Niger Delta situation quite tragic– Amnesty International
Global rights watchdog, Amnesty International, on Tuesday described the situation in the Niger Delta as a “human rights tragedy,” saying the Federal Government and the oil companies operating in the region were destroying the environment.
The watchdog said in a statement made available to Punch by email that the rights of the people of the Niger Delta were being abused by oil companies, who were not being held to account by government.
”The Niger Delta provides a stark example of the lack of accountability of a government to its people, and of multinational companies‘ almost total lack of accountability when it comes to the impact of their operations on human rights,” said Audrey Gaughran, Amnesty International‘s Head of Business and Human Rights and co-author of a major new report, Petroleum, Pollution and Poverty in the Niger Delta, released on Tuesday at a press conference in Abuja..
The report examines oil spills, gas flaring, waste dumping and other environmental impacts of the oil industry. The majority of the evidence on pollution and environment damage gathered by Amnesty International, and contained in its new report, relates to the operations of Shell, the main oil company operating on land in the Niger Delta.
Gaughran said, ”People living in the Niger Delta have to drink, cook with and wash in polluted water. They eat fish contaminated with oil and other toxins - if they are lucky enough to be able to still find fish. The land they farm on is being destroyed. After oil spills the air they breathe smells of oil, gas and other pollutants. People complain of breathing problems and skin lesions - and yet neither the government nor the oil companies monitor the human impacts of oil pollution.”
AI said the human rights impact of pollution in the Niger Delta was greatly under-reported, noting that the majority of people in the Niger Delta depend on the natural environment for their food and livelihood, particularly through agriculture and fisheries.
The report also said that communities and armed groups in the Niger Delta had contributed to the problem of pollution, by vandalising oil infrastructure and the theft of oil.
Kidnappers of Oyo governor’s aide demand N20m ransom
The kidnappers of the Executive Assistant to the Oyo State Governor on Administration, Chief Richard Fagbemi, have reportedly demanded a N20 million ransom.
Fagbemi was kidnapped on Sunday evening on his way from Abuja to Ibadan. He was said to have been picked between Edo and Ondo State by some unidentified persons. Fagbemi, who was a retired Permanent Secretary before his appointment, was allegedly hijacked when his vehicle allegedly broke down in company with his sister-in-law and the driver.
A senior aide of the governor, who confirmed the incident on condition of anonymity, said the aide was returning from a private visit to Abuja before he lost touch with members of his family. Our correspondent learnt that the governor had been making frantic effort to secure his release.
A top police source confirmed that he was kidnapped between Ondo and Edo State. The spokesperson of the state command, Miss Olabisi Okuwobi, could not be reached for comments.
States, FG close to deal on N2.2trn illegal deductions
Twenty states that filed a suit against the Federal Government on alleged illegal deductions from the Federation Account on Tuesday told the Supreme Court that they were sure of reaching an amicable settlement of the issues in dispute within one week.
They have therefore asked the apex court to adjourn the case to enable them finalise the deal. Based on this request, the court on Tuesday suspended, indefinitely, further hearing in the case.
The alleged illegal deductions from the Federation Accounts of monies were in excess of N4 trillion by the Federal Government. At the resumed hearing of the case, Chief Adegboyega Awomolo, SAN, and Mr. Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, leading other senior lawyers asked the court to adjourn the case just for a week to enable them complete discussions at reaching a settlement.
The decision of the Supreme Court followed a request by the plaintiff-states.
But the presiding justice of the panel, Justice Niki Tobi, said the apex court would not only give them the one week but that it would allow them up till October to finalise the truce.
‘Jackson/ Rowe not biological parents of three children'
It has been revealed that Michael Jackson was not the biological father of any of his children, nor was Debbie Rowe the biological mother of the two kids she bore for Michael.
A celebrity gossip and entertainment portal, TMZ said all the three children were conceived in vitro -- outside the womb.
Multiple sources deeply connected to the births tell us Michael was not the sperm donor for any of his kids. Debbie‘s eggs were not used. She was merely the surrogate, and paid well for her services in the births of Michael Jr. and Paris.
According to TMZ, ”In the case of Prince Michael II (the youngest), we‘re told the surrogate was never told of the identity of the ”receiving parent” -- Michael Jackson. Three days after Prince was born at Grossmont Hospital in San Diego County, Jackson‘s lawyer came to the hospital to pick the baby up and deliver him to Michael.”
TMZ said, ”We do not know if Jackson chose the sperm or egg donors or if he even knew who they were.”
Although Rowe is not the biological mother, it‘s not a slam dunk that she would lose a custody battle. This type of case has never been litigated in California courts. Since Rowe was married to Jackson when Michael Jr. and Paris were born, there‘s a presumption that she‘s the biological parent. That presumption can be rebutted by other evidence.
