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Business and
leisure activities are gradually picking up at the Tinapa Business and
Leisure Resort, Calabar, Cross River State following the approval and
gazetting of its operational guidelines by the federal government.

Several state
governments, including Imo and Rivers, recently held some of their
conferences and retreats at the Resort, while some foreign groups are
also taking advantage of the serenity and ambience of Tinapa to do
business.

The number of
visitors to the Resort has also increased appreciably, to the delight
of the people of Calabar who have for long wondered when commercial
activities would kick off at the multi-million naira centre. A greater
chunk of the visitors however patronise the T-Mart, a retail shopping
emporium which is about the size of two football fields.

So far, no fewer
than a million people from within and outside Nigeria have been to the
retail shop since last December when the shop, which is run by American
trade experts threw its doors open to the public.

“Over 100
containers have come into the Tinapa over the last three months,”
Managing Director of Tinapa, Bassey Ndem said. “These are goods that
are not in the absolute prohibition list, including general cargo,
electronics, textiles, building materials, home wares, consumables and
so on. Those are the ones coming in now. But we are talking to other
people that want to bring machineries.

Somebody has brought in papers, another person iron rods. Many goods are coming in now.”

Ready for business

Mr Ndem said prior
to the release of the gazette, a number of people had come in to make
enquiries about taking shops at the complex, but it was not possible to
seal the deals because the operational manual had not been released by
government.

“In fact, Tinapa
is getting out of the woods and there are about 53 different companies
operating at the Tinapa now. The Amber Tinapa (an hotel) is ready and
has been in use. The Water Park, the biggest in Africa is ready and in
use. So, why should you go and look at another water park at Orlando or
anywhere else when this one is available?” He said the facility was
ready to provide a year’s rent free to people who invest in the shops,
coupled with other mouth-watering attractions.

One of the investors, Charles Oku said the children’s arcade is a source of joy to kids.

“T-Mart, which is as good as any shopping mall in America or in Germany is ready and is selling,” he said.

“It is the first
and only duty-free market in Nigeria and I think the entire Tinapa has
offered very wonderful opportunity to Nigerians to transact business
and get those things that they would have travelled and paid so much to
get abroad.” There are however still several challenges ahead. About a
year ago, the only shipping line in Calabar withdrew its services,
while importers of goods into Calabar resorted to Onne and Port
Harcourt ports because of bad roads and the shallow level of the
Calabar water channels.

Mr Ndem said the
state government is pushing for the dredging of the Calabar River
Channel, dualization of the gateway roads to Calabar and improvement of
facilities at the Calabar airport.

He also said Tinapa
intends to acquire three more ships, as well as increase its freight
from 4,500 to 36,000 metric tonnes so as to serve the South-South,
South East and the North East Zones.

“The management even has the hope of floating a Tinapa Airline in future,” he said.

Human sleeping sickness, the age-long disease that has defied several interventions,

is closer to being checked as African researchers recently announced improved techniques to control the disease.

In a study recently
carried out in Burkina Faso and Cote d’Ivoire, African scientists show
that by mimicking odours in cows, pigs and humans and using them to
bait Tsetse flies (the vector harbouring the trypanosomes which causes
sleeping sickness), they can increase the number of flies attracted to
a trap and the number of kills.

The scientists figure that this is a sure way to break the transmission of the disease from fly to man.

An associate
professor of the Community and Primary Health Department of the
University of Lagos, College of Medicine, Bayo Onajole, says although
using odour baits to kill tsetse flies is not a new method, “ it can
help in preventing transmission.”

He adds that, “For
the control of vector-borne diseases, it is always advised to use an
integrated approach such as having a high index of suspicion of
patients, presenting with symptoms, treating with drugs and detecting
approaches targeted at the environment,” he said.

Human sleeping
sickness is caused by African trypanosomiasis and this is harboured in
Tsetse flies of various species. Tsetse flies (Diptera:

Glossinidae) infest
approximately 10 million km2 of sub-Saharan Africa where they transmit
trypanosomes, which cause sleeping sickness. The most dangerous species
(called Glossinidae Palpalis), which occur in West Africa, accounts for
97 per cent of total reported cases.

