Nigeria Content Online

The Central Bank of
Nigeria (CBN) yesterday said it is developing a comprehensive template
to guide and regulate microfinance banking in the country.

Joe Alegienu, the
bank’s Director of Development Banking, said this at a meeting with the
management of the National Poverty Alleviation Programme (NAPEP) in
Abuja, adding that the new template will become operational before the
end of this year’s second quarter.

According to Mr.
Alegienu, microfinance banking has failed in the fight against poverty
as a result of the proliferation of mini-commercial bank operators
masquerading as microfinance operators.

The CBN, he said,
has observed with dismay the negative impact of the activities of these
operators, adding that most of them are former staff of commercial
financial institutions that failed to meet the conditions under the
recent banking sector consolidation policy.

“We do not want a
situation where the microfinance banks that were established to support
the fight against poverty among rural people are allowed to turn into a
monster that would consume the people,” Mr. Alegienu said. “We will
soon publish an operational template that would serve as a guide on how
microfinance banks are going to do business. It is time to tell those
not qualified to do the business to stay away.

“Every operator
must adapt itself to the principles of micro financing, which is that
microfinance banking does not succeed with large deposits mobilised
from depositors, but on large number of savings from ‘small peoples’,”
he said.

Beyond tricycle

Magnus Kpakol, the
Senior Special Adviser to the President and National Coordinator,
NAPEP, explained that the meeting was convened to enable coordinators
and microfinance bank operators discuss the various approaches to adopt
in the fight against poverty, which he said would not be won if the
people were not exposed to ways of applying the resources at their
disposal to their benefit.

“We want to go
beyond ‘keke NAPEP’,” Mr. Kpakol said. “We have to come up with
strategies on combating poverty. We must be seen as investing in
people. We are a wealthy nation in terms of resources, but to use the
resources to create wealth and raise income for the people is
important.”

He condemned the
practice where the government doles out money directly to cooperative
societies, saying this should be stopped or a way found to minimise the
practice, pointing out that the market place should henceforth be made
to allocate resources to the people.

“We have already written to state governments to lend interest-free
funds directly to the microfinance banks, which will lend to people at
commercial bank market rate of 20 percent and not cooperative
societies. These lending should be tied to performance and delivery. We
are also trying to involve the local government to ensure that they set
up at least five production activities every year.”

The
Lagos State House of Assembly has again decided to revisit and
investigate the allegations of corruption and constitutional violations
levelled against the Lagos State Governor, Babatunde Fashola.

The resolution was
made after the lawmakers deliberated on the petition submitted
yesterday by the renowned True Face of Lagos group.

The petition, dated
March 30 and signed by the group’s chairman, Adesina Adebayo, contained
many of the previously published allegations plus a few new ones.

Basis for allegations

The group, in the
petition, stated that a high level of accountability was expected from
the state government because many Lagosians have lost their means of
livelihood through “massive displacement by the present government”
besides the high compliance of residents with the tax system of the
State.

“Lagosians took all
these in their stride as our own contributions to the advancement of
our beloved centre of excellence,” the petition stated. It also said
that Fashola’s administration has spent, as budgetary allocations,
about N1.1 trillion since inception, an amount that surpassed the
entire budgetary allocations of the state from 1992 to 2007, by 30 per
cent.

“So, there is the
need to question some of the ways the governor has been expending tax
money, which in our opinion reflects financial recklessness,
mismanagement, gross constitutional violations, and abuse of office,”
the petition stated.

To substantiate the
allegation that an up-front payment of 70 per cent is always paid to
contractors, the group attached a list of contracts awarded between
January and August, 2009, by the Sstate’s ministry of health.

Two minutes of silence

After the Clerk of
the House read the petition during the House’s plenary session, two
minutes of silence was “observed” by the lawmakers, who seemed
dumbfounded that the petition resurfaced just 24 hours after a
committee set up to investigate the allegations was dissolved based on
a court ruling.

The silence was
finally broken by the majority leader, Kolawole Taiwo, who said, “I
don’t know what is in the mind of this True Face of Lagos but I can see
a determination in them. We are running towards election period and our
party’s determination to change Lagos is at stake. I don’t know how
Lagosians will feel about it but don’t you think we need to clean
ourselves of (the allegations)?” he asked.

