Nigeria Content Online

The House of
Representatives has moved closer to a constitutional amendment that
will grant full judicial powers to the National Industrial Court,
allowing a second reading of a bill that wants the court listed in the
constitution.

Previous
legislations, which began with military decrees, made the court, as an
arbiter of labour disputes in the country, to be a subordinate of the
High Court, lawmakers said.

When listed in
section 6 of the 1999 constitution, the court will operate
independently, drawing its funding separately and attending as a
superior court of record, they said.

“This amendment is
simple, it is straightforward, and in the spirit of what we have done
with constitutional amendment, I urge that we re-establish this court,”
said Aminu Tambuwwal, the House Deputy Leader.

The campaign for labour

Justice Reform, an
NGO, called the passage a “fundamental milestone.” “We are glad with
the speed the House of Representatives have responded to the inclusion
of the National Industrial Court into the constitution,” said Enobong
Etteh, the group’s coordinator. “We are very impressed with the speedy
passage.”

The court was
created through military decree 47 of 1992 to serve to adjudicate on
labour disputes between employees and employers. The legislation was
left out of the 1999 constitution, making it inferior to High Courts,
the lawmakers said.

The former National
Assembly attempted reversing that with an Act of 2006 which was this
year rejected by the Supreme Court in a case involving the Electricity
Employee union.

The nation’s
highest court said in February 2010, that the National Assembly Act is
inferior to the provisions of the constitution, as such the court
cannot operate independently since it is not named with other courts in
section 6 of the constitution.

Senate support

The new bill, which
is promulgated as an amendment of the constitution, will have to amend
at least 13 sections of the constitution to successfully retain the
court there.

The ongoing
constitution amendment by the National Assembly gives financial
autonomy to federal bodies and the courts listed in the constitution.

“Because of
amendments on the fiscal autonomy for INEC and judiciary which empower
funds from the consolidated revenue to be paid directly to the National
Judicial Council, the NJC has no right to give a kobo to the NIC if it
is not listed in the constitution,” said Bala Na’alla.

The decision will become lawful after a concurrence by the Senate and at least two-thirds of the state Houses of Assembly.

Nigeria is to
review its defence policy in order to have a clear cut direction on the
operation of its Armed Forces, especially outside the country, the
Minister of Defence, Adetokunbo Kayode, said in Abuja on Thursday.

Mr. Kayode also said the Armed Forces have come under pressure for undertaking to assist in maintaining internal security.

He spoke at a
meeting with the House of Representatives Committee on Defence, chaired
by Wole Oke. The minister was accompanied by the minister of state,
Murtala Shehu Yar’Adua, and other senior officials of the ministry to
his maiden meeting with the committee.

Responding to a
question by a member of the committee, Umar Bature, who also chairs the
foreign committee of the Lower Chamber, the minister said Nigeria is
known for its peace-keeping efforts all over the world, and that if the
country’s defence policy is reformed, it would know where the Armed
Forces would be deployed to.

Mr. Kayode told the
lawmakers committee that the last defence policy was formulated in
2006, and that the ministry recognises that such policies should be
updated every five years to conform to meet current challenges, not
only in the country, but also across the world.

Hands on leadership

Mr. Kayode said the
Armed Forces have been assisting in maintaining internal security in
the country, but quickly added that this has put a lot of pressure on
them, especially in the area of funding. Presently, he added, the Armed
Forces have developed a joint working operation in 24 states, including
Jos in Plateau State, and the Niger Delta region.

The minister assured the lawmakers that the ministry under him would partner with legislature to reposition the military.

Earlier, Mr. Oke,
the committee chairman, urged the minister to work in harmony with the
committee. He also said a bill which seeks to exit the country’s Armed
Forces from the pension scheme is currently before the House, stressing
that the Armed Forces of other nations have since disengaged from such
scheme.

