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The National Institute for Cultural Orientation
(NICO) has concluded arrangements to document cultural festivals in the
southwest states, in order to boost tourism potentials, the Executive
Secretary of the Institute, Barclays Ayakoroma, said in Akure at the
weekend.

Mr Ayakoroma, who disclosed this at a two-day
training workshop organised by the Ondo State Ministry of Culture and
Tourism, appealed to governors in the south west states to support the
documentation of various cultural festivals in their states.

Ayakoroma said the cultural sector was one of the
misunderstood sectors in the country, stressing that policy makers and
top government officials see it as basically for the entertainment of
dignitaries at various state functions.

He noted that there was the need to correct the
erroneous perceptions that the cultural sector was only meant for
entertaining purposes.

The government official added that the Institute has started running
full-time certificate and post graduate diploma in Nigeria cultural
studies, with the ultimate aim of professionalising the Nigerian
cultural sector.

The Credible
Leadership Forum has condemned the rotational presidency system
practiced by the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) saying it is
undemocratic and unconstitutional.

Ahmed Abdullahi,
the chairman of the group, said in Abuja yesterday that it is a
“democratic anathema” for anybody or group of people or a political
party to suggest that a qualified adult is not free to exercise his
constitutional right to seek election, based on his state of origin or
geopolitical zone.

Mr Abdullahi argued
that, with regards to the on-going debate about Goodluck Jonathan’s
chances in 2011, the president “as a Nigerian adult, is
constitutionally empowered to vote and be voted for.

“Goodluck Jonathan
has as much right to run for presidency in 2011 as the Nigerian voters
reserve the voting right to either vote him in or refrain from it,” Mr
Abdulahi said.

“Rotational presidency is not democratic. It is the arrangement of PDP,” he added.

Arguing along the
same lines, Nimi-Bariagha Amange (PDP Bayelsa State), a senator
representing the president’s home state, said that President Jonathan
was free to run for the presidency in the 2011 general polls.

Zoning is “unconstitutional”

Mr Amange, who
spoke to journalists at the Bridge Builders Forum, in Abuja, said that
the zoning formula adopted by the PDP is “unconstitutional and
undemocratic.” He added that zoning is also not recognized in the PDP
constitution.

“The constitution
is quite clear,” he said. “The constitution has never restricted
Nigerians to give vote to one particular area, person or religion.
People are confusing zoning with rotation. Zoning is like what we have
in the constitution, that is section 14 (2), federal character.
Permanent Secretaries are zoned, ministers are zoned.”

He said that Mr Jonathan has the constitutional right, like every other Nigerian, to seek election to any office in the land.

“The rotation is
that, if a president finishes his tenure, then the next president will
come from another area. That is the rotation we are talking about. Now,
Yar’Adua unfortunately did not finish his tenure and Goodluck is going
to finish his tenure. After that, since Yar’Adua is not here to take
his second term, automatically the north-west has completed its tenure.
That is what it means. So it should go to another area that has not
produced president before. That is the rotation that we are talking
about.

“Zoning is that immediately a president is elected, the other
positions are zoned. The vice president will not come from the same
zone with him, the Senate President will not come from the same zone
with him, and the Speaker will not come from the same zone with him.
That is zoning arrangement,” he added.

Emmanuel Iheanacho,
the Minister of Interior, has said that Public Private Partnership
(PPP) is a vital instrument in the quest to reposition the Fire Service
that will meet the standard required in the 21st century.

In a statement by
Timothy Oyedeji, Assistant Director in charge of press, Mr. Iheanacho
admitted that the government and the private sector cannot afford to
sit back and watch the inadequacies in the service, while assets that
citizens have acquired over the years are gutted by fire.

The Ministry of
Interior, through the Federal Fire Service, is already partnering with
the National Assembly in the proposed amendment of the Act that will
give the service regulatory and associate responsibilities, while
actual fire fighting operations are brought closer to the citizenry
through municipal involvement.

Earlier, the leader
of the Lagos Millennium Group, Taiwo Taiwo, informed the minister that
her non-governmental organisation was poised to partner with the
ministry on plans to upgrade Ajele Fire Station, Lagos, as it would
build a state of the art fire fighting structure, in line with
international best practice.

