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Last Saturday, our country saw its second TEDTalk at the Yar’Adua Centre in Abuja.

The event started
in New York 25 years ago, by a group of technologists, entertainers and
designers who were interested in sharing their most innovative ideas.

According to the
website, TED is a small non-profit which brings together people from
every discipline and culture that seek a deeper understanding of the
world and hope to turn that understanding into a better future.

Darlington Uzoigwe,
the event’s host, said that he wanted to organise a TEDTalk in Nigeria
to improve its global image and attract bright minds back to the
country.

“In Nigeria, we are
not a nation of dullards,” Mr Uzoigwe said. “This is about getting
people working and getting people passionate. I want to see people go
out there and be challengers.”

Talking about ideas

The Abuja talk was
a day-long event featuring videos of the most popular TED speakers from
around the world and four live speakers from Nigeria. The videos
featured a wide range of topics, from science to advertising and
morality.

This is the second
TEDTalk to be held in the country. The first had taken place in Lagos a
week earlier. Both events are independent of the TED organization and
though they are not meant to be commercial operations, organisers asked
participants to pay a N2, 500 registration fee to help defray their
costs.

The theme was
technology and how it could help the nation’s development. It featured
four exciting speakers including Saheed Adepoju, whose company is
creating what can be best described as a Nigerian i-pad focused on
local content, and Gbenga Sesan, who is leading a programme to change
the stereotypes of Nigerians as online fraudsters.

The audience was
small – only 15 attendees, six of them nominated by the Nigerian
National Petroleum Company (NNPC). Organisers say that the size of the
event was deliberate. While other TED events focus on the broad spread
of ideas, the Abuja organizers limited their attendees by screening
participants.

Mr Uzoigwe explained that they wanted to select a group that will be able to fully appreciate and utilize the experience.

“We are seeking
people that can connect with the ideas that are being talked about. We
don’t want secondary school students or market women that cannot
understand what is being said on the screen.” And the strategy seemed
to have worked.

“It was
inspirational and motivational,” said Nwolu Okerewa, an attendee with
the NNPC. “The speakers spoke of things that make you want to have
something doing.”

The event had a few
downsides. They featured only one female speaker, a video of a 12-year
old girl speaking on the power of communication between adults and
children. Organisers promised that the next event will have a wider
range of speakers.

Building the future

Organisers say that
bringing the TED series to Nigeria represents a sign of our nation’s
changing demographics. Videos of all the most popular TEDTalks speeches
can be found online and organisers say that Saturday’s speeches will on
their website by the end of the month.

Mr Sesan, one of the speakers, was hopeful that those issues could be overcome.

“There are islands
of sanity in Nigeria where things are happening. We need to overcome
the internal stereotypes where we feel our strength is small,” he said.
“Worry less about others’ impressions and more about your passions.”

A total of N1.08 billion, amounting to
interests from about N100 billion realized from the sale of the Federal
Government properties, has been recovered from six banks, according to
the chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Housing and
Habitat, Garba Shehu Matazu.

The banks and the amounts recovered
from them are Skye Bank N226,209,506.18; Equatorial Trust Bank N115,
295,175.84; Oceanic Bank N404,173,076.08; and Intercontinental Bank
N59,806,556.55. Others are Wema Bank N241,426,097.38 and United Bank
for Africa N39,754,814.12. Of the lot, only Oceanic Bank, which paid in
two instalments of N163,191,144.88 and N240,981,931.20 concluded its
payment last Monday. Mr. Matazu, said at a public hearing on the
matter, that the committee decided to recover the money itself when the
Presidential Implementation Committee on the Lease of the Federal
Government Property (PIC), and its consultant resorted to it for
assistance due to the refusal of the banks to respond to their various
efforts in recovering the interests.

Carrot and stick method

He added that the committee intervened
vigorously through solicitations and letter, even threat of invocation
of its constitutional powers for compulsion to obtain surrender and
cooperation. Mr. Matazu said the committee frowned at the affront by
the banks, which it adjudged deliberate and aimed at defrauding the
government and people of Nigeria, adding that it went further to
threaten the concerned banks with the invitation of the police and the
Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) if they failed to remit
the withheld funds into the coffers of the PIC.

