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The Alliance for
Democracy (AD) said yesterday that it has been excluded from
participating in the April polls by the Independent National Electoral
Commission.

The national
chairman of AD, Okechukwu Obioha, who stated this yesterday, said the
commission deliberately delayed the issuance of CF001 and CF002 to the
party, making it impossible to beat the January 15 deadline for the
submission of list of candidates.

CF001 and CF002 are nomination forms issued to parties for candidates contesting elections.

He stated that
though the party complied with the directive of INEC acting director of
Political Party Monitoring, Regina Omo-Agege, to come to the
commission’s headquarters from December 15, 2010 to pick the forms,
they were never issued to them until January 11 this year, a few days
to the deadline.

“We hereby finally
bring to the notice of Nigerians that INEC has through the
instrumentality of her acting director of PPM & L, Mrs. Regina
Omo-Agege, excluded a major political party, Alliance for Democracy
(AD), from participating in the 2011 General Elections,” he said.

“Mrs Omo-Agege
religiously asked us to come every day from the 15th December, 2010 and
we piously complied until 11th January, 2011. This was after we warned
of grave consequences of excluding AD in the 2011 general elections,”
Mr. Obioha said.

He added that on
December 6 last year, the party gave INEC notices of its state
congresses and national convention, which was acknowledged by the
commission two days later. The congresses and conventions, he added,
were originally fixed for January 8 and 14th, respectively, in
compliance with section 85 of the Electoral Act. The national chairman
also alleged that despite giving it sufficient notice, the commission
feigned ignorance of the congresses and convention and never bothered
to attend.

According to him,
“Candidates and members of Alliance for Democracy have been
disenfranchised in the 2011 General Elections by INEC’s letter of 12th
January, 2011, in reply to AD’s letters of 23rd and 27th September,
2010, requesting our party to hold a convention to field candidates
three days to the close of INEC’s sacrosanct timetable of the 15th
January, 2011 party primaries and conventions.

“The PPM & L
officials of INEC are allegedly giving vent and approval to non-members
of Alliance for Democracy namely one Rafiu Salawu, Okezie Friday
Nwankwo, Iyke Ibe, etc to conduct an illegal National Convention of AD,
contrary to Section 85 of Electoral Act, 2010 and submit candidates of
non AD members for 2011 General Elections.

“These names are
never in AD’s INEC list of NEC or membership list. The PPM & L is
feeling frustrated that AD was not merged to ACN and determine that the
person, Okechukwu C. Obioha, JP that fought them to a standstill from
actualising this dream, is denied the leadership of this party.
Whatever convention that is notified and held now cannot fulfill the
requirement of Section 85 of the Electoral Act, 2010.”

Warning that the
Presidency, National Assembly, judiciary and the human rights activists
should step in to stop the alleged breach of laws by INEC, Mr. Obioha
also demanded that the AD should be given up till February 15th to
submit her candidates, in fulfillment of section 31 of the Electoral
Act.

When contacted,
Kayode Idowu, media aide to the INEC chairman, said he was not in a
position to respond to the allegation. He, however, said that the
commission will respond later.

The second batch of former militants
from the Niger Delta, prepared for the federal government’s
rehabilitation exercise to be held at the National Vocational Training
Institute, Ghana, were on Thursday unveiled in Lagos prior to their
departure.

According to delegates from the Niger
Delta Amnesty Programme, the 212 former militants will undergo training
in wielding and fabrication techniques, and are expected to acquire
skills and knowledge aimed at empowering them both economically and
mentally. “We are very much on course and today’s gathering is premised
on the need to present to Nigerians through the media the second batch
of delegates set to travel offshore for vocational training,” said
Kingsley Kuku, the new Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta
Affairs. “Just last month, on the 8th of December 2010 to be precise,
38 transformed ex-militants were deployed to South Africa for
vocational training in marine related courses. This was the first set
of trainees to be deployed offshore in the ongoing reintegration phase
of the amnesty programme.”

