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The Conference of
Nigeria Political Parties (CNPP) has asked the leadership of the Action
Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC)
to come to an agreement in their ongoing alliance talks to present a
common presidential candidate for the April 9 elections. As the
deadline for political parties to submit their candidates to the
Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) expires today, the
group said it is making the call because the alliance is the surest way
to vote out the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) from power.

Both parties have,
in the past months, been discussing the possibility of presenting a
common presidential candidate for the elections. However, the
discussions are yet to come to fruition following an alleged insistence
by ACN chieftain and former governor of Lagos State, Bola Tinubu, to be
running mate to Muhammadu Buhari of the CPC, rumoured to be the
favourite joint presidential candidate of the alliance.

Another problem confronting the parties is: which platform will the candidates use for the presidential contest?

“We challenge Major
General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd) and Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and other
leadership of the various progressive political parties to close ranks
and present Nigerians with an alternative common presidential candidate
platform on or before the close of substitutions of candidates in
February 2011,” the CNPP said in a statement signed by its
spokesperson, Osita Okechukwu, in Abuja.

Distinct position

The CNPP said that
it is of the view that Nigerians are fed up with the failure of PDP to
provide electricity, to fix roads and to provide employment in the past
decade, adding that the people are not ready to reward the ruling party
for poor leadership, failed promises and pervasive corruption.

The national consensus, according to the CNPP, is that it will be a
gratuitous insult to allow PDP to actualize its “dream of ruling
Nigeria for 60 years in the midst of glaring failure of leadership,
squandermania, food-is-ready economic policy and gross incapacity to
provide security in the land”.

Two weeks after he
lost his bid to contest the presidency on the platform of the
opposition All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), billionaire businessman,
Harry Akande, resigned from the party in a letter dated January 28,
2011 to the ANPP national chairman, Ogbonnaya Onu.

The letter reads:
“This is to officially notify you of my resignation as a member of All
Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) with effect from Friday, January 28, 2011.
This decision was borne out of my desire to advance my commitment and
resolution of making Nigeria a better country for the common man.
Therefore, accept my exit from the party in high esteem while wishing
ANPP the best of luck in its future political ambitions in our dear
country.

“Once again, extend
my sincere appreciation to all members for their cooperation for the 12
years of being a loyal member, as well as serving as the pioneer
chairman of the board of trustees of the party.”

Copies of the
letter were sent to the national secretary of the party, the deputy
chairmen in the south and north as well as the board of trustees
chairman.

Next move

Although Mr. Akande
did not state which party he was moving to, our investigations revealed
that he might be on his way to the Congress for Progressive Change
(CPC). He allegedly held discussions with the presidential candidate of
the CPC, Muhammadu Buhari, sometime last year on his (Akande) political
future. Mr. Akande, an indigene of Ibadan in Oyo State, was a
foundation member of the ANPP. However, his plans to contest the
presidency under the banner of the party did not materialize on two
occasions. On January 16, he lost the party’s presidential primary
election to the Kano State Governor, Ibrahim Shekarau. Mr. Akande
secured 708 out of the 5,315 votes cast during the party’s national
convention. Last September, Mr. Akande’s ambition to become the
national chairman of the ANPP also crashed at the party’s national
convention in Abuja. He lost to Mr. Onu by 1,479 votes to 3,945.

The Independent
National Electoral commission has spent about N34.4 billion on
importation of 132,000 units of data capturing machine for the 2011
voter registration exercise but Mohammed Abubakar, Minister of Science
and Technology said Nigeria may not have to spend that much again on
elections as local technologies for the same purpose are now available.

Mr Abubakar said
that “the electronic voting machine developed by the Nigeria
Communication Satellite Limited, NIGCOMSAT, can assist the nation in
biometric registration for election” and that by 2015 it will be ready
for use at the election.

The minister told
journalists in Abuja that the technology would have been used for 2011
voter registration exercise but for some logistics that are not in
place.“We have developed that capacity (production of electronic voting
machine),” he said. “There was no time for experiment and we did want
to take chances with this present voter registration, that is why we
are postponing the use of these indigenous voting machines till 2015.
Nigerian scientists and engineers have really done well with this new
feat.”

