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The U.N. Security
Council on Tuesday delayed a vote on sending additional troops to Cote
d’Ivoire, where the blue helmeted peacekeepers have been under attack,
due to Russian objections, council envoys said.

The 15-nation
council was set to vote on a resolution to send an additional 2,000
peacekeepers to help the 10,000 U.N. troops and police in the U.N.
peacekeeping mission in Cote d’Ivoire, known as UNOCI. But diplomats
said Russia raised last-minute objections on Tuesday morning about the
language.

“It’s obviously a
delay tactic,” one diplomat told Reuters on condition of anonymity.
Another diplomat said council members would have to satisfy Moscow’s
demands in order to get the resolution approved.

“We need Russia on
board,” the diplomat said. “We have to listen to them.” He added that
he hoped the council would vote on the troop increase on Wednesday at
the latest.

British Ambassador
Mark Lyall Grant confirmed that Russia, whose oil giant Lukoil is
exploring for crude in Cote d’Ivoire, had issues with the draft
resolution. “They want a delay in the vote,” he told reporters ahead of
a council meeting. Alassane Ouattara is widely recognized by Western
and African governments as president-elect of Cote d’Ivoire, after the
electoral commission proclaimed him winner of the Nov. 28 presidential
poll. The results were certified by the U.N. mission but rejected by
incumbent Laurent Gbagbo.

Gbagbo has refused to resign and retains control of government buildings, state television and the security forces, while Ouattara’s parallel administration is based in a U.N.-guarded hotel under siege by pro-Gbagbo forces.

Russia, like the
United States, Britain, France and China, is a permanent veto-wielding
council member and can prevent the passage of any Security Council
measure. The resolution, which was drafted by the French, has already
been amended to accommodate Russian objections regarding the explicit
naming of Ouattara, diplomats said.

A Jan. 12 draft
text welcomed declarations of the African Union and west African
regional organization ECOWAS recognizing Ouattara as the president of
the world’s top cocoa producer. The latest version does not mention
Ouattara by name. Reuters obtained both draft resolutions.

One diplomat said
that Russia’s objections to the language “appeared minor on the
surface.” The Russian delegation had asked to reorder several
paragraphs and add language on “freedom of expression,” several
diplomats said.

“They’re not substantive objections,” a diplomat said. “So we’re
really not sure what they are trying to accomplish. The Russians have
been causing problems on Cote d’Ivoire from the beginning because they
think we shouldn’t take sides.”

Almost eight years
after his exit from the Osun State government secretariat, a former
governor of the state and national Chairman of the Action Congress of
Nigeria, Adebisi Akande yesterday returned to the Bola Ige house,
government secretariat, Osogbo where he rededicated the governor’s
office constructed by his administration with a call on the people of
the state to support the present administration in its bid to right the
wrongs allegedly committed by the immediate past administration of
Olagunsoye Oyinlola.

The administration
of Mr Akande, who served as governor of the state between 1999 and
2003, started the construction of the governor’s office which houses
the offices of the governor, deputy governor, secretary to the state
government, chief of staff to the governor and top civil servants in
2001 and completed it in 2003 towards the end of his tenure.

However, Mr Akande
did not have the opportunity of occupying the office before his
administration ended and he lost to Olagunsoye Oyinlola of the People’s
Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2003 governorship election.

Amidst rousing
ovation from a gathering of civil servants and politicians, the former
governor who described his four-year-tenure as a period of sacrificial
service to his state, noted that he constructed the much praised state
secretariat with the meager resources at the disposal of the state
during his tenure.

Ethos of prudence and accountability

While recounting
how he governed the state, Mr Akande said prudence, transparency and
accountability were his watchwords, adding that the achievements
recorded by his administration created a niche for him in the country.

As a committed
disciple of Obafemi Awolowo, Mr Akande said he followed the legacies of
the late statesman and his mentor, Bola Ige in running the affairs of
the state.

“When I came on
board as the governor of Osun State in 1999, there was paucity of fund
and resources in the state. We were living at a building built by the
late Awolowo, and we were happy, since we believe we were elected to
serve and not to enjoy the luxury of office. There was no money to
cater for the needs of the people of the state, but God helped us and
we succeeded at the end of the day,” he said.