Making them useful

According to Mr Kuku, the training will
take place in six different city locations in Ghana: Kumasi, Winnaba,
Kokomemele (Accra), Takoradi, Abetifi, and Biriwa. The campaign began
more than a year and half ago after the militants were pardoned and
granted amnesty by late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua. Mr Kuku added
that a critical success factor of the amnesty initiative depends
largely on the success of the reintegration phase, which has kicked off
already with the allocation of trainees to centres across Nigeria and
overseas.

“Learning Resources Limited, a
Nigerian-based integrated education and vocational service provider,
partners the amnesty programme in facilitating the training of the
delegates in Ghana,” he said. “The initial number of 212 is a portion
of an estimated 1000 transformed ex-militants who have been short
listed to benefit from the similar training programme in Ghana. Since
the commencement of the Amnesty Reintegration phase in August 2010,
more than 7,000 transformed ex-militants have been allocated to both
local and offshore training centres, with more than 2,000 allocated for
education and vocational training offshore. In the coming weeks, more
delegates will travel to countries such as Malaysia, Romania, U.K,
U.S.A, Egypt, Poland, Netherlands, etc, to commence various types of
training.”

Happy with process

In an interview with journalists, Beggi
Fidelis, Camp Support Staff and an ex-militant, expressed hope that the
training will positively affect him and his colleagues. “I am happy to
be among those going for this training in Ghana, and we expect that we
will get the best from the institution that will help us to be able to
stand and make money on our own,” he said. Another former militant,
Egbine Robinson, assured Nigerians that they will be of good conduct
during the period of the training in Ghana. “We have gone through the
non-violence principles and as people that want to receive training to
better our lives, we are not going to misbehave in Ghana,” he said.

The Jigawa State
governor, Sule Lamido, on Wednesday, dismissed the resolution of the
Arewa Consultative Forum, which criticised the recent People’s
Democratic Party presidential primary election that produced President
Goodlcuk Jonathan as the candidate of the party. The national working
committee of the ACF met in Kaduna on Tuesday during which it rejected
the emergence of Mr. Jonathan as the PDP flagbearer in the April 9 poll.

According to the
communiqué, “In particular, ACF is disappointed with the outcome of the
primary elections in the ruling party, the PDP. The emergence of Dr.
Goodluck Jonathan as its presidential candidate is legally and morally
wrong because it is a violation of that party’s constitution which
clearly requires that under the zoning/rotation formula, a northerner
be returned as candidate in the 2011 general elections.

“In this regard,
and in the light of its principled stand on fairness and rule of law,
the ACF rejects the outcome of PDP presidential primaries.”

But speaking with
journalists at the PDP national secretariat in Abuja, Mr. Lamido said
there was no fear about the resolution of the northern organisation,
saying it is free to meet and make observations on national issues.

According to him, there are over 60 parties in the country and every party cannot clamour for a northern president as ACF.

“They (ACF) are
free to meet and discuss like Ohaneze Ndigbo or Afenifere,” Mr. Lamido
said. “There are 60 parties in the North so there can’t be 60 parties
all clamouring for the North. They can meet, they can advise, there is
no problem. There is no fear over anything. Just relax, stop getting
worried.”

Like Mr. Lamido,
the governor of Bauchi, Isa Yuguda said that the ACF had the right to
meet just like the Ohaneze and Afenifere. Mr. Yuguda also stated this
in Abuja while answering questions from journalists at the PDP National
Secretariat.

“ACF has the right
to meet just like Ohaneze and Afenifere; they are free to do that,” he
said. “Nigerians should stop getting worried over these things. We went
through a civil war and came out still united. It can’t get worse than
that.

“There is no cause
for worry; these things are about your future and we will secure your
future. Nigeria is a country united by God,” Mr. Yuguda said.

Be warned

According to the
Citizens for Change and Advancement (CCA), the ACF should be warned
against actions and statements that could tear the nation apart, saying
what Nigeria needs now is peace and unity.

Its national
coordinator, Maxwell Abaji, in a communiqué issued, said: “Nigerians
should condemn any attempt to drag this country to another civil war.”

