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Convinced that Space Science is
critical in the development of any nation, Nigeria has completed work
in the building of two more earth observation satellites, NigeriaSat 2
and Nigeria Sat X, said Seidu Mohammed, the Director General of
National Space Research and Development Agency, NASRDA.

Mr. Mohammed, who stated that the
satellites will be due for launch on October 2010, adding that
specifically, the Nigeria Sat X was designed and built by 27 Nigerian
Engineers.

“Satellite projects, like building
projects, are in phases. We have finished most of the phases. The
spacecraft are now ready. The Nigerian engineers were there to design
and implement Sat X and they have done that and are back home.

“The next stage is to move the
satellite to the site for launch. It takes a lot of time, the launching
company has to look through its programme, get itself ready and by
October, the satellite will be launched,” he said.

He further stated when the two
satellites are eventually launched, they will impact positively on
agriculture, defence, and almost all other sectors of the Nigerian
economy.

“The fact that Nigerian Engineers
designed and built Sat X brings confidence into us that it is possible
here. We are going to provide data for efficient agriculture all over
Nigeria, and the launch of Sat 2 with 2.5m resolution enables all
cities to go ahead with cadastral plan to have information to increase
their revenue, as Lagos State is doing now, and provide enough
information about cultural development in terms of soil
characterisation, water resources development, road corridor selection,
and so on,” Mr. Mohammed said.

He also noted that Nigeria’s foray into
the space science and technology world has enabled the development of a
critical mass of space engineers, revealing that 15 engineers were
trained for NigeriaSat, which will expire by December 2010. 54 were
trained for NIGCOMSAT-1, while 27 were trained for Sat 2 and Sat X,
with an additional 25 Scientists trained in geospatial application.

He added that it was only right for
Nigeria to build its own satellite, considering the huge capital
outflow to source satellite data. He said that today, space
technologies have become integrated into everyday life, so deeply that
modern and traditional societies cannot function without them.

“Survey conducted by NASRDA in 2004
showed that capital out-flow paid by African countries for their
international telephone traffic is about $445 million per year, hence
making tariff on communications the highest in Africa than in any other
continent. Nigeria alone pays as much as $200 million per year to lease
satellite transponders,” he said.

The Director General insisted that the space technology will help in addressing some environmental concerns in Nigeria.

“As a result of recent trends of
earthquake in Haiti, Chile, Japan, and China and recent trends in
crustal deformation in Nigeria, as evident by tremors in the country
and continuous monitoring of Ife-Wara-Zungeru faults in Nigeria, the
International Astronomy Agency, IAA, has approved the first expert
study for Africa at the request of NASRDA,” he said.

“By this request, IAA is expected to put experts together all over
the world to study the equatorial plane for the benefit of the
countries within the equatorial region.”

All research institutes under the Ministry of Science
and Technology are to undergo accreditation, the minister, Mohammed
Abubakar, said yesterday when he made a familiarisation visit to the
National Space Research and Development Agency (NASRDA) in Abuja.

The minister said that the accreditation had become
necessary to ensure that each institute is capable of delivering its
mandate.

“By doing so we are trying to determine the extent to
which our capacity is tailored towards our ability to deliver our
mandate,” Mr. Abubakar said. “All research institutes under the
ministry will undergo the rigours of this accreditation exercise.”

Internal exercise

Mr. Abubakar also stated that the accreditation will
be an internal exercise and that efforts will be made to improve any
institute that does not meet up to a reasonable standard of
performance, especially in terms of equipment.

“Each research institute has got its own mandate and
the Federal ministry of science and technology has its supervisory
function. One of those functions is to ensure that the different
institutes are equipped or are poised to deliver their own mandate,”
said Mr. Abubakar. “Where we find or discover any shortfall or any
deficiency, the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology will try to
repair such deficiency. We will put the concept on ground so that when
we leave, any other person that comes will continue with that.”

Practical results

The minister said Nigerians have had enough of
scientific theories and that the time has come for the man of the
street to benefit from research results.

“How are we using our science to improve the lot of Nigerians?” Mr. Abubakar asked.

