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A Nigerian, Alache
Ode, who is an aide to the Minister of National Planning, has been
awarded the Order of the British Empire (OBE), by Queen Elizabeth. The
OBE is an equivalent of Nigeria’s Order of the Federal Republic (OFR).

Minister of State
for Information and Communications, Labaran Maku, who spoke to pressmen
at the presidential villa after the weekly federal executive council
meeting, said Ms. Ode was honoured because of her humanitarian services
to the UK communities. “She committed nearly 18 years building the
capacity of over 50 organisations to become effective,” he said. “She
also developed a programme that attracted three million pounds sterling
to send to over 600 skilled UK Diaspora professionals to work in about
18 countries of Africa and Asia.” He also said Ms. Ode developed the
capacity for “funding and building framework for an 18 million pounds
(DFID) grant to small and Diaspora organisations, and that she has been
advocating at over 30 international conferences perspective and
approach to development to become mainstream.”

The minister said the federal government is touched by the woman’s
passion for service and urged other Nigerians to emulate her spirit. He
added that the intriguing thing about Ms. Ode’s work was that it was
done for free as inspired by her passion for service for global
inclusion of disadvantaged personsl; and that she dedicated it to all
the unsung heroes of Nigeria, her native Benue State, the people of the
Middle Belt, and to God Almighty.

The Executive Council of the Federation, yesterday,
approved the downward review of the contract for the extension and
resurfacing of the Murtala Mohammed International Airport in Lagos.

The contract was reviewed from N3.56billion to N3.32billion.

Briefing reporters after the closed door session,
Dora Akunyili, the Minister of Information and Communications, said,
“With the modification, the contract sum was downward reviewed from the
initial sum of N3.56billion to N3.32billion, thereby saving government
N249.37million.”

Fidelia Njeze, the minister of Aviation, who was also
present at the briefing, said “the modification became necessary so as
to accommodate the resurfacing of the second central parallel taxiway
and associated links which have failed at several portions and very
vital to the entire project”. Ms. Njeze noted that these were omitted
in the initial scope of works.

She said the project has a completion period of six months.

Other decisions

At the meeting, the executive also approved the award
of contract for the execution of Zobe Water Supply project phase II in
the sum of N9.96billion, with a completion period of 18 months. It also
approved the contract for the consultancy services for the Zobe project
in the sum of N253.26million.

Officials said they considered the positive impact
the project will have on the lives of the people around the area where
the project is located before approving the contract.

The minister of agriculture, Ahmed Abdullah, also
briefed the council on the comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development
Programme (CAADP) process in Nigeria and West Africa sub-region, which
was adopted in Maputo in July 2003 by Africa Union heads of state and
government. CAADP is seen as the action plan that guarantees a bright
future for Africa especially in achievement of the Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs).

Also, the minister of Tourism, culture and national
orientation, Abubakar Sadiq A. Mohammed, briefed the council on the
need to ratify the new charter for African cultural renaissance adopted
by the heads of state and government of the AU at its 6th ordinary
session held in Khartoum, Sudan in 2006 to replace the one adopted in
January 1976 by the defunct OAU.

The formal launching of the charter would be
performed in October during the 3rd session of the AU ministers of
culture conference in Abuja.

The council directed the Attorney General of the
Federation and Minister of Justice, Bello Adoke, to commence
preparation of the instrument for ratification of the new charter.

Nigeria and the United Nations Security Council were also discussed.

The Presidency of the UN Security Council rotates in
an alphabetical order amongst the five permanent members and 10
non-permanent members of the council and Nigeria has been a
non-permanent member for two years since October 2009.

On July 1, Nigeria assumed the chairmanship of the UN
Security Council. Mrs Akunyili said “accordingly, Nigerian permanent
representative to the UN Professor Joy Ogwu will chair the council
meetings. On July 16, 2010, Nigeria is introducing a debate in the UN
Security Council as part of the tradition of the council. Nigeria’s
foreign affairs minister, Odein Ajumogobia, will chair the debate which
has the topic: The use of preventive diplomacy as a tool: the
challenges for Africa” she added.

Senate President, David Mark, has
declared that the present National Assembly is ready to make history by
being the first legislature to create states outside the military
regime.

He made this known today when he
received a delegation agitating for the creation of Gurara State out of
the present Kaduna State in Abuja. `

According to Mr. Mark, the Assembly
would break the jinx that states could only be created by the military.
He assured Nigerians that the committee on the review of the 1999
Constitution would be fair to all in the consideration of states to be
created.

Describing the demand for Gurara State
as genuine, the senate president noted that it was a clear
demonstration of their desire to bring the people closer to the
government, and urged them to unite and eschew religious or ethnic
sentiments.