He advised the
incumbent governor, Rauf Aregbesola to reduce extravagant spending if
he wants to succeed in office, and enjoined the governor to give
agriculture priority, saying the state could be more developed than
others if the agricultural sector is well developed.

Describing Mr
Aregbesola’s administration as a replica of his government, Mr Akande
urged the governor to construct a new government house at a serene
location within Osogbo, the state capital.

He described the immediate past administration as “a parasite which
has been cut off from the state” and called on the people to support
the present administration.

Tunisia’s new
coalition government hit trouble on Tuesday when four ministers quit
and an opposition party threatened to walk out, undermining efforts to
restore stability and end unrest on the streets.

Prime Minister
Mohamed Ghannouchi brought opposition leaders into the coalition on
Monday after president Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali fled to Saudi Arabia
following weeks of street protests. But key figures from the old guard
kept their jobs, angering opposition members of the coalition and
street protesters.

Police in Tunis
repeatedly used teargas in an attempt to break up a protest by several
hundred opposition party supporters and trade unionists who labelled
the new government a “sham”.

Several hundred people also protested against the new government in Monastir, south of Tunis.

The weeks of
protests against poverty and unemployment in Tunisia which forced Ben
Ali from office prompted fears across the Arab world that similarly
repressive governments might also face popular unrest.

Abid al-Briki of
the Tunisian labour union UGTT said its three ministers would withdraw
from the government because it included members of Ben Ali’s RCD party.

“This is in response to the demands of people on the streets,” Briki said.

The ministers were
given junior positions in the 23-member cabinet, including Houssine
Dimassi, nominated for the training and employment portfolio, and two
ministers of state, Abdeljelil Bedoui and Anouar Ben Gueddour.

The opposition
Ettajdid party will pull out of the coalition if ministers from Ben
Ali’s RCD party do not give up party membership and return to the state
all properties they obtained through the RCD, state television said.

Ettajdid leader Ahmed Ibrahim was named minister of higher education.

Opposition Health Minister Mustafa Ben Jaafar also resigned over the presence of RCD members in the cabinet, his party said.

On the streets, protesters insisted that ministers who had served Ben Ali had no place in the government.

“The new government is a sham. It’s an insult to the revolution that claimed lives and blood,” said student Ahmed al-Haji.

“The problem with
the interim government is it has a number of ministers from the old
government,” protester Sami bin Hassan said.

Reforms promised

Ghannouchi
defended his government, saying some ministers had been kept on because
they were needed in the run-up to elections, expected in the next two
months. The prime minister said the ministers of defence, interior,

finance and foreign affairs under Ben Ali would keep their jobs in the new government.

“We have tried to
put together a mix that takes into account the different forces in the
country to create the conditions to be able to start reforms,”
Ghannouchi told Europe 1 radio.

Ghannouchi rejected suggestions that the Ben Ali “dictatorship” would continue under a new guise.

His foreign
minister, Kamel Morjane, said during a visit to Egypt that the interim
government would respond to issues that had angered protesters, such as
corruption, and would be preparing for new elections.

“It may be possible that the next government will not have any member of the former government,” he said.

Paris-based opposition leader Moncef Marzouki arrived at Tunis airport to be met by 200 cheering supporters.

“The revolution must continue,” Marzouki, who went into exile after being harassed by Ben Ali’s intelligence services, said.

In Tunis on
Tuesday, people in several parts of the city reported hearing sporadic
gunfire overnight but there was significantly less gunfire than on
previous nights.

A Reuters
photographer in the Ariana suburb of Tunis said local people were
organising neighbourhood groups to clean up the damage left by several
days of lawlessness.

The government
says at least 78 people were killed in the unrest, and the cost in
damage and lost business was $2 billion. Ghannouchi promised to release
all political prisoners and to investigate those suspected of
corruption Those behind the killing of demonstrators would face justice.

An Egyptian man
set himself on fire in Cairo and another one tried to follow suit,
echoing an act of self-immolation in Tuni sia that triggered the mass
protests that ousted the president. Similar cases have been reported in
Algeria and Mauritania. The wave of protests has hit stock and currency
markets from Jordan to Morocco amid fears that the Tunisian unrest
would spread abroad.