We know there are documents outlining the whole arrangement for the birth of all three kids. Nonetheless, it‘s still an open issue with the courts."
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
German consortium plans $500m Sahara Desert power project
German consortium plans $500m Sahara Desert power project
By Hamed Shobiye
Published: Tuesday, 30 Jun 2009
A consortium of German companies, including Siemens, has announced an ambitious $500m project to power homes and factories in Europe from the Sahara Desert.
Deutsche Welle Radio reported on its website that the project would harness the sun and space of the desert for Europe’s energy needs.
The report said that although the plan had been on the drawing board for sometime, German insurance giant, Munich Re, has decided to bring it to fruition by fixing a meeting for July 13, 2009 in Munich, Germany to launch the Desertec concept.
The report said that Siemens and 19 other major German companies such as Deutsche Bank, utility companies RWE and E.ON were part of the consortium working on the project.
It stated that some other unnamed German, Italian and Spanish companies as well as a representative of the German government, the Arab League and the Club of Rome think tank had been invited to next month’s meeting.
Experts have estimated that the project would provide 15 per cent of Europe’s energy needs, the report said, adding that it might be ready in 10 years.
A Munich Re official, Mr. Alexander Mohanty, said, “The project is very ambitious but our aim is to have something of a road map for Desertec within the next two or three years.” The project foresees a string of solar-thermal power plants to be linked together somewhere in the deserts of North Africa, though no host countries have been named so far.
The report said the plants would use mirrors to focus the energy from the sun’s rays to heat a special type of oil, and use the heat for steam to power turbines. It stated that the process was cheaper than the usual method of using photovoltaic cells, a common form of solar power, which converts the sun‘s energy directly into electricity.
“You only need an area of 300 kilometers by 300 kilometers to provide enough energy for the whole world,” said Alfons Benzinger of Siemens.
However, Siemens said it would take care of concerns about transporting the energy to Europe.
According to Berzinger, Siemens has developed a system of “high-voltage direct current transmission of energy, which can transport energy over long distances and without heavy losses. We have practised this already, for instance with hydro-power plants in China and India.” There are, however, unresolved issues such as the host country, financing, safety of the plant, length of time for actualising the project and global acceptance of the project.
The report said the plan had shown that a tiny part of Africa could power the entire world.
By Hamed Shobiye
Published: Tuesday, 30 Jun 2009
A consortium of German companies, including Siemens, has announced an ambitious $500m project to power homes and factories in Europe from the Sahara Desert.
Deutsche Welle Radio reported on its website that the project would harness the sun and space of the desert for Europe’s energy needs.
The report said that although the plan had been on the drawing board for sometime, German insurance giant, Munich Re, has decided to bring it to fruition by fixing a meeting for July 13, 2009 in Munich, Germany to launch the Desertec concept.
The report said that Siemens and 19 other major German companies such as Deutsche Bank, utility companies RWE and E.ON were part of the consortium working on the project.
It stated that some other unnamed German, Italian and Spanish companies as well as a representative of the German government, the Arab League and the Club of Rome think tank had been invited to next month’s meeting.
Experts have estimated that the project would provide 15 per cent of Europe’s energy needs, the report said, adding that it might be ready in 10 years.
A Munich Re official, Mr. Alexander Mohanty, said, “The project is very ambitious but our aim is to have something of a road map for Desertec within the next two or three years.” The project foresees a string of solar-thermal power plants to be linked together somewhere in the deserts of North Africa, though no host countries have been named so far.
The report said the plants would use mirrors to focus the energy from the sun’s rays to heat a special type of oil, and use the heat for steam to power turbines. It stated that the process was cheaper than the usual method of using photovoltaic cells, a common form of solar power, which converts the sun‘s energy directly into electricity.
“You only need an area of 300 kilometers by 300 kilometers to provide enough energy for the whole world,” said Alfons Benzinger of Siemens.
However, Siemens said it would take care of concerns about transporting the energy to Europe.
According to Berzinger, Siemens has developed a system of “high-voltage direct current transmission of energy, which can transport energy over long distances and without heavy losses. We have practised this already, for instance with hydro-power plants in China and India.” There are, however, unresolved issues such as the host country, financing, safety of the plant, length of time for actualising the project and global acceptance of the project.
The report said the plan had shown that a tiny part of Africa could power the entire world.
ASUU’s sledgehammer and the fly within - By Azubuike Ishiekwene (azubuikeishiekwe@yahoo.com)
I do not know what the Academic Staff Union of Universities intends to achieve by an indefinite strike. But I think it is pretty clear what it will not achieve. The union will not get the conditions of service it wants; and even if it does, we will still not get the schools that we deserve. Not with the way the union is currently being run. It is insanity to keep doing things the same old way and to expect a different result. But this is precisely what the union insists on – calling its members out on a strike, for the umpteenth time, to pressure the government to comply with an agreement signed about eight years ago.