The lawmaker also
asked the minister to look at the 2010 Budget, which was assented to
recently by the acting president and ensure that projects proposed for
the ministry are executed.

Also speaking, a
member of the committee, Chinedu Eluemuno (PDP, Anambra), asked Mr.
Kayode to “be in charge of the details of everything that happens in
the ministry so that tomorrow you can give account of the happenings
there.”

The lawmaker
recounted how the former defence minister, Godwin Abbe, could not
provide the committee with satisfactory explanation on who deployed
soldiers to the Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport, Abuja, to receive President
Umaru Yar’Adua from Saudi Arabia last month.

The House of
Representatives Committee on Customs and Excise has recommended the
revocation, within six months, of the sale of some houses belonging to
the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) which were illegally sold by the
Federal Capital Territory Administration. It also asked the federal
government to provide a special grants of ₦100 billion to the Nigeria
Customs Service (NSC) to strengthen its operations.

These are some of the recommendations made by the committee in a report presented to the House in plenary yesterday.

The House had, in
September 2008, mandated the committee chaired by Yakubu Dogara (PDP,
Bauchi) to conduct investigations into the Nigeria Customs Service
(NSC) for poor performance. The resolution was sequel to a motion
brought by Muhammed Sani Abdu (PDP, Bauchi) and 18 others, calling for
an investigation into the collapse of the Marine Unit of the NCS, which
they claimed had led to poor performance of its statutory duties and
functions.

The committee noted
in the report that our government was short-changed to the tune of
₦233.48 million in the process of selling the houses located in Maitama
and Wuse Districts of the Federal Capital Territory because they were
grossly undervalued by the committee that sold them to satisfy vested
interests.

It also noted that
“the houses were not strictu-sensu government properties, having been
acquired with bonuses earned by the services which was supposed to be
paid directly to officers and men of the service”. According to the
committee, neither the FCTA not its committee on sale of government
houses proved its legal or equitable title to the houses that it
purportedly sold, adding, “Failure of the FCTA and its committee to
establish any form of title over the houses meant that neither could
have lawfully disposed of the said houses.

“The sale of NCS
houses be revoked and NCS management repossessed within six months of
the adoption of this report,” the committee concluded.

Increase their funding

The committee noted
that, as the highest revenue agency in the country, the ₦100 billion
grant would go a long way in improving the condition of service of the
NCS so that its staff could be more effective in revenue generation and
other operations.

It recalled that,
like the Nigerian Police Force which got ₦300 billion, the money would
enable the NCS to complete all abandoned projects in several parts of
the country, as well as border posts across our nation.

The grant, the
committee added, would also enable the NCS to provide modern offices
and conducive working environments for its staff, procure modern combat
tools, including sea-going vessels, and aircraft which are no existent
at present, but are absolutely necessary for its operations.

Committee recommendations

It also recommended
five per cent for the Free On Board (FOB), as against the current seven
per cent cost of collection which the NCS enjoys, and the five per cent
FOB be expended by the service directly after appropriation by the
National Assembly.

The committee also
recommended that the government should review the welfare package of
NCS staff in line with those of the NNPC, which is similar to the NCS
in its duty of collecting revenue for our nation.

It also said that
in order for the NCS to attract and keep some of the best brains in its
employ who would help build the institution from within to a world
class status, there should be a consolidated salary structure to bring
it at par with other institutions.

The committee
recommended that the government should improve the criteria for future
appointments of Comptroller-General of NCS by incorporating broad-based
stakeholders consultations, and that such officers should come from
within the service, having not less than five years to retirement.

It said that non-staff of the NCS, no matter their experiences and requisite qualification, be excluded from the process.

The Kano State
chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) said yesterday it has
received defectors from the ruling All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) and
other opposition parties in the state numbering 5, 985.

Addressing party
supporters in Sumaila Local Government of the state, the state chairman
of the party, Faruq Iya, said most of the defectors were from the
ruling party in the state.