Mrs. Taiwo further said her group, through a Public Private
Partnership (PPP) initiative, has secured a $2 million dollars grant
from Shell for the Ajele Fire Service. She assured that the target of
the group was to change the face of public infrastructure, as it has an
agenda of what it wants Lagos to be.

The federal
government has set up an administrative panel to review last Thursday’s
labour crisis at the federal ministry of interior.

The federation’s
Head of Service, Stephen Oronsaye, disclosed over the weekend that
President Goodluck Jonathan has given his approval for the constitution
of a three-man administrative panel to look into the crisis that led to
the disruption of activities at the ministry.

The three-man
committee will be headed by Tunji Olagunju, a senior special assistant
to the President Jonathan on NEPAD. Titilayo Iroche, a former permanent
secretary and currently a commissioner in the National Salaries and
Wages Commission and Isa Bello Sali, a permanent secretary in the power
ministry are the other two members of the panel.

The committee has two weeks to complete the assignment.

Two committees

However, the
minister of interior, Emmanuel Iheanacho, had also set up a committee
to look into the issue after a meeting with union leaders shortly after
the staff protest of Thursday.

A press statement
from the ministry of interior, shortly after the protest, said the
interior ministry boss had began settling the crisis generated by the
staff protest.

According to the
statement, signed by Timothy Oyedeji, the ministry’s spokesperson, the
minister set up the committee to investigate the workers’ demands.

The minister’s
committee comprised of management staff, representatives of the four
protesting unions and a member of the Senior Civil Service Association
of Nigeria.

“To underscore the
importance of providing prompt response to all issues raised by the
unions, the minister has also directed that the committee starts work
‘that day’ Thursday 27th May 2010,” the statement reads, in part.

It is still unclear
how the two committees will function together or whether one of the
committees would be disbanded for the other.

Protesting workers
had, on Thursday, locked up the ministry and disrupted government
activities over what they said was the failure of the ministry’s
Permanent Secretary, Dere Awosika, to meet their welfare demands.

The staff, made up of four amalgamated unions, said they were
protesting poor staff welfare, staff stagnation at a particular rank
and skill rustiness due to lack of relevant training.

Seven states in
northern Nigeria are at risk of lack of access to food and other basic
needs, the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) said at the
weekend.

This is coming on
the heels of an earlier warning by the agency of impending food and
nutrition crisis nationwide, with a call for urgent action to prevent
an emergency and a possible disaster .

Addressing
journalists at the weekend, the Director-General of the Agency,
Mohammed Audu- Bida, said statistics from its recent nationwide
research on food security show that the National Strategic Grains
Reserves is at the point of depletion, with only 105,000 metric tonnes
left. This is about 65,000 metric tonnes short of the expected target.

According to Mr.
Audu-Bida, the deteriorating food security conditions among pastoral
households and increased malnutrition among children in pastoral areas
are a worry to the agency.

He blamed the malnutrition on reduced food intake, especially of milk which was the major local source of protein .

He said the extreme
northern part of the country remains the greatest concern for food
insecurity, due to poor local production and competition with export to
Niger Republic.

The official said
the situation was made worse by severe shortfall in households basic
food requirements, resulting in significantly increased rates of acute
malnutrition and gradual destitution.

The seven states at greatest risk, according to the agency, are Kebbi, Jigawa, Yobe, Zamfara, Taraba, Borno and Sokoto.

Mr Audu-Bida,
however, said that even the southern states are not totally free from
the challenge, as poor households are facing rising food insecurity
occasioned by seasonal decline in food supplies as the peak of the
hunger season approaches.

He further lamented that malnutrition is killing many children in Nigeria.

“Vitamin A deficiency increase substantially the risk of dying from
the listed conditions as malaria, neonatal, pneumonia, measles,” he
said.

A Kaduna-based
civil society organisation, the Civil Rights Congress of Nigeria, has
enumerated 90 reasons why it thinks President Goodluck Jonathan must
not run in the 2011 generals elections.

The group, in a
statement signed by its president, Shehu Sanni, asked Mr Jonathan to
respect and maintain the zoning system of the ruling People’s
Democratic Party (PDP) because his political career has benefited from
zoning.

“Jonathan emerged
as acting president and president as a product of zoning,” stated the
group. The organisation also stated that key political offices in the
country, such as the senate president, speaker of the House of
Representative, secretary to the government of the Federation and vice
president are not occupied “by merit but by zoning.”

