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Indigenes of Ibeno and fishermen operating in Akwa
Ibom have condemned the frequent oil spills from the Quo Iboe oil
fields, and its negative impact on fishing and marine life.

Ibeno community, near Eket in Akwa Ibom, last week
reported another oil spill suspected to be from the Qua Iboe oil field,
operated by Mobil Producing Nigeria (MPN).

It will also be recalled that MPN reported that a
leak on a crude pipeline on December 4, 2009 caused the discharge of
unknown volume of crude into the Atlantic Ocean.

However, Mobil in a statement released in Eket on
Tuesday, confirmed receiving reports of the crude oil deposits around
Ibeno, but said that the source of the crude oil was unknown as tests
conducted on the samples showed that the spill did not emanate from its
facilities.

Community sources in Ibeno however, dismissed the
claims of the oil company. They said that it was a way to evade paying
compensation for losses incurred by fishermen and repairing damages
done to the environment as a result of the spill.

Herkings Inyang, Secretary to Ibeno Clan Council,
said the community was surprised that Mobil denied responsibility for a
spill that occurred in its host communities where its pipelines ran
through. “It is hard to believe that a multi-national like Mobil will
be so dishonest to deny responsibility.

Which other oil company operates here?

“It is very funny because Addax operates far away near Nigeria’s
maritime boundary with Cameroun, while Total is also very far from
here, so did the oil fly to Ibeno?”

A major contentious
issue during the debate on the report of the House of Representatives
ad-hoc committee on the review of the 1999 Constitution last week was
that of the minimum qualification of aspirants to the House and the
Senate.

The 44-member
committee headed by the deputy speaker, Usman Nafada recommended that
any Nigerian aspiring to be a senator or a representative should have
at least a diploma.

The constitution,
in Section 65 (2) (a) stipulates that a person shall be qualified for
election into the National Assembly if, “he has been educated up to at
least School Certificate level or its equivalent…” But the committee
proposed an amendment to the section substituting for certificate the
words “Diploma level or its equivalent and obtained the relevant
certificates and has served as a member of the National Assembly.” The
clause “has served as a member of the National Assembly” means that
anyone who has served for at least three months as a member of the
federal legislature would be exempted since that would have afforded
him or her the opportunity of learning the legislative proceedings.

Not surprising, the issue generated an intense and prolonged debate during the plenary session.

For the lawmakers
in support of the recommendation, the reduction in the quality of
education in the country makes it imperative to review upward the
minimum qualification of those who make law for Nigerians at the
federal level. They also believed that if the qualification is raised,
it would compel many to embrace education, which is a major determinant
in the productivity of the lawmakers.

But those opposed
to the recommendation argued that if the amendment is carried through,
many Nigerians may be disenfranchised due to poor educational
background. From the tone of the debate, it was not difficult to fathom
that they were protecting many of their colleagues who possess only
school certificates.

In the current
National Assembly, about 0.94 per cent of the 109 senators are school
certificate holders while about 4.74 per cent of such people are in the
360-member lower chamber.

According to the
“The Lawmakers: Sixth Assembly,” the percentage of senators with
O’Level GCE in 1999 was 6.6 percent but dropped to 4 percent in 2003
while in the House, the statistics showed that in 1999, those with O’
Level Certificate were 9.4 percent in 1999 and 7 percent in 2003.

It also said that
the proportion of senators with the first degree has been fairly
stable, with 44.3 percent in 2007 as against 46.7 percent in 1999 and
43.2 in 2003; while in the House, the movement has been quite dramatic
– from 55.7 percent in 1999 to 44.6 percent in 2003 and 48.96 percent
in 2007. Senators with second degrees have risen from 20.6 percent in
1999 to 31.1 percent in 2007 while in the House they have grown from
17.7 percent in 1999 to 31.16 percent in 2007.

The book concludes:
“This trend seems to have been strengthened by the general awareness of
the need for better learning and deeper knowledge of policy making
among the earlier crop of lawmakers. Many of the 1999 class of
legislators were known to have either availed themselves of
opportunities for courses during their tenure or return to school at
the end of their tenure.” Despite the perceived improvement, the
quality of debates on the floor of both chambers is still low, and
sometimes embarrassing. Others are merely warming the seats.

For improved
training, educational qualification is a major determinant of the
quality of debate in any forum, including the legislature. Therefore,
the ad-hoc committee deserves some kudos for that recommendation.