The gubernatorial
candidate of the United Nigeria Peoples Party in Ogun State, Jacob
Olurin Adeogun, yesterday called on the police command to provide him
adequate security, alleging that his life was under threat, after his
victory at his party primaries. Talking to NEXT in Abeokuta, Mr Adeogun
said he has become a victim of nocturnal calls from people he called
“suspected assassins”, who he claimed have continued to harass him,
intimidate him, and equally sending messages to his friends to advise
him to step down from the race. Mr Adeogun was recently elected as the
flagbearer of the UNPP.

Mr Adeogun who said
he brought the party to the state over 11 years ago and served as its
secretary before his victory at the party’s primaries for the oncoming
April poll, lamented that, “The situation he [was] facing [was]
pathetic” and called for police protection before it got too late.

“This is very
pathetic,” he said. “I now move from one place to another. I can’t go
home straight, I have to be moving round before getting to my house.
Attempt on my life has political colouration and undertone, my
underground political campaign has become a threat to my opposition,”
he further alleged. He therefore appealed to the police authorities to
rise up to the challenge of protecting his life.

“The police are paid to protect the citizens, and I am one of them,” he concluded.

The All Nigeria
Peoples Party (ANPP) has criticised the federal government for planning
to establish nine new universities instead of equipping and improving
the existing institutions.

The national
chairman of the party, Ogbonnaya Onu, who said this in Abuja, also
stated that the country may find it hard to develop if issues relating
to the improvement of the lives of the people are not addressed. The
federal government had recently awarded the contracts for the
construction of new universities in all the nation’s six geo-political
zones.

Mr. Onu, in his
reaction, regretted that none of the nation’s universities is ranked
amongst the top 3000 universities in the world. He also lamented that
out of 1.2 million students that apply for the Joint Admission
Matriculation Board (JAMB) examination, only 200,000 get admitted into
the 93 Nigerian universities annually.

“So far, the
federal government has not made any serious efforts to rebuild its
existing universities to even meet the standard of the poor,” Mr. Onu
said.

“The ANPP is
worried and indeed highly disturbed that if the right mix of policies
is not adopted, the sad experience of the past will be repeated. We do
not want a situation where the establishment of these nine new
universities would only end up in the diversion of resources away from
adequately maintaining existing ones,” he further said.

While receiving the
officials of the National Association of Niger Delta Students (NADS)
led by its national president, Lucky Emonefe, yesterday, the ANPP boss
affirmed that Nigeria would get sustainable development only if the
issues of the Niger Delta are finally addressed.

“We cannot talk of
development of Nigeria if we do not address the problems facing the
people of the Niger Delta and built their infrastructure,” he said.

Mr. Onu said that
if the ANPP forms government at the centre, the region would be given
commensurate priority. He advised the students to embrace peace, and
not be allowed to be used in political violence.

Mr. Emonefe, who
later presented the ANPP boss with an award for conducting primaries
devoid of violence, said the opposition party has given a lot of youth
in the Niger Delta the chance to contest on the party’s platform,
adding that many of them won the posts they contested for.

President Goodluck
Jonathan on Tuesday said that the termination of the appointment of
Okwesilieze Nwodo as the national chairman of the Peoples Democratic
Party (PDP) was as a result of the “encumbering litigations” against
the party head.

Speaking to
journalists at the presidential wing of the Murtala Muhammed Airport
(MMA), Lagos, upon arrival from Abuja, Mr. Jonathan disclosed that the
court cases against the party chairman were becoming too many for the
party, adding that the litigations dragged the party backwards.

“The party is tired
of all these litigations and it does not want to be dragged into the
mess, that is why he has to step aside so that the party can manage its
affairs,” he said.

Mr. Jonathan
explained that the party is preparing for the forthcoming general
elections and will not entertain issues that will pull it back, as he
noted that the PDP is working on forwarding the names of candidates to
the Independent and National Electoral Commission (INEC).