He said that practical applications of research are
the criteria by which the ministry will record the agency’s success:
“Space is at the cutting edge of technology. The bottom line is for you
to tell us what you have been giving Nigerians so far. I want Nigerians
to feel the impact of NARSDA.”

Seidu Mohammed, director general of NASRDA, explained that the
impact of space science and technology is trickling down and that very
soon every Nigerian will benefit from the agency’s research results.

The probe panel constituted by the
Lagos House of Assembly to investigate allegations of financial
misappropriation levelled against the state’s executive government had
its first sitting today, but it however ignored the request by the
petitioning group, The True Face of Lagos, for the sitting to be open
to the public and barred media coverage.

Something gives

Also, Tunji Olowolafe, the Director of
Deux Projects Limited, a major contractor for the Lagos State
government, was arrested last Friday by the Economic and Financial
Crime Commission (EFCC) in connection with a petition submitted to the
anti-graft agency by the same group.

The arrest was made barely 72 hours
after the group followed the petition with a protest at the EFCC’s head
office in Abuja where the group insinuated that the agency is afraid of
investigating the allegations.

Within one week, these three events
show a drastic change in tone and form, following the much reported
attempt to investigate the activities of the Babatunde Fashola-led
Lagos State executive government.

Consequently, the probe issue, touted
as “political pressure” designed to compel the governor to give in to
some pecuniary demands by his party chieftains, has now assumed a legal
dimension and this unable to be hidden from public view until resolved.

Different consequences

The plan to probe the executive
government was initially frowned at by a pro-Fashola group, Lovers of
Raji Fashola Forum (LORAF). The group recommended that a neutral panel
be set up to handle the investigation because the lawmakers were also
indicted in the same allegations made by the petitioning group.

The petitioner, thereafter, turned
around to withdraw the allegations made against the lawmakers – a move
that some lawmakers, notably Babatunde Ogala (Ikeja constituency),
found very disturbing.

However, as explained by Jiti Ogunye, a
Lagos based human rights lawyer, there ought not to be any angst about
the powers of the legislative to exercise oversight function over the
executive government’s activities, if due process is followed.

“Under the separation of powers, (each
of) the three arms of the government is empowered to exercise control
over one another,” he said in a telephone interview with NEXT.

Mr. Ogunye also did not see how the
wading of the EFCC into the investigation can interfere with the
legislature’s because the two actions have different consequences.

“While the EFCC’s investigation can
lead to criminal prosecution, that of the Assembly can only lead to
removal from office of whoever is guilty as alleged,” he said.

Caught in between storms

However, contrary the promise made by
the Speaker of the House of Assembly, Adeyemi Ikuforiji, that the
investigation would be conducted in public view, the panel, as it did
today, will actually sit behind closed doors. It is expected to submit
its findings to the House within two weeks.

Both the petitioning group and the
pro-Fashola group have different opinions of this ‘secrecy’. While
LORAF believes the two weeks given the committee are too small for a
thorough investigation and therefore, smack of a plan to impeach Mr.
Fashola, the petitioner believes the secrecy will provide an escape
route for the governor.

“We are not shielding Fashola from
accountability,” said Olugbenro Akanni, a cleric and leader of LORAF,
in an interview with NEXT. “But we want a neutral body to conduct the
investigation in public view. I don’t believe in the Kangaroo Assembly
because they are polluted already.”

The petitioner, which has been invited
by the panel to appear before it today, seems also to have lost the
trust it once reposed in the ability of the lawmakers to conduct a
thorough investigation. Speaking with NEXT, Adebayo Olushina, the
group’s leader, accused the chairman of the probe panel, Ajibayo
Adeyeye, of sabotage.

“We heard about how he (Mr. Adeyeye)
went to meet with the governor (Mr. Fashola) in the US last week. This
has already reduced the credibility of whatever they are doing,” Mr.
Olushina said, recalling how a fresh tribunal was ordered to sit over
the Osun State 2007 gubernatorial election case because a rapport was
established between the tribunal judge and some lawyers involved in the
case.