“Majority of the
decampees are from the ANPP and the rest of them are from other
opposition parties in the state,” said Mr Iya. “Despite the fact that
Sumaila is a PDP base, the number of the defectors we are receiving is
overwhelming.” Mr. Iya said his executive has been receiving defectors
across the state in every local government they visit.

In his remark at
the rally, the former governor of the state, Rabi’u Musa Kwankwaso,
said the number of defectors they received at the rally was a testimony
that the party had a promising future.

“We are marvelled
at this massive turnout. This shows that PDP will win all elections in
Sumaila. People of Sumaila know what PDP did to them, that is why their
loyalty to PDP is unwavering,” he said.

Moving like a gale

Former minister of commerce, Ahmed Garba Bichi, described the movement of the PDP in Kano State as a gale.

“PDP in Kano today
is more like a gale which clears supporters of the ruling party and
other opposition parties,” said the former minister.

Mr. Bichi, who was
the 2007 gubernatorial candidate of PDP in the state, therefore
expressed the party’s optimism to capture the state in the forthcoming
general elections.

“We are very optimistic that we will recapture Kano. We are only waiting for the time,” he said.

Sule Hayin Gada,
who spoke on behalf of the defectors, said his colleagues were moving
to the PDP because they were not satisfied with the ANPP-led
administration in the state.

An unemployed man
entered a kindergarten in eastern China’s Jiangsu Province on Thursday
morning and stabbed 28 kindergarten students and three adults,
critically wounding at least five children, local authorities and state
news agencies reported.

It was the second mass stabbing of young students in two days, and the third in less than a month.

Many of the wounded
children were just 4 years old and shared the same classroom, according
to initial reports by the state-run Xinhua news agency. The adult
victims included two teachers and a security guard.

Police officers
identified the assailant as Xu Yuyuan, a 47-year-old former insurance
agent. According to Xinhua, he began attacking children with a knife
about eight inches long around 9 a.m. at the Zhongxin Kindergarten, a
middle-class school in Taixing, about 570 miles southeast of Beijing.

Little other information was immediately available. Taixing propaganda officials did not respond to telephone calls.

Thursday’s attack
occurred a day after a 33-year-old man in the southern province of
Guangdong stabbed 15 fourth-and fifth-graders at a primary school in
Leizhou. None of those students were seriously wounded. The authorities
said that attacker, identified as Chen Kangbing, had taught at nearby
school but had been on leave since 2006, apparently because of mental
illness.

On March 23, Zheng
Minsheng, 42, stabbed eight primary school students to death in Fujian
Province, also on China’s east coast, as they waited with parents for
classes to begin. Some Chinese press reports stated that Zheng also had
mental problems, but most state media said no such evidence existed.

Mental illness
remains a closeted topic in modern China, and neither medication nor
modern psychiatric treatment are widely used. An analysis of mental
health issues in four Chinese provinces, published in June in the
British medical journal The Lancet estimated that 98 percent of the 173
million Chinese adults believed to suffer mental problems never
received professional help.

Those murders
created a nationwide sensation, stirring calls for a school safety
crackdown. Zheng was executed on Wednesday after what one legal expert,
the former Peking University law professor and civil rights advocate He
Weifang, said was an unusually speedy trial.

There was no
immediate explanation as to why the three attackers chose young
students as their targets. While assaults in schools are not
particularly common, an eerily similar series of five knife attacks
took place in August and September 2004 in schools and a child-care
centre. Three of the attacks occurred on China’s east coast.

In February 2008,
two students at another Leizhou school were stabbed to death by a
former student who then killed himself by jumping off the school
building.

In the current
string of knifing, which took place hundreds of miles apart, “probably
there was some kind of copycat element,” Liu Jianqing, a professor of
criminal psychology at the China University of Political Science and
Law in Beijing, said in a telephone interview on Thursday. “People in
similar predicaments emulate this because of the impact of the mass
media these days.” The assaults likely were also acts of
self-destruction by the attackers, he said, because such crimes stand a
high chance of drawing a death sentence in Chinese courts.

