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The Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB)
is presently overwhelmed with petitions from members of the public
alleging false declarations of assets against some federal and state
public office holders, NEXT has learnt.

Despite the fact that Nigeria’s
law does not permit the public declaration and revelation of assets of
public servants, a deluge of petitions from citizens who know what some
public servants secretly declared as assets are being forwarded to the
CCB on daily basis, revealing hidden facts and figures.

Efforts made to find out how many
of such petitions have been received were unfruitful, as the Bureau
refused to give out the details.

Also, the names and positions of
public office holders accused of false declarations of assets could not
be confirmed, no thanks to the unwillingness by CCB officials to speak,
against the provision of the CCB Act.

But sources at the bureau claimed
that petitions on false declarations of assets were increasing daily
and that only its management have access to the petitions.

Verify false declarations

However, Sam Saba, the Chairman of
the Code of Conduct Bureau, last week at a two-day public enlightenment
programme in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, organised for state and local
government officials by the Bureau and the Rivers State government,
gave an indication of the situation confronting the anti-corruption
agency.

The programme had the theme,
“Ethics, Code of Conduct and the Pride of the Public Officers”. Mr Saba
said that plans were underway to constitute a 25-man team of the Bureau
officers across the country to investigate petitions received relating
to asset declarations.

He added that the committee will
move from state to state, collating petitions, and investigating them
with a view to ascertaining the truth or falsity in the declarations.

He reminded public servants that
were either elected or appointed recently and others, that keeping
foreign accounts after taking public office is tantamount to a breach
of the code of conduct for public officers.

Murtala Adebayo Sanni, the
Chairman of the Code of Conduct Tribunal, advocated a strong political
will and legislative reforms to ensure the prosecution of corrupt
public officials, serving or out of office. Mr Sanni also highlighted
the punishments the tribunal is empowered to impose on a public officer
found guilty of contravening the Code of Conduct for public officers.
They include: the payment of fines, vacation of office, and
disqualification from holding public office for a period up to 10
years. The tribunal currently lacks the power to imprison anybody
convicted of contravening the code.

“Corruption,” according to Mr.
Sanni, has become “so pervasive, entrenched and destructive that
special measures have to be taken to rid Nigeria of corruption and
corrupt practices” while the “penalties the tribunal is empowered to
impose should include powers to imprison those that have been found to
have contravened the code.”

The bureau’s travails

The CCB has been branded a lame
duck by most citizens for its inability to deal with corruption
regarding outright refusal of public officers to declare assets,
over-exaggerated declaration of assets, the duplication of
anti-corruption activities under the purview of the EFCC and ICPC, low
turnout of convictions and the aiding of corrupt public officers
through hoarding of information supposedly within the public domain.

In May, the agency said that it has received the asset forms of the
president, Goodluck Jonathan and vice president, Namadi Sambo. It is
commonly believed that other public office holders of the
administration have since complied with the provisions of the CCB Act
and Handbook for public officers.

About two years after foreign law enforcement agencies slammed punitive fines in the US and Germany on Siemens for bribing officials of foreign countries – including Nigeria – to secure contracts, no Nigerian has been prosecuted.

As
Nigerian law enforcement agencies engage in what appears to be an
everlasting investigation of government officials indicted abroad for
corruption, one country, the United States, is busy raking in massive
revenue on account of Nigeria’s dereliction.

Nigeria’s bribery
misfortune has so far generated over N300 billion (approximately $2
billion) in revenue for the United States government, from fines it
imposed on companies which bribed Nigerian officials to corner
government contracts. Our analysis of the three current major
international bribery scandals (Siemens, Halliburton/TSKJ, Daimler)
involving Nigerian officials, indicates no traction or indictment from
the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), the agency that
leads investigations relating to economic and financial crimes.

This
finding also coincides with the release of a business survey on crime
and corruption in our country, which indicates that Nigerians have
“little trust in anti-corruption authorities.”

The report is a
collaboration between the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), the
Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), the European Union
(EU), and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

“It
is hard to have any confidence in these agencies, and all these endless
investigations point at nothing but a case of dereliction, and probably
collaboration, or both,” said Jiti Ogunye, a leading public interest
lawyer in Lagos, who wondered angrily “how come that 19 years after
Siemens, (the Germany-based multinational electrical firm) agreed to
pay fines to both the US and German authorities for bribing officials
of foreign countries – including Nigeria – to secure contracts, no
Nigerian has been prosecuted?”

