Nigeria Content Online

Alcohol causes
nearly 4 percent of deaths worldwide, more than AIDS, tuberculosis or
violence, the World Health Organisation has warned. Rising incomes have
triggered more drinking in heavily populated countries in Africa and
Asia, including India and South Africa, and binge drinking is a problem
in many developed countries, the United Nations agency said. Yet
alcohol control policies are weak and remain a low priority for most
governments despite drinking’s heavy toll on society from road
accidents, violence, disease, child neglect and job absenteeism, it
said. Approximately 2.5 million people die each year from alcohol
related causes, the WHO said in its “Global Status Report on Alcohol
and Health.” “The harmful use of alcohol is especially fatal for
younger age groups and alcohol is the world’s leading risk factor for
death among males aged 15-59,” the report found. In Russia and the
Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), every fifth death is due to
harmful drinking, the highest rate. Binge drinking, which often leads
to risky behaviour, is now prevalent in Brazil, Kazakhstan, Mexico,
Russia, South Africa and Ukraine, and rising elsewhere, according to
the WHO.

“Worldwide, about
11 percent of drinkers have weekly heavy episodic drinking occasions,
with men outnumbering women by four to one. Men consistently engage in
hazardous drinking at much higher levels than women in all regions,”
the report said. Health ministers from the WHO’s 193 member states
agreed last May to try to curb binge drinking and other growing forms
of excessive alcohol use through higher taxes on alcoholic drinks and
tighter marketing restrictions.

Alcohol is a causal
factor in 60 types of diseases and injuries, according to WHO’s first
report on alcohol since 2004. Its consumption has been linked to
cirrhosis of the liver, epilepsy, poisonings, road traffic accidents,
violence, and several types of cancer, including cancers of the
colorectum, breast, larynx and liver. “Six or seven years ago we didn’t
have strong evidence of a causal relationship between drinking and
breast cancer. Now we do,” Vladimir Poznyak, head of WHO’s substance
abuse unit who coordinated the report, told Reuters.

Alcohol consumption rates vary greatly, from high levels in
developed countries, to the lowest in North Africa, sub-Saharan Africa,
and southern Asia, whose large Muslim populations often abstain from
drinking. Homemade or illegally produced alcohol – falling outside
governmental controls and tax nets – accounts for nearly 30 percent of
total worldwide adult consumption.

The music filled the bus and the driver tapped his chubby fingers to the rhythm.

“Pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop something/Pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop something/We dey pop champagne, pop champagne…”

He cradled the
steering wheel to his huge belly, his fat cheeks eternally seeming on
the verge of breaking into a smile. You could see how hard he had tried
to groom himself; the long nails chipped in parts; the dark oily hair
cut in the style called Gallas, tribute to the former Arsenal player
who made it so famous.

He seemed a bit too
old for relaxers and shady hairstyles, but the twinkle in his eye said
that perhaps he knew that, but so what? His check-shirt hugged his gut
so tight the buttons appeared ready to pop at the next big meal of
amala and ewedu washed down with the inevitable Gulder. Oh, yes, he
looked like a man who enjoyed his food with some brew.

But he was not a
big talker, preferring to limit his vocal efforts to singing the chorus
of the Dr. Sid/D’Banj song. When an angry driver overtook our bus,
hurling insults at him for no apparent reason, he didn’t even shout
back. He gazed placidly at the fellow through his window, and placing
an index finger to the side of his head, he turned it sharply, like a
screw. At Ogudu, he stopped to pick up an odd couple; a smallish fellow
in the garish colours of the LASTMA uniform and a much taller man. It
was soon clear that he knew them both. On spying the shorter guy, he
began to protest after they entered: “Oh no, no!”, shaking his head
like one who had committed an irredeemable blunder.

“Egbon,” he said,
addressing the tall chap and pointedly ignoring the uniformed fellow,
“I seriously thought you were alone. Seriously. I don’t usually carry
these wicked people.”

Goliath chuckled.

“Because of me,” he said, settling down, “Carry am today, I beg.”