Beyond mental
illness, some experts said that rising strains in China’s fast-changing
society may have a role in the growing number of violent crimes. Most
of the school assaults have occurred on the developed, urban east
coast, where both the cost of living and income inequality are high.

The man executed on
Wednesday, Zheng, wanted revenge on “rich” and “powerful officials” in
Nanping, where he lived, Xinhua quoted his neighbours as saying in a
recent lengthy article about the murders.

He selected the primary school where the slayings took place because it was the city’s finest, the article stated.

© 2010 New York Times News Service

Members of the
Judiciary Staff Union of Nigeria (JUSUN) in Ekiti State yesterday
staged a peaceful rally to protest alleged refusal of the state
government to implement Consolidated Judiciary Workers Salary Structure
(CONJUSS).

The workers, who
took to the streets of Ado-Ekiti to register their displeasure against
what they said was government insensitivity to their plight, carried
placards of various inscriptions during the protest, which lasted for
over one hour. The JUSUN members also obstructed traffic along
Fajuyi-Okesa area of Ado-Ekiti, the state capital.

While addressing
reporters, the state chairman of the union, Michael Ibiyemi, said the
workers had no option than to embark on a street protest, having
endured suffering for so long. He said his members are prepared to
embark on an indefinite strike if the state government fails to
implement the new salary scale for them.

“We have been
agitating for CONJUSS for the past four years. At least 15 other
states, including Borno, Rivers, Delta and Adamawa, have implemented
the welfare package for their judiciary staff,” he said. “The suffering
inflicted on judiciary workers has left many of them indebted and
unable to take care of our families, with many of them barely managing
to come to office.”

Total shutdown

He wondered why the
state governor, Olusegun Oni, had not responded to their demands, and
described a panel set up by the state government to look into their
demands as a “kangaroo panel” which had done nothing to ameliorate
their sufferings.

“If by Monday,
government fails to accede to our demands, it will be a total shutdown
of all the courts in the state and all we are saying is that they must
implement our demand for the implementation of CONJUSS,” he said.

“We are agitating for autonomy and this has not been looked into.
The kangaroo panel set up to ensure CONJUSS implementation has failed
to do anything, while the governor himself has not done anything”

The dispirited
camp of the Peoples Democratic Party in Ondo State received a major
boost yesterday when business mogul, Jimoh Ibrahim was unveiled as the
latest member of the party in the state.

The state chapter
of the PDP, which has been enmeshed in crises since the Labour Party
took over administration of the state, came alive as some party
loyalists stormed the party’s secretariat along Oyemekun Road to give
Mr. Ibrahim a heroic welcome. Hundreds of former PDP members, including
its leaders, have defected in droves to the Labour in recent weeks.

However, speaking
at the official welcome reception, Mr. Ibrahim told party members that
he decided to join the party in order to make it more vibrant. The
Igbotako born businessman, who described himself as a beneficiary of
PDP’s good governance of the country, said the party would bounce back
into reckoning in Ondo State.

Mr. Ibrahim, who
was the gubernatorial candidate of All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) in
the 2003 General Election, however said time is not yet ripe to discuss
his political ambition. He spoke against the background of reports that
he is moving into the PDP to actualize his plan of governing the state.

“ The aim of
joining the party was to make it virile in the state so that it can win
election both at the local, state and national levels,” he said. ‘‘It
is not about any election. I join the party to work together with the
leaders to re-build it. If it is about contesting elections, I can
contest under any party. Afterall, I have the resources to contest for
any position. I benefited a lot from the party. It was the PDP
government that confer on me the Order of Federal Republic (OFR)
honour. So, I am ready to work for the party.” He also said the PDP
government had appointed him into various boards, including being
Chairman of the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC).

