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Over the past four weeks, there have been consultations within and outside the National Assembly by aspiring senate presidents from the ranks of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and their sponsors – or godfathers. The lobbyists and aspirants have been contacting prospective senators and party leadership, including the busy President Goodluck Jonathan seeking for support.

There are four major contenders for the seat; three from the current sitting senators, all bandying different criteria favouring them for the job and all hoping for support from Mr. Jonathan. The contestants are not deterred by the first huddle of winning the April 2nd election, neither are they held back by the possibility of the seventh Senate not being dominated by PDP lawmakers.

The contenders

The senate president, David Mark, and his deputy, Ike Ekweremadu, who are both lobbying for the return of the full line up of Senate’s current leadership are proponents of a non-zone inspired leadership of the Senate, just like in the presidency. They are favoured by experience and acceptability.

They are pitched against two major opponents. Former president Olusegun Obasanjo, a close ally of Mr Jonathan is supposedly pushing for a South West Senate president. Mr Obasanjo, according to sources, has lobbied the incumbent to favour zoning the Senate presidency to the South West and is presenting Iyabo Obasanjo, his daughter, and Bode Olajumoke for the position.

From the outside, Danjuma Goje, the governor of Gombe State is hoping to come to the senate and is also nursing an ambition of becoming the Senate president. He has allegedly gotten a nod from President Jonathan and party officials that the Senate presidency will be dedicated to the North East zone. A party official who does not want to be named said zoning the Senate presidency to the North East is a precondition for the zone to support the presidential ambition of President Jonathan.

No zoning formula

“As it is now, there is no zoning formula,” an official of the party told NEXT in confidence. “Until the president wins, nobody can lay claims to any other position.” In September 2010, President Jonathan who is also the leader of the party denounced the party’s zoning arrangement while submitting his nomination form at the Wadata plaza headquarters of PDP.

The president explained that it is only after the president and the vice president have emerged in an election that the party can decide which zones present leaders of the National Assembly positions.

“The office of the President and other elective offices like Senate Presidency, Speaker and National Assembly Officers, PDP has reasonable control as long as we are in the majority. Those offices could be zoned. But, before you zone those offices, the President and the Vice-president would have first emerged,” the president had told reporters.

“The president is the leader of the party and nothing has changed,” our source said.

Nevertheless, the three groups are tossing around claims to the senate presidency due to the new zoning arrangement that may emerge should Mr Jonathan win the April elections.

In a free-for-all contest, the Senate president is the most influential senator at present and is most favoured to win the contest should he win his Benue south constituency, on April 2nd. The Senate president, however, faces a tough battle back home. His long-standing opponent, Lawrence Onoja is contesting on the platform of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) which is threatening to sweep the state off PDP’s grip.

Mark’s challenge

Before now, Mr Mark was most favoured for the job following his close association with the president before the PDP primaries. The senate president was also the first to crystalise support from Mr Jonathan for the seat but due to the heightened numbness in their relationship and the president’s ever changing political promises, the Senate president’s chances have grown weaker recently.

Mr Ekweremadu is standing by his boss despite subtle calls from his south eastern colleagues for the position left for the South East. Mr Ekweremadu’s insistence on the return of Mr Mark as the Senate president and the current line up of Senate leadership is a sign of loyalty. However, it puts him in the position of next-in-line for the job should the senate president fail at home.

The agenda to return

Mr Mark as the Senate president is at present popular amongst his colleagues from the South and amongst the northern senators who feel differently about zoning the senate presidency to the North East.

Mr Olajumoke is said to have obtained the support of his state government to return to the senate despite being in the opposition because he also has the support of Mr Obasanjo. He will be serving his third term in the senate – good experience for a senate president – but will face serious opposition from Ms Obasanjo who hopes to be the first female senate president riding on her father’s support.

From all indications, based on legislative experience, Mr Goje will be least favoured for the office.