He equally stated
that there is need for the private sector to partner with the research
institutes of the ministry to commercialise their research outputs
since their mandate as a ministry ends in production of prototypes.
“Private sector has to come in. They prefer to import. We need
entrepreneurs to support us with funds so that we can meet
international standards. Nigerian scientists are coming up with
interesting research and development results,” he said.

Attahiru Jega,
Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission had earlier
paid a visit to the NIGCOMSAT office where he inspected the products
and pledged his commission’s collaboration with the company.According
to Mr Jega, “INEC will partner with all stakeholders including
NIGCOMSAT to enable the nation have a credible election in 2011. I am
very pleased and I want to assure you that in whatever way we can work
together, in the interest of this country, we will be willing to do
so.”

Timasaniyi Ahmed-Rufai, Managing Director of NIGCOMSAT said that
apart from the electronic voting machine, the company has network
supporting video and voice polling that will help INEC to monitor the
election both from states, councils and INEC Headquarters.“While the
local government elections could be monitored in the state headquarters
through cameras strategically planted at the polling units, INEC
Headquarters will also be able to monitor through satellite device that
will help beam the activities of the states and local councils to the
headquarters directly.“NIGCOMSAT will be able to assist the commission
on the e-register process if given the mandate to do so,” he said.

U.S. President
Barack Obama urged Americans to “win the future” this week, while
moving ahead in the effort to do that himself as well.

Obama delivered the
State of the Union address, an annual constitutional obligation which
has become an opportunity for the White House to praise its
accomplishments and sketch-out its plans.

In that ritual
speech to lawmakers, judges,ambassadors and guests, Obama advanced a
range of initiatives but passed-over one crucial item on his personal
agenda: beginning his campaign for re-election.

Americans voted
just a few months ago in Congressional elections that punished Obama’s
Democratic Party. His own job will be on the line the next time they go
to the polls, in November of 2012.

Despite the severe ‘shellacking’ that even he concedes he suffered in the November, his prospects are now looking up.

With the American
economy continuing to recover from recession and unemployment slowly
reducing, Obama is rising in public opinion polls. In some respects,
he’s doing better than even some of his supporters’ say they’d
expect.“Right now, you have the president with 55 percent job approval
at nine percent unemployment, which is quite frankly fairly
remarkable,” said Democratic pollster Cornell Belcher. “The policies
are working and I think the Americans are feeling it.” Obama has
started staffing his re-election headquarters in his hometown, Chicago,
and has shuffled his White House staff as well.

His potential
Republican opponents aren’t moving quite as fast. Former
vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin continues to be the most
prominent potential figure in the race, but she hasn’t said publicly
whether she’ll run.Recent public opinion polls put Obama ahead of her
and every other potential candidate the Republicans are likely to put
forward.

But the race hasn’t
really begun and it promises to challenge the president. Republicans
now control the House of Representatives and are planning a series of
confrontations over the Obama administration’s policies and
practices.Unemployment is still high and government spending is still
setting records. Both are serious problems for Obama’s prospects.

“He’s not a new
president anymore,” said former Republican White House aide Ari
Fleischer. “It’s time to judge him on results.” Americans seem to be
doing that and increasingly, they are once again rallying behind Barack
Obama.

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).

As the government’s
directive that schools remain closed during the registration of voters
became public mid January, Zaria Academy, an elite college in Kaduna
State, summoned its teaching and non-teaching staff to make a point:
there is no break here.

For the two weeks
the exercise lasted in the first instance, the academy like a few
others across the country, held classes, offering parents – many
already keen at returning the kids to school- a sure sale that such
prolonged stay at home would only distort the students’ learning.

But according to
long-term staff there and others elsewhere, experts on private schools’
programmes and administration, such counter order, rather than aimed at
protecting the students’ interest, stands in many cases to serve a
vital live-wire for educational organisations whose economic wellbeing
tie squarely to turnovers derived solely from students’ pay.

“This is a private
business and even if they have money elsewhere which many times they
do, the owners will always prefer spending as they come,” said Joseph
Niaje, who has spent 22 years as a teacher in many schools, and now
runs Destiny Crèche, a day care centre for children in Kubwa, Abuja.

Even for relatively
bigger schools, many teachers say, salaries and benefits of staff are
spread through the year interspersed by new term resumptions, when
fresh fees are expected to help clear personnel and overhead spending.

However, that
balance will be altered by occasional interruptions to the calendars
annually, as with the two-week closure of schools ordered by the
federal government during the ongoing voters registration that would
now get another extension.