Commenting on whether his current action will pitch him against the incumbent governor of the state, Olusegun Mimiko,
whom many believed he supported in winning the 2007 election, Mr
Ibrahim said the governor would always remain his friend.

“A friend is always
a friend. I can assist anybody. Nobody has a monopoly of assistance. As
far as I am concerned, party affiliation cannot disturb my friendship
with anybody.

Moreover, Mimiko himself was a former member of the PDP,” he said.

Mr. Ibrahim, a
lawyer and businessman, ventured into politics in 1998 when he became a
member of the All Nigerians Peoples Party (ANPP). He was picked as the
party’s governorship candidate, but lost to Olusegun Agagu in the 2003
governorship election.

After his failure
in the governorship election, Mr. Ibrahim announced his withdrawal from
politics to focus on his business. After Mr. Agagu was removed by the
Court of Appeal, Mr. Ibrahim became close to him as a way of
solidarising with his kinsman. He is also said to be keen on having
another go at the governorship post.

Some politicians
are, however, of the opinion that the zoning formula might not favour
Mr. Ibrahim considering the fact that he is from the southern
senatorial district, same as Agagu.

In the last couple
of months, many bigwigs of the party have openly defected to the Labour
Party, mostly especially commissioners and chairmen of board and
parstatals during the immediate past government of Governor Agagu.

The party’s woes
were also worsened with the recent development in the state house of
assembly, which Labour Party is now in control of. At least three PDP
lawmakers have boosted the camp of the ruling government with their
recent defection to the ruling party.

Barely
three days after the murder of The Nation’s judicial correspondent, Edo
Egbagwu, the Edo State Correspondent of Vanguard Newspaper, Simon
Ebegbulem, on Monday night narrowly escaped death as he rammed his car
into the gate of a building while trying to escape from a car he said
was trailing him.

The bonnet of the Honda car was badly
damaged and Mr. Ebegbulem sustained head injuries. He is expected to
undergo scanning yesterday evening to check the extent of injuries to
his head.

Police was already informed of the incident and they have promised to investigate the matter.

The injured reporter said as soon as he left his office, along Arousa,

at about 8.30 pm on Monday, he noticed
a vehicle trailing him right from Sapele Road down to Adesuwa in GRA
and then to Ugbor Road where he lives.

“I noticed the vehicle behind me
immediately I left my office,” Mr. Ebegbulem said. “Initially, I
thought it was just any other vehicle on the road. But I became curious
when I noticed that the same vehicle was behind me through to Sapele
Road, down to Adesuwa and all the other routes I took to cut off the
bad spots and when I came out at Ugbor Road, I noticed the vehicle was
still trailing me.

I doubled my speed and quickly entered
Patrick Ehimen as a decoy and, in the process, I lost control and hit
the gate of the building and the impact on the car forced the car to
reverse itself to where I was coming from. But for the airbags, because
I noticed something like foam pushed me back to my seat when I hit the
gate, I would have sustained more injuries. I was treated and
discharged later that night. But I have to go back today for x-ray to
know the extent of injury on my head”.

The development has created fears in
the minds of many journalists covering the politically volatile state,
as many expressed fear for their jobs and lives.

Governor mourns journalist’s death

Meanwhile, the state governor, Adams
Oshiomhole has commiserated with the Nation newspapers over the murder
of Mr. Ugbagwu. Mr Oshiomhole described the killing as very
unfortunate; “I commiserate with you on the gruesome murder of one of
your reporters by yet-to-be-identified killers,” he said. ”This is a
painful death, going by the report that he was a hardworking and
experienced judiciary reporter with your organization. This latest
killing is however one too many, as Nigerians are yet to recover from
recent similar killings of Godwin Agbroko and Abayomi Adedeji of
Thisday Newspapers and Bayo Ohu of The Guardian.