Babatunde Adewale
(Apapa II) observed also the group’s resoluteness. “The court judgement
referred to them as faceless but they have appeared here today,” he
said. Also, the group now has a physical address as stated on its
petition as: “centre for the common man’s defence, behind 59 Ayanwale
Street, off Adeogun Street, Ojokoro, Lagos.”

Expectations and demands

Though none of the
lawmakers rejected the notion to investigate the allegations, some
expected the group to have a different approach.

“The group has been
silent since the court gave its verdict. I had expected that they will
criticise the judgement on the pages of the newspaper,” said Lola
Akande, the deputy chief whip of the House.

Ahmed Omisore
(Ifako-Ijaye II) also said the group should not only submit the
petition to the House but should present it to the governor also. “It
is important for them to take the petition to the governor rather than
use the House as a weapon,” he said.

However, Babatunde
Ogala (Ikeja I) said the House should not just accept the petition “as
is” but should invite the petitioner to prove the allegations.

“The group should be given an opportunity to come and prove their allegations in whatever manner they want to do it,” he said.

A sudden sickness

The Speaker of the
House, Adeyemi Ikuforiji, said he “became ill” while listening to the
Clerk’s reading of the petition letter, because of the scale of the
allegations.

Mr. Ikuforiji, who
was still visibly angry that the House’s effort to ensure transparency
in government was thwarted by the court, said, “We have investigated
allegations in this House before, based on newspaper publications, and
nobody complained.

“Akionla was alive when we investigated the Sunborn Yacht and he
never came up then. That we are not appealing the judgement does not
mean we agreed with it. I still disagree with the judgement,” he said.

Power
failure on Tuesday stalled the viewing of video recordings of the
Special Investigation Panel (SIP) in the alleged attempted murder of
the publisher of the Guardian Newspaper, Alex Ibru.

The SIP had in 1999
investigated Al-Mustapha Hamza alongside three other persons, James
Danbaba, Jibrin Yakubu and Rabo Lawal, in connection with the attempted
murder.

At the resumed
hearing, the court could not view the video tape because the generating
set powering the court-room had developed a fault, while the Power
Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) had failed to restore light.

Consequently, the
presiding judge, Mufutau Olokooba, was forced to adjourn the case to
Wednesday, March 31, 2010, when the power issue would have been
resolved.

The court had
adjourned at the last sitting, for the prosecution to show the video
recording of the SIP to identify a prosecution witness, Felix Ogbaodu,
an assistant inspector general of police.

The prosecution
team led by Lawal Pedro, had previously said it would be relying on the
tape to identify the police officer as being a member of the SIP at the
time of the initial investigation.

But the defence
counsel, C.K. Nmakwe, Olalekan Ojo, and Chinedu Ikegbule, urged the
court to impress it on the prosecution to furnish them with the master
copy of the tape.

The defence had earlier noted that the tape was edited because there
were portions in the proceedings of the SIP which contained images of
torture and abuse of the defendants.

Governors of
Plateau State’s neighbouring states will soon converge in Jos, the
capital of Plateau State, for an on-the-spot assessment of the causes
of the persistent ethno-religious conflicts in the area, with a view to
finding a lasting solution to it.

This resolution was
part of an agreement reached at a meeting of the Solomon Lar-led
Presidential Panel on Jos Crisis and the northern governors at the
Presidential Villa, Abuja on Tuesday.

The Acting
President, Goodluck Jonathan, presided over the meeting; governors and
deputy governors from Bauchi, Jigawa, Nasarawa, Kaduna, Taraba, Kano,
Adamawa and Plateau States were in attendance.

Plateau State governor, Jonah Jang, reacted to the proposed tour of his state by his other colleagues:

“The northern
governors, in their last meeting, agreed that they will visit me in Jos
and we will sit down and look at the problems affecting the northern
states and Plateau to ensure that we get to the roots of these crises.

