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A Peoples
Democratic Party (PDP) senatorial aspirant in Oyo state, Jumoke
Akinjide, has called for more commitment in the fight against violence
and thuggery in the nation’s politics.

Ms. Akinjide, who
spoke with journalists after attending the party’s senatorial district
meeting at Iyana-Ofa, at the weekend, said every individual and
organisations with a stake in the polity must be fully involved to
fight the menace.

Getting involved

“We cannot bring
everything to the law enforcement. We need to attack the problems at
all levels, from the family, schools, law enforcement and candidates.
Everybody needs to come out and take responsibility,” she said.

Arguing that it is
possible to stamp out violence in the nation’s politics, the candidate
said the new Electoral Act should hold candidates and parties
responsible for violence committed by their followers and supporters
during campaigns and elections.

“I believe that the
aspirants should make sure that their supporters are not rowdy and that
we should introduce civility into Nigeria’s politics,” she said. “I
believe the burden is upon the aspirants to make sure that violence
does not happen. We can borrow a leaf from football. For years,
football in the UK was legendary in its violence and the only way that
they are able to curb it or to almost eradicate thuggery and violence
in British football is to fine the clubs. If we have a set of rules
that hold the aspirants and the party responsible for their followers
because they chose the people who will follow them, that would also
help to test their minds on the problem.”

Emergence of women candidates

While reiterating
that women are ready to take their place in Nigeria’s politics, Ms.
Akinjide explained that several of the women in the race for the next
elections are more qualified than their male counterparts.

She canvassed
conscious efforts in encouraging women participation in politics,
saying they are pushed back because of cultural challenges and the
violence that characterise the political landscape.

Ms. Akinjide,
daughter of a former Attorney General of Nigeria, said greater
participation of women in politics would to control the menace of
violence in politics.

“I am a mother and
that is why we are arguing for more women in politics,” she said. “The
advent of women in politics will also go a long way to reduce the level
of violence in politics. This is something that has deterred women from
coming forward. It takes some amount of bravery and faith in God to be
able to come out in a terrain that is still very rough.

“This election year is the year the women will take full place in
politics, especially in the PDP. We have more than enough women who are
very qualified for any position in this country, the position of
president of Nigeria inclusive. What we may say is that we might not
have enough women come out to fill the quota. But if it is 10 or 20 per
cent that came out, it is better for the people who have come out to be
encouraged. If that happens, in the next election more women will come
out.”

The Minister of
Justice and the Attorney General of the Federation, Mohammed Bello
Adoke, has solicited the support and cooperation of the Nigerian Bar
Association (NBA) in the fight against corruption in the country.

Mr. Adoke spoke during a courtesy visit to the association’s headquarters in Abuja last Friday.

“I am therefore soliciting support of the Nigerian Bar Association so that we can move this country forward,” Mr. Adoke said.

“The fight against
corruption is uppermost in the mind of this administration. When we
were being inaugurated, the acting president said he has zero tolerance
for corruption.

“We must do
everything possible to work with all stakeholders to fight corruption,
because it is a cancer that is very terminal, and I believe that the
NBA has a lot of role to play in this respect in the days ahead.”

Working as partners

The minister promised that the ministry would keep the association informed of whatever they were going to do.

“I want to assure
you that we are going to come out with our action plan, but before we
do that we are going to call for the input of the NBA, through the
president, and whatever we do we are going to take you into confidence
from time to time,” Mr. Adoke said.

“We are not going
to attack you, we are going to work as partners to move forward, we are
not going to be partners at war, that era is past.”

Mr. Adoke said that
he was not happy with the NBA’s relationship with the Office of the
Attorney General of the Federation (AGF).

“I have not been
happy with the development relating to the office of the attorney
general and the bar association because [the] NBA is a very critical
member of the society and is my constituency. I believe whoever is
appointed the AG represents the NBA.”

In his response,
the association’s president, Rotimi Akeredolu, said it is going to work
closely with the AGF on a number of issues.

He said that issues
of the administration of justice are very important to both offices,
adding that the association has a very important role to play in the
profession, but has been more or less relegated to the sidelines.