Another attorney, Abuja-based Charles
Musa, said if the US government is fining its own citizens, and its
companies, it is unfortunate that Nigeria, where all the bribery took
place, be it Anammco or Halliburton, is just grandstanding and playing
to the gallery, and not serious about prosecuting its citizens.

“In
a proper country, those companies should have been fined themselves,
and they’ll be blacklisted. It’s unfortunate that we don’t have the
political will to prosecute any crime in this country as long as it
doesn’t involve a poor man. These people are well known, they (their
names) are on the Internet, they are in US court papers, and nothing
has happened to them. It is unfortunate,” he said.

US revenue

The
revenue made by the United States represents fines paid by bribe
givers: Siemens, Kellogg Brown & Root, Technip and Daimler AG, to
the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Department of
Justice in settlement agreements, for giving kickbacks to Nigerian
officials in exchange for multibillion dollar contracts. And by the
time investigations are completed in the $182 million Halliburton
bribery scandal, which has so far yielded $917 million dollars for the
U.S. government, the country is likely to rake in an additional N68
billion (approximately $449million) in fines from a former Halliburton
executive Albert Jackson Stanley, two United Kingdom citizens, Jeffrey
Tesler and Wojciech Chodan, and ENI of France, a member of the infamous
TSKJ consortium.

Already, Mr Stanley has been sentenced to seven
years in jail and he is to pay $10.8 million in restitution. Tesler and
Chodan, who allegedly coordinated the elaborate bribery scheme on
behalf of the TSKJ consortium, have also been indicted by a federal
grand jury in Houston and might forfeit $132 million to the American
government.

Investigations into ENI’s involvement in the bribery
scheme is still ongoing but in anticipation of its indictment, the
company has already set aside 250 million euro, an amount it plans to
deploy in a settlement agreement with the SEC and the Department of
Justice.

America has accused the company of violating its Foreign
Corrupt Practices Act, which forbids “certain classes of persons and
entities to make payments to foreign government officials to assist in
obtaining or retaining business.”

Unwilling Nigeria

But
while the U.S. is prosecuting its citizens involved in the scams and
compelling concerned companies to pay huge fines, Nigeria, where the
offences were committed and whose citizens received the bribes, has
failed to properly investigate the cases and punish those involved.

“What
that means is that Nigerian laws and institutions are not working and
we are paying dearly for that,” said Bunmi Aborisade, an adjunct
professor at the State University of New York. “If those fines had been
paid to our country, it would have gone a long way in alleviating
poverty among our people. But that is even if the fine proceeds are not
stolen again.”

Siemens was the first to enter into a settlement
agreement with the SEC and the American justice department. On December
12, 2008, in a charge brought against it in a US District Court for the
District of Columbia, the German company agreed to pay $350 million in
disgorgement to SEC and a $450 million criminal fine to the justice
department.

The company had earlier paid fines of 395 million Euro
(approximately $569 million) and 201 million Euro(approximately $285
million) to the office of the Prosecutor-General in Munich, Germany,
over the same charge that it bribed Nigerian officials to corner four
telecommunication contracts.

When Siemens first entered into these
plea agreements, the Nigerian government blacklisted it and suspended
it from handling government contracts. But the Umaru Yar’Adua
administration soon lifted the suspension, saying the company had
repented. The company did not pay any fine and nobody was prosecuted
for the crime.

Two months later, in February 2009, Kellog Brown and
Root parted with $177 million and $402 million in payments it made to
SEC and the department of justice for its role in the bribing of
top-level Nigerian officials in exchange for the contract to build our
$6 billion Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas plant.

The two U.S.
agencies then went after German automaker, Daimler, and got it to cough
out a total $185 million in fines to settle charges that it compromised
Nigerian officials to award several vehicle supply contracts to it.

With
the announcement on Monday that Technip, a member of the TSKJ
consortium, had agreed to pay $338 million for its role in the bribery
of Nigerian officials, America’s total earning from enforcement
proceedings in the $182 million Halliburton bribery scam alone now
stands at $917 million (approximately N138 billion).

“The
resolutions announced today demonstrate once again the department’s
commitment to aggressively investigate and prosecute international
bribery by U.S. and foreign corporations alike,” the justice
department’s Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Mythili
Raman, said in a statement. “The fact that Technip now must pay
criminal penalties and civil disgorgement totalling $338 million should
make clear that, in the end, bribery of foreign officials will have
consequences.”