“The above became expedient when the
committee realised that the non-payment bothered on sheer deceit,
unwillingness to remit, and the belief that if the said funds are not
recovered after a time, it may be forgotten,” he said. “The committee
has vowed to unearth and to make sure that all agencies and banks
involved are made to pay up as the present House is determined to
unplug all noticeable avenues of sleaze in the system, and make sure
more money available to government to accomplish developmental
programmes.” Mr Matazu also said having recovered the interests, the
committee will now embark on the second phase of its job in “fulfilling
the resolution of the House to recover those federal government
properties that were carved out illegally and some sold out without the
money being paid into the government treasury.”

Kudos to the House

Minister of Land, Housing and Urban
Development, Nduesse Essien, confirmed that the banks have paid up the
interest as at July 9, and expressed happiness that the committee did a
marvellous job. “That is the essence of parliament,” he said. “It acts
as a watchdog because without doing so, a lot of things would have gone
awry.” Mr. Essien said he has invited the 14 banks involved in the
implementation programme to a meeting during which he told them the
ministry’s plan to streamline the number of banks to six to ease
reconciliation in future. In choosing the six banks, the minister
added, “we are going to look at what they will give us, how much
interest they are giving us. So, from next month we are going to
appoint six banks who will be holding the accounts of the PIC.” He also
said that the ministry has given those who bided for government houses,
but are yet to pay or take possession of the properties, 21 days within
which to do so or have them revoked. He added that he has signed about
30 Certificates of Occupancy in the last two weeks.

Also speaking at the hearing, the PIC Secretary, Mohammed Yahuza
said the committee has 69 litigations in court and that they are being
handled by the office of the Attorney General and Minister of Justice.
Consultant to PIC, Enyiuwa Okpara commended the House committee for
recovering the money. In his remarks, the Speaker, Dimeji Bankole,
represented by the Minority Leader, Mohammed Ali Ndume, expressed
happiness at the achievement of the committee, adding “You may recall
that the recovery of over N4 billion made during the 2008 Financial
Year has ushered in new culture of returning funds into the public
coffers at the end of the year.”

The
recent occurrence in the Gulf of Mexico where oil giant British
Petroleum is unable to control a spill it unleashed on the coasts of
Louisiana, Alabama, Texas and Florida is a lesson that Nigeria has to
study and comprehend. Never mind that we have organisations bragging to
deal with oil spill responses. Does Nigeria have contingency plans of
any kind to rescue man,

animals and plants that are threatened by anthropogenic or natural disasters?

How exactly is the nation’s Ecological and Disaster Fund managed?

Oil-soaked pelicans
and other avian fauna, fish and shrimp, mollusks and turtles, mangroves
and reed grass, the entire biological life and ancillary jobs are under
severe threats in the Gulf of Mexico, on the coastline of the richest
and most powerful nation in the world! What will happen in our case
where human corpses lie by the roadside, unidentified and unrecovered
for days?

Saving wild
animals, as we often see on cable television is of course novel to
citizens of poor countries who themselves are perpetually in need of
rescue from economic hardship.

We have not managed
knowledge well enough in this country to afford the common man an
understanding of how ecological systems function, and the importance of
this to jobs, food security, life and overall livelihood? If
environmental management is not fully integrated and mainstreamed into
national development, Nigeria cannot expect people to understand
sustainable land use systems.

A lot of attention
in Nigeria is paid to the so-called “oil wealth” from which the lion’s
share of the national revenue sprouts. The headaches of conflict around
this non-renewable perspective also defines the political constellation
of the country, but hardly ever is any consideration or importance
attached to the natural capital that sustains structure, function and
productivity in the Niger delta.

Experts and
expatriates writing about the resources of the Niger delta in recent
times are surprisingly blindfolded to vital biological factors, the
decimation of which is unimaginable in Europe, the US and other
industrialised places. But why should there be any concern along the
lines of biodiversity conservation if Nigeria does not institute
mandatory requirements for environmental management for the oil and gas
companies operating in its delta, and make sure that such laws are
enforced to the letter?