The LASTMA official
pursed his lips, predicting dire consequences for errant drivers who
didn’t know how to show respect for authority. The driver made a face
and laughed. Suddenly, a bike man cut into our lane from the blind side
and went speeding past without a care.

“The people who drive okada are crazy,” he said quietly, “Every single one of them.”

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you an oxymoron: a danfo driver with no stress.

Sitting beside him
up front, I again wondered what it was about fat men that makes you
feel comfortable in their company. They seemed more able to absorb
life’s pressures, to hide their neuroses under all those layers of
flesh. I remembered Caesar saying to Anthony: “Let me have men about me
that are fat; sleek-headed men and such as sleep o’ nights,” and I
thought, the Roman general would have loved this bus driver.

I got down at Ojota
feeling quite mellow, as if I had indeed popped some champagne, and I
began to see Lagosians differently. At the criminally built steps of
the overhead bridge at Ojota, an elderly lady with a tall load
stumbled, and a dashing young woman in an Afro and elegant shoes
stepped forward: “Mama, let me help you with the load,” she said. The
elderly woman refused, but the smile on her wrinkled face was priceless.

At the other end of the bridge, I ran into a schoolboy helping a blind man negotiate the bustle, and they were both laughing.

“Can they not see too?” asked the blind man every time someone
brushed past him. And their laughter would resume. I looked around me.
Everyone seemed to be in a good mood, all the Lagos madness gone. It
looked like my danfo driver’s attitude was catching. Yeah, pop the
champagne jare. Eko o ni baje.

The forthcoming elections

One thing I know is
that it is not possible for us as a people to get to our destination
immediately. We have been having problem with our electoral system in
Nigeria since the first republic. The western region electoral problem
of 1965 should still be fresh in the minds of the people. The
personality of the INEC chairman is very important if we will have a
credible election come 2011. What is the antecedence of Professor
Attahiru Jega? This man is not going to be a magician and is not going
to be God. However, I’m happy that Mr Jega himself understands that his
person, his record, his personality, his integrity are on the line. I
must say that in the history of ASUU struggle in Nigeria, he performed
creditably well and when he left as the ASUU Chairman, series of
articles were written in the newspapers to commend him as a sincere,
faithful, credible, and dependable Nigerian. If the will is there, I
believe Mr Jega is going to make a success of it.

However, the INEC
chairman has been complaining about time factor, he had complained
about this times without number, he has also told Nigerians to expect a
credible election in 2011. But to have a credible election, we can’t
depend solely on the body that will organise it, the civil society; the
media, political parties, and Nigerians must put in a great will so as
to have a credible election in 2011. The sincerity of the political
class and internal democracy in the various political parties will also
go a long way at ensuring a successful election come 2011. The most
important thing is the will of the people to have election conducted
latest by April 2011, and if the will is there, success will be the
result.

Traditional rulers and the Constitution

The class that I
represent want roles specified for traditional rulers in the
constitution, but I believe that roles are already specified for all
Nigerians in the 1999 Constitution. The traditional rulers are also
subjects to all the roles specified in the constitution.

Traditional rulers’ involvement in politics

We are all
political animals in the first place. I am a political animal and for
me as a political scientist and a traditional ruler, I will be
interested in what is going on in my society, including the political
events. As someone who was so close to the corridors of power who is
now a traditional ruler, how will I not be interested in politics?
However, I am a father to everybody. For me, I am not partisan. I don’t
have any favourite candidate. All candidates are all my children and I
tell those who care to listen to embrace all candidates as their
children. As traditional rulers we should not be partisan. We are
supposed to be fathers to all of them. But, we have a responsibility to
advise and support the government in power. Any government in power at
any time should be supported by the traditional rulers, it’s our
responsibility to give advice and counsel to the government of the day,
even God urges us to do that in the Holy books.

In a nation like
ours that loves clichés, proverbs and sayings, I often hear the phrase,
“time is money” but I have very rarely seen evidence that we really
believe that to be the case. Businessmen especially epitomise this
worldview by applying extraordinary pressure on their staff. It takes
twice or three times as long to get something done here than in
developed countries. Why? It must be something to do with our mindset.