Age-long challenges

According to the
World Health Organisation, sleeping sickness threatens up to 60 million
people in 36 countries of sub-Saharan Africa and affects 50,000 to
70,000 people each year. Only a small fraction of these countries are
under surveillance with regular examination, or have access to a health
centre that can provide diagnostic facilities, or are protected by
vector control interventions. In Nigeria, the disease is common in the
northern parts of the country especially amongst cattle-rearers, in
savannah and riverine areas.

The researchers
also said that one of the major challenges of controlling the diseases
for over 80 years has been the cost and logistical difficulty of
managing fly control programmes.

“There are no
vaccines or prophylactic drugs available to prevent the disease, which,
once it has been contracted, is treated with curative drugs that often
prove ineffective because of emerging disease resistance in the
trypanosomes,” the authors said in the PLoS Journal of Neglected
Diseases where the research was published last month.

“These drugs can
often have unpleasant and sometimes fatal side effects. Prospects for
development of effective vaccines or prophylactic drugs are poor.”

Vaccine prospects

Another step that
could help control the disease is developing a vaccine. A Nigerian
scientist, Jonathan Nok, last year won the Nigeria Liquefied Natural
Gas (NLNG) Prize for his work in discovering the gene responsible for
the creation of Sialidase (SD),

an enzyme which
causes sleeping sickness (Trypanosomiasis). Mr. Nok, a professor of
Biochemistry and the Dean of the Faculty of Science, Ahmadu Bello
University, says the breakthrough is significant as it will form the
baseline for developing DNA-based vaccines against Trypanosoma, a
predominantly African problem.

Way forward

The researchers
find that this kind of vector control in the management of the disease
has done little over the past 80 years and to overcome this, they are
trying to develop cost-effective insecticide-treated targets by
identifying chemicals that will increase the number of flies that will
be lured to a target and killed.

Commenting on the viability, one of the co-authors of the study, Michael Lehane says,

“We are aiming to test the technology in the field in the near future,

and assessing the
impact in the epidemiology, as well as in the socio-economics of the
intervention areas. Until then, it is difficult to state the specific
value of this approach to the control of the disease. This opens the
way for further work to identify the attractants present in these
natural odours that can then be simply and cheaply incorporated into
targets to reduce the cost of control,” reads the study.

Police authorities in Ondo State have
launched an investigation into the death of a bus driver, Ismaila
Sanni, who was allegedly beaten at a filling station in Ikare-Akoko
area of the state. Mr. Sanni died after the fight at the station where
he had gone to re-fuel his minibus, otherwise known as “Agolo”.

NEXT gathered that a dispute ensued
when one of the attendants at the filling station claimed that Mr.
Sanni paid for the fuel he bought with a fake N500 note.

The attendant called the attention of
his colleagues to the fake money. However, the deceased driver denied
giving the attendant the note.

Mr. Sanni’s denial fell on the deaf
ears of the petrol attendants who allegedly beat him to a state of
coma. He was later taken to Ikare General Hospital where he died.

The driver’s death provoked a reappraisal attack from his colleagues who attacked the filling station.

The aggrieved drivers vandalised properties worth millions of naira while the attendants ran for cover.

Some of the workers in the filling stations were however unlucky as they sustained various degrees of injuries in the melee.

Rounds of destruction

The irate drivers also moved to another
filling station allegedly belonging to the same person who owns the one
where Mr. Sanni was attacked and carried out another round of
destruction.

It took the intervention of police in Ikare division to put the situation under control.

Confirming the incident, the
spokesperson of the Ondo State Police Command, Adeniran Aremu, said the
police are currently investigating the matter with a view to punishing
the perpetrators of the crime.

According to him, the situation has now
been brought under control, stressing that the people of the area are
going on with their normal business activities.

The exit of the former presidential
candidate of the Action Congress, Atiku Abubakar and his supporters
from the party is a “good riddance to bad rubbish”, Jide Awe, the Ekiti
State chairman of Action Congress, said yesterday.

Mr. Awe said people such as Mr.
Abubakar, who recently announced his return to the Peoples Democratic
Party (PDP), would find it difficult to remain in the progressive camp.

The AC leader also said the exit of the
former vice president from the party will not affect its performance in
the 2011 general elections.

“Consistently, I have been saying that
Atiku as a capitalist will find it very difficult to settle down in a
progressive camp,” he said.

