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A communiqué,
issued at the end of a workshop in Maiduguri on Reporting Conflict,
also called on media owners to provide capacity building and exposure
for journalists, who were asked to strive hard to ensure that they
discharge their duties in a professional manner.

The participants
called on regulatory agencies, like the Nigeria Press Council (NPC) and
the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), to be more proactive to
ensure adherence to best practices.

They called for the immediate passage of the Freedom of Information Bill by the National Assembly.

The Italian Embassy, on Sunday, in Abuja, held the
sixth edition of the `’Made in Italy in Nigeria’ show, as part of
activities lined up for its June 4 National Day.

The event tagged, ‘A Taste of Italy 2010’,
featured various types of Italian dishes by renowned chef, Ferruccio
Minuz, a selection of Italian wines, and an exhibition space for the
Italian business community in Nigeria.

Speaking at the occasion, the Italian envoy to
Nigeria, Roberto Colamine, listed other events to commemorate the
national day to include an art exhibition on ‘Visions of Nigeria’, an
Italian animated movie for kids, and the national day reception slated
for June 4.

He said the activities were aimed at cementing the long friendly relationship between the two countries.

Ali Modu Sheriff of Borno, on Saturday, pardoned
33 prisoners in commemoration of this year’s Democracy Day, held at the
Ramat Square in Maiduguri.

He said the beneficiaries were shortlisted out of
the 92 convicts that applied for pardon. He also said the exercise was
based on the Section 212 Sub section A of the 1999 Constitution, which
granted him powers to pardon convicted prisoners. Five of the
beneficiaries were condemned prisoners awaiting execution.

Alain Le Roy,
Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, made this known to
UN correspondents at a news conference on the international Day of UN
Peacekeepers, observed on May 29.

Mr. Ley Roy said
700 peacekeepers died in the last five years and in 2009 alone, 121
peacekeepers lost their lives while serving with the UN.

According to him,
of the 1010 fatalities suffered by the UN as a result of the January 12
earthquake in Haiti, 96 were from the UN Stabilisation Mission in Haiti
(MINUSTAH), the biggest single loss of lives in the history of UN
peacekeeping.

Nigerians should be part of the
on-going political renewal in the country by embracing membership of
political groups, rather than complaining or criticising those
involved. The national president of Kowa party, Umar Mustapha, said
people’s bias against the political class, which made them to tag
politics a dirty game, means some few have been allowed to hijack the
system to lord it over others.

“KOWA party has emerged as an
alternative political movement, driven by the deeply felt desire and
sense of public duty of hitherto non-partisan Nigerian professionals,
entrepreneurs, development practioners, faith community leaders, civil
society activists, media practitioners, academics, and youth leaders to
organise collectively for turning Nigeria in a new direction,” Mr.
Mustapha said.

He said Nigerians must learn to demand
more from their leaders, saying these people have failed a nation of
strong and hardworking people.

“Nigeria is at a crossroads. The
quality of life is at its lowest, and our future and that of our
children are at risk,” he said.

The party leader however, said
Nigerians cannot afford to shun political activities and still support
the ‘one man, one vote’ campaign that the civil society is clamouring
for in the country. He called on Nigerians to join political groups
such as KOWA party, a people-party funded by the people.

“When few people are involved in the
funding of activities of a political party, then majority of the people
cannot be involved in the decision making or question how things are
done. So, the people need to know that they need to take over what is
theirs and contribute towards its development,” said Oluremi Sonaiya, a
professor of Foreign Languages at Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife,
and Public Relations Officer of the party.

Founded in June, 2009, the party said
its developmental plans goes beyond 2011 election to include
participation in the entire election, by using its political platform
to contest election and also monitor the entire political process.

The National Secretary of the party,
Olalekan Awogbemila, said the membership drive is for individuals
interested in contributing towards the development of Nigeria –
especially ordinary Nigerians on the streets, whom he said should stop
relegating themselves to merely watch how things happened without
prejudice to their financial status.

New progressive parties

KOWA party is one of a new group of
progressive parties fighting for space ahead of next year’s election.
Others include the Congress of Progressive Change (CPC) and the Social
Democratic Mega Party (SDMP). Presently, the Independence Electoral
Commission still has just 37 political parties listed on its websites.

Nigerians are also wary about the likely impact of the new parties, with the elections so near.

