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The World Bank will release the sum of N3.4 billion for the
activities of the nine centres of excellence selected by the country, for the
second component of the Science and Technology Education Post-Basic Project
(STEP-B) in Nigeria, which started in 2007.

STEP-B is the World Bank’s intervention programme targeted at
improving the quality of learning, teaching and research in the science and
technology sector. The first component of the programme focused on promoting
science education in secondary and research institutions in the country.

Now, nine of the institutions that performed creditably have
been qualified as centres of excellence, including two agencies of the Ministry
of Science and Technology and seven educational institutions.

Centres of excellence

Peter Materu, outgoing Task Team Leader for STEP-B at the World
Bank, visited Mohammed Abubakar, minister of science and technology on Tuesday
in Abuja and said Nigeria has performed moderately in implementing the project,
as shown by the emergence of the centres.

The outgoing leader said the success of the first component was
not without challenges, including inadequate data for evaluation of
implementation processes. “There was a slight delay in the disbursement of
funds, but that has been resolved and the fund will be flowing in the next few
days,” he said. “The total amount in that (second) component is $56 million for
the nine selected institutions.”

Responding, Mr Mohammed said the ministry will ensure that the
funding released is judiciously used.

Mr Materu has since handed over to Trajen Appassamy who resumed duty on
August 1 as Task Team Leader for STEP-B in Nigeria.

The Delta State government has frowned at the handling of the
oil spill which devastated the Multi-billion naira Ekpan fish farm when one of
Chevron oil’s tugboats sank in its dockyard in Ekpan, Uvwie local government
area and discharged a substance suspected to be diesel into the Ekpan River.

The spill contaminated water at the farm, killing tonnes of fish
and sending fish farmers into despair. Chevron officials however said they have
contained the incident, which the company said was restricted to its compound.

The remark seemed to have attracted the ire of the state
government. The state commissioner for environment, Bello Orubebe berated
officials of the company who were at his office in Asaba yesterday to make a
presentation on the spill.

Mr Orubebe said the presentation fell short of the economic and
ecological damage caused by the spill.

The leader of the oil company’s team, Tim Ainodion had, in his
presentation, claimed that only eight litres of diesel and lubrication spilled
from the sunken tug boat. He further said that while the spill was limited to
the company’s water front, it has been cleaned up and normal fishing was going
on in the Ekpan River.

But an enraged Mr. Orubebe countered these claims and accused
Chevron of not giving a true picture of the event in its presentation. He said
reports from the ministry’s field officers show that the massive cluster of
fishing ponds in Ekpan have been impacted by the spill.

“We insist that the spill is still continuing, the effect is
continuing, the fish in the ponds are dying, the river is polluted and there is
need for Chevron to go back and deploy its full capacity to clean-up the
river”, said the commissioner, who said he was relocating to Warrri to oversee
the situation.

Peace at risk

He said the state governor, Emmanuel Uduaghan was disturbed
because the spill has adversely affected the indigenes and warned that if the
situation was not properly managed, it could threaten the federal government’s
amnesty programme as well as the prevailing peace in the area.

Mr Orubebe however pledged government’s cooperation to ensure a
quick clean-up of the polluted pond and river, stressing that this was not the
time to trade blames over the incident.

The spill started about two weeks ago and the affected farmers
said they are yet to notice any reduction in the impact of the spill.

“We are calling on the government and multinational agencies to
come to our aid. We borrowed monies to start this business, but now all our
fishes are gone. The pollution started last week, now it has spread all over
the ponds. If we are not helped, we will run out of business,” Joshua Ughere,
chairman, board of trustees of Ufuoma United Farm, Ekpan said.

Iranian President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, was unharmed by an
attack with a homemade explosive device on his motorcade during a visit to the
western city of Hamadan on Wednesday, a source in his office said. However, a
government statement claimed it was not an attack.

The source said Ahmadinejad’s convoy was targeted as he was
travelling from Hamadan’s airport to give a speech in a local sports arena. The
president was unhurt but others had been injured in the blast. One person was
arrested. “There was an attack this morning. Nothing happened to the president’s
car,” the source told Reuters. “Investigations continue … to find out who was
behind it.” Ahmadinejad, who has cracked down on opposition since a disputed
June 2009 presidential election, appeared on live Iranian television at the
sports stadium. He looked unperturbed and made no mention of any assault. The
populist, hardliner Ahmadinejad has accumulated enemies in conservative and
reformist circles in the Islamic Republic as well as abroad.