In the end, the
staff would assert that employees of privately-owned institutions where
monthly remunerations, and other running cost are chiefly fed by
quarterly student charges, would appear to lead a group hit by a
federal policy that has no direct bearing on their profession.

“Somehow we seem to be the last point,” says a middle-aged teacher who gave his name only as Simeon.

“They may not
accept it, but what makes the difference every new term is the fees and
now our January money cannot come and if they extend the registration
again, only God knows how long we will suffer.” For the two weeks of
the break leading to January ending, many of the teachers interviewed
and whose schools were closed said they had already missed the usual
dates when they get their monthly pay.

In many of the
schools, the pay had failed to come although the staff had been ordered
back to work by the authorities preparatory for the eventual resumption
of the students.

In a few schools
like the Zaria Academy where classes had resumed for some of the
students during the period, staff say they received their pay and that
funds were the major reason why students were recalled.

That position,
however, has been severely denied by management staff of some of the
schools who point out that the consideration of finance plays no role
and that their motive in defying the closure of the schools was purely
in the interest of the students.

“It is not about
finance, it is about the curriculum,” said Adebisi Adeniyi, Vice
Chairman of the Association for Formidable Education in Nigeria, a
group that says it seeks financial intervention for small and medium
schools that may face financial challenges.

Mr. Adeniyi said
although the schools are run as business with eyes on profit, concern
for the excellence of the students override immediate gains. “Even if
the schools were to open normally, the students will not return fully
until February and now that they are to open in February, they will
resume fully in March. Any time they come, the money will come.”

At the Zaria Academy where some students took classes throughout the
exercise, the principal, Gideon Wuyako, refused to answer questions
about the motive behind the school’s reopening.

Islamists, leftists and trade unionists gathered in central
Amman Friday for the latest protest to demand political change and wider
freedoms. A crowd of at least 3,000 chanted: “We want change.” Banners and
chants showed a wider range of grievances than the high food prices that
fuelled earlier protests, and included demands for free elections, the
dismissal of Prime Minister Samir Rifai’s government and a representative
parliament. The protest after Friday prayers was organised by the Islamic
Action Front, the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood which is the only
effective opposition and biggest party, but included members of leftist parties
and trade unions.

Jordan’s protests, as in several Arab countries, have been
inspired by the uprising that overthrew the Tunisian president. “After Tunisia,
Arab nations have found their way towards the path of political freedom and
dignity,” said Zaki Bani Rusheid, a leading Islamist politician.

Demonstrations have taken place across Jordan calling for
reversal of free-market reforms which many blame for a widening gap between
rich and poor. Jordan is struggling with its worst economic downturn in
decades. The government has announced measures to reduce the prices of
essentials create jobs and raise salaries of civil servants. Protesters say the
moves do not go far enough.

King calls for openness

King Abdullah told lawmakers Thursday the government must do
more to ease the plight of Jordanians and urged a faster tempo of political
reforms. “Openness, frankness and discourse over all issues is the way to
strengthen trust between people and government entities,” the monarch was
quoted as saying in a palace statement.

“Everything should be put in front of people. There is nothing
to be afraid of,” said the 49-year-old monarch, who has faced stiff resistance
from a conservative establishment to reforms they fear will empower the
Islamists. He urged the 120-member assembly to amend an electoral law
criticised as designed to under-represent cities in favour of
sparsely-populated tribal areas to ensure a pliant assembly. Under the
constitution, most powers rest with the king, who appoints the government,
approves legislation and can dissolve parliament.

Islamists march in Tunis

Also, Islamists marched through central Tunis on Friday,
demanding religious freedom, while police fired teargas at anti-government
protesters who have camped out around the prime minister’s office.

The march by about 200 people was the first significant Islamist protest
since the fall of president Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, who ran a strictly secular
state in which Islamists were often jailed or forced into exile. Some carried
placards reading: “We want freedom for the hijab, the niqab and the beard.”
Under Ben Ali’s rule, women who covered their hair by wearing the hijab, in the
Muslim tradition, were denied jobs or education. Men with long beards were
stopped by police. “We demand the revision of the terrorism law … and say no
to the war on the niqab,” one woman told Reuters TV, her face entirely covered
by a black veil, or niqab. Islamists played no visible part in the “Jasmine Revolution”
that toppled Ben Ali, but when the Ennahda, the country’s largest Islamist
movement, was allowed to contest elections in 1989, it came second to the
ruling party. Since Ben Ali was forced to flee to Saudi Arabia on January14 in
the face of violent unrest over poverty and political repression, protesters
have been gathering in Tunis to demand that the new interim government be
purged of Ben Ali loyalists. Prime Minister Mohamed Ghannouchi said 12
ministers would be replaced, purging members of the former ruling party
including the interior, defence and foreign ministers.