Mr. Akeredolu said the NBA would rally round the minister to ensure
that his tenure yields many dividends. He also urged lawyers to see one
another as friends and to avoid allowing arguments in court to create
disaffection among them.

A Peoples
Democratic Party (PDP) senatorial aspirant in Oyo state, Jumoke
Akinjide, has called for more commitment in the fight against violence
and thuggery in the nation’s politics.

Ms. Akinjide, who
spoke with journalists after attending the party’s senatorial district
meeting at Iyana-Ofa, at the weekend, said every individual and
organisations with a stake in the polity must be fully involved to
fight the menace.

Getting involved

“We cannot bring
everything to the law enforcement. We need to attack the problems at
all levels, from the family, schools, law enforcement and candidates.
Everybody needs to come out and take responsibility,” she said.

Arguing that it is
possible to stamp out violence in the nation’s politics, the candidate
said the new Electoral Act should hold candidates and parties
responsible for violence committed by their followers and supporters
during campaigns and elections.

“I believe that the
aspirants should make sure that their supporters are not rowdy and that
we should introduce civility into Nigeria’s politics,” she said. “I
believe the burden is upon the aspirants to make sure that violence
does not happen. We can borrow a leaf from football. For years,
football in the UK was legendary in its violence and the only way that
they are able to curb it or to almost eradicate thuggery and violence
in British football is to fine the clubs. If we have a set of rules
that hold the aspirants and the party responsible for their followers
because they chose the people who will follow them, that would also
help to test their minds on the problem.”

Emergence of women candidates

While reiterating
that women are ready to take their place in Nigeria’s politics, Ms.
Akinjide explained that several of the women in the race for the next
elections are more qualified than their male counterparts.

She canvassed
conscious efforts in encouraging women participation in politics,
saying they are pushed back because of cultural challenges and the
violence that characterise the political landscape.

Ms. Akinjide,
daughter of a former Attorney General of Nigeria, said greater
participation of women in politics would to control the menace of
violence in politics.

“I am a mother and
that is why we are arguing for more women in politics,” she said. “The
advent of women in politics will also go a long way to reduce the level
of violence in politics. This is something that has deterred women from
coming forward. It takes some amount of bravery and faith in God to be
able to come out in a terrain that is still very rough.

“This election year is the year the women will take full place in
politics, especially in the PDP. We have more than enough women who are
very qualified for any position in this country, the position of
president of Nigeria inclusive. What we may say is that we might not
have enough women come out to fill the quota. But if it is 10 or 20 per
cent that came out, it is better for the people who have come out to be
encouraged. If that happens, in the next election more women will come
out.”

The Independent
National Electoral Commission (INEC) disappointed residents of the
Federal Capital Territory when it failed to conduct the hitch-free area
council elections it promised. Although the polls produced winners,
stakeholders have judged them as flawed.

Public anger

The election was
scheduled to start at 8 am, but in some centres, especially in the
Municipal Area, it did not begin until a few minutes after midday.

Many voters who
trooped out in the morning to vote waited endlessly for the polling
officials, mainly members of the Nigerian Youth Service Corps (NYSC) to
arrive. Some left for their homes in anger and wondered why the
government could not get things right for once.

Onyeke Isiaka, an Abuja resident, blamed the electoral commission for failing to deliver on its promises.

“Despite all the
announcement and assurance they gave us, we are here and they are not
to be found anywhere. They will blame us for not coming to vote, saying
there is voter’s apathy, but that is not the situation, as you can
see,” he said.

An inefficient organisation

When polling
officers eventually showed up at the polling centre in Area 2, Garki,
they complained that the electoral commission had refused to pay them
their allowances and therefore, refused to work.

The corps members
told NEXT that they had slept on bare floors at the commission’s FCT
headquarters the night before, and were served bad food at 4:00 am.
They accused the commission of planning to cheat them. Some of the
corps members had to be given partial payment before they would agree
to go to the polling stations.