Under former President Olusegun Obasanjo, ASUU had signed an agreement with government, which, among other things, called for a review of university teachers’ salaries; an extension of the retirement age of lecturers from 65 to 70; allocation of 26 per cent of the yearly budget to education; and a bill to free universities from the apron-strings of government. ASUU and the government quibbled over the list of demands and after a series of strikes that plunged the schools into new depths of decay, Obasanjo’s government signed the agreement, with the intention of honouring it only in the breach. It’s not ASUU’s fault that government has failed to honour its promise. If Obasanjo, being Obasanjo, can be excused on the grounds that he is lawless by nature, how can one explain the fact that Umaru Yar’Adua, who makes a song and dance about the rule of law and due process, cannot get his education minister to honour an agreement which government signed?
This appears to be ASUU’s main point – that if government has refused to honour an agreement that it freely entered into eight years ago, and will not be moved even by a recent two-week warning strike, then the union is perfectly entitled to use other legitimate weapons within its powers to secure compliance. But this strategy misses the point. The question is not the legitimacy of the weapons at ASUU’s disposal but the efficacy. Anyone with a brain half the size of a walnut should have seen by now that strikes have not only lost their impact, they have developed a reverse potency that leaves the school system more damaged each time.
It is a measure of what our universities and schools of higher learning have become, that lecturers who ought to be at the vanguard of finding creative solutions to our problems have become a part of the problem. And those among them who dare to think differently are either not interested in union activities or never get a hearing at meetings where key decisions are taken. The academia, like most spheres of life, is imitating politics. Unfortunately, the academia is not just imitating politics, it is imitating its worst aspects. My heart bleeds not only because two people who have had a most profound effect on my career – Olatunji Dare and Ralph Akinfeleye – taught me in a Nigerian university but because my daughter, who is an undergraduate, will have a hard time believing that going to a Nigerian university is not a waste of her future. And yet, there’s just a difference of 25 years between her generation and mine.
A lecturer in one of the first generation universities told me over the weekend how a dean brushed aside her objections and went ahead to borrow computers from staff and hire fitness tools for two days to impress a visiting accreditation team. According to her, “The faculty had introduced two new courses without any preparation and for months, students were left to wander off, borrowing courses. A day or two before the accreditation team came, the dean arranged a show to impress the team. What she couldn’t borrow to set up the classrooms, she hired; insisting over the objections of a few staff that it would not be in her own time as dean that an accreditation team would cancel a course.” It didn’t matter that this was a hollow ritual.
What kind of ivory tower is this that seeks to overcome its most salient problems by yielding to the lowest common form of resistance? Why is ASUU engaged in a gutter fight with a government that doesn’t know its own left from its right, and doesn’t even care? And why should the Minister of Education – and interestingly, former lecturer, Sam Egwu, care? He established a private secondary school in Abakaliki in 2003 and might, like Obasanjo and his former deputy, Atiku Abubakar, award himself a licence to operate a private university before he leaves office! His daughter, Sandra Chiamaka, graduated from a university in the United States in 2005. But he is not alone. I was informed that at least one of the children of the Chair of the Senate Committee on Education, Joy Emordi, graduated from a school in the US too. Jonathan Mark, son of the Senate President, David Mark, studied in King’s College, London, and went on to Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Science. Key ministers in Yar’Adua’s cabinet, including Information and Communications Minister, Dora Akunyili, whose rebranding is conveniently silent on the future of our schools, also have their children schooling abroad.
What do I propose instead of a strike? One, ASUU should obtain and publish the names of all key government officials whose children are schooling abroad and the schools they are attending. That may not affect the price of fish, but it surely will help provide an insight into why the government does not care about what happens to our schools. Two, instead of making bread-and-butter issues the heart of its campaign, ASUU should press for the passage of the higher education autonomy bill. The passage of the bill does not absolve government of responsibility to fund education properly, no. It will, however, create the competitive environment that will stimulate school administrators and alumni to find ways of attracting and retaining the best faculty and staff.
Whatever teachers may earn now, even if it is reviewed every three years as contained in the agreement, they will still feel short-changed by a structure that yokes everyone under one miserly pay structure, while the perception lingers on that not many lecturers can even justify their current pay. The current travesty that leaves vice chancellors eating out of the hands of the President or Minister has stunted growth and left the schools evading the tough question of what they must do to stand on their own feet. Local problems can also be handled locally, instead of the present situation where the entire school system is brought to a halt as a result of ‘hyper-local’ problems. The bankers’ union used to be a regular nuisance until competition and reduced government interference forced the banks to sit up.