We seem to value
time in cyclical phases and seasons rather than in minutes and hours.
We know the value of childhood, adulthood and old age and we accord
each stage of life its due respect.

We recognise the
benefit and importance of our rainy season and dry season and the havoc
it creates when the season starts late and/or ends early. For some
reason that I cannot fathom, we do not seem to understand, recognise,
agree or value linear time measured in minutes, hours, and days….and
this is demonstrated most markedly in the phenomenon that we call
Nigerian time.

Nigerian Time

We are by no means
the only nation that operates by two clocks – Greenwich Mean Time and
national time – but we are particularly bad about keeping our promises
as they apply to timekeeping. We have a built-in variance of up to 2
hours plus for any appointment. This means that participants can expect
a 9am meeting to start LATEST at 11am. It means that if I am invited to
speak at a 3pm event and I arrive at 3.30pm, I am ON TIME. It means
that when you make an appointment with a government official or a
business tycoon for a 15 minute meeting, you need to block out your
entire morning because you don’t know when they will see you.

Your appointment
does not refer to time, it reflects the agreement to receive you.
Operating by Nigerian time also means that if you turn up at a party at
the advertised time, you are EARLY! How much is Nigerian time costing
us?

Recently, at the
launch of my father’s autobiography, it was remarked by several people
that the guests who were over 65 years of age all arrived early or on
time. The under 65s trickled and straggled in, some of them arriving
just 5 minutes before the advertised end of the event. For the older
generation, it was important to show their support by keeping the
appointment and participating in the whole event from start to finish.
To the younger generation it seemed more important to show their face,
rather than to participate, even if they missed the event itself.

And that attitude is reflected in today’s workplace. Presence is given priority over performance.

Staff generally do
not arrive at work early unless they live very far away and wish to
avoid the early morning rush, in which case, they arrive over an hour
earlier than resumption time then proceed to catch up on their sleep at
their desks. We arrive slightly late or very late, and take between 15
to 20 minutes to settle in to work – putting our bags away, starting up
equipment, greeting colleagues, getting a drink, rushing out to the ATM
to get money for some personal errands that need to be done that day –
really the first 30 minutes after arrival are not spent in productive
work. If the employees are dissatisfied or have low morale, it is even
worse! Real work may not commence for over an hour.

For companies who
make their money on billable time, it is easy for them to calculate how
much money each employee’s time is worth, and how much lack of
punctuality by themselves or their clients and customers is costing
them. They can multiply 15 minutes late, 5 days a week, 48 weeks a year
(with vacation time removed) and, hey presto, that time has a value.

According to an
article in HR Magazine in November, 2005, chronic lateness costs US
businesses more than $3 billion dollars per annum in lost productivity,
across all types of jobs, office, factory, casual, and professional.

Why are people late?

Research has shown
that it is a combination of low self-control, lack of discipline,
people who like risk-taking or the excitement of rushing, and poor
time-management skills.

What is the cost to
the individual of poor time-keeping? Always being late has a ripple
effect and threatens what a person has planned to achieve in a day.
That danger of not being able to do as much as possible with the
available time through no one else’s fault but your own causes health
and management problems – Anxiety, stress, pressure, extra work,
extra-long workdays, resentment toward management for insisting that
staff stay at work till however late until they finish their work.

In 2003, the
Americas edition of the Economist reported on a national punctuality
campaign in Ecuador, South America. The country’s Olympic walking
champion,

Jefferson Pérez launched the campaign that was promoted by Participacíon Ciudadana, an NGO that calculated that ‘Ecuadorian time’ was costing the South American country $724m per annum (4.3% of GDP).

Over fifty percent
of social and public events start late with government ministries being
the worst offenders. It seems that time keeping was also linked to
self-importance with greater self-importance leading to greater waiting
time.

The government
backed the campaign with personal leadership by President, Lucio
Gutiérrez, who led by example by managing to get to the launch on time.
A massive advocacy effort was run with posters on time-keeping,
time-consciousness, and time/meeting policies handed out to offices and
schools enjoining and scolding Ecuadorians for wasting other people’s
time, and it worked.