The commission
also did not provide the staff with polling desks. A corps member at
the Area 8, Garki, polling centre said they were given only a cubicle
and voting materials, but were not given desks or chairs.

“When we got here,
there was no place to sit down. They did not give us desks. It was just
the cubicle and the materials,” said the corps member, who requested
anonymity. “They told us that when you get there you will find some
seats, but when we got here, the people here weren’t friendly and
before we could get a place to sit down, it took some time.” The corps
members had to plead with nearby residents to provide them a chair and
a table, but the votes had to be poured on the ground to be counted as
the table they got was too small to contain the materials.

The commission had
also promised to provide food for the polling staff, and though the
contract to do this was awarded, the food was not delivered during the
elections. And some polling stations, such as the one located in Old
Secretariat in Area 1, Garki, did not have a single police officer
assigned to them.

The situation
worsened when, at about midday, commuters were busy plying the road as
if nothing serious was going in the city. There were no policemen on
hand to check their movement or provide safeguards against possible
election riggers.

Low participation

INEC’s poor
management may have been responsible for the low voter turnout at
Saturday’s elections. For instance, one polling centre at Section 1,
Area 2, Garki, had 1325 registered voters, but only 47 people voted;
while a second unit in the area had 565 voters with only 35
participating. Another unit in Section 2, Area 2, Garki, 235 out of the
350 registered voters came around, but in a Wuse polling centre,
located at Niger Insurance Staff Quarters, there were 891 registered
voters, but none of them came out at all to cast their votes. In Prince
and Princess and Gaduwa Estates in Duboyi, voting started at about 1:00
pm for an election that is expected to end at 3:00pm.

A polling staff in
Wuse, who declined to be named, hinted that some voters came out twice
in the morning, but when they did not see the any staff, they went home
and vowed never to return.

INEC blames NYSC

When contacted,
INEC FCT resident electoral commissioner, Stephen Manya, admitted that
the commission did not do its best in providing adequate logistics, but
blamed the corpers for the late commencement of voting exercise.

“Materials are
there, but corpers are complaining that unless they are paid, they will
not move. That is what is causing this delay within the metropolis. We
are addressing the issue. We have released money to pay them, the money
has been there. Some of them were paid around 4 pm on Friday, but I
wonder why all were not paid at the same time. I don’t know what
happened, they didn’t pay them and now the corpers are holding us to
ransom.”

Promises unfulfilled

INEC chairman,
Maurice Iwu, had stated at a stakeholders meeting organised for the
April 10 polls, that conducting a free and fair election in the FCT was
significant because the territory was one of the most cosmopolitan
centres in the country.

“Although the
election of April 10, 2010 is what many will see as ordinary council
polls, the election is of tremendous importance and should be of great
interest to all Nigerians. For one, the FCT election is the second
stride in our reassuring march to 2011 general elections,” he said.

Mr. Iwu said the
FCT has emerged as a signpost to the outside world on prevailing
tendencies within the urban elite, and that what happens in FCT
reverberates across the country.

However, this dream may not have been realised in the Saturday elections.

