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Farida Waziri, the
Chairman of Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), says the
commission has recovered over $6.5 billion from fraudsters since its
inception in 2003.

Mrs. Waziri made
the statement in Minna on Monday at a two-day “Train the Trainers
Workshop” organised by the commission for secondary school teachers in
the North Central Zone.

“So far, the EFCC
has recovered over 6.5 billion dollars and delisted Nigeria from the
list of non-cooperating countries amongst other notable achievements,”
she said.

The official said
that the commission handled a myriad of cases out of which over 700
accused persons were prosecuted and more than 400 accused persons
convicted.

Mrs. Waziri, who
was represented by her principal staff officer, Bala Sanga, noted that
the country has had a prolonged period of economic stagnation, rising
poverty levels and many years of mismanagement by its rulers.

She pointed out
that corruption in the country had made it difficult for government at
all levels to deliver services to the people.

She also said that
the commission was working hard to create an enabling environment for
local and foreign investors and that youths and students were important
to the anti-corruption crusade.

“We have taken
steps to involve them in the fight through various programmes that have
been initiated by the commission, one of which is the Integrity Club”,
she said.

Mrs Waziri said
that the goal of the club was to build great future leaders with
integrity and produce youths and students with high moral and ethical
standards in the society.

She said that the
workshop would ensure that teachers have adequate information on
corruption and economic and financial crimes that would empower them to
tutor and guide students on the path of integrity.

Babangida Aliyu,
the Niger State governor, on the occasion, urged society to assist the
youth to live better lives and described them as “our future leaders.”

“Let us do more to help the young people coming behind because they will definitely be the future of our country,” he said.

Mr. Aliyu, who was
also represented by the Secretary to the State Government, Kuta Yahaya,
advised teachers and students to take the workshop seriously.

Earlier, Asmau
Usman, the state’s Commissioner for Basic Education, who was
represented by the Permanent Secretary in the ministry, Mahmud Ndatsu,
said 20 secondary schools in the state had registered with the
Integrity Club.

The
choice of Okwesilieze Nwodo, by the Peoples’ Democratic Party Board of
Trustees, as the next national chairman is an indication that the party
now places merit and integrity in the choice of its leaders, a former
national publicity secretary of the party, Emmanuel Ibeshi has said.

Mr Ibeshi said in
Abuja at the weekend that Mr Nwodo, who was the pioneer secretary of
the party, stands out among other contenders for the chairmanship
position and (Nwodo) will reposition the party.

“There couldn’t
have been a better choice of chairman at this redefining moment of our
national psyche for the ruling party, he said, adding “It is obvious
that the ruling party is on the road to charting a clear road map
towards a lasting legacy of making merit and integrity the fulcrum of
leadership choice. I congratulate the BOT for this bold step in
settling for Dr. Okwesilieze Nwodo whose antecedents in medical
practice stand him out. His brief reign over Enugu State as governor in
the botched Third Republic is another testimony. His pioneering effort
as first elected National Secretary of our great party can be attested
to by those of us who worked closely with him as colleagues in the
Gemade-led National working Committee (NWC).”

Mr Ibeshi noted
that the 50th year in the life of a nation, “is too precious to allow
for gaffes that mutate mediocrity and produce a hopeless future for our
younger generations that are by all means in a hurry for self and
national rediscovery.”

A new era

The former party
spokesperson also said that an the party’s current leadership would
reposition it in the part to healing, rediscovery, and repositioning
for expected democratic deliverables whose dearth, according to him had
left voters confidence badly shaken in the political experience that
has lasted the nation 10 years with unbroken military support.

He appealed to the
supporters of the other contenders to join Mr Nwodo when he eventually
assumes office in moving the party forward.

“May I will use
this opportunity to advise our teeming members who had supported other
candidates who failed to emerge as Dr. Nwodo to please sheath their
swords and rather join hands to support the new spirit being injected
by the President, His Excellency, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan and the PDP
Board of Trustees to move our party and nation forward,” he said.

