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A Professor of Agriculture at the
Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria Mohammed Yissa Gana has said that
Nigeria is capable of producing rice for the whole of West Africa. Mr
Gana who is also a former Commissioner for Agriculture and Natural
Resources in Kwara State stated this yesterday in Ilorin at the opening
ceremony of a two-day human resource development conference organised
by the Agricultural and Rural Management Training Institute (ARMTI),
entitled, “Promotion of commercial agriculture in Nigeria: Implications
for human resource development.”

He said: “Rice fields available in
both Kwara and Niger states are enough to feed the West African
Sub-Region and save Nigeria billions of naira from importation of the
product. Northern States could also support the trend.” He however,
expressed his displeasure over the inability of the nation despite
large arable land in the North Central states of Nigeria to grow the
crop, adding that “Nigeria has spent billions of naira on importation
of rice from Thailand and other nations of the world.”

Vast arable land

According to him, “with an estimate of
99 million hectares of cultivatable land for agriculture with only 30
percent under cultivation, that means the country has about 60 million
uncultivated but cultivatable hectares of land scattered across the
country. The country has large volume of both surface and underground
water for irrigation for all-season agriculture. Nigeria has a young
population that is either unemployed or underemployed who could be
trained for commercial agriculture.” In his remarks, the state Head of
Service (HOS), Dabarako Mohammed said: “It is my belief that
collectively, we have all discovered that agriculture is the mainstay
of the economy where more than 70 percent of the population is engaged
and as well providing the much needed raw materials for our agro-allied
industries.” He, therefore, urged Nigerian farmers to embark on the
production of agricultural produce that will add economic value to the
nation.

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As Cote d’Ivoire
becomes the latest African country to subject itself to a truth and
reconciliation commission, the lesson it can learn from past efforts is
two-fold: it is going to hurt, and it could take years.

Experience from
post-apartheid South Africa to post-war Sierra Leone shows such
exercises can help a country draw a line under the past, even when many
victims are left dissatisfied.

But Ivorien
President Alassane Ouattara must ensure all sides are heard and must
avoid rushing the pace for the sake of political expediency if he is to
heal wounds ripped open for the second time in a decade.

“Although the truth
side of it is very important, very often what actually happened is
known by many people,” said Yasmin Jusu-Sheriff, first executive
secretary of Sierra Leone’s 2002-2004 Truth and Reconciliation
Commission (TRC).

“It’s how you deal
with it, and how you live with it after it happens … While it can’t
go on for ever, it shouldn’t be too much of a time-bound process,” she
told Reuters.

Yet Ouattara seems
to be in a hurry to get things going after the April 11 ousting from
power of rival Laurent Gbagbo, whose refusal to accept defeat in a
November election triggered a fourth-month power struggle in which
thousands died.

He has pledged to set up a South African-style TRC within two weeks and has already filled the key post of chairman.

“It is positive
that the President has announced plans for a commission, but we urge
him not to rush,” Desmond Tutu, who chaired South Africa’s TRC in the
1990s, warned after talks with Ouattara in Cote d’Ivoire this week.

Curing Ivorien ills

The mandate,
structure and aims of Cote d’Ivoire’s TRC process will all help
determine whether it can succeed in rooting out an ill which may prove
harder to diagnose and cure than the trauma of apartheid inflicted on
millions of South Africans.

Although Ivoriens
rubbed along for years following independence from France in 1960, a
debate over nationality exploded in 1999, culminating in a 2002-2003
civil war marked by ethnic bloodshed and which split the country
between north and south.

The November 28
election was hoped to seal reunification but the southerner Gbagbo’s
refusal to accept the victory of Ouattara, a northerner, only made
matters worse.

When pro-Ouattara
troops headed south to Abidjan in late-March, hundreds died in an orgy
of ethnically-motivated violence still not fully explained.

Ouattara’s choice
for TRC chairman of ex-premier Charles Konan Banny appears designed to
show neutrality. Ex-banker Banny is an uncontroversial figure from the
central Baoule ethnicity and will be flanked by one Christian and one
Muslim deputy.

But the TRC’s mandate has not yet been publicly defined. It is not
clear whether Banny will have the right to subpoena alleged wrongdoers
to give testimony, nor what will happen to them afterwards —
forgiveness or criminal proceedings.