Al Arabiya television said an attacker had thrown a bomb at Ahmadinejad’s
convoy before being detained. Dubai-based Al Arabiya cited its own sources as
saying the bomb had hit a car carrying journalists and presidential staff.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility. The main Iranian state
television channel remained silent about the explosion, while the
English-language state news channel Press TV denied there had been any attack.
The semi-official Fars news agency, after initially reporting a man had thrown
a home-made grenade, later changed its story to say a firecracker had been set
off by a man who was excited to see the president. Ahmadinejad’s government is
facing economic pain as new foreign sanctions imposed over Iran’s disputed
nuclear energy programme bite on the world’s fifth biggest oil exporter.

Iranian leaders have responded to the pressure by accusing the
West of plotting against the Islamic Republic. Domestic opponents are accused
of being backed by foreign powers. On Monday, during a speech to a conference
of expatriate Iranians in Tehran, Ahmadinejad said he believed he was the
target of an assassination plot by Israel. “The stupid Zionists have hired
mercenaries to assassinate me,” he said. But one opposition activist said it
was a very different thing for the president to talk of attacks and for an
attack to actually take place. “It is obviously a reflection of the fact that
all is not well in Iran and control is not total, contrary to conventional
wisdom,” said Mehrdad Khonsari, a London-based Iranian opposition activist.

Provocative speeches

One of Ahmadinejad’s trademarks has been constant travel around
his vast country to deliver provocative speeches before outwardly adoring
crowds who shout “death” to Iran’s foes. The oil market initially reacted
calmly to reports of the attempted attack. Iran gets just under half of its
revenue from oil and gas and would benefit from any rise in prices.

“I expect that any backlash there might be from Ahmadinejad will
be far more important to the oil market than the initial attack itself,” said
Paul Harris, head of natural resources risk management at Bank of Ireland. “You
would expect the oil market to react if there is any attempt to link the attack
to the current tensions with the West and the ramping up of sanctions.”

Baqer Moin, a London-based Iran expert, said Hamadan was a
stable area without any notable ethnic or local tension. “Let’s wait and see
who they accuse, an internal or an external enemy,” Moin said. Several armed
groups opposed to the government are active in Iran, mostly ethnic Kurds in the
northwest, Baluch in the southeast and Arabs in the southwest. The banned
Mujahideen Khalq, listed by the United States as a terrorist group, carried out
many anti-government attacks after the 1979 Islamic revolution. It was blamed
for two 1981 bombings that killed dozens of senior officials in Tehran,
including the president and prime minister.

But Shahin Gobadi, French-based spokesman for the Mujahideen,
now part of an opposition coalition known as the National Council of Resistance
of Iran, denied involvement. Asked if his group was behind the attack, he said:
“Absolutely not, absolutely not. It has nothing to do with us. I don’t know
what happened but it has nothing to do with us.” Ahmadinejad recently sought to
isolate rival political factions by declaring that “the regime has only one
party, which is the velayat” – a reference to Shi’ite Islam’s hidden Imam, for
now represented by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Just as combative towards external pressure, the president has derided
sanctions over Iran’s nuclear programme as “pathetic” and vowed to pursue what
Iran says is a quest for nuclear energy, not weapons as the West believes. On
Monday, Ahmadinejad called on U.S. President Barack Obama to face him in a
televised one-on-one debate to see who has the best solutions for the world’s
problems.

Ahmadinejad, backed by Khamenei and
the elite Revolutionary Guards, crushed street protests that greeted his
disputed re-election in June 2009, although he has yet to silence losing
reformist candidates Mirhossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karoubi. The president, first
elected in 2005, also seems bent on displacing an older layer of conservative
leaders and clerics whose influence dates back to the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

The Kano State Governor, Ibrahim Shekarau, will,
today in Abuja, formally declare his intention to contest next year’s
presidential election under the banner of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP).

Mr.
Shekarau, whose tenure as governor expires in May next year, is the only
aspirant so far on the platform of the opposition party. The governor was
elected in 2003.

The party national caucus, had during its meeting
last week, resolved to pick its presidential candidate from the north and the
chairman from the south east geo-political zones and the secretary from the
north east.

The other party posts are also zoned to other
geo-political zones. The ANPP has twice shifted the national convention where
the party officials are expected to emerge.

The zoning formula is generating crisis in the party with many kicking
against it. Sule Yau Sule, the special adviser to Mr. Shekarau did not respond
to text message sent to his mobile phone.

However, an information officer in the governor’s office, Aminu Yasser told
NEXT during that preparation was already on top gear. Mr Yasser refused to
speak on the chances of boss in the presidential race neither did he say the
manner of campaign he would organize.