“If he is moving back to PDP, to me, it
is good radiance to bad rubbish because, ideologically, Atiku is not
fit to be in any progressive camp judging from his background.

“Atiku’s staying with AC is like taking
a fish out of water. It is obvious that the AC saved him from the
humiliation and rescued him from political crisis in 2006 and the AC
has satisfied its conscience as party. We saved him from a very
difficult situation.

“The exit of Atiku will not affect the
fortune of AC in the 2011 general elections because we have a lot of
progressives in the North who are ready to come home to their normal
base.”

Jackson Adebayo, the Director of
Communication and Strategy for the Ekiti State chapter of the PDP,
however described the vice president’ decision as “courage of a
political icon and astute political leader.”

“Everybody in the PDP is waiting for
his return to the party. It is an advice to other opposition members
and those aggrieved to make sure that they come back to the party,” he
said.

Meanwhile, a leading member of the
Action Congress from the North East region of the country, Yusuf Buba
said that Mr. Abubakar has not officially informed the party of his
defection and described the proposed defection as a wrong step.

“I don’t think it is reasonable at this
time, because the country needs a strong opposition at this time. I
don’t support the politics of if you cannot beat them you join them. It
is not the best thing to do.” He said.

Also, the Conference of Nigerian
Political Parties (CNPP) described Mr, Abubakar’s return to PDP as a
blessing to the progressives.

According to its National Chairman Maxi
Okwu, “the defection will enable true progressives in Nigeria to work
toward achieving their goals. It would have been impossible for the
progressives to take over power in Nigeria with people like Atiku whose
ideologies differ from theirs”.

The federal
government yesterday reiterated its claim that the nation can achieve
the 2015 Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) with proper coordination.

Senior Adviser to
the President on MDGs, Amina Ibrahim, spoke following the presentation
of the 4th quarter 2009, and 1st quarter 2010 report on MDGs by the
Presidential Committee on Assessment and Monitoring of MDGs.

Mrs. Ibrahim said
the nation has improved in three main sectors, namely health, education
and water and that about N112 billion invested in the 2009 budget in
those areas have yielded fruit.

“Going by the
recorded success, we believe we can reach the MDGs by 2015 but the
three tiers of government have to come together,” she said, noting that
of the N112 billion budget expenditure, health took about 35%, 23% went
to education and 25% to water.

“These are all areas that are reflective of the challenges we have in the MDGs.”

Documentation problems

The country is
actually making progress in the nine MDGs, said Mrs. Ibrahim, but the
agencies are grappling with the issue of documentation.

To address the
situation, she said the acting president directed that all agencies
involved in the implementation of the MDGs should “harmonise and get a
dateline data this year.”

“Data is a huge
challenge to us. If you ask now for the data of the success recorded we
will find it difficult and it is a very big challenge to us,” the
presidential aide added.

She said the
country is making progress, but it is not enough. The nation, will
“have to triple and quadruple” its progress in the next five years. She
did note that some initiatives have been thriving.

“The most successful intervention that we had, I think, can be that
of the governors, the conditional grant scheme. In 2009, 31 states
benefited from that.”

Thousands of job
seekers yesterday besieged the Ogun State office of the Independent
National Electoral Commission {INEC} to fill vacancies for which their
numbers vastly outnumbered.

The applicants, who
had earlier applied online, are seeking for employment as Legal
Officers, Executive Officers, Data Operators and Store Officers.

On arrival at the
Oke-Mosan office of the Commission, the applicants, who were locked
outside the gate of the commission to prevent them from bombarding the
premises, had to embark on what was described as general registration,
whereby they {applicants} registered their identities before they were
called in a batch for interview.

The job seekers include graduates of National Diploma, Higher National Diploma and Bsc. holders.

Some nursing
mothers were not left out, as they were seen with their babies under
the scorching sun, waiting for their turn for the interview.

Attempts to speak with the commission’s management proved abortive,
as they were said to be busy. But most of the applicants who spoke on
condition of anonymity said their fear was that the exercise may be
reduced to ‘who knows who.’ “Some of us just came to try our luck, we
don’t have any godfather except God, and with God all things are
possible, so we should not lose all hope,” one of the applicants said.
But talking seriously, one should not be 100 percent optimistic,
because those who will be employed may likely have had their names
pencilled down already.”