Apart from being
Africa’s largest delta, the mangrove ecosystem around the Niger River
estuaries is the fourth largest contiguous on earth. A combination of
marine and freshwater environments, mangroves and swamp rainforest
should be the ideal natural system for that diversity of plant and
animal wildlife which sustains fisheries, farming, hunting and
gathering of non-timber forestry products, forestry and tourism. The
big and difficult question is whether all of this could co-exist with
the petroleum industry. No one has direct answers, but a circumvention
of this problem, as is the case presently is also not an option. We are
therefore left with anecdotal accounts of the past: forest elephants in
Andoni and Orashi River areas; pigmy hippopotamuses in Finima on Bonny
Island; manatees off Opobo; dwarf crocodiles in Patani; grey parrots in
Kula and tons of fish and shrimp all over the place! Nigerians may be a
nation of story-tellers, but that is not how science works.

The Niger Delta is no stranger to studies, strategies, “master
plans” and conflict resolution. All of these now have to be reviewed
and updated in respect of coherence with biodiversity, the neglected
and missing link in what we already know.

The
managing director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC),
Chibuzor Ugwoha, and other officials of the commission are to appear
before the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences
Commission (ICPC).

Their invitation by
the commission, NEXT learnt, is in relation to the alleged unilateral
award of contracts worth N61 billion by Mr. Ugwoha, without following
due process.

Other officials to
appear before the ICPC include Power Aghinighan, the executive director
of finance and administration; and Esoetok Etteh, the executive
director of Projects.

The NDDC officials
were summoned to appear before ICPC investigators last week, but they
denied receiving any invitation letter by the commission.

When contacted, Folu Olamiti, the media consultant to the anti-graft agency, confirmed the invitation of the NDDC officials.

“We are
investigating the allegations. We found out that the managing director
and others have questions to answer. So they will appear before our
investigators before the end of the week,” he said.

It’s all lies

However, media
assistant to the NDDC chairman, Abraham Ogbodo, denied knowledge of any
invitation, saying, “I don’t have that information. It is speculative.”

The invitation of
the NDDC officials is coming one week after the committee raised by
President Goodluck Jonathan to investigate the allegations against the
NDDC chairman, submitted its report.

The committee,
which commenced sitting on June 21, submitted its report to the office
of the secretary to the government of the federation, Yayale Ahmed.

Though its report
is not yet made public, it was learnt that Mr. Ugwoha and other senior
officials of the commission may have been indicted. President Jonathan
is expected to carry out major personnel reforms in the NDDC after
studying the report.

A source close to
the NDDC operations, however, maintained that Mr. Ugwoha was innocent
of the allegations. “It is all these people who call themselves leaders
of thought in the Niger Delta that are making all these noise. They
want the MD to be ‘settling’ them. But the man will not do so, that is
why they are sponsoring all kinds of lies against him,” the source said.

The NDDC,
established in 2000 by former president Olusegun Obasanjo, is saddled
with the mission of “facilitating the rapid, even, and sustainable
development of the Niger Delta into a region that is economically
prosperous, socially stable, ecologically regenerative, and politically
peaceful.”

The activities of
the commission cover the nine oil producing states of Abia, Akwa Ibom,
Bayelsa, Cross River, Delta, Edo, Imo, Ondo, and Rivers.

The
Inspector General of Police, Ogbonna Onovo, has given the abductors of
the five journalists kidnapped in Obingwa area of Abia State last
Sunday, 24 hours to release them unconditionally or face the wrath of
the law enforcement agents in the country.

Mr Onovo, who met
with Theodore Orji, the governor of Abia State, in Umuahia on Tuesday,
as part of his evaluation of security measures already put in place in
the South East, warned that innocent people in the state might be
affected when the police onslaught against the criminals would start.

“You cannot make an omelette without breaking an egg”, he said.

He said the
kidnappers had gone too far this time with the abduction of innocent
journalists, which he said would not be accepted, adding that they
should not see the gradual process of tackling the kidnapping menace in
the country, particularly in the South East, as a sign of weakness.