“It is Plateau
today, it could be somewhere else again. I don’t pray so. But it is
good that we sit down. Until we have peace in the north, it will be
difficult for investors to come and do business. Nobody will like to
come and set up a business and tomorrow, it will be set on fire.”

He said he expects
that when the governors meet, they will tell each other home truths as
leaders who have sworn to defend the constitution of the nation.

Pariah to investors

The governor argued
that the entire northern part of the country could become a pariah to
investors if there is continued unrest in the region, and that this
would further diminish its development fortunes. “Besides, the peace of
Plateau is the peace of the entire north,” he emphasised.

Mr. Lar, who was a
former governor of the state, also said the meeting is very important
because “the character and the nature of the problem have taken a new
dimension in the sense that those who are affected don’t live in one
place. They are all over the neighbouring states and when the
neighbouring governors have discussed with us, we will go back and take
the necessary action to implement what we have discussed.”

The date for the meeting is to be conveyed to the respective governors.

Gbenga Daniel, the Ogun State governor,
yesterday alleged that the Yoruba people have no common agenda, making
them “like a sheep without shepherd”.

Mr. Daniel, who spoke at a meeting of
governors and traditional rulers of the south west states held at the
Governor’s Lodge, Oke-Igbein, Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, said
the Yoruba race now wanders in the wilderness of disunity and
infighting. “Today, the Yoruba nation is in disarray and our people now
speak with Babel of tongues, with no common agenda in sight,” Mr.
Daniel said.

The state governor expressed doubt over
the emergence of a Messiah for the race, waxing biblical and asked
rhetorically, “Where is the Moses to lead our people out of its (their)
Egypt, and where, and when we can find the Joshua to lead Yoruba into
the land of her unity of purpose?”

He argued that what is noticeable is
the claim of leadership of a divided people, stressing that while all
desire to head the kingdom, none seems to ponder, in practical terms,
on the existential condition of the kingdom within an empire called
Nigeria.

Mythical curse

“Or are we condemned to the mythical curse of Alaafin Aole, as we wander aimlessly in the wilderness of disunity?” he asked.

He added that the
traditional rulers have a major role to play, to rally the people
behind an economic agenda for the benefit of their race.

“I dare say our
traditional rulers have much to do because of the general assumption
that they are fathers to all; and their respective stool is guaranteed,
not by the colour of the partisan politics, but by the custom and
tradition of their people.”

Some of the traditional rulers at the meeting included the Ooni of Ife and the Owa Obokun of Ijeshaland.

The memory of
theatre legend, Hubert Ogunde came to the fore on Tuesday March 30 in
Abeokuta, Ogun State, at the launch of his complete musical works, now
packaged for public consumption.

The ceremony
attracted dignitaries and high ranking traditional rulers from across
the South-West, including the Ooni of Ife, Okunade Sijuwade; Owa Obokun
Ijesaland, Adekunle Aromolaran,Alake of Egbaland; Adedotun Gbadebo; and
Awujale of Ijebuland, Sikiru Adetona, among others.

The launch event,
held at the Hubert Ogunde Hall of the June 12 Cultural Centre in
Abeokuta, was also attended by the children of the late theatre guru,
both at home and from abroad. The programme was sponsored by the Ogun
State government.

The musical package
contains 95 tracks, all composed and performed by Ogunde, who died 20
years ago. The ceremony featured artistic performances, a screening of
Ogunde’s famous Yoruba film, Aropin N’Tenia, as well as a rendition of
his classic song, Yoruba Ronu.

The Ogun State
governor, Gbenga Daniel–who was accompanied to the venue by his
counterparts from Osun and Ekiti States, Olagunsoye Oyinlola and Segun
Oni–later unveiled the work at the ceremony venue, which was filled to
capacity.

Ogunde’s offspring
trooped out to sing a number of their father’s favourite songs. As they
did so, many guests stood up in excitement.

Beneficial to all

Speaking on behalf
of the Ogunde family, one of his daughters, Sunbo Badamosi, said the
package of his musical work was for the benefit of all and sundry. She
also expressed the family’s appreciation to all who contributed to the
success of the package.