The leader of the delegation, Bawa Magaji, said the creation of the
proposed Gurara State was approved by the Kaduna State House of
Assembly in its resolution on Nov. 18, 2009. “The proposed Gurara
State, with headquarters in Kachia, has a population of 3,383,207 and a
land mass area of about 28,393 square kilometres,” he said.

Abdulkadri
Oniyang and Amina Zakari, the two newest national commissioners of the
Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) have expressed doubts
over the use of electronic voting in the 2011 election.

The two
commissioners said Nigeria was not ready for electronic voting yet, an
indication that they might not support its introduction in next year’s
election.

During an interview
session that preceded the confirmation of their appointments by the
Senate, both commissioners argued that introducing electronic voting
now may disenfranchise some Nigerians.

“The essence of
voting is to ensure that people are able to exercise their civic
right,” Mr. Oniyangi argued. “I don’t think electronic voting will give
room for the people to exercise their right.” He, however, said
electronic voting would suffice if accuracy of statistics was the focal
issue.

On her part, Mrs. Zakari argued that the voters are not sufficiently educated to use the electronic voting platform now.

“If we don’t have enough education, it will be difficult to apply,” she said. “We have to educate the voters first.”

Their confirmation
brings the number of national commissioners of INEC confirmed by the
Senate, so far, to nine. Two vacancies are yet to be filled. President
Goodluck Jonathan had withdrawn his nomination of Abdullahi Bagudu
Mamman, a retired military general, who is a member of the Board of
Trustees of the PDP; and Mohammed Zakki Anka, an ambassador who aspired
for the governorship of Zamfara State in 1999.

Fit commissioner

Mr. Oniyangi, 75, who currently runs a private clinic, said he was very fit for the INEC job.

“I am very fit,” he
declared. “If there is any evidence to show that I am going down, I
will be the first to throw in the towel. As I am now, I think I am
going to stay till I’m 105,” he said.

Mr. Oniyangi also argued that he would not be susceptible to bribery and corruption while serving in the position.

“I am not hungry! I
was born with a silver spoon. Anybody who knows me in Ilorin should
know that. So, I will not be swayed, and I think national issue is more
important than taking bribe,” he added.

The two commissioners promised to efficiently utilise their
experience in both public and private life to ensure adequate planning
and delivery of election materials to polling booths on time.

Adams Oshiomhole
the Edo state governor, yesterday said the management of the federation
accounts by the Federal Government is not only fraught with abuses, but
lacks transparency and consistency.

Mr. Oshiomole spoke
during a visit on Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, the Central Bank governor, and
called for a radical review of the revenue allocation formula in favour
of the other tiers of government to give them more impetus for
grassroots development. Commending Mr. Sanusi for the uncommon courage
he demonstrated in embarking upon the reform of the banking sector last
year, he said the decision has not only helped deepen the understanding
of the nation’s financial sector and unravel the malaise of corruption,
but also engendered confidence in investors. “The intervention has
helped people access credits for investment far more easily than
before,” he said, adding that the Edo state government is a prime
beneficiary of the reform, as it has been able to access facilities at
less than 13 per cent to pursue its development agenda.

Weak constituency projects

He lampooned
constituency projects conducted by federal legislators saying that no
one is impressed with the quality of infrastructure being developed at
the grassroots. “When I go round and I see the so-called constituency
projects, like primary schools and secondary classrooms and boreholes
that are of very poor quality and standard it does not matter whether
it is by a National Assembly member or anybody. In an ideal environment
those things can be handled better by even local authority,” he said.
“While that is going on, the Federal Government is unable to fund
strategic institutions like the Police Force, resulting in state
government having to undertake the extra burden of funding efforts to
support in the provision of equipment and communication gadgets to
enable them function effectively. The question must be asked: Where is
the federal budget for the Police?”

“If the Federal
Government has put emphasis on such core areas as security and
diplomacy, it does not need 53 percent of the Federal allocation that
it currently has. There is a case for a radical review of the revenue
formula so that more money could be put into national development. The
whole essence of our federal system is that whereas the Federal
Government is at the head, the states are supposed to be real agents of
development, whether in the area of agriculture, primary basic
education and other millennium development challenges,” he added.

Mr.Sanusi thanked the governor for identifying with the reform
programme of his administration, saying he is not bothered by the
criticisms and attacks, as his management team was aware that the
entrenched vested interests that were benefiting from the status quo
would react to frustrate it. “The reason this country has not made much
progress in other sectors, such as the power reform and the
deregulation of the distribution of petroleum products, is that people
are unable to confront change. The issues in the banking sector are
those that are symptomatic of what Nigeria as a country needs to deal
with to allow investment come in.”

As
the build-up to the National Convention of the All Nigerian People’s
Party (ANPP) continues, five contenders to the position of National
Chairman of the party have so far submitted their nomination forms
ahead of Saturday’s convention. The Secretary to the National
Convention Committee, Livinus Nwambe, announced this in Abuja on
Tuesday.