Another group, the Media for Ethnic Equality, in a statement issued
in Lagos yesterday by its publicity secretary, Iyiola Johnson,
described the ACF’s statement as “an unnecessary heating up of the
polity by the northern political group for selfish reasons.” It also
criticised the ACF for putting the unity of the nation in jeopardy.

Nigeria might have
lost 130 billion dollars from 2000-2008 to illicit financial flows, a
new report issued by US-based group, Global Financial Integrity (GFI),
said. The report entitled “Illicit Financial Flows from Developing
Countries: 2000-2009,” said Nigeria has the 10th highest measured
illicit outflows in the developing world, an average of 15 billion
dollars per year.

The GFI report
ranks countries according to magnitude of illicit outflows and
according to the report China is ranked the highest country of measured
illicit outflows in the developing world with 2.18 trillion dollars,
followed by Russia, 427 billion dollars and Mexico, 416 billon dollars.

It also shows the
annual outflows for each country and breaks outflows down into two
categories of drivers: trade mispricing and “other,” which includes
“kickbacks, bribes, embezzlement, and other forms of official
corruption.” Others in the top 10 are Saudi Arabia, 302 billion
dollars, Malaysia, 291 billion dollars; United Arab Emirates, 276
billion dollars; Kuwait, 242 billion dollars; Venezuela, 157 billion
dollars; and Qatar, 138 billion.

Primary findings
from the report said illicit outflows increased from $1.06 trillion in
2006 to approximately $1.26 trillion in 2008. It found that that
approximately $6.5 trillion was removed from the developing world from
2000 through 2008. According to the report, average annual illicit
outflows from developing countries averaged 725 billion dollars to 810
billion dollars per year, over the 2000-2008 period measured.

“Illicit flows
increased in current dollar terms by 18.0 percent per annum from 369.3
billion dollars at the start of the decade to 1.26 trillion dollars in
2008.

“When adjusted for inflation, the real growth of such outflows was 12.7 percent,” it said.

The report put real
growth of illicit flows over nine years in the African region at 21.9
per cent, compared with 24.3 per cent in the Middle East and North
Africa, 23.1 per cent in developing Europe, Asia 7.85, and Western
Hemisphere 5.18 per cent.

The report’s
author, Dev Kar, a former International Monetary Fund economist, said
bribery, theft, kickbacks, and tax evasion were the greatest conduit
for the illicit financial flows.

He said oil-exporting countries were becoming more important sources of illicit capital.

GFI director
Raymond Baker said every year developing countries were losing 10 times
the amount of Official Development Assistance (ODA) remitted for
poverty alleviation and economic development,” “This report measures
the quantity and pattern of these harmful outflows and provides stark
proof of the impact of these illicit financial practices,” Baker said.

GFI said the authors of the report used a World Bank model to calculate developing countries’ missing billions.

An Oyo State High
Court, on Wednesday, ordered the dethronement of Oba Samuel Adebayo
Adegbola, the Eleruwa of Eruwa, 13 years into his reign.

The presiding
judge, Muktar Abimbola, in a three-hour judgement, hinged his verdict
on his findings that the name of the current occupant of the throne was
proposed by a faction of the Ajao Alapinni family, in contravention of
the custom and chieftaincy declaration of the town.

The court also
ordered that the Oyo State government, the state attorney general,
Ibarapa East local government, and the chiefs of the town stop
recognising the deposed monarch as the Eleruwa.

It also ordered the
conveyance of a meeting of the kingmakers of the town within seven days
from the judgement where a list of recommended candidates to the stool
will be produced. The judge also said that the list must include names
of Rasheed Oyedepo Ajao and Joseph Oke, who approached the court for
inclusion in the list.

In spite of
protests by other ruling houses that it was not his turn then, Mr.
Adegbola was recommended by the kingmakers to the Oyo State government
which later installed him in 1998.

The court submitted
that he should not have been nominated for the throne since he was from
the Akalako ruling house where his predecessor, Bolanle Olaniyan, also
came from. Mr. Olaniyan died in 1994, and Laribikusi and Akalako, the
two ruling families, had been struggling to produce the next
traditional head of the town.