She added that plans were underway to revive the Ogunde Film
Village, while her father’s home in Ososa would soon be turned into a
museum for the benefit of culture. Badamosi also assured that the
family would not relent in their efforts to ensure that Ogunde’s legacy
lives on.

The Comptroller-General of Customs, Abdullahi Dikko, has gone to a Federal Capital Territory (FCT)

High Court in
Abuja, seeking an order committing Lagos lawyer, Festus Keyamo to
prison for allegedly publishing a libelous statement over his (Dikko)
certificate, and writing to the acting president on the matter.

Mr. Dikko, through
his Counsel, Amobi Nzelu, in a motion on notice brought pursuant to
order 41 Rule 2 of the Court Civil Procedure, said the actions amount
to contempt of court and “malicious and reckless” disobedience of an
order handed down by Abubakar Talba of the FCT High Court on October 7,
2009.

Specifically, Mr.
Nzelu in an affidavit in support of his motion on notice, said that
upon assumption of office by Mr Dikko as the Comptroller-General of
Customs, Mr. Keyamo and Scroll Publishing Limited and others, began to
publish libelous statements/publications against his client regarding
alleged forgery of certificates by the customs boss.

Attached to the
motion on notice was a letter sent to the acting president, Goodluck
Jonathan, by Mr. Keyamo titled “Forgery of certificates by the
Comptroller-General of Customs, Alhaji Abdullahi Inde Dikko: the grand
cover-up”.

Mr. Nzelu said his
client filed an action in court restraining Mr. Keyamo from further
publishing the statements against him, and that on October 7, 2009, Mr.
Talba gave “an order of interim injunction restraining the
defendant/respondents, including the respondent who is the fourth
defendant/respondent in the suit, from publishing or further publishing
any libelous statement against him.” He said the order is still
subsisting and has not been vacated by the court, but that Mr. Keyamo,
in a flagrant disobedience of the court order, wrote a damaging letter
on Mr. Dikko to the acting president, which was copied to the Director
General of State Security Services (SSS), the National Security Adviser
(NSA), the Inspector General of Police, the Minister of Finance and the
Attorney General of the Federation.

Mr Keyamo’s letter,
which was attached to the suit, said in part: “I am totally ashamed
this minute to be a Nigerian as I write this. For more than six months
now, it has become public knowledge that the Comptroller-General of
Customs, Abdullahi Inde Dikko has been pointedly accused of forging his
WAEC Certificate and that of the Nigerian Institute of Management and
yet nothing has been done by the authorities up till this minute.

“I have decided to
bring this to your attention because what frustrated the investigation
before now is the family tie between Alhaji Dikko and Hajia Turai
Yar’Adua, the wife of the ailing president. This is because before now
I have written to ALL the security agencies on this matter, and all of
them developed cold feet because of Hajia Turai Yar’Adua.”

The letter further
asked for how long the nation can continue to tolerate a
Comptroller-General of Customs “whom the whole world knows has
questions to answer regarding the authenticity of his certificates and
who is being blackmailed left, right and centre by those who know but
have decided to cover him up? How can the Chief Security Officer of the
nation’s borders — land, air and sea — perform without fear or favour
with such an albatross hanging around his neck? The security and
economic implication of a Comptroller-General of Customs who is
susceptible to blackmail is very grave indeed and cannot be
over-emphasized.”

Legal militancy

Mr. Keyamo also
narrated how, on October 22, 2009, he secured an order at the Chief
Magistrates Court, Wuse Zone 6, for the police to probe the
certificates and report to the court, and how the police bluntly
refused to do anything about the matter.

“Curiously,
immediately the order was given, the Chief Judge of the FCT directed
the investigation of a spurious petition written by Mr. Dikko against
the magistrate, which petition was never served on us, and which
effectively stopped the progress of the case.

“In all of these,
there is a grand cover-up of this very, very messy issue and it is
causing all of us shame and embarrassment. Even a section of the press
that should uphold high standards in public life has blacked out the
issue and refused to talk about it. Instead, some hired goons of Alhaji
Dikko have taken out paid adverts attacking my person with the hope of
silencing me. I have remained unbowed because such attacks only
re-invigorate my determination to see to the end of this national
shame”.

