Nigeria Content Online

Last week’s secret
meeting between the presidential candidate of the Congress for
Progressive Change, Muhammadu Buhari, and his Action Congress of
Nigeria counterpart, Nuhu Ribadu, was aimed at strengthening the
ongoing alliance talks between the two parties ahead of the April
polls. Spokesperson for the CPC, Rotimi Fashakin, disclosed this
yesterday in a telephone interview with NEXT.

Messrs Buhari and Ribadu
reportedly met in Kaduna last Thursday night, during which the former
allegedly pleaded with the latter to step down for him as part of the
concession in the ongoing talks between the two opposition parties.
Unconfirmed reports also said that the presidential candidate of the
All Nigeria Peoples Party, Ibrahim Shekarau, had agreed to form an
alliance with the CAN and CPC to come up with a joint presidential
candidate for the April election.

Mr. Fashakin noted
that it was a positive development as it would help to define the
relationship both parties were entering into.

“I may not be able
to give details of the meeting because I was not part of it,” Mr.
Fashakin said in a telephone interview. “I read it in the papers.
However, it is part of the ongoing efforts at ensuring a good showing
of the progressives during the April elections. You are aware that the
two parties are discussing on how to go into the elections, that is to
forge a common front, such meetings will strengthen this development. I
will definitely let you know the outcome when we conclude the talks.”

Not telling

The CPC
spokesperson debunked claims that the party was also discussing with
the All Nigeria Peoples Party with a view to go into some form of
political alliance. He said that he was not aware that the CPC had ever
approached the ANPP, the party in which Mr. Buhari contested the 2003
and 2007 presidential polls, for any talks.

“That is not to my
knowledge,” Mr. Fashakin said. “I don’t think we have any alliance with
ANPP now.” Also speaking yesterday, Chido Onumah, spokesperson for the
Nuhu Ribadu Campaign, said he was not in the know of the meeting
between his principal and the CPC presidential flagbearer.

“I have no information on this,” Mr. Onumah said in a telephone chat.

Minister of State
for the Federal Capital Territory, Caleb Olubolade, at the weekend
flayed those criticizing lapses in the operation of the Direct Data
Capture machines in the ongoing voter registration exercise.

Rather, Mr.
Olubolade, said, Nigerians should encourage the Independent National
Electoral Commission for the success of the ongoing exercise.
Addressing reporters in Ipoti-Ekiti, in Ijero Local Government Area,
the minister ruled out the insinuations that the incessant changing of
the leadership within the Peoples Democratic Party could mar the
chances of the party in the 2011 elections.

The former Bayelsa State military administrator was optimistic that
the Attahiru Jega-led commission would make a success of the voter
registration exercise. He said, “I am very confident that INEC under
Prof Attahiru Jega will find a way round the associated problems with
the operation of the DDC machines across the nation. I will advise that
Nigerians should be giving the commission encouragement rather than
criticizing it.” “The success of the registration exercise will be in
the interest of the nation and not Prof. Jega alone or INEC, so we owe
it a duty to give all our support to INEC, so all prospective and
eligible voters in every nook and cranny of the nation can be
registered unhindered.”

The animosity
between the governments of Oyo and Osun states over the ownership of
Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH) may soon become
worse, as the Oyo state government tinkers with the idea of opening a
campus of the institution at Iseyin by the middle of the year.

Controversial vice chancellor of the university, Moshood Olanrewaju
Nassir, who disclosed this during a courtesy call on the Aseyin of
Iseyin, Oba Abdulganiyu Adekunle Salawu, Ajinase 1, said all the
necessary arrangements have been concluded to ensure the immediate
take-off of the campus. According to him, the new campus will house the
faculty of education of the university and will admit students
immediately after its opening.

The two sister states have engaged each
other in confrontations over the ownership of the university, which was
established when the two were one state. Oyo State governor, Adebayo
Alao-Akala’s unilateral decision to rupture the joint ownership
structure of the university has created tension in the institution,
with the staff and students bearing the brunt.

Problems of ownership

Though the battle
had been on before Rauf Aregbesola assumed office as the Osun state
governor, the fact that he does not belong to the People’s Democratic
Party with Mr. Alao-Akala, promises a fiercer battle between the two
states over the institution. Despite the intervention of elders of the
PDP, Olagunsoye Oyinlola, Aregbesola’s predecessor, had insisted that
he was not ready to let go of the joint ownership structure of LAUTECH,
and the battle raged until his removal from office late last year.

The beat of war was
still booming when Mr. Aregbesola assumed office with a recent warning
from the governor that Mr. Alao-Akala should stop issuing orders to
workers of the institution as if it were solely owned by Oyo state.

Speaking with the
Aseyin during the recent visit, Mr. Nassar, who was there with members
of his governing board, said: “Our visit is a step towards giving
credibility and fulfillment to the promise of his excellency, the
executive governor of Oyo state, Otunba Christopher Alao-Akala, during
his visit to Iseyin that a campus of the university would be sited in
Iseyin.

