Nigeria Content Online

The
police have deployed 700 officers ahead of President Goodluck
Jonathan’s visit to Bida in Niger. Mr. Jonathan is expected to pay a
courtesy visit to traditional ruler, the Etsu Nupe, Yahaya Abubakar, on
Tuesday before flagging off his campaign in Minna. The police area
commander in Bida, Ayo Olatunji, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN)
on Monday that police officers had been deployed to strategic locations
to ensure an orderly visit. Mr. Abubakar also appealed to youth in the
area to be calm and not to do anything that would cause any hitches,
stressing that the police would deal with anyone seeking to cause a
breach of the peace.

Meanwhile, a former
minister of information, Jerry Gana, has appealed to Nupe people all
over the country to come home to welcome the president.

“We must all come out to give Mr. President a befitting welcome and convince him to support our demand for Edu State,” he said.

Earlier yesterday,
the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) says it was finalising arrangements
for President Goodluck Jonathan’s successful campaign across the seven
states in the North-West Zone. Baba Lawal-Aliyu, the North West Zonal
Secretary of the party, made this known in Kaduna on Monday in an
interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).

He said that the presidential campaign train would visit all the states in the zone to canvass for support from the electorate.

“You see, this is a
critical zone to the party because we produced the vice-president and a
host of ministers, ambassadors and other political appointees. Our zone
is also the most populated region in the country with the highest
number of votes.

“That is why the PDP machinery at all levels would not want to take chances or squander opportunities,” Mr. Lawal-Aliyu said.

According to him, the zonal executive committee and zonal working
committee will consider the composition of campaign committees and
itinerary as well as other sundry issues that will make the programme a
success. He urged party members and supporters to remain steadfast,
loyal and law abiding. The zone comprises Kaduna, Kano, Katsina,
Sokoto, Kebbi, Jigawa and Zamfara States. Meanwhile, the PDP has
inaugurated an eight-member reconciliation committee for the zone with
a Veteran Journalist, Abba Dabo, as Chairman. Mr. Lawal-Aliyu said that
an educationist, Suleiman Kauru, would serve as the committee’s
secretary. He said Ladan Shuni, Babajo Funtua, Sule Buba, Samaila
Dankasa, Isa Bahutu and Mohammed Bawa would serve as members. In a
related development, Ibrahim Kazaure, has since assumed duties as the
new zonal chairman of the party with a pledge to refocus and improve
PDP’s fortunes in the North-West zone.

A
NEXT investigation has shown that the media assistant to President
Goodluck Jonathan, Ima Niboro, lied when he tried to contest this
newspaper’s exclusive story that President Jonathan hired 133 advisers
and assistants whose wages cost the nation about N780million per annum.
Mr. Niboro claimed in his telephone rejoinder that Mr. Jonathan only
appointed a few aides upon assuming office and that the “majority of
all the names on the list are old names; most of them have been there
since Obasanjo’s time.”

A review of the dates of appointment of
the aides, however, shows that none of the 133 presidential aides, in
the official list as published by NEXT, was appointed during the tenure
of former President Olusegun Obasanjo. Mr. Jonathan appointed 57 of the
aides upon becoming president while the remaining 76 were appointed
while he was the vice president.

Our findings show that Mr. Jonathan,
who assumed office on May 6, 2010, appointed the first set of eight
presidential aides on May 24, 2010. Two weeks later, four aides were
appointed on June 9, 2010. A month later, the first lady got 11
presidential aides, including one of her ladies-in waiting, Justin
Adaba.

Mr. Niboro was also wrong when he said
that he “ignored those enquiries because they did not come through the
state house correspondent.”

The lead reporter of the original
story, Elor Nkereuwem, sent her questions to Mr. Niboro through text
messages when he did not answer his phone. The state house
correspondent for NEXT, Elizabeth Archibong, also sent Mr. Niboro a
reminder. Several attempts were also made by other reporters and
editors to seek Mr. Niboro’s clarification. The presidential spokesman
still did not respond.

Civil society condemns large number of aides

The Human and Environmental Development
Agenda has condemned the high number of presidential aides. Olanrewaju
Suraj, the chairman of the group, stated this in a telephone interview.
Mr. Suraj condemned the position of the secretary to the government of
the federation whose spokesperson stated that “the president has all
the right to choose his assistants and advisers and there is no
constitutional limit to the number he decides upon.”