He said the
kidnappers had dared the federal government with their continued hold
on the abducted journalists, telling them to face the reality and
surrender themselves or have themselves to blame. “Since these criminal
elements have dared the might of the police and the might of the
federal government, it has come to a point where we have to pay them in
their own coins.” The Inspector General asked the traditional rulers
and indigenes of Ngwaland, the area where the incident happened, and
the entire people of the state to warn their siblings and surrender all
criminal elements in their communities to law enforcement agents for
prosecution.

A call for understanding

He appealed to all
citizens of the South East to bear with them when the police start the
other aspects of the operation, adding that it has come to a point
where the police would start hitting the kidnappers hard.

Mr Onovo commended
the governor for the efforts he has made to assist the police in the
state to combat criminality and urged him not to relent until the
hoodlums were eradicated.

The governor, who
lamented the sudden introduction of kidnapping to the country, added
that it was going to take some time to tackle. He also said the menace
is a technology-driven crime, adding that it would also need technology
to tackle it.

Mr Orji described kidnapping as embarrassing to the state government.

Mr Onovo was
accompanied by the Assistant Inspector General Zone 9, the police
commissioners of Imo, Abia, Anambra and Enugu States.

Somali Islamists
said on Monday they had carried out two bomb attacks in Uganda that
killed 74 soccer fans watching the World Cup final on television,

Al Jazeera television reported.

The explosions in
the closing moments of Sunday’s match ripped through two crowded venues
in the capital Kampala – an Ethiopian-themed restaurant and a rugby
club.

Al Shabaab
militants in Somalia have threatened to attack Uganda for sending
peacekeeping troops to the anarchic country to prop up the
Western-backed government.

Police said they
suspected al Shabaab, a group which claims links with al Qaeda and
which is fighting the fragile government in Somalia, was behind the
attacks.

“At one of the
scenes, investigators identified a severed head of a Somali national,
which we suspect could have been a suicide bomber,” said army spokesman
Felix Kulayigye.

“We suspect it’s al Shabaab because they’ve been promising this for long,” he said on Monday.

An al Shabaab commander in Mogadishu praised the attacks but admitted he did not know whether his group was behind them.

“Uganda is a major
infidel country supporting the so-called government of Somalia,” said
Sheikh Yusuf Isse, an al Shabaab commander in the Somali capital.

“We know Uganda is
against Islam and so we are very happy at what has happened in Kampala.
That is the best news we ever heard,” he said.

Burundi, which also
contributes troops to the Somalia peacekeeping mission, has stepped up
security, an army spokesman said in the capital, Bujumbura.

One American was
among those killed and President Barack Obama, condemning what he
called deplorable and cowardly attacks, said Washington was ready to
help Uganda in hunting down those responsible. Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton also condemned the attacks on “innocent spectators”.

One bombing
targeted the Ethiopian Village restaurant, a popular night-spot which
was heaving with soccer fans and is frequented by foreign visitors. The
second attack struck the Lugogo Rugby Club also showing the match.

Twin coordinated attacks have been a hallmark of al Qaeda and groups linked to Osama bin Laden’s militant network.

“Right now the
official figure is 74 dead,” government spokesman Fred Opolot said.
“There is a white woman, one person of Indian descent,

10 Eritreans or
Ethiopians.” The U.S. State Department confirmed that one American
citizen was killed and five injured. The U.S. charity Invisible
Children said one of its members, Nate Henn from Wilmington, Delaware,
had been killed in the rugby club blast.

‘Cowardly act’

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni visited the rugby club.

“This shows you the
criminality and terrorism that I have been talking about,” he said. “If
you want to fight, go and look for soldiers,

don’t bomb people
watching football.” “This is a cowardly act by al Shabaab terrorists,”
Bereket Simon, the Ethiopian government’s head of information, told
Reuters in Addis Ababa.

Ethiopian troops
invaded Somalia in 2006 to oust an Islamist movement from Mogadishu.
That sparked the Islamist insurgency which still rages.

The blasts come in
the closing moments of the final between Spain and the Netherlands and
left shocked survivors reeling among corpses and scattered chairs.

“We were watching
soccer here and then when there were three minutes to the end of the
match an explosion came … and it was so loud,” witness Juma Seiko
said at the rugby club.