The Special Court
for Sierra Leone trying former Liberian President Charles Taylor for war
crimes on Friday dismissed a challenge to its impartiality that was
based on U.S. embassy cables published by WikiLeaks.

Mr Taylor, who
denies all charges of instigating murder, rape, mutilation, sexual
slavery and conscription of child soldiers in wars in Liberia and Sierra
Leone in which more than 250,000 were killed, had been allowed to use
the cables as evidence in court.

But on Friday the
court rejected a motion by Taylor’s lawyers seeking disclosure and an
investigation into the identity of sources that the U.S. government has
within the court’s trial chamber, prosecution and the registry. In its
filing, Mr Taylor’s defence said the cables “raise grave doubts about
the independence and impartiality of the Special Court’s prosecution of
Charles Taylor.” One of the diplomatic cables leaked by WikiLeaks last
month contained comments made by a U.S. ambassador that if Mr Taylor was
acquitted or given a light sentence, his return to Liberia could “tip
the balance in a fragile peace.” Another cable stated that U.S. contacts
in The Hague-based court’s prosecution and registry said one of the
judges may be trying to time proceedings so as to be in charge when the
judgement was handed down.

The judge named in
the cable, Julia Sebutinde, rejected the allegation and excluded herself
from the ruling on the cables to ensure objectivity. In its ruling, the
court said the cables did not demonstrate that such contacts may have a
relationship with the U.S. government capable of interfering with its
independence or impartiality.

Officials from the
court’s registry and prosecution interact on a regular basis with
governments from a number of countries as part of their official
functions, it added. Both the prosecution and defence have already
finished presenting their evidence, but the court ruled in favour of a
defence motion seeking to re-open its case for the “limited purpose” of
admitting into evidence two U.S. cables.

As we approached a dubious police post, the conductor sighed.

“Should I give them, or do you prefer to do it yourself?” he asked the driver.

“Relax,” said the driver.

Something about the
word worried the conductor – enough to make him bring his head back
into the bus. He searched the driver’s face and did not seem to like
what he saw. “Look, just give them their 50 naira,” he said a little
urgently. “They will only waste our time otherwise.”

“I say leave them
to me,” said the driver, “No be everything be money.” The conductor’s
mouth opened but no words came out, so he closed it again.

The police officer
approached the conductor with a broad smile. The conductor nodded
towards the driver and the policeman stopped smiling and stopped
walking.

“How far?” asked
the driver jocularly. “See, we just start work now-now. This na our
first trip today. Make I go come back. I go see you later.”

He started to drive
away when the policeman suddenly screamed, “Stop him! Stop him!” and
another officer materialised from nowhere and placed his body in front
of our vehicle.

“Park,” he barked, gun raised. There was a collective groan in the bus.

“Just give am
money, make we go,” said a woman behind the driver. But it was too
late. The police officers had remembered their duty.

“Driver, come open your boot,” said one. The driver tried to placate him, gone was the braggadocio.

“Officer,” he said, “Come. Look. See my hand.” The police officers refused to “see”.

“My friend, will you come down?!” shouted the other one. “Who be your mate? You think say na play we come play here?”

The driver turned
off the ignition. The school boy sitting beside me who had been
listening to music on his phone and nodding to the beat, removed his
earphones. “Wazup?” he asked no one in particular and as no one paid
him any heed, he returned to his music.

“The driver was too
stubborn,” said a frail-looking man with a feathery voice. “The
conductor told him what to do but he wanted to show sense. Na God know
when we go leave here today.”

The driver glared
at him and got out of the bus, accosted by the police officers who
followed him to the boot. We could hear him pleading, but they were
adamant.

“When somebody wan
help una, una no dey know,” sneered one of the cops. Inside the bus,
the conductor shook his head, still amazed at the attitude of his
driver.

“Now they will not take anything less than N200,” he said sadly.