Lagos lawyer and Action Congress
member, Jaiye Alabi, said: “It is an odd thing to say that some names
you hear are political parties. Every day, they register new parties
and you wonder if even you can ask the INEC people themselves to
mention their names off hand. They can’t.”

Recently, Protem Chairman of the SDMP,
Pat Utomi, also asked the ranks of progressives in Nigeria to unite and
save Nigeria from the aimless drift into poverty which, he said, is
increasing on a daily basis in the country.

“History would hold the progressive
elements and leaders of the opposition in permanent contempt if they
fail to rally and take advantage of the fact that PDP has become
unelectable, as they now are largely a Poverty Distribution Party,
rather than a political party,” he said.

The recent arrest
of a deportee, Ene Patrick, 34, and eight others for allegedly
smuggling about 11.45kg of illegal substances have further confirmed
experts’ worries on the rising cases of drug trafficking in the country.

These concerns
follow the incessant arrests made by the National Drug Law Enforcement
Agents (NDLEA) officials at the Murtala Mohammed Airport 1 (MMA1) in
the last few months.

The NDLEA Airport
command in a statement on April 6th, said the agency seized a total of
52.845kg of illicit drugs at the MMA1 in April alone worth over
millions of naira.

Government’s laxity

Investigations
revealed that more than ten people were arrested with about 70
kilogrammes of narcotics at the MMA1 between January and March 2010.

Darlington
Ajitenisan, a drug counsellor and broadcaster, said illicit drug
trafficking is on the rise because government treats the issue with kid
gloves.

Mr. Ajitenisan, who
expressed worries over the trend, said he had constantly through his
ministry as a pastor and counsellor preached against the dangers of
illicit drugs and their effects especially on youth.

“It is sad that the
government always talk about illicit drugs and they proud themselves in
the number of arrests they made but what happened at the end of the
day, the real kingpins, who are the barons are hardly arrested. Right
here at Egbeda (a Lagos suburb) where I live, some youth pride
themselves in taking hemp and cocaine.

“They sell the
drugs in broad daylight and when I tried to talk them out, they went as
far as burning me alive in my church, it was God who saved me. When I
reported the matter to the police, they treated it with kid gloves and
up till now that spot where they sell illicit drugs is still thriving
with even policemen and soldiers coming to smoke hemp there. So what
are they saying about arrest; where right under their nose, people buy,
sell and smoke hemp, Egbeda is not the only place there are so many in
Lagos and the police and the NDLEA have not done anything, “ said Mr.
Ajitenisan.

More peddlers

According to a
statement by the NDLEA, the figure shows that more women are engaging
in drug trafficking and the sad outcome is a family who had used their
6 year old twin sons to have allegedly trafficked cocaine worth over
N20 million in April.

Investigations also
revealed that in the first quarter of the year seven women were
arrested; while thirteen male were also arrested.

This figure increased sharply when in April alone a total of 21 suspects, eighteen male and three women were arrested.

The total seizure for the first quarter stands at 70.98kg as against 52.84kgs of last year; revealing an increase of 18.14kg.

Jimoh Bashiri, his wife, and their twin sons were the first family to be arrested in April.

According to the
NDLEA spokesperson, Mitchell Ofoyeju, “The 46 year old father Jimoh
Oladega Bashir was alleged to have connived with his wife Jimoh Mulikat
Adebukola in concealing 350 grammes of cocaine each on the diaper of
their 6 year old twins. The wife also concealed 3.350kg on her bra and
under wear which brought the total quantity of cocaine to 4.050kg.

The couple will now
face multiple charges because of the nature of their case. Besides
being the first family to be nabbed over cocaine trafficking in the
country, they are also the first to use their twins in smuggling
cocaine. The likely charges hanging on their necks include unlawful
possession and exportation of 4.050kg of cocaine, money laundering as
well as child abuse for using their six years old twins in cocaine
smuggling,” Mr. Ofoyeju said.

Also arrested in
March was a three month old pregnant woman, 29 year old Osatohamen
Esohe, who ingested 27 wraps of cocaine weighing 350gramme.

Mr. Ofoyeju said
despite the numerous arrests made by the agency, drug peddlers had
continued to devise nefarious means to conceal drugs. Some of their
methods include, concealing hard drugs in bras, foodstuffs, under
wears, diapers, stethoscopes, hair, vagina and anus, shoes, seminar
bags and shoe laces.