The casual passerby
who sees reconstructed buildings along major roads may think that
Zaki-Biam has recovered from the 2001 military invasion.

But those directly affected still bear the scars a decade later.

Simon Awua Gesa,
the 56 year old farmer who lost his father, Emmanuel Agwaza, an aunt,
as well as Pila Tsutsu Biam, chairman of the Zaki-Biam Yam Market
Association which lost nine members still bear the brunt of the
invasion.

Apart from human
losses, these residents also lost property running into millions of
naira and are yet to recover from the double blow.

Zaki-Biam was among
several communities in the Katsina-Ala/Ukum/Logo federal constituency
invaded by the Nigerian military in 2001 as reprisal for the killing of
19 soldiers.

Reports stated that
the local militia had captured and killed soldiers in civilian vehicles
and without proper military uniforms during the Tiv and Jukun communal
violence that year, believing that they were Jukun militia from Taraba
State.

Awua Gesa, Simon’s 70 year-old father, was among scores of people rounded up by the soldiers at the yam market and killed.

His house in Zaki-Biam was also destroyed a day after he was killed.

Hembadoon Agwaza,
Emmanuel’s aunt, who lost all her property when the five-bedroom flat
of her brother, Agwaza Aluga was destroyed, developed hypertension as a
result of the loss and died within one month of the invasion.

Apart from the loss of lives at the market, its stalls and all their contents were completely razed.

“My greatest pain
is the burden of training my father’s children the way he would have
done if he were alive,” Mr. Gesa lamented.

“Most of them cannot proceed beyond secondary school, now.” The late Gesa left behind four wives and over 30 children.

“We’ve not been
able to reconstruct my father’s flat which was one of the best in town,
I can’t say all hope is lost but unless God does a miracle I don’t see
how we can do it,” Mr. Agwaza stated.

Mr. Biam maintained
that the invasion had slowed down the development of the yam market
because the traders who had lost everything have not recovered enough
to pool resources to provide needed amenities there.

“We need a fence to
secure the market, boreholes, and more toilets, all these have not been
provided as a result of the invasion,” the market chairman stated.

He said the resources at the market are being channelled towards the reconstruction of the structures.

Libyan rebels backed by allied air strikes recaptured the strategic
eastern town of Ajdabiyah on Saturday, pushing out Muammar Gaddafi’s
forces.

Rebel fighters danced on tanks, waved flags and fired in the air by
buildings riddled with bulletholes after an all-night battle that
suggested the tide is turning against Gaddafi’s forces in the east.

A Reuters correspondent saw half a dozen wrecked tanks near the
eastern entrance to the town and the ground strewn with empty shell
casings. There were also signs of heavy fighting at the western gate,
the last part of the town taken from government troops.

“Everything was destroyed last night by our forces,” said rebel
fighter Sarhag Agouri. Witnesses and rebel fighters said the whole town
was in rebel hands by late morning.

Capturing Ajdabiyah is a big morale boost for the rebels after two weeks spent on the back foot.

Gaddafi’s better-armed forces halted an early rebel advance near the
major oil export terminal of Ras Lanuf and pushed them back to their
stronghold of Benghazi until Western powers struck Gaddafi’s positions
from the sea and air.

Air strikes on Ajdabiyah on Friday afternoon seem to have been decisive.

The African Union said it was planning to facilitate talks to help
end the war, but NATO said its operation could last three months, and
France said the conflict would not end soon.

In Washington, a U.S. military spokeswoman said the coalition fired
16 Tomahawk cruise missiles and flew 153 air sorties in the past 24
hours attacking Gaddafi’s artillery, mechanized forces and command and
control infrastructure.

Western governments hope the raids, launched a week ago with the aim
of protecting civilians, will shift the balance of power in favor of
the Arab world’s most violent popular revolt.

In Tripoli, explosions were heard early on Saturday, signaling possible new strikes by warplanes or missiles.