Nine of the lawmakers rooting for the
impeachment of the speaker of the Oyo State House of Assembly, Olawale
Atilola, at the weekend, petitioned President Goodluck Jonathan to
intervene in the crisis rocking the state legislature to forestall
bloodletting.

Other senior government officials
equally petitioned over the invasion of the state house of Assembly
last Tuesday are: the senate president David Mark, speaker of the House
of Representatives, Dimeji Bankole, inspector-general of Police,
Ogbonna Onovo, and the director-general of the State Security Services
(SSS).

Thuggery and intimidation

Miffed by the level of desecration that
occurred at the chambers of the state legislature on the fateful day as
hoodlums from the state chapter of the National Union of Road Transport
Workers (NURTW) unleashed terror on some lawmakers, as well as caused
pandemonium at the premises of the state House of Assembly complex, the
petitioners are asking the relevant authorities to come to the rescue
of the state and preserve the sanctity of its legislative house.

Specifically, Samuel Ademola Adejumobi
(majority-leader); Nafiu Lamidi Baale (deputy-chief whip); Mohammed
Inakoju (chairman, Parliamentary Caucus); Taoreed Abiola, Kazeem
Ayilara, Bamidele Ajibola, Tijani Ademola, Kayode Animashaun, and
Michael Okunlade, who jointly signed the petition wanted full
investigation to the incident and bring all connected to it to book
without further delay. The aggrieved lawmakers particularly called on
the president, and heads of the petitioned security agencies to effect
immediate arrest of the state NURTW chairman, Lateef Salako (a.k.a.
Eleweomo) and his deputy, Mukaila Lamidi (a.k.a. Auxiliary), who led
thugs to the chambers and assaulted some members of the house, stripped
three others naked and injured two others.

Recalling how they had earlier in the
day approached the state police commissioner, Baba Adisa Bolanta, on
the need to beef up security around the chambers to prevent the crisis,
the petitioners said they had got information beforehand that the
speaker had instructed the thugs to “deal with us on sighting us in the
premises of the house.”

Political backing for thugs

The lawmakers, who wanted the speaker
removed over sundry allegations of incompetence and high-handedness,
were suspended same day by the speaker and 15 others members of the 32
member-house. They alleged that despite the assurance on their live
after the earlier report, the policemen deployed by the CP to maintain
law and order around the house, looked the other way when they were
being attacked and chased away by thugs on the order of the speaker.

Accompanied with pictorial evidences,
the three-page petition equally alleged that some lawmakers, who are in
support of the speaker, including Messrs Lekan Ganiyu, Mathew Abioye
and Idowu Akanbi, as well as the state’s deputy governor, Taofeek
Arapaja, the secretary to state government, Olayiwola Olakojo, some
serving commissioners and local government council chairmen, directed
the weapon-wielding thugs to deal with the petitioners mercilessly.

The disgruntled lawmakers said they had
moved out of the state since the attack for personal safety, adding
that the mentioned hoodlums and others like one Sarafa (a.k.a. Oye
Olorun) and Sola Layiwola “are the usual thugs that have been
terrorizing the political elites in Ibadan such as Lekan Balogun and
Alhaji Akinbola of recent.”

Wondering why the police would continue to allow the like of
Elewe-Omo and Auxiliary to continue roaming the state with guns and
other dangerous weapons, the petitioners said, “all efforts to make the
commissioner of police, Alhaji Adisa Bolanta to arrest these thugs have
proved abortive, these thugs now have serious police coverage which is
not safe for the peace of Oyo State.”

The federal
government has concluded plans to develop a database of all unemployed
persons in Nigeria, the minister of labour and productivity,
Chukwuemeka Wogu, has said.

The minister said
registering the unemployed in the country is necessary because nobody
knows the number of Nigerians that are unemployed, and planning
activity has been based on extrapolation. He said when this is
completed, employers will have easy access to labour while the platform
will be very useful for all activities in economic planning.