Speaking on the recent arrest, Mr. Ofoyefu said the NDLEA is
determined to halt illegal drug trafficking with the prosecutions of
the suspects, adding that this will deter others from engaging in the
crime.

Determined
to beat the odds in the increasing high failure rates in senior
secondary external examinations, a group of students of the Air Force
Secondary School, Ikeja, experimented with a new method of examination
preparations.

They took advantage
of the practice offered by a new indigenous online examination
preparation web portal, Testafrica.com, which enabled them improve on
speed and accuracy. The results were astounding.

“I decided to try
it for my students after hearing about it, and at the end I believe
that the test bailed my students out,” said Olufemi Obakoya, the
examination officer of the school.

Iyanuoluwa Oni,
whose JAMB score of 296 has comfortably positioned her to realize her
dream of studying Medicine and Surgery in university, is one of the
students.

“The countdown
system of the online tests really helped me improve my speed, and also
gave us a hint of the kind of questions to expect from JAMB,” she said.

Addressing their inadequacies

Concerned with the
need to reverse the trend of recent high rate failures in secondary
school external examinations, a research and technology firm, Liquid
Domino Ltd, launched www.testafrica.com, an online examinations
preparation portal for students gearing up for WAEC and JAMB
examinations.

“We did some
research and realized that education is losing its substance, and kids
are failing more,” said Obinna Nwabineli, a director of the company.
“In our research, we found out that it’s not that kids are not smart
enough. Rather the problem is time management, inadequate preparations,
etc. So we came up with this initiative to help them prepare for exams.
Secondly, we realised that the future of examinations is online-based
so we need our students to become more familiar with the web.”

The website offers
real time tests where candidates are timed according to the real
examinations. Past questions for WAEC and JAMB from 1978 to 2008,
totalling over 20,000, are available. Registration is free, while
candidates are expected to purchase a ₦500 pin number that grants
access to 10 tests.

“Another advantage
is that it gives parents the real time opportunity to be involved in
assessing their children and know where their deficiencies might lie,”
said Mr Nwabineli.

Peter Chukwu, an
educationist, lauds the initiative, and believes that such projects by
the private sector would effectively position the students to make a
smooth transmission to the web-based examinations that will soon take
over from the traditional paper-based era.

“I learnt that JAMB
will soon be taking the examinations online, maybe from next year, and
the question is how many Nigerian students, especially in public
schools, are very familiar with the Internet?”

Building familiarity

Enyinnaya Opara, a
first year Medicine student at the University of Lagos, who used the
web portal during her preparations for last year’s entrance
examinations, accepts that the tests greatly improved her preparations
for last year’s JAMB examinations so much so that she has introduced
her younger siblings to the website.

“With the
experience I had from taking the online tests, I found out that so many
questions in the actual exam became familiar,” she said. “The
preparation proved really helpful, and showed in my JAMB scores.”

The students of Air
Force Secondary School, Ikeja, who used the Testafrica platform
unanimously agreed that the online tests heightened levels of
concentration, and subsequently enabled them become familiar with the
pattern of questions.

Overcoming the speed factor

However, the
inability to finish on time has been identified by most of the students
as their greatest albatross; a factor that the online platform enabled
them address. During the online mock tests, the web portal closes down
after the given time elapses.

“The test improved
their speed and, therefore, helped them during the actual examination
to finish in time,” said Mr Obakoya. “Despite the high failure rate of
41 per cent for the exams, my students recorded an impressive pass
rate.”

Henry Ejiogu, who
equally applied to study Medicine in university, said he was intrigued
and challenged by the speed management system in the platform.

“Testafrica.com
helped me mostly in my speed and accuracy because it was more difficult
answering the questions online,” he said. “The major problem that most
of us have is speed, so the preparation online helped us improve
tremendously.”

Best brains for 2010

In a bid to also
encourage secondary school students who might be financially challenged
in pursuing their graduate studies, Domino Ltd announced that it would
soon launch an annual national scholarship scheme, ‘Best Brains.’

According to
Azunnaya Okereke, the project director of Testafrica.com and CEO of
Liquid Domino, the scheme is open to students across the country, and
aims to reward the winners with various tuition-based prizes. The
overall winner will earn a four-year tuition of up to ₦1 million per
session at any university of his/her choice in Nigeria and/or Ghana,
plus a laptop.

“Two hundred and
forty nine runners-up will also be rewarded with scholarships (covering
Tuition, Library, Faculty, GNS & Departmental Fees) plus a laptop
each,” said Mr Okereke. “The scholarship will start in June. This is
our own little way of giving back to the society, especially to these
children, and also encourage the revival of education in the country.”