Mr. Olushina, nevertheless, confirmed
to NEXT that its group will appear before the panel today to defend the
allegations and also ask the panel to allow for media coverage of its
proceedings.

However, though Mr. Ikuforiji asked the
panel to ensure it invites every party affected, Mr. Akanni said his
group, though it will love to appear before the panel, has not been
invited. “I want to be there also but I cannot go where I have not been
invited,” he said.

Budget review

It has also been argued by some members
of the legislative house that the investigation would not have been
ordered if the lawmakers had done their duties diligently in the first
place.

Since 2008, the House has not conducted
any budget review and Omowumi Olatunji-Edet (Oshodi-Isolo) argued
during one of the plenary sessions on the allegations that “we cannot
throw one thing under the carpet and take up urgent matters. The budget
review would have revealed the allegations, if they are true. Even
though we have been pre-empted, let us allow the presentation to be
laid (before the House).”

Efforts to compel the budget review committee to present its report before the House have always gone in vain – even until now.

Last Wednesday, the counsel to the House of Assembly, Festus Keyamo,
wrote to inform the lawmakers of an appeal filed by Richard Akinola, a
human rights activist who filed an earlier suit that led to the
dissolution of the first probe panel constituted by the House,
challenging its power to probe the executive government.

The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) on
Monday disclosed that it intercepted a bag containing 3.2kg cocaine
concealed in a factory mode.

Disclosing the name of the suspect who imported the
drug into the country as Onwuzurigbo Chibuike Gerald, 27, the agency
added that it arrested six other drug peddlers that attempted to
smuggle narcotics at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport (MMIA),
Lagos.

According to the agency, Mr. Gerald was apprehended
on his way from Brazil in an Emirate flight on April 4, and a total of
9.39kg narcotics were seized comprising 7.46kg of cocaine, 920g of
heroin and 1.01kg of methamphetamine.

“Onwuzurigbo Chijioke Gerald who claimed to have
travelled to Brazil to buy clothes confessed to the crime,” said
Mitchell Ofoyeju, spokesperson for the agency. “He said that a man he
met in Brazil asked him to bring a bag to Nigeria for a fee of
N500,000.” Hamza Umar, MMIA commander for the agency gave the names of
the other six traffickers as Okeke Isaac Nnamdi, 33, who ingested 90
wraps of cocaine weighing 1.17kg; Chukwuemenam Cornelius Obiefuna, 45,
ingested 60 wraps of methamphetamine weighing 1.01kg; and Okpara Jude
Iheanacho, 41, swallowed 61 wraps of cocaine weighing 1kg.

Others include Onyeukwu Anele Ndubisi, 40, who
ingested 78 pieces of heroin weighing 920g; Clement John Anderson, 34,
swallowed 67 pieces of cocaine weighing 1.15kg; and Adenuga Francis
Kehinde, 27, took in 90 wraps of cocaine weighing 940g.

The agency’s spokesperson disclosed that the
27-year-old Francis Kehinde, who lives in Ijebu-Ode, Ogun State, was
recruited into drug smuggling through online chatting, adding that he
was apprehended on April 12 during screening of passengers on Arik Air
flight to London.

“He was to be paid 2,000 pounds with a promise of scholarship to further his education,” said Mr. Ofoyeju.

How they were nabbed

Explaining how the suspects were nabbed, Mr. Ofoyeju
disclosed that Okeke Isaac Nnamdi, a worker in Spain, was arrested on
April 3, at about 8.30pm while trying to board an Iberia flight to
Madrid.

The suspect in a statement said “I met a man in Spain
to lend me some money for my upkeep but he rather asked me to smuggle
drugs for 5,000 Euros. He gave my phone number to a man in Lagos that
took me to a hotel at Isolo where I ingested 90 wraps of cocaine.”
Chukwuemenam Cornelius Obiefuna, who ingested 60 pieces of drugs on his
way to Osaka, Japan, was arrested on April 10, during screening of
passengers on Qatar airline flight to Doha from where he is to proceed
to his destination.