“Ugbagwu’s murder is not one that
should be swept under the carpet as inaction by the security agencies
will send a wrong signal to the killers that they can always snuff the
life out of innocent Nigerians and get away with the evil act.
Nigerians should rise as one to condemn this dangerous trend where
journalists who have a dissenting voice are silenced.” Also opposition
party, the Action Congress (AC) has expressed concerns over rising
killing of journalists in the country, following Mr. Ugbagwu’s murder
as well as two others in Jos – Sunday Bwede and Natan Dabak over the
weekend.

The party via its National Publicity
Secretary, Lai Mohammed called on the security agencies to move quickly
to unravel the killings saying “it was particularly alarmed at the
shooting dead of Ugbagwu,

which followed the same pattern as the
killing of Bayo Ohu of the Guardian last year, Abayomi Ogundeji of
Thisday in 2008 and Godwin Agbroko also of Thisday before them.” The
party expressed the hope that the journalists are being targeted
because of their profession, saying such could in turn stifle the
nation’s democracy.

“The challenge, therefore, for the
security agencies is not just to find the killers and bring them to
book, but to investigate if the murders have anything to do with the
fact that the victims are media practitioners. This is important to
reassure Nigerians that members of the Fourth Estate can perform their
constitutionally-guaranteed duties without fear,” Mr. Mohammed said.

The Party said the overall implication of the rising wave of murder,
in the country is that the security situation in Nigeria is worsening
and therefore reiterated its call for a decentralized police force,
claiming the police, as presently constituted can no longer ensure the
security of lives and property.

We
are no longer a courteous nation. We have lost our manners. What else
would you call it when you are holding an event and have confirmed
acceptances from the chief hosts, chairpersons of the occasion, and/or
special guests – all of whom will play key roles at the affair – and
they do not turn up?

How do you describe
an event for which a confirmed key speaker has being advertised as the
main attraction, and people pay to participate or to be delegates in
order to hear and meet that speaker, and then the speaker does not show
up?

We can lean towards
understanding when the VIP involved is of global or national stature
and whose time is at the mercy of critical events or stakeholders –
perhaps. But these days, any and every Tom, Dick and Harriet too often
do not take firm commitments to events seriously, regardless of whether
they are social, occupational or otherwise.

If you are lucky,
they are ‘ably represented’. This means that one hour before the event
is due to start, or 30 minutes before they are due to deliver their
paper, they conscript a staff member or a colleague to attend on their
behalf and read the speech that has all too often been pre-prepared for
them by the organisers of the event.

Phrases like “all
protocols observed” have become so hackneyed that some of us are too
embarrassed to use them. Now, we can add another phrase to the list of
clichés: “Mr. so and so, ably represented by Mr. here or Mrs. there”.

As an experienced
event organiser, you have not completed your preparations if you have
not already jointly identified with your VIPs, who will represent them
if they cannot make it. You had better have a copy of the speech so
that if they do not turn up, and the representative cannot make it, you
can still co-opt one of your team members or a friendly person of
importance present to read the speech.

Yes, they are busy.

Yes, the President
called them to Aso Rock. Please forgive me, but I have not yet heard
reasons like, “my constituents called an emergency meeting”, or “due to
an urgent situation in the organisation”, or “due to unexpected
ill-health.” What I HAVE heard are reasons like, “He had to attend a
colleague’s second wedding in another state”, or “she had to go to the
funeral of her colleague’s father-in-law”, or “they have gone to pay a
condolence visit”.

I have not heard
these kinds of reasons from international speakers and VIPs for events
either here or abroad. They check their diaries before accepting
invitations. When new demands on their time are made that conflict with
planned appearances, they consider them carefully and unless the new
request is unavoidable, they turn them down. When the unexpected and
unplanned occur, they either cancel their commitment or they contact
the organisers to arrange to come late or leave early.

If they are to be
represented, it is arranged at the time of commitment. On those
occasions, it is the representative’s name that appears on the
invitation card, not the VIP’s.

The representative reads his or her own speech, in which is also reflected the views of the VIP.