Although no other member of the party has shown interest in contesting the
presidential election on its platform, sources within the party say more
aspirants will emerge after the convention.

In 2003 and 2007, the ANPP presented Muhammed Buhari as its presidential
candidate.

Mr. Buhari has since floated a new
party, Congress for Progressive Change, and hopes to realize his presidential
ambition on its platform.

A
South African court on Tuesday sentenced the country’s former police
chief to 15 years imprisonment after he was convicted of graft and
became one of the most senior officials brought to justice for
corruption.

Jackie Selebi,
formerly a leading anti-apartheid activist and well-connected in the
ruling African National Congress (ANC) party, had been found guilty
last month of receiving bribes from a drug kingpin.

Judge Meyer Joffe said in handing down the sentence that Selebi had embarrassed the state, the police force and the court.

“At no stage during
the trial did the accused display any indication of remorse. The
accused lied and fabricated evidence in an endeavour to escape the
consequences of his conduct,” Joffe said.

Selebi remains free on bail on condition that he submits an application for leave to appeal against the sentence within 14 days.

Analysts said the
conviction of Selebi — a former president of the international police
body Interpol — was a positive development for the country, showing it
was ready to tackle its growing corruption problem.

Prosecutors were
seeking more than the possible minimum sentence of 15 years in prison.
Selebi’s lawyers were seeking a suspended sentence and a fine.

Last month, Judge
Joffe said in his decision that Selebi had received at least 120,000
rand ($16,500) from Glenn Agliotti, a convicted drug trafficker who was
one of the main prosecution witnesses.

Joffe had found
Selebi not guilty of defeating the ends of justice but said he did not
find the former national commissioner of the South African Police
Service (SAPS) a credible witness.

Prosecutors had
contended that Selebi had links to organized crime figures and received
about 1.2 million rand to ignore their drug trafficking.

Selebi was a close
ally of former President Thabo Mbeki and analysts did not expect his
conviction to harm current President Jacob Zuma.

The ANC has said the guilty verdict showed no one was above the law in South Africa.

The
week I arrived Aba, a bus driver had been killed, allegedly for
stubbornness in dispensing with money at a checkpoint on the Port
Harcourt highway. My driver, as circumspect and suspicious as ever,
assured me the police regularly incriminated the innocent. If all the
vehicle and personal documents were in order, they found some fault
with the fire extinguisher or requested to see certification for
re-spraying the car, knowing fully well no such thing exists. A regular
picture encountered on my trip was of a policeman standing in the
middle of the road, gun in the right hand. The left fist into which
currency notes were pumped by drivers remained half-open. How this
effective strategy for “revenue collection” could identify kidnappers
or the kidnapped can only be properly explained by Nigeria’s
Inspector-General of Police and the Federal Minister for Interior, both
natives of the South-East.

Within Aba there is
a dangerous variation – the pedestrian checkpoint! People passing
through this contraption on the major streets must raise both arms
above their heads in surrender to the occupation forces. A humiliation
of citizens within their own country could not be more perfect!
Finally, in drumming rainfall I made it in to our tenants who had never
met me. For obvious reasons I gave no prior notice of my visit. It took
a while for someone to answer my knock on the massive steel gate. I had
begun to wonder if it was the right place. Since my last visit, the
fruit trees in the garden had grown into a lush green forest; the
cottage was hardly visible from outside. Someone unbolted the gate,
smiling. “From your face I know you must be Madam’s son,” Mr. Nwachukwu
said. “We were watching you from our hideout upstairs. No one opens
doors for a stranger these days in Aba. My friend, have you seen the
rain?” he greeted warmly. There is consternation here at the sudden
interest in their city. Hear Mr. Nwachukwu: “For more than 30 years now
we’ve been living with abductions and summary executions by Bakassi
Boys, other criminal militia and vigilante groups. Local governments
now openly kidnap family members of tenants and landlords for
defaulting on payment of various infrastructure levies. Every month
property certificates must be re-certified. They shot the son of our
neighbour, right here! Come and see blood!” he exclaimed. Reality
overtakes preconception in this place.

Restrictive life

To add insult to
misery, billboards welcome travellers to Abia with the blasphemous
slogan, “God’s Own State!” Posters eulogize South-east governors and
their spouses as “rare gems!” Despite the hallucinatory language, Aba
roadsides remain a rotten salad of hungry-looking artisans, aggressive
beggars, disease, garbage, junk vehicles and mechanics, stagnant
gutters, vendors and vultures. There is brisk business in manufacture
of steel gates and wooden coffins, perhaps to remind the visitor that
death could just be round the corner. None of the South-eastern
governors has any deep, visceral commitment to institutionalized
democracy or understanding of economic planning. Yet one of these
states produced a recent Central Bank governor.