Mr. Nzelu, in a
reply to the letter, said, “Despite the order of the court which has
not been set aside by any superior court or the same court, Festus
Keyamo went ahead on March 24, 2010, to circulate the malicious
publication concerning the person of our client. The only deduction
from the conduct of Festus Keyamo is that he feels he is above the law
and can get away from any thing. He will be proved wrong sooner than
later.

“Festus Keyamo
should confine himself within the norms of the profession by allowing
the court to determine this matter one way or the other. He should
equally season his language so that the dignity of this our cherished
profession will be intact. He should not sensationalise the matter nor
be allowed to overheat the polity of the nation. There is no militancy
in the legal profession. That, he must be told in no mistaken terms.”

A Sharia court
sitting in Kaduna on Tuesday upheld last week’s ruling that an online
discussion on the first wrist amputation in the country be banned.

The online forum
was launched by the Civil Rights Congress (CRC), a civil society
organisation, to mark the 10th anniversary of the first Sharia-court
ordered amputation in Nigeria – that of Buba Bello Jangebe, alias ‘Kare
Garke’ (ranch raider), by the Zamfara State government.

The Magajin Gari
Sharia court last week ordered the CRC and its head, Shehu Sani, to
suspend its online debate on the amputation through an interim
injunction that restrained the respondents from opening a chat forum on
Facebook, Twitter, or any blog for the purpose of the debate on the
amputation of Mr. Jangebe pending yesterday’s hearing of the case.

It’s only a forum

Mr. Sani, the
director of CRC, speaking to NEXT immediately after the ruling,
confirmed that “the Sharia court judge just finished judgement and he
upheld the ban of Facebook and Twitter chat on the amputation.”

Mr. Sani said the
chat forum was launched on Twitter and Facebook two weeks ago and was
initially challenged by the Muslim Brotherhood Association of Nigeria.

“We (the CRC) are
utterly surprised at this ruling because we only wanted to create a
forum for people to hear their views on whether what happened is
justified or not,” he said. “This group (the Muslim Brotherhood
Association of Nigeria) approached us and appealed that we close the
chat that was already running online for about ten days, claiming that
people can come around to attack Sharia law and the amputation
doctrine.”

The group then filed a suit against the online debate at the Magajin Gari Sharia court on Friday, 19 March 2010.

Mr. Jangebe had his
right wrist amputated on March 22, 2000, for theft, making him the
first convict of the Sharia law, which 12 states in Northern Nigeria
adopted in 1999 shortly after the nation returned to civilian rule
following 15 years of military dictatorship.

Unnecessary debate?

Abu Sufyan,
chairman of the Muslim Brotherhood Association of Nigeria in Kaduna,
however told NEXT over a phone conversation that his organisation was
trying to protect the image of Islam by challenging such a debate.

“As Muslims, we see
no reason why there should be a debate on an issue that we believe is
our doctrine and which Jangebe (the amputee) himself did not contest
when it happened, because it is a doctrine we believe in,” he said.
“The issue concerns on the belief and Ideology of Islam, which is to
protect the Islamic rights which is bidding on all Muslims.”

Mr. Sanni however
insists that his group “shall not relent in our right to express our
views, therefore we are heading straight to the Upper Sharia court on
Monday to challenge this ruling and if we lose there, the battle moves
to the Sharia court of appeal and the Supreme Court in that order.”

Of freedom of expression

A lecturer in the
department of Journalism at the Lagos State University, Jide Jimoh,
however called the ruling ‘a sad development.’ “This manner of ruling
negates the Section 22 and 39 of the Nigerian constitution and goes
against all binding local and international instruments that guarantees
freedom of expression and association,” he said.

Gbenga Sesan, an
ICT consultant and social media expert, expressed amusement. “I laugh
because Facebook and Twitter are beyond the jurisdiction of the Sharia
court, noting that the server on which the information is hosted is not
in Nigeria,” he said.

However, he raised
the fear that the error of allowing this ruling to stay will create a
precedent for “that will be a huge assault on the freedom which the
internet provides.”