The Action Congress (AC) in Oyo State has condemned a statement credited to former minister of justice and Attorney-General of the Federation, Richard Akinjide, in which he allegedly remarked that only Ogbomoso zone is entitled to the governorship seat of the state in 2011.
He reportedly made the comment during last week’s Oyo State Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Elders’ Forum where state governor, Adebayo Alao-Akala was unanimously adopted as the party’s candidate for the 2011 governorship election by the party elders.
Peace in Oyo
Mr. Akinjide had also, in an interview with NEXT last month, expressed his support for the second term bid of Mr. Alao Akala.
“There is peace in Oyo State and Governor Akala, whom I support is doing very well and if he want to get a second term, I will back him up on it and he will win and his opponent swill lose in the election,” he said. “There were eight by elections in Oyo State under Governor Akala, and we won all. We did not only win them but the opponents lost to wide margins. So, where is the problem?”
However, in a statement released in Ibadan on Sunday, the AC’s director of publicity and strategy in Oyo state, Wasiu Adewale Olatunbosun, described the comment as cowardly and one made to prepare a soft-landing for the senatorial ambition of Mr. Akinjide’s daughter.
“The political and legal abracadabra of 1979 which robbed the late sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, an opportunity to emerge President, was spearheaded by the likes of Akinjide and Nigeria still suffers from that mistake till today,” the statement said. “The same person is now again at the forefront of promoting mediocrity and incompetence in order to actualise a personal desire by hook or crook. This is another coup against the masses and it must stand condemned by all well-meaning indigenes and residents of the state.”
High disadvantage
The party maintained that such an arrangement will put other zones like Oke-Ogun, Ibadan, Oyo and Ibarapa at a “high disadvantage”.
It also used the medium to comment on what it called the lopsidedness in appointments into the State Civil Service under the Akala administration, which it said has jettisoned the principle of due process.
The AC equally frowned at the delay in the payment of staff salaries and poor condition of public facilities in the state.
“All appointments now take place at the governor’s private residence on weekends when lists are always prepared by politicians and close friends,” the party said. “These happen while most qualified graduates are made to cough out varying sums without them getting any job.
“Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) of the state has improved to over one billion naira monthly while close to three billion naira is received as monthly allocation from the federation accounts with inflow of proceeds from the excess crude accounts and other sundry sources, yet workers cannot get their entitlements as and when due.”

Nigeria’s
leadership is the deadweight slowing down the pace of development in
the country said Raymond Dokpesi, the chairman of Daar Communication
Plc at a breakfast meeting organised by the School of Media and
Communication, Pan-African University.

He said Nigerians,
being naturally passionate about their ambitions have all it takes to
be the best in any endeavour, “only if we get rid of these deadwoods in
the leadership [position].”

Mr. Dokpesi who
spoke on “the pains and gains of establishing a world class media
enterprise,” recounted the ordeals he had to contend with in the hands
of Nigerian leadership before his African Independent television could
attain its current status.

Broadcast commission is ruining private media

Mr. Dokpesi said
the policies of the Nigerian Broadcasting Commission is not only weird
when compared to global best practices but are designed to “kill
private media houses before they even start.” For example, the license
fee in 1994 was N750,000 but it is now in excess of N100m.

“In the US, two or three networks can collaborate to share a license but not in Nigeria,” he said.

He passionately
condemned the means of funding private and government-owned media
houses, describing it as a death sentence for private media houses.

As he explained,
private media houses are funded through advert subscriptions while
public media houses are funded through government’s subventions.

In essence, public media houses should air no advert since they are funded with taxpayers’ money.

“But in Nigeria,
NTA receives between fifteen to twenty billion naira annually from the
government and still collect adverts,” he said.

Here lies the death
sentence: advert rates on public media houses are at rock bottom low
forcing their private counterparts to adopt economically nonviable
advert rates and “if you try to increase your rate, NBC will say ‘no,
you can’t go beyond this price’.

So after a media
house has paid the huge license fee and bought equipment, it can only
run for about three years before it stars having financial problems,”
he said.

Annual return to the NBC is another death blow in the form of policy.

“They said Section
14 [of the NBC act] empowers the commission to collect 2.5 percent of
revenue of media houses annually, a levy that no public media house is
forced to remit,” he said.

A bereft regulator

Mr. Dokpesi
described Nigerian broadcast technology as half a century behind
current technologies, even though the country started broadcasting well
ahead of many other African countries.

“These people spend
their estacodes in hotels when they travel abroad instead of exposing
themselves to technological developments in the industry,” he said
while narrating how the NBC “arrogantly” turned down his proposal for a
pilot digital transmission. They asked if he really thought Nigerians
are as freaky about technology as he was.

“Ben Bruce, while
at NTA spent more than N60 billion buying analog transmitters – new
equipment but obsolete technology. And today, those equipment are
useless,” he said.

Support the media houses

Mr. Dokpesi pleaded
with Nigerians to support ambitious and credible media houses so they
do not die. “What we need is accurate and timely information about
ourselves and the opportunities around us. But most Nigerians know next
to nothing about their country not to talk of other African countries,”
he said.

