Thursday 15 November 2012

Dangote to Site N300bn Fertiliser Plant in Edo

The groundbreaking ceremony of a $2 billion (about N300 billion) fertiliser plant, the biggest in Africa to be sited in Agenebode, Edo State will be done before the end of January 2013. 
Disclosing this at a reception in Benin City, on Monday, as part of activities to mark the second term inauguration of Governor Adams Oshiomhole, President of Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, said arrangements have been concluded for the ceremony in December or before the end of January 2013.
Dangote, who was listed by Forbes magazine as Africa’s richest man, said the company which is expected to employ about 10,000 people directly and indirectly will be completed in three years.
He said: “yes we will build the biggest fertiliser plant in Africa here in Edo State.”
According to him, “Oshiomhole has delivered on road, infrastructure, but now he’s going to deliver on job creation. We will partner him to make sure he gives us a conducive environment to create jobs here in Edo State.
   
“He has already mentioned that we will set up a fertiliser plant here in Edo State. I am sure he wants me to reaffirm that, yes, we will build the biggest fertiliser plant in Africa here in Edo State. It is a commitment and I am reassuring you, your excellency, by this year, either in December of January, next year, we will perform the groundbreaking ceremony in Edo State. It will be at a cost of $2 billion.
“I am reassuring you, in the presence of everybody, that in the next three years, Edo State will be exporting fertiliser from here to other parts of Africa.”

Wednesday 14 November 2012

SARAKI DIES AT 79

It is confirmed. Olusola Saraki, the strong man of Kwara state politics is dead. He was aged 79.  Leader of the Nigerian Senate during the second republic, Dr. Saraki died in lagos in the early hours of this morning.

Late Dr. Olusola Saraki                   






           His son and former governor of Kwara state,  Dr. Bukola Saraki could not be reached for comments, but a family member confirmed the development.
Dr. Saraki was the arrow head of politics in Kwara state for more than two decades till e was displaced as kingmaker by his son, Bukola Saraki, presently a serving Senator and former Governor of  Kwara State.
Reports have it that the politician’s body has will be flown to Ilorin, Kwara state capital for burial according to Islamic rites.

Tuesday 13 November 2012

Kadiri Ikhana has quits

Kadiri Ikhana has quit as coach of Nigeria after they failed to retain their African Women’s championship in Equatorial Guinea.
Nigeria Super Falcons finished a disappointing fourth at the 2012 AWC after they lost 1-0 to Cameroon in a third-placed playoff on Sunday.
Kadiri Ikhana
Ikhana, who quit his post on the team’s return to the country on Monday, said though the target set for him in his contract with the Nigeria Football Federation was achieved at the tournament, but he resigned for his failure to meet his own personal target of lifting the trophy.
                  
The former Enyimba and Kano Pillars tactician, while expressing his apology to the nation for the outcome of the team’s performance, noted that he accepted full responsibility for the results at the championship.
Kadiri was mandated in his contract signed on April 1 to among other things qualify the team for the 2012 AWC and ensure the team reach at least the semi-finals of the competition.
He said his inability to fulfil his personal desire to bring the trophy to Nigeria informed his decision to quit the stage, stressing that he will continue to support the developmental programme of the NFF as a Nigerian as he is of the opinion that the nation has the potentials to take the centre stage in world football.
According to him, the notice of resignation to the federation is in accordance with his contract.