Finally, it really does not make sense punishing innocent students when ASUU can take the fight directly to those concerned. ASUU can either get an order of mandamus compelling government to honour its own agreement or take the fight to the doorsteps of the chairs of the Senate and House committees on education, and the Minister. They can picket their houses in Abuja and insist they will not move until something gives. But to embark on an indefinite strike that will further erode confidence in the system and leave innocent students as the worst victims is neither sensible nor defensible.
Under former President Olusegun Obasanjo, ASUU had signed an agreement with government, which, among other things, called for a review of university teachers’ salaries; an extension of the retirement age of lecturers from 65 to 70; allocation of 26 per cent of the yearly budget to education; and a bill to free universities from the apron-strings of government. ASUU and the government quibbled over the list of demands and after a series of strikes that plunged the schools into new depths of decay, Obasanjo’s government signed the agreement, with the intention of honouring it only in the breach. It’s not ASUU’s fault that government has failed to honour its promise. If Obasanjo, being Obasanjo, can be excused on the grounds that he is lawless by nature, how can one explain the fact that Umaru Yar’Adua, who makes a song and dance about the rule of law and due process, cannot get his education minister to honour an agreement which government signed?
This appears to be ASUU’s main point – that if government has refused to honour an agreement that it freely entered into eight years ago, and will not be moved even by a recent two-week warning strike, then the union is perfectly entitled to use other legitimate weapons within its powers to secure compliance. But this strategy misses the point. The question is not the legitimacy of the weapons at ASUU’s disposal but the efficacy. Anyone with a brain half the size of a walnut should have seen by now that strikes have not only lost their impact, they have developed a reverse potency that leaves the school system more damaged each time.
It is a measure of what our universities and schools of higher learning have become, that lecturers who ought to be at the vanguard of finding creative solutions to our problems have become a part of the problem. And those among them who dare to think differently are either not interested in union activities or never get a hearing at meetings where key decisions are taken. The academia, like most spheres of life, is imitating politics. Unfortunately, the academia is not just imitating politics, it is imitating its worst aspects. My heart bleeds not only because two people who have had a most profound effect on my career – Olatunji Dare and Ralph Akinfeleye – taught me in a Nigerian university but because my daughter, who is an undergraduate, will have a hard time believing that going to a Nigerian university is not a waste of her future. And yet, there’s just a difference of 25 years between her generation and mine.
A lecturer in one of the first generation universities told me over the weekend how a dean brushed aside her objections and went ahead to borrow computers from staff and hire fitness tools for two days to impress a visiting accreditation team. According to her, “The faculty had introduced two new courses without any preparation and for months, students were left to wander off, borrowing courses. A day or two before the accreditation team came, the dean arranged a show to impress the team. What she couldn’t borrow to set up the classrooms, she hired; insisting over the objections of a few staff that it would not be in her own time as dean that an accreditation team would cancel a course.” It didn’t matter that this was a hollow ritual.
What kind of ivory tower is this that seeks to overcome its most salient problems by yielding to the lowest common form of resistance? Why is ASUU engaged in a gutter fight with a government that doesn’t know its own left from its right, and doesn’t even care? And why should the Minister of Education – and interestingly, former lecturer, Sam Egwu, care? He established a private secondary school in Abakaliki in 2003 and might, like Obasanjo and his former deputy, Atiku Abubakar, award himself a licence to operate a private university before he leaves office! His daughter, Sandra Chiamaka, graduated from a university in the United States in 2005. But he is not alone. I was informed that at least one of the children of the Chair of the Senate Committee on Education, Joy Emordi, graduated from a school in the US too. Jonathan Mark, son of the Senate President, David Mark, studied in King’s College, London, and went on to Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Science. Key ministers in Yar’Adua’s cabinet, including Information and Communications Minister, Dora Akunyili, whose rebranding is conveniently silent on the future of our schools, also have their children schooling abroad.
What do I propose instead of a strike? One, ASUU should obtain and publish the names of all key government officials whose children are schooling abroad and the schools they are attending. That may not affect the price of fish, but it surely will help provide an insight into why the government does not care about what happens to our schools. Two, instead of making bread-and-butter issues the heart of its campaign, ASUU should press for the passage of the higher education autonomy bill. The passage of the bill does not absolve government of responsibility to fund education properly, no. It will, however, create the competitive environment that will stimulate school administrators and alumni to find ways of attracting and retaining the best faculty and staff.
Whatever teachers may earn now, even if it is reviewed every three years as contained in the agreement, they will still feel short-changed by a structure that yokes everyone under one miserly pay structure, while the perception lingers on that not many lecturers can even justify their current pay. The current travesty that leaves vice chancellors eating out of the hands of the President or Minister has stunted growth and left the schools evading the tough question of what they must do to stand on their own feet. Local problems can also be handled locally, instead of the present situation where the entire school system is brought to a halt as a result of ‘hyper-local’ problems. The bankers’ union used to be a regular nuisance until competition and reduced government interference forced the banks to sit up.