“If the constitution does not limit the
presidential aides, is that now enough reason to waste taxpayers’ money
for such high number of aides who are largely irrelevant to the growth
of the nation?” Mr. Suraj asked.

We approve presidential aides

But the chairman of the House of
Representatives Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Eseme Eyiboh,
yesterday defended the president’s large number of aides.

“I do know that the president usually sends that request (the number of aides required) to the National Assembly,” he said.

Section 151(2) of the 1999 constitution empowers the National
Assembly to limit the number of presidential aides. “The number of such
advisers and their remuneration and allowances shall be as prescribed
by law or by resolution of the National Assembly,” the law states.

Justice Jonathan
Shakarho of the Federal High Court, Ibadan, on Monday, adjourned
indefinitely the hearing of a contempt suit brought against the Oyo
State Governor Adebayo Alao-Akala. The judge said that he was making
the decision on moral grounds, having been accused of receiving N50
million from Mr. Alao-Akala to rule in his favour last week. The case
was brought before the court by Wole Oyelese, Yekini Adeojo, Lekan
Balogun, Azeem Gbolarumi and 33 other members of the People’s
Democratic Party (PDP) in Oyo state to challenge the emergence of the
governor and other nominees as the party’s candidates for the April
polls. The group asked the court to declare that Mr. Akala and the
other candidates’ nominations were products of ‘illegal party
primaries’.

Although the court was to reconvene on Monday to begin the hearing on the contempt suit and substantive matter, Mr.

Shakarho said he would have to wait for a directive from the office of the chief justice of Nigeria, Alloysius Kastina-Alu.

“We can’t go on
with the case by the undoing of some of the plaintiffs,” Mr. Shakarho
said. “I am leaving the case as it is. When there is a directive from
my chief judge, we will go on”.

Yekini Atoyebi, one
of the plaintiffs, had in a petition asked the chief justice to
investigate an alleged induced reversal of an interlocutory injunction
earlier given by Mr. Shakarho. Mr. Atoyebi, in his petition, alleged
that the judge’s body language when he reversed his initial order
restraining the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) from
recognizing the governor and others as PDP contestants suggested that
he had made up his mind to tilt the ruling in their favour.

‘What is my business?’

Speaking on the
petition and the implication on his continued sitting over the suits,
Mr. Shakarho said: “Once one person writes against me, we cannot go on.
He (Mr. Atoyebi) said in his last paragraph that, in his view, it was
clear they cannot obtain justice before me. I want another judge to
hear the matter. Can I, in the face of this, go further in this matter?
This case is adjourned sine die. ‘Case yi, o ti ba je’ (This case has
gone bad). They shot themselves on the leg. It is their own case, if
they want to put block on it, ‘ki lo kan mi ni be? (what is my
business?)”, he asked in Yoruba.

Efforts by Sanyaolu Akinyele, one of the counsel to the plaintiffs, to get the court to strike out the name of Mr.

Atoyebi and
continue the case proved abortive. The judge insisted that he would
wait until the chief justice directed him to proceed.

Reaction

Dotun Oyelade,
special adviser to Mr. Alao-Akala on public communications, reacted to
the adjournment, describing it as a sad day for the relationship
between politicians and the judiciary.

“What manner of
politicians are these who will turn the innocent into villains within
the twinkle of an eye because a case did not go their way? Resorting to
cheap blackmail to pervert the course of justice does not augur well
for democracy. We strongly suggest that the National Judicial Council
should investigate this and bring the culprits to book,” he said in a
release to journalists on Monday.

Lateef Fagbemi and Richard Akinjide, counsel to the defendants,
agreed with the court on the indefinite adjournment. An appeal filed by
the plaintiffs against the controversial vacation order has been slated
for Monday, February 28 at the Ibadan division of the Court of Appeal.

Aloysius
Katsina-Alu, the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), yesterday ended the
controversy surrounding his retirement age by announcing that he would
step down in August this year at the age of 70.

In a press statement, he sought to clarify his position on when he would statutorily step down.

“For the purpose of
keeping the records straight, Katsina-Alu was born on August 28, 1941
and he is due for retirement on 28 August, 2011 when he will clock 70
years.

“There has never
been any controversy over this, as all his records from the date of
birth through all the institutions he attended vis-à-vis the various
organisations he has worked before being elevated to the office of the
Chief Justice of Nigeria have never been different from what they have
always been,” the statement read.