Ms Oni is confident of clinching the first prize, and is sounding a note of warning to fellow contestants.

“I can’t wait to try my hands at the prize, and I strongly believe that I will win it,” she said.

The Office of the
Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation, Mohammed
Bello Adoke (SAN), has confirmed the authenticity of the certified true
copy report of the Pius Okigbo Panel, re-submitted to the Federal
Government in Abuja some weeks ago by a group of civil society
organizations.

Mr. Adoke, on
Thursday, affirmed the genuineness of the report in a response made
through his Special Assistant on Media and Special Duties, Onyema
Omenuwa, to NEXT on Sunday correspondent’s enquiry at the Justice
Ministry.

In spite of the
confirmation of the genuineness of the report, the former military
president, Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, whom the report seeks to indict
for mismanagement of public funds, said he is undeterred in his resolve
to contest and obtain the presidential ticket of the Peoples Democratic
Party in 2011.

Justice Minister’s statement

In a letter, dated
May 12, 2010 and addressed to the 10 CSOs working to ensure the
prosecution of former military President, Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida on
allegations of mismanaging about $12.4 billion Gulf War oil earnings,
the Attorney General acknowledged the receipt of Okigbo report and
promised to take action on the report.

“As appropriate, I
shall set up a committee that will confirm the authenticity of the said
report and also review the allegations and recommendations contained
therein, with a view to ascertaining whether these allegations can
sustain a criminal charge,” Mr. Adoke wrote.

Signatories to the
petition were the: Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project,
Women Advocates and Documentation Centre, Access to Justice, Committee
for Defence of Human Rights, Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre,
Partnership for Justice, Human and Environmental Development Agenda,
Nigeria Liberty Forum, Nigeria Voters Assembly, and Centre for the Rule
of Law.

Mr. Babangida’s reaction

In a response sent
by the Media Assistant to Mr. Babangida, Kassim Afegbua, the former
military President did not only deny being indicted by the report but
he also subjected the authenticity of the report to ambiguity and doubt.

“What the
Attorney-General said in his response to the petition is unambiguous:
that the government will try to ascertain whether that is the true copy
of the Okigbo Report,” he said. “The whole concept of civil society
organizations bringing signed copy of a Federal Government Report to
government raises a lot of curiosity and mischief on the part of the
civil societies. I have not seen a situation where a government will
set up a panel, only for report to be given to it (government) by
unknown bodies.

“Despite all the
clear-cut attempts to rubbish the good name of General Babangida by
this gang of sinuous fawns who want to play the ‘angelic’ role as civil
societies. I am yet to find anywhere in the whole wide world where
these organizations have rendered account of their own grants from
foreign countries in the years of their existence. This is our
challenge to all of them.”

No controversy, no ambiguity

Mr. Adoke, however,
has cleared the air saying there is no misunderstanding, doubt or
controversy, whatsoever; over the authenticity of the report he
received. He added also that there is no ambiguity whatsoever in his
formal response and promise to see how the allegations can sustain
prosecutions.

Asked to clear
whatever ambiguity was inherent in Mr. Adoke’s statement, Mr. Omenuwa,
a lawyer and journalist, said there was no ambiguity in the statement.

“The Minister’s
statement was very clear and unambiguous,” he said. “He promised to set
up a committee that will confirm the authenticity of the report and see
how the allegations could be sustained for a criminal prosecution. If
you were to defend a person as a spokesperson, would you see anything
different to say than argue that the report is not genuine? What is not
genuine about the report?

There is no
ambiguity, whatsoever. It is just a matter of language.” Asked when the
Justice Minister will be inaugurating the committee he promised to set
up on the report, considering especially that Mr. Babangida is already
campaigning for the 2011 presidential election ticket of the Peoples
Democratic Party, Mr. Omenuwa said Mr. Adoke will address the nation as
he has always done once everything is put in the right place.

In spite of the
negative impacts of the challenges on his presidential ambition, Mr.
Babangida has promised to weather the storm; even as he has been
scheduled by his aides to present a state of the nation address at a
summit in Kaduna State on Saturday June 5, 2010, where he will also
unveil his vision for a national rebirth.