After several
minutes of recounting Nigeria’s political and economic travails, the
president of the Senate, David Mark, on his birthday, said he is
confident that “God will intervene in a positive way.”

Mr. Mark, who
turned 62 on Thursday, spoke in an early-morning prayer session at St.
Mulumba Catholic Chapel, Apo, Abuja. He said that regardless of the
challenges and difficulties Nigeria faces presently, “I am hopeful that
God will see us through”.

Prayer for leaders

Mr. Mark called on Nigerians to continue to pray for the nation and its leaders in order to overcome its challenges.

“There is no gift
that is bigger than the gift of prayers,” Mr. Mark said. “Politicians
go through a lot of temptations, countless in number, it is only
through our support, fasting and prayers that they can survive and
triumph.

“I am certain that
our prayers for the country and our leaders during the Easter
celebration will not go in vain to seeing Nigeria through.

“All we need as a nation is prayers that God in His infinite mercy should help our land”.

The Senate
president noted the temptations leaders in Nigeria face by the day and
concluded that only supplication to God could see them through.

Mr. Mark has often,
at most public religious events, requested for prayers from Nigerians
for either ailing President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua or the unsettled
political balance in Nigeria.

Guests pray

Scores of
politicians including Maurice Iwu, chairman of the Independent National
Electoral Commission (INEC) and the newly-appointed ministers attended
the early-morning prayer session.

In the homily, Rev.
Jerome Bello urged Nigerians to have faith and believe in the country
as a way to invoke God’s intervention on every aspect of the nation’s
plight.

“God wants us to
demonstrate our faith for our miracles to happen,” said Mr. Bello. “We
should also believe in ourselves to overcome any obstacles on our ways.
Miracles are not automatic, it happens when we play our own part of
faith.”

Mr. Bello and guests offered prayers for a democratic stability in the country and for wisdom for leaders.

Staff and students
of the Lagos State University (LASU), Ojo, on Thursday, again called
for the release of the report of the visitation panel set up by the
Lagos State government to look into the crisis in the university.

The report, which
would determine if the estranged Vice Chancellor (VC) of the school,
Lateef Hussain, would be retained, was due to be released by the end of
January, 2010. It is yet to be released two months after the deadline.

“We know that the
members of the panel are men and women of integrity, but the report is
taking too long. The delay is already affecting the institution in so
many ways. It is affecting so many people because nothing is moving in
the school again. So many things have been paralysed; even the signing
of certificates for graduating students has ceased. That is why the
report should come out on time. We are restive; we are agitating for
the result,” said the chairperson of the school’s chapter of Senior
Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU), Funmi Sessi.

The situation in
the school, as confirmed by a staff in the VC’s office, who wanted
anonymity, is that Mr. Hussain has stopped signing school cheques and
students’ certificates since he came under investigation.

“Everything has come to a standstill; even the Social Sciences building construction has stopped since,” said the official.

Following a crisis
that left the school closed for four months, the State Executive
Council appointed a visitation panel for the purpose of hearing the
issues in the dispute. Both the student and staff unions of the school
had called for the removal of Mr. Hussain as the Vice Chancellor.

He was accused of fraud, intimidation, victimisation of staff and students, and “blatant display of arrogance”, amongst others.

Some of the staff and students have also accused the state government of playing politics with the school crisis.

“We believe that
justice delayed is justice denied,” said Senapon Ajasa, the student
union parliament speaker. “If the visitation panel wants to be fair and
just, then the report should be released on time. If he (Mr. Hussain)
is going to be vindicated or if he is going to be found guilty, let us
know on time. It is important to us.

“Is it until the VC
completes his tenure that the result will be released that he is found
guilty? He asked. “If he is guilty, let us know now because a guilty
person should not continue to remain in the office.”

“The students are
now sure that there is political undertone to the issue, because the
report is taking too long to come out,” said Ibrahim Bello, a student
and former press secretary of LASU chapter of National Association of
Nigerian Students (NANS).

Attempts to reach any member of the visitation panel since its inauguration have been unsuccessful.

Nigerians need to
hold their leaders accountable if the nation is to develop, the
chairperson of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC),
Farida Waziri, has said.

Mrs Waziri, who
received a delegation of the National Association of Nigerian Students
led by its president, Imagwe Jude Gabriel, at the commission’s office
yesterday, said it is the responsibility of citizens to ask relevant
questions and hold those that govern them accountable.

