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The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has demanded that the voter
registration exercise be extended by 10 days or as allowed by the amended
Electoral Act 2010, to enable the registration of all willing and eligible
voters.

While commending Attahiru Jega, INEC’s chairman, “for being
forthright by immediately coming out to acknowledge that the electoral body is
facing serious logistic and technical challenges that have led to a very slow
pace of registration in spite of reported huge turnouts by eligible Nigerians,”
it, however, asked for the distribution of outstanding DDC machines to more
centres and the deployment of technical personnel across the country to make
the process faster.

Illegal extension

However, according to Festus Okoye, the national coordinator of
the Independent Election Monitoring Group, the extension of the time for the
voter registration would violate section 9, sub section 5 and section 20 of the
Electoral Act.

He explained that the sections provided that voter updates
should stop 60 days (previoulsy, it was 120 days) before an election, while the
voter’s register should be published 30 days before elections.

“The question is: is it possible to extend the registration date
without an amendment of the law? I will advise that INEC calls for extension of
the registration hours to enable it register all eligible voters within the
fixed date,” he said.

Mr. Okoye said the best option in the circumstance is for the
Independent National Electoral Commission to adjust the periods for the holding
of all categories of elections under the Act by 7 days. He said the one week
gap between the end of the voter’s registration and the display of the register
is essential for the tidying up of the register.

According to the group, in its analysis, the time table that was
largely drawn from the Electoral Act, 2010, the registration of voters will
commence on January 15, 2011 and end on the January 29, 2011. This is pursuant
to the provisions of section 9(5) of the Electoral Act, 2010. While it will
display the register of voters between February 3, 2011 and February 8, 2011
pursuant to section 19(1) of the Electoral Act, 2010.

The commission will, thereafter, integrate the voter’s register
with the supplementary list and publish on or before the March 2, 2011,
pursuant to section 20 of the Electoral Act, 2010.

However, the group said that “any attempt to breach the
provisions and intendment of section 9(5) of the Act may throw the entire
electoral process out of gear and create a constitutional logjam that may be
too costly for the Nigerian people to bear.”

In its advice to the commission, “rather than hold the National
Assembly elections on the 2nd day of April, 2011, it will be held on the 9th
day of April, 2011. The Presidential Election will then be held on the 16th day
of April 2011, rather than on the 9th day of April 2011; and the Governorship
and State Assembly Elections on the 23rd day of April 2011, rather than on the
16th day of April 2011.”

The spokesperson for the INEC boss, Kayode Idowu, said on Sunday
that the review was still in progress and that an outcome was expected by
Monday. According to him, an extension of the registration, likely by a week,
would force a new date for the display of the new voter’s register currently
scheduled for February 3 to February 8, 2011.

The first election date, which is that of the National Assembly,
is scheduled to hold on April 8, while a 60-day limit demanded by the Electoral
Act for the voter’s registration can still allow for its extension to go by a
week.

Almost all the political parties through their spokespersons or
special releases have also called and supported the voter registration
extension.

The United Nations
Human Rights Chief, Navi Pillay has asked for justice for victims of
relentless massacre and killings in Plateau State in recent years.

The UN official was
responding to a petition from a civil society organisation, the
Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) which urged
that those responsible for the persistent violence in Jos, and the
associated human rights violations be brought to book.

The group had
petitioned the global body over the negligence of the Nigerian
government in checking the unrelenting killings that has greeted the
state in the last two years.

According to Ms
Pillay, “the High Commissioner has written to the Nigerian authorities
urging them to make every effort to achieve security with full
adherence to legality and respect for human rights.” She stressed that
“it is important that every effort should be made to avoid excessive
use of force, arbitrary arrest and detention and that the authorities
should fully investigate all incidents of human rights violations and
hold those responsible to account.”

The UN official
also urged the Nigerian government to look beyond the use of military
tactics in addressing the issue but rather, focus on the primary issues
such as poverty and discrimination. She has suggested that the way
forward and the best proactive protection is to “address the root
causes of these recurrent inter-ethnic and inter-religious conflicts
between various communities.” On the call for a special session of the
Human Rights Council on Jos, Ms Pillay said that, “such a discussion is
the prerogative of the member states of the Human Rights Council. But
we in the office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights will
continue to engage with the authorities on the issues raised in your
letter.” SERAP had claimed that the failure of the Nigerian government
to exercise due diligence has resulted in the violations of human
rights of citizens in Jos.

Ms Pillay expressed concerns about reports of religious violence in
Jos, which has caused death, injury and displacement and she extended
her sympathy to the families of the victims and wounded.

The Action Congress of Nigeria presidential flagbearer,Nuhu Ribadu has at the weekend obtained his voters registration card.

Mr Ribadu, who
blamed the People’s Democratic Party for the difficulty being
encountered by the citizenry, said his party will demystify the power
of incumbency. He said the PDP will lose in Nigeria, as is the trend
all over Africa “We are going to stop corruption in this country,” Mr
Ribadu said this before party supporters.

He sighted examples
of countries where incumbents have failed to return to power ,
countries like , Cote d voire, Guinea, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Ghana.The
presidential candidate assured people of the failure of the
imcumbent,‘‘They are going to lose in Nigeria. The difficulty that our
people are made to live with and the havoc that the PDP has caused is
going to be a thing of the past.” The ACN presidential aspirant, who
coincidentally obtained his voters’ registration card at the Aliyu
Musdafa primary school centre, the same place he had his early primary
education, commended the ongoing voter registration exercise.

Happy with registration

He said the
exercise showed the country is beginning to tread on the “right path”.
According to him, it signifies the conduct of a free and fair polls is
possible if everyone work towards it.

“I’m so happy, I
have just been registered by a member of the National Youth Service
Corps. It was done very fast and efficiently,” Mr Ribadu said,
expressing satisfaction with the registration. Following his
registration , he again promised the citizens of his willingness to
bring changes which include adequate and stable electricity supply,
qualitative education and qualitative medical health service delivery
which the PDP government had failed to deliver in its long years of
rule.

He was accompanied
by the ACN gubernatorial flagbearer of Adamawa State, Markus Natina
Gundiri; the state party chairman, Mohammed Abdullahi and other top
party stalwarts including a former acting governor of the state, Pithon
P. Power who is also the party flagbearer for Demsa, Numan and Lamurde
constituency for the Federal House of Representatives.

The Resident Electoral Commissioner for the state, Kassim Gaidam
said the efficiency of the voter registration which Mr Ribadu has
confirmed himself in the state is the outcome of the “demonstrable will
by the electoral body not to disappoint Nigerians”.

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.