Finally, it really does not make sense punishing innocent students when ASUU can take the fight directly to those concerned. ASUU can either get an order of mandamus compelling government to honour its own agreement or take the fight to the doorsteps of the chairs of the Senate and House committees on education, and the Minister. They can picket their houses in Abuja and insist they will not move until something gives. But to embark on an indefinite strike that will further erode confidence in the system and leave innocent students as the worst victims is neither sensible nor defensible.
Only four Nigerian banks are strong – Report
Only four Nigerian banks may be considered to be strong and worth their claims after the stock market crash, oil sector woes and huge public sector debt defaults combined to create “stress points” in the sector in recent months.
According to the latest edition of The Africa Report, an influential weekly published by Paris-based Groupe Jeune Afrique, gross over, leveraging of balance sheets during the short-lived boom period before March 2008, followed by crash of the stock market had left banks stuck with trillions of naira in bad debts.
The impact of the crash and inclement business environment on the banks vary according to the report, which rated the 24 banks in the country on four main categories: strong, satisfactory, shaken and stressed.
To read the full article, please subcscribe to www.punchng.com or www.punchontheweb.com
According to the latest edition of The Africa Report, an influential weekly published by Paris-based Groupe Jeune Afrique, gross over, leveraging of balance sheets during the short-lived boom period before March 2008, followed by crash of the stock market had left banks stuck with trillions of naira in bad debts.
The impact of the crash and inclement business environment on the banks vary according to the report, which rated the 24 banks in the country on four main categories: strong, satisfactory, shaken and stressed.
To read the full article, please subcscribe to www.punchng.com or www.punchontheweb.com
Sunday, June 28, 2009
No conditions attached to MEND leader's release -FG
The Presidential Committee on Amnesty and Disarmament in the Niger Delta on Sunday re-iterated its assurance that no condition has been attached to the release of the leader of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, Mr. Henry Okah.
The Media Coordinator of the committee, Dr. Timiebi Koripamo-Agary, said that Okah, who is currently on trial in Jos, Plateau State for treason, would be freed after diplomatic formalities are concluded with the presidents of Angola and Equatorial Guinea.
The committee made the clarification, following a statement by MEND and the Joint Revolutionary Council that Okah’s release should have been unconditional.
The Media Coordinator of the committee, Dr. Timiebi Koripamo-Agary, said that Okah, who is currently on trial in Jos, Plateau State for treason, would be freed after diplomatic formalities are concluded with the presidents of Angola and Equatorial Guinea.
The committee made the clarification, following a statement by MEND and the Joint Revolutionary Council that Okah’s release should have been unconditional.
Rebranding campaign targets 17m Nigerians in Diaspora
Rebranding campaign targets 17m Nigerians in Diaspora
The Minister of Information and Communications, Prof. Dora Akunyili, has said that the rebranding campaign of the Federal Government would be sold to the 17 million Nigerians in the Diaspora, to enhance their renewed confidence in the country.
Akunyili, who said this in a speech titled ‘Re-branding Nigeria: The role of the Church” at the Synod of the Anglican Diocese of Enugu held at the Cathedral of The Good Shepherd on Saturday, said that the campaign would encompass the courteous treatment of Nigerians by foreign governments and change the negative perception of the country. She stressed that the negative perception was foisted on the country by the international community and the bad attitude of some Nigerians in addition to the failure of leadership.She also charged clerics to stress the importance of good governance, transparency, accountability and honesty in public office as well as discipline, respect for human life and dignity and a corrupt-free society in their environment.
The Minister of Information and Communications, Prof. Dora Akunyili, has said that the rebranding campaign of the Federal Government would be sold to the 17 million Nigerians in the Diaspora, to enhance their renewed confidence in the country.
Akunyili, who said this in a speech titled ‘Re-branding Nigeria: The role of the Church” at the Synod of the Anglican Diocese of Enugu held at the Cathedral of The Good Shepherd on Saturday, said that the campaign would encompass the courteous treatment of Nigerians by foreign governments and change the negative perception of the country. She stressed that the negative perception was foisted on the country by the international community and the bad attitude of some Nigerians in addition to the failure of leadership.She also charged clerics to stress the importance of good governance, transparency, accountability and honesty in public office as well as discipline, respect for human life and dignity and a corrupt-free society in their environment.