“Unemployment has
been a major problem in the country and has impeded on economic growth
of the nation,” he said. “It is a global problem now since both
emerging and established economies are battling with problems of
unemployment which has been worsened by the fact of global recession
which has been there for some time now. Inasmuch as we agree that there
is a high incidence of unemployment; nobody has been able to have an
approximate knowledge of the figure not to talk about exactitude though
you cannot have the exact figure. We do not have that. It is only
recently that the minister of finance said it is 19 per cent based on
National Bureau of Statistics information. So because of this
inaccurate data, we now went into registration of unemployed people and
to have a data base on it.”

Mr. Wogu explained
that an implementation committee, which comprises members from
government ministries, private sector and technical experts on ICT, was
set up to articulate this project and had submitted a report which
indicates that the first stage of the project will involve the
designing of an architectural platform that would be the basis for the
data base.

“The essence of the
data base is to capture at least 90 per cent of the unemployed people
through various means of data capturing using facilities that are
already in existence, which are state offices of the labour ministry
and National Directorate of Employment,” he said.

Abuja pilot project

When the
architectural platform is established, the next step will be the
development and deployment of publicity modules, followed by the
recruitment and training of frontline operators and monitoring officers
who do the registration and also help determine the situation of the
unemployed persons.

“The last issues
are output and analysis of the data and issuing of reports. Tied to
this is an outline of major deliverables we intend to achieve. After
this is the major activity which now has a timeline,” he said.

The minister equally said that a pilot of this project will start
off soon in FCT, after which other states will be covered. To avoid
double registration, the ministry said it plans to introduce some
biometrics in the process, even as it indicated its determination to
collaborate with the National Planning Commission and the National
Bureau of Statistics in this project.

The National Drug
Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), on Sunday, announced the arrest of a
traditional doctor, Longe Adewale, and six others for peddling illegal
substances tested to be hard drugs.

According to the
agency, the suspects, who were all apprehended at the Murtala Mohammed
International Airport (MMIA), Lagos, included an “unrepentant drug
convict,” Uzoaru Oliver, who tested positive for drug ingestion on
Thursday, June 3, during screening of passengers on Iberia flight to
Madrid, Spain.

Mitchell Ofoyeju,
spokesperson for the agency, disclosed that the native doctor was
caught on June 8, attempting to board Iberia flight to Paris with 77
pieces of cocaine, which he is still expelling.

The suspect, Mr. Adewale, who fortified himself with charms, disclosed that he was surprised that he was found with drugs.

“I am a
traditional doctor and I prepared myself before the trip, so it is
shocking that they were able to detect me,” said the suspect, who hails
from Iperu, Ogun State.

Commenting on the
arrest of the ex-convict, the agency’s spokesperson disclosed that
while on observation, Uzoaru expelled 60 pieces of powdery substance
that tested positive for cocaine, weighing 915g.

“Uzoaru was first
arrested April 9, 2009 while about to board a KLM flight to Holland
with 1.27kg of cocaine in his stomach. He was charged to court and
sentenced to eight months imprisonment after which he regained his
freedom on Friday December 11, 2009,” he said.

The suspect, in a
statement from the agency, blamed his involvement in drug trafficking
on human error and frustration, adding that after leaving detention he
had nothing else to do.

“It is not a good thing to be in this condition, but I was frustrated and could not explain how it happened again.”

One of the lawyers employed by Ondo State governor,
Olusegun Mimiko, to defend him before the election petition tribunal
was quizzed at the weekend by men of the State Security Service (SSS)
over the source of the security report he tendered during the election
petitions tribunal proceedings.

Mr Mimiko, the candidate of the Labour Party,
challenged the declaration of former governor, Olusegun Agagu of the
PDP as winner of the 2007 polls at the tribunal, and successfully had
his victory at the polls affirmed by the tribunal. The lawyer, Remi
Olatubora, who is the chairman of Ondo State Sports Council, was one of
the notable legal practitioners contracted by Mr. Mimiko to plead his
case at both the tribunal and the Appeal Court.

Mr. Olatobora, who confirmed to reporters in Akure
that he was invited by the director of SSS to his office at the
Alagbaka during the weekend, said he was drilled for several hours. He
said he was denied access to his phone immediately he entered the
agency’s offices.

“Straight away, as I got to the SSS office, I was
stripped off my phones and I was quizzed by a team of interrogators
from Abuja, headquarters of the security agency,” he said.