However, as can be
seen, education is not all it takes for our lawmakers to be more
productive. Controversially, some of those certificates paraded by our
lawmakers are fake. How can one explain, for instance, why a senator
who served between 1999-2003 and who claimed to have a doctorate degree
could not make a simple sentence in English? Then there was the House
of Representatives member (between 2003 and 2007) with an advanced
diploma who could not say a word in English throughout the four years
he served.

It is common
knowledge that with some good money, you can obtain any certificate. It
is also not in doubt that some kinds of diploma can be obtained within
a space of three months, whether in Nigeria or abroad. So, it is not a
big deal obtaining a diploma certificate for the purpose of
participating in an election to come to the National Assembly as is
being proposed by the Nafada Panel.

What is important, therefore, is the kind of exposure the lawmakers
get when they come to the legislature. Our lawmakers need constant
training and re-training on legislative duties. It is necessary for the
relevant authorities to organise seminars and retreats to enable them
improve on their productivity.

Pick pockets that
got away with my mobile phone and a couple of thousands of naira from my
husband’s pocket, a one hour walk under the heatstroke weather, a son
that started palpitating after being crushed by a mass of people on the
steps of Tinubu Square (TBS) and a daughter that broke into tears in
sheer terror. This was the sum total of my family’s experience at the
much hyped Lagos carnival.

We had started the
day on a very hopeful note, convinced that we should not be in Lagos and
not attend the maiden edition of the carnival. I had invitation cards
that were beautiful to behold. They had been delivered to me well ahead
of today’s event and they came with passes for car parks leading us to
believe the carnival would be a well organised event. We were totally
wrong.

For starters, the
car park was in Marina, a bit of distance to TBS even on the coolest of
days. This didn’t give us much pause though, we just assumed all of
Lagos Island had been cordoned off and buses would be available on the
periphery of the Island that would ferry revellers to and from the
event. Again, we were wrong, twice we tried to board a Lagos red bus,
both times at CMS only for the driver to insist he would not going
anywhere near TBS.

But, the sweat
dripping down our faces and the sun beating down our heads was not going
to stop us from having a good time. So we trudged on. Eventually,
exhausted, stinky and sweaty, we triumphantly arrived at TBS.

We were then
confronted with trying to actually get into the venue. After shoving our
way into the grounds through a side entrance and blocking numerous
attempts by the many pick pockets to sneak their hands into our pockets,
we realised we had arrived at a place where we were cordoned off
completely from the activities taking place.

We had invitations
and we reasoned there must be another entrance. A young lady who was
also waving an invitation card confirmed what we thought. Actually, she
said, you need to go through the main entrance and offered to lead the
way. So we started climbing steps up to the terraces and in the
beginning it was quite straight forward but by the time we got to the
other side of terraces and had to make our way down the steps that
exited the building, it was total chaos.

There were no
ushers, it was almost a free for all shoving feast. If you didn’t push
and jostle you got squashed and didn’t move an inch. Eventually, we
found ourselves outside. Once we got out it should have been easy. Make
our way to the entrance, show our cards, walk in find a seat and
leisurely enjoy the spectacle. Wrong, again.

The chaos at the
gate was even worse than what we encountered on the terraces. There all
we saw was a heaving mass of humanity, again shoving, pushing, shouting
and swearing. No pretence of ushers or even security personnel to ensure
order although on the other side of the gate, there were security men
who were obviously not interested in their job of maintaining sanity. We
spent about a minute contemplating the horde and decided to give it a
try; after all we were already at TBS.

It quickly became
clear that we were about to experience a repeat of what we went through
on the steps of the terraces. So we quickly withdrew and decided to go
home. In those few minutes we spent at the gates, my phone had gone
missing and money too from my husband’s pockets.

Five hours after we set out to have a good time, we dispiritedly made
our way back to our car, without even sighting a single float. And, in
case anyone from the Lagos State government is reading this, let me say
here and now, no thank you to an invitation next year.

Almost a week after they were cleared by the Senate, the 38
ministerial nominees selected by the Acting President, Goodluck Jonathan, will
be inaugurated today at the presidential villa.

A statement released by the presidency yesterday, stated that
the inauguration will take place at the Council Chambers of the presidential
villa,at noon.

The nominees were screened in specially organised sittings of
the Senate, which held back to conclude the job before it proceeded on a
two-week recess. David Mark, the Senate President, said his colleagues rushed
the screening of the nominees in the interest of the country. Mr. Mark also
advised the Acting President to sack any of the ministers who fails to perform.