James Olatunde
Idowu and Rasheed Oyedepo Ajao, who approached the court for redress
over the ascension of Mr. Adegbola, joined the governor of Oyo State,
the AG, Ibarapa LG, Mr. Adegbola, Jacob Adewusi, Femi Atanda, Idowu
Okeowo, E. Ojebisi and Mr. Kasali I in their suit.

They prayed the
court to declare the selection and approval of the monarch by
kingmakers ultra vires, null and void, and give an order to set aside
the purported nomination, selection and approval of the first defendant
(Mr. Adegbola) as the new Eleruwa of Eruwa.

The plaintiffs also
sought an order of the court to restrain the 2nd-10th defendants from
recognising or continuing to recognise Mr. Adegbola as the Eleruwa of
Eruwa, as well as an order directing the 2nd-6th defendants and the
Ikolaba of Eruwa, if any, to reconsider the nomination made by the
Laribikusi Ruling Quarters and select a candidate to the stool of
Eleruwa for approval of the 8th defendant.

Presenting the
summary of his findings on the suit, the judge granted all the eight
requests of the plaintiffs and gave judgement in their favour. He
punctured the claim of the deposed monarch that he hails from the
Ajao-Alapinni royal family, saying that the evidence before the court
proved otherwise as minutes of meetings of the family and records of
attendance of their meetings did not show that he ever attended any of
their meetings.

The judge also said
he discovered that the meeting that produced Mr. Adegbola was factional
and that it gives recognition to Mr. Sanusi Alao as the eldest person
of the ruling house, saying it was unlawful for Mr. Sangotiku to summon
a meeting since he was not recognised as the eldest.

“The exercise by
the kingmakers is ultra vires, null and void. The first defendant is of
female line… I hereby hold that there is merit in the plaintiff’s
case and it subsists that the first defendant being the member of
Akalako which produced the last king, it is a bastardisation of the
customary law of Eruwa. The approval of the first defendant by the
eigth defendant (Oyo State government) is hereby set aside and that it
should not accord recognition to him as the Eleruwa of Eruwa,” the
judge said.

Lasun Sanusi,
counsel to the plaintiff, praised the judgement, describing it as
“brilliant, comprehensive and incisive”. According to him, the verdict
had confirmed the saying that though the machinery of justice grinds
slowly, it grinds surely and fine. The judgement also attracted wild
jubilation at the court premises as those who came from Eruwa burst
into songs of victory as the news was broken to them.

Meanwhile, the deposed monarch had vowed to challenge the judgement
at the Appeal Court. Describing the court’s position as a miscarriage
of justice, Mr. Adegbola told journalists that he had instructed his
legal team to proceed to the appellate court to seek a reversal of the
judgement.

I had a good laugh
when I read the reports of ‘surprise’ that many youth corps members did
not know how to operate the laptops being used with the Direct Data
Capture machines for the voter’s registration exercise. I say that I
laughed, but I was laughing with despair, not with happiness.

For the past 10
years, at least, academics, students, parents, educators, and employers
have raised concerns, expressed alarm, and lamented the state of
education in our country.

In our secondary
schools, classes are over crowded, with about 100 pupils per teacher in
the worst cases, rendering whatever teaching that takes place almost
completely ineffective. Some classrooms are labeled laboratories but
have no Bunsen burners or other basic Science equipment.

I am glad to report
that in recent years, the situation has improved a lot. But not too
long ago, in many of our colleges of higher education, some graduates
of Computer Science were experts in programming but did not have access
to functioning computers in their faculties. They learnt the theory and
had to pick up the practical themselves after graduation.

I recently listened
to a re-intepretation of Bobby Benson’s famous song, ‘Taxi Driver’,
performed during the Ajumogobia Foundation Concert in December by Ibiai
Ajumogobia and Nimi Akinkugbe. The sheet music for the pianos and all
the other classical and African musical instruments was composed by a
professor of Music in Ife. The composition was a virtuoso piece of
music combining high-life, jazz, and classical genres in harmonious
accord.

That this kind of
overwhelming talent and skillful expertise could exist in our public
university system that has suffered such resource neglect with old and
faulty equipment and poorly stocked libraries is a marvel; and our
dogged graduates are a marvel too.