It also noted that
professional bodies in the nation, such as the Nigerian Bar
Association, Trade Union Congress, Nigerian Medical Association,
Academic Staff Union of Universities, amongst many others, “share
positions” and “observe zoning.”

Zoning for fair play

When asked if one
of reasons on the list, which states that a “Northerner will not accept
a Southern Nigerian cancelling zoning” is not inciting, Mr Sanni
declared: “The biggest incitement is the cancellation of the zoning
arrangement. If a northern president cancels the zoning system, will
the people of the south agree?,” adding that his clamour for the
respect of zoning, which is a party affair, does not make him partisan.

“Zoning is a party
arrangement, but the president the party is producing is going to be
the president of Nigeria, and nota president of PDP,” he said, “Those
speaking out against zoning today lost their voices when Obasanjo
muzzled out Odili in favour of Umaru.”

On the
constitutionality of the zoning system, the activist questioned why the
new occupant of the office of the vice-president was zoned, and not
picked at random or merit.

“The constitution
did not approve of zoning the vice-presidency, but why are we zoning
the vice presidency and agree to unconstitutionally zone the office?,”
he said. “There is nothing like merit in our electoral politics,
because corrupt people can also contest and win elections. All the
ex-governors and even serving senators undergoing trial in the courts
for corruption have contested and won elections.”

The group had
warned that without zoning, only the Hausa-Fulani, Yoruba, and Igbo can
produce a president because of their numerical strength. Also included
in the list to the president are series of warnings on why the zoning
structure might sustain the unity of the country.

“Zoning came as a
result of the quest for ‘power shift,’ zoning is the answer to
sectional domination, zoning ends ethnic hegemony, zoning enables all
sections to produce a president, zoning ends the tyranny of the
majority,” stated the group.

The group urged Mr
Jonathan to conduct “a free, fair and credible election and hand over
power to a Nigerian of northern extraction whose tenure will end by
2015. And become an international statesman.”

President Goodluck
Jonathan has been nominated to make key note presentations to world
leaders on peace keeping and conflict resolutions at the 25th
Africa-France Summit in Nice.

Mr. Jonathan, who
is attending the summit on the invitation of French President Nicolas
Sarkozy, arrived the Southern French city of Nice on Sunday.

Nigeria’s
Ambassador to France, Gordon Bristol, told journalists that Mr.
Jonathan was nominated by Mr. Sarkozy, the convener of the summit,
because of the pivotal role Nigeria played in peace, security and
conflict resolution in Africa and the world.

“From Kosovo to
Middle East, we have sent peace keeping troops under the banner of the
UN and AU. Nigeria has co-invented new approaches to peace keeping as
evident in Liberia and Sierra-Leone, using the instrumentality of
sub-regional organisation as envisaged under the relevant charters of
the UN.

Nigeria is well
suited to speak on the issue of peace and security in the world and
Jonathan will do that at the summit,’’ Mr. Bristol said.

Heads of States and
Governments from Africa, Asia and Europe are participating at the
two-day summit which opens today at the Nice Acropolis Convention
Centre.

As part of the
visit, the president has also been scheduled to hold meetings with Mr.
Sarkozy as well as Jacob Zuma of South Africa and Hosni Mubarak of
Egypt.

He will also hold a
business forum with Nigerian and international business communities as
well as meet with foreign ministers on the situation in the Great Lakes
Area.

The Bayelsa State
governor, Sullivan Chime and his Benue State counterpart, Gabriel
Suswan, are in the president’s entourage, to explore areas of
cooperation and investment in agriculture and tourism with foreign
partners.

Also in the
entourage are the ministers of petroleum, Deziani Allison Maduekwe,
foreign affairs, Odein Ajumogobia, national planning, Samsudeen Usman
and commerce, Jubril Martins Kuye.

Tagged a
“Renovation Summit,” the multi-national gathering is to revamp
relations between Africa and France and the growing awareness of the
changes taking place on the continent.

It will also
discuss Africa’s roles in global governance, peace and security as well
as climate change, economic challenges and the need for a development
leap.

The Africa-France
Summit was initiated in 1973 by two African presidents, Niger
Republic’s Mamman Troure and Senegal’s Leopold Senghor.