GADDAFI OFFERS PROMOTIONS

Libyan state television was broadcasting occasional, brief news
reports of Western air strikes. Mostly it showed footage — some of it
grainy images years old — of cheering crowds waving green flags and
carrying portraits of Gaddafi.

Neither Gaddafi nor his sons have been shown on state television
since the Libyan leader made a speech from his Tripoli compound on
Wednesday.

State TV said the “brother leader” had promoted all members of his
armed forces and police “for their heroic and courageous fight against
the crusader, colonialist assault.”

The United States said Gaddafi’s ability to command and sustain his forces was diminishing.

Officials and rebels said aid organisations were able to deliver
some supplies to the western city of Misrata but were concerned because
of government snipers in the city center.

Gaddafi’s forces shelled an area on the outskirts of the city, killing six people including three children, a rebel said.

Misrata has experienced some of the heaviest fighting between rebels
and Gaddafi’s forces since an uprising began on February 16.

At African Union headquarters in Addis Ababa, AU commission chairman
Jean Ping said on Friday the organization was planning to facilitate
peace talks in a process that should end with democratic elections.

It was the first statement by the AU, which had opposed any form of
foreign intervention in the Libya crisis, since the U.N. Security
Council imposed a no-fly zone last week and air strikes began on Libyan
military targets.

But in Brussels, a NATO official said planning for NATO’s operation
assumed a mission lasting 90 days, although this could be extended or
shortened as required.

France said the mission could go on for weeks.</

One thousand protesters, gathered in Tahrir square — the epicenter of Egypt’s uprising — chanted nationalist slogans and called for Mubarak and other figures from his government be tried for corruption. They also called for the release of the country’s political prisoners, MENA said.

Tahrir square in central Cairo has become a popular gathering point for demonstrators since the wave of anti-government protests that toppled Mubarak on Feb 11.
In a separate protest in downtown Cairo, 1,000 Coptic Christians gathered to demand the release of protesters they said were detained in a previous protest, and called for speedy investigations into recent incidents of sectarian strife.

And in a third protest also in central Cairo, 500 people gathered in front of Egypt’s state television and radio building, demanding that all employees hired by Mubarak’s government leave their posts for what they said was “incorrect and misleading” coverage of the anti-Mubarak protests.

REUTERS

The kidnapped
mother of Delta Central Senatorial Candidate in the April polls on
platform of the PDP, Ighoyota Amori, has been released.

The
Ninety-six-year old Obereyibo Amori was abducted Thursday last week at
Ugokpa, Mosogar in Ethiope West Local Government Area. A family source
said her captors dropped her at about 4pm on Monday in front of the
country home of Mr Amori in Mosogar.

The source, who
spoke on condition of anonymity, said no ransom was paid for the
release of Mrs Amori whose freedom from her captors threw the Mosogar
community into celebration. It was also gathered that she was not
harmed by the kidnappers, just as our source also said that she was
well taken care.

The source said her captors took her in a speedboat to a swamp, where she was kept before her release.

Ethiope West
Council Chairman, Wilson Omene in a telephone chat yesterday confirmed
the release and expressed gratitude to God that the old woman was not
hurt by those who abducted her.

The kidnappers had
allegedly demanded that Mr Amori drop from the senatorial race and also
pay the sum of N100 million before setting eyes on his mother again.

The wife of the
Nigerian president, Patience Jonathan, on Wednesday night, played host
to female candidates totaling 809, who made the Independent Electoral
Commission’s (INEC) list for the 2011 general elections at the banquet
hall of the presidential villa, Abuja.

In what was
described as unprecedented by her aides, Mrs. Jonathan held a dialogue
session with the female candidates who have won party primaries across
all the parties, the first by any First Lady in Nigeria.

Candidates from
PDP, CPC, APGA, ACN and other parties were present at the event. An
elated Mrs. Jonathan urged the female governorship aspirants to forge
close alliances with their deputies, either male or female, adding that
they must begin to understand that they are running as a team.