Some members of the PDP in the state had called for
the evaluation of the judgment of the Election Petition Tribunal
delivered in the case to test the authenticity of security reports
tendered during the proceedings at the tribunals.

Questions about exhibits

They further argued that the security reports
tendered by Mr Mimiko’s counsel during the course of the litigation
were either forged or fake. Mr. Olatubora, who noted that he was
questioned by the SSS team led by one Mohammed Garba, said he was asked
to disclose the source of the security reports tendered during
proceedings.

“I told them that I was not in the position to know where the
litigant got his SSS reports from, but I admitted that it was parts of
the exhibits tendered at the Tribunal,” he said. “I told my
interrogators that I was not the lead counsel of Mimiko’s legal team
and could not have known.”

The
Speakers of the 36 state Houses of Assembly are scheduled to meet with
members of the National Assembly Joint Committee on Constitution Review
(JCCR) tomorrow, in Abuja, as part of efforts to fast track the
endorsement of the amendment of the 1999 Constitution.

The Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Usman Nafada, disclosed this to journalists at the weekend.

The meeting, according to Mr. Nafada, will take a closer look at the amended sections of the Constitution by the 88-member JCCR.

Both the Senate
and the House had, two weeks ago, endorsed the amendment of a total of
78 sections of the Constitution, as recommended by the 14-member
conference committee of both chambers that harmonised reports earlier
tabled by their ad-hoc committees.

The amended
sections will, however, become law if at least two-third (about 24
states) of the state Houses of Assembly approve them.

Mr. Nafada, who
heads the 44-member House ad-hoc committee, said the leadership of the
National Assembly convened the meeting to x-ray the merits and high
points of the harmonised document in order to facilitate speedy
resolution by the 36 state Assemblies in the country.

The Deputy Speaker
said he, alongside the Senate President, David Mark; Speaker of the
House, Dimeji Bankole; as well as the chairman of the Senate ad-hoc
committee on the review of the constitution, Ike Ekweremadu, will lead
the National Assembly delegation to the meeting.

The Attorney
General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Bello Adoke, is
expected to lead the Federal Government delegation to the meeting.

Fast track the passage

The Deputy Speaker
said himself (Nafada) will present the opening remarks detailing the
various stages of the amendment process, to provide a clearer
understanding of how the exercise started and why it took the various
resolutions on all the issues in the amendment; while Mr. Ekweremadu
will give a step by step account of the various clauses in the
amendment.

“The time between
now and the next general election is short, hence the need for the
meeting to fast track the passage of the amendment in order to
strengthen the democratic process,” he added.

He said there was
need to conclude the passage of the harmonised Constitution so that the
National Assembly can concentrate properly on the resolution of all the
issues in the Electoral Act on which work is over 80 percent complete.

Mr. Nafada also explained that since the National Assembly has
resolved to create additional states, the speedy passage of the
Constitution and the Electoral Act will provide enough allowance to
give proper attention to the issue of state creation.

The
presidential ambition of former military leader, Ibrahim Babangida,
came under attack at the weekend as a shadow parliament, convened by
Nigerians resident in the United States, passed a resolution urging the
Federal Government to prosecute him for annulling the June 12, 1993
election.

The parliament,
which unanimously passed the resolution at its second session, held at
the LaGuardia Crowne Plaza in New York, also approved a motion that the
former military president should be banned from holding any public
office in the country for his role in the derailment of what is
believed to be the freest and fairest election in Nigeria’s history.

The Nigeria
Peoples’ Parliament in Diaspora, an initiative of the Nigeria
Democratic Liberty Forum, a New-York based pro-democracy group, is a
platform for citizens in the Diaspora to “cross fertilize ideas” and
suggest solutions to the country’s myriad problems. Its first plenary
was in March this year.

The resolutions on
Babangida, at Saturday’s session, deliberately scheduled to coincide
with the 17th anniversary of the annulled poll, followed an extensive
debate on the significance of the 1993 election in Nigeria’s democratic
journey.