Not finished

Yet the Americans
are not finished. ENI, another member of the TSKJ consortium, is being
investigated and both SEC and the Justice department are likely to file
separate charges against the company before long. The fourth member of
the TSKJ Consortium, JGC Corporation of Japan, may, however, escape
U.S. sanctions because it is not listed in the New York Stock Exchange.
It is listed in the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

The U.S. authorities said
it was determined to bring to book all those involved in bribing
foreign officials in exchange for business favours.

“The FBI is
committed to pursuing those who disrupt the level playing field to
which companies in the U.S. and around the world are entitled,” said
FBI Assistant Director Kevin L. Perkins. “This case (Technip’s)
demonstrates the FBI’s commitment to aggressively investigate
violations of this law. We will continue to investigate FCPA matters by
working in partnership with other law enforcement agencies, both
foreign and domestic, to ensure that both corporations and executives
who bribe foreign officials in return for lucrative business contracts
are punished.” Analysts say while America’s FBI and SEC are matching
words with action, Nigeria’s EFCC, responsible for the Nigerian end of
the investigation, is running round in circles and barking without
biting.

Not lifting a finger

“It is quite
unfortunate and pathetic that foreign countries have brought to justice
those who have engaged in bribery while doing businesses in Nigeria,
while Nigeria, the victim of these corrupt practices, has not lifted a
finger in such despicable acts against the country,” said Bukola
Oreofe, executive director, Nigeria Liberty Democratic Forum, a New
York-based pro-democracy group.

“One can only leave to the
imagination the number of schools, hospitals, roads, agricultural
development, avoidable deaths that would have been averted if Nigeria
had been protected from this fleecing or if the country, through her
own criminal statutes, could bring the local and foreign perpetrators
to justice.

“If the United States can earn millions from such punishment, it is sad that Nigeria looks the other way,” Oreofe said.

Idris Akinbajo and Elor Nkereuwem contributed to this report.

The federal government is ready to go the full trot
to sanitize our country’s football house and even though it is liaising
with the world football organising body FIFA over its decision to
suspend the Super Eagles, it is ready to damn the consequences of its
action, the minister of Sports, Ibrahim Bio, said yesterday in Abuja.

Following the poor outing of the Super Eagles, our
country’s football team, in the on-going World Cup in South Africa,
Goodluck Jonathan on Wednesday directed that Nigeria be withdrawn from
all international football competitions for the next two years.

Mr Bio, who met with the press at the presidential
villa yesterday, said the government can no longer live with the rot in
the football house simply because it wants to avoid FIFA sanctions.

“My friend, you cannot have cancer and continue to
live with it because you don’t want to spill blood; we are ready to
spill blood to remove the cancer,” he said.

The minister added that the government is more
concerned about the interest and sovereignty of the country and people
who are so passionate about football on this issue than what FIFA might
say.

“As you are all aware, Nigeria is so passionate about
sports and we are trying to have a deliberate policy whereby we can
encourage our local league to be very attractive so that not every time
we have to be looking to foreign-based players and when they are not
available we continue to wait,” he said.

The minister also said that the government is trying
to liaise with FIFA in order to get things done without necessarily
violating FIFA rules. He also said that the country cannot continue
with the old order, where the needed synergy between the ministry and
the Nigeria Football federation (NFF) is lacking.

“Nigeria will do everything possible to take the
interest and sovereignty of Nigeria first and foremost, and if that is
in conformity with FIFA rules, so be it, but if it is not in conformity
with FIFA rules, I think the sovereignty of Nigeria and interests of
the people is most paramount,” he said.

“Again, a situation whereby we have competitions and
there seems to be no proper coordination between the supervisory
ministry and NFF does not augur well for our football. Nobody is taking
anybody’s job but in the interest of this country, people should be
able to talk and do things better. What we presented at the World Cup,
was a shame.”

Lack of commitment

Mr Bio identified lack of commitment on the part of
the players as a problem that must be addressed, saying some of the
misses by our players showed complete lack of commitment on their part.

“I cannot imagine an international player misses a
goal that is almost two to three metres to the net and he is laughing
or smiling; there is no sign of regret,” he said. “That is the level of
patriotism that gets Nigerian government concerned. They should show
some sense of remorse and regret so that the people will not say that
it was an intended action.

“Invariably, what we want to do is to get people who by their
experience will restructure and reorganise our football and start right
from the grass roots, invigorate the clubs and encourage more football
academy where we can get young men to replace the present ones. That
takes time and experience.” Former minister of interior, Demola Seriki,
who was at the presidential villa, said the federal government’s action
is the best for us given the way the way football is going in our
country. He, however, said once the issue of football administration is
tackled, he does not see the country staying away for that long from
the international football scene.