Former Special
Adviser to President Obasanjo on Political Matters, Akin Osuntokun, is
one of the promoters of the reform group within the PDP. He speaks on
the ongoing debate about the zoning arrangement within the party and
the activities of the reform group

Need for electoral reform ahead 2011 elections

Our march to
democracy since 1999 has not been bad, though there are some hitches
and hiccups here and there. One thing the National Assembly should do
as part of the electoral reform process is to insert in the
constitution the need for the president to transmit a letter to his
Vice in case of impairment or incapacitation. When this is done, the
kind of experience we faced when the late president Umaru Musa Yar’adua
was sick and had to go to Saudi-Arabia and then came back before he
died will not arise. But so far, we have not done badly since 1999.
Definitely we would have gone very far if some mistakes were not made
in the past which truncated democracy and paved the way for the
military to continue their stay in the office.

The sudden emergence of the PDP reform

It is
self-explanatory, even at the level of individuals. If you discover
that you need to take some medication to improve something in your body
or system, you are free to do it. But to come to your question, there
is nobody in the PDP today who does not know that the party needs
internal democracy. The overbearing influence on the party, especially
from the Governors Forum, is something that members are worried about.
We are looking for a situation where imposition of candidates into any
elective position is totally abolished. Reform is not a new thing and
even in Britain’s Conservative Party, they have embraced the concept of
reforms. It is meant to bring an improvement into the party so that the
dreams and visions of the founding fathers will not be lost.

The controversy over the zoning agreement within the PDP

What happened was
that a caucus within the party met and discussed the issue of zoning,
but it was not formalized and is not binding .The decision to zone the
presidency to the south in 1999 was to assuage the feelings of the
people, especially in the south west as a result of the annulment of
the June 12,1992 election. It was because there was no binding
arrangement about this that made people like the late Abubakar Rimi to
contest the 1999 and 2003 presidential elections.

And now that the
current president is there and is duly qualified, especially as the
region (south -south) he represents has never produced a president,
either through the military or civilian, he should be given the chance.
This will ensure smooth relationship among the various ethnic divides
in the country. Reports that former president Obasanjo’s men dominated
last PDP reform meeting Look, I am 48 years old. There are some who are
50 years and above who came there for the meeting. I have my own
independent mind.

It was just sheer
blackmail and they did that to attack the current president. People are
just using the media to blackmail others and unfortunately, the press
is yielding cheaply into their hands. Nobody at that meeting, to the
best of my knowledge, took permission from Obasanjo to be there. It was
purely in the interest of the party and nobody was a target.

Advice for the president regarding free and fair elections

He has said that in
many fora that free and fair elections shall be his priority. There
will even be greater burden on him if he decides to run because people
will now use that to test his sincerity. There is no doubt that the
country needs free and fair elections for the system to be viable and
strong politically and economically.

The Nigeria Labour
Congress has warned Goodluck Jonathan against the implementation of
what it called “the ill-advised policy to increase electricity
tariffs”, saying that any attempt to do so would only add to the burden
of the citizens.

The NLC, in a
statement released on Thursday and signed by John Odah, its General
Secretary, said, “Mr President should know that the problem in the
power sector is not that of low or poor tariffs but most visibly that
of corruption and the overwhelming influence of a cabal of generator
importers who are determined to frustrate any genuine attempt to
correct the situation.” He, therefore, urged Mr Jonathan to restrain
himself from embarking on any policy that will derail him from
achieving his plans for the sector.

“The quickest way to distraction is this policy of increase in electricity tariffs,” the union said.

The Labour
organisation also called on Nigerians to “oppose and protest any move
to implement the policy in its entirety because it will worsen the
situation of the country’s manufacturing sector, as well as further
impoverish Nigerians and increase the country’s labour and employment
crisis.”

The statement
added: “While we have up to now restrained ourselves from responding to
plans and insinuations by government to, through the National
Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), increase electricity tariffs
in the country, the revelation on Tuesday, May 25, 2010, by the
Minister of State for Power, Nuhu Wya, of the Presidential directive to
raise electricity tariffs in order to make the sector more competitive
and attractive to both local and foreign investors, is not only
insensitive but absolutely unacceptable.”

The NLC said it was
convinced that the correct and logical step is to first of all improve
on the country’s power generation and distribution capacity before
considering the question of increase in tariffs.

“The increment, if allowed to be implemented, is certainly a death
sentence to the very few industries still operating in the country,
most fundamentally, our fragile but active small and medium business
enterprises which today form the backbone of our economy,” the group
said