Nigeria Content Online

The Minister of
Labour and Productivity, Chukwuemeka Wogu, has said a recent report by
the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation
(UNESCO) that the Igbo language might become extinct in the next 50
years is worrisome and calls for prompt attention.

Mr. Wogu, who
represented President Goodluck Jonathan, stated this in an address at
the second International Conference on the Extinction of the Igbo
language in Owerri, Imo State.

“Until the shocking
revelation that Igbo language may go into extinction in the next 50
years, most of us had thought that [the] Igbo language enjoyed a high
level of scholarship,” he said.

Mr. Wogu blamed parents for downplaying the language and called on stakeholders to look inwards for solutions.

“I am of the view
that neither the school system nor the Diaspora factor is responsible
for this problem, for if they were, other major Nigerian languages
would be suffering the same fate. That this is not the case tells the
Igbo to look inwards for the solution,” he said.

“[The] Igbo
language may be getting extinct because the Igbo family stopped
speaking to their children in their mother tongue.”

He also called on other Nigerian groups to emulate the efforts of the Igbo to preserve their language.

“I therefore call on all other ethnic nationalities in Nigeria to
emulate ‘Ndi Igbo’ in demonstrating the urgent need to preserve and
safeguard her language. We must not let our native languages die.”

A Turkish court
indicted 196 people on Monday, among them retired military commanders,
over an alleged plot to overthrow the government, which has its roots
in political Islam, state-run Anatolian news agency said.

Revelations this
year of an alleged 2003 plot codenamed “Sledgehammer” shocked Turkey
and aggravated simmering tensions between the government and the
secularist armed forces, as scores of retired and serving military
officers were arrested.

According to
Turkish media, the plot was said to involve bombing historic mosques
and provoking Greece into shooting down a Turkish war plane to create a
war-like situation and destabilise the AK Party government, in power
since 2002.

Among those named
in the indictment are Cetin Dogan, former head of Turkey’s prestigious
First Army, and retired air force commander Ibrahim Firtina, both of
whom were first arrested early this year.

The indictment,
prepared by Istanbul prosecutors, included calls for jail sentences of
15 to 20 years for the alleged perpetrators, Anatolian said. No date
has been set for a trial.

Turkey’s military,
the second largest in NATO, has overthrown three governments since 1960
and pressured Turkey’s first Islamist-led government into resignation
in 1997.

The military has
said there was no conspiracy and operation “Sledgehammer” was merely a
war game exercise presented at a seminar.

The arrests of
former military top brass highlight a major social transition in
EU-membership candidate Turkey, as power shifts from traditional
secular elites such as the armed forces and judiciary, to a new
political class of conservative Muslims, epitomised by Prime Minister
Tayyip Erdogan’s AK Party.

REUTERS

The Federal High Court, Lagos, on
Monday, adjourned hearing till 28 October in the application filed by
Sebastian Adigwe, the former managing director of Afribank, to quash
the charge against him.

Mr. Adigwe was re-arrested by the
Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC), on 21 April, with four
directors of the bank on a fresh 33-count charge of granting credit
facilities to the tune of N55 billion, without collaterals, after they
had earlier been arraigned and granted bail on a 36-count charge to the
tune of N38 billion in September 2009.

The directors are Osa Osunde, Isa
Zailani, Chinedu Onyia, and Henry Arogundade. Also joined in the suit
are Peter Ololo, the managing director of Falcon Securities, and his
company.

After spending five days in the custody
of the EFCC, the court in Lagos, on 26 April, granted bail to Mr.
Adigwe after EFCC had re-arraigned him and six others including the
chairman of the bank, Osa Osunde, over their alleged involvement.

The accused were said to have failed to
take all reasonable steps to ensure that the account books of Afribank
as at 31 May, 2009, gave a true and fair view of the state of affairs
of the bank as required by Sections 24 (1), 24 (2) of the Banks and
Other Financial Institutions Act. Cap. B3, Laws of the Federation, by
understating the loan portfolio of the bank.

More charges

Specifically, Mr. Adigwe was said to
have perpetrated shares scam by creating a misleading appearance of
active trading in the shares of Afribank on the Nigeria Stock Exchange
(NSE) and also by approving N2 billion credit facilities to Alsmiths
Nigeria Limited to purchase large volume of Afribank’s shares, an
offence contrary to Section 105 (1) (a) of the Investment and
Securities Act, 2007 and punishable under Section 115 (a) of the same
Act.

However, at the resumed hearing of the
case on Monday, counsel to the accused, Tony Idigbe (SAN), told the
court that an application had been filed to quash the charge,
contending that the proof of evidence did not link the accused with the
case.