“Because I
understand the seed of cooperation, I never had problem with my
governor’s wife as a deputy governor’s wife, nor with the wife of the
president as the vice president’s wife. You have to be patient to get
to where you want in life,” Mrs. Jonathan said.

“I am pleased to
see that compared to years before now, many women have taken the bold
steps to contest. This is as a result of our campaign on the Women for
Change and Development,”she added.

She further
admitted that politics is still dominated by men, adding that “we need
to encourage our men to encourage gender balance.”

She also noted that
many bills sponsored by women in the National Assembly were thrown out
in the past because few supported it, saying her prayer was that there
should be more women lawmakers after the April polls.

“Women are the
largest voters in elections. It is, therefore, important that we use
our large numbers to our advantage in the forthcoming elections,” she
said.

Mrs. Jonathan said
it is regretable that Nigerian women currently occupy only 8.3 per cent
elective positions, though she admitted this figure is still an
improvement from previous years where women were not even considered.

“Since the campaign
started nine months ago, four states have approved 35 per cent
affirmative action, while one has approved 30 per cent and you are all
aware President Jonathan has promised 35 per cent if voted in,” she
said.

“I am aware you
will face many challenges like striking a balance between family and
politics, resistance from menfolk, and dominance of men in the
political sphere. I urge you to remain strong and focused,” she
appealed.

She then, through
her group, the Women for Change and Development Initiative, handed out
an undisclosed amount to the five female governorship aspirants, 88
women contesting for senatorial seats, 218 House of Representatives
aspirants, and 493 state Houses of Assembly.

“I will give you my
widow’s mite, no matter how small. Take it from me and my twin sister,
the wife of the vice president, Mrs. Sambo. It is not much, but it is
to encourage you. The little we have, take it with love and I wish you
success,” she said.

Standing with you

The wife of the vice president, Mrs. Sambo, congratulated the women.

“Women should not
forget where they come from when they win elections,” she said,
assuring the men that “our desire to contribute our quota is not to
compete with you, neither to take your positions and therefore, we urge
you to provide a level playing field for all.”

The national
coordinator of Women for Change and Development Initiative, Chidinma
Uwajumogu, described the women as fighters who succeeded where angels
failed to tread. She said the goal of the initiative is to empower
women politically and economically.

“(Mrs Jonathan) did say those who succeeded at the primaries would
have funds available to them to ensure they can fund their campaign
expenses. She believes her support and the fact that she is standing
behind you will move your vision forward. Today, the president has
promised us 35 per cent representation,” Ms. Uwajumogu said.

An aide to Chris
Ngige, a former governor of Anambra State, was yesterday arrested by
the police in the state over the illegal possession of election
materials belonging to the Independent National Electoral Commission
(INEC).

Kingsley Ezenwenyi
was arrested in his hotel room in Awka shortly after he visited the
commission’s office to copy the deployment list of electoral officers
released last Monday.

His activities drew
the attention of State Security Services officers attached to the
commission. He was trailed to his hotel in the outskirts of Awka where
he was discovered to be in possession of materials including election
result sheets and was promptly arrested.

A police source
said only three people were in the hotel – two males and one female –
and all were said to be members of the Action Congress of Nigeria.

The materials said
to be in his possession, according to the publicity secretary of INEC,
Frank Egbo include: Form EC8 A with serial number 01008997 (original
and duplicate copies), sixty copies of original Form EC8(R) which are
for publication of results of poll, 56 copies of Form EC8(B) which are
summaries of results from polling stations and collation of
Registration Area Level.

Illegal possession

The source said
when the suspect was asked to explain how he came to possess the
materials, he claimed he was working for INEC as a consultant to train
members of the ACN for the election.

But Mr Egbo said Mr Ezenwenyi was not working for the commission.

“He already has
result sheets for pasting results and it means his own results would
have been ready for publication before the conclusion of voting on
election day and if he does that, you know the kind of confusion that
would cause,” Mr Egbo said.