The present
controversy may not be unconnected to the recent saga which involved
the unexpected elevation and reversal of the president of the Court of
Appeal, Ayo Salami. In a move seen to have political undertones, Mr.
Salami had accused the Chief Justice of trying to remove him from
office.

Mr. Salami, in a
letter addressed to Mr. Katsina-Alu, who is also the chairman of the
National Judicial Council, alleged that his planned removal was
initiated during meetings of the Federal Judicial Service Commission
held on February 1 and 2 while he was away at Ilroin, Kwara State.

In the letter,
dated February 4, and addressed to Mr. Katsina-Alu, Mr. Salami alleged
that the action was a validation of months of rumours of his planned
ousting which he had then dismissed as “talk shop gossip” originating
from mischief makers.

Mr. Salami had
dragged Mr. Katsina-Alu and the National Judicial Council (NJC) to a
Federal High Court in Abuja, challenging his unprecedented elevation to
the Supreme Court.

Mr. Katsina-Alu was
reacting to a recent publication over the actual date for his
retirement. This follows perceived discrepancy in the prescribed date
and procedure for his retirement, vis-à-vis, and the convention in the
nation’s judicial system.

Records at the apex
court indicate that the incumbent CJN who was appointed on December 31,
2009, is expected to leave office on August 28, this year.

But observers note
that going by tradition, his tenure is due to elapse by May 28, when he
would have reached the official retirement age of 70 years, as
stipulated for justices of the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeal by
the constitution.

Teachers in the
employment of Osun State government should be more dedicated to their
professional calling in the interest of the children of the state and
as a way of reciprocating the huge amount invested in the education
sector by the state, the executive secretary of the State Universal
Basic Education Board (SUBEB), Fatai Kolawole, has said.

Mr. Kolawole
advised the teachers to support the education programmes of the state,
saying the state governor, Rauf Aregbesola, has resolved to give
priority to education and improve the welfare of teachers in the state.
While stressing the need for teachers of public schools in the state to
develop themselves, the basic education official stated that the state
government will ensure prompt training and re-training of teachers in
its employment to develop their teaching skills and improve their
knowledge.

“The present
government in the state is education friendly. We are fortunate to have
a governor who has the interest of the people at heart. Mr. Aregbesola
always embraces ideas that are geared towards moving education sector
to the next level. He has assured us of his unalloyed commitment to the
development of the sector, and he is ready to live up to his words. It
is, therefore, the duties of the teachers to reciprocate the good
gesture of the governor by showing commitment to work,” Mr Kolawole
said.

He said the recent
workshop organised by the Nigeria Educational Research and Development
Council (NERDC) for the tutors was timely, as it would improve their
understanding of the nine-year basic and senior secondary education
curricula recently introduced by the federal government.

The permanent
secretary of the state ministry of education, Olubukola Opakunle, said
the state government would collaborate with the NERDC to develop the
standard of education in the state and to ensure capacity building for
the teachers.

“The society expect a lot from teachers, and we urge them to equip
themselves in order to live up to the standard expected of them by the
society,” Mrs. Opakunle said.

The presidential candidate of the All Nigeria Peoples Party
(ANPP), Ibrahim Shekarau will finally flag off his presidential campaign in
Abuja on Thursday February 24.

A source in the party told NEXT yesterday that the party
leadership agreed to the date after a meeting with Mr Shekarau, who is also the
governor of Kano State.

The party also resolved to start its state campaign tour in
Ebonyi State after the Abuja rally. The commencement of the presidential
campaign has been a source of concern for the party leadership following the
inability of Mr Shekarau to nominate those to be part of the party’s campaign
organisation.

At the meeting of the national working committee of the party
last Wednesday, Mr Shekarau was as he was said to be preparing for his
daughter’s wedding.

Some top party members have expressed concern that it was yet to
kick off the campaign even though the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) which it
seeks to replace during the polls had concluded its zonal campaign and is now
touring the 36 states.

A member of the NWC was mandated by the national chairman of the
party, to raise a memo on the issue and send to the committee for
consideration.

It was learnt that Ogbonnaya Onu, the national chairman of the
party will present Mr Shekarau and his running mate, John Odigie-Oyegun at the
flagging off ceremony to be attended by party members from all the states and
the federal capital territory.

Looking to the South West

Spokesman of the ANPP, Emma Eneukwu could not be reached for
comment. However, Mr Odigie-Oyegun confirmed the commencement of the
presidential campaign in a telephone interview with NEXT yesterday.