The youth corpers
should be congratulated for having learned within a week how to operate
the machines and get the job done in the face of infrastructure
challenges such as incorrect software, insufficient power from the
batteries, from the grid, or from standby generators; and inordinate
pressure managing large numbers of impatient and irate voters who queue
up mostly in outdoor locations to register. The fault does not lie with
them.

Let me go back to
my laughter. I laughed because it really seems as though our fellow
citizens in positions of power, influence, or in the civil service do
not have a realistic idea of what the prevailing conditions of life are
for the people they serve. If that is the case, then it makes sense
that they would not have planned adequately for the logistics of the
exercise.

In opting to close
all schools down so that public schools could be used as centres for
the registration exercise, perhaps the Ministry of Education is unaware
that the bulk of educational institutions are private not public.

Correct me if I am wrong, but I believe that in Lagos the ratio is approximately 80% private to 20% public.

In closing down all
schools, they have interrupted the education of 80% of our school-age
children in the so-called ‘interest’ of the 20% in public schools who
would be affected.

To respond to some
of the accusations of ‘elitism’ that I have been reading in the press
about the drive to keep the private schools open. 80% means that
students from every and all economic groups are educated in private
schools. The children of street sweepers, cleaners, drivers,
messengers, and domestic staff also attend private schools.

They also want
their children to be taught in classrooms without holes in the roof,
and to be seated on chairs and not on the floor. Since they have to pay
‘unofficial fees’ for their children’s education in our ‘free’ public
schools, they choose to pay official fees in private schools and have
some measure of comfort, care, and a guarantee that teachers will turn
up to teach provided for their children. Get the facts right! Open your
eyes and look around, ask questions.

I am not saying that all public schools are like that, but too many to be comfortable are.

Yes, we have
graduates who enter the National Youth Service Corps. Yes, almost all
of them have a facebook page and one of the popular internet email
accounts. No, most of them do not have a computer at home, have never
plugged in a computer, let alone turned it on, or used multimedia
software other than to upload their electronic passport photographs.
They use computer in internet cafes where they are already switched on
and all you have to do is click on the appropriate icon on the desktop
screen.

Yet, these are a
bunch of very smart, very ambitious young people who are hungry to
learn and to be exposed to the many experiences that a working life can
offer them.

I salute them and
their parents for their mere participation in this major exercise in
democracy that brings them in close contact with their fellow citizens
everywhere in Nigeria, that exposes them to the wide range of
professions, cultures and backgrounds in the neighbourhoods they serve.

I salute their
courage in the face of general insecurity in our country, and the added
risk of political thuggery. I envy them the experience of real
down-home Nigerian care and hospitality.

The neighbourhood
old folks who express concern for their welfare and protect them from
the ‘area boys and girls’. The mamas and babas who bring them cool
drinks, snacks and food unasked for, and unrewarded. The good souls who
keep them company and share the local gossip with them, who keep their
belongings safe while they are otherwise occupied. The homes,
businesses, and umbrellas that are offered to them when it rains or the
sun gets too hot. The laughter, the jokes, the camaraderie, the
arguments, the posing, the fronting – such a diverse and enriching
experience that they will never forget as long as they live.

May they live long, and may this registration exercise, these
elections, and the next administration be better off due to their
participation. Let’s give them all the support and encouragement that
we can.

Aspirants who
emerged from political parties’ primary elections held after the 15
January deadline issued by the Independent National Electoral
Commission will not be eligible to contest in the 2011 general
elections, Atahiru Jega, chairman of the commission, has said.

Mr. Jega said this
on Wednesday while appearing before the Senate over hiccups in the
ongoing voters’ registration project. He said that the timetable issued
by INEC is an equivalent of a law, as provided by the 2010 Electoral
Act.

“The provision of
the Act clearly says that INEC should provide guidelines for political
parties’ primaries and convention and the guidelines for the election,”
Mr. Jega said.

He added that the decision to stick with the timetable is meant to bring sanity and discipline to the system.