The Anambra State
Governor, Peter Obi has said that but for lean resources, every
governor in the country would be willing to implement the new minimum
wage structure approved by the National Assembly. Mr Obi, who is deputy
chairman of Nigeria’s Governor’s Forum, said yesterday in Awka that
though it is good for Nigerian workers to have a good wage structure,
the resources available to state governments might not be enough to pay
the approved packaged. He said a meeting of the Governors’ Forum had
unanimously agreed that the federal government takes too much of what
accrues to the nation and there is need to re-adjust, because what is
left to the states is not enough to enable them to pay.

“For instance,
where federal facilities located in some states are either privatised
or commercialised, the states lose those sources of revenue and get
poorer,” Mr Obi said. He said the sooner this was redressed, the better
for all Nigerians.

APGA did well

Asked if he was
satisfied with the performance of APGA in the state in the last general
election, where the party failed to win any of the three senatorial
seats, Mr Obi said: “The last general election was fairly a
representative of the wishes of the people,” he said. “The way you know
which party is more acceptable is result of election in strategic areas
of Onitsha, Nnewi and Awka. That is Awka North, Awka South, Onitsha
North, Onitsha South, Nnewi North, Nnewi South and that is how to
determine whether we do well or not.”

The Arewa
Consultative Forum (ACF) has congratulated the President-elect,
Goodluck Jonathan over his victory in the just-concluded general
elections.

The forum has also condemned the call for the abolition of the National Youth Service Corps scheme (NYSC).

The ACF had
earlier opposed the candidacy of Mr Jonathan and the jettisoning of the
zoning arrangement of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), insisting
that the North should be allowed to complete its second term based on
the zoning arrangement.

In a communiqué
issued at the end of the meeting of the National Working Committee
(NWC) chaired by the chairman, Aliko Mohammed yesterday in Kaduna, the
body congratulated all the state governors, members of the National
Assembly as well as State Assembly members for their successes at the
polls.

The communiqué
signed by the National Publicity Secretary Anthony Sani, also commended
the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC),
Attahiru Jega for conducting what the forum described as “elections
that have been generally adjudged by both the local and international
observers to be better than previous elections.” “As to the losers, the
forum congratulated them for their spirited efforts in providing the
electorate with alternative platforms needed in a democracy, since
democracy without opposition is a sham.

“Losers should,
therefore, be magnanimous in defeat and seek redress through due
process of law where it is absolutely necessary. Victors on the other
hand should recognise the fact that governance is an art of balancing
competing demands among constituent parts of the united whole.” The
group continued, “While condemning the killings of some NYSC members
who were victims of the violence in some parts of the country, it is
the considered opinion of ACF that the NYSC scheme should not be
abolished. This is precisely because the ideas of fostering national
unity which informed the establishment of NYSC are still relevant.

“What is more,
scrapping NYSC is as good as saying people should not settle outside
their states of origin. Therefore, NYSC scheme should be retained and
spirited efforts be made to ensure the security of members.”

“The forum also
called on victors from the just concluded elections to have a realistic
appreciation of the circumstances of their emergence and make
consciously direct efforts by bringing Nigerians together and enable
them to unleash their synergy by way of living up their collective
challenges.

“This is very necessary because no nation thrives on the victory of
its factions but through their ultimate reconciliations. And in order
to make the desired results come to pass, governments must be peopled
by those with vision, conviction, public intelligence and with
patriotic courage needed to tell power not just what it wants to hear
but also what it needs no hear.” ACF emphasised.

Osama bin Laden was
unarmed when US special forces shot and killed him, the White House
said, as it tried to establish whether its ally Pakistan had helped the
al Qaeda leader elude a worldwide manhunt.

Pakistan faced
national embarrassment, a leading Islamabad newspaper said, in how to
explain that the world’s most-wanted man was able to live for years in
the military garrison town of Abbottabad, just north of the capital.

Islamabad vehemently denies it gave shelter to bin Laden.

“There is an
intelligence failure of the whole world, not just Pakistan alone,”
Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani told reporters in Paris. “(If there
are) … lapses from the Pakistan side, that means there are lapses
from the whole world.” The revelation that bin Laden was unarmed
contradicted an earlier US account that he had participated in a
firefight with the helicopter-borne American commandos.