Political Parties budget money to bribe security, INEC – Jega

KEY political heavy weights on Monday opened the eyes of the citizenry to the underhand dealings that characterized Nigerian democracy, painting pictures of bribery, power abuse and eagerness to breach the rules.
Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Prof. Attahiru Jega, said that political parties in the country budgeted money with which to bribe security agents and officials of the electoral body during elections.
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo said party manifestoes were printed for the purpose of electioneering and that such manifestoes were thrown away immediately after election, while Senate President David Mark and the Deputy Speaker, House of Representatives, frowned at the nature of ‘lobbying’ in the country.
They all spoke in Abuja at the opening of a two-day Round table Conference with the theme, “Party Politics in Nigeria and Lobbying, the Lobbyist and the Legislature.”
The event, organised by the national Institute for Legislative Studies, was attended by the majority of the officials of the registered political parties in the country. 
 Obasanjo chaired one of the sessions.
Jega described budgeting money to bribe INEC and security agents as sad, adding that it was against the tenets of democracy.
Jega said the attempt to bribe security agencies and officials of the commission was one of the various ways through which political parties tried to undermine democracy in the country.
He said, “Political parties budget funds with which to bribe security agencies and INEC officials during elections.
“Of course, this is being resisted but we have to stop all this in our electoral process.
“There is a terrible lack of civility with which the parties relate to one another or the stakeholders.
“Many political parties also budget money for litigation and, therefore, look for cases to spend the money on.”
He also said some political parties were in the habit of submitting names of those who did not win primaries or those that did not even take part in primaries at all.
Jega also listed another way through which political parties cut corners to include submission of the names of incompetent candidates for elections and later ask those candidates to withdraw.
“But there was one candidate that refused to withdraw and the political party forged a letter that he had agreed to withdraw,” Jega said.
Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Prof. Attahiru Jega,
    
He, said there was nothing the electoral body could do even when it was aware of the forgery because of the provisions in the Electoral Act, which disallowed it from interfering in the internal running of political parties.
Jega said financial and procedural accountability in many of the political parties, was deficient and they hardly obeyed their own constitutions but looked for shortcuts in complying with electoral laws.
Obasanjo, however, decried the non-implementation of party manifestoes by political parties.
He said it was obvious that many of the political parties merely used their manifestoes to campaign.
Obasanjo said, “What I have come to understand in Nigeria is that manifestoes are prepared for campaigns and after the campaigns, they are thrown away.
“How then can we hold parties and elected leaders to their parties and electoral promises and manifestoes? Or if they do not have manifestoes, what do we hold them onto?
“No human institution or human organisation would endure for too long without discipline.
“Elections must be free, fair and transparent to the extent that the results would be acceptable to all.”
Obasanjo said pressure was mounted on him to rig out the former Governor of Kano State, Alhaji Ibrahim Shekarau, during his quest to get a second term but that he resisted the pressure because Shekarau won by a simple majority.
He turned to Shekarau, who was also at the forum, and said, “I thank Shekarau for what happened to him in Kano.
“What he did not know which he may know today, is that he won that election with a narrow margin, and if I had yielded to pressure, maybe he would be saying another thing today.
“You didn’t know that. Somebody brought a resident commissioner to you and somebody also wanted me to call that commissioner and I refused to.”
Before Obasanjo spoke, the former governor had said that there was a pressure on him to ask the unnamed REC to work in his favour during the governorship election, but he refused.
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo
But the National Chairman of the All Progressive Grand Alliance, Chief Victor Umeh, told our correspondent that the admittance of Obasanjo of being under pressure to rig out the governor showed that his government was involved in election manipulation.
Umeh said, “That the former President admitted that he was under pressure to rig out Shekarau was an indication that his government rigged elections.
At the event, Mark and Ihedioha described lobbying targeted at legislators as the act of attempting to influence legislation and resolutions made by parliament.
Mark said, “It is unfortunate that the term, ‘lobbying,’ has come to acquire a pejorative connotation, despite its many inherent and positive benefits. This is due largely to the abuse to which it is often liable.
“Even here in our country, it has been turned mostly into a very aggressive and predatory endeavour to extract personal favours, mostly political appointments and money, from political office holders.
“This form of lobbying is clearly unethical.”
Ihedioha said the effort made by the 1999-2007 Sessions of the National Assembly to introduce legislation to guide lobbing as a profession was shot down.
He said the bill was thrown out in the House of Representatives, “basically on the grounds that lobbying meant bribery and corruption.”