National frequency sales: EFCC detains Mobitel boss over N243m deal with NCC
The Chairman of Mobitel Nigeria Ltd., one of the companies that emerged winners in the recent spectrum sale by the Nigerian Communications Commission, Mr. Johnson Salako, was on Thursday picked up by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission over a N243m waiver deal with the NCC, SUNDAY PUNCH findings have revealed.
Thoughts on Otedola/Dangote N155m donation - Casmir Igbokwe (Sunday Punch June 28, 2009)
I THOUGHT we were done with missing genital tales in Nigeria. But primitive societies are never short of ludicrous stories. Last week, police authorities in Taraba State confirmed that four people had lost their lives in the hands of an irate mob. The four were not armed robbers. They were not kidnappers. They were, according to the Commissioner of Police in Taraba State, Aliyu Musa, suspected to have snatched the genitals of some people.
Much as I pitied the deceased, who died for something they knew nothing about, my pity went more to those who committed the atrocity. They did it out of ignorance. They are probably illiterate citizens, who need some training on how to live in a civilised society. Though this type of story is not peculiar to the North, I pitied that region the more.
Northern Nigeria is a bundle of contradictions. It has some of the richest and poorest people in Nigeria. It has the highest concentration of born leaders and born trumpeters in the country. It probably harbours more preachers, who teach tolerance and love, but witnesses more religious crises in the country. Northern women are naturally beautiful and adorable, but they suffer untold subjugation in the hands of their men. The urchins, called almajiris roam the streets begging for alms. Sometimes, they are easy tools in the hands of mischief makers, who use them to fight one cause or the other.
I believe the North needs more education – more help to catch up with the rest of the country. The government may not do it alone. This is where wealthy individuals from that region and their friends should come in to give a helping hand.
Achieving this objective requires the ingenuity of those who organised the fund-raiser for the rehabilitation and expansion of the Ilorin Central Jumat Mosque. Recall that the fund-raiser took place penultimate Friday, under the chairmanship of the Niger State Governor, Babangida Aliyu. At the event, Nigeria‘s billionaires and millionaires struggled to outshine one another.
The most dramatic was the donation between arch friends later turned arch-enemies, Aliko Dangote and Femi Otedola. According to reports, Dangote donated a total of N75m. Not wanting to be outdone, Otedola donated N80m. The audience responded with a great applause. The organisers must have felt very pleased as millions upon millions of naira poured in from other highly-placed Nigerians. It is expected that the mosque, after refurbishment, will have 99 domes and accommodate about 10,000 worshippers.
This is good. It is no mean achievement to contribute to the building of a befitting house for Allah. Such big donors may get pardon for their sins and even make paradise before tight-fisted fellows who do not contribute to such causes.
However, I believe that it will be better if such donors also sow a seed in the individuals who will worship in those imposing buildings. For what will it profit a man if he builds a palace and there is no family to live in it? Surely, Dangote and Otedola will not want almajiris and other dregs of the society to inhabit a worship centre they laboured to build.
Today, Nigeria is assailed by a myriad of problems. The Academic Staff Union of Universities is on strike. Fake and adulterated drugs are everywhere. Militants are blowing pipelines in the Niger Delta, in spite of the amnesty the Federal Government granted them. Our oil revenue is dwindling by the day. About 10,000 Nigerian teenage girls were reported to have been trapped in sex slavery in Morocco and Libya. The rest may have migrated to Italy or other European cities to look for greener pastures.
To cap it all, a United States-based agency, last Tuesday, rated Nigeria as 15th, out of the 177 countries that have greater tendency to fail in the world. According to The Fund for Peace in its 2009 Failed States Index of 177 countries, ”Although Nigeria is an oil-rich nation, oil revenues scarcely benefit the majority of Nigerians. Instead, elite and criminals benefit from the vast oil reserves. In order to improve its economy, oil revenues should increasingly be directed toward public service programmes.”
True, criminals in government and elsewhere have sapped the nation dry. Corruption and other criminal tendencies do not reside only in Nigeria. The only problem is that while we worship our own criminals who have a lot of cash to throw around, other nations make them face the law.
Last week, for instance, US billionaire, Sir Allen Stanford, appeared in a Houston court in handcuffs and leg chains with regard to a $7bn fraud charges levelled against him. Before his court appearance, he had already spent a week at a detention centre. Stanford allegedly conspired with some others to defraud investors, who purchased $7bn in certificates of deposit from Stanford International Bank. They allegedly promised such investors returns that were too good to be true.
Remember our own wonder banks? How many of those involved in defrauding Nigerians of their hard-earned money have faced the music? Almost on a weekly basis, some of the victims of these wonder banks urge me to plead with the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria to release their money trapped in those banks (as if the CBN Governor needs my advice to do what he is supposed to do).