Al Arabiya television went further, suggesting the architect of the 9/11 attacks was first taken prisoner and then shot.

“A security source
in the Pakistani security quoted the daughter of Osama bin Laden that
the leader of al Qaeda was not killed inside his house, but had been
arrested and was killed later,” the Arabic television station said.

White House
spokesman Jay Carney on Tuesday cited the “fog of war” – a phrase
suggested by a reporter – as a reason for the initial misinformation.

Bin Laden’s killing
and the swift burial of his body at sea have produced some criticism in
the Muslim world and accusations Washington acted outside international
law.

“The Americans
behaved in the same way as bin Laden: with treachery and baseness,”
Husayn al-Sawaf, 25-year-old playwright said in Cairo. “They should’ve
tried him in a court. As for his burial, that’s not Islamic. He
should’ve been buried in soil.”

But there has been
no sign of mass protests or violent reaction on the streets in South
Asia or the Middle East, where Islamist militancy appears to have been
eclipsed by pro-democracy movements sweeping the region.

Washington will
weigh sensitivities in the Muslim world when it decides whether to
release photographs of bin Laden’s body which could provide proof for
skeptics of his death.

Bin Laden was shot
in the head. “It’s fair to say that it’s a gruesome photograph,” Carney
said. “I’ll be candid. There are sensitivities here in terms of the
appropriateness of releasing photographs.”

Pakistan has
welcomed bin Laden’s death, but its foreign ministry expressed deep
concerns about the raid, which it called an “unauthorized unilateral
action.”

The CIA said it
kept Pakistan out of the loop because it feared bin Laden would be
tipped off, highlighting the depth of mistrust between the two supposed
allies.

US helicopters
carrying the commandos used radar “blind spots” in the hilly terrain
along the Afghan border to enter Pakistani airspace undetected in the
early hours of Monday.

The Pakistani
newspaper Dawn compared the latest humiliation with the admission in
2004 that one of the country’s top scientists had sold its nuclear
secrets. “Not since Abdul Qadeer Khan confessed to transferring nuclear
technology to Iran and Libya has Pakistan suffered such an
embarrassment,” it said.

The streets around
bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad remained sealed off on Wednesday,
with police and soldiers allowing only residents to pass through.

“It’s a crime but
what choice are you left with if I’m not handing over your enemy who is
hiding in my house?” said Hussain Khan, a retired government official
living nearby, when asked about the apparent violation of Pakistan’s
sovereignty. “Obviously you will go and get him yourself.”

Unarmed resistance

Carney insisted bin Laden resisted when U.S. forces stormed his compound in the 40-minute operation. He would not say how.

“There was concern
that bin Laden would oppose the capture operation and, indeed, he
resisted,” Carney said. “A woman … bin Laden’s wife, rushed the US
assaulter and was shot in the leg but not killed. Bin Laden was then
shot and killed. He was not armed.”

If the country’s health sector is to be in tune with 21st century health practices as practised in developed countries, a focused political leadership and self-development by medical practitioners must be vigorously pursued.

The founder of Ashanti Graham Health and Education Initiative Foundation (AGHEIF), Douglas Okor, made this known yesterday at a Continuing Medical Education (CME) programme organised by the foundation in collaboration with the Edo State chapter of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA).

He also stressed the need to build institutions, and not personalities, to achieve the country’s vision of becoming one of the leading 20 nations by the year 2020.
According to Mr Okor, the leadership crisis in Nigeria would have to be resolved for the country to attain her Vision 20:2020, of which health is paramount.

“Our vision is 21st century healthcare for Nigeria, like the kind of healthcare you have in developed countries and by our projections, in the next 15 to 20 years, we will have that kind of healthcare.

“We have all it takes in Nigeria to get to where we want to be, but what is lacking is the people to get us there. We lack the people for direction and that is what we are now preaching, that we need leaders.”

Leadership factor

“We are talking about building leaders at the level of undergraduate students, building students at the level of postgraduate students, building leaders at the level of heads of departments and parastatals.” According to Mr. Okor, who is the first neurosurgeon graduate from the University of Benin, the just concluded general elections have raised the hope of Nigerians for getting the right leadership.