After a field test of the substance by the
anti-narcotics agency on the suspect, the drug was found to be
methamphetamine with a weight of 1.01kg.

According to the suspect, his contacts deceived him
into the act, as they refused to let him know that the substance he was
to deliver was hard drugs.

“They said that it was ice used in the manufacture of
diamonds. My number was given to a lady in Lagos who booked
accommodation for me and gave me the drugs from her bag. She bought my
ticket and gave me $1,500 as part payment. The total money they would
have paid me was $4,000,” he said.

The agency further disclosed that the other two
suspects were nabbed on the same Iberia flight from Brazil at the Lagos
airport with different hard substances tested to be cocaine and heroin,
adding that all suspects will be prosecuted by the court.

The installation of the airfield
lighting system of the Sam Mbakwe Airport, Owerri, has been completed,
the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) has said.

The FAAN Manager at the airport,
Orjiakor Mgbemene, who announced this via a statement in Ikeja on
Sunday, said that the lighting system was ready for inauguration.

He said that the contractor had
concluded the installation of the approach lights and the edge lights,
while their trial run was ongoing.

He added that the equipment would enhance night flight operations at the airport.

Mgbemene said that the Minister of Aviation would inaugurate the project after the completion of the lighting system’s test run.

He said that the management would soon commence work on the
expansion of the terminal, as well as the arrival and departure halls
of the airport, to accommodate more passengers.

On the afternoon of
17 April, the senate president’s compound in Otukpo – a town in Benue
state – was agog with festivities as visitors gathered to witness the
wedding of Patience, the senate president’s daughter.

When the bride was
to be handed over to the groom, Joy Emordi, a ‘deposed’ colleague of
the bride’s father, was standing between her and the groom.

Glowing with
smiles, Mrs. Emordi took her hand, as the go-between, and handed her
over to the groom’s family. The wedding was over and a deal sealed.

The following week,
Mrs. Emordi returned to the Senate, armed with nothing but the goodwill
of the senate president, David Mark, and a court process seeking an
interpretation of an appeal court ruling that made her leave the senate
hurriedly, three weeks earlier.

Her return
coincided with the date the clerk of the Senate, Ben Efeture, had
slated for the swearing in of Alphonsus Ubanese Igbeke, the man whom
the Court of Appeal sitting in Enugu had declared the rightful winner
of the Senate seat for Anambra North. According to the court, Mrs.
Emordi had been representing “in error since 2007.”

Incidentally, her
return date also coincided with the week the Senate disbursed N45
million to each senator as second quarter constituency allowance. Mr.
Igbeke was subsequently denied his seat in the Senate.

Fighting on

Although
disappointed and embarrassed by the action of the Senate leadership,
Mr. Igbeke said he will fight on till he is accepted in the Senate.

“I don’t mind
taking any authority to court to get my mandate back,” Mr. Igbeke told
NEXT. “It is not about me, it is about the constitution which must be
followed at all times.”

Charles Musa, a
Lagos lawyer said the Court of Appeal which gave the ruling can compel
the Senate to obey its ruling. Otherwise, “the senate leadership can be
held for contempt of court orders if the hesitate to swear him in.”

Rotimi Akeredolu,
the president of the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA) also said that
although the court has the power to enforce compliance with the ruling,
the Senate president should not wait for that option to be taken.

“I don’t think it’s
the way to follow, although the court can,” he said. “The rightful
person can go back to the court to compel him, but he (Mark) should not
wait for that.”

The Senate
leadership is however, resolute it its decision to back Mrs. Emordi’s
controversial return, with its leaders saying they will not accept Mr.
Igbeke until the suit Mrs. Emordi filed in the same court for
interpretation and review of the ruling is dispensed.

“On the issue of
Emordi, we have a procedure in the Senate (that) when a matter is
served in court – it is even in our Rule Book – we will not deal with a
matter in such a way that it can pre-empt, affect the outcome.” Ayogu
Eze, the spokes man of the Senate, said. “The Appeal sitting in Enugu
issued two judgements: one of them, the first one, returned Joy (Mrs
Emordi) as dully and validly elected; the same court in another breath
after several months issued another judgement returning one Igbeke as
validly elected. And being a law abiding citizen Joy has gone to court
to seek interpretation, which judgement will take precedent over the
other, which judgment will subsist.”