One interesting thing about Stanford is that he handed himself in to the Federal Bureau of Investigations agents. For us in Nigeria, that is another big lesson. How many of our billionaires will willingly hand themselves over to law enforcement agents to be investigated? There were allegations and counter allegations as regards the reported share manipulation of AP Plc. I‘m not sure how far the relevant authorities have gone to compel the principal gladiators to face the law of the land.
For us to grow as individuals and as a nation, we must get our priorities right. We must make our laws work. Those who kill for whatever reason, be it manhood theft or breast theft, must face the consequences of their actions. The society that produces such characters needs serious education. They need good things that make life worth living. Without this, we may discover that the body of the worshippers may be in the mosque while their spirit may be revolving around what to eat and how to escape from genital thieves.
Much as I pitied the deceased, who died for something they knew nothing about, my pity went more to those who committed the atrocity. They did it out of ignorance. They are probably illiterate citizens, who need some training on how to live in a civilised society. Though this type of story is not peculiar to the North, I pitied that region the more.
Northern Nigeria is a bundle of contradictions. It has some of the richest and poorest people in Nigeria. It has the highest concentration of born leaders and born trumpeters in the country. It probably harbours more preachers, who teach tolerance and love, but witnesses more religious crises in the country. Northern women are naturally beautiful and adorable, but they suffer untold subjugation in the hands of their men. The urchins, called almajiris roam the streets begging for alms. Sometimes, they are easy tools in the hands of mischief makers, who use them to fight one cause or the other.
I believe the North needs more education – more help to catch up with the rest of the country. The government may not do it alone. This is where wealthy individuals from that region and their friends should come in to give a helping hand.
Achieving this objective requires the ingenuity of those who organised the fund-raiser for the rehabilitation and expansion of the Ilorin Central Jumat Mosque. Recall that the fund-raiser took place penultimate Friday, under the chairmanship of the Niger State Governor, Babangida Aliyu. At the event, Nigeria‘s billionaires and millionaires struggled to outshine one another.
The most dramatic was the donation between arch friends later turned arch-enemies, Aliko Dangote and Femi Otedola. According to reports, Dangote donated a total of N75m. Not wanting to be outdone, Otedola donated N80m. The audience responded with a great applause. The organisers must have felt very pleased as millions upon millions of naira poured in from other highly-placed Nigerians. It is expected that the mosque, after refurbishment, will have 99 domes and accommodate about 10,000 worshippers.
This is good. It is no mean achievement to contribute to the building of a befitting house for Allah. Such big donors may get pardon for their sins and even make paradise before tight-fisted fellows who do not contribute to such causes.
However, I believe that it will be better if such donors also sow a seed in the individuals who will worship in those imposing buildings. For what will it profit a man if he builds a palace and there is no family to live in it? Surely, Dangote and Otedola will not want almajiris and other dregs of the society to inhabit a worship centre they laboured to build.
Today, Nigeria is assailed by a myriad of problems. The Academic Staff Union of Universities is on strike. Fake and adulterated drugs are everywhere. Militants are blowing pipelines in the Niger Delta, in spite of the amnesty the Federal Government granted them. Our oil revenue is dwindling by the day. About 10,000 Nigerian teenage girls were reported to have been trapped in sex slavery in Morocco and Libya. The rest may have migrated to Italy or other European cities to look for greener pastures.
To cap it all, a United States-based agency, last Tuesday, rated Nigeria as 15th, out of the 177 countries that have greater tendency to fail in the world. According to The Fund for Peace in its 2009 Failed States Index of 177 countries, ”Although Nigeria is an oil-rich nation, oil revenues scarcely benefit the majority of Nigerians. Instead, elite and criminals benefit from the vast oil reserves. In order to improve its economy, oil revenues should increasingly be directed toward public service programmes.”
True, criminals in government and elsewhere have sapped the nation dry. Corruption and other criminal tendencies do not reside only in Nigeria. The only problem is that while we worship our own criminals who have a lot of cash to throw around, other nations make them face the law.
Last week, for instance, US billionaire, Sir Allen Stanford, appeared in a Houston court in handcuffs and leg chains with regard to a $7bn fraud charges levelled against him. Before his court appearance, he had already spent a week at a detention centre. Stanford allegedly conspired with some others to defraud investors, who purchased $7bn in certificates of deposit from Stanford International Bank. They allegedly promised such investors returns that were too good to be true.
Remember our own wonder banks? How many of those involved in defrauding Nigerians of their hard-earned money have faced the music? Almost on a weekly basis, some of the victims of these wonder banks urge me to plead with the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria to release their money trapped in those banks (as if the CBN Governor needs my advice to do what he is supposed to do).
One interesting thing about Stanford is that he handed himself in to the Federal Bureau of Investigations agents. For us in Nigeria, that is another big lesson. How many of our billionaires will willingly hand themselves over to law enforcement agents to be investigated? There were allegations and counter allegations as regards the reported share manipulation of AP Plc. I‘m not sure how far the relevant authorities have gone to compel the principal gladiators to face the law of the land.