“The last election in Nigeria gave us great hope. A revolution has begun, we need to inspire leaders that have the passion to make the change and that will drive people to live up to the stage. We have to build institutions that do not depend on one man but on a process. We need to develop the human capacity. Nigeria is a mega-rich country but we need the right leadership to allocate our resources appropriately. Anybody who tells you that there is no fund in the country, that person is lying.

“The Edo State chairperson of the NMA, Philip Ugbodaga, had in his welcome address described the CME as “the cornerstone for healthcare delivery and a vehicle for improving our health indices.” This, he said, was why regulatory agencies all over the world, including the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN), insist on CMEs as a prerequisite for the renewal

The Kwara State
government has evacuated corps members from the state serving in some
northern states in the country. Some of the corps members were attacked
during the riots that broke out in the wake of the presidential
elections, leaving them stranded and traumatised. The secretary to the
Kwara State government, Saka Abimbola Issau said yesterday that youth
corps members of Kwara State origin currently serving in Bauchi State
have been brought back to Ilorin, the state capital.

“The state government placed high premium on the lives of its citizens, irrespective of where they live,” he said.

They arrived in Ilorin on Monday night and have since joined their families.

“The government
thanks parents and guardians of the corps members and other well
wishers for their patience and understanding during the evacuation
exercise and assure them of the government’s readiness to cater for the
welfare of its citizens at all time,” Mr Issau said.

The coordinator of
the state’s corps members serving in Bauchi State, Abubakar Rafiu also
expressed the appreciation of his members to the state government over
the evacuation programme and pledged their continuous loyalty to the
government of Nigeria.

He said his colleagues always prayed to God to intervene in the crisis so that peace would return to the region.

Bad experience

Some of the
affected corps members expressed their displeasure over the incident.
Bello Saheed Olanrewaju, a graduate of the Kwara State polytechnic who
was deployed to Alkaleri Local Government Area of Bauchi State, said:
“The crises erupted as a result of the outcome of the various elections
conducted in the state, with opposition parties challenging the victory
of the ruling People Democratic Party (PDP).

“We were rescued by
the local government inspector in Alkaleri Local Government Area who
sneaked us into the 301 Artillery barracks in Bauchi, where we spent
two days before joining a bus to Jos, Plateau State and finally to
Ilorin,” he said.

Owolabi Bolaji, a
corps member deployed to Misau Local Government said: “our lodge was
set ablaze by the protesters and we quickly find rescue with the State
Security Service (SSS) officials in Bauchi. We spent two days there and
later added another two days at the Army barracks in Bauchi before
finding our way down to Ilorin.

“It was a terrible experience. We call on the Federal government to
look into the welfare of the corps members across the country so as to
ensure the survival of the scheme.”

Health workers in Nasarawa State, including doctors
at the Dalhatu Araf Specialist Hospital have suspended their four-month
old strike following an appeal by the state’s governor-elect, Umaru
Tanko Al-Makura.

The health workers, who are under the aegis of
Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), Medical and Health Workers Union of
Nigeria and National Association of Nigerian Nurses and Midwives, had
embarked on an indefinite strike in order to force the state government
to implement the new salary structure approved by the federal
government for health professionals.

The workers said their colleagues in other states
have started benefiting from the new wage structure, wondering why the
state government was unwilling to follow suit. As a result of the
strike, activities in most of the state’s hospitals were paralysed over
the past four months. Majority of the residents also resorted to
alternative health providers because of complaints that the fees
charged by private hospitals were prohibitive.

This is said to be one of the reasons why the state
governor, Aliyu Doma of the Peoples Democratic Party lost to his
opponent, Mr Al-Makura of the Congress for Progressive Change. The
governor-elect, during his acceptance speech, appealed to the health
workers to return to their various posts and promised that he would do
everything possible to meet their demands.

Mr Al-Makura, yesterday thanked the health workers for returning to work.

“We extend our gratitude to you for heeding our
appeal to discountenance the recalcitrant posture of the out-going
administration by suspending your protracted strike action,” he said.
“Your prompt response to our clarion call is a testimony of your
responsiveness and desire to contribute to the enthronement of a new
social vista in Nasarawa State.”