For a while we
continued to hear the conversation: the driver’s voice falling as the
policemen raised theirs. The boot was never opened. There was a lull
and the driver came back in, muttering about people who like to reap
where they did not sow.

“Na today you know
that one?” said one of the men sitting in front. “You should have just
given him the money as usual instead of wasting our time.”

At that point, the
driver could not take it any longer. “Was it his money?” he asked.
“‘Give him money, give him money’. You give me money to keep for him?
Nonsense.”

“Driver, I beg let’s go,” said somebody at the back. “We have already wasted enough time here.”

The driver hissed
and drove on. After a while, the conductor asked, gently in Yoruba,
“How much did they collect eventually then?”

The driver took his
time changing gears, and then replied: “Those thieves collected 200
naira. But it will never again be well with them or with their
children’s children. The bastards.”

The boy with the earphones took them out and looked at me.

“That’s 100 percent increase,” he said. Of course, I didn’t know what he was talking about.

“What is 100 percent?” I asked him.

“I heard everything,” he replied. “Instead of 50 naira, he ended up paying 200.”

I looked at him. “So you think that is 100 percent?”

He looked a bit confused and put his earphones back in. Standards have indeed gone south.

Thousands of angry Egyptians defied a curfew on Saturday for the second day
in a row and stayed on the streets to push their demand that President Hosni
Mubarak resign.

The army had warned that anyone who remained on the streets after 4 p.m.
(1400 GMT) would be in danger, but as the deadline passed, protests continued
in central Cairo and the port city of Alexandria, witnesses said.

Soldiers took no immediate action. They seemed relaxed and some protesters
chatted with troops mounted on armoured vehicles, the witnesses said.

On the fifth day of unprecedented protests against Mubarak’s 30-year-rule,
it looked increasingly as if the army held the key to the nation’s future.

The president ordered troops and tanks into Cairo and other cities overnight
and imposed a curfew in a bid to quell unrest in which dozens of people were
killed.

In an effort to appease the protesters, he dismissed his cabinet and said he
would listen to demands for reform.

The protesters, many of them young urban poor or students, are enraged over
endemic poverty, corruption and unemployment as well as the lack of democracy
in the most populous Arab nation. They pledged to press on with protests until
Mubarak quits.

The unrest, which follows the overthrow of Tunisian strongman Zine
al-Abidine Ben Ali two weeks ago in a popular uprising, has sent shock waves
through the Middle East, where other autocratic rulers may face similar
challenges.

Several thousand people flocked to central Cairo’s Tahrir Square on
Saturday, waving Egyptian flags and pumping their arms in the air in unison.
“The people demand the president be put on trial,” they chanted.

Troops made no attempt to break up the
demonstration and protesters encouraged them to support their cause.

The scene contrasted with Friday, when police fired teargas and rubber
bullets and protesters hurled stones in running battles.

While the police are generally feared as an instrument of repression, the
army is seen as a national institution.

Army is key

One Middle East expert, Rosemary Hollis, of London’s City University, told
Reuters the army had to decide whether it stood with Mubarak or the people.

“It’s one of those moments where as with the fall of communism in
Eastern Europe they can come down to individual lieutenants and soldiers to
decide whether they fire on the crowd or not.”

In Alexandria, police used teargas and live ammunition against demonstrators
earlier on Saturday.

Al Jazeera TV reported police opened fire on protesters trying to storm the
Interior Ministry in Cairo, killing three, but the report could not be
confirmed.

According to a Reuters tally, at least 74 people have been killed during the
week although there was no official figure. Medical sources said at least 1,030
people were injured in Cairo.

Government buildings, including the ruling
party headquarters, still blazed on Saturday morning after being set alight by
demonstrators who targeted symbols of Mubarak’s rule

As well as Cairo and Alexandria, clashes have also occurred in Suez, site of
the strategically important canal.

“We are not demanding a change of cabinet, we want them all to leave,
Mubarak before anyone else,” said Saad Mohammed, a 45-year-old welder in
Tahrir Square.

Mubarak, a key U.S. ally, has held power since the 1981 assassination of President
Anwar Sadat by Islamist soldiers and his government still rules with emergency
laws.

He promised to address Egyptians’ grievances in a television address on
Friday but made clear he intended to stay in power.

So far, the protest movement seems to have no clear leader or organisation
even if Mubarak did wish to open a dialogue.