Local councils and
airlines committed to keep to time. Latecomers were locked out of
private and public meetings. Public officials who arrived late at
events were named and shamed in local newspapers.

I think Nigerian time needs similar treatment. If lateness costs a
country like Ecuador close to N150 billion per annum, I wonder how much
it is costing us in money, in stress, in high blood pressure, in
corruption, in respect, and in relationships? We need to take a long
hard look at Nigerian Time. Just the way the ‘no broken windows’ policy
in New York led to a drastic reduction in crime, perhaps, a ‘no
Nigerian time’ policy here will lead to a drastic leap in productivity
and wealth. We have nothing to lose by trying and everything to gain.

The Freedom of
Information bill (FOI), one of the oldest bills in the National
Assembly, which has once been rejected by lawmakers and former
President Olusegun Obasanjo, has resurfaced in the House of
Representatives for fresh considerations.

Lawmakers now hope
the bill, which was passed before but denied presidential assent in
2007, may after all be made law this time although they are not sure of
the time.

Yesterday, the
House recommitted the proposed law to two of its committees:
Information and National Orientation and Justice, revoking an earlier
decision which was seen as a death knell for the proposed Act.

“The House resolves
to rescind its decision of Wednesday, November 14, 2007 on the said
bill and order its re-committal to the joint committee on Information
and National Orientation and Justice,” reads a motion filed Thursday to
that effect and affirmed by the House without debates.

First introduced in
1999 as a non-member bill sponsored by Media Rights Agenda, the
document which has 34 sections was refused passage at the House as well
as the senate. It was recommitted in 2003 and eventually passed in 2007
towards the closing of the fifth session of the National Assembly.

Still, Mr Obasanjo
withheld his approval citing infringement on state security; a
possibility the administration said could be enhanced if certain
sections of the law were allowed as proposed.

The current session
of lawmakers received the bill anew in 2007 amid mounting opposition by
many members who have not concealed their disdain for the proposals. An
order has kept the bill awaiting plenary considerations since 2007.

Both chambers
announced ahead of their resumption weeks ago, that the FOI bill will
now be part of a number of delayed bills due for greater attention
before leaving office, others being the Petroleum Industry Bill and the
Anti-Terrorism bill.

The House yesterday
recommitted the FOI bill to the two committees for “thorough scrutiny”
withdrawing the order that kept it awaiting plenary considerations. It
did not state any date for the completion of work on the bill.

The decision came
about a week after the Minister of Information, Labaran Maku, pressed
the lawmakers to accelerate work on the proposal.

Ita Enang, the Chairman House committee on Business and Rules, who
led 20 others to ask for the new decision, said “the need has now
arisen for the house to revisit the said decision on the bill in the
public interest.” Without a clear timeline, the new order neither
negates nor affirms an earlier position of chairman House committee on
Information, Aliyu Wadada who said the bill may not be passed before
lawmakers leave office in May.

A Federal High
Court in Abuja on Thursday restrained the Independent National
Electoral Commission (INEC), from accepting or recognising Theodore
Orji as the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party
(PDP) in Abia State pending the hearing and determination of a suit
challenging his candidacy.

Presiding Judge,
Gabriel Kolawole gave the order after hearing, Niyi Akintola counsel to
Ikechi Emenike a governorship candidate in the state. Defendants in the
suit are; PDP; Haliru Mohammed; INEC and Mr Orji. He equally sought an
interim injunction restraining the incumbent governor from parading
himself as the standard bearer of the party. Mr Kolawole granted the
plaintiff’s leave to serve all the requisite court process on the PDP,
its acting national chairman, Bello Mohammed, INEC, as well as Governor
Orji himself.