Heavily armed
police cordoned off both blast sites and searched the areas with
sniffer dogs while dazed survivors helped pull the wounded from the
wreckage.

Uganda, east
Africa’s third largest economy, is attracting billions of dollars of
foreign investment, especially in its oil sector and government debt
markets.

But investors in
Uganda and neighbouring Kenya, which shares a largely porous border
with Somalia, often cite the threat from Islamic militants as a serious
concern.

“I certainly think
the blasts will make risk appraisals tighter on Uganda. If it does
transpire to be al Shabaab that will certainly raise the concerns of
Western investors and also Chinese investors in Uganda,” said Alex
Vines, Head of Africa Programmes at London’s Chatham House think-tank.

The Ugandan shilling fell slightly against the dollar on Monday after the blasts.

Ugandan tourism authorities said visitors need not worry about “a one-off incident that comes once in a blue moon”.

In Kampala, Somali residents voiced fears of a backlash.

“We are in fear and
locked in our homes today for fear of Ugandans’ possible retaliation,”
Bisharo Abdi, a Somali refugee, told Reuters.

“Some Ugandans are
saying ‘kill Somalis’.” In Washington, U.S. National Security Council
spokesman Mike Hammer said Obama was “deeply saddened by the loss of
life resulting from these deplorable and cowardly attacks”.

“The United States is ready to provide any assistance requested by the Ugandan government,” said Hammer.

On Saturday, Somali President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed told Reuters the
growing number of foreign jihadists joining the Islamic insurgents
posed a threat to regional security.

Aero Contractors,
on Monday, for the second time, announced the introduction of a fuel
surcharge of N500 on all its airfares, effective from July 12.

The Nigerian Civil
Aviation Authority (NCAA) had in the month of May, halted plans by the
airline to collect fuel surcharge of N500 and cash handling charge of
N300 on every ticket purchased by passengers beginning from May 19, and
June 1, respectively. The civil aviation regulatory body, at the time
of the suspension, stated that the carrier did not notify the authority
before it made public its plans of surcharging passengers for services
rendered. Meanwhile, the airline, through its Head of Commercials,
Robert Prophet, disclosed that the fuel surcharge is meant to moderate
the effect of the unprecedented rise in aviation fuel prices in
Nigeria. “We have always offered competitive fares on all our routes,”
he said. “The introduction of the fuel surcharge is to ensure even more
transparent pricing.” He also noted that airline operators and industry
analysts on several occasions have called on the government to
intervene in the price of aviation fuel, popularly called Jet-A1, sold
in the country, as they argued that the price of the commodity was
expensive compared to what obtains in other parts of the world.

Mr. Prophet, nevertheless, assured that the carrier is observing the
price of the commodity globally, adding that Aero will not hesitate to
revisit the pricing of its tickets should there be a reduction in the
cost of Jet-A1. “Fuel costs are being closely monitored, we promise to
review the surcharge immediately the cost of fuel goes down,” he said.
Speaking on the development, Sam Adurogboye, media head for the NCAA,
said that dialogue between the agency and the airline is still ongoing,
adding that the authority sent for Aero after its first announcement of
additional charges. “The issue of either to introduce or not to
introduce fuel surcharge by Aero is on,” he said. “When the issue came
up, they (Aero) were summoned and I think the meeting is not yet
concluded.”

Plans
are underway for the federal government to create technology incubation
centres in the 36 states of the federation as a catalyst to
industrialisation in the country, said Ibrahim Kaleel Inuwa, chairman
of the National Board for Technology Incubation (NBTI).

Mr Inuwa made the
announcement when he led the members of the NBTI governing board on a
visit to ministry of Science and Technology in Abuja last week.

“There are 36
states and we want to have at least one technology incubation centre in
every state,” said Mr. Inuwa. “We want to go to the stage of having one
centre per local government later, but that is dependent on
availability of funds.” Mr

Inuwa described
technology incubation as a mechanism for commercialising research and
development results. He said the centres will help make Nigeria a
technologically competitive nation as it will provide avenues for
transforming innovations into commercial products.