The summit
initially was to provide a forum for French speaking African countries
and France to discuss political and economic issues.

In 1975, however, the summit was extended to Asia, English and
Portuguese-speaking African countries and later to all African
countries.

The National Drug
Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) on Sunday said Nigerians living in
Europe are fast becoming the delight of drug barons.

Hamza Umar, the
Lagos airport commander of the agency, explained that these youth
already have travel documents that make them easy prey for drug lords
who cajole them to participate in the illicit trade. Ten Nigerians have
recently been arrested by the agency attempting to smuggle narcotics at
the Murtala Mohammed International Airport.

“Apart from the two
suspects who live in Lagos, all eight others live in Europe,” he said.
“The total weight of drugs found with the suspects is 12.33kg
consisting of 1.11kg heroin and 11.21 of cocaine.”

The airport
commander gave the names of the suspects as Osaze Godwin, 37, who
ingested 60 pieces of cocaine weighing 1.01kg; Izevbokun Kelvin, 22,
had in him 111 pieces of cocaine weighing 1.61kg; Joe Favour, 26,
ingested 82 pieces of cocaine weighing 1.30kg; Nwodo Ugochukwu, 34,
swallowed 95 wraps of cocaine weighing 1.51kg; and Chinedu Okeke, 40,
who swallowed 69 wraps of heroin weighing 1.11kg.

“Others are
Obarisiagbon Marvis, 32, with 77 pieces of cocaine weighing 1.44kg
inside him; Liasu Ismaila Ajadi, 41, ingested 80 wraps of cocaine
weighing 1.19 0kg; Ejiro Henry, 19, ingested 73 wraps of cocaine
weighing 1.28kg; Lever Solomon Ehigie,21, ingested 66 pieces of cocaine
weighing 900g; and Omorose Kingsley, 28, that swallowed 960g of
cocaine.”

A good name is better

Ahmadu Giade, chief
executive of the agency expressed regrets the “get rich quick syndrome”
inherent in the Nigerian youth, stressing that it is time for Nigerians
to embrace the principles of discipline and contentment.

According to Mr.
Giade, indiscipline and greed are the prevalent factors responsible for
the involvement of youths in the trafficking of narcotics, and urged
youths to re-brand themselves with values that show integrity.

“Drug traffickers
usually act on impulse as a result of greed and indiscipline.
Unfortunately, many only have a re-think after they had been caught,”
he said. “A good name is priceless and what integrity and discipline
offers is far more valuable than silver and gold.”

How suspects were nabbed

Mitchell Ofoyeju,
spokesperson for the agency disclosed that Osaze Godwin, a father of
two who live in Spain, was arrested on May22, during screening of
passengers on Iberia flight, and the suspect’s reason for drug peddling
was to “make ends meet.”

“Izevbokun Kelvin
lives in Torino, Italy, and was caught during the screening of Alitalia
flight on his way to Rome. His reason for trafficking drugs was as a
result of the global economic meltdown,” said Mr. Ofoyeju. “Godwin
hails from Edo State. Joe Favour also from Edo State lives in Parma,
Italy. He was to board Alitalia flight to Rome on May 20, 2010 when he
was caught.”

According to the agency’s spokesperson, all the peddlers will be arraigned for prosecution soon.

Commission
Secretary, Ahmed Salman, through a statement issued in Ilorin said,
“Elections would be conducted into the offices of Chairmen and
Councillors in all the existing 16 local government councils in the
state. By this development, intending contestants from all the
registered political parties are advised to take note and be guided
accordingly.

“The scheduled council elections are in accordance with the 2010 amended Kwara State Local Government Electoral Law.”

NAN recalls that
the last council elections in the state, which produced the present
chairmen and councillors, was conducted in 2007.

A non-governmental organisation, the Lagos
Millennium Group, said it has secured a grant of $2 million from Shell,
through a Public Private Partnership initiative, to upgrade the Ajele
Fire Station.

According to Timothy Oyedeji, spokesman for the
federal ministry of interior, the leader of the NGO, Taiwo Taiwo,
revealed this to him during a courtesy visit to the minister, Emmanuel
Iheanacho.

“The target of the NGO is to change the face of the station as it has an agenda of what it wants Lagos to be.