Petty crimes and corruption constitute
serious obstacles to conducting business in Nigeria, a study jointly
carried out by the European Union, United Nations Office on Drugs and
Crime and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and National
Bureau of Statistics, has shown.

About 50 percent of Nigerian businesses
were victims of crime in the last one year, while a third have to pay
bribes when coming in contact with the public sector, particularly the
Nigeria Police Force (NPF) and Nigeria Customs Service (NCS). The
report of the survey, ‘NBS/EFCC Business Crime and Corruption Surve,’
was presented in Abuja yesterday by the National Bureau of Statistics.
It was carried out in 2007 as part of the project “Support to EFCC and
the Nigerian Judiciary” funded by the European Union with 25 million
Euros.

Serious obstacles

“The survey reveals
that for more than 70% of Nigerian businesses, crime and corruption
constitute the most serious obstacles to conducting business in
Nigeria,” stated the report. “Indeed it turned out that on average more
than 50% of Nigerian businesses become victims of crime at least once a
year. At the same time more than a third of business seem to be forced
to pay bribes when coming into contact with the public sector. In
particular, police and customs appear to be affected.” According to a
statement by the EU in Nigeria yesterday in Abuja, the survey covered
over 2000 businesses across the country and sectors of the economy and
was aimed at gathering the perception and experiences of businesses
with regard to corruption and crime, as well as their opinion regarding
the efforts of the Nigerian government.

Ugo Sokari, public relations officer for the US, said that the
presentation of the report was attended by large group of stakeholders,
including representatives of anti-corruption agencies, public sector
institutions, academia, civil society as well as the private sector and
media. The participants discussed the findings of the survey and
reaffirmed the key importance of the data for the purpose of policy
development as well as benchmarking the performance of government
initiatives and institutions in the fight against crime and corruption.

The Debt Management Office (DMO) should
seek for potential sources of cheap funds for national economic growth
and development, Vice President Namadi Sambo has said.

Mr Samadi gave this charge yesterday
while chairing the meeting of the DMO supervisory board at the State
House, Abuja. “The need for potential sources of cheap funds, the
amounts available as well as the terms and conditions of such funds
which poses a challenge must be surmounted and a strategy evolved for
sourcing of funds for national growth and development,” he said,
charging the DMO to solicit the services of specialist consultants that
can assist them. The DMO is saddled with the responsibility of devising
ways of reducing Nigeria’s debt burden, exploring options of sourcing
cheaper long term capital and encouraging inflow of additional
resources. The meeting of the board also discussed a wide range of
issues ranging from staff promotion, FGN bonds for Nigerians in
Diaspora, to debt data re-structuring for states. On the issue of the
promotion of staff, the meeting advised that it should wait until the
full appraisal of staff exercise currently ongoing is completed in the
organization.

Meeting Nigerians abroad

The DMO, at a forum
organized in London earlier in the week, presented FGN bonds to
Nigerians in the United Kingdom with the aim of broadening the investor
base for the bond market. Such interaction with Nigerian professionals,
who participated at the forum, afforded the organisation the
opportunity of meeting with registered Primary Dealer Market Makers
(PDMMs). The DMO says it also intends to organize similar fora in other
countries with high concentration of Nigerians. It also said the
ongoing Debt Data Reconstruction exercise in the 36 states of the
federation is targeted at equipping the officers of the agency to
acquire sufficient skills to correctly collate and validate Domestic
Debt Data and Information from Ministries Departments and Agencies.

The Domestic Debt Data Reconstruction exercise has been carried out
in six states of the federation: Ekiti, Kaduna, Niger, Imo, Oyo and
Osun. Attendance at the meeting included the finance minister, Segun
Aganga; director-general of DMO, Abraham Nwankwo; solicitor-general,
Federal Ministry of Justice, Abdullahi Ahmed Yola; accountant-general
of the Federation, Ibrahim Dankwambo; director-general, CBN, Suleiman
Bardu; and director, DMO, A. M. Mohammed.

Clearing and
forwarding agents at the Nigerian Aviation Handling Company (NAHCO)
premises on Thursday, criticised the Federal Airports Authority of
Nigeria (FAAN) for not being able to provide a cargo village for
employees.