Mr. Nwodo,
according to reports from the emergency meeting held by the PDP in
Abuja on Tuesday, resigned his post as the national chairman of the
party and is expected to face disciplinary actions following his
conduct at the proceedings of the presidential primary of the party,
despite a court order restraining him from acting as the party’s
helmsman.

The president, however, disclosed that Mr. Nwodo remains a senior official of the party.

“He is still a senior member of the party and we have a lot of respect for him,” he said.

On voter registration

Speaking on issues
pertaining to the ongoing registration of voters in the country, Mr.
Jonathan said that INEC is working hard to fix the problems associated
with the machines.

“A lot of Nigerians
are undergoing registration and a lot of them are enthusiastic about
the process, but we have problems with the machines and INEC is looking
at it. I do not want to speak for them; it is an independent body, it
can speak for itself, it has been given maximum freedom to do what is
right , I pray that the faulty machines will be fixed by God’s grace,”
he said.

The emergence of the former chairman of the
Economics and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Nuhu Ribadu, and
Mohammed Buhari as the presidential candidate of the Action Congress of
Nigeria (ACN) and Congress of Progressive Change (CPC) respectively do
not pose any threat to the presidential ambition of the incumbent
Goodluck Jonathan, the Minister of State for Federal Capital Territory,
Caleb Olubolade, has said.

Mr. Olubolade, who spoke with journalists in
Ado-Ekiti at the weekend, described the candidacy of Messrs Ribadu and
Buhari as good omen for the development of the nation’s democracy. He
noted that the beauty of democracy is multiple choices, adding that
although anybody could come up from any party, when they get to the
field, the end will jusitify the means.

He ascribed the emergence of Mr. Jonathan as the
presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to divine
intervention.

“The victory of Jonathan as the presidential flag
bearer of the PDP will enable him to carry out the transformation
agenda that he has in mind. All Nigerians need to do now is to come out
and give massive support to the president,” he said.

Nation for all

Mr. Olubolade also said the president’s victory is
a wake up call to all Nigerians, irrespective of their talent, to
contribute their quota to the building of a nation that can hold its
head among its peers in the world.

The minister, who commended the Convention
Committee headed by Tunde Adeniran for excellent performance, said the
massive security put in place by the committee to forestall untoward
occurrence was as a result of the lesson learnt in recent past where
there were incidences of bomb blast.

Mr. Olubolade described the convention as transparent, saying anything short of it would have engendered tension and crisis.

He urged the president’s opponents in the primaries to see the
victory of Mr. Jonathan as divine intervention, which should not debar
them from making their contribution toward building a greater Nigeria.

The Senate has debunked media reports
that some senators that lost their parties’ ticket to return to the
National Assembly are planning to impeach the senate leadership.There
are reports that some senators, apparently unhappy with the rate at
which they lost their party primaries, are planning to clog the
leadership of the senate who ironically had a high rate of success in
the primary elections.

The senators, who cut across both the
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN)
are allegedly unhappy that unlike the executive, the senate leadership
did not aid their re-election.“It is not the duty of principal officers
to fix primaries for senators in an era where we are talking of one man
one vote,” Ayogu Eze, the senate spokesman said in a reactionary press
release.

Mr Eze added that since the processes
of nomination of candidates in the parties are still ongoing, till
January 31,2011, “It is therefore preposterous at this point to
conclude that any candidate has won or lost. Besides, loss of primary
election in one party does not mean that the candidate is not returning
to the senate as the reports suggest, as there are other platforms and
vehicles through which those short-changed in their parties but who
feel they are liked by their people can return to the senate.”

More than 50 senators recently lost
their bids to reclaim their party’s ticket to rerun for the senatorial
election in the forthcoming general election causing a massive
defection of the lawmakers to opposition parties where they may be able
to clinch a ticket to run for the elections.

“I’m aware that many senators have left
the parties through which they came to the Senate and have adopted
other political platforms to pursue their ambitions to return to the
Senate in April 2011,” the senate spokesman confirmed.

He also argued that not all senators
who are thought to have lost the primaries actually did.“For instance
even after I won the seat in my district by polling 1,620 votes out of
a total of 2,110 votes in my district,reports have continued to suggest
that I did not make the primaries.“In my own case, the primaries were
not conducted till January 15, 2011 because of the crisis instigated in
the state chapter of our party by the national leadership of the party.
I imagine that this scenario can be extrapolated to the cases of other
senators,” he added.