“With this visit,
the people of Iseyin and indeed Oke-Ogun area can be rest assured that
all machineries are being put in motion to ensure that students are
admitted into the proposed campus soonest.”

He appealed for the cooperation of the people of the town as
students and staff of the institution would rely on them for
accommodation and security. The monarch, in his response, said that the
opening of the campus was long overdue, arguing that Iseyin was one of
the only two big cities without a higher institution.

Provisional results from South Sudan’s referendum
show that almost 99 percent of voters have chosen independence, the
referendum commission’s website said on Sunday after 98.7 percent of
the votes had been counted.

The referendum was promised under a 2005 north-south
peace deal which ended Africa’s longest civil war. A vote for secession
was widely expected because of persistent tension between the mainly
Muslim north and southerners who mainly Christian or follow traditional
religions.

“As of now, 100 percent of the North and (overseas)
votes and 98.7 percent of the South votes have been processed,” the
commission’s website (southernsudan2011.com/) said. The provisional and
incomplete results showed that 98.81 percent of voters wanted
secession, it said, confirming earlier returns. The votes need to be
sent to the commission’s headquarters in Khartoum for checking before
the preliminary results are announced in a week. The south is likely to
declare independence on July 9.

Exactly how the two will disentangle their economies,
share oil wealth and demarcate the border remains to be decided. The
disputed central Abyei region remains the major sticking point as both
sides claim the area, which saw deadly clashes between tribes during
the week-long referendum this month.

Most analysts believe neither north nor south wants or can afford a
return to all-out war. The south’s budget is 98 percent derived from
oil, most of which is produced in the south, but which is refined,
transported and administered by the north. Both sides have used proxy
militias which could provoke wider clashes. The civil war between north
and south, fuelled by differences over oil, ideology, ethnicity and
religion, claimed an estimated 2 million lives and destabilised much of
east Africa.

The Commissioner
of Police in Sokoto state Abubakar Manku, on Sunday threatened to
prosecute any officer that register underage children in the ongoing
voters’ registration.

Mr Abubakar made
this known when he led the state inter security committee to inspect
the ongoing exercise within the metropolis, warning that “you will
succeed in registering the underage children but INEC will detect
such.” He urged the registration officers not to jeopardise the effort
of the commission to have a credible voter’s register that will usher
in credible elections in the April general elections.

The poilce boss called on politicians to desist from any form of
violence , he revealed that plain security officers had been deployed
in different parts of the state to gather intelligent report to enhance
security in the state. The Inter Security Committee members are the
State Commissioner of Police, State Director of SSS, Comptrollers of
Customs, Immigration, Prison, Commanders of NDLEA and NSCDC.

Inmates of a lepers’ colony in Borno
State have appealed to the Independent National Electoral Commission
(INEC) to rescind its decision to nullify registration cards that have
no fingerprints.

Bulama Kadai, the new ward head of the
Maiduguri Molai Lepers’ Colony, made the plea in an interview with the
News Agency of Nigeria at the colony located 30 km from Maiduguri. Mr
Kadai said some inmates had registered for the cards without having any
finger impressions. “We are saddened by a media report credited to the
INEC Chairman, that registration without fingerprints will be
nullified. This is an infringement on the rights of lepers as most of
us have lost our fingers,’’ he said. He also complained that the
registration centre was far from the colony noting that “the population
of the colony is more than 2,000, including our dependants.

It deserves a centre,” Mr Kadai added.
But an INEC official, who wants to remain anonymous, told NAN that the
commission had taken care of the grievances of the inmates. “I can tell
you that the inmates are just ignorant of the development. INEC has
made a provision for comments by registration officers on individuals
whose fingerprints cannot be obtained on their cards’’ the official
said.

The leaders of the
21st-century’s two superpowers met at the White House this week, with
Chinese leader Hu Jintao standing shoulder-to-shoulder with U.S.
President Barack Obama and no longer in his shadow.

“Our cooperation as partners should be based on mutual respect,” Hu said.

Hu’s elaborately
staged four-day state visit seemed to mark the end of the Chinese
leader’s unofficial status as a (junior) partner to the American
president. In some ways Hu is the stronger of the two.

Obama is in
trouble; his country’s economy is sluggish and gripped by stubborn
unemployment. His government has accumulated record debts. His domestic
political position has been undermined by voter disenchantment and
Republican opposition.

According to this
week’s new CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll, 56 percent of
Americans believe that the president will serve the remaining two years
of his term with less influence over the country than they expect from
the Republicans in Congress.

Hu, by contrast, is
the unchallenged leader of his country, managing the most dramatic
economic growth in world history and lending Washington billions of
dollars for its budget.

America’s own
Forbes magazine ranks Hu as the most powerful man in the world (with
Obama relegated to number two) because he “exercises near dictatorial
control over 1.3 billion people, one-fifth of world’s population.
Unlike Western counterparts, Hu can divert rivers, build cities, jail
dissidents and censor Internet without meddling from pesky
bureaucrats.” But the United States is still much freer, richer and
more influential. People around the world use its currency, fly on its
airplanes and watch its movies. Have you seen a Chinese banknote,
passenger jet or comedy recently?