“The timetable is
very clear; every primary ends on the 15th of January. All nominations
should be submitted by the 31st of January. If we wake up and somebody
says he is going to do primary again long after 15th of January, we are
obligated to draw his attention to the provision that the date for
primary has closed. That is what we have done, and I do not see how we
can be seen to break any law or acted contrary to the provision of the
law,” he further said.

The INEC chair said
his commission has consulted with many lawyers on the issue and are
confident they took the right decision. His verdict, although
astounding to some senators who are hoping to be re-elected in a rerun
of their primary election, clarifies contrary moves by some political
parties to hold primary election long after the 15 January deadline.

Ten finger prints

Mr. Jega also
defended the decision of the commission to capture ten fingerprints in
the ongoing voter registration, saying it was the safest way to avoid
multiple registrations during the project.

He added that the
commission took the decision considering that in 2006, some politicians
used palm kernel nuts to thumb print voter registration documents.

“The more fingers
you use, the less the possibility of multiple registrations. It reduces
the possibility of multiple registrations to 1 to 5 million if you use
ten fingers. We are so confident because it will reduce the problem of
credibility in our electoral system,” he explained.

He argued that only
one in five million multiple registrations could beat the system and
that the software even has the ability to distinguish indents of the
fingers from other indented objects like the palm kernel nuts.

He added that the software can also identify still images captured from photographs.

The Federal
government has said it is now ready to begin an assessment of the
budget performance for the 2010 fiscal year and has ordered all
Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDA) to without delay supply it
with their performances for the year, 2010.

The Minister of
Information and Communication, Labaran Maku disclosed this yesterday
while briefing State House correspondents shortly after the weekly
Federal Executive Council meeting, which was presided over by President
Goodluck Jonathan and attended by Vice President Namadi Sambo and most
ministers.

He also said the
order became necessary to enable the federal government to concentrate
on the assessment of the performance of the 2010 budget, as well as the
formulation of new policies for 2011.

“The Federal
Executive Council (FEC) at its meeting presided over by Mr Jonathan
today took far reaching decisions. Today marks the end of contract
awards under the 2010 budget, so as from the next FEC meeting we will
no longer award contracts. All the MDAs have been mandated to submit
their 2010 performance to enable us concentrate of policy formulations”
he stated.

Performance appraisal

Mr Maku also said
the performance assessment is to enable government re-appraise its
priorities and concentrate on those areas that lacked adequate
attention under the 2010 budget.

“Every MDAs have
been asked to prepare a progress report on all contracts so far
awarded, so that Nigerians can see the state of the contracts and the
progress made in all the various sectors into which we have committed a
lot of resources” he said.

He added that “from
subsequent meetings, you are now going to hear the reports of all the
contracts. It is not just enough to award contracts, we also want to
know what has been achieved and the level of the performance of the
2010 budget” he said.

Project completion orders

The minister
further said as part of the President’s commitments to improving
agriculture in the northern part of the country, he has ordered the
completion of all ongoing dam projects in the area, including the
abandoned Ganye dam in Adamawa State and the Kontagora dam in Niger
State.

He said the FEC
during its meeting gave approval for the award of contracts for the
completion of the Hadeija Valley Irrigation project in Jigawa State
which was first awarded in 2001 but was abandoned by the previous
government at the cost of N5.908 billion.

According to Mr
Maku, the project was abandoned at 80 percent completion stage, when
the contractor requested for an upward review of the contract sum to
N10, 333, 167, 334.42, representing an augmentation of
N4,424,923,799.38.

He also noted that on completion, the project will provide irrigation in 2 stages covering a total of 12,500 hectares.

Council also
approved the award of contract for the establishment of E-Passport
Public Key Directory (PKD) which will make it easier to verify personal
data information contained in the current E-Passport both locally and
internationally, in the sum of N229.125Million.

According to the
Minister of Interior Emmanuel Iheanacho who expanded on the contract
“Other benefits of the PKD include provision of fast and secured means
of validating e-passport; easy detection of compromised or forged
documents, making it easy for citizens to travel internationally, and
allowing states to improve security at international borders”.