According to the
committee, headed by the Yobe state Governor, Ibrahim Gaidam; an elder
state man and former presidential aspirant of the party, Harry Akande,
was the first to obtain nomination form. Mr Akande, from Oyo state, is
a leading figure among other contenders which includes the outgoing
Board of Trustees Chairman, Gambo Magaji, from Gombe state and the
outgoing deputy national chairman, Yusuf Musa from Adamawa state, who
is an advocate of returning ANPP leadership to the North. Mr Musa had
recently said that the crisis rocking the party resulted from zoning
the position of the national chairman to the south. He criticised the
National Executive Committee led by the outgoing National Chairman,
Edwin Eme-Ezuoke, saying it retarded the party’s progress.

Also in the race
for the apex position is George Moghalu, former National Secretary of
the party who defected to PDP and later returned few weeks ago. The
outgoing National Publicity Secretary, Emma Eneukwu from Enugu State,
is also jostling for the seat alongside John Odigie-Oyegum from Edo,
who expressed readiness to slug it out with others on Saturday. Ahead
of the July 15 deadline set for aspirants to pick up forms, only Idris
Abdullahi from Kwara State, picked the form to run as the National
Secretary of the party, while only two candidates are in the race for
the position of Deputy National Chairman. The two contenders are;
Nnamdi Olebara from Imo State and Lanre Amosun from Lagos State. The
only aspirant in the race for the position of Organising Secretary of
the party is the incumbent, David Umah from Benue State.

Ready to go

On the
preparedness of the ANPP for the convention, the Secretary to the
Committee, Livinus Nwambe, said that all necessary logistics to ensure
a successful convention were ready. According to Mr Nwambe, the ANPP is
being “driven by a big picture and repositioning to serve through
popular vote to adequately address not only how to serve but why to
serve the people of Nigeria better.” A source, however informed the
News Agency of Nigeria that the committee would meet on Wednesday to
resolve issues surrounding zoning of national executive positions
currently rocking the party. It said if the party again decides to
adopt zoning system in distributing its national offices, there might
be a re-organisation among the aspirants to determine which office each
person would contest.

The finance minister, Olusegun Aganga is to appear
before the House of Representatives Committee on Millennium Development
Goals (MDGS) today to explain why contractors cannot access funds for
MDGs projects.

The committee chairman, Saudaatu Sani, stated this
while addressing the contractors, consultants and officials at the
ongoing three-day public hearing on the implementation of the MDGs. She
also criticised the delay in the execution of Quick Wins projects,
which was blamed on the delay in payment by the finance ministry and
the banks.

United Nations approved

“On the contractors who have not been paid, tomorrow
(Wednesday), we are going to meet with the minister of finance,” Mrs
Sani said, adding “MDGs money is already a committed fund. It is a fund
approved by the United Nations for certain projects so the minister has
no right to say that he would not pay. It is borrowed money for a
purpose so you cannot say you will not pay it.”

The lawmaker noted that the banks have no right to
delay payments to contractors, adding that the MDGs office and the
committee will sit and scrutinize all the banks with a view to paying
the contractors. She insisted that the House will not allow banks to
frustrate the work of the MDGs.

Mrs Sani said that the committee has resolved with
Amina Az-Zubair, the Senior Special Adviser to the President on MDGs,
to terminate all unexecuted projects, giving the end of August, 2010,
as the deadline for all projects awarded in 2008.

“The recommendation is that all contractors that have
failed to do their job, their contracts will be terminated. All banks
that are to pay money to the contractors should please urgently pay it
so that the contractors can go on site. All contractors that have been
awarded contracts should immediately move to site so that at the end of
the day, our projects will be completed and Nigerians and the
honourable members will appreciate works done by the MDGs so that we
can start a better life.

“I know it is not easy but believe me we have to take
a very firm decision to remove the chaff from the wheat because among
your contractors, there are those who want to sabotage your efforts.
There are those that think, it is still business as usual. The
consultants should know that they cannot afford to misinform the MDGs
office. State consultants must go back to every constituency, find out
what is the state of the MDGs projects and bring their report to the
MDGs office. Their deadline for this is 31st of August.”

The committee chairperson also said that consultants
who could not do their jobs accordingly are not worthy to be called
consultants. She, however, commended others for doing well.

Spoiling the show

“We commend those that are doing very well but those
that are not doing well are spoiling the show. MDGs office cannot be in
Abuja and be at the 774 local government areas of the country at the
same time, but they have assigned you (consultants) to do that job and
because you have been paid for this job, please do the job,” she said.

Mrs Sani said her colleagues in the National Assembly
are interested in the Quick Wins projects because many of them are
nursing the ambitions of returning to the legislature or seeking
election as governors.

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.