Mr. Idigbe urged the court to order the
EFCC to release the international passports of the accused, stressing
“it is illegal for the EFCC to hold on to their passports.”

The prosecution counsel, Rotimi Jacobs,
however, did not object to the release of the passports to the court,
but raised objections to the verification of the bail terms.

Justice Jonathan Tsoho ruled that the passports should be deposited with the court and adjourned the case till October 28.

Policemen from the Oyo State Criminal
Investigation Department and the area command, Abeokuta, are
investigating the Ogun State Chairman of Police Community Relations
Committee, PCRC, Shuaibu Aro, for alleged fraud. Mr Aro is accused of
allegedly defrauded two people, Yekini Aliyu and Wasiu Aliyu, to the
tune of N231 million.

His house was searched early last Saturday on the
orders of an Abeokuta Magistrate’s Court, and in the process, the
detectives discovered 31 Toyota Hiace buses parked at the premises. The
suspect, who was said to have resisted arrest on two occasions,
reportedly threatened the deputy superintendent of police, who led the
search team, with dismissal for daring to come to his house for the
job. Messrs Aliyu and Aliyu, whose petition secured the court’s nod for
the search, have taken a step further by petitioning Ogbonna Onovo, the
Inspector General of Police, for further action. They asked the police
boss to carry out thorough investigation on Mr Aro, who is also the
acting chairman of Lagos State Chapter of the PCRC, as well as his
alleged fraudulent activities.

Fraudulent acts

The petitioners alleged that he had been
threatening their lives, boasting that nothing would happen to him
since he is close to most senior police officers in the country. They
stated that they were introduced to Mr Aro by one Rafiu Adesina, who
said he needed to be supplied 3,500 units of motorcycles of different
models. According them, after supplying 3,000 units of Jincheng A x 100
motorcycles, 300 units of Lincoln CG 125 motorcycles, and 200 units of
Lincoln CG (125) Alloy) motorcycles to the suspect, he refused to pay
them the money. They said rather than respond to their repeated calls,
he only threatened them with death if they refused to stop calling. He
was said to have issued several dud cheques within the space of one
month. One of them bears the number, 114371679. The police officer,
whom he threatened to influence his sack, reportedly made him to
understand that he was not above the law despite his closeness to many
of his bosses, saying “We got a search warrant to search your house and
we are here.”

Olusegun Mimiko,
the Ondo State governor, yesterday lamented the huge amount of money
Nigerians spend on schooling in countries like United Kingdom and
United States and said it was enough to develop the nation’s
educational system.

Mr. Mimiko said
this at the opening ceremony of the capacity building workshop for
newly recruited staff of the state ministry of education quality
assurance agency at Ade Super Hotel in Ondo. He said it was a pity that
Nigerians are spending money to acquire knowledge in developed
countries of the world at the detriment of the nation’s education
system.

He said, “If you
have opportunity to be at the airport when Nigerian students are
travelling to UK for studies, you will marvel at the large number of
students planning to travel out for their education.”

Rather, Mr. Mimiko
challenged government at all levels to place special emphasis on the
development of infrastructural facilities in public institutions from
primary to tertiary level.

He noted that
kidnapping and other criminal acts will continue unabated if government
failed to place special emphasis on manpower development, saying the
nation will continue to lag behind among nations, if workers are not
given adequate training.

According to him,
apart from Sub-Shara Africa, which is still lagging behind in terms of
technological advancement and infrastructural development, other
continents have continued to move forward.

More funds needed in government schools

He advised that
more fund should be allocated for the development of infrastructure in
various government owned institutions, so that they can be at par with
their private counterparts.

He stressed further
that the physical infrastructure in public schools in the state is
receiving the desired attention, with the construction of a mega school
in Akure, the state capital.

Mimiko added that
the mega school, which will be equipped with modern equipment, will be
constructed in areas like Owo, Ikare, Ondo and Okitipupa.

“Determined to
situate Ondo State in its rightful place in the twenty first century,
we are building new 21st century compliant schools,” he added.

He added that in
order to sustain the state government education policy, his
administration has decided to strengthen the inspectorate division to
restore the lost glory of education.

“To sustain our projected outcome from this massive investment in
education, we noted that the inspectorate division must be strengthened
and restored to its original role of emplacing standard in our schools.
That is why we set up the quality assurance agency which, in the real
sense, will perform an enhanced role of the old inspectorate division
of the ministry of education in a more efficient and result oriented
manner,” he said.

The National
Chairman of Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP), Okwesilieze Nwodo, has
charged members of the party to field their best candidates as flag
bearers in the 2011 general elections.

A statement on
Monday by the chairman’s media assistant, Mr. Ike Abonyi, said that
Nwodo made the appeal while addressing members of the party from Enugu
at a reconciliatory meeting in Abuja.