The Independent
National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Thursday, in Abuja, said it
would roll out a continuous voter registration after the April
elections.
INEC chairman,
Attahiru Jega, disclosed this at the Civil Society Pre-election
Conference with the theme ‘Nigeria’s 2011 Elections: Challenges and
Opportunities’, organised by the National Democratic Institute.
Mr. Jega said the
inability of some eligible voters to come out at all and lateness of
others to the exercise was unfortunate. According to him, “immediately
after April elections we will roll out a continuous voter registration
and people who missed out can register.”
He said the reason
INEC bought 132,000 Direct Data Capture (DDC) machines, an estimated 10
per cent more of the projected polling units, was because the
commission knew the law provided for continuous voter registration.
“We will have the capacity to be able to effectively deploy these for a continuous voter registration,” Mr. Jega added.
The INEC boss said
the commission might not conduct the exercise in each polling unit,
adding that discussions on logistics and framework were under way to
see how best to do it. He noted that previously, the continuous
exercise was tried at the local government level, but it failed. He
said the commission was considering bringing it to the 8,809 wards,
saying many DDC machines will be deployed.
Mr. Jega further warned the electorate against multiple registration, promising to deal with electoral impunity.
The president of Nigeria Bar Association (NBA), Joseph Garba, said
lack of determination to prosecute political impunity has continued to
hamper the progress of the electoral process. He warned the public that
those who were caught with multiple registration would be charged to
court.

The Presidential
Candidate of the Social Democratic Mega Party (SDMP), Pat Utomi said
the Chief Justice of the Federation, Aloysius Katsina-Alu, should
resign his appointment and leave the position following the ugly
exchanges between him and Ayo Salami, the President of the Court of
Appeal.

Mr Utomi in a
statement issued on Thursday described the development as one that “has
greatly eroded the public confidence in the ability of the institution
to dispense unbiased justice.” According to him, “going by the fact
that a full-scale inquiry would be needed to fully ascertain the
veracity of all claims and counter-claims, we may not be in a position
to apportion guilt to any party.

“Still, it is a
fact that certain institutions, by the manner of functions they carry
out in the society, should remain unassailable by controversy and
engender the greatest confidence in the hearts of all citizens.

The Judiciary,
headed as it were by the office of the Chief Judge of the Federation
being a most important part of such institutions, it is a most
honourable thing for the Chief Judge of Nigeria to resign his
appointment at this time.” He said.

The statement
pointed out that “if the re-assigning of position to a higher one by
the Chief Justice could arouse such mistrust of intent from not only
the beneficiary of the position, but from other important members of
the Judiciary, it goes to point out the abysmal loss of confidence by
the members of the Judiciary in the Chief Judge.” Mr Salami whose
elevation to the Supreme Court was yesterday quashed by the National
Judicial Council had since gone to court to challenge the unsolicited
elevation, alleging through his counsel, Lateef Fagbemi, that the Chief
Justice of Nigeria (CJN) had expressly requested from him as the PCA,
the dissolution of the panel trying the Sokoto gubernatorial election
petition to the intent of compromising the verdict.

The National
Judicial Council had through a statement reversed the “elevation”
“because of the controversies it generated.” A Civil group, Access to
Justice has also called for an immediate investigation of the
allegations levelled against the Chief Justice of the federation.
According to Joseph Otteh, Executive Director of the group, “if the
allegations that the Chief Justice of Nigeria had sought to interfere
with proceedings before a Court by asking for the disbandment of a duly
constituted tribunal, or procuring the Court of Appeal President to
direct the outcome of the tribunal’s verdict is correct, it would be a
grave, grossly unethical and treacherous violation of the Code of
Conduct for Judicial Officers of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

“It would undermine
every precept about justice, fairness, due process, rule of law, the
independence of the judiciary, and transparency that the Judiciary
stands for. It would be perfidious, and a serious and profane fraud on
the administration of justice in Nigeria and on the eminent Office of
the Chief Justice who is the face of the Judiciary.” He said.

Protests

Meanwhile, Ayo
Arise (PDP Ekiti State) who represents Ekiti North Senatorial district
in the Senate also in an interview with Journalists said, “I got a
petition from the registered voters in Idosi, a signed petition by over
1000 in that local government complaining about disenfranchisement of
their persons and the fact that their votes did not count in the
governance of the people of Ekiti State simply by the action of
cancelling of all the results of all the voters in Idosi local
government and they prayed after alluding to so many irregularities
that has taken place in the court room of Justice Isa Salami.” He
alleged that the judgment delivered in Justice Salami’s court is a
tinted judgment “as far as they are concern and part of the prayers is
for this hallow chamber to begin impeachment move against justice
Salami, because the compulsion is that the judiciary under his watch
particularly the Appeal Court has now been brought to public ridicule.”

