lawmakers who will be members of the seventh senate.

A “Door 2 Door for
Mark 2011” campaign organisation was recently co-opted into the
re-election efforts. Its members undertook the pamphlet placement
campaign on Thursday on the premises of the national assembly.

This week, all the
elected lawmakers will be retreating to the central points in their
respective geopolitical zones; the campaigns are bound to continue at
these places. An official of the senate, who did not want his name
mentioned, said the incumbent “will leave no stone unturned” in his
quest.

Ayogu Eze, the senate spokesperson and a strong promoter of the
incumbent’s second term bid, on Thursday belittled every other
contestant eyeing the post as he declared Mr Mark the clear favourite
for the office, saying, “There is no contest for the senate president’s
office.”

Any
elected official that fails to meet the yearnings of the electorate
would meet his/her waterloo during the next election because Nigerian
voters are now conscious of their power to effect changes, the Ondo
State resident electoral commissioner, Akin Orebiyi said yesterday in
Akure.

Mr Orebiyi, who
made the observation while presenting a certificate of return to the
lawmaker representing Akure North State Constituency in the state
Assembly, Akindele Adeniyi, said it was clear from the results of the
last elections that the electorate voted for candidates of their choice
without coercion.

He added that
political parties could no longer foist their candidates on the
electorate; a development which he noted was good for the advancement
of the nation. The INEC boss also advised the newly elected lawmakers
to carry their opponents along in the interest of development.

“The era of forcing candidates on the electorate is gone, we are now in the era where people’s votes count”, he said.

Mr Adeniyi
commended the INEC Chairman, Attaihru Jega, for providing a level
playing ground for all the political parties. He equally praised
President Goodluck Jonathan for allowing INEC to serve as unbiased
umpire.

“Jega has written
his name in gold for putting an end to election debacle that has
continued to hunt the nation in the past,” he said.

Fight poverty

In Adamawa, INEC
also issued certificates of returns to 36 lawmakers-elect in the state.
Nura Yakubu, INEC’S National commissioner in charge of Adamawa, Taraba
and Gombe, who presented the certificate to senators-elect, members-
elect of federal house of representative and elected members of the
state house of assembly, revealed voters turnout averaged 51% for the
election in the state.

“A total of 12
political parties sponsored 201 candidates to contest for the 25 state
house of assembly seats. Nine political parties sponsored 51 candidates
to contest for the eight house of representative seats, while another
nine political parties sponsored 23 candidates to contest for the three
senatorial seats,” he said.

Three women,
Aishatu Dahiru Ahmed (Yola North, Yola South and Girei federal
constituency); Wilbina Jackson, Guyuk state constituency and Wale Fwa,
representing Demsa constituency, were the only female elected
politicians in the state.

The lawmakers,
through their spokesperson, condemned the post-presidential elections
violence and urged the government to ensure that the perpetrators of
the “dastardly act” were brought to book.

However, Bello
Tukur, a former deputy governor and senator-elect representing Adamawa
central, tasked the government to forestall its reoccurrence in the
future.

Mr Tukur who
berated the post election violence as “unfortunate development” blamed
it on the endemic poverty and backwardness of the affected areas.

“All these problems that happened in the North-East and North West
region,” Mr Tukur said. “Happened greatly in this region because of the
level of poverty in these two regions is very high. And if we don’t
rise up to the occasion these problems will continue to consume us and
we will continue to be marginalized”.

A lawyer, Oluwole
Aluko, has sought the intervention of the judiciary for the revocation
of the 1973 decree that established the National Youth Service Corps
(NYSC).

Mr Aluko, in a suit
filed before a Federal High Court in Ibadan, joined both President
Goodluck Jonathan and Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister
of Justice, Mohammed Adoke, as respondents.

The lawyer claims
that the law that brought the NYSC into existence falls short of the
provision of the 1999 Constitution, as well as the African Charter on
Human and Peoples Rights and the United Nations Universal Declaration
on Human Rights, and wants it declared null and void and of no effect.

Mr. Aluko is
praying the court to determine whether the NYSC law, which compels
every first degree holder Nigerian below the age of 30 years to embark
on one year national service, is consistent with section 34(1) (a) (b)
and (c) of the 1999 Nigerian Constitution that confers on every citizen
right to personal dignity and freedom from inhuman and degrading
treatment, slavery or servitude and freedom from performing force or
compulsory labour.

He also wants to
determine whether the provision of section 34 (2) (e) (111) of the
country applies to the NYSC which talks about “part of the education
and training”, contending that the corps is not an educational
institution.