After more than
half of the over 80 parliamentarians at the session had spoken, (most
of them paying glowing tributes to the winner of that election, Moshood
Abiola, and those who were killed and incarcerated in the battle to
de-annul the election), the Speaker, Okey Ndibe, a professor of
Literature at Trinity College, Connecticut, called for motions.

Omoyele Sowore,
publisher of Saharareporters.com, an online news medium, and Alex
Kabba, publisher of African Abroad-USA, a New York-based newspaper,
moved “That IBB be banned from public office indefinitely.”

In the motion,
seconded by a certain Bukola Shonuga, Messrs Sowore and Kabba argued
that Babangida had made himself a criminal by derailing Nigeria’s
democratic journey and setting the country many years back. They,
therefore, want him arrested and prosecuted.

“The time has come
for punishment to be meted on the criminals who annulled that
election,” Mr. Sowore said. “We must also find out from Babangida those
who put a gun to his head and asked him to annul the election. They
should all be identified, interrogated, and appropriately punished.”

After the motion
was passed, several others followed in its wake. NDLF’s chairman,
Adegboyega Dada, a physician, moved that Mr. Babangida should be
declared an enemy of democracy and of the Nigerian people while “June
12 should be declared Democracy Day and be so recognised by the
Nigerian government.”

The motion, seconded by a Mr. Dimeji Ayanwale, was unanimously passed.

Then Haziz Ajayi,
who came from Chicago, proposed that to honour Mr. Abiola, his
photograph should replace that of former Central Bank of Nigeria’s
governors on the N1000 note. Gbenga Agbaje moved that the late
businessman-cum-politician should be posthumously declared winner of
the election.

Chukwuma Okadigwe,
Emmanuel Onasile, Dimeji Lawal, Ololade Lacrown, Biliaminu Faleti,
Benjamin Obiajulu Aduba, and Mutiu Leshi proposed different motions
asking the government to declare June 12 a national holiday and erect
monuments in honour of Mr. Abiola and other heroes of the pro-democracy
struggle that arose from the cancellation of the election. All the
motions succeeded.

Monitor the elections

Earlier, during the
debate on the anniversary of the annulled election, Mr. Ndibe described
June 12 as “one of those moments that the promise and prospect of
Nigeria as a viable political entity came alive.”

In a prepared
speech he gave before the parliament began its deliberation, Mr. Dada
lamented the annulment of the 1993 election and urged Nigerians “to
renew your spirit in readiness for the task ahead. Together, we can do
new things. Remember, patriots never keep mute.”

Before closing the
session, the parliament received and deliberated on the report of its
electoral and constitutional review committee.

The seven-member
committee, chaired by Bolaji Aluko, a professor of chemical engineering
at Howard University in Washington, recommended that the electoral
system used for the 1993 election should be adopted for the 2011
elections.

The committee also
suggested that the Independent National Electoral Commission should
have an oversight board comprising representatives of political
parties, and that Nigerians in the Diaspora should be eligible to vote.

Another highlight
of the 30-point recommendations urged the National Assembly to adopt
the Justice Uwais report, which stated that the National Judicial
Council, rather than the president, should have the responsibility of
appointing INEC official.

The parliament announced that it would raise a well-equipped team
that would travel to Nigeria to monitor the forthcoming general
elections.

The calm and coolly
articulate man once dubbed ‘No Drama Obama’ chose some surprising
profanity this week to demonstrate a different side of his personality.

Facing criticism
that he hasn’t been involved or emotional enough about the oil leak
that is now the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history, President
Barack Obama insisted that he’s working closely with experts on a very
particular goal.

“We talk to these
folks because they potentially have the best answers,” he told our
colleagues at NBC News, “so I know whose ass to kick.” Obama may be
angry the same way that millions of Americans are. An oil-rig accident
that started out bad – with the deaths of 11 workers – has gotten much
worse. It’s become a national catastrophe and media obsession that’s
dragged on for nearly two months.

Polls suggest it’s also now a political problem for the president and that may be a factor in his show of anger as well.

After the
infamously slow emergency effort that followed Hurricane Katrina in
2005, an ABC News/Washington Post poll that found 62 per cent of
respondents thought poorly of the Bush administration’s response.