Show some respect

Why do our VIPs
think we should waste our time attending an event where their speech
will be read, sometimes badly, by a person we neither desire nor would
pay to see?

They could simply
circulate their speech or publish it and we could read it at our
leisure. I will want to stand for the president only, not for a
representative.

It is the height of
disrespect to the organisers and participants of events to expect them
to appreciate whomever you send. Say that you cannot make it and ask
the organisers if they will accept someone else who can bring a similar
perspective.

If a husband and
wife divide conflicting events on the same day between themselves so
that they can cover as many as possible, you could say that the
‘couple’ has been ably represented by the appearance of just one of
them. If an organisation is represented by any of its principal
officers, in their own right, the organisation can be said to have been
ably represented.

So, if the organisers are inviting you because of your organisation, ask someone else to do it.

If you have to
cancel your commitment, please do so. The event will survive. If a good
friend or political bigwig suddenly informs you about the wedding of
his daughter this weekend – a wedding that they have been planning for
several months – please tell him or her that regretfully you have
another commitment but you will visit them and the celebrants before
and after to show your support.

No one can ably represent YOU. We invited you because we wanted to see you, and hear from you, and have access to you.

If you cannot give us that, please have the courtesy to let us down with consideration, directness and with respect.

The
former Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister, Nasir el-Rufai, will
return to Nigeria on Saturday, NEXT can exclusively report.

Mr. El-Rufai has
been on a self-imposed exile since November 2009, and even though he
had announced that he would return to the country in December, he
released a statement, five days to his planned arrival, saying he had
postponed his return for security reasons.

At the time, his
lawyer Bamidele Aturu, in an interview with NEXT, said that “in the
light of the uncertainty surrounding the exercise of public power in
Nigeria in general, and security matters in particular, it would be
decidedly unguarded for Mallam El-Rufai to return to Nigeria on 27
December 2009.”

Since then, a lot
has changed on Nigeria’s political scene, with the former Vice
President stepping into the shoes of ailing President, Umaru Musa
Yar’Adua. It is still not clear if this has a bearing on Mr. El-Rufai’s
decision to return, but sources close to him told NEXT that his flight
is booked and he will be arriving at the Nnamdi Azikwe International
Airport, Abuja, on Saturday, aboard a British Airways flight BA0083.

It is also unclear
what Mr. El-Rufai’s plans are once he returns to Nigeria, or what he
intends to do about the two arrest warrants issued against him. The
first warrant accused Mr. El-Rufai of conducting treasonable activities
abroad. While the second, issued on November 5, described Mr. El-Rufai
as wanted “for acts contrary to Sections 96, 120, 123 and 124 CAP 532
laws of the federation of Nigeria” as well as “some provisions of the
Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Act (of) 2000.” Former
Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation, Michael
Aondoakaa, had also announced the commencement of extradition
proceedings on Mr. El-Rufai, based on the Senate Committee on FCT’s
report, which also allegedly indicted the ex-minister.

Mr. El-Rufai is
also being investigated by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission
(EFCC) to account for almost $250 million spent during his tenure as
Minister of the FCT. He, however, in a terse email letter to the
anti-graft agency, ahead of his planned return last year, stated that
“for the avoidance of any doubt, I am returning to Nigeria on the 27th
of December, 2009. I will never be afraid to face a bunch of lackeys
like you.”

He is facing an
eight-count charge for criminal conspiracy and abuse of office while he
served as minister along with Altine Jubrin, a former director general,
Abuja Geographic Information System (AGIS), and Ismaila Iro, former
general manager of the same organisation.

As of the time we went to press, neither Mr. El-Rufai nor his lawyer Mr. Aturu could be reached for comments.

Mr. El-Rufai’s return might add to the complications and internal
crises presently experienced within the ruling People’s Democratic
Party (PDP). He is a card carrying member of the PDP, although it is
not clear which of the factions in the party he belongs to.