Explaining that
they remit all necessary charges to the authority as at when due, the
clearing agents argued that the airports authority has failed to uphold
its part by making available enabling environment for efficient
delivery of cargo business activities at the Murtala Mohammed
International airport (MMIA), Lagos.

“In a year, we
generate well over N600 million for FAAN and this we endeavoured to
remit promptly, yet FAAN has failed to give us a cargo village or space
for full cargo operations,” said Ambrose Eke, public relations officer
for the Association of Nigerian Customs Licensed Agents (ANCLA) during
a one-day symposium at MMIA with the theme: ‘Promoting a safe and
secure air cargo business in Nigeria.’

Mr. Eke disclosed
that the absence of an approved and constructed cargo shed for workers
at the aviation handling company premises is the sole reason why
workers roam about the vicinity, as they try to find a convenient place
to carry out their business.

The freight
forwarders’ spokesperson maintained that most of the persons seen at
the airport cargo handling section are not miscreants, stressing that
the airports authority is to blame, rather than referring to the
workers as “jobless touts.” “What people see as touts are not all
touts. They don’t have a place to stay, so when the rain falls and
there is sunshine they move around in search of a place to do business
without losing their clients,” he said.

Airports users and
passengers on various occasions have complained of the increasing
number of touts at airports in the country, especially at the Murtala
Mohammed Airport, Lagos. The development has led to series of arrests
by the airport police, as employees at the airport without valid
identification are occasionally apprehended, detained, and arraigned.

Arguing that cargo
sheds are meant to be at airports across the country, Mr. Eke disclosed
that most airports in the world today have cargo villages but there is
none in Nigeria. However, he assured that the association has ensured
that unregistered employees are jettisoned from the airports.

FAAN promises

Assuring the
clearing agents that the authority will look into the matter, Temitope
Tobi, director of operations, FAAN, who represented the managing
director of the authority, Richard Aiseubeogun, said the authority has
taken into cognizance the complain.

“We are being faced with a lot of challenges at FAAN, but I can
assure you that we are going to look into the matter with utmost
concern,” he said.

Media organisations
in Nigeria are corrupt and do not report events if they are not bribed
to do so, Rotimi Akeredolu, the President of the Nigerian Bar
Association, said in Lagos on Thursday.

Mr. Akeredolu, who
was guest speaker at the distinguished Management Lecture organised by
the Nigeria Institute of Management, said, “Our journalists must strife
to strike the realistic balance between the demands of their profession
and the parochial interests of money bags.

“I know a number of
them are here. If you don’t give them money, this thing would not be
published. You can say I said so. Quote me in the paper. ”

During the lecture,
titled ‘Management of the Electoral Process: An imperative for
government of the Nigerian state,’ Mr. Akeredolu called for a reform of
the electoral process in a way that election tribunals would conclude
all cases before victorious candidates are sworn into office.

“No candidate must be allowed to deploy the resource of the state to fight opponents,” he said.

New electoral process

Another lecturer at
the event, Jonah Elaigwu, a professor of political science at the
University of Jos and President of the Institute of Governance and
Social Research, condemned the number of political parties in Nigeria.

“We must
re-register political parties. Any party that does not win 10% in any
election at the three levels of government put together should be
de-registered immediately,” he said.

Mr. Elaigwu advised President Goodluck Jonathan not to contest in next year’s presidential election.

“President Jonathan
has a right to contest like any Nigeria, but let me advise him. In
spite of people pushing him to run, I would suggest that President
Jonathan should not… let him give us regular electricity; he would
have written his name in gold. Secondly, President Jonathan should not
contest, not because of zoning; but as an umpire who is not a
participant.”

Speaking, the
United States Ambassador to Nigeria, Robin Sanders, said the US is
looking towards the achievement of free and fair elections in Nigeria
in 2011 and would be partnering the country to achieve the objective.

She, however, said that despite the appropriation fund allocated to
the commission in 2010, “what we are hearing is that the money has not
been released into the election account.”

The crisis rocking
the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Edo State chapter, reared its ugly
head again yesterday, as Ehigie Uzamere (senator, Edo South) hit back
at Owere-Dickson Imasogie, the Edo South PDP leader (Tony Anenih’s
faction), who had earlier berated Mr Uzamere for his role in the
clearance of the Edo State representative on the Niger Delta
Development Commission (NDDC) board.

Mr Uzamere had
aided the hitch-free clearance at the Senate, of Don Omorodion, an
Action Congress candidate, for the NDDC job. This, however, did not go
down well with Mr Imasogie who, in an interview granted to a
Benin-based weekly magazine, said, “Uzamere must explain” his apparent
romance with an opposition party’s candidate.