Mr Odigie-Oyegun, a former Edo State governor did not disclose
who will lead the party’s presidential campaign committee, neither did he name
those in the committee.

A source had said last week that the director general of the
campaign organisation may be picked from the South west geo-political zone of
the country since Mr Onu is from the South East and Mr Odigie-Oyegun, from the
South-South geo-political zones.

It was gathered that Bolaji Khaleel from Kwara State who headed the Mr
Shekarau’s Campaign Orgnisation ahead of the primaries, will be replaced since
he is now the ANPP gubernatorial candidate in Kwara State.

The dispute between Keke Owners and Riders Association of
Nigeria (KORAN) and Autobahn Techniques Limited has reached a melodramatic
level as members of KORAN, at the weekend sought clarification as to the
ownership of the trademark name ‘Keke NAPEP.’ The association asked the
National Coordinator of National Poverty Eradication Programme (NAPEP), Magnus
Kpakol to clarify whether there is an official authority that ‘KEKE NAPEP,’ as
a trade mark, should be registered as a property of Autobahn.

The association noted that when the tricyle idea was conceived
by government, two companies; Bhojwani Brothers and Autobahn Techniques Ltd
were shortlisted, noting that Autobahn was however given the job because of the
higher quality of tricycle it imports against the Bajaj model by Bhojwani.
Their grouse is that NAPEP is an acronym for the National Poverty Eradication
Programme, which is a creation of the Federal Government and should not be
identified with a private establishment.

KORAN said that the relationship between the federal government
and Autobahn was that of employer/contractor relationship and therefore
ownership of the project “Keke NAPEP” should not be treated as a personal
property. In a petition signed by KORAN’s National President, Bashir Akinola
and its Secretary, Esther Ogunbanjo, -the association held that ‘Keke’ is a
generic name adopted all over the country for tricycles, irrespective of the
supplier and asked the national co-ordinator of NAPEP to clarify the confusion
about the ownership of name.

Many-layered fight

Autobahn was contracted by the federal government to develop and
implement the ‘keke NAPEP’ project in 2000. Since the contract was initiated ,
the company has been involved in a law suit over the trademark’s name.

Last year, NAPEP dragged Autobahn before the Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission (EFCC) for allegedly failing to supply all the tricycles as
contracted by the federal government But prior to this, a report by NEXT has it
that Autobahn had accused Mr. Kpakol of deliberately delaying the payment of
the contract fee by twice issuing the contractor dud cheques.

Could the United States government run out of money, stop paying its creditors worldwide, and just shut down?

“The strength of
the American dollar as a world currency is grounded on the
unconditional guarantee by the United States to pay its debts,” said
Democratic Senator, Dick Durbin.

“A default on that
commitment, a near default, a threat of default, no matter how short,
would be a first in the history of the United States,” he added.

From Tokyo to
Toronto, governments of all sizes are facing tough budget choices. The
U.S. is no exception and this week, President Obama proposed a
multi-trillion-dollar budget that lawmakers will probably fight over
for months.

The problem is
that Washington faces a bigger budget decision much sooner. Like many
other countries, the U.S. spends more than it collects as taxes and it
makes up the difference by borrowing.

But unlike their
counterparts in most other countries, U.S. lawmakers keep a legal limit
on total debt. Right now, it’s roughly $14.3 trillion and Washington
will probably need more money within weeks.

Some Republicans say they’ll vote against raising the limit because they are so determined to cut government spending.

“I think the most
irresponsible thing that we can do as a Congress, the least grown-up
thing we can do, is just to vote to raise that debt ceiling and
continue business as usual, amounting these massive deficits and debt
that we have been running up,” said Republican Senator, Pat Toomey.

The impact could
be enormous, leaving the U.S. treasury without money for paychecks,
pensions or payments to other governments worldwide; it could undermine
faith in the most important currency in the world.

As that enormous
decision approaches, some prominent Republicans are backing away from
the threat and looking for ways to negotiate a new, higher limit.

In fact, President
Obama’s Democrats are more likely to mention the debt limit these days,
losing no opportunity to remind voters about what Republicans have been
considering.

Some Republicans
may still be considering it. Until we get close to a vote on the limit
in the new Republican-controlled House of Representatives, we can’t be
sure. Washington could still really shut itself down. Or come close.