The News Agency of
Nigeria (NAN) quoted him as saying “We must strive to pick our best
eleven teams because it is not going to be business as usual. Vote will
count and only the best products can be marketed.”

It added that
President Goodluck Jonathan’s mode of appointments, as well as
commitment to international community, explained increased commitment
to free, fair and credible election.

The chairman also
reiterated zero tolerance to political violence, stressing that even at
gun point, he would not send the name of anybody who shoots his or her
way to victory through thuggery.

The statement
further said that Mr. Nwodo reminded the stakeholders of the reform
policy of the PDP, adding that it was aimed at opening up the party and
returning it to the people.

“When we allow the
people to pick our flag bearers, they will pick popular ones and it
would be easy to market them at the general election. We cannot afford
to allow our vote-winning members to be frustrated out to other
parties,” he added.

The News Agency of
Nigeria (NAN) report said that the stakeholders bared their minds on
the happenings in the state, especially from 1999 to 2007, and
commended Sullivan Chime, governor of Enugu State, for returning peace
to the state.

A 15-member
committee was set up by the National Chairman to meet regularly and
ensure that the roadmap to peace, drawn at the meeting, was sustained.

The high point of the meeting was the resolution of the disputed state congress.

Ray Nnaji, a factional chairman of the party in Enugu, acknowledged Mr. Vita Abba-led executive as the authentic state leaders.

Among those who
attended the meeting were Sullivan Chime, governor of Enugu State;
former senate president, Ken Nnamani; deputy senate president, Ike
Ekweremadu; former governors Jim Nwobodo, Anthony Ogugua, and Chimaroke
Nnamani.

NAN

The Minister of
Education, Ruqquayatu Rufa’i, on Monday, unfolded an action plan
containing key issues, which would be addressed within one year.

Speaking in Abuja,
at the inauguration of the task teams to oversee the implementation of
the plan, Mrs. Rufa’i disclosed that government is focused on those
interventions that will have maximum impact on education. She
identified four areas to highlight, which included access and equity;
standards and quality assurance; technical and vocational education and
training; and funding and resource utilisation.

The minister said
the plan will be reviewed on a monthly basis so that successes will be
measured and necessary corrections made.

“It is my hope that as we review our plan in the next few months, a number of milestones would have been achieved,” she said.

Mrs. Rufa’i said
she hoped to be able to present accurate data on the state of the
Nigerian education sector to the outside world. With accurate data, the
minister noted, government can efficiently allocate resources.

The plan also
provided for a robust communication infrastructure to help stakeholders
keep abreast of activities within the sector so that they are able to
participate in the efforts to improve it.

Further plans

Other activities
that will be addressed within the next year would include enhancing
quality in education delivery and teacher development, which will
include the restructuring of organisations such as National Teachers
Institute to ensure that it can effectively carry out its mandate.

Technical and
vocational education and training will be prioritised, as it has the
potential to revolutionlise the economy, she said. However, she said
the responsibility for implementing the action plan lies with the task
teams.

Six task teams were
set up to exhaustively monitor and where necessary, provide guidance in
the implementation of each area. Members of the six teams were drawn
from the federal ministry of education, international development
partners, academia, and other sectors involved in education and its
administration.

The teams are
expected to provide regular reports to the minister and also ensure
that timelines, as provided in the strategy, are followed.

The House of
Representatives is to consider a bill which will require all landlords
in the country to keep records of their tenants’ personal details for
the purposes of security and public information.

The bill is titled,
“A Bill for An Act To Provide for Landlords and Tenants Responsibility
and For Other Matters Connected Therewith,” and sponsored Emmanuel Jime
(PDP, Benue State).

If passed into law,
it will mandate landlords or property managers across the country,
especially those in urban areas, to keep the names, places of origin,
residences and places of work of all their tenants, all of which must
be verifiable.

Register your tenants

Besides, it will
compel them to forward a copy of the tenants’ register to an agency it
seeks to create, Urban Development Authority (UDA) and another copy to
a police station with a jurisdiction covering such property.

It will create a
legal duty for tenants to make a declaration or swear to an affidavit
to be law-abiding and not engage in any action that will violate the
security of lives and properties of neighbours and residents of the
community they reside in.

The bill states,
“The landlord/property manager shall forward one copy of this tenants’
register to the Urban Development Authority and another copy to the
Police Division/Station with jurisdiction covering his/her property or
house.

“The
landlord/Property Manager shall review this register quarterly or
annually to update it to reflect the necessary developments and
changes, register such review or update with the record kept in Urban
Office and Police Division Station, respectively.

“It shall be the
duty of the landlord/property manager to state clearly the number of
tenants occupying a single room or flat of his/her property in the
tenants registers accordingly.”