However, the senate which was scheduled to resume after three weeks
vacation postponed their resumption date by one week fuelling
speculations that there is a counter plot to disperse the lawmakers and
cool their tempers before they congregate.

Civil society
groups have called on former vice president, Atiku Abubakar, to emulate
other People’s Democratic Party’s presidential aspirants by accepting
the verdict of the party’s national convention, held in Abuja.

Making the call
through a statement signed by its national publicity secreatry, Afam
Iheanacho, the Movement for Democratic Sustainability (MDS), a civil
society group, said the former vice president is sending a bad signal
of his desperation and bad sportsmanship in his remarks after the
primaries.

It said that even
as Mr. Abubakar has commended the PDP presidential panel for organising
a free, fair, and credible election, which he said, “indicates that the
wind of positive change is now blowing in that party,” he should also
see it as the best thing to do “to concede victory, congratulate Mr.
President, and join hands with others to unite the PDP.”

Mr. Iheanacho cited
instances of how Ibrahim Babangida, the former head of state, and Aliyu
Gusau, former national security adviser, who were both allies to Mr.
Abubakar, had both congratulated Mr. Jonathan and wished him success in
the race.

Emeka Obinagwu,
national publicity secretary of the National Vanguard for Democracy and
Development (NVDD), another civil society group, asked Mr. Abubakar to
stop further acts and statements that could heat up the polity.

Mr. Obinagwu, who
criticised the Atiku Campaign Organisation for its reluctance to accept
the resounding victory of Mr. Jonathan at the just concluded PDP
presidential primaries, said that “the PDP presidential primaries of
January 13, 2011 has been adjudged by both local and international
observers, the diplomatic community, local and international media as
free, fair and transparent, hence the strange silence of the Atiku
group is a big embarrassment to all lovers of democracy.

“We are shocked
that six days after the primaries the Atiku campaign group is still
searching for a clear statement to respond to the resounding victory of
Mr. Jonathan. What is coming from Atiku campaign is indicative of a
possible challenge of an affirmative, popular choice. It is sad. It is
unfortunate,” he said.

According to the
group, there was palpable tension in the country days to the primaries
and Nigerians in their millions heaved a huge sigh of relief when the
primary was concluded.

“Instead of another round of rancour and divisive statement, we
plead that the former vice president, for the sake of our nation,
allows peace to reign. He should avoid this indelible image of
desperation that is now hanging around him. Doing otherwise will be a
stigma that will stick with his name forever,” he added.

The governors of
the 36 states of the federation have congratulated President Goodluck
Jonathan and Vice President Namadi Sambo over the outcome of last
Thursday’s People’s Democratic Party (PDP) national convention,
advocating the implementation of what they said is consolidation,
appeasement and reconciliation process.

The Governor of
Niger State, Babangida Aliyu gave this position while speaking on
behalf of his colleagues at the Presidential Summit on Water which took
place in the banquet hall of State House in Abuja yesterday.

According to the
‘Chief Servant, of Niger State,’ Nigerians have stated asking questions
on what comes after the president’s victory at the primaries. He
remarked that they were interested in a process of consolidation,
appeasement and reconciliation in order to fend off any attempt by the
opposition to seize power from the PDP in the general election.

Mr Babangida who
wondered why he was chosen to speak for the governors even when Peter
Obi, the Deputy Chairman of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum (NGF) was
also present at the occasion, however warned against handing power to
new comers as this may amount to starting all over again.

The Niger State
governor whose state was one of the five that voted against the
Jonathan/Sambo ticket, said “People are asking me about CAR and the
opposition’s attempt to unseat the largest party in Africa but to bring
anybody new is to start all over again.” He however added that the
governors were willing to support the federal government to achieve its
goal of providing portable water for all as well as becoming one of the
most developed countries by the year 2020 adding that with the
combination of technology and political will to implement programmes,
the goals were achievable.

“We need portable water. We have to give this administration the
chance to do more. We can’t give a neophyte because we have gone too
far,” he declared.