Rescue from despair

The governor-elect further assured the workers that
they, and indeed all workers and people of the state, will not be
subjected to rejection by his administration. “Never again will you and
the people of Nasarawa State, be watched as you suffer in silence
before your leaders,” he said.

He also assured workers in the state of his
commitment to their welfare, pledging to rescue them (workers) “from
the throes of despair and agony into a life of hope, fulfilment and
relief.”

The workers reached the agreement to suspend the
strike at an emergency meeting held in Lafia last Sunday. The state NMA
chairman and secretary, Clement Onwube and Musa Abdullahi, directed all
the health workers to resume work on Tuesday.

“Consequent on the passionate appeal by the Nasarawa
State governor-elect, Umaru Tanko Al-Makura to doctors to suspend the
on-going strike action on the premise that our demands will be
expeditiously attended to on assumption of office,” the men said. “That
considering the attendant effects of the strike action on the good
people of Nasarawa State as well as the passionate appeal of the
general public.

“We, hereby, suspend the four-month old strike with effect from 8am
on Tuesday, May 2011 and all our members are hereby directed to resume
work in their various locations on the said date.”

Some leaders of the
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) led by its acting national chairman,
Bello Mohammed met with President Goodluck Jonathan on Monday in Obudu
Ranch, where the president is currently on retreat, with heads of some
government agencies.

The meeting, a PDP
source revealed yesterday, was in connection with the zoning of
principal positions in the National Assembly and the nature and
character of the president’s next cabinet.

The national
secretary of the PDP, Kawu Baraje, who is currently outside the
country, is expected to join the party’s team today.

“Apart from the
composition of the new federal cabinet, the issue of the zoning of the
principal positions in the Senate and House of Representatives is also
expected to feature in the talks between the president and PDP
leaders,” the source said.

Intensive lobbying
has already commenced for the principal positions in both chambers of
the federal legislature even though the party has not decided on the
zoning formula. It was also learnt that the PDP leaders will discuss
the composition of the national executive committee of the ruling party
following Mr Jonathan’s victory.

It is the tradition
of the party to overhaul the National Executive Committee (NEC) and
National Working Committee in line with new zoning arrangement after
every major election. The NEC was last reshuffled in 2008 after the
election of late President Umaru Yar’Adua.

The national chairmanship of the PDP is expected to return to the
North in the new arrangement while the position of the National
Secretary will revert to the South.

The business
manager of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) in Akwa Ibom
State, Chukwuemeka Otiji, has expressed fears that the non-payment of
electricity bills owed by customers in the state, currently standing at
N900 million, was capable of crippling the electricity company if the
debt was not paid.

Mr Otiji, who said
this in Uyo yesterday, added that the amount could ground the company
as it relied on such payments to run its operations since they were
operating without government subvention.

Speaking with
members of the customers consultative council, Uyo Business District,
Mr Otiji explained that 81 out of 755 substations in the district had
been vandalised since 2009 and that the management of the unit had been
able to replace only 48 of the vandalised substations through help from
benefiting communities.

“I’m therefore calling on you to appeal to members of your communities to pay their bills promptly,” he pleaded.

He stated that the
business unit, which was formerly one, had been split among the three
senatorial districts of the state to include Uyo, Eket and Ikot Ekpene.
He advised the people not to build houses or do business under low or
high-tension lines of the company.

“A lot of people
have received injuries or have died as a result of snapped conductors
either resting on their buildings or falling directly on them. We
should always avoid doing anything under the PHCN lines,” he advised.

Mr Otiji decried
situations where people molest PHCN staff in the course of their work,
saying, “Management frowns at this barbaric act and therefore appeals
to this august gathering to assist PHCN by advising youths in your
respective communities to desist from such act.

“The company will
not hesitate to disconnect electricity supply to any such community or
area that prevents our officials from carrying out their official
duties, if we realise the area is not safe for our field workers to do
their work,” he said.

The newly elected
chairman of the customers consultative council, Uyo Business District,
Emmanuel Ebong, promised to work with the organisation’s management for
smooth service delivery in the area.

Mr Ebong, who said electricity was an important national resource,
enjoined members of the council to support the business unit to achieve
efficiency.