The ministers were picked from all the states of the federation,
except Taraba, whose nominee was rejected, and Ebonyi State.

“We have spent several hours to be able to screen and confirm
the ministers. It is our wish and hope that once these ministers are allocated
their portfolios and when they resume, they will earnestly do what they
promised us here,” Mr. Mark said.

The ministers will be assigned portfolios during the ceremony.

Lobbying intensified

Meanwhile, NEXT gathered that the ministers, their supporters,
and different interest groups, have intensified lobbying to make sure their
nominees get choice ministries.

A source at the presidency said this was the reason for the
shifting of the inauguration from last week Thursday to today.

The cabinet was dissolved on March 17, 2010 by Mr. Jonathan, who has had a
testy relation with the cabinet he inherited from his boss, Umaru Yar’Adua.

The Federal Government must be ready to privatise the successor
companies of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria for the country to enjoy
regular supply of electricity, Bart Nnaji, a professor of engineering and the
president of independent power providers association, has said.

Mr. Nnaji, a former lecturer at the University of Massachusetts,
also called for increased private sector participation in the electricity
industry.

“For the system to work, we need to create credible power
off-taker(s) and to do that, we should think about privatizing or at least
concessioning the PHCN successor companies,” Mr. Nnaji said.

“Like in the telecoms sector, the private sector must be enabled
to take the driver’s seat in the business of providing reliable electricity
supply.”

The Federal Government had, in April 2005, established the PHCN,
an incorporated company, to take over the assets of the defunct National
Electricity power company.

The PHCN was split into three subsidiaries which are the power
generating companies, the transmission company of Nigeria and the distribution
company of Nigeria.

As part of the reforms, the Electric Power Sector Reform Act was
approved which among things established the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory
commission (NERC) to monitor and regulate the electricity industry as well as
issue licenses to marketers.

The regulatory commission established the Multi-Year Tariff
Order (MYTO) to among other things determine the price to be paid by different
categories of electricity consumers. Mr. Nnaji, who lauded the MYTO, however
described its rates as inadequate.

“We, the independent power providers, believe that MYTO rates
are still lower than the rate that would attract investors taking into
consideration that no investor would want to put his money in any project that
would not guarantee a reasonable rate of return on investment,” he said.

Mr. Nnaji, who is also a member of the Presidential Advisory
committee established by acting president Goodluck Jonathan, welcomed the
proposed review of MYTO saying “while this initiative is welcome we sincerely
hope that the review would be robust enough to accommodate the dynamic nature
of such features that underpin the MYTO framework such as inflation rate, and
gas/fuel availability and pricing.”

Inconsistent policies

He blamed inconsistent government regulation for his company’s
inability to complete its 188MW power plant in Aba, Abia State, saying the “Aba
integrated power project will begin the process of commissioning by the end of
this year.

“Unfortunately despite the huge successes that we have recorded
as a pioneer indigenous company in the area of private power provision, we’ve
not been able to commission and commence operations as we had envisaged due to
several reasons, one of which is the government’s near suspension of the power
sector reforms that made foreign investors wary,” Mr. Nnaji stated.

A new minister of power is expected to be named by Mr. Jonathan
after the dissolution of the Executive Council of the Federation which led to
the removal of Lanre Babalola, the former minister.

NEXT in its previous reports on the power sector detailed how
power generation had dropped from over 3,000MW in December 2007 to less than
2000MW during Mr. Babalola’s tenure and how a bulk of the power generated was
by independent, privately owned power plants.

The House of Representatives will work towards basic
constitutional changes that will allow millions of Nigerians abroad vote in
national elections by 2015, the chairperson, House Committee on Diaspora, Abike
Dabiri-Erewa, has said.

Ms. Dabiri-Erewa said the ongoing electoral reform has missed
out on making vital provisions that could have empowered many Nigerians
resident outside the country, who have in the past been denied participation in
the past years.

She said her committee will push for a reconsideration of the
issue, as the legislature considers fresh electoral reforms that will prepare
the nation for 2015 elections.

“The amendment of the 1999 Constitution has failed to provide
for Diaspora Nigerians to vote, and time is short. There is also this issue of
logistics for Diaspora voters, but our committee will work hard to find a means
for them (Diaspora Nigerians) to vote in the future,” she said over the
weekend.