In the past week,
the Senate’s position on Mr. Igbeke has stirred as much controversy on
the correctness of the upper chamber’s position, as it has generated
concerns about Nigeria’s respect for the rule of law routinely
canvassed by the current administration.

“If we say we obey
the rule of law, we expect the Senate to obey the rule of law, and
swear in the rightful person, simple,” Mr. Akeredolu said.

Igbeke’s long road to senate

Interestingly, Mr. Igbeke himself is not strange to cases of disputed elections.

At the dawn of
democracy in 1999, Mr. Igbeke, an accounting graduate of the University
of Nigeria, launched his first attempt at the National Assembly.

He said he had
wished to join the Senate in 1998, but was persuaded by the People’s
Democratic Party to concede his aspiration, based on “age factor”, to
the late former Senate President, Chuba Okadigbo.

In its place, the
party offered him a ticket to represent his Anambra East/West federal
constituency at the House of Representatives, he claimed.

His elections to
the seat was disputed by Emmanuel Anosike where Mr. Igbeke won at the
Election tribunal and the verdict was later overturned at the Appeal
Court in favour of Mr. Anosike.

In 2003, he was
again nominated by the PDP to become its flag bearer for the House of
Representatives and had his name substituted with Ralp Okeke, a current
member of the House. After a prolonged court case, he was declared
winner after two years in 2005.

“I have always been
the victim of stolen electoral mandate because of my refusal to be tied
to a godfather,” he told us recently.

About the same
time, Mr. Anosike, now having reached to the Senate, had his election
quashed by the Court of Appeal in favour of Mrs. Emordi.

One of Mr. Igbeke’s
associates, Emmanuel Okereke, in a commentary, said Mrs. Emordi
initially enjoyed so much of goodwill from Mr. Igbeke, that he
bankrolled her celebration after the ruling, at the Top Rank hotel in
Abuja.

When NEXT asked Mrs Emordi about this, she said the comments was “funny to an extent that it should not be responded to.”

“That cannot be
true, God forbid,” she said in a stern tone. “Who is he? There is no
way he can sponsor me, and I will not even accept such sponsorship.”

Mrs. Emordi also
said she has no intentions of being drawn into discussions on the
matter, but will allow the court process to be completed. “I don’t ask
so much, it is only for the court to interpret, which is which having
given two opposing rulings to two persons,” she continued.

Case history

Shortly after Mrs.
Emordi was declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission
(INEC) as the duly elected senator to represent Anambra North
senatorial zone in the 2007 general elections, her election was
challenged in court by Jessie Balonwu, one of the contestants.

Mrs. Balonwu was
contesting the validity of the election; asking the court to determine
whether the election was conducted in compliance with the Electoral Act
and whether Mrs. Emordi was duly returned as the winner of the
election.

The court subsequently dismissed Mrs. Balonwu’s suit on technical grounds.

Thereafter, Mr.
Igbeke filed his suit, in the same court, asking the court to declare
him winner of the election based on the conviction that he scored the
majority vote cast in the election.

On 25 March, the
appeal court ruled that Mr. Igbeke got the majority vote cast in the
election and therefore ordered that INEC issue him a Certificate of
Return.

When the news of
the ruling broke, Mrs. Emordi was in the middle of a Senate plenary.
She hurriedly left the plenary, shut her office and stayed away until
her controversial return.

While away, she
also instituted a suit in the same Enugu appeal court, to interpret the
judgment or, alternatively, set the judgement aside.

“This notice of
appeal defining the process of the Court of Appeal to seek
interpretation has been served on the Senate,” Mr. Eze said. “We will
be failing in our responsibilities, in duties to go and take any action
that will foreclose whatever that interpretation meant to achieve. So
we are just obeying lawful orders and we don’t have any reason
whatsoever in the light of the two judgements to ask Joy not to resume
her seat until we get the interpretation that is what happened.”