“In each incubation
centre there are facilities that inventors need to help them
commercialise their products. Once they spend like three years in our
centre they will be able to go to the market. Nigeria is a large
country with a large number of people and anything you do will sell,”
he said.

Proper packaging of ideas

Laraba Abullahi,
director general of NBTI said that the board was working on
commercialising 40 new research ideas. Their aim was to ensure that the
ideas are properly packaged, patented and placed in the market to add
value to lives.

Ms. Abdullahi
called on local entrepreneurs and researchers to make the best
ofopportunities available in the 21 incubation centres across the
country. However, the project has not been without its issues.

Mr Inuwa noted the challenges of inadequate funding for establishing
and equipping the centres and said that access to land is also a
problem in some states, especially in the Niger Delta region. “We also
noted the problems facing some of the centres with respect to support
from the host state governments and appointments are being made to meet
with the governors of the states and the Nigerian governors’ forum to
address the issue.”

Following the death
of a Nigerian at Zurich Airport in March, Nigeria and Switzerland will
sign a memorandum of understanding that will ensure the smoother
movement of people between the two countries and stem the tide of
illegal migration.

Martins Uhoimoihbi,
permanent secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, spoke to
journalists on Monday in Abuja after a closed-door meeting with the
director of Switzerland’s Federal Office of Migration, Alard du
Bois-Reymond.

Mr Uhoimoihbi said
discussions on the memorandum commenced on April 2009 but will be
concluded soon. He said the mission was to ensure that Nigerians move
in a legal manner into the country.

“We held
discussions principally based on migration partnership. We have worked
on the memorandum and are close to reaching a consensus on that,” he
said.

Mr du Bois-Reymond
also expressed confidence in the discussions. “We have found some
interesting fields to enlarge our collaboration. After the memorandum
is signed, it will place Nigerians and the Swiss in a win-win
situation.”

Nigerian’s death

In March, a
29-year-old Nigerian man who had been on a hunger strike to protest his
deportation, died at Zurich Airport shortly before he was due to be
sent home on a special flight to Lagos. The man was injured after he
had been tied to a chair and carried into the plane by three officers.
Immediate attempts to resuscitate him failed and he died on the tarmac.

Mr du Bois-Reymond
said the results of the man’s autopsy showed he died of heart disease
caused by the prolonged hunger strike. He assured that criminal charges
would be made based on the report.

“I do hope that
this death might be a step to go so that we might learn lessons,” he
said. “We now put medical doctors on our flights as a step to avoid
similar incidences in the future.” There are 1,800 Nigerian permanent
residents and 1,700 asylum seekers in Switzerland.

Last year, 500 Nigerians were convicted for drug related crimes in the country.

The International
Criminal Court issued a second arrest warrant on Monday for Sudan’s
President, Omar Hassan al-Bashir, for the crime of genocide.

Bashir, who faces
an ICC arrest warrant from March 2009 for war crimes and crimes against
humanity, has dismissed the court’s claims that he is responsible for
crimes in the Darfur region leading to the death of as many as 300,000
people; and a campaign of “rape, hunger, and fear” against a further
2.5 million in refugee camps.

“There are
reasonable grounds to believe him responsible for three counts of
genocide committed against the Fur, Masalit, and Zaghawa ethnic groups,
that include: genocide by killing, genocide by causing serious bodily
or mental harm ,and genocide by deliberately inflicting on each target
group conditions of life calculated to bring about the group’s physical
destruction,” ICC appeals judges said in a statement.

Bashir says the
allegations made by the ICC, the world’s first permanent court for
prosecuting war crimes, are part of a Western conspiracy. The ICC
warrant was the first issued against a sitting head of state by the
court.

When the court
first issued the arrest warrant, it ruled there were insufficient
grounds for a charge of genocide, but ICC prosecutor, Luis
Moreno-Ocampo, had argued for reopening the case for genocide, which
was granted in February.

The ICC has no police force and depends on national authorities and states that have signed up to the court to make arrests.

Bashir has visited several countries not bound by the court’s rules
since the warrant was issued, but the charge of genocide could further
restrict his movements and make it harder for him to rely on support
from other countries, given the gravity of the charges.