He also has kind
words for Nigerian journalists, describing them as having made
tremendous sacrifice towards Nigeria’s development. And there is good
news for AIT’s officials as the chairman promised to pay all salary
arrears; however, that promise is tied to the payment of AIT’s
services, rendered to the federal government during the 2009 U20 World
Cup event.

“The money I could
have used for salaries had to be drafted to provide an international
broadcast control centre for the event because NTA, even after getting
N8.6 billion from the government, will not provide it,” he said.

Because of the
quality of the broadcast for the event, the event’s Vice Chairman has
been appointed as a permanent member of FIFA and AIT will be supporting
the forthcoming World Cup in South Africa with some of its equipment.

“Though Nigeria keeps getting the glory, AIT doesn’t and N8.6 billion went down the drain.”

“Ladies and gentlemen,” concluded Mr. Dokpesi who said he will
never contest an election in Nigeria, though he will forever be
interested in Nigerian politics, “it has been pains all along. I pray
that soon the gains will start coming in.”

No fewer than 13
persons have been killed by cerebrospinal meningitis in Kano during the
ongoing dry season, Kano State Commissioner of Health, Aishatu Kiru,
said at the weekend.

Mrs. Kiru, who
spoke in Kano during the ministerial briefing organised by ministry of
information, said over two hundred people have also been affected by
the illness in different local government areas of the state.

The state ministry of health has, however, embarked on massive vaccination to overcome the outbreak of meningitis in the state.

The commissioner
said the awareness created, and the drugs provided by the state
government, have helped in the reduction of the number of possible
deaths from the meningitis infection.

Mrs. Kiru cautioned the public not to sleep in places without adequate ventilation.

“Instead, we advise
people to stay in an open space where there is enough air ventilation,”
she said, adding that this would help in eradicating the spread of the
disease.

She explained that
the state ministry of health has achieved a lot in the area of ensuring
the safety of people’s health, provision of drugs, working materials,
and enough bed spaces in hospitals.

Strengthened manpower

Mrs. Kiru disclosed
that over 100 students from the state will undergo medical studies in
foreign countries, as part of a deliberate effort to add more medical
doctors to the state’s hospitals.

The state official
also explained that over 5,000 personnel have been employed in
different cadre of the health services in the state, while the
government has also provided them all with necessary equipment, to
enable them carry out their respective duties efficiently.

50 cases of meningitis had, last month, been reported across 18
local government areas in the state. The affected local government
areas were Nassarawa, Kano Municipal, Tarauni, Kura, Kumbotso, Fagge,
Wudil, Gezawa, Ajingi, Madobi and Dala. Others include Bichi, Doguwa,
Minjibir, Dawakin Tofa, Dawakin Kudu, Tofa and Bagwai.

Former governor of
Ekiti State and governorship candidate of the Labour Party Ayodele
Fayose, at the weekend, said the Labour Party would stand firm against
any attempt by any party to impose unpopular candidates on the people
of the state during the 2011 General elections.

Mr. Fayose, who has
had a running battle with the incumbent governor, Segun Oni, said the
Labour Party is ready to take over the state through votes from the
masses.

“I want to warn
against rigging and violence in the next general elections holding in
2011, God will expose any party that is trying to cause trouble during
the election,” he said. “I urge you all supporters of Labour Party not
to engage in violence or thuggery in order not to bring the party to
disgrace. I will not resort to violence despite provocations from some
quarters.

“Despite the
burning of my water tanker and part of my office, my supporters and I
remain untroubled because they are aware that their political enemies
want to provoke them into violence in order to bring the party to
disrepute.”

Mr. Fayose, who
visited the tomb of the late founder of the Christ Apostolic Church,
Joseph Ayo Babalola, to pray for success in the 2011 election, said the
people of Ekiti are ready for a change.

Law against posters

The former
governor, who was well received by supporters of the party, trekked to
the church, where he called for prayer for the success of his ambition.

Mr. Fayose, who
conducted the prayer session, ensured that all the people who
accompanied him to the church, including party members, participated
actively in the session.