Jonathan Mann presents Political Mann on CNN International each
Friday at 18:30 (CAT), Saturday at 3pm and 9pm (CAT), and Sunday at
10am (CAT).

Officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission
(INEC) registered a total of 67,764,327 million Nigerians during the just concluded
national voter registration exercise, the final list released has shown.

The electoral body is presently undertaking a review exercise to
ensure that there are no missing data or duplication of registration. Barring
any major changes after the review, the figure represents the number of
Nigerians expected to cast their votes during April polls across the country.
According to the data, states with the highest number of prospective voters
include two of Nigeria’s most populated states, Lagos and Kano. Lagos leads the
pack with a total of 6.2 million registered voters.

It is followed by Kano which has 5.1 million; Kaduna, with 3.5
million; Katsina, with 2.9million; Borno, with 2.7 million; Oyo, with
2.5million; Rivers, with 2.4million and Sokoto, with a total of 2million
registered voters.

These figures, released pending the removal of any duplicated
registration, were obtained from the INEC voters’ return register exclusively
obtained by NEXT.

It shows that Bayelsa is the state with the lowest number of voters,
with a total of 472, 389 registered prospective voters; followed by Niger
state, with 721,478; Ekiti, with 750,753 and the Federal Capital Territory with
886, 323.

The figure shows that the fight for votes is likely to be fierce
in high populated northwest and southwest states. Of the populous states, PDP
is in power in Kaduna, Oyo, Katsina, Sokoto and Rivers States respectively. The
All Nigeria Peoples Party is the ruling party in Borno and Kano States while
the Action Congress of Nigeria rules Lagos. The recently established Congress
of Progressive Change is however likely to create upset in some states in the
northwest.

The registration exercise, which started on the 15th – 29th of
January 2011 was characterised by numerous hitches which might have been the
cause of the low figures recorded in some parts of the country.

Release date is March

In places such as the FCT, some centres witnessed massive
turnout of prospective voters who were eager to register, some out of the
responsibility of carrying out their civic duties while others out of fear that
they might be asked for the voters’ cards at their places of work. But poor
performance of equipment and other logistical challenges made it impossible for
many to register.

Chastened, INEC asked the National Assembly for a one week
extension, which was granted. But this was not enough to register the throng of
people who queued for days and nights to register, for fear of being
disenfranchised.

The electoral body also announced a two-day extension of the
registration process, which was to only apply to areas that had recorded some
form of crises since the beginning of the exercise.

The voters’ registration return list, which was compiled on the February 16,
is to be released on March 2. A breakdown of the data shows that more Nigerians
were registered between the fourth and eleventh days of the exercise, when over
4 million people registered daily. It later tapered off towards the last days,
when the number of registered voters were just in the hundreds of thousands.

The Presidency has refuted claims that President Goodluck
Jonathan appointed more aides than his predecessor, stating that he only hired
a few hands to fill vacant offices.

NEXT had exclusively reported that the President has an army of
133 aides who get paid about N780 million every year. NEXT also revealed that
Mr. Jonathan, after being sworn in, last year May, following the death of Umaru
Musa Yar’Adua, not only retained almost all the special aides appointed by his
late boss, but appointed 57 new ones. “In the nine months that he has been
president, Mr. Jonathan has appointed a chief of staff, a deputy chief of
staff, nine special advisers, 23 senior special assistants, 21 special
assistants and two personal assistants” the report read.

The presidential spokesman, Ima Niboro, who explained that the
list contained some misinterpretation, said contrary to what was reported, the
president has only appointed a few hands to fill in the spaces created either
by the exit of his predecessor or the personal exit of the aides.

He also said Mr. Jonathan created a few new portfolio which
includes; the office of the Special Adviser on Power, Special Adviser on Anti-
Terrorism and the office of the Special Assistant to the President on Diaspora
Affairs.

Old names

Mr. Niboro went on to explain that most of the names on the
list were old names and have been there since the administration of former
President Olusegun Obasanjo . “Majority of all the names on the list are old
names, most of them have been there since Obasanjo’s time, some of them were
with him as Vice President, and I and some other aides who were with him as
Vice President, vacated our offices from the VP’s side to join him, when he
became president”.

On why he did not respond to questions and calls from the
reporter about the issue, Mr. Niboro said the inquiries did not come through
the right channel.

“I ignored those inquiries because they did not come through the state house
correspondent,” he said. “Such questions should be channeled right, so that I
can keep track of who I am talking to”.