The spokesperson for the police, Emeka Chukwuemeka confirmed Mr. Ezenwenyi’s arrest.

“He was illegally
in possession of election materials,” Mr Chukwuemeka said, adding that
an investigation has been launched into the matter.

The spokesperson
for the ACN, Okelo Madukife, claimed ignorance of the development,
saying he would investigate the matter before talking further on it.

“How can I talk about what I don’t know? Let me ask a few questions. I don’t know what to say,” Mr Madukife said.

Solomon Lar, the
first chairman of the People’s Democratic Party, on Wednesday, joined
the struggle for the political front of northern Nigeria and declared
the entire region was “solidly” behind the incumbent.

He said the talks
of an impending northern alliance against President Goodluck Jonathan
only exists in the imagination of its protagonists and has no relevance
within the northern electorate.

Mr Lar made these
claims while briefing reporters in Abuja. He alleged the Action
Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and Congress for Progressive Change (CPC)
have bandied about the idea of a northern consensus candidate amongst
them ahead of the Presidential election.

Opposition’s
tactics “I consider this defeatist attitude as a sign of surrender and
admitting that Nigerians have rejected their politics of ethnic and
religious bigotry,” Mr Lar said. “These same parties are behind the
often repeated insinuation that President Jonathan may not win the
presidential election on the first run and may be forced to a re-run.”
Ahead of the presidential elections, all the top contenders have
fruitlessly worked hard to get a united endorsement from the northern
region which is contributing three frontline contenders in the race.

The Northern
Elders’ Forum which had put up a failed support for a consensus
candidate at the PDP presidential primaries has since the January
primaries remained silent on further endorsements, even for the
incumbent who is a member of their party.

Mr Lar, a strong
supporter of the incumbent said the scenario that played out during the
primaries – where the incumbent won without the endorsement of the
northern elders – will be repeated at the April polls.

“I wish to state
unequivocally and to reassure Nigerians that all region including the
North are solidly behind President Jonathan and will massively vote for
him in April polls.

“For the avoidance
of doubt, we the founding fathers of our new democracy and leaders who
fought for the country’s independence will not allow our cherish unity
to be compromised for personal or selfish ends.

“I therefore, call
on Nigerians to disregard any resort to ethnic coordinates as an act of
political anachronism designed to halt our political progress and march
to the promised land,” Mr Lar added.

The Akwa Ibom State
government yesterday said it has filed an application for the review of
the recent Supreme Court judgment asking it to cede 86 oil wells to
neighbouring Rivers State.

The state’s
governor, Godswill Akpabio, said yesterday in a broadcast to the people
that a careful and exhaustive study of the apex court’s verdict has
convinced his government that the judgment was given in error, and
should be reviewed.

According to Mr.
Akpabio, at the inception of his administration, the state had written
to late President Umaru Yar’Adua to protest the injustice in a
controversial political solution transferring some oil wells belonging
to the Akwa Ibom to Rivers. As a way out, President Yar’Adua reportedly
referred the petition to a committee of government agencies, consisting
of the National Boundary Commission (NBC), Office of the Surveyor
General of the Federation, the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR)
and the Revenue Mobilization Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC),
which recommended that the affected oil wells be returned to Akwa Ibom,
the original owners.

NEXT gathered that
the recommendation attracted a legal challenge by the Rivers State
government, which took the matter before the Supreme Court to protest
the return of the oil wells to Akwa Ibom.

Mr. Akpabio, who
expressed dismay at some sections of the judgment he described as
“deeply troubling to Akwa Ibom people,” saying the terms of the
judgment asking the state to pay Rivers State about N350 billion
(interests inclusive) was “outrageous, regrettable and totally false”
since the state hardly earned up to N350 billion from over 980 oil
wells attributed to Akwa Ibom State since April 2009.

Mr. Akpabio pointed
out that what the state is owing is for revenues collected from the
exploitation of the 86 oil wells for 22 months between April 2009 and
February 2011, against what the Rivers government’s is owing for
revenue collected for over 40 months between January, 2005 and March,
2009.