The same poll now
finds that even more Americans – 69 per cent – have a negative opinion
of the Obama administration’s work since the spill.

There may be something larger happening too.

Americans felt optimistic when they elected Obama president more than a year and a half ago.

Now, under the
pressure of a still sluggish economy and stubbornly high unemployment,
Americans tell pollsters they are angry about the state of the country.
Is it a coincidence that the president’s own persona is beginning to
reflect that?

Obama is not
turning into a ranting populist railing against the oil industry. But
America’s sour mood is being darkened further by the oil coming ashore
on its south coast.

The president clearly doesn’t want to look too cheerful about the challenge.

A recent study by
the World Bank Group, in conjunction with the United Kingdom Department
for International Development (DFID), has unravelled the issues
conspiring to sustain the prevailing difficult operating business
environment in most states of Nigeria. The 176-page report, titled,
‘Doing Business 2010: Reforming through Difficult Times’ launched on
Thursday in Abuja, as part of the Nigeria Sub-national Investment
Climate Programme, focused on key areas of regulations affecting four
stages of business life cycle in the country, covering starting a
business, dealing with construction permits, registering property, and
enforcing contracts.

The initial study
in 2008 dwelled on quantitative indicators on business regulations in
10 states, including Kano, Anambra, Ogun, Enugu, Kaduna, Sokoto, Abia,
Bauchi, Lagos and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja.

The 2010 edition
not only documented the progress in the previous study, but also
expanded the scope to all the 36 states and Abuja, comparing their
performances with 183 economies worldwide. The thrust of the report was
to investigate the conditions that enhance business activity, as well
as the constraining factors to the growth of small and medium scale
liability companies. The overriding objective was to provide the basis
for understanding and improving the regulatory environment for business.

Study findings

Findings from the
study, according to the World Bank Group Vice President, Financial and
Private Sector Development, Janamitra Devan, showed that though there
exist wide variations in business regulations nationwide, eight of the
11 states measured in 2008 recorded improvements in at least one of the
four areas above, as a result of various reforms initiated to change
the business environment.

The variations were
attributed to different performance levels of state branches of federal
agencies involved in the different stages in the business registration
process, such as Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), stamp duty
offices, federal and state inland revenue services, as well as state
licensing authorities for business premises.

While it takes only
five procedures, 22 days and about 58.5 per cent of per capita income
to complete the cycle of starting a business, it takes almost an extra
month to complete a similar incorporation process in Bayelsa State,
owing to the high number of processes required to be met. Across the 36
states, starting a limited liability company, the study shows, requires
an average of nine different procedures, 36 days and about 77.7 per
cent of Nigeria’s per capita income of $1,161 (about N174,150).

On dealing with
construction permits, the report says it is easier to obtain all
construction-related permits and utility connections in Jigawa, Sokoto,
Kano and Adamawa States than in Abuja, Lagos, and Ogun. In 32 of the
states, requirements for construction permits include: environmental
impact assessment (EIA), land use clearance, site analysis report and
fire safety report, while Jigawa, Kwara, Kano, Benue, and Sokoto States
do not require such permits for the construction of structures with low
environmental impact.

Completion of the
all procedures for the permits could be as fast as within 47 days in
Jigawa, 52 in Kwara or as long as 148 days in Rivers State or 350 in
Lagos, as a result of the bottlenecks of obtaining building permit and
getting permanent electricity connection, the report shows.

Registering
property, according to the study, has continued to be a slow, expensive
and burdensome process, with entrepreneurs having to go through an
average of 12 procedures over 82 days and having to pay over 16 per
cent of the value of the property to have it registered in the Land
Registry. The involvement of lawyers to register property is a big
impediment to the property transfer process, though not as much as the
requirement to secure the state governor’s consent.

Rating by states

On enforcing
contracts, the study shows that it takes an average of 511 days and
about 36.3 per cent of the claim value in all the states to enforce a
contract, as a result of clumsy court processes. Overall, Jigawa, Gombe
and Borno were adjudged the easiest states in the country to do
business, while Imo and Ogun states were considered the most difficult.