The bill further
requires that any tenant who acquires premises to reside and has made
payment to the owner of the property will, before packing into the
premises, make and submit to the concerned police station a declaration
of affidavit.

The affidavit shall
not only contain his declaration of his willingness to be law-abiding,
but also a disclosure that he is not a criminal and will not
accommodate criminals to execute, encourage, aid or plan criminal
activities within or outside that jurisdiction.

Tenants are also
expected to give true information failing which they shall be liable to
ejection without quit notice and prosecution by the police. If found
guilty by the court, such tenants may be jailed for a minimum of three
years or get an option of fine.

Other aspects of the bill

The bill also seeks
to ban tenants from sleeping in commercial premises except they notify
the police and the landlord. This, it states, is to check criminal
activities in such premises.

It equally seeks a
role for traditional rulers and “comptrollers of local government”, in
monitoring their environs and keeping a tab on residents.

Mr. Jime, while
speaking to journalists yesterday, said the proposed law will help to
track crimes and check criminal activities, which, according to him,
are on the rise in the country, especially in residential areas.

He expressed
optimism that the bill will be passed but said he expects some
opposition from his colleagues. According to him, the opposition might
eventually lead to the amendment of certain areas which the bill did
not take care of.

“That is why we are
a parliament. As parliamentarians, we debate bills thoroughly so that
after they have been passed, the welfare of the people will be
adequately taken care of,” he said.

Seven people were killed on Saturday morning when unknown
persons attacked Maza, a village in Jos North Local Government of Plateau
State.

The attack on the sleepy and mountainous village, also
left 10 others injured, while some houses were burnt.

“We are just coming out of the village; it is a difficult
terrain really. There isn’t much to say. This incident is just sad,” Kingsley
Umoh, Spokesman for the Military Special Task Force (STF) charged with
maintaining peace in Jos, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).

Mr. Umoh’s figure, however, differs with that of the
State Government, who announced that 10 people were killed while another 10
sustained serious injuries.

Some reports said the dead included the family of a Christian priest.

Witnesses said the men attacked the family of Nuhu Dawat in the village of
Mazah, 12km (7 miles) from the state capital of Jos, killing his wife, two
children and a grandson.

The priest ran for his life, later telling Reuters: “I leave everything
to God to judge.”

Plateau State Police Commissioner Gregory Anyating told Reuters the
authorities were trying to find out “the root causes of the
violence”, but it had not spread to other villages.

“The attack is nothing unusual; it is just another
attempt to destroy the peace Plateau people have been enjoying in the past
months,” Mr. Gregory said.

He said that those injured were being treated at the
Plateau Specialist Hospital.

“It is an embarrassing situation. Just when we thought we
had found peace, we suddenly have to cope with another ugly situation,” he
said.

The Commissioner, who appealed to the people to remain calm,
and not to take the law into their hands, called for more vigilance from the
STF to prevent a recurrence.

The Federal Government has set up
a committee to review priority projects of Ministries, Departments and
Agencies (MDAs) for effective coordination and actualisation.

Vice President Namadi Sambo
constituted the committee at a meeting with top officials of some
ministries and stakeholders in Abuja.

Mr, Sambo said the committee, to
be headed by the Minister of National Planning, Shamsudeen Usman, had
two weeks to complete the assignment and present its report to his
office.

The meeting was called to
strategise and recommend appropriate funding for infrastructural
development in the country, outside the national income.

The Vice-President also directed
the Ministry of Finance to meet with the 36 state governors to discuss
“with a view to harmonising the 2011 budget proposals for their
various infrastructural development projects for that year, to avoid
duplication of projects’’.

He said the government had
identified four critical areas requiring substantial amount of funding
to include hydro power projects with Mambila and Zungeru as priority
areas.

He said the Gurara Phase II and coal power projects would be given medium term priority.

Other projects to be accorded
priority are roads, railways and airports; multipurpose dams,
information and communication technology and projects in the Ministry
of Niger Delta.

Mr. Sambo maintained that proper
coordination and planning must be embarked upon for the government to
surmount the challenges of projects funding.

He suggested that cheap and concessional funds should be sourced for infrastructural development.

“With the setting up of the
Sovereign Wealth Fund by the National Economic Council, Nigeria is
better positioned to access infrastructural funding programmes of these
international financial institutions,” Mr. Sambo said.

In his contribution, the Minister
of National Planning commended the vice president for the new
initiative of ensuring adequate funding for infrastructural development.

He said Nigeria needed about N32
trillion to deliver adequate infrastructure as contained in the Vision
20:2020 blueprint, adding that N13 trillion of the amount was targeted
to be raised from the private sector.