Notices outside Aba night clubs typify the restrictive nature of
life: no shorts and sleeveless shirts; no walking sticks; no handbags;
no slippers or sandals; no smoking or drinking on the dance floor; no
hats or caps; no dancing with same sex; no fighting; no smoking of
marijuana! Before the road journey to Abuja, passengers leaving Aba
were thoroughly searched. A cameraman then took mugshots of each of us,
as though we were going to jail. But in fact, it was an exit from hell.

The National Drug
Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) on Tuesday commenced surveillance on
another suspected cocaine container belonging to the Chinese drug
suspects arrested last week in Lagos.

According to the
anti-narcotics agency, investigation into the unlawful importation of
the 450.4kg of cocaine by the Chinese suspects revealed that there was
yet another container imported by them.

“Documents
recovered from the suspects confirmed the importation of the second
container into the country by another ship,” said Ahmadu Giade, chief
executive of the agency.

Mr. Giade
disclosed that the shipment was successfully tracked by the agency in
collaboration with the British Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA),
and the United States Drug Enforcement Agency and was found to have
arrived Tin Can Island Port, Lagos.

The anti-drug
peddling boss said that the container will be publicly examined at the
port in collaboration with other security and government agencies.

“The discovery was
due to diligent investigation on the case involving the 450.4kg of
cocaine seizure worth over N4 billion. We are going to examine the
container publicly at the port in the presence of other security
officials,” he said. “The said container has been rated by the
anti-narcotic Agency as high risk and will be given 100 percent
physical examination.”

No politician involved

Mitchell Ofoyeju,
spokesperson for the agency said that, so far no politician has been
linked to the unlawful importation, and that the claims on the bill of
laden that a politician has hands in the deal is false.

According to him,
the first cocaine container was imported with a bill of laden bearing
one “Honourable Mike Njoku of No. 4 Balogun Street, Maryland Lagos.”
The agency’s spokesperson disclosed that the address was found to be
fake as there is no Balogun Street in Maryland.

“However, the
consignee’s telephone number given on the shipping document was that of
one of the Chinese suspects. The bill of laden also states that the
first container contained personal effects,” he said.

Two Chinese
business men, Richard Wang, 62; and Chiusen Fong, 54; in collaboration
with a Nigerian clearing agent, Inua Mohammed, 56; are being detained
by the NDLEA following the cocaine seizure of last week.

Meanwhile, the clearing agent denied knowing that the container is stashed with cocaine.

“I am a clearing
agent. Richard Wang came to me to clear a container. He told me the
container contained cigarettes and gave me N3 million for the
clearance. It was after my boys cleared it out of the port that NDLEA
officers intercepted them,” he said in a statement from the agency.

Senate President, David Mark, yesterday said that the
National Assembly would proceed with the creation of new states despite
criticisms mounting against the exercise.

Mr Mark told new state campaigners from Katsina State
on Thursday, that lawmakers will not bow to criticisms that the current
36 states be maintained, but will press on with the exercise to “meet
the yearnings and aspirations of the people.” He said despite the
condemnations, he finds the requests which have been made by several
groups “genuine, desirable and necessary to address some imbalances in
the present structures.”

“The more state we have,” he said, “the more there
will be healthy competition between and among states, which will
ultimately usher in meaningful development.” The new group, led by the
former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Masari, is
advocating the creation of Karaduwa State, out of the present Katsina
State.

The proposed area holds 11 local government councils
out of the state’s total 40, and according to Mr Masari, is endowed
with human and material resources, and would be economically and
politically viable. The area is also rich with agricultural and mineral
resources, he said.

Criticism

Critics have denounced the planned exercise which the
National Assembly has assured will be accommodated during the next
constitutional amendment.

They have urged the lawmakers to refuse the requests,
which currently total over 30, on the grounds that the new states will
compound Nigeria’s problems, since many of them would lack the capacity
to sustain themselves economically.

The lawmakers have also been accused of seeking to
set the record as the first legislature in the nation’s history to
create states.

Mr Masari admitted that the option of new states
“cannot” solve Nigeria’s problems, but said that “it is the shortest
way to solving them.” The Senate President, Mr Mark, said the National
Assembly will not back down on the exercise, and described the question
of self-sustainability as “untenable”. He said the true intent of the
exercise is to draw the people closer to the government, and
development.