Monday 12 November 2012

30 Nigerian girls trafficked into Mali daily – Envoy

An average of 30 Nigerian girls are being trafficked into Mali daily, the Nigerian Ambassador to the West African country, Mr. Iliya Nuhu, said on Sunday.
According to him, the girls are between the ages of 10 and 15.
Nuhu, who spoke with  the News Agency of Nigeria  in Bamako,  lamented that the problem had grown in “magnitude and sophistication’’.
The envoy said the practice was a “kind of modern day slavery’’ with Nigerians going to their villages or towns to recruit  young girls.
He said the traffickers were taking advantage of Nigeria’s economic problems to lure their victims with promises of setting them up in “very lucrative businesses abroad’’.
Nuhu said, “These people (traffickers) tell them about businesses which are not there and these girls, with very loose parental upbringing, fall for their tricks.
“They go to Nigeria to source these girls and sell them off to their cronies not only in Mali but in other countries; but we are able to work in cooperation with these countries to map out the routes the traffickers follow.
“Since August, we have assisted not less than 30 of these girls to return to the country and this is a daily routine that the embassy and the staff go through.
“From what I gathered from the Nigerian community in Mali, an average of 20 to 30 girls are being trafficked into this country every day and those we get are those who raise the alarm.’’
He said the embassy was working with the Malian  police to identify the traffickers, adding that he had written a memo to Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Abuja, to work out a strategy to solve the problem.
Some trafficked ladies
            
He  said, “We, however, call on the Federal Government to work with NAPTIP or take appraisal of what they are doing and see if there are gaps to be filled so that they can have the capacity to do this job.
“NAPTIP also should be able to have the necessary information through their own network to be able to follow up these routes and study the mode of operation of the traffickers and beat them to it.’’
NAN spoke to two of four girls rescued from the traffickers.
Joy Monday, a hairdresser, said a woman came to her hometown, Auchi, Edo, to lure her to Mali.
She said, “The woman told me that I can make between N5,000 and N7,000 fixing one person’s hair in Mali only to discover on getting  here that I am to be a prostitute and I was rescued by a man who brought me to the embassy.”
Another victim, Chidinma Ubah, said a man called Sunny, brought her to Mali, promising her that he was taking her to Europe.
She said she sought refuge in a police station when she discovered that she was to be a prostitute.
Nuhu said arrangements were being made to return the girls to Nigeria

(coined from Punch newspaper)

‘Saudi Arabia not conducive for FG, Boko Haram talks’

Founder and President, Oodua People’s Congress, Dr. Frederick Fasehun, says Saudi Arabia is not  a conducive venue for any dialogue between the Federal Government and the insurgent group, Boko Haram.
Fasehun said any dialogue between the government and the sect should hold within Nigeria.
The OPC leader made this known at a press conference in Lagos on Friday.
Fasehun said, “Saudi Arabia as host for talks on a purely Nigerian affair is fraught with danger.
“Therefore, Mecca will not be the ideal place for the negotiation of the security of a secular state like Nigeria and the OPC urges the government to change the venue.”
He said Boko Haram should drop former Head of State, Maj.-Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd.) from its list of negotiators, except if the former military leader had confirmed his membership of the group.
Fasehun said since Boko Haram remained faceless, government should not discuss with the group until its leaders were unveiled and known.
Dr. Frederick Fasehun
                 
He said, “Much of Boko Haram’s hostility has been turned against Christians. Therefore, Christians, through the Christian Association of Nigeria, must be represented at the talks.
“Negotiations should be opened up to accommodate other ethnic interests in the conflict such as Ohaneze Ndigbo, Afenifere, Middle Belt Forum, Egbesu, Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta and other nationality groups, whose indigenes have been wantonly slaughtered by Boko Haram.”
Fasehun said professional bodies like the Nigerian Bar Association, Nigerian Union of Journalists should also be appointed as mediators.
He, however, canvassed that government should guarantee the safety of Boko Haram’s representatives instead of seeing it as an opportunity for security agents to hound and arrest their leaders.
Fasehun said the conditions spelt out by the sect for dialogue had the potential of becoming a stumbling block to the positive outcome of the talks.