Earlier, the
Minister of Finance, Olusegun Aganga, also briefed journalists on the
successful launch of the 500 Million US Dollars Debut Eurobond
Offering, which he said will serve as a benchmark for private
borrowers; including banks, oil and gas companies as well as
manufacturers.

The bond, he said, will also act as a catalyst in stimulating and
accelerating the country’s growth by bridging the gap between the
Nigerian corporate and global investor community.

Officials of the
Labour Ministry will this year spend more than three times on domestic
and international travel than what obtained in 2010, according to the
ministry’s budget plan which proposes a massive slash on funds meant
for employment programmes.

In the estimate
which awaits National Assembly’s approval, a bulk of annual job
programmes such as skills acquisition, agricultural and entrepreneurial
training will this year receive N775.9 million, a far cry from last
year’s N5.2 billion.

Yet, funds
earmarked for international and domestic travel of officials, mostly
the Minister and the Permanent Secretary, draws the highest raise in
years, climbing from N207.5 million to N622.5 million.

The two travel
subheads featured prominently in a presentation made before the House
of Representatives yesterday, and were listed first and second in a
list of 17 “critical vote and requirements” for 2011.

Each trip within Africa is estimated at N20 million while distances beyond will cost N40 million each, the ministry stated.

In a prepared
analysis, the Minister, Emeka Worgu, told the lawmakers that many of
the international trips will be for “mandatory meetings” of labour
organisations, in which Nigeria is executive member.

“In view of the
several official trips required of the Honorable Minister and Permanent
Secretary to various events, coupled with the official travels engaged
in by other ministry staff for verification exercise, monitoring and
manpower audit, substantial fund allocation is requested,” he said on
Wednesday.

But the budget
details, allocations and their listing will highlight the Labour
Ministry’s priority as unemployment rate stays high amid ceaseless
industrial unrest.

In all, the
Ministry’s estimate is to drop from N12.3 billion for last year, to
N9.15 billion. With an administrative and personnel cost of N3.287
billion and N4.9 billion respectively, the bulk of the budget slash is
on the capital. Most part of the capital proposal, although with a
perennial poor implementation record, resides with the National
Directorate of Employment.

The funds, past
budgets say, are usually directed at vocational skills for school
leavers, entrepreneurial training for small owners, agricultural
training for rural employment, creation of job centres, and a few
office procurement.

In this year’s
proposal, allocation to the Directorate’s capital is N500 million,
against last year’s N4.67 billion. Also, more funds are directed at
recurrent cost, underpinning a traditional practice which the
executive, and even the legislature have recently pledged to reverse.

The House
committee on labour, headed by Ado Audu, which received the proposals,
said more meetings will be scheduled to properly sort out the contents
of the Ministry’s budget estimates.

President Goodluck Jonathan has approved the appointment of Zakari Ibrahim as coordinator for Anti-Terrorism.

This is coming
twenty-three days after the initial promise was made to appoint an
anti-terrorism boss, following the spate of bombings across the country
which included the twin bomb blasts in Jos, Plateau State, and the
December 31st bombing of the Mogadishu Barracks (Abacha Barracks) in
Abuja.

The special adviser
to the president, Ima Niboro, on the 3rd of January, while briefing
journalists after an emergency meeting of the Security Council chaired
by the president, had said, “Mr. President in the next one week is to
appoint a special adviser on terrorism.”

The council had
also decided to introduce Close Circuit Televisions (CCTVs) in public
and private places for access control, in a bid to strengthen security
networks across the country.

A statement by the
presidential spokesman, which was made available to journalists, also
stated that the president has also appointed Kingsley K. Kuku as
Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta Affairs, to fill in the
gap created by Timi Alaibe who resigned to pursue his political
ambition.

The statement also
said the wife of Odumegwu Ojukwu, former flagbearer of the All
Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA), Bianca Ojukwu, has been appointed as
Senior Special Assistant to the President on Diaspora Affairs.

Oyewole Olugbenga Leke has also been appointed Senior Special Assistant to the President on Maritime Services.

The statement added that “The appointments take immediate effect”.