Prominent activist Mohamed ElBaradei, a Nobel Peace Laureate for his work
with the U.N. nuclear agency, returned to Egypt from Europe to join the
protests. But many Egyptians feel he has not spent enough time in the country.

In an interview with France 24 television, ElBaradei said Mubarak should
step down and begin a transition of power.

“There is a consensus in Egypt in every part of society that this is a
regime that is a dictatorship, that has failed to deliver on economic, social,
and political fronts,” he said.

The Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist
opposition group, has also stayed in the background, although several of its
senior officials have been rounded up. The government has accused it of
planning to exploit the protests.

The deployment of army troops to back up the police showed that Mubarak
still has the support of the military, the country’s most powerful force. But
any change of sentiment among the generals could seal his fate.

Mocking Mubarak

Protesters in Tahrir Square mocked Mubarak’s sacking of his cabinet as an
empty gesture.

Mahmoud Mohammed Imam, a 26-year-old taxi-driver, said: “All he said
was empty promises and lies. He appointed a new government of thieves, one
thief goes and one thief comes to loot the country.”

“This is the revolution of the people who are hungry, this is the
revolution of the people who have no money against those with a lot of
money.”

The final straw appeared to be the prospect of elections due to be held in
September. Until now few had doubted that Mubarak would remain in control or
bring in a successor in the shape of his 47-year-old son Gamal.

It also poses a dilemma for the United States. Mubarak, 82, has been a close
ally of Washington and beneficiary of U.S. aid for decades, justifying his
autocratic rule in part by citing a danger of Islamist militancy.

Egypt plays an important role in Middle East peacemaking and was the first
Arab nation to sign a peace treaty with Israel.

U.S. President Barack Obama said he had
spoken to Mubarak shortly after his speech on Friday and urged him to make good
on his promises of reform. U.S. officials made clear that $1.5 billion in aid
was at stake.

The European Union and other foreign governments appealed to Mubarak to show
restraint and listen to the demands of the people but stopped short of
suggesting he should quit. Saudi Arabia’s King Abdallah expressed his support
for him.

Britain, Germany and other countries advised their nationals against travel
to the main cities hit, a development that would harm Egypt’s tourist industry,
a mainstay of the economy.

Banks will be shut on Sunday as “a precaution”, Central Bank
Governor Hisham Ramez told Reuters.

The stock market, whose benchmark index tumbled 16 percent in two days, will
also be closed on Sunday. The Egyptian pound fell to six-year lows.

REUTERS

As part of measures
aimed at enhancing the level of security across airports in the
country, the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, on Thursday, announced
the restriction of non-travellers within and around airports.

The directive,
which is a fallout of Wednesdcay’s rumoured bomb scare at the Murtala
Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, was made public by the director
general of the authority, Harold Demuren, at the agency’s headquarters
in Lagos. According to Mr Demuren, the directive was in accordance with
Part 17, Regulation 83 of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Regulations, and
Section 13.7 of the National Civil Aviation Security Programme. “I
hereby direct that the following additional security measures should be
implemented immediately in order to forestall any threats and incidents
at the nation’s airports: Use of hand-held metal detector and explosive
detection system at the airport entrances and gates; restriction, as
much as possible, the movement of non-travelling public around and
within the terminal building; and adequate advanced information
concerning inbound cargoes meant for the nation’s airports must be
received prior to the arrival of the cargo,” he said.

Russia’s experience

The speculations of
a possible bomb explosion at the Lagos international airport followed
the recent bomb blast at Moscow airport that led to the demise of 35
persons. The rumour at the Lagos airport prompted airports users and
passengers to become suspicious of one another at the airport on
Wednesday. “In addition, passengers should be informed that they may
experience possible delay as they pass through our security checks and
are, therefore, advised to arrive at the airport at least three hours
before their flights,” said Mr Demuren. “This directive shall take
effect from 27th January 2011 and shall be in force until further
notice.”

Early this month, the Nigerian Police and other law enforcement
agents at the airport swung into action by effecting stringent security
checks on motorists moving in and out of the airport. Days later, the
Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority carried out a security meeting with
various organisations and intelligence outfits in a bid to ensure
safety across Nigerian airports. The screening and security meetings
were as a result of the bombings recorded across Nigeria and
preparations for the forthcoming general elections.