But Osaretin
Enogieru, an aide of the senator, said in a press statement issued
yesterday that it is curious that Mr Imasogie did not complain when Mr
Anenih nominated three commissioners into Adams Oshiomhole’s cabinet.

The statement also
made reference to Mr Anenih’s call to the other two senators from Edo
State to support the nomination of Jude Ise Idehen, also of the Action
Congress, by the presidency for the NDDC job, which Mr Imasogie never
complained about.

“If you castigate
the senator for clearing Mr Omorodion, an AC candidate, what will you
do to Mr President who is the party’s number one leader?” Mr Enogieru
said.

He further stated
that Mr Omorodion, who was nominated by Goodluck Jonathan, has no
established or proven legal or constitutional impediment to warrant his
rejection, as was the case with the first nominee (Jude Ise Idehen).

Diabolical wickedness

“It would have
amounted to diabolical wickedness on the part of the senator to lobby
for Omorodion’s reject without a good cause,” Mr Enogieru said.
“Senator Uzamere had a duty to honour and respect the wishes of senior
citizens of Edo South who symbolize the sociopolitical and cultural
conscience of Benin Kingdom and who wanted Omorodion cleared, and to
Edo State which was losing out in the affairs of the NDDC during the
period because the state had no representative on the board and a Delta
State representative was overseeing Edo.

“The electorate and the people of Edo South remain the centrepiece
of Senator Ehigie Uzamere’s sociopolitical policy, as his mandate is a
cross-partisan mandate freely given by indigenes and residents of Edo
South, irrespective political bias, religious affiliation and sex. His
responsibility, therefore, is to all without let or hindrance.”

The Federal
University of Technology Akure (FUTA) Alumni Association has donated a
set of laboratory equipment worth N10 million to the institution, to
aid teaching, learning and research.

The research
equipment, a total of 47, included: cooled incubator, RMS Lauda, Vacuum
Drying Oven, Dehumidifier and over head projector that were acquired
free of charge from the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture
(IITA) Ibadan, where there are some old students of the institution.

While presenting
the equipment to the school, the National President of the Association,
Gbenga Gbarada, said the association was geared up to give back to the
institution that had trained them to reach limelight.

“It all started in
Lagos when we came together and asked ourselves what should we do for
our school, FUTA–because we believed we must assist the institution
that made us what we are today–that we came about the idea of these
equipment,” he said.

Mr Gbarada, who
commended the management of the institution for being endowed with good
human resources, said “We have absolute confidence in the leadership of
FUTA to use the equipment to bring up more intellectuals.” He assured
that the association would not stop assisting the university, recalling
that last year it organised a N4.5 billion capital launch for the
school and also organised a seminar for the final year students.

Grateful school

“Last year, the
association organised a N4.5 billion capital launch for the school and
this is one of the follow ups. We are still looking for other ways we
can assist the school,” he said. “It may be in agriculture because this
is a university where agriculture is fully on ground; we are trying to
get companies that can give us tractors and farm implement for the use
of the school.

“Also, last year,
we organised an empowerment summit for the final year students of this
school to enable them stand on their own after graduation so that they
will be employers of labour and not employees of labour. These are some
of the ways by which the association is helping the university.

The Vice Chancellor
of the institution, Bisi Balogun, said the association has done
wonderfully well. He said the gesture was beneficial, especially when
the university system had declined owing to under-funding.

“What we have here will go a long way in enhancing the research
capacity of the lecturers, research capacity of our doctorate students,
research capacity of our undergraduate students. We are grateful about
this,” he said

No fewer than 150
workers of Skyways Aviation Handling Company (SAHCOL), Lagos, were on
Thursday sacked, Isaac Orolugbagbe, the managing director, announced.

This is coming
after the recent sack of the company’s immediate past managing
director, Chike Ogeah, and some workers after the new owners, Sifax
Group, took over.

The Bureau of
Public Enterprises (BPE) had in 2009 sold SAHCOL, the only subsidiary
of the defunct national carrier, Nigeria Airways, to Skyways, with a
six-month ultimatum to settle labour-related issues.

Speaking with
journalists at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Mr.
Orolugbagbe said the sack was part of the ongoing restructuring of the
company, noting that those sacked were workers who had “bad records”
and who had served for over 25 years.

“The new management
inherited an over-bloated staff after acquiring SAHCOL, and it is not
possible for us to continue with the large number,” he said.