Rule of law

Lawyers however believe that the senate is setting a bad precedence for rule of law by readmitting Mrs Emordi so early.

“If we say we obey
the rule of law, we expect the Senate to obey the rule of law, and
swear in the rightful person, simple,” the NBA president said.

In his view, Mr.
Musa said “Even if you want an interpretation, you obey the court order
first. This is a slap on the rule of law. I expect the clerk of the
Senate – a civil servant – to obey the court and not take sides with
the politicians.

“ In all these
actions, the court is yet to issue an injunction restraining the Senate
from swearing in Mr. Igbeke or empowering them to re-admit Mrs. Emordi.”

According to Mr.
Igbeke, “It is possible that some of the senators may have sympathy for
her, but I must tell you that the constitution precedes; it’s a
constitutional issue.”

The Joy of the senate

Before now, Mrs.
Emordi was dubbed ‘Mama’ of the Senate for her age and ‘The Joy of the
senate’ for what many have called her “good virtues”.

However, all that
is gradually changing because some senators, who are not happy with the
way the leadership of the Senate is handling the matter, are beginning
to doubt her integrity.

“Joy (Mrs. Emordi)
herself came in by a judgment of the appeal court in 2005 when Emmanuel
Anosike bowed out for her,” a senator said, requesting anonymity. “We
believe she should also respect court now that it does not favour her.”

Mrs. Emordi was a hard-line senator who always took clear-cut stance on issues.

She was
instrumental to the dumping of two of the six constitutional amendment
bills that were sent to the Senate by the president. At that time, she
was famed for her “This bill is fit for the trash” comment on the bills.

She headed the senate committee on education, a committee she has chaired since 2005.

Some of the richest
and most powerful people in the United States are arguing about money
and the world has trillions of dollars invested in the outcome.

The battle is about
how Washington should prevent another credit crisis like the one that
began two years ago and punished much of the planet.

“I believe we have
to do everything we can to ensure that no crisis like this ever happens
again,” President Barack Obama said this week. “That’s why I’m fighting
so hard to pass a set of Wall Street reforms and consumer protections.”

The reforms will
impose new regulations and oversight on U.S. banks and other financial
institutions, which do business with investors and governments
worldwide.

It’s an industry that still has stunning profits and problems.

This week, U.S.
regulators charged Goldman Sachs, one of the most aggressive and
profitable names in high finance, with a massive fraud that allegedly
cheated Goldman’s own customers – among them, some of the biggest banks
in Europe.

Goldman said it was innocent of any wrongdoing and found an entirely different way to raise eyebrows.

It announced that
its profits for the first three months of the year totalled more than
$3.4 billion, despite the sluggish state of the U.S. economy.

The House of
Representatives has already passed a bill to change the way Wall Street
does business and this week the Senate began its own debate.

Democrats are vowing to adopt the reform and Republicans are adamant they’ll oppose it.

Lobbyists and executives have crowded into Washington, hoping for a chance to influence lawmakers.

The political
parties, along with private organisations such as the U.S. Chamber of
Commerce, have spent more than a million dollars a week on television
ads arguing their points of view to the American people.

The Obama administration faced much stronger opposition to its health-care reform and managed to get it adopted anyway.

Now, another multi-trillion-dollar industry is in the midst of a big fight over how it makes its money.

And what it may be doing with yours.

The People Democratic Party members from Abia State
serving at the National Assembly have warned of an impending electoral
crisis following the disappearance of voter registers in 12 out of the
17 local government areas of the state.

In a letter signed by the caucus to the Chairman of
the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Maurice Iwu, at
the weekend, they demanded that the anomaly be immediately corrected
before it escalates into a major crisis in the 2011 elections, adding
that the people will not tolerate the “Anambra experience.”

“If not corrected, millions of registered voters in
the state could be in clear and present danger of being
disenfranchised,” the group said in the letter.

The letter was signed by two senators; Nkechi Nwaogu
and Enyinnaya Abaribe, and six representatives, Eziuche Ubani, Kalu
Uduma, Chinenye Ike, Nkiru Onyejiocha, Nnenna Elendu-Ukeje and Uzoma
Abonta.