“I know that there is no clause in the Constitution that gives
Nigerians in the Diaspora the right to vote, and that is sad,” the lawmaker who
represents Ikorodu Federal Constituency of Lagos State, said. “The Committee
notes the need for Nigerians in the Diaspora to vote, but all the odds appear
to be in that way, so all I can say is that, let us wait for 2015.”

Ms. Dabiri-Erewa condemned the seemingly deliberate neglect of
the provision in the on-going Constitution review, with the National Assembly
dwelling more on primary election issues. As it stands, having legitimate
arrangement for Nigerians abroad to vote cannot be feasible before the next
election in 2011.

Nigerians’s complaint

“A lot of Nigerians out there complain to me that they have been
disenfranchised. But I always tell them to be patient and maintain their good
qualities as ambassadors to the country. A time will come for them to be fully
re-integrated politically and economically to the country”, she said.

Part of the effort the committee intends to bring on, is to establish a
Diaspora Affairs Commission – the establishment bill is already before the
House – to help address issues bothering on Nigerians abroad.

At least three people were electrocuted, on Sunday, at the
Andrew Wilson Housing Estate, along Sapele Road, Benin City following the
explosion of a transformer belonging to the Power Holdings Company of Nigeria
(PHCN).

The victims included a pensioner, Isaac Ojor Legogie, a relation
of former deputy Senate President, Albert Legogie; an 18-year-old girl who was
identified as Lizzy Adogamhe and a middle-aged man, whose name was yet to be
ascertained.

NEXT gathered that the transformer in the estate exploded during
a heavy rainfall and this led to a fire on the step-down that connected the
transformer.

PHCN officials allegedly recently removed the circuit breakers
that would have prevented the fire.

The absence of the circuit breakers, it was also gathered, led
to the re-direction of current to all houses in the estate – which resulted in
all the electrical appliances in the houses within the area being affected.

While narrating the incident to journalists on Monday, the
eldest son of the late Legogie, Benjamin, said that there was pandemonium at
the estate following the explosion of the transformer serving the estate after
it was engulfed by fire.

“People were running helter scatter and my father, in the
process of going to assist a neighbour to put out the fire that engulfed his
house, ran into a pool of water that was on the ground and he was
electrocuted,” he said.

“Apart from my father, an 18-year-old girl, simply identified as
Lizzy was electrocuted while trying to take something from the refrigerator in
their house; while the PHCN officials who were called in simply came and
removed the fuse in the transformers and left.”

Officials unaware

The spokesperson of the police in Edo State, Peter Ogboi, said
he was yet to be briefed by the Divisional Police Officer in charge of the area
but promised to investigate the matter.

The spokesperson for the Benin Distribution Zone of the power
company, Grace Nwobodo, also said that she was yet to be briefed.

The residents of the estate, however, said the power company is
to blame for the incident

“It is regrettable that until now no official of the PHCN has
come to even commiserate with the families of those who neither lost their
lives nor claimed responsibility for what happened,” Mr. Legogie said.

“We are demanding that PHCN should be held responsible for the deaths and
must pay compensation to the family of the deceased in addition to offering a
public apology to us.”

The Bishop-elect of Catholic Diocese of
Ondo, Jude Arogundade, has said he will develop its pilgrimage centre in
0ka-Akoko to strengthen the faithful.

Speaking in Abuja yesterday, Mr.
Arogundade said the centre, named ‘Oke Maria’, would be restructured to
fit in with modern designs and that the project would be achieved with
the support of priests in the diocese, the goodwill of the diocese as
well as the support of his friends.

He also said he had visited many
pilgrimage centres in the world and seen the human ingenuity, planning
and the technology which accorded them the global attention.

He solicited for the support of Ondo
State indigenes who had benefitted from Catholic training to help in
enhancing the growth of education in the diocese.

“It is the responsibility of those
people to come back to build their community schools and impart what
they have learnt within and outside to the people of the state,” he
said.

Pope Benedict XVI appointed Mr. Arogundade on February 15, and he
will be ordained on May 6.</

Nigerians has been urged to be united
and live in peace with one another as a means of ensuring a stabilised
nation, Jerry Gana, a former Minister of Information said. He said this
in Doko, Bida on Sunday in his Easter message at St. Peter’s Church.

“We strongly need this unity if we are
to continue to forge ahead as a united and indivisible entity.”
According to him, without peace and unity, socio economic development
will continue to elude the society.

The former minister said Nigerians
should learn to live in peace with each other irrespective of religion,
tribal, political or ethnic differences.

“Nigerians must also be free to live in any part of the country, as
the nation belongs to all of us,” he said.</