She attributed many of the problems the country is facing to corruption, which she said must be shunned by the youth.

While acknowledging
the role of young people in the anti- corruption war, Mrs. Waziri
lamented that the country still grapples with intractable problems such
as power outage and fuel shortage.

“Let me remind you
that as youths and future leaders, Nigeria’s hope of a better tomorrow
lies in you because quite a large number of our present leaders have
failed the nation,” she said.

She also called on
the student leaders to mobilise their peers to join the Anti-Corruption
Revolution Campaign, saying this would lend support to Acting President
Goodluck Jonathan’s commitment to the fight against graft.

The EFCC
chairperson berated those she called ‘arm-chair critics’, who, she
said, rather than contribute to nation building, find succour in
condemning those who do so.

She vowed to continue doing her job despite the recent spate of attacks on operatives of the commission.

“Even if they kill
all of us, the war shall continue. We shall continue to investigate and
prosecute corrupt elements in our midst; we shall continue to ask for
special court, asset forfeiture bill, anti- terrorism bill,” she said.

Mr. Imagwe, the
leader of the association, said it is unfortunate that Nigerians have
failed to identify with people who have excelled.

He called for a
closer relationship between students and the EFCC and demanded the
commission’s intervention in the education sector, which, he said, has
deteriorated badly.

The Code of Conduct Tribunal trying
Nuhu Ribadu, former chairman of Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission (EFCC), for asset declaration-related offences, has
postponed Mr. Ribadu’s official pardon by seven days.

The tribunal, in its resumed sitting in
Abuja on Thursday, said it will now sit on April 15, 2010, to deliver
its verdict on the federal government’s intention to discontinue the
case initiated against Mr. Ribadu. However, the conclusion of the
processes of documentation needed to get the suit properly terminated
is what the tribunal was supposed to initiate on Thursday.

The special assistant to the
Attorney-General of the Federation on Litigation, J.O. Olatoke, had on
March 31, revealed the intention of the federal government to withdraw
the four-count criminal charge against Mr. Ribadu. He had argued that
the 1999 Constitution gives the attorney general ‘Nolle Prosequi’ – the
power to discontinue such criminal prosecution – at any stage of the
case. He also told the court that it was within the prerogative of the
attorney general to decide the cases he wants to prosecute.

Minister’s involvement

According to court officials who sought
anonymity, the turn of events on Thursday may be connected with the
recent redeployment of ministers at the Justice Ministry. Adetokumbo
Kayode, the former attorney general of the federation, who suggested
that the case be withdrawn, was redeployed to the Ministry of Defence
in the recent reformation of the Executive Council of the Federation.
Mr. Kayode reviewed the case against Mr. Ribadu shortly after he
replaced Micheal Aaondoaka, and directed that it should be withdrawn
immediately.

Mohammed Bello Adoke, another Senior Advocate of Nigeria, replaced him as the new attorney general.

Ribadu’s Return

When asked for his reaction, counsel to
Mr. Ribadu, Femi Falana said, “I have no problem with it.” Mr. Ribadu
is being prosecuted at the Tribunal for allegedly refusing to disclose
his assets, according to constitutional provisions, while he was
chairman of the EFCC, in what many believe is a politically motivated
case to smear his name. Mr. Ribadu did not appear before the Tribunal
and this made it to declare him wanted on November 20, 2009. The former
anti-corruption boss however, denies the charges, saying he declared
his assets as at when due.

“I assert that there is no substance to
this case; that my assets were (not) declared. How could I have been
confirmed for my position in 2003 if I did not submit an asset
declaration form to the Senate, as all officers needing Senate
confirmation are obligated to do?” Mr. Ribadu had told NEXT.

The federal government had last week
indicated its willingness to drop the charges against Mr. Ribadu, as
exclusively reported by NEXT, and he has agreed to accept the position
of Special Adviser on anti-corruption and good governance to Acting
President, Goodluck Jonathan. His new designation will be to supervise
the nation’s anti-corruption agencies, which includes his former
agency, the EFCC; the Code of Conduct Tribunal; and the Independent
Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC).

Mr. Ribadu is at present concluding his fellowship at the Centre for Global Development in Washington, USA.