“Even if this
judgment were to subsist, it is Rivers State government, which would be
obligated to make refunds to Akwa Ibom State after the reconciliation
of accounts. This is because when the political solution referred to by
the eminent judges of the Supreme Court was brokered in 2006 by the
then President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, revenue from the 172 oil wells
earlier arbitrarily taken from Akwa Ibom State by Rivers State were to
be shared on a fifty-fifty basis between both states as from 2005.
However, Rivers State kept the 172 oil wells and collected all the
revenue there-from and all the revenue that accrued from the 172 oil
wells from January, 2005 to March, 2009,” the governor argued.

Leaving the Iddo
train station in Lagos at 9.35 a.m. and over seven hours later, a train
arrived at Ibadan, Oyo State, for the first time in three years. The
journey is a test run and the Nigerian Railway Corporation says that
the speed will improve in the coming days.

Cheering crowds
lined the route applauding, saying “welcome back’ and asking “is it for
the people?,” wondering whether it has come to stay.

David Ndanusa,
assistant director, public relations, for the corporation, said the
full commercialisation of rail transportation will begin in the next
three months.

Mr. Ndanusa added
that the free test ride will continue for the next one week, thereby
putting rail transportation on the path to becoming the biggest means
of transportation in the country.

He said the trip
was initially planned to span between Lagos and Ilorin because the rail
tracks have been fully fixed between the two ends, but it was cut short
to Ibadan due to faults discovered on some parts of the rail tracks.

The corporation has
been rendering services to companies like Lafarge Cement Company,
Oando, and others, adding, “We are ready to start giving good services
to Nigerians. This government has been very supportive and we are also
ready to live up to expectation. The track from Lagos to Jebba is ready
and very soon the link to Kano will be ready for commercial use too.

“It is cheaper and
more accessible and as you can see, we have security outfits and there
is a police command headed by a commissioner of police.

“When I first
joined Nigeria Railway Corporation, we were almost 37,000 passengers’
capacity, but we are now 6,000,” Mr. Ndanusa said.

Most of the
passengers were, however, happy for the return of the train, calling on
the government to do more and not only limit it to just refurbishing
the old coaches and throw them at the public.

“Actually, it is an
experience, but it is not a good one in that the system is still as bad
as I used to hear about the rail system. It (the coach) is not a good
one. They should take all these old ones out and bring in new ones,
that is what I can tell them,” says Ahmed Usman, a University of Lagos
student who was on the ride.

Timothy Oluwole,
who has been working with NRC since 1999, was the train driver. Mr.
Oluwole said, “Rail system is coming back in the country. What is left
to be worked on is just the rail tracks. The engine is new, it was
brought in from Brazil, every other thing is perfect, but the trip was
slow because we wanted to be careful with the track. You know, it is
not easy jumping into a place afresh and just move at the high speed.”

He expressed
happiness that he was chosen to drive the train, adding that the
federal government’s continuous investment into the system will bring
it back to stay.

Disappointment too

Eniola Rowland saw
the train at Abeokuta and his excitement was palpable. “I am happy that
this is happening now. We are getting there. People can now bring their
load and send it through the train instead of using the trailers,” Mr.
Rowland said.

But there was
disappointment too. Babatunde Rasheed, a student of Kwara Polytechnic,
said he was excited when he saw the advert and looked forward to riding
the train back to school.

Mr. Rasheed was,
however, disappointed when he knew that the train will not be getting
to Ilorin again, but expressed willingness that he will be lucky next
time.

Also expressing his
displeasure, another passenger to Ilorin, Suraj Kazeem, said,
“Initially, they told us Jebba, later they said Ilorin, and now they
will just get to Ibadan and turn back. I just hope this will not be
their style of operation. They will have to sit tight and plan well
before telling the public,” Mr. Kazeem said.