He advised the CRC
to create another group (in a physical space that cannot be touched by
a Kaduna-based court) and register new accounts while they ‘comply’
with the court ruling in the interest of avoiding the injection of
religious sentiments into the ongoing series of events.

“The internet is a
tricky place to issue or uphold rulings because of the free – and
possibly anonymous – nature of cyberspace,” he said.

The Acting President, Goodluck
Jonathan, should embrace the national gender policy that states
reserving 35 per cent of all political appointments for women and
therefore, create wider room for women to participate in governance, a
woman activist and executive director of Equity Advocates, Ene Ede, has
said.

Women activists have expressed concern
over the few women ministerial nominees on the list sent to the Senate
for screening by the Acting President.

“It is the greatest shock to see only
very few women nominated for appointment in the new list,” Ms. Ede
said. “Already, there is what some people call ‘democratic deficit’,
where women have not been accorded their right of place in the polity.
We should have been asked to manage at least 10 slots. And what is
wrong with getting the 35 per cent prescribed by the national gender
policy? Consider the services and contributions that women have
rendered to make the society more comfortable.”

Incidentally, the theme for the 2010
International Women’s Day celebration is ‘Equal rights, equal
opportunity: Prosperity for Women.’ This, Ms. Ede said, underscores the
need to give women a voice in politics, saying history has proved that
women have done exceedingly better than their male counterparts in some
cases, in both traditional and even sophisticated economies.

Qualified for any post

“A woman can head
the Ministry of Defence,” she said. “There are lots of women who have
retired from the armed forces. Why can’t we pick any of them, or are
they not qualified? They can also head power or the petroleum ministry.
If we want real and genuine change, we can get women to head some key
ministries. There is no ministry in this country that cannot be headed
by women.”

She also urged Mr. Jonathan to bring fresher faces to government so as to give his government more dynamism.

“Former President
Olusegun Obasanjo will tell you that he owes a huge part of his success
to the calibre of women he brought in,” she said. “We still have women
who can do better than men, after all we never knew they existed
before. So let us stop all these recycling. Let us see younger women
coming in.

“The Senate, too. I know they are very gender sensitive and so we
would like to see how they will bring the gender sensitivity to bear on
the screening.”

In
the wake of last week’s accident involving tens of pupils of an
unregistered school in the state, the Ondo State government has
announced plans to tackle the spread of mushroom nursery and primary
schools in the state.

The State
Commissioner for Education, Adenike Fatogun, said at a news conference
in Akure on Monday that the state government was not happy with the
spread of illegal schools in the state and that new guidelines for
operators of private schools in the state have been finalised with a
view to reducing quackery in the educational system.

“The state
government could no longer fold its arms and allow mediocrity to ruin
the future of the pupils who are supposed to be the future leaders,”
Mrs. Fatogun said. “We are totally dissatisfied about the operation of
some nursery and primary schools in the state and that is why we are
reviewing the guidelines to make sure that they conform with the normal
standard obtainable in anywhere across the country.” An official of the
state Ministry of Education in Akure said no fewer than 200 unapproved
nursery and primary schools have been recommended for closure in the
state.

“Area Education
Officers (AEO) in the 18 local governments in the state have also been
directed to inspect all private schools in their jurisdictions and
verify whether they are registered with the state government,” he said,
speaking on condition of anonymity.

Packed like sardines

“The Education
Officers are also saddled with the responsibility of ascertaining
whether the facilities and environment where these schools operate meet
the required standard.” The Commissioner also said government would no
longer tolerate the way some schools load pupils inside the school
buses like sardines.

“Government will no longer tolerate the use of rickety buses to transport students to school.

We have discovered
that some schools packed pupils inside the school bus like sardines.
Such act is highly dangerous and needs to be tackled urgently,” she
said.

The Commissioner,
who also decried the way some school buses carry pupils to schools,
said she personally intercepted two school buses in Akure during the
week which were overloaded with pupils.

While advising
parents to be concerned about the security and welfare of their
children, Mrs. Fatogun warned that any private school in the state that
violates government’s directive will have its license revoked.

She disclosed that
the ministry will soon commence new registration of all private schools
in the state with a view to re-branding the educational sector and
identify quacks who only run schools for their selfish reasons.