Other posers are:
“Whether the National Youth Service Corps Decree of 1973 by which every
Nigerian below the age of 30 years that has completed his first degree
at any University in Nigeria is liable to be called upon to serve in
the service corps without guarantee for safety of life of the corps
members where they serve is inconsistent with the provision of section
33 (1) of the 1999 Nigerian Constitution that guarantees the rights to
life of every person and therefore null and void.

“Whether the
National Youth Service Corps Decree of 1973 by which every Nigerian
below the age of 30 years that has completed the his first degree at
any University in Nigeria is liable to be called to serve in the
service corps without any liberty as to preference of place to serve is
inconsistent with the provision of section 35 (1) of the 1999 Nigerian
Constitution that confers right to personal liberty on individual and
non and void.

“Whether the
National Youth Service Corps scheme by which Nigerian Youths and
Graduates below age 30 years are forced to take part in the National
Youth Service Corps scheme is a violation of the African charter on
Human and Peoples Rights and Universal Declaration of Human Rights by
the United Nation Organization of which Nigeria is a signatory and
therefore null and void.

Force or duty

“Whether the
provision of section 12 (1) of the National Youth service Corps decree
of 1973, by which there cannot be employment anywhere in the Federation
for any University graduate except on the production of the discharge
certificate or exemption certificate issued by the Directorate of the
National Youth Service Corps, constitutes act of compulsion and if the
answer is in the affirmative, whether the National Youth Service Corps
Decree is invalid having regard to the provisions of sections 33, 34,
35 of the 1999 Nigerian constitution.

“Whether the
violation of the provisions of the 1999 Nigerian Constitution confers
right on any citizen of Nigeria to seek redress in court having regard
to the provision of section 1 (1) and (3) of the 1999 Nigerian
constitution that make the provisions of the constitution to be supreme
and having binding force on all authorities and persons and any law
that is inconsistent with it null and void.

The matter will be open for mention on May 18, 2011.

A former minister
of works and housing, Hassan Lawal, yesterday asked a Federal High
Court in Abuja to order his release from prison custody, pleading that
he will not jump bail if granted.

Mr Lawal and 15
others were on Wednesday arraigned before an Abuja court presided over
by Belikisu Aliyu, by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission
(EFCC) on a 25-count charge bordering on fraudulent award of contracts,
money laundering and embezzlement of about N75.5 billion belonging to
the federal government.

But counsel to Mr
Lawal, in his application for bail yesterday, said his client has not
been able to make any calls since the time of his arrest and has lost
his goodwill and relationships.

“He was arrested and detained while going about his business lawfully,” M.A. Magarji said.

Mr Magarji, who
filed the bail application pursuant to section 35(4) and 36 of the 1999
constitution, further pleaded that the minister will not jump bail if
granted bail and will not tamper with already concluded investigation.

“It is important to
state that the 1st Accused/Applicant has been invited on several
occasions by the EFCC and has always honoured the invitation,” he said.
“Even while in EFCC bail, he was invited for further interrogation
through phone calls and he still honoured the invitation.

“At the last
invitation of the complainant, the 1st accused person elected to honour
the invitation and soon thereafter was detained in the custody of the
Complainant/Respondent before being arraigned. It is our argument that
a person who has contributed his own quota would not jump bail and will
always be available to take his trial.”

Health grounds

He said the
minister suffers from kidney ailment and has recently developed a
cardio-vascular ailment, of which he needs constant medication and
needs to be managed by his medical doctors.

“It is also
important to submit respectively that the health of the 1st accused has
deteriorated since his detention by the EFCC,” he said.

Mr Lawal and 15 others docked along with him by the EFCC pleaded not guilty to the charges read to them on Wednesday.

The counsel to the EFCC, Wahab Shittu, asked the court to remand them in prison custody pending the commencement of trial.

The judge agreed,
and ordered that the accused persons be remanded in Kuje Prison till a
formal application for bail is brought before the court and adjourned
the case till June 6th for definite hearing.

Mr Lawal, who was
appointed Minister of Works and Housing by late President Umaru
Yar’Adua in 2007, also served as Minister of Labour and Productivity in
the cabinet of former President, Olusegun Obasanjo.

President Goodluck
Jonathan will on Tuesday, May 17, visit Ilorin, the Kwara State capital
to commission the Kwara State University (KWASU), Malete.