Operatives of the Economic and
Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) yesterday arrested the former
minister of works and housing, Hassan Lawal, in his home in Asokoro,
Abuja, in connection with fraudulent activities currently pegged at
over N50 billion.

An operative of the anti-graft agency
told NEXT that the commission is currently carrying out the second
phase of investigation into the fraudulent activities of the former
minister who served in two different offices between 2004 and 2010.

“There are currently two different
phases of investigations against this man. One has been on-going for
some time now, the second one has just begun. Most of the
investigations border on fraudulent award of contracts to unregistered
companies. Most of the contracts had to do with road contracts and the
sale of federal government houses,” a source in the EFCC, who pleaded
anonymity said in Abuja.

The spokesman of the anti-graft agency , Femi Babafemi, says that
Mr.Lawal is currently in the custody of the commission, however he
declined to speak on what possible date the accused will be arraigned.
Our source however revealed that the commission is currently working to
uncover and arrest other persons who might have collaborated with the
former minister. The charges against the former minister are high
degree of massive fraud, abuse of office, abuse of government laid down
policy on due process and award of contracts to unregistered
companies’.Mr. Lawal served as the Minister of Labour and Productivity
from 2004 to 2007. He then served as the Minister for Works and Housing
from 2008 to 2010.

The governor of the
Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, yesterday
underscored the importance of political will by leaders of member
countries of the West African Monetary Zone (WAMZ), to realise the
objectives of the regional economic integration.

The governor, who
was speaking at the opening of the 24th meeting of the WAMZ committee
of Central Bank governors in Abuja, said the delays in the take off of
a new commencement date for the monetary union is attributed to the
lack of political will to push the process of integration to a logical
conclusion.

The objectives for
the WAMZ initiative include an attempt by member nations towards
maintenance of stable prices of goods and services; establishment of
sound public finances and monetary conditions; as well as maintenance
of stable balance of payments for member states, with the ultimate goal
of creating a monetary union.

Mr. Sanusi said the
commencement of the monetary union, which was initially set for 2003,
had to be extended thrice as a result of the inability of member
countries to attain the convergence level required for the introduction
of the common currency.

Though a new
commencement date for the monetary union of on or before January 1,
2015 was adopted by the heads of states and governments of the WAMZ at
its summit in Abuja, on June 22, 2009, the CBN boss said no significant
progress has been made towards realising it, as most member countries
have not been able to meet stipulated criteria.

He pointed out that
the meeting would provide the opportunity to review the progress on the
WAMZ programmes and chart the way forward.

The meeting is
expected to consider the recommendations of the 30th meeting of the
technical committee of the WAMZ last Tuesday, which reviewed the
developments and policy responses required to satisfy the stipulated
convergence criteria.

A review of the
impact of the global economic recovery indicated that the impressive
growth in emerging Asian economies, particularly China, was stalled in
the wake of the Euro zone debt crisis as well as the waning impact of
the huge monetary and fiscal stimulus packages implemented by many
countries.

He said the
resultant effect on the economic performance in WAMZ was that overall
compliance with the macro-economic convergence criteria deteriorated,
with most member countries missing the criteria on single-digit
inflation rate and fiscal deficit, excluding grants.

“Only Liberia met
all four primary criteria, while The Gambia, Ghana, and Nigeria met
three primary criteria each. Sierra Leone met one criterion during the
period,” Mr. Sanusi said.

The four primary
criteria include achieving economic performance in WAMZ, with real
Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth at an average of 7.2 per cent;
easing inflationary pressures through maintenance of stability in
commodity prices; improvement in domestic food production; and building
a strong gross external reserve.

Noting some limited progress recorded through the ongoing upgrading
of the payments systems and progress in the integration of financial
markets, Mr. Sanusi said some challenges remain to be resolved with
public finances, trade and financial sector development, to prepare
towards the launch of the single currency.