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Friday, August 13, 2010
Why US favours Jonathan for 2011
Why US favours Jonathan for 2011
Cover Stories Aug 10, 2010By Hugo Odiogor, Deputy Political Editor
LAGOS — As President Goodluck Jonathan prepares to visit the United States of America next month for the United Nations General Assembly, Vanguard can reveal that the America’s determination to secure its interest in the global energy war is the strongest motive for Washington’s preference for the candidacy of Dr. Goodluck Johathan in the 2011 presidential election.
While Nigerian political actors across the geopolitical divide are bogged down with argument on power shift, informed diplomatic source told Vanguard at the weekend that America’s energy security interest in Nigeria and the Gulf of Guinea is the key edge that Jonathan has over all those that have so far shown interest in the Presidency in the 2011 polls.
Apart from President Jonathan, other known aspirants to the Presidential seat are Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida, Otunba Dele Mommodu and Alhaji Ibrahim Shekerau.
President Goodluck Jonathan
Among the listed aspirants, some of them lack the experience at national politics, especially at the presidential level.
Those that occupied the office as military leaders from 1983 to 1993 have issues concerning mismanagement of public funds and abuse of human rights which does not say well of the country in the area of public auditing of leaders in a fast changing global environment.
Informed diplomatic contacts told Vanguard in Lagos that Washington was involved in a high level oil diplomacy aimed at securing its energy interest in Nigeria especially in the Gulf of Guinea. The country is engaged in extensive diplomatic consultations at home and abroad to ensure that it stays on top of the situation in Nigeria.
Meddling in domestic affairs
The country has been using its former diplomats to penetrate into those areas that its serving envoys would not enter to avoid being accused of meddling in the domestic affairs of the African country but at the same time it has been making top level consultations through their officials of state.
Former US Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. Walter Carrington, was in Nigeria last month on a private visit with his Edo State-born wife, Dr. Arese. Nigeria’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Mr. Odein Ajumogobia met with his United States counterpart, Mrs. Hillary Clinton in Washington last week in what diplomatic watchers regard as smoothening the path of Jonathan in the international arena.
The President has another opportunity to up the ante when he meets with world leaders in New York next month at the UN General Assembly gathering.
“These are solid credentials that are so tempting for any politician that is already in office to ignore, especially if there are constitutional lee ways to exploit. I think the political class should be wise enough to put their bet on a horse that has the potentials to win. That is how to play the game, it is not by sowing seeds of discord and mayhem which will be of no benefit to them and the country,” said the source.
The United States through its diplomats has stated that it will continue its investment in the oil sector and to that extent, the country is interested in consistency and continuity in policies and stability in the polity.
Nigeria’s ambassador to the US, Chief A. Adefuye who is saddled with organising the next month visit, has been making contacts with key sectors of the US sectors and investors that will meet with the Nigerian leader in New York. A strong delegation of Nigerians in the Diaspora has been programmed to meet with the President and drum up support for a possible 2011 contest.
The US scale of preference
The source told Vanguard that “the United States will not go beyond providing technical and logistic support to the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to organise a credible and acceptable election but we expect that Nigerians should elect a leader who will, among other things, show commitment to reforms, consistency in policies and stability in the polity.
“It is important to elect a leader who has the intellectual capacity to understand the complex global energy demand in the 21st century. This will be a person who could win the confidence of the oil host communities and promote regional security especially in the Gulf of Guinea.
“The success of the amnesty programme in Niger-Delta, tackling the internal insecurity challenges and global war against terrorism, maintaining the anti-corruption campaign in the public sector and ensuring stability and security in the oil supply source are critical to national and international development for Nigeria at this moment.
“The focus of US oil diplomacy also entails having a measure of policy stability especially in seeing the completion of reforms embarked on in the oil sector of which Jonathan is part of the Yar’ Adua administration that embarked on the much awaited programme to restructure and reorganise the Oil and Gas industry instituted, financial and commercial policy and legislative reforms, especially in the Nigerian Content Bill, restructuring the Downstream Gas Bill now called the Petroleum Industry Bill, PIB.
Jonathan and global energy war
The global war is between the United States, China and India on one hand and the unstable supply source in the Middle East and Africa. The battle is on who controls the supply source. At stake is the $16 trillion investment in global development of oil production and distribution between 2011 to 2030 in anticipation rise in energy demand which the US-based International Energy Agency, IEA, puts at 35 per cent.
The IEA believes that for Nigeria to remain relevant in the global energy equation, it must be part of the global community. The report of IEA available to Vanguard states that about $16 trillion will be spent on infrastructure and facilities to produce and deliver energy, transport fuels and refined products from producing countries to consuming countries.
United States Secretary of State, Mrs. Hillary Clinton, told his Nigerian counterpart, Mr. Odein Ajumogobia, last week that the United States remained committed to future investment in the oil sector in Nigeria where its multinational companies are fully involved in the extraction of hydrocarbons in the volatile Niger Delta. The US Government wants a leader who can see the full implementation of the amnesty programme to bring about peace in the oil rich region.
The United States has been working on boosting its sourcing oil from the relatively peaceful Gulf of Guinea which has in recent times become troubled by militancy and piracy even when the African Command, Africom, a volunteer military alliance put together by Washington to respond to security emergency in African, became operational in 2008.
At the height of the militancy crisis in the Niger Delta, Nigeria’s production level fell from 2.2 million bpd to about 1.2 millionbpd which contributed to the steep rise in the global crude oil price to $147 per barrel in the last quarter of 2008.
Vanguard learnt the recent massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico was an issue in the US oil diplomatic moves in the Gulf of Guinea where Nigeria is a major player. It is expected that by the year 2030, the global energy need will be 35 per cent higher than the levels it were in 2003.
Oil diplomacy
The world total energy demand is expected to climb by about 50 per cent by the end of 2030. This expected rise is driven by the emergence of Brazil, China and India as new industrial powers accounting for more than 40 per cent of the global energy demand.
The US is equally worried that interest oil will face increased threatens at the supply source by the aggressive oil diplomacy of China which is active in Sudan, Chad, Angola as well as Nigeria. Access to affordable energy source is essential to sustain business development in US and keep people in employment in its economy that is making sluggish recovery from the recession of 2009.
This means a stable global political economy is import especially from Nigeria which controls substantial oil and other maritime resources in the Gulf of Guinea which America regards as the alternative supply source from the highly unpredictable Middle East.
Prof. Kayode Soremekun of the Political Science Dept, Covenant University Ota, Ogun State told Vanguard that interest of the United States in who emerges as the next president of Nigeria is in line with its position as a global power which studies “situational realities and align its interest with forces that can best protect such interests at any given time, especially as it affects its multinational oil companies.
“The US had a defined interest in having access to resources like oil and to that extent it will seek to ensure stability that will allow its multinational companies in the oil sector to thrive; and to the extent that Nigeria after 50 years of independence has no so clearly defined interest. It will have to rely on extra African powers to define its political and economic interest.
“Nigeria is a sub imperial power that has remained a toddler at 50, hence it must go through this phase where external powers will continue to shape its political destiny.
“Oil is a global energy commodity which is the life wire of industrial economy, and the global nature of the world economy has created a situation where it has become necessary to pay greater attention to events at the supply source of the commodity.
Said Soremekun” Oil Industry experts are quick to warn that the continued rise in oil prices would upset the global economy, consequently the United States has shown considerable interest in oil supplies from the relatively secured Gulf of Guinea, where Nigeria is a major player.
The Middle East remains a source of concern as the US leads the global anti terror war and sanctions on Iran over its nuclear programme.
LUTH tops newborn survival rates with Recycled Incubator Technique
LUTH tops newborn survival rates with Recycled Incubator Technique
Health Aug 10, 2010By Sola Ogundipe
MORE newborn babies survive at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Idi Araba, Lagos today than in the past and currently, the tertiary health institution is reputed to have a newborn survival rate that is almost three times the national average.
The presence of a reliable neonatal unit which ensures greater chances of survival for premature babies in particular, has also contributed signifcantly to increased patient admissions and reduced length of stay in the hospital.
These facts came to the fore in the wake of last week’s successful delivery of a set of quadruplets at the hospital. – a feat largely attributed to the installed neonatal unit comprising 29 fully functional incubators, including 25 refurbished units that were reactivated under a novel Recycled Incubator Technique (RIT) initiative.
In an exclusive interview, designer of the first RIT system, Dr. Hippolite Amadi, a Consultant Orthopaedic Biomechanist said LUTH currently had the higherst number of functional incubators nationwide. Amadi, who is also an expert in Musculoskeletal Biomechanics, at the Department of Bioengineering,Imperial College London, Consultant Orthopaedic Biomechanist, essentially a specialist in cutting edge medical technology and branch of paediatrics known as Neonatal thermoneutrality, observed that the RIT could be considered Nigeria’s gift to the world, because in 2007 when it was described in medical literature, The RIT was a big story to the world that incubator systems that had been obsolete for as long as 15-20 years had come back to life and were saving lives in Nigeria.
Amadi stated emphatically that the RIT is partly Nigerian and partly foreign. “The whole idea is picking what has been thrown away and bringing it back to life.The incubator has the shape of what it used to be, maybe 20 years ago when it was thrown away, but what is inside is up-to-date technology.
According to him, it is interesting that LUTH came to benefit from RIT in January 2007. “As at January 2007, there wasn’t a single functional incubator in the hospital, but today LUTH has the highest number of incubators in Nigeria.” He added that the development could explain why many newborns were not surviving previously because they required incubator use.
“It was quite bad for the hospital at that time, but when the present management invited me for collaboration, they had an advantage that most of the carcasses of the old incubators were still intact.
“Many of the patients were leaving because they could not cope and even this development affected the training of clinicians in the field of neonatology because you cannot effectively train doctors when the patients are not there. It is a chain reaction.”
Noting that it is avery big advantage for a hospital to have good patient flow, the biomedical engineer observed that with good patient flow, a hospital would have enoughitsyopur doctors and the institution would improve. He said:
“Patient demography is sensitive to functionality. When functionality drops, the patients stay away. But the momemt a unit becomes functional, they begin trooping back, and that’s what’s happening at LUTH. Patient demography in the last three years has just surged to 56.4 percent. It’s a record number and they can hardly cope. the hospital is extending and expanding because people are coming from all over Lagos. LUTH is really functional and needs decongestion.
Further, the medical expert said: “The present management at LUTH tackled the problem headlong. They had asked questions about what had happened in other hospitals and were ready to give it a trial. They began with an initial 10 carcasses that were recycled and every year have recycled five.
“From nothing in 2007, LUTH today has a total of 29 functional incubators and this is a record number because there is no other hospital that has up to 20 incubators. The hospital with the next highest number is the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital, which is one of the longest applying RIT in their hospital. Some Teaching Hospitals have had their RITs in the last seven years, but LUTH which began in 2007 is leading. For instance, the University of Benin which began the technique in 2005 has 11 RITs.”
He recalled that the UPTH maintained the lead from 2004 until LUTH stepped into the picture. “Apart from LUTH and UPTH, many other teaching hospitals have less than 10 functional incubators. Yet these are places that require at least 15 functional incubators each at any time.’
Talking about the RIT, he said: “ I designed it in 2002 and in 2003 put together the configuration at the University of Enugu Teaching Hospital (UNETH) for human clinical trials. The result was success ful and we now started introducing them in different teaching hospitals. It is thanks to the RIT that LUTH has newborn survival rates that are higher than the national average. ” Findings also revealed that for most of 2009, RIT was No. 1 in the world chart for top medical 50 findings under incubators. The chart, which is renewed every month has never witnessed the RIT going further than the 10th place.
“Can we really save our babies,” he asked? “Data from the Federal Ministry of Health (FMOH) states that 781 babies die everyday in Nigeria. It is disturbing. What solution do we have? It would be a fool’s paradise to think that the white man will come here.All these led to the solution All these babies cannot be going to the grave. It is the quest of this solution that made me start to reequip the neonatal unit across the country. It is a research work that lasted five years project that started in 2007.”
Quoting a recent 6th-year follow up of RIT in Nigeria, Amadi said he and his research team concentrated on the systems the initiative has functioned on in Nigeria for seven years. “So the 6th year study for all the systems, and aggregated it over another 69 incubators that have covered three years plus to characterise the whole idea of RIT and the result was impressive.
“It chronicles where the hospitals stand within the column of the national average and what has happened in the last three years when the RIT was introduced here. Still deliberating on the 6th-year follow up, Amadi said it wasthe kind of result that is exciting.”
Amadi opined that from the view point of the Thrid World, the instruments used to procure thermoneutrality (i.e., incubators) are very expensive to procure. “Some-state-of-the-art incubators in this country cost as much as N9 million. This is a huge sum of money when you come to a standard hospital such as LUTH that requires as many as 30 incubators, where does it get the money to procure these incubators at the average cost of N6 million each? It may have to shut down so many other units just to run the neonatal unit, which is just a tiny bit of the paediatrics department.”
Lekki-Epe Road: LCC to generate N280 bn in 30 years
Lekki-Epe Road: LCC to generate N280 bn in 30 years
This Is Lagos Aug 9, 2010By Clifford Ndujihe
WHEN the 49.4 kilometre Lekki-Epe Expressway becomes fully operational, the managers of the road, Lekki Concession Company, LCC, would be raking in at least N25.5 million a day, in tolls.
In its users’ guide published last week, the company estimates that 85,000 vehicles will ply the route daily. There will be three toll plazas within a distance of 24 kilometres wherein lies the major settlements on that axis of Lagos. And so with the cheapest toll being N100, the company will generate at least N25.5 million a day; N765 million a month; N 9.31 billion a year; and N279.23 billion in 30 years that the concession will last.
This excludes money that will be generated from a new road along the 49.4 kilometre highway and a 20_kilometre Coastal Road that will also be tolled.
The total project cost is estimated at N105 billion.
However, LCC Managing Director, Mr. Opuiyo Oforiokuma, said users would get value for their money and “optimum utility out of their road experience.”
According to him, road users would benefit from improved convenience, journey times and safety, in comparison to the situation subsisting before the LCC’s concession.
He said the LCC would maintain the road throughout the concession term, provide sustainable solutions to the challenges brought about by historic heavy traffic congestion along the Lekki-Epe axis and hand over the road in an excellent condition to the Lagos State Government after the 30-year concession.
Oforiokuma also promised that the LCC would ensure among others:
•Provision of continuous customer service and support in the event of vehicle breakdown.
•Early detection and removal of foreign objects and other obstructions from the carriageway.
•Response to accidents, emergencies, and other road incidents, to secure the scene, render the road safe for road users, and restore traffic flow.
•Maintenance of appropriate traffic and information signage along the axis, and
•Route patrol services.
Beware, that C of O could be fake
Beware, that C of O could be fake
This Is Lagos Aug 10, 2010By Olasunkanmi Akoni & Monsur Olowoopejo
BEFORE you buy any property in Lagos ensure that the documents are genuine. Reason: There are many cloned certificates of occupancy (C of O) and other titled documents in circulation. Lagos State Governor Monitoring Taskforce, GMT, last week arrested five people who were involved in issuing forged state government’s C of O, building approvals and other property certificates.
The arrest came days after the government initiated moves to go after the perpetrators, bring them to book and eliminate the trend.
Among the five perpetrators arrested was one Mr. Olayiwola Moses, while investigation is still ongoing on four other members also involved in the illicit business.
Earlier, the government warned finance, mortgage institutions, security agencies and members of the public to beware of the forgers, saying there was an “increasing number of cloned/forged Lagos State Government C of Os in circulation that are being presented to secure credit facilities from banks and other financial institutions.”
Lands Bureau warns
The Permanent Secretary, Lands Bureau, Mr. Gbenga Ashafa, who gave the warning in his Alausa, Ikeja office, specifically, declared that a cartel of fraudsters, who specialise in cloning and forging Cof O for use in obtaining loans from banks and other credit finance organizations, were behind the nefarious activities.
His words: “The fraudsters have devised means of perpetrating such fraud through third Legal Mortgages which is executed without a guarantor having to appear in person.
Financial institutions and banks are advised in their own interest to always ensure due diligence in investigating all title documents presented by parties and individuals who are not the direct owners. This is because the fraudsters usually present certificates of occupancy over landed properties purportedly owned by other parties or individuals as collateral.”
While also warning members of the public, Ashafa, advised that sales/purchase of land and mortgage transactions without proper authentication of Certificates of Occupancy would henceforth not be entertained.
He continued: “Members of the public are once again reminded that the Lagos State Lands Registry should always be contacted for searches and verification to ascertain the authenticity of such Certificates of Occupancy.”
Deploring the trend, the government assured that new Certificates of Occupancy would soon be officially launched to effectively tackle the fraudulent practice.
How suspects were caught
Meanwhile, the 42-year old Moses was apprehended at Agege, Lagos, by one Alhaji Bello, one of his victims, with the aid of some of neighbours and before GMT officers were contaced.
However, as Moses is paraded, all effort to speak with other four men arrested prove abortive as the state officials stated that the case was still under investigation that until the investigation was completed, the arrested men would not be paraded.
Moses accused the state government of revisiting an outdated case, for which he had spent three months behind bars and later jailed for six months, three years ago.
Suspect confirms circulation of fake documents
Moses agreed that he was involved in the business but had stopped after completing his six_month jail term in 2007. “I used to engage in cloning of C of O and I have cloned for two people successfully while the third one was not successful because it coincided with the time when I was apprehended in 2007. For now, I engage in buying and selling of planks at Igboho plank market with the assistance of my elder brother.”
He explained: “I was arrested in 2007 for forgery of certificate. Since then, I left the business. Today, as I was walking through the house of Alh. Bello, because I thought we have settled the case, I was arrested. I spent one week in Alausa Police station, then transferred to State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID) Panti, Yaba where I spent three months in detention while the investigation was still going on. After the completion of the investigation, the judge sentenced me to six months imprisonment at Ikoyi alongside one Wale Adeoye and one Mr. Taiwo who forged the certificate for him at the demolished Oluwole Market.”
He said: “Alhaji Bello told me to get C of O documents for him. Although I am not an official of Lagos State government but he came to meet me because he knows that I can do it for him. He gave me money and I went to Oluwole to get the cloned documents.
I could not recollect the amount of money we paid for the certificate because it was in 2007. The document is not fresh because they have taken the document to Panti and we met with the senior police officer on ground then and I told them then that the document is a fake document and they told Bello to go and write his own petition while I was taken to court and Bello’s name was mentioned at the court along side other victims but he failed to show up on the day of judgment.”
He however, said that Bello did not know before the arrest that the document was faked until the court demanded that he should present it to clear himself.
Responding, on behalf of the state government, the consultant Lagos State Land Monitoring Team, Engr. Peter Omotosho said, the investigation on Moses had been completed and that investigation on the other four was still going on, adding “when the state government is through with their investigation, they will be publicly paraded.”
He said: “The case, in which Moses was sentenced for in 2007, was not filed by the state government but by those that he had cloned property certificates for in Lagos State. The matter was reported to us by Bello and we collected the C of O from him in other to assist us in arresting the perpetrator.
Since then we have been searching for him, until today when we got information from Bello that he has caught the man we are looking for. He was arrested in 2007 but not for C of O. Government is interested in the case because they are government certificates. We will prosecute the matter before the court so that we will be to able arrest others involved and assist people from falling victim of certificate forgery in the state.”
Senate approves N87b for INEC
Senate approves N87b for INEC
Headlines Aug 10, 2010
Prof Attahiru Jega, INEC chairman,
Clears 3 ministerial nominees
By Ben Agande & Inalegu Shaibu
ABUJA – THE Senate, slashed the supplementary budget of the Independent National Electoral Commission to N87,721,961,531 (eighty seven billion, seven hundred and twenty one million, nine hundred and sixty one thousand, five hundred and thirty one naira).
The reduction, which confirmed yesterday’s report in Vanguard, was N1.897billion short of the N89, 592,874,171 presented by President Goodluck Jonathan.
Despite misgivings from senators over the bill, the Senate approved the amount. The senators also charged the leadership of the commission to justify the confidence reposed in it by the passage of the bill.
But to finance the budget, the Senate also approved plans for a government bond issue to finance an 87.72 billion naira ($585 m) budget to help the electoral commission organise presidential and parliamentary polls next year. “We propose to fund this request by raising federal government bonds,” President Goodluck Jonathan said in a submission to the Senate which was approved by lawmakers.
Although many senators were initially disposed to slashing some of the provisions in the budget, a three hour executive session which preceded the deliberations helped to douse the opposition that would have trailed its passage.
Senate President, David Mark, said the Senate had bent over backward to ensure that the request from the President for the budget of INEC was passed to guarantee a free and fair election.
He said: “We have done this with the hope that INEC will conduct a credible, free and fair election that would be the pride of Nigerians and would make the country proud in the comity of nations.”
Credible voters’ register
Deputy President of the Senate, Ike Ekweremadu, who spoke shortly before the bill was read for the third time told the commission that every Nigerian expected that having been given all it needed to prepare a credible voters’ register, the commission cannot afford to let the country down.
Presenting the budget, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Appropriations, Senator Iyiola Omisore, said the committee recommended the passage of the Bill because “we are all aware of the mood of the nation in respect of the proper funding of the INEC and the necessary tools it requires to ensure that the 2011 elections are free, fair and credible.”
Deputy Senate Leader, Victor Ndoma-Egba, said though members of the Senate had reservations about the figures being passed as they did not have the time to closely scrutinise them, “we do not want to be made scapegoats by the Nigerian people” who may blame any problem in the conduct of the election on the National Assembly.
Senator Anyim Ude said the Senate was being held to ransom but “we have no option but to pass the budget with the hope that the committee on INEC would carry out a thorough oversight function to ensure that the money is deployed for their purpose.”
Out of the amount, N25,810,441,531 (twenty five billion, eight hundred and ten million, four hundred and forty one thousand, five hundred and thirty one naira) is for additional recurrent expenditure while the balance of N61,911,520,000 (sixty one billion, nine hundred and eleven million, five hundred and twenty thousand naira) only is for contribution to the development fund for additional capital expenditure.
Senate confirms 3 more ministers
Meantime, the Senate has confirmed Dr. Kenneth Gbagi, Delta State; Hajia Yabawa Lawan Wabi, Borno State; and Hajia Salamatu Suleiman, Kebbi State; as ministers.
The three nominees were sent for confirmation to the Senate by President Goodluck Jonathan in a letter read by the Senate President, David Mark.
Unlike in the past when ministerial nominees were subjected to serious questioning by the Senate, the minister-designate were, however, accorded the privilege of taking a bow before the senators and leaving.
Senator Mark charged them to set aside ethnic and political sentiments in the discharge of their duties and work for the interest of the nation, stressing: “I urge you to put the interest of the nation above personal interests and remember that you are accountable to the public.”
With yesterday’s confirmation, the number of ministers has increased to 42 from 39 which were earlier screened and approved by the Senate earlier this year.
Also yesterday, President Jonathan asked the Senate to expedite action on the passage of the Anti-Terrorism and Anti-Money Laundering Bill to enable the country fulfil its commitment to the Financial Action Task Force and the International Community
The letter reads: “Mr. Senate President will recall my meeting with the leadership of the National Assembly, during which I stressed the importance of the letter and urgency to pass the bills. I wish to draw your kind attention to the fact that the commitment to FATF that the two bills would be passed into law on or before June 30, 2010 was not met.
I understand the two bills are still being worked on by the relevant committees in both houses, which have raised certain concerns on some provisions of the bills. These perhaps may have been responsible for the reduced momentum in the process.
“Mr Senate President may wish to note that every provision in the draft bills presented to the National Assembly is consistent and in compliance with global instruments which Nigeria has signed and ratified. International standards require all member-states to model their domestic legislation in consonance with global best practices. It is, therefore, important that the two bills, when passed into law, should meet basic global standards, failing which Nigeria will continue to be adjudged as non-cooperating jurisdiction.
“You may also wish to be informed that the global financial watchdog is scheduled to meet again with the presidential inter-ministerial/agency committee in September 2010 to review the progress made by Nigeria. It would be a huge plus for the country if the country has a positive report regarding the two pending bills.
“Since the Senate would be reconvening next (this) week, Mr. Senate president and the distinguished senators are again kindly requested to consider passing the two bills and thus save the country an unnecessary backlash from international community for failure to keep commitments and support the global war on corruption, money laundering and terror.”
SEC prosecutes 260 stock market offenders
SEC prosecutes 260 stock market offenders
National News Aug 11, 2010By Luka Binniyat
ABUJA — Director General of the Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC, Ms Arunma Oteh, yesterday, said the commission was prosecuting 260 persons for various offences in the Nigerian Stock market.
Oteh made this known at public investigation hearing concerning recent development in the capital market, organised by the House of Representatives Committee on Capital Market.
She said the accused person had been dragged to court as a result of flurry of petitions and allegations of fraudulent activities that SEC received against them, adding: “We are prosecuting them as corporate organisations and as individuals for insider trading, share manipulation and sundry offences.”
She lamented that as a result of weak enforcement of regulations in the past, coupled with other avoidable factors, capitalisation level of the market dropped from N12 trillion in 2008 to N5.5 trillion today.
“There are about seven million investors involved in this fragile market, and they have little confidence in it,” she said.
Oteh said past managers of the capital market had engaged in risky behaviours by taking margin loans under a situation where the bodies regulating the market were unable to coordinate themselves for effectiveness.
She told the Reps that Capital market did not have the length, breath and depth of a standard market, but that SEC was already addressing the situation.
She added that the Commission was already re-organising bond issuance in Nigeria by forming the Nigerian Bond Market.
The SEC boss said: “We are forming a world class Sovereign Bond Market so that states or corporate bonds can be priced at reduced risk,” noting that the bond market was very crucial if Nigeria must meet its basic infrastructural requirements that would lead to development.
“The SEC has a great sense of responsibility and our primary concern is the integrity of the market and the protection of the interests of the investors,” she said.
She said part of the actions taken at sanitising the market was the sack of some key officers of the Nigerian Stock Exchange, and the launching of investigation into alleged sharp dealings by the dissolved council of the NSE.
She introduced the new people on the helms of affairs of the NSE, saying they were all in acting capacity.
They are Mr. Emmanuel Ikazoboh who is now Interim Administrator and would fill in the role of the Chief Executive Officer of the NSE and Mr. Bullama Manu, Interim Head of the Council.
Sacked D-G of NSE, Professor Ndi Okereke-Onyiuke and sacked President of the Exchange, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, would take their turn today with the Committee.
IBB threatens to sue SERAP over Okigbo report
IBB threatens to sue SERAP over Okigbo report
Cover Stories Aug 10, 2010
IBB
By Chris Ochayi
ABUJA— The drama surrounding the alleged Pius Okigbo panel’s report on the $12.4 billion oil windfall took another dimension Tuesday as former Military President, General Ibrahim Babangida (rtd), threatened to sue Socio-Economic Rights Accountability Project (SERAP) for attempting to damage his reputation.
Babangida’s threat came barely 74 hours after the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Mr. Mohammed Bello Adoke, declared that the government could not verify the authenticity of the copy forwarded to it by SERAP, a human rights organisation, because the original copy of the report was still missing.
Genesis
It will be recalled that while responding to the petition by SERAP in April, the AGF requested “for a signed copy of the Okigbo Report attached to the letter under reference.”
The group, in its response in a covering letter dated May 5, 2010, accompanying the 352-page ‘original’ report sent to Mr. Adoke, noted, “now that we have gone the extra mile to fulfill the request by the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, we expect that you would now move swiftly to prosecute the former President on the basis of the Okigbo report and ensure justice to the victims of the mismanagement and corruption documented in the report.”
SERAP had asked the AGF to commence Babangida’s prosecution over the alleged scam using the copy of the Okigbo Panel report, which it sent to him.
However, IBB, while reacting to the development, said, “the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Mr. Mohammed Adoke, cannot be marooned by the propaganda machinery and out-right falsehood of these corrupt petitioners who do not live above board.”
Through a telephone text message through his media spokesman, Prince Kassim Afegbua, he said: “We are going to sue SERAP for garnishing a false report to maliciously damage the distinctive reputation, strong character and unblemished record of achievements of General Ibrahim Babangida.”
Field only Northerners, ACF tells PDP, others
Field only Northerners, ACF tells PDP, others
Headlines Aug 11, 2010By Emeka Mamah
KADUNA—THE Arewa Consultative Forum, ACF, yesterday made a u-turn, asking all the political parties in the country to field northerners as presidential candidates in the 2011 elections.
Despite its earlier decision to distance itself from zoning because the issue is not a constitutional matter, ACF in its new position said the practice of zoning was in the interest of justice and fair play in the country.
Zanfara state delegation during a visit to the Aso Rock
Delivering his opening address entitled “Viability of ACF as a vehicle of northern hegemony and its limit” during its round-table conference on August 5, 2010, National Chairman of the Forum, Gen. I. B. M. Haruna, had emphasised that the constitution of the association did not allow it to engage in partisan politics, hence it would not dabble into the controversies surrounding zoning.
Haruna had noted that there was little or nothing that ACF could do as the matter fell within the purview of a political party which was designing how to share power as it deemed fit.
Justifying his stand on the issue, Haruna said: “In as much as recent political events have given rise to questioning the role, purpose and limits to the role of the ACF in the political ferment engendered by Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in post Obasanjo’s regime and the passing away of President Umaru Yar’Adua, the current debates on zoning was not the same with the Obasanjo’s Constitutional Reform Agenda which was to promote his third term agenda and subsequent self succession.”
According to him then, the issue the later day zoning and rotation (PDP agreement), can be enforced by the PDP or amended by them as they had done in the past.
PDP zoning and rotation
He said: “PDP, zoning and rotation do not call for any amendment of the constitution of Federal Republic of Nigeria or even the Electoral Law though it is the custom of our political practice sharing power. It, therefore, remains in the purview and political perspective of a political party to share power as they deem fit in adopting as their tactics for cohesion of their party, for promoting federal character, national unity and party loyalty.
“Therefore, the ACF as an umbrella body of the historical Northern Region can only fulfill its purpose as set out in its Constitution.”
However, in a three paragraph communiqué issued after an emergency meeting of the Forum which was presided over by the Chairman of the Board of Trustees, BoT, General Jerry Useni, in Kaduna, yesterday, ACF stated that its support for zoning was because, this would ensure the preservation of the principle of federal character in the country.
The communiqué read: “The emergency joint meeting of ACF took place on August 10, 2010 in the conference Hall of the Forum’s office in Kaduna. The meeting was well attended and resolved to issue the following communique:
“It was resolved that all political parties should endeavour to field northern candidates for the 2011 presidential elections.
“This is very important and necessary in order to ensure the principle of federal character, which has become part and parcel of our political culture. All political parties and public organizations should continue to uphold the practice of zoning in the interest of social justice, equity, fairness and stability of a united Nigeria.
“The meeting also commended the (Federal) Government for appointing credible persons, such as Professor Attahiru Jega, at the helms of affairs of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC. These have gone in no small measure to rekindle the hope and confidence of Nigerians in INEC’s capacity to conduct free and fair elections.
Furthermore, the meeting urged the government to provide INEC with all the necessary support for the 2011 elections.”
Zoning Debate a Negation of Nigerian Nationhood, says Emeka Anyaoku
Zoning Debate a Negation of Nigerian Nationhood, says Emeka Anyaoku
Cover Stories Aug 12, 2010
Former Secretary General of the Commonwealth, Chief Emeka Anyaoku has warned that the ongoing debate on zoning within the PDP is not in the interest of the nation. Read the respected view of the world statesman here below:
“From a national and non-partisan view point, I must warn that the ongoing zoning debate within the PDP is a negation of Nigerian nationhood. To all observers, it was clear that the zoning that occurred in 1998/99 was a direct response to the unique national crisis precipitated by the inexplicable annulment of the country’s hitherto most credible presidential election and the subsequent death of its acknowledged winner, MKO Abiola, in incarcerration.
“The crisis had taken Nigeria to the precipice of national disintegration and the two main political parties at the time wisely responded by selecting their presidential candidates from the seriously aggrieved geographical zone of the country.
“This response was comparable to what happened in Canada in 1968 when in reaction to a similar threat to Canada’s continued existence as one polity by a secessional movement in Quebec the French speaking zone of the country, the out-going Prime Minister, Lester B Pearson, led the governing Liberal Party, to go over the heads of the established party leaders from the English-speaking zones to choose a young French-speaking politician, Pierre Trudeau, as the new Prime Minister in order to save the integrity of Canada.
“Nigeria, like Canada, should by now have consigned both that unique and hopefully unrepeatable national crisis of 1993-98 to history. To advocate zoning today, 50 years after our independence, is therefore like reintroducing a therapy that was applied to a national ailment which all patriotic citizens would regard as having been successfully treated with the reaffirmation of Nigerian nationhood over a decade ago. And this is particularly so when the debate involves splitting, in the name of zoning, a previously agreed presidential ticket that has been touched, not by man, but by Providence.
“Because of its potential serious implications for our national unity, I urge all concerned to handle the zoning debate with utmost circumspection.”
Chief Emeka Anyaoku CFR,CON
Lagos, 12 August 2010.
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