The group complained that after they discovered about
the missing registers, “Further checks at the state headquarters of
INEC in Umuahia could not unearth any concrete reason for the loss of
the registers of about 75 percent of local governments in the state.

Worse, contrary to the assurances that the commission
has a back up of the data base of the registered voters; we have since
discovered that the data base available is for only five local
governments i.e. Aba North, Aba South, Umuahia North, Umuahia South and
Ohafia,” the group wrote.

‘We don’t want Anambra experience’

“Made wise by what happened in the recent
governorship elections in Anambra State where a large population of
voters could not vote, we have resolved that we will not stand by while
our people are in very great danger of not exercising their rights to
elect their leaders.”

They added that should elections be held in the state now, voters in the concerned local governments will be disenfranchised.

They also said that the ongoing registration of
voters cannot address this anomaly since no database exists in the
local governments.

“In the light of the above, we the members of the National Assembly
PDP caucus from Abia State demand that INEC conduct a fresh and full
review of the voters register, whereby every eligible voter in Abia
State would be registered afresh.”

The Conference of
Nigeria Political Parties (CNPP) yesterday said the method adopted by
the House of Representatives in considering the report of its ad-hoc
committee on the review of the 1999 Constitution could endanger the
adoption of some of the core recommendations of the Electoral Reform
Committee (ERC) chaired by former Chief Justice, Muhammadu Uwais. The
group also said it is regretful that the Acting President, Goodluck
Jonathan is currently involved in the struggle for the soul of the
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) especially as his engagement could
derail the plan for genuine electoral reform in the country.

The group raised these concerns in a statement signed by its spokesperson, Osita Okechukwu.

According to the
statement which was released in Abuja, issues such as non-repair of the
electronic voting machine, lack of quorum and limited circulation of
the report of the House ad-hoc committee on constitution which have
been advanced by the legislators as reasons for the non -completion of
the review process are really tactical moves to ensure that members do
not vote for the recommendation that the National Judicial Council
shall publicly advertise for the chairman and national commissioners of
the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

The lower chamber,
had on Wednesday, resumed debate on the report of its ad-hoc committee
on constitution review. It, however, said it would only consider and
vote on the sections that have to do with the Electoral Act 2006 after
considering the general areas.

According to the
CNPP “The issue therefore in contention is the core recommendation that
mandates the National Judicial Council to publicly advertise for the
chairman and national commissioners of the Electoral Commission and
submit three names each to the National Council of States, which in
turn submits one each to the Senate.“ The CNPP accused the House of
flagrantly dashing the hopes of many Nigerians re-awakened by the
possibility of genuine electoral reform. According to the CNPP, reforms
create “ a win-win situation for those who want Peoples Democratic
Party {PDP} to rule for sixty years, those who are opposed to it, the
pro-rotation of presidency and anti-rotation, indeed a non-zero sum
game.” While insisting that electoral reform should be the first
amendment in the constitution, the CNPP said like most Nigerians, it
sees the Uwais Report as a guiding principle and article of faith in
any patriotic attempt to construct genuine electoral reform, especially
as it is the product of national consensus.

Genuine electoral reform

The coalition of
opposition parties reminded other groups in the country canvassing
genuine electoral reform to rise up and defend the Uwais Report, saying
those who frustrated the retreat of the National Assembly Joint
Committee on Constitution Review in Minna early last year are at work
again.

The group said, “We remind the Save Nigeria Group, Civil Society
Organisations, Labour Unions and all patriots that this is the defining
moment to once more defend the Uwais Report, our fledgling democracy
and save our dear country from dangerous slide into quasi-dictatorship;
for those who in January 2009 simulated the split of the National
Assembly Joint Committee on Constitution Amendment in Minna, are still
at work as the parallel lines they carved out may never meet, before
2011 elections.”