“There is nothing prayer cannot do, I am very sure that with prayer, LP will take over Ekiti State,” he said.

The former
governor’s campaign has pitched him against the PDP controlled state
government, mostly over what the government said was the indiscriminate
pasting of Labour Party posters.

Some of the party’s
supporters were recently arrested for pasting Mr. Fayose’s posters
around Ajilosun area of Ado-Ekiti, a decision which the candidate said
was carried out by government to destabilise and witch-hunt him.

Mr. Oni however denied the allegation levelled against by Mr. Fayose.

“There is a law against indiscriminate pasting of posters on public
property and anybody caught would be prosecuted for violating the law,”
Mr. Oni said.

Some 30 officers of
the Oyo State Police command were dismissed in the last one year after
being convicted for extortion, Baba Adisa Bolanta, the state
Commissioner of Police, disclosed at the weekend.

The police boss,
who said the dismissed cops were found guilty of extorting money from
commercial and private motorists, said an additional 16 policemen were
demoted for the same offence under the year in review.

Special attention

Mr. Bolanta, who
was speaking with journalists at his office in Ibadan to commemorate
his first year in office as the commissioner in charge of the state
command, said the affected individuals were sanctioned after the court
martial set up to examine their involvement in the allegations against
them found them culpable.

He informed that
the most of the affected cops were within the ranks of inspector to
corporal, reiterating the determination of the command to rid its
system of bad eggs.

The CP also told
the press that the federal government has recently decided to give
special attention to seven cities in the countries in a special
security scheme to ensure effective policing.

The cities, which,
he said, would enjoy special allocations in terms of equipment, include
Ibadan, Lagos, Port Harcourt, Abuja, Onitsha, Maiduguri and Kaduna.

Adding that the cities would be used as the pilot scheme for the
project which will cut across other cities if it becomes successful, he
noted that the beneficiaries would enjoy special consideration to allow
them combat crime effectively in their domains.

Airlines in Africa have complained against the blacklisting of carriers in the continent by the European Union (EU).

The carriers, under
the African Airlines Association, an umbrella body based in Nairobi,
Kenya, argued that the latest list of airlines banned from the European
airspace due to safety concerns will dent the confidence placed on
African carriers, as 13 of the 17 countries affected by the ban are
from Africa, with a total of 111 African airlines ‘blacklisted.’

“While the EU list
may be well-intended its main achievement has been to undermine
international confidence in the African airline industry,” said Nick
Fadugba, Secretary General AFRAA in a statement.

Admitting that
Africa needs to improve on its air safety record, Mr. Fadugba disclosed
that air safety is the “number one priority” of the association, adding
that the ultimate beneficiaries of the ban are European airlines which
dominate the African skies to the disadvantage of African carriers.

“If any list is to
be published, it should be done by the International Civil Aviation
Organization (ICAO), the global regulator of aviation safety, which has
a known track record of impartiality,” he said.

The association
further argued that last week’s list has the effect of damaging the
reputation of many scheduled African airlines whose safety records and
adherence to ICAO safety standards are comparable to the best airlines
anywhere in the world.

Outlining some of
the contradictions in the blacklist, the association’s secretary
disclosed that majority of the airlines in Africa on the list have
never operated scheduled flights to Europe, do not plan to do so, and
have no aircraft with a range to fly to any EU state.

Mr. Fadugba
disclosed that the list includes many airlines that only exist on paper
and are not operational, stressing that neither the operating license
nor the ICAO registration numbers of most of the banned airlines are
known.

The association,
however, called on the EU to emulate the United States of America,
which introduced the “Safer Skies for Africa” initiative aimed at
upgrading capacity, developing skills and providing infrastructure to
improve safety in the African continent, adding that the US did all
this when only a few of its carriers operate into Africa.

Also calling on the
International Civil Aviation Organization to venture into the matter,
the association in the statement disclosed that it is willing to have
talks with the European Union on the issue.

“We are ready to engage the EU and other stakeholders in
constructive dialogue to find an amicable solution to the air safety
challenges in Africa,” it said.