“It will bring unity and harmony between and among
federating states,” he said. On the economic strength of the proposed
states, the Senate President said rather than condemning them, “we must
find out why they are not doing well.”

The National Assembly will, on Tuesday next week,
break their long vacation to hold an impromptu plenary session to
consider the N74 billion request of the chairman of the Independent
National Electoral Commission (INEC).

The lawmakers will also be screening three new
ministers that were requested by President Goodluck Jonathan. Atahiru
Jega, the INEC chairman, had last week said his commission urgently
requires N74billion to conduct a new voters’ registration and perfect
other aspects of the plan for a credible free and fair election in
January next year. Meanwhile, the lawmakers had just begun a two month
long break that was supposed to terminate on 29 September. The
spokesperson of the senate, Ayogu Eze, confirmed that the lawmakers
have resolved to reconvene on Tuesday next week to specifically
consider the request of INEC.

“From our own calculation, clearly we will need N74
billion,” Mr. Jega had said, adding that the commission have tendered
the request before the executive. Mr Jega said that up to 50% of the
sum would be used to purchase 120 000 units of voter registration
machines. He added that part of the fund will be applied to voter
education, employee training and allowances, and improving the working
conditions of the state chapters of INEC. He noted that the most of the
equipment used for the last election were substandard and could not be
applied to the current process if the commission was to achieve a
credible election. According to Mr Jega, the required amount must be
made available to the commission before 11 August to ensure optimal
performance by the commission.

New ministers

Although the senate spokesman confirmed the senate
has received the nomination of three additional ministers, to be
screened by the senate when the reconvenes, he could not immediately
confirm the identities of the nominee ministers were. One of the
nominee ministers are however expected to fill the Power Ministry that
has no substantive minister. The others are expected to fill the junior
minister positions in the Federal Capital Territory Ministry and either
the Petroleum Ministry or Foreign Affairs. Mr Eze added that the change
in plans was in line with their initial pledge to provide the required
legislative support to INEC ahead of the 2011 elections. Mr. Eze made
the pledge on behalf of the senate last week, shortly before they
embarked on the long vacation. The senate is however calling off its
vacation for the second time in four months. The senate had in April
adjusted its break to screen the current ministers.

The
political face-off between the executive and the legislative arm of
Ogun State yesterday took another dimension, as some alleged loyalists
of the governor stormed the Assembly complex to deposit fetish pots in
the premises, owing to the refusal of the lawmakers to support the
controversial N100 billion bond bid of the state government.
The protesters,
allegedly led by the Secretary of the Abeokuta South Local Government,
Nurudeen Olaleye, arrived the complex with several fetish pots and
placards, declaring curses on the lawmakers over their opposition to
the state governor, Gbenga Daniel.
Some of the
inscriptions on the placards read: ‘No bond no peace’, ‘G-15 lawmakers,
let peace reign’ and ‘Dimeji Bankole, you are a disgrace to Ogun State’
among others. The protesters, who forced their way into the premises,
immediately started moving round the premises to deposit the pots in
various locations.
Similarly, the
protesters were also seen smashing eggs all over the premises, a
development which appeared to frighten the staff of the Assembly. Even
the security operatives, including policemen, attached to the Assembly
premises, were helpless as the fetish pots, containing rituals
ingredients, were being deposited round the complex.
Yoruba traditional
religionists believe that the use of such pots could bring either good
luck to those who prepare them or harm to those they are directed
against.
Postponed resumption
Apparently, having
received information about the fetish move of the protesters, the
lawmakers, who were expected to resume work yesterday after their
recess, did not resume sitting. They sent out a public notice that the
Assembly has suspended resumption until further notice.
The notice, signed
by the Clerk of the House, Demola Badejo, reads: ‘In accordance with
the House rule 5 {1-3}, the Speaker has suspended the resumption of the
plenary till further notice. The Speaker regrets any inconveniences
this will cause, but assured that plenary will be convened as soon as
the atmosphere in the House is conducive.’
Meanwhile, many
residents of the state who spoke with NEXT said they were fed up with
the present administration, stressing that the peace associated with
the state has been shattered by the actions of the political players in
the state.
Recently, some
members of the Assembly and the state executive exchanged accusations
of ritual oath taking. The photograph of one of the lawmakers, Wale
Alausa, was widely distributed, showing the naked man holding a fetish
object. He said he was forced to swear allegiance to Mr Daniel. He is
now a member of the group opposed to the state governor in the State
Assembly.