Speaking on the internal strife within the ruling PDP, the group
said Mr Jonathan, who could avert the impending 2011 electoral
disaster, is deeply trapped in the intra-struggle for the soul of the
PDP, and has therefore abandoned the battle for genuine electoral
reform by refusing to submit as Executive Bills the three Electoral
Bills contained in the Uwais Report Under these circumstances, the CNPP
said, “we call on Save Nigeria Group, Civil Society Organisations,
Labour Unions and all patriots for Mass Action to save the Uwais Report
from danger list, in particular the insulation of whosever is the
president of the country from solely appointing the chairman and
commissioners, so as to construct a truly Independent National
Electoral Commission.”

The result of the
maiden Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination, UTME, held on
Saturday, 17 April 2010 was released at the weekend by the Joint
Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB).

Announcing the
results in Abuja, Dibu Ojerinde, Registrar of JAMB, said over 68 per
cent of the candidates that sat for the examination passed; while the
results of about 20,780 candidates are being withheld.

“On Saturday 17
April, 2010, the Joint Admissions and Matriculations Board conducted
the first UTME,” Mr. Ojerinde said. “A total of 1, 375, 652 candidates
applied for the 2010 UTME and 271 candidates sat for the examination in
six foreign countries. However, out of 1,276,795 candidates that sat
for the 2010 UTME, the result of 1,228,607, representing 96.23 per
cent, are today released while results of 48,188 are still being
screened before release or otherwise.”

He equally disclosed that 42 centres in 10 states have been de-recognised by JAMB.

The centres, according to him, were de-recognised for their unacceptable behaviours during the examination across the nation.

“The following
centres are being investigated for de-recognition: Abia 3, Akwa Ibom 3,
Bayelsa 3, Cross River 1, Delta 4, Edo 1, Enugu 5, Imo 7, Lagos 7 and
Rivers 12.

Malpractice capital

“In some of these
centres, they beat our staff; some even were collecting money from
candidates. Some of the centres have no chairs,” Mr. Ojerinde said. “By
the time we got there, they removed the chairs and were asking
candidates to pay money before they could use the chairs. Some
collected the handsets from the candidates but later asked them to pay
N1000 before giving it to them to use in the hall. This was rampant in
two states in particular, Rivers and Bayelsa and we cannot condone it.
That is what we are now saying; we are de-recognising such centres.”

The registrar
further hinted that out of the 20,780 candidates that got involved in
examination malpractice in 38 states, Bayelsa, Rivers and Lagos states
topped the list with 5442, 3302 and 2847 cases of examination
malpractice.

He said the total
cases of examination malpractices represents 1.63 per cent which,
according to him, is low compared to previous examinations. The results
of the candidates are being withheld and will eventually be cancelled
if they are found guilty after thorough investigation.

While announcing
the result in Abuja, JAMB’s registrar said he would not be able to
announce the name of the best candidate for the examination due to some
cases of alleged malpractices.

Mr. Ojerinde said
that 48,188 results of candidates, representing 3.77 per cent of total
candidates that sat for the examination, are still being screened
before being released or finally cancelled.

No best candidate yet

He explained that
the board will not name the best candidate now until verifications into
all cases of alleged malpractices have been concluded, adding that the
highest scorer could emerge from among those whose results are being
withheld adding that 27 per cent of the candidates failed this year’s
examination.

“The
post-examination activities commenced immediately after the examination
on Saturday 17th April. These include retrieval of examination
documents from the custodians, collation of reports from supervisors,
invigilators and other stakeholders on the conduct of the examination
and cases of examination malpractice and irregularities,” he said.

“The result of the
scores shows that 501,463, about 41 per cent scored 200 and above;
832,434 candidates representing 68 per cent scored 180 and above while
330,971 scored between 180 and 199 representing 27 per cent.”

Imo State has the
highest number of candidates that registered for the examination with a
total of 111,613 candidates while Federal Capital Territory has the
lowest number of applicants with only 2393 candidates.

Analysing the application by gender, Mr. Ojerinde disclosed that
there are more males than female applicant. “Detailed analysis of
application by gender shows that 769,416 applicants are males while
606, 236 candidates are females. These figures show that 44.07 per cent
are females while 55.93 per cent are males.”