Hu and Obama are
certainly partners in the world economy. But the American president
remains paramount in economics and most other respects, because of
America’s democratic ideals, diplomatic ambitions, cultural influence
and technological innovation. Obama’s challenge is to keep it that way.

The Action Congress
of Nigeria (ACN) has expressed concerns over the problems plaguing the
ongoing voter registration exercise, describing the hiccups as the
single greatest obstacle to free, fair and credible polls in April.

The party made this
known through a statement by its national publicity secretary; Lai
Mohammed on Sunday where it identified setbacks such as “registration
of voters without their fingerprints being captured, disappearance of
DDC machines which can be used for illegal registration and alleged
over-supply of DDC machines to the areas that are known to be
strongholds of the PDP” as major issues befalling the 10 day
registration.

Doubting the
emergence of a credible voters register at the end of the registration,
the party demands that the electoral agency, “urgently provide answers”
to the following posers.

“At what point will
double registration by a single person be detected? Is it when the data
collected after registrations are fed into servers at local, state or
federal level? Once detected, how will this problem be addressed? A
successful voter registration is a sine qua non for free and fair
elections. This is why we cannot afford to fail in ensuring that the
ongoing exercise succeeds,” ACN said. The party warned the electoral
commission not to take anything for granted, because unscrupulous
politicians will stop at nothing to tamper with the registration
exercise as a prelude to rigging the forthcoming polls.

The party also
called the attention of INEC to stories making the rounds that the
voter registration has been programmed to fail, hence the massive,
artificial hiccups to give way for the use of discredited voters
register. According to the statement, “the rumour is that once the
ongoing registration fails, INEC will have no choice than to use the
old, discredited register – which it will claim to have cleaned up –
for April’s elections.”

The electoral body was urged to ensure that in the remaining days to
the end of the registration exercise, the suppliers of the machines are
compelled to “deploy the necessary expertise to ensure that the
registration runs smoothly.” The party also enjoined INEC not shy away
from “seeking an extension of the exercise, if necessary” noting that
‘’failure to do that will mean that thousands of voters would be
disenfranchised in April, and that the promise by President Goodluck
Jonathan to organise free and fair elections would have evaporated into
thin air, complete with his credibility and that of INEC Chairman
Attahiru Jega.”

A few months after a senior lecturer of Ambrose Alli
University, Ekpoma, Edo State, was involved in a sex scandal that went
viral, another lecturer of the institution, simply identified as Mr.
Uhumuavbi, has been sanctioned by the governing council of the
university for fraud. Mr. Uhumuavbi, a reader in the department of
curriculum and instruction of the institution, was accused of
unauthorized spending of N3,252,540 and un-retired funds amounting to
N3,070,550 that was in his possession. He was alleged to have committed
the fraud as head of the water unit of the university during the
administration of former vice-chancellor, Dan Aigbomian.

Following petitions written against him, an ad-hoc
senior staff disciplinary committee was set up to consider the case and
established a case of misconduct against the reader, which the
university’s governing council adopted at its 171st meeting held
December 9, 2010. According to the deputy registrar, information/public
relations of the institution, Chris Adamaigbo, Mr. Uhumuavbi is to
“refund the sum of N3,252,540 being unauthorized spending, as well as
pay back the sum of N3,070,550 unretired fund to the university.”

Banned from office

A further sanction includes the denial to the
lecturer of promotion for three years from the date he meets the
relevant criteria, just as he has been barred from holding any position
in the university for the rest of his working career.

The disciplinary
action, the release emphasized, was in tune with the determination of
the governing council to promote integrity, transparency and
accountability in the handling of university assignments by staff and
students. Some members of the university were, however divergent in the
reactions, as some said the punishment was not commensurate with the
offence, while others felt he was being persecuted because he lacked a
godfather. Those who felt the disciplinary committee was too lenient
cried foul play, saying that some other university employees who had
committed less offences in the past were dismissed, while others also
alleged that those who committed more grievous offences in the past
were covered up.

Two legislators
detained for the alleged murder of Joseph Akpan-Akpudo – an aspirant to
the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly on the platform of the People’s
Democratic Party (PDP)-have regained their freedom.

The released
legislators are Ekong Sampson representing Mkpat Enin state
constituency at Akwa Ibom Assembly and Bernard Udo representing Ikot
Abasi Federal Constituency at the House of Representatives.

Also released was, the Chairman of Mkpat Enin local government
Akparawa Mfon Nkanteen, his secretary Ubong Inyang, House Leader of the
council; Udobong and former Vice-Chairman Imowo Udobia. Their release
after three weeks of detention came on the heels of the arrest of a six
man killer gang by the State Police Command recently. According to Mr
Sampson, one of the freed lawmakers, the arrest and confessions of
those behind the crime have vindicated him and others earlier detained.
He assured the people that there was no cause for alarm as he had no
hand in the assassination of the slain politician and medical doctor.