The university
which was established by the Kwara State governor, Bukola Saraki, is
located in the Moro local government area in the northern senatorial
district of the state and commenced academic session since 2010.

Briefing newsmen in
Ilorin on the preparation of the presidential visit to the institution,
the Vice-Chancellor of the University, AbdulRasheed Na’Allah said the
institution will use the opportunity to sell the new university to the
entire world as arrangements had been concluded to make the president’s
visit a historic one.

Fielding questions
from reporters, Mr Na’Allah said, “The main objective of the
institution was to move its host community and environs from poverty to
wealth.”

According to him,
“for Nigeria to attain greatness, efforts must be made to make
universities agents of development especially at the grassroots.” He
said it was in recognition of this that the KWASU management created
the centre for entrepreneurship to teach students the practical aspect
of their studies so that they could be self-employed after graduating.

“Our goal in this
university is to produce global citizens who will be able to compete
favourably with their peers in any part of the world. This is the
reason why we recruited our academic staff from home and abroad,” he
added.

Mr Na’Allah who
condemned the post-election violence in parts of the country, urged the
government to urgently put machinery in place to forestall a recurrence
of the killings recorded in the violence where innocent youth corps
members lost their lives.

While mourning the
late corps members, Mr Na’Allah added that “the violence was uncalled
for, it is sad, it is barbaric. It is a sad story for Nigeria”.

“Though demonstrators must be allowed to ventilate their grievances but that must never be allowed to turn violence.” He said

Mr Na’Allah
commended Mr Jonathan for supporting the deceased youth corps members’
families with a compensation of N5m each and automatic employment for
their siblings with the federal service.

An attempt by the
National Assembly election tribunal to serve an order from the Ilorin
High Court bailiff on the Kwara Central senator-elect and serving
governor, Bukola Saraki, at the state government house on Monday was
allegedly resisted by the governor’s security detail.

The court bailiff,
Saka Adetoro, in an eight-paragraph affidavit averred that he and two
others were ordered by the security men to remove “an order from the
tribunal vide the motion ex-parte, moved by the counsel to the
petitioners, to paste all the court processes on the gate of Government
House, Ilorin, through the substituted means. Order of 20 May 2011,
duly signed by the chairman and the secretary of election petition
tribunal.”

The bailiff added,
“the secretary assigned me to paste the said order and all the
processes at the gate of Government House, Ilorin.”

Barring the way

He said he was
accompanied by two others, a Mr John and Mr Ali, saying that both of
them had reached the second gate of the government house, where they
pasted the order, but were ordered to remove it by the security men.

Mr Adetoro said,
“We told the security and showed them the said order, that it is the
court order, not our own making; that there is a signature of ‘my
lord’, the chairman of the National Assembly election petition
tribunal. He said he does not know [my] lord; what he knows is his
oga.”

Mr Adetoro said
they were subsequently summoned to the government house security base
to address a police inspector, who also refused to let them paste the
order.

However, the
affidavit omitted Monday’s speculation that the court officials were
beaten up by security men on the orders of government house officials.

When contacted, the chief press secretary to Mr Saraki, Mas’ud
Adebimpe. confirmed that they were aware of the matter but added that
the state attorney general and commissioner for justice, Kamaldeen
Ajibade, would react to it accordingly.

The out-going Vice Chancellor of
Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, Michael Faborode yesterday
said a five-year single term should be enough for any Vice Chancellor
willing to perform in office and that those seeking for elongation are
not actually serious about service.

Mr Faborode, who spoke yesterday in
Osogbo during a thank-you visit to the Nigeria Union of Journalists
(NUJ) Correspondents’ Chapel, Osun State Chapter, said:
“Infrastructures of the university are nothing to write home about when
I took over as the vice chancellor. Many projects are in the state of
abandonment and as responsible leaders, we had to work very hard to
revert the institution to its lost glory and set it on a high pedestal.
“When I took over, I came to the realisation that you cannot inherit
such an edifice as OAU and mess it up. The general maintenance on
campus now revealed that we are living better than the way we met it.
All moribund companies on the campus have been revived to secure the
future of the university.

Credible elections

He lauded the press, Independent
National Electoral Commission (INEC), the NYSC and others for a good
job during the just-concluded general elections.

“Everybody was apprehensive that the
exercise will end up in disaster and one can see that INEC has very
good intention,” he said.

On how to secure food security, Mr
Faborode advocated for proper organisation of agriculture policies.
“The construction of Natural History Museum sponsored by Leventis
Foundation, New Post-graduate building constructed by an alumnus of the
institution, ICT building sponsored by Skye Bank and others were not
part of the original plans when we took over the administration of the
university,” he said.

Akwa Ibom State
government has concluded arrangements to rehabilitate 21 abandoned
children who were taking refuge in two different locations in the Eket
local government area.

The action of
government is in response to media reports on the neglect and abuse of
the children who were forced to flee their homes owing to maltreatment,
and those who were driven away by their families on the allegations
that they were witches.

The commissioner
for information and social re-orientation, Aniekan Umana, in a
statement yesterday in Uyo, warned parents, guardians and other people
in the habit of maltreating children, especially labeling them as
witches to desist from the act.

Maintaining
government’s determination to do everything within its power to ensure
that children were protected and their safety guaranteed, Mr Umana,
said the government would stop at nothing to ensure that defaulters
were prosecuted in line with the provision of the Child Rights and
Protection Law.

Explaining why the
government delayed in relocating the children, Eunice Thomas, the
commissioner for women affairs and social welfare said they received
information on the state of the children, who were they residing at the
premises of the Eket Sports Stadium and the abandoned Qua River Hotel,
late.

She promised to
work expeditiously to re-integrate them with the society, noting that
the ministry has previously been involved in the rehabilitation and
integration of children who were abandoned by their families for
several reasons.

Mrs Thomas said a
temporary accommodation would be provided for the newly discovered
children at the women development centre, pending when the government
would make permanent provisions for them.

She took immediate custody of one of the female children, Jane
Bassey, who was four months pregnant, and mentioned that the children
would be given immediate medical attention, while plans were on ground
to ensure that they were enrolled in schools.

The AIDS Prevention Initiative of
Nigeria (APIN) yesterday gave assurance of its readiness to assist the
Ogun State government in tackling the spread of HIV.

The chief executive officer of the
NGO, Prosper Okonkwo, spoke at a stakeholders’/advocacy meeting on the
expansion of Prevention of Mother-To-Child Transmission services to
primary healthcare centres, held in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital.

He noted that the task of curbing the menace was the collective responsibility of all stakeholders in the health sector.

More facilities needed

Speaking further, Mr Okonkwo noted that
Nigeria was ranked high among countries with the highest number of
people living with AIDS owing to a dearth of maternity hospitals. He
solicited the state government’s support in order to achieve the
organisation’s set objectives.

“In 2009, around 400,000 children
under the age of 16 became infected with HIV, mainly through
mother-to-child transmission. Nigeria has the second highest number of
people living with HIV in the world, after South Africa. There are low
numbers of hospitals and maternity homes in Nigeria, most mothers
deliver at homes or church,” he stressed.

“The reason we are here today is to
solicit for a partnership with the state government so as to improve
healthcare services for our people,” he added.

Shortly after the stakeholders’
meeting, APIN donated CD4 machines to the Ijebu-Ode General Hospital
and the Sacred Heart Hospital in Abeokuta, where he said 25 primary
healthcare centres would spring up in the state before September.

In his response, Oluyemisi Ajibawo, the government representative
at the occasion, promised maximum cooperation from the state
government, identifying funding as a major challenge in reaching out to
the grassroots people.

The governor of
Rivers State, Chibuike Amaechi, has said that he supports the lodgment
of revenue accruals from the disputed oil wells between Rivers and Akwa
Ibom into an escrow account.

In a statement
given in Port Harcourt on Thursday, the governor stated he hoped that
revenue accruable to the state would be paid beginning in June. The
Supreme Court recently gave a judgment returning 86 oil wells belonging
to the state, which were previously ceded to Akwa Ibom. In the
statement signed by the acting chief press secretary to the governor,
Blessing Wikina, the governor said lodging the money into an escrow
account would not at all mean denial as the judgment was explicit on
what should be done.

Final judgment

“The Revenue
Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission will have no reason not
to commence payment to the state in line with the judgment of the
Supreme Court on the 86 oil wells from June this year.

“What happened is
that last month, we asked them to put it in an escrow account and they
refused, saying that they had not gotten a copy of the judgment, and
then the federal government finally got a copy of it and served them.

“They have no
reason this month to pay Akwa Ibom, they have to put it in an escrow
account, before the end of the month they should round up, by the grace
of God. So I hope that by June, we will be able to receive this month’s
money, and that of June,” he said.

The governor
expressed the hope that the committee set up by the commission to look
into the judgment of the Supreme Court would do a good job.

NAN