For us to grow as individuals and as a nation, we must get our priorities right. We must make our laws work. Those who kill for whatever reason, be it manhood theft or breast theft, must face the consequences of their actions. The society that produces such characters needs serious education. They need good things that make life worth living. Without this, we may discover that the body of the worshippers may be in the mosque while their spirit may be revolving around what to eat and how to escape from genital thieves.
Koko Mansion and all that
Well, it's no longer news that Koko Mansion will begin airing on HiTV from today (Sunday June 28, 2009).
Koko Mansion is a conept developed by entertainer, Dapo Oyebanjo aka D'banj. It's a reality show in which female contestants jostle for a big prize. But the dominant question is what moral lessons will Koko Mansion offer viewers?
The organisers have risen in stout defence of the concept.
Let's wait and see what it offers.
Koko Mansion is a conept developed by entertainer, Dapo Oyebanjo aka D'banj. It's a reality show in which female contestants jostle for a big prize. But the dominant question is what moral lessons will Koko Mansion offer viewers?
The organisers have risen in stout defence of the concept.
Let's wait and see what it offers.
Nigeria's public university system shut down, yet again!
Nigeria's public universities are on a strike yet again. The Academic Staff Union of Universities and the Non-Academic Staff Union of Universities have shut down the public university system because of the Federal Government's refusal to honour agreements reached with them. The Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities says it will join on Monday.
On Saturday, ASUU said it might disrupt the post-Universities Matriculation Exam tests in the public universities unless its demands are met.
Nigeria's Minister of Education, Dr. Sam Egwu, has denied the existence of any agreement with ASUU. That leaves Nigerian undergraduates in these universities in a quandary. SOme were even preparing for exams before their schools were shut as a result of the strike.
But what many observers say is that government should negotiate with these unions so that students can go back to classes in the next few days.
It leaves a sour taste in the mouths of Nigerians that government can treat the issues raised by ASUU with levity. One of such is the improved funding of the system to bring the country at par with other leading nations of the world.
Any nation that treats its education system with levity risks being relegated to the background of development. It appears as if successive administrations in Nigeria are not really bothered about raising the standard of education in the country.
There is the school of thought that because many of Nigeria's leaders own private universities and do not care if the public university system is destroyed.
Well, Nigerians wait for this situation to be resolved - quickly.
On Saturday, ASUU said it might disrupt the post-Universities Matriculation Exam tests in the public universities unless its demands are met.
Nigeria's Minister of Education, Dr. Sam Egwu, has denied the existence of any agreement with ASUU. That leaves Nigerian undergraduates in these universities in a quandary. SOme were even preparing for exams before their schools were shut as a result of the strike.
But what many observers say is that government should negotiate with these unions so that students can go back to classes in the next few days.
It leaves a sour taste in the mouths of Nigerians that government can treat the issues raised by ASUU with levity. One of such is the improved funding of the system to bring the country at par with other leading nations of the world.
Any nation that treats its education system with levity risks being relegated to the background of development. It appears as if successive administrations in Nigeria are not really bothered about raising the standard of education in the country.
There is the school of thought that because many of Nigeria's leaders own private universities and do not care if the public university system is destroyed.
Well, Nigerians wait for this situation to be resolved - quickly.
Asari-Dokubo rejects Nigerian government's amnesty
The leader of the Niger Delta Peoples Volunteer Force, Mujahedeen Asari-Dokubo, has protested his inclusion on a list of beneficiaries of the Nigerian government's amnesty for militants.
Asari-Dokubo, who has vowed to take the matter to court on Monday, says he should not be on the list because he is not a militant and has not been convicted of any offence.
The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta also says it is not impressed by the offerof amnesty. It has vowed to continue with its campaign of sabotage of Nigerian oil industry facilities.
There are fears that President Umaru Yar'adua's amnesty offer may have failed even before its expected commencement date of August 6, 2009. Even though some militants have surrendered weapons and opted for the amnesty, many observers say they are opportunists looking for a respite to enjoy the wealth they made from criminal activities.
Asari-Dokubo, who has vowed to take the matter to court on Monday, says he should not be on the list because he is not a militant and has not been convicted of any offence.
The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta also says it is not impressed by the offerof amnesty. It has vowed to continue with its campaign of sabotage of Nigerian oil industry facilities.
There are fears that President Umaru Yar'adua's amnesty offer may have failed even before its expected commencement date of August 6, 2009. Even though some militants have surrendered weapons and opted for the amnesty, many observers say they are opportunists looking